The Apocalypse Phoenix 0001: Prologue
A sudden invasion by a quantum-age technological civilization turned the supernatural world over on its head.
Humans, once the foundation of myriad pantheons, were afflicted by a miasma that suppressed all supernatural energy that came into contact with them.
The Underworld was lost, and the last of the Devils could only survive by blending among normal humans, unable to use any magic, and hunted by the invading forces.
Yet, all was not lost. With the Phenex bloodline, an unknown soul from the far-reaching multiverse, and a desperate gamble by the Satans, there was hope for resistance against the invaders.
Phoenix 0001: Prologue
The sky of the Underworld was a unique existence. Disjointed from the real world and encapsulated within the separate dimension of the Underworld, it possessed no real features. Almost a blank slate, the Underworld’s sky possessed no clouds, no atmosphere, no views of the stars or other celestial bodies. The day-night cycle was no more than an artificial sun and moon that simulated the existence of the real sun and moon of the human world. Even the pale gray color that shifted with the time of day was no more than an artificial simulation.
One fine day, the artificial sky tore asunder, exposing the Underworld’s isolated dimension to the universe. The sight of the stars and a distant galaxy in the void visible through the crack was especially jarring to the ordinary residents of the Underworld, who had only ever seen the artificial sky and had never travelled outside the dimension.
Suddenly, countless starships simmered into existence within that crack. They quickly passed through and spread around, blotting most of the Underworld’s sky.
Without any identifying declarations or threats, blue lights appeared on the underbellies of the invading ships. Once charged, the cannons shot compressed beams of light at the ground below in an indiscriminate slaughter.
In no more than a few seconds, more than ninety percent of the Underworld’s population was wiped out and slaughtered without the slightest ability to resist. From the lowest level slaves and wandering souls, to low-class and middle-class devils not affiliated with the noble houses, every single living entity was slaughtered.
Only noble houses with powerful Ultimate-Class devils barely held on against the initial onslaught with the help of the innate magical defensive structures that their respective noble cities possessed.
Before the strongest among the devils, the Satans, could mount any defense against the invaders, the onslaught of cannon fire continued, forcing the Satans and their subordinates to give their all to resist the constant bombardment of cannon fire.
As the hours passed, the bombardment remained constant, completely keeping every single Ultimate-class devil occupied in the defense of their respective territories. The Satans were naturally on another level compared to the average Ultimate-class Devil. After the initial surprise and bombardment, they were able to divide a part of their attention to convene and discuss the sudden assault.
Gremory Territory.
A vast barrier made entirely of rolling crimson enveloped the entire territory in the form of a hemisphere, spanning a diameter of hundreds of miles. Hundreds of starships hovered over the territory, continuously bombarding the red barrier, uncaring that the energy projectiles vaporized before even coming into contact with the barrier.
On the lowest floor of the Gremory castle, Sirzechs Lucifer sat cross-legged in the center of a magic circle, his eyes closed as he operated the territorial barrier composed entirely of his Power of Destruction.
A door behind him swung open, and a young woman, possessing an almost transcendental beauty that could put the most beautiful Devils in the Underworld to shame, walked in. Despite her being clad in a somewhat loose robe, it couldn’t hide the breathtaking figure hidden underneath.
“All right, kid. You’ve done enough. Let me take over now. Your poor energy control makes my skin crawl,” she said, directly insulting one of the strongest beings in the known universe and arguably the strongest Devil.
“Without my Power of Destruction…”
“Watch and learn, kid, the true potential of my Gremory Clan’s innate energy control talent. I didn’t become a Duke by reducing energy consumption.”
The young woman directly stepped into the circle as a faint crimson light danced around her finger before shooting down into the magic circle that Sirzechs had been maintaining.
Immediately, Satan Lucifer felt his connection with the magic circle get severed as the young woman took control of the entire barrier.
Outside, the rolling crimson energy didn’t so much as fluctuate, even as the spell switched owners.
“Grandma Runeas, you…” Sirzechs was momentarily stunned by the sequence of events, only for the young woman to plant a painful slap on the man’s cheek.
“You’re a grandma, your mom’s a grandma,” she cursed. “Call me grandma one more time, I dare you.”
Sirzechs coughed. “My apologies… but how did you do that?”
“It may be that bastard Zekram’s Power of Destruction or whatever, but it still runs on Demonic Energy,” she said. “Go on now, if you can find a way out for my House of Gremory, I’ll teach you my technique.”
Sirzechs nodded and immediately departed as Runeas took his place and sat in the middle of the circle.
…
Inside his study, Sirzechs activated a spell that allowed him to subconsciously form a mental connection with his three peers. The moment the connection formed, he heard the panicked screaming of Satan Leviathan, Serafall.
“What the fuck do you mean you can’t break through the spatial blockade? My Sona is stuck in the human world, enduring hell knows what, and you’re telling me that you can’t release the spatial blockade? I will fucking murder you and your entire clan before those damn ships ever do, Akuja!”
“Serafall, screaming will get us nowhere—“
“Don’t even get me started on you, Falbium. What the fuck kind of military affairs handling do you do? Invaders broke through the Underworld, and your people had no fucking clue before they started carpet bombing us. My Sona might be dead for all I know, and I can’t even find out about it!”
“Serafall,” Sirzechs spoke up. “Now is not the time for this. I need you to calm down. We need to figure out a solution to our predicament. If this keeps up, even we won’t be able to survive by the end.”
“Fuck you, Sirzechs! Aren’t you supposed to have the Power of Destruction, destroy those damn ships and kill them all—“
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean—”
“Serafall,” Sirzechs interrupted her. “I already tried. Those ships have some kind of anti-magic field around them. My strongest attacks can’t touch a single one of those ships.”
“Anti-Magic?” Ajuka inquired. “What makes you think that?”
“Even before reaching those ships, my attacks fizzled out. I even approached one of them, trying to take action directly, but it was useless,” Sirzechs said. “Before I could get into a reasonable range, my Demonic energy was suppressed. I almost died to their cannon fire because of that momentary suppression. I could only play a defensive game after that.”
“Motherfuckers, the lot of them!” Serafall screamed in frustration.
“Ajuka,” Sirzechs ignored Serafall’s cursing. “What are our options?”
“It’s hopeless,” Ajuka said bluntly. “I’ve been considering their actions. No negotiation, no announcement for surrender, nothing before opening fire… These entities, whatever they are, are here for a purge. None of my diagnostic spells have worked on those ships, but I don’t think they are strapped for energy either. This purge… in the most likely case, they can and will see it through to the end.”
Hearing Ajuka’s desolate words, even Serafall paused in her cursing for a moment.
“…We need to escape,” Serafall was the first to speak.
“Easier said than done,” Sirzechs said. “Where would we even escape to? For all I know, this is happening everywhere else.”
“I need some time, but I should be able to get communications back up,” Falbium said. “I have a special channel that relies on dreams. Unfortunately, it is quite volatile. So I will need some time to get anything concrete. Most of our descendants are currently in the human world. If these attacks are local to the Underworld, they might be the only hope for our continued survival.”
“I’ll figure out a way to resist the Anti-Magic field that these ships have. As long as I crack it, we might have hope to resist these invaders,” Ajuka said.
“I will create an escape route for us,” Serafall said. “I have some contacts in the other pantheons. If Falbium can establish contact, we might be able to bypass the space restriction and escape.”
“Then I will make sure to draw their firepower toward myself and see if we can exhaust them,” Sirzechs said. “I will also establish contact with the other surviving clans and set up a controlled battlefront.”
“Don’t bring everyone together,” Falbium suggested. “Keep the defensive line divided. We don’t yet know their full capabilities.”
…
A month quickly passed as the remaining cities in the Underworld remained on the defensive, unable to do anything against the assaulting ships. But the bombardment also remained constant, neither reducing nor increasing in intensity.
Unfortunately, the devils were still trapped in the Underworld due to the spatial blockade, only able to establish an inefficient dream-based connection with the outside world that transmitted information with a large delay.
The good news was that the human world was almost entirely unaffected by the invading forces. The bad news was that it had become impossible for any magic to be used on Earth.
As for the other pantheons, they weren’t directly under an assault like the Underworld, but the spatial blockade had essentially trapped their strongest fighters within their respective dimensions. Whatever remnants of supernatural society remained on Earth were no different from humans now, unable to do anything but lie low and live the lives of their human identities.
However, the Satans weren’t at their wits’ end just yet.
It took a month of effort to achieve, but an unconscious guest from the Phenex domain made his way to the Astaroth domain under the escort of Satan Lucifer himself.
Soon, Sirzechs was standing in front of Ajuka Beelzebub, holding a blonde man roughly by his neck.
“Here,” Sirzechs tossed the unconscious man at Ajuka’s feet.
“I know he can recover, but do you have to be so rough?”
“He wanted to fuck my sister,” Sirzechs said flatly.
“I presume you asked for him specifically.” Ajuka glanced at Sirzechs before getting down on one knee to examine the unconscious man.
“Lord Phenex is… pragmatic, if nothing else,” Sirzechs smiled.
“No amount of political pressure can save him from the wrath of a siscon anymore,” Ajuka chuckled. “His bloodline and talent are pure enough. He will do.”
“Do you really think Great Red is dying?” Sirzechs asked.
“Since Falbium said so, it shouldn’t be false,” Ajuka said. “His subordinates are the ones directly tapping into that monster’s authority.”
“Great Red guards the Dimensional Gap… for it to be dying…”
“That is but a given,” Ajuka said. “These are beings from beyond our universe. If such a force existed here, we would have long found out about it. Great Red was our first line of defense. It’s reasonable that it was the first one to deal with this… force of nature.” Ajuka’s voice trembled. “Sooner or later, the Underworld will collapse under this constant bombardment. We have a year at most to find a way out. Serafall’s escape route can take no more than one or two of us away. And we will only be able to live like average humans then.”
“I understand,” Sirzechs nodded. “I will convince Serafall to let him out. That is our best hope.”
“It is our only hope,” Ajuka emphasized. “Who’s to say once these guys are done with us here, they won’t follow us to the human world and wipe us all out one by one? We need an absolute counter for their anti-magic.”
The atmosphere in the room was heavy as Sirzechs’ expression grew grimmer. With a nod, he departed.
Ajuka looked at the unconscious blonde man lying at his feet and sighed.
“Sorry, kid, no hard feelings. I can’t trust anyone other than myself or Zechs to see this through to the end, and your power is too important for our survival. I’ll try to make it as painless as possible.”
Steeling his expression, Ajuka roughly picked the man up and tossed him into a mechanical pod.
…
The Dimensional Gap.
In the lifeless void that was the gateway to the universe, a large crack spanned the firmament, not unlike the one that broke through the Underworld. Within the spatial crack, a massive citadel floated silently, unresponsive and unreactive. Behind it, outside the Dimensional Gap, floated an immeasurable number of souls that seemed like a gray wall behind the citadel. Occasionally, some of these souls would slip through the crack and enter the Dimensional Gap, only to suddenly be obliterated as if erased from existence. Whether this was the doing of the floating citadel or something else was unknown.
At the moment, Great Red, one of the two strongest beings of the Draconic Deus world, was lying helplessly on a platform that had extended out from the citadel, looking tiny in front of the colossal construct. The Dragon God was restrained by anti-magic chains that suppressed its authority to a minimum and left it unable to mount any semblance of resistance.
It had not encountered a single living being from the opposing force, yet the unknown citadel had directly chained it up and left it unable to mount any semblance of resistance the moment it appeared.
From the corner of its eye, Great Red noticed a lone soul that slipped through the crack, but wasn’t obliterated into nothingness. With the last of its strength, it shot a guiding dream to that soul that would help it in times of need. Moments later, the chains further tightened their suppression, turning Great Red into little more than an oversized lizard with wings.