The last drops of sunlight faded away beyond the horizon. It marked the end of a day, a day which like every other had no meaning in the grand scheme of things. But even for the people of this world, days had also grown to have no meaning. Somewhere in the Unquenchable depths, a bubble universe with no more significant meaning than all the others had given rise to the first instance of demons in eons. All it was, was a singular billboard.
The billboard was no different in the eyes of everyone else, but its affects still leaked death into the world. A fashion advertisement. An ordinary one to the naked eye but a subliminal message to the higher powers which whispered the soon to be return of all demons. A model striking a pose which showed too much cleavage. In our day, this is an ordinary occurrence, but for the demons, this meant everything. It meant that the world full of goodness and purity had finally accepted the first sin lust. Centuries of torment in the bottom pits of hell, millennia of being trapped, confined to their own malevolent brains, the demons finally got relief. All it took was a single advertisement, a single sinful look, and the demons began their growth of power.
***
"Earth" in this specific universe was overrun by a terrible disease. This disease infected everything living on the planet including crops, animals, plants, and 99% of the population. The rich escaped to the air in giant zeppelins which never needed refueling after all, the rest of the people or the common folk were harvested for energy to fuel the zeppelins remotely.
These people were confined to floating cities where they would lead lives dedicated to the "good of society" and during sleep when they could not perform work, their brain waves were harvested for energy to power the zeppelins.
As the new day broke, Gregory Chance who surprisingly is actually relevant to this tale emerged from his sleeping pod and awoke to a readily made breakfast by his personal robot chef. It consisted of a singular arm dangling from the ceiling which would spin and contort itself in many ways to cook. Gregory never actually saw it make food and it never crossed his mind that the robots spiked everyone's food with certain chemicals to make people docile.
He made his way out the door which was located 20 odd stories above ground. The floating railway stopped right in front of his door which lead to a vertical drop down the building to the hard concrete floor. He made a slight leap and landed on the train stopping by.
Every morning, Gregory would make his way to work meeting with his friend and colleague Rodrick Guess on the floating train. In this dystopian reality, the common folk are lead to believe through the power of brainwashing, that they actually provide sustenance for the good of society. However, in reality, all they do is work in specially insulated rooms made for the sole purpose of containing and storing their energy output.
"Another beautiful day" said Rodrick without a care in his mind. Gregory acknowledged halfheartedly with a mhmm. "I wonder how were gonna be of help to society today." "Right Gregory?, it seems like were of great help because we do different things everyday." "Or we're of no help at all." Replied Gregory. "You can have your delusions" said Rodrick "but I will always know my value."
Arriving at the office building late once again, they entered through the main sliding doors and into the elevators arriving at their designated floor.
As the doors slid open, they saw all the coworkers, faceless, Their bodies had been disfigured, faces melting on the spot as if a jet engine had ignited a few inches in front of their face. The singed skin dripped onto the floor, arms mutilated into a singular pipe like shape with the bones fused together limiting rotation and movement to none. Their legs had been broken invertedly and they stumbled forward with every painful step. Gregory couldn't fathom not only who, but also what could have possibly done this. They scrambled and frantically pressed the close button but before the doors could close, a winged creature swooped down and landed in front of the closing doors. With immeasurable force, the creature pried open the metal doors crushing them sideways like tin cans.
The lights shut off in the elevator and sparks flew everywhere. They were going nowhere.
It turns out that Gregory was under the spiritual and physical attack of the messenger of hell. Demons can kill when the time is appointed for them to rebel in the certain era. But before this appointed time, they are still subject to their own torture.
The demon revealed himself in full magnitude. It had wings like a bat and was so large that its head was covered by the ceiling of the elevator. In the middle of its torso was a thin, translucent, membrane which revealed three beating hearts inside it.
A shrieking noise echoed around the once bustling room as the demon shrunk. After some time, the demon shrunk its way into a humanoid form and spoke, "Mephisto is the name" "Short for Mephistopheles." The demon was now fully shrunk to a much shorter, human form and fully clothed. "I have come into this world to make a sacrifice." He moved closer, "A sacrifice that will mark and pave the way for demons to finally regain their rightful place, residing above all of creation once more." Mephisto spoke again, raising his finger at Gregory who was his intended target. "You may indeed be wondering why I am able to reside in this world considering my fair amount of power. The answer you may be looking for, would be that I limit my boundless strength which could vaporize the entire universe along with the entirety of these filthy depths in an instant."
Still bewildered by what was happening and why his body was slowly being drawn closer to Mephisto, Gregory did not process a single word spoken
It just so happens that by a stroke of luck, the god of fate had clamored to the top of the endless brawl and with her infinite arms began to write for a brief moment upon the fabric of reality. For some reason which we will not and cannot ever know, she had decided in her omniscient wisdom that Mephisto must perish. Obviously, his true form as a messenger of hell would have erased the goddess of fate as easily as she erases things from the world below. However, in his suppressed form, Mephisto let his guard down and became subject to the hand of fate. The goddess struck down with her pen on the fabric of reality with all her might impaling Mephisto. Mephisto stumbled backwards falling to the ground clutching his chest. Blood and other demonic life force spurted out of his chest. A strike of this magnitude still was not enough to put down the resilient messenger. However, by an outside influence that is not of the goddess of fate, Gregory stuck out his arm into the gaping hole in the demons chest and with a beam of blue light incinerated Mephisto from the inside out leaving a pile of ashes on the floor.
Gregory collapsed to the ground.
It is unbeknownst to not only my inferior self but also to the rest of creation, except for the council of heaven as to why this happened. But this unsuspected power was deemed to be a threat to the entire depths by the council of heaven, which sparked attention to a member of Hells Brotherhood.
***
Later that evening, a mysterious figure appeared in front of Gregory.
"Aardis… Fellow member of Hells brotherhood." Aardis pulled out a business card, handing it to Gregory. "It seems that you have given rise to an unexpected power. I can assure you that you are not in danger… for now at least." "As you may know, the council of heaven is incompetent even giving them the most generous description." Gregory was completely unaware of anything Aardis was saying nor who he was, nor what the council of heaven was, nor what the Hells Brotherhood thing was all about. Hell, for the entire day, Gregory had no clue on what was going on. He was merely a slave to the government, a slave to the conformity of the power of the rich. And a slave that had been freed without a moments notice. A better example would be a man who never had seen a drop of water yet now is expected to navigate the entire ocean. In an instant, an entire new realm of cosmic magnitude and possibilities had been revealed to him.
"You seem…" Aardis paused trying to find the words, "Confused." Confused was an understatement. Gregory was not only confused but still shaking from the encounter with Mephisto which had happened earlier that same day.
Gregory stumbled to find the words he was about to say but was interrupted.
"Its no matter, I'm sure this will clarify some things." Said
Aardis. Aardis grabbed Gregory's arm with immeasurable force and leaped off of the ground sending the entire floating city crashing down to the ground with the force of his leap.
Aardis accelerated through the air creating a force field in front of him to protect Gregory's currently fragile body. In a matter of seconds, the fabric of the universe ripped into a multitude of pieces creating a ripple in space time. Similar to a sonic boom but of space time. This happened over and over again getting infinitely faster until the very barrier of the entire bubble shattered and they entered the unquenchable depths. Distant screaming from below could be heard and a shining light marked the birth of countless new universes below them. At some point, Aardis stopped accelerating and rocketed downward speeding past the first layer of trapped angels and shattering the once deemed impermeable membrane of reality.
(This impermeable firmament is similar to the concept of the inaccessible cardinal. Not in the sense of its size or complexity however. The firmament surpasses mathematical axioms. However it is comparable in the sense that it is impermeable to anything below. So any fictional world, character, or object ever to be devised would never breach this wall. Similar to how no amount of infinities would be able to reach an inaccessible cardinal).
This is where they stopped. Aardis and Gregory both were floating in a void of nothingness watching a stack of blocks constantly rise below them. "This is the realm of lies." Said Aardis, "consisting of every single concept and every lie ever said or thought, everything you ever thought about manifests itself somewhere in this tower. Go ahead and try it." Gregory, somewhat calmer now envisioned a reality. And immediately a new block formed at the top. "Everything ever created as a subset of reality exists here. And everything to ever be created will ever exist here." Said Aardis
He grabbed Gregory's arm again and dove downwards. They smashed through the uppermost layer of the tower entering every fictional world ever created and ever to be created. They saw everything that has ever been thought of as they traversed this tower.
He accelerated constantly and after an unknown amount of time, they arrived at the bottom.
"This is the first lie," said Aardis "Its best to not spend too much time in this world. Changing a single event in this world would could alter the course of all reality even if it is endless."
Aardis manifested a rift in the timeline and jumped into it, whilst still clutching Gregory's arm. They fell through the last part of this realm until, they saw another realm. A realm made of the mathematical concept of the empty set. This realm contained a singular mountain. An infinite mountain with infinite plateaus and each plateau containing an infinite number of null universes on it. These null universes are designed to represent the most ordinary universe. And the mountain is suspended over an endless depth this is what the "Waters below" is spoken of in genesis. "What's at the top of the mountain" asked Gregory yet received no answer.
Aardis' s demeanor changed. His easygoing self quickly changed into a dead serious version. "You displayed an incredible amount of force today. You have the opportunity now to start training and become an asset to all of creation. However, this commitment is not only mandatory, it is essential for your survival. You killed the messenger of hell. This means there will be a bounty on your head across all of creation. And there is nothing you can do to stop that now. You must go and climb this mountain. After climbing it, you must traverse and surpass everything in and ever to be contained on that tower. Then you will be able to begin training with hells strongest soldiers." Before he could ask any questions, Aardis blinked out of existence and disappeared back to where he came from. He gave no insight on how to climb that mountain or anything of importance but ___ had no option other than to start climbing.
Meanwhile on earth, The elites took to their zeppelins, the scorched ground below swarmed with the viruses and the zeppelins that would never land, floated away into the sunrise leaving cloud city and Rodrick Guess behind.