Once through the great dark portal, Mr. Lordi and Emily found themselves swept in all directions by a great suction force, as if they had been carried into the siphon of a giant tub. For very long minutes, they fell in the middle of a veritable chaos of dark clouds and infinite and distorted darkness where hundreds of flashes and lightning were exploding on all sides. Despite the very strong force that dragged them into this fall, Mr. Lordi and Emily struggled as much as possible, holding hands so as not to be separated.

Both clenched their teeth against the pain that pierced their skulls, their minds being assaulted endlessly by echoes of very loud howls around them, whose voices were impossible to define as they were distorted. And this language ... this filthy and impossible to understand language that repeated itself over and over in their brains, making their eardrums vibrate and hurt. Thanks to his Monsterman nature, Mr. Lordi was able to resist better even though he was in pain. Emily, as a human, had more difficulty, having to fight fiercely not to give in to the beginning of madness. Around them, the landscape was undergoing permanent change, sometimes even seeming to come to life and give birth to multiple shadowy arms and tentacles trying to grab them. Emily squeezed the ruby of her pendant with all her grip, and it emitted a faint red glow that chased away the shadows a little and pushed back slightly the dark growths that wanted to grab her.

Unfortunately, the suction force redoubled in intensity and the shock wave produced by a very close lightning bolt separated the couple, the two being ejected in two different directions.

_ "MR. LORDI!" Emily yelled in her fall.

_ "EMILY! NO!" roared Mr. Lordi trying to catch up with her in vain, seeing her disappear behind a veil of darkness, and he too soon after, sank.

Mr. Lordi suddenly opened his eyes, gasping and coughing a little as he stood up. Armed with his double ax, he looked around quickly as if emerging from a nightmare. How long had he been unconscious? He didn't know. Much to her concern, Emily was not there.

_ "EMILY! EMILY YOU HEAR ME? PLEASE, ANSWER ME!" he called out with all his might, more than worried about her.

Then he thought he heard her voice respond, but it's strange ... It's as if it came from very close, but sounded fuzzy and very distant, like a very faint echo ... Mr. Lordi looked everywhere again, but no, he was quite alone. Several times he could smell like being touched, but there was nothing. He could feel Emily's presence, very close, but yet he was alone, which unsettled him even more.

The room he woke up to was surreal, even to him. Its form and architecture was normally impossible and was unlike anything known. Barely lit by greenish lights from unknown sources, the room featured smooth stone walls, dark and covered with a shiny green layer, and dotted with lines of anarchic symbols that made no sense. Mr. Lordi felt heavy, very heavy, and sore ... It was as if this place itself was alive and feeding on him, his slightest strengths and thoughts, and having fun tormenting him. The only thing present in this room was a small, sprawling pedestal in the center, upon which stood an artifact similar to a large closed eye.

Emily was desperate. Since waking up in this strange room, she hadn't stopped talking to Mr. Lordi several times, shouting to make him react, stand in front of him and wave at him, but nothing helped, he couldn't see her, as if she was invisible. Several times she had touched him to the arms, slipping through like a ghost, and each time Mr. Lordi seemed to react to those touches and looked in the direction. His expression showed that he sensed her presence, but was unable to see and feel her.

_ "Mr. Lordi! I am here, right next to you! I know you can hear me!" Emily begged in desperation.

It was abominable ... Both were trapped in the same room, but separated by some sort of invisible barrier, as if each were in a different world. It was going crazy.

She then noticed that Mr. Lordi had his attention drawn to the center of the room, but yet there was absolutely nothing. He saw something she didn't have in her perception of this room. Faced with this situation, Emily felt her brain race in her head, hurting her, and tried to breathe normally and keep her calm as much as possible. This place was playing with her.

On her side of the barrier, Emily also saw changes taking place, changes that Mr. Lordi therefore did not perceive. Emily, heart pounding and hands trembling, saw all around her the green lights fade away, and the opaque darkness closing more and more around her like a real cage. She remained in the center of the room, her sword in hand and taking the ruby from the pendant in the other, clinging to the light it produced.

_ "He can't see or hear you, insignificant little insect ..." Ycnarr's voice growled in the darkness. "So close, yet so far apart from each other... You're going to watch him die, killed by his own memories, with nothing to do to help him."

Emily, shielded from the darkness by the light of her ruby, was in terrible pain as the voice of the Great Ancient One echoed in her head.

_ "No ... You don't know him ... You don't know us ... We will never give up!" she responded with all the firmness she could express despite the intense pain in her mind.

_ "Ah, the power of your love ..." Ycnarr commented in his inhuman and deep voice "... Effective against creatures as weak as demons. But non-existent in front of us!"

During this time, Mr. Lordi, very cautiously, had approached the pedestal. But at a distance, the mechanical eye opened without warning, its frozen iris exploding a powerful flash of energy that blinded Mr. Lordi, forcing him to shield his eyes.

Once the flash disappeared in a few seconds, Mr. Lordi noticed that all the lights had suddenly gone out, plunging the room into complete darkness. More worryingly still, he felt surrounded by other invisible presences that lurked around him. He even seemed to hear, for a brief moment, a sneer in a familiar voice in the darkness, but one that seemed impossible to imagine ...

_ "Hello, my dear lord ..." said that chilling voice, sly and feminine, which almost froze Mr. Lordi.

_ "That voice ... No, it can't ... it can't be you ... E... Evilyn..."

_ "Oh, I'm flattered. After all these years, you haven't forgotten me."

Mr. Lordi looked at the darkness everywhere, clutching his ax in his hand. No doubt. It was Evilyn's voice that had just spoken to him.

_ "It's not so amazing, little sister. He is the Monsterman after all. He remembers every soul he has plucked from life." Then came a second voice, male this time, but one that Mr. Lordi recognized with horror.

_ "Vexus!" growled the Monsterman nervously. "Where ... where are you? SHOW YOURSELF!"

_ "Hehe, still so combative from what I see." Vexus' voice sneered cruelly behind him, in his ear.

Mr. Lordi struck a quick blow with his ax behind him, not touching anything, but then noticed this form that stood in the halo of darkness across the room and stared at him. It was him, Vexus. The tall demonic black gargoyle-looking demon with glowing blue eyes was standing, showing an unhealthy smile.

_ "He wouldn't have defeated us if he hadn't been." said Evilyn's voice again, just behind Mr. Lordi who turned around.

This vision made him take a step back, he was so stunned. There she was, the dark-haired demon queen, levitating a few feet from the ground, clad in her long black robe and demonic black wings behind her back. She was smiling, the same evil smirk as her brother.

_ "No ... no, it's impossible ... You two can't be there! You're dead!" Mr. Lordi said in denial, refusing to believe what he was seeing.

_ "Ah, death ... death ... you know, in a place like this, that word, just like life, time, hunger, sleep or feelings ... has no value here ..." Evilyn sneered.

_ "Madness and suffering are the only key words in the Darkland ... But that, dear sister, we will be happy to demonstrate it to him." Vexus added, showing his glistening fangs in an even more cunning smile, as he slowly cracked his knuckles.

For her part, Emily was distraught to see Mr. Lordi looking so worried, holding his ax in hand and looking frantically in two different directions with a shocked face, as if he had seen a ghost.

But suddenly, she too began to hear disturbing noises in the darkness that surrounded her. By the power of her ruby, she succeeded in summoning the shield which surrounded her and at the same time brought a source of light.

In horror, she saw two shapes slowly emerging from the darkness to come forward with a throbbing step towards her. She gasped. It was his parents, but they were behaving abnormally, their eyes no longer showing any spark of life.

_ "Mum ... Dad ..." she sighed.

Both parents were shaken by convulsions and their bodies in turn underwent monstrous transformations, their flesh breaking loose, their blood exploding on all sides and clusters of wiggling tentacles and razor-sharp teeth replacing their heads. The two abominations gave throaty howls and threw themselves against the energy shield that protected Emily, pounding on it with all their might in an attempt to shatter it.

_ "No! No! Stop!" she said anxiously upon seeing them do it, and at the same time, could vaguely see Mr. Lordi further away preparing to fight something that only him could see.

**********

Meanwhile, in the human world, Awa still continued to keep the passage open through her power binding her with the scroll. Hella had interposed herself in front of her, her weapons in hand, to protect her from the threat that had just arisen. Mathias for his part, still being unconscious from the blow received.

Ruiz, the damn psychopath who had destroyed his life, was there, still so bonkers and cruel, almost licking his lips at the thought of inflicting more pain. He looked for a moment at the Darkland portal in the sky and laughed madly.

_ "You seriously thought you could defeat Ycnarr'Orveh on his own ground? You are even more stupid than I thought. Your two friends are going to meet a fate worse than death! Suffering so abominable and delicious ... Hmmm, I would pay expensive to see it with my own eyes."

_ "Shut up ! Shut up, you crazy bastard! We may not be able to defeat this thing, but you ... Be sure that this time, you will not leave alive!" Hella yelled with hatred. "I'm going to slaughter you like you did with me!"

Not intimidated by Scarbie's hateful voice and words, Ruiz just gently shook his head in annoyance.

_ "Tttt ... tttt ... Hella, Hella, Hella ... You will have been a disappointment from start to finish ... I had so much hope in you, to be able to make you my worthy servant, and better again, make you a worthy creature of the new world that the only true gods have planned for all of us ... But in the end, all you will have managed to do is waste my time."

_ "So much the better ..." replied the scarbie, not taking her eyes off him for a single moment. "First your time, but now I'll take everything else from you."

_ "You know, at the beginning I was convinced I could transform things, create life, but I was wrong ..." Ruiz spoke like an illuminated "... The great Ycnarr'Orveh in his infinite omniscience to me opened my eyes ... As a simple human I was not worthy. It was first up to me to change, to be reborn into something bigger, more magnificent, so that in turn I could finally guide humanity towards salvation, towards the new upcoming cosmic order ..."

With those utterly psychotic words, he tore the sleeve of his black cloak, revealing a completely mutated right arm, become an intertwining of slimy flesh and wavy tentacles dotted with black hooks. Hella recoiled briefly at this revelation, but kept her position, protecting Awa.

_ "Beautiful, isn't it?" Ruiz sighed, admiring his new arm. "The most perfect organism. I have finally received the ultimate blessing from Lord Ycnarr'Orveh. My evolution is underway, and soon I will become a god myself!"

Ruiz was already completely insane when he was human, but his psychosis had tripled this time.

Suddenly, Mathias, who had been discreet when he woke up, jumped up behind Ruiz's back, taking him by surprise.

_ "Die! Die, you fucker!" Mathias yelled angrily while stabbing the psychopath many times in the chest with the claws of his glove.

Hella gasped and tried to aim with her sawed-off shotgun, but changed her mind, fearing to hit Mathias with the salvo as well.

Ruiz was screaming loudly, struggling with rage, but Mathias clung on with all his might, continuing to lacerate and inflict deep wounds.

Unfortunately, Ruiz managed to grab Mathias and pierced his left shoulder with one of the tentacles. The young man screamed in pain, before being thrown at the feet of Hella, horrified to the highest point and fell to his knees and supported him.

_ "MATHIAS!" scarbie was distraught seeing him bleed, blaming herself deeply for not having done anything to help her earlier.

_ "No ... don't worry ... I'm fine ..." Mathias moaned in pain, holding his bleeding shoulder.

A few feet away from them, Ruiz had risen to his feet, staring at his completely slashed and bleeding chest, but continued to laugh hysterically.

_ "I ... I can't even feel the pain anymore ... It's so delicious ... Ah, I am going to have immense joy to torture you until the most total madness. You then come and beg me on my knees to finish you off."

Hella had torn off a piece of Mathias' black t-shirt, which didn't blame her, and gave him to apply it to his wound and at least stop the bleeding a bit. She helped him back up and lean against one of the megaliths. But for the scarbie, this time was way too much.

She had lost everything because of Ruiz... Her house, her parents, her life, and now she could almost have lost the man she had fallen in love with, again because of him... No! Not this time! This time he wouldn't win! Teeth clenched, boundless rage animating her face, her weapons in her hands, Hella turned to face Ruiz, who awaited her firmly with unparalleled sadistic glee.

_ "RUIZ! IT'S TIME TO END THIS!"