"Apprentice of Time?" I asked. "That's the first time I heard that title." I said quietly.

The ghost laughed. "Yes, you are newly appointed, I see. Haven't taken one lesson." He rose, and over the dark of the room, I couldn't see his appearance. The only light in the room was the fireplace.

"Of course." I replied. "There's been much going on."

"Yes. I agree, Daniel." The ghost walked towards me, and I could see him clearly now. He was at least 7 feet tall, with a black body with stars reflecting off of it. His face was pale white, with purple horns sprouting from the sides with red eyes. "Do you know who I am?"

"No," I spoke truthfully. "I don't spend much time in this World."

"Yet here you are at the faintest call." The ghost smiled. "I have never doubted you, child, but now I have faith in you that cannot be swayed."

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea who you are." I spoke. "But I mean no disrespect." This ghost was hard to read, but I had a nasty feeling I didn't want to get on his bad side.

"Of course not. I stay very well hidden. My name is Nocturn, leader of the Far Realm."

"The Far Realm?" I asked. "Is that the third Kingdom I've never heard of?"

"No." His smile faded. "Our realm has been diminished by time, but we are the fourth Kingdom. Our existence was highly top secret, so it is of no disrespect that you don't know me."

"So what do I have to do with it?" I asked.

"You freed me." He said simply. "On a very rare occasion of leaving my Kingdom, I ran into a magical artifact, stolen from me thousands of years ago. The Crystal Scepter is a very powerful artifact forged from the clay of creation."

I nodded. "Has the ability to control ghosts, right?" I asked.

He nodded. "I thought you had been influenced. I still feel it's pull on you, even now."

"But Sam destroyed it." I laughed nervously. "It's not like we made it worse, right?"

He shook his head sadly. "You have a lot to learn, Daniel. A powerful artifact such as that cannot be destroyed, only contained."

"So, when she smashed it, what happened?" I asked.

"All the absorbed ghosts in it were set free, including me. But all that energy absorbed into something—or someone. Have you noticed your Father acting strange?" He asked. "This is very important."

I opened and closed my mouth. "He's a bit more aggressive than usual. Cujo didn't like him."

He gave me a weird look. "Cujo?"

"Ghost dog. My Uncle Skulker found him."

"Ah, of course. A ghost dog would be able to smell the abnormalities on him." He stroked his chin.

"So, what do we do? How do we get that out of him?" I asked. "I can't loose him."

"Calm down, child. You're not loosing him. You just need to find something to contain it with and pull it out of him."

I sighed in relief. "Good. My father's all I have left."

"You need to let go of your feelings. They will get you killed."

"They already did." I frowned. "I was just lucky enough to get a second chance."

"No, Daniel. A true death. No comebacks. No second chances." He put his hand on my shoulder, and I felt chills go down my spine. "You need to prepare."

"Prepare for what?" I groaned. "Something is coming, that's for sure. I don't think this ghost war is it. I think it's a distraction."

"Very good. Who would want to distract you?"

"Freakshow." I replied. "What's he planning?"

"You must figure it out, Daniel. Everything rests on you."

"Why me?"

"Because you are now a God. You are held to another standard."

I scowled. "Yay me."

"In return for freeing me, I'm offering my services."

I stopped. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. My army and I are at your command." He bowed.

"Oh god, no, don't do that." I made a face.

He snickered. "Come, we must leave."

"Leave?" I asked. "To go where?"

"Haven't you noticed? The castle has been evacuated. Now that there are ghost signatures appearing, they will come soon." He floated from the room.

"We can't leave. We need to find my Father." I responded.

"We will on the way." He was almost all the way down the hall.

"What are we running from?" I asked.

"We call them demons. They don't have a true name." He spoke softly. "I will tell you when we get to the rendezvous point."

"Sounds like there was a plan." I frowned. "What went wrong?"

"Aragon." He put simply.

I bit my lip. I was so confused as to what was happening. I figured it was best to not question it again. I looked around for Father. I couldn't see him, so I used my senses. I closed my eyes for a brief second, and when I opened them, I could see sound waves. I followed the vibrations that Father was emitting.

"There you are, Daniel." He stopped abruptly. "Who's this?"

"This is Nocturn." I explained. "He's with us."

"Of course he is." He sighed. "Let's get out of here."

Nocturn led the way out of the castle, and I looked around as we walked. The castle had ectoplasm scattered on the walls, and things there torn and thrown everywhere. It seems like it had been abandoned for 100 years, but it couldn't have been more than a day. What happened here? I looked over at Father, who's expression matched mine.

We left the castle, where a carriage waited for us. I climbed in, taking the opptertunity to notice how dark the sky was now. It was dark green when we had entered the castle, and now it was almost black. Every one of my senses were on high alert.

"They've almost broken through." Nocturn spoke.

"Who has?" Father asked.

"Demons. I will explain everything when we get there. We must hurry."

I looked out the window again. The sky was pulsating, getting darker and darker. It was almost hard to see now. I bit my lip. I had never felt scared in the Ghost World before, but I was seriously creped out now.

We pulled up to a frozen hole. I frowned. "What is that?"

"That is the Far Frozen's kingdom. Come, they are waiting." Nocturn got out of the carriage, leading the way into the tunnel.

I got out, and immediately I noticed it was freezing. "Brr! I should've brought a jacket!"

Father was rubbing his arms. "Don't worry, your massive ego will keep us warm."

"Har har." I rolled my eyes.

Nocturn led the way through the tunnel, and eventually we got through to the other end, where a large group oh ghosts were gathered.

The tallest figure had his back to us, but at our footsteps he turned around. He was about eight feet tall, with a blue aura and white fur. He approached us, his footsteps echoing loudly. As he got closer, I noticed he had his left arm completely encased with ice, and that he had ice horns.

"Greetings travelers. My name is Frostbite, how can I help you?" The ghost bowed.

"Greetings, Frostbite." Nocturn bowed. "We seek refuge from the demons."

"Ah. The demons who haunt the dark." Frostbite frowned. "Yes. They don't like the cold; we have taken in many from every corner of the Ghost World."

"Yes, that is why we have come. I bring Princes Vladimir and Daniel." Nocturn moved to the left, exposing the pair of us.

"Oh!" Frostbite looked at me and bowed deeply. "Hello, young Celestial. I am humbled by your presence."

I made a face. "Don't do that."

"Don't do what, young lord?"

"Don't bow. It makes me feel bad."

Father snickered. "I guess you'll have to get used to the treatment, huh?"

"Shut up!" I blushed.

"Many apologies, young lord. I welcome you all to the Far Frozen." He extended his hands. "We have hot chocolate inside the pavilion."

"Thank god." I stated. "I'm freezing." I rubbed my hands together, walking off towards the pavilion, my cloak swishing out behind me. The long sleeve clothes made me warmer, but with the harsh chill it was still cold. I walked up to the counter, pouring myself a glass.

"Excuse me?" I heard a voice behind me.

I turned around. A woman stood there, with light green skin, shaggy green hair and red eyes. "You're Prince Daniel, right?" She asked.

"Yes." I responded, taking a sip of my hot chocolate.

"That's so cool!" He squealed. "Do you mind saying hi to my boyfriend?"

"Uhh… Sure, I guess. I'm not busy." I shrugged.

"Okay! By the way, I'm Joanne, but you can call me Kitty!" She extended her hand, and I shook it.

"You can call me Dan." I smiled.

"Okay, Dan." She walked through the crowd, leading me to a group of younger ghosts. She introduced me to each one. "This is my boyfriend Johnny," She pointed to him, who waved. "Spectra, Vortex, Wulf, and Amorpho."

I waved to everyone. "Hello, everyone. I'm Prince Daniel, but you can call me Dan."

"What brings you here, Dan?" Johnny asked.

"Same as you. Fleeing the demons." I shrugged. "Nocturn said he would tell me everything, but I wanted hot chocolate. What's the deal anyway?"

Everyone looked at each other. "You haven't heard anything?" Amorpho asked.

"No. I've been in the Human World all this time. We literally just got here." I frowned. "Ran into Aragon, who tried to kill us." I took another sip of my drink.

"Woah. Yeah, the Ghost War is still going on, too. Completely forgot about that." Vortex spoke.

"Can you explain it to me? From the beginning?" I asked.

"A few hours ago, Aragon declared war on us unexpectedly. King Pariah and his army went to fight. Around the same time, we noticed that the sky kept getting dark. We weren't concerned at first, but after a while we noticed disturbances. Sounding like something breaking through. Then, Knight of the Royal guard started pulling everyone from our homes and evacuating everyone here. From whispers through the grapevines, something from the Unworld is being set free." Vortex said.

"What's the Unworld?" I asked.

Everyone exchanged glances. "Nobody knows." Kitty spoke.

I frowned. "But—"

"Daniel!" Father appeared behind me. "I have been looking for you everywhere—oh, you have guests." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What?" I turned around. "I can't make friends?"

"Aww, he considers us friends!" I heard Spectra speak behind me. Someone shushed her.

"Daniel, we are in the middle of a war zone, and the least you could do is take this seriously!" He hissed.

"I am taking it seriously, Father!" I stomped my foot. "I was learning about what was going on while we were in the Human World!"

"Nocturn would have explained everything to you if you didn't run off!"

I gritted my teeth. "Do you seriously need to control every bit of my life?" I asked. "I can't do anything without you being up my ass!"

"Maybe if I had paid more attention Madeline wouldn't have died!" He yelled, gathering everyone's attention. "Or your mother, or you. Do you remember that, Daniel? How you died in my arms?"

I bit my lip. I always felt bad for arguing with him. "Yes, I remember." I said quietly.

"So, please, don't tell me to stop watching you so closely, because I won't. The second I stop someone dies." He sighed. "I didn't come here to argue with you."

"So why did you come over here then?" I asked.

He opened and closed his mouth. He looked past me to the group of teens who were eavesdropping. "Can any of you fight?" He asked.

"Uh, maybe?" Johnny spoke.

"Why, what's going on?" Kitty asked.

"The demons have broken through. We have no army to protect us, so we need everyone to fight." Father said quickly.

My mouth gaped. "How do you know?"

At that same moment, I heard a huge roar.

"Never mind." I shook my head.

"It's going to be dangerous, so only go if you are confident you can hold your own." He said.

The entire group got to their feet. "Let's do this!" Wulf spoke.

Father looked at me. "Are you ready?"

I nodded. "I am."

"Good. Please don't die again."

I laughed lightly. "No promises."

He scowled. "Daniel…"

"What? I'm kidding." I grinned.

"You'd better be." He shot straight into the air, leading the way out of the tunnel. Along with the group of teens, I noticed a few other ghosts in the mix. We left the tunnel, and it was so dark I could barely see. I lit my eyes up brighter, trying to see anything. I heard the roaring get louder, and suddenly a figure broke through. It was about 300 feet long, and pure black. It whipped its tail around to strike us, and at the same time I noticed it was glowing green.

"Scatter!" I yelled loudly.

Everyone moved to the side, and the tail just flailed around for a few seconds, not hitting anything. I lit my hands up with red energy, and poured heat into my hands. When it started to hurt, I blasted the monster. It did no effect. I looked around, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything but the blasts of energy being scattered around. I couldn't even see Father. If I couldn't even hurt this beast; how was I going to save everyone?