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

Chapter 30

Yuki | ユキ

The blackness is completely empty when I first enter it, but after a moment, the checkerboard floor I remember from the day I was taken from the yellow one appears underneath me. The blackness quits being all surrounding, instead reaching up into a ceiling that must be hundreds of meters away. The floor is strewn with bits and pieces of monsters in various stages of being built. In the distance, I can hear agonized screaming. There is also the sound of some sort of ringing, repeating over and over again, also somewhere far away.

"I told him not to bother me when I'm working," the voice of the Lord of Nightmares growls. The screaming fades into a pained sob. I scowl to myself and drift in the direction of the sound as silently as possible, gathering as much energy around my paws as I can. I focus all of the hatred that I feel for this king of monsters into the dark fog, filling it with a will to pay him pay, a will to make him feel the sort of agony he's injected into my body and put me through otherwise, over and over, my entire life.

The ringing suddenly stops, as does the sobbing. "What do you want, Salesguy? Don't you know I'm in the middle of trying to convert some of the reserves into Dark Matter monsters? And this one's putting up quite the fight, too; there's more... love, or something, I guess, in its heart than in most of them."

I can see him, now. He's far smaller than I remember, only six or seven times my size rather than infinitely bigger. I curl my lips back over my fangs as a shiver of anticipation runs through my entire body. I feel as though I'm filled not just with fire, now, but with some sort of electricity, pulsing through my being inside and out.

"What do you mean there's a monster trashing the place? You mean it's trashing one storage room or something?" he demands. "You can have the robots take care of that, can't you? Is this really important enough to interrupt me over? Choose your answer wisely."

I'm so close now. So close. I hold my paws in front of myself as I inch ever closer, ready to close them around his head and listen to him scream. I hold my breath to keep myself from being heard, able to feel my heart pounding like it's about to beat its way right out through my mouth.

"...What do you mean it destroyed a whole platoon of robots and 15% of the fortress? We don't even make a model that strong!" he demands, his voice quickly growing more angry than annoyed. I hold my breath even more tightly, unwilling to let even the tiniest gust of air leave or enter my mouth or nose. Just a little farther. Just a little closer.

It's finally time to end this.

"...Of course it's one of them," he suddenly growls. "It's always one of them. Get your useless self in here, now."

I reach out for his head, nearly within reach now..

At that moment, he spins around and sees me.

The next events unfold in the matter of a heartbeat. I'm rather surprised at how different he looks in his current form, how much less wrinkled and grey, how much smaller his face and hands are, without long claws. What's more, he actually has a torso, legs, and feet, now. He does have the same black piece on his face over his eyes as always, though, making them impossible to see.

His face shows an expression of surprise, but only for half an instant. By the next time I've blinked, he is huge again, towering over me, having resumed the gray and wrinkled form I recognize from the last time I was in this huge, endless space.

He laughs coldly, his voice much bigger now, as well, but still sounding as though he's speaking more through his nose than through his mouth. "Sneaky, sneaky. You've learned how to cloak your magic so well that even I didn't notice you. That takes a great degree of focus and skill."