Chapter 1

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Gods’ War threw the world into chaos. The war split continents, evaporated oceans and charred the land black. Though much of the world was now uninhabitable, the gods still continued fighting.

As the gods were fighting and wreaking havoc above, life escaped underground. And in one of the underground human settlements, a male child was born. A weak and fragile thing it was, crying for its mother’s milk. The only thing that set it apart from other humans were his blood red eyes. Thus his parents named him Sanguine.

On Sanguine’s third birthday, an extraordinary event happened. Sanguine, as an adventurous and naughty child, decided not to heed his mother’s words and sneaked out into the over world. And it was there he saw a lifeless, barren landscape that stretched on farther than the eyes could see. And in the sky were two great beings fighting. Beautiful lights lit up the sky as the two gods duked it out. The boy decided to hide behind a rock and watch the battle. As the fight progressed, the sky turned red and a great canyon replaced the the mighty mountains. The battle raged on and only stopped when one of the beings fell from the sky.

The boy got out of his hiding place and approached the fallen being. And when he saw the being, he was awestruck. The being- no, god- was perfect, a masculine face with perfect proportions glared at the skies while his Olympian body lost all its strength. All this perfection sullied by golden blood, pouring out of a grievous chest wound.

Out of curiosity the boy touched the fallen god and great streams of lights poured out of the god’s body and into the boy’s. The boy watched this spectacle in wonder and bewitchment. At the end of the light show, the boy felt powerful. Powerful enough to challenge the other, injured god. And so he did.

With his new found powers, the boy flew into the sky and right into the bloodied god. Focusing all his might into a single point, he killed the other god as his fist pierced right through the god’s chest. As the god died, the same spectacle happened. Lights of all colors poured out of the god’s body and right into the Sanguine’s. And at the end of the spectacle, the boy, again, felt stronger.

When the boy returned back to home, the settlement was in a panic. They didn’t know where 3 year old Sanguine went, and they feared for the worst. But upon sight of Sanguine coming back from the entrance, the villagers felt relieved and angry at the same time. Relieved for being alive, for he was a human child, the future generation, an important livelihood and asset and angry for going outside and disobeying orders.

Of course, the boy was severely punished by the chief but the chief was curious as to how a 3 year old survived the onslaught of the gods.

And Sanguine replied with a smile, “I just hid behind a rock and when one of the gods fell from the sky, I touched him and all his power transferred into me. So with my newfound powers, I killed the other god and absorbed his power!”

Such antics was unheard of and Sanguine was punished again for lying. But he easily proved his powers to the chief and the elders.

With that display of power, the chief exclaimed, “We can do it! We might just be able to beat back the gods and take back the over world!”

And with that speech, the human settlement poured all of its resources into training and developing the boy. Magic training, sword training, survival lessons and all sorts of other things were taught to Sanguine. And he absorbed all that knowledge like a sponge with water. To strengthen and train himself, he would also go out to the over world and slay whichever unlucky god was nearby.

And one day, while he was hunting for gods, he met an unusually strong one which he would dub ‘Greater Gods’. He approached the god and they fought for hours on end. Eventually, the god made a mistake and Sanguine took advantage of it and defeated the god. He absorbed its powers and found it to be 15X stronger than a Lesser God.

By the time of the boy’s coming of age ceremony, he had already killed and absorbed 34 lesser gods and 11 greater gods. He was known to the gods as the ‘Devourer’ but he was the Hero to the humans.

And at Sanguine’s coming of age, he unleashed his true powers, direct manipulation over the Source, the dimension where all things come from. With this power, he was able to manipulate reality itself. It took him a year to master his newfound powers and at the age of 17, he challenged all of the gods. He flew to the Heavens, where the gods rested and fought for days. After he defeated them, he ascended to godhood and brought peace to the land. And thus ends the God War Era. At least, that’s how the story goes.

***

Aeger 267, Era of the Phoenix

13,000 years later

Five figures stood in front of a 3 story tall, metal door.

“Finally at the treasure room,” a man in black armor said, “So, how do we open this, Gaardi?”

A hooded women dressed in black robes replied as she made symbols with her hands, “With magic, Sebastian.”

A pattern of light appeared where the women made the symbols and floated towards the door. As the light reached the door, the door started to glow red. It grew brighter and brighter, forcing the 5 figures to cover their eyes. Then it was gone. A large entrance was now where there was once a door.

“What kind of spell was that, Gaardi?” a skinny man in leather armor asked.

“Secret, Tom,” Gaardi replied.

“Don’t be like that, teach Jean some of that magic!” Tom snickered.

“But I don’t know magic?” A young girl replied with a question mark above her head.

“Alright, enough chit chat. Remember your formations? Bernie take the front.” Sebastian said in a commanding tone.

“Understood,” a huge bodybuilder replied.

With Bernie and Sebastian in front, the group entered what they called the treasure room.

“Fire up the lights, Gaardi,” Sebastian called out.

“Understood,” Gaardi replied as she chanted something under her breath. A second later a bright ball of light illuminated the room. Their eyes shimmered when they saw the enormous fortune before them. Mountains of gold and jeweled decorated the room. Huge marble pillars supported an enormous painting that made up the ceiling. Weapons and artifacts of lost ages lined the walls, ready to be looted.

“All those days of not showering finally paid off,” Tom cried with joy as he dived head first into the mountain of gold with Jean in tow.

“Think of all the experimental materials I could purchase with this! I could build the latest labs!” Gaardi exclaimed as she ran towards the mountain of gold.

“Wait! This is still a dungeon. Be careful!” Sebastian warned.

Bernie grunted in agreement.

“Hey guys! I found something weird here! Come check it out!” Tom yelled.

The group made their way towards Tom.

“What did you find?” asked Gaardi.

“Look at this!” Tom exclaimed as he held out a palm-sized, gilded box with very intricate and beautiful designs.

“Try opening it. Let’s see what’s inside,” Sebastian requested. Tom fiddled around the box, trying to find some kind of opening. After a minute with no luck, Tom tried to pry it open.

“Can’t. You try, big guy,” Tom sighed, handing the box to Bernie.

The juggernaut took the tiny box and tried to pry it open but without any success.

“Maybe it’s enchanted and needs magic to open it?” Gaardi suggested.

“Gaardi must be right!” Jean added.

Bernie grunted and tossed it to Gaardi.

The girl took the box and closed her eyes. Spheres of light started to gather around her. Suddenly, the box started to absorb all the spheres. Well, it was more like the spheres were bombarding the poor box.

After 2-3 minutes of bombardment, the box started to glow.

“Oh! It seems to be working,” Sebastian said with a curious face.

As the box absorbed more and more mana, cracks appeared alongside the surface of the box and Gaardi seemed to also glow a bit.

“Oi - Gaardi! You’re breaking the box!” Tom warned.

Despite the warning, Gaardi continued the ritual, as if in a trance. She was now lighting up like a candle.

“She’s overloading,” Bernie observed.

“We need to stop her!” Sebastian yelled out.

But before they had the chance to do anything, the box started to absorb the air around it, creating a vacuum, sucking up everything in the room. Gold and jewels started to fly through the air at a frightening speed.

“Fucking hell!” screamed Tom as a gold coin smacked him right at the back of his head. The wind started to pick up speed and was strong enough to lift the group off their feet, excluding Bernie.

“It’s that damn box! We need to stop that thing! Bernie!” Sebastian screamed, bear-hugging a nearby marble pillar.

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Bernie nodded at Sebastian and moved towards the epicenter.

As Bernie slowly made his way towards the box, a high pitched scream filled the room. Sebastian looked around and found Jean being sucked into the tornado and Tom desperately trying to grab her.

“Damn it Jean! Grab my hand!” screamed Tom.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger, even Bernie was having trouble standing.

“Bernie rip that box out of her hands!” shouted Sebastian. After giving out his instructions to Bernie, Sebastian let go of the pillar and jumped towards the direction of Jean. Using the air currents, Sebastian flew towards Jean’s position and crashed into her.

Sebastian pulled Jean into a tight embrace. Their combined weight proved too heavy for the wind to carry. As they fell towards the ground, the wind stopped. Everything was calm again.

Sebastian looked over where Gaardi was holding the box. The box had separated into five pieces, 4 corner piece and a center piece. Each of the pieces were floating around Gaardi in their respective places.

“What’s going on, Sebby?” Jean asked tearfully.

“I don’t know. Get Tom and get out of here. I and Bernie will take care of this.”

“A-Alright,” the girl replied as she ran off to find Tom.

Sebastian drew his weapon and approached the Gaardi, wary of any traps that may go off. Bernie did the same on the opposite side of Sebastian. The dark-skinned girl was now floating in the air in a cross-legged position.

Sebastian approached slowly and said, “Gaardi? Can you hear me? It’s me, Sebby.”

The floating girl did not react.

Sebastian continued on, “I know you’re inside there somewhere Gaardi. You can overcome this.”

Again, the floating girl did not react.

“Remember the Plains of Fire, Gaardi? My ass almost got burnt if it weren’t for you.”

The girl twitched.

Seeing the reaction, Sebastian pressed on, “And at Devil’s Peak, remember? We got our ass handed to us on a silver plate.”

The girl then opened her now glowing silver eyes and turned to face Sebastian.

“A-Are you, Gaardi?”

“I am not the one you refer to as Gaardi,” a metallic voice replied.

Bernie and Sebastian immediately readied their stance.

“Who are you? And what did you do with her?” Sebastian asked carefully while eyeing his opponent.

“I am the guardian of the flying city, Sanguine, Malliath. The girl is fine, just unconscious. Why have you come today?” the voice casually asked.

This, thing, with lack of better words, was dangerous. It must, at least, be a level 50 Disaster Class Monster, a beast so powerful, it requires the strength of 50 countries to take down. In other words, we would die if we faced it.

“We only wish to explore and map this area,” Sebastian carefully said.

“There is no need to lie,” chuckled Malliath,” I know you’re here to desecrate this tomb and steal master’s riches.”

Bernie strengthened his grip while a drop of sweat appeared on Sebastian’s forehead.

“You have seen through us. As expected of the guardian of Ator’s Tomb. If you give us Gaardi’s body back, we will immediately leave,” Sebastian bargained.

“After you killed all those poor souls on the top floors? I think not! Well, at least not before you accomplish a task for master! After all, you should compensate for all the damages that you caused!” the voice replied with a grin.

“How do we know that you won’t kill us when we finish it?” Sebastian cautiously asked.

“You don’t! That’s why it’s fun! You don’t know if you’ll die or not! But if you leave now, you’re sure to die! Well, it’s I that will do the killing, it is Master’s choice after all! But helping me is your choice!” Maliath laughed heartily.

Sebastian thought for a moment before replying, “Fine, we’ll agree to help. But you must ensure safety to Gaardi and the other two who just escaped.”

“Good! Good! You see that big door behind me? Open it up!” Maliath said in an eccentric tone.

Sebastian signaled Bernie to open it while he kept his stance ready, wary of Maliath. Bernie pushed open the gates with brute force. Sebastian stood awestruck at the sight before his eyes. An ancient city of gold and silver, precious gems embedded the streets and the walls and mountains of treasures filled the gaps in between the buildings.

“W-What is this?” Sebastian thought out loud.

“What you see before you, is the ancient underground city of Sanguine, home of Althus, slayer of the gods, and full-time master,” replied Maliath.

“Bernie are you seeing this?”

Bernie grunted in response.

“Now, now children. No need to drool over petty minerals! This here is your mission!” Maliath exclaimed while he laid Gaardi’s body flat curled up her legs, trying to look like an innocent school girl.

“Please don’t do that.”

“Don’t interrupt a lady!”

“Bu-“

“Anyways, you’re to stroll through the city and find a great, red ruby,” Maliath explained as his hands displayed a hologram of the said gem.

“How in the world are we supposed to find a single ruby in this treasure trove of gems?” Sebastian asked.

“You’ll know it when you see it! Or well, feel it!” Maliath laughed.

“What do yo-“

“Well, what are you still standing here for? Go shoo! Or did you want to have some food with this body?” Maliath asked in a seducing voice, that no one knew he was capable of, while massaging “his” breasts.

“Uhhh,” Sebastian drooled.

“Kyaaa! Go away pervert!” squealed Maliath as he summoned a great wind that launched Sebastian and Bernie right into the middle of the city.

“Well, that was fun! Now, I’ll just have to wait a bit before I can awaken master and everybody else,” Maliath thought out loud.

“Even in slumber, master is powerful!”

***

Tom’s Perspective

Jean and I were taking shelter in one of our older base of operation. It was basically a hidden room on one of the levels of the dungeon where we would rest, eat, etc. without fear of a monster attack.

We were currently on the 98th floor. After Sebastian told us to flee, we ran as far as our legs could carry us. The room was exactly how we left it. A simple hole in the wall branching into different rooms. Stalactite lined the cave ceiling while stalagmites grew out from the rocky floor. Balls of magic from Gaardi illuminated the place.

“Jean set up the beds, I’ll go and check what we have and make some dinner.”

Jean nodded in agreement and set off to her chore. I walked through the corridors and into one of the branching rooms. The average sized room was filled with barrels and crates of provisions built to last. These provisions were saved during previous outings in case of emergencies.

As I took out the pickled foods and dried meat, I thought back to what had just happened. That demon, or whatever the hell it was, was unleashed by me. If I hadn’t found that fucking box and let my guard down, this never would’ve happened. We would’ve been done with all this adventuring shit. This was our fucking last gig and it paid big.

I took the ingredients to the kitchen where I started to prepare dinner. Damn it all! It was my fault that Gaardi got possessed! Those silver eyes thirsted for blood. I shuddered at the memory.

Will they be alright? What if they don’t come back? How the hell am I supposed to live with that? I killed 3 of my fucking best friends. Tears started to form and my vision blurred a little. Guilt stabbed my heart. I need to go back and fix all this. But I can’t leave Jean all alone and I’m sure as hell not taking her down there again.

While pondering on my dilemma, the room started to shake. Dust rained from above and a few stalactite fell from the quake.

“What the fuck? Gaardi’s enchantments weren’t enough?” I yelled in alarm and immediately jumped under a table.

Jean ran out with a worried face.

“Jean! Run for cover!”

Jean nodded her head and ducked underneath a stone table. What the fuck is so strong that not even Jean, a top tiered Curse Breaker, can stabilize. The quaking got worse and worse, it felt like the ceiling would collapse on us. Perhaps, that would be the better way to go. I wouldn’t need to live with the guilt that I murdered my friends. The quake stopped as sudden as it came.

“Jean, stay here. I’ll go outside and check out what’s happening.”

Jean nodded.

I exited the room we called the kitchen and made my way to the exit, weapons at the ready. Foul words escaped my lips when I saw the collapsed ceiling blocking our exit.