“Grandpa! Wake up grandpa!”

Breaking the silence of the room, the cheerful voice of a little kid reached the mind of a sleeping old man, abruptly waking him up from his rest. Startled awake by the unexpected voice, he turned his muddled by sleep head towards the source of the voice and, the moment he noticed his nephew, a smile bloomed on his face, as if he hadn’t just been woken up.

“Hohoho, what do we have here? My little nephew, could you be hiding from your parents once again?”

The old man’s face, brightened by the warm smile he displayed, emphasized the wise look his white hair and beard gave him. In the eyes of his nephew, he looked like a peaceful figure of maturity. An adult.

“He-he...”

The kid, smiled mischievously, indirectly confessing his guiltiness in a childish way. But being found out did not stop him from walking up to the elder, as if nothing happened.

“Tell me one of your stories! Pleaaaase...”

His mischievous smile disappeared, replaced by a pleading look, his puppy eyes staring straight into the old man’s.

With a low sigh, he stroked his nephew’s hair and patted his leg, gesturing the kid to hop onto his lap. If one were to observe this scene from the outside, they wouldn’t be able to help themselves from feeling cozy inwardly.

“Okay, but don’t tell anyone.” - he winked - “So, what story would you like to hear?”

“Tell me a new one!”

The kid’s eyes had changed yet again,sparkling like a clear night sky, you could almost see sparkles coming out of them as he clasped hands in an imploring way; the old man stroked his beard in thought before opening his mouth.

“Hmmmm, what about the legend of the origins?”

“Yes! Yes!”

The sparkling eyes had turned in two fires, burning with passion, he had already heard about this story so he couldn’t help but feel excited, his little fist closed and his arms moving up and down like a skier, his grandpa took a deep breath filling his lungs and with clear voice started to narrate.

“Okay then, let’s start the story:

Thousands of years ago, there was nothing, just darkness; then, the great god Kira appeared, he created the fertile earth and the vast sky, the sun and the sea, the animals and the plants.

Then he made Angels, guardians of his creation, he gave them radiant blonde hair to bring light where the sun couldn’t, pure teal eyes to reflect their souls and crystal wings to rush and aid.

However, to the great god the world he had created felt empty, and so he decided to create the human race.

While the angels had immortal life spans and great powers, the humans with their chestnut eyes and hair, had nothing of the sort.”

“But grandpa, why did Kira made the humans so weak?”

Asked the kid with a puzzled look, if this were an anime interrogation marks would be popping up around his head.

“You see, while the angels, with great powers and infinite lives were bored and generally not interested in anything, the humans had to work hard and their short lifespan served as motivation to never rest.

It is thanks to this that in the course of centuries humans have always advanced never stopping.

Unfortunately, the great god, right after creating the humans, exhausted his powers and went into deep sleep, leaving the protection of humankind and various other creations to angels.

When the humanity, that everyday struggled to survive in a wild world, heard that the great god had disappeared felt abandoned and a great war started between those believing that Kira would come back and those that believed the age of Kira had spired and the age of humans had come.

Amidst the flame of war a demon arose, his name was Gaz, the wielder of a gigantic black sword, he had no interest in where the god went and why, all he cared about was blood and fire.

The more he fought the stronger and wicked he got, it is said that after killing the 1000° man his hair and skin became as black as the night and his eyes the colour of fresh spilled blood, from his head two horns grew and in the middle of the forehead a red gem appeared.

And so the ancestor of all demons came to life, until now people are fighting to decide if his change was a blessing or a curse, his power grew rivaling the angels and so did his madness and rage, wherever he went life would stop blooming, the earth would blacken and crack.

In this form, only his loyal men stayed beside him, and just like a disease one after another they all turned in demons.

The death caused by him and his thousands men surpassed the millions, entire villages and cities burned to nothing, while the army grew by spreading the demonic curse to prisoners and animals.

Around this point, the angels noticed the threat of the demons, however due to their aloft view of the world they still underestimated the real extent of demon’s power and in their foolishness, they only sent four angels.

The four angels were way stronger than demons and caused heavy casualties to the enemies; however, in the end they could do nothing against insurmountable numbers and fell prey of the corrupted ones.

Instead of killing them Gaz decided on something far more evil, after torture and brainwash he managed to corrupt even the highest existences, the fallen angels in his army became the first arch-demons; their powers were far above demons and angels, probably because of their black crystal wings and red gems, they had both the power source of demons and angels in one body.

After the arrival of the arch demons,even the angels became wary of the demon race, but when they were finally ready to wage an all-out purification war on them, gaz and his plague disappeared.

In the period of their disappearance, the great first war ended, and the people finally living in peace started to rebuild completely, believing in a miracle from Kira they soon forgot about Gaz and the demon army.

Even the angels relaxed believing that the demon race had self destroyed because of the curse.

When 30 years later they come back the world was once again engulfed in flames, while hiding the demons had engulfed their number and vastly strengthened their forces by stealing earth’s hidden treasures underground.

Noticing the demonic threat had come back, heaven sent down their holy army and, together with the human army they worked together to face the enemy, for years the conflict never stopped, reaping lives like leaves in autumn, human heroes arose by killing in the name of justice developing power close to angels.

After 50 years of bloodsheds, the war finally came to an end; The humanity had been hovering on the brink of extinction, every man and woman past the 16 years would go to war.

The last victim of this war was Gaz itself, beheaded publicly, and with his death, the Demon race went extinct.

However, with the death of the demon race two new races appeared, the half-demons, children of humans and demons, usually born through violence, and the seraph, children born between love of angels and humans.

Feeling pity for innocent half-demon children and being tired of killing, humanity decided to spare at least them from following their fathers in the void”

The child’s awed look seemed to be doubtful of something so he opened his little mouth and asked grandpa.

“What is the Void?”

“When a good man die, their souls will fly to the eternal rest-ground, in the heavens, you know this right?”

He raise his hand as if a teacher had asked a question to whom only him could answer and immediately replied with a somewhat proud voice.

“Yes!”

Nodding satisfied the old man finally explained.

“Good, the void is where the bad people go; after dying their souls are not allowed to get in heaven and without a place to rest, they will just disappear, like a blown-off candle-light.”

“What about the angels?”

“No one knows for sure, but personally i think that their souls go to keep company to the great god.” he shrugged his shoulders while his eyes seemed to lose focus while gazing at the lit on fireplace, nevertheless the kid wasn’t satisfied and woke his grandpa by tugging at his clothes.

“Ah sorry, just remembered something; Anyway, let’s go back to the story.”

The kid nodded satisfied and perked his ears.

“The seraph race.

Fighting together for 50 years brought a lot of humans and angels pretty close, after sharing the battlefield together some of them ended up sharing even the *coff *coff.”

“The what?” the innocent expression in his face revealed how pure he was so the grandpa quickly changed topic.

“Nothing, forget it, anyway, from angel-human couples the seraphs were born, with lush emerald hair, verdant eyes and angel like power.

If it were said that the demon race was considered the cursed race, then the seraph race would be the blessed.”

“But now there are no more seraph, right?”

When he heard the last question in the old man’s face flashed a trace of grief and sadness that passed unobserved.

“Unfortunately you are right….”

“what happened to them?”

“that’s…. a story for another night….”

Tired from the long story and distracted by his memories the old man raised his nephew from the armpits and placed him down.

“Now go back to your parents before they notice you were gone.”

He showed a stern look further expressed by his index finger pointed upwards, after a last hug the kid scrammed away in a hurry leaving alone the old man on his armchair, the light coming from the dawn dimmed until the only source of illumination was the fire from the fireplace.

“I guess it’s time to tell him…”

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Labyrinthian

In the middle of a training tatami stood a somewhat lean youth; his disheveled, long, and  malachite hair fell on his back with some strands sticking to his sweaty neck and face, while heavily breathing he gazed past the several people on the ground.

Elpis underwent these kind of ‘training spars’ daily, reason being his father, the captain of city guards and also his boss, didn’t approve of him risking his life and thus if he couldn’t prevent his son to join, he could force him to resign its position by making his life hell.

[humpf, with this the old man should finally recognize that i’m not a child anymore!]

With a smirk he left the training room without saying as much as a word to his ‘foes’, he changed from his sweaty attire into his barely used city guard uniform and left the training center to take a walk around the streets.

The usually brimming with life streets now were empty, the light from the setting sun grew dim as did its reflection on the golden walls and buildings, his emerald eyes swept past every crook and shadow looking for anything but couldn’t find anything, anything at all, just like a fear-struck city was supposed to be.

While walking he found a rather sad scene, a couple probably wife and husband dragging a small cart loaded with various things.

“Quick Marcus, the army is 2 days away from here, if we don’t hurry we might not be able  to run away!”

Alternatives: collide, escape their grasp

“I know! Instead of disturbing me, have you checked the house for anything left, you know we’ll never be able to return, so be extra sure!”

From their conversation and appearance you could see they were fleeing the city after hearing of the last news, unable to do anything to help he just clenched his fists and walked away.

---------

*a few hours later*

“Captain, private Elpis reporting for duty.”

With a dry and formal tone Elpis greeted his father, the light from a light globe casted shadows in the dimly lit captain’s office, maps and document laid messily on the ground and desks, the usually neat library had various gaps because of missing books.

The captain sat behind his desk with a tired expression on his face, the radiant blonde hair seemed to reflect their owner’s condition and glowed weakly, seeing an archangel in this state would give a shock even to the Great Kira.

He waved his hand in the air and a paper sheet erupted from the hundreds of others in the ground, coming to an halt in front of Elpis face, he knew what this was, an assignment schedule for the week, while most of the guards and officials had been assigned to the walls, ready to fight and die for the city, he had been assigned to the temple hall, in the middle of the city, far away from the battlefield.

Elpis rage flared instantly! “What is the meaning of this?! I’m ranked in the top ten of the city guards, why didn’t you assign me to the walls!”

His father, too tired to even bother giving a reply ignored his enraged son and plainly spoke.

“Have you received and understood your orders? If yes you can go.”

“BUT!-”

Elpis tried to protest, however it was for naught as his father spread out a double pair of wings and with a simple flap a monstrous airwave erupted out, powerful enough to fell a tree, the airwave flung the powerless Elpis flying out of the office like a broken doll.

“You received your task.” with this last sentence the door slammed shut by herself.

“Goodbye…” After he was left in the room a single sparkling clear tear came out of the captain’s right eye streaming past his cheek.

(special thanks to Fenicia Frost for ‘her’ valuable tips and another special thank to the army of nitpicking editors and whatnot that cleaned up this chapter.)