Chapter 65 (69): Post-credit scene

He was fleeing, full speed, from his pursuer. His weren't touching the ground, he had no feet actually, but he was still trying to get away as fast as he could. Among the trees he had left behind, he heard a heart-rending roar, one he had hoped never to hear again. He began to sweat while still fleeing, even though his instinct told him he was losing ground for the millisecond. Trying to push that mentality away, she shook his black head and focused his two gray eyes on the road ahead of him. I can do it. I can get away, I can get away, I can—

A sudden blow to his side pulled him out of his thoughts and his track. He reflexively closed his eyes for a moment when he felt something squeeze at his neck. When he opened them, he found his nightmare. A shadow, not huge, but big enough, with four arms and two large, bright, yellow eyes, was lifting him by the neck and holding him against a tree. It was different to any shadow known, its mere presence seemed to be turning the environment to negative, proof of that the flowers and grass around began to rot.

"Benjamin," it said in a cold, dry voice. "You have failed me."

"I-I didn't want to. T-There was nothing I could do…" Benjamin defended himself, helaf out of breath.

"It was simple what I asked," The stranger continued, ignoring Benjamin's attempt at an excuse. "But you couldn't control a simple human and I had to send seven-zero-one. And where is he now, Ben? He's dead. They killed him."

"He killed himself. It was not my fau—"

The stranger whipped Ben against the tree brusquely.

"And why do you think he was forced to do that, stupid?" It yelled at Ben's face. "Because of your incompetence, that's why! Give me a reason not to kill you now, Ben!"

With the stranger squeezing harder at his neck, barely being able to speak and panicking, Ben tried to defend himself in words.

"Wait… I can—I can help you. I know… where the pillar is." He mumbled almost running out of air.

"That's not useful for me."

As desperate as he had ever been, Benjamin made a last attempt to explain why his scarce information should be enough.

"Th-The-Three… entities…" He said with his last breath.

In the following second or two, Benjamin saw all his life, though there was not much to see. He had always been following orders; Centauri's recently and, before that, of the very being who was now ending with his existence. However, the final hit that would kill him never arrived. Not sure he wanted to know what was happening, Benjamin opened one eye, just enough to see. The stranger had loosened his grip, and proceeded to release him when they made eye contact.

"Three entities, huh? Interesting." The stranger placed a hand on its chin and looked around for a few seconds. "Take me to them," he ordered.

Benjamin nodded and vanished in the air, followed by his aggressor, whom he took to the house where the three animals conforming the most recent pillar of light lived. They appeared several meters above the roof. Ben pointed towards the house; moments later, the aggressor was floating down towards it. It stopped after a few seconds and turned to see Ben.

"Get back home. Now."

Ben only nodded, but just before he obeyed a question arose.

"What are you going to do? Will you kill them?"

"No," The stranger answered, raising both hands in a gesture of indifference. "I don't know them, and if they killed one of us I'm not risking it. Observe, Ben. I will observe them… for now."

That being said, the stranger kept going. Ben, resigned, returned home.


Bolt reached the couch and jumped to it. Mittens followed a moment later, and the two settled down next to Rhino and Penny, who were watching television.

"Hey, guys, what are you watching?" The dog asked.

"Hey, Bolt. Hello, cat… well, nothing much," Rhino answered as Penny nodded, apparently very interested in what was on the screen. "There were no action movies, so Penny just put on one of those canine competitions, you know, where they evaluate the candidates for their physical performance and their aesthetics."

Bolt turned to Mittens.

"He means that in those events they have the dogs through several tests, like catching a frisbee or following an obstacle course. They also check that the participants follow the "standards" of their breed, that is, if they are meant to have short hair, they have it like that, and that they stick to the accepted colors of their breed, and stuff like that, wags," She clarified sweetly before turning to Rhino. "Which, by the way seems to me as a total waste of time and a horrible way to generalize animal beauty."

"Geez, calm down," Rhino replied. "It's just a competition, you don't have to watch it if you don't want to, cat."

"I will take your word." Mittens turned to Bolt again. "You want to come with me outside? Bolt?"

The dog, who had been staring at one corner of the house after hearing his mate's explanation, shook his head and looked onto the same spot a few more moments before returning his gaze towards the cat.

"Huh?"

"Are you okay, Bolt?"

"Y-Yeah; I thought I saw… nothing, I must be going crazy."

Mittens smiled slyly and got off the couch.

"Oh, really?" She asked in a flirtatious tone as she began to move her tail seductively just in front of Bolt's eyes. "Because I could distract you for a little while. You coming with me?"

Bolt didn't answer. The dog was way too busy following her tail with his eyes. Mittens, knowing she had him, walked towards the pet door. As soon as her tail left his sight, he got off the couch and followed her into the garden.


The whole going had been watched from a corner of the house, the same one Bolt had been staring at, through a pair of large, yellow and invisible to the naked sight eyes. Nothing besides those eyes and a mouth full of long, sharp, dirty fangs, was visible. Hidden as it was, the entity smiled wickedly and vanished in the air, leaving no trace of ever being there.


Everything was dark. The sky, which normally held at least a spark of sunlight, looked gray, filled and pilled with clouds and clouds. The street looked the same: gloomy and empty at all. On both sides of it there were houses, all of them next to the other and all of them looking mostly the same. They were all broken and corroded. They must have been a place to live at some point, but now, abandoned and hollow, they only made the surroundings creepier.

In the middle of the street, aligned exactly with the center of the rows of houses, there was a small roundabout, a circle, perhaps nine or ten meters in diameter, full of dead and dry grass. In the center of the circle, there was a statue made out of stone, about three meters tall, shaped like a cross. It was overgrown, tilted and broken, cracked all through, and holding some banks of moss. Some vines that hung from it gave it the perfect creepy appearance that blended well with everything else. Some cries of horror and pain were audible, far, far away, constantly. Whenever one would stop, another one would begin, as if they were the natural sound of the air in that dark place.

Suddenly, a strong, dirty-violet-colored light covered everything for a moment, then disappeared. Another one followed, and another and another, until it became something that happened every few seconds. They were lightning bolts, all of them violet, outlining the clouds and briefly illuminating the place every time. The rumblings they caused sounded in the most terrifying way; capable of causing fear even in the bravest of the heroes.

One of the dark lightning struck the highest part of the broken cross. This was much thicker, and caused a much louder burst than the others. When it disappeared, in the place that it had hit there was a spectral body with a couple of big, yellow eyes and a mouth full of powerful fangs. Slowly, a lot of dark energy began to gather around it, forming a physical body, dark violet as well. A couple of hands, or rather, claws, a torso, a head, a neck, all of it turning physical and solid. It had a tail, but no hind legs, as if it were half snake, and it hung from one side of the cross until it reached the ground; at its end, there was a massive, scorpion-like stinger, even though it seemed obvious it was also used for hitting, since it had a rounder appearance and it seemed solid enough to break things.

The entity thundered its knuckles and neck. Then it looked around. As it did so, more lightning began to strike down on the ground, quicker. Through the whole street, on top of the houses, around him. The entity raised one hand into the air, and almost at the moment a lightning hit it. Then another one, and another one, giving it energy to accumulate. Eventually, it held its hands together, concentrating all of the dark energy he had in between them in a small, glowing sphere.

"Here, brothers, begins a new stage," it whispered. "I shall avenge all of you. Light shall fall, and all will belong to darkness. Your sacrifices will not be in vain." It raised both hands, the glowing sphere in between them and shook its tail in excitement. "Now, I call upon every form the Darkness has!"

The being threw the orb with a single hand at a considerable distance, towards the street. Once the sphere reached the floor, it sank into the ground, and for a few seconds nothing happened. Then, the asphalt of the road began to deform from underneath, as if something were trying to break it and get out of the ground. The material gave way after a little while and a hand, moderately rotten and wounded, peeked through the ground. A zombie, in all its expression, had risen, and began to walk towards the cross at a slow pace.

As the undead body staggered forward, the whole area became crowded with more and more cracks in the ground, and more zombies began to rise. Dark lightning also became more frequent in the area; however, now, wherever one would hit, something would spawn. Just a minute or two after the first appearance, the central cross was surrounded by everything: zombies, demons, monsters, urban legends, shadows of very high, unknown ranks, ghosts made entirely out of darkness… The ground trembled as more and more dead bodies rose, and through the gaps they left behind, insects also began to crawl out. Immense spiders of two meters tall, mosquitos of one, scorpions, centipedes, bees, wasps, cockroaches, beetles and ants, all in large groups. Lightning strikes also began to spawn animals. Wolves, dogs, bears, lions, tigers, jaguars, rhinos, crocodiles, hippos, snakes, and even rodents, larger and more intimidating than any known specimen or breed. All these, animals and insects, had their appearance in common. They all were dark in color, or totally black, their eyes in glowing yellow, orange, or red; some of them didn't even had pupils.

By the time the first zombie reached the cross, the entire place was infested with thousands of different creatures moving in the same direction. Seven dark pillars were noticeable among the swarm. Finally, when they all had surrounded the cross, the stranger entity raised a hand, commanding for silence. Everything that was there, every being obeying that command, had something in common: They were all fears.

The entity smiled again, showing its dirty and dangerous fangs. Perhaps the place had an aura like it was about to give a speech, for it all seemed like that. However, when it opened its mouth, it only said, practically in a whisper: "Pack, pack. Kill… kill."

Few of the present heard it. Silence prevailed. The first zombie, one of the closest ones to the cross, caught the message, and began to repeat, vaguely, "Pack… pack. Pack, pack."

Some other beings close to the zombie heard him, and started to repeat the message. In turn, other entities, close to the previous ones heard them and joined in. In less than a minute, it was all screaming and shouting.

"Pack, pack!" Everyone yowled. "Pack, pack!"

"Kill!" Suddenly interrupted the noise, in a torn and dry voice. It was the zombie, who yowled once more "Kill!"

Like the first time, the new words spread like gunpowder through the entire dark army. Some animals, instead of repeating, began to roar, howl or hiss at the top of their lungs. The caterwauling kept growing and growing, until it was a chilling war cry, accompanied by all types of terrific sounds:

"Pack, pack! Kill, kill! Pack, pack! Kill, kill!"

The stranger, still on the broken cross, smiled wickedly. It gave a strong, ear-piercing roar, that added to the yowling of the dark forces beneath it. Moments later, a dark lightning as big as the one that had brought it there, hit him in the top of its head. By the time the lightning was gone, so was it. There was only left a giant, dark army, made up of all the possible an imaginable fears, in a state of euphoria and with two simple words in their minds.

"Pack, pack! Kill, kill!" They kept all screaming, unconscious or indifferent to the absence of the stranger entity. "Pack, pack! Kill, kill! Pack, pack! Kill, kill!"


And here it is. the official, final, chapter of this story. Yeah, it is not an epilogue, it is a post-credits scene, because... Because. I am deeply sorry for not being active like, the whole semester, but this is it. Sadly, this is the last thing I have to offer right now. But I will try and bring more stories to life, perhaps some one-shots, or perhaps this sequel, because, man, dark times are coming. Anyway, thanks to everyone for reading up to this point. For the last time in some time, this is Advina tuning out. Nos veremos luego, amigos.