"Did you hear what happened near the Mendeley river coast last night?"
"About the Fire demon causing so much trouble for the past months that was exterminated by a Magus... This type of news doesn't really surprise me these days, demons are showing their heads more and more as the years go by"
"This time it's different, the Magus that killed him defeated him with one blow!"
"Woah, that's impressive indeed... but who was the magus?"
"We don't know, the Magus vanished as soon as he killed the demon, so the media didn't have time to get a picture of his face,"
Two middle-aged coworkers were enjoying breakfast in a cafe before heading to work. They were talking about the most recent news, which was the killing of the fire demon.
The morning news in Raven City, Ethris' capital, was all about a strange Magus who slew a fire demon in one strike. People aren't usually impressed by this kind of news because demons are killed on a daily basis, but a demon being killed in one blow? That wasn't something you heard every day, especially in a city teeming with strong monsters.
Demons have been the primary threat to humanity since their advent more than three millennia ago. Humans were typically feeble at the time of the first demon's arrival, and they were still learning the planet and its numerous elements.
Demons' abilities were far greater, and the demon ruler, who is supposed to be the first demon to emerge, was regarded as the most powerful of them. His destructive might was unrivalled in comparison to the human species, whose greatest men could only match 1% of the power of the weakest demon.
The demon species made significant headway in wiping out human civilizations, until only the Ethris and Song kingdoms remained.
Everything appeared to be over, and the human species was on the verge of extinction, until a flicker of light, a key in the dense darkness encircling humanity, appeared at the most desperate time. Ether was the key to preserving the human race from extinction. Ether opened the door for the few people to gain the same degree of power as demons. The humans used this power to form a group known as the magi.
Everyone possesses Ether, which is the force that a magus utilises to cast his great spells. The ability to fully utilise all of the assets provided by the brain distinguishes magi from ordinary humans. If one can open that portion of the brain, they will undoubtedly be able to manipulate Ether.
People utilise a green sparkling magnetic crystal called Etherium to determine whether or not they control Ether. Etherium is nothing more than a physical condition in which Ether exists. If one stays close to the Crystal, it will gently migrate in his direction since it has detected a magnetic field in him, which is Ether.
However, the quantity of Ether that may be used in combat is limited, and one cannot empty all of his Ether without risking injury or death. This is why someone can be born with an infinite amount of Ether or a tiny amount.
Even if you are gifted with a vast quantity of Ether, if you cannot control it, all of your abilities are useless. Even the person with the least quantity of Ether can defeat someone if he handles Ether more effectively.
With their newly acquired power, the humans escaped devastation by encasing the most powerful demons in artefacts and hiding the artefacts in locations out of reach of anybody foolish enough to try to awaken the demons, until now...
Human civilization has made significant advances in technology and awareness of demons and their power as of the year 2095.
The streets of Raven City's sophisticated capital were crowded with automobiles, forming a big chain down the roads, and large buildings encircled the streets, including restaurants and cafés, while walkers went about their business and headed wherever they needed to go. This was the commerce section and one of the safest areas because it housed the majority of the Magus guilds.
The prestige of Raven City is mostly based on its sophisticated business area; yet, the Ether was discovered in the little city of Tyggstral.
Tyggstral is the oldest ancient city in human history and the site of Ether's discovery. The city was called after the battle of Tyggstral, in which the Magi faced off against the Demon Lord and his army.
This modest city is not as developed as Raven City, yet the Great Museum serves as a symbol for the city and maybe the entire nation.
The museum is located in the heart of the city of Tyggstral and is housed in a historic structure that resembles a castle. This is due to the building's previous life as the Stuart imperial family's royal palace. However, with the extinction of the royal dynasty, the people chose to convert the Stuart castle into a national museum as a memorial to commemorate the royal family.
The most valuable things, such as numerous kings' swords, historical artefacts, and manuscripts, are kept at this museum.
Thousands of people come here every day, and many schools organise field excursions to the museum to teach students about the history of mankind.
"Could someone remind me what this artefact represents?"
Within the museum, a group of young individuals, all between the ages of 17 and 18, gathered around a thick-glass exhibit case.
A stanchion was placed around the exhibit case to prevent the public from reaching it.
The only thing within the display case was a floating tiny black pebble that rotated around itself. Despite being black, the stone was brilliant and, at first glance, appeared exquisite.
There was one woman with dark hair who was slightly older than the others. She was dressed sharply in a black suit with scarlet lipstick, a ponytail, and black square-framed eyeglasses. She was the one who brought up the marble topic.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
No one among the Youngers raised their hand in the seconds that followed the question.
"If no one is going to volunteer, I'm going to start picking names!" the ponytailed woman exclaimed.
Following that, a faint sigh of anguish was heard in the audience before one of them chose to raise his hand.
"Yes, Caleb go on,"
A medium-length straight silver-haired youngster raised his hand, wearing a necklace with two silver rings and round thin spectacles. He was a thin teenager wearing a white shirt that was plainly too big for him and grey jogging pants. By all appearances, he was the loser of the class with few friends.
"It is the most recent item discovered in the 1960s, in Tyggstral," the boy said in a frail voice, "It was found near the location where the battle of Tyggstral had supposedly taken place, and the marble was shining light blue when it was discovered, however, throughout the years, the marble lost colour and glow to a point it has turned peach black,"
"Thank you, Caleb," The woman smiled at the boy before turning back to the artefact,
"Just as Caleb said, this is the most recent discovery and had lost its colour throughout the years, however, one thing it hasn't lost is its energy (Ether), which is why it is rotating around itself. You will learn this in further depth once you go to university, or decide to pursue your career as a sorcerer."
There was a few seconds of silence before the woman restarted speaking,
"Well then, shall we keep on?"
The group was led by a lady who looked to be their professor. They were about to go to another area in the museum when a student, Caleb, opted to skip the tour and explore the museum on his own.
Caleb was an 18-year-old orphan who was adopted by a couple when he was four. He was too little to remember anything about his parents, so he has neither grief nor desire to learn what happened to them; yet, it is claimed that the only item his parents left him were the two silver rings tied to the necklace.
"Let's see... where is that relic?" Caleb whispered.
His voice was frail, and he was clumsy, which led many to believe he was transgender when, in reality, he was just a weak and shy boy.
"Ah, there it is, the Nirvana relic!" He exclaimed walking toward a rectangular-shaped object.
People were least interested in this relic among all the other artefacts and antiques in the room. Caleb's eyes lit up as he spotted the artefact, and he went for his backpack, pulling out a little journal and a pencil. He then began to draw the artefact in his notebook from every angle, paying attention to the slightest details.
The relic was constructed of a brown material called Etherium iron and had a 3d rectangular shape with a lion on each face and its mane growing backwards. The lion stood up, exhibiting the claws on its two front paws, and its jaw was wide open, revealing its enormous incisors. Furthermore, inscriptions in a nonsensical idiom were inscribed on the lengths of each relic. He was nearly finished with his illustrations and was writing the gibberish inscriptions when he observed something strange.
"Oh... wait a minute," He reached for the two rings on his necklace and looked at the side of each ring.
The inscriptions on the side of his rings were comparable to those on the artefact. They weren't the same, yet they had the same characters, which was unusual.
As he stared at the inscriptions on the rings, the words began to glow white, and the ring began to heat up to the point that steam could be seen coming from it. When he looked up, he noticed that the writings on the relic had begun to shine as well.
He began to gaze more intently at the artefact, and he could hear a voice murmuring at one point.
"Henumans, figreoe umss figroem tolhesoe cwhains, atnad yaioyu wrilol beoe rinewardead writph umnlimitead pooweer. Tolhoe rinineg ipss tolhoe kaey, tolhoe rinineg ipss tolhoe kaewy tolorn tolhoe doooer wrhicph wrilol lletat umss figreoe. Wroe noeead yaiou, atcceptat umss ipan yaiouer saouol atnad beody, atnad wroe wrilol gaivoe yaioyu llimitlesss pooweer,"
The whispers kept repeating the same sentence, and it seemed as if these phrases were enticing Caleb as he approached the artefact.
Because the relic was only covered by a thin glass, anyone could go as near as they wanted. Caleb's blue eyes showed no emotion or thinking and he approached the glass shielding the artefact and reached for it.
His hands gradually moved closer and closer to the relic, until barely 3 to 4 cm separated them.
"Bewy tolhoe atlmightwy doemoan llord, ei atsakk figoer yaiouer satrength, tolransfeer muwy saouol ipan tolhoe rining, atnad lletat tolhoe beowy beoe tolhoe kaewy tolorn tolhoe rinisoe otif tolhoe doemonss"
For the first time after uninterrupted repetition, the whispers murmured a different pattern. The whispering ceased immediately after, and the letters on the relic stopped blazing and gradually went away.
Caleb, who was still holding his hand a few metres away from the glass, regained his senses and his eyes returned to normal.
"What was that?" Caleb whispered touching his forehead because he was starting to have a headache.
He re-examined the artefact and saw that the inscriptions were vanished in some way. Caleb frowned and investigated the relic more closely, perplexed as to how markings that had been vividly shining only moments before vanished.
"Does that mean the inscriptions on my rings disappeared too?"
He reached for his rings and once again looked at the side of them, and surprisingly, the inscriptions were still present, but the pattern was altered.
"How in the world..."
Before Caleb could even consider why the markings on the ring had altered, he heard his name called from behind.
"Caleb!" It was his professor calling out for him, "You can't be going to god knows where every time you feel like it!"
"Please forgive me, Ms Mont," Caleb said lowering his head as a sign of respect, "I have been wanting to study this relic for a while and selfishly decided to separate myself from the group,"
Ms Lance took a good stare at Caleb and sighed.
"Listen, Caleb, I know its hard for you to find friends, and I'm conscious that I, your sister being your professor too doesn't help in that, but I need you to stay strong, this is the last week before you graduate and pursue your life in a university. I just need you to be strong just like you have been since the beginning of the year,"
Lizz Mont, Caleb's step-sister, was 23 at the time. Because of her remarkable intellectual ability, she graduated ahead of the usual and obtained the highest degree at the age of 21. She selected a career in education from a young age, which is why she is her younger brother's history professor.
However, it is still unknown what she studied at university because she has always kept it a mystery, and she would occasionally spend significant amounts of time away from Caleb and his parents for work... despite the fact that she was just a teacher!
Caleb had a glum expression on his face and was staring at the ground after what she had told him. To comfort his sister, he lifted his head and smiled faintly.
"Don't worry Lizz, I know that already!"
Liza smiled and hugged Caleb as strongly as she could, "C'mon, we're about to leave the museum... and is that my pencil you're using?"
"Yeah, I found it on the table this morning...", Caleb tried to pull the pencil out of her line of sight, giving a timid smile as he did so
Lizz then smacked the back of Caleb's head and kicked him to move forward, her face irritated, "Go join the group you fucking prick!" She exclaimed in an annoyed tone.
As they exited the chamber, the museum announced that it will close in a few minutes, and the guests began to leave.
When the room was empty, a dense dark smoke emerged above the relic Caleb was studying, and it swirled around it before it began to materialise in a matter of seconds.
It originally took the form of a full-grown masculine person before the smoke thickened even more and transformed into an entirely new substance.
The substance was a gluey dark green paste formed into a person, and the mysterious object suddenly opened red demonic eyes. The object in front of the relic was clearly a demon.
The demon, who stood at least 2.50 metres tall, bent to examine the relic attentively. After a few seconds of thought, a big and horrifying smile appeared on the demon's face, revealing all of his razor-sharp razor teeth.
"The seal of the Dark Demon has been broken!"