Legends of Amacia Heart of Darkness

Meanwhile in ancient Acheron, Hanna lay unconscious on her bed as the portable first-aid/healing kit continued to work on her battered and burned body. Hanna’s mind lay in the deepest, most primal state. Like Selina, Hanna too was enduring great pain and torment in her dreams. Repeatedly, she dreamed of the sex floor, Hell’s Kitchen, and the Arena along with everything she endured in each diabolical place. Each time she dreamed it, it was a little different and little more violent and bloody. It was as if she were caught in an endless loop replaying the same thing endlessly with only brief periods where she wasn’t dreaming. After about the twentieth time, the dreams changed, becoming much more bizarre and terrifying.

In the new dream, Hanna found herself not on the sex floor or in Hell’s Kitchen, or even in the Arena, but in a strange, ruined city unknown but oddly familiar to her. She stood on the wall by herself looking out into a bleak wasteland. Hanna tried to sense where Selina was but wasn’t able to. It was as if Selina had ceased to exist. Off in the distance, Hanna saw dunes rising like great mountains, churning like slow-motion waves driven in a storm. Suddenly, from the desolate wastes, an army of unspeakable figures began to rise out of the sands and advance on her position. She looked on in numbed horror as she realized what she was seeing: the Old Ones in their full hideous glory. Hanna did not shriek as their numbers began to fill the desert before her...spilling and tumbling over the rapidly changing dunes like a plague of ants advancing on a target. The demoniac army roared for her as they slowly approached the city.

Fear suddenly rose in Hanna’s heart and soul. She began backing away as the leading edge of the terrible demon army became clear in the dust and sand it was kicking up. She turned to look inside the wall and saw a giant tower rising to the sky like an obscenity. It lay almost two miles distant, but rose nearly a mile in height like a great monolith, dwarfing all the other buildings in the city between her and the tower. She sensed a terrible stinking evil emanating from the tower, which rivaled the hideous horde that had encompassed the whole horizon. Hanna looked back at the Old Ones as they approached. She immediately checked herself for weapons, and found herself completely nude and totally unarmed, not a pocketknife for defense or even a towel to cover her nudity. Primal fear overflowed Hanna’s mind, overpowering the humiliation of being nude in the open, causing her to flee the army of unspeakable figures. She raced along the wall until she found a way into the city and fled instinctively toward the evil tower, drawn to it as a moth to a flame.

As Hanna raced through the streets, she saw that the whole city was a graveyard with the gleaming bones of the ancient dead everywhere in differing stages of decomposition. An eerie howl and cry began to echo through the city as she ran. She turned a corner and was suddenly faced by a whole street of freshly slain people, all of whom she knew. Hanna’s whole team was there, as were Nicodemus and the people of Arionath. It stopped her cold as her heart pounded like a jackhammer with fear and doubt. Her eyes refused to shut as she staggered forward into the street where the blood from the kills ran in the gutters three inches deep. The bodies and body parts lay strewn everywhere: hacked and torn to pieces.

Hanna walked slowly through the street until she encountered Harry’s body: arms and legs ripped off and his torso shredded by four massive claws that raked him from the left shoulder to the right hip. Right next to him lay the dismembered bodies of Nicodemus and Joshua, torn limb from limb and their guts strewn everywhere. She stopped and closed her eyes as her mind reeled from the sight. “Oh, no,” she breathed as she began to break emotionally. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she squatted down next to Harry’s body. “Oh, no, no, no!” she wailed, “My friends!” Dropping to her knees, Hanna threw herself across what was left of Harry’s body and bawled, sobbing uncontrollably for the loss of her friend. “Nooo!” she screamed at the sky as she wept on Harry’s torn body, completely forgetting about the approaching demoniac army. “Why are you doing this to me?” she cried hysterically to the sky.

Suddenly, Harry’s voice came out of the corpse, startling Hanna so badly she jumped back in fright. “Hanna,” Harry said in almost a whisper. “Do not weep for us. This isn’t your fault. Go to the tower. Go now, please; hurry!”

Hanna looked on in absolute horror as she watched Harry’s eyes open as he spoke. That was all Harry said. Once Harry finished speaking, his eyes closed and his mauled chest burst open as a huge clawed reptilian hand nearly as large as his chest reached out of it trying to grasp Hanna. She took off running when the hand came out of Harry’s torn body.

A hundred yards farther down the street, she saw Nathanael’s body, along with Amelia and Xavier’s. All three were ripped open and their internal organs scattered all over the street. Nathanael was also missing a leg and an arm. His head was cleaved just above the eyes with his brains exposed and shredded as if something feasted on it. Hanna stopped dead in her tracks when she saw it and puked.

“What’s happening here?” Hanna sobbed in terror and loss as she cautiously approached Nathanael’s mangled corpse. “Oh, God in heaven...what’s going on here?” Hanna refused to touch the body after what had happened with Harry’s corpse. She stood over Nathanael’s corpse and bawled like a little girl scared to death. “Oh, Nathanael; look what did they do to you!” she sobbed, tears running like a river as she looked on the mangled remains. Hanna covered her mouth with her hand, and then wailed to the sky like a banshee in excruciating grief.

As Hanna stood over Nathanael’s remains, her tears fell on the body as she looked on. When the tears fell on the body, the arm that was still attached twitched, causing Hanna to quickly back away again. She looked into Nathanael’s dead face and shrieked when his eyes opened. Hanna turned to run when Nathanael’s voice spoke from his corpse. “Don’t run, Hanna,” he insisted. “You can’t run anymore.” Hanna froze and turned back to Nathanael. As she looked down, speechless, Nathanael declared, “No more running, my friend. It’s time to face the beast down. Now hurry, go to the tower, and don’t look back. The Old Ones are nearly upon you. Go now and don’t stop for anything or anyone!” Nathanael’s eyes closed and Hanna fled; this time not stopping for anyone or anything. As she fled, she could hear the roars and shrieks of the unholy abominations echoing through the streets.

The next thing Hanna realized, she was standing on top of the colossal mile-high tower, looking down over the city. The demoniac horde that had emerged from the sands crawled through the city like ants, flowing over everything in their path. In seconds, she realized she was totally surrounded and the abominations were beginning to scale the tower. Hanna dropped to her knees in defeat and cried out, “I might as well die here. Everything and everyone I know is gone!” she sobbed bitterly. Suddenly, she heard maniacal laughter coming from every direction in addition to the hisses and roars of the unholy horde of the Old Ones. Hanna ignored it as the horde scaled the tower, closing in on the top. The laughter got louder and Hanna abruptly looked around. “Wait a minute,” she said, rising to her feet and moving to the center of the tower. “I know that damned diabolical laugh.” She turned around several times as the laughter continued. “Show yourself, Black Prince!” she shouted angrily, her berserker rage starting to boil.

In an instant, an apparition of the Black Prince appeared just off the tower, standing nearly a hundred feet in height. Hanna hesitated as the Old Ones topped the tower and spilled onto the deck. They made a fifty-foot perimeter around her and stopped short. “You’re alone, Beowulf,” the Black Prince hissed triumphantly. “I have destroyed all of your friends and I even have your mate too in the palm of my hand; See.” He reached out his hand, which was balled into a fist and opened it. In his hand lay Selina chained and helpless.

“Selina!” Hanna cried out, rushing toward the line of Old Ones. The Black Prince laughed wickedly as he closed his fist. Selina screamed in pain when he did and Hanna stopped just short of plowing into the Old Ones.

“She’s mine, Beowulf,” the Black Prince hissed, “She’ll be my queen and there’s nothing you can do about it. She’ll rule at the Emperor’s side for all eternity.”

Hanna fell to her knees and cried, “No! She’ll not be your queen!”

Hanna’s stubborn refusal to submit started irritating the Black Prince. “You have nothing to say about it, you mutated bitch. She has already been turned,” he hissed wickedly. “And as you see here, my friends are more than ready to overrun the world as well. They have been imprisoned for far too long in the dimensional void of the Nexus. They hunger for the taste of human flesh again. Yours will be the first taste.”

Hanna refused to look at the Black Prince, but at the deck in front of her as the Old Ones began to close in menacingly around her. She sobbed and cried not for her own demise, but for those whom she felt that she had failed. Oh, how I’ve failed them, she thought.

The Black Prince looked on with a triumphant smile, saying, “Time for you to join us, Beowulf. Hell is waiting for you. All right, my old friends...teach her the real meaning of pain.”

Hanna knelt there like a lamb, awaiting the inevitable. As the Old Ones began to close in on her, a familiar voice echoed in her ears, “On your feet, Hanna; time to face the Evil.” Hanna’s face suddenly steeled like flint as she rose. The Black Prince immediately took notice of it and began to frown as Hanna’s face began to shine. In seconds, the light became so brilliant that the Old Ones had to back away. Hanna suddenly felt a strange power that seemed to have been awakened and unleashed in her; a power that reminded her of the platinum-armored Hannibal avatar she dreamed about while still prisoner of the Emperor. Instantly, she was aware of her guardian angels Gideon, Jarret, and Bannon. They stood flanking her and smiled as Hanna looked at them.

“Don’t be afraid,” Gideon told her confidently.

“Get them!” The Black Prince roared and the Old Ones began to move in again.

“I don’t think so,” a loud voice boomed out of Hanna; a voice that wasn’t hers. Suddenly, a colossal war angel with his face shrouded in a hood and cloak rose out of Hanna and stood over her, dwarfing Hanna, Gideon, Jarret, Bannon, and the Old Ones, standing like a giant every bit as large as the Black Prince. Hanna instantly knew the voice of the hooded angel. When the hooded angel appeared, his power forced the Old Ones to fall back to the edge of the tower. The Black Prince’s jaw hung open and a stream of vile profanity and curses rolled out as the giant warrior removed his hood and pulled out a very large sword that shined like the sun. “You can’t have her, demon. You’ll have to go through me first!” the warrior shouted with a voice that shook the tower. Hanna’s mouth hung open as she looked up at the mighty war angel.

“Caverias!” the Black Prince hissed venomously, taken completely by surprise at the warrior’s appearance. “Shit! I thought I had finished you off in the 1st Age. Now, I’ll finish the job I started with Thoth.” The Old Ones fled Caverias’ presence, descending the tower as fast as they arose.

The Black Prince, on the other hand, drew his colossal black blade and moved menacingly toward Hanna. Caverias moved forward to intercept. The Black Prince lashed out at Caverias, who stopped his sword cold with his own. A shower of infernal fire rained from the clashing blades. Hanna immediately fell to her knees and began to pray, strengthening Caverias. With four strikes, Caverias beat the Black Prince back from the tower. The Black Prince cursed and raged as Caverias pushed him away. Suddenly, a giant albino caronadon the size of a 737 jet appeared out of nowhere and scooped up Hanna, taking her away from the scene of the terrific battle between the angelic and demoniac titans. When the Black Prince saw Hanna being carried beyond his reach, he cursed and swore, hissing, “Another time, Caverias. This isn’t over by any means.” In an instant, he was gone. Then the angels vanished with the giant caronadon and the ruined city. With a desperate cry, Hanna woke out of the dream bawling and crying uncontrollably, bolting to a sitting position in her bed.

Looked around the room wildly, Hanna wasn’t sure whether she was still dreaming. She looked around the room in great fear and panic as she sobbed. Within seconds of her cry, Nathanael, Harry, and Amelia rushed in the room to see Hanna crying like a baby with her face in her hands. They all rushed to the bed and Amelia climbed on the bed, sitting next to Hanna, putting her arms around her to try to calm her. “Shhh. Calm down, Hanna. You’re awake now,” Amelia cooed in her ear.

Nathanael and Harry sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to try to calm Hanna. “It’s all right, Hanna. We’re here for you,” Nathanael cooed in her ear as well.

It took almost two minutes for Hanna to realize that she wasn’t still dreaming. She looked into Amelia’s face as she sobbed, throwing her arms around Amelia’s neck, crying hysterically on her shoulder. Amelia saw the terror and loss on Hanna’s face. “It’s all right. Shhh. It’s all right,” she cooed in her ear.

When Nathanael saw that Hanna was having a serious problem dealing with whatever troubled her, he crawled on the bed too and put his arms around her, purring for her. Harry watched in amazement. He had never seen Hannibal in such a vulnerable state, and wondered if the forced mutation had anything to do with Hanna’s present hysterics. “What happened?” Harry asked gently with great amazement as Nathanael and Amelia managed to calm Hanna down.

Hanna looked up at Nathanael and hugged him with one arm as she held on to Amelia with the other. “I thought I had lost you all,” she sobbed. “I saw the Old Ones coming for me, and then I saw everyone I knew ripped to pieces in a city I’ve never been to.” She wept hysterically after speaking.

“You haven’t lost us, Hanna. We’re still here and in one piece,” Nathanael purred in her ear.

“No, you weren’t!” Hanna cried as she tried to deal with to absolute horrific and bizarre nature of the dream. “Harry had all of his limbs ripped off and his chest ripped open and you, Nathanael, were mangled with your guts scattered everywhere and the top of your head cut clean off. Oh, God have mercy. I haven’t seen that kind of brutality since Dezarcus possessed me.” She wailed in grief-stricken terror for a few moments, saying afterwards, “You, all of you, were dead and I knew it; and then to top it off your corpse spoke to me, Harry.”

Harry moved in front of Hanna and grasped her trembling hands, looking her in the eye, saying, “It was just a dream; nightmare. It wasn’t real.”

Hanna’s nose ran as she retorted, “Yes, it was! The Black Prince has Selina! He means to make her his queen!”

Amelia’s mouth hung open for a moment at the revelation, and then she asked, “You’re sure about this? Could it be that your fever caused this nightmare?”

Hanna cringed as a surge of pain ran through her chest where Hades had burned her. “Maybe for the Old Ones and maybe for the Black Prince, but something else happened that I still can’t believe happened. A special warrior angel appeared as I was about to be eaten by the Old Ones and he saved my ass. It’s the same intelligence that nearly overwhelmed me when we found the scepter in Kaal Bek. It’s the hooded angel that brought Bannon in to help me deal with being a mutated woman,” she replied, whimpering.

Nathanael’s face lit up in astonishment. “You’re kidding?” he asked.

Hanna shook her head, saying as she slowly calmed down, “No, sir. I’m not. This spirit told me, as did you and Harry in the dream that the time was now to face the evil down. It....” Hanna’s head began to spin and she said, “Sorry guys, but I think I’m going out a....” Before she could finish, Hanna passed out again, slumping in Amelia’s and Nathanael’s arms. Amelia, Nathanael, and Harry looked at Hanna in amazement, and then at each other. Amelia and Nathanael gently laid Hanna down on the bed and pulled the blankets over her to her chest.

Amelia caressed Hanna’s cheek as Nathanael stroked her hair. Looking up at Nathanael, she said, “Something sinister is going on here, Nathanael. I don’t know what it is, but I know it will not pleasant to deal with. She mentioned the Old Ones.”

“What are the Old Ones?” Harry asked.

Nathanael refused to answer and they looked at Amelia as she held Hanna’s hand. Looking Harry in the eye, Amelia said with a very grim look, “The Old Ones are a vile race of ancient demons the Cadre gets their power from. Their very existence is an abomination and a blot on the universe. They’re very powerful and extremely dangerous entities that thrive on misery, madness, and chaos. They haven’t been seen on the Earth since the days of the Kragonar, the legends say. According to the myths, they were part of the Emperor’s shock troops that were to overrun the world at that time. Apart from that, I can’t tell you much more. The Old Ones are mythical beings who thrive on chaos and destruction. If the Cadre means to unleash them, the whole world is in the gravest of danger.”

Harry looked down and cursed, saying, “This is not good. What do you think, Nathanael?”

Nathanael sighed as he looked down in Hanna’s unconscious face. For a moment, he didn’t reply. “Nathanael?” Harry asked, touching him on the arm. “Are you all right?”

Nathanael suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and said, “Yes, Harry. I’m fine. But if this is true, then we have an escalation that we didn’t take into consideration. Amelia, I believe you know a great deal about the Cadre.”

Amelia’s countenance fell as she replied, “Yes, I know more about them than I wish I did. But I’ll try to be as forthcoming as I can. But understand...it’s not going to be pleasant dealing with them and the Emperor as well.”

“I know,” Nathanael sighed. “We need to find Nicodemus and Joshua. They need to know what’s going on here and we need to come up with a strategy for dealing with the Emperor and the Cadre. Harry...could you?”

Harry nodded, saying, “Of course I’ll watch over her. Go.” Nathanael got off the bed and headed toward the door.

Amelia looked at Hanna one last time with sisterly love and kissed her on the forehead. “Rest easy, my friend. May the darkness not infest your dreams this time,” she told her softly. Harry and Nathanael looked at her as she did it and couldn’t help but see the care in her attitude. She got off the bed and walked to the door, saying, “Come, my Lynxian friend. Let’s find Nicodemus.” She walked out of the door and Nathanael looked one last time at Harry and Hanna. Nathanael nodded to Harry and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Harry looked at the first-aid kit, which was still working. The crystal continued to glow in the box. Harry pulled the blankets back to examine Hanna’s wounds. He noticed the little disks were still clinging to her and the tiny crystals were glowing as well. He then peeled some of the bandage up on her chest and looked at a small portion of the wounds on her right side. The wounds were still very bad, but the infection and puss had ceased and some of the smaller cuts had begun to knit. Satisfied by what he saw, he refastened the bandage and stared at Hanna’s form for a few moments. The thought of being forcibly changed into a woman tormented Harry down in his soul, yet he wondered what Hannibal was feeling as Hanna. A smile crept across his face as he suddenly realized Hanna was what Hannibal would have looked like if he’d been born a woman. Hanna was everything Hannibal was, just in a beautiful female package.

“Damn,” Harry murmured, “You’re as beautiful as a woman as you were ugly as a man. Who would’ve figured it?” He covered Hanna up to the chin with the blanket and patted her on the head. Going to a chair, he slumped in it and sighed. “It’s going to be a miracle if you survive this one,” he said aloud to no one.