The Fleeting Darkness
Shadows darker than the deepest black, air thicker than any solid, and… Silence? Not a whisper upon the wind, a chirp among the trees, or a caw from above. Wait... Trees? No, they were stranded along the edge of the sea, not lost in the depths of a silent jungle. What happened to the stars, to the open air, to the harsh ocean breeze? There was only darkness. An unspeakable darkness. Was this death? Was this Heaven, or was it Hell? Fear took its deadly hold, and began to gather for one final strike, or was it the first strike? So many questions to be answered, and so many answers needing questions. This was a nightmare. Was it the thought of not knowing where they were, or was it the feeling of the unknown, that caused this fear? Stop. This is what it wants. It feeds on fear, thrives off it, and lives for it. This shadowy fog, it was driving them mad, almost to the very brink of insanity. This was the work, of Him.
[The Daemon of Shadows, the last of his kind. The Fallen, The Dark One, The End of Time in flesh and blood. These were his many titles, for no living or dead soul knew the name belonging to that murderous fiend. Such a powerful foe. Such a dark story behind that face, a tale of victory, but not of glory…]
Keno didn't know much about who or what they were dealing with, it was only decades in the future that he would come to know the true nature of his death that day. It was unpreventable, and written in stone. His story began to unfold, page by page. He was incapable of perceiving the danger they were truly in. His attention turned to his friend, oh his dear friend. Why did this have to happen today. Hana Jagger, a girl of no more than 19 years of age, would also die this day. He remembered every detail of her, unknowing if he would see her again. She had brilliant blonde hair adorned with many braids, and eyes made of the purest jade. Truly beautiful.
Hana grew ever more frantic, "What…What is this feeling?" The shadows seemed to curl around her every curve, and entangle her in a prison of moving darkness. It happened so fast, and she hardly had time to react. There was that deafening silence, and then nothing. She was gone, not a single trace left behind, and nothing to prove she had even existed. The shadows ended her life quickly, but it had not been painless. It was the most excruciating thing someone could possibly experience. That night would haunt her for years to come, for life did not truly end in The Multiverse.
Her disappearance had gone completely unnoticed by Keno. He couldn't see anything, hear anything, or let alone smell anything. The only sense he had left was touch, and that did him little good. He attempted to walk, but it was like wading through a bog after heavy rainfall. The more he moved the more the Shadows seemed to thicken around him. He soon found himself unable to move, and only then did he truly know fear. He was trapped, only wanting to yell out for help. Then there was pain. It was small at first, but as the minutes passed, the pain grew more. It was like being stabbed in every possible place, body and soul.
The pain surprisingly helped more than anything. It helped Keno concentrate on the objective, to find out who was behind this. He focused, and slowly his eyes began to glow their usual blue. Two sapphire search lights pierced through the darkness, and focused on the center of all this dark energy. There he stood. Cloaked in black from head to toe, and a black mask covering his face. The Fallen. He just stood and watched completely unmoving, as still as a tree, but sturdier than a mountain. It was the scariest sight Keno had ever seen, and for the moment, he relished it. This was the last sight his mortal eyes would ever see, and damn would it stick with him forever. His life ended slower than Hana's. The reasoning behind this was most likely due to him seeing The Fallen's form. That vile twisted Daemon preferred to live his life in secrecy. Then he was gone, and so was Keno.
[A story doesn't truly end, not even after death. For there is always the Afterlife. No, not Heaven, nor was it Hell. Not yet at least. There stood other Realms. Ones developed for the Humans after the death of their mortal bodies. The Soul Society, and The Underworld. This was much like that of The Daemon afterlife, only very more diverse in their purposes. This was due to planet Earth once being The Realm of Earth, where the Daemon of Earth used to rule. They were banished from The Multiverse, and lost all connections to the other Realms. Over time this caused The Daemon inhabiting the planet to lose their powers, which resulted in the birth of Humans. After death, Humans become Souls, as close as they could ever get to their original Daemon ancestry. This allowed the unlocking of certain abilities through weapons known as Zanpakuto, but even this was limited. A Daemon's power was unlimited in growth, and could even surpass that of The Gods. The Fallen is living proof of this, for he slayed The God of Shadow in their domain in The Realm of Hell. Enough of this about Zanpakuto and Shinigami. That is already known knowledge to any basic Soul. The Daemon were unique, and unknown to most. Let the story unfold, and the adventure continue. The Soul Society has changed much from before, and is now almost a completely different place entirely. Are 13 Squads alone capable of defeating the 13 Daemon that threaten the balance of The Multiverse?]