I’m stalking the halls of the Headquarters of the Rebellion, seeking my target. I pass a group of guards patrolling the area, and know that once they discover the bodies of their slaughtered companions, I’ll only have a few minutes to make my escape. I wave a polite hello, puffing my chest out a little to emphasize the badge and armor that I “confiscated” from the last guard I passed. They grumble a greeting, their eyes flitting over me from under their full-faced visors. I continue to walk for a few feet before I dash around a corner and let out the tremendous breath I never realized I was holding. I need to be more careful, I chide myself. One more mess up, and the whole operation will go up in flame. I chuckle silently, wondering what I’m getting all worked up over. I’m invincible!

I sprint down the halls, knowing my time is limited. I curse under my breath, once again scolding myself for not thinking to gather the blueprints of the building. Murmured voices catch my attention, and I slow to a walk, stopping outside of an elaborately decorated door. Calling on the power lingering beneath my skin, I raise my hand, feeling the familiar and addicting rush that comes every time I bring forth the darkness of the Sarin. I put my hand on the door and command my powers to let me peer into the room.
Shushed voices whisper frantically.

“So they’ve come, have they?” I pick out the speaker as my target.

“Well, him, sir. And yes, he’s already taken out our main guards, sir. All of them.” I recognize this guard as the prime minister’s head captain.

“Ah. So they sent a powerful one this time. This should be interesting.”

“But sir! We need to evacuate you immediately! We cannot afford to take any unnecessary risks, especially with the leaders of the other sectors missing or dead.”

I smile knowingly. I have done that, haven’t I? And after I eliminate you, the world will be cleansed from all filth involved in this futile rebellion.
“Bah,” he scoffs, waving his hand. “It’s too late to evacuate, isn’t that right, Erebus?”
The sound of my name has a paralyzing effect, creeping into my very core and clenching a tight fist around my muscles. As I feel my body locking up, I pivot and form a dagger created by my innate darkness. I throw the dagger just as my hand freezes up. The dagger embeds itself to the left of my target’s head, wobbling a bit before seeping into the wall. The hallway around me shimmers once, and is replaced by drab, gray walls. I stare at my target, trying to loosen the paralyzing effect in my legs.
“Come on now, Erebus,” he says, dragging out the syllables to cause more pain. “You are the underling god of shadows,” he spits, “but even you have no power in the home of a warrior.”

Warrior? I chuckle silently. The cr*p you do can’t even really be defined as a warrior’s duties. He must really think highly of himself. If only this fool knew.

“Speechless, Erebus?” he asks, drawing out the syllables of my name once again. “The thing I despise about your kind? They all think they’re invincible.”

“Nice décor,” I comment, shaking off some of the pain to nod at the horrendously bland wall.

The Prime Minister makes a sort of choking sound in his throat and turns an unhealthy shade of red. He sputters a bit, and trying to regain some composure, he smoothes his hair. Sensing a weak spot, I continue to try to distract and p*ss this guy off as the effects of the paralysis spell wear off.

“If you let me go, I know this artisan who can really spruce this place up…” I say.

As the general gets unreasonably angry, the paralysis wears off completely. Regaining full control of my body, I let the darkness crawl through my body to form earplugs, embracing myself in the utter stillness of silence. Show time. In the span of a second, I burst out of this constricting bodysuit, allowing my true form to emerge, which is pretty frickin’ awesome, if I do say so myself. Reaching out with the Sarin, I grab the dagger I threw earlier back out of the wall and send it flying towards the head captain standing in a corner of the room, who somehow deflects the attack, gashing the cheek of the Prime Minister while doing so. As he cries out in pain, I channel the Sarin once again through my feet and use it to boost my agility, and leaping with incredible speed I grab the Prime Minister’s throat with a shadowy claw, slamming him into the wall. Sensing incredibly fast movement behind me, I duck to my right at the same time an incredibly large sword embeds itself into the wall. I release the Prime Minister and flip up to stick to the room’s ceiling, taking in for the first time my surroundings. A steel bed and chair are the only furnishings of the room. The walls are made of cheap demonstone, a smooth rock designed to limit the powers of demons. This room must have been designed for a lesser spirit. Too bad I’m not a lesser spirit, huh? I don’t have long to wonder about the intelligence of my target as I sense a whole lot of light energy being gathered by the head general.

“Oh sh-“I yell as multiple arrows of light come screaming towards me. I drop to the floor and attempt to cross into the Shadow World as the general charges me with that stupid sword. I sink into the floor, and as my eyes adjust to the unfathomable darkness of the Shadow World, I connect to the shadow of the Prime Minister, jumping up behind him to sink my fangs into his throat, infecting him with poison. I smile and wave at the general who just realized what happened, and sink once more into the floor, appearing two inches in front of the general. He makes a half-hearted swing with his doped-up sword, and I bat it away with a claw.

“Welcome to the dominion of Darkness,” I whisper in his ear, calling upon the Sarin once more to reach into the general and crush his life force. Seeing him wince in pain fills me with bloodlust, and I reach a little deeper into his soul to find his inner light. I smile, finally finding the treasure I’ve been seeking. I dive viciously into his soul and devour this light, savoring the taste of his dying spirit. As the Head General’s lifeless body drops to the floor with a dull thud, I turn to the Prime Minister, who is now writhing uncontrollably on the floor. I laugh and walk over to his writhing form, kneeling down to look into his eyes, now turning a milky white because of my incurable poison. I see the Minister’s mouth form words, but because of the earplugs, I couldn’t hear a dang thing. I try to make out his words for a little longer, but after a while, it gets a little annoying. I dissolve my earplugs, allowing them to trickle down to my target’s mouth.

“I’ll hear your pitiful last words, but I’m warning you, if you so much as move a muscle or even think about saying anything beginning with the letter “e”, I’ll kill you right now.”

The Prime Minister convulses a little longer before gasping the words, “You’ll never win. The Light will prevail. The world might be under the control of you and your minions, but this won’t last forever. Your evil-“

The Prime Minister never has the chance to finish his sentence as I force the darkness that were previously earplugs into his mouth and nose, and before he could widen his eyes in horror, I make the substance explode in his throat, blowing a hole clean through his neck, splattering me with blood. I lick my lips.

“I told you, words that begin with “e” are a no no.”

I watch the light die out of his eyes before sinking into the Shadows to appear outside of the palace. In one final act of defiance to this last beacon of light, I form a large pressure which I use to break apart the building. As the building breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, I throw them all into the air and fling a wave of darkness at the floating rubble, causing gore (guess I didn’t clear the place out first), and stone to rain over my head like a shower of revenge.

I am Erebus, god of Shadows. The world is mine to control and nothing will ever get in my way. I was born out of Darkness to swallow the light of the ignorant. Those who long for the light will be hunted and annihilated without mercy. This is the world of Darkness. I am a villain, and I won. The notion of good prevailing over evil is nothing but a memory of times in the past. The Shadows will always be there after the sun goes down, and when it comes up. Have an evil day.