Seven robed figures of colors: red, violet, blue, yellow, green, orange and indigo, stood outside of the gate looking at the sight before them. Evan then saw the silver haired boy emerge from the corner of his eye. He, for one, was not in a robe but instead wore steel plated armor on his body with a sword sheathed at his side.

            “Woah.” Teya said with dazzling eyes. She then turned to Evan who was beside her. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she asked the boy with her hands held in front of her.

            “I suppose it is.” The boy replied and then looked back towards the scenery. Hell wasn’t quite what he had expected. Sure, the sky and earth were reddish in color. And perhaps the clouds were all black and terrifying. And maybe, there were a few strange things here and there. But other than that, it was just an ordinary village that awaited in front of them. That is, an ordinary village filled with demons and undead of all sorts. And right now, the group had gotten the attention of all of them.

            One particular demon, a red skinned individual that was as buff as two whole men with small horns on his forehead, walked up to the group. “Oi!” he yelled. “What are humans doing ‘ere? You lot should know better than to come to hell.” He said as he raised a hand and lashed it at Marcus who was in front of the group.

            Evan didn’t even see his granduncle move as a glowing shard slashed at the demon’s belly and he fell to the ground screaming in pain.

            “Do you not see the crests on our attires?” Marcus said as he walked forward and addressed the crowd of creatures that looked towards them. “Listen up you all, we’ve come here on business to see the Overlord. And I hope you all know better than to try and attack any of us. That would mean breaking the treaty that has held our two worlds’ peace. So think before you act.” Then Marcus gestured for the group to follow behind and so they did.

Slowly, they traversed through the red streets as they were watched from all sides. It wasn’t a feeling that Evan particularly enjoyed as he hovered on the small cloud that he had conjured. Surprisingly, there was moisture in the air despite the heat. He supposed that the natural humidity was quite high here and for the most part, the air was saturated with water despite the clouds above already being filled to the brink and only waiting to burst down with rain upon them.

Strange, Evan thought to himself. Hell was hot but it was also humid which balanced things out quite well. And it would seem that the plants here resembled those from rainforests. Well, strange as it might have been, it worked out well for Evan. If there wasn’t moisture in the air, then he couldn’t make clouds which would have been a big problem for him.

Suddenly, the brown haired girl walked beside the hovering boy. She was quite pretty, her skin was also tanned and her eyelashes were long and beautiful just like herself who was about four inches taller than Evan.

“You have a strange power.” She noted and then held out her hand. “I am Lelita.” She said as Evan awkwardly grabbed her hand. “I am Evan.” The boy replied as the girl then introduced herself to Teya as well. “Since we are of the same team, we must at least familiarize ourselves with each other and since you are the only two here whom I do not know, I thought it necessary that I introduce myself.” She said and then went back off on her own in the back of the crowd.

“She was odd.” Teya said to Evan and it was then that Blyke added. “And she’s also hot.” before heading off after the girl. But he soon returned with his face having gotten a little red. And that wasn’t from the heat, the mark of a hand could obviously be seen. “Wasn’t my type anyways.” He said as he once more drifted off to himself.

Eventually, after much awkward walking, Marcus stopped at a horse wagon where a skeleton dressed in a tail coat and top hat bowed to the man.

“How much to the overlord’s palace?” Marcus asked.

The skeleton’s eyes widened in shock as he rose himself up. Though, of course, he didn’t actually have eyes. “Sorry!” he placed both of his hands in front of him and turned his head away. “No one goes to the Overlord’s palace. It’s much too dan-”

            Before the skeleton could finish, Marcus placed a bag of gold onto his wagon. “Will this do?” he asked the skeleton who picked up the bag and felt its weight.

            “I don’t know.” The skeleton turned away. “It is really-”

            Marcus dropped another bag of gold. The skeleton swiped it up quickly and held out his hand with a wicked smile on his face. “You’ve got yourself a deal. The name’s Skull Jones.” Marcus grabbed his hand and shook it. Then the Skull hopped into the front of the wagon and flapped the harnesses that erupted in flame as the skeleton horse’s eyes reddened and fire ran along its back. “Well, hop in now.”

The Gifted did as they were told and jumped on to the wagon. When they were seated as comfortably as they could be, the wagon began moving at an incredible speed. That one horse must have been worth at least twenty, Evan thought as they dashed out of the little town where they had appeared. And in the far distance, Evan began to make out silhouettes of gigantic Malice beasts roaming through the mist of malice that covered the land up ahead. Some were as big as the one he had fought, others were bigger and some resembled animals rather than humans. And some even flew which immediately dismissed Evan’s idea of flying over them.

            “You lot better be prepared for a fight!” Skull shouted as he laughed manically. “I ain’t alive so they won’t come at me. I’ve got no flesh on my bones for them to eat.”

“Isn’t there any way around?” Marcus asked after seeing the dark ashy malice that filled the land up ahead.

Skull broke out in laughter. “Of course not, ya darn fools! You think it’s easy to get to the Overlord’s palace. First we have to get through the ring of malice beasts that surrounds his personal territory. And after that, they’ll be demons standing on guard. Some of them will even be demon lords!” The crazed Skull Jones then met Marcus’ eyes. “Hopefully you lot can convince the demons otherwise but the malice beast here are all mad so there’s no point in wasting your breath with conversation. So best ready yourselves to fight!” Skull laughed yet again and then lashed the harnesses as the horse blazed with flame to run even faster than it had done before.

            Blyke gritted his teeth and red lightning spiraled around him. Rill’s hands began to liquefy into water, a ring of fire burnt around Teya, light shone from Lelita’s hand and wind fanned around from Maya. The knight Silva also unsheathed his sword from his side and Evan himself, formed two giant fists made from clouds to hover above him. He also saw Marcus smile a little as the man readied a shard at his command. They had no way around it. A battle was on its way.