The Castro Continent.
Armies from the Star Empire, Rock Ridge Empire, Morning Wind Empire, and Tidal Empire had closed in from all sides around the royal capital of the Holy Heart Kingdom. They were on the verge of attacking this place that had served as the centre of the Church’s authority for thousands of years.
In the five thousand years of history since the fall of the gods, no human power had ever pushed the Church to such dire straits.
The Church’s faith hung by a thread. Countless believers and bishops from every empire hurried back to the holy capital to rescue the Church from impending doom. Yet in this rebellion, the Tower of Time, the magic guild that had always maintained close ties with the Church, remained strangely silent.
The Church sent several messengers in an attempt to request help from the Phase King magicians of the Tower of Time.
But those requests vanished without reply.
Days earlier, the three Phase King magicians had been slain by a mysterious force. Even after the Bell Phase magician returned to the Tower of Time, he was killed in full view of everyone by a bamboo spear that fell from the sky, right on the plaza in front of the tower.
This deeply shocked every high-ranking member inside the Tower of Time.
They knew a certain power was opposing the Church. The three Phase King magicians had gone to Grey Town under secret orders from the Church, only to encounter a terrifying enemy there.
The only force capable of standing against the Church, or rather the divine beings behind it, was the divine race.
The divine race had not completely perished.
Killing the Bell Phase magician in front of everyone at the Tower of Time was the divine race’s warning.
That was why the Tower of Time had remained motionless and silent in recent days.
As the continent’s situation shifted dramatically and armies approached the holy capital, at the very moment the troops reached the walls, a massive upheaval erupted inside the Church’s great cathedral. The Pope declared rebellion against the gods.
Rebellion against the gods.
Betrayal of the divine beings.
For countless years, popes had been the most devout servants of the gods, willing to offer their bodies, souls, and everything to the divine. Yet this generation’s Pope, Boris, openly rebelled against the gods.
On the spot, he executed every member of the Divine Punishment Division and several red-robed archbishops, including the Archbishop of Divine Punishment, who was regarded as the second most powerful figure in the Church after the Pope himself.
Blood stained every corner of the great cathedral. The vibrant, beautiful scenery in front of the cathedral instantly withered and decayed, emitting waves of foul odour. Stepping through the blood, Boris, no, it should be Faramir, the Magic Emperor Faramir, emerged from the grand doors of the cathedral in white robes.
His golden hair fluttered in the air, then slowly turned red.
Red as blood.
Only in a few rare ancient records were the deeds of the Magic Emperor from tens of thousands of years ago still preserved, and in the surviving images, the Magic Emperor had exactly this red hair, cold as blood, passionate as fire.
Enraged believers stared at this man brimming with nobility and arrogance, yet trembled and dared not approach.
“Traitor, you have betrayed the gods. The gods will punish you!” a loyal follower screamed.
“The gods will surely bring judgement upon you!”
“The gods will not forgive you!”
“You will suffer the cruellest punishment.”
They shouted one after another.
“Lord Boris…” An elderly bishop trembled as he walked towards Faramir, tears streaming down his face, filled with unwillingness. “Why, why have you done this? I personally accompanied Lord Boris to bring you back all those years ago. We all placed such high hopes in you, yet why have you betrayed the gods, why…”
“Because my name is Faramir.”
Faramir smiled as he glanced at the elderly bishop.
Faramir?
The elderly bishop seemed to vaguely recall the name but could not place where he had heard it. While he hesitated, Faramir continued, “I am the Magic Emperor, Faramir.”
The elderly bishop’s body shook violently. He staggered back several steps, fell to the ground, and pointed at Faramir. “The Magic Emperor… how is it possible!”
Faramir laughed wildly. He spread his arms, his body rising into the air. No sword aura swirled around him, no faith power emanated, no grimoire appeared, yet he unleashed immense strength, lifting off the ground and hovering in mid-air.
This was the power of magic.
True magic.
He was the Magic Emperor, sovereign of magic.
“God Extinction.”
He spoke softly.
With a thunderous boom, the great cathedral that had stood on the Castro Continent for thousands of years collapsed, reduced to rubble. Those still inside who had not escaped were instantly turned into pools of flesh and blood.
Countless believers and clergy screamed in terror and retreated, causing chaos in which many were trampled.
Even more people, awed by the overwhelming power Faramir displayed, fell to their knees, trembling uncontrollably.
“Magic…”
A terrifying voice echoed through the sky.
The once-clear sky suddenly darkened. Dreadful figures emerged, seven of them, seated upon seven cold thrones, their appearances hideous and fearsome. They were the seven Supreme Guardians from the Supreme Temple.
The seven most powerful demons.
“Yes, magic. This is the true form of magic.” The Magic Emperor surveyed the seven demons and gave a cold laugh.
“Magic Emperor, you should already be dead!” one demon demanded. “The God of All Gods killed you.”
“No, I did not die. While I battled the God of All Gods across ten thousand years, you cowardly creatures secretly watched. Did you think we were unaware?” the Magic Emperor mocked.
“So you set a trap!”
“Yes, everything was a trap. You beings born in the void will remain an eternal threat, so he and I devised this trap together. My defeat and his fall, everything, was to draw you out completely, to lure you from the void. We could not kill you because, as void creatures, you had no concept of death or destruction. But with the fall of the gods, you finally seized the chance to emerge from the void onto this land. Your connections to this world grew, and you evolved bodies and souls from void beings. So now, you can be killed.”
The Magic Emperor recounted coldly.
Just as Ye Chui had guessed, the fall of the gods and the Magic Emperor obtaining part of the God of All Gods’ sealing power had all been planned. A plan without cause or beginning, only now surfacing.
Under a force transcending causality, even when the God of All Gods fell all those years ago, he himself had not known of the plan. Yet at some point in space-time, he and the Magic Emperor had indeed devised this grand, long-spanning scheme to exterminate the demons.
“If you live, then what of the God of All Gods?”
One demon asked, its voice carrying faint fear.
“He? He is my eternal rival. How could you possibly have truly killed him!” the Magic Emperor declared proudly.
“He still lives? Impossible. I personally witnessed his fall! He and the Goddess of Wealth dissipated into the void together, reduced to dust.”
“But he will return in the end.” The Magic Emperor said gravely.
This seemed to confirm that the God of All Gods was indeed dead for now. The seven demons of the Supreme Temple relaxed slightly on their terrifying faces.
Only the God of All Gods was their most feared opponent. As long as he remained unrevived, they feared nothing.
The demons’ demeanour clearly enraged the Magic Emperor.
“I will make you understand that the truly fearsome one is not him, but me.” The Magic Emperor’s red hair flew wildly, a terrifying aura surging skyward.
“You are beneath notice.” The demons sneered in unison.
“You are provoking me to fight you in the Supreme Temple!?”
Though furious, the Magic Emperor retained his reason. He gave a cold laugh. “You need not provoke me, for exterminating you was always my plan.”
The Magic Emperor’s body began drifting upward.
His figure seemed to fade, merging into the void.
He was heading to the Supreme Temple.
“You suppress the River of Destiny, exhausting every possibility to prevent the God of All Gods’ revival. As long as you exist, he can never reappear on this land. Therefore, I will kill you!”
The Magic Emperor’s final words resounded in every corner of the Castro Continent.
Legends told of the God of All Gods and the Magic Emperor as eternal enemies who fought for ten thousand years, yet those who knew the truth now realised they had conspired together in a terrifying plot spanning five thousand years or more, all to exterminate those dreadful beings born in the void.
Those demons.
The divine beings once worshipped by the Church.
In that moment, the faith of countless believers and clergy collapsed. They fell to the ground weeping bitterly. Having lost their faith, how would they survive from now on?
A layer of dark clouds seemed to cover the sky over the Castro Continent. Thunderbolts rained down, striking every corner.
The gods were enraged, and so they tore away their long-standing disguise, revealing their true demonic faces to all.
In every church across the continent, the solemn statues of the gods shattered. From the broken statues crawled hideous demons that began wantonly attacking every human.
Swordsmen, magicians, and summoners banded together to fight this world-slaughtering catastrophe, but suddenly terrifying rule power descended. Every magician’s grimoire cracked and turned to ash.
Among the four main professions, magicians had originally been the strongest, the pinnacle of human power, yet in that instant all magicians became ordinary mortals.
The demons had created the grimoires. Magicians could only wield magic by relying on grimoires. This was a shackle, a restriction on human power. When the demons finally despaired of humanity and sought total annihilation, destroying all grimoires would instantly render magicians powerless.
Swordsmen’s power was also sealed, preventing entry into the Sword Saint realm.
Summoners’ power derived from heroic spirits, which came from deceased swordsmen and magicians. The sealing of swordsmen and magicians indirectly restricted summoners as well.
Believers’ faith power could be manipulated at will by the demons.
Thus, in that instant, the entire world plunged into terrifying hell.
This day became known as the Great Catastrophe of the Castro Continent.
In the holy capital of the Holy Heart Kingdom, countless clergy and citizens had originally been furious at the invasion by the armies of the Star, Rock Ridge, Morning Wind, and Tidal Empires, yet now they desperately begged those armies to stay and protect them.
The forces of the major empires suffered heavy losses, but the Tidal Empire retained strong combat strength. Their puppet armies and phantom beasts were unaffected by the demons’ restrictions, so after the catastrophe they became the backbone of resistance.
The Yellow Sand and North Ridge swiftly joined, forming an unprecedented human alliance to fight the demonic calamity together.
All magicians instantly became ordinary people.
Mercenary guilds and the Summoners’ Association quickly formed alliances, uniting against the terrifying demons. This alliance argued over its name, and eventually someone suggested it be casual, so it was called the Casual Name Alliance, carrying a touch of nostalgia for Ye Chui’s Casual Name Magic Guild.
Among all the forces resisting the demons, the Aquilis Church stood out as a breath of fresh air.
This strange sect that began in the Star Empire and spread to the Morning Wind Empire rose rapidly as countless Church believers lost faith and despaired. It swiftly absorbed the Church’s vast followers, growing explosively. In a short time, several alliance-leader-level Aquila believers emerged, becoming the vanguard against the demons.
However, believers who joined the Aquilis Church developed rather odd and foolish personalities, making them somewhat ostracised among the various resisting forces…
On the day of the Great Catastrophe, the Castro Continent fell into unprecedented disaster.
Eighteen days after the Great Catastrophe, the Holy Heart Kingdom was completely destroyed. The demons made it their base, turning countless citizens into walking corpses. It became the darkest place on the continent.
Thirty days after the Great Catastrophe, Prince Bill of the Yellow Sand Empire inherited the throne and attempted to surrender to the demons. He was executed by agents sent by Star Emperor Jacob I.
Fifty days after the Great Catastrophe, Jacob I was ambushed by demons but saved at the critical moment by a mysterious youth who called himself Hank, from the elf village, an old acquaintance of Ye Chui.
Seventy days after the Great Catastrophe, demonic forces swallowed the Morning Wind Empire, but their claws could not cross the Doomsday Mountains to invade the Star Empire. Humanity thus endured its most terrifying period. Human forces and demons reached a tense stalemate, divided by the Doomsday Mountains, beginning a long confrontation.
By this time, a brand-new profession emerged among humanity.
Demon Slayer.
And then…
Ninety days after the Great Catastrophe, on the Sin Continent, Ye Chui and his group were enjoying
