Naberius hadn't bothered to open his eyes. It had been a long, dreamless sleep. He wanted nothing more than to drift back into that infinite darkness, that peaceful slumber. His bare chest rose and fell slowly as he lay there on his back. Naberius rolled over onto his side, the cold stone felt good against his cheek. He brushed a few long stands of obsidian from his face. Naberius paused as he ran his fingers through the thick hair matted with sweat against his forehead. He reached down to steady himself and found only air.
Small bits of jagged-rock cut into his hands and knees as Naberius crashed to the cave-floor. The sensation of pain felt foreign to Naberius. The room was a blur of darkness and flickering torchlight. Naberius inhaled sharply. Blood. The air was thick with the stench of it... blood of the Ascended.
"Good Morning!" Julien could no longer hold back as he doubled over with laughter. "Pleasant dreams?" Julien called out to the stark-naked man.
"Only darkness..." Naberius muttered as he rose to his feet.
Naberius' black eyes searched the cave around him. An evenly spaced ring of six alters carved from the living rock encircled Naberius and his central alter. Each alter was adorned with strange spiral designs cut into the stone and inlaid with small violet gemstones. The surface of each of the six outlying slabs were drenched in a grisly mixture of thick black oil and crimson blood. The blood on the alters had worked its way into the intricate spirals as if they were so many tiny canals. He glanced up at droplets of the mixture that fell from overhead. Through the waving torchlight could see countless figures shrouded in black robes. They stood against the walls of the cave silently watching him. Naberius' rippling muscles tensed as he realized that he was surrounded. His dark eyes darted around the room for a weapon.
"Julien of New Dubuque."The odd, greasy little-man in black introduced himself with a dramatic gesture.
Julien took two quick steps forward and leapt onto the alter that stood between him and Naberius. Julien's boots splashed blood and oil up onto the bottom of his black robes. Julien brought his hands together. Each of his long, bony fingers were painted black. Julien idly twisted at the ring on his index finger. The obsidian band he wore was inlaid with a circle of six small diamonds with a spike of the dark obsidian jutting from the center. Julien ran his hands over his greasy black-hair as he pulled his hood back. He was a wiry man, a head shorter then Naberius with shoulder-length slicked-back hair and a thick black-mustache.
"Have fun with the zombies, Lord Naberius!" Julien said as he pulled a small knife from the sleeve of his robe. With a flick of his wrist Julien casually tossed the blade to Naberius.
"You and I are going to be best pals!" Julien winked as he twisted back around.
Julien splashed up more of the foul red and black mixture as he leapt down from the alter. Naberius snatched the blade out of the air as the strange little man dashed off, giggling to himself with child-like exuberance. Julien disappeared off into the darkness of the vast caverns beyond the wavering light of the torches.
Dark figures of all shapes and sizes suddenly rushed in towards Naberius from back against the walls of the cave. Each of the dozen black-robed figures drew blades of their own. Naberius wasted no time as he lunged forward and thrust his knife forward into the throat of his nearest attacker. Warm blood splattered across Naberius' face and upper body as he shifted his feet. He tore the blade sideways from the first man's neck and slammed it into the skull of the woman to his right. The first man gurgled blood as he stumbled back into one of the seven alters. Naberius fought to free his knife from the woman's skull and she hung limp against the weapon. The black-robed man with his throat slashed open suddenly straightened back up. Crimson viscera gushed from the grievous wound and splattered across the stone with each step the man took as he shambled back into the fray.
Naberius winced at the sudden jolt of pain as an unseen knife plunged into the exposed flesh of his back. Naberius finally jerked his own blade free as another knife flashed in front of his eyes. With his free-hand Naberius reached down and caught the new attacker's wrist. Naberius used the young boy's momentum to fling him in the opposite direction, Naberius ripped the knife from the tumbling child's grip as he sailed through the air and collided into two more of the hooded figures.
Naberius swiftly weaved through the chaos and worked his way the far end of the cave. He twirled the pair of blood-soaked knives between his fingers as he looked into the milky white eyes of the zombies. Naberius pressed his back against the wet, stone wall. He also felt the wetness of own blood oozing down his naked back and legs. Red blood, human blood...


---


Screaming louder with each blade slice,
the ritual demands her sacrifice
He cuts deep, down to the bone,
blood flowing through grooves cut into stone
Surgical precision, his hands will not falter,
as he spills her blood upon the alter
Great Cthulhu shall claim his gift,
reach into our world through the rift
Deep within the ruins of Earth,
she’s writhing in pain against the tentacles' girth
Her mind is filled with unspeakable visions,
as black oil boils out from the incisions
Tentacles lashing like a thousand tongues,
one last scream escapes her lungs
Magic most foul and nefarious,
bring flesh to the bones of Naberius


---


"How long have I been here?" a man's voice came out of the darkness. "I used to try and keep track of it... but time is a funny thing, it’s not really anything if you think about it…" the voice continued.

In the absence of time before the light, cannibalistic mutants move through the night
In the darkness of space, In the absence of the human race

"We woke with the sun, we slept with the night, counting down the days until we die... it all became irrelevant here in this eternal darkness." The voice seemed to wander from place to place "It is as they, that God loved mortal man more than any angel. But have you asked yourself why that is?"

A lonely light cries, A sickness that burned their black eyes

Adam heard the sound of footsteps as they moved back towards him. "With His infinite power and wisdom, why did He make you so weak? The span of your existence so short? The scope of your perception so narrow? This speck of light you call the universe has never been eternal. I know this better than anyone, better than any creature born from His light. I alone know the futility of His Crusade against the darkness. I have seen the universe end countless times. I have seen billions of worlds die, stars burn out, devoured by darkness... all the souls in your Heaven torn to shreds, over and over... an endless cycle of death and rebirth. "

Back into darkness alone with the rage, that was the end of the first age

Adam suddenly felt the ground beneath him, he stumbled forward a few steps, each footfall echoed with the distinct sound of bones snapping. A sudden burst of light blinded Adam. He shielded his eyes from the intense heat as a pillar of fire spiraled upward from the ground, mere feet from his face. Adam stepped back as the flames grew higher. His vision came into focus as the inferno illuminated the darkness. As far as the light carried in every direction there were great rolling hills and valleys of strange skulls and bones. None of them looked to be human, or demon. An emaciated man with long blond hair stepped out from behind the ascending tower of flame. His frail form was adorned with a simple white robe. Adam met the man's gaze, looking into his golden eyes "It was only you and me, Adam…"

In the beginning of this fight I used to dream in Black and White,
I lost sight of what was wrong and what was right

"The door slammed shut behind us. No way back, only forward… my sins were far too great to pass through The Eye..." The man turned away from him, towards the flames shot upward into that endless black sky "Please come back for me!... I used to call out into the darkness. They used to laugh, they used to mock me, challenge me… Death’s Sweet Embrace, My only companion... together we bathed in the neon black blood of the ancients. " he gestured absently to the rolling expanse of death beneath their feet. "It used to be three" he pointed to the diamond-incrusted longsword in Adam's right hand. Heaven's Gate. "The sword and me, together for eternity" The man in white lifted his left hand and a black katana materialized in his upturned palm. he clenched his fist around the hilt of the unholy weapon. Death's Sweet Embrace.

all these soldiers lying dead and decayed ,the fallen warriors of your crusade,
and now even when I pray, I see the world in shades of grey

"I was the first Angel." Two glorious white-wings tore through the back of his robes. Adam's eyes went wide with sudden realization, this was the White Guardian who spawned the countless hordes of demons. Lucifer's arrogance had doomed Earth to a fiery death "Perhaps it was out of His loneliness and despair that I was allowed to retain my memories and soul..."

Now I must open the door, harness the powers to win this war
Lesser men would run and cower, but I feel the incredible power
Create a new race, apart from His grace, powers beyond time and space
Beyond the Ascended, I am the White, the right hand of the holy light
Another dimension beyond His reach where strange creatures growl and screech
Create a legion of nineteen, to construct the God Machine
A race of demons strong and brave enough to fight back a constant wave
Of the ancient and arcane, enraged by my presence on the astral plane

He turned back to Adam with tears in his golden eyes. Wisps of dark smoke rose from Lucifer's obsidian-katana as it radiated black-magic. "Each time, I was reborn to fight again, to lead His armies into battle. I was the only one who saw it coming, I was the only one who saw how weak He truly was, this time I couldn't bear to see everything end the same way They had the audacity to call me a traitor, But it doesn't matter how they remember me, if I fail only God and I shall know the truth... That I was the only one with the strength and conviction to stand against the old ones... The only one willing to fight when God Himself has abandoned all hope!" Lucifer took a step forward and with a mighty flap of his wings the White Guardian tore through the air towards Adam Sapphire.

Lucifer Enters the God Machine, the results were unforeseen
He would never return, and once again it all must burn
an army with no master, through the portal, the great disaster
demons that Lucifer spawned, enter our world from the great beyond


---

 
"Hurry! It's almost time!" Julien called behind him as he raced up the ancient stone steps.
Naberius tried to keep pace with the spry man in black. His heart pounded, his nude form was drenched with sweat and blood. His flowing waves of ebony hair whipped behind him as he ascended to the surface. He had been chasing after Julien for hours now and the staircase seemed to continue on up forever.
Julien disappeared from Naberius' view for a moment as the stairs wound up to the left. As Naberius turned the corner he saw Julien at the top of the stairs. A full moon and an ocean of stars overhead illuminated the night. Around the entrance of the cave there were vast, rolling hills and valleys of tall prairie grasses. The fields were dotted with jagged rocks and small, scattered trees. Naberius collapsed to his knees in the grass. It felt like his heart was about to burst at the seams. The cold wind groped his posterior, slapping sharp blades of grass against his skin and sending a shiver throughout his entire body.
"Look at those stars, my lord" Julien said. He made a wide sweeping gesture to the stars overhead.
"This is what the great prophet Mordecai spoke of. The Eye of God shall gaze down upon the ruins of Earth!" He turned back to Naberius with that oddly sincere smile. Naberius' face was red with exhaustion as sweat dripped down his chiseled abs.
"It wasn't easy you know-..." Julien frowned as he twisted his mustache between two fingers. "...finding six Ascended maidens." Naberius said nothing.
"Your Father made sure of that" Julien continued.
Naberius knew the truth of it. The Dungeon Master had hunted the Ascended Guardians to the brink of extinction. Julien pointed a finger to an empty portion of the of the night sky. Naberius' black eyes searched the spot, but there was only darkness.