XX · The Undead Threat

🎧 Lighthouse by Calum Scott

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"I'm sorry," he whispered.

I frowned, "For what?"

"For saying you didn't have what it takes to be a researcher. That's the same as calling someone dumb around here, that was precipitated and wrong. Your father would have punched me for saying that," he chuckled anxiously. Did dad ever beat him up? Because he brings it up a lot.

Caressing his hair, I crunched my nose softly, "It's alright. I do feel dumb around here, since I don't know anything about this world yet. Just like you would probably feel in the human realm, though, knowing here, you would probably found the human realm infinitely boring.'

"I doubt that, you made it sound very interesting," he purred.

"That's because the old history is, but that's as far as it goes!"

"Alright, I'll believe you. Now, what's ADHD and Dyslexia?"

"Oh? I totally forgot I was talking about that," I chuckled. "Alright, ADHD is short for a psychologic condition that's called Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity Disorder, there are three types," I rose three of my right fingers, keeping my left hand in his hair, caressing softly. "Predominantly Attention Deficit," one finger down, "predominantly Hyperactivity," next finger down, "and the balanced one when the person suffers equally from both Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity," last finger down. "I'm the first."

He nodded, understanding it, "Hence the easy loss of focus."

"Hence that. Now, Dyslexia is also a disorder, but it's worse in my opinion, because you can't read shit, the letters ran away from the pages, melt away, they shake, they do anything so you can't read them. It feels like hallucinating, at least that's what I felt, and it makes really hard to learn a language, grammar, and literature. Nowadays they have audiobooks, which is, as the name indicates, books in audio recorded by voice actors normally."

"Humans may not have magic, but they got technology and some creativity, which is almost like their magic, and dad was a master on it. Like I said before, he worked as a game architect and engineer, be it video games, board games, console games, computed games, card games and beyond. He crafted action stories with complexity and made games of it, which made him famous under the name Sean Scott. I don't understand enough of it to tell you though, but for all I know he was good, and it paid well."

"Doesn't surprise me, master always liked games, and money," he giggled. "If it gave good money, then I think it's nice. Money is good. But that aside, this Dyslexia disease sounds horrifying, the idea of not being able to read or write sounds heart-wrenching to me, a real nightmare."

"Oh, and it was," I groaned at the memory. "But dad helped. It did help that I was alphabetized in Auraniun and all its dialects first, so, if I was really unable to read something through, my dad would translate it all for me," sigh. "I miss him. I miss him an awful lot. In fact, I used to think I'd die before him, he had the aura of someone who would live forever."

Pressing his forehead on mine, he asked, "How did he die?"

I swallowed, "He had gone out to travel on a forest of the outskirts of where we lived in Australia, a very, very ambientally dangerous country, when a wildfire happen. A wild fire that kills 9694 people aside from him."

Dorian narrowed his eyes, "Well, that's suspicious. And not to look down on this dangerous country wildfire, cherryling, but your dad would never die to a wildfire."

"Sera said a Prince of Hell may have send an undead after him. I don't know about those Princes, even less do I know what an undead is, but she brought up the possibility, saying that's the only creature that could kill an artifact crafter like my dad. She also suggested that someone from here may have laid the Prince of Hell to send the undead after my dad."

All color was drained from his face, "Undead?" He cursed haunted.

And seeing him look like that, made my blood grow cold, "What is an undead, exactly, Dorian?" I felt my anxiety rising.

Bringing his hands up, he hugged my waist with his arms, "They're in the group of three most dangerous creature existent in all the nine realms from the skies, to land, to water, to the underground, down to hell, and to everything in between and around it, cherryling."

"A group of three?" I frowned curiously anxious.

"Primordials, void dwellers, and the undead. The primordials exist within our world and out of it, beyond everything, they are above the Gods, above all entities, above everything, it's them that have the real power. They created everything, from the Gods, to magic, to hell, to all races, to the void dweller and the undead, even humans. All realms had their hands on their creation. But they don't get involved, they are also known as the Watchers, because that's what they do, watch us, without giving a shit about artifacts, Gods, entities, our kinds, wars, genocide, birth, transcendental power play, or anything at all. It's all an entertainment to them, and they can't die."

"They just are. They just exist. They are an universal mystery that will never be solved, and it's better that way. In fact, they created the Gods to do their job, because they were the primordials of sky, seas, sun, moon, night, and beyond, and now we have the Gods and the entities, both who do get very, very involved with Auradoom affairs. Now, the void dwellers, we are clear on not knowing shit about them, they are existentially the biggest mystery of the universe that we can and night solve one day. But for that, we would need to understand the void, which is also a mystery."

"Now, the undead," he swallowed hard, uncomfortable, "are beings from the in-between, the black hole that exists between hell and the void, and who dwell in the Kahan river, a blood river that runs out of hell, right where the border of the in-between is found, running into the in-between. But in opposition to us not having any control over anything related to the void, the Princes of Hell, there are seven, one representing one of the seven sins of the living, also called the hell dwellers, have power over the undead who escape from the in-between and fall back into the Kahan river."

A shiver ran down my spine, "They can leave it?"

"The strongest ones can, but as soon as they fall back in the Kahan river, they are stuck on it, cherryling. But a Prince of Hell has the power to take them out of the river, by doing that, they slave the undead, and from that on, they become a weapon, a hunting lethal dog as master used to call them. No one knows what lies inside the in-between, but whatever it is, it's capable of driving one maddeningly insane in a way they can never recover from it, they become feral, savages, nor alive, neither dead."

"In-between," I whispered and goosebumps swarmed on my body.

"In-between!"

"And those Princes of Hell have these… things in their hand?" I groaned.

Sigh, "Yes. But there ain't much known about all the Princes either to be fully honest, cherryling. Some are more… showy, but not all. It's a bit hard to enter the Seven Hell Courts, you gotta be a demon or be with one to be there, as long as you or your companion have demon blood in you, you can go. However, just because of that, doesn't mean you are welcomed."

By the tone of his voice, I could tell he had been there, and it got me anxious.

"Don't tell me my dad went there with you."