Tartaros

Chapter 1: Tartaros

In the outskirts of hell, near the underworld where things of only myth exist such as demons and imps, was a large castle with several towers, thunder could be heard from around one of them surrounded by clouds and rain limited to just that tower. In the main tower of the castle, a few guild members were lounging around on the normal uneventful day. A man by the name of Ramon was feeding crackers to a raven that was sitting on his shoulders, named Edgar, ignoring the chaos brewing in the room. Right outside the room was a man named Arcturus leaning against the wall not giving a damn about what was going on inside.

"Please can we play Kiora? Sora is bored" said a short pink haired girl bouncing up and down out of impatience.

The black haired mage crossed her arms and looked at Sora "No"

A black haired mage named Ryu just stayed silent watching the two girls argue, a grin on his face in amusement of the situation.

"Please" Sora begged on the verge of crying.

Kiora sighs and lowers her arms then lets out a small smirk"Okay. Let's play hide and seek"

"Yay! Sora will go hide"

"I'll count to ten thousand then go find you"

"Hai!"

Sora starts frolicking away into the halls to find a place to hide while humming a soft tune.

From behind Kiora, a voice in a foreign accent said "That's complete rubbish"

Looking at the white haired mage, Kiora smugly asked "What ever are you talking about, Maggie?" knowing full well what her guild mate meant.

A mage with one red eye and one blue and long hair that was silver on one side and black on the other was sitting on a chair across from Maggie, sipping a glass of red wine and looked at Kiora "you're not going to look for her"

Kiora turned to Ruika and casually responded "nope"

A slight chuckle was heard across the room from a man with dark hair swaying to one side over his right eye. "That's harsh"

Kiora quickly turned around and snapped at him "Shut up Tobias!"

Tobias turned his head around with a scowl on his face "Tch. Whatever."

After Sora left the common room looking for a place to hide, she heard light fast paced footsteps coming towards her from down the dark hallway. After a few seconds, an imp appeared running towards her and stopped in front of the girl, looking at her with big its eyes. Sora let out an innocent smile and petted the imp and scratched its ear making it purr like it was in heaven. The creature climbed up the girl's torso onto her head and just laid there. The pink haired girl giggled and kept going down the halls looking into the rooms wondering where to hide. Sora turned into a hallway where it was completely black, like an abyss of darkness, feeling a chill down her spine. Suddenly, a portal began to open causing Sora and the imp to look up into it. A man with green hair stepped out noticing Sora right beside him.

"What are you doing here, Sora?

"Sora is finding a place to hide. Do you want to play Rugal?"

Rugal smiled at the fifteen year old "maybe later, but more importantly what is Asura's imp doing on your head?"

"The imp found Sora and decided to use my head as a bed. I think he likes me"

The green haired man let out a little chuckle "I'm sure he does"

Sora looked passed Rugal and into the portal he had stepped out of. There was nothing to be seen. It was like staring into an endless abyss of destruction. Out of nowhere, three pairs of gaint eyes peered into the portal looking at the girl as if staring into her soul. Sora backed up letting out a little scream, but Rugal snapped his fingers causing the portal to close. The dimension mage put his index finger to his lips "shhh…" and quietly walked away. After giving herself a few seconds to absorb what she saw, she just shrugged her shoulders and kept moving on.

Near the castle a young girls scream could be heard and everyone knew exactly what that meant.

"Mi-chans dinner is here!"

Since she was closest, Sora decided to go out and fetch the girl. A veil of shadows began to surround Sora and the imp as she lowered into the castle floor only to reappear outside of the castle. Sora immediately found the dead girl's body who had been impaled by a shadow spear in the chest. Sora had laid traps all around the castle in a wide range, about a 50 mile radius around the castle was filled with these carefully hidden traps. An aura of shadow emanates from Sora's body and covers herself and the corpse in shadows sinking into the ground, reappearing into the main castle. The girl walks through the main castle building with the corpse for a few minutes going towards the tower surrounded by clouds in the sky lightning lingering in them, the sound of thunder and it was raining only outside that tower. As Sora reached the tower, the storm like conditions began to cease. The rain slowly stopped and the clouds cleared up letting small rays of sunshine come through, almost as if something could sense Sora's presence getting closer. However, the imp did not like whatever was inside the tower, it was shivering on Sora's head as if scared of something.

"Mi-chan! Dinner!" The girl yelled from outside of the tower.

Nothing happened. Sora huffed her cheeks "fine don't come out" She surrounded the dead girl's body in shadow lowering it into the ground sending it to the inside of the tower. Immediately, the sound of skin being cleaved from bone and bones being crushed like toothpicks could be heard from inside the tower. All that could be seen inside the dark tower were two deep blood red eyes, with a vertical slit in each. Sora quietly left the tower heading back inside being able to tell her little friend did not want to be here.

Sora remembered about her game of hide and seek with Kiora and decided to go to the very top of the castle. On her way to the top, there was a bolt of red lightning that seemed to have been aimed toward the top of the castle from the tower she had just visited. The imp began shivering again. "It's okay nothing will happen" Sora said trying to comfort the creature. When she got to the top, she opened the doors to the guild masters office. As soon as Sora opened the door the, she saw four men, one sitting down on a chair and two others standing on both sides next to him and, one much taller than the other, Rugal standing next to the taller one. The imp jumped off her head and climbed onto the shoulder of the shorter man and glared at the red haired 6'7" giant standing near them.

Asura looked down at Sora and remarked "He seems to like you"

Sora playfully saluted the light blue haired man "Hai! Commander Asura-sans imp used my head as a pillow." the little girl replied

Asura let out a slight grin to Sora "Good job bringing him back soldier"

Sora's eyes lit up brightly at Asura calling her soldier. "Sora will be the best soldier ever!"

While Asura and Sora were talking, the red haired man on the other side looked at the imp with a deadly glare making it cower in fear. He had the scent of blood coming off of him and had a bone between his teeth using it as a toothpick. Sora walked to him, looked up straight in his eyes.

Sora flailed her arms around a little "Mi-chan was being a meanie!"

The giant stared down at Sora "My name. Is Mithril. Not Mi-chan. We've been over this you brat!"

"Hai…" Sora looked to the ground in disappointment that she was being scolded looking innocent as ever.

Mithril sighed clearing his throat. Sora looked up and Mithril nodded his head. The girl jumped up in happiness and grabbed his shoulders clinging on to his back poking her head beside his, letting out a content smile. Mithril scowled a little but had grown accustomed to the girls attachment.

"Are we quite done yet?" said the guild master in the chair growing impatient. "I called you two here because we have an important job to accomplish."

The demon commander raised a brow out of curiosity "And what is the nature of this job?"

Mithril just stood listening quietly with Sora resting her head on his shoulder and Rugal standing beside him quietly.

The guild master let a devious smirk cover his face "A guild raid"

After hearing this Mithril had a sadistic grin from ear to ear a fang gleaming in the light, growing more impatient by the second.

"Asura, my old friend, it's time to gather the troops"

"Of course…Daityas" Asura left the room with a grin on his face and the imp on his shoulder hopping up and down as if filled with excitement.

"Yay we get to play! Sora will go tell everyone" Sora jumped off of Mithril's shoulder and went out the door to spread the news with Asura leaving only Rugal, Mithril, and Daityas in the room.

The usually calm and collected Rugal had a sadistic grin across his face and began speaking as if his next victim was in front of him "Disappear into the abyss you lowly creature"

Mithril cracked his neck in anticipation for the raid "I can finally cut loose" his deep red eyes glowing with excitement.

Daityas stood up from his chair "soon not only Magnolia will learn to fear us, the whole world will learn to fear Tartaros."