An altar. A golden grail adorned with jewels. A beautiful artifact that seems to be on a brighter plane than its environment, acting as a spotlight, and a goal that attracts all the foolish adventurers and marauders that wish to use its power.

Surrounding the grail are monsters, large and small. In the air and on land. A dragon and wyverns can be seen flapping their wings overhead, and monstrous wolves and two-headed dogs stand guard by the altar. They’re all looking in one direction, where a group of seven figures stood together. A golden-haired knight, a voluptuous priestess, a huge and roundish man wielding a shield, a lightly-dressed but overly-muscular woman, a dark-haired man with a katana, a sleeping monk, and an eye-patched man standing a distance away from the other six.

The golden-haired man looks behind him at his comrades and they wordlessly nod back at him, understanding his intentions.

Charging in, the seven humans clash with the monsters, blades against teeth, fists against claws, and a rain of blood in the wake of the massacre of monsters.

“This won’t end until we get to the grail!” The golden-haired man shouted to his companions. “Don’t waste your time trying to fight all the monsters!”

A katana appears next to his face in the next second and slices a wolf cleanly in half, causing the knight to flinch.

“I’ll cut you a path.” Came a deep voice. Next to the knight was the dark-haired man, wiping his blade on a piece of cloth before sheathing the blade again.

“I’ll never understand why-”

Just as quickly as he had come, the wielder of the katana leaves, slaughtering the monsters in a straight path to the altar.

“Oh, ok. Good talk.”

The rest of the group follow, battling monsters on their left and their right, closing in on the grail.

Screeches explode in the sky causing some of the weaker monsters to whimper, and halting the heroes in their advancement.

“The wyverns are closing in!” The priestess’s voice can be heard in the center of the group, prompting the round shieldbearer to step in.

“Buff my shield!” The shield glows in a bright light and the stout man holds it above his head, blocking the wyverns’ assault as they divebomb into him with their claws extended.

Seeing the wyverns being momentarily blocked, the muscular woman leaps at the flying beasts, ripping them apart with a blazing ax, her bloodthirsty laughter ringing in the air.

“Kahahaha! This is so fun!” Turning around, the woman sees the sleep-walking monk and grabs onto him. “Hey, you shithead monk! When are you gonna wake up?” Saying this, she tosses the monk into the fray, right into a group of two-headed dogs, startling them.

“Amita… zzzz”

As the monk snores, the two-headed dogs pounce on what they believe is easy prey, only for their heads to be blasted off their necks. Even in a state of unconsciousness, the monk can protect himself by executing punches and kicks directly at the monsters’ vital spots.

At the forefront of the charge, the golden-haired man is nearing the grail, and as he reaches for it, the dragon in the air lands, pushing every living being away with the wind pressure it generated.

“Ah… Shit.”

The knight brandishes his sword and observes the dragon.

“Can you let me get by? Pretty please?”

The dragon snorts derisively and lunges at the knight, missing by a hair’s breadth. As the dragon reels its head back for another attack, it is held firmly in place, a tight grip shutting its mouth.

“Woah! I always forget how strong you are!” The knight exclaims excitedly.

The one-eyed man who’s seemingly been on the sidelines for the entirety of the battle grits his teeth.

“Hurry the fuck up… I can’t hold for any longer!”

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“Okay, okay! Just gimme a sec.” The knight concentrates, furrowing his brow. His sword shines brilliantly for a moment but suddenly turns dark again.

“What the fuck? Are you messing with me right now?”

The sword suddenly lights up again, even brighter this time. Without a second thought, the knight brings the sword down on the dragon’s head, decapitating it.

The one-eyed man falls onto his behind and takes a deep breath.

“I hate you.”

“I’m sorry! I was trying to use as much mana as I could to charge the blade and lost concentration for a second.” The knight seems apologetic but only gets a grunt in response.

The priestess is the next to arrive and she reminds them of their duty.

“Quick! The grail! Go and make a wish”

Brought back to reality, the knight hurriedly goes to the altar and clasps his hand as if in prayer.

“I wish the monsters were gone from this land!”

Immediately, the monsters begin to disintegrate into nothingness, and sparse cheering can be heard. With the monsters gone, the grail begins to lose color, until eventually, its appearance changes to that of a fancy stone cup.

***

12/29, 983rd year of the new millennium

“And that is how the new millennium started. After using the Holy Grail to rid the land of monsters, the seven heroes divided the lands among themselves by drawing lots. This process created the seven nations of Nis: Prytos, Luxuria, Lagu, Freki, Netam, Lan, and last but not least, Zorn!”

Smooth, pale hands close the tattered book, setting it aside. The owner of those hands is a girl named Jade, a sickly girl that is always seen with a smile despite her condition. She is sitting on the floor with her back to a cracked wall and smiling down at a young boy sitting in front of her.

“That’s so cool! Do you think I’ll ever become someone like the golden-maned king Lowen?” The boy’s bright eyes illuminate from behind his thick black hair.

Jade chuckles at the beaming boy, hiding her cough.

“I’m sure you will, Lykos. The warriors of Zorn are mighty people.”

Lykos giggles excitedly and mimics bringing a sword down, much like Lowen did to the dragon. As he does this, he trips, causing a package to fall out of his oversized pockets.

Jade bends down to lift Lykos, taking note of the package and its shape.

“Lykos… did you steal again?” Jade asks with disappointment.

Busted, Lykos looks at his sister with his well-trained puppy eyes.

“I heard that it’s easier to recover when you eat, so I got some garlic bread for you.” Lykos unwraps the packaging and breaks a piece of the bread for Jade to eat. “Here, have some.”

Jade reluctantly takes the piece and smiles sadly at her brother.

“It tastes great, but no more stealing okay? We still have some money left from our inheritance.”

Looking glum, Lykos nods. He slowly walks out of the room, only to bump into a large figure standing in the doorway.

“Hey there, Lykos!”

Lykos immediately recognized the voice and cheered up.

“Raze!”

The golden bachelor of their little town of Solnier, Raze is a talented knight that quickly rose in rank, becoming the youngest captain in the history of Zorn.

“Hi Raze,” Jade weakly utters, trying to get up from the floor, despite Raze’s gesture for her to stay.

“Hey Jade, looking beautiful as always!”

“Thanks,” Jade laughs awkwardly.

There is a brief silence in the air, filled only when Raze turns to talk to Lykos.

“Hey Lykos, uh… would you mind if your sister and I talk?”

Happy to be able to leave this tense scene, Lykos happily says yes and rushes out of the house.

***

Now free of the suffocating circumstance at home, Lykos runs through the snowy town, looking for something fun to do. Due to the cold temperature of Zorn, one of the northern nations on the continent, there were no kids outside to play with him, so he went around each shop, looking inside the windows and making faces at whoever bothered to give him attention.

Should I go steal more bread? He thought to himself. Salivating at the thought, he sneakily crept back into the bakery he had stolen from earlier that day.

As he enters, the delicious smell of freshly-baked bread wafts towards him, a dreamy delight for the young boy who never had enough to eat. Oh, how much joy he would feel to finally be full.

Lykos reaches his hand out for a loaf of bread, only to feel a firm grip on his wrist. Nearly jumping out of his skin, Lykos looks up at the hulking figure of a man next to him: the owner of the bakery, a scarred man that seems like he should be on the frontlines, instead of baking delicious bread.

“I let you go earlier today, and you’re still trying to rob me? Do you know how expensive wheat is in this wasteland?”

“I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!” Lykos pleads, putting use his innocent visage to appear harmless. There was no hope. Lykos knows he can’t escape the man’s grip.

“Nope, not falling for that again. I know that as long as you live the way you are now, you’ll keep on stealing, so-”

“I won’t. I promise! This is the last time!”

“Ok, I get it, so just listen to me for a second.”

Lykos shuts up, allowing the man to talk.

The owner takes a deep breath to collect his thoughts, softening his expression.

“My wife and I want to adopt you and your sister.”