PROLOGUE
A shrill siren echoed through the darkened shelter. Riselia and Regina, both only nine years old, sat huddled together, their shoulders shivering in fear. Eight hours had passed since the Stampede began. Through the constant blaring of alarms, the two girls could hear the distant sounds of distorted howls. A swarm of Voids was closing in on the Third Assault Garden’s center.
If those monstrous things found Riselia and Regina, it would be the end of the girls. Those terrifying creatures would easily shred their way through this shelter’s shutters. Riselia’s father, Duke Edward Ray Crystalia, had half forced his young daughter into the safe room and bid her his final farewell.
“Father, I’ll fight the Voids, too!” Riselia had insisted.
“No. You still haven’t awakened to the power of a Holy Sword,” Duke Crystalia scolded his daughter, who had clung to him just as he was about to depart.
“…A Holy Sword… But…!”
Riselia’s father squatted down, gently patting her fair, silvery locks.
“Don’t worry. The Dark Lord will surely appear in this world someday.”
“The Dark Lord… Isn’t that a bad person?”
The Dark Lord was a character who appeared in the fairy tales Riselia’s father would always tell her. He was supposed to be a king who ruled over evil monsters.
After seeing his confused daughter cock her head, Duke Crystalia cracked a bitter smile. “That’s right. A bad Dark Lord will appear in this dying world someday, to—”
“…?”
Duke Crystalia wasn’t so much explaining it to his daughter as he was speaking to himself. Even years later, Riselia struggled to discern what her father had thought when he’d said those words. There’d been an undeniable earnestness to his tone, a keen emotion that hadn’t felt like he was merely trying to cheer his daughter up.
A bad Dark Lord will come to this world to…
The cries of the Voids grew nearer, and the lights in the shelter went out. Riselia and Regina sat terrified in total darkness. Riselia prayed, as hard as she could, that the Dark Lord her father spoke of would appear.
Then…
In year 58 of the Integrated Human Calendar, the Third Assault Garden, Crystalia, was destroyed in the midst of a Void Stampede.
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