New Teachings

The next morning, Lord Phenex was talking with some of his estate guards about the missing books in his library and the sudden disappearance of one of his servants.

"He must have stolen the books and ran off," said one of the devil guards.

"He was always a bit strange, but I never once thought he would commit theft," Lord Phenex spoke.

The missing servant they were discussing about was a middle-aged devil named Rasmus Cole. He was a reserved and hardworking person, and an oddball, but he was respectful and knew when to tone down his weirdness. Lord Phenex was shocked when he heard that Rasmus possibly stole some valuable texts and ran off, seeing that the servant wasn't known for causing trouble.

Lord Phenex continued. "Do any of you know anyth- Hold on, I've got an incoming call."

A small magic circle formed next to his ear. "Yes?"

Lord Phenex listened to the guard at the other end of the line. "Holes? What kind of holes?"

He listened to the guard again, then said, "Alright, I'll come take a look."

The magic circle next to his ear disappeared, and a moment later Lord Phenex looked at the three guards in front of him.

"Keep searching the library for more evidence. I need to head over to the back side of the castle," said the clan leader.

"Yes, Lord Phenex," the guard in the middle replied.

Lord Phenex generated a magic circle under his feet, and a moment later he teleported to the outside of the castle.

Emerging at the desired location, Lord Phenex looked around for the guard who called him on the magic comm.

"Up here, sir!" a devil guard called out from above.

Lord Phenex looked up and spotted four guards hovering next to the wall of the rear tower. The clan leader's devil wings extended from his back, then he flew upward to join the guards.

"Take a look, sir," said one of the guards.

Lord Phenex studied the shallow holes in the stone wall. "What in the world…"

Last night when Tenebrous and Plagueis climbed the tower, their fingers left holes in the side of the tower. It didn't look like two people climbed the wall because the stone slabs of the tower protruded at varying degrees, so the Sith Lords were able to grab onto some of the bricks without indenting the wall. This scattered the groups of finger prints, removing what would have been two linear paths of holes otherwise.

"It's hard to tell who or what caused the holes, sir. The irregular pattern makes the investigation that much more difficult," said a guard.

"Could it have been a dragon?" Lord Phenex asked.

"Possibly, but dragons aren't known to climb walls," a different guard replied.

Lord Phenex looked at the clusters of holes up and down the wall. "There's no way Rasmus did this, not when he can fly or teleport out of the castle."

Lord Phenex continued to ponder, but he couldn't think of who or what could have formed the holes.

A FEW DAYS LATER

In the time that Tenebrous and Plagueis spent in the Underworld so far, the planet had drastically changed. Plagueis's presence alone spawned the coldest winter the Underworld has ever experienced: the planet's rivers and lakes froze into ice, plains and forests were buried under three meters of snow, and earthquakes rocked several countries. On top of that, Tenebrous's presence awakened long-dormant volcanoes and enraged already-active ones to smother parts of the planet with lava and ash. Despite the absence of oceans in the Underworld, Tenebrous's presence also created powerful hurricanes that were accompanied by never-ending lightning storms.

At the moment, Tenebrous and Plagueis were in their starship reading mythological texts. All they had done over the past few days was read, eat, sleep, and read some more. As such, they covered a lot of material and completed a good number of books.

Plagueis put his book down and briefly rubbed the inners corners of his eyes. So much reading in such a short period of time was tedious, even for a brilliant Sith Lord like Plagueis.

The Muun looked at his Master who was sitting in the pilot seat. "Do we have any Jogan fruit?"

Tenebrous, who had his face buried in a book, glanced up. "There should be some in Container 23."

Plagueis got up and walked to the middle of the ship where the cargo bay was located. The bay was split into two sections: trade goods to the right and personal supplies to the left. Plagueis stepped into the personal supplies compartment and searched one of the food lockers. He then found the metal drawer that stored Container 23 and other food containers. Putting a hand inside, the Muun grabbed the sealed box that had '23' typed on the dorsal surface. With a quick twist of the lid, the smell of one of Plagueis's favorite foods flooded his nostrils.

Jogan fruit is widespread throughout Plagueis's home galaxy, a popular food that stretches from Coruscant to Felucia and Rodia. It is an onion-shaped, dark purple fruit with white vertical lines that look like forks of lightning, and is topped with reddish-purple leaves. Plagueis loves its smell and taste, and right now he was preparing to mix the Jogan fruit with some exotic vegetables to make a delicious salad.

Just as he grabbed some kitchen utensils, his Force senses spiked a warning. Plagueis felt the presence of ten beings outside the ship, and he figured they were mythological beings because they spontaneously appeared on his Force radar. Plagueis put the fruit and utensils away and jogged to the front of the ship.

Entering the large cockpit, Plagueis saw Tenebrous looking out the cabin windows.

"Who's outside?" Plagueis asked.

"Devils," Tenebrous replied. "I watched them exit their teleportation circles."

"How did they find us?" asked Plagueis.

Tenebrous thought for a moment, then responded, "Check the magic books."

Plagueis sat down in the co-pilot seat and quickly browsed through a magic journal. Both Sith Lords rushed through magic pages until Plagueis found a plausible answer.

"A tracking spell," said Plagueis. "Some of the texts must be encrypted with tracking spells."

Plagueis showed his Master the page and the spell symbol.

"Go deal with the devils," Tenebrous ordered. "I will check over the books."

Plagueis handed over the journal and rose out of his seat, descending the ventral ramp with the push of a button inside the cabin.

The Mundane was parked at the edge of a snow-buried forest somewhere in the northern hemisphere of the planet, and a few thousand kilometers away from the nearest major city. Plagueis and Tenebrous were shocked that someone had found them, but now they knew how they were tracked.

Plagueis walked down the ramp and stepped in the area with shallow snow, but the snow still went up past his knees. The ten devil troops were approaching the ship within the shallow snow valley that naturally formed from different snow densities and distribution. Outside the valley and the crater where the Mundane was parked, the snow is three meters high.

The soldiers froze in their tracks when they saw the alien slowly walk towards them. Some of the devils immediately reached for their battle spears strapped to their backs, but the squad leader ordered them to ease off their weapons.

The sergeant took a few steps forward. "We are looking for a devil servant of the Phenex Clan named Rasmus Cole. He is suspected for stealing texts from the Phenex library, and we are currently detecting those books inside that…plane of yours. Is he with you?"

Plagueis observed the bewildered faces that gazed upon his Muun body. He had supressed his glowing dark side eyes and was now hiding his lightsaber hilt behind his back, so the soldiers didn't yet know that Plagueis is a Sith Lord.

"The man you are looking for, this Rasmus Cole, is not with me," Plagueis replied.

And to give a fake answer to their confusion, Plagueis added, "I am a genetically modified grim reaper from the Realm of the Dead. I represented Hades at a meeting with Sirzechs Lucifer in Lilith, and after the meeting I found the books you are looking for in an alleyway."

The sergeant tilted his head in suspicion. "If you had a meeting with Lord Lucifer, then what is the color of his office chair? And what is it made of?"

Plagueis narrowed his eyes, not knowing what the correct answer is. If the mythologies weren't looking to hunt him and his Master down, Plagueis would have let the soldiers go, for he was not the one for pointless killing. But if these devils were able to track them, how many more will find them afterwards? Plagueis also planned on ditching the books in the forest, but now he had an even better idea.

The Muun let his eyes glow with the power of the dark side, and he ignited his lightsaber from behind his back. The soldiers were startled, and only a moment later were they able to reach for their weapons.

"He's a Darth! Open fire!" yelled the squad leader.

Plagueis sped forward and killed the sergeant's entire squad before anyone was able to fire a shot from their weapon. As the nine bodies dropped to the ground, Plagueis clutched the front of the sergeant's neck with superhuman strength. While strangling the devil with one hand, Plagueis deactivated his lightsaber with the other hand and began to drag the devil towards the ship.

Inside the Mundane, Tenebrous found five books that had the symbol of the tracking spell imprinted on the back cover. The Bith had them in a row side-by-side on the cabin floor, waiting for his apprentice to board the ship. Tenebrous was surprised to see Plagueis enter the ship with one of the devils.

Tenebrous looked at the hostage with a blank stare. "Why didn't you kill this one?"

"I wanted to see if he can break the tracking spells on the books," Plagueis replied. "Those five texts could be useful to us, and I would rather not discard them yet."

Tenebrous returned his gaze to the terrified sergeant. "Can you eliminate tracking spells?"

"Y-Yes…" the devil replied nervously.

The devil got down on his knees and spawned a magic circle in front of his hands. He hovered the circle over the first book for a few moments, then with a magical shimmer, the tracking spell symbol on the book cover disappeared. The devil repeated the same process over the other ones until all five books were free from the spell.

The sergeant ascended to his feet. "T-There, it's done."

"Thank you for your kind service," Plagueis commended.

The Muun grabbed the devil's head from behind, and with a strong twist of both hands, Plagueis snapped the sergeant's neck. Again, the Sith Lords would prefer that no one spreads information on their whereabouts, because why should they deal with the tediousness of more enemies if they don't have to?

Plagueis looked at the corpse on the floor, acknowledging that the squad's fate was sealed when they arrived in their teleportation circles.

Tenebrous collected the five books, then glanced at the dead body. "Get this trash off my ship."

With a nod, Plagueis dragged the corpse over to the airlock and tossed it down the ramp into the snow of the cold wilderness.

Gremory Training Facility, Underworld

Issei Hyoudou dodged Kiba's final speed attack by rolling to the right side, his feet landing firmly against the floor of the practice arena, creating skid marks on its surface. Kiba turned his head to the side and gave Issei a respectful nod.

"That's enough for today. Great work guys," Rias called out from the stands.

Issei's red dragon armor disappeared as he deactivated his Boosted Gear.

"Man, I thought I had you there on that last strike," Kiba said while walking.

"I think I dodged that one out of pure luck," Issei scratched his head. "You were able to get me on most of your previous attacks."

Issei was in the Gremory clan's newest training facility located just a few kilometers away from the Gremory mansion. He was training there with his close friends such as Rias, Kiba, Xenovia and more. A few years ago, Issei got promoted to a high-class devil and, as a king, was able to form his own peerage. Right now, his peerage consists of Ingvild Leviathan (queen), Asia Argento (bishop), Ravel Phenex (bishop), and Xenovia Quarta (knight). Rossweisse would have been his rook if Darth Bane didn't kill her five years ago for planning to seal away the Dark Lord, but Issei was able to find someone else to fill in the spot.

Issei's rook is a male pure-blooded devil named Amos Zane, a young adult farmer from the Barbatos clan territory of the Underworld. When the devil civil war erupted just after Darths Bane and Zannah's departure, the Barbatos territory was one of the first regions to be attacked by the rebels. Amos was a somewhat poor farmer who wanted nothing more than to live a simple lifestyle, but his loyalty to the Barbatos clan forced him to flee his home and avoid the advancing rebel army. As a refugee, Amos was able to settle in one of the towns of the Gremory territory. That is where Issei found him, and seeing great potential in Amos, Issei brought him in as a member of his peerage.

Amos has the strange and rare ability to manipulate the ground under his feet. With the use of magic circles, he is able to shake the ground and cause strong earthquakes within a limited radius to knock opponents off their feet and damage surrounding structures, and he can cause the ground to uproot or split open to trap or bury his foes. Issei's theory is that since Amos spent his whole life dealing with the earth and growing crops, the pure-blooded devil developed a keen understanding of the ground and was able to use his natural talent to manipulate it. That along with his impressive physique and strength from years of manual labor made Amos the perfect rook.

Issei gazed at the pointy-eared devil in the distance. "How was my dodge on that last attack?"

"A little shaky, but good enough," Amos shouted.

Kiba pulled down the hood of his gray cloak. "Let's go meet up with everyone else."

Issei and Kiba climbed the stone stairs in the direction where Issei's peerage and Rias's peerage were sitting.

The Underworld has changed significantly since Darth Bane and Darth Zannah's departure. When the devil civil war erupted, a sizable portion of the population formed the Devil Separatist Front (DSF), and with their propaganda and praise of the Sith, quickly turned 44% of the devil population over to the side of the rebellion. The rebels launched offensive campaigns against the devil clans that they detested, such as the Bael, Vassago, Barbatos and Sallos clans. The rebels left the Gremory, Phenex, Sitri, Agares and Belial clans alone because those clans treated their servants well and are well-liked among the devil castes. Otherwise, all the other existing clans of the "72 pillars" were targeted and attacked by the members of the DSF.

The four Satans were also free from the sights of the rebels, seeing that the overwhelming majority of devil society found that Sirzechs, Ajuka, Serafall and Falbium are the best Satans in history both personality and power wise. The Satans tried to bring order to the Underworld, but the devil clans ignored their policies; they were so obsessed with conserving their heritage, status and pride that they would rather have society collapse completely than share their power with the lower classes. The Satans couldn't really pick sides either: if they sided with the rebels, they would be deemed as traitors and they would become targets for the devil clans; if they sided with the clans and loyalists, then more people may join the rebels. Either outcome would result in more chaos, so the best option for the Satans was to stay neutral and remain uninvolved to minimize any more conflict.

Bane and Zannah's influence and actions had also changed the warfare tactics of the mythologies and the structure of their combatants. The Azazel Cup tournament, which was originally designed to prepare mythological beings for the possible awakening of 666 (Trihexa), was reformed to prepare the factions for the potential return of the Sith Lords. The factions actually considered Trihexa to be a minor threat compared to the danger of the Sith. As the Azazel Cup events unfolded, the factions developed their own unique methods for dealing with the return of the Sith.

The devils of the Underworld made significant changes to roles and training regimes of their Evil Pieces. Although the Pieces retained their original names and ranks, their functions were revolutionized: knights became assassins, rooks became almost purely defensive tanks, bishops became power amplifiers, and queens and kings became long-range artillery. The one piece that didn't change overly much was the pawn, and the only small change that occurred with pawns is that they are viewed as expendable cannon fodder more than ever before. The devil higher-ups made these Piece changes with the belief that overspecialization, gearing solely towards a unit's strengths, will create far greater team synergy; unity and teamwork that will hopefully increase their effectiveness against the Sith Lords.

The devils also reduced their interest in powerful, one-man-army heroes and now favored teams with large member counts. They believed that every sole Evil Piece should be used to empower one devil, and they now saw multi-Piece units (like knights with 2 knight pieces and pawns with 3 or more pawn pieces) as a mismanagement of resources and valuables that they can't afford to lose. The devils think that overwhelming numbers is the key potentially defeating the Sith, the belief being reinforced in such a way that Issei, with his 8-pawn value, is now criticized as a "waste of space and overinvestment of Pieces".

Unlike the devils, the Hindu faction took the opposite approach. They believe that their resources and efforts should be invested into a handful of incredibly powerful beings, most notably their strongest gods. Based on their duel with Darth Bane five years ago, Shiva, Vishnu and Indra believe that only themselves, along with Brahma, are the only ones from their faction capable of effectively dealing with a Dark Lord. As such, most of their faction's newly developed power-amplifiers and other resources went directly to them. Indra, Brahma and Vishnu donned armor plates and amulets that boosted each one's individual power level to twice their baseline values, including their speed and reaction time. As the most powerful and combatively competent Hindu god, Shiva was given silver exoskeleton-like armor that made him three times more powerful than before, and his trident, called a "trishula", was upgraded to the point where its three blades were sharper and more destructive than the blade of the True Longinus. Overall, Indra had become equally as powerful as Ophis, Brahma and Vishnu surpassed her power by a notable margin, and Shiva became over 2.5 times more powerful than the Infinite Dragon God. Whatever minor amulets and magic amplifiers were left over became the possessions of some of the lesser Hindu gods like Mahabali and a few others.

The Greek mythology took a more balanced approach. Instead of focusing solely on vast numbers or uber-powerful figureheads, the Greeks put their efforts into increasing their god/goddess and priest population, especially to replace the ones who fell in battle against Bane, Zannah and their hired Khaos Brigade army. Using magical reincarnation and other means of recruitment, Mount Olympus was able to own far more gods and demigods than any other mythology, all the newcomers serving under the new chief god Apollon. The Norse mythology of Asgard took a similar approach with Odin increasing the number of Valkyries under his command.

The most interesting and radical method was developed by Hades. Nearly a year after Bane and Zannah returned to their home galaxy, Hades found Lilith (the missing mother of Rizevim Livan Lucifer and former wife of the original Lucifer) and held her captive in the Realm of the Dead. Hades used Lilith's flesh and the Book of Lucifer to create a large army of 100,000 artificial devils, with the average artificial devil being as powerful as a high-class devil of the Underworld. This fact made several mythologies believe that Hades now has the most powerful military in the world, devising the ultimate balance between magical power and numbers. Some believe that these artificial devils, along with Hades's grim reapers, are the only things that could possibly defeat the Sith Lords.

Issei and Rias walked with their peerages to the entertainment lounge. Inside the luxurious room was three large flat-screen TVs for their gaming consoles and one massive television set up against the central wall with a TV cable and an internet router. The two peerages sat down on the priceless couches while Kiba turned on the TV and pulled up the news channel.

The female news anchor appeared on-screen with a caption saying "Millions of people displaced across the Underworld". The anchorwoman was in the process of speaking when Kiba turned on the TV.

"The bizarre weather patterns forced another two hundred thousand people from the Naberius territory to flee their homes and seek refuge elsewhere, adding on to the millions of people already displaced across the Underworld," said the newscaster. "We also have reports on two more Category 5 hurricanes approaching from the southern hemisphere and-"

Kiba switched to another news channel.

"Just a few hours ago, another earthquake hit the northern counties of the Valac territory, this time measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale," said the anchorman. "The current casualty count is unknown, but rescue forces believe the wounded and dead number in the thousands."

Ingvild Leviathan gazed at the screen with a sad expression. "It must be the Darths causing all of this. It has to be them…"

A few months ago, Indra and the Trimurti gods began having visions of two new dark entities coming upon them, similar to when they had vague premonitions of Bane and Zannah, and they warned the mythologies about their mental images. This time, however, the shadowy visions of Tenebrous and Plagueis gave the Hindu gods physical pain.

Issei got up and walked over towards the window along the back wall. He pulled back the curtains to see outside. What he saw was endless snowfall and a nasty lightning storm in the distance. Little did Issei know that the effects of Tenebrous and Plagueis's ambient energy leaked into some of the other mythological realms that are connected to the Underworld, their auras haunting those lands as well.

Issei grimaced at the sight of his ruined world on the other side of the glass.

Starship 'Mundane', Underworld

Tenebrous flew his starship through the snow clouds high above the Underworld landscape. In the opposite seat, Plagueis watched the system screens as usual. The Muun was finally able to have his Jogan fruit salad; he ate his food while eyeing the system displays.

"Do you have a destination in mind, Master?" Plagueis asked while chewing on a mouthful of salad.

"Not at the moment," Tenebrous replied.

The Bith was flying the starship on a random flight path across the Underworld, unsure of where to go or what to do. The books he and Plagueis read gave them no information about Bane and Zannah, what they did or who they interacted with in the Underworld five years ago according to this timeline.

Tenebrous was also running calculations in his head. Over the past few nights while Plagueis slept, Tenebrous spent hours building off his previous calculations and revising them over and over to see what the future had in store. Currently, his equations tell him that there's a 7.8% chance that he will not have his predicted death on Bal'demnic. Tenebrous was glad that his prophesied death and maxi-chlorian plan are still very likely to happen, but the failure chances are higher than he had hoped. He didn't do calculations specifically on when he and Plagueis will return to their home galaxy because he didn't care about that; Tenebrous can spend all his time in this primitive world up until the day before his predicted death, just as long as he sees his death on Bal'demnic at the time its supposed to occur.

Even now, Tenebrous still ran some calculations in his head out of paranoia.

Plagueis pondered for a bit, then came up with an idea. "Perhaps we should expand our awareness across the planet…letting the Force guide us."

Tenebrous bobbed his head in agreement. Setting the ship on autopilot mode, Tenebrous and Plagueis let their senses wander across the surface of the planet, searching for any clues or answers. They probed minds and ecosystems, and cancelled some of them out, until they found a faint whisper of the dark side. It was a very soft and quiet sense, easily overshadowed and muffled by the life on the planet and their own ambient auras, but Tenebrous and Plagueis confirmed its undeniable presence.

"Do you feel it, Plagueis?" Tenebrous asked.

"Yes," the Muun replied, "the remnant of a dark side nexus."

Bane and Zannah left behind a dark side nexus around their temporary Underworld fortress called the Sith Sanctum. The predecessors had only spent a few months in the Underworld, and it normally takes years, if not decades, for a powerful darksider to form a permanent and prominent dark side nexus on a planet. For Bane and Zannah to quickly form a temporary nexus that still faintly whispered five years later spoke volumes to their power in the dark side of the Force.

"Punch in the coordinates," Tenebrous ordered.

Plagueis entered the coordinates of where he sensed the nexus to be located while Tenebrous banked the starship to the left and turned the ship around.