I have walked through the void between worlds several times before. The first time I did it was in South Carolina, with a knight who had conquered the void, and he showed me the rules of the place, and we fought the things within it besides the sand demons and the occasional...thing. We fought creatures of sand and stone...we fought the sand demons. It is hard to muster the will of a knight to fight them...he said they would try to insinuate themselves into your mind, and they would make you forget your purpose here, and they would try to drive you insane. He said we had to fight them and if we lost, we would be banned from the other side. We escaped and brought the news back to our captain, and she said we are just a small group of idiots and sent us out again, but used them well. I only wish she could see every thing I have seen in my travels!
Today we were sent on a mission to retrieve a subject who was the fount of all of the living evil in this world. He had been told to tell us of what he saw. The things we have fought through the void, we have fought, but there are more, and they are the servants of this man. They know him, and they revere him, and they give him their mortal lives to extend his life. I feel the dread press down on my shoulders, threatening to crush me. Still, we press onwards. We are just a few. We are just the insects to him, but I am the bug who has the potential to kill him.
When we got there, he was waiting for us. He emerged from a doorway, in a city called Las Vegas. It is a city that intrudes on the void, and Las Vegas is connected to it. He emerged from a stream of Angels, which came from the stream and then poured back into the main stream after they saw him. He floats, and behind him arches, supported by the shining rib cage of angels, a massive castle, painted in black with blood red windows. Then he spoke, and his voice was a soft, seductive drawl, combined with a pouty frown. Indeed, he was an ungodly creature and one who lurked in the shadows. Only his servants knew of him. I played a part in taking it out, but my part was just a minor one in comparison to the epic of taking it down.
He spoke, soft enough that the stream did not return to him when he spoke, and it simply robed around him. He called to us...he said that he came to give us a gift. A gift which we did not understand. We did not know until it was too late. He gave us the gift of the void...he said he would welcome us back in, and we would know the meaning of the real power in the world. We said no...but, then he offered us a deal...he offered us the chance to complete our mission...and to do so we must face some of our greatest enemies. He said it was a bargain made in desperation.
I...I wanted to refuse...but others accepted...and I felt their desire to be filled with power...to beat their enemies...to come out on top. And I went along with them. They went into the void around the city, and we fought against the things from there. We fought many different kinds of things...and they crumbled. He had to power over them, and we had to fight them. Each time, it was the same. We had to accept another deal, which was made in desperation, and they tore it up again and again. We finally got him down to one, and it looked like we would be done in a moment...but he laughed and let loose a thunder storm and we were all killed by lightning. Only...me...and a young squire survived. That is how I survived. I dragged myself across the field of battle, and we went into the void and we fought the things from there.
My knight was there...and he said I had to hold my ground while he tried to escape with the squire. I said I would do it. I could not escape...the battle was upon me, and I did not have the strength. I held my ground, and I killed. The things from there came, and I made the choic that we would give him the sacrifice he demanded...and I saw what it meant. The squire suffered...I did not...I was ready...and it was fast, and I was consoled...hurting too much to carry on, the pain was wonderful...as my body became an anvil for the hammer of the void. And I was filled full, and I felt it...and I knew, and it was...
And I gave him what he...wanted. He wanted my power and I gave it to him...and I gave in, and I accepted the bargain...and I kneeled.
It was when I took the sacrifice that he made me more powerful. I felt the power inside of me...it was a power greater than the humans could have ever obtained. And the souls of the lower world...the souls of the things they had wronged...suffer. The things they killed...the things they stole...jump in here. The things they stole...shred my heart and cauterize it. The souls of the lost and fallen crowded into me, from here and there and everywhere. They began shrouding the void with a gray mist...and I put up walls around my heart...first to ward it off, and then to constrict it. And in time, I began seeing what humans had seen...colors...they are everywhere, in the void. It is not endless, though...I could only see the edge of what could be seen. I had to go back to fight for my knight, for the squire...for a reality I could not tell to the others...and I could not bring myself to kill again.
Because I am me. A human. And I have a story.
I am alive. I will always be. The stories of my heart, of my body, written in my mind. I will always be, as long as a something like me can exist within the imagination of man. I am the spirit of man who lives here, in these stories. They will live on within man...the final stories will be written by me...and there will be those who will be drawn to encourage man in the future, the children of man. To save them and fight against all of the dark.
And I will be there. I know I can. I had visions in the void. I saw a creature...it was a higher being. It was a projection of what could be. It was a vision of the truth of the world, a glimpse of the future, of what this world will be. And I came from there, from that vision. I saw man free himself...and I was there. I was within man's heart...and I was in every one.
I am the story of the future, a hope in a dark world.
I am the one who will never die.
