Chapter 2: Chapter 2: The reverse Inferno

The day before my departure was spent in utter confusion as all I knew about the ‘plan’ was that I would be attending school undercover and eventually guiding mankind towards the right path. My mother would not give me any additional information so I went on to the storage room of the necromancers. I took the derelict staircase to the underside of the castle and the torches gradually lit up as I walked down the corridor; detecting the fluctuation in space-time. The narrow corridor led to a huge door made of hellium, the element from Hell…Who came up with that? The door was attuned to only the auras of the royal family of Hell: my father, mother, younger siblings and me. After all, the room lying behind those doors contained billions of dormant auras. Eons ago, when security was more lax around the castle, an intruder went to the room and released a number of auras before getting captured. The released auras, being in a place potent with energy, became activated and returned to the surface but since they did not have a physical form, they started haunting the places and people they loathed or adored the most. These auras became known as ghosts in human folklore. As for the intruder, he was later captured and I was tasked with punishing him. The creature had abnormally large feet and his humanoid figure was covered in fur. Letting the sadist in me take over, I tore off its feet by imbuing energy into my hands and made a soup out of them. I then gouged out its eyes and used them as toppings…I used demonic magic to prevent him from bleeding to death (blood from the orbits is a nasty sauce despite the brain meat) but all the hair in the soup made it fairly inconvenient to drink and the meat was undercooked; he choked on his hair and flesh and died…However, since I was Death and all, I took the aura and tried to save it as a trophy but the jar slipped from my still blood-stained hands and the aura went to the surface. I read about a human myth recently about a certain, Big Foot…Mistakes happen but at least now I can properly cook meat.

I stood before the door, and released a small pulse of energy. That pulse, no matter the strength, was unique to my aura which was extremely potent, even among the higher-ups. I started pushing more and more energy into the door until the ground itself began to tremble. The torches went out and it finally opened in a chilling shriek. I released my aura and stepped into the room. The atmosphere immediately started to change. Similarly to being in a crowd, standing among this many auras caused a huge pressure which would cause most people to suffocate from the concentrated energy. To prevent any inconvenience, I used a protective layer of energy of energy around me; the ‘ripples’ of my own aura interacted destructively with the others, keeping me unscathed. Feeling much lighter, I sauntered on the black and white linoleum of the dimly lit room. All around me were dusty wooden shelves containing countless jars of different hues. Each aura within the jars twinkled at a steady rhythm, showing that they had a life of their own, despite being dormant. I always went to that room before a major event to make sure that everything was in place for a potential battle. As for today, I merely came to see an old friend.

I noticed a jar which radiated an ominous red hue at an alarming rate. It seemed to be quite a restless aura which had taken the form of a small angry man with a silly mustache a few decades back…Things did not end well back then. I found the aura I was looking for and said with a sardonic smile:

“I hope you’re ready, you’ll have a lot to teach me there.”

I then closed my eyes and absorbed the aura into my own body where it would remain until I got to the surface. It was now time to go. I went to the palace to see my mother.

“Make sure to eat your veggies, take a bath everyday and…Make sure to tell me when you get a girlfriend. Stay safe out there,” she said, in a sad yet relieved tone. She had definitely seen a good future ahead…Or I simply remained a mother’s son without ever getting a girlfriend. For some reason, I thought that both would lead to the same reaction in my mother. At any rate, that doesn’t matter, I hate vegetables.

“See you around mom. Don’t go around cleaning my room. I won’t ever find anything.”

With these words, filled with emotion, I left the castle. I nonchalantly trodded through the deepest level of Hell, stopping by to make fun of the inmates: the guy who kept trying to reach for the fruit or the water, his neck motion looking like a chicken. I pushed the other guy’s boulder near the top of the mountain and laughed as he rolled down with it. As I reached the borders of the depths, I saw an acquaintance of mine hanging out on a rock, playing with the…peculiar fauna of Hell.

“The apple never falls far from the tree, right, Adam?”

“This is why you never had any friends,” he said, his stoic face breaking into laughter. He was finally over his father issues with the beardy old man, huh?

I was met with a horde of demons at the border and they did not seem happy. Quite obviously, they looked exactly as humans pictured them: human-sized imps with poop-coloured skins and a very foul breath. They were out for my blood so I assumed that humans did not bother thinking of a survival instinct for the demons…After all, any other living being would go pale and cower in my presence; the arch nemesis of life itself. I guess they did fend off any intruders so they made fine guard dogs; the perfect guinea pigs for a skill I wanted to try out. One of the demons leaped towards me, letting out an annoyingly loud scream. I clenched my fist and altered the shape of the space-time fabric, creating a gaping hole under the demons. As they fell, I contracted space-time around them until they were completely crushed, reduced to energy. I unclenched my fist and the landscape went back to normal but the auras of the demons had been crushed; they no longer existed. My theory was correct, the universe was simply a playground. Anything was possible now, as long as I could manipulate that substance. I crossed the gates of the border and brought in new guards before moving on.

“Care to escort me out?” I asked to the man sitting under an olive tree.

He agreed and stood up with a painful grunt…Getting old sure sucked. However was no better guide to bring me to the surface than him.

“I have been willing to ask for a long time. What is the significance of placing me under an olive tree for repentance? What is the nature of the sin which led me to such a peculiar punishment?” He asked, his gaze fixed upon me.

“You’re overthinking it…We just thought it would be funny to have the escort of the poet being reduced to extra ‘Virgil’ olive oil,” I said, deadpan.

We stayed in that awkward silence till we reached the ‘Necropolis’, the first level of Hell and the gateway to the surface. My escort still seemed awfully dejected and I couldn’t blame him. But it was funny.

…

I slowly climbed up the staircase leading to the surface, my body feeling heavier with each step. A grave taboo was about to be committed, transgressing the laws of human reality. Naturally, I was being rejected by the world of the living. I stopped in my tracks and coughed up an alarming amount of blood. Ironically, climbing to the over-world was taking away my life force. I sat there, thoughts rushing through my mind. I steadied my breathing and pondered for a few seconds: what could be causing this rejection? No matter how many times I turned the problem around, I could find no solution. I tried to get up and jump down to the Necropolis but I immediately collapsed as my consciousness seemed to fade away. A mind-numbing pain paralysed my body, hindering any movement impossible. My vision blurred and the answer suddenly hit me, my aura! An entity was defined by its aura which meant that mine was being rejected by the living. I slowly reduced the strength of my aura until no more energy radiated from me. My heartbeat went back to normal and I could eventually walk again. Gulping, I walked up the last few steps to the world of the living.

I emerged in a dark place with suffocating heat. A single breath sent my insides in a turmoil. A mixture of dust and an almost unbearable amount of living flesh. Using my aura was out of the question so I pushed the energy around me into the air at a steady rate creating waves of photon emissions. At least, it was no longer dark. I gradually adapted to the atmosphere and focused my attention on the surrounding. Behind was what seemed to be an open sarcophagus containing a human wrapped in…toilet paper? There was no mistaking it, I was inside a pyramid. The dust, the mummy and the golden sarcophagus surrounded by a bed of jewels; such extravagance could only from the Ancient Egyptians. It was time to summon him; for once, the choice was made for practicality rather than for entertainment.

“Come forth,” I said, holding out the jar I took from the room.

“Mwehehehehehehehehe, I am ba-“

“Shut up, Hermes,” I said, slapping the back of his head.

“My apologies, my Lord. I got ahead of myself. What owes the puny messenger God to be summoned Death himself?” He said, with the most irritating grin I had ever seen.

• Let’s get going, shall we?
• Where to, my Lord?
• That’s why I summoned you, lead the way.

I had no idea where we were supposed to go and the cheeky Hermes noticed my uncertainty. He openly flaunted his winged sandals while wiggling his eyebrows. I should have gone for the Egyptian Hermes instead but he was hanging out on the moon…What a pain.

We eventually found a tunnel after destroying a few walls here and there. It was a passage dug by tomb raiders, which led outside. Before heading out, Hermes pointed at the jewels and said:

“Do you have any money? You could take these jewels, no one would notice. Besides, aren’t these technically offerings to you,”

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“Hard to argue with that.”

I picked up as many precious stones as my pocket could fit and headed out, holding my pants to prevent them from falling. We stepped out of the tunnel into the over-world, met by the blazing sun.

“Why is the world so bright?” I said, sighing heavily.

“Grumpy old fart,” My companion retorted.

We were now in the middle of nowhere and we had to save humanity; sounds like the plot of a cheap novel…I tasked Hermes with flying away to detect any large energy fluctuations while I worked on understanding that substance, dark-matter. It seemed that it was what humans called luminiferous ether. From my understanding, space-time was a fabric, the threads of which were dark-matter. I could use regular energy to manipulate these threads and consequently mould space-time itself. It allowed me to create a tiny singularity with the demons I fought on the way. Since I could alter my surroundings to create a gaping hole, maybe I could also fold them.

Before trying anything, however, I needed to find a safe way to use my aura without triggering this world’s antibodies. My physical form was irrelevant for only my aura caused the reaction. But how exactly? The aura was energy emitted in a pulse, much like the heartbeat and since energy only had different forms, it did not make any sense for my aura and the world’s aura to behave destructively. Rejection occurred because I was meant to remain in hell according to human reality; therefore, I was going against reality.

“Opposites attract each other, my ass,” I rumbled to myself.

I remained deep in thought, in the middle of the barren landscape for what seemed like an eternity. In hindsight, I was not even thinking; my mind was simply empty. It seems to be how the brain works; when faced with a conundrum, it shuts down. Thoughts could be painful after all. All I could hear in my state of trance was a distant voice pulling me out of my daydream.

“Great lord Death to Earth! Can you hear me?” The voice said.

I felt a touch on my shoulder which brought me to the real world, startled.

“Oh, it’s just you,” I said to Hermes.

“Well, sorry to disappoint but while you were sitting around, I found the academy. If it’s not too much of a bother, would you care to hear it?” He retorted, displeased.

“Speak, Hermes.”

“You sound quite ungraceful, you should see yourself,” He said, with a sardonic smile.

See myself, huh? That’s it, I just had to view myself, my aura. Without letting Hermes finish, I jumped up.

“You’re a genius, Hermes,” I said with a newfound hope.

“I know but…What’s up?” He said, visibly confused.

I did not bother explaining anything. I waved him away and focused on my aura. It was now nighttime which made the atmosphere much colder, much needed for concentration.

I closed my eyes and, for the first time, tried to see, or rather sense energy. Hitherto, I merely shaped and moulded it without actually ‘feeling’ energy. I focused my attention on my surroundings; anything my senses picked up on. The wind howled and with it came an icy cold breeze, which I could feel on my skin. My hair gently moved to the wind. I breathed in the dry air which felt like sharp icicles leading to a sense of unease. The races had a much higher affinity for energy…What did it feel like? Calm yet sensitive to the slightest disturbance, like the ocean. That’s right, energy felt like the ocean. An infinite potential in which all of matter bathed. The waves of energy acting as fuel for reality itself. This meant that the waves of my aura and the waves of reality interfered destructively. Two entities never meant to meet. To test this theory, I did an experiment. I held out the palm of my hand and focused on the energy. I let out a small burst of my aura through my palm and observed its reaction. I waited and…nothing happened. I tried again, looking more closely and noticed something unexpected: energy left my body and that was it. It felt like throwing a bucket of water in the sea. The nature of the aura was irrelevant for energy was just that, it came in different forms but it was the same. This explained a lot of things: where did the aura come from? It could not be created within someone, that was impossible. Creation was not the right term, it was a cycle. Energy flowed through me and got released as the aura before getting absorbed again, the sum remaining constant. With this knowledge, I opened my eyes to find Hermes standing beside me.

“Does Death ever sleep?” He asked, yawning.

“Do people die at night?” I asked in return, deadpan.
“I’ll shut up and go to bed. Goodnight.”

I decided to take a stroll, walking aimlessly in the hopes of organising my thoughts. When I was in hell, I never noticed this cycle; it happened with no delay, my aura constantly getting replenished. My aura attracted the energy there, not the other way around. On the surface, it was the same but the process was much slower. Why was that? Hell contained countless dormant auras, which themselves acted as fuel to the cycle; much like plant to the carbon cycle. The auras of the Dead therefore did not go through the cycle for the energy was not needed; nothing had to be sustained. Here, on the other hand, there were trillions of living beings which all had an aura which needed to go through the cycle. While the amount of energy on Earth was much greater, so was the demand. Consequently, it was slower. I was beginning to understand the process. Intricate and elegant, just like the universe. How could I make the process more efficient? At the moment, my aura was only strong enough to keep myself alive. In hell, the cycle was faster, energy moved faster into me. Since the demand was lower, the entropy difference between me and the surroundings could be smaller and still be efficient. Here, not so much. But what if I made the gradient exponentially larger? Would energy cycle faster? Inherently, it was like taking out a lot of water from the ocean causing it to fill the gap faster. I took in a deep breath and increased the strength of my aura which caused a surge of pain through my body. However, I kept going and released everything at one go. The sudden blast of energy caused a sand storm and left me in the middle of 20 meter deep hole. I maintained the same output for some time, waiting for any side-effect. Rats from around the desert fled under the surface and vultures flew away in a confused mumbo jumbo. People living in a 50 mile radius let out pained screams while I, on the other hand, felt completely fine, better even.

“Fighting fire with fire, huh?”

…

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