Eliza Fullmoon stared at the old fortress. It looked inconspicuous enough. The charms around it would have had most regular humans just wander away. They never would have been the wiser. She knew better. Her power as a Hero allowed her to see it all too clearly. It was an affront to the Order. A haven of mamono. To that end, it should be destroyed. However, she had lost the will to enjoy such destruction years ago. To her, there was nothing but duty. It was her duty to protect the Order. To destroy the mamono threat. To kill humans who would get in her way and side with said mamono. Again and again. The same old thing. She was sick of it.

Yet she kept going. As a Hero, she had no choice. Even with all of her power, she was more of a prisoner than ever. She would die if she stepped down. She was fine with that until she thought about her daughter. No. She would not leave her little Sasha. She was all she had left in this world. All she had left of her beloved. She just wanted to scoop her daughter in her arms at that moment and forget about this war. To stroke her green hair so much like her father's.

That was a dream. She would go forth and kill like she had done hundreds of times before. She prepared herself for the coming battle. Even though mamono did not like killing, that didn't mean they would if it came down to nothing else working. That and their human 'allies' were certainly capable of killing. She had to be careful.

She and her soldiers were on foot. She didn't need a horse for this venture. She was close enough to the castle to quickly make her way inside without being stopped. So they would make a run for it. She would have smirked when she was younger. As a Hero, she had many advantages normal people didn't have. So a barrier like this was child's play.

She raised her sword. A moment of hesitation hit her. The moment she struck the shield, the battle would begin. Lives would be lost and it would be her fault. That moment was fleeting at best. She had long since buried any apprehension about doing her duty. Magic sprung forth from her sword as she thrust it down. The sword's magic cleanly cutting through the magical shield like butter. The shield fell to pieces with one strike.

Eliza could hear shouting from inside. She easily deflected an arrow with a swipe of her sword. She had their full attention now. She could see several archers line up on the top level, pulling at their bow strings. She couldn't have any of that. A simple spell was in order. Her sword started to glow as energy collected around it. The Hero, with one swing, cut through the air. Her sword released a cutting swath of energy that sliced through the castle's level, killing several mercenaries.

She turned to her soldiers, "With me, soldiers of the Order!"

The soldiers behind her shouted in jubilation. They were with a Hero. No way they could fail. That was what she knew they were thinking. She'd let them. Heroes didn't always win but normal people needed hope more than most. The group charged towards the gate with her in the forefront. It only took her a few seconds to reach it and when she did, two strikes of her sword cut it down. It fell to pieces as she surged inside.

Two mercenaries stared at her in confusion. The attack had only just begun so they hadn't been expecting anyone to just barge in seconds later. She didn't give them any chance to attack. She sped by them faster than they could blink and turned around. Her sword sung as it swept through the air, effortlessly cutting the two mercs in half. She turned around and ran before the bodies even hit the floor.

A merc had been turning the corner as she ran. Her head fell to the floor before she could even blink as Eliza's sword decapitated her. The Hero stopped the moment she turned the corner herself. A group of mercenaries with tall shields stood there. They gasped and quickly got into formation. Their shields were lowered and their spears pointed forward in an attempt on the Turtle Formation. It would have been effective at keeping people away.

Eliza was not like most. She was a Hero. Without missing a beat, she rushed them in quick succession. The Hero was almost too quick for the eye to process and the mercenaries didn't have much time to respond. She got close and ducked under the spears. With a heave of her sword, she cleaved through the shields and the legs of her opponents. They fell to the ground, crying out in pain. She quickly silenced the lot with well placed strikes. The hallway was already filling up with their blood but she paid that no mind.

She quickly moved her head as a fireball whizzed by it. She turned her eyes to see a purple robe wearing woman, obviously a mage. The mage was cackling as energy pooled around her fingers.

"Time to meet your doom, Hero!" With that, she fired a large ball of energy. Too big for her to dodge.

So she didn't. The mage cackled as the magical ball smashed into the Hero. They were expecting to see them being blown to bits like all the other times she had used the spell. This was the first time she had fought a Hero but the mage believed she was strong enough to take one. She gasped and took a step backwards. Her eyes widening. The Hero was still standing, perfectly alright.

The mage could see energy pooling around the Hero's sword. She had to finish this now before the Hero did anything. She quickly fired off a barrage of energy blasts, hoping to take down the Hero here and now.

The Hero cut the first several down with her sword before taking a step forward. The second step sped her past the mage. Normally mages and Heroes have magical barriers to protect them from attacks. Its why they didn't always wear full armor since they had a much better way to protect their bodies. However, you could break it down just like everything else. The Hero's sword had cleaved right through that barrier and the mage's waist as well. The mage started to slide.

However just as quickly, the Hero did not stop her momentum. She used the rest of her energy to fire another slicing barrage of magic from her sword like she had done to the archers. The mercs running through the hall towards her had not time to react as they were all cleaved in half by the magic. All of that had happened in a second if not two.

The Hero paused for a moment as she listened to the bodies hit the floor. Already she had claimed more than a dozen lives. Their blood pooling around them. The sight didn't sicken her anymore but still her heart felt such pain. She kept going. This was for the Order. This was for Humanity. She had to keep going.


"They're coming from the West Wing!" A Witch screamed in panic as she floated near the window. She hadn't been paying attention so when the bolt came flying in, she didn't dodge. It struck her in the side of her chest, piercing her heart. She fell to the ground in a dead heap. The rest of the Witches screamed in panic.

"Fucking damnit," the mercenary captain cried out in anger. He had been laying down in his bed with his wife and now this had happened. "Stay away from the windows, you idiots!"

"Dear," his wife spoke up, "Try to be a bit less harsh with them."

"I'm trying to keep them alive," he gestured to the dead Witch, "Kinda failing at that right now."

The most agitating thing about protecting mamono was that they refused to kill. At least, for the most part. You could get them to kill in some respects. If they had no other way out of a situation. If you threatened their mate or child in any way. There were ways but right now, they were scared and needed protecting. He looked to his wife. She could kill if she followed him. Since she was protecting him and he her, they could cut a swath through the enemy. However, his eyes trailed down to her belly.

"Get out of here," he said to her, "Now."

"But the project-"

"Forget about the project!" He shouted and unsheathed his two swords, "I'll go get it. You girls get out of here. I got some goons in the Northern sector. They should still be there. Go find them and they'll get you out of here."

"I will not leave you," his wife shouted, tears forming in her eyes. "I can fight too."

"Not with a baby on board," he said. He pulled her into a kiss, knowing full well it might be the last. He pulled back as he watched her cry, "Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it. I won't do anything stupid, okay?"

She hiccuped and hugged him, "I love you."

He hugged her back, "I love you too." Then he pushed her away, "Now get going. You don't have much time."

The other Witches started to flying off on their brooms or run for those that didn't have one. A couple helped push his wife along as she tearily looked back at him. The sight pulled at his heartstrings. A part of him wanted to go with them but he couldn't leave. Someone needed to get the project or that bitch of a boss wouldn't let them live that down. Of course if it was just that, he would have ran. Really though, someone needed to offer a distraction. He could do that just fine. He'd rally the rest of his goons and cut through these Order morons. They'd focus on him and not on the running mamono.

A couple of mercenaries ran in from the opposite direction of the fleeing Witches, "Sir," one of them spoke, "They're completely gutting us."

"Then we've got to do the same to them," he said, "Rally up the rest of you lot that you can muster. We'll go grab the egg and get out of here."

"They've already got some troops blocking that way," the mercenary said.

He scowled and cursed under his breath, "Guess we'll do it the hard way. Just so long as you keep their attention on us, we'll be good."

"They've got a Hero with them," the other said in a panic.

His heart froze. A Hero? The super soldiers of the Order. You didn't want to cross them. Some of them were said to be strong enough to take on armies by their lonesome. Not even mamono wanted to tangle with them, for the most part. If they had a Hero, that meant they could reach the Witches if left unchecked. He gripped his swords tiger.

"We'll deal with them too," he said with determination, "We'll drive them back. We've got some tricks of our own."

He knew they probably wouldn't work. They hadn't come here expecting a Hero but they would have to make do. They always did. He marched forward, trying to keep his own tears away. He hoped… He hoped his daughter would grow up happy without him since he didn't see a way out of this. Running still wasn't an option. Not with a Hero on their tail. He'd have to make for a convincing adversary.


War and battle was her domain. As the goddess of such things, Ares took her position extremely seriously. She had to. It was a constant job to keep things from spiralling out of control. In previous eras, she had to watch as those she favored fought and died in such gruesome manners in all sorts of wars. She had hated her job just as other gods had at the time. The Chief God had ran them like a well oiled machine. Not even the replacement did her any better.

She had to use her gifts for killing and that riled her up something fierce. She had gladly thrown her lot in with the mamono, even if that wasn't official. She still gave boons for the Order territories that worshiped her as well as other parts of the world. She didn't care who spoke to her. She would answer all of their prayers.

Of course, her new job was to curb a lot of the violence happening in the world. She couldn't stop all death and killing. That was impossible even for her. However, she could stop a lot of that from happening by dampening those instincts and aspects of combat. Now people were less inclined to kill and more inclined to just beat each other around for a while. Which worked out well for her. She'd get the best of all things. Well that and her daily peeping sessions on some followers but she kept that to herself. She was not a pervert!

However, right now she was furious and confused. There were followers of hers fighting right now. They had her name on their lips yet she could not reach them. She knew they were there. She knew there was a battle going on and yet for some reason, it was out of her reach. It was as if that place was a deadzone. There weren't any mamono around to check it out or stop it. Not close enough to do anything before it was over. So she was blind on the going's on inside it.

It confused her. It infuriated her. Right now people were killing each other and she couldn't stop it. They were going at like like the ages before. Something she hadn't felt in centuries. Yet it was like someone was stopping her.

"What is going on down there?" She muttered to herself. She started to pace in her domain, "Why won't this work? I should be able to affect these people. To stop them from so needlessly killing each other. Yet they continue. I can't do anything. How is this possible? The only way that could happen is…"

Her eyes widened and she stared at the scene intensely, "Is if some god had blocked me from doing anything. But why would they…?"

There were few that would do such a thing. The Chief God was still injured and even then, she couldn't interfere with the going's on of the war god. As much as they disliked each other, Ares could not hate the new Chief God. A goddess forced to do this damnable cycle by their predecessor.

No, it had to be one of their own. Someone on the inside. That was the only way it could effect a daemon realm. Yet who? Poseidon and the others were on the same page. They couldn't and wouldn't do such a thing to her because they all agreed such needless bloodshed was a bad thing. Besides, they all got along. The only one who didn't was….

Her eyes widened, "No… no she wouldn't." She started to shake in anger.

There was only one being with the sheer power to keep her out of somewhere with ease. One being who she hated. One being who worked for herself and not with any of the other gods. Her fury started to explode and not in centuries had she wanted to murder someone as much as she did now.

"Fallen!" She shouted in fury, "If this is your doing, I swear I will rip you apart."

With that said, she rushed out of her domain. It would be too late for the mortals, but she would confront that Fallen God if it was the last thing she did. They would have words.


Well the prologue has been longer then I initially planned it to be but no worries. It's pretty fun to write. I hope you are all enjoying this so far and please leave a comment. I'd love to know your thoughts on this story and such and I'll take any and all words said into consideration. I hope you are all doing well and take care of yourselves. Until next time.