The lab at Conor Hills buzzed with faint hums from the scanners. Doctor Aiko leaned forward, her eyes darting between glowing symbols and shifting energy charts. Finally, she exhaled in frustration.
"Sergeant… I couldn't match the energy signature anywhere else."
Shaw stood with his arms folded, his scarred face unreadable. He tapped his chin, thinking hard.
"Alright… leave the scan running live. The moment it picks up anything—even the tiniest particle—you report it to me. Immediately."
"Yes, sir," Aiko said, turning back to her console.
But curiosity got the better of her. "Sir, I don't understand. Halzora is dead. How could he still be alive—or even out there? After all this years how?"
Shaw's eyes darkened. He stepped closer, picking up the orb. Its crimson glow painted harsh shadows across his face.
"Do you know what this orb signifies?"
The Aiko and crew exchanged glances, blank, waiting for him to explain.
"This orb proves Halzora's power is alive. Why do you think the other orbs have been glowing for thousands of years? Why do you think magic even exists in this world? It's because these orbs are the source of magic in this realm. And now… Halzora's Orb glowing for the first time in five thousand years means only one thing."
He paused, his grip tightening around it.
"Halzora has been resurrected… or his magic has been activated somewhere. But why now?.... After all those years." he muttered, almost to himself.
One of the junior researchers frowned. "Sir… if Halzora is back, isn't that a good thing? He was the greatest mage of all time. Maybe he could end the demon problem once and for all."
For the first time, Shaw let out a short laugh—but it wasn't comforting. It was sharp, bitter.
"You think Halzora's return is good news?" He looked around the room, his eyes like steel. "Yes, he was a good and one of the greatest mage. But the sacrifice he made…" Shaw stopped, drawing in a slow, heavy breath. "…that's the part of the story you should all be afraid of."
The room went silent. Even the hum of the machines seemed to fade as Shaw's voice hung in the air.
"Let me tell you the story again…"
Five thousand years ago here in ELDORIA The long Night begin.
[The Long Night]
The Long Night wasn't just a battle—it was the day Earth was thrown into chaos.
ELDORIA, the capital of humanity's hope, became the front line in a war no one believed they could survive.
The sky burned red as gates between dimensions split open, and from the rift poured the demon army. At its forefront was Drogo, the Demon Archmage, a being whose power had long surpassed Level 10—the pinnacle of demonic evolution. His aura alone bent reality, making even the strongest Shadowbane Warriors falter.
The Sacromance—the six legendary mages who balanced the world's magic—summoned their warriors. Elite fighters trained to eradicate darkness, called the Shadowbane. Each carried powers inherited from the six Scaromance lineages, their skills honed to perfection. But against Drogo's forces, even their greatest abilities buckled under the overwhelming tide.
Weeks of relentless combat tore Eldoria apart. Shadowbanes clashed with demons in battles that lit up the night sky like storms, their system interfaces glowing with combat stats and warnings. Soldiers pushed their abilities to the edge:
[System Alert: Mana Reserves Critically Low]
[Skill Overload: Shadow Strike EX — Unavailable for 24 Hours]
The battlefield became a graveyard of both heroes and demons.
And then, Drogo himself entered the fray. His mastery of forbidden demon magic tore through defenses, summoning flaming storms and shadow beasts that crushed resistance. Even the Sacromance—beings spoken of as near gods—found themselves cornered.
Amid the chaos, Halzora, leader of the Sacromance, stepped forward. His system blinked warnings of dangerous surges, but he ignored them. Lightning and fire coursed around him, unstable, uncontrollable. He knew his power alone would never be enough.
"Activate Talchi Protocol."
A forbidden option appeared in his system:
[ Talchi Technique: Warning — System Corruption Likely ]
[ Proceed? Y/N ]
Halzora hesitated for only a heartbeat before selecting Y.
The Talchi Technique—an ancient, forbidden magic—allowed its user to absorb the energy of any living being, to exceed every limit. But the cost was everything: body, mind, and soul.
Raising his hands, Halzora merged lightning and fire into a spiraling core. With a roar, he unleashed it toward Drogo's vessel. The demon archmage screamed as his life force was ripped away, power siphoned into Halzora's system.
The battlefield froze. Demons crumbled, their essence shredded by the overwhelming surge.
But victory came at a terrible price.
Halzora's system fractured. Dark energy pulsed violently, streaking across his body like black lightning. Error messages filled his interface:
[ System Error: Power Surge Detected ]
[ Warning: Soul Instability Rising ]
"Ceyra!" Halzora cried to his closest ally. "Seal me! Cast the spell—NOW!"
"But if I do, your soul—your system—it will all be destroyed!" Ceyra trembled as she began to weave the Soulbind Spell.
"We don't have a choice!" Halzora growled, eyes burning with fiery darkness. "If you don't, everyone dies!"
Ceyra completed the incantation. Light shattered around him. Halzora's body burst apart into glowing shards as a massive explosion rippled across the battlefield. Drogo was obliterated. The demon army scattered in terror. The sky cleared.
The Long Night had ended.
But the devastation had only just begun.
Halzora's fragments pierced the dimensional veil, tearing open rifts across Eldoria. They became passageways for demons to cross freely into the human world. Before the Sacromance could seal them, some demons had already slipped through—hidden among the survivors, wearing human faces.
To contain the threat, the Sacromance erected Guardian Fortresses at every rift, defended by Shadowbane warriors. But the woleholes remained a constant reminder of Halzora's sacrifice… and the shadows that still lingered.
Shaw's words hung in the room. No one spoke. The silence was thick, like even the air was listening. Finally, Doctor Aiko cleared her throat.
"So… likely Halzora is corrupted by dark energy."
"Yes," Shaw replied, his voice sharp but low. "Now you understand. That's why I need you and your team working harder than ever. Find the source of that energy. Track it, no matter how small. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," Aiko said, nodding.
Shaw adjusted his coat. "Before I leave… I need to see Project 667."
Aiko's eyes flickered. "Are you sure, sir?"
"Don't question me, Aiko."
"Sorry, sir."
She led him down a separate corridor, deeper into the facility. This part was different—colder, heavier. Every few steps, steel bulkheads sealed behind them. Surveillance orbs followed their movements, lenses whirring. Rows of automated turrets hummed quietly along the walls, ready to fire at anything that moved without clearance.
At last, they reached a massive iron door. Aiko pressed her palm to the scanner, tapped a sequence of codes, and the locks disengaged one by one with loud, mechanical thuds. The door opened, revealing a chamber built like a fortress within a fortress.
Behind a transparent containment wall sat something terrifying.
A demon.
It was bound in heavy chains forged with runes, every link glowing faintly to suppress its strength. A thick metal ring was clamped around its head, feeding constant pulses of energy into its skull to keep its mind fractured.
Shaw stepped closer. Slowly, he reached for the black eyepatch covering the scarred side of his face. With a single motion, he pulled it off. His ruined eye burned faintly as he glared at the demon.
"You did this to me," Shaw said, his voice raw, heavy with rage. For a moment, the pain in his words filled the chamber more than the demon's growl.
He pressed a button on the control panel.
The chamber responded instantly. From the walls, searing beams of energy tore into the demon. It screamed, its voice an unearthly shriek that clawed at the ears. The chains rattled, runes flaring bright as it thrashed helplessly, every cry echoing like nails across glass.
Shaw didn't look away. He stood there, breathing hard, letting the demon's agony wash over him like vengeance made sound. Minutes dragged by before he finally released the button.
The beams died down. The demon slumped, smoke curling from its skin.
Shaw closed his eye, took a deep breath, then slowly slipped the eyepatch back into place and walked away.