Fanfic: King of Halloween

    A gnarled, twisted, vine claw of a hand waves through the darkness across a dimly lit floating screen. The light of which barely illuminates enough of the room to tell that there is a well dressed figure sitting in a very large lounge chair.

 

    “The Hell of Fall, ruled by a Fear Demon” comes a deep raspy voice from the mostly hidden figure as it waves its unfitting hand across the screen again, “Halloween Town, ruled by a nicely dressed skeleton with an oddly flexible skull,”

 

    It waves its hand again and again, “Halloween Towns, more Halloween towns, oh a Halloween land controlled by a Scary Godmother, oh and more jokes of Halloween towns…”

 

   The screen goes blue showing nothing but this light, shining upon a very large Jack-O-Lantern head, a fire kicking up inside to illuminate the eyes and mouth.

 

   “Oh what shape I have, ages past the fear, the darkness, I was a thing of horror, hook limbs, armor, skull head, bat wings, oh the fear did soak into me across the infinite for this time of year the veil did feed me such delicious fears…”

 

    He stands, fully into the light. He is dressed in a suit, a thin body, his arms are woven thick dark green vines that come into claw like hands, his head a carved pumpkin.

 

    “But now,” he says, “their fear fills me with nothing but this, soon my form will look all too human; yesss, humans are what humans fear now more than anything; to prevent this I am forced to feed second-handedly from these…holiday born psionic dimensions to absorb the fear of children they feed on…resulting in this…”

 

    “My child,” comes a deep voice from all around him, “Lord of the Limbo between life and the Land of the Dead, I can grant you greater territory, greater power, access to their very dreams, you would be the one to mold the fears of an entire world and gain so much more power!”

 

    The Lord of Limbo laughs, fire spewing from his mouth, “Power? Who said I was lacking power oh evil darkness? My form, a mere aesthetic, it is my nature to lament and be dramatic. My form is granted by the average, by the most common aspects of human fears on those worlds which know to celebrate this oh so grand time of the year.”

 

    “Then,” says the darkness, “would not access to the dreams and molding the fear of an entire human world not work to your benefit? You could decide what they fear, what form you would take, be what ever you want to be.”

 

     “I can already do that,” says the Lord of Limbo, “at least not as far as you are saying, which sound soooo boring, what fun is it to do that? My power remains the same regardless of what I look like, I may even take any form I’ve had before. Left alone they may grant me a new form. No, I spread from world to world, inciting Halloween to be born; it’s just a shame it seldom stays such a dark and wonderful holiday. If only I could insist it stay dark, perhaps have a more direct physical influence like these Halloween towns do…but alas.”

 

    He falls back into his chair, his hand to head in such an overly dramatic pose, “tis not to be. Any world I can influence with its thin veils always has as well barriers designed by the local gods to prevent their own native spirits and demons from flooding the human world, at least in such as the more powerful ones…such as myself. So I bring about Halloween towns in that space to influence the human cultures to give rise to the holiday again and again.”

 

    The Lord of Limbo looks left and right into the darkness waiting for a reply.

 

    After a moment of silence, “I see…” says the darkness, “that is your game, very well, I know of such a world, a world where you can enter, gods and demons go there all the time. It was my intention to bribe you with a different world in exchange for going here, however it seems that is not necessary. I will instead give you the coordinates of this dimension, this world where ghosts, demons, and monsters regularly walk the surface where you may become the lord of fear and incite a truly fantastic Halloween to be born, perhaps even with worshippers. Naturally as powerful as you are your power would be limited, but here you could speak directly to worshippers through mirrors and portals, here you may even walk the land every so often as the time is right like the gods there do instead of just creating proxies.”

 

    “Interesting,” says the Lord of Limbo, “I take it of course in exchange for knowing where such a fantastic place is you would want something in return?”

 

    “Indeed,” says the darkness, “an enemy you may have to face regardless when you go there. I will give you her exact location. She is a self proclaimed goddess of chaos and cataclysms, a monster you would face as a rival. The locals tell stories of her, and have done so for many generations. She is awed and feared. Her name forever burned into the collective cultural memory of every culture upon their entire world.”

 

    “and,” says the Lord of Limbo, “I would take her place in their collective memory, a greater evil…a greater darkness usurping the throne to mold their nightmares not simply from afar but there among them at that joyous time of year…”

 

    His pumpkin mouth turns up in a smile, “yessss,”

 

    The blue screen changes, morphing into a large window by the power of the darkness as black smoke swirls around the edge of the screen. The screen changes to show a forest with a dirt path, walking along it are two women.”

 

    “That is the world?” says the Lord of Limbo, “I see two women in costumes, does a Halloween in some form already exist? I have already altered similar celebrations a number of times. You make it too easy.”

 

    “Days to celebrate the dead do exist,” says the darkness, “but these are no costumes, they are sorceresses, the one in black is the self proclaimed goddess.”

 

    “She does not look so terrifying,” says the Lord of Limbo, “a bit cliché in fact with that evil Sorceress giddup, she could stand to show a bit more skin though, maybe a leather thong and some spike shoulder pads, a few skulls, a more rattied cape.”

 

    “She is no joke!” yells the darkness making everything shake, “are you not the king of horror? Have you not felt the deaths she has caused over the ages? This woman has made a mockery of your element.”

 

     “Do tell,” says the Lord of Limbo

 

    “She has traveled outside her world,” says the darkness, “she has slain the living, real embodiments of horror icons, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Dracula, and many others. Are you not offended?”

 

    The Lord of Limbo’s fire eye holes narrow as he scratches what passes for a chin on his round head, “Ah, I see, this is a fantasy type world, swords and sorcery, and she is some master of magic. It is this old story again is it? Fantasy vs horror, both share many of the same monsters, but fantasy makes them more light hearted, none threatening, generic enemies, or sympathetic allies…”

 

     The Lord of Limbo slams his hand on a wall that no one but him would have known was there, “The arrogance! For ages THAT has been what has diminished my Halloweens! That is what has forced me again and again to spread to new worlds just to get the same amount of fear energy I had before. They turn vampires into heroes, they turn werewolves into romantic love interests! They turn ghosts and goblins into jokes! Zombies become...nothing but low level enemies, ghouls, demons, living shadows, everything they should fear is turned into common faire and laughed at all thanks to the emergence of videogames, cartoons, and movies about impossible people with crazy powers vanquishing my horror delights with swords and spells! This blasphemy spills over and changes even the most hardcore horror monsters into action heroes!...”

 

    “Wait,” says the Lord of Limbo starting to pace, “This is her isn’t it? Yes, my counterpart for fantasy…it must be! That is why you came to me. You are the source of evil, the first one, the embodiment of dark desires, you need my monsters as much as I do. But you have no physical presence anywhere beyond your voice and visual representations. So then I slay this one little magic woman and it’s all over. No more enchantresses putting spells on demons, no more vampires that cast fireballs, no more werewolf paladins and shamans, no more lovely witches, no more armies of goblins fighting elves…its back to the thing in the darkness lurking outside the suburban home ready to come inside and eat the residents, its back to the lone human hunters trying desperately to survive the evil that lurks in the shadows. No more heroes who leap twenty feet in the air and slice the heads off of giants…all over, and all horror from then on.”

 

    He stops a moment and looks at the screen, “Yes! I will put an end to the queen of fantasy!” He steps through the portal.

 

     ******

 

     In the dark zone the man known as Skeletor has watched the whole thing through the back of the skull of his goat skull headed staff.

 

     “So,” says Skeletor, “was that true? Would killing this woman you hate so much end all things your strange minion calls fantasy? I can’t help but feel that ending magic and all those things he said would come out as anything I’d want.”

 

     “No,” booms the darkness, “the Lord of Limbo is old and deranged, he thinks himself the source of these monsters; he is merely a parasite that uses them to feed on the fear of mortals. The sorceress Rhulan is not the source of the mystical archetype; she is merely another player in it; albeit one that has become too great a thorn in my side.”

 

     “Hmm,” thinks Skeletor, “then you want this monster to finish her? If that is so then why have you summoned me here to this place?

 

      ******

 

    Night begins to fall as Rhulan and Hollia stop dead in their tracks, a blue door of a portal has appeared before them on the path. The one stepping forth is a most unusual sight, a tall thin man in a suit that Hollia recognizes as the type of attire worn by some in the Croix Empire as an ancient formal attire. That alone would not be alarming if not for the fact his arms and hands appear to be made of thick bristly pumpkin vines that twist into claw like hands. His head is a large pumpkin with triangular eyes carved out and a mouth of triangular teeth, topped off with a flame inside making the eyes and mouth glow.

 

   “What…is that?” asks Hollia.

 

   “Well,” says Rhulan, “it has a Jack-O-Lantern for a head so I am guessing a fear demon or yet another movie monster being sent by who ever or what ever keeps sending them; given it has that same stench of an aura about it I have no doubt on that one.”

 

    “Things of fantasy,” says the man, “I am the King of Limbo, King of Halloween, King of Horror, and today I put an end to fantasy!”

 

    With that it grows in size, forty feet tall at the least and sprouting a second pair of vine arms.

 

    “Okay,” says Hollia, “Lin Li…oh right Lin Lin is at home today.”

 

   Hollia summons her staff from the blue flames, “Then it’s just you and me Miss Rhulan.”

 

   “Indeed,” says Rhulan flying into the air, “let’s be rid of this demon quickly.”

 

   “Goddess Wind!” shouts out Hollia summoning the spiral green horizontal cyclone from the end of her staff. Her massive version of the spells shreds apart the monster’s left arms.

 

   Rhulan holds her arms out summoning massive amounts of electricity to them. As she brings her arms together in a massive clap she shouts out, “Thunder Blast!” unleashing a massive lightning bolt that blasts apart the monster’s pumpkin head.

 

   As Rhulan floats down towards Hollia she stops, as the monster is not falling over. Its arms regenerate, and despite the lack of a head it laughs. A fire erupts from the spot where a neck should be and spins into a massive fireball tacking the shape of the head. The fire becomes vegetable flesh forming into a new pumpkin head.

 

   “My turn,” says the monster as it spews out fire.

 

   “Saint’s Fire!” shouts of Hollia summoning a wave of blue fire that collides with (despite how fire should act) with the flames from the pumpkin head holding each other at bay.

 

   Rhulan flies towards the monster’s right side, her body glowing blue.

 

   “Crusher Force Fist!” yells out Rhulan ducking under the flames and smashing her fist into the monster’s chest, the blue shockwave of the attack punching a massive hole in its body.

 

   It stumbles backwards in shock, allowing Hollia’s attack to wash over it. When the flames are over however the monster still stands, albeit a bit limply as smoke rises from its mouth. Its body has a hole in it, and the two lower arms fall off, vanishing in smoke when they hit the ground. The hole has no blood, no guts, only tattered cloth and leaves like a giant scarecrow. The weight of the pumpkin head forces the upper body backwards ripping the torso in half. The pumpkin head hits the ground smashing to pieces before it too, the upper arms, and what remained of the upper torso vanish in smoke.

 

   Hollia is about to speak, however she notices Rhulan’s deathly stare is fixed on the legs which are still standing. An explosion of dead leaves shoots up like a whirlwind from the waist of this thing and reforms into the previous upper body. This time however it has only two arms, which have wooden claws, and the head is a skull with flames in the eye sockets. It starts to form a rolling flame inside its mouth. Rhulan and Hollia nod to each other.

 

   As it spews forth the flame Hollia shouts out, “Saint’s Barrier!” and Rhulan shouts out,

“Spirit Shield”. The spells merge, overlapping and turning red with a hexagonal plated appearance. This new barrier is hit dead on by the flames. The flames are absorbed by the barrier which then shoots out a Freeze Blast in the same direction. The blast takes the monster by surprise encasing it in ice.

 

   As they drop the barrier known as the Aegis Shield, Rhulan raises her arms above her head, Hollia knowingly backs up. Rhulan crosses her wrists, her hands gesturing the index and pinkie fingers up.

 

    “Agni spirit of flame,” chants Rhulan, “consume from with in, burn away the core to consume all around it! Agni’s Curse!”

 

    Inside the ice the body of the monster bursts into flames from with in.

 

   Hollia shouts out, “Saint’s Barrier!” forming a dome around her and Rhulan as the force of the flame burst explodes outwards shattering the ice faster than it can melt sending shards across the land like rockets into the air crashing down on the path and nearby by forest sending every bird and woodland creature, even a few Flame Raptors which had apparently been nearby racing away from the scene.

 

    When the smoke clears there is no more a giant man, however there is still someone there, a normal sized man, albeit tall and thin, and wearing that suit. His head a pumpkin with a red glow, very different from a flame glow, coming from the unmoving eyes and mouth. This man holds out his hand and a scythe emerges up from the burning leaves around his feet.

 

    “Very well,” says the man, “I knew you would be tough, but this is ridiculous. So be it, I will use the forbidden power!”

 

   He brings the scythe down in front of him stabbing the dirt, “Infinite Horrors!”

 

 

 

   The ground cracks and a massive tsunami of strange lesser demons from across a thousand cultures comes spewing forth.

 

   In a blink Rhulan summons the Seraphim Sword. She nods to Hollia who un-summons her staff and concentrates a ball of energy in her palms, a ball made of glittering blue, white, pink, and violet sparkling lights.

 

   Hollia shouts out, “Goddess Blast!” shooting the beam out at the same time Rhulan swings the sword shouting out, “Seraphim Moon Cleaver!” sending out a wave of black, purple, blue, and green fire. The two attacks merge into a blinding light that takes the form of a massive dragon with violet eyes. It opens its maw and swallows the demons, destroying them upon impact. The attack spirals into the air as Rhulan and Hollia will it where it vanishes.

 

    *boom*

 

    The man with the pumpkin head explodes out of the ground below them, brandishing a knife. In a span of time too short to be seen by human eyes Rhulan *zips* over and grabs up Hollia, taking to the air before the man can stab Hollia with his knife from below. Rhulan floats in the air holding Hollia in her arms like a damsel in distress she just saved. Hollia blushes from the unexpected embrace. Rhulan lets her go as Hollia levitates on her own and summons her staff back.

 

    “Nice…attack,” spews out the monster, his words covered in venom.

 

    “I…have…never seen…such magic…in movies…oh…right…video games…cartoons…that must be it.”

 

    “Creature!” shouts of Rhulan, “this is real life, I do not know what madness has possessed you or what lies you have been told or…what ever, but know this, I am Rhulan the Celestial Sorceress!”

 

    “And I,” shouts out Hollia following suit, “am Hollia the Divine Maiden! Demons that would disrupt the harmony of this land are not welcome, return to your own world now and we may spare your life!”

 

    “Nice,” says Rhulan smiling at her.

 

   “Thanks,” says Hollia blushing, “I’ve been practicing.”

 

   “Warn me now?” scoffs the monster, “I see…in my haste to dispose of you fantasy scum I didn’t introduce myself….wait…yes I did! I am the king of all horror the king of Limbo! Like any good horror franchise I embody the first and best principle of every good horror monster!”

 

 

   He leaps into the air some distance from them; unlike the sorceresses who are levitating he is somehow standing on the air.

 

   “I can not stay dead!” he shouts out with a hideous laugh, “No matter how many times you kill me, no matter how you kill me, no matter how obvious and clear my death was…I was always come back again and again…and…”

 

    *Smash!*

 

  Rhulan has *zipped* over and punched his pumpkin head smashing it to pieces and sending the man tumbling on the air kicking up dust that shouldn’t exist.

 

  The red light vanishes and….Hollia puts her hand to her mouth, “By the goddess,”

 

  The man has no face. There is skin covering where the eyes, nostrils, and mouth should be. Under the skin one can see a faint red glow in the eye sockets, a glow so deep that one can tell there are no eyeballs under that skin only eye sockets, the glow clearly coming from inside the skull, the only thing revealing a face being the presence of a nose and a lip shape to the peach colored skin.

 

    The wood hands it had burst into flames revealing normal human hands, although with skin over where the fingernails should be.

 

    “By the goddess,” says Hollia putting her hand back down, “what…what kind of demon…”

 

    “Nothing I’m familiar with,” says Rhulan back at Hollia’s side, not knowing what this thing is.

 

   “I…” says the monster, “I can smell your fear…your uncertainty…how sweet.”

 

   His arms go limp to his sides as he just stands in the air facing them, still as a tree, “I am the who stares without eyes, I am the one who speaks without a mouth, I am the one who lurks in shadows, forever in the background, I am the true face of human fear, I am the stranger, I am the template of man, silent and alone and always there waiting and watching.”

 

    “Not very silent if you ask me,” says Rhulan making Hollia laugh despite the situation.

 

   “I was wrong,” says the man, “you are not the embodiment of fantasy…you are humans…I can smell that now, now that the fear orb is off my head. No human can kill me, me who was born of human fears. How foolish I was to play it like that, although you have taught me not to face what ever would be the archetype of you…none the less I will kill you both and then I will be free to wander this world, create a new Halloween, create new fear, the fear from such powerful humans should make me like a god!”

 

    “Air Slicer!”

 

    “Golden Blast!”

 

   A blue arc of energy comes at the monster from below slicing his body in half, and a golden beam of energy destroys his lower body. From above a massive Fire Salamander attack comes down engulfing his upper body and smashing down into the ground.

 

   A woman, a humanoid black panther with long hair wearing pirate clothes and wielding twin scimitars flies over from the direction the Air Slicer came from, and a muscular male elf with short yellow spiky hair with red tips and wearing a martial arts outfit comes from the direction of the Golden Blast, from above Lin Lin flies down around Hollia.

 

    “Too bad for him,” says the panther woman known as Cata, “we aren’t human.”

 

    “What was that thing?” asks the elven man known as Gold Wolf.

 

    Lin Lin chirps while nuzzling Hollia’s cheek.

 

   “A demon born of human fears,” says Rhulan narrowing her eyes, “and it has that same aura as too many demons which have come to this world. I fear something is sending them, spread out over time as they may be this has to stop, next time it might send a DaiKaiju or something here, no telling how much it might up its game now that this one failed.”

 

   “I said!” comes an un-natural scream from below, “No matter how you kill me I will not die!”

 

   The head flies up, the inside of it bulging and moving in sickening ways, the lip skin rips  open and several grey slimy tentacles come out squirming, same too for the neck, the nose, and even the eyes. With a few sickening pulses the back of the head rips open and demon wings shoot out. The head explodes revealing a red glowing orb with tentacles wrapped around it.

 

    “By the goddess,” says Gold Wolf, “please tell me that isn’t what I think it is.”

 

    Rhulan crosses her arms, “Everyone…” she says in a very somber tone, “stand back…and stay back.”

 

    She creates a portal and summons forth a very strange sword, a blacker than black hilt and a red katana like blade with black bolts around it. Her shadow forms around her hands creating claw like structures, black stripes appear on her cheeks, and her eyes change from blue to red and glowing like mystical rubies.

 

   “The Thousand Year Sword,” whispers Hollia hugging onto Lin Lin.

 

   Cata’s hair bristles as she and Gold Wolf both back away; Gold Wolf VERY far away. The sky darkens, black and red waves over its surface, the wind blows hot. The sounds of every living thing below that isn’t plant or person can be heard fleeing the area, and those who can sense it can feel the eyes of a million spirits, gods, and certain beings above the planet watching for unusual energy signatures, upon this scene.

 

  Disregarding the laws of mass tentacles fly from the monster towards them. With a mighty, “haaaaaa!” Rhulan charges it, her sword out slicing the tentacles into black oblivion as she makes her way towards the orb. With a mighty thrust she stabs the sword into the orb. There is an un-natural silence, then the tentacles turn black and blow away as ash, and then nothing, dissolving towards the orb, the wings too. The orb stops glowing to reveal it was a gem, a mystical core. Rhulan pulls her sword free and recalls it back into its portal. The sky turns back to normal as does Rhulan.

 

     “Thank you,” comes a small voice from the orb as it cracks more and splits apart.

 

    The orb falls away like glass, which turns to sparks, which vanish as they fall down towards the ground. A tiny thing remains, a blue squid of a thing. A soft voice, yet loud enough for all of them to hear comes from it, “Thank you. A million times I come and go in different forms, corrupted by the evil in the hearts of mortals. I know now I was not sent here to kill you, but to be killed by you. Yes, the evil one did not know this, he too is but a pawn of the greater force at work here. Thank you…for freeing me of this existence.”

 

    It floats up and starts to fade away, “Next time…I hope to come back as something good, something to make the holidays happy…”

 

    Just before it vanishes completely, “next…time…I…want…..to…….be….an……Easter Bunny.”

 

     and then it was gone.

 

    “Wow,” says Gold Wolf, “when you said that sword was pure chaos….seriously…damn woman, did you just…I mean did you just make an Eldrich Horror say it wants to reincarnate as a bunny?”

 

    Rhulan shrugs her shoulders, “It was going on about Halloween and horror versus fantasy earlier. Who knows what that thing’s motivations were for coming here.”

 

    As they all float back to the ground Rhulan continues, “but clearly, that portal had the same aura as a number of other monsters,”

 

    She looks to Hollia, “including those assassins the other night, what ever this is, it clearly wants us dead, even if that means using diminutive demon assassins or best I can tell tricking some alien holiday themed abomination from between time and space into attacking us.”

 

    As they start to head down the road Hollia asks Gold Wolf, “So uncle, how did you know to come help us?”

 

    “Well,” says Gold Wolf, “you two were supposed to meet us at Stratalia for that mission Queen Thistle wants and you were late…”

 

   Cata chimes in, “actually Lin Lin started to go stir crazy, trashed the diner we were at

and made us follow her out here.”

 

    Lin Lin licks Hollia’s cheek as Hollia nuzzles her.

 

   Rhulan’s mind however is elsewhere, “What ever this is, it has hidden its location very well, can barely follow a trail through my scrying pool, but each time….more comes together, before long…evil one, I will take this fight to you.”