by N. P. Martin
Although of course, there was still Max. That motherfucker would hinder anybodies flow.
"Well, this is pleasant," Max said as I continued to follow the thread. "A nice stroll through the Astral Plane. You do seem to get around a lot for a human, Creed, I’ll give you that."
"You seem to get around yourself a lot," I said. "For a demon."
"Yes, well, we all need a break, don’t we?"
I snorted at that. "That just doesn’t sound right coming from a demon. Tell me, Max, where do you come from? What darkness where you born in?"
"You couldn’t fathom the place of my birth. It’s a place of pure darkness that no human mind could conceive of."
"Try me."
"Unlike most demons," Max said, "I was never something else. Many demons were human once, or some other benevolent creature before the darkness corrupted their souls, turning them into conduits for evil."
"Is that what you are, Max? A conduit for evil?"
"I am a conduit for the Great Darkness. The Great Darkness knows no right or wrong. It just is. That’s what many of you humans fail to understand. There is no stopping evil, because it is a part of the very fabric of the multiverse. It’s a form of energy as pure as that of the energy of creation."
"Sounds like you’re a slave to it."
Max went silent for a moment, just as a large dark shape passed silently overhead, although that wasn’t why he went silent. "I am as much a slave to my nature as you are, Creed," he said eventually. "That’s why I can’t understand your constant condemnation of me. I’m just being what I was created to be."
"An evil annoying bastard, you mean?"
"You’re lucky I don’t have feelings, Creed, or I might just take offense to that."
"And no sense of humor either."
"I dispute that one."
"Really? I’ve yet to come across a demon who does stand-up."
"Ha ha. Your own sense of humor leaves a lot to be desired."
"So I’ve been told…on numerous occasions."
"Anyway," Max said. "The point is, my motives are pure, even if, as a human, you choose to label them as evil. That doesn’t change what I am."
"You ever think about trying something else? Like not being evil for a change? Maybe just going against your nature a bit, to see what happens?"
"No. Have you?"
I thought about that for a second. "Not really."
"Then why would you expect me to?"
I had no answer to that.
Max gave an exaggerated sigh. "You humans," he said. "Such hypocrites at times, expecting the forces of the multiverse to bend unyieldingly to your will, when you yourselves refuse to budge on anything."
"Most of us do our best," I said. "We are who we are."
"My point exactly! And besides, I think I’ve been more than accommodating with you, have I not, Creed?"
"If you call using my body to kill all those people accommodating, then yeah, you’ve been very helpful."
"Sarcasm aside, I think you know I speak the truth. I could make things a lot worse for you, Creed. A lot worse. As it is, I’m helping you locate your long lost loved ones. How much more accommodating could I be?"
"Well, you could stop possessing me, and take yourself back to the Underworld. That would help."
"Eh, no. Not going to happen."
"Worth a try."
"You’ll see, Creed, that my presence in you will be a good thing. You’ll be stronger when I leave…if I don’t kill you first."
"Kill me? I thought we were over that."
"I do what my nature demands of me," he said. "But I am also fair. If I think you deserve to live, I will let you live, assuming your body doesn’t fall apart under the strain of having me."
"I’m not in my body, strictly speaking, remember?"
"Oh, right, you don’t know do you?"
"Know what?" I asked, just as another shadowy shape passed underneath me. It was starting to feel like I was being hunted.
"Part of my essence remains in your physical body back on the Earthly Plane," he said. "Which means your physical body will continue to deteriorate, albeit at a slightly slower rate."
I shook my head. "That’s just great."
"I suggest keeping our little trip short…if you want a body to go back to."
I screamed in frustration into the ether. I couldn’t help it. Being constantly bent over a barrel was taking its toll on my mental state. Although in hindsight, giving away my location to astral predators probably wasn’t the smartest move in the book. Within moments of my scream, I saw a large, dark shape coming up towards me out of the depths like a Great White shark. In an effort to avoid the monster coming at me, I sped up my travel, but the thing coming at me kept getting closer. Then it disappeared, and for a moment, I thought it had gone. Thank Christ for that, I thought.
Until the astral monster burst out of the ether right in front of me. A high pitched squealing noise came out of its huge maw as it came barreling towards me like a giant squid. It even looked like a squid with its thick tentacles and large flashing eyes. As the creature lunged at me, I managed to bank to the left just in time to avoid the huge mouth that snapped at me.
"It’s a feisty one!" Max said with way too much glee in his voice.
"You do realize if I get eaten by that thing, so do you," I shot back as I looked around for the creature, which seemed to have disappeared again.
Max laughed. "A crude creature like that could never hope to consume me. I’d destroy it from the inside out. Besides, the only soul here is yours, Creed. I’m just a spirit."
"Oh, well that’s all right then. Maybe you—"
I stopped mid-sentence when I caught sight of the murky black entity coming at me from the left side. This time I was ready for the creature, having already primed my magic in preparation for an offensive attack. As the creature came squealing toward me, I thrust my hand out and blasted the ugly bastard with a sphere of magical energy that put a hole right through it. Something that was half way between a squeal and a howl came from the creatures twisted mouth, and it sank down into the ether like a sinking ship, its black eyes glowering at me as it did so. A second later, the injured creature was set upon by the other predators in the area, as they proceeded to devour it in a frenzied attack that brought more horrible squeals to my ears.
"Nicely done, Creed," Max said. "We sure showed that thing who was boss."
To be honest, I was surprised at the strength of my magic. I’d forgotten how amplified magic could get in the Astral Plane. I hovered in the ether for a moment, waiting to see if the creature would attack again, but there was no sign of it. Hopefully it got the message that I wasn’t to be fucked with.
I wish I could’ve said the same for the dozen or so other astral predators that seemed to be swarming around me now. The noise of the previous creature must’ve attracted them all. "Shit!" I said, feeling like a lonely herring surrounded by hungry Barracudas.
"I suggest fleeing," Max said, sounding completely unconcerned.
"For once, Max, I have to agree with you."
Trying to take on so many predators at once would have been folly. Even if I did manage to fight them all, my magic reserves would be severely drained. As I would probably need all of my magic in the Realm of the Dead, I decided to do the only sensible thing, which was run. Or rather, barrel off through the ether as fast as I could, still following the silver thread that stretched out before me.
Several squeals and roars sounded behind me as the predators realized I was making a run for it, almost like they enjoyed the excitement of the chase.
My astral form was rocketing through the ether as fast as any bird of prey on the Earthly Plane, but the creatures were keeping up, a few of them managing to come alongside and below me. If one of the grotesquely formed creatures got too close for comfort, I would send a blast of magic at them, which seemed to be enough to keep them at a safe distance.
Until, that is, I felt a pressure around m
y leg that stopped me in mid-flight. I turned to see a thick, dark tentacle wrapped around my left ankle, and the creature it belonged to hanging in the ether not far behind it. Without thinking, I conjured a Flaming Sword in my hand—a sword of pure magical energy that burned a magenta color—and used it to slice through the tentacle holding my leg. The severed appendage dropped out of sight into the ether, the creature it belonged to now mad as hell as it came rushing at me. I waited until the attacking creature was just a few feet away, before quickly moving out of its path and swinging the Flaming Sword, which cut the creature clean in half.
No sooner had I done this when two more of the astral vermin attacked at the same time. I used the sword to cut the head from one of the creatures. The other I stabbed in the abdomen before slicing it in half.
My defensive actions had made the other stalking creatures wary about approaching now, but they still hung around nearby, their dark shapes passing through the ether like moving shadows. It wouldn’t be long before instinct got the better of them and they started attacking again.
Using my small window of opportunity, I began to follow the silver thread once more, this time keeping the sword in my hand in case I was attacked again. When I turned to look, I saw the creatures were still following, but they were keeping their distance. For now at least.
"Impressive skills," Max said. "I think they got the message not to fuck with you."
"No thanks to you," I said. "Feel free to help out sometime. You know…with all that power you keep harping on about. So far, the only power I’ve seen is the power to sit on the sidelines and not shut up."
Max didn’t seem offended at all. "But, Creed," he said. "It is much more fun watching how you handle these situations."
"And if I die? What will you do then? How will you get your answers?"
"I’d get them myself, of course."
"From my family?" I snorted. "They’d never tell you anything."
"They told me lots during their stay with me. Talked a lot about you, Creed."
I didn’t take the bait. "For all their talking, you still didn’t know they planned on making their escape, did you? Which means they kept it from you. Which means they only told you what they wanted you to hear. Which also means, they will tell you nothing about how they escaped if they don’t want to. They might even use such information to their advantage somehow. But me, they’d tell me everything…"
"Yes, yes. You’ve made your point, Creed. You can shut up now."
I couldn’t help a slight smile of victory appearing on my face. A smile which got wider when I suddenly noticed a huge, swirling vortex of deep red energy up ahead. The silver thread was leading right toward it. I hovered in the ether for a moment as I stared in wonder at the gigantic portal up ahead, and at the flood of souls that went from the river below, and into the vortex. Countless balls of light being drawn into the mass of swirling energy like migratory eels, all heading for the Realm of the Dead for processing.
"Looks like we’re here," Max said.
The astral predators were still lurking behind me, so I didn’t hang around. Following the silver thread, I headed straight for the portal…and the Realm of the Dead.
19
The Gray Lands
When I went through the portal, I fully expected to be greeted by hundreds of congregated souls from the sheer number pouring through. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, as I stood on the barren earth in the Realm of the Dead, I watched the torrent of souls come through the portal, and immediately take flight into the gray sky. I assumed the souls were being pulled elsewhere for processing, perhaps to set them up in some mysterious way for their stay here. The processes of the afterlife were all new to me, so I wasn’t too sure what was going on. It was eery, though, watching all those spheres of brilliant light take to the skies.
"It’s something, isn’t it?" Max said as I continued to watch the light show. "All those souls…they are making me hungry."
"Try and restrain yourself," I said. "We’re not here so you can load up on souls."
"You needn’t worry. The powers that be in the multiverse have seen fit to forbid me from taking any soul from the Realm of the Dead. I may only take living souls."
I turned away from the flood of souls pouring through the blazing red portal, and focused my attention on my immediate surroundings. It appeared I was standing in a desert of sorts, that stretched as far as my eyes could see. Not that I could see that far, because the mist surrounding everything made it hard to see more than several feet ahead. As I began to walk across the hard, slightly damp earth, I wondered where all the souls were. If this was the Realm of the Dead, then surely it should have been packed with the souls of people? Not only could I see no one, I could also hear nothing that suggested people might be anywhere near. In fact, I heard nothing at all; there was nothing but the eery silence. "Well," I said half to myself as I made my way through the mist. "This is creepy."
"It’s the Realm of the Dead," Max responded. "What did you expect, a theme park?"
I shook my head at his sarcasm. "I expected something. Not nothing at all."
The Realm of the Dead is also known as the Gray Lands, if I didn’t mention it before. I was starting to understand why. I’d never seen a drearier place in my life.
I stopped then and took the Soul Finder Ray had given me out of my pocket. It appeared that everything was now a solid form since entering the Gray Lands. I no longer had a translucent astral body, but a solid one, as if I was back on Earth. With all my knowledge of things magical and esoteric, it still amazes me how the universe works, and how the entire physics of a world can be completely different to another. I don’t think any one person is meant to know or understand everything, though. For all my questing after knowledge, I know my limits (most of the time anyway). Gordon Grayson didn’t know his limits when he sought after the Dark Codex, and look what happened to him. So if things in the multiverse want to change from one place to the next, that’s fine by me. I don’t need to know the ins and outs of everything.
"That’s very philosophical of you, Creed," Max said. "I’m sure the powers that be in the multiverse appreciate your understanding."
I sighed and shook my head as I looked at the Soul Finder in my hand. "Are you always listening to my thoughts? Doesn’t it get tedious? Boring?"
"No, not really," Max said. "My mind does not work the way yours does, Creed, or like any other human. It is true, you beings are tedious bastards most of the time, repeating the same thought patterns over and over until you die, but…"
"But what? You get some sort of twisted enjoyment from people’s abject misery and lack of understanding, as we flounder like dying fish on the ocean bed called Earth?"
"That’s actually not far wrong, and quite poetically put, Creed. Anyone would think you were learned hearing that. You left out one thing, though."
"Oh yeah? What’s that?"
"The fact that I am a balancing force in the multiverse."
"A balancing force? Sounds pretentious."
"I don’t care how it sounds to your sensitive ears, it is nonetheless true. Without beings like me—"
"Evil fuckers, you mean?"
"Call us what you will—demons, monsters, Titans…evil fuckers. We are all the same. We are all born of the great multiverse, and brought forth for a reason."
"To provide balance." I shook my head. "Because the world just has so much good in it, that it needs parasites like you to keep it in line. Right. Okay."
"Is that how you think of me, as a parasite?"
"Don’t go getting offended now, Max. In spite of your pretentious reasoning for your existence, you are a parasite at the end of the day…currently feeding off me."
Max went silent, and for a dreaded moment, I thought he was going to retaliate by causing me horrible pain, or taking over my body again, neither of which I wanted to happen. But I wasn’t going to listen to his bullshit and not counter it with the truth. I may have been under attack by a
demon, but I still had my dignity and integrity, neither of which I was prepared to give up just because some demon liked hearing the sound of his own voice…or rather my voice.
"Think of me however you like," Max said eventually. "Your words mean nothing to me anyway."
"I don’t know, Max," I said with some glee that I didn’t even try to hide from him. "It sure sounds like they do mean something. Maybe all this time around humans is beginning to…rub off on you."
"Nonsense."
I couldn’t help but smile. "Your affected tone says it all."
Inside, I could practically feel him seething. "I’m warning you, Creed—"
"Okay, stop right there, Max. Can we just quit the bickering for a minute so I can figure out where we have to go from here? That way, everyone gets what they want sooner rather than later. Is that all right with you, or do you want to waste more time with your petty tortures?"
"Fine," Max said like a scolded child, just as a stabbing pain in my stomach that lasted a splitsecond caused me to double over. "Just remember who is in charge here."
"Jesus, was that really necessary? Are you that fucking insecure that you have to hurt me every time you want to make a point?"
"Pain is a great motivator. I’ve learned that about humans."
I sighed. "Put it in your definitive guide to humanity then. In the meantime, I’ll just wait for the Soul Finder to get its bearings, and then we’ll be off…somewhere. Into the fucking mist that is everywhere."
Max backed off for the time being, while I stared down at the Soul Finder, which was part mechanical and part magical. I was beginning to wonder if perhaps the realm we were in was interfering with the device in some way, or maybe interfering with the flow of magic in general. To test my theory, I tried to form a sphere of energy in my other hand. The energy appeared as expected, but it looked weak, and not as vibrant with color as it should’ve been. Which told me that magic worked in the Realm of the Dead, but the magic itself was only half strength at most. This worried me for a moment, but then I decided there wasn’t much I could do about it. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to use much magic anyway, if at all.