The air is cleaner than before.
I can see it, though I cannot breathe.
They have removed these abilities; breath and heartbeat and intelligible thought.
But I can still witness. I can still feel. I can feel them writhing, they seep into my very soul.
O Vengence Mine.
That is what they used to say; they called for sin, for hatred. They slaughtered all who opposed them; the great Ocean Dragon, the Moon People of Fundament, the Harmony. They are like me, more now that ever once before, as we are all creatures of the dark.
Born of the gaseous sea, long before even my birth in the Dragon Nest and rebirth in the putrid fire, the Gods of Jaw and Wing and Worm.
The one that defied them, however, it escaped. The Life-Giver. The Nomad, as named by the pale Crusaders from the blue planet and cursed by the Rage Bringers stranded upon the red one. The Rage Bringers fight the Cold Ones there, ravaged by dust and sand, and they shall not win. They cannot. They are the weakest of all.
I found the Cold Ones again. They ran from me as I took their home - their sanctuary - now mine. I kept some, however, I have one in my hands. It whistles at me and tries to run when I place it down, but I shan't let it. I must keep a distraction, to sedate the black thoughts swirling in my mind.
He is still there, the shadow. He is the edge of night, and he will cut a swathe through the worlds of this system until there is a path for only darkness to flow. I am growing weaker now, more powerless to fight him, though stronger simultaneously. I feel so much hate, pure and red, like the Rage Bringers in their warships above the Buried City. My hate will be the blade that the dark shall use; he wields me like a ravaging tool of war.
I am powerless.
You are not.
I feel only fear and hatred.
The fear will make you stronger, the hate will whet your teeth.
I cannot oppose his will.
KILL.
I surge, release, and the Cold One in my hands dies as I drive my claws into the white of its chest; unnatural milk flowing from the wound, dripping over tough brown skin. It screams, and I laugh. It sends for help, and I squeeze harder. They feel pain, though they do not understand it, and this one shall never come to know the feeling again. The broken body falls to the floor as so many have done before it. I must be calm, I must not let him win.
But I have already, O Bearer Mine.
Pain. Again. Only pain.
You do not understand. By Mother's might and Worm God's will, I shall conquer all.
Stop, please. I cannot scratch it out.
She rebuilt us both in the ritual, do you not see? We complement one another as no symbiote ever has. We shall rage, I shall rule, and you will be cast aside like the vermin you are, O descendant of Harmony.
This cannot happen, all worlds will die.
You shall see. Sleep now; tomorrow the real hunt begins.
I will sleep, though I must wish.
Wish? Very well, my dearest. You may wish.
You are amused.
You may wish.
I call a Dragon Wish from Harmony, that the Beast within me will be slain and all the stars shine bright once more. In the Ocean Dragon's name I wish it and curse thee!
Insolence.
No, please.
You will not disobey me, O Bearer Mine.
Pain, such pain.
YOU WILL ALL KNEEL TO ALAK-HUL.
Pale Crusaders, come for me. I shall dwell in terror.
YOU ARE READING
Beneath Infinity
Science Fiction"There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world." - Carl Sagan, 1995. In the distant future - beyond an age of gold, surpassing a dark fate - the soul of a young man is torn from t...
