Josep bellows out a laugh, guffawing at the noontime sky that looks like midnight, his eyes truly shining with amusement. But just as quickly as those red hellhound eyes widened, they narrow back down and he leans forward, his body growing taller as his true evil reveals itself in the reflection of the pool water.
Darkness.
He wasn’t the favorite.
He isit.
Heisevil.
The one thing cast down by the hand of God himself. An unnatural mistake that was thrown away like a piece of trash. Left here on this forsaken planet to rot, or rule, or do whatever the hell it wanted.
Because this place doesn’t belong tous.
There is no amount of sacrifice that will change that.
Not even mine. Because Earth isn’t thehomeof Darkness, it’s Darkness itself. Made in its likeness. And Josep is but one teeny tiny piece of it.
“Forsaken?” Josep asks, reading my mind, I guess. He’s towering over me now, still on the other side of the pool, but his body is gone and in its place is what he really is, the trickery stripped away so that nothing is left but a set of hellfire eyes and an elongated cylinder of wicked, black sand. “This realm is mine and it was never forsaken.Youare the one who was forsaken.”
Despite the constant barrage of screams bellowing out a looming assurance of defeat, I shrug up a shoulder. “And yet here I am.”
He slithers now, nothing left of his body at all. He is black sand above the water, slowly moving across the pool in my direction.
It is evil, yes.
But so am I.
And even though the Darkness never blessed me, I have the blessing of something else. So I too become a cloud of sand. I too become pure evil. It was the deal I made and even though thousands of years have passed since I signed up and Ireallymade the most of my time here, I nevertrulyforgot.
Nottruly.
Just… conveniently.
The only way to fight evil is with evil.
And now I have to choose.
The Darkness knows this.
One the one hand, the salvation of an entire planet.
And on the other… well. There’s no way to hide which side I’m on.
I don’t even bother trying.
Josep knows exactly where my loyalty lies.
Which is why he doesn’t attackme.
He attacks Ryet.
