1 Prologue

"Let me ask you a question little one when you tried to assault my realm. When you tried to destroy what I have stood for; my way of life for over an entire era, what were your thoughts?" An old man, with jet black bat-like wings on his back and giant horns on his face, said, while holding a middle-aged man by his throat.

"So many have tried to break into this realm and failed, yet you succeeded where they did not. Don't get me wrong; I like your determination. It reminded me of myself when I was a youth. I was ruthless and would cut down any who arrived in my path. Eventually, I even cut down the previous High Lord of Demons and took his place." The red-skinned old man grinned, remembering his youth and how fun it had been, travelling from one place to the next. Embracing his dark side, and slaughtering himself a path from the lower realms, all the way towards the highest heavens.

"Tell me, boy, is that what you came here to do? Slaughter me like a pig and take dominion over the Demonic Realms?" The old man's voice rumbled low, spreading across thousands of miles. He had only whispered these words.

Clawing at his throat, the middle-aged man was trying to speak, but he couldn't breathe.

The grip around his throat suddenly loosened, as he fell to the floor landing on his back. He coughed up blood and gasped for air. Only to find the smoke of smouldering brimstone enters his lungs.

"Speak boy quickly! You intrigue me enough to keep you alive, but I so easily get distracted. I would suggest you keep me entertained."

Roaring laughter left his mouth, spreading across the fiery lava infested surface of the land. Then an echo came back, all the horrendous demonic lieutenants, captains and generals' laughs were heard, flattering their mighty overlord.

The middle-aged man stood up, chocking on the toxic air all the while.

"All mighty Demon Lords, and of course the peerless High Demon Lord." The middle-aged man bowed, his voice firm and brave.

The High Demon Lord noticed his demeanour, nodding in approval. A smile that said, 'This is how I should be treated' popped up upon his face.

"I have come before you today with great regret, and I can assure you that I only came here out of necessity, not ignorance."

The High Demon Lord stroked his chin, thinking, "Necessity he says? What possible reason could drag him down here into Hell's Furnace itself?"

"High Demon Lord Duman, is wise and knowledgeable so you must, of course, know what this is?" The middle-aged man pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. It was only the size of a small note, yet the paper held a certain allure to it.

"Unfortunately, even though this Demon Lord is all-powerful to an extent, I don't know what every piece of paper in existence is." Every Demon in Hell's Furnace roared with laughter. Indeed, what was the importance of some piece of paper?

"How unfortunate. Well, let me ask you, Great Duman, have you heard the tale of the Heaven Defying Seal?" The middle-aged man chuckled.

Demon Lord Duman didn't speak; he just shook his head.

"Well, I'll enlighten you. As the name suggests, it is indeed a Heaven Defying Seal, which enables someone to cheat the heavens. Would you like to hear a tale, Great Duman?" The middle-aged man humbly bowed.

"Colour me intrigued." The Duman chuckled.

"Long ago in an age past, there was no Demon Empire as there is today. There was no myriad of monsters that resided in the heavens, the great races hadn't risen to prominence, and finally, the humans that multiply beyond control and monopolize the resources of the divine realms hadn't even taken their first steps on the journey to greatness."

"The primordial era," Duman whispered.

The Primordial Era was the age when the universe was first born, where stars started to burn into existence and great civilizations began to rise.

"Indeed, the primordial era. In that era, the God Race and their ilk came to spawn out of creation itself. There were many different types of Gods, The Wild Gods, The Bright Gods, The Ice Gods. It goes on and on. Originally these 'God' races took all reality for themselves, warring amongst themselves for resources. That was until the appearance of the Abyssal Races, the Asuras, the Great Vampires, who can forget the Void Wolves, terrifying. The presence of the Abyssal Races caused the God Races to unite, becoming known as the Pantheon!"

Many of the demons looked at the middle-aged man with delight. It isn't often such knowledgeable people appear!

Even Duman was intrigued by these stories; it had to be known that he was born in the lower realms, slaughtering his way to power. He didn't accumulate much knowledge of the ancient times, and he didn't have the pleasure of asking the last overlord of the Demonic Realms about his secrets before he cut him down.

"The Pantheon was divided between the different races of God. The Wild Gods became known as The Chaos Gods and took the name of Wildborn. The Bright Gods became the Brightborn, and Ice Gods, of course, became Iceborn. Each lineage became known as a different house of the Pantheon." The middle-aged man's voice was full of wonder.

"When the houses of the Pantheon united they were unstoppable, devouring everything in their path. The Abyssal Races didn't stand a chance against the united houses of the Pantheon; they were chased back into the Eternal Abyss from whence they came."

Duman himself was practically on the edge of his seat, the middle-aged man's story was galvanizing!

"The heavens wept at the sight of this slaughter; the heavens will itself didn't fight back, even when the Pantheon tried to harness it for their power! But it couldn't watch the slaughter of the lesser races. So, when the heavens wept, and the tears fell upon the plane reality, a new species was born."

"This species was originally called the Holy Tear Race, but that was only at the beginning. They bred, multiplied slowly over a countless time. Living simple lives, as a farmer, monks, workers. There was something about them though; they'd never die. Even the God Race died of old age if they didn't cultivate, but the Holy Tear Race… they just kept on living."

The demons were speechless, an entire race of beings who were ageless!

"This drew ire of the God Race, jealous of these beings blessed by the heavens! They tracked down the Holy Tear Race and tried to take them away." The middle-aged man shook his head and scoffed.

"What the God Race didn't know is that the longer the Holy Tear Race lived, the stronger they became, and some of those fellows were older than any living member of the Pantheon. Their forces, obliterated, and that's how the first schism of the Heavens started. The Holy Tear Race devised their cultivation methods and started to increase their strength exponentially! Even though the Heavenly Tear Race was peaceful by nature and abhorred violence, they faced the threat of extermination. Unlike the Abyssal Races, there wasn't anywhere that they could retreat. They went to war." The middle-aged man let out a sigh.

"The Heavenly Tear Race were few, only a few offspring every hundred-hundred millennia would be born. They number several thousand, up against the God Race's millions, perhaps billions. Renaming themselves as the God-Slayer Race and organizing themselves as the Sha Clan. They slaughtered their way through the Pantheon, not suffering a single loss. They rallied the forces of the Abyssal Races, and even the lesser races, gifting them power." The middle-aged man said with a face of pride.

"Finally, the God Race risked it all; they designed the Heaven Defying Seal. A seal that could curse each member of a bloodline. They used Infernal Energy to fuel this seal, worst of all it even cut off the God-Slayer race from Samsara and rebirth. The ancient one once said that the only way to release the seal is to return it from where it came; unfortunately, there's only one member of the Sha Clan left in existence…" A tear started to fall down the man's cheek.

"Shit," Duman mumbled, as he shot out as fast as possible to grab the man, but it was too late. The piece of paper with the sealing symbol started to burn with bright white light, beginning to disintegrate in his hand.

A smile lit up on the middle-aged man's face, "I am Sha Ku. Last of my Clan. Finally, I can enter the road of reincarnation."

Wushh!

Duman grabbed onto the Sha Ku's throat, lifting him in the air. With his other hand, he grabbed for the Heaven Defying Seal, but instead as soon as he touched it the bright flame that engulfed it spread to him.

Duman screamed maniacally as he felt the white flame burn down to his bones, "Stop this now! Now!" he roared in pain and agony.

Sha Ku gave a smile, even though his eyes and ears started to ooze golden blood, "With this comes the end of this era. The Third Heavenly Schism shall take place as prophesized by the ancient one. See you in the next life."

Sha Ku's mouth leaked the golden blood as he slowly closed his gleeful eyes, knowing that in the next life, he would regain his clan's place in the cosmos.

The God-Slayer Clan shall rise again!