The Beyonders; I am the Devils incarnate

Just then, a hissing filled the tube, and liquid, similar to those in the other tubes, poured in. Within minutes, Daxon was doused in it, totally unconscious.

But his voice had echoed:

"Where am I?"

he was floating, adrift in a viscous void, his eyes had opened slowly and warily to meat a stream of darkness, he looked around squinting his eyes but the darkness had no end. Just an ocean of nothingness, stretching into eternity.

suddenly he felt wet he made to move his hand but noticed that they were all in water he wasn't floating at all he was lying on a dark ground as dark as the void he had found himself in.

The floor had completely camouflaged with the darkness that he had thought for a while there that he was aloft.

Supporting himself with his hand, he sat up. Clearly, he lay inside water, and darkness etched to the very far end of where he was. It was empty, for he had no one or saw no one. How could he? Anyone might be standing beside him, but he wouldn't know.

The bad thing was that he didn't remember how he had gotten there. He unravelled through the tangled skein of his memory to find out, but nothing, it was blank, like the darkness he was in.

All he remembered was lying inside the ascension pod and then nothing.

What the fuck was going on? Right now, things seemed to be going from bad to worse, and now he was starting to feel unnerved.

but something started happening, a dim light emanated from behind him.

Like a divine, purple streaks of light flickered past, rushing from behind him to the front with a very low and ephemeral dim glint. A few feet away from Daxon, it stopped and then started hovering at a spot.

At first, it was one, then slowly two… three… four… then many. They came rushing from behind him upfront, each one of them ending about thirteen feet away from him.

One by one, they aligned themselves, hovering in perfect symmetry, until a constellation shimmered into existence.

And just then, it stood clear to Daxon's eyes. The dim purple glint, which now lit up the void, but not clearly, had formed a head.

The head looked glitched, and it was unstable, since the purple streams were still oscillating about, making the head sparkle and glow, but yet lacked pure and static form.

Daxon stood looking at it. At first, he didn't know what to say or do. The fact of being in what seemed like an endless murky space was enough to plague his brain and throw him into obscurity.

As if the enigmatic and surreptitious head in front of him had gone through his mind, it spoke with a female voice, at least making Daxon know that it was female. Its voice echoed in a smothered way.

"Daxon Smith, welcome to the Hollow-Annex."

Daxon blinked instinctively. He feared whatever that thing was, but that didn't hide the fact that questions now pulsed through his head.

He made to talk, but his voice was croaked, rasped at least from the fact that he had been quiet for who knows how long, or for the fact that he was terrified of where he had found himself.

Clearing his throat, he spoke, his voice clear and a bit firm.

"What are you… and what the hell is going on…? I'm… I'm freaking out right now… so what the hell is the Hollow?"

The head clearly should see him as weird now as well. But who knows? It might be a magical entity, or even God, and maybe this was his judgment day. Clearly, he was going to hell. The fact that he was being judged in a dark place showed that.

The head spoke.

"This is no judgment. This is your fate, and it lies entwined with your path. I am just a mere fabrication that now exists in your head, taking the form you wish me to."

Daxon was surprised at the fact that it knew what he was thinking. He shook his head bizarrely.

Whatever reality this is, all he could say is that it is fucked up. He hadn't even thought of a head made out of the constellation of what looked like stars, why would she say he made her up?

"You still doubt me… I am a Nexer, a minor entity created by the Twin Lords to help maintain a perfect system and coordination of the Trinity, a force that you can never fathom. I go by many names and have been called many. I am the pathway to the Harnes and..."

"The Harnes?" Daxon chirped in, cutting her off. unable to restrain himself.

Yes, of course he shouldn't, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that she was now bragging. Therefore, they should cut to the chase.

"What is the Harnes?" he asked curiously.

"The Harnes is where you are travelling to now… it is a place where you will be chosen, where your 'will,' will be determined, and your true self revealed."

Daxon now stared into the Nexer's eye. It was as if, the more she spoke, she complicated things and gave out just a very little answer to his inquisitiveness, making it itch worse. He didn't want veiled metaphors, he wanted truth.

"My true self revealed? What for… is this some kind of test? Well, if it is, tell me what I'd be facing. I need to get prepared, to think ahead."

The voice, in its very bright tone, said,

"A test, yes… but why spoil the fun when you are about to go find out yourself?"

Those words agitated and irritated Daxon all the more. That was what the lady who got him here had said.

He had watched anime and had seen what great entities looked like, and judging from them, this one was a jerk. Pathetic, and might even be worse than him.

Hiding information that should be useful to him, it was a douchebag.

The angry thoughts hurtled through Daxon's mind, when suddenly he was cut short by an intense and formidable strike across his stomach.

He had assailed the entity, and now he was hurled backward, reaped through the air and clashed through what seemed like glass. With a very loud thud, his back hit something hard and he slumped to the floor.

He made to groan, but rather he spluttered out blood from his mouth as the pain surged through him. He had never felt something like that before.

He gasped in deep seethe, all his body seemed as though trodden on by a mighty elephant, especially his lungs. It seemed as though they were now flat and could hardly contain enough air.

He sat with his legs stretched on the floor and his back resting on the cracked wall he had hit.

Something caught his glimpse as he wiped the blood off his mouth with his wrist.

He was no longer in the hospital robe. He was now wearing a thick brown jacket over a black top, and then big, flared black pants with many pockets.

At that, he looked around, astounded that he could now see himself and that he was no longer in the Hollow Annex. He looked around, again he was back in his city, at his street to be precise. He groaned.

The lawn where he had crashed looked familiar, too familiar.And then the neighbourhood, the road, the balcony; blimey. He had crashed at his street, and he was outside his house.

No way that was possible. He couldn't believe his eyes. Their house was in one piece.

Nothing had happened to it. That explained things, he had been in a very long coma.Maybe he had even sleepwalked outside the house.

"Did I really though?"

He still felt pain. His legs could hardly carry his body, and his back was asunder, probably his spine might have even shattered. Who knows?

The fact that that entity had gone mad and dealt precariously with him was what he was trying to push away from his mind.

And now, if only this house had arms and could fit in his embrace, he would have given it a hug.

He stood up and staggered forward, away from the lawn and into the road, to take a clearer look at the house.

A smile lingered on his face. Whatever the entity did, it ended up doing him a favour, thinking it was punishing him.

He was home, and it appears his home wasn't even destroyed. But it seemed strange, no one was there.

Not just at his house, but on his street.Throughout the whole block, probably the entire city.

Nobody, not a single soul.

"What the fuck is going on."