In the darkspace, it had been bleached to a pristine white. There were no changes in elevation, no slight mounds or sudden dips, nothing to be seen in the horizon but an empty, apocalyptic wasteland of white inexistence.
Standing in an empty Heaven just moments after experiencing a black Hell, where artifacts of another world had been displaced there. Artifacts that were now gone, missing. Just like the artifacts, the Ordoian Slayers disappeared too without a trace.
They were no longer here. Problem, Monarch, White Herald, Votary, Pilgrim, Zeal, Ivory Knight, Temple, and Divineer.
Damien thought about opening the Slayer System but knew it’d be futile. The Void Demon was an entity capable of altering creation itself if powerful enough; so surely its creation-altering powers could affect the System’s observation. Plus, as he astutely wagered, there was a reason why he was standing here and not any of the holy warriors.
He wasted little energy in conjecture as the Nemesis of this operation appeared before him. As the only other living thing in this blanched Void, however it appeared quite the opposite in fact.
The Void Demon levitated a few meters off the ground, bobbing up and down like a buoy, slightly leaned back as though resting in an invisible coffin. It resembled the husks that it’d used to attack the Slayers: a swamp-gray corpse of indeterminate gender and height, flesh thinly worn, revealing every haunting groove and crevice of its bones. It had no arms, only starved legs and feet with a few missing toes. Its spine was bent in a disgustingly sharp angle in a terrible scoliosis, a few degrees sort of ninety, a condition so severe that it'd be featured in a medical journal. It had no face. A skull more like, cracked down the middle. The fracture led to his jaw where the lower left half was gone, and he had no teeth. No nose, and no eyes.
The only “human” thing about the Demon was its thin, wispy black hair.
Damien’s chest felt the lightest it had ever been since his entry into the Abyss Layer. Somehow, for some reason, the Void was pleasant. It welcomed him.
The gatekeeper allowed it such.
He took a step towards the monstrosity, an invisible breeze flushing his sweat-drenched robes back, and stared on. He had to be unwavering. He was the representative of this world’s humanity, negotiating with an SS-class threat.
“Are my allies safe?” he asked first, knowing that their state would determine the flow of the negotiations.
At first the Demon did not speak. It did not physically react, though Damien didn’t know if it could in that wretched state. An agonizing second passed and his heart was warning him of death, but finally.
Finally, the Demon spoke though no tongue was seen moving nor its lips, “Currently.”
That was a miracle in itself. Though the Demon certainly had everyone’s fates in its hands which did nothing to appease the growing tension tightening inside Damien’s chest. He had to choose his words carefully, knowing which questions to ask first. However, him being here meant…
“Did I interpret your message correctly?” he asked next, recalling the images he’d seen throughout the trip. The mural of paradise, abandoned houses and storefronts, floating books and pieces of civilization, and the gray husks that came. “You were telling us about how you came to be. Why you were created. I’m afraid I couldn’t divine the full story but I believe I was close.”
“In a way.”
“Then that’s good enough for me. I was never one for the arts. But before we continue…” Damien braved another step. “My name is Damien Fayer, Hellfire Scion of the Fayers.”
“Devoy,” answered the Demon. “Void God of the Void Continent.”
His ruby eyes widened significantly and he bit his tongue to prevent any unnecessary words. Void God? I’m already reassured of my lowly place but ‘God’?
At Damien’s hesitation to speak, Devoy continued, “You will introduce yourself first, Hellfire Scion of the Fayers, and your abnormal history. I allowed you audience. It can be taken.”
Damien uneasily gulped and obliged, “Where should I start…? I guess I should begin with my father, a Hellfire Scion like myself, who’s known as Duskfire here in this world, innately capable of special phenomena—magick, in other words. But as you might’ve suspected already from your short time here, this world is originally magicless.”
“Your father is a foreigner.”
A soft chuckle left him. A sad one. “He is. He’s from a world almost identical to this one. Magic existed but it took on an interesting form. It’s complicated to explain so I’ll do my best to keep it brief. So to start… Humanity, there, had the ability to acquire traits from mythological and magical creatures connected to their bloodline. Because in that world, they actually existed thousands of years prior but eventually humanity replaced them through some great event.
“You’d have men spitting fire as their ancestral creature was a fire spirit or earn great strength from their ancestral bear-thing. Of course, not everyone had powers. Many didn’t. Some had embers. And on the other end of the spectrum, we had a lucky few who inherited the most they could from their ancestors. To put it simply, they were hybrids: half-human, half-myth.
“We refer to them as ‘Scions’. As you know already, I’m half-demon, so my ancestor is necessarily the Hellfire Demon. Of three children, I am the only Scion while my younger siblings didn't inherit much.”
Devoy responded promptly, “And your father’s world has been destroyed.”
Damien opened his mouth but stopped. He shut it, recalling the story that his mother had told him. Not Dad, because he understandingly couldn’t relive the details of his homeworld’s destruction.
“Yes,” he said after some deep thought. “By a single man from another world.”
“...I see.”
“Mhm. It’s ironic too. Everyone had been obsessed with a prophecy of biblical proportions, then: the Evil Scion will arise and wage war against the Earth itself, but the Good Scion will halt Evil in its tracks with their fervent followers and restore peace to the world. There was a war, though. It just wasn’t waged by a Scion.”
“Do you know who?” asked Devoy.
Damien shook his head. “My father was seventeen at the time. Eighteen, maybe. He didn’t see the genocidal maniac himself. Really, he was lucky that the Earthwill had offered him a way to escape before he’d be killed like the rest of humanity there.”
“I sensed our similarities,” the God began, satisfied with the details that Damien gave him, “when you first stepped foot into the Abyss Layer. Your father’s story, then, resembles that of my homeworld.”
“Really?” Damien sucked in a breath and took another step closer. “Then let’s return to where we began. Did you give me those images because of our similarities? That we’re both demonic in nature?”
“Partly. You say that you are born of the Hellfire Demon?”
“I am.”
Devoy paused, then seemingly moved on: “It does not matter. All creatures are interested in their own survival. I am no different. I have consumed intelligence and critical thinking. It is wise to practice caution, this I gathered. To not underestimate one’s enemy even if they are ‘inferior’.”
“You’re humbler than the Sungrazers.”
“Humility means nothing, yet hubris means ruination. My homeworld had made that mistake. I will not. We are trout swimming in the same shrinking lake, unable to escape. It does not do any good to cannibalize on fellow trouts in a fruitless attempt to grow wings.”
Damien understood his analogy: while it would be fruitful for the God to consume the Slayers here and the rest of Ordo as a result. However, what would be the benefit in that? Assuming he would win.
At the end of the day, all living things were restricted by the same boundaries of the universe, like trout in the lake. Had Devoy killed Damien and the others, it’d only guarantee the apocalypse. Unless he could escape via a portal somehow, he’d be trapped here as he lacked interdimensional powers.
What Devoy wanted was reassurance. A way to live beyond today. No matter how small the possibility may be—like for example, allowing a conversation with the powerless humans in this world—it had to be taken.
He was smarter than Damien thought. Precisely because of his intelligence, they were able to have this conversation. And he picked Damien since they shared traits.
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“Then I will give you wings. We have the means to do it already,” Damien told him. “But first, tell me about your world. Why did you create those images? As the Void God, such sentimental things are literally meaningless in your eyes.”
“You are correct, but remind yourself that I am placed near the throne of divinity,” Devoy responded somewhat positively. He’d respected his demands. “This sentimentality you have assumed is not an aspect of the Void Demon but an aspect of this corpse I have assumed at the time of my creation. It is the womb of apathy.”
Damien stared at the corpse deeply, gulping, knowing the answer to the question he would ask. “...What is the corpse?”
“That of a god’s,” answered the Void God. “After my homeworld was sent to oblivion by outworldly warriors, there were attempts to restore the land to its previous heights. One such attempt was perpetrated by the cultists of this god. They had raided his temple, plundered his tomb, defiled his body and performed blasphemy of the highest order.
“Utilizing the god’s followers across his sacred land, his continent. Through a ritual, they had aimed to convert their psychological stimuli into energy in hopes to revive their fallen god. That was their error. The devouts had anticipated jubilation from the people—positive emotions—for their god’s return. What they had siphoned was, simply, apathy. The people had no use for hope.”
“And they fulfilled the conditions for your creation. So the ritual worked, then?”
“Functionally. Instead of their lost god, they had created a Void God who gave himself the name of ‘Devoy’, who went on to consume the continent and render it Void. He would have gone to consume the rest of his homeworld but was halted by the other denizens. They had severed Void from Earth and displaced the Void Continent into a Pseudo-Universe, one without a Mother to guide it, one without Chaos to destroy it, isolated from the cosmic protocols and failsafes; thus, trapped in a perpetual inactivity, condemned to nothingness.
“That was the status quo for quite some time—time that I could not perceive—until a portal opened and I was forced here. The ‘sentimentality’ you perceive, I will repeat again, is not mine but remnants of a god’s love and a god’s sorrow. It is he who wanted you to understand the tale of his world. It is I who wish to survive.”
So we wouldn’t have won, he thought, we had underestimated the Void Demon. The source of his power is divinity. It’s a miracle that we are having this conversation.
Damien exhaled as though to expel his anxieties. “...And it’s the same story that affects us today. A week ago, entities from the Space Beyond sieged the Slayer Capital: the Kreutz Sungrazers, servants to the Starking, Sirius Aethfell. That is humanity’s current enemy. This humanity’s enemy.”
“Sirius Aethfell..." rumbled the Void God.
"Do you know him?"
"...I do not. From what little knowledge I have of the Space Beyond, of the lowly Comets, even the whelps of the army of stars could devastate entire worlds.”
“Whelps?” Damien tilted his head curiously.
“Yes, in that realm, Comets are mere grunts compared to the Stars themselves. Imagine your current struggle with these Sungrazers, then imagine the power of an entire asterism.”
Damien bit his lip. Of course there’d be bigger fish to fry. It’d taken an SS-Rank Slayer just to have killed Pereyra and Tewfik, and that was two Comets. As much as he wanted to simulate how much manpower it’d take to defeat a Star, he truly had no reference point, as he did not know the full extent of the Space Beyond.
But that didn’t matter. Comets or Stars, this world had to resist.
He understood Devoy’s story, now, as the Void God. It went like this: in a far-off world, otherworldly forces invaded and rendered civilization into remnants of its former glory. It had been irreparably damaged, yet there were still attempts to resuscitate the land before natural oblivion came. One such attempt led to the creation of Devoy through the failed revival of a fallen god. This error resulted in an entire continent’s death and the creation of the Void Continent. Devoy was one step away from becoming a genuine Nemesis if it wasn’t for the actions of the other denizens of his homeworld. They banished the Void Continent into a “Psuedo-Universe” (whatever that meant), imprisoning the Void God in a perpetual stasis until, eventually, the Ordo Outbreak opened a portal.
Now freed, he was searching for a way to guarantee his survival.
“Before I discuss this deal with you, Devoy, I have one last question,” began Damien, a tad suspicious. “Is there anything else I should know?”
“There is not,” he answered. “I know your origins and you know of mine. That is sufficient enough knowledge for both parties, now speak.”
“Yessir.” Damien took a deep breath in, hoping for the best. “Initially, we wanted to imprison you and force a contract that way: your cooperation for your life. But…”
“Your lives are at my mercy.”
“Exactly, but before we entered Darkrealm’s Hold, we prepared multiple contingencies and anticipated this outcome as a result. Like I told you before, Devoy, I can give you wings to escape the lake.”
Damien approached the corpse of the fallen god.
“We demand this: your cooperation and aid in defeating the Kreutz Sungrazers while no harm befalls on anyone in this world throughout our agreement and afterwards. In return, we will give you one universe splitter, and you will never seek out our world for the rest of its lifespan.”
They were willing to give him one of the splitters that they had recovered from Pereyra and Tewfik after the events of Operation Scorcher.
“What…?” muttered Devoy in shock.
“That’s right. You can adopt the properties of whatever you consume, correct? So by giving you a universe splitter, the tool that the Comets use to access the multiverse, then theoretically you’ll be able to travel freely across the cosmic sea. This is the best chance you have at survival, Devoy. I can’t guarantee your safety once you consume it, but all hunters need to trek into the forest.
“This is my offer to you, as the Hellfire Scion.”
As stated, Devoy had the ability to kill Damien and the others, possibly taking the universe splitter for himself without needing a deal. However, that meant making an enemy out of Ordo, the entire world, and maybe the Comets too. An option that gave the most power, yet the most dangerous of them all.
Damien was certain that if he tried this option, Devoy would be killed. Perhaps by the Vatican or any anti-divinity weapons.
He said it himself: he did not want to fall into the same mistake as his homeworld, when they underestimated the outworlders’ strength. The safest option that guaranteed his survival was this: accepting the deal and allying with Ordo to defeat the Sungrazers.
As Devoy contemplated this decision, Damien had to do the same. Countless worlds would be destroyed by the Void, leading to billions if not trillions of lost lives. All in exchange to keep this single world alive for a little while longer. That was the decision that Monarch, Seraph, and the high officials of Ordo decided on.
They were willing to sacrifice that many lives just to save billions of their own people. Lives and worlds they did not know, and seemingly didn’t care enough for. The health of the multiverse wasn’t their concern.
Damien, ultimately, wasn’t the one who had made his decision; he was simply their messenger. The one who’d take responsibility of the act.
What a ruthless decision. What an evil decision.
But this was necessary if Ordo could live another day.
“What do you say, Devoy?” Damien inquired again with a confident smile, finding his groove. “Are you willing to join hands with this humanity for our own mutual self-interest in survival?”
Devoy answered this: “Yes, Hellfire Scion. I accept the terms of this agreement. As per the terms, I will release my hold over your allies and will be directly tied to you. For your own survival, I expect a victory.”
“So do I." Damien grinned. "Let's have a healthy working relationship, Void God."
***
The Abyss Layer, as originally intended by Darkrealm, was designed to be the closest representation of the Space Beyond. It took on a starry shade on all facets: the cosmic walls, the starry floor, the expanse above them in the ceiling. Beautiful swirls of purple and blues and bright blotches of wonderful colors, as though you were living in The Starry Night by Van Gogh.
It was like this across the entire layer. Nothing but a breathtaking painting from beginning to end.
That was the sight where Monarch, Problem, and High Dominion were greeted with. For them, it hadn’t been a second between seeing the Void Demon perch on the highest point of his surreal sculpture then finding the true appearance of the sixth layer. Like one frame of a movie abruptly jumping to another frame in a different scene.
As they looked around on high alert, believing the Void Demon was still out there, they were corrected as one-by-one, their gazes settled on the Hellfire Scion standing in front of them. In his single hand was a staff of odd design: a shaft of unblemishable white, topped with a black depthless diamond.
Damien spun around on his feet and showed the staff to the others, smiling. As promised, he had not requested for additional power. He did not betray Ordo. Despite his blood as a half-demon, the Hellfire Demon, he was still human. This decision reassured him of that. Despite his shortcomings as one, there were some things he admired.
“I did it,” he told them. “Operation Darkspace is a success. I’ve struck a deal with the Void God named Devoy.”
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[Quest Notification - Completion]
Operation Darkspace is completed!
You have been rewarded:
2,000,000 standards
1 Great Essence Core
2 Medium Essence Core
5 Light Essence Core
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[Item]
Great Essence Core [A]
An essence core that stores an astounding amount of monstrous energy. Upon consumption, you will be given 5,000 Essence.
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[Item]
Medium Essence Core [C]
An essence core that stores a significant amount of monstrous energy. Upon consumption, you will be given 1,000 Essence.
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[Item]
Light Essence Core [E]
An essence core that stores a small amount of monstrous energy. Upon consumption, you will be given 200 Essence.