In a faraway galaxy, we arrive at the empire of Pyrole. Located in the same lower half of the Divine Realm known as the Lower Nether. The capital of Pyrole rests on the surface of a young star, where the Devils call home…

A man began to hear a humming noise above him, as as a white light began to pulse,

“I wish I could destroy this damn thing.”

The Tesseract drifted to his palm as it began to inflame like a torch.

“Open relay.” He yawned, the Tesseract's faces exploded, revealing the core inside that glowed like a star, and a voice spoke.

“Are you comfy?”

“What do you want, Lykan?”

“Get your ass over here and find out, Hylix. we got a distress call from Khaos, and it's worse than we thought. There isn't a building in sight still standing.” Lykan asked,

“-sigh- 5 minutes.”

“Hey you! you're a Devil, right? Do you guys really live on stars? How does that work? There's no surface!” A new voice called out,

“Shut up dumbass! He's an emperor, you know! Mind your own business!” Said another,

“Well do they? It was just a question!” They argued, and Hylix joined in, “Of course we do, and no, there is no surface. Heat rises and gravity falls, so somewhere in the middle there's a special layer that lets us float.” His speech was followed by an awkward moment of silence.

“Sorry if these two bothered you. They never learn to take a hint, just like you.” Lykan ended,

The Tesseract dematerialized as Hylix called it away.

“Why I oughta!” He strangled the air like a 70s’ cartoon character before glancing at the glowing walls of flowing plasma that shaped the room, and back at his arms, which glowed the same bright orange hue. He shook his head, before unfolding his molten feathered wings, and flew through deep caverns that made up a labyrinth beneath the sun's surface.

Hylix stared off through the waving patterns of the glowing hallways that flowed around him. The photosphere is always shifting these tunnels around like waves. You can never leave the same way you came in, not that he would know! He said to himself,

“Connect to Khaos.” Hylix said, the tesseract pulsed as it searched,

“Copy.” Lykan responded,

“So??” He asked as he floated up to the surface,

“Khaos has been ambushed, and there's no doubt it was the mages. It was obliterated before dawn.” Lykan replied,

“Got any proof of that? Moving armies across the dimensional gap takes time and is ridiculously expensive. If you're telling me, the capital of one of our empires was destroyed in a single night? Then is it possible they had prepared a full scale siege in our own backyard?” Hylix asked.

“A trojan horse getting past all of our watchers? There's no way they could assemble a large enough army under our noses without any rumors spreading. What I do know is that I'm standing in a city and there's nothing left of it.” Lykan replied. Hylix squeezed the cube in his palm,

“Bullshit! The Apollyons may be in a weakened state, but it's still an imperial city! We're talking tens of thousands of capable fighters at least plus royals… Those useless fucking royals!!” He blasted off to the nearest planet above him, dodging past large waves of solar winds as he escaped the star's atmosphere. It doesn't make sense, you mean to tell me that we just slept through our enemies busting through our front door!? That shit doesn't happen! He created a ring of dust as he slammed down onto the rocky planet, approaching an altar that rested in front of him.

He felt a rush as the energy in his body died down, and his skin reverted back to a true dark shade of red. I've only been to the capital a handful of times, for a planet city as large as Khaos to be wiped away… he said to himself, as he was warped to a far distant galaxy. …

Hylix shined a light with a glowing fist that filled the dark depths of a cave, he looked to the sky, and saw the remains of a tunnel coated in thick frost that had been dug to the surface, his eyes rolled, “What a surprise…” He followed along the curving tunnel, and horror sat in as he drifted above the surface. He floated among the crumbling remains of buildings that flooded his vision,

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“Holy shit. Is anyone alive out there!?” He shouted, there was a glint in his eyes as he saw a figure in the distance, and he raced towards her.

“Miss– are you?” Her body was cold, her soulless purple eyes gazed at his own. She had been crushed between two slabs of stone, with deep lacerations cutting through her face, her insides flowed like mush out of her lifeless upper half as Hylix as he lifted the stone slabs. He gritted his teeth in silence, gently setting her to the side.

He raised his head, and his vision was filled with hundreds of lifeless bodies lying in what remained of a city. These people weren't just killed, they were massacred. He thought,

Hylix couldn’t find a single trace of any other body besides those of its citizens. As he walked he could number countless figures who were cut limb from limb lining the streets. Others were hung against poles with bodies torn to ribbons. He stumbled over piles of people that were charred black from burns and unrecognizable. As he continued down the path he saw a silver reflection shine in front of him. He knelt down next to the soldier in iron armor, who laid motionless against a broken pillar,

“Hey.” He lifted up the knight's helmet, and was met with the face of a man with his eyes torn out, the skin of his face had been melted away like candle wax down to his flesh. Black blood poured out of a wound in his neck as his head was raised.

Blood? The Divines don't bleed? But he definitely isn’t a mage, so what the hell is a Tainted knight doing in a Divine city? He saw the corner of a crumpled note in the knight's gauntlet,

Hylix’s anger boiled as he sat him aside and slid the note in his pocket. He flew over the bottomless reveens that swallowed buildings whole, walking past the streets flooded with rivers of magma,

“No matter how many miles I walk it never ends!” He yelled,

He sat against the wall of a house that had been ripped in half, as he tried to calm his nerves. The wind carried the voices of the dead and he was forced to listen, he ripped his equalizer off his ears but the voices of the damned began shouting. The sounds of the wind rushing over him faded away as memories of his teacher's words entered his mind. You have no idea what a real war is, Hylix. You're much too young and far too soft to be an emperor, and when the time comes it will break you.

“What would you know? Lykan!”

He shoved the equalizer back on his head, and heard the sound of rattling chains behind the walls. He rushed inside, where he stumbled upon the bodies of two lifeless children laying on the floor next to a blindfolded woman whose neck was chained to a wall. Her wings and arms laid severed on the floor in front of her,

“Miss, you’re alive!” He said in a dazed panic before rushing to her side. He took off his own equalizer and placed it on her, the woman slowly raised her head.

“Kill me. Just let me die..” The woman groaned,

“I'm a friend, just focus on me, alright?” Hylix said in a gentle tone,

“Please. Just let me die.” Her voice began to fade, mixed emotions raced through his mind as he listened. He sat beside her, “It's alright, your children have fallen into hypersleep. We can still save them, so stop worrying and rest.”

The woman smiled, and her head jolted forward as her last embers of life slipped away. He clenched his fists as the sounds of her chains fell silent.

“DAMN!” His fist melted a hole through the stone wall. Was it wrong of me to lie? No, she deserves a final moment of peace. He flew up into the sky, where he saw Lykan sitting over a tall, crumbled building that had fallen against the side of a hill in the distance. Lykan flicked the embers of his cigar off the edge of the rooftop as Hylix landed behind him.

“Sure is a sorry sight, isn't it?” Lykan said, staring off into the distant sunrise,

“Sick fucks tortured the children.” Hylix replied.

“I've contacted the others, they should be here soon.” Lykan finished,

“That’s all you have to say?”

“Yes.” Lykan replied, the two of them were cut short by the sounds of lightning bursting behind him,

“You invited that bastard too?” Hylix asked,

Lykan tossed the end of his cigar off the roof, “I didn't, looks like he invited himself.”

Waves of bright purple lightning carved out a path below them, clearing out the buildings and the crumbled streets in front of him

A purple glow reflected in Lykan’s eyes, “Wonder why his lightning is purple? I thought it was supposed to be blue?”

“Fuck that guy, not sure that I want to know.” Hylix replied, “Is that really necessary, Orpheus?”

“Necessary? This planet is a waste, has been from the start.”

“There were bodies down there!”

“Those people are dead, Hylix. Why should I care and why do you?”

“Where is Zagan, Orpheus? I called for him, not you.” Lykan said,

“No need for such aggression, Lykan. People like him only get in the way. This is a matter of great importance, don't you agree?” Orpheus proclaimed.

Solrin and Agnis couldn't take their eyes off of them, they had never seen another species so different from themselves before,

“Hey, Mr. Chairman? Who are those guys? One of them has glowing red skin, and the other is blue.” Solrin whispered,

“They are the emperors of the Pyrole and Elektro empires. The ‘red’ one you are referring to is Hylix Vastrol, leader of the Devils, the blue one is Orpheus Zurath, leader of the Demons.”

“That red guy is Hylix?!”

The two of them hesitated, fearing to say something wrong in front of their emperor.

“Hey now, relax. Why are two warriors hiding behind the one they're supposed to serve?” Orpheus asked,

“Please excuse us, we–”

“Quiet! It looks like the others haven't made it yet, so I guess I'll just tell the two of you. I found the evidence that the mages left behind, they wrote their marks on the bodies of the imperials they murdered.” Lykan ended,

To be continued…