"When did you die?" I asked him.
He smirked and I realized that his face wasn't moving anywhere near as much as it should have been. It was only more evidence of the undead.
"You shot me when you were in Andorra." He answered. "When you were escaping in that damned hotel. I took a bullet in the stomach." Herrmann lifted his shirt then and showed me a hole that was still in his necrotic flesh. "I died of an infection a day after you escaped." Just barely above the bullet hole were the magical runes cut into his flesh. That was what had brought him back. "The Traum Kult, in their infinite wisdom, knew that they needed the great Lukas Herrmann as he was, not as a mindless drone. The dragged my soul back from
the pits of Hell and locked me into this body." He flexed and I could have sworn that he almost doubled in size as he did so. "I will be the gatekeeper who ushers in the demons who will destroy the lesser races."
Herrmann gave the Nazi salute, and I took the moment to step forward and plunge my sword into his chest, knowing that the magic of the sword would kill him: a creature of the void.
My sword plunged deep into Lukas Herrmann's chest, and in reaction he jerked and twisted away, surprising me and taking my sword with him. I didn't mind. If he was going to leave a magical, body-melting sword in his body, who was I to argue.
I stepped back and watched as he continued his jerking reaction and came back around to face me.
Instead of a look of pain or terror on his face, Herrmann was smiling. I grabbed the hilt, thinking to put some of my will behind the sword's power, but when I touched it, I sensed that none of the sword's magic was touching Herrmann.
Herrmann wasn't sitting still during any of my revelation. Instead, the moment that I grabbed the sword's hilt, he punched me in the face twice.
I fell back, feeling the blood leaving my nose as the my vision exploded with stars. I was still standing after the second hit, but a slap from Herrmann's open hand sent me sprawling across his office.
Herrmann looked down at the sword protruding from his chest and smiled at it. "Is this..." His smile widened and he gently pulled the sword from his body and looked at it like...well, like I would have looked at an artifact such as the sword. "It is. Dear God, how did you find this magnificent American relic?"
I brought my knees underneath me and struggled to stand. "You know," I grunted. "It kind of just fell into my lap."
"Idiot." He whispered. "Do you know what this is?"
I finished my slow ascent to a standing position and answered. "The Blade of Captain Fitz." I nodded toward the sword. "I'd assumed that was what it was, but I wasn't going to bet on it until I saw your reaction."
The undead mass that was Lukas Herrmann brought his eyes close to the blade, examining every inch of it. "Forged in the fires the blood of his enemies and with metal found in a crater. It was blessed by your natives to corrupt the beast of other worlds." He looked at me. "They say that nothing foreign to this plane can stand its touch."
That was my answer. "It didn't hurt you because you're body and soul are from here."
Herrmann nodded. "Yes. I am different from the other undead things. Those bodies are home to demons from the other realms, mine houses only me." He swiped twice with the sword and then looked at me. "This will be a prized addition to my collection." I stepped forward and Herrmann brought the blade up quickly, placing the tip underneath my chin. "I thank you."
This enraged me. Of course he was going to add it to his 'collection.' Herrmann was a Nazi, that's what they did. They saw the world as their big toy box, and if something was in it that they wanted they would take it. It was disgusting and wrong. Somewhere these damned Nazis had gained the idea that it was their birthright to claim the world.
Magic filled my fists and I asked through gritted teeth, "Where's the book?"
Herrmann tilted his head, as if confused by the audacity of my question. "The Traum Kult wants you alive. They didn't say that I couldn't kill you first."
During all of Herrmann's drooling over the sword, he hadn't seen me unclasp the scabbard from my belt. Before he could plunge my own sword through my neck, I batted the blade aside with the scabbard and then stepped in tight to the decomposing German. Once I was closer, I had to act quick if I was going to stay ahead of the preternaturally fast Herrmann. I thrust my fist forward and punched the Nazi in the abdomen.
It wasn't a normal punch and carried with it as much magic as I could focus into my fist. My hand went through Herrmann's stomach and deep into his guts.
I pulled my hand from his abdomen and guts streamed out with it and onto his office floor. His face was contorted with his anger as he brought his free hand down in a reflexive action to collect his spilled entrails.
It was just the opening that I was looking for and I planted my still-magically charged and blood-covered fist into his face. Once my hand was deep inside Nazi brains, I released the magic.
Herrmann's skull exploded outward, showering his office in blood and brains.
He fell and I kicked the sword from his grasp. I walked over, picked it up and returned to him. His body was flailing about as it fell to the ground and that spoke volumes for the spell that had locked him into his body. He wasn't housed in his brain like the rest of the undead things I'd dispatched. Instead, Lukas Herrmann was literally housed in every inch of his body.
I wasted no time in hacking him up and I was covered in blood in a matter of seconds. In less than a minute, I'd had the writhing corpse of Lukas Herrmann dismembered into about fifteen large chunks. I kicked them across the office and even threw the head itself outside, just in case they decided to try to wriggle back together or melted...or something.
I don't know everything that could happen. I'm not the Necronomicon. Some stuff is just weird, and surviving it means planning for the weirdest. Sometimes that includes throwing a mostly exploded head out of a third floor office window so that it can't reanimate.
I allowed myself a breath and realized that Olivia had never really vanished during any of that fight. She'd just been standing quietly in the corner. I felt like that must be an analogy for how our relationship would progress from here on out; Olivia hiding out in the corner of my mind until she has something to say.
Finally getting my breath under control, I looked at her. "Any suggestions?"
My own personal phantom stepped away from the wall and came closer. "Leo is on this floor. Lukas would want to have kept him close." Olivia turned away from me and walked to the door. She grabbed the handle and opened it and I almost yelped at her that someone might see her when I remembered that this was all in my head.
In reality, Olivia hadn't opened the door and she hadn't just stepped outside and looked around. What really happened was that my subconscious had just reached out with my magical affinity and scanned the hallway. Damned insanity. I'd have to keep reminding myself of that if I wanted to not scream every time Olivia opened a door or stood up in a hail of gunfire.
She came back in and took her time carefully shutting the door again. As if she'd heard my very thoughts, which she very well might have.
"I don't know which room has Leo in it, but outside the door and down the hall are four soldiers. Lukas must have thought that you would go after the book before going after Leo." She pointed out the door and to the left. "The soldiers to the left are looking down the stairs, waiting for you to come up." She brought her hand slowly to the right, indicating the other length of hall. "The other two are facing this way, they look like they're waiting for Lukas to come back."
I was once again placing a lot of trust in something I didn't understand, but now was not the time to start doubting my course. I replaced my scabbard and slid the sword back into it before stepping up to the door and pulling it open quietly.
Stepping into the hall, I didn't even look left, instead drawing my pistol and firing at the two soldiers who looked right at me. After the report of my pistol echoed through the hall, I spun and shot the two remaining soldiers as the
y turned and brought their guns on me. My bullets took the first one in the head and the second one in the chest. They both dropped.
My gunshots wouldn't have bought me any time and I was willing to bet on soldiers racing up the stairs at that moment. I began throwing open all of the doors adjacent to Herrmann's office. I came across a locked door and stepped back to kick it when a yell from down the hall made me bring my pistol up.
Olivia was about four doors down from me. "He's in here! I can hear him!"
I sprinted to her and tested the door. It was locked just as the last one had been. My boot rose and fell through the door with a crash that jolted my entire body.
Inside sat Leo, tied to a chair with his face bloodied. Beside him is another soldier watching over him. I dove to the side as soon as I kicked the door open and managed to avoid the bullet that would have surely taken me in the chest. Out of harm's way in the hall, I prepared a spell and sent it in ahead of me. The light drained from the room, except for immediately around my target, and I killed him quickly.
Returning the lighting to how it was, I ran over to Leo and cut him free with the sword.
Leo thanked me quickly before saying, "The Necronomicon is in the basement with the Traum Kult. Herrmann has sent all of the guards down there to protect them."
I rolled my eyes. "Of course they're in the basement. It wasn't going to get easy any time soon."
I took the guns off of the corpse and checked them both before handing them over to Leo who went ahead and checked them again.
Leo took up a position next to his chair and I eyed him curiously.
"I heard one of the soldiers saying Herrmann was headed back this way."
I shook my head at him. "No, he isn't heading anywhere for a while. I took care of him." Leo smiled at that and returned to standing. "But you're not wrong." I continued. "There are more soldiers between us and the basement than I think that we can handle."
Leo raised his eyebrow and smirked. "More than you can handle, maybe."
I laughed. "Fair enough. Either way, it'll be very difficult to get to the basement of this ridiculously large building."
The mirth subsided and Leo nodded agreement. "Then what is our plan?"
Olivia popped into existence beside Leo. "I think that I can help you with that, but it will hurt you, American."
Leo almost leaped out of his skin but he recovered quickly and threw his arms around Olivia.
My eyes went as wide as Olivia's did. We were both surprised as Leo said. "I told you that she was on our side." He stepped back from her. "Thank God that you are alive."
I pointed at Olivia. "You can still see her?"
Leo's look turned confused. "Of course I can see her." He turned to Olivia. "How did you get to Berlin?"
Olivia ignored him and looked right at me. "I'm as surprised as you are. I'm not trying to be seen."
"What?" Leo asked. "What do you mean 'trying to be seen'?"
Olivia poked Leo in the chest and watched him rock backward and then conducted the same experiment with me. The results were the same.
"Is it because he looked into the void?" She asked me.
I nodded slowly. "That's the only explanation that I can come up with." I pointed at her and raised an eyebrow. "You are a figment of my insanity, right?"
Olivia returned my nod. "Once you realized it, I realized it also. I live inside your head."
Leo held up his hands. "What?"
Olivia and I both stopped ignoring Leo and turned to him. "Andrew, what is going on?" He asked.
Olivia answered. "I'm a figment of Andrew's imagination. He looked into the void too much and I'm the result of his magical side going insane."
Leo looked incredulous. It wasn't that he didn't believe it so much as he didn't want to understand it. Finally, he said, "This is all too damned much."
Olivia held up her hand. "Too much or not, I might be able to help you both get to the basement."
"You can?" I asked. I was ready for any sort of break.
"Yes. We can walk through the void." Any sort of break, except for that one.
I shook my head. "Walking through the void is what created you. Thanks, but I don't need any more brain trauma. There's barely room for the two of us."
Olivia shook her head. "Looking into the void hurt you, but you wouldn't be looking into it. I would guide you."
Leo was confused. "But I thought you were a part of him."
Olivia nodded. "I'm a piece of his subconscious with direct access to his magic. Whatever I see will actually be his interpretation of what he senses in the void."
"Meaning that I can teleport through the void, like a shoggoth." I was excited.
Olivia frowned. "Maybe."
"What do you mean maybe?" Leo and I both asked.
"You're still human and your brain won't be able to take prolonged exposure. If this works, we can't make a habit of it."
I nodded slowly, but it was an absent nod. I was suddenly renewed with faith in our ability to get the book. This looked like it was something that we could actually accomplish.
It dawned on me, but only for a second, that I could still be very wrong about Olivia. She could instead be some sort of trick to drag me into the void and leave me there.
I'd decided earlier not to care, and that thought left as quickly as it had arrived. I just didn't care if she was a threat. She'd proven herself this far, and I was done guessing about it.
"Let's do this." Was all that I had to say about it.
Leo nodded. "I'm done talking about this. I want to shoot something. Many somethings."
Olivia grabbed us both by the arms. "Close your eyes. Don't open them until I tell you to, and be prepared to shoot."
I gulped. Leo had no idea what to expect from the void. There were terrors that lived outside of visibility. We were not completely protected, and I was certain that Leo had no idea what that really meant.
I closed my eyes and felt the wave of nothing engulf me. It was a feeling that brought terror and anger and a shuddering sense of falling in every direction.
The void is outside of reality, and therefore very difficult to describe.
I heard screaming followed quickly by the whimpering of what sounded like a wounded animal. It continued for a short eternity before I realized that it was me and shut my mouth. There were images in my mind that I knew weren't just images, but creatures of thought, abstract ideas reaching toward my soul to taste the thing that had entered its world.
Surprisingly, I figured that I must have been getting some sort of deep protection from Olivia, because the last time I'd teleported through the void I had been much more terrified.
"Open your eyes." Olivia shouted. "Leo is down, protect him."
I stood and almost fell over with nausea. I brought up my pistol and saw that I was standing behind two soldiers who were walking away from me. They were walking toward a huge door and we were in a hall lined with stone blocks.
In front of the door stood six other soldiers. These two were on their way to join their companions. I lowered my pistol and drew my sword, choosing to save the bullets. With Leo out of commission, I was going to need every bullet in the six shooter.
One fast swing of my magical blade dropped the head of the soldier in front of Leo, before he could register the looks of surprise in the other German's eyes. I pulled my sword back to myself and then thrust it into the chest of the soldier in front of me.
Holding him there as he slowly died, I brought my pistol back up and took aim at the soldiers in front of
the door.
I called over my shoulder. "How's Leo doing?"
"I'm here." I heard, only barely, through his tears.
I fired two shots at the soldiers and thanked whatever being might be listening that Leo had finally come to his senses as one bullet went wide and the second found its mark in one soldier's chest.
An explosion of sound erupted beside me and my hearing said goodbye. I spared glance to my le
ft as the soldiers fell in pairs and saw Leo opening up with his machine gun.
When I looked back the soldiers were all dead in front of the large door.
I pulled my sword free of the soldier and pushed him to the ground before waiting for my ears to return to me.
When I could hear again, I turned to Leo. "That was easy."
He smiled, but his eyes were screaming with mental anguish.
Olivia's voice appeared in my head. "I only had the reach to protect your mind from the beasts. He will heal, but it might take time."
I slid my weapons back into their respective homes and then slapped Leo across the face. "You're in the real world now. There are monsters out there, but I need you here and now. Are you a child or are you Leo; the Killer of Nazis?" His eyes seemed to leave whatever terror that they could still see and come back to the basement we stood in. He looked me in the eyes and forced a smile. "I am here." He went through the motions of checking his gun and it seemed to bring him back almost completely to his old self.
Almost.
Leo, as I had known him, was gone. Every encounter with the void would introduce me to the remains of Leo. This was his second trip and the effects of the horrors of other worlds on my friend would be revealed in time.
He nodded at me when he'd finished checking his gun and together we stepped over corpses and came to the door. It was layers of wood with a large ring down the center of it. We gave it a tug but it was obvious that whoever was inside had barred it.
Before I could ask, Olivia whispered in my ear that she couldn't get us into the room or see into it. I glanced at Leo and decided that it was probably for the best.
I stretched out with the still strong sense of power and realized that it was all coming from this room. All of the power that I had been using had been coming from this central room. The Traum Kult had decide to hole up with the source of all their power.
They were holding it, almost hugging it, as if they were trying to keep it all to themselves. This was most likely the case, but they didn't have what I had.
The power wanted me to use it. It wanted me to be the adult to take the power from these children and own it.
The Adventures of Andrew Doran: Box Set Page 21