Prologue

Hell was home to thousands of demons; tens of thousands. A cauldron of sin, the realms were stacked one upon the other, each darker and more sinister than the one above. It was everything humans feared and more. Oppressive and dirty, the halls twisted in an eternity of circles, trapping souls in an endless search for light. There was no time to mark, and no end to crave. And there was the screaming. So much screaming. The primal sound of a soul in agony was something humans would never comprehend. If they knew what awaited them in hell they would wish for eternal nothingness. The fear of losing themselves in death was insignificant to the horror of eternity spent down below.

 Melloch, the fifth angel to fall, existed in the realm closest to the surface. Often referred to as the Gatekeeper, he was charged with keeping order and ensuring hell’s soldiers were always ready to fight. But eons had passed since the last great battle between heaven and hell and Melloch was bored. He longed to prove himself to the Dark Lord, to show Him in no uncertain terms that he was the true warrior of the underworld, the one who could finally bring about hell on earth, but instead he was made to wait, to play second fiddle. But not for long. Melloch had a plan.

Right now, his orders were only to take the armies up to feed. He would lead them up to the human realm where they would gorge themselves on the livers of humans, but while his army reveled in the terror and bloodshed of the feast, Melloch had been paying close attention. The atmosphere on the human realm was changing and soon his armies would be able to breathe the putrid air; permanently.

The delectable irony was it would be the human’s own greed that inevitably ensured their slavery. Oh, how they praised themselves, the humans. They were so sure, so certain, that they were the apex species. They were the smartest, the most progressive, those geniuses with their brilliant minds and frozen hearts. If only they knew what their so-called progress was creating. What door they were opening.

Melloch took a deep breath and reveled in the hot air that burned through his lungs. Up above the humans were going about their everyday lives, ignorantly working so hard to turn their once pristine realm into what would soon become a demon paradise. All he’d have to do was move in. It was an ideology that never failed to charm him. It was so devilishly clever.