In the northeastern part of the Human Continent, one could find a giant edifice at the border between the Monster Continent and the Human Continent.

That fortress was simply named "Northeast Fortress."

Half a century ago, that edifice didn’t exist yet, at least not where it stood now. This location was still within Monster Continent territory half a century ago, and the Northeast Fortress was located further inward on the Human Continent, nowhere near where it is now.

The Northeast Fortress represents the extent of territory claimed by humanity against monsters. At each crusade, which takes place once every century, the borders of the land of mankind are pushed further, and so is the fortress.

Within one of the many rooms the fortress had, one could find one that was a desk room in which two men, two Paladins, were discussing.

One was dressed in a black uniform consisting of a long-sleeved double-breasted black coat with two rows of silver buttons on the front and gray details including shoulder epaulets; this uniform was worn by seasonal Paladins of the Paladin Order.

The other man was wearing a similar uniform but with blue and gold details instead of grey and silver, indicating that his hierarchical position within the Paladin Order was above the one of the other man.

The one, seemingly the higher ranked one, was seated behind his desk browsing through a batch of letters' envelopes.

"Yes, it was all, Lord Paladin Edouard."

With a simple nod, and a sign of the hand, the one the other referred to as Paladin, Edouard dismissed him. With a respectful salute, he made his way out of the room, but just as he was about to leave, he was stopped by the Paladin Edouard.

"Paladin Geralt."

"Yes, my Lord."

"Off with this, I have a personal request for you."

"A personal request?"

"Yes, I’m not asking this as your Lord Paladin but as Damian Edouard."

The other nodded wordlessly.

I have a package, well two actually, I would like you to deliver to my nephew and niece in the Aurora Academia, I couldn’t attend their Ascension ceremony and there will still be some time before I can make a trip to the Holy Capital. Can you do that for me? "

"Yes, of course."

"Can you come back later, I’m not done packaging the thing yet, but it will be done by the end of the day."

"Understood."

"That would be all."

With these words from his Lord Paladin, the Knight Paladin left the room, leaving Damien on his own.

Wasting no time, he continued browsing through the huge pile of letters on his desk. Most of them came from the church, but his eyes were distracted when occasionally he stumbled upon one from his family, a family that he had long since last seen.

He didn’t read the letters yet, he simply put them aside for later, and continued his browsing. He came to a halt when his eyes were drawn to a white envellope with no information other than an emblem of a white rose.

Despite the missing information on the envelope, he knew who sent the letter and to whom it was addressed.

He knew that the letter wasn’t for him, nor for the Lord Paladin, but rather for his master.

This year, the Lord Paladin Damian Edouard, would be 35 years old. Seventeen years have passed since he joined the Paladin Order as a mere Initiate, and eighteen years have passed since he first met his master.

When young, Damian knew that besides being born a noble, he was also a child of light.

It was obvious to him, and most likely to anyone familiar with his family’s speciality. At first, it was so blatantly obvious, but after his coronation, he realized that his magic was nowhere close to that of the family he was supposed to be born in. He was grateful to his adoptive family, which included a loving father and two brothers who were not related by blood.

He was thankful to his family, yet he didn’t know how to express it. He tried by offering what he could offer as a noble, his magic, but sadly for Damian, those of his family were born with an innate ability for healing magic, something ice magic, which he was born talented at, couldn’t compare to.

Young his father would often say, "Our power to produce mana distinguishes us from commoners, and our ability to harness our mana differentiates us from magical beasts.". His father believed that despite the nature of his magic, he could find a way to apply it to healing if he put effort into it.

Yet, years went by and Damian couldn’t find a way to apply his magic to healing. No amount of research helped him in that regard. What was an objective grew into a frustrating burden to him.

That was, at least until he met his master.

One day, just before his seventeenth birthday, his attention was drawn to a recruitment session organized by the Sword of the Church, the Paladin Order. Damian never had any particular interest in the Church or even less in the Paladin Order, but that day, he was oddly curious about the recruitment session they held.

With no precise goal in mind, he went.

It was there that he met his master for the first time.

He had heard of that man's legend, and as a fellow ice-magic user, he had struck a particularly strong impression on Damian. His master, along with his fellow Holy Paladins, was the hero of the last crusade held by the Church.

Child, one of his friends' valets, would often narrate the story of the exploits of his master on the battlefield when that friend’s valet was still a legionnaire before being what he was.

Yet, despite all of that, he never showed particular interest in that person, at least until he met him.

It was only a speech addressed to those willing to join the Paladin Order as initiates, but the moment he heard his master, he knew what he wanted to do.

He joined the Paladin Order, informing only his father of his intention.

He knew it was selfish, but still, for the first time in a long while, he found something he wanted to do, not to repay what he knew he couldn’t, but rather for himself.

It didn’t take him long to shine among his peers, and sooner than he ever thought, he caught the attention of the one who, not so long after, became his master.

If some were to ask Damian if he could go back in time and make the same decision to leave the Aurora Academia for the Paladin Order, he would say, "Yes, I would."

To him, joining the Paladin Order was one of the best decisions of his life.

After a long march to the highest part of the fortress, Damian finally reached the roof on which a man was wearing a uniform similar to his, but instead of black, his was white, and instead of looking pensive at the Northeastern Horizon.

"This man was Gunther Freshet, Thundersnow of the North, one of the Church's Seven Holy Paladins, but to Damian, this man was mostly his master, the Lord he swore loyalty to.

"Master?"

Damian inquired, and his master appeared to be wearing an expression he had never seen in his 17 (almost 18) years together.

"Oh, it was you, Damian."

Damian knew without a doubt that there was something that was bothering his master.

As per usual, his master would’ve noticed his presence before he would've even set foot on this roof.

"Does something matter, Master?"

"... I don’t know what is happening, but there is something happening somewhere. The breeze is screaming it." Noticing the envelope in Damian’s hand, his master asked, "This is?"

Still pensive as to what his master said, Damian answered.

"A letter, from the Rose Blanche,"

"Oh, a letter from them, it’s true that it has been a while since I last went to the Holy Capital. Your young nephew had his ascension three months ago, didn’t he? What do you think about a small brea-"

Damian was about to pass the letter onto his master when he suddenly stopped talking and immediately glanced back toward the vast northern horizon, with a concerned expression.

"Something is off!"

This time, his master's face fully displayed his concern with no slight attempt to hide it.

Yet, since his master didn’t seem to know what exactly was wrong, neither did Damian, but soon they both caught a glimpse of what exactly was "wrong".

After each crusade, the fortress was moved to the northeastern part of the continent for a hundred years.It represented the advancement of humanity over monsters.

Despite being set so close to the barrier, there was still a decent distance between the fortress and the barrier.

Yet, from the sight they were beholding, the barrier felt ominously close.

"What is this?!" Both master and disciple stuttered in disbelief.

Generally, the barrier is imperceptible from a distance, unless one were to be close or that a monster were closing the border, causing the barrier to take on its offensive appearance. It was impossible to see the barrier from afar.

In the first case, the barrier can be seen in its normal state, a blue watery-like state.

On the second one, the barrier turns into a giant wall of gray fog.

The sight they were witnessing fell under the latter.

Fog.

On the horizon, fog was everywhere.

It could mean only one thing, the barrier was performing an offensive maneuver against something.

This sight wouldn’t have been surprising if it weren't for the entire northern horizon that was painted with gray fog.

Unless a locust of monsters were simultaneously charging at the barrier, this scene wouldn’t appear. In fact, neither Damian nor his master believed that even if a locust of monsters were to charge at the barrier, it would react this way?

Neither of them could tell, since there was never a record of something like this happening in the past.

"Something must have happened on the other side of the barrier. This isn’t normal! " His master said, with his voice perceptibly trembling.

The invisible boundaries between the land of monsters and the land of mankind have now turned into a giant wall, so Damian’s master's reaction was understandable.

Doing his best to collect himself, Gunther said, "Damian, hurry up, I have no goddamn idea what is happening, but tell everyone to-"

Something happened, interrupting him from even finishing what he was saying.

There were no words to describe how fast it happened, how fast that thing was.

Yes, a thing.

Something shattered the barrier like glass into shards, before crashing the same way a star falling from the sky would crash quite far away from the fortress, yet still within sight.

For Damian and any living being in a mile radius, their sight turned completely white due to the bling dazzlingly of the crash, before not even a breath later, a giant mushroom cloud of fire and smoke appeared where it landed.

A wave of heat distortions could be seen ominously rippling toward Damian and his master.

Damian couldn’t react, but his master could.

The sheer speed of the crash, and the shockwave thereafter of the meteor-like strike was enough to burn and reduce to ash everything living in miles.

There was no salvation for anything, engulfed by the shockwave, only extermination.

Fortress was still a long way from where "it" had landed, allowing Damian and his master to see their impending fate, death, for a split second.

Due to the incoming shockwave, the fortress's fate and those within, were sealed, that is, at least without Gunther's intervention.

In a mere split second, his master summoned a spell of his,

"Ice Marble."

Instantly, the entire fortress was enveloped within a spherical, crystal-like ice barrier.

The ripple from the thing's landing finally reached the crystal-like barrier. It didn’t pass through, but the entire structure got a first hand taste of the destructive power behind that thing's crash.

Even within the ice marble, a powerful quake could be felt.

Coming back to their senses, Damian’s and Gunther's eyes darted to where the barrier was shattered, where they found an immense gaping hole. Still in shock, their eyes darted back to the thing that crashed.

Glancing around them, beyond the Ice Marble, they saw the fate that would have been there if it weren’t for Gunther's intervention.

They saw the sight of hell itself, fire, ashe, and smoke.

Slowly, from where that thing landed, the mushroom cloud, then the fog, dissipated, slowly revealing a giant crater.

One must say that it even dissipates abnormally fast, but neither Damian nor Gunther were in the right spirit to remark on the barrier anomaly.

"What was that thing!?"

With a look of disbelief, they glared at the smoking crater, then they saw what they saw.

A giant claw came out, then another.

Soon, the lingering smoke entirely dissipated, fully revealing what was behind.

An immense creature, which could easily go beyond 300 meters in length, crawled out of the crater.

The creature was a massive white reptilian with two pairs of limbs and a pair of undeployed wings on its back.

There was no doubt as to what that creature was.

It was a dragon.

As a Holy Paladin, Gunther had fought dragons in the past and knew they were tough opponents, but he was confident in his ability to defeat one, unless it was a light dragon.

These creature love for chaos was without equal.

Half a century ago, humanity lost an archbishop to a light dragon; that archbishop had nothing to do with a battlefield in the first place, but one couldn't deny the strength that person possessed, and thus how obstinate and powerful his opponent must have been.

Hence, light dragons, or any light elemental monster in particular, do always ignite a certain sense of dread in Gunther’s heart.

But what Gunther felt today, at the sight of that enormous white monster, wasn’t dread, it was beyond, that he was feeling "death" to his core.

At a sudden move from the dragon, his heart skipped a beat.

"Ice Marble!"

Beyond his first "Ice Marble," he summoned a second, for he knew that something horrible was about to take place due to the dragon's sudden action.

Gunther saw the enormous dragon sucking the air in the surrounding area. The suction was so powerful that everything in the area was spiraling to the dragon's giant mouth.

The dragon did that for several seconds, but then he stopped, yet Gunther knew that the worst was coming. In a very violent and majestic manner, the dragon spread its undeployed wing high into the sky. This caused powerful ripples to spread at breakneck speed in every direction.

It was a horrific sight, but it wasn’t all, along with those ripples and beams of light raining in every direction, like sunlight from the sun.

Contless light beam flew in the fortress direction, like rain falling on the asphalt, and fell onto Gunther’s barrier.

The raining beams of light didn't penetrate the barrier. Despite wavering quite a lot under the barrage of light shaft, the barrier withstood the rain of destruction falling upon it, Yet, the fortress wasn’t spared by the quake, even within the barrier.

This time, the edifice began to crumble.

"Crystallization."

Damian, having foreseen this happening, launched an ice spell that spread throughout the giant fortress. His spell, had the effect of envolloping its target within a mantle of temperature-less ice.

The shower went on for less than five seconds, but to Gunther it felt like an eternity. Beyond the barrier, he saw the land and everything in its surroundings being utterly wrecked by the ripples and the ray the dragon emitted.

Amidst the chaos, the dragon stood proud, its enormous wing fully deployed, his entire presence shining with pure white radiance, with around him, floating glowing particles.

With not even a single glance cast at the destruction it caused, the dragon flapped its heaven-spanning wings, and took to the sky.

At this sight, both Damian and his master’s heart sigh in relief at the sight of the collosal dragon flying away, but their expressions turn grim once again when they realize what reaction the dragon was causing to the surroundings and the direction it was heading.

Despite being high above the ground, the dragon was like a sun, a sun that, despite the distance from the ground, was still too close to the ground; everything he flew above of, burned, melted, and churned, due to the heat it exuded, including the ground, vegetation, and everything else.

"Shit!! Shit! Shit!!"

It was Damian's first time witnessing his master cursing, but he did understand his master's reaction.

Here they were in the northeast part of the continent. He went south from where the dragon was going, which meant that no matter how far south it went, it was bound to meet civilization on its way.

Everything that would come into that thing’s path would be fated to destruction.

"Damian, gather everyone, I have no idea what we can do against that thing, but we must do something."

"Yes, Master!"

Damian and Gunther were wondering what the best current course of action was against that thing, unbeknownst to them that somewhere on several spots of the human continent, something similar had happened.

This was the debut of the event known later by history as the "Seven Great Calamities."

Primordial Light Elemental Dragon Minerva, Chaotic Light.

Representing rage, She was like a sun, a pale and flawed imitation of chaos, merely destruction with no further purpose.