The Fallen Elder God, Shinnok, sat upon his thrown at the top of his tower. He gazed out over the bleak landscape of his kingdom, the Netherrealm. Cursed by the Elder Gods after his treachery, he was bound to this place. He would not rest until he could reclaim the Earthrealm, and he would use his ally, the powerful sorcerer Quan Chi to accomplish this. As if in response to his thoughts, the pale warrior emerged from a portal.
"You have returned too quickly, Quan Chi. I doubt you have acquired my amulet already." growled Shinnok.
"No, master" replied the sorcerer as he bowed before his dark lord. "But I have discovered another Sorcerer on Earth. An agent of Outworld named Shang Tsung."
"Hmph, the puppet of Shao Kahn's." scoffed Shinnok, "I do not care for his business."
"Of course not, master. But he claims to know the location of a certain temple. Legend has it that hidden in the temple is a map that shows the location of your sacred amulet."
Finally, Shinnok's attention had been raised. He sat up in his thrown and nodded towards his servant. "Very well Quan Chi, continue."
"The sorcerer learned of this map when he absorbed the soul of a shaolin monk and a powerful warrior who his pupil had defeated in a tournament. The map will lead us to the temple where the amulet was hidden by Raiden after your defeat. In return, Shang Tsung has a favor to ask of us. He says his master, Shao Kahn, has a soul he captured and wants us to taint with evil and reincarnate in Earthrealm so that me may invade to reclaim her."
"A simple enough matter. I can defeat Shao Kahn easily enough myself, though he'd better not ruin that realm in the process."
"Also, the Gods of Earthrealm have placed many wards on both locations. Only those from Earthrealm will be able to enter either temple. I have discovered two ninja clans in Earthrealm who have warriors that might be strong enough to acquire the relics for us. One possess mastery of Fire, the other of Ice."
"Very well Quan Chi. Now where is this soul Shao Kahn would like us to corrupt for him?" The sorcerer utters a dark prayer and summons a green orb to his hand. He extends his reach and the orb floats to the fallen elder God, who looks upon it carefully. "You seem to have made a mistake, sorcerer" scowled Shinnok, "there are three souls here from Earthrealm."
"No mistake my Master. The other souls are that of a man and his grandson that I found. He was buried under the foundation of a building by his own son. His soul reached out to me with such rage that I could not ignore it. Also his grandson was tossed off a cliff by that same son. Both have sworn their loyalty to us in exchange for power. I think they will make excellent test subjects for that ritual I was telling you about."
"What?" Shinnok glared into the orb, reading the two other souls to learn their life history. He came to know of the man Heihachi Mishima, and how he betrayed his own family. "Are you certain the process is safe?"
"Yes Master Shinnok. The soul of Lucifer was very weak after we defeated him and very easy to imprison. I'm certain that using the same endowment rituals that we used to create the Brotherhood of Shadow can be adapted with another spell I recently learned from my new contact Shang Tsung. I'm certain I can tap into the soul of Lucifer and transfer his eternal strength to these mortals. Controlling them should be easy enough."
"Then so it shall be. These two, Jinpaichi and Kazuya of the Mishima family will be our first subjects for the Devil Gene transfer. They may yet prove useful in the battles to come."