Ancient Imperial Calendar Year 1814
The 65th Lord of the Kislavein Dynasty, IV Orsman Kislavein, and the King of the Devils, VII Kibele, stood face to face for the first and last time.
"All your soldiers are dead, Devil King," said Orsman.
The Devil King Kibele looked around. Everyone except himself and his sons had been killed.
"The great vengeance my people,the Sapharos, have awaited for 1814 years... We have failed. We have lost," said Kibele with a sad expression.
Orsman asked curiously,
"Vengeance?What vengeance?"
Kibele looked at Orsman angrily.
"Are you going to pretend you don't know?"
When Orsman didn't react, Kibele grew suspicious.
"Do you truly not know?Do you not know how your ancestors slaughtered my ancestors?"
Orsman couldn't make sense of these words.
"What slaughter?You devils are only mentioned in the Ancient Holy Scriptures as the source of all evil."
Kibele burst into laughter.
He stopped laughing and shouted in rage.
"You are the real evil ones!We fought side by side with you against the Vampires! But as soon as your task was done, you brought us to the brink of extinction under the guise of a devil hunt!"
Orsman and those around him couldn't understand these statements.
"Tell me everything.It seems you have a long story."
Kibele began to tell everything.
3000 years ago, the Vampire race ruled the entire world.
The Vampires had enslaved humans and were oppressing them.
A group of humans fleeing this oppression took refuge in the Sapharos Mountains. This geography, consisting of thousands of mountain ranges, was easy to defend.
Moreover, because there were thousands of mountains, there were countless places to hide.
The humans who settled in the Sapharos Mountains lived there for 1200 years. During this time, they discovered a stone.
The Devil Stone.
This stone gave them power: Aura and Mana.
At that time, humans could not use Aura and Mana; only Vampires possessed this power and used it to enslave humans.
The humans in the Sapharos Mountains conducted research on the Devil Stones for long centuries and eventually assimilated their powers. But there was a side effect.
Horns appeared on some, wings on others, and tails on yet others on their bodies.
Although they resembled humans in appearance, they were no longer human. Therefore, they named themselves after the mountain they had taken refuge in, and thus the Sapharos race was born.
Over 1800 years ago, the First Emperor of the Ancient Empire, I Harloumen, started a war of independence against the Vampires.
This news was delivered to the Sapharos race by a group of humans who had fled the war and taken refuge in the Sapharos Mountains.
The Vampire race had lost 70% of their population due to a twenty-year throne war and were fragmented.
At first, the Sapharos race hesitated to join the war because the Vampires had ruled the world for a full 10,000 years and enslaved humans.
The Sapharos debated for days and finally decided to join the war.
Half of the Sapharos race joined this war. At first, the human armies under I Harloumen's command feared them, but they learned their goal was the same.
To destroy the Vampires.
The war lasted for years; all three sides suffered heavy losses, but the Humans and Sapharos won.
Vampire hunts began all over the world. The oppressors became the oppressed.
When the Vampire hunts ended, a magical celebration began: a magnificent feast accompanied by drinks and champagne. And everything started at that feast.
Harloumen stood up, drew his sword, and with a single swing of his aura-filled blade, beheaded all the Sapharos at his table.
The Sapharos, drunk from the alcohol, could not respond properly. On the other hand, the humans, who had not drunk, cut down everyone in their path.
The Sapharos had suffered the most losses during the war. They had all trusted and followed the orders of I Harloumen, whom they saw as their savior.
I Harloumen was the first human to use Mana and Aura and the ancestor of all humans who use Mana and Aura today.
As a result of the Vampire and Devil Hunts he initiated, he completely destroyed—or thought he destroyed—the two non-human races.
Some Vampires and Sapharos escaped and survived, hiding in caves and mountains.
The Sapharos fled all the way to the shores east of the Eastern Territories.
Rather than die at the hands of the pursuing humans, they entered the sea.
They swam for weeks; those with wings flew away, and finally, they found a massive peninsula.
When they settled on this island, they were only a few hundred people.
The humans had mercilessly slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Sapharos; only a very few remained.
For 1800 years, the Sapharos prepared for the day they would take their revenge.
They established a militaristic nation structure, exploited all the island's resources, and prepared for a possible future human invasion.
And today, the twenty million Sapharos under the command of their King, VII Kibele, attacked to destroy the humans and take their revenge.
Kibele finished his story.
"Now you know,grandson of Harloumen. What happened to us because of you, and you didn't even know it."
Orsman and all the humans were utterly astonished.
"Did our ancestor really do such a thing?"
"Vampires?Did such a race exist?"
"Why is there no such information in history books?Is this devil, or Sapharos, or whatever, lying, or is it true?"
Orsman and the entire army were lost in thought, trying to process what they had learned.
"I don't know if what you say is true or false.Our history books contain nothing from the pre-Ancient Imperial eras. We will investigate what you've said. But now, at the final moment of this war, make your decision. Will you surrender, or will you die in a duel?"
Kibele and his three sons stood side by side, preparing for battle.
"I have my answer,"said Orsman.
Dornas, Javier, and Deon came to Orsman's side to duel the princes.
· Orsman vs Kibele
· Dornas vs Kiriam
· Javier vs Hassibal
· Deon vs Eliam
The first fight began between Dornas and Kiriam.
Kiriam hurled dozens of massive fireballs at Dornas.
While defending himself with a water wall, Dornas hurled ice spears he created at Kiriam.
Kiriam, skillfully swinging his sword filled with Devilish Magic, shattered all the ice spears and the water wall in front of him with a single slash.
He raised his sword to the sky, about to make a move to kill Dornas.
"You're like that weak human.Finished so quickly."
Just as Kiriam was about to deliver the final blow with his mocking attitude, a stone rose from the ground and struck his stomach like a cannonball.
"Ahhhh!"
Kiriam collapsed to the ground in pain. Dornas, not missing this opportunity, lunged forward and beheaded Kiriam.
Marco Ashbrum, watching this scene, felt inner peace.
"Juan, your vengeance has been taken,"thought Marco Ashbrum.
Kiriam's severed head rolled and came to a stop before his father, Sapharos King VII Kibele.
Kibele became enraged.
"Another weakling."
He kicked his son's head away from him.
Kibele turned to his son Hassibal in a commanding tone.
"Kill him,"he said.
Hassibal felt his father's rage to his core. He bowed his head and replied obediently.
"As you command,Father."
Hassibal walked forward. His opponent was Dornas's nephew, Javier.
Javier did not wait for his opponent to make a move or for a signal to start the fight.
He lunged forward before his opponent was ready for battle, aiming his sword directly at Hassibal's neck.
Hassibal quickly retreated, casting a spell to gather lightning in his fist.
With all his rage, he swung his lightning-filled fist, mixed with Dark Magic, towards Javier's face.
Javier channeled all his aura to the point on his face where the fist would strike.
The fist made contact with Javier's face with full force.
"Ugh... If I hadn't covered my face with my aura, it would have shattered my skull to pieces,"he thought.
The Devilish Magic inside the fist had broken Javier's aura shield, but his face and skin were unharmed.
Simultaneously with taking the punch, Javier swung his sword at Hassibal's neck.
"Just as I predicted,"thought Hassibal.
He had anticipated Javier would aim for his head, so he too had concentrated all his aura in his neck.
The moment Javier's sword struck Hassibal's neck, it shattered into pieces.
"HAHAHA!ANYTHING THAT TOUCHES DEVILISH MAGIC VANISHES! YOU LOST!"
Javier frowned and smiled, speaking in a confident voice.
"No.If anyone has lost, it's you."
"Ahh...aaa..."
Hassibal let out pained groans.
"What is this pain?"
He saw a fist piercing his heart. Hassibal saw the blood gushing from his chest and was horrified.
"Y-you...how... how did you do this?"
Javier pulled his fist out of Hassibal's chest.
"You were so focused on the attack coming for your neck that you didn't consider an attack coming for another place."
"Fuck me..."
Hassibal cursed as he died within seconds, the huge hole in his chest.
"HASSIBAL!"
Kibele screamed in rage.
"LONG LIVE JAVIER!"
"LONG LIVE JAVIER!"
"HAIL JAVIER,WHO AVENGED OUR DYNASTY LORD!"
The few thousand surviving Ashbrum soldiers cheered for Javier, who had avenged their Dynasty Lord Junric.
Kibele grabbed his last surviving son, Eliam, by the throat and lifted him into the air.
"Kkh...Father... let go... I can't breathe..."
"If you lose,Eliam, I will capture you before you die and kill you in the most painful way possible."
Kibele threw his son to the ground hard. Those around had even begun to pity Eliam.
Deon stepped forward, a crazy smile on his face.
"How pathetic you are,little one. At your age, your father throws you around like that... kikikiki."
"SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH,YOU FUCK!"
Eliam closed the distance to Deon in the blink of an eye, spending his mana like water to increase his speed.
"I need to end this duel as quickly as possible, otherwise my father... ahh..."
"Puhahahaha!Are you really so afraid of your father that you can't even focus on the duel?!"
A thin slash split his body in two. Liters of blood gushed over Deon.
Eliam first fell to his knees, then face down on the ground.
"Rest in peace,you cowardly chicken."
Deon, drenched in blood, earned the nickname 'Bloody Deon' from that day on.
All of Kibele's sons were dead, but he was angry not at their deaths, but at their losing the duels.
"Not a single one of you could win!You have disgraced me!"
Orsman walked towards Kibele.
"Only you remain,Kibele. I will send you to join your sons and your soldiers, prepare to face your death."
Kibele raised his massive sword made of Devil Stone.
"Just try it."
He tried to provoke Orsman in a challenging manner.
"Haha,I'll do it then."
Orsman lunged forward. When the two massive swords clashed, a tremendous energy was released, throwing those around them kilometers away.
"AHHHHHHH!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"shouted Dornas.
"WHAT KIND OF POWER IS THIS?!"shouted Brian.
As soldiers and dead corpses were sent flying in all directions, the duel between the Lord of the Kislavein Dynasty and the King of the Sapharos had begun.