//------------------------------// // Chapter 28 // Story: The Voices of Nobody // by BowtiesandFedoras //------------------------------// We plummeted straight down into the fiery abyss as he still clung to my leg. I looked up at the crack through which we had fallen, and with fear noted that it was growing significantly smaller and smaller. I turned back to him; he was screaming with rage and madness at me. The abyss beyond him was getting closer and closer to both of us, and I struggled to break free of his hold. The chains had fallen off of him, become lax, and now fell along with us as limp, demonic noodles. He scratched and clawed at me with his gnarled hands, but I managed to block most of them with my hands. I noticed that around us the red light had begun to dim, and the walls of the chasm began turning black. I tried to swim through the air away from him, but could not succeed. The light had grown almost nonexistent, and we quickly descended into complete darkness. I looked up, but could not see the crack. And yet, strangely, I could see him. I could see him, I could see myself, and yet everything else had become completely dark. I became disoriented by this lack of surroundings, and could not tell which way was up, down, left, right, forward or back. But then I spotted a tiny, minuscule dot of light in the distance under (at least what seemed like under) us that was quickly approaching. No sooner had I seen it that the light exploded and encompassed the both of us in its otherworldly unholiness. I was shielded my eyes from the luminescence, and opened them again to see... to see... It was a sight that was never meant to be seen by mortal eyes, ever! There were creatures, at least I think they were creatures, that were beyond comprehension, beyond imagination! Beasts of immeasurable horror were... yelling? Screaming? Laughing? I could not tell, but they did it as they danced, or writhed, around ungodly idols of awful obscenity. And the landscape--oh, god, the landscape! It seemed infinite, and was bathed in blood and pain and bodies and savagery, and my eyes and mind burned at the sight! The only familiarity of the whole scenario was the feeling of me attached to Vesania and falling through clouds of not smoke, but things. They were floating, writhing bodies of... of... birds? Small flying demons? I almost vomited at the feeling of them touching me with their slimy hide, and when we broke through them, we did not continue descending at a rapid speed, but floated down slowly, as though gravity was different here. He continued to assail me with his claws. The blood did not drip off of me, but rather floated off of my body and away into the monstrous clouds. The indescribable things scattered in a wild frenzy as my blood touched them; they swarmed around us and chewed and scratched at the both of us, and sometimes each other, not able to distinguish, either that or they didn't care. My body was covered in the insane creatures as they dug into my flesh and sucked at my wounds in malicious hunger; they attacked Vesania as well, though he didn't seem as affected as I was. I felt light-headed, and the world started fogging up as my eyes glazed over. I almost descended into total unconsciousness, but the pain kept me awake the whole time, that and the adrenaline coursing through my body. Suddenly, the flitting monsters scattered, ceasing their torment of my flesh, as a shadow passed over all of us. I strained my eyes to see the source of the shadow, and saw the fear on Vesania's face again. The figure was looming over us, except this time he was massive! He was taller than a skyscraper, and though his face still was incapable of visible expression, I could feel detestation and anger aimed directly at the two of us. His deer's skull head as well as his cloak of blackness cast a demonic shadow over miles of the blasphemous, bloody land. "I HAVE TOLERATED YOU FOR THE FINAL TIME," his voice boomed like a rocket's thrusters at us. The blackness that was his cloak split apart down the middle and spread out like a set of shadowy wings with a mile-long wingspan. His body underneath was made of millions of burning, blackened human skeletons bunched together tightly and screaming as they writhed in pain and pawed at the air for salvation and freedom. The flames grew brighter, and the screaming grew louder as he reached outward for us. The fear of death gripped me as his hand of more of the burning skeletons loomed over us, and my body froze as my life flashed before my eyes. I had never believed that myth, until now. I clenched my eyes shut as his hand was a mere meter above my head and waited for the end. Nothing. I reluctantly opened my eyes, and saw the hand-shaped cluster of flaming bodies hanging over me. Several of the skeletons branched out of the main mass and reached desperately for Vesania; their hands clawing savagely at his black skin and clutched him tightly. He screamed as they pulled him up into their flaming mass; the heat from their bodies singed my eyebrows and hurt my face. They carried him along (as though he was crowd-surfing through hell) and drew him closer to the massive figure's torso, and as I stared at the horrific sight and at the demon looming over me, I came to a realization: I was watching Mephistopheles himself destroy Vesania. I felt a bit... giddy at the thought that not only had I successfully beaten Vesania, but I had gotten Mephisto to assist me in doing it! He thrashed helplessly in the mass of bodies, but was no match for their savagery; I watched him reach Mephisto's chest and slowly get consumed by them, sinking deeper into the cluster of evil and demonic horror. All that was left was an extended arm, reaching out but touching nothing, before even that was hidden by the painful wickedness. After an instant of silence, Mephisto looked at me with detestation and quickly hid his body back under the cloak of blackness and shadows. "LEAVE NOW," he boomed once again, and instantaneously I felt tremendous G-forces as I rocketed upwards, away from that indescribable nightmare of Lovecraftian abhorrence. The red land from below me shrunk and I found myself in darkness once more before the familiar crack became visible through the thin veil of water leaking from my eyes due to the force. I was soon back in the familiar hallway of the castle, with the hovering souls of people I knew lingering close by. The force launched me in the air after passing through the crack, and it closed under me as I crashed back to the ground. I lay there for a time, recollecting my senses and thoughts before I weakly stood in the midst of the translucent figures. I gazed around at their faces, picking out the ones that I recognized. I came back to Luna again, and felt happiness just faintly tickle my senses. I looked around for my book, believing that I'd dropped it somewhere nearby. I patted my jacket and pants down, and chuckled at myself for forgetting that it still remained in my breast pocket. I flipped through the pages and scanned the material for anything to do with souls and their bodies. I searched fruitlessly for a while, and became worried and frustrated. I looked through the book several times, and could only manage to find one measly tidbit about resurrecting the dead. I focused on just Luna as I studied the page carefully. I cleared my mind and concentrated on the symbols on the paper, holding them clearly in my head as I absentmindedly lifted my hand towards her. There was a tingle in my fingers, a tingle that grew and quickly became a burning sensation, and I winced before I accomplished my goal. I felt something; a definite sense that it was working. But no matter how hard I tried, the burning always cut the process short. I soon became angry and frustrated, and the fury caused me to toss the book at a window and shatter the glass before landing on the grass outside. I collapsed on my knees in defeat and let depression consume me. No. No I wasn't going to quit. Not now; not after all this. I had to deal with the loss of both of my families, a sadistic demon wreaking havoc on everything, I literally went to hell and back to end all this madness going on around me, and I was about to give up just because I couldn't perform a simple resurrection spell! I literally smacked myself in the face several times at my resolution to just quit like that. I stood up and strutted angrily towards Luna's soul and raised my hand again. I took deep breaths and cleared my mind save for the ancient symbols from the page. I concentrated hard on what I wanted: I wanted them back; I wanted her back... "...Luna..." I opened my eyes a crack, and nearly jumped back when I saw her raise her head from its limp position and stare off into space before turning in a definite direction. She glided smoothly over the floor in the direction she faced, and I found myself following her without thinking about it. She phased through a wall at one point, and I frantically looked for a route around so I could catch up. We ended up in the ballroom where this whole incident started, and I saw her dead body laying splayed out on the clean floor. While her soul still slowly glided over to it, I rushed over and cradled her head lovingly. I looked up at her soul and said, jokingly and with tears in my eyes, "Come on, hurry up, Luna! Don't keep me waiting!" When her soul reached her body, it (the soul) became completely horizontal and assumed the exact position of the body as it sunk slowly into the cold husk in my hands. I waited anxiously for a sign, a response, something! And finally, her closed eyelids fluttered lightly, until they snapped open and saw me instantly. I saw her star-filled eyes and tears dripped from my face and on to hers as we both smiled widely. She suddenly lifted herself up and kissed me passionately and for a long period of time. I almost didn't know what to do; I hadn't ever really kissed a girl before. I have certainly kissed a girl before, but not like this. This one meant something; it felt wonderful. I held her head against mine as we kissed, emotions completely in control of both of us. When the passion subsided, we looked at each other as I helped her up. She looked around worriedly, and then back at me. "Is it... Is he..." she asked. "Yes. It's over now," I answered reassuringly. "Then the others-" she started, with a touch of happiness in her eyes. I felt slightly awful at having to tell her the bad news that they were dead, but quickly brought back her spirits when telling her that I had the solution. I felt a sharp pain surge through my body, and she quickly noticed the scars riddling my body from my neck to my ankles, and examined me like a mother who's son has fallen off of his bike. I kindly brushed her off and told her what needed to be done. We then took to the gruesome and morbid task of gathering the bodies of the others, including Celestia, in the grassy area outside the hallway containing the souls and bringing them near the spot where the emotionless souls hovered. I reunited them with their respective bodies one by one, and noted each of their surprised reactions to being alive again. I had to work through the pain that resurrecting them invoked in my body. Applejack was the most confused, since she knew less than the rest of us about what had occurred that night. I gave as best an explanation as I could to her, and yet she still looked distant and flabbergasted. There were many hugs, tears and consolations that ensued. Everyone was brought back up to speed, and we were just about to set out to resurrect the remaining victims of Vesania's wickedness. Then I noticed the pain again. This time it was not on the outside, caused by the scratches and bruises, but on the inside, in my heart and in my gut. I collapsed on the ground, clutching my gut as the pain grew to immense magnitude. The others huddled over me and, although I could understand none of what they were saying, I could distinguish sorrow and fear in their tones. Luna, seemed most shaken by this sudden occurrence, and knelt down by my side, but I, strangely, was not interested in her currently; I saw the small notebook I had thrown through the window lying just a few meters away. I, with great difficulty, dragged myself across the ground, doubtlessly worrying them even more, and reached desperately for the notebook, and held it weakly open in front of me on the page about the resurrections. I, like a fool, like the biggest fool in the universe, failed to read the fine print: "Should a necromancer implicate the resurrection spell on multiple persons, they will succumb to a painful death, as it decimates his/her own life force." My eyes glazed over slowly, and as the agony and coldness of death consumed me slowly, I could only turn to look at them all, let my eyes fall on Luna, and utter weakly, "...D-Damn it... So close..." Then it all went black...