Chapter One

The moon illuminated an expansive grassy field, unsullied by human hands, and untouched by animals. Yet the grass was short, as if not allowed to grow uninhibited. The air hung thick and restrictive, resisting the wind with its weight, and growing stagnant because of it. On the far side of the clearing the grass gave way to hard rock. Further on still the rock climbed, reaching out for the moon with white fingertips, but falling short after five kilometres. The remaining round edge of the clearing was enclosed by forest and dense foliage, tall evergreens blocked any clear line of sight, and thick bracken prevented any attempts of traversal.

The full moon drifted upwards, and gazed down upon the land, bathing the world in its soft light. As the light grew with the raising of the moon, a strange phenomenon was made apparent. A thin shadow, that stretched across the clearing, and from the shadow's origin, at the clearing's centre, the air began to glow. Like a mist reflecting the moonlight, and growing steadily stronger each second, a tower of pale light stood. The heavy air around it was sucked inwards, allowing fresh air to once again fill the clearing. Unconcerned with the bizarre scene below, the moon carried on, until it reached its greatest height.

The moon reached its apex, and stopped.A silent tremor tore through the world, the earth shuddered, wrenching some nearby trees from the ground, and causing snow to cascade down from the mountains. But such events were secondary, as the oppressive air that had momentarily drawn back spread out once again. This time carrying the mist like substance, it broke through the natural shield of woodland surrounding it, and seeped throughout the forest. Various woodland animals felt the encroaching miasma and tried to escape, but were caught in its onslaught and sapped of their strength, succumbing to its oppressive weight.

Where the mist had once gathered, an imposing structure now stood. It loomed over the forest, watching it be consumed by the miasma. The building had three sections from ground to roof, with the ground section being five times wider than the highest section, and the middle section being halfway between the two. Supported by large, gilded stone pillars, the side walls were made of pure white stone. The front of the building, that faced away from the mountains, was comprised mostly of a giant ornate stained glass window. The window depicted the God of Light Nohramun, adorned with great flowing robes, looking down with arms outstretched, in yellow and orange. The Goddess of the Moon Metz sat in the middle, curled up and surrounded by Nohramun's arms and robes, coloured in both dark and pale blues, and holding the moon in her hands in the very centre of the piece. The building was topped with a large dome, with a two-piece glass window at the very top, a smaller clear circle, with a larger yellow circle around it.

This was Dualumin, the dual light library, collection of all knowledge revealed by the gods' light, and blessed by both such that it cannot be destroyed. The windows were also laced with magic, to only allow light belonging to their respective lords through, and as such, only Metz's section was clearly visible in the moon's light.

The view of the library in its pristine glory with a backdrop of cascading snow belied the state of its grounds however. Where once were statues, there was leveled rubble, and where flowers used to flourish they had been crushed underfoot by rows upon rows of iron-clad soldiers. Thousands of soldiers, each sporting full plate armour, lined orderly in front of the library, with a few who stood head and shoulders above the rest placed in front. As the miasmic air pushed outwards from the library, it carried with it the sickly sweet stench of decay, and a closer look revealed liquefied flesh dripping from the joints of the soldiers armour like a black sludge.

High above the undead legion, the centre piece of the glass window, the moon, rotated outwards to form a platform, and a figure stepped forwards. A woman, clothed in robes not unlike the ones worn by the gods in the glass around her, but not as large or elaborate in their windings. Pure white, undamaged, but wispy at the edges by design, with a headpiece that extended behind her, obscuring her hair. Lit up by the pale light of the moon, she appeared ethereal, a ghostly apparition that could be swept away by a breeze. This image was tarnished, however, by her face, twisted by anger and hatred, as she looked out over the forest and beyond at the flickering lights of fires, and the silhouettes of towns in the distance.

"Finally." She whispered. "Finally... after hundreds of years in that timeless nightmare I should have enough. I'll drag this world into ruin and crush the spirits of those 'Gods' before I tear them from this world."

Her voice dripped with venom as she spat out her intent. She looked down upon her army. "Go out and kill everyone you find, turn as many of them as you can. If you find any High Priests or Divine Representatives, prioritise killing them before keeping them intact." Her voice projected across the plain, and the soldiers stood at attention.

She pointed her glare at the moon above. she had chosen this night carefully, for tonight was the turnover for the lunar calendar, Metz was likely attending a great festival along with her supporters, and not paying any attention to other matters. She was betting on it in fact, as in order to strike a damaging enough initial strike to gather the required dead, and keep up the momentum of her attack, she needed to reduce her chances of being discovered early. She lowered her head to look directly out at the blurred horizon, stood straight in preparation for the final call to advance, and took a deep breath.

"Excuse me?! Down here!" A distant voice called up to her.

Startled, she returned her gaze the army below, her face finally free of any negative emotion, replaced instead by confusion. There, between her army and the forest, she saw him. A tall man with plain dark clothes with the sleeves removed: peasant attire. His boots however were clearly of a different status, more well crafted than a peasant could afford to waste money buying. He had a well-built stature, and balanced, like a soldier or a labourer, but without any of the roughness. He had a clean face, without blemish or stubble, and long black hair that reached down to his legs, tied up in ponytail. He was waving up at her with an innocent smile.

"What?... Who are you?" The woman shouted down at the odd man.

"Oh, no one important..." He yelled back up. "Been waiting for you to show yourself for a while though."

"What do you mean?" She asked, regaining her composure.

"Well, when you're sat in a big empty field where no animals dare go and the greenery never changes, it kinda screams out foul play, you know? The gods might not care enough to pay attention, but I do."

"So you're here to as a watch dog are you?

"Not really, I'm more just here out of boredom than anything else, honestly. Hey, you said something about destroying the world with this lot, right?" He gestured towards the army.

"That's right, I'll have these festering corpses spread their affliction across this world, and bring it to its end."

"Ooh, you sound pretty confident, they must be pretty strong then, mind if I test 'em out?" A grin crept onto the man's face.

"What, you stand before an army of the dead, and instead of begging for your life you ask to battle them? Hmph, no matter. I don't know whether you're some over-confident mage or priest, or if you're just insane. Either way, you won't live to regret your actions tonight. Kill him."

The woman gestured to the man, and the undead soldiers lurched towards him, a ghastly screech emitting from their helmets.

The man's grin expanded, his eyes squinted and he leaned forwards.

"Marvelous."

The ground behind him exploded, and he shot forwards, pointing his hand and plunging it through the chest plate of one of the larger soldiers.

"Oh, this feels gross." He said gleefully, slamming his foot on the ground and flying upwards. His hand tore through the plating like it was paper, and exited the corpse through its skull, completely destroying its upper half in the process.

"...What?"

The woman whispered in shock as the man landed and immediately shot forwards again, cleaving through her army like they weren't even there, with his bare hands no less. He cackled like a madman the whole time, and earth was thrown into the air away from him whenever he hit the ground.

"Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit! This can't be happening! He must be a disciple of the God of War! I need to prepare something to stop him!"

She turned around, and began to levitate, before accelerating towards the ceiling. The library had three sets of floors, each thinner than the one below because of the building's shape, but also didn't extend as far from the rear wall as the last set, which left the upper floor the smallest. The top floor showed signs of having bookcases across it just like the other floors, but they had been replaced by two things: a large conference table with a map of the continent and various calendar materials laid out on it, and a large pentacle drawn on the floor, with many smaller ones surrounding it.

The woman landed on this highest floor, the domed ceiling extending above her, echoing back sounds of the battle outside. She began to stride towards the pentacle at the rear of the floor, and her clothes began to morph. Black seeped into the robes and they began to spread out, connecting with themselves and forming one whole piece. A black dress, like one worn in mourning, and her blond hair fell down her back as she reached the pentacle.

"I don't have any choice, I need to summon from outside. If he's a disciple of the God of War I won't be able to beat him with a regular summon, and I don't have the time for a large-scale summon, or to prepare a new attack. I just have to do it and hope it works. All I have to do is survive, I can hide away again and rebuild if I have to. But I've got to get rid of him first!"

While she was talking, various ingredients and materials made their way towards her from the side of the floor, and she worked on altering the smaller pentacles around the larger one. less than a minute later and she was ready to begin. Silence fell as she collected herself to begin.

"Wait, silence...?"

"Hellooo."

The woman turned around in horror, and at the edge of the floor, leaning on the balustrade, was the man. He was covered in black, decaying viscera, but very much unharmed.

"How?" She whispered meekly.

"Oh please, don't mind me. Do continue." He said, flashing her another smile.

"...What?" She whimpered.

"You're summoning something to try and stop me, right? Do it. I want to fight whatever it is you bring out."

He plonked himself down onto the floor, wide smile still plastered on his face, and his bare feet poking out the bottom of his boots where the soles had been torn off by his aggressive assault. He leant his back against the stone railing, showing he was willing to wait as long as it takes, whilst black ooze began to seep off his body and puddle on the floor beneath him.

"O... Okay..."

Shocked and stunned for a second, she slowly turned back to the summoning circle, and as the stench of decay emanating from the man washed over her, she began to work.

The smell of decay was no stranger to her, she had languished in its presence for many years whilst building her army. Starting with the bodies of her friends and family, and those they had fought, that had been hidden away along with the library centuries ago, and then steadily increasing as she summoned more corpses over the years. The first few attempts were failures, only pulling in pieces of bodies, or sometimes failing to bring anything at all. But she had plenty of time to practice, and she was a studious learner.

The library held many books relating to the magic employed by the servants of the gods, and as much as she despised them, she only had a limited store of food and water, so she didn't have much choice. Over the years she grew more adept at summoning, enough so that the summoning of multiple bodies became a painless process, though not any less time and energy-consuming. The process of reawakening those bodies came much easier to her, as it was a skill she'd been practicing for most of her life. Eventually her proficiency became such that she reached to the pinnacle of accepted methods for summoning, and reached the forbidden section.

A section of the most advanced tome on summoning she could find that was preceded by a warning, stating that under no circumstances, by accident or intent, should this specific circle ever be used. It stated that the following circle would connect to worlds beyond the world of the Gods, to worlds of monsters and demons that would bring ruin upon the world. She, of course, experimented as soon as possible with this technique that the gods feared. She started small, and the first thing she pulled through was an insect, long, thin and black. It held itself completely still at first, but scurried away when she reached to touch it. More experiments followed, with small birds, lizards and fish, hairless mammals and one-eyed, spine-riddled creatures. Each attempt left her tired, and whilst she grew stronger with the years, she never dared try to pull a larger being. She came to the conclusion that the Gods simply didn't know what was on the other side of these summoning circles, and whilst it scared them that they could bring through threats to their rule, it did not mean that any creature that could would not be equally willing to tear her apart as well.

Half an hour after the man joined her at the top floor, the woman's hands began to slow down. She had transformed the circle previously used to collect the bases for the huge corpses that, until a short while prior, had stood at the front of her army, into one designed to punch a hole through reality and drag unknown beings from other worlds into hers. Regaining her calm as she worked, she had realised that she would not be attacked as long as she was working. By her reckoning, the man behind her was one of two things: A sadist, waiting for her to summon her final hope so that he could crush it in front of her eyes before he took her away to be punished, or, as he presented himself, a battle crazed madman, with only a lust for combat on his mind. Based on his lack of insults or threats, she was tempted to believe the latter, but either way, as long as she summoned a being powerful enough to deal with him she wouldn't have to find out, and may have a chance to escape.

"It's done."

She rose off of her knees, looking at her work. Many more smaller, intricate circles surrounded the large one, designed to draw magic from the world, available now that the library had returned. This would allow her to summon stronger creatures without being limited by her own power, although she would still bear the brunt of the expense.

'If I miscalculated...' she thought to herself. 'I may not be able to get away if it gets dangerous.'

"Marvelous."

The man picked himself off the ground, having not moved since he sat, and a large clump of liquidised flesh dropped off of him where it had accumulated on his behind.

"Well?" He stepped forward. "What should I expect?"

"I don't know." She averted her eyes and stepped to the side. "It'll be from another world, so I don't know."

"Another world? There are other worlds?" He hummed out a chuckle.

"Well, this is interesting... Show me then, show me what a mystery being from another world looks like."

The woman didn't say anything, just took a step back and focused. She could tell he was no longer paying any attention to her. 'Battle crazed madman it is then.' She thought, before pouring her energy into the circle.

The lines etched onto the floor began to glow, and as the intensity became almost blinding, there was a pop, and a small shake in the air, as it was forced to accommodate a new being. At the same time, the woman collapsed to her knees, panting. The man gazed on, and in the centre of his vision stood his opponent. A hulking man a few shades darker than the two he shared a room with. Standing at around 10 feet tall, he would have towered over even the excessively large front soldiers of the now re-deceased undead army. He was dressed in only thin leather and animal pelts, that sparsely covered his body, and holding a spear that, whilst large, was still clearly not made for a man of his size.

"What? What is this?" He asked, looking around in confusion, his deep voice reverberating in the air.

"This is a library." The filth covered man replied, visibly tense with anticipation.

"Oh?" The goliath growled, "And why am I here?" the aggression in his voice clearly mounting.

"I brought you here." The woman interjected into their conversation. "In order to defeat this man."

She looked to him with a weakly restrained desperate plea in her voice. The monster of a man's brow furrowed in anger.

"You would dare presume to command ME?" The woman's face crumpled in despair. No matter who won, she realised, she would not escape.

"Such insolence demands punishment, and death shall be your reward!"

He moved to take a step towards her, and her head dropped down, her hair falling to cover her face.

"But I'm the one that wanted to fight you though."

The giant stopped, and turned to look at the owner of the voice, laying his eyes upon the filthy man, who still had a wide smile plastered on his face.

"You?... Ah... I see. You wanted a battle, so you had this tart summon me here?"

"Something like that."

"I assume then that you are the strongest person in this land? Or are you merely a fool with no idea what he just wrought upon his world?"

"I can't be both?" His smile opened slightly to a grin, and his eyes began to widen.

"Ha. True." The giant threw aside his spear and clenched his fists.

"You not gonna need that?"

"The truly powerful don't need weapons to crush their enemies!"

"Well said."

His grin now as wide as could be, and his eyes open wide, the man looked upon his opponent with a crazed glee.

"Listen well, fool!" The giant roared. "I am Akachi-Dike! Conqueror of the four lands, blessed by the Great Spirit, and ruler of the kingdom of Mazdaya!"

"Hehe, alright then. I am Timori Ulcisca! Representative of the God of Humanity-"

"Eh?" The woman's head jerked up, confused. "Humanity...?"

"-Exalter of Aspiration, Bloody Tempest and Slayer of the God of War!"

"Wha-" Her eyes widened. 'the God of War is dead?' She stared at the man who flung flecks of filth as he gesticulated with his arm.

"But you can call me Tim."

"No need. You shan't get a grave!"

Akachi pushed with his right foot, bring his left side forward whilst pulling back his right arm, preparing to launch his fist at 'Tim'. Tim leant forward, and for a split second, his body seemed to flash with a transparent flame, unseen by the eyes, but noticed by the woman. He then exploded forward, the stone floor beneath his feet shattering from the force. Akachi barely had time to pull his left arm in front of his body to intercept Tim's fist, but it didn't seem to slow him. Akachi's arm was crushed against his own chest, and his bones shattered as he flew backwards, slamming in the stone wall at the back of the room. Without time to even attempt to recover the air forced from his lungs, Tim appeared before him with leg raised.

Then Tim's foot went straight through Akachi's chest, shearing through his muscle and bone, pushing his heart into his spine and then pulverising them both into a paste. The wall behind him barely stopped the impact, leaving a crater in the middle, and cracks tearing through the wall in every direction. Tim pushed from the wall and landed near the balcony's edge, eagerly awaiting Akachi's counter.

The counter of course, never came.

Akachi had suffered great internal trauma when his short flight came to a sudden stop, and then having his heart and spine obliterated killed him almost instantly. Akachi-Dike, unifier of his world, the victor of countless battles and an iron-willed leader, met his end.

"Hmm?" Tim cocked his head, and looked down at the corpse. "Oh. Well, that was disappointing. Guess he wasn't blessed after all. Or maybe being dragged to another world removed his blessing? Doesn't really matter now either wa-he-hey is the wall repairing itself?"

True enough, as he stood there lamenting the farce that just occurred, the walls of the library had been recovering from his attack.

"Well I guess this place was blessed, by two gods no less." As Tim watched the wall repair, the woman stared at him with a fearful awe.

'The one I summoned with all of my power, and extra from the world, didn't stand a chance. Is it because I'm too weak, or is he just too strong? And what was that about the God of War? Was it him who killed it or was it his god? It wasn't clear. I've never even heard of a God of Humanity. Did a new god appear? Is that even possible? I wouldn't have thought so, but he clearly isn't a normal human or even a high priest, and I don't think he'd bother lying in this situation.'

"Hey!"

"Yes!?" The woman startled, whilst she was thinking she failed to notice that Tim's attention had turned to her.

"Can you do that again, but with someone stronger?"

"What?"

"Can you summon someone stronger?"

"I, y- yes. But I would need weeks to prepare, and more practice."

"Alright then, I'll drop by later."

"Wha-?"

"Name's Tim by the way, sure you heard." He flashed another smile.

"Um, Megaira, Megaira Tasoula."

"Well, I'll see you later Meg." He then hopped over the balustrade, and after a second 'Meg' heard a crack as he hit the floor, and bounded forwards into the night.

After a few seconds, Meg stood up. The whole debacle, including the time taken to set up the summoning circle, had taken less than 45 minutes. The total time spent fighting was less than 10. She looked around her, at the pools of blood and gore where Tim had stood, and the body of Akachi still lay. She looked over the splatters of blood that covered the floor and walls, and then faced the large window at the front of the building, through which she could see the mangled remains of the army she had planned to use to take over the world.

"Yeah." she said to herself.

"Bloody tempest is about right."