Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
Milo
The moment I heard the crash from the living room, I knew we weren't alone in this pocket dimension.
My mind raced through possibilities, maybe one of my skeletons had been pulled in with us?
But no, I'd sent them all back to my apartment before the rift opened.
Could it be Fenric or one of the others arriving to help?
But they didn't even know we were missing yet.
"Winter," I tried to keep my voice steady, "stay behind me and Horrace. Whatever's coming, I don't think it's friendly."
I glanced at Horrace, who was now fully alert, his tentacles spread in a defensive posture I hadn't seen before. All twelve of his eyes were focused on the doorway to the living room, and the musical sounds he usually made had been replaced by a low, discordant hum that made my teeth ache.
"Horrace," I made a quick decision, "I need you to try to figure out how to get us out of here. Focus on that. I'll handle whatever's coming."
"What?" Winter grabbed my arm. "No way. I'm not letting you face this alone."
I turned to her, surprised by the firmness in my own voice. "Winter, this is what I do. I protect you. That's my job."
"But…!"
"No," I cut her off, feeling uncharacteristically serious. "My job is to protect you, and that's what I'm going to do."
Another crash, closer now. Something heavy slammed against the wall between us and the living room. The entire pocket dimension shuddered in response.
I pushed away from Winter, propelling myself toward the doorway. As I floated there, I began drawing on the energy around me, feeling for the unique signature of this strange dimension. Every reality had its own magical frequency, and if I could attune to it, maybe I could use it.
I closed my eyes, focusing. The necromantic energy I usually worked with responded sluggishly here, but something else answered my call, a wild, chaotic power that felt both foreign and strangely familiar.
The pocket dimension's own energy, created from the mixture of Horrace's inter-dimensional nature and Winter's prophetic power.
"I can work with this," I opened my eyes as my hands began to glow with a mixture of my usual violet necromantic energy and a new, electric blue power.
Just in time. The doorway to the living room darkened, not with shadow but with... nothing. Something was pushing through, distorting the very fabric of this already distorted reality. The edges of the doorframe bent inward, stretching like taffy as something forced its way through.
"Milo?" Winter's voice was tense behind me. "What is that?"
I didn't answer because I didn't know. In all my studies of the supernatural, I'd never seen anything quite like this. It wasn't a ghost or a demon or any entity I could name. It was... wrong. Like reality had folded in on itself and created a paradox with mass and intent.
The thing that finally emerged through the doorway defied description.
It had a form, but my eyes couldn't quite process what that form was.
It shifted and changed, never settling on one shape.
Sometimes it seemed vaguely humanoid, other times more like a collection of shapes that shouldn't be able to exist in a three-dimensional space.
The only constant was its color, or rather, its lack of color.
It absorbed light rather than reflected it, a moving void in the shape of something.
"Oh," I breathed, recognition finally dawning. "It's a Void Eater."
"A what?" Winter called from behind me.
"A mythic-level being," I explained, never taking my eyes off the entity. "They're drawn to disturbances in fate. They feed on paradox and possibility."
The Void Eater moved toward us, not walking or floating but simply existing in progressively closer spaces, like it was teleporting in small increments. Each movement left a brief afterimage, a tear in reality that quickly healed itself.
I raised my hands, channeling the mixed energy I'd gathered. "Stay back!" I shouted at the entity, not really expecting it to listen but hoping to buy time.
To my surprise, it paused, its form rippling as if considering me. Then it made a sound, not a roar or a screech, but a sound like reality tearing, like the space between heartbeats stretched into audio form.
"I don't think it's here for us specifically," I called back to Winter, maintaining my position between her and the entity. "It's drawn to the prophetic energy, to the disturbance we created when we tore open this pocket dimension."
The Void Eater resumed its approach, moving with more purpose now.
I could feel its hunger, not as an emotion but as a physical force that pulled at my very being.
It wasn't malevolent, exactly, it was simply doing what it was made to do.
Consuming anomalies, restoring the natural order by devouring anything that didn't belong.
And in this pocket dimension, that was definitely us.
"Horrace!" I glanced briefly at the little guy before looking at the Void Eater. "Any progress on getting us out of here?"
I heard Horrace's distressed trilling behind me, followed by Winter's voice. "He's trying, but I don't think he knows how!"
The Void Eater was close enough now that I could feel its pull intensifying. My memories began to blur at the edges, yesterday seemed like last week, last year like yesterday. Time was becoming fluid in its presence.
"I remember this happening before," I frowned. "No, wait, that's not right. This has never happened before."
"Milo!" Winter's voice sounded worried. "What's happening to you?"
"It's affecting my memories," I tried to focus. "That's what they do, they feed on paradox, possibility, and memory. Being near one can cause déjà vu, lost time, or altered memories."
I couldn't wait any longer. Drawing on the chaotic energy of the pocket dimension, I formed a shield between us and the Void Eater, not a physical barrier but a weave of probability and potential, a magical construct designed to slow its approach.
All that studying growing up was paying off in a big way.
The entity paused again, its form rippling as it encountered my shield. Then it pressed forward, pushing against my magical barrier. I felt the strain immediately, like trying to hold back a tidal wave with my bare hands. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I poured more power into the shield.
"I can't hold it for long," I gritted out. "Horrace, we really need an exit strategy!"
I heard Horrace's distressed musical notes, higher and more frantic than before. He was trying, but whatever had caused him to create this pocket dimension wasn't something he could consciously control.
The Void Eater pushed harder against my shield, and I felt something warm trickle from my nose. Blood. Using this much unfamiliar energy was taking a physical toll.
"Milo, you're bleeding!" Winter sounded alarmed.
"It's fine," I managed a strained smile without turning around. "Just a little magical nosebleed. Happens all the time."
That was a lie. I'd never had a magical nosebleed in my life. But I needed to keep Winter calm, needed to maintain my focus on the shield that was our only protection against the entity.
The Void Eater changed tactics. Instead of pushing directly against my shield, it began to circle it, looking for weaknesses. Its form stretched and compressed as it moved, occasionally extending tendrils of nothingness that probed at my magical barrier.
One tendril found a weak spot and pushed through, reaching toward me with impossible speed.
I felt it brush against my consciousness, and suddenly I was remembering things that had never happened, growing up with parents instead of in foster care, attending a normal school instead of the Academy for Supernatural Studies, living a life without magic or death or the constant companionship of the reanimated dead.
"No!" I shouted, forcing the false memories away. "You don't get to rewrite me!"
I poured more energy into the shield, reinforcing the breach. The tendril withdrew, but the damage was done. I could feel my strength waning, my control over the unfamiliar energies slipping.
"Winter," my voice strained, "I need your help. Your prophetic energy, it might be the key to driving this thing back."
"I don't know how to use it," she sounded frustrated. "It just happens!"
"Then let it happen! Let it flow through you, into Horrace, into me. We're connected now, all three of us. The prophecy brought us together for a reason!"
I heard her take a deep breath. Then I felt it, a surge of power, blue and bright and ancient, flowing from Winter to Horrace and then to me. It strengthened my shield, pushing back against the Void Eater's relentless pressure.
For a moment, I thought we might actually drive it away. The entity retreated slightly, its form rippling with what might have been confusion or surprise.
Then it changed again, its shape becoming sharper, more defined. It gathered itself and lunged forward with renewed force, slamming into my shield with the weight of a collapsing star.
The barrier shattered.
I was thrown backward by the backlash, tumbling through the zero-gravity environment until I collided with Winter and Horrace. The impact sent us all spinning toward the far wall.
"Milo!" Winter grabbed my arm, steadying me. "Are you okay?"
I wiped blood from my nose, trying to focus my vision. The Void Eater was advancing again, moving with deliberate purpose now that the shield was gone.
"I'm okay," I lied again. My head was pounding, and I could feel my connection to the pocket dimension's energy weakening. "But we're out of time. Horrace, please tell me you have something!"
Horrace made a series of urgent musical notes, his form glowing brightly as he wrapped tentacles around both Winter and me.
Somehow I could tell what he needed.
"Winter," I turned to her, "Horrace has an idea, but he needs more power. He needs to borrow your prophetic energy directly."
Winter didn't hesitate. "How do I do that?"