It was clear that these lands hadn't been blessed by sunlight in years, almost like the sun had forgotten that this place even existed. But that wasn't hard to believe, since a lot of beings – animals, people, celestial bodies – didn't remember these lands at all. Maliant hoped that he could forget as well, but fate simply wasn't kind enough for him to erase memories of this place. They had been haunting him for years, shaping his mind and soul into the mess it now was. His roots were here, whether he wanted or not. He had fled the lands in an attempt to escape, to seek for something better. But no matter how far he tried to run, the terror of his homeland would remain inside him, like a parasite, feeding on his lifeforce and sanity, and then corrupting him. However, Maliant had come to the point of being tired of running. He had returned to these lands he once had called home, to uproot the source of his fear and madness.

The land was desolate and barren, looking exactly what one would expect from a place everyone had abandoned. The ground was just dry purple sand, easy for the wind to play around, forming dunes here and there and if you looked hard enough, you could see haunting figures in them, as if they were twisted sand sculptures. There were stumps scattered all around the area, as a ghostly reminder that once there had been life, trees that had reached for the sky. Maliant could still remember the forest and the greenness that dominated the land. But now they are gone. He could feel a sting of sadness in his black heart. He looked at the sky above him, but could see nothing. The heaven had turned black as if it was mourning the state of the land. There was nothing here in the vast land of nothingness.

Maliant wasn't completely sure if what he was looking for could be even found from here anymore. Still, he had decided to use his last remaining strength for this journey and he wandered around the miserable plain like a ghost. In a way, he was one. His flesh was rotting and insects crawled around his body. There was no more blood flowing in his veins, he was a dry husk of a man he used to be. His figure was hunched as if he was carrying a crushing weight on his back. Maliant did die once, by his own hand. All the suffering and madness had taken the toll on him. But so great was the anguish he carried that he couldn't find release from death. He wasn't allowed to get solace. He walked among the dead now, his mind slipping away from him little by little and he was sure that eventually he would lose his identity for good. He had wanted to do one last thing before he would be consumed utterly by the darkness that followed after fading memories. His brain was rotting and he could feel something gnawing inside his skull. All the negative emotions he harbored would eventually take full control of him, molding him into a vengeful spirit.

And vengeance was something that was driving him. The grudge and desire for revenge were the raw emotions that had guided him here. Even now, as he wandered through the forsaken landscape, he could feel the burn in his dead chest as the wrath flared inside. It would keep him going, it was all he needed. His perception of time was something he had lost, but even if it took him days, weeks, months… He would keep searching. Perhaps he would pursue it even if it would take an eternity and his feeble mind had crumbled away.

He didn't know how much time had passed. Probably not long. During his wander through the vast plains of nothingness, he finally spotted something ahead, something other than sand dunes or remains of the forest. It was a large black stone. It piqued his interest and he decided to take a better look at it. As he approached the rock, he noticed it had a gaping hole, like a maw of a huge predatory beast. It was leading somewhere below the ground. A strange sensation washed over Maliant as he inspected the opening of the cave. Fear, hatred, anxiety, grudge, they were all a tangled mess inside him. This had to be the correct way. The place stirred up terror in his heart, but he knew he had to do it, he had to dare to enter into the monster's den. He took his first step inside, the one that's hardest to make, and hoped that it would get easier. His raggedy figure soon disappeared into the darkness, but would he come out of it, he didn't know.

The cave was completely consumed by blackness so dense that traversing through it felt like Maliant was surrounded by cobwebs. His dead eyes couldn't see anything in this smothering darkness and he had to rely on his sense of touch. The stone around him felt cold, almost like ice. He wasn't surprised by this. He hoped that the cave system consisted of this one narrow tunnel or else he would easily get lost in darkness.

When he spotted something sparkling ahead, he thought that he was just seeing things. It wouldn't be the first time. More and more of small mystic lights appeared from the darkness, their blue shimmer piercing the utter blackness. Maliant didn't know what they were, but apparently they were here to show the way. He was a little relieved that he didn't have to fumble his path in complete darkness anymore. The lights appeared to be small blue flames that sluggishly moved around and Maliant got an odd feeling about them. They were eerie, like lost souls condemned to suffer in this pit. What was distressing about this observation, that this probably was their true nature, he wasn't just imagining it.

Maliant was travelling deeper and deeper in the underground tunnel, the blue fires accompanying him. And the deeper he got, the more anxious he started to feel. This had to be the correct way. He started to hear a faint sound of arduous breathing around him, which only increased his anxiety. He was definitely getting closer. And soon enough, he could see ahead an entrance to a chamber. He was a walking corpse, but still, his movements began to feel more rigid and he tried to harden his heart, hoping it would shield it from the incoming malice.

He entered the chamber. It was full of withered flowers that resembled purple spider lilies. The blue fiery lights were slowly dancing around the chamber like playing children. In the middle of everything was a lone figure. A hag, her legs consumed by roots, taking away her ability to move. She was hunched over, her form fragile and emaciated; who knows for how long she had been here. Her face was so pale it looked like she was wearing a mask, but Maliant could see wrinkles carved onto her face, caused by anguish that she had experienced for years. She had long claws in her hands, making it impossible for her to hug her children anymore. Not that they would want it. Maliant definitely didn't.

The hag raised her head higher as she sensed somebody entering her precious chamber. She was squinting her little black eyes as she tried to identify who had come to visit her. Their blackness was endless, though the blue lights reflected on them, making them temporarily look alive. She was old and withered and she didn't seem to recognize Maliant, although he could still distinguish her, even after all these years he hadn't seen her.

“Who… are you?” the hag asked with a horribly raspy voice, she hadn't probably used it in years. That tends to happen when you spend years in solitude.

Maliant wasn't sure how he wanted to respond. For so long he had been rehearsing this interaction in his head, and yet, now that he was actually experiencing it, all the words he had figured out beforehand were escaping him.

In the end, he simply said: “It's me. Maliant.”

“Maliant…?” The hag tilted her head a little as if that would help her see better. She reached out with her clawed hand, but since she was confined in her place, she wouldn't be able to touch Maliant to make sure he was the real deal. “Are you… are you really here? I haven't seen you in years, not since you left. I always wondered what happened to you. Why did you abandon me?”

A flame of fury lit inside Maliant. She was making her seem like the victim here. “I left because you tortured me.”

“That's nonsense”, the hag said. “You were always dear to me. I just wanted your best.”

Maliant was getting even more angry. “Did you, really? You crushed my spirit, you isolated me and never cared about my well-being. You treated me horribly and you dare to say that what you did was out of love? You're a liar, have always been.”

“You have no idea how hard it is to be a parent to a monster”, the hag said and there was a hint of anger in her voice as well.

“I wasn't a monster, you made me one!” Maliant yelled furiously. “You messed with my head so royally that I've never been able to live a normal life. I even tried to end it, but because of you, I didn't succeed in that, either! It's because of you that I became a monster that never learned how to love!”

“I did the right thing! It's your fault for being so overly sensitive!” The hag shrieked so loudly that it scared the blue flames for a moment and they came to a stop.

Out of anger, Maliant tore open the rags that concealed his chest. But he didn't stop there. He let his claws dig under his dry skin until they reached his ribcage. He sunk his claws deep enough that he could take a hold of his bones and with loud cracking noises, he pulled his ribcage apart so the contents of his chest were visible. A lot of his organs didn't work anymore and had withered so they weren't pleasant to look at, although most people wouldn't find looking at someone's organs pleasant to begin with. But what Maliant wanted to show for the hag was his heart. A miserable little thing, it was bruised and turned black.

“You see this?” Maliant said as he kept his chest open. “This is your doing. You have done permanent damage to me in various ways. How does it feel, damaging another living being so bad that they're broken beyond repair?”

The hag remained silent for a moment. She stared at Maliant's exposed chest, but what she was thinking, Maliant couldn't tell. Eventually she silently asked: “So, what brings you here? Just to blame me for all the things that are wrong in your life?”

“No”, Maliant said and crushed his ribcage back to how it should be, although not perfectly. “You are the poison in my veins. I have to kill you.”

The hag cackled at this idea. “Oh, really? You think everything is going to be well after I die?”

“Enough!” Maliant roared furiously. From the depths of his raggedy clothes, he pulled out a dagger with a shining black blade. “You will plague my life no more!”

He rushed towards the hag with fury in his eyes. It was a little strange, that he had evaded her all these years and now he was willingly getting close to her. But this was the last time. He would end her reign of terror right here, right now.

When Maliant had got close to her, he forcefully struck the dagger on her skull. This wasn't enough to kill her and Maliant was aware of this.

The hag cackled more. “You will never get rid of me. I'll see you in hell.”

Her words just fueled the flames of wrath that guided Maliant's blade. He stabbed her repeatedly and with force. She was bleeding black blood, which didn't surprise Maliant. Never did the hag try to defend herself, she just let Maliant strike her over and over again. In the end her withered body was covered in stabbing wounds, leaking her black blood. Her body was slumped and motionless, indicating that her spirit had left her body. The hag was dead. The horrible witch that had terrified Maliant all these years was no more.

Maliant was shaking a little because of the chaos of overwhelming emotions that surged through his body. But he did it. He had sent that awful woman to hell. She could hurt him no more. He hadn't felt this relieved in years. It was an odd feeling, but Maliant welcomed it wholeheartedly. Now that the dark deed was done, he could be free and go wherever he wanted, do whatever he wanted. He left the hag's last resting place in silence.

But like a shadow that couldn't be casted away by light, the hag's influence was looming over him. He would never get rid of it, no matter how much he wanted or tried.