by VoidRinkusu » Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:27 pm
Kaliber: Male, pansexual (maybe a little gay), would break the world for his bro Midas, Psyche taught him poker and has never won a game against him since. Personality is mostly explained in story; but here's some stuff I didn't touch on: he forgets to use his head sometimes and is a social outcast but doesn’t care. Secretly enjoys creepypastas. The more excited he is when he talks, the less his words make sense. 'Holds his heart in the right place.'
Author’s note: I wrote this in first person format from the perspective of Kaliber. Also, my apologies if this is a bit long, I was having a good time. Also, if this is the winning entry, I’ll go and make Caai and Tilic real kalons and we should chat about whether Midas can stay part of this crew. Sorry if the internal dialogue is hard to follow, I had it in bold and itlalics but it doesn't count when you cut and paste. I also had some formatting stuff, small things that made it better. If you need to see the proper version, I could PM the link to you.
~+~
I was sleeping soundly when the alarm went off a few minutes early. I rolled over, only acknowledging it with a grumble. Midas got up and turned it off, continuing with his morning routine.
We share a room, not saying that I mind, of course, he’s the sibling who I’m closest to. He doesn’t like talking much with people that aren’t family because he gets all choked up and is nervous about what he is going to say, he’s scared that he’ll embarrass himself, but I have always been able to understand him so I can usually put words to his thoughts. Kinda odd, Psyche calls me his translator. We’ve always stood up for and been there for eachother, and as we have a much harder time making friends than Astraea or Adonis, we often work together on cooperative projects and assignments. After all, we are both studying to become pilots at ORIO. Partly because we both marveled at the thought of steering our own ship, partly because of our rivalry. Ever since we were kids we have has a knack for challenging each other and trying our best to one up one another. Although, we do it for kicks; if the other kalon doesn’t feel like it, we don’t push them to do it. We usually only come up with things like this just a few times a month and most of them are little things like seeing who can chug an icee without getting a brainfreeze longest.
The next thing I know I’m being gently woken up by Midas.
“Kaliber, you ought to wake up, it’s forty minutes after the alarm went off. You fell back asleep.”
I groggily open my eyes, rolling over just enough to check the clock. He’s right. I looked back up at Midas who had just sat down on my bed next to me. He handed me a tray with marmalade toast and hot cocoa, smiling softly.
“I didn’t really want to wake you, so I let you sleep for a while and organized all your stuff into your schoolbag.”
Kind of him, I would probably just microwaved some leftover Chinese food or grabbed some granola bars. Midas was the one who cared about this kind of stuff, he only eats dinner as dinner, but I say there’s nothing quite like dinner for breakfast. I took a bite of toast, replying with
“Thanks bro, sorry, I don’t usually sleep in like that.”
I swallowed, taking a sip of cocoa before I continued with my toast.
“But school doesn’t start for another hour so I’m pretty sure tha- HACK”
I narrowly avoided choking on my food. I just sat there for a minute, dazed.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full of food~”
Midas chided jokingly. I stood up, grabbing my sketchbook and placing it in an unoccupied corner of my breakfast tray so it would be easier to carry with me. (It was Adonis who took after Eros’ love to paint, but I spent my free time sketching.) Midas did the same, instead getting his comb and running it gingerly through his morning sun colored hair. I simply ran a paw through my metallic ash hued hair. It didn’t require as much attention as Midas’ but I liked to keep it in check. I learned everything I know about keeping my hair looking good from him. After dragging Adonis out of his bed (we literally had to carry him halfway through the hall before he woke up, his only response was “ Oh, hey bros, what's up?”) the three of us made our way downstairs to join the rest of our family for breakfast.
~+~
At the end of the day, I was walking back to school campus with two other kalons who were pretty good for chatting with. One of them was named Tilic; he was a rustic red with coral patterns, with a jean jacket that I liked, who studied mechanics. The other was named Caai who was mainly blue with some green and beige highlights with half rectangle black glasses, who studied navigation. We had gone on a field study that day and the bus home only took us most of the way because it had some important stops it needed to get to. We were far behind the rest of the group, we had stayed late to write down some notes. We were somewhere out in town, when all of a sudden someone drives up in a roofless car wearing a vest with the school logo on it. He stopped beside us, engine still humming, and asked us if we wanted a ride back to ORIO. I didn’t recognise him, but I didn’t know everyone at the school and was tired, so I didn’t question it. It would be a much longer walk; Eros, Iris and Midas would be worried sick and ask where I had been, so we all hopped in the car. Besides, if something went wrong, I always had my trusty switchblade with the rustic red handle, Iris had warned me to keep myself armed, you never know what could happen.
Once we got very close to the school, we took a turn in the wrong direction. The guy giving us the ride told us he needed to get something real quick. We continued down a road I had never been on before. The sides were lined with large buildings crumbled down to ruins without signs of life. They cast long shadows in the near sunset light. The fur on the back of my neck stood on end. There’s something odd here. I looked over at the Tilic and Caai, they didn’t seem to notice anything, but Tilic was fascinated by the old structures. The car stopped in front of the most intact building so far. One solid floor was intact of the nearly mansion sized building until the sand colored brick started peeling off onto the ground below. The guy driving us went inside telling us he would be back in just a second. We waited there silently for quite a while. The sun had fallen lower in the sky, and the feeling of something being wrong was making my shoulders tense. I suggested we go in and find that guy so we could get back home. So much for not worrying my family. I grabbed my switchblade on the way in. Just to be safe. I looked at the ominous building, looming in front of us and I tightened my grip. Just to be safe.
Caai went first, he had brought a flashlight so he could shine the light through some maps to see some code or something, which didn’t make much sense to me but boy was I glad he had it, the inside of the ruin was pitch black. Odd, I would think they would build some windows in a mansion, maybe they just caved in. I was looking at the wall closest to us, listening to some distant sound like a sequence of sighs and stumbled over some loose bricks, which didn’t help much with the paranoia I was already feeling.
“You alright?” Asked Tilic, who was walking behind me.
I just nodded in return. The chances of me voice cracking if I tried to reply were over 70%, which are odds I don’t like. I almost walked into one of the many shelves stationed along the hallway. They were on wheels and made entirely out of metal. They were old and rusting, with nothing on them, they looked skeletal; like the ribcage of a long dead animal. I shivered. Let’s not think about that. The distant noise was getting louder, as though we were walking towards whatever was making it. No, whoever, it was clearly some kind of whispering, though it was very unclear. Odd, if someone was whispering within ears reach we should have encountered them by this point, there were no doors and no place to hide. They must have huge lungs, they had been whispering continually without pause enough to take a breath. I looked over at Caai and Tilic, they didn’t seem to hear anything. The farther we went the more claw like tears seemed to separate the faded wallpaper, growing larger and more clearly defined, tearing away at the brick behind. I reached out to run my paw against one, before touching it I paused, it was huge. Tilic and Caai stood beside me, watching out of curiosity. Caai shone the flashlight on it, making it cast odd shadows in on itself.
“Big, isn’t it?” Ellu whispered, it felt appropriate not to talk with a full voice. I slowly rested my hand on it, and froze. The whispering stopped. My eyes widened as I heard a low, slow laugh reverberate through my skull. My vision flashed white for a second and the scratch in the wall had turned into a gleaming, lifeless grey eye. I saw my face reflected in it, and my pupils had turned the same dead color. An image of Tilic and Caai chained to some kind of abyss, frozen and screaming, a low, soundless tone glowed in my mind. A horrid smile came out from behind them, five times their size. The eye flashed across my vision, then returned to the image of the abyss, but now it was Midas chained there, his normally luminous eyes hollow and bleeding. My vision faded to black but the smile stayed, and I heard that same, horrid laugh.
~+~
“MIDAS!” I screamed waking on the floor of the hallway. I sat up, breathing hard, and I scooted so my back was against the wall opposite the scratch in the wall. It wasn’t an eye anymore, but the center was a pale grey. Wasn’t just a dream then. I looked down and saw three rings of white gouged into the floor, going outwards from where I had woken up. I looked around me, all of the rolling shelves had been flung to the other ends of the hall, away from the scratch, and most had been tipped over. I saw Caai shining the flashlight at me, holding it with both hands, trembling and wide-eyed. The light glimmered against the designs on my tail. Tilic was standing just behind him. They were both staring at me. I calmed my breathing and ran a paw through my hair.
“A-are you alright?” Asked Tilic, trying to make his voice sound casual.
“Yeah,” I said, smiling at them, “Sorry if I scared you guys. How long was I out?”
They calmed down and walked over to me, Caai giving me a hand to stand up and Tilic giving me a supportive pat on the shoulder.
“No more than a minute.” Tilic answered as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders to lighten the tension.
“Let’s go back, get out of this nightmare.” I sighed. I am not going to keep going like that idiot in every horror movie ever, we can just walk back to ORIO. Boy, will I have a story to tell Midas. We got back to the beginning of the hallway, and my grin faded to a defeated expression. There was no longer a door. Just a wall, with writing on it with blood saying ‘Turn around and face me, cowards, or you may be the note I leave for the next fools who try to escape’. It wasn’t very comforting. We looked at each other, each kalon as spooked as the next. Caai slowly turned around and his eyes grew larger than they already were. Tilic and I turned around as well. There was no longer a hallway, just a wall with a gaping hole with it, sharp metal jutting out of the sides the same color as the rolling shelves were. Tilic cussed under his breath, clearly as horrified as I was.
“Stranger offers us a ride. Takes us to a dead town. A hallway knocks out Kaliber and now we only have one way to go: into certain doom.” Tilic sighed, rubbing his forehead, “But why did the writing have to be in blood?” I got my switchblade out and opened it so they could see it, ten inches and gleaming in the luminescence of the flashlight.
“It’s probably some prank, besides, I have this and I know how to use it. We’ll be fine.” I was amazed at how confident I sounded. But it seemed to calm them down, so we continued to the hole in the wall, gaping at us with it’s metallic fangs.
~+~
The room was huge, like the entryway of a castle. A large space with fading rugs covering most of the floor and wrapping up the twin staircases to a grand entryway to what must be another room, the doorframe of this seeming to be in new condition, considering the wilting look of everything else. It had a very roman design, but with odd creatures wrapped around it. Looking down between the staircases you could see some stuff, but we were too far away to see what it was.
“Let’s go check under the stairs.” I suggested, pointing in the general direction.
“Yeah,” Replied Tilic, “Good idea.” We both looked over at Caai who seemed to be studying the walls, looking for something.
“Mmm, all right, nothing interesting on the walls, not even any scratches through the wallpaper.” We made our way over slowly. The floor of this room must have been wood because it would creak on occasion. Not going to lie, it scared me the first few times, the way it echoed around the room. I hadn’t been paying attention but the whispering seemed to have started up at some point. It was clear now, in a hollow voice that buzzed at the end of a string of whispers, but I didn’t understand it. Must have been in a different language but I didn’t recognize the accent from any of the languages I knew about on earth. Midas used to watch some documentaries on cultural stuff, and every time there would be someone who spoke a different language so I could recognise what most of them sound like. Oh Midas. What I wouldn’t give to just be with my family right now, instead of this ruin.
“Tilic, Caai?” I began, “Do you guys hear the whispers too?”
“Whispers?” Caai replied, voice cracking slightly, both shocked and spooked.
“Pff, very funny, but now might not be the time to be joking about that.” Tilic pointed out. He looked at my face and saw how serious I was and was clearly remembering what happened in that hallway. He sighed, asking me what it was saying.
“I don’t understand it. It’s clear as glass, but it must be in some different language.” They looked at each other. Tilic closed his eyes and nodded before we continued. Once we approached the back wall we could see a pile of stuff.
“It’s barricading some door.” I said. I don’t know why either. You couldn’t see a thing past all the stuff, but I could tell I was right. The whispering had cut off, chuckling, then saying ‘not supposed to know that’ before continuing in whatever language it was using before. Great to know, it speaks english and seems to be stalking us. I thought.
“Well, I suppose that could make sense.” Tilic said, taking off his jean jacket, “Here, hold this.” He held his jean jacket out to me, so I took it.
“Why?” I asked, adjusting my grip on it. Ellu looked over his shoulder and smirked flipping his arm up and flexing it.
“If I had it on, the sleeves would have exploded. I’m going to try to move some of this stuff.” He managed to all of the stuff off, including some extremely heavy stuff. I was wondering whether the whole ‘sleeves exploding’ thing was actually a joke, but I guess you have to be strong to be a mechanic. He stepped back, letting out a sigh. He took back his jacket and put it on, rolling his shoulders. You could tell he felt proud, but he was cool enough not to brag about it. We opened the small steel door behind, it opened into some closet. There was a short round table with a glimmering white key on it. Tilic took it and put it in one of his pockets.
“Wonder what it will lead to.” Said Caai, stating what we were all thinking. We made our way over to the right of the wall and Tilic pointed out that he saw something in the shadow of one of the staircases. We went over to see what it was. A statue made of quartz or marble depicting an angel with cloth wrapped around it’s eyes. I took a step closer, squinting at it.
“Huh, it’s holding something.” I pointed out. It was a small black box with a lock. I picked up the box and Tilic got the key out of his pocket. A smooth click resonated through the room. It worked. I looked inside. A small black bottle with white designs carved into it, whoever made it must have been exceptionally punctilious to get it to look that good. As I was examining the bottle Caai reached into the box and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. It was incredibly old, and as he unfolded it you could see that the ends had frayed and turned darker. A puzzled expression grew on his face, he adjusted his glasses and squinted. He flipped the paper over, then flipped it back.
“Unusual, there is nothing written on it.” He observed, brows furrowed, still staring at it.
“Le’ me see.” Tilic said, getting Caai to give him the paper, then doing the same thing. He said nothing but he cocked his head in puzzlement. Tilic looked up and handed the paper to me, Caai watching intently. There was clearly writing on it.
“Shatter me, shatter him.” I read aloud, “Wonder what it means.” I think we were getting used to whatever was happening with me by this point, although I think it still bothered us, it atleast got on my nerves.
“Hmm. I’ll see if I can’t think… Kaliber?” Caai cut off, looking up at me.
“Yeah?” I replied, he almost sound concerned.
“Something is talking to you telekinetically, right?” The way he said it was far better than if I were to have tried explaining it.
“Mm-hmm.” I replied, wondering where this was going. He was silent for a minute, then folded his arms together but lifted his left hand to rest against his glasses.
“Interesting theory…” He mumbled to himself, then looked up to address us. “I’ll have to ponder about it.” I took the bottle with me, holding it in my left hand, switch blade in the right.
We went up the staircase to the right, Caai looking pensive all the while. We neared the door and Caai drew a sharp breath.
“What the ..?” Exclaimed Tilic. I looked where Caai was pointed the flashlight and immediately my stomach flipped. It was the body of the kalon who drove us here, sprawled across the floor and nearly mutilated. Caai stepped forwards to inspect it, crouching to see it closer..
“Burn marks, in the patterns of some kind of runes. Whatever did this was not human, nor kalon.” He stood up. And looked down at it in distaste. When you see a living person you call them a someone. What do you call a corpse, someone or something? Looking at this torn up mess, I would say something. It was hard not to gag.
“Let’s just keep going.” I suggested. Caai and Tilic nodded, so we walked on, coming to a stop at the looming doorway. I stepped forwards.
“Only one way to go.”
~+~
As I stepped through the doorway I couldn’t help but gasp. Looking up and slowly turning around, I watched the sky. The walls and roof had crumbled away here, but instead of seeing the night sky, some distant star system was displayed above. You could even see it evolve and change, as though it followed a different rate of time than this world. It’s incredible how small that makes you feel. A star burst and wrapped everything around it in luminous dust, until it spun itself into a black hole. I took a deep breath and only then did I realize that I hadn’t been breathing. I don’t want this moment to end.
“Uh, I get that the night sky is cool and all, but you can barely see any stars through all this fog, and you’re acting as though this is the most interesting thing that has ever happened to you. And not saying that this whole thing through this ruin hasn’t been an adventure and all but-” I had to cut Tilic off there. I explained what I saw. Look, I rarely cry or anything, but this was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, so I don’t think it’s fair to blame me for my eyes getting all watery. I chuckled, looking down and wiping my eyes.
“Must be pretty darn gorgeous.” Tilic said, clearly wishing to see. Caai pushed his glasses farther up on his face, lowering his gaze from the stars to look around the room. I glanced around as well. Barren, except for the occasional candle. Wait, there’s something odd with those candles… I looked harder, and was shocked to see that the flame was a deep blue. I’m not sure whether I thought it looked cool or whether it creeped me out. Probably a bit of both. Tilic went over and grabbed one by the end, it looked to be burning slowly, so it would probably be safe to hold. It reflected nicely against his soft rust colored fur and brought out the coral designs. It made his green eyes look like an ocean, the flickering of the candle stirring waves. The determined look on his face and the jean jacket just topped the look. He tilted his head to the side, looking at me confused. Oh, crap, was I staring? I tried to look away as casually as possible and asked Caai what he thought we should do next.
“Well, first things first, we ought to-” He was broken off by a loud rumble coming from the far end of the open roof. All the blue candles flickered out and the lightbulb in Caai’s flashlight popped, making us jump. The same laugh I heard earlier came out from the rumbling noises. I looked over and saw a dark figure move out from the odd mist circling the area.
“What’s going on?” Called Caai, clearly as confused as I was. The dark figure stretched out, it was about seven times as big as I was, and it still seemed to be hunched over. The smile I recognized from the illusion in the hallway spread across what I could only assume to be it’s face. Three of those dead, grey eyes snapped open, and seemed to focus down on us.
~+~
The edges of the open roof burst into flames, shedding light onto the monster. It seemed to be on all fours and had a bull-like build. It was black, not including the white patterns wrapped around it’s head, neck, and legs, running down it’s spine and tail as well. A proud and impressive display of horns sat atop his head, long and deathly sharp. It’s legs were large and built for a powerful kick, though it didn’t look like it could move them by the way they seemed to melt to the floor. It did however have four tentacles protruding from it’s shoulders, also looking as though they were melting. Odd, looking closer the entire beast seemed to drip as though the outer layer of whatever it was made of had turned a liquid against the cool night air.
“Ok.” Tilic began in a ‘at this point it’s not even surprising’ tone, “What is this thing?” Caai adjusted his glasses looking up at the beast.
“Well, if you weren’t superstitious before, you will be now.” He looked over at us, “This is a demon.” When he saw our doubt filled and shocked expressions, he went on, “Well, it clearly isn’t any alien lifeform that we know of and it perfectly fits the description.”
“Not bad.” The thing spoke in a voice like thunder, it’s mouth opening to show multiple rows of crooked fangs, “But quick thinking can only get you so far,” One of it’s tentacles shot bolt upright into the air and came at Caai, wrapping around him and picking him up. He must have been dizzy from the speed he had been lifted at because he didn’t move for a second, then started struggling, hitting the beast with his busted flashlight.
“Your mind is useless in a battle if your body can’t keep up.” It finished, shaking Caai a few times just for the fun of it.
“I might tear you apart, like I did that other kalon. Hah, the fool summoned me, offering you three as sacrifices. He tried to control me. So instead, I decided upon taking four lives today.” That monster.
“Oi, you put him down, right now!” I yelled at the demon, my eyes flaring with rage. I had never felt this hyped before. The demon smiled at me bringing it’s head down to my height, he was a good 20 feet away but it still unnerved me.
“Why don’t you make me, mortal?” It’s smile turned into a sneer. I had never felt so enraged. I could feel the adrenaline flow through my body. I held my switchblade to my side and held the arm with the bottle in front of me for protection. Something flashed in the demon’s eyes as it saw the bottle. I ran at him.
“Where did you get that?” It asked, sounding… concerned? No matter, I was close to it now, and it had forgotten how low it’s head was to the ground. It tried to lift it’s head up, but was too late. I leaped at him, digging my switch blade into it’s snout. White liquid oozed out of the cut. At that point, it was all that I could do to stay on it. The demon was shaking it’s head furiously, but my blade was lodged deep in it’s flesh and wouldn’t let go. It dropped Caai, Tilic managing to run in and catch him, both looking up at me to see what I was doing. The demon stopped, and growled. Made him unhappy, huh? At this point I wasn’t sure if I was even using my own mind, it was as though my thoughts and movements had entirely changed, becoming fluid and quick like a dance. It used one of it’s tentacles to pry me off, but I kept the blade in hand. The tentacle started crushing me, so I cut it in half and the demon roared. Caai and Tilic were frozen in fear, but I felt nothing. Just calm. His face was utterly horrifying, as though nightmares could be scared of him, but I wasn’t scared in the least. Falling through the air, I felt as though I was in slow motion. The sky of galaxies faded to red as the demon called out:
“You die now, fool!” And that awful mouth flew open and it rushed at me.
“The bottle Kaliber!” Tilic screamed hoarsely and I knew exactly what he meant. ‘Shatter me, shatter him’. As the jaws closed around me, I stabbed the bottle with my blade. It lit on fire, white fire, and then shattered. The chances of it dying now is over 70%, which are odds that I like.
“No!” The demon screeched. Nightmares were definitely scared of this. I smiled as the shattering teeth closed around me, my switch burning white.
I win.
~+~
I dropped to the ground as the demon burst. Time seemed to have paused. In front of me hovered a small white wisp.
“I underestimated you, mortal, but I’m not done yet. Tomorrow we fight for the final time, by the moon that circles this world. If I win, your souls are mine, if you win, I will give you the full power of my soul, which for your efforts, I will give you a taste of now. Don’t bother not coming, you forfeit your souls that way. Good luck, mortal, good luck.” It’s voice trailed away, and the white wisp went into my chest. The world around me seemed to pulsate. The power… I felt it run through me. The sky returned to the light of the galaxy, but a sun started to grow brighter. Must be turning day. I slowly turned into a backflip and landed softly on my feet, despite the hundred feet I fell from. I turned around, left hand holding the neck of the bottle, entirely drained of color and clear, in a fist resting on my hip. My right hand holding my switchblade, still wrapped in white flames. With a chill and semi-smug expression, I lifted my right hand and flipped the blade shut. The flame was put out, as was flame that had engulfed my hair and eyes that I hadn’t noticed until it was out.
“Dude.” Began Tilic, awestruck, “That is the most rad thing I have ever seen.” He kept his voice level and chill, but his eyes gave it away. They shone and sparkled like the stars above. I looked up, they did too.
“Wh-whoa” Caai’s voice trailed off, eyes widening, adjusting his glasses. “I can see it.” His voice was considerably quieter.
“Gorgeous.” Said Tilic, his face displaying a soft smile. We watched the stars silently for a while, before I remembered that our families would be waiting for us, and we started towards the stairs. As we got to the door we noticed that it had changed, instead of animals wrapped around it, there were ribbons. Not sure if I should even be confused at this point. 'Oh, seems I forgot to tell you that you can also see this place in it’s former glory!' I heard the demon’s voice rumble with pride. I instinctively turned around to look where it had shattered. Nothing. 'I’m in you’re head, idiot.' 'Uh, can you read my thoughts?' ''Hah, look, I’m strong, but not that strong. Only the thoughts you choose to share with me, same in reverse.' Ok. This will take some getting used to. "If I need to, can I ‘mute’ you?' 'You can ignore me, but not silence me. Besides. I’m no fool, we’re stuck in the same head, and it actually belongs to you. I might be evil, but I’m decent enough to be polite to my host.' Well what was all that about being an idiot… I decided better than to reply with that. 'Thanks, I guess, but why? You’re just gonna try to kill me tomorrow?' 'I am an honorable opponent, beast or not, besides, no mortal I have met in a thousand years has been able to take me on like that, it earns you a bit of respect, and the last guy had years of training with a sword. Too bad I had to kill him.' He’s so polite you almost forget he… it? Huh. 'Uh, what’s your gender?' Of all the odd questions. 'I am genderless, and would prefer if you refered to me as an ‘it’ and tell that to your ‘friends’ too.' So much for being polite. I looked up, snapping back to reality. Caai and Tilic were staring at me. Well, that’s awkward.
“You okay there?” Queried Caai. And I decided to answer in the saltiest way I could.
“Sure. Oh, and the demon in my head would prefer if you called it an it.” They stared at me blankly, and I couldn’t help myself from laughing a bit at their expressions. 'Priceless.' 'Yep.' I explained as we went through the doorway, trying to make sense of it. I’m pretty good at explaining though, something I learned from Midas. It will be great to see him. Hah. 'And I thought I would have a good story to tell Midas before I fought you.' 'Heh. Who is this Midas?' 'He’s my older brother, and the coolest kalon I know.' That wasn’t a lie. Huh, he’s gonna be pretty worried when I tell him that you are going to try to kill me tomorrow. It didn’t reply. We walked down the staircase slowly, taking everything in. The building no longer looked like it was made of sandy brick, but of hand carved quartz. The statue of the angel stood in the middle, the box having become part of it and the lock pouring out water. A fountain. The carpets winding down the stairs had turned into luxurious velvet, in pristine condition and looking soft to the touch. The best part, however, were the giant stain glass windows on either wall, each one depicting complex space-based patterns with symbols of gold.
“Absolutely gorgeous,” Commented Tilic, “Ask that demon why it turned this place into a nightmare.” 'No need, I can hear. It wasn’t up to me, having a demon of the higher tier, even if at the lower end of it, inside; the building naturally changed to this form. Though I did quite like it, and it does a good job of scaring off intruders.' 'Demon of a higher tier?' 'Unimportant, I’ll explain that later. Oh, and tell your friends that my… well, name would be the wrong word… title is Aphelion.' That’s actually a pretty neat name- er, title.
“Oh, um, the demon says it’s name is Aphelion.” Wow. It sounded a whole lot less awkward in my head. And I said name, not title.
“Why, you been interrogating it?” Asked Tilic jokingly, flashing me a smile.
“Nah,” I smirked, “He just didn’t like you calling him ‘that demon’.” Tilic let out a single, heartfelt laugh before looking forwards and continued out through the hallway. The wallpaper was beautiful and had patterns that looked like they were painted over with gold leaf. I ran my hand along the walls as we walked. No scratch marks.
It was a relief to get back outside, despite the changes in the building. The sun was starting to rise. Have we really been here all night? I checked to see if that kalon had left the keys in the car.
“Nope.” Wasn’t looking forwards to walking home. Caai sighed, clearly disappointed as well. Tilic then adjusted to stand in a pose of pure confidence.
“Lucky for you two, I learned how to hotwire these things as an extended part of a mechanics projet.”
They dropped me off at my house first because it was closest, I waved to them as they drived away. Midas was waiting at the door and he seemed a little confused at how happy I was to see him. I ran up and hugged him.
“It’s great to see you Midas!” It was so great to be back. 'This is Midas?' 'Yep.'
“Nice to see you as well.” We moved back from the hug, and he smiled in a very fatigued way. That’s odd.
“But next time you go to have a good time with some new friends, especially if you are gone for that long, please let us know. We sent Iris, Astraea, and Eros to look for you.”
“Oh, we weren’t hanging out. We were fighting a demon.” As we went inside I began explaining all that had happened.
~+~
“You’ll need a ship to do that, stronger than most if you hope to beat a demon.” We were all figuring out what to do.
“Maybe we could ask Eros, he know someone for everything.” I suggested. Everyone had come back home and after I had explained everything we all sat down to discuss it, except for Eros, who was cleaning dishes from breakfast.
“No need.” Replied Iris, “I know someone who could help us out with that.” Her eyes were clouded with memory.
“Who?” I asked.
“No one you would know,” She began, “But her name is Rhumei, and let’s just say she owes us one.” She sighed.
“She’s actually a dimension jumper, not from this world but very similar to a kalon. She has a lot of knowledge and gear for fighting demons and I saw a ship she could probably lend us.” She chuckled before continuing, “I guess one of the reasons she knows so much about fighting demons is because she is half demon herself.”
Is that what I’ll become if I live through this? Before it might of scared me, but now it sounded pretty cool. 'Rhumei… Well, now that you are on your way, I think I’ll leave your head, go prepare myself.' I felt a chill, and my vision fogged momentarily.
“The only problem will be contacting her.” Iris said, “She game me something to call for her, but I’m not sure if it will wok.”
Yet, sure enough, it did.
A black fog swirled low to the floor and it sprung up in purple flames. And all of a sudden, there she stood. She looked an awful lot like some sort of kalon, but had no luminescent pattern on her tail. She had brown fur with white and purple patterns, an odd mask covering her left eye and decent sized black horns on her head. She smiled, displaying slightly fanged canines, dipping her head.
“You called?” you could tell she was one of those beings with a- huh. I can’t find the word for it, but it makes her personality stand out.
“Yes, sorry if it’s an inconvenient time, but we would like to ask a favor of you.”
~+~
We had gathered, Midas, Caai, Tilic, Rhumei and I. Rhumei had spent the day showing us how to operate everything and had told us some strategies. The ship was huge, black with intricate, glowing blue patterns. The Eclipse. It was made with other-worldly metals; built especially for speed, but for defense and power as well. Has incredible handling. It had short corridors you had to walk through to get to other people’s stations, entire rooms for stations, five rooms with beds, a kitchen of sorts and a living area. You could survive months in this thing. We had taken it for a few test spins. Rhumei had given us earpieces allowing us to communicate. She also gave us suits, unlike regular space suits, they were blue overalls with a collar made of material that is comfortable, fashionable and protects you in outer space. On the right wrist it has a control pad with a few buttons doing things like make a plasma shield, deploy a mask that will give you oxygen, fire small projectiles, etc. We made sure to test these to ensure they were in working order. The ship, however, requires more than just a mechanic (Tilic), a navigator(Caai), and a pilot(Me), it needs the pilot to be a gunner, and a spare person or co-pilot, Midas would be doing that. Besides, we agreed that I should be the one to end it, to be the one who shoots the final shot. All the roles are amplified as well. The mechanic comes on board and is given equipment to fix the ship while it’s flying, inside or outside the ship and otherwise they monitor internal cameras to keep everything in check or find internal damage, the most dangerous job. The navigator watches advanced hologram maps that can even tell you where or what living organisms are around you and keep an eye on charts that can give you details like what the pressure levels are or what the environment around you is, the most analytical job. The pilot steers the ship and controls acceleration, invisibility illusions and the guns, the hardest job. The co pilot steers the ship when the head pilot is gunning/clicks buttons the pilot can’t reach or get to on time and goes around the ship to help other crew members if needed, the most convenient job.
“All right.” Began Rhumei, clapping her paws together, “Battle isn’t till tomorrow, but you guys should spend the night on The Eclipse to get more comfortable on it, besides, this thing has an actual soul, so the more time you spend with it and the more it likes you, the easier it will be to do this. Besides, I chose the eclipse because it takes a liking to beings like you.” She nodded at us as, “ I’ll have to go and take care of some missions, but you guys keep The Eclipse, I got plenty of ships, besides, it’ll like ya more than it likes me. So you guys get whatever you need to make dinner and spend the night.” We started walking to our house when I felt a paw on my shoulder. It made me jump, I turned around. I forgot that Rhumei doesn’t have the paws of a kalon.
“Sorry if I frightened you, but before you get your stuff I need to show you how to use your gunner’s goggles and that demon sense of yours.” She looked at me, waiting for a response.
“Demon senses?” I asked, trying to figure out what part of the ship did that.
“Kid, you were able to hear the whispers, weren’t you? The ones that sound like this?” She began whispering then in the same language Aphelion had used in the ruin but it didn’t sound as empty. “You had slight demon senses even before it possessed you. Aphelion, right? One of Chron’s old followers, left and lost power. You’re even stronger now. I can tell by those ghostly faded pupils. The stronger the demon,” She lowered the mask revealing her left eye, black with a white slit pupil, “The stronger the white.” The shock I felt was null. It was odd. I looked over at the setting sun, knowing I would have to eat soon.
“Do we have time?” I asked. She chuckled, putting her mask back on. She took out a pocket watch. The second hand froze, so did the world around us, everything looking slightly grey. The watch and her eye shone with a purple mist.
“That is the only thing you don’t have to worry about.”
~+~
We had spent the night on the ship, and despite what I expected, I slept great and didn’t have any nightmares. I got up, got dressed in my suit and left my room. As I shut the door, I saw a note. ‘Good luck, but you have enough skill not to need it -Rhu’, She signed it off with a quick yet neat sketch of her pocket watch. I smiled, grabbing the note. I walked into the ‘chill room’, that’s what we decided to call the living space; Tilic was sitting on one of the couches around the large table in the middle eating cereal and Caai leaned against the open doorway into the kitchen holding a coffee in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
“ ‘Mornin.” Said Tilic, waving his toast. Caai greeted me with an acknowledging ‘mmm’. I walked into the kitchen, painted white with an island counter, shelves lining the walls. I grabbed some toast myself and sat on the couch next to Tilic. Midas came out of his room, combing his hair, saying ‘good morning’ to us all.
We went to say goodbye to our families then got back on the ship. Everyone got into their places. We got our headpieces on and made sure they were running. I put on my gunners goggles, which only covers my right eye and only shows dim images, so I saw well. It’s an incredibly quiet ship, the engine didn’t roar, it gave off a reassuring purr. My tail flicked in anticipation.
“Ready Midas?” I asked keeping my eyes ahead, not able to stop myself from smiling in excitement for what was to come.
“You bet.” You could tell he felt it too.
It took no more than an hour to get to the moon, and we didn’t have to wait long. Aphelion’s voice rumbled, and we heard it loud and clear.
“Glad you decided to show up. Hope you like my star form.” He faded into view. His four legs coming to needle like points, his horns had turned into antlers. It’s skin looked like it was covered in scaly armor, jutting out at sharp angles. It had no tentacles this time, but it seemed far more dangerous.
“Huh, could say the same thing, almost expected you to wimp out.” I said over speaker. He laughed deeply.
“Not on your souls.” It sped towards us, much faster too. It held it’s front legs out at us and spun like a drill. I rolled the ship out of the way, but it had anticipated this and lashed at us with it’s antlers, which we narrowly avoided. I launched a few charged plasma orbs at it’s head and 3 out of 4 hit. Midas was already backing the ship up steadily. It shook it’s head and hissed at us, charging again, slower.
“Midas, take over, I’m gonna get a few shots in” I launched a few plasma orbs at his head, making it hard for it to see. Midas slid us out of the way of the attack and got me at a good angle to shoot a static missile at it’s sensitive stomach. It exploded, sending lightning into it’s gut and lashing at internal organs. It roared in pain, looking at us, eyes on fire with rage. It started to vibrate as though something was breaking up my vision.
“You guys see this too?” Tilic’s voice came over the earpiece.
“Yep.” I replied, backing the ship up further and shooting a single plasma orb at it. Before it hit, at least a hundred demon mites came soaring from Aphelion, screaming towards us. I switched to a faster rate of fire and started blasting them with rapid fire beams. They were weak, died in one shot, but they were just distractions, I couldn’t see Aphelion.
“Caai, where’s Aphelion?” I asked, voice taut with concentration.
“Behind us, charging, at 7 o'clock!” He replied.
“Midas, hard right.” I said. He tore the ship to the right as I launched a static missile to take out the rest of the demon mites. I turned the gun just in time to catch one of Aphelion’s front limbs in a mobile trap, not before it got critical damage on the back of the hull. An alarm went off. I cussed under my breath.
“Tilic?” Midas said over the earpiece.
“On it.” Was Tilic’s reply. While Tilic got his gear Midas controlled the mobile trap to hold Aphelion away from us, the demon still snapping at us. I caught it’s other front limb in a mobile trap, which clearly ticked it off. It charged a large white laser.
“Ok,” Came Tilic’s voice, “Finished repair.” Wow those tools work fast. But he would get caught in the fire.
“Get your shield up!” I yelled at him.
“Wait, wha-” He clearly saw Aphelion and we heard the click of the button just as the beam was shot. I had put up a shield for the ship so it took minimal damage. But Tilic must have been too slow. We heard his scream over the earpiece.
“My… gah! Limbs… help…!” We heard his distressed voice.
“Midas, go save him.” I can’t believe I was keeping my cool. He went, and now I was a bit ticked at Aphelion. I shot mobile trap at his jaw and hind legs and spread him out like a starfish. I switched to the final weapon. Only one shot.
“Light ‘em!” I yelled, flip a switch, turn two knobs, aim, and fire. The hatch for the bomb snapped open, and it flung at the demon, whose eyes went wide. It struck it dead center, folding in his mass. This bomb imploded, not exploded. It tore Aphelion’s body to shreds. It’s soul, much bigger than a wisp came to me and I grabbed it, feeling the strength. You there? It was more than the silence that told me that he could no longer speak to me through my head. But before it finished dying, it said this:
“Good job, mortal. I’m glad it is you who takes my soul. I’m not truly evil. I just have no other example to follow. I don’t know how to be ‘good’ and I’m not even sure what it means. I’m glad… I can finally….. Be a being of light……….” It’s voice faded.
I ran into the chill room and saw Tilic lying on the couch, everyone standing around him and Midas finishing wrapping his shoulders with bandages. He explained that the shield hadn’t finished forming, it protected his head and torso enough for the only damage to be that it bleached his fur mostly white, and changed his eyes. His arms, legs and tail… Clean off…
“Hey, we won.” I said. Tilic looked up at me smiling. He had bandages around his eyes, but I knew he was looking.
"I'm lucky I only lost my limbs, and not my life. But I might as well have, I'm useless now." Tilic said, sounding put out.
"I know someone that could get you robotic limbs," Said Caai, "Ones that could make you stronger and faster than you were before." Tilic grinned at the idea. A weak grin.
"C'mon, let's go home." He said, "Go home as heroes. Go home as a crew."
~+~
Last edited by
VoidRinkusu on Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:23 am, edited 3 times in total.
