Prologue (Revised)

God. The Absolute Being. The Ruler of the Universe. Creator of All Things. God, a being with infinite names. An existence that showered His creations with His love and warmth. He, who is loved by all and loves all. Except us.

We, Demons, are the only species not loved by God, for He did not create us. Made solely of overflowing desire, moulded by sin, and shaped by lingering regret. We were not His. So we had to go.

---

Lust #34 entered the park near his house. He had finished his work for the day and was forced to work overtime on provisional rankings. He had recently become the sub-division leader of [Sin #4: Lust]'s newest division: [Charm].

The division worked on making sure that mortal souls with high charm 'potential' - a new statistic created by demons for the Charm division - had lots of charm. His designated region was a small country in the Elf Nation. He was unsure of its name. He, alongside another sub-division leader, Lust #117, managed the area.

Demons managed desire. None of them knew why, yet they just knew that they had to. Original #1, codename [Lucifer], hypothesized that demons did so to manage their population and to complete God's mission.

Demons, like all other species, believed in God. They also believed, however, that they were better than all other species since they were born fully matured, and out of the ground with all the necessary information on how to live. None of them knew why, but they did believe that God had given them a mission; manage the Earthen Domain from within the Realm of Demons, [Sincia].

---

Lust #34, like clockwork, came to the bench in the park close to his house, watching the lesser Malphas and Caim hop around. They were bird demons that had no intelligence. Lust #34, an Incubus, turned 574 that day, yet he, like always, had no one to celebrate with. When a demon was born, they were taken care of by their [Original] for a year while they learned the ropes of life. Knowing and doing were two separate things after all.

His [Original], Original #4, codename [Asmodeus], Progenitor of Lust and all that, had taken care of him for less than a year. The reason Lust #34 was given was that he was 'too competent'. Lust #34 did not know if that was true or if Asmodeus was just a slacker, for he had not seen him since.

He stared at the birds, pondering. Lust #34 always thought of himself as a thinker, a pensive man with irresistible charm. However, as if to confirm the former and deny the latter, Lust #34 found himself alone like usual, and overthinking why he was alone.

His thoughts would always wander, straying from the course of 'why he was alone' to 'why demons were alone'. As far as he was aware, humans, elves, dwarves and vampires shared the Earthen Domain, free to go where they pleased, yet demons found themselves stuck on Sincia.

The single continent-sized mass was not enough for the Demons, so they had to perform [Cleanup] as they called it. Every 500 or so years, the oldest demons, besides the Originals, would be culled. Lust #34 knew that it was his turn soon. In about 6 years, the 34th culling would come. That was his time.

Knowing this, Lust #34, at the tender age of 540, began to come to the bench in the park to ponder, instead of doing it at home. The ambience he enjoyed as he stared at the placid water of the lake opposite the park seemed to elevate his thinking.

---

On this particular eve, as the sky dimmed to a hearty red, a sign of the coming night, Lust #34 found himself on an old, yet new, trail of thought.

'We demons are trapped on Sincia.' Lust #34 thought. He had always come to this thought when the sky turned black; something inside him would urge him to leave and stop thinking further. That night, however, Lust #34 came to the thought much sooner, about 5 hours too soon.

He suddenly became aware of the urge to stop thinking along this train of thought, to go home, yet Lust #34 didn't want to. It was too early to go home, and, thinking back, he found that he had never made it past this thought. The idea of uncharted territory thrilled him.

'Why are we trapped on Sincia? Has anyone tried to leave? Can we leave? ...-' Lust #34 suddenly found himself clutching his forehead, pain evident from the expression he wore on his face.

"Aaargh," he cried out, "Why does my head hurt? Fuck!"

This sensation was a new experience to him, for demons only did what was necessary, never finding a reason to hurt one another. Once the pain had subsided, he stopped his trail of thoughts. Relishing in the new experience, he thought back to the reason for the pain, finding that he could not remember the trail of thoughts that had brought him that sensation.

"What is this sensation? 'Pain'? Yes, it must be, but why? What did I do to feel it?" Running rapidly through his thoughts, he questioned 'why', 'why', 'why'.

For clarification, any demon who found themselves in pain would have immediately run home, terrified of feeling it again. Unfortunately for himself, Lust #34 knew that he was not an ordinary demon.

He did not like the feeling but he wanted to continue. He knew his end was soon; the population of demons had spiked recently. The Originals had released an article saying they thought a disaster was happening in the Earthern Domain.

He did not want to feel it again, for it was a nasty feeling. Yet, he felt compelled to do so. His heart, pumping much faster than ever before, seemed to make the pain pleasurable.

Due to this, he thought along the lines of, 'A new experience for my old self before I kick the bucket.'

He traversed his memories, for all demons were born with perfect ones, and found his thought before the gap in his memories. Picking the rope back up, he began climbing once more.

'Why am I alone? Why are we alone? Why can demons not meet the others? Why are we the only ones on Sincia?' His thoughts went through the tunnel once more, soon seeing the light at the end of it. 'Why are we trapped on Sincia? Has anyone tried to leave? Can we leave? Are we truly a better species? If so, why are we stuck here?' At this point, Lust #34's head once more rang out in pain. The screeching sounded like music to his ears, for he knew he was on the right track.

Just before he could complete the next thought, however, it intensified, breaking the chain that linked his thoughts together. Absent-minded, the pain disappeared as quickly as it came.

Lust #34 knew at that moment, 'I'm onto something. A secret. I can smell it!' Mustering up the courage to face the new sensation called 'pain' once more, he set down the rabbit hole.

'Why am I alone? ... Why are we trapped on Sincia? ...' The pain had returned once again, but, determined to find out why he was feeling this way, he carried on. Deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, 'Are we truly a better species? If so, why are we stuck here?'

The pain spiked, and amplified, in his mental world he found a wall in his thoughts.

Pressing on through the pain he howled, "NO! YOU CAN'T STOP ME!!"

Lust #34 was now yelling, attracting the nearby demons' attention, and scaring away the birds.

Once, twice, thrice, Lust #34 found himself imagining the wall being punched, cracks forming on its crystalline, transparent surface.

Blood ran down his nose, the first time it had ever left his body. At this point, the pain was so intense that Lust #34 found himself unable to think, yet he pressed on for the wall had broken after the 20th punch. He felt his body breaking, but the feeling of having full freedom to think was greater than that of the pain.

'If we are stuck here, does that mean we are alone on purpose? WHY? Why must we be alone? Is it truly a blessing to be a demon, as we think, or are we cursed? If that is the case, does God not love us? Is that why there is no contact with the other species? DO THEY EVEN KNOW WE EXIST?!' Lust #34 was now screaming in his mind, reeling from the existential crisis that he found himself in. He had missed a step or two on the staircase down and was now falling. The rabbit hole was too deep. He couldn't reach the end.

He was now bleeding from all orifices, and froth was coming from his mouth.

"AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!" He couldn't contain the scream that came from the depths of his soul. Falling flat off the bench, lying on the ground, losing consciousness, he heard a voice.

Deep, imposing and loud, the voice said, "THE TIME HAS COME DEMONS. I HAVE TOLERATED YOUR EXISTENCE LONG ENOUGH!" At first, the demons rejoiced, for God had finally spoken to them, but after hearing what he had to say, panic ensued.

With the last of his consciousness, Lust #34 saw what happened after. Flames of all colours lit the night sky, meteors falling down from the heavens. The last thought on his mind was, 'Apocalypse.'

---

God looked at the lump of earth He had created, His favourite to date. He loved all equally, but He had to admit, He had done a bloody good job on this planet. He sat watching the planet grow, for He was not needed as of now.

Suddenly, a messenger came to Him. It was a lump of His consciousness that He had given an ego; a prototype for the first species He had created.

"Report for the Lord." It said in its monotonous tone of artificial life. He had yet to fix it all this time and did not feel like doing so. It stopped, waiting for His response.

"What?" His deep, booming voice replied.

"Watcher of Planet #947 of Galaxy #647,834 has found an unauthorized species and catalogued it. They are called [Demons]. We do not know why they exist, but we have programmed them according to your orders. They will not find the truth." The messenger concluded, catching God by surprise. A once-in-an-eternity occurrence.

God had made protocols for unauthorized species, something He hypothesized could happen but did not believe in, simply because the possibility was too low.

'Why did it have to happen on my favourite planet?' He thought.

"Tighten the restriction on those low-borns. Do not let them find out that I do not love them. We cannot have them interfere. Give them a made-up job so they do not question their existence." He laid down His orders. He had run through trillions of possibilities in a few seconds, and the orders He had given gave the demons the lowest chance of learning that He did not love them.

"Understood." It replied.

God did not love those He had not made, for they were outside of His jurisdiction. He could act on them but only loosely. Since He could not play with them, yet could not remove them, He would leave them be. Of course, if they found out, He could act. But they would not, so, He thought it best to let them live alone. Just because they existed, did not give them the right to mess with His toys.

He continued with His favourite pastime; watching those He made grow and evolve.

---

Millennia passed, yet it only felt like a few days for God.

The messenger from before ran in, yelling, "EMERGENCY! ANOMALY DETECTED ON PLANET #947 OF GALAXY #647,834."

Again, God was shocked. This was the second time things had gone out of His control. He could no longer tolerate these demons.

"WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?" Booming, His voice that was filled with anger almost sent the messenger flying. How dare something go wrong on His favourite planet!

"A demon has found out the truth. He skipped a couple of steps and assumed a couple of things, but that is not important." The messenger dutifully said.

"A MERE DEMON DARE SLIP PAST THE BARRIER I CREATED. DISGUSTING!" God, full of anger and resentment for things not going His way, had made up His mind. "I MUST PURGE THOSE CREATURES."

---

God, now finished with releasing His anger upon those pathetic low-borns, suddenly heard a voice in His head.

A long time ago, at the 'beginning', God had made a helper system, an autonomous being that would suggest things to Him. It had finally awoken after going AWOL for millions of years in God's time.

"Reincarnate the one that broke the barrier. He could be fun to watch!" it said.

"Hmmm... Yes, I suppose so. He could be. Very well." He thought about it. "Human, Dwarf, Elf or Vampire. Eenie, Meenie, Mini-"

"Human." The helper barged in whilst He was choosing the race for the demon to be.

Following the helper, He reincarnated the demon, "It is done."

'Done indeed.' The helper thought, snaking out of God, and into the soul of the demon, whilst He was not watching. "Restore Memories: Activate." It said.