"PRINCE OF DARKNESS"

EPILOGUE

Thirty years passed since the downfall of Globgor and Eclipsa, and things had only gotten worse for Mewni's oppressed. While Queen Festivia the Fun threw lavish celebrations in the comfort of Butterfly Castle, the war outside the palace gates had heightened undoubtedly. Bloodshed, death and destruction were the norm for both sides, and tonight was no exception.

On a dark winter's night, in a remote forest somewhere in the southeast regions, a group of five teenage monsters had gathered at a small, ramshackle campsite. They sat around a roaring campfire, sharing the meager amounts of food they were able to gather. These poor young survivors were refugees on the run; Not so long ago, their villages were decimated by attacks from the mewman opposition, leaving them without homes or families...

One of the teen refugees, a bulky, gray-skinned ogre, discontently picked at his food. "Berries, seeds, and nuts? What is this dreck, do I LOOK like a chipmunk?"

"Man, what I wouldn't do for some meat right now." A woman resembling a bipedal falcon hungrily snarled.

"You know what would hit the spot? Mewman stew!" A three-eyed warthog monster joked, causing the other refugees to laugh; All of them, except for one. He was quite the enigmatic character; The youngest of the bunch, yet the quietest as well. This fellow was a slender, gray-skinned Septarian, with a mane of dark hair and cold, yellow eyes. The mysterious monster paid no attention to the raucous joking of his colleagues, and solemnly rested near the warmth of the fire.

"Hey, kid!" One of the heads of a two-headed monster called out. "Why so sad? Other than the fact that the mewmans destroyed our homes and slaughtered our people, of course." The other head added. The young Septarian coldly looked towards his Conjoinikin acquaintance, and sighed deeply.

"Do you know what day it is?"

"The thirty-sixth of Gravnogk, I think."

"The thirty-seventh." The warthog woman corrected. "Then that means..."

"The anniversary of the Great Monster Massacre." The lizard spoke. The other refugees all went silent; They, too knew of this tragic day, but they'd been so preoccupied with survival to remember its date. To commemorate the important date the, monster teens solemnly reflected on the hardships of their ancestors. On the other hand, a grand and revelrous Mewnipendance Day party was being held in the Butterfly Kingdom; A beloved holiday to their kind was a haunting nightmare come true for the other...

"Damned mewmans. All they do is kill and steal!" The ogre scoffed.

"Because of magic. Magic's the reason they're stronger than us; Without it, we don't stand a chance." The young Septarian morosely admitted. All of a sudden, a deep, bellowing noise blared throughout the woods; The sound of a hunting horn!

Through the barren trees and thick snow, the refugee teens saw the shadowy outline of what looked like a quartet of large, savage apes. But as the hunters rushed closer to the camp, their true forms were revealed.

The interlopers were a pack of abnormally burly men with thick beards and long, unkempt hair, clothed in animal skins, and ornamental tusks, claws and bones. These brutish-looking barbarians hailed from the nearby Johansen Kingdom; A royal clan infamous for their immense physical prowess, raucous roughhousing, and above all, their favorite pastime; Hunting monsters for sport.

"Behold, a pack of vicious wild monsters!" One of the Johansens spoke. A hearty chuckle came from the leader of the four warriors; A hulk of a man with a horned helmet, a bushy red beard and a hairy monobrow to match. He wielded a massive war hammer, and pointed it towards the prey his group would be hunting.

"Good eye, Wood! This will be a Mewnipendence Day hunt for the ages!" On his command, the Johansen barbarians leapt towards their prey, and began to battle with them. One of the heftier hunters tackled the ogre, and wrestled him with naught but his bare hands. The falcon-woman flew up in the air and swooped towards the lead hunter, but he threw a bola her way, entangling and grounding the avian. Using their powerful clubs, the other two Johansens knocked the Conjoinikin and the warthog monster unconscious. With the lesser monsters out of the way, the red-bearded barbarian set his sights on the trophy quarry.

"Stay back, everyone! The Septarian's MINE!"

"Yeah! You get him, Bull!" His compatriots cheered. Bull charged towards the teenaged lizard like his beastly namesake, but the agile reptile leapt out of the way. The gray-skinned Septarian tried to attack Bull with his sharp claws, but the brutish warrior slammed his war hammer into the monster's side, sending him flying. The saurian youth crashed into a tree, causing him to cry out in pain. He tried to get back up, but the wind was knocked right out of him; He couldn't find the strength.

"A lot of fight for such a little lizard. Worthy prey indeed." Bull remarked, as he took out his large, serrated hunting knife and lurched towards his prey. It looked like the end for the monster refugees, when one of the other Johansens cried out in pain, then went dead silent.

Bull quickly turned to see what had happened, but his cohort was gone! The other two warriors prepared for a fight, when a large and imposing monster leapt out from the darkness. Much to everyone's shock, he dispatched the barbarians with relative ease. Once they were down, Bull got a good look at the beast who killed his men; His face was concealed by a hooded cloak, but his intimidating stature, wicked claws and long, scaly tail were the stuff of nightmares.

"You murderous fiend! Taste my wrath!" Bull shouted, as he leapt towards the mysterious monster. The two warriors battled it out in an intense melee; Thanks to his Johansen strength, he was able to overpower his foe, and fell him with a strike from his war hammer.

"Prepare to die, savage beast!" Bull yelled in rage, as he raised his war hammer to deliver the killing below. Unbeknownst to him, the real danger was right behind him:

"SURPRISE!"

Without warning, Bull was stabbed in the back with his own knife! He cried out in pain, and turned his head to see who struck him; The young Septarian he had almost slain!

"YOU!" Bull choked out, when his other adversary got back up, and finished him off with a claw-slash to the chest. Now that all the barbaric brutes were beaten, the monster refugees looked on in awe at their mysterious savior.

The vagabond monster looked down at the young lizard who saved his life; The blood of Bull had splattered on his face and hands, but he was unfazed; Obviously, he was no stranger to the sight of bloodshed. Impressed, the stranger removed his hood, revealing his reptilian visage. Then, he knelt down to his unexpected savior's eye level.

"Greetings, young one. I am Seth; Seth of Septarsis." Shocked were all the monster refugees; They had heard stories of the great Septarian warrior, but heard he died in a battle with the Prince of Darkness three decades ago; Alas, an immortal like him is never truly gone...

"Now, what is your name?" Seth inquired. Although he felt uneased in the prescence of such a legendary monster, the young lizard worked up the courage to introduce himself.

"Toffee. My name is Toffee."

"Well, Toffee, tonight you have impressed me, and I don't impress easily. Now, what brings young monsters like you into territory deadly as this?"

"Our villages were raided...by mewmans." Toffee solemnly replied.

"I thought so. Those greedy pillagers have stolen our rightful land and slaughtered our people by the thousands! It's all they know how to do!" Seth shouted with fiery rage, riling up the young, impressionable refugees. The former general then placed his scaly hand on Toffee's shoulder, and turned around to face the other four monsters.

"But you, my noble brethren, have the chance to bring justice to our kind." Seth spoke. "Especially you." He quietly told Toffee, causing him to faintly smile, for once. From the moment they met, Seth knew this young Septarian was something special; He reminded him of his past apprentice, the feared Prince of Darkness. And with the pain and loss Toffee had experienced, it was all but certain he'd never betray his wise new mentor.

"I offer you all to join me in my righteous quest, and become what you were always meant to be; Dreaded Beasts..."

Radicalized by the hellish hardships of death and war, the monster youths all pledged their allegiances to Seth, bringing about a new generation of his feared secret order. Globgor may have been frozen in crystal, but Seth was back and better than ever, with a promising new protege to carry on his hateful legacy...

And so ends the sordid story of the Prince of Darkness. Not by any means a cheerful tale, but it surely sets the stage for the series proper. This was a story I've been wanting to tell for a while, so I thank everyone who read and reviewed this fanfic.

Now, here's some good news to alleviate this story's saddening ending; "Maroon and the Earth-Ni Protectors" returns for its final book "Resurgence" starting June 11th, 2021! So be prepared for the last action-packed installment in this superhero trilogy, because things are gonna get wild and woolly!

Anyways, I am FungusDungus000, signing off on Prince of Darkness...