When I find myself alone, I slip into an alley and fade into the shadows, drifting farther and farther in until I push through a rift into the Void. With my mind, I imagine where I want to be and continue walking forward, soon ending up at the steps to my Void home. The door creaks open and I feel like I’ve wandered into a long abandoned house. Everything looks pristine, just as Void rock tends to be. Many of the personal items have been taken out and the rooms are nearly empty, save for the standard bed and dressers I created in each. I peek into my room, but can’t get myself to walk in; something is holding me back.

I leave the house and find a place in the ground that has been disturbed by magic recently. From it, I extend a bridge straight outwards, then begin walking. For minutes, I continue putting one foot in front of the other until I feel like I’ve stumbled into the Abyss. Behind me, the house has shrunk to the point where I wouldn’t recognize someone standing outside of it. Ahead, I see another structure growing larger. This is the prison where the worst of the worst are. This is the place where my enemies are placed to fall into insanity, or under my own ruling. However, some managed to escape and I cannot let that happen again. No more imprisonment.

I reach the prison and unlock the doors to enter. I lock them behind me, then repeat the process for three more sealed doors. How did she get out? I get into the first cell block and draw my God Slayer blade, the one made of pure Void material.

“Well well well,” a crazed man cackles in the first cell. “Looks like the warden is- hrk!” My blade cuts a hole in his chest and I discard him into the living world, a place I’ve had mapped and tracked for years for this very reason.

“So that’s it?” a woman snarls at me. “Just going to dispose of us, executioner?” My blade rips through her throat and she, too, is thrown out of my world. The same happens to every prisoner I have. Inside the Mass Ward, the section where I keep large amounts of people in one place, I spin and dance among them, my blades like straight poison for their flesh. Each one dies like the other, blood piling up endlessly.

Soon enough, I begin to hear screaming and yelling all over the prison. Word has spread that Judgement Day has come, and everyone is out of their minds, so I silence each one. With every strike, every stab, I feel weight being lifted off my shoulders. Their killings are their freedom, one that comes quickly for them.

In the Echo blocks, I stop at a cell with a little girl inside. I kneel down, cooling my rampage for a moment. “Why are you here?”

She sniffles, then begs me to let her go. A moment after, however, she begins to choke and the cleverly placed illusion falls apart, a sickening man with red eyes being revealed. I let him suffocate and it fuels my anger all the way up to his last breath. Every next kill, every next stop, I get angrier and angrier. They are trying to kill you; they want to slay your friends! Destroy them, destroy them all! Let the beast take over and make it quick, Emily! Let it go on a rampage; no harm can be done here! Do it!

The last thing I know before fully losing my mind, I hear a scream begging for hope... for a goddess: Yhannason.

--

“Emily... Emily!” My eyes shoot open and I take a deep breath, firing myself up into a sitting position. I gasp for air and desperately look around until I can find something I can grab onto. I take hold of a railing on the nearby wall and struggle to stand, still having issues breathing. Along the dark, cruel halls, I stumble with asphyxiation on my mind. My focus fades in and out and the end of the halls become unclear. Before I reach my destination, I see an image of a man crumpled on the floor with blood pooling around him.

The halls burst into flames and I try to cry out for help, but no one answers. The lack of oxygen is apparent, but the new abundance of smoke floods my lungs. Mirages appear out of the flames and I see pained, dying faces of those I’ve slain. I see Pell, the woman I used to be friends with, and her appendages being torn from her body. There is Der’Jak, my tool to usurp the throne, and his mutilated, scorched corpse standing still. Finally, I see countless bodies begin to cloud my way, but I push through each one, dust and smoke smearing my vision.

I shove my way out of the flames and see my right hand’s skin on fire, so I smack it with my left, feeling intense pain until the flames are put out. My left, however, continues slapping and scratching at my right wrist until blood begins to spread. “What is happening to me?!” I yell at the nothing around me.

“Emily...” I hear a kind voice say in front of my feet. I look up, seeing Yhanna’s beautiful face. “I’ll help you,” she says, her hand extending. I reach, but her hand morphs into blackened tendrils that run around my arm and latch around my neck. Her face loses the mouth and her skull elongates. Her skin turns completely pale with red markings and I see bloody flesh forming under the disgusting eyes of Algathan, my nightmare.

“You did this,” I gasp, the tendrils becoming tighter. “Stop destroying my life!” But it says nothing, and I am thrown to the side, rolling into a wall. The air is knocked from my stomach, though I get myself to stand. “Die!” I yell at it as I throw a spell, but it glances right off the beast’s body, a deformed, yet human-like apparition. It pushes forward and claws at me, slashing a few gashes into my cheek. It then takes hold of my skull with its enormous paw and I begin to see visions of the things it’s done before. I see destroyed buildings, men, women, and children alike slain on the ground, and its victims hanging from tree branches around me.

“Agh!” I take hold of its wrist with my hands and scream, “Why did you end those people’s lives?!” I try to resist and push against the beast’s grip, but it shoves me farther back. I let my corruption begin to take over, though I begin to see Algathan’s skin becoming blackened as well, its red markings beginning to glow. “You did this to her!” I yell at the beast. “You are the reason for her suffering!” My strength begins to overcome its and I manage to stand up again, my power starting to radiate from where my corruption began- the skin over my heart.

I shove Algathan back and extend two blades from my hands, and it does the same. “I will not leave until you are dead!” I yell as I charge, lunging blades to strike at its body. It blocks with its own God Slayers and I see bright white sparks flashing around us we attack each other, though it seems to simply be a one-sided fight. Every attack I throw at it, the beast blocks or dodges it. Everything I do, it is always one step ahead.

“You are a monster,” I accuse it. “You are the demon that plagues me!” I lift my arms above my head and slash down, yet as my blades sink deep into its chest, my stomach becomes impaled by its own weapons. “Egh... Ergh... You will not hurt anyone anymore,” I growl at it. I empower myself to keep digging into its flesh, but it headbutts me and I fall back onto the floor. I look up and see that it is gone, but my body is now gushing blood. As my vision becomes fainter and fainter, I pull myself up with the railing against the wall. However, the pain becomes too much and I fall to my knees. Before darkness fully envelops my sight, I clearly see the corpses of tens to a hundred- maybe even thousands- that I slaughtered tonight. Murder... you’re a murderer.