The Dark Path Read online

  Behind Dante crowded other victims, more continuing to push in from behind.

  “What are you supposed to be, the fucking Village People?” scoffed Vain, scanning the motley group jamming the entryway. Although he could make out some of them, most were too horribly mutilated to even recognize any semblance of human features.

  The creatures burst forth into the room, clamoring for the Dark Man’s soul.

  Chapter Ten: Reflecting Evil

  Sebastian awoke in a seamless room. He had no recollection of how he had arrived here. There were no entries or exits to jog his memory, no seams in the walls where a hidden panel might afford escape. The perfect prison. Sebastian gazed up from the floor, six surfaces of the pristine cube seeming to glow with their own inner light, a cold, lifeless brightness that brought no warmth.

  Examining the room, Sebastian noticed something wrong. A strange absence, though for a time he could not identify it.

  Suddenly it came to him. He could see and feel the walls around him, but when he closed his eyes it seemed they weren’t there. His special senses could detect nothing outside the space where he lay. At first he thought something inhibited his talents, but examining himself he found he could still see the health flowing through his body, waves of energy moving in rhythm with his heartbeat. Though he could find nothing explicitly wrong with him, without his talents he suddenly felt incredibly vulnerable, almost naked.

  “Well, well,” a sickly familiar voice sounded through the walls. “Our little guest has finally awoken. I hope that your lodgings are adequate.”

  The far wall rippled, flowing into a perfectly circular opening through which Empeth emerged. Beyond it, Sebastian could see only absolute darkness.

  “You have been a very sleepy little boy, haven’t you,” Empeth said, standing menacingly over Sebastian. “Did the stupid Dark Man wear you out with his futile crusade to protect you from me? Ah well, you can rest now for a while, at least until your part in the rising of our Lord arrives.”

  Angrily, Sebastian tried to stand, but found himself pushed back against the floor by an unseen force. His arms and legs lost all their strength instantly and he flopped like a captured fish.

  “Ah!” clapped Empeth. “You have just discovered one of the many facets of your new prison. Any energy you use will be turned against you; whether physical or mental the result is the same. I’m rather proud of it.”

  Sebastian cowered on the floor and said nothing. Energy quickly began to flow back into his limbs, but he remained still and decided against trying anything again just yet.

  “Well, I’m afraid I must go now,” smiled Empeth warmly. “Things to do and souls to shred, you know how it is. Bye for now Avun-Riah. I’ll check up on you again soon.”

  Empeth turned and stepped from the room; the wall shimmering smoothly back into place, once again seamless. Sebastian warily rose to his feet and found he could move freely about now, although he could only walk ten paces before reaching the end of the room. His frustration finally prevailed and he punched uselessly at the wall of his cell, only to be thrown across the floor, landing in a crumpled heap against the opposite wall.

  Shaking aside his shock, Sebastian’s thoughts raced. Something very important had occurred when he’d hit the wall and suffered the resulting reaction, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

  Finally it came to him. He could move around the room while his movements weren’t of an aggressive manner. By punching the wall, his energy had been multiplied and thrown back at him tenfold. Though Sebastian knew the nature of the power surrounding him, confusion settled over him like a cloak. How could he use the knowledge to his advantage? He devised various tests to prove his theory, mental and physical, resulting in a splitting headache and a bruised body.

  He had no sense of time in the white cell. It never dimmed its permanently bright, lifeless light, and Sebastian had no way of telling whether it was day or night. He might have been there for hours, but it could have easily been days or weeks.

  After almost giving up hope of finding a solution, one suddenly occurred to him. Summoning his courage, Sebastian quickly surged his power and held it. Whilst holding that power in check, he added to it, making it swell and grow until he thought it would burst out through his chest. When he could hold no more, he quickly focused the energy on the point he wanted and concentrated all his thoughts on the image of the Dark Man.

  With a roar, Sebastian released his power. Not at anything to do with the cell, rather he directed it inwards on himself. At first it seemed nothing had happened and he thought perhaps he had again failed, but then he heard a noise like fabric slowly tearing. This quickly became a shattering of time and sound, which flung his mind free and hurtling through midnight.

  Sebastian kept his thoughts concentrated on the Dark Man, and soon saw an image growing below him. Amidst the carnage of a bloody and torn landscape, Sebastian sped towards an enormous dark tower that seemingly rose to incredible heights. The boy cringed, bracing for impact with the top of the tower, but he sensed no pause in his decent, like he had simply passed through a thick mist.

  Opening his eyes, Sebastian found himself still plummeting, catching glimpses along the way of unspeakable terrors. Images of self-mutilation and horror burned into Sebastian’s mind as he fell, and he felt himself tainted to his very core for simply witnessing them.

  Gradually his descent began to slow, finally stopping in a room full of monsters surrounding a creature of raw power. The demonic image chuckled harshly, chiding the awaiting horde, “What are you supposed to be, the fucking Village People?”

  The creatures closed in around the powerful demon, and Sebastian realized with shock that it was the Dark Man standing before him. Vain now bore the appearance of a monster from a child’s worst nightmare. Sebastian instinctively recognized the assassin’s soul image. If true, it meant the Dark Man had died, and Sebastian’s hopes for rescue were futile.

  Swallowing his own distress, Sebastian looked to how he could aid his friend in the battle for his soul. He knew that Vain could take a lot of the creatures with him before he failed, but he also knew eventually the Dark Man would be overcome and simply cease to exist.

  * * * *

  Dark Man, you must listen to me, pulsed a voice inside Vain’s mind.

  Who are you? he asked.

  It’s me, Sebastian, pulsed the voice. Quickly, listen before it’s too late. In this place your mind can control your environment. You can alter what you are and–

  The voice suddenly ripped away, but Vain managed to register what the words meant. Some twenty creatures were moving quickly towards him, oblivious to the silent exchange which had just occurred.

  Focusing his thoughts, Vain concentrated before sending out a burst of mental energy that shook the very ceiling of the room. The wave passed through the group before him, stopping them in their tracks. Their skins began to bulge, quickening powerfully until their frames lurched outwards in ways they were obviously not intended to.

  Suddenly the ribs of the creature closest to Vain shredded through its thick leathery hide and it warbled in pain. Other creatures froze, shuddering momentarily, before they too witnessed their own hideous forms stretching and flowing like waves upon a rough ocean. Inner organs sprayed through hides stretched too tight and flew across the floor, bones cracking and splitting under the unnatural pressure.

  The few remaining creatures stopped short witnessing the violence rendered against their fellows. They surveyed the carnage before cautiously beginning to creep forward once more. Such was their lust for vengeance that they would risk their very souls to reach their clawed hands into the one who had sent them to this place.

  Vain calmed his mind and once again concentrated on his method of attack. The creatures began to encircle him just beyond the radius of his previous mind blast. Seeing this attack would no longer be effective against the beasts, Vain paused and instead turned his attention onto himself.

  After all, he
reasoned, everything about this place was simply mental. His arms weren’t really arms; they were merely projections of what his soul thought he should look like. This explained the horror of his original countenance; his mind recreated what his soul felt. Vain used this knowledge to reshape his exterior facade to something more appropriate for the situation.

  Vain sensed his form shifting and altering, like shedding a large wet fur cloak and redressing into a wetsuit. Where there had been gangrenous flesh before, now his muscles rippled beneath thick black leather. He tensed the tendons in his hand and watched deep ebony claws emerge from beneath the skin of his fingertips. Curiously, both his claws and skin seemed to somehow avoid the light. Not a shred of reflection came from any part of his body. He smiled a dark grimace of midnight fangs, lifting his gaze back towards his enemies.

  The creatures in the room stood stock-still in awe of the transformation. Obviously, none of them had witnessed this before and they stared in undisguised wonder at this towering black demon standing before them in all its mesmerizing darkness.

  Not waiting for the creatures to recover from their shock, Vain shot forward like a bolt of black lightning and severed the head of the largest beast. Without pausing, he leapt high and pounced from the wall to decapitate another creature in a spray of gore. On his returning arc, Vain swiped his right arm, slicing cleanly from the top of Dante’s head down through his chest, exiting in a bloody wash from his groin. Vain landed lightly on all fours, Dante’s body standing still for a moment, before falling to the ground in six sections like a carved ham.

  A beast wielding four grotesquely muscled arms, a new-born baby’s head dangling at an obscure angle from its shoulders, ran awkwardly at Vain. The assassin leapt nimbly backwards in a complete somersault. Halfway through the flip, seven inch claws pushed from his feet and sliced all four limbs from the beast’s torso. Instead of blood, a thick, lumpy white paste pumped from the wounds, and the baby’s head wailed a child’s cry of shock. Ignoring the woeful shrieks, Vain stepped forward and thrust his left hand through the beast’s chest, emerging from its back clutching its severed spine.

  Ripping his hand backward from the creature’s chest, Vain turned to see which beast would be next to attack. A look of fear flashed across each of the hellish faces staring back at him and slowly they began to retreat from the room. Vain glanced about warily, wondering at the sudden change in the ferocity of beasts that had only a moment ago been crying out for his soul.

  When no more attacks came, Vain relaxed slightly, but still moved cautiously towards the doorway, expecting an ambush. Peering around the corner, the hallway beyond appeared empty. Confused, he stepped into it, retracting his claws.

  Vain moved down the long, empty corridor towards the single door at the end. Along the wall stood a full-length mirror, reflecting Vain’s new appearance when he passed. The vision made even the dark-hearted assassin shudder.

  Towering over seven feet tall, his reflection was one of the ultimate night-hunter. Immaculately hairless, ebony perfection returned Vain’s stare from the mirror. He gritted his teeth. They too were black, as was the entire inside of his mouth. Eyeballs, dull orbs of midnight stared emotionlessly back at the assassin before one of them winked. Vain retreated in shock, and the figure in the mirror stepped forward.

  “Well, assassin,” the reflection snarled in several voices at once. “Don’t you like what you see?”

  “What are you?” growled Vain, readying himself for an attack.

  “We are you. We are us. We are the ones you have just faced, but now we are one. We are Legion, for we are many.”

  With the last words, the mirror shattered outwards, and the assassin leapt back towards the entrance of the room. But where the doorway should have been he found only a seamless wall blocking his way.

  Legion stepped confidently from the mirror frame and into the hall. “Don’t you want to play with us now Dark Man? Is it you who wants to run and hide? Well, we promise to show you the same sympathy you showed us.”

  Vain crouched low and pounced high into the air, aiming a lightning thrust at Legion’s throat. The beast easily sidestepped the strike and hit Vain in the chest with a crushing blow that sent him flying through the air to land in a crumpled heap at the end of the hall.

  The pain isn’t real, it’s only in your mind, Vain thought to himself, climbing back to his feet. Shit, if this isn’t real, why does it hurt so much?

  “How can you fight us when we are you, Dark Man?” sneered Legion in its strangely many-voiced tone. “We know what you will do before you do. How can you fight yourself?”

  Legion closed in on the assassin, and he quickly gathered his thoughts, releasing a mental surge similar to the one he’d used in the room before. This time the power passed through Legion like a soft gust of wind.

  “No tricks this time, Dark Man,” said Legion standing over Vain. “How can your powers hurt us when they don’t hurt yourself?”

  Vain grasped at the words and absorbed more than they said. The assassin faked a lunge at Legion and as the creature leapt back he sent a sudden surge of mental power straight into himself, unknowingly copying Sebastian’s momentary escape from his cell. The power flooded through his body, and he fought to keep the pain under control. Recovering his senses, he looked up and saw Legion grasping its head in agony. Throwing aside his own suffering, Vain leapt from the ground, and sliced his claws up, piercing the bottom of Legion’s jaw and continuing straight through the top of its skull. Vain briefly held the creature upright and stared into its lifeless eyes.

  “I am not like you,” he whispered, more to himself than the dead creature. “Not anymore.” He let the demon’s corpse fall to the floor where it began to sizzle and boil before melting away without a trace.

  When the smoke cleared, Vain noticed the doorway now stood open a fraction, and a faint light shone from within the room beyond. The assassin looked at the doorway with dread, wondering what new horrors might lurk in the next room. Gritting his ebony teeth, he cautiously nudged the door open. He could make out nothing in the dim light and softly stepped inside.

  His feet passed the threshold and everything changed. The faint light suddenly surged to a brightness that seared the assassin’s eyes, and he instinctively leapt back to the perceived safety of the hallway.

  Instead of the hallway, however, Vain’s back hit something solid. Like before, the doorway had transformed into a solid wall blocking the assassin’s escape. Biting back a curse, Vain returned his gaze to the blindingly bright room.

  “WHO ARE YOU?!” boomed a voice that seemed to come from everywhere. Vain ignored the question and instead began to feel his way around the wall in hopes of finding an escape.

  “WHO ARE YOU?!!!” roared the voice again, this time knocking Vain from his feet with its power.

  “I’m Vain,” snarled the assassin. “Who are you?” Looking down at himself, Vain found his body had reverted to its naked human form, and try as he might, he couldn’t change himself back.

  “WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” bellowed the voice, ignoring the assassin’s question.

  “I have come for the Glimloche,” said Vain simply.

  “WHY?!”

  “To save a boy,” answered Vain.

  “IS HE THE AVUN-RIAH?!” asked the voice.

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

  A smothering silence filled the room, the voice pondering the assassin’s answer.

  “WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE THE GLIMLOCHE?” thundered the voice finally.

  Vain paused. “Because I can’t defeat the boy’s enemies without it.”

  “That must have been difficult to say,” said a soft voice behind him as the light slowly dimmed.

  Vain leapt at the sound and prepared himself for attack. Before him, however, stood a wizened old woman leaning heavily on a gnarled and twisted walking stick. Her eyes held the milky-whiteness of cataracts and she appeared completely harmless, but Vain had learnt by now that everything w
asn’t what it seemed in this place.

  “Calm down assassin,” croaked the old woman. “I mean you no harm.”

  “Who are you?” asked Vain icily, not taking his eyes from the old woman for a second.

  “I have many names,” she answered simply, “but you may call me Xamiel for now.”

  “Well, Xamiel, are you here to help me or to try to stop me? I’ve killed all of your demons, what else can you bring against me?”

  The old woman reflected, an insular glint in her eyes, before shaking her head slowly. “They weren’t my demons, Dark Man, they were yours. First your daughter, then your dead enemies, and finally yourself. I’m surprised you made it this far, but of course you did have help from the boy. He is very powerful to have even briefly escaped Empeth’s trap.”

  “It seems you know more than you let on,” said Vain.

  “I know more than you could possibly imagine Dark Man,” grinned the old woman, this time with a focused malice in her eyes so intense it made the hardened assassin withdraw slightly. The old woman noticed this and chuckled.

  “I guess I’ve still got it,” she said, leaning heavily on her stick. “Anyway, back to business. You need the Glimloche to save the Avun-Riah. If Empeth succeeds in sacrificing the boy, Sordarrah will be free to conquer the Earth and gain power over Hell in the process. This does not suit me, and so I find myself obliged to assist you.”

  Silence momentarily filled the air. “Through that way is the Glimloche,” the old woman finally croaked, pointing to a door which had not existed a moment beforehand.

  “Thank you,” grated Vain through clenched teeth.

  “Oh,” cackled the old woman heartily. “I know that one hurt you.”

  Vain ignored the remark and turned, passing through the door. He found himself in a small, dimly lit room. The only item the assassin could see was a short pillar in its centre bearing something that glinted in darkness.