Far Away From the Sun

DISCLAIMER: This story contains extreme violence that is not suitable for children. Please do not read this story if you are under 18 or are sensitive to violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

In the depths of the frosty hellscapes of Greenland lies a seemingly abandoned mine shaft in the middle of nowhere. Nobody in their right mind would dare travel to this place because it is hundreds of miles from the nearest stretch of civilization. While this mine shaft might seem desolate from the outside, it holds a secret that only a few people know about; it is anything but abandoned. Inside this "mine shaft" lies a top-secret supermax prison known only as "The Abyss."

Inside "The Abyss" lies the most hardened and dangerous criminals from around the world who can't be held in any ordinary prison. The prison is structured so that the deeper one goes into the depths of the Abyss, the more dangerous and evil the prisoners become. Floors b1-b6 hold rapists and pedophiles, sex offenders with such extensive records that their prison mates would instantly murder them in any ordinary jail. This section holds 600 prisoners. Floors b7-b10 hold serial killers from around the globe and contain 200 prisoners in total. Floors b11-b13 hold infamous gang members guilty of the most heinous of crimes; these floors contain only 50 prisoners. Floors b14 and b15 contain international terrorists and gang leaders. Only 12 people are held on these floors, where the prison appears to end. However, the most peculiar thing is that the prison does not end at floor 15; in fact, there are almost an additional five stories below ground of b15.

These floors are mostly void as below b15 lies four floors of empty space, stretching down to floor b20. On floor b20, only one man is held, a man known only as "The Devil" for how cruel and dangerous he is. While the other floors contain cells that can best be described as glorified closets, floor b20 is surprisingly spacious for its high security. But the thing about this cell is that it is less of a prison cell and more of an execution where "The Devil" was simply just thrown in and forgotten about. None of the guards would ever dare to check in on the prisoner, and he has never been given any food or water in the nearly 30 years he has been held in the cell. But despite these conditions, rumors have spread among the guards that if you hold your ear onto the ground of floor 15, you can occasionally hear faint maniacal laughter from the man who has not eaten in almost three decades. Despite how high security the prison is, it has been short on staff for quite some time due to how frequently guards will quit and leave due to the awful conditions.

Despite all the warnings and reasons to never step near the "abandoned" mine shaft, one day, a woman stepped near the border where the surveillance of the area around the Abyss stops. The woman's face was covered in piercings, and wearing an all-black dress. Despite the freezing temperatures, she could always survive in the coldest of lands. Her hair was raven black, her eyes as red as blood, and on one of her arms, one could see that she had a tattoo of a phoenix that would occasionally light up like a fire.

The woman pulled out a dagger and sliced her arm open, pouring her blood on the snow to draw various sigils with. Upon finishing her drawing, she chanted in Latin, and the sigil immediately started glowing purple as the Phoenix tattoo on her arm began to glow like a small flame. Out from the sigil came dozens of demons, 30 in total, ranging from small imps carrying crude spears to hulking behemoths of muscle that would make the most built-up bodybuilders look like children. This was the woman's Phoenix ability, the power to summon demons from any sigil she drew. Whether or not these were real demons from hell, she did not know nor care.

"Here's the mission," the woman said to her small army of demons, "I want you to break into that mine shaft over there and kill everyone in it except for the man held at the very bottom in the most secure cell they have. The man they call 'the Devil' must be kept alive no matter what. We must secure the core at all costs. Everyone else must be killed, so there are no witnesses. You may now begin."

With her orders, the army of demons bolted through the snowy tundra; most of them had accidentally stepped on the land mines throughout the area, but they tanked the hit and continued uninjured and unphased. Soon, they reached the mine shaft and tore through the thick steel door of the entrance as if it were made of paper. The second the entrance was breached, an alarm sounded throughout the prison, and all 233 guards stationed at the prison geared up and readied to confront the intruders, but their resistance would prove ultimately futile.

A group of 40 guards lined up near the entrance to the stairway that led to each floor, and they were immediately met by the army of demons who tore through their shields and armor as if it were nothing. Soon, the walls were painted in their blood as the demons tore off limbs, decapitated guards, smashed heads in, tore entire men in half as if they were made of paper, and used the removed limbs of some of the guards to beat the others to death. Soon, the whole group of guards were dead, and the Phoenix tattoos on their bodies faded to indicate their deaths.

On each floor laid a couple dozen guards, and the demons ran across the whole prison, laying waste to all in their paths. One guard tried to shoot fire from his hands while another tried to use telekinesis to throw a sharp metal rod at a group of demons. Both attacks failed, and the monsters bolted toward the guards and ripped them to shreds, tearing out their internal organs and forcing them down their throats before their lives quickly faded. But the monsters didn't just stop at killing the guards; they tore through the doors of each of the cells and swiftly murdered the prisoners inside. One child rapist had his prison cell broken into, and the imp cut his head off and threw it on a spike where he would begin to break into the cells of other prisoners and collect their heads until he ran out of space on his spear to hold the heads of prisoners.

The warden was lying on the "bottom" floor at b15 with 30 other guards to protect their most dangerous criminal and could only watch as their fellow guards were sliced and diced apart along with all the other inmates. "I guess that saves us money on what little food we feed our prisoners," thought the warden as the prisoners were executed by the beasts roaming around. Soon, the warden and his guards were confronted by the demons, and he charged at the beasts while the Phoenix tattoo on his hand shined bright. With his sheer strength, he grabbed two imps, crushed their heads with his bare hands, and threw their bodies at two other demons approaching him; the force of the corpses thrown at them caused them to be sent flying towards the wall where their bodies were crushed under pressure.

Soon, the warden killed 12 imps while his guards put up a good fight with their strength. His glory was quickly cut short when a massive brute came up to the warden and punched him once, and his head instantly flew off his shoulders. The warden's decapitated head collided with the head of another guard, detaching his head as well and killing both men instantly as they splattered against the wall. The beast made swift work of the other guards as he tore them apart limb from limb and crushed them under the force of his strength. One guard weakly tried to crawl to safety, but the brute stomped on his head, flattening it against the pavement.

The ground of floor b15 was made of solid steel three feet thick and contained only one trapdoor that had 15 locks and three combination locks that not even the warden knew the combination to. A different world leader held the keys to each lock, and the combinations were known only to the most elite of generals worldwide. The floor's steel was made from a specific material that canceled out any phoenix-powers, making it impossible to breach by anyone. It would take the cooperation of over 20 different high-class elites' cooperation to open the cell's door. The brute took hold of the door and ripped it apart like it was nothing, as his power did not come from his own Phoenix power but rather his strength. He jumped into the cell's depths and was greeted with a hellish sight befitting of a man with such a nickname.

Inside floor b20 was a large cell with dried blood all over the walls and floor. The skeletons and fresh corpses of dead rats were sprawled all across the floor. On the walls, the prisoner had written in his blood rows upon rows of obscenities and descriptions of horrific means of murder that he planned to carry out against a specific individual whom he referred to only as "Mrs.Void."

The brute saw many such obscenities and even read some of them. Along the wall were so many passages that read out descriptions such as "I will tear your fucking eyes out of your skull and eat them," "I will smash your face against the floor until there's nothing left of your head," "I will tear out your intestines and feed them to rats," and other such crude sentences that read like they were written by an edge lord in middle school.

Along one of the walls laid a single man who was so malnourished and lifeless that anyone who looked upon him would swear that he was dead with utmost certainty. The man sat against the wall of his cell, wounds all over his body and not moving an inch. The brute walked towards the corpse and attempted to lift his body to deliver to the woman who had summoned him, but the second he laid a finger on the man, he sprang up to life and grabbed his face, crushing his head instantly with his strength. The demon that had killed almost half of the guards and inmates in the prison fell to the ground dead.

"While I do appreciate you breaking me out of this prison, I am insulted that you thought I couldn't walk out of here myself. Have some respect, you goddamn monster." As the man stood up, the blood from the demon splashed onto his face and evaporated as the wounds all over his body healed up, making him look as good as new.

The man known as the Devil was brutishly tall, standing at almost 7 feet, and his muscles were like that of a Greek statue, showcasing the perfect male form that others would kill to have. While the people of his race were usually dark-skinned, he was born an albino, and his skin was pale as a ghost with long black hair from his three decades in prison. On his face, near his eyes, were two faint red lines stretching down as if he was always crying. On the front of his right fist was a Phoenix tattoo that was a feature of nearly every inhabitant of his world; only his tattoo showed a Phoenix smiling maniacally and glowing a faint shade of gold instead of the usual red, serious-looking Phoenix. Despite the man being nearly 60 years old, he looked as if he was still only 30 because those with Phoenix tattoos age more slowly than those without the mark. On the top of the man's head laid two long, straight horns that stretched up almost a whole foot, a prominent feature of his race, along with their eyes that can see in the dark and their resistance to extreme temperatures. His people were all born in a constantly pitch-black and freezing-cold land. This was the ghastly appearance of the man known as the Devil, but his proper name was Yuzan Hellfire.

"Now that I'm feeling good as new, I suppose I should leave here; there's no use staying here," said Yuzan as he bolted towards the wall of his broad, cylindrical cell. As soon as he reached the wall, he held his hands up with his fingers straight, and the Phoenix tattoo on his hand glowed gold as his arms quickly morphed into sharp metal blades with a loud "CLANG!". Using his new blade arms, Yuzan stabbed into the stone wall of his cell, using the curved ends of his blade arms to support his weight as he climbed up four stories to the trapdoor on the roof, signaling his freedom. Once he reached the light of freedom, he was greeted by a circle of reserve guards that had been kept in the back line of the prison in case the usual reserve of guards had been wiped out.

These guards were even more powerful and fierce than the usual guards, but this, in turn, had made them cocky, and they only dispatched themselves when they felt it was necessary. They stood in the barracks of the prison and waited for the situation to get dire enough for them to be dispatched when a demon tried attacking them. They made short work of the demon and ran across the prison, executing all the monsters until only about three remained. When they realized that Yuzan's cell had been opened, they rushed towards his cell and waited for him to show up so they could detain him. Despite their large egos, they knew that they must keep Yuzan imprisoned no matter what happened, even if the whole country they resided in was destroyed due to their efforts.

"Hands where I can see them, prisoner," said the head guard as Yuzan stepped foot onto the floor of b15. Surrounding him were about 20 guards in a circle, all pointing guns, swords, or simply pointing their hands at him to fire off a burst of Phoenix energy or other abilities to hinder him. Yuzan laughed at the pitiful display of complete weaklings trying to ambush him as if it would help them.

"Oh please, I didn't escape from here sooner because I didn't have enough blood to power my Phoenix ability. You're all worthless against me." With his prideful boast to the guards, Yuzan turned his arm into a blade attached to a chain and spun the sword around him, instantly cutting all of the guards around him into two. The blood of all the guards rained down upon the area like a fountain and covered the entire place in even more blood than was previously there. So much blood rained down upon the floor that it began to pool and violently drain down the trapdoor like a waterfall. More guards ran to intercept Yuzan, but he curled his arm into a fist and transformed it into a massive mallet that he used to bash their brains in and make their faces practically one with the concrete below them.

One guard tried to fire his gun at Yuzan from a floor above, but he pointed his fist toward him, and his arm opened up and fired a sharp metal spear at the guard. The spear moved faster than the speed of sound and impaled him through the face, sticking his body on the wall hanging off a few feet from the floor. The remaining guards threw everything they had at him, from blasts of energy to bullets to slashes from a sword, but it all bounced off his skin, which was so thick that nothing could hope to pierce it. After Yuzan swiftly and brutally killed all the guards in his wake, sprawling their entrails across the floor like a Jackson Pollock painting, he simply stared at his artwork and reveled in the sight of his brutality.

Still, Yuzan had wondered why they had stationed such weak guards to detain someone as dangerous as him. He then recalled that Phoenixes as strong as him were almost always forcefully drafted into their country's army; every strong soldier was drastically needed in a war-torn world. These were the strongest warriors the prison could afford without interfering with the plans of conquest that each nation deeply held within them.

"I suppose it makes sense that they wouldn't want to station too many strong Phoenixes here as that damn Queen and King of Humanity are constantly trying to one-up each other and steal each other's land." Yuzan thought to himself as he made his way out of the prison. He was greeted by the remaining three imps, who guided him toward the woman stationed outside the prison. Upon being greeted by her, the woman bowed before him.

"You don't know how excited I am to finally meet you, oh Great Yuzan, Lord of Darkness, King of Howling Wolves, Master of all that is Evil," exclaimed the woman excitedly as she was finally met with her idol. "My name is Raven. I am a member of the Yuzanists fighting in your honor."

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the formalities. Though I wonder why it took you guys so long to free me when a bunch of was protecting this prison rejects, that can't even hold off a baby."

"We tried for so long to save you, Lord Yuzan, but we only recently gained the intel of what prison was holding you, and we immediately lept into action to free you."

"I see now, so this prison decided that the security of secrecy was enough to keep anyone from breaking out. Kind of a dumb move, but I suppose the Queen of Humanity was so confident in her ability to deal with me that she didn't see me as enough of a threat to have her best guards holding me. I'll show her not to underestimate me."

"So, Lord Yuzan, what plan do you have that you wish for us loyal retainers to execute for you."

"Isn't it obvious, Miss Raven? I've only been holding out this long to fulfill my one goal: the death of the Queen of Humanity's second in command, the woman known as Helena the Void."

With his exclamation, Yuzan placed his hands on his face and used his powers to change his appearance to that of a more young-looking man with green eyes, red hair, and a more cylindrical face than his usual rough appearance. Upon admiring his new look in the mirror of the woman's nearby tent, he smiled as he began to think up all the ways he would kill Miss Helena, the woman he hated more than anything in the world.

I'm coming for you, Helena! But not before I take back Ulyshia and render your lands to cinders! Yuzan thought up how he could exact his revenge before laughing maniacally at his new freedom. So began the start of what would eventually lead to the most brutal and devastating conflict in human history.

This is the story of a man who is beyond any chance at redemption. The story of a monster wearing the face of a man.