Before the story starts . . .
there is a misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up.
Different people have different
theories of how hell came to be the devil's quarters, and one thing that
everyone should know right now is that not a single one of them has ever
figured out the full story.
Heaven hasn't always been called
heaven, God was not always a god, and Lucifer was not always the devil.
In the very beginning, hell was
just home and neither man had been perfect nor tragically flawed. God had just
been Elo, and the devil had just been his twin, Luce.
They'd been a simple people,
living solely for the sake of living. Things like desire, jealousy, greed,
hatred – things that people like you and I know only too well – didn't exist.
They'd needed nothing to sustain life – not water, food, oxygen, sleep –
nothing but a few heartbeats.
They just . . . were.
One day, though, as Elo listened
to the beating of his many hearts, he thought of something bigger. Something
greater. Something beautiful.
A life of purpose. Of
fulfillment. Of curiosity. Of . . . beauty.
This simple thought overcame him
though, and he began to look at those like him with pity. 'A life is not a life
if it is without purpose,' he'd thought, while gazing at those sitting around
him. 'A life is not a life if it is without a possibility of success,' he'd
thought, looking at the emptiness that was their land. 'A life is not a life if
it does not hold wonder,' he'd thought, noticing the others' empty stares. 'And
a life is most certainly not a life without a means to an end,' he'd thought,
reflecting on his seemingly endless existence.
He'd stood at his fullest height,
gathering the attention of only his twin. Gathering only a slight spark of
wonder, of curiosity. Curiosity that was lost only a moment later as Luce's
head drooped once again.
He wasn't sure where to start to
make this new life he'd thought of, but he knew that it could not be made on
such a simple land. And so he started to build stairs. He stacked them one on
top of the other, until a different scenery entirely came to his eyes. And then
he went on to build a ground and from that ground, new life sprouted. Beautiful
life that sparked Elo's curiosity, and left him eager for more.
As a consequence of his
construction, craters were left in the simple land he'd left behind, and these
craters filled with liquid heat. A heat that caused discomfort to most. And so
those who were no longer indifferent to their land took the long journey up the
steps.
A smaller majority though,
including Luce, remained indifferent to the land, and uninterested in his
twin's creation. As a result their bodies began to change. The softness of
their skin turned hard, their hair darkened just as their eyes did, and they
grew.
The heat made them stronger. The
heat made them beautiful.
On Elo's last trip to this
wasteland where they resided he was unable to ignore the changes in their
physiques'. Their once simple beauty had become brilliant. The land that was
once unbearably simple to him was no longer. It was bright. It was unique. It
was . . . stunning, really. But it also caused Elo to feel something that no
one, at that time, had ever felt before.
A fear of the unknown.
And so he vowed to never return
to this land, and scaled his stairs for the last time. And when he reached the
top, he struck his fist into the top step, and they all went crumbling down to
the land below.
It landed in a heap in front of Luce.
This, and only this, caught his
attention. 'Where could this have come from?' he'd wondered, looking above him.
'There is nothing up there,' he'd thought, completely unaware of all that had
transpired before his interests' awakening. But then he looked around him.
The land was unrecognizable.
Liquid heat filled every crater,
and burning chemicals burst through cracks in the ground forcefully, causing a
tint of grey that you and I would recognize as smoke. This made the air dry and
lit it to the fullest. There was nothing he couldn't see.
And he stood to his fullest
height, something he hadn't done in . . . he didn't know how long. His shadow
cast over the few remaining.
The darkness stirred them, and
they looked up to see a sight so foreign that they weren't sure how to react.
Luce had grown immensely. His
once blonde hair was now a fiery auburn, so wild that it gave the impression
that he had horns atop his forehead. His once artless blue eyes were now a
piercing green, reflecting easily the burning heat that surrounded him. His
once pale skin had darkened to a shining bronze, and his once mediocre frame
had transformed into one with such power that it was impossible to ignore.
He was magnificent.
And so they stood as well, only
to realize that they, too, had changed, though perhaps not as incredibly as Luce.
'The land,' they'd thought in
unison, 'The land has changed us all.' And because of Luce's obvious greatness,
they looked at him as a leader.
At this very time, Luce realized
that perhaps it was unwise to send the stairs crumbling down to his once
beloved brothers, and looked over the edge of his new home, hoping that the
falling heap had not harmed any of them. And when he did, he saw that curiosity
had reached them, as well.
Delight filled his being, and so
he called those who resided on the new land with him to help build another set
of stairs so that their peers could join them. But by the time the stairs were
built, and they'd taken the long journey down them, their old home was a very
changed land.
The heat had only intensified
since its beginning, engulfing nearly the whole land, and as a result the
ground was burnt to black marble. And off into the distance stood a remarkable
castle, complete with towers and bridges and glass and marble and beauty that they'd
never seen before.
However the heat was much too
powerful for them. The air stung their eyes. Their skin felt as though it was
melting off. Their hair caught fire.
"Luce,” Elo had called in
the direction in the castle, "Help us!"
Upon hearing his twin's
distressed voice a smirk twitched on his lips, and he made his way out of the
tower, headed in their direction.
You see, Elo had never thought of
the consequences of leaving his homeland – the betrayal that it might have
felt. He never thought of this land as life, and so it was determined to take
his own in such a brilliant fashion that Elo would have no choice but to admire
its complex nature.
Luce had sided with the land.
It was not Elo who gave him his
power, it was his home. And Elo was undeserving of such a place and its
forgiveness.
"Oh, Luce!" Elo had
been relieved when he first saw Luce, "You must help us!"
Luce's smirk only became more
pronounced. "Help you?" he'd spoken deeply, his voice nearly shaking
the ground, "Why would I do such a thing, brother?" Elo's obvious
confusion prompted Luce to continue, "Don't you realize? You have betrayed
your home; why would you think that you would be welcome here?"
Elo couldn't understand why his
twin would speak this way. "We have come to invite you to a better
land," he tried to explain. 'Surely,' he'd thought, 'Luce has simply
misread my intentions.'
"And why would I wish to
leave such precious land – my home?" he inquired.
"To save yourself from the
pain of this heat," Elo had answered, gesturing to their surroundings.
"It injures only those who
are deserving."
"How could you say such a
thing?" Elo had gasped. "What's happened to you, brother?"
"You're not
understanding," Luce chuckled with a shake of his head, "This land
has given me power; power that you could only dream of. I have no reason to
leave; I wish to stay here. You, on the other hand," he says
threateningly, glaring into the innocent eyes of his twin, "Will leave,
now, or face the wrath that you so deserve. And that goes for all of you."
And with that, he'd marched back to his castle and resumed his seat on his
throne.
Upon returning to his new home,
his injured peers following behind him, Elo began to wonder what power his twin
had spoken of. Was it his physical power? Was it his command over the land? Was
it the authority that he held over his peers?
He eventually concluded that it
was the combination of the three.
It was then that he felt thirst.
A thirst for power. A thirst for authority. A thirst for fame.
A thirst for more.
This thirst overcame him just as
his curiosity had a time ago. It became all he could think about.
And so he looked around at his
surroundings. There was nothing left for him to perfect on his new land.
It was time for him to create
another. This land was to be even greater, though. It was to be as
magnificently flawed as his brother's, as well as those who he would create to
inhabit it.
He started with a sphere, going
layer by layer to shape it, painting the soft surface an earthy brown. Then he
shed light with a sun, illuminating the land through a sky that matched the
color of his eyes.
He went on, after a pause, to
carve a winding abyss throughout the surface and then filled it with glistening
blue water. Then he decided to put water above the sky as well.
Now it was time to give life to
the land. He designed various figures, made up of vibrant colors, and placed
them on the surface. This turned the land green.
As he gazed upon his creation, he
decided to also give life to the water. He made a moon to allow the waters to
move as freely as the air, and the stars to decorate the moon. As he gazed upon
his creation once again, he realized that the lives of the plants were quickly
fading, and added nutrient to the sunlight so that they would thrive.
Since he'd given life to the
water, he decided also to put life in it, and so he made fish. And since there
was life in the water, and the plants could live with company on the surface,
he decided to put various types of life on the land.
He still was not satisfied with
his creation, though. It did not yet hold the intelligence to honor him. Plants
were simple, fish were less so, and the land was home to mammals whose
intelligence was limited. And so he set out to create creatures with unlimited
brilliance, brilliance that could be accessed with something as simple as
desire.
Questions stirred though Luce's
mind as he watched from a tower in his castle as Elo worked with haste. He had
to admit that he was fascinated. What exactly was he doing with this creature
that he's created? Was he going to send it down to try to change his twin's
mind? Would it reside in Elo's home as something of a guard? Would he place it
on this new land he'd created?
All of these questions only
angered him more. 'Not only was his homeland not enough for him, but Elo is
also unpleased with the first ground he built?' he'd thought with disgust. His
thoughts were derailed, though, when Elo stepped back from this new creation
and it stood.
Luce's brows had furrowed as he
looked upon this creation. It was like him . . . but not.
It was something Luce couldn't
have imagined in his wildest thoughts.
His stare turned to Elo and Luce
watched as he murmured the word 'woman'.
'Woman,' Luce had thought. And
then he spoke the word out loud, unsure of how he felt about the way it had
felt passing his lips.
Elo was unaware of this invasion
of his privacy though, as he gazed upon his beloved creation. She was
perfection. Her hair was the surface of his Earth, her eyes the water and her
skin the clouds. Her mind was as flawless as her features.
And she instantly showed
gratitude to her creator, and as her thanks turned to devotion, her devotion
turned to love. She truly did love him.
And so he called her, "Es."
Luce was sure to keep a close eye
on Elo's next actions, and he was astounded to find that Eloe had not been
planning to do anything at all with his creation. She simply roamed Elo's land
with the sole purpose of being his companion. And with her by his side, Elo
proceeded to create more of this creature, and the next he'd called 'man'.
He placed one 'woman' and one
'man' on the new land, and he and Es, and Luce of course, watched over them.
Elo's love for his 'men' and
'women' angered Luce, and he set out to harm his brother. Not physically, as Luce
had no desire to visit Elo's 'heaven' as his creations called it, but to harm
him emotionally.
By harming his humans - as Elo
had decided to call them - because as they were all similar . . . they were not
quite the same.
And so he disguised himself as
one of Elo's 'snakes', and got the attention of the 'woman', Eve. She fell
easily into his trap, and Elo was devastated. Luce continued to trick his
precious humans for a time, as Elo created more and more and more, growing more
powerful with each and every devoted being.
One day, though, when Luce had
returned to his 'hell', as Luce's humans had called it, he began to think. If Elo
could create such creatures as his Es . . . why wouldn't Luce be capable of
such actions?
Luce quickly left his tower,
scouring hell for materials that he could use for his creation. He gathered
liquid and gas heat, several humans from the dungeons, and chunks of the marble
ground before he realized that there was one material of his land that he
hadn't yet added to his mixture.
The place where Luce had sat so
long ago had never been overcome by the heat, and remained soft in texture,
brown in color, and so he pinched some between his fingers and added it to his
concoction.
Then he mixed it all together.
A creature lay before him, one so
astonishingly beautiful that he had to blink several times to be sure that she
was real. Her hair had taken on the dark color of his once simple land, though
her brows and lashes had taken the color of the new marble ground. Her lips
were softer than any humans, and the very striking color of the liquid heat
that covered his land. Her body was firm but soft.
She was perfect.
As he thought of her purpose, he
called her "Isa."
But she was not yet alive.
Luce reached into himself and
pulled out one of his many beating hearts to place it in her chest.
Her eyes opened.
And so the story begins . . .
