Prologue: Escape

It was nighttime in the Dimension of the Gods. The full moon brought an eerie light down upon a rather depressing, grey building on the far outskirts of Kingrah. The place was called the Bastet Prison, established by his majesty King Spencer as a 'home' for the toughest and most destructive of criminals in his world, mainly as a future place for former king Resheph who had a cell put aside especially for him. The three-level place was made with completely impenetrable stone walls that not even one with the strongest form of super strength would be able to break through. Inside of the place was rows and rows of cells for each individual criminal, protected with barred doors that could neither be bent nor phased through due to an invisible magical barrier in the center of the door, created by the king himself and only able to be taken down by either him or the guards of the place. Tough, burly prison guards regularly patrolled the halls, and vicious guard Cerberuses scared the prisoners into staying inside their 'homes' by occasionally snarling and snapping their three sets of teeth at them. Outside, the place was surrounded with another impenetrable stone wall which had another magical barrier placed right in front of it. With such great protection, Bastet Prison had become widely renowned for not having a single soul break out for thousands of years.

That, however, was about to change.

As one of the guards walked down one hallway of cells, he shone his flashlight inside each of them, making sure that the criminals in their black and white striped clothing were still right where they were supposed to be: sleeping on the cots, with only very ratty blankets giving them some sort of cover.

When he came down to the very last cell, he shone his flashlight inside-and froze.

There was nobody on the cot.

He quickly shone his light around the rest of the tiny cell, but he couldn't find the designated criminal anywhere within. Thinking perhaps the man or woman had made him- or herself invisible through a special power of theirs, he quickly picked up a ring filled with large metal keys looped around his belt, chose one key in particular, and used it to unlock the cell door.

As he slid the door open, he put his flashlight and key ring into his pocket and held out his freed hand towards the cell, creating a force field right behind where the door had been so that the hiding criminal couldn't simply dart out of the place.

Slowly, he walked through his force field and glanced around, letting his hand glow with blue magic just in case it would be needed.

While he looked around, a shadowy figure slowly rose up through the floor behind him. The person was completely covered in a long black cloak with a hood, letting nothing show except his hands, which were pure skeleton bones.

The creature rose one of his bony hands into the air. A vicious scythe with a razor-sharp blade appeared before it which the guy clutched firmly.

In one quick movement, he brought the scythe down to the guard's back. The guard let out a scream of horror as a jagged line tracing the path the scythe had travelled glowed with a soft, white light.

The guard collapsed onto the floor, the glowing line lifting itself up and forming itself into a small white orb. The man in the black cloak picked up the orb and held it towards the hood of his cloak. With a disgusting sucking noise, the orb was pulled into the darkness of the hood and vanished.

The black-cloaked man looked down at the guard. In a hissing, raspy voice, he said, "Arise."

The guard slowly got to his feet and turned around. His eyes had turned a clear, milky white and a completely straight look devoid of any emotion whatsoever had come to his face. "What do you desire, master?" he asked.

"Let me out of here," 'Master' replied.

The guard turned towards the entryway to the cell and held out one hand to it. His force field and the magic barrier before it glowed with blue light, then vanished in entirety.

'Master' followed the guard as he led him out of the cell and down the hall towards the front door of the prison. A Cerberus came walking down the hallway and snarled angrily at the black-cloaked man, but the guard told it sharply, "Down, boy." The dog immediately stopped and sat down, allowing the guard and 'Master' to walk around it and continue towards the door.

Once they reached the heavy iron door, the guard took up his key ring again and used another metal key to open it. The two walked towards the stone wall and the guard held out a hand to it. Again, the barrier around the place glowed, then vanished.

"Thank you very much," 'Master' hissed out with delight. He floated up above the wall, his long black cloak flowing behind him, and started soaring towards the town of Kingrah, in search of some more souls which he could reap.

The next morning, King Spencer was still sleeping in his bed when his cell phone on his nightstand started to ring. Groaning, he reached over and grabbed the phone, flipping it open before it could ring once more. He held it up to his ear and murmured, "Hello?"

"Your majesty!" It was Eli, one of the chiefs of the Kingrah Police, and he sounded absolutely horrified. "Someone broke out of the Bastet Prison last night!"

Spencer bolted upwards in bed. "WHAT?!" he screamed. "IS THIS SOME KIND OF A JOKE?!"

"Unfortunately not, your highness," continued the female chief Liv on another line. "This morning we've found out that the criminal made use of one of the security guards to break out of the place. He kept the Cerberus from attacking, removed all of the magical barriers-all the perp had to do was float over the wall and he was free."

"I thought only Kingrah Police officers with the strongest powers and highest needs to maintain order and security in our world are allowed to work in the prison!"

"They are, your highness," Eli murmured. "But this guard wasn't acting of his own will."

Spencer paused. "What do you mean?"

"Sir, the guard's own soul was stolen away from him," Liv replied. "And once the guy had it, he was able to use the guard's body however he so pleased."

Spencer's eyes widened with horror. "You don't mean…" he whispered.

"Yes, sir," Eli said. "It was the work of The Reaper."

He couldn't even respond to that. He was too shell-shocked.

"And, sir, there's something else…" Liv continued. "After the reaper stole a few more souls from people around town, he came across a custom portal box which someone had that he apparently chose to use so that he could go to other worlds and find even more souls to reap. And based upon our custom portal tracker's readings…" She paused. "He apparently went to your friends' world."

That was enough for Spencer. He snapped his phone shut and slammed it back onto his nightstand. He jumped out of bed and snapped away his pajamas into a black sleeveless shirt, short blue cape, blue pants with blue boots on the bottom, and black belts with silver studs around his waist and neck. With another snap, he conjured up his own custom portal box, flung it to the ground, and zapped a gold spark into its opening. A portal appeared above it leading right to the abandoned warehouse where his friends liked to meet. He jumped through it in a flash and let the portal slam shut behind him.