Within the two designated areas for the newcomers, a shallow pit and the black, lifeless earth awaited them. From the heavens, without emitting any sound, hundreds of people emerged from within a spatial rift, a mysterious passage between dimensions. They were all chained with golden runes, their inert bodies witnessing an unknown journey. When they touched the ground, the chains dissolved, but the unconsciousness of all persisted.
As the rifts closed in the two distinct locations, shadows emerged from the gloom. They were demons of demonic beasts that approached silently, serious expressions adorning their faces, but a subtle confidence and determination gleamed in their eyes. They stood there, waiting for something, and in response to that, in less than an hour, the air around them seemed to freeze, and a fierce pressure descended upon their shoulders. It was the sinister and dark kings who approached slowly.
The newcomers, still asleep, were awakened by a sharp pain that infiltrated their bodies, an invisible force pressing violently upon them. There were hundreds who struggled to rise, guided by a primal instinct for survival.
As they stood up, their frightened minds stabilized, revealing an intriguing scene: they were in a completely unknown place, inside a shallow pit that seemed to have been freshly dug, while above them, a large group observed them in passing.
The fleeting glances cast upon them did not show discomfort; on the contrary, they exuded a peculiar calm devoid of empathy. The witnesses, staring at them with a ceremony of pity, seemed knowledgeable about a shared destiny, a mystery still hidden in the nuances of their enigmatic gazes.
Before they could even formulate words, in just a few minutes, the origin of that overwhelming pressure was discovered in the two locations almost simultaneously. On one side, a dark humanoid being emerged, its presence so oppressive that merely looking at it could make souls want to escape their bodies. It was a high demon of pure and powerful bloodline, a sinister specter that seemed to carry the weight of countless dark ages.
On the other side, all light was suddenly devoured, plunging the area into a deep and impenetrable darkness. When the frightened people looked up, they saw two open wings that covered the world, blocking all life and will in their bodies; it was a colossal winged demon, a creature that loomed like a dark judge over those below. It remained there, observing the insignificant beings as if they were mere insects, until finally, its form transformed into something three meters tall that landed on the ground with disturbing calm.
A disturbing silence pervaded for a few seconds, and the two kings didn’t bother to cast another glance at the cattle ready to be sacrificed. They turned in one direction, sensing the movement of the other king, then only the sound of an order echoed in space, making the bodies of all present tremble as if just thinking of disobeying would cause them to explode into blood immediately.
"ADVANCE!"
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The newcomers who were stunned in the small hole in the ground were the first to react, crawling out as if their lives depended on it; the orders of those kings were absolute. As for the others, they waited a bit and moved with a certain strangeness; all of them were affected by the orders but felt no will to obey, even though they felt death approaching.
In a few minutes, the two armies on opposite sides moved together, totaling almost a thousand soldiers. The kings had no expression or sign of emotion; everything seemed common and normal, like in the thousands of previous confrontations. But they didn’t bother to focus their senses or observe their surroundings more seriously.
Clearly, the areas where the new soldiers were always left were completely different; there was no bone, only a hole, the result of recent excavation for the construction of the bone building. The demon king even noticed some differences lightly, but his arrogance and indifference only made him ignore them seconds later.
The sound of the march of the two armies grew clearer on both sides with each passing second until the fateful moment when the two sides came into view. From a great distance, the two kings were indifferent, and only another order resounded thunderously in the confused ears of a part of the soldiers.
"KILL!"
Half of them instantly trembled, as if their wills were subjugated by forces beyond understanding. A golden rune shone in their eyes, followed by roars of madness. The kings observed with skepticism as, belatedly, in the other half of the soldiers, luminous runes appeared that, although not golden, emitted a frenzied will.
It all lasted for five seconds, during which everyone advanced heavily, as if obeying an invisible orchestra. Demon beasts assumed their original forms, demons exhaled their sinister auras to the maximum. Although things seemed a bit different, they followed the encryption that had persisted for centuries. Subtle changes were rare, but sometimes the unexpected happened, dispelling the doubts of the kings.
The first frenzied wave collided on both sides, causing the front line to retreat a few meters in a brutal physical confrontation. Blood was shed by both, but there were no deaths, and both sides advanced again.
It was only in this second encounter that the demon king noticed something different: why were half of the soldiers moving more slowly? The doubt barely arose when, in the next second, the eyes of these soldiers suddenly lit up. Then, everything changed as if the universe had been turned upside down.
The light, the heat, the sight, the senses... everything from the two kings was suddenly taken away, as if their souls had made a sudden escape from their bodies.
It lasted only two seconds until something extraordinary appeared before their eyes. A light that, instead of illuminating, seemed to devour everything around it.
It was a ring of black fire that surrounded the enveloped area, consuming in a bestial and demonic manner all existence. It appeared abruptly, and from its center, a roar echoed, awakening the kings from stupor and bringing life back to their bodies.
ROAAAAAAAAR!!
With the roar, the two kings felt blood being expelled from their bodies, like everything inside them had been stirred and reversed. A little late, they realized the shadow of death looming over their heads. They forcibly regained their senses, and looking around in shock, they found only emptiness and death, a landscape desolate on all sides.
A frightening realization took hold of them. Somehow, they were no longer in the hero’s world.
Unbeknownst to them, that was the place only described in fanciful legends across infinite different universes. They had just arrived in the so-called underworld!