I squeezed those formless, howling souls in my palms. My hands glowed with a pure white light—not a flame, but some ancient, primal force.

  "Why are you shaking so much, huh?!" I growled, stepping directly into the advancing fog.

  The moment I crossed the boundary of the haze, the things I was holding simply popped. The threads of connection snapped; the demons' mana evaporated as if it had never existed. The darkness enveloped me, trying to penetrate my pores, my thoughts, my very essence. But nothing happened.

  The wind howled with renewed vigor. From the gray suspension, something coalesced that vaguely resembled a human—no face, no features, just a tall silhouette made of concentrated nothingness.

  It "looked" at me.

  "DEATH," its voice thundered in my head.

  And then, silence.

  No fear. No pain.

  I felt something else. Fear. Но not mine. His. The Primordial Fear of Death trembled before the one who cannot die.

  I bared my teeth, feeling the hungry beast stirring inside me. The fog began to dissipate rapidly, being sucked back into the figure.

  "So, your body is this fog, isn't it?" I took a deep breath, literally sucking the darkness into my lungs. "Yes, yes, yes! I feel it! THIS POWER!"

  SNAP.

  I stood in the middle of an empty field. The darkness was gone, swallowed by me without a trace.

  "NOT ENOUGH!" I roared at the crimson sky. "NOT ENOUGH! I WANT MORE!"

  His core... it tasted like... the best drug in this world. I needed more. I surged forward. Someone in the distance was trying to hide in the shadows of the cliffs.

  POP.

  I appeared right in front of the fugitives. The Demon of Hunger and the Demon of the Beast. I didn't know their names, but I saw their essence—primordial fears materialized in this hell. They began to back away, their eyes full of disbelief.

  "Impossible... how did you survive meeting Death?" Hunger wheezed.

  I didn't answer. With a sharp motion, I punched through his ribcage with my fist. Mana flowed through my veins; I began to suck his strength directly from his living flesh. Hunger shrieked, and his body instantly teleported away—self-preservation instinct.

  Only the Demon of the Beast remained. The fear of being prey.

  "HA-HA-HA!"

  I struck him. He had no clear form—just a heap of muscle, claws, and fangs. He flew back a dozen meters from my blow. I was beside him again in an instant, raising my fist, when suddenly a voice, habitually commanding, ordered:

  "STAY!"

  I slowly turned my head. Standing behind me were those two—Aya and Alastor. The Demon of War and the Demon of Poverty.

  I didn't listen. A lunge—and I was already at War's throat. Her head burst into dust from a single touch.

  Alastor, roaring, lunged at me with all his arms. I caught him by the throat and began to squeeze slowly. He thrashed, trying to use his magic.

  "STOP!" Aya screamed, regenerating her head and trying to break through my barrier.

  I felt his vessels bursting under my fingers, the muscles of his neck tearing. Alastor convulsively gasped for air, his eyes rolling back.

  SQUELCH.

  His neck exploded. I caught his limp body and began greedily absorbing the core, the essence, of Poverty. Another portion of power. Another step toward madness.

  When it was over, I straightened up and looked at the remaining part of the Demon of War.

  "What a weakling," I smiled in her face, wiping away the blood.

  (Author: What were they even thinking?)

  BANG!

  She simply popped by my will. I was tired of listening to her screams. I turned around.

  "Oh... almost forgot about you."

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  In the distance, staggering in terror, the Demon of the Beast was trying to crawl away.

  "HA-HA-HA!" My laughter echoed over the ruins of Hell. "The fear of being eaten alive? The fear of becoming prey? Congratulations. You've become the prey yourself."

  I walked toward him, intending to finish what I started. But my path was blocked by something new. A formless white cloud drifted out of the shadows. It didn't smell of a threat; it breathed of calm.

  The next second, the world exploded in a blinding white light. It flooded everything: the mountains, the sky, my thoughts. I grabbed my head, feeling like someone was running a giant eraser inside my skull.

  "WHAT THE—?!"

  The Demon of Oblivion. The final touch in this chaos.

  When I opened my eyes, there was only emptiness. No white cloud, no Demon of the Beast, no screams of mine. Only silence, ringing in my ears. I wandered this scorched world for a long time. A year? An eternity? I don't know. I broke the few creatures that crossed my path and whispered my name to them, trying to keep it on my tongue like a melting shard of ice.

  But the world grew empty. Where was everyone? Where was Mira? Where were the enemies?

  I sat on a rock and realized I no longer understood the meaning of the words I was saying.

  Zenhald? Who is that? Sounds like the name of some old medicine.

  I lay down on the red earth and closed my eyes.

  I woke up.

  I sat up and looked around. Around me was an endless plain covered in crimson dust. The sky was the color of clotted blood.

  "Where am I?" I asked aloud. My voice sounded like a stranger's. "And... who am I?"

  My head was clear. No names, no faces, no memories. Only a hollow silence. I touched the ground. Cold. Rough. Red.

  I stood up. My body obeyed reluctantly, as if I had lain in one position for a long time. Mechanically, without knowing why, I snapped my fingers and...

  SNAP.

  A perfect sphere of transparent water materialized out of nowhere in front of my face. I wanted to drink it, but I stopped. Intuition suggested something else. I stretched my hands out, flattening the water sphere into a mirror.

  I looked into it.

  A kid was looking back at me. About fifteen years old. His face was pale, his black hair disheveled. But his eyes... They were absolutely black. Where normal people should have the white sclera, there was only thick, impenetrable darkness. Two bottomless holes into nowhere.

  I blinked. The reflection blinked back.

  "I see," I muttered. "So, this is me."

  I drank the water. My thirst vanished, but he arrived in its place. Hunger. My stomach grumbled treacherously, demanding immediate action.

  "I want to eat," I scratched my stomach. "And where in this red nowhere am I supposed to find a snack?"

  I started walking forward, not knowing the way, led only by one desire—to fill my stomach.

  I had been walking through this red nowhere for an eternity. Or one day. The most important question was: where, for heaven's sake, was the food? My stomach wasn't just grumbling anymore; it was making plans to eat my own limbs.

  In the distance, I noticed a strange object. A massive black pillar, perfectly round and so dark it looked like a hole in reality. I approached and reached out my hand. The pillar... moved back. I took a step—it moved again, maintaining the distance.

  "I don't get it," I muttered. "Are you playing tag with me?"

  I got bored of solving this puzzle after two seconds.

  POP.

  I teleported directly into the center of this pillar. The darkness inside was so thick I couldn't see my own feet. I lit a fire on my finger. The flame was bright, but the light didn't go anywhere—the darkness just absorbed it. So, I simply held out my palm.

  Something clicked inside. My hand was suddenly flooded with a blinding white radiance. Not a flame—pure light.

  "Whoa..." I stared at my palm. "How do I know how to do that?"

  The darkness around hissed, began to dim and shrink. A sharp gust of wind swirled the shadows, and something coalesced in the center of the hall. A tall silhouette, vaguely resembling a human, but without a single clear feature. A faceless nothing. It pointed a bony finger at me and croaked:

  "Zenhald... Death..."

  I looked at it with genuine indignation.

  "Listen, why are you throwing insults around? My day hasn't been great as it is, and then there's you with your nicknames."

  I took a step forward. The creature immediately recoiled. And then I felt it. Fear. The Primordial Demon of Darkness, the fear of the unknown, was afraid of me.

  I involuntarily bared my teeth. A strange, predatory desire woke up inside—I wanted to eat it. To taste it.

  "Do you taste good?" I asked, closing the distance.

  The Demon of Darkness backed away until it hit its own shadow. I knew what it was. I didn't remember, but I knew. The essence of things was an open book to me. I was beside it in an instant, squeezing its spectral throat. My hand continued to emit that eerie white light. The demon hissed, writhing in pain.

  "Tell me everything you know, shadow."

  "Zenhald... Death..." was all it could squeeze out.

  Suddenly, a ringing, mocking laugh sounded behind my back. I turned around. In the shadow of a column stood another silhouette—more human, but no less suspicious.

  "Hey, what are you laughing at?" I said.

  "Sorry, sorry..." the guy wiped away tears. "It's just so stupid! The Fear of Darkness itself is afraid of the darkness inside you. Isn't that ironic?"

  I let go of the half-strangled demon and approached the new guest. A Demon of Chaos? Probably.

  "Listen, joker. Do you happen to know where I can get something to eat around here?"

  The laughter stopped instantly. The Demon of Chaos looked at me with slight apprehension.

  "Oh, excuse me... I'm just not used to talking to... ahem... Personalities of your order for so long. Yes, I know. Но let's make a deal. A contract."

  He held out his hand toward me.

  "I'll tell you everything I know, and you just leave this place. It's a good deal, profitable. For everyone."

  "Leave? Where to?"

  "From this world to yours."

  "My world?" I frowned. "Am I not in mine?"

  "I don't know, that's up to you to decide where your home is," he smiled slyly. "So, what do you say? Shake on it?"

  This guy was starting to irritate me. I just grabbed his hand and squeezed, not letting him go.

  "Information first. Spit it out."

  "Your name is Zenhald," the Demon of Chaos rattled off quickly. "This world is the World of Fears. You came from the world of humans. That's all I know."

  I released his fingers. And in that same second, the Demon of Chaos simply... exploded.

  "WHAT THE—?!" I looked at my palm.

  So, this isn't my world? And I need to go to the humans?

  The Demon of Darkness approached me again. He silently held out his semi-transparent palm. I touched it, expecting another explosion, but instead, reality simply collapsed.

  POP.

  I was standing on solid ground. It smelled of freshness, of the forest.

  "Thanks..." I muttered, looking around.

  There was no one else nearby. The Demon of Darkness had evaporated as soon as he delivered the cargo.

  "Zenhald, then..." I scratched the back of my head.