The ground began to hum. A gentle, grinding vibration that came from the depths far below their feet. Arridon and Tim both stood, but remained still.
“Oh what’s that smell?” Arridon hissed, his face wrinkled. He waved his hand back and forth to fan away a stench that churned his stomach.
“Brimstone,” Tim said. “Dad’s here.”
They exited the store, leaving a resting Derrick only after Tim assured Arridon he’d be safe.
In the wide street, flanked by buildings with odd, transparent walls made for creatures far, far larger than they, the surface rumbled and bubbled. Something from below pressed up, emerging from the depths, pushing up huge flat slabs of slate and plastics. A giant hand, each finger tipped in claws the size of daggers, pushed up through the alien road and gripped the surface for leverage. Soon after, the rest of Timtar’s father appeared.
He towered. Fifteen feet, if he was a foot at all, the red-skinned, shaggy-furred, demonic creature rose. Covered head to toe in battle armor and armed with an arsenal of weapons from all manner of times, ages, and civilizations, he stretched tall and looked to his son. An aura of evil and menace exuded from him.
“My boy…I trust I am not too late to still be of assistance?” he rumbled.
“No, father. We still need you. A thousand thanks for your haste.”
“For my flesh and blood, I can do no less. I made a promise to you on the day you were born, and I intend to keep it. Introduce me to your friend?”
“This is Arridon Frost, half-blood. His bornworld is lost, and he seeks his sister, who fled with him via clockwork room. They got split in the process, and she is now is trapped on a moon, protected by an energy barrier. They are besieged by the Bleed.”
Kalandar’s giant black eyebrows wobbled and tilted in a curious expression. “Signs and portents indeed. Arridon of House Frost. Now, if you’ll indulge me.” He took a deep breath, then erupted into his introduction, ““I am Kalandar!” he bellowed. “Breaker of dimensions, destroyer of worlds, third conqueror of Aradinia, and soul-eater of ghouls! The right-hand demon to the possessor, first of my kind to go forth into the wilds and return. I am the bringer of chaos into order, the slaughterer of Bazzaros, second kin to Denderia (she of the famed raid on the heavens), and fabled defender of the Red Witch. My exploits so legendary as to span multiple tomes. I have borne witness to the descent and will be there leading the ascent. My might so feared, my skill so dreaded, my knowledge so vast that entire prison realms have been erected to keep me trapped; all have failed. I am the chain breaker, a gargantuan among gods, the one so feared I was removed from Hades. All that stand before me quake in awe. My name alone strikes foreboding into the hearts of my enemies. There are none alive, now nor ever, who could stand before me. Those who would oppose me are impotent in their challenge!” He paused, clearly happy with his moment. “It’s nice to meet one of my son’s friends.”
“I’m…yeah. It’s good to um, meet you, err, Your Majesty, sir,” was all Arridon could muster in the face of a demon twice his height, covered in red, shaggy fur, talons, armor, weapons, and canines large enough to tear a cow apart.
“Your response tells me my introduction still carries an awe-inspiring influence. Thank you for confirming me. Now, Timtar, you’ve gotten yourself into quite a predicament, haven’t you? First, you take a job working for those mongrels in their giant, hiding city, and now you’re helping a halfbreed who’s obviously gotten into trouble with them? Where did I go wrong with you?”
“You’re a demon, father,” Tim said with a knowing shrug. “And you weren’t exactly present for most of my adolescence. Had you gotten it right, would I be slaughtering the innocent on some hope-forsaken plains. Or might I be working in a clinic, giving medicine to the homeless?”
“Little of column A, little of column B, I suppose,” he answered. “I just didn’t expect you to work for them, doing their bidding. They’re not to be trusted, the things that call themselves ‘gods.’”
“You think I don’t know that?” Tim said to his father. “I don’t do what I do because I am in service to them and their culture, father. I’m learning everything I can so we can upset the so-called balance they’ve ‘achieved,’ and give this multiverse we call home some semblance of actual order.”
“You’re…then you’re acting as a double agent?”
“Well yeah. I mean, there are plenty of good ones, too. Citizens of Eo who want to stop the unending apocalypses. To quell the incredible loss of life and material. They want to see their kind rise to the occasion. I work with them.”
Kalandar stepped forward and scooped his fully grown, half-demon son up as if he were a toddler. The demon squeezed him with parental love, cradling him against the hard armor on his chest. Arridon heard Tim huffing hard to breathe under his father’s love, and stepped forward, raising a hand to alert the demon-dad that he was about to choke his son to death.
Kalandar held his son out at arm’s length like he was an infant and shook him, and beamed, smiling with his thick jaw, and huge, sharp teeth. The gesture was equal parts heartwarming and terrifying. Father admiring his son, or demon about to eat the head of its wayward offspring?
The dice rolled adoring father.
“I’m so very proud of you,” the monster said and sat his adult child down in the street on the dead world. “Your mother…might not feel the same way, but she was quite villainous when she and I had our sordid affair.” His lips curled up into a smile as
