Phantom Chained

Chapter 38. Flaming Gehenna. Elm.

"Move even a single muscle and we're dead!" I barked at the girl.

The threat fulfilled its purpose as she stopped struggling in my grasp. Her astral form flickered, occasionally losing details, but was still present enough for me to hold her.

We weren't actually in any danger, but threats are and will always be a wonderful way of manipulating humanity. And for the assured success of my next adventure, I would need complete obedience.

"Can we talk?" The girl whimpered.

I wanted to say no, but then remembered how silence for women is worse than this burning Gehenna, so I reluctantly allowed it.

"Only if it's short and to the point."

"We aren't burning?"

Ugh, women!

"Obviously not!"

She opened one eye, glanced around and screamed, covering her eyes with her hands. Moments later, however, she was already intently observing the flaming abyss surrounding us. The sight was quite impressive, even with all my experiences with astral projection.

Like two flies stuck inside Swiss cheese, we were surrounded by a network of titanic tunnels supported by bone-like structures the colour of ivory, with azure webs of unimaginable beauty and complexity dangling between each one.

The fire splashed around with furious waves, thrown by the ferocious gusts of wind from the depths of the abyssal tunnels under our feet. Fury and ferocity filled the tunnels with every shade of orange and red; the bones cracked and fell into pieces; the webs melted into honey and fell into the fire and wind with a golden rain only to immediately explode into porous black smoke.

The smoke fell, bubbled and cooled into curious patterns, in which you could see everything from fairytale-esque forests to horrible monsters, in the moments before it would fall down like an avalanche into the fury and ferocity for the last time. Despite all that, we were shrouded in deafening silence, crushing us with its absurdity amidst the apocalyptic destruction of matter, as if we were encased in a drop of soundproof amber.

"Where are we?"

Alas, you can only enjoy silence when you are alone.

But now, a mission awaited me: to calm the girl in regard to the auto-da-fé and give her a brief lecture about the structure of the energy-based body of a human being. The auto-da-fé was the easy part; the flames were just a visual representation of the feverish temperature that ailed the sleeping beauty, so it couldn't burn anything, us included. Although it did feel a bit hot, not gonna lie. Now I had to spend quite some time on the lecture front. The girl didn't seem to understand much, but she got the gist of it.

"So it's like we're moving through a crepe cake?"

Cake! The analogy is quite interesting despite its primitiveness. Why did I even try to explain energy levels in terms of atomic structure when I could have just mentioned a cake!

Women, I swear!

Still, I had to inject some sort of instruction into her wonderful head. I continued, hoping for the worst:

"I wouldn't exactly call it movement. It's more like attunement. I'll use TV as an example. You know how a TV works, right? How it switches channels?"

"Yeah, you press a button on your remote and it switches to another channel." She replied with confusion in her eyes as she watched one of the webs get carried by the hot winds.

I swallowed nervously. Strange; so many gods created by humans and yet not a single one of them a personification of patience. If one did exist, I would be bowing before them, begging for their help! But alas, gotta do everything myself... TV was a difficult analogy, we barely got through how a remote works.

"...so, you and I are a stable particle able to move with the attunement to the characteristics of a certain sub-level." I concluded with relief. "I attune, you stabilise. And if you break physical contact with me, we will be thrown around the levels like dust particles in a tornado."

"Can't you... stabilise without me?" The girl was completely calm now but still looked upon me with suspicion.

"Stabilisators are gone." I sighed mournfully. "I'll find them later, don't have time for that now. So, pretty girl, climb on my back. It will be easier to jump that way. Yes, jump, how else? There, like that. Just a little warning; during the process of relocation you're probably better off keeping your eyes shut."

"Or what?"

"Or they could leak out. So hold on as tight as you can and listen to me. Comfortable? Don't lean against my neck! Aren't you kind of heavy for a projection?"

"Huh... looks like I'm not tripping, after all, I wouldn't be able to imagine this under any circumstance." She mumbled, painfully digging her knees into my sides. "Don't you call me fat, you damn incubus. I'm ready!"

I stretched, distributing my remaining strength and suddenly realised I had more! I froze, analysing the feeling; I wasn't imagining things, right?

I wasn't.

With a gentle, almost unnoticeable current accompanied by a flowery aroma, my girl slowly refuelled me out of nowhere. I doubt she noticed it herself, the stream was way too thin and pitiful, but just maybe my muscular back and adrenaline could prolong it a bit, he-he. I need it; just one sip of the necessary nourishment and I could once again enjoy life!

I grinned, putting my system into a resonant state, and allowed myself to become golden rain falling down into the flaming Gehenna.