The fields were red. Blood red. Bodies of monsters, men, demi-humans, elves, demons, and much more littered the grasslands. However, the bodies were not alone for there was a city that stood in the middle of the grasslands that were also filled with bodies that still were fresh with the color red. It was quite obvious that the city used to be a place filled with life, riches, and power with beautiful architecture and stalls filled with marvelous goods. In the middle of the city, a majestic white castle used to stand high and mighty. The mere sight of the castle was enough to fill people with shock and awe into the hearts of whoever laid their eyes on its structure for its spires reached into the skies with gems embedded into the walls that seemed to glow with magic power. Now, the city was simply devoid of life, and half of the castle was reduced to rubble with explosions that continued to shake its foundations.

Within the castle laid even more bodies or what were left of them. A giant pile of dust was right next to a monstrous carcass that was so deformed with bones the stuck out at queer angles that it was simply impossible to identify the carcass. At the roof of the room, a pair of black eyes was glued to the ceiling laying witness to the figure of a Dullahan impaled on one of the gold chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. On the red carpet, a female elf lay dead her clothes and her surrounding slowly being stained with her blood while the torso of what seemed to be a vampire was impaled straight into the grounds and legs that suck out almost comically from the ground. The hallway was not devoid of movement despite the stillness of the bodies within the throne room. Two figures were trading furious blows into each other. One was a human male dressed in what was once glorious obsidian colored armor holding a sword that once shone with a brilliant violet aura but reduced to half of a sword and glowed with a dying red light. His light brown hair was singed at numerous places, and one of his eyes were missing with blood slowly seeping out of its hole. The other eye shown with defiance as his brown eyes stared intently into the opponent watching its every move. On the opposite side stood a dark oppressive shadow that seemed to absorb all light that touched its form and was constantly morphing its shape. The only thing constant about the form was the two glowing red eyes that hovered in the top of the form as it stared down harshly at the human. Suddenly, the form shifted, and a blade devoid of light flew at the human forcing him to jump back.

“Why do you keep fighting human? You can never defeat me. I am a being that was born from the culmination of darkness and lost souls, fueled by despair, fear, and sadness. You never had a chance. So why are you so persistent? Did you truly think the power of hope and friendship would be enough to defeat me?” (Dark Shadow)

“To be honest, Emperor of Despair, I too never thought that I could defeat you nor your army. However, I fight because it is the right thing to do. You have no right to take innocent lives and no right to take away the freedom that makes life precious.” (Human)

“Don’t delude yourself. Life is filled with despair and hatred. It is filled with struggle as all species compete with each other simply to survive. The survival of the fittest which leaves the weak to die as the strong continues to feed off the weak. Life is unnecessary. It needs to be trimmed and controlled.” (Emperor of Despair)

“You’re wrong. That isn’t all to life. Yeah, life is filled with struggles, and yeah, life has its dull points. But life is also about enjoying those struggles, sympathizing with others, having fun, making bonds of family and friendship, feeling sad, working hard for your dreams, and growing from your failures. Like my father used to say, ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’. It is a weird saying, but it makes sense. Just because life is filled with struggles does not mean that it deserves to be snuffed out and controlled like some dangerous poison. Life is filled with emotions, and it gives it an amazing color.” (Human)

“How naïve! Emotions you say! Emotions are useless! It merely impedes with rationale thinking! Those bonds you so cherish are so easily broken! Hard work does NOT guarantee your dreams. Even if you achieve those dreams, it can all come crashing down, leaving you in nothing but a pit of despair. The risks regarding life is too much. THAT is why I have gathered under my banner monsters to control life.”

“You mean the illusion of control. No matter what you do life will continue to struggle. You can’t control life. Besides, what do you know about life in the first place? You never felt emotions, you never had friends, and you DON’T KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE YOUR FRIENDS DIE IN FRONT OF YOU!”

“It seems that you are starting to break human. Say no more. I shall grant you a quick death before I begin to collect the darkness that have settled on this land to take control of the flow of life. Consider it as a congratulations for lasting so long against me.”

A dark mass began to form over the Emperor of Despair, sucking in the shadows and light. The room seemed to darken as the mass began to grow. Once it has reached a certain size, it began to form into a spear, pointed at the human who has collapsed onto his knees and began coughing blood. Suddenly, the human muttered a single word and began to chuckle.

Suddenly, the body of the elf, the eyes, and the pile of dust burst into a cloud of white particles and surrounded the Emperor and immediately absorbed the spear and began to feed of the body of the Emperor himself.

“Did you know that my father who you so brutally murdered 10 years ago was actually from another world? When he first saw you, he immediately believed that this world was doomed and began working on a spell that could send him and his loved ones back. He managed to complete the spell, but he could not gather enough energy to power the spell and gave it to me before he rode off to battle.”

“So? What of it? If you truly think this pitiful seal can trap me, do reconsider. I can break any seal in a small amount of time. You’re father died in vain when he thought that by delaying me, he could buy enough time for the mages to use a spell that was supposed to seal me for a millennia. It only held me down for 30 seconds.”

“No. This time. I made some tweaks to the spell; I am going to banish you from this world.”

“Ahhhhh. Interesting. Sadly, there are holes in your plan, and you are just bluffing. You said a couple seconds ago that the spell did not have enough power. I have also investigated about interdimensional travel after I learned your father was not of this world. Your father simply fell through cracks when the fabric of space and time intersected and folded. The spell you are speaking of is trying to send me away from the fabric and into another point. Even if you did succeed, I have lived on this world for a very long time. So even if I was banished and sent to another point in the fabric, the gravity of this world has a stronger pull on me so it will be easy to simply return with a simple manipulation of magic. Enough of this foolishness. I have wasted too much time…… Why will this seal not break?”

“Hehehehe. My father said that he was a college student working on a degree in chemistry in his old world. Once, he told me that it costs energy to break bonds between atoms. This seal is special. I applied what he said to this seal. It is actually taking your energy to fuel the real breaking of our bonds, this time with bonds of friendship and family. That’s right. When a friend dies, the bond still remains. We still retain memories and emotions for that person. That is why people grieve over separation and death. The price for this seal is that we are forsaking our bonds with each other, our families, and our friends, and we are using your energy to fuel the breaking of the bonds. In other words, we have decided to disappear from the lives of everyone we knew and simply become strangers.”

“You are nothing but a fool. That means that this seal will only trap me for a couple minutes at most then. You have underestimated my power, child. Also, even now you still have the issue of obtaining enough energy to banish me from this world.”

“Nope. A couple minutes is enough to banish you from this world. Also, my father told me that energy is released when we make bonds. Guess what? Have you wondered what it is like to live in a human body?”

“You would not dare…”

“Oh. I. Do. Dare. Have fun living in a human body beyond this world asshole.”

A flare of light flashed, and the shadow disappeared. The human lied down and closed his eyes as his body began to fossilize.

“Sorry Elsie. I couldn't keep my promise. Sorry I couldn't be there to see that world you always dreamed about."