Domain of the last Human.

by SPanDXltd

Rating: mature
Tags: Doctor Whooves, Drama, Original Character, Apple Bloom, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Science Fiction, Other, Adventure, Gore, Princess Celestia, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 20516

Hello, my friend! I am ....... well, I don't remember my name, but you can call me Dark Void. I am the last human. And now I am in magical horse land.

Hello. I am ........ well, I don't really remember my name, but you can call me Dark Void, because why not? I guess I should have put a little more thought into my new name instead of letting a little girl choose it.. I am the last human. And now I'm in magical horse land.

I had commissioned a world about 26 thousand years ago, but it appears that my ehm...let's see.... 'architect'....yes, architect called me up here at exactly the wrong time. Now I am stuck with a world reproduced from an old cartoon show from Earth. Well, something is better than nothing, right? I needed a sanctuary. All will be well. Hopefully.

Written Before recovering from amnesia.
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Being the last human is not easy. For 27 thousand years, the only reliable constant in Dark's life were his fights with the demon Rocky. 20 years ago, Rocky stopped coming.
So, Dark is once again given the opportunity to think in peace, which is something he does not particularly appreciate. So he decides to tie up some lose ends instead of just sitting around. Like killing the leader of a universal superpower which controls 30% of the universe. Not too much, just small stuff. For some reason ,though, the plan fails, and he runs away strategically retreats at the expense of an arm. After some time flying through space barely holding onto life he arrives in an unexpected place. What's worse, he had the place built. Perhaps he should have clarified exactly what he wanted of his architect Ed? Perhaps he should demand a refund? Whatever said and done, now he has to pacify cute ponies. Can he do it? Perhaps Of course he can, for he is the Fire in the Dark. (and he's done it before.)
.............
Hie story. Please point out grammatical errors. Please give reasons for dislike so that I can improve. Before you ask, yes, Dark Void is overpowered, but then again, who isn't.
Also, try to actually read the story before banging the dislike button.

Published 2015-06-28 18:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-09-05 10:36:26 UTC

Prologue: In chains

    "Did I tell you that you look beautiful?", the black alicorn asked, staring at the white horse's form. It was dark in the cell, but the soft glow of her horn cast enough light to make out her features.

    "Flattery will not help you. Just answer the question. Who are you?" asked Celestia. The black alicorn was frustrating her. It had been half an hour since he had awakened. He had already driven an interrogator mad. They had to tie her down while she screamed about things of death and terror.

     The black alicorn had done nothing since but make small talk with Celestia.

    "You really are beautiful. Like a sculpture. Ed got that part right." the black alicorn commented again, an infuriating smile on his face. A mocking smile.

     Celestia snapped. Her mane and tail lit on fire, turning into white flames as hot as the sun. Her eyes exploded into twin shades of burning orange, miniature solar flares escaping and arching back inside, glowing like two majestic  suns. Every breath escaping her nostrils were hot flames as the air itself caught fire. Her body shone a bright blinding white as she asked the creature in an explosive voice .

     " Enough! This is your last chance, creature. Answer me! Who. Are. You?" she demanded. Finally, she would get some answers. Even the most battle-hardened warriors trembled in fear before her war form. When the 3rd Griffin king marched on Equestria , a glance of her visage had broken the entire army's morale. She expected a yell of surprise, a scream of terror, followed by the creature's unconditional cooperation.

    She had not expected laughter.

    It was the laugh of an amused creature.

    Her flames dimmed and died out as she returned to normal, still listening to sound of his chuckles as he struggled to control himself." I'm sorry, goddess,", he said, composing himself, " but you need to work on your form. Your are wasting to much energy to maintain that appearance." he said smiling."Well, I suppose I have been rude. Then again, you have done the same." he said, lifting all three hooves into the air, causing the huge chains to shift and clink, magic runes glowing on the steel.

    "You struck first! You had no reason to attack the Crystal Empire, or to injure the Element of Harmony, or to torture a little filly." Celestia screamed in frustration."You almost killed Spike!"

    "Now you're being unfair." the black alicorn countered, " I was a step away from death the first time, and your other goddess, she tried to burn me to death. With love. Who even does that? And, Oh yes,  I didn't 'torture' Applebloom, I saved her life. You can go see for yourself. Your bloody  'elements' of Order began to blast me instead of hearing me out . As for the Wrym, don't worry your divine little head about him, he cannot die. At all. Believe me, I have tried before." As he said this, the black alicorn got up, the chains not even slowing him down as they snapped. The magic runes sparked and fizzled out. An inky black darkness consumed his form, and where the black alicorn had just stood, there now stood a creature that even Celestia had only known through proxy. A human.

    She only had half a second to register the sight. Six feet tall, bipedal,  slightly musculed , a single arm as thick as the width her hooves and a face with a small nose and small eyes. He wore something on his waist covering his nether regions, and  nothing else. His right arm was completely missing, a scorch mark on the shoulder where it should have been. He had no fur.

    The half a second passed.

     Suddenly, faster than Celestia could react, a black dome sprung up around them both, as big as the cell, digging through the granite floor until there was no way out. There was no way out.  Reacting quickly, Celestia, charged a blast of energy, but some of the matter from the sphere dripped onto her horn like a liquid, and hardened, cutting her magic. Undaunted, she punched him with her fore-hoof. A hundred tons of pure physical force struck him square in the chest.

     He didn't even flinch. The amused smile never left his face.

     Celestia suddenly realised the futility of her situation. She had grossly underestimated her foe . His power, carefully hidden till then, flared, , and his aura briefly grew  a thousand fold before it retreated, folding back into his form again as he moved his hand and ever-so-gently pushed her unresistant hoof off. Celestia unceremoniously sat down,  fear clawing at her heart.

     He was still smiling. It was not the cold smile of a murderer or the psychotic smile of a madman. It was the smile of an ancient dragon, being challenged by a filly in oversized armor .

    Her face became impassive once again, but the human could still sense her fear, and he stopped smiling. He mentally kicked himself, and tried to fruitlessly repair the situation. Traumatizing the ruling Monarch was bad for business, after all.

     "Oh, I'm  sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. Well ... I did, but.... I assure you, I am as harmless as a fly." He sat down on a stool that emerged from the sphere.

      "Have a seat." he said, and a oval seat appeared around Celestia before  he could answer. It raised her until she was at the same eye level as the human. The fear in her eyes still remained, though her face was impassive .

       That did not bode well for the human.

     An idea struck the human. He bent down and clawed at the floor with his left hand, breaking of a piece of granite as large as his fist. He applied  a little pressure on it, and making sure that Celestia was watching, ground it into a thin powder with his fingers. He willed a blade to form from the Vibranium sphere, and used it to cut the vein on his left arm (purposefully wincing a little to show the goddess that he too could feel pain), letting a stream of blood flow into his palm before he healed the cut. He he mixed his blood and the white kneaded the resulting clay into a pink sphere , and cast a powerful spell on it. He held it out the resulting shiny pink stone to Celestia.

     "Here," he said "take this." . Seeing her questioning gaze ( still laced with fear), he explained -"It's blood magic, a very ancient and dangerous form magic. That spell was a life bond, and this little stone is now a bondsman's stone. You crush it, and I die.".

    " Then why would you give it to me?" Celestia asked, picking up the stone with her magic, "I could just kill you right now."she said ,studying the magic. Powerful tendrils of blood red magic were connecting him to the stone. She could not understand the spell itself, but  it seemed to be a set of sounds in an arcane language.The blood magic thing seemed genuine then. Suddenly, Celestia visibly relaxed in relief as her fear evaporated. The odds had flipped to her side. It was still a little confusing as to why he would literally hand over his life to an possibly hostile stranger.

     Then she realised it. It was a gamble. A well thought out one, but still a gamble. He knew that she would give her a chance to hear him out after this gesture. And since her fear was quelled, she would be able to listen to him with a calm mind. Which meant that he was confident with his explanation.

    "So ,what say? Deal?" the human said. He had already guessed what she was thinking.

     "Deal." She agreed.

     "Well then," the human said, smiling, I'll start with the first question."

     "I don't remember my real name........, but you can call me Dark Void."

Assault on God's Plateau.

Assault on God's Plateau.

I was walking down the path to the palace once again. How many years has it been? 26, 27 thousand ? I  don't even remember anymore.Do we need to? I thought that we were just here  to crush his neck.   As much as I would hate to, I must be bearer of ill news. Our rival's anatomy excludes a neck. Hey man, it's a figure of speech, okay? Then, my  esteemed colleague, I am sad to be the first inform you of your horrific misinterpretation of the literary device called 'Figure of Speech'. Dude, I have, like, no idea what your saying. .

   "Shut up. Not now." I told both of them. Sometimes, they were really distracting.

    Behind me, in large flat lands, lay the remains of the God's army. About 30 billion in all, I think. Mortals, all of them. They delayed me for a full hour and a half. I tried to spare as many as I could, but 2,415 of the Elite were lying dead on the cold rock of the gods plateau now . A shame, really. A few of them might have made the Legion. I had probably eliminated parts of the next powerful generation. More dreams and lives crushed by me.

     The gates of Order loomed tall before me, once again. As large as  mountains, 6 kilometers high and 100 meters thick, made of the pure Adamantium, it was Gate befitting of the gargantuan white dome the size of an average moon which was the palace of the Gods. Intricately decorated with powerful runes of Harmony, these doors  had held back Chaos himself once. They were legend.

         Today, they would fall. Finally, we can smash stuff! I was getting so bored! Are you absolutely certain of your decision?

"I cannot turn back now, anyway. Beings have already lost lives to my venture. "

Oh yes. Make them suffer. Make him suffer. He took everything from us. Torture him, torture his soul. His heart. Do to him what he did to us. . "Hatred, Revenge, Crawl back into the hole you came from", I told them. Yes. I would make him suffer. The High God has taken much from me. My life's work. My reason to live. I knew he did it because he had to. I understood, and, god help me, my logic agreed with him. Nip a weed before it grows. It made  sense.

                 He destroyed my reason to make sense of things. I was human again, no longer bound by logic.

                 Thus, I would destroy him. Torture him till he breaks. Make despair his reality. Horror his Truth. Hope his impossible dream. I was going to break the High God. And then I would kill him.

Dude, Grimdark. But I'm lov'in it. What are we waitin for?  Yes, let us carry out our purpose. May the Truth be false. "May the Truth be false, indeed.  I replied, uttering the greeting of a Disillusioned.

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          It had been a glorious life. He had no regrets.

          The  5th Captain of the Legion was ready to die. He could say ,with pride in his light, that his soldier were ready to die too.

           How far had he come? How had he come here? From first battle to last, this was the moment he had been waiting for. Too die gloriously in battle, serving his race, songs of his deeds floating for eternity after him. What would transpire here today would be taught to young gods and demons as their history and birthright.

             Why then, was there that glimmer of unease. that hesitancy.

              "Defend for as long as you can, but if you fall, stay on the ground. Donot give up your lives."

               Why did the High God say that? The Legion does not fall till till every last God or Demon is dead. That had been the way of the Legion, since the Hopeless War to this day.

                Ah, the Hopeless War. That brought back memories. What an ironic name. A joke by the first ever General of the hastily assembled Legion of Demon and God. The 5th Captain had been there that day, no more than a common foot soldier. His first war. He remembered it like yesterday. 500 Gods, 500 Demons. Billions of chaotic construct with no minds of there own charging wildly across the cold granite field to hastily erected dome of Titanium, forged by the life of the great Blacksmith of the Gate himself. Inside lay every god in existence, fueling the might of their magic and power to the Major God of Creation, as he maintained the spell that bind Chaos himself. Above them in the sky, 8 sons' of Chaos waged a desperate battle against their weakened father. Spells shot. Weapons clashed. Limbs flew. Order vs Chaos. Life vs death. Win, Survive. Lose, Die.

             After many, many hours, the 5th Captain was exhausted. He could see that chaotic blade falling down on him, as if time itself has slowed down. He could still see the battle raging above him. Chaos, still bond by the spell, was still as powerful as ever. He was not even fighting seriously. He never had been. He really was too powerful to be destroyed. The 5th Captain didn't care, though. It was all over for him. He had already accepted the certainty of death. To actually be confronted by it was.......strange. He didn't really feel as afraid as he should have.

             Then the blade just dissipated. He just had enough time to be surprised before he saw the most magnificent sight he had ever seen. One that would forever be etched in his memory.

             Five bright points of burning light shone like stars, arranged in a haphazard pentagon. Beams of light issued forth from them, meeting roughly at the center, swirled and shot itself at Chaos. Caught in the unwares, Chaos could do nothing but laugh as Harmony burnt him away.

             And then he was gone. The aura that signified him faded away as his mind dissolved. Chaos was dead.

             The Captain jumped up instantly.

             They had .....won. They had won? They had won!!!!

                      It was the best day of the captain's life.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

              Something was wrong. No one was celebrating.  There should have been bright flashes of light all around the battlefield as the warriors celebrated, with not a care left in the world .  Pride. Joy . Relief. Victory. They had  won. Why wasn't anyone celebrating? What was going on?  He sent a flash of light expressing his confusion to his comrades.

             There was no answer. What was wrong with them?

.

.

.

.

.

.

                     They were  dead.

              It was the worst day of the captain's life.

BOOM

               The vibrations from the impact shook the Captain from his memories. The room faded back into his vision. The enemy had arrived, and as it was required of him, he would provide time.

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          Just one more.

BOOM

           The mountain sized gate shook  as I punched it one last time.  As I had expected, the gate was just a relic of the past . The magic protecting it was meant for Chaos , and the blacksmith who smelted it was dead. It was still quite hardy, though. I had pumped in enough physical force to destroy atleast 15000 planets into it.

             I put my right palm on the huge dent in the metal, and drove my fingers into, it securing a firm grip.Then, I pulled.

            The door was torn form the palace in a single piece. I held it in the air a meter above the ground for a few seconds. 50 - 60 billion tons? Who cares. I threw the  door behind me, and turned to face my audience. The entire guard was facing me. Five thousand gods faced me now. They were definitely more powerful than the mortal army, each god a million times more powerful than any mortal soldier.

            Not powerful enough to bridge the gap, but powerful enough for me to go all out. I jumped forward, moving faster than light, jabbing each god with my fists, leaving a clean hole in their bodies, along with a nasty little surprise. The last one I attacked was the captain. Somehow, he managed to ward off my first attack, earning my admiration, but the second attack got him,  piercing his body and implanting a dose of magic, a paralytic spell.

             I stopped in front of him. The attack had taken a full 3 seconds. Not my best, but it worked, as gods realised that there were holes in their large  bodies. The paralytic spells began to take effect, and one tonne bodies  began to fall to the ground.

            I knew that a god stood before me. His body was probably an flattened oval sphere, if my memory serves, and the rim  has eight tentacle like appendages protruding from them. Any surface on a god's body is like.... a retina. The can literally see everything around themselves. The downside being that they have no hearing organs.  They're all  deaf.

           I am probably not the best authority on the subject. The last time I have seen anything at all was 26 thousand years ago.

          The captain fell to the ground.

      Then I noticed something unusual. They didn't get up. That's not possible. Even the newest of the Legion don't fall till they are dead. Why didn't they get up?. It was really unsettling.

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Twenty minutes later.

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           The halls were all empty.

          Usually the halls of the gods were bustling with activity. Gods running here and there.  Envoys from all over the universe moving around the halls for official communication. The Devil's constant petitions to the High God to paint the God's palace pink, so many over the years that there was a department just for filing them. Just the everyday mundane business of running about 30%  of the universe.

          Now the halls were silent. There was no one there. Every god other than the pittance of a guard had been evacuated. It was strange. I should have been fighting tooth and nail against the Arch and Major gods by now for every inch I covered.

          I finally reached the waiting room. It was as massive as I remembered, a dome with a radius of three kilometers. Right at the center was another dome with a radius of 500 meters. The throne room of the gods, where for nearly 10 billion years petitions were made, judgements were passed, duels over positions had taken place, war had been waged and treaties had been forged. It was where I had signed 'The Inclusion Clause', to initiate the process of becoming a part of the union  , and the 'Second Chance' petition. Basically, that petition was to give a race marked for extermination a second chance, and had to be supplemented by assent of at least 50% of the race. I had signatures of nearly 90% of all humans. And I coupled the signatures with the fact that we could literally mass produce nukes, with over-the-counter chemicals, 50 thousand a day, with the capability to wipe out 500,000 square kilometer sized patches and perfect functionality  in space.

          Needless to say,  the old High god agreed.

          If only the new High god had honored the agreement, I would not be here. I would have been long dead.

          I entered the waiting room, and began to walk across to the throne room, when I felt a presence, much like a god's, but different. Familiar.

           My son, Malfunction One.

          He stood in front of me, blocking my path.

          "Father." he said, using sound instead of light.

          " Son." I replied, "What exactly are you doing here?"

           "I am the new Arch god," he answered, " the God of War."

           This was an unusual development. "Why?" I asked, though I already guessed the answer.

          "They know about the techniques," he said, " they know how to cut magic. They have knowledge on the subject. I needed to know." I felt regret emanating from his voice.

            Great. An attack on the Gods suddenly turned into a family drama. And I thought that Indian serials were bad. I wondered if someone was going to say "Baaahuuuu" just about now.

Dude, you fucked up. You should have thought of this before. I mean ,seriously? Come on, how was I supposed to know this could have happened.My colleague may be vulgar, but he speaks the truth. Why did you not tell your family your intentions? I didn't want them to worry. If I had told them, they would have come here themselves. Screw explanations, fix the problem.  Or you will lose family.

              That thought was scary. I pushed it away and and focused my mind.

                              " That's great!" I told him, genuinely   'The God of War' is no easy title to win. He had fought against one of the most formidable forces in the universe, and won.

                                All six of my son's were doing so well, it brought almost brought tears of pride to my eyes. They had really grown up.

               "Really?" he said, his regret fading a bit .

               "Of course." I replied, a little pride showing through my voice."The God of War, huh? So you're an Arch God now? Congratulations!!"

                "Thank you father." His regret fading and his calm  demeanor  coming back. " But that means that I must block your path, as is my duty as God of War."

               " I know." I said, a smile on my face as my son became normal again,"but, you know, if we kill each other , it may affect our relationship."

               "Yes , Father.What do you propose we do?"

                "How about first strike?"

                 "Agreed."

                 Time slowed down as we charged at each other at speeds faster than light. As soon we were was close enough, One began to form an attack with his swords. A strike to the  torso. I prepared my fist for an uppercut. He changed his attack, holding his swords parallel.A cut to stomach and chest preventing the upper cut. Abandoning the blow, I began to move my left to strike him in the stomach. He changed his blade's stance, forming an upturned V to intercept my fist. He realised his mistake too late as he left his lower stomach open. In desperation, he slashed his blades , still in a V, outwards towards my chest. My fist connected with his stomach.

                  The whole battle took a millionth of a second.

                   A Upside down V was leaking a steady stream of blood from my body, diverging from the base of my neck to 2 points just shy of my waist. My T-shirt, carefully interwoven with Adamantium strands, turned red as a triangle peeled out of it.

                   'Just what is expected  of He who cuts all.' I thought with a smile. His title was not in vain.

                   One was lying on the ground, a few meters away from me . He sat up, easily resisting the the sleep spell as the hole in his stomach closed. He did not seem that shocked.

                   "The outcome was already decided, wasn't it , father ?" he asked.

                    "In the past, I would have said yes, but now? 90% sure." I replied, with sincerity, as I  clotted my own blood. I was keeping that scar. It would forever reassure me, that my son was strong enough to injure the most powerful being that there is. He would be safe.

                  " Well One, it has been good meeting you. I'll see you later." I told One, turning towards the Throne room.

                 " Farewell then, father," he said, as he stopped resisting  against the sleep spell "It was an honour to duel you."

                 " Oh, I assure you, the honour was all mine. Also," I said , putting on a  mock serious face," when you become the best swordsman, don't come after me. I don't want to die anytime soon."

                  One chuckled at my attempt at joke, laughing more at my pathetic sense of humor than at the joke himself. One day, though, he would realize that it was only a half-joke.

               Family drama avoided, I walked towards the door of the throne room and broke it down. Finally, I would have my revenge. And then, perhaps I could move on.

               After this is over, I will go and meet Ed, and my sons, and perhaps start searching for Rocky again.

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40 minutes later

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               Sometimes, I am tempted to believe that there is a God pulling at strings (like an biblical God, not the race of gods). I know it is not true. I mean, I cannot see any ties emerging from me going any where unusual. There is a tie to dark, one to light, a few ties to various other energies, even one to chaos, but I have never felt any bond, through mind or through soul to any sentient being other than Rocky. I am alone in the universe, just like everyone else is.

                But if there is a god, he must really hate me.

                It had been, say , 4-5 minutes, before I woke up? I had not cast the stabilizing spell, so about a year should have passed in the real world. One of the downsides of travelling at a 100 times the speed of  light is that if you don't take proper precautions, you will arrive wherever you wanted a few thousand years later. Hasn't happened to me or Rocky yet yet, or to my sons. Ed is too old to make such a mistake.

               The problem was that, my speed was increasing, because it increased to 150 at that moment.

Hey, I think it's the stone thingy. 'Huh?' He means the amulet  that was bestowed upon usby the former Arch God of Creation. Why don't you just say Ed?Oh, please, I am not going to demean him by calling him that pathetic excuse of a name someone gave him. 'Oh,Excuse me' I thought,sarcastically,' it's not like I forced him .' Actually, you kind of did. You told him that his new name was Ed without even asking him first. 'The point is moot' I said, knowing that I would not win this argument.

                 I was still speeding up, though. I just crossed 1500 times the speed of light. I brought my right arm to grab the time field and realised two things.

               1. I am moving too fast for it to slow me down. My strength had been considerably diminished after that fiasco with the High god.

               2. I am no longer in possession of a right arm.

               Perfect. Just perfect.

               I thought back to the end of the battle. Before I was flying through the vacuum of space at 1500 times the speed of light....It is 2500 now. ..... 2500 times the speed of light. Everything was going so well. The High god was powerful, but inexperienced. I didn't just fight, no, I tortured him.  Mentally and psychologically. I didn't go so far as to tell him the secret of the universe, because even I knew that he did not deserve it. He was merely afraid for his race, as I was for mine. But I did everything else. I cut out pieces of his body and ate them , as he watched . I tore out 3 of his tentacles with my bare hands. I pulled out the less important organs from his body and crushed them in front of him. I cracked his round carapace so he could no longer see properly. It was really cathartic. I'm sure I was smiling through it all.

                And while I did this, I showed him what I would do to his precious race. I projected images into his mind of the God's plateau burning. Burning hot shadows enveloped the Gods, cooking them slowly for days on end as they twisted in pain, until they finally died. Little gods, scarcely a few years old, running in abject terror from destroyed schoolhouses as large  humanoid androids lifted their tiny bodies and slowly twisted them apart in their  hands. The entire universe being sucked into the void, every single race burning out until there was nothing but darkness.......  they were all lies. I would never do that. But I could li.

              However, he didn't seem to lose hope. In fact, he seemed determined by something.He was waiting for something. I hadn't noticed it then.

              What was strange though, was the way I lost.

              You could say that my one and only friend was doubly responsible for almost killing me.

             When I was about to deliver the killing blow to the God, the amulet around my neck throbbed with magic. It was a gift from Ed, much like an status updater. Any, I repeat, Any other time I would have started jumping with joy.This time though, the High god saw his chance and slammed an incredibly complex spell into me. A copy of the spell that held Chaos, backed by enough power to destroy 50000 galaxies. The high god was using the secret stash that the Gods kept to power the spell, and he was using all of it. Usually,that much force would knock the wind out of me and injure me, but it would do little else.

                               Everything changes completely when you match it with a spell of that level.

              The spell was also written by Ed.

              It was actually pretty funny and I admit that I was laughing like a maniac as the spell took effect, even though I was basically screwed.

              Luckily though, I had literally spent a hundred years talking to Ed, and I remembered him ranting about the spell, of how he just couldn't get it right, that there was an obvious hole in the spell. If you attack the mind of the person casting, and manage to break their guard, the spell will falter. Chaos found the hole, and killed a few thousand gods that held the barrier.

              The spell worked by cutting connections. It was meant to weaken the enemy, or in this case, Chaos. It cut the hold he had over all creation, and made him mortal enough to kill. The spell works by cutting connections to magic sources. Almost immediately my bond to some useless forces were cut, but my main bonds with Darkness and Light remained, along with my bond to the void.

               I quickly pushed my mind against the crack in the spell, as I used every single bit of magic that I had to weaken the barrier.  It worked.

               The next obvious problem now was that now I was completely defenseless, and the high god was ready to kill me. So I did the only thing I could think of.

                I made my arm explode.

                This idea made a whole lot more sense at that moment.

                Now keep in mind I didn't just blow up my arm. I ripped apart the atoms that constituted my arm, causing a nuclear  reaction on the spot, and concentrated all it's power on the ground below me. Instantly, I was accelerated to five times the speed of light.

                So I got off scot free? Not really. The high god got off one last blow. A mental spear, designed to pierce my mind and tear it apart from inside. I had to act quick and  decide what I valued more. My personality or my memories?

               The answer was obvious.

                So I took my memories and formed a thick, powerful shell around my mind. The blow hit me, but I manged to deflect it.

I instantly knew I had lost somethings, but then was not the time to pursue that line of thought.

                And thus, here I am, flying through space at speeds so fast that my time spell is wavering. And still gaining speed.

                When I reach the planet I had commissioned, I would have a few choice words to say to Ed. For now though, my spell had started wavering again, so I drew back into the depths of my mind and shut down everything that was not required, including the freeloaders.

                I was excited for this new world though, so that was a bonus.

"Lets see what Ed has whipped up."

Misunderstandings in an crystal city.

Misunderstandings in an crystal city.

Umi wa mitte iru,

Sekai no hajimari mo,

Umi wa shitte iru,

Sekai no owari mo.

               I still remember this song. I still remember it's meaning. After all these years, I remember a song from some damn anime.

               The song is beautiful, though.

                And oddly fitting.

                It has been three months since my defeat. Flying through the vacuum of space, I have had a chance to look back on my life's decisions(again) .It all started from that one selfish dream when I was 6 years old.

                To be the most powerful.

                 And I would suppress that dream for the next 70 years.

                 When I was 14, 3 years before the invasion, I was preparing for my  exam, 9th standard. The worst in the whole wide world. It was maths the next day, a difficult 90 marks papers in which we had to solve in 3 hours. It was not a big deal, as marks in 9th don't really matter, but I wanted them. By the time I was done, 80 above was guaranteed, giving me the well sought after A1 grade.

                 It was 3 in the afternoon when I finished, so I decided to rest just a little . As expected I dozed off.

                 Ever dozed off face first on the pillow? In a few minutes, you begin to get suffocated, but you are still asleep. So you have these weird dreams that end with something unusual before you wake up? I had one of those. Don't really remember what it was, but at the end I heard a somewhat demonic voice which said something I can't remember, except the last two words which woke me up.

"........my child."

               To this day, I have no idea what that was. Probably my imagination or the fact that I might have other mental conditions than the ones I already have.Did he just call us a mental condition? I am afraid that is correct. Why you asshole!!!! Suwar are Bacha ! .(1) 'Calm down, you are getting too worked up. And last time I checked, you are a mental condition. He is correct. What? Why are you agreeing with him??? Goddamn it, both of you can just go to hell.

          As I was saying, I had no idea what that voice was but it sounded like the Devil himself( the mythological one, not the real one. I already killed the real one.). It got me thinking.

             Thinking. It used to be my favorite past time in those days. I would think, come up with some weird theories, then find out someone already thought of that.. I had not yet decided whether a god exists or not, but  just for good measure I decided neither to deny or support it. And therein lay my first mistake.

           I decided that afternoon that it did not matter. After all, nothing really would change if...........

          Before I could continue with that thought, the full weight of the understanding hit me. And when it wore off, another understanding hit me. A worse understanding, and a truthful one at that. A knowledge that should not be known to any  mind at all. What I like to call 'The secret of the universe'.

          At once, I had tried to  deny it. Make it go away. But it wouldn't. Of course it wouldn't. It was the truth. And truth doesn't go away even if you want to.

         It was over as soon as it started, but I was no longer the same person after that experience. And then, I made history.

                  I got up and continued with my life. I became a Disillusioned

Hey man, uhh.... sorry interupt you, but the we are  LEAVIN THE U FUCKINing NIVERSE!!!!!!!

'What?!?!???

Our colleague is correct. I fear we have left the last star far away

WHY ARE WE LEAVING THE UNIVERSE??????? I DONNT WAAANT TO DIEEE!!!!!!!!

Shut up. I am sure we can trust Ed.

Hey, you're right!!! YES!! WE ARE SAV..........

         I locked him in an obscure corner of my mind.

         He did have a point though. While I didn't doubt Ed, I doubted whether he knew of my condition. It had been some time since I had lost count of how fast I was going. The time spell was taking a huge amount of energy now, and even though fresh energy was flowing in through the bonds, they had long stopped adding extra magic. Its like when you are buffering a youtube video, but the video is playing faster than it is buffering. Except that it is my life on the line here. I might have to use my life force just to keep the spell going.

        Why am I still thinking about youtube videos?

        Wait....... What are youtube videos again?

.

.

.

.

         I.....I don't remember what youtube videos are.

        I didn't have time to dwell on that thought as I suddenly felt something rip away. A portal to another dimension opened up right before me and in I went.

        Huh. Neat. Ed made the world in another dimension. It seemed like a walled dimension, too. I could already feel the time field bending, with the distinct feel of a planet's mass imprinting on it, creating gravity. It seemed very well made, this planet. So Ed's work was as good as his bragging.

        As that thought settled into my mind, I realised something that made me immediately doubt aforementioned thought. The fact that the gravity that was of only one planet. And that  would  have been okay. I didn't ask him to make the whole solar system,but..........

"WHERE THE HELL'S THE SUN??!!?!?!??!!!"(Of course, In space, no one can hear you scream)

       Did he seriously not include the sun? I mean,...... WHAT? Why is there no sun. I didn't ask for an ice world. What the hell!

       Perhaps I should ask for a refund.

You are being to hasty.Before you do something that you may forever regret, I plead with you to feel the warmth.

'What warmth are you talking about? There's no.....' Wait. ..... He's right. I can feel the light hitting me. Where hell did that come from?

       Once again, I didn't have time to dwell on the thought as I realised that I was going at god knows what speed, and the planet was just a few billion miles away. An impact would blow up the planet, and I had almost no time to slow down.

       Remember the life force I was talking about before? Its basically the energy that keeps your mind functioning. To those who can actually use it to cast spell or do magic in general, it is THE last last resort. It is extremely dangerous to use this force, because there is only a limited amount of it and it is the only thing keeping your mind from dissolving.

       This was a desperate situation though. So I tapped into my life force and used the power to grab the time field as if my life depended on it.

        Thankfully, it did the trick, though it almost killed me. The amulet stopped pulling as I slammed into the atmosphere, almost breaking my bones, and entered the world. I had managed to reduce my speed to the terminal velocity on that world, but it was still too fast. My bonds with the dark and the light were already strained, and I did not want to break them. So slowing down any more was out of the question.

         The first impact was on hard ice, which was smashed beneath me, cushioning the fall a little. Due to my momentum and the fact I did not land perpendicular to the ground, I bounced off much like a flat stone thrown at water, until I finally ground to a halt after plowing through ten meters of hard crystal.

         Where did the crystal come from?

         I didn't really care at that point though, because my body was this close to completely shutting down. I was going to die. I needed energy, anything at all, so I grabbed a crystal and ate it. Instantly I felt better, now just  hovering on the brink of death instead of falling down it. I slammed my elbow as hard as I could into the crystal pavement that I was lying on, once, twice, thrice before it cracked. I tore off a sizeable amount and I began to eat it.

         If you are  wondering how I can eat crystal, it is because I had gotten  most of the organs in my torso replaced  with magical constructs. Three then perfected the operation and changed my biological muscles while he was at it. My skeletal muscles can now store a huge amount of power and the construct in the place of my stomach ( A gift from Three, again) could digest and extract energy from most  anything, no longer dependent on breaking carbohydrate bonds. I still had my heart in place, though, and my sex organs for whatever reason. Three didn't want to remove those. Please dont' ask why.

                My heart abruptly started pumping again, which was both a relief and a concern. My heart usually does not beat at all, because my blood vessels can pump the blood themselves. It basically meant I had very little magic left( atleast for a few hours). It would take me nearly a week and a half to recover my full strength.

         That was an issue for another time. For now, I would have to stand up and explore the world that had been made. Perhaps I could get help?

          As soon as I finished eating, I used my left arm to push myself off the ground and stood up unsteadily on my feet . Instantly,  whispering voices that I hadn't noticed before died down as the subject of their discussions unsteadily got on it's feet, coughed out a fair amount of blood, and straightened. I had no magic, but could hear the natives constant breathing.

         And then I made my first mistake. I asked for help.

         That is to say, I made a flash of colour appear before me.  Pitch black, as black as grief itself, showing my helplessness. It was how everyone in the universe communicated.

          Of course, the natives ran away screaming at the top of their lungs about sombreos reappearing, or something like that.

Well done, genius.

'Not now.'

         In my defense, I was literally a few steps from the brink of death, and I had never used my voice for communication with anyone other than Ed, Rocky or my sons. So I didn't realise that this world should have hearing organs before it was too late.

         Sighing, I decided to feed on the fear they were emitting to get some magic, atleast. It was enough for me to sense the outlines of their soul. The natives were running all over the place, immense amounts of fear radiating from them. But there were also some creatures heading straight at me. Something landed right in front of me. and pointed a...... spear, yes a spear at me. It didn't say any thing, but he was silently signalling his comrades.

         I decided to make a move. I raised my arm up, slowly, and said" Stop. I come in peace."

         The creature didn't reply, so I carried on," Hey, sorry about destroying your footpath, but I can explain. You see...." I said, taking a step forward, before I realised, something was trying to whittle away at my bond with darkness. Without thinking, I tried to block it, only for it to suddenly attack with renewed effort, this time attacking me instead of my bonds. It was really powerful.

"Shit!....Okay , 1-2-3". First understand the power. Second, check if it is a cast or a stored spell. Third, if cast, attack the mind of the caster. If stored, find weaknesses,  a way around the conditions of the spell.

           The standard guide for resisting spells. I made it myself.

            Okay, first step. Understand the power. The spell was driven by an emotion, but .......the emotion seemed wrong for a spell that can kill . The emotion was ....

             Love?

What THE hell?[

Calm yourself, my friend, you donot need OOOOH FUCK THEM!! Who do they think they are? .....as I was saying, keep your anger under control. There is no reason for you too lose your temper for the likes of these....... He stopped talking as I raised a metaphorical hand. This insult was nothing. I have seen my world blown apart. I felt a familiar twinge of rage, burning my inhibitions and offering me power. I pushed it aside easily, but it was still there. I dare not draw power from it, or I might return to the same state I was in when I wiped out the demons.

           But still I  felt extremely insulted. Love is a powerful emotion and a powerful source of energy. It was one of the only forces to be present in the void periods (courtesy of the Wyrms). But for all its power, there is an unspoken rule that many beings agree upon . "Don't use love to destroy". There are allowances , but love energy is used mainly for healing, as a food source, or to create bonds between individuals. Not to kill a random person for no reason at all.

              Probably not worth trifling with.

             Damn it, whatever. I'm human now, I do what I want.

            I decided to complete the  SGRM procedure and checked for a mind behind the spell. The spell was exceptionally well composed, but it was rooted in an artifact. So probably no mind. I decided to head over there and crush it.

            Of course, I forgot about the warriors in front of me. As soon as I took a step, the spell resisted with a crackling sound, trying to burn me. Yeah, good luck with that. But their must have been some light, because some people decided to throw their spears at me. The first one hit me in the shoulder before glancing off, leaving a long bleeding scratch.

So we do have some blood  left in this body, I thought we'd run out.

I am sorry to disillusion you but we still have most .......

'Not now, guys', I thought as I dodged the other 6 spears and grabbed the 7th. I used its own momentum to throw it back, pinning the commander to a nearby building by his wings, making a distinct crackling noise.

             Wait. Wings?

              Over the course of my training which I started when I was a just hundred years old, I have kept my eyes tightly shut. All the time. I have sort of forgotten what vision is actually like, and if I open my eyes now, I will be too distracted to actually fight, but man, was I tempted to. Why did these creatures have wings? Weren't they human. Was Ed too caught up by visions of angels he saw from my mind and the internet that he decided to get creative? I have no way of knowing.

              The next time I meet him, I am going to bash his exoskeleton in.

              While I was thing about this, I beat up the troops that had appeared.

<><><><><><><>

5 minutes later, after beating a hundred guards

<><><><><><><>

            Yup. Their skin was like hard crystal. Some elasticity, but it cracked if hit hard enough.

             Most of them attacked from the ground, and I was certain that their  were feet were hard, judging from the clip-clopping sounds. Metal shoes? Who cares.

             The artifact feeding the spell was just before me, under a canopy of some kind. It was drawing power from from the natives, who for whatever reason had assembled around it, pouring love energy into the artifact. I began to have second thoughts when I this, because the creatures did seem desperate. Perhaps they had something to fear from creatures based on darkness.

             I began walking towards the artifact when a blast of energy hit me. I manged to deflect some of it, but it still pushed me off my feet. A new aura came into my field of view, as powerful as a minor god. It charged another  bolt of magic, once again firing raw magic at me. A very foolish thing to do. If I had even a hundredth of my power, I could have killed the god in so many ways. I could have absorbed it by a proxy spell, or turned it into a self destructing spell, destroying the user. This god was evidently just a new one. Perhaps, instead of killing him, I would just beat him up?

           I diverted the magic away from me as I was not skilled enough to directly absorb it yet. It flew off into the sky. And as she( it was a she, her voice seemed distinctly feminine) stood in confusion, probably wondering why I was not dead, I leapt  towards her and jabbed at her with my left fist. She seemed suprised, and raised up a unusually complicated barrier ( atleast for her level. She was literally throwing magic at me earlier).

                 It was not enough. A few hundred tons of force smashed through it and connected with her jaw, throwing her back quite a bit. She hit the ground, and didn't move. Dead?

Unconscious.

'Good.'

         I walked over to her and grabbed her neck. I could sense the bond between her and the artifact. It was much stronger than the others. She was the owner, and she was using the spell. I lifted her into the air and held her there. I could just ball my hand into a fist and end her. I wonder if her blood smells like iron, like a human's . Then again, I probably wouldn't do it. Many creatures have tried to hunt me down over the years. At first, I would just kill them, because I had won fights by underhanded trickery. But as I grew powerful, I began to just let those I defeated go. It just caused people to come after me more.

                 Rocky said I was soft. He killed most of his opponents. But what does he know?

A lot more than you do.

OMG!!!BUUURRRNNNNNN! Jalye Dilo

                 Before I could reply, however, I heard an angry roar.

"YOU BASTARD!!!!"

         A spear whizzed through it air and impaled me, the tip emerging on the other end through my right shoulder. The speed and strength behind the spear suprised me.

"Get away from my wife!!"

                I dropped the goddess, and jumped towards the new threat, punching him with a thousand tons of pure force . He raised up a shield just in time to block the hit.

My fist hit the shield hard.

                   And stopped. The shield didn't even waver.

         It was only when that I looked closely at it, did I know that I was probably screwed.

        The barrier was an Absolute Shield. A hypothetical spell. But there was no mistaking it.

        What was more perplexing was that he didn't die immediately after casting the spell. Unusual.

         This fight just got interesting .

A few complications.

                Okay, forget the almost. I am screwed.

                The mortal was not thinking clearly in his rage. It is the only reason I was still alive. His shield spells are impenetrable, and can only be shattered  by brute force. At least a few million tons of brute force. I didn't even have that much power at that moment.

                An orb appeared above my head and slammed down on me . I could feel cracks appearing in my bone as the blasted shield kept trying to pulverize me into the ground. When it raised the next time, I grabbed a crystal shard and threw it at him. He dodged, but the shield stopped long enough for me to jump out from under it. He threw another spear at me. It barely missed and I retaliated with another lump of crystal, which glanced off his helmet as he twisted to avoid it. Both of us faced each other, and I was sure that he was trying to  stare me down. Too bad that my eyes were closed.

                Suddenly, I saw the humor of the situation. Here I was, one of the most powerful beings in the universe, being bashed into oblivion by a creature which was probably just out of his teens. Granted, I was injured, but still. How the mighty have fallen.

                Still, this was disconcerting. I was weakened, but I took out a goddess with one punch. How could this person stand against me? And how was he winning?

                As the questions hit me, I could not hold back my laughter. The creature I was facing was now probably very confused and really unsettled. Whether that was due my laughter or the fact that I was laughing out blood is another matter.

               'What's so funny?", he asked angrily.

                I decided to tell him the truth. "This battle has already been decided. I am fighting to avenge a petty insult. You are fighting for something bigger. As I am now, you will kill me. So my friend....... see ya!!!"

                With that, I crushed the amulet that Ed had given me. I smiled a last time at my opponent as my form melted into a shadow.

<><><><><><><><>

26700 years ago.

.............................

               "And thus it is time to leave." Ed said. Huh. Ed. A name. He never had a name before. Even after a hundred years in the black dimension, he still could not get over the novelty. He had been the God of Creation for 10 billion years. It had been his only identity. He would always have a place with the gods. He was nothing else. Even when he was defeated by a much younger god, he accepted it. It had meant a demotion, a little less meaning to his role, but that didn't matter. Such duels were the norm. Life would still continue as it had.

                He couldn't have been more wrong. The younger god had used a law, a law so unused that it was all but forgotten. But Ed had remembered it. How could he not? He was one of the council when it was written. To keep balance the elements had said. Out numbered 2 to 6, the resolution was passed,  the High God and the Devil's objection went unseen.

                The banishment bill. If ever a god or demon was displaced by his junior, the new god had the right to remove the displaced god from both the God and Demon civilizations.

                "Well, all good things come to an end." The human said,snapping Ed out of his thoughts. He was holding two pieces of the Void. Null Void, he called it. Ed couldn't figure them out. The spell was an unsettling one. Energy coming from nowhere at all. The Wrym had made good use of his time in the void period, but he still didn't understand why. The human called the Wrym a 'Disillusioned'. It was an intriguing term. When  Ed asked, the human only said "You don't want to know."

                "What are you going to do then?" the human suddenly asked." Will you embark on another project? Maybe build a new world?" He didn't like to do it, but he reopened a closed wound.

                 " I am not sure any more." Ed replied, depression hitting him hard. "My purpose in life was to be a God. Now, my existence is but meaningless."

                 The human opened his mouth to say something, but he shut it quickly, a thoughtful expression on his face. Then he smiled.

                  Over the hundred years that they were trapped together, Ed had come to understand human facial expressions, and really he didn't like this one.

                 "So you're free? Then why not become freelance ?", the human said, grinning wildly."You can build worlds, can't you? So build me my own. One just for someone like me. Here's the down payment."

                  The human pushed the both black globes towards the god. One into his hand, the other into his body. The one pushed into his body instantly released all its energy, instead of slowly and infinitely giving out energy as it should have. Enough energy to destroy a galaxy. The complex spell Ed had woven took effect, phasing him out of the back dimension, while the human sat down, smiling as he prepared to wait for another 50 years.................

                .......... Ed regained consciousness on a barren ice world, just floating in the reach between galaxies. Instantly, he screamed and cursed, sending bright flashes into the sky as he used choice words to describe exactly what he thought of the human.

                After a few minutes he calmed down. Okay, so the human sent him out. With an unclear objective. With no clarification of what he wanted, no future warning, no  ........ "Concentrate!" Ed scolded himself. How was it any different from what the devil had done that one time.

               So what if the human had told him of fantastical worlds where coloured four legged creatures frolick, or were bipedal creatures fight with special magic and unusual swords, or where creatures are dumb and stupid?? And so what if he had said  "One just for someone like me." without even telling him what someone like him would want?

                He would just build them all. Every single world.

                He pulled off the stone tied around one of his tentacles, and cast a spell on it, and left it there, so that when the human came out, he would find it there. Next to it, in the ice, Ed wrote

When you reach the world you seek,

                            Crush the stone,

                            And dig under the tree.

                 There. That should frustrate the hell out of his human friend. And now, Duty awaits. Ed would build the worlds, all in the name of ......of....aahhhh...

.

.

.

.

.

.

                " I never asked for his name."

<><><><><><><><><>

      Present day,2 weeks after escape

......................................

                 I woke up next to something powerful. Something radiating magic. The power of Order. I had never felt it like this. This power seemed...... old and .... it was the essence of Order. A small part of Order wrapped in an object. The only object that I had heard of that could radiate this type of power was the pillar of Order. But that was in the blackhole sandwiched between the God's and the Demon's plateau. Then again, I had left a 500 mile crack in the Demon's plateau the last time I had gone there. So perhaps entry was easier? Ed probably stole borrowed it from there.

                 I was fully healed, so it must have been atleast a week and a half. I tested the bonds. They were back in full force. All I needed then was a Void for backup and I'll be  good to go. I started the life detection spell(LDS), the soul detection spell(SDS) and the  mind detection spell(MDS), and let the sensations come in.

                Instantly, I was floored.

               There was so much life. All around me, in the soil, in the air, even inside my body. They had no mind, but .... they were so many. It reminded me of something........

Microbes.

'Huh?'

Woah man! Your're right! Microbes.

'But that's not possible.' I replied. 'Microbes are... there's.... all of them were destroyed. Not a single living being other than me survived the  Astra '

Internet.

.

.

.

.

.

.

'Oh.That made sense. The internet had survived(Somewhat). When the first attack took place, most of the information on the internet actually survived. I have no idea how, nor did I particularly  care at the moment, because bloody aliens had just reduced the total number of humans from 9 billion to 3 billion, but I had come to appreciate the fact that so much information was saved. When I was forty, I became paranoid about the gods shutting down all our electronics with some old fashioned ionized radiation. Planet wide Radiation Hardening was impossible because of a lack of resources. So my first order of business was to get the IT department to link all information in the internet to 3 backup points. One of the devices was held by me, and it downloaded most of the internet while the milky way galaxy was being consumed by by an enormous ball of fire.

                I got up on my three legs, and stretched my wings. There was a slight draft running through the cave, but my coat was thick enough to shield me from the cold. I began to change the properties of the life detection spell, and as I did, a preloaded spell caused my horn to light up. I concentrated on the conditions of the spell, slightly changing the requirements so that the microbes would be......... would ......be....be..be...be ???

.....

'......'

Please, my colleagues, keep your peace, for........

'AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

WHAT THA FUCK! WHATTHAFUCKAAAAAHHHHHHH!

You are 27000 years old. This is not the most unusual situation that we have faced.......

I AM A HORSE!!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!! ITIS THEEEENDDD!!!!!

'Damn you ED! How dare you !!!!!! Horse??????? What.....Why......AArrrrrrgh!!!!!'

SILENCE!!!!

               Thank God for that fellow. Without him, we would have panicked for atleast a few more years.

               Okay, perhaps that's a bit of exaggeration, but...it didn't matter.

'Bah. I can't do anything about this at the moment.' I told them, though I was still breathing a little heavily. But for some reason......for some tiny little reason....it felt ....familiar. Like, .... well, like I have heard of this happening.

Horse, horse, horse,horse....

'Well, he's been scarred for life. Soooo, what now?'

Let us just follow the directives the the God of Creation gave us.

'But that was just cryptic gibberish.'

Feel around.

               I took his advice and looked around. With the new and improved LDS, I felt around, no longer being blinded by microbes floating around. There was a lot of life around me, little creatures roaming around, and lots of static creatures with energy flowing through them at an lethargic pace which I believed were trees. All of it was expected. After all, the Earth was an enormous ecosystem, a wheel which kept turning due to the enormous amount of energy provided by the sun. Ecosystems are an alien concept to literally every race other than the humans. We were, with all due respect, a coincidence, non-living, non-magical substances bonding to create life, to create a delicately balanced system that was formed entirely by coincidence. Even the Wryms, old as they were, had never seen something like us. No wonder the exploration crew had attacked us. We were literally freaks of nature.

             Wait. Trees. Did he mean literally dig under a tree. But what tree am I supposed to dig under? There are literally thousands outside this cave place.

             At that moment, I heard a voice. An old ancient voice.

             "Open your eyes."

             Ed. Or rather, a pre-recorded voice.

             It came from the pillar of order(which I had forgotten about, but hey, turning into a horse sort of messes with your mind). Of course. Ed was a good friend, and this was his way of showing concern.

By forcefully making us do something that we don't want to?

'Well, someone's up and about.' I told him.''And besides, he's right. The Regime was only for 1000 years. It's about time I opened my eyes once again.'

            Well, here was the moment of truth. It had been 26000 thousand years since I had opened my eyes. I am in a safe place, and the Gods probably think I'm dead. It is finally time to use all my senses again, so I can finally find this tree and dig under it.

'One, two, three..... GO!

           I snapped open my eyes for the first time in 26000 years.

                    It felt ...it felt... nauseous.

<><><><><><><><>

     2 hours later

<><><><><><><><>

           I finally stopped throwing up acid and half-digested crystals. I took a deep breath to steady myself and stood straight. The bout of nausea had finally passed.

          I guess I took the training regime too far, huh? Well, what's done is done. No point in crying over split milk.

'Okay, breathe'. Look at the world. Look at the way the sand flows. At how the rocks look. Narrow cracks, grey body, a thousand different details that I had been missing for so long.... 'Focus'

             I was in some sort of egg shaped cavern. Behind me there was a way out, but more importantly, in front of me, there was a tree. A beautiful, glowing tree that shimmered with magic and power.

It's body was carved from the center of the of the pillar of Order, and it was studded with gems that were unmistakably from the veins of the precious stones that run on the rims of the pillar. One, two, three, four, five...... 'Huh? Where's the representative of Order itself?'

                      I waited for a reply, but then I realised that the others didn't take to sight as well as I did. They were out for a few days or so, I guess.

                      Oh , well. I can worry about the magical Gizmo later, once I know my situation.

                     I looked at my new body. It was a three legged horse/pegasus/unicorn type deal. My right arm...foreleg was still missing, a smooth stump in its place. Most of the minor cuts had gone, leaving no scar except a long upside down V running from my chest to my waist. I could just make out the thin white lines under the pitch black fur. I looked at my reflection in the tree. My eyes were enormous, like, anime style big and the pupils were blood red. My face had turned into a muzzle, and hair was growing from my neck. A mane. My wings were big, but they were not big enough to actually fly. I had a ridiculously long horn growing out of my head, atleast 30 centimeters. In short, my body was that of a .... uuhhh.....horse? Horse. A black horse. Trust Ed to botch my skin colour. I have brown skin, not black skin, but whatever.

                     It was Three's work. I would recognize it anywhere. This level of detail, this understanding of what he was dealing with. There was no doubt. You don't need to be an artist to know when a painting is great.

                     The real question was... why? Why would he make me into a horse? Why would he spend so much...... Dig under the tree!

                     Of course. Dig under a literal tree. I began to dig furiously at the base of the tree. A bit difficult with only one hoof, but whatever.

                     As I brought my hoof down to pull away the earth a 4th time, something rocketed out of the ground under me and shattered on the underside of my muzzle. A little spell asked for permission to deposit information inside my head. I accepted and I suddenly began to hear a voice....

Greetings, Fire in the dark, the last human, master of the Light and Dark, Destroyer of Demons and slayer of the Gemini Rulers.......

               Jeez, was he going to repeat all my titles? That list is ,like, a mile long.

.............. And one of the Disillusioned. I am Ed, former God of creation. As I have promised, I have built worlds in exchange for the Voids you have supplied. This is first of those worlds, built on a documentary of one of the Worlds in your galaxy.

               What? Documentary of one of the worlds? But there was only one world....

The documentary was one you talked about a lot. It is labelled 'My Little Pony:Friendship is magic'

Side note:Pages from Dark's journal: Hell and Heaven are the same

       Dark's journal

A set of pages from his journal.Before he started the blindness Regime

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4tj3DJXXIIzRnJwUW1sZG9GaU0/view?usp=sharing

Gods/Demons

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4tj3DJXXIIzZkU0dzNDYlJuRUU/view?usp=sharing

The lands of Hell and Heaven.

A new friend.

             A large stallion was wading through the undergrowth. He was a giant, and incredibly muscled, with a red coat, and a heavy yoke round his neck. He was currently crushing a large timber wolf under his hoof. Bloody timber wolves. Why the God Ed would include something as vile as these creatures was beyond him. He had probably inherited the insanity of the human.

             He snapped out of these thoughts as he felt his sister's familiar aura emanating from the area. The tracking spell he had placed on her was nigh useless in this bloody forest, the strange medley of different magics interfering heavily. He was not as skilled in the art of sensing  aura's as the human was, but he knew where she was (roughly). He could see some of her reflected emotions. Fear, uncertainty..... the poor thing had been out here for a few hours. It didn't matter though.

           Soon she would be safe. And grounded. Very, very grounded. Words or lights  couldn't explain how grounded she was.

           "Eeyup!" the stallion said, satisfied. His satisfaction, however, did not last long when he saw his little sister's aura light up with terror.

            Emotions are rarely reflected on the soul, never leaving the mind of the individuals. A trained soul seer can pick up the strong emotions as they are reflected on the soul. The greater the emotion, the brighter it becomes.

            The terror the stallion saw blotted out the rest of the aura.

            Instinctively, the stallion bolted towards his sister,  accelerating  4 times the speed of light instantly . He realised his mistake  too late as he traveled forward in time, a minute into the future.

             He stopped himself and was about to start running. His aura spell told him where she was, and he could clearly see that something was chasing her.

              Then he felt it. A feeling....no, a presence. A presence that was very, very familiar. His rival, and his soul mate.

The human.

              Instantly, he stopped, and composed himself. The stallion and the human had tried to kill each other atleast a few hundred thousand times. He knew the human, and the human knew him. The human would never take new life or let a new life be taken.

             He let the aura spell weaken, until he could only see the human's powerful, yet peculiar aura. Half black, half white, in perfect balance. A half soul. The stallion smiled as he remembered his early days. His teacher telling him 'Half souls cannot exist.'

             He began to quickly make his way towards the human,confident that his sister was safe, until him felt something snap.

             That wasn't possible. He could not sense his sister anymore. The tracking spell... it .. it can't break. Unless...... unless the target..... the target.....

              ....dies.

.

.

.

.

.

.

            The stallion wanted to scream. To cry out. To do something. But no sound left his throat. Not a muscle moved. Their was only one thought in his mind.

            His little sister was gone.

            He didn't save her.

           The stallion collapsed. As if on reflex, the Earth rose around him and hardened, making a shell that not even a dragon could break.

<><><><><><><>

2 hours ago

<><><><><><><>

            When I see Ed again, I must thank him. Perhaps even give him a bonus. Perhaps a few hundred tonnes of nitroglycerin, a few thousand kilo litres of oxygen to go along, and finally, a flaming matchstick.

............................

I must admit, I was confused by the number of worlds in your galaxy. I was tempted to label them products of human imagination, but when I checked the resource you call 'Inter-net', I was suprised to find visual recordings of all the worlds you described. I merely took the one your remembered profoundly and created this particular world.

              At this point I had realised that Ed had done something stupid. I suppose he doesn't understand animation..... wait, did I tell him what animation was? I don't think I did.

..............................

There were instances of time travel too in the documentary. I must admit, such feats of magic are beyond me. I do not understand how it is possible.  I asked the 6th Malfunction, but he just laughed. So instead of the time spell, I coded in a carefully crafted illusion spell to do the trick. I am sorry for that transgression.

             Time travel spells are impossible!!! What the hell is wrong with him! He should he known it was just imagination when he saw a time spell!!!!! It is impossible to go back in time. How does 10 billion year old god not know that?!!!

..........................

The documentary , I must admit, was not very well done. It hardly gave any details. So I had to improvise. I believe this improvisation   is called 'Headcannon'. Or so it was called in the inter-net.

             .......what? Just how...?

..........................

Finally, after I had researched the official documentaries, I was still not completely convinced of it's authenticity. But that changed when I saw that there were other, albeit not officially recognised, sources of information aside from the documentary. One of them as called 'fimfiction', though why they added 'fiction' to the name is beyond me.

                I'm sure I had cyanide here somwhere.

.........................

          After I had recovered from Ed's short speech,and found that my mind was still intact, I decided to review my situation. I was in magical pony land, and I was a unicorn- pegasus thing  with wings too small to fly and a horn that did nothing. I had a mark on my ....ass... flank? Yes, on my flank, exactly like the symbol I had taken for myself. A half soul, a triangle of chaotic rage and a little black dot in the middle, a Dark Void.

Sooo.... on the whole, I looked like a..... a handsome horse? No , a cute handsome black horse with wings and a horn.This was definitely Three's work. It speaks volumes about the amount of respect he has for his father. He turned me into a horse. Without a right hoof. As in, right hoof completely burnt off.  A cute pony with a hoof missing and a visible burn mark. Like a battle-hardened Warhorse who has been crippled for life. That was actually pretty funny.

         What the hell is wrong with me?

         "Well, I still have all of my power, and all of my memories. The High God must have missed. Now lets see what I remember about the show.

           There are multicoloured ponies in it and...and...and?"

'Oh shit! I don't remember!'

          "Wait, what did the Earth look like?"

          To my relief, I remembered.

           My relief died instantly. I suddenly realised that though I remembered what the Earth was like .......the memories. They seemed so..... hollow.

          I didn't have any recollection of any emotion that I had from Earth, other than (quite morbidly) those of my disillusionment. What memories remained, on a closer inspection, were glazed over.

          "What was my mother's name?"

           Blank.

           "What was my father's name?"

           Blank.

           "What the hell is my name!!??!"

            Blank.

           Perfect.

           All right, I didn't remember about some long dead world that I knew for only 76 years. So what?I am The Fire in The Dark, master of The Dark and The Light, one of the most powerful creatures alive. The Wryms themselves think twice before engaging me in combat. This was nothing. Just a little emotional shock.

           I didn't realise my face was wet with tears.

           It was no use. It was the same pattern. Sorrow, and regret. And then...., anger. An old, ancient anger, one that set me on my current path, and almost ended path for the Demons. Burning hot rage pierced my mind, screaming for release. Already my inhibitions were burning down, making sure that there was nothing holding me back. In a few minutes, a sort of  peculiar rage would fill me. I would have no inhibitions, But my mind... my mind would be crystal clear. I would know what to do, and  when to do it.

          I would attack the Gods again. This time though, I would not leave anything alive. I would destroy the entirety of that galaxy, and tear apart Time itself, leaving no trace of what had  stood for so long.

            Many lives. Many souls.

           Many dreams.

           My son.

'No'

         I was nearly over the brink. Rage was making thinking difficult. But I won't do it again. I am not a monster.

         I forced myself to think about the Secret. The truth of it all, that no one should know.

         It worked. Instantly, I felt cold and empty. A thick, black depression set over me. I used the Truth.

It Doesn't matter. It will never matter. It never has mattered.  

        Instantly, my anger just went away. Instead, I felt... just, empty. A feeling worse than anything else in the universe.

       I curled up into a ball and tried to push off depression. I don't know how long I stayed like that.

       There is a price to desiring power and knowledge. It's called madness.

       What many don't know is there is a price to desiring wisdom too. It's called Truth.

       After that, nothing much really happened. I pushed off the depression to the usual manageable levels, got up and fiddled around.I saw an unusual box with six keyholes, with an construction/growth spell for a tree, or castle. However , it held a good amount of defensive Harmonic magic, so touching it would really hurt, so I left it. I found that my body had been injected with an complex inbuilt spell, rearranging my cells and magi-constructs  into a horse form without changing anything too much There was a flip switch included in the deal, and a few tries later, I was  human again.

        For some reason ,though, I still had a horn and and wings. The horn was a unusual piece of work, meant to focus the magic within a conventional creature into the outside world. The wings were somewhat the same, only that they harnessed the Inner magic into a specific spell, one so complicated that I was sure it was Five's handiwork. The trouble is, humans are not exactly conventional creatures. I don't have Inner magic, so these things are basically useless. The wings looked were cool, though.

       Just as I was debating whether I should properly investigate my new parts or just rip it off(The horn, not the wings). I felt panic spark somewhere. A soul. And a tiny little mind. A child!

       I instantly bolted, out of the cave, through a cliff and into the forest towards the spark.

<><><><><><>

   Somewhere in the Everfree.

<><><><><><>

        Apple Bloom had never been more terrified in her life.

       The hydra was getting closer. The trees were slowing it down, but it was not enough.

       It was just another day. She was returning from Zecora's hut, keeping well to the path, when she saw it. A stream of shadows flowing towards the Everfree. She had flowed it , even when it disappeared from sight, until the forest became darker and darker till it was almost pitch black. She had wandered into  the deep parts of the forest. She was just a little scared (not too much, mind you).

        That changed when a hydra appeared out of nowhere.

        The hydra was trying to eat her. It was moving surprisingly fast. One of it's heads bent down and snapped at Apple Bloom, getting a mouthful of trees. Venom flowed from its teeth, injecting the wood with a colourless liquid reeking of magic and poison.

         Apple Bloom screamed in fear. It could have been her in it's mouth.

         She ran as fast as she could, but it was no use. The hydra lunged forward again. A giant jaw snapped shut on her hind leg, and flicked her up into the sky. The hydra opened it's mouths to swallow it's prey as it fell towards the ground.

          And then, it was shredded, much like paper . A black liquid caught Apple Bloom, and lowered her gently to the ground.There was a distinct smell of iron, a smell that  can never really be forgotten. Blood.

         The human did not like what he saw.  The little creature was unconscious, and covered in  her own blood. Where her left hind leg was supposed to be, blood was flowing out in spurts, perfectly in time to her little heart beating furiously. The human heated his hand , and brought it down on her stump, searing the wound close. He could see the venom flowing through her body. It was hacking away at her life ,  loosening her mind from her soul,  feeding on her life force.

         The human did not waste time. He burnt every shred of magic  in her body. Even a small, complicated tracking spell which he was too distracted to notice.

         He was too distracted too notice the spike of despair nearby, or the feel of his arch-rival's soul appear briefly before it disappeared into a  shell of Earth.

<><><><><><><><>

10 min later

<><><><><><><><>

              Okay, review situation. I had killed a .... a .... I forget it's name, and saved a little female horse. A cute, yellow horse with red hair and tail, complete with a bow in her mane.

           Yeah, I am really in a magical horse land.

           Magical, not safe, considering the shredded remains of the .... monster . And looking around, the forest was dark, dangerous creatures roaming in the shadows. The only reason they didn't attack was that my aura had flared to its original size and power when I shredded the other monster. They knew who the real monster was.

          The filly was out of danger. It was clearly  a sapient creature, and clearly a child. I still maintained the spell cutting of her magic, even her life force, so that the venom doesn't kill her. A risky move, but the only one I could think of.

          To keep her alive I had share 3/4ths of my life force with her. I paralyzed most of her muscles and wrapped her in Vibranium. She was going to have a major panic attack when she woke up.

          I picked her up in my left hand, and choosing a direction , began walking.

<><><><><><><>

               6 hours later.

<><><><><><><>

          Apple Bloom looked out on the path she usually took when she visited Zecora. It had taken the human quite a long time to find it. She looked once again at her new found friend, smiling. He was so cool!

          The human smiled back reassuringly, if a bit unsure. After a little pleading he had allowed Apple Bloom to use her neck muscles, albeit a little hesitantly. He said that the spell still remained in her body, and her moving around was bad. He didn't say why, though.

          "Ah, great! I did it again. I always forget to ask for names. So, what's your name?" The human asked.

           "My name's Apple Bloom! What's yours, Mister?" the little filly replied.

           The Human took a second to decipher what she said through the accent. He always had trouble with accents. It was not his fault, though. He was an Indian, (or used to be, anyway) and he had really not been exposed to this kind of accent. He could understand and speak english very well,( Hell, he used to speak a weird mixture of Bengali and English when he was young)  but even 70 years of ruling the Earth had not helped

him understand accents very well.

            "My name? Well, I am....uuhhhh..." The human faltered, debating what he should say.

'I am sorry, but I don't know.......Nah. Wait, My titles! One of them should be usable. Let's see, Strongest of the galaxy destroyers?....no. The Fire in The Dark? Too long.  Butcher of all Creatures? Definitely not. Think....Think....Think......

             "What's that drawing on your watch?" Apple Bloom asked again, "Is it your Cutie mark?!! What does it mean !??!! How did you get it?!!! "

            "Oh, that. It's nothing much, really. Just the mark I have adopted." The human said, thankful for a way out of the naming dilemma. "Wait. What's a cute mark?"

            "You don't know what Cutie marks are!!!! OH CELESTIA!!!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, going back into a state the human had tried to describe as hysterics(A gross understatement).

<><><><><><>

Some ranting later

<><><><><><>

           Oh god can she talk!

           After about an hour of crazed explaining, Apple Bloom finally calmed down. Jeez, she was reacting like some....some crazy  fan girl. A crazy fan girl who has not fully completely understood what she's fan girling about.

         But what I did understand, though, cutie marks are like, marks of  destiny, I guess? That you have to 'earn your mark' and you are then bound to it for the rest of all your natural years? That dark. And  implausible. A spell that can exactly control and calculate the required actions by individuals and implement them while undermining the individual's mental resistance ?  That is way, way, way beyond even Five's level, and he is one of the best spell casters there is. Not counting the Wyrms.

          "Well," I ventured,"To answer your first question, no, that's not my cutie mark."

           "So you're blank flank too?" Apple Bloom asked.

           "No, it's just that humans don't have cutie marks. And we don't need them. We...."  I added quickly, before she went into hysterics again"....find our special talents in time, just like ponies. Just don't get mark on our flank... back."

            I guess what I said was true, but....umm..... let's just say it was too complicated for me to explain at that moment. I would explain a little later(i.e. hopefully  never)

           "Ohhh! I get it." Apple Bloom said."You have to draw your cutie mark yourself? Wow! Can you choose whatever you want?"

           "No, I don't have a cutie mark. Though, you could call this a mark of my destiny. So...it is like a cutie mark?..... God Damn it, I'm confused again. Congratulations Apple Bloom, you confused the most powerful being in the universe ", I said with a smile.

            As expected, she only gave me a blank, confused stare. This is why I don't make jokes.

           "Anyway," I said, trying to defuse the awkward situation " you asked me what the mark meant? I guess it is a mark of my destiny."

            I conjured up a rough image of the mark using Light and assumed my teacher monotone.

            "The Circle in between is the representation of my soul. Of course, souls are not really circular, but I digress. My so...."

             "What 's di- gross mean?" Apple Bloom asked suddenly. I blinked once before answering.

             "Digress, not di-gross." I corrected. "It means ......... UUhhh..... when you ...divert?Divert attention..... Okay, forget I used that word." Another the Epic Fail for the Almighty Fire in the Dark. Well, whatever.

              "See, the fact is that my soul is an anoma...is unusual. Usually, souls are composed of varying amounts of   Dark and Light energies, with either one being present in large quantities. Sometimes you get Pure souls who are completely black or white, but those are rare. My soul, however, is an Half Soul, or a soul that is perfectly balanced between Light and Dark. I'm  the only one, so the symbol seemed prime choice. Creatures would look at it and know the Half Soul was here." That seemed enough information. I didn't tell her that my soul was in danger of ripping itself apart. "Any questions so far?"

              "Nope."

              "You're a smart one. Well, since I'm a Half soul, I have an advantage over other creatures. I can control chaotic magic without trainning when I am presented with an stimulus. That means an outside force." I said, noting Apple Bloom's confused expression return."Like an emotion. In my case, anger brings out chaos. Don't worry, though. I haven't been truly Angry for at least 300 years. I not going to suddenly rage up now. So the Triangle represents the power my anger brings out, and lastly the black dot........What?" I stopped and looked at Apple Bloom perplexed face.

              "Did ya just say 300 years!?!?!"

              Oh, yeah. To a mortal that might seem a bit much. "Yes, I did."

              "How old are you?" she said, in an awed whisper. Huh, got her to whisper. A point to yours truly, I guess.

              "Aproxi-....About 27,000 years?Yeah." I couldn't help smiling at Apple Bloom's expression. It was same emotion any sentient creature held when I when I turned up suddenly, only translated into human expressions.

              Suddenly, though, I felt a presence. The presence of something more powerful than an average mortal. I didn't stop walking, though the presence vanished , not lasting even a millisecond, so fast that I thought I had imagined it.

              "You're older than Celestia?!?"

               "Whut?" I stuttered, Apple Bloom's question breaking my reverie."Who's that?"

<><><><><><><><><>

                 Even more ranting, a manticore attack and some extreme confusion later.

Clearing in front of Everfree, Ponyville.

<><><><><><><><><>

             "Dark Void?" Apple Bloom asked.

             "Yup." the newly (re-)christened human said. "Now my name is Dark Void." In hindsight, Dark couldn't think why he had not adopted this name from the get go. Naming himself after his deepest, darkest obsession made prefect sense.(to him)

             "Alright, were here."  said the human. " Now it's time to remove that spell from your body. And grow back your leg." The human gingerly placed Apple Bloom on the ground with his wings, and removed the Vibranium bonds.

              He had donned the his pony form, to -as he put it- blend in with the crowd. He had not met the aforementioned crowd yet, but better safe than sorry.

             "Okay, Apple Bloom, I'm going to put you under now, okay?" Dark paused a little, then resumed before adding"That means I'll make you fall asleep." Apple Bloom nodded in agreement, her eyelids becoming heavy as Dark's spell began to shut her consciousness down.

             "Thank you for helping me." Apple Bloom said suddenly, before she fell into a deep sleep.

             For Dark, though,  those words...... they were familiar to him. His smile broke, only for a second, but it still broke, and for that  one brief moment the human looked like the old man he was, the man who has seen too much in his life.

               Those words...... they were the words of that little girl. That little girl who knew that her idol had failed. Who knew she would die because her idol had failed.  The same little girl who had forgiven Dark, and recorded those very same words on the internet.

               "Thank you for helping me."

                 Unknown to Dark, the pony following him began to fall back. It was no longer safe to follow him outside the forest, not after that mistake. Thankfully, the magical aura of the unicorn was obscured by 18 different spells.

                 He pulled out his com piece and whispered to it.

                 "Blang Seu reporting. A Blue Mare lived in the moon. News confirmed. New threat has been identifeid. A bigger threat than any we have ever encountered. Creature called The Fire in the Dark has arrived on planet. Send the Red letters."

Side note: Pages from Dark's Journal = Gauntlet of Gods

Side note: Pages from Dark's Journal = Gauntlet of Gods

"When there is no ink to write with, we must use blood."

-D.V, (before he realised that he is the one creature with any liquid at all in his body in the entire universe)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4tj3DJXXIIzdDFCNXI0ZTFKeVE/view?usp=sharing

May the Truth be False,Wrym.

                     I recognized that stance, even if I had never seen it before. I could sense power welling up in her hind legs.There was no mistaking it. That was Impact Control. I should have gotten out of the way. I didn't though, because I was distracted by the spell surrounding  Apple Bloom. It was a really difficult spell, in my defense. All I could do was bring up my hoof to block the blow.

                    Stupid.

                    Hairline fracture. Got off easy. But she was already preparing the next kick. Okay, do I value my ribs more, or my arm-...hoof more? I needed my hoof to fight,so......... sorry , right ribcage.

<><><><><><><>

     15 minutes ago, Outside the Golden Oak Library

<><><><><><><>

                   It was all going wrong. Two  weeks ago something had made itself known in the Crystal Empire. It was not king Sombra, even if it was using dark magic.  It was on the brink of death.

                   And then it defeated every Royal  and Imperial guard.  And hurt Cadence . Nopony hurts her sister-in-law. Thankfully, Shining was able to drive it away.

                   Until the letter came. A letter with no seal or signature, delivered to every princess. At first, Twillight thought it was a prank. Then she found out that each Princess had received the exact same letter.

                    It simply said,"Something terrible has arrived. Be on Guard, O Great Monarchs. The House of Secrets will help as we can."

                   And then she had felt it.

                   When she had ascended, Twillight found that she could feel certain things. Little, little flicks of magic, coming from the very soul of ponies. They were parts of ponies souls and minds, a representation of them. She had found that more powerful the pony, the larger those flecks were. The thing was, even after pushing the ability to it's limits, they were still flecks, even from Celestia.

                    The aura of power that she saw now was not a fleck. It was blatantly, blindingly obvious. And it was coming from the Edge of the town.

                    Perfect.

                    Just as she was about to tell Spike that she was leaving , an orange streak ploughed through the door. While that in itself was not very unusual, courtesy Rainbow Dash, Twilight couldn't help but wonder why it was an orange streak. Then it hit her.

                   Twilight was sure that if her body had not been that of an Alicorn, Applejack would have sent her to the hospital.

<><><><><><><>

Clearing outside the Everfree,5 minutes ago

<><><><><><><>

                   There was an Alicorn sitting on the grass. His head was bowed down, his face slightly strained in concentration with beads of sweat rolling down his face. His right hoof looked like it had been burnt off, and something had snapped his horn off. There was a strange darkness surrounding his aura, something Twilight couldn't see before. It was not threatening like Sombra's shadows, but it was..... hopeless. Just looking at the aura made Twilight feel depressed and worthless . It made her feel insignificant.

                    Unusual as it was, it wasn't the Alicorn or his strange aura that bothered Twilight.

                    Apple Bloom was floating in mid air behind the black Alicorn.

                    A shout and short scuffle drew her attention to her side to see Rarity struggling to keep Applejack pinned to the ground.

                    "Rares!! Lemme go!" Applejack screamed in confusion.

                    "Applejack! He is holding her hostage." Rarity explained, not loosening her grip."Don't act so rashly."

                    "What? Who the hell is that!"

                     Twilight visibly jumped at the black Alicorn's voice. He had a strange accent which was... unique. He had bright red eyes that would not be out of place on a demon. He was taller than Twilight by a head.

                     "Yes? I'm waiting.Who are you?" The black Alicorn repeated. "No, scratch that, I don't care.....just leave me alone for now. I'm having enough problems with this little girl anyway."

                       Twilight suddenly snapped to her senses. " Are you the one who attacked the Crystal Empire?"

                       "The Crystal what now?" The Black Alicorn asked, making a confused face. Though he understood exactly what she was talking about, but such confessions are better suited for times when someone's life isn't hanging in the balance.

                       For a few seconds it actually worked. The purple Alicorn seemed to believe him. This might actually go well after all. He could explain that the little filly's life was in danger and then he could heal Applebloom and.....

                       "He's actin'." Applejack said.

                       "What? No!"

                        "I know you are. I can tell when somepony's a-lyin'."

                        The dark Alicorn seemed perplexed for a moment, but then he just sighed.

                        "Okay, you got me. I did attack someplace with a lot of crystal. And I did cause a ruckus there. But please, if you'll allow me a chance to explain, I'll......" What he would explain , the Elements never found out, as a piercing scream suddenly split the air apart.

                        Applebloom's body was now glowing. Tendrils of darkness were burrowing through her skin and into her flesh. Her tiny body was wracked with mind numbing agony for a full second before the dark alicorn knocked out her consciousness once more.

                         When he turned around again, his mind occupied only on Applebloom, he noticed the orange horse was too close for comfort.

<><><><><><><><>

              30 minutes later

<><><><><><><><>

                          There is something fundamentally wrong with the fact that cute multi-coloured ponies are trying to kill you.

                                                      The  purple one was as skilled and powerful as your average minor god. That white one tired to kill me with grass. Grass. In hindsight, it may have been quite funny if a hundred grass blades hadn't started stabbing me. The blue and the orange ones were out cold. The pink one had keeled over for some reason. I had taken quite a lot of damage myself. I'm not very tanky, believe it or not. I use my speed and strength to win fights, and I rely heavily on magic and Impact control to prevent damage to my physical body. Both of which I couldn't use without killing Applebloom.

                                                               That white one almost poked out my eyes, and one of my new found wings was burnt off. Also, I'm not used to fighting as a horse, and with most of my attention focused on healing Applebloom, I couldn't dare do anything too distracting.  I hadn't been this exposed since the time Vibranium was bounded onto my mind.

                                   Then I grabbed hold of the yellow pegasus. My hoof was, for some ungodly reason, able to grasp her neck. She squeaked a little, and struggled, but there was no way she could break my grip. From this distance, I could easily make out her features. She was a cute little creature, with fluffy wings and a natural coat of yellow fur which I hadn't noticed before due to the distance.

                                    So now we were in a standoff. I wouldn't actually be able to kill her, because, in all honesty, she was  still just a child, scarcely 15 or 16. Maybe Rocky was right about me being soft, but I didn't need to tell them that.

                                    "Stop! One move and she  dies." I said, making them stop in their tracks and stare in horror. They seemed to believe my bluff.At that time I honestly believed that I had caught the weakest one. No one had told me that she was an element of Peace.

                                    "Who are you? What do you want?" The purple Alicorn asked me after a few seconds.

                                      I weighed my options, as well as I could with the spell still active. I had no way to convince them that I was not some evil overlord or something. If this really was a cartoon world, then Good and Evil must be cast in iron, black and white with no  gray area in between. I sneaked a look  back at Applebloom. The spell had ripped away her skin, and was, bit by bit burning away her body. Chunks of muscle were falling off.  Her amputated leg was growing back, the white bone appearing first.  The spell was destroying and recreating her body from scratch, while I forcefully kept her mind tethered to her soul.

                                     It looked suspiciously similar to torturing her to death. There was no way in hell they were going to believe I was saving her life. So the only way out was to hold the yellow pegasus hostage until the spell was complete. Just 30 more minutes.

                                      At that very moment, there was an intense and powerful attack on my mind. The yellow peguasus lashed out with uncanny strength and determination, using her mind and will to attack my consciousness. Her skill was pathetic, but it threw me off balance. I almost lost hold of the spell on Apple Bloom. Thankfully, I was able to regain control, but for that one brief instant, I really thought that she was going to die.

                                     "Now, just wait a minute, buster! You think you can hurt my friends and get away with it? Well you have got another thing...." The stupid yellow pegasus was still saying something, but after she tried to kill one of my friends, it just made me angrier.

                                    " YOU BASTARD!!!  " I screamed, cutting her off. Anger overtook my senses for a brief instant, and I tossed her into the sky. She flew quite a distance and disappeared beyond the horizon.

                                       Great. Now I threw the hostage away.

                                       I suck.

<><><><><><><>

15 minutes before spell ends,

Outside Golden Oak library

<><><><><><><>

                                     The trip to the Griffin kingdom was utter bullshit. They didn't even have an actual government. The Personal Aide of the Twin Thrones knew that talks with  fucking changelings would be more meaningful. Chrysalis would at least show up.

                                     They should have contacted the griffin tribes beyond that pathetic excuse of a kingdom. At least they had money to spend. A deal with any one of them would single-hoofedlly brought back the Crystal Empires main trade, crystal sculpting. It would have added a 20% growth rate to the GNP. A Fucking 20%!!!!. It was a deal worth committing mass genocide for.

                                      Speaking of mass genocide,  they should do that sometime, with the Nobles.

                                      FUCK THE NOBLES. Bloody mightier-than-thou bastards with their horns shoved up their arse. Those fuckers murdered the whole deal by throwing their shitty airs and graces around Chief Iron Talon of the Talon clan. He had to use up  half of the favors and blackmail he had so painstakingly collected in the Griffin clans, and almost bankrupt his companies in Griffon lands with the bribes he paid, just to prevent outright war. Any chance of trade was now dashed to the ground, and the threat of war still looming over Equestria. The Personal Aide sighed. A week of his time wasted.

                                       Alright, this could still be fixed. There were two other Griffin clans still left, and they were not on friendly terms with the  Talon clan. But first, he would have to take out Iron Talon.

                                               Iron Talon held a considerable amount of respect, but he didn't like the petty bickering that took place in the Talon family. His entire family hated him, save for a few relatives. There were also 6 Dukes who would like nothing more than to be Chief, but were either too chicken or not powerful enough to act. The  politician reviewed the situation. They had atleast an year before Iron Talon marched on Equestria. Iron Talon was not going to back down, and he was too powerful to depose. The answer was clear. Iron Talon would have to be assassinated, just like the others. But before that,  much more  information was needed, as much as he could get. Ties, allegiances, favors, blackmail, things like that . This would be difficult.

                                       Ah well, that was for later. For now, he was just Spike the  dragon, No. 1 assistant of Twilight Sparkle. Speaking of whom, had she eaten her breakfast? He had left it prepared in the kitchen, along with a week's worth of magically preserved food. Celestia had said that a growing Alicorn needs plenty of nutritious food, so he had been feeding  her all kinds of high protein stuff. He had begun to make her drink two glasses of milk  a day.

                                       Sadly, knowing her, she probably hadn't eaten anything at all, or even slept this entire week. Now it was up to him to drag her away for her books, feed her something and tuck her into bed, and then get the Library cleaned up, do the laundry, fetch the groceries......... the list was endless. Sometimes, Spike wondered what would happen if he had to go away for longer than a week. He would probably come back the find her dead body in the study, with a book firmly clutched in her hooves. Spike shivered at the thought.

                                              Yeah, the quirks of looking after an overgrown Alicorn filly. Just another day in the life of Spike the dragon.

<><><><><><><>

30 seconds  before spell ends,

Clearing outside the Everfree

<><><><><><><>

                                           Just a few more seconds. Then I'll show these fools why they shouldn't mess with the Fire in the Dark.

                                           20 second The Alicorn was attacking me again and again, and it hurt. A lot. But I didn't move.

                                           10 seconds. Pain was nothing but an feeling. An alarm. If I didn't respond to it, there was nothing it could do. The last parts of the spell were crucial, and I couldn't waste my time thinking about useless distractions.

                                           ...5,4,3,2,1 aaannnd..... "DONE!" I shouted, finally. Apple Bloom's body fell down, only to be caught by my shadows. I checked her really quickly. Body parts were good, organs were normal, brain was functioning, her hoof was back, nerve functions good, blood vessels were pumping blood.......... Wait.

                                            "What?" Her heart was not beating. Instead of it, her blood vessels were pumping blood by themselves. I had forgotten to change that part of the spell.

                                            Oh, whatever, she was alive and well. I brought her closer to myself so that I could do a last minute check.

"STOP!" The Alicorn screamed, her voice booming like thunder. I don't have any problem with thunder, though, so I calmly turned to face her.

                                             "Let Apple Bloom go, NOW!!!" the Alicorn screamed again. "Hand her over."

                                             "Why, so you can blast her as well?", I said, sarcastically, venting out my frustration. "I don't think she'll survive that."

                                              The Alicorn blinked in surprise, and then began " No, I...."

                                              "Yeah...." I said, cutting her off."...you can take her. Here, handle her carefully." I said, and pushed a little magic into the others in the area, speeding up their healing. The yellow one had also flown back at full speed, (which was still low) apparently unharmed after being thrown a few kilometers away. Good, less explaining to do. So, now, first things first.

                                               "Why the bloody hell did you fools attack me?" I asked, angrily. The answer was not obvious. I had made no attempt at all at hiding my aura,and as scary and enormous as my aura is, it clearly showed that I held no malicious intents. I mean, come on, this is basic stuff right here, something any minor god should know...... wait.

                                                Any minor god. The purple one had the power of a minor god, not the skill.

                                                "You  were holding her, and you were doing something to her." The purple one replied, suddenly finding words again . " You tried to kill her!!!" she almost shouted.

                                                "No I didn't," I countered, equaling her volume," I saved her life. She was bitten by a...a... monster thing, and got pumped up on magical poison. If I had wanted to kill her, I would have squeezed her neck."

                                                The last part was probably unnecessary, but I was still a little ticked off.

                                                 "Enough!" the purple one finally said, "As princess of Equestria and Element of magic, I demand that you surrender."

                                                 I was going to retort, but then I realised something. She said 'princess'.

'Who the hell have I been fighting?' I thought.

                                                  Of course, no one answered. They were still knocked out from my sight experiment. Great.

                                                  The orange pony suddenly jerked awake. "Apple Bloom!", she screamed, before she noticed her sister's body floating in the air. She quickly jumped towards Apple Bloom's form, and snatched her out of the air, tenderly cradling her in her hooves. I didn't even need to see her aura to come to an conclusion.

                                                  The orange one....no, Applejack, looked up at me . No longer angry, or desperate. Now she felt, she looked, the way her body loosened, felt...........

                                                   ....shattered. Horribly shattered like glass. Even if it was blurred, it was enough to give me pause. I have seen many who have looked at me like that. I sometimes see that when I look myself in the mirror.

                                                   "Her... her he.. heart. It ...it ain't beatin'." She said. There was no force behind her voice in the beginning the volume gradually increasing to a roar of anger anger and grief.  "Sh..she's... dead. You....YOU....killed her!!!!"

                                                    Well, on the bright side, she's wrong.

<><><><><><><>

     Galaxy 43984R/M/Un, Planet 43984R/M/Un-F.fl/F/B(New standard method, 2nd Malfunction's Markings)

26,900 years ago

<><><><><><><>

                                                    It was official. There really was a God (Again, biblical, not the race). There was an vengeful god with a sick sense of humor who had devoted himself to the game of 'kick the little human'.

                                                    The human had no other way to describe his bad luck. In front of him lay a creature of legend. A creature who had lived so long that the entire life of the Universe would be naught but a day to him. His aura grew bright as a star, his body larger than a mountain, and his strength so great that galaxies would fall in the millions before he would be bested. He had taken the form of an Earthling, looking exactly a Chinese dragon would look if it were real.

                                                    And then the human looked closer, and he felt a chill run through his spine.

                                                    The Wrym faced his, despair evident on his features.

'He knows.'. The voices didn't reply this time.

                                                      The human understood that expression. It was one he had seen in the mirror.

                                                     "Greetings." The Wrym said, speaking in english. " T'is a great pleasure  h..h.h..ave you here. I am One among the First Three and I  ...."

                                                     "Cut the crap." the human snapped at the Wrym, who blinked in surprise at the puny little creature's audacity.

                                                     "You are old. You can't not have noticed all those minds who cracked. Those few creatures who lived on after they learnt it." the human continued, frustration clear in his voice. "Stupid. You are a stupid bloody idiot with your nose in the clouds."

                                                     The human knew what he was saying. He was adding salt into the wounds of an poor old creature, but he didn't care. The insults would no longer hurt the Wrym.

                                                      "Why? For god's sake, why the hell would you want to find the secret. The other Disillusioned told you, didn't they? What happens when you found out." He looked up at the Wrym.

                                                      "I thought..... I believed that I could..I.... handle it." The Wrym said, strain visible on his face.

                                                      " Oh, you were proud to admit you would fall to a little realization, huh? You were not stupid enough to have thought it wouldn't effect you in some way or the other. But you pushed ahead anyway. You bloody idiot, your pride had blinded you!" The human said, twisting the knife for good measure. It wasn't required, though.

                                                       The Wrym was either at a loss for words,or he was too busy wrestling with  the secret.  For a few seconds, he could not answer or retort. And then he spoke.

                                                       "How... d..do I st..o...stop it? I... how ..d..do you..."

                                                       "You don't stop it." The human cut him off, his tone softening a little. " It's the truth, whether you like it or not. The only thing you can do is try to accept it, and see if you can live with that hollow feeling."

                                                       "WHAT!!" The Wrym thundered, panic stilling his speech for a few moments, "No, I can't live with this! There has to be some...som....some oth...other wa..wa..wa...way......." The great beast suddenly started shuddering, the entire planet shaking into in rhythm to his body. A quake unlike any that the little planet had experienced, creating new valleys and opening up great abysses. It reminded the human of just who he was talking with. He felt fear rise within him, but fear has no hold on a Disillusioned. So he stayed put where he was.

                                                       After the great creature stopped shuddering, the human sat down, shivering a little at the cold frozen nitrogen.

                                                      "Well, what's done is done. There are only two ways forward now for you." The human said. "Either you go insane,...... or you become Disillusioned." The human smiled. It was a genuine smile, untarnished by selfish desires. And a hint of pity.

                                                     "I'll stay with you. If you become disillusioned, then we're good. If you go insane, I'll kill you. It's the least I can do. We're in the same boat now."

                                                       A few minutes passed, before the Wrym spoke again, his speech clearer than before."I understand why  you say that now."

                                                      "Hmmmm?"

                                                       "May the Truth be False." The Wrym said again.

                                                       "Well, even Disillusioned are allowed  a few false hopes, aren't we?"   The human replied, a smile once again tugging at his face as he settled down to wait,rubbing his hands against the cold.

<><><><><><><>

Clearing outside Everfree forest

<><><><><><><>

                                                       "Screw you, you stupid Wrym!" the Alicorn said.

                                                       "You bastard! I'm gonna fucking murder you!" Spike took a deep breath, amassing fire in his lungs, and released. The flames were opaque Neon green, meant to burn and kill, not send letters.

                                                         The black Alicorn didn't move as the flames hit him. Instead, he channeled the burst of raw magic into a spell. Streaks of black and white raced through the flames,  towards the little dragon's mouth and down his throat. Then the flames disappeared.

                                                         Spike blinked in confusion at the black Alicorn. The alicorn just smiled.

                                                          The little dragon's torso burst. The grass was painted bright red. A long red tube flew out and landed in a small pile of  mashed organs by Spike's feet. His torso was now clean of any organs with the exception of his heart, which was suspended in the air by a badly damaged pulmonary artery , wobbling like a pendulum before the artery tore and  deposited the organ right on top of the pile, like the cherry on a cake.  His diaphragm still kept up with its work, contracting and expanding as if it didn't realize that their were no lungs to inflate anymore.

                                                         "Well, my spell worked to some extent, atleast." The black alicorn remarked, still smirking." I thought I had killed you already. Then again, I didn't really feel your mind dissolve."

                                                          The black alicorn sniffed the air, not unlike a dog. "Ah, the smell of iron. Never could forget this smell."

                                                          He then turned back to the little dragon."So, any particular reason why you are trying to kill me? No, wait, that's a stupid question." He said, looking towards the bound Elements on the ground." They must be your friends."

                                                          Spike would have snarled at the alicorn, but he didn't have any lungs. Another thing that Spike noticed was that he was still alive. His organs were already growing back, and bones were setting back into place. Spike knew that he healed fast, but he had never pushed it this far. Ignoring the pain, he looked at his foe again, his mind already racing for a plan of action. Fall down and pretend that he was dead? Not while his torso was plainly growing back.  Push forward and freak out the alicorn with the fact he was still alive without most of his body mass? The black alicorn didn't seem all that freaked out.

                                                         "Alright." The alicorn spoke again,"Actual question this time. Do you remember me?"

                                                          Spike did snarl at the alicorn this time, but since his lungs were still healing, all he could manage was a spray of blood.

                                                          "I'll take that as a no. But do you remember this sentence." The alicorn said, his tone becoming cautious again.

                                                           Spike finally finished healing, and he got ready to charge at the alicorn.

                                                         "May the Truth be False."

                                                           Spike stopped dead in his tracks. Those words rang in his head. "May the Truth be False."

BROTHER!!!.....

Almost done..... just ..hold on.

NO! GET AWAY FROM HIM!! FILTHY HUMAN!BROTHER!

Almost......

.

.

.

.

.

Remember, my friend. Always remember......

May the Truth be False.

The last Death flag.

Side notes: Document, Subject= The being who calls himself 'Fire in The Dark'

Document translated by Malfunction Two, The Living Library,The Wandering Library, The One of Countless Bodies, The Limitless Army and 3rd among the Malfunction Sect.

                         From Two- 'Due to inconsistencies among  English and Photo Emotion, as usual, source material may seem slightly inconsistent to some adaptations. If you spot glaring error's or a fault in my understanding, please report to the nearest station. I am pleased to say that as of now, with this, sixty percent of all known written material has been translated to English.'

Report. (For the Chief God)

                        (Declassified)

                        Subject = The Last Human,or the 'Fire in The Dark'

                        The being that calls himself the Fire in The Dark is truly an interesting creature. He is the last among a group of creatures who lived on Earth, in a solar system that was classified Resource Deficit. Little is known about those creatures, and since their extinction , it is believed that all knowledge about them is lost, except for the knowledge resting within The Living Library, which is one of the few forbidden texts that the Malfunctions refuse to part with. Not surprising, seeing that the creature in question is in essence, leader of the Malfunctions.

Strength

                       Fire in The Dark is one of the 32 Transcended Galaxy Destroyers, a group of individuals with immense strength that many believe is in the realm of mythology. A unique trait among these creatures is that their strength is measured by the number of Galaxies each individual can destroy. This means that they must provide enough power on their own to obliterate a galaxy, and not merely set the galaxy's destruction in motion.

                       It is estimated that Arch Gods can destroy thousands of galaxies on their own power, and are Galaxy Destroyers in their own right. However, TGDs average at seven million galaxies at full power. The Wryms Average at ten million galaxies at full power. That brings us to the final two creatures.

                       The Top position is shared by the Round Demon and by our subject. The Fire in The Dark is capable of destroying fifty million galaxies at full power. If there is no strain on his bonds, then he will return to full power within 24 hours after using all his strength. He is easily the most powerful creature alive till date, second only to the deceased Chaos.

Abilities

                        The Fire in The Dark is most noticeably known to use Dark and Light Magic, mostly in conjugation. This phenomenon is completely beyond our understanding, as Light and Dark are almost polar opposites, impossible in every circumstance except his. This proves an unique problem as he has thus, in essence, no magical weakness and is also skilled in almost every single field of magic. He also wields a form of magic about which nothing is known about. It allows him to pull energy Directly from the Void itself, bypassing the Time field completely. He thus has access to limitless energy and matter, and hence is able the maintain the actual body of The Living library. For the time being, the Voids created must be placed within reactors, and cannot be left in the open or they will collapse. Thus, they cannot properly be used in battle.

                       Our subject is Highly skilled in manipulation of the Time field, allowing to solidify Gravity itself, which he then uses as a jumping board , using his limbs to push against the time field and gain speed. He can travel forty time the speed of light at perfect control, and can travel faster at the cost of control. This makes him the fastest combatant in history.

Conclusion

                         The Fire in The Dark is a dangerous enemy. He is not mentally stable, as he admits himself. It does not effect him much however, but it makes trying to break into his mind suicide. Every being who can see even a silver of his unguarded aura is immediately hit by waves of despair and depression, and the few who still pushed ahead had their minds broken, and later committed suicide.

                          Perhaps the most disturbing thing about The Last Human is that he has fought seriously only on a few occasions. The first of his fights, twenty seven thousand years ago, were won exclusively by deceit and cheating of the the most cowardly yet efficient nature. In this way , he was able to kill hunters much more powerful than himself. He has never picked a fight for no reason. His nature is averse and unstable, shifting from ruthlessly practical to uncannily forgiving. For the last twenty three thousand years, he has killed only a small fraction of his opponents ( mostly bounty hunters and adventurers and of course, the Round Demon) . Due to the fact that his mind is too erratic to properly allow any meaningful probabilities to form, it is literally impossible to predict his next move, whether in combat or in  general, even by the greatest of future readers.

                           None of his weaknesses are properly exploitable by us. Even though the subject and the Round  Demon are technically the same strength, and the Round Demon much more ruthless, the Fire in The Dark is a far worse enemy. It is impossible to predict when he will strike. And since he has a real reason  to hold a grudge against the gods, our situation is even more dire. It will be extremely difficult to fend him off if frivolously attacks us. If he attacks seriously, then there is no hope.  The Malfunctions have access to almost every bit of knowledge and information about the Gods, and he will be able effortlessly wipe out our race. However, we do know that if possible, he prefers not cause unnecessary death. It is some comfort to know that if he does attack us, he will not wipe out the God race.

                                   Salutations, High God,

                                    A Scribe.

Side notes: Document, Subject= The being who calls himself 'Fire in The Dark'

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Side notes- Documents=Reply and a Challenge.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.