1 PROLOGUE

There was a goddess with ethereal beauty

She was mother of three, spouse of an immortal god and a wise man

The oldest son was the heir of immortality,

The younger twins were the heir of the wisdom of humanity

The firstborn was cruel and arrogant

With his power, he tormented his brothers

The second son roared up the sound of plea toward the heaven

Begging for mercy, justice, and power

Came the trickster, offering a craft

A craft to make him as powerful as his brother

The middle one mastered the craft

He challenged his brother to an unending battle

The youngest loved peace in nature

He, too, raised up the voice of plea toward the sky

Came again the trickster

"Your life would bring peace amongst your brothers," he said

The youngest, as naive as he was, believed the calling

He threw himself into the battle,

Soon his life was expired in the brothers' hands

The goddess cried in despair

Thus, she let out a curse

"You shall die protecting my youngest son's descendants," was her curse to the firstborn

"You shall exhaust your life for a never-ending thirst to seek more power," was her curse for the second

"...and you, I shall banish you to the earth. For eternity shall you deceive mankind and to be deceived!!" She screamed to the trickster.

**

The night sky was bright with the flame of fire burning down the castle complex one by one. The fire was blazing up to the sky, as if wanted to swallow it into its embrace. The high general Rae Lawran could only gaze dispiritedly as the castle building turned into ashes bit by bit.

It's all gone now...

The young general shook his head, forcing himself to focus. He had a very important task waiting for him to deliver, even if it would demand his own life. He tossed away his ragged cloak and took his defendere crystal. The crystal could provide protection from any attack for its user. Rae chanted the simple chant to activate the crystal. Soon after, his body was surrounded by a layer of water-like coating.

The young man took his steps to the Northern part of the castle where the king and queen's chamber was. He broke through a flock of fleeing ladies-in-wait and pushed away some eunuchs who were running with a bucket of water, some valuables, or with their body only. Some of his men saw him head toward the king's chamber and followed him. As he guessed their intention, Rae immediately waved his hand and commanded them to return to their post.

"But general," his captain protested, "Northern complex was the first part of the castle that got hit. There would be packed with Balins. At least let some of us go with you! We could assist you and assure the safety of the queen and the crown prince..."

Rae stopped and pushed that captain back, said firmly, "Stay where you are to help the king at the front gate. Help me to evacuate the ladies-in-wait and the eunuchs, so their flight won't disturb the defence that king had erected. Leave the safety of the queen and crown prince to General Lee and me. Do you understand me, Captain Kayene?!"

The captain clenched his teeth and nodded. He then returned to his original post, along with his men. Rae continued to move forward, casting some water magic to repel the fire that seemed thirsty for his life as he went. A couple of minutes after, the tall and well-built general had reached the corridor which connecting the Eastern part of the castle, where his original post was, with the Northern part.

He was frowning, trying to suppress the agony and anger when he saw before his eyes, the most beautiful part of the castle that he loved so much, had now laid in ruins. The originally painted sky-blue columns had now mostly blackened and cracked by the fire and the smokes. All the rare plants and beautiful flowers planted surrounding the corridor had now been burned and destroyed. He saw his men's corpses all over the marble floor where their blood had spoiled the white colour. Rae also saw some burnt Balin corpses. The offendere crystal (the crystal that could produce attacks depending on the kind of magic infused into it) which planted on the columns seemed to be working.

Rae caught a glimpse of movement approaching from the West, made him jump sideway to avoid the attack. He then saw a Balin crush a column not far from where he was standing before. Rae took a good look at his attacker. That Balin was two meters high, with a pair of muscled arms and body. Its skin was coal-black, while its face was pulled backwards when its teeth became large fangs and shark-like teeth, completely disfiguring its original face. The creature's skull had cracked open and showed its blackened brain. Its blood-red eyes glued to the young general, hungry for blood.

"That was Lee's doing, right? You should've just let her have her way with you, to cut your carcass brain into pieces with her Aoife sword..."

The creature growled when he attacked Rae with its claws. The black, eagle-like claws sprawled over in lightning speed to rip Rae's throat. The young general jumped once more(not to flee the attack, but to find chance to counter-attack. He pulled out his sword and then dripped his own blood on the yellow crystal implanted on the handle of his sword.

"Neara!!" He called.

Responded to the call, Rae's sword was glowing. Following the bright light, a beautiful woman appeared. She was radiant with the golden light surrounding her slender body. The woman had long, wavy hair that she adorned with a golden crown. She was dressed in golden robe like an Olympian goddess, made her beauty glow to the fullest. The woman locked her sight to the Balin before she shone once more and entered Rae's body. The young general felt a flow of strength in his body, pulsing along his veins, was ready to burst out. He knew then, that he had unified with his sword's soul.

Rae dropped fierce attacks to the Balin. His sword swung mercilessly, craving for its opponent's blood. The creature was trying to defend itself with its claws, before howling in pain when Rae's sword cut its whole arm. It did not take too long for the young general to eventually cut off the creature's head and put it dead once more.

After killing the creature, Rae continued to move on to the Northern complex, only to stop occasionally to kill any Balin that was trying to block his way. When he reached the throne room, he saw his best friend and partner, Arlette Lee. The younger woman was facing two Noble Balins. This kind of Balin was different with those that Rae just killed. Noble Balin had similar appearance to human and was equipped with high artificial intelligent. Sometimes, it was difficult to tell them apart with a real, normal, living human.

Rae grew up with Arlette. Rae's family line had always been serving in imperial army. The man himself was the twentieth generation of High General of the Annwn Empire. Arlette's family, on the other hand, was one of the queen's closest relatives. The girl was initially nurtured to be a sophisticated and elegant noblewoman, to be married off to a prince or other nobility. However, she had never liked it. She had always loved the thrill of a soldier's life, thus forced Rae to teach her all skills that any good soldier should have mastered. She, then, asked her parents to send her off to the Imperial Army Academy together with Rae. The two best friends graduated in the same time and smoothly made career as soldiers, then they became two of the court's best generals.

One of the Noble Balins cursed at Arlette when the female general drilled a hole on its stomach. Rae took a glimpse of victorious smile drawn on Arlette's ever inviting full lips that were hidden behind the curtain of her red hair. Her red hair was like the glowing sunset, warm yet stealing one's breath with its beauty. Usually, Arlette styled them in braids, pinned them securely like a crown on her head. But now they were unkempt(some were falling on her shoulders and back like orange velvet cloak, some were screening her beautiful face. The smile soon after changed into a victorious laugh as the woman eventually took the Balin's life for eternity.

"Having fun by yourself, Lee?" Rae jumped to join the female general in the fight.

It was then, when he took a closer look, that he realized how blood had spoiled his best friend's silver armour(both black and red bloods. Arlette's marble cheek had also scarred with deep cuts that were still dripping blood. The red flow of life was also dripping from one side of Arlettes lips. The sight made Rae even more furious. He prepared to kill the Balins into tiny bits that his sword could make.

"I could hold them off, Rae," Arlette whispered while swinging her sword toward the enemies. "Go find Queen Maeve and the Crown Prince. They should be in the crystal room..."

Rae hesitated, worried for his friend's safety. He could see that the woman was struggling even to standing firm. Wounds had scarred every possible spot on her slender, yet muscular body. However, he knew that she was right. The safety of the Queen and Crown Prince were of most importance. He killed one Balin that trolling over to help their comrade in one struck, then reached for Arlette's shoulder to kiss her on the cheek.

"'Till we meet again, my friend...," he whispered.

"Live on, my friend," replied Arlette. A faint smile cracked on her pale face.

Rae let go the woman's shoulder and ran to the crystal room where they put the core crystal of their empire. The core crystal was used for producing other crystals across the empire. Rae pushed the polar room's door. The door minted from mixtures of gold, bronze, and crystals from the core itself. His eyes were blinded for seconds due to the radiating and brilliant light of the core crystal. Rae needed another minute before he could get used to the light and started to cast his eyes around the room.

Crystal room hosted three meters in height and 1.75 m in width of a giant crystal. The crystal had always been radiating brilliant white light, thus the name Gwendolyn was given to her by the king. Gwendolyn was the polar that withhold the entire empire due to her tremendous power, made her the most desirable treasure to be claimed by others, especially by the creator of Balins.

When the Balin phenomena started to occur a decade ago, no one knew who created the animated corpses. At first, the court administrators thought they were victims of an infectious break out that transformed human into zombie. However, after several autopsies and researches, the imperial alchemists and physicists eventually drew a shocking conclusion. There was no deadly virus, only some sort of craft, a powerful one on top of that, which was cast toward corpses. The craft was a black magic. It required powerful employment of alchemy, of which was not for any ordinary man doing. The culprit infused the craft into a synthetic crystal and planted it into a corpse's chest, where its heart used to be, as the heart's replacement. The king sent Intels to search for clues, but to no avail. Even worse, not only that they grew in numbers, there were new kind of Balin being created. The new kind was a more sophisticated creation with artificial intelligence of their own. They were named the Noble Balin.

Then, those damned creatures finally strike a blow to the King and his family. A treason as it was...

Rae used his defendere crystal to create protection for his sight in order to reduce Gwendolyn's brilliant light that started to hurt his pair of black eyes.

"Your Majesty!" He called, dragging his eyes to the surroundings, keenly seeking glimpse of his mistress' trace.

Rae felt as if his heart were stop beating when he saw a sight of a woman in green silk dress laying on one of the corners. He ran circling the copper floor that was built surrounding the core crystal Gwendolyn. The sound of his boots stomping on the floor echoed all over the room, as he dashed away to check the body.

Queen Maeve was the most beautiful woman Rae ever met in his life. The sophisticated queen had a beautiful, long, and silky black hair, which she used to style elegantly into beehive. Yet now, her hair covered her body like a piece of black garment. The queen's beautiful face had always luminous with benevolence, radiating others with joy. However, now the beautiful face had turned stiff like a cold-white gypsum. Her forest-green eyes, which always full of wisdom and compassion, had now forever hidden beneath her shut eyelids.

"Your Majesty!!" Rae cried. He shook his mistress' body, as if by doing so he could call her soul back.

"Your Highness...," whispered another voice, so familiar to Rae like the sound of his own heartbeat.

Arlette wobbly approached Rae's side then kneeled next to her best friend. She reached for her aunt's, the queen, cheek with her blood-stained hand and stroke it gently. Rae could see Arlette's body was shivering, as the frigid air of death had taken over all the warmth that the queen had always emitted in her lifetime.

Arlette bit her lips, restraining herself to let out a cry. However, on the next second, as if reminded of something, she suddenly stood up, cast her eyes wildly, looking for something.

"Arlette..."

"Rae..., where is the Crown Prince?"

The words stunned Rae. He hastily let go the queen's body and followed his best friend to seek any sign of the Crown Prince's presence in that room.

"Rae," called Arlette. She now stood at the other corner of the room.

The young general turned his head and felt his heart thumping heavily. He saw Arlette stand in front of the control machine panel. The machine was used to control and operate any technology deployed by their nation, as well as by other small nations and countries that were surrounding their empire like satellites.

"Rae...," called Arlette once more, this time more as a whisper.

Rae walked across the room, to where Arlette was. He followed her sight and saw that two of the monitors had been activated. The machine informed that the last command inputted had now completed. Rae felt his stomach twisted into knots when he realized that the active monitors were the monitors to open portals between universes, while the other one was to activate self-destruction program for Gwendolyn. The self-destruction would not only set to blow the crystal into pieces, but also would put an eternal end for their empire.

Rae's eyes were fixated to the numbers shown on the monitor. He was bewildered, not knowing what to do to stop the running program. The machine had started the count down, showing the destination of the opening portal.

It was written, "Earth..."