Nick Smith

Adventurer Level: 11

Human – American

The door opened and a humanoid with blood-red skin, black horns, fang-like teeth, and pitch black eyes creature stepped through. There was no doubt in my mind that it was a demon. It was saying something over its shoulder, laughing, but I couldn't hear it very well. My ears were filled with the heavy pumping noise of my fear-addled heart.

It was a demon, the ultimate predator from tales older than the civilization I was raised in. And I wasn't a mighty crusader capable of striking down such evil, I was prey. I knew down to my bones that even with Larie's help, I would lose a fight against it. Like a child fighting an adult. Or an infant against an adult, even.

I glanced around to find something to use against it. Anything to level the playing field. There was nothing on the console. Only the long-dry mug was on the floor. Then my panic-stricken gaze rested on the corpse. Most of the flesh and clothing had long rotted away, but in the midst of the desiccation was a glimmer of hope. Around its neck was a golden chain, holding a little crucifix.

Another demon was directly behind it, trying to get in. I quickly snatched the crucifix, snapping the chain in the process, and held it in front of me. The first demon turned to look where he was going and paused, looking confused.

"What the fuck?" it asked. "A human?"

"Lemme see!" the second demon said excitedly, pushing the first out of the way. "Wow! It really is a living, breathing human! I thought they were all dead!"

"Me too. A rare treat."

The first demon moved from beside the door to just beyond the console faster than I could blink. The reason it stopped, though, soon became apparent. It shrank away from us, clutching its sizzling skin.

"Oh, hey, I'm pretty sure that's a protective symbol," the second demon said with a grin.

"YEAH, NO SHIT DUMBASS!" the first demon shouted. "I DIDN'T FUCKING SEE IT! GAH, IT HURTS!"

"In a good way?"

"NO!" the first demon exclaimed, peeling burnt skin from his arms. "Fuck! Go get the boss."

"Heh, yessir," the second demon casually performed an about-face and left through the open door.

Beyond said door I could see a portal that glowed a nefarious red, but not much else. It shrieked as the demon walked through. I turned my attention to the demon that stuck around.

"Why are you here?" I demanded.

"Huh?" the demon tilted its head. "You tryin' to interrogate me? Why the fuck would I answer your questions?"

"Because I'll get closer," I said, shaking the crucifix for emphasis.

"And I'll get further away," the demon shrugged. "Push comes to shove, I'll even go through the portal back to the hells, and you'd have to be really, really dumb to follow me that far. Or... Wait, I tell you what, kiddo. You've got questions, so do I. Let's trade."

"Fine. You first."

"Nuh-uh. Humans lie all the time," the demon threw a chunk of his skin on the ground. "They can't even help it sometimes."

"Demons are literally known for lying."

"I mean, yeah, but in ironic ways. If I promise to tell the truth and answer your questions in exchange for you truthfully answering mine, I'm bound by that," the demon said, then picked a chunk of skin off of its bare chest and ate it. "So we'll take turns asking each other questions, with me goin' first. I promise to answer your questions just as truthfully as you answer my own. So... Why are YOU here?"

"Fine," I agreed, seeing no other way to get my questions answered. "I came here to find a way back home. So why are YOU here?"

"The village attached to this dungeon, formerly a human shadow-organization base or something, happens to be a good foothold for an assault on the Unified Chiefdom's southern border. We're here to scout the dungeon, in the hopes of capturing the village," the demon said, then raised an eyebrow. "Damn, not a hint of deception in your answer, eh?"

"No, there wasn't," I grinned. "How did you open a portal here?"

"Wait, no, it's my tur- Ah, tricky bitch," the demon winced. "There used to be a crack nearby, but something happened to it that blew it to bits. We've spent the last few centuries regathering the crack's energy into a centralized location so that we could open the portal. Why are you with a lich?"

"He's friendly, and helping me with my goal of getting home. Can demons time travel?"

"Nope. Not unless we're made to by the 'powers that be'," the demon said, performing air quotes. "Time in hell is a little wonky sometimes, but it doesn't go backwards as far as I know. So, did you find your way home?"

"Not to my satisfaction, but I found more information on how to find a way home. We have to find a portal to the anyelic realm or whatever, then pour magic into it to open it up," I sighed. "What do you know about the higher beings?"

"They're one of the powers that be that I mentioned earlier. Don't know much more than that," the demon said, a grin beginning to form on its face. "Also, you're a human. To you, anyels are angels and their realm or whatever is heaven. According to the religion behind that symbol you're holding, if you've been a good little boy, there's a much faster way to get there."

Before I could retort, the portal in the other room shrieked.

"And hey, we can definitely help you with that," the demon's grin widened.

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"I think it's time to leave," Larie said.

"If you move, I'll take your arms and legs."

The interrupting voice didn't so much boom as it danced elegantly into my ears with an elegant yet malicious tone. Its owner was a demon wearing intricately decorated plate-mail, minus gloves. Each finger was tipped in meticulously decorated claws, which I assumed were his weapon of choice given his lack of any other weaponry.

The large demon's horns were adorned with a variety of precious metals, too. His skin was a lighter color than the other demons, and even though he was a full head taller than they were, he stepped forward with a cat-like grace. I couldn't help but wonder if he was the devil.

"Will wonders never cease? A human? In this day and age?" the fancy demon asked. "And a young one at that! How delightful."

He took another step forward and I instinctively turned the crucifix toward him. He raised an eyebrow and smirked at it, then lifted a single finger. Slowly, he pushed the finger toward me until it began to sizzle.

"And it has come prepared," he said, still smirking.

"Who are you?" I asked, trying not to let me fear show.

"Ah, yes, how rude of me to intrude and not introduce myself," the demon withdrew his finger with a small chuckle. "I am Marquess Naberius, Commander of the nineteen legions of the Extra-Planer Vanguard, among other things. And you are?"

"I'm Nick," I said.

Part of me wanted to turn and run, but I was stuck in place. I hadn't even wanted to say my name, but something had compelled me to, and it had taken everything I had not to give my full name. The demon's eyes were deep green and sparkled like emeralds. I realized that it was a mistake to make eye contact and quickly shifted my gaze to his feet.

"I see. And what exactly are you doing here, Nicodemus Smith?" Naberius asked innocently.

A shiver ran down my spine. I knew instinctively that he had pulled my name from my mind. If he had wanted to, he'd have been able to answer his own question.

This was dangerous. Too dangerous. The higher one was right. I took a step back, but Naberius took a step forward.

"I wouldn't," he said. "I'm much faster than you are, and your little crucifix won't save you from me."

The demon leaned forward until the flesh on his face began to sizzle. I watched in terror as his skin and muscle began to melt away, revealing a horrific looking skull where his face had been.

"See?" his disembodied voice boomed around me, abandoning all pretenses of elegance. "My flesh means nothing to me."

'That doesn't seem to be true for the others, though,' Ten added.

"You know, our first invasion of this plane was nearly thwarted by your kind," Naberius stopped leaning and his face began reforming. "Actually, I could say that the reason it failed was directly because of the humans. You see, they captured some of our forward scouts and studied them. They learned our strengths and weaknesses, then took full advantage of that knowledge. We had to focus our full attention on wiping them out, which delayed things long enough for the anyels, or angels, as you know them, to act."

"Your first invasion?" I asked. "You weren't part of the incursion?"

"If the incursion is what you call the break in reality that allowed many of your imaginary beings to become real, no. I'm not even certain that we existed before then."

"What do you mean?"

"The reality breach was the point in which things changed for us, though I couldn't tell you how," he sighed and crossed his arms. "My memory is very fuzzy prior to that event, which is odd when you consider the fact that I can remember every little detail of everything I've experienced since. This leads me to two possible presumptions. The first is that the reality breach also affected Hell and changed us. The second is that whatever created the reality breach created us and gave us false memories."

"You're saying-"

"Yes, my second hypothesis implies that the reality breach wasn't a natural occurrence or accident, and it was directly caused by something with power over our reality."

"But the journal I read says that the Malos Organization caused it."

"And?" Naberius laughed and crossed his hands behind his back. "It isn't as if it's unheard of for a mortal to be a puppet to something grander than itself. You should be intimately familiar with that, seeing as how you've been in direct contact with the higher ones. Mayhap the Malos Organization was promised shiny baubles or eternal youth. Tell me, what have YOU been promised for doing their bidding?"

"They don't want me to do their bidding, they want to watch me try to get home," I replied tersely.

"Ha! Classic. Set the stage for the puppets, cut their strings, and see what happens."

"The puppets would fall over."

"For you," Naberius grinned. "Anyway, this has been a nice little chat, but I think it's time we-"

The next few events unfolded very quickly.

Naberius raised his left hand, revealing that he had carved a symbol into it. It was too bloody to make out, but I noticed immediately that his hand wasn't sizzling. I activated Time Dilation and lifted my own hand with my index finger raised.

"Tellub leets tsac!" I shouted.

The demon commander's eyes widened as the bullet formed and launched toward him. A hole appeared in his left hand, and the top of his head turned into mist. I grabbed Larie's arm and dragged him out of the room, slamming the door behind us. I dropped the crucifix next to it and kept running. We entered the chamber of the flesh boss and turned to look at the hall behind us.

"Do it," I panted. "Collapse the entrance."

"Yes," he nodded and raised his hand toward the corridor we'd just left. "Noisolpxe tsac!"

The floor beneath me shook from the explosion, and the boom echoed throughout the large chamber, causing me to cover my ears. Larie cast the spell a couple more times, and chunks of stone and brick began to fall in the hallway. Before long, the set of double doors had been destroyed, completely replaced by rubble.

We stood in silence for a few moments, waiting to see if the demons would make it through the rubble. Once my adrenaline died down, though, my legs stopped working and I collapsed to my knees. All of the thoughts that the demon's appearance had allowed me to ignore came flooding in at once.

Nothing was like I thought it was. Like I'd hoped it was. I hadn't been teleported or kidnapped into some fantasy realm or something. This wasn't a different world at all.

My world had been destroyed and replaced while I slept.

Everyone I knew was long dead. My mom, my dad, my friends, and Cass were nothing but bones by now. They'd been dead for over forty thousand years. Did Cass succumb to her cancer, or was she...

I glanced back at the pulsating flesh lining the walls of the corridor behind us. The people who did this to us got what they deserved, but even then they managed to take innocent people with them. I wished that they were still alive somehow so that I could wring their necks.

"Are you okay?" Larie asked.

"I'm... I-I don't know," I replied, too tired for tears. "It feels like my world's been turned upside down. Or never existed to begin with. I've been doing all this under the assumption that my family and friends were still alive somewhere. That I could just go back to them. That I could see Cass again. I even had a little hope that I'd be able to discover a miracle cure for her cancer before I returned. But this isn't a different world. It's my world, only everyone I ever knew is long dead."

"It is certainly overwhelming, and it is best for you to feel these feelings and find a way to cope with them. However, the point of this journey is to find a way to get you home, and the higher beings seem to believe it to be possible."

"Yeah, probably time travel or some shit," I laughed sardonically. "But what's the point?"

"The point? I'm sorry, Nick, I'm confused," Larie tilted his head. "Don't you want to see your loved ones again?"

"Yes. A million, billion times yes. But if I go back in time, all of this might happen again. Except I might die right alongside my loved ones. Plus, if I somehow stop the incursion from happening, what happens to all of you?"

"Presumably, we would cease to exist," Larie tapped his bony chin. "Or, perhaps we would instead be born in whatever existential plane our ancestors came from."

"Maybe, but we'll never have met," I said. "So my choice is to stay here and live with having lost my loved ones, or go back and lose my new friends and family."

Larie stared at me silently, seemingly at a loss for words. It wasn't like he would have all the answers, anyway. We would have to find a rift into the anyelic realm. Or heaven, I guess. After a few more moments of wallowing in my self-pity, I stood and brushed my knees off.

"Alright, I'm good," I sighed. "Let's get back to the others."

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