Two nova white eyes glared at him and a chill breath rippled upon his neck. He lay, bound to the darkness by molten chains that singed his arms. A foreign mind clawed at him, driving painful daggers into his soul.
His stomach went clammy.
Maanta was alone.
He did not know where, although something felt familiar. Where was he?
“Come to me,” the spoken sounds seared within his mind. “Come and be adorned.”
“Who’s there?” Maanta replied. “What do you want of me?”
“I am power. I am strength. I am darkness.” Sizzling nova eyes glared at him, as the words slithered from the shadows beyond.
“What do you want of me?”
“I am lust. I am hatred. I am fire.”
A shiver swept through Maanta’s body. What was happening? What was this thing?
“I am denial. I am jealousy. I am fear. Do you fear me?” The low ominous tones hissed through the night. “Come to me! Come and be adorned.”
Maanta huddled in a corner of the darkness, trying to escape the light of the reflecting nova eyes that shimmered across his face. Water began to bubble about him, forming boils upon his flesh. Tears flowed unstoppably from his eyes, wide open in terror.
And then Maanta realized.
His eyes dried.
He had been here before.
The tension in his muscles relaxed, and his breathing calmed. It was only a dream. The boils on his skin and the burning scars about his body disappeared, and the nova white eyes took shape before him.
“Do you know what I am?” the thing hissed in Maanta’s thoughts, its serpent body swirling in the blackness.
I do, Maanta thought, and yet I can’t say the word.
“You know me?” the serpent laughed wickedly.
“Lucifer!” The word leapt from Maanta’s lips.
The serpent coiled and its shimmering white eyes flinched. “Join me!” It hissed to him. “Together we can rule the depths!”
“Never.” Maanta floated in the still darkness, a massive opal trident appearing in his hands.
“Then one of us must die,” the serpent returned in a whisper. “And it will not be me!”
It leapt towards Maanta, only to be skewered upon the tips of his trident.
Maanta plunged the weapon deeper into the squirming body. “You will never again harm my people,” he said.
But then his trident took on a serpent form of its own, becoming one with the attacker. Bright eyes shone and its tongue flicked in and out, as it pulled away from Maanta once more.
“You cannot defeat the darkness!”
It writhed and grew three times its original size, before lunging for Maanta’s waist, ripping his body apart.
Heat rippled through his soul; burning flames consuming Maanta as mind and sight went blank. His eyes cooked like fish eggs, and burst into the open darkness.