Prologue

(56 years before the first war of the god of souls with the god of matter, month of life)

It was noon, and like any other day of the month of life, the weather was wonderful. Looking at it, anyone could easily say why this month was named this way. Birds chirped, a warm and light breeze stirred the young foliage, bees pollinated colorful flowers that looked like they were posing and were waiting for only one thing - when the artist would paint a picture dedicated to them. Life was in full swing.

Even despite the remoteness of man from nature, life in a human town named Theodoria fully reflected what was happening in nature. Even the most grumpy old people and hardened pessimists felt that things were not as bad as they used to think. Smiling merchants touted customers. The blacksmiths forged tools, weapons and armor with such joy, as if the fate of mankind depended on it and they did not care at all that they had been doing this for many years in a row. Old wizards came up with new spells with the same enthusiasm as they did with their very first spell.

Even the most conservative unbelievers could not ignore the hard work of the god of life (it is worth noting that atheism appeared in the world of Fimbalwinter long before the emergence of religion, because of the extreme passivity of the gods at the dawn of time and the ability of all races to change reality at their discretion with the help of magic).

Meanwhile, two youths - Vito and Andrea, met again near the city gates to enjoy a joint pastime. They about a year ago, but they have already become close friends.

"Are you ready to test a couple of spells again?" Vito asked his friend.

"Of course, but be careful, please. We almost got caught by the guards last time." answered Andrea.

"Come on, I didn't know it would be so bright." Vito said, and they silently, so as not to make too much noise, went to a narrow opening in the city wall. They had known about the existence of this gap in the city's defenses for a long time and were aware of the danger it posed, but it was their only way to leave the city without answering questions from the guards, so they kept it a secret.

A few moments later, they left the city and walked a short distance from it. They headed to a clearing in the forest, where they usually spent time together.

"By the way, how did you manage to get the magic crayon?"

"How many times do I have to tell you, this is not a magic crayon, but a pencil for writing spells."

"All the same. So where did you get it?"

"Remember that librarian I borrowed the book of magic symbols from? He said that one wizard who was staying in his library dropped it, but never came back to take it back, so he gave it to me for a promise that I would not do spells in the city."

"How irresponsible of him to give such a thing to a child..." Andrea said.

"You're only two years older and I'm officially not a child anymore"

"Being able to marry isn't making you adult. You're only fourteen."

Vito sighed in annoyance, but stopped arguing.

After another 10 minutes of walking, they reached their favorite place and they immediately started experimenting.

"What a pity that so few magical symbols are described in that book. Why didn't author describe all of them, just briefly." Vito said.

"You know why. Spreading knowledge about magic is forbidden. The author would have been imprisoned or even executed for writing a book about complex symbols. And the book itself would have been removed from libraries."

"Looks like those laws are coming up to spite me… well, I haven't tried symbol combinations yet. It's interesting what will happen if you try create a spell with multiple elements."

Vito took out a pencil from his travel bag, which emitted a faint glow, and a stack of cheap paper. Luckily, the magic didn't care what kind of paper it was used on.

Then he drew runes meaning fire, earth, speed and size on a piece of paper, and then connected them with a line that formed a circle. After that, he rolled the piece of paper into a scroll, pointed it to a boulder the size of a goblin, and with an effort of will poured in some mana.

The scroll got enveloped in a white flame, which instantly burned it leaving nothing but an empty space, and a fist-sized stone cloaked in weak fire flew in the indicated direction. He flew past the boulder and hit the tree. The stone itself dissipated immediately after hitting the tree and the flame set it on fire.

"Put out the fire!" Andrea cried.

Vito did not hesitate and extinguished the tree with a water spell he had prepared in advance for such occasions.

"Still can't get used to the sight of burning paper in my hands."

"I see. By the way, was it me or did you activate the spell faster than usual?"

"Yes, I finally 'found my mana organ', as the book said. Finding it and remembering it's place was the hardest part, activating spells was a piece of cake."

"How do you even understand what to do?"

"I don't know, I just try different ways and one of them always works. Do you want to try making a spell again? Maybe this time it will work."

"No, thank you. I've had enough of this magic already, I'd rather get by with a sword. Finish quicker and let's go hunting."

"I thought you loved nature."

"I do and hunting is a natural part of nature."

"Well, if you say so. I'll try using a more complex size symbol, as the book says - that should make the projectile bigger. I hope I have enough mana for this. We will go hunting after it."

Vito drew several runes on the paper again, but this time their meaning was earth, speed and size (level 2). He rolled the piece of paper into a scroll and pointed it at the boulder again. The scroll got enveloped in magical flames, but this time Vito restrained his fear and his hand did not flinch. A stone three times bigger than the previous one materialized in the air and flew towards the boulder. The stone fragmented the boulder and dissipated in the same way.

"Finally hit! Shit, I want to sleep now. Looks like I've used up all my mana." Vito said.

"Look, what is it there?" Andrea noticed that something gleamed among fragments of the boulder.

Vito and Andrea ran up to the pile of fragments and cleared it away. Inside of the pile they found a book with a leather cover, gold edging and a skull on the front of. The metal was perfectly smooth, it didn't have even a single scratch on it's surface and there were no traces of dirt after they touched it. It shone mysteriously. Vito tried to look at the reflection on it, but instead of his face and the sky, he saw strange, changing images. Some showed monstrous creatures, others showed beautiful landscapes, and the last showed iridescent substances of different colors, from the appearance of which it was impossible to tell whether it was liquid, sand or something else.

For a long time they silently looked at this spectacle, as if they were hypnotized by the pictures that the metal part of the book cover showed. An undetermined amount of time later, Vito opened the book and felt a strange connection to the book. As if he sees it not for the first time, but was born with it in his hands.

He tried to read what was written in it. At first, the words seem to float across the pages of the book. They were rearranging from place to place, and the letters were changing their appearance. Soon the kaleidoscope, which the first page of the book was, develops into a readable text.

"Great Scripture. A Treatise on the Structure of the World." Vito read the title of the book.

"How did you read it?" Andrea asked uncomprehendingly.

"Are you trying to tell me that you can't?"

"Yes. I can't understand a word of that gibberish."

Both of them were puzzled.

"It seems that not everyone can read this book. I wonder how does it function?

"I have no idea."