A mountain of a fleshy green creature suddenly lands with a murderous thud shaking the entire palace with its colossal weight.
"What's that?" I ask 'my father ' who doesn't show any signs of being fazed.
"The Palace Guard Troll." He says casually.
"Ooh." I mutter.
" Your highness , who do we have here?" A thunderous voice stems from the depths of the creature, its eyes are especially burning with a greenish tinge.
"This is my son — the one who descended." He says clamping his hands around my hairy neck. I've not yet transmogrified into my human form or else I wouod have toppled down by the sheer weight of his hand.
"He-who-descended is back." The Palace Guard Troll shrieks, his big emerald-green eyes glinting with excitement.
A swarm of ghouls swoosh into the palace hall and in a trice , waves of susurrant voices fill the whole palace as wide-eyed Soul-eaters,ghouls and some-creatures-I-don't-know-their-names stare at me.
"... The lost son of Soul-eater king has finally come back..."
"... He-who-descended is back..."
I flinch unwittingly as eyes of different shapes and colours gape at me. I can feel them piercing into me but I have to be composed or else I will not be worthy of being the Soul-eater king's son.
"We of the Skysource are very privileged and happy to get back our Son, the person powerful enough to be tasked with the job of finding the Ancestral Renascence Goblet. It was the thing which saved him from that bloodsucking monster fivescore years ago only to be snatched by the Traitor." A momentary pause , then another resounding bellow , " I ask of ye , my people to have the responsibility of guiding my Son and making him more powerful in order to get back our Golden-Age Artefact. Our kind is facing unprecedented degenerations of our Soul Gist. Without the Artefact…, we will…s..soon face extinction and attacks from Earthsource and other neighbouring dimensions." A slight grimace appears on his face.
Yeah right, this is the Paranormal World where power and strength reigns supreme and now I have been chosen as the 'Saviour'. In less than a day , I have been overburdened and the lives, safety and fate of my kind lies on my shoulders. Adding to the fact that I haven't yet avenged Rodgers. What a fiasco!
"He-who-descended will save us."
"Yes he will save us."
"He is our hope and destiny."
Loud and overwhelming cheers erupt from the ghouls and Soul-eaters floating around the dark palace walls. The only thing that troubles me isn't their loud and earsplitting voices that echoes in my ears but the difference between day and night. It never seemed to set in here. In this blasted dimension!
A low strange voice seeps from my father's mouth and suddenly the palace gets completely quiet, and uncomfortably eerie.
"What next?" He raises his huge fingers and sweeps them over his head." Let's have a welcoming hoedown and feast for the he-who-descended, Deuce…Hegemon. The five hundredth prince of Skysource."
Swirls of darkly echoes and queer hollow voices irrupt in a deafening crescendo filling the palace with earsplitting noise. Is this their…No…our...way of applause ? I muse as a slight furrow forms on my forehead. Really , am I going to survive all these noises?
"Mr. Brodgot Piffs take the charge." My father says as he sinks in his throne beside me.
"My honours to our lord for this chance. Now ,the cooking ghouls please…" he mimes , his hairy hands pointing somewhere outside the palace. " The palace elves will do some minor decorations and cleaning. The light pixies please illuminate the palace. Remember we are going to do this feast in the palace."
A blinding yellow light consumes half of the palace as other light pixies stream in the palace through the grand windows and numerous opened doors , their bodies awash with radiance.
I can vouch for the palace to be the place I've ever seen to be extremely illuminated and sparkling.
The corners and regions of the palace that had been very dark and foreboding are now dazzling and brilliant.
The place has transformed to be very lively in less than a minute as my father and I sit comfortably on the thrones , mouths quivering with unrestrained smiles.
"This is awesome." I say , my yellow eyes trying to scan practically everything happening in the palace.
The cooking ghouls have already started working judging by the smoke that lingers in the air outside the palace.
Was this going to be an initiation into my kind? - A step to being a full-fledged Soul-eater. I feel like I am torn between two different worlds that mean much to me. That steers and overrides my fate.
********
The palace now looks like a grand hall with a ridiculously long table spanning from the large dragon gates to directly in front of the thrones. There is nothing on it , not even a speck of dust. It is completely white, reflecting off the radiance emitting from the light pixies lining the walls of the palace as if they are mounted sentinels. This is going to be one grand and remarkable feast I've ever been to.
"Welcome to this splendid feast for our Son who descended to Earthsource dimension and came back with their knowledge. Knowledge is the weapon we're going to use to fight the enemy, power to override their egos and wit to take them down." My father's voice cuts through the throng of Soul-eaters , trolls and ghouls sitting along the Grand Table.
The wind is blowing through the windows , and surprisingly I'm not feeling any shivers and cold on my body.
"Let's do the transmogrification." He bellows. Suddenly the whole palace is covered with dark yellow miasma swirling and moving in the wind. In a second all their hideous body form, including my father, assumes the human body. There is no difference between them and a Normal from Earthsource. I marvel at the impressive body transformation. It was horrifying though , because I couldn't bare the grotesque sight of the Soul-eater next to me changing his body form. The inside part was tucked out and I could see his innards and intestines.
Is it some kind of dark magic? I muse. The empty Grand Table now has all kinds of food on it . Ranging from Meatballs ,Potato Skins,Sausage Rolls,Chocolate Truffles,Chicken Empanadas and Steak and Cheese Quesadilla, to Parmesan Crusted Baby Potatoes and Chicken Tenders.
A drip of something wet glistens on my dark hairy skin (I had yet to transmogrify and it seems I'm the only odd one out) only to realize that my mouth is drooling just by watching the delicacies.
"Begin!" A black, horrid snake which is entangled on my father's neck suddenly hisses with a shrill and clear voice. I instantly cover my mouth in shock. Never have I seen a snake talking. Have I been initiated into a cult under the fallacy of reincarnation? No , that's not it. Anyway, there's no point second guessing myself while a buffet is laid down in front of me.
My father and I are still seated on our thrones. Five of the servant ghouls had carried some of the food to us.
"My son , hope you enjoy our food." He says , glancing at me as his hands jutted out to pick a brown sugary dough from the platter on the table.
"I'll surely enjoy it but… it won't be easy given the fact that I've not yet transmogrified." I say, a hint of regret laced in my voice. He doesn't notice it.
"Don't worry you'll soon be learning about the art of transmogrification. It is our seeker who coined it after an expedition in Earthsource. Seekers are the only ones who have the ability to breach the Spatial Liquid Vortex and descend to Earthsource apart from you of course , you reincarnated in Earthsource itself and you haven't been subjected to the laws of the Paranormal world."
"In a way , I'm very lucky. I'm curious though. Who are Seekers? Why do they have that ability which others don't have?"
"The ability is conferred to them by Lord Gratias, the god of Soul-eaters and founder of Skysource dimension. Seekers are the divine seers of Skysource dimension, they scout the frontiers of our dimension and look out for attacks from other dimensions. They also cross to other dimensions for espionage purposes and acquiring the knowledge that can help develop our dimension. Our kind is seriously lagging behind in development but no doubt we're the most powerful. However the stealing of the Ancestral Renascence Goblet has greatly weakened our forces." The color of his face drains as his head droops reminiscent of a defeated warrior.
"The safety and securing of the Ancestral Renascence Goblet now lies on my shoulders right?" I say, determination welling up in me.
"You and the Seeker." He says hoarsely," getting back the Artefact will usher in a world of utopia for the Normals in Earthsource. Their blood will never be sucked and our soul power will never be weakened."
"Then we should draw out a plan." I say, "it will guide us in getting the Artefact."
"No my son." He says with a firmness that lightly startles me. "You're not strong enough. Besides you haven't been trained to be a full fledged Soul-eater warrior."
"Then we should get cracking with my training. Time never waits."
"One thing you should note is that here in Skysource we're gods of time. Time shouldn't be a problem. The Seeker once told me that in Skysource time is a million times slower than all our bordering dimensions." He says as he looks up into space, exuding an aura of a powerful expert.
"I didn't know that. You mean…you mean—"
"Yeah , so that means you have plenty of time to develop your Gift." He chuckles, " and your Duke is going to be the same same Seeker who brought you back to your homeland."
"That's cool. When will my training start?" I ask.
"I said no pressure my son." He says with a dark glint reflecting off his eyes, " it will be gruesome , you wouldn't even be looking forward to it."
A momentary tremor runs through my spine. What does he mean by… 'gruesome'?
No sooner had I ask him what that meant than Mr Brodgot Piffs' voice resounded in my ear.
"Welcome your highness , the famous he-who-descended , Deuce Hegemon King. You're meant for greater things Deuce. The fate of our kind lies on you now." He says as he climbs over the dais and stands by my father's throne.
"Thanks for this grand welcoming ceremony." I say awkwardly as I glance at my father who's unusually quiet.
"By the way , why haven't you asked about your mother?" Mr Brodgot Piffs asks , his face beaming with a genuine offhand smile. Does he mean Catherine or my Soul-eater-mother?
I think he means the latter.
"Ooh I forgot." I say , forcing a ridiculously awkward smile.
"SUCH AN UNFILIAL SON. HOW DARE YOU FORGET ABOUT ME , YOUR MOTHER?" A loud bellow suddenly resounds in the hall and I unceremoniously jump off the throne, my heart whacking against my chest.