Eleanor Davis had once been a noble and proud man. He had believed in justice, kindness, and honor. He had held onto those beliefs because that was how he had been raised.
And this despite the fact that he was born in a time of unrest and corruption. He had been born under the rule of a man who had been driven so deeply into madness by his wealth and power that he was only called the Mad Monarch. No matter where he looked, he saw traitors who desired his throne. Every day, there were public mass executions, in which he executed not only criminals, but also close allies and even members of his own family. Eleanor's grandfather had been one of the last generals who remained loyal to the king. Not because he agreed with what the king did, but because he had sworn an oath. His grandfather was a contradiction in himself, yet he was a good person. Without him, the kingdom would have fallen into flames decades earlier.
But after years of oppression, a small voice rose from the crowd. Alexander, the liberator, the kind one, the savior, began to preach about freedom and purity. He was not the only one, but there was something about him that made people follow him. He rose from nothing, a nobody, yet soon became the leader of the resistance. A civil war broke out that affected almost the entire inhabited world. Millions died, and innocents were caught between the fronts, while the mad king felt more and more confirmed in his paranoia. As a result, he became even more brutal. Toward the end of the war, he locked himself inside his castle and let no one come to him anymore, except for one Person. Eleanor's grandfather.
But this had been his mistake, because the one person he did not feel paranoia toward was the one he should have feared. It was the sword of his grandfather that ended the king's life.
Immediately afterward, he took his own life as a punishment for himself. Eleanor himself had been too young to take part in the fighting, but both of his parents had died. The Davis family was pardoned by the king because of the sacrifice of his grandfather. Eleanor was then raised by his uncle. For many years, he lived by the rules of honor and justice. When he was finally old enough, he even joined the military to destroy the last remnants of the mad king's kingdom.
After that, there was almost a decade of peace. But already early on, the weaknesses of Alexander became visible. He was an incredible warrior and general, but a terrible ruler. Year after year, he lost more control over what had become the greatest kingdom that had ever existed. The council of the so called saints, originally only a religious gathering of the highest leaders of the church, took more and more power for themselves.
Like an endless cycle of greed, the sanctified Alexander also fell into corruption. It disgusted Eleanor. He watched as the king became what faught so hard to destroy. Eleanor saw no other way. Unlike his grandfather, he was not bound by honor. He acted before it was too late.
So he infiltrated the inner circle of the king as a cook and waited patiently for his moment. Then he drove his dagger into the king's back.
Of course, Eleanor had no way of surviving this act, and he had never expected to. He had been completely prepared to give his life. But just before the executioner could cut off his head, the army of the Polykenas arrived.
That had been several years ago.
The Polykenas had thrown the planet into chaos with ease, leaving only a handful of survivors behind. And one of them was Eleanor.
The remnants of the last civilization fought for survival. New cities, new territories, new rulers, new families were founded, then destroyed, then founded again. But Eleanor had turned away from society. He had built a hut at the exact place where he had been meant to be executed. There he lived alone for almost two years.
One day, he stood at the edge of the plateau on which his house stood and looked over the landscape below. After the Polykenas had come, the land had been burned, but over the years Eleanor had watched how new life began to grow from the destruction.
In his eyes, it even seemed more beautiful than before. Pure, free from all pollution and corruption.
The ruins of the city in the distance were slowly being reclaimed by nature, which seemed to greedily swallow the remains of civilization.
"Do you enjoy the view?" a voice suddenly asked right next to him.
Eleanor turned his head to the side. A person now stood beside him. It was a small and frail figure of a man. His torn clothes hung dirty on his body, his black hair was completely unkempt, his skin pale as paper. With eyes as black as the abyss, he looked into the distance. Eleanor knew, of course, that this was not a human, but the monster of chaos. Any other human would have probably fallen to their knees in Eleanor's place. They would have cried, prayed, begged, or pleaded. But Eleanor simply turned back toward the view.
"Yes," he answered truthfully. "Who would have thought that so much life could grow from so much destruction?"
The monster did not respond and remained standing motionless beside him. It seemed to be waiting for something.
"I knew that you would return," Eleanor continued after a while. "I knew you would finish your work.You are here to destroy the rest, aren't you?"
"There is nothing left in this world that interests me," the monster said in a cold voice. "There is no reason for me to start another war."
Eleanor frowned and looked at the being in human form. "Then why are you here?" he asked, confused.
Now the creature finally turned its gaze away from the horizon and directed it at Eleanor. He immediately felt cold sweat break out across his body. He began to tremble uncontrollably, his heart started racing, yet he did not step back and instead looked directly into the creature's eyes.
"Because of you," the creature answered. "Or have you already forgotten? You owe me your life."
This only confused Eleanor further. "What do you, a god, want with my lowly mortal life?"
A cold laugh escaped the creature's mouth. "I am no god, Eleanor Davis, not yet. But you may help me take one step closer."
"How am I supposed to help you?" he asked.
A short pause followed. "What do you think about becoming a mage?"
Eleanor could not believe his ears. "You want to give me the gift of magic?"
The creature nodded. "Yes… let us call it a gift."
Eleanor did not hesitate long before agreeing. The creature grabbed him firmly by the shoulder as darkness spread around them. It pulled them upward, rising above his house. High in the sky, a rift opened in space. Behind it, a line of demons was already waiting to receive Eleanor. They spoke to each other in a foreign language that Eleanor could not understand. Then a large demon with the mask of a strange black bird took hold of him.
"Follow him," the creature ordered. "He will give you your...gift."
Eleanor did as he was told and followed the creature. "Call me Ester," the being introduced itself with a rasping voice. "You human have great luck. You are the first of your race to whom our Duce will grant magic."
"Your Duce?" Eleanor asked, confused, but then realized that it referred to the monster. "Why is he doing this?"
"It is not my place to reveal the plans of our ruler to you, human," Ester replied, "but I am the one who will attempt to give you magic."
"Attempt?"
"Of course," Ester nodded. "You will be our first real attempt, something like a test subject. We have already tried it on a few other humans, but you are different. There is something about you that none of the others had."
"And what would that be?" Eleanor asked as they stepped through two massive gates into the heart of the fortress.
"I am not entirely sure," Ester said, "but it is the reason why the Duce ordered us to spare you. You are strange, because in your chest there seems to be only the magical heart, which should not be possible, since you have no magic. Or maybe you simply did not know that you had it. In the end, it does not matter. Either way, you will have it afterward, or at least we hope so. I do not know, but that is exactly what excites me so much. The unknown has always fascinated me. We have finally managed, after such a long time, to give magic to a human who did not have any before, but that was only weak. With you, we hope that we can immediately achieve decisive results. In the end, it only depends if..."
Eleaor had no idea what the creature was talking about, but the longer he listened, the worse the feeling in his chest became. Maybe this was a mistake...