Prologue

It was dark, but a sound was penetrating the silence. The sound of a match being lit. It is heard a few more time before a flame appears illuminating the gloved hand holding the match. The match was used to light a candle before it was shaken out.

The hand then grabs the candle and holds it up slightly illuminating the body of the person holding the candle. They walk forward and the candle begins to shed its light on a library bookshelf. The person's free hand begin to run their gloved fingers along the several books on the bookshelf before stopping on a rather thick book with an old grey cover. The book was pulled of the shelf and brought to a desk where another candle was lit to provide a better lighting.

The book was put on the desk to reveal a red design depicting a ruby set into the front cover. Engraved into the cover above the symbol read 'Legends of the Underworld' the person who grabbed the book opened it to the Table of Contents. There were several stories in the book, but one in particular caught her attention. Despite being alone in the room the reader read out loud, "The Imprisonment of the Demon Prince," the reader said showing that she was young and female, possibly in her teenaged years. The girl found the page number and flipped to that section of the book. The girl started to read and soon found herself getting lost in the legend.

'Ever since the beginning of time, evil has plagued this world in the form of demons and monsters. Those who resist were the humans who were fighting in order to banish them for their wrong doings…' she read as she pictured in in her mind.

The war was devastating to forces on both sides. Demons of all forms, shapes and sizes fought against humans, blood ran through the ground like a river and dead bodies were everywhere. Using the weapons they were armed with sliced at the demons causing deep wounds allowing the black blood to ooze out of their bodies.

The demons and beings of darkness fought back with incredible strength, the large ones knocking large amounts of soldiers to the side, some grabbing them and crush or literally ripping them apart. The ones with wings would grab lift soldiers into the air and use them as projectiles by throwing or dropping them on the other humans.

'Leading these foul beings of creation was the Demon Queen; Slythia and her most powerful advisors. Four shadow-like being known as the Shades. It was their influence that held the armies of the demonic together.'

In front of the armies were four three-dimensional silhouettes that had was looked like black wisps of smoke dancing around their bodies. Their forms depicted that two of them were male and the other two were female. In the center of them was a woman that was make any man or demon shiver to look at.

Her skin was dark grey and scaly with black marking across her body. Her face was sharp and angular with fiery red eyes with black slits instead of pupils. A black forked tongue occasionally darted out her mouth and past her thin lips, whenever she opened her mouth it would reveal sharp yellow teeth with long and sharp canines that passed for fangs. She had barely any hair on the top of her head with lines of small horns on the top and side of her scalp running down her back, any hair she did have was on the sides around her long pointed ears and black as pure darkness. Like the rest of her body, her arms were thin, almost bony, but looked powerful none the less. Her fingers were long with long back nails She didn't have any legs, instead she had a long serpentine tail with the end equipped with several spikes.

Slythia slithered forward and looked around and the carnage happening around her, but what caught her demented gaze was how they were fighting, they were trying to destroy her forces yes, but they were also acting as some sort of a wall. She began to lean back on her tail to raise herself higher to give herself a better look at what was happening.

She saw that in the center of their forces a circle of robed men were performing some sort of ritual, eyes widening she came back down to the Shades' level, "Break through their forces," she said in a threatening and shady voice that sounded like a harsh whisper, "destroy anyone that gets in your way!" she commanded before slithering forward at incredible speeds towards where she saw the circle of mages.

Soldiers advanced on her making attempts to slow her down, they succeeded, but not for very long. Ever attack she would twist around or avoid and then she would strike. She would either knock them aside with a lightning fast flick of her tail. Use her claw-like nails to stab people or slice them across the chest. Whenever show could she would even use the spike at the end on her tail to stab clean through several people at the same time.

As Slythia got closer to her destination the more covered in blood she got, just not and never her own. She plowed her way through their forces before she reached the circle of mages, there was an intense and powerful magic building in the center of the circle.

The glow of the magic was intense, to the point that it blinded Slythia. One of the mages looked up and glared at her, "Too late… bitch." He said before all of the mages exploded into intense beams of light that shot into the sky.

'The only way the mages could end this war was to sacrifice their lives in order to create a force powerful enough to banish Slythia and her demon horde to the darkest and deepest pit in the underworld.'

A wind started to pick up, a wind that pulled and tore at Slythia's entire being. She felt herself pulling towards the light. She turned around and dung her claws into the earth beneath her and tried to crawl away. She saw that it wasn't just her. The Shades and the rest of her demon army were being pulled in as well, in fact the light was causing their forms to deteriorate into ashes that were being sucked in. Slythia looked at saw the same was happening to her own body.

She looked up, if her look could kill everyone in front of her would be skeletons, "I swear one day I will return and when I do, nothing will stand a chance." She screeched at them before the force was too much and she too was pulled into the glaring white light turning into dust as she went.

'It was a mighty victory for humanity, and there was an era of peace, but in the underworld the demon continued to exist, it even continued to thrive. The Underworld was a desolate land and made from bedrock and obsidian, anything that grew there was shriveled and black. There were rivers, but no water, only lava. Nothing here was meant survive, but still they still lived on. It was a torturous hell of an existence, and yet in this place of suffering and death. Life was created. Born in the darkness was a boy, named (Y/N). The son of Slythia.'

The land was crawling with demons fighting, griping and anything else they could to make their banishment more meaningful, some of him were even mining into the ground with their powerful claws. Slythia was coiled in the center of all the demons, in the center of her coils was something being wrapped in a black tattered cloth. Inside the bundle was a small creature with what could grow to be horns, wings and a tail, more specifically Slythia's son (Y/N); the Demon Prince. For the first time in eons, the Demon Horde had a potential heir to the throne.

'Even at a young age the Demon Prince showed great power, it showed great potential and his mother was glad to have him in her forces.'

Years passed and now you looked like a human, but not exactly like one. The only clothing you were wearing was a loincloth made from a coarse furry skin. Your skin was the color of grey charcoal, but your veins would occasionally pulse red. Your body was a little thin, but athletic as you were showing signs of powerful muscles. Your nails were long due to them never getting clipped and they were very filthy. Your hair was shaggy, wild and a little greasy and dark as the black of night. Coming out of the sides of your head were horns, similar to a ram's. Your eyes were those of a human, but the irises were blood red. Stretching from your back was a set of black wings, what stood out about these wings was that they were feathered. You also had a tail, it was the same color as your skin and it was pretty long with a barbed arrowhead at the end.

You were surrounded by lesser demons, they were attacking you to see how you would hold out. Your movements were clumsy, but that didn't mean they were powerful. You would dodge attacks and leap into the air for aerial attacks. When one of the bulkier demons tries to grab you out of the air you dodge in before diving and leaping onto the back of the demon's head and pretty much getting a ride on the demon's shoulders.

The demon tried grabbing at you, but you reacted out of instinct by stabbing the demon through the back and into its spine with the barb on the end on your tail. You then put your palms on the side of the demon's head and your vein and your eyes glowed brightly and the demon's resistance immediately halted, in fact it began to attack the other lesser demons; you were controlling the demon.

You commanded it to rip your opponents apart, literally. Limbs and blood were scattered and soon they only one left was the one you were riding on. You no longer had any use for this demon, so you stood upright on the demon's shoulder and pushed down on the shoulders with your feet while you pulled on its head with your hands using your wing to lift yourself up.

After a few seconds of pulling you suddenly launched into the air when you ripped off the demon's head, which was accompanied with the sickening sound of ripping flesh. You hovered in the air the demon's head in your arms. You dropped it and turned to the demon's surrounding you with a triumphant and demented grin that showed your sharpened teeth, "At least make this a challenge!" you shouted, your voice was cold, sharp and steely, it was like a swordfight was happening inside every word you spoke.

'As the years progressed his power only grew and intimidated even the toughest enemies, for nothing like him had ever existed before. But this was a problem, especially for Slythia and the Shades.'

Slythia watched the way you fought off your opponents with a neutral expression, but her eyes were glinted with worry, "He's strong." A male voice echoed in her mind, the Shade couldn't speak, instead they communicated through telepathy.

Slythia turned around, "Stronger than I expected, and he keeps growing in strength." She hissed. "This bodes ill."

"Aren't we proud to have such a powerful entity as our Demon Prince?" Another Shade asked.

She shook her head, "Not if we may be unable to keep him under control," she turned around, "Look at him, he's already established a grip of intimidation on the demons through demonstrations of his power even though he may not realize it, if he became powerful enough and started to take things into his own hands. He would be able to overthrow and destroy any one of us." She explained before turning back toward her Shade's. "We have to prevent this."

"How?" a female Shade asked, "We can't banish him, we're already in the Underworld, and if what you say is true any attack made against him would be easily overcome."

Slythia thought for a minute, "We can't banish him," she said, "But we can curse or bind him." she said slithering to a crudely crafted obsidian chest. she opened the chest to reveal several rough and uncut gems. Years of mining the rocky walls and floors of the Underworld had resulted in the finding of a few things, this chest of precious gems was only what Slythia had decided to keep. She fished around the gems before grabbing a rough and raw blood red ruby that took up a good deal of her palm. "By containing, we are controlling." She hissed as she looked at the gem.

'To prevent the Demon Prince (Y/N) from getting too powerful, Slythia and her Underworld Council of Shades devised a spell that would imprison him inside a ruby.'

Slythia waited in a room made for practicing black magic and performing rituals. You flew into the room since it didn't have a ceiling, you landed in a kneeling position as you folded your wings. Your impact almost made the ground shake beneath you. You stood up and bowed your head slightly towards the Demon Queen, "You summoned me my queen." You said, even though Slythia was your mother you still had to refer her as the Demon Queen.

"Yes I did," she said as she slowly slithered toward you, "Do you know why I summoned you here?" she asked, you shook your head, "It's to discuss your power and training." She said.

"Am I not trying hard enough, if that is the case I assure I can-" she silenced you by raising a hand.

"You're doing fine, far better than we could've hoped." She said, you would've felt proud, but the way she said it made you assume she wasn't proud, "but that's a bit of a problem. You see though you may be the prince, I have to do this for the council's and my sake." She said before screeching something that would instantly shatter glass. Your hands went to your ears and you had a hard time concentrating on anything.

From each of the corners of the room emerged one of the Shades, as they did each one of them formed their arms into black shadowy chains that were sent towards you and wrapped around your body pinning your arms and wings tightly against your body. You tried to resist, but your mother's screeching prevented you from doing so. Each of the Shades began to softly chant and the chains around you began to turn a deep crimson color.

In front of you Slythia held out her hand where the blood red ruby rested in her palm. Like the chains, it darkened a few shades until it was crimson and floated out of her hand and towards you.

The screeching was giving you a migraine, but you feel something inside yourself. It was pain, a pain strong enough to feel like you were being ripped apart from the inside. Your skin looked like it was beginning to crack with red energy being built up inside you. your eyes began to glow and when you screamed it was accompanied by red energy leaving your mouth.

Slythia ended the screech as the glow continued to increase before your entire body was transformed into red energy with a bright flash. Your screams ended as the red energy began to become absorbed by the ruby. When all of the energy was absorbed Slythia reached for the ruby when it vanished with a flash of red smoke.

'What they did not know was that when they did imprison and bind (Y/N) inside the ruby was that they energy was enough to send the ruby to a hidden place in the mortal realm. Slythia was furious, commanding the Shades to look for the ruby. To do so they made contact with the few remaining demons that weren't banished in the Great War. Telling them to search far and wide into every crevice and dark place they could to find, but as they search word spread to the humans of the Imprisoned Demon Prince. Everyone that could was searching for the ruby, but years, decades, even centuries of searching and the ruby was never found. No one really knows what would happen if anyone does find this ruby, but according to legend; whoever controls the ruby, controls him.'

The girl reading leaned back in her seat after finishing the legend, "Incredible," she said silently.

"Princess Elsa?" a voice said from behind her causing the sixteen year old princess to jump and turn around to see Kai, the lead servant in the library doorway a lantern in his hand. She hadn't even heard the door opening. Kai gave her a look, "What are you doing in here at this hour? It's far past your bedtime." he asked approaching the princess.

"Just a little late night reading," Elsa said looking down, her cheeks blushing in embarrassment. Kai only nodded and walked to the desk and looked at the book she was reading.

"Princess Elsa I don't think your father would want you reading such dark stories." He said before putting out the candles on the desk and closing the book and returning it to its spot on the bookshelf.

"I saw the book during my lessons and got curious," Elsa admitted looking at the book, "Is it true?" she asked and Kai gave her a confused look, "What the book says?" she asked and Kai chuckled.

"Well Elsa it's very unlikely, just think of it as stories to get treasure hunters motivated or to scared small children into behaving." He said, some of the part she read were a little scary, "Besides who could a book filled with tales of the Underworld come her to the mortal world?"

"I hadn't thought of that." Elsa admitted and Kai nodded.

"You shouldn't worry about those stories," Kai said, "but you should be heading off to bed." He said holding a hand out to her. Elsa looked at the hand and backed a few steps he hands coming protectively to her chest.

"I know the way, I can walk myself." She said politely and quickly walked out of the room.

After walking into her partially ice-covered room, Elsa closed the door to keep any ice from escaping. Even as she was climbing into her bed, all she could think about was the story. Was there really a ruby with a Demon Prince trapped inside it? was the last thing she thought before drifting to sleep.

-*X*x*X*-

Now that's a story worth reading wouldn't you say?

Now I have to admit I didn't get this idea on my own, I'd like to thank Zalgo's Jinchuriki for giving me the idea. I certainly had a fun time writing this prologue.

Hopefully I was able to catch you guy's attention enough to have you favorite or follow this story and don't forget to leave a review as well.

This chapter was unlike anything I had ever written before, so feel free to flame and criticize, but if I did a good job please go below and take ten seconds to write a quick review and there's a chance of there being review responses in the next chapter.

Speaking of the next chapter, the next chapter will be taking place after the Great Thaw and Frozen Fever. Just thought I'd give you the heads up.

I'll give you guys the next chapter when I can, until then this is W. R. Winters signing off.