Tales of a Lost Sword Prologue

Prologue
Long ago, everything was created: Phonemes that transcended time by passing to each generation the power of the Sword of Nexon; Paradoxes that existed to tear souls apart. Little did we humans understand the role that such entities play upon the world.

Even less did we understand the necessity of a ruling power to govern everything that exists. We simply accepted the fact that humans needed a higher power to preside over them. That is in part why the Myougun Empire rose from the ashes of chaos left behind by the Four of Victoria Island after they defeated Lilith, the mother of all Paradoxes.

By sealing away the Sword of Nexon, the weapon used to slay Lilith, in the three Phonemes, the Four brought peace to the world and ended the ancient era of massive war. Except they did not foresee the rise of the Myougun Empire, led by the sublime Lord Kimura, who crushed everything in his wake to possess the Three Phonemes.

A small group of fighters, Kunai, Ryuu, Arai, and Ivy, the Second Phoneme, fought back against the oppression of the empire. In the process, they encountered Ayame, Ivy’s sister and the First Phoneme, who’d gone rogue to fight for the Myougun. Arai was also defeated at the cusp of the battle against Kimura, which led to Lord Kimura’s capture of the Second Phoneme and the subsequent start of the search for the Third Phoneme.

The Third Phoneme, as it turned out, was Lily, Kunai’s long-lost sister. Kunai and company were able to rescue her, only to run into a new enemy, the Fatalists. As the showdown between Kunai and the Fatalists became imminent, Ice, the leader of the Fatalists, captured all Three Phonemes and defeated Lord Kimura in a decisive battle.

Kunai only managed to arrive in time to see Ice destroy the souls of the Three Phonemes, and capture the Sword of Nexon for himself, the weapon said to be able to destroy anything. Without any chance to recover from his shock, Ice revealed to Kunai at that moment that his true identity was none other than his former comrade, Arai the Mage!

However, little did they realize this was only half the tale, and only the beginning…

Fire swallows the darkness of the night. A pale sickle moon presides over the destruction in the desolate man-made complex below. However, the meek moonlight fails in comparison to the searing hotness of the burning flames now engulfing the entire building.

A figure in a white lab coat stumbles out of the flames, his entire face and body covered in soot. He falls to his knees, just as another person approaches him.

“You…did this?” the scientist heaves almost incoherently.

His eyes move upward to stare into the face of his assailant, a dark-haired, dark-eyed individual with a Dark Identity strapped around his forehead. He holds a Steely throwing knife in his right hand. “No,” his attacker breathes in a low voice, “I didn’t. It was the Nightless Empire.”

“Then…who are you?”

The young man reaches forward and grabs the white-coated victim, holding him up by the collar. He places his Steely against the scientist’s neck. “My name is Kunai. I am with the ARES Project. I want you to tell me, before you die, where the Anti-Paradox is.”

Sunlight filters into the balcony of a castle overlooking a massive river valley. A blue-haired mage with electrifyingly yellow eyes sits upon the balustrade looking down at the fertile farmland below. He stares at the spotless blue sky, free of clouds. The only blemish is a thin black line running straight across the middle of the sky.

“Grandfather…”