The Embodiment of Evil

In the Void Realm, the gallant warrior Ragnar and his mate Mara arrived at the edge of the platform. They were the last survivors and this was their last chance at going home.

Both were dressed in rags that barely covered their scar filled bodies.

They inserted the energy crystal into the dock and to their pleasant surprise the portal came alive.

Beyond the portal was visions of green grass and blue skies which was all to familiar to Ragnar. 

“That….that’s your home! We’re going to make it” Mara said joyfully.

“Yes, lets not tarry” said Ragnar as he held her hand and walked into the portal together.

Seconds later, the portal flickered out and shut down for good.

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Ragnar Rock was the former Marshall of the human army that engaged in the Demon War against the invading demon forces from the demon realm.

He was their mightiest warrior and he was known as the War God due to his martial prowess and brilliant military mind. He had a very gallant, heroic looks, with a charisma that few could match.

He was called the War God as he was a half step Level 6 Sage, master in all weapons, and was also incredibly skilled in unarmed combat.

His legendary sword intent meant that he didn't even need a weapon to cut through anything. 

Princess Mara was the favorite daughter of the Demon King. She led the demon forces in the Demon War and was known as the Demon Goddess of Destruction. 

She was also breathtakingly beautiful, making even the sirens and succubi in the demon realm envious.

She was called the Goddess of Destruction due to her special skill in destruction. Everything she touched from any part of her body simply gets deconstructed due to a special ability she has.

She was also a half stage Sage, and scarily powerful. 

Both of them were 30 years old when they led their individual armies against each other in the 1000 year Demon War, which actually started hundreds of years before they were even born.

The war started with the sudden appearance of several dimensional portals in the middle of Eternia in which demons suddenly attacked from the demon realm. 

The human realm was caught unawares and the former warring human nations were destroyed one by one in a quick fashion before they united as a united human army and fought back. 

By the time the humans had managed to fight back, over 20% of the land in Eternia had been taken over by the demons already and they started stalemating them, unable to completely wipe them out. 

The war between the two forces was extreme and vicious, with neither side giving mercy. As they both fought each other numerous times, neither had managed to get an advantage over the other.

Ragnar and Mara fought not only as generals in large battles, but also one on one on the battlefield. After a while, it would seem that they knew each other’s style so well they were literally dancing with each other.

Their forces sometimes even used to joke that maybe Marshall Ragnar and Princess Mara were purposely prolonging their battles just to be with each other.

However, both their armies were involved in the mysterious Apocalypse Event. It was considered mysterious because as far as everyone knew, both human and demon forces simply disappeared in one day and from the epicenter of the battle, the world as they knew it broke apart.

The Apocalypse Event took place at the Demon Planes, located at the center of the continent of Eternia, close to where the largest portal to the Demon Realm was.

No one knew what happened but it was assumed everyone who was there died in the Apocalypse Event. 

This was because the Apocalypse Event tore the continent to several large pieces, forcing the once united continent to break into nine separate continents with a vast sea engulfing the landmass where the center of the continent used to be.

In reality, what happened was that both armies were suddenly interrupted by a large portal that appeared right in the middle that attacked both forces from another realm! The void realm.

From the void realm, they were attacked by vicious wraiths and near inexhaustible number of death puppets of dead warriors which quickly slaughtered both sides with ease.

Both Marshall Ragnar and Princess Mara realized that they were being invaded by the superior forces and they nearly simultaneously changed their tactics to solely attack and push back the void forces.

Suddenly, the portal from the void realm collapsed and sucked both forces in, creating a large hole in the ground 100,000 km radius around the center, cracking the mantle of the continent forming a desolate sea filled with eternally violent storms and volcanoes, and a vortex which sucked all ships that came near. 

This area is now called the Zone of Death.

Inside the Void realm, the demon and human forces were at a disadvantage as they were heavily injured after being sucked in and thrown out unceremoniously.

Furthermore, they had no supply line of food and resources and this quickly led to a drop in morale in both forces.

Both Ragnar and Mara quickly declared a truce and cooperated the void forces to survive the onslaught of the Void forces.

They found out that this was an attack by the Void Emperor to conquer both the Human and Demon Realms simultaneously.

It was the unexpected cooperation and brilliance of both Ragnar and Mara that managed to foil the attack and collapse the portal.

Both Ragnar and Mara used their unique abilities to collapse the portal from the Void side, however it drained them of most of their energy.

They survived and recovered, finally leading their forces in a suicide mission and after 2 years finally managed to kill the Void Emperor and foil his vision of conquest of both realms.

However, by now virtually all their forces were destroyed, leaving both of them half alive and abandoned in the void realm.

Both of them survived together for another year as all the portals back to their individual human and demon dimensions were closed.

One day, due to a lucky discovery, they found a portal that was still usable. Using the little information that they knew, they managed to open a portal to the human dimension and fled through.

Back in Eternia, the Apocalypse Event broke their world killing billions of people through earthquakes and floods. The continent was split into 9 large continents separated by huge seas. 

Furthermore, after the continents were split, more and more portals started appearing at random. The major ones brought other humanoid beings such as elves, dwarves, orcs, demons, monsters, while minor portals appear on rare occasions, opening other realms that held treasures or other opportunities for the inhabitants. 

After 10,000 years, the new inhabitants from other realms from the other realms had already settled and mingled with the humans and each other on the nine continents and the world was a much more chaotic and no longer were the humans the only inhabitants here.

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The portal reopened and both Ragnar and Mara were thrown own unceremoniously. Due to the portal being unstable, they were flung through the dimensional ether, shredding their already worn and broken bodies for what seemed like an eternity before spitting them out the other end. 

Both of them cannoned into the ground shooting debris everywhere. They were both completely naked as their rags they were wearing were beyond shreds. Their bodies were completely covered in blood leaving them broken and battered. 

"Look over there! The portal spat some things out!" yelled a gruff voice

"Yeah, but the portal closed. Lets hope our time coming here is not wasted" said another voice. 

A group of men surrounded the two bodies, looking at them. 

"It's just a man and woman" said the first voice

"Wow! Look at this woman" said the second one as he started groping the beautiful Mara. 

"Tie the man up. We'll sell him as a slave. As for the woman, don't use her too roughly. She should fetch a hefty price" laughed the leader of the group.

"Don't touch her" said Ragnar in a weak voice

"What did you say slave?" the first man said, kicking Ragnar in his stomach

However, Ragnar didn't move and just stared at him. 

"Kill the wretch!" said the leader as he carried Mara's body and walked off. The rest of the men surrounded Ragnar as they drew their weapons. 

"I SAID DON'T TOUCH HER!" Ragnar shouted as he stood up. 

Suddenly all the men surrounding him stopped moving and looked at him in shock and terror. One of the men touched his own neck, only to feel a thin line across his neck. 

Suddenly, the line started shooting blood out from all sides and his head fell off, still with a look of shock on his face. 

The other men also suddenly died in the same manner, all standing up with their heads falling off before their bodies crumbled to the floor. 

Just as Ragnar took a few steps towards where the leader of the group took Mara, he saw the man standing still looking at him. 

Suddenly, his head exploded and he saw Mara standing behind the man, her hand where his head was. Her eyes glowing purple. 

They ran up to each other and hugged each other tightly. 

They've gone through so much, these small fries that were like ants to them would not separate them. 

They then searched the bodies of the men and their belongings, found clothes and got dressed in them. Then they used a few healing pills to heal themselves of their injuries. 

Then they looked at the map and walked to the nearest town. 

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They landed in an unfamiliar land on a small kingdom called Greyfell which did not exist in their time.

They scouted around, read books in the library, compared maps and found to their shock that 10,000 years had passed since the end of their Demon War, even though it had only been 3 years for them. 

By now, Ragnar’s famous name and exploits were simply a footnote in history and the human kingdom that he fought for no longer existed.

In fact, he was largely forgotten and only the ancient books from the the old kingdom would have any mention of his name or even the Demon War. 

Similarly, Mara searched for news of the demon realm and found that there has been little to no mention of her specific Demon realm as that portal was destroyed in the Apocalypse Event.

Since the incursion of more other races, many of which formed their own kingdoms in the different continents of what was a single Eternia, there apparently were several demonic kingdoms too. 

But Mara was unable to ascertain if they were demons from her demon realm, or other races that the humans considered demons. 

After the war, due to the destruction caused by the Apocalypse Event and the fact that the original human realm was split apart into distant continents, the humans of the individual continent started fighting and forming their own smaller nations.

Now 10,000 years later, even the ancient land of Eternia was largely forgotten, mostly overshadowed and overwritten by the histories of the current kingdoms.

"So what do you want to do now?" Mara asked Ragnar

"I want to go home" Ragnar said. 

He used the maps of the broken continents to join them together like a jigsaw puzzle and figured out where his home town was.

Luckily they re-emerged from the portal on the same continent he was from. 

He pointed on the map to the 200 year old Kingdom of Avellon to a small town of Broken Tooth. 

"Ok lover. Let's go home" she said holding his hand.