Prologue

𝐓𝐖: 𝐆𝐎𝐑𝐄, 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄

The monsters appeared without warning.

The night sky in Erebos had previously only been filled with millions of stars lighting up the sky. The citizens of the kingdom spent the early evening hours wandering the streets.

Night time was the most active time in Erebos. For every citizen who lived there had come from the shadow portals that stood around the palace. The portals connected every world on the universe through the shadows that were on that world. Anyone could step through the shadows and arrive in Erebos.

Most of the citizens were already dead and had wandered through the shadows thinking it was the way to the afterlife. Some had escaped their world as refugees or wanted to leave a terrible life. Erebos served as a safe haven for anyone; demons, gods, angels, fae and more were all welcome.

The portals had never been breached or broken since the time of their creation: over 97,000 years ago. So, when the silver gates bordering the shadows started trembling, it caused great panic in the civilians.

The first monster that appeared ripped through the shadows and emerged. It was ginormous. It had eight arms floating in the air behind it, connected to the main torso through blood red ligaments. In fact, all the limbs were severed, connected only by the ligaments. Its three eyes were bloodshot. When it looked around, it locked its eyes on its prey: the innocent civilians trembling in their boots. It grinned a grotesque smile and stepped forward, the ground thundering where its foot hit.

The citizens finally realized they had to get out. But how? All the shadow portals were now being opened by these monsters. And they didn't just come in one shape or form. Some had long and spindly legs, others had the body of one animal and the head of another, even more were bigger than the giant.

The civilians of Erebos fled. Fled away from the palace. Away from the portals. Away from the monsters.

They had never been trained to fight against aliens. No, that was for the higher divine beings: the gods and demons. But where were they? Where were the gods when the civilians prayed to them?

It didn't matter. The giant from before was still chasing them, and they needed to leave. Immediately.

The crowd ran down the large streets towards the exit of the city. Unfortunately for them, another large monster stopped them in their path.

It resembled a spider, with eight long and spindly legs. The people froze in fear. They werre trapped between two ginormous monsters! How were they meant to get out of this situation?!

Suddenly, a blast of freezing shadows flew past them, wrapping and entangking itself around the spider, suffocating and killing it. It fell to the ground with a crash. The people stood shocked, relief breaking out on their faces. There was only one person in this scity who could control the shadows this easily. It was none other than their kind and the God of Death and Destruction, Erix Nocturne!

Erix, for his part, was chasing the ginormiius spider monster for a while, never really having the chance to truly hit it. Thankfully, when his subject had drawn away it's attention, he could use his magic and kill the monster. But they could've easily died without him there! 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘰 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮? He thought in exasperation. He jumped from the building he had been standing on and landed in front of the people, startling them.

"What are you all still doing here?!" He asked, panicked.

"W-we were just about to leave, Your Highness!" A man spoke up.

Erix shook his head and sighed. "Alright. Shortly after you exit the city, there will be a portal I created waiting for you. Got through it and you'll end up in Zali."

"Zali?" A little girl repeated. "Isn't that the demon world?"

"Yes, it is." At his confirmation, most of the people began to mutter. Erix glanced behind them to the giant still coming this way. "Don't worry, I've already made arrangements with then for all of you and any other's. If you seen any more escapees, tell then the same thing. Don't go along the main roads and avoid being seen by any monsters. Now go! Hurry!" With that, Erix sprinted away from them towards the giant. The people immediately headed off.

Once he was close enough, he raised his right arm, shadows already slinking up his forearm. A large shadow monster rose from the ground behind him, and when swung his arm down, the shadow monster attacked the giant. He quickly summoned his sword, pulling it out of the pocket dimension he used for storing his weapons, and started to attack the giant while it was distracted by his shadow monster.

The giant was rather confused. It had seen a large amount of food, but now all it saw was pitch black darkness surrounding it. What's worse was that it could feel little pinpricks of pain on its ankle.

The "pinpricks" was really just Erix attacking the giant. He'd been stabbing randomly, trying to gauge where he could hurt the monster the most. Unfortunately, for him, the giant's skin was hard as hell. Every time he swung his sword, it bounced off with a clang.

The giant had picked up the general area of where the pricks were coming from. One of its arms went flying towards Erix. He leapt out of the way, watching as the claw-like hand slammed down on the ground, causing the stones in the road to fly everywhere. He jumped onto the arm that had almost hit him and ran up it, dodging any other arms that tried to knock him off.

Alas, because of all the arms' movements and the wind being generated, his waist long hair was now covering his eyes so he couldn't see clearly. Which caused him to be thrown into the nearby building's walls.

𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥'𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘵. 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥--𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴! He realized. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯.

He made a beeline straight for the giant's face, avoiding the arms trying to grab him. His shadows wrapped around the giant's limbs, preventing it from moving around too much. He hopped from the shoulder he was on, staying in the air for a split second. During that second, he slashed his sword down at the eye in the middle of its forehead. It burst immediately, blood spewing out onto Erix. He wiped some of it off his cheek and gave it an annoyed glance as the giant howled in pain.

"How about you just die quietly without having to cover me in your filth?" He said as he pierced the other eyes. The monster's cries slowly quieted as it died. When it finally fell to the ground, Erix waved his hand again, and the shadow monster that was distracting the giant dissipated.

"Couldn't have killed this thing any quieter?" A sarcastic voice made itself known.

Erix sighed as he shook his the droplets of blood clinging desperately onto the metal. "It refused to die in the first place. What are you even doing here? I thought you were in the East teaching those dragons a lesson?" He turned from the lifeless body of the giant to his best friend, Alaric, God of Contracts.

His friend hadn't changed in the months that he'd been gone. His dark hair had grown a little longer, some strands reaching his shoulders. His violet eyes still glinted with that same mischief that had gotten them in trouble when they where younger. He was still the same height as before, just a few centimeters taller than Erix.

Alaric shrugged and said, "Them? Already dealt with. They'll be spending the rest of their lives slaving away in the mines. At least...according to the contract."

Erix shook his head, chuckling, before turning and heading down the street, towards the portals where the monsters were still emerging from. 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘈𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘴' 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦. He looked to the silver gates around the portals. 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴, he thought. "Did you mess with them? Hide true meanings in your fancy words?"

Alaric ran up to him, a grin in his face, as he nudged Erix lightly. "Of course I did! You really think I wouldn't? What's the point of contracts if I can't make people think they're getting the better share?"

Erix suddenly stopped and grabbed Alaric, pushing him out of the way as a smaller monster came rushing straight at him. It jumped on Erix, its jaws snapping as it tried to bite off his head. The next time it opened its mouth, Erix thrust his sword into its throat, successfully killing it. The body dropped heavily onto him. He pushed it off and was about to pull out his sword when he heard a wet cough coming from his friend.

"Alaric?" He asked. His friend suddenly collapsed, his body trembling. Alaric held his hand against his mouth with his head bowed while he tried to stop coughing. "Alaric!" Erix rushed to grab him before he hit the ground, scanning him for any potentially life-threatenung injuries. "Alaric, what happened?"

Alaric coughed once more, then looked into Erix's eyes as he slowly smiled. "It's alright. I'm fine."

"You don't look fine, you moron," Erix said with a scowl. "Was it my fault? Did I shove you too hard? But we have sparred before and you could easily take me in a fight...did one of those monsters wound you?"

Alaric stood up, dusting himself off and looked for any more monsters that could be coming their way. "I'm fine, really. I just have a cold." He started jogging to the main square, where they could see the silver gates of the shadow portals. "Come on, you've gotta save your kingdom."

Erix pulled his sword out of the monster's corpse and followed after him, still worried. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘪𝘮. 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 "𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥" 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘐 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘵 𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺. After all, just how wrong could he possibly be?