Arrow awoke in the morning to banging at his door.

“Arrow! Get up!” Kakos said.

“Give me a moment.” Arrow replied. He got out of bed and got dressed into the clothes Kakos had given him then opened the door. He went into the main room to see Kakos and the other members of the group all waiting for him.

“Finally, you’ve arrived. I’m going to explain your goals and what you will do to achieve them, then open a portal to the place where you will find the first shadow key.” Kakos said. “Take these.” Kakos handed everyone a darkwood wand capable of using dark magic, then gave everyone their own personalised weapon. He gave Anui a handgun, he gave Veritas some kind of ray gun with the words ‘Veritas Inc.’ written on it, he gave Serna a small pocketknife, much to Vipereus’ dismay, then gave Vipereus a large sword. He then approached Arrow. “This knife,” he said. “This knife is capable of killing creatures known as ‘shadows’. As you can probably guess, they are from the shadow realm. Every person in this realm has a shadow form that can be activated by absorbing a powerful dose of dark magic. Killing a person’s shadow form will not kill them, so I advise you to do so if it is necessary. Use this weapon with care.” Kakos handed Arrow a large dagger then stepped away from him and addressed the entire group. “You will be going to a small town outside of Spider City known as Villaintown. The deluded mayor of Villaintown, Vill Villainous, insists that only so called ‘villains’ can enter the town. I’m sure all of you will qualify as villains but be cautious. You may have to fight.” Kakos cast a portal spell. Vipereus and Serna went first, followed by Anui, then Veritas, then Arrow.

“What are you going to do, Kakos? You’re not coming with us, are you?” Arrow asked.

“My job is simply to locate the keys and arrange a way to access them. I would say that is a much more important job than any of yours, personally.” Kakos answered.

“So, you just sit in your office and do nothing?”

“No! Why you- ugh, just go!”

Arrow went through the portal. He arrived in a pleasant, forested area. Vipereus, Anui and Veritas had all walked ahead of Arrow but Serna had waited for him.

“Is something wrong? It took you a while to come through.” Serna said.

“I was just talking to my father for a moment.” Arrow felt slightly disorientated after traveling through the portal and arriving on uneven ground.

“Come on, we need to catch up with the others.” Serna said. Arrow followed Serna, who appeared to be following her father, so Arrow hoped he knew where they were going. “So, do you know anything about this town? Villaintown? I’ve read about it, but I’ve never been there.”

“I’ve never been either. I’ve also read about it, though. My father went there a couple of times.” Arrow said.

“I’ve heard this town is really dangerous and the mayor is completely insane. It’s kinda scary to actually go there.” Serna said.

“You two!” Vipereus said. “We’re here!” Arrow and Serna ran to catch up with the others. There was a horrible feeling of dread in the air as they approached the town. They arrived at the entrance and were greeted by two cloaked figures with pale, white featureless faces and hands. Arrow noticed they seemed to have bandages wrapped around their faces.

“You must not enter. Villaintown is currently under lockdown. No one can enter or leave.” Said a deep voice that seemed to be coming from the cloaked figures.

“We must enter.” Vipereus said, drawing his sword.

“You must not enter.” Said the cloaked figures.

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“Are they shadows?” Arrow asked.

“I believe so. Can you handle them, Mordera?” Vipereus said.

“Yes.” Arrow drew his knife and struck the shadow’s throat, killing it instantly. The other shadow swung at Arrow, but Arrow dodged out of its way, then stabbed it in the back of its neck. The shadow dropped to the ground. “So, what do we do now?” Arrow asked.

“I don’t know…” Vipereus said.

“It’s obvious, yo. We steal the key.” Anui said.

“Well, yes, but how?” Veritas asked.

“I have an idea.” Serna said.

“Really?” Arrow asked. “Well what is it?”

“You and my dad can take the cloaks from the shadows and wear them, then go take us into the town hall and we’ll fight the shadows together from there.” Serna answered.

“That’s a great idea.” Vipereus said.

“Yes, indeed, that may work.” Veritas agreed.

“Sounds radical.” Anui added.

“What?” Said Arrow. “I’m the only one who can actually fight the shadows though! We can’t fight them together or else you’ll all get killed!”

“Do you have a better idea?” Vipereus asked.

“I could go in on my own and fight the mayor myself!”

“That won’t work. Besides, we all need to work as a team.”

“Fine, then. But if anything goes wrong, it’s your fault.” Arrow said. He was lying. His plan wasn’t to go along with theirs. He was going to ask to meet the mayor on his own. Arrow and Vipereus put on the cloaks, then led the others to the town hall.

“I wish to meet Lord Villainous.” Arrow said to the shadows in the town hall. The rest of his team muttered to each other and Vipereus glared at Arrow.

“You may. But only one at a time. The other shadow shan’t accompany you.” Said one of the shadows. “They will be prepared for execution.” The shadow gestured towards Arrow’s team. Arrow broke into a cold sweat as he heard that. He knew he must defeat the mayor quickly and efficiently. He went through to the mayor’s room to see him lying across a long, luxurious sofa being fed grapes by two scared looking citizens of the town.

“What do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?” Said the mayor. He was an extremely thin spider. He had four arms and wore a tight-fitting trench coat and a top hat. He got up. “You stupid fools can’t compare to the likes of I! By day’s end, the entire world shall know the name of Vill Villainous!” Arrow took off the shadow’s cloak and drew his knife. “Huh? Who are you?”

“I’m here to take that key of yours.” Arrow said.

“What!? No!” Vill Villainous shoved the key into his chest. Blood spewed from it, but as the key went deeper, the blood became darker, until Vill was surrounded by an inky black substance. His body spilt into multiple pieces, then reformed as a giant, towering, four-armed muscular figure. “This is my shadow form! The ultimate version of myself!” Arrow jumped onto Vill’s back and stabbed the back of his neck. Vill threw Arrow across the room, almost breaking the wall that he hit. “How dare you!” Vill coughed a thick, inky black fluid. Vill swung at Arrow, but Arrow jumped out of the way, and cut off his arm with his knife. Vill screamed in pain. “How did you do that?” He said. Arrow jumped at Vill again and stabbed at his neck until his head was barely hanging onto his body. He fell to the ground, gargling until his body was destroyed in an explosion of black. Vill’s regular body lay on the ground. Arrow checked to see if he was still breathing. He was. Arrow took the shadow key, put on the cloak once again, then left the building. The others were all fighting off shadows in the garden outside the town hall.

“I got the key!” Arrow said. The shadows suddenly stopped.

“Master.” One of them said. They all kneeled before Arrow.

“They’re obeying you… Tell them to go back to the shadow realm!” Vipereus said.

“Return to your home.” Arrow said. The shadows suddenly faded into nothingness, seemingly leaving this world to go back to their own.

“Let’s get back to the castle now.” Vipereus said. “Also,” He looked at Arrow. “You almost got us killed with your stupid, selfish plan.”

“Yea,” Said Veritas. “You should have let me fight the shadows with my awesome ray gun!”

“That was totally whack, yo.” Said Anui. Serna didn’t say anything, but she looked upset. Arrow followed the others back to the castle. They were all silent, except for Veritas, who was boasting about how well he fought the shadows. They arrived at the portal and went through it. Kakos stood waiting for them through the portal.

“Well? How did it go?” He said.

“Badly.” Vipereus answered.

“No, it didn’t! We got the key!” Arrow interrupted.

“And that’s all that matters, so why do you think it went badly?” Kakos asked.

“He almost got us killed. We had a plan to infiltrate the town hall and fight our way to the mayor, but he betrayed us and fought the mayor on his own, leaving us to fight the rest of the shadows.” Vipereus answered.

“Arrow is the only one capable of killing shadows, so your plan would have just put you in more danger. Arrow was right to fight the shadows on his own.” Kakos said.

“Are you serious? Arrow nearly got us all killed!”

“And that was the right thing to do!”

“How is that?”

“Because he got the key. Now it’s getting late, so I’m going to bed, I expect you all will do the same too.”

“We’re not done here!”

“Yes, we are!”