PROLOGUE
1357 Words
Before Eternia Had a Name
Before kingdoms raised their banners.
Before emperors carved their names into mountains of stone.
Before warriors sang songs of victory and poets recorded the tragedies of forgotten wars.
Before the oceans learned the rhythm of the moon.
Before the first star whispered its secrets to the darkness.
There was nothing.
Not emptiness.
Not peace.
Nothing.
A silence so complete that even the concept of sound had never been imagined. A darkness so ancient that even shadows had no meaning. There were no skies above, no earth below, no time to measure moments, no souls to dream of tomorrow.
Existence itself was asleep.
The universe was a forgotten thought waiting to be remembered.
Then...
A light appeared.
No prophecy announced its arrival.
No hand summoned it.
No ancient being claimed responsibility for its creation.
It simply existed.
A single flame floating in an endless void.
Small.
Fragile.
Almost insignificant.
Yet within that tiny spark rested something more powerful than armies, more mysterious than magic, and more ancient than the first breath of creation.
It was possibility.
It was hope.
It was the beginning.
The spark trembled once.
And the darkness screamed.
For the first time, nothingness encountered something it could not erase.
Light.
The flame expanded.
From its warmth came the first heartbeat of existence. Space unfolded like a forgotten book opening its pages. Time began to flow like a river finding its path. The heavens stretched across the endless void, and the first stars awakened, burning like diamonds scattered across the newborn sky.
Mountains rose from the bones of the earth.
Oceans filled the wounds of the world.
Winds carried the first songs of creation.
And life...
Life opened its eyes.
From the first light emerged the Celestial Ones, beings who carried fragments of the original flame within their souls. They were not gods in the way mortals would later understand.
They were guardians.
Builders.
Witnesses to the miracle of existence.
They shaped worlds beyond counting. They painted galaxies with rivers of silver fire. They planted forests where trees could remember the footsteps of those who walked beneath them. They created creatures that carried magic in their blood and wonder in their hearts.
Among all their creations, one realm shone brighter than the rest.
A realm where magic flowed like rivers.
A realm where mountains sang ancient songs.
A realm where dragons ruled the skies, phoenixes guarded the heavens, and forgotten spirits danced beneath moonlit waters.
A realm where every living thing carried a whisper of the first flame.
It had no name at first.
It did not need one.
It was simply beautiful.
But ages later, mortals would call it...
Eternia.
For thousands of years, Eternia remained untouched.
Golden cities rose beneath crystal mountains. Great kingdoms flourished beside enchanted forests. Scholars discovered mysteries hidden beneath the earth. Warriors protected borders that had never known war.
Magic was not a weapon.
Magic was not a privilege.
Magic was life itself.
Children were born with songs of the stars in their hearts. Kings ruled with wisdom instead of fear. Ancient creatures walked beside humanity as allies rather than enemies.
Peace lasted so long that the world forgot darkness existed.
And that was the greatest mistake creation ever made.
Because beyond the edge of existence...
Beyond the final star...
Beyond the place where even time feared to travel...
Something was watching.
Waiting.
Remembering.
It had existed before the first light.
Before the first world.
Before the first dream.
It was not born.
It was not created.
It simply endured.
For countless ages, it watched creation grow.
It watched mortals laugh.
It watched civilizations rise.
It watched love, hope, and beauty spread across the universe.
And it hated them.
Not because they had wronged it.
But because they existed.
The ancient beings would eventually know it by many names.
The Endless Hunger.
The Shadow Beyond Time.
The Destroyer of Forgotten Worlds.
But the name that terrified even immortals was...
Malverion Tharos.
The Eternal Oblivion.
Malverion did not conquer kingdoms.
He did not demand loyalty.
He did not seek crowns or worship.
Those things were meaningless to him.
He wanted something far greater.
He wanted silence.
True silence.
A universe where nothing had ever existed.
Where no memories remained.
Where no heartbeat had ever disturbed the perfection of emptiness.
Where even the idea of hope would be erased.
When Malverion entered a world, armies disappeared before they could raise their swords. Cities vanished without ruins. Entire civilizations were removed from history as though they had only been dreams.
He did not destroy.
He erased.
And slowly...
Very slowly...
He turned his gaze toward Eternia.
For the first time in countless ages, the Celestial Ones felt fear.
They gathered beneath the Pillars of Dawn, where the first light of creation still burned.
They fought with weapons forged from stars.
They unleashed storms powerful enough to split worlds.
They sacrificed immortals whose names would later become legends.
But against Malverion Tharos...
Even eternity was not enough.
Every wound they created healed.
Every victory became another source of his strength.
Because Malverion did not feed on power.
He fed on despair.
And despair was growing.
Until one ancient voice spoke.
An elder among the Celestial Ones, older than mountains and wiser than time itself, looked upon the dying stars and whispered:
"Darkness cannot be defeated by becoming darker."
"A flame cannot fight the night by becoming the night."
"Only a light willing to sacrifice everything can save creation."
The Celestial Ones returned to the place where existence had begun.
The birthplace of the first spark.
There, they reached into the heart of creation itself and awakened a power unlike anything ever seen.
Not a weapon.
Not a crown.
Not a force meant to rule.
A living miracle.
A flame that could heal broken worlds.
A fire that could burn away corruption.
A light that could reveal every hidden truth.
They named it...
The Eternal Flame.
But the Flame came with a terrible law.
It could never belong to an immortal.
Not to a god.
Not to a king.
Not to a conqueror.
Because immortals knew power.
Kings knew ambition.
Warriors knew victory.
But only mortals truly understood sacrifice.
The bearer of the Eternal Flame would be born with a fragile heart.
A heart capable of love.
A heart capable of pain.
A heart capable of losing everything...
And still choosing to save others.
So the Celestial Ones hid the Flame within the river of time.
They buried it beneath forgotten bloodlines.
They concealed its existence from history.
And before they disappeared, they carved a final prophecy into the Pillars of Dawn.
A prophecy that would wait thousands of years for its chosen soul.
"When the Crimson Eclipse consumes the heavens..."
"When kingdoms fall beneath the shadow of endless night..."
"A daughter of mortal blood shall awaken the Eternal Flame."
"She shall know betrayal from those she loves."
"She shall be forgotten by the world she saves."
"She shall walk through death and return beyond destiny."
"Thirty years after her fall, the Last Flame shall rise again."
"And when she returns..."
"Even fate shall fear her name."
When the final words were carved into stone, every star trembled.
The dragons lowered their wings.
The oceans became still.
The ancient spirits went silent.
Because they knew something even the Celestial Ones could not change.
The child had already been chosen.
A child who would be born beneath a dying star.
A child whose blood carried the memory of forgotten gods.
A child who would lose everything before discovering who she truly was.
A child who would rise from the ashes of her own legend.
Her name would echo across centuries.
Her sacrifice would become a myth.
Her return would become a miracle.
And one day, when the world had forgotten her completely...
She would come back.
Not as a princess.
Not as a queen.
Not as a goddess.
But as the one force even darkness could never destroy.
The last hope of a broken world.
The final light before eternal night.
Her name was...
Amaris Vaelora.
The Last Flame of Eternia.
- Writer
