A Journey to a Hundred Worlds

“So how do you propose, then, that we fix this situation exactly if fighting them is out of the question?” Vale questioned Michelle.

“Well, I thought that vampire said they had a peace treaty in place,” Michelle replied, sitting on the edge of a bed back at the inn. “Maybe we can get them to honor it again somehow if we can just convince them. Why were they even attacking the creatures of night, anyways?”

“Because they are self-righteous and thought that it would be in everyone’s best interest if the creatures of the night became the creature’s of light. They would be ‘good’ and happy, and the creatures of light would be happy too. Of course it’s stupid to think in such a narrow-minded way. There’s both bad and good people on each side. Seth might have gotten here ahead of us and planted the idea in the light creatures’ minds that converting the dark creatures was the right thing to do.”

“Well that’s a start then,” Michelle said, tracing her finger over the inky black bed sheets, deep in thought. “Do you think that they’re nice enough to admit their mistake if we can prove that some of the people over here aren’t that bad?”

Vale shrugged. He was lying on the bed next to hers. Ryokou had proffered to take the floor. “I would guess so, although of course some will protest. My money is on that wicked Tina.”

“’Wicked?’ That’s what you’re referring to her as being?” Michelle inquired, grinning.

She watched as Vale’s face took on a deadly serious expression along with the tone of his voice, “Trying to change another person’s nature is wicked, especially if even after you fail, you do not admit defeat. I may not like fluffy stuff such as fairies and elves, but, if I got the chance, I would never try to change them into something more preferable like demons or ghouls. It’s up to that person to act and be how they are.”

“Hmmm…” Michelle hummed. Vale’s words caused her to think deeply and helped her to learn even more about the way he thought.

Right now it seemed Vale was in a good mood since he was being so open and not making her feel stupid. She was surprised he wasn’t teasing her so much about being kidnapped by a bunch of fairies and elves, although she bet she would hear from it later on when the moment was just right for him.

“Seems like we’re taking our time in this world, or at least more so than in the last one, Borecaetus,” Michelle commented aloud.

Both Vale and Ryokou made the noncommittal sound, making her lay back with a rush, feeling annoyed.

“I guess I’ll be going to sleep, then, if there are going to be no more conversations,” she said gruffly.

This time Vale alone made the sound, and Michelle knew it was because he knew it annoyed her after seeing how she had reacted to it the last time. Peeved, Michelle turned onto her side facing away from Vale, closing her eyes and willing herself to fall asleep.

As she found herself to be doing frequently lately, Michelle dreamt. In her dream there were the horned horses. Some were pink, some were purple, some were light blue, some were a light yellow, some were white, and one was black. The black unicorn had a blood-red horn, hooves, and eyes and kept stamping one of its front legs. Michelle got closer to it and found that it had fangs. She recoiled from it, running into one of the light pink unicorns. It suddenly whinnied and reared up on its hind legs before bringing them back down to where Michelle stood.

An arm blocked the blow and blood spurted everywhere. Michelle shielded her face with her hands. As she dropped them to see what had happened, she saw Lucifer in his teenage boy form. Right before her eyes his arms healed up instantly, first being coated in darkness. Lucifer looked at Michelle expectantly before turning to one of the purple unicorns and grabbing it by its neck. His fangs appeared, and he sunk them into the unicorn’s neck. Michelle shrank away from him as the other unicorns except for the black one whinnied in fear before galloping away.

She could feel something leaving the unicorn, being sucked into Lucifer, but she had no idea what. It had no tangible form; it was entirely abstract. But whatever it was, it gave Michelle a bad feeling and was joining more of the same substance that seemed to be quite abundant and practically overwhelming in Lucifer.

Michelle woke up, feeling confused as she usually did after having a dream. At least this time it wasn’t about her brother’s demise, and for that she was thankful. If she had many more of those, she would have no hope of ever finding her brother okay again.

Still a little tired, she lay in bed, eyes still closed, curled up under the nice warm blankets. It seemed to be getting cold in this world, or at least in this half of the world. Her mind drifted, wondering if there was a name for each half of the world, because she was getting sick of referring to them as either the dark half or the light half. Also, she wondered if the creatures of light and the creatures of the night had names too, as it was even more tedious having to refer to them as that in her mind. She would have to ask around about that today, and definitely not by asking Vale.

Groggily, she got out of bed. Both Vale and Ryokou were still asleep. She had no idea what time it was due to the this world’s odd day cycle, that is assuming there even was one. Silently, she tiptoed to the door of their room, and then down the hallway to the stairs. Lightly she stepped down the stairs, not wishing to disturb anyone or anything. The black color scheme of everything was starting to become charming in its own sort of way. At least it wasn’t garish, and it helped her to concentrate on her thoughts, even helping to give wing to some of them. Staring at it was like staring into oblivion.

Nobody else in the inn seemed to be up yet, or at least, if they were, they were no longer in the inn. She quietly went outside into the brisk night air. Long, dark shadows stretched out to meet her from the twisted trees. Without anything in particular in mind, Michelle wandered around for a bit. As she was wondering whether or not she would see Lucifer again, she spotted him in his teenager form. She paused, watching him as he walked up a building, defying gravity as usual.

Lucifer sat down on the steeply slanted black-shingled roof. Looking down he saw Michelle with his uncovered right eye. Michelle wondered about his depth perception capabilities for a second before feeling a wave of terror pass through her just because he stared her in the eye for a moment. Of all the monsters over in this half of Synkka, Lucifer was the one that scared her the most.

“Up already?” he asked her, staring absent-mindedly up at the moon whose light made his already normally pale skin appear bone white.

“Is it that early?” Michelle asked hesitantly.

“Not many creatures are up at this hour,” Lucifer replied. “If you would judge what is ‘early’ by that, then yes, it is indeed quite early.”

The way Lucifer talked always made Michelle feel confused. He may as well be talking in cryptic riddles or a foreign language for all the sense his words made to her.

“What do you think about the conflict between the creatures of the night and the creatures of light that’s going on right now?” Michelle asked, not exactly looking forward to hearing his answer which she doubt she would understand at all.

“Like cats and dogs,” Lucifer replied, “only I would assume it would be more serious as the balance of this world is being threatened intensely by it. Also, there is more intelligence than if it were cats and dogs, so it would be more interesting to watch unfold. The best thing is is that it is providing me with plenty of delicious food to gorge myself upon.”

“What do[i/] you eat?” Michelle asked curiously after picking up on the last thing he had said.

“The thing that sleeps inside of every sentient being in some degree, whether lesser or greater: evil.”

“But how can you eat evil?”

“Similar to how a vampire drinks blood, I guess you could say. My fangs are special in that they pierce the physical being without doing it any damage so that the inner being is within reach. Then I suck out the evil in that person. Of course I cannot get all of it and it always returns with a vengeance, but it is not like it matters to me so long as my stomach gets filled.”

Not sure what to say after that, Michelle remained silent.

“Should you not go make peace between the two sides?” Lucifer asked her suddenly. “That is the reason you are here right now, after all.”

“How do you know?” Michelle asked.

Lucifer was already gone, however. When she had blinked, he had disappeared. ‘Weird..’ Michelle thought, turning to head back to the inn to see if either Vale or Ryokou was up yet.

* * *

“I guess it’s about time we got this done with,” Vale admitted, dropping off of the bed onto his feet.

“Who’s going to do all the talking?” Ryokou inquired.

“I don’t trust your brains and I wouldn’t be the one to trust such a thing to, so Michelle will do the talking,” Vale replied.

Michelle stopped where she was, caught off guard. “Wait, me? Why?” she asked.

“Do you really expect me to try to negotiate with people to convince them not to attack each other? Besides, you seem all goody goody and want everyone to get along with each other,” Vale pointed out.

“Are you trying to insult me?” Michelle asked him, annoyed by his explanation.

“You should be able to figure it out yourself.”

“What if I say no?”

Vale shrugged. “We no longer travel together and I tell the residents here to attack you with vigor.”

Michelle’s draw dropped. How dare Vale be so conceited!

“Don’t you want to leave this world soon? After all, I though that Seth mentioned that the bad guy behind all of this kidnapped your brother. So move,” Vale said, leaving the room with Ryokou.

Barely restraining herself from stomping after him, Michelle followed them. On the way down she came across one of the weird part scaly, part leathery, part furry, part feathery mismatched monsters, and she gave it a dark look. The towering creature stared blankly back at her.

“Before you ask me, that was a zardevilm,” Vale said after they were out of the creature’s hearing range.

“Why do you always assume I’ll ask a question? And how do you even know that anyways?” Michelle asked.

“You just asked me two questions.”

Michelle had no idea how she was going to negotiate between the two sides if she herself was fuming. Apparently Vale didn’t realize that he was starting to make her want to encourage the two sides to fight each other because she was just so angry right now. If he couldn’t even sense that Michelle was ready to rip his guts out right now, there was no way he could handle something as delicate as negotiating between two groups with differing beliefs.

“But how am I going to convince them to stop their fighting?” Michelle asked.

“We just need a dark candidate that sets a good example for the creatures of the night, and then you do your talking and convince the creatures of light that there are enough creatures like the candidate you find to stop changing them into something their not.”

“You make it sound so simple,” Michelle protested. “First off, where are we going to find a candidate? Secondly, how am I supposed to know how to deal with such a political situation? I have no experience whatsoever with these kinds of dealings, and I don’t think this the kind of thing that you can just be thrust in the middle of doing and do well on.”

“I believe you have the natural ability to cooperate to people and to be able to negotiate between peoples,” Vale answered flatly.

“Really?”

“No, but I’m sick of hearing you complain. Now here’s your candidate.” Vale pulled one of the incredibly pale (paler than vampire pale) creatures out from sitting on a chair.

“What is he?” Michelle asked.

“One of the undead,” Vale replied simply.

“Meaning what exactly?”

“He’s dead, but not at the same time. Hence ‘undead.’”

“Isn’t he just alive? He’s breathing isn’t he?”

“Just because something breathes doesn’t mean that it’s alive,” Vale stated. “And thus the converse is also true.”

“You mean like with plants?” Ryokou butted in.

“Yes, like with plants. Glad to know that you’re smarter than I thought you were,” Vale said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“What you said made me think of something Lucifer said,” Michelle said randomly.

“Good to know.”

“Are you still being sarcastic?” Michelle asked Vale.

“Here’s an idea, how’s about you have a limit to the number of questions you can ask in one day, like maybe ten? Do you think you could live with that? I swear, it makes me wonder if you are actually the brain-dead one and not Ryokou.”

“Um, excuse me,” the undead person interrupted before Michelle could yell at Vale. “Why do you need me?”

The three of them looked at him. They had forgotten him while they were caught up in the heat of their argument.

“Oh, right, yeah…” Vale trailed, scratching the back of his head.

“You’re a good person, right?” Michelle asked the undead person hopefully.

“I guess you could say if you didn’t mind the fact that I am undead, you know,” he replied.

“Good, you’re perfect then. We’re going to go make peace with the light creatures,” Michelle explained hurriedly. “What’s your name by the way?”

“Um, Damien…”

“Damien… Good name,” Vale commented.

“But wait, we’re going to go see the light creatures?” Damien asked. “I don’t want to go there! I don’t want to get turned into an elf!”

“Don’t worry, you won’t. If they try anything funny, we’ll kill them in defense,” Vale replied, “especially if they try to turn us into elves. Now let’s go.”

“So I don’t have any say in it?” Damien tested.

“Nope,” Ryokou replied.

Damien trembled slightly as they walked; Michelle assumed it was due to nerves. His skin was so pale it had a creepy blue sheen to it, and she imagined it was ice cool. She shivered.

‘What is it like to be undead?’ she thought to herself. ‘How similar is it to being alive? Or dead? And does that mean that you can die? Or are you immortal? Do you have to eat anything?’

Michelle bumped into Damien who had suddenly stopped right in front of her. She winced, her suspicions proved to be true. Damien was recoiling from the sunlight which shone down upon him, showing no mercy.

“This is another reason why I didn’t want to come! It stings!” he complained.

“It’ll only be for a little while longer,” Michelle tried to reassure him. “I hope.”

“’I hope?’” Damien repeated in disbelief. “First you people just grab me, then you expect me to just come along to go talk to those tyrannical light creatures, and now you’re saying you’re not even sure this is going to work! What kind of horrible timing did I have to be sitting down in that place at that time so you could drag me out here?”

Vale rolled his eyes. “What did I tell you? They’ll die before they ever even lay a single finger on you.”

“Why should I believe you?” Damien challenged him.

“Because I’m a demon who can summon the dead, okay? Satisfied? Well, even if you’re not, it’s too late. Look, here comes our welcoming party.” Vale was looking out at an oncoming group of assorted light creatures: fairies, elves, and multi-colored, horned horses.

“By the way, what are those horse things?” Michelle asked, wanting to know the name of at least one thing.

“Unicorns,” Vale answered automatically. “Any other pressing questions that you just must know the answer to? No? Okay, no more questions until this is over.”

The elves, fairies, and unicorns surrounded them, all looking at them with extreme distrust and disgust. An elf stepped forward a little and asked the four of them, “What are you doing in our land?”

“We came here in order to negotiate a peace treaty that you will honor,” Michelle replied politely.

“Aren’t you the one that attacked us yesterday?” the elf asked Vale. “Why should we trust you?”

Vale shrugged, keeping his mouth closed.

“He was only trying to free Ryokou and I,” Michelle spoke up for him. “He stopped after he found us safe.”

The elf looked at her scrutinizingly, weighing and thinking over the words in his mind. “The fact still remains he killed some of our people when he could have tried coming to us peacefully if you truly wanted peace.”

“Fine, we’re not from this world, except for Damien here,” Vale replied, jerking his thumb towards Damien.

“Again, why should we trust you?” the elf persisted.

“Have you ever seen anything like these two humans?” Vale asked, pointing to Michelle and Ryokou. “There’s nothing magical about them in the slightest.”

As the elf mulled Vale’s words over, Michelle whispered to Vale out of the corner of her mouth, “I thought I was the one who was going to do the negotiating.”

“You are,” he replied back in a low voice. “I’m just trying to convince them to trust us.”

“Oh.”

“You have a point,” the elf finally said. “We will hear out what you have to say.”

“Thank you,” Michelle replied. “We want to make peace with you because the people on the dark side are not all evil. They’re just different from you.”

“Is that all you have to say to convince us?” the elf asked her.

Michelle opened her mouth to say more, but then an elf stepped forward from the circle surrounding them. He had dark hair, and as Michelle stared at him, his eyes flashed crimson for a split second. Judging by the dark atmosphere that seemed to cling to him which she sensed, Michelle guessed that it was Lucifer. She wondered what he was doing here right now as an elf.

“I think we should listen to her and try to return to our previous relations with the people of darkness,” Lucifer said, speaking loudly so that everyone could hear him.

The light creatures started to protest, but Lucifer raised a hand up, silencing them all instantly. “Aren’t we supposed to be the creatures of light? Shouldn’t we be the peaceful people who give the benefit of the doubt and forget our differences?”

Michelle couldn’t believe how good Lucifer was at changing the minds of the light creatures. Immediately the mood of the crowd shifted to a more positive one.

“Alright,” the elf who had spoken first said. “We will return to being at peace with the creatures of darkness if you can prove that they are not all evil first.”

Vale pushed Damien forward a bit. The undead guy looked back at Michelle with a pleading look in his eyes, and she had to hand motion to him to turn around to face the elf. Damien shifted on his feet back and forth nervously.

“And who might you be?” the elf inquired.

“Damien, I’m on of the undead,” Damien mumbled.

“Do you hate the creatures of light? Do you thirst for blood, death, and destruction?” the elf continued questioning him.

“No, no to both of those questions,” Damien replied, a little louder and clearer than the last time. “I’m just kind of scared of you after changing so many of our people into yours. I didn’t want to become something else. And I’ve never killed anyone before. I’m just undead and like the quiet peacefulness of night.”

“Fair enough,” the elf said. “We will stop attacking you, and you us, correct?”

“Yes,” Damien answered.

“We will be departing then,” the elf said, turning around. Everyone followed him except for Lucifer and a lone, blue fairy: Tina.

Vale snarled when he saw her, lunging forward and grabbing her by her wings.

“Why should we believe you?” Tina asked in her tiny voice. “You’re evil!”

“I’m sick of hearing you say that,” Vale growled. “Now you have two options. One, apologize to me profusely for turning me into an elf. Two, I kill you. Your choice.”

Tina crossed her arms and pouted. She just fumed for a few seconds before replying, “Fine, I’m sorry.”

“Do you not understand what I meant when I said ‘profusely?’” Vale asked in a dangerous voice.

Tina squeaked. “I am so very, very sorry to have wronged you by turning you into an elf when you are clearly a most noble and powerful demon!”

“Better, now fly away and never do anything like that to anyone again,” Vale told her, releasing his grip on her wings.

Quick as the wind, Tina flew away until Michelle could no longer see any sign of her. Michelle let out a little giggle over the situation.

“You handled that quite well, I would have to say,” Lucifer spoke. He was in the form of a man with shaggy, black hair, pale skin, and crimson eyes.

“Who are you?” Vale asked him. “You can’t be Seth…”

“No, I am Lucifer, although sometimes I go by the name of Lucius. I already know who the three of you are and what you are doing. I would like to join your party if you would not mind,” Lucifer said smoothly.

Vale considered him for a moment before answering, “I guess. You did help us out just now. Plus, you seem quite powerful. You could help us out quite a bit, right?”

“Indeed.”

“Do you happen to know anything about a person named Seth?” Vale asked.

“As I have already told Michelle, he is a person who can shape shift into any living thing or combination.”

Vale nodded. “That’s about as much as I know about him.”

“He’s also an extreme sadist and quite evil. That being said, he still does not work for Albel, although sometimes their interests align. They operate outside of each other, although Seth tends to help Albel further his plans because of his destructive whims.”

“Do you know anything about Albel?” Vale asked.

“Just his plans about destroying all the worlds. I heard he destroyed everything in his own world except for the things he needs to destroy all the others. He is the lone survivor of his world. No one could stop him, and so he triumphed. By the time we reach him, he should have quite a bit of evil in him.”

“Well, we’ll get there sooner if we leave now,” Vale said. “I’ll lead us to the next portal.”
“After you, then,” Lucifer replied.

Michelle stared at the back of Lucifer as they walked. Was he in this to get to the feast that surely awaited him in this “Albel” at the end of their journey? How trusty of a companion could he be?

Soon they were back in the moonlit town. Vampires were out and about along with some of the undead and a lone zardevilm. Despite their nightmarish appearance, they didn’t scare Michelle near as much anymore; she was growing used to their presence. As they walked through the town, she started to feel a little sad that she would probably never see this place again. It had gradually grown on her, and now they were going to leave it. She hoped there were other worlds as magical as this one that they would be able to visit.

Vale stopped, and the other three did so too. He looked up at a building’s rooftop, and Michelle recognized it as the rooftop that Lucifer had been sitting on when she had talked to him earlier.

“Is the portal up really up there?” Michelle asked. “I don’t think I can get up there…”

“It’s not that hard,” Ryokou told her. He scanned the building a moment before scaling it quickly.

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re a ninja!” Michelle shouted after him as he disappeared up above.

Vale stared at the building for a few seconds before taking a big, deep breath. As he exhaled, his eyes narrowed and he clenched his hands into fists. His arms started to bulge with muscles and take on a reddish hue. He opened his hands and now they had sharp, pointy nails. With a running start, Vale dug his nails into the wall before crawling up it even faster than Ryokou had.

“What the…?” Michelle breathed, mouth wide open in awe,

Seeking help and guidance from Lucifer, she turned around to find that he was no longer there. So he had already left her too, huh? Lovely, just lovely… Michelle glanced around her, looking for some inspiration. She noticed two black, wooden barrels with who knows what in them sitting up against the wall. Further looking around yielded a tall crate and two long planks.

Michelle then proceeded to construct a walkway, first setting the crate on top of one of the barrels and pushing the barrel out from by the wall somewhat, then balancing a plank between them, making a ramp because of the height the crate added to the other barrel. She carefully made her way across it, the plank wobbling underneath her weight. Once she safely reached the crate, which, thankfully, was quite sturdy, she carefully set the other plank onto the roof. As she climbed up onto the roof, she could just imagine Vale making some derisive comment about her having taken forever getting to the portal and the next world. Slowly, she walked around on the steep roof, always afraid that she would fall off onto the ground below her. She was relieved when she finally found the portal.