Prologue

There are but two constants in existence.

One of these constants is life, the beginning, the assurance that despite what may come, there will always be something after. Which leads us to our next constant.

The end.

Everything comes to end one way or another, be it life, love, safety. None of these things last forever nor should they. Despite what one has done in life, be it good or bad, be they a saint or a sinner, sooner or later, it will all come to a close for them.

This cycle will continue until it is broken.

You will the one to break this cycle.

Imagine having power, power beyond your wildest dreams, and yet, no reasoning behind why you have it. Many love you for your power, drawn lustfully toward it like moths to an open flame. Others loathe you for your power, seeking your destruction simply because your power outmatches theirs, or to prove that it does not.

And yet, you have yet to find purpose.

Others teach you how to cultivate your power, how to control it, and make it work for you.

And yet, you have yet to find purpose.

You gain the adoration of others, they see you as their future, a shining beacon of progress.

And yet, you have yet to find purpose.

You work tirelessly with your power, intent on making it the best it could possibly be, and more.

Others respect you, as they should.

You push the boundaries of all your kind knows, intent on knowing more, gaining more, becoming more powerful with each growing second. Giving them everything they asked of you and then some.

Your kind grows fearful.

You ignore their pleas for restraint, you ignore them to the point where lives are taken in your quest for more.

And then,

The love turns to envy,

They hate you now,

They all hate you,

They hate your power.

They force you out, and your hate begins to grow, you hate, and hate and hate them for shunning you when you should be a king amongst them.

A God amongst them.

You find your purpose,

You must have more,

You must show them how wrong they are.

You must have more power.

You discard their teachings, nothing but the lies of senile old reptiles.

Meant to hold you back.

You tap into all the power within you until it fills your mind, permeates your body, and envelops your very soul.

You want more.

You raise an army to lay low those who would see you destroyed.

You fight.

You lose.

You are locked away,

Your body is trapped, but your mind still remains.

Your power still churns within you.

You reach out with your power.

You find more puppets, using your power to warp minds and bodies.

You make them hunt for the one meant to stop you

Millions perish in your name.

That is of no consequence.

Your finest puppet frees you, despite the best efforts of many to keep you sealed.

You return, and swear that you will finish what you started.

Your wrath falls upon the land with all the power at your command ready to send your enemies into oblivion.

You raise an army once more, ready for anything those worthless creatures will throw at you.

You fight, thousands more perish.

But it is not meant to be.

There is one like you, one who possesses the same power as you and yet too weak to understand your true purpose.

You were meant to rule these hapless mortals, to rule this world and all of the worlds beyond the skies. And yet this one, foolish individual has the audacity to defy you.

You knew of him from the very beginning, and attempted to kill him before he was even born.

Against all odds, he survived.

He stopped you from being freed once.

He freed one your of your puppets.

He very nearly stopped you from being freed again.

You thought him dead when he had failed.

He was not.

Your armies find him alongside your freed puppet, and again you try to kill both him and your rebellious slave.

They escape.

You send your armies after them, intent on wiping them and their allies off the face of this of this planet, you awaken a being capable of destroying worlds, intent on restarting history with yourself as god of this world.

They raise an army of their own, strong enough to push through your own forces and allow them a chance to fight you directly.

Your former slave resists your influence.

Despite all of your power, your knowledge, your will, they defeat you.

Two insects fell a god.

That will not stand.

In a final, enraged attempt on their lives, you attempt to rend the very world apart, if you cannot have it, none will.

But, somehow… the little 'hero' overpowers you, preventing the world's destruction, but leaving him too weakened to kill you. Instead, you are locked deep within the planet by the two, leaving your body in an impenetrable prison. Unable to die, but not alive either.

Three years pass and your mind and soul are left to wander, you cannot leave this time.

Your body is gone.

But your mind,

Your soul,

Your power still remains.

But your armies have fallen, those still loyal to you scattered, and but one final puppet on the planet, returned to life for his usefulness.

You do not like your chances.

For those three years you plot, you search, stretching your consciousness across the planet in a vain attempt to find something, anything to gain an advantage. But none are powerful enough to free you from this prison.

But then, you find something.

A whisper, a trace of power not belonging to you or your hated enemy, but similiar, very, very similar.

And to your surprise, the trail leads to the stars.

You expend much of your power to follow it, hoping to find a new source of power to draw on.

You find one, and much, much more.

You find a race similar to your last army, and yet so very different, more intelligent, more advanced than any in your world.

You watch them, studying their strengths and weaknesses.

You watch their history and discover why trail lead here.

How very… interesting.

Pride, lust, greed, wrath, gluttony, sloth, envy.

They show it all.

They will do nicely.

You whisper in the ears of many, many fall under your control.

After some time, you find some unlike the others.

A dormant power, not used or needed for many centuries, yet still present, and very familiar.

Some members of this race are born with a closer connection to this power, they are not able to be controlled.

But they are strong.

Strong enough to resist.

Strong enough to serve as a replacement.

You send a wisp of your power, tainted by you into the two of them with the strongest connection to the power.

You strike a bargain with one most likely to accept, and observe the other, not ideal, but good enough.

You make plans to enslave this world as you will your own.

Your plans are laid,

You need simply wait as plans are put into motion.

You are now ready, your strongest champion now heeds your call.

They both must be brought here.

Your enemy has grown stronger in your absence, but so have those under your control.

You will return

You will show them why you are not to be trifled with.

You will wipe those worthless, disgusting race of dragons off the face of the planet

Artisan will be yours, just as Earth will soon be.

But first, you must leave this accursed prison.

First, you must see your hated enemy stripped of all he loves and killed, slowly, horribly, and in every way he knows pain.

Your name is Malefor.

And you will be free once more.

1/26/21

Re-wrote the prologue to be a bit-more substantial and a little less cringy. Also made it a little more lore-heavy. Been a while, worked on lore and plot points. Will hopefully update story soon.