"Ughhhh... My head! It feels like it's about to explode!"
Damien's skull throbbed as if it had been pounded by a hammer. His soul felt heavy, and his mind was a chaotic whirlpool of thoughts that refused to settle. It was as though he were sinking into quicksand, the world around him becoming dense and unyielding.
With great effort, he groggily opened his eyes and slowly sat up. He held his head in his hands, shaking it gently in an attempt to clear the fog clouding his thoughts. As his fingers brushed against the ground beneath him, he was startled to feel it ripple like water.
"Ughh... That's strange!" he thought, confusion washing over him. Panic surged as he frantically scanned his surroundings. "Where's that giant figure from before? Did I die again?"
"Wait... where am I?" Damien's disorientation deepened; nothing made sense anymore.
Just moments ago, he'd met a gruesome fate at the hands of a falling flower pot. Instead of facing whatever afterlife awaited him,be it heaven or hell,he found himself enveloped in an endless void of darkness.
Before he could grasp what was happening, he had been thrust into a battlefield littered with ancient cosmic corpses. And then came the colossal being—a sight so overwhelming that it sent him spiraling into unconsciousness.
Now, here he was in yet another bewildering location. He sighed deeply, feeling utterly defeated by the sheer magnitude of it all.
The hall stretched infinitely before him; its ceiling or perhaps dome,was simply the vast starry sky above. Towering on either side were massive pillars of dark purple stone that reached toward infinity, each one intricately engraved with constellations and depictions of mythic Eldritch Horrors that seemed alive with pulsating energy.
As Damien stood there amidst this surreal beauty, beneath a dark void rippling without wind or sound, silence reigned supreme,a silence so profound it felt almost tangible.
His expression remained blank as he surveyed this alien landscape; after everything he'd endured, shock had dulled his senses.
"Why is my life such a mess? I can't even die in peace without being tossed around like some cosmic plaything," Damien muttered bitterly under his breath.
His life on Earth had been anything but glorious; he'd existed at society's very bottom, enduring suffering that could drive anyone mad.
While he knew others might have faced worse fates than his own, there was something uniquely painful about his experiences,especially when memories of what happened when he was ten clawed at his heart like a festering wound.
"What a life to live… even rats have better life trajectories than me," he mused wryly as an ironic smile crept across his face.
"I can vouch for that! Your life is truly one-of-a-kind!"
Just then, a deep, soul-stirring voice echoed through the hall, sending shivers down Damien's spine. His very essence trembled and rippled like water disturbed by a stone.
Suddenly, the pillars lining both sides of the corridor erupted in blinding purple light, illuminating intricate carvings that flared to life with mesmerizing, shimmering images. Above him, the stars twinkled brighter than ever.
Damien's eyes widened as he spun around to discover the source of that haunting voice.
Standing just a few meters away were two chaotic figures that seemed to exist both within reality and beyond it,a perplexing contradiction that left him utterly bewildered.
One figure was shrouded from head to toe in a swirling mist of dark cloak. This being radiated an aura of intense pressure and death; if one were to picture the Grim Reaper from Earth, this would be it,complete with an ominous scythe missing from its grasp.
The other being froze Damien in place. Towering over him at more than seven feet tall, this mini giant was a striking shade of purple. Six curved horns crowned his head like some regal diadem, while wild purple hair cascaded down to the ground. He wore only tattered trousers that seemed to contain entire galaxies within their fabric. As Damien gazed upon those well-defined muscles, a single thought flashed through his mind:
"Damn! This body is a testament to perfection, a sculpture of terrfying, divine violence!"
But it was the being's eyes that truly captivated and terrified him. They resembled endless voids; when he dared to look into them, his mind blanked as millions of chaotic images flooded his consciousness: galaxies crumbling into nothingness, colossal creatures trampling across vast expanses of emptiness, and eldritch horrors devouring entire planets whole. Stars exploded into black holes before his eyes,a whirlwind of destruction that overwhelmed him.
Just as suddenly as they appeared, these harrowing visions vanished, bringing Damien back to reality. Lowering his gaze instinctively, he felt an urgent need to avoid those eyes again; they had nearly overloaded his mind with too much information.
"W-who are you?!" he stammered, finally summoning enough courage to speak.
"This speck dares stand in your presence, my liege? Shall I unmake him?!" The cloaked figure stirred ominously; its voice echoed like grinding galaxies.
The dark waters beneath Damien recoiled in waves as nearby pillars groaned under unseen pressure,a crack splintering along their lengths made Damien feel as though his very soul was fraying like an old tapestry.
Before Damien could even process the threat,the purple-skinned being raised a hand. The violent pressure vanished instantly.
"Peace, Kaelos," his voice not soothing, but final,like the closing of a cosmic epoch. "This one is a guest. And you have already erased him once today. Let us not be...redundant."
"Yes, my liege!" Kaelos replied immediately with reverence and fanaticism,his tone now completely different from how he had addressed Damien moments ago.
Damien's mind raced, a whirlwind of thoughts colliding within him.
"Wait... so it was this guy who appeared earlier? He extinguished my soul, yet here I am, alive again?" Confusion clouded his thoughts.
As if reading his mind, the being with purple skin spoke softly, "I was the one who brought your soul back."
Damien's head shot up in shock. The earlier moment when he had gazed into those enigmatic eyes flooded back to him, but now it felt like a distant memory.
He instinctively lowered his gaze again, overwhelmed by the revelation.
"Raise your head," the purple-skinned being urged gently. "Don't worry; it won't happen again. You can look directly at me."
After a brief hesitation, Damien lifted his chin and met the being's gaze once more. To his relief, nothing sinister occurred this time; he let out a sigh of relief that echoed in the stillness around them.
Curiosity bubbled within him as he studied the extraordinary figure before him. His heart raced with awe and wonder,this being seemed to exist beyond the boundaries of reality itself. It was as if he could sense his presence without fully grasping it.
With a warm smile illuminating his otherworldly features, the purple-skinned being continued, "Let me introduce myself: I am the end of stars and the silence between them. You may call me Thaumiel."
The name hung in the air like an electric charge,a blend of fear and fascination coursing through Damien's veins.