Universal Chapter 1: The Dark Undercurrents
A/N: This Chapter can safely be skipped. However, if you so wish, after Kisekino has progressed further you can attempt to foreshadow what will happen next in my Maple Story tale.
(The following are several excerpts from The Book of Foresight, a short but important historical text discovered in The 334th Year, Neo Maple Era [N.M. 334]
Two hundred odd years later, historians are still grappling with the many schools, variations and intepretations of the cryptic text)
It was a legend spread through the lands of Victoria
That come one day the Earth will experience the worst of humanity
Experience it did, ho, it one that withered all but the most resilient and sturdy
Through the experience the Upper Conscious have reason to believe
That it was the final lesson for all mortal beings who walk, glide or swim
Alas, it was not to be the final tale
The Upper Conscious' plans for humanity as a greater race has fallen apart
As the mortals began recovering slowly, an Upper Conscious developed deviances
One such deviance, in itself the antithesis of all other Upper Conscious
Hell no match for this Upper Conscious, neither was Heaven able enough.
The deviant, renouncing his identity and calling itself the Real One
Fought with Hell, Heaven and all Upper Conscious for twenty harrowing years
The Twenty Long Years were a misery for the Upper Conscious and the mortals
For day and night interchanged at such irregular intervals that there were no longer any clear distinction
The angels of lore and the harbringers of death found themselves unlikely allies
As they sought to destroy the Real One and seal him into the space only known as Limbo
Eventually, all dust had settled
The Upper Conscious have sealed the Deviant into Limbo
It was Pyrrhic, as was the grand tale of a lost king
Heaven and Hell were not merely in disarray; they were completely non-functional
As such, mortals could not die and enter the Wheels of Reincarnation
The mortal was in grand danger of becoming a sphere of undead
As the secrets of Creation were sealed by the hibernating True Conscious
In desperation, the Upper Conscious decreed
In order to restore Heaven and Hell, mortals shall be granted closer access to their very side
A new, conscious balance tweaked for the Wheels of Reincarnation to rotate
Thus began a new age of magic once dominated by the Enlightened People under the Earth
***
The Upper Conscious had feared for the day
When mortals unlearn their lessons once again
Heaven and Hell, however, were not in participation of such fear
Heaven had too much to do; Hell was practically empty
By Lucifer, Hell cried, bring us more men
The Fallen Archangel Lucifer responded magnificently
As the Fake Angel planted, sowed, sprayed and soaked mortals once more
Into the furious tendrils of conflicts
Conflicts that turn into scuffles, scuffles which turn into battles
Eventually, battles that turn into wars
Two hundred glorious, magnificent years of human work thus ended spectacularly
As the lands of Kerning play host to deviants of the land who know half of magic
Along with the worst of human creations - Weapons
Kerning, a parcel of Victoria that was part of an ancient West
Deserts in the North, beaches in the South
And the hotbed of a hundred different armies
Amongst these armies, two eventually stood out
One which was intelligent, and the other which was passionate
Wars were fought as armies sought to establish their might across Victoria
It was eventually won by the one with a pristine aquamarine and a clear head for intelligence
However, it was not before they engaged their bitter, passionate nemesis of a bright crimson
With prices to pay that were beyond the measure of Hell and Heaven
The Enlightened People were thus seperated into four disciplines.
The Isolated Ones lived on in the North, undeterred by the Heat of Perion and determined never to interfere
The Original Enlightened, magical wards living in the Far East of Victoria known as the Forests of Ellinia
The Established Righteous, who sought, bore and became a beacon of courage and valor in the South
The Corrupt Immoral, who were passionately against The Righteous and subjected to the worst of desires
However, merely half a century would be enough to blur all the lines
As humans began to debate amongst themselves the necessity for such distinctions.
Eventually they would create such a tool that all but destroyed the differences
One which they call "The Grand Chamber of Information"...
Strange as it was, such a chamber was not entirely physical
It was a replica of humanity's true finesse - and deviance, as unfortunate as it was
While it promoted the exchange of ideas, it banded extremists together
Yet the real controllers were not truly extremists, but talented, selfish individuals.
The Upper Conscious cried as they watched their work unravel
Half a millenia of hard work all gone for nought
Despair, however, They did not
As Heaven, Hell and all the Upper Conscious injected into humanity their Final Question
"Do they require our help in order to achieve true consciousness once again?"
This Final Question, the Upper Conscious decreed amongst themselves
Will never occur again if humanity and the mortal world proved their existences can be mutual
Yet, They have clearly forgotten their own lessons
Residing in the null space of Limbo was the Deviant of old...