NOVEL WEB Chapter 1: Velthra
The world was colder in those days.
Before the days when your family name held your domain—no. Why would that shit matter?
The only thing that mattered was power, and who was controlled and who did control.
Demons roamed the lands.
Yet one demon in particular… roamed the seas.
Pirates and sailors alike couldn't make the voyage from country to country. Kingdoms starved.
There lay a lake, black as a mirror in the midnight hour. It reflected the mortal realm; I guess that's why one would call it a mirror.
Some say it acted as a gateway, a passage between two worlds.
Others say it was a mouth—the kids who fell into the lake never came out.
Suffering the same fate as those lost out at sea.
One soul rose; they had power. But no control; no demon of the land feared them, yet they should have.
Because they were Velthra.
They were no king nor queen, simply Velthra.
Some say Velthra was a man, others a woman; but all agreed no one ever truly knew.
They were as strange as they were beautiful; they bore grey hair although they weren't a day older than twenty-two.
That night, Velthra walked alone onto the frozen lake, their boots frozen by the snow that came before. They went far onto the lake.
On their side, the legendary blade, Mirrorwake.
But their hands were empty.
Children and adults alike watched from the windows, their mothers clutching them close.
Their fathers out at war.
Heavens say that the angels punished the land by releasing the demon into the sea.
And the demon's name—
was the Leviathan.
A creature taller than a thousand cities. Stronger than the mightiest of armies.
It wasn't the strongest demon, but at the sea…
it ruled a kingdom.
The story goes that once Velthra landed upon the frozen water, the Leviathan emerged. No one can agree how the demon appeared once it did.
Some claim the water boiled; others say a foggy mist covered the area.
But all stories agree, like Velthra, though chaotic, the Leviathan was the most beautiful monster ever born of Envy and she…
she was starving.
When she spoke, her voice was velvet over glass.
"Little founder."
She began, her form coiling from the ice as it cracked the long-frozen lake.
It's said that Velthra's composure was like that of a scared monk in their temple.
"Why do you stand in my way? Don't you know envy eats even its own tail?"
Velthra didn't shake.
They didn't cower in fear. Not because they couldn't feel it, but because they didn't feel it.
They tilted their head.
"Why do monsters like you always ask questions they know the answer to? Is it to postpone what is death?"
The Leviathan smiled, a wound splitting her otherwise perfect face. The water swirled now.
Some say Velthra yawned after; others say they bowed. Some converse that they did absolutely nothing.
"Your life, for what it's worth, is built on reflection and hidden truths," the demon hissed. "Let me show you what breaks first."
What happened next is lost in every telling of the story. Everyone claims a different truth.
Some say Velthra unsheathed their sword and the snow caught fire.
That their reflection split into a hundred images and fought side by side with Velthra.
Others say they only whispered and the wind bent to their command, swirling the frost into chains that suffocated the Leviathan's light.
But the oldest stories claim that the battle was nothing like magic, and more like judgment.
That the Leviathan pleaded with Velthra to spare her, clawed into their mind, dragging every secret, every hunger, every ugly wish into the open.
But the warrior did not flinch.
Not when the Leviathan showed them how every friend envied their power, how every love would turn cold, how even the house that would go forth to bear their name would curse it.
Visions of a future that Velthra already foresaw.
Nothing would shake their mission.
The battle raged for a day in the night—though the sun never rose.
The surrounding land was nothing as it once was.
In the end, Velthra bled. A line of silver on the snow.
The Leviathan bled Envy.
Some stories say that it used up its envy there, and once the well ran dry, all they could find was a sense of… no.
A lack of purpose.
A lack of reason.
"Are you finished, founder?" the Leviathan taunted, though she herself was finished.
Even as the chains of frost and magic long lost in the books of old history began to drag her down into the black lake.
"I will return," the Leviathan cried out in melted anguish.
"I know," Velthra replied.
"Nothing chained by envy stays chained for long!!"
Velthra crouched at the lake's core, as she was dragged into the water.
"You talk too much," they muttered. "Then I suppose all monsters do in the end."
They took Mirrorwake and stabbed it in the center of the lake. The lake glowed.
Glyphs and markings alike spread across all of it. The chains were illuminated by the mana that came from Velthra.
Ancient magic.
Shai vel, shai vel. Sink to silence, sink to silence.
They began.
Dra'kai ven lun'tesh. Let the bound tide falter.
Eshar veyn, dorai lun. Bleed envy, darken moon.
Tiren vas, shorai del. Chill the heart, freeze the storm.
Mirai kael, en varos. Mirror's edge, cut the sea.
Valdren nar, esh'ka dor. Chains weave, by blade and frost.
Shai vel, shai vel. Sink to silence, sink to silence.
Seren dei, volai lun. Sleep deep, O hunger's queen.
Just before she vanished, the Leviathan locked eyes with Velthra.
They curled around the bones of the world.
"I will return. Summoned. I'll be loved, hated, needed, feared. I will fill the mouths of your children's children's children. And when they call for me—
Velthra calmed.
—I will answer. I promise you."
The ice snapped shut.
The lake went silent.
Velthra stood alone.
The stories say that they breathed hard—their face unreadable. Yet from that day the story spread.
Every time more possible than the last.
Some say Velthra vanished, walking north into another storm. Others say that they became a ghost.
That the battle against the demon had taken so much from them that they simply became a spirit.
But one thing is certain.
The Leviathan is sleeping.
And if you ever hear her voice whispering in the dark, if you feel her hunger curling beneath your skin that you know is not your own, remember the founder's warning…
And pray you're not the one foolish or desperate enough to answer when she calls.
Because when the Leviathan returns, mercy will be the first thing to drown.
—————
VELTHRA
Race: Human
LV: 1,200
VIT: 4,120+0 / ATK: 4,700+0
MAG: 9,999+0 / AGI: 3,900+0
MAGIC TOOLS:
Mirrorwake (Legendary)
TITLES:
"FOUNDER" » ++ «,
"WALKER OF BLACK ICE" » – «,
"SEA'S JUDGMENT" » – «