1 Chapter 1. Ten thousand years in chains. Edited*

Time

The greatest witness of the rise and fall of kings, heroes and villains alike. The cruelest of lovers. Master of life and death for those unfortunate enough to walk under his judgment. Some of these, however, are lucky enough to accompany time on its endless journey through eternity. Only the gods and other eternal beings have become immune to its influence.

There is no manner in which the number of events that time has witnessed could be measured. Every story that is worth telling exists only with the permission of time. However, even these stories have a beginning, a point in time where the chain of events worthy of being called a singularity originated. And this is one of those stories.

Nine circles. Nine worlds of pain and agony. Each more twisted than the last. All its inhabitants are prisoners. All are sinners. Descending little by little into this realm of depravity. Violence, cruelty, and sin only intensify with each descending circle.

Little red imps squeal and torture newborns, the first circle is their fate. Six-armed aberrations fight and flagellate themselves in eternal chaos in the second circle. Increasingly powerful and evil demons can be found in the descent, reigning their little pieces of hell, their tiny paradise of perversion from which they cannot escape.

Our story does not begin here. What we seek is in the depths, beyond the nine circles, at the core of all this chaos. Nothing compares to the end of the road.

It all started at a prison. Not one of marble, granite and steel as we know them, rather an ancient prison. A place, made by God himself, to imprison eight beings of unparalleled power and evil. Buried in the depths of the world, between fire and ashes, magma and sulfur. A place reserved for eight prisoners, only eight and nothing else.

It wasn't really very different from the rest of hell; except that prisons need ways to keep their prisoners inside. There wasn't much to notice of this prison, it was nothing more than a cavern filled with fire and brimstone. The only noticeable difference, at first glance, was the golden chains that filled the cave.

Among the chains and stones; its figure could be made out. A vaguely human silhouette lying on his knees on the magma, indifferent to its heat. The aura of defeat around it was almost palpable. While the prison originally housed eight prisoners, now only one remained. The only living being, if this can be considered life, ever bound by the golden chains.

This being's limbs and torso had been impaled by the golden chains, keeping it firmly restrained. Its gaze lowered and lost in the molten stone under its feet. Inert. Impotent. Nonexistent. Its mind had long since lost its sanity. Its blood-red hair made it blend in with the surroundings, almost as if it couldn't belong anywhere else.

This being, much older than the prison that houses it, older than humanity itself, had been reduced to a prisoner. Even desperate actions did not alter its situation, even tearing off its limbs had not worked.

The hoarse voice, filled with an ancient and depressing feeling. Its owner used it to fill the silence that had lasted for thousands of years. So submerged in darkness and surrounded only by its loneliness, keeping track of time seemed more and more useless. How many years had passed? The creature couldn't remember. When had it stopped fighting to free itself from these chains? How did it end up here?

He had forgotten what he looked like. No longer remembered its original form, and even more so, the twisted form it had now become. What it hadn't forgotten was how he was now alone. To survive, it resorted to the greatest atrocity imaginable, it had fed on the other prisoners, suffering hellish corruption.

In its brief moments of lucidity, small traces of what this entity once was could be seen. A piercing gaze, with a hypnotizing glow that could steal your soul. Its eyes purple, such beautiful color. A face marked with two black lines that fell from his eyes like tears, defining the frame of his face, like a painting that could not be corrupted. His skin, gray as ash, almost like the residue left by the burning of his mane.

Marked by effort and madness. Almost human in appearance. A temptation both aberrant and hypnotizing. Were it not for the horns coming out of his forehead and the black wings on his back. You know from watching it that releasing it would unleash a delicious chaos.

It wasn't until it went mad that all the other beings in the prison remembered a detail about this being, but it was too late. Most of the powers they could use while chained were useless against it.

The massacre was brief. The evil entities died one by one, being consumed by this being. Only two of them managed to avoid this terrible fate, although it is difficult to discern whether the outcome was better or worse.

The first was, at the time, a rather peculiar existence. An entity that did not do enough evil to make it worthy of this prison. His greatest sin was his presence, simply by existing he was a source of death and decay. This being died as he lived, too lazy to do anything to resist his fate. The first to perish and the only one who chose death over restriction, scattered in ashes of his own free will.

The second chose a similar path but for completely different reasons. Watching the other prisoners being devoured, and the perpetrator seeming to be taking over everything they were, this prisoner went mad.

"What is mine will never belong to the likes of you." Those were the last words of that ancient evil. Gathering all the infernal essence within him, the prisoner attacked with all his power. Creating a storm of annihilating energy, with which he planned to self-destruct and take his adversary with him.

The rest of the prisoners struggled or pleaded, only to eventually be devoured. Perhaps, the greatest sin of the eighth prisoner was not wanting its freedom. Perhaps, his real sin was clinging to life no matter the cost. There was nothing in this prison that allowed him to see his current appearance, but it knew the kind of abomination he had become. That of those evil beings who shared this prison with, of whom no trace remains.