"Oh my gosh." He gasped.
All around him were bodies. Some dead, some wishing they were. People were being tortured in monstrous ways, to the horror of Zac and the gleefulness of their torturers.
Oh, and the torturers. What horrible, misshaped creatures! Winged monkeys, ogres, trolls, imps, wraiths. Vampires were having a regular feast. Some of the people who were alive were being kept in cages, and the terrible thought that there might be forced breeding of humans occurred to him.
There was a mirror in the centre of all the horror. And in the mirror he could see Ezara.
"You failed Zac." She said, sounding hurt and upset. "You failed."
"I, I," he stammered.
"This is all your fault."
"No! I haven't even, the battle hasn't, I, I,"
"This is all your fault Zac! You failed!"
"But I,"
"You failed and now we're all doomed."
"Please Ezara, I tried, you know I tried,"
"No you didn't! You didn't even do that Zac! You didn't even try! You failed!"
"Ezara -"
"Don't talk to me! You failed. This is all your -"
"Shut up!" Zac exploded. 'I haven't even found the silence yet, let alone been in a battle - oh!"
Zac looked around him, then stared at Ezara.
"You aren't Ezara. This is just all the silence."
A smirked grew on 'Ezara's' face.
"So, you aren't all that stupid after all." She sneered. "Well, well, what do you know."
"You're not the silence either. You're just one of it's minions."
"Ooh. You might even be smart. Well then kiddie, if you even hope to get any where near the silence, then you'll just have to defeat me first. And, well, if you can't, you'll die, and you won't get to see this inevitable future. More's the pity."
"Minion, say your prayers." Zac said smugly.
Zac reached his arms towards the minion, although he didn't even try to touch it. He focused on the minion, and slowed rotated his wrists, hands outstretched. The minion stared at him for a moment, then started screaming.
"No!" It screamed. "No! No! Of all the tortures... Essence, avenge me!"
The minion, and all the surrounded him, crumbled into dust. The pile of dust where in mirror had been changed into a scroll, which Zac picked up and unrolled.
"The real Ezara is at the final battlezone. You'll find your way there Zac. Maybe you'll even live long enough to say goodbye. You might try to fight the Essence, but you won't succeed."