A few seconds a beeping sound could be heard, telling Aunt Kamilia that the machines were malfunctioning.

Aunt Kamilia groaned. She pushed herself up as she was covered from head to toe with debris and dirt. A few metal rails that were on her clattered on the ground next to her.

“Did we succeed?” Aunt Kamilia said with anticipation. She had a few cuts and bruises present on her body.

James, who was pushed under the desk, luckily not harmed, got out and up. He shook off the dust and stood. Pushing back his hair, he walked over toward the black ink of darkness that took over the whole glowing ball. Now it gave off an eerie red.

Stepping forward, James raised his hands. The black blob shimmered, opening up to an opening. Curious, he took a step.

The black portal shimmered again, this time glowing even more darkly. James entered, his eyes half-closed. When he felt the drop in temperature change, his teeth chattered. Looking around, all he could see was snow covering up to his knee.

“Where are we?” Aunt Kamilia came from behind. Her teeth were chattering, and her arm was crossed in front of her, rubbing to keep warm.

“I don’t know.”

“This isn’t the afterlife is it?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Let’s go b-”

A roar echoed out in the snowfield. Both Aunt Kamilia and James froze in fear.

“D-d-did you hear that?” Aunt Kamilia stepped toward James, hiding behind him.

“Yes.”

Once again, the roar resounded out louder than before. The ground shook. James caught himself before he could fall. Compared to Aunt Kamilia, who fell on the snow backward.

From the very ground, dark shadows rose. They were numerous in shapes and sizes—each with glowing red eyes stare at them with malicious intent.

“It’s the underworld. We didn’t find heaven.” Aunt Kamilia had scampered back onto her feet. Fear filled her voice.

“Run!” James shouted. He turned around, grabbing Aunt Kamilia by the arm.

They both bolted toward the gate that they have arrived from. Without stopping, both Aunt Kamilia and James crossed through.

James tripped, heading straight toward the nearest machine to close the gateway. He scrambled, almost falling onto the computer. With heavy fingers, he tapped quickly, but his Butterfinger kept missing the keys, causing a few seconds delay.

“James!” Aunt Kamilia screamed in horror. “They are coming through!”

“I’m trying!” James retorted back in panic. He wasn’t getting the combination of keys that he wanted.

One of the black shadows in the shape of a rhino burst through the gate with its head lowered. It rumbled and smashed into the nearest electronics as it bulldozed its way through. It didn’t stop and continued to rampage against the other machines.

The computers and the machines went into chaos as electricity spazzed out from it, causing problems to the system.

More and more black shadows appeared from the gate, breaking through and causing more problems.

James frantically pressed more buttons, but none of the machines would listen to him.

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“Aunt Kamila! It’s not closing!” James shouted in fear.

“What?!”

“We need to do this manually!”

“Damn it.” Aunt Kamilia swore so loudly that it attracted the creatures.

One of the creatures snapped its sizeable bulbous head toward her. It was a mixture of a frog and a bull. Its long tongue snapped out at her. Aunt Kamilia barely dodged as the tongue smashed into the sidewall. She breathed in deeply. Her eyes wide in fright. They needed to run, but she couldn’t. Fear held her in place.

More and more dark shadows were spilling out from the very gate. Both Aunt Kamilia and James were frantically trying to close the gate. Just when Aunt Kamilia reached over to pull down the lever, the frog shadow impaled her straight in the chest. Blood flowed freely as she looked down in surprise.

“Aunt Kamilia!” James shouted, realizing what had happened.

“R-r-run.” Aunt Kamilia spat out her words, unable to say anymore. The frog demon pulled her into its mouth and devoured her whole.

James looked away in horror at what had happened. His mind went blank, but fear pushed him forward. He scrambled backward, running away from the gate that he caused.

In seconds, the whole place was overrun with monsters. They burst out of the building and spread out like a disease. Buildings were ravaged, falling down like dominos. Fires were present as more and more appeared.

Screams could be heard as people were trying to fend off the monster attack taking over the whole place. Even the army that sent out their own force were being crushed as the shadows were being phased in and out like ghosts.

It didn’t take long for the whole city to go under, and following the week, the entire planet was devoured entirely pitch black. The portal still hummed once again; this time, a humanoid figure stepped out from the gates.

There was something different about this being. Its eyes were gold and red, swirling with an ink of black that looked around with interest. It wore a simple black and white suit. Large horns that curtailed upward into majestic crowns. The long black tail swished back and forth from his back.

Days quickly went by. Daemon was pacing back and forth, trying to figure out the machine that brought him here.

One of the shadows flew down, landing in front of him. It was a giant pterodactyl type of shadow with a large wingspan five times its own body. “My king, Daemon.”

Daemon tilted his head.

“All the intelligent lifeforms are being hunted now as we speak. What is your will?”

Dameon didn’t answer. Instead, he ignored him, and he turned toward a cracked tablet on the ground. Reaching down, he picked it up.

His fingers glowed with anticipation. Pressing a few buttons, the machine stuttered as there were damaged to it, but the Daemon sent out his magical energy into the machine. With a whirl of life, the machine turned on. A black jet of light shot up into the sky. The monster watched in awe at their king’s power.

In the sky, different worlds of different planets were shown.

A perfect smile eclipsed out of his mouth as pearly white teeth could be seen. He whistled a high pitch tone.

The black shadows that were ravaging the city all turned their heads up into the sky. Black wings sprouted from their back as they pumped it up and down. Every single one of them flew up and headed straight toward the multiple portals in the sky.

A few were able to cross through, terrorizing the life forms, but just before the others could follow closely behind, the tear in the sky started to shimmer.

Many of the monsters bounced off, falling back down as they tried to reorient themselves.

The humanoid shadow tilted his head confused. He used his energy to see if he could persuade the machine to reopen the hole.

“You’ll never be able to get out of here,” James spoke. He was dirtied, looking like a wild child.

“I’ll kill him, my king!” The monster bird shouted, but Daemon raised his hand to stop.

James continued to speak. “You'll never succeed.”

The smile on the Daemon’s face fell. “Do you think you will succeed?”

“Yes.” James raised his hand, showing a phone in his hand. With a press of his button, he wildly laughed. “You’ll all die here!”

A whirring sound of high pitch blasted throughout the building.

The humanoid shadow frowned at James' reaction, realizing that what James was doing was causing the gates that appeared over the city to close even faster. Even the gate that the being had stepped out from was closing just as quickly as the rest.

“No!” Daemon snarled. It disappeared and reappeared in front of James. His hand punched James ' chest, leaving an ugly hole. Blood spilled down Jame’s chest.

“Too late.” James coughed up blood. He was satisfied with his accomplishment. His eyes slowly closed, vision blurring as he watched with contempt at the enraged humanoid shadow.

The Daemon grabbed hold of James’ neck. He then brought him up close to Jame’s ears.

“You haven’t won, human,” Daemon spoke in a low whisper that only James could hear. “You only left a crack in the gates, and I will come back again.”

The Daemon threw James onto the ground. He turned around; his hand raised to stop the closing of the gate. Magic power of darkness spat out of its hand, sending multiple blackbirds through every gate he knew.

Each bird barely passed through before the gates in the sky closed.

The Daemon was pleased with his performance. He turned around back at James, who was dead. It squatted down, tilting his head. Reaching out its hand, the black shadow wavered and turned into smokes. Pulling into Jame’s body, the smoke completely disappeared. Even the hole that it had caused itself was quickly mending as a new heart was formed.

With a loud thump, the heartbeat signaled the life.

Opening its eyes, a voidless gold and red eyes stared back out into the world. Horns grew out of his forehead like crowns, and even the clothing that he wore changed into a black and white suit with red embroidery running down its cuffs.

He pushed himself up, taking in a deep breath. His shoulder shuddered in pleasure.

“So this is what it means to breathe,” Daemon said with a pleasant sight. He then took a moment to look at his own body that he had gained. He was satisfied. “This body will do for now.”

Daemon took the first step. He stumbled.

In surprise, he balanced himself out again. The monster bird hobbled over in concern, wanting to help the newly born king.

Daemon once again stopped the monster from coming closer. He took another step and another until finally, Daemon was able to walk. It didn’t take long for him to become accumulated in his new body.

“Well then, my pet. Let us take everything.” Daemon spoke with vigor. The monster bird squealed in excitement at his king’s words and took off, leaving him behind.

The scene started to waver and disappear.