Written By Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

Nid awoke to unbearable heat emanating from roaring flames drowned in echoes of screaming pain and suffering. “Like nails on a chalkboard, am I right?” an unfamiliar voice she seemed to recognize said, nonchalantly, from behind her. Turning around she surveyed the endless horizon under black skies dimly lit by a red inferno so heated it burned her eyes to look up.  There was no end to the indescribable horrors going on around her. Finally reaching the source of the voice, before her stood an anthropomorphic cat, black as night, with slit pupils over emerald green eyes, “welcome to Hell,” he said with a smile on his face. 

“You say that with a smile,” Nid replied solemnly. “How?”

“It may be an eternal pit of gnashing teeth and tears weeping from damned souls,” the cat replied, “but for many eternities this infernal Underrealm has been my home.” He chuckled at his own reality, “at least this circle of it anyway.”

“You are the first,” Nid’s eyes widened as her pupils shrank at the realization of who it was that now stood before her.

The cat laughed. “Technically I am the third,” he replied. “The third life of the cat who dared to dream too far and plummeted into darkness. Dead as the two before me and the seven after me, but yes, my name is Leon Aventis and I am the first to bear that name.” His laugh had flipped to a silent smile, “but it is no longer yours.”

“Nid, I presume,” another voice spoke from behind her, it was strong yet soft and understanding.

Nid recognized it immediately, “Edward.” As she turned around, however, what stood before her was daunting. A towering Edward Dimir burning in Hellfire.

“Most call me Devil, but that is my name,” Edward replied.

“In the reality that is supposed to be, you are God,” Nid gave him a hug and held him tight despite the Hellfire burning her flesh and very soul.

“Then you must fix reality,” said Leon Aventis. “He has come to take you home,” he watched Nid’s confusion grow on her face, “As I said, your name is no longer mine. You have been bought and belong to Heaven now.”

Nid realized that Zesrial must have sacrificed something to save her, “what was the cost?”

Leon Aventis held up a single white feather flashing with sparks of purple-hued golden lightning and examined it with an expression of overwhelming joy, “a promise.”

Suddenly Nid found herself staring at a scorched plain in the center of which was a golden stairway, illuminated by light, that seemed to stretch for an eternity upward. Edward’s out-stretched hand pointed to it from over her shoulder, “you are bound,” Nid said, noticing the chains wrapped around his arms and body.

“Drak has shackled me here,” Edward replied, “I can never leave.” He continued to point to the stairway as he stared up at its infinite with a tearful look of anger, sorrow, and loneliness. “You belong to her now,” he smiled. “Go and be free.”

Nid found herself suddenly at the foot of the staircase unable to look directly into the light it leads to. One step and she was at the gates. Looking back she could not even see the bottom she was at less than a moment ago. “Nid,” Zesrial’s voice made Nid turn back to the gates and she found herself in Zesrial’s embrace. Tears of joy in her eyes Zesrial let Nid go and  gestured for her to follow, “Come.” Nid followed Zesrial through the gates into a Realm the sheer perfection of which could never be described. Zesrial stopped and pointed downward, so Nid looked down and then she wept tears of joy at the sight of Maggie finally hugging her father for the first time since Drak had taken her from him. “They have no hope of escape from that place,” Zesrial sighed. “Drak’s forces are already converging upon them.”

“Then send me in,” Nid insisted.

Zesrial hugged her again and whispered in her ear, “my precious child, that was always the plan.” After a brief moment of silence she let Nid go and said unto her, “They are both, but only one can be or neither are. He alone can make this choice. You will have until the final strike of the hammer.” With time against her, Zesrial sent Nid, on a bolt of her lightning, directly to Maggie and Noah’s position.

*      *     

The Woman whispered, “I missed you, Dad.” A flash of purple-hued golden lightning separated and sent them both in opposite directions into the walls of the room. The smoke cleared slowly as the institution’s alarms sounded under flashes of red lights covering every corner of the facility. “Nid?” Maggie stood up in disbelief, “prove to me that this is you!” she cried in anger at her closest friend.

“Trust me or don’t,” Nid replied as the door was busted open from the outside and shot the guard. After some screams the guard exploded in a swarm of spiders that made quick work of the men behind him. “Either way, we need to go now. Time is definitely not on your side, and we have a Multiverse to put back to normal.” She pulled two Beretta M9s from her jacket and tossed one to each of them before turning to Noah, “your daughter’s favorite firearm,” and headed out the door.

“Mine too,” Noah looked to her daughter and the two nodded at each other before grabbing the portal gun and the Flufonium and following Nid out the door. “My ship is waiting above this place.”

“Can we trust a ship given to you by Drak Mountainhiem?” Maggie questioned her father.

“If you have another option, I’m all ears,” Nid rebutted. “Besides, if your ship is what I recognize it to be, it should be safe to use.”

Making their way to the roof, “this seems too easy,” Maggie commented.

“She’s right?” Noah replied. “We should have encountered way more resistance than that.” Despite this, Noah uncloaked El Buitre Muerto from a device on his wrist disguised as a watch and lowered the access panel.

“Sir, there are multiple incoming ships entering the realm above the planet,” the ship’s AI announced and a holographic image of the vessels lit up above them.

“I recognize those,” Nid gasped in fear. “The Elves of Avisern found themselves stranded in this, a foreign multiverse to them. Drak had promised them free trade, so they let him into their multiverse. He exterminated them along with every living thing within their multiverse and stripped it of its resources. Those were their war ships.”

“Dad, tell me you have weapon’s systems on this junker,” Maggie shuttered.

“Not enough,” he sighed. “However, this ship is interdimensional and we can…” he was interrupted by an explosion that shook the ship.

“Sir, the interplanal drive is inoperable,” the ship’s AI announced.

“Great…” Noah rolled his eyes at the cruel fate of their situation.

“There may be a way,” the ship’s AI announced.

“I’m open to suggestions,” Noah replied.

“The Skull of the Nekolich is held on this ship allowing Mr. Mountainhiem to both track your every move and maintain control of his multiversal Undead security system,” the ship’s AI replied with a stutter as the ship came under heavy fire. “But you will need to hurry, the ship will not survive for much longer.”

“That skull is what I’ve been looking for this entire time, you had it?!” Nid questioned her father.

“I didn’t know,” Noah replied.

“Computer, where is it?” Nid asked.

“9th level room number 999,” the ship’s AI replied.

“Of course it is,” Nid sighed in disappointment at the obviousness of it all. “Come on!”

Using elevator shafts and shattering hallways to move through the massive ship as explosions meant to destroy planets battered its Undead haul, they made their way toward the only hope they had of surviving. Reaching the room, the skull of the Nekolich was under constant drain as fuel to Drak’s Will. “Haul integrity at 9%,” the ship’s AI announced. Maggie unloaded her clip into the device holding the skull and El Buitre Muerto exploded out of existence.