Freedom
Mary woke to find herself fastened to an electric hooked cross. Before her stood a terror-bird — one of those extinct birds of horror, the predatory birds the size of giraffes, said to have been among history's most blood-addicted creatures. They smelt blood like cocaine — like the person writing this text. The bird stood restrained and stared at Mary with a thirsting gaze. Lyzbiath came forward in dance-like steps as if in a damned opera.
Mary spat a bloody gob at him and asked: "How did you resurrect these extinct beasts, and what use are they in your experiment?"
Lyzbiath, wiping his hands on one another, laughed and looked to the sky. "These are loyal creatures, they did not deserve death, unlike humankind. How did I bring them back? Well, girl, you cannot fathom the breadth of my intellect, unlike the lecherous males I have embraced in my life. I am nearer to a floating skull in the galaxy. As for your second question — who said I have only one experiment? Truly, I require things that prevent my brain from suffering a seizure; I need something to enable my mind to withstand the speed of its cells without costing me my life. I demand great endurance. I am still studying this. But the important thing — tell me, what is the great interest in that treasure? In any case, what will you gain?"
Mary answered, with a look of fury and hatred: "I do not know, it is unknown. But my crew set out because they believed it might help the world. You know what happened — the tremor and the fountain of water rose after the Devil's Skull island vanished from the planet as if it had wholly faded, and its place became a void. We needed a divine myth to cling to in faith. Well, I needed things, but who knows — perhaps this treasure will be useful to you too."
Lyzbiath raised his eyebrow in astonishment and laughed. "Hahahahaha — oh, my little lady, you mean it might be the elixir of immortality and I might become an immortal lich. Well, I'm not certain that would help me; my experiments so far… in any case, I heard you shrieking and I was watching you from the cameras that there is a slayer among your crew and you intend to go rescue them."
Mary smiled, then raised her face coldly and looked at him with eyes wide open: "Well, he is not a slayer — he is a black goat, something far more extreme and evil than you, O devil."
Suddenly, in a distant corner of the laboratory a green portal, inter-dimensional, ripped open; out of it came a man whose appearance was misty in the darkness. When he drew near the glowing technological devices of the madman's world, it became clear — it was Michael, holding in his hand a book made of leather, its cover set with many demonic symbols and stars. The old leathery binding shone; when Michael opened it the pages glowed with a purple light. At that moment Lyzbiath's mouth fell open in shock — he could not believe what he saw.
He said: "You — that which is in your hand — is it the Necrameknyon? How did you manage to control it?"
Kostnas B. waved with his left hand while holding the book in the other; with the flourish of his gesture a portal appeared. In the portal there were four leather mountains, behind them three plates of shimmering, dancing green aurora, while snow fell. Mary realised that this portal would transport them far from Lyzbiath's laboratory. From the portal flew in black crows, half their skulls bare of skin, and those birds swept toward Mary. She removed the nails that held her to the cross and freed herself, then ran toward the portal.
Lyzbiath sent after them some of the resurrected predators as well as some creatures that were skeletal frames, resembling the Siberian tigers. He grasped her hand and pulled her out of the laboratory; they ran across the ice, through the darkness, through the frozen forests, across the howling winds, through solitude and beneath the firmament. Michael ran with Mary — the investigator who, however great her intelligence, remained an ordinary human with no relation to those who toyed with the cosmic darkness. When they had put distance between themselves and the place, Mary stopped him and said, "Stop."
"Why are you so strange like this? Why help me now when you were killing people on the ship? Are you a psychopath, or a good man, or an evil one? I no longer know whether you are human."
Michael replied, his features clear and urgent: "There is no good and evil. There are goals — and I have a goal."
"And what is your goal?" Mary answered.
"For years we found the body of a man when I was once an ordinary human like you, believing all that believes, clinging to security. Then we found the corpse of a man whose face was strange; his hair had turned white though he was in the prime of youth, his eyes were red. With his body were found notes he had written about his journey, from which we learned his name, for he had been utterly unknown: Gabriel Sandlarend. He spoke in his notes of his experience on a peculiar Leather Island , and he wrote that this island was not like ordinary patches of earth but had been made by powerful alien beings called the cosmic entities. These entities are capable of destroying galaxies and worlds, but because they are many they are in conflict among themselves. He spoke of his journey with a cosmic being resembling the lich monsters of dark fantasy tales. This lich asked Gabriel for help and told him he was the Chosen One, possessing intelligence and extraordinary abilities. Gabriel said that when this being achieved its purpose it began to drive him mad. It controlled the whole island to create illusions and hallucinations monsters, strange creatures and even people, and he fed off Gabriel fear. At that moment the creature took pleasure, demonstrating its intellectual superiority. Thus it decided to manipulation with Gabriel and continue his delusions, pretending it still wanted his help while it filled his mind and the island with visions of witches, beasts and detectives who would arrest him for murders, and places that would shift their foundations and even a dark void. In any case, at the God of fear this being — which was called Zolish — told Gabriel he was chosen and that the only creature that had the capacity to kill a cosmic entity was him. It never told him why it had chosen him. In moments of death, Gabriel discovered that he himself was an nihilist who had lived his life in Infinity freedom. He had no moral, religious, political or carnal restraints But what he lacked was physical freedom.
preventing him from doing as he pleased. He loved freedom so much that he would sometimes rescue children and sometimes kill people; he lived a strange life devoted to freedom even before these events, to the point that he once plotted to overthrow the American system. There, he discovered the secret: to be chosen like him you must give yourself Infinity freedom, and by this you would break the universe's nihilism, for you would have done that unique thing no creature in history had done. If you reached the level of cosmic freedom, you would then be able to kill any cosmic entity. I decided I will kill thise skull who possess semi-divine power now."
Mary answered: "So I understand from this that the creature you pursue — the one who told us about it when we boarded the ship — was that lich you wanna hunt.
Michael bowed his head. The gale made his garments and cloak and all the hair on his body ripple and sway. "Yes, Mary. I wann kill the god of fear, Zulish."