The Blackwyrm Chronicles #2: My Little Campaign of Carnage Gets out of Hand

Chapter 113

At first, everything was dark.

"Helix."

Huh? That voice sounds familiar...

"Helix, open your eyes."

Mom? Oh how I miss you so much...

"Helix, open your god damn eyes."

My eyes snapped open, and I looked at my mother in surprise: "Am-Am I dead?"

My mother frowned thoughtfully: "You are, yet you aren't. Like me, you are in a realm that is between life and death. Unfortunately, if you stay here too long, your soul will fade away. I've managed to stay here since I'm still tied to you, but our time is running out. If you fade away, I'll follow suit."

I cringed as I looked around-I saw nothing but a plane of white. I strained my eyes in a vain attempt to see anything on the horizon, only to be greeted with white nothingness. There was no sky, no ground, no wind, no birds, no sun, no nothing. Just...Silence.

 "Shit...what to do...?" I hissed, raking my hands through my hair. "This is baaad..."

My mother smiled sadly, "This is one last thing I can do for you: I can sacrifice what's left of my aura to send you back to the realm of the living. There's a spell I learned a few decades ago that brings someone back to life at the expense of the caster's own life, so I can at least return you to your wife and child."

I shook my head: "No, mom-."

"Helix! We don't have time to argue about this!" She snapped. "Please, consider this my apology for all of the pain my death has caused you. This is my final gift to you, so Please, use this second chance at life well and strike Azrael down."

My shoulders slumped in resignation. "Alright, I won't fight this. Go ahead mom."

She cupped my face in her hands, and she began to chant in a strange, unknown language. I felt a strange sensation arc through my body, and I sensed my mother's aura fade away.

"Goodbye my son." She whispered. "I love you so much."

At the last second, I grabbed my mother's left shoulder, and everything went dark once again.

- - -

The first thing I felt was pain.

So much pain...

I groaned as my entire body burned. "Oooh...I'm such a fucking idiot...wait, I'm alive!"

I heard someone else groan beside me.

"Huh?" I began, opening my eyes and straining my neck in an attempt to look at the person lying beside me.

"M-Mom?" I stuttered. "Y-You're alive and...oh dear."

"Wha-oh, damn it Helix." She croaked.

"I'll...lend you my cloak so you'll have something to...cover yourself with."

She loosed a ragged sigh. "H-Helix, do you have any idea what you've just done?"

"I...feel like I just got flattened by a b-boulder." I managed to get out as I tried to move my arms and failed miserably.

"You almost killed us both by bringing us back to this realm." She snapped, "My intention...was to send you back with my reserves, but no...You had to rebound the spell back at me..."

I started laughing, which hurt like hell.

"You...Dolt..." my mom growled.

The sun had set, and I was currently staring at a star-filled sky.