Chapter Five

 

Exiting the other side of the portal, Antithesis stepped out onto a grass field. The wind blew, causing the grass to gently rustle. The phantom looked around him until he laid eyes upon a man in a wolf headdress.

“Welcome, stranger. What brings you to my home?” the man said. Antithesis raised an eyebrow, wondering how anyone could live in an open field. “Do you have a name? I am called ‘Fierox’, the embodiment of instinct.”

“So he did send me straight to you,” the wraith said.

“Who? Or whom? I forget which it is,” Fierox asked.

“Domination.”

“Dom sent you? Why would he do that?”

“Because I bested him in combat,” the spectre said.

“And by ‘bested’, you mean…,” Fierox said, searching for Antithesis to give an answer. “Killed?”

The spirit nodded. 

“And how the hell did you manage that?!” the warrior said, beginning to freak out. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Cosmus will not be pleased.”

“You will suffer the same fate of your friend if you try,” Antithesis said. 

“He was the embodiment of destruction,” Fierox said. “Without anyone ruling it, the universe will be thrown out of balance!”
“That is not my concern.”

“He’ll be back though,” Fierox said, exhaling. “We’re always reborn. Our bodies can be destroyed, but you can’t destroy an idea. You know, he won’t be too happy with you once he’s reborn. None of us will be if you, you know, happen to go on a bloodthirsty rampage.”

“I only seek the Belt of Axel,” the wraith said sternly.

“The Dimension Belt? What the hell do you want with that?” Fierox asked. “No, wait, don’t tell me. You’re… a spirit brought back to ‘life’ by the combined power of the archangels and you’re on a mission to find the being that killed your family.”

“How--”

“Good instincts,” Fierox said with a smirk. “Anyway, I can’t help you find Axel, but I know another one of my fellow Council members that might.”

“Who?”

“Astral,” Fierox said, opening his hand, which in turn, opened a portal. “Though, I’d be careful with her. She is the embodiment of evil, so…, good luck.”

As Antithesis entered the portal and it closed behind him, Fierox thought back on their interaction and how every fiber of his being would not allow him to engage in combat with the Heavenborne. 

 

On the other side of the portal was a dim, dark, rocky kingdom surrounded with neon green acid, cascading down the sides. The sky was tinted a dark violet and would occasionally illuminate due to the lightning flashing behind the clouds. It was the most stereotypical evil castle one could lay eyes on. 

Antithesis looked forward and realized there was even a raised bridge that wouldn’t allow anyone to even walk up to the gate. There was, however, a green goblin alien dwarf thing standing near the crank for the bridge. The spectre approached him and he raised his club in fear.

“What business do you have here?” he said, shaking in his cloth.

“Easy, small, green one,” Antithesis said. He was thinking there was no way that he’d kill this rather innocent one. “I seek the audience of one called ‘Astral’.”

“Well, this is her castle,” he said. “B-but I can’t let you in.”

The phantom squinted at the castle, looking for the easiest way to break through. 

“What is your name, small, green one?” he asked.

“R-r-red.”

“Red, will you get in trouble if I find a way in?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Then, run, because I have no choice but to go inside. Once I am inside, your master will most likely no longer remember who you are,” the spectre said. 

“W-why’s that?”

“Because I might have to slay her,” the Heavenborne said. Red’s eyes widened.

“N-no! Y-you-- you cAN’T!” Red shouted, his voice distorting as his skin changed from green to red. His body grew to a monstrous size, along with the club he was carrying. He lifted the club and tried to slam Antithesis into the rock they stood on. The wraith teleported behind Red and wrapped his chains around the alien’s neck.

Antithesis thought about how Red resembled Terras, the orange goblin alien he killed on Earth, as Red fell unconscious and collapsed to the ground. As Antithesis hopped off his back, Red reverted back to the green state he was in before. Instead of leaving the goblin there, he decided it best to transport the goblin inside the castle with him. Antithesis walked over to Red, picked him up then walked a good distance away from the castle.

Then, mustering as much speed as he could, he ran toward the castle and leaped across the acid pool that bubbled at the bottom of the pit. He leaned into the jump and planned to crash through the rock with his shoulder, but instead phased through it, using a combination of his teleportation and plasmic holyflames. 

He could have easily lowered the crank and crossed the bridge, but that would have alerted the guards inside if they heard the noise. 

As he landed, he laid Red’s body on the ground, took out one of his daggers and stabbed himself in the shoulder. Two vastly different looking alien guards spotted the spirit and froze. The spirit began to feign panting.

“I suggest finding help for your friend here,” he said, still panting. “He put up an honorable fight.”

The guards fled and began shouting and alerting their fellow guards. As soon as they were out of sight, Antithesis let his shoulder regenerate. 

Soon enough, he was surrounded by several alien guards, each looking like they came from a different planet, which was the case. Astral had taken a stray, abandoned alien from each planet she came across and built an army this way. She trained them all and they were arguably as strong as the aliens that invaded Earth… 

Astral herself teleported into the main room, scantily clad. Antithesis’s heart skipped a beat when he saw, not used to seeing other women like this. 

“WHO ARE YOU?!” she shouted, shaking the room with her voice.

“I… am Antithesis. I seek the Dimension Belt of Axel,” the wraith said.

“For what purpose?” she asked, a little more calmly this time.

“I need to enter Hell.”

“Who sent you here?” she continued. 

“Fierox. He said you might know--”

Astral rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling in disappointment. Antithesis furrowed his brow. 

“Why didn’t he just call a meeting?” she asked herself. She looked at the spectre’s feet  and noticed Red. “Return Red and we shall retrieve the belt.”

Antithesis picked the goblin up and handed him to a guard, who in turn, carried the unconscious one off. Astral looked and smirked at Antithesis before snapping and making them both disappear. 

 

They reappeared in space, among the stars. Antithesis would expect to be floating or feel weightless, but strangely enough, he felt grounded, as if he was standing on an invisible pedestal. Next to him was Astral, and he blushed at how close he was to her. 

Before his eyes, eight other beings appeared on their invisible pedestals, though there should have only been seven others. However, Domination had been reborn.

“To what do we owe the pleasure, As--” he began to say before he fixed his gaze on his previous killer. “You…”

“You attack him, you face me,” Astral said, grabbing Antithesis by his shoulder and squeezing him close, causing him to blush that much more. He had brown skin, but even so, it’s a good thing his mask was red, so it covered his blushing. 

“Astral, he killed Manipulation, and me.”

“I don’t care what he’s done to you--”

“Enough,” a booming voice cut in. “Astral, what is the purpose of this meeting?”

“He needs Axel’s belt,” she said. Axel looked down at his own belt, then back up at Antithesis and cocked his head to the side. 

“Do you even know his name?” Fierox asked. “‘Cause I sure as hell don’t.”

“This is Antithesis, the wrath of God,” Astral said, officially introducing him. “He needs Axel’s belt to get to Hell.”

“Why did you not just send him, Domination?” Cosmus asked. 

“I’ve explained myself,” Domination said. “Besides, you and Axel are the only ones that have access to Heaven and Hell.”

“Why is that?” Antithesis asked, speaking up.

“To avoid conflict,” Cosmus answered. “Axel could relay a message if needed. Plus he’s the closest to neutral besides myself and Chronochron.”

The literal time machine, Chronochron, nodded. 

“Meaning…?” Antithesis asked.

“Meaning if I were to give the good alignments,” Celeste, Vitruviana, and Fierox waved. “Or the evil alignments…”

Domination, Astral, and Doctor Annara K. nodded. 

“Access to either dimension, potential problems could arise,” Cosmus explained.

“I’m not gonna just give my belt to the guy,” Axel said. “I mean, we still don’t know everything about him.”

“For some reason, the archangels told me I needed your belt,” Antithesis said. “They did not mention anything about simply being transported.”

“So just transport him,” Axel said. 

“I’d rather have the belt,” the Heavenborne said.

“So would I.”

“Enough!” Cosmus said. “How about this? If Antithesis can remove the belt from Axel within a minute, then he gets to keep it?”

Axel looked at Cosmus, then shrugged. Antithesis nodded.

“Then it’s settled,” Cosmus said, then he proceeded to teleport them all to Fierox’s field. The Council with the exception of Axel, looked down at them from the clouds. 

Chronochron lowered a giant minute glass down onto the grass, then flipped it and the time began.

Antithesis tried using his teleportation to snatch the belt, but Axel was much faster with his teleportation. Twenty seconds in, Axel became cocky and started to taunt the spectre. This did anger Antithesis, but on the surface, he kept calm. 

Axel kept moving and even teleported on top of the minute glass to yawn at some point. Forty seconds had gone by and Antithesis decided to use more than his teleportation to reach his goal. 

He withdrew his sword and sliced at the ground in front of Axel, physically splitting the planetoid that were all on. Axel was thrown off balance. Then, using his chains, the Heavenborne, reached underneath the dirt to pull the half he sliced up. Axel teleported behind him before he could fall from the shifting. Antithesis expected this as he sliced at the planetoid again, grabbing a smaller chunk, and flipping it behind him to try and smash Axel, but before he could, Axel teleported on top of the chunk, right into the spirit’s hands. Antithesis then threw a Dagger of Deception at Axel head on, but Axel simply side stepped, which the spectre also expected as behind the daggers was a chain attached. The chain wrapped around Axel, and as it did, Antithesis teleported and snatched the belt off the cosmic being and held it high for the other members to see.

“Ah, dammit,” Axel said. “Cos, I’m gonna need another belt.”

 

Celeste repaired the planetoid to its original state and the Cosmic Council wished him luck on his journey, including Domination. 

Antithesis half-expected a warning from Cosmus about ruining the order of the universe, but Fierox explained he’d actually be glad to have the “warring bastards” out of his non-existent hair.