When he woke up, he felt wind creeping over his skin. He opened his eyes and sat up, feeling dizzy and his head ached like crazy. He held his forehead with a groan, pinching his eyes together. Colors were dancing in front of them, making them burn. He sat there for a moment until he was capable to see clearly again. He got onto his feet and looked around. He was on an empty, deserted meadow, with some flowers and old trees here and there. This wasn't Eden. This place was too empty for that. Was he in Aphadrim? He started walking, looking for signs of civilisation anywhere, but there was... nothing. No matter how far he went, there was absolutely no one around except for himself. He saw a river reflecting the sky above, which was colored into different tones of red, he saw the mountains in far distance, he saw moss growing on the rocks around him... He came past a strange forest. The trees had no leaves and showed purple bark. Glowing mushrooms and crystals shimmered between them and light particles levitated through the air. He went further and arrived at a spring. Steam ascended from it and he could feel the warmth. He knelt down near the water and stared onto its surface, looking at his reflection. He stared at a person with red eyes and pitch black hair. Their face was pale and tainted with burn marks. He saw their pointed ears and felt his tongue stroking over lengthened fangs. He clearly saw some red horns reaching out of their head. His eyes widened and a scream escaped him as he realized what he looked like now. "N-no..." Tears formed in his eyes and fell onto the ground. "No... what have I done wrong... w-why did you do this... to me..." He hid his face in his hands, seeing his slightly extended fingernails. His body shrugged and shivered like crazy as heart-shattering sobs broke the silence. He knelt there like a pile of misery, head and shoulders lowered, body without any energy. The tears he cried shimmered golden in the light of the setting sun. After some painfully silent moments, he mustered up the strength to stand up again. What was this place, anyway? It wasn't Ainu, but it wasn't Aphadrim either. Did Kami send him into one of the forgotten dimensions? Or did she create an entirely new one? He decided to walk some more. "Hello?" He shouted loudly. "Anyone here? Please answer!" No response came. It took him a while until the painful stitching in his chest arose as his heart understood what his head had already fathomed: He was alone. Entirely alone. There was no one here. He was thrown into a world in which it was beautiful... but the true hell about it was that there was nobody here except for him. His curse was eternal isolation, never-ending loneliness. Upon that realization, something broke inside of him. He could feel it- something breaking apart into little shards, cutting him open from the inside. This was the worst punishment of all. Worse than torture. Worse than death. Robbed of his home, his existence as an angel... and his happiness, all at the same time.

As the time passed, he felt how he kept becoming more numb. He couldn't feel his senses, just the cold. All colors seemed to fade away. It was as if he was unable to reach his soul any longer. He was frozen. All the lies about him turned into everybody's truth. All he could feel was the sorrow feeding on him. Everything slipped away and shattered pieces remained when all the memories they had made together faded into emptiness. It all lost its meaning. Could he break free from the chains of never-ending agony? Ever? Because if not... he longed for his life to end. He was laying in the meadows, rain from the dark skies pouring down on him, the raindrops hiding the tears that slid from the corners of his eyes. This black hole in his chest executed so much gravity on him that it felt like his ribs where about to break from it. All his emotions got dragged into the dark void. It was like standing at the beach. The grains of sand underneath his feet and in between his toes. The warm salty breeze ruffling his hair. And the sky was just midnight black and the stars were looking down at him. Just silent. And watchful. No car horns or seagulls. Nothing except the breeze and the sound of the waves lapping. Nothing else. It was like walking closer to the sea, trying to get there just so he could look at the waves whose sounds he heard. And he walked even closer. The shoreline should have been there. He suddenly realized that he was just a few steps from the shoreline. But there was no water. And he listened closely and realized... he couldn't hear the waves.
There was just a deep impression of where the sea used to deep. A deep and wide pit extending as far as his eyes could see. It was a gnawing feeling within his gut, followed by a aching and breaking feeling within his heart. He didn't feel like anything physically was wrong, but it was still there. It was eating him alive. 'Please... just let me... die... I don't want this anymore, it hurts... so bad... what... what did I do, please tell me... What's the error, the thing I did to deserve such a punishment... I'm dying... without dying. It feels like an eternal loop of a dying process. A process of dying lasting forever...'

This lasted so agonizingly long that he tried to find a way out. He attempted to fuse time and space magic to distort the dimensions, forcing them to open up. It exhausted him to terribly much, he could feel his power fade. It got drained out of his very body in a frantic pace, leaving him motivationless and without any energy. Yet, he tried again and again, driven by his despair and the tears blurring his sight, by the rage that piled up inside him and the feeling of being lost.

One day, he succeeded. Two years after his banishment, he managed to tear a rip into the dimensions he could pass through. His sanity was long lost, washed out of his body with the countless tears he cried. As he finally set foot into the world of Aphadrim again, he started laughing. "Ah... Ahahaha... Hahahahaha..." At the same time, tears fell from his eyes. He was laughing and crying at the same time... from the chaos that raged within him. "I'm free... Ahahaha... after two years... finally... You thought you could keep me prisoned forever... but I'm back... I'm free..."
He walked through the streets until he was able to pick up a specific smell. "...Found you." He followed the trace and it led him to an old, deserted building. The door was ripped out of its hinges and the windows were broken. This place seemed lost. Lucifer went inside and let his gaze roam through the room. The wooden floorboards where partly missing or broken. The smell filled the entire room. "...You must be around here somewhere. So... where are you...?" He discovered an old carpet on the floor. It was dirty and torn and the patterns on it had faded so much they were nearly completely obliterated. He bowed down and pulled it away, revealing a trapdoor made of wood underneath it. "Aha... you're hiding yourselves underground. That's clever..." He pulled the door open and revealed stony stairs that lead down into the dark. Lucifer opened his hand and a space sphere appeared in his hand. He made it glow before he descended into the darkness. His steps echoed through the silence. When he reached the bottom, he brightened the light and lit up the entire room. There, they were. Some of them seemed to be asleep, others had raised their heads and looked at him with alarmed faces. "I found you." Lucifer said. A demon with chocolate brown skin and shorter, green hair made a step into his direction. A winged snake with brown scales and black patterns on it observed him with yellow and hungry eyes. "You." she said. "I know your face.",
"That's indeed possible." Lucifer replied.
"You're one of these angels." she noticed.
"Unfortunately, I need to correct you. I am not an angel. Not anymore."
The green-haired woman tilted her head. "...Your smell changed. As well as your appearance. Didn't your hair use to be blonde before?",
"Indeed.",
"You are the light bearer, aren't you? What was your name again? Lucifer? That's a surprise seeing you around here. What did you do that you became a demon?",
"I was transformed by Kami." he responded. "What made her doing that? I thought you were her favorite. Has that changed?",
"Maybe it did. That doesn't need to bother you." Lucifer pierced her with his red eyes. "You seem to know my name, so would you mind telling me yours now?",
"My name's Ranya-an." the woman responded. "Now, tell me, why are you here?",
"I am here because I want to demand you something.",
"And what?",
"Join me." Ranya-an looked at him and then started to laugh. "Joining you? Hahahah... don't make me laugh! You killed many of my brothers and sisters. How do you get the idea we would join you?",
"I am aware of what I did and I don't deny the truth. However...", Lucifer's intense look was still resting on her, "...I am angry with Kami. Incredibly angry. I want her to suffer for this unjust thing she did to me. I want to summon her here... by destroying the city... and then murder her so we all can find our peace." Ranya-an kept quiet. "We now have the same enemy. Kami banished me from the dimension of Ainu and created a world in which she tried to imprison me. But through combining the forces of time and space I was given by her, a dimensional border doesn't stop me. I broke free and now, I'll unleash my wrath. This is an invitation to you. Do you want to stay underground hiding yourselves like rats in the gutter or do you want to live freely? You've lost many of your people already. Do you want to stay like this, degraded and chased, seeking shelter in the darkness? Or do you want this to end? Do you want retribution for your fallen siblings? Then join me. Rise above the ground one more time. Gather and spread destruction once more. If you join me, I will guarantee safety to you. You'd be allowed to stay in the world meant to contain me alone and make it your own."
Ranya-an scrutinized him. "That sounds tempting." she said. "But how do we know you don't betray us?" Lucifer narrowed his eyes. "...I'm not Kami." he responded and turned around. "This is my offer to you. Take it or reject, that's not really my concern. I will go anyway and summon hell into this world. Whether you're in or not." With these words, he went up the stairs again and left them in the dark. Ranya-an turned to a black-haired demon with a high ponytail. "Azra... what's your opinion about this?" she asked. Azra, the demon with the black hair Lucifer had saved before he was exiled, had been sitting in the corner the whole time, listening to them as uninvolved as possible, pretending to sleep. Now, he opened his eyes. "...I don't think he would break his word..." he mumbled. "He seems to be serious with his thing. He protected me back then, I assume that's why he became what he is now. He was trying to end the meaningless slaughter having his own ideals, and for that he was abandoned. And after all, he's one of us now. So why should he harm us?", "He was an angel once." Ranya-an reminded him. "Ideals and goals don't change that quickly." Azra stood up. "...But it's not impossible that exactly that can happen... especially when you're mad at someone." Ranya-an sighed. "Maybe you're right..." She pulled out her rapier. "EVERYONE!! IT'S TIME TO GATHER!!" The other demons opened their eyes and came closer to her. "Let's show the goddess we won't let ourselves being chased like this! We're going to follow Lucifer in this fight for now! Move out!" They went up the stairs with their heads held high and distributed into the town. Lucifer stood on a rooftop, with his angel wings reaching out of his back. They were as black as his hair now. When he saw the demons coming forth, he smiled. "You've made one major mistake...", he said with a voice cold as ice. "You underestinated someone you used to pick favoeite over everyone else. ...now then, Kami. What are you going to do? Come and face me so we can end this finally... You've stolen my life all its meaning... so it's either win or die. If I can still make a difference, I will try. Even if that signs my end. You made me like your enemies... then, I will be your enemy. That is what you wanted after all, is it not?"