Prologue

In a time there was peace.

In a time there were separate continents and countries. In a time there were vast stretches of humanity and spanned the globe. In a time there was vast wealth and abundance. In a time there were cities and towns and villages. In a time there was community and prosperity and hope.

In a time there was a world that humanity ruled.

And in that time there was war, and violence, and destruction, and death. In that time there was poverty and horrors beyond the imagination.

In a world that belonged to humans, monsters roamed free, and blood was their favorite meal.

Perhaps it was inevitable then, how that human world erupted into war. A world war, unlike any before or since, bathed the continent of Europe, and soldiers from all around the globe fought and died on foreign soil. It dragged on for years.

Until one day, a day as bloody and merciless as any other, with the war raging and no end in sight, the soldiers looked to the sky and saw a crack. Lining the sky and peering down, as if God was peering through the glass dome to see what his foolish creations had done. That day, the Day the Sky Blinked as many called it, something called Mana was leaked into the atmosphere, and soaked into the ground. Awakening the Mana of Earth that had long since been dormant.

Those that felt its touch, those soldiers on the brink of death, those that awakened under the pressure of life and despair, suddenly became stronger than humanity should've allowed. Bullets that had once pierced their bodies now bounced off the mucus like membrane around their skin. War suddenly became confusing and meaningless in a world where the common guns had quickly become obsolete.

The end of the First World War was not an implosion, but a lingering confusion. Countries began scrambling to figure out what was going on. As their animals became increasingly volatile and dangerous. As their food became strange and odd. As their continents began shifting and shaking. Some called it the End of the World.

Few knew it was merely the calm before the storm.

Two years later, after what the day everything changed, the crack widened and hordes of demons fell upon the world. Dragging humanity into a war against an enemy far stronger and far more powerful than any human kingdom could bear. The countries they invaded fell, and those that were left behind begrudgingly began working together. Collecting the individuals that had Awakened. The soldiers and the prodigies. Humanity tasked them with weapons that had soaked up mana, and tried to fight back.

And they failed miserably.

It was too quick. Too sudden. Too late for humanity to stage a defense against an invasion that no one saw coming. With powers no one had been able to master, and modern weapons became a hinderance and weapons of old were too long forgotten to be made use of. It was too difficult.

The death toll was immeasurable. It's believed 90% of humanity was wiped out in the initial years of the invasion.

And after North and South America fell, the remaining scraps of population evacuated to the burning Eastern Continents, it became clear that humanity was out of its depths.

Thrust from a modern war into a mythical one, humanity was unable to keep up.

But then one day, there was a rumor. A spark. A legend arose from the world set ablaze.

A mythical figure, as unbelievable as the demons that invaded or the monsters that animals had mutated into, was seen on the frontlines. Treading the earth with silent steps, their black cloak moved hauntingly among enemy forces, claiming lives without remorse or fear. Wiping out hordes of demons with a single swing of their scythe, unkown to all but recognized by many, they left nothing behind but blood stained battlefields.

People began calling this figure the Reaper.

And soon others began to follow in their blood soaked footsteps.

Kaito Roku, a Japanese kendo instructor from an old samurai family that had been on the decline. Gayle Spriggan, a lumberjack in Ireland that lived and died by his axe. Aveline De La Serra, a descendant of royalty from France's long feudal lineage. Bayek Amun, a blacksmith in Egypt. Kiran Sinha, a Buddhist in India. Meng Yhao, an apothecary in China.

From professions left behind under a looming modern world, saviors that had learned their powers and mastered weapons that had long been abandoned, came to defend humanity.

And when the hole in the sky finally closed, and the demons were pushed back across the ocean, thanks to the efforts of heroes that had fought and died for humanity's survival. When all was set and done.

The spark that began it all. The one who became known as the First Hero. The infamous Reaper and their blood stained scythe. 

Disappeared.

And humanity began to rise from the ashes it had nearly been buried in. The governments that remained combined into a singularity known as the World Union. Working hastily to ensure such destruction never repeated, they tried to get humanity to rebuild and adjust to a world far different than their old one.

From the get go, their mission was difficult.

During the period that Mana had begun changing the world, the 7 continents had shifted to create two giant landmasses, divided by the relentless, monster infested sea once known as the Atlantic Ocean. This left the world with two supercontinents, one to the west and one to the east.

The supercontinent to the west was known as Gaea, an amalgamation of what had once been the western hemisphere, where North America, South America, and Antarctica. After the war, the demons claimed the lands of Gaea as their own and settled there.

Meanwhile Humans claimed the supercontinent to the east known as Igea, where what had once been Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Africa combined into a similar landmass, taking up the eastern hemisphere. Humans hunkered down after the invasion.

And the World Union started building strongholds. Fortress cities that could house millions and defend the population from the threat of demons across the pond and the monsters that roamed the world. The various plants and animals that had been twisted and mutated by the giant influx in Mana.

The World Union made defending against the threat of demons and monsters humanity's first priority.

And they weren't the only ones.

The few heroes that survived the first invasion, the legends and the warriors, started creating guilds. Organizations where talented warriors congregated and banded together to fight humanity's foes.

Soon dozens of guilds and hundreds of heroes had banded together under the young Christian Regalia, an 18 year old genius considered to be the strongest Man on Earth. He established the Hero Association, a group sponsored by the World Union to keep reigns over the powerhouses known as guilds, and paved the way to a recovering world.

Under his guidance, cities were rebuilt. Monsters were slaughtered and humanity began to feel a semblence of safety again.

But even then, such peace wasn't meant to last.

30 years later, before humanity could finish catching its breath, the demons launched a second invasion, and in no time flat, the lands to southern Igea, were conquered. Countless heroes from the first invasion died. And those that didn't were rendered helpless against such a large imposing force.

Pushed to the Northern half of Igea, it seemed once again like Humanity would crumble.

But suddenly, as mythical as before, humanity was saved. Portals began appearing, and races of legend and fantasy walked out. Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs flooded the battlefield, and fought tirelessly against the demon invasion. Giving the remaining heroes the assistance they needed to repel the demons and reclaim the lands they lost. Humanity persevered.

And their unexpected allies, explained everything.

A malicious, gluttonous entity known as the Demon King, known for conquering worlds throughout the universe, had set its sights on Earth. If his army was not repelled, the demon king would conquer Earth and render it a wasteland, just as he was in the process of doing to their home planets.

The leaders of each faction, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs, made it very clear it was only a matter of time before another invasion. Hence why they came to Earth, in order to regroup and recover from the wars they were currently losing on their home-worlds.

They had each been surprised by the demon king's initial invasion, same as humanity had, and had lost too much ground to make up.

Earth, one of the few remaining worlds not fully under the demon king's control, was seen as a final frontier. A place these foreign races could sink their roots into and defend, without falling victim to the surprise attack the demon king had already unleashed upon all of their home planets.

And under the pressure of their foreign allies, who were far more practiced and experienced in the long and sudden war, a treaty was reached.

Drafting a map of Igea, the eastern supercontinent free from demon control; the remaining territories of Igea were divided among the four species.

The Icy and Mountainous Northern lands were claimed by the Dwarves, who desired the ores and did not fear the icy temperatures.

The harsh and dry deserts of the South were claimed by the Orcs, whose home-world had a similar climate befitting of a warrior race.

And the central area of Igea, the land that happened to have the old world's more green landscapes, were split between the humans and the elves. With Humans taking the lands closer to the Orcs and Elves taking the lands closer to the Dwarves.

After the treaty was struck it was quickly agreed that each of these four kingdoms would work separately to combat the demons forces to the west. With four fronts now in opposition to the demon king's army, and the wars he was waging on planets across the universe, any future invasion would be severely delayed by splitting the demons' attention.

All nation's leaders agreed, and quickly dispersed. Settling in their lands and rebuilding what was left after the second invasion. For humanity, that meant establishing nine strongholds, a far cry from the thousands of cities that used to exist, but they made do with what they had. Erecting fortresses meant to serve and protect humanity from the rest of the world.

In the far west, Gigalith, a city built into a mountain with walls the size of cliff faces, stood as humanity's most heavily fortified fortress. Combating both the constant flood of monsters from the westward ocean, as well as the ever looming threat of an invasion, it was by far the most heavily defended city humanity had to offer. With the city resting behind it, Axel, meant solely as a regroup point in case it fell.

Meanwhile to the far east two strongholds stood for a similar purpose. Shinto in the north and Chi-Yu in the south. Both connected by a wall, they served as a buffer against the sea monsters of the eastern ocean, as well as a trading point for those willing to venture on the unforgiving oceans.

As for the remaining five strongholds, each served their own purposes.

In the south, as a buffer between humanity and the War-loving Orcs to the south, Grimwall stood as a safety measure. Meant to protect the stronghold of Yarnam that lay behind it, a city that had become humanity's center for agriculture and livestock. Producing over half of its food and water.

Then in the north there were two strongholds, Sol and Peridot, each relatively prosperous and safe. Cities built under the watchful eye of the reclusive elves to the north, they were able to focus most of their energy towards development. Dealing with gates, portals, and mana cores left by monsters, a decent amount of guilds reside in these two cities.

Finally, in the center of the human territory, the capital simply known as Regalia City, in honor of Christian Regalia and his efforts to save humanity, lay as the beacon of human technology, progress, and innovation. By far the biggest and busiest city, this metropolis was seen as a symbol of humanity's dignity. A flash back to any of the countless super cities that had existed before the first invasion.

It was in Regalia, that humanity saw its hope.

And it was in Regalia, that Zeke woke. Fallen on the desolate bathroom floor with a, dirty rope around his neck, he woke up. His body sore and bruised, Zeke slowly pulled his eyes open, and stopped. Because in one of the glass shards of a broken mirror, he saw someone's reflection.

It was a boy that looked a few years younger than him, maybe highschool age instead of college, with a thin frame, shaggy brown hair and lightest aquamarine eyes. Zeke looked at the boy, and the plethora of small scrapes and bruises lining his pale skin.

The newest being the giant blotched bruise around his neck, peeking beneath the noose that hadn't tightened enough to kill.

When Zeke woke up, he immediately realized the kid had tried to kill himself.

"Huh…" He looked into the reflective shards and murmured.

"What an idiot…"

Before promptly closing his eyes and going back to sleep.