Kaiser continued his exploration until the increasingly rough terrain and the gradually heavier air signaled to him that he was entering an unknown zone. The rock, uniformly black and polished, seemed to have been vitrified by extreme heat.
"What a place...",he murmured, his voice low as he advanced with heightened caution.
Looking more closely,he made out on the walls a complex network of deep gashes, radiating cracks, and violent impacts, all undeniable stigmas of a conflict of fierce intensity that had once taken place here.
"It seems someone has already been here.Don’t tell me it’s that damn Kris? "
The deeper he went, the more oppressive the atmosphere became. Though he was accustomed to the perils and monsters of the cave, this sensation was new, of a different and more insidious nature. An abnormal silence reigned, so thick that the sound of his own footsteps seemed absorbed by the stone.
In the heart of a vast natural chamber, a silhouette finally detached itself from the darkness. Approaching cautiously, Kaiser identified the form, or at least a creature of humanoid stature, but of a size so imposing that it surpassed all human measure.
Its body,however, was emaciated, reduced to a skeletal state by years, even centuries, of deprivation. It was held captive by two swords, driven so deep into the floor rock that they seemed to be part of it. The blades, one of dark metal and the other white, had chains in their pommels that shackled its wrists up to its arms.
A cascade of silver hair, of immoderate length, fell to its feet. Its skin had the pallor and fragility of alabaster, almost translucent. Its wide-open eyes now emitted only a faint glimmer, yet its gaze retained a disquieting serenity.
Kaiser halted at a respectful distance,his hand tightening instinctively on the hilt of his weapon.
’He’s still breathing...,’he noted inwardly, an icy shiver running down his spine.
The creature slowly raised its head,and its chapped lips parted.
"For a thousand years...Someone at last...", it declared in a hoarse voice, worn by time, yet perfectly distinct.
Kaiser did not reply immediately.His mind analyzed the situation, assessing the potential threat this prisoner might still represent, despite its bonds.
"You can speak?"he finally asked, breaking the heavy silence.
"Yes.Although opportunities have grown rare over the centuries."
A faint smile,imbued with infinite weariness, touched its lips.
Kaiser took a measured step forward, keeping his muscles tense to be able to retreat just as quickly.
"What are you?"he questioned, his tone direct.
"You may call me Sulyvhan."
His voice trembled slightly,each syllable seeming to require considerable effort.
’I don’t know that name.Is he an important character?’
Kaiser let silence settle for a moment,his attention shifting to the two swords sealed in the stone. Their metal, though dulled by the ages, radiated an aura of power. The chains vibrated in an almost imperceptible manner, synchronized with the captive’s weak breathing.
"Why are you bound here?" Kaiser inquired, not hiding his wariness.
Sulyvhan lifted veiled eyes towards the high vaults of the cavern.
"It is a long story,the entirety of which I doubt I still possess the strength to tell. But if you have managed to reach this accursed place... it is perhaps that fate is amusing itself once more."
Kaiser frowned, his expression hardening.
"I did not come here to serve the whims of fate.My only objective is to find a way out and leave this trap alive."
Sulyvhan lowered his gaze towards him, a fleeting glimmer of interest in his extinguished eyes.
"In that case,it is possible our interests coincide. Approach. I no longer represent any threat to anyone in this state."
Kaiser hesitated, weighing the pros and cons for several seconds, before advancing two more steps. He maintained, however, a distance he deemed safe.
Sulyvhan raised a skeletal hand, letting his fingers brush the iron links that held him.
"The years have been long...Yet, despite your evident fatigue, your aura is of a rare vividness. You are not made like the others. That is easily perceived."
"Are you some sort of fallen angel?"
"Angel?I far prefer being a piece of shit."
Kaiser did not reply,but his gaze grew sharper, even more distrustful.
The captive man sketched a new smile.
"Fear not.My intention is not to harm you. I only wish... to converse. To hear a voice other than that of my own thoughts, before this place swallows me completely."
Kaiser took a deep breath, then released it in a long sigh.
"Very well.Then speak."
Sulyvhan closed his eyelids for a moment, as if to draw from his last reserves of energy. When he reopened them, his voice was more composed, softer.
"Since you have come to me...it is possible that all is not yet quite over."
A solemn silence settled in the hall, a silence disturbed only by the prisoner’s faint breath. Kaiser, motionless, understood then, with an intuitive certainty, that this chance encounter would irrevocably alter the course of his destiny.
....
"Allow me a direct question," Sulyvhan resumed, his raspy voice breaking the silence. "Does the name Sulyvhan stir not the slightest idea in you?"
Kaiser shook his head with immediate frankness.
"No.That name means absolutely nothing to me. I have never heard it, neither in popular tales, nor in the archives."
A brief laugh,tinged with resigned bitterness, escaped Sulyvhan’s lips.
"That hardly surprises me.Official history has been carefully rewritten. The version taught today is but a skillfully constructed fiction."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that those so-called heroes of the great war are nothing but traitors."
Kaiser felt his eyebrows knit.
"You are referring to the Great War against the Demons?To the foundations of the Empire, the Holy Cathedral, or the Legendary Families that everyone venerates?"
"Precisely. Everything you know, everything the people repeat is but an embellished narrative. Traitors have been erected into untouchable heroes, while the truth has been methodically buried and names erased."
A palpable tension began to tighten Kaiser’s chest. He vaguely perceived that the foundations of his knowledge were wavering.
He had read the novel,and there was no notion that history had been modified.
’Could there be secrets that even I,in this world, do not know?’
"In that case,I want to hear this truth. Tell me the events as they truly happened."
Sulyvhan leaned back slightly against the rocky wall behind him. His gestures, though slowed by exhaustion, denoted a cold and factual sincerity.
"I would first like to hear what you know?"
...
The history of the world before the demonic invasion is lost.However, it is known that when the demons invaded the mortal world, the Seraphs blessed certain humans and the lower angels helped them fight. The seven humans who defended humanity became the ancestors of the seven legendary families.
During the war, they asked for help from the elves, who initially refused. However, when the corruption of the Tenebris continent began to affect Yggdrasil, they finally intervened, but not in their entirety. At that time, the elves comprised seven clans. Three of them, thirsty for knowledge and power, began dissecting the bodies of demons and monsters. This practice created an irremediable rift among their people.
These dissidents, who called themselves the Dark Elves, founded Babylon, a city where only science and knowledge reigned, in opposition to their brethren who remained conservative and faithful to Yggdrasil. In the end, the elves participated in the war in their totality, but always for selfish and particular reasons.
Meanwhile, the beastmen of Arcadia were too occupied with their internal conflicts and tribal wars to take part in the conflict. That was one of the reasons why they were so despised and considered savages, because they are still in conflict even today.
This war was called the Holy War of a Thousand Years,for it indeed lasted a millennium before the demons withdrew of their own accord into the underworld. It was at that moment that the seven humans founded the Empire of Alexandria next to the Holy Cathedral.
1545 years later, Kaiser was reincarnated. And it is in the year 1548 that the novel officially begins, with the arrival of Kris (the protagonist) at the academy.