The Beginning

The Beginning  is the first book in The End series, It focuses on the main protagonist, Skull as he finds his world out of control and must collect a group of chosen people to help defeat the Dark Gods and stop Lord Hades' revival.
 * Previous Book: The Slend
 * Next Book: The Medium

Description
This is The Beginning... of The End, a normal teenager wakes up one morning to find his life upside down, with Dark Gods, and Monsters, and Demons, Skull and his friends Angel and Riot must stop the ressurection of Lord Hades and save the world...

Story
An unnamed boy wakes up one morning and looks out the window after hearing a scream, outside is a strange creature, the boy hides under his bed.

A few days later he meets some strange people and is separated from his parents, the people mention the monster from before and state that the Dark Gods are returning and that the boy was take up an alias and Chosen Ones to help stop the Dark Gods from reviving their Leader, Lord Hades. DM, the leader states that Skull must collect the Ultima Cauldron and bring it to Mount Stygia - using the Portal to Stgyia - by the Eternal Night

The boy takes up the alias of Skull and goes to meet two of his best friends, who he believes to be some of the people he is supposed to collect, they take the alias Angel and Riot.

To find the key to defeating the Dark Gods, they must hunt down and defeat three powerful creatures to find clues to the way, the first creature is a Hydra, the second a Darksaurus, and the third a Chimera. The clues lead them to Tasmania more specifically the BOT building, they learn that BOT stands for Building of Torture and set off to the lower levels.

Skull, Angel and Riot meet one of the Dark Gods minions, Mad Jack, a crazy being with a frog like face and a very good jumping ability, he is also the guardian of the key. They fight against Jack who somersaults around striking them with his sword, but each of the heroes has a weapon, Angel discovers she can manipulate the elements, Skull can fight with a sword and also speak to the dead, and Riot has an axe and the power to cause people to act crazy. They manage to defeat Jack, who joins them because he has seen that the Dark Gods were wrong and gives them the treasure that can defeat the gods.

The foursome then use the Portal to Stygia and arrive at Mount Stygia cauldron and place the Ultima Cauldron on the altar, believing that it will stop Lord Hades' revival and destroy the gods.

Skull is relieved finally believing that his quest is over, and he is greeted by DM and the other Strangers' they thank him, but suddenly DM, the leader of the Strangers jumps into the cauldron with the Three Sacred Treasures. Skull and his team are startled for a few moments and then DM rises up laughing madly, the other Strangers begin to laugh as well and DM imbues them with the power he has gained. DM then reveals that the item was the only way to turn him into Lord Hades and his partners into the other dark gods. The heroes are horrified that they had been tricked into being pawns and that they had been fighting nothing the whole time. Mad Jack realizes that he had been tricked and angrily attacks Hades, who blocks his attack.

Lord Hades the leaves with the other Dark gods but leaves a clone of Skull (called 2 by the others) to kill them, the clone has all of their powers and engages in a battle with the group under Hades' influence, during the battle Jack is injured and is forced to withdraw, Skull eventually drives 2's sword into himself to show 2 that they are the same, 2 begins crying and is sad of what he has done, though Skull is resurrected by a Elysium.

The story ends with the dark gods looking down at the heroes beginning their new journey and laughing.

Characters

 * Anti-Dark Gods Group
 * Skull
 * Angel
 * Riot
 * Mad Jack
 * '2'
 * The Strangers
 * DM
 * CW
 * VM
 * SJ
 * CD
 * Skull's parents
 * Skull's sister

Species

 * Humans
 * Human-Perfects
 * Perfects
 * Clones
 * Mythocreatures
 * Manticore
 * Hydra
 * Chimera
 * Skeletons
 * Darksaurus