The night was cold and dark. Snow fell steadily over Mount Hikkun, looming above the great kingdom of Altezza. Small animals hid in their burrows, seeking sleep and shelter from the biting cold.
Three figures made their way through the mountain woods, heading toward the kingdom. The oldest was a human priest named Aurus. He exhaled, and a puff of white steam escaped his lips into the icy air.
Beside him walked Silvye, an elven fighter, who wiped blood from her daggers — remnants of a skirmish with wolves that had attacked them moments before.
The last of the trio was Cuprue, a young human man with the aimless energy of someone searching for purpose.
Just a few hundred meters below them, the lights of Altezza gleamed through the snowfall. But before they could descend, three knights emerged from the path ahead. Their heavy armor clinked with every step. They raised a hand to halt the travelers.
Their names were Soma, Pneuma, and Psychi.
"Stop! You can't enter the kingdom of Altezza!" Psychi, the most composed of the three, spoke firmly. "There's a great danger inside. It's spreading fast, and soon it will reach these lands. Please, go home. Don't wander here any longer!"
Aurus stepped forward calmly. "What happened? We can help you."
"You can't help us. Just leave," said Pneuma, the most emotional of the knights.
"But we're strong! We can help—" Cuprue tried to insist, but Soma, the most violent of the three, stepped forward and punched him hard in the stomach. Cuprue dropped to his knees, gasping for breath.
Silvye froze for a second—then her mind went blank. Without thinking, she leapt at Soma, daggers drawn. They tumbled together down the snowy slope, landing farther down the mountainside. Luckily, the fall didn't injure them much; they had already been near the lower edge of Mount Hikkun.
"So you've chosen to fight," Pneuma said coldly. "We've been ordered to kill anyone who disobeys."
He drew his bow and fired an arrow straight at Cuprue, who was still doubled over in pain.
But the arrow never hit. A shimmering barrier appeared around Cuprue just in time, deflecting the shot.
"Wha—?" Cuprue gasped, stunned. But after a moment, he realized: it was Aurus who had cast the barrier.
As it faded, Aurus shouted, "Run, boy!" and pushed him back. The priest turned to face Pneuma and Psychi.
"I won't!" Cuprue shouted, stumbling to his feet. "You can't fight them alone! You need my—"
"Shut up!" Aurus snapped. "You're useless in a fight! You have no technique, and you're not ready, you know !"
He brought his hands together in prayer, eyes closed. A shockwave burst from him, flinging Cuprue deep into the forest.
Pneuma turned to Psychi. "He's interfering with the ritual. We should kill him."
They both raised the visors of their helmets. Their irises glowed the color of blood.
Suddenly, Psychi winced and grabbed his head. "I'll take care of the boy. You handle the priest," he muttered.
Pneuma nodded. "Fine. Be quick."
Psychi lowered his visor and sprinted into the woods.
Aurus raised his hands once more. "Ayen, my Lord, grant me the power of flame!"
His palms ignited, and a blast of searing fire roared toward Psychi—but the knight vanished just as the flames grazed him.
"Damn it! He's gone after Cuprue! I have to—"
An arrow slammed into Aurus's shoulder, cutting him off. Pneuma had fired again.
Meanwhile, Cuprue was sprinting through the trees, with Psychi closing in fast.
"Are you scared, little baby?!" the knight taunted.
Cuprue's breath caught in his throat. Fear gripped him, but so did confusion. Moments ago, the knights had simply tried to warn them. Now, they were trying to kill them. Why? Were they... mad?
Madness.
That word rang inside his head. It reminded him of something.
But as he pondered, he failed to see that Psychi had appeared right in front of him.
Before Cuprue could react, the knight slammed a nailed club into his forehead.
Cuprue collapsed into the snow, blood pooling beneath his head.
In the continent of Aetheria, there is a city called Valemont, which is the capital of this continent. There is the headquarters of one of the strongest swordsmen clans in the world, the Vitron clan. One day, a child was born in the Vitron clan, but he had no ability with the sword. His name was Cuprue Vitron. Cuprue was always bullied by his older brothers for being born without any talent with the sword. His father, Gladius, always ignored him because, in his vision, Cuprue was nothing but scum. Two years ago, Gladius ordered Cuprue to meet him in the hall of Vitron castle. That day, Cuprue was exiled from the castle and from the clan. Cuprue had those words carved into his mind: "Don't tell anyone you're a Vitron. I'm ashamed to be called your father. In fact, I never saw you as my son." Cuprue was only fourteen years old, but that day he was forced to take a horse and run away with nothing.
That night, there was a storm. The boy was hungry and the horse was tired, but under the rain, a cloaked person appeared. The man lowered his hood, revealing his face. He was an old man with a long white beard. "My name is Copper," the man said. "You're interesting. Want to come to my home?" After that moment, Cuprue became Copper's student. The old man felt a huge spiritual force in the boy, so he decided to train him. Three months passed, and Cuprue became an evoker, but still without a technique. One day, Copper was traveling with Cuprue near the kingdom of Valmatia, walking on a hill. They spotted some slave traders with their wagons; some elves were taken by them as slaves.
"Boy, I want you to show me what you've learned. You still don't have an evocation technique, but you can still use your spiritual powers. Free at least one wagon and you pass," Copper said, wanting to test Cuprue.
"As you wish, master." There were three wagons: one was already far, while two were closer to Cuprue, but still distant from each other. Cuprue chose the closer wagon to make the work easier, like he always did.
"Let's see if I remember." The boy closed his eyes, surrounding himself with spirit. His spiritual power was huge; Copper grinned when he felt it. Copper threw himself down the hill, concentrating his spiritual power in order not to hurt himself in the fall. He evoked a part of his spiritual power in his hand, throwing it towards the wagon. Cuprue didn't have a technique yet, but his spiritual power alone had a unique trait: it was hard like iron and had a very rough texture, the same consistency as rough aluminum foil but harder and rougher. With that type of spiritual power, Cuprue was able to rip with a punch the fabric that covered the caravan. Once inside the wagon, Cuprue punched the driver with his spiritual power, making his face bleed a lot, and in the panic, the driver fell under the horses, who trampled him to death while walking. Once they noticed it, it was too late. So they panicked and ran in every direction, but they were heading closer to the second wagon, so Cuprue took advantage of it to mount one of the horses, cut the bridle, and head towards the wagon. When he was close enough, he jumped to rip the fabric again, but the horse was mysteriously mad and crashed into Cuprue, making him lose momentum and fall. The horse kept running; somehow it had spiritual power, and it crashed into the wagon, causing it to fall into the river, falling with it.
"How was that possible?" wondered Cuprue, when he felt the horse's spiritual power. He suddenly remembered the first wagon, so he ran towards it to free the slaves. One by one, he broke their chains with his rough and hard spiritual power. The slaves scattered, but only one of them stayed. She was a child, crying.
"Why are you crying, little girl?" Cuprue asked, withdrawing his spiritual power.
"M-mommy and d-daddy!! And Silvye too!" she cried.
"Where are they? Who is Silvye?"
"M-mommy and daddy are in the far wagon... Silvye's my big sis... she was in the wagon that fell in the river!"
The child kept crying.
"Tell me, kid, what's your name? I can try to save your sister from the river if she is still alive," Cuprue said, caressing the child's hair.
"My name's Argente. I come from the kingdom of Sheira, in the elf continent. We came here for a trip, but..."
"Shhh... Argente, it's all right. I'll save your big sis," Cuprue reassured her, making her stop crying. He surrounded himself with spiritual power again and went towards the river. Meanwhile, Copper watched the scene, going down the hill the whole time, but he was old, so he arrived only at that moment. He suddenly felt a massive amount of spiritual energy coming from Argente. It was even bigger than Cuprue's energy. He licked his lips.
"My name is Copper, what's yours, kid?"
In the meantime, Cuprue got into the river, but the people in the wagon were being eaten by the mad horse, which at that moment had sharp teeth, claws, and magenta irises with red sclera. The horse noticed Cuprue while he was eating a couple of people, so he swallowed both of them immediately.
"What the hell?!!" said Cuprue, confused by the situation. The horse charged at Cuprue, lunging at him, but the boy immediately punched the horse's eyes with his spiritual power, wounding him on the face and on both eyes, making him blind. The horse calmed down and returned to normal, falling into the water and dying from the effort.
Five months passed and Copper took Argente with them and trained her. Argente was much more talented than Cuprue, despite being only 12 years old. One day, in late autumn, Copper called Cuprue to talk to him in private in his room.
"Cuprue, I called you because you have to leave. I don't need you anymore. Argente is much stronger than you. You can pack your things and leave."
Cuprue was shocked by Copper's words. He wasn't expecting that, and he didn't want to leave. Copper was like the father Gladius never could have been for him.
"Wha- are you joking, right? You're like a father to me!! I can't leave! I have no other place to stay!!"
"Just leave. I told you, I don't need you anymore here. You are a hindrance."
Cuprue put his hands on his face, crying and pulling his own hair.
"IT CAN'T BE!!! I CAN'T LEAVE!!! I'M SUPPOSED TO STAY!!!" he shouted like a madman.
"Cuprue" Copper said, "YOU'RE LIKE A FATHER TO ME! AND YOU'RE ASKING ME TO LEAVE??!!"
"Cuprue"
"I CAN'T ACCEPT IT!!!"
"Cuprue!"
"NO NO NO IT CAN'T BE!!!"
"CUPRUE!!!"
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU—"
Cuprue suddenly stopped shouting. He looked at the man and realized one thing.
"Did you realize it?" Cuprue's brain was pulsing. "Copper never existed."
Cuprue's eyes were bleeding. "It's always been Madness" Cuprue screamed.
"Madness can make you see things that don't exist, you know?" A strange creature with only one big red eye in the middle was talking.
Cuprue never went back to that house again. He wandered for a year in the continent of Aetheria. But he wasn't the same anymore: he saw things beyond people's understanding; he couldn't explain them. They were something that couldn't be described. He was known as The Mad Wanderer because in the eyes of other people, he was just a madman wandering around the continent, babbling random things.
After a year, he was saying nonsense things in an inn in the city of Edras, while a priest of the Ayen religion approached him. He was Aurus, a mage priest from the city of Avenus, where the Ayen religion was born. He prayed for Cuprue, curing him of madness. Cuprue turned back to normal, but he lost all of his memories. He only had the memories from the start of his life until his exile from Vitron castle. He also lost the knowledge about his powerful spiritual energy. He still had it, but he didn't know. Aurus decided to offer him dinner and started to explain to him the Ayen religion, trying to convert him.
"You know, I'm traveling around the world to spread the word of Ayen. Only few people know him, that's because Yena doesn't want that."
"Who's Yena?" Cuprue asked curiously.
"Oooh, it's a long story, you know, do you want to listen to it?" Aurus replied happily, hoping that Cuprue would answer yes.
"Okay, I want to listen," the boy replied.
So the priest started to tell the story:
"In the beginning there was the Nothing. But, you know, the Nothing is a paradox because if there's nothing, the Nothing exists. So it isn't true that there is nothing, but at the same time there isn't. You understand?"
"Uhm... yes?" Cuprue didn't understand a thing, but he just let Aurus continue.
"You know, that's a paradox. So in order to fix that paradox, the 8 Malevolents were born: Solitude, Fear, Obsession, Depression, Pain, Madness, Evil, and Void. The divine Ayen was once called Void, but he and the Evil, now called Yena, separated themselves from the other Malevolents, willing to create a perfect world together. They succeeded and created the world, but Yena sealed him in the Nothing dimension. In fact, he was still allied with the Malevolents, and betrayed Ayen to take control and send the Malevolents into the world. For that reason, the world is full of wars, injustice, and suffering. Meanwhile, Ayen represents the few good parts of the world. From the Nothing, he prays for good people to make them stronger, but since he's sealed, his prayers have no effect, so that's why good people always suffer. But that's why I try to spread Ayen's word. If all the world believes in Ayen, he'll become stronger and free himself from the Nothing."
"Wow, that's a good story. But how can I be certain that it is real?" asked Cuprue.
"Because if you believe in him, he'll get stronger and you'll be happy. If you don't... nothing will change, you know."
A white-haired elf woman listened to their conversation and turned towards Aurus.
"Sorry if I interfere, but I want to know, does the Ayen religion really make people happy? And if yes, how?"
Aurus smiled.
"Of course it makes people happy! I'm happy since I discovered Ayen. I search for happiness through helping others, like I just did with this boy."
The girl looked at the priest.
"Good, so if I believe in Ayen and help others, I will be free from the pain of the loss of my little sister Argente?"
Aurus looked at her, caressing her long white hair.
"I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm sure that if you'll believe in Ayen, the pain will go away. What's your name, girl?"
The elf replied,
"My name is Silvye, from Sheira kingdom."
The three of them stayed for hours in that inn and also took rooms to sleep. They became friends thanks to Ayen's faith, despite Cuprue not being so sure about it. Soon, they would have discovered the prophecy and would have started their journey to find the Chosen One.
But this is another story...
All of these memories suddenly appeared in Cuprue's mind. But he had already gotten up.
"I KNOW EVERYTHING NOW!!!!" he shouted, happy.
"Shut the fuck up!!" Psychi hit him again with his nailed club.
But it was too late. Cuprue regained the knowledge about his ability and covered himself in spiritual power, defending himself with the hardness. This time, Cuprue had developed a technique without training, just by existing every day.
Cuprue evoked three big larvae-looking leeches. The leeches immediately stuck to Psychi. He had no time to speak before his life energy was sucked out. Psychi was thinking about his children at home in that moment.
After some minutes, Psychi was withered on the snow. The larvae-looking leeches crawled towards the boy, who made them disappear. He realized how much power he had accumulated in half a year without training a thing.
"I am now the strongest evoker ever," Cuprue said, looking at Psychi and grinning.
Suddenly, something came to his mind: Argente in his memories was Silvye's lost sister. He had to tell her, so he started running towards the point where Silvye was fighting.
Meanwhile, under the cliff, Silvye was using her technique. No one had ever seen it, except her and her master. She crossed her daggers.
"Absolute Purification," Silvye snapped at Soma, hitting him with an X move with her daggers.
He fell on the ground, all of his evil intentions faded away. In some minutes, Silvye climbed up the slope and she saw Cuprue.
"Cuprue! What happened? Did you escape and leave Aurus alone against the two knights?" she asked, worried.
"No, I didn't. But I discovered a thing, Sil—"
In that moment, something happened. The wanderers both turned around and they saw a cloaked person. They were lifting Aurus by his neck, who was trying to breathe desperately.
"AURUS!!!" Cuprue shouted, but Silvye pointed at Aurus' left arm: it was cut off and the blood was falling on the snow.
The person looked at the two wanderers from inside their coat.
"Have you ever heard about Yena?"