The shimmering white light that engulfed us as we stepped through the Gateway of Drazul faded slowly, revealing the vast horizon of an alien world. The moment our boots touched the ash-strewn soil of Dezivileous, a foreboding silence fell upon our group. The air was unnaturally still, yet charged with an energy so dense it pressed against our bodies like invisible chains. A blood-red sky stretched over a cracked landscape of jagged obsidian peaks, lifeless plains, and glowing rivers of blue fire that ran like veins through the crust.
"This place…" Yuna muttered, dismounting her dragon, whose wings folded with an uneasy snort. "It reeks of something ancient… something sacred."
Mazelein stepped beside me, his gaze scanning the horizon. "Sacred, or cursed."
There was no sun. No moon. Only the ever-present haze of crimson, dimly lighting the landscape in a perpetual twilight. The wind carried whispers—ancient voices speaking in broken tongues, echoing across the plains like ghosts clinging to memories.
Phiona knelt and touched the ground. "This isn't just another world," she said. "This is a domain torn between life and death. Between gods… and devils."
Suddenly, the sky began to fracture.
We all turned upward, stunned. The red clouds twisted and split apart, revealing two colossal figures descending from beyond the void. One blazed with a radiant light, a being of immeasurable grace whose wings shone like polished ivory. The other bled shadows, a monstrous silhouette of horns and void, his presence suffocating the atmosphere.
God and Devil. The true primordial forces. They had appeared not as metaphors, but as reality.
Their voices thundered into our minds—not our ears.
"You dare enter Dezivileous?" boomed the God's voice, shaking the very ground.
"Fools bearing stones of fate… Let your insolence be judged," the Devil hissed, his words laced with venom and echoing in the core of our souls.
Yugia, trembling, raised her blade. "We're not here to defy you… We only seek the balance!"
But before her words could echo a second time, a blinding beam of golden light shot from the God's palm, searing through the air. Phiona pushed Yugia aside, only to be engulfed by the divine flame. She didn't scream—her form turned to light and scattered into dust.
"Phiona!" Yugia cried, but a wave of shadow from the Devil came next, consuming her in a tide of black fire.
Mizelein roared and charged forward, Soul Saber ablaze, swinging at the divine entities with all his might. But the God barely blinked. With a flick of his finger, a celestial chain burst forth and wrapped around Mizelein, snapping his bones in the blink of an eye. He crumpled to the ground, unmoving.
Yuna's dragon tried to ascend, breathing celestial fire, but the Devil sent a wave of rot through the sky. The beast screeched as its wings dissolved mid-flight, crashing into a nearby cliff. Yuna leapt from its back and conjured a shield of lunar energy—but it shattered under a divine thunderbolt.
One by one, my comrades fell.
And then, I too was struck.
The combined gaze of God and Devil fell upon me—Chrizer, the bearer of Relligus, the wielder of the burning crimson stone. Their powers fused into a vortex of death, and I was swallowed whole. My body shattered. My consciousness drifted into void.
Dead.
Everything went black.
But blackness didn't last.
From the deepest abyss, I heard a pulse. A heartbeat. Not mine—but of something ancient, something buried within me.
The Dark Stone. Sallitus.
Its whispers coiled around my shattered soul.
"You are not done, bearer. Your journey has just begun."
In an explosion of shadow and flame, my body reformed. The crimson blaze of Relligus merged with the obsidian void of Sallitus, and I arose—not as merely Chrizer, but as something reborn. A hybrid of light and dark. Vessel of two opposing forces.
The blackened sky trembled.
Around me, the bodies of my fallen companions lay silent. But the stone pulsed again—radiating energy outward like a shockwave of defiance.
The ground cracked beneath me. Streams of glowing shadow and light wove through the battlefield, circling each of my fallen friends. First Mizelein, then Yuna, Phiona, Yugia, even the dragon—each was enveloped in a cocoon of energy, lifted into the air.
I fell to my knees, screaming from the strain of channeling both stones at once. My veins felt like lava, my soul tearing from the duality of my burden. Yet, I refused to stop. I had made a vow.
"Return… all of you…" I gritted through my teeth.
The energy expanded. The battlefield erupted with divine tremors. The very soil of Dezivileous split open, pouring light and darkness alike.
Suddenly, one by one, they began to breathe again.
Mizelein gasped, his broken form restoring with golden flames.
Yuna's eyes opened, silver glow dancing in her irises.
Phiona reformed from the ashes, her spirit merging back into flesh.
Even Yugia, who had been consumed in shadow, awakened with her soul burning brighter than ever.
As they landed back on their feet, the divine figures above hesitated.
God narrowed his eyes. "A mortal… who commands resurrection by defiance?"
The Devil chuckled. "Interesting. The vessel has fused both cores… The balance has been shattered."
I stood tall, my body now adorned with armor that shimmered in both starlight and abyss. The crimson stone burned on my chest, but beside it, the dark core pulsed with equal might.
"I don't serve one force," I said. "I am the balance. I am the flame between dusk and dawn. And I will protect those I call comrades—no matter who stands against us."
God raised his hand once more. "Then you defy creation itself."
Devil mirrored him. "And you defy destruction."
Together, they conjured a spear of paradox—half light, half darkness. A weapon that could erase existence.
Mizelein stepped beside me, his saber drawn. "We stand with you, brother."
Yuna mounted her dragon again. "For Dezivileous and beyond."
Phiona, Yugia, all of them formed around me.
The spear of paradox was hurled.
I raised both stones, chanting the words that echoed from beyond time: "Solarum Lunaris Eternum."
The ground rose, a dome of energy enveloping us, countering the spear as it collided. The resulting explosion shattered the skies, and the divine figures were forced to ascend again, leaving only their echoes behind.
They had tested us—and failed to destroy us.
We stood in silence, bruised, burned, but alive.
Yuna turned to me. "You… brought us back. You faced them alone."
I nodded. "Because you all are the reason I fight. Because in this war between gods and devils, we are the ones who choose our fate."
Mizelein looked at the shattered landscape. "Then let's carve our path. On this world… and the next."
As we began moving toward the core of Dezivileous, one truth was clear:
This was only the beginning.
ChapterEnded
NextChapter – Coming Soon