Long before kingdoms rose and crumbled, before exorcists wore holy robes or demons walked in shadow—there was war.
It scorched the heavens and cracked the earth.
The Saints, once men and women chosen by divinity, stood as the final defense between humanity and a force that would not die: Asmodai, the warlock king. Not born of Hell nor Heaven, but of ancient, forbidden rites. Neither demon nor god. Something… else.
He had devoured cities. Turned armies to ash. Spoke in tongues that made angels weep.
When the Saints could not kill him, they devised a prison.
Seven stood atop a burning mountain. One Saint—Sariel, the golden flame—offered his soul, a sacrifice to bind Asmodai's essence. The others carved seals into reality, iron and blood, light and sorrow.
And when they chained Asmodai beneath the world, he did not scream.
He laughed.
"You fear death," he whispered, voice echoing into stone and bone. "So you trap me in it. But even death must sleep—and one day, one born of both worlds shall wake me."
His eyes, black as the void between stars, looked past the Saints.
"The Key will come. My blood will walk among you. And when it does… your towers will crumble, and your gods will kneel."
Sariel wept as the last light of his body became the seal.
The mountain swallowed itself.
The Saints were never the same.
Some disappeared. Others turned against their kind.
But one… returned.
Reborn in flesh, memory shattered, soul scarred. A quiet man who would take the name Zariel.
He wandered, half-mortal now, dreaming of fire and chains. For years, he avoided the whispers—until one day, an old friend named Elias came to him.
"I found a boy," Elias said. "He's not human. But he's not evil, either."
Zariel looked into the child's eyes. Smoke-colored. Silent.
Asmodai's fruit.
He should have struck the boy down that day.
He didn't.
Because Elias trusted the boy. And in that trust, Sariel—the warrior who had died for the world—chose to wait.
To watch.
To hope.
But if the day comes when the seal breaks… and the warlock king rises again?
Zariel will not hesitate to finish what he began.