Two days following Justek's demise, Joe Dark has spent those days trapped on the moon, wallowing in his misery over the revelations regarding his true family.

He's sitting on death's door but refuses to die, trapped in an abyss of despair and confusion.

Mr. Reality wanders up to him, seeing the horrible state of affairs his friend is in, but receiving no answers as to why.

Mr. Reality wishes to go meet Mew, realizing that he floats before the planet he lives on. Joe Dark quietly sends him off, but when Mr. Reality asks if he'll be coming with he says no.

He's sick and tired of everything, and doesn't want to be involved with any Elemental Overlords, Dark Kings, Justeks, and ESPECIALLY not any Whiters.

So he demands Mr. Reality send him as far away from them as possible so he can just live out the last of his days alone.

Mr. Reality obliges his request, somewhat. He uses his powers, but sends Joe Dark somewhere else so he can get a chance to think calmly and hopefully get better.

Meanwhile, he moves onward to Mew's place.

Joe Dark is dropped in the middle of a crowd on the planet Edelgyre, where society seems to be stuck in the medieval times.

His appearance draws some eyes but his unnerving looks keeps anyone from approaching him.

He wastes no time shoving himself into an alleyway much like how he used to when he was younger. He almost resorts to old habits by picking up trash and eating it, only to hate himself for it and refuse.

Hours pass before he notices anyone different from the simple folk. Two figures, a man with military garb and the ferocity of a wolf guards a young violet-haired girl with an appearance akin to a mannequin.

The two walk, until the girl catches a glimpse of Joe Dark and wanders over to check on him. After a few kicks he replies bitterly, only to stare into her emotionless eyes.

He calls her creepy and this pisses off the man beside her. Joe Dark tells HIM to go away, inciting the man to try and attack him. The girl restrains him, then asks for Joe Dark's name.

He says "Piss off" and she ends up interpreting that as his name, inviting him to her castle for dinner.

When Joe Dark refuses, the man hoists him against the wall ready to shred him with his knives for dishonoring the princess.

Joe Dark hopes the man tries, cause he has no clue who he is fucking with.

A confrontation is avoided only due to Joe Dark's stomach finally growling, betraying his will to defy. Ultimately choosing not to die this pathetically, Joe Dark accepts the invitation.

The man throws him to the ground and he stands up, forced to follow the two strangers close behind.

On the way out of the village the girl questions if Joe Dark is even human. Joe Dark can barely answer with certainty.

The girl thinks he's odd, calling him "Piss Off" yet again. Joe Dark gets upset at her and corrects her, saying his name is Joe Dark.

The girl wonders why he lied, to which Joe Dark has to tell her the meaning behind his tone earlier. She wonders why he wasn't just honest before.

Joe Dark tells her to bite him, but she doesn't think he'll be tasty. At which point Joe Dark gives up and suffers his way to a single meal.

The girl, however, reveals her name to be Alura. Joe Dark asks who the man's name is, and learns he is Grimmley after a strained effort to make the girl act normal.

Eventually they make it to their home, a ruined castle settled on a grassy knoll. Joe Dark thinks its ugly, while Grimmley loves it, of course.

The bridge is dropped and they head on inside. Joe Dark remains cautious at all times.

Alura departs to bring father in to greet his new guest.

While she's gone, Grimmley tries to shoot the shit with Joe Dark, asking why he's hiding the monster inside of him.

Joe Dark ignores him, stating how he has the wrong idea about him. Grimmley calls him abhorrent, with a scent of darkness second only to his master.

Before the two can come to blows over this, Joe Dark is pricked on the back of a neck by a lankly figure in a trenchcoat named Plagueis.

He seems to take pleasure in analyzing Joe Dark's blood and immune system in particular. Grimmley tells the wormy man off, stating how he's the property of the princess.

As the two bicker a bit Joe Dark feels ready to just kill them all and get a meal elsewhere.

However, the atmosphere gets cold, making him nervous. Grimmley and Plagueis bow as the lord of the castle emerges from the dark depths, Alura at his side.

He is the towering terror of twilight, a pale-faced beast disguised as a man...Dracula.

Only now realizing he's been dragged into a monster's den, Joe Dark stares up at the towering vampire and feels something...very off about him.

Unsurprisingly, though much to Joe Dark's grief, Dracula recognizes him as the Dark King. Grimmley doesn't believe it, and Joe Dark in turn has no such high opinion of himself.

Nevertheless, Dracula welcomes him to his castle and congratulates Alura for bringing a fine specimen before him. He then declares that Joe Dark shall be granted full honors as one of them, and declares this to be the time of feasting.

As the others monsters leave to prepare a great meal, Alura guides Joe Dark to the banquet hall.

Joe Dark keeps telling himself to just eat and leave. He decides to ask why Alura dragged him here, and after dealing with her terrible social skills some more all he gets is a simple but confusing answer...Because she found him interesting.

She does not elaborate. Probably wouldn't even know how to.

An elongated table of monsters greets Joe Dark at the bottom of the castle, lined with disgusting foods aplenty.

The monsters scarf down their food, even Alura is not immune to showing ravenous hunger.

Joe Dark looks at the flesh and filth on his plate and hopes to have something else. Dracula is not a rude host, surprisingly, and has one of his monsters cook the food.

Though Plagueis is pissed because he had stuffed it with germs...Errr, love and care.

Joe Dark manages to stomach the food now, saying its been some time since he had such tasty meat.

Though ultimately despite enjoying the meal, Joe Dark finishes up quickly and decides he's ready to leave.

The banquet hall explodes into laughter at his words, while Dracula approaches him, lulling him into a false sense of security by heeding to his desires to not be alone.

Dracula offers him home here, where he can be among his own kind.

Joe Dark falls for the bait and chooses to stay, though not without demanding his own room away from all the terrible beasts.

Alura takes him to his room, which is surprisingly well put together and has a comfy bed. Joe Dark decides to lay down, only to find that Alura hasn't left yet.

After a little chat Joe Dark gets really annoyed at her taking everything he says literally and tries to scare her off. But for once she gets blunt back and tells him he's not scary.

Joe Dark takes physical damage from that comeback and then wonders why he's here if he's not scary, to which Alura has a more concrete answer in that he feels...different from other humans.

Joe Dark feels weird hearing that and shoos her off, laying down in her bed to try and get some rest. He realizes that perhaps...he does belong here after all.

The next morning he's rudely awakened by Grimmley tossing him off the bed, saying he has to attend every meal as one of them.

Joe Dark says he's not like them, but Grimmley states he'll learn his place in time.

Joe Dark heads to the banquet hall and enjoys his cooked meat again. He asks for eggs to liven it up, but the only one willing to offer any is Plagueis with his fly eggs, which Joe Dark promptly declines.

After the meal, Dracula tells him he wants him to escort Alura on her walk through the village.

Joe Dark calls himself no one's errand boy, but that prompts Dracula to get firmer in stating he is not making a request.

Joe Dark just decides to go along with it for now, and heads out to the gate while Alura goes to get her parasol.

There he has a talk with Grimmley, who is here to keep a whelp like him in line. He lays down the guidelines clearly, and ensures him that he'll be watching.

Alura shocks Joe Dark with her silent return, upon which they head out.

Joe Dark figures he can at least try and fish some information out of her, as difficult as that may be.

Turns out Alura and the monsters have been here a solid year, not actually being native to this world.

She then turns around and tries to ask questions herself. First she wonders why Joe Dark always calls her "mannequin" instead of saying her real name.

Joe Dark describes what a mannequin is, though Alura argues against being one, given she CAN express emotions.

A tiny smile on her face disarms him with cuteness, but he quickly retorts that's nothing.

Eventually they make it to another village nearby, finding it celebrating in preparation for a good harvest.

A portly man who bears a familiar resemblance to a certain plumber Joe Dark met walks up to him and offers him some apples for him and his lady friend.

Joe Dark enjoys his apple but notices Alura has wandered off, blatantly ignoring the man's generosity.

Alura swats the apple for her out of his hand and Joe Dark has to restrain himself from smacking her in response.

Alura calls the apples poisonous, forcing Joe Dark to take a bite of one to prove her wrong. Though as she points out, its probably not like he can poisoned in the first place.

But if that's the case then neither can she. Alura does not want to take the risk though, having little trust in humans at all.

Yet Joe Dark points out her taken interest in him, and refuses to her very vague reasoning as to why that's the case.

Even with all his anger, Joe Dark can't bring himself to hate humanity, and thinks Alura's head has been poisoned by her father.

However, Alura has a good reason for hating humans...As they killed her mother.

On another world he mother was slain because of the religious zealots who despised the fact she bedded the literal spawn of Satan and gave birth to her.

Alura does not recall much about her mother, only that she loved her very much.

As she tells her tale, Joe Dark can visualize it due to some strange ocular magic Alura is performing.

Alura has been like this for a thousand years, her body permanently stuck at the age of 16, despite her youthful appearances.

After repeating her story to another, Alura understands why she finds Joe Dark interesting. Because they both have the same eyes...

Joe Dark's skin goes numb and by the time he's done with escorting Alura, all he wants to do is run away yet again. But doing so risks the chance of running into everyone else he hates again.

He toils over this for the remainder of the night, while Alura speaks with her father, discussing who shall be ready for the "hunt".

Joe Dark is wrenched awake by a nightmare that leaves his skin cold. He doesn't even bother trying to go back to sleep and goes for a walk around the castle walls, where he happens to hear a beautiful song being sung by none other than...Alura.

When she's through she's surprised to see him still up. Joe Dark hides his true feelings about her music and remarks on how it sounded like a lullaby.

Turns out her mother sang this song to her to help her sleep, so Alura sings it to remember her.

Joe Dark finds it difficult to understand her at all. Alura then drops off her perch and apologizes for her illusions earlier.

Joe Dark doesn't care much and decides to ask more about her mother. Alura still can't recall much about her.

She then wonders why Joe Dark was on this world to begin with. He is in no mood to answer, as its none of her damn business.

Alura thinks he's just scared. Joe Dark forcibly grabs her shoulders, looks her in the eyes, and yells at her to stop trying to get to know him. He's not that interesting, at all.

But in doing so lets slip that he ran away from home. Joe Dark clams up before she says any more.

Alura assures him that he has found a new home here now, and even Joe Dark's starting to realize her and Dracula are right.

Joe Dark suspects he'll be fine, as clearly this Dracula is fine being in the company of humans. Yet Alura corrects him, stating how the only human Dracula ever liked was her mother.

Under the light of a crimson full moon, a howl splits the air. Alura states that Grimmley has begun his hunt.

However, Joe Dark notes how he heard not just one howl, but many...

The smell of blood quickly fills the skies as Grimmley, now transformed into a werewolf, and a pack of wolves carve a path of carnage throughout all populated areas on this poor planet.

Leaving not a single one alive, they continue to move unimpeded.

Joe Dark is horrified and turns to Alura, screaming at her for setting the stage for this massacre. But her senses have gone dull, and she's barely responsive to anything.

Joe Dark grits his teeth and realizes that he's descended into true hell. Donning the armor of the Dark King, he marches upon Dracula's throne, throwing his bodyguards aside with little more than his glare.

As he lunges to kill the lord of twilight, Dracula rises to greet his attack. Unfazed, even as Joe Dark's stabs palm and skull, Dracula forces his hand down to his hilt and grabs his face.

He feasts upon his rage and darkness, draining the ebony armor off of Joe Dark and leaving him unable to respond.

He then drags Joe Dark along the ground to the outdoors, where he then opens his gaping maw and sucks in all the blood scent and fear scarring the night skies.

Calling this the perfect feast, with Joe Dark alone being a separate meal entirely, Dracula prays to his Dark Creator for a wonderful night, before casually tossing Joe Dark aside like empty trash.

Joe Dark swears to kill him for all he's done. Dracula hopes he continues to hate, for he shall feast upon it with glee.

Yet he believes Joe Dark shall adapt to his ways, for he has already partaken in the flesh of his own kind.

Joe Dark's stomach curls, and he throws up on the ground in disgust.

Edelgyre has ceased to be...and in his attempt to run, Joe Dark has simply traded one Hell for another...

Story 1 END