*Year 1861, December 26th...*
The air was thick with the stench of burning flesh and smoke. The park which was once a lively place for people to relax, was now a graveyard with charred trees and ashes.
The sky was dyed red, casting an eerie glow over the crumbling city, where buildings burned like funeral pyres.
"Death... A word we've heard many times, yet never truly understood it's meaning until now," A young man wearing a hat who sat on a bench at what was once a beautiful park, said as he looked up to the red sky.
The entire city was filled with burning buildings and the horses that pulled the carriages ran rampant. Screams of people and children reverberated everywhere.
The man looked to the side to see a man on a carriage made of metal and he whipped the horses pulling it as they passed by.
Strange demonic creatures ran after the carriage. The man glanced at their demonic appearance. They seemed tangible and intangible at the same time, with fire and shadows weaving and coming together to form the eight feet tall humanoid abominations.
"Hm. Most never truly valued life. They did what they want, those who suffered the most are now the ones remembering they should've enjoyed their time." The man then relaxed on the bench, his hand seemed to shake contrasting the calmness of his face.
"How fitting that in our final moments, we remember what really mattered."
Despite his tired look and posture, his eyes were filled with liveliness. He just sat there and pulled out a cigarette, trembling, his heart heavy with memories of a world that was slipping away, slowly but gradually.
The image of his friend flashed before him. A man with a smile on his face, with too many friends, and too little time.
"Freddie had so many friends, he forgot to focus on his life, now he's been eaten by a goddamn demon--"
*BOOM!!*
"AHHHH!! HELP!!" A woman screamed as she tried to get away but seven demonic dogs on flames pounced on her and began to tear her flesh from flesh, her screams echoing around the entire area.
The man adjusted his hat as he continued talking to himself, ignoring the demons, he could feel the heat from their bodies and his heart palpitated in his chest like a drum.
"He never got to go for that singing contest, he never got to swim for the first time, we never danced together again after our cavalrymen training too." The man chuckled, his voice drowning as a cacophony of screams and roars of terrors reached his ears.
Yet he continued, distracting himself from the fate that waited him.
"Fucking extrovert, he had so many friends, he was too busy being friends with them that he forgot me." He blinked, his tone low and sad, barely audible.
"Well, the past is in the past now." The man picked up a walking stick which was only next to him and he grabbed it before using it to stand up.
One of his legs trembled as he struggled to stand up straight, a testament of the accident he had a while ago.
"We'll never know the importance of the little things..." The man bent down and grabbed a rose which was charred and then he squashed it.
"...until we start to lose them." The ashes of the roses blew into the wind like dust and the man stood up again and this time wore a pair of circular shades.
"I guess it's my time now." The man's deep grey eyes held a tinge of hopelessness as he wanted to attract the demons... But then he looked up.
The sky was dark red, and it was an eclipse. A large red creature in the sky, the author and cause of the destruction all around, the great calamity of fire, the great dragon from the burning depths of hell, flew around as it's fiery breath consumed the entire city below.
All of a sudden the dragon's golden eyes looked his way and it roared, revealing a row of teeth that were like swords. It's size was collosal, bigger than the air ships they had recently invented.
It's roar was like a storm, shaking the ground below his feet and Dom used his walking stick to stand upright.
It flew towards him at a very high speed and the man felt the temperature around him becoming hotter.
"I guess this is it for me. Everyone has to die someday," the man said with a smile as he closed his eyes, ready for what was to come.
His heart screamed at him to run away, to try and survive this moment, but there was nowhere to run. Behind him were demons, to his sides, above, even the ground was scorching hot.
His coat began to let out smoke as parts of it began to burn and he gritted his teeth in pain as the heat coming from the dragon's presence gradually seared his skin.
A torrent of flames shot out of the creature's mouth towards him.
Just as the flames closed him, ready to evaporate his entire existence, a massive root sprouted out of the ground in front of him and he opened his eyes and he was shocked to see what shielded him from the flames.
Dom felt the air trembling in the presence of an unfamiliar energy, as if the earth had come to life.
He glanced up, breathing hard. There, atop the towering root, stood a man clad in black, holding a hammer with a long body like a staff.
An avatar!
The dragon let out a bone chilling roar and then a few people ran towards Dom who still kept his eyes on the man stop the root.
"Are you okay Mr Dom?" A man came before him and asked but Dom was taken aback, not even aware of the fact that he fell on his butt.
The two men took Dom away and when he snapped back, he was in a weird looking carriage.
The carriage with wheel-like tires and gears upon gears underneath which enabled it looked like a weird design, but it was the same thing used in clocks and other technology nowadays.
He looks out of the carriage and sees the man with the hammer atop the root with a flat top and it suddenly began growing, elevating him towards the dragon.
The sky started to darken and soon the dragon noticed the human on the giant root and roared loudly as it flew towards him.
"The power of the Wonder of earth wielded by it's avatar. What a sight to see," Dom said with a smile and then buildings and rocks from the surroundings began wrapping the single root he was on and soon it formed a giant golem with the muscular, hammer wielding guy atop.
"Mr Dom I'm going to have to leave now, it's about to get really intense," The driver said as he began to operate the machine they were in which Dom wasn't familiar with.
'It's moving without horses pulling it...' the thought ran passed Dom's mind.
"What are we in?" He asked as he grabbed a barrel gun on the leather seat and shot a large demon coming towards them, it instantly turned into a black mist and disappeared, but he knew it wasn't dead.
"Tch... Spawns don't die that easily..." Dom mumbled and then he heard the rider's voice.
"It's a new development of steam technology called a car, I'll explain to you later, after we evacuate," The guy driving said and then loud explosions, light flashing, earthquakes, lightning, and storms raged.
This was a clash of titans that would reshape the world.
The dragon's roar was loud, like a below, resounding over and over. But what was even louder was the thought in Dom's mind.
'This is only the beginning...'