War Heart took a deep breath. He took comfort in the slight amount of peace in all that has happened. Soon he brought himself to his feet, still weary. He walked along the wall of the alley, leaning against it for support. As he reached the street, he found himself in the fog again. The dense cloud that seemed to shroud everything in mystery, only adding a fear of the unknown to this Dead World he happened to be trapped in. His eyes stung, he felt like he had not slept, nor blinked in weeks. War Heart pressed on into the fog, wearily trudging through the imposing mist. War Heart made sure he was on the lookout for that huge creature. He remembered its eye staring down at him, glowing and bloodshot with an unnatural orange colour to it. He tried to keep the image out of his head while moving about, he knew he had to keep his wits about him in this place. He had no idea where he was going, he aimlessly wandered about in the fog hoping that it will hold answers to his questions. He took a step to find many pebbles on the ground, like one would find on a child’s playground. After reaching there, he started hearing something: a squeaking of metal on metal. War Heart turned and started walking towards the sound, hoping it was a more civil being than the creatures he has seen so far. He soon was close enough to see the old rusty swing set through the mist, a little girl sitting on the swing with a downtrodden look about her. He took another step towards her, “Are you okay?”, War Heart asked, his throat feeling dry and weak.

The girl’s head shot up immediately, greeting War Heart with an expression of fear. She trembled at the very sight of him. His macabre appearance more than unnerving her.

War Heart took another step towards her, “It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you…”, his tone was that of sincerity. He held out his hand to her, silently offering to take her with him.

She stood up from the swing and slowly started backing away from War Heart. She looked at if she did not want to make noise as she shifted away from him.

War Heart looked at her quizzically, wondering why she was so fearful of him. He stood up and took another step towards her, only causing her retreat to hasten. He brought his hand back to his side, no longer holding it out to her. He took a step back, “Why are you so afraid?”

The girl didn’t respond, she only remained still with her frightened expression. Soon her expression turned from terror to curiosity. She looked at him quizzically, as if to wonder what he was doing.

War Heart sat down on the ground, staring back at the little girl. He tilted his head to the side, as did she in some kind of mirror image game. He stopped for a moment, wondering why she was so frightened of him before. He saw her lips move, he heard nothing at first. It was only seconds after that a deafening ringing pulsed through his brain, causing agonizing pain. He clutched his head and rolled onto his back, groaning in his torment.

The girl was startled at his reaction, retreating from him slightly. She was slow at first in her retreat.

War Heart turned to her, getting up off his back on to his knees. He reached his hand out to her, “Wait!”, he shouted.

The little girl turned away and sprinted off into the fog, leaving War Heart alone near the swings.

War Heart exhaled a heavy sigh and rolled over on to his back. He shook his head, “So weak… So alone… What am I doing here…?”, he asked himself in regard to his current situation.

“You’re playing my game.”

A look of annoyance donned War Heart’s face as he rolled his eyes while he was on the ground. He turned his head to see the Dead Master on the swing set, hanging on the high bar by his legs and looking down on him, “What exactly are you master of…?”, War Heart asked, wondering what kind of power would enable him to do such things.

“I see you know more than you’re supposed to, but since you managed to know this much, I will not withhold much. I am the Nether Master. I have the ability to walk between worlds and manipulate this one as I see fit.”, The Dead Master explained to War Heart. He dropped to the ground, his grey mask putting on a neutral expression, and he spoke in an appropriate tone for the mask.

War Heart sighed, growing more and more weary with this Dead Master. He sat up and faced the Nether Master, “So what exactly am I supposed to do here?”

“Ah, that is something you’ll have to figure out. Although I will have to remind you that you must eat here to survive. Magical energies tend to degrade quickly here, and it’ll kill you if you don’t replenish it once in a while.”

“What about the woman I saw earlier? And the little girl? Do you force this on them too?”

“Oh no, they are simply beings that have survived. They do not possess the Dead Magic and do not look monstrous in appearance, which means that they do not waste away in this realm. They are the prey for our kind, their living essence converted into large amounts of Dead Magic once you consume them.”

“You’re sick…”

“I do not make the rules, I have control in that I can quit and move about when I please.”

“I don’t care what you can do, I’ll kill you somehow.”

“I somehow doubt that, you don’t even know how to use your Dead Magic abilities to their full potential. You probably assumed you would just gain all the powers that the previous masters had? Wrong. A lot of the time, the powers will change depending on the user who has them.”

“How do I find out what I can do…?”

“Well, we had training. We learned our powers through a tutor we shared.”

“Who?”

“He is master, and taught us all how to use the Dead Magic. He learned how to achieve immortality through reincarnating himself every so often.”

“Where can I find him?”

“Back in your world, at that lovely castle in Canterlot. Why? You wanna find out what you can do?”, the Nether Master spoke in an excited tone.

“I want to be able to control these powers… Not the other way around.”

The Master’s mask changed expression from neutrality to happiness, “Well, of course! I’m almost tempted to let you out right now just so you can go to Canterlot and find him and learn under or kill him. I have no preference, I am happy in my own little world, watching the wonderful deaths, fantastic scenery, and creative monsters that people make themselves into.”

“So why are you keeping me here?”

“Letting you go so quick would be against the rules.”

“So what are the rules?”

“First Rule: Eat often, or you will Die; Second Rule: Don’t damage your body to badly, or you will die; Third Rule: Kill every other monster in here before leaving, see where this is going?”

War Heart weakly nodded, “If I try to leave without being the only monster, I die.”

“No… Normally it would just strip you of your Dead Magic. However, I know that is the only thing keeping you alive so I guess you’re outta luck there.”

War Heart sighed, “Fine… How many monsters are out there?”

“No clue, but I have to say that they are attracted towards noise. Unless it happens to be from that superbly large fellow stomping around here… Speak of the discord!”, the Nether Master vanished in front of War Heart as an orange coloured spotlight shone on War Heart.

War Heart turned to see the creature eyeing him. He quickly got up and started stumbling away. He could hear the giant footsteps behind him as he wearily jogged way. The beast was massive, a force to be reckoned with, but it was slow. War Heart moved over to the nearest building and burst in through the door, hiding against the wall in the darkness of the room he entered. He watched as the orange spotlight scanned over the inside of the room, only barely did it miss him before passing on. He watched as the beast tromped away heavily within the fog. War Heart sighed in relief and collapsed on the floor, sitting down. His mind wandered to the other world, he wondered how long he would have to keep doing things like this. He had an inkling of hope that this will be the last quest, that he would be able to settle down and raise his children properly instead of leaving on adventures where he may not come back. He also thought of Dash, and the mental torment she must be going through because he may not come back again. The guilt set in, he lowered his head, ashamed for putting Dash through this. He turned towards the outside, a newfound determination in his heart, “I promise you, Dash… I will come back… and never leave again.”, he got up off the ground and walked out the door into the solid fog. He wandered through it, now searching for more of those creatures, the other users of Dead Magic. He found himself in the middle of the playground again. He looked to the sky and let out a scream. His voice was still dry and his throat was parched, he coughed after raising his voice to that point. Every time he breathed in, it felt like he was inhaling powdered glass that tore at his lungs and set them ablaze. He heard the crunching sounds of footsteps in the pebbles of the playground. He turned to see one of the creatures approaching him.

It looked like it was a person at some point. Its hair was a mess and crusty with what looked like dried blood; its eyes were missing and bled from the empty sockets; its jaw hung low and open to complete a macabre version of an expression of utter despair; the tongue was long and reached almost two feet out of its mouth, grey and slimy; it was missing the lower half of its body, the intestines dragged along the ground while it was held up by six long and slender legs that came out of his back that resembled a spider’s legs; its skin was a dull shade of grey and it sounded like it groaned and moaned as if it were in utter sadness. It approached War Heart slowly holding its arms out to him.

War Heart readied himself, unsure what this creature might be capable of. He awaited its first move. His leg suddenly gave away, he fell on his back He started sliding along the ground towards the creature. He looked at his left leg to see his ankle wrapped up with the creature’s intestine. As he drew closer to it, it stood higher, balancing on four of the legs and readying the front two. He felt a sharp pain as both the legs jammed into his shoulders. He winced as he was pinned down by its pointed legs, breathing heavily to try and shrug off the pain and pull them out to free himself. The creature moaned at him as it reached with its arms towards his face.

“Are you gonna let him just take you down like a little bitch?”

War Heart heard the voice of DeadBeast, a familiar feeling of rage boiling inside of him. He threw his fist in the face of the creature, breaking its jaw so it hung on by one side. He grabbed the legs that pinned him down, now he decided he wasn’t going to pull them out, but break them off. He strained and growled as he bent the creatures legs. It started getting louder as the legs cracked and crunched from War Heart’s strength. There was a sudden snap as both legs broke, the creature falling over and thrashing in pain. War Heart slowly stood up, the broken off pieces of the creatures legs still in him. He grabbed them and started pulling, tearing them out to see his black, oozing blood spill onto the ground. He felt a moment of anticipation, watching the creature slow its thrashing from weakness. He looked at the creature’s pieces he now held in his hands and smirked. He walked over stood above it, he smiled as he jammed the pieces of the creature’s legs into its eye sockets. The creature squirmed for a few seconds as War Heart twisted them into its brain. Once it stopped moving, War Heart tore off a piece of the flesh on its chest and proceeded to eat it hastily. After he swallowed the flesh, he felt more of his strength returning to him. He looked at his fingers to see them grow into claws, he also felt as through he was no longer thirsty. He grinned as he felt so alive, like he could take on the world. He knew he wasn’t at his full strength yet, he still had a ways to go before then. He heard the cries of a man in the distance. He turned to the direction it came from, the body of the creature he just killed turning to dust beneath him. The fog was dense and impaired his vision, not allowing him to sprint. He kept a decent pace despite the mist, now able to rely on reflex to avoid any obstacles he my run into. He arrived to see a man on the ground, apparently his ankle had been injured.

The creature shambled towards the man on the ground. It had the shape of a person, like the others; it had no face on its head to speak of; on its hands were eyes in the center of its palms; although it had no legs, it had a fleshy serpent-like tail that moved it along. Its gaze was fixated on the man who was its prey, which cowered and tried crawling away only to find a wall. Suddenly the creature found itself knocked down, a larger creature with glowing red eyes and skeletal wings looking down on it. Its head twitched and started shaking.

War Heart stood and watched it recoil from him tackling it. Its head shuddered while it was on the ground. Its head burst open from the front, cracking open and spraying a liquid onto War Heart. He felt a burning sensation on his arm that he used to block the liquid. He watched as his hand began to melt to the bone. He looked at the creature and spread his skeletal wings. He stepped towards it, looking more menacing than ever. He grabbed its wrist and twisted its arm, he lowered it to the ground and stomped on its elbow. He pulled on its wrist until the entire forearm came off. He put his foot to its throat and jammed the forearm into the mouth that took up the entirety of the front of its head. He watched as it choked on its own arm. He jammed his claws into its chest and tore open its torso, letting its blackened blood spill onto the sidewalk. He broke off the creature’s other arm and bit into it voraciously. He now noticed that the flesh did not taste as bad as before, in fact, he began to crave more of it. He felt his teeth morph themselves into more pointed versions of their former shapes. His muscles were beginning to show their natural size once more. He watched as his hand healed back to its flesh covered state. He looked to the man who was still laying on the ground nearby, who was horrified by what he just watched. War Heart walked over to him, “Can you stand?”

The man only responded with more fear, backing away slightly.

War Heart looked at him curiously, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The man slowly started crawling away, his sprained ankle not allowing him to run.

“Where are you going?”, War Heart asked, starting to get a bit annoyed at the man.

The man hastened his retreat from War Heart, retaining his expression of terror.

War Heart was fed up with the man. He walked over and grabbed him by the collar.

The man responded to this by screaming, a sound that pierced War Heart’s ears and brain.

War Heart held his ears in an attempt to shut out the noise, “Shut up!”, he yelled at the screaming man who was crawling away still. After a few seconds, the screams continued to ring in his head and cause him pain. He ran up to the man and punched him in the jaw in an attempt to stop the noise. The noises stopped, War Heart looked down at the man who was wide-eyed and unmoving on the sidewalk. War Heart realised what he had just done: he killed a man who was innocent in all this. He sat down and held his head, “No… It was an accident… I didn’t want to… I couldn’t stop myself…”, he tried to rationalize his murderous act to himself.

“He was causing you harm. You reacted.”

War Heart heard the voice of DeadBeast again, “I don’t need your help.”

“Oh really? Who got you out of the last mess with one of those things? Me. Admit it, in this world: there are no room for heroes, only monsters. You have to be what you really are to thrive here or you will die.”

“I can’t do it… It’s wrong…”

“If you die here, what will happen to your family?”

“Don’t you dare bring them into this!”

“Oh, did I hit a nerve? Suck it up, Monster. You’ll have to just be yourself here if you want to make it back to your family. Give me control, and I’ll get us out of here…”

“No… I have to do this… Without becoming a Monster.”

“You just killed a man, that is pretty monstrous as is.”

“I didn’t want to kill him… He just… I just… hit him too hard.”

“You acted on instinct, it was harming you and you got rid of it. I have to say I’m proud of you for that.”

“I messed up… I regret it…”

“Stop being so melodramatic and eat this guy already. You’ll be able to leave sooner if you gain a lot of power quickly to take on the big thing later.”

“I can’t…”

“I guess Dash will have to wait even longer for your return then, if you return…”

War Heart didn’t want to believe him, but he was right. Things in this world were only getting worse and if he didn’t act quickly, he could be risking never leaving. He looked over to the dead man on the ground. He reached over and tore off a piece of the man’s neck. He held the pink flesh in his hand, trying prepare himself mentally for what he was about to do.