Legend has it that long, long ago, Fate, an old woman from the Heavens, wanted to save the lonely but powerful souls wandering around the cold and empty universe. She wanted to give them a home, friendship and a useful, meaningful life. 

It was also said that the souls once were guardians of humans. They took all kinds of forms; dragons, gods, creatures... Not many could see these guardians, only a few had the ability to acknowledge their presence.

Unfortunately, most of the people who could see the souls were horrified of them. 'Demons from hell, ' they called them.

Soon, a rumour about these 'demons' had been spread. Humankind feared them. The souls had been the new reason why humans locked all of their windows and doors at night. The souls had become the topic of their nightmares and the monsters under their beds.

~~~

They were said to be the most powerful young men in the kingdom, the chosen ones to sit in the four golden thrones in the palace. The princes were born in the same year, month, and date.

Prince Zen.

Prince Alexander.

Prince Luk.

Prince Syu.

They, with riches and power, were supposed to claim the title as 'The Four Emperors'. People respected and looked up to them. Well, that's before when their secret was revealed.

The princes, like some, had the power to see the souls clearly. However, unlike the others, they were not a tiniest bit of afraid when they saw the souls. In fact, they treated the souls as their best friends. Bonds were created between the four princes and four chosen souls- Zeus, the God of gods, Xcalibur, the sword of the King, Longinus, the soldier of ice, and Spriggan, guardian of the woods. Their bonds were so strong, it was like their spirits had been fused together, but their friendship and happiness didn't last long...

The night before the princes' coronation, just when an old maid was just about to enter the Prince Alexander's room, she was surprised to see all four of them inside. She was more shocked to find that the princes were talking to... air?

The maid immediately knew what was happening. The thoughts of the 'demon' rumours she had always heard about sent shivers down her spine. The maid slowly turned around, then proceeded to run away from the palace in terror. 

When the maid stopped to take a break from all the running, she found herself in the crowdy and loud village. When the villagers saw her panting, they asked her what was wrong with a concerned look on their faces.

"T-the d-demons!" The maid cried. "I saw the princes... All of them! T-they were... T-they were talking to the demons!"

Fear and horror spread through the villagers' faces. But how could they not feel afraid? Their soon-to-be kings, whom they trust and respect so much, were actually selling their souls to the devil? Then, a maiden cried, "D-demons! I swear... I swear the princes are all demons as well! All of them!" Murmurs and gasps were heard all around. Some of the old women even fainted in pure shock.

"What shall we do?" A young man whispered.

"I-I don't know..." His wife whispered back while carrying their baby son. 

"We shall kill them! We shall burn the princes alive! We cannot afford our kingdom to be ruled by demons, can we?" An angry villager yelled.

More whispers were heard.

"Raise your hands if you agree with me!" He yelled again. "Raise your hands if you want to defend this kingdom!"

Slowly, some of his friends shakily raised their hands. After a few whispering-discussions, more and more hands were raised. They were too scared to object as they didn't want their kingdom to be ruled by 'evil beings'. Their fear turned into betrayal and elimination towards their future kings.

"This settles it then!" The villager shouted. "Tomorrow, we shall kidnap the princes during their sleep in the palace. Then, we shall burn these 'demons' alive tomorrow!" A lot of people cheered loudly. An infant's cry had been heard as men started to grab their weapons and started to charge into the castle, ready to kidnap the innocent princes.

~~~

Prince Zen, a morning person, woke up just as the first ray of sunlight shone on his body. He was excited for his coronation as he rose from his soft, king-sized bed... But wait, why was his bed so hard? Like wood? And why can't he move? He immediately realised that he was tied to a huge wooden cross high on the mountain with the thickest rope he had ever seen. He looked around to only find trees around him and his sleeping brothers tied up to three other crosses as well.

Prince Zen screamed loudly for help and his brothers woke up to his screams. Like their brother, Prince Alexander, Prince Luk, and Prince Syu were also shocked. They screamed for help but no one came. They even called for the souls, but as the souls didn't have a human body, they cannot help the princes.

"Spriggan!" Prince Syu was the first one to call out. The soul with horns appeared. "Can you get us out of here?"

Spriggan shook his head as he sighed. "I'm sorry, Prince Syu, but I, along with Longinus, Zeus and Xcalibur are just souls. We do not have the body of a human to cut these ropes," The soul said sadly.

Beside Syu, his brother Luk groaned loudly as he called Longinus. Unsurprisingly, the answer was still the same as Spriggan's. Xcalibur and Zeus had also been called, but still no use. While the princes were communicating with the spirits that were invisible to most humans, people started coming out of the shadows of the trees.

"So it is true," sneered one of the villagers. "Just now I've seen you talking with the ghosts, your majesty."

The princes tried to wrestle their way out of the ropes, but it didn't work. They started calling for their royal knights for help, but the crowd just laughed.

"There's no use, princes. We already had your knights— Sir Halt, Sir Daiyo, Sir Gōgō, Sir Okori, Sir Aki and the others tied up while they were asleep. They were now probably struggling in the dungeons! And forget about the duke's sons, Lord Uki, Lord Wakaba, Lord Ran, and Lord Yugi are now in another kingdom! Your dear friends can't save you now!" Another man smirked.

Tears were already leaking out of Prince Syu's eyes when he heard that his best knights and friends were locked up and hurt. 

"YOU MONSTERS!" Prince Zen and Syu shouted at the same time.

"No, I believe it's you that are monsters, " the man replied.

The villagers ignored as some of them started to light a torch. The princes' eyes widened as they knew the villagers were going to burn them alive. The villagers lit the bottom of the four crosses in fire with the torch. After that, they began to watch happily as the fire burned higher and higher until it touched the four. The hot flames began to burn the princes' outwear and started to lick the bodies of the dying young men. After three minutes, the fire died out, leave four skeletons in the princes' place. The villagers laughed merrily, not noticing their own children sobbing in terror.

Soon, the next day, the royal knights of the princes were also executed, and the sons of the duke died during a shipwreck. The souls were forced to be lonely yet again. Fate, who pitied the souls and the spirits of the ones who died, decided to save them. After centuries and centuries of thinking, she decided to bring the souls back to earth once again, but in a different form. She turned the souls into spinning-tops and sent them to the human world. She doubted that someone would fear them, as the spinning-tops became some kind of attracting toys used for battles. 

Fate also decided to let the princes and their friends to be reincarnated with their memories of their past lives erased. However, she decided not to erase the bonds of the princes and the four souls as she thought they were too precious to erase. She even 'upgraded' the bonds, making the princes and the four souls connected in some ways. How? You may ask. The princes in their afterlives could use the powers of the souls: Prince Zen could use the element air, Prince Alexander could use the element earth, Prince Luk could use water ice and Prince Syu could use fire. 

Fate smiled as she finally sent them to their afterlives.
'My work here is done,' she thought as she sat on her throne in Heaven.    

~Story fact