Demon Lord

When Lyriasharin, light goddess of the mystical domain of Myrthran, discovers that her husband, Arkonen, has looked lustfully upon their daughter, causing her to flee into the God Realm, she is enraged, and casts him down. Lyriasharin's father, Kayos, creator of Myrthran, goes into the trackless, dangerous God Realm in search of his granddaughter. Arkonen, in his fury at his return to his mortal existence, wreaks havoc in the Overworld, and Lyriasharin strikes him down. His blackened soul flees to the Underworld, where he makes himself a dark god, rising to lay waste to the Overworld. Lyriasharin enlists the aid of seven blue mages, and they set seven wards over him.

Thus, the Black Lord is trapped in the Underworld for nine hundred years. But he discovers the key to his release, and steals a mortal woman, heavy with child, from the Overworld. Before he rips the child from her womb, Arkonen makes him a god, and so Bane, the Demon Lord, is born. Lyriasharin sends a dream to her healers, and a girl child is born among them who possesses the power of light.

After eighteen years of torturous training, Bane opens the World Gate and rises from the Underworld. An army of dark creatures and savage men flock to serve him, and he sets forth to conquer the Overworld and break the wards. Only a mortal can pass through the wards, and only a god can break them, therefore Bane is the answer to the riddle of Arkonen's freedom.

Mirra is placed in Bane's path the day after her sixteenth birthday, and when he finds that he cannot kill her, he takes her with him on his rampage. Arkonen orders Bane to kill Mirra, but he refuses. He breaks the first and second wards, and Arkonen sends demons to slay Mirra, but Bane protects her. Mirra suffers terribly at his hands, yet she longs only to heal him, for he pays a heavy price for wielding the dark power, which is killing him. Elder Mother Ellese, a healer and seeress, watches Mirra's suffering in her glass, but only the Child of Light can turn Bane from his destiny, if she has the strength. Bane discovers that the source of Mirra's power is the sun, and denies it to her.

Each ward is stronger than the last, and the traps set within them are intended to kill Bane, for as a mortal god and a bleeder, he is vulnerable only to mundane weapons and the touch of the white fire. Bane summons a fiery Demon Steed to carry him, a savage but beautiful Underworld creature upon which he ravages the Overworld, slaying all who oppose him. Each ward injures the Demon Lord further, but he refuses Mirra's aid and will not heed her warnings.

At the seventh ward, Arkonen intends that Bane should die, for he has no wish to share his domain with another dark god. Only Mirra's skill with herbs saves him, but he is close to death when Arkonen rises. The Black Lord scorns Bane and leaves him to die, but Mirra will not let him. She begs him to go with her to the Lady's Temple and be healed so that he could fight Arkonen and save the Overworld.

Bane has no wish to do so, he dislikes the Overworld, but unless he does, it will be killed by the foul dark power that will rise from the ground in sickening waves. The sun will forever be hidden behind the thick blanket of clouds that shrouds the skies, and all that lives in the Overworld will perish. Lyriasharin will be forced to abandon her domain and flee into the God Realm, where many perils await her. The Overworld will become a dead domain, inhabited only by demons and droges, unless Arkonen finds the Key to the World Gate between the Overworld and Eternity. Then he will invade the light realm, and if he captures Lyriasharin before she flees, he will enslave her to keep the Overworld alive. It will become a place of horror and torture for mortals, a sporting ground for demons and dark creatures, the playground of a dark god. Only Bane, the Demon Lord, can save them ... if he chooses to.