[See Prologue for the Disclaimer.]
The Eternal stood in the darkness a few moments longer, observing the
events that took place before him, watching each image with the cold, lifeless
stare of a fanatic scientist with the need to prove himself. Clutching
his foldless, obsidian robes to his side, he walked to the side of the
eerie pitch black room, his grey mask standing out in the light from the
two crystals at the opposing side of the room, a mask that seemed alive
as the mixture of a sick, dark purple, and dark metallic silver. Once more
his eyes glowed red as the anger swelled up within him, and filled his
body with every emotion the Holy Bible damns, crimson heat flowed through
vein that carried ice water-like blood to all parts of him, and the room
around him glowed an even deeper shade that matched his eyes and soul.
"It is taking too long," he thought as he paced groves into the
floor of his quarters, the red light deepening his cloak into total darkness,
"even at this speed the HellTide should have arrived a hour ago."
Grabbing the obsenely long staff and axe from the blood-shaded wall, he
carefully ran his hands over the sharp rune encrusted surfaces, seeking
out individuals, and groups as he worked the evil spell he was crafting,
as he touched each rune, a song could be heard over the hellish maelstrom
that was at all times evident in the room. The tones flew from the staff
at rates that cause any man of perfect hearing to go deaf, as their shrill
serenade continued. Then, as the dark music faded form the room, a brilliant
white light shot forth from the runes that once sang above the normal octives
that humans sing in, each light tore the crimson darkness that surrounded
it from it's foot hold on the room, and continued to shoot away from the
clear and tan surfaces of the weapons that spawned them. Finally, the light
begins to move up the center of the staff, causing it to brighten uncontrollably,
and force it's way to the nine-pointed crystal at the top that mirrored
the shade of the light that slowly inched to it. Suddenly, as the incandesance
reaches the crystal, it streaks forth, evaporating the remaining red-hued
light in it's path, and striking the crystals, which refleted the nausiating
pure brilliance towad the globe, causing the images to shift once more.
Finally the beam is exhausted, and the images come into view, one, a beautiful
lake in the center of a large grove, with a Terran farm receding into the
distance, the other, a ray of purest gold, flying from a back water world
on the edge of the galaxy, it's three moons reflecing the metallic hued
light, faster than anything in the universe.
The boy in the first image was well built, and most likly, rock-hard from
years of weight-lifting, his shoulder-length dark brown hair tied to into
a ponytail. His face, with the look of very little fat, and alot of muscle,
appeared weighed down by an unseen burden, as he ran towards a large lake
he jumped form an old pier that seemed to nearly cave in with each heavy
step, until he leapt, almost flying, into the cool clear water below. The
light played off his bathing suit of dark green and gold mixed as the image
assimilated the entire globe and the Eternal watched intently as the boy,
each time he jumped, did an incredible kick and punch combo in the air.
The Eternal knew that now at this, a time of prophesy, this boy would be
integral to "the plan" he had followed to the letter.
Twirling on one booted foot, the Eternal spun around to face the only object
that stood out among the dark chaos, other than the globe and crystals,
the door he'd come through before. Walking to the eggplant colored door,
his hands flew over the auburn rune encrusted surface of the control pad
by the silver eight-pointed star placed high on the violet portal.
Stepping out, once more, into the cavernous hallway beyond the hell of
his private quarters, and began to navigate the chaotic five-dimensional
layout of the the HellTide. Along turns at angles that would baffle the
universe's greatest mathmitican, he walked for what seemed to be miles
as they could be measured in three dimensional terms, passing the demon-kind
as though they were nothing, which in fact, to him was what they amounted
to. The "Grond-Cren", or "Scavengers of Hell" as they
are called around the universe, were atply named. The Grond would find
worlds seeped in a deadly war, wait in hiding until the factions nearly
destroyed each other, and then take over when they were at their weakest,
hardly effective, but adequate to their plans. In fact the Eternal would
not have given them a second thought, if not for their unique ability to
percieve reality in five-dimensions. They were the only troopers that could
navigate the HellTide, and operate it's complex systems, but what impessed
him the most was how their leaders usually controlled them, through the
one greatest motivator in existance...fear. This was how Jha'tok controlled
them all this time, being the largest and strongest of his kind, he was
feared more than any other being, next to the Eternal that is.
In fact, it was obvious that Jha'tok was different from his brothers in
one way, he followed the Eternal for a single reason that fear could not
grasp in it's stifling tentacles, that emotion was the darkest any could
feel, and still be considered civilized, that emotion: Ambition! Jha'tok
had only fear when the Eternal would threaten his life or family, but the
rest of the time, he only wanted power, power he knew only the Eternal
could give him.
As the Eternal made an impossible turn in a hall as he finally came to
his destination, a large golden door, much like the one that led to his
private chambers, only this held a large symbol, much like a large "S",
except it looked crystalline, and had edges instead of curves, and a hue
of the darkest, most, blood colored-crimson this side of a blood bank.
Once more manipulating the control pad, he made sure his axe was still
strapped comfortably across his back, he implanted the final command, which
opened the door onto a room that looked much like an assembly line. Yet
there were no cars being assembled on it's tracks, instead, on the incredibly
long conveyors, lay two different sets of bodies. The first, a humanoid
in a pair of green swimming trunks, standing outside a primitive terran
farm. The other a golden streak of light, rocketing away from a world orbited
by three moons of varying size.
Seeing this, he was pleased. He knew each of the phoenomina would be instrumental
in the prophesy that would soon come to pass. His masked face began to
contort in the foulest, most maniacle grin ever to disgrace to face of
a corporeal being. His entire plan rided on the being in these visions
of the past and future in ways no ordianry being could comprehend, as his
mind raced in the darkness that shrouded it, he knew the time ot move was
now.
"My old friend Mondo will be attacking his enemies again soon. His
creations will help me to test those....transitional phase humans, the
time has come to see just how they wield the TitansBane. Jha'tok!!!!!."
Within seconds an area of the crimson hell he inhabited brightened and
began to take on clarity, until it coallesed into the face of the demon.
"What is your wish, my lord?"
"You are to prepare the seeds for delivery into the Mondo's Cogs at
once. And ensure they can manifest their weapons at a moments notice. No
failures devil, or I shall ensure your family is the first to shoved into
the Realm. Am I understood?"
"Y...yes, my lord, perfectly." The demon said shakily.
"Good, and ready the Temporter, I want the Hier of the Dragon here
soon. And contact our allies, tell them we are ready to procede."
"Aye, my lord! Diselnar Groma, in the name of Ni..."
"SHUT UP! Mention that name in my presence and i'll drain your lifeforce
for assimiliation into the seeds!" With that, the staff reacted, sending
a burning pulse of energy into the image of Jha'tok, destroying it and
allowing the darkness to reclaim the space it had lost.
His anger reaching to the depth of his being, he quickly exited his private
chamber, two guards carrying his weaponry, and made his way through the
corridors of the HellTide. Navigating the penta-dimensional halls with
the ease of a hummingbird flying through the air, he passed many of the
Grond'Kren he had hired for the mission to earth.
The Grond'Kren were literally the dregs of the galaxy, very few acknowlegded
their existance, and even fewer would, even fly near their ports. They
were the worst possible scavengers, nothing they had, was not created by
another race, not even their "vast" scientific knowledge. The
only reason the Eternal had brought them on in the first place, was their
inate ability to navigate in a five-dimensional continuum like the ship.
At first, the Grond had resisted him, in fact, when he came to the demons
homeworld, they promptly ignored him. After studying them for a time, the
Eternal soon learned how to control them, it was so simple, that for all
his vaunted knowledge, he should have thought of it sooner. The only way
to control the Grond, was through the "universal language" as
he called it, the emotion of fear.
So, with incredible displays of power, the Eternal soon rose to the head
of their Hirearchy, and quickly overthrew their king, a Grond who knew
how to fear, and how to inspire it...the demon Jha'tok. All it took was
the imprisonment of his family, the destruction of his lands, and his parents
death. After that, the demon would follow him anywhere.
After sometime of walking, the Eternal came to a door with a scarlet "S"
surrounded by burnished gold. Typing in a small sequence of commands, the
door slid open. The smell eminating from the door was that of rotting flesh
and motor oil, it assaulted his sences as he entered, causing a solitary
tear to leave it's salty trail on his grey mask.
All around the series of conveyor belts were the mounds of flesh and bone
of a thousand different alien species, and the dried blood on the floor
made a crunching as it met his boots with each step. A few Grond were gathered
around a small control panel that stood in the center of the genocidic
maddness, the series of knobs and levers had various portions of decaying
organs clinging to it them, but the demons kept to their work, never minding
the entrails that rubbed off on their hands.
Walking over to a near table, the Eternal picked up a golden chalice that
would make a king's ransom seem like bus fare. Taking it over to the panel
he lowered it to the table gently, and removed the small top that covered
the cup.
"Are the corpses ready to have the seeds implanted?" he asked
one of the engineers.
"Y-y-yes, milord. They are," she replied, the fear in her voice
approaching near deafening tones.
"Will the reinforcement work to increase their power levels?"
This time the answer came as a mouse's squeak to the ears of a giraffe,
"Y-y-yes."
"How long will the process take?"
No answer.
"How long?" he asked once more, his anger becoming apparent.
Still, no answer.
"HOW LONG YOU STUPID, INEPT, DEMONIC, TRI-DIMENTIONAL, STAR TRASH!"
he yelled into her face with the force of a gale wind.
This time the engineer's mate had had enough. He lunged at the Eternal
with a spear meant to impale him. Unfortunatly, he never made it farther
that a few precious inches from his face, when the Eternal, powered by
sheer force of will, punched him square in the chest.
The impact crushed each rib in his body,which in turn punctured his lungs,
and heart. Before flying backward into the wall, as his neck gave way under
the friction of his punch, the demon flew back against the wall, crushing
him into a nothing more than a few pounds of organic chemicals.
As the others went to gather the remains, the Eternal raised his had ,
commanding them to stop. Grabbing the female by the neck, he pulled her
close and made her stare at the mess that her mate had become on the floor.
"See that, Demon? I said, do you that?" he said as he shoved
her to the floor. "The next time you disobey me, that will happen
to you!"
"Let this be a lesson to all of you! I will not tolerate defiance!
If you wish you're people to live past The Coming, then you will commit
your very souls to me from here on out. NOW, Begin the process!!"
With that, the strange machinery jumped to life, picking up the lifeless
bodies of strange bird-like creatures that had an air of a humanoid shape
to them. Various tools began to circle over the corpses, enforcing bones,
restructuring organs, and replacing the purple blood with a viscous black
liquid that burned the veins, and cauterized the wounds they had suffered.
Finally, a small drill would begin to bore directly into the heads, the
sound of it grinding the skull and burning it's flesh invigorated the Eternal,
sending waves of pleasure that begged to be intensified. As the drill pierced
the remainder of it's brain, the drill withdrew, and made way for a small
probe to enter the newly formed cranial oriffice, taking with it, a small
foggy white marble.
As the openings were repaired, the bodies were dumped from the conveyor,
onto the cold, hard floor. The Eternal held his staff and axe over his
head and began to mumble. The area where the weapons were crossed began
to glow in an eerie violet light, which was sent careening down an invisible
thread to the corpses that lied on the floor. The beam entered the cavity
where that the probe had dug into the bird-mens heads.
"Let the evil energies fill these dark creations, with hate and malice,
with the darkest urges and the most sadistic moods. Let them destroy my
enemies, and ensure me the power I deserve! For now is the time of the
coming!" the Eternal cried out, his maniacle laughter filling the
compartment.
TBC . . . .
