"I hate them..." Alatar says as he lies in the darkness; he opens his eyes to the crackling fire. Standing, he sees his old village, his old home. Something he always saw when he closed his eyes. He begins to walk through it, and the smell of burnt wood and blood seeps through his nose. He looks around aimlessly. He was trying to remember something else, something good about it. "No matter how hard I try, I can't get this pain out of my head!". He screams, his voice echoes as he drops to his knees.

"Vorgrimm...where are you?!" Calling out and receiving no answer, Alatar's face contorted with anguish and grief. He grits his teeth, slamming his fists into the ground over and over and over again. His fist becomes soaked with blood that may or may not be his own. He screams as tears rush down his face. "Why?" He hears in a whispered echo. He pauses, and a look of surprise hits him. "Why Alatar...?" Looking for the sound that echoes around him, in him. He sees a woman with her back towards him. She looks familiar, but Alatar can't quite understand why.

Standing up, he walks towards her slowly. His body relaxes. Seemingly knowing who it was before him. Touching her shoulder, she turned around to face him. "Mom...?" Alatar's eyes widened as he looked at her. "Alatar...my sweet baby boy." His knees buckle as she holds him up, and Alatar squeezes her into a tight hug. "Mom!" he says in a muffle as he buries his face into her shirt. "Why...sweetie." He looks up at her and asks, "Why what?"

"Why did you fail us? Why couldn't you be faster?" Smoke starts to rise from her skin as she erupts into flames, screaming at Alatar. "Why couldn't you just be fast enough to save yourself? You condemned all to this Hell you call your mind!" Alatar backs away in shock, "No! Mo-." "Don't you dare call me your mother! This wouldn't have happened to us if you had never been born!" A tall, sturdy man walks next to Alatar's mother. "Or at least we'd be resting in peace." Alatar knees crumble entirely. "Dad..? No, this can't be happening." Blood begins to leak from his father's chest. "It is, son. He has kept us here." Alatar hears footsteps start to surround him. He sees everyone he has known from his village, all with horrific injuries, as they look at Alatar with scorn and disgust. "All of us." His father says.

"Failure!" "Disgrace!" "Traitor!" Their voices are scattered and blended as Alatar holds his head, trying to block out the noise. "No, I'm not a traitor...I'm not!" They begin to cover him as Alatar watches his parents stand back, staring at him with disappointment. "You're the reason we're stuck here!" They pull his hair and kick him down. "My children are stuck here! They did nothing wrong! They don't deserve this!" They continue to pummel Alatar, and he accepts it. Knowing this is something that he caused. "We didn't deserve this!" They pick Alatar up as they carry him across the village. He sees each perspective of how everyone he's ever known died. Their memories become his.

They hold him in front of a building engulfed in flames. "Hurt like how we hurt! Feel the flames we felt." They say in unison. Alatar feels the force of their throw as he flies towards the building. He closes his eyes, accepting it, all their pain, all the suffering, and all the hate. He feels a small hand grasping his wrist, stopping him as all the others look on in shock. With fiery red hair and yellow eyes, unlike everyone, he was swallowed by the darkness. Like the sun, he glows so bright it's almost blinding. "Yo, Ala!" He somehow throws Alatar to the side as he slides across the ground. "Don't tell me you're giving up?! That's not the Ala I remember!" He holds his hand out to him with a big, innocent smile.

Taking his hand, Alatar gets up and looks down at Darwin. "Darwin, I'm sorry, man. I saw you and-." Darwin kicks Alatar in the shin, stopping him from talking any further. "I just came to save you from those jerks!" He says, pointing behind him. "The real guy you gotta talk to is my best friend. He was down by the edge of the village last time I checked. He's been wanting to talk to you for a while now." He holds his fist out. "You owe me one! I'm always the one saving you. You know that, right?" Alatar fist-bumps him. "Yeah..." He says the second they bump fists, Darwin vanishes as the light fades around him. Looking at his hand, Alatar sees a tiny spec of light. He closes his eyes and listens, finding the sound of running water.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He turns and begins to walk. As everyone looks at him with the same hate he has for the Demons, maybe even more, they remain silent. Alatar continues forward as he slowly passes his mother and father. He looks down, not wanting to meet their eyes. He heads down the same hill he used to walk down. He sees a child in the distance sitting at the riverbank. He walks over and sits down next to him. "Ala." He says to the little child. He sees a fresh burn on the kid's back, with an open wound leaking small trickles of blood.

"Alatar." The kid says, not looking up at him. "What is wrong?" he starts kicking his little feet in the water. Alatar doesn't respond to the question. "Why have you become so focused on what's wrong with you and not what you promised everyone so long ago?" Ala asks once more, finally looking up at him. Alatar looks into the kid's eyes. His eyes see nothing but pure hate and rage at what has happened to his family. His village. "I'm tired...I resorted to using the Demon's powers to win, and even just using a small amount; I felt myself becoming more and more like him with every spell I cast, with every flame that left my hands. I enjoyed it...to feel that powerful it was..."

"Freeing? You felt like you could do anything? Dominating someone that was just moments ago stronger than you?" Ala says as he stops kicking his feet. "Yeah..." Alatar says, "Exactly it, but the dragon called me a Demon. I felt disgusted and realized that, at that moment, I was no different than the ones who took everything from me." The kid gets up, looks Alatar right in his eyes, and grabs him by his collar.

"That's exactly what you need to feel. We promised to destroy them all! So do it! Who earned all those demon souls in the Bronze Kingdom?! Who cleared them out?!" The kid begins to grow. "Who ate them just to survive?! Who stalked them all down, sniffed every single one, and wiped them from the face of the planet?!" He towers over Alatar, and he makes him stand on his feet. "I did," Alatar says to himself. "Then that power is yours! Make it your own, and make all those bastards pay for what they did! I mean every single one! Do not discriminate!" He says as orange flames erupt around Ala, his ears become more protracted, and his teeth become more pointed. "What will you do, Alatar?" Alatar grips Ala's wrist. "Destroy them all!" He says as the people from his village appear around him. Ala nods, "Good, then; here's one more thing: take all our hate, despair, and spiteful negative emotions. Take them and use them for yourself. Use them to power and strengthen you to kill every Demon and those who willingly work with them." Alatar nods back at him. "I will, I promise." Ala tosses him into the river. "Then stop sleeping! Remember your promise!" He shouts as Alatar sinks into the water.

Vorgrimm looks at Aurelia's scarred forehead. "When you awake, you will be mine, and you'll heed my words. First order of business-" His body twitches, and he looks annoyed. "This damned kid is back..." He sighs as he looks at Aurelia. "Count yourself lucky-" his speech is cut off. Alatar shakes his head as he looks around at the destroyed terrain. He lays his eyes on Aurelia. He picks her up as he jumps up to the mountain's peak.