I think there's some sort of relationship between Shanks and Black Beard. I say this because the only reason why Shanks was on White Beard's ship was to ask him to stop ace from going after the man. And Shanks was convinced Ace was strong enough to take Blackbeard out, but he himself couldn't get involved directly as it would've made an enemy of White Beard.

Shanks and his crew is comprised of non df users. I saw someone on Tiktok talk about this, but what if Shanks was a dealer of devil fruits? This could be the reason that Shanks could come and go from Marie Joa as he pleases because his status as someone that procures rare and powerful devil fruits cement his status with the celestials and the marines by proxy.

Teach has been shown to be a hunter of devil fruits. And I think he deals with Shanks directly. This would be the only reason why Shanks would ask White Beard to put a stop to Ace. He might've had a hand in Ace dying.

To be filled in due time. This thread is going to be used as a placeholder for the compilation of feats from various characters from the series Nanatsu no Taizai.

1) Just Meliodas and Ban flexing their muscles in arm wrestling produced enough shockwaves capable of destroying a reinforced Baste Dungeon, capable of holding 10 Tyrant Dragons each with the power to destroy a town.

It has nothing to do with how strong Ichigo is. Well he obviously needed to be darn strong to bring the guy down, physically, but what allowed him to do that has nothing to do with how strong Ichigo had become. No. What allowed Ichigo to measure up to Yhwach was- Tsukishima's Book of End.

See, it essentially replaced Yhwach's absolute future with a past where that didn't come to be, a past where Orihime had no difficulty rejecting what was done to Ichigo's blade.

It was furthermore facilitated by Ishida's Auswahlen:

So you see, Yhwach is still vastly more powerful than Ichigo. However Tsukishima had facilitated a reality in which to defeat Yhwach was still possible.

That is all I want to say.

And I'm inclined to believe it has little to do with characters themselves, but more DC writers not grasping the true essence of why a story appeals to the public. We all know DC loves to go above and beyond with its storylines, but when it comes to giving us something relatable, only Batman seems to be satisfying enough, or the myriad of individual stories not connected to Justice League.

Because then, the stories that takes place within those settings are at least relatable (case in point: Joker)

DC likes to give us grand plotlines without establishing lore in any meaningful way. The starting point of a story doesn't have to be where it all began, and DC writers need to understand that, thoroughly established sequence of events can help us actually give a damn about a storyline.

Marvel seems to do it better. They have a thoroughly refurbished story to go along with the sequence of events on display. At no point does anything in the Avengers storyline felt like an asspull (to me). And I give credit to Stan Lee (RIP) for making it happen. He'd revolutionized the idea of characterization in its entirety, which was new in comics of that day and age. The same idea continues to be adopted and used in Marvel to this day.

And it's not a bad thing. Characters aren't just heroes or villains, they have their own feelings, agendas and reasons for why they are the way that they are.

I may have started out as a fan of DC, but all the inconsistencies slowly moved me away from DC and into Marvel. I mean don't get me wrong I still read DC titles...it's just that I'm way more interested in Marvel stories now. And I think that's because I'm an adult looking for depth of character and narratives in storylines.

I came across this video on YouTube toay. Here in this video, the youtuber talks about the origin of the Great Evil Beast, and something that struck me was the nun's description of him: she called The Great Evil Beast, Satan.

And given that he absolutely effortlessly dismantles the Spectre and Fate, and similarities of agenda of waging war against heaven, I'm absolutely convinced that, GEB is indeed Lucifer Morningster, or at least, one of his avatars, or abstracts.

What do you guys think?

My dad is a god. My mom is the Eve of Darkness and my older sister is a cloud, and Zahra is...I guess she is most like father. My name is Noah Sayalami King, the heir to the throne of Brimstone Dimension, it’s future King.

But, for now, I must make use of my gifts to help my people.

“We have arrived, young master.” The octopus head with his purple eyes, black slits and a mass of tentacles announced as we walked out of a portal into an area with lush green forests and all manner of sounds everywhere. Sounds that annoyed me. Creatures that felt alien, unlike any demon in brimstone.

“I know,” I respond as we step forth into this new world, its foul stench already making me nauseous. “Father, lend me your strength…” For as long as the portal behind us was being kept open by the doorman, his omnipotent energy can flow out. I don’t need his power to function but they do make me calm and not have to worry about the filth grovelling all around me. “Assume a form that’ll allow us to work unhindered,” I instruct my follower.

I call him my follower but he’s a dog my parents keep around me to act as my guard, to protect me from dangers that may arise, and I hate that mom and dad thinks I can’t take care of myself. I’m not my sister or Zahra but I’m the son of Vandal King!

The amalgamation of tentacles twisted and turned in on itself until it's assumed a form that of a cloaked man more resembling my own. My mom told me I look like a ‘human’ but I have never seen one up close, nor do I want to. I may look ‘human’ but I am not. How can I be one when I’m the son of a demon god and an Oni. Yeah, I lack horns, demon slits or physical strength but how do I know I’m a demon? I was born with the same empathy that allows me to feel closer to others of my kind and they do as well. This is how I know who I am, what I am.

My mind wandered through every nook and every cranny of the world, it’s past, present and future being unraveled in my mind like an open textbook.

The world’s “bleak” future rang through my consciousness, it’s threads of destiny woven in front of my eyes like an intricate web of a spider’s making. Part of a scout’s duty was to identify the strengths of the worlds, be it its inhabitants, empires or defensive artifacts and formations so that a task force can then be assigned to ‘domesticate’ a target planet for an invasion to follow through.

All that remained for me to do was find out the planet’s strongest points and record everything for folks back home. While I already know everything because of my ‘gift’, telling people is the harder part, because most people back home operated on instinct, and I have found that trying to have an intelligible discussion with them was often fruitless. I think it has something to do with respect. In order to make them listen I have to show them instead of telling them. I guess that’s the second purpose my mom’s ‘dog’ serve me. He’s here to also record what I piece together and bring the intelligence back home.

The strongest and brightest nodes of the web are where domestication should focus on. This planet has an extraordinary number of those, quite a few of them living and quite a few of them stationary. While this planet is out of the ordinary, it is also true that the planet has a bounty of resources far more extravagant than normal planets do.

We observe the planet’s inhabitants from a safe distance using dad’s energy to mask our presence. Then we use my aide’s ability to change my shape into one of them, to get closer to their social structure and observe the brightest links from up close. We pretend to be scribes, the easiest profession which no one would doubt as we mark all the information we need on a book.

“You don’t have to stay in town if it makes you uncomfortable,” I look at my guardian, sighing. His bloodlust was unmistakable. Not everyone is as intelligent as me, and certainly are not capable of the level of restraint I have on my disassociation I feel towards Aliens. I cannot be compelled by hunger nor lust, the same cannot be said to many of the inhabitants of Brimstone, including Zahra who enjoys brazen lust for flesh.

Speaking of Zahra, I sincerely hope she does not come barging in here and ruin all of my hard work. If it were up to mom and dad, they’d not let her out of Brimstone Dimension but she has her ways, freely crossing space without relying on doorman or father.

He looks back at me for a moment, in complete silence. I don’t really need to be able to read minds to know what he was thinking. There were a few hundred realities where he would have said what he was thinking. ‘What do you take me for brat? I’m a royal guard perfectly capable of controlling my bloodlust.’ He was more or less thinking something along those lines, a waiting game on my part to see whether or not this reality is one where he says that. We demons are only unable to harm each other, but perfectly able to express ourselves. Such is the society that father has made, a paradise for our kind, our god and savior when light persecuted us.

“No, young master, I’m fine.” He said, before sitting down on his bed. We’d rented a hotel room to stay in for the night.

“5 out of 25 nodes have been identified and logged. At this rate, it would take us at least a month to complete this assignment.” I spoke more to myself but also hoping he’d at least talk on the topic. I’m not on an actually important mission, I know this much. Father only approved after I insisted for days. Scouting never needed to be perfect, not when my mom was there leading most of the domestications in the past, but her recent retiring has led me to take a proactive role in trying to do this pre-harvesting. I want everyone to respect me, and have faith in what I want to do.

I’m no fool though so I know it will take some actual results for anyone to believe in me.

“Perhaps you don’t need to cross out all of them, Noah.” A firm female’s voice interrupted the both of us, taking us by surprise. Besides, who can really surprise me? I know of a few dimensions where she appears with us, but I can never know what reality that would be, or this would end up becoming.

Practice, yes, that’s what I need. Practice with this ability would give me foresight into things before they actually happen! That would be so cool. I sit up straight and look up at the barefoot Oni that just walked out from the shadows, pure red skin with a crown sat atop her head. Beefy muscles all across her physical structure. Yep, you guessed it, my mom!

After a few days of not seeing her, a smile appeared on my face and my guardian rose up instantly to greet her.

“Your highness..”

“At ease. I’m only here to check on my son,” She waved her hand and dismissed my guardian and he sat back down immediately.

“I’m fine, mom,” I responded before she had a chance to look at me. I showed her my notes. “Look! I have already recorded down 5 out of the 25 nodes my sight showed me.”

“Very good Noah…” She smiled down at me, keeping her hand on my head and tousling through my hair. “But honey...you don’t need to do this. It’s dangerous work, not to mention unnecessary.”

“But mom…”

But no...she would not have it any other way. In the end, she dragged me back home! Man I saw this coming from a mile away but I don’t have any power at all to resist fate. Sulking I return to my room and slam the book against the wall as hard as my frail bones could before burying my face in the pillow.

After hours of thinking and gazing through the many possible infinite realities, I, Noah, have decided what I want to do. And for this, I would need my sister Zahra. Getting her to help? Piece of cake. She's very easy to convince if it meant adventure and a good time through the unknown.

Realm of the Beast

It is a dimension that exists parallel to Earth, but one that cannot be accessed via ANY MEANS (unless @seamstress allowed it). 45 million years ago, there was an island on Earth. An entity named [Al-Noor] gets banished on this island by his father Lucifer- the right hand of god. He's bound in hellish chains, his soul stripped away and virtually helpless. God assigned an Outer-Guardian to defend the island.

Initially, the island was part of Earth. However, something disastrous occurred. Sion, the 3rd son of Adam and Eve discovered this island, and he sought Al-Noor for its powers. The Outer-Guardian and Sion fought for months, and Sion managed to extract 6 extremely powerful divine sparks out of Al-Noor (out of 7) belonging to his [Heavenly Scroll] and 4 minor sparks.

After this incident, the Outer-Guardian realized that Earth was no longer safe to keep Al-Noor in. The process of Spark Extraction that Sion had used made his body extremely unstable, and it started releasing billions of sparks into the air. These sparks are powers belonging to Al-Noor that contained different kinds of abilities.

Outer-Guardian managed to contain this outbreak by creating an almost infinite dimension around the island, and separated space-and-time around the island.

Over time, the remaining Divine Spark of the Heavenly Scroll emerged from its Master's life-less body, and took form. Thus RotB's Core-Guardian came to be. The Outer-Guardian didn't care what happened within the realm, his only duty was to guard the realm from outside threats. The Core Guardian was free to do whatever he wanted. And he did whatever he wanted. He created a vast continent around the island, billions of kilometers wide, in the shape of a lemniscate with the island at the converging point of the two loops.

Millions and billions of divine sparks escaped its Master's bodies to form life. The Core Guardian shaped and molded the sparks as he saw fit, creating clans, countries and races all the same. He named the continent 'Realm of the Beast'. Every creature born to the realm knew 2 things: 1. The Core Guardian was their omnipotent ruler, 2. They worshiped the being they only knew as 'Master'. And thus, life within the Realm of the Beast began.

Entry/Exit

Entering and Leaving the realm is strictly not possible per say, however not impossible. For instance, anyone who is not part of Al-Noor in anyway whatsoever cannot enter the realm. There has only been 2 cases where people from the outside world had done so.

1. Four Outsiders: But they were only able to enter the realm because they were the son of 2 of the Divine Sparks extracted by Sion.

2. Master of Imagination: (this is part of the story line that never appears in the Lightning God saga and is therefore irrelevant to Ali): He was only able to enter because Al-Noor's soul was sealed inside his body.

As far as leaving the realm is concerned, a door-way exists in all 8 countries of the realm. The country's king or lord will have to give his consent for anyone to be able to leave the realm.

Countries

The Realm of the Beast has 8 countries and a whole lot of desolate landscape. These countries are Shea, Rea, Toroshia, Dominion, Fairy Land, Xonia, Underworld & Elven land.

Shea

The Land of the Yggdrasil, of the Mighty. Shea is the smallest of the 8 Nations in the Realm of the Beast, but where the mightiest of its inhabitants live.

Ironhide Clan

The Ironhide clan members are blessed with a powerful outer layer of skin that can morph into various kinds of armors which give them different abilities. They are one of the strongest clans in Shea, its most powerful warriors have hailed from this clan.

Mankhan Clan

Mankhan clan possess 2 distinct bloodlines, the bloodlines that each generation's Celestial and her 7 Oracles possesses. These powers are: Elemental Manipulation and Telepathy. A dark Celestial is born IF the new generations Celestial is born while the older generation's Celestial is living OR if the Celestial spirit is rebirth in a male vessel. Such cases are rare, but not impossible. In such cases, the Celestial spirit must purge the Dark Celestial in order to become full again.

Nightcrawler Clan

This is a clan of teleporters, who has access to a certain dimension via which they can move forward or backward instantly without any time lapse. The amount of time they spend in their own dimension equals to nothing in the realm.

Stalker Clan

The stalker clansmen are descendent's of the dragon clan of Rea. They possess an eye-power called 'Dragon Eye', which allows them to see through various things others cannot.

Outsider Clan

The Outsider clan is the descendents of the Four Outsiders that came to the realm 2000 years ago, and had since populated as a major clan of Shea. They have 5 distinct bloodline abilities: Super strength, Super Speed, Rage, Giant & Lightning.

Castle Clan

The castle's are the survivors of Shean Internal War- the descendants of the Elemental clan. They do not possess a specific bloodline ability, but every few generations, an entity named as Element Lord appears, with shapeshifting abilities, and the power to manipulate the element Earth. They are all inherently born smart, and are all geniuses.

Viper Clan

The Viper clan are also a normal clan by nature, with its people possessing a minor aptitude for Earth Magic. They are excellent swordsmen and very effective in battle. The Viper clan is the largest (by numbers) clan in Shea, with over 3 million members to name.

Diamond Clan

Diamond clan possess an ability similar to Ironhides, where the Diamond clan members can harden their body to the point it is almost impervious to physical damage. However, the clan long died out, with only a single survivor remaining in it. He's now married to a girl from the Black Dragon tribe of the Dragon clan and has a son who possess his clan's bloodline ability.

Rea

Rea falls to the east of Shea- and occupies its entire eastern border. Home to the Savage Dragon, Rea is known as the second strongest nation in the entire realm. It's the home of the Dragons and the Golems.

Dragon Clan

The Dragon Clan of Rea is the dominating clan of the nation, with no room for other clans to have any say in how the country should run. You can say it is a dictatorship. The Dragon clan possess bloodlines that give them abilities close to Dragons- and there are many wide varieties of abilities.

Golems

Sentient beings made of a myriad of elements, the Golems mostly exist as their own kingdom, rarely letting even the Dragon clan from approaching them. They are certainly a powerful and mysterious clan that dominates their own territory.

Toroshia

Toroshia is a land of snow, ice and mountains. They live North of Shea, and is arguably the biggest nation in

Mayan Civilization

Toroshians live under one giant banner called the Mayan clan. They have tribes below it.

Bear Tribe

The Bear tribe is one of the strongest extensions of Mayan Civilization, and its ruling tribe. Long ago, it was the predecessor of the Bear tribe that massacred across the mountains as he united everyone in Toroshia under one mighty clan. The tribesmen would come to call him 'Bear God Moog'. Even to this day, King of the Bear Tribe is by default the King of Toroshia.

Bear tribesman have a unique bloodline ability, one that allows them to resist extremely cold temperatures, and its members can turn into Bears- Polar Bears, Grizzly Bears, Pandas... various kinds of bears.

Dominion

Dominion is located across the ocean - west of Shea. Home of trolls, werewolves, orcs, vampires, and all manners of Dark Creatures, Dominion is an inhospitable place for the other residents of the realm. Emperor Deagon is a vampire and the ruler of Dominion. Unlike the others of his kind, he has no weakness to daylight.

(I will give more details in a separate post explaining all these bloodline abilities)

Myths & Legends

Since the advent of time immemorial, there has been quite a few legends in the realm. Legends are born of powerful people who dominate the continent with might and valor.

Five Heavenly Kings

The Heavenly Kings are a relatively new breed of legends. They were only formed during the [Apocalyptic Shean War] (60 years prior to the birth of Ali Outsider). This was a war in which the countries, Rea, Toroshia & Dominion waged war against Shea in order to annihilate the country. However, Shea being the strongest nation in the realm, naturally withstood such an enormous assault. However, four extremely powerful warriors were vested titles by the Core Guardian for the strength that they had shown.

Emperor Deagon

Emperor Deagon, or Deagon Rove served as the Overlord of Dominion during the invasion. He was someone who could topple mountains and crack earth with a single blow. He commanded the 12 Dreadlords of Chaos and marched across the Great Abysmal Sea to attack Shea from it's western shoreline. On that day, during his fight with The Abomination, they actually shook the entire realm with the powerful blows they dealt each other.

Savage Dragon

The strongest of the five Heavenly Kings, it took the combined might of The Abomination, White Grizzly, Khan and Emperor Deagon to best this monster. He can absolutely shatter a few worlds with a single punch.

White Grizzly

Born to the Bear faction of the Mayan clan, White Grizzly, even before becoming a Heavenly King, was renowned for his ferociousness and merciless nature in battle. He served as a general in the Apocalyptic Shean War, where he'd lead hordes of his clansmen and lightning Dragons down their mountaineous slopes and into Shea from the North.

The Abomination

Real Name: Maniku, is a giant from the Giant's faction of the outsider clan in Shea, with monstrous amounts of strength in his arsenal. He is an extremely terrifying foe who held off Emperor Daegon in the war 60 years prior to Ali's birth.

Khan

Khan is also a Shean, born to the Mankhan clan- he is the only being in the realm to have ever mastered all the elements.

Four Outsiders

The four Outsiders are something of a legend in the realm of the beast. They arrived 2000 years prior to Ali's birth, after drifting across space-time from world to world for millions of years- effectively immortal beings all at star-shattering level. They arrived at Shea and settled down. They'd come at a time of strife, in whats called the [Shean Internal War]. This war happened to decide which alliance would get to rule Shea in its future.

The clans: Nightcrawler, Stalker and Mankhan were on one side while Ironhide, Viper clan and the Elementals were on the other. The power struggle was fairly even. That is until the Four Outsiders came in. They shifted the power between the 2 groups, leading to the Mankhan winning. As a reward, the Core Guardian allocated the entire gene-pool of the Elementals clan to the four Outsider brothers, establishing them within Shea.

The Four brothers had different powers they brought to the realm:

The Eldest of the four brothers the Lightning God had the power of Lightning. He was the strongest of the four. (Ali is the reincarnation of this individual. But he has nowhere close to Lightning God's power, because its long been sealed by the core guardian in order to prevent an imbalance of power. This is the core guardian's way of keeping order and preventing chaos from breaking out. After being supressed, Lightning God only had the power to maybe destroy a planet of Earth's size.) Perfect was a physical monstrosity. He was strong, and fast. He could circle the entire realm within the matter of seconds at full speed. His speed was only rivaled by his eldest brother in [God-mode]. Giant had the power of Earth itself, and could draw power from it. While the four were all immortal, Giant could recover from almost any wound, even if he was reduced to dust. He could grow up to 60 feet, and since he channeled power from Earth, could enact strength close to his unrestrained self, even while being sealed. Rage Fiend was the youngest of the 4, but had an extremely terrifying ability. His power allowed him to surpass his limits to unimaginable heights. This made the Rage Fiend a dreaded opponent for anyone he faced. His tough hide comperable to Ironhides meant he could also last longer in battle, and the longer he lasted, the deadlier he became.

(there's an entire plot/story to how the four outsiders ingrain into Shea, and the capital city, but I won't explain it here...for now)

Beera

Beera is a powerful telepath born to Mankhan clan, and a Dark Celestial. He is capable of controlling other Dark Celestials as well as other powerful beings effortlessly, while having driven mad by Celestial Seven Star (Ali's mother). He is sole progenitor of the [Outsider Annihilation Event], while theoretically being unable to use any power at all. His threat was great enough that the core guardian intervened, making sure he can never again be reborn.

**Ali is significant to the entire story line, because his saga [The Lightning God] is the first story going into the Realm of the Beast**

Bloodline Abilities

This post will concern details of bloodline abilities possessed by some of the key clans in the whole story line. Profound details of these abilities must be given in another thread. Too much information for one I think.

Bear Physique

One of my most favorite abilities in the entire realm is the Bear Physique. This bloodline grands the Bear tribesmen of the Mayan clan enhanced physical strength and resistance to cold. They are big and muscular by birth, and can grow to the peak of 6 feet in height. By birth, bear spirits, Panda, Grizzly, Polar and Black inhibits their bodies, to be brought forth later on in life.

Bear Physique has three forms:

1. Form 1- Bear Claws: Entering this form allows the Bear tribesmen to undergo a transformation where their arms grows thicker and thick fur covers these arms. Individuals based on what their bear spirit is has different arms, with the polar bear and grizzly bear claws being the strongest.
2. Form 2- Half transformation: Second stage of transformation for Bear tribesmen, in this form, the tribesmen have their limbs (arms & legs) transform into bear form, but they are able to move like a biped.
3. Form 3- Full Bear mode: The Bear tribesmen is able to transform into a Bear.

Diamond Meld

This is the bloodline ability of the Diamond clan. They are able to manipulate the mineral Diamond from Earth and mold it for various defensive and offensive application. Those of the diamond clan becomes high tier powerhouses even if they don't train a single day in their life, and can contend with low-tier planet busting level power houses.

Rage Fiend

This is the bloodline ability of the Rage Mage faction of the outsider clan. It is an aura-flame ability (similar to DWF in KHR) that covers the entire body when activated. It gives the user massive amounts of speed and power depending on the type of flame. Known flame aura types: Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, White, Purple and Black- in the order weakest to strongest.

The more you use this ability, the greater the chance that you will go out of control. The rage fiend ability uses a person's rage as fuel to activate and sustain itself. It puts stress on the brain where the user is kept in that state of rage for prolonged periods of time.

Ironhide

Ironhide is the bloodline limit of the Ironhide clan members. The Ironhide is an extra layer of super tough skin that is oily black which covers an Ironhide from head to toe. The skin is tough to behold, and almost impervious to attacks, but for themselves, the skin is as normal as any other, i.e: it does not exhibit the toughness of armors when they want to move their arms or legs or when they want to scratch an itch. The ironhides primarily look like this

Dragon Eye

The bloodline limit of the Stalker clan, it is a cousin to the Dragon bloodline of Rea; the Stalkers can awaken an eye-power that gives them insight into various aspects of nature and things around them. They are renowned warriors, and can use their bloodline ability to even win against the tough Ironhides.

Dimensional Blink

This is the ability of the Nightcrawler clan (I know the concept is not very original but hey- I go with whatever feels right) of Shea. They can teleport.

The Angels writhed in pain as he and his wife walked through their sacred sanctuary. They could not hinder him at all. Definitely not when his wife walked besides him. Her aura invaded their minds and drove them to insanity, and she kept it toned down enough to not let them kill themselves. That wouldn’t have been the intended purpose of their visit after all.

Demons had won the eternal war and their species were dominant and masters of the worlds across the universe. So then why did Vandal deem to visit the King of Angels? The so called ‘God’? He certainly had no pleasure in paying a visit to a being clearly inferior to him and his wife, the Eve of Darkness.

The reason is that Vandal had come to realize subtle changes in the universe itself. These changes are otherwise unobservable and so minor that trillions of years might pass and nothing would come of it. Yet for Vandal whose omniscience touched every corner of all realities, from whom nothing escapes, these changes were somewhat disturbing.

Something had clearly changed. Something felt disturbed, and because of that, the universe itself seemed to be slowing down. Vandal pondered about the reason why the universe seemed to be doing that. And after much thinking, he came to a conclusion. Only in this reality with this particular Uma was it happening. And what changed? Right. The scale has been tipped in their favor, and Angels had been driven to the point of extinction.

The door to his throne room swung open, revealing an old white bastard with wings and a halo atop his head, eating what appeared to be the remains of a demon, blood all over his robes and looking nothing like the holy Angels of renown.

Of course Vandal had known this truth. Just as they prayed on Angels, so did the Angels prey on demons. It can be said that to Angels, demons were food.

“Bastard.” This was Vandal’s reaction. He felt absolutely repulsed by what he was witnessing, and yet, he suppressed his Anger at that moment. He’d come to discuss something far more important, something that concerned the longevity of the universe.

Vandal waved his hand, and the corpse and remains of his dead comrade vanished before the Angel King could defile it any further.

“We need to talk.” Vandal added.

The Angel King did not like the intrusion when he was enjoying the meal. He cursed the demons now more than ever, they, who found a weapon with whom they could beat the Angels, depriving them of food and leading them to their eventual annihilation. He laughed at how useless his Angels, the Nephilimm and he himself proved to be.

“I have nothing I want to talk to you about.” The King remembered his defeat during their previous interaction and simply chose not to meet eyes with Vandal or the Eve of Darkness.

“Then just listen.” Vandal’s eyes flashed red and reality began to tremble. A rift formed, turning everything from the center of the room to resemble Vandle’s Brimstone Dimension, precisely his Dark Castle and the throne room inside his fortress. The next moment, he sat comfortably atop his own throne. Vandal spoke.

“This universe is dying. And I believe it has to do with the fact that Angels are dying.”

“That’s right we--”

“No. Angels and Demons coexist in conflict, and that promotes the continuation of our universe. However since my Eve of Darkness shattered your ranks and deprived you of your food, AKA us demons, you lot have been dying, have you not? It is around that time I started noticing the decaying of this universe. Demons are everywhere and we are in absolute control. And I came to a conclusion that it is necessary for you to exist if this universe is to persist. So, I come here with good news for you. We are willing to overlook your ‘Angelic’ activities throughout the universe if you keep your hunting grounds limited to only a few sectors. This does not mean I will not choose to annihilate any Angel who decides they are going to annihilate demons, like you did so long ago.”

The Angel King wanted to protest, wanted to shun Vandal from his home but he found himself unable to do so. The vile Eve of Darknesses’s mere presence had deterred him of even trying to do that, lest he meet her wrath. And so, he had simply nodded his head in agreement before the duo had left.

Despite his knowledge, Sion has held an important place in the multiverse. Every thread of every magic that existed connected to the tip of his fingers. He never wound up wondering why he was a master of realities, and quite frankly, he never stopped to imagine it, even unto his last, dying breath.

Two existences were aware of it, though, one kid who barely understood his place in the world as of yet, a mere 14 year old boy who only felt the passing of Sion, and another was a set of sleeping eyes that suddenly opened to the passing of Sion. He did not dwell on the death of his brethren, no, it was more envy that lead Silver to gaze upon that moment when the Oni tore apart Sion, as the red thread of destiny was severed, as the spell became undone and as the spark was finally free to do whatever it wanted.

But that was not a lot considering the freed shadow lord did not possess a consciousness of its own. It merely drifted in the void of space among the rubble of a universe that Sion had used to try and crush the Oni. Storms ravaged the reality on the bring of fading into oblivion, the energies of such a blast surely more than enough to engulf a few hundred other realities in its close proximity.

When gods fight, they put everything at stake without ever realizing it. In the case of Sion who had seen countless universes, he simply did not care what chaos he caused. Prophecies realized and worlds became a casualty after the incident. Everything would’ve come to doom had it not been the intervening actions of entities that stood guard over their sectors of the multiverse, i.e: the recently risen Rockfather Helium and the Star Cluster alliance he belonged to.

An old man made his appearance within the universe about to go nuclear, wearing a fur cloak and golden pieces of armor on his arms and a helmet around his head. He looked pissed off, and had no difficulty standing in the void surrounded by all the destruction.

“I really hate those bastards…” He sighed as ephemeral energy began to ooze out of his body in translucent waves of blue, sweeping across the whole reality within seconds and covering every corner of it within a membrane of blue.

The universe slowly began undoing itself and the pissed off old man simply sat down cross legged in space, as dispersed stars once more came together and reignited in brilliance, as planets fell together and back into place around stars, and as life itself returned to those worlds.

This task required an understanding of the laws of the local universe and how best to fix it all. The old man was not relying on simply reversing time, which would have been easier, but in this case, it involved beings the likes of this old man could never hope to match. For instance, bringing Sion back to life, or making that Oni not take Sion’s life was impossible for the old man. That was what annoyed him the most because it ended up costing him a lot of time and energy to undo what was otherwise a simple enough task.

“We don’t want a war with the Devil, and we surely cannot win.” Said Rockfather Helium as he entered the presence of this old man, who had almost finished bringing the universe to its full health. “But what worries me is something else entirely.” He too sat down, offering to lend a hand in the process.

EARTH

Flames of war sang an eerie tune above the rising smoke of once powerful nations. The White House did not exist anymore. In its place was a massive crater whose depths cannot be fathomed by any man. It stood miles deep. Lava constantly oozed out from its center.

Terror struck civilians hugged their children to their chests and mostly remained indoors. There was no law and order, and survival depended on who remained the strongest, in this case the strongest of those individuals were dead, their remains gathered in pits all over the world, the resistance. These included gods, metahumans and self professed absolutely powerful beings, and anyone that resisted the domestication process of Brimstone led personally by its Eve of Darkness.

Now that they were long gone, all that remained to be done was rebuilding, efforts that would be in vain unless a leader stepped out to lead survivors unto a new dawn.

A single candle lit the suburban home of a Seattle resident. Her place was one of the few lucky ones that did not get razed to the ground in the raid that took millions from the city as slaves, or food. She sat on a stool around the table, holding the photo frame of a man she loved so very much, and tears rolled down her cheeks because she wasn’t going to be able to see him ever again.

It was stupid of her to let him go and be a part of the resistence initiative, but she did, a mistake that cost her a lot. If she could go back in time to fix that error, she definitely would. However, she faced an even greater consequence to her survival.

It was as if the universe had stopped responding and everything froze. As if her lifeblood had been drained. Silvaria assumed it was because of Adelwulf’s death, but his passing had nothing to do with the fact that for some reason she was feeling empty, as if little by little, she was beginning to shrivel up and die.

She’d already lost the tips of her fingers without explanation and she couldn’t repair the damage done, either.

Sion’s existence while he lived had served to fuel everything and everyone far and wide that relied on illogical energy to dictate the laws of physics and existence. He was a pillar by which creation had endowed certain beings with limitless power and potential. Silvaria was one such being, and she now felt his passing. The fleeting effect of magic would no doubt effect everything and everyone in some way.

----

“Perhaps this is for the best,” Rockfather Helium replied. For he who relied on physics and understanding of how the world spun to rise up to the level he did, the passing of such an anomalous entity did not mean much even if it affected him, the antithesis of Sion.

“Except this will affect those of us who used such a medium to ascend,” The old man who repaired the crumbling universe chuckled. And perhaps it was for the best. After all, many of the alliance’s rivals were supreme magical existences. And perhaps this was going to usher in a new era. He foresaw a lot of wars, change in general was never peaceful after all.

And perhaps the only two beings that would be unaffected by this turmoil was an Oni and her husband who spent time in their bedchamber in bliss.

----

Seamstress appeared before the wandering, distraught spark of the beast: the Shadow Lord spark. Her webs entangled the shadows and restricted its movement, spinning a cocoon around it as a spider preparing its prey for consumption.

“What should I do with you oh wanderer….” She spoke to herself, but she already knew the answer to her questions. She absolutely wasn’t going to allow this spark into the realm, and the only reason being that if the Core Guardian found out that he had a rival within the realm, he would no longer actively try to maintain peace and serenity within the realm, where he lorded over as its god.

No, instead Seamstress was going to lock the Shadow Lord spark on Earth, until the foretold resurrection of the beast. Yep, that’s what she was going to do. The Shadow Lord did not have a consciousness of its own and it would be all too easy to just seal the spark inside of a human and pretend it did not exist.

The deity arose from a pile of corpses, one of the millions left in the borderlands between Shea and Toroshia after a war that lasted for thousands of years. And a thousand more had passed by, but the corpses did not rot, did not cause any diseases. The wasteland was too cold after all, too cold for rotting bacteria to take hold of ancient flesh and bones.

Horror stricken gazes and expressions can still be read upon their faces for anyone brave and bold enough to enter the area now called the ‘Undying Dead Pits of Toroshia’.

Usually no one did, and that’s why no one would see this manifestation of cold death, this coming of the anomaly. It did NOT manifest from the pool of reincarnation by the Core Guardian, and for the first time since creation, the Core Guardian was absolutely unaware of what had happened within the realm. For the first time since creation, chaos had taken seed within the realm, and it was going to usher in an era where nothing is preordained any longer. It was going to be an era of excitement, blood and more. But for now, Death simply absorbed the corpses from the pits, growing stronger, like a cancer, biding its time until it was ready to be unleashed.

And while this happened, the realm continued to function normally, in its mediocrity. Life, went on.

Shea had a new King - Ali Outsider who did his best to restore confidence in himself after having been missing from the realm for the better part of his entire life. With his father's retirement, Outsider clan met a lot of criticism with its reluctant to maintain Ali's status as the heir. So the clan had to do what it could to make sure that Ali wasn't simply going to shy away from his responsibilities again.

It was precisely this thought that made them arrange an engagement with Ali and a royal, influential girl from one of the outer clans. Despite being of the outer clans, the Beaver Clan more than made up for with its sheer number of clan members and its growing influence within Shea. The people of the clan considered themselves small, but they were strong in their belief of being united. They stood strong in the face of adversity after all.

Ali, being honest, had little choice but to accept the engagement. After falling off with Kaija, he just knew he was no longer afforded the luxury of doing whatever he pleased. And so, while training Najila as the heir, on the sidelines, he'd solidified the terms and marriage with the Beaver Clan, also solidifying its status and place in the annals of history.