Lory and I looked at the bird creatures starting to push our cart to the big pit. “Lory?”

“Yes?”

“When the snake thing crushes us with his teeth, he needs to break the cage first, and our restraints. As soon as that happens, unleash a burst of your energy.”

Lory nodded, “Go down swinging?”

I chuckled, “Yeah, we go out with a big bang.”

Lory caressed me with her tail. “I don’t mind dying as well, but I rather have one of us live.”

I shook my head, “I can’t live without you, Lory, I will go mad.”

“Then go mad, you know what you promised me.”

“Yes, I will scour all existence until I find you again, and the sins of my life until then will be forgiven, and we will pick up right where we left off.” The cart started wobbling, the first wheels went over the edge.

Lory seemed to be preparing herself, “I will do the same Steve, if you die first, go mad, kill people, have fun and party while scouring existence for you.”

I managed to grab her right hand, “Then we agree on that, here we go together, into the belly of the beast.”

I closed my eyes and I could feel the cart fall as the snake thing rose and grabbed our cage in its mouth. We saw sharp teeth crush our cage. Then the giant mouth closed, it snapped its teeth again and we both rolled aside, and it hit the restraints, breaking them while hurting us. I could feel blood streaming out of my wounds. Then I stretched my hand and shot energy upwards to stop the teeth from closing down on us once again.

Lory shot energy downwards. The teeth kept coming closer. Lory looked at the small ray of light vanishing. “We are not going to keep this up, Steve.”

“Do you have a plan, Lory?”

She smiled, “We go insane, make a shield!”

I did so, and Lory suddenly bashed me and jumped towards the black hole that would lead us into the belly of the beast. She smiled at me as we kept falling down, “Sorry for that, but on the bright side, we can kill it from the inside out!”

I landed with a loud thud on an icky floor that writhed up and down, Lory fell off me and almost into a hole, I quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her up. She sighed in relief, “Thanks for that.”

We looked down the hole, it seemed to have no end. When I looked up, teeth pointed downward. It allowed people to go in, but not out. It also seemed there is air here, strangely enough. I looked at Lory, “What was your plan?”

She shrugged, “Not dying seemed like a good plan at the time.”

I nodded, “Just, keep your shield up.”

Suddenly, I saw one of the bird creatures come for us, I grabbed the sword of the Lizardian that had been chomped into pieces and slid over the ground and decapitated the bird like creature. Lory walked over, “It does not bleed. They must be an extension of this snake thing.”

“Yes, you are right, and I might have a plan, but we need to find a weak spot. Maybe it’s heart. Do you have any clue what the anatomy of this weird creature is, or what it even is?”

Lory shook her head, “I never heard of a monster like this.” She grabbed the bestiary out of her inventory. She started scrolling through it. Lory shook her head, “This creature is not described in here, it must be an undiscovered species.”

I chuckled, “Or no one that has seen it survived the tale. The Lizardians seemed to know what it was.”

Lory nodded, “It might be a god of some kind, at least a minor one.”

We started walking through one of the large tubes, in the wall we could see brown liquid get pumped through this beast. “What makes you say it is a god, Lory?”

She looked around, “Since we got sacrificed.”

I nodded, “Yes, and it does make minions. But, monsters can be considered gods. Especially when they are elusive, and dangerous.”

Lory stopped me, “What is up with your shadow?”

I looked at my shadow and it kept twitching. “Oh, yeah, it does that sometimes. I am thoroughly ignoring it, or I might go insane.”

Lory stared at my shadow and shook her head, then she continued walking, “It might be related to your race. Oh, stop walking.”

“What is it?”

She stood behind me and lifted my shirt. “You got some nasty bite wounds here. Let me heal them.” She sent energy into the wounds and I immediately felt better.

“Thanks, Lory.” She traced her fingers over my back. Especially the inclines on my back.

I turned around, “Yes, they are fine.”

Lory sighed, “You bugged Bella about it.”

“Yes, I know, people don’t have to know.”

Lory nodded, “Until push comes to shove?”

“Yes, until then.”

“Well, we are inside a beast with no one around us.”

I sighed, “What is up with you and pushing me to show them to you?”

Lory smiled, “Once we got back, I learned you have the same inclines as Haley. It explained her demon wings, but it does not explain why you do not want to show them to me. Haley keeps them out all the time. We spent a lot of time together, Steve, you need to show them to me.”

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I sighed, “We need to keep going on.”

“Steve?”

“Yes?”

“Please?”

“Not the cute eyes, please! I just don’t know if I can keep control if I let it go.”

Lory grabbed my hand, “You can, you are a strong man. Just show them to me, and then you can hide them, just like Bella hides them.”

I grumbled, “Fine, you win, we are inside the belly of a beast anyway.” I pulled off my shirt and put it in my inventory with my blazer. “Here goes nothing.”

I focused, and my back started bulging, the inclines swelled up with energy, silver and dark energy. I let out a very long, deep sigh. Blood dripped to the ground as I sprouted my wings for the first time. As I looked at them, I was quite stunned. Two incorporeal wings stretched from the base of my back. The bone it hung on is red, on both sides four red bones stretched downwards. In between is the see-through membrane.

Lory gasped, “You have ghostly demonic wings!”

I grabbed my head as it started hurting. Lory held me up, “What is going on, Steve?”

“It hurts, make it stop!”

“Steve?”

“What is going on?” I screamed in pain before I blacked out.

When I woke up, I found myself in a white space. “Where am I?”

A voice answered, “You are inside the nexus of your mind.”

I looked around, and in the distance, I saw a mirror. Slowly, I walked over to the mirror. I saw some kind of reflection of myself in the mirror. He, however, had two arms, looked more fit and powerful. “Who are you?”

The man in the mirror smiled, “I am you, and you are me. But for now, you may call me Agent. At this time, I have no name, you booted up my program.”

“My name is Steve.”

“Yes, I know, idiot.”

“What are you doing?”

“Me? I just sprouted my wings.”

“Yes, you are not supposed to do that, you fucking idiot.”

“Why are you calling me an idiot, I am you!”

Agent laughed, “We might look the same, but we are nothing alike. But you had to keep pushing, you woke me up, are you going to let me out, or are you going to let me rot here?”

I looked closer at the window, “You are the voice in my head, who are those other reflections of me?”

Agent looked behind him. “Oh, I know, you know, well, not yet. Why don’t you let me out? Then I will show you who they are. You know what you are, I know it.”

I grunted, “Stop fucking around with me and give me straight answers.”

The man came closer and started pushing the mirror towards me, for a moment, I could see his eyes clearly. He has ebony colored eyes. Quickly, I started pushing back, “You are not coming out of there, monster!”

Agent laughed, “Really, are you calling me a monster? You almost lost control, allowing me to wake up, there is great evil in here, I am the only thing keeping it at bay. You really don't want to open the closet.”

“Shut up! Just fucking shut up, and stay inside your fucking mirror. You are not going to fuck me up.” I screamed and infused the mirror with a lot of energy, I did a few steps back and panted.

Agent stepped back, “I see that is how it is.”

He punched the mirror a few times, it did not work. He sighed, “Fine, I will be waiting. There will be a moment, you won’t expect me to strike, and believe me, I won’t be bothered with shattering your psyche, since I am the one who will come out on top when we have gathered the pieces, if you don't give me control, he might wake up, the thing that lurks inside you.”

I started walking backwards, You are lying, you are the only evil thing in here. I don't believe you anymore, you just want my body.

Agent grumbled, “Of course I want it, I have been ordered to take over once you start losing control, you have unlimited power, you are extremely strong, yet you remember naught, you remember not your true birth. All of it is hidden, and I have the key. Just, let me out, and I will hand you the key.”

I turned around and ran away as a portal opened before me. I woke up and saw Lory hovering above me, caressing my cheek. She let out a sigh of relief, “Thank god, you are awake. What happened?”

As I looked around me, I saw a few dead bird creatures. I looked at my wings, quickly I retracted them into the inclines. I panted, then I looked at my one arm. Then I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank god, he is not free.”

Lory looked at me, “What are you talking about?”

“This is complicated, Lory, and I want to tell you everything, but once we are safe.”

She nodded, “That seems like a good plan. But, your wings are a no-go?”

“No, they are evil.”

“What, how can wings be evil?”

I sighed as I got up, “We must stay alive and get out of this creature, then I can tell you everything.”

Lory nodded and gave me a kiss, “Alright, let us continue our journey through this beast and find an exit.” She took my hand and we started walking.

I could hear him, humming in my head, waiting, brewing, what is he? What am I? Is there truly a great evil lurking inside of me? Am I the great evil, or am I just the vessel holding it at bay? Does this have to do with, the choice? All I can do right now is get out of here, and, of course, to tell Lory what is going on.