"At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king nor other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man, and there is no right on earth above this right. And he stood on the threshold of freedom for which the blood of the centuries behind him had been spilled."
― Ayn Rand, Anthem
"How...Absurd..."
A Humanoid shape stood on a platform, short, dark brown hair, with naught but knee-length pants and shoes clothing him. Black and teal tattoos lined his body in ancient, archaic, antediluvian patterns aligned symmetrically along the entirey of his body. Most prominent, perhaps, is a massive horn that portruded from the nape of his neck, the Tattoo patterns leading to it. He took regular deep breaths, as if to calm himself down, Steel eyes glaring at the thing that spoke in front of him.
Alien. There was no other word to describe the thing he recently forced into submission.
It was a massive face made up of geometrical shapes serving as a core of the creature. A core around which rings akin to the rings of Saturn encased within the shell the humanoid interacts with the core. A shell from which it acted as both sun and moon of the transitory world meant to establish the foundation of a new world. All of it was a pearl white. It was shaking uncontrollably as it attempted to hold itself together.
It was called Kagutsuchi. An avatar of the great will created to consistantly destroy and create worlds until nothing but subservience remained.
"You, whose heart longs for the kingdom of freedom, a world that has no set future..."
His world. A world where humanity could determine its role in creation by itself. A world destroyed by a madman and turned into a desolate landscape to be made anew; he would have made a world where Mankind lacked its passion and drive, where silence reigns and concepts such as emotion and a sense of self did not exist: A world of unchanging stillness and silence.
"Will you disregard the past sins of the world to pursue such an ideal? It was freedom which gave rise to evil, brought darkness, and led the world to its destruction..."
The Alternatives, in his mind, are far worse: a world where the weak are slaughtered and the strong ruled, a world where every living being lives in solitude and forever unable to reach out to others, or the utter annihilation of all creation.
"Human...Demon..."
He smiled at that. A human transformed by Lucifer to something...different. Some called him the Demi-Fiend; others, Hito-Shura: One who bears demonic skin with a human heart: A Half-breed with a demon's power and a human's ability to grow, prosper, and thrive. One whom defeated whatever stood in his path, and at times gathering companions, such as the Lord of the Flies and the Voice of God, Former voice now, he supposed, and an accomplished practitioner of demon-slaying.
"Freedom is the seed of disaster: The sole fruit is ruin."
He shook his head. He has already decided on his path: his reason for the old world's return. He did not expect it to understand. He took one final deep breath and extended his right arm, Extending his power to the remains of Kagutsuchi.
The shaking intensified. The massive face opened its mouth, the light of creation on the inside writhing about with much more intensity roaring, "Naoki Kashima! You have become a slave of freedom, like that fallen angel! The kingdom you would create promises nothing but suffering!"
Naoki Kashima frowned at its growing resistance: He had already browbeaten it into submission and all that was left was for him to reach out and use that light to recreate the world he once knew.
Or at least, that's what he originally thought.
The growing resistance, while ultimately futile, seemed to warp the energies of creation that Naoki attempted to manipulate.
"I AM WILL!"
The rings revolving around Kagutsuchi suddenly stopped before beginning to rotate in the opposite direction at increasing speeds.
"I AM DESTINY!"
Naoki Frowned. He felt the taint from his last meeting with the prince of darkness beginning to taint the light he tried to manipulate before forcing it back, despite parts of the outer shell stained black because of it.
"I AM THE TRUTH!"
Kagutsuchi's outside shell begain to shake, the darkness Naoki forced back ended up crawling into the outer shell. He grasped the light of creation, and Kagutsuchi's Core began falling apart, a few giant gray pillars flying out of its face into the ground of the vortex world outside of the shell in an attempt to forcibly recreate the world of freedom from before when it was destroyed.
"AND I WILL NOT ALLOW THE WORLD TO BE DOOMED TO FAILURE!"
Kagutsuchi drew light from within to encompass its core, glowing brighter in a failed attempt at releasing the inifinite light within, before it fell apart entirely, the light engulfing itself before extending beyond, including the platform Naoki stood upon.
Everything went white. Then Dark. And in the darkness, a Blonde hair and blue eyed boy in a black suit holding the hand of an elderly woman, similarly dressed in black, smiled.
You have chosen to follow your will and tread the path of thorns... Like myself. And in time, your true adversary will appear before you.
Until that day, stay strong...
A...dream...?
Naoki squeezed his eyes shut as light filtered through the window, the rays shining directly upon his face. The cold, hard, concrete floor served as a matress as his backpack serviced as a makeshift pillow. Add in the unintelligible sounds of people outside and it was a surprise to him he managed to fall sleep at all. He draped his left arm over his eyes, Consciously regulating his breathing pattern, before bringing himself sit up. As he did so, several items falling off of his stomach onto his lap and the floor.
He blinked twice. He told himself it was merely to fight off the lingering effects of slumber rather than in disbelief of what he witnessed. It was mainly paper, but what caught his eye was a very familiar candelabrum with a business card tied to one of its branches by an ethereal string. He reached out with a reluctant hand and grabbed it, slightly tugging the card, the string fading out of existance at the movement.
He recognised the candelabrum of sovereignty, a gift from Lucifer through the lady in black, almost immediately.
He looked at the card. Apparently it was a business card printed in english for a person named Louis Cyphre. When he flipped the card around, in japanese was written, My offer is still open. Underneath the message is an encircled pentagram whose fifth point was pointed toward the bottom of the card with a six-pointed star overlaying it, the symbol itself apparently drawn in blood or some other crimson ink. He frowned, setting the candelabrum and the card aside and picking up the papers, reading them individually.
His frown grew as he went through each of the papers: One was an advertisement of a small apartment with a key, address, and phone number, another was an acceptance letter to a private school named "Kuoh Academy", apparently a school that only recently became co-educational, with an attached class schedule, and the last was a denied application to the occult research club within the academy.
He wasn't sure what he was more upset about: the fact that he has absolutely no idea what the current situation is, the fact that apparently Lucifer handled arrangements for him while he was unconscious, or the fact that he was refused entry into a school club about the occult.
First things first...
Naoki slowed his breathing and delved within himself. He merely scratched the surface and yet he still sensed the power he wielded within the vortex world that his world had become previously. Turning his attention inward, he went deeper, feeling the gifts of the two creator gods of his old world and the power from Masakados along with a majority of his strength. Within the darkest depths of his being, he felt the thing that made him what he is, slumbering after his last meeting with the one who put it there. Good, he thought: If he were to run into anything he won't be as vulnerable as he was going into the vortex world.
He took the backpack he rested upon and put the materials inside, Idly noting the school materials he might have needed already inside. He figured he'd play along with what was laid out to him for now, with no other obvious option present, and he could always fight his way out of anything sent his way. As he made his way over to the sliding metal door, he grabbed the handle to pull it open, he had a thought that gave him pause:
...Am I sure that this world is mine...?
He shook his head, banishing the thought to the depths of his mind; he can deal with it when the time calls for it.
And it is thus that Naoki Kashima, the Demi-Fiend, stepped forward into the sunlight of the new day.