3. What Went Before.
Diana took a breath to speak, one tinged with fire and passion and Montez winced, not sure what she was going to bellow at him. Then... She stopped. Her body sagged and she let Montez go, turning away from him and looking back to Grayson, who could not meet her gaze as sadness overtook him.
“Eclipso...” The word barely made it past her lips; such a broken and humbled whisper that it was barely audible, as if Diana could barely bring herself to say it. “...the devil. It is all because of him...”
“Cast as the Almighty's original hand of retribution, Eclipso had oftimes tried to cast the world in his own dark image, having been imprisoned in a obsidian prison, a crystal of rare power from which Eclipso could leap forth and claim whoever made contact with the precious jewel. In time, the jewel was sheared, cut into a multitude of fragments allowing Eclipso free reign throughout the world, multiplying his chances of manifestation and rule. So it was, for year upon year that the chances of Eclipso appearing again became greater and greater until he finally did...in the form of William Magus.
“William Magus was an inventor of genius proportion, but cunning and devious were the machinations of the dark one and he willed one shard, one aspect of himself into the hands of Magus and the die was cast. It was the good Doctor's finest creations, his Metal Men whom Eclipso warped first, like a form of alchemy transforming them from their original elements now into things formed in the pits of hell; five sentient automations made of the same substance as that dark crystal. Their very touch would turn those who opposed them into puppets of Eclipso himself, thrusting a piece of his putrid soul into theirs.
“Yet that was only the start of his plans... Next he used Magus' genius to synthesise the crystals essence into a fine powder form and began dispensing it into the water supply. None could have known that as they sat in their very houses, they were letting the devil enter into their bodies. But the worst of it was when the sands came...
“Having gained so much power from the hate emanating from his new followers, Eclipso launched his attack against his most despised of foes... The Spectre, he who had supplanted him as God's agent. With such hate turned to power at his disposal, The Spectre was powerless to turn the mad god back and Eclipso stole the life essence from the mighty spirit, rendering him inert before turning his body into the black sands of Eclipso's soul and casting them about the world. Any who breathed them in, any grains that entered the skin, the eyes or the mouth would be consumed by his essence and turn to his hatred. It swept the world like a disease, blackening the skies like a plague that your religious books are so fond of preaching upon.
“But this still was not the worst of it... the worst... was yet to come.”
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