Thirty years ago, long before Solarynth had arrived in this world, before Maelkris had awakened from his slumber, and before the name Pandemonium Legion even existed there was only suffering.
Far from the capital, hidden beyond the outer territories of kingdom no longer cared for, stood a small ruined village drowning in poverty and starvation, people there had once belonged to another country before war consumed their homeland.
Armed conflict, violence, and persecution forced them to flee with nothing but whatever they could carry in trembling hands, they became refugees abandoned by both nations, unable to return home and unwanted everywhere else.
The kingdom ignored them completely.
To the nobles inside the capital walls, the outer territories were nothing more than forgotten dirt beyond their reach.
Children cried from hunger inside broken camps, mothers wrapped sick infants in torn blankets, old men collapsed beside empty fire pits that had not burned for days.
Among those suffering people was a ten-year-old girl named Belladonna, inside one of the ragged tents, her younger sister Archon lay weak beneath thin cloth coverings, her body trembling from sickness, sweat covered her forehead while her breathing came out uneven and shallow.
Belladonna sat beside her quietly, holding Archon's hand tightly.
They needed medicine, food, help, anything...
Belladonna quickly left the tent and ran through the muddy paths of the camp, searching desperately for someone willing to listen.
Then she saw them, royal soldiers at there horses with fresh armor and clean weapons, supplies strapped behind their horses, Belladonna's eyes widened with hope as she rushed toward them through the rain-soaked dirt.
"Please!" she cried out desperately. "My sister needs help! She's sick!"
The soldiers barely looked at her, one glanced toward the starving refugees surrounding the camp before turning away with visible disgust.
"These people are already dying," one muttered coldly. "They're not important enough to waste supplies on."
Belladonna grabbed onto one soldier's arm.
"Please—!"
The soldier shoved her violently back into the mud she hit the ground hard as the soldiers simply walked away without another word, like the people there were less than human.
Thunder rumbled across the dark sky, rain began pouring heavily over the camp.
Belladonna remained kneeling in the dirt, trembling as her fists slowly clenched beneath the mud...
Back inside the tent, Archon sat weakly while eating a small piece of bread, the bread had been stolen, belladonna had risked everything sneaking near the capital walls just to steal food for the refugees and the children starving inside the camp.
She gave most of it away but she herself had not eaten anything, Belladonna slowly sat beside her sister again and forced a small smile onto her face.
"Is that enough to ease your hunger?" she asked softly, almost immediately, her own stomach growled painfully, Archon looked down at the bread in silence.
Then quietly she broke the remaining piece in half "Here, big sis," Archon whispered gently.
Belladonna stared at the bread for a moment before slowly taking it from her trembling little sister's hands, and for the first time in days she ate...
When Archon finally began recovering from her sickness after turning nine, things slowly became easier for the two sisters.
Archon began to feel little better, and her older sister Belladonna had turned eleven, the two of them stood together once again near the capital walls, sneaking around like they always did to survive.
Archon distracted the guards by talking to them while Belladonna slipped inside unnoticed that was there plan, two guards were minding their own business at the front gate trying to get through their shift, when young Archon suddenly appeared in front of them.
"Hey, mister, how big is the castle? I want to become one of you someday…"
Archon said with a convincing bluff tho its perfect bluff.
While the guards were distracted by the little girl, Belladonna quietly sneaked past them and entered the capital once inside, she put on a small mask to hide her face, already learning from experience how dangerous it was to be recognized.
She walked through the streets with a calm composure until she came across a food market stall.
Belladonna stepped in front of the stall and pretended to browse the food before looking up at the merchant running it.
"Hey there, kiddo, buying something?"
Young Belladonna nodded before speaking calmly.
"I'll get the most expensive fresh bread from the back, please."
"Alright, coming right up."
The merchant headed toward the back to grab the bread while Belladonna quietly looked around to see if anyone was watching her direction.
Once the area was clear, she carefully stole several potatoes with calm precision, slipping them into her bag without making a sound, after finishing, she casually slung the bag over her shoulder like nothing had happened, already understanding that if she panicked or acted suspicious, she would get caught immediately.
She remained standing there waiting for the merchant to return with the bread.
A few moments later, the merchant came back carrying a large loaf of fresh bread that was still warm.
"Here you go, kiddo, that'll be five gold coins," he said while placing it on the counter, not realizing he had already been robbed.
"Alright, here you go, sir," Belladonna replied while placing a sack of "gold" onto the counter, the metal inside making realistic coin sounds.
Then Belladonna grabbed the bread and immediately took off running.
The merchant blinked in confusion before quickly opening the sack, inside were only scraps of metal shaped like coins.
He had been completely outsmarted and played.
"Hey! Get that kid!" the merchant shouted angrily.
Belladonna laughed while already nearing the front gate with bread in her hands, guards looked over their shoulders after seeing Belladonna sprinting toward the exit but before they could react, both of them were suddenly knocked unconscious by Archon, the same little girl who had distracted them earlier.
Her magic-coated fist struck the back of their heads cleanly, both guards collapsed onto the ground unconscious after being knocked out by Archon.
Belladonna slipped right past the front gate laughing breathlessly, but quickly stopped and looked back after realizing her younger sister was still standing there staring at her own hands.
"Don't just stand there, run!"
The two sisters immediately took off sprinting away from the capital and back toward the small refugee village before the guards could wake up.
As they ran through the cold night paths, Belladonna suddenly looked over at Archon with visible confusion still written across her face.
"Archon… how did you do that?"
Belladonna pointed toward the guards behind them, referring to the strange magic-coated punch Archon had used.
Belladonna was clearly unfamiliar with it, but Archon looked just as confused.
The younger girl stared quietly at her own hands while still running beside her sister.
"I… don't know…"
She truly didn't understand what had happened, all she remembered was the moment Belladonna had been running toward the gate while the guards prepared to stop her.
Something inside her awakened.
Not anger, just a desperate feeling to protect her big sister from being caught and somehow magic responded to that feeling.
Neither of them fully understood it yet.
By the time they returned to the refugee village, the bread was already beginning to cool from the night air, without hesitation, the two sisters handed the fresh bread and stolen food to the people who needed it most.
The elderly, the sick, the starving children.
Belladonna and Archon watched quietly as the villagers ate, relief slowly spreading across exhausted faces in days.
Five years passed...
Belladonna was now sixteen years old while Archon had turned fourteen, two sisters continued doing the same thing over and over again until it became part of their daily routine.
And over the years they became incredibly good at it, sneaking into the capital, stealing food, taking money from corrupt merchants and careless nobles, escaping guards, and returning everything back to the refugee village had become second nature to them.
At the same time, both sisters slowly developed and awakened their magic abilities further, sharpening them for the sake of protecting their people and surviving in a world that had abandoned them.
Belladonna's confidence and leadership grew stronger with age, while Archon's control over magic became more refined and dangerous.
Together, the two sisters became the reason many people in the refugee village were still alive, they stole food and money to help the starving families suffering from poverty and hunger throughout the camp.
The villagers never truly liked the idea of stealing, many of them hated relying on crime just to survive but there was no other choice.
The kingdom never cared about them.
No supplies ever came, no soldiers returned to help, no nobles even acknowledged the refugee village existed to the people inside the capital, they were simply forgotten lives beyond the walls.
Years passed, and the refugee villages continued to suffer beneath hunger, sickness, and silence from the kingdom that ruled over them.
But one night changed everything.
Belladonna and Archon had broken into the capital once again, though this time they were not stealing food, rumors had spread through the outer territories about people disappearing in the dead of night, prisoners, and refugees, even wounded soldiers.
Is now gone, no one returned.
Curiosity became suspicion, and suspicion led the sisters beneath the capital itself, hidden deep underground, beneath layers of stone and heavily guarded steel doors, was a forbidden chamber the kingdom never wanted exposed.
Belladonna still remembered the smell.
The blood that burned flesh and magic with uncontrolled temptation, inside the underground facility, prisoners were chained to metal tables while royal mages and nobles watched emotionlessly from above.
Strange glowing liquid flowed through tubes into the bodies of screaming subjects, forcing their veins to glow an unnatural blue.
Some twitched violently, their bodies convulsing from the substance before foam gathered at their mouths, killing them instantly.
Others mutated, their bodies twisted unnaturally, arms and legs bending in the wrong directions their screams echoed for hours until their vocal cords finally tore from the strain...blood poured down their throats, gargling with every desperate scream, yet they still continued screaming.
Others begged for mercy until their voices disappeared...
Archon stood frozen in horror while Belladonna stared at the glowing substance flowing inside glass containers.
It was familiar, same unstable power the Pandemonium Legion would later use, but the truth shattered everything Belladonna believed, because the kingdom had created it first but not to protect people, not even save lives, but to create stronger soldiers for war.
Outside the laboratory, Belladonna witnessed something far worse, entire villages overrun by the infected were reduced to ash under royal command not to rescue the civilians, but to erase every trace of the failed experiments.
Homes burned with families still trapped inside, their screams swallowed by the roar of the flames, in the streets, twisted creatures tore through the dying while soldiers marched past without hesitation, pouring oil over bodies and setting them alight, stench of burning flesh and blood lingered in the air for days, while black smoke covered the sky like a funeral veil.
Kingdom abandoned its own people long before Pandemonium ever existed.
That night, Belladonna stopped believing the kingdom could be saved and something inside her changed forever...
The sisters disappeared from the refugee villages soon after but they did not vanish alone.
Belladonna began gathering people the world had abandoned, war survivors, rogue soldiers, starving thieves, rejected mages, prisoners who escaped the underground experiments, and mercenaries with nowhere left to go.
At first, they were not villains they were simply people trying to survive.
People rejected by society, Belladonna gave them purpose, Archon gave them structure.
Together, the sisters built camps hidden far beyond the kingdom's borders they stole supplies, trained fighters, and protected refugees the nobles refused to acknowledge, people began surviving under their protection.
But the kingdom did not see saviors they saw threats, "Monsters."
That was the first word used to describe Belladonna's growing faction, not protectors but monsters, Belladonna remembered hearing the insult clearly from a captured noble trembling before her.
At first, the word angered her.
Then she accepted it because the world had already decided what they were long before they ever fought back Belladonna stood before the gathered survivors one night beneath a burning sky while Archon remained quietly beside her.
"The world already decided what we are," Belladonna said coldly.
"Then let them fear the monsters they created."
That night is when the Pandemonium Legion was born...
The memory faded, years of bloodshed, survival, betrayal, and war disappeared into silence as the present returned once more.
Back inside the council chamber of the Pandemonium Legion, the atmosphere remained deathly quiet.
The commanders had already left, only Belladonna remained.
The Supreme Ruler stood alone before the massive kingdom map spread across the chamber wall, red markers covered cities, valleys, military routes, and borderlines like wounds spreading across the land.
Behind her, the room was dimly lit by flickering crimson lanterns.
Archon was nowhere to be seen, Belladonna slowly removed her gloves while staring silently at the capital pinned at the center of the map.
Her golden eyes reflected years of hatred buried beneath calm composure, refugee camps, starving children, underground experiments.
The soldiers who walked away while people died begging for help, she remembered all of it, very single moment a faint smile slowly crossed her face, though there was no warmth within it.
Only exhaustion, wrath.
"They created this world.." Belladonna murmured quietly into the empty chamber her fingers slowly pressed against the map directly over the kingdom capital.
"And now…"
Her eyes darkened slightly.
"…they fear what survived it."
The lantern flames flickered violently and somewhere far beyond the kingdom walls
the Pandemonium Legion continued marching forward.