a rumor, a myth, a legend, something parents made up to scare their similarly superstitious kids into listening to them.
I'd been called many things since I died, and became, well.....
this.
I thought as my gaze, from eyes I no longer possessed, scanned my form, my shapeless, gravity defiant, liquid like blackness.
that, even amidst the pitch dark of space, stood out as black, as void of any and all light.
I never failed to notice, never failed to be reminded time and time again as my mass, my "body", should you call it that, stretched and writhed amidst the vacuum at the size of a planet, that is, if planets were pitch-black liquid storm clouds of absolute destruction, then yeah, planet.
I sighed, or, at least attempted to, bored.
mind numbingly so actually.
it'd been eons since I found myself reborn as a shapeless power mindlessly adrift in the endlessness of space.
eons since my wrath had been allowed to step foot within an atmosphere, an actual body.
I lamented as my form collided with, and effortlessly consumed an inhabited world that happened to come across my uncontrolled path.
which, as sad as a normal person would find that to be, for me, it was nothing more than food in the tank.
I'd long since come to the conclusion that sentient life was overrated, a cosmic mistake that just refused to accept its inevitable end.
humans, aliens, it didn't matter, if it could think, it could fuck up.
and those fuck ups, well.
they create me.
they create victims, they create evil, corruption, their own fucking problems.
I seethed internally, my mind, if you could even call what allowed me to think a brain, aware, but not even remotely focused on the world ahead, a world I was all too blissfully aware to be familiar.
but, distractedly, I wouldn't notice until something stopped me dead in my tracks, halting my procession of mindless consumption and extinction amidst the many worlds hovering aimless in the vast nothingness.
something that was, unexpected to say the least.
I would have made a noise of surprise, had I possessed the ability to make noise, as in front of me, appeared an entity I'd long since forgotten about, until now.
I grumbled inside my own consciousness as a bright white glowing screen flashed into being and read in no uncertain wording.
[congratulations on reaching your world of origin!]
[user: The Black God, Storm of Annihilation. has been awarded an ability for covering a distance of five universes, three galaxies, and innumerable planets]
[ability: (temporary)- {soul snare}: after eons of formlessness, bond your existence to the soul, and form, of a mortal, that body will forever become available to you, and the mortal shall be allowed to live forever within your consciousness, free to swap places should the need arise]
the one quickly became many, and from the many, a strange feeling I'd forgotten I had.
which, wasn't all that alarming, feeling was a luxury, I had no nerves, no brain, I was simply a consciousness floating adrift.
but that didn't mean it was welcome.
in fact, not only was it nothing more than a reminder, it was accompanied by yet another screen.
and this one, this one was worse.
this one created urgency, and rage, lots and lots of rage.
[warning, the only human you'd ever cared about is being attacked, she is currently being stripped and beaten in an alley close to your home city, death is imminent]
it read, boiling my nonexistent blood to steam and endless depths of power that surged me towards the planet at a speed close to light, but, by the time I reached the atmosphere, and withstood the searing heat of re-entry, losing much of my mass in the process, like every time in my life before, I was too late.
I wanted to scream, to shout, to roar and destroy as my clouded form hovered above the naked, bruised, and defiled body of the only person in the entirety of creation that was worth a damn, my childhood friend and neighbor, Dylan.
who, actually met me when we realized at school we'd had the same name.
I reminisced as a tear, many tears, would have fallen down my face, had I had either.
I knew in whatever heart I still had inside me the very moment my sight showed me her pale, lifeless skin, her forever gone smile, and the pain locked tight to her expression.
it was hell, I barely held together, barely kept myself from consuming this entire godforsaken world, cause God did I want to, God did I want nothing more than to rip the motherfuckers who did this limb from limb before devouring them alive in the pit of my being lined top to bottom in steel, gnashing teeth.
but...
if I consumed this world, they'd die quickly, and I'd never get to give my only friend a proper burial.
and so, with thoughts on how the screens and the ability it granted were FAR from a coincidence, almost like this was planned, I used what I'd just been given.
I used soul snare.
and in a single moment, an instant, I found myself being violently sucked into the nose, eyes, mouth, and ears of my friend, like her body was just another me, just another storm amidst the worlds devouring them effortlessly.
her skin remained pale, but it healed, it closed its wounds and faded its bruises, her hair, much like my cloudy shape, defied gravity and became like it would underwater, floating, and most importantly, her eyes, a brilliant inhuman gold, opened.
and I could see.
I could feel.
and I instantly had every single memory in her head at my disposal.
her pain, her joy.
she was I and I was her.
I smiled, something I'd forgotten how to do, something she still remembered, I fumed, cried, and clenched my fists to the point of drawing blood from my palm as the dark black cloud that was I escaped from her body and enshrouded us in clothing, in an armored cloak like coat, pants, gloves, and boots.
it also created a glowing golden jewel on her chest, a jewel that matched her eyes perfectly, and shone with the warmth she'd had her entire life.
I realized with pain, and wrath, as I clutched it tightly and collapsed to my knees, sobbing uncontrollably.
swearing, uncontrollably, promising, giving my word that, I, would do anything it took to make sure they paid.
dearly too.
I might add, see, I was gonna bring this world to its knees, but now, WE, are gonna tear it apart brick by brick, person by person, layer by layer.
this world was gonna be a maze of debris in space by the time I was done.
of THAT, I swear.