Chapter 1
Resonance
Gusts of icy wind and crystalline shards sweep across a flat of pure rock, creating a haunting wind chime effect that echoes across the barren wasteland. On this planet, there is no sign or stir of life anywhere. It's as if it's very own soul had been sucked out. All that remains of it continues to hang over its former body in the form of ethereal mists of violet. Dead trees creak under the windy winter weight, bits of frost clinging to the shreds of decaying wood. Bleach gray silhouettes of their naked branches reach up like demonic claws to the empty sky.
In the center of this cursed land lies a valley of castle ruins. Rubble, not made of any granite or fine stone, but of an entirely different substance, lies scattered around for miles. Purplish black, crystalline and soaked in an unspeakable evil, it's a material fortunately not found anywhere else in the universe. The same ghostly purple essence hovering across the planet reeks heavily here in a thick fog of poisonous radiation. Wisps of violet light and smoke shoot from deep abysmal trenches, stretching out like spider's legs from the ruins. At times, a gush of hot steam will escape the trenches with an echoing screech. It's a bathhouse from Hell. Boulders of black rock lay like massive tombstones all across what seems to have been a courtyard. Extending for yards across the large field of rubble are skeleton trees that never knew the pride of foliage endowment. Some of the naked trees protrude through the rocky surface at slanted angles; others lie like fallen soldiers defeated in the wintry battle of this planet. Massive roots, as if disfigured by an anti-nature, protrude grotesquely from the ground.
The castle ruins consist of several cracked walls, housing dusty rooms and holding up slabs of roofs that still manage to remain intact. A shattered floor of dark green glass lies stretched out for yards and a disarray of various items and debris litters the ground. Pieces of what used to be fine furniture lie broken in pieces across some kind of dining room. Hanging by a few shreds to the racks of very large broken windows are the remains of formerly fine fabrics. In almost every direction, stalagmites of crystalline ebony stick out from the ground. At the center of the castle ruins is what's left of an elegant throne room. The most frightening remnant of these ruins, however, lies right before the former seat of power.
A hole, about a meteor's diameter in size, lies wide open like a mouth ready to swallow anything nearby. Reeking with the smell of smoke, blood and death, the hole is fenced in by filth and blood-soaked vines. Stains of deep ebony stretch out from the circumference, as if from a massive fire that used to burn from within long ago. Descending from the hole's mouth is an odd staircase disappearing into an abyss of endless black. A faint glow can be seen for a split second at the bottom, but the shadows below are quick to overtake the light, like a hawk snatching its prey. A tangle of sludge, sharp metal and strange wires overgrown with thorny vines cover the walls of a long corridor. Faint currents of purple electricity travel like swift spiders along twisted wires adorning the corridor and into a chamber cell. Cold chains blanket the floor, stretching to a far corner covered in shadow.
Hiding amidst the darkness and tangled in chains is the grotesque figure of a demon. Shaking violently, the demon's tattered wings threaten to break off with each tremble. Underneath a mass of filthy hair, the demon's sorrowful eyes open, slicing through the darkness with their unearthly white glow. The demon opens its mouth full of jagged teeth then lets out a horrifying yet heart-wrenching shriek that echoes for miles. As the sound of the demon's cry dies, a sinister laugh travels across the dead planet of Nemesis…