The Dark Brilliance
Prologue

In the beginning, there had been nothing. Even chaos was unborn, and their were no paradises of good, nor cages of darkness. No gods kept order to help the living, and no demons tortured the dead for their evil deeds in life. All of existence was an empty barrenness, like an ever-boring hole into the depths of eternity.

Some ask what chaos is. And some wonder if chaos and nothingness are the same.

Chaos is not entirely destruction, though it is impossible to put into true words. It is both the building blocks, and the wrecking ball, of the structure of creation itself. It is what life, emotions, and all that is "real" comes from, and it is what that reality will eventually return to, no matter how hard life tries to stop it. True, it can be darkness, but it can be much, much more...

Nothingness is different. It is believed that all had evolved from chaos, and that all will return to chaos, though chaos itself cannot be seen; only the destruction it brings. However, long before chaos, before the very depths of time had even started to glow, and far before the knowledge of even the Mother of All Things, the void of emptyness had existed. It cannot even truly be called a void, for a void sometimes has shape and form. If nothingness is truly a void, then it has swallowed itself, and all traces of it. And after creation, and then after chaos, nothingness would appear again, or rather, be exposed, countless aeons after all life had been wiped off.

The nothingness gave birth to chaos, and the Lord of Nightmares came into being to take Her place as the guardian of this force. She took chaos into her hands, and started creation. She shaped the four worlds, along with many others. She made the Dark Golden Sea of Chaos. And She balanced the worlds, putting all of her knowledge into making them right, until it eventually evolved into the Slayers world of present times. She could have been the Supreme Ruler of all, and commanded her creations to serve her, but She did not. Wise and fair, though She had no true form, the Lord of Nightmares believed, if believing was not beyond Her, that keeping balance so that life and competition would thrive was the most important thing she could give. And could keep.

But as this period of miracles and balance took place, something else was forming. Something horrible. Something far, far stronger than should be allowed to exist in this universe, or any other. Nothing else formed of chaos or creation knew of Its existence, including the Lord of Nightmares. This was just as well, or creation would have slain itself, instead of facing the being's awful wrath. Chaos was Its plaything as well, and It could create, just like the Mother of All Things, but It could also destroy, utterly and completely. And that was what It wished. It was a dark being, but far beyond the purest, evilest, pitch-black, and exponentially surpassing all other sin that had ever existed. It was something that would cause grown men to wake up screaming in the night, and would produce insanity, absolute fear, and desperate begs for mercy. But It was not something not would listen to mercy. It would rip Its terrified victim apart, piece by piece, as the victim screamed and begged for death, the victim's voice echoing painfully and endlessly among the cloth of nightmares, and It would laugh and laugh and laugh...

And this ignored force bided Its time. For all as the countless ages wore on, It grew much stronger; It was feeding all the time. One day, It would release Itself, when the time was right. It had watched with amusement Its favorite world, that of Lina Inverse, as Rezo and Copy Rezo were destroyed. Its dark laughter rang through chaos as the Demon Dragon King was destroyed, and Hellmaster Phibrizzo met his death at the hands of the fool, who believed that She was the Mother of All Things. And then It had laughed outright at the fusion of Darkstar, Volpheed, and Valgaav, and at their pathetic display of "perfection". The strength of the six main "warriors" in the battle had been barely enough to win, and It had grown stronger as It watched the battle, feeding off both the Slayers' desperate efforts, and Valgaav's pain and rage.

But Its awful appearance, purpose, and essence has only begun to be described. And the world of Lina Inverse, completely unprepared, would soon face Its ancient wrath. For It had grown bored, and although millenia passed like seconds to It, It had decided it was time for creation to crumble, in a slow and painful death... Existence and eternity would be remade with blood... And the "Mother of All Things" would not stand in the way of the Dark Brilliance.