Broken Reality

Countless demons as far as the eye could see, it was unknown how there could be this many demons in one place, but it was as if it was another version of Hell hidden throughout the Multiverse. Many were being knocked back by powerful blows, blasts of energy, water pushing the demons back. But this legion of Hell-spawned creatures continued forth, even after those that have fallen didn't arise. This hero who had kept them back was trying to destroy them as much as he could, he had great prowess, and it went to say he was strong enough to hold them back even by himself was a feat to accomplish.

"Erhg, you'd think after killing a few gods, killing a few legions of demons would be easy." Todd muttered to himself. "Well once I'm done with all of you!" he continued, sending a behemoth wall of rock and earth towards one side to a fraction of the army, "I can go home, drink some tea, and hang out with my friends!" He followed up the previous attack with fire exploding from his mouth. 'Damn! My heart can't take much more of this. Any longer and I'll be served to the Devil on a sulfur plate!'

Todd looked around him as the other demons started storming at him. "As Superman said, "Up up and away!" Todd said, shooting up into the sky, looking down to see if any of the demons were following him.

None took flight, all just looked up and stared at him. As for Todd, he seemed to hit an invisible forcefield, to which he fell down onto a floating boulder. A figure that was cloaked and had a white mask on was atop the same boulder that floated in the sky. He seemed familiar to Todd, who had just noticed him then.

Todd groaned, "Oh great, first the demon army from hell and now you...whoever you are!" He stood up and brushed his pants off and then stated, "Look, I don't have the Book, I have no other magical artifacts, I have no skills in alchemy. So, can you leave me be, as I have many demons to kill." When he was done, Todd shot out a large fireball and tossed into the demonic masses.

The whole bunch of demons, the whole army seemed to vanish, as if they were an illusion.

"I've merely come here to test a few... Projects... All at once." The masked individual stated, slowly approaching Todd.

Todd was about to walk backwards, only to remember he was on a floating boulder. "Uh, look, now that the projects are over, why don't I make like a bannana and split." Todd started to float, moving away from the masked figure who was stil approaching him ominously. For extra insurance, Todd created a shield around him.

The Masked Man stood outside Todd's barrier, before he decidedly phased traight through it. "There's no point. I have a project that involves you, child." The black cloak billowing in the wind, the Masked Man reached and grabbed Todd by the shoulder, and before Todd knew it, he was being sucked into a portal from the Masked Man's right eye. Thus he was sent through an elongated white tube of nothingness.

There was emptiness all around him, faint noises made up this plane of existence, but there was no living life within.

"Well Todd, you walked yourself into another mess."

Todd started to walk into the void. He continued to talk to himself, providing himseld with a sort of comfort, "Well it could be worse. I could be dead and this is my afterlife...then again, if this were my afterlife, I could just nap until Judgement Day...that would be nice."

"Many things would be nice." The Masked Man appeared in a swirl of invisible energy, his purple and green eyes fixated upon Todd, "You're not dead, don't worry of that."

Todd groaned and rolled his eyes, "So, what? What's the master plan? Are you going to kill me? Plenty of others tried to do that. Didn't work. Conquer the multiverse? Slayed gods that have done such a thing. Simply pluck me out of space-time to achieve these goals unimpeded?...that hasn't happened to me personally but I have to fill in another me once, but....he escaped. So tell me, what's the project this time?"

"Hm..." The Masked Man grunted, his eyes curling up to look like upside-down cresent moons upon narrowing, "You're going to enjoy the surprise I have for you then. There's much to enjoy there, the place you are going."

"I swear if the next words out of your mouth isn't "home", I'll kick your ass so hard, your mask won't fit!"

A white orb materialized in the Masked Man's hand, "It goes to say you fear what can happen. Your intelligence lacks, as my quote 'ass', is not where my mask goes." The orb was thrown into the air, and a bright light blinded Todd. Soon enough, Todd found himself on a dark planet, with flowers that glowed a beautiful red; as for the Masked Man, he was gone.

Despite the man being missing Todd responded, "It's called a threat. It doesn't necessarily have to make sense." He then looked around at the dark planet, and the glowing red flowers attracted his attention. 'These don't looks like anything we have on Earth.' Todd thought.

A few more flowers opened up, and slowly, more of these flowers began to show a path for Todd to follow.

Chapter I
Todd sighed, "Well, following the glowing red road..." He started down the path of flowers. "Huh, maybe I should start learning astronomy...or astrology...whichever I can start first."

More flowers opened, revealing the pathway for Todd to take, as if leading him to a place of their choosing. A black raven flew above his head, cawing and flying in circles around his head. It flew down before Todd, landing and staring at him with golden eyes.

"Corvus?" Todd asked, crouching to make eye contact with the bird, "Is that you?"

The bird merely cawed, staring at Todd with golden orbs, it turned around and hopped about the ground down the lit flower path.

Todd shrugged, thinking, 'Still might be Corvus. So much of a know-it-all, might as well just caw at me.' So Todd followed the bird down the glowing path. 'But then again, I might be wasting time following a random bird...but then again what's the probability of another planet's course of evolution allowing a bird indistinguishable from a raven to form?' Regardless, with the bird being his only lead, he followed it.

The strange duo walked about, the raven leading the human about the lit path of flowers. As they continued, another light source seemed to shine through the trees, and an ashen smell grew in the air thickly within moments. The raven brought Todd to an opening where a village was on fire, all the houses were burning down in intense heat.

"The hell?!" Todd shouted, being taken aback by the sight. Todd leaped up and floated in the air, considering his options, fast.

'I could send in a tornado to blow the flames out like candles, but that could tear this place apart. Water streams could work, but that'll take too much time to get to each house in time, and it could hurt someone. Tidal waves are definitely out. Fighting fire with fire is too risky...'

After literally a second more of thinking, Todd just decided to go with the jet stream, it was the safest bet. So he extended his hands and fired jetstreams of water at different buildings, trying to get it done quickly, as to move on to the other buildings in the village. Within no time, there was no fires, but what was left were empty corpses of once proud buildings.

All was quiet, the raven cawed at the silence of the new emptiness in the air.

There was suddenly a dragging noise among the smoke that billowed from the now extinguished flames; a black form began to take shape in the area, though it was severely blotted out due to little light the flowers gave off.

Todd's mourning of the lives lost was cut short as he took noticed to the black form, he floated down a few feet behind it and called out, " 'ey what are you?!" His fists crackled with lightning, in case of a fight.

Golden eyes beamed through the smoke, parting the clouds, revealing a bony-winged figure that had a long black body, as well as horns. The creature was dragging the dead body of a person as it lumbered closer to inspect Todd with its golden orbs.

"Oh no, not you, not again! Damn you Zied!" Todd snapped, firing his lightning bolts, following it up with fire, and earth. "I will end you Zied!" He finished off with a massive energy blast, the size of his body.

Zied raised his hands, blocking all the lightning bolts, and then held out two arms and absorbed the energy blast Todd had sent to him. "A child who knows my name? How curious." Zied stared at Todd, as the raven flew over, landing on Todd's shoulder.

"Tell me, how did you know who I am?"

"Don't give me that crap Zied! You fought me, your son, and my girlfriend not that long ago!" Todd snapped, flushing at mentioning Johanna as his "girlfriend" and was really glad she wasn't there. He then shot forth tornado level winds from his palms.

"Son? You? Girlfriend? I'm quite... Confused..." Zied muttered, flapping his bony wings, negating the tornadoes.

Todd rolled his eyes, "Well so much for the "god" part of the demonic god job...guess you've gone senile with old age!" Todd focused above Zied and created an enormous amount of melted silver over him, and watched it as it fell, 'Probably won't work due to his power, but it's worth a shot.' he thought.

"Pathetic move." He let himself get covered in the silver, to which it hardened over him, creating a silver statue.

The raven cawed at Todd, then flew over to Zied, sitting atop the newly made statue.

"Crap on him." Todd muttered to the bird, sitting on the ground, awaiting Zied's escape, remembering his previous encounter with him. But the way Zied acted was strange. Zied was an ancient evil, corrupting lives across the multiverse for as long as it existed. And considering that his name was spread across the multiverse, as the World Walker and his real name (his first name anyway) of Todd, how could the demon forget?

'When he's out,' Todd thought, 'I'll mention the World Walker thing. Maybe that'll jog his memory.'

Zied's statue stayed put, he wasn't moving at all so to say to free himself. It was as if there was a statue there for ages. The raven was about to caw once more but stopped as if time itself had come to a standstill.

Todd looked up, and asked, "Time's stopped? But how? Could it be Zied from within the silver?"

"Have you been having fun? I hope you're enjoying your time." A disembodied voice rang out.

Todd stood up and lit his fists with flame, despite probably knowing who the voice belonged too. "What's going on?" snapped the World Walker.

Fading into view was the Masked Man, though his hood was off and he was also see-through, transparent, as if he were a ghost. "I can explain to you a game of mine I've created for you. It's a project I've instated. I'm glad you're able to partake in my experiment."

Todd responded, "sheathing" his flames, "Not like I have much of a choice in the matter."

So Todd begun to walk to the Masked Man, "So what is this "game"? What is it that you have done? Why am I needed for this "experiment?"

"You could say it's to test your limits. Or that I'm doing this merely on a whim. Or that we're part of a scheme bigger than the two of us together." The Masked Man iterated, "What is unknown to you is known to me, but to not know the unknown makes what is known much more known than that which is unknown. It's safe to say, you have no true idea what is occurring around here, do you?"

Todd raised a finger, responding, "That's a freakin' understatement. But then again, nothing you really do makes any sense at least from my perceptive. So, what's going on...inform me."

"I shall give you a... Bit of insight." The Masked Man answered, "Have you ever gone beyond your bound time-line?"

Todd rested his chin in his hand and said, "Uh...I time traveled to Salem, Massachusetts once and killed a Windego, only for a "slave" to remove all evidence my friends and I were there through magic granted by some beings called "The Princes of the Universe", does that count?"

"No... That is not exactly what I meant."

"Well, that's what I got for time travel. What could you possibly mean then?" Todd groaned, annoyed with the Masked Man's enigmatic question, 'He's becoming worse then Corvus!'

"Corvus was a fool. A now dead fool." The Masked Man took slow strides toward Todd, "Think of time as a straight line, now think of this world as a second line parallel to that first line. Another time, another world, another view, another story."

"Wait, Corvus is dead? And, if what I'm understanding it right, if this is an alternate time, shouldn't there be a point of divergence between one timeline and this one?"

"Depends. What if I knew something you didn't?"

Todd groaned loudly, "And what would that be?" His fist lit up with lightning, "Please tell me, as this annoyance is making me uncharacteristically angry!"

Hoping the Masked Man wasn't reading his mind again, he thought, 'And my heart isn't being helped by this anxiety and anger...'

"Your weakness and fear of your dear heart with that pain dwelling within isn't the greatest feeling... Is it?"

"Shut up!" Todd snapped shooting his lightning at the Masked Man as he begun to sprint into the burnt city, trying to find a place to rest himself and allow his heart to slow down and for him to "relax"...or more accurately as much as he could relax while hiding from some mad masked man.

The lightning bolt shot straight through the Masked Man as he watched Todd run away. He vanished in a swirl of invisible energy into his right eye, he appeared in front of a running Todd, "Now... Calm down."

"Not easy when creeps randomly teleports in from of me!" Todd fired out ice bullets towards the Masked Man, while running away in the opposite direction, ignoring the pain in his chest. But after a few minutes he slowed down too much pain, and he really needed it to slow down.

It was too soon that Zied came crashing down before Todd, snarling as flames bursted from his nostrils. Todd clutched his chest in one hand, while exhaling frost towards Zied in retaliation. 'Gotta...get out of...here...don't know...how much...longer I can...take this...'

He casted a shield over himself to try to rest and calm his heart.

Zied seemed unfazed, just merely stared at Todd, "Useless. What a pathetic attack. Where'd you learn that power, at a rip-off bazaar?"

Todd was blacking out, but before he did, he allowed himself to teleport, not caring about where he went.

'Here goes something?'

'You have no idea what you've done.'

With that new voice in Todd's head, he simply lost consciousness.

Chapter II
Zied growled at Todd's escape, fire shot forth from his nostrils as he huffed in anger. He looked over at the buildings of which were now simply smoldering ruins. He approached the body he was dragging earlier, but before he could make it all the way, he heard a voice.

"Great weakness is within you. But we can fix that."

Zied turned around to come face to face with a ghostly spirit, a black cloaked, white masked man who stood before him. An abnormal introduction for a being such as himself.

"What's it to you?" Zied growled, already irritated with the earlier interruption.

"I saw how you tried to deal with the situation. To say you seem to have control of the situation is a severe understatement. Attempting to finish the World Walker isn't easy, even if he is not in his own correct time." The spirit explained, Zied on the other hand felt this ghost unworthy of his attention, yet was intrigued about what the deceased one spoke of.

"Who are you?"

"I am the Spirit of Medadre..."

Todd opened his eyes and looked around him, to find himself in the company of a rainbow haired, angelic looking woman.

"Arise." She merely stated.

Todd stood up and looked at the woman before him, rather surprised that he's in the presence of an angelic being for once. "Uh, w-who are you?" He was also kicking himself for stuttering at someone who clearly was beyond him, even though she was clearly benevolent.

"I am Daille. I guard the planet from outward attacks. You are an outsider of this planet, what brings you here?" Daille questioned, curious of the human before her.

"Well some creep in a mask teleported me here for some "experiment" involving alternate timelines...Ms. Daille." Todd answered, still thanking God for the good luck of meeting someone who didn't want to kill him. "Uh, does that ring a bell to you maybe?"

"None, I'm afraid. Who is this 'creep in a mask'?" Dallie questioned, desiring an immediate answer.

Todd answered, "I don't know. I never learned his name...or if I did I sure as hell don't remember it." he scratched his head, and tried to be more descriptive, "Tall as an adult, black cloak, wears a mask with two eye holes, question mark carved in the front...apparently invisible underneath all of that..."

"I've never seen a person that fits that description. Now... Who are you?"

"My name is Todd," said the young man, "Even though this is an alternate timeline, I guess I should tell you I'm the World Walker. I fight demons and malevolent gods for the safety of humanity and friendly gods."

"A great ambition and ideal, but it must be backed up by actions. I shall be watching to see if I can trust you, until then." Daille narrowed her eyes slightly, as if looking into Todd's soul.

Todd raised his hands to show his harmlessness, "W-well, I'm not going to hurt you, i-it's rather clear that you're completely benign!" Todd continued with the thought, 'But you are scaring me a little now...' He moved to the side to see if she was staring at him as intently as he thought.

Daille turned her head to keep her eyes fixated upon Todd's figure, at that moment, a raven came flying down and landed between the two.

"You again little bird? Guess that means time is moving properly again where you were." Todd kneeled at the bird and whispered to it, "If you are Corvus, now would be a great time to turn to your humanoid form." He looked back up at the goddess and said, "If I may be so bold, why the sudden distrust in me?" Despite trying to sound angry, something about this being just made Todd love her...Platonicly.

"I only know your name is Todd, I know nothing more of you, that is why." Daille answered unemotionally, the raven cawed in the silence, and it wasn't before long before space began to distort, and a few moments later, the ghostly Masked Man appeared.

Todd pointed to the Masked Man and asked Daille, "Uh, you see him too right?"

Daille was silent, only staring at Todd, who was staring at the Masked Man, who spoke, "Well, it seems you gained a friend, Todd. But not to worry, I've got my own..." Another swirling vortex came from the Masked Man's left eye, and a moment after, Zied appeared from said portal.

"Zied? What are you doing here?!" Daille's eyes widened.

"Daille... Again... And the kid too." Zied muttered.

Todd said, continuing his previous joke, "OK, apparently not too senile, as you seem to remember our lady friend here. And now I think it's time I put an end this this experiment." With that he shot fire at both Zied and the Masked Man, despite knowing that it probably won't work.

"What an idiot." The Masked Man muttered as the attack shot straight through him, while Zied batted any flames that got near him.

Daille then in turn, created a sword of golden light, and pierced Zied through the chest the moment she had the chance. Zied sputtered, "Damn you Daille... Taking advantage of me just because I'm weak."

"Father didn't give you any great power because of your emotional weaknessnes." Daille stated.

"A mere backfire..." The Masked Man sucked Zied into another dimension with his right eye. "How unconventional that Zied is not as strong as Daille."

Todd sighed, "Well, at least Zied is out of the way. Now I got to finish this Masked Man and end this experiment!"

"Zied is merely weaker in this realm because he never met Kaede... Or Sin..." The Masked Man explained, "His power isn't even comparable to mine, and you, Todd are going to remain in this realm for as long as I wish."

"Who are you talking to?" Daille stared at Todd. Todd did a double take, repeatedly gesturing to the Masked Man and asked, "The Masked Man is right there, how can't you see it."

Daille shook her head, "I don't see anything."

"This is my world, Todd. I decide who can see me and who cannot." The Masked Man chuckled beneath his mask, "What a stupid boy."

"And what a cowardly man," Todd muttered, "Bet it's because you know I'll kick your ass."

The Masked Man waved his arm to which Dallie vanished a second after. "Then let's see... How strong you think you are..."

The Masked Man - Battle I
Todd looked for the goddess, "Damn! What did you do to her?" His fists lit up with light, ready for combat.

"She exists elsewhere on this planet now. Come..." A ghostly chain lashed out at Todd like a snake from the Masked Man's robes. Todd stepped to the side, trying to avoid it, and sent forth a bolt of lightning at it, which sailed straight through the ghostly chains. At that moment though, three knives shot from the folds of the cloak of the Masked Man, aimed for Todd. His hands raised, forming a shield, while sprinting to the sides, guessing the blades with cut through, trying to follow up with knives of his own, seven total.

All the projectiles sent to the Masked Man sail through him, he then runs for Todd before vanishing into an invisible vortex of energy. It takes a moment, but the Masked Man materializes behind Todd.

Sensing the mystical threat, Todd vanishes and reappears a fair distance away, facing the Masked Man. "Nice try!" he called out, "But that's not going to work..." But he continued with a thought, 'Unless he finds a way to counter it...'

"Hm... You shouldn't think so much..." Grey ooze materialized before the Masked Man's green, left eye; to which it formed into a second, ghostly Masked Man, of whom vanished in a swirl of energy. The Masked Man then proceeded to whips out his chains at Todd once more. Being a tad more creative then usual, Todd decided to attempt to mentally destroy the chains, making them vanish. 'Worth a shot.' he thought.

At that moment, Todd was mentally assaulted by a great and powerful force, that of which attacked his mind the second it had the chance.

Todd fell on his knees and thought, 'What the hell is happening?! Is this the Masked Man's doing?' His heart picked up the pace, much to his chagrin.

"What a foolish thing to do. Mental assaults are not, in any way, going to work." The Masked Man took slow strides toward Todd, "There are things you don't know, and some things you cannot possibly comprehend; that is one of those things."

'Get out of my head damn it!' Todd tried to use his own will power to force his attacker out of his mind.

The pain eased, but Todd found that the Masked Man was standing directly before him, a few mere inches away. "You're just a simple kid. Nothing more, which is why someone so plain is so perfect for my experiment."

"Oh sure," Todd said, standing up, "A "simple kid" could bear the responsibility of the job of helping people, they want to, God bless their souls, but they know not of the toll it does. I hold that on my shoulders. I've traveled across the multiverse, I've seen gods fall, a universe die. And I remember the names of all that I've met...a simple child, while they may try, can not."

"Hm..." The Masked Man chuckled, "Behind you." He pointed.

Not trusting the Masked Man, Todd teleported a fair distance away from him and started running, and not looking back.

The Masked Man appeared before the running Todd, "Quit running. How cowardly, to actually be fearful of a ghost."

Todd snapped back, "Well you made a deity that can kill you in a second disappear." Todd then added, "So you are a ghost! That answered that question." Todd stopped running and threw an enormous fireball, "And I'm no coward!"

The fire sailed straight through the Masked Man, who merely walked toward Todd, "This is my world. A test for The Unknown, a rigorous task that I've set out to do, just for it." Swirling energy was produced from the Masked Man's right eye, as Zied finally appeared from the vortex.

"Could you quit that, Medadre?!" Zied ground out in anger.

Completely ignoring Zied, Todd asked, "The Unknown? I remember the Book mentioning that when I met you! What is The Unknown?" And while he was at it he created a giant shield, about 9 feet high in the shape of a cross.

"That's a question to end all questions. Zied, I released you to go do what you've been told to do by my dear clone. Go." The Masked Man stated, Zied took flight, leaving the vicinity. "What's the point of a defense I can walk through?"

"Well not weak enough to be hurt by crosses." Todd muttered, throwing disks of light, rapid-fire before shooting lightning at Zied; the Masked Man looked to that direction, and held out his hand, each disk of light vanished into an individual portal of energy.

"Well now it seems like you're thinking with portals!" Todd chuckled, creating a sword of silver, 'Not blessed granted, but it'll have to do.' He looked upon the Masked Man and shouted, "Bring it on!"

"That will do you no good." The Masked Man's left eye, the deep green one, forced the grey substance to materialize from before it once more, this time making a long staff.

"Well, long staffs are pretty cool, but that won't stop me!" Todd slashed the sword, releasing an arc of freezing energies, which could possibly freeze whatever it touched. In turn, the arc made contact with the staff, but it only seemed to bounce off of the staff, as if neutralizing the attack altogether.

"It seems your physical and mental senses cannot comprehend substances from beyond your realm." The Masked Man tilted his head, "I shall inform you that the clone of myself earlier is still around. I have no time for your cute games, I must now be an adult, and get back to my business." The staff dematerialized, and the Masked Man began to suck himself into his purple, right eye, "I suggest you toy around my world for a little. If you survive, I shall greet you once more with my company. I have two friends who do want to meet you..." The Masked Man's body vanished as his last words echoed.

"Great, so who could it be that I'm to meet?" questioned the young man, making his sword vanished. He looked around, to try to see if the two "friends" were near-by.

Time would only tell.

Chapter III
So Todd marched, whistling to himself and wondered aloud, "Wonder if there are any more of those glowing flowers? They would be rather helpful." Todd then decided that he would look for more of the flowers.

A bright light formed before Todd moments after blinding him.

"Damn it!" Todd muttered, "Should've known that something would have messed up this "wish." As a precaution, Todd created a shield over himself.

The light died down, revealing an aged woman who had a cane, her white hair braided and a pair of golden eyes, a small sun hat was atop her head.

'OK,' thought Todd, 'How bad can this woman be?' He extended his hand and asked, "May I ask who you are?"

"I am but a poor old woman out here in the woods." She held aloft a lantern that she was holding.

Todd then asked, "I meant your name. Can you please tell me?"

"My name isn't important. Come." She turned around, beckoning for Todd to follow

Todd, having no reason not to mistrust the woman, followed her footsteps..

"You cannot travel alone in these woods, you must always have a light."