The Devil you know - 1.1 (Patreon)

Hi folks!

Here is something I wrote for giggles the other day. It's a new twist on a concept I spent some time on a long time ago. Not sure if I'll write more of this one or not, let me know what you think of it in the comments! :)

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The sky was burning.

A roiling ocean of smouldering black cloud billowed far, far overhead. Waves of immense size that rolled and crashed covered the sky from horizon to horizon, punctuated by great bursts of flame. Every time the fire erupted it punched through the cloud, or was it smoke, like lava pouring through black rock.

Could it even be called a sky? At what point is the scenery above one's head no longer considered a sky? If all you can see is smoke and fire, you can't call that a sky, surely. None of the features that would generally typify a sky were present. Even the promise of an ordinary scene behind the violent storm overhead felt absent, as if this were a tempest that would never abate.

A lone figure stood upon crushed, red rock. One hand wedged into its back, supporting the gaunt figure as it leant far backwards, the other hand was used to shield its eyes from the sudden glare of light taking place overhead as it tried to observe this scene.

Slowly the figure shook its head, as if not quite willing to believe the evidence of its eyes, and spoke to the only other living thing nearby.

"Is there anything behind the smoke clouds?" it asked the purple crab on the rock next to it.

"Nope," the crab said.

"So it's always like that?" the figure asked.

"Yep" replied the crab.

"Huh."

The figure returned to its silent contemplation of the ever burning sky once more. The unending violence of it disturbed something within the figure. No soft fluff of clouds could be seen here, only constant thrashing and churning.

Growing despondent, the figure, a human male, tore his eyes away from the scene raging over his head and instead turned to look out to his left. Blasted, red stone, cracked and broken, extended ten metres until dropping away. Beyond that, nothing. 

After studying the black emptiness for a moment, the man turned to his right. The same red stone, splintered into shards, the same void.

Behind him, the same.

In front of him, the same again.

He sighed.

Looking down at his feet he could see two things, and they were both noteworthy in his opinion. The first was a stone. Small enough to fit in the palm of his hand but large enough that he couldn't close his fingers around it, the stone was red, dull and impossibly smooth. 

The other was a crab. The crab possessed a glittering, purple shell on its back and two small eyes that waved on tiny talks, staring back into the eyes of the person who was staring back down at it.

"Theo, you have to accept this" the crab implored, not for the first time.

Theo sighed once more, raising a hand to massage the bridge of his nose. He felt a headache coming on. 

"Let's go over this one more time," he said.

The crab slumped to the ground, dejected. "Really? Again? Ok, sure. Ask away, and I'll answer your questions."

Theo nodded slowly. "Thanks."

"S'okay. Not like I have anywhere to go."

The rake-thin human tried to gather his thoughts once more. He wanted to organise the information he had but no matter how he tried it just slipped through his fingers and scattered in the wind. Maybe this time he would be able to weave these threads into a picture of something that he understood.

"Let's start simple. Who are you?" he asked.

The crab drew itself up proudly, snipping at the air as it spoke. "My name is Bblbllublblilblib the profane! Great Spirit of the endless chaos!" Snip, Snip!

"I can't pronounce that" Theo replied calmly, "so I will call you Bbl if you don't mind."

The crab waved an indifferent claw. "I wouldn't expect your fat mouth to be able to shape my tremendous name human. Bbl is fine."

Theo nodded towards the crab. Progress was happening at last. "Now you said you are a 'Great Spirit of the endless chaos'. As I understand from our previous chats, that isn't strictly true any longer, is it?"

Bbl once again deflated, legs slaying as it slumped to the ground. "Haah. You are correct human. My Realm has failed, my servants are gone, and I have removed my claim on the Realm Stone. Only by reducing myself to this form to conserve the little life I have left have I been able to preserve myself, otherwise I too would have vanished."

Once again Theo nodded. "I think I understand what you are saying. I get it. So far."

He knelt and indicated the stone at his feet.

"So this is the 'realm stone' that you spoke of?"

"Yes, for the tenth time, yes. That is the Realm Stone. Before you ask, again, it is the heart of this realm, and yes, it is a realm despite how small it is. Since this place no longer has an owner, as I have withdrawn my claim, you have been brought here to take my place."

"And who am I exactly?"

"That, I certainly cannot say. Why you were chosen, who you were before you were chosen, nobody can know. I have never spoken to another like us who was able to remember anything concrete about their previous existence, except that they had one."

Theo paused to think, searching for a memory or a feeling, trying to grasp the nagging feeling that something was desperately trying claw to the forefront of his mind. After a moment, the feeling receded, fled once more to a dark corner of his consciousness.

He sighed. "I have these vague sensations as if there are things I know that I think are normal, but I have no idea why."

Bbl nodded. "Exactly so. It is always thus. Perhaps the greatest and oldest of our kind know more, I certainly never reached such heights" the crab finished bitterly.

Wandering to one side of the rock they inhabited, Theo inspected the tiny 'realm'. Roughly circular, twenty metres across, featureless. As he drew near the edge, he placed his feet with care. It wouldn't do to have his life lost slipping off into … whatever it was that existed beyond the edge of the red stone. He could see nothing, no motion, no objects, no light. It was as if reality ceased to exist the moment the rock under his feet ended. 

He leaned forward ever so slightly and found he couldn't see the rock extend down before space ended. It was if they occupied a flat, self-contained world. A tiny, tiny, self-contained world.

Bbl continued to watch as the human paced to the edge of the realm, his crab features showed no emotion but one of his legs tapped against the ground impatiently.

"Ok. So I'm the owner of this space, this realm. There are others like me?" he asked, turning back to Bbl.

"Yes, there are" the crab replied wearily, "there are an uncounted number, millions, perhaps. I do not believe anyone in the multiverse could claim to have met them all."

"So if there are so many" Theo interjected, "where are they?"

"Out there" Bbl gestured with one tired claw towards the emptiness that surrounded them. 

"this space is like a bubble, a pocket. Actually!" the crab snapped one claw excitedly, confident he'd found a metaphor the stupid human could grasp.

"Think of this place as an ocean. One vast ocean, an ocean without an end! The Great Spirit's and their realms are like bubbles, floating in the ocean. They can grow or shrink, and they drift, sometimes near, sometimes far. This realm is new, a tiny little bubble in an ocean. We are far from everything and close to nothing."

Theo frowned. "Before you were talking about dimension lines, temporal proximity and Realm anchors, now it's just an ocean and bubbles?"

Bbl nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, because your tiny human brain is filled with excess oxygen and cannot handle such complex thoughts. I have simplified it for you!"

The human had to admit that it did make more sense. If he thought of this tiny space as floating within a much larger, very empty one, it all became a little easier to grasp. Theo couldn't help but frown. He wasn't sure why but he felt that it wasn't supposed to work that way. With a new reality hitting him right in the face, he wasn't in any position to argue about it.

"So you told me that each Realm Stone has only one owner. If I'm the one who owns this stone, why are you still here?" he asked.

"As I have already explained, human" the crab snapped its claws in an irritated manner, "I failed to expand my realm, and other Great Spirits defeated me. Robbed of resources and servants my Realm shrunk to this pitiful sliver you see before you. In an attempt to preserve my life I have abdicated my right to the Stone, otherwise, I would have vanished as my realm collapsed in on itself."

"Right. Sorry to keep bringing it up."

"Just don't ask again!"

Theo rubbed his temples, trying to get his brain working. He thought he had it so far. No memories, a stone, the crab, the whole bubble thing, and the existence of others like him."

"All right. Ok. So we are a little pocket of space within a much larger, let's say dimension, filled with other pockets like ours. Explain to me what this dimension is; where are we?"

Bbl looked up at him. "I cannot tell you accurately. I can only say that it has many names. My people called it the Endless Chaos. I have heard it referred to as the Ever-Burning Plane, the Dimension of Searing, the Void, the Unnameable. Exactly what it is and why it is I have no clue."

They were reaching that point again, the point where Theo would start to struggle and the thoughts would tumble out of his head. He shook himself, determined this time. Bbl saw the human bracing itself and had a sick feeling he knew what was coming. This useless bag of flesh was hopeless. Had he, Bblbllublblilblib, ever been so lost, so confused? He hadn't had anyone to guide him when he had started out!

"All right," Theo muttered, building himself up to it, "so we are in a Dimension of endless flame. Ok. It's filled with little pocket Realms that are each controlled by a Great Spirit. What is a Great Spirit?"

Bbl shrugged. An odd thing for a crab to do. "As I've said, several times, Great Spirits are only what my people called what we are. The Endless Chaos touches all places and all things in the multiverse. It isn't shocking that it is known by many names, nor is it surprising that we denizens of this place are also known by many names. Shadow Princes, Harranon, Dark Ones, Black Ghosts, the Hateful Ones. All the classics."

"Right" Theo muttered tightly, " I think I've got it."

He squared his shoulders and rubbed his jaw. His long, nervous fingers trembled a little as he brought his hands together in front of him and clasped them tightly. 

"You spoke of resources. Your Realm, ran out? Had them stolen? Exactly what resources are there to fight over in this place?" he pointed to the black emptiness that surrounded them.

Bbl spoke slowly now as he tried to make sure the pitiful human was following his words.

"First and foremost is land, or space. It takes energy to reclaim liveable space from the Chaos. Rather than expend all that effort themselves, many Great Spirits would rather steal it from someone else."

"How does that work? Wouldn't the two bubbles then be permanently attached?" asked Theo, retreating to Bbl's analogy.

"Not quite" Bbl replied, "it's more like stealing a part of someone else's bubble and attaching it to your own."

"Right. I don't think that's how bubbles work, but okay. What's the other resource?"

Bbl flinched. He'd answered this question before. Maybe this time he'd get it through the idiot monkeys head. Determined, the little crab drew itself up to its full height and flourished his claws as he spoke.

"The most important and most desirable commodity in the Great Chaos are the souls of the sentient of course! They are drawn here when they die, and we fight to gather our share!"

"But why" pressed Theo, fighting off a sudden sense of vertigo, "what do we need them for?"

The crab leapt onto a higher rock and snapped his claws at Theo passionately. 

"For their pain! Their suffering is our food, our pleasure, our power and our obsession! By extracting their pain, you can wield it to create! In this place, every rock, every tree and every creature is made from the very essence of mortal anguish! It is the stuff of life, and we denizens of this place need it like mortals need air!" Bbl cried, claws extended high into the air, practically vibrating with enthusiasm.

Theo nodded. Then one hand rose back to his brow, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose once more. He took a few deep breaths to try and settle the uneasy feeling in his stomach.

"In order words," he said, after a few minutes, "in other words, this is Hell, and I am a Demon."

Bbl clacked his claws indifferently. "If you like."

Theo sighed. He took a deep breath, held it, then sighed again. He looked left and right. Then, almost as if it had a mind of its own, his head tilted back until he was staring up at the burning sky.

To support himself, he wedged one hand into the small of his back and brought the other to his face to protect his eyes from the glare.

"Is there anything behind the clouds?" he asked.

Bbl collapsed to the ground once more.