As the valiant hero used his holy blade to deliver the final blow, I howled in pain and anger knowing that once again, I had failed. Good had triumphed over evil, the hero's lone ray of hope having survived just long enough to dissipate my storm of despair. As my physical form vanished from this world, I roared at the idea that this smug little pest would live out the remainder of his days in peace, beloved by the princess and her subjects as the savior of this land. Sure, my banishment to the Realm of Shadow was temporary and I would return someday to reign terror on the land, but I would never have the privilege of seeing this particular hero experience that fear and destruction. It just wasn't fair. In my final moments, I lashed out and snatched his puny body while his back was turned. A foolish and fatal mistake. The last of my essence dissolved into the Realm of Shadow, and with it came the little hero, shouting with surprise as he gazed on the land he had saved for the last time.
It took quite some time for the insignificant little bug to awaken, leading me to assume the transition between realms had done him in. As I lounged on my dark throne, a commotion at my feet alerted me to his regained consciousness, and I stared, bemused, at his initial panic and confusion. Slowly his eyes traveled upwards, starting at my dark soles, going up my legs, then my chest, and at last, meeting my gaze. He cowered for a moment, before seemingly collecting himself and reaching for his sword, but not finding it. I chuckled as I watched him frantically check his body, then the floor, and finally looked at me as though I might provide some sort of hint. I decided to clue him in.
"Looking for this, puny hero?" I flashed his sword before him, twirling it between my fingers. He watched helplessly as I toyed with his stupid weapon, and fell to his knees as I crushed it in my palm as if it had been made of sand. The particles of what had formerly been the Holy Blade rained over his head, his delicious misery giving me new life. Any light that had inhabited the weapon had long been extinguished.
"I must thank you for bringing your precious sword along with you. The powers bestowed upon it by the Goddess were far too powerful to remove in your realm. But here? Child's play," I purred, reveling in the power I now had over him now that he was on my home turf. The little pest didn't seem to appreciate this, however, as he lunged at me in anger. Rolling my eyes, I swiftly ended his assault with my bare sole, pinning him to the cold, dark tiles with one toe as I continued.
"Insolent insect, I bet you don't even realize what that means. You haven't saved your world, you're directly responsible for its end. All hope is lost without that sword, and when I'm good and ready, it's game over for the Realm of the Living. All because you let your guard down for one moment, isn't that sad?"
The worm under my toe writhed and squirmed, but eventually stopped struggling and glared up at me. "What do you mean, you'll return?" he squeaked. "I've banished you to the Realm of Shadow, you're not going anywhere. I'll defeat you here once and for all, sword or not, and return home. I'm the hero chosen by the Goddess!" His insufferable tone irked me, and I pressed down on his puny frame harder, eliciting a pained wheeze.
"Is that what the Princess told you, bug? That you, a brave young warrior, had the power to eliminate all evil in the land forever?" I started grinding him under my sole, making him squeal in pain. "She might've omitted the part about me doing this every few centuries. How I single-handedly bring the Realm of the Living to its knees, get slain, rest here in the Realm of Shadow for a while, then return, stronger than ever. My other sole gets in on the action, mashing and stomping his tiny body like putty. "But thanks to you, that cycle ends today. With the Holy Blade destroyed, there won't be any more heroes to stop me once I've fully recovered. You're not only the last hero, but the worst one. You've doomed your realm to everlasting despair."
I release him, watching him cough and groan as he catches his breath. The pathetic display makes me laugh, which causes him to clutch his ears in pain. He sobs on the floor at my feet, at last realizing the depth of his situation. Finally, he feebly gets to his feet and looks at me, pleadingly. "W-what are you going to do to me? Are you going to k-kill me?" I make a face as though considering it, before suddenly whipping my leg high into the air and driving it down on him, splattering his heroic little body into a red pulp. I relish in the feeling of his warm blood between my toes, and that delicious little shriek he made in the split second he realized his life had come to an end. I eventually get bored and leave the little red pile of hero-goop alone, and watch uninterested as his body slowly reforms. A piercing scream announces that the regeneration process is complete.
"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! YOU KILLED ME?! WHY AM I STILL ALIVE?! WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GODDESS IS HAPPENI-" I silence his impudent squeaking with another toe in the face, shrinking him smaller as I press down on him, small enough that his puny screams become inaudible. "Silence, bug. Neither you nor I can die in this realm of healing, or I wouldn't retreat here every time I'm slain. It looks like you're stuck with me until I've fully recovered, so why don't you make yourself useful if you don't want to die over and over, every hour of every day for the next few centuries. And trust me, I won't run out of unique and horrible ways to make your life come to an end." The microscopic hero under my toe, now smaller than a grain of sand, seems to finally understand his place in this realm, and I can feel him licking with everything he has in him. Ah well, I crushed him into paste anyway just for fun. This was going to be an interesting banishment.