Five Thousand years ago, El Hazard was at the height of its majestic
influence, the whole of civilization had reached enormous gains in all
fields, science, technology, magic and the arts.  The whole kingdom,
enjoying a thousand years of peace and reconciliation of almost all the
tribes of El Hazard, was on the verge of breaking through.  What was this
breakthrough?  The final and complete defeat of their long time enemies, the
kingdom across the great desert.  The current rulers, so confident and so
bent on finally crushing the rival that had been the thorn on its back the
past millennia or so, relied heavily on their advantages.  That was
technology, magic, and the unknown.

"What is the news from the front?"

"Sir, we bring great news.  Word has it, our enemies, the kingdom of
Roshtaria are putting up all of their defenses farther back behind the great
desert.  In a month's time, we'll finally occupy their lands beyond the
great desert."

"A month? We must press onward, general.  Let us finish them off before the
lunar equinox arrives.  So that we'll finally have peace and prosperity all
over El Hazard.  The Festival would be much more intoxicating if we'll
finally achieve total peace all over our kingdom."

"Yes, sir.  There is one other thing, sir.  We've gotten reports that the
enemy has pulled almost all of their resources into some kind of ultimate
weapon.  They seem to call it the Eye of God, but it's still half way from
finished, as our spies have reported to us."

"I see.  Investigate on what this ultimate weapon can do.  I don't want to
be surprised.  I hate surprises."  The screen went blank.  The king sat
uneasy at his chair, thinking about his latest adversary, the Eye of God.

"Father, is it a bad time?  I was hoping to talk."  The first princess
appeared through the doorway.

"Ifurita.  Oh, my lovely Ifurita.  I wish your mother could see how lovely
you've grown."

"Oh, father.  Please don't tease me like that."  Ifurita walked up to her
father.  "Father, why are we still at war?"

"Ifurita, you must understand.  Our world will never find peace if we don't
defeat Roshtaria."

"Father, please don't think of me as being rude.  But, I think its more than
that."  She must have sense the tension in her father's eyes, looking at her
with apprehension.  "I know my mother, and I miss her.  But you must stop
blaming the kingdom of Roshtaria for her death.  I know I have.  Please
father, this present war is not anymore about all those thousands years of
rivalry between our kingdom and theirs."

"Enough, Ifurita.  I know how you, and your sister must feel right now.
Like you, I wish to take revenge for your dear mother's death.  Her passing
came at the hands of Roshtaria's spies."  The king turned his back on her.

"No, I don't anymore...father.  Well, not enough to hate them as you have."
Ifurita stepped up to her father, grabbing his cloak.  "Please, father.  The
annihilation of a whole race of people will not solve...Father?"  Her father
was unmoving, in fact he seemed stoned silent.  "Father?"  She shook him,
her concerned asking was replied with death silence.  "Father, are you
al..."  The king fell to his knees, the aggravated look of pain and
suffering illuminating from his face and eyes.  To Ifurita's shock, she saw
the single bow sticking from the middle of her father's chest.  Straight
through the heart, the death of the king would eventually mean the fall of
the kingdom, and she was there to witness it all.  "No!!!  Father!"  She
cradled the king in her arms, she was horrified now that even her own father
had followed her mother.  She was filled with sorrow, sadness that started
to stir the same emotions she had been trying to hide since she lost her
mother.  "Father!  Who had done this to you?!"

A rustle in the darkness, behind the curtains, and near the open terrace
windows was brought Ifurita's rage almost to breaking point.  The rage was
almost unbearable, she was the person she never thought she could be, the
evil she had thought she lost a long time ago.  But the love that sealed
that had disappeared, in her hands was the proof.  She shouted out to the
culprit, come out, she said.  In the shadows did came out the figure of grey
and mystery.  A spy, an assassin that had found another target.  Her.  This
time though, the shadow was all it was...he had escaped, rather than face
her emerging rage.  "Father!  I swear I'll...I'll..." She couldn't swear it
out loud, she only knew how to hide her emotions, hide her grief, but not
her crusade.  She'll have revenge, if its the last thing she'll be able to
do.

-----

Hinosuke remembered it vividly, the first time he had stepped, well actually
fell into the strange world of El Hazard would forever stay in his memories,
imprinted there like a carved diamond stone.  He must have felt strange
feeling nothing, the impact falling head first from the sky into the rocky
cliffs below, but that was the last thing he remembered before he opened his
eyes again.  Opening them to see the most beautiful face he had ever seen
floating above his head, smiling at him with the cutest hint of grin on the
side.  Her first words was...he can't be wrong, yes it was...

"Um, can you get up now?  Not that I don't mind you lying there, on my lap
and all."  The woman turned away, the red flush on her face and cheeks was
the reason.

Strange things happened after that.  Hinosuke Mizuhara introduced himself,
and she introduced herself as a priestess of Mouldoon.  Actually she was on
her way up the slopes when she heard his scream.  Looking around, she too
was surprise to see him drop directly at her from above.  Hinosuke could
only ask her forgiveness, he had no idea where he was, how come he's now on
a mountainside, and not anymore at Shinonome High.  Yes, as Hinosuke tried
to explain, he was in the laboratory mixing chemicals, when all of a sudden
the ball of blackness sucked him off his feet.  Eventually he fell into her
lap.  Nariko Gai, as she had introduced herself, gave his explanation some
thought.  But, neither she or him had enough experience with black holes,
black balls that could suck a whole person and transport them from one place
to another.

"Tell me, Mizuhara." She lead the way up the slope of Mt. Mouldoon, "I
stopped your fall a while ago, but I thought you where almost dead.  You
didn't stir for a long time, even longer I feared, if I had not..." she
stopped short of revealing her little secret.

"Had what?  Was I unconscious very long?"

"Yes, in fact I wanted to get you off me immediately.  You're really heavy,
especially since you...um,  you pressed on...ah, nevermind."

Hinosuke was more than bewildered by the young woman's statements.  "Miss
Gai.  Did I hurt you?  I didn't mean to.  I wish I hadn't injured you all
that much.  You looks so..."

"Humph!  Not you too!  All my sisters tell me I'm small, and skinny and
such...but I'm just petite, that's all.  I'm not small, I'm young.  I'm not
really that smaller than you, you know.  In fact, I'm almost as tall as
you,"  her continued persistence made them come close to each other, "see,
and I'm not that smaller than you.  You're a boy!  You're supposed to be a
bit bigger for a girl like me, ok."

"I...never thought of it that way."

"Oh, yeah?  What were you thinking?"

"I just thought you were beautiful.  I would never dare hurt anyone as
beautiful as you.  Miss Gai."

Their closeness, the new sensations in her moved the inner fiber of her
soul.  Never was she in her situation, a boy telling her what she had just
heard.  And it came from the heart, Hinosuke's heart.  "Um, call me Nariko."
The two mended the disagreement by holding each other's hand.  Nariko led
the way inside the palace of Mt. Mouldoon.

------

"Stop the experiment.  The Eye of God is not yet ready!  Who ordered this
activation exercise?!"  A man, more seasoned than how he looked, cried out
to all the technicians working on the control panel.

"I did professor."  The King of Roshtaria spoke from a chair overlooking all
the personal at the control center.  "We must activate the Eye of God at
once.  The end of Roshtaria can only be prevented by this new weapon of
ours."

"My Lord, please stop this.  Exposing the core power would eventually lead
to the destruction of not only that of this kingdom, or that of our enemies,
but to the whole of El Hazard as well.  We must still perfect the method of
controlling this power, my lord."

"I see.  I understand." The king motioned for the experiment to stop.
"Please, professor.  Find out immediately how this Eye of God works.  It may
have been divine intervention that we had dug up this weapon from beneath
the burning desert and now we must use it in the same way our ancestors had
used it."  The king left immediately, leaving all the consequences of
activating an unknown evil into the world of El Hazard to the professor.

"I hope that thing never summoned a demon or something similar.  I still
haven't figured out what is it's true power, and its purpose."  The
professor looked bleakly at the huge sphere enclosed in a small circular
fortress that was displayed up on huge monitor screen of the room.  "What
are you, Eye of God?"

-----