As he fell away from the existence he knew, Tungsten had plenty of time to think.
He had figured out how to go from nothing to something, and the most expedient way in his view was to rob from less consequential things, though he could reason that he was honoring the things that he consumed by becoming so great and powerful with their contribution. He understood why he found himself banished from reality, he was determined to consume everything so that he would become the new universe, or the most consequential being of his universe. The other beings of his reality would not accept him as their ruler, and so be it, he thought. He assumed that he would fall forever in the darkness. As long as he did, he would be the most consequential being of that darkness, and that was something. But just as he came to this realization, he saw the darkness permeated by a dim light before he hit a ground.
When he stood and inspected his surroundings, he had no concept of the place that he found himself. There were many other things there, some seemed to float above the ground, others walked along the rocky surface that seemed to be red in the light. There were demons there, but they were not tasked with torturing anything, just tending to whatever business they had.
He encountered a being that got his attention as he stood looking around the place skeptically. It was the spirit of a man who had been a wizard in his life when he inhabited the physical world. He was from a parallel of existence where magic exists as it does in fairy tales and he had sought out the realm of darkness in his death, hoping to defeat an ancient evil that he believed had plagued his life. But when the wizard, who was called Wazad the Wonderful, arrived in Hell, he was confronted with the reality that the stories of his life were not the reality of the afterlife. There was evil in the dark place, but there were forces for good there who opposed it and allowed for the beings of Hell to have lives of dark rumination within the catacombs.
Wazad called to Tungsten, “What brings you here?”
Tungsten did not know language and he tried to consume Wazad as he had the beings of his existence, but Wazad resisted.
“That was a bad idea,” Wazad said and he summoned friends, an assortment of ghosts, goblins, and Quinspace beings, who were like a police force of the dark realm, who worked to defend the defenseless. “Stand down or we will wipe you from the realms of matter.”
Tungsten did not understand and there was a battle. He could not be hurt because his black form was impenetrable and though he would not grow anymore, he consumed his adversaries one by one to become more dense.
Soon the beings of Hell learned to bow to Tungsten, begging him for his mercy. By then, he had learned language, and he declared himself ruler of the dark catacombs.
“Not so fast,” Tungsten heard over the quiet supplication of the beings gathered before him. Soon a being like a human with red skin and two horns on its head, flew to land next to Tungsten. The thing had huge wings that were like a bat’s and they scrapped the ground when it stood.
“I am Morning, mother of demons. I’ve heard about you, stirring up trouble in this section of the catacombs. But conquering one small bit does not make you a ruler.”
She explained to Tungsten that even though he had conquered what would be considered an entire galaxy-sized portion of the catacombs, he had not even conquered a single percent of the entire landscape of Hell.
“You cannot challenge me. You are nothing.” The mother of demons cackled and she struck Tungsten hard enough to injure him. She broke his skin at the shoulder and his dark insides began to seep. Then she disappeared.
Tungsten took time to heal and he continued to consume. He vowed to make the mother of demons his prisoner and he would force her to watch him rule over Hell in as cruel a manner as he could manage. When he had devoured almost all of the inhabitants of Hell, he made his way to Morning’s throne. She sat there laughing at him.
“You’ve done it! You’re finally strong enough to challenge me and claim my seat as the ruler. But what is there to rule, dark man? You’ve consumed all of your subjects.”
Tungsten was angry and he beat Morning while she laughed at him. He raped her and forced her to populate Hell with the most gruesome demons to have ever existed in the realm. Then he set about populating Hell with souls. He sent demons to find recruits, and in the process he learned much about the realms of matter and the things that existed therein. When he learned of the Ascendant and their machinations with the Aje in the realm of light, he knew that he could use the power of that entity for his own benefit if he could seize a vessel of that power, which is sometimes referred to as an Alia. He tried long and hard to recruit an Alia to Hell, but they all gravitated to the light where the Aje was located.
Then, after a long search, one fell into his lap. She had been weighed down by a hatred for humanity and his demons guided her to the dark catacombs. She was a very easy recruit and he was astounded by her connection to the sentient life from her parallel of existence. She was able to identify every human soul from the parallel of her origin, and combined with the magics Tungsten had learned over his long existence, they were able to doom an entire existence of humans to torture in his new Hell.
Tungsten had been inspired by stories of Hell he had gathered over the years and he was happy to rule over a domain of agony, the likes of which Morning had been unable to create.
“Call me your Father,” he told Morning as he sat smiling on his throne, and Morning was stuffed into a cage at his feet.
PRL Serials 