Volumes 9 and 10 - Dark Calling/Hell’s Heroes

The sun-like ball terrifies me. It’s not just the heat. Being here is wrong. I feel like I’m breaking a sacred law by looking at this wild globe of wondrous fire.

“We’ve broken more laws than you could imagine by bringing you here,” Art says. “But we cannot always be prisoners of the laws we live by. Sometimes we have to transcend them.”

We press closer to the orb. We’re almost upon it. My mouth is dry. My skin feels like it’s burning. My eyes seem to be roasting in their sockets. I want to turn and get as far away from here as possible. But before I can beg Art to stop, we hit the outer rim and are swallowed by a billion licks of ravenous flame.

→It takes several minutes to cut through the outer ring. I’ve fought demons made of fire, so a realm of flames is nothing new. But this fire is hotter than any I’ve experienced. It roars about us like a living, furious sea. But Art holds firm and guides me through the billowing walls of the furnace.

Finally we break through the flames and enter a realm of bewitching marvels. It’s a vast, oval, grey space, illuminated by constant bolts of lightning. There’s debris everywhere, asteroids, pebbles and dust swirling around. The lightning regularly splits rocks and splinters them, but the pieces join with other shards to form new, larger rocks, which in turn are split again.

The space is dominated by a series of enormous square panels. Half are black, half white. The panels revolve slowly around the sphere, never meeting. Anything that hits the panels – lightning forks, rocks, flickers of flame – is absorbed, then spat out moments later.

Balls of multicoloured light – Old Creatures – float around the black panels. Hundreds of demons cluster around the white squares. My insides tense when I spot the Demonata but Art speaks quickly to calm me.

“They Will Not Harm Us,” he says. “This Place Is Sacred To Both Sides. We Do Not Kill Here.”

“You could have warned me earlier,” I growl, then frown. “What happened to your voice? It’s deeper than before, and echoey.”

“We Are All Speaking To You Now,” Art says stiffly. “We Do Not Experience Individuality When We Are Together.”

I glance around at the various balls of light. They were pulsing in unison as Art spoke. It’s too confusing to think of them all speaking at the same time, so I focus on Art and pretend I’m talking to a single entity.

“What’s the story?” I ask, shivering as a bolt of lightning strikes the film of light around me and is deflected. “Why are we here? What are the big secrets?”

“The Panels Are The Key,” Art says. “You Remember The Chess Board We Saw On The Earlier World?”

“Yes, but what does…” I stop and cast an eye over the panels again, doing a quick count. There are thirty-two black squares and an equal number of white.

“The Original Universe Was Shaped Like A Chess Board,” Art explains. “There Were Sixty-Four Zones, Half Black, Half White. Each Zone Was Limitless In Size. Time Did Not Exist. The Universe Had Existed And Would Exist Forever. It Was The Same For Us And The Demonata.”

“I don’t understand,” I interrupt. “Everything has to begin somewhere.”

“Only If Time Exists,” Art corrects me.

“How can time not exist?” I huff.

“Time As You Know It Began With The Big Bang.”

“I told you I don’t know what that means.”

“Peace,” Art calms me. “We Will Come To That. First, Accept That This Was The State Of The Universe. Sixty-Four Zones, Equal In All Respects, Black Separated From White By A Force We Called The Kah-Gash.”

I focus intently when he mentions the Kah-Gash, ignoring the things I don’t understand. I can try to make sense of the bewildering bits later.

“Demons Existed In The White Zones,” Art continues. “Vile, Violent Monsters Who Could Reproduce. We Inhabited The Black Zones And Were Sterile. That Did Not Trouble Us. Since There Was No Time, We Were Immortal. Death Did Exist – We Could Be Killed – But It Rarely Bothered Us. We Roamed The Endless Depths Of Our Zones, Peaceful And Content.

“Demons And Old Creatures Were Never Meant To Mix. The Kah-Gash Kept Us Separate.”

I spot a disturbance among a group of demons clustered around one of the white panels. Until a few seconds ago, they swarmed around the panel like ants, but now they part, forming two neat ranks. One of the beasts glides between the others, angles for the panel, then brushes against it and is absorbed. I wait for it to emerge, but nothing happens.

“The Demon Is Dead,” Art says. “It Was Ancient, One Of Those Who Existed In The Original Universe. No Living Creature Can Touch The Panels And Survive. Most Of The Original Demonata And Old Creatures Choose To Perish Here When It Is Their Time.”

“One down, just a few trillion to go,” I chuckle humourlessly. Then I pause. “Is that why the other demons are here, to bid farewell to the dead one?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t think demons worked that way. Those I’ve known don’t care about any of the others.”

“The Original Demons Are Different,” Art says. “They Have Known Each Other For So Long That They Have Formed Bonds. We Would Normally Stay Away At A Time Like This, As They Do When We Gather Here For A Funeral. But It Was Important To Protect You.”

“I thought you said you don’t kill here.”

“We Don’t,” Art says. “But If They See A Human, They Might Attack. We Will Distract Them If They Grow Curious, And Defend You If Necessary.”

We watch the end of the ceremony. Nothing much happens. The demons hold their ranks for a while, then break apart and drift towards the ring of fire which encircles the Crux.

“Initially We Were Not Aware Of The Demonata And They Knew Nothing Of Us,” Art resumes. “But The Demonata Were Curious. They Tested The Barriers Where White Met Black, And Found A Way To Cross. They Discovered Us.”

“And they attacked,” I guess. “They set out to kill you all.”

Art sighs. “We Knew Nothing Of War. We Fled For The Furthest Reaches Of Our Zones, Hoping The Demonata Would Lose Interest And Let Us Be.”

“Some hope!” I snort.

“It Was Brutal,” Art says softly. “We Learnt About Pain, Suffering And Loss For The First Time. We Were Innocent, But We Matured Fast. We Had To Or They Would Have Slain Us All.

“We Fought Back. Your People Know Much Of Warfare, But They Have Never Seen It On Such A Scale. Universal, Timeless, A War Of Magic. The Universe Burned. The Kah-Gash Buckled. Ultimately It Could Stand The Strain No Longer.”

We’ve been drifting closer to one of the black squares. It’s bigger than I assumed, several miles high. I feel tiny as we pass within its shadow.

“We Knew We Should Stop,” Art whispers. “The Laws Were Shattering. The Universe Was Crumbling. The Kah-Gash Could Not Hold. But Still We Fought. We Had Become Slaves To War.

“In The End The Kah-Gash Fractured. In A Blinding, Destructive Flash, All Sixty-Four Zones Shrank To The Size Of A Speck. A Split-Second Later, The Ball Of The Universe Exploded. Everything Was Destroyed And Reborn. Life As You Know It Began.”

“And that’s when the universe was created?” I ask.

“Universes,” Art corrects me. “There Are Two. Although There Were Sixty-Four Zones Before The Big Bang, There Was Only One Universe. The Laws Of The White Zones Differed To Those Of The Black, But They Were Held In Place By The Kah-Gash. Now The Two Universes Are Separate.”

“I don’t understand why they exist at all,” I mutter. “Why wasn’t everything wiped out in the explosion?”

“The Kah-Gash Protected Us. Its Last Act Was To Create Two Individual Universes, Dividing The Warring Races. It Hoped The New Structures Would Keep Us Apart. As You Have Seen, They Did Not.”

“OK,” I say slowly. “Our universe and the Demonata’s were born out of the ashes of the old one, like a phoenix rising from the flames after it dies. So what’s this place?”

“This Is The Crux, The One Point Common To Both Universes. The Explosion Happened Here. The New Universes Spread Out In All Directions From This Area. The Universes Overlap Each Other. They Share The Same Space But Never Touch. Except Here. The Crux Exists In Both Universes At Once.”

“And those black and white panels are the remains of the Kah-Gash?”

“Yes, But Only Of Its Body. All Conscious Beings Have A Body And A Soul. What You See Here Are The Kah-Gash’s Physical Remains. The Segments Of Its Soul Flew Off Along With Everything Else.”

“Does that mean there are sixty-four pieces?” I ask.

“No. There Are Only Three. You, Bec And…” Art falls silent, then says, “Something Is Happening.”

“What do you –” I start to ask.

“Quiet!” Art snaps.

I look around, trying to determine the source of Art’s unease. My first thought is that the demons are mounting an attack, but they don’t seem to be paying any attention to us. And the panels are revolving the same as before. So why…

Wait. I’m wrong. The panels aren’t the same. They’re not circling any longer. They’re gliding forward now. Towards us. Towards me.

“Art?” I mumble. “What are they doing?”

“Gravitating Towards You. Possibly Trying To Reunite.”

“Is that bad?” I ask.

Art doesn’t answer. Instead he reverses direction and suddenly we’re flying towards the ring of fire as fast as we can.

“What’s going on?” I shout.

“We Do Not Know,” Art says. “We Had Not Expected Such A Reaction.”

“What will happen if they join?”

“We Are Not Sure. Maybe Nothing. Maybe The End Of All We Know.”

“The end of the universes?” I gasp.

“Perhaps.”

I stare with horror at the giant squares. They’re coming together slowly, but not slowly enough for my liking.

“Will they stop if we get out of here?” I ask.

“We Think So,” Art says. There’s a brief pause. “We Hope So.”

I watch helplessly as we draw away from the panels. It looks like we’ll make it out of here before they join. After that we’ll just have to pray that –

A blast of magic strikes us and Art makes a high-pitched shrieking noise. We’re knocked sideways. I glance to my left, the direction the shot came from. I spot a pack of demons streaking towards us. They unleash more bolts of magic, but the Old Creatures intercept them and blast them aside or absorb the shots themselves.

“Art?” I whisper, fearing the worst.

“I Am Not Dead,” he says. “You Will Perish Too If I Die.”

We pick up speed again.

“Why are they doing this?” I pant, keeping a close eye on the fighting. The Old Creatures and demons aren’t engaging at close quarters – they hover apart and take long-range shots at one another – but it looks ugly. A few of the balls of light are shattered while I watch, and several of the demons are ripped apart.

“The Demonata Wish For The End Of The Universes,” Art says. “They Must Have Seen The Panels Move, Spotted You And Guessed You Were The Source Of The Disturbance. Like Us, They Cannot Know What Will Happen If The Panels Join, But They Clearly Wish To Keep You Here And –”

Art is struck again. He doesn’t slow this time, but his scream lasts even longer than before. We’re almost at the ring of fire, but a demon has broken through the ranks of Old Creatures and is narrowing the gap, moving faster than we are.

We hit the wall of fire and plough through. It feels even hotter than it did the last time. Areas of my skin start to smoulder.

“You Must Use Magic,” Art says calmly. “I Cannot Protect You As I Did Before. I Am Wounded And Must Focus On Opening A Window.”

“If we make it through the fire, we’ll be safe, right?” I yell, doing what I can to counter the burns breaking out across my flesh. “They can’t follow us into the human universe, can they?”

“No,” Art says. “But We Will Not Make It. The Demon Will Catch Us. We Have To Open The Window From Here.”

“Can you do that?” I ask.

“In Theory,” he says, doing nothing to calm my frayed nerves.

Art is struck again, but pushes on, concentrating on the small patches of light which I glimpse through the flicker of the flames. I try to create a barrier to help but there isn’t a strong supply of magic here, at least not the sort I can tap into. The best I can do is cool my skin and quench the worst of the flames.

The demon looks nothing like those I’ve fought in the past. It’s huge, a mass of bulges, not shaped like any animal I’ve ever seen. I’m not even sure where its face is. All I know is that it’s utterly evil, determined to kill us and closing quickly.

“Art…” I mutter.

“We Know,” he replies. “I Have Almost…”

A window of red light forms in the distance, almost impossible to see against the fiery backdrop. I give a shout of triumph, but it’s drowned out when another blast of magic hits us. Art screeches. The bolt of energy drives us closer towards the window, but Art’s scream cuts out midway and the lights around me shatter.

I realise with horror that Art has been killed, but there’s no time to mourn. My flesh erupts, fire exploding from every pore. I scream silently, consumed by flames. In a mad fury I try to slap them out. It’s a hopeless task, but before the fire can finish the job, I hit the window and plunge into the sub-universe of multicoloured lights without anyone to protect or guide me.

NEW FACE, OLD STORY

→There’s no oxygen, so the flames die away. The pain doesn’t, but I’ve no time to focus on that. It’s freezing and there isn’t any air. If I can’t construct a shell around myself, and swiftly, I’m finished.

I search for magic, but there’s nothing I can make use of. This zone of lights contains even less magical energy than there was on Earth. I thrash about like a fish on dry land, lips shut, eyes bulging. I feel my skin tighten from the cold but that doesn’t bother me. I’ll suffocate long before I freeze to death.

As my lungs strain for air that isn’t there, my limbs go still and a calm wave spreads through me. In a way this is fitting. I was always a lonely child. I often felt out of place, not in sync with the people around me. Now I’m going to die in true isolation, more alone than any human has ever been.

A gloomy mist crosses my eyes. I think it’s the shades of death drawing over my face, but then I blink and realise it’s a dark green window which has opened ahead of me. As I stare at it numbly, a ball of light shoots through and envelops me from head to toe. I’ve just enough time to marvel at the warmth it brings. Then my eyelids flutter and I fall unconscious.

→I awake on a grey, cold, ashen world. I sit up, groaning. My skin is blistered. Parts feel raw. But I’m alive.

Something moves nearby.

“Art?” I call.

“No.” A tall black man steps into view. He’s fat, with very dark skin, dressed in an expensive-looking suit.

My eyes widen. “Raz?” I gasp.

“Only in appearance,” the man says solemnly.

“I don’t understand.” I start to rise, but pain prevents me. Grimacing, I frown at the fat man. Raz Warlo was a Disciple. I met him when I first joined Beranabus. He was killed during the quest to find my baby brother. “Why change?” I wheeze.

“The one you knew as Art is dead,” Raz says. “Although shapes mean nothing to us, we know you need them to make sense of the universe. We felt it would be easier for you if I took a different form.” He looks down at himself and frowns. “The suit was a difficult touch.”

“What happened back there?” I ask.

“The panels of the Kah-Gash reacted to your presence,” Raz says. “The demons attacked. We managed to get you out before they killed you.”

“And the panels? Did they stop?”

“The fact that we still exist makes me think so,” Raz says drily.

I nod slowly, then clear my throat. “Art sacrificed himself to save me.”

“Evidently.”

“And you placed your life at risk by coming after me.”

“Yes.”

“Why?” I groan. “Why take me to the Crux and risk your lives for my sake?”

“That will become clear very soon,” Raz says and nods at a rock behind me. “That is a lodestone. It is the reason I brought you to this world. I suggest you use its power to heal yourself before we continue.”

Now that I focus, I realise there’s a strong current of magic flowing around me. I tap into it gratefully and set to work on my wounds, patching up the holes burnt in my flesh.

As I’m sealing the last of the gashes, Raz looks around at the dead land, then says, “Did you ever plan to have children?”

The question throws me and I squint at him. “I hadn’t given it much thought. Probably not. It’s hard to bring up a child when you’re busy battling demons.”

“The Old Creatures can’t reproduce,” Raz says. “It didn’t matter in the original universe, since we were immortal. That changed when the Kah-Gash fractured. Now every creature ages. We are captives of time and the price of our captivity is death.”

As Raz speaks, I stand and stretch. My stomach rumbles. I’m ravenous and thirsty, but there’s nothing to eat or drink, so I do my best to ignore the cries of my deprived body and focus on the Old Creature’s lecture.

“We accepted our mortality,” Raz continues, “but the Demonata craved a return to the way things were. They wanted to live forever. So they set about thwarting the hold of death.”

“How?” I frown.

“As long as the new universes exist, death will claim us all,” Raz says. “But if those universes are eradicated… if the Kah-Gash is reassembled and the old laws are re-established…”

I start to tremble. “Beranabus said the Kah-Gash could destroy a universe. But you’re saying it could destroy both?”

“Yes. The Kah-Gash could draw everything back through time to the moment of the Big Bang, eliminate all that has happened since and restore the original universe.”

“What would happen to us?” I gasp.

“You would have never existed,” Raz says. “Time would be reversed. All the creatures and planets of the new universes would be wiped out. Only the Old Creatures and the Demonata would survive.”

“Why wouldn’t you be killed too?”

“We think we would be protected, as we were when the Kah-Gash exploded. If we are correct, even the new Demonata – the spawn of the original beasts – would be spared, since they carry the genes of their parents.”

“Then why not us?” I ask hollowly.

“You are not our offspring,” Raz says sadly. “New life was created when this universe was born. We have guided many species and helped souls develop. But you are not ours.

“We must go,” Raz says abruptly. “You need to eat, so we will move on.” He sets to work on the tiny patches of light in the air around us.

“What world of wonders are we heading for now?” I ask.

“We’re not going to a world,” Raz says. “We are going to a spaceship.”

PICKING UP THE PIECES

→I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger, walk on the moon, fly around in a rocket, zap aliens with a laser gun, teleport across galaxies. I’ve done a lot more than that in the years since, boldly going to places where no man would ever want to go. Still, that love of spacemen and rockets remains, and when Raz tells me we’re heading for a spaceship, I fill with excitement. But when we slide through the window, it’s into a large room of concrete walls, boxes stacked neatly at the sides, fluorescent lights overhead. There’s a small garden in the middle of the room.

“This isn’t a spaceship,” I grumble. “Spaceships are made of metal, full of stuff like…” I stop, realising how ridiculous that sounds. Spaceships in movies and comics might be like that. But in the real world, built by beings of another planet, why should they be?

“Precisely,” Raz says. “This is a massive craft designed to navigate the vastness of space. It is the size of a city, home to two million creatures. They fled their dying planet long ago and have sailed among the stars ever since.

“Now eat.”

“Eat what?” I ask, looking around.

“Anything,” Raz says. “The crates are packed with nutritious substances. And there are bottles of liquid in those.” He points at the boxes to my left.

“Won’t anyone mind?” I ask nervously, not wanting to get on the wrong side of short-tempered aliens.

“These are excess supplies. Nobody will notice.”

I shuffle over to the crates and lift off the lid of the nearest box. There are large plastic bottles inside. The liquid in them is an unpleasant green colour. The stench, when I snap the top off, is vile.

“Are you sure this is safe?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“Why aren’t you drinking any?”

“I don’t need it.”

Sceptical, I raise the bottle and take a sip. It’s disgusting! I spit it out and grimace, then reluctantly drain a mouthful and swish it around. The taste doesn’t improve, but after half a minute of swishing, I gulp, then lower the bottle and wait to be sick. When nothing happens, I drink some more, then look for something to sink my teeth into. The food is as unappealing as the liquid, but it fills me up. When my stomach can hold no more, I wipe my lips with a hand and glance at Raz.

“Done?” he asks.

“Done,” I confirm.

“Are you ready to go on a quick tour?”

“Can I?” I ask eagerly.

“I know you want to. I can disguise us to look like natives.”

“Great! Let’s do it.”

Leaving the storeroom, we walk down a long corridor, then take an elevator to an upper level. It looks remarkably like the elevators on Earth.

“You shouldn’t be surprised,” Raz says. “We sowed the seeds of intelligence among most of the universe’s beings, and the rest were assisted by those we first helped. There are many similarities between species.”

The elevator comes to a halt and the doors slide open. I step out into a noisy street that could be in any of Earth’s busier cities. Buildings like ours, vehicles that look like cars, streetlamps and power cables. The only difference is that instead of a sky, there’s another level overhead. Otherwise it’s unnervingly familiar.

The same can’t be said for the people. They have no human traits. Long tendrils instead of arms and legs. Their faces, which are in the middle of their bodies, have several gloopy eyes set in a semi-circle around a small, toothless mouth. No ears or nose. Each is a mix of colours. They’re slimy, dripping freely as they pass. Smaller creatures feast on the mucous, an army of insect-like slime-eaters who gobble it up, keeping the paths clean.

I stare for a long time at the aliens, then glance at Raz and myself and frown. “We don’t look any different. I thought you were going to disguise us.”

“I haven’t altered our bodies,” Raz says. “I’m affecting the visual sensors of those around us, so that to their eyes we appear as they do. Yes,” he adds with a grin before I can say anything, “that is pretty cool.”

We wander down the street. I peer in windows as we pass, and even enter a few of the buildings, trying to figure out what the stores are selling, what the creatures are doing, what the buildings are for. Raz whispers in my ear as we wind our way down the street, then turn into another, and another, exploring.

“When the Kah-Gash split, the pieces of its soul shot off ahead of the blast, travelling faster than light or any of the other forces unleashed by the explosion. They darted in and out of the new universes, passing from one to the other as they flew further apart.

“Eventually they slowed and drifted. Sometimes they floated across realms like cosmic butterflies. Other times they disappeared from one part of a universe and popped up on the opposite side in the blink of an eye.

“The patches of light you have seen since birth are physical remnants of the Kah-Gash. There were barriers of energy and magic between the squares of the original universe. When the Kah-Gash exploded, the barriers shattered, but their fragments were used to stitch the fabric of the new universes together. It took us a long time to realise that, since we cannot see them.”