THE INFINITE PRISON
**Chapter Sixteen**
The chapter begins where it ended when Zolish saves Gabriel from his fall into the Cascade of Blood beneath the Mountains of Madness. His divine arrogance might have descended upon me for Gabriel's sake, but did this truly happen?
It was as if the cold air, laden with the aura of terror emanating from the Witches' House, surrounded them as Zolish soared through the darkened sky, clutching Gabriel in his demonic claws. The stars seemed to watch their journey in eerie silence as if they were witnesses to an impending madness that could not be avoided.
Gabriel looked down at the endless void beneath him, then turned to Zolish and spoke with a hesitant voice:
"I still don't understand... Where are we going, and how will we overthrow the Chevishenkov?"
Zolish turned to him with a distorted smile, his glowing eyes shining like embers in the darkness.
"We are going to the headquarters of humanity... to your friends in Zero Phantom."
Gabriel: "You were destroying planets when you played with your sister, right? Why don't you just annihilate them all?"
Zolish: "Fool, in this war of mine, I do not need strength, but my intelligence. The Shadow Demon has placed a curse on me, monitoring my mana activity. He will know everything if I intervene."
Gabriel: "Why is this planet so important to you?"
Zolish: "This is the mother planet of my galaxy."
Zolish throws Gabriel toward the sea, and the void transforms into darkness by his power. Zolish's face becomes even more terrifying and grim, like the face of a necromancer, undulating as he speaks to him in this aura:
Zolish: "I have executed this same plan on the mother planet of every galaxy in my universe. My father... I have finished with 60,000 galaxies. Only 20,000 remain, and I am now carrying out this task in all the remaining galaxies simultaneously."
At this moment, the black void around Gabriel ripples and begins to spin, as if they were in a pool of dark water, undulating and twisting their faces with it.
Gabriel replies: "How is this possible when you are with me at this very moment..." Gabriel's voice echoes through the dark, watery void.
Zolish, with terrifying red flames beginning to emerge from his body, laughs a sadistic laugh: "I can be in multiple places at the same time, and I can control 15,000 of my bodies, all with the same consciousness. They are not copies—I can exist in more than one place at the same time.
Hahahahahahahahaha haaaaaaah!"
Gabriel is shocked by what he hears.
Gabriel: "To what extent does your power reach? I cannot imagine that there are entities close to your power, let alone stronger than you."
Zolish: "You have seen nothing yet, oh mortal."
Gabriel felt a tightening in his chest. He wasn't sure if this would end well.
He thought to himself, if this skeletal demon possessed such evil and power, then what of the others? He began to feel dizzy, not from the height, but from fear. Yet, he gathered his scattered thoughts and asked:
"What is your true plan? How will you defeat all the cosmic entities? And even if you do... what will you do with your father, the Lord of Demons? And what of his brother, the Shadow Demon?"
Zolish paused for a moment, then burst into laughter, but his laughter was unlike any before. It was so intense that the fish and sea creatures in the ocean began to die from fear. His voice carried a hellish echo as if it emerged from the depths of Hell itself.
"Like I told you, human... The Ancients are just the beginning.
I will command a great and terrible army, and I promise you, I will be the end.
For everything."
Then he accelerated his flight, leaving Gabriel in the air for a moment before catching him again and heading toward their destination.
As Gabriel's mind is being destroyed by this psychopathic lich, let us take the events of our story to a less insane place.
Far from the cursed and accursed icy island, or perhaps not so far... in the heart of Asia, deep in Iraq...
There lies the new headquarters of Zero Phantom, a place of utmost secrecy, bustling with activity and tension. In the large meeting room, Simon and Eva stood before a group of leaders, soldiers, and troops—hundreds, perhaps thousands—including freed prisoners and others seeking freedom. They presented their plan on a massive screen to overthrow Chevishenkov, the first demonic and noble family to rule the world. They sought to destroy their hellish prison: "The Devil's Skull."
Despite the liberation efforts, many forces and secrets remained hidden there, and even the Chevishenkov members were said to be the prison's wardens.
"This operation must be a grinding revenge. We will attack with all our hidden forces and warplanes. We will annihilate them completely," said Simon, pointing to a 3D map of the prison. "We need to breach their defenses before they realize what is happening. The main assault team will enter from this point, while support units will wait here."
As he spoke, the ceiling suddenly shook, and the center of the room exploded as Gabriel descended forcefully amidst the destruction. Everyone raised their weapons cautiously, but soon realized it was Gabriel and breathed a sigh of relief.
Everyone was startled by his sudden and strange entrance, and the new members pointed their weapons at him, thinking he was an intruder.
Simon: "Stop! Stop! He's one of us."
Simon: "Gabriel, I'm your captain, Avery. We tried to contact you for a while. Where have you been, and how did you know about our location?"
Eva: "Yes, Gabriel, where were you? We thought you were dead!"
Gabriel stammered, unsure how to respond. He looked around, avoiding their eyes, unable to process the rapid events, then said: "I was... hiding somewhere, and I found the location's updates on my phone."
A member: "Well, who threw you from the ceiling?"
Gabriel: "A crazy companion of mine was piloting a stealth plane."
Gabriel: "This desert is beautiful, honestly, and the headquarters... it seems you guys spared no expense in buying all this." He placed his hand on his neck and laughed.
Then Eva asked him, "What about Rose? Have you seen her? Do you know where she is?"
Gabriel: "I don't know... I haven't seen her in a while. I don't remember anything, honestly....."
But before anyone could ask more questions, Gabriel's expression suddenly changed. His voice became sharper, his eyes filled with dark blackness. It was not him speaking, but Zolish, who had possessed his body.
"I have come... and I bring some assistance." He said it in a calm voice, yet filled with terror.
Then the facility's door opened, and hordes of armed humans appeared. But while the organization's members saw them as ordinary humans, Gabriel saw their true form: they were demonic creatures, undead beings resembling liches, moving under Zolish's command.
Gabriel spoke to Zolish telepathically: "How did you bring all these here, and why am I the only one who sees their repulsive forms?"
Zolish: "First, I can do anything, as I told you. Second..."
Zolish whispered to him in a strange voice: "I made you see them so that the terror if it leaves you for a while, will miss you."
Simon: "Anyway, no harm in backup. We just need to search them and interrogate them before they join us."
Simon looked at everyone and said: "Well... anyway, this is the plan."
Simon pointed to a large screen, where images of other Chevishenkov facilities appeared. "This is just the beginning. After destroying the prison, we will move to these next targets. We must start by cutting off the head of the snake."
Simon said: "Regarding the plan, this time we are not the weaker party. We will attack with overwhelming force and crush them all."
All the soldiers in the place let out a deafening roar:
"Haaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
---
After hours of planning and preparation, the day of the operation arrived. The stealth aircraft and ships laden with fighters set off toward the prison. The sky was overcast as if nature itself was preparing for what was to come.
After days on the accursed sea, amidst the dark sea monsters and the Kraken that nearly sank the ship, killing some of the crew and filling the vessel with blood before the slaughter even began—despite the towering waves, torrential rains, and the satanic darkness of the sea—they finally arrived.
When the fleet of ships lined up in front of the prison, the soldiers saw no aircraft, for they were completely hidden, even from radar. Only three ships were visible, while the rest remained concealed. They entered the prison, and the soldiers assumed they were from the military. One of the soldiers in the watchtower asked them through a microphone, "What do you want?"
Simon stood atop the ship's bow, looking directly at the soldier. At that moment, the irises of Simon's eyes turned purple, taking the shape of the Japanese character あ. Then Simon spoke in a loud, commanding voice, addressing him in Japanese:
Simon:
「サイモン・イン・ファルンハイムが命じた!
お前たちはここで死ね!」
Meaning: "Simon von Farnheim commands you! Die here and now!"
The soldiers' eyes transformed to match Simon's, and in unison, they all said, "As Your Majesty commands," and proceeded to kill themselves.
Nearby, on a high hill close to the prison, Zolish sat, enjoying the spectacle. He held a bowl filled with small spiders, eating them as if they were popcorn while awaiting a new massacre to witness.
Zolish: "Finally, I will see one last bloody masterpiece in this place before it becomes abandoned."
The attack began... and blood soaked the earth, as usual.
The forces stormed into the prison after breaching the gate, thanks to Gabriel, who managed to hack the gates, open them, disable the security system, and lock the doors to the armory rooms. The soldiers and prison guards were bewildered, unsure how to handle this madness.
Another bloody and painful struggle erupted among the humans. The sound of gunfire filled the place, and blood splattered everywhere. But Zolish was not impressed; he found the methods of killing with bullets to be peaceful and boring.
He ordered his private army to move by merely twitching his little finger.
The army advanced toward the prison, with helicopters and stealth aircraft flying above them, while Zolish sat on a high hill, watching the scene with a maddened smile. He pulled a handful of spiders from his pocket, crushed them between his fingers to make a strange popcorn, and began eating it as he watched the massacre unfold before his eyes.
At the prison gates, the soldiers began to scream. The enemy was not human. Zolish's creatures devoured them alive, tearing their flesh with sharp teeth. The sound of their bones breaking echoed through the air. Cries for help turned into distorted whispers, then into terrifying silence.
The members of Zero Phantom looked at their new comrades in astonishment, unable to understand why they were attacking the soldiers with such ferocity.
At this point, Zolish decided to end the confusion.
He raised his hand and muttered a single word: "Wake up."
In an instant, everything changed.
The faces of the "humans" transformed into nightmarish monsters, and their teeth sank into the soldiers' flesh without hesitation. They ate their faces, tore open their stomachs, and sucked out their bone marrow. Blood covered the ground, and the battlefield turned into a living hell.
Gabriel stood in the middle, his body trembling from shock. He could not believe what he was seeing.
This was... Hell itself.
Zolish, on the hill, smiled as he placed more spiders into his mouth, watching the massacre with pure delight.
"And now, the fun begins."
The monsters moved and began to devour even their allies. When one of them approached Gabriel, Gabriel tried to flee but fell to the ground. The creature opened its mouth, which resembled an electric saw, and prepared to devour Gabriel. As those predatory jaws drew near, Gabriel suddenly found himself drowning in a crimson-red watery abyss.
He swam upward, trying to understand what was happening. When he surfaced, he was met with the greatest shock of his life.
Gabriel had not moved an inch from his spot at the Cascade of Blood beneath the Mountains of Madness on that accursed, leathery island...
As he emerged from the lake, all the figures of his hallucinations and nightmares came out with him—Kazia, the Argonian Man, the Lion God, the Terrifying Sun, the demons, and even the Crucified Man, along with many, many others. They floated around him, and a strange yet beautiful melody began to play. Then they started singing a song, the first words of which were spoken by Kazia:
"No pigmentation, giving you the truth."
Then they began to alternate the words, one after the other. Each one approached his face, spoke their line, and disappeared.
"Suffering from fun, she even could not come, too."
"Screaming out You, wanna jumping off the roof."
"One more drink, one less I'll lose."
"She's betting on science; she says she needs proof."
Gabriel grew more tense, anxious, and sad with each word as if the water beneath him was boiling. Then came this line:
"If you were out of my body, you would see the truth."
After this, the bloody sea waters transformed into a deafening void, and he began to fall. The words continued, echoing through the space with the melody.
"And my brains bruised from another the bad news."
This line hit him like a literal punch, striking him with force and sending him deeper into the void.
Then it came again:
"And my brains bruised from another the bad news."
It punched him, causing him to sink even deeper into the void.
Gabriel floats in the deafening void, everything around him fading into nothingness.
All that remains is the lingering melody in his mind and the impact of the punches that pushed him into this endless fall. Suddenly, his fall stops completely, as if an invisible hand has halted him amidst the spells and nightmares. Before him... the Thing appears.
A massive entity, its body decrepit as if carved from rotting flesh, long, hooked fingers moving with unnatural fluidity, each limb ending in a claw resembling a poisoned needle. Gabriel tries to look up, only to find the entity's head surrounded by an inhuman crown: a glowing sun, its rays not of fire but of living darkness, twisting and writhing like arms, flaring and dimming as if trying to escape its celestial prison.
At the center of the sun... a face! But it is not a human face—distorted features, a mournful smile etched onto a surface resembling a mask, dead eyes with no pupils, freezing all his thoughts the moment he sees them. It is a nightmare made flesh, a sun that watches, a sun that is aware of his presence, a sun that waits for him to speak.
In one of its hands, it holds a feeble candle, but its flame does not illuminate—it absorbs the light around it. Meanwhile, its other hand is outstretched, and in its palm floats a transparent pyramid, within which light refracts in impossible ways as if the void itself is dying inside it.
A strange sound echoes in his mind, not in words but in direct understanding, as if the entity is not speaking... but forcibly imposing meaning onto his brain:
"The time has come... Gabriel."
Then it carries him in its hands and throws him deeper and deeper.
...Then it carries him in its hands, lifting him like a weightless doll before hurling him into the depths.
Deeper... and deeper... and deeper.
Gabriel finds himself descending, but not falling—dissolving. His body fades into threads of black smoke, seeping into the deadly void. Then... he hits the ground. But it is not ground—it is a black lake, smooth as dead skin, cold as a graveyard kiss.
He lifts his head to find four women kneeling at the edges of the water. Their hair is long, cascading like curtains of darkness, and their frail bodies bear the marks of old wounds that never healed. They whisper, but the words are not words... they are moans... the beating of a heart... the hum of something hiding in the corners of his mind.
Above them, the moon stares. But it is not the moon—it is a face!
A distorted face, its features slowly burning, its eyes empty yet weeping... tears flowing like waterfalls of decaying light, falling into the lake, turning its surface into waves of living torment.
The women move, their necks slowly twisting, their faces revealed...
They are all roses.
But not the Rose he knows. Their eyes are hollow, their mouths open, their teeth broken, as if they have been screaming for a thousand years without pause.
One of them raises her hand, pointing at him, her lips moving without sound, then finally... he hears her.
"Why... did you leave me there?"
Gabriel screams, but he does not hear his own voice—only the echo of the question repeating... Then a hand emerges from the lake, its claws embedded in his skin, dragging him down into the bottomless darkness.
Then the moon's mouth opens, and a cascade of blood begins to pour out, its eyes weeping.
Gabriel continues to fall... The void consumes him, devours his senses, and strips him of time and space. Then, suddenly... it stops.
But he does not hit the ground. He is floating in a space of ash and dust, as if the universe itself had burned, leaving behind nothing but charred remnants.
Before him... something rises.
Not a human, not a beast... but a catastrophe made flesh.
A massive body, a mixture of stony flesh, arms that crawl like serpents, and fangs that try to tear themselves apart in fits of eternal hunger. Its head is crowned with branching horns like burnt branches, and its eyes... it has no eyes, only black holes that absorb light and soul.
It is not a being—it is a living temple, built from forgotten screams.
It moves, slowly, like the resurgence of an ancient disaster. Rocks crumble around it as if they are scales shedding from its body, while it opens its mouth... or something resembling a mouth.
Then Gabriel hears a deep hum, not a sound, but a spiritual earthquake that shakes his very being, planting terror in his marrow.
"I awoke because you looked at me."
Beneath him, a sea of darkness cracks, waves form, rising... Then he sees a small, abandoned ship, swaying amidst the storm. Someone was here before, someone who saw it before him, but they did not survive to tell the tale.
The living temple moves, its shadows stretch, wrapping around the ship, sinking it in terrifying silence.
Then... it looks at him.
Faces appear on its skin, writhing, breathing, uttering his name in unison:
"Gabriel..."
Then the void swallows him again.
Then he falls, and all the creatures he saw in his hallucinations begin to reach for him, stretching their hands to touch his finger. All the cosmic creatures he saw in his hallucinations, as they fall together into the void, keep repeating these words:
"Ain't nobody can fly as us
Fly as us,
Fly as us
Fly as us
Fly as us
Heavy, as us
heavy as us
Fly as us,
heavy as us
Fly as us
Fly as us"
Then the bottom of the void beneath them transforms into a massive black hole, larger even than these entities, one of which was the size of a galaxy. The entire bottom turns into a black hole, and as they fall, they stretch their fingers toward Gabriel. In his desperate attempt, Gabriel reaches out his finger toward them, trying to grasp them to save himself from the black hole. A voice emerges from the black hole beneath them, saying:
"You Noah got the tucked
Blackei Noah got the tucked
Blackei Noah got the tucked
Blackei Noah got the tucked"
The chapter ends with Gabriel and the hallucination monsters attempting to touch and reach each other—Gabriel to escape the black hole, and the monsters to destroy him completely. The scene is as if taken from the painting *The Creation of Adam* by the Italian artist Michelangelo.
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End of chapter