Unfathomable [Gate in the Deep]

[Magus]

“Pirates!!” Jimmy bellowed, before a second shell smashed into the deck at his feet, swallowing him up in a maelstrom of fire and shattered wood. Magus found himself missing his cloak as he shielded his eyes from the debris.

Not one, but two ships now approached, flanking the leaky tub Magus and Alexandria had set out on. On the starboard side, a hulking grey destroyer lumbered toward them, bristling with guns. On the port side, an old-yet-formidable Man O’ War made to broadside them, its cannons and sails poking out in all directions – and in this ridiculous universe, there was no way to tell which was the more significant threat.

Still. It wouldn’t hurt to reduce these odds.

A pair of booms rang out from the approaching sailing ship. One massive cannonball sailed between the demon and a deck hand, crashing through the railing on the far side of the ship. The other smashed into the side of their vessel, doing untold damage to whatever decks the dingy boat might have had.

“Surrender immediately!” came the amplified, squelching boom of a voice augmented by a PA system, even as the greasy captain began passing out what looked like AK-47s to what remained of the crew.

He handed one to Magus, who waved it off. “I won’t need it. But you,” he pointed to Alexandria, all but turning his back on the captain. “Take whatever gear or crew you need and keep the old ship busy. I’ll deal with the other.”

Alex’s appraising eyes reflected her lack of confidence in Magus’ statement, but she turned and rushed toward the Man O’ War all the same.

“We’re only here for your cargo!” the amped-up voice droned. “Surrender or we’ll hit you again!”

The wizard didn’t actually need more of a reason to slaughter the entire crew of a warship, but it was nice to have one just the same. He strode to the now-smoldering edge of the ship closest to the enormous metal vessel, and lazily extended a hand toward it.

Hateful energy coalesced and congealed before his palm as he tossed a casual glance over his shoulder to witness Alex burst into a cloud of smoke. Nearly too fast for him to track, he spied bursts of water, like splashes of someone running insanely fast across it, and then another burst of smoke on the deck of the Man O’ War. The captain and crew supported her with little more than gunfire from the boat, but she seemed confident in spite of the situation.

Good. Perhaps she’ll be of use after all, he thought as he turned back to the destroyer, before a closing his fist around the sickening glob of negative energy. He leapt into the air and vanished in a burst of greasy smoke.

Magus flew – literally flew – across  the void between the two vessels in the In-Between of this world and the other, slipping straight through the armored plating of the destroyer like it wasn’t even there.

He found himself inside a ready room of some kind, positively teeming with soldiers who were presumably going over the final briefings before heading topside to board Captain Fatass’ hopeless ship. He raised his killer’s hands, crackling with dark energy, when he saw one of those damnable Shadow People leering at him from over the shoulder of one of the many troopers.

“Not today,” he hissed, Shadowstepping back into reality. Time caught back up and to his soon-to-be-victims, a deathly pale man had just popped into existence right in front of them. There was barely enough time for a handful of shouts before dark bolts of Gloom lit up the room, filling it with sizzling bursts of impact and the screams of his enemies.

When he was done, only the hiss of scorched flesh remained to greet the silence.

- - - - -

Word swept through the ship like fire. A man like a ghost, a walking apocalypse, was cutting through sailors from deck to deck, killing everyone in sight. Some screamed, some hid, most ran. Some tried to fight back, firing on him with automatic weapons. Wisps of purple smoke enveloped him wherever bullets seemed to strike him, but rather than bite into his flesh, they passed through him like he wasn’t there to begin with.

Relentless, untouchable, the Demon King strode on, charring his enemies with magic and cutting them down with his scythe. He continued downward, deck by deck, sometimes lashing out with a barrage of energy, sometimes cloaking the corridor in a Miasma before slaughtering his victims one by one like cattle.

Magus descended another staircase and was ambushed by a young boy in dress whites who made to bludgeon him with a fire extinguisher. The Fiendlord easily deflected the strike with the haft of his scythe, before raking the sinister blade across the boy’s back. A weak, gurgling grunt was all he managed before he collapsed in a bloody heap.

He made his way forward through the deck, having finally found what he was looking for; a vast cache of armaments – explosives and artillery, hidden deep in the bowels of the ship to keep them exploding prematurely from a lucky shot from an enemy vessel, but totally defenseless from a strike coming from inside the ship.

The room was large and heavily defended. Almost at once, a barrage of gunfire assailed him and he was forced to Shadowstep in order to evade the incoming hail of lead. Magus charged through the monochrome reflection of reality, unwilling to spend any more time in this place than he had to. His foes, nearly frozen in time, were helpless.

The One Above All burst into existence, slicing his blade across the throat of an officer before vanishing and then almost instantly appearing again to cut down another soldier. Panic soon gripped the men as Magus blinked in and out of view, claiming a new soul each time he reappeared.

Soon, the men ran, many of them casting their guns aside in their haste. Soon, Magus blinked back into being in a room nearly filled wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with military-grade high-explosive. Just what he needed to take care of this little problem.