by Mark Russo
Since I was not sure how to close it, I hurled its heinous body to the other side of the room. It accidentally crashed a stretcher while falling to the ground again.
“I’m not letting you go yet. I want this shit. Put it in me as well.”
He sat without complaining. “I don’t do it. Open one of the boxes and follow the self-surgery procedure. It’s very easy. Painkillers are in the very same shelf.”
“Is this all you give them?”
His eyes looked honest despite being unnaturally crooked.
“Okay, you can go.”
The demon slowly crawled to the portal.
“Wait!”
He stopped his crawling.
I had a Double appear in front of him. It showed the mark on its left arm.
The beast examined my clone’s limb; he sniffed it too. “What do you want to do with it? They marked you.”
As I didn’t know already. “Can you remove it? I need it gone.”
He scanned my face, searching for something he did not share with me. “We can try to get it off.”
I shrugged. “How do I know you won’t try to hurt me?”
He regarded me like I was a five-year-old kid having some troubles tying his shoes. “You will guide me. You are Path of Mind. Easy peasy.” He grabbed my hand with his enormous palm.
I didn’t have time to comprehend something new was already happening. My arm was much, much bigger than I had ever seen. Me—Emma—saw through the eyes of that gigantic creature. The me-monster stood and limped around. He reached for a drawer of another poor-quality desk crowding that room. I used his eyes, but I had no direct control of his movements.
He collected an unfamiliar tool from the depths of the once-a-desk thing. I desired for him to stop moving, since I was unsure of his intentions. When my newest friend from K-world grabbed my wrist and began performing his magically flavored surgery, I had the weirdest of sensations.
I was both wielding a tool used to remove a sacrificial mark and having that same mark removed from my skin. Mind blowing. Maybe because of this double-conscience experience I was having, the mark removal procedure caused no pain. Soon, my wrist appeared as it had been before Mr. Sweet had instructed me to carve my skin.
The creature I was co-piloting moved to the enhancement devices shelf and returned with two boxes. I saw nothing suspicious in that, so I didn’t filibuster this course of action. He positioned the boxes in front of me and stepped backward. The cardboard cubes folded onto themselves and revealed turquoise cylinders about twenty centimeters tall. Those unraveled, revealing something resembling two electric wires. They stood up like cobras and approached me.
I trembled slightly.
The one on the left-hand side coiled toward me, and, before I could react, a tiny needle pierced the skin covering my arm. That proved some very powerful anesthetic, since I lost any sensitivity from the neck down. Despite not able to control it, I stood. I mean, the part of my mind that still was Emma. It was confusing, but I could manage.
I glimpsed at my arms and legs; blood poured from them as the other wire did something. I just looked away.
The big guy from Plane K observed from a distance. I made him look away, because I could see through his eyes as well.
Less than five minutes later, the two wires were no longer visible. That giant physically enhanced my body.
The big guy approached me with another device, this one similar to a dentist lamp.
He turned it on and hovered it over me. My guess was that this blue light device was a tissue-regeneration thing. I knew those were expensive. It took my makeshift medical assistant around ten minutes to accomplish that procedure. Then our minds detached.
“I’ll go back to my place now. Is it okay?” He had a deferential tone, like he was addressing a senator or something.
“You’re free to go,” I joked.
He took my words seriously, nodding along as he disappeared in that portal to another world.
After some boosting up time, it was the moment for increasing my strategic advantage over an entire world swarming with monsters. I waved goodbye to the creature I learned was named Chunk and headed upstairs. He had disappeared in one of those doors to Plane K. Interplanar traveling had become part of my daily grind.
While climbing the stairs, I realized my legs leaped fast, and my body felt like never before. My global motor coordination was close to perfection, and, despite spending the previous night curled up in a storage room, I felt just fine. Great. I was sure I could have run much faster or jumped higher, but I would save that for later. I had to find the dean. He was next on my list—the head figure of all this shit.
Potentially, he expected me to visit him, maybe to manipulate me some other way. He had acted alongside the bear from day one. They had lured me into that place to turn me into who knows what kind of Hell’s creature, but I had quite different plans. I stormed into his private room with five Doubles, just to clarify things.
He was staring out a window, like waiting for something interesting to happen. Despite my impolite entrance, he continued looking outside. I thought he was ignoring me or perceiving me as a lesser threat.
“Hello, sir. I thought you might spare a moment of your time. I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.” My sarcasm was more than obvious.
“Hello to you, Emma. There was no need to bring all your friends in here. Do you think I might hurt you?” he asked in a smug tone already aggravating my nerves. He smiled at me and crossed his arms before his purple tie. “Well, do not worry about that.”
I walked two steps forward. “My friends are not very talkative. They won’t disturb us much.”
He chuckled in a way I found irritating. “My dear Emma. It’s too late for playing games. You are game over. Soon, this world will no longer exist, as you know it.”
“We’ll see about that. My plans do not include this world destruction.”
He chortled, showing the inside of his nostrils. “You are this stubborn, aren’t you? Well, let me give you an overview about what the upcoming hours will be like.” He cleared his throat. “You’re the only human here left and—”
“No, you never got Maria.”
He gave me a weird look. “I doubt that. Anyhow, no other humans are here. Soon, we will expand our business, if you know what I mean.”
“Are you planning to substitute every person walking this Earth with a proxy?”
“You have to start somewhere, right?”
“I’m very sorry, but I can’t let you do that.”
“Then go ahead. Stop me, right now.” He glared straight in the black of my eyes.
I didn’t need to concentrate much to conjure the Mindblast. My power tore open his body with all that energy. I had no idea why they fill those dummies with all that bloodlike substance or the bones and guts.
“Oh, so you think this will help?” His head bent laterally in the completely wrong place, but he still grinned.
“I’ll use my powers again, if needed. You won’t see the fulfillment of your plan.”
He kept laughing.
I hurled him against the wall, just because.
“This human body won’t survive much longer. I’d like to thank you, Emma,” the dean added, lying on the ground.
I used of one of the Doubles’ position to get to closer to him, still considering the option he might fight back.
“You just accomplished my mission. All I had to do was die by your hand. I had to die by the hand of a human for this to work. We expected you to do this earlier, but you finally fulfilled my purpose.”
“Purpose? Do what?”
“You humans like power way too much. The last time we tried this, we failed, because we could never have imagined the apprentice would hurt us. This time, we encouraged it. We searched for a reaction to us transforming everything you are.”
I was lost. “You tried this already? You trained another human?”
“I was a seal. You brok
e it. Now Plane K and Plane R will connect. You triggered all this. This is all because of you.”
Given how badly he looked, I assumed I would have time for one more question. But I changed my mind. “You know, Charlie. I hope your friend Aaragul will manage to find me when that happens. One of your guys helped removed it.” I showed him my unscathed wrist.
He looked at it, his face showing disturbance before he stopped breathing.
Once he stopped talking, the sick-green shade now very familiar to me colored the dean’s deceased body. Living beings, as a rock or crude soil would do, all turn green once dead in Plane K.
I have no idea why, but I touched the corpse. I was attracted to it. An immediate and violent electric shock ran through me, and I believe I fainted. I saw my body from the outside, as if my soul had floated from the material part of me. Then, as if a big vacuum cleaner was actioned before me, I was sucked back into my immobile body.
I felt even better than I had before.
I was invincible. The body enhancements and the energy infusion I got from Charles Sneider made me way more powerful. My skin and the air around me shined in a purple radiation. I felt light as straw. It was time to kick ass. If I had caused Plane K and Plane R to connect, I would use all my energies in reverting that. There must be a way.
I busted out of the dean’s private room to inspect the building. If a rift, as he had called it, had opened somewhere, I wanted to look at it myself.
I reached the ground floor and heard a rumbling noise coming from all directions. Was that the sound of two worlds colliding? Was I late? Still, I could not see any cracks—a point where the two planes would merge. I reached the main hall, and I remembered that day when my teddy bear acted all weird, showing me places to hide.
Something drew my attention to the floor where, what I had assumed to be the Shadow projected from a window frame, crawled toward me. The creature rose from the floor in its intangible form, and I realized the monster had company. At least three other Shadows lurked around me.
I had no idea if a Mindblast would be effective against something intangible like those creatures. I contemplated using Doubles to fight them hand to hand but, that again, seemed stupid. The Shadows came too close for planning anything, and they assaulted me. Three or four immaterial limbs hit my body. Despite the annoying sensation of creatures attacking me, they were not harming me. Those weird creatures lashed at me with renewed fervor, unsettled by the limited effectiveness of their actions.
I got annoyed as well, and I hit back. I slapped one of them, not expecting to deter them. On the contrary, when my hand got close to the Shadow, I sucked it in, like a vacuum cleaner would with a veil of dust. It felt like gulping down a sip of an energy drink, so I did it again with another of those incorporeal beings.
The remaining Shadows scattered around the room, trying to escape.
I tried the Mindblast. I simultaneously aimed at all of them. Again, it worked way more effectively than I had foreseen. All the three Shadows I hit disappeared. As fast as that brawl had started, it ended. No more of those transparent things floated around. I had killed them.
I went outside. Unlike the dozen other times I had tried in the past days, the teleportation spell no longer worked. I was in the outer court; the woods growing all around. I could have fled, called a taxi, or ran. I stayed though. There was a job to do, and it was my responsibility.
The day was ending soon, despite the sky being brighter than I expected.
It lasted not even a second, that moment when I was looking around, like I had done many times before this nightmare had started. Something jumped on me, forcing my body to the ground. I punched and kicked from below what looked like a deformed dog. It was another of those beasts from Plane K. I punched its sharp face, but it wouldn’t stop. I noticed this creature was eyeless and mouthless like that other one—Aaragul.
It scratched my chest with his claws.
I didn’t try it intentionally, but something happened. I wanted that beast to relent from hurting me, and it just did. It stepped back and remained still. I sat on the ground and inspected that thing. My first impression of that beast resembling a dog was quite wrong.
First, it didn’t have four legs but … I can’t say how many. Its skin, if I could call that so, was thick as a crab’s carapace, just way grayer.
I stood, and the beast remained immobile. Well, that was weird. That monster had wanted me dead and now was, like… waiting? I tried something. If I could force it to relinquish its attack, I could move a step ahead.
I asked the itchling—I finally remembered what Mr. Sweet had called those beings—to step left. It did. The monstrous dog followed my order. Then I gave my new pet the command to jump, to roll on a side, to bark. This last one really didn’t work. It was only then when I realized at least five other itchilings surrounded me. All of them tried to bark, roll and jump.
I was having fun, but I didn’t want to waste any more time. I moved left, headed to the front yard, and all the Plane K visitors tagged along. They would not leave me alone; I asked them to, but it proved pointless. They would not stop following me. Maybe, they would prove useful at some point.
I realized I was visible again, and I had no idea how that had happened. I brought my left fist to my chest and reactivated the skill. To my surprise, the itchlings kept by my side, even when I had conjured half a dozen Doubles, to be on the safe side.
It was time for another epiphany. Why don’t I make my clones invisible as well? If I could do it, they should as well. Six other Emmas clenched their left fists and became invisible. They were hidden from my sight, but I could feel their position.
I would have gloated if not for the incipient end of the world.
I was in front of the school, my little army before me, when I first saw it. A large rock surfed above the ground, plowing the soil while advancing toward the school.
I attempted to take control of the creature hovering toward the school, but I failed. It probably was not a Mind creature, or, if it was, it proved way more powerful than me. Even if it wanted to attack the building, it didn’t matter anymore. If I became an incidental target, well, that I wouldn’t like.
I ordered one of the dogs to attack the rock surfer. It didn’t go that well. As soon as my tiny monster got too close with my yet unknown opponent, a jet of rocks exploded right below it, pulverizing it. Next, I ordered the remaining itchlings to charge. I had no idea how rapidly those creatures could move. I hadn’t even finished my thought when they were all jumping onto my new enemy.
Next thing I knew, four more rock fountains spouted onto each one of them for their immediate demise. Either my pets were too vulnerable, or this dude was way tougher than I had expected. He hit the brakes on his very peculiar surfboard and got off.
My Doubles surrounded him, and all became visible.
He looked around and smiled. He lowered his arms against his torso. “You cannot recognize friends, Emma?”
I could not mistake that Scottish accent. I revealed myself and got closer. “I wasn’t expecting any friendly visitor.”
We both chuckled. I wondered if I should hug him.
“It looks like they did it. Can you perceive it as well?”
I had no clue what he was talking about. “We should search for the rift, the intersecting point of the Planes.” I pointed at him with two index-thumb finger-guns, like a real loser. “It looks like we have a common goal now.”
“It was like that all along, Emma.” He paused, and it looked like he was reflecting on something. “You should definitely see this.” He grabbed my hand.
The moment our hands touched, my mind left my body and burst skyward. The atmospheric layers compounded before my eyes as I jettisoned from the world. I saw the stars as it left the planet. The disembodied me looked down. It was floating in outer space—weightless and shapeless.
A terrifying vision appeared. Plane K and mine appeared as one, resembling two galaxies collapsing onto each ot
her and something destroying both, making them lifeless.
Then, as rapidly as I had traveled outside the planet’s circumference, I was back inside my body.
James still held my hand. “Did you see it?”
“Yes,” I mumbled, dazed and dizzy. “It was not very pleasurable. What was that?”
“I had this vision, let’s say. God, I sound like one of those shamans. I have no clue how I got it. I wanted you to see it.”
“How do you know I would have?”
“Well, because Path of Mind?”
He knew I was that. I had no idea what he was, though.
“How do you know I’m Mind?” Was I asking a stupid question?
“Doubles, invisibility… It’s all Mind stuff.”
We needed to focus. “We have to find the rift.”
He pointed at something behind me.
I hadn’t noticed before. I had mistaken it for smudge or a defect in the building’s cement. Another of those portal holes had opened, like those the bear was so keen on tearing open to travel to his home place, as he often called it.
“What do we do?”
He looked me in the eye. “If we wait here, they’ll kill us in no time. I have no idea how many of those monsters will come out of there.”
It sounded crazy as I pondered it. When I spoke, it sounded even worse. “If we don’t stand a chance here, we better go to the other side. We fight back. We invade Plane K and destroy it from within.”
James regarded me again.
The next thing I know, we were walking side by side through the gate that led to the closest representation of what the word Hell might mean.
Plane K
10
Maria
“Do you think they got what the message meant?” I asked Akko, the old demon.
He was always so distracted, constantly busy doing something else while talking to me. “Why do you even worry about that? They walked through the gate, as you wanted. I told you it was not a great idea, but you wouldn’t listen.”
Joder, was he really pouting over that?