In the old times there were two original races called demons and humans. They were always at war. Among these races were heroes and demon lords, some of them wanted peace among the two races, but there wasn't enough of them. These peaceful leaders were always outnumbered and killed by their own people, because of the hatred towards the other race. Every time a new hero or demon lord awoken, there was a chance that the war could stop. But after generations of war and hatred, the chance of a peaceful leader faded completely. Then the day of the magical discharge came. It caused annihilation of both races.

Since they were always at war, both races started researching a weapon that could possibly end the war, by killing the whole rival race. After a while, the humans succeeded in developing such magic. They even tried to use it, but right after they made a magic circle big enough to supply mana to this spell, the magic circle broke, and the massive mana discharge killed almost every being, including the forgotten spirits that nobody remembered even existed.

I was among those spirits. We were made by The Creator like almost everything else. The space, galaxies, stars, planets and spirits. The spirits are immortal beings, that taught the dead matter how to be alive. Most of space matter either couldn't do so, or just didn't want to. But on our planet, some of the matter managed to become alive and was guided by the three guarding spirits and eventually it divided into demon race and humanity. After a few decades we, the spirits, "disappeared" from the new growing civilizations and became legends, that described us like gods. We never actually disappeared, we just became invisible to the mortal races, because we thought that these two races were mature enough to survive without us. We were not wrong, but not long after we disappeared, the two races had their first conflict in thousands of years and before long, they were at war.

After I was ‘killed’ by the mana discharge, I reunited with the Creator. It wasn’t just me and the Creator. There were two other spirits that were in charge of the same planet. Their names were Pikoz and Miruss. We were given power, invincible bodies and a mission. Mission to prevent any intelligent life to achieve such power as the humans did because it could potentially destroy the whole planet or even space.

It was fifteen years after the discharge, when we reincarnated with our new bodies. The planet looked nothing like the one we remembered. It was swarming with monstrous creatures, that appeared to be the surviving remains of creatures that mutated, because of the still present mana contamination. Thanks to the Creator we were immune to the effects of such dense mana.

After a few years of getting rid of some of the largest of those creatures’ nests, we discovered that there were small colonies of something that looked like both humans and demons. We soon learned that they are a hybrid of humans and demons. They were outcasts from the original races. They were kicked out, because the original races didn’t like the fact that they were reproducing with each other, creating “impure” hybrids.

They seemed more mana resistant than the two original races. They lacked technology, but they seemed to have high mana affinity as well. But still, they were assaulted by the mutated creatures. The colonies didn't fight with one another, so we stopped purging those monsters in order to let them take care of the hybrids because we didn't really want to approach them. The reason for that is they seem to remember our names, the names of the guarding spirits.

After twenty-five years we said to ourselves that we didn't need to supervise them anymore, because the monsters kept assaulting them and held them at a manageable number for almost three decades. So, each one of us built something you could call a dungeon. After we settled down in our dungeons, we started our slumber.

Overkill

Chapter 1- I met a god

"My name Is Adelaide von Elker and I'm an archeologist. I'm currently looking into the sudden disappearance of the two races that existed before us. I seem to have found a lead. I found a sealed dungeon door. Well, I assume it's a dungeon but that's not that important. But I'm going to try to open it and then explore its contents".

"I have awoken... But why... Someone must have opened my dungeon... "

As she tried to pour some mana into the seal, in order to deactivate it, it instantly shattered. She now had an open way to enter the dungeon. When she entered, she immediately noticed that the walls were covered in some ancient frescoes.

"There are some writings on the walls and some frescoes. I have no clue what it means. I’ll redraw them into my notebook, so I can look at them later."

She found another door, this time they weren't locked. On the other side was a strange circle carved into the floor and a weird table-like looking stone sculpture. When she touched the table, it started draining her mana. She couldn't take her hand away from it. She started to panic and before she could do anything, she fainted from mana exhaustion.

As she began to regain consciousness, the circle was glowing. She was scared, confused and tired. But she felt an urge to enter the circle and stand in its center. After a while, she gave in to the urge and stood up. She walked into the circle. When she did that, she heard some strange voices speaking to her in a foreign language she had never heard before. Then a bright light blinded her. When she rubbed her eyes and looked around, she saw that she was in a large hall, that looked a little like the insides of a church.

She was overwhelmed with emotions. She was looking around the hall, but she couldn’t see anything, because there wasn't any light source, other than the circle. As she lit up the hall with a spell, she saw something on the other side of the hall. It was a throne. A big golem, made from a dark green rock. There were cracks all around his body. It had one slim rectangular eye. She grasped for her breath, when she finally realized what she was looking at. As she was slowly going towards it, she felt more fear than she had in her whole life. When she approached it, she was trembling with fear, but for some reason she couldn’t run away.

Her shaking hand touched the golem. She felt as if electricity went through her whole body.

When she looked up into the golem's face, its eye was glowing. She was in shock, she screamed as she fell on her back. As the golem moved its hand, she fainted. When she woke up the golem was standing next to her.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

It asked.

She got some confidence and said:

"My name is Adelaide von Elker and I'm an archeologist. I'm currently looking into the sudden disappearance of the two races that existed before us."

She almost screamed out her line. She was now feeling a little bit better.

"Hmm... How did you get here?"

The golem asked, as it started to redraw a magic circle that was covered in dust.

"Well, I touched a weird table, a magic circle appeared and before I knew it, I was here"

"I wasn't asking about that. I was asking about the seal on my dungeon"

Adelaide stuttered and answered.

“Well, you see... it's kinda broken"

"What do you mean by broken, how could my seal be kinda broken?"

The golem raised its voice.

"Well, I barely touched it and it shattered…"

She said quietly.

“How long has it been since… since the disappearance of the original races?”

He asked with a calmer voice.

"Did you call them the original races, what do you mean by that?"

"Don’t mind that, just answer my question"

He said, as he was finishing the magic circle.

“Ok, to tell you the truth I'm not really sure on when, but it was a really long time ago.”

She said with a slightly sad expression on her face.

“So anyway, what were you doing here sealed in a dungeon?"

“I was sleeping here until you woke me up.”

As he said that he chanted a spell and suddenly, they were completely surrounded by a blue sky.

“Aaaaaa, I don’t want to fall to death!”

Screamed Adelaide.

“Calm down you’re not falling anywhere this is just a projection of our surroundings.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t like heights, so I panicked a little. Anyway, can you tell me about projection magic? I’ve never heard of it.”

Adelaide was still confused. She couldn’t figure out how this could possibly work.

“Well, you see, this dungeon is actually a levitating island.”

Explained the golem.

After a while Adelaide stopped gazing into the blue sky that was all around them.

“So, tell me, what are you?”

“I was named Tyarius the Guarding spirit. Some called me Tyarius the god of knowledge. But that was a long time ago. I am now named Tyarius the Overseer.”

Said Tyarius as he was looking around the blue sky. He seemed to be looking for something.

Adelaide was looking at him with an open mouth.

“Wait Tyarius the god of knowledge? You mean the one who has his shrine built in the capital city?”

“What do you mean by a shrine?”

“You know, a shrine, a place where people come to worship you.”

Answered Adele.

“I know what a shrine is. Anyway, you seem like I don't have to convince you, that I'm actually Tyarius, why do you believe me?”

He asked.

“I mean, you were sleeping in an ancient dungeon. I do have some doubts, but it seems logical.

I found an ancient library not so far from here. Surprisingly the books were in quite good condition. I didn't tell anyone about it, because I wanted to read as many books from there as I can. So, I started reading and in one of the historical books I found out that you were helping two civilizations but then you disappeared and after that the book suddenly ended.”

As Adelaide ended her monologue, she was full of questions, but she couldn't bring herself to ask any.

“You see, we guided those two races for a long time. We thought they were mature enough to be able to handle things by themselves. We were wrong... As soon as we disappeared, they started a war. That's probably why the book suddenly ended.”

As he was thinking about it, he felt guilty because, after all, it was his order to withdraw from the mortal realm.

“Wait there were more of you?”

Adelaide wanted to know more.

“Yes, the two races called them Pikoz the God of Magic and Miruss the God of Invention. They were Guarding spirits too, but they were less powerful than me. They were my subordinates.”

Tyarius chanted another spell.

As soon as he chanted the spell, they appeared in a colosseum.

“Welcome to my arena... Adelaide.”

Adelaide looked around in awe.

“But why are we in an arena...?"

“We're here to test how much power I have left.”

Said Tyarius as he summoned a target.

The target was a metal statue of himself. He stretched his arm and punched the target. As his fist made contact with the target a loud bang echoed through the arena. When Adelaide looked at what happened, she saw that Tyarius punched through the metal statue.

She was looking at him with an open mouth.

“What did you just do?”

“Can't you see, I punched the target.”

Said Tyarius as he pulled his hand out of the target's torso.

“Even the best of the newest automatons wouldn’t be able to do that with such ease, not even the military grade ones. What kind of spell did you use to enhance your strength like that?”

Tyarius didn’t seem to listen to her. He summoned a bunch of targets.

“I didn’t use any magical power in that punch.”

“W-wait this wasn’t magic… but how… how was that punch so powerful?”

Adelaide started panicking. She knew what was coming next.

„Well, I’m an ancient guarding spirit what do you expect, anyway I’m going to test my magic now.”

Adelaide started to panic even more.

He then put his hand forward and chanted a short spell. His arm started to glow a little and three magical circles, stacked horizontally, appeared in the air, above the targets.

“Nosces dolorem.”

A massive explosion happened right between the targets underneath the circles. Adelaide was looking at the explosion. As the shockwave reached them, it threw her away.

She hit her head against the ground and was knocked unconscious.

When she woke up, Tyarius was healing her with magic.

“What happened…?”

She asked.

“You were blown away and hit your head, it’s just a minor injury it should be fine.”

“Just how powerful are you…?”

Asked Adelaide as she was regaining her consciousness.

“I was once powerful enough to destroy this whole planet but I’m far too weak to do that right now, and now I’ll need to recover it, in order to fulfil my current task.”

He said with a stone-cold expression on his face.

Adelaide was now awake and was asking Tyarius.

“What were you saying about destroying the planet.”

“You have nothing to worry about, I was just thinking out loud.”

“Do we need any id cards or something like that in order to enter the capital.”

Asked Tyarius.

“No not really, unless we’d have problems with the law enforcers.”

Answered Adelaide.

“Very well then. Let’s go Adelaide.”

He said as he headed back to the magic circle through which they came here.

“Wait Tyarius you can’t just go in there like that.”

Objected Adelaide.

„At least not with your actual name, because I’m not sure how would the citizens react if you’d call yourself Tyarius.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not that stupid. I'm going to make myself a bit smaller, but I’ll need some clothes and a name.”

As he said that he shrunk to a size of an average human, and he even changed the proportions of his body to look like a human male. His skin color and his face remained the same. Adelaide was staring at him curiously. He was now a humanoid golem.

“So, now we need some clothes and a name, do you have any ideas?”

“I… I think we can find something at my house…”

She said, as she was still looking at Tyarius with disbelief in her eyes.

“And yeah, I’ll think about a nickname.”

They went back through the teleportation circle, and they appeared in the room with the weird table like sculpture and they headed back to the surface.

“So, how far from here do you live?”

Asked Tyarius when they reached the dungeon entrance.

“I live to the east from here, it’s not that far.”

Beautiful nature was all around them and the sun was setting.

“When I built this dungeon, there was a wasteland all around here, nothing but burned ground, strong wind and dark grey clouds.”

“But why was here a wasteland”, asked Adele.

„Well in the first place, the two nations were at war and most of their battles took place here and after they perished, I fought some behemoths here, so the land never had time to heal itself.”

He was looking at his hands.

“Oh... that makes sense, but what do you mean by behemoths?”

Adelaide was curious.

“They’re animals that mutated, because of high mana contamination, they became stronger and extremely violent. I still sense some of them, but their scent is too weak, so they shouldn’t be a problem for now.”

„Do you perhaps mean the legendary dragons?”

Adelaide wanted to know everything.

„I’m not exactly sure if you should call them that anymore. Dragons were sentient beings that usually didn’t engage in combat unless they absolutely had to. These creatures attacked everything that seemed to be alive and didn’t care about the consequences. So yes, some of the behemoths were once dragons, but not anymore, now they’re just big angry lizards.”

“So, am I not supposed to call them dragons…?”

„I don’t really care what you call them, just know that they weren’t always like this.”

“Ok...”

They walked through a forest around a lake and between a few fields. Adelaide was asking questions and Tyarius was answering them. The more answers Adelaide got, the more questions she had. After a while, they approached a village. It was already dark.

„Look that’s our family house, that’s where I live.”

“Adelaide?”

“Yes?”

“Are you perhaps a nobility?”

“Well not exactly, we’re just a minor Baron family.”

Answered Adelaide, as they were getting closer to the house.

“We’re lucky, because dad lives in the capital and mom went to the capital to see him yesterday so she shouldn’t be coming back any time soon.”

She said as they entered the house.

“Your parents aside, does anyone else live here?”

“Well sometimes a distant family member or a family friend stays here over night, but other than that nobody else lives here.”

“Another question, do you have any mana potions, restoration potions, or mana crystals?”

“Actually, yes, I think we should have all of these, but I don’t know where exactly.”

Adelaide answered with a thoughtful expression on her face.

“That shouldn’t be a problem, I can sense mana. And I can sense some mana from south.”

“Yea that’s where the storage room is.”

After Tyarius searched through the storage for a while, he found a half full crate of mana potions, a few mana crystals, charms and one restoration potion.

“Can I really use all of these. Won’t your parents be mad?”

“No, I don’t think so, because my dad left these here and then, he went to the capital city for work and never came back. But that was a long time ago.”

When she finished the sentence there were almost tears in her eyes, but she wasn’t crying. Instead, she looked rather angry.

“I’m sorry.”

Even though Tyarius was apologizing, he still had a cold expression.

"It’s nothing… On top of that you don’t really sound like you’re sorry.”

End of Chapter 1