Hero of Darkness

Welcome to our traditional and customary Epilogue chapter. This is your host and announcer for the day… The Author.

So let's address the main topics at hand.

Compared to previous arcs, I had to make many changes in the storyline for various reasons and discard many plots, limit character exposure and events as well as omit interactions in the story itself. All done so the arc could be shortened since most of the people have complained about them ever since the 4th Arc aka the Vulcan Empire arc.

As long-term readers, you deserve to know behind the scenes of the creative process of the novel.

So here are some discarded plans that went into the trash bin :

The 12 Valkyries :

Lagertha Skjoldottir was supposed to be a prominent character, a very good leader of her guild who would end up inspiring Kahn and make him understand his shortsighted qualities as someone who is supposed to be a figurehead of thousands of people in Misthios Mercenary Guild and Sparta.

After the Immortal Dungeon expedition, she and the 12 Valkyries were to join hands with Kahn and the guild itself was going to be absorbed by Misthios guild… On equal terms and honest reasons instead of plotting and mind games.

Making their guild even a bigger powerhouse.

Sedaris Evarn aka LNP guild president :

One of the secondary antagonistic figures who was to create a lot of trouble for Kahn and the group, making their rise in Alfheim filled with a lot of hardships and scrutiny.

In the end, getting his core was going to be worth it.

But to limit the arc storyline, I had to kill him off without even showing his fight against Omega and Rudra.

Logan Vargr :

Also had to skip Logan Vargr aka the Executive Assistant Officer from the Mercenary Association, to limit the storyline.

He was going to have a bigger role and play an important part after Misthios became the top guild. He was going to be a reliable and trustworthy support character like Albestros Winston, Sirius Blake, Venessa Hos Sigfreed and Throk Oakenshield.

But sadly, had to remove his involvement to reduce the chapter count.

On the other side… I also had to skip on a lot of World Building and lore about Zivot aka the Elven Empire.

One of them was the Slavery System.

In my original plans, Kahn was going to use it to increase his forces like a glitch in the program.

But then the idea was discarded because I did not want to waste chapters in introducing characters that wouldn't impact the story significantly and I didn't want to touch the whole social structure side of the Elven culture like I did in Rakos & Vulcan empire arcs.

The second part was about the different and unique species in Zivot Empire.

I could only introduce Qebika (the fog/mist folks) and Lukions (the metal people who were also the biggest blacksmiths and craftsmen of this empire).

There were two to three more different species and plots related to them. Just like Jugram, Omega and Blackwall... They would have provided the limelight to Ceril and Oliver in this arc.

But again… would've been seen as unnecessary information and I would've been accused of stretching the chapters.

Cities and Locations :

I was planning to show the significance of many cities, locations and terrains such as Alfheim, Count Harold's territory, Qebika and Lukion tribe headquarters.

Due to the workload… I simply forgot to post art for these cities and places despite having Reference Arts saved months ago.

So from the next arc… New city, location and scenery arts will be shared. (Ask for them if I forget to post.)

I shortened Kahn's journey inside the Supreme Dungeon and focused only on the Bosses to limit the storyline.

I have arts, references, storyline plans for every important dungeon floor and the laws of reality they were supposed to be associated with ready… but again, thrown into the bin.

Characters who were supposed to play a bigger and more significant role :

Eleanor Sar Insalor Venric :

She was going to be the main antagonist for this arc and was going to be a ruthless and conniving character whose ambitions were going to keep the chapters more interesting as well as create a lot of trouble for Kahn and the group.

And the aftermath of Eleanor's death was originally going to involve the Mysterious Group hunting Kahn.

Iskamir was going to come back again (for those who don't care or bother remembering character names and then complain later, he was the member of the High Elf imperial clan who would've been the heir to the throne if he hadn't given up his claim to join the group and hunt the new Hero of Darkness.)

Don't worry… he will reappear again.

I wanted to give more information on them and some of their specialties in this arc but I guess we will have to wait for future developments.

Ervalen Baslaark, the Hero of Life :

My original plans included dwelling more into Ervalen's character and his psychological traumas… and why he became the way he did.

He was originally going to be a more important character in the last 5 to 10 chapters of this arc and was going to impact the story and build up for the future appearance.

Myrienne : The Priestess who is also Eleanor's lover. She too will appear again with Ervalen and both of their motives and character developments will be displayed next time.

So evidently… I skipped a lot of characters, arc routes, storylines, world-building and many more things such as descriptions of each dungeon floor, their laws and stuff, to keep the arc short since people complain a lot about these factors.

Why am I telling you all about the food that you didn't get to taste?

To let you know that this is what happens when an Author is forced to limit their plans to appease the readers.

Well… I at least got the chance to introduce Vildred aka the Lightning Dragon Emperor properly, so I guess that's a consolation.

As for those who still complain about the area of destruction caused by Saint and Mythical Rank monsters fighting to be in kilometers as well as these creatures being way too bigger even than even the Colossal Titan or Godzilla… I just want to ask these people something.

Why would a world that operates on different laws of reality and is larger by many times, be the same as Earth?

I have already explained again and again, over and over that monstrous beings are bigger due to their bloodlines, species, rank, mana and world energy reserves. Any of these things could end up as the deciding factor for their ginormous sizes and range of attacks and abilities.

Their physiology, appearances, powers and characteristics won't work like humans or any animals from the earth at all.

Even humans in Vantrea are different from humans on Earth.

Like how many times do I have to explain these things for these self-proclaimed intellectuals?

Normal readers seem to understand this pretty easily and can picture these scenes effortlessly.

On the other side of the spectrum… Kahn may have to fight a Demi-God or a literal God one day.

How do you expect him to fight such beings while he can't even destroy 10 kilometers of radius with his strongest attack skill alone?

Is this some watered-down comic book movie where even a god like Thor can't even defeat a bunch of metal bots or shadow monsters on his own?

The hypocrisy of this situation is that…

These are the same type of people who have no problems reading Wuxia/Cultivation Novels where MC destroys thousands of kilometers, heaven and earth, galaxies and universes with a single Palm of their hand.

A 12-year-old girl being millions of years old and every female character introduced being a kingdom toppling and heaven defying, as white as jade beauty is acceptable; but here, people complain about these things despite the world setting being set at early arcs of the novel.

As the Author… I'm disappointed by these people's lack of imagination and restricted mindsets.

Alright… time for the references used for names in this arc :

Misthios : Greek word for Mercenary.

Alfheim : In Norse Mythology, Alfheim is the realm of Elves.

Lagertha : Character from The Vikings tv show who is a Shieldmaiden.

Logan : You guessed it right, my chiggas.

Omega is Raiden Hrodvitsson : Nordic names add son and dottir at the end based on gender.

So Hrodvitsson would be Omega being the son of Hrodvitnir aka the Fenrir.

Oliver is Icarus Vedrfolnir : Icarus was already mentioned so I'll explain the later part.

In Norse mythology, Veðrfölnir is a hawk sitting between the eyes of an unnamed eagle that is perched on top of the world tree Yggdrasil.

Oliver is a variant of Godbeast Roc and also has a Hawkman form so this was fitting.

Jugram is Dante Surtrsson :

Reference to Dante from Devil May Cry franchise. Since both are One Man Army.

Surtr in Norse mythology is a fire demon or fire giant who ruled in the fiery wilderness called Muspelheim.

At the time of Ragnarok, the end of the world, Surtr was destined to lead the fire giants into battle against the Norse gods.

Blackwall is Sigurd Suttungr :

Sigurd is of the Völsung line and is the great-great-great-grandson of Odin aka the Allfather.

As for Suttungr… he was a Giant/Jotnar who also has a storyline with Odin. Given how Blackwall is a variant Primordial Titan, this was the best surname I could come up with after doing research.

Ceril is Loki Vitkisson :

Loki is already known to you guys.

Vitki means Sorcerer in Norse. No big lore here.

Ronin is Scorpion Banamadr :

Scorpion name was always referenced to Scorpion from Mortal Kombat games since Ronin also has extensions abilities that he can use as Kunai Spear.

Banamadr means Assassin in Norse (at this point, I was just lazy.).

Armin is named Darwin Groedari :

Reference to sir Charles Darwin.

He was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology in human history.

Armin is an Alchemist and a Healer so I just had to do this one.

Groedari also means botanist and alchemist in 'old' Norse.

Rudra Fafnir : Rudra's surname was introduced as Fafnir. Named after Fafnir the Dragon.

Fafnir, in Nordic mythology, is the name of the great dragon who is also referred to as a symbol of Strength.

Note : Since most don't pay attention while reading.

Norse names were chosen in this arc because Kahn as Legolas Ragnarsson as well as all the other subordinates were supposed to be descendants of Bjorn Ironside/Ragnarsson who was a Viking. Hence, these names were chosen with a purpose.

Denzel Harrington : I'll just leave you with a quote said by the person I'm referring to.

"Without commitment, you'll never start. But more importantly, without consistency, you'll never finish."

Merlin (Kahn's alter ego who learns Alchemy) :

Reference to Merlin from the King Arthur saga.

Edmund Thandruil :

Reference to Elven King Thranduil from the Hobbit books.

In a way, I already foreshadowed him being a member of the elven imperial family since the first time I introduced him.

Aragorn Travion Saar Insalor :

Reference to Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. Name of the main protagonist.

Mirror of Fate :

Used by Argos Belmont, the Vampire King aka Revenant Sovereign.

Reference to Castlevania anime. Dracula also uses the same Mirror to connect and talk with his allies from thousands of kilometers away.

Author's Personal Note :

As you can see, I had to skip a lot of plotlines. But there were a lot of mythological references.

I was planning to dig deep into Aztec or Mayan cultural lore in the next arc.

But from now… Many mythologies and different cultural references, anime, TV shows, games and CBMs won't be used.

Because people do not seem to like or appreciate them anymore so I guess I will have to erase that part from the novel completely.

P. S.

It will also save me hours of doing research since there's no point in it anymore.

Conclusion and Future Premise :

From now on, Kahn will no longer be able to skip from the matters related to the 8th Hero of Darkness, the war with Demon God and the foundation he has built will show their effect in the future arcs and you'll see why I took more than 800+ chapters just to reach this stage.

There will be some unique, eccentric and interesting characters introduced and Kahn himself will gain a lot of experience regarding a few aspects that he's still lacking as a character.

Consider the upcoming arc as the pivotal point of the novel which will completely change the direction of the story.

If you have patiently read and carried on with the novel till now… consider your time and support being rewarded.

From the next arc, you'll see a lot of improvement in characterization, world-building, deep exploration of fighting styles, weapons, magic, laws of reality and other stuff.

Your love and support will be rewarded. So see you in the next arc.

- CrimsonWolfAuthor