Venatio : Game of Life

**Venatio : Game of Life**is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Venatio and follows the perspective of twenty chosen **Champions**. It has an indirect sequel in the name of Venatio : True Evil.

## Main Arc

### The Act Zero

Noctan, a powerful Deity responsible for the birth of Demon Gods, and his sister Aurora, the benevolant Goddess of Mankind, have a contest to know who is the most powerful. In order to do so, they use an artifact, the Venatio, in order to summon twenty champions.

Aurora's servant, the powerful Seraph Xelias, opposes her will and attemps to prevent her from using the Venatio ; she punishes him by stripping him of his wings and powers and banishing him to the Venatio as Noctan's pawn. Soon, the nineteen other Champions are assembled into two teams : the **Alliance of Dawn** and the **Council of Shadows**.

Before the battle officially begins, skirmishes from both size are dealt : corrupted demon hunter Shiruka joins the Alliance of Dawn while Xelias defeats Caedes and beckons him to the Council of Shadows. The battle is then about to begin.

### The First Act

The first battle between the Champions is one of attrition, with small skirmishes everywhere. As a notable event, Shiruka seals Demon God Shikeishu's power and Hedrom uses his greatest power, Advent, to eliminate several threats from the Council. Many Champions remain passive, including Imeno Noawai, Juliet, Quirito, Fay, Kuno and Xelias himself.

The climax of the war ends with Caedes's Advent. The unstoppable megalomanical monarch threatens to destroy everything, but the heroic Senkito uses his own Advent to stop him, his flames burning so bright they dissolve Caedes's very existence; the pawn known as Caedes ceases to exist. The battle is won ; Aurora and her Alliance of Dawn emerge victorious.

### The Second Act

During the much more sinister Second Act, Pandora and Kaihagi, two individuals with Demon-like powers, attempt to weaken the game board's magic of equilibrium (that makes all Champions equal) and through several sacrifices of both friends and foes, manage to shatter Shiruka's seal and unleash Shikeishuu's full power... and bloodthirst.

Several heroes sacrifice themselves to stop Shikeishuu, and barely manage to finish him off and seal him again through Shiruka's sacrifice... but the ravages of his attacks have weakened the Alliance to a point where they cannot fight back. Dorchadas and Arles Quint ally and finish off the Alliance : Noctan's twisted Champions have won the second act.

### The Third Act

Things take a strange turn during the Third Act. A mysterious presence comes forth from the fragments of the Venatio : Caedes, once again given a fake human form, having forsaken his ties to both sides and seeking only annihilation. Meanwhile, Xelias begins to act, using his ties with several allies such as Fay and Dorchadas in order to sow chaos and disrupt each divinity's plan.

Champions die one after another. Hane and Einherjar finally fall to Xelias's Advent, and as Noctan is about to declare himself victorious, Caedes emerges and savagely attacks Xelias, taking his revenge on him. A satisfied Xelias is defeated as he and Caedes are obliterated in a sphere of fire : the victory belongs to no one and the Third Act ends in a tie.

### The Fourth Act

Angered by the situation, Aurora and Noctan both criticize their own sides, before preparing yet another act to decide who is the champion. However, malcontent and anger has been fostered in many Champions, and when Xelias offers them the possibility to unite and end the cycle of death and rebirth by defeating the Gods, most of them approve.

Elfissia, Hedrom and Juliet oppose him ; Arles kills Juliet, Kuno traps Hedrom and Shiruka battles Elfissia, ending with their two deaths. The rest of the champions reach the top of the Venatio where the thrones of both gods lay. They first are confronted by Aurora - finished by a regretful Xelias -then by Noctan - that Shikeishuu and Caedes both kill. The gods are finished - and the Venatio dissolves into emptiness, its pawn falling into the darkness.

### The Fifth Act

The Champions then reawaken, without a god, without a side, inside the crumbling Venatio once again. Mortal and vulnerable, destined to fight one last lethal battle as a divine punishment. The battle then begins. Maigo attacks, followed by Caedes, then Shikeishuu, each more powerful than ever. Death after death after death, Venatio's army crumbles to dust. Shiruka sacrifices his life to kill Shikeishuu and erase him from existence, and Elfissia, mourning Shiruka's death, gives up on her own life to devastate her enemies.

Through the mass of corpses, Kuno emerges. Fighting for the first time, the embodiment of Despair, seeking to be killed, has been driven by Xelias to end everything. As Kuno and Xelias are seemingly the only ones alive and Xelias is about to kill him as promised, Imeno Noawai emerges from the dust, He manages to awaken Kuno's lost drive to fight and the two clash with Xelias, even defeating his pseudo-Seraphic form. A satisfied Xelias dissolves, telling them he eliminated the last remnants of Aurora and Noctan's will from them : The Venatio has ended. And as the angel dies, the last act is finally finished.

## Characters

* Aurora (The Sun)
* Imeno Noawai (The Moon) [Dreams]
* Ark Solanus (The Magician) [Courage]
* Shiruka (The Hanged Man) [Sacrifice]
* Elfissia (Justice) [Redemption]
* Hane Yawarakai (The High Priestess) [Innocence]
* Juliet (The Lovers) [Glory]
* Hedrom (The Judgment) [Equity]
* Quirito (Temperance) [Peace]
* Senkito (The Chariot) [Determination]
* Einherjar (Wheel of Fortune) [Benevolence]
* Noctan (The Tower)
* Xelias (The World) [Emptiness]
* Shikeishu (The Devil) [Destruction]
* Kuno (Death) [Despair]
* Caedes (The Emperor) [Pride]
* Kaihagi (The High Priest) [Fanaticism]
* Pandora (The Empress) [Vengeance]
* Fay (Strength) [Sloth]
* Dorchadas (The Hermit) [Loneliness]
* Arles Quint (The Fool) [Betrayal]
* Maigo (The Star) [Immaturity]

## Trivia

* Chronologically speaking, this intemporal Storyline is one of the first in the Timeline.