You Lost Her

CHAPTER 1 (THE ASCENSION)

Humans have always searched for any evidence of gods, demons, and spirits. For centuries, they found nothing. Prayers went unanswered. Rituals produced nothing. The divine was a matter of faith, not fact.

A century ago, that changed.

The gods were finally discovered.

The information made news across the globe. Atheists were shocked. The religious were elated. For a moment, it seemed like the greatest discovery in human history — proof that humanity was not alone, that something greater existed, that the old stories might be true after all.

Unfortunately, the discovery of gods was mankind's worst mistake.

Unlike what many believed, the true gods took no interest in the prayers of the faithful. They found no joy in mercy or creation. They found pleasure in one thing: toying with the powerless mortals who had dared to seek them out.

They reached down and touched humanity. And humanity broke.

This was the beginning of the Ascension. Humans who were touched by the gods' divinity were transformed into the Blessed — monstrous creatures twisted by power they were never meant to contain.

The Blessed ravaged the planet. Cities fell. Governments collapsed. Humanity was driven to the edge of extinction within a single generation.

CHAPTER 2 (THE EXCHANGE)

Throughout all the chaos and destruction, the demons had been watching. Where the gods saw playthings, the demons saw something else: a species that refused to break, that fought back with sticks and stones and bare hands long after hope was gone. Impressed by humanity's futile struggle, the demons offered a different path.

Power, in exchange for a price.

The first to accept was Serissa, a fisherman's daughter with nothing left to lose. She walked into the sea and made the first pact, trading everything she was to become something that could stand against the gods' monsters.

The Cursed were born.

Serissa became the first and only Demon Lord, and she taught others to make their own pacts.

Now, a century later, the war grinds on. The Blessed, guided by gods who still speak to their Ascended, seek to purify the world of the unworthy. The Cursed, fractured and desperate, fight for survival under the shadow of Serissa'