The legacy of the Elemental Overlord. Shrouded in mystery. Clad in darkness. The hero of this tale has long been dead, but yet the story continues onward.

Those close to him remember what he'd done. The rest of the world remains ignorant.

The Dark King was slain the day he returned, his power remaining trapped within the hollow shell of a fragile, vengeful boy.

The would-be emperor Gravitus was torn apart, his people freed from underfoot.

The betrayer Justek found peace in death at long last, satisfied with those who inherited his friend's will.

And sadly, the first successor, Alex Whiter, perished in the raging flames of his own design, taking the soul of the hero along with him.

The world stared into the eyes of chaos many times yet blindly stayed ignorant of it all. Time moves on. The heroes who inherited the Elemental Overlord's legacy are enjoying a well-deserved rest.

But just because the threats have passed doesn't mean the story can pause. New possibilities have opened forth from Justek's demise. The future is unknown. And for one in particular, that unknown scares him more than the black abyss he's stared into many times before...

The ivory moon. One of few places in the entire universe guaranteed to be blessed by silence. The sun's blinding light could be a bigger pest, but not today. Not for this person.

There was no light that could reach the blackened, tangled mess that was Joe Dark's soul. He sat directly in the center of a deep crater of his own making with his knees at his chin and his arms loosely wrapped around them.

His gruesome red eyes were dry and devoid of emotion. His skin was pale in an ugly way, like he had one foot in the grave. His knuckles wore torn skin and darkened muscle tissue like it was a natural part of him.

He has been here for two days. Not that he knew that. When his body moved, it was only his arms, and his joints creaked like breaking lumber.

He glanced out from the corner of his eyes at his right hand and saw it shaking. Space is hostile. Its cold. Poisonous. Lonely. But this wasn't hurting him. The cold never bothered him anyway. And loneliness? Nothing new.

A voice, faint yet cruel in its echo, reappeared in his head: "It is because deep down you remembered who he was to you...A bond, that could never be broken by distance or time. A bond...of brothers."

Squeezing his hand into a fist brought a light shade of color back into his skin. Once, these hands had been clenched in fists of rage for the one man he avowed to kill. But now, they held nothing...

He pulled his head back and peeked up at the blue-green planet that was his home. Or...was it, really? He hadn't set foot there in so long, and the reasons to do so had just gone from one to zero.

"Brother...?" He laughed no louder than a whisper, "Why should I believe him."

His arms tightened around his knees and his face sank, "...Why DO I believe him?"

It was impossible to ignore. Once the seed of possibility had been planted, it grew and stretched itself around his subconscious, absorbing his long buried memories through its roots. Fragments of a mother with fair azure hair, a father with black hair like his, and a crib shared by two, were no longer in doubt...They were as real as the discomfort in his stomach.

"I-I am the son of the Darks...!" Joe Dark dug his fingernails into his tattered jeans and made his whole body tremble, "Whiter is my enemy...!"

His vision turned darker shades of red the deeper the memories of his conflict against his hated enemy went. Then it began to crack in a shade of black.

"He is not my brother...!" Joe Dark's mind shattered, his torment no longer capable of being contained in thoughts alone.

"I DIDN'T WASTE MY TIME...JUST TO ACCOMPLISH LESS THAN NOTHING!" He screamed, his body erupting in a black haze that forced him onto his feet, and filled the crater full of darkness.

And there his screams would be drowned out, yet felt within the moon's surface, which cracked outward on all sides of the crater.

But just as soon as it started, it was over. The darkness vanished. His eyelids sagged. And he sat back down. The bottom of his eyes were wet, and their trembling couldn't wring much more out of them.

His head sank between his legs and a muffled whimper came out. This was what he deserved. This would be the perfect end to his miserable life. May God or the devil or whoever the hell runs this ram-shack universe be quick in their judgment.

Fate simply laughed.

"J-Joe Dark...?"

It had been too long since he'd heard any voice but his own that his first instinct was to interpret them as hostile. His right hand snapped back, dagger drawn in a streak of black and silver right into the nape of his "assailant"...

They'd be a bleeding mess on the ground right now...If they had a neck that is. The blue-cloaked, limbless, floating alien known as Mr. Reality had been denied one for a while now. Not like the lack of a fatal wound would make the thick, gooey drops of sweat on his face retreat anyhow.

Joe Dark exhaled a loud gasp of air and his pupils shrank. The eye on the alien's thumb-shaped head was wider than the rest of his face, and filled with worry.

Joe Dark withdrew his head and dagger and muttered weakly, "...I didn't know it was you."

"You look terrible. What happened?" The alien responded back, putting one hand towards Joe Dark's shoulder.

"None of your business..." Joe Dark replied while brushing the hand away.

"...I see." Mr. Reality took his hands to beside his cloak and floated over beside Joe Dark to say, "Well, I'm just glad to see you're alive."

"Are you?" Joe Dark spat in disgust, and mildly shook his head.

Mr. Reality closed his eye and knew he was treading a minefield with his comrade. He turned to look up at the lip of the crater, and the Earth shining beyond it, and said, "So this is the Earth you came from?"

He tried waiting a bit for an answer before pressing on, "I need to find Mew, since Justek didn't work out. Do you know where he is?"

Joe Dark pulled his head up for a moment and drew his hand out towards the planet, his voice barely audible, "On the northwestern part of that continent you'll find his home in the mountain range...Its not hard to find. Nobody else is stupid enough to put a house there."

As he put his head back down Mr. Reality chimed in by asking, "Are you coming with?"

He froze and something on his head snapped, leaving a lasting effect on the atmosphere. He glared up at the alien and muttered a firm, defiant, "No."

He slowly rose to his feet, muttering on and on without an end in sight, "I'm done with this...this pointlessness! No more Elemental Overlords. No more Dark Kings, or Justeks...And especially no more goddamn Whiters!"

He lurched over Mr. Reality with a feral crimson in his eyes glaring him down, and clutched his ravaged fist close to his chest, "For once...in its GODDAMN LIFE, the universe can do me a favor...AND JUST LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!"

The alien stood there, the rabid breaths his comrade took painting fog on his helmet, and felt like he had a heartbeat again.

Joe Dark's hand then unraveled and drooped to his hip. Mr. Reality looked him in the eyes as they turned away, and asked him in a slow, careful tone, "Please. I'm here to lend a listening ear."

Joe Dark turned all the way around and rattled his head.

"You might not think the same, but I consider you a friend Joe Dark. You didn't have to offer to help me, a random stranger in a galaxy far, far away...But you did. And if that-"

"You want to help?" Joe Dark gruesomely retorted and sharply twisted his body back, the grittiest grit in his scowl, "Then use your powers to send me far away. I don't care where I go! ...Just as long as its as far removed from this place as physically possible."

"...Ok," Mr. Reality raised his hands and an abnormal energy starting waving around them, "Are you sure?"

Joe Dark had to hold his hand up to give the alien some of his darkness to silence the parasites in his mind, "You never should have met me. People like himalways succeed, while I..."

He squeezed his eyes shut with a shiver of disgust and then blurted out angrily, "Just get it over with!"

Mr. Reality shivered and nodded. With an effortless thought, and a snap of the fingers, the alien made Joe Dark disappear from sight. He then dropped his hands and with a slow sigh remarked, "...Sorry Joe Dark, but you shouldn't have given me free reign like that. I hope where I sent you will give you an answer to what's bothering you."

One woosh of the cloak later, and the alien faced the planet Earth, "But right now, I need to find my answer."

He began to make his way to the surface, slowly but surely...

A distressed boy, consumed more by despair than darkness.

An alien, seeking redemption and salvation.

A boy, robbed of his arm, his purpose in life challenged.

A pair of sisters, seeking to be reunited.

Two fledgling gods, robbed of their father, wishing for vengeance.

A mother, robbed of her cursed sight, and the trust of her children.

Two warriors, stuck together. One strives to save his sister, the other seeks blood.

A girl. A phantom. Longing for a body that she may never see.

A samurai, freed from one past, yet chained to another.

Three heroes, united to a single cause, yet separated by differing pasts.

A woman and her wife, tethered together within a spiral of Greed.

A king denied his throne, his purpose, and even his sense of right and wrong.

And a hero, to help them all.

Many threads of fate lie separated, waiting to be intertwined. The future is unknown.

Shall we begin this new journey together? I'd be delighted to take you along.

CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS CHRONICLES.

Prologue: A Fading Dark

Next Time: A New World Opens