The tall teal domed house zoomed into sight as Onel's heart burned hot and his legs ached with tiring pain, they were slowly failing to carry his weight even when he almost reached his destination. 

But his mind urged him to run faster and faster in fear of the beast's approach, even though he saw that beast get trapped inside Fearian's barrier. 

After Onel's body complained and the adrenaline emptied, his mind decided to use his voice. 

"Stariaz! Stariaz please I need your help!" He panted heavily as he slowly neared the house with his pulsating legs. 

"Stariaz?! Are you there?! Please respond!" Before Onel could slump into the door and bang, the door was already pulled open and the arms immediately caught Onel before he fell. 

"Onel! Are you alright?!" He helped Onel stand and inhale the cool night air into his lungs.

"Stariaz... Ther... There is a beast after me," Onel breathed. "and the star... The star had shrunk!" He added with a gasp. 

"I'm afraid the star hadn't shrunk on its own," 

Onel looked at Stariaz's dreadful eyes. 

"Someone... Is setting them free." His tone darkened, and Onel's eyes widened in terror.

"Well... You c-c-can banish them again, r-r-right?" His voice stuttered, and his limbs started to tremble violently after the man had given his news.

"That's the thing I wanted to inform you about, I can't send them away again because the spell of banishing must only be cast for once in a lifetime. So even if I wanted to banish them again for another thousand years, I can't." Stariaz let go of him and went inside his house again.

"So what now?! What are we supposed to do while my sons are fighting him off?!" Onel cried with panic.

"So you're letting your own sons do the defending for you?" Stariaz came out the door with a bag and a navy staff with an aquamarine tipped on the top, bathed in the silver moonlight it caused the blue gem to shimmer and sparkle. 

"I... Well, I was about to--" 

"Onel, you can't let people defend you everytime there is danger or argument! And you can't simply find excuses for your cowardice. You have to break that habit!" Stariaz burst at him. 

"But I can't! I can't let go of my fear and I don't know how to fight either! M-M-Maybe there is another way you could help?!" Onel cried desperately.

"I'm sorry Onel, but I've done my part and it's time to do yours, I helped you once so you could discover and teach yourself how to be independent. But it appeared to me that you hadn't changed a bit, so you leave me no choice but to go to the king and tell him the truth." Stariaz pushed him aside and strode away. 

"No... No wait wait you can't do this to me!" Onel begged as he went after him. "You can't let me suffer! Not again! What's worse is that I might die--"

"What about your damn sons Onel?! Aren't you worried about their lives get taken away by him?! Unless you raised them as a distraction and for them to become your shield once he's freed?!" The wizard scolded him as he spun at Onel. 

"When did you ever stop thinking about yourself for once in your damn miserable lif--" 

Onel jumped back when a long skeletal arm burst out of the man's chest and splashed the dark blood at Onel's face and body, which caused Onel's shock to glue him on the spot while he watched in sheer horror as the beast pulled out the wizard's beating heart. 

The man couldn't let out his scream but instead gurgled the blood that built up within his throat and spilled it all into his blue long beard, his hand that held the staff numbed and let the object land on the floor along with him, who fell to the side.

The beast gave Onel the deathly stare as it squeezed the heart easily with a squish, and the blood dripped heavily from its bloody clawed hand. The beast's body then began to flicker violently. 

That's where Onel darted his eyes at the night sky and saw the dark star slowly glow; he looked back at the beast as it began to shriek and scream in pain. Onel knew it was a dangerous moment once he witnessed his friend's death. It meant that his other nightmares were on their way. 

His life was shortening in front of him when the beast finally sparked bright and his body shrunk in height, revealing its true features of grey fur and long raven hair. Once the transformation stopped, the figure stood and lifted his head as his red eyes glowed with menace.

"At last... I can breathe," the man before him sighed. "no more banishment and suffering, except for you, of course." He drew a dark grin on his dark face as he approached Onel.

Just as Onel stepped back, the star in the sky split into two smaller stars and descended to the earth in swirling motion. After they landed behind the Dark Meanian, the stars sparked just like the first one and grew in size. 

Forming into Dark Meanians as well yet younger than him with little different features, their hair was tied back and their limbs were slender while they had heavy bags under their thrilling eyes, starving for vengeance. 

Finally, these Meanians were the duplicate of one another. What terrified Onel the most was that the Dark Meanians weren't just angry, but the fact that they were grinning at their upcoming triumph. 

"Well well well, look what we got here, it's Onel the coward." One of the twins snickered.

"Long time no see, eh?" The other chuckled.

The twins followed the man's lead as they kicked the corpse out of their path and got nearer to Onel, who kept trembling as he backed away further, as he did he toppled backwards yet he kept crawling away. He couldn't take his gaze off of them. 

Onel's tears filled his eyes as he covered himself with both hands and trembled, he didn't care about his pants when he felt something warm puddle beneath his rear. 

The final thing that he heard before the dark men lunged at him was the whistle of an arrow zipping through the air towards him, or maybe towards the Dark Meanians.