Mission 17

Prehistory Call - At the Master's Command

It was worth fighting. Both in the underworld to prove power and take control over the demons as a self-titled king, and in the world of the mortals whose white helpers would now be history forever. No sanctity of the Empire of the Gods would ever be seen again. Their former existence ought to be forgotten. He would ensure that.

With Mundus' lordship over the demon world, a new age had begun. Everyone and everything was at his command and under his control. In the end, it was him who brought victory over good to the dark beings, breaking the law of nature with that.

However, a king - also someone like Mundus - needed excellent advisors to ensure his everlasting rule. That was the convincement of the Demons of the Times.

Even then, being a demon was not always easy. Especially not when a demon realized that another nearby demon was a danger and that its own life was at stake. Devilish beings lacked sense of community, and rivalries within their own ranks were commonplace. This is still the case today.

The Demons of the Times - originally a trio - had special abilities that distinguished them from ordinary demons. Among them were Histus who had the gift of seeing events happening in the past, Presencia as a female demon with the power of calling up current events, and Futuras the prophetic demon with clairvoyant abilities. Although they were not able to intervene in any of the events that took place in those certain time periods, their abilities were still of great use to them.

None of the other demons knew about their special talents. However, they did know about their weak physical power. So Histus, Presencia, and Futuras had been good fodder for all the demons but with the help of their abilities, especially those of Futuras, they were able to escape any harm and to act preventively early enough.

Nevertheless, the Demons of the Times were looking for permanent protection which Mundus would provide to them. In return, they offered him to assist as his imperial advisors.

In fact, Mundus entered into this type of arrangement after recognizing their talents.

By and by, Mundus' regime expanded, including Abylum and Berial who did not seek his protection and mercy primarily, but asked him for dominion over sections of the demon world. Naturally, Mundus was reluctant to give up power, and in any case, he wanted to prevent even a single demon from having the slightest chance of becoming stronger than himself. Still, he decided to assign certain territories to Abylum and Berial as a greater influence would make them better servants which Mundus would need if a force majeure were about to arise and to revolt against him. Even though he himself considered the chance of this to be quite little.

As a master of the burning element, he gave Berial the Fire Hell and Abylum was allowed to build his Slave Garden which he filled with humans and insignificant demons.

Of the two, Abylum was of particular interest to Mundus as he discovered that this demon, in addition to the Demons of the Times as unique beings, also had a special gift which he tested on his lackeys in his realm. It became clear that Abylum could toy with the skills of others. May it be to steal and to make them his own, to destroy them or to transform them at his will.

Histus, Presencia and Futuras, however, were always retained by Mundus as his close advisors. Not only to check what was happening in the demon world at that time or what would be happening, but also to be entertained by them, just as he used Histus' abilities to see the past.

Never before had there been anything really exciting in Futuras' visions, but this time it was to be different. He saw a demon named Sparda rising from the masses and taking sides with the humans. He fought for them, protected and freed them from the enslavement of the demons, and killed Mundus. This vision was followed by a second one. Before his eyes, a completely new species presented itself - the Blood Angel. Long after Sparda's deeds which would include leaving descendants, with her birth, she would be getting imposed the task of correcting the imbalance created by the ruler of darkness.

Immediately, he had to share this vision with Mundus, especially that of his master's defeat. Mundus mocked him and did not take his warning seriously. Yes, Sparda who by now had also been accepted into Mundus' narrow circle always showed impressive strength and led his troops well, but he would never dare such treachery. Rather something else severe would happen than that event of Futuras' alleged prediction.

Futuras tried to convince him of the truthfulness of his vision. So far, all his smaller predictions came true. Mundus, however, stuck to his view and did not believe him. Rather, he had to doubt the general loyalty of his servant and to question himself if Futuras did not want to fool him.

Mundus had to verify the accuracy of Futuras' statement in some way. He summoned Abylum and wanted to make use of his gift as a Skill Manipulator. He ordered Abylum to take Futuras' abilities of future prediction and transfer them to Mundus instead. That would allow the demon king to see for himself what was about to happen in the future without any possible false influence from Futuras. That was also meant to be the moment of dispossession of Futuras' ability.

Abylum extended his tentacles and shot them in Futuras' direction. He managed to take the ability of the prophecy away from Futuras, but failed in his attempt to transfer it to Mundus. Abylum even found that the ability of predicting the future had been lost.

"Lurdan!" Mundus shouted angrily but did not punish Abylum for his failure.

After all, Futuras had just received punishment for the lie that Mundus was still surmising. On top of that, he banished him from his castle and denied protection to make the bad luck perfect for Futuras.

"Let this be a warning to you if you might think about betraying me!" He addressed his sharp words to Histus and Presencia.

These two demons should now also walk away, but only for a certain time. Abylum was supposed to stay with his leader.

Futuras' words, although Mundus still considered them to be a bare lie, made the desire for more power rise in him. He also wanted to give Abylum a chance to make amends for his mistake. Mundus wondered what Abylum could conjure up for him to bring back his good mood. Finally, the idea of immortality came to him. If Mundus were immortal, what power would there be to fear?

"Abylum try hard!" The King of Slaves and Skill Manipulator replied. "But Abylum need more power from demons! Abylum must have great power for spell! Could be reason why not worked that Abylum create talent of future for Mundus!"

With this explanation, Abylum wanted to tell his master that he needed the life energy of more demons through which power he would have a higher chance to make the desired ability happen for Mundus. Immortality, after all, was not some simple ability, but an absolute one that would make Mundus unsurpassable and unique. It would make Mundus a kind of deity that he already thought he was.

Mundus granted him time in which Abylum gathered strength by draining the life energy of other demons. When he was ready for the spell of the complex gift, he returned back to Mundus.

Once again, with Presencia and Histus excluded, Abylum began his ritual. He used his tentacles and casted kind of a spell or command, probably for better concentration:

"Make that ruler of demon world ... immortal!" Abylum exclaimed.

A short moment passed as Abylum finally started to laugh joyfully and proudly. "Did it! ... Great Mundus feel power?!"

The demon king was skeptical. Indeed, he felt a powerful impulse in his body that even Abylum could sense as an aura, apparently.

"This shall be the power of immortality?!"

"Yes! Yes!" Abylum nodded. "Mundus can test ability when have fight for life and death! Mundus can lose but Mundus not die because immortal!" Abylum giggled.

"Quiet!" Mundus yelled and Abylum fell silent out of shock.

Mundus was anything but amused by Abylum's utterance. The attainment of immortality was a serious matter for him, and he had to be one hundred percent sure that this ability was now his. It was simply unacceptable that he first had to go through a life-threatening struggle to experience whether he had eternal life or not. He needed to know it right now, and it bothered him that he could not determine this immensely important fact in this very moment.

Even though Mundus did not like the casual words of the Skill Manipulator and it was impossible for him to comprehend if Abylum had done his job properly, he let him go - completely neutral, without any reward or punishment.

While Abylum was busy creating the special ability for Mundus who himself had been distracted as well, Futuras ambushed his demon sister Presencia and his demon brother Histus. Because of her ability of seeing present happenings, Presencia knew that Futuras would seek them out but neither Presencia nor Histus knew of his intention. Futuras quickly let them know when he attacked and engaged them in a battle.

Not only was it Futuras who possessed the most impressive and important ability of the three, but he was also the one who had the strongest physical power compared to that of his demon siblings. Thus he succeeded in defeating Presencia and Histus. Out of pure hatred and jealousy that both of them were allowed to keep their abilities, he wanted to kill them, but Presencia and Histus made him an interesting offer which, among other things, should guarantee their survival. They were willing to transfer their power to him; then he could at least witness past and present events. Otherwise they would die here and now and take their abilities with them.

Futuras agreed. He did not kill them, and in gratitude, Presencia and Histus disbanded to leave their abilities to Futuras.

Already, Futuras knew what kind of fate would await him. Now that Presencia and Histus were anchored within him and had no longer a physical presence, Mundus would wonder where his two servants had gone, and eventually conclude that Futuras were responsible for their disappearance. But killing them had not been a better alternative for him.

So Futuras was soon to face the next punishment which was also intended to have an eternal effect on him: Mundus banished him to Berial into the Fire Hell.

While Futuras was tormented by the flames, his prediction came true and Sparda confronted Mundus.