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This is my 2nd Chapter. I finished this almost half a year ago. And I recently just edited it.

Several kilometers away, hidden in the shadows of a ravenous mountain, with the sun, a blazing ball of light, just sliding over the peak, the Head Council of Warriors sat in a meeting in an old shack, while several armor-plated guards stood watch outside.
“It is absolutely intolerable! I will not agree to it!” Cried a gruff old man, sitting at the head of a table, he slammed his fists onto the rotting wood. He wore armor of shining steel. All that was not metal was a bright shade of crimson, like that of freshly spilt blood.
“But it is the only way that we can proceed with the attack!” Answered another Warrior. This one wore a similar suit of armor but with black cloth overflowing from under the metal.
“It is not the process in which we proceed with the attack, but the whole entire attack that I am against! It is absolute foolishness to invade the city and search out the Demon! We will risk hundreds of innocent lives and many of the Warriors’ lives will be traded in order to capture it.” Replied the same old man.
“Do you suggest that we let the Mages handle this?! They are the cause of this creature’s escape! The Seal was rightfully guarded by us! But they broke into the Vault of Artifacts and stole it from us. And they released the monstrosity! We have to step in to stop any murders caused by this demonic manifestation!” Argued a smaller Warrior. This one was clad in a more intricately designed armor, with swirls of gold over the silver sheen and wore the royal purple that majestically swayed as a light breeze blew in through the window.
“As you said, it’s the Mages’ problem. They were the ones who released the Demon. Let them bear the responsibility.” Tried the red-clad, old man.
“No! We must take responsibility for that Seal! If information about the Seal of Fire being stolen by the Mages gets out, we will be disgraced! We must reclaim it and re-seal the Demon. Only then can we regain our pride and honor!” Rebutted the small, but obviously higher ranking, Warrior. The argument would last for a few more hours before the decision made itself clear, but before then, in a small village not far from this meeting, another Seal was being broken as they spoke.

The village stood in the middle of a clearing in a forest that rested comfortably in a valley, sheltered by two mountains, almost as if they were a couple protecting their first child. The ground was a dark and fertile brown, with grass as green as the leaves of a strong Oak in the summer. The houses and shops were all made of beautiful mahogany wood and were placed close together, as if huddling so something valuable would not escape. The village was built with the town square and main hall in the middle, with shops crowding around them and houses distributed around the shops and on the outskirts of town. While the river was pushed and re-routed, so that it would run around the southern and eastern end of the village, creating a border between the foreboding forests and the quite civilization.
A cloaked stranger ran down a deserted street, just as the sun was about to reach mid-noon. The grey-brown cloak, the colour of a sky during a winter’s sunrise, lagged behind the pedestrian, exposing the dust-brown cotton pants, and coal-black boots. The hood had been pulled down low over the stranger’s face, immersing it in inky black shadows. The front of the cloak parted to show a shapeless, pink shirt that plastered itself to the front of the body as the stranger continued to run.
The person was carrying a palm-sized, round, disk-like piece of stone and metal. The stranger’s tan arm cradling it close to their side. The strange disk was embedded with jewels and precious stones. The metal was a strange turquoise and was fused with orange limestone. A picture depicting a great dragon was engraved upon one side, while on the other side, was printed an image of a gate that portrayed tortured souls and agony.
Just then, a slight breeze blew the hood up and uncovered the stranger’s face. It was a girl, too young to have seen her 13th birthday. She had dark-brown hair that whipped around her shoulders. Her left eye was a pale lime-green while her right eye was a clear, electric-blue; both eyes were large and gave her an expression of constant bewilderment. She had a slightly oval face and skin that showed she spent long hours in the sun.
As she ran, she constantly looked back the way she came, as if expecting to see someone burst out of an alleyway and charge after her. She rounded a corner and stepped into a puddle of water. Droplets of muddy water splattered up her boots and onto her trousers. She cursed and ran with more speed and an air of fear slowly creeping into her face. It hadn’t rained in the past couple of days. Her exhausted trot turned into an all-out sprint.
She was already half-way out of the shopping districts before something outlandish occurred. Ripples began to pulse across the puddle she had stepped in and then an incalculably grotesque and deformed creature burst forth from the panel of water.
The thing stood a good 2 meters tall and was a dark shade of grey. It had the appearance of a man but one of its arms was considerably far larger than it should have been and hung below his knees, while its other arm just barely made it under the last rib. Its legs were massive and knotted with muscles. The most grotesque thing about this creature was its head. Alone, its head would have been able to portray more deformities than the rest of its body put together; the head had no hair on it, instead, fleshy tentacles were snaking around its head, waving about and spiraling out from the exposed brain, its mouth no longer sat under a nose and over a chin but was moved to the left side of the face and turned vertically so that it spread from one temple to its chin. Blood dripped from every orifice. An eye was left where it should have been, but the other had slipped down past its nose to settle where its mouth used to be, giving an appearance of its head being tilted to one side. The nose had been reduced to a gaping hole right in the center of its face. The ears had swung up to the top of its skull and resembled that of a bat’s ears.
The girl saw what had burst forth from the puddle and turned into a different alley, hoping that it hadn’t spotted her yet. She sprinted forward through the alley and turned onto a larger street as she burst out from the dark gap between two buildings. A large, resonating thud and chunks of debris flying told her that the monster was following her.
It had ploughed through the small alley she had cut through and destroyed the two buildings that made up the walls. The thing had spotted the girl and was now advancing to catching her. She sprinted down the street wishing that someone would appear to help her for the streets were more deserted than a ghost town. As she rounded a corner, a boy appeared before her and they slammed into each other. The collision sent her sprawling on top of the boy and the disk she was carrying to fly out of her grasp and strike to floor several centimeters away from her.
The sound the disk made as it came in contact with the stone floor was a clear and crisp tinkling, similar to that of a small, silver bell. A crack spread from the point where the disk struck the ground, through the center, and split like lightning. Along with the sound, a blinding, white flash blazed from it.
Moments later, the light was gone and so was the disk, the monster had backed away from the bright flash and was stunned for the moment but was still too close for comfort. Although the disk was no longer there, a white wisp levitated just above the place where it had broken. The girl made to reach for it but saw that the boy she had bumped into had sprawled out in such a way that his hand was now in contact with the mist.
Almost at once, it rushed to the boy’s fingertips and spread out over his body. The girl backed away and watched in horrified fascination at what was taking place. The mist had traveled from his fingertips, down his arm, and was now spreading over his body. It floated just millimeters above his body. It was now completely covering him and was slowly lowering itself onto the boy.
At this point, he had awoken and the boy stared, astonished, at the mist and tried to move, but could not. As the mist slowly sank deeper and deeper towards him, he began to struggle more frantically. Then the mist touched his skin. Immediately, he screamed in pain and writhed, as a worm drowning would, on the floor. Sensations of being frozen washed over him relentlessly, as a sea would a beach. Each wave of pain knocked him further from consciousness and he soon fainted. The last thing he could remember was a very beautiful girl looking down at him, feeling her warm touch on his face, and hearing her voice, a sound comparable to a harp. Her words reverberated through his mind, “Don’t die! Please, don’t die!” And everything had faded into the dark shadow that closed in from the corners of his vision.
A small portion of the mist floated back out from the boy’s finger, and it had leapt onto the girl. She batted it as it landed on her arm, but her hand only passed through it. She swung her arm wildly, but the mist spread even quicker. It grew and then stretched across her body. It was seeping into her. She tried to get up and run, but her legs felt numb and wouldn’t move. Then she began to squirm on the floor as the pain that had struck the boy began to take hold of her as well. She crawled her way between convulsions of pain, towards the boy, and as she reached him, she hooked an arm around his and fainted.
The moment her head landed softly on the boy’s stomach, the monster snapped out of its daze and trudged towards the unconscious pair. Suddenly, the boy sat up and opened his eyes, but they were glazed over, as if in a trance, and his face held no expression whatsoever. He stood up, allowing the girl to roll off his dust covered body and reached for the bow that hung behind him from his shoulders. Drawing an arrow from his left hip, he knocked it into place, and pulled the string back as far as it would go. The arrow securely pinched between his thumb and middle finger while the other two fingers pulled on the string allowing the index to aim.
Swinging around to meet the nightmare now charging at him, he took aim, exhaled all the remaining air within his lungs with a soft hiss, and released the arrow. Frost appeared in the air as the arrow tore through it. Time seemed to slow as it neared its mark. The horror leant over and sprang forward just as the arrow buried itself into the creature’s thigh. The thing’s leg blew apart as ice replaced its limb, splattering the nearby walls and ground with crimson liquid. Pink from frozen blood, the ice tore into the torso of the now whimpering and frostbitten monster.
Just as quickly as it had appeared, the thing retreated back into a shard of ice and sank through it. In the same manner of suddenness that the boy had awoken in his trance, he fell back and slumped onto the floor next to the girl.


He was running through a forest. However, it could not be a forest; the trees had bones instead of branches and hands in the place of leaves. On closer inspection, the tree trunks weren’t made of wood, but of human bodies, some so old that they were mummified, while others were still alive. They began moving towards him, grabbing at his clothes and pulling him back. The boy struggled to break free and wrenched free of his coat. He ran into a clearing, a circle of clear sky, with no trees or grass. In the center of the clearing was a circle of symbols and words hovering just above the floor. Shimmering and glowing with a dark hue of blue. At the center of the word-circle, lay a round disk made of lustrous metal.
The boy ran as fast as he could through the ring of symbols and grabbed the disk. Immediately, screams of agony and broken yells of pain could be heard from the trees, which had been closing in ever so slightly around the clearing. Now, they were writhing in horrid pain and frosting over with ice. The ice crept across the demonic trees and slowly interloped over the bodies. After what felt like an eternity, all the trees were frozen in clear, blue ice and were cracking. In a horrifically beautiful moment, all the trees shattered into fine dust and blew away in a breeze.
Almost immediately, everything faded away into black nothingness. Only the sensation of holding onto the cold, metal disk in his hand remained, and the lasting sound of ice tinkling onto stone.
Absolute darkness was broken as the warm, brown hue of pinewood greeted his unfocused eyes. Trickling of water could be heard over the cheerful chirping of birds and chattering of squirrels. Somewhere in the distance, the faint roar of a waterfall could be heard. Blinking several times, the boy realized that he was staring at the ceiling of a hut. Flexing his right hand, he felt a soft yet rough texture. Grabbing it, he raised it to his eyes and found that he was lying on a straw mat. Placing his elbows on the ground, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Turning his head around, he saw that he was in a small, single roomed hut. There was a small bed set into the wall opposite the door, which was left hanging open and sunlight was streaming in. A round, wooden table stood right in the middle of the hut. A red, half-melted candle lay on its side motionless near the edge of the table. Alongside the bed, there was another straw mat besides his own; and on it laid a girl.
The boy stood up, only to fall back down again as he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him and his vision faded near the edges. Trying again, the boy took a few unsteady steps and stumbled back down onto his knees. Instead of getting up, he decided to crawl. Placing his hands on the floor ahead of him, and positioning his knees, he slowly made his way over the girl.
From where he was crawling from, all he could see was that the girl had dark-brown hair and dark tan skin. Now that he was next to her, he could see that she was about the same age as himself. She was wearing light brown trousers and a pink shirt which were torn and ripped. The garments were faded and tinted grey from the many weeks of not being washed. She wore large, heavy boot that was caked in dirt and dust.
His gaze fixed on her face the moment he had looked at her. She had thin eyebrows and a small nose. Her lips were a light crimson and looked soft. She had a blemish-free complexion but some scars carved the outer edges of her beautiful face, as a glacier would carve into the face of the land.
As he sat staring at her motionless body, the boy realized that this was the girl that had crashed into and knocked him out. Even though it was only a brief glimpse, he knew that this was the same girl. He leant in close to her just to make sure he was not imagining things. As he closed the distance between their faces, the girl let out a gruff and primitive groan and stirred from her sleep. Then suddenly sat up. Her lips connected with his in a kiss and he blushed, eyes widening.
She fell back and her face flushed bright red. Bewilderment crossed her expression as she realized she was still nose-to-nose with the handsome face. Icy blue eyes stared back into hers’. She saw tufts of hazel-brown hair hang in front of them. His skin was unscathed and fair. A scream escaped her mouth as she didn’t know what else to do.
The boy recoiled from the harsh sound and tumbled backwards while the girl pulled her cloak closer around her and edged back from the boy.
“I’m sorry.” The boy mumbled, then stood and walked out the door, rubbing a spot on the back of his head that he had bumped when he flinched. The girl stared after the boy, her cheeks burning at the thought of her lips against his. She slowly got to her feet and stumbled unsteadily out the door, looking as if she was walking on the deck of a boat out at sea. She staggered out of the doorway and brought an arm up to shield her eyes from the sudden glare of sunlight.
As her eyes got used to the light, she saw the boy standing not too far ahead of her. She slowly walked up to him and tapped is shoulder, “I’m sorry. For screaming all of a sudden.”
“It’s alright. Just as long as you don’t do that to me again.” He turned and smiled. “There doesn’t seem to be any food in this place and no one seems to be here, not to mention the village is far from here, so I thought I would go hunt.” As he made to turn back to the face the forest, growling and snarling sounds could be heard. Whipping his head around, the boy scanned around them with his blue eyes. There, standing in the shadows of the trees were several grotesque creatures.
The first was a short and stocky nightmare that looked as though a cockroach and a rat had been smashed together; it had the legs of a cockroach but was covered in fur, it owned a pair of beady eyes and large mandibles that sliced sideways, a tail that whipped back and forth.
The second stood tall and was even uglier. It had the head of a horse, but tusks were growing from the side of its cheeks. A pair of dark holes replaced its eyes and its throat was rotting away. The head was connected to the body of a millipede. Its multitude of spiny legs was covered in a fine film of green liquid.
The girl screamed, a long, high-pitched sword that pierced through the air, and grabbed onto the boy’s arm. The boy swung his bow from his back and knocked several arrows. Then taking aim, he was about to release his fingers when he realized that they were no longer there. He cautiously looked around, seeking the grotesque nightmares and readying his hands to release a deadly arc of metal.
“I never quite got your name.” Commented the boy as his eyes roamed the surroundings once again.
“My name’s Samantha. Just call me Sam.” The girl squeaked back at the boy. “What’s yours?”
“I’m Zeroma. Zero’s just fine.” With those words, Zero pushed Sam into the hut and slipped in after her, waiting for the grotesque things to enter and meet their doom.