Kaleb was flung out of the demon portal with speed. The cool night air of Texas was replaced with a humid and muggy heat that Kaleb would’ve found comforting; if he wasn’t sailing horizontally through the air of an unknown dimension. He barely had time to get his bearings though, as Kaleb hit the ground. He rolled for a short distance, trying to mitigate the damage. But he shouldn't have worried.

The ground was soft and bits of it seemed to cling to him as he rolled. Slowing to a stop, Kaleb pulled himself to his feet and tried to look around. But the ground seemed to pull tight against him as he got up. Spinning, Kaleb saw long tendrils of black sludge hanging off his body. In fact, it was everywhere. He was even standing in a pool of black sludge that seemed to be sucking him under.

“Not good.” Kaleb said as he trudged through the sludge.

He was submerged up to his waist in a small pool of the black stuff. Thankfully, he could still touch the bottom with his feet. So all he had to do was forcefully drag himself out. The pool was surrounded by a large patch of grey dirt. The stuff was everywhere, pockmarked with more basins of black sludge. As Kaleb dragged himself out, he took a better look around. There were no trees, no grass, no animals that he could see. Just miles and miles of grey flatland and sludge. Sometimes the sludge would rise out of the pool and arch through the sky. Sometimes it would just simply bubble and belch gas bubbles into the air. What Kaleb did not see were his friends.

“Guys!?”

Kaleb’s call echoed through the empty landscape as he pulled his feet free. The black sky was lit with a pale blue moon that cast even darker shadows across everything. Kaleb huffed and tried his ear comms, but all he got back was static. Spinning in place, he couldn’t even make out the portal he had been flung through. Although he could see the large divots his body made as it rolled across the ground.

Kaleb cleaned himself the best he could and test-fired his weapons. The sludge clung to everything tightly. But it could be removed with concentrated effort. When he fired his Cybar and Sun Gun, the energy seemed to burn away the ooze. Leaving a horrid stench behind. The fire and lighting settings did the same with his Quad-Gun. The ice setting froze the stuff solid, creating a large icy block that had to be chipped off. But it was the best way to avoid the smell. The final wind setting was useless. It merely blew the sludge harshly in one direction. However, the stuff clung to Kaleb’s pants like an unruly cat.

Once finished getting himself clean and taking care of his gear, Kaleb pointed himself toward where he thought the portal was and started walking. Occasionally, he would try to contact the others through the comms, but nothing worked. Instead, his attention had to frequently go toward the black geysers of sludge that seemed to angrily crisscross his path. They skipped over puddles of the ooze and seemed to belch forth just as he took another step forward. It was enough to make him think the stuff was alive. So, like any calm, cool, and collected person, Kaleb started freezing the pools as he walked. For science.

His quad-gun whirred and hummed with life as the energy from the power cell fed into the Elentian crystal and spat out a stream of freezing energy. The stream slammed into the black pools and flash-froze them in an instant. Kaleb wanted to whoop as the bubbling and churning from the pools stopped; along with the leaping geysers of sludge. He pulled the trigger multiple times as he walked, freezing various puddles of sludge, both big and small. With the power source the Quad-Gun currently had, Kaleb knew he could keep it up all day.

That is, until something slammed into his back, sending him face-first into the dirt. Kaleb felt long claws scratch down the back of his lab coat as he spun onto his back. Whatever had a hold of him held tight, even as he jammed his back onto the ground. Kaleb got to his feet and tried to yank his assailant off, but his hand slammed into the soft sludge. A gurgling, watery chuckle came from his left ear, and Kaleb pulled his hand back. The sludge held on for dear life, with some of it coming with Kaleb’s hand. But most stayed attached to his back, still trying to claw its way through his lab coat.

An ominous hissing sound from his back told Kaleb that the blob of sentient sludge was actually doing some damage. Quick as he could, Kaleb got out of his lab coat and threw it to the ground. The bulbous ball of ooze was using two tentacles to batter and scratch at the back of his coat. With a wince, Kaleb sent a wave of cold liquid at the blob. It froze as the energy passed through it and turned from black to an icy blue, its tentacles raised to strike again. Kaleb kicked the blob off of his coat and into a nearby sludge pool.

He was putting his lab coat back on when the nearby pools of sludge started bubbling loudly. Kaleb spun back to the one he’d kicked the blob into and froze it. But the other nearby pools kept up with the bubbling and hissing. Soon, more blobs pulled themselves from the dark pools. The sentient mass of sludge wobbled a bit upon making it to land, but then they started to form into small creatures. The viscous and oily blobs pulled themselves into slightly taller shapes. Kaleb wasn’t ready to see what the final form would be, so he drew his Cybar and started firing.

Combined with the quad-gun, Kaleb froze and burned the ooze-creatures as they tried to pull themselves into shape. But there were too many of them. All around him, more and more sludge monsters were pulling themselves out and joining together. Even with the freeze ray and the Cybar, Kaleb was barely making a dent in their numbers. Soon the first of the blobs to pull themselves together raised itself up to its full height and gave Kaleb a watery hiss.

It was an oily, bubbling imp made of sludge. Barely three-feet tall and looking drippy, the thing spread its massive sludge-wings and tried to launch itself at Kaleb. But a blast of energy took one of the creature’s wings off. Kaleb sighed as the creatures were still weak as ever, but now they were forming claws and growing more dense. Dozens of them were forming into different types of imps and creatures. Kaleb watched the sludge creatures for a short while, taking a few potshots until he had to vent his Cybar, and then he turned and ran.

More and more of the things were forming far faster than he could kill them. When his Cybar beeped, Kaleb spun around and started firing again. A wave of sludge creatures were coming after him, but with their sticky composition, they were thankfully pretty slow. Kaleb led them on a short chase back the way he had come. But as he moved, he realized that more pools were disgorging the sludglings onto the ground. Even the ones he froze were thawing out and started to shoot geysers into the air again. Kaleb groaned and switched the Quad-Gun to fire mode again.

When he came to his next stopping point and spun around to fire into the mass of creatures again, Kaleb let loose a wide fan of fire. Popping, hissing, and bubbling echoed into the sky as Kaleb held his nose against the smell. He even waved the weapon along the tops of some of the pools, setting them ablaze. It was a dangerous move, but one that proved highly effective. Even if his eyes were stinging from the fumes and the smell.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Large black clouds rose into the air as the bubbling sludge was burned away. Still, Kaleb could see waves of the creatures trying to pull themselves from the fire. The tip of the quad-gun’s fire barrel was cherry red and Kaleb let it hang at his side as he used his Cybar. The nearby basins of ooze were still producing little sludglings, but it was taking them a while to form. Kaleb used the time to gather his breath and look around.

The landscape was still flat and full of sludge pools. Nothing had changed. In fact, Kaleb believed he was back where he had started. With a groan of annoyance, Kaleb picked another random direction and started moving. Occasionally he would turn and deal with the things chasing him, but mostly he focused on the world. There had to be something within the dimension to help him get back home. Not to mention, he still hadn’t run into anyone yet.

“HELP!”

A familiar voice pierced Kaleb’s train of thought as he ran. He skidded to a stop and listened, but the voice had gone quiet. He sent a casual blast of fire behind him as he spun in place, searching for the voice again. It came as the flame from his quad-gun lit up the dark sky. Turning toward it, Kaleb found who he was looking for after another quick run.

“Abby?” Kaleb asked.

“Who the fuck do you think it is?! Get me down!”

Kaleb stared at the short woman as she was held spread eagle between two large posts made of sludge. They rose out of a massive sludge pit and she was hung suspended over it. Her hoodie was gone and the black sludge was creeping across her body. Almost fully encasing her. As the ooze reached her cheek, she gave another cry.

“Do something!”

“Why can’t you do something? Can’t you... shadow... yourself out?”

All he got back was an angry look as the ooze crept across Abby’s face. Kaleb sighed and pointed his Quad-Gun at the solid pillar of ooze holding Abby up. With a pull on the trigger, the pillar was quickly engulfed in flames and slowly burning away. Clouds of noxious and disgusting gas rose into the air, but Kaleb had to turn around and deal with his ever-present crowd of sludge creatures. They were still chasing him.

He sent more Cybar shots their way as he burned down the second pillar holding Abby up. As the fire got to the strands of sludge holding her, Abby began to twist and turn. The harsh movements broke the tethers of sludge holding her and she fell toward the large pool at the bottom. Kaleb took a running start and jumped to catch her, but Abby disappeared as his arms tried to grab her. He slid to a stop on the other side of the pool as Abby shadow-walked out of the ground behind him. She was sparkling clean again, all the sludge removed from her body now.

“See! If you could do that, what the hell was I needed for!?”

“I obviously couldn’t while I was being held. The moment I was free, I could use the skill again.”

“What the fuck kind of sense does that make?”

Abby shrugged as she summoned her two shadow blades. A small army of sludglings was still barreling down on them. The small woman in black snorted as she turned to look at Kaleb.

“What the hell have you been doing to piss off this many demons?”

“Walking… I was walking. This damn entire dimension is full of assholes, though.”

Kaleb sent several shots into the horde. The blue energy burned their bodies into clouds of gas, and Kaleb sent more on their way as Abby readied herself. Suddenly, the short woman was standing next to him with her hand out, her shadow blades gone. Kaleb sent a wave of fire at the creatures as Abby mumbled something.

“What?”

“..ive .e ..ne.”

Kaleb stopped his flame-thrower as he turned to look at the shorter woman.

“Give me a gun, please!”

Kaleb blinked in confusion. “What?”

“My blades fucking suck against these things. I cut them and they just fucking reform. That’s how I got caught. Now hurry and give me a gun.”

Kaleb looked at his Cybar and Quad-Gun and tried to decide. Abby huffed.

“I know you have two more. Just give me the silver one that shoots sunlight or whatever.”

Kaleb rolled his eyes and threw his Cybar at her. “That one’s stronger. You got twelve shots until you have to vent it. The vent switch is on the side.”

Abby nodded and then turned to start rapid-firing into the sludgling wave. They were picking up speed now, and Kaleb backed away. The nearby puddles started to pop and hiss as more creatures pulled themselves to shore. Kaleb swore under his breath and set fire to a few pools before grabbing Abby by the arm.

“We need to go.”

“Where?”

“Like I fucking know. But we need to find the others.”

“Just keep setting shit on fire. They’ll find us. I was heading your way when those damn tentacles grabbed me.”

Kaleb nodded and started setting the nearby pools of sludge on fire. He and Abby did their best to keep out of the smoke. But between her killing sludge monsters and him burning everything, that was getting tricky. But the number of creatures coming for them was getting smaller. The pools farther away were still churning out monsters, but Abby was becoming a better shot pretty quickly.

Kaleb was setting a fifth pool on fire when a green missile slammed into the mass of black sludge. Claire swung her arms out in wide circles as she spun, creating a vortex of punches that sent the sludge creatures reeling. The move was quickly followed by several blasts from Two Gun’s energy pistols. Abby was a decent shot, but Two Gun was a damn artist. Every energy bolt seemed to find the one spot on the sludge creature that made them collapse into a puddle instead of slowly burning away.

“Hiya, lovelies!” Claire shouted over the crackling fires and bubbling pools. “Did you need a hand?”

“I didn’t. But Abby- Urk!” Kaleb doubled over as his own gun was jammed into his side.

“We’re both fine. Have you found the others?”

Two Gun nodded. “Jar and Vivienne are over by the castle, trying to get it open. Mass and Dead are giving them cover.”

“Castle?!” Abby and Kaleb said together.

“Yeah, there’s a castle up that way a bit. You can’t quite see it from here because of all the sludgy architecture. But we can get you back there. It’ll be safer than here, that’s for sure.”

Kaleb swept his fan of flames across an area. “It’s not that bad.”

“Son, this shit is corrosive, remember? You haven’t been playing in it, have you?”

Kaleb checked his body over. Everything seemed fine and still in one place. Abby was looking him over as well as he turned back to Two Gun.

“I seem okay. The stuff only got on my lab coat. Aside from a quick unwanted dip in the stuff, I’ve been fine.”

“I lost my favorite black hoodie.”

“Aren’t all your hoodies black, Captain Edgelord?”

“It’s COMMANDER Edgelord to you, iguana. And that one was special.”

Kaleb shook his head and shrugged his shoulders as Claire beat another sludge creature into paste.

“So, what’s in the castle? Demon Lord? Exit out of here? Amazing riches?”

Two Gun chuckled as he fired a shot without looking. “I’m hoping for all three. But Jar says that the place is a ‘nexus of arcane energies.’ Whatever that means. So it has to be important.”

“Not to mention it’s the only structure we have found for miles.” Claire added. “If you don’t count the sludge art pieces.”

“So, off to a demon castle to defeat the evil king and steal his riches?”

“Yep, and let’s hurry. This smell is going to kill me.”

Kaleb nodded as the four of them rushed off. He followed Claire and Two Gun. Along the way, they took potshots at the nearby sludge pits. Kaleb even set a few more on fire out of spite. But as they ran, the pits became less and less prevalent. The grey ground was starting to show signs of black grass growing in odd places. And in the distance, a dark, slimy-looking castle appeared. Under the pale blue moonlight, the castle almost seemed to move and wriggle.

Kaleb blanched, “Oh hell no.”

“Yep.” Two Gun said, way too happy. “Welcome to the Sludge Castle.”

“~They’ve got blood and pain~” Claire sang as she happily bounded forward.

Kaleb groaned as he checked his Quad-Gun. He was sure he was going to be setting that whole place on fire soon.