Nightmare Fuel in WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?
- The leprechauns have no fear of death, which makes their powers stronger. This is punctuated by one of the youngest falling down a ravine trying to grab a ball, and she gets a nasty gash wound that causes her head to bleed all over. Despite Willem's deep concern, she doesn't care, and neither do the rest of the girls.
- Willem's condition as a result of his battle 500 years ago is nothing short of horrific. He is a young man in the prime of his life, whose body has been so badly damaged that he will collapse if he overexerts himself. To put it simply it is nothing short of a miracle that he is alive.
- To show how bad it is, Nyggalotho points out in the anime that Willem's bones are shattered to the point of breaking, his muscles are almost torn and his organs are barely functioning. The novel makes it worse by stating that Willem struggles to even move let alone walk and that his body is in constant pain as a result of his injuries.
- The visions Ctholly sees and the creepy child-like voice that accompanies them in the fifth episode. Ctholly's eyes and her visions being dyed red make her eventual loss of personality all the more scary.
- In general, the very idea of loss of personality is rather terrible, given that from a certain point the leprechauns must constantly keep themselves under control in fear of "dying" in a psychological sense. Add to this the fact that you one day can simply disappear in sleep, and your body will be taken by another person... Yep, this is very creepy.
- Venenum allows an individual to accomplish impossible feats all at the small cost of their own life force. Every time someone uses Venenum in WorldEnd they are burning through their own lifespan. Extra emphasis on the burning part; as Venenum overuse can literally cause one’s blood to boil.
- The 17 Beasts are pure nightmare fuel. They wiped out all surface life within a year of their first appearance and still attack anyone foolish enough to venture to the surface.
- The Timere in particular. Not only are these plant monsters ridiculously hard to kill, but they're also the only type of beast capable of attacking the islands. Then there’s what happens whenever a group of more than 7 people stumble into one of their nests. Imagine giant plant monstrosities hanging from the ceiling as they pluck their screaming victims off the ground and mutilate them beyond recognition. It's no wonder their name literally means "fear".
- The attack on the airship really drives home just how horrifying Timere can be. Hundreds of the things suddenly burst from the ground and started rooting themselves into the ship itself. Inside the crew is forced into a desperate Last Stand as the Timere start taking over more areas of the ship. Even with Willem and the fairies doing everything they can, most of the crew is massacred in truly horrific fashion. At one point even the bridge looked like it was about to be overrun, which shows just how close they came to taking down the entire ship.
- Shiantor the Lamenting First Beast. This Beast is rightfully considered the most dangerous in the setting. There is no fighting it, you either run or die; most likely die because you’ll be dead before you even realize it’s in the area. It is the collective manifestation of the Beasts’ hatred against the Visitors with the power to revert anything back to its primordial form. The barren wasteland of the surface is largely due to it reducing anything that wasn’t a beast to sand. If by some miracle you aren’t immediately deconstructed, this likely means it wishes to make you a permanent member of its artificial reality. Have fun being stuck in a Lotus-Eater Machine for 500 years while your real body whithers away and dies. Now imagine having this thing inside your head.
- The night Willem's hometown fell to the beasts. Within minutes the idyllic fantasy town was turned into a Lovecraftian horror story, as people suddenly transformed into beasts and turned on the remaining populace.
- The events leading up to this are creepy in their own right. Imagine if one fifth of the population suddenly stopped all movement. All they can do is stare blankly into space as panic sets in amongst the remaining populace. Then the screaming starts...
- True World’s research facility. The few lights in the underground base are just enough to illuminate the increasingly deranged messages written on the walls by its former staff. Whatever they discovered clearly made them Go Mad from the Revelation.
- Later volumes shift the series into full blown Cosmic Horror territory. We're introduced to Extraterrestrial gods whose mere presence is enough to Mind Rape mortals, civilization destroying monsters that predate the creation of humanity, and the unsettling implication that the world itself is slowly dying.
- The attack on Corna di Luce. It starts out like any other day in the city, with multiple characters going about their daily lives. Then Willem notices a strange airship in the sky and gets a feeling of dread similar to the one he felt in Gomag before the 17 Beasts attacked. Sure enough, the airship explodes and violently crashes into ground, but not before releasing a cargo hold full of Aurora into the streets. Within minutes there are massive casualties as people are either crushed by the burning airship, torn apart by the Aurora, or trampled in the chaos of the attack. The picturesque city that we were introduced to in episodes 4 and 5 is quickly turned into a war zone. The worst part is the entire attack was orchestrated by the Elpis Mercantile Federation so that they could use the fear generated by the incident to seize power.
- It’s revealed to be even worse in the sequel. Shortly afterwards two more islands were also attacked by beasts brought into Règles Aile by Elpis, one of which destroyed Elpis itself. Five years later the two islands are still quarantined with the military unable to take them back or even sink them.
- Arguably worse than the 17 Beasts is the weapon the Elpis Mercantile Federation created to fight them. They claim that their weapon is more efficient than the existing fairies. In reality it uses fairies as its power source by forcing them into a state where their venemum runs berserk and harvesting the excess power. This puts the unfortunate fairies in excruciating agony. If it weren't for Willem their plan to usurp the Warehouse likely would have succeeded and led to the fairies there being subjected to that exact fate. Fortunately Willem is able to destroy the machine and perform a Mercy Kill on its occupants, who were too far gone to be saved.
- It’s disturbing to note that the 17 Beasts AREN’T the biggest threat to the Warehouse in the end. The final villain of the series turns out to be a group of nationalistic fanatics motivated by the pursuit of power and profit. There are few depths to which the Elpis Mercantile Federation won’t sink. Terrorism, kidnapping, and extortion are just tools of business for them. They’ve even gone so far as to experiment on fairies and attempt to WEAPONIZE the 17 Beasts. What’s worse is that their influence extends deep into Règles Aile’s government and military, with even high ranking members of the Winged Guard being on their payroll. Willem’s actions at the end of the series were merely an inconvenient setback for them. They will be back, and Willem won’t be around to stop them the next time.
- Turns out they didn’t get away scot free after all. One of their captured beasts got loose and dissolved every living thing on Island 13.
- Willem’s actions at the end of volume 5 are terrifying in their own way. He attacked the fairies without warning and forced them into a situation where they had no choice but to kill him. Even though he was doing this with the aim of saving the Warehouse, it still doesn’t make it any less horrifying. He wasn’t holding back either and even stated that if they weren’t capable of protecting Règles Aile, then he might as well spare them the suffering by killing them quickly. We also get a gruesome look at just how strong he is when one of his attacks connects with Ithea and instantly snaps her spine. He wasn’t even using Venenum or any of Shiantor’s abilities and he still almost killed her. It goes to show that the terrifying stories told about humanity in the present have a kernel of truth in them.
- The world of WorldEnd was in many ways a Crapsack World even before the 17 Beasts. Humanity constantly warred with other races for territory, with only the abilities of the braves keeping their enemies at bay. One such foe was the gloom elves, or “ghost race”. These elves have almost nothing in common with their pointy eared counterparts in other fantasy series. Besides their monstrous appearance, there’s the fact that they warp reality itself to turn the places they conquer into a twisted and poisonous forest. Lillia lost her entire kingdom to these creatures in a single day. Fortunately, their refusal to leave their forests doomed them when the 17 Beasts emerged. Which only further cements just how terrifyingly strong the beasts are to be able to wipe out such a race with ease.
- The sequel doesn’t hold back on the nightmare fuel either. The first chapter takes place in a city on the verge of being consumed by one of the 17 Beasts. The overall atmosphere of the mostly abandoned city is extremely creepy. The world is about to end and the characters know it. Somehow SukaMoka managed to one up the depressing nature of the original series in the first chapter alone.
- The Beasts still provide plenty of nightmare fuel, especially after what they did to Islands 13 and 39. Island 13 saw its entire population get DISSOLVED into some blueish substance by the 5th Beast. At the same time Island 39 was completely taken over by black crystals created by the 11th Beast. Both islands are still abandoned five years later, with the ever present possibility that one could drift too close to another inhabited island.
- Mournen is a dug weapon considered by many to be even more dangerous than Seniorious and with good reason. It possesses the ability to absorb the souls of anyone it kills, which caused the sword to develop a mind of its own. This mind is extremely malevolent and appears to be dominated by the spirit of the 14th Beast. Furthermore it can apparently exert control over nearby fairies. This led to the infamous Night of Mournen Incident, where a group of fairies went insane and slaughtered the inhabitants of an entire floating island. If that wasn’t bad enough the Winged Guard lost track of the sword years ago.
- Further demonstrating just how dangerous Mournen is; it appears that someone used it in the past to KILL Jade Nail. One of the three immortal guardians of the world is permanently dead, because of that sword.
