Alucinatio Palace Dungeon, 588 Kingdom Calendar
A bald fiend sat alone in a dark cell, as if in meditation. He couldn't remember how long he'd been locked up for, only the fire and fury with which the sultan had sentenced him this time. He would probably rot away in here, but in a way he almost didn't seem to care. Most of the guards generally avoided him, as he gave them serious creeps and almost never spoke. The only evidence he was even alive was that he ate what he was fed.
"Hey, Creepshow", a guard called as he opened the cell door. "Good news: you got some company now."
Suddenly, a young man was tossed in and landed face first in the sand, pale moonlight shining through the bars onto a toussled blue mane, framed with long, elven ears. The sound of the cell door shutting was heard, and the guards left.
Janus laughed to himself, a little.
The fiend opened his eyes and greeted his new cellmate. "Welcome, fiend. What foolishness brought you to this city?"
Janus rolled onto his back and relaxed. "power... splendor... conquest. You?"
The fiend couldn't help but smile at the audacity of his new cellmate. "Business..."
Janus was getting cold and, out of the blue, decided to cast a small fire in the room.
"Well, well well..." the fiend spoke. "You become more and more interesting the longer you remain here..."
"I should think so," Janus smiled. "I have been studying in the school of the prophet of Alucinatio for three years now. Only now am I satiated enough to continue onto my next goal: hand to hand combat..."
The fiend stared, silently, while Janus continued.
"...and I was told you are superb."
Janus's new friend shook his head. "You truly are a damned fool to deliberately get yourself thrown in here. I'll bet you exposed the whole school in the process, too..."
"Exposed?" Janus smirked. "...I'm the one who ratted them out."
The fiend's smile widened.
"Ohhhhh... you are something else. Well, you've found me out then, my friend. Here I am: Slash, the swordsman, at your service. Normally, I command a steep price for it, but... this is quite an unusual request. I'm afraid I will need to quadruple my going fare, considering what I offer you."
Janus smiled. "Teach me, and I will set you free."
"A bold statement," Slash replied. "Even if you do succeed, what makes you believe I won't simply skip town, or worse yet, slit your throat?"
"Because," Janus calmly stated, "We're going to conquer the kingdom. You don't desire to miss out on that, do you?"
Slash smiled. "You are still a fool, sir. I'm locked up in here for good reason. Release me and terrible things will happen because of it. You might be making the biggest mistake of your life."
Janus stood. "Swear your fealty to me, and you will serve in a pantheon as one of my highest generals. We shall forge an army which will wipe these humans from the face of the planet. Not you nor your blade shall ever go hungry again."
"Pffft, fealty..." Slash scoffed. "I don't even know your name."
Janus straightened his back, staring at Slash with his piercing green eyes. "You may call me Magus, Lord of Fiends."
Slash laughed, as if to entertain him. "Very well... ...Fiendlord."
Keeper's Dome, 2299 Kingdom Calendar
"hmmm..."
Schala watched him work on his odd ship, with some voice of terror. "Mother, Belthasar is beginning to frighten me. It's as if he has some grand plan, but even he can't comprehend it."
Zeal stared, blankly. "The Guru of Reason has always been an eccentric, Schala. In truth, he did not fit well within the kingdom for it. He was a distraction to dreamers and thinkers alike... but now? ...he's just gone crazy."
"DON'T USE THE 3/8" WRENCH! DO YOU WANT TO KILL US ALL?"
"Bless his heart..." The Queen mumbled, "But his mind doesn't have long."
Schala nodded, sadly. Belthasar and the other gurus were people she had grown up with. They were in the room when Zeal gave birth to her, even. They were also in the room when Schala first got a baby brother. Now, two of them were gone, and she was losing the last before her very eyes. "It breaks my heart to see this, Mother. He deserves better than this."
"And I deserve far worse," Zeal replied.
"Mother, please... don't say that..." Schala begged. "I need you..."
"No," Zeal replied, "actually... ...you don't. You are far stronger and more capable than you realize. I feel much the same of Janus - look how far he came! Tainted of soul, yes, but his sheer determination saw him well into adulthood."
"But... Mother... where would I go? What would I do? Belthasar says we are not to leave this wretched time period..."
"I have no quarrel with that judgement, Schala..." The queen replied, coldly, though only for a moment as she turned to her daughter with a rare, warm smile.
"...except where my children are concerned."
Alucinatio Palace, 588 Kingdom Calendar
3 days later
Alucinatio was burning to the ground.
Women and children were screaming as they fled their homes in the night. Slash hunted down and executed anyone he could find, laughing hysterically as their blood painted the walls. All the while, Magus hovered in the skies above, raining down destruction and chaos. It had all started with the soldiers - Magus did not appreciate their rough handling and poor treatment of him, but reveled in the screaming terror he squeezed from their throats.
"Your domain is an assault on my eyes and my ears..." Magus bellowed. "If you cannot abide by the word of my tongue, than you shall abide by that of my hands. Prepare to meet whatever deity consumes the souls of the damned."
Magus caught a glimpse of a purple fiend maniacally slaughtering everything in his path. He was not unnerved by what he glimpsed, and allowed him to play as if a puppy off of its leash. It was all so easy, it put a smile on his face: that he could so easily have what he wanted, damning anyone in his path. His business in Alucinatio would soon be over...
After questioning and murdering the Sultan and his family, Magus holed himself up in the royal library. He was looking for details about deep-sea ruins, particularly anything that might resemble the Ocean Palace. If his mother could pinpoint the closest location to Lavos, He surely could as well.
Several more days passed, in eerie silence. There was nobody left alive except for Slash and Magus, who was still reading.
Slash wandered the streets, looking for anyone or anything else to kill. When his hunt failed, he directed his attention back home, to the palace. In complete silence, he ascended the great stairs into the east wing and approached the closed door to the library.
*KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.*
Magus was so into what he was reading, it was as if he didn't even hear it.
*KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.*
Again, Magus was busy mumbling a book's words to himself, still wearing the same clothes, as the morning sun shone into the windows. Had he even slept?
Finally, Slash just walked in, finding Magus just sitting there at a table, with his book.
"HEY! COULD YOU NOT HEAR ME KNOCKING?"
"I heard you just fine, Slash", Magus replied. "I was hoping you'd go away."
"Man, there is nothing left to do in this town. We've cleaned it out! What are you even looking for anyways?"
Magus thought to himself. What to tell Slash... what to tell Slash...
A smile crossed his face.
"The ultimate weapon, of course. I intend to bring forth an evil that will annihilate humanity in a single night... and I think I have found just where beneath the earth it resides..."
Magus got up from his chair and left with Slash, one particular word in the book he left behind had been underlined.
Medina.