The Return of the Darkness (1)

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" With those words, Tartarus himself kicked Daemon from the Tartarus Realm.

And that was how Daemon became the first human that was banished to the deepest part of the Void, to be forgotten.

The Void Realm. A place created to confine the worst of the worst, be it Gods, Demigods, Monsters, or Demons. They are thrown in this place to be forgotten, to never be able to rise once again.

There had never been a single entity capable of escaping this place.

All living beings fear the Void, fear of being imprisoned in this place that is nothing but a complete darkened emptiness.

It is impossible for a prisoner to communicate with each other, and since the Void is nothing but emptiness, the prisoners are stripped from all their senses.

Those that are banished to this place desire nothing more than death.

The emptiness is capable of causing even the strongest entity, to fall into madness.

...

[How long have I been here...?] Daemon asked himself in his own mind.

He had been floating in the Void's emptiness for far too long. He already lost the count of how hours, days, mouth, years... Or perhaps decades, centuries... He had been in the Void.

It truly was an experience to behold, being stripped of everything that makes you certain that are alive, and having only your own mind as company.

If Daemon was a normal person... It was certain that he would had already descended to madness.

But he wasn't normal... No, he was far from being normal.

He was something that even Gods and Demons had feared.

Even Tartarus, a primordial God, had enough of Daemon and decided to banish him to the Void.

When he was a living human, he created chaos, killed millions of people.

He was known as Daemon, the Darkness. Even though he wasn't a God, his fellow mortals all saw him as a God or Demigod of sorts when he was alive.

Unfortunately... Or fortunately, he died after the Gods had decided that he was too dangerous to be kept alive.

But death wasn't the end as he thought.

He was sent to the Nether Realm. Every human that had sinned would have their souls sent to this place, for a specific amount of time, to pay for their sins and then they would go to the Styx to be reincarnated, without memories from their past lives.

But that place wasn't enough to contain Daemon. He killed his way and absorbed a huge amount of souls, he became so strong that he killed a few Guardians of the Nether Realm.

He was only stopped when Hades genuinely felt threatened and left his palace to deal with Daemon himself.

Hades had to banish him to Tartarus Realm, a place dedicated to imprisoning only Gods, Demons, and Monsters, to eternity.

Powerful and otherworldly creatures capable of destroying worlds, all locked in a single prison, waiting to be pardoned by the Pantheon or to forever rot in the prison.

There he was, in a place where no human, alive or dead, had been before, a place where he was weaker than even an ant in comparison to the weakest of the prisoner of that place. But just like previously, he was able to rise up again. He freed himself from the shackles of Tartarus Realm and went on a killing spree. Gods, Demons, Monsters, everything on his way was killed by him.

This time he was even able to seriously wound Tartarus, a primordial God, before he was ultimately defeated and banished to the Void.

"I like you..." Daemon heard an ethereal voice coming directly into his mind.

[Who are you?] Daemon curiously asked the voice. He had been locked for who knows how many years and he finally heard something.

He started to wonder if even he, who had already fallen into insanity once, was starting to fall into madness again.

"Oh?" The voice exclaimed. "You look pretty calm for someone who is hearing another person for the first time after been locked for more than 10000 years in the Void."

[10000 years has passed by....] Daemon reminisced about his bloody past. [So much should have changed...]

"Yes, a lot has changed in that world." The voice confirmed his thoughts. "But you... You left your mark there, even after all these years, stories about when you were alive is still being told. Stories about Daemon, the Darkness."

[Not good stories I assume...]

"Yep, you are represented as the villain, the monster, in most of them."

[Hmm... Not big of a surprise. After all, I really did some messed up things when I was alive-]

"And dead..." The voice interrupted Daemon's thoughts.

[And dead...]

"You really surprised me. Even though you were a normal human you were able to kill Demigods when you were alive. After death, you still was able to, somehow, free yourself from the limitations of the Realms and fight Gods and Demons. You made the Pantheon fear you, not something easy to accomplish."

[...]

"Your soul... Is completely darkened. You embraced the darkness and madness within you. This made you stronger, so strong that was able to break the limitations of the human body, and reach the peak of being the strongest magic user that world had ever seen."

[...]

"If it wasn't for the Pantheon wanting you dead, you would have certainly reached godhood with enough time."

[...]

"What's up? Why aren't you speaking?"

[Nothing. I was just enjoying the feeling of having someone speaking with me that isn't myself.] Daemon said honestly.

"Hahahahahaha!" The voice started to laugh. "It's true, I forgot for a second about that. You know, most of the people that had been banished here wouldn't remain sane after 1000 years. That was the record. You are the first one that I met that still have some little of sanity after so many years. Trust me, I have tried to talk with some other people around here, they have completely fallen into insanity."

[I guess I can consider myself lucky for my mental resilience...?]

"Yeah. You truly are a wonder, that's why I like you."

[So... I must ask again, who are you?]

"Well... I have a lot of names, so many that I had forgotten most of them, but there is one name that usually people call me, they usually call me... The Mad God."

[The Mad God? That's quite a name.]

"Right? I like it. Of all the ones I had previously, this is the one that encapsulates the essence of what I am the most." The God said proudly, as if the name 'Mad God' was something to be proud of.

[Okay then... So... Why are talking with me? It's not like you're a God with too much free time, right?]

"Yep. That's exactly what it is. I'm bored you know. There's nothing to do around here and nothing too much exciting is happening in the multiverse lately. I want something new, something fresh that can make me fell entertain."

[I too had this trouble. When I was so strong that no human was able to beat me so I had to start hunting down Demigods. It worked at the beginning, but with time it got boring as well." Daemon reminisced about the past. "Then I was killed by the Gods. I thought it was the end, but I went to a very fun place. I absorbed souls, got stronger again, and started to kill the Guardians of the Nether Realm. Then I was sent to Tartarus Realm and there I was able to kill Demons and Gods. It was fun.]

"I was right about you." The Mad God said joyfully. "You're exactly what I want."

[Hm?] Daemon was confused. [You want me for what?]

"Reincarnation, of course! I want to try something new. I never tried to manually reincarnate someone, it might be at least amusing."

[You're going to reincarnate me?]

"I wasn't, but now I want to try it out."

[Really?] Daemon was surprised. [But I'm locked at the Void Realm. Even Gods are unable to do something in this place.] This bit is true. The Void Realm was nobody's dominion. Everyone want nothing more than stay very far away from the Void.

"Hahahahaha..." The Mad God arrogantly laughed. "Everything is under my control. After all, I was the one who created the multiverse."

[You?] Daemon was dumbfounded by the God's arrogance. [I doubt it. The Prime God, the creator of all, had disappeared eons ago. It's impossible that he's you.]

"I can't do anything if you don't believe me." The Mad God said indifferently. "Anyway, it's time for your reincarnation. Are you ready?"

[Yes...] Daemons was still skeptical.

"Alright, you're going to feel some numbness and weakness when you wake in your new body, so don't worry about it, it's temporary. Getting used to the new body might as well take some time. Without further ado, 3..."

Even though Daemon quite doesn't believe that the Mad God was able to manipulate the Void Realm and take him out of the prison, he still had hope.

"2..."

Hope for a new beginning.

"1..."

He would do everything he was unable to do in his previous life. Perhaps, he might even try a few new things. Perhaps....he could accomplish his ultimate goal...

"Now!"

With the Mad God's shout, Daemon's mind went blank. He fell on some kind of vegetative state.

His soul could be seen leaving the Void Realm and traveling along the Styx River going directly into reincarnation.

"Hehehehe..." The Mad God gleefully grinned when he saw that he had succeeded in his first try. "Now, now... I think this is going to spice things up in that world. HAHAHAHAHAHA..."