Lupine Chronicles

Created by Steve Hayes

Co-written with @Devi-Demigodartist on Deviantart
Edited by Asa Herndon
Cover art by Steve Hayes
Inspired by several people
Creative consultants: Devi-Demigodartist, Asa Herndon

Special thanks:
Asa, for being an amazing editor, creative help, and friend.
Frida, for helping me make this story better than anything I can ever hope to achieve.
My friends and family, for being very supportive of my endeavors.
And everyone else who supported this story even during its initial single-chapter
releases.

Note from writer:

This story has been in the making for nearly a decade, and after a very bad first take as
far as first drafts go, but with enough inspiration to try again and support from friends
and family, I’m proud to say that this story will be something you won’t forget, especially
since there’s more on the way regarding it. Something I will also say is that 100% of this
story has been made in love for the world-trekking concepts present in Kingdom Hearts
and Xenoblade Chronicles, alongside the lore-driven tales like the aforementioned two,
as well as Gravity Falls, and even Star Wars. The story does jab a little at different
troupes, but that shouldn’t detract from the overall flow of the story itself. There is one
singular remnant of my first draft here, but this follows a certain philosophy I heavily
agree with: never let a good thing die. Before I go off on a tangent, I’ll finalize everything
off by saying this: I hope you enjoy my original tale, of gods and monsters, of beasts
and men, the Lupine Chronicles.

The following story is entirely a work of fiction. Any and all references to real world
places or people are completely coincidental, and not intentional.

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 Prologue
Eons ago, the world was still young, but two great nations existed: the Kingdom of the
Light, and the Empire of Shadow. Separated, of course, until a foolish Celestian named
Detromedos shattered the only seal between the worlds of Shade and Luminar:
Duality’s Cross. And in doing so, the Keidrar, monsters of pure darkness, started their
attack on Luminar, beginning the eternal war between good and evil.
Years later, the emperor of the dark had created a terrifying sword of pure shadow,
deemed Shadehex, that reigned destruction upon innocents like a guillotine. It was at
this point that the king of light appointed his greatest blacksmiths to create weapons,
any weapons at all, to combat or counter the terror that Shadehex had wrought. His
wish was granted, however, since supplies were almost all but exhausted, only three
blades were made, but in return, they were given great powers that could create,
destroy, or restore anything. However, if they were given to the hands of the enemy, the
world would fall into endless discord. As such, they were given the ability to choose their
own masters.
The sword of restoration, Sakuram, presented itself to an Entene woman, who
specialized as a healer. At first, she was confused, as she never required weapons in
her line of work. However, she quickly found that Sakuram’s blade, to those who carried
light in their souls, not only went right through them, but also made their wounds appear
to never have existed.
The sword of destruction, Ragnavox, came to someone who, ironically enough, did
not wish to destroy anything: a T’Raak child. The timing of this blade came,
understandably enough, during an attack against him by some beasts. When he picked
up the blade, it wasn’t at all what he thought would happen. For one, he could see their
souls were full of darkness. And when he tried to use Ragnavox as a shield, one of the
beasts disintegrated upon its touch. Despite having a frightening look, the sword carried
good judgement.
The sword of creation, Indalskaber, proved to be the most stubborn, since not one
person could lift the sword, as it kept creating very intricate ways of rejecting any and all
who tried to pull it from its pedestal. That is, until a curious human stumbled upon the
pedestal, which had now become a test in its own just to touch it. It was enough that he
could pull it from the ground, but the sword revealed its true form only to him. Even the
now-wielder of the sword can’t recall how he was able to grasp its handle, but one thing
can be certain: his mindscape was that of an artist, always having new ideas, not to
mention bright ones.
These three Trinity Knights took to the front lines, easily taking down the Keidrar
faster than they could bring out newer soldiers. Eventually, they led their charge to the
dark emperor’s heavily fortified, hellish castle, where the trio squared off against the
black-hearted master of Shadehex. No evil being that descended him could ever match

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the sheer terror in power that he carried, and it showed with naught an explanation to
the knights. However, this did not stop them from vanquishing his body and mind with
one full-force attack from all three, but the soul proved to be too much to handle.
When his comrades were felled, the Knight of Creation sent the swords of
destruction and restoration to separate corners of the multiverse, and with his own
power of creation, he sealed the dark emperor’s soul to his throne, and fragmented
Shadehex, as he could not do more than that. With his last remaining power, including
his life force, he sent his own sword to the center of all worlds and protected it with a
great barrier, sealing it from the reach of evil.
Of course, his soul eternally tied to his castle, the dark emperor created a vessel able
to shatter the barrier, only there was one snag in his plan. Before his vessel could touch
the barrier, something happened: it erupted a new world. With its own hero, no less.
Centuries passed, many Dark Vessels were made, and many more new worlds were
created in defense. With Indalskaber at its core, the central world, deemed by many as
Terra Prime, was practically untouchable, despite its inhabitants warring with
themselves. Architects of Worlds still arose, even without knowing their true purpose in
life. Although, while worlds could live on without their creators, no new defenses could
be created if Architects were to die.
In the year 2018, one Architect, legendary as he was creative, had to pass on. But in
his doing so, the impenetrable barrier of Terra Prime began to show cracks, allowing
leftover Dark Matter to seep in and cause the chaotic catalyst that would trigger the
single greatest war since the Great Trinity War. And it would all start with the greatest
mishap ever, months later...

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 The Chaos Begins
Most stories have heroes in shimmering armor, wielding a magic sword of the purest
light, and fighting a great evil to save a beautiful damsel in distress. Maybe the gender
roles are switched from time to time. To tell you the truth, stories nowadays have made
heroes feel “human”, all while setting them apart from your average Joe. With this story
though, it’s more different than you can imagine. In that...well.....no heroes with a fully
pure heart can be found here. Believe me, I’ve looked. But who am I, you might ask?
Name’s Steve. If you couldn’t tell by the perspective used, this isn’t quite the story
you’re used to. Anyway, in this world, or, more commonplace thanks to the almost
unimaginative mind of the average human, the only world, things can be pretty much,
without sugarcoating things, boring. Pretty much everyone here is all like “go to work to
get paid,” with the rich having it easier than others. There’s a few “interesting” things
that happen every now and then, like a war or some kinda movement, but for the most
part, it’s just most everyone follows the laws with very little questions.
Me? I think I’m the only kinda guy that actually questions the way things happen in
the world. Of course, a lotta people think I’m an absolute freaking maniac, so life goes
on. In a sense of what I do, I mainly draw, play the occasional video game or three, and
have a very slow time trying to get my voice acting career out there. And it’s not like I
don’t have friends, I’ve got quite the sum of them, actually. I even have a beautiful
girlfriend who shares a lotta things in common with me. Also, of course, I have enemies.
Not mafia, thank god, but certain high school classmates that, honestly, I should’ve
really come to expect I’d encounter. Doesn’t really help the fact that I live in a redneck
breeding ground, though. So yeah, not exactly normal, per se, but far from supernatural.
At least, that was the case, until recently, there’s been...weird...occurrences
worldwide. Snowstorms in the deserts, droughts in the swamps, tornadoes in the
mountains, and Las Vegas actually getting cases of big wins without intentional
cheating. Weird stuff, I know. And New York was actually the same as it has been,
strangely enough. Though I doubt all the memes in the world could hold a candle to the
crazy crap that was going on. On top of that, people kept...disappearing. Like one day
they were there going about their business, then the next, they were gone. And it wasn’t
random people either. Okay, it kinda was random, but what I mean is that it was all
people who were known for being the biggest jerks, not worldwide, but in local towns,
even cities.
Though things didn’t take a steep turn to Crazy Creek until one of the greatest comic
writer of all time passed on. Where have I heard that kinda thing before? Well, it’s
probably nothing. Anyway, apparently a few months passed, and it seemed that along
with all the crap that several governments were doing, everything that I mentioned
before and loads more were happening. And where things got really screwed up

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happened on one certain day during the beginning of summer break for students. And it
all began in my backyard. Literally.
It was a Wednesday, and I was in the middle of taking the recycling out, of which
there was a bloody ton to transfer from indoor bin to outdoor bin, but then I noticed
something weird that wasn’t usually there: a crystal sword that stuck in the ground like
something out of an Arthurian legend. I told my dad about it, and until he saw it, one
thing he said was, “Oh, right. I’ll give you a hundred bucks if this is true.” Even if this
weirdness was all just something the planet was spouting to get us humans to stop
polluting it, at least I got a hundred bucks outta my dad for it.
He went to pull it out, my guess that he was hoping it was just a weird formation in
the ground, it launched him back about..I’m wanting to say five or six feet. It was
glowing kinda bright when it was just me that noticed it, but when I went to go get my
old man, it had dimmed a bit. He advised me not to touch it while he went to go get one
of his friends to help pull the sword out, but while I was waiting, I heard a voice in my
head. Now, hearing voices in my head is nothing new, with me being an in-training
voice actor and all, but I legitimately thought I went bonkers when I heard that voice tell
me to pull the sword out. Now, in my curiosity, I went to take a closer look at that sword.
For one, it seemed to give off more of a glow when I went near it, but it looked like it
was, oddly enough, being forced into glowing. Then my mind was made up: it had to be
me to pull the sword from the...old base of a bird bath. I knew right then and there that,
for better or worse, I would accept the sword’s abilities, or at least try not to look like an
absolute madman.
The sword didn’t reject my touch, so I figured it was a good thing, and I pulled it out
the best I could, but when I was expecting it to be heavy, it was surprisingly lightweight.
“Huh. That’s new,” I said to myself. In my right hand, the sword glimmered thanks to the
sunlight refracting off of it. I even saw a trace of...something...in the sword. Or, maybe it
was just my eyes playing tricks on me. Whatever the case, the sword was mine to keep.
There was only one problem: I couldn’t get my hand to let go of it. I mean, sure, I could
move it around in my hand no problem, but for whatever reason, my hand just wouldn’t
let go of the sword, no matter how many times my brain told it to release that sword.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I tried to rip that sword from my own clutches, but
then again, I’d know if I could break my grip. Nervous, no, mortified about what my dad
would say if he knew I didn’t listen to him, I tried seriously every method I had available
to let the sword out of my hand. Crowbar? Nope, bent it like it was made of putty.
Hammer? No, it broke after just one touch. Butter? While tasty, it didn’t help the cause
at all. At this point, I was near the point of breaking and admitting defeat. Until I thought
of one method that I hadn’t before: smashing the sword itself.
You might be thinking: “if the sword didn’t release itself from you when you tried all
those other methods, what makes you think it’ll just break upon impact?” Well, there’s
one answer for that: desperation is an adrenaline-induced demon. I somehow knew I
couldn’t use it against a tree, it’d just cut it clean through. I’d have to use the side of my

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own house. So when the deed came, I swung the sword as hard as my thick-twig arms
could muster, and sure enough, it shattered into several pieces. Not even the handle
was safe. Only, it didn’t play out the way I wanted it to. Where I was just hoping I could
bury the evidence and come up with some half-baked scheme to cover it up, the shards
just...surrounded me. Almost like they were beads on strings. The last thing I remember
before I blacked out was that the shards jettisoned themselves inside me faster than a
YouTube comments section, and that I somehow gained a massive surge of power, of
which, it was the very catalyst that would knock me out.
When I came to, I was expecting to be in the hospital. Though from the looks of
things, I don’t think a lab stretcher with a silhouette of a massive drill looming above me
could mean I’d be greeted by a good doctor. I struggled to get myself free of my
restraints, but whoever supplied this guy must be getting military-grade stuff. From
beside me, I could hear a sorta gruff voice say, “It’s no use writhing. You’d be better off
just staying put.” To which I replied, “Yeah, thanks, I kinda figured that.” Out of the
shadows my captor came, and he looked like he stepped out of a post-apocalypse
convention. “Now, since I have your full attention,” he began, “give me the sword of
creation.” I wouldn’t say I’m not open to roleplaying, but since the thing I was trapped in
wasn’t exactly made of store-bought stuff, I answered in the way a sensible person
would: “Sorry, what?” No surprise, he lashed out, but definite surprise, he jabbed a legit
dagger of a knife two inches from my neck, yelling, “The Sword of Creation! I know you
have it!” “Look, I’m sorry, but I have zero idea what you’re talking about,” I quickly said
back.
“Oh really?,” he asked, but didn’t look like he was done, “Well, I guess that opening
the barrier of Terra Prime, the one place that the Keidrar couldn’t get to in the first place,
as well as sending a large mass of light through each and every world, with a massive
beacon that could be seen three multiverses away, doesn’t cross your mind?” “Wait,
what?,” asked the restrained young man that was still absolutely clueless about this
whole fiasco, “I don’t remember doing even half of what you’re accusing me of! And
besides, that barrier around this ‘Terra Prime’ place you’re telling me of sounds a lot
more pathetic than you’re making it out to me!” Disgusted, he turned to me and said
something along the lines of “if you’re trying to be funny, you’re failing miserably,”
following with events that I had no idea happened, as well as telling me about how
coveted the sword of creation is, purely for its sheer power as one of the three swords
that stopped some dark elder god or something.
I’ll just cut to the chase. As soon as he and I were done doing the back and forth of
accusations of events and my apparent ignorance of the whole deal, he adjusted the
table to face the drill to my torso. Eventually, I put two and two together and realized
that he was going to, quite literally, drill into me to find the sword. My wrists and ankles,
no big shocker there, were already starting to hurt, but I wasn’t about ready to become
the next victim on Slaughterhouse ER. It was at this point that I was seeing my life flash
before my eyes, but the thing that got me into bursting the waterworks was one thought:

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“No...no no no, I can’t die here! I haven’t even seen my girlfriend yet! I promised I would
see her someday! I don’t wanna die here!!” But right as the drill nearly touched my
chest, something weird happened.
The drill sort of..crushed itself. And apparently my shirt wasn’t made of just fabric
anymore. Either that, or some sort of god-like power heard my cry and saved me at the
last possible second. And I was almost hearing my captor saying “What the hell is going
on?!” before blacking out again. Little did I know that this was the start of one of the
greatest things that could’ve ever happened to me, but one thing’s for sure: I had to
wake up. But the only problem was...how?

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 The Flames Awaken
I donʼt know how long I was out, but my head started filling with the weirdest things,
including the name “Indalskaber.” But most of all, I was thinking something that I would
never have: I was missing home. Sure, my “home” was set in a world that had most
humans being the worst kind of people ever, but no matter how hard I wanted to leave, I
always found one reason or another to want to stay. But it was then that I started
gaining my senses again, with my sense of touch feeling my body resting on, strangely
enough, the softest grass I couldʼve ever felt, and my head resting on a soft rock of
some kind.
As soon as my consciousness came back, thatʼs when I saw I was in a forest
unfamiliar to me. Now, this would be okay, if the sky I looked up at wasnʼt filled with
other things beside blue and clouds. Oddly enough, that wasnʼt the thing that scared
me. The thing that did it was seeing a strange-looking beetle person come up beside
me after I heard a set of relieved words that happened to be: “Thank the gods, youʼre
awake!”
Like any normal person would, I yelped and leaped back out of fear, only for a sharp
pain to shoot up my entire body. “Right,” I thought, “I was basically tortured a
few....however long that was.” As I came to collect myself, I put together that the weird
bug guy was attempting to keep me from dying, but there was one problem: how did I
get here in the first place? But more pressing worries surprised me, and the thing that
embodied those worries was: I had a tail! More specifically, a wolf tail. And then my fear
returned to me, which didnʼt exactly come up with the best of results.
“Okay,” I started, “I can deal with being in a new area, I can kinda deal with meeting
a new race of people, but the thing I donʼt understand is why I have a tail!!!” You have to
believe me when I say that I didnʼt feel the tail when I was being held captive.
Everything felt normal, aside from the abnormally long hair that I apparently had, but
that didnʼt scare me as much as it made me think, “Huh. Cool.” But thatʼs beside the
point; I was in a new place that I highly doubt could ever be on Earth, given how pretty it
was, but the lake water was a perfect sparkling blue, had no traces of a resort
anywhere, and it was doubtful this insectoid person could possibly walk around in broad
daylight without humans noticing. Then again, the area looked to be pretty desolate,
without any human temperament, at least upon further inspection.
“I-I’ll be honest,” the bug guy said, “w-when I found you in the clearing, I thought you
were, well, on the doorstep of...of Thanatos!” Recognizing the name of the Greek death
god, my interests and curiosity immediately piqued. “How do you know the name of a
mythological Greek god?,” I asked, sitting up in a way that stung a little bit, but I didn’t
want to show it right then. Oddly enough, he tilted his head in confusion, asking me why
I thought Thanatos was mythological, like I was crazy or something. He then told me
about how any god or goddess ever created was apparently real, and most of them give

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blessings every so often, or so he says. This time, I was the one to give the confused
look. All my life, I’ve been told that gods don’t exist, but now, all those years of denial
have been shattered in one explanation. In a way, my curiosity skyrocketed. Here I was,
going about my normal, boring life in my hometown, and one pull of a sword later, I’m
just now learning that anything really is possible in this weird new world I’m in. Which, of
course, reminded me of one thing: I still needed to ask where I was!
“Hey, um, I know I’ve been knocked out for a lil’ bit, but where am I?” Subtle mouth
on ya there, me. Somehow, he responded: “A-actually, you’re on the, um, sub-world of
Zectorin, my home world.” At first, he lost me on that, and that was before I looked up
and saw that there were several larger worlds above me, all set in a blue sky. But the
biggest thing that threw me off was the largest world I could see: my home planet, or I
guess in his terms, my home world, Earth. Craziest of all, it looked to have a sort of
shattered glass side to it, while keeping the planet itself intact, weirdly enough. Thinking
I was going crazy, I patted my face, then looked up again. There it was, same as before.
It had finally come to me: I really was in another world, and not some strange
hallucination of a nightmare.
I’m lucky I didn’t break from my new surroundings, but what made me come to my
senses was, mainly, that I haven’t introduced myself yet. “Since I’m thinking about it, the
name’s-” I was interrupted as I heard some kind of roar from the woods beside me. The
beast was definitely a large one, and it was confirmed when it revealed itself. It looked
like Frankenstein's monster and Grendel had a drunk night out, but about ten times
uglier. And unfortunately, with that ugliness came an insane otherworldly strength,
apparently aimed his repugnant gaze at me. Though right before Mr. Ugly sent his truck
of a fist right at me, I felt someone grab and pull me out of the way. Turns out, that
beetle man flew in to do just that. Looking as if he had something he wanted to prove,
he charged headfirst towards the beast to oppose him. Even still, it was coming closer,
no matter how hard that monster was being distracted.
There I was, hiding behind a tree while someone else was fighting for me. Though I
was raised not to fight in any battles that weren’t my own, my white-knight mentality
couldn’t stand it. I was gradually enraged because I couldn’t do anything about it, and
instinctively I clenched my hand into a fist. Unexpectedly, when I did that, my fist burst
into a lime green flame; oddly enough though, it didn’t hurt me in any way. And even
stranger, I could keep it on as long as I wanted. And another thing I had on my mind
was that I needed to grab a weapon of some kind. Almost instantly, I put away the flame
and started scavenging around my immediate area for anything I could use to pass for a
weapon: a twig, a branch, a rock, just something sturdy that I could swing without it
breaking. Eventually I found a fallen branch that looked suspiciously similar to a single-
edged blade, so I readied myself behind my cover, branch sword in my right hand, and
flame in my left. I didn’t have much of a plan, but then again, I hardly ever did. Now,
more than ever, I was about to rely on one of my best assets: thinking on my feet. My
signal, I determined, was when the monster hit the tree in some way. Soon enough…

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 SLAM!!
The beetle man hit the tree with a powerful force, and that was my cue to go in. What
I didn’t account for was when I began to dash toward the monster, I went almost
supersonic. With this in mind, I got a crazy idea: daze the monster and confuse him
before going in for the final strike. So, like a small and speedy rodent, I did just that.
Turns out, I managed to make the thing knock itself out. Helped out by a monster’s own
idiocy; not how I expected my first ever battle to go. Through all that, somehow my
flames got onto my branch sword and made it into a full-fledged blade. Then, as if by
instinct, I jettisoned myself at the monster and like the great warriors before me, I
slashed at the monster with a full fiery, powerful force. And with that, the demonic hell
spawn behind me was singed, sliced through, and dead.
When I turned around, it was evaporating for some reason, but I didn’t let that get to
me right away, as I was more concerned about the person I was saved by: the beetle
guy. “Hey, you alright?,” I asked him, followed by the response of “Y-yes, I’m okay.” I let
out a sigh of relief, finally taking notice of the sword in my hand, and the fact that it was
an actual sword and not a branch. “Okay, that was not there before..I definitely
remember grabbing a branch before all that,” I thought. I remembered that very instant
that we hadn't been properly introduced yet. “So, with that whole mess done, I feel
introductions are in order,” I began, pausing for a moment to think up a last name, but
also to give the illusion of grandeur, “the name’s Steve. Steve..Torchfang.” With how the
wind was, my flannel shirt was flowing in it like a cape, making myself look absolutely
awesome. I could tell just from the look of the beetle man’s face of awe. Realizing that
he should probably introduce himself too, he snapped out of whatever trance he was in
and said, “W-well, um, p-pleased to meet you, sir. My name’s..Kuwa. Kuwa Gata.”
Putting two and two together, I should’ve seen the signs earlier, because he does look
like a stag beetle. In any case, he invited me back to his village, so at least there’s the
chance to get to meet a new collective race of people! Although, for some reason, I kept
getting the feeling that something terrible was coming in the distance…

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 Sparks of Creative Wrath
It was a short time until we had come upon an oddly appealing village, given the
context that it must've been an entire village of insect people. Sure enough, I was right:
all kinds of insectoid people were in this village, from beetles to ants, they were all
there. Even still, I couldn’t stop thinking something bad was gonna happen. On top of
my sword strangely disappearing on the way here, that one thought kept nagging at my
mind, even when I became acquainted with a few of the townsfolk. Even though I wasn’t
new to anxiety, in thinking of every possible way things could go absolutely wrong, this
feeling was different, and more like a mental warning. To be fair, anyone would be on
edge if they saw Schwarzenegger’s Grendel-stein monster, so I just didn’t worry about it
too much.
The village elder, whom Kuwa apparently brought me to, seemed to take
an...interesting..likeness to me. Practically scanning every part of me, and proving my
tail was still real to me by pulling it, it was as if she wasn’t at all trying to be subtle.
“Strange..the species of this boy is new to me,” she exclaimed, “No human I’ve seen
has ever had fangs, pointed ears, or the tail of a beast.” Before I or anyone had a
chance to say anything, someone rushed in, saying, “Elder Kiri! They’re back!” Turns
out, some rich person was taxing nearby villages, all to write something. I mean, I was a
writer for an entire total of one time, but I don’t think this is how they work at all. I
decided to ask, “What does this fraud want with you?,” all I got was two words from
Kuwa: “Our people.”
Almost immediately, my mind reached a possibility, but didn’t want to believe it until I
saw it for myself. Without warning, I rushed outside, and saw something I had only seen
in movies: Fully-clad soldiers raiding homes looking for innocent civilians, probably to go
off to some kinda estate to, hopefully not, work as slaves. But something was different
this time; okay, a lot of things were different, like how I was actually there to witness it
and whatnot, but something felt wrong about them. Almost like that monster from
before…
I don’t know what got in me, but I started running in to attack, at my assumed full
speed, flames in my hands and, surprisingly, sword in hand. This time was different,
though. For one, I was acting out of emotion and not full instinct. The second, my
assault was cut short by a bash from a weird-looking sledgehammer-axe fusion that
sent me careening into a stall. I’ll be honest, it hurt like hell, but I wasn’t broken or
anything. Like an idiot, I kept trying with all my might to take down those weird vapor-ing
soldiers, but almost nothing I did would hit them. At that moment, I began to worry. If I
failed here, it wouldn’t just be the villagers they’d take. And then, I would never be able
to find anyone I knew and loved. With the shadowy soldiers all around me, I began to
lose hope. I thought this battle I had started would be lost in an instant. Until…

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 “Are you really gonna go down like this?” In my head, a weird, and kinda creepy voice
was ringing. “Who’s there?,” I called out, seemingly in a separate space and time. Next,
a different voice, a more calming voice, said, “Do you want to save your loved ones?”
“Well..yeah,” I said, in almost a defeated tone, “But I don’t know if I have what it takes to
fight back.” Then the creepy voice said something I couldn't quite get: "See? This kid
needs BOTH of us. Not just you, Flaghead." "While I agree with you somewhat, are you
sure? I'm not sure our powers were meant to be together!" This kept going on for a full
minute until they finally both agreed, in unison, apparently, "The man of beastly shape
shall carry our power."
When I regained consciousness, the monsters around me seemed to blast away from
where I was kneeling in defeat before, as if some kind of explosion of wind had
happened. All I could think about was the demise of the malicious creatures around me.
Almost as if realizing exactly what I am, they began charging at me. Letting that power I
used before flow through me was easier than I thought, because my instincts helped me
out once again in the fight, only this time, I felt more like some kind of demon slayer
than my first bout.
After the six monsters were vanquished, I almost passed out, but luckily I caught
myself in time. Kuwa, the village elder, and all the remaining villagers gathered around
me like I was some kinda hero. I didn't feel like one though, not until I freed everyone
else. I asked the village elder where this rich person was, and turns out this was the
closest village to the governing town, where they resided. Kuwa agreed to come with
me as I swore to the villagers, "I'm not accepting the title of hero until your other
villagers are free." On the road there, I patted myself on the back for that epic
proclamation. I mean, I earned it.
I didn't even have to look hard in the town to find any trace of that "writer", seeing that
right as I walked in, I was met with a statue of..honestly, not that good looking of a
woman. I mean, a solid gold statue right before you begin looking for her manor? I'm not
exactly a genius, but even I would notice an overinflated ego when I saw it. Even a look
at the mansion itself was enough to confirm she had an ego the size of Russia! Well,
whatever the case, if she had all those weird soldiers, she obviously is working in, quite
literally, shady dealings.
With Kuwa's help, I looked for a good, stealthy entryway, but for the moment, no dice.
He apparently found a hole in the wall around the back, and sure enough, it was there.
That's when, in the midst of it all, I found a stack of books all on a cart, but they look to
have been neglected. Already not much of a good sign. With me being a curious
creature, I decided to take a look, and what I saw only disturbed me. They were all the
same story, but something about them felt...familiar. Almost like I'd seen it before. Inside
the books, I'd find, got a lot more disturbing. The story itself told the tale of a wolf knight
finding love in a succubus queen, but all the words were mixed up, and the story's end
wasn't happy. Suddenly, a realization arose: this wasn't just a bad story, this was a

12
stolen story! And just as infuriating, it was ripped from a story I had worked hard on with
my girlfriend.
It was at this point where I said out of frustration, "Kuwa, forget the damn plan. We're
raising hell on that manor." Confused, he asked, "What's going on, Steve? You said
yourself that we-" "I don’t give two shits about what I said!!," I shouted furiously. I didn't
care what he said in the heat of the moment. Out of anger, I told him, "where I'm from, I
was an artist and a writer. And a damn good one of both if I can say anything about
myself! I always looked for a creative perspective on things, even if it was something cut
and dry! But this 'writer'? This isn't creative! This isn't clever! It's shit! This is why these
are out here in the dust! Before finding these, I wanted to try and forgive them for their
crimes, but now I see this fraud is irredeemable. They don't deserve to live!!" I didn't
notice, but as I was ranting, parts of me were both darkening and glowing at the same
time. There was one thing I did notice, though: the soul of that plagiaristic fraud. I had a
means of locating them, all that mattered now was getting to them.
Under different circumstances, I’m sure I’d like a raid on an evil stronghold much
more. I thought this would be similar to that Grendelstein thing, but it wasn’t. With him, I
felt a rush of both power, adrenaline, and a need to protect Kuwa. Now, going up
against an entire manor of monsters, I didn’t feel heroic; I felt beastly. Like a monster
set loose on an innocent town. Granted, in this case the monster carried fire powers, a
powerful sword made from a branch, a speed that can’t be matched by any normal
creature, along with some unknown power two voices granted to me. Admittedly, I still
don’t know a ton about the power I have in me. But one thing’s for sure: What I was
doing now, acting out of rage, it wasn’t what I was carrying the sword for. I knew with
every fiber of my being that what I was doing was wrong, but for whatever reason, I
couldn’t stop. It didn’t matter that I was slaughtering demonic guards anymore, I just
wanted to stop; but I couldn’t stop. It was as if someone else, for lack of a better term,
had taken the wheel. My vision was still the same, but I could see souls gradually more
clearly, but the souls were placed on a black background, almost like I was looking at a
sonar screen. One other thing I noticed: each living being in the area had a particular
color of soul. All the slaves beneath me had a yellow soul, while there was only one red
soul as my target, a human. Something I didn’t expect at all though, was that the
monsters I was slaughtering also had a soul, but it was black and tar-like, not like the
lively flame-like souls the others had.
When I finally came up to the doors that held my target, I somehow managed to grab
control of my body again. The downside of it all was that my sword looked like it was
ready to shatter at any given moment. I finally noticed that Kuwa wasn’t beside me,
probably to go free his people. As long as that goes on while I’m the main focus of the
guards, I don’t care what happens, I thought. After regaining my stance, I entered what
looked to be like an office of some kind. Well, an office one would have in medieval
times, maybe. Whatever the case, there was someone there. A woman, by the sound of
it. She sounded frustrated about something, but considering what I found outside, I

13
could only guess she was the plagiarist. She didn’t notice me right away, so that gave
me some time to sneak up behind her, all assassin-like. “So. You’re the one I can blame
for that crappy pirated story,” I said to my soon-to-be victim. Sure, my reasoning for
going after her was kinda petty, but nevertheless, she tensed up instantly. Weirdly
enough, I could smell that she was frightened as well as seeing it. At the time, though, I
didn’t care. This bitch was responsible for stealing my girlfriend’s story. That thought
went through my head like wildfire, until one thought canceled it out: “Is this what she
would’ve wanted to see me do? Would she want me to murder someone in cold blood
over something as petty as this?” As soon as I realized what I was doing, I lowered my
battered sword and stepped back. Sure, she was able to get back up and took a stance
that was ready to fight, but I felt a surge of myself push back up. I stood up straight, took
a breath, smirked, and pointed my sword like I was a hero staring down the barrel of a
gun. And just like that, with guards swarming around me, I lifted up my head and
proclaimed…
“My name is Steve Torchfang! You may have me cornered and outnumbered, but I
assure you one thing: You can’t stop the nigh unbreakable will of this Beast of the
Flame!” As if falling for my taunting proclamation, the guards all charged at me, and just
as predicted, my sword broke on impact. As if I knew what to do, I stole back my hilt,
and using my flames, I welded those pieces together, with no blade. Without one, I was
able to deceive the guards into thinking I was an absolute idiot. When one got in close, I
sent a portion of my fire into the blade, took a big mischievous smile, and with a burst of
power, a literal blade comprising entirely of my green fire impaled that overestimating
guard right through the stomach, allowing me to make it half the monster it once was.
Before it completely disintegrated, that is. And with either some other kind of possession
or a new utilization of my earlier-presented agility, I was taking on what was left of the
guards with little to no problem! Now I wasn’t just an anime demon slayer, I was a full-
on power-filled anime protagonist, naming my attacks like “Flare Fang,” “Rising Inferno,”
and “Ignis Lariat,” I was having fun and nobody could stop me!
At least, I was until my ex-target held a lighter under the original copy of my
girlfriend’s book. My eyes were fixed on her the entire time, but all I could think of was
grabbing the book. Without even realizing it, thanks to some kind of weird shadow thing
enveloping her hand, I was the only one holding the book now. Weird, but whatever
happened I could process later. I just needed to go. So I put both the book and my not-
quite lightsaber into whatever hammerspace I apparently had, and did the one thing I
wouldn’t do if I didn’t have the powers I did now: jump out the window. I mean sure, it
was a dumb thing to do in hindsight, but on the bright side of things, I thought to use my
fire as thrusters and glide down that way, then run back to the village at full speed. I
would’ve gotten farther though if it weren’t for some shadowy figure I hadn’t seen before
knocking me out. I’m starting to notice a trend here, but I just can’t pinpoint it…

14
 Demons, Doppelgängers, and
Destruction
When I regained consciousness—for what seems like the third time now—once
again, I found myself in a new location. Although this place, what looked like a small yet
fancy audience room-like office, was the most familiar to me. And that’s what was
scaring me. My sword was still at my waist, so that was a good sign. Oddly enough, I
wasn't really tied up, per se, but feeling sore from the neck down, like I had worked out
way too much. Only, I never consistently worked out in my life before this point.

15
 Anyway, my attention was immediately directed to what looked to be a giant golden
throne. The way it was positioned in the light looked to hide whoever was sitting in it
easily. But what came next, I didn’t have to wait long to see who my captor was. All I
heard was: "Well, ain't you a sight for sore eyes.” I knew that voice. I knew it better than
anyone else I’ve ever known. Sure, I’d gotten back up on my feet, but my stature had
taken a massive hit. I saw exactly who had me held captive here. The only problem with
it all was that my captor looked exactly like me. Granted, I didn’t see much of my- er, his
face, but I knew the look of his jawline. Not to mention his clothes are the exact same as
ones I owned back on Earth!
“Quit gawkin’ at me already,” he said sharply. He sat on his throne like that of a dark
emperor, with what looked to be a katana as a cane. Another glance around him, and I
saw four figures at his side, each of differing size. The biggest of which looked to be
literally as tall redwood tree, except this one had a face as scary as his build, which by
the way, would seriously make any weightlifter jealous, he was so massive! On
Hulkwood the Bodyguard’s left looked to be a robot, or...something like that. It looked
like a floating metal skull with hands also floating close to it. Peculiarly enough, it had an
average-sized fedora on it, almost like it was the gunslinger of the group. Right of the
throne was a rather good-looking woman with a revealing green dress, even showing a
sort of demonic sigil on her chest, as well as brandishing blood-red eyes and hair. A pro
design aficionado like me could easily tell she was a demon femme fatale. And to the
right of her was an imp-looking creature that carried a steel bat with an entire mace
head added onto it, playing the role of a smoker brute, to put it lightly.
He then said,“You did good to bring me the kid alive, Kage,” and like some kinda
ninja, that black hooded guy I saw before I blacked out appeared right on top of the
throne. He only said one thing before he disappeared again: “His description you
theorized was, to coin one of your phrases, on point. There was only one inconsistency
in your statement, being he is a beast.” Honestly, by the way he was talking, I couldn’t
tell if that was a compliment or an insult. Still, he leaped away into the darkness, almost
as fast as he appeared. Only a few words echoed through the shadows as he left: “I’ve
held my end of the bargain. Now you get to have your way with him.”
Right after he said that, my mafioso doppelgänger stood up, walked around the
desk, closer to me. Right then and there, I knew there were major differences between
him and me. For starters, there were two huge scars across his face, but were barely
visible along with the eyes, no thanks to that hat he had on. Another thing I noticed was
that his hair was in some kind of warrior tail, almost akin to a samurai. Another huge
factor was his left arm. It was tattooed like green flames and black dragon scales,
stopping at a silver watch he wore. Not to mention, he had a few more years on me.
There was one other thing that got me though: He was practically a giant compared to
me!! I mean, sure, he had a few inches on me, but that’s more than enough, even for
me! I’m not saying I’m short or anything, but if this guy really is me, then the universe
has a cruel way to get its humor across!

16
 That aside, though, I almost expected him to start beating me senseless. Instead, he
sat back down in front of me and offered me an orange and a seat. “I’ll be honest. It’s
been too long since I’ve seen a positive reflection of myself,” he said, seemingly starting
a conversation. Still trying to be on guard, I replied, “sometimes life moves us too fast, I
guess.” He chuckled in response, coming back at me saying: “Ain’t that the truth.” Soon
enough, when we traded names, he told me just to call him Draco. He and I talked for a
few minutes about our lives or something to that effect, with me talking about all the
weird things going on around me, up until I got knocked out by his ninja friend. “No
offense to you or...anything,” I ended my story with, him replying with a simple “Eh, ‘s
nothing.” After that, as he was cutting his orange with a rather sharp-looking hunting
dagger, he started talking about how the world practically screwed him over in only a
day. I don’t know if he realized or not, but he somehow “accidentally” split his desk in
two. In that instant, I could tell this guy was hardly human anymore, and that I probably
should be careful of what I say.
Though, what I expected in its entirety, was that he wanted to examine me. I was
thinking, hopefully I won’t have to face off against him, having to face off against some
of his men. But...why am I getting the feeling that I’m gonna be fighting someone much
stronger? Turns out, those fears were almost confirmed, as I watched him stand up,
gripping the scabbard instead of the grip of his sword, and telling me that my fight was
with him. I don’t know what possessed me to do this, but I let my guard down, thinking
that he wouldn’t put up much of a fight. After all, this world’s version of me must’ve had
the same amount of sword training as I did, which was very little. Confidently, I said,
“Okay then! Don’t worry, I’ll try not to break ya!” This was a massive mistake, given what
I saw earlier.
“Are you saying I’m weak?,” Draco asked me, his tone immediately going from calm
and collected to aggressive and, for lack of a better term, pissed off. I tried to recover,
knowing my own mentality, jumbling words together in hopes they would make good
sentences: “Nononono, nothin’ like that! I mean, you seem plenty strong, and I really
don’t know the extent of what I can do anyway, but-” “I’ve been through hell to get
where I am. The last thing I wanna hear from someone like you..,” he started, his entire
outfit, with the exception of Erect Oakguard, giving me the signal to run, but being the
dumbass I am, I waited until the last second to start running, especially when he
finished, saying: “..is calling me weak!!” His sword was drawn, and he threw the
scabbard at me like a baseball player, sending me through the wall of that room and
into what looked to be a warehouse. It was that moment when I realized two things:
one, never talk bad about this guy, and two, I really screwed up this time.
There I was, already a little battered thanks to that definitely-solid scabbard, sword
drawn, and facing off against Draco, an older-looking me. Turns out, he was much
faster than I had anticipated, but still manageable enough to block, even if a little. Along
with that speed, strength was on this guy’s side as well. His attacks were evident of that.
What scared me even more was his katana’s crimson blade. When he landed a hit on

17
me, I could slowly feel blood being lost more than usual. Oh, and the fact that my
wounds didn’t close quickly, like before with those shadow soldiers. One major
difference was that for every one hit he would land on me, his sword would pass
through mine and hit me again! We were fighting on for quite a bit, until I slammed
myself into a support beam, concentrating too much on fighting rather than keeping an
eye on my surroundings. Draco took advantage of this and decided to use the back of
his blade to slam me even harder, knocking wind and more blood out of me, breaking
right through that same steel support, and right into another one, putting quite the
impact in it, as well as me. I knew this kinda thing looks cool, but damn, it hurts when it’s
you that’s on the receiving end of the relentless force pushing you through steel beams.
My healing factor wasn’t working right, my sword was barely scratching Draco, and
all the while, he was pinning me, with nary a scratch upon his arms or face. He started
talking about how all of those moves weren’t like the ones I was able to perfect on my
own, they were part of something he learned, calling them Daemon Hunter techniques
or something. “This empire I now carry, this wasn’t any kind of dumb luck that you
claimed to have. Like I said, I went through hell to get where I am now. Summoning my
right-hand woman is evident of that,” Draco said. This struck me as curious, and led me
to ask: “Wait. If you summoned her, you should have something showing on you that
you’re her master, right?” He agreed, but didn’t show me where. My guess is that he
didn’t think I’d know about that, given how clueless I was initially. I used this distraction
to release myself from his hold by, what else, kicking him in the gut. I could stand, sure,
but I didn’t come up with a plan to distance myself from him. This was evident enough,
thanks to a quick retaliating slash from him going diagonally on my chest, knocking me
down once again. All I heard from him next was: “Simple tricks like that won’t save you.”
He was right, unfortunately. I couldn’t get up, I couldn’t heal, I felt legitimately weak.
Before I could come up with something, a familiar voice rang through my head saying
only two words: “My turn.”
What happened next, I could hardly comprehend even when all this other madness
was going on. My body sorta lit up in a weird blue light, and like that dark and creepy
sort of “berserk mode”, I could hardly keep my hands on the proverbial steering wheel.
The only difference was that this felt almost natural, and not like I was a puppet on
strings. Using some kind of crystal-like substance that came out of my body, whoever
was controlling me made my sword even better than it was, with materials made from
what looked to be nothing. Not to mention, they seemed to know a thing or two more
about swordplay than I do, because it looked almost like a video game the way they
were fighting. They weren’t even attempting to cross swords like I was either; they knew
about as much as I did when it comes to that kind of power the other me was carrying,
and they knew to proceed with as much caution as possible. At my body’s best—which
wasn’t saying much, given the state it was in—my opponent was tired out, which gave
my body some time to heal up, and even be given back control. But little did I know, that
wasn’t the end of him.

18
 Like a boss battle, mafia boss me went to his second phase, which sorta involved
him pulling his top off. Right then, I got a good look at his scars all over his, admittedly,
jacked physique, not even mentioning his yakuza tattoo, or the demon-master sigil all
over the top half of his right arm. He said something in what must’ve been Gaelic,
because something on his back glowed and he rushed forward, as if he was a
superhuman. It was then that I remembered I had my own powers I could use and
promptly dodged out of the way of my charging foe. Over time, he started getting faster,
not to mention stronger. I wish I could say how long we were fighting, but all my
concentration was on staying alive. But no matter how much I was starting to get
tuckered out, his energy kept rising. It even got to the point where he knocked my sword
out of my hand! All I could think of when he was about to chop my head off was how
badly I wished for some kinda super soldier’s adamantium shield to just fly in and save
me last minute.
Turns out, I got my wish. Just then, in what seemed like a cliche deus ex machina
again, my arms seemed to turn to some kind of wood-like material, as if I had a mini ent
strapped to my back or something. What’s awesome was that his sword barely made a
dent in that wood, so it gave me an idea. If there’s one thing that fighting games have
taught me, it’s that if you want to beat a speedy fighter, you need someone heavy and
hard-hitting. Sure, my movements paled in comparison to his now, but in terms of
defense, I was okay. I figured all I needed was one huge swing of my gigantic arms, and
it seemed I was right! I mean, I did have to soften him up a little, but that punch right
there felt so satisfying! Though there was one other thing that I realized when fighting
my mafioso self. It’s that no matter how quick or strong I am, there’s always one stat I
hardly ever prioritize on: defense.
After finally knocking his weapon away, I figured out how to retract my new limb ent-
hancements and limped over to him. Oddly enough, for how he carried himself, he was
ready to admit defeat and just knelt like I would actually kill him or something. I didn’t
know what possessed me to do this, but instead of giving him release, I said, “She could
very well still be alive,” and gave him one thing he could never expect: hope. Those
words alone made him get up, pick up his sword, and put it back in the scabbard. I
could feel myself begin to heal again nearly everywhere, but of course, still hurting a bit,
no thanks to the slash on my chest, which oddly enough, was wider than all the other
wounds. Ignoring that for a moment, I saw him get up, look me in the eyes, put a hand
on my shoulder, smile, and thank me for giving him the words he seemed to be hoping
to hear forever. As if knowing what to do, he called his demoness, telling her to bring
over “the knife.” Oddly enough, this wasn’t the same knife I saw earlier. It looked more
like one that an ancient civilization would carry. My initial reaction was that he’d kill me
after all, but he just slashed the air behind me and opened up what looked to be a literal
rip in the fabric of space. Confused, I asked, “Why? Why help the guy you were trying to
kill a moment ago?” Draco only said one thing: “It’s the least I can do.” Without even
giving me a moment to think, he turned me around and kick-pushed me into the rift,

19
saying, “If you wanna find your special someone, then this world would be your best
bet!” Before the wave of adrenaline wore off and I passed out for what I hoped would be
the final time, one thought went through my mind: “Wherever this takes me, please let it
have even one face that doesn’t disappear after meeting them.”

Threads of Thunder
There were only two things that I could feel when I came to: Pain and something
similar to silk. Ignoring the pain everywhere on my body the best I could, I looked
around, and from what I saw, I could only assume that I fell prey to some kinda spider.
Falling on my back again, fear instantly overtook me. Immediately I thought, I should've
listened to my bro when he said spiders weren't to be trusted! My panic was limited not
because I was restrained again, but because I'd be worse off if I had.
Hearing its legs coming closer was giving me even more panic than just being
wrapped up. My mind kept racing on how I didn't live my life right and how little I actually
did in said life. As my captor's shadow came into my view, I only wished for one thing:
Let me die quickly. Soon enough, my arachnid warden was closing in on me, and being
fully prepared, I saw…
A rather gorgeous-looking arachne woman with what looks to be a bowl of some kind
of stew and a cold compress. At this point, I decided to check my surroundings, and
what I found confused and relieved me a bit. Though I was in a cave, it was oddly clean

20
and lit rather well. And the spider silk surrounding me was just a makeshift hammock
with some blankets. And my guess is that I was covered in bandages made of the same
material, as my clothes were neatly folded across the room. Turns out, Rania, as she’s
named, found me unconscious by the nearby river, broken and bloodied, and took me in
to care for me while I was recovering. Right then, I remembered what led me to being
so broken. Draco tossed me through that weird portal after going berserk from a huge
mistake on my part. In any case, I was wrapped up in bandages, and completely at the
mercy of what I once assumed to be purely fictional: a hospitable monster woman.
“Good to see you awake,” she said in a very soft British accent, “you were out for
quite a while. Couple of days, actually.” Looking at my body, I couldn’t see why...until I
looked at the huge scar on my chest. “Damn. I’d say I’m surprised I lived through that,
but one, that’d sound cliche, and two, I-,” I stopped, pain immediately rushing up and
down my body like a ton of needles all jabbed into my spine simultaneously. Guess I
shouldn’t have been acting tough. Rania immediately laid me down on the hammock,
said, “Easy now. Don’t overtax yourself,” and began feeding me stew. Now, ordinarily, I
wouldn’t let strangers feed me random...gunk. But considering my position at the
moment, there weren’t many options. Surprisingly, the stew was good! I mean, it’s stew
made by a reclusive spider lady, and it could’ve used some more pepper, but it was
better than what I was expecting!
So, after a few hours of being tended to by my arachnid nurse, I could actually sit up
without being shot down with agony. Which means I could actually get up and walk
around. Good for me, because I was starting to get stiff, and that wasn’t the wood arms
coming in. Speaking of, that’s just what I did before I got up: Testing my powers to make
sure they weren’t weakened. First was my fire; still green, so far so good. When I
launched it at the wall, it made quite a large hole that while it didn’t go all the way
through, it still burned for a bit. Test one complete; fire still works. With my new one, the
wood arms, I couldn’t quite get any wood, but vines came out instead and gave the
same effect. What I didn’t expect was that my arms were extending more and more
when I was trying to hit wood. Unexpected, yes, but overall educational for me. There
was also this tingly sensation going through my body, but I couldn’t quite place exactly
what it was. In any case, my powers were overall untouched, and I learned something
new about one of them! Now if I ever wanted to imitate a punchy purple spirit man or an
international fighter, I could with ease!
I got fully dressed again, then walked into what seemed like the “main room” of the
cave, only to see my cruciform caretaker scrubbing, at a guess, my blood from her floor.
The one thing I noticed was that it was much more poison-colored since the last time I
saw it. A rather bright--as bright as blood can be, anyway--green color with traces of
what looked to be light-blue crystals. While familiar, and something I should be well
aware of, I ignored it for the moment and was kinda feeling bad for Rania, being
subjected to cleaning something as hard to clean off as blood. When the thought, “I
wish I could help at all. Maybe a mop or..really anything to clean this up would help,”

21
came to mind, my hands lit up, with crystals supplying said lights, creating exactly what I
thought of: a mop. It even came with a bucket of soap water. Rania stopped
immediately what she was doing when she saw that light, apparently, and asked: “How
did you do that? Are you a mage of some kind?” I was awestruck at the fact that I
literally created what I thought about, that I simply responded, “I think I might be.” I
helped her, of course, but all I could think about was that weird crystal summoning I did.
I had some ideas, but I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure with the limited knowledge I
had of this...unknown power.
When I went outside to get some fresh air, and to test this power further, what I saw
paled in comparison to any world I’ve seen before, even beating out the home of the
blue monkey people. Everything you could think of from a fantasy story was there:
floating islands, wizard towers, a giant Tree of Life, and more. Ignoring my original plan
for the moment, I dashed back inside, and asked Rania, “Real quick, where am I? Like,
which realm am I in right now?” To which, the response was: “This is the realm of
Fallirune. Why do you ask?” “Ummm...well, I’m not exactly from around here, is all I’m
saying,” was my reply before I ran back outside and looked again at the scene before
me. This was the first world I was truly able to look at without something, or someone,
else distracting the thought of exploration. That is, until I smelled something unusually
sweet mixed with smoke coming from a village below. I was able to make use of my
newfound powers to summon a telescope and see that said village was being attacked.
By what, I wasn’t sure. I had a feeling I was gonna find out, though.
I told Rania of the village below, and she oddly enough wanted to help them out.
Usually, an arachne wouldn’t want to save others, but turns out, she was helped out by
the villagers on multiple occasions, and even babysat sometimes. We agreed to go
down, but when I was about to jump off the cliff in a superhero-style epic way, she
lassoed me back with her spider string and told me there was a safer way down in a
cave. Being the stubborn idiot that I am, I ignored the safe route for once and took the
leap of faith anyway, much to Rania’s confused dismay. What I also ignored was that I
hadn’t fully healed yet. Thankfully, I hadn’t ignored my vine arms, as they gave me a
good means of keeping myself from dying, as well as giving myself a decent landing. All
I need now is an egotistical reporter saying that I’m public enemy number one.
Keeping myself out of sight was tricky, given my attire, but if videogames have
taught me one thing, it’s that roofs are my best friend. Even if some of those roofs were
burning and covered in weird vines. Sneaking along, I found that the attackers of the
village had the same “soul” energy as Grendelstein and those guards at the manor.
Something about them looked much different, though. Instead of being in armor, they
were fully exposed, but their bodies looked like they were imps mixed with forest goblins
or something to that effect. Though what caught me off guard was that there were
alraune working alongside them. Some were mixed with those weird shadowy things,
too, but what kept me from leaping out at them was that some of the villagers were
being turned into not only alraune, but the shadow alraune as well. I slid down and

22
prepared myself for a quick assault, sword out and everything, but there was one
problem: I couldn’t remember what I did the first time that allowed me to leap around
quickly. Serves me right for thinking by instinct.
I almost gave my position away by screaming when Rania grabbed my shoulder.
She was both surprised and relieved I was alright, but didn’t quite know what I was
about to do. My guess is that safer entrance was the entrance to some catacombs. In
any case, I told her what I was able to find out, and before long, we were planning what
to do. We arrived at an idea of how to turn back the villagers, though; who knew spider
venom could cancel out an alraune’s transformative powers? Only thing was, how were
we gonna take out weird shadow goblins that somehow can ignite fires, as well as
seductive plant monsters who transform their victims into being their slaves? My mind
was instantly alight with an idea I hadn’t considered, and looking at my sword hilt, I
asked Rania: “How strong are your threads?”
I approached the horde with my sword all ignited in hand, ready to fight. When they
got in range, a water tank flew right in front of me, allowing me to slice it, allowing a
large cloud of steam to swarm the area, with some...direction from yours truly, of
course. This discombobulated the entire invasion party enough to where I could do one
of the many things I’ve always wanted to do: Taking out monsters lost in mist. When
said mist cleared, I had impaled the last alraune I had to for those other shadow goblins
to come running in all directions. I was ready for this, so I threw up my sword, signaling
Rania to trip the web traps, and allowing me to let loose my flames, and decimate every
last shadow monster that came in my path. It was truly a shame I didn’t get to use the
full extent of my plan, but at least the newly-turned alraune were turning back to their
original states. At least, that’s what I’d say if I didn’t know the giant flower behind me
would grab my legs and hold me captive. What doubly got me was that the big alraune
looked like this high school harlot I once knew. Before she even spoke, I threw my
sword at one of her vines, which while it did release me, somehow she turned that
against me by making it an alraune soldier attached to her. I guess assuming I would
never hit a woman, she made it as scantily clad as she could and made it approach me,
ready to pull me in at any moment. Even if I hadn’t seen this in the plan, this was the
perfect opportunity for me to summon a sword I was excited to try out when I designed it
in my younger years: Charred Chains. A chain whip sword entirely engulfed in flames,
and much more powerful than my fireblade.
I sliced my leg’s binding and immediately sprung into action with my weaponized
grappling hook. With one quick motion, I wrapped the chains all around that soldier she
made and as soon as I landed, a swift tug was all it took to not only slice her, but
completely incinerate her. Thank god I designed it to infinitely add chain links to the
whip. I wasn’t done though, as my gigantic green seductress would remind me. With
every vine she sent my way, they were all met with the same fate: To be fodder for my
awesome weapon. Well, not all of them, as one got a good grip on me when I got cocky
and pulled me into the giant alraune’s pool, with the flower around her closing up behind

23
me. I knew I was a goner the moment I touched that nectar. As the alraune was
preparing for my transformation, immediately I knew…
...something was off. I was sure I had been downed into the nectar pool, and it
sealed my fate. But the exact opposite was happening. Sure, my body was covered in
alraune nectar, but I wasn’t feeling any of its effects. Not even my clothes were melting.
The one thing I did feel was that weird tingling sensation from before. It felt like my
nervous system was going on the fritz. Soon, the evidence spoke for itself, as sparks
were creeping out of my body, and were only growing stronger. I decided to go along
with it to see what happens, pushing my entire soul, mind, and body into amplifying that
one sensation. What resulted was something I could’ve never believed in any other
circumstance: I was controlling lightning! Sure enough, I broke out of my confinement,
quite literally shocking the alraune. With Charred Chains’ unlimited reach, I sliced out of
my captor like a blender going haywire, with an unsuspecting Rania meeting me.
“Howdy,” I said coyly, un-summoning my sword, “Miss me?” As expected, my ex-captor
wouldn’t lay off me, and she was more aggressive than ever. Probably didn’t take the
breakup too well.
“Rania, still have those web traps set up?,” I asked calmly. Still processing my
escape from the alraune, she replied, “Um.. Y-yes!” “Great! Just wait for my signals. As
soon as you see me reappear, then pull them. Got it?” She nodded, still confused, but
more understanding than before. “Awesome. Be ready.” After I said that, my body was
like a blue speedster, lit up with electricity and ready to be utilized. This time, I wasn’t
going entirely by instinct. I sped off to one already-wrecked roof, to which Rania covered
it in a tight web wrapping when Ex-Raunezilla slung her vines at me, then another, then
another, then another, until she could no longer send any vines after me. I zipped
around her with a long vine of my own, and stopped right next to Rania, ready to make
a livewire of it. I couldn’t help what came out next: “Hey ugly! Howzabout I give ya a
facelift? You’ll be shocked with the results!” Right after that, I supercharged my arm vine
to the point where I could see her skeleton. And to finish her off, I wrapped my sword’s
chains around her paralyzed and easily-burnable body, and just watched as the plant
giantess was absolutely decimated by flame.
It was at that moment I saw a body falling in the fiery carnage. In that instant, my
instincts kicked in and leaped into the flames to rescue this...rather naked man. When
everything was starting to calm down, we retreated back to Rania’s cave to tend to him.
Good thing too, as a convenient rain started pouring to stop the flames from destroying
everything. Rania told me that all the villagers were evacuated during my scramble with
the alraune, which confused me as to why this guy was in that thing to begin with. Upon
closer inspection, I noticed he was a cyborg, and something that didn’t belong in a
fantasy world. “Rania,” I asked, “did you know about this guy?” “Yes, actually. But the
villagers haven’t found a way to wake him up. Not even the chief!,” she responded.
Honestly, if I knew about this guy beforehand, I wouldn’t have attempted the Giga
Bonfire tactic. Well, can’t change the past, I thought. What mattered now was how I was

24
gonna wake this guy up. Something I’m glad I figured out my control over lightning
beforehand. All I needed to do was get close to this guy’s heart- er..core, and give it a
jump. Thankfully, the core itself was right in the center of his chest, as confirmed by
knocking it a few times. And so, all I needed was both my hands overflowing with
energy, pressing them to his chest, and, in one big push…
“No! The files weren’t my-...where the hell am I…?” “Well, that’s a helluva way to say
hello,” I said to the newly-awakened cyborg. After I conjured some clothes for him, he
told us just the basics about him. Mainly that his name was Grant Cerulean, and that all
he remembers is having his cybernetics disabled before being shut offline. “Alright,” I
started, “well, I’m Steve Torchfang, and this is Ra-” The next thing I hear is nothing I’d
expect at all from a cyborg: a scream, and something similar to, “Back you demon!” I
could understand it if he did it with me, and I understand arachnophobia is a thing, but
that was just kinda rude. Not even thinking, I swiped him, apologized to Rania, thanked
her for the hospitality she gave me, and sped out. After telling GC the whole story up to
this point, he, of course, didn’t believe me at first, but one look at a scorched village
square was enough to convince him. In any case, he asked about what Draco meant by
“her”, and I came to a realization: If Draco sent me here, into a fantasy world, of all
places, then I might be able to find some semblance of my girlfriend’s whereabouts. The
only question I asked myself was: “Where do I begin if she’s not here?”

25
 Reunion of the Beasts
It was a long couple of weeks of travel. I had little idea that Fallirune was this big until
I set out on this crazy journey with my new companion, the strangely-familiar cyborg
GC, of whom is not used to the nickname yet. Nevertheless, it took literally two days
nonstop because we couldn’t agree on a direction to start said travel. And it took even
longer to actually start that traveling process since he wanted to study everything in the
immediate area closely right as we saw them. What doesn’t help is that despite having a
map, the only thing keeping us from being lost in this world, he wants to go so far off the
beaten path that it’s giving me a migraine. Though to be fair, I’m a bit too cautious about
things since those weird monsters showed up. Speaking of which, I’m starting to think
I’m basically a walking, screaming beacon to them now; it’s like for every step I take,
more of them show up to start trying to kill me! To make matters worse, every time, I
have to stop GC from trying to study them, since to him, they look like new creatures! If
only he could see just how dangerous they really are, not to mention their souls
aren’t..well, normal.
Thankfully for me, we were going in the right direction, once I finally got Jon-Nerd
No. 5 to actually agree with me on it. There’s just one problem: there’s this area called
the Kholdeina Desert. Normally, I’d be avoiding places like that like the plague. But
since I got fire powers, and became immune to heat, I’d have no problems with it. I
shouldn’t have gone with that assumption, because apparently what qualifies as a
desert in this world is a frozen wasteland with varying sizes of hills instead of a
scorching hot sand-filled wasteland. I was freezing, I couldn’t get a flame going, and
don’t even ask about my lightning. To make matters worse, this dumb blizzard was
raging on through the entire time we were traveling, causing us to lose our map in the
process. Thankfully, we managed to find a cave at the base of a mountain, but even

26
though it wasn’t as cold as outside, it was still cold! Shivering, I asked my cybernetic
companion if we were going the right way, and he responded, “Of course we are, at
least, as you have claimed. Though I don’t see why we should go through a snowy
desert. ...that feels weird saying it out loud.” Given how other-worldly this place is, I’m
not entirely surprised. Even still, my main concern above all else was not freezing to
death, no matter what. I’m glad I found out about my creation powers all those weeks
ago, because if not, I wouldn’t have been able to make a coat for myself and GC.
“Wait,” he said, “If you could’ve made coats for us, then why did you complain about
the cold the entire time we’ve been walking through this godforsaken wasteland?” In
response, I told him, “Well, pardon me, your highness, I didn’t think we’d be walking
through a goddamn snowstorm when we got here! And don’t talk to me about
complaining about that storm, you’re at fault as well!” Just what I needed: another
heated argument. If that’s all it took for us to get warm, we’d be in Florida by this point.
Almost instantly, he got on me for not creating anything useful for the trip, like a vehicle
of some kind, or food. I shot him down, saying that I can’t do vehicles, because those
are complex, and with food, I can’t make anything that I don’t fully understand how to
make. Even with my nature powers, I can’t make anything edible. We kept going back
and forth until finally, we decided to have time apart from each other. GC stayed with
our “camp” to do what he can to fix his limbs, because I guess he had a multi-tool-ish
device with him or something, and I decided to have a look around our temporary
shelter, since it looked to go deeper than just the mouth of the cave.
Turns out, when I warmed up enough to get a light going, it was more than a cave. It
was a full-on mine. Granted, it was an abandoned mine, but a mine’s still a mine. Which
means, there should be a place the miners used to store food. When I eventually found
it, all I found were some frozen turkey legs, some frozen bread, and a lot of frozen
water. Good thing I found the place in decent condition, despite the amount of frozen-
ness it was. Though, I couldn’t help but feel I was being watched. Aside from the
obvious regional variant of weird shadow monsters, I felt like there was someone else
there. In any case, I needed to get back to Cyber-Nerd and show what I found. When I
got back, he was tinkering with his leg...with his arm. Considering the guy looks like he’s
from the future, I didn’t question it. We hardly talked for a while, even when resting by
the fire made from some old mine shaft beams. Good thing I was a Scout for a while.
But wilderness survival didn’t much prepare me for dealing with a blizzard or an
annoyingly smart cyborg. Eventually, we agreed to let the storm die down some and
then carry on in the morning. Good thing too, because if I had to go out in that storm
again, I’d be a walking Steve-sicle.
When I woke up, the storm outside was more like a medium snowfall now, but my
semi-robotic friend was nowhere to be seen. All I needed to hear was some kind of
massive roar from within the cave to tell me everything. What could’ve made a roar that
loud, I asked myself. Some kinda giant cave frog? A giant spider? A golem made
entirely out of ice and stone, mashed together in an abominable form? Well, I’d be lying

27
if I wasn’t surprised by what I saw: A giant mole, of all things. It looked like it was being
controlled by an ice monster on its back, and GC wasn’t fighting back much, only
dodging the monsters with his leg’s propulsion system, and apparently, still fixing his
arm. Not too smart, but I knew what I needed to do. Just one problem with that though:
The monsters’ attacks seemed to be laced with ice, like how I wrap fire around my
attacks. If the massive snowstorm yesterday wasn’t any indication, this sure as hell was.
In any case, somehow I took care of those monsters, but had a much tougher time with
the big mole mount and the monster--which oddly looked like some kind of ice shaman--
mounted on it. Who would’ve thought a chain whip sword on fire wasn’t a good weapon
for catching a mounted monster off guard? As a matter of fact, neither my lightning, fire,
nor nature powers were giving any lasting effects. Even my vine arms mixed with fire
fists weren’t doing much. Needless to say, my options were limited. Though I’m not
entirely one to go on the defensive, but seeing as this guy’s kicking my ass six ways to
Sunday, what else is a guy to do?
I managed to leap out of a small opening in the cave wall out into a snowy forest
area. Though it was cold, it gave me a chance to catch my breath. At least, before the
voodoo mask riding the mole came crashing through the wall of the mountain and down
into the clearing I was in. I was still on the defensive, because I still can’t do much to it,
especially with that shield of a mask in the way of its neck. Now, I know I could’ve used
my sword’s infinite length of chains to wrap around something and get it in the back, but
seeing as it can see where my chains were going, that’s off the table. After a while, I
tried throwing some fireballs and shooting lightning bolts at it to try and knock away the
shield, but that also didn’t work, and its attention on me was unyielding and very
annoying to break on my own. I tried using my newly-dubbed Bolt Rush to wrap around
it and attack it from behind, but like my attempts to be threatening in my high school
days, it blew right up in my face. Ice spikes formed in midair, shot out at me, and blew
me back into a tree, breaking it quite a bit, and sending some pain straight up my back.
Guess my injuries from the alraune stacked from Draco’s blows to me weren’t fully
healed yet after all. And with my weapon de-summoned, I was left with little means of
defense. I was honestly starting to see a pattern going on here.
And right on cue, out of nowhere, something that sounded like a gun fired off and hit
the ice shaman right in the back, knocking it off of its unwilling, and prompt to escape,
steed. And when the big mole scarpered off, who did I see? GC, sporting an arm
cannon that looks like a laser shotgun, and thankfully this guy looks like he knows how
to use it. Once we got a chance to talk, we made a decent, yet tired and cliched plan of
attack: Me taking the “fire”, while he pummels it from the back with some laser rounds.
And so, the tired plan that almost everyone uses succeeded once again, leaving us with
the somber atmosphere of the snow-laden forest. At least, until we heard rustling in the
trees. Instinctively, we both got back-to-back, and scanned our respective side for any
movement. I got the idea to spin Charred Chains around us to guard us, just in case,
and turns out I was right to do so, as some rogues rushed us right as I started up the

28
fiery shield. It didn’t take us too long to knock them down, wrap them up with my vines,
and get them into a position to demand info from them. I’ll be honest, I felt like an
awesome vigilante-thief doing it. In any case, upon interrogation, they told us about their
camp nearby, and of course I wanted to check it out. Besides, it’s not every day that you
get to raid a camp of bandits.
Just ahead in a very well-hidden clearing, there it was: the bandit caravan. We snuck
in through a gap in the black and blue cloth wall frames, and immediately there was a
problem. I was expecting only a few bandits here, say, six or eight. Upon a quick count,
I could see that there were at least twenty of them there! I’ve never heard of bandits
being corralled together this way, not even in stories! Whoever the leader is must be
strong to keep all these cretins in line, I wondered. But one look at a nearby banner
started to scare me some, and it made me think: Black and blue color schemes all over,
shifty characters being easy to corral, and an emblem with something that looks akin to
a fox. If the leader is who I think it is, I thought, I might be in for a tough fight. Sneaking
closer to the boss’s tent, I kept looking around to make sure I wouldn’t be caught right
away, and signaled GC over. When we crept in, there seemed to be nobody around, but
I could still sense someone inside. As I thought, someone tried to jump me from behind,
but I rolled out of the way just in time. My attacker looked to be vulpine, and carried
claws that looked very deadly if I didn’t dodge at all. Unfortunately for me, their ambush
didn’t stop at an attempt to impale me; they went into a full barrage, and left no time for
me to retaliate or regain footing. Not to mention, one claw had a shield, so even if I
could attack back, I’d have been shut down in an instant. But an idea came to mind in
the heat of the moment: what if I concentrated my lightning into one part of my body? A
stupid idea at first, until I did it, and my reaction speed was greatly enhanced, allowing
me to parry the claws and counter, knocking my attacker back so far that I could knock
off their mask. And upon seeing their face, my worst fears were confirmed.
Her face was all I needed to see to instantly know I was in for some trouble. I
connected the dots a little before, but the full visual was truly terrifying. The next thing I
heard was: “So, who’s this? You look like you know her from somewhere.” GC, if you
only knew how scary the person that created this persona really was, you’d know why I
reacted the way I did. That’s what I wanted to say, at least. Still, she introduced herself
as Aelwyd Shadowtail, leader of the Foxpocrypha bandit caravan. Weird name aside,
she challenged me and GC to a fight against her and a guest who dropped by just
yesterday, according to her. Apparently, this “guest” was the same guy that was trying
to drill into me all that time ago. Understandably so, I felt my blood begin to boil. “Seeing
as I have a score to settle with one of you, I accept,” I vengefully said, drawing my
sword. GC readied his arm cannon, but looked concerned about my hotheadedness.
The gong sounded, and I went straight for the literal redhead first. Something
immediately felt off, as my blood was starting to feel not only hotter, but more loose,
causing my thoughts to cloud up and think of only one thing: breaking everything that he
is. And little did I know, the same thing was going on for Aelwyd too. It was weird, but

29
looking back, it makes sense for the two beasts to go berserk like this, but never would I
have imagined we’d go this berserk! In any case, somewhere along the battle, GC was
knocked down, and had to get to repairing himself, and the spearman had vanished
somewhere, leaving myself and Aelwyd, no matter how beaten up, to have a good, old-
fashioned beast scrap.
It felt similar to when I went berserk on that manor on Zectorin; my body was just
acting on its own while I watched from the inside in a black void, all while I could still feel
the damage done to me. The only difference this time was that I could feel
something...sinister controlling my body. Not to mention, it seemed to be feeding off of
my collective rage throughout my life, including now. I know it sounds edgy, but that’s
exactly what it felt like! Even still, it gave me an idea to stop the fight. I just thought of
the happiest moments of my life--as cheesy as that sounds--until I regained full control
of my body. The last thing I saw and heard before leaving that mindscape again was
one creepy red silhouette of a monstrous face saying only six words in that creepy killer
voice: “You’ll see things my way soon.” But even as I left that “astral plane”, I could still
feel its dark presence around me. When I came to, my vulpine opponent was still in
berserk mode, making it much harder for me to find any good openings. Not only that,
but that dark feeling was still there. And then, an idea struck: what if I could use that
feeling to disarm her? It worked the last time I had a feeling; I even gained a new power
from it! For the plan to work though, I needed to use a decoy of some kind. I grinned,
and quoth the Beast of the Flame to himself: Mayhap ‘tis time to get...punchy.
To execute my plan, I de-summoned Charred Chains and made my arms into those
stretchy vine arms, and started punching away. Once that caught Aelwyd off guard, I
reverted my left arm back to normal and concentrated all of that dark feeling into said
arm. What I didn’t account for was that instead of a dark bomb coming out, my forearm
down turned black and stole Aelwyd’s shield claw. I had little time to process it though,
as before I could, I executed a Vine Hook from my right, and knocked Aelwyd down,
allowing me to win the fight. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t collapse. Good thing I didn’t go
unconscious. Afterwards, GC was able to trace similarities in blood, only confirming
what I already guessed before. But that shadowy figure in my mind set me off once
again. More and more, I could feel their power seeping in, and what I felt in my newly-
dubbed Shadow Thief was proof of that. In any case, Aelwyd gave us some fresh
supplies and something for GC, as well as directions to a town at the base of the
mountain. Good thing too, as I was starting to go crazy just traveling with GC. Maybe I’ll
finally get some answers about where I am in space and time.

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 Magical Shadows
The hike down from the mountain was the easiest thing I could've ever done during
this whole journey. Especially since I borrowed a shield to use as a sled to go down the
mountain. GC was forced to be the engine, because if I did it, the shield would break
faster than biting down on a potato chip, mainly because for one, the snow below would
melt way too quick, and two, I can’t provide thrust in any of my flames.
In any case, the town Aelwyd mentioned was nearing closer and closer thanks to my
cyborg-powered sled. When we did get down to the bottom of the mountain, I got a firm
chewing-out from my unwilling propulsion system, but after getting over it, we decided to
look for an inn to rest at. Honestly, it’d be nice to just relax in a warm bed after what we
just went through. When we eventually did find one, right after we got a room and
wanted to get a freshly-made meal, we kept getting harassed by people we could only
assume were the town drunks. Surprisingly, I just ignored them, but GC was the one
that eventually blew his lid. It took everything I had just to hold him back, but when the
verbal abuse was over, one glare and fang-baring was all it took to scare them off us. I
guess this whole “beast” thing I have going on is a huge blessing in the intimidation
department!
When morning came, GC decided to stock up on a few more supplies for our
journey, and since our only map was lost in the snowstorm, I needed to look for a library
to grab a new map. Honestly, I’d prefer one that didn’t have half the world on it, but
anything helps. Whatever the case, finding the library was the easy part, considering
how big it was. And just like a spacetime-traveling phone box, it looked much bigger on
the inside. Bookshelves as far as the eye could see, as well as reasonably-placed
tables accompanying them. Not even the hunchbacked bookkeeper could stop my
amazement of the spectacle before me. Looking around this place would be no small
feat because of the size, but finding the right things to look at could be tricky,
considering I can’t read this world’s language. The only reason I knew about the name
of that snow desert was because someone talked about it. Thankfully, I found the maps,
and more detailed ones, too. They were in what I could only assume to be Fallirunish or
something similar. I can create just about anything I want, but I can’t read any other
language than the one I know. Such is the folly of these powers I have.
Despite that, I could tell I had a map that held the full world, and not half of it.
Granted, I couldn’t read it, but it’s a step in the right direction. I noticed a couple mage
types looking through what looked like either spellbooks or elemental studies, and I

31
decided to stay out of sight and see if any of them could say anything about dark
powers. Luckily for me, the books seemed to be color-coded, so I just needed to find a
black book and I’d be set. Eventually, I did find a few, but I only picked up two of them. I
later laid all of them out on a nearby table, but was still unable to read what I picked up.
Right when a groan escaped my mouth, my head dropped on my arms in frustration, I
could hear somebody with a thick accent say, “Having trouble, sir?” To which, I peeked
over my shoulder and saw a woman with white hair and red eyes. She was holding a
few books in her hands, and a pile of more books floating behind her. The only thing
that came out of my mouth was a very disappointed: “Yeah…” Afterwards, I just laid my
head on the table and added: “No matter what I do, I can’t pin these texts down!”“Well,
the maps of Zharoga are not for beginners,” she chuckled. That puzzled me some, as I
thought this world was called Fallirune. Then again, it could be a region of the world, so
I didn’t say anything. To cover my tracks, I told her, “I’m from a small island country, so
I’m a hint confused with the language of the mainland.”“I’m not an expert myself, but the
maps are to help. However,” she raised her hand in a wave. The pages of the book flew
open and stopped by the last pages to a map. “Maybe using the correct map of
Fallirune would help.” At a guess, I’d say she was not only proficient in magic, but also a
traveller like me. “If only,” I started, “I could actually read this stuff. Then I’d be able to
figure out my powers. I can vaguely guess if I look at the images, but even then I’m still
lost.”
“May I be of help? The spell would be of use until you learn the language,” She
simply poked her finger to my glasses and smiled. Just then, the letters on the pages
started to look familiar to me, and looked to be in my own language! I sat back up,
turned to her, and thanked her sincerely. She smiled and sat down by the table beside
mine. Quickly looking back to the books I’d picked up, I noticed one of them happened
to be a book on dark magic. A quick scan-through confirmed my question of what kind
of power I used when I stole Aelwyd’s left claw, and now I knew that the power I used
was dark magic. Now knowing that, I turned to face her and held my hand out to
introduce myself. “Name’s Steve. Steve Torchfang. Gotta say, thanks once again,
miss..” She shook my hand and smiled genuinely. “Rea Amagonaz, pleased to meet
your acquaintance, Steve Torchfang,” she said. Eventually, we began talking more,
discussing different theories we both had about the subjects at hand, all things I never
would’ve expected. Amongst all the fighting I had been through, it was nice to actually
talk to someone intelligent instead of slashing back at anyone that took a swing at me. I
asked her, “so, Rea, can I ask where you’re from?” “My species is originally from
another planet, but due to certain…circumstances, we now live on a different planet. I
don’t suppose,” she smiled and spoke softly, like it was a secret, “You’ve heard of Terra
Prime?” This caught me very off-guard, and set me back quite a bit. Attempting to keep
her from thinking I hadn’t gone brain-dead, I replied, “Yeah, I know of it, what about it?”,
knowing full well that if she found out I was from there, she’d call me crazy.

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 “Oh, how lovely!” She turned her chair in my direction and her eyes seemed to
sparkle. “I’ve read several books and scrolls about your kind, but meeting a real demius
is truly magnificent.” She giggled, seemingly excited over my question and response.
The part that showed visual confusion was the part where she called me a “demius”.
Back home, nobody called anything a demius, but here, apparently it’s a rare race,
according to her. I was about to say, “wait, what?” but in an attempt to keep myself in an
intelligent light, I simply told her, “Well, people like me are rare, after all. Hell, even I
wouldn’t know about me if I didn’t ask!” Backpedaling slightly, I apologized awkwardly
and simply asked, “Just a refresher for me, what classifies as a ‘demius’ here?” “Hm, I
think there are some books to give you the right information.” She raised her hands and
mumbled something before snapping her fingers three times. Seconds after, a few
books came flying. Not nearly as thick as the other books, barely magazine size, but
several with the titles demius. “I’d hoped there’d be more, but not all information is
written down these days.” She sighed and opened one book. It hit me then: we’re in a
medieval fantasy world, and she talks about different planets and not enough written
information. Something told me right then and there that she wasn’t from this world
either. Looking around, I bent over to whisper in her ear, “Don’t freak out or anything,
but truth be told, I’m from Terra Prime. I’ve never heard about any of these terms until
recently, and I used to be human, but ever since I got here, I’ve been assaulted by
these weird shadow monsters nonstop.”
“I’m shocked,” she replied whilst opening another book. “Humans, or partly human
creatures as yourself, don’t have monsters on Terra Prime. At least not now.” She
turned her head and had a look of sympathy. “All I know of your kind is from old tales
and fables. And as for the monsters, all you can do is fight or run away. That’s the way it
is here. Think you can handle it, Mr Torchfang?” “Honestly, I hope so,” I said, as that
was the only response I could muster after hearing that. I was starting to think that those
monsters were from here, until I remembered that their souls were the same as the
ones at the manor on Zectorin, a sub-world, and a world separate from this one. Maybe,
just maybe, something about that just didn’t feel right to me. Right as I was about to
start asking more questions, I instantly remembered: “Oh! Erm, Rea,” I began to ask, “
does this library make copies of maps?” From right behind me, the librarian answered
for her, saying yes, and that some of the tomes were able to be bought for mages
wanting to learn from them. Surprised, I went and made a copy of that map, then invited
Rea back to the room at the inn GC and I rented.
“Pardon me, but what is a ‘GC’?”, she questioned on the way, pulling her cape and
hood tighter around herself. She didn’t seem to enjoy the cold weather, either. Good
thing I managed to find a good shortcut to the inn, and right as we went inside, we saw
bedlam erupt in the inn. And who did I find in the midst of this chaos? None other than
GC himself, aiming his arm gun at the same people from yesterday, and the inn itself
was in shambles. Almost instinctively, I roared exactly like a beast, something I didn’t
think I could do, causing everyone in the inn to stop what they were doing, and start to

33
put the tavern bit of the inn back together. That left me to knock GC out cold, and drag
him to our room. Sounding annoyed, I said to Rea, “To answer your earlier question,
this nerdy numbskull is GC,” accompanying it with a look of disappointment in my
cybernetic traveling companion.
She stared at the cybernetic arm and simply nodded. “A funny duo, indeed. A
demius and…a robotic human.” Making sure to close the door and lock it behind us, I
replied, “Yeah, two altered humans from different worlds, traveling together. But believe
me when I say, despite us being different, he’s saved my life, and I’ve saved his. And
that’s not even mentioning the fact that my powers have been growing ever since I
fought this weird Grendel-stein thing a few weeks back.” “Wait, you never told me about
this,” GC commented. “Well, did you ask?”, I asked him, getting naught but a head
lowering. “It seems both of you are doing a good job, then, considering all the meat-
loving monsters there are!” Rea laughed. Well, she wasn’t completely wrong, but I doubt
the reason these monsters are coming after me is that they want to eat me. Besides, I’m
hardly muscular! I asked the snow-haired mage in front of me, “Got the time? I think I
owe you the truth.”
Arching an eyebrow, interest perked, she took a seat on a chair. “I’m listening.” I sat
on the bed next to GC, and recounted the story from the beginning, not skipping any
detail. GC was beginning to fall asleep, but it did make sense, because he did hear it
before, and was there for the last bit. As I wrapped it up, to make sure my story was
credible, I showed her the scar on my chest, as well as Charred Chains. “I don’t know
what’s going on,” I said, using the statement to wrap up the story thus far, “but I think
these things want whatever’s enabling me to use these creation powers. And there’s
also that spearman to consider… I think he wants me dead because of these powers.”
Unlike GC, she had listened to every word, paying attention to the details. But as the
story was wrapped up, she had a look of concern. “You seem to be getting into quite a
lot of trouble, yet no one to explain why so…” She exhaled and stretched her arms out.
“If it was me, I’d figure out how to use the powers first. Going into combat with some
Spearman with no experience would be a death wish.” GC finally piped up, as if he had
something on his mind. “Actually, from what he’s saying, the elemental side of things
sounds like the legends of people called ‘Vectres’, which were able to control anything
in their environment, and even create it from their own soul energy, as long as they
were attuned to that element in some way.” “Wait, for real?”, I asked curiously, “How
come I didn’t know about these guys?” “Well, it was a legend. I can’t say for sure where
or when they’re from, and they’re not in every world, but one thing’s for sure, you’re one
of them,” GC concluded, answering at least one question on my mind. But seconds
later, he asked about that “semblance of my girlfriend’s whereabouts bit,” and kinda
made me backpedal a few weeks. I thought, Rea’s name does sound familiar to me, but
maybe that’s just a coincidence. There’s no way that the Rea right in front of me could
be similar to her, right? I mean, she looked like a regular traveling mage to me. Good
thing it stayed in my head, but something about that just didn’t feel right.

34
 “This soul energy tale could be the thing,” Rea smiled. “Souls are some of the
strongest sources of magic, and quite tasty.” She chuckled carelessly. That sent me and
GC for a loop so far, but the nail in the coffin was when I just carelessly asked, at a
complete guess, “You’re not a succubus, are you, Rea?” “Since we're being so honest,”
she pushed her hood back. On the sides of her head were red horns. “Surprised?”
“Well,” I replied, “I thought you were just a regular person! But hey, being a succubus
isn’t too bad, if your lack of aphrodisiac effect was any indication.” The thing that threw
me for a loop, however, was that GC was trying to restrain himself, meaning that it, in
fact, was active. “It’s the cape,” she exhaled. “It’s made of a rare fabric and conceals my
scent. At least it should …” GC, still restraining himself, said, “Well, I can confirm that
the effects of the cloak did work for the lobby of the inn. For a compact room like this,
it’s harder to try and control myself.” The curious thing was that I didn’t feel the
aphrodisiac effect at all. Then again, I was immune to the alraune too. “Either I’m
exceedingly lucky,” I started, “and I highly doubt that, or I can’t be altered in any external
means. That helps narrow things down a lot, but it doesn’t explain those bits where my
body wasn’t in my control.” Spying GC’s...trance, she told us, “My apologies, GC. I
should take my leave.” She stood up and looked at them. “As for your powers,
Torchfang, the demius books may be of help. At least, they should say how you
appeared here.” She smiled, almost looking apologetic again. Or worried. “I wish you
the best of luck.” Something about her seemed hurried, but I didn’t want to impose any.
Somehow, I think she noticed. GC, who looked to have his...affairs in order, quickly
said, right before I could say anything, “What’s the rush? If we can help with something,
we gladly will!” If Rea had mind-reading powers along with her magic and abilities, she’d
hear some pretty loud screams. But the question was out there, and I had little choice
but to listen. “I can’t ask you to help, as much as I appreciate your ‘offer’, GC.” She
forced a genuine-looking smile. “I still have research to get done, and my presence is
troubling the inn.” She pulled the hood back over her head and bowed gracefully.
Almost feeling pressured by my subconscious, I kneeled instinctively and bowed my
head without missing a beat. I asked her as sincerely as possible, “Please, Rea.
Whatever it is, I want to try and help. If GC’s request to ‘help’ was bothering you, then
allow me to ask. What do you need help with?” Her smile faded and she was visibly
concerned. “I can’t pull you two into this… It is my responsibility… Enough of this,
Torchfang, stand up.”
I did so, but my face was still looking as serious as possible. “I know what you’re
thinking. But even if I haven’t figured out all of my powers yet, there’s one little voice in
the back of my head telling me to help you. It keeps getting louder, and repeating ‘help
her.’ Were this any other voice, I’d refuse instantly. Look, I know it might be cliche and
just a hint ‘white-knight-y’, but my heart and mind are telling me the same thing. I’m not
a hero, I’m just an amateur beast knight. If you hear any kind of lie in my words, or even
in my head, if you can see that too, you can leave us with no questions from either of
us. But I-” She put a finger to my lips. “Enough. I can tell you care, but I can’t ask of you

35
the impossible. My enemy is far greater than the monsters you have met.” She stepped
back, retracting her hand. “I am grateful, but neither of you are ready for the danger.”
“Maybe not. If I can be honest, I’m both curious and scared. Hell, I can’t say I wasn’t
scared throughout this entire journey. But that hasn’t stopped me yet,” I replied,
stubborn as ever. Rea sighed, closing her eyes for a minute. “Let me get this straight:
you two are lost and intend to solve other problems than your own, possibly lose your
lives for the sake of a voice in your head saying so?” Standing up, I replied, “For all I
know, this could be connected to what we’re going through, and call it dumb pride, but if
I can’t use my powers to help someone in need, then it would go against everything I
stand for. Look, bottom line, I can’t turn away from something like this. I mean, who
says I can’t help anybody in need?”
“I say so.” In one swift move of her hands, shadow-like chains appeared around our
ankles. “To be brave is one thing, but to be stubborn is another. I won’t accept this, and
you shant risk anything for me.” No matter what, she wouldn’t move her stance on the
issue. But for some weird reason, I didn’t fight back. Sure, GC was trying to break the
chains, but I was resolute. The only thing that came out of my mouth was: “Fine. Do
what you must. But a pebble can be a bullet if you throw it fast enough.” I may have
been going in blind saying that, but being the stubborn one, I wasn’t backing out now.
Honestly, I could’ve gone a different route with it, but here we are.
“I can assure you both,” she said with obvious pride. “I am worse than a bullet.” I fell
silent from that for a few seconds. It looked like I was giving up. No matter what, she
wouldn’t let up. But that voice in my head kept screaming for me to help her. If I didn’t
know any better, she was about as stubborn as me. So I decided to take a look at her
soul. Turns out, she had the same wavelength as the very person I wanted to find. Even
still, my pride felt broken. Collapsed on the ground, I looked like I was begging on my
knees. “You’ll thank me one day.” Rea spoke as she stepped over to the door. “Being
alive is far better than dead.” Before I could even say anything, GC piped up once
again. “So what!?”, he began, “He may be an absolute dumbass, and he may be the
most impulsive person I’ve ever met. But he saved me. He saved me before he even
knew me. And now you say that he can’t defend himself? Open your eyes! You’re
looking at a goddamn beast, a pretty damn honest one at that, and he wants to help
you. And you have the gall to say that he’s too weak? I don’t care if you’re some kinda
mage queen or a damn homeless woman! If any of what he’s saying is true, and from
what he’s shown, it is, he is willing to fight alongside you. I may be as sappy as he was
right then, but dammit, I want to fight too. Steve may be trying to be nice, but dammit, I
have seen shit that will turn you whiter than your hair-”
“For the love of Lilith, stop!” Rea turned on her heel, visibly fed up by GC’s TED talk,
pinching the brim of her nose. The chains around our ankles vanished. “If you two are
going with me, I don’t want any whining like this, and you” she gestured to me. “You
need to learn to control your new powers, I won’t tolerate any slacking. And keep your
friend here with the sense of smell on a leash.” Honestly, I was holding back tears, but

36
seeing as I couldn’t emotionally hold them anymore, I sat up, smiling with tears in my
eyes, and said in a shaky voice only one word: “Deal.” I could sense that whatever GC
was feeling thanks to the aphrodisiac broken on him, as he was more reluctant in
accepting her terms. I wanted to hug her out of happiness, but I was visibly holding
myself back for it. Since it was already so late, we decided to get some shut-eye.
Besides, something told me that Rea needed the rest. I can relate the feeling, not
having much rest since we left Rania’s cave.
We met again at the library, Rea saying she would help me master the element of
the dark, or at the very least, dark magic. The atmosphere was actually pretty nice.
There was a lot of room for experimentation, we attempted different techniques on the
low-level spells, but nothing came close to learning how to walk undetected in the
shadows! Only one thing broke that atmosphere: something in me sensing a dark power
similar to that of those shadow monsters, and weirdly enough, that weird red face I saw.
However, this also had a visible cue for everyone else. My teeth were getting sharper,
my eyes were starting to turn red, my skin was looking much darker, and I was snarling
like a monster. Sounding concerned, GC only added to my worries: “Oh, that’s not
good.” “Demius…” Rea breathed, observing the transformation. “Okay, don’t get
creeped out, but since I woke up earlier than he did, and since I was curious from that
battle with Aelwyd he had, I decided to run a few scans on him,” GC began to explain
with a hint of nervousness in his voice, “turns out, he has more than one entity tied to
his soul. At a guess, I’d say this is the same one that I saw cause Steve to go berserk
on her. Since he’s not attacking anyone, I’d wager whatever you want us to go up
against has at least an equal amount of power to...er...whatever the hell’s possessing
him currently.” “It could…no.” Rea blinked, and the iris and pupils of her eyes had
switched places. “His soul is…There is something more there.” She blinked rapidly for a
few seconds and her eyes were back to normal. “He is possessed. There’s something
inside him trying to break out.”
“What do you think it is?”, asked GC. “I can’t see it clearly,” Rea replied, “it’s like
there’s a fog in there.” The more and more I was crouched down, it felt like I was being
ripped in two. Not to mention, a massive migraine was splitting my head! Whatever that
“fog” was, it was stronger than anything I’d ever had to face. If this is what Rea meant
by “monsters far greater than the ones I’ve met”, then I’d have blurted out right away
that she was right. Out of nowhere, GC asked her, “Is there some kind of spell
or...countercurse of some kind that bars possession? At least, until he can push it back
by his own power?” “Better take cover.” Rea inhaled and GC immediately ducked
behind a chair, just in case, as she stamped on the ground and a circle of light
appeared. The circle seemed to be of letters and odd-looking symbols. “Chain thy beast
in peaceful slumber, rest your soul of pain and anger, heal the wounds of blood with
fire!” As the final line was said, the circle surrounded me and the symbols were pulsing,
Rea standing her ground, hands raised and lips clenched. I could feel the spell shackle
that evil feeling to the back of my mind as the pain I was feeling was easing up. As my

37
feelings came back to me, all I could do was breathe and thank Rea for what she did.
“You’re welcome,” she seemed pleased with the recovery. As I stood back up, for some
reason, I could feel a different dark power surge through me. I tried to pull it out, but all I
got was some black smoke. Then it hit me: What if I could send it through another part
of my body? So, I pushed them through my legs, and it turns out, it was much stronger
there. Well, it’s a start, but I’m going to need more practice. Then again, I figured I could
use some more kicking in my fighting style!
Later on, we set off. Sure enough, more of those shadow monsters were coming out
of nowhere, but this time, we have a full party of three! Granted, it’s a stereotypical trio
of swordsman, mage and sniper, but it was a party from different worlds! And Rea’s
healing magic, though not the best, admittedly, does help in the long run, not to mention
that she can do more than sling spells. Camping out was also a lot easier, since we
could actually eat and sleep well, knowing that we had some protection at night. Which
is good, because our only guide’s mental health is important, and besides, we had a
cyborg on our side; he didn’t require sleep at all! And then there was the matter of my
dark powers. Thankfully, little by little, when we came across a few of those monsters,
all I needed to do was kick, and a newly-dubbed Shadow Cannon greeted the mugs of
whomever was on the business end of it. After a while, I could fire shadow balls from my
hands, but they’d be vastly weaker to what I could produce with my legs.
One night, we set up camp at a cliffside to get a bit of sleep, and GC decided to be
the one to patrol the area for anything, which left Rea and I just to our own devices. I
decided to practice a little with my kicks, as I felt a bit stronger at night rather than in the
day. It was a few minutes into training myself when Rea spoke up, as if she had
something to ask me, or to correct me on something I was doing wrong. “Training for
something, Torchfang?”, she asked. “Well, yeah,” I answered, “I mean, I gotta if we’re
gonna win against that big bad you mentioned before.” I decided I would finish off by
practicing a flip kick imbued with shadow, then walked over to Rea and sat across from
her to the fire. “So, what kinda beast are we dealing with here?”, I asked, “A tyrannical
lord terrorizing a local town, a shapeshifter with a lust for destruction, or maybe a
commander of one hundred monsters of chaos?” I couldn’t help but ask enthusiastically,
something about it just got me excited! She chuckled. “If we were to face either of those,
you’d still have to practice that kick of yours.” She exhaled before saying: “It’s a spirit, a
living sin. It's been around for centuries, but recently it`s gotten worse. Acquaintances
and friends of mine are searching for ways to defeat it. I am searching for ways to get
rid of it ... “ I was honestly amazed. I thought it’d be something less than “a living sin.” I
admitted to her that I was disappointed in myself for not thinking of that before.
“Do you regret joining me now?” Rea questioned with a carefree tone. “Actually,” I
began to answer, “no, I don’t. I mean, sure, it’s not what I expected. In fact, it’s more
than I expected, but the fact I get the chance to fight a monster like that just fills me to
the brim with excitement!” Of course, I was a little nervous about it; I kept thinking of
possible retorts for the fight! Besides, this was leagues above what I was doing back

38
home! “Of course,” I continued, “I’m still a little confused on where my shadow powers
come from. Were they unlocked by my own soul? Or were they triggered into being
unlocked by that weird monster trying to possess me days ago? I’m not sure.” This was
the point I was being brought down to earth. In truth, I was still just a nerdy, scrawny
geek in a huge fantasy world, let alone the fact that my homeworld was the actual
center of the universe. “I wish to know, too. When I see your soul, there’s something
else there.” Rea closed the book she’d been reading and smiled, as if to reassure me.
“If you don’t like the powers, you don’t have to use them. There are no rules for that.
But, no showing it off in crowded places, you could get sued for disturbance.” I
chuckled, and came back saying in a lighthearted tone, “Well, glad I’m still figuring them
out! Otherwise, I’d have misused them in my everyday life!” I couldn’t help but laugh at
myself there.
“You’re doing well in the progress. Aim a bit higher with your kick and you can move
on to the next training plan.” She giggled, with my laugh following behind hers.
Honestly, it felt like I was just talking with an old friend, despite me only knowing her for
a few days! She picked up her bag and rummaged around it before pulling out a jar.
Inside the jar were souls. She'd eat one soul a day to keep up her strength, or so she
claimed. She described them as sweet or salty, adding that the sour souls with regret
and grief were her least favourites. While I didn’t have anything special like that, hell, I
didn’t even pack anything before I went on this long-winded journey, one thing I did
have besides powers of creation was my mind. I told Rea that I was surprised I was
processing things this well, but it ultimately helped to make everything that happened
understandable and, for lack of a better term, real. “If GC and you intend to stay here, it
would be for the best to forget the world with no magic.” Rea responded and put the jar
back in her bag. “Well, if I got to choose between a boring world where absolutely
nothing goes on that’s actually fun, or a plethora of worlds that allow adrenaline to get
pumping with very few rules to follow, personally, I’d pick the world of magic and
danger,” I chuckled, pulling out Charred Chains briefly for reference in the statement.
Rea chuckled in response, “Of course, magic is a wonderful thing when used correctly.”
As she said so, she waved her hand and a lump of wood flew into the fire. “Agreed,” I
said, “otherwise, we’d have a bunch of crazed lunatics running around carrying powers
that they clearly don’t know how to use.” “That's what tutoring is for,” Rea replied.
“Teaching little puppies as yourself what to and what not to use magic for.” To be
honest, if I were any other stereotypical impatient main protagonist, I’d be bored
already. Good thing I’m a nerd that lives for this kinda thing!
Thankfully, GC came back around that time, so I was able to get to work cooking.
Thanks to being an ex-Scout, I was able to find the herbs needed for a gourmet, albeit
amateur, campfire meal. “Da-dada-daa! Seasoned venison, ready to eat!,” I announced,
“A’ight, everyone, let’s dig in!” We each grabbed our respective cut of prepared meat,
but out of all of us, I was a little nervous. I’d hardly cooked anything like this before, and
I wasn’t sure if it was okay or not. I mean, it smelled okay, but smells can deceive, after

39
all. Ultimately, I decided to hang back a little and let the other two dig in first, just to see
if I did okay by their standards. GC, being him, looked to like it, but I know him for eating
a frozen sandwich that was sloppily prepared, even before it was put in cold storage. As
for Rea, I met her just a week ago, and hardly knew her tastes. So her reaction would
be the deciding factor. Besides, I could still keep mine warm thanks to my fire powers.
To my surprise, her plate was empty, the food long gone. “Thank you for the food,” she
said and wiped her mouth with a napkin she provided herself. Guess I did something
right if her plate was all squared away, I thought. Green light to eat given, I took a bite,
and instantly I was surprised. Everything I did was perfect, I thought excitedly, and
allowed myself to devour the whole thing. All I could really say was: “Turns out I’m more
of a chef than I give myself credit for!”
An hour later, GC started to drift off to sleep reading the map, so I figured I should
grab some rest as well. After all, we did have a long way to go if we were to reach our
destination. Right as I dozed off, I was face-to-face with probably the weirdest dream
ever: my homeworld being actually accepting of the races I had encountered thus far.
Even stranger was that I still had my powers. But what was a dream of paradise
immediately turned to literal nightmaric vision of hell, as in what seemed to be an
instant, everyone was being killed left and right, not just by themselves, nor just by
those shadowy creatures, but at the hands of seven of what I can loosely describe as
color-coordinated monsters of destruction, controlled by what looked to be demons, also
under a titanic dark figure carrying a sword of pure shadow. Whether this was a
premonition of what’s to come, or by interference of some kind of dream-shifting serial
killer, I hated every moment of what I was seeing. As if that wasn’t any kind of terror
already, I could hardly fight back against that caped figure. Typical dream fare; even
when you want to fight back, all you can do is struggle to raise your arm and fight to
keep your eyes open. Right as that dark sword was about to pierce through my torso…
...I woke up in a sweat, and fear grasped around me like a collection of shackles. I
didn’t wake the others up, thankfully, but I still needed to take a bit of a walk just to try
and get a hold of myself. As expected, I couldn’t get the fear off of me. Not to mention, I
could hear that creepy voice stoking my fears like I was a flame consisted of doubt and
anxiety. To make matters worse, I kept seeing that evil red grin in the shadows, forcing
me to pull out Charred Chains, and start trying to fight back. But every time I tried to hit
it, it kept vaporizing right as the fiery blade was about to hit it. Finally, I stopped trying to
fight back, and fell to my knees in tears of complete fear. Thankfully, the illusions
vanished when I screamed to the sky for that monster to leave me alone in what I can
almost call a roar. And there I was, crying out of terror, and nobody around to hear me.
Well, almost nobody, as I froze up when I heard footsteps coming my way. “Having
trouble sleeping, puppy?” Rea spoke as she appeared. I could also hear GC right
behind her, helping me up with no questions. “How’d you guys find me?,” I asked, still
sniffling slightly. To which GC replied: “Did you really think you didn’t wake us up? If it
weren’t for that roar you belted out, we probably wouldn’t have found you!” Seeing that I

40
was already broken psychologically as it was, he calmed his voice some, saying, “look,
you may be a beast of mysterious powers, but that doesn’t mean you’re not still a
person. I don’t care how weak you think you might be, but you gotta talk to us about
things like this. Not just super-nightmares or anything like that, but whatever’s on your
mind. I think I made it clear early on that I’ve got your back, man.”
Even if it sounded cliche, I was still happy to see that they cared. “Look, normally I’m
a heavy sleeper,” he started, “but thank Rea for actually pulling me up to come look for
you. Even if her methods were...borderline insane.” “What do you mean by insane?”
Rea questioned. “I simply woke you up to ask if you wanted to check on your friend
here.” Nervously, he said, “L-look, all that matters is he’s here, and he’s safe.” I couldn’t
help but laugh, with how they were and all. “Thanks, guys,” I said, “you’re both
awesome, y’know that?” I could tell Rea was in a brighter mood now, as GC said
nothing, but gave me a grin, and set me down on my own feet, as I was feeling a lot
better now anyhow. Once we got back to the camp, I asked them how they knew
something was up with me. Rea simply said: “You were tossing and turning so loudly it
woke me up.” With a grin she added: “And don’t think you can hide from a demon, even
in a forest at night.” “True, I guess I am kinda loud in that regard,” I replied. “Even still, I
guess you were even more right than I thought, but I think there’s something--or
someone--more powerful than that monster you were telling us about. I think there’s
more at play here that we’re not getting.”
Rea gave me a look. “What exactly do you mean?” “In my nightmare, I saw a big
cloaked figure with a huge sword made of shadows, and the weird thing? I could see
monsters acting kinda like commanders under him, as well as these weird creatures
with different colors on them…” GC and Rea looked at each other, confused. “I thought
it was just one monster you had to worry about,” GC said confused, “now you’re saying
there’s more?” “Did you see anything else in the dream?” Rea questioned. “Any details
you can remember?” “Kinda? I mean, they were all together. Maybe if all the monsters
are together, they’ll be unstoppable?,” I said, just grasping onto whatever I could. I told
them I recognized it’s a cliche thing to assume, but with the limited knowledge I was
given, that’s all I can think of.
Still, we packed up camp and continued on. Turns out the forest I ran into was a
good shortcut, even if it gave us a bit of a scare with your typical unstable cliff scene.
Nevertheless, the kingdom before us was a sight, even if it was a little in shambles. I
asked, “So, is this the place, Rea?” She looked at the kingdom below us. “It is.” She
exhaled, as if she was happy to see it. Of course, that dark presence was there, and if I
know my fantasy stories, its owner was somewhere in the castle. We agreed to look for
an inn, and sure enough, we found one. “What should we expect?,” I began to ask Rea,
“Soldiers of the damned? Mind-controlled castle guards? Army of darkness?” Rea
laughed. “This is no such place, my friends. It's usually more vivid around here, but with
recent circumstances, most of the citizens have moved away... “ She looked regretful as
she spoke, as if she was someplace else, witnessing the vanquishing of the citizens

41
herself. “Damn, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that, but…,” I started, with a bit of
courage and hope in my eyes, “I promise I’ll lend you whatever power I can to take back
this kingdom. I just hope the royal family’s gonna be okay with us attacking the castle
outta nowhere just to save it.” “Oh, they know we`re here.” Rea said like it was nothing.
Even still, I pumped out my fist towards her and smiled, saying, “Well, all things
considered, the least we can do is break in with as little damage to the overall castle
itself, right?” Rea smiled, but it was more a smile of sympathy. “Don’t be silly, we’ll walk
through the gates, of course.” GC smirked and connected his fist to the right corner of
mine, saying, “You’re gonna need someone to help with long-ranged attackers, though.
Can’t have our battle party being picked off in the middle of the attack, right?” Rea
sighed but put her fist to ours. “Why are demia so violent?” she exhaled. GC joked,
“Must be the human side coming to play.” Even if it was, I couldn’t help but be pumped
up for my first ever castle siege. Despite the excitement, though, it was gonna be a long
while to plan our attack.

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 Awakening of Fury
The plan at its core was simple: Get in, stamp out the monster inside the castle, and
save the kingdom. Unfortunately, problems in the plan showed up faster than it takes for
anyone to fall out of public favor. First off, we didn’t quite know how many enemies were
in there, besides the ones that GC found on his recon runs. Another thing was that we
didn’t know exactly how many hostages could be hidden within the castle walls. If there
was gonna be even a chance of a successful mission, we’d need a man on the inside,
providing current information. Despite the obvious, I was still excited for my first ever
castle siege! At the moment, it was hard to believe that I was doing what my ancestors
were doing long before my time. Guess sometimes being in a state of fantasization from
time to time paid off big that day!
Even still, Rea would be our only way in and around the castle, but if her combat
history is as good as it has been the whole time she’s been with us, we’d have no
troubles moving inside at all! That said though, there was one thing I didn’t account for
when actually positioning ourselves at the front gate of the castle walls: a small shadow
tackling me out of nowhere, and revealed to be some kinda impish gremlin creature.
Before I could ask who or what the thing was, it seemed to recognize Rea without fail,
and immediately greeted her like it was an old friend to her. “Agh...mind explaining what
that thing is, Rea?,” I asked, pulling myself up from being knocked off my feet. Rea
smiled and hugged the gremlin, saying, “It’s good to see you, too, Jester.” Jester, as the
gremlin-looking thing was named, grinned wider and waved his tooney arms around as
if he was talking. “Waitasec,” GC began to ask, “how do you know this little thing? I
mean, I’ve heard of some people obtaining familiars in the past, but never actually
witnessed being enacted firsthand.” The looney-tune character with white gloves bowed
and reached out a hand to each of us. “Jester is part of my family,” Rea said. “He's my
father’s familiar.” “Oh sweet,” was all I could really say as I shook Jester’s hand with a
smile, and GC followed suit, and asked, “Your father must be a powerful mage, then,
Rea?” “How did you know my father is a mage?” She questioned, seemingly suspicious.
In reply, GC simply shrugged and said, “Erm...lucky guess?” Rea didn’t seem content
by the answer, but Jester was doing a happy dance of some sorts, which almost
instantly reminded me of an old cartoon I watched as a kid, and couldn’t help but join in

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the dance. Which got me to thinking: if Jester is similar to a toon, maybe he has the
same abilities as one! Luck had definitely sided with my plan that day.
We filled him in the best we could, and continued our walk to the gates. My instant
thought was to use Charred Chains to pull the gate open that way, but that would take a
strength comparable to Hercules to, pun not intended, pull it off. And even if I wanted to
squeeze in the gate, I’d need to have a body of putty to slip through the gaps. So
needless to say, I was at a loss as to what to do. At least, until I asked Rea, “Any ideas?
‘Cuz if my twig arms are any indication, I ain’t pulling that down for us to slide in.” GC
immediately piped up saying that if he found a secret entrance around the perimeter, he
would’ve told us. Rea shook her head and raised her hand, her palm shining slightly.
“Open,” she simply said. We could hear the sound of a lock open as the gates came
falling down. “Now it’s open,” she smiled. Jester, who was sitting on her shoulder,
clapped his hands excitedly. Even now, I’m disappointed in myself for not asking the
mage to help out. The gates reached the ground and we saw a tall, buff-looking figure
walking towards us. By the attire, I’d assumed they were a butler. As he approached
closer, he bowed gracefully. “Your Highness, welcome back. I hope your trip was a
success.” That threw me for a loop, honestly, as our resident mage was just revealed to
be royalty! “Wait, Your Highness?!,” I interjected, bewildered and very set back, as
immediately I went right into a kneeling position, just noticing that GC wasn’t doing the
same, but more or less looking like he knew something. “I figured you knew the palace
somehow, but I thought you were a court mage-in-training or something. Though your
manners did give a hint of royal background,” GC said, right before I yanked him down
to kneel out of respect. Of course, I apologized immensely for not noticing sooner, but
Rea didn’t look offended, at least when I looked up. “No need to kneel, boys, we have
more important matters to discuss.” She turned to the butler. “James, these are my new
allies, GC and Steve Torchfang.” James bowed again and gestured to the open gates.
“Sir GC, Sir Torchfang, I am pleased to welcome you to our humble kingdom. Please,
come along with me.”
After getting right back up, GC and I said our hellos and followed behind James,
Rea, and Jester. James led us to the meeting hall, as he called it, and left to fetch some
refreshments. “Tea or lemonade? Perhaps a hot towel?” he asked. GC asked for the
tea, while I hesitantly asked for green tea, and James left to grab us what we asked for.
But upon scrambling for something to give him in terms of a tip, he looked to
respectfully decline and continue onwards. The meeting hall looked like any other
meeting room, but with more demon-escue statues and wall-maps. Aside from that, the
office chairs and table looked nice. “So,” GC started, “succubus royalty, eh? What’s that
like?” Rea smiled and said: “Like any other job, GC; I do what I must for my people.” I
smiled when I heard that, but couldn’t help and let my eyes wander as I was taking in
the palace’s marvellous interior architecture and decor. Both of which reminded me of a
fantasy-style castle with subtle nods to elements of European design. “Glad I decided
not to come in with guns blazing,” I told Rea, “this place looks awesome!” Rea smiled in

44
return and sat at the head of the table. Something told me she was suspicious of GC’s
“lucky guess” of her father… I mean, I would too, if someone knew what my dad’s
occupation was on a guess.
Even if the hospitality shown right away was good, the fact we hadn’t been noticed
by any of the monsters at all didn’t sit right with me. I mean, I was sure Rea’s family was
strong, but nobody can hold off an entire army for that long, I thought. Whatever the
case, I was still on my guard, ready for anything or everything to be thrown at me. GC,
noticing my over-preparedness, spoke up saying, “You’re really this uneasy, man? For
once, we’re wrong about needing to fight monsters here, and we’re being treated like
knights! Try and relax.” “I want to,” I told him, “but does anything like dark monsters
vanishing without a trace and a suspicious lack of people in this castle seem off to you?
This is a grade-B trap if I’ve ever seen one.” Rea chimed in, “The staff is busy with
preparations, puppy. If you'd like to meet some of the guards, that can be arranged.~”
That did intimidate me, but I still felt uneasy, thinking, the monster that Rea told us
about should be here, right? That aside, I decided I’d look out the window to try and
take my mind off it. Nothing was out of the ordinary, as ordinary as a demon kingdom
could be, no shadowy figures or anything like that, just a partly-cloudy sky and a green
shadow cloud. Immediately stopping in my tracks when I passed over that verdant
spectre, I turned my attention to it and saw it creeping around the castle grounds. Of
course, I thought, something like that wouldn’t be confined to one area. What got me
into gear was the fact that it seemed to be coming straight for me. Out of instinct,
Charred Chains was summoned, alerting GC and Rea that something was up. Like a
ghost, it came right through the wall, but passed right through us like it was on a mission
of some kind. Everything in the room seemed untouched, but one look at myself proved
that it was no ordinary ghost.
I led the charge by bursting out of the room, and used that dark presence’s senses to
follow right behind the emerald poltergeist, making sure to avoid everyone in my path.
Since the ghost itself was fast, I figured I could use my Bolt Rush to keep my pacing
with it, and was not disappointed when I did so. When I finally caught up to it, we were
both in what looked to be the audience chamber of the castle. Behind me was Rea,
trailed by a very tired GC, his arm already in gun mode. Rea was holding an item that
looked like a fan, but dark energy was circling around it. GC was the first to notice
something up with my body, as he said it was not only darkening, but gradually glowing
red. But something all three of us picked up on was that the green ghost-like figure
gained a physical form, sitting on the larger throne like some kinda gang member, and
like a typical villain, said the oh-so-familiar line of: “I’ve been expecting you.” Upon
closer inspection, the ghost looked like a bootleg knock off of me, with beastly features
taking more of a visual hold rather than human traits. ”Torchfang,” Rea spoke up. “What
is the meaning of this?” Confused, I asked her, “Wait, why do you assume I planned
this? You know I’m basically incapable of planning something this far in advance!”
“What I know is that your presence is a concern for my people. These tricks,” she

45
pointed a scythe to the knock-off, “is not in your favour.” She then pointed the scythe at
me. “Who are your allies?” The fake me replied, “I am allied to no mortal man nor
demon, but to the Emperor of Shadow himself. And I believe there is someone I know
locked away within that husk you call a friend, succubus.” “Oh yeah?,” GC called out,
“then why are you a poor imitation of Steve here?” Apparently, his reason was that “all
the information he was given at the time was that he was told of a warrior of beastly
proportions.” My guess was that he hadn’t seen me before and just made a guess.
Whatever the case, he called himself Envy, shapeshifter supreme, and proceeded to
lock the doors behind us with a dark magic barrier and summoned different monsters
that shared his power set. We each took care of them with no problem, but the thing
that caught us all off guard was that he became larger and more beast-like, and
slammed a sword as wide and thick as a short, long brick wall down like a guillotine.
And the worst part of it, he was only targeting me. Sure, I could dodge the sword fine,
but I was starting to run out of options on how I could avoid it. Eventually, he did hit me,
and hit me hard, sending me flying into some of the stone pillars in the room, making
impacts not only on the ceiling, but on the floor as well. The slash wound healed up by a
little, but my bones were taking quite a while to repair themselves. The one thing that
wouldn’t let up was the unyielding rage I was keeping locked down, almost wanting to
be broken free. However, I could see that Envy was being desperate to let out whatever
was inside me, and breaking me physically wasn’t working. I guess he realized that, so
he started attacking both Rea and GC to take out the rage, but it worked. Being
weakened by quite a bit, I couldn’t help but watch as my friends were being wailed on at
the same time, and that rage was almost breaking through, as my own anger was
loosening the “gate”. GC was the first hinge that was knocked off, and Rea barely
holding back Envy’s giant hand from crushing her to the ground, was the final fuse for a
roar to explode throughout the entire kingdom, and I was covered in a dark flame.
There I was, back in my own mindscape, in the same spot where I saw that red face
for the first time. “Now do you see? If you want to take him out, you’ll need my help,” it
said, this time much less condescending and more direct. “Why should I let you help
me? You’re his ally! Besides, you’ve done enough damage for one lifetime,” I said, still
stalwart as ever in keeping my composure around this monster. They later explained
that the rage that called itself forward wasn’t theirs, but my repressed rage throughout
my life, and that only they can release it in full. As if that wasn’t conflicting enough, they
told me that they only side with whatever alignment their host is, good, evil, both, or
neither. Something that made me listen was that not releasing them could mean my
own destruction from the inside, as their power was three times greater than Envy’s,
and thus, more destructive. Reluctantly, I was starting to side with them. However, the
final nail in the coffin was that, of course, it’s better that we work alongside each other
rather than being scornful to each other, like how I was to the admitted parasite.
However, like a high schooler gaining the powers of a demon, I decided to accept them
as they are, and allow their power to flow through me like my powers themselves

46
flowing through my very soul. The last thing I was able to hear from them when I asked
them who they were was simply three words: “I am Wrath.”
The black blaze was instantly parted, as I was actually able to adequately control the
berserk body I could hardly see. All I did see was that my arms and legs were blacker
than the night, and acclimated to being a ruthless killing machine. Something I also saw
was that as soon as I attacked Envy from the back was just how strong Wrath’s power
truly was, as with one strike to the back, he was sent back enough to let Rea go, and
turn his attention back to me. Something else I realized was that, as we were fighting,
the more he hit me, the stronger I became. Not to mention, the more my blood was
being exposed, the stronger it came back at him in a deadly counterattack. And the
more I realized this, the more Envy realized it, too. Eventually, thanks to a plethora of
moves I coordinated with Wrath for, Envy was weakened enough to where his spirit
form was revealed. Apparently, the ghost mode he had was his true form, and it was a
lot faster than I previously thought. Though while he held the advantage in speed, I still
towered in strength and tenacity. And sure enough, I was able to prove it. A Spinal Rip
to tear up anything he threw at me, a Spite Burst to get everything off of me at once,
and a Shadow Reaver to finish it all off! Gotta be honest, being in a form of total
destruction and chaos felt pretty good to let out all that pent up rage and aggression I
had locked away all those years. I thought that’d be it and I could just let myself calm
down, and nobody else would have to get hurt. It wasn’t. Turns out, Wrath couldn’t let
me go yet, as they never had this much of an outlet to allow their power throughout a
host before, so we almost scrambled to get control back, but to no avail. My berserk
body was going mad and attacking anything that moved, and not even GC’s tranquilizer
shots could stop the raging behemoth that was set loose in the almost-wrecked
audience chamber. Even Wrath and I were having a tough time on the inside, moreso
me, as every repressed memory of anger and hurt I’ve felt in my life kept flowing into my
head. I know it sounds emo as hell, but you try powering a body built to murder anything
powered by every moment in your life that made you feel some form of anger. It’s hard
to do.
What I didn't notice was James’ arrival with the tea. But it was impossible not to see
him slashing his bare fists to my throat and knock me down. While that was happening,
Rea got herself into some solid armor by jumping through a magic circle and charging
into me like a bull. The thing was, how was I going to turn back to normal? It’s not like I
had full control over my body or anything. In the distance, I could hear James shout
something to Rea, something of not using force but mind… What could they mean by
that, I wondered. In any case, Wrath and I were hardly getting anywhere just struggling.
Out of the blue, my vision turned blurry as if I was half-asleep. “Torchfang,” Rea’s voice
echoed in my mind. Suddenly, I was no longer in a black void with Wrath, but in a
samurai’s home, by the look of it. “You’re safe, puppy.” Rea spoke softly as she
appeared beside me. “Envy is not here anymore, you can put your anger to rest…”
“Where am I?,” I asked her. “This is a happy illusion of yours, Dream Delight. I had no

47
luck attacking you as you were… my best guess was to ease your mind of the danger.”
“Well, I can say it worked like a charm. Still, sorry if I went crazy and wrecked the room.
I don’t know what happened there; one second, I was right in the head, the next, I was
going berserk. Just seeing you being hurt must’ve triggered something in me, I guess.”
I’d only known Rea for at least two weeks, and already this was happening. Why or
how, I wasn’t sure. But one thing was clear, and I made sure to say this to Rea, that
rampage wasn’t an effect of her aphrodisiac. She smiled and, surprisingly, patted me on
the head. “You should get some rest, puppy. We’ll figure out more tomorrow.” And just
like that, she vanished into thin air. At this point, I wasn’t about to question my emotions.
I needed the rest anyway, and wherever I’d wake up, I just hope that my injuries weren’t
too bad.

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 Wounds of Wrath
Drowsily, I woke up in bandages once again, in what I could only assume to be the
infirmary of the castle. Turns out, I wasn’t their only patient, as I could see what I could
only assume to be GC beside me, basically mummified in the bed beside me. “He’s
awake!,” I could hear, seeing a nurse on my left and an older incubus on my right.
Though, it took me a bit to see Rea sitting a hint further away with a few scratches on
her face and hands, otherwise, she looked okay. Relieved, I let out a huge breath, but I
was hardly moving anywhere until I got better. But unlike my experience with Rania, all
my injuries were recent. Sure, my neck felt a lot better, but that didn’t necessarily mean
the rest of my body was doing so hot. “Good to see you awake, beast,” I heard the
incubus say. Not really caring about the description I just heard, I just retorted like
normal, “Well, you’re not exactly a beauty I was expecting to see at my bedside, but I’m
glad to be awake at all.” The incubus scoffed. “You’re not one to talk, demius.” Looking
a bit closer, he had the same nose as Rea, but his expression was much more stern,
and carried a sense of pride with him. In normal circumstances, he’d be good material
to poke fun at, but considering my position, I just chose to hold my tongue for the most
part, just so I didn’t have an early grave.
Pushing my luck, I asked, “Lemme guess, you’re either the strict, overprotective
brother, or the same, but a dad.” He turned to Rea and asked, “How hard did this one
hit his head?” Rea smiled weakly and shook her head. The incubus exhaled, as if he
was tired and said: “I’m Rea’s younger brother, Alexei Amagonaz. As for your
judgemental labels, I am the captain of the guards. You may address me as Captain or
sir.” Before he could say anything else, James came rushing through the doors with a
tray of food. “Lunch is served! Good morning, sir Torchfang, we’re happy you are
awake. Would you like beef stew or porridge?” “Beef stew, please,” I replied, “I’m feelin’
pretty famished.” James served lunch, and as he was leaving, Rea got up from her seat.
“I have some business to take care of. I’ll see you later,” she said, nodding to her
brother. Alexei glanced at her, but didn’t stop her from leaving. What that business was,
I couldn’t say, but I did end up alone with a very stern incubus, as said incubus told the
nurses to leave me to him. “Look, if you’re gonna give me the whole ‘you’re a pathetic
whelp for trying to take my sister’ speech, I did what I could to protect her. Not my fault
that Wrath and I lost control of the combined form we had.” Probably should’ve left that
part out, honestly.
Alex didn't look impressed, nor irritated when he said: “You are pathetic, and
seemingly not good at controlling your emotions. I’m gone for a few hours and return to
the castle partly devastated and discover my sister has returned with some puppy and a
no-tail metal man.” He gestured to GC with his staff. “As for my sister,” he continued.
“She can take care of herself. Yet I wonder why she dragged you along the way when
you can barely hold back from wrecking my home.” Sensing quite a bit of hostility, I
replied, “Trust me, if I knew the full extent of my powers, I wouldn’t use them so willy-
nilly. I only went all-in on Wrath because if I didn’t, your sister wouldn’t be here right

49
now.” Alex chuckled. “Right. And hobgoblins hate sugar.” “Okay, poor choice of words, I
get it. Look, I know I’m hardly in any position to be high and mighty, but there’s things
going on neither you nor I can explain right now,” I told him, backpedaling slightly.
“You’re from a different dimension, that I can tell.” Alex interrupted me. “Terra Prime,
I’ve heard.” “Yeah? What’s so special about it that I’m not getting?” “Well, in your
dimension, nothing special. Here it's simply the same but with magic. Just think of it as
polar opposites.” Right before I could get the chance to say anything, GC pulled off his
head bandages looking like the guy he’s supposed to be—must be nanomachines or
something—and interjected: “You say that, but you haven’t studied it like I have. It has a
massive power source that is much stronger than your magic. And that’s even before
mentioning that my lupine friend here is giving off that same unknown energy as we
speak.”
While not helping my case any, he did make me think: why did Wrath help me
instead of that blue thing that controlled me when fighting Draco? Was it a means of
proving to me that they weren’t a terrifying monster, or a reaction to some kinda
reluctance from the blue-light-person? Whatever the reason, I was caught a bit off
guard, allowing Alex to chew me out a bit more. “What I meant, No-tail,” Alex sneered.
“is that there is no magic there no more. It used to be, but I can only guess the Gods
retrieved it.” I could guess Alex didn't like beings that didn't have horns or tails, anything
looking more human than demon. That and he looked like he wanted to rip GC’s metal
arm clean off and beat him with it. But he stayed put in his seat, thankfully. “Whatever
the case of your arrival here,” Alex continued. “It's not good timing. Envy’s been lurking
around the past months, causing conflicts in the town and making our allies uncertain of
us.” “For how long, exactly?” I asked. “Close to a year. Rea left home seven months ago
to gather information, to compare if any other Sins were causing the same problems
anywhere.” He leaned back into the chair and the staff in his hand shrunk down to a
ballpoint pen. “And now she's returned with the two of you; a no-tail metal man and a
demius who carries a Sin. Just what we needed!” He grinned whilst spinning the pen in
his hand at rapid speed. GC and I could tell he was far from happy. He seemed more
like a sleep deprived college student who had had too much coffee… “Look,” I stated.
“I’m not here to cause mayhem, but as crazy as this might seem, this weird voice in my
head insisted I should help Rea out.” Alex simply arched an eyebrow like Rea tended to
do. “I mean it!” I exclaimed. “I’ve been hearing strange voices since I came here, and in
some strange way, they’ve guided me here.” Alex looked at me like I was crazy; guided
by voices in your head? Let me get the straightjacket for this one!
The door creaked open and Jester the hobgoblin made his entrance, carrying a
clipboard and, funny enough, dressed in a doctor's coat. “Time for check up,” Alex
grinned. Jester’s check up was more or less harmless, writing down on the clipboard
and lightly hitting on our knees with a tiny hammer, as well as taking a few strands of
hair of GC and I. When he was more or less done, I asked the hobgoblin how Rea was
doing. Jester flipped through the papers on the clipboard and gave me a thumbs up, his

50
toothy grin somehow looking reassuring. Before he left, he pulled three lollipop`s up
from his pocket and handed us one each, patted Alex on the head and then floated out
of the infirmary. Alex ripped the wrapping off of the lollipop. “Is Jester always that
friendly with strangers?” I asked. “No,” Alex responded. “He probably thinks you’re
friends of Rea, or some new pets.” “Pets? He's the one that looks like a cat with a spring
tail.” I chuckled. “It's the form he likes the best,” Alex responded. “Wait, he can change
his form?” Alex unchapped the pen and started drawing on the wall. One looked just like
Jester, the second more of a deer with fangs and sharp-looking hoofs, the third looked
like a double sized grizzly bear with spikes on the back. The only thing that didn't
change with the illustrations were the blank eyes, the mischievous grin and the tail.
“Hobgoblins are capable of changing their form to various kinds, no one is really sure of
their original form.” Alex explained as he was drawing. “They are friendly to most, but
never push your luck.” He waved his hand to the wall and the illustrations vanished
without a trace. All things considered, I’m glad the lil’ guy’s on my side.
Right then and there, I decided I should make sure my powers were still intact. My
flames were as hot as ever, my lightning still ever-shocking, my vines and other nature-
related powers still strong, but what caught me off guard was being able to actually hold
a ball of shadow in my hand. Guess releasing Wrath was all I needed. Last came my
creation powers, which unfortunately ended with me almost impaling my leg with
Charred Chains’ blade. Odd, and not good in terms of using a whip sword, but at least it
worked. But...something still felt off. Even pumping my fire into the sword was little to no
good. And when I was able to get a bit of power in it, it felt like I was pushing myself too
hard just to even get a glow out. I figured I’d try later, when I actually could push myself,
so I just put it away. Alex actually scolded me for using fire and lightning in the infirmary.
“Do you want to burn the castle down, you lunatic?” he hissed with the lollipop in
between his teeth.“No no, I was just making sure my…” “Making sure what, exactly?”
Alex sneered and as the pen turned back into a staff. As I was now I wouldn't be able to
fight. And I doubt tossing shadow balls at this guy would help. “I was just making sure
my abilities are intact in case Envy comes back.” “They will be back,” Alex responded as
he stepped over to the door and opened it. I thought he was leaving so GC and I could
rest. Once again, I was wrong...
Exploring the castle was quite the experience, even from the inside of a human-sized
hamster ball. Normally a demon castle sounds like a dark and gloomy place, but this
was surprisingly cozy looking with the light orbs floating around. Alex marched down the
hallways with me floating after him, the hamsterball attached by a string to the
gemstone on his staff. I was relieved I didn't have to walk, but something told me this
was not a sightseeing for fun. On the way to wherever Alex was taking me, I did see
some maids and butlers running around, and some pretty scary-looking guards, not
going to lie about that. And once the decoration of the castle looked great; statues,
painted portraits and what I could assume heirlooms behind glass. Heck, there were
even rusty weapons and all sorts of skulls on some walls! “Why are there skulls on the

51
walls, anyway?” I asked as we passed another cranium. “To scare guests away?”Alex
scoffed. “These skulls were opponents of my ancestors. And when I say opponents, I’m
being generous.” “I guess your ancestors were to die for?” I chuckled. Alex gave me a
confused look. “You know, because you’re succubi, and the opponents died?…It was a
joke, dude!” “Do you want a sympathy laugh or a medal?” Alex deadpanned. It was
enough for me to almost pout, saying, “You need to loosen up, man...” All I got in
response was: “I have no time for that, dude.”
Alex turned and proceeded to walk. Shortly after we arrived in what looked like a
gymnasium, but with stained blood on the floor and walls … It seemed like there had
been a military obstacle course set up. All sorts of training equipment hung on the walls;
weights, skipping ropes, some spiked boxing gloves, knee pads, punching bags and so
on. High up by the ceiling there were rings similar to gymnastic rings, but these were at
the size of hula hoops! “Any reason for us being here?” I asked. “For a showcase, of
course.” Alex smiled as the hamster ball popped like a soap bubble. I wobbled a bit on
the floor and had to lean on a weight stand. “I’m not some circus animal, you know…
And unless these bandages are invisible to you, I’m not feeling too good yet-” “Excuses
won't stop Envy.” Alex did a spin of the staff in his hand, turning it back into a pen and
put it in his pocket. “Come at me with what you can manage, demius.” Even without the
staff Alex looked menacing. He couldn’t be much taller than Rea or myself, and the fact
he looked like he could break a twig like me in half just for fun didn't help… I played it
safe by making several shadow balls, tossing them all at him. And like a freakin’
waterbender Alex countered the shadows, sending them right back into my stomach,
knocking the air out of me. I fell over, gasping for air. “Asshole…,” I managed to wheeze
at him. I decided to go a little more on the defensive this time, looking to confuse him
some, and allow myself to get some stamina back. Using some of the grass, I managed
to shoot some of it at him, hopefully to stun him. Of course, that didn’t work much either,
as he just used magic to shield himself. Then, an idea struck: channeling shadow
energy into my arms like my Shadowbreakers. Sure enough, I was able to copy monster
arms and claws, and tried striking him with those. While not entirely successful, no
thanks to my injuries making my timing slightly off, I was able to stagger him somewhat.
“Not bad, demius.” Alex grinned. “What would you do next if I was Envy?” “Like I’d relay
my plans to my opponent,” I replied, Alex pushing me off him, not before I was able to
breathe a little fire in his face to discombobulate him some. With that done, I was able to
use my vine arms to grab and throw him across the training grounds. It almost looked
like I was gaining the upper hand!
Turns out, he’s definitely like his sister, as that was only a decoy, which I barely was
able to dodge his attack from behind, once again thanks to some of my wounds opening
up again. Luck was thankfully on my side though, as I was able to grab a wooden
training sword and started going from there. But Alex didn't let his guard down, either,
using shadows to extend his arms like jagged claws. “Bring it.” He said. Weirdly enough,
the sword did something in my hand that I hardly expected it to for a long time: It

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morphed. Sure, it was still somewhat wooden, but it was as sharp as steel. I couldn’t
help but stop in my tracks, because it looked very similar to a sword I made in my
childhood. Thankfully, Alex was able to snap me back to reality and our little scrap
turned into a full-on duel. I don’t know how much time went by, it could have been
minutes or hours when I coughed up blood out of nowhere. Alex stopped mid-attack
with the staff in his hand and landed by my side. “Let's call it a tie. I’ve seen enough.”
I’m just happy to have a healing factor, or I would be rushed right back to that infirmary
faster than I could say “what?” With that all done, I could actually try walking around on
my own and explore some of the castle. Alex followed, but I forgot he was there a
couple of times. It was around the point when I found the garden, after losing Mr.
Skeptical, that I ran into Rea, just under the gazebo doing...somethin’. She seemed to
be talking into a ring of mist. But it disappeared just as I stepped closer.
In any case, I still felt a little uneasy just going up to her, but if all of this journey has
taught me one thing, it’s that I can’t get cold feet when things are going south. “Hey,” I
said, “you alright, Rea?” Little did I know, anxiety was immediately shooting up in me.
She looked at me, slightly surprised, so it seemed. “Torchfang. What happened to you?
Did Alexei interrogate you?” “If almost beating me to a bloody pulp was his idea of
‘interrogation’, then yes, he did,” was my thankfully-not-anxious response. She
chuckled. “My apologies on behalf of my brother,” she patted on the bench, inviting me
to sit by her, which I gladly took her up on that offer, making sure not to be too weird in
sitting close to her. “I'm sure he just wanted to see what abilities you have in storage.
We rarely find a demius this close to the kingdom.” Considering most of my moves are
improvised, and said move pool is growing even now, that was actually nice to hear. “To
be fair though, I don’t really know how much power I actually carry. I mean, even you
saw that with Wrath,” I told her, pulling out my most recent addition to my arsenal, “Not
even mentioning the fact that this just seems like one wild goose chase now.” In a
defeated tone, I concluded with something I never thought I’d say in a million years: “I
don’t even know which way home is anymore.” And there it was again; her sympathetic
smile. “Terra Prime is far from here, indeed… At least, the Terra Prime you know.” She
looked at the castle. “Losing your home can influence one’s judgement, mistake right
from wrong, losing someone you’ve known for years…” She turned her eyes back to
mine. “If you could go back, right now, would you?” That’s a question I hardly thought
about since coming here. I mean, anyone else would, but to return to a boring, yet still
scary world, while being given the chance to stay and fight unrestricted? I couldn’t find
words for it, except: “I don’t know. I mean, sure, I’d go back for a visit or two, but…” I
stopped and asked her, “Can I tell you something?” She smiled softly. “Go ahead,
puppy.”
With the go-ahead, I told her, “Back home, I was one of those ‘weird’ types. I know,
that kinda thing ‘hasn’t been done before, ever,’ but, it’s still true. I may have been
human, but that didn’t stop people from easily calling out my flaws, mishaps, everything.
Along with that, I always hid myself behind a mask of oddity, just so others didn’t see

53
me being sad all the time. But here, I’ve never felt more alive, and I didn’t feel like I
needed a mask. Not to mention, I even met you and so many others that I could only
dream of meeting before. Is this world--or, I guess, worlds--terrifying? Absolutely, but
somehow, in a good way.” She laughed. “You're hitched to the thrill. I can understand
why; fighting an unknown enemy is quite exciting.” She smiled. “Seems to me, you like
this world better. Am I wrong?” Smiling to myself, I could only reply in a chuckle: “As
usual, you aren’t.” I then told her that when Envy was beginning to crush her, I couldn’t
stop myself from going bestial, seeing someone I cared for being hurt like that. Sure,
GC being hurt might have started it, but getting to her was the final nail in the coffin for
me.
“I appreciate your concern, Torchfang. But I am doubtful Wrath feels the same…” She
said in concern. Hoping to ease the tension, I told her that, “They actually mentioned
they couldn’t stand seeing me suffer like that. Weird for someone like that, I know,
but...it felt in that moment that they genuinely cared for not just my well-being, but for
the two of you as well. I’m not sure what this whole ‘Sin’ business is about, but I’m not
sure that they are all bad. Guess they knew that deep in my heart, I didn’t want those I
loved to be killed in front of me.” Should’ve said anything else about that, as I was
immediately embarrassed to say that.
“You honestly think Wrath cares for any living being?” Rea spoke harshly, “That any
of the Sins can hold back from doing what they are born to do?” She stood up, looking
down at me, awaiting my answer. “The Sins have been around since the very
beginning, why would they stop now?” I didn’t quite know what to think about that. But
something that instantly came to my mind was one theory: “If I were to guess, Wrath in
particular is swayed by the host that carries them. Like I said, they couldn’t bear to see
me broken down like that. And they worked alongside me to take down Envy, at least
until we both lost control.” “And wrecked half the castle,” Rea deadpanned, crossing her
arms. “Lucky for the both of you, James and the guards won’t demand a paycheck for
your damage.” Right then and there, I asked her, “Are they still working on repairs to the
audience chamber?” “They finished it last night. James did work with construction
before he worked for the castle, after all.” While that plan was squashed, I told her I was
still determined to make up for the damages, even if I was gonna have to rebuild the
town itself. Rea exhaled and sat down, albeit a bit further away from me now. “What a
stubborn puppy you are, wrecking my castle and then begging to build it back up.” She
looked exhausted, but smiled slyly at me. “What are you plotting, demius? Tear down
my family history from the inside?” With that, I rushed embarrassed saying, “N-no way!
Why would I ever try that?” Calming down, I got up, walked away from the gazebo and
stopped in the grass, leaving Rea to be confused as ever. Even still, knowing what I
was going to do, it was gonna require a lot of energy. Taking a deep breath, I pulled out
my wood arms, pumped them into the ground, and gave them a supercharge with my
lightning.

54
 It didn’t take long for that to tire me out completely, leaving me weak on the dirt. Rea
stepped up beside me. “What did the ground ever do to you?” She smirked. Panting, I
told her to look out to the town. What awaited her was no aftermath of a monstrous
invasion, but a fully-functional city. Granted, it was still a medieval city, but it still looked
functional. I just had some creative liberties along the way. “Torchfang…” Rea inhaled a
gasp, looking at the city. “I… Ahem. Thank you. You didn't have to… the citizens won’t
be back unless we… unless Envy is gone.” Breathing somewhat normally, but still
weak, I said, “Come to think of it, I didn’t sense him around my self-guided tour of the
castle. Granted, I don’t know if they can regenerate or not, but I think we should be fine
for now.” Trying to push myself up, only to fall on my back, I told her, “Side note, I may
need...a lot...of rest.” Rea gave me a hand, or as much as using levitation could be
considered a hand. “Rest, food. And, don’t take this the wrong, a bath. You reek of
blood.” Despite being exhausted beyond belief, I still had quips to spare, “Thank your
Spartacus of a brother for that.” She laughed, and it seemed genuine as she got tears in
her eyes. “We should…” She hesitated, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief. “GC is
probably lonely. You should go get some rest, too.” Curiosity was making me question
what she meant, but stayed silent as part of still being tired. Finally, I spoke up, saying,
“Yeah, you’re probably right. His limited knowledge of magic could lead to me having to
fix quite a bit.”
Seeing as I could hardly walk, I asked Rea if she could help me back to the infirmary,
which she agreed to. On the way, we talked a little more, but nothing worth noting.
When we reached the infirmary, and got me to sit down on the bed I was assigned, I of
course thanked her, followed by a little more friendly conversation. When it was
eventually time for her to go, I couldn’t help what happened next. I hugged her as tight
as I could without being creepy or crushing her, and said something that would keep me
awake for hours that night from anxiety: “You’re awesome, y’know that?” Rea embraced
and hugged me back just as tightly, whispering: “Dream Delight.~” Upon asking what
she meant by that, I was met with one simple answer: “Sweet dreams, puppy.” When
she did leave, something kept pulling at me to catch up to her. I ignored that thought for
the moment, as I still needed time to rest from that huge stunt I pulled. But when it
actually came time for me to sleep, it was the best rest I had ever gotten in a long time.

Ruins of Reunions
By the time morning came, I felt more energized than usual, even without use from
my lightning! Not to mention, my wounds closed up much faster than usual. Must be
some effects of that spell Rea cast on me yesterday, I thought. GC seemed a little
worse for wear, but at least he was recovering enough to start repairing his limbs. Still, I

55
decided to use this energy to take a bit of a jog around the castle, maybe to loosen
myself up some. After my jog, I headed back to the infirmary where GC was still asleep.
What surprised me was the hobgoblin outside our room, holding a water bottle and
some kind of fruit. He handed me the items and I thanked Jester, grinning back at him.
That seemed to make him happy, as he handed me a map before floating away. The
map was a short-cut to the dining hall, with a note written in the top left corner;
Breakfast at eight-thirty, it said. Guess I made a good impression on him.
After a quick shower GC and I headed down to the dining hall. The scent of freshly
baked bread and jam had us walk a bit faster, although I had to pull GC away from
some maids before he’d launch himself after them. “Dude, can you behave for once?
We’re guests here, try to keep a low profile.” “I can’t help it!” GC whined as I pushed him
down the hallway. We rounded the corner to the double-doors. We opened the doors
when a familiar voice called out to us. “Good morning, GC. Good morning, Steve.” Rea
greeted us as she walked down the hallway headed our way. “Morning, Rea!” I smiled
back at her as I pushed GC through the doors. For some reason, she wasn’t wearing
her cape, just the usual boots, pants and sweater. “Slept well?” She questioned,
seemingly in a good mood. “Yes, very well. Uh, thank you.” Rea nodded and glanced
around the hallway. “Say, Steve, would you care to join me for a walk after breakfast?”
“A walk?” I repeated, oh so cleverly. “Yes, I thought we could have a closer look around
the city.” “Yeah, of course!” I beamed, my tail wagging like mad. “Looks like the puppy’s
happy for walkies,” GC commented, followed by a swift chop to the back of his neck by
me. Before that walk though, I smelled something spicy in the dining hall and I just
couldn’t help myself.
When we eventually got to the city itself, Rea was able to show basically everything
possible, while I kept being impressed by my own subtle cosmetic changes to the city
itself. “I must admit, you did a wonderful job.” Rea smiled. “No problem,” I replied, “I’m
just surprised I managed to keep the positions of everything intact even though I hardly
have seen this place before!” Everything from the city streets to the buildings looked
beautiful, incorporating not only what the Cubi built here, but nature as well. Truly, it was
a harmonious experience. The only question I had for Rea was, “What was it like before
all this?” “Peaceful. Beautiful… Everything was perfect. My people had nothing to fear,
our allies cooperated with no doubt... “ She truly looked helpless at the moment. “The
sooner we find a way to defeat whoever sent Envy, my people can return and I… Let’s
walk a bit more, shall we?” “Sure.” I could tell something bothered her, but didn’t want to
ask what it was right away. The only thing I was worried about was leaving GC behind
at the castle. With his technical prowess, I was sure he was working on ways to make it
a lot less medieval.
Just then, I could hear and smell something following us. When Rea gave me a look,
she knew it too. My idea was to catch the guy following us off-guard at a point closer to
the castle, and as soon as I whispered that idea to Rea, she gave me a slight nod to, I
guess, agree to the plan. She guided me, and subsequently, our new friend, to a spot

56
not directly close to the castle’s entrance, but close to it nonetheless: a sort of park area
where the castle’s waterfall dropped off at. Right as we knew we were clear, I gave a
signal, allowing Rea to locate and stop that suspicious presence in their tracks, allowing
me to use my vine arms to hold them. Turns out, it looked like one of those shadowy
creatures from past encounters. They were intelligent enough to where they weren’t
thrashing around in restraints. But they also resembled GC the first time we were alone
with Rea, so to say: pathetic. “So, lil’...er...monster, what’s this all about?,” I asked them,
“If you wanted our autographs, you could’ve said so!” “Whatever that is, it’s nothing
compared to how joyous my glorious leader will be when you’re dead,” they responded.
I’ve heard of hate cults, but this is just ridiculous. Anyway, Rea seemed to have a few
questions of her own, but I convinced her that we should probably get this guy properly
interrogated in some kinda dungeon-like area. Time to play good cop, bad cop.
After briefly explaining to Rea what good cop, bad cop was, the interrogation was a
go. We pulled Alex in just so we can attempt to get some straight answers. It was
somewhat difficult at first as Alex just threatened the monster to tears. But one way or
another, we got something out of him. Turns out, he was looking for a way to rise up the
ranks of the Dark Emperor’s army, and decided taking me out was a good way to do it.
Also, he let slip that his kind is called Keidrar, so that’s progress, I guess. Oh joy, now
there’s a dark emperor behind this, I thought. One of the oldest villain tropes in
existence, and he just so happens to target me. In any case, something he said felt
familiar to me: sword of creation. Granted, the name “Keidrar'' sounded somewhat
familiar, and he said bearer of the sword of creation, but it still unsettled me to the point
where I basically rushed him demanding more information on it. Sadly, this guy was
most definitely the “wimpy minion” type, and he fainted just from seeing me snap at him.
While very unhelpful on my part and his, I found something on him that I could
recognize only the shape of: a watch. Why he had one that looked so weird in the first
place was beyond me, but I decided to try patting him down to see if I could find
anything else useful on him, but to little avail. “Hey, Alex,” I began, showing both him
and Rea the watch, “any clue about what this is?” “It looks like a portal watch,” Alex
pointed to the golden ring on the watch. “Could use some repairs, too, it seems.” Rea
looked concerned. “They might have stolen it, these are rare.” The fact this kinda thing
was “rare”, one thing ran through my mind: Who would I know to recognize tech like
this?
“This is amazing!,” GC exclaimed, “How a Rift Watch ended up here is probably
none of my business, but the fact one’s here at all is something awesome!” “So, you can
fix this?,” I asked him, immediately met with ecstatic excitement, “Fix it? I practically
made these! If I make two more of these, we can track the residual coordinates on them
and see where it leads us!” He then asked me to give him my watch, with the reasoning
that he can upgrade it to basically be a supercomputer like his, probably allowing me to
access the “Rift Watch”, as he put it. As soon as I did so, he took the other watch and
shut himself in a workshop, and said he wouldn’t come out until all three were finished.

57
That gave me time to try and perfect a technique I wanted to attempt ever since I found
out I could channel my shadow powers through my hands. Very little progress was
being made, however, as I basically just kept trying to scratch a training dummy with
blackened arms. It’s no small thing when I say my arms were aching during that.
“Having trouble?” Rea asked from the side. “You could say that,” I replied in a bit of
grimacing pain, healing factor aside. I told her that Charred Chains wasn’t working right
ever since Envy, and the sword that I did take over was pretty blunt, so if push came to
shove, I was gonna need some kinda alternative attacks for the road ahead. Rea said I
should use the time to heal and don’t push myself too far. “And if the monsters on the
other side of the portal do cause any trouble, leave them to me.~” She smiled innocently
as her right hand transformed into a monster-like claw. I was honestly impressed by it,
and made sure to compliment her for it. “It runs in the family,” she responded, flattered
so it seemed. That arm gave me an idea, though, as I channeled dark energy in my left
arm, and it morphed into a black, clawed arm, allowing me to slash through the dummy
with ease. ”Not bad,” Rea chimed in, her own claw morphing back to a normal hand. I
thanked her, both for the compliment and the idea.
With that figured out, we decided just to sit and talk for a while, since we were still
waiting on GC to finish up on those watches. The atmosphere was exactly the same as
back in the campsite, thankfully, so I was able to relax a bit. “So, about this next
mission, Rea,” I began, “what do you think’s gonna be on the other side of that rift? A
horde of Keidrar soldiers? A titan issuing a test? Honestly, I’m kinda excited, whatever
happens.” Rea giggled. “You’ve really a thing for danger, don’t you, Steve?” “Kinda,” I
responded, “but along with the reasons I gave previously, sometimes I just can’t help
but wonder.” I paused for a moment, and turned to her, saying, “Waitasec, you used my
first name this time! I mean, I’m not complaining, but there’s gotta be a reason for it,
right?” ”There is a reason, yes.” She smiled. Curiosity got the better of me, driving me to
ask: “May I possibly know what that reason is?” Sloppy methods and wording aside, she
replied, “I like you.~” I couldn’t help but blush from that, but mostly out of
embarrassment. Once again curious, I asked her, “Like, as in as a really good friend, or
like as in...” I hardly needed to finish, as Rea finished for me: “A good acquaintance.”
she replied. “I've decided to trust you.” I let out a breath, almost relieved from the
pressure, but I still told her that I trusted her too, just a lot further back. She seemed
pleased with my answer.
Regardless, I leaned back, looking up at the afternoon sky, content with the breeze
given. Right as soon as I was starting to get anxious about the silence, footsteps
disturbed the silence. It was none other than Alex, walking across the yard with a bag in
one hand, and something similar to a smoothie in the other. Once again curious, I asked
him what he had there with him, his response being “A smoothie. James made some for
lunch.” While odd, I didn’t question it at the moment. “The bag, Alexei.” Rea chuckled.
Alex grinned. “We got the information we needed. Did you want the soul?” Rea visibly
gagged. “I don't eat rubbish.” I somehow managed to stop him and asked if I could carry

58
it. Alex arched an eyebrow. “Sure, I don’t know what I’d use it for right now, but I’m sure
it’ll come in handy at some point,” I mentioned to him, my spur-of-the-moment planning
kicking in. Alex shrugged and handed me the bag nonetheless.
By the evening, GC finally finished up the watches, handing two of them to Rea and
me. Mine basically looked the same, but the first major difference was that it looked
more futuristic and had a base display of a screened watch. Another major difference
was that it had a freakin’ holographic interface! Whatever the case, we were soon off,
tracking the signal of that rift residue. When we eventually did find it, it thankfully took
only one person to open it up, so we let GC do the honors. But when we entered it, all
we saw was a ruined city. Everywhere we looked, it all was just wreckage from different
buildings. Whether it was by Keidrar, apocalypse, or something else, something
happened, and it was bad. Our “door” closed behind us, which allowed us to wander
around and see if anything was still alive. It took us a few minutes for us to find out that
this wasn’t entirely desolate, as almost out of nowhere, we were assaulted by
strategically-placed and very hurting turrets. We assumed a defensive position, with
both me and Rea forming a sort of wall around us to keep us from being blasted. There
was just one problem with that, though: Whoever loaded these things, they hit hard. It
took a blast from all three of us to knock them all out. “I don’t wanna sound too cliche,
but I’ve got a bad feeling about this, guys,” I said. My instincts heightened as we could
hear the revving of some kind of chainsaw from above, closing in on us very quickly. At
the same time, we could hear someone firing off guns in our direction. Probably to break
the barrier Rea was managing. It occurred to me right then and there that we weren’t
just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but we weren’t in Zazarot anymore.
All at once, I felt a chainsaw blade, definitely the same one we heard earlier,
narrowly graze my back. Must be someone with proficiency over tech powerful enough
to slip under the barrier. Unfortunately for us, we had to drop it to even get back to
fighting. GC went off to find our opposing sharpshooter, while Rea and I were left to
Leatherface’s more psycho cousin. For the first time, I pulled out the blunt sword and
did my best to combat it, while Rea focused on damage from a distance. As hard as I
tried, I could barely make out our opponent due to the wide chainsaw blade that kept
rising and falling in front of their face. Not to mention, they seemed to swing it almost as
well as my sword. It seemed like utter chaos was breaking out as not only the clashing
of blades was going on, but our gunners were going full shootout mode, and barely
making their mark every time, by the sound of it. Before I could divert any time to
counting shots, I just barely blocked the chainsaw blade, which was about to come
down directly on top of my skull. Thankfully, I found an opening to use my
Shadowbreakers, knocking my assailant down with ease. Turns out this was a bad plan,
as they sent me up with some kinda Terra Fist, then batting me away like I was a
baseball. Clearly this wasn’t their first scrap.
Somehow, I managed to make my way back to Rea, with my ever-so-friendly
opponent still finding ways to batter me left and right. “Any...idea..who this guy is?,” I

59
asked her, still trying to guard against the heavy blade while being already somewhat
out of breath. ”Another lost soul,” Rea responded before sending a dozen shadow
spikes at the guy, pinning him to the wall. “A very restless soul.” It took me a few
seconds to see her hand was like a claw again, and the way she was looking at Big
Daddy Sawman told me she wanted to get him out of the way fast. Just then, a blinding
flash dissipated the spikes and blinded the both of us enough for him to knock us back
quite a few feet. Rea summoned her scythe and went straight for the guy’s head. Right
as I was about to torch the attacker, I got drenched with water from above. It wasn’t
raining, so that bit caught me off guard enough for me to get kicked in the gut, and be
sent straight to the other side of the street. Good thing Rea’s able to fight her own
battles, because even if Maul Bunyan wasn’t ready to fight a warrior queen, I’d be sorry
for the poor sap who went against her! As she was fighting him though, something felt
very familiar about his attire, which looked to be as red as could be, at least in terms of
the torso, and hair that was pretty golden, but was cut in an almost military fashion.
Catching a breath, I was able to actually think. Who would I know that has really short
gold hair, and wears a lot of red? And I would’ve kept trying to debunk his identity, until
we were all knocked off our feet by a large shockwave and then blinded by a bright
flash.
“Uhhhh whoops,” the figure said, “Didn’t mean for it to be that powerful.” He sounds
way too familiar, I thought. “A...Ace? ...that you?,” I managed to squeeze out. “Yeah, my
name’s Ace, who are you to know that?” he replied, more as a warning and less as a
question. Thinking I was getting somewhere, I questioned him further, “C’mon man,
who’s the only idiot you know that comes up with those attack names?” At this he
narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t even say the attack name…” Yup, it was him alright. To
prove it was me to him, I fired up a blast of my own green flame to get at least a little
light to show my face. When the dust cleared, and my face and body healed
adequately, I hoped I’d at least remind him of his bro. “Wait a minute,” he said, “Apart
from the tail… Steve-” As if to interrupt us, GC fell flat on his back, right next to us,
allowing for a figure in blue to jump down and flash his muzzles right in his face. “That’s
not who I think it is, is it?,” I said, recognizing that frame and hoodie, belonging to
another of my best bros, who must’ve come here with Ace. “You’d be correct.” the
hooded figure responded. “Carter? What the hell are you doing out here? Ain’t exactly
our hometown, y’know!,” I exclaimed, practically overjoyed that my best friends were in
this crazy world with me. “I’ll be honest,” he started, “I’m more shocked to see you with
a tail!” While disappointing to see that’s the only thing the two of them noticed was
different about me, I still tackle-hugged those two jokers like it’s been ages since I last
saw them.
When I looked back at my group, I immediately saw faces of “What is happening
right now and why are you so buddy-buddy with our opponents?” I made sure to go
around to both of my trios and introduce each of them, starting with my oldest friends to
my newest, recounting my journey, at least up to arriving at the castle, as I went around.

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Curious, I asked the red and blue duo, “What’s the story with you two, anyway?” “Do
you want the long version or the really long version?” Ace asked in return. Almost
flabbergasted by the response, I simply told him, “Another time, then.” I then asked him
where here was, and his only reply was that this was “The Ruined City of Kulna.”
“Supposedly the greatest engineers lived here once,” Ace continued, “Supposed to be
the industrial pinnacle of this world. Now it’s a ghost town.” Hearing that, it’s no wonder
that the place looked completely abandoned. However, and I made sure to tell Ace
about this, the turrets seemed to work just fine coming in, and not just that, but they
looked brand new. “So,” Ace asked, “What kind of mission brought you all here
anyway?” “Curiosity. Although, we didn’t think that rift would bring us here of all places,”
I replied, “How’d you two get here anyway?” GC interrupted, saying that we really
shouldn’t be trusting these two as they could just be playing to my sensitivities, but
considering Ace and Carter recognized me almost right away, it meant that they’re the
real deal and it earned a thwack from both me and Rea. With that out of the way, we
conversed a bit more, heading to what looked to be a huge tower made from parts of
the city. One look was all it took for me to love its design instantly. Something both
parties could easily recognize.
“What’s this place, exactly?,” I asked. Carter responded this time, calling it the
“Junkscraper”, and that it’s one of the few safe havens left in this godforsaken world.
Upon walking inside, he wasn’t kidding. I could see all walks of life there, from Zectids to
weird elf-looking people. It also served as a home base for a rebellion of sorts. I was
sure I’d meet the leader in time, so I said nothing about it. One other thing that
interested me were the vast amounts of ships docked here: freighters, fighters, and
gunships, all powered by some weird void energy or something. That’s at least what I
saw in the canisters. “Which one belongs to you two?,” I asked Ace. “It’s further in,” he
replied, still walking, “Even though we’re new to this world, we were able to get a pretty
nice ride. Our pockets are, how do you say…? Deep.” Thinking about it, I hardly had an
exchange which required paying, which for the most part concerned me, but I moved on
nonetheless, asking in return, “How much?,” jokingly finishing with, “Or did you steal it?
~” “That’s our secret,” Ace smugly responded, “And if you ever figure it out, we’ll have to
kill you.” He then winked and kept walking. Worth a try, I guess. We stopped at two big
doors, Ace saying that “If they happened to see a glasses-wearing beast in green, that
he should meet the boss.” Cryptic, yes, but I still went with it. I went through those large
doors, telling my group that I’d be back in a bit, but all I could really see in that large
room was a bunch of tactics going on, with the one person I would least expect to see
here. I could tell I was gonna need to hold myself back a lot for this going forward.

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 Verdant Inferno
“Been a while, hasn’t it?,” said the figure before me. And it was none other than Red
Spearman himself. Of course, a lotta questions went through my head at that moment.
Mainly things like, “This is a trap, isn’t it?” or “I’m gonna die, aren’t I?” My anxiety was to
the point where I slipped out, “What’s going on here?” “Nothing harmful to you, I assure
you. Look, the situation is way past dire, and I need your help,” he said. By instinct, I
had my blunt sword at the ready and got into a ready stance, which was met with
absolutely nothing on Red’s end, except for one remark: “If you want to pull out a sword
that dull to defend yourself, you really must be desperate.” I still kept my guard up,
considering the past few months were partly spent by keeping his crimson-headed ass
from killing me. He went on to tell me that he’s had some time to think, and that in order
to take on the enemy at hand, we would have to come to a compromise and fight
together. While it was the cheesiest line of all, he did have a point. Though one thing he
and I most definitely agreed on: I needed to fix up my sword.
Relaying the plan to the others, that was easy. Apoca-Chulainn told me about a
world only described as the corpse of a volcanic titan, of which Ace seemed to know

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about somewhat. So, long story short, we got all the preparations out of the way, and
boarded the ship, minus GC. When I asked him why he didn’t want to come, he said he
was curious about some of the tech in the ships, and that he wanted to see if he could
borrow some ideas, putting them together to design—and possibly build—something for
the five of us. Soon enough, we were there, and it was truly a sight: not only was it
exactly what the description said it would be, but the place in its entirety was completely
surrounded by a sea of lava. When we eventually landed, the others had to wear
protective suits just to walk outside, but weirdly enough, I felt fine. Sure, it felt like a hot
summer day in Florida, but other than that, I could walk out there just fine. There was
just one problem with the path to the appointed forge, though. The problem was the
cave, but it still looked cool. Eventually, we took a bit of a break, just to give our legs a
rest, but at least it was in a cool spot of the cave. During said break, we needed to scout
out the area some, so Rea volunteered me and herself to look around, while still being
guarded by monsters. And despite being able to take some of their attacks head-on, I
had to get creative in actually damaging them. Good thing my brothers-by-bond and I
had come up with improvised combo attacks for the occasion!
As we were walking down the cave path, we couldn’t help but look in awe of the
surroundings. Granted, it was mainly just lava rivers, crystals, and the general look of
the cool part of the cave. “Steve,” she said. “I know why we’re here, but shouldn’t we be
looking for the Keidrar Emperor?” “Well, yeah, but if we can’t fight his forces properly,
what’s the point, right?” I replied. She hesitated. “If we knew his location, I could go
ahead, and wait for you there.” She did make a good point, but I told her even I wasn’t
sure what Scruffy the Spearman was planning, sending us here, but I was sure he
already sent people to look for any way to him. “Still,” I said, “wouldn’t a powerful
monster-wave-killing weapon sound beneficial for the both of us?” Rea smirked. “That is
a good point, puppy.” We both decided to walk back, but another conversation came up:
how I knew Ace and Carter in the first place. As usual, Rea paid attention to every word.
“They both are friends- well, almost brothers from my days on Terra Prime,” I told her, “I
wouldn’t be who I am now without them. Besides, my loneliest days were instantly
forgotten when they asked to hang out. I owe them quite a bit for being there. Not to say
you or GC aren’t family either, I’ve just known them longer.” She blinked confused. “You
think of me as family?” I nodded in agreement, telling her, “Well, yeah. I mean, it’s not
like they can say we fought giant monsters together back in my homeworld, right?” Rea
giggled. “I’d find that hard to believe, as there are no such monsters on Terra Prime,
anymore.” I chuckled and agreed, but admitted it would be cool if there were some at
one point.
When we regrouped, we continued until we saw a very large and intricate forge
around us. Not just that, but a giant made of volcanic stone made it her home. “It’s been
years since anyone’s come here,” she said, “Who are you, exactly?” I briefly introduced
the group, Rea even curtsied for her, and she guessed right away what we were here
for: gear and weapons. Though she almost fell backwards when she saw me summon

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my sword from nowhere. “It’s been centuries since I’ve seen anyone utilize powers of
creation like that. If you can create weapons from thin air, why do you come here? You
could just as easily create a whetstone and sharpen it that way.” “I would if I could, but I
haven’t had the best of luck ever since I had a run-in with a powerful monster,” I replied.
“Very well,” she said. “I'll see what I can do.” Mere seconds after handing the giant my
sword, she inspected it and nodded severely. “It's in good condition, not much work to
be done. I only need a scale.” “What kind of scale?” I asked. “A dragon scale,
Lupuskin.” The giant said nonchalantly. “Next turn to the left,” she added and pointed to
the path leading down the dark abyss with smoke seeping up from it. To the right was a
tunnel with bright, shiny crystals. “You mean,” Ace piped up, “that right path, right?
Shouldn’t it be safer?” “No no,” the giant chuckled. “That will take you to the crystal
mines, and there are no scales in there.” Looking at my comrades made me feel
uneasy. Ace and Carter were giving each other looks with Rea staring into the abyss
like she was solving a math problem. Better her than me anyhow.
I grabbed a chunk of crystals, thinking they’d come in handy for later, before
departing through Danger Field Rodney. Of course, there were the fair share of
monsters and the like, the locals of which were acclimated to the terrain. Thankfully the
substitute sword I was given, while not exactly my color, was very effective. So much so
I named it Crimson Fang just for the hell of it. Although, something strange happened
while we were on the way to, as observed prior via a quick recon scan, the peak on the
hip of the titan. We came up to a huge gap across the thigh, with weirdly-placed crystals
strewn around. In a moment I couldn’t think up if I was given a thousand chances, I
thought throwing the crystals I had, infused with my creation powers, would somehow
make something we could use to get across. Turns out, my weird instinct was correct,
as it made quite a fancy-looking bridge for us to cross. Coming up to our destination, we
could see an entire horde of treasure, as well as a multitude of scales in one place--I’m
almost convinced it was a trash pile of sorts--along the peak. We could only rest for a
moment before the very annoyed resident of the peak showed up. Go ahead, guess
what it was. In any case, Ace and I charged first, as Rea and Carter hung back and hit
him from a distance. As expected, all we could really do was knock him around, which
lasted quite a while. Always thinking on my feet, I noticed there were a few spots where
I could latch some crystals onto the dragon’s body, allowing me to momentarily stun him
long enough for Ace and the others to pummel it. To finish the brawl, Ace and I sent
Rea and Carter skyward, Rea energized Carter’s guns, which fired a supercharged
water-made trident at the opponent, knocking him down for the count.
When he woke up, he agreed to give us his scale pile, as thanks for not only sparing
his life, but staying long enough to actually take responsibility. If I told people I was
friends with a dragon before, they’d think I was crazy. In any case, we got what we
needed, so we headed back to the forge. When we got back, the giant was able to do
more than upgrade my sword, and not just make and upgrade weapons for the others,
but gave us some armor that felt really light. Since I also supplied her with some

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crystals from the other cave passage, she wrapped up my sword and told me that I’d
have to keep it wrapped until the right time. Thankfully, she said I could keep an
upgraded Crimson Fang, so still a win in my book. We said our goodbyes to her, after
grabbing some of the leftover scales as well as some crystals, and we were off. Though
one thing felt off about the final gift to me she gave: a blue-jewelled ring. It was almost
like there was some kind of aura around it, like everything around it just stopped in time.
Then again, it might be because I was staring at it so long trying to investigate it. I just
quickly slipped it around my finger when I heard Ace say, “Inbound to the Junkscraper.”
Though, something was immediately wrong: cannons were firing at something, and
fighter crafts were trading blows with it too. The only main problem was that the beams
weren’t scratching it at all. Somehow, we managed to get back into the hangar before
getting attacked by Keidrar looking very crystallized. They put up quite the decent fight,
but they didn’t look to end. At least, until GC came in and got us outside. He told us that
someone from the inside was taking advantage of us needing to get some upgrades
and decided to launch a surprise attack on the Junkscraper. While not surprising, I still
asked if all the refugees were okay, the answer of which was thankfully yes.
Carter, Ace, and GC decided to run through the base to make sure people were
okay. That left Rea and I to look for our spearman acquaintance and hopefully help him
out, despite my grievances against him. By the time we found him, he was plowing
through Keidrar like a beast, despite looking rather beat up. Right then, though, there
were a few that looked more like blurs to me. “Am I crazy,” I asked Rea, “or am I seeing
more Keidrar going practically supersonic?” “You’re not…crazy. Better prepare for the
worst, Keidrar.” She smiled as her fan morphed into her trusty scythe. “Are you ready,
puppy?” “As ready as I can be,” I replied, following her into the horde. There was one
hitch though: as soon as I did so, I was almost attacked from behind, as something in
my ring just made everything around me just stopped, almost like time itself was
paused. Although, it was thanks to that momentary pause that I made quick work of
those high-speed Keidrar. Guess that giant knew I had one more power in me. I finally
figured out how to start time back up again, and right as I did, it almost felt like a set of
dominos, with Keidrar near the positions of those speedsters being knocked down,
which allowed us to fight back, eventually seeing the main atrocity right before us. Soon
enough, we came up with a plan with Zeckriel, as I learned in that fight. He’d find the
summoner while Rea and I would help fight that huge shadow demon. There was just
one thing though: how were we gonna get up there in the first place? We deliberated
back and forth, eventually coming up with somewhat of a plan.
After careful positioning and crafting, Rea sent me up to the monster with one
powerful toss with her demon arm, combined with a beam that could make a certain
nuclear sea dragon jealous, all while I rode it and readied my new sword. Right as I
neared it, I yanked off the cloth keeping the sword secure and with one mighty slash,
plus a massive surge of fire on my part, I was able to cleave the monster in two. To
make sure it wouldn’t come back, I made the sword go into a whip form and went

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ballistic on the pieces of the monster. Granted, I probably shouldn’t have done that, as
my energy was completely spent, allowing me to begin plummeting from the sky. I
would’ve gone splat on the ground if it weren’t for Rea catching me with her levitation
magic at the last possible second. Glad I wasn’t spent enough to pass out, I looked at
the demon keeping me from falling and said, “Bullseye.” She smiled with droplets of
blood on her face, repeated to me saying “Bullseye!” Honestly, I couldn’t help laughing
as she let me down on the ground.
After a quick overview of the Junkscraper, and washing Keidrar blood off of
ourselves, Rea pulled me aside and we inspected what was left of it. “We need
answers, now.” She said as her hand turned into a claw. I felt a shiver down my spine
as she summoned the souls of the slain monsters, grasping them in her hand. “Can you
make a skeleton with your magic?” “Uh, I can try.” I tried to take different pieces of the
Keidrar and put them together like a doll of clay, but after several attempts, they all fell
apart. I gave up and made an actual doll of mud. It turned out looking like a chibi golem.
“Is this good enough?” I asked Rea, who seemed amused by the mud-man. “It’ll do.”
she smiled and stuffed the souls into the mud doll. The doll immediately wheezed for air
and looked up at us. The confrontation of the souls did prove to be difficult, taking into
consideration the doll being downright schizophrenic, changing personality every other
minute. But they all rambled on about “engulfing the worlds in chaos”, something I
expected, and kept shouting obscenities at us. Although, one voice said something I
hadn’t considered, and caught me off guard: “Take revenge on the spirit of creation for
ignoring our leader.” When they devolved into pure insanity again, Rea and I agreed it
was time for them to go. One by one, the souls were eaten as they just repeated
themselves for half an hour. The mud doll collapsed as the last soul levitated into Rea’s
claw. “I guess that's another way to eat souls for you?” She smiled. “Yes.”
The next couple weeks were dedicated to training up, taking care of unfinished
business as we went. We eventually learned what was going on with Ace and Carter
before we met up with them, and that’s a whole other story in itself. But no matter how
hard I trained myself, not to mention every time I tried not to think about it, I couldn’t get
that one sentence the Keidrar souls spoke out of my head. Eventually, I heard that calm
voice tell me to go to a secluded balcony, away from my group. Unlike other times,
where he’d be confident in my abilities, he sounded sad and almost remorseful. When I
finally went over to the specified place, something felt weird, not to mention strong, in
my chest. Namely, like something was trying to get out. I tried my best to help it out, but
when I did so, and when that power finally seemed like it was out, I still felt a portion of it
inside me. That aside, I could only look in confusion at what—or rather, who—I saw
before me.

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 Part I: Of Gods and Monsters
The figure before me seemed to glow blue, almost like my creation powers. Unlike
them, however, he almost looked like a spirit. Hair flowing like it was in water, a core
that looked like a star, and a body that, while practically naked, gave an otherworldly
feel about it. And like a god, his eyes were pure white, giving a sense of omnipresence.
All at once, I could feel different questions being answered at once, like how I was able
to create almost anything I needed out of thin air, that warm feeling that came over me
when I fought Draco, things like that. But I still had several other questions, of which I
needed answers for. Before I could ask, though, he assured me everything would be
answered in time, almost like he read my mind. Anticlimactic, but okay. “You’re not
‘high’, as your people would say,” he said in a calm English accent, feeling as assuring
as the first time I heard it back in Kuwa’s village, “but only you are seeing my true form
now. To anyone else, you’re just talking to a blue orb, and in a tongue so ancient and
forgotten, nobody can remember it.” “Even so, I still have some questions, one of
which-,” I said, before I was interrupted by one simple sentence: “My name is
Indalskaber.”
That one question I kept in the back of my mind was finally answered, and yet, I was
even more confused. Who even is this guy, I thought to myself. However, forgetting he
could read my mind like the Sunday paper, he replied, “I’m what you might call a spirit
or god of creation.” That actually kinda made sense, considering what he allowed me to

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do in my journey so far. He answered pretty much every question I had at the moment,
my out-of-nowhere high durability, how I was able to make anything I needed in the heat
of the moment, things like that. However, what I wasn’t expecting was how I gained my
powers to begin with: he unlocked them for me as my journey went on. Almost like I was
in a video game or something. Hope I don’t have any DLC powers I don’t know about.
“I’m sure you noticed,” the sapphire spirit began, “that the monsters you’ve
encountered thus far, the Keidrar, have something about them.” I did see a trace of a
blue crystal theme going on with them when I wasn’t thrashing them through, so I
assumed that was what he meant. “You may be thinking there’s one person to blame
for creating them: the emperor of the Keidrar himself. Am I correct?” “You hit the nail on
the head, man,” I replied, “I’m just happy we found their home base. Now we can
pummel them for all they’re worth.” “Yes, that would seem like the most appropriate
action, wouldn’t it?,” he said, almost solemnly and regrettably. I tried to reassure him,
saying that we’ll get back at those things and make them wish they were never created.
However, it almost broke me to hear words I’d never thought I’d hear from a being so,
quite literally, bright: “I made them.”
I asked him, “How could you make something that intentionally monstrous and
terrifying?” “I didn’t. I made their leader, who made them,” the sullen god answered,
leaving me more confused than ever. Thankfully, when asked if he could explain, I gave
him the go-ahead, as I felt there was a story on the horizon.
“Being one of the first three beings to ever walk the face of creation entirely, you get
bored every now and then. It certainly didn’t help that I was tasked to make everything
by myself. So I decided, ‘I’ll make myself an assistant.’ So I did. I named my first
creation, Vaadro Senka. Sure, he was black in form and rather malicious-looking, but
he had a good heart. After all, we created the first world together, and all the life in it.
We had a symbiotic partnership; he would make something, I’d add onto it, and vice
versa. It was truly an amazing time. However, there is a reason for that ‘was’.
“Soon enough, I had my own ideas, and I went off to go and make them. However,
when he would offer his input, I wouldn’t turn my ear to listen. At first, he assumed I was
still making drafts, but when he found out I went with what was produced in the first
attempt, without his input, he was furious. I didn’t know at the time, but he created
beings fueled by pure malice and resentment, meant to destroy everything I created.
Without knowing, I had created the first evil. I tried to compromise, give him half of the
world I made, hopefully to appease him. He agreed, but warned me that when any of
my creations disturbed his part of the world, his legions would destroy everything I held
dear.
“In order to prevent that from happening, I requested the help of my brother and
sister to create a cornerstone that would serve as a warning to any and all that
approached it. I gave my creations the ability to fight back, in case that day ever came.
For around 10,000 years, that cornerstone served its purpose. Peace, harmony, and
equality reigned throughout the side I tailored around me and my siblings for as far as I

68
could see. However, that is until one of the people destroyed the cornerstone out of an
accident. That was not the worst of it, however. The monsters my ex-apprentice made
were tailored to destroying all my creations, even worse than my brother. I then
realized, all that I held dear was going to fall.
“That is, until an idea fell upon me. ‘What if my siblings and I became the weapons
that would drive back the coming storm?’ I relayed that idea to not only my siblings, but
the people I created. I assisted in making the vessels that would contain me and my
siblings’ powers for the coming war. After a year, it was finished. All that was left was to
find the ones who would wield us. For my siblings, that was not a problem. I, on the
other hand, could feel my ex-assistant’s influence slowly plant seeds that would shape
the general people you know today. As such, I had to get, as you would say, creative. I
made sure only those who were strong of heart and willing to cooperate would be able
to pull me from my pedestal. Over time, almost all hope was lost, as the pool of
potentials was growing ever smaller. That is, until one finally pulled me from the stone.
“I helped train him to carry my power to its fullest, until he was finally ready for battle.
He fought most valiantly against the hordes of Keidrar that came in his path, and came
close to slaying my once most valued assistant. Sadly, he could not lay the final strike,
but sealed Senka to his castle, so that he may not unleash his dark power unto the
world. My wielder then sent me and my siblings away so that Senka might not destroy
us. Incidentally, that was the last time I saw him or my siblings.
“With what remaining power I had, I created your world, Terra Prime, and sealed it
away from Senka so that he may not destroy it. However, that did not stop him from
finding it, as his most powerful forces aimed to destroy Terra Prime and all life on it. To
my surprise, Terra Prime had its own countermeasure. One I had not previously
intended: the Architects. They created worlds that housed both light and dark in great
battles to keep my ex-assistant’s forces at bay. The best part of it: the Architects’
numbers only grew, creating a stronger barrier than any I could achieve. Even the
tiniest cracks would heal back stronger than before.
“I would occasionally lend my own power to create weapons that could drive back
the Keidrar at any and all twists and turns. Actually, I helped in more ways than one.
Making heroic souls that did the same things as the weapons, for instance. I would
even peer out into certain worlds and lend my direct power to those I deemed worthy of
said power. Each of which displayed power on their own where my own would only help
them.
“Sadly, one of them went mad when I explained the truth to him, becoming as
powerful an evil as my own assistant, and using my power for his own evil gain. When I
was released, I kept myself hidden within Terra Prime, allowing for a constant source of
inspiration for the Architects within that world. However, one of the greatest Architects
sadly passed on, and the gaps in the barrier closest to Terra Prime were growing more
obvious. Chaos soon erupted there too, and my own power was weakening. That is,
until I found you, Steve Torchfang.”

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 I asked the blue spirit in front of me, “Out of everyone you could’ve picked, why me?”
“Sure, you were nobody special to anyone else, and certainly not anyone in my own
radar, at first. However, your soul proved to be one as powerful as my first vessel. Hell,
your decision to break the sword was the most reckless thing I’ve ever seen in my life,”
he began, making me feel like the most idiotic man in all of creation. Before he could
insult me any more though, he continued, “However, you surprised me, Steve. You’ve
shown me that creativity cannot come without the capacity for resourcefulness,
something I’ve never thought of in all of these millennia I have been alive. You have
been the best vessel I have ever had the pleasure of assisting. I cannot ask you to go
further with me after this, in fact I won’t be upset if you abandon me now, and go home.
I just don’t want to make a mistake in telling you now.”
I’m not sure what made me do what came next, be it spur of the moment or what, but
I replied, “Man, to hell with the past. You’re here now, ain’tcha? Then don’t worry. If this
journey has been any indication, I’m willing to stand by those I hold close to me and
push forward, even if I’m still healing from the last fight. Whatever the case, we’re
always learning. Doesn’t matter who learns, be they lowly mortals or gods!” The
cheesiest of lines I could have said, and yet, it worked so well. He seemed to chuckle a
little bit, as expected, but he still believed me, saying that out of all the Terrans, or at
least former Terrans, he’s seen, I was one of the oddest, yet most interesting. He and I
agreed right then and there that we’d find some way to stop Senka from wreaking havoc
on every known world. We didn’t quite know how yet, but hey, when have my instincts
failed me?
One question still got me, however: How did I go from Terran to, as Rea and her
castle staff called me, a Demius? I asked Indalskaber—I hadn’t figured out a nickname
for him yet—exactly that, and he told me when that beacon engulfed me, it encased me
in a crystal casing of sorts, and reshaped me for about seven years. Now, I know my
“seven” cliches, but how my genetic code was fully rewritten inside of a damn crystal of
all things, I’ll never understand. Then again, I guess I am the vessel of a literal god of
creation, so that might cover that front. And I guess he reshaped everyone else from
back home too, just so they could have a fighting chance out here too. I guess there is
such a thing as a benevolent god, I thought. But, finally, I guessed calling Indalskaber’s
name would trigger his powers, so I thought of one thing: “Why don’t I call ya Indy?”
“What?,” he asked, curious at my proposal, “why would you want to call me that?” To
explain, I replied: “Well, I figure saying your name over and over would make you come
out at random when talking about or to you, so I figure why not give you a lil’
nickname?” He seemed to like it well enough, so we agreed on that name instead of
saying his full name when not needed. Wouldn’t want a Betelgeuse situation, would we?
Astral snakes aside though, it turned out I wasn’t fully alone with Indy. I could hear
footsteps approaching, and the familiar scent of magic. “Steve, would you lend me a
hand with this dragon scale…” Rea approached me, but stopped as she saw Indy. She
was holding a scale in her hands, as she'd been studying them since we brought them

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back to the Junkscraper. She’d mentioned plans of making armor from them. She
stared at Indy for a full minute before she kneeled to the ground. I mean, I know she’s
looking at, essentially, an orb of practically infinite power, but the sight was odd to me.
Whatever the case, I assured her that Indy’s on our side, and that he’s been the one
giving me my creation powers in the first place. That’s about when Zeckriel came in and
told us to get into the tactics room, immediately. By the urgency in his voice, I could only
assume what it was for.

Part II: The Twilit Betwixt

“What is it this time?” Rea asked as we tagged along with Zeckriel, who replied
sharply, “Wait until we get to briefing. I’ll explain there.” I assured Rea that the coldness
was probably shot up in the heat of the moment, to which I was met with a confused
glance with my wording. Seeing as we had just made it to the aforementioned “tactics
room”, I dropped the matter. Though I did have to agree: I do kinda get confusing in
what I say.
Zeckriel began the meeting by showing some recon photos of what looked to be a
blue and yellow crystal growth on the fabric of the universe, saying this was some kinda
fabled gateway into a reality that can be best described as a void prison. Some of the
worst villains across every world get sent there at least once, but apparently, it’s been
showing cracks. My guess was the Keidrar, and somehow I got it right. But the monster
I finished off a couple weeks back wasn’t affiliated with them at all, it seemed. Rather, it
was the oldest gatekeeper in existence, guarding what seemed to be there for an
eternity: a cornerstone between the light and dark worlds, or in this case, between all of
creation and the oldest chaos zone ever. Well, Zecky described it better anyway.
In any case, the guardian that we “defeated” seemed to be attacking in response to
the recon team getting close to the gateway, apparently called the Twilit Betwixt in old
legends. The way it looks now was thanks to a phenomenon centuries ago where light
and dark united to seal a powerful demon behind the cornerstone, even tighter than how
it was in the first place. “So you’re saying,” GC said, “that the Keidrar were locked
behind this gate? Lotta good that thing did.” “Not exactly,” Zeckriel replied, “According to
reports from various sources, they’ve always been able to bypass the gate through
some more powerful being. We haven’t had much explanation behind it until now: the

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Keidrar’s emperor.” As if on cue, a mural showing a black, dark blue, caped, crowned
figure appeared on the holotable. If this guy’s as powerful as Indy made him out to be, I
thought, then I guess we’re not going up against your average prince of darkness kinda
big-bad.
Soon enough, we narrowed out the plan: get to the Twilit Betwixt, find a way inside,
take down the heart of evil itself, save the world. Y’know, that normal “final act” crap. In
any case, preparations were underway, and each of us were training in our own special
way. However, there was one person missing from all this: Rea. I was in the middle of
practicing my dark-powered kicks when I noticed my usual training buddy was absent. I
looked practically all over the Junkscraper for her, only to see her leaving to the rift’s
origin. I managed to catch up to her before she got out of the ruined city, thanks to my
increased speed from my lightning. Whatever the case, I had to hear her reason for
suddenly deciding to drop out on us. Not trying to sound nosy, I brushed off her
suspicion of me following her by giving the excuse of, “Oh, y’know, just taking a jog
through town and I happened to find you.” To no surprise at all, she caught me in my lie.
So like the idiotic lost puppy I am, I asked her where she was going.
“You and the crew can manage a powerful demon on your own, right?” She smiled
as if she was joking. “I'm heading home to Zazarot. I’ll be of more use there.” “Wait,
why?” I blurted out. “Your orb friend can be of assistance, they granted you demigod
abilities. You don't really need me to tutor you magic, do you?” Somehow, she looked
sad, as if she didn't want to admit to being useless. “I enjoyed traveling with you, Steve
Torchfang of Terra Prime.” She said and held out her hand. I’ll never know what
possessed me to say what came next: “If I’m being honest, yes, it has been nice
traveling with you, and I’ve come to trust you just as any good friend would. But...as
much as you’d believe the opposite, I’m not good at magic. All that comes from Indy,
and even then I’m restricted. I can’t tell you why now, but I have a different plan whirling
around in my head from what Zeck’s told us, and that plan can’t work without you.”
Immediately I stopped that tangent and tried to get back on track the best I could, telling
Rea, “What I’m trying to say is, just because I have powers of an actual Eldritch god of
creation, I can’t cast spells or be as much of an absolute badass like you. After all,
you’re one of the greatest friends I could’ve ever come to know these past couple
months.” You know that moment when you practically spill your guts to your best friend
out of nowhere? That was similar.
“You do have a point,” she admitted, smirking. “And to be honest, I'm surprised you
haven't died for your reckless use of the elements. It's madness, but you’re alive. I can
respect a living maniac.” As if to respond, I said, “Hey, you’re the one who helped me
master the power of the night.” That last bit I may have exaggerated, but it was all worth
it to make the both of us laugh. “My pleasure,” she laughed. So, after a moment to calm
ourselves down from laughing, I asked her grinning, “So, whaddaya say, Amagonaz?
Wanna put a stop to a god of chaos from enveloping the world in shadow?” She smiled
and responded: “I can't leave a friend to do all the work, now can I?” We shared a fist

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bump and got ourselves back to the Junkscraper, just in time for the first shuttle to the
Twilit Betwixt. On the way there, I relayed my plan to Rea as best I could, until I saw our
destination. And I won’t lie, it looked amazing.
The place was completely crystalline, aside from the mossy, ancient stone knob in
between it all, and just like the report said, we took out the guardian, so it was almost
empty, aside from us being there. We agreed to look around and see what needed
investigating, to which Indy immediately directed my attention to the stone pedestal right
in front of the dual-colored crystal gates. The pedestal itself turned out to be a keyhole
of sorts, but it looked more blade-shaped if anything. Since Indy was the one who made
the thing, I thought of asking him. However, apparently being unused for so long makes
one become a hint absent-minded, so I had to start thinking. That is, until something
compelled me to summon something from my childhood: a wooden shortsword painted
with a permanent marker to be a “diamond sword” with a cat’s eye in its pommel. GC
immediately interjected, “A toy sword? That’s our key into the void? Who the hell
decides to use a goddamn wooden toy sword as a key?!” I’d be lying if I said I expected
it too.
All I had to do was jab the toy into the hole and turn it for it to become fully
crystalline, aside from the wood parts, and for the gate to actually swing open. “I’ll be
honest, I was expecting it to be triple or...Idunno, double sealed?,” I admitted. “It seems
too easy,” Rea agreed. One look inside and we knew exactly why it was so easy to
open: This “void” was more like an interdimensional prison built in a land of darkness,
with different evil beings being held in a sort of hypersleep, some more ancient and
powerful than others. And on the farthest reaches of that dark expanse was our target,
the palace of shadow that was just as black as the world we were looking at.
Unfortunately, and just as expected, the Keidrar looked to be aware of our presence
and began marching towards us, and that gave me the cue to put my plan into phase
one. I handed a bag of white crystals, as well as a prerecorded message, to Rea, and
told her to warp back to Zazarot as fast as possible, telling her, “Gather everyone you
can.” She looked uncertain, but nodded. “Don't die,” she said before warping back to
Zazarot. Not realizing my plan right away, Zecky handed me a hair tie and advised I put
it up for the fight ahead. Everyone else was prepped for battle anyway, while they
rushed right in and started fighting back, I took the time to actually take Zeckriel’s advice
as well as hang back and take out any of the Keidrar that broke through the rebellion’s
formation. After all, someone’s gotta do it, right?
There were a few problems with that, however. Some of the soldiers were dropping
faster than they could take out Keidrar, which got me feeling exhausted and weak for
quite a bit. Not even the rear guard could keep up, sadly enough. I know that these
things target me more than the others, and I don’t expect any of them to leave some
room for me to rest, but this actually made me think that sending off Rea was a bad
idea. At the rate I was going, I might not last much longer. At this point, I decided to
practice some of the life-sapping magic Rea taught me on the way here and revitalize

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myself. Turns out, it worked better than expected! I wonder how far this is gonna take
me, I thought, charging forward to keep the enemy’s focus on me.

Part III: Pride Fall

One good word of advice: if you’re draining someone’s life energy and their soul is
completely black, it does give you a little boost, but drains you quicker than a lightning
bolt. So needless to say, I won’t be doing that anymore. In a brighter sense, I was still
alive and keeping the Keidrar from going through the gate, so that’s something. But
more soldiers from our side were either being blown down with ease or corrupted, not
including the sheer amount of our ships being gunned down. I know this was only half of
our force, but never did I think the odds would be this stacked! Sounding stereotypical of
a “hopeless final horde fight” yet?
Soon, I found myself back to back with the Crimson Lancer himself, who seemed just
as battered up as I was. For someone so well-versed in the art of war, I can’t say I’ve
seen a guy be that bad at keeping himself in top form. A few minutes later, combo
attacks provided, we were out of breath too. Thankfully, we took enough out so we
could let some well-placed turrets start pounding away, and give the two of us a well-
deserved mini break. “Where the hell is that succubus when we need her?,” he
complained, “I know she came with us, too!” Dodging the question entirely, I replied with
one simple line: “Worry about yourself before thinking about your plan, luchador de
palo.” He ended up backhanding me, but I guess that's par for the course, dealing with
someone as uptight as he is. Although, Zeckie did raise a point. I’d hardly sensed Rea’s
soul energy at all after I sent her to carry out our secret plan.
Then it happened; a gigantic portal opened and Rea returned. But she didn’t come
alone. Alongside her were an army of Cubi guards led by Alex, with several aliens,
which I’d later come to know their collective classification of Virmusa, tailed elemental
elves called Hyraden, some mages, a few T’Raak, and even a group Faunumen! Hell,
there were even some of the Zectids and Terrans caught in the mix! Honestly, it
seemed like an entire cornucopia of warriors from different races. But what caught me
by surprise was Rea’s new accessory; a right-hand glove resembling her demon claws.

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“Where’d ya get that?,” I asked, with Rea smiling proudly, showing off the glove. “I made
it from a dragon scale. I wanted to show it to you earlier, but you were catching up with
Indy.” The group of Faunumen and Hyraden walked by us, some said hi and others
nodded as a greeting. “You know all these people?,” I asked Rea as she nodded back
at some of them. “Most of them are members of our alliance, the rest are friends of mine
and my family.” The group of mages rushed past us, following the Faunumen and
Hyraden into battle. But one man with pink hair and oddly thick eyebrows came rushing
back, looking enthusiastically at Rea. “This is quite exhilarating, sweetie! My gods, the
creatures of this place must be a thousand years old. Oh, is this the puppy Jester told
me of?” He spoke fast as if he was on a sugar rush.
Before I could protest the nickname, he'd taken my hand and shook it. “Sorry to hear
about your dimension. I’m Karhart Amagonaz. Shall we live through this, I’d like to hear
more of your eradicated dimension.” I’d hardly gotten a word out before I realized that
this was no ordinary handshake. As I was shaking hands with Karhart, I felt a strange
sensation tingling up my arm as if my adrenaline was kicking back in and various
vitalities were being restored. But it disappeared as Karhart let go of my hand, kissed
Rea on the cheek and rushed after his friends. “That's your dad?” I asked turning to look
at Rea, who had her scythe out and ready. “Yes. You seem dismayed.” “I thought he
was just an apprentice to those mages or something.” Rea burst out laughing. “He's
only four hundred and forty three years old.” Shocked, I couldn’t help but briefly repeat
his age before my attention was immediately turned to look at the hordes of demons
flying above me, almost cloaking the Junkscraper’s reinforcements. Right before I knew
one of the enemy was right behind me, I saw a familiar red blade nearly graze my
cheek, killing the bugger in its tracks. “Come on, you can’t be the same beast I fought all
that time ago,” a familiar voice said, and upon further inspection, it was the older me,
Draco!
Being a hundred percent honest, I didn’t think he’d be here, and yet here he was,
fighting alongside me. It didn’t take long for every one of the Black Dragons to take
action, however, as right out of the gate, they were plowing through Keidrar faster than I
could ever hope to! One thing stood out to me though: I definitely didn’t notice a pair of
angel wings in that warehouse. That aside, however, I took to the field alongside Rea,
Draco, and Zeckriel, meeting up with our pre-established team and laying waste to as
many Keidrar as possible. Ace, Carter and I even took to our old games by seeing who
could take out the most Keidrar the fastest. While not exactly like our old games, it was
still fun to fight alongside them. Somewhere along the line, I was able to do a combo
attack with, essentially, myself. How often does that happen? Seriously, when’s the last
time you’ve fought alongside a katana-wielding mafia boss version of yourself and
pulled off an epic duo attack?
Well, one thing’s for sure: after a while, the Keidrar’s castle seemed to start moving
for some reason. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from video games,” I thought aloud to
the group, “it’s that if the enemy’s stronghold starts moving, something much bigger is

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probably guarding it.” Sure enough, my hunch was on point. But it didn’t exactly account
for a gigantic black and yellow serpent dragon practically wrapped around the entire
base of the Shade Palace. Based on how it glowed, I assumed it was the same as
Wrath, and sure enough, its energy matched up with hers. The only real caveat was that
it seemed weaker somehow. That only confused me more when I saw that, for one, its
scales were stronger than any kind of titanium-infused dragon armor out there, and it,
apparently named Pride, was tearing right through our forces, almost looking like it was
aimed for me.
In a moment in which I couldn’t replicate if you gave me a thousand other
opportunities, I used a Bolt Rush to get as high up as I could without Pride hurting
anyone else, then dodged its golden jaw near perfectly, and started sliding, eventually
turning into running, down its back. Like something out of a QuickTime event, I held my
ground against Pride, all while running down to its tail. Almost immediately, right as I got
there, its head was perfectly in line for me. For what, you might be asking? Well, don’t
ask me how I thought of this, but I decided to superheat Verdant Inferno to as hot as I
could make it, jumped, and began slicing clean through Pride, scales and all. As soon
as I landed, almost every Keidra for miles, or what was left of them, retreated back to
the Shade Palace. Rather, that’s what I would say, if they didn’t have a main force.
It consisted of stronger monsters I had faced before, along with some others I didn’t
quite know mixed in there, all led from afar by, according to a scout, a scarlet-headed
berserker. The only scarlet berserker I know is inside me, so at first I was confused, but
Zeckriel seemed to start running off on his own. After some discussion and convincing,
I, with help from Draco, Ace, and Rea, managed to get a rough plan of attack together.
As such, a small group we collected in the spur of the moment charged inside the
Shade Palace with our armies taking care of the forces of darkness. And oddly enough,
that was working! They hardly stood a chance as we stormed through the palace
without so much as a hello! The only snag in said plan was when the aforementioned
berserker blocked our path. You can guess what happens next, but I’ll still tell you
anyway.
“Go,” I heard Zeckriel say, readying his spear, “I’ll keep him busy.” The whole
sacrifice exchange was unavoidable, but we still went along with it. The rest of us went
in ahead, but we left behind one of our most powerful. There was just one thing that
caught me for a loop though: I watched a little of Zeckriel’s battle with the berserker, and
he was just as worse for wear as his opponent. But right as I was called to catch up, I
glimpsed back to see Zeckriel hold up his arm and call up a blue light, similar to what
Indy does for me when I create a weapon. However, this visual was cut short, as the
gates slammed shut, and I was forced to move on. The rest of us carried on with our
“rhino plan”, so to speak, but I couldn’t sense Zeckriel’s soul energy anymore. This
wasn’t like when Rea disappeared for me, but you can probably guess what happened.
I did.

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 A little ways more, and we came across the gigantic doors of the Shade Palace’s
throne room. We forced them open to see not only scars of an ancient battle, but also
the very evil we needed to take down: Vaadro Senka. He looked like a sorrowful
emperor of darkness, skin and hair as black as night, with obvious implications of him
being created by Indy. But something was off: he wasn’t moving at all. Everything in my
head was screaming variations of “This is a trap, get out,” and “Attack him now, while
he’s immobile!” Out of confusion, I instinctively charged at him, with everyone else
behind me, only for something to spring open from the floor, and sent us downward into
a strange abyss. The only thing I could think of then was this: What kinda prison am I
going to be sent to this time?

Part IV: A Beast is Born

I had a hard time opening my eyes, no thanks to the sun being directly in my eyes.
Immediately, something was off. There’s no sunlight in this world, I thought, how am I
blinded? When my eyes had time to adjust, there was one thing that I could see: A
gigantic base built into the side of a mountain, with jungle trees surrounding the entire
perimeter. It almost looked like something out of a sci-fi scene. Granted, if that scene
was in the middle of absolute nowhere and had everything a twelve-year-old might want
in a futuristic secret base kind of castle, but it still looked somewhat decent. Although I
doubt Senka sent me here to explore an actual playground.
I could hear groans behind me, and sure enough, it was GC and Rea. Why Senka
sent them here with me, I’ll never know, but I can’t complain either way. However, this
world seemed unstable, as shown by a large expanse of white further out from the area,
as well as odd glitching almost everywhere. “What is this place?” Rea questioned,
rightfully confused by the sight. “Hell if I know,” GC answered, “But if I were to guess,
we’re in some kind of pocket in between space and time.” “If that’s true, what’s with all
the weird glitching?,” I asked, only to be met with, “Not sure, this is the first time I’ve
ever seen something like this,” from GC. Rea chuckled, “This will be a fun chapter in my
memoirs.” I couldn’t help but chuckle before I could hear and smell someone coming. Or
rather, three. A young demon woman with purple as her main aesthetic, a cyborg
brawler, and someone looking strangely similar to me. However, they weren’t very keen
on talking, so we were plunged into a battle right away. GC took the big cyborg, while
Rea and I took the blackened demon and Alter-Steve combo. The worst thing about it
was that we were pretty much up against demigods with how powerful they were.
The fight was almost one-sided until I decided in the heat of the moment to cheat a
little. Namely, by knocking one of the other Steve’s swords out of his hand. It was fine
for a bit, until I saw a near exact clone of Verdant Inferno. The other sword he had,
however, was infinitely harder to knock away, so when the chance was given, I sliced

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through it. The other Steve seemed surprised, so I took the chance and kicked him right
in the gut, knocking the air out of him and ending the fight. GC and Rea seemed to be
done with their own individual fight with minor injuries, so they joined up briefly after.
Before I got the chance to land the final blow, he spoke up. “What’s going on here?”
We explained our situation to him and found out, briefly, that we were in a world
before it was taken over by Senka. Along with that, this kid, named Torchwing, was
about to fight someone similar to him, but was brought down last-minute by his closest
allies for his own ego. From then on, his adventures were meant to try and atone, but
before he could finish, he and his family were swallowed by the shadows. Before that,
however, he had time to reflect. He was pretty overpowered for a hero, but his heart still
tried to do what was right for him and everyone else he knew. But there was one thing
that he’d learned over all of his travels: even in your darkest patches, light will find its
way sooner or later. Right as he said that though, the pseudo-world started to collapse
on itself, full glitch and all. Torchwing gave us three a smile and said, “Give him what
for.”
It was a hard push, but we managed to escape our imprisonment, which oddly
enough wasn’t much of a black hole. Whatever the case, I came out much different than
when I came in. I had crystals coming out of me, and I was glowing blue, for instance.
Apparently, Indy says that while I was interacting with Torchwing, he was busy mulling
over what he could do to help in shifting the battle to our favor, and this new form was
part of the plan. I had no complaints, even giving it the nickname of Gemespine Beast
Mode. Stranger still, GC and Rea looked to be glowing a bit too, both of which were
glowing green and red respectively. Before I could finish saying “What exactly do I do?,”
they both morphed into what I can assume to be soul crystals and placed themselves
on my elbows and transformed parts of me into pieces of the respective fusion partner.
Said parts consisted of cybernetics provided by GC, and a soul-sucking arm, pointed
tail, and boot from Rea. Aside from apparently borrowing their hair too, there was one
specific theme behind all of them: Indy’s crystals. Although, the typical trinity thing
followed through, in that GC’s and Rea’s consciousnesses were mixed with mine. Kinda
feels weird the more I think about it, actually. Although, in the heat of the moment, I
couldn’t help myself. I pointed right toward the sky and just spouted this out: “Mind of
the machine, soul of the succubus, and the body of the beast. These three combined
will take on the greatest of gods and topple them with ease. We are...Trimalgas!”
“Did you really have to be that dramatic in introducing this new form,” asked GC
inside my head. Not missing a beat, my immediate response was as follows: “Yes. Yes I
did.” Setting that aside though, Senka seemed mighty pissed. I know as much because
I knocked away, I think, close to a thousand dark arrows that came my way. Guess it’s
the fact that there’s more people inside me now. Anyway, it looked like the final battle
had begun! Senka came at us with shadow blades akin to some overly preachy cult
leader, which was met by my tenacity and improvised sword prowess. Once again, I
hardly noticed, but my sword looked more...scythe-like. Not like I was gonna let that

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slow me down though, as it only added more means or tearing up the battlefield and my
opponent’s stamina. Thanks to my foresight, I was able to pick up that Senka had traps
set up everywhere I stepped, but it was thanks to Rea that we were able to handle
them, as she took over with some kinda magnesis spell that brought the traps on the
ground to us and redirected them at Senka. Turns out even dark overlords aren’t
immune to shadow arrows. Even when we seemed to be held up with shadow drones
sniping us from different points of the area, GC seemed to have exactly what we
needed to take them out: a deadshot aim that snipers would drool over. We thought we
had Senka when we backed him right into a corner, or rather, onto his throne, but
something seemed off about him. More specifically, his soul. It felt more like we were
fighting the shadow of a god. In fact, the others looked to have been stuck in their
“bubbles” for an uncomfortably long amount of time. After some quick deliberation, I
gambled on slicing through the whole room, with a little help from GC and Rea, in the
hopes of proving a hunch, like always.
Once again, my intuition was spot-on. Like an annoying little bugger, Senka
apparently kept us all in reality bubbles and, I guess, forming a newer sword of absolute
darkness while we were kept in our respective bubbles. Predictable, and not entirely
original, but smart. I guess that meant forming himself into the likeness of a titan-sized
god was part of that. Luckily, everyone else actually came out with us this time, and
when the surprise of the Trivalgas form was all good and done, we took our fight right to
Sen-Kami. Draco and his plus-one took charge first, almost acting in unison. I could feel
a surge of power coursing through Trimalgas, probably due to the fact that Indy wanted
him to go down just as much as I did. When the battle neared its end, strikes to stagger
Senka. Ace and Carter attacked next--it only took one second for them to jump in--and
took on their own bit of staggering Senka, leaving Rea, myself, and GC to start dealing
damage to the same target. As uneventful as that sounds, we were dodging gigantic
scimitars, shadow bolts, and utilizing everything he threw at us to get even closer to
him. When we did eventually get closer up to him, it looked like our final fight was truly
beginning, as Senka pulled out the stops to take us out. During the each of our groups
took our respective final blow, ending the titan’s barrage. All that was left of Senka was
his battle-worn body, and turquoise blood pouring out of said body. At that point, in a
defeated tone, Indy told me, “Do what you feel is right.” So, I raised my sword, and
began to swing…
The sword itself stopped right before it hit Senka’s head, and that was after I unfused
with Rea and GC. “Wh-what the hell?,” Draco burst out, “Ain’t this bastard supposed to
be the big scary master of darkness or some crap like that? Just finish the damn job
already!” I chuckled and answered him, “Who really wants to kill a guy for a petty reason
as simple as ‘he’s the bad guy, he must pay for his crimes’ or something like that? Not
me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for takin’ out evil, but I’m not about to take
someone I barely know down because people say they’re evil.” Continuing, I thrust my
sword to the ground, saying, “All this guy wanted was approval from his creator. When

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he didn’t get it, he lashed out. It’s once again petty, sure, but every kid wants love from
their parents. In short, he’s not dying by my hand. Besides, fighting monsters seems like
a good gig in the long run. Seems fun too!” I couldn’t help but smile and chuckle after
saying that. I could tell some people were disappointed to hear that answer, but those
who knew me just smiled along with me. “He does make a good point. I haven’t had this
much fun ever since I found myself in another world!,” said Ace. “Can’t deny that,” GC
added, “but despite his absolute lack of sense, he’s got heart, and I guess, he does
have a knack for fighting on his feet.” “You’d risk the entirety of the known multiverse
on...what, a childish game?,” Senka asked, utterly furious with my choice, “Is my death
not even worth your sword?” “Listen, Senka. I don’t care if you’re some god of darkness
or whatever edgy crap you’re into. And quite frankly, I don’t give two shits if you were
only acting out of spite for Indy resenting you. You’re part of the balance now. And know
this. I may defeat you here today, and the day may come when I have to take you on
again. And I’ll keep on fighting you until...well, until I get tired of fighting you, I guess,” I
said.
Those words looked to resonate in Senka’s ears, but it took a few seconds for me to
realize one thing: “Agh, dammit, that was too cheesy!” I thought I could hear Senka, the
actual emperor of the Keidrar laughing. And then he pulled himself up on his throne,
saying, “Very well, Steve Torchfang, Beast Knight of the Flame. You’ve convinced me.
I’ll stay and keep my end of the balance from toppling the light. However, know this: no
matter where you go, no matter who you meet, I will not show you any mercy or respite.
My Keidrar will hunt you to the very ends of this Celestial Plain!” I accepted that
challenge wholeheartedly, and I made sure to tell him I’d be waiting for him too. I sealed
Senka to his throne once more, and walked to my team to begin heading home. At
least, before my legs gave out from the exhaustion. Good thing Rea and Ace happened
to be there to catch me. “That was badass of you,” Rea smiled. Smiling, I just let the two
carry my worn-out body out, and replied to Rea, “Thanks. Good thing there wasn’t any
‘power of friendship’ crap coming outta me back there.” Before I could say anything
else, Rea told me I should rest, and I reluctantly complied, allowing me at least a little bit
of a good nap.
By the time I woke up again, we looked to be back in the castle. Draco and his crew
must have left already, but Ace and Carter were sparring, so it was only GC and Rea
around me. By how I felt with my creation powers, I could assume Indy needed a huge
rest. “So, what happens now?,” GC asked, “Will these great heroes return to their world,
or will they continue to fight the forces of evil?” “I mean, what else is a guy with
superpowers to do?,” I responded. GC then brought up that if I wanted to fight the
Keidrar to protect Terra Prime, I’d need to lock it up from the outside. Rea agreed to
this. “It would be the best solution for Terra Prime.” Thankfully, it seemed like the guys
didn’t want this to be the end of their adventures, but for some strange reason, I felt
hesitant. If what Indy told me before was true, I couldn’t go back to the world I knew.
What brought me out of that hesitation, thankfully, was looking around at the world I

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came to explore, the comrades I found, and judging by how Ace and Carter were here, I
could assume I’d find my other friends somewhere in this crazy multiverse I’ve come to
know. In the end, I sealed up my homeworld so that nothing can get in or out. In the
moment, I felt like there was nothing I couldn’t tackle, just as long as I didn't lose my
mind to either my resident monster or my omnipotent god of creation, that is.

Epilogue
“So,” Steve asked, “whaddaya think? How’s that for a story? Best part is it’s all true.”
Karhart nodded as Jester finished up taking notes. “Truly one heck of a story! And to
think my daughter brought you along when you claimed a voice in your head said so!”
Steve chuckled at the mention of this, realizing that hearing this kind of thing did sound
crazy. “But I wonder,” Karhart asked, “Don't you miss your home dimension?” “Kinda,
but all in all, I’m happy to have found a new family and home here,” Steve replied,
sinking his teeth into some of the confectioneries the castle staff provided the three. It
had been about a month since the defeat of Senka, but the wolf man didn’t want to
forget his first, and possibly greatest adventure. Karhart grinned and snatched a
chocolate from the box. “Glad to hear you like this dimension, despite all the dangers.”
“Well, if you count a horde of monsters so ancient they still carry a grudge from their
grandfather as dangerous, you’d be right,” Steve retorted.
“Off topic, but how’s the staff and the kingdom adjusting to the technology
integrations?,” he asked, “I mean, it’s new to me too, but it must be hard to understand
for you guys too.” “Well…“ Karhart hesitated. Jester slapped him on the back of his
head. “It's been a little slow with the progress, but some are adjusting nicely. The staff
who have got the idea of it are hosting help to the citizens who need more information
about this technology. Even Alex thinks it's been an improvement!” “Oh really? I thought
he’d be deterred for some reason,” Steve responded in disbelief. “Then again, GC did
ban him from going into the lab after the, er…incident.” Karhart and Jester chuckled.
“The red button incident, yes, he told me. But my son is not afraid of a challenge. The
Amagonaz family have always tackled a challenge head-on, no matter the cost. And as
I like to believe, all knowledge will lead to something good.” A smile made its way onto
the Beast Knight’s face, as he experienced that drive firsthand. Although he did wonder
one thing: “How’d Alexandria take this? I mean, I doubt she would’ve taken me
accidentally wrecking the throne room in the fight with Envy. Which, by the by, a
thousand apologies again for breaking the throne room.” “Ah, don’t think about that.”
The mage waved his hand, diffusing the tension. “My wife is understanding. And Jester
here and James can rebuild a thousand throne rooms in a matter of hours!” Karhart said

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like it was no problem at all. Jester nodded as he munched down chocolates. “And Rea
told me it was quite the fight to witness.” Still feeling guilty, but overall satisfied, Steve
couldn’t help but ask, “Speaking of, where is she? I get that being a queen is busy work,
so I can understand the...erm...workload of it all, but her paperwork can’t be anything
like what I had to go through, can it?” He did sound anxious in that last part.
“It's more than just paperwork, boy. She has to attend meetings with our alliances,
and patch up the misunderstandings among some of our close circles.” Karhart spoke
low, as if it was a secret. “And our citizens are still in fright after the Keidrar invasion. It
is a lot of work, yes. I just hope she doesn't fly too high…” “Agreed. But still, if she faces
diplomacy the relatively same way she fights, I doubt she would have many problems,”
Steve said confidently, before asking, “Back to the story itself though, what exactly do
you plan on using it for, aside from historical reasons?” “It could be useful one day,” the
mage grinned. “And the fact that dimensional travel is a possibility is simply
outrageous!” Karhart clenched his fists and his eyes practically sparkled, Jester
mimicking his familiar. Something Steve had noticed whilst staying at the castle, was
that when the mage was happy, things could start floating around the room. The
notebooks they’d collected floated around them. “To think someday, we could travel and
explore other dimensions, think of the possibilities and knowledge!” They both agreed
that it probably would be best not to worry about for the moment. Jester snatched the
floating confections from the air and ate them.
That aside, things looked to be okay for the time being, so Steve and Karhart
wrapped up their meeting for the day, allowing the former to roam the castle. Everything
looked to be in order, the staff running around and the guards marching their routes, the
usual. Even the garden looked to be in order, aside from the fact that the kingdom itself
was flying. Steve let out a sigh of relief as he flopped onto the grass, just basking in the
sunlight and relaxing better than anything he had experienced on his travels. About an
hour later a shadow blocked the sun. “You'd be an easy target for an assassin, you
know.” The cubi captain said, standing over Steve. “Yeah, but who in their right mind
would try and catch up to a floating island maybe a thousand miles in the sky?,” the
beast said without opening his eyes. “Do you honestly want to know?” Alex grinned and
sat down in the grass. Without missing a beat, Steve replied, “Need I remind you I can
literally see them coming?” “Yeah yeah, you’re the spawn of a god. Why are you out
here anyway? Did my father finish the interrogation already?” “Can’t a guy just relax
when he wants to? And besides, it wasn’t an interrogation. Rather, how you say, writing
an autobiography that happens to be crazier than a one-eyed ferret with spindly legs in
the desert.” “ …You’ve met a one-eyed ferret?”
Steve brushed this aside, remembering how literal Alex was. However, he decided
not to let this get to him, sarcastically saying, “You’re tons of fun, y’know that? How
come we don’t hang out more?” And in response, Alex said, just as sarcastically, “Gee,
puppy, I didn't even know you wanted to hang!” “Glad to know you’re picking up on not
being literal all the time.” “I have my moments.” Alex exhaled and laid back in the grass,

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looking at the tower above them. “So, what’s the mighty Captain Alexei doing off his
shift?,” Steve asked, on the verge of teasing, “Is it possible that you wanted to-”, a gasp
broke his sentence, continuing with, “You’re not slacking off, are you?!” “If I wanted to
slack off, I’d be working on my miniature sculptures and not babysitting you, but my
sister asked me to keep an eye on you while she's at that banquet!” The cubi exhaled,
visibly containing his irritation. He inhaled and exhaled a few times. “Sorry about that.”
“Something tells me you don't relax much,” Steve said, genuinely seeming to care for
Alex. “Probably for the best you’re taking time to do so with me right now.” “Then how
do you slack off, wolf?” “Well, this works as one of the ways. Besides, ain’t the sun nice
and warm today?,” Steve asked, resting his hands behind his head. Alex speculated for
a few seconds but didn't say anything, rather he spread his wings out on the grass to
bask in the sun.
And almost out of nowhere, a question came out into the open: “If we faced Envy
and Pride, and Wrath was inside me all this time, what happened to the other four
Sins?” “Are you serious?” Alex snapped his head to the right. But his face went from
anger to actual consideration. “Now that you mention it, maybe a search for the other
Sins should be prioritized.” As if in response to Alex, a feminine voice chimed in, saying,
“I wouldn’t worry about that. I mean, there were more things going on than you might
realize.” Alex spun around and jumped up, scanning the garden to see the intruder.
Steve just quickly sat up, but he also looked around for the source of the voice.
Thankfully, their surprise visitor wasn’t there to pick a fight. In fact, upon a close
inspection from Steve, she had the same soul type as Alex or Rea, while not being a
succubus. Before either of them could ask her name, she simply said, “I’m here to meet
with a...Karhart Amagonaz?” Alex narrowed his eyes. “What are your intentions here?”
“Nothing bad, I promise. I’m just here to provide some info for him, not much
else...except for me being here to pick up some desserts for my boss,” the stranger
said, but upon asking for directions, it took a brief moment of hesitation, but they were
given. Looking at each other, Steve was the first to ask: “Who was that?” “Beats me.”
Alex nearly growled.

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