It was dark.
Yes, dark was probably the only word those who lived in it could use to describe this cold, haunting place, after a while, they even started to use the world "Hell", to describe it.
They weren't far from the main thing: giant volcanoes touched the red sky, erupting green lava sometimes. A strange, yellow liquid was flowing trough the valley, killing whatever dared to swim (fortunately, nobody ever tried to take a swim, probably because the remains of the remains of unfortunate, less savvy ramblers were floating). A black, thick smoke, coming from holes in the ground, blinded wanderers, allowing them to accidentally throw themselves in whatever fatal trap was lying ahead in a fit of panic.
While some tried to climb to escape on some hills made of rock to avoid the smoke and the river, they were soon killed by other vagrants seeking a refuge (and less then thrilled when hearing the word "sharing") or the daily eruption of the nearby volcano. Some desperate inhabitants eventually formed squads of some sort, feeding on whatever they found which couldn't kill them, in this quest for survival, very few squads survived and only a group made of the strongest could live to see another day in this hellish landscape.
However, it was futile: Every victory was pyrrhic at the very least and they knew their strength couldn't save them from oblivion, even the most prideful ones were forced to admit they were just delaying a gruesome end and only a very few dark spirits tried to survive, the remaining ones merely tried to take other with them in death.
Effectively, those who lived in this place were Dark Spirit, forced to live in this place after the fall of their leader, Vaatu, at the hand of Wan, the "Avatar". Using the power of Raava, the leader of the light spirits, he eventually managed to defeat the starfish after efforts and trapped Vaatu in the Tree of Time, the surviving dark spirits retreated back in their world, while it was highly dangerous for the dark spirits, light spirits died immediately upon entering.
Having heard rumours about the survival of some of Vaatu's generals (powerful dark spirits with unique abilities), the light spirits took the decision to destroy the portals leading to this world, directly in the human realm, after all, their own world would probably consume them after some time, even the higher ups, if they survived, wouldn't last long.
To be honest, Zalo himself was pretty sure they were dead a long time ago, Vaatu himself wasn't able to defeat Wan, the weaker generals, while very powerful compared to your average dark spirit, didn't had any chances of winning if they ever took on Wan, let alone flee.
Despite his pessimistic attitude, he was amongst those who tried to survive, he knew there was a way out of this atrocious place and every single cell of his being was devoted to finding this famous way out, he was utilising all his ruthlessness to approach his goal, killing lesser spirits and receiving protection from the ones he couldn't defeat before betraying them, most of the time, however, he avoided any form of contact.
But recently, something other then survival was primordial to him.
If Zalo was so ruthless (even more then normal), it was because he recently got hold of a kind of feeling, as if someone was giving him instructions, he saw a place in his dream, recently, a rocky hill just like the other but without any volcanoes in sight and he could swear he heard something calling him in the darkness, upon waking up, he suddenly knew the direction of this hill.
Since life was meaningless in this land and nobody could help him (as if they wanted), he figured out he might as well believe in some vague nonsense in his head and go for it, life couldn't get worse in this hell and while determined to survive, death would be a gift in this land of darkness.
Something, he has a vague souvenir of the human realm, he roamed in these green hills and blended in their blue liquid, catching a few of them. They were tasty and usually came in size; he usually took the bigger ones and merely killed the little humans, or let them flee if he was in a good mood.
Blending in was a bit difficult later on; after all, he was a height feel tall green squid with height large tentacles nearly as long as a little tree, while he was himself bigger then five fully grown humans in line. He wasn't a general but he sure was tough for a mook, of course, he was still no match for Wan and higher graded light spirits, but underestimating him was still an error.
This is perhaps because of his toughness that he was able to survive this long, along with his ability to blend in, avoiding the unwelcome company of stronger dark spirits.
After a long walk across the volcanoes, the dry land, the acid river and many, many other dangerous things, he finally found a part of the land he was sure nobody ever walked across, and boy, he felt so prideful when he set his tentacles on this soil.
There was a giant hole right before his eyes, with a lake big lake in it. The lake wasn't made of acid like he every other lake in this godforsaken world, it looked more like water, a stark contrast with the red sky. Also, they weren't any volcanoes nearby, Zalo briefly tried to pinch himself a bit before realising he couldn't.
However, what surprised him the most was the rocky hill in the middle of the lake, it looked exactly like in his dreams, he was pondering about how a decent place like this could exit until he sensed the energy which make him come here the squid quickly approached the lake, checking is back, fearing another spirit might have followed him.
By approaching, the Dark Spirit noticed soon they weren't any way to descend, like a stairs or something.
But the fall wasn't going to scare Zalo; he travelled to reach this point, carefully avoiding his fellow dark spirits, volcanoes, smokes, acid and plenty of other things. Being scared by some liquid was now impossible for the squid (except if said liquid can melt him in less the three seconds, of course).
The squid jumped and quickly fell in the water, what followed the fall was probably the happiest, most glorious thing he ever experienced in 300 years.
It was REALLY water ! Zalo felt some kind of empowerment has he surfaced and took his time to briefly play in the water, some may call it childish but he hasn't been on water since the defeat of Vaatu, three centuries ago. He was feeling reborn, as if nothing could stop him in his path now. After 7 minutes of playing around, he finally started to swim towards the island, using his tentacles as some kind of rotor to move quickly in the water, there was nothing else on the water but since this place was never explored before, this wasn't surprising.
Upon arriving, the squid started to creep toward the pillar; he was ready to climb it until he noticed a greatly surprising detail witch startled him for a few seconds.
A door was carved on the rock.
It wasn't possible at all, most spirits merely climbed on top of the hill before digging and making a room, carefully replacing the rocks behind them to avoid unwelcome visit from another wanderer. While the guy located in this place had all the time possible, it was still highly surprising.
The door was made in a relatively sophisticated way, looking like the door of those buildings wealthy humans build to impress other wealthy humans. The spirit was either highly intelligent or he was just smug. Zalo quickly opened the door and entered, before closing it.
A few boogies were the only light in the dark corridor the squid was currently standing in. He was starting to have some kind of anxiety down his throat, bad sign, the guy who lived in this place was probably observing him and there was a big chance he was currently planned on eating him. The corridor was large enough for the rather large spirit to crawl without being handicapped, he quickly opened another door and was standing in front of a few stairs.
Ignoring his quick heartbeat, the dark spirit started to climb the stairs while looking behind him in a regular manner, he was growing more and more anxious as he climbed but he couldn't go back, the power was closer, he could feel it ! He wasn't in control of his body anymore; it was just progressing towards the power, towards the trap, towards the jaws of the guy in charge of the place.
The squid quickly took rid of his fear; it was stupid to fear an attack. He was perfectly aware of his surroundings and his tentacles could protect him easily, and in this cramped place, he could easily grab and tear apart anything.
His confidence restored, Zalo opened yet another door, he was sure the source of whatever attracted him was there but he only saw a large table, he hesitated for a few seconds and crawled towards it, maybe the table was going to speak ? Or it was going to give him meals forever ? Or the food was going to attack him ?
No, there wasn't any food on the table, and since he was hungry, he was a bit disappointed. Then, the door violently closed.
"I cannot BELIVE IT !"
Quickly spinning around, the squid was confused when he saw nothing but the closed door, pressing himself against a corner, Zalo started to watch the room, rising his tentacles for protection.
"Someone came ! It's magnificent ! The best day in my life !"
"What the… SHOW YOURSELF!"
"But I'm here !"
A tiny butterfly was standing on the wall behind the squid, the spirit quickly turned around and smashed it with a tentacle, laughing, Zalo continued his brutal assault on the wall.
"Rude."
The dark spirit opened his eyes in amazement, the butterfly just took ten hits but he didn't even moved, there wasn't any traces of impact on the wall ! The tentacles were usually strong enough to destroy big human vehicles in one blow ! However, fear took the place of surprise in the eyes of Zalo when the butterfly grew to be at least of his size.
"Mine, mine. What a unpleasant surprise. You attack me, just tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here ?"
"Well… hum… I came here and you can't afford to wait again ?"
"Yes ! Good point !"
The butterfly approached and patted the squid on the head, his big eyes were full of genuine joy but Zalo still feared for his life.
"My name is Jakui ! Pretty unusual name, huh ? Yeah, I know, I'm kinda special, y a know."
"I just noticed."
The butterfly pointed a chair, the squid merely sat on it, too fearful to attempt anything the insect would saw as potentially offensive, and he seemed to be quite strange.
"It's VVEERRYY nice of you to come in ! You see, I kinda dropped in this world after Vaatu's defeat, I'm one of his generals, so I tried to counter-attack a bit before fleeing in this world."
"A GENERAL ?!"
"I just said it but that's right, you can shout it. I like it when someone shout, it's been a long time since I've been screamed at by Vaatu."
The squid stumbled a bit. A general ? He was lucky to be again after attacking him. He took his breath before speaking again and observing his interlocutor. He looked like your average butterfly but was constantly changing colors (his head, at least), his body and wings were covered in some armor (golden for the body, silver of the wings), same things for the legs. The most disturbing detail was probably his human mouth.
"So… how did you found this place ? It's a lot more pleasant then the volcanoes or the acid."
"Nah, you were just too focused on killing each other. I just made my little place in this and send a message to a random guy ! And YOU are the lucky one, Happy ?!"
The butterfly flew to the other side of the table and looked at Zalo with a big smile on his face, the dark spirit couldn't figure out if it was just your normal, happy smile or if it was predatory, given the personality of the insect, it was probably the former.
"So… what is my task ? I can live with you ? You said you were alone, you searched… company ?"
"Ho HELL NAW!"
The butterfly suddenly flew towards a hidden wall and destroyed it with his wings, Zalo just follow him while cursing himself for entering the goddamn castle.
He suddenly froze in place when he saw a portal leading to a dark place, Jakui quickly grabbed him by one tentacle and placed him in front of the portal, he could see rocks on the other side, it was probably a cave.
"You'll be able to stay here but… let's say you'll have to give me some help…"
"Help you ? A general ?"
"Yes ! You see, I'm a large Dark Spirit, so if I go to the world of the fleshy punks, I'm going to get busted in a second… but not you ! You are just a mook ! You won't be spotted by the light spirits and you'll able to do this task !"
Zalo felt a bit insulted by the comment of the insect but at the very second he started his quest to the "castle", he was already under his control.
"You see, I'm kinda unique because I can morph dead humains into dark spirits ! And they're bigger ! Stronger ! Faster ! And they can even change the colors of their eyes ! Like me !"
Jaiku demonstrated the latter by changing his eyes colors from red, to blue, to yellow, to pink.
"Well, this is a fantastic power ! Lord Vaatu should've let you use it !"
"Nah, it's not that simple, really. The human must have a very dark heart, like… no positive emotions, the worst jerk EVER ! And THEN ! I can't create many and they start a bit weak. Weak like… Your level."
The insult was grave but he ignored it, his life is more important then his pride.
"But ! It can bend !"
"Bend elements ? Like the avatar ?"
"No, it can only bend ONE element. And the dark spirit will only bend if he was a bender in his human life, and only the element he used before !"
"God, they can bend now ?"
"Yes, but they're not a treat to any of us. But the power of the bending will be drastically augmented when the human become a dark spirit !"
"So… Hum, you want me to go into the real world, find an douchebag, kill him and bring back his corpse so you can transform it into a dark spirit ?"
"Yes but you just need to knock him out, it won't work if someone else then I kill him. That's why Lord Vaatu refused to let me use this power, as a general, I was forced to stand at his side all the time, and he wasn't going to lost time tracking down a hateful human.""
"One last question, what is the purpose of this spirit ? And why is there a portal in there ?"
Jaiku took a broom with his mouth and pushed his subordinate in the portal.
"I entered this world via this portal 200 years ago, they forgot to close it and I arranged myself to seal the entrance before the light spirits could come in. Ho, and you'll discover VERY SOON the purpose of the human-created dark spirit !"
Jaiku finally pushed Zalo in the portal, a giant flash of light aveugled the squid as he entered in the human realm.