10-19-2016, 10:28 PM
The Necrolopita of Dis was less of a city and more a gnarled collection of meat, metal, and anguish. Malformed skyscrapers, made from what appeared to be skin stretched over steel beams, scratched at burgundy clouds overhead. It looked like a butcher shop and an automobile factory had slipped through the nth dimension -- to be fair that analogy probably wasn’t too far off. Breathing deep one would find that the air was mixed with gasoline and hot grease. You’d get used to it. Well, that’s not entirely true. You more or less would forget about it when faced with the other unmitigated horrors. Did I forget to mention the sounds? Oh god the absolute noise. Like cats thrown against a metal ceiling fan. In other words this place was an assault on every sense; and, perhaps the most terrifying aspect of it all, you did get used to it. You acclimated. But perhaps most unsettling of all was the denizens of this twisted city. Awkward abominations and guttural fiends roamed the streets of Dis. Most of them looked like Satan’s Mr. Potato Head, just a jumbled mess of random parts slapped together on varying frames. I looked like a white boy from the suburbs of Rhode Island thrust into Compton, in other words I looked very much out of place and everyone knew it.
Now I want you to hear me out before I tell you this next part. I was tired, plain and simple as that. We had been walking for Omni knows how long. That and the heat combined with the constant need for paranoia impaired my judgement. So when tell you this next part, I want you to know that I was not in a perfect state of mind. My guard slipped and it was for this reason, above all others, that I ended up where I am today. Well, perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly didn’t help anything. Dedan said that he knew a shortcut. It was supposed to cut through the heart of the city and more or less plop us on the front door of Andariel. He said that although he was but a very distant cousin of the lesser evil he would be able to grant me an audience with her. Again, please understand that I had been awake for almost eighteen hours at this point and had travelled between dimensions only to end up in hell with no ticket back. So when Dedan offered me an easy route I took it.
Needless to say things didn’t quite pan out as I had hoped. The alleyways in Dis are almost as convoluted as the city itself. Oftentimes we found ourselves coming to dead ends and circling back upon paths that we had already travelled. After wandering about for what felt like ages we came upon a strange creature. It looked like a large bullfrog, about the size of a small SUV. It had no forearms to speak of and instead sat upright on two meaty frog legs. A series of bulbous eyes, each of them in various sizes but all no bigger than a baseball, swiveled about in moist sockets on the top of its head. The thing’s gullet was large and swollen, and a faint yellow light glowed from inside. Bronze-colored warts covered the monster’s body and flecks of rusty flesh peeled upwards like a bad sunburn. On either side of the creature stood two humanoids that were cobbled together with ant, lobster, and human body parts. Dedan smiled, looked at me, and in the most vindictive voice he could muster he said, “ohhh, now you’re fucked.”
Before I could answer, or hell before I could even think of an answer, the toad monster opened its maw. From inside its belly a bubblegum colored tongue snapped towards me like a whipcord. The fleshy appendage wrapped itself around my throat like a slimy meat scarf. I raised my gun, or at least I think I did -- this part is kind of blurry and hard to remember. All I remember is the alarming sound of an electric current. My hair stood up on end like a troll doll. Nerve endings fired haphazardly, commanding my muscles to stretch and contract on their own. Now I’ve never had a seizure, but that’s what I’d imagine it would be like. To be lucid but unable to wrest control of your body from the demons dancing in your flesh. This lasted so long that I was certain that my tongue had been fried into nothing more than a spit of gristle. I could fucking taste smoke in my throat. At some point I had dropped my gun and with it my safety. There wasn’t much after that. Some voices that sounded impossibly distant. A tug on the tongue around my throat as the toad reeled me into its mouth. Then darkness.
Have you ever heard of an Aghori? Don’t worry if you haven’t, I only know about them because of a spiritual phase I had when I was locked up. At any rate the Aghori are a kind of Hindu spiritualist. And boy are they fucked up -- well I guess they’d only be considered fucked up to someone who doesn’t really understand them. They believe that their god, Shiva, is a perfect being. They also believe that their god is responsible for everything that occurs every cause and every effect is nothing more than the will of Shiva. Consequently, everything that exists must therefore be perfect. Everything. War, death, famine, and disease are all part of a sacred undivided whole, to be held with the same reverence as any other condition. They embrace the degradation and the pollution of the world. Charnel grounds are no more or less sacred than a sewer system. Something about their absolute nihilism always tugs at my heartstrings.
It makes you wonder how guys like those would handle the Omniverse. Would they perceive Omni as a being of perfection? And by extension the Underverse? This place gives you some insight into the kind of deity Omni is. Any divine being that could create -- or at best allow -- a place like this must be some kind of masochist. The worst part about all of this is that there are people that believe Omni is benevolent. Anyone who thinks of Omni as a kind-hearted god has never been to Underverse. It’s just like russian roulette, it changes your perspective; and just like russian roulette only a disappointing number of people get to experience.
Now I want you to hear me out before I tell you this next part. I was tired, plain and simple as that. We had been walking for Omni knows how long. That and the heat combined with the constant need for paranoia impaired my judgement. So when tell you this next part, I want you to know that I was not in a perfect state of mind. My guard slipped and it was for this reason, above all others, that I ended up where I am today. Well, perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly didn’t help anything. Dedan said that he knew a shortcut. It was supposed to cut through the heart of the city and more or less plop us on the front door of Andariel. He said that although he was but a very distant cousin of the lesser evil he would be able to grant me an audience with her. Again, please understand that I had been awake for almost eighteen hours at this point and had travelled between dimensions only to end up in hell with no ticket back. So when Dedan offered me an easy route I took it.
Needless to say things didn’t quite pan out as I had hoped. The alleyways in Dis are almost as convoluted as the city itself. Oftentimes we found ourselves coming to dead ends and circling back upon paths that we had already travelled. After wandering about for what felt like ages we came upon a strange creature. It looked like a large bullfrog, about the size of a small SUV. It had no forearms to speak of and instead sat upright on two meaty frog legs. A series of bulbous eyes, each of them in various sizes but all no bigger than a baseball, swiveled about in moist sockets on the top of its head. The thing’s gullet was large and swollen, and a faint yellow light glowed from inside. Bronze-colored warts covered the monster’s body and flecks of rusty flesh peeled upwards like a bad sunburn. On either side of the creature stood two humanoids that were cobbled together with ant, lobster, and human body parts. Dedan smiled, looked at me, and in the most vindictive voice he could muster he said, “ohhh, now you’re fucked.”
Before I could answer, or hell before I could even think of an answer, the toad monster opened its maw. From inside its belly a bubblegum colored tongue snapped towards me like a whipcord. The fleshy appendage wrapped itself around my throat like a slimy meat scarf. I raised my gun, or at least I think I did -- this part is kind of blurry and hard to remember. All I remember is the alarming sound of an electric current. My hair stood up on end like a troll doll. Nerve endings fired haphazardly, commanding my muscles to stretch and contract on their own. Now I’ve never had a seizure, but that’s what I’d imagine it would be like. To be lucid but unable to wrest control of your body from the demons dancing in your flesh. This lasted so long that I was certain that my tongue had been fried into nothing more than a spit of gristle. I could fucking taste smoke in my throat. At some point I had dropped my gun and with it my safety. There wasn’t much after that. Some voices that sounded impossibly distant. A tug on the tongue around my throat as the toad reeled me into its mouth. Then darkness.
Have you ever heard of an Aghori? Don’t worry if you haven’t, I only know about them because of a spiritual phase I had when I was locked up. At any rate the Aghori are a kind of Hindu spiritualist. And boy are they fucked up -- well I guess they’d only be considered fucked up to someone who doesn’t really understand them. They believe that their god, Shiva, is a perfect being. They also believe that their god is responsible for everything that occurs every cause and every effect is nothing more than the will of Shiva. Consequently, everything that exists must therefore be perfect. Everything. War, death, famine, and disease are all part of a sacred undivided whole, to be held with the same reverence as any other condition. They embrace the degradation and the pollution of the world. Charnel grounds are no more or less sacred than a sewer system. Something about their absolute nihilism always tugs at my heartstrings.
It makes you wonder how guys like those would handle the Omniverse. Would they perceive Omni as a being of perfection? And by extension the Underverse? This place gives you some insight into the kind of deity Omni is. Any divine being that could create -- or at best allow -- a place like this must be some kind of masochist. The worst part about all of this is that there are people that believe Omni is benevolent. Anyone who thinks of Omni as a kind-hearted god has never been to Underverse. It’s just like russian roulette, it changes your perspective; and just like russian roulette only a disappointing number of people get to experience.