The next day, Mitch stood in the forest clearing once again, hacking away on the trees with his trusty sword.

Following his daily routine, he finished, slid the sword into the carrier on his back, and made his way down the path.

Along the way, Mitch began to hear a strange sort of metallic moaning up ahead.

That part wasn't part of the routine.

Mitch stopped, and quickly leaped off the path to hide behind the nearest tree.

The moaning began to grow gradually louder as whatever was making the sound came closer. Mitch held his breath, trying to imagine what on earth it was.

After a long moment, Mitch finally gathered the courage to get a peek at whatever had came down the path.

It was a creature unlike anything that he'd seen before. It was a floating, bright yellow head, with rods of the same color that circled around it. The rods and the head were both smoking, creating a dark cloud around the absurd creature.

And the creature was hovering a good three feet in front of Mitch's tree, staring directly at him.

"W-Whoa, there," Mitch chuckled nervously, backing away from the tree and back onto the path. The creature did not move, but its eyes followed him. The moaning continued.

"Uh, hey there, buddy," Mitch tried to talk, holding his hands up near his chest in a peaceful gesture. "What're you doing here?"

The creature hovered a bit closer towards him curiously.

"Can't talk?" Mitch asked the thing. "¿No inglés?"

The creature continued to moan and stare at him.

Mitch stared back for a while. "...Are you lost?"

The creature let out another one if its strange moans and hovered even closer to Mitch until he could feel the heat radiating from its body. He tried to stay still, holding his breath so as not to gag on the smoke.

After a long moment of eerie staring, the creature blinked, and drew away from Mitch.

Mitch breathed a sigh of relief. Just as a fireball soared over his head.

"Wh-What?!" Mitch exclaimed, stepping back. The creature's moans were louder now, and it seemed to be glaring at him. It was angry.

"Hey! What did I do?" Mitch exclaimed, cautiously taking out his sword. The creature only growled and shot another fireball at Mitch, who dove to the side just in time, hitting the grass hard. Scrambling to his feet, he took off, farther down the forest path. The creature was hot on his tail, literally.

Mitch fled deeper into the forest, even past his usual training spot. His sword was grasped tightly in his hand, but his tree training had not prepared him for any angry flaming monsters.

The creature continued to shoot fireballs in his direction, but luckily wasn't great at shooting while chasing people. It also managed to avoid hitting any trees, which would have caused a nasty forest fire.

Mitch continued to run, terrified, hoping that the creature would give up soon or he would find his way back to town to get help. He was way deep into the forest now, probably farther than he had ever been before. He nearly stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of something up ahead on the path.

Sitting in the middle of the path was a tall circular structure made out of obsidian. The inside was filled with a swirling, glowing purple forcefield-looking substance.

Mitch had never seen one of them before, but now wasn't the time to stop and think about it. The creature was still growling viciously behind him.

There was no time to think. Hoping that it would stop the creature somehow, or that the purple wall wasn't solid, he dashed through the structure.

The results were not as good as he'd hoped.

For a terrifying moment, Mitch couldn't breathe. Everything was black, and he felt light as a feather. He had no idea where he was, which way was up, until he suddenly regained all senses in the blink of an eye, falling to the ground with a dull thud.

He scrambled to his feet, panting, and whipped around to stare at the strange structure again. Only, something wasn't right.

Mitch looked down at the ground, which was a strange, dark reddish brick rather than the usual dirt and grass.

Standing up straight, he relaxed a little when he realized the monster hadn't followed him in. As his eyes adjusted to the darker scene, he saw that he was in the middle of a long, dark hallway.

"W-Was that a portal?" Mitch asked himself in a horrified whisper, glancing back at the glowing purpleness. Had the creature followed him in? Where was this place?

Mitch cautiously held his sword up, stepping backwards away from the strange portal in case the creature emerged from it.

"Hey! You!"

Mitch jumped and looked over his shoulder to see two unfamiliar demons standing at the end of the hallway. They marched over to him, and before Mitch could react, one of them knocked the stone sword out of his hands effortlessly, sending it clattering to the ground.

"Who are you, and what are you doing near that portal?" The other demon asked, circling around Mitch to stand behind him, blocking his path back to the portal. He wore a pair of sunglasses (which seemed ironic, as the hallway they were in was rather dark), and was dressed in a black suit with an out-of-place, bright yellow and orange-striped necktie.

"I-I'm Mitch," Mitch stuttered. "Where am I?"

"Pffft, where are you?" The other demon still standing in front of Mitch echoed. He was wearing an orange tee with a big, blue S on it, but his most noticeable feature was a comical watermelon helmet on his head. Or, at least, it looked like a watermelon. "You're in the Devil's castle, of course!"

"Shut up, Simon!" The demon with the tie barked, glaring at his friend.

"Oh, uh, right," Simon blinked sheepishly.

"The Devil's castle?" Mitch asked. "But Ty doesn't have his own castle. Is this ShadShine?"

Both demons stared at him for a moment.

Then, Simon grinned mischeviously. "Hehehe, are you thinking what I'm thinking, Bodil?"

The demon with the tie chuckled. "I sure am!" Without warning, he grabbed Mitch by his hood and turned him around to face him. "You're from the Overworld, aren't you?"

Mitch frowned. Did that mean that this place wasn't the overworld? "Y-Yeah, whatever this place is, I must have accidentally gotten sent here by accident. Funny, right? Haha, so, I'll go back to the Overworld now and I won't ever bother y-"

"Go back to the Overworld?" Bodil repeated. "And let such a valuable prisoner go?"

"Haha, you walked right into our trap, and we didn't even do anything!" Simon laughed.

"Look, just let me back in the portal thing and I'll never come back here again," Mitch said quickly.

"Sorry," Simon apologized. "But you're gonna have to come with us."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll have lots of useful information and...other stuff," Bodil agreed.

Both demons lunged for him, but Mitch's instincts kicked in. He ducked and threw himself out of the way, landing on the ground next to his sword. Simon and Bodil crashed into each other, and while they were stunned Mitch grabbed his sword and ran, diving into the portal without looking back.