The three of them proceeded to the tower with only the sight of it as a guide. They cut through forests, decapitated towns and over jagged terrain. They tried their best to restrict combat to smaller enemies since even fighting those were a challenge. The world they were in was merciless; Death lurked around every corner, it was as if the world itself was against them.
They walked through another abandoned town. Bodies littered it inside and outside the damaged structures. Small grotesque creatures crawled around the town; Some fed on the corpses.
"This place gives me all the creeps!" Rigby said while making a face to reflect his disgust.
"I know how you feel." Mordecai said. "Let's just get to that tower and get out of this game."
"I hope Thomas is okay." Rigby said. "Don't think he would survive for long. Not even in this demon world."
"He would have if we properly trained him." Fives said in woe.
"That's not... necessarily true." Mordecai explained. "We taught him how to-"
Mordecai was interrupted by a loud yell. They looked in all directions. They saw nothing, and the silence died out. After a while, a large creature landed in front of them from the sky. The creature had the large leggings of a goat, and the muscular torso and arms of a man with big white feathered wings.. It's head was a bald skull, but bared a oversized mustache.
The creature rose to it's feat, placed his hands on his feat and laughed.
"Oh what do we have here?" The creature said in an Irish accent. "A couple of travelers prancin' around in a scary dimension such as this?"
"Dimension?" Fives asked. "You mean you're not from here?"
"Nah laddie." The creature said. "My kind have the ability to hop through other dimensions."
"Well that's pretty cool." Rigby said.
"Well it was nice meeting you," Mordecai said. "but we gotta go. We have to go save our friend. It's a long story.
The three of them tried to pass the creature, but it moved and blocked their path.
"Not so fast." The creature said. "If you wanna get past me, you're gonna have to defeat me in combat."
"We have no beef with you." Rigby said in frustration. "Why do you want to fight us?"
"You see, me lassies," the creature explained "each one of my kind travels through dimensions for a personal goal. My goal is to battle the toughest foes I can find in each dimension. Since you lot are the only ones who aren't dead or smaller than my foot, you'll have to do!"
The creature then got into a battle stance.
"Let's do this!"
The creature flew into the air and descended upon them with his fist held down ward. The three of them dispersed as he punched the ground, causing a small crater to form. The creature looked at Mordecai. He held his sword in a way that shielded his body.
"Why don'chya quit cowering behind that pretty sword of yours and make yer move?" The creature said.
"Fine! Here I go!" Mordecai shouted.
Mordecai ran towards the creature and swung horizontally across his leg, but it caused him to stagger. The creature displayed no reaction to the attack. It then kicked Mordecai away onto the floor.
"Ho, ho, ho!" The creature bellowed. "Is that the best ye got?"
Rigby positioned himself behind the creature and started firing arrows at the creature's back.
"Now who is tickling my back?" The creature said.
The creature turned around. Rigby began firing his arrows more rapidly.
"Those are some nice arrows ya got there." The creature said.
It lifted its arm into the air with his palm open and penetrated the ground. It slowly retracted its arm, taking out a piece of the earth shaped long and pointy.
"To bad it bears no challenge to my arrows!" The creature said.
It gave a hearty laugh and threw it at Rigby's direction. Rigby ran the other direction in an attempt to avoid the arrow. Rigby was running past a damaged building when the arrow hit it. The building crumbled under Rigby.
"Hey, at least that arrow didn't pierce yer skull!" The creature said.
"Fire! Ice! Lightning!" Fives shouted.
He casted numerous spells at the creature, but proved fruitless.
"Laddie," The creature began, "I have been through numerous dimensions that drowsed me with elements way stronger! That is nothing!"
It walked towards Fives, grabbed him and lifted him. Mordecai sat up, stabbed the ground, and used his sword to help himself up. He slowly looked up and saw the creature lifting fives. He stood up and ran towards the creature. He leaped up and prepared for a mid air over head swing, but the creature grabbed him by the waist mid flight. Morecai slashed at his arms numerous times, but he couldn't penetrate his skin. As soon as he gave up, the creature laughed.
"Haven't you learned from your first attack at me wee hoof?" The creature said. "You need to hit harder than that to make a dent in me!"
"Challenge accepted!" A voice shouted in the distance.
The creature, Fives, and Mordecai looked in the direction of the voice to find Muscle Man charging towards them. He leaped into the air screaming and body checked the creature, causing it to fall to the ground while dropping Fives and Mordecai.
"Muscle Man!" Mordecai and Fives bellowed in delight as they stood up.
"You guys go help Rigby," Muscle Man commanded. "I'll take care of mustachio here!"
The two agreed and rushed towards the broken structure to help Rigby. Muscle Man turned his attention to the creature as it slowly stood up.
"Finally!" The creature shouted. "A worthy opponent!"
"I'm gonna rip that stache off your face and beat you with it, chump!" Muscle Man shouted.
"Oh we'll just see about that, laddie!" The creature said.
The creature charged towards Muscle Man and punched downward at muscle Man. Muscle Man grabbed it's fist with both his hands and struggled to keep it from crushing him. After a while, he twisted its fist causing it to cry in pain and back away. With it's other arm, he penetrated the earth and took out a piece of it which resembled the same shape as the one it used to throw at a Rigby only larger. Muscle Man then took out his mace and got into a battle stance. They circled around each other until the creature let out a war cry and swung horizontally towards Muscle Man, but he was about to parry it. They continued parrying for a while. When the creature struck once more, Muscle Man parried with such force it caused the creature's piece of the earth to shatter. He then followed up with a swing on the back of the creatures hand and then a downwards swing so strong it caused its hand to sink into the earth. Muscle Man then climbed up the creature's arm and hopped on his head. He roared loudly and proceeded to pound the creature's skull numerous times. With every hit, the creature struggled to stay up right until it gave out and fell on it's chest onto the floor.
Muscle Man hopped off and reunited with the others. Mordecai and Fives helped Rigby up to his feet and then turned towards Muscle Man.
"Muscle Man!" Rigby said in joy. "You came!"
"Yeah I did." Muscle Man said. "I wasn't going to let you chumps get in on all the dangerous action on your won! Besides, you wouldn't last half a second with out me!"
They all laughed together at Muscle Man's remark.
"How's Thomas's body looking?" Fives asked.
"It's still looking good," Muscle Man answered, "but we shouldn't waste time. We gotta find him."
"Right." Mordecai concurred. "Let's go."
"Where are we going anyway?" Muscle Man asked.
"To that black tower over there." Mordecai said while pointing in the direction of the tower. "We overheard some armored dudes talking about a Dark Lord who is looking for us. If he is, then he must have Thomas."
"Sounds like a plan!" Muscle Man said. "Let's move out!"
"What about that guy?" Rigby said while pointing at the creature.
"Eh, he should be fine." Muscle Man said while shrugging and walking away.
The four of them, now reunited, made their final stretch to the dark tower. In front of the tower was the same army of guards that were looking for them in the shack. They intended to hide, but they were already noticed. They got out their weapons and prepared for battle, but the army laid down their weapons.
"We do not wish to fight you." One of the guards said while stepping forward. "The Dark Lord has been searching for you and seeks an guidance with you personally.
The four of them agreed to along with the guard. The others separated to reveal a path to the tower. The guard led them to the steel door entrance and opened it. Once inside, they were led to a portal that took them directly to the top of the tower. Once inside, they were taken into a large room. The entire room was of stone colored in purple. On the wall were lit dragon shaped torches and on the ground was a long yellow carpet. At the end of the room, across the carpet, were steps that led up to a throne where a being sat. The being's body was that of a humanoid. It wore a black and red robe and gloves and it's face was covered by a large hood. It wielded a black staff with a large orange star at the end of it. The four approached the being half way.
"Ah, finally." The being said in a deep, sinister voice. "You've finally arrived. I assumed that the demons that roamed the world did bad things to you."
"Are you the Dark Lord?" Fives asked.
"Yes." The Dark Lord answered. "I am."
"Why did you change the world into this state?" Mordecai asked.
"Hrm, a better question would be why are you asking something pointless." The Dark Lord responded. "Aren't you four looking for this?"
The Dark Lord reached behind his throne and picked up a purple orb and held it out.
"It's the Orb of Desire!" Rigby said while stepping forward. "Give me that!"
"Of course, here." The Dark Lord said.
He tossed the orb towards Rigby.
"I wish the entire world was back to normal!" Rigby said rapidly while holding the orb close to his face.
Nothing happened, nor did the orb react in anyway.
"Why isn't it working?!" Rigby said in frustration as he shook the orb.
The Dark Lord walked towards Rigby. He held his staff up and swung it downward upon the orb, smashing it to pieces.
"It's power has been used up." The Dark Lord said. "It's nothing more than a useless artifact."
The Dark Lord extended his left hand towards Rigby. He began to fly across the room and landed near the others. The pieces of the orb also flew towards them. They covered their faces with their arms to protect themselves from the flying shards.
"You see," The Dark Lord began. "I knew some fellows who wanted that orb, but they used... unethical methods of obtaining it. So I took it, and shaped their desires into my own.
"So you desire was to turn this world into a messed up one?" Mordecai asked.
"No." The Dark Lord Responded. "That is only part of it."
"Then what was your desire?" Mordecai asked.
The Dark Lord remained silent. He slowly lifted his hand and eventually let down his hood and revealed his face.
He revealed himself to be Thomas all along.
"Revenge." Thomas said sinisterly.