57 The Birth of a Daeva

‘Stop.’

My mind was drifting aimlessly when the order reached me. I abruptly stopped eating the leftovers. The gates, which looked like those of a god a while ago, were now simple massive stone gates. Its panels were old and cracked. They no longer shone like a sun.

My body felt weird, saturated with energy. The deathforce concentration was so high that all my senses and capacities were altered. I could barely hear anything. Flashes of light and temporary blindness were intermittently affecting my vision. After a while, I realized I had lost control over my muscles and fallen to my knees in front of the door.

Where was I? What was that door? … Who was I? I was having trouble remembering. Did I eat too much? Was I drunk?

A soothing wave warmed me up. Surprised, I jerkily looked up and saw a dark-haired human surrounded by darkness, crouching beside me. His slanted eyes were entirely black. But he was a human. No, it was more than a human. It was…

My soul.

Something leaped inside me. I tried to stretch my hand and reach my soul, but my body was slowed down by the large quantities of lifeforce my core had to transform. The human took my hand and said something I didn’t catch. The contact sent shivers through my body. I gripped his hand and began to eat his lifeforce. It entered my qi veins and ran toward my core, coiling around the lifeforce I had absorbed from the door.

Part of me was bugged by the fact I couldn’t remember a thing. I knew there was something I should have known. For example, the identity of that human. Identity. Yeah, somehow I knew I was very close to that human. We shared something precious.

Our soul. Only that? No.

That human was also my…

“Mas-ter…”

I mumbled his name with difficulty, all my movements being distorted by a too-busy core.

‘You’ve expelled most of the crystals you absorbed in the sphere,’ my master told me. ‘They would have likely killed you in the long run. I saved your life, so you shouldn’t steal mine.’

His words slowly made sense to me. He wanted me to stop eating his lifeforce. He wanted me to give him my soul because he had saved me.

‘Oh, but guess you can’t stop. You’re at the last stage of your evolution, but you’re still a Fury. If I order you to stop, your core probably won’t stand the sudden pressure. It’s already cracking. Your soul is scattering. There is only but one way to save you.’

Save me? Didn’t he just say he had already saved me? While I was still holding his left hand, I realized his right hand was grabbing the back of my neck. If I had been in good condition, I would have jumped to my feet and run away. I was scared. I knew I used to trust my master, but I couldn’t remember why. What if I had been mistaken? What if that black-eyed human wanted to harm me? What was I supposed to do in a situation where I could understand nothing at all?

Then I felt it. His energy flowing into my core, guided and controlled by him. My cracked core was being wrapped in it, then my ripped meridians were being patched, and bit by bit, memories were coming back.

The name of my master was Ray Styxer. He had created me two months ago. He was a necromancer. And right now, he was gathering all the parts of my soul that had been leaking out through the cracks of my core.

As I remembered, the fear vanished. I was an undead that had been human before, but that was not important. What mattered was that I was by my master’s side.

The thought occupied my whole mind for a moment. As ordered, I had devoured the energy coating the gates so humans would be able to touch them without dying from the pressure. I had protected my master, and he was protecting me in return. A strong feeling spread throughout my body and then raced toward our necro-bond. It dashed through it like lightning and struck my master’s soul. He let out a growl of surprise. I could hear him clearly now, as well as Zeeta cursing:

“What the hell’s going on now?!”

Ray was panting, paler than usual, but he didn’t give up and kept fixing my core. Memories were still flooding back. I remembered I had been teleported with Zeeta and Ray, and that we were probably still in the Dungeon of Phoenix Island. The tunnel was a dead-end, maybe a destination adventurers could only reach by following a dungeon loop and teleporting. The door in front of us looked heavy. Even if it wasn’t deadly now, how were we going to open it?

Silly thoughts kept striking my mind and then leaving, being replaced by others.

I was Armen Moon, and Ray was one of the most important persons in my life. I was not only an undead following his orders: I was his friend.

As memories gave me my identity back, I was overwhelmed by realizing how close I had been to losing myself. My core had cracked because I had overeaten. But according to Ray, I’d had no choice but to eat to expel the purple, red, and whatever dangerous crystals I had accumulated in my body. So, in a way, that door had saved my life. And Ray was still working on mending the damage.

Looking at the black smoke snaking on Ray’s skin and blurring his eyes, I understood his power was still activated. His looks were kinda creepy.

“Straw Head? Are you all right now?”

Zeeta was standing several meters away, lighting us with our spare flashlight. Did Ray ask him not to get close? I nodded slightly.

“I’m fine.” I didn’t tell him I barely remembered even my name just a while ago. I smiled. “I devoured it.”

“Huh?”

“The door.”

“Ah… Yeah.” Zeeta looked up at the dull gray gates then back at me. “You’re a freaking monster.”

I chuckled.

“Yeah. Wait. You can hear me now?”

“Ah. Yeah… Looks like the culprit was that door and not Ray.”

“…” I half-closed my eyes as I smiled, deeply relieved. “Thank goodness.”

Zeeta sat down on the rocky ground with his flashlight.

“Mm. Say. What’s Ray doing now?”

“Fixing things.”

Zeeta swallowed.

“Oh.” He paused, then said: “You know, Ray’s been acting odd. I mean, he explained to me that he understood a lot of things, about you being infected by intruding crystals and about those gates. They were eating away our lifeforce, apparently, but as soon as you touched it, they stopped. He said we’d have died in a matter of an hour or so if he hadn’t told you to eat. So, by now, we’d be dead. Wonder how many adventurers were drained by these doors and kicked the bucket.”

I shuddered. Ray had mentioned it before. So those gates really ate lifeforce, but instead of turning it into deathforce as an undead would, they had just kept wrapping it around themselves… for who knows how long.

I stared at the patterns engraved on the gray gates. There were triangles, rectangles, random figures, and one big, bulgy disk on each panel.

“One hour, you said?” I repeated then. “What time is it, actually?”

“Past midnight. It’s been seven hours since we entered the dungeon. You spent five hours in front of that door. And Ray has been ‘fixing things’ for a while now.”

I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t remember a thing. Zeeta added:

“And Ray has kept using his power all this time. His shadows…” He glanced at Ray’s concentrated face. “It seems that he’s affected by them.”

I frowned, confused.

“What do you mean?”

Zeeta was pale. He got to his feet and took a few steps forward.

“He’s just not acting like he usually does. Maybe it’s just the situation—”

“Nonsense,” Ray cut him off briskly, his face growing darker.

The young necromancer stood up and broke contact, but I kept sensing his energy flowing through me. Was he giving me lifeforce willingly? No, it wasn’t lifeforce: it was dark energy. His shadows were spreading throughout my meridians, from head to toe. My core was already fixed so… what was that energy for? My master continued in a curt, smug tone:

“Zeeta. How dare you get closer when I told you to stay away? You reckless human. I told you it’s dangerous. Until Armen has not transformed all of the eaten lifeforce, he won’t stop trying to eat more. He’s evolving. He will attack you even if you’re his friend, you loggerhead. Which could be bad for him too, at this stage: the lifeforce refined by the gates is a thousand times better than yours to complete the evolution. So if you get any closer, I’ll have to discourage you. Just saying. And I am not acting weird.”

He totally was!! I looked up at him anxiously. Shadows were wriggling on his face, around his neck and hands… His eyes met mine.

“What?”

For a moment, I was so overwhelmed I could say nothing. Then:

“Ray. It’s a joke, right? Tell me it’s a joke.”

Ray kept staring down at me, then a smile even darker than his shadows spread on his face.

“A joke? Ha. The fact that I, a Spawn of Darkness, has saved your life three times in a row is a joke?”

I widened my eyes, instinctively flinching under his glare.

“I-I didn’t say that—”

“‘Life is no joke’. You said that once. I remind you we’re in a dungeon. Dungeons are extremely dangerous places for us. I’m supposed to be powerful, but I’m this weak! How am I to live in this world if a simple damned Djevel door can kill me? Anyway, what happened here was no joke at all. You made a second offering, so I took the liberty of creating a second necro-bond to help with your healing, but that means you became a Daeva. If you’ve read that book by Iracheh Smith, you know there’s no turning back: once an undead has evolved, it can’t change. Two necro-bonds mean I can make my qi circulate between us much more effectively—Why am I explaining all of this stuff when we should try to get the hell out of here, I wonder.”

Zeeta and I were gaping at him. Some very weird words and thoughts were mixed in Ray’s babbling.

“Ray. I have some questions. What’s Djevel?”

“You don’t know? Of course you wouldn’t know. Djevels are the damned creatures that built those vampiric doors. The people that cast us in this hell.”

What on earth was he talking about?

“What’s that about a second offering?”

“Ah, that. I didn’t tell you, huh? It’s how a Fury proceeds. It gives part of its soul to its master. Usually, Furies only do it once, but since you did it twice and you were so full of black energy, I was able to forge a second necro-bond. Oh, also, if the Fury can’t do at least one offering, it dies.”

That was a shock.

“I… just gave you part of my soul?”

“Yeah. You did it at Yuutow Tower too, remember?”

Oh, right… At that time, I had brought forward all my feelings of trust and affection toward him—I snorted.

“But don’t Furies precisely want to steal the part of their soul their master has?”

“Yeah. That’s why some Furies die. Some masters die too. But in your case, because we’re friends, you gave in pretty easily.”

I… gave in?!

“I didn’t give in,” I protested. “I offered you those feelings willingly, out of the bottom of my hea—”

“Well, whatever. The fact is you helped me get stronger.” He gave me one of his creepy black smiles. “The stronger I get, the higher the chances for me and you to survive.” Why was he obsessed with survival, all of a sudden? He glanced at the gates and added: “Did you finish with your questions? If we want to get out of here, we’d better try to push that door open—”

“One last question.”

I drew a deep breath then stood up in the dark tunnel and faced him.

“Master. Sorry for the weird question but… who the hell are you?”

“…” His face shrouded in shadows hardened. “What’s with that question? I’m your friend, thus you have to obey me and help me stay alive. Am I not good enough for you? I’m your creator! Are you rebelling?”

“Eeeh?!”

Why was he making it sound as if I was the one acting weird when he was totally the one not being himself?! I turned to Zeeta with a desperate face.

“Has he been like that for five hours?”

“Er… Well. He wrote down some explanations, since I was deaf, but then he kept ignoring my texts and just meditated with his dark qi or whatever. For hours. So… I’ve barely spoken with him. It’s… worse than I thought.”

Holy Gods, what had happened to Ray? Not only was he acting all confident and bossy, but he had also just said he was a Spawn of Darkness with absolute certainty… Why was he so sure of it all of a sudden? Did he figure out something after taking control of his shadows? Was his power really related to the Spawns of Darkness?

But why had his personality altered? Was he just… tired? I shook my head. He was saying weird stuff like he was being half another person. A person that wasn’t human and seemed to see the Djevels—who were maybe just the Crystals—as enemies. If the Crystals were sacred gifts given to us humans by the Holy Gods, then their enemies were… demons? No… devils? No… unholy gods? Wait a sec, was I thinking Ray had got possessed by an evil god? That was just ridiculous…

“It can’t be, is it just a nightmare or—?”

“Armen,” my master cut me off. “Shut up and push the door open.”

My body moved on its own. I laid both hands on the stone and pushed with all my might.

Ray would have never ordered me around like that. More than annoyed, however, I felt terribly worried. I could only hope Ray would come back to normal once he deactivated his power… Zeeta roared behind.

“RAAAY! How can you boss him around like that! Lift the order! Lift the order, you bast—!”

I couldn’t hear the rest because, at that moment, a deafening, prolonged bong tore the air in the tunnel. My eyes widened in astonishment. Was it the gates? No: they hadn’t moved one bit. Then… where was that sound coming from? Still pushing the door, I turned my head.

Ray had fallen backwards. Meters away, Zeeta was angrily glaring at him and screaming, but I barely could hear his voice. The bong was making an infernal racket. Then it finally stopped.

A heavy silence fell. Ray sat up, shaking all over.

“What the… What happened… A-Armen…”

The shadows on his face were gone. The orders had quickly faded. Had he lifted them knowingly? Yet hadn’t he said it was not possible to erase orders given to an evolving Fury? Anyway, it seemed that Ray had finally come to his senses. I stepped away from the door, hurrying to him.

“Ray! Are you all right?”

Ray’s face was troubled.

“A… dream? … Armen? Did I black out? As expected… I couldn’t control the shadows, could I?”

Black out? If he thought so, then… did that mean he didn’t remember what just happened? Zeeta and I looked at each other. I shook my head imperceptibly. It wasn’t the best moment to tell Ray the truth. I sighed with relief.

“Thank goodness you came to. You got us worried. Ah, there,” I said, and I crouched by his side and switched on the flashlight that was hanging on his necklace. He relaxed a bit, and I smiled. “We’re lucky that those flashlights last long. What will we do if we end up in the dark? Haha, now that would be troublesome.”

Ray blinked then cast a nervous look at the gates.

“So I did pass out.”

“Yeah. For five hours. Your power must have exhausted you.” I wasn’t exactly lying, right?

Ray nodded, froze, then looked back at me as if he had seen a ghost.

“Wait. Armen… Was it really a dream? Our necro-bond… It became a double bond.”

“Oh? How could that happen? Haha, maybe I ate so much that it grew on its own?”

“Impossible. Necro-bonds can’t be created by a familiar.”

“Then maybe you did it unconsciously in your… er… dream?”

I knew I was digging myself into a deeper hole, but I just didn’t want Ray to know what he was like when his power was activated and “under control”. What if he decided not to try to activate it anymore? What if his trauma worsened? I had no idea what a Spawn of Darkness really was, but I was determined to crush it. I didn’t want to see that evil smile on Ray’s face ever again.

Zeeta grumbled.

“He’s not buying it, Straw Head.”

I jerked up and glowered at him.

“Zeeta!”

“Just look at his face. He’s remembering everything. He knows he did something bad to you—”

“Shut up!” I stood up, shaking with frustration. “Ray did nothing bad. It was just a dream.”

“Tell me another one. Is it that hard to face the truth? Your ‘master’ is—”

“Shut up.”

“Mentally unstable.”

“SHUT UP!”

My fist hit the gates with all its might. There was a loud crack, and a fissure appeared in the stone. My anger faded as I saw my hand mangled by the blow. Immediately, a flood of dark energy covered it. I was stunned. Was my hand going to heal just like that?

In the deep silence that fell in the tunnel, I muttered:

“Sorry, Zeeta. I’m not mad at you.”

“Glad to hear that. Wonder how my face would be right now if you had hit me. Well, guess I’m not one to talk about being level-headed and stuff.”

“…” I turned my head to him. “So true.”

“Ahem. Still, you really cracked that door, you monster… Take better care of your body, mate.”

My eyes followed silently the black matter as it wrapped around my hand and healed it like a miraculous remedy. I was sure that, right now, Ray was processing the “dream” and trying to digest the reality. Finally, he breathed in and got up to his feet. He stepped closer, took a look at my hand, and nodded to himself.

“You should restrain your strength. You are stronger than before. Also, Daevas have good regenerative capabilities. The dark energy I instilled into your meridians is helping too. I think I wouldn’t have been able to do all of this if my power hadn’t been activated, so… Yeah, let’s say it was just a dream for now. Does it work for you?”

Zeeta snorted. Was it my imagination or could I hear some faraway drums break the silence? But where were they coming from? Could it be… Zeeta’s cellphone? Nah, but a phone could have never made such a realistic bong. Then what?

After contemplating my hand completely healed, I straightened up and gave a firm nod.

“Works for me. Also, if we get in trouble again, don’t hesitate to activate your power, Zeeta will wake you up with his bong.”

“What bong?” Zeeta protested. “Hold on, Straw Head, don’t encourage him to change into that shady jerk! Ray’s clearly being possessed by a ghost!”

“A ghost,” Ray repeated, holding his flashlight, thoughtful. “Is it really a ghost, or is it the real me?”

I stared at him, shocked.

“What do you mean?”

My master looked at the huge gates in the darkness of the tunnel and added:

“Now I understand. I know it sounds weird, but somehow I feel as if I am finally complete. It’s an odd and terrifying feeling but it’s also a relief. Part of me doesn’t want to change, yet I’m also frustrated at myself for being so weak, for lacking confidence, for never giving it my all…” He lowered his cap as he continued awkwardly: “In that… dream, I was sure of what I was doing, I could use all my knowledge without hesitation and reach what I desired…” His hand clenched into a fist. “Now I understand better what a Spawn of Darkness is. After Lei told me about them, I only managed to learn that a Spawn of Darkness is an evil parasite made of black energy that has taken over the body of a human or animal. So I thought that maybe that parasite had taken over my body that day, when I was eight. But it’s not like that. It’s not like we are two people in the same body. It’s not like I have to fight against any parasite inside me. My soul is unified and cannot be split. I was probably born like that. That means…” A defying glint gleamed in his eyes as he raised them. “Be my power activated or not, I am the same evil creature.”

“…!!” I gazed at him, speechless. My mind was crying: Evil? Ray? My master? My best friend? Never!

“So, in the end,” Ray went on, glancing at Zeeta, “that ‘shady jerk’ you’ve just met in that ‘dream’ was no other than myself. But now I remember everything, and believe me, my transformed self never thought about harming you two, not even for a second. And I wasn’t ordering you around for no reason, Armen. My instincts just urged me to get out of this dungeon at once. It seems dungeons are really dangerous places for… the likes of me. I was just trying to save our lives in the most effective way. However,” his lips stretched into a quivering smile as he confessed, “I may be a bit too bossy and greedy when I transform. Sorry. But as long as I use my power only to save your lives… it’s okay, isn’t it?”

He was trying to justify his actions. He really thought he had done nothing wrong this time. And, strictly speaking, he hadn’t. Even in his transformed form, he had only been thinking about our safety, yet I had been feeding negative feelings about him, wanting to destroy that part of him I didn’t know, wanting to hide the truth from Ray and accusing him unknowingly in the process… How foolish of me. Even if there were parts about Ray I didn’t know, why should I crush them? If Ray was accepting them, I should try too. True friendship wasn’t a stagnant kind of relationship. It evolved and changed, it adjusted to new turns of events. As long as Ray was Ray, I shouldn’t be afraid of seeing him change. It was even exciting to think that my master had saved me three times in a row, just like a hero would.

I paced forward and stopped before him. As his baseball cap raised, I met his dark eyes and stared at them. He was quizzical, waiting for my verdict. I grinned.

“Yeah. It’s okay. And it’s okay to be greedy. As long as you stay true to yourself, that is. So, thank you, Ray, for saving us.”

“Is it really okay?” Zeeta grumbled, his hands shoved in his hoodie’s pockets.

I chuckled.

“It is. Because, in his shoes, I’d have done the same.”

Zeeta stared at me, then breathed out.

“Well, as long as he saves us, I guess he can be a jerk. All things considered, the transformed version looks more reliable and honest.”

Ray smiled painfully.

“Thanks for giving your opinion, Zeeta.”

“See? Your transformed version would have said something like, ‘shut up, you lowly human’. Anyway,” his lips went up slightly, “I’d like to thank you for saving our lives, but I’ll prudently save those words for when we get out of this dungeon alive with Erma.”

“For a ‘lowly human’, you’re rather prudent indeed.”

“Get lost.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d say Zeeta and Ray were kind of good friends now, but they liked to bug each other way too often. Both of them.

“Oi, Zeeta,” I chimed in. “How about you thank me too for clearing the way?”

“Huh… You mean I should thank you for stuffing yourself?”

“Hahaha, how rude of you! It was so good I can still remember its taste…”

“For pity’s sake, Straw Head, I haven’t had dinner, you know. I’m hungry.”

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t we have some crab meat cans left?”

Ray immediately looked into his suitcase and… grimaced.

“You took the plastic bag to give one to Rainbows just before we left, didn’t you? And you forgot to put it back.”

“Now that you mention it,” I admitted. “So… no food?”

“No food,” Ray confirmed.

In the silence that followed, I heard a stomach growl. Ray blushed slightly. I pouted apologetically.

“Sorry I forgot. But, hey, isn’t it said that a bit of fasting is healthy? Not that I am the best example right now, but fasting is good to detoxify the body and stuff… Yeah. At least, my big sis says so.”

Ray and Zeeta looked at each other, and the former sighed.

“If your big sis says so…”

“Yeah, if your big sis says so… Wandering in a dungeon must be as healthy as going to a hot spring.”

Ray snorted at Zeeta’s remark.

“Yeah… Anyway, there’s no helping it.”

“Yeah, all we can do is go on and push that door open,” Zeeta agreed.

I realized that the more they thought about their hunger, the more they would feel hungry, and I nodded, affirming:

“Okay! Let’s go on and open that damn door.”

Just as I put my hands on a panel to push it, Ray’s flashlight flickered then died. After a silence, Zeeta and I said at once:

“Crap.”

“We’re counting on you to light the way, Zeeta,” Ray said, putting his hands on the panel.

I pushed. Previously, I had been shoving the panel on the right, and it hadn’t budged. The left panel, however, pivoted right away. It creaked against the ground, but it opened. A flow of light illuminated us through the cracked door.

“We opened it!” I huffed, amazed. “Ray… Could it be you got stronger too?”

Ray raised an eyebrow, peeped into the room, and commented:

“Looks like there’s a ton of junk behind the panel on the right. That’s why you couldn’t open it.”

“Really?!”

He was right. There was a mountain of crates inside, blocking the panel.

“Wonder what is inside—”

“Don’t touch them,” Ray immediately said, alarmed.

The order warmly pierced my core, but oddly enough, my life-lust didn’t increase. Did that mean I was no longer an uncontrollable Fury? I laughed. At last!

“Ray! I have evolved!”

The young necromancer shrugged and nodded, amused.

“So it seems.”

“So that’s why you give me orders so casually! I evolved! Hahaha! We did it, Ray!”

I was naturally happy: I had thought I would have to bear with that wild life-lust for two more months at the bare minimum. But since I had eaten such an enormous amount of lifeforce from the gates… Damn. I had to feel doubly grateful to that door. Without it, I would have long lost my mind and attacked my friends…

“But I wonder why that door was so full of lifeforce,” I let out, thoughtful.

Ray’s face had darkened; he sighed deeply and spoke through our necro-bond.

‘I bet it was the lifeforce of the people that came here before us. Likely, most of them got completely absorbed by that “door”. You ate what was probably the result of hundreds of years of work.’

“…!!” I turned to the gates and pouted guiltily. “Sorry.”

‘Huh… Shouldn’t you feel more sorry for the people that were killed by it?’ He was damn right: strictly speaking, that door was just a killing machine. ‘Also, I don’t give you orders in a casual manner, Armen. I’m just… very uncomfortable in this dungeon, so I’m on survival mode, you know—er—Anyway, about your evolution, it’s not completely over yet. It takes time to become a Daeva—’

“Wow.”

Zeeta’s interjection made us come back to the present and turn our heads. He had sauntered into the room, a big, quiet hall filled with steam, of which some curls ascended to the high ceiling. The walls were glowing and translucent, and water trickled down them. It smelled of lavender. Wait, really?

I sniffed the air as the three of us advanced in the seemingly spacious gallery, scanning our surroundings with curiosity.

There were shallow pools on the sides and cylindrical platforms that stood between each of them. Was that… a sauna? Some thermal baths? The water was transparent and looked clear, but Zeeta and Ray decided not to drink from it unless they got more than just thirsty—which would happen rather quick as it was very hot in the hall according to them. I was a bit worried about my friends: I was brimming with energy, but they were exhausted, thirsty, and hungry. Well, if that water was safe, they wouldn’t die so easily.

Through the steamy air, I gazed at the walls and the tiled floor in admiration. There were elegant strokes sculpted all over the place.

“A type of writing?” I asked.

“I’ve never seen that alphabet,” Ray confessed. “Or rather, I’ve never seen it in those last seventeen years, but in my past, I think I did.”

He fell silent, realizing how strange his words sounded. I asked curiously:

“So you remember your past?”

I caught Zeeta’s incredulous grimace. Ray shook his head.

“My memories of the time I was out of this body are hazy. I remember some things but… I don’t know to which point some memories changed over time. What I do remember is that I was imprisoned in one of these dungeons, just as Helly was. But not in this dungeon. A bigger one. I was confined and asleep as if frozen in a small place for many, many years before and after the Big Blend. I was not alone. And… from what I think I heard during my escape, all the creatures I was with were sent by the same people that launched the Great Crystals into space to conquer other planets. I think they were called the Djevels. But… I’m pretty sure something went wrong along the way. My guess is a whole fleet was dragged away from our target and landed on the wrong planet, farther, much farther than what the pilots expected. That means… Well, according to what humans knew before the Big Blend, distances in space are crazy so… maybe millions of years have passed since then. Maybe the Djevels don’t even exist anymore.”

There was a bewildered silence. The dungeon was a prison? Then why Helly would want to go back to…? I glared at the enigmatic signs carved into the cylinder. Damn Djevels. The mere thought of Ray locked in some tiny box in the shape of a black mass of energy outraged me…

“Is he for real?” Zeeta groaned at last. “You an alien, Ray?”

“I think I am.”

Zeeta chuckled nervously and looked at us alternately, astonished.

“You can’t possibly believe him, Straw Head.”

“I do, though.”

“Why?!”

“…?” I rubbed my temple and repeated: “Why, you ask? Well… I just believe him.”

“Really? … You two lost your minds.”

“That may also be true,” Ray admitted. “But then why do I have memories of places I have never been to and never seen in pictures? Why do those signs on the sculptures feel familiar? Why did I understand immediately how that Djevel door worked? How do I know the word ‘Djevel’ to begin with? And why does my life before I was born in this body feel so real now even if I barely remember anything?”

“Ever heard of split personality disorder?”

“You don’t answer my questions.”

“You do realize your questions are full of holes. Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one here? Some mysterious people launched the Crystals and the dungeons to conquer other planets, and after millions of years, here you are, still alive? Argh. We’re trying to save Erma, guys, stop wasting time spouting bullshit. It’s not funny.”

Annoyed, Zeeta kept walking down the huge, misty hall; I noticed yet again that drumming sound. Was it coming from the room or from Zeeta’s phone or… directly from Zeeta? No, that didn’t make sense. As we followed him, Ray furrowed his brow.

“Maybe you’re right. I can’t prove it yet. However…”

He gazed intently at the tidy room. Even after two thousand years, even after the many more years since this room had been built, nothing seemed to have been touched, not even by time.

I turned to Ray, curious.

“However?”

“Well… Did the forced colonists use this room? Or were they Djevels? If some Djevels were part of the expedition, then… some of them should be on Earth too.”

A shiver ran down my spine. Then I confessed:

“I don’t really get it.”

“Who would,” Zeeta snorted without turning his head.

Ray confessed:

“I don’t get it either. I don’t especially like spacial stuff. I just know that… part of me is scared of being spotted by the Djevels.”

“Why should you be?” Zeeta replied. “If what you say is true, which I doubt but well, those Jewels or whatever wanted you to conquer a planet, not kill you. So those Spawns of Darkness were actually just pawns of them, weren’t they?” He paused and huffed. “That sounds just so ridiculous. And there I thought that you were a guy with common sense. The only good point you had, and you spoiled it.”

“You don’t need to believe me,” Ray retorted grumbling.

“Mmph. Of course I don’t. Oh, but as long as you save our lives, you can spout all the nonsense you want.”

“Well, as long as you don’t get in my way, you can hate me all you want.”

And there they go again… They started to get on my nerves. I commented:

“Guys, putting aside the planets, the aliens, and your silly quarrels, can you see what I am seeing?”

The steam had become less dense, and I indicated, at the end of the long gallery, the high pedestal and the wide golden altar laying on it in front of a… throne?

Wait a sec, what was a throne doing in a bathroom? Maybe it wasn’t a bathroom after all?

Finally stopping at the foot of the white stairs, I lifted my eyes to the throne. It was majestic and… sinister. It seemed that the chair was made out of bones.

Bones? Not those of the adventurers that had died in front of the gates, right? Right?

Then I saw it.

Sat on the throne of bones, there was a spectral silhouette of white energy with the shape of a woman. Was it real? Since Ray and Zeeta didn’t seem to see it, I was trying to convince myself I was just imagining it when it raised a hand, very slowly, and said in a lingering voice:

“I’ve been waiting for so long… for someone… to come…”