"...Ha! Ha!"
In a small settlement in the mountains, inside a flower garden, there was a young girl struggling to keep her hands extended forward.
She was a young girl about seven years of age with pale blonde hair and deep sea-blue eyes. Though her hair still had a lack of pigmentation, her cheeks on the other hand had been struck with a bright red hue as beads of perspiration fell down from her forehead. It wasn't clear if this was caused by exerting all of her strength into her whole body just now.
It looked just like a swollen punk face that would break out in inflammation at any moment.
"That──is─ to say. Even if you exert all this effort it won't work. Calm your mind down more; it's similar to feeling of a gentle touch."
Looking at the state of the girl, the boy beside her gave out a vigorous sigh while shrugging his shoulders.
"Look here."
As the young boy said so, he suddenly narrowed his eyes and stretched out a finger.
Then, right at the next moment, a sparkling radiance gradually built up and rose from the surrounding flowers, slowly moving towards the direction pointed by the boy's finger.
"Wow..."
After staring at such a spectacular scene, the young girl wrinkled her brows as her entire body began to shake.
"Fumumumumumumu...!" "No, that's why."
Looking on at the girl who showed no signs of improvement, the boy half opened his eyes.
At that time, a voice coming from behind them was calling out the names of the two of them.
"──Ellen, Elliot, are you guys here?" "Hmm?"
"Puha..."
The boy──Elliot turned his head around. The girl──Ellen stopped trying to choke on her own breath.
Turning around at a first glance, the figure of a thin boy emerged from there. It was a young boy who was characterized by dull ash-blond hair. His age should be one year younger than Elliot, who was around ten years old.
However, if one didn't know any better, it could be said that he exuded a cunning and mature atmosphere.
"Ike!"
Seeing his figure approach, Ellen's expression gleamed up. The boy who was called Ike approached the two of them with a soft smile.
"Have the two of you been practicing in this place again?"
"It can't be helped. Ellen here can't succeed in anything. Even though Karen is so talented, why is there such a large gap between sisters?"
As Elliot exclaimed in a disappointed tone, tears began to come out of Ellen's eyes as she started sobbing.
"...To say such a thing, it's not like I can't do it because I want to..." "Ah really, don't cry! Sorry, sorry, that was my bad!"
As Elliot apologized, Ellen wiped her eyes of tears with her hand as her nose sniffled. Then, Ike gently stroked Ellen's head.
"No worries, Ellen. I'll also help, so let's go to the practice ground. Hey Elliot, wouldn't making mana so visible cause the teacher to get angry at you again?"
Hearing what Ike had said, Elliot sighed as he folded his arms.
"Hehe. Everyone, even the adults are all cowards. Even though there's obviously no person that I know who would want to come to such a remote place like this."
"Well, don't say it like that. It can't be helped. In the teacher's generation, the persecution of magicians was particularly violent."
As Ike spoke out with a bitter smile, Elliot once again gave a heavy sigh.
──"Magicians" (Magus)
That's right. In this world, people called by that name existed.
They sometimes were held outside the boundary of thoughts from ordinary people, sometimes known as shamans, fortune tellers, pharmacists, and witches.
Even so, it wasn't the same as the magic from a fairy tale, where simply waving a magical stick would suffice to produce some desirable event.
Magic is a discipline to train one to capture the sight that ordinary people cannot see, touch the basic essence beyond the grasp of ordinary people. It is an academic discipline to enhance one's abilities: a cultural system.
And people like Elliot were blood relatives of the descendants that inherited the culture of such magicians.
"Even so, how come they have to so afraid? It's not to like the teachers will be beaten if they quarreled with ordinary people."
"Well, I guess so."
"Really? If it were seen like that──"
"But that's only in a situation where it is one against a hundred. Wouldn't it be a different story if it were one against a thousand?"
"That...well..."
"That's the justification. From within itself, humanity is afraid of the things that they cannot comprehend, and from that fear breeds riots and madness. By that aspect, ignorance actually suppresses all the other virtues."
"Ke, I don't understand what you are saying."
As Elliot turned his face around as he spoke, Ike exposed a mature smile as he stood up to leave.
──However, for Elliot, it wasn't long before he learned the meaning behind those words.
"Ah...ah..."
A few months later.
Above a hill overlooking his hometown in blazes, Elliot stood there expressionlessly as his voice trembled below a whisper.
It was self-evident that the fire wasn't caused by some leftover cigarette ashes that were ignored. No, it was clear that the fire was set by someone with clear murderous intent and a desire for harm.
The people who barely escaped from their burning houses were ruthlessly gunned down and collapsed beneath the men who were waiting outside.
Although it wasn't clear who they were, their purpose no doubt was the complete eradication of magicians.
"Elliot…Elliot! The village, our village!"
"...Don't be so loud, Ellen..." "But...!"
Elliot tightly clutch onto Ellen who was about to raise her voice again, causing his chest to be completely soaked with Ellen's tears. Ellen's sister, Karen, who had also evacuated alongside her, bite against her lips while staring at the hem of Elliot's clothes.
Having happened so suddenly, the loss of their hometown was too heavy of a tragedy for boys and girls around the age of ten to accept.
However──among this, there was only one person.
There was a boy who looked down upon the burning village without too much dismay.
"..."
Ike, even with the hot winds against his face, stared at the village that had fallen into ruin, gazing intensely as his fellow compatriots were being shot dead.
"Ike...?"
Although he could not understand what Ike was thinking at the time as his face was illuminated by the fire, Elliot felt something resembling an uneasy sensation coming from him on that day.
Although magicians were viewed as heresy among mankind, even among them it had felt like he had become a completely different type of creature──
"Elliot, Ellen, Karen."
At that moment, as if to interrupt Elliot's thought process, Ike called out the names of his fellow survivors.
"──Let's create a world, to expel humanity, a world where only magicians can exist. This began with them, so is there no reason why we shouldn't do it?"
Then, he declared.
──In hindsight, this was the oldest memory of the foundations that would lead to the beginning of DEM.
After that, ten years had passed. Elliot and the others had been buried under the research of magic.
Of course, the world wasn't simple enough for children of about ten years of age to live alone. It was necessary to rely on foster care during the first few years.
However, it didn't take long for a brilliant young boy like Ike to win the fancy of a wealthy couple. It also didn't take long for the old couple to pass away due to an unfortunate accident.
Indeed, as soon as Ike obtained enough assets through covert means, he invited Elliot and the others to his home. For as much as time would allow, they obtained a taste of the mystery.
Theosophy. Occultism. Alchemy. And the Kabbalah. From the falsifications made public to humans, they carefully uncovered the genuine article.
Then──the time finally came.
──That day.
In the central part of the Eurasia continent, the wind was silent as if heralding the arrival of a storm.
Three figures stood amidst the open wilderness. Ike, Elliot, Ellen.
The three magicians who had grown up to be beyond recognition from that time had come to gather here.
"──Shall we get started. Karen, get ready." "Yes."
In response to Ike's words, Karen's voice could be heard from the observatory through the communication device.
At the same time, the device designed to draw out the circle──the magical furnace began to start up while growling out a low howl.
From the skies, from the earth, from the air.
The energy that resides in every substance in the world turned into dazzling light, swirling and coiling around the surroundings.
── Spirit Formula.
That was the name Elliot had given to this ritual.
Gathering all of the mana present in the world to a single focal point to create a new life.
By incorporating that power, Elliot and the others, who up until now could only tinker with a tiny amount mana through spells and books, could become all power wizards found in fantasy worlds.
"Ike, with this──"
"Ah. The Spirit will be born── in the wake of a new world enveloping this world."
Hearing Ellen's words, Ike raised the corners of his lips to speak.
"──Voluntary territory. A universal space that should only exist in humanity's imagination is being changed into reality. If the calculations are correct, the space of the Spirit being born is to the extent of covering the entire earth. The scale is enough to be called another world──the neighboring world."
Ike moved forwarded while clenching his hand into a fist.
"That is our world. We will overwrite our world with the neighboring world." "… "
Elliot gulped as he listened to Ike's words while looking on to the side of his face.
He did not intend to object to what Ike was saying that this moment. For this goal, Elliot had sacrificed ten years' worth of time.
But why──
Ike's face as he was describing their hope looked the same as the face that he had displayed on that day.
"──Time to prepare for the aftermath when the Spirit appears. Elliot, prepare the talisman."
"...Ah."
Elliot's shoulders slightly trembled as began using the talisman to collect enough mana to produce a barrier to cover three people.
The very next moment. "────!"
Alongside a tremendous shock, his field of vision was dyed completely white.
Vibrations struck his entire body even though nothing could be heard through the barrier. It was just like the illusion of a missile being dropped onto their heads, creating an explosion of a ridiculous scale. As the ground was scrapped away, it felt to Elliot just like falling through his own barriers.
"Hah..., hah..."
After the vibrations stopped, Elliot finally dissolved the barrier.
While waiting for the smoke and dust to disperse, he looked around the surroundings──the sight left him completely speechless.
There was nothing left.
The fields, mountains, even the silhouettes of the cities too far away to be seen. Everything had disappeared altogether.
No──to say it more accurately, there was only one thing left there. Something that Elliot had never seen before was floating in front of them. "...Fuhahahahahahahahahaha."
Ike's laughter echoed on the empty earth.
──It was a girl.
With her entire body surrounded by a faint brilliant light, a beautiful girl had appeared there.
──Spirit.
That moment was the beginning of a long-lasting fate.