The wind blows over Railey's lifeless body…
his torn, aged body—the body that endured sixty-six years of torment inside the forest.
…
From between the trees, small black sparks begin to gather above his chest.
They turn into a vortex… then into pure black light—dense, alive.
Railey's body trembles for a moment…
then the black light pierces his chest and enters him in silent force.
.
Railey…
is dead.
His soul separates from his body, scattering like dust, then gets pulled downward…
down…
down…
until it disappears into a black gate that leads to only one place:
Hell.
The scene fades completely.
---
In a place far, far away from the world of humans…
a realm where only higher powers exist…
stands the massive Temple of the Elements, surrounded by nine gates representing:
Fire – Water – Air – Earth – Nature – Ice – Electricity – and Light.
Above them, a black gate sealed for a thousand years… the Gate of Darkness.
Inside the temple, the rulers of the nine elements sit in a wide stone circle.
Their faces are tense… watching a massive gate that begins to tremble.
The ground shakes…
Then the gate opens…
and from it emerge the three kings who appear only during great events.
The rulers rise in respect.
The kings sit, and the eldest begins to speak in a heavy voice that shakes the hall:
"I have gathered you… because something that has not happened in a thousand years has occurred."
The rulers look at one another in unease.
The king continues:
"The disciple of the Ruler of Darkness has been chosen."
Their eyes widen in shock.
One of the elemental rulers shouts:
"Impossible! Dark magic disappeared a thousand years ago!"
The king replies coldly:
"It has returned."
A deadly silence fills the hall.
Then the third king adds:
"But the disciple… is dead now. His soul is in Hell."
One of the rulers suddenly stands:
"Dead?! Who is he?"
The king opens a scroll and reads:
"His name is Railey… he died at the age of seventy-five. He spent sixty-six of those years in the Forest of Alexeron… alone."
One ruler turns to the others:
"So he left his family's palace at the age of nine…?"
The king answers:
"Yes."
Another ruler asks angrily:
"And who drove him out?"
The king replies:
"The Ascronum family."
The ruler of Fire raises his voice:
"Armand…? With such cruelty?"
But the first king raises his hand to silence them:
"We will not discuss this now… what matters is that the element of darkness has returned."
The three kings rise together.
"And our role begins soon…"
They leave the hall…
and the faces of the rulers remain frozen in terror.
---
At the depths of Hell…
beyond the seven gates…
where no light reaches and no mercy exists…
the slaves of demons walk bent over, carrying massive rocks on their backs.
Their screams fill the air…
the stench of burning rises into the black sky.
Amid this chaos…
Railey's soul falls like a black spark onto the ground of Hell.
The earth trembles.
Demons lift their heads…
and the shadows begin to move around a small, lost soul.
Then—
The First Arc Ends