Hell Kaiser VOL 1 – Meet the Emperor
Prologue - Part 1 - The 15 hours of darkness
In recent centuries humanity has grown more and more dependent on its technology, the key to its success as a species. But at the peak of their global civilization, strange gates opened around Planet Earth, 14 of them spread across different parts of the world, through them emanated a strange atmospheric phenomenon, apparently harmless to living beings, but proved devastating for human technology, which at the time of opening these doors, stopped working worldwide.
Worse than the most extreme predictions of what would cause a magnetic pulse of a solar flare, the strange phenomenon left most of the human devices around the world unusable.
Those who suffered the greatest impact were the airplanes, one hundred percent of those that worked at the time the gates were opened dropped to the ground causing devastation, killing not only their passengers, but the unfortunate people who crossed their path, those that fell in more populated areas destroyed buildings and caused traffic accidents that claimed even more lives. Ships didn't suffer so greatly, most simply remained stranded in the place where they were, however every submarine that was submerged claimed the life of its crew.
Communications of all kinds were interrupted, plunging every population in panic. The deaths exceeded those of any disaster recorded in history, not only because of the hundreds of thousands killed almost immediately after everything began, but also because of the subsequent chaos and retrograde situation faced by the living ones.
The phenomenon did not affect all the devices, some with simple mechanisms still worked, however, it affected the large machines in the power plants that supplied the cities with energy, without that energy not even those simple devices would work. The machines that pumped water into the homes also failed, the large cities that were located far from water sources dried up, and without transport people suffered.
Without energy, appliances, vehicles, running water, communications, hospitals around the world lost countless patients, all those in a delicate state didn't survive the first hours. Without communication and in the midst of such chaos, the death record could not be kept, but it was certainly above several million.
This self-inflicted disaster (since centuries ago would have passed almost without consequences) was not the worst scourge that humanity would suffer during which would be remembered as the fifteen hours of darkness, after all, the causes of the phenomenon were called <<Gates>> for a reason.
Pologue - Part 2 - Hell unleashed
Shortly after opening, with disaster already scourging the world, creatures of various forms which could easily be described as demons began to emerge from the gates one after another. They pounced on people, some destroying what was put in its way, others like hungry animals hunting and devouring how many could not escape their jaws.
It would be an exaggeration to say that no one was safe, people known as soldiers, who were entrenched in forts with heavy weapons could defend themselves against these wild and clumsy creatures. The engines didn't work, but the tanks in these forts were not useless, their cannons still fired and their armor still protected those guarded inside, just no longer moved. Of course, without transportation or communications, the soldiers could only defend their position and wait for orders that would not arrive in a long time.
As for the civilian populations, they could do little. Some armed policemen killed small creatures using guns and some rifles they had, but without assault equipment they hardly damaged the great ones. It would be an insult to say that there were no brave ones that sacrificed themselves to protect the innocent, but most took as many weapons as they could and fled to save their own skin when they realized the situation.
If you can imagine wild animals rebelling against the dominant species, the human one, and you can imagine that same human race in chaos without their beloved technology, then you can understand what happened.
That day forever changed human history, the day that mysterious gates opened around the world, the day that some wild creatures, which would be known as <<Unders>>, showed humanity their own weakness. The day when the light of progress that went on millennia ago with the flame of Prometheus, went out and plunged the world into darkness.
Only fifteen hours ... From the moment the gates opened until they closed, rumors say thanks to an unknown group of heroes, which some claim to have seen heading for the Mediterranean gate. The only sure thing is that in those few hours the extinct lives reached billions, about a third of humanity had disappeared... In less than a day.
It would be more than a year before communications around the world were reestablished, and the species that was considered untouchable, unlike any other, was aware of the horrible truth. Until the communications returned many considered what happened as an isolated event, that the one that caused this had been a single gate and that the damage was located in their unfortunate corner of the world. There are no words to describe the general feeling of an entire species when they realize the truth, the true extent of what they had lost, during << The fifteen hours of darkness >>.
Prologue - Part 3 - Restoration of humanity
The world would never be what it was, but after a few years without further incident, the reconstruction of human civilization was under way.
Many planes were on the ground when that disaster occurred, and although their circuits were burned most of their structure and mechanisms were intact, so they could be repaired, but would not be used so carelessly again.
It is a fact that many people were afraid to fly, but this fear became common sense after the fifteen hours of darkness. When the gates closed and disappeared, so did the Unders that had come from them. The atmospheric phenomenon also stopped, and the machines that were repaired worked again, but the wounds it caused were more lasting than those caused by the Unders .
If you asked the survivors of the disaster, they would say that the world was overcrowded, humanity had reached a ridiculous number of individuals and the Unders fed and reduced their population to a more stable number, but the phenomenon that affected their technology, that caused them real horror. Of course, these would be the words of those who were far enough from the gates to not be devoured.
The aftermath of the gates phenomenon, which they called Hell Gates, was much more lasting, especially at the psychological level. Now mankind feared its own dependence on its technology, it feared that the gates would reappear and hell broke loose again, it feared that its technology would abandon them again. They feared losing their place in the food chain, they feared to understand that their superiority as a species was just an illusion.
But even after having suffered this disaster, even though the apocalypse had occurred, humanity survived, and over the years this fact comforted their spirit, which was not broken as they originally thought. With hard effort and work humanity rose from its ashes, determined to not surrender to its fate.
For my part, with mixed feelings, I can only thank them for their sacrifice, even so, in part I envy them, what an unimaginably great honor, to die the same day its supreme excellence was born, The Emperor; but I also pity them, for not being able to live to contemplate his magnificence.
However, not even the end of creation would despise my own fortune, since I received a gift of unparalleled glory. Because I crossed the gate to this world, I was able to become the first servant of the emperor, to be able to serve him from the same time of his birth. Never in my craziest fantasies would I dreamed of such a privilege; so once again, thank you, souls who sacrificed in honor of the birth of the great being that will prevail over all living things.
