Arctic Circle, Excavation Site: August 2095

  “Shit guys did you really need someone like me to come out to this frigid wasteland to look at some old stone doorway? I swear this is the sixth time you assholes have drug me out to bumfuck nowhere to look at something completely pointless!” A young man no older than thirty stepped out of the complex into the snowy wastes of the north, hugging himself to try and warm himself even a little bit. Two men followed him out the door and walked along side him toward the digsite proper.

  “Whose fault is it for getting bored and turning himself into a walking Rosetta Stone? Anyways the real reason is that there is a pedestal in front of it with alot of writing and a broken orb of some kind, our scientists think that it was a power conduit of some kind for the structure. We’ve wired it up to the generators here but we’d like for you to read the symbols in the ruins and see if it gives us any clues as to what it does before we just flip the switch” The man to the left looked quite proud of himself as the boy just looked at him like an idiot which caused the man’s proud smirk to quickly fade,

  “I’m going to rephrase that how I heard it so you can see how stupid you sound here: You don’t know what this object does, you found something you THINK powers it so you plugged it in and I bet you guys we’re going to flip the switch too but there was SOMEONE here that had the reason enough to stop you idiots from blowing up the north pole? Fuck it, show me the writing so I can tell you guys this is yet another fruitless endeavor and then I can get out of this Popsicle stand”

  Within the Chamber

  The boy walked around staring at the walls, pictures of dragons and mythical beasts of all kinds strewn all along them. Eventually he turned his attention to the giant doorway leading to nowhere in front of him, writing all over the sides of it in a language completely unfamiliar to him. There were no recognizable words among them and the pedestal was exactly the same, it had a circular dias with Symbols and in the center was a red orb connected to electrical wires. Walking up close to the doorway he looks at the symbols closer “Well…..you guys are fucked, I can’t make heads or tails of this language; I guess you guys can turn it on and see if we blow up.” Throwing his hands up in defeat, he watched as the men started to power up the generators.

  His focus finally shifted to the top part of the gateway and he could actually make out two phrases, they were actually in greek and read ‘gateway to hell’ and ‘pandora’s box’ he turned back to the men starting up the dais and yelled “WAIT DON’T TURN IT O-” but he was too late, they had flipped the switch and his whole world went black and he was wracked with unfathomable pain.

  Within the Darkness

  The pain was unbearable, it felt as if he was being torn apart at the atomic level. Imagine the worst pain you can imagine and multiply it exponentially and you still probably wouldn’t be close to the amount of pain he was experiencing; but he continued to endure, the fact that he was still aware was strange to him. Normally with the amount of pain he was in his heart would’ve stopped instantly yet he was still alive…. at least he thought he was, there really was no telling what state he was actually in until this pain stopped……if it ever did.

  He had no idea how long he had been in that empty space, he couldn’t even see his body to see if it was intact. There was only one fact he was aware of, he had been in immense pain for god knows how long, and now he felt nothing. His mind kept whispering for him to sleep, that there was nothing left; but he had a feeling that if he did, he would never wake again; so he stayed awake waiting for something, anything. After what felt like decades something finally changed within the vast void of nothingness; a light, it wasn’t a white light or anything cliche like that. In fact it was barely distinguishable from the blackness all around, if it werent for the fact that there literally was no variation within the scenery he would’ve never noticed it.

  Finally with something he could use as a directional compass, he fought to move himself closer to the light desperate for something, anything. He kept on like that for days, maybe months he had no idea how much time actually passed. After a while the light began to grow at a rapid pace until he heard something, he actually heard something!

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Huh? What in the universe are you doing here? How are you still…..well you aren’t in one piece how the hell are you holding your soul together without a body?” The light ended up being a humanoid creature colored one of the darkest shades of purple possible, but he had no features, just a humanoid form.

  ‘What the hell is this guy, wait……….Without a body?!?!?’ after that thought with almost no delay the entity starts to laugh hysterically.

  “You do realize that being without a body means that I hear EVERYTHING right? Including thoughts. Anyways……..I guess I should introduce myself, I Asmodeus am the only denizen of this vast Void; nothing other than me has ever been capable of sustaining itself within this realm, and apparently despite your body being included in that ‘nothing’ here you stand holding your soul together through what I can only suspect to be sheer willpower……are you going to introduce yourself and sate my curiosity as to how you ended up here in the space between dimensions?”

  ‘Umm, my name is Liam Mathews and….’ he continued to explain everything that had happened within the chamber and the few words he could make out before he found himself in this void all the while the Asmodeus constantly looked at him in quizzical positions staring at his soul with great interest.

  “Haha Humans can be so idiotic at times; some of the most resourceful but also the most recklessly curious. What you found was a World Gate, if you had the proper power source and had used it correctly it would have opened up a pathway through this void rather than just…..tossing you into it. My…….brother created those in an attempt to circumvent the nature of the void, y’know the devouring everything bit, he still doesn’t realize that the universe has to be balanced.”

  ‘brother?’

  “Well, he’s not REALLY my brother, but he was born of a realm completely opposite of the void; while the void devours and destroys he creates and breathes life into everything he touches, he hates my existence despite the fact that I cant do anything about it……do you think I LIKE to be all alone in an endless dark space while he floats around creating worlds filled with people? OF COURSE NOT!”

  ‘I’ve only been here for a short while and its already driving me insane, but the whole dick brother thing doesnt surprise me, every ‘god’ that has ever been depicted on earth has struck me as extremely arrogant and self serving, I have two HUGE questions though.’

  “Shoot, its not like there is anything else to do out here.”

  ‘First, The Gate; I’m pretty sure that those idiots mistake wasn’t so minor as to JUST send us into the void and kill us, what was the true extent of the damage any idea?’

  “Oh thats easy, the first and most prevalent thing would be the fact that opening the gate in such a fashion tore the fabric of your world, and bombarded it with energies from nearly every dimension……really nasty, OH also denizens of those other worlds can break through without the use of the gate if they have the power.”

  ‘Holy shit, my planet is screwed isn’t it!”

  “Meh, probably, but your world is actually one of the most technologically advanced civilizations so as long as they survive for a decade or two and don’t get sent back to the stone ages, they could probably adapt those energies and advance themselves far further than would ever have been possible……thats also hoping that something like a dragon doesn’t find them in the first year or so. So……..the second question?”

  ‘Is there a way to…..yknow…….get back and help?’

  “Hrm………well obviously not the way you are…..you probably will want a physical body if you plan on that….. Tell ya what! I’m going to help you a bit, I cant make you a body but I CAN show you which way to find one.” He then lifts his hands and moves his hand around “Enie minie miny moe!” and finally he focuses in one direction and a line of light extended from his finger further than the eye can see “There follow that light and when you finally find the world there you need to find someone who has moments left to live and touch it, you should be able to just enter it at that point…..don’t try it on someone healthy and alive….itll get messy…..I think. ANYWAYS I have a condition for my help” he then tosses a ring at Liam that he pulled out of….himself? Liam scrambles to catch it only to have it enter his ‘body’ “Hold onto that, it does two things; one it can be used to find me in this void when you get powerful enough and secondly and this is where the favor comes in, it lets me watch you.”

  ‘why do you want to watch me?’

  “IM BORED, oh and there is a third thing; itll hide you from my brother, if he does ever find you don’t listen to him, he’ll do one of two things, he’ll try to kill you since you smell of the void or he’ll try to have you get stronger to kill me…..don’t do that, the universe requires balance and I have no intent to do ANYTHING but sit here and sleep. When you can use your new body to traverse the void and NOT get torn to shreds again, come find me and I’ll help you get back home!”

  ‘I’m betting thats the best deal I’m going to get huh? I guess I’ll humor you……should I start walking now?’

  “Nah, I’ll send you a good bit of the way” Asmodeus proceeds to grab Liam’s Soul and raised him up in a throwing position

  ‘No! No! DON’T DO IT!’

  “Too late!” and he throws Liam as far as he can, nearly making it to the world and leaving Liam mere feet away from a bright blue portal and he touches it and everything turned white.