At dusk, beneath a blood-red sunset, outside the Alliance, in the western great marshes, lay Ghost City.
Ghost City had originally been the main city established by the Soul Ghosts after invading this world. However, after the Alliance and the Northern Empire dealt with them, the Soul Ghosts—also known as the Ghost Race—abandoned the place entirely. As a result, it became a lawless land. All kinds of people mixed together within the city. From a certain perspective, it was essentially the headquarters of the Dark God Cult.
At that moment, inside an underground palace in Ghost City, everything was dim. On the elevated platform deeper within, a figure lay coiled. This was the leader of the Dark God Cult, known as the Controller, Sylvis. Some also called him the Abyssal Leader, Sylvis.
With the faint light shining down from above, it was possible to see that the Abyssal Leader Sylvis had a human upper body, while his lower body resembled black sludge, coiled on the platform like a thick snake's body.
At that moment, the human eyes on the upper half of the Abyssal Leader Sylvis's body were tightly shut. Though his build was robust, his face was sickly pale. His long black hair drifted freely on its own. Meanwhile, eyes would occasionally open across his lower body, which resembled black mud. Each eye would close after only a few seconds, while another opened elsewhere. The pupils of all the eyes consisted of rings chaotically overlapping one another.
Suddenly, the Abyssal Leader Sylvis's cheek twitched stiffly. After his right eyelid trembled several times, the eye opened. It did not feel as though he had opened it naturally. Rather, it was as if two invisible hands had forcibly pulled apart the upper and lower lids. The motion was stiff, with an