Chapter 15

Escee Sixty-Six

Sixty-Six’s brain trembled as his consciousness resurfaced. It was like suddenly waking up from near-drowning. Spit gathered at the back of his throat and his lungs coughed it back out through reflex.

He felt something tug at him. At first he ignored it, preferring to stay in the blackness of sleep, but then a harsher tug dragged his arm down, almost dislocating it.

“Huah?!” An arm locked onto his collar, pulling him upwards. Locking eyes with the rude awakener, he realized he was staring straight at his commander, EE-Thirty.

“Wake up already. The Sanctuary demands it,” EE-Thirty seethed, her clenched mouth full of teeth.

Sixty-Six blinked several times while surveying the area. He noticed the skies were an unnatural pitch black, with visible winds turbulating the beach. The sand beneath his feet was glowing a strange violet, as if he entered some kind of alternate reality or dream world.

His other companions who might as well have been triplets, Thirty-Four and Zero-Two glanced at him with disinterest. “I can’t sense Eleven,” He said, his voice hitched. He couldn’t remember what happened. Or maybe he didn’t want to remember.

“He perished, remember?” EE-Thirty looked over him strangely, “I wonder if your faculties are alright?”

“How...did he die?”

“Apparently the red one cast a large-scale spell that backfired in ways I hadn’t realized,” She said, her voice almost mechanical and unfeeling, as if solving a math problem, “We’ll just have the Council create a new instance of Eleven.”

He glared at her, feeling uncharacteristic of himself, “That wouldn’t be Eleven, but someone else looking like him, like us,” He gestured toward Thirty-Four and Zero-Two. “We need to grab his body and-”

“Do not ask me for a funeral. That is unnecessary,” she shook her head disapprovingly, “Don’t start talking like an Exile.” She ordered the other two elves to scout the area. EE-Thirty checked the sensor attached to her right gauntlet and sighed, “It seems we’re in the pocket dimension by the outskirts of the Veil. Good.”

“Come with me. We’re headed to shut down the Anomaly for good.” She gestured for the rest of the elves to follow her into the strangely-lit buildings before them.

The weather was strong in this strange dimension, so the elves had to push against the dark unforgiving winds that would surround them in shifting sands.

The dark-silver structures pulsated a strange red from the runes plastered on their walls. Automatic doors slid open, taunting them to go further.

As Sixty-Six’s feet found themselves within the Caverns, his pointy ears perked up.

“C’mon, stop being so serious all the time. Liv’up a little, Elf.”

That voice. He recognized it. From that man he met long ago. It..can’t be possible, his nerves were shaken, terrified by the implications. He turned to face his elven companions, but they kept walking through the building, seemingly unaware of what happened.

It’s just the miasma here, he told himself, He’s gone. He has been gone. The miasma from the Anomaly is trying to attack me. Don’t let it find purchase in your mind, Sixty-Six.

With a huff, he power-walked to his companions, shaking off the sudden scare. He put the whisper in the back of his mind, forgetting about it for the moment. Its implications were too...difficult to process then.

EE-Thirty held up a radar attached to her right gauntlet. Its appearance was similar to a hologram as it portrayed a digital 3D map of the area.

How EE-Thirty managed to collect a map of an abandoned red zone base was something only the Council knew. Sixty-Six felt he didn’t want to know how she did it.

“This place has lots of structural damage from the inside. Not at all as well-maintained as the outside walls,” Zero-Two commented.

Thirty-Four shrugged, “We’re in a dimensional tear. Nothing here makes sense at all,” he grabbed a floating plastic bottle, “Some objects even float here against gravity.” He flung the bottle back into the dark corridors. It ended up disappearing.

“The runes here aren’t receiving enough power. They keep flickering on and off,” EE-Thirty said, “Knowing Demon Runes, they should be able to last for centuries. Something has been syphoning off their power.”

The holographic map showed that the location of the Anomaly was five stories below. In retrospect it wasn’t quite that far, but Sixty-Six was worried about the spacetime influence the Anomaly had on each floor. The closer they would get to the source, the further twisted space would become, like entering the event horizon of a black hole.

He shivered.

Sixty-Six realized they were on the main floor, surprisingly. There were many slide doors with keypads on each side, indicating a 4 pin password was required to enter each. It was only obvious that a massive research site had rooms for each individual scientist and potentially staff member.

One of the sliding doors kept malfunctioning, opening and closing constantly as the keypad’s light flickered.

EE-Thirty raised a hand up and casted ice magic, freezing the sides of the door open. “Sixty-Six, come with me. Thirty-Four, Zero-Two, stay out and cover us.”

The leader squeezed through the opening, soon followed by Sixty-Six. Thankfully they didn’t have to bust open the door or guess it.

In it was a bed, a desk, chairs, and several notes both on the desk and the floor. There were so many papers littered through the room that he paid no attention to anything else.

Sixty-Six picked a note randomly by the door; the handwriting was nigh-ineligible. Some of them were smeared by sweat and blood.

He could only catch a few unimportant words. A lone datapad by the desk had its screen cracked, rendering it unusable.

“There’s nothing of use here,” He told his commander, only for her to shake her head, revealing a violet keycard.

“Found this behind that portrait,” she said, pointing at a painting of an elder demon. The elder was wearing a white coat, his goatee long and silver in color. “Hiding things behind portraits is very predictable,” she said, exasperated.

“What is it for?”

“Seems to be for elevator use. Very useful,” she said, placing it on her back pocket, “Collect all the notes here and let’s go.”

There were a lot of notes here, and no real place to put them at. This was going to take a while, Sixty-Six grimaced.

After finally managing to collect the notes splattered through the room and place them in a neat stack, he looked to his commander, her foot tipped the floor impatiently. Sixty-Six quickly hugged the stack of papers close to his chest and followed her out the room.

“I wish we had brought more soldiers with us,” EE-Thirty complained. Sixty-Six could tell from his mental link with her that she had grown irked with the current situation, “But alas, the human king would’ve seen that as an act of aggression from the Sanctuary...this was the best we could do to stay in his good graces. Pathetic,” she snarled.

He couldn’t deny that.

[Unknown]

The act of waiting patiently was a privilege only a few had.

And she was privileged. No, she was blessed.

So she waited. She flapped a limp red-skinned arm. The phalanges bounced lifelessly with each movement. Black ooze seeped out of the cracks in her skin.

A wide eyed smile spread across her lips as she counted the time. She was right in front of a beautiful hole in reality. It showed her stars and chaos beyond the confines and purchases of reality itself. Negative Existence sang brightly, as the sound became light that stretched for eternity.

She smiled as she smelled vanilla wafting through the Anomaly.

So she drank off the Eldritch energies that the one beyond the Veil offered her.

Although she had so much power, the creature was ultimately trapped in a myriad of seals that a very lovely and cunning little demon lady placed on her.

Oh how she wished to see her again one day.

For now, she’d have to make due with the little group of elves headed her way. She knew they were coming. She has known, ever since her conception from Majin to her current state.

She lowered the miasma levels just enough to lure those pesky Sanctuary dwellers to her and to keep the Maw from noticing anything suspicious after all.

She could wait, but eternity is a powerful word. She’d rather not wait forever.

After all, what’s the point of forever if there’s a now?

They were coming. So soon. So very soon. More elves to add to her collection. She only had one on her person, after all.

So four more would make her die. Die enough to be happy. She was dying of happiness.

The scent of vanilla overwhelmed the room. Her pointy ear twitched as it heard inaudible whispers from Unreality.

Her grin grew wider. Her agency was growing excited. Something about finding ‘the one’ made her agency more active than she’s been in centuries.

She’d look into the future to see who exactly her agency was talking about, but alas, it blocked her from doing so.

Seemed even her God could feel jealousy.

How hilarious.

She laughed as she plucked the strands of fate to her direction. Those elves were going to be here soon. The room was dusty. She should probably clean up.

Nah, she thought. What was the point? She was going to leave either way.

Maybe then she’d be able to find this ‘one’ her agency spoke of.

In due time, she thought to herself, giggling.

In due time.