Auria did not expect that. Puzzled, she stared at him, her eyes running up and down his inhuman body. She had a lot of questions in her mind - how would one do that? Is it really possible? What is needed for such a thing? But instead of those questions, a single word came out of her mouth.

“Why?”

Carayan cocked his head to the side. “A… debt.”

“You are dead.There is no need for you to concern yourselves with any debts.”

He sighed - a long, exhausted sigh devoid of any life let out by a man that spent lifetimes in Deadvoid. “It’s not that simple.This place… it’s not really what you would have expected of death. It’s rather similar to living - my mind exists and wanders, creates and destroys…” As he said those words, an apple formed in his hand, only to be quickly burned to a crisp. “What’s different is that the basic needs of a human- the needs that I’ve spent lifetimes cultivating, like breathing, eating, drinking and fucking - they can’t be satisfied. There is no body to actually state those needs, only the mind.”

“That’s not an answer to my question.” Auria said slowly.

Carayan chuckled bitterly. “Sphinx gave herself a final task, and one of the outcomes was supposed to be the destruction of the Deadvoid, so that the souls of the dead could actually pass on… somewhere else, and not be stuck in this shithole.”

“And you owe her…”

“Everything. She must have achieved only a partial result, and she needs help. She needs my help.”

“And you want to get back among the living, back to your own kind… Among humanity.”

“Fuck them all.” Anger in his voice felt like a slap across her cheek. “My kind died between the distant stars.” He stepped to her, pressing his finger against her chest. “Fuck humanity. An unworthy race of mongrels that should have stayed in the mud of their first world. What’s humanity good for? War and destruction, that’s what. We spread across the stars, devouring one world’s resources to build an army with which we’ve enslaved another world. Do you have any idea how many lifeforms we’ve extinguished?”

Auria stared at him blankly. “No.” She shook her head.

“Humanity deserves all that has happened to it.” He spat, the saliva ending somewhere in the surrounding void. Staring to the abyss, he muttered. “I owe it to Sphinx. She… She is maybe a single person that did not deserve all that happened to her.”

“Bold statement.” Auria said. Her head spun around and she staggered. “I am…”

“You are here for too long. You need to leave. But first, will you aid me? Will you bring me back among the living?”

Auria reluctantly nodded. “Maybe. I will have to think it through.”

“There might not be a way anymore. You need to create a body for me. Find a reconfigurator and when you do, seek me out again. Now leave, and pray that it’s not too late.”

“What’s a reconfigurator?“

“You will know when you find it.”

“How do I know that I can trust you? The Creator was an…”

“The Creator was, is, and always will be a fucking waste of semen.” Carayan lashed out, all his tendrils flailing wildly in the void. “He’s a disgrace to me, to himself, to the fucking universe.”

“That’s…a strong reaction.” She muttered calmly, trying to hide the shiver of fear that she felt inside. “I still don’t know how I can trust you.”

“I… I fought him, you know?” He turned towards her, his eyes full of deep sadness. “And I’ve killed him. And then again, and again…”

Auria raised her eyebrows. “You fought him? When? How? Didn’t he create the projectors? He must have wielded them…”

Carayan nodded. “But so did I. Watch.” With these words, the void around them shifted.

Stolen story; please report.

***

“Fucking Hedonist piece of shit!” Carayan screamed, as his fist bashed the skull of a scar-covered man open. Other than a few drapes of cloth, the man wore nothing, and Carayan felt an unbridled disgust by all the oily liquids that the man covered himself with.

Something hit him on his back, and he found himself kneeling. He turned his head, and a metallic arm followed his gaze. Another Hedonist stood there, aiming a shockwave cannon at Carayan. Velvet smoke was coming from the barrel of the cannon, its muzzle shaped to a woman’s face with mouth open and a long tongue hanging out of it. The weapon was embedded into the back of a hunched creature that was one perhaps a human being, but now it was only a crouching, fleshy gun-platform covered in scars and boils.

Carayan knew the weapon had a long reload time. Usually, it was a one-shot-one-kill weapon, but the Hedonist had no way of knowing that under his skin, Carayan wore an intricate network of kinetic barriers.

He did not bother with the projector, instead, Carayan raised his phase-gun and took a shot. A cloud of dark green energy whistled from the gun, only to disappear after a meter and reappear inside of the Hedonist’s body, displacing the reality around itself, tearing the insides and violently exploding in a ball of blood, splintered bone and liquified organs.

“Fuck you all.” Carayan muttered as he looked around. Hedonist’s died by hundreds all around them - Valyera moved through them in a whirlwind of glowing blades, moving through the oiled bodies like a harvester through wheat fields. Kavala sat on a barricade that connected the building of matterium and a water-purifying plant, looking almost bored, waiting to finish off anyone that got through Carayan and Valyera.

Next to her stood Sphinx.

Her three projectors glowing, waving as if they were stalks of grass in the wind, yet…

Carayan knew that she wanted to, that she craved to unleash them. He knew that in that instant, the war would be over, but something much worse would be set free.

“Yeah and fuck you too, Sphinx.” He muttered with a smile. “Always having me do your work for you.”

Valyera’s sharp cry turned him instantly. She was suspended in the air, tied up by thick ropes of pure energy. The smoke was rising from her skin where the ropes touched her, burning through her clothes almost instantly, yet they had a problem burning through her synthetic, ragallum-infused skin.

Still, judging by her screaming, it was incredibly painful.

“Wielder!” Kavala shouted. Carayan had his eyes already locked onto him. He did not hesitate and ran straight towards him, shooting from his phase-gun even while running. Every Hedonist in his way was instantly clawed through by his tendrils and he left only a trail of torn limbs and spilled guts in his wake.

Few more meters… Carayan thought as he jumped over the pile of corpses. Hang on Val.

Carayan realized that he knew the wielder - Unexpectedly, The Creator himself finally decided to join the fray. If that was the case, the Hedonists ran out of wielders. Either that, or The Creator did not want to share the working reconfigurator in the matterium building with his cult.

Pure, scorching hate filled Carayan. Thousands of mutilated bodies danced in front of his eyes - men, women, children, all of them civilians, all of them innocent - and he screamed. The sound resembled a rabid predator and his face was twisted in the mask of pure rage and ferocity. His mind was crumbling under the onslaught of hatred, but Carayan knew what he needed to do. He focused all that rage, all that ferocity and hatred, and poured it through his projector.

The Creator turned his head towards him as the air around him started to shimmer. A blink of an eye later, the world turned into a raging inferno. Blood-soaked sand around them formed into molten glass as a circle of tall walls of fire formed around Carayan and The Creator, locking them in a hellish arena. All the oxygen was instantly consumed from the air to fuel the raging hell, and before he could even speak, The Creator started to choke. He willed, and a barrier of impenetrable light formed around him, protecting him from the flames that Carayan summoned, but not from the suffocation.

Carayan smiled a terrifying smile. He knew he had to be quick - when they devised this plan, Sphinx was adamant in the timing - and he focused the last remnants of energy in the projector to create pools of molten flame just beneath the shining sphere. The sand melted and The Creator started to sink into the glowing glass.

More, more, more, burn him, burn them all, cleanse the world with flames!

The voice screamed in Carayan’s head, but the hatred was too strong to actually let the madness of the projector have any effect upon his mind. He poured everything, every last drop of will he had, into sinking the suffocating man deeper into the molten glass, entombing him forever.

***

Auria blinked. She was back in the Deadvoid, kneeling on the black, cold ground. She was breathing heavily, each breath bringing a sharp pain to her head. Red circles formed in front of her eyes and she felt like fainting.

“Wha…”

“I’ve shown you the past, through my eyes, through my mind. You felt what I have felt, you have thought what I have thought that day. Now, it is up to you to decide whether you trust me or not. Now, leave the Deadvoid, and pray that it has not been too long, and that you still have a body to return to.”

Auria was panting, her world was spinning around wildly and she could not recognize where the up and down was. “Help… me…”

“I can’t. The Deadvoid is calling you, it already has its sticky tendrils wrapped around you. Leave, by your own will. Leave, or stay here forever.”

Auria focused. All her will, all her power, she focused on one thought.

Leave.