The void roared.
Lucifer's fall was endless—until it wasn't.
A sudden jolt rattled his bones. His wings, broken and scorched from divine fire, spasmed as his body slammed onto a hard, obsidian surface. Darkness surrounded him like a suffocating shroud, thick and sentient. There was no sky. No earth. No light.
Only Tartarus.
Chains slithered across the ground like living serpents. Their clinks echoed with ancient torment, resonating through the infinite cavern carved deep beneath all realms.
"Where… am I?" Lucifer whispered, pushing himself up.
Then came the voice—cold, metallic, ancient.
> "You who once ruled above now crawl below. Welcome… to the pit you were destined for."
A massive chain coiled from the shadows, striking toward him like a cobra. Lucifer's instincts surged—he rolled aside, barely avoiding the impact. The ground where he stood moments ago cracked under the force.
Suddenly, pillars of black iron lit with molten veins rose from the ground, surrounding him in a hellish arena. His wings twitched. His hands trembled—not in fear, but in growing fury.
"You dare bind me?" he growled.
> "No… You bound yourself. With your pride. With your rebellion."
The chains struck again—this time, wrapping around his right arm. He roared and pulled back, muscles flexing, wings flaring. But these weren't ordinary chains.
They were forged in the Void of Nyx, enchanted by the curses of Hecate, and locked by Zeus himself.
"So... the Olympians sent me here," Lucifer hissed, eyes glowing crimson. "Typical. They fear what they can't control."
> "They do not fear you," the voice answered, "they fear what you might become."
A giant form emerged from the shadows—a warden of Tartarus. Towering, faceless, armored in black celestial ore, its very steps cracked the realm beneath.
Lucifer's grin returned. Blood trailed from his lip. "Finally. Someone to kill."
The Warden raised a massive flail made from star-forged bone. It came down like a meteor.
Lucifer jumped, wings flapping erratically, pain stabbing through every nerve as the burnt feathers resisted. But he didn't care.
"[Infernal Sigil: Burning Cross]!"
A fiery glyph burst beneath him. Twin blades of red flame erupted from his arms. With a scream, he crossed them and blocked the Warden's strike. The impact hurled him back through a spire of black stone—but he landed on his feet, smoke hissing from his boots.
The chains pulled tight again. This time, wrapping around his legs.
"These binds…" he gritted. "They're not just physical."
> "No. They chain your very soul."
The Warden struck again. Lucifer dashed left, hurling a burning blade. It bounced off the Warden's armor uselessly.
"Think, Lucifer," he told himself. "This isn't brute force. This is a trial."
Another memory surged—one not from Heaven, but before his rebellion.
A voice. A woman. Pale-skinned, eyes silver like stars.
Lilith.
She once whispered to him in Eden's shadow.
> "Tartarus is not your prison, my love. It is your crucible."
He clenched his fists.
"Then let me burn."
Lucifer focused. Inside his chest, a black sun ignited.
[Forbidden Glyph: Chaos Reversal]
The runes across his skin reversed. His wings, half-charred, now glowed with flickers of golden light between the darkness. A pulse erupted from him, blowing the chains back momentarily.
The Warden paused. For the first time, it flinched.
Lucifer shot forward—too fast. The flail came down again, but this time Lucifer caught it with bare hands. Blood sprayed from his palms, but he held it.
"I was once an angel. Then a devil. Now?"
He yanked the Warden's weapon, pulling the titan forward.
"Now I'm everything you fear!"
His head slammed into the Warden's chestplate with a sickening crack. Lucifer spun, wings flaring as he conjured another burning cross in the air—
[Sigil Breaker: Heaven's Fall]
It struck.
The explosion shook Tartarus.
The Warden's upper body disintegrated in a burst of red-gold flames, fragments of armor flying like shattered stars. The rest of the body crumbled into a pile of molten shards.
Silence returned—but only for a second.
The chains were back. All of them.
Now angrier. Now faster.
Lucifer's eyes widened. "This was only the first gate…"
The ground shattered, and from the depths below, hundreds of eyes opened—giants made of bones, memories, and divine punishment rose from their prisons.
Cyclopes, cursed titans, ancient monsters once locked away for crimes even the gods wouldn't speak of.
They all saw him. They all remembered him.
> "The Morning Star returns…"
> "We are bound… because of him…"
> "Kill him."
Lucifer stood tall as the ground lit with infernal runes. His body trembled with exhaustion—but his grin never faded.
"I'm honored. You all remember."
[Luciferian Command: Flame Dominion]
The sigil on his chest burst wide. Black flame flooded the cavern, twisting and consuming everything around him. But the monsters didn't stop.
They charged.
And so did he.
Steel met fire. Bone cracked beneath his feet. He ducked beneath a Cyclops' fist, slashing across its eye with a burning sigil. A Titan tried to crush him from behind, but Lucifer spun and launched a glyph directly into its mouth.
Boom.
It exploded in a burst of cursed light.
But the swarm kept coming.
Ten enemies. Twenty. Thirty.
He couldn't win.
Not yet.
He needed to escape.
Lucifer raised both hands, slamming his palms into the ground.
[Dimensional Sigil: Ascent]
A tear opened in Tartarus itself—just for a moment.
A single ray of moonlight pierced through.
Lucifer leapt.
Chains grabbed at him.
Teeth scraped his legs.
Hands of the dead clutched at his wings.
But he ascended anyway.
As he passed through the rift, one final chain lashed out and cut across his back, leaving a burning mark—a symbol. A brand.
Lucifer screamed.
Then—
Light.
He crashed into a moonlit forest.
The air was cold. Wet. Real.
Trees swayed above. Birds scattered. And in the silence, the stars stared down like old friends.
Lucifer gasped, bloodied, scarred, but alive.
He turned his eyes upward—toward the divine constellations.
He wasn't free.
He was hunted.
But he was back.
And war had just begun.