Children of a Lesser God

Although Laz clearly heard the voice in his head, he barely registered it as his gaze landed on glass tank after glass tank of monstrosities, work bench like areas of of half formed creations and piles of bones from creatures that Laz had no way to identify.

The entire room looked like some mad scientists lab out of a cheap horror movie. Had it only been that, Laz and Ruby would have been able to carry on since they had both been desensitized to stuff like this over the years thanks to their own experiences and media in general.

The problem was that some of these things were still moving, at least the ones in the tanks.

As Laz and Ruby collected themselves, they moved towards the tank that was closest to them. In it, a small creature that looked like a humanoid baby was floating in place while being restrained by wires. It's visible muscles and skeleton made it appear like it had had it's skin peeled off. What was worse was that half it's skull had been replace by some sort of metal implant, making it look almost like a cyborg. Half of it's face was still in tact while the other half looked like they had stopped building it after only being a third of the way done. How it was still alive was anyone's guess. But the worse part about all of it was that the human side of it seemed intelligent as it's only good eye was following Laz and Ruby as they walked towards it.

"It's... It... it looks like...." Ruby couldn't even voice the thought.

"It looks like a baby..." Laz said, understanding her hesitation. Upon a closer look, Laz understood that although the eye was following them, it seemed cloudy, like there was little to no advance thought behind it.

"If you go crazy... like all the way crazy... and lose your mind... this would be what it looks like..." Laz said out as his eyes met the poor creatures stare. He had seen a documentary on what it would be like to be trapped in a tiny area for an extended period of time and this was a live example of the end conclusion.

Laz turned away in the end. It's not that he didn't feel pity for this poor, human like creature, it was more that he could tell that whatever summoned him here wasn't it. Seeing him moving away, Ruby took one last look in the tank, took a deep breath and followed him.

Walking along through the collection of creatures, they saw many more that were just as devastating as the first one. And when Laz looked at what was left of their faces, he saw a hopeless madness in each of their eyes. Everyone on of them was the same.

On the area outside of the tanks, along the walls of the room, were bench like structures arranged with tools and bones. After stepping out of the rows of tanks, Laz walked over to one and took a look at it.

The tools were metal, some arranged neatly as though preparing to be used while others were just thrown aside as though they had been used and never cleaned up. But each and every one of them looked rusted. The smaller the tool, the more they had corroded. Picking up a tiny, needle like tool, Laz wanted to take a good look at it, but it turned to dust in his hand.

Ruby didn't say anything, just following along. She didn't know what to say. She had seen horrors before in her life thanks to her job, but this whole thing was on another level. Knowing what those tools had been used for, she held no interest in them what so ever. Although she had thoughts about the metal and compounds used to make them, she didn't even feel like touching them or taking any of them with her. Besides, with the wear they had gone through, there was no telling if any of them could even be used anymore.

Making their way back, it was Ruby who ended up distracted first. She didn't understand why, but she ended up being drawn to one of the large tanks. In it, a large snake, almost three meters in length was bound and unmoving. Like all of the other creatures before it, there were signs of experimentation on it's body. Unlike the other creatures, the overall damage to this one had been much less. What's more than that, this snake had beautiful rainbow scales that seemed to change color in the light. Since each tank was lit internally and filled with some sort of liquid, the reflecting light seemed to move even while the creature didn't. Strangely enough, when Ruby approached it, the creature that had it's eyes closed seemed to awaken at this moment.

As Laz watched on, Ruby and the rainbow snake locked gazes before Ruby's body shifted to what Laz was calling her battle form. In truth, she grew fangs, her eyes became snake like and clusters of red scales popped up all over her body. Laz felt like they were talking, but he couldn't hear anything so it had to be a spiritual connection. After watching on for a while in concern, Laz saw Ruby turn towards him and smile while waving him on. Whatever she was doing seemed like it might take a while so he might as well keep going.

Although Laz was still concerned, he trusted her.

Moving along the huge row of tanks, Laz saw one strange creature after another, with most of them being far more torn down that the snake. In fact, it seemed like it was the exception with everything else being the standard. Laz didn't recognize any of the creatures he was looking at, it's not like there was a tank containing a unicorn, although he did pay a little attention to that.

The one thing that Laz did notice was that every so often, there were a few actual creatures that seemed rather whole. A strange, bright white fox and this pitch black cat like creature were among the ones that stood out the most. Although Laz stood there and observed them for a moment, they showed no reaction to him, causing him to move on.

By the time Laz got to where the tanks came to an end, he noticed quite a few of them that were broken, the liquid gone and dried up while whatever was in them was long gone.

But the thing that caught his attention was not one of the filled tubes, but some grisly remains that had been chained to the wall via large spikes that were driven through it. As Laz neared, he noticed that the remains still seemed somewhat fleshy considering it wasn't being maintained inside a tube.

The other thing he noticed was that the remains were actually that of a torso, the lower half missing entirely.

Just to support the torso, there were nine spikes impaled at various points. The spikes were huge although the torso wasn't small. Compared to Laz who was a little taller than 1.8 meters, or 5 feet, 10 inches, the torso looked like it was bigger than Laz even without legs. Of course, because of how high up it was, it was hard to tell..

The thing that drew Laz to it, besides it's apparent special place in the lab, was that it had grey, stone like skin, black, tribal like tattoos all up and down it's torso and it's hair was a mixed mess of red and white.

The torso gave Laz an eerie feeling... like he was looking at himself somewhere in the future.

:There you are, little one...:

Laz couldn't help but step back as he heard the voice coming from the torso. It didn't move, it wasn't breathing, but there was still life in it.

:How are you...: Laz asked the first thing that came to mind, wanting to know how it was still alive.

:You sound so weak... your blood is so diluted... amazing. It worked... and yet we never heard of it. There must have been a few of us that never gave up over the long years....:

Laz was confused, having no idea what it was talking about. Of course, considering the circumstances, Laz wouldn't be surprised if the person the voice belonged to was already crazy.

:I haven't lost my facilities, you ignorant pup.:

"The hell?" Laz said out loud.

:Of course I can hear your thoughts along with your actual words. Considering the strength of your soul, I have to hold back so as not to destroy you where you stand.: Laz paled when hearing this as he felt like it was true. As it was, the voice was already overbearing, especially because he could only hear it in his head.

:I'm sorry for any stray thoughts you might hear then. To be honest, this is all very new to me,: Laz said, taking on a rather humble tone. For a while now, Laz had been rather satisfied with his strength. No matter the circumstances, he had gotten through it. Although he was still weary of a creatures while A'ruya, he never thought the distance was too much to make up for. Then again, part of that was simply because it had been a while since he had seen her. Other than her, he didn't have any experience with anything that could be considered a much stronger being. Perhaps the goddess in the glass coffin, but once again she didn't seem real since she couldn't even move.

It was easy to ignore the things that were out of sight and therefore out of mind.

But before him right now, this being... was far beyond his understanding.

:Yes. Let me see little one... let me see your world....relax your mind. I'm simply looking for a picture.:

Laz wasn't sure what this thing wanted, but he knew that he couldn't resist. At the same time, it didn't seem to want to harm him either which was the best thing he could hope for. So Laz could only do what was asked of him. He relaxed his mind and felt the creatures gentle touch enter his head. It wasn't comfortable, but it wasn't painful either.

Before Laz even knew what was happening, the touch was gone while the creature was silent.

:Such a dead world... yet still living. So many gates. And those tree creatures.... They remind me of someone... or something... it's been too long... Still... it worked. If it worked here... perhaps there are other places... yes. It could be. It must be.: The creature seemed lost in it's thoughts while it mumbled to itself, still inside Laz's head. Maybe it didn't even know it was doing it. Or maybe it didn't care.

:And you. You've got the blood and some energy in you. Does that mean you... is this how you look?: It seemed to remember Laz and asked him questions. Had it been rougher with it's search, it could have pried out all of Laz's secrets without him being able to respond. But it didn't. This was the only clear sign that it harbored no ill will towards Laz, or so he figured.

Without needing to be asked, Laz circulated his energy while getting his blood to pump at max. The strong sound of his heat beat echoed within the walls of the metal room and for the first time, the creature seemed to focus keenly on Laz.

Just as per usual, Laz's hair turned white while his eyes turned red. The black, tribal like markings made themselves visible on his body, while his skin took on a greyish tint. In this form, Laz was using the most energy but he was also at his strongest.

:He he... so young. Your patterns haven't even come in fully yet. Yet, here you are before me. The product of such an inferior creature and of us.:

:Who is us?: Laz wondered, forgetting the creature could hear him.

:We are the Asura. A proud race of warriors, the strongest in the known universe. We hunt dragons for sport. We tame phoenix's for pets, ride spatial storms when bored and have even been known to dive head first into a black hole or two, just to see if it leads somewhere,: the creature, the Asura, laugh as it thought about the past while describing it's people.

:Like real dragons and phoenix's?: A picture popped into Laz's head which in turned caused the Asura to laugh.

:Those lizards and birds are what you think a dragon and a phoenix is? Truly how remote you are. An aduŀt size dragon could swallow your home world for a snack while an aduŀt size phoenix would consider using your star to next in for a few millennia. Those are the real kind.:

:That's....: Laz had always perceived big and small in terms of his planet. To find out such large creatures existed... Laz didn't even know how to react. Perhaps he could claim it was the ravings of a mad man, but with everything the Asura said, it provided a picture reference into Laz's mind from it's own memories.

:Eye-opening, is it not?:

:I can't even begin to imagine...:

Just as Laz wanted to ask more questions, a rumbling began that quickly filled the lab, shaking everything to the point that Laz could barely stay on his feet.

"Earthquake? Wait... this isn't Earth... Is this even a plant?" Laz quickly understood that he really knew nothing about this place, so how was he suppose to figure out what was happening.

The Asura chained to the wall seemed to know what was happening.

:Foolish creature. Even if it gets free, then what? All of the enemies are dead and there is no telling where we even are now. Just the lack of energy will cause it to die within hours of it's release...:

:Sir? What was that?: Laz asked, seeing as how the Asura had some answers.

:A creature of death and carnage who had been imprisoned here just as long as I have. The moment it escapes, this entire realm will become a land of death and emptiness, all to feed it's long surprised hunger.

:And how long will that be?: Laz didn't want to be around to see that thing escape.

:Well, if I had to make a guess.... around 72 of your planet's hours?: It answered back, not quite sure.

"Fuck," Laz knew they would be cutting this adventure short.