- Written by King of Lore -
His name was Griffin. In a time long past, the demon king Ragleth descended to the mortal plane to commit trickery and try to seduce humans to the side of evil. However, he only managed to cause small levels of havoc before his scheming was interrupted. Someone had managed to catch his eye. For the first time in millenia, the demon king was drawn away from his mischief and towards something else. The giantess Alea was simply wandering the lands unawares, when all of a sudden, Ragleth appeared in front of her, and asked for her hand in marriage. “My dear giantess, your fair beauty has managed to catch my eye, and so, I ask you to marry me and come with me to my home, deep though it may be in the earth, for it is grand and great.” burst out Ragleth, for he was so overcome with love at first sight. Alea sighed, and replied, “Oh great demon king, I would love to accept your offer, but what is there in it for me, a lowly giantess.”
“Well, I would grant you any one wish you desire milady.” Ragleth replied. Snickering to herself, Alea answered, “ I wish that when our son is born, you let him grow up a normal life, and also gift him your great power of Primordial Annihilation.” begrudgingly, the demon king agreed, and swept her off of her feet away to his kingdom. A few years later, their son, Griffin was born, and the world was changed forever.
At first, Griffin only knew evil. He grew up in the demon world, with his best friend, Ash. One day, Griffin asked him, “Ash, why am I and my mother so much bigger than everybody else around here? You all are so small compared to me.”
Ash answered him quizzically, saying, “Well Griff, isn’t it obvious? Your mom’s a giant, and you’re half giant, so of course you’re going to be bigger than the rest of us. And it probably didn’t hurt that your dad is the king of demons.”
“Wait, so do you mean I'm not entirely from here?” Griffin pondered aloud, “But how could that be? I’ve grown up here my whole life? I didn’t even really know there was anything else but the above world. ”
Ash snickered. “Well of course there’s something else, there’s whole other worlds out there, and tons of strong people you could fight too. I guess you really aren’t too bright huh.”
Pouting, Griffin shot back, “Oh yeah, well I bet you didn’t know that the world above us is off limits to everybody! My dad told me we can’t go up there!”
“So? Just don’t tell him, and run away to the surface. Your giant tribe is probably up there somewhere.” Griffin was startled by this idea, but as he was young and had never been told he couldn’t do anything but go up to the surface before, he really wanted to do so. “Thanks!” he called to Ash, turning and running away in the direction of the surface gate.
After traveling for a couple hours, Griffin arrived at the gate, where he encountered the gatekeeper, Charon. “Turn back boy, you know your father does not want you up here.” Charon warned Griffin. “No! I’m gonna see the outside world, and you can’t stop me!” cried Griffin. Upon seeing that Griffin had no intent of turning back, Charon reluctantly drew his scythe and began slicing the fibers of reality apart around Griffin, warming up his blade. Upon seeing this, Griffin shrunk back in fear, and began to run away. Such an action was only natural, as this was the first time that he had ever encountered someone other than his father and his dukes, who would never raise a hand against him, that was truly powerful. When Charon finally decided to go for the kill shot, Griffin brought his hands up to protect himself, almost as a last ditch effort, the base of instinct among all living creatures. However, when he did this, his hands began to glow as a pitch black fog seeped out of them, almost as if all the darkness in his body was leaving, and being replaced with pureness. However, the fog thickened into smoke, and tendrils of it began to curl around Charon's scythe, halting it in its tracks. It then continued up the handle of the scythe, and slowly enveloped Charon himself. This was the rumored ability of the Demon King, Primordial Annihilation, forever taking away Charon’s strength, intelligence, and his great control over death. When this happened, Charon dropped to the floor, and whispered with his few bits of strength left, “So it was true. The Demon King gave up his strongest ability for love.” While Griffin was confused, he was also very excited to get to the above world, and try to find his family.
It was a long walk past the gates, up a steep hill, and then Griffin saw a light like he had never seen before. It was the light of the sun, much unlike the deep, artificial lights of Hell. Covering his eyes, Griffin slowly creeped out into the world, and was astonished by what he saw. Rolling plains of green, trees taller than him, and skies that opened up forever. Filled with curiosity, Griffin went exploring. He walked for many days, wrestling bears, taking on any monster that challenged him, until he came upon a small village. When he saw all the little people running away from him, he cried out, “Why are you running away everybody? I just want to be your friend and learn from you all!” Upon hearing this, the humans slowed down and came to a stop. “Demon, we will not fall for your tricks, for it is clear your true intent is to cause us harm!” After he saw that they would not trust him, Griffin turned away and then slowly sulked off into the distance, sad and confused as to why they could not trust him, as he had never met humans before and was very unused to their quite natural mistrust of the Demon race.
Soon, the mountains began to grow in height, piercing the clouds, and every tree towered over him. Unbeknownst to him, his homeland was calling him back. He had entered the land of the Giants. Amazed by everything around him being so huge, Griffin let his guard down, and was almost immediately punished for doing so. The ground rose up around Griffin, encasing him in a thick shell of earth. As he was trying to break through it, he heard a voice coming from outside. “Stand down creature, we mean you no harm currently, and wish to talk with you.” Curious, Griffin listened and stopped trying to bash through the casing, instead calling out, “Hello there, are you a giant? Cause i’m looking for my mother who’s a giant. I think her name is Alea?” Immediately, any noises and scuffles outside ceased. The earth around him turned to mush and dropped back into the ground slowly. Looking around, Griffin took in four giants standing around him, all of whom were taller than him, a new experience for Griffin. One of the giants, an older looking woman, asked nervously, “you there, is your name by any chance, Griffin? Could you really be my little boy from all those years ago?”
Confused, Griffin responded, “My name is Griffin, are you perhaps my mother?”
Upon hearing this, the female giant became overcome with joy, shouting, “Yes! Yes I am!” She then took Griffin back to the town that she lived in, and taught him in the ways of the Giant race. She taught him how to act, what to eat, and also how to control his power over the earth to cause earthquakes. One day, Griffin asked his mother where all the other giants were. She replied, “Well sweetie, the giants all died out many years ago, as a result of the gigantomachy, the war between the Dragons and the Giants. Both races suffered heavy losses, and although the Dragons won, some of us giants managed to hide away and survive. A small part of the reason why I married your father was so that when you were born, you could help us to take back our land and race from the vampires.” sighing, she dejectedly returned to the corner of their house and sat back down. “But mother, why would I be able to do anything against these Dragons if they managed to wipe us out in the past?” asked Griffin.
“Well you see my son, your father gave you his power of Primordial Annihilation, which will allow you to permanently weaken any dragon you use it against, sealing their abilities and greatly weakening them. With this power, you should be able to defeat the Dragon race.” Nodding his head in understanding, Griffin once again set out, with his task clear in the forefront of his mind. Eliminate the Dragons.
Griffin bounded a long way, until he reached the land of the Dragon race. There, he went on a killing spree, bloodlust filling him, and unquenchable rage. After a while, he began to enjoy it, and one time, he started to play around with the dragons, doing things that were seemingly impossible, such as twisting their bodies around, sorting all of them into rows with just a punch, and much more. Griffin had finally unlocked his true power, one created by mixing the almost transcendent power of the Demon King with the power of the flexible giants, allowing Griffin to seemingly bend the laws of reality and do almost anything he wanted. Although he could not use it consciously, this power shot the abilities of Griffin into the upper reaches of all those currently alive. It is widely agreed upon that at that time, if Griffin had been smarter and able to use his ability to warp reality in an almost cartoon-like way properly, the entirety of the Dragon race may have gone extinct. However, thanks to his inability to utilize it, a group of extremely strong dragons known as the Protectors managed to step in and while they could not kill him, they were able to calm his rampage and drive him off.
When Griffin returned home, he was celebrated as a hero, and continued to exist as a protector for the Giant race, allowing them to expand much closer to back what their old empire was. However, at one point, the gods deemed Griffin to be a threat worthy of being taken seriously, and so they sent one of their prized angels down from heaven to exterminate him. However, they had seriously underestimated his power, and the power of Primordial Annihilation, as it sealed his mind reading and abilities, leaving him powerless against Griffin. In a last ditch effort to save himself, the angel offered up all of his knowledge in exchange for his life. While Griffin did take the knowledge, he also refused to allow the angel to live, as it had threatened him and his family. Now that Griffin was so powerful, he felt the need to fight the truly strong, and grew bored just defending the Giant race. And so, he headed off to the Arena, a place where only the strongest were allowed to gather in hopes of a challenge.