Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Lindsey R. Loucks

  “There’s multiple universes?” August asked.

  “Have you heard of the parallel and multiverse theory?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Come on, think! Your world lives in its own existence, its own set of reality, with its own set of rules. But there are an infinite amount of universes parallel to it. All in their own reality, all different in their randomness. Each universe is different, some with big differences, some small. Like a universe where you never had a brother or one where you were never born. These infinite amount of universes have an infinite amount of possibilities.”

  “So?”

  “So? Think about it, there are trillions of universes with billions of possibilities and what ifs. If you thought about doing something but never did, there was a universe where you did it. Universes where you succeed in destroying the gods, universes where they destroy themselves, universes where they don’t exist, universes where you live a normal life and universes where you simply don’t exist. There are even universes where there are many gods, universes where the beginning never happened, and universes filled with nothing. There are an infinite amount of possibilities.”

  “And you can travel through them?”

  “I knew you were smarter than you looked. I didn’t know if you could be saved. It was strange. In your universe, every living thing has a soul. I’ve been through many universes where there was no such thing as a soul or a God. Sad. But I believe it was because of the Wavering Radiant that I was able to save your soul while you were passing. All I needed to do was find a suitable universe similar enough to place you in.”

  “I don’t want to go back.”

  “What? Do you know what I went through to save you? I went from the beginning to the ends of time and back again to save you and now you’re telling me no?”

  “I want to go to a universe where I didn’t kill Sara. Where I didn’t kill my father or my mother. I want to see them again. Sara… A place where I never made a mistake as big as I did.”

  The Omniscient Man paused for an uncomfortably long time.

  August stared at the whites of the ball on his head. What was under there?

  The Omniscient Man spoke in a somber tone, “That is a lot harder to find. A universe to cancel out your mistakes. In fact, that line of existence might not exist.”

  “Bullshit,” August said.

  “Even if I could find one where she existed, she would be completely different than what you knew of her. She wouldn’t be the Sara you loved. In every universe in which you fought the gods, if you didn’t end up dead, you killed her.”

  August’s breath froze. Had he really searched for him?

  The Omniscient Man continued, “Because despite being a different universe, in any universe with your gods, you were who you were and you always killed her. If you didn’t kill her, she always ended up dead.”

  “How…how in the hell do you know that? You just said there were an infinite amount of possibilities?”

  “You’re not the only person who’s lost someone.”

  There were pangs of affliction in the man’s voice.

  There was a reason why the Omniscient Man saved him, why he went through nearly a million universes to find the right one for him.

  “Then why? Why did you save me? Why didn’t you let me die?”

  “I saw something in you and your brother. With my help, I believe you can kill your God.”

  “That’s not a good enough reason, you’re not a god and you’re not from my world. What are you?”

  The Omniscient Man chuckled. “You’re right. I’m just a simple man from a simple world, where my God was not so different than yours. When I called his name, he never came, so I rebelled. But you, August, have gone farther than I ever could.”

  August couldn’t get a feel of the man. But he seemed genuine, even with the ball covering his head.

  “I could never kill the ones I loved. To get to where I needed to be,” the Omniscient Man said.

  There was no heat in August’s soul as he said that. No hate, no backlash, no conflicted thoughts. He had accepted what he was. A monster, a murderer. He killed Sara and his father.

  There was no turning back.

  “That’s why you can do it, you can kill your God.”

  August looked at his calloused hands. “But I’m not a fighter.” He wasn’t a fighter. He couldn’t kill God. Svante proved that firsthand.

  “You shouldn’t state the obvious. I was watching your fight with Svante and if he wasn’t playing with you, you would’ve been dead sooner.”

  “Then how can you expect me to kill He, or any god for that matter? How can I learn?”

  “Oh, but you have learned; experiencing death so many times, in so many ways, changes people. In some of them, you died fighting to the death. That natural animalistic instinct is something training can’t teach you.”

  August’s last lives had slowly eased into the back of his mind. His original self quickly took over. But the feelings from his past lives, the instinct and the sentiment, had shaped his soul into something different.

  He was still August but he had the experience of a million lives lived.

  “Seeing the contemplation on your face, I’m guessing you did learn something from the other universes. When I was getting close to a good universe for you, I decided to go into a few where you died fighting. Let’s call it a…experience builder.”

  “That still won’t be enough. Your gems weren’t enough to kill Svante, I doubt they can kill He.”

  “That’s why I’m going to give you a power only second to mine. The power to rip through time and space.”

  The sound of wind whipping through the air surrounded August and the Omniscient Man.

  The Omniscient Man’s arm started to pulsate. Millions of colors started to swirl inside of his arm like a barber poll, millions of possibilities ran through it. It was like the colors were projected onto his arm in the sharpest resolution imaginable.

  The Omniscient Man raised his arm. “Let the hand of God wash over you.” The light shot into August.

  August screamed as the power ripped into his very being, its warmth tearing him apart piece by piece, molecule by molecule. He basked in its heat, accepting the power inside him. He felt the reality ripping through him.

  He let out one final scream as the light died down. The heat eased away and he felt normal again. His hands swirled in the same colors as the Omniscient Man’s.

  He struck out. In a flash, a large sword of an infinite amount of colors swirled in front of him. He felt it pulsate in his hands. This power was his now. He could tear apart reality if he wanted to.

  But that was for another time. He willed it gone and had to blink the afterimage away. A faint swirl of the colors still stood in his vision as he looked at the Omniscient Man.

  August breathed in deeply; the experience of accepting that power left him more drained than his thousands of deaths.

  “Are you ready?” the Omniscient Man asked.

  August straightened himself. He was going to ask ‘for what?’ but he already knew. Was he ready to kill God himself?

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  The lights of the universe surrounding them disappeared and only one light approached them. Despite this, August could still see the Omniscient Man. The laws of physics, the way the light worked, was different here than in his own universe.

  “Killing He isn’t the only thing you need to do to end the gods’ reign. You need to separate the Wavering Radiant from your world. To do that, you must to destroy the Omega Key.”

  “The Omega Key?”

  “Yes, the Omega Key. It seems your God is all-knowing, he even saw his death. He created the Omega Key so that the Wavering Radiant wouldn’t be separated with his death. Smart.”

  The single light finally got to them. It was like a miniature star. The Omniscient Man opened up his hand and it hovered into it.

  “We have to start at the
beginning, time is surprisingly relative to all the universes. Once the universe’s time ends and all the energy burns out, the universe starts anew to begin time once again, with the same set of events happening. The only thing different would be you. Which would explain why in some of your universes, you were older than your original self and in others, younger. It was because I had to restart the universes again and again. It’s tedious work.”

  The light in the Omniscient Man’s hand grew brighter.

  “Time started at a single beginning. Before there were an infinite amount of possibilities, there was only one. To exist. But as soon as that possibility happened, the universes branched out into millions of possibilities.”

  The light exploded out into millions of lights.

  “And then a million more possibilities and then a million more until all that could have happened, happened.”

  Each light exploded into another million and then another million, until they simply looked like the stars in the night to August. They spun around them until they were just a blur.

  “With a speed-up of reality, we can find the place in time we need to go.”

  The Omniscient Man touched one of the lights and it flashed brightly. August covered his eyes and when he uncovered them, he stood over a hole. Around him, the lights stopped spinning and twinkled in their distant awe.

  In the hole, August could see his universe. It was similar but strangely different.

  In the hole, August was shown growing up. His father still beat him, he still hated him while he grew up. His mother still cowered to his father.

  He always loved her. But he always hated how easily she submitted to his father, when she used to be so strong before he returned from his duty. He hated her for that.

  But the August in this universe didn’t hate as much as he did. He never had that chip on his shoulder. He never let that get to him, he still loved his mother as much as if she never had submitted to his father.

  The hole zoomed past his childhood and to after his father’s death. He still killed him. That enough was the same.

  And then to August and Kevan breaching the safe house. He saw Kevan kill Brookes. Maybe his brother was more of a badass than he thought.

  But there was a difference, he never killed Sara. He watched as this universe’s August walked through the final hallway and killed the men guarding the last door.

  He opened the door and Sara lay dead on the dirty floor. The back of her head exposed. She was killed by Brookes. The same guard cowered in the corner and this universe’s August still killed him. But the only difference was that he cried over Sara’s body as it went cold.

  Her dead eyes stared up at the August looking through the tear. Even after a million deaths, even after seeing his loved ones die a thousand times, even after he had steeled his heart cold, seeing the very one he loved staring up at him sparked something inside of him.

  He clutched his fist.

  There was no turning back.

  The tear then moved to Kevan and August in the rebel hideout. They were in their room, August told Kevan to wait for him before trying to save his wife. That he would come back from the clearly suicidal mission to help him.

  The August in this universe didn’t want to go to fight Svante. But Kevan was adamant and the rebels needed all the help they could get.

  It finally clicked to August what was different between the universes. In the new universe, August was the brother he should’ve been, he was a hero. He deserved to find happiness. He never crossed the line that couldn’t be uncrossed.

  He was the one who deserved to live. Not the one looking to take him over.

  August looked at the Omniscient Man as he stared into the tear. It zoomed to Svante’s and August’s fight. August caught a glimpse of the Omniscient Man speaking to his brother, but it went by fast.

  Svante raised his blade to strike August down.

  Why was he the one who was saved and not the one he was staring at? The most deserving one?

  “Why don’t you save him, instead?” August asked.

  “What?”

  “The August in the universe we’re going into.”

  “I don’t believe in faith or karma, but you were the one who was fated to be saved. As you’ve seen only hours before, life isn’t fair.”

  August nodded as he watched himself fall once again.

  “Let’s go in,” The Omniscient Man said. He stepped through the tear and disappeared. August went in after him.

  Svante panted as he hunched over August’s dead body. The smoke still encased the office, the color still drained from the walls. “That power is dangerous.”

  “August!” Kevan ran into the office, Svante looked at him. His blade of lightning erupted from his hands.

  “You…you killed him!” Kevan rushed for Svante. Svante raised his blade but Kevan moved incredibly fast and in a blur, his rifle met Svante’s blade.

  Svante was blown back and crashed into a wall, his eyes wide with shock. But he landed on his feet.

  “What? Impossible,” Svante muttered. Kevan’s swing was stronger than anything August had. Worse yet, he was still fatigued from August’s fight.

  Kevan raised his rifle like it was a club. A strange white light emanated from it. What the hell kind of powers did the humans get?

  “Kevan… I didn’t want it to end this way,” Svante said. Kevan wasn’t in the mood for discussion. He came swinging hard.

  Svante flashed around him, moving as fast as lightning but as he attempted to strike Kevan, he blocked all his blows.

  Svante was getting slower, or Kevan was getting faster. Svante was the lightning but Kevan saw through his every move, his every calculation. August tired Svante out but Kevan was something more.

  Kevan’s eyes were cold and hard. He moved in a smooth brutal manner, until he saw his opening. Svante flashed behind Kevan and Kevan’s rifle slammed into his chest. He flew back and into the hole in the wall.

  Kevan appeared in front of him before he could recover. Svante felt the heat from Kevan’s pulsating rifle as it collided with his skull.

  Svante’s vision went white as he hurled through another wall and out into the street below. He crashed down hard. As he came to, he saw Kevan jump from his office and land in front of him.

  Cars skidded around them to a stop. They were in the busiest street in Sotira. Pedestrians and cars stopped around them. Watching. They all knew Svante, but they were about to learn about the power that was given to them.

  “Shit,” Svante muttered. He stood up fast. There was a calm rage boiling inside of Kevan. Svante could see it in his eyes. It was something he hadn’t seen in a very long time.

  Killing intent.

  He needed to end Kevan before Kevan ended him.

  Kevan swung his rifle into a car and sent it flying at Svante. Svante disappeared in a flash and appeared above the car. Kevan leapt to meet him and swung.

  Svante blocked his blow but was thrown back onto the sidewalk. Kevan fired his rifle, a bright energy round rocketed into where Svante once was and blew chunks of concrete up into the air.

  Svante closed the gap. He needed to disarm him. He appeared in front of him and Svante attempted to disarm his gun in a series of punches.

  But Kevan was far superior at hand-to-hand combat than his brother. He landed a punch straight to Svante’s cranium.

  Stars flashed around Svante. It wasn’t just Kevan’s gun that was powerful. It was his very being. It wasn’t natural.

  Black clouds rolled in overhead. Svante needed to be the lightning, he needed to defeat Kevan.

  Svante and Kevan flashed around the street, going blow for blow, hit for hit. Kevan’s super senses followed Svante’s every move as Svante tried to fight against the unnatural.

  A crowd formed around them. Pedestrians, workers from the surrounding office buildings, people on their way to work. They all stopped to gawk at the marvel.

  A battle between a god and a human.

&nbs
p; Most of them had their phones out, recording and taking pictures. A news helicopter hovered that came from a local fire overhead.

  This event was going to change everything and the whole world was watching.

  Drops of water came from the sky. Svante was tired. Flustered. Even with the rain to help him move faster, increasing the strength of his power. It wasn’t enough.

  Kevan swung at Svante and Svante flashed into the air.

  Kevan appeared above him.

  “What?” Svante barely had time to mutter his shock as he was smacked to the ground.

  He crashed down hard, the ground cracked where he landed. He attempted to stand up but fell to his knees.

  Kevan landed in front of him. Svante looked up at him. With the rain dropping from above, the rage in Kevan’s heart was finally letting out, Kevan screamed as he swung his rifle into Svante’s face.

  Blood flew into the air and Svante’s vision went black.

  Kevan had a right to be angry, the gods did this to him and he allowed it to happen.

  Kevan raised his rifle to strike him down for good. Blood ran down Svante’s face.

  Svante felt a sudden heat, a warmth that struck safety and fear into his heart. It was going to be Kevan’s death. Svante had to do something. Kevan had to escape, he had to fight for his people. They had to take down Queen.

  Michael, He’s only angel, was coming.

  “Run!” Svante screamed. Everything flashed around Svante and he was lifted into the air. Svante looked up. He was held by Michael. “You are safe now, my child.” Michael’s long black wings covered him from the rain.

  Kevan was gone below. He’d escaped.

  This was only the beginning.

  “Michael?” Svante asked.

  “Yes?”

  “They’ve seen me bleed.”

  The gods had bled.

  * * *

  Above this all, the Omniscient Man and August looked over the scene.

  “Your brother didn’t make it in time, in this universe, to save you,” the Omniscient Man said.

  “I’m different here. I feel wrong taking over the me in this universe.”