PROLOGUE


The King looked out across his land, which was now in utter ruin. There was no way of expecting this to happen. And now, there was no way of stopping it.
Volglacia, he called his land. Once, he thought it was the perfect name, now he wasn't so sure. On the country’s left sat a land consumed with fire, on his right, one condemned to an icy wasteland. Volcanoes and glaciers, he thought one day to himself, or a combination of both. That is where he had first conceived the name of the land.
But perhaps it was this name that had brought destruction upon it. The experiments had all gone wrong. It wasn't ever supposed to end this way. But now it had come to an end. And the only thing he could do was protect his little girl. Oh Evelyn, he thought. If you only knew how much I longed to be with you.
She was the very picture of her mother, Susan. His dear wife had died at a young age, for the air in the King’s mansion was hazardous to her health. For fear of his daughter perishing in the same way he sent her to a neighboring country in hopes that would keep her safe.
But now, he ached for her company. He ached for those dancing green eyes and ebony curls. He ached for his little daughter. But no, it was not safe to bring her here. Especially with what happened in the lab last night.
He had taken ten prisoners from their cells, prisoners who were damned to die. He was a scientist at heart. So when the opportunity came to test out a new formula he had prepared, he just couldn't pass it up. Those prisoners are going to die anyway, he had thought. Might as well have some fun with them while they’re still alive.
There were more than ten he could have chosen, but he chose these ones specifically. Male and female, of course. It was important to get a steady combination. They were the perfect test subjects. Eve, Derek, Amy, Colin, Frederick, Lilly, Sam, Jacob, Robert, and a girl who only went by the name of Seven.
Eve was a slight girl of sixteen, who wore a T-shirt proclaiming ‘Save the Earth!’ She had auburn hair in a long braid down one side of her neck, and multiple tattoos of trees and flowers up and down her arms. She was arrested for protesting when the King was clearing a forest as a way to build a barn for his horses.
Derek was a tall boy, at least nineteen, with bronzed skin and dark hair dressed in a nice-looking tuxedo. Arrested for attempting to embezzle funds from the King’s savings. He sits with a smirk plastered across his face.
Amy is a tall blond girl, dressed in a light blue blouse and shorts cut off at her thighs. Arrested for trying to call lightning down upon the King’s house with a kite.
Colin was colorless, to say the least. Dark black hair and clothes. Several silver piercings stick out of his ears, eyebrows, lip and nose. His skin is as white as a sheet. The only splash of color on the boy was his piercing blue eyes, watching your every move. Arrested for thievery.
Fredrick had a temper. He did whatever he liked, said whatever he liked, and destroyed whatever he liked, always with a glint in his amber eyes. He was arrested for treason and destruction of property.
Lilly was a quiet, timid, petite girl, with bright blue eyes and a kind smile. She was arrested for aiding and abetting criminals.
The others are not important enough to mention, but Seven was the one that confused the King. She never complained, never argued, and never said much of anything at all. She watched him with those ocean blue eyes though. She had extremely long, sharp, nails but never tried to defend herself as she was strapped into an experimentation chair. Her raven mane hung attractively on one side of her neck.
She wasn't put in to prison for being a criminal. The King mused as he read the report. Her home was destroyed in a fire, so she was thrown in prison for being homeless. Her parents had perished in the flame. Poor girl, the King thought. No family, no friends, left all alone in a dank jail cell.
The King pondered over her striking beauty.
“Seven.” He says gently, “Would you come to my room with me? If you do, I’ll save you from undergoing any kind of treatment.” For the first time she spoke.
“Are we to be married first, my lord?” She says, her blue eyes casting an accusing look at him.
“Of course not,” The King says, “I don’t have time enough tonight to plan a wedding. But no one must ever know, and if I say you are my bride, no one will dare question my authori-”
“It would be wrong, my lord.” The girl says gravely. “If I cannot go to your room with a clear conscience, I will not go at all.”
The King laughs, then becomes aggravated.“I could torture you! I could force you to come with me if I wanted to!” He shouts, his voice becoming cruel.
Seven looks at him with the same steady gaze.
“Then do so, my lord.”
He slams his palms down on the table next to him. “Still you refuse me? Insolent girl! How dare you not fear the wrath of your king?”
Seven raises her voice slightly.“Because, my lord, I fear nothing in the darkness, or the light, or the earth in between. Least of all, I do not fear you.”
The King’s face lights up with fury. “And for that, you will pay the ultimate price.” He picks up a syringe from the table.
“You see this? This is my greatest creation. It’s a highly unstable and unpredictable mixture that I like to call ‘night fire.’ You will most likely not survive the process. But if you do, you will become the most powerful being in the world.”
The King injects the serum into Seven’s arm. She thrashes and screams out for about a minute, then goes completely still. “I thought as much.” The King sighs.

“Sweet dreams, Seven. If you truly fear nothing, then burn in hell.”

†††

Most of the other test subjects survive the process, but three besides Seven have perished; Sam, Robert, and Jacob. Eve, Derek, Amy, Colin, Frederick, and Lilly are just waking up from their slumber.
“Ah. Hello again.” The King says, addressing the group. “Since you have survived the process, you will be the six foundations of my new empire. Each one of you is now gifted with an element.”
The group looks at each other in confusion.
“Fire,” He says, pointing at Frederick. “Ice. Light. Darkness. Air. Earth.” He starts at Colin and moves down to Lilly, then Derek, then Amy, and last of all Eve. “Feel your element. Concentrate on it.”
The strained expressions around the room indicate that everyone is trying to concentrate on their newly found elements. Derek is the first to trigger his newfound powers. A dark cloud emanates from his right fist. Black seeps out from his eyes in a swirling mist. His face twists into a wicked grin. Oh, he’d definitely enjoy this.
In the span of less than five minutes, all six elements have been activated. The corresponding colors bleed out of their hand and eyes. Symbols appear on the left arm of the girls, and the right arm of the boys. Blue, red, black, green, and white vapor fills the air.
It works. The King thought. It actually works! My plan has actually come to reality. The King let out a sigh of pleasure.
“Throw them in the cells.” He commanded an awaiting guard.
The confused shock on the prisoner’s faces soon turns to anger as the king leaves the room.
That guard doesn't stand a chance. The king thought as he locked the door behind him. But he couldn't be bothered about that now. He had other matters to attend to.
He went outside of his mansion to the arena, a special place for his creatures to be kept. His creatures were dragons. He had brought them here using a Doorway to the past. These Doorways could bring anything out of the past and into the future. It was invented by the King’s father, an inventor. And the King’s passion was dragons, so he thought why not bring a few to his time?
But he had brought hundreds, and currently, ten of them were in his arena. The rest had escaped and had repopulated the land.
Tonight, he would feed the prisoners who had not survived the experimentation to his beasts: Sam, Robert, Jacob, and Seven. Pity she hadn't made it. Or changed her mind… The King thought. Ah well, there plenty of pretty girls like her. But none so…fearless. She was a great loss in his eyes. He looked out over the arena. Several of the dragons are clawing up on the sides of the pit. Oh, they are hungry.

†††

The deceased prisoners are unceremoniously thrown into the arena. Usually, the prisoners are alive, so there can be an audience with a show. But the King did not feel like sacrificing any live prisoners lately.
So the dragons became bonier from lack of feeding, and now their gaunt bodies circle the dead humans. The first dragon, a great green brute, makes the first lunge. But the King looked down at the prisoners one last time.
All time stopped.
Two of the executed, Jacob and Robert, aren't dead.
Or are they?
The King couldn't be sure. Robert looked like he was completely on fire, while Jacob was covered in a sheet of ice.
But it didn't stop there.
They began morphing. When most of Robert had burned away, what was left of him morphed with the fire, creating an extraordinary beast. It was still fire, but somehow it was more…human.
All except the piercing yellow eyes. The opposite happened to Jacob. His remains became encased in a layer of ice. Knife-like scarlet eyes glare out of the ice, a stark contrast of whitish-blue and bright red.
The beasts snarled and gnashed at the King. The fire beast flew out at the green dragon with vigorous running strokes. On impact, he tore into the dragon’s throat with powerful serrated teeth. The dragon retreated, since it had not dealt with any kind of force like this in several years.
Unexpectedly, the beasts spotted the King and began racing toward him. The fire beast, like a tiger, raced along the sandy bottom of the arena, while the ice beast barreled towards the king on paper-thin wings of ice, talons outstretched, not unlike a hawk.
The King was startled and began to back away from the edge of the arena. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. This was not he planned to do. The beasts continued to head towards him. He knew he could not run from them. He began to think how this might be his last night on earth, and began to confess his sin to God, when all of the sudden, an eerie deep blue glow filled the arena.
The forgotten bodies were encompassed in the blue glow. Then the King realized the glow was coming from Seven’s body. Did it work? The King thought. Night Fire was just a prototype. It couldn't actually be working.
But slowly, painfully, Seven rose to her feet, empowered with a new energy, a new force. A half moon appeared on her left arm. Blue fire poured out of her fists and eyes. She lunged at the ice beast and took it down, shattering it into a thousand pieces.
Next she ran after the fire beast, grabbing hold of it and smashing it against the wall. Then, without a word, she turned and ran out of the arena, right past the dragons, and out into the open. She never gave a second glance.




†††

The King returned to his mansion, horrified by what he had seen. But meanwhile, while he was sleeping that night, the shards of ice pieced themselves together. The fire ignited again.
The beasts were still alive, and even worse, hurting them just created more. Unknown to the King and all his land, as long as you attacked these beasts, they would never die out. They would never stop multiplying. They would only increase until the whole land was overrun.

†††

In just a night, that’s exactly what did happen. Nowhere in Volglacia could you hide from them. They flew in the air and raced along the ground. You could not attack them, but most tried anyway, only creating still more. Nothing could save Volglacia. Nothing.
The beasts ravaged the land, and by the time that the six broke out of the experimenting room, there was nothing left, just a desolate wasteland. The King was dead. All who were in the country were dead. Seven had not been seen since the night in the arena. And even worse, the beasts had moved on to the surrounding countries, desolating them as well.
However, the six survived. And together, with their newfound power, they drove the fire beasts into the heart of a volcano, sealing it with a large stone. The ice beasts were driven to a land of ice, into a cave, where they were sealed in as well.
The six discussed how they could solve this problem of destruction in the land. They knew they were different now. They could no longer live among normal humans without discrimination. Seeing no other choice but to start over, they broke into the King’s laboratory and stole a highly toxic gas, specifically made for humans, attaching canisters of it to six jets. Within the next week, all of Europe was dead. In another six weeks everyone else on earth was dead. All but the six.
Each claimed a country. Fredrick claimed Ireland, and renamed it Pyrobia. Colin claimed Norway, renaming it Cryosia, a place where he could be left in the cold. Derek claimed Germany and renamed it Tenexria, saying he was pleased with the amount of darkness there. Eve claimed and renamed it Terracia. By that time there were only three habitable countries left: France, Spain and Italy. It was Lilly’s turn to choose, she went with the smaller country of Italy, knowing that Amy had a desire for France.
And so Solestia and Errivria were formed. Spain was left untouched, no one dared go there. The Creator had cursed Spain, and now it was covered in eternal night. But that was settled soon too, by an unknown person who would never come out in the daytime.

She called herself Seven.