The Necromancer

8 Hours Later

"Wizard! I have the man you wanted to see!" Arthur called as he came down the steps, Ivan close in toe.

Xala met them at the bottom of the steps, writing one final signature before he looked at them. "Grand! Come, come, you two haven't got all day!"

He then motioned to two white chalk marks on the ground in the middle of the dungeon.

"One for each to stand on." Xala said as he picked up a journal and began writing.

The two took up their places, and looked at each other with confusion.

"Say, what is this part of the study going to be?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah, and what's this talk about ye being a Devil?" Ivan followed up.

"What?" Xala asked as he looked to Ivan.

"He's right, I feel like there's a rumor around the castle, but I've only just now thought about it."

Xala looked at them with wide, calculating eyes.

His red eyes then slid across the room, and looked directly at the wizard in the cell, who was focusing intently on the two.

When the wizard realised Xala's stare, he jumped in shock, as if he had been in a trance.

"Spreading lies, are we?"

"A lie to you is a truth to me, worm-ling!"

Xala grinned, and in the next second One ran into the wizard's cell like a maniac and smacked the hell out of the wizard. Until he fell unconscious.

The Necromancer looked back to the two, and grinned. "On with the test." When he finished the last word, the world went black for Ivan and Arthur.

Everything was gone. All light, the stones, Xala, the wizard, One, it was all gone. The two looked at each other. Both of their bodies, to either one's eyes, was warped and wavy along all edges. Their bodies began to unfold and retract into geometric shapes and mandalas.

They stepped towards each other in the darkness, and embraced each other in a hug as they both had spikes growing from their bodies. They kept together in the darkness, even though they knew nothing about one another, and simply observed as they were warped into masses of spikes. Slowly, their heads merged to form a double-sided entity, and the spikes merely grew. They could not separate themselves even if they tried.

The spikes on their body began to fall, and fall, and fall into the abyss below. Until, right before the spikes were completely invisible, the spikes bloomed into a huge mass of land.

They watched with terror and amazement as the world below them bloomed into a scape of rivers, lush rolling green hills, beautiful deciduous forests, and mountains ridges that nearly touched the tips of their toes.

Tears streamed from their faces, especially as flames began to consume rivers. From the rivers, the fire leapt onto trees and scorched their beautiful world. Their tears streamed down to the earth like great waterfalls, attempting to cleanse the world of flame.

Yet, their unconscious efforts were for nothing, especially as the mountains melted underneath the fire, until there was only bright, luminous orange, red, and blue. They both screamed in terror as the flames shot towards them as a great unstoppable force.

A gaping maw opened up within the flames, like that of a World Serpent.

From above, the blue sky was only a bloody red as even the clouds seemed to turn on them, becoming soot-black and rushed for them like hordes of assassins, daggers in hand.