Chapter 1 (I) Origins

The moon shone high above the skies, scattered with dark clouds, brightly illuminating the verdant rolling hillscape. Hundreds of tall emerald Oaks, Maples, and Pine Trees adorned the hills, creating a thick and luscious forest.

Smoke rose into the skies from amongst the trees, billowing as it came from a small cottage in a tiny clearing in the forest. It was a minimalistic one-room cottage with an equally little kitchenette and a small table with two chairs. Intense flames roared from the chimney in front of an oversized chair; an elderly woman sat on the edge of a bed.

She tucked in a young boy with shaggy, sandy hair and bright green eyes before grabbing a sizeable worn book from the nightstand beside the bed and ruffled the hair, covering his forehead with a warm smile.

"One chapter! That's it! We have an early day tomorrow, Jackson!" She said sternly as she wagged her finger at his face; he giggled and pulled the blanket over his mouth.

"Okay, Grandma!" Jackson replied innocently as she opened the worn and tattered binding of the large book.

"Long ago, many years before you or I were born, our entire world was covered by humans. They lived on every inch of the ground and ruled over everything on Terra. However..." The elderly woman read as Jackson turned his head and stared out the window toward the bright moon.

***

The skies turned a bright red as the clouds burst apart and disappeared. The trees exploded, sending flaming thatch and splinters everywhere, creating a raging inferno across Terra. Lava began erupting beneath the planet's crust, bursting from volcanoes and cracks underneath the oceans. The oceans started boiling as the mountaintops were split apart, and earthquakes ravaged the continents.

Humongous towers began floating down to equally gigantic metropolis cities throughout Terra. The structures casually descended until they floated a few hundred meters above the ground creating massive gusts throughout the skyscrapers.

Immediately each of the towers opened a massive panel on each face, and luminescent staircases began unfolding out and down to the ground destroying the buildings underneath as they expanded out and connected to each other, creating a starkly beautiful image amongst the destruction of the cities.

A neverending sea of beasts emerged from the towers and began charging down the brightly lit red stairs. Giant wolves with dark fur, large fangs, and claws ran alongside giant rats and massive insects that crawled along the ground beneath their rampaging feet.

Panic set in an instant as everyone began trampling over each other as they attempted to flee from the towers. Local authorities tried to cull the beasts but were overrun in moments. Chaos ensued everywhere as people hid and barred themselves but to no avail.

Militaries sprung into high alert and were dispatched, but even with the increased firepower of their armored and air divisions, more giant and stronger monsters emerged from the tower and were quickly able to defeat the armies that were protecting humanity.

The world leaders were cut off from the public, and roughly half of humanity was eradicated from Terra in the brink of a few hours.

A Young man with long, flowing golden hair and glowing blue eyes appeared in one of the cities, and with a single wave of his hand, a light obliterated more than one hundred of the beasts in front of him. He wore gold and silver medieval plate armor covering his entire body from his neck down and a long, bright crimson red cape.

The bloodthirsty beasts charged at him from all directions. Each step he took unleashed a powerful burst, sending shockwaves, knocking them away as he flicked his wrists, disintegrating anything hit by the bursts of energy flung from his hands.

Lucky survivors watched in awe, cowering behind the rubble of destroyed buildings as their mysterious savior singlehandedly pushed back the monsters.

Similar events were happening across Terra as more men who looked identical to him were accomplishing identical victories and killing every beast that spilled out continuously. All twenty-one young men began climbing the steps to the towers and vanished into them, sealing shut behind them.

Saviors who rescued everyone without so much as uttering a single word. These men vanished as quickly as they appeared. The remnants of humanity grew bold once the monsters disappeared and approached the towers cautiously.

Civilization was crippled and brought to its knees within mere hours by the emergence of the towers. People from the countryside began to flee the devastation brought by the planet to the cities and slowly began to rebuild.

Lawlessness and anarchy replaced the peaceful lives everyone once knew as gangs emerged and began to extort, kidnap, and murder anyone they pleased. The law of the jungle became the only law that mattered.

Survival of the Fittest! For two decades, humanity grew archaic, forgetting the advancements and technology through brutality and malnourishment. The strong eat the weak, and the weak can't do anything about it, yet everything changed when the doors opened again. The only difference was the stairs were glowing blue and not red any longer.

Civilization had settled next to the towers, and panic had ensued as everyone immediately rushed away, far, hiding amongst the moss-covered rubble of buildings long destroyed. The humans cautiously waited for days before finally approaching the towers.

Upon reaching the top of the staircase, from within the pitch blackness of the tower's opening, a swirling purple portal formed with white streaks circulating within the purple mass.

Prisoners of war were the first to be forced through the portals by the warlords who ruled the destroyed cities. They had sent slave after slave through the doorway, and none ever returned.

After a week of losing dozens of slaves, the warlords snapped and sent one of their own men through the portal. Once again, none ever returned. They quickly dismissed the outlets and ignored the towers again until a miracle happened...

The portal changed to a bright blue, and one of the slaves stepped through wearing leather armor. One after another, more stepped out wearing various clothing and armor, each wielding odd weapons.

Standing atop the peak of the stairs, one person stepped forward and recited a well-rehearsed speech, "Surrender peacefully and release any person enslaved immediately or face the consequences!"