Prologue
“It has long been said that the fortress of Heaven shall forever stand as an eternal bastion against the merciless legions of Hell; but for the loss I have suffered I shall create a new vision in which the great, white halls run slick with the blood of a thousand angels.”
(Verina Fatale, demonic general of the 6th Legion)
Fear and adrenaline. It seemed to be all Verina could feel as she pressed herself tightly against the cold, snow-white marble wall behind her. The pounding of her heart beating against her chest grew ever louder as the heavy footsteps behind her signaled the approach of her angelic pursuer. The demon had only just barely escaped the forces hunting her, and her narrow eyes now darted from one end of the room to the other, searching for anything she might use to evade her enemies.
Standing nearly seven feet tall, from the bottom of her six-inch gloss heels to the tips of her jet black wings, Verina was rather short for a demon. She had a fit, slender body, a long snake-like tail, and sleek elegant tentacles for hair that hung down to her back. Her skin was a pale blood-red that perfectly complimented her pitch-black fiery eyes and vivacious full lips. She wore a dark skintight suit of gloss leather and metal that accentuated every one of her body’s numerous perfections, allowing her to radiate an insatiable sexual aura. Charming and beautiful, Verina was truly a sight to behold. But hidden beneath her sensual exterior was a deeply sociopathic mind and a fiendish hunger for vengeance.
Her eyes lingered briefly on a sliver of light that had momentarily illuminated the dark room, and just as her would-be hunter turned the corner, a shot of adrenaline ran up Verina’s spine. She sprinted as fast as she could toward the large plate glass window at the end of the hall.
Bracing herself with her arms stretched out before her, Verina crashed through the opening and plunged into the dark stormy sky below. The demon’s tentacle-hair was whipped across her face as she pinned her wings tight to her back to accelerate her speed. The storm around Verina howled with rage, sending wind and rain pounding against her like a thousand tiny needles, while thunder struck all around.
A bright bolt of lightning shot from behind and cut across her path as her faceless white-robed pursuer followed her decent and used a long silver staff to redirect the sizzling purple energy around them into a blistering weapon of death. The immense electrical discharge of the bolts, slashing over and under her, sent a fiery charge through the demon’s body that made her blood boil with rage.
In a vain attempt to dislodge the zealous angel from his pursuit, the demon hurled a scolding ball of liquid fire, blindly over her shoulder. She glanced back to see her assailant easily evade her wayward missile. She swore. It was too much to hope that the aimless shot would find its mark...
Another trio of bolts raced toward her. She accelerated, diving deeper into the endless nightmarish sky.
The demon felt a lance of white hot pain shoot up her leg when one of the bolts grazed the edge of her inner thigh. The wound cauterized itself due to the immense heat, but the pain was insatiable and Verina was filled with a seething hate as she gritted her teeth against the ensuing agony.
Spreading her dark bat-like wings wide, Verina rapidly slowed her descent so that her attacker overshot her and fell right into her crosshairs. Before her enemy had realized what she had done, Verina banked hard against the angry storm, extending her razor sharp talons. She flew into him like an angry hornet. Latching on to the angel’s back with her jagged claws, the enraged demon viciously tore into her stunned and helpless prey, cutting through the thin, light armor beneath his robe and shredding away massive chunks of flesh and tissue in seconds.
Verina could feel her prey’s body go cold and limp, succumbing to immediate shock. She released the angel, ragged and slick with warm blood, sending him plummeting through the violent storm toward the planet’s surface below.
Without another thought to her fallen adversary, Verina sped off toward the menacing black gates of Hell buried near the Earth’s core. Accelerating, she dived deep into the restless waves of the Pacific Ocean, riding her momentum into the dark water and moving toward the blistering hot vents situated along the ocean floor. The planet’s natural exhaust system led straight to the outer mantle but it took the demon several long hours to traverse the miles of magma-filled tunnels before she broke the surface of the golden liquid and resumed her flight across the barren caverns of Hell.
Flying over the vast volcanic wasteland that stretched out before the black gate, Verina barely noticed the legions of souls that slaved away beneath her as they worked tirelessly to expand the endless caverns of the Underworld.
It had taken tens of thousands of these pitiful creatures and countless years of scheming to carry out her plan, but her retribution had finally begun. The demon had done the unthinkable: broken into the bastion of light and killed the angel’s arrogant self-proclaimed, immortal creator… God.
The screams of the angels when they had discovered that their almighty father was dead had been like music to her ears. Justice had been dealt, but justice alone would not suffice.
Long had it been said that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; but in this case, the woman scorned was Hell’s fury. And for the pain they had inflicted on her, the killing would never stop. Verina was determined to destroy every angel, every clergymen, and every Christian in the world so that God’s very existence would become nothing more than a whisper.
Verina, though, still had masters; thus her plans depended on their will to unleash them. After a brutal civil war, a demonic general by the name of Balthazar had seized control of Hell in the years after Lucifer’s fall. Lacking the former Satan’s brilliance and charm, Hell’s new ruler had massacred millions of his own to cement his rule, as he drove Hell toward a new era of savagery and chaos. He ruled through fear and brutality—never living up to the legacy of his predecessor but with Verina’s brilliant mind at his disposal, the monstrous demonic legions had continued to press ever closer to the shining gates of Heaven.
The massive black citadel rising out of the iconic lake of fire in the center of the hell’s landscape was the epicenter of Balthazar’s power. In moments, Verina had passed through the fortress’s massive gates, which stretched from the floor of the giant cavern to its ceiling, and landed gracefully on the dark ebony stairs that led into the interior.
Before long, Verina had begun her ascent and moved deep into the inner citadel till she stood before a large double door guarded by six heavily- armored demonic sentinels with bright red eyes. Executioners they were called, since their job normally included hunting down and purging anyone suspected of disloyalty. Part demon, part machine, they were by far the most fearsome of all Hell’s monstrosities. Donning black and white armor, forged from the bone of their own kin, they drove terror into all but the most powerful of beings.
As Verina approached the guards, she could hear a low growl seeping from the two Executioners closest to her as they moved forward to block her way. Verina hated the mechanical abominations. They were nothing more than butchering cannibals to her... She would have liked nothing more than to kill them for their blatant disrespect toward her. She couldn’t of course; Balthazar did not take kindly to those that attacked his personal guard. But she was still second in command and she refused to cower before those of lower standing, shoving the two out of her way and moving quickly through the double doors into the room beyond before they had time to pursue her.
A vast stone table sat nestled in the center of a large chamber where the only light came from a small waterfall of burning hot lava gushing through the back wall. A single hooded figure sat clad in a robe of dark shadows that obscured his face from sight.
As Verina drew close to him, the figure raised his hand, signaling her to stop. “So… were you successful?” the figure asked in a deep demonic voice that reverberated through the air.
“It is done, master,” she said, sinking into a low bow. “The great, eternal God is finally dead.”
The dark figure considered the demon’s words for a moment, a single, claw-like hand extending from its sleeve then tapping steadily on the table’s surface.
“Excellent,” he finally said, standing up and throwing back his hood. Even amongst demons, Balthazar was a hulking monster. Standing eight feet tall and weighing more than half a ton, the whole floor seemed to shake when he moved.
Balthazar’s features were similar to that of Verina’s in that they were both demons, but unlike her he had none of his former angelic beauty about him. Instead, his face was missing large chunks of flesh, including his nose, which appeared to be nothing more than a hole in the center of his face. The skin along the left side of his jaw was missing, permanently exposing his jaw bone and teeth, half of which were also missing. His ears were curled back and had been melted to the sides of his head so that they looked like large fleshy patches, the scars of countless battles.
“With God out of the way, we can at last finish what Lucifer started,” he continued, moving off down the room.
“The World Map...? Where shall I begin?” Verina asked, her eagerness to follow in her master’s wake betraying her, as he sauntered up to the glowing lava flowing into the room.
“Only Lucifer knew where all four pieces rest, but with him dead I would recommend you start by pursuing the archangel Michael Vain. We know he took at least one of the fragments when he was last here and he may know where the others lie.”
Michael... There wasn’t a creature alive that Verina hated more than Michael Vain. It had been him that had led the assault against Hell that had taken Lucifer’s life.
A mingled look of psychotic rage and sadistic pleasure momentarily dawned on the demon’s face as she hissed and bared her fangs into an oddly distorted smile.
“If Michael does indeed know a way to locate the ancient fragments, Verina, you must not kill him,” Balthazar said, causing Verina to visibly flinch and her features to morph into a look of outrage as if he had just slapped her across the face.
“And if he doesn’t?” she sneered, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“If he doesn’t, then you must find another way to locate the fragments and you are free to deal with him as you see fit… Either way, the angel will be of no use to us once we have the map pieces so the sooner you find them, the sooner you can dispose of him.”
“Of course, master,” Another sadistic smile cracked across Verina’s blood-stained lips, revealing a row of sharp serrated, yellow teeth.
“With the World Map, we may finally have the power to bring Heaven’s arrogant rule to a swift and bloody end. You are dismissed Verina, do not return until you have it!”
Without another word, Verina spun on her heel and marched out of the room.
