| 100 years ago, long before Lucian and the other humans were taken out of their world and forced into Hlasked |

"Wisteria! Where is he? You promised me that you would take care of our son. How could you have let them take him?"

Wisteria tries to calm her husband's anger: "Our little boy is with me." She moved her hand to her lap, where she was sure that her son was resting, but there was no one there. "Rurik!" She called anxiously, realizing that she was the only one alone; her son and her husband were both gone.

Wisteria's eyes snap open; sweat fills her forehead as she jolts out of her nightmares. She tried to calm her increase in heartbeat by reminding herself that it was just a dream; it had been over 10 years since her husband passed away.

"They are gone!" A voice cried from outside; it was late at night.

"Where is my son?!" Another broken voice asks.

"What's going on?" Wisteria asked, coming out of her house, a blanket wrapped over herself to protect her body from the cold. The village was colder during the night than during the day; even if the sun was up, it couldn't fully take the cold away.

The sight of women outside their home, crying helplessly, shocked Wisteria. Some were nervously checking their home and their neighbors' home.

"Honey! Where are you?" A woman called out fearfully.

'Something is wrong.' Wisteria's heart was laced with fear as she thought back to her nightmare. She let go of her blanket and ran back inside her house. With shaky hands, she opened Rurik's room, expecting to see her 13-year-old son sleeping, but he was gone.

In a distant village, located in the north, far from the capital city, every male was gone. Fathers, sons, and infant male children weren't left behind.

"Dahlia." Wisteria called out coldly.

Dahlia was a member of the hero party. It was very unusual for a member of the hero party to be found in a small village; they only work in the capital city for the royal family and other nobles. And although Dahlia won't admit it, Wisteria knows that her magic is what made every female in the village unconscious while their family was taken away from them.

"It's been weeks. Give us our family back." Wisteria ordered in a murderous tone. Her father, who was the chief of the village, had been taken along with other men to the war front. Just so that the soldiers from the capital could increase in numbers, the soldiers were to act as a support team for the hero party in his fight against the demon lord.

For now, Wisteria took up her father's position as the chief over the village. Her only son and the 8-year-old girl she had adopted as her daughter were missing. Wisteria's daughter was the only missing female in the village. Just like every other woman in the village, she was broken, but in order to protect her people, she needed to hide her tears and be a strong leader.

Dahlia frowns at Wisteria and then fakes a smile. "Your families are in good hands. Besides, the men in your village have been given the honor to work for the great hero and the royal family; trust that when the war with the demon king is over, you will all be greatly rewarded."

'The war is never going to be over.' Wisteria thought. The war had been going on long before she was born.

"There are some women in the village who are ready to fight and want to replace their child." Wisteria said, and Dahlia rolled her eyes. The only reason Wisteria and the other women couldn't leave their village in search of their loved ones was because of Dahlia magic that had caged them in the village; no one in the village was strong enough to fight against her.

Dahlia came to the village the same night their family disappeared, trapping them while insisting that she had been instructed to keep them safe until their family returned, but her true mission was to keep the women in the village as prisoners in their own home. That way they won't be able to try anything silly like getting their children and their husbands back.

"I understand that the adult would be forced into battle even though they have no fighting experience." Wisteria said in a judging tone as she glared at Dahlia. "The teenagers would probably be put into training, but what about our babies? What could your damned hero possibly want to do with babies who can't even walk?! Return our babies! The mothers are going to replace them."

"Our kind and generous hero, whom you can't seem to appreciate, won't endanger the lives of innocent women." Dahlia smiled, flinging her legs on the table carelessly, and laid back and was completely relaxed. "Don't worry, the babies would be the first ones to be returned. Our heroes normally don't risk the lives of babies, most definitely not as bait."

"Bait?" Wisteria's face darkened as she clenched her fist in anger.

"But after hearing of your village's act of betrayed towards the kingdom, he thought that it was only fair that you all get punished for signing a contract with a demon."

Before Wisteria could question Dahlia, a huge explosion sounded.

"Don't tell me that the battle has somehow gotten here." Dahlia looks disoriented, no longer her smug, carefree self. "This village is supposed to be a safe spot." She mutters to herself.

Another explosion sounded, and Dahlia quickly rushed out of the building she had turned into her office as the protector of the village.

Wisteria tries following Dahlia but lost track of her. From a distance, she saw a man who looked like her father walk into the village. Dahlia wasn't only missing, but also her shield that surrounded the village and trapped everyone was now gone.

"Father!" Wisteria ran after her father, who fell down on his face after stepping into the village. "Father! Are you okay? Where are the others?" She looked behind, but there was no one.

"Wisteria." The old man cried out in regret, "Run, run before it's too late. I didn't want to come to the village, but he made me." He glanced at his legs, which were held by four dark hands that were created with dark magic; they melted down and attached themselves to the old man's skin. The old man cried out and gazed at his daughter, who refused to run away.

A huge dark magic circle appears over the village.

"He's here to collect his pay." The old man cried out, "I'm sorry, Wisteria; I have brought a curse upon you and the villages."

Wisteria looks back and sees some women in the village scream as they begin changing. Their human flesh shreds away from them as something dark and horrifying emerges.

"It was all because of the famine the village went through years ago." The old man breathed out, "No one was willing to help us; I only made a deal with the demon to save our people from dying." The black substance moving in his body, past his torso to his chest. "And now it needs human blood and life force to strengthen his master in the war. I didn't signed the contract in blood for me; I did it for y_." The black substance move over the old man's head, and then his body explodes.

Wisteria froze as the blood and body part of her father hit her. Before her mind could begin to process her father's death, her body began to change like the others. She helplessly screamed and cried for help until she lost her human voice.

| Back to the present |

Wisteria slowly paces around Lucian's cellar as she reveals the truth of her existence. "In our beast state, we continue to cry for help. Some of the young girls who were trapped with their mothers in the village couldn't survive the mutation and died. Our village was isolated, locked away from the rest of the world until one day, one of the gods who rule over our world showed up. Her name was Zinnia; I remember being happy to see her then." Wisteria said hatefully, "I thought she was going to heal us and give us justice for what we have suffered. But instead, she accused us of helping the demon king gain power, and in order to punish us for our crimes, she brought us to Hlasked, and trapped us in a dungeon where we are to be used as tools needed to shape a new hero in the land. This dungeon is meant to be our redemption."

'There are kingdoms outside the heaven realm and Hlasked.' Lucian thought.

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