Burning Soul

Episode 1

There were three races who lived in the world, the 'Humans', the 'Beasts' and the 'Demons'. For a millennia they've fought with each other. Due to weak bodies, humans were the ones to always suffer the losses, but in the 2nd era of greater magicians, there was a group of remarkable people who fought against the demons and saved humanity from the brink of destruction. After great efforts, a treaty was signed between humans and beast-men, according to which they'd be engaging in various joint businesses.

Later many nations were formed where humans and beast-men started living prosperously. In the 3rd era of the world, known as the era of despair, a great war broke out between the living and demons. In this war, seven legendary kings fought with all the strength and became the first gods of the world. The kingdoms from which they raised from came forward as the seven gates of heaven.

In this Great War, there was a king who sacrificed his divine powers in order to wield a legendary artifact which led to the victory of living and the kingdom from which he came from is to be known as 'Arboria'. Today, it's been over 10 generations and yet 'Arboria' stands as one of the only four remaining gates of heaven. Hidden deep in the jungle, with resources plenty enough to maintain good relationships with the other kingdoms, 'Arboria' never had to wage a war again. It surely was a small kingdom, yet its existence was a crucial factor for the whole world. Legend says, before the fall of the God of divine protection, he hid a secret map to the heavens and also the ways to open the gates of the underworld, where the demons were sealed off, yet due to its remote location no one was ever able to confirm the myth. Of course this wasn't the only world in existence, it's just one of the many and the utter motive of the demon life-forms was to rule over all of them, thus they had to be sealed off with forbidden ancient magic.

The 4th era, which was also known as the era of uncertainty, there were many little kingdoms fighting over resources and territory as well. In the kingdom of 'Arboria', the wise king 'Evan' looked after his people along with his elder son 'Nicholas', his younger sister 'Merida' and the youngest of the siblings 'Theodore'. Nicholas was a gifted warrior and had always been the strongest one in the whole kingdom, he even once defeated a demonoid. While he was the strongest, Merida was the most gifted mage and recently passed lvl18. This world worked on a numbering system, that is power was defined by the number. The higher the number, higher the power. Even though it is difficult to earn levels, levels 1 – 10 was known amateur, while 11 – 15 was the domain of experts and 15 – 20 was known as levels of masters. Level 20 was a legend domain and only powerhouses of the world were able to step into it as there were various rituals and trials that one had to pass in order to become a legend. Domain above level 25 was god domain and no one knew much about it as people stopped ascending to that domain long ago. In this era there were very few legends, thus this was the highest anyone had ever heard. She was really close to becoming a legend mage. Though she has still had two levels and the trials that no one came across in recent years. Meanwhile Theodore, the youngest sibling had little to none interest in anything be it alchemy or fighting or politics, what he truly loved was exploring. By the date, he had explored more than hundred ancient ruins belonging to various civilizations.

Arboria was surrounded by many labyrinths and ancient ruins, some from even the 1st era. Theo always loved to go out of the castle to explore what was outside of the castle walls. This curiosity of his didn't help him in any warrior attributes, still he never cared, he'd always sneak out of the castle to go explore. Due to the combined efforts of people in the kingdom, they never had to worry about resources. Arboria had the most suitable geological locations for agriculture, rice being the main crop as there are many natural water springs around Arboria. With a wide spread of rice paddies and great number of livestock, Arboria even conducts business with neighboring kingdoms. There are even many pure veins of ores in the surrounding making Arboria a very resourceful kingdom.

Definitely not everyone was happy with the situation, especially the neighboring kingdom, 'Etherblade'. Recently they tried to steal the part of territory which had two pure veins of gold and a few rice paddies as well. After the unsuccessful attempt the duke of Etherblade had to apologize to Evan. He has been holding that grudge ever since. To find an opportunity he'd been scouting the surrounding of Arboria.