Devouring Darkness

by Bradley Counter

“I could’ve ended it quickly,” Garen explained, “but I had to make him suffer. He needed to learn his place. No, why do I feel this way? Something’s wrong with me. I’ve never wanted to kill anyone in my life, much less torture them.”

  His gaze drifted back down to the stain on the floor that had previously been a mighty bolos. He swallowed hard as bile began to rise in his throat. Doubts crept into his mind. He could no longer delude himself into believing that he had exclusive control over his own body.

  How could I lose control of myself so easily? I thought that if I just kept his thoughts and memories separate from my own that I would be able to maintain my sanity, but it was just too much. I only skimmed the surface of his memories and our minds immediately started to blend back together into one. If I hadn’t heard Cassandra calling out to me I would've been completely devoured by him.

  “Garen, listen to me.”

  The sound of her voice was sweet and uplifting. He allowed it to pull his mind back from the dark, troubling thoughts and then he saw her. Their eyes met and he could see the concern on her face. Despite her half demon heritage, her expression was more comforting to him than anyone else’s had ever been.

  Somehow I need to keep it together; at least until she’s safe.

  “As I said before, when you ate the gallovine fruit you absorbed Gormum’s essence into your own. His power, memories, and what remains of his thoughts and will are now part of you.”

  “I know that, Cassandra, but I-”

  “Permanently.”

  Garen stopped talking as the impact of that single word hit him. A new fear immediately rose up within him; a frightening thought that until now had seemed unlikely. Though he would’ve rather kept silent, the question burst from him as if on its own.

  “I’m going to become him someday. No matter what I do; it’s only a matter of time, isn’t it?”

  She met his eyes with a look so sad that it was painful, but he forced himself not to look away. He could tell that she obviously cared about him and was fighting her own inner battle of whether or not to tell him.

  “Yes,” she said finally. “Though you may be able to keep your minds separate for a while, even you will be unable to maintain that mental block forever. As we've just witnessed, Gormum's thoughts are very powerful and are able to seize control of you in an instant if you let them. The only chance that you have to keep your mind intact is to maintain a mental wall between your thoughts and his at all times. Nothing like this has ever been attempted, and the thought of such a thing lasting forever is... unlikely at best.”

  “How do I create something like that in my mind?”

  “Unlike a demon, you should be able to discern between your thoughts and those of Gormum. Concentrate on his thoughts, gather them together, and push them as far from your mind as possible. Think of what you do when a painful memory presents itself. How do you get rid of it? Gather it up and banish it back to a deep corner of your mind and insulate yourself from it.”

  Garen tried to concentrate as she said and instantly discovered that what she said came naturally to him. A great darkness had spread through his thoughts and memories trying to merge with his mind, but when he focused on it he was able to see it for what it was; an invading presence. Unlike his inexact, sometimes fuzzy or dull, but completely human memories that were more emotional than sensory, those of the invader were crisp and clear, vivid in detail and dark by nature, but they had little or no emotion attached to them. Very few of the invading memories were accompanied by strong emotions, and they were full of dark passions like nothing that Garen had ever known. They were completely alien to his mind.

  With greater ease than he had thought possible, he gathered the dark cloud within his mind and tried to push it from his consciousness. After a brief moment of struggle, the invading presence was thrown to some distant part of his mind. He breathed a slight sigh of relief, but he knew that his battle was far from over.

  “That wasn't hard at all, but I get the feeling it will only get worse.”

  “Yes, even if it appears easy now, keeping him out of your mind at all times will, eventually, prove to be too much.”

  “So, sooner or later, he'll find a way to take over my body and there’s nothing I can do to stop it?”

  “No, the effect of the gallovine is absolute. Both of your essences have merged together, and they will remain that way indefinitely.”

  “Then what am I supposed to do now? I don’t really want to return home with a demon inside of me that could take control of my body at a moment’s notice.”

  “Garen, I don’t think that you’ll ever be able to return to your home.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Babossa’s dead and I haven’t seen a demidemon yet that could match these powers, so who exactly is going to stop me from going home?”

  “The goddess of your world.”

  “Anedae?” Garen said with a laugh. “Why would she want to stop me from returning to The World of Light?”

  “Because of what’s inside of you; that world is not your home anymore.”

  “No," he said with a shake of his head, "I refuse to believe it, Anedae wouldn’t abandon me like that.”

  “Then why hasn’t she helped you yet? Garen, you must face the truth: you were but one of her many subjects, nothing more. Now you have, contained inside your body, one of the most powerful demons The Nightlands has ever known. You will never be allowed to go back.”

  “We’ll see,” he said trying not to let his anger take hold of him. “First, we need to concentrate on getting out of this place. Are you sure that you’re alright; your injuries were quite severe?”

  Garen glanced down at the injured side of her chest. The indentation where her ribs had been crushed was gone. Her chest looked almost completely healed and had returned to its usual shape beneath her tattered clothing. Garen suddenly realized that he was staring at her mostly bare chest and quickly looked away, flushed with embarrassment.

  “Yes, I’m doing a lot better now,” she said with a knowing smirk. “The jolt of power that you used to bring me back seems to have helped my body regenerate faster than it usually would. In a few more minutes, I’ll be fully healed.”

  “I’m glad that you’re alright. The last thing that I wanted was for you to get hurt. There is someone else I need to check on as well, but I had to be certain that you were okay before I left. Please, stay here and rest for a moment, I’ll return shortly.”

  “Who is this other person?” she asked with a hint of venom in her voice.

  Is she... jealous?

  “Cero, he’s the boy that’s been following me around for the past several days. I need to go make sure that he's alright.”

  “Oh,” Cassandra said, her jealousy vanishing instantly. “I’d like to come with you if you don’t mind. It doesn’t look like there’s any other way out from down here, so there's no reason to remain in this place any longer.”

  “I suppose that’s true. Alright, come on then, I’ll carry you.”

  “I can walk just fine on my own.”

  He nodded to her and with a turn, he swiftly made his way back to the hole in the ceiling that he'd fallen through. He found the thought of her being jealous of his concern for someone else was amusing, but he knew that he needed to focus on making his way back to Cero.

  Garen slowed as he reached the spot where he had fallen. Shattered chucks of the ceiling littered the floor and he remembered waking up atop the pile. In the bright light of the surrounding glowstones, he could plainly see bloodstains that he knew were his own. A chill crept down his spine.

  When I fell, I was still human. I’m still not sure how exactly I managed to survive a fall like that. Now, I've become something else entirely; something darker. Was this my fate all along?

  “Is something wrong?”

  Garen glanced back at Cassandra and shook his head. Her face had completely returned to its previous, amazingly beautiful state. The painful bruises had all comp
letely disappeared, but her eyes seemed to hold a bitter sadness in their brilliant blue depths, so he looked away. He gazed back up at the hole in the ceiling 50 feet above their heads.

  “I’m just worried about Cero.”

  “What made you decide to call the boy by that name?”

  Garen paused. Memories raced back to him from the dark recesses of his mind. He saw the bodies of his parents; dead, unblinking eyes lying within their pale, bloody faces. An image of his younger brother flashed through his mind’s eye, and a bitter grief rose up in his heart. He closed his eyes for a moment as a flood of emotion washed over him.

  “Cero was the name of my younger brother,” he replied with a heavy heart.

  “Was? What happened to him?”

  He opened his eyes, turned his head slightly, and looked at her through a thin mist of half-formed tears. Uncertainty ate away at him just as it had each and every time the subject of his brother came up.

  Should I tell her? I've never talked about it with anyone, but maybe it's time that I did. She's entrusted me with the secrets of her past, perhaps she can understand mine.

  “A group of demons attacked our house when I was 12. They killed my parents and then came for my brother and me. I hid under my bed thinking Cero was right behind me, but he wasn’t. My brother was the bravest person that I've ever known. Instead of hiding, he grabbed his wooden practice sword and tried to face down the demons. I watched from hiding as the demons took my nine year old brother and disappeared into the night. Cero was abducted while trying to protect me and I did nothing to help him. I did nothing to protect him.”

  A pang of sadness struck him as he thought of what had happened to his younger brother, Cero. He’d been about the boy’s age the last time that Garen had seen him alive. Nearly 23 years had passed since that fateful night and Garen had no interest in dwelling on the details of his most painful memory. Once again, he forced his thoughts away from his brother and returned his focus to the boy that currently needed him.

  “There’s nothing that you could've done, Garen. A twelve year old human boy would stand absolutely no chance against even the lowliest demidemon.”

  “I’ve tried to tell myself that many times, but the shame and guilt follow me wherever I go. Even in this dark, evil place I can't escape them.”

  “So that is why you’re so determined to protect this boy, because he reminds you of your younger brother?”

  “Yes, and because he has no one else,” Garen replied softly.

  “Then let’s go make sure he’s alright.”

  They both turned their attention to the jagged hole high overhead. Garen decided to put aside his grief for the moment and focus on the present. His brother was lost to him, but he knew that there was still a chance of saving Cero.

  “Are you sure that you don’t want me to carry you? I mean, are you going to be able to jump that high on your own after all that you’ve been through?”

  Instead of answering, Cassandra crouched down and transformed into her demonic state. With practiced ease, she launched herself straight into the air. She initially rose at a staggering rate, but slowed to a stop as she passed through the hole in the ceiling. When she was eye level with the floor above, she reached out with her left hand and grabbed hold of the stone edge. Swinging her legs around to the side, she disappeared over the edge onto the upper level. A moment later her face popped back over the edge to look down at him.

  “It looks like I was able to make the jump by myself after all,” she called down to him with a smile.

  Wow, she made that look easy; she even managed to use exactly enough force in her jump so that it stopped perfectly level with the floor above.

  He stared up at the hole and Cassandra’s lovely face peering over the side at him. He knew that he was more than capable of jumping that high, but he had doubts about the level of control he had over his powers. Taking a deep breath, he lowered himself into a crouch.

  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to use the right amount of power for this. During my fight with Babossa, I was able to draw on Gormum’s experiences to know how to control my power. As long as I maintain a mental block between our two minds, though, I’m on my own. Oh well, now’s as good a time as any to learn how to control my power.

  He exhaled sharply and launched himself into the air. The stone cracked beneath him as his feet left the ground and he soared up into the air. He rose much faster than Cassandra had, and as the layer of stone and her face flew past, he knew that he’d used far too much force.

  As quick as he could, he flipped sideways in the air and immediately crashed into the ceiling in a kneeling position. The stone caved in slightly under the impact of his left foot, his right knee, and both of his hands. He looked up to see Cassandra staring up at him smiling. After a moment, his momentum subsided and gravity slowly pulled him back down off of the ceiling.

  He flipped back over as he fell and landed as gracefully as he could beside Cassandra. He looked over to find her laughing softly at him and he felt his face flush slightly.

  “It’s a little harder than it looks,” he admitted with a smile.

  “Perhaps next time I’ll carry you,” she mocked playfully.

  “I might let you; it’s quite difficult getting used to this power without being able to draw on Gormum’s experiences.”

  His grin faded as he remembered why they had jumped up the hole. He immediately forced himself to get serious again. His mind snapped back to Cero and he quickly looked around to gain his bearings.

  The floor had collapsed away from a section of the corridor forming a rough square that ran from wall to wall. Along the left wall, near the middle of the hole, was the doorway that led into the room that Garen was looking for. From where he stood he could make out only a small section of stone floor in the doorway, and he hoped that the interior of the room was still intact.

  “This is the same way that Cero and I were walking through the corridor as the tremors began. The ceiling caved in behind us and trapped us in this small stretch of the corridor. There was no time to think as the floor gave out, so I did the only thing I could. As the floor crumbled away I pushed Cero into that room and when I woke up I was already down in the throne room. I had no way of knowing whether or not he was okay.”

  “Then let’s go see.”

  “Wait, I think you might frighten him in that form. The horns and tail are kind of intimidating.”

  “Oh, I suppose that you’re right; I'd almost forgotten that I was still in demon form; no one else has ever been so calm around me when I look like this.”

  She quickly transformed back into a human and adjusted her ragged clothing. The shredded cloth barely covered her anymore and its many holes revealed much of the flawless skin that lay beneath. Garen watched her for a moment, until she glanced up and saw him staring. He quickly looked away.

  “Better?” she asked coyly.

  Garen nodded and leapt across the section of missing floor to the open doorway. He landed with one foot in the doorway and he caught hold of the doorway with one hand to steady himself. As he brought down his other foot and stepped into the room, Cassandra landed gracefully behind him.

  The room was just as empty as it had been when he'd first glimpsed it except for the form of a young boy sitting in the far corner. The room appeared much brighter to his eyes than it previously had and he could see the boy perfectly. With his knees were drawn up to his face and his arms wrapped around them, the boy cowered in the corner keeping his head lowered just enough so that his face was completely hidden.

  “Cero, are you alright?”

  The boy jumped a little in surprise and raised his head slightly. Brown, frightened eyes peeked out over the tops of his knees. He stared blankly at Garen as if not knowing what to make of him. Garen slowly lowered himself to the floor and sat down leaving half of the room between them.

  “I was worried about you, so I came back as fast as I could to make sure that you were alright. I
’m sorry if you were frightened, but everything’s okay now. I defeated the demon that was keeping us all here so now we can leave.”

  Cero continued his blank stare, but Garen knew that the boy could understand him. Garen was certain that he was only in shock, and given time, he would snap out of it. At such a young age, Cero had already been forced to witness countless horrible acts of violence and savagery, so Garen wasn’t surprised by his reaction.

  In time he should recover for the most part, but he'll never be the man that he was supposed to be. The demons have stolen that from him. Once we get him out of this place maybe I should take Cero back home with me; I doubt that his parents are even still alive. He's going to need someone to help him put the pieces of his life back together. He's suffered more than enough.

  “Cero, are you hurt at all?”

  The boy didn’t respond at first, but just as Garen was about to say something else, he slowly shook his head. Garen smiled and breathed a soft sigh of relief.

  “I’m glad to hear it. Would you like to come over to me? Then, we can leave together and finally get out of this place. Don't worry; the demons are gone and they can’t hurt you anymore.”

  Cero continued to stare at him without moving; his eyes full of fear and doubt. With slow, cautious movements, Cero lowered his knees away from his face and stood up. His body moved stiffly as he climbed to his feet, and he winced as he stepped down on his left leg. Despite the obvious pain, Cero began slowly making his way toward Garen.

  He must’ve been injured when I pushed him into the room. From the rigid way that he’s moving, it appears that he’s been sitting like that in the corner for hours. He’s certainly one tough kid, though I suppose that he'd have to be to survive in this nightmarish place.

  Cero’s eyes were mostly focused on him as the boy slowly made his way across the room, but his gaze occasionally darted upward slightly before falling back down on Garen again. Garen knew that the boy was glancing nervously at Cassandra and he had to suppress a smile.

  It seems that I'm the only one that isn’t naturally afraid of her. I suppose that in a sense it’s understandable to fear her; she is half demon. Even still, I don’t think that she would ever hurt him or any of the other slaves. If he gives her a chance, he’ll see that too.

  Cero came to an abrupt stop just before he reached Garen. Only a single step separated the two of them, but neither of them made a move to take that step. Garen had been certain that as long as he was patient Cero would come to him, but instead he looked suddenly hesitant. The look in his eyes was one of fear and mistrust.

  Does he know about me somehow? Is this the way that everyone is going to look at me now; with fear in their eyes? I couldn't blame anyone for being afraid of the monster within me, I'm afraid of it myself.

  To his surprise, Cero suddenly rushed forward and wrapped his arms around Garen. Small sobs escaped from the usually silent boy, and he could feel Cero shudder against him. Garen placed an arm around the boy and held him close. He glanced down and noticed an odd mark was branded on the back of Cero’s neck that he’d never noticed before. Something about the mark bothered him, but he decided to ignore it for the moment and focus on calming Cero down.

  “It’s alright, Cero, no one’s going to hurt you anymore.”

  “Garen,” Cassandra asked softly. “What about the rest of the slaves? Many of them came down here out of fear and habit after I was attacked by the demidemons; they’re likely still down here.”

  Garen released Cero and stood up. With his hand still resting on Cero’s shoulder, he turned around to face Cassandra. He stared into her beautiful, blue eyes and smiled.

  “Let’s go and find them,” he replied. “They deserve their freedom as much as we do; it’s up to us to make sure that they have the chance to enjoy it.”

  Garen gestured for Cero to climb up onto his back and stood up once he was settled in place. Cero’s arms hung loosely around his neck and his young face peeked over Garen’s right shoulder. Garen was startled by how little the boy seemed to weigh; he could hardly tell that the boy was there.

  “Alright, let’s go,” he said as he shifted Cero securely into place on his back.

  Garen pushed himself hard as they scoured the passageways in search of the other slaves. He knew that he needed to find them as fast as possible. It had been nearly two days since either he or any of the other slaves, including Cero, had eaten. They were all likely on the verge of starvation.

  Moving much faster than humans, Cassandra and Garen searched most of the ruins in only a few hours. The path that Babossa had made by smashing through the walls led in a nearly straight line back to the entrance. As they located each of the slaves, they sent them back along the trail of destruction to wait by the entrance.

  The debris and rubble that had blocked many of the corridors before no longer posed a problem at all. With the power that he’d gained from Gormum, Garen destroyed every barrier that they encountered in a flash of purple lightning. He knew how to manipulate the lightning in order to obliterate small sections of stone, but the method by which Gormum controlled his power to create such vast corridors and rooms was still unknown to him.

  Garen could tell that Gormum truly had crafted his entire fortress alone as Cassandra had originally explained to him. His control over the power was nowhere near as masterful as Gormum’s had been, but he couldn't risk lessening the mental barrier that he'd erected between their minds in order to learn more about the demon's abilities. Garen doubted that any living being knew the true extent of Gormum’s powers; those secrets were hidden away in the depths of his own mind, but he dared not reach for them.

  After a few unsuccessful attempts, Garen had devised a way to use his power to destroy any obstacle that they encountered. Purple lightning burst from his hands and formed a rectangle of sizzling energy directly in front of him. He expanded the rectangle of energy until it was roughly the size of a door and he filled in its center with a seething mass of energy.

  Cassandra and Cero both watched in awe as Garen simply walked forward into the rubble and his lightning door burned away everything in its path on contact. After that, finding the rest of the slaves had become a simple matter of walking around and sending them back to the entrance. At first the slaves had been reluctant to listen to Garen, but after seeing Cero follow him around, they quickly followed suit.

  Three hours after they'd retrieved Cero, they all stood together before the entrance that led from the ruins back to the tunnel. Garen, Cassandra, Cero, and the 17 slaves that they could find all stared at the solid wall of rock that had led to a wide tunnel only a day earlier.

  “Babossa must have done this on his way in,” Cassandra stated. “He claimed to have sealed us in, but I didn’t imagine that it would be so thorough.”

  Garen placed his hand on the stone and pushed, but nothing happened. Frowning, he pushed harder and harder until it cracked and his hand sunk into the stone. Pulling his hand back, he stared at the depression that it had left in the stone's surface.

  “It’s completely solid,” he stated glumly. “There’s no way of knowing how much of the tunnel has collapsed beyond this point; there could very well be 1,000 tons of rock or more between us and our freedom.”

  “Can’t you just clear the tunnel again with your powers?” Cassandra asked.

  “Yes, but I don’t think that that would be very safe. Since the tunnel has already collapsed once there's no way for me to stop it from coming down on us again after I’ve cleared the rubble away. Even with my powers, the risk of further collapse is simply too great to take.”

  “Then what do you suggest?”

  “That we make a new tunnel,” he said with a smirk. “I’ve haven’t tried to use my powers for something this big yet, but I’m pretty sure that it’ll work. If Gormum used them to build this fortress, then I should be able to use them to escape it.”

  She nodded in response and fell silent as he began looking around for a suitable point
to make his tunnel. After a moment of searching, he decided to make the new tunnel along the same stretch of wall as the old one. Walking about 50 feet away from the collapsed entrance to the old tunnel, he turned and faced the wall.

  “I don’t want to waste any more power than necessary, so this tunnel’s only going to be big enough to walk down single file.”

  “Sounds good to me; it’s bound to be better than staying in here for the rest of our lives.”

  Garen briefly smiled at her, and then returned his attention to the wall. He raised his hands and held them up in front of him with his palms facing out. Violet energy flared to life on his skin and raced down his arms to gather in the palms of his hands. The snap and sizzle of the growing amount of demonic lightning was deafening. As it pooled in his hands, the lightning formed into two spherical masses of tumultuous, ever-shifting energy.

  Arcs of lightning rapidly flared between the two spheres and slowly the two spheres grew in size and began to merge. In only a few seconds, the two spheres had joined together into a single large sphere twice the size of Garen’s head that continued to grow.

  The ball of lightning was still situated against the palms of his hands when it had expanded enough to touch the wall in front of him. Black stone was instantly evaporated in a dome shape as the lightning sphere touched it. More and more of the wall was devoured by the violet lightning as it continued to steadily increase in size.

  After a few more seconds of rapid expansion, the sphere had finally stopped growing. It stretched nearly seven feet across and had erased a dome-shaped portion of the stone floor beneath it during its explosive growth.

  “I hope this works,” groaned Garen with obvious strain.

  In a burst of purple light, the sphere of violet lightning surged forward with blinding speed as an ear-splitting shriek tore through the room. It bored through the stone wall in a flash and burrowed deep into the solid rock of the mountain. A constant stream of lightning arced from each of Garen’s hands to the sphere allowing him to direct it as it tirelessly obliterated everything in its path. The sound of his lightning was nearly unbearable; the sizzle and pop had grown in intensity and volume until it sounded like the droning of some monstrous insect.

  Less than a minute later, he felt all resistance against his lightning sphere disappear in an instant. He immediately relaxed and ceased his attack, allowing the lightning sphere to dissipate at the other end of his newly formed tunnel.

  “There,” he shouted, “I’m through!”