Demonheart: Book 2: Walkers From Another Dimension

by J. J. Egosi

  “Right, if I don’t exist, I probably won’t be able to open this door. Perhaps, I can just walk through it?” he said to himself.

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before taking a step forward. He continued to walk when he opened his eyes, finding himself on the other side of the door.

  He looked around and saw two spiral staircases, one on either side of the room. The walls were adorned with tapestry, all obscured by shadows. With a nervous gulped, he proceeded up the creaking steps of the righthand side staircase before making his way down the corridors where the shadows awaited.

  “This place is spectacular!” he said, as he gazed upon all the goat statues and horns all across the walls and ceilings.

  “I wonder what sort of people live here.”

  He suddenly heard a noise in this seemingly vacant room. He ran further down the hall to see what made the noise.

  He stood in a room of black shadowy figures with a familiar aura. There were about a dozen of them ranging from one large, a medium, and several tiny ones.

  “Big family of shadows, I guess.”

  The shadowy figures were still. Michael stepped on a loose floorboard and drew the attention of the shadows. They moved towards him.

  “Oh, no! They can see me?” Michael said to himself.

  The eerie sounds of the faceless beings frightened Michael. They communicated in a tongue akin to ceaseless murmurs Michael couldn’t understand. He ran as far from them as he could, panting with dread when he noticed them looming over his shoulders. He crashed through the floor, falling for a period that felt eternal. He screamed out before noticing something strange. Something out of place in any reality.

  I was only on the second floor, but I’ve been falling for what feels like an eternity. And those shadows looking up at me don’t seem to get any smaller, Michael thought as he gazed at the blank expressions on their faces. Though he couldn’t see any eyes or mouths to speak of, he sensed they were curious.

  “Is this what my life’s come down to; falling out of control with nothing but these faceless things watching me fall to a death that will never happen? The epitome of futility, it seems. What a nightmare I’ve been dealt.”

  Suddenly, he had an epiphany. “Wait a minute. A nightmare? Am I dreaming?”

  He looked all around, sensing the dark energy of nightmares prior.

  “I am, aren’t I? This reality doesn’t make sense. I’m sure Lucifer has something to do with this, just like he always has. But what? Why can’t I remember? It’s like all I can focus on is this estate.”

  He took a deep breath, staring at the family of darkened figments hanging over him.

  “Perhaps, these are images from my past. That’s why it all feels so familiar, despite my lack of memory of this place. I see that now. The village, the estate, and those shadows. It’s all a part of a bigger picture, isn’t it?”

  Michael nodded and clenched his fists. In his mind, he honed in on his many years of abuse and the friendships that followed, determined to hold on to them, no matter the opposition he faced.

  “I don’t know what that picture will look like in the end, but I know every fragment is critical to its foundation. So, I’m not about to lie here, suspended in midair forever, wondering what it will be in the end. No. It’s time to wake up because, now, I know who I am, who I am not, and who I am destined to become!”

  Michael suddenly woke up to the sound of the titans roaring on the battlefield. He smiled as he slowly rose to his feet.

  “I was correct. That was simply a dream.”

  Lucifer grinned. “Sweet ones, were they? Did you see anything interesting?”

  “Indeed, I did. Believe me; you’ll be sorry you ever put that enchantment on me,” Michael replied, flying back up to where he was, across Lucifer.

  “Really, and why is that?” Lucifer asked.

  “Because now you’ve given me a whole new reason to defeat you,” said Michael.

  “Is that so?”

  “Yes, I’ll admit my goals were selfish. I wanted a life of luxury, despite having no ambitions of making my own money. I wanted to keep my friends, even though I showed no effort in becoming strong enough to protect them.”

  He thought of the many mornings he’d slept in under the influence of liquor, wondering how much time he would have allowed himself to waste. How long any of what he had would stay before leaving him behind.

  “And I also hated humans, but refused to put any effort into dealing with them myself. What’s worse is I thought you were right when you said I could never amount to anything beyond mediocrity. But now”—

  “Now, what? You’ve changed just like that?” Lucifer wondered. “What exactly did you see?”

  “Are you saying you don’t know?” Michael grinned. “I take it then you have no control over my dreams if you’re not there to see them?”

  “Well played. You’ve found the weakness in my magic,” said Lucifer.

  “That’s right. And I just saw a glimpse of my past,” said Michael.

  “Really?” Lucifer raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes. I don’t know what any of it means, but it’s my life and I could feel its overwhelming significance and the warm embrace it brought to my heart. If defeating you is what it takes to uncover my past and learn of what it all meant, then defeating you is what I’ll do,” said Michael.

  “And you really feel that defeating me will help you accomplish this?”

  “I know fighting you this far has brought me closer. So perhaps by defeating you, I’ll know who I am and what my ultimate purpose was. In fact, I think it’s my destiny to do just that.”

  “Destiny? What a joke!” Lucifer scoffed.

  “Say what you want, but I doubt you’ll be able to handle what I have in store for you,” Michael said as his aura grew.

  What’s that supposed to mean?”

  The increasing strength of Michael’s glow illuminated his face. Fear and confusion replaced the smugness on Lucifer’s as the angelic aura around Michael became so bright it consumed the shadows of the night.

  “It’s simple, Lucifer. You see, you’re not the only one with the capacity to take a battle to the next level,” Michael replied with a grin.

  As if pushing with all the force his body could muster, Michael screamed from the depth of his lungs, harnessing the power inside and around him. Bolts of lightning struck the ground. Lucifer watched—mesmerized by the cracking ground. The forests quickly caught fire from the violent bursts of lightning.

  “It seems I was a bit too generous with my dreamwalking magic. It’s allowed you not only to regain a fragment of who you were, but also the power you possessed.

  Lucifer sighed before grinning. “Oh, well. That just means I’m ahead of schedule. Not a problem.”

  Michael’s eyes glowed even brighter and his hair grew longer, falling below his shoulders. He then unfurled two more sets of wings from his back, just before a burst of light blinded the battlefield.

  “The light. It fucking burns!” Lucifer grunted, covering his eyes.

  Feeling the darkness return, Lucifer caught his breath and opened his eyes to a Michael of a different caliber.

  “An etherial angel.” Lucifer smiled. “It’s about time.”

  “Time, indeed,” Michael replied. “Now, it’s time to end this battle. But before I do, there’s one more creature that must be called to the battlefield.”

  “What did you just say?”

  Lucifer gasped, watching in utter shock as a purple ring appeared around Michael’s finger.

  “You have a titan ring?” Lucifer’s shock quickly turned into a grin. “Now, there’s something I didn’t see coming. Too bad you can’t use it.”

  “That’s what you think!” said Michael, raising his scepter.

  Lucifer’s face succumbed to a flustered expression as he watched the skies quake with the presence of the guardian behind the ring.

  No, he thought. He can’t.

  “Mighty
slayer of dwarves and ruler of orcs, I beseech you. Grace this veracious battle with your unwavering strength, so that together we may emerge victorious. Come forth! Obelisk, titan of the third dimension!”

  A towering beast broke from the earth. A mountain of bulky muscle in grey metallic skin, with no head on its neck; simply a stream of teeth surrounding its circular jaws like a vortex, where its head would have been.

  “I know this beast. This is the orc king that singlehandedly defeated the dwarfish army but lost its head as a result? But how did you come across such a beast and how you can summon it?”

  Lucifer gulped. His breath heightened as the titan’s shadow loomed over him.

  “I am the creator god, Lucifer. There’s nothing I can’t do! That also goes for all those that stand beside me. Including my titan. Now, Obelisk! Show Lucifer and his legion what it truly means to be king!”

  “What it means to be-”

  Before Lucifer could finish his thought, there was shaking upon the land. So violently, he nearly fell over. The headless orc stormed forward and hurled his fist at Lycanthrope’s face. The werewolf’s eyes glowed a bright red like Lucifer’s.

  “Lycanthrope, counter with Transylvanian howling right now!” He demanded.

  The werewolf nodded before unhinging its jaws. With its paws clenched, it was ready to silence its opposition.

  Michael smirked. “It seems it’s your memory failing you this time.”

  Lucifer’s eyes widened. A realization even he’d forgotten at that moment sank in as he gazed at the menacing aura permeating from the headless orc.

  “There’s a hierarchy among the titans,” Michael began. “The higher the number dimension from which it derives, the stronger it is.”

  “How well you recall.” Lucifer sneered.

  “In other words, the titan of the third dimension has absolute superiority over the titans of the first and second dimension,” Michael said.

  “So it does,” Lucifer replied. “Strong pieces, as I’m sure you also remember, aren’t enough to win the battle. Nor does it make a king.”

  He had blurred recollections of great wars taking place many years ago. High in the heavens where blood shed from both sides, as demons and angels collapsed under the fervent will of their respective rulers. The animosity was sustained in the end, but a new enemy was now forged in the angel army.

  “You’ll see the sort of king I am right now!” Michael shouted.

  Obelisk swung at Lycanthrope, breaking the air as it did so. The werewolf attempted to counter with its howling attack. Its counter fell on deaf ears just before taking the full force of the headless orc across the face.

  Lycanthrope nearly collapsed from the pummeling blow. Shortly after, Tiamat came to its defense. The great vulture beat its wings to slow the headless orc down. Like a wall, Obelisk persisted. With its other fist, it struck Tiamat across the stomach. It squawked to the heavens in agony. Tiamat and Lycanthrope continued to berate their opposition with a myriad of attacks with few successful, for even they knew the hierarchy of titans could not be broken.

  Lucifer stood there, watching both his servants take a vicious beating by Michael’s titan. They grew bloodier by the second.

  “Oh, I already have.” He began. “I know just what sort of leader you are.”

  After several minutes passed, Lycanthrope and Tiamat stood beside one another, panting and screwing crimson on the ground. As it pooled through the grass, Obelisk stomped forward with a bellowing groan, as if preparing for its final attack.

  “You saw that potential when you made that proposition. Now, it’s come back to bite you.” Michael replied.

  The serrated teeth within the headless orc’s vortex of a cross-section spun like a turbine. Growing fast as the winds intensified.

  “Obelisk, go. End this battle by wiping out both of his titans with your jowls of demise!”

  Lucifer watched the new titan with despair as it grabbed both of the other titans with its glove-like hands.

  Meanwhile, the strength seeped back into the girls. One after the other, they creaked their eyes open, breaking from their unconsciousness and waking to the chaos.

  “Michael. What is that?” Isabella mumbled. It must have been like some sort of dream to her, but to Lucifer, this was a petrifying reality. “What is that brute doing to my titans?”

  “Your titans? You stole them from my friends. And when this is over, they’ll be coming back to us. Now, my beast, feed upon these titans and rid my foe of his ambitions. With haste and without hesitation!”

  “Outrageous! Those titans will never fit inside its mouth,” said Lucifer.

  “Let’s find out,” Michael said.

  Lucifer trembled from Michael’s unshakable confidence. “That’ll never work. You fool!”

  “You’re forgetting Obelisk has other secret abilities.”

  “What other abilities?” Lucifer demanded.

  “You’ll see.” Michael grinned.

  The beast shoved both titans down its gullet-like shoulders, expanding its body like a giant balloon.

  “That beast. It’s about to”—

  “That’s right. It’s about to combust,” Michael finished. Obelisk could not devour both titans, no matter how hard it attempted to force them down his chasm-like gullet. It powered through anyway and exploded, taking the two titans down with it.

  The vicious explosion left the battlefield shrouded in the guts and gore of the three dimensional titans.

  “An angel? Able to summon a titan?”

  He regained his composure and smiled.

  “This was illuminating, to say the least. However, this means our convocation this evening is over. I must proceed to the next phase of my plan now. A plan that is guaranteed to succeed,” Lucifer said to himself before backing into a blackened portal. Behind, its shadows resembled a void.

  Michael called out to Lucifer. “Get back here and fight me, you coward,” noticing Lucifer’s exit.

  “The entrails of the titans may return to their rings to be summoned again, but our war shall persist through any sea of blood.”

  “It’ll continue right now!” Michael shouted.

  “We’ll meet again soon. And when we do, I assure you I won’t be as merciful,” Lucifer said with a grin before completely vanishing into the shadows.

  Chapter 9

  The Beast of the Wetlands

  M

  ichael watched the manifestation of the void Lucifer’s presence once filled, fixated and wondering when he’d next return.

  You may have escaped this time, Lucifer, but you won’t be so lucky the next time I see you. And I’m sure we will meet again.

  Michael watched the last of the void vanish. He took a deep breath as the sun rose, before returning to his human form. With his original state came the disappearance of all the debris created by the explosion of the three titans.

  He then turned around to see his friends limping up to their feet, in a fit of groans and winces.

  “You guys? You’re alright!”

  He rushed to their aid with excitement and joy.

  “Hey, did you see that? I scared that destroyer god straight back to the pit he crawled out of,” said Michael with a hearty beam on his face. “On top of that, I have some really exciting news about this vision I had and what it could mean.”

  The girls looked away from him, not with resentment or frustration, but with expressions of discomfort on their faces.

  “You, know. You could act a little enthusiastic. I know I didn’t kill him, but I think I scared him a bit. Also, did you see that titan I summoned out of nowhere?” he said, nearly jumping with delight.

  “Yes, we did, Michael,” Julianna said with displeasure.

  “Hey, is it something I said?” Michael said. “Are you still mad about me for not telling you earlier?”

  “Get away from us!” Isabella snapped, cold as hail.

  “There are bigger issues than you concealing his name from us,” sai
d Julianna.

  “What do you mean? Did I do something wrong?” he wondered.

  “I’ll tell you what you did. You performed familiar magic,” said Alexa.

  “Yeah. And what’s so wrong about that?” he asked.

  The girls looked at each other, unsure of who should speak up next and how to approach the matter with him.

  “Michael, only demons can perform familiar magic,” Ursula said with concern in her voice.

  “What?” Michael asked with bewilderment.

  “Let me clarify,” Alexa began, “familiar magic is the most forbidden and powerful form of magic to ever exist, and there’s a reason for that. Only demons are granted the ability to perform it, as the darkness within them has evolved them to do.”

  “So, what are you saying?” Michael’s lips quivered.

  “I’m saying the archangel should be the last person who can perform such magic!” Alexa yelled.

  “Okay. So, I performed demon magic. What’s the big deal? It’s not like I used it to hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it,” he argued.

  “That’s not the point, Michael. Only demons are granted the ability to use that magic. It’s not that you shouldn’t use that magic, it’s that you shouldn’t even be able to. Unless”—Julianna began.

  “Unless what?” Michael said. The trembling in his voice grew.

  “Unless you’re actually a demon!” Ursula interjected.

  Michael’s eyes widened. It took every fiber of his being to maintain his composure in the face of the accusation. He looked at the distrusting gazes around him before taking a deep, calming breath.

  “I see. You think I’m a demon because of the titan I summoned. I know that looked bad, but you know I’m not a demon. I’m an angel. The archangel and creator god, Michael. You have to believe me!”

  “Throw around all the titles you want, Michael. Just answer this; how do we know you’re not secretly working for Lucifer?” Julianna said.

  “What? That’s ridiculous. Where did that even come from?” Michael replied with astonishment.

  “Well, for one, the fact you possess one of the seven titans. It only makes sense he lent you that one for this very purpose. To take us down,” said Alexa.