A Premonition:
Before a realm of darkness there was an angel like being with crushing light and majestic wings his beauty was unmatched; 'Behold your overlord, the true God of this world, Lucifer," said the Angel. Before this terrifying angel was an army of demons, and facing them was a collection of heroes, a tall knight-looking figure glad in all dark armor with metal horns on his helmet, a black cape and piercing red eyes, a muscular man with pointed white hair, pointed ears, fangs and claws and green eyes, a Buddhist monk with blonde hair and pointed ears, a little boy with red skin, white hair and four fingers on each hand, a giant blue alien with four fingers each, a man with dark pointed hair and battle armor, a humanoid bear with a sword and a cape, and finally standing in front of these six was one more hero a blonde elf with pointed ears and a sword that was piercingly sharp. He stood before
everyone and said to all of them; 'Ungar…, Talus…, Tashkent,... Sir Rhyme,...
Narcis…, General Kesh,.... and my successor and old friend Zaiyal…. Thank you all. I do this for you, I fear you will not see me again but I must tell you I will finish this fight. God willing we triumph!....." said the elf. After a long pause he
simply said, "Farewell, my friends," and he lunged into battle. "You petulant fool.
It took God himself to quell me before and I've spent billions of years in the fires of Hell because I rebelled against the so-called merciful God. But once I dispose of you and your little friends I will once again battle God and his Angels with my army of Demons and the Angels who have fallen like myself. I will reclaim my birthright as the greatest Archangel to ever live. I will become God. And your death will usher in the beginning of the end for this world! So long fool…" said the
angel Satan. He releases a beam of light with his fingertips but the young elf keeps charging upwards with his magical blade with his eyes glowing pale white. Lucifer and the elf were in a direct collision course with each other and before they struck
each other it all went white. It was a dream of a Polish Catholic boy living in Chicago. Nothing more, nothing less.
Prologue:
Over 100,000 years before the events of this story there were only four
warriors at the core of these events and these were Sun-Wukong the Monkey King, Tripitaka the famous Chinese Buddhist Monk, Pigsy the Pig Demon and Sandy the Water Demon. They were sent on a journey to the west to India by the Buddha himself to retrieve the sacred Buddhist scrolls known as the Sutras. They all had a colorful past. Sun-Wukong was born from a magic stone that sits on top of Flower and Fruit Mountain where he would make his home and reign there as the Monkey King with all of his Monkey subjects. Sun-Wukong was once sort of a tyrant and a flat out troublemaker who would go out of his way to eat Taoist and Buddhist monks across China enjoying human flesh and was also kicked out of the Jade Emperor's Palace for eating much of his food but he could not be executed for Sun-Wukong was immortal he even managed to annoy the almost endlessly patient founder of the Chinese religion of Taoism, Lao Tzu who lived in the Jade Palace of
the Jade Emperor the Ruler of Heaven. Eventually for all of Sun-Wukong's sins he was trapped underneath a mountain by the Buddha for 500 years. He was eventually met by Tripitaka the famous Buddhist monk from China who helped with the deities free Monkey but putting a good amulet around his neck to control him with a charm until he eventually accepted a more peaceful lifestyle. Sun-Wukong and Tripitaka were eventually joined by the Pigsy the Pig Demon who like Monkey also liked to eat humans including both Buddhist and Taoist monks across China and was a shape-shifter and woSekuzer and the Water Demon Sandy who had abilities that revolved around water magic. Both Pigsy and Sandy were once officials of the Jade Emperor in the Celestial Realm but were banished to Earth and transformed into demons for their sins by the Jade Emperor himself. The mortal human being the Buddhist Monk Tripitaka, Sun-Wukong the Monkey King and Pigsy and Sandy eventually found themselves allied together in their goal to retrieve the sacred Sutras of the Buddha in India and began the events that were recorded in the famous Chinese novel The Journey to the West. The story has much to do with Chinese folk religion, Taoism, Buddhism and various Chinese religions and theology as a whole with the emphasis on peace towards all men both Taoists and Buddhists alike and the redemption of corrupted souls being Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy with the help of Tripitaka eventually they retrieve the Sutras and bring
them back to China. In China the Chinese people have rejected the ways of Taoism and their ancestors but with Buddhism the Chinese people will have one more religion to have a perfect trifecta of eternal peace and stability being Confucianism and ancestor worship, Taoism and finally Buddhism. These heroes risked their lives and brought the Buddhist faith to the pantheon of Chinese theologies making China whole with the three sacred belief systems that exist there today making the land of China the Middle Kingdom and the center of the world. It was because of these heroes that for over 2,000 years the rest of the world both east and west paid tribute to the Chinese Emperor. On their journey Monkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy and Sandy fought many monsters, demons, evil deities and triumphed over other hardships for over 14 years but eventually retrieved the Buddhist Sutras from India and brought them back to the Eternal Middle Kingdom in China and the rest is very ancient history. Many centuries later following several other adventures the four heroes had they were joined by a fifth member of their party the Japanese Shinto God of the Wind Ebisu who warned of an evil god named Lord Azathoth whom was the ruler of a group of mostly malevolent (with a few notable exceptions), dark gods known as the Outer Gods and was a symbol of primordial chaos. He explained that this evil god Azathoth was finally in the process of destroying the entire universe and he needed the help of the four warriors to stop the being. The four
teamed up and eventually destroyed Azathoth but unknown to them Azathoth had a son named Nyarlathotep often known simply as Lord Tep. Lord Tep promised that he would one day kill Ebisu who was the one who executed the final blow on Azathoth which destroyed the dark being before he could destroy all life in the universe. The five heroes went their separate ways with Pigsy and Sandy eventually going to live on Fruit and Flower Mountain with the Sun-Wukong the Monkey King on Fruit and Flower Mountain following the ways of peace as all three of them had now converted to Buddhism and Sun-Wukong had even reached the status of a Bodhisattva and reached the status of Buddhahood just like Tripitaka. Tripitaka went to live at the Celestial Buddhist Monastery in the Spirit Realm with the other great Buddhist Monks throughout history as well as other great theological leaders including Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Christians, Magians, Taoists, Sekuchaeans, and many others. And finally, Ebisu the Japanese Wind God would live at the Wind Temple above Earth. Soon Ebisu learned of the being known as Lord Tep who was trapped inside a Cosmic Egg birthed by Azathoth but he learned that even in this embryonic stage where Lord Tep was immortal he still knew of his father's death and wanted revenge and the destructions of the hated mortals whom Lord Tep hated more than even Ebisu himself. So, Ebisu created an elite line of warriors that would be re-incarnated from
one generation to the next known as the GateKeepers who would protect the Cosmos and when necessary defeat Lord Tep. But Ebisu knew once Lord Tep was defeated there would always be a new threat to confront the beings of this universe so the Gate Keeper had to be prepared after the death of Lord Tep for more powerful beings would eventually arrive but this could be stopped for a time. If they retrieved the Philosopher Stone. The Philosopher Stone is an object that has had beings throughout history clamoring for it. Alexander the Great sought the Philosopher Stone so he could conquer Asia, so did Genghis Khan so the Great Khan could conquer all of Eurasia and the entire known world, and Napoleon who believed the stone could help him conquer all of Europe including Russia and even Adolf Hitler who sent Nazi agents under Heinrich Himmler and the SS to find the stone. And finally, Joseph Stalin after the Second World War and during the Cold War. For he believed it would help the Soviet Union defeat the Americans and safe-guard Soviet Communism. Many other people have sought this stone not just conquerors but philosophers', scientists, alchemists, names like Isaac Newton, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Averroes or ibn Rushd, Moses Maimonides, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine of Hippo, it was also a prominent powerful relic in the Hindu and Buddhist religions and even played a part in western theology. It was not only sought after on Earth but on other planets
and in other realms across the entire universe and to some extent even in the multiverse and even the Celestial Realm. What was unknown is that there were two stones, the Dark Stone and the Light Stone. The Light Stone was the false Stone it had the power to destroy and the Light Stone could bring 10,000 years of peace to the Universe but not every Universe its power only extended so far. Each stone can only be used once, once it is used it is destroyed. As recently as 500 years ago the Dark Stone was discovered by an evil being known as Xixi. Who used it to wipe out half the beings on the Planet Earth and to install his rule? The first half succeeded but the second part failed and he was killed. The Order of the GateKeepers up until the last one had disappeared ten years before these events 500 years ago had gone on for countless millions of years but only one would be able to defeat Lord Tep.
500 years before the events of this story. The god Ebisu helped four separate heroes; being Phyrros the Half-Fire Demon who was born of a Demon father and a Human mother, Zaiyal VI the alien Solarian warrior, the green forest elf heroine Nefi whom was Pharaoh's life partner and the warlock Ungar and his master the Shinto Wind God Ebius, confronted the evil being known as Lord Tep the son of the Dark Lord Azathoth. They eventually defeated him but it cost the life of Nefi.
They ultimately defeated Lord Tep through the brave sacrifice of Nefi and Phyrros was heartbroken it must be noted that there were many other warriors who helped fight Lord Tep but these were The Sacred Band of Five who according to an ancient prophecy would kill Lord Tep in the absence of the Gatekeeper who had fallen in another battle over a decade before these events and whose body was never recovered. The Gate Keeper was the most powerful being of that realm but without him the world stood a chance with these five warriors and they succeeded with the help of many other brave heroes but only one of the main five Nefi perished. For Zaiyal, Ungar, Ebisu, and yes Phyyros survived the ordeal but Phyrros came up out a changed man never fully recovering. But he would not have to wait long to meet his beloved in the next life. Several years later an evil warlock appeared who was a creation of the Dark Lord Azathoth named XiXi sometimes referred to as Zargos. A shapeless formless being created from pure darkness that took control of the dark half of the Philosopher's Stone. It killed Phyyros and Zaiyal among many others including many of the other heroes and half the population that lived on Earth but Ebisu and Ungar survived and they worked together with the others to destroy Xixi once and for all who warned in his dying breath that the late Azathoth's son being Lord Tep would wake soon and when he did they were all doomed not just the planet but the entire universe and all of the
mortals within it. Phyrros, Zaiyal and many of the other great warriors of Earth had perished and were now in the Afterlife. All of the remaining life on Planet Earth had been transported to the larger Planet Helios which is about the size of one of Earth's sister planets by the Wind God Ebisu himself. These beings have lived on the Planet Helios for the last 500 years. But the Gate Keeper would be reincarnated one more time, this time in the body of a young boy from an alternate realm. His name would be Daniel and he would be the greatest of the Sacred Order.
Chapter 1: The Lore.
The Japanese have a religion called Shinto or Shintoism in the west. In this religion there are many gods as it is a Polytheistic religion one of them is known as Ebisu ゑびす in orthodox Shintoism he is merely the god of fishermen and good luck as he serves as one of the Seven Gods of Fortune. This is all true but Ebisu is much more than these things for one he's very old at least 10,000,000 million years old. He is responsible for turning wicked hearts into pure hearts. Examples include
those of his main students in his castle which is known as the Wind Palace as Ebisu is principally the God of Wind and Time, but is also a god of History, Philosophy, Mathematics, Science, Culture, Civilization, Art, War and Combat to name a few. He is by no means the most powerful god there are many gods, countless actually that are far more powerful than Ebisu but he is nonetheless remarkable especially for mortal standards obviously. In his palace are his students, his main student, assistant and bodyguard is the Warlock Ungar. He looks like the Death Dealer from the famous painting by artist Frank Frazetta but with a black cape. In fact, perhaps Ungar is the inspiration for the Death Dealer and not the other way around. Ungar looks classically evil but he is not evil though he once was. Once he was a human coming from a Hungarian Magyar tribe around the Ukraine somewhere around the year 930 C.E. His birth name was 'Erdem,' and he was the son of the Chief making him the prince one day his tribe was attacked by another tribe belonging to another larger Turkic group being the Bulgars. The Bulgar tribe killed everyone in his tribe, his father the Chief, his mother and everyone else and in addition to this stealing of his tribe's wealth. Erdem escaped into a nearby forest where he was cut by several Bulgar warriors and was near death. He was met by a demon who told him of the Gettling curse. The Gettling Curse is a curse that traps someone's soul in a non-living object for a long period of time, usually about 900,000,000,000 trillion
years. Once the curse has been bestowed on the individual the demon said you will be immortal and no one or nothing will be able to kill you. You will not be unstoppable per say it's still possible to defeat you but you will be immortal and cannot die by the hands of anyone or anything else. Only old age can kill you and once you accept the curse you have to live with it for Epochs. If you accept the curse you will have enough power to kill the Bulgars who slaughtered your family and tribe. Erdem accepted these terms and became a Gettling, a 'trapped soul,' his body disintegrated and he was fused into the hollow empty armor being the Death Dealer armor with a black cape he was now a Warlock. The demon spoke, 'it seems that you have become a Warlock, most Gettlings do not get that luxury. Anyways, now I am off. What you choose to do with this gift is up to you now.' The demon disappeared into a puff of smoke and just like that he was gone. Erdem or rather Ungar could only think of one thing that completely dwarfed the fact that his soul was in another body and that was killing those Bulgars. Later that same night the Bulgars had a celebration thanking the Spirits of the Steppe for aiding them in destroying the Magyars feasting and celebrating. And then the fire went out and dark energy pulsated all around them. The Bulgars were terrified the warriors got on their feet with their weapons and then a voice boomed. 'I am the one survivor of the tribe you just slaughtered. You will pay for your sins for only beasts could have
committed such heinous acts for now I am Ungar the Terrible and you will suffer the same fate as my tribe.' Ungar began to summon demons of his own creation which ripped the Bulgars apart not just the warriors and the men but the women,
children and elderly as well. Within a few minutes the entire tribe was gone and it was as if they never even existed. But this was not enough the darkness in his heart had grown after slaughtering the Bulgars and so Ungar and his demon army went on to conquer Western Asia and Europe slaughtering all humans and other mortals in his path. But when he reached England, he was stopped by the wizard Merlin Percival, one of the knights of the Round Table who served the late King Arthur, Lord of the Britons. He was the knight entrusted with King Arthur's sword Excalibur after Arthur's death and so Percival and Merlin confronted the evil Warlock Ungar and his army of demons. They could not kill him so they did the next best thing Merlin used a concealment spell on the sword so when Percival use Excalibur Ungar was sucked into the sword with a seal that would last 1,000 years before breaking effectively only buying time before the Dark Lord Ungar's return. Percival threw the sword to the Lady of the Lake where it stayed for over 1,000 years. In the 21st century a little over 1,000 years later the seal broke and Ungar and his demon army returned and began destroying great cities like New York, London, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow until the god Ebisu arrived and defeated Ungar
while also annihilating his entire demon army. Ungar could not be killed by Ebisu but he could not defeat Ebisu either for the god was too powerful, Afterall Ungar was only a warlock not a god. Ungar agreed to become a student of Ebisu as he had no other choice but to seal away this time for 10,000 years until he finally learned his lesson, he chose the former. Ungar as Ebisu's student became more and more kind and the evil within his heart began to decrease until finally, he looked the same, he had the same dark magic but he was no longer a terrible tyrant but a warrior that defended the innocent to atone for the sins that he committed throughout the first 1,000 years of his life. Ungar became Ebisu's main student, closest friend, advisor and even his Grand Vizier and he had assembled several other spirits to join their cause including 'Emperor Karelian,' another person who was once a villain he was the last remaining of his race the Dark Elves and he was the Prince or King of them if they were not extinct. He assembled an army of demons from the Underworld and tried to conquer the Earth unlike Ungar who previously just tried to destroy everything before he was redeemed Karelian wanted to rule over everyone and everything. Just like Ungar he was defeated not by Ebisu but by Ungar who sent him to defeat Karelian. Karelian became one of Ungar's Elite Four, the others were not former villains. The first was Emperor Karelian who after several years under his master Ungar the Warlock gained inner peace and
became a hero and a warrior like Ungar who defended the innocent, the other three were already pure of heart, the second of the Elite Four was 'Sir Rhyme the Bear,' who was an anthropomorphic bear who carried a sword and a Medieval cape just like the one Karelian wears. The next was a Sikh warrior named 'Ranjit Singh,' who had died fighting the Germans in the British army in France during WWI he was named after the famous Sikh king, 'Ranjit Singh,' (1780-1839), and was a devout Sikh who everyday would read the Sikh holy book known as the Guru Granth Sahib and the teachings of the prophet and founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak. He carried a Khanda, the sword that Sikhs carry into battle to protect the innocent and wore a Sikh Turban as well as having a full thick beard. He was a spirit just like Emperor Karelian and Sir Rhyme during in the fields of France in the year 1917 C.E. to German bullets. The last member of the Elite Four was the spirit of a Chinese Shaolin Buddhist monk named 'Puyi,' who died fighting the Manchurians who had invaded China in the year 1642 C.E. Puyi was a devout Buddhist who practiced the way of the Buddha and tried to always better himself and come closer to Enlightenment even though he was already a spirit. Ranjit Singh and Puyi were warriors who died on the field of battle defending others rather than themselves so they had the privilege once they died to train with deities and other powerful spirits kind of like the Norse afterlife of Valhalla but unlike that
the warriors could end up with any number of infinite powerful spirits in the afterlife and Ranjit Singh and Puyi were just lucky enough to have Ebisu as their master. There were several other warriors who were not current but ex-students of Ebisu and still close friends who visited the Wind Palace often. These were the Bear and the Dragon a talking Bear and Dragon who were from another realm before they died and became spirits and Hassan I-Sabbah the Shi'ite Islamic warrior who founded the Order of the Assassins in the Middle Ages to drive out Sunni invaders of Shia lands in Persia and Syria. All of these were spirits and just like Settings were impossible to kill and therefore immortal. The only one in the Wind Palace who was not immortal was Ebisu himself for when a god dies, he dies forever and cannot become a spirit. Though Ebisu was blessed with great and fabulous powers, he was always fearful of the possibility that one day he could very well die. The last and most important part of this story is Ebisu's greatest responsibility which is that of the Gatekeeper. The last Gate Keeper was an Elf Warrior named Stigma but he had recently died without an heir. The Gatekeeper was a warrior responsible for protecting the many worlds from being engulfed by evil such as monsters or demons for example. And it was the first time in a long time that a great evil was on the horizon in the Spirit Realm. There needed to be a new Gatekeeper who would wield the Spirit Blade the Sword the Gatekeeper is
entrusted with to fight off evil. But the question now was. Who would be that warrior?