Realm Wraith

by T. R. Briar

  Rayne pondered Darrigan’s motives. “You did help me, and I do owe you. Perhaps you can atone for what you did, by working for me.” The words felt strange falling from his mouth, coming from a place beyond the consciousness Rayne knew. He wasn’t even certain he was speaking English anymore.

  “Reapers are treacherous beings,” Tomordred warned from over his shoulder. “He already betrayed his former master. Who’s to say he won’t do the same to you?”

  “I never truly regarded Azaznir as my master,” Darrigan countered. “I was happier serving no one. But my voice was crushed beneath the overwhelming majority, sustained by fear, and my choice lay between serving a god I did not want, or being torn to pieces by my kin. I chose to stay alive.”

  “I don’t care about ruling over your kin. ” Rayne told him. “But leaving them in Azaznir’s hand is too dangerous. He—” The demon god’s threats played again and again in his mind. “Levi—”

  “Who?” Tomordred asked.

  “My son! Azaznir said if anything happened to Gabriel—”

  “Your son?” Tomordred repeated. “That boy whose dreams I entered—his soul felt so much like yours.” He began to shake as he comprehended what he’d done. “Please, forgive me! If I’d known, I never would have—”

  “Wait, you mean that boy is your flesh and blood?” Darrigan asked. “I assumed he was adopted.”

  “This is serious!” Rayne shouted. “Is he—is he like me?” He looked down at his arm, very aware of the thousands of snakes crawling under his skin.

  “I don’t know! The mortal offspring of an ordinary demon is one thing. But the child of a demon god? That’s another matter. He’s too young to tell for certain.”

  “But Azaznir can hurt him? Possibly can make him his catalyst? I can’t let that happen! He can’t do that to my son!”

  “It might not be too late,” Darrigan said. “If you seek the boy, you will find Azaznir. I can see to it that the other reapers don’t interfere.”

  “How?”

  “A distraction. They’ll want to take down a dissenter. I’ll buy you time, but you have to go quickly.”

  “Right. It’s up to me, isn’t it?”

  “I would go with you if I could, my lord,” Tomordred said. “But I find it difficult to leave this place. I am sorry that I could not come to your aid back then. I am sorry I could not search for you in your absence. And I am sorry I did not recognize you as the being who gave me this life.”

  “I know,” Rayne said. “Even when you did not know me, your unwavering loyalty was clear. Thick, but clear.”

  His eyes shut tight, Rayne sensed the boundary, like a thin curtain woven in tight threads between two intersecting realities. He understood it now. He merely had to reach out and push those threads aside to pass though. His mind reached out to his son, drawing his soul towards him.

  * * *

  He opened his eyes, surrounded by the world. The sun hung high in the blue sky, illuminating the cottony clouds with sheer blinding intensity. Down on the earth, green foliage and trees rolled in all directions, bordered by tall city buildings. He recognized the pond nearby, and felt a slight sense of fear and embarrassment standing there, surrounded by people, looking as he did. They all walked around him, oblivious to the demonic specter that stood in their midst. Still, he felt concerned, knowing that if any of them could sense him, he did not want to be seen this way. His own son, especially; if his last night alive had been any forewarning, his spirit could be seen, and he did not want to traumatize Levi any further.

  His form contorted and shrank, becoming more human, wearing a shadow of the clothes he’d worn the last day of his life. As familiar as his old form felt to him, it brought him no comfort. He no longer felt human, and looking human felt like a lie. Yet he still experienced a fragmented connection to the human life he’d abandoned. He wondered how David and Levi were coping with the whole situation. David would have come home to find two corpses, one being his best friend. And Levi was likely hysterical. Rayne knew he’d done something terrible by just abandoning them like that. But he also realized, being what he was, he could never live a normal human life again. His mere presence would terrorize his own child. The corners of his mouth turned down as he mulled over this fate. Would he ever be able to speak with Levi again?

  People continued to ignore his presence, brushing past him on the walkway. Occasionally, one or two would bump into him, looking about in confusion over connecting with something solid, trying to sense what hid beyond their sight. It was easy now for Rayne to look into their souls, understanding their darkest secrets and desires. But he had no time to play judge and jury among the colorful dancing lights; he had purpose for being here.

  Over by the pond, he saw David and Levi, both wearing black clothes of mourning. They were alone, and Rayne breathed a cautious sigh of relief. For the time being, he stood beside a tree, watching, waiting to see if Azaznir would show himself. His sullen son stared ahead with tears staining his face, and his eyes were red and puffy. David kept a more stoic composure, but despite the concern in his eyes, he did not seem nearly as sad. In his hands he held an urn, and with a graceful hand wave he scattered ashen contents onto the water’s placid surface.

  Was that me? Rayne wondered. He watched as the sniffling child bent down at the edge of the pond, poking at the mud with a stick, while David bent down to comfort him. He then stood to let Levi continue his misery alone, glancing around at the passing crowds. His eyes rested right on Rayne, who ducked behind the tree without thinking.

  “What am I doing?” he muttered. “He can’t see me. I shouldn’t have to hide like this.”

  He peered out from behind the tree again. Levi was still there by the side of the pond. He’d gone from playing with a stick to throwing rocks into the water, watching them splash, though he took no joy from it. And David was—Rayne realized he couldn’t see him anywhere.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” The voice came from beside him. Rayne looked up at the tree in confusion, wondering why it was talking to him.

  “Over here.” David stood right by the tree, hands in his jacket pockets, brown hair covered up by a hat, looking directly at Rayne.

  “David! You, I, that is—” Rayne felt himself becoming reacquainted with a more human attitude in his friend’s presence, a feeling that surprised him. Then he realized the situation, that what was happening simply should not be. “You can see me? You don’t seem surprised.”

  “Of course I’m surprised. You should not be here.”

  “I know, I know. I had to come back. Levi’s in trouble.”

  David’s amber eyes widened. “Levi?”

  “Yes. Something’s after him, it wants to use him to, ah—” Rayne wasn’t sure how absurd this would all sound, but then again David was quite blasé about speaking with a dead man in public. “There’s this demon. He wants to hurt Levi. Maybe even use him to destroy this world. Like I di—” he stopped, realizing what he was about to say. “I’m sorry, this is all so overwhelming for me. One minute I’m alive and Gabriel’s throttling me and then— Was that me you just tossed into the pond? What the bloody hell did you do that for?” He felt another presence like his own nearby, clearing up his confusion. The skies above turned red, and the wind turned hot. “Azaznir. He’s here.” He grabbed David by the his coat collar. “You’ve got to get Levi out of here. I won’t let that monster hurt my son!”

  David gently reached up and moved Rayne’s arm from his coat. “You really devastated him, you know? I’m beside myself trying to find a way to calm him down. He not only lost his father, but he’s seen things no child should ever have to see.”

  “I know, I couldn’t help it, I just—wait, what? How did you know about that?”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s the sort of thing I’ve come to expect from you. I’ll take Levi somewhere safe.”

  “Huh?” David’s behavior confused Rayne. But his friend had nothing more to discuss, and lef
t him standing beside the tree as he returned to Levi’s side. Rayne watched him bend down and whisper into the child’s ear, pulling him at first before the boy became more agreeable to the authority, and trotted beside his guardian down the sidewalk. Soon they had vanished past the trees.

  “What was all that about?” Rayne asked himself. He could feel Azaznir drawing nearer. He did not know how much time he had spent in Hell, where time had its own whim, but it must have been more than a week if his body was already cremated. There was a chance Azaznir had already gotten through to his son, and talked him into doing his dark works.

  A light flashed over the horizon, forming a swirling pillar of flame that burned Rayne’s eyes. Nobody else in the park seemed aware of the dark clouds, or the sudden scorching heat. Rayne glimpsed a man walking among the crowds, human at a glance, with neat black hair, trimmed in a goatee around his face, wearing a dark suit with a red shirt. Orange light simmered in his eyes, warning of his nature. He was ignored by the ordinary people that ebbed around him like a river flowing around a rock, as if they instinctively avoided his presence. The Abyss Lord’s gaze turned to the pond, sensing that his target had once been there. Rayne wasn’t in the mood to hide himself anymore.

  “Azaznir!” he shouted, stepping out in front of the tree. The demon god turned at the sound of one of his names. His face creased in recognition.

  “You’re very bad at staying put, aren’t you Realm Wraith?” Rayne hadn’t even so much as blinked, and suddenly his enemy stood right up against him, piercing him with those orange eyes. “I smell death. How did you escape the reapers?”

  “I overpowered them.” Rayne glowered. “They’re nothing but smoke, after all.”

  “We both know that’s a lie. Gabriel failed me. I realized he was too old, too corrupt already. I need somebody innocent. Like your son.”

  “You stay the hell away from Levi.”

  “Are you going to stop me? I’ve already spoken with him. Without his father, he so desperately needs somebody to look up to. Especially once I get rid of that human that’s been hovering around him like an insect.”

  “Funny, I thought Nen’kai was able to convince a mortal to serve him as catalyst after one conversation.”

  “That’s because Tomordred’s a simpleton.”

  “More simple than a six year old child?”

  “Are you making light of me?” Azaznir’s eyes blazed. “Know your place!”

  The tree beside Rayne burst into flames, causing him to jump back. The somber crowds walking nearby noticed the deadly display, and whispers and cries spread among them, with urgent yells to call the fire brigade.

  “You should watch that temper,” he mocked the fire demon.

  “You’re getting on my nerves.” Azaznir composed himself, and pointed at Rayne’s spirit. Three large chains, invisible to mortals, erupted from the ground and grabbed Rayne, burning into his very soul. But now that Rayne knew who he was, he knew his power was an equal match for his restraints. He seized the igneous metal in his hands, and from his palms spread intense cold that clashed with the flaming metal to create waves of steam, and the links cooled from white hot to a dull black. He cracked the chains in his hands, and smiled up at Azaznir as chunks of iron fell from his grip.

  “That mocking attitude,” Azaznir did not falter, even as his chains were rendered useless. “The power to break the chains of an Abyss Lord— But you couldn’t possibly be him. I buried his soul deep within the core of this planet in its youth, bound to an undying body so that he could experience pain and death a trillion times over.”

  “By him,” Rayne muttered, his memory of a burning pit becoming very clear reality. “You mean Nen’kai?”

  “There is no way for him to escape such a prison.”

  “That’s why you’re after a catalyst. You want to incinerate the Earth in case he ever frees himself from the core.” Rayne began to shake as rage choked in his throat. Billions of years crushed and burned by the molten magma at the very center of the Earth rushed back to his memory, and he relived the agony of dying every five seconds only to be revived to experience that pain anew. “Why do you despise him so much? Did you really see him as such a threat to you? Or was it just inferiority? Are you really that petty?”

  “You don’t know of what you speak!” Azaznir roared. Rayne disappeared from his sight, appearing behind him.

  “That’s enough!” he hissed. No longer could Rayne hold back as his own instincts took over. A shriek of sudden overwhelming emotion escaped from his lips, and his form collapsed in upon itself like a maddened implosion, twisting into an incoherent mass of dark shadows. He drifted there like a pulsating void, before form shifted, and he became a half-man, half-serpentine monster once again. He wrapped his lower body around his enemy, leering over him with seven equally angry faces.

  The lord of flame’s face twisted in rage. “You?!” he screeched. “How did you escape?!”

  “I don’t rightly know. But I’m free now. I’m going to see to it you suffer every agony imaginable for what you did to me, you burning filth.” Rayne’s teeth clenched, his lips sneering as he glowered at his enemy.

  “And you’ll fail, just like the last time,” Azaznir sneered back.

  “Your army isn’t here now. It’s just us.” Rayne pulled through time and space, with the other demon in tow, appearing above the still pond, where he uncoiled his tail and dropped him straight into the water. An explosion of steam ripped through the surface, the water swirling and boiling, prompting the crowd of people to turn and point again in surprise. Rayne wasn’t thrilled to be drawing so much attention out here, but he had little recourse.

  From beneath the waves, a massive creature erupted forth, a colossal monstrosity of molten stone and steel amidst ashen clouds, all in turn surrounding a form of white light, like a young star. Azaznir bellowed, grabbing Rayne’s entire body with a magma encrusted hand. Every second he held Rayne filled him with intense pain, and he froze the hand with his own power, shifting crystals of ice and mist converting the fist into hardened volcanic stone. But the ice simply melted away, and lava rivers flowed once more across the hand, dripping down into the pond with great bursts of steam.

  “Your exile has made you weak,” Azaznir’s voice bubbled like flowing magma. “Throwing me in a pond? Really? If it weren’t for that attitude, and those despicable serpent heads, I would hardly believe you’re my ancient foe.” Burning flame passing for eyes gazed right through Rayne’s soul, a thousand times more intense than Tomordred’s stare, reminding his helpless prisoner he was indeed in the presence of a god among demons. “Or could it be? Have you forgotten yourself? You’re like a confused child, grasping so helplessly at powers you do not thoroughly understand. Look at you! Your form has human traits! You see yourself as one of these mortals!” A black ashen mouth cracked open in a blazing grin. “You’re far weaker than me now. It should be easy, putting you back where you belong at the center of the world.”

  Panicking, Rayne didn’t know what to do. He strained to remember his old self, what he would do in this situation. But here in the grip of a monstrous foe far beyond anything he’d fought, Rayne only felt a very human fear.

  His thoughts shattered when a radiant beam of light surged through the air, piercing through the demon of flames with laser precision, a golden ray as if the sun itself had joined the fray. The light faded, leaving a shimmering trail. It tore through Azaznir’s ashen body, scattering chunks of metal and stone, and the demon screamed as his body fell apart. Rayne dropped back through the heated pond’s murky surface, loosed from a hand that no longer had the strength to grip him. He watched from within the waters as Azaznir’s shape contorted, spewing black smoke in a massive implosion. Crying out in fury, the fire god shrank between the dimensions, forced back through the curtain, until only flaming ribbons remained.

  “What the hell?” Rayne mumbled.

  He turned to the source of all the destruction, a golden spear almost twice as
long as a man stood tall, etched over in ancient runes from a forgotten tongue. The weapon radiated a light all its own; a light that glimmered in his eyes with a sense all too familiar, and a sickening feeling welled up within him. He knew this weapon. The spear floated with an unnatural buoyancy upon the water, then in a dazzling burst of light it vanished. Across the pond, a figure on the shore stood holding out its hand, for the spear to reappear there in the same radiant light.

  None of the people on the side of the lake acknowledged this figure, or the weapon it wielded. Their eyes were fixed on the pond as they pondered the mysterious steam detonating within the water, unable to perceive its cause. Only Rayne perceived the odd newcomer.

  “Don’t worry,” the figure said, grasping the spear in a steady hand. “Levi’s safe.”

  A divine being: there was no other way to describe the shining form that stood there, bathed in golden light. And yet Rayne knew the face of his friend, a man he had known since he was a boy, the companion who had stood beside him through everything, showing only concern for the well-being of others.

  Rayne dragged himself from the pond, his tail weaving on the ground. “Is it really you?”

  It was no wonder David barely reacted to seeing Rayne’s spirit. Though his form no different from the man Rayne knew, his eyes burned with a holy golden light, and a divine aura surrounded him, equaled by the light of the spear still gripped in his hand. This aura, and this weapon, Rayne knew them both. This was the god that had struck him down three thousand years ago outside Babylonia. But there was more to it than that. There was an entwined history that stretched back farther than the age of the Earth itself, between two beings beyond mortal reckoning. Before Rayne stood the child that had saved him from the burning pit, and the soul of a world he had destroyed so callously

  “I-Ivannos?”

  David smiled. “You finally remember.”

  Chapter 17

  Rayne stared at his old friend, trying to make sense of this. After all this time, the man he had known since childhood was something else entirely. None of this could possibly be real, he thought to himself.