Deep within the bounds of hell itself... Zephyr began to feel the trembling and crying of the very walls around them...
"Our home... Weeps for its master..." The ancient dragon's expression darkened.
Everyone within the council... Even those who had decided to skip a meeting as important as this... All of which could now feel the true weight of this day...
Zephyr stood, his gaze locking onto something far beyond that of the other members...
"What!?" The tall blonde Devil stood, instantly summoning a hex as she clenched her teeth with dread.
Lillian, who had been lazily poking at the world-devouring serpent, suddenly tilted her head with curiosity.
While all of the other Devils were districted by something that Lillian had deemed unbothersome: The little girl with fearsome horns and no fear at all for Tenko, snuck out of the council meeting, taking the serpent with her as she opened a gateway and darted into the world above.
...
"It's that bad isn't it?" Her own loyal champion grunted, his onyx helmet showing clear signs of decay under the curse of death.
"Lick him boy!" Lillian demanded, pointing at Onyx's loathsome figure in the dark corner while Tenko followed her demands with upmost loyalty.
His scales dragged across the ground, letting Onyx only look up in complete submission as the giant serpent nearly swallowed him whole before the child Devil grabbed him by the edge of his shrunken tail and yanked back the serpent with ease... At the same time... The poisons of the horrid serpent began to devour the very decay that threatened to consume the once oh so noble knight...
Crossing her arms, she began to scold the serpent-leaving Onyx to the company of his own thoughts as he questioned his once-leader's odds of survival... Along with his other companions that he one day hoped to meet again...
Lillian frowned, leaping onto a table and swinging her legs back and forth while she seemed to ponder something intently.
"Ch-You're brother, what does he have to do with this presence?" Onyx asked, tilting his head in confusion... As even he-A being with no connection to the underworld, could feel...
"No... That's not quite right..." Onyx shook his head, leaning against the wall as he suddenly began to connect a horrible string of thoughts that led somewhere he of all people wished it would never go to...
"You get it." Lillian smiled, eyeing up at the shivering ceiling above them...
...
Azure blinked sadly, awaiting the awakenings of his comrades while the sun began to inch over the horizon... The luminescent waters basked in the light that shunned the body of elegant liquid that held the utmost important duty of all the Elements...
"Should I feel fear?" Azure whispered, his eyes meeting the sky above that felt closer than ever...
He had no answer to the question... After all, why would the creatures of creation beckon to a traitor's call...?
The rings on his fingers shimmered, reminding him that he had no care in the world for such lavish accessories...
"Seven Centuries... And in all of it... I never once have touched the Grace of Greater Divinity..." With great regret, Azure relaxed his body... Feeling the very ocean currents before him begin to rush through his veins...
Blue markings glistened along his perfect skin as his expression showed the play of despair...
He could feel a far greater force among those ships after all...
'I probably should not have brought the lads...' He thought, glancing towards the direction of his com-
"Friends..." He whispered, turning his now sharpened gaze towards the fleet as the cries of a whale snapped into his earshot.
"Such misery you inflict upon the world... Old friend..."
He sighed, having known that he's been ready to do this since he had first declared the decision all those years ago...
On the day that the hero known as Orion declared war against the gods...
A whistle left Azure's lips as he stood up.
"The weight of the world will one day be balanced mother... But I intend to take the first step... For us... For all of us..." Azure outstretched his hand... Feeling the very fabric of reality begin to crumble under his fingertips...
...
"Sir! We just received confirmation... The entire Southern half of the continent has gone mad!" A soldier busted into the black hall, gilded with ancient desert golds...
His panicked expression and heaving chest could not be seen by the back-turned man seated upon a throne of withered skulls...
His maroon shoulder plates twitched briefly; however, having once heard a tale long ago that brought him great reverence...
"Lord Mare..." The soldier pleaded, the reflection of his eyes shined in the mirror that stood in front of the king...
"Speak." He demanded, his chin resting upon his trembling fist...
"Several chaotic forces are being read by all of our seers... Even the neighboring Kingdoms of Mercenaries have all sent immediate notifications on all fronts..." The soldier took a deep breath.
"Sir... It's bad... The heir has been spotted in Seh Jenah not too long ago, and even had a Paladin level bounty placed upon his head... But that's not the worst of it... Lord Mare... Its the Lesser God of the sea-"
Mare's fist drove into the arm of his throne.
"THAT FOOL!" He spat, his snarl briefly flashing underneath the grimacing helmet that glared into the mirror...
"Lord! He's trying to-"
"I KNOW WHAT HIS PLAN IS DAMN IT!" Mare stood, his terrifying aura driving the knees of all soldiers present into the ground...
His blackened helm glimmered, with the visible parts of his expression showing great regret...
"Purple! Alert Legion... Tell him that we assemble our entire front and begin Phase One of Camelot..." Mare instructed the only soldier un-kneeling in his presence, draped in a purple robe with beach blonde hair laying over his lazy golden eyes.
"Got it..." He shrugged, turning and leaving the chambers, almost as if he had not wanted to be there in the first place.
"All of you..." A whisper left the king's mouth...
"Leave at once..." He demanded, watching as all of the soldiers began to flee his sacred hall...
Silence consumed the hall as Mare stood stiff at its center...
"I didn't think you would catch wind of me..." A humorous voice chuckled from above, the sound of sharp blades teething at each other being all that followed...
"You're rusty Deimos..." Mare slowly gazed up at the rafters, only seeing a pair of demonic crimson eyes gazing back down at him... With that horrible smile radiating with that same energy...
"Really? I actually would disagree..." The voice came from behind Mare, whispering with joy into his right ear.
Mare did not show alarm, in fact he thought this game quite fun...
But that was over.
Chains ripped free from gateways below, each leading to some distorted world that only Mare could know...
They latched around Deimos's slim body while his mask only showed that of a psychotic grin...
"I'd assume that you're band of Assassins plan to take out King Phill? Would I be correct in that matter?" Mare asked, planning to rip away every bit of information that he could from the fear-mongering Assassin...
Deimos laughed, eventually tilting his head and widening the grin along his skull-resembling mask...
The black bandages along his chest began to free themselves, revealing several terrible curses ridden along his scarred flesh...
They latched onto the chains, pulling them away with ease as the fabrics slowly brought him to the ground before returning as his clothing...
"I have no part in that." He eventually shrugged, showing no sign of lies as the Assassin walked over to a table and lifted tea from it, sipping it with no care in the world as it flowed into his mask.
"What about...?" He began, but Deimos only chuckled.
"About what? Azure is the least of our worries now... Reclaiming what is naturally his... Isn't it poetic?" Deimos asked, leaning against the wall casually.
"No... I had once tried to sway him away from such a fate... But..." He stopped, glancing at Deimos who had begun to reach towards his pocket...
He pulled out seven dominoes... Placing them on the small table beside them with perfect distance between each one...
"First... Which will happen tonight... The dying flames of Prometheus will reach up from the abyss below... And claim his Champion... Now... We know of the rogue princess, Prodigy of Lightning, as well as the child of that bastard Blaze..." He pulled a picture from his pocket, placing it along a wooden support beam...
Deimos drew a dagger from a sheathe, somehow having preplaced the weapon before this meeting...
Mare raised an eyebrow in amusement.
Deimos flicked the dagger, his grin fading as it struck the center of a portrait of the eldest son of House Ember...
And at the very same time... The tea cup fell from the corner of its coaster, knocking the first domino into the second and so on...
"Four Champions have been revealed... Meaning that the prophecy is true... And we will soon reveal the other eight..."
"There are seven dominos... No?" Mare asked, pondering on the topic at hand before...
"They do not resemble that of the champions..." The grin returned to Deimos's face as the ground below began to tremble...
"The three forces are aligned... The Heavens above... Mother Earth... And even Lady Lilith's domain itself has begun to encroach upon the other worlds... And do you not what causes that?"
Mare frowned, removing his helmet from his face as he greeted his old friend.
"Fate has been tampered with... On a far greater scale than even the Gods could have expected..." Smoke left Deimos' lips, and Mare's eyes widened before the figure vanished into a cloud of black mist... His props vanishing along with him...
Mare cursed, his red eyes instantly darkening while his soul shot into the world of dreams in order to somehow gain more intel...
But in the meantime... The vast Desert could only brace for the coming invasion...