Black Wings: Beak of Blasphemy



Four-Thousand Years Ago...

Samad has been a patient man. A very calm and very patient man. His greyish-green cloak fit snugly around his form as he calmly walked the desert at night. Normally, walking the desert at night was a foolish thing to do, as with how cold it could get, going below freezing; though it mattered not to Samad, his nerves have long since been dead. His blue eyes were far colder than the iciest gaze, but his demeanor, aside from his orbs, was that of a passive individual. Though at times, he'd contort his face in confusion or anger, if not curious and content.

The desert of Egypt was proving not even be a hindrance to the man who stalked in the night, much so, as he had yet to shiver in the cold temperature. Be that as it may, there was not wind, but that did not mean Samad was walking in pleasurable silence. Indeed, he was plagued by something far worse, something akin to a curse. It was this very curse that caused him to change his facial expressions upon his visage so quickly. Though he avoided outright speaking about his condition, he kept it mostly to himself.

The stoic man thought to himself, ''"A few years since the Secrets left that tome, and the items were created." ''The items, the Secrets created that Tome that formulated artifacts of great power, unfathomable power. Indeed, Samad had constantly repeated the mantra that whoever had all Seven of the Secret Items, they themselves could be considered a Secret.

He repeated this mantra as he entered a small, quaint town, stones making up most of the homes. A village more so, if you will, as the sun was beginning to rise in the east. Very few people were walking about, merchants preparing the shops, their own children helping him. He gave a small smile to the people getting ready, only to have his curse open up in his mind.

''"What are you doing, you weak fool?" ''Another voice, much gruffer, although somehow higher pitched spoke in his mind.

"I am to give the Golden Staff to the chosen..." Samad answered back, "It is my duty to both Anubis and the Secrets..."

''"I think it's nice to help. Sharing is nice..." ''Another voice, that sounded effeminate spoke aloud, once more in Samad's mind.

The gruffer voice growled in annoyance, "You're an idiot. What sort of moron shares? Stealing and killing is where it's at! Samad! Let's send someone to Anubis! Or Ammit!"

''"But... But Uraeus, killing people is bad. We can't do that! At least help someone in need or something, don't steal!" ''The kind voice rebuked.

''"Uraeus! Den! Silence! I am to find the chosen one for the Golden Staff, you're breaking my concentration!" ''Samad groaned inwardly, his mind was tired, tired of these two that consistently argued back and forth in his head. He knew there was no way to be rid of it, but alas, he had to exist with it.

"You can take your words and shove them all up-"

"Uraeus! That's mean!"

"I'll feed you to jackals when I get the chance."

A gasp was heard,  "How dare you-"

''"Silence!" ''Samad ordered, but he wasn't heard, the two voices in his head were at it. Barking back and forth and continually, minute after minute, hour after hour, breaking Samad's concentration. He had no idea where the one the Golden Staff had chosen was, but he could feel the Staff calling out. He called the staff forth with his mind, as it formed in his hand.

He felt the powerful object give off signals, and using its power, Samad allowed the staff to guide him to its chosen owner: A young boy, who appeared to be the age of five. Why did it take itself here? Samad could only assume it was for the child. Strange, it didn't seem like this would be the one to hold ancient power, that of the Secrets.

"Child... Come here..." Samad said softly to the boy, beckoning the child to him. The boy appeared apprehensive, taking only a few steps, seemingly afraid of Samad. It was just then he felt a strong power struggle in his mind, suddenly hearing himself speaking a few words, those not his own, "I have the biggest staff you've ever seen, do you want it?"

A short silence before, "URAEUS!! You're so sick!! Ugh!!"

''"This boy looks good enough. I'm giving it to him, go stick yourself in a scarab's mind, Den!" ''Was the reply.

Samad sighed inwardly, knowing that Uraeus was weird to no end and a jerk to the infinite degree. He looked to the child, who had a weird, open-mouthed gaze, before looking to the Golden Staff in his hand. Samad handed it to the child, and stood up, noticing how the staff itself was much taller in height. "Take good care of it."

The child nodded, and Samad turned around, walking back from the town. His anger to the piece of his personality, that which named itself Uraeus, was to be founded. He didn't know what else the piece of his personality would do next. Den was the easier one, so much more simple than the other. It was a rough existence, a very rough one indeed.

Chapter I
Present Day, Realm of Darkness

Pitch-black emptiness, that was the main part of the Realm of Darkness. Despair and sadness were apparent here and the Darkness itself seemed to creep around the blank objects that floated about endlessly in the realm. It was here in this empty plain that Philip now knew as jail, where he was ruthlessly held captive by Ateo, the psychotic Egyptian who kidnapped him not even a day before. The silence was all too great, but it was also very unnerving.

It was no wonder why the Egyptian had gone crazy in this realm after the past four-thousand years. Truly, Ateo was a strange sight to behold, a psychotic Egyptian with anger management issues. Ateo was no doubt probably going crazy in Egypt, searching for his Necklace that he so desired, but Philip was locked here, away from civilization.

"Hmm..." Philip thought, "Well...I need to find some way out of this dimension. Who knows what's going on right now. Damn Assimilators could be running all over the place!" He decided to see if he could getting to higher ground in a vain attempt to get a better view of the bleak dimension he was in.

He found no way further, only long and everlasting darkness. There was nothing but these random floating objects, one upon which he stood. A laugh suddenly echoed across the dimension, one that would make hairs stand on end, "Philip..." A voice wheezed, "How do you... Enjoy my realm?"

Philip whipped his head around, looking for the source of the voice, "Who are you?"

"It's no wonder... Ateo brought... A toy to my... Realm..." Floating in midair, the Secret of Darkness appeared, high above the floating cube which Philip stood, "How interesting... One that isn't... So... Human..."

Philip interrupted, pointing the the Secret, still not quite realizing what he was dealing with, saying, "Not close, but thank you for playing."

"No... I do not taste total decimation of consciousness... I could still infect you..." Darkness came down, landing upon the cube, standing inches from Philip, "And your..." Darkness stopped speaking, chuckling to himself, before he spoke once more, "Do you enjoy my realm?"

"Depends on what you mean by "enjoy". To be honest not my cup of tea, I prefer being on Earth and not being a slave to a psychotic ancient Egyptian man with little to no regard for human life...in fact you can say I would prefer to be on Earth and kick his ass."

Darkness chuckled, "Ateo is a bit... Out there... Is he not? That's what happens... Especially remaining here for a long... Time indeed..." Darkness yawned, "He'll be back... No doubt very soon..."

Philip paced for a second before asking, "I know you'll probably say "no" but, think you can let me go home to Earth? So I can show Ateo that I refuse to follow anything he tells me. Oh and tell him I say this to him."

Philip then whispered some very rude phrases in Hebrew to Darkness.

"I sadly have to disallow your... Desire to leave." Darkness stated, "I'm not going to waste the chance to watch the Earth plunge into the depths of Darkness." Darkness created an image behind him, displaying the planet, "Once Ateo has everything completed... The Earth shall be eclipsed... The human race shall once more... Taste my power..."

Almost on cue, laughter echoed and Ateo faded into view, landing down beside Darkness, "What are you doing here?" Ateo growled at Darkness.

"Merely seeing your... Pet..." Darkness chuckled, "It was quite a chat, Philip..." Darkness faded a few moments after, the image of Earth fading as well.

"Hate that useless, good-for-nothing bastard..." Ateo grumbled, he looked to Philip, "And before you make fun of me, no, I did not find the necklace..."

Philip then responded, "I believe my friend Todd would say something like this, one moment please, ehem...HA!" It was a large relief to Philip that Ateo couldn't find the necklace. 'Give Earth a little more time. Admittidly this would probably hurt the Assimilators, but I can't let the humans get in this...I doubt even Todd can face this cosmic joker.'

"Whatever..." Ateo rolled his eyes, "It's not like it's going to take long finding them anyways... Especially after how long it's taken me... We're going." A portal formed behind the white-haired Egyptian, "Come... You'll enjoy this..." Ateo traveled through the portal, leaving it open for Philip.

Reluctantly Philip followed Ateo back to Earth through the portal, to which he found himself in some underground room that appeared to be in shambles. A giant cauldron lied on the ground, next to a large golden structure of a man. There were many skeletons in the room, and two torches lit the room up. Ateo approached the statue of the man, placing the various Golden Items he had collected upon his body.

"Ah... The Key to his left palm..." The Egyptian muttered, placing it in the statue's left hand, having placed the other items already. Ateo clapped his hand together, overjoyed and happy for once, "Only two more! So close!"

"What is all this? What are you doing?" Philip demanded. He didn't like the looks of this statue, the room, the skeletons, and the lighting was terrible.

"This is the very room the Sacred Golden Items of the Secrets were created..." Ateo scowled at Philip, "I'm placing them back where they belong... And now that there's only two more left, it won't be much longer..." Ateo walked over past Philip to a pile of dirt and borken pieces of wood, blasting it to bits, revealing a stairway, "Come... We don't have much longer..."

Philip demanded in Hebrew, "Not much longer until what? What are the Sacred Golden Items? What are the Secrets?" Despite the last question, Philip did remember Todd mentioning them, but Philip was in the middle of reading Carl Sagan's The Dragons of Eden, one of the few scientific books he hasn't read at the time. 'Damn it. When this is over, I'm asking Todd about these Secrets.'

Ateo stared at Philip, then approached him, the red robe he now donned instead of the golden one that was now on the statue flowed around his form. He stopped before Philip, "I'll answer the other two but not the first... The Sacred Golden Items of the Secrets were created by foolish mortals by paying a big sacrifice... The Secrets are gods that live far... Far away... The one in the Realm of Darkness, that was Darkness, a Secret."

"I assume by a "big sacrifice" that they died in the creation of these artifacts. But why were they made? And what do the Secrets want with them?" Philip has already rationalized the Secrets are powerful extradimesnional entities, much like Todd's other "gods" and "demons" but something about them were more unstettling to Philip, though it might be just Ateo's description.

"The creators never died making the Secret Items... And they were made to protect Egypt during a period that has since been wiped from the minds of history. I want them... The tools are just named after the Secrets..." Ateo growled, "Anything else?"

"Wait...so the powerful godlike beings are named after the tools that were created by men some...five to six thousand years ago? That doesn't make sense to me."

"The Secrets... You nimrod... They were named the Secret Items because they were created by the Secrets! Their physical creation shot through with the actual human creators. The assholes who created that!" Ateo yelled, pointing at all the skeletons and bones strewn about.

Philip responded stoicly, "Well the way you worded it implied that the Secrets were named after the artifacts. No need to yell."

"You'd be just as mad if those skeletons were your friends and family..." Ateo growled, catching his breath and he turned walking toward the staircase. Small droplets of water dotted the spots he walked, he did not turn around when he made it to the stairs, "Let's go..." He gruffly said.

Philip noticed the drops of water on the ground, 'Is he crying?...' He looked at the back of the man's head and asked, "Will bringing this artifacts together bring them back? Is that the goal?"

"They're dead, you idiot. You can't bring back someone who is dead... You moron..." Ateo growled, dark energy began slowly seep off of his body, but the energy reeled itself back into Ateo moments after. "I want the other two. We are going. Get over here."

Philip followed the man slowly and asked, "What do you want? And by the way the Christians beg to differ."

"I want the other two items..." Ateo took each step upward, blasting sand out of the way with his dark magic until they got to the opening of what appeared to be a cave on a cliff. He walked out into the opening of the cave, "Whatever else I want has no value or matter. Sometimes I'm curious as to why I do certain things... When they are of no use..." Ateo snapped his fingers, the wristbands around Philip faded from existence, "You've proven to be no help, enjoy whatever you do." He jumped off the cliff.

Philip, despite hating this guy, couldn't let him jump, "You crazy asshole!" he snapped, stretching his arm after Ateo, capturing the Egyptian before he had landed on the ground.

"Let me go!! You idiot! I have things to do... Items to steal!!" Ateo growled.

Philip snapped, "Then go up and out, not down and dead!"

"I've jumped off this cliffside when I was much younger and never hurt myself. So let me go, idiot!!" Ateo screeched, dark energy once more seeped from his body, attacking Philip's nanobots.

"AH! Son of a bitch!" Philip shouted, letting Ateo go, reeling his arm back, watching it regenerate. Ateo fell, landing painfully on his stomach, no doubt cracking, if not breaking, a few ribs. His arm landing in an awkward position, snapping the bone within as well. Ateo's eyes widened in pain, when he finally noticed that some bits of sand blew away, revealing rock that connected to the cliffside.

"But... I-I thought..." Ateo struggled, standing up on his own, merely grunting in pain. He took a few steps, feeling the reverberations of agony resound throughout his body, he turned to look up at Philip, "Good job, idiot!! Dropping me so I couldn't land correctly, squeezing me so my dark energy released itself involuntarily to protect me. Real smart." Ateo then fell to his knees, sweat marring his brow, ragged breaths slowly coming in and out.

"One problem with that theory!" Philip called down at Ateo, before changing to Hebrew, "How the hell was I suppose to have known all of that?"

"If you... Didn't act so rash... I wouldn't feel.." Ateo breathed out, gasping in pain. He turned around slowly on his knees, crawling to the east. Truly pathetic his image was now.