[同人]When All Is Lost to Darkne

Once upon a time , a dark lord from ancient times rose from his grave in a place darker than darkness itself .He raged across the lands ,casting spells of fear wherever he goes......
People start to recall their deepest fear ,the fear that runs in their blood ,the fear that their ancestors once had. The most primitive fear of humankind ,the unknown .

No one knows where he is from ,no records ever told of such an existence .Many tried to face him ,but none lived to tell the tale .By words of those few who have had the slightest glimpse of him and yet survived,even the Shadows he cast when in the light of day is of a shape so horrid ,that not even the terrors of the darkest nightmare may match.
On he goes ,from one city to another ,all living things fell into a state of void and none .Nothing could stop him .Yet noone may guess his purpose .For he seemed to move in a random route ,turning all places on his path into lands of Shadows and decay ,yet targeting no site of particular importance.

There were some who were brave enough to venture into lands corrupted by him ,but none left with a sane mind .All their friends had gotten out of them was gibberish ,yet there was one sentence that was repeated by these once fearless men :Beware the shadows ,Aether ,Aether ,Aether!
None of them survived beyond a fortnight .A corruption seem to course through their veins, until nothing is left but charred bones.

Many tried to find the supposed Aether .Specialists of all lores and skills attempted with all their knowledge. But no matter what they tried ,they are unable to produce anything similar to the quality of an element of such pureness.
The dark lord raged on ,bringing fear to humans as never before.
Kingdoms fell ,one after another .Those yet free from his grasp trembled ,and fear have seized the people's mind even before he arrived .Fear fed to chaos ,which only seemed to boost his power .On and on he went ,consumming lands faster with every league he traveled.

Yet hope was not lost for this world .A young girl in a kingdom where chaos was not known ,started her journey north to seek the legendary element.
On the way ,she entered an enchanted forest .The forest is of such beauty that she lost track of time ,wandering in the forest ,unable to pull her thoughts away from staying there forever .It was nighttime when she finally snapped out of her dreamlike state .She had only just remembered her goal ,yet there was no way she may find the path again .

Before she realized what a dangerous state she was in ,Eyes ,glowing red eyes ,materialized around her ,watching her between the trees .
The girl was frightened out of her mind ,yet somehow she knew these eyes meant her no harm. Then ,moving as one ,all eyes turned towards a direction .The red light they emitted showed a path between the trees .The young girl ,afraid as she was ,decided to trust her instincts ,and stepped on to the path .The eyes followed her lighting up the way before her.

She ran and ran ,not daring to stop and catch her breath .Finally ,the girl burst out of the trees and found herself in a clearing .Before her was a stormy sea ,and beyond it ,she could see an edge of a huge glacier .The eyes vanished ,gone as suddenly as they have apeared .
Fatigue overtook her ,and she lied down on the clearing ,regardless of the crashing of the waves of the sea , and fell into a deep sleep.

Her dreams were full of unspeakable horrors that would drive all but those with the strongest willpower insane .
It was dawn when she finally broke free of the grasp of nightmares and was able to return to a saner world .But the air do not smell right ,something feels off for the girl ,but she cannot find the reason for it .The dark lord ,now powerful beyond human understanding ,have finally turned towards the peaceful kingdom that was the girl's home .Stormming over land and water he came ,Ready to cover the most peaceful kingdom of all in its darkness .

Then, from the north ,came a voice .So pure and surreal that It seemed almost unearthly .
The girl called to the glacier across the sea in the way her mother taught her .A calling said to be able to bring out something that may save the world when all is lost .
For the first time in aeons ,the master of darkness the lord of fear ,knew what it means to be afraid .

For from the glacier in the north ,the river of memories ,came a goddess dressed in purest of white .Towards the darkness she rode ,on a horse whose manes are waves of the sea .Her beauty is unmatched ,even the charm of the enchanted forest dimmed in comparison .
The fifth spirit ,the young girl realized ,the embodiment of Aether!

The dark lord howled with mighty wrath ,the sound shattering the will of all living things in miles ,trying to cover his own fear with rage .He charged at the goddess .The earth blackened ,and all lives smothered as he rode on the tide of darkness .But right before he may touch the forest ,a wall of ice shot up from the ground ,delicate and yet immensely powerful .A unity symbol of elements embeded in its center ,it shone with light of the spirits of nature .

Fear ,wrath ,chaos and darkness of countless aeons crashed into the wall ,yet the wall took it all in ,neutralizing it all with power of love and creation .Then it split into a million crystals and dispersed in the air .Leaving the dark lord standing there ,a lonely figure in a desolated land .

The fifth spirit sat astride nokk before him ,and lifted her hand when he again attempted to approach the forest ."You shall not pass."Her voice was soft as a breeze ,but holds power great as nature itself ."Return to where you belongs ,and trouble this world no more ."
An icy blast shot from her hand and hit the center of the dark lord .Cracks of light appeared in the darkness of him ,with a flash of a color brighter than white ,the ancient evil disintegrated and faded into nothing ,as in void is where he belongs.

The goddess raised her hands to the sky , where a unity symbol formed .In corrupted lands ,shadows receeded ,nature took over once more and the spirits returned everything to what they used to be .
The young girl who saved the world watched all this from afar ."When all is lost ,then all is found .Is this what it means ?"She wondered.