Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 2: Stars in Far Places

Chapter 20

Captain | 大尉

I've only been in this place a few times, but I certainly have never wished to return to it. 'The Impossible Room,' it's called by the many inhabitants of the fortress, both those made from unwilling, stolen souls, and those made from nothing. The room that takes up so little space within the fortress, and yet appears to be infinite once you have gone inside. The room where the life of every manufactured monster begins.

The lifeless frame of an unfinished monster-in-progress is slumped, rather like a child's cast-off ragdoll, on the floor near Yuki and I. The floor looks like a weird sort of checkerboard, with strange pawns and pieces strewn all over it in various states of life, half-life, and lifelessness. Some of them are in pieces, having yet to be put together. All of them have no eyes.

The checkerboard, which in and of itself is huge beyond imagining, is surrounded by a starless expanse of space that seems to go on forever in all directions.

And somewhere within this space, the Lord of Nightmares sits, silently watching us, keeping himself hidden, as always.

That thought is more horrifying than everything else in this room put together.

Yuki stands next to me, nearly as lifeless as the chess-piece-like wooden horse creature that lies on its side on the square next to her. Her face betrays no sign of emotion. She just stands here, empty, uncaring, just as she has ever since she was thrown through the tear caused in the fabric of space and time by the opening of the 'door' to the office.

On the other hand, I am unable to hide my fear. I am trembling as hard as I ever have, filled with blind panic and terror, fear of the one I know is hiding in the shadows. He may be the one who made me what I am, and he may not own me thanks to the deal we cut all those years ago, but he still could easily erase me in the matter of an instant. There is a reason I have not killed him already.

The silent room is suddenly filled with a deep, rumbling laugh that makes the checkerboard floor shake like a mild earthquake. Yuki shows no reaction other than to narrow her eyes slightly. I fall to my knees and bow low before the fiercest evil the Galaxy has ever known, still hoping against hope that maybe he'll somehow see fit to spare us.

A giant hand, gray with wrinkled skin, descends from above us and stops short about five feet above our heads. It pauses for a second, before reaching for Yuki.

"No!" I cry out, extending a glove towards her, even though I know it will achieve nothing.

Yuki's reaction is very different. With an angry shriek, she forms a cloud of darkness around herself. The hand jolts back, as if burned, and freezes for a moment, several feet above her head but still within sight.

The room fills with even louder, stronger laughter.

And then, in ice and terror, he speaks.

"You really are something special, aren't you, tiny one?"

Yuki snarls at his hand above her, and continues to keep her dark shield around herself. "Yes, if you're truly capable of this sort of power, it really is a good thing that I removed you from the story so early on," he continues, sounding bemused. The sound, though not nearly as loud as you might imagine, still fills my ears and my head with such raging pain. I clutch my gloves over my ears to block it out, still cowering on the floor, but the voice is still in my ears, in my head.

"It's just too bad that I've let you be so thoroughly ruined for so long. If I'd just managed to break you sooner to begin with, I could have used you for so many great things." His voice is soft, so soft, yet so unbearably big and monstrous. "If I could have set you at the front of my army, my little pure-white commander, and set you loose upon the worthless puffball forces... Oh, that would have been great fun, tiny one. Great fun for the both of us, no less. You could have been the face of my corporation for the next war. It's a pity, isn't it, that it's too late now... Eh, Captain?"