The Chronicles of Logan DeRais: The Book of the Prophecy

“Brother?” asked Christina, “Why didn’t you-“ she was cut off suddenly and abruptly, when Aódfïn shouted, “Look!”

We turned our heads to the Mourning Star, where his finger was pointing. A great figure in a black cloak, carrying a large scythe and riding on a black horse was converging on us, flying down from the Mourning Star. It landed gracefully on the floor of Hell, and dismounted, its ominous aura surrounding us and penetrating our group. Then, it spoke in a low, dark, gaunt voice that sent a chill down my spine.

“My lord Lucifer desires your presence. Come to me, or you will come in pieces,” it said, hefting the scythe to emphasize the point.

“Who the hell is this joker?” Christina asked me.

“It is Thanatos,” answered Mason, “Lucifer has him under his control,”

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“Thanatos is the god of Death. He wouldn’t be here, but Lucifer tricked him and took control of him. Normally, Thanatos fights against Lucifer,”

“Come to me, now,” said Thanatos. He began walking towards us.

“When Hell freezes over,” retorted Christina.

“Okay then. The only one Satan has a need for,” he pointed to Vic, “Is you,”

With that, he flitted towards Vic with an incredible speed that I would have thought impossible. Before Vic had a chance to react, Thanatos swept his hand right through his chest with lightning speed, drawing out a shimmering orb from his chest. Vic’s eyes bulged, and then he collapsed. Dead. Thanatos placed the orb in a pack inside his cloak.
”No!” shouted Christina.

“Yes,” replied Thanatos. He whirled around, and flung his scythe at Aódfïn. It caught him in the chest, and came out his back with a sickening crunch. However, Aódfïn didn’t seem to feel it. He raised his head to look at Death.

“This hardly seems fair,” he said, “How about I even the odds a little, eh?”
Then, Aódfïn’s eyes turned blood red. His veins pulsed, bulging out of his body. His head was growing, and his neck was elongating. His body’s color was slowly fading to black, until it appeared that he was completely encased in shadow. Little patches of darkness started appearing all around us, then flew towards his body, attaching themselves to him. He was growing much larger, and his neck was longer than I myself was. His head was the size of a large boulder. He fell onto all fours, and I saw a tail sprout from behind him. Large spikes appeared all down his back. Then, he roared. The darkness shattered, and the shadows were flung off of him. He had become the Jabberwock. He was covered in scales, had a large beard, great black eyes, gigantic fangs, and a very long neck.

“Interesting,” remarked Thanatos, “I can see why Lucifer summoned me,”

He opened his right hand, and the scythe flew to him. He took hold of it in one fluid motion, then spun it around in a circle.

Leave this to me, I heard a voice in my head say. I turned to Christina and Mason to see if they had heard it too. They looked somewhat surprised, so I assumed that they had. Aódfïn was crouched low, his head swaying back and forth, getting ready to strike. Death walked slowly forward, holding his scythe in his left hand. Quick as a flash, Aódfïn’s head shot out, jaws gaping wide, headed directly for Thanatos. That probably would have been the end of him if Aódfïn had connected. Unfortunately, Death sidestepped at the last moment, moving so fast it didn’t seem as if he moved at all. He was just gone, then reappeared a moment later five feet away. He brought the scythe up over his head, and swung it down, crashing down on Aódfïn’s neck. For some reason, the blade glanced off, leaving a large gash instead of a giant hole that would probably have been fatal. The gash turned gray, then sealed itself in less than a second however, and not one drop of blood was spilt. Aódfïn’s neck shot back and recoiled.

“My turn,” Death said in an ominous voice. He flung the scythe once again into the air, not at Aódfïn, but at Christina! Aódfïn saw it going towards her, and before she could react he threw himself in front of her, and the scythe embedded itself in his chest with a sickening crunch. He grabbed it with his giant jaws. I recognized the opportunity, and took to the air. I flew up to his face, and grabbed the scythe out of his mouth. This, apparently, wasn’t such a good idea. The scythe glowed black, and it flew towards Thanatos, with me dragging behind it! Thanatos took hold of the weapon when it came winging to his hands, and twisted it violently to throw me off. I fell back, and he raised the scythe once more, this time at me. He swept it across my midsection, cutting open my stomach and slicing my innards. Pain was immediate, and overwhelming. Illiaster exploded from my stomach. Death took a face-full of it. I didn’t scream. I didn’t make any sound. I just toppled over onto the ground. I saw Death above me, spitting my fluids out of his mouth. He whipped his eyes clean of the stuff, then shook his head, as if to free himself from something. He brow was furrowed, as if adding something up in his head. Then, he looked at us. He removed his hood, then his cloak, and dropped them to the ground, to reveal a human body underneath. Then, he dropped his scythe to the ground. It clattered onto the desert floor of Hell, then was quiet. It did not return to his hand.

“Satan miscalculated,” he said, as if unable to comprehend it. I could see the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. He stepped towards me, and embraced me in a bone-crushing hug.

“Thank you,” he said through his tears.

“…You’re welcome?” I said, confused, patting him lightly on the back. He released me after what seemed like an hour, and stepped back.
”I’m so sorry for all of that,” he said to me, pointing at the gash across my stomach.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s nothing,” I said, sarcastically.

“Let me fix it for you,” he implored. He snapped his fingers, and the pain was gone. The gaping trench in my stomach that had been created by his scythe was gone.

“Thanks…” I said, still a little unsure of this person, whoever he was.

“What the hell is going on with you, Thanatos?” demanded Aódfïn, who had transformed back to his humanoid form.

“Please, let me explain,” he said, holding up a hand and forestalling any other questions.

“Satan lured me to Hell under false pretenses, and when I arrived here, I was captured and forced to imbibe the blood of an Old One,”

Aódfïn’s eyes widened at the mention of the blood.

“What are you saying? Does Lucifer actually have an Old One in his possession?”

“No, thank God. All he has is a tiny vial, half full with their golden blood. One drop is all it takes to get full control: If Lucifer had an Old One in his retinue, none of us would be alive right now,”

“What’s an Old One?” I whispered to Christina. Aódfïn heard me, and answered.

“They are a group of beings so powerful, no mind can completely comprehend it. They are as God is to us to God himself. They created him. No one knows why, or how they came into existence, but they are the single most powerful things in all the dimensions. I cannon imagine how Lucifer came by his vial of their blood, or what is keeping them from simply taking it back, but I’m sure it can’t be good. To them, we are no more than microscopic specs of dust beneath their feet. They are almost never seen by anyone, but there have been two or three occurrences after the birth of Christ where one of them has revealed itself to someone. An Old One guided Michael’s hand as he fought Satan at the gates of Heaven. All we are to them is entertainment. Our world changes on a mere whim,”

“Wow…” I replied intelligently, and lapsed into silence, letting Aódfïn and Death continue their conversation.

“You say you were under his control?”

“Yes, I was. However, now that I’m free, I would be glad to travel along with you and help you out should Satan send some of his more nasty things after you. Where are you headed?”

“Why would you want to travel with us? Wouldn’t it be better for you to return to the surface?”

“I cannot. No being may leave Hell without Lucifer’s direct permission. Besides, you saved me. If not for you all, I would still be under his control,”

“Well, if that is what you desire, then all right. We are looking for an army to help us destroy Lucifer. We’re going to search all of the outlying caves on the way to the city, then go in there and take it over: Lucifer has one of our number in his clutches, and we have to get her back,”

Death shrugged, “Sounds like fun. I do owe Satan a bad turn, or five million. Count me in. Oh, before we go…”

He reached into his side bag, and pulled out the shimmering orb he had stolen from Vic. He released it, and it hung suspended in midair. Then, he blew on it, and it slowly floated back towards Vic, and sunk back into his chest, which started rising and falling slowly again. I heard Christina breath a sigh of relieve. He was live.

“Also,” began Thanatos as he picked up Vic and put him over his shoulder with apparently no effort at all, “If you wish, you may call me Joshua. That was my name, my human name, before I became Death,”

And off we went. The city was about ten miles away from where we were, but surprisingly there were only three different caves on the way there. We decided to split up, since it would be easier to get the searching one. I went towards a cave on the left, with Mason as my companion. Vic and Joshua went to check out the cave on the right, and Christina and Aódfïn went to search a cave farther forward, on the left.

“Be careful!” I warned as we left in separate directions.

“If you're not back in two hours, we’ll come looking for you,”

A chorus of ‘Okay’s and ‘Good luck’s rang out. Christina kissed me on the cheek. Then we all took off to explore our caves.