Awaken
Eli drifted in the fox woman's lullaby, its soothing melody coiling through his entire being like a lover's breath. Her strong arms held him in her jungle den, fingers grazing his chest, her earthy scent--damp soil, pine, raw musk--flooding his senses, stirring a hunger deep in his heart.
The fire's glow danced across her scars, her husky whisper--"I won't leave"--carved into his bones, alive with the forest's pulse. His body, torn from the bonewraith, melted against her, the stitched gash on his back a faint throb, her song dulling the pain.
A tremor shook the jungle, vines convulsing, and her voice cracked, her grip tightening. "Eli...it's okay. I have you," she strained. The world fractured--trees bled, shadows tore, and a brutal roar swallowed the forest.
Eli's eyes snapped open, his panicked scream drowned in a choking gasp as he plunged into a pulsating pool of blood and gore--hot, viscous, reeking of rotten flesh. He thrashed, now naked and exposed, his skin slick with ichor, limbs tangled in sinew and bone shards, the realm's filth clawing his throat.
The air was thick with shrieking wails of what seemed like a thousand souls. The mountainous stone walls were covered in grotesque chains hanging flayed skin, blinking with petrified eyes, mouths stretched in eternal wails.
This was no dream world, no city--it was a demented hellscape, its every surface sculpted from carnage. It's like he was standing in a cathedral made of jagged, porous rock. Gone was the warmth and comfort of laying by the fire and being soothed to sleep...replaced by a malice that ripped at his mind.
"Fear feeds eternity." Whispers, such hellish whispers spoke from everywhere.
"Fuck! No! What the fuck!" Eli's voice broke, raw panic surging, heart slamming against his ribs, breath a ragged sob as he clawed at the pool's edge, slipping on loose flesh. His body flickered--glitching, phasing through the gore, then snapping back, his senses screaming. Neon towers flashed, Kaleira's hum flickered, then dissolved back into writhing horror.
He was caught in a rift-storm, his soul tapped between worlds, no way out. The feeling of dread in this place was paralyzing. Nowhere to escape the feeling of pure suffering.
"Kaleira!" he screamed, voice cracking, mind clawing for her neural link, but there was nothing. No static, no response. "K! Please! Fuck!" Nothing. The link was dead, the realm's interference a suffocating void, cutting him off from everything.
His chest heaved, terror drowning his grit. He was naked, defenseless, exposed to a nightmare that clawed his soul.
Eli's vision glitched, the pool vanishing, as he was yanked out of it. He now stood, dripping with blood and pieces of decaying meat, in a chamber of writhing bodies. Infants and young children screamed, a blood curdling sound. Glowing gold light could be seen swirling around the cavern and disappearing through the walls.
The children were being ripped limb from limb by hulking, filthy men--towering, muscle-bound, caked in dirt and scars, their laughter guttural as they tore tiny bodies apart. Screaming innocents flailed, desperately hoping for escape from the horrendous pain. Their eyes weeped blood, their crippling fear and pain a perverse lullaby powering the realm's pulse.
Eli's stomach lurched, bile burning his throat, his scream stuck as he was yanked off his feet again.
Another flash--a cavern of blood-slick altars, hundreds of men and women forcefully held down, their bodies violated and defiled by the same hulking brutes. The beasts raped them with savage brutality, tearing flesh and bathing their behemoth cocks in blood. They snapped bones, their victims' screams a choir of unimaginable suffering--men's chests ripped open, women's bodies pulled apart in halves, eyes and tongues gouged out, their agony only fueling their suffering.
More golden threads of light were spun. Each wailing being supplied more and more. Once forcibly removed, they floated aimlessly, confused, until eventually following a gravitational pull toward a massive red light in the ceiling. Were these...souls?
That red light...he recognized it. He knew it from somewhere. Through all the screams echoing around him, his mind sifted through the repeating images of filth and torturous gore. Where was tha--
"TAIKOW!" Eli screamed. His head instantly erupting with pain.
It was the very same light that Taikow, the storm dragon, had wielded right before his defeat. It was the heart of his swirling storm of death.
A voice in the torture chamber, where Eli currently stood, boomed. "Aww yes. Eli, the god killer. Of course. The little pawn finally has some sense about him. Tell me little fleshling...do you think Taikow had power...any real power? Hmm?" The being chuckled.
"Who the fuck are you? What the fuck is this place?!" Eli shouted.
The brutes continued grunting, their filth-soaked muscles gleaming, each thrust and tear feeding the realm's hunger, the victims' horror a nectar for an unseen master. Eli's heart raced faster with each grotesque act he witnessed. His ragged breath a sob, panic clawing his chest as he flickered again, the images burned into his skull, scarring him with every glimpse.
A bellowing, venomous laugh echoed through the air, unhinged and cold. His massive, impossibly deep voice continued.
"Fear, so sweet. I will have you draped over my mantle, little one. I may have pushed beyond my abilities in the past with you and your little pet, but I will ultimately pleasure myself with your pain. And I will not fail twice. I will rip your lover's soul in half right before your eyes. Whether she is whole again or not, I will fuck her into oblivion as her blood rains down upon you," it growled.
A silhouette flickered at the top of the altar --broad, towering, eyes like molten tar burning with sadistic glee, hands dripping ichor. Not fully there, a psychic echo, its presence a god-like malice. As his presence solidified and became more clear, Eli's splitting headache magnified tenfold.
"Your horror feeds my eternity." His deep growl intensified. "You will be helpless as she is used over and over by all of my disciples and you will only watch, and bath in her pain!" The beast roared.
The walls of people screamed louder, and Eli's vision fractured--flashes of horrors: souls removed from faces only after having their skulls caved in from massive feet. Spinal columns were ripped from people, then used to sodomize loved ones. Infants' bones broken and ground into powder; men and women raped and torn, and then finally Eli, himself, laying on the ground while he desperately cradled the fox woman's lifeless corpse.
"Why?" Eli whispered.
The silhouette moved closer. Every blurry detail remaining undefined, but his hulking presence magnified, voice dripping with glee: "All will kneel to me, their screams my crown, across every reality. Especially you."
Eli's mind buckled, his body glitching--neon streets, then back to writhing flesh, infants' screams, victims' agony. His senses were overwhelmed, each atrocity a knife to his soul. The horror was inescapable, scarring him deeper--infants' severed limbs, men's shredded torsos, women's defiled screams, the henchmen's laughter, the silhouette's demented pleasure.
"You may only have a small toe into my home now, but eventually I'll have you fully. You will return, fleshling, to feed my crown."
His vision blurred, his body glitching, each movement a scream, his mind fracturing under the realm's weight, scars he'd carry forever. The realm's pulse sharpened, the massive silhouette's laugh echoing.
"Remember Eli. Just remember one thing...my name..." he paused.
"KRAVOK!!" The being's voice shouted within Eli's brain, seemingly loud enough for every galaxy to hear.
Eli suddenly snapped awake, gasping, trembling on the balcony lounge chair, slick with fever sweat, the city's neon skyline slashing through the night. The penthouse's cool, dry air hit like a shock, and the memory of Kaleira's lullaby--sung here before entering the dream world--clashing with the evil realm's horrors.
His breath was ragged, heart pounding, the infants' screams, the victims' agony, the filthy, hulking men, the silhouette's molten-tar eyes searing his mind. He curled into himself, a sob breaking free, panic clinging to his bones.
The neural link hummed, Kaleira's voice breaking through, frantic, raw. "Eli! Eli, what happened?! Are you okay?!"
Eli's voice cracked, barely a whisper, trauma choking him. "Hell. I...I was in hell," he barely whispered, trembling violently.
"K...I saw...Infants... ripped apart, men and women... raped, torn to pieces by these... huge, disgusting beasts. A monster, a fucking god, feeding off their pain, their fear. It's building something--enslaving everything. He made me see you, her...as one being, completely lifeless...gone. I'm... Kaleira, I'm fucked up." His hands shook, the scars in his heart raw, terror and rage burning.
"Her? Eli I don't understand."
"Kravok." He whispered. "That name...Kravok. That monster, that's his fucking name."
He fell to the ground on his hands and knees and tears poured from his eyes, oblivious to her confusion. Kaleira was silent for a moment, unsure how to process what he said he saw. She let a moment pass before interrupting Eli's quiet sobs.
"You're here now, my love. You're home. There's nothing here but you and me. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you had to experience that." Her voice ached with pain.
The city's neon skyline pulsed beyond the balcony. Its chrome towers and red-streaked holograms were a cold mockery of the demented realm's gore, but the sterile air couldn't erase the infants' screams, the victims' shredded bodies, the henchmen's guttural laughter searing Eli's mind.
Eli's fists clenched, then he staggered to his feet, only to sprint to the bathroom and vomit. He continued well past dry heaving, nothing left to give.
Once he finally had a reprieve from the nausea, he laid in bed and curled himself under the blankets, throat raw.
Eli's jaw clenched, the silhouette's molten-tar eyes flashing in his mind, its venomous laugh--"Fear, so sweet"--twisting his gut. All over again, he saw the infants dying and stripped of their souls. Men and women, raped and shredded, their horrible screams feeding a god-like evil. His hands shook, rage boiling through the terror, scarring him deeper than any bonewraith's claws.
"He's a demon or god, or something, K. I didn't realize it before, but in my previous dream I was whole. I was raw power and wrath. And the red light I saw from Taikow's storm wasn't actually wielded with his own power. It was Kravok's power all along." he growled, voice steadying.
"His power...He's feeding off their pain, their fear, harvesting their souls...killing everything. Those beasts, those filthy bastards--they're his followers, tearing people apart for Kravok's own pleasure."
"Eli, I... I don't know how to process that. Those people, children...infants!... gods, I'm so sorry."
"I just needed you and missed you so much. You've always been my rock and I didn't get to lean on you like I always do."
"Eli. I have no idea where to even begin. I could feel you strongly between gaps of nothingness. I tried reaching to you numerous times, trying to wake you. I wish I could've pulled you from that nightmare. We were worlds apart, love."
