"Jeez, you guys' lives are… something. I don't even- I can't say I can relate to anything you guys've said. You see, my world—from which I was banished to goddamn Narnia— is pretty peaceful, happy, depressing, overwhelming; The people are pretty stupid and ignorant. There is no magic or magick, whatever the hell the difference is. And we consider ourselves superior to everything that we know exists. Of course, not in physical terms."
Lucifer: 'How could you claim to be superior when you can't even flip a temple on an axis? We train our offsprings to become great warriors from birth. Our lives are ones complete with discipline, control, mastery of our emotions, weapons and techniques. Our bodies, blessed by the earth in the form of unique Magick, were weapons of mass-destruction; Well, until I destroyed the whole damn world, that is. Hahahahahahah!'
Raphael: 'My subjects, when I was the law and their god, were ever-prosperous, never to be inflicted by disease ; Health was never a concern. Happiness was abundant… But all it took for it to fall apart…'
"Uhh hey, let's just focus on finding a way through this place, yeah?"
I began jogging through the distorted hallway, feeling the sense of relief of not being pierced by an impossible amount of needles with every step I take. "Can't I just–".
Upon the thought of teleporting a short , there I appeared, more than 50 metres ahead of my original position. "Ugh-! Oh, that feels like ass."
Just feeling nauseous from my body being broken down into impossibly small parts of matter and then being reconstructed is probably the luckiest I can be. More of this ignorant and reckless exercise of teleportation to be seen.
"What is this place…? A museum?"
Lucifer: 'Aye, those are disgusting little buggers, them. Look at them wiggling' about in that container; Absolutely abhorrent-!'
It was a long hallway, spiralling towards the darkness of the abyss. Cubes of transparent, glass-like material encased a multitude of petrified slime-looking things.
"Huh… Nano-machines, son."
Me being me, the not-so cautious, intrepid protagonist of my world, I decided to break one of the encasements. Now, keep in mind that most of the things were still alive and moving with regard to my movement. "Hup-!", and bam! I punch the glass-like material, completely obliterating the container and the wall behind it, save for the slime. I was hundreds of metres above ground level. "Damn, I'm strong! Now, surely that was stronger than your weakest knight of Jesus Christ or whatever. I didn't even touch the wall."
Raphael: 'Astonishing… your body has surpassed all limitations of humans. Your raw strength is that of what we would call a demi-god. Although, tis' but the power of an infant.'
"Wow, and now you're telling me that I lost to a f-", without being able to finish my line, the slime extends a part of its gelatinous flesh in the form of a tentacle. The thing then morphs into a spear that pierces the quads on my right thigh. "That tickled", I said, almost unfazed by the injury that is well over fatal to a normal human. Its amoeboid self, along with its seething profusion of eyeballs and mouths, extended its pseudopodia and moved away. Instantaneously changing its whole anatomy to possess multiple appendages which were able to create an incredible amount of suction force; With which, it could easily decapitate a normal human if wrapped around them. Furthermore, it gave itself a spherical shape, and a bat-like pair of membranous wings, asymmetrical to its body.
It flapped its one wing harder than the other, resulting in unexpected movements; Even for itself. This also was enough for me to understand that it was not accustomed to flying; Or, to anything, really.
"Wow, that's satisfying to watch…", I said aloud, accustomed to talking to myself, as I watched the see-through hole in my thigh, of about a 4 centimetre radius, regenerate rapidly and eventually, completely patch and seal itself.
....
"Firebolt–lightning bolt–wind blade–gravity times two hundred-! Hahahahahahahah! This is so damn fun!"
Lucifer: 'Do you really need to shout those childish names for the spells, lad? This is a disgrace to one of the greatest ambassadors of Magic, like me.'
"But this is too damn fun! I've always dreamt of stuff like this since I was a kid-!"
The little alien thing was being crushed by the exponentially increased force of gravity, and was on the ground, unable to move. "How's it still alive? Even after all of… that".
The Thing returned to its normal state, one of a slime.
Raphael: 'Try freezing it, perhaps?'
"I was gonna do that-", I said, coping for the lack of brain cells. I manifested my thoughts and slowly froze the slime. And, with my raw strength, I crushed it beneath my feet. As the carcass is shattered, it begins to slowly disintegrate into black smoke with a curious glint, and the black smoke, into the musty air.
A translucent fluid in the air passes through my physical body.
Raphael: 'Its soul is at peace now. It is one with yours. It has vowed to lend you the strength of the… Shoggoths; It says.'
"How do you know what it's saying? I can't hear anything."
Raphael: ''Have you forgotten? I rule over the authority of Life. I can hear the souls that are relieved from their suffering.'
Lucifer: 'And I can hear the grudges and curses of the damned. Not very pleasant for sure. Gave me a headache while fighting against the whole cast of humanity-! Hahahahah!'
Raphael: 'Hmph… Barbarian.'
Lucifer: 'Excuse me…? I can hear you, you know?'
"Uhh… sounds fun. So, this shoggoth. How exactly will it lend me its power?"
Raphael: 'That, I do not know. But over time, we will learn. We must also discover the extent of your powers; Before you do yourself any harm.'
"Eh, fair enough. And uhh, what now? Where am I supposed to go? I can't say that I'm expecting a portal leading me to the next area in a convoluted metroidvania; Even if it were one, for real. Let's leave this place and hopefully discover that I can fly; Else I'm done for cuz' I can't be asked to backtrack the entire place. Welp-! Here goes nothin'-!", I said as I threw myself out of the huge hole that I'd created when I punched one of the encasements.
And, there I noticed a few things:
First of all, the force of gravity was at least twice of what we experience on Earth. I only noticed this because I was free falling much, much faster than I would be, on Earth. Other than this, the gravity felt pretty normal; I can move around with no effort, after all.
Second of all, I could fly. Just… not in complete control.
And, as I realise this fact, I also come to the realisation that I'm about to create a recurrence of 911. But hey, at least there's no one down there.
And, BOOM!
I crash into a pair of parallel alien sky scrappers head-first, breaking the first one like a twig and, losing no momentum, crash into the second one. After successfully committing 911—twice—, I am finally in control of my flight. "Well… that was mildly terrifying."
'Ugh… how can I feel so nauseous without a stomach-', Lucifer spoke. 'Almost reminds me of the first time I rode a Dragon-! Also reminds me of that one time I almost died riding the Dragon.'
As I start ascending through the legions of alien atmosphere, feeling a weird sense of freedom, I speak: "Uhh hey, that… looks important."
The one structure of utmost importance, the Citadel, was located in the heart of the eldritch settlement; In all its gothic and castlevania-esque grandeur, it stood miles high and miles wide.
"I think I know where I ought to go…. Off to the vampire man's home-!"
--END OF CHAPTER 5--