The Great War with the Dungeon Dwellers before which everything seemed perfect. It was said that there was no risk from the dungeons that had suddenly appeared long ago. Every person lived their life to the fullest without any fear of the Dungeon.
And then, everything changed suddenly as the Great War happened. Fortunately, after a bit of luck, the great war ended in their victory.
After that, things started changing as Raia started seeing the opposite end of the spectrum and how Variants were superior.
All the machinery of humans had failed. Only because of Variants did the humans win. So Variants were superior. They should have been incharge of the government and have power, he believed.
He expressed this desire and demanded that Variants be given control of the country and that they will keep humans safe, but the humans refused. Even Varant and Zeiss sided with the humans.
According to them, Variants already had the strength, and thus, to bring balance, it was important that Humans had some control too.
As for Zale, he didn't interfere in the discussion since he didn't care who made the government. This political stuff was boring for him, and he left the meeting, yawning.
Even Zale didn't know that the meeting was going to get so bad. Enraged, Raia had killed one of the human representatives in the meeting in his anger, and that brought a big battle.
Zeiss and Varant faced off against Raia. Alone and at a disadvantage, Raia left.
And thus, humans retained power.
Raia made his own organization with like-minded Variants that believed in the same goal.
Humans kept the government and made the Hunter Union, the command of which was given to Zeiss. APF was also created soon after, seeing the troubles that Raia was creating, and the command of that was given to Varant.
And thus, the status quo of today came to be. Even at that time, Raia was alone against the two Warlock Kings. Even now, he was alone against the two Warlock Kings who believed he was wrong.
There existed only one person who could have turned this disadvantage into an advantage for Raia. It was Zale Azarel. If only Zale had joined him.
He had sent an invitation to Zale to join the Variant Uprising as the Second Leader, in an equal position to Raia. He even went there personally. Not only him, but Zeiss had also given Zale the invitation to join the Hunter Union and become its second leader.
Zale refused both of them kindly, saying he wanted to be free and not join any side. He was going to do whatever he believed was right at whatever point he liked.
As for Varant, he was a bit different. He went to Zale with a bit of arrogance when he offered; he didn't offer to make Zale the second leader of APF. Instead, he offered to have him join his Alpha Squad while Varant was still going to be the only leader and retain the power.
Zale once again refused, but this time, he was also a bit upset. Fortunately, he didn't argue with Varant and straight away rejected.
But that didn't seem to be enough as a few sharp words from Varant led to a clash between the two in which Varant suffered his first defeat! It was the only defeat he had received until then, and even now, it remained his only defeat.
He didn't fight Zale again, though. He also didn't offer Zale to join his team again and left.
Everyone believed that Zale wasn't joining any organization because he wanted to make one of his own. And this was worrisome news since the popularity of Zale Azarel was at an all-time high after his victory over Varant. Moreover, he was an idol of a lot of Variants.
It was clear that if he made an organization, many people were going to join, and it was going to become one of the strongest powers in the country.
Even the government seemed a bit worried. Zale wasn't joining their side. If he made a third front and if they joined with Raia, everything was going to be over
The concerns of everyone lasted for a long time, but nothing like that happened. Zale didn't make any organization. Instead, he lived with his wife and his kid happily, like he was a normal dad. He only came out to help when there was an extreme need.
One such need came when the government informed him of activity in a high-ranking level four dungeon. Something like this had never happened, and Zale needed to go there to kill monsters to bring the Monster Index down.
As for Raia and Varant, they were busy amongst themselves. And the Hunter Union leader Zeiss was supposedly inside a different dungeon.
No one had time to wait for Zeiss to come out, so the government and the Hunter Union begged Zale Azarel to help them and go inside the previously unexplored area.
Some top Variants of Hunter Union were sent inside with Zale. As for his wife, she also went with him, leaving little Lucifer with the babysitter that used to live in a nearby house.
That happened to be the last day when the world saw Zale Azarel and Clarisse as the two didn't return. What returned was the news of their deaths.
After their deaths, Lucifer was taken to the facility.
That wasn't all. After Zale's death, all his wealth and his property were under the control of the government.
Zale Azarel was plenty rich. In fact, he even owned the entire neighborhood where he had lived. If he wanted, he could have lived in a mansion with that wealth, but he still lived in the same old house that he had inherited from his father.
As for the hundreds of houses in his neighborhood which he owned, he had allowed the unfortunate people who didn't own a house to live in them for free for as long as they wanted.