Chapter One: The Beginning of Torment
In a world divided into five kingdoms, there was a vast kingdom called Sarab, where humanity was split between a privileged noble class living in luxury and a poor class drowning in corruption, poverty, and oppression. In this kingdom, rare stones were discovered, capable of being fused with metal to forge powerful weapons. These stones bestowed extraordinary abilities, but their nature and connection to the element of light remained a mystery during this era.
In the heart of Sarab, the Church emerged as an indirect authority controlling the kingdom. It did not rule openly but imposed its decrees on everyone, punishing any dissent—even the king was not exempt—under the pretense of serving the divine. Yet, the Church's true nature was far darker: it was deeply invested in forbidden demonic magic, a practice few believed in, involving the summoning of demonic spirits.
Beneath the Church lay a secret lair, built centuries ago, where dark rituals were conducted every seven years during a lunar eclipse. During these rituals, orphaned and impoverished children were kidnapped, taken into the depths, and forced to endure horrifying experiments. A sacred tree, heavily guarded, grew in this lair. On the night of the rituals, the children were fed its strange fruits. Those without strong willpower perished, while only a rare few survived, gaining immense yet cursed power.
My name is Akuma. I was born into this distorted world in one of the slums. At the age of four, I lived with my sick mother and my father, a humble blacksmith who struggled daily to provide for us. My father did everything in his power to find a cure for my mother, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. The nobles scorned him, and even the Church turned him away, refusing to aid mere commoners.
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One night, tragedy struck. My mother passed away before my eyes, leaving my father to care for me alone. He did his best, and we shared a deep bond. We would go fishing together in the river to find moments of peace. But the true calamity came on a rainy night when two men from the Church broke into our home. My father fought to protect me with all his might but was killed with just two strikes from their swords, adorned with the rare stones. I had no choice but to surrender and was taken away.
This marked the beginning of my journey through hell. I was forced to learn their demonic teachings and endure their cruelty. They trained me in the art of torture and execution and starved me for months if I failed to obey. I saw children like me who could not survive these brutal conditions, and many of them perished.
By the time I turned thirteen, the night of the grand ritual arrived. During the lunar eclipse, we were taken to a chamber in the dark lair beneath the Church, bound and blindfolded. The priests fed us fruits from the sacred tree to see who would survive. Every single child succumbed to the fruit’s power, leaving only me alive and astonished. Something inside me had changed. I felt no fear—only a strange energy coursing through me, radiating a deadly aura. The priests were astounded by my survival, believing I was the only one with the willpower to endure the demonic magic.
They returned me to my cell, but during the chaos of a sudden explosion in the lair, the guards were distracted, and I escaped. While fleeing, I encountered a figure who appeared to be a member of the Church. He told me to follow him. We moved through hidden pathways until he revealed a glowing white light from his hand, which obliterated a wall in front of us. He then guided me to an escape route—a tunnel running through the kingdom’s sewers.
Before departing, he looked at me and said, “This is your chance. Leave now and never return, no matter what.”
From that moment, my journey began—not just to escape my dark past but to find a purpose for my life.