1 Another Day, Another Villain

Kingdom of the Plains, OverWorld

Night

Daniel set the book down on the wooden table next to him. He sat in his chair, thinking about what could've happened to Steve and Alex. Without the remaining pages, he wouldn't be able to find out.

Max was laying down on the blue carpet under the table. He was sound asleep. Daniel was confused. Who would rip out the remaining pages to Steve and Alex's story? Why would someone do that? Was there something within the story that someone didn't want anyone to know? He could only speculate.

One thing that really rattled Daniel's bones was the demon Nightmare. The way the author of that story described her gave Daniel the chills.

He got up from chair and walked over to the window. Max's ears perked up. Max raised his head and looked over at Daniel. He whimpered as he tilted his head.

"Come here boy," Daniel said as he patted his leg three times. Max hopped back up onto his feet and walked over to Daniel and sat back down right next to him.

Outside, in the center of the Kingdom, stood a statue. It was mainly built out of polished quartz. It did, however, have some gold as well. The statue was of a female blockhead. The podium the statue was built on was made out of obsidian.

The gold was used for the golden sword part of the statue, as well as dark oak wooden planks for the swords handle.

There were four different colored beacons surrounding the statue, lighting it up just enough to make it recognizable.

Daniel stood in silence as he glared out through the window and down at the statue. "I miss you so much," Daniel said as tried his best to keep his feelings at bay. He gulped, sighing heavily thereafter.

Max knew how Daniel was feeling. To try and comfort him, he rubbed his head against Daniel's right leg. He whimpered a couple of times.

"You miss her too, don't you buddy?" Daniel said as he looked down at Max. He faintly smiled at Max. "At least we still have each other."

The entire Kingdom was sound asleep. It was the middle of the night. Not being able to sleep was a major issue for Daniel. Of course he's tried to rest but every time he closes his eyes, he has the same nightmare over and over again. It never stops. It's like his brain didn't want him to forget about Petra's passing.

To everyone else, it's been awhile since her tragic passing. But to Daniel, it seemed like it had just happened yesterday. He's tried his best to forget; but to no avail. Daniel went as far as asking Franklin to help him forget.

Sure, the potion that Franklin had given him worked, but it's effects weren't permanent. The memories he tried to forget, suddenly came rushing back to him once the effects from the wore off.

Daniel wiped away the water in his eyes. He needed to be brave. A true King would never show his real emotions. Once he wiped away all of the water, he glared back down at Petra's statue. Only this time, he saw someone standing by the statue. The blockhead had their back facing towards Daniel.

He rubbed his eyes once more. After he did that, he squinted his eyes to focus on the blockhead. The first thing he noticed was that this blockhead was a female. As he tried to figure out who this mysterious blockhead was, she turned around.

Daniel's eyes widened. Unexpectedly, the blockhead had turned out to be Petra. She was looking directly up at Daniel. In her left hand was her most favorite weapon yet...her enchanted golden sword.

"Petra?" Daniel mumbled to himself. Once he saw Petra standing there, he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

Petra smiled up at Daniel. Then, right before Daniel, Petra's entire body began to glow a faint yellow color. As her body glowed, small yellow particles began floating away. They were coming off of Petra.

"Wait!" Daniel said as he rested his hand on the glass window, "don't go. Stay. Please."

Petra's body didn't stop turning into yellow particles. Right before she disappeared, she had managed to mouth something to Daniel. But because he was too far away, he couldn't make out what she tried to say to him.

And then, just as quickly as she appeared, she disappeared once more. The yellow particles continued to float away. He watched them slowly drift away. When he could no longer see them, that's when the barrier keeping his feelings at bay crumbled.

No longer could he hide his emotions. As he continued to stand by the window, creaking sounds could be heard. Max turned his head towards the staircase. He began barking.

Max's sudden bark startled Daniel, but it also freed him from daydreaming. Daniel turned around to see what was causing Max to bark. Walking up the stairs was a familiar face. It was Merlin.

"You're still up too huh?" Daniel questioned as he sniffled his nose.

Merlin looked down at Max. He was sitting on the floor next to Daniel, continuing to bark and growl. Merlin then looked back up at Daniel.

"Yup," Merlin said, "for some odd reason, I just can't fall asleep."

Daniel scoffed. "Join the party, why don't ya?" Daniel said.

Merlin quickly glanced over at the table. Resting on the tabletop was the book he had given Daniel a couple of days ago. He wanted to help Daniel move on from Petra as much as he could. Moping and mourning for Petra wasn't going to get him anywhere. Moving on was the only way forward. But holy cow was that transitioning process slow.

"I see you've finished the story," Merlin mentioned as he glanced over at the table. Merlin glared back at Daniel and smiled faintly, "what'd you think?"

"Correction," Daniel interjected, "I haven't finished it yet."

"You haven't?" Merlin questioned.

Daniel shook his head. He briefly looked down at Max and then back up at Merlin. "But I do have to ask you Merlin," he said.

"Ask me what?" Merlin responded.

"Who are you?" Daniel said, "really?"

Merlin frowned. He crossed his arms. "I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me," Daniel said.

A shadow was seen on the wall. Daniel quickly glanced down and saw Ceres slowly walking up the stairs. He was being cautiously quiet. Daniel refocused his attention back on Merlin.

"It's me...Merlin!" Merlin said.

Daniel closed his eyes and shook his head. "Mm, nope," Daniel said, "the Merlin in the story was cast out by Nightmare. He was banished to a place called the Eternal Darkness dimension. So tell me...how can you be here, with me, and then be there at the same time? If I do recall, magic doesn't work where the sun never shines."

Merlin brushed his beard with his hand. He began pacing back and forth, trying to come up with an answer Daniel would believe. It's not everyday he's asked this question. But instead of giving him an answer, he countered that with something else.

"Why don't you tell me this," Merlin said, "you came to me, begging me to help you when the Brines were threatening to destroy the OverWorld. Heck, I even helped you stop Scarlet. So tell me, after all this time, why are you suspicious of me now?"

"You gave me that story for a reason," Daniel said, "you wanted me to read it. Why?"

Merlin stopped pacing and stopped brushing his beard with his hand. He took his hat off of his head and gave it to Steve. He then took two steps back from him.

"I'm tired of this charade," Merlin said, "allow me to introduce myself for real."

His hands began glowing a bright yellow. Merlin's eyes turned yellow. A black cloud of smoke began swirling around his feet, slowly rising up his body. Eventually, his entire body was engulfed in this thick, black smoke. His voice changed as well.

"My king," the deep sounding, demonic voice said, "it is I, the entity you'll fear most."

Daniel reached into his inventory and quickly grabbed out his diamond sword. Max stood up and began barking loudly before running over to the table to hide under it. Daniel held his sword out in front of him.

Once the smoke cleared and disappeared, an all black entity was floating in the air, just a block off of the floor. It had its eyes closed, but its hands were still glowing yellow.

"What are you?" Daniel asked.

"The name's Nightmare," Nightmare said, "a demon from the...well you already know where."

Ceres came running up the stairs, making enough noise to manage to capture Nightmare's attention. She turned around and looked at Ceres. But before she could react, Ceres' wand had blasted her with a powerful blue beam.

Daniel had jumped out of the way, landing on his belly on the floor. As for Nightmare, she went smashing through the window. The entire glass window shattered into a-lot of little pieces.

Ceres ran over to Daniel and grabbed his arm. He hoisted Daniel back up into his feet. After Daniel regained his footing, they both ran over to the window and looked out at the Kingdom below.

Nightmare was seen floating in front of the statue. She brushed off each of her arms. After she had finished that, she looked back up at Ceres and Daniel. Then, she vanished into thin air.

"Where'd she go?" Daniel asked.

"Anywhere but here I hope," Ceres responded, "somewhere far away I presume?"