Chapter 7
Lewis continued down the steps to the bottom of the subway station. Although it was dark, there was no need for a flashlight because of the numerous holes in the ceiling and the large opening behind him. He felt as if he was being led by some external force, as if the whispers had been directing him to this exact spot. As his feet touched the floor of the subway station the whispers ceased and the immense quiet enveloped him. As he walked around the dilapidated station his footsteps echoed in the empty chamber. The cold was bone numbing, it overrode all his other senses and caused him to wander in a daze. As he wandered farther into the industrial cavern he heard the whispers again on the outskirts of his mind, directing him to the back of the station. As he rounded a bend in the long room he saw a shimmering green light ahead. He stepped out into the eerie light and saw a large circular room with a domed roof, the main train terminal, and saw the source of the green light, a large circular well in the middle of the room. The well was 30 feet wide and who knows how many feet deep. In it was a swirling shifting mass of green liquid that glowed and pulsed with a supernatural light, like the portal, just like the portal, thought Lewis. Lewis felt fear of the supernatural well up in him again as he stood transfixed once again by the swirling patterns. "Do you like it", asked a gravely ancient voice from the opposite side of the well. "I made it, but I was also born from it. I guess you could say one could not exist without the other." The voice reverberated around the room and inside Lewis' head until he thought he was going mad. Then the speaker of the voice stepped through the cloud of fumes and steam coming out of the well and Lewis recoiled in horror. Before him stood a true monster, 20 feet tall with drapes of skin hanging from its eternal skeletal smile below its hollow eye sockets and broken ram horns protruding from the sides of his skeletal head, It was wrapped in a ragged cloak that draped around it and spooled up on the floor. As Lewis gazed into its eyes he lost himself in the two green pins of light that served as its pupils. The rest of the room disappeared behind a black shroud and the creature beckoned with a skeletal hand. "Come forward child; do not be afraid, THEY made me like this. Those evil beings on the surface, I was once like you until they took me twisted me into this form. Lewis, step into the well. I can save you, but you must step into the well. Aren't you cold Lewis?" Lewis was, in fact, very cold.
The Lich, as he is called, had known about Lewis arrival in Ooo from the very beginning, and had been guiding him here from the start. He had whispered to him and planted seeds of doubt that matured into plants of hatred for the other inhabitants of Ooo. There had been resistance at first, as he had expected, but he had easily beaten it down and was now ready to claim him for his own. He needed him; he had needed another life force to reclaim the ancient power of his well ever since he had escaped from the time room. And when he had felt a young man come close to the portal, he had enticed him and called Lewis to him. Now he could resurrect the power of the well and once again spread death and destruction throughout the land.
Lewis stepped forward until he was at the lip of the well and paused to look up at the lich. He stood before him, in all his supernatural glory, as a silent specter to guide him back home. Lewis looked down at the well and then back to the Lich, who nodded for him to continue. The heat rising from the well was intoxicating and promised to envelop him in its warmth, if only he would allow it to embrace him. He prepared himself to fall into the green light before him, but stopped and doubt rose up within him and the smaller voice rose again in screaming urgency. Lewis, look at who you stand before. Does he look good? Do you want to end up like him? Turn away while there is still time. You can still walk away, but YOU must do it of your own accord. The lich heard all this, having full access to Lewis' mind and was amused at this lest effort for the boy to save himself. "It's too late Lewis; you have made your choice, now step forward", said the lich with a voice that shook the ground below Lewis' feet.
"LICH KING" screamed a young voice from behind Lewis, who snapped around to look at the new comer. The boy from the candy place was there and was running at him with a blood red sword in his hand while the dog extended alongside him. The Lich shot a blast of green energy at the opening behind Lewis and the concrete above collapsed, sealing away Lewis and the Lich. After the doorway was blocked, the lich thrust his skeletal hands into the well and began speaking in a strange language as the well's light shifted and pulsed.
On the other side of the rubble, Finn was fighting off the Lich's skeletal warriors while Jake began digging through the rubble. As Finn decapitated another skeleton wearing armor and bearing a sword, Jake said "oh blob this" and stretched to enormous size and began flinging the man-made boulders out of the way. Finn heard a noise behind him and turned around in time to see a skeleton get crushed beneath one of Jake's flying hunks of concrete. "Finn come on, I got us a hole", said Jake, and Finn kicked the skeleton he was currently fighting and ran up the pile of rubble after Jake, who had shrunk back down to his regular size and walked through the hole. They emerged on the other side just in time to see the Lich raise his arms, which still had florescent green goo from the well clinging to them, and shoot a beam of light straight at Lewis' head.
Lewis stood stock still as the Lich completed his incantation, stood to his full height, and pointed his outstretched arms at Lewis. He tried to run, but his legs were not responding to the commands from his brain and so he stood as if made of stone. He saw the Lich shoot a beam of bright light and then he saw no more. The Lich had sent a blast of the power left into his well straight into the boy's eyes. That should keep him under my PERMANENT control while I deal with these two, he thought.
Lewis regained consciousness and felt as if he was doing so for the first time. He looked at his hands and saw that they were smoking and glowing with a light akin to that of the well. He no longer felt half past crazy, but he also did not feel entirely sane. He relished the feeling of not having to think, of having all his own thought processes turned off, and no longer having responsibility for his own body. He slowly rose from his kneeling position and saw the lich shoot a blast of green energy across the room and heard the impact of explosion behind, but did not care. The power the Lich had poured into him erased all of Lewis own thoughts and turned him into a non-thinking creature of feeling. He felt ALIVE, as if someone had poured liquid energy into his very veins, and; as he basked in the presence of his new-found power, he looked at the well and felt a ravenous hunger fill him. He next saw his master in battle and felt a need to help, but his mind was no longer under his control and he was forbidden to move until the trespassers had been dealt with. Pure volcanic rage welled up in him at his own minds incompetence and he channeled the energy from his body into his mind to throw off the frozen mist that surrounded his brain. With all his might he sent a mental spike into the blackness around his consciousness and grinned inwardly when it gave a spasm of pain and withdrew slightly. Next he threw up a wall of energy and drove the presence from his mind with such force that he traveled back along the route of control and looked through the Lich's eyes for a brief moment.
The Lich saw the two heroes emerge through the hole and began immediately assaulting them with a barrage of green flames. Finn somersaulted out of the way and ran towards the Lich. He then skidded to a halt as he saw Lewis kneeling on the ground and then remembered, oh no. I don't have a jewel. The Lich reached out to touch his mind but recoiled at the purity he encountered there, much more so than on their last encounter. He snarled in anguish and then smirked as he ordered Lewis to attack the two adventurers for him. Only upon giving the command did he realize that Lewis was standing stock-still and was shocked when he felt a mental spike enter his mind and then felt surprise as Lewis drove the lich from his mind with sheer brutal force.
Lewis opened his eyes, he's gone. I can move again. He flexed his hands experimentally and marveled at his newfound control. After mastering himself, he again felt the energy flowing through him and felt the power mold his thoughts into something that was more easily processed by his body. He felt as if he were going to be split apart by the power until he raised his arm blasted a large hole in the roof above him. He saw the green light extend outward from his out-stretched arm and heard the explosion of impact as it vaporized a section of underground roof. He grinned crookedly as he looked at his smoking hands, where the flesh had begun to rip off the bone like tattered parchment. Oh, I think I'm going to have FUN with this, he thought to himself with a devilish smile. He came back down to earth and again to the situation at hand, so mister Lich, how about a taste of my power. He extended both arms and shot a blast of green lightning at the Lich.
The Lich was busy having a mental battle with Finn and Jake when he saw a blast of his green power shoot upwards and destroy a section of roof. So, the well did more than I intended, no matter. I will have him under my control even though I cannot touch his mind. He did not think the boy would attempt to harm him, as if he could, but his attention was centered on Finn when he saw the boy lose himself in the power and shoot a blast at the Lich. He dropped the mental battle, grasped the bolt of energy as it neared him, and formed it into a ball between his two skeletal hands, where it winked out of existence.
Lewis let out a shout of anger and charged around the rim of the well as the Lich continued to loose balls of fire at Lewis while he ran. As Lewis neared the Lich, he stumbled and began to fall forward, but flung his arms out in front of himself as he neared the ground and let out an involuntary blast of energy that rocketed him up and forward towards the Lich's head. He landed upon the breast of the Lich and the force of impact made the beast take a step back in surprise. He clung onto the Lich's robe for dear life and used his power to force the Lich to turn around and then blasted both himself and the Lich into the mouth of the well.
It seemed to take and age for them to fall. The lich was large and hit the semi-solid mixture within the well with force, but not enough to knock off Lewis, who still clung to the front of the robe with skeletal hands. The Lich was slowly enveloped in his own well and began to melt from the sheer unbridled power within as Lewis stood atop his sinking ship and waited, in silent acceptance of his fate, to be engulfed. Lewis knew he was done for and, after a brief moment of insane panic, he felt a deep calm resonate through him and a look of peace overcame his face as he slowly sank down towards his fate. He looked up, and the cloud of steam and fumes parted for a moment and he made direct eye contact with the boy, for he was sure he was human now and that he had been wrong to attack and refuse their help. Lewis saw him look back and then tare his gaze away and begin shouting something at his dog, but he could not hear over the noise of the lich begin melted below him, like molten steel in water. He felt a warmth encase his feet and looked down to see the well begin to claim him for its own. How did it come to this? What did I do to merit such early death? And for that matter, why must I die here, among people and things that I don't even know to be real. At least I killed that thing, maybe I will be remembered here for that. With that last thought he was engulfed into the well's warmth and it glowed and swirled on, as it had for the past centuries.
Finn and Jake had battled the Lich mentally until they saw Lewis shoot a stream of the Lich's own fire back at him. At that point the lich had withdrawn from their minds to focus more fully upon the rapidly approaching Lewis. Finn saw him blast himself atop the Lich and then stood in awe as Lewis hurled the lich around and cast both of them into the well. The sheer suddenness at which Lewis sacrificed himself startled Finn immensely and immediately earned the boy's full respect. To sacrifice his life for us, when he hardly even knows who we are, he must be a true hero. He looked on and, for a brief moment, the fume clouds from the well parted and he looked into Lewis' eyes and saw the pain and confusion, but he also saw the peace and the acceptance, as if he had known it would eventually come to this. He turned to Jake and yelled "well, what are you waiting for? Stretch over there and save him!" But it was too late as Lewis slipped down into the shifting swirling depths of the well and was gone from Ooo.
Lewis awoke and stepped into an almost scientifically square room. He immediately registered it was odd from the mere fact that it was a curious yellow color and contained a set of stairs that led down into the confines of the box. He walked down to the floor and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He registered, almost absentmindedly, that they were still skeletal with strips of flesh hanging in small tatters. "Hey man, you're probably wondering why you're here", said a voice off to Lewis' right. Lewis turned and saw what appeared to be a pink 2-demensional man on the adjacent wall. "Not really, at this point nothing really surprises me anymore. My guess is that this is all most likely a figment of my imagination brought about by a repressed mental disorder." "Umm…no it's not. Look dude I went and talked to death especially for you so listen up, I'm only going to explain this once. I am the almighty Prismo, master of the time room, and I saw what you did for the people of Ooo and decided that instead of meeting with death in the 37th dead world I would bring you here and give you a choice." "Which is…what?" "I can either A: send you back to Ooo where you will be reincarnated back into your body and allowed to live out the rest of your days there or B: I erase your memory of recent events and send you back to the exact moment before you were transported to Ooo by the portal."
"Prismo I need to know, did I actually kill that monster?" "The Lich? Yeah, well…kinda. You see the Lich is neither alive nor dead he just kinda IS. Look it's complicated, all you need to know is that for the time being he has been defeated." "But not permanently?" "To answer your question directly, no, not permanently. Alright Lewis we've wasted enough time chitchatting, it's time to pick a number. Come on deal or no deal." Lewis rocked back on his heels as he tried to think of all the possible factors for each of the two choices. I should be jumping at this chance to go home, but do I really want to after all that has happened? I could go back to this Ooo place, but what about my family? I can't just leave them behind and start a new life. "Prismo, I've made my decision", said Lewis looking back up at Prismo, who was sipping a cup of coffee. "I want to go home", he said, looking like a child for a moment. "Alright but Lewis, I want you to know, you did a good thing back there, defeating the Lich and all. You're a hero." "Whatever dude, just get me outta here." "Alright, it's been fun", said Prismo and raised his hand in farewell, as Lewis disappeared in a flash of light.
(Alright well, heres the last chapter. I hope it at least brings some closuer if nothing else, casuse I was having some mad writers block about how to end it. Anyways hope you enjoyed the story. Peace)
