Chapter 8: Tale of the Forgotten Past
Luz had her eyes fixed on man right in front of her.
His face was placid, without trace of negative emotions. But the teen girl felt anxious he was looking at her.
"Greetings, young miss. I guess your first question is, 'who are you'. So I thought I'd introduce myself." He extended his hand. "I'm Master Dion Craftsbolt. The former head of the Stealthed Wyvern Clan, and a member of the Council of Four."
"And I'm still Luz." Luz said, shaking his hand. "Luz Noceda."
"I know." Dion replied, giving her a kind smile. "Your identity is quite familiar to me."
"Ho-"
"I have my sources and a cracking research team." he said, answering Luz's question before it was done being asked.
This situation just keep getting weirder and weirder. Luz could think of nothing to say that would be the right words. A turbulence of questions have been going through her head... but she couldn't bring herself to speak up.
"Have a seat, won't you?"
Elegant glass trestle table, that had definitely not been there a moment ago now sat on the carpet to the side of them, surrounded by two identical ornately carved chairs.
Luz followed the man, mostly because she was still too stunned to do otherwise, and slowly sunk down into the offered chair.
Dion sat down on the other side of the desk. He tapped fingers three times on the tambourine and a tea set along with plate of cakes appeared. He poured a cup for Luz and himself, and then folded his hands on the desk.
"I have one question." Luz got her voice back, "Um, well, actually, not just one, I have all of them. I have all the questions."
An imperceptible smile hovers around Dion's lips. "I will answer all your questions, provided that you first heard a little tale."
"I like stories."
"Good. I'm glad to hear it." he told her, staring down at her seriously. "You see young miss. There have been many stories and legends since the dawn of time, this story is different than the rest. This is a story of a two worlds, its inhabitants, and the sacrifices of people who were prepared to "do anything" to save their realms, but not from a selfish Emperor, but from a foe much bigger than that."
Luz just looking at him.
"Let's start from the beginning." Dion said as he began to spin his tambourine, creating a large astral image of what appeared to be the known universe.
Luz's eyes widened, and her jaw practically dropped.
"The Universe is the set of realms, extending through time and exist together in the same universe and time, but they are separated by various seventeen dimensions."
Dion began to tell the story. His voice was somewhat echo-y now, whilst at the same time lovingly clear and wise-sounding.
"Each realm is different, each one unique. But magic is what distinguishes some of these realms. The realm, now known as the Demon Realm, is one of the most magical and amazing one in the universe. And it's all thanks to the incredible history of the world.
In the ancient past of the Demon Realm, the whole world belonged to the Titans. They were a colossal species with great power."
Luz watched astral image of the universe turned into a whole other area. Now she and Dion were on the edge of a cliff, while a large mountain loomed over them from behind. She stared down at the wide, expansive sea that seemed to stretch for miles in front of them. A figures like giants, darting in the direction of the cliff.
And then Luz realized the mountain was actually a living creature with wings and horned skull for a head.
"Although a powerful race, the titans endured a mass extermination by an unknown force. They died one after another."
The magic projection of Titans were slowly blown away like dust.
"And with the fall of the last Titan, they mystery force disappeared without explanation. Great life had just vanished. But as they say - every end is the start of something new."
The Boiling Isles appeared before their eyes.
"This time was the same. The Boiling Isles, born from the flesh and bones of a fallen Titan. His original magic was so potent, all life on the Isles evolved to wield magic too. It was the first but not the last of the wonders of Titan's magic.
A few centuries later the Rift was created, connecting the Demon Realm with the other realm. The Human Realm.
The humans differed from the Isles population in language, religion, housing, social organization and the magic they used.
The magic from human world was wild and primary. Almost as old as the stars themselves. Traveled among a power network called the Ley lines. The sorcerers and enchantress from human realm drew their power from that lines to cast their own spells.
Humans and witches were so very much opposites. However, fate brought them together. And two worlds intermingled and complemented one another in many way.
They had to learn to live together.
The beginnings were difficult. Full of challenges.
They had a quarrel, but with time things started to go well.
People from both realms coexisted peacefully for generations, learning from each other, helping one another, discover new secrets of magic. Together.
The future was rich with promise.
Everything has changed when man called Belos arrived and declared himself the Titan's chosen."
Luz shuddered a little when she saw a magic projection of Belos.
Taller than she expected with the aura of delicate gloom and corruption. He wore a mask with two long, upward-facing horns that made his eyes appear hollow with creppy glowing blue pupils, wearing a large cape with white and brown, as well as gold trim.
"He also declared the current way of magic use was wrong and that his way, the way of order was only right.
He claimed that he could talk to Titan, who trusted him with the secrets of the magic and Ley lines.
He promised he'd lead people into a new era of magic. Because the Titan had a plan for both realms.
Many people considered him insane and greedy of power. But there were also some who believed him and join his new cult.
How he grow in strength and expanded his control of some parts both realms, some certain events became inevitable.
People have begun to question their faith in many things.
Witches and demons wanted to believe that the Titan wants to give them era of new magic.
As the years went by... the hope and expectation for a wonderful tomorrow, endeared more people to Belos and effectively give him resources to fulfill the Titan's will.
But it all was a lie from the beginning...
The voices Belos heard weren't Titan's will. Whatever it was... Well, it was evil, diabolical.
When Belos got mission from them and started it, the price to pay for it was not known yet, either in human world or demon world, so he listened to voices without prejudice, just doing everything to achieve the goal.
Those who were seduced by Belos built an interdimensional magical gateway to a place outside our universe. The Forge of Zvezda.
Belos sacrifices a hundred lives to open the gate for short moment. Less than one minute. Still...The results of this act were catastrophic."
Luz watched in horror as the magical projection turned into the most horrific image.
The clear blue sky above people started to turn dark red, the sun suddenly disappeared out of nowhere and the forest and grass eroded into a harden, cracked ground.
And then a huge X had appeared in the sky and some kind of red energy tentacles emerged from it.
Women, men and children crying out in pain or fleeing for their own lives, while the tentacles caught up with them and drained as many as they could.
Luz shut her eyes to prevent any tears falling down.
"During their attempting escape Eldritch Abominations killed thousands of people. The Titan's magic and Ley lines has been contaminated with devastating essence, later called the Void's gist."
The ley lines shimmered with new disturbing colors in the sky above them, whereas the Boiling Isles was ranked with lots of sharp spikes of black-red rocks.
"One could think that Belos will have seen the truth about the voices. Instead, he was was delighted with the effects. And he's sworn to free those who whispered in his ear. Eldritch Abominations make him actually believe he was the chosen one. And our realms will belong to him.
He was arrogant, he was entitled, he thought he could rule everything and everyone. And from that day, the Crimson Sky Day, he called himself Emperor Belos.
People from both realms understood that they had to stop him. They all united under one banner.
And so began the Great War of the Worlds.
The war was bitter.
Though Belos was outnumbered, he had very strong people on his side and had amassed hordes of objects filled with contaminated magic. He used corrupted magic and the voices' knowledge of it to create a tool which lets him bestow a corrupted version of some super magic mode on his troops. He was able to kill many humans and witches before they were able to properly defend themselves.
The fight lasted a long time. It characterized by an endless cycle of reversals for domination back and forth between the two sides.
As the years went by... Belos fell deeper and deeper into his madness. He was making monsters, experimented on all kind of beings, and meddling with powers he couldn't have possibly comprehend.
That man and his madness slowly poisoning and destroying our worlds.
It appeared that nothing was able to stop Belos.
And then, one day, greatests of us all - Morgan Le Fay the Enchantress of Shadows, Merlin Aurelianus Wizard of Camelot and Philomena Stafia the Witch of Souls, made a bold and risky plan to save their realms.
They lured Belos and his army on Avalon in the human world, where, with the help of the Dragon Twins; Ran and Shaw they cast a spell to call forth fire from the pits of Hell.
The Hellfire killed Belos' mutants, believers and all supporters. Belos, however, managed to survive.
Ran and Shaw, the biggest wild dragons of their time, throw themselves on him to protect their allies.
It was futile, for when Belos attacked, he was unstoppable, dodging attacks easily and even killing dragons.
Realizing they were doomed, Merlin used what power he had left to send Morgan Le Fay back to the Boiling Isles.
After that, Philomena committed herself to trying to destroy Belos as he attacked Merlin. She converted every part of the matter making up her being into pure energy, causing an explosion that destroyed everything in a radius of 300 miles. And then sending magic wave through every corner of two worlds.
The magic of Boiling Isles and Ley lines has been purified of devastating essence.
The energy released from Philomena's work of magic forever altered the connection between our realms, separating the two worlds by rise Magical Veil which literally be physical barrier for every being and magic energy.
The war was over.
However, the victory over Belos was bittersweet. The Eldritch Abominations lost a servant, that could free them from the prison.
And both realms were again safe.
Philomena and Merlin died a hero's death. Morgan Le Fay was trapped in the Boiling Isles, deprived of her magic power. And our realms were separated from each other by the Veil."
Dion stopped talking for a moment, overcome by this last sentence, then went on in a softer tone of voice.
"After some time the inhabitants of both realms started to rebuild their worlds.
In the post-war years, things slowly returned to normal, allowing the people from the Boiling Isles to continue lifestyle they lead before the war.
However, in the human world, a lot has changed.
After the war... most of humanity have lost all confidence in magic and stopped using it.
As time passed the relationship between humankind and the magical community in human world became more and more dark as the two groups separated from each other.
Some people slowly began to perceive magic users and magical community as a threat to the world safety. These types of people main goal was to get rid of all magical creatures by any means necessary.
Over the years, the magic in Human Realm was drained off. Magic continued to fade as cities were constructed. Over the ley lines and technology began to advance and finaly the Ley lines disappeared.
The human race have lost their magic and soon after sorcerers and enchantress died out along with the magical community.
The very little magic that left hidden into artifacts. Yet, no one from human world knew about their hidden magic power.
The Great War has been forgotten. Magic and everything related to it... became a fairy tales and myths.
And humankind, without any proof that the era of magic existed, embraced science."
The magical projection split into two images: Left shows Luz how the Boiling Isles has been changing throughout the years. Right shows the development of civilization and how people gradually forgot about magic.
Dion continued his story. "For a long time it looked as if our realms will never meet again. But cracks have begun to open in the Veil."
The magical projection showed a swirling portal for emphasis.
"Doorways through which magic and beings can cross between worlds. Titan's magic started leaking from demon world into another. And this magic energy from the Boiling Isles activated the power of artifacts. Causing any number of unpleasant incidents in both realms."
The projection began to shift as the artifacts and what they've done appeared all over the space around Luz and Dion.
"Morgan Le Fay was in a twilight of her life when she understood that a human world was not ready for return of magic and two realms needs someone to guarding the Veil between them.
She gathered a group of like minded philanthropists, adventurers, warriors and historians, and founded the Order of the Keepers practically overnight.
Since that day, the Keepers act as the protectors of magic, and all beings which use it as well as the innocent humans, recover special magic items and tomes, and most importantly - guarding a secret of magic realm."
Dion snapped his fingers as the projection vanished.
"A great secret which you discovered."
The silence that came after that was deafening and eerie.
Author Notes:
Let me know what you thought?