Lowly Ascent

Outside all the cities, massive black pillars rose from the ground. On the pillars, chained souls wept and cried, screaming in pain. 

The cries echoed beyond the horizon, they resonated with the world as the pillars hummed and excreted a black gas that created a massive fog, covering everywhere but the Divine Cities. 

"It's the end of the world!" 

"Doomsday is here!" 

So-called prophets yelled out what they have been spewing thousands of times. Finally, people headed their words, and chaos ensued. 

The Gods were not humans, they could not soothe the chaos because they did not understand the human mind. 

Out of all the Gods, only the Kaiser quickly exterminated his anxious people's fears. In a day, the city returned to a form of normalcy, however, the other divine cities were heading for self-destruction. 

The truth was that the pillars were of Nihil's design; he shifted the form of his soul to create them, using his mist ghosts as defenses. With the pillars, he secreted his soul energy throughout the world as it spread endlessly and grew thicker. 

Regardless of what happened, he would be the eventual winner.  

The gods would have to team up to defeat Nihil or destroy the pillars before they spewed too much gas. However, this substance was made of evil soul energy to the point where even a god could be harmed. 

The pillars stood silently outside the cities and in the wilderness, fear continued to rise, and the gods watched silently, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. 

"HELP HELP" The souls charged forward but their necks were chained to the pillar, they wept while being pulled back. 

Mortals tried to venture out of their cities, but without the protection of the gods', Nihil's soul energy would invade them, after a certain point the mortals would die, and their souls taken to the pillars. 

During this time, humans did research on many paths, looking for a way to counter the black miasma surrounding their last bastions of humanity. Communication eventually returned and the humans conversed among the last cities, all sharing what they learned in hopes of opening their gods' kingdoms to the world. 

Nihil patiently waited until he was the strongest. He experimented with the souls of those living in his soul energy. He would create inconceivable monsters and form false humans as grotesque as nightmares. 

From time to time, he would send small groups of these monsters into cities, they would cause chaos for a time before the gods' apostles would stop them. 

'I don't need followers or believers. The gods are nothing more than sheep that rule sheep. They sit and wait because that is all they have known, even the Kaiser does the same. After all, you cannot overwrite someone's nature after all. I just need to wait, and I will easily take chunks of the gods' last cities, and then, I will find my prize!' 

... 

An expedition traveled through the wilderness. The group was surrounded by a black gas that seemed to layer the air in a thick miasma. 

After such a long time in this environment, the very trees turned black, and the creatures living in the miasma became like shadows, hunting and eating one another from the darkness. 

"It's only been a decade, and the fauna have changed, not even the animals are safe." The man sighed, "We were only now able to protect ourselves from the black gas and collect samples..." 

The group of humans surveyed their surroundings and took samples of plant life. All the while, they checked their gas masks, which were made of strange material, and continued to work. 

A few hours in, one of the members called it a day. 

"Hey, my mask is about to go, I'm gonna head back with what I have and let the others know!" The young man waved goodbye and left. 

"One man down, but he could only afford one of the poorer quality masks, he was going to be the first to go anyway..." The group leader sighed, the masks worked, but only for a while, the highest quality only allowing for 24-hour movement outside. 

Rustle 

Suddenly, from the bushes, a massive beast that looked similar to a jaguar crept out. 

"Fuck, it’s a black beast!" 

Black beasts were life Nihil changed forever, manipulating the lower lifeform's soul to make it unrecognizable from its original self, most of these creatures were made from small animals, and now they stood at the top of the food chain. 

One of the group members ran for it, leaving the others behind. The black beast ignored them, it stared at the leader licking its lips. 

'It knows that I walk the path of Soul!' The group leader's heart constricted. 

The beast lunged, chomping down on the leader's shoulder. The two rolled to the ground as the human fought for his life. The struggle intensified as his fists did nothing, and the beast began to use its claws. 

It swiped its paws, the first strike destroying the leader's clothes, the second breaking all the samples he collected, and the third, his mask protecting him from the gas. 

Falling back, the leader fell to the ground as the black miasma entered his lungs. The black beast finally ignored the trapped prey and went after the others, it would return after it finished its hunt. 

Screams resounded in the forest, bloody screams of men and women. 

'It wasn't supposed to go like this...why did this happen? I was so close... to gaining the church's attention...' As his eyes began to be layered in black, the black pillar in the distance began to grow into his sight as he heard a rhythmic sound. 

Strangely, the sound felt primal, as if he had been waiting for that sound all his life, it resonated with his soul. Then, he saw as the pillar opened up, for the first time in a decade, since it first appeared, the pillar changed. 

His vision went black, the mortal began to change and become something new. 

Inside his mind, there was only thoughtless hunger left, a hunger to gain the attention of its creator. 

The attention of Nihil, the Monarch of Black, the Spring of Nonexistence that will Swallow Existence. 

... 

Outside each of the divine cities, the Pillars opened one by one. At the center of the main continent, a massive pillar rose with a spring atop it. 

On the walls of the City of Stars, Kain's heart began to beat faster. 

"So, it's finally begun..."