CODEX OMNIVERSA

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A long time ago, Belial, one of the oldest demons and the archduke of Hell, was bored.

So he gathered his armies and set out to conquer all lands west of the River Acheron. The lands of the serpent queen, Ran Va Death. Even by Hell’s standards, it was a slaughter and a half!

A million demons fell that day, ripped beyond all hope of regeneration. But two survived – the demon king and the serpent queen! Glaring their hatred they circled each other, preparing to attack — but then — a moment of true magic!

And there, amid the corpses and the blood and offal, their passion took its course.

13 months and 13 days after they first fought in battle, a baby was delivered.

Etrigan was “chaos on two legs” and didn’t care what he did or to whom he did it. Belial was his father and no one dared hurt his son.

Belial tried to teach Etrigan discipline…

Etrigan was branded with a sigil. His mother one day reminisced…

Belial blamed Ran va Daath and pushed her off a cliff into the dark abyss of Masak Mavdil — the pit of hell. He then told his son that she had run off because she was sick and tired of his behavior.

When he learned that his father had lied to him, Etrigan tricked him into falling  in love with a beautiful Middle Eastern goddess, who birthed his second child.

Later, after a trip to Earth, Belial called all of Hell to a reception to meet his third son — the spawn of a human witch.

I give you Merlin — destined to be called the greatest magician of all.

But there was one reason for Merlin’s existence — to tame Etrigan…

To be continued…

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