The darkness expanded and then contracted, becoming tangible. Alex felt it creeping across her skin. It didn’t matter, though. She didn’t understand what was going on, but she knew how she was going to play this out. It was a battle of minds, of wills.
The Dark One’s voice lashed out as the eye constricted and then grew larger. How dare you speak to me? Do not dare to question me. You are nothing but a speck. I will crush you.
“Yeah, yeah, okay, I got you, but why are you just an eye? Is that, like, all you got?”
Alex felt her body pull away from her. She had no idea where it went, but she was floating separate from all physicality. She saw the meteor, and she was the meteor, all of its tunnels and corridors stretching out before her as if they were her body.
Another screech ripped through Alex’s mind. The sound was nearly enough to send Alex into the darkness, but she remembered why she was here. She guarded herself, not fully realizing what she was doing, but it worked. The darkness peeled away, showing her the Dark One’s eye.
“What the hell are you?”
The answers came at her faster than she was able to process. There was a meteor, which she could see. A thousand bodies fell into each other, biting and tearing at each other’s flesh. A scream, speaking a language she had never heard.
Alex was on her knees, trembling as the eye quivered. She tried to pull herself together. They’re just thoughts. That’s all, she thought. That’s all.
Then the true nature of the Dark One’s eye was revealed.
Chapter Nine
The Dark One’s eye filled the entirety of the liminal space. Alex was aware that she was both inside and outside of the Dark One. Was this what she always experienced when she looked through someone’s eyes? Was there this much connection?
A force pushed Alex down, and she went skidding across what felt like water. She was drenched when she finally came to a stop. The eye was now the sun beaming down on her
When the Dark One spoke, it radiated through Alex. You are a waste, all of you. A waste of potential. Humanity. Elves. Dwarves. You could all be so much more. I will show you how. Through me, you will know perfection.
Alex watched as a meteor, the same meteor she was currently inside, passed through the sky. The meteor fell to the earth, crashing into the ground, tearing through anything in its path. As the meteor impacted the earth, millions of tendrils slipped out of the rock, latching onto the ground, forcing their way under the soil.
Alex was inside the meteor. Or inside the meteor inside the Dark One’s head within the meteor. It was confusing. She thought it better not to think too much about it. But from inside the meteor, she could see where the tendrils were coming from.
The meteor was hollow. The tunnels Alex and Jim had flown through were paper-thin. That must have been how the meteor had been able to store so many monsters. And now the monsters were gone, the tunnels filled with throbbing red tendrils.
Alex followed the tendrils down the tunnels until she came to their source. She stood before the Dark One, his veins pulsating as his eye quivered. “That’s your big plan?” Alex asked. “You’re the thing Myrddin is so afraid of? A giant parasite?”
The Dark One’s laughter bounced around in Alex’s head, the sound of a thousand screeching voices. No, the Dark One said. I am not even a fraction of what Myrddin fears. This form is merely a vessel for my will. It is nothing more than an old skin cell to me.
“And what are you planning on doing with this old skin cell?”
Expanding. Righting and uplifting. I will become Middang3ard, and the realm will finally be elevated to perfection. The realm will be like me.
Alex giggled and tried to stifle the sound. She thought it might be rude. Then the sheer ludicrousness of The Dark One’s idea made her burst out laughing, holding her sides as the eye watched. “Are you kidding me?” Alex asked, still bubbling with laughter. “That’s your evil scheme? Your manifesto is that you want everyone to be like you?”
When the Dark One spoke, Alex heard something she hadn’t heard from him before. It sounded almost like doubt. I wish for all in existence to be perfected, the Dark One repeated.
“And your idea of perfection is to be exactly like you? I’m assuming you think you’re perfect. You have to, even though you’re a floating eyeball. I mean, realistically, even your dead skin cells should be a shining example of what existence could be. I’m kinda underwhelmed.”
Alex felt herself becoming larger. Maybe it was physical or just in her head, but whatever she had said was making her more powerful. “You think you’re some kind of god, don’t you?” Alex asked. “You really think you’re divine?”
The Dark One’s voice thundered loudly. Do not waste your words, human. You are already beaten. I will crush Middang3ard beneath me and remake it in my image. You have already lost.”
“Oh, my God, you can’t take criticism either. Now you’re going to get all loud and pouty with me because your origin story sucks. Not gonna lie, I’d have to rank you pretty low on the villain spectrum. I’ll give you props for style, though. The whole psychedelic meteor thing was pretty cool.”
The Dark One was vibrating with rage but silent. Alex took a seat, waiting for the Dark One to speak. When the silence began to bore her, Alex said, “You know we haven’t lost. Not even close.”
I will be within Middang3ard’s soil by the end of the night. My power will extend all through the realm, and I will suck it dry until it bends to my will. Then I
