Prologue_ The Curse

FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO,

SKULL ISLAND, EARTH.

It was a dark and stormy night....

The divine war was at it's peak and the outcome of the current battle between Lucian, the demon prince of gluttony and Nikel, the grand archangel would determine who would be the crowned victor in the battle, but from the looks of things, the former was winning.

CRACKLE!!!!

A bolt of black lightning tore through the air and a blurry figure struck the ground, raising smoke into the air.

The sky and clouds were pitch black and the heavy rainfall that fell to the earth seemed to be a subtle sign of the bad omen that was about to occur.

The demon prince, with his magnificent wings and prominent horns shot down with unbelievable speed through the darkness to the spot where the blur had landed. As if he had been anticipating an attack, his wings flapped and struck the beat-up angel across the chest, knocking him halfway across the island, leaving a trail of destroyed trees in his wake.

"You're quite the tough one, aren't you?" Lucian asked with a sneer as he observed the damage to his body that he had taken from Nikel during their battle that had lasted for forty days and forty nights. His magnificent wings were badly ripped in places and one of his horns had been severed badly, the rest of the injuries on his body weren't healing and he knew that it was a result of his prolonged battle against a user of divine powers.

But Lucian's injuries were still nothing compared to the ones that he had inflicted on Nikel. Apart from the numerous cuts and bruises that had penetrated through his divine armor, one of his golden wings had been torn off along with his right hand and his right eye that was no longer functional. He was at a great disadvantage against the demon prince.

"I can't regenerate.... That's a pain." He continued, while flexing his wounded rubber like wings after he didn't receive any reply from Nikel.

"Ugh...."

Nikel groaned in pain as he lay helplessly on the ground with his divine sword by his side. There was no atom of energy left in his body to fight anymore but his facial expression never changed from that stoic expression of triumph that all grand archangels had. He wasn't ready to give up even as he knew that there was no hope for him at that moment.

"After your death, the heavenly forces would be down by one formidable force and we would be another step closer to overtaking the heavens..." Lucian was already standing before Nikel's weak body with his Makken (demon sword), primed and ready to pierce Nikel's heart.

"Ptueh!" Nikel spat out in disgust, "The forces of hell.... will never win against the divine forces... because even if you kill me now.... it'll make no difference... because there are still many other stronger angels waiting.... to eliminate your kind."

"Is that so?" Lucian asked with an amused expression as he bent down to stare mockingly into Nikel's eyes. "As I'm speaking to you right now, my brothers are currently battling against the other angels and believe me when I tell you that I'm certain that they will win, so the ones that will be eliminated will be your kind... and not mine."

There was a brief silence between the two beings after Lucian's statement and the only sound that could be heard was the violent roar of the rainfall and the resonating sound of thunder that crackled around Lucian. Even with the taunts and the terrifying demeanor of the demon prince, Nikel's expression never showed any signs of fear or defeat, it still maintained that stoic expression of triumph, even in the face of death.

"You think so?" Nikel asked with a sneer, "I am the weakest out of my brothers and look at the damage I was able to inflict on you who is the second strongest, what do you think my brothers would do to your kind when they discover that you killed me?"

"They can't do anything, just like you weren't able to do anything against me. They'll all fall before my kind and I'll make sure they taste this feeling of helplessness and despair that you're feeling before they die, I'll make sure they all die a very slow and painful death, I'll show them the difference in the powers between the heavens and the abyss." Lucian said as he rubbed defeat in Nikel's face.

Nikel tsked and spoke fiercely, "Foolish Oni, when will you even learn? Till the end of time, the powers of hell will never prevail!"

Oni was a derogatory term for residents of the abyss so Lucian was quickly infuriated.

"Aaaaaaah!!! Just die for fucks sake!!!" He screamed in rage as he pierced his Makken through Nikel's chest causing the latter to cough out spurts of blood from his mouth. Lucian's scream came with an intense shockwave of bloodlust and demonic aura that destroyed and disintegrated every living thing on the island, both plants and animals.

"Hehehe..."

After his bloodlust had diminished, Lucian looked up to see Nikel chuckling, "hehehehehe."

Lucian was confused, he was quite sure that his sword had pierced through Nikel's heart so he couldn't understand why the angel was still laughing while the demonic sword was still lodged deep inside his chest, he could even feel the pulsation of Nikel's divine heart that was wrapped tightly around his sword.

Lucian didn't know that his facial expression was literally begging Nikel to tell him what was wrong and Nikel satisfied his curiosity by telling him the reason.

"While we fought.... I placed a curse on you... so as I'm dying right now.... I'm happy because I know that... someday, your immortality will be cut short... and it'll be because of my curse...." Nikel paused and coughed out more spurts of blood. As Nikel spoke, Lucian looked at the sides of his stomach where his armor had been burned through and saw the mark of the six star of David branded into his skin.

"Bah! That's nonsense." Lucian said with an unbelieving sneer.

"From this day on prince of darkness, I curse you with the six stars of David..." At this point, Lucian had to cough to prevent himself from laughing out loud at Nikel's ridiculous curse. "The day you find love in the hands of a human maiden, the day your destruction begins." Nikel said finally as his body spasmed, fell limp and his divine consciousness left his body. Lucian grimaced as he felt Nikel's heart stop pulsating around his sword, the angel's facial expression still hadn't changed, even after death.

He had completed his mission, he had killed the grand archangel– Nikel, but he was more unsatisfied than he was at the beginning of the battle because even though he won, Nikel still made him feel like a fool. He looked at the mark that was branded on his belly and sighed softly, if Nikel hadn't told him anything about a curse, he wouldn't have even noticed that there was such a mark on his body because it just felt like a plain burn mark without any divine or demonic aura on it.

"Nah... He's bluffing." Lucian said to himself, "There's no way this little thing can be a curse." Having assured himself that there was nothing wrong, Lucian flapped his wings heavily and flew out of skull island with the archangel's last words still resounding in his head.