Editing To Catch the Setting Sun/Kyrioch (section)

=History=
Once, there was a maiden...

...who was born to the king and queen of a small country in the Hundred Kingdoms. The maiden was beautiful and talented, and was raised by the finest tutors to be a wise and knowledgeable queen for her nation. However, the maiden was selfish and irresponsible, and instead of using her gifts to serve her people, she opted to leave her kingdom and go gallivanting off around the East as a mercenary, leveraging on her reputation as a princess to spread her fame. The maiden's actions saddened her parents, but they gamely soldiered on, believing that someday their daughter would see the light and return to claim her birthright.

Eventually, she returned. She'd heard the rumors that the Black Tear barbarians were on the warpath and were headed toward her kingdom. The maiden made all haste to return to her kingdom, only to find that she was too late, and the Black Tears had already begun their sack of her homeland. She tried to rally the peasants, but they had fled. She tried to unite the soldiers, but the Black Tears had smashed them and broken their morale. She tried to inspire the people to march under her banner, for she had learned of warcraft and practiced her trade as a commander while acting as a mercenary, but the people did not recognize her as their princess; after all, would a true heir to the throne have abandoned her kingdom for so long?

And then, as she was trying desperately to muster up resistance, the Black Tears came in force. She struck many of them down, but she was eventually overwhelmed and brought to their leader, who was lounging on the throne, the headless bodies of the maiden's parents at his feet. He took a shine to her looks, so he ordered her to be bound and stripped, and then the maiden suffered... indignities.

A week later, naked and beaten and violated, the maiden languished in the dungeons of her palace. Her guards would have their way with her before chaining her to a stake in a filthy cell, but they left her alone at night, for they had to sleep as well. During one of these nights, she heard a still, small voice, speaking to her of her foolishness... and offering a second chance. She had become this way because she was weak, and the voice offered a power to free herself, cast down her tormentors, and to eventually reshape the world. All she had to do was say one single word, and then she could have it.

And so, the beaten and bloodied wretch hissed her assent. The voice chuckled, and from the shadows stepped a gilmyne, who pressed her lips to the maiden's and then flowed over her like a tide of delicate silver fire, becoming a chrysalis and forge within which the maiden would shed her mortal weakness and be reborn as Kyrioch the Conqueror.

After five days, the chrysalis broke and Kyrioch stepped forth, naked and flawless, hateful green fire dancing at her fingertips and invisible arms of power sprouting from her shoulders. Her revenge on the Black Tears was more horrific than the fate they had visited on her country, or any other nation, for that matter. After her orgy of destruction and torment, she turned her back on the ruins of her kingdom and walked into Hell... and the rest is history.