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 achive 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 probabilty 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 definietly 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 occuring around here, do you?"

Todd raised a finger, responding, "That's a freakin' understatment. But then again, nothing you really do makes any sense at least from my perpective. 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.