If you would like to skip straight to the beginning of the events on Earth, please begin at Chapter 3.
Prologue
-AGE 474-
275 YEARS BEFORE THE EVENTS OF THE EMPEROR PILAF SAGA
The Demon Realm:
It had been a year since Demon King Shula had ascended to the throne of the Demon Realm. A civilization of mages, evil, and disorder. For all of the idealization that could come of a civilization consisting mostly of those capable of inhuman magical feats, the conniving nature and danger presented by the many unknown spells of the inhabitants made the reality of this world a grim one. Your average demon only had a power level of around 50 and the majority of them possessed magical powers, albeit fleeting ones. These served little threat to the military or newfound monarchy, but there was always the ever present threat of an exceptionally gifted commoner rising and challenging for the throne. Civilian militaries and these commoners who would come around every so often had plunged the Demon Realm into anarchy.
Average civilians had very little food, as the Demon Realm's harsh hot and dry climate was antithetical to agriculture of any kind. Civilians were taught from a young age to hone their magic to a level of which they could sustain themselves. Indeed, this world's form of schooling mostly just consisted of the bare basics and magic training. Some civilians used their magic for the creation of food and restaurants, others for the construction of buildings, and other such professions and niches. In a lot of ways, it wasn't all that different from the dimension that most of the universe called home. The critical problem other than the climate however? The population size. The demon realm had very few inhabitants; only around 1,000 demons could call the small area home and it was blocked off from the outside world. The population had been quartered down from 4,000 after the disorder that followed the secession of the previous monarch.
For thousands of years, inhabitants of the realm fought each other in bloody battles to determine the next king. Militias clashed and lots of people died. In the Demon Realm, force governed above all else and the majority of the many factions split battling for the throne committed atrocity after atrocity. Nobody was spared. In fact, entire villages would be slaughtered as a form of psychological warfare. Sometimes even just for sport, caring little of the prey being the own kind of the predators. Amidst these bloody atrocities and battles, all of the factions continued to do nothing but weaken themselves and freeze the Demon Realm in it's state of perpetual anarchy.
Eventually in the age 470, Shula and a force consisting of three generals, all of whom possessed spectacular fighting prowess, rose to the forefront of the conflict. The generals and their army that consisted of around 200 demons began to finally break the eternal deadlock. His loyal commanders consisted of Gola, Melee, and Dabura alongside their respective armies. Gola was a giant purple man who sported a Viking helmet and a giant longsword, Melee was an attractive female demon who took the shape of a humanoid sporting pointy ears, and Dabura was a muscular red-toned man with horns in a blue robe, alongside a white cape. The average military soldier possessed a power level of around 150 while Gola and Melee possessed powers in the 1,000 range, making them exceptionally powerful demons. Shula's power itself was around 1,500. All three were masters of martial arts, and their abilities far exceeded their power in thanks to their high combat intellect. Dabura however possessed freakish abilities, his abilities surpassed even that of the newly coronated king's and he also utilized incredibly powerful spells such as his infamous stone spit and weapon creation techniques. Shula doubted he had ever even seen Dabura's full power, but at his base it was at least 3,000 despite being a mere teenager by demon standards.
The king's right hand man had been of a modest upbringing, born alongside his sister Towa in a small hut out by the countryside. Demons live for very long periods of time, usually around 1,000 years. As a result, their lifespans are altered and demons age incredibly slowly. It's estimated that Dabura was born sometime in the 370s, his younger sister coming later in the 380s. At this point, Dabura's appearance resembled that of a boy in his mid to late teens, as being "only" around 100 years old is young for a demon. During a patrol in which Shula and his two loyal commanders were searching for remnants of an opposing faction, he walked into the home and asked them questions about their whereabouts and if they had seen certain targets. When Dabura answered the door, Shula could sense the boy's latent potential and recruited him for his corps. Dabura immediately separated himself far beyond the average foot soldiers, and after completely obliterating an enemies flank by himself later in the patrol Shula made him a commander within the day of his recruitment.
For the next 3 years, the four of them alongside their loyal soldiers would exterminate all of the remaining resistance from enemy factions. Most of these were concentrated in guerilla campaigns, and it became clear in age 472 that it was only a matter of time until Shula became the next Demon King as the remaining resistance wilted and crumbled away. Shula was already the strongest man in the Realm besides Dabura, and his corps consisted of two more of the strongest demons alive. Now with Dabura by his side, he had become unstoppable. Shula knew that Dabura could likely defeat him however, so he was very sure to be accommodating towards him as to not foster any feelings of resentment. The rag tag war band had turned into something like a family, though all of them had their dark impulses being demons and all, it didn't mean they were unfeeling monsters by any stretch. Eventually, in Age 473, Shula declared himself the Demon King and after many years took the palace as his own. The palace had been abandoned and left standing out of respect, with all of the factions that had competed for it figuring it would be in their grasp. But at last, Shula had risen to the top of it and officially ruled the Realm as the new Demon King.
This wasn't the end of the story though, as stated earlier the Demon Realm at this point had all but become a dying world thanks to it's conflict and strife. There was very little food thanks to the mindless slaughter of many of the mages who specialized in it's production. Very few buildings remained standing in any of the villages, and the capitol city the palace was situated in was over 50% destroyed. The mindset had often been "If we can't have it, nobody can." and with consequences to the population be damned, food mages, construction mages, transportation mages, and other such people who were integral to every day life for most of the populace were slaughtered in the war. There very also few women remaining to give birth and continue the procreation of the demon race, many had been violated and then taken into slavery as spoils of war before often being executed by an opposing faction following a battle or capture of a stronghold. Most of those remaining were older demons who were towards the end of their life, as the elderly typically lived somewhat isolated from the young and were able to survive the war in larger numbers thanks to their greater wisdom. Some had even existed prior to the war's beginning.
The Demon race was set to perish at the rate things were headed. Shula had hoped that peacetime would cause more demons to be born, but the population kept slowly but surely declining even further. He wasn't even sure if it exceeded 1,000 at this point. Shula also had to re-establish schools as many had been erased in the fighting, alongside having construction mages essentially recreate villages from the ground up. Small shops, restaurants, inns, and villages began appearing. In year 2 of his rule, Shula had turned around many aspects of day to day life, and though things certainly weren't perfect he had earned support from the majority of the populace.
Gola and Melee took on titles that made them the top commanders of the military forces. Dabura, while still interested in military operations, had become more interested in the politics of the kingdom himself. Shula knew that he had to keep Dabura on his side, so despite being so young for the standards of a demon he granted him a very high ranking position in the kingdom. He had become Shula's top advisor, and Minister of Kingdomly Affairs. Shula and Dabura often disagreed on issues however. Both of them were interested in keeping these disagreements civil, and compromises often had to be made.
Both of them felt the engine of the Kingdom had to be jumpstarted before focusing on smaller problems. The primary difference was that the two had different views on what that engine was. Dabura believed the first priority should be restoring the populace by encouraging procreation and as such he thought that it should be required for all married couples to produce at least 3 children. Shula believed this view to be too authoritarian in nature, and himself was more worried about restoring necessities for daily life before focusing on such affairs. With how widdled down the Demon Realm's infrastructure was, Shula's plan seemed to make the most sense given the circumstances to Melee and Gola, who usually sided with Shula.
As more of this infrastructure began to sprout up however, Dabura began to push more and more, feeling as if the conditions were proper for the repopulation efforts to finally come under way. Shula was still hesitant, feeling that the existing progress wasn't quite enough to undertake such a campaign just yet and he also felt Dabura's methods to be too extreme. In the background, Shula started to quietly hone his own skills with lots of intensive training in the 2 years since he had become king. He believed having someone in his own kingdom so much more powerful than himself to be precarious and his power had risen into the 2000s in the years that had passed. Dabura himself was also a workaholic, and his power had also increased, but Shula felt that the three of him, Melee, and Gola could handle things if worst came to worst. Any king must plan ahead for the worst case scenarios, but Shula still believed things would be easily resolved and that the Demon Realm would return to relative prosperity in short time. Dabura was a reasonable man, and neither of them felt any reason to be threatened by the other despite their powers. Whatever disagreements there were would be cleared up soon.
Later today, Dabura, Melee, Gola, and Shula were to hold a meeting to discuss pressing matters. The current infrastructure would be able to support the existing population in due time, it was a matter of getting things kickstarted. Soon, most of those alive in the demon realm would finally be able to escape some of their harsh realities. All of the restaurants, constructions, and other such things Shula had funded and fostered were to be completed soon, and most schools across the kingdom were re-opening for the young ones to learn these skills. The kingdom had to decide what would be done next and Shula also felt that the former warband needed to recruit more people to be involved in governance as four opinions may not be quite enough. Gola and Melee typically didn't have the strongest opinions on governance, they were more of the warrior type anyways so it was more like two opinions though the duo would still always be invited to events such as this one thanks to their standing. A more formal government, instead of two men and the two military commanders holding all of the power, would be more fruitful for results he felt so long as they recognized that they were lower in the pecking order than these four. This discussion and recruiting would take place later today during the meeting.
Unbeknownst to them, an unexpected, uninvited visitor would also be making an appearance with nefarious plans of his own. -
Author's Notes: This is the first true fanfiction I've wrote in a very long time. I certainly can't guarantee that this will continue, but I do like the concept I've come up with for this and if I continue to enjoy writing it I'll continue. Most of the following chapters will be longer than this one; it's mostly meant to provide some basic background and the major events of the story will started unfolding in chapter 1. This is also not how the majority of this story will be wrote; each chapter will usually be split into a first person perspective of a specific character before then switching to another. As for a general gist of how this will be handed (MINOR SPOILERS):
The story itself will mostly cover going ons in the demon realm early on, before eventually time skipping to the events following the Great Saiyaman arc. This story itself is meant to serve as an "alternative" arc to the Majin Buu saga. It's very possible though that IF I continue, I'll attempt to write follow ups since quite a few of the characters will have significant changes in this timeline of events. I have no intention on writing a bunch of filler to artificially pad the length out however so if I can't come up with anything good it'll just end how it ends. Anyways, a sincere thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you found it interesting.