Like a dream, it was over. The creature moaned in agony as the final strike was landed. A strange golden light shot up from him like a ball and disappeared into the night sky. The sky suddenly darkened and a chilling breeze cut the air like a cold, bloody knife. The clouds above began to part.

Lily shuddered. "This just doesn't feel right. What's happening?"

Then, my father sat up with a wild look in his eyes. "It's him... it's... Mazell."

I ran to him. His real name was Willard, but for some reason, over time, he had opted to go by the name Wooley. He was a mad scientist at heart, and had always dabbled in alchemy for reasons I had never understood. And then, that one day a few months back, he suddenly took me on this adventure and was promptly kidnapped. I never thought that I'd see him again, but here he was. He looked terribly shaken, though, as if he had gone through a terrible ordeal.

"Who is this Mazell??" Lily knelt down over him.

"Don't fuss over me! Come on now, we must go, and quickly." He spryly jumped to his feet, much to the surprise of Lily. "Mazell is the one who still has your Aunt as a hostage, Dan." He looked at me. "He lives in a completely different world than us... a world filled with a strange darkness. The demons took me there... you see, he has a huge palace, and your Aunt Angelina is there waiting for us to come and save her. He is evil... he has these terrible, cold eyes that stare right through you..."

The rest of us gasped. It was obvious that we had met this Mazell, and very recently. And this other world? Could it really be the one that we had just experienced at the time we had met Lily?

Shayla sighed. "This is unbelievable. So much danger, and so much loss. Why is all of this happening? What is going on?" She then paused, and walked to the side of the mountaintop. "Scott... we will remember your loss."

As Shayla motioned for everyone to go, we noticed Lily staring over the incredible landscape.

"What's wrong?" Shayla asked.

Lily shook her head. "There's... something wrong with this world right now, and we are in grave danger. These monsters... they aren't being controlled of their own volition. There's some greater force... some strange outside entity... I can't explain it, I can just feel it."

We all had a feeling of dread as we made our way wearily down Silver Falls, but our next destination was clear: We were off to the other world, but first, we would stop by and check on Veronica at the medicine girl's place.

How strange... a gate has materialized.