In the past, the Abyss only had a single layer.
This layer was the size of a massive continent, spanned thousands of miles, and later, it was called the "Land of Endless Races".
In this great continent, the first Abyssal Demons appeared.
But before these first Demonic Races even walked the land, there was one creature that was born before them.
It was none other than the Golem of Destruction, Antero.
He was the oldest creature in the Abyss, as well as the one who struck fear in the hearts of many.
Several years later, the 2nd Layer was born.
A few thousand years later, the 3rd Layer came into being.
This cycle continued until the present day, and hundreds of Layers had been created in the abyss.
But it didn't end there for the Abyss was constantly expanding, even extending to many planes of existence and breaking through to several star systems in the multiverse.
This allowed the Abyssal Creatures to invade other worlds, and every time they succeeded, these worlds would permanently become part of the Abyss.
Solais and Elysium faced their onslaught head-on.
Elysium fared a little better and was able to push back the invaders back to the Abyss. They also sealed as many portals as they could to prevent a second invasion from happening.
The Elysians knew that they would be unable to stop the Abyssal Creature from spilling into their world completely, so they devised and created a very powerful barrier that prevented any Calamity and Demigod-Ranked Abyssal Creatures from getting through.
Although the threat of Empyrean-Ranked Creatures and below was a pain, it was still better than dealing with far more dangerous opponents which posed a greater threat to their very existence.
Solais, on the other hand, suffered a lot and vast swaths of land became uninhabitable in the Hundred-Year War.
Miasma thrived in these places, sealing kingdoms and empires off from the outside world.
Those who dared to venture through this miasma would encounter horrendous monsters, diseases, and plagues that could end their lives in a day if they weren't lucky.
While the Abyssal Demons were busy waging wars on different worlds, Antero roamed the many layers of the Abyss out of boredom.
There, he met the Succubus Rhiannon whose rank had degraded to a Rank 1 Monster after she was discarded by the Abyssal Noble who had taken advantage of her Unique Constitution.
Antero wasn't a kind creature and preferred to destroy things as he wandered the land.
When he encountered Rhiannon, the first thought he had was to step on the puny insect and end her suffering.
But after countless years of killing and destroying things, Antero had become bored, so it decided to spare the Succubus and went on with his business.
Rhiannon, who thought that she was going to die, steeled herself and tagged along with the Golem of Destruction as it wandered the Lower Layers of the Abyss.
Everywhere Antero went, destruction followed and countless lives were ended.
Trailing not far from him, the Succubus harvested the Abyssal Cores of the Demons that had been killed, consuming them and raising her strength little by little.
The Golem of Destruction found this funny and even thought of Rhiannon as its pet.
After hundreds of years, the weak and frail Succubus slowly gained a reputation in the Abyss as the Herald of Death. Wherever she was spotted, death and destruction would soon follow.
After spending many years with Rhiannon, Antero had grown attached to her and treated her as his daughter.
When the War between the Abyss and the Elysians started, Antero had just finished killing the Abyssal Lord of the 13th Layer.
He then bestowed its Authority on Rhiannon, giving her a safe place to call her home.
Back then, Rhiannon had already reached the Calamity Rank, so Antero deemed that she was already strong enough to protect herself.
When Rhiannon asked to accompany Antero in the war against the Elysians, the Golem of Destruction rejected her request and asked her to stay on the 13th Layer until she became a Demigod like him.
When the war ended and the gates of the Abyss were sealed, Rhiannon was heartbroken when she found out that Antero was one of the Demigods that had been unable to return to the Abyssal Plane.
Countless eyewitnesses said that the Golem of Destruction had fallen during the war, shattering into hundreds of pieces when he fought against the previous Dragon King.
They said that his sacrifice was worth it because he dragged the Dragon King to die along with him, but that didn't make Rhiannon happy.
For her, Antero wasn't just her savior and protector, he was also the closest thing to a family she ever had.
So when she finally saw the Golem of Destruction appear for a second time after a hundred years, she was unable to stop her tears from falling as her 'foster father' raised his gigantic fist high up in the sky to save her once again.
"You dare bully little Rhiannon?" Antero asked as he looked at Andras, whose face had turned pale from fright. "No problem…
"I'll just have to bully you back!"
When the fist came crashing down, the barrier that she was unable to break using her full powers shattered easily as if it were made from glass.
Andras' face turned ashen as his Trump Card in the war to make Queen Rhiannon his slave broke in front of his eyes.
Since he was a Demigod, he was able to recover from his shock right away, and the first thing he did was flee!
No one in the Abyss dared to fight against Antero because he was the most ancient and strongest creature in existence.
Some even said that if there weren't any limitations placed on the denizens of the Abyss, the Golem of Destruction would have already attained Godhood because of the strong power of Faith that he had gathered over the years.
Weaker Demons treated Antero as their God and aspired to become him.
Smaller Demonic Tribes and Communities would sometimes build Antero's statue in their territories in the hope that the Abyssal Lords would leave them in peace.
After the Golem of Destruction had laid waste through all the Layers of the Abyss, the majority of the Abyssal Lords feared him, so they left these small Demon tribes alone in fear that Antero would visit them and destroy everything they possessed.
That was also why no one dared to touch the 13th Layer, for this was the Domain of Antero's Herald of Death.
Although many eyewitnesses believed that the Golem had truly fallen in the war, they still didn't dare to attack it as they feared that Antero might revive and find its way back to the Abyss.
Andras was an exception because he managed to discover the truth about Rhiannon's body constitution through the diary of her former lover, making him covet her even more.
"Where do you think you're going, puny Demon?" Antero chuckled as he pointed his finger at the fleeting Abyssal Lord.
"Duel [Divine]."
Andras, who had nearly reached the portal, immediately froze mid-air and found himself being pulled towards the Giant Golem, whose fist was already raised high in the air.
"N-Nooooooooooooo!"
Andras' scream reverberated across the battlefield as he found himself helplessly staring at the gigantic fist that was about to land on his body.
A few seconds later an earth-shaking explosion blew everyone away from the battlefield.
Lux grabbed Eiko in his arms before summoning his Corpse God and Skeleton King to protect the two of them from the aftermath of Antero's full-powered-smash, which was more powerful than Eiko's tactical nuke that was used against the Saints of the Divine Army of Light.
