The Ancestors

Once upon a time, before the world was in existence, there was no other life forms, except the two entities, Chaos and Order. Chaos and Order existed separately for a long time until the moment Chaos became unstable. Order fused with Chaos to calm it down and they became one. However, that state lasted only for a short while before they broke up into six fragments which later became the Six Elementals: Light, Darkness, Fire, Water, Wind and Earth.

The Six Elementals coexisted and they formed the world together. After thousands of years, the prowess of two elementals combined and gave birth to a new life form who would later be referred as a god. Similarly, each pair of two of the elements, with the exception of Darkness and Fire that were at odds with each other, gave birth to the gods. In this way, the 14 gods and goddesses came into existence.

After giving birth to the gods, the Elementals went into deep slumber. While they were asleep, they released tiny fragments of their prowess as mana. In years, the mana of different elementals combined and formed into new life forms, like plants, insects, spiders, etc. Meanwhile, the gods mated among themselves and had children as well. Those direct descendants of the gods were fairies.

The children of fairies were nymphs and nymphs' children were 'homos'* or humanoids, and beasts. Later, some species of homos and beast further gave birth to animals. Humans were a part of homos and thus, they were the distant descendants of the gods. Insects, plants, animals, homos, nymphs, and even fairies perished with time but the gods remained unchanged since their birth. They ruled over the elements of the world and kept the world in order…

"So, this is the more 'scientific' version of the history of the world I've heard as a bedtime story." Huvel mumbled as he put the book in his hands down. "It is very much like those world creation fantasy stories I read in my past life. But this world is much different from the world of my previous life. And I've actually seen one of the gods so I guess this story is not completely nonsense. Hmm…, since I got the blessing of the Goddess of the Underworld, I should pay my respect at her temple. Maybe, I can find a fairy or at least a nymph in her temple!"

Although homos built temples and pray to the gods, the gods did not care much about lower life forms who had short lifespans. The ones who usually grant their wishes were fairies and nymphs. Fairies and nymphs occasionally visit the temples where their ancestors were worshipped and fulfilled the wishes of the worshipers, out of either good will or boredom. Humans learnt about that truth from the first awakened human, Lady Mariabelle, who in turn was told by a fairy. Nevertheless, people continued building temples for the gods and praying to them.

"After reading the story of gods, I have an urge to visit a temple of a god." Huvel spoke out.

"Which god's temple do you want to visit, master?" asked Chance who was standing near Huvel all the time.

"A temple of the Goddess of the Underworld," replied Huvel. "Tell me where are the nearest temples."

"Temple of the Goddess of the Underworld?" Chance looked at him with puzzled eyes. "I think master have not heard about this since you are still young. But there are not any temples for the goddess in this kingdom. In fact, there was only one temple in all of humans' territories and I don't recommend to go there."

"Hmm? I've never heard about it. I know that there are small alters for her in graveyards but I did not know that she only has one temple. What happened?"

"Actually, the Goddess of the Underworld used to be a popular goddess in all homos' territories. The decline of her temples in human's territories was not related to the goddess herself. It all started because of dark magic. Unlike most homos and beasts, humans do not have affinity with dark element and are weak against it. About a hundred years ago, humans forbad dark magic in their territories. All human countries declared a witch-hunt together and hunted down every human magician who awakened Dark Prowess.

Most human dark magicians lost their lives and only a few managed to flee to demi-humans' territories. At that time, there was a rumour that several human dark magicians were taking refuge in the temple of the Goddess of the Underworld on the burial ground of Warso Valley of Blue Hippogriff Kingdom. It should have been a small matter if some wizards investigated the temple but at that time, every human kingdom wanted to contribute in the witch-hunt. They dispatched unnecessarily large number of soldiers and low-ranking magicians as a form of showing off their power.

An army of three thousand soldiers and thirty magicians marched to the Warso Valley just to eradicate a few magicians. The head priest of the temple in Warso Valley came out of the valley to meet the army commanders. He denied the rumours and told them that there was no dark magician in the temple. But... it seemed the army was led by some excessively prideful princes. They killed the head priest and the whole army marched to the temple.

But it was said that a nymph lived on the burial ground where the temple was built. She is called the Nymph of Graveyard and she is a descendant of the Goddess of the Underworld. It was told later that the nymph raged at the disrespect of the human army toward the goddess and cursed every single human that tried to invade the temple. All three thousand soldiers died on spot! The magicians that somehow managed to escape lost their lives in seven days. Even a 6th-tier light wizard that tried to dispel the curse was infected by the curse and lost his life instead!

Since then, humans became afraid of the Goddess of the Underworld. Later, the priests of the temple in Warso Valley tried to explain that the death of the army was caused by a nymph not by the goddess herself. Even then, humans no longer visited her temples again out of fear. Temples cannot exist when there are no worshipers. The temples of the Goddess of the Underworld in human territories fell in no time. Only the temple in Warso Valley remained because the priests there were free from danger under the protection of the nymph and they were self-sufficient."

Huvel listened to Chance's long story without interrupting. His eyes were sparkling as he listened.

"The nymph's curse could easily kill a 6th-tier wizard indirectly!" He exclaimed inwardly. "It must be at least an 8th-tier spell. The current strongest human magicians are only at 7th-circle. A nymph really is much more powerful than wizards! I must visit the burial ground in Warso Valley. Even though the event happened a hundred years ago, I doubt any wizard would go there to purge the dark energies emitted by the soldiers before they died. If I meditate in such place, I can expand my mana circle in a short time!"

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Footnote: *homos as in Latin word for 'human'. It is a general term for all human and demi-human races. Please do not confuse it with 'homosexuals' :3