Chapter Text
It was late 1988, in Berlin, Germany and Helloween was promoting the newest album "Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part 2", that came out earlier that same year. And they were playing on a festival at the moment. Although, they hadn't played for very long before Michael Kiske suddenly felt that the stage was shaking, so he looked at his bandmates Kai Hansen, Michael Weikath, Markus Grosskopf and Ingo Schwichtenberg to see if they had felt it too. And the singer saw that they had felt the stage shaking as well, so he looked out at the audience. In doing so, he noticed it wasn't just the stage shaking. It was the ground as well. "Is it an earthquake?" Kiske thought quietly to himself. By now, the ground was shaking so hard that he had trouble standing up straight. Then poles started falling down and hitting a few people that were unfortunate to stand in the way. After that, everyone panicked and people were running in every direction in fear, as the shaking got worse. A noise above him made Kiske look up, only to see a part of the lighting rig fall down towards him. But before he was crushed by the rig, someone tackled him and pushed him out of the way. Kiske let out a grunt of pain, as the weight of the body fell on him. When he looked up, he saw Kai looking worried back at him.
"You okay?" Kai asked, as he looked Kiske over for any injuries.
Kiske nodded, "Yeah. I am, thanks to you." before he smiled up at Kai.
Kai smiled back, before he got up off Kiske. "Good. Now, get up, so we can get the hell out of here."
Kiske nodded, before he got up as well and was about to leave the stage, when he suddenly spotted Ingo by the drums, frantically looking for something, so he rushed over to him. "Ingo! We have to go! The stage is about to collapse!" he yelled at him, before he looked around at the stage, when he heard the metal groaning, as it wasn't designed to withstand earthquakes. And he knew they had to hurry, or they would be crushed by the stage roof.
Ingo shook his head. "Not until I find my necklace. I dropped it somewhere and I can't find it." he told Kiske, as he frantically searched for his necklace. His mom had given it to him many years ago, so it was precious to him.
"Forget the necklace! We need to go!" Kiske told him, as he knew they didn't have time for this, so he grabbed Ingo's wrist and dragged him with him.
Ingo tried to protest, but knew Kiske was right, so he just let Kiske drag him off the stage.
When Kiske looked around, trying to find Kai, Weikath and Markus, he noticed the ground had started to shake harder. And it was so bad that he almost fell to the ground. But he managed to stay on his feet and ran faster, when he spotted the rest of his bandmates a bit further ahead of him. By now, he started seeing cracks in the ground, as it seemed like there was something trying to come up from out of the ground. As he looked behind him, he saw that Ingo was running after him, so he could get to his bandmates too. When Kiske looked back towards his bandmates, he saw that Kai, Weikath and Markus had spotted them, so they started running towards them. But then Kiske noticed the ground starting to suddenly dip down, so his steps faltered, as he knew something was about to happen. He looked back up at Kai, Weikath and Markus, as they still ran towards him and Ingo. "Guys! Stop! Th-"
Kiske never had time to finish his warning, before there was a mighty explosion that tossed him and Ingo backwards in the direction of the stage where they had just escaped from. And the blast was so huge that Kiske and Ingo went right through some of the metal that held up the stage, so it finally collapsed with them inside it. But before Kiske lost consciousness, he saw a red hand with huge claws on its fingers coming up out of the hole, before the rest of the creature followed and came out of the hole where the explosion took place. And the creature was big and very muscular, with huge black wings on its back. It also had glowing red eyes and huge black horns coming out of its skull. But that was the last thing Kiske saw before everything turned black.
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When Kiske woke up, he let out a groan of pain, as his whole body hurt. At first, he was confused about why he hurt so much. But the more he laid there, trying to figure out what happened, the more his body hurt. Especially his abdomen, so he moved his hand up towards his gut, before he frowned, as he felt something metallic sticking out of him. And he slowly opened his eyes, before he looked down at his body. He was shocked when he saw the metal shrapnel sticking out of his gut, so he wondered what happened. The shrapnel in his gut wasn't the only injury he had, as he saw that his shirt was shredded and he had bloody gashes all over his body. Then he looked around and saw that he was lying amongst debris of twisted metal and wood fragments. As he looked around at the destruction, everything came back to him at once. The festival, the earthquake, the ground cracking beneath his feet, the explosion... "Ingo!" he gasped out, as he suddenly remembered the drummer flying through the air and crashing into the stage as well.
As Kiske looked around again, he spotted Ingo a bit further away from him, so he tried to get to him. But when he tried to get up on his feet, his legs gave out from under him, so he fell back to the floor. And he let out a cry of pain, as his whole body hurt like hell at that. Although, as he looked at Ingo again, he could see that he was already gone, as a huge metal pole was sticking out of his chest. Even though his whole body hurt, he still dragged himself towards Ingo's body. Tears formed in his eyes, as he looked over Ingo's body. Just like him, there were gashes all over Ingo's body. But the metal pole through his chest is what killed him, as it looked like it had pierced his heart. Kiske just hoped Ingo's death had been quick and painless.
"I'm so sorry, Ingo." Kiske told him, as tears finally cascaded down his cheeks, when he took Ingo's lifeless hand in his own hand and squeezed it gently. Then he laid Ingo's hand down gently. "I'll come back for you." he told him, before he slowly started dragging himself towards the edge of the collapsed stage, so he could find some help. He didn't want to leave Ingo alone in the rubble. But he didn't have much of a choice at the moment. Although, he knew he didn't have to hurry, so he took his time, as he dragged himself forwards, as he didn't want to cut himself on the jagged metal edges. He already had enough cuts all over his body, so he didn't need any more. There was also one deep and very long slash wound on his abdomen that went from his belly button all the way to above his left hip. And it was bleeding pretty bad, so he wondered if he would bleed out before he could get help. When he finally saw a big enough hole to crawl through, he dragged himself towards it. As he pulled himself out of the rubble of the collapsed stage, his eyes widened in shock and horror, as he looked around at the site of the festival. There were huge creatures that killed off the rest of the people who hadn't managed to escape from the festival. The creatures looked like huge dogs or wolves. However, they were black, had huge fangs, razorsharp claws and had no fur. And their eyes were glowing red like they've came straight out of hell. Kiske had a suspicion that that was where they came from. He stared at the creatures for a moment and suddenly realized with horror that he was staring at Hellhounds.
"Oh my God!" he gasped out at that, "I need to get out of here!" before he crawled to the edge of the collapsed stage, so he could climb down from it. But then the piece of the stage he crawled out on suddenly broke off, sending Kiske to the ground below. And the sharp pain that went through his body at that was so intense that he passed out.
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When Kiske woke up again, he heard voices around him, so he opened his eyes to look around. And he saw that he was on the ground in front of the collapsed stage, so he tried to sit up and see where the voices came from. But a sharp pain went through his injuries at that, so he let out a moan of pain and clutched his abdomen tightly. "Moving is a very bad idea, Kiske." he thought quietly to himself.
"We found a survivor over here!" one of the voices yelled.
Kiske opened his eyes and looked around again, before he saw several people running towards him and gather around him. "Did you find my friends? Kai?" he asked weakly, before he started coughing. And the coughing hurt like hell, so he let out another groan of pain and squeezed his eyes shut. But he needed to know if the rest of his bandmates and friends were alive, so he pushed past the pain. "Are they alive? And are they still here?" Although, he broke out into another coughing fit, so he squeezed his eyes shut again, as another sharp pain coursed through his body at that.
The person closest to Kiske laid a hand on his shoulder. "Take it easy." he told Kiske, before he looked sad. "And I'm so sorry. But you're the only survivor we found here at the festival."
Kiske let the tears spill out of his eyes, as he grieved his friends. "Kai..." he said weakly, before he once again passed out, as the pain became to much for him to handle.
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When Kiske once again woke up, he noticed that he wasn't lying on the ground anymore, as whatever he was lying on was moving. And he opened his eyes and looked around, only to see that he was lying in a carriage pulled by horses. Then he saw that the same person from earlier was sitting beside him, looking out at the view. As Kiske looked out at the view as well, he knew he wasn't in Berlin anymore, as he saw mountains around them. He wondered how long he had been out cold, as he could feel bandages wrapped around his abdomen. But he still felt exhausted, so he closed his eyes again and fell asleep almost immediately.
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The next time when Kiske woke up, his eyes widened in surprise, as he saw that they were travelling on a road that lead up to a castle. And it took a moment before Kiske recognized the famous castle and its towers. The same castle that was the inspiration for the Disney castle. Kiske looked at the man from earlier. "Are we at Neuschwanstein Castle?" he asked him weakly, before he looked back at the castle.
The man nodded at Kiske. "Yes. The big cities and smaller towns have all been attacked, so we sought refuge at the castle. It's the only place so far that hasn't been attacked. That we know of anyway."
Kiske looked confused back at the man. "What?! Who has attacked the cities?" It didn't make sense to him that someone has attacked Germany. "And why hasn't the military done anything to fight the people who attacked us?"
The man looked at Kiske in a way that said "Are you serious?!". But instead he took a deep breath. "Because the ones who attacked the cities weren't human. They were monsters. The best I could describe the thing as being is Lucifer."
Kiske raised his eyebrows in disbelief, as he didn't believe the man. "Oh come on! Lucifer? As in Satan? The Devil? I don't..." he trailed off, as he suddenly remembered the sight he vitnessed at the festival. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed, as he remembered the creature climbing out of the hole.
The man didn't say anything, as he saw that Kiske needed a moment to collect his thoughts. It took a few minutes, when he saw Kiske look back at him. "I'm Peter, by the way." he said and held out his hand.
Kiske took Peter's hand shook it. "Michael Kiske." he told Peter with a small smile.
Peter smiled back at Kiske. "Nice to meet you, Michael."
"Nice to meet you too." Kiske told him, before he wondered how long he would have to spend the time here at the castle and recover from his injuries.