[Five years ago, Ember City was alive.]
Traffic horns blared across packed intersections while vendors shouted prices over each other from crowded sidewalks. The smell of grilled meat and engine smoke drifted through the streets beneath towering glass buildings. A basketball slammed repeatedly against a brick wall near an apartment complex while kids argued loudly over the score.
"Man, that was out!"
"You're blind, I made it!"
"Give me the ball back!"
Laughter echoed down the street seconds later.
Neon signs buzzed above storefronts even in broad daylight, some flickering hard enough to irritate pedestrians passing underneath them. Office workers moved through crosswalks with coffees in hand and phones pressed against their ears. Teenagers leaned against railings outside shopping centers while scrolling through their screens. Couples stood near the plaza fountains, shielding their eyes from the afternoon sun while talking quietly between themselves.
Everything felt loud. Busy. Normal.
Then the sunlight disappeared.
Not behind clouds.
It was simply gone.
The brightness draining across the streets happened so fast people noticed it before they understood it. Shadows stretched unnaturally across the pavement and building walls, twisting far longer than they should have.
Conversations stopped mid-sentence.
A woman froze with her phone half-raised for a picture. A delivery driver slowed his bike before putting one foot down against the street, staring upward with confusion spreading across his face. Nearby, two construction workers lowered their tools at the same time.
"What the hell is that?" one of them muttered.
The sky darkened rapidly as a massive eclipse spread overhead.
It moved wrong.
Too fast.
The black shape swallowed half the skyline within seconds like something enormous had covered the world from above.
Warm air vanished from the city. Cold wind rolled through the streets hard enough to sting exposed skin. People rubbed their arms instinctively. Breath started fogging in front of faces.
A child grabbed his mother's sleeve tightly.
"Mom…?"
She did not answer immediately. Her eyes stayed fixed on the sky.
Then the pressure arrived.
It crashed down over the city without warning.
Several people staggered where they stood. Others grabbed nearby railings or car doors for balance. A man dropped to one knee beside a taxi while holding both hands against the side of his head.
High-pitched ringing filled the streets.
Windows trembled inside nearby buildings.
A teenager near the plaza covered his ears and shouted, "Why does it feel like that?!"
Then the sky split open.
A massive red portal tore across the darkness overhead.
Black lightning burst outward from it repeatedly, tearing through the clouds while the air around the portal warped violently. Buildings several blocks away shook hard enough for windows to crack. Car alarms immediately started blaring throughout the streets below.
The smell reached the crowd seconds later.
Burnt metal.
Sulfur.
Rotting flesh.
A woman gagged and covered her mouth.
A man stumbled backward into a parked car, eyes wide. "N-no… no way…"
His voice cracked.
"Is it the Bloom again?"
Thunder rolled across the city.
No rain followed.
Only pressure.
Heavy enough to force people downward like invisible weight had settled across their shoulders.
Then something moved inside the portal.
Two enormous clawed hands emerged first.
They gripped the edge of the portal and pulled outward violently.
The air itself cracked around them.
The portal stretched wider while something enormous forced its way through.
The Demon King emerged.
Megalodon.
His body towered over the skyline as he stepped through the rupture slowly, like the world itself struggled to contain his size. Clouds tore apart around him. Nearby buildings shook underneath the sheer force of his presence while glass rattled violently across entire city blocks.
Dark shadows peeled across his body like living smoke. Six burning red eyes opened one after another before locking onto the city beneath him.
Watching.
Judging.
The Infernal Leviathan slowly crossed all four of his massive arms across his chest.
Behind the seven foot tall creature, the portal churned again.
Two more figures dropped from the opening.
The first hovered above the city after emerging. Massive obsidian skin stretched over a hulking frame split apart by glowing lava veins. Heat rolled off its body in violent waves. Asphalt below began bubbling and splitting apart while nearby traffic lights melted crookedly from the temperature alone.
The second creature moved differently.
Too fast and too sharp for human eyes, as they struggled to follow it properly as it descended between buildings.
Its skeletal frame jerked unnaturally while long tendrils lashed violently from its spine. One slammed across the side of a nearby office tower with a screaming scrape that tore concrete free in chunks. Windows exploded outward across several floors.
Its face kept changing.
Skin shifted across exposed bone. Teeth pushed outward before retreating again. Eyes appeared, sank inward, then reopened somewhere else across its skull like its body could not settle into one shape.
Black liquid energy dripped from their claws and evaporated into smoke before touching the ground.
For several long seconds, nobody moved.
Nobody screamed.
A grocery bag slipped from a woman's numb fingers. Soup cans rolled slowly across the pavement before bumping against the curb.
An older man backed away carefully while shaking his head over and over.
"This… this isn't possible…"
Someone finally screamed.
"D-DEMONS!"
The panic spread instantly afterward.
"RUN!"
The entire street collapsed into chaos.
People slammed into each other trying to escape. Shoes scraped uselessly against pavement while crowds shoved through intersections without direction. A woman lost hold of her child's hand for a second and screamed his name loud enough for her voice to crack before grabbing him again.
Cars crashed into each other as drivers panicked behind the wheel. One vehicle swerved across the road before smashing into a street pole hard enough to fold the hood inward. The windshield shattered across the driver's face.
He kicked the door open and crawled onto the pavement coughing blood.
Nearby, a businessman tripped over a fallen bicycle. Two strangers shoved past him before another person grabbed his arm and dragged him back to his feet.
"Move! Move!"
A mother pulled her crying son through the crowd while his shoes dragged unevenly across the ground.
"I can't keep up!"
"Yes you can!" she shouted without looking back.
A streetlight tore loose from above and crashed directly into the middle of the road.
The impact blasted debris across nearby cars.
One man disappeared underneath the pole with a sickening crunch. His scream ripped through the street while his hands clawed desperately against the concrete beneath him. Blood spread slowly underneath his chest.
Above the city, the Demon King continued staring down at humanity in silence.
Megalodon looked down at the city beneath him.
His voice rolled across Ember City, deep enough to vibrate through windows, pavement, and bone.
"They're noisy."
Several people below froze at the sound alone. Some dropped to their knees clutching their ears while nearby car alarms began blaring louder across the streets. Loose glass trembled inside broken window frames.
The Demon King stared down at the fleeing crowds with open disgust.
"These worms are a waste of space."
One of his lower hands remained folded across his chest while another slowly lifted. He slightly extended his pinky finger outward.
The air changed instantly.
Everything tightened.
People running through the streets suddenly slowed as crushing gravity slammed down across the city. Knees buckled. Cars groaned against the pavement. Streetlights bent sideways under the pressure while cracks spread through nearby buildings.
A man sprinting through an intersection dropped flat against the asphalt with a scream. Nearby civilians collapsed beside him one after another, pinned down hard enough for bones to crack against the ground.
"What is happening?!" someone shouted desperately.
Megalodon lowered his finger.
The shockwave erupted.
A deafening blast ripped across the city in every direction. Entire buildings folded inward like invisible hands had crushed them from above. Glass exploded outward from skyscrapers before the structures themselves collapsed seconds later.
People caught near the impact zones vanished instantly.
Bodies disintegrated mid-run before screams could even finish leaving their mouths. Skin, bone, and blood burst apart into drifting red mist underneath the pressure.
The streets split open violently.
Asphalt cracked apart in jagged lines while entire sections of road dropped into the earth below. Cars flipped through the air uncontrollably before smashing into buildings hard enough to erupt into flames. One vehicle spun sideways through a clothing store window before detonating inside. Burning debris blasted back out across the sidewalk together with shredded metal and broken mannequins.
The ground continued tearing itself apart underneath the city.
Concrete slabs lifted several feet upward before crashing back down. Steam burst from ruptured pipes beneath the streets while flames shot through shattered sewer lines.
A city bus tilted sideways as the road underneath it split open. Passengers screamed while the center of the vehicle bent sharply. The entire bus tore apart seconds later, throwing people across the ruined street like loose debris.
Above them all, Megalodon remained motionless.
Watching the commotion.
The molten demon descended first.
Its massive body slammed into the middle of a crowded avenue hard enough to crater the street beneath it. Lava splashed outward across nearby cars and storefronts in burning waves. Civilians caught too close collapsed screaming as heat melted through skin and clothing almost instantly. One man stumbled forward blindly before dropping to the pavement while flames spread across his back.
The skeletal demon moved next.
It dropped directly into the fleeing crowds.
Its twisted frame jerked violently while spine-like tendrils snapped outward in every direction. The appendages wrapped around screaming civilians before yanking them backward with horrifying force. Bones cracked loudly as bodies slammed against pavement and walls. Blood sprayed across shattered windows while the creature tore through the street without slowing down once.
A teenager tried crawling away underneath an overturned car. One tendril punched through the vehicle, wrapped around his leg, and dragged him out screaming across broken asphalt.
Ember City collapsed piece by piece around them.
And the Infernal Leviathan continued watching from above.
But not everyone fell.
Two figures remained standing in the middle of the destruction while shockwaves ripped through the city around them.
Tempestia and Moon-Light.
Chunks of concrete spun violently through the air nearby while shattered glass sliced across the streets like metal rain. Street signs ripped free from the pavement and cartwheeled past them. Several wrecked cars skidded across the road behind the two heroes before slamming into each other in a burst of sparks and smoke.
Neither hero moved.
Tempestia planted her boots firmly against the cracking asphalt. The ground fractured deeper underneath her heels as pressure continued bearing down against the city. Strands of her hair whipped violently around her face while pieces of debris bounced away from the invisible force surrounding her.
She raised one arm.
Then cut it sharply across the air in front of her.
Megalodon's shockwave collided with the barrier around them.
The impact distorted the air itself.
The force bent sideways around the two heroes before tearing harmlessly past them into nearby buildings instead. Windows exploded farther down the street while destroyed vehicles flipped repeatedly through the air.
Tempestia's arm trembled once from the pressure before steadying again. Her fingers slowly tightened afterward.
"That's enough destruction."
Her voice carried clearly through the chaos despite the collapsing city around them. Cold. Sharp. Controlled.
"You will pay for what you've done here."
Silver-blue light began bleeding from her eyes. Dust and loose debris near her feet started lifting into the air around her.
"All three of you."
She stepped forward.
The instant her foot touched the ground, the pressure across the street shifted violently. Cracks spread outward beneath her boot while nearby debris bounced from the force rolling off her body.
The molten demon stopped moving first.
The skeletal creature froze mid-motion with blood still dripping from one of its tendrils.
Both demons slowly turned toward the two heroes standing alone in the ruined street.