Devil's Apocalypse

"Everyone ready?" A mage called out to his colleagues, who were all connected by a metallic looking chain which was also bolted into the floor with a few dozen metres of slack.

The group stood at the border of the mist with the sun shining down from above along with an additional group, who weren't bound by the chain as they were staying outside the mist for monitoring purposes.

The mages were doing their final check ups before venturing in, accompanied by the security detail who were with them, which, surprisingly, didn't raise any queries about the mages intentions.

Once everyone confirmed that they were ready, the group carried some portable equipment and ventured across the border, immediately experiencing similar events to what the previous exploration team had described. The mages observed as the mist swirled around them, instantaneously becoming so dense that seeing in any direction for more than a few metres was impossible.

The group slowed down their walking slightly to fully immerse themselves in the strange feeling of being in a wholly mana deficient zone, before continuing on.

After walking what they counted as roughly 20 metres, they set down their equipment in order to start running some tests.

"It's convenient that we don't need to worry about containing the mist in a sealed environment anymore. Now we can essentially do what we want with no fear of it dissipating." A mage stated while continuing the setup of the various instruments that they took with them, ranging from simple measuring tools which were in circulation before the apocalypse to new creations made from mystic ore.

"Agreed, since that was our primary problem, solving it so easily is certainly…"

"Something wrong?"

"I swear I saw something, like a brief flicker of purplish light… but there's nothing there now."

The other mage looked up and swept his gaze around while also performing a quick head count, but nothing was wrong, though he still decided to put out the warning. "Everyone, keep an eye out for anything strange, this is unknown territory after all."

Everyone gave a quick response of acknowledgment so the mage looked back down at the instruments he'd just finished setting up when he caught something in his peripheral vision. Quickly spinning his head into the direction of the disturbance he once again saw nothing.

Turning away from his bench, he walked a few paces to one of the combatants who had formed a small encirclement so as to keep everyone in view.

"Did you happen to see anything in this direction?" He asked politely since this was the vicinity he'd spotted something.

"No, nothing observed worth mentioning. Unless you want to hear about the swirling of the mist of cause."

"No, no. Just checking." The mage replied while turning around. He froze, the mage which was standing at his small station had vanished. Slightly nervous, he grabbed the chain which was still up right and dragged it towards himself, only to have the abrupt end of the chain appear in front of him, appearing dull and having lost its ŀustre while hovering in the air as if weightless and ending in a broken link.

"A mage is gone!" He called out to the rest of the group, eliciting confused reactions from everyone present.

"What do you mean 'a mage is gone'? How can they be gone when we were all chained together." One of them asked as they all converged in a group.

The first mage simply held up the shattered chain end with a grim look on his face, seeing everyone's faces turn grave at the implication that the chain meant nothing.

"We should head out immediately, clearly we underestimated the threat this environment poses… to… us… where're the combatants?!" someone said urgently.

Everyone immediately spun around where they stood, searching for the armour clad fighters which acted as their security detail but finding nothing but swirling mist and 5 pairs of glowing purple orbs surrounding them, restricting any point of escape, just as the end of the chain which was supposed to be connected to the outside floated past their eyes...

It had already been a few hours since the mage group had entered the mist and the mages who were designated to wait at the boundary were growing inpatient. They had observed the expedition for as long as they could, which is to say a very short period of time, and watched as the expedition group crossed over the border and grew slightly faded before abruptly disappearing with no further warning, the only indication of their status being the chain which also abruptly ended a short ways into the fog.

They noticed that at no point the chain was pulled taught so it appeared that the team was sticking to the plan of only going in 20 or so metres as to easily be able to escape in case anything happened, but the plan also dictated that they'd be in their an hour tops so it was an anomaly as to why they were taking so long.

The mages were currently set up at a table and playing cards since they were bored, with nothing particularly exciting to do and, apart from a few glances every now and then, they hardly gave the mist any attention at all.

"HAH! I win! Pay u- Agh!" One of the mages suddenly cried and fell back off his chair, eliciting strange looks from his companions, but he just stared in the direction of the mist, petrified.

The other group members grew even more confused and turned around to look... and saw an immense wall of fog, too dense to see through, stretching as far as the eye could see.

An inexplicable fear suddenly started to swell in their hearts as the unimaginably large wall of fog suddenly appeared in front of them, not leaving any hint towards what's behind it.

"IT'S EXPANDING!" One of the mages suddenly cried out in alarm, drawing the rest of the group's attention away from how large it was and towards how close it was.

All of them started backing away just as the border of the fog arrived at their table, before then turning around and sprinting from the fast approaching sea of fog.

One of the mages, as he was fearfully running for his life, glanced back and saw over a dozen shadowy figures, each one having a pair of glowing purple eyes, casually walking forwards while easily gaining on them, right before the mist overtook the mage group and fully obscured their vision.