The moment the fruit possessed the young mage’s body, everyone around her took arms, they pointed their swords, spears, and bows towards the possessed young woman as she floated on top of the circular table, above the sweets prepared by those of the nobility as a sign of gratitude for the recent expedition. The elegant rose garden was filled with the laughter of the young woman as her eyes turned purple, filled with lust—lust for killing.

“The End of the World.”

She raised her right hand, the girls felt the great surge of magic energy forming on the Mage Minju’s hand. All the roses in the garden withered, and thick vines and moss-covered the gazebo near them. The bushes and the leaves of the trees that used to be as vibrant as the different colors of the roses soon faded into dust.

With her weapon at hand, Berserker Chaewon was reluctant whether or not she should raise her weapon towards her. Her hands were ready to unsheathe the twin blades placed behind her back.

“Oh? Are you going to attack me, Chaewon?”

She spoke, the expression on her face, how she spoke, and her soft voice—there was no mistaking that it was her. What she is possessed with, is something beyond, every existing cleric’s skills.

“M-Minju…?” Like a helpless child, she walked closer towards the floating mage.

“Chaewon, get back here! She’s… she’s just using Minju’s—”

The moment Chaewon turned to look at Knight Yujin who stood behind her, she turned into a stone as Minju snapped her fingers. She laughed as she snapped more, petrifying two more of their party members, Cleric Hyewon, and Fortuner Eunbi. The berserker was the only one left as her teammates ended up being petrified by the corrupted mage.

“Minju, why are you doing this? Stop… Stop it already…” Chaewon can’t raise her weapons towards the mage for she harbored special feelings towards her.

“After I have you petrified… I’ll… destroy you all.”

It was painful, too painful for her to watch as the foreign who possessed the young mage’s body said those words in the manner that their friend would say it.

“Minju… I suppose that’s this young lady’s name. However, I am Astaroth. The new owner of this body.”

Chaewon knew what was about to come when her eyes met the demon.

She was ready to meet her demise, her end. But in her final moments, she still craved for the sweetest fruit, the ambrosia— the reason for the formation of their party. It was a shame that until the end, despite being the highest-ranking party in all of the guilds, they are not able to learn why the demon chose Minju’s body as its host.

When Astaroth snapped her fingers, Chaewon fell into the abyss. Wherever she looked, it was all black, she could feel her body drowning in the endless sea of darkness, the berserker has lost all her strength to try and find something she could grab on, and so she closed her eyes.

“Chaewon. Come to Makai and save me.”

A familiar voice awakened her senses, it awakened every part of her body’s desire to live. She opened her eyes and saw a familiar figure swimming towards her. Minju. She was saying something she couldn’t hear.

“Creation of Heavens.”

It was a light magic—something only Minju could use. It rid the place of darkness, powerful light magic coupled with healing magic that could heal every inflicted ailment—even death, for a price of a part of one’s lifespan.

“At least I know you aren’t Astaroth.” Chaewon adjusted her position and jumped from a non-existent platform to try and reach Minju’s spirit.

 “Chaewon… Please save me…”

She finally reached her, but she couldn’t touch her.

“Minju…?”

Chaewon endlessly tried as she watched the painful expression on the mage’s face.

“Before the time runs out.”

Everything turned black just like before, and she’s drowning endlessly again.

“Was it all an illusion…?”

“Chaewon please save me.”

Wooden ceilings and supports, the sweet smell of booze coming from the floor slits downstairs, a single lamp that illuminated the darkroom in the darkest of the night. Chaewon woke up in an inn, to her surprise, there was the Captain of Castle’s troops— Paladin Yena, dressed in a silver armor that had the Royal Family’s symbol on the plate, and had gold lines on its edges. The captain of the Paladins sat on a wooden chair facing her bedside, her arms were crossed as she slept. Her helmet is placed on the table beside her, and her sheathed long sword leaned towards the sleeping captain’s side.

“Why is the Captain of the Paladins here?” As soon as she sat up on the bed, she felt a stinging pain in her head. “Ugh, it hurts.” Memories from when before she fell unconscious came back to her head, everything including the possession of the Mage Minju.

“Chaewon, don’t force yourself. We were barely able to rescue you amidst the eternal flames.” There was a somewhat grim look on Yena’s face as she faced Chaewon. The berserker didn’t want to think about the worse.

“What about the others? Eunbi? Hyewon? Yujin? And… Minju…?”

Yena shook her head, “Their bodies are still stoned in the lost garden. The castle has decided to call the faeries rose garden as the lost garden after the events of Minju’s possession.” The captain explained.

“Wait… Eternal flames? Did she use the forbidden spell…?”

“Most likely.” Yena nodded her head to the question, “There aren’t any skilled clerics that could remove the ancient stone spell from those three. You are lucky that the troops got to the garden because of the Diva Yuri.” She stood up as she explained and took the twin blades hung on the side of the room and passed it to Chaewon.

“The traveling Fortuner Winter of the ae guild revealed what she read from the construction of the spell yesterday. She said if we want them to be cured, we have to go to Makai and gather leaves from the demon Stolas’ plants. About Minju, she said her spirit is stuck in Makai, chained in the seat of Astaroth.” Yena sat on the side of the bed and looked at Chaewon, the latter could see the desperation in her eyes.

“I want to cure Eunbi. Yuri wants to cure Hyewon. You might want to rescue Minju… Are you joining our party going to Makai?” Hearing those words, made Chaewon gulp. She has seen what Astaroth—the demon residing in Minju’s body, can do. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to see that demon doing unlikely things with her beloved’s body again. The berserker barely escaped death, she isn’t sure if she’s willing to walk the tightrope of death for the second time.

“I’m not forcing you to join, of course, no one is willing to challenge a duke from Makai…”

Chaewon wanted to refuse, but Minju’s voice kept on ringing on her head.

“Chaewon save me.”

She looked at her trembling hands and kept asking herself internally.

“Chaewon…? I… I see you don’t want to, I’m just going to look for another berserker to join us. Thank you.” As soon as Yena stood up, she felt someone grab her gauntlets hung behind her. She turned her back and faced Chaewon.

“I’m joining you. I want to save them too.”

Minju… I won’t regret this… right?

On their journey to the end of the world—to the gates of Makai, another adventurer joined them. Cleric Wonyoung, who aims to save her friend, the Knight Yujin. As well as the gates, they were also in search of the Seven Stones of Makai, the keys to the gates.

Their Makai expedition team currently has five members. Each member was the best of what the Country of Iz could offer.

First was the current strongest Mage, as Minju doesn’t count after the recent events. It was Nako from the Eastern region, a part of the Yabuki family of Mages. She mastered three out of five elements that a mage could master at a very young age.

The second was the leader of the party, Paladin Yena. She was the former captain of the Castle’s Paladins. Yena was a former runic knight until she decided to focus more on her swordsmanship. She used to train with Chaewon back when she was still a runic knight until their party disbanded after a major goblin attack in the Country that killed their party leader three years ago. The events of Minju’s possession reconciled them, and now they are on the same party to rescue those affected by the events.

The third was the diva, Yuri. She wasn’t supposed to join the party but knowing about Hyewon being stoned, she just knew she needed to join them to get the cure. She just wanted to be able to tell her the feelings she’s been hiding, nothing more, nothing less.

The fourth, the strongest berserker of Iz, Chaewon. She was the only known berserker to have broken the high priest’s seal on her body, the current seal on her body is made by none other than the now corrupted mage, Minju. She was reluctant to join the party at first as the memories of Astaroth possessing Minju’s body kept on coming back to her mind, Chaewon joined the party after hearing Minju’s voice in her dream, asking her to save her.

The last member is the mysterious cleric Wonyoung. She is childhood friends with Yujin, one of Chaewon’s old teammates currently stoned. She aims to save Yujin so she joined Yena’s party, despite being inexperienced as a cleric. However, there was something about her that made her teammates wary of her movements.

The sweat that ran from their temples down to their necks due to the heat of the sun, and the thick traveler’s garb they wore glistened as the sun shone more towards them. It was the much bigger enemy than the guardian and the mobs of this desert, the sun that follows every traveler or party that enters the abode of the sloth dragon—the Desert of Belphegor.

 “Nako, do you have any spell that could help us with this heat? I swear, I’ll die of this heat before we even get to Makai.” Yena sat on the sand, still on her heavy armor made up of steel as she stabbed the ground beside her with her long sword. She looked at the tired mage they have with them, Mage Nako, who was wearing a white blouse tucked on a pair of brown trousers, under a black robe, and on her foot were plain black boots.

“I’ll see with I can do.” With the staff way bigger than her that she held, she pointed it above, facing the sun, and began chanting a spell. “Veil of Frost.” Huge runic circle enough to cover their area appeared from where they all stood—around Nako as she is the mage that needs all the shielding she could get. Following the circle, a huge veil-like object appeared like an umbrella above all of them, from it fell snowflakes that helped ease the heat that the blazing sun was sending them.

“Yuri, you better use your spells more. This one spell depletes my mana as long as it has its effects on.” In the rankings of the strongest mages in the Country of Iz, Nako stands after Minju as the next greatest Mage. She mastered 3 out of the 5 elements that Minju has, Fire, Ice, and Lightning. While the other two, only Minju can use as it is something that is only passed down to their family, the light and space magic.

“Right.” In just a note of the Diva dressed in garb similar to Nako, it was as if the young mage had turned into a monster. As her mana continuously recharges despite having powerful field magic activated. “How do you like that? That only takes a bit of my mana.” Yuri asked Nako, to which the older responded with a smile.

“I think we’ve arrived at the Temple of Sloth’s Belphegor.” They all went into a halt the moment Yena spoke as she pointed at a huge temple with her sword. It was a temple made up of stone and had intricate design and carvings, on the gable’s end was written Acedia. The ancient word for Sloth.

“Wow, that’s one huge door.” Chaewon stood in awe as the hot wind blew her hood behind her head, revealing the thin brown armor she wears, the design was similar to Yena’s but it was less guarded as she needed more speed as a berserker.

she inspected the whole of temple’s façade with only her eyes, the carvings were as if telling them a story—the story of how the sloth dragon once terrorized a civilization in this very desert, and all that is left is the debris of the flourishing age that died down along with the dragon when was sealed by the ancient people of Iz.

“Are you guys ready?” Yena turned to look at them, “Opening this door is equal to removing the powerful seal that our ancestors placed into this temple. You can still back out and return to the Country.” Chaewon knew how Yena was hesitant to say the last words, she wanted to show her that her mind still hasn’t changed.

“I’m joining you. A Paladin isn’t enough to battle a Dragon from Makai. And I told you right? I’ll save them, and I’ll see Minju again.” Chaewon unsheathed the blades hung behind her waist as she walked close to Yena’s back, she gripped the handles of her blades tight as she looked at one of the carvings on the dragons—she felt her blood boil, and her brows furrowed. The blood of all the berserkers in her family inside her body felt as if they were growling, they were resonating with Chaewon’s thoughts.

“As if a Paladin and a Berserker—a freaking walking glass cannon, would survive in a dungeon without a Cleric.” Wonyoung, who have been as silent when they entered the desert days ago, finally spoke. Dressed in a white robe with a red cape with gold corners and golden boots, she stepped up towards the two and pressed her staff on the stairs made up of stone, the red staff with gold edges suddenly turned into a huge hammer after the quick press.

“I shall introduce myself once more, I am the first Holy Knight after a thousand years in the Country of Iz. Wonyoung of the Jang House. I can heal, and I can fight. I can use light magic, but not the ones on the same level as the mages of the Kim Family.” The robe she was wearing changed into an armor— a white armor with gold edges, and on her plate was the sign of the Royal Family.

“The moment I joined this party, I’ve already made up my mind. There’s no way I’m not joining you lot. I also have to find Hitomi in the depths of Makai, I promised her family that I will bring her back to her body no matter what.” Nako followed. Her decision made the first three smile.

“I have to see Hyewon again, I wanted to tell her how I feel. Besides, how are you all going to break this seal without me anyway?” Yuri laughed as she followed behind their backs.

Yena took a deep breath, “Okay,” Her hands were trembling as she held her long sword, she could feel her anxiety eating her whole being— a part of her wanted to go back to the Country, and a part of her don’t.

All her worries vanished the moment she felt Chaewon’s hand on her left shoulder, “We’re going to save them.” She whispered.

Right. I’m going to see Eunbi again.

“Yuri. The song of ancient seals, the song of the slain dragons.” They all stepped aside beside Yuri who stood in front of the door, of all the classes, the only ones who have knowledge of the ancient magic and seals are the Divas—mainly because they can only use mana restoration, and effect magic, however on rare occasions, they could use sealing magic.

“Yena, Chaewon, you are to protect the three of us as I begin the song of seal removal.”

Yuri began to sing of the ancient language, it was something they couldn’t understand, but felt soothing as their diva’s voice. “Now, Nako, Wonyoung—light and thunder magic.” The Holy Knight and the Mage cast their ultimate spells at the Diva’s command.

Yena and Chaewon felt a surge of mana gathering to the huge doors of the temple, upon the appearance of Nako’s runic circle of divine thunder, the skies turned dark, and mobs of desert monsters gathered around the temple.

“Chaewon, that’s our cue.” Yena and Chaewon went out of the circle, they could hear Nako’s endless chanting, and as the first thunderstruck the door, Wonyoung began hers. A runic circle way larger than Nako’s appeared in the sky and lit up the area outside the temple.

“Yena, watch my back.” Chaewon started to charge towards the huge monsters while Yena decided to take on the smaller ones to support the berserker. In the middle of the fight, as they tried to keep the mobs out of the circle, they went into a full stop the moment an aerial type of monster appeared. Both of them had no capacity to fight against it.

“Damn, if only Chaeyeon or Sakura isn’t so busy with their guild work these days— huh?” Yena’s complaints were cut close as all of a sudden, the mob of flying monsters in front of them disappeared, as well as the slimes that had been lurking around the runic circles.

“That was a lot.” Yena and Chaewon turned to look at the roof of the temple, to which to figure stood. One that wore the Iz’s strongest guild’s grandmaster uniform, a black blouse tucked on her brown trousers, and white boots, with a red pauldron on her right arm. Her left hand carried a black and purple colored bow—Archer Chaeyeon, the grandmaster of Iz Adventurer Guild.

“This is a nice drop.” Beside Chaeyeon was a woman dressed in an all-black gear, black dress shirt, trousers, and boots, on her waist are different small weapons hung—small bombs, knives, poison needles, and everything one could think of. She had no protective gear, a typical assassin. It was the one who stands at the top of all the assassins in the Country, Assassin Sakura.,

“Freaks, what took you so long?” Yena exclaimed as she pointed her long sword towards the two, the archer and assassin just laughed it off before they once again jumped into the battlefield.

“Save your scolding for later, party leader. We have to deal with them until the diva finishes the song of ancient seals, right?” Chaeyeon placed her bow to the back of her waist, and soon, a pair of pistols materialized on her hands, her gloves.

“Take the aerial monsters, those flies are a huge pain,” Yena commanded, but as they set their eyes on battle once again, there were twice as many monsters from earlier. The mana that Yuri, Nako, and Wonyoung were accumulating was able to draw every monster and even the desert’s guardian to the temple.

The guardian was a high orc, he had blue skin filled with tribal tattoos, his eyes were red, and he had a large muscular body. The orc that stood in front of them alongside the other monsters and orcs wasn’t a regular high orc, it was the King of Orcs in that desert. And in a single growl, every single monster charged towards them.

“Yuri! Let’s stop for a bit! Yena and the others won’t be able to handle this many monsters!”

Yuri was too deep into the spell and the song that her voice couldn’t even get through, Nako was out of options. She has always sworn to never resort to that one thing.

Aside from the Ancient Seals that only clerics, divas, holy knights, and runic classes can unseal, there was another type of seal that exists in the world, a seal from their time. To prevent mages and berserkers from losing control of their bodies, the high priests have decided to place a seal on their bodies in form of an accessory that grows along with the bearer. The moment the bearer removes their accessory seal, they are given an hour or two before it turns into dust as it wasn’t made up of normal tools, but from mana.

We have never anticipated that an ancient seal would accumulate this much mana that could attract monsters. Just for a few seconds before the seal dissolves into dust, I just have to do it quick.

Nako removed the silver earring on her left ear, the seal that stops her from reaching what is beyond her power. She was then able to chant two spells at the same time, omitting the other and doing it on her mind, while chanting the other on her lips.

Rain of fire and icicles began outside the runic circles, bringing death and ruin to the monsters.

The four were surprised at the consecutive spells that Nako has been doing outside the circles. They are well aware of the high priest’s seals, especially Chaewon. They knew that one of the reasons why the accessory seals were given was to prevent the death by mana overload. Their hands trembled as they were swallowed by the growing anxiety on their foot, knowing that at this rate, Nako might die.

“I’ll take the high orc alone, make sure to keep his minions occupied.”

“But Chaewon, you’ll die—”

Before Yena could even finish, Sakura tapped her shoulder.

“She’s a berserker, she knows what she is capable of.”

Chaewon took a deep breath before taking a huge leap towards the high orc, running towards him as she stepped on his minions’ heads, gripping her blades tightly, feeling her blood rushing to her veins and her desperation.

“Chaewon… She’s that one right? The one who accidentally broke the high priest’s accessory seal on her body during the lost forest raid—y’know, against the Paladin Dragon.” Chaeyeon asked, and the former Captain of the Paladins nodded in response.

“Yeah. The current seal on her body isn’t from a high priest—but from the strongest mage of her era, Minju.” Yena explained before taking her stance once more towards the monsters.

One of Chaewon’s blades broke as she tried to penetrate the orc’s thick skin. Using the single blade she has left, she tried to slice through its body but to no avail, that last blade broke. She landed on the sand, looking at the King of Orcs who was laughing at her weapon-less self.

The berserker was about to use her fists until she heard the Diva scream.

“Hurry! The doors have opened!”

“Keep the doors opened until Chaewon and I get there.” Sakura ran in the direction of the King, while also picking up the broken pieces of the twin blades that broke earlier.

“Sakura, what the heck are you doing!?” Yena shouted from the twin doors as she and Chaeyeon tried to keep it open as the runic circles faded.

“The doors will close in a few minutes, the runic circles and what remains of the song can’t hold it longer!” The archer tried to push the closing door to keep it open with her back.

“If you’re going to put that high orc down, make it quick! I won’t be able to keep these monsters out for long!” Nako’s eyes were already bleeding due to the extensive use of her mana and strong elemental spells.

“Nako, let me handle this.”

“Wonyoung what are you doing—”

“Check my bag, have Nako drink the bottle with the blue liquid. That’s my elixir.”

Wonyoung pushed them aside and jumped out of the temple, she cast a shield magic while behind her was Yuri, regenerating her lost mana from the spell.

“Sakura, let’s go back!” Chaewon insisted, but Sakura just smiled at her.

“I can’t afford to go back and let you fight inside that temple with your bare fists. Keep the high orc busy and on my signal, keep your distance away. I promise this will be quick.” The assassin threw her one of her knives as a weapon, and as Chaewon jumped to match the height of the high orc’s face, and began trying to slash her way through his defenses, she watched Sakura through her peripherals and saw her going around the high orc while drawing something akin to a runic circle. It was something she couldn’t recognize.

“If we can’t bring you down with your thick skin with our weapons, then this might just be the answer.”