Preamble:

Hi, this is Aegis.Kage, Admin of Animeaddiction forums here, presenting a fic written by a member, EternalFreedom-BloodFox.

All of the fic was written by him for his own pleasure and none of the characters mentioned, except original characters, belong to him and any editing that might have been done by the various betas around the forum. The storyline is also his. So don't copy it ;) ! Happy reading!

And visit Fox and the rest of the crew at our forum, just click the homepage link on the profile page!

War of the Shadows

By : EternalFreedom-BloodFox.

Prologue

They say that one's perception of Hell would be the factor that determined the realm of the damned when the person in question dies...in that there is truth...Hell and Heaven, two planes of the afterlife and all souls of both good and evil, and regardless of which reality they are descended from, had equal right to enter either world. But the realms of Chaos however...

The realms of Chaos are a different matter, filled with far greater numbers of demons and hell spawn, and each realm is separated by a seal, made long after the birth of all life, whether blessed or damned in the tapestry of various realms and alternate worlds to contain them. These realms are different from one another, in denizens and power...but all have one unifying goal, and that is to destroy their enemies and conquer all creation.

These creatures however would not be denied and sent many agents and warriors to attempt covert and open attacks, but they had always been thwarted by those chosen for various reasons and have always failed to complete their missions, returning to their realms to lick their wounds and then rally back to finish what they had begun. The Gods knew that it would not end until the time came, but could not interfere...

In the making of all reality, the beings and armies of Chaos were once united, though barely and had been a grave threat to all life in the universe when it was born and was one. After a brutal war, that necessitated the splitting of the universe into alternate parts due to the devastation, the Gods created seals to ensure that the Chaos realms would not unite again. The results of such a reunification would have devastated the now splintered realities where life existed and since the realms where life existed were splintered and kept separated, their respective forces would not be sufficient to stem the tide...and if the Gods came to their aid and waged war once more with the realms of Chaos, and with the alternate realities the way they were now...the result would have been the end of all life and the victory of Chaos over Creation.

For many eons, that had been the case...

But not anymore...

The Chaos Lords, leaders of the most powerful houses in the Chaos realms have found a way to bypass the seals that separated them from their ancestral brethren, and are now ordering the denizens of their respective realms to begin breaking the seals. The progress has increased and now the once divided forces are now amassing to strike at the seals to permanently shatter them...and with the fall of those seals...then the Chaos Hordes would rise once more and claim the realm of mortal and God for themselves. They also decided to break several worlds and take over them...to secure places for the first wave of their invasion and war.

In Heaven...

"I'm telling you...we should strike them while they are not at full strength!!!"

"Attacking them will only make the situation worse, we will be remaking the event we all dreaded since we fought them...the Sundering! YOU want us to do that again?!"

"The seals we made to keep the Chaos Hordes and their Lords separated are still active! I agree that it is a risk, but if we attack them while they are still divided we can end this and finish what we started."

"At the risk of how many Gods and Goddesses?! We lost many of our brothers and sisters in the Sundering!!! It may had been eons from the past, but we were tied with the duty of watching over the worlds after that event...if we leave the worlds now...what would be their fates if we all lose our lives and there is no one to protect them?"

"I must agree...an attack, even with all of our forces would be suicide! We may walk into an ambush and we could be overwhelmed...even with all our powers the cost will be high...even more so if they win and take over the mortal worlds. And such a strategy will weaken us gradually, the Lords each have a vast army, and even if we do succeed in destroying them, we must then fight the other Lords..."

"There are only SIX of them!!!"

"These six you describe are NOT the same Lords we slew during the Sundering!!! They had learned well from the defeats of their ancestors, they will not make the same mistakes like their people did eons before. They have also gained considerable powers since the seals separated them from their brethren. They will NOT be so easily defeated this time."

"So what do you suggest?! We wait and let them BREAK the seals instead?!"

"No...but marching at them in full might will be foolhardy and risky for all of us. We must stop them, but we must find ways to deplete their fighting strength. We have also learned that they had been sending their agents into worlds to gain allies for their war."

"What?"

"They are sending powerful agents and small forces in their respective armies into other worlds...and establishing positions of power, so when the seals are truly broken...these worlds will have little to no warning in their attacks."

"Then we must destroy their agents and their guards!"

"We run the risk of inflicting Armageddon then on that world then..."

"Are you suggesting we send covert fighters to defeat them? Where can we find such fighters? They all would have to be of great power to stand for what we will be asking of them."

"Not to mention they must be familiar with the powers of darkness, sending raw and untested recruits would be too cruel and too risky."

The Gods and Goddesses were deep in planning to handle the recent reports of the Chaos Lords and their armies. Ever since the discovery of the seals being bypassed...and attacked, the divine beings knew that what they had feared was coming to pass. But they knew that going to war like they did before would be asking for the destruction of all Creation...and that they could not allow.

"I have a suggestion." A God spoke forward, a younger God who had remained silent for the longest time since the Council deliberated.

"What do you suggest Khadeem?"

The younger God knew that what he would suggest would be met with disbelief and distrust, he knew that but he felt that what he had in mind would be for the best.

"I suggest we send beings who have both the blood of mortals and immortals in them...not demi-gods, but beings that have the powers of darkness in their blood...they wield powers gained from darkness, and from Chaos...but have human souls, hearts, and minds. Sometimes, we must use darkness to defeat darkness, and they are the best choice. Their humans sides will be their balances."

It didn't take long for some of the Gods and Goddesses to know where Khadeem was pointing to.

"You speak of them don't you Khadeem? The dhampir race?"

"Yes."

Khadeem's prediction came true as many Gods and Goddesses looked at him with disbelief.

"Dhampirs?! Why them?!"

"Why not?"

"They may be adept in slaying vampires and even some demon-kin, but they are also tainted by darkness and are forever tempted by their cursed blood to give into their darker sides. That is a dangerous risk you suggest."

"I know...however the dhampirs are also able to resist the nature of their blood thirst, can they not? Not all of them are born into evil nor do they give into it willingly, and they have proven to quite powerful in their own right."

"That may be true...but many of them are shunned by humankind and not trusted, that will no doubt affect them in many ways, along with the way they were born...many will die and some will become too unstable to be trained. Plus...they are weaker in power than vampires...we can't send the due to that and those we do send will be easily destroyed. The Chaos Lords have been known to experiment on their denizens to give them greater powers, and that will be a disadvantage."

"Not if we grant them powers that can already boost their natural talents, and give them the tools and training needed for such an undertaking." Khadeem replied earnestly.

"Even if we do...they must already be of great mental, spiritual, and physical condition for such a thing to be done. No being, with the exception of us and handle such powers. Dhampirs are the worst recipients, since they might run the risk of death since their blood with it's vampiric taint will reject the process on certain stages, they must also find great and powerful reasons to stay alive and endure the process. Considering the fatality rate of dhampir children...the mental, emotional, and social anguish they endure... and their decrease in power despite their immunities and resistances will be a deciding factor. They must be of great power, skill, experience, drive, and more...and since one out of twenty dhampirs will die Khadeem...there will be too few for us to chose for such a task as this. The dhampirs are called a race out of respect since those who do survive will not easily agree to have more of their kind born."

Khadeem nodded. "I know...but I have been watching the dhampirs of many worlds and realities for countless eons...and there ARE those who have proven themselves to be worthy of our attention. One even defeated a newly resurrected God of his world."

"The Blood God? This dhampir you speak off was the one who killed that renegade?"

"Yes...he is not the only one, there are others I also speak of who are of great lineage and have the talents we might need."

Khadeem showed his fellow Gods and Goddesses the names of the warriors he spoke of. They looked at the records and thought deeply about the implications of such things. They all faced Kami-Sama who looked at the records as well, and brought the images of the dhampir warriors in question.

After what felt like an hour to Gods and would seem like a hundred years to mortals, Kami-Sama gave his verdict.

"Before I agree to this Khadeem, they must be tested still...their records are impressive enough...but I must see them in action, and not alone, but as a unified force."

Khadeem nodded. "I know...I have already chosen a suitable testing ground for how they will operate as a unit. I will gather them first, though I will...have to get creative."

The younger God left to find his chosen fighters, and call upon their aid...while the Gods and Goddesses in Heaven continued to make their plans, and some still had doubts of Khadeem's plans.

Kami-Sama however smiled as he looked at the records Khadeem presented to him and the others. Much planning was needed now as he listened to what his generals had in mind.

Khadeem traveled the dimensional ley-lines to reach his target, the God planned what he needed to do when he met his chosen fighters...and prepare himself for a very dangerous reception...after all, dhampirs don't take kindly to being coerced. His one concern was who to pick first.

AN: This is it for now, I'll do more work before I make this fic work since I got my Ramna/KOTOR fic to work on and my other projects, see you later!