Richard groaned as he slowly opened his eyes.
There was light.
It was incredibly white and glaring.
Yet it was not uncomfortable.
Instead, it was soft and tender.
He sat up.
The world around him had changed.
And had become something he couldn't quite understand...
The shapes, the colors, they felt divine and profane at the same time.
In front of him was a pair of enormous golden gates.
Upon closer inspection, he could make out the various glyphs and runes on the golden bars.
His face paled as he quickly looked away, drowning his mind out with a whole bunch of nothing to make sure none of what he had just seen would remain in there.
"Damn..."
He paused for a moment, then glanced back, this time, making sure not to keep his vision in focus lest he gaze upon forbidden knowledge again.
The golden gates were decorated with the runes and glyphs, as well as several strange motifs.
At the center of the gate, was an iron skull with three eye sockets instead of two. The jaws of the skull were opened wide to reveal a set of long and sharp canines.
'The skull from a head of Cerberus.'
To both.sides of the gate, there was nothing...
Beneath him, there was nothing as well.
Only strange flashing lights within a swirling fog. Despite that, it felt as though he was standing on solid ground.
The gate simply floated in this strange world.
"What are you, dumb or something? Don't just stand there!"
Richard frowned,
"What's that?! Where did that voice come from?!"
A moment later, he yelped in pain.
He glanced down.
There, a small creature that barely reached his knee stood less than a meter away, its stern gaze fixed right on him.
Still massaging his shin, Richard frowned at it,
"Why did you do that?"
The tiny gremlin sneered,
"That one was for looking down on me. Now hurry up, or I'll give you another one."
Richard frowned. He had no idea what this little creature wanted from him.
Then he paused.
Looking a bit closer, he noticed a few peculiar things about this creature.
Although it looked human, it didn't at the same time.
Some features were a bit off.
Its ears were too long.
Its nose was round and cute like a button, but its eyes were a sinister black with red dots at the center. It felt like he was staring into the eyes of a hungry Demon.
It wore a white robe, but on its head were twisted horns.
In its left hand, it carried a scroll, and in its right hand was a small black scythe.
"This is why I hate humans." The tiny gremlin pointed its scythe at him,
"Perhaps I should just return you back to your body."
Richard smiled politely,
"I'm sorry for my rudeness. You don't mind me asking where it is we are headed to?"
The Gremlin sneered,
"How ignorant. Aren't you the one that left your windows open? I'm taking you to the Library, of course. I am a Ferryman!"
Richard's eyes widened.
'So this is the thing that crawled into my house and reaper my soul? It looks... underwhelming.'
Despite that, he could feel the layer of mystery shrouding the creature. That was enough to tell him that he absolutely could not afford to mess with it.
Creatures like this were usually rather eccentric and we're not accustomed to the ways of humans. Those who died by their hands for one reason or another were ruled out as unfortunate casualties, and there was not much one could do about it.
"I see. In that case, you can lead the way. I'll be right behind you."
The Ferryman clicked its tongue,
"Whatever. Just follow my lead. If you get lost in here, don't blame me when you get what comes your way."
It paused for a moment, then shivered,
"Well, we aren't supposed to feed that thing, so I guess I will be blamed."
It turned back to Richard, its eyes narrowed,
"You... You are not allowed to stray from me until we get to the library. If you do, I'll get in trouble."
Richard gave a thumbs up,
"Noted."
The he looked around curiously,
"By the way, what exactly is this place? This doesn't fit the description of the Library, from what I've heard."
"This is a sub-plane. One of many you humans have latched on to."
Richard frowned,
'Another sub-plane? Then that means this place can be accessed by the creatures of the abyss as well.'
As the walked through the golden gates that opened on their own, the Ferryman seemed to have sensed Richard's suspicions,
"Relax, human. There aren't a lot of Demons and Devils stupid enough to try and step foot into this place. Those that can, have no need to. And if they do..."
It trailed off at the end.
Richard took a moment to digest the information he had just received.
'Well, I guess that much can only be expected. If it isn't in earth, and it can't be in the abyssal planes, then it could only be in a sub-plane, or in the Veil itself.'
The nature of the sub-planes was rather odd. For one, they were much like individual worlds that existed outside of Earth and the Abyss. It had been postulated in the past even, that earth was just a complex sub-plane.
However, that theory has quickly been scratched.
For one, the Devils, Demons and all the other nightmarish entities of the Abyss didn't have the same amount of interest they had in the sub-planes as they did Earth.
Not to mention, the sub-planes were located in a rather precarious place.
It was located in the Veil itself...
The Veil was a corridor between Earth and the Abyss.
And in this corridor, there were multiple other broken worlds, each one tethered to the Veil in all manners of strange ways.
However, within these sub-planes, there always existed an anomaly. Something that should not exist.
A strange star.
A ripple in reality.
A metaphysical entity...
'I wonder what anomaly exists here?'
They continued walking through the shifting space.
In this place, direction seems to have lost all meaning.
There was no up, down, left or right.
The only way for him to know where he was, or where he was going, was to just keep following the Ferryman.
He felt nauseous.
'Can a spirit feel nauseous?' He had no idea.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, there was a change in scenery.
An enormous monolith that stretched further than his eyes could see, pierced through the sky of this strange, fractured world...
At its side, there were two smaller buildings.
One was made of black stone, its entrance twisted and burning with a ghastly green flame like the very entrance to the Hells itself.
The other was made of bones.
Yes, the building was not a building, but rather it seemed to have been built from the corpse of a Titanic creature.
Richard trembled.
He had never seen anything like this before.
The Monolith on the other hand, was a strange building. Its surface was reflective, like it was made of metallic glass.
"That is the Halls of Solomon. Come. I will lead you to the gates. You are expected by someone."
Richard nodded as the Ferryman continued to lead them forward.
His sense of direction was slowly being brought to normal a d the shifting plane finally turned a bit normal.
He looked down.
They continued walking forward until they arrived at the entrance to the enormous library.
There, the looming figure of Baxter Rigborne was there to greet them.
"Well done, Mal'thak. I knew I could—"
"Cut the crap, you feral beast. I'm not up for your antics today."
It pointed a finger at Richard,
"Don't think you can escape paying me this time."
Baxter erupted in laughter,
"I just played a prank on you the last time, no?"
The small gremlin screeched,
"Make that the last ten times! Don't think you can escape this time. Try anything funny and I'll feed this human to that thing!"
Baxter chuckled nervously,
"Now, now... Let's not get carried away."
He waved his hand, and a normal looking stone appeared within his fingers.
Although the stone looked normal, Baxter's expression changed. He seemed rather reluctant to give it away.
Eventually, he sighed and threw it to the little gremlin.
Mal'thak snickered,
"Pleasure doing business with you."
Then it turned to Richard and spoke as it quickly pocketed the stone,
"Hey, human. Consider this a generous display of my goodwill,"
"Do not learn more than you need to, do not see what you should not. If anything beckons onto you, turn the other way, and if your curiosity is killing you, it is better to die."
Richard raised a brow.
'Why does its goodwill sound so ominous?'
Regardless, Richard gave the strange tiny being a small, but respectfully nod,
"I will take your words to heart."
Mal'thak paused. Then it huffed,
"Smart kid."
Then it turned around and walked away. Its body dissolved into wisps of shadow.
Richard sighed, the turned to Baxter Rigborne.
The old Sorcerer wore a deep tan suit, a matching pair of shoes, and a golden watch.
His hair was groomed neatly and his eyes were vibrant.
Despite having white and grey hair, the old Sorcerer radiated deep vitality and power.
He walked over to Richard and placed his large hand on his shoulder,
"Welcome to the Halls of Solomon, Richard."