Luxor, the Dimensional Gate

Elam, who escaped from the prison where he had been kept, went out to look for the place believed to be the source of the rumors of demon sightings in order to determine the veracity of the divination in the palace. Despite the threat of vicious monsters, he went deep into the north of the White Eagle Mountains and discovered evidence of a great battle in a valley there. He came to realize that this was the camp of the demons' front-line advanced party that came to Harran, but suffered an attack from a group of hostile trolls and was wiped out. This meant that, somewhere, a Nox had already opened up to the demon realm. It would have been enough if the continent, safe these thousand some years, were only suffering invasion from the demons again, but this was not all.

Deeply unsettled, Elam investigated the surrounding areas thoroughly for any other evidence of the demons’ presence. Not far away, he found the distinct form of an altar with an object in its center that was like a mirror with crystals injecting their power into it from all sides. The trolls, whose only concern was with killing and eating living things, had no interest in the altar and had left it untouched. Sensing that the presence of the altar was unusual, Elam remained and examined it day and night. Finally, he realized that it was Luxor, the dimensional gate connected to Abgrund. As Elam had feared, the demons had taken advantage of the balance of Arche’s spirit being lost, found the point where her spirit was at its weakest, and had set up an altar to revive the god of the demon realm, Ignis. If Ignis were to be unsealed, it was undeniable that it could mean only collapse for the Klayan.

Elam tried several methods to render Luxor ineffective, but all came to naught. There was no way to fundamentally block the magically enchanted Luxor, and there was no power in the continental world which could destroy it.

However, Elam, who had deciphered the spell of the demons, found a way to put the power of the altar to use. He realized the fact that by changing the target of the resurrection, Luxor’s power could be used to summon the ancient heroes locked in Abgrund instead of Ignis. Of course, Elam was well aware that using Luxor carelessly could cause an even bigger crisis for the kingdom, but he judged that stopping Chaturanga’s slaughter of the people was a priority and performed the summoning ritual of the dimensional gate.

Looking in at Abgrund through Luxor, Elam was at last able to contact the soul of Ishtar, a legendary ancient hero and slayer of demons during Harmageddon. Elam persuaded Ishtar, calling him into the terrestrial world. But, being already without a body, Ishtar’s soul required a vessel. And so it was that Elam set in his heart to offer his own self as a vessel, and, receiving Ishtar’s soul, Elam was able to recreate Ishtar’s appearance and abilities using his own flesh and in doing so succeeded in summoning the ancient hero into the world.

Having become of one body with Ishtar, Elam returned to the kingdom and joined forces with the militia led by Aswan. With Ishtar’s superhuman offensive and exceptional tactics, the war began to lean favorably towards the militia. As the situation changed, the warriors who had protected the kingdom gradually started to flee one by one. When even Chaturanga’s royal guards, the most elite of his protectors, were defeated, he was left isolated leaving him no choice but to surrender to Aswan.

Aswan, who had drawn Chaturanga off of the throne, exiled him to a remote island. Those treacherous subjects who had obsequiously flattered the king for the sake of their own interests during this time were all executed. Then the people also wanted to execute the concubine Medes, who had been the main culprit in all of these evils, but she could be found nowhere in the kingdom.

Elam’s transformation into Ishtar to smash Chaturanga had been successful, but he realized that Ishtar’s original, monstrous power had not been fully demonstrated. He had been locked too long in the abyss as a spirit, and the full power of an ancient hero could not be wholly contained in only one vessel. And so, Elam returned to Luxor and returned Ishtar to the abyss. He became absorbed in finding a way to completely summon the ancient heroes. And, as always, Elam found a solution both strange and ingenious: if one vessel was difficult, use many vessels. Since the ancient heroes were already in a state of being spirits, their abilities could be divided. Therefore, what remained was to find new heroes of this age to share the souls of the heroes.