I was finally going to be rid of him. This was going to be a whole new beginning for me.
He slowly rose up like a dark inky fog from the shadows on the floor. I stood there almost dumb founded by what I was seeing. There would be no more running, no more otherworldly deals to make and no more places to hide. One way or another it would end here tonight and on my terms.
It had taken me days and weeks to prepare the chamber. All was prepared as written a millennia or more ago by the great masters. I was feeling strong and I was mentally ready. This would be our final battlefield...
His great form was now solidifying. His ancient bones now petrified with great age had formed before me from thin air and he stood towering over me, nearly 15 feet tall. His eyes glowing with impossible energies.
I quickly ran through the final verses of the incantation as massive metallic claws materialized like sadistic fingernails on his skeletal like hands. The last vestiges of his rotting flesh was illuminated by the circle of flames, now surrounding him. The intensity of the flames was such that I was then brushed back nearly 6 feet or more scorching my ceremonial robes. I quickly dropped the now generously smoldering robes to the floor as tiny orange burning fibers filled the air around it.
I raised the ancient tome over my head. I had spent nearly my entire lifetime in recovering it just to be rid of this fucker. I began to recite the next set of verses. My adversary writhed in agony and the glowing energy where his eyes should have been dimmed to a flickering of light, nearly extinguished.
“You were a fool to come here Lord. This world is my dream and I am the master here!” I shouted triumphantly.
Just then, a cold wind blew in the chamber doors and swirled the flames around his grotesque form. My heart sank deeply as he began to laugh hysterically.
He then rose up tall in all his gloriously towering terror and continued to laugh. His eyes brightened intensely and I had to look away for the moment slightly blinded by the flash of light. The room began to spin and shake and the bastard spoke in a voice like clapping thunder.
“Foolish my plaything…? For it is you who are the fool… for this... is my dream…” His laugh then shook the ground upon which I now stood.
The barren landscape before me was a vast wasteland of fire and scorched earth. Rocks and fire rained down from the sky all around us. He now sat upon a black stone throne caked in blood, bits of rotting flesh, shattered bones and it was carved to resemble brutally tortured souls howling in terror and pain. They seemed to stare out at me desperately. A wildly burning but blackened sun was high in the murky sky that terrified me to the point that I’d lost all control of my bowels.
He closed his out stretched hand and pulled it in toward his boney growth adorned chest. The ancient tome wrestled itself free of my grasp and dissolved into the foul air. When he opened his hand the book was in it.
I stood there completely transfixed and unable to move. He dragged a lazy claw across the cover and I was overcome with a searing pain in my left shoulder region. A second later my severed arm fell to the ground. His deafening laughter completely drowned out my screams. I knew this was only the beginning…