"Citizens of hell. It is my pleasure to inform you that hell is going to be under new management for the time being. The corrupt hands of Lucifer have finally been subdued, and I am now proclaiming myself as the new king of hell. My rule will restore order to such a lawless society, once dictated by the hands of the greedy. And it is going to be very, very entertaining."
Cruelty could go by many names. Some famous, others hidden behind a curtain of obscurity. Hell was bursting at the seams with them, people from all different walks of life: Murders, rapists, abusers, etc.
Mortals were often the possessors of the darkest souls, tainted by desire or insanity, unspeakable horrors having been committed by their hands in the flesh. The same flesh that had condemned them to such a fate, in the land of woe and misery. Paying an eternal price for their temporary time on Earth, forgoing short-term suffering for long-term benefit. Humans were impatient creatures, after all. They were creatures that created unseen amounts of turmoil and suffering.
Nobody personified the cold, dark void of suffering more than Alastor, better known as "The Radio Demon."
Once having lived a peaceful life up on Earth as a serial killer, Alastor had gained popularity down in hell. With his use of exquisite mediums to broadcast his carnage and destruction, many demons grew attached to him. After all, the man in red was an embodiment of what made life in hell interesting: Murder, gore, blood, and most importantly, entertainment.
Entertainment.
Alastor was quite fond of that word, often excusing his atrocities in the name of "entertainment" and "sheer, absolute boredom." They were words from a tongue cursed by the devil himself, deluding the man into committing unspeakable horrors without so much as a tear in his eyes.
Upon his entry into hell, Alastor began his quest for power, refusing to roam amongst the lowly sinners in the vast metropolis of melancholy. The Radio Demon was hungry, and only the blood of overlords could satisfy his lust.
Mortal souls had never harnessed the abilities that Alastor had bestowed upon himself. After ruthlessly murdering many of hell's oldest overlords, he gained respect and reverence from the people, appointing him with a godlike status that few could dream of attaining.
For some time after his initial rise, Alastor had entered a phase of dormancy. He would roam the streets like any other sinner, striking the fear of death into those who dared cross paths with him. Some would simply be passed by, while others would suffer a gruesome death at his tendril-like hands.
Standing at seven feet tall, with a tightened red suit and microphone, Alastor created an image for himself that radiated power and extravagance. His attitudes suited a career in entertainment far more than they suited a career in politics.
That same desire for power and extravagance was what had damned the denizens of hell to a fate worse than death.
Lucifer's daughter, Charlotte Morningstar, had started up a hotel that promised redemption for the sinners that clogged hell's streets. Rooted in its founding was a desire to cease the exterminations that plagued the realm every three-hundred-and-sixty-five days, believing to have found a solution to overpopulation.
The hotel was never able to reach its potential, thanks to the interference of the man in red.
Alastor was employed as a staff member at the hotel, desiring "entertainment." Working with Lucifer's daughter, along with her wife, was not what many demons had imagined as Alastor's future, considering the mythical powers that he possessed.
For a few weeks, hell's population had fallen for the delusion that Alastor had softened up. The scars of the first wars with the original overlords began to heal, fading into the white noise of history. The demons that had once seen him as a threat and bringer of peril slowly began to let their guards down, focusing on far more important matters that demanded their urgent attention.
Working at the hotel had been a perfect cover for his deeper motivation: Power.
A month or so after the Happy Hotel's grand opening, Alastor had taken it upon himself to do something that no demon had dreamed of being possible before: Taking on the head-honcho himself, Lucifer.
He was a man so power-hungry, that he had dared to attempt and kill the Devil himself.
It had occurred during a press conference by Lucifer at the hotel, checking in on it's development and standing amongst the citizens. Lucifer had expressed his distaste for his daughter's ambitions, scoffing at the idea of sinners being redeemed. The more people that were able to leave hell, the less people that Lucifer had to rule over.
Halfway through the conference, while Lucifer was answering a question, Alastor had leapt into action.
Sneaking up behind the king, Alastor had raised his staff into the air, the same one that he carried with him wherever he went. And thanks to Lucifer's hubris and pride in his own powers, there had been no security to attempt to thwart the attack.
Alastor had known from the beginning that Lucifer's pride was going to be the cause of his downfall. How the man flaunted his wealth and power to the vengeful demons of hell without offering them so much as a cent. He had practically been begging for an assassinaton attempt, allowing the throne to fall into the hands of a demon that knew how to appeal to the people, dethroning the tyrant that currently occupied the highest seat that hell had to offer.
Now, the throne was to be reassigned.
Lucifer was dead on impact, Alastor plunging the staff directly through his heart. He hadn't reacted quickly enough to properly use his powers. Coupled with the fact that Alastor's staff was cursed with a spell powerful enough to kill even the mightiest of demons, the killing of Satan himself hadn't been as climactic as many had expected.
Nonetheless, Alastor went right to work.
Princess Charlotte was supposed to take the throne should death come upon her father, and many had believed she was to be instated as the new queen.
However, Alastor had planned ahead.
He had ordered the arrest of Princess Charlotte, along with anybody else involved with the Hotel or the Royal Family. Threatening a mass execution of demon royalty if his orders were disobeyed, Charlotte and her comrades were escorted to the Pit of Fire, the most fortified prison in all of hell. He couldn't afford Ms. Morningstar pulling a fast one and attempting to seize the throne or kill him. After all, Charlotte held tremendous power at her own disposal, which if used in a moment of weakness, posed a threat to Alastor's grip on his rule.
With his adversaries now rotting in jail, Alastor got to work establishing his brutal rule over the people. An iron fist that would crush all that attempted to resist his actions, indiscriminate of status or alliance.
Alastor had the people's backing after proclaiming himself the new king of hell. He was seen as a powerful character who, having been mortal himself at one time, understood the sufferings of mortal sinners. Mixed with his charisma and charm, he had the population in the palm of his hand.
Which had made his next, and most brutal step, very easy.
A new peacekeeping force had been established, dubbed the "Crimson Guard." The name held the same onimance and negative connotation that the establishment itself possessed, becoming a word of fear and punishment amongst the populations that remained.
Alastor was a very calculative man. The guard was established to minimize the chance of resistance, having tens of thousands of soldiers patrolling the streets and arresting for the most minor offenses. The punishments dealt often consisted of death, or severe imprisonment.
Dissent against the Alastorian government quickly began to spread, and it only further pushed Alastor to tighten his grip.
Any defamation or slander of Alastor's name was to be reported to the guard, as to lead them to the traitors and exterminate them. Higher-profile defamers were placed in prison and executed with one of Alastor's creative methods of torture. The suffering provided the entertainment that he needed, further motivating him to extend his power.
Those speaking out against him were deemed "traitors" and punished justly. The first few weeks had been full of blood and death, efforts being made to assassinate the newfound king and take back the world that they had once had. Ungrateful for their treatment under Lucifer, Alastor now rejoiced as he listened to their dying breaths, the cold stench of death already present.
His policy was simple: Follow the rules, and nothing will happen to you. Alastor believed that he was giving them a fair chance. Those who were presented the rulebook and persisted with their disobedience had brought the punishment upon himself.
Aiding him in the reign as lower-ranking officials were overlords Valentino and Vox, who had sided with him during his siege on the original overlords during Alastor's first years in hell. It was an alliance that he had remembered, appointing them as heads of affairs under his new reign. A leader was nothing without his minions, after all.
Hell had been transformed, from an anarchist metropolis to a tightly-regulated playing field, with Alastor sitting at the press box.. He had access to everything that happened in hell, and all of those under his rule.
Paranoid of an assassination attempt, Alastor had made another controversial move. One that dealt a major hit to his support from the public.
Using the combined powers of his heads of affairs, Alastor had constructed a contraption capable of stripping demon royalty of their powers. Or, at least, the royalty that he deemed a threat.
First on the list had been Charlotte Morningstar herself, extracting her powers and storing them in a tightly-guarded orb. The orb was to be stored at the heart of the prison itself, where only Alastor would be able to access it. There was no point in risking that orb falling into the wrong hands, especially when Alastor had a population to control.
Another one of Alastor's major moves was constructing a radio tower outside of the prison. It was to serve as a communications center for hell, with signals strong enough to reach every nook and cranny in the realm. It took quite some time to construct, the result towering at over one-thousand feet tall, with heavy security and layered buildings scattered around the perimeter. Anybody attempting to break in was going to need to deal with Alastor's forces, which were strong enough to hold their ground.
The tower, dubbed simply the "Central Communications Headquarters," quickly became a symbol of Alastor's power. It often broadcast footage of executions and torture of traitors to the population, to ensure their submission to Alastor's rule. Dissent didn't often bode well in such a totalitarian regime, and Alastor wished to ensure that uncontrolled chaos was kept to an absolute minimum.
As for controlled chaos, he found it quite amusing.
Watching citizens suffer at the hands of the guard was one of Alastor's favored fruits of his labor, providing him with the entertainment that he desired. Alastor would often emphasize this sadistic pleasure during his many speeches, making sure that the people knew their place, and to stay there.
The place where Lucifer had once resided now bore the Alastorian flag. It consisted of a simple image of a staff slicing through an apple, layered over a crimson background. Alastor found it fitting, and it served as a reminder of how he had risen to power in the first place.
Hell had been transformed into Alastor's twisted power-tripping fantasy, and the people were being forced to comply. Dissent was met with force, and death was a constant. Wherever there were demons, the Crimson Guard would almost certainly be there with their weapons, doing Alastor's dirty work for him.
And it didn't appear that anything was going to change in the near future. Any attempts at rebellion were met with utter failure, and morale was low among the people. Most had accepted the new way of life and grown complacent, going about their normal lives without acknowledging the clearly corrupt demon that was ruling them. With surveillance anywhere, simple mentions of his name were bound to draw in an attack by the guard, crushing even the most basic forms of retaliation. The idea of "civil disobedience" was nothing more than a fantasy under Alastor, prompting even the most powerful to cave into his demands. Hell was being forced into a period of darkness and blood, with no end in sight, all thanks to a power-hungry radio demon.
Unbeknownst to both Alastor and the citizens, great change was around the corner. A change so great, that it had the chance to restructure society as they knew it. A change that could potentially free them from Alastor's rule once and for all.
A chance for hope.