It started with the beasts.
Creatures ███████████ had created in his early experiments. Simple animals—wolves, bears, creatures meant to populate the forests and mountains.
They had been peaceful once.
But something changed.
The animals began attacking. Not for food. Not for territory.
For destruction.
[WITNESS TESTIMONY - Guardian #23]
"They moved wrong. Their eyes were empty. It was like watching puppets controlled by something... else."
███████████ ordered the Guardians to defend the kingdom.
"Kill them," he commanded. His eyes—more red than blue now—burned with terrible intensity. "Kill them all."
The Guardians obeyed. They always obeyed.
147 warriors descended on the corrupted creatures. Magic blazed. The earth shook. The sky itself seemed to weep.
By nightfall, every corrupted beast lay dead.
The Guardians returned to their King, victorious.
And then the corpses began to move.
GUARDIAN #1 TESTIMONY - MERIDETH
"My King," I whispered, my voice broken. "We killed them. We won the war. But they came back."
"They came back wrong."
The first corpse twitched.
Then another. And another.
They rose—not as the animals they had been, but as something new. Something twisted.
Bones jutted through rotting flesh. Eyes glowed with sickly green light. Mouths opened in silent screams.
The first daemons born in the dimension.
Created not by ███████'s design, but by ███████████'s corruption.
By the Eldritch magic seeping from the stolen grimoire into everything he touched.
[DATA CORRUPTION: Casualty reports incomplete]
[Estimated Guardian losses: ████████]
[Estimated daemon count: Unknown - they multiply with each kill]
███████████ stood on the battlefield, surrounded by the undead he had accidentally created.
His Guardians looked to him for guidance. For answers.
But he had none.
He had created life. He had created intelligence. He had created beauty.
And now, through his arrogance, he had created death that would not die.
"Real monsters do not die."
The words echoed across the battlefield.
From somewhere in the shadows, ███████ watched.
Huh. Interesting.