"Those 'thingies' are priceless artifacts we found in our first trial together. The first one we did after your birth." His mother spoke coldly "Just one of them could buy an entire planet, albeit a small and low class planet, but it's still priceless" Her voice was laced with overabundant exasperation
"Okay, that's cool and all but what do they do?" Carson smiled cheekily at his parents, enacting his form of revenge after his parents bad jokes earlier. "Cause if they're just expensive thingamabobbers, that's nice but doesn't help me much"
The young mans words sent his parents faces into an overexaggerated torsion of frowns. "Well, son." His father leaned down and whispered in his ear after looking around. "The leather bag may look small, but it can hold an extraordinary amount of, 'thingies'. Hmm, maybe about as much as our apartment can," He smiled. "and that other 'thingy' is able to prevent its owners death one time."
Carson looked down at the items in his hands in horror, finally realizing that his parents weren't joking when they said that one could buy an entire planet. Both the items in his hand sold together might even be enough to buy the planet he was standing on right now. "But.. WHa?" The young man stuttered, voice breaking. "How did you..." He trailed off.
"Don't worry, like I said we found them a while ago. Its nothing you have to worry about" The older lady said to her son. She looked down at her watch a moment later. "Its almost time, kid. Only a couple minutes left" The world grew heavier as his anxiety increased in strength upon hearing those words.
"Wait, can you feel that?!" someone shouted from across the room. Moments later, the monolith started to thrum with and ancient resonance, a magnet drawn to its perfect half. The world grew darker by the second, basalt pillars rose from the ground around it, growing into a magnificent shroud of black stone surrounding the obsidian pillar. Screams echoed around The young man as he turned to his parents, both their expressions bleak.
"Mom? Dad? What's happening?!" The college student shouted as the world vibrated around him. He could feel the air move in recursion and procession speeding up a degree every second, a divine resonance echoing throughout the shrine. His parents were about to respond when a deep voice caught them in their tracks.
"Hmm? Who has it..." A tall figure, with massive horns glowing with a maleficent crimson, stepped through the threshold of the shrine. His mere presence seemed to be the cause of the growing dread in Carson's heart, and the atmospheric resonance rolled off the demonic figure in waves. "Well no matter, I'll just kill you all until I find it." The man rose into the air, the people nearest to him screaming in horror. The masses inverted, their insides becoming outsides, spreading a dreadful gore throughout the plaza.
Carson's parents grabbed him an dragged him away from the impending doom approaching the family. The exit however was blocked, covered with the same black basalt that had imposed itself upon the shrine. They huddled down in the corner, fear resonating through their beings in tune with the shifting air.
"Take it, one of you" Carson said handing the crystal shard to his parents, Only to have it roughly shoved back by his parents hands. He could hear the ever dawning approach of the malevolent figure, with the sound of screams and cries of torture following like they'd been harnessed and enslaved, forever doomed to follow the demonic man. But the two of them only looked at him with solemnity in their eyes, and said in unison, one final word.
"Survive."
Carson watched as his parents, the only family he had, were ripped to shreds, their final forms being that of roses concocted of bone, blood, and gore, painted forever into a beautifully morbid sight. The vision of their fleshy remains, no different than the rest piled around him, burned itself into his eyes. A boiling rage filled his heart, as he stood, resisting with every shed of his will the feeling of himself being opened up just like the rest. His insides warred against him, and he felt as if someone was gutting him with a piece of sharp scrap metal. But he didn't falter, the war he felt inside himself was drowned out by the unbridled fury coursing through his veins. He turned to the source of his newfound hatred, uncontainable malice painting his every feature.
"Oh-ho-ho, a strong one I see. He he he he." A shrill voice cackled from just beyond the gory wasteland painted in front of him. "Well no matter, the stronger they are, the more fun they are to break." The demonic creature curled its lips in a smile clouded with insanity.
"Who are you." The young man managed to croak out, trying to ignore the feeling of his body trying to rip itself apart like two repelling magnets. Even so, the rage built up in the kid's soul couldn't be suppressed by mere pain. It'd take a lot more than that to stop his rampage.
"Well, I guess you can call me Azlael. I know I know, Primordials aren't supposed to tell mortals their name unless we bless them..." Azlael - the demonic man - cocked his head to the side, his eyes unhinged in a manic glee. "But you wont be living much longer, now will you?" The man appeared in front of him and leaned his colossal height down to Carson's ear. "I should at least give you the mercy of letting you know who killed you." He spoke those words in a gently soft tone, unlike the psychotic shrill that laced the previous. Somehow, though, it managed to feel even more unnerving, like the difference between facing a simple crazy person, and the calculated nuance of a serial killer.
Carson's heart froze over the fear he felt deep in the marrow of his bones was stripped out and laid bare for all to see. But he tried to hold firm, he figured he'd die the moment he saw his parents morbid desecration after all, it didn't matter now by whose hands, either those of himself or those of a Primordial like the one before him. He wouldn't let such a small fact like the nature of his opponent let him sway him from his fury.
He pulled his hand back, channeling all of his rage into one strike. The young man knew he'd miss, or not manage to do anything, but he tried anyways. He let the metallic scent permeating the air to waft into his soul, renewing the hatred he felt. Carson let the memories of his parents flow into his brain, all of his petty arguments over the most childish things, the jokes he'd made, and the ones they shared, the mornings spent talking about school over breakfast, and the evenings he spent outside with his family, sharing stories over a stack of pizza boxes. He let his grief, his sorrow, his rage, and his longing guide his hand in one final gesture of defiance - his final middle finger to the world. He struck, the force of his entire soul put behind that single strike.
His fist collided with his target, much to his surprise, but according to his suspicion, his target didn't even budge, and Carson felt every bone in his right hand shatter. He looked the demon in its eyes, and stuck out the middle finger of his remaining hand, this one just for the man who'd end up as his killer. Azlael smiled manically as a stygian broadsword was drawn from its scabbard, gleaming off of the light from the monolith. Before he knew what'd happened, the world went flat, the depth of the universe reduced to a single sheet of paper that lay before him.
Carson looked to his left, unable to move his head, only to see the hilt of the broadsword protruding from his skull, right over the spot where his left eye used to lay. He looked up at the demon again with a nonchalance totally unbefitting of his current state.
The Primordial looked at him in great confusion, "How are you alive?" the primordial asked calmly "Any normal human should be dead after that... Quite odd. Well no matter. Maybe ill turn you into a slave, you se-" But the deific figure was cut short by spit landing on his face, most ending up in his mouth. He looked down, his formerly calm demeanor plagued by another round of rage.
Carson spared the demon some final words before his departure into the afterlife, managing to barely squeeze them out. "Go fuck yourself..." The young man smiled, glad that at least he wouldn't have to wait long before seeing his parents again. His vision turned into pasty blurs of motion, not quite aligning with what his body told him as his final sight greeted him, the rage filled face of Azlael. He felt a fist shove its way through his ribcage, his bones cracking as it did, and pulled out his heart. The monster before him rose it to the young man's face, and crushed in his claws.
Carson felt his very soul shatter, and his vision faded to black. He felt the gentle shing of the broadsword as his body detached from it, and heard the final psychotic mutterings of the primordial that had just slaughtered him in cold blood.
Before he could let his soul rest in peace however, he remembered the final wish of his parents, and how they were brutally executed by the being in front of him. He let one word echo through his mind over and over again...
Survive.