My world lit on fire. That's how it looked, anyway. My body was covered with magical flame that didn't hurt me or my clothing, but blackened the tentacles instantly. As the floor monster writhed and let me go, I tumbled and then leapt for the undead follower of Yig, grabbing him tightly and hugging him too closely to allow him a chance to bring up his blade. I let go of the undead monster when I was sure that he wasn't going to be getting up again and allowed the flames to die away as I turned toward the cultists and the two shoggoths.
I brought up my pistol and placed two bullets into the shoggoths, I was only facing the cultists now.
My pistol was still drawn, and I had one bullet left in the six shooter. I quickly shifted my aim from the dead shoggoths to the nearest cultist and pulled the trigger. I holstered it as I watched the bullet bounce off of the cultist's own magical defenses. His magical strength was much less than mine, and I saw this as the reverberation from my one gunshot made him reach for his head, and staggered his charge.
His fellow cultist came at me with a fist that radiated a dark purple energy. I was still holstering my gun and couldn't bring my sword up on the side he was attacking quickly enough. I was going to need a magical defense. I hadn't even thought it and the same shield that had deflected so many bullets sprung up around me and caught his power-fueled fist. The fist connected with the shield right next to my temple and the magic in his assault gave it enough force to shatter my shield and drive me to my knees.
I sprang back up from my knees and punched at his face with the pommel of my sword. I didn't use any magic for the attack as he had, but he didn't put up a shield and I shattered his nose.
I had allowed myself to be distracted by the first two cultists and now the third, still about ten feet away, brought his hands up. A lightning bolt, larger than I had seen from the practitioner in Munich, leapt from his outstretched hands and came at me. I caught it in my arm and the jolt of it sent me into the air.
I don't think that I hit the ground, but am still unsure. I know that at some point while I was in the air his two companions had joined him. I was hit again and again by magical lightning bolts and continued to twirl through the air until I came to a wall shattering stop near the hallway I'd entered from.
I was surprised I was still alive. Those blasts of energy had numbed my arms and my head was swimming with pain. Pieces of the wall were still falling down on me as the three cultists approached.
Somewhere in my tumble, I'd let go of the sword. I figured, in the part of my brain that could still handle figuring, that it was for the better. I'd brought a sword to a magic fight. It was time for me to bring out the magic.
I reached down with my power. Down into the stone floor and into the rest of the building. I tapped the power that the Traum Kult had loaned to me through my mere presence in the building, and then I tapped their electricity. I filled myself to the point of overflowing and opened my eyes.
Somewhere in my reaching for the power, I'd stood up. I didn't remember doing it and I hoped then that it intimidated my enemies as much as it had creeped me out.
Their looks told me that they hadn't felt me collect all that energy, or else they just didn't think that it'd be enough. "The Kult wants you alive," the nearest cultist said in English. "Don't make us kill you."
Something inside of me was really enjoying this showdown, so I replied, "I would love to see you try."
They smiled, obviously hoping that I would have put up a fight.
Their hands tingled with power and it was the only hint that I was given about the upcoming attack. It was more than I needed.
When they'd hit me earlier, I hadn't been ready for the attack, but this time I was more than prepared.
Their lightning blasts combined into one deadly spell and came at me in the blink of an eye. The bright light lit the whole room in a sort of flashing effect. The blast hit me in the chest and I just stood there, taking it.
Taking all of it.
I did to the cultists what I'd done to the magic and the building: I absorbed the power. I took all that they would give, and they kept pouring it into me as if adding more power to their attack would overwhelm me. If I'd have been in my right mind, I would have thought the same, but the magic whispered to me and told me to keep it up and that I'd be alright.
It wasn't long before I'd taken most of their strength and all three of the cultists collapsed to their knees.
I was bursting with energy and the walls and floor were getting zapped by the excess as it rolled off of me. I felt as if I were going to explode, and I probably was about to, until I saw the cultists as something more than what they were.
Kneeling on the floor in front of me weren't just some mad and blind worshipers, they were a portent of the future. Before me were Cthulhu Cultists, the very people who I'd be helping, possibly joining, if that future I'd seen was going to happen. It angered me that they planned to usurp my life and make me some messiah of the damned.
It filled every magical ounce of me with anger, and I wanted to release it at them, wiping the world of them and hoping that they took my projected future with them.
The power released, sending a torrent of electrical energy out of me like a wave. I didn't aim it or try to direct it, I only released it. As it left me in a powerful current, it swept over the three cultists and completely destroyed their bodies. The granite floor was covered only in ash when the lightning had finally dissipated.
Energy still coursed through me, but I could tell it was taking its toll as exhaustion consumed my limbs.
I saw my sword laying across the room on the floor and I retrieved it. I could feel the curse that I placed on the door beginning to weaken. A lot of someones were on the other side and were giving it their best to get through the door.
It would have been a waste of time to try to repair the curse, so instead I ran up the wide staircase to the second floor landing. I had only just touched down on the second floor when the curse snapped and the front door burst open. I didn't have time to count how many were there, but it was easily more than any magical shield I could conjure would be able to handle. In a rush, I ducked down the hallway and sprinted, hoping that I was going in the direction that Leo had been taken.
As I ran, I checked doors, trying to open them. I finally found one that was open just as the soldiers reached the second floor. I ran through it and slammed it shut, throwing another quick curse at this door, hoping that it would hold long enough to get me to wherever I needed to be to get to Leo.
The room that I'd chosen as my refuge was an office, but it was definitely a Nazi supporter's office. The wall to my left as I entered had a book shelf at the nearest and furthest ends of it with the blank section of wall in between the shelves covered with a Nazi flag. Across from the bookshelf wall was a wall with photos in frames. On cursory glance, I noticed Lukas Herrmann in some of them and wondered quickly to myself if this might be his office.
I decided it couldn't be, as there weren't enough occult items in the room. As a matter of fact, there were none.
Directly in front of the wall with photos was a large wooden desk and a leather chair. On the other side of the desk, and basically in the center of the room, was a chair facing the desk.
Sitting cross-legged on that chair was Olivia, wearing the same outfit I'd first seen her in when I'd met her in Andorra.
Her face was filled with relief upon seeing me, and I only barely registered it as I stepped into the room and decidedly ignored her to examine the rest of the room.
"Oh thank God!" She declared. "You're here. I thought I'd die here."
I ignore her, running past her and to the Nazi flag. I tugged on it experimentally and then yanked on it, pulling it down.
During this, Olivia stood up and put herself in my peripheral vision. I pressed on the wall, continuing to ignore her, and checking the density.
"Look at me, Andrew." She begged in French. "We need to get out of here. If you can secure me a gun, I think that we
can get to Leo."
I began chanting at the wall, pressing my hands against it harder and harder, filling my mind with the magic and projecting it directly into the wall.
"Listen to me, American! Why are you ignoring me?" She slammed her hand on the wall next to mine and I didn't even flinch at the outburst. "I heard them say that they were taking Leo to the third floor. They are going to interrogate him about you."
I looked at her for the first time then and my look must have scared her, because her eyes widened. "What room?"
She opened her mouth slowly before answering. "I don't-"
"What room?" I repeated, cutting her off.
She became indignant. "I said I don't-"
In a flash of movement, I drew my pistol and aimed it at her head. She had no way of knowing that it wasn't loaded, and her face exploded in terror.
"I'm sure," I started, " that you 'don't' do a lot of things." I pressed the barrel of the pistol into her forehead. "For example. I'm sure that you don't eat, you don't sleep, and that you don't breathe." I forced the pistol forward further, jerking her head backwards. "You don't tell the truth!" My face was flushed with anger as I focused on how much I hated the deceit that this woman represented. "Most importantly, you don't exist. You're a phantom, a manifestation, or some sort of projection!"
Instead of retaliating, screaming, or pulling away from me, Olivia only frowned, and a tear leaked from her eye and down her cheek.
She tried to force a smile, but she was obviously upset. "I was hoping," she said with a strained voice, "that I was going crazy, but it seems that you came to the same conclusion that I did."
I could see that it upset her, and while I didn't think that she had real feelings, I still felt uncomfortable about it, and holstered my pistol. I turned back to the wall and resumed my chanting. In seconds, the wall finally started to ripple like a puddle and my hands began to sink through it.
I kept chanting as I pulled my hands away and then I jumped through.
The puddled wall solidified as soon as I was on the other side. The room adjacent to the office was a large bathroom with a bathtub and sink. I ran to the door and turned the latch quietly, hoping that the soldiers who were most definitely pounding on the door to the other office wouldn't notice. When I turned back around, Olivia was sitting in the bathtub, her arms wrapped around her knees and tears were streaming down her face.
"What am I?" She whispered.
I quickly reloaded my pistol, dropping the spent cartridges on the floor. As I finished loading the pistol, I attempted to answer her.
"I have a few theories." I holstered the gun and ran to the window, it was nailed shut. I drew my sword and wedged it under the jam and began working to loosen the window. It wasn't a huge window, but it looked large enough to just barely fit me and my accoutrement of weaponry.
"My first theory," I continued, " is that you're a projection sent from the Traum Kult. I think they sent you to aid me in getting capture and to Berlin. It would also allow them to track me really easily." The window lifted
a little, and I kept working the sword. "This theory, I don't believe only because there are much easier ways of tracking me. Besides," I looked at her just to verify my statement, when I did so, I opened my sight to the magic. "You don't have any of the void on you. Meaning that the magic of the Kult didn't spawn you."
I could suddenly hear a crash from the room next door and the stomping of Nazi boots crossing it.
"My second theory is silly at best. It's possible that you're a ghost or phantom from the Dream Lands and that the Night Watchers sent you at me. That makes even less sense because the Night Watchers think that I'm dead and, once again, you don't have the void on you."
I pressed a little bit of magic into the window and it began to budge a little more. It wouldn't be long now. I could hear the crash of the shelves and some sort of glass shattering from the room next door. They were getting frustrated and were about to search elsewhere. My time was short.
"The final theory that I have scares me."
Olivia had stopped sobbing and from behind me she asked, "What is it?"
"When someone looks into the void, the dark recess between the dimensions, their minds try to apply sense to it. It doesn't work. Everyone who looks into the void loses their sanity in the attempt to make sense of the insensible. Everyone, without exceptions and in varying degrees. Leo saw the beast in Munich for only a split second and I can guarantee you that in some small way his sanity has worn away." The door to the bathroom suddenly erupted in banging as the soldiers tried to get in.
I hurled another locking curse at the door to secure it a increased my furious working of the window.
"I've looked into the void more than I care to admit." I continued over my shoulder. "Specifically, I used it only a day or so before I met you to save the Captain of the Lush Delusion. Instead of accepting the shattering of my sanity, I created you, but I'm not stupid and you had to be real. My insanity was projected through my connection to the void magic and you worked yourself into the memories of Leo and introduced yourself to Father Blake and the primitive minds of the undead Nazi soldiers who kidnapped you." My memories all clarified as I realized the truth. It was only me shooting at the Nazis while they tried to kill a projection that wasn't even real. It was all a deluded strategy built by my insanity. I needed a means of getting into Andorra, so my insanity supplied one. "You're my insanity made manifest. A disability with access to the subtler levels of my magic."
The nails finally slid free of the jam and the window lifted open. I could feel the curse on the door beginning to shatter already and didn't hesitate to climb out of the window. I grabbed a pipe leading up the side of the building and started climbing the wall, placing my feet on the few bricks that stood off of the wall slightly more than the rest.
As I climbed I continued to talk, knowing that a phantom from my own imagination could probably hear me very well no matter how much distance I put between us.
From below me, I heard Olivia ask, "What happens to me now that you know what I am? Do I just vanish?"
"No," I grunted as I climbed. "Knowing I'm insane doesn't cure the insanity." I grunted and moved upward another foot. "Besides, I think you're a safety net. Your existence is an outlet for my insanity. If you went away, I might turn into a dribbling mess. Talking to myself is preferable." I was almost within reach of a third floor window and lowered my voice. "Whatever the hell you are, you're handy to have around."
"How so?" She was calling to me from somewhere above me now.
"Well, if Leo is on the third floor, than you're privy to information that I'm not. Somehow you've tapped into the void enough to have answers to some of my questions.
I reached the window and realized that it was closed. I stretched upward to peek through it and slipped on a brick. I almost fell and the terror leapt to the forefront of my mind. I grabbed the nearest brick and struggled to regain my footing. Once I thought that I was secure enough, I tried again to peek through the
window. This time, I was successful.
This time, I did find the office of Lukas Herrmann. He stood behind a desk similar to the last one that I'd seen. He was leaning on it as the soldiers spoke to him.
"He was here, sir. He killed some of the Traum Kult's guard."
Herrmann interrupted them with a slam of his hands on the desk. "Where did he go?"
The guard looked terrified. "We lost him on the second floor. We assumed that he ran into a bathroom, but the window was nailed shut. He just vanished."
I almost leapt out of my skin as Olivia's voice whispered in my ear. "You're welcome."
I whispered back, lowering myself from the window. "You closed the window?"
"Right after you told me that I could be useful, I realized that I like being around and that if you get killed then I get killed. So, stop being stupid, American, and cover your tracks."
I smiled and pulled myself back to the window. Herrmann had stepped out
from behind his desk and was jabbing one of the soldiers in the chest. "Dr. Andrew Doran is a practitioner of the arcane. Take me to where he disappeared."
More than happy to get out of the office, the Nazis filed out of the office with Herrmann trailing behind them.
The moment his office door shut behind him, I tested the window. It wasn't locked or nailed shut, and slid open easily. I pulled myself into it and landed lightly on the floor.
I had just gotten to my feet when the door swung back open and Lukas Herrmann walked in.
I didn't hesitate because I knew that he wouldn't either. I drew my pistol and swung it upward to plant bullets into his chest. Somehow, he was across the room and before me in a moment.
Herrmann slapped my pistol from my hand and I didn't watch as it slid across the floor of his office. Instead, I drew my sword. I was about to swing it when Olivia was suddenly standing beside me.
I was distracted and Herrmann's fist smacked me in the chest. It was like being hit by a truck. Even the lightning from the cultists hadn't hurt like that. I was launched across the office but I managed to stay on my feet.
"Sorry!" Olivia shouted. I shook it off, even though I was worried that my heart might have stopped and stepped back toward the German. "He's dead, by the way." Olivia added.
"What?" I asked, forgetting that Herrmann could hear me until he raised an eyebrow. I ignored him, instead listening as Olivia repeated herself.
"Take a second and look at him. He's got a touch of the void. It's subtle magic, but just look at his flesh. He wasn't this pale in Andorra."
I looked at Herrmann again, and this time I looked carefully. Olivia was right; he was very pale. With that, he was also moving very stiffly. The touch of the void she mentioned, I'd originally ignored. Herrmann made no point of hiding his love of the arcane and the Traum Kult, and I'd mistakenly assumed that was what I had seen. Upon closer inspection, the magic worked its way into his flesh. It was a locking spell, and it was meant to keep life in a deceased corpse.
The Adventures of Andrew Doran: Box Set Page 20