The world ended just as we imagined it would. Humanity had finally reached its hand into the dark abyss of space beyond its star, its ships like gleaming arrows cutting through the nothingness. Finally, the galaxy itself was to be held in the hand of a triumphant people. As they traveled from star to star growing in power and wealth these people came to a realization. They were alone in a universe devoid of intelligent life.
An ascended Humanity without an enemy, a galaxy to be ruled by peace with prosperity for all. Yet, old habits die hard.
Without an outside enemy these people who were raised by war and conflict searched for a new foe, one they found within themselves. Thus the heavens split open and planets cracked, oceans burned and cities drowned in blood.
Apocalypse, Ragnarok, Armageddon, Doomsday. The word mattered not yet such a meaning spread as entire star systems were swallowed into the abyss of space, sent there by their human masters.
Thousands of years passed for some in the blink of an eye and others as slowly as grains of sand, the meaning of the war was lost in the bloodshed. Some believed it was an act of kings and leaders with others praying it was an act of god. Humanity itself saw its entire existence pushed to the brink of extinction with trillions of souls being reaped every year.
Humanity, having created its own death, sought to save itself. No matter the cost. No living being knows what truly happened. Yet somehow in the ashes of the fallen, humanity became the phoenix it sought. Whether through arcane and abhorrent technology or through some horrific forced evolution, the beings who destroyed every world they ever set foot on became the very gods they once worshiped.
When Eurus had woken up today he had thought of a lot of places he might end up. The last place he thought he would be was on a train in Cocytus, the capital of Hell. It was as cold as he remembered with frost and snow blowing between the monolithic skyscrapers that dotted the horizon.
Cocytus, a planet of ice and steel. Very little of the world was arable save a thin band at the equator due to the planet's distance from its home star. This mattered little in the end, bureaucrats set on the task of managing an empire have no need of farmland. Vast swathes of land sat empty between Cocytus’ towering Megacities, numerous taigas, mountains, and plains set aside for the native flora and fauna. The occasional abandoned city or town from the days of the War of Apocalypse dots the landscape. The only travel to other cities was either space travel or maglev train. Airspace outside of the cities is under strict government control with any violation being declared a crime against the Emperor himself. Some people have tried traversing by land, yet the danger represented by the wilderness prevents all but the bravest, or foolhardy, from attempting to do so. According to rumors, entire sections of the planet sit frozen in time, shrouded in an impenetrable fog, merely awaiting their forgotten lord's return.
Eurus finds himself wandering towards these thoughts as he stares out the train window. The train is blessedly warm with its occupancy maxed out, the various beings all dressed in similar grey to black suits with a mix of variations having to be made to accommodate wings, tails, multiple arms, legs, heads and body types. Eurus was deeply amused by the menagerie before him, so unique, yet all dressed identically. “They all just gotta look just like their oh so glorious ‘Emperor.’” He said with a smug grin.
From his ear piece he heard the soft voice of his partner. “I mean it does look nice after all, I really don’t see that much of an issue.” Looking away from the crowd Eurus searched the sides of the train for his partner only to nearly burst out in laughter. Flush against one of the train windows he spots his Sophie. With both Eurus and Sophie being masked with cloaking fields that make them invisible to all but military grade tracking devices, they still find themselves getting stuck in rather amusing situations.
Eurus watches as his barely visible partner is stuck stock still against a window near a larger old woman sitting in the adjacent seat. “Why didn’t you just stick to the ceiling like I said?” he remarked, not even trying to mask the amusement in his voice.
“Because one of those tall demons over there almost touched me when they were reaching for a bar to hold on to, but as I was moving this lady sat down next to me.” Sophie said in a strained quiet voice.
A soft jingle sounded inside the train cabin, followed shortly with the voice of a woman “Now arriving at Hive City A19, please enjoy your stay” this sentence continues in a number of different languages with most being unintelligible to Eurus. Upon the announcement, most of the people on the train began gathering towards the doors.
Crawling towards one of the less busy doors, Eurus stated. “Better unstick yourself because this is our stop.” Thankfully for the pair as the train slowed to a stop, the old lady exited her seat allowing for the escape of Sophie. With the train coming to a halt and the doors opening, the reunited pair snuck through the top of the doorway as a group of shorter half demons were passing through.
The warmth of the train was quickly lost as they were hit by gusts of freezing wind, the cold biting Eurus to the bone. “I hate coming here.” He grumbled to himself as the pair climbed their way to the roof of the suspended train station.
“Quit being a baby” Sophie replied seemingly unaffected by the frigid temperature “The quicker we get the job done, the quicker we can go home.” Eurus made a face at Sophie behind his cloaking but he knew the angel had a point.
A19 was like most work cities on Cocytus. The skyscrapers easily averaged two to three miles tall with many of them having hundreds of walkways connecting to other buildings. The streetway itself was almost always dark as night with barely any natural light filtering through. The only real light was produced by soft, blue streetlights, which seemed to be placed almost obsessively. Each light was perfectly placed to not overlap with the next. Compared to Elysium, the walls of the buildings were bare and naked with not a color to be spotted. Not an advertisement nor sound to be seen or heard. Just row after row of brutalist gray skyscrapers and a whole desert worth of glass.
Sophie turned to face Eurus “Alright, unless you object I propose we split here and meet on the roofs.” With a nod in the affirmative the two shimmering beings parted ways.
Eurus made his way down to the paths below, much to his dismay the roads and alleys of the city acted as a funnel, blasting the irritated human-god with ever colder blasts of air. Luckily however, the lower level was less traveled then the warm walkways between buildings. This allowed him to climb down to the sidewalk below and with great care to avoid the various demons he was able to walk rather than crawl to his destination.
The walk was blissfully short, yet confusing for Eurus as he passed numerous demons in varying states of clothing. Some were in coats and other winter clothing, yet others more bizarrely in suits like those he saw on train, which only made him feel colder. The people around him barely made a noise and the city, which seemed almost built for making noises, emitted eerily silent echoes with only the occasional cough breaking this quiet. Much to Eurus’s pleasure, he found the building he was looking for. The structure was as mundane as the city around it, a prison-like building built for its workers with the only identifying feature to separate it from its neighbors being the B785 imprinted above the ground entrance.
“Now comes the hard part” Eurus muttered to himself as he entered an alleyway to the side of the building.
Cocytus was a planet of two things in Eurus’s mind, those things being cameras and lawyers. With it being the capital of Hell, it was only natural for it to have more lawyers than people, yet what truly boggled him was the sheer number of cameras. With his walk he counted nearly two hundred different cameras on the ground level alone. This was problematic. He needed a place to change his disguise, but doors randomly opening and closing would be problematic to say the least.
Eventually he found just the place, a small spot between camera sights directly beneath another camera near the alleyways junction with the surrounding buildings. While he knew someone would realize something was awry with a man appearing from nowhere, he thought to himself that he would be gone before anyone noticed. Putting his right hand to his mask, he closed his eyes and pictured a man in his mind. “A demon, no tail, wings? no wings they would stick out too much. Horns, not too long, not super short. soft features, impish, some human. Too human and I’ll look more like a devil, too much attention.” He thought to himself.
Following its users commands, Eurus’s appearance shifted to his depiction of the average demon male, suit and all. Adjusting his now apparent black tie, Eurus stepped off towards the building with all the self importance he could muster. Every step he took was laced with a mixture of anxiety and urgency. His face carried this image further, as it was pasted with a grimace of an overworked office employee on his last late warning.
Feeling rather sure of himself, he pulled open the side door and was greeted with exactly what he was looking for: a blandstone staircase with yellow and red markings along the steps and railings leading to the next floor. Walking into the center of the stairs, he made a show of sighing and sagging his shoulders for the cameras on the walls as he looked up into the dizzying heights. He wondered internally if the stairs go the full three miles up. Amused at his own show, he smiled as he began the long journey up.
After climbing six stories, his communicator crackled to life and Sophie's voice spoke into his ear. “Eurus, please tell me you took the elevator this time.” Eurus quickly froze the mask's face before blowing air out of his nose, allowing a wide smile to cross his face.
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“You know me too well.” He replied, trying to contain a laugh.
“You know the more time you spend walking up those stairs, the greater the chance we have of getting caught.”
“I mean, you are correct. But when else am I gonna get a chance to work on my calves and glutes?” Eurus heard a muffled laugh on the other side with silence following for a short time.
This silence is broken shortly with “Dumbass, just hurry up.”
Not wanting to make the impatient angel wait too long, Eurus quickly climbs the last few steps to the thirty sixth floor, his stop.
The door before him was a simple metal door with a window placed to the left to avoid opening the door into someone else. Turning the door handle, Eurus pulls open the door and steps out of the drab stairs out onto the office floor.
The office space spans out in front of him. An array of rooms set against every window with desks crammed in sets of six positioned in chaotic perfection seemingly in tune with the never ending movement and actions of their inhabitants. At the center of the room lies a hole ringed with a low glass wall with a handrail down to the floor below, presumably to allow the administrators of this floor to manage those beneath them.
Eurus takes a moment to observe the organized chaos as demons nearly sprint from desk to desk answering calls and filling out paperwork at a rapid pace. Scanning across the room, he reads the signs in front of each office door until he finds the name he’s looking for. While it may not be in a script known to him, he recognizes the pattern and hones in on his target's office.
With as much rushed, careful energy as he can muster, Eurus makes his way across the bustling office without a peep from anyone. Speed walking to avoid suspicion, he approaches the target office and passes it without a look. Yet in that moment his tie unfurls itself and disappears beneath the door. Now mentally in control of both himself and his deployed tie, Eurus enters an unmarked office and moves to a corner of the empty room, evading prying eyes.
The drone-like tie finds the office dark and empty of its owner. The office itself is almost as unremarkable as the building around it. A wooden desk sits slightly off center towards the window with a black chair with wheels sitting behind it. Two rigid, uncomfortable metal chairs sit at the front facing the desk itself. The desk is mostly cleaned of clutter beyond two or three papers not perfectly centered with other stacks of paper and a pen on the desk. The only remarkable pieces in the office being that of a painting of a taiga on the wall to the right of the desk and a picture frame holding a family photo amidst the paper stacks.
“So that daemon has a family. huh…” Eurus mumbles to himself as his drone moves about in the office. Climbing atop the desk, he sees the photo more clearly.
In the picture is the target, a pot bellied daemon with goat like horns twisting away from his body. His face is like that of a brutish ogre with a near pig-like nose in a suit standing next to ,presumably , his wife. The lady appears to be two feet shorter with a very lithe figure. Her horns are practically non-existent, yet with a face like that of a succubus. In front of them stand three children, who all are very obvious mixes of their parents, some benefiting more than others. The commonality between them all being the joyful smile holding on their faces.
“Mans a brave guy, I imagine he got a lot of problems from his family for marrying a lower class.” Eurus muttered.
“Hmm? What did you say?” Sophie replies.
“Don’t worry about it, just thinking out loud.”
“Wow, I didn’t know you could think.”
Smiling and rolling his eyes, Eurus replies “Get back to work,” with an over exaggerated sigh.
Getting comfortable as he awaited his target, Eurus transformed his drone from that of a tie to that of thick envelope. He positioned it at the center of the desk To avoid any prying eyes who might look into the empty office, he quickly turned himself back invisible.
The human god didn’t have to wait for too long, after some time the office door and the automatic lights flipped on. The daemon he was waiting for arrived. “Is he wearing the same suit as in the picture?” Eurus wondered to himself. The man looked practically the same beyond his extremely ruffled appearance. He seemed to be in an extreme rush to get to work.
The man wasted no time in picking up and opening the envelope on his desk to rapidly check whatever information was sent in such an official way to him. Unfortunately for him, the paper inside held a single, solitary sentence. You learned too much.
Realization began to sink in. The paper lashed out in that instant, stinging his arm with its concealed concoction. Eyes wide, the man recoiled in pain, dropping the letter from his hands and made for the door, but his efforts were futile. The drone, once a letter, assumed a form shifted to a line of steel wire and wrapped itself around his throat. The line shot out and embedded itself in the window and contracted violently, throwing the man to the surface. Under normal circumstances the glass most likely would have been able to withstand this, but with a little pressure manipulation on behalf of Eurus, the window broke free of its frame.
The man and the window plummeted together out of the building. His scream echoed throughout the silent city with a dull thump returning the peaceful quiet. Eurus had no time for such shows however, his drone having already made itself back to him after pushing the man along his journey. Returning to his disguise, he exited the office and, much to his satisfaction, realized nobody had noticed what happened yet and quickly made his way to the elevator.
Pressing the button for the elevator, he was nearly instantly greeted with a ping as one of twelve elevators opened its doors for him. Eurus loathed elevators. The empty space beneath the elevator cabin made him vastly uncomfortable. Combine that with the feeling of a sheep led to the slaughter. Yet he stepped in anyway at Sophie's request, so she wouldn’t have to wait the hour it would take him to climb all the stairs to the roof.
The elevator itself was simplistic. A small metal box with railings on three of four sides with slight variations of black for each panel wall. Lucky for him there was no one in the deathbox, so he stepped inside. Due to the height of the building, the elevator lacked any buttons. Only an emergency button and thirty different signs in a myriad of languages: “Voice Commands Only.”.
Unsure of how many floors the building actually had, Eurus said. “Top floor.” In a hope that the elevator would take him there. Fortunately for him a ping sound rang from the speaker in the positive and the doors slid shut. Whereupon the elevator shot up, the speed of which threw him off as he felt his blood rapidly pool in his feet as the elevator traveled three or so miles in ten seconds.
The elevator stopped just as suddenly and Eurus marveled to himself for a moment at the achievement as he was not thrown into the ceiling at mach two. Shaking his head to refocus himself he stepped out of the elevator to find a plain looking hallway painted an inoffensive grey tone going in either direction. To his right a sign points at a pair of wooden doors which looks to be an office. To his left a sign posted in a language he can’t read but he immediately recognizes the icon of a person climbing stairs and makes off to the left.
With the best speed walk he can pull off, he makes his way down the hallway passing a variety of other doors including what appears to be a bathroom and a number of cameras. Having ignored the cameras for so long he begins to get nervous feeling their eyes on him as he reaches the end of the job.
Much to his relief a door similar to that of the door he took to originally get in the office appears before him as he follows the signs. A sigh of relief nearly comes from his mouth as he steps into the stairway. Stepping to the side of the stairs he looks down over the edge and struggles to see the bottom of the three mile tall stairway. “Woah.” he mutters to himself before taking a coin from his pocket, dropping it edge side down. “Always wanted to do that.” He says with a satisfied grin before climbing the single flight of stairs to the roof of the building.
The door at the top is the first bit of color Eurus has seen all day being a bright shade of red as a universal warning sign with a bar for handle. Ignoring this warning he pushes open the surprisingly heavy door and steps out onto the roof. He is quickly reminded of his location as the bitter cold instantly bites into the soul of the man as he steps out into it.
Upon releasing the door it rapidly swings shut with a surprisingly loud slam as the wind howls around him, the occasional gust of wind carrying snow whips itself across the building's top. The city stretches out before him yet all he sees are other towers as the clouds beneath him obstruct the view down. The thin layer of air would be a problem for most other beings but being a god of wind had its advantages as air pressure was his forte.
Free from the prying eyes of the cameras Eurus finally freed himself of his invisibility. Standing at seven feet five inches his figure was that of a muscular runner which was especially pronounced in his back as he stretched his white wings having been forced to keep them constrained for the entire mission. His facial features were sharp and angled reminiscent of a hawk which for most human gods like him was most likely where the design was pulled. His hair was a shaggy white color which blew wildly in the wind with his eyes being a dark purple to most people's eyes. Unprepared for his mission he wore loose fitting multi colored robes with a white undershirt which worked perfectly in the sand blasted deserts of Elysium but did a horrible job here on Cocytus.
Finally able to protect himself from the terrible cold Eurus wrapped his robes and wings around himself as he scanned the roof of the building across from him knowing his partner should either already be there or arrive there shortly.
Correct yet misguided in his assumption the roof entrance smashes outward, the brick work flying all over the roof as a large bruiser of man standing nearly nine feet tall and almost as wide in Eurus’s eyes emerges from the wreckage. In that moment he sees Sophie held violently in his arms reaching for him, her pale gold hair fluttering in the wind. His eyes widen as everything seems to go in slow motion, his legs feel like they are moving through molasses as he moves towards her. His eyes locked on hers, the green orbs telling him a message he would never understand as the building beneath her disappeared in an overwhelming light..
Eurus’s consciousness faded in and out as he was flung by the blast, his broken body barely able to move a muscle as he flew away from the city. His next moment of consciousness made him notice the water rapidly approaching beneath which only made him laugh in his mind. “At least they won't have to clean up the mist.” He thought to himself as his mind faded again.
Humanity had achieved what it always wanted, dominion and power of the very reality it was subject to. Through the power of their evolved souls they warped and molded as they saw fit, turning death from a tragedy into an inconvenience at worst and at best a vacation. An arrogant species crafted yet more arrogant gods.
Yet even with such power, they never learned. And human quarrel returned anew, with even the most petty of argument risking the destruction of planets. Thus they learned restraint, yet mankind has learned the lesson before. The question remains, when will they forget the price of arrogance again. And soon their commonality was forgotten as man became beyond itself
Thus ended the end of the beginning, and a new chapter started in mankind's history. One where god stood against god and angels fought demons. Yet forgotten in their hearts it was as history has always told with man standing against man.