The newly born relic felt cool to the touch, my hand slowly growing more frigid as magic vacuumed into the hovering light at the head of the stave. My breath misted before me as the syphoning vacuum slowly sealed itself, the staff sluggishly heating much to my relief. Whatever process had been achieved had apparently completed my stave, the feeling of accomplishment coiling like a serpent within the pit of my stomach.
"Well...Fuck..." Exhaling another bout of frigid vapour I examined my newly minted focus, my eyes scanning it whilst my mind was busy elsewhere.
'Mephisto and Dumbledore are working together, or were. Not to mention the fact that Dumbledweeb is a Guinevere and purposely ruining Harry's life... Steps. I need Steps.'
I tightened my grip upon the staff as it softly vibrated with magical energy. Dimensional energies were intertwining with magic on a complex level that even I had difficulties fully comprehending, that was what was leading to the vibration and its contact with the atmosphere. The staff was alive in a way that was not too dissimilar to sentient items within D&D. The only difference was usual age of the relics, my own staff was equivalent to a toddler when compared to others of its intelligence.
'First step: Hunt down Mephisto, save Harry's parents. Second Step: Kill Dumbledore. Yeah, that works, simplicity is best.'
All cold subsided as my thoughts finally coalesced upon a path. This work was relatively easy now that I had my stave, I could perhaps enjoy the jaunt into hellish realms with my newly formed companion. The satisfaction and hope bled away as the smell of brimstone and fire filled my nostrils... Someone or something had entered into the property and they were infernal in nature, much like Mephisto.
I spun around in an instant, my gaze sweeping the room for every detail as my staff stabbed into the ground before me. With that stab came an unexpected explosion of arcane force that swooped through the house much like a phoenix's flames would. Moments became seconds, seconds dripped into milliseconds before time seemed to slow to a crawl. All smell and sound ceased, a void gripping both sensations as only light was moving fast enough to transmit itself to me.
Gulping at the sheer power that unleashed from a single stab I crept forwards cautiously, my steps confident but lined with trepidation. If this was the power of my staff when it was reactionary, what would the damage be when I focus my own magic into an actual spell? The question sent shivers down my spine.
Stepping into the hallway beyond I felt zero changes in my surroundings. No beings were running towards me, nor were there any infernal rituals or something such. Stepping down the hallway and more specifically to the top of the stairs I was met with the same eerie silence, no visual cue as to what I had detected in those sparse moments of time before the effect of my staff kicked in. Licking my lips and squinting I went down the stairs.
Mid-way down the old wooden stairs I flinched. Standing before me was a man with stark blonde hair, no, it was suddenly raven-black. He wore a three-piece-suit with a handkerchief in the upper breast pocket, the entire ensemble was superbly refined with common but undeniably classy style. In but a second his entire body was covered in vibrant green snakes, until they too disappeared in the same manner that his hair had suddenly shifted colours and styles. This man was powerful, too powerful, and that fact set my blood pressure on fire; I couldn't defeat this entity even with all of my powers or all of my points. He was on a completely different tier.
"Now that was dramatic! You stab the floor, time shudders, and I smell a freshly baked relic on the wind. Tell me, was all this arcane chaos just to impress Mephisto, or are you planning to kill him with it?" The colour of his eyes shuddered as they morphed between radiant blue and hellish red, the juxtaposition sending waves of fear through my bones. He stepped closer, his cologne smelling of pure lust as his temperance sung of his never-ending need for dramatics.
"Because, if it's the latter, you may wish to go fishing in the well under the tree..."
Blinking rapidly I couldn't help but attempt to decipher his advice. This man was a powerhouse and if he was speaking, it was for a purpose. 'Perhaps he wants Mephisto dead as well?' He softly regarded me, his eyes shifting between colours once more as his right foot instantly tapped the floor once.
With the force of an explosion, all sound and smell crashed into the building. Time had unfrozen and my staff was recoiling ever so reluctantly, its power somehow stifled by the man before me... He wanted an answer and was sick of waiting, no doubt.
"It is the latter." He smirked evilly as a glass of champagne emerged in his hands. Taking a sip his chest started to heave, his mood swirling chaotically. I couldn't read his emotions nor his body language. It was nigh impossible to understand his mood or actions, the little riddle he had given me only furthering the mystery the man supplied with just his presence.
"Wonderful... You see, that little tyke 'Mefisty', has been on my naughty list for quite a long time. Alas, I have never had the need to, or want to; If I am being completely honest, to hunt him down. Maze has tried, but she is rather, challenged at the current moment."
I nodded slowly, having some clue as to who this could be now... 'Maze' or Mazikeen was a demon who served Lucifer directly, the truest devil and son of God. I was speaking to Lucifer Morningstar...
"And, you would wish for me to deal with him for you?" The smirk upon his face gained a playful edge, his champagne glass dropping out of his grasp before phasing from existence.
"Mmm, perhaps! You see, I never want to go back home ever again... It's an awfully boring place to live and I just started my vacation not but two years ago. Thus, if you can take him all the way back to the pits of the infernal, It would be in my best interest to, cheekily, suggest some courses for action against him."
"Aren't you all powerful, Lucifer?"
His irises became vertical slits as a snake-like cunning blended into his countenance.
"All powerful? Certainly not. Only dear old 'dad' is all of that and more... And he is rather blatantly a biased son of a bitch." He popped the last word with a not so small measure of disdain.
"Perhaps I can explain it in this way... Why would I, a human; in this metaphor, stoop so low as to individually stomp upon an ant hive when I can simply grasp fly spray, a tool, to purge them for me without the need for inconvenience?"
Swallowing back my nerves I engaged him once more, in speech. "So I am just a tool?"
He nodded swiftly, excitedly... "Indeed! Now you are getting it. Wonderful, well, with that all talked about, enjoy the trip to Yggdrasil!" I heard a snapping of fingers without any visual cue, the space around me warping and twisting into a vague deluge of spatial energy and life force.
...
The Place Between Places...
The room was hot and stark white. It was the first details to transmit into my overstimulated mind. My sense of touch was on fire, feeling as if I were surfing upon the sun with my bare feet and only a single layer of skin to protect my health. Vision was worse off as I felt blinded, the level of blankness effectively disparaging me from looking around. Even closing my eyelids only revealed a bright white light that made me feel sick to my soul.
Breathing was an issue, my lungs struggling to grasp onto anything to conjure oxygen. Even the small parts of matter within space were enough for me, but here, here I was completely without breath and not in a positive way. Going through my checklist I noted that my sense of smell was chaotic, one second there would be the soft lavender smell of Susan then it would mutate into the smell of rotten tomatoes and pineapple. If I wished to retch the contents of my stomach out before, now it were as if a siren was wailing in my ear to do as such.
The edge to this pantomime of a journey was the revolting hunch that this little jaunt would change something about me. Perhaps it would be for the positive, perhaps not... And that is where the anxiety and worry began settling into my heart and stomach, my heart thumping out of my chest in a constant drum-like rhythm.
"..." I tried speaking and yet no sound could leave the grasp of my throat. I was choking and yet I wasn't dying. No oxygen was required here apparently, despite my every instinct warning me that I needed to clasp onto breath.
'Why must I find myself in these situations...? Why couldn't I just leave Lily and James to their fate? Fuck me I hate this fucking place!' Stifling the urge to drop to my knees in desperation I moved my head side to side, hoping to find something beyond the blankness of the space.
Fortunately for me my eyes were still functioning, though I thought it wasn't at first. In the distance, whatever that meant within this dimension, I spotted a relatively small black dot. It seemed to be the amalgam of all shadow within this realm, a pinprick of refuge amidst the plasma-like heat of the 'room'. Trying to huff I stumbled towards that small beacon of hope.
It was rough at first, my steps hurried, desperate, unbalanced. Small mercies were possible however as Apex still clung to me as a child would to its mother. The quirk churned away in grandiose toil, removing my instinct to gasp and suck in the next breath. It had been causing me pain, so it removed the need altogether... Never had I been so enthusiastic to be in possession of this power. Even the space-time continuum was easier than this and that had me being physically and mentally stretched through time in a specific manner.
Shaking my head from the rogue thoughts I noted the closing shadow. If it were a pinprick before, it now resembled a $100 note in size. With the goal coming ever closer and expanding I quickened my pace, my feet finally finding purchase steadily upon the stark white floor below. My balance reached an equilibrium amidst the stifling sense of dread that i felt at the heat surrounding my soul. This was mitigated however as Apex once more came to my rescue. The soul was a powerful conduit for magic and powers. Thus my child-like power coiled around it as if it were its blanket, protecting it from all outward harm. 'Small mercies are abundant today...' I snarked at the situation Lucifer had thrust me into.
Honestly, the man was utterly powerful, I could do very little to him but I wished I could swaddle him for what he has done...
Over the next half an hour I walked, the shadowed space expanding, growing even. What was once a pinprick had become the size of the universe itself. Definition was kicking into the entire structure as individual limbs of the shadow expanded above, or what i perceived to be above. Leaves dangled from those purely black branches, some slithers of white infecting the massive plant as its roots, now noticeable, sunk in and out of the perfectly indecipherable floor below.
'What the fuck is this day... That revelation, creating my relic and now going to the actual Yggdrasil? Fuck my life.'
My steps sluggishly continued until such a point that I became immobile. The roots surrounding me pulsed with immense energy and yet It felt out of bounds, beyond me, to even dare consider tapping into that power. My soul quivered at the mere prospect of touching it.
"We are the three..." A wispy and rasping voice cried out from somewhere. I quickly looked side to side, twisting my body to look backwards... And yet, there was no one around me.
"Future..." There was a pause as another voice picked up in a coquettish voice, "Past..." I gulped down the saliva that was collecting in my mouth, no air providing me relief still. "And Present...!" A gasp of primordial wind fluttered through what could be considered a clearing. It was right in front of me, and boy was the sight of three old crones unsettling.
"Freya Bragisdottir..." The one on the left spoke. "You have come here to be judged." The one in the middle picked up from where the last stopped. "Step forwards." The last of the trio rasped out the request, their pallid green-white eyes drilling into my own with their sheer will.
Description was wasted upon them as they all looked as one would imagine three sisters who presided over time or fate would. To me they seemed to be wise-women, old, ancient even, yet oh-so powerful... Yet that description did not feel apt to me nor to the greater beings that are no doubt watching this occur... That was odd, I had remembered those greater beings again...
"Step forwards..." All three sister beckoned me forwards, my legs automatically carrying me ahead despite the lack of intent within me to do so. I was fucked, I couldn't even stop myself and now I was going to be dissected by three old bats who were supposedly the entities presiding over fate... 'Fucking hell...'
...
Los Angeles...
A cackle broke the sleazy atmosphere inside Lux as the suavely dressed man-child known as Lucifer stared towards a wall as if it were showing him something hilarious.
"Fucking hell, indeed!" Maze sneered and shook her head as her hips swayed backwards and forwards, the human below her grunting as he neared his climax.
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