Reverse Chronicles

A Forgotten Tale

The forest is shrouded by a cloak of darkness. The dense vegetation’s shadow casts an absolute veil because not a single ray of sunshine can penetrate through. Syrena and other mages light the way through the forest using light magic. As we went deeper, the howls and screeches of monsters got louder.

The road through the forest is not rigid as one would assume from the outside. On the contrary, the land is barren and flat. Occasionally, we stumble upon remnants of stone-made roads that are proof of the extensive network that once existed in the forest.

We quietly ventured, but the difficulty skyrocketed when a minotaur suddenly charges in. It wields a battle-chipped axe and its red blood eyes intimidated my very soul.

“Don’t falter!” Linda shouts as she equips her scimitar. She charges at the minotaur ready to strike at her opponent. “Archers, loose!” Arrows have been fired hitting the minotaur’s eyes.

“Take this!” Syrena casts a nature element spell and binds the minotaur with a giant root engulfing its body.

Linda jumps on the root and delivers the final blow decapitating the ferocious beast.

“The monsters here are attracted to the light,” Linda flicks away the blood on her blade as she softly speaks those words. “They will come in great numbers once we continue deeper. Be ready at all times.”

We reach a crumbling stone gate that looks very old. Etched on the stone surfaces are motifs of a tree. Passing through it quietly, Syrena begins recalling a tale that she heard from her father.

The Chrallians worshipped an omnipotent goddess, who with her sword vanquished a great evil. However, it was a religion founded on a twisted tale and that goddess was not truly a deity, but a person, the first ruler of Xinfonia. Marina was her name and she lived on a village in the middle of the forest. Marina lived on a time before countries and nations existed, when humanity is but a speck of the world.

She lived a simple life, but one day her father was slain by monsters of darkness. These monsters fed on the living, existing only to desire the flesh and fiber of everything that grew.

Marina mourned her father, but a flame burned inside her after his death. Marina trained with the sword. She began joining the men of the village on fights against the monsters that brought her immense grief.

One day, she defeated an entire horde of these monsters, angering the ancient horror who created these creatures. The darkness set out to destroy Marina’s village and in a blink of an eye, her home and its people were annihilated. Marina fought to the last breath to rescue everyone, but her efforts only saved her and six others.

The seven of them left the village and the forest, wandering the land for some place where they could seek refuge. They came upon a town beside a river. Marina told the townspeople what happened, and they gladly welcomed them with open arms. In the village, Marina meets Maramus, a sage who wanted to find an answer to the existence of the monsters of darkness.

Together, the two ventured across the land gathering knowledge. On the way they had many comrades who fought with them. However, they all fell as the battles got harsher. The two eventually meet Michiel, a master of weapons with numerous great skills. He proved to be a very reliable ally, sometimes fighting in the front lines or supporting from the back lines.

In one of their travels, they meet an old man whose eyes looked of death. They sensed hostility from the old man and prepared to fight him. The old man reveals his true identity—the Progenitor of doom, an entity of pure indestructible dark energy. The Progenitor of doom created the monsters of darkness which consume the living. He wreaked havoc on the world for centuries slowly ridding the world of life and beauty in order to achieve his goal of total destruction.

The trio fought the Progenitor, but his strength proved too much for them. Having failed, they all fled for their lives, but the Progenitor wanted them dead, so he sent an army of his creatures to find the three. The monsters ravaged town after town, village after village. They wanted it to stop so they travelled to a land of snow to finally defeat the Progenitor.

After training for innumerable times, the three’s work paid off as they defeated the Progenitor. However, even after destroying his physical body, the Progenitor still existed as dark energy feeding off from the land. In order to end everything once and for all, Maramus sealed the Progenitor. As a last resort, the Progenitor created dark beasts that laid waste to land and sea, and even sowed darkness in people’s hearts. However, his efforts were all for naught as Maramus successfully sealed him. He broke the seal into three pieces, he gave one to Marina and one to Michiel.

After that Marina returned to her home, the village in the middle of the forest. In that place, she established a kingdom called Xinfonia, after a tree of the same name that grew abundantly on the village.

“The tale of the three Divines,” Linda says as Syrena finishes the tale. “It’s only a legend.”

“The three Divines?”

“The three Divine classes, Alan. After fighting the Progenitor of doom, the three heroes gained a magical power that they would use later on during the Scourge Ages, where they would fight against a country whose heart has been tainted by the Progenitor,” Syrena explains. “It’s a legend, but after seeing the symbol etched on those ruins, I think it should be called history.”

“The story of the creation of the kingdom of Xinfonia is just a legend,” Linda insists. “Focus on the battlefield, this is no time to for…”

The ground suddenly rumbles. The roaring resonated throughout the dark forest. Syrena creates multiple spheres of light and illuminates the surrounding area. A great horde of minotaurs are headed our way with their horns pointed at us. A crimson red minotaur, which is larger than the rest of the horde, leads the charge.

“Everyone to the trees!” Linda shouts, prompting the mages to cast Levitate and float us up away from the ground. Some knights and archers climb up the giant tree trunks and Linda uses her dagger to climb up. “Dispel the lights.”

The magic users dispelled their light spells and the surroundings once more became pitch black. The sound of the horde’s thundering footsteps passes us and as the roaring rumbles died, a deafening silence fills the atmosphere.

Suddenly, one of the soldiers scream in terror. Syrena returns visibility revealing a giant serpent who crushed the poor soldier in a single coil. His blood splattered on the tree trunk as the serpent poised ready to strike.

“It’s a bakunawa!” Linda shouts. “Get down!” All the other soldiers jump down as Linda readies her scimitar to counter. Syrena uses Ice Bolt gaining the bakunawa’s attention for Linda to strike. However, the serpent-like monster spewed fire on Linda as she leaped. A Knight sacrifices his self to push Linda away to safety.

The bakunawa attacks again, but Syrena and I combined our Ice Bolt spells to thwart the assault. It was all for naught as the bakunawa is agile enough to evade our magic.

“Ignore that creature, getting to the ruins is first priority!” Linda shouts and every soldier including me and Syrena blindly runs toward a direction of darkness. Linda jumps back guarding the rear from the bakunawa.

“Squires,” she says as Syrena and I ran. “Mark knows the way to the ruins. I’ll stay behind and stop this monster. It’s the only way.” Linda stops on her tracks with her scimitar. “Mark take them to the ruins!”

“Understood, lieutenant!” a knight at the head of the group shouts back.

The farther we run, the quieter it became. Linda and the bakunawa that she fights are no longer audible. Their struggles have been covered by the darkness. The soldiers still continued even if they their leader stayed behind. Their faces brims with determination that even I could not imitate.

“We’re almost there!” Mark tells the group. After a while, a stone road appears and from a distance the light at the end of the forest could be seen. As we get closer, a silhouette of a city becomes visible. We reach the other side basking under the afternoon light as a spooky ruins stood before us.