The End of the World

512

I asked EAT about this Kadath place before heading out. “It used to be the seat of power within the Dreamlands.” It said. “Home to humanity’s gods. Not the gods that Grendel speaks of; these gods were fantasies given form, created from mankind’s imaging. Perhaps they couldn’t cope with the reality of the universe’s pantheon, so they made their own. Not that it matters now. Those gods have long been dead.”

More gods. I feel like I’m buried under all these deities that keep popping up.

The portal to reach Kadath was hidden away in an uninhabited part of Tibet. Were it not for my ability to teleport, there’s no way I could have reached it. Several of EAT’s bodies were waiting there. No idea how it managed the trip.

One spoke. “Grendel is waiting for you on the other side. He will not begin to act until you are there to watch.”

“Then couldn’t I beat him by just not going?”

“Yes. But it would be uncharacteristic of you to abandon Virginia S. Carter while she remains a hostage.”

Okay good point there.

EAT continued. “Grendel’s first target will be the Dreamlands, then the Empty City, and finally Earth. The Fears will attempt to combat him, but the balance of victory rests on your actions. Do you have a strategy for when you confront him?”

“Yeah.” I lifted my sword. “I’m going to stab him in the face until he shuts up.”

EAT didn’t say anything for a while, and then, in its usual deadpan monotone, “At least it cannot be faulted for being overly complex.”

Yeah well I’d like to see you come up with something better. “Anything else I need to know?”

“No. This should be sufficient for our purpose.”

“Gonna wish me luck?”

“…. We desire that probability allows for your battle to be concluded in a favorable manner.”

“Close enough. See you when Grendel’s dead!” And through the portal I went.

Kadath was unlike any other place I’d seen, even in the Dreamlands. It was on the peak of a mountain, rising above turbulent storm clouds. A grand city had been carved into the mountain, but it wasn’t anything like any normal city. The best way to describe the buildings I saw would be, “Geometry should not work that way.”

The city was filled with monsters of all kinds. Some I recognized from previous encounters with Grendel and journeys through the Dreamlands, but others were new. Lots of tentacles, or sharp pointy teeth, or excess numbers of limbs. I was ready to fight my way through them, but they moved aside, opening a path to the center of the city.

At the end of that path, standing before a black, distorted palace, was Grendel, flanked by his Fears, and with Virginia lying at his feet. He smiled like a child when he saw me.

“You accepted my invitation!” He said. “Of course, I knew you would. I can’t start this show without the proper audience.”

Pointed my sword at him. “Let Virginia go.”

“Of course, of course!” He grabbed Virginia by the hair and pulled her up. As she was raised, she stomped a foot on the ground, and the stone rose in a spike that impaled Grendel through the face. His surprise quickly turned into laughter as he tore off the spike and healed the wound. “I can see why you like this one. She has fight, just like her grandfather. Here, take her.”

He pushed her forward, and turned away from us. I ran to Virginia, and then… then…. Grendel’s sword appeared in his hand. Before I could reach Virginia, he spun around and cut across her back. I caught her as she fell, but the cut was too deep, going right through the spine….

Some of her blood fell on the ground at Grendel’s feet, and red light in the shape of a five pointed star appeared beneath him. “It begins!” He shouted, as more of those red stars appeared in the sky.

Wherever they appeared, the sky soon crumbled away beneath them, creating holes in space. Through some of those holes I saw images from all over the Earth. In others, I saw a massive city stretching as far as the eye could see. And in others, there was only emptiness. But things soon started to try and come out of that emptiness: indescribable monsters, who threw their massive bodies against the small holes as they tried to break out.

“And now here comes the opposition.” Grendel said. Carnival music blared across the landscape, and a spinning circus tent rose in the sky like a sun. Wings spread from the tent, wings so large they seemed to fill the entire sky.

Most of this, however, was only a side though to me. I was making futile attempts to stop all the blood that was coming from Virginia’s back. Screamed at Grendel that I’d murder him, but he only laughed at me.

“No you won’t. You’re going to waste your time trying to save the girl instead.” A chuckle. “Of course, you’ll fail. She’s just moments away from death. But you never can resist the opportunity to try and be heroic.”

Snarled at him, but then picked Virginia up and ran back to the portal. Looked back once, and saw him flying across the sky toward the Grotesque. He stabbed the tent with his sword, and cracks of nothingness spread across it. As I passed through the portal, the last thing I Heard was the music shriek with the screams of a dying god.

Got back to the real world, and shouted for EAT’s help, but it was already gone. And the area was too isolated for me to get any medical help there. I… I tried everything I could, but there was so much blood, and all the tools I had with me were for killing people, not curing them…. Bringing her back to the physical world might have only made things worse, because suddenly she was in a younger body that had much less blood to lose, and there was nothing I could do to stop the bleeding, and she….

…..

I’m going back in there. And I’m going to kill Grendel.

No matter what it takes.

I-330