To Holy Lord Meruria... Control was the goal.   

Control over emotions.  

Control over actions.  

Control over lives.  

If there was an aspect that could be altered, she wished to control it. She had started developing this mindset early—when her father was thrown out of the house when he couldn't his lust for his youngest daughter after her body matured faster than her siblings. Yet her mother eventually let him back in after he directed the narrative and convinced her his daughter had seduced him.   

At just twelve years old, Meruria had lost everything because the man she should’ve trusted the most couldn't control his actions.   

For five years, people would use her to quench their lust. It didn’t matter if it was at a brothel, on the side of the road, or in an alley behind a bar. Eventually, she was snatched by vile criminals who craved her body for themselves. But they also desired her magical prowess after she was revealed to be a prodigy of sorcery. These bandits were at war with rival camps around the country, yet even though the battles were her to control, a leash was always clasped around the spiky collar drilled into her neck.  

But then? Someone else controlled the narrative. It was a fight—the same as always. Meruria was using a makeshift staff to spread her magic across the battlefield. Thick roots burrowed upwards, impaling slaves sent to fight the first wave.   

Killing them was nothing special. Meruria had been tortured to where she was forced to feel euphoria from pleasing her leash holder. She stared out at the field of corpses as the second division ran into battle, naked and wielding clubs and swords. And again, she participated, using her spells to thin out the fools that dared to challenge her Master.   

It was all standard affair. The young Meruria merely watched and did what she was ordered to do until a group of horseback soldiers rushed in from the left. Their steeds rode hard and fast, their hoofs slamming into the blood-soaked battlefield as mounted riders cut and cleaved their way through, killing enemies on both sides.   

Meruria’s Master gave the order to fight. An aged wizard with a thick, white beard canceled her spells and restrained her, controlling and binding her movements as he summoned a portal to teleport in an army waiting a few miles away.   

That was Holy Lord Sajun—ruler of Cridia.   

Meruria’s narrative had been controlled, so she looked to him as a Master. He didn’t know what to do when he told her she was freed, and after some time, the Holy Lord took her under his wing. He vowed to help her find a purpose in life.  

The years flew by, but the healing process didn’t help. Lord Meruria quickly learned to appear as the perfect, prim, rehabilitated woman who somehow rose from her painful past and became a force to be reckoned with. Her charisma, beauty, and grace were legendary amongst the people—noble and peasant. She often traveled with Lord Sajun around Cridia, helping whenever she could...  

...but it was all a ploy.   

Meruria’s twisted, turbulent time in which she was controlled by all birthed a stark desire to hold the reigns herself. She had everyone fooled, but there was one man—the Dark Lord of Justice—who couldn’t be deceived so readily. She hated it when he was around. She despised his friendship with Lord Sajun and had to be on her best behavior, but after the Dark Lord of Justice left to conduct business elsewhere...  

Meruria always acted.   

She was curious about what she could control with the spells she developed in her personal time. Making someone strip and run naked was rudimentary. Grasping a man’s mental fortitude and churning it into butter until he couldn’t speak was simple if given enough time. But this control was futile. It wasn’t what her heart desired.   

Meruria wanted more. She wanted to truly understand what made a person a person-- even if it meant using people like lab rats-- to obtain more masterful control over them.

Meruria was in attendance in her 7th year as Lord Sajun’s assistant when she saw a true miracle.  Summoning others from another world? They were like newborn babes, surrounded by mystery—lost and afraid after being terribly stolen from their familiar reality.   

Oh, they would make the perfect puppets. Meruria once hypothesized that if she were to forcibly rewrite a Soul Warrior’s past, memories, and desires with her spells, she could artificially guide them as if she were a goddess. 

Perhaps she could influence the level of their souls...

But she wasn’t strong enough. Lord Sajun would have never allowed it. Getting rid of him was the primary goal, but the control-obsessed woman was at a loss…  

…until the Holy Lord handed her the perfect excuse on a silver platter. Lord Sajun was loved by all. He had few enemies, a reputation for being a kind, warm gentleman, and a fierce yearning to research portals. His obsession with them nearly matched Meruria’s desire for total control, but this devotion led him to discover the void.   

Lord Enele had known about it decades before Lord Sajun accidentally created a portal to the realm between realms. But perhaps this was the fatal flaw. Lord Enele looked to Lord Sajun as a younger brother. He loved and cared for him as if he was family. 

Unfortunately, Lord Sajun believed he could trust his protégé and involved her in his research. And that was the fatal flaw once Meruria realized anything thrown into the void was broken down into the building blocks of life—in most cases, that meant mana. She hypothesized a thousand scenarios and carefully experimented away from prying eyes.   

The turning point came years after Meruria had meticulously exhausted all possible options for her grand plan. She had the perfect alibi to resolve all her accusations. Lord Sajun’s advisors knew his dedication to understanding portals and the void bordered on heretical. He often remained awake for days, ignoring his exhaustion to pursue knowledge. He had a compulsive side that only reared its head when it was time to delve into the nitty gritty. It wasn't rare for Lord Sajun to push his lordly responsibilities upon his advisors or Meruria to devote more time to his portals. 

All it would take was a ‘miscalculation’ on ‘his’ part…  

It occurred in Lord Sajun’s study. He had been awake for 90 hours without food or water—never moving an inch from his research. The crackling portal remained nearby, tempting him to gaze ever so deeper into its mysterious bosom.  Numerous fail-safes were implemented to prevent the worst-case scenario—something Lord Enele heavily asked for, much to Lord Sajun’s chagrin—but those had been disabled after Meruria convinced her lord that he needed to push the limit of his research to find the answers he desired.    

All it took was a stumble. Lord Sajun caught himself on the wall, but it had been smeared with something slippery, causing him to continue, where he saw his life flash before his eyes as he fell headfirst.   

It was an innocent mistake, yet Meruria’s hands were ‘cleaned.’  

Immediately, he looked up. But the last thing his widened eyes saw was a smiling Meruria.   

The infinite winds mercilessly devoured his body, tearing flesh and soul while spitting out Holy Mana. Oh, it was golden and pure. Warm and inviting.  It reached Meruria’s outstretched hand, coalesced inside her, and granted her [Holy Infusion (Lv. 10)].  She used her newfound abilities to shut the portal, leaving her mentor to a painful demise.    

Immediately, she put on her act. Meruria ran through the halls, screaming for help. Days later, Cridia was in mourning. A week passed, and a funeral was held in Junsa. The coffin was empty, but it didn’t stop the gathered Holy and Dark Lords from paying their respects and consoling his grieving apprentice.

Lord Enele wasn’t tricked, though. He listened to Meruria’s speech about vowing to fight for Cridia. She would continue her mentor’s duties and promise to love her country as her mentor did. After the funeral, Lord Enele confronted Meruria. Yet she broke into false tears and hugged him, momentarily becoming the fragile, shattered girl she used to be before revealing something astonishing.   

The Holy Mana she obtained after Lord Sajun’s passing danced around her body, shattering her limits without having to break the level cap of 99. It blessed her in warm, divine light, granting the newly apt Holy Lord Meruria a simple makeup kit. But it was as powerful as any other Lord Armament. In her hands?  

Its power rivaled a Divine Armament.   

Lord Enele thought about confronting her. He spent months wondering what the correct option was. Patience proved key in the grand scheme when he received an encoded letter days before he planned to openly question Lord Meruria at the annual Lord Conference. Oh, how it pained him to remain a bystander, but he was given a specific task, and he had to see it through.  

Revenge would be waiting at the end of that long, long road. Retribution and justice would be had. How ironic that the Dark Lord of Justice would have to abstain from his title to see it through.    

That delayed patience would allow unscrupulous rumors to fester around Lord Meruria. But her charisma and Lord Armament granted her unparalleled control over the situation.    

She spent the next forty years delving deep into the philosophy behind the mind. After the Lord Conference agreed on the summoning terms, Lord Meruria implemented her plan into action.   

It was easy to bring them into her world, lock away their sense of self, and slowly churn their memories and feelings like butter. Yet it was a learning process. She had been too ambitious and shattered six minds, which left her with four brain-dead 1-Star Soul Warriors.   

That generation was a bust. At the following Lord Conference, Lord Meruria knew rumors about her capabilities were spreading. She inferred it from their sneering and hushed whispers. She felt piercing stares stab daggers into her body. The sense of inferiority infuriated her more than failing.  

Lord Meruria redoubled her efforts, spending the next few generations mastering her craft. She didn’t neglect the void, either. She had access to Lord Sajun’s research and did what he couldn’t-- manipulating the void to imbue its abstract power upon a living organism.    

She had her best success in a young Wolffolk and her half-sister, although the latter had drastically suffered, becoming a puppet of flesh without conscious thought. The girl wouldn’t breathe without being explicitly ordered to do so.   

The Wolffolk used that strength to enact her revenge on the ones who had wronged them and willingly offered her and her sister’s lives to forever serve their savior.  

Decades passed until it was time for the latest summoning session. Lord Meruria had learned much and believed this would be the moment. She had studied and knew why her previous efforts had failed. 

There couldn’t be any logical errors. Her alterations couldn’t handle paradoxical situations—even something as the color of a shirt being different in two modified memories was enough to shatter consciousnesses. It became a fun puzzle—the kind Lord Meruria enjoyed more than life since she became the puppet master.   

The world her new Soul Warriors came from was competitive, but Lord Meruria wasn’t happy. She altered fragments to suit her ideal reality—turning it into a twisted, extreme, heavily exaggerated caricature of a meritocracy pushed to the utmost extreme. 

Lord Meruria felt like a corrupted genie—maybe a surgeon was more apt in how she fine-tuned the appropriate details as if she wielded a scalpel. In the past, her changes were akin to a butcher maliciously carving a carcass to size.   

Oh, but it was worth it. After weeks of intense focus and verifying every addition multiple times…  

Her work was done… Lord Meruria gazed at her finished products. And now?  

It was time to act. A Holy Lord like her desired the perfect entrance. She filled the ceiling with Holy Mana, flew to the high ceiling, and released her trance spell.   

Once she heard people talking…  

It was time for Holy Lord Meruria to descend like an angel. Her anticipation mounted more and more.  

Lord Meruria felt pure euphoria course through her body when Tokko and Mia turned out to be 6-Star Soul Warriors! Their minds were hers. She had the ultimate control over their actions!  Her long-awaited hypothesis had been proven! 

That boy, ‘Shuuta…’ His primary use was discovering the existence of 0-Star Soul Warriors.   

One sibling stood at the top.   

The other?   

At the very bottom—alive only to entertain her with the short time he had left before she threw him to the void to recycle the energy used to summon him. 

Everything was happening according to her plan... Oh, how she loved to become involved as an actress. Lord Meruria had 'fun' using her Lord Armament to try and force Shuuta's mind open. The way she acted 'concerned' to Mia when she asked her about her brother's past would've impressed even the most experienced actresses at the famous playhouse in the Kingdom of Aquanis.