From Heaven to Earth Part 1

From Heaven to Earth



         Chapter 1



         In the three-hundred fifty five years of his life only one woman had fulfilled Shrazz more than a challenging brawl. Whether fleeting like a dance or enduring like a relationship, combat left wounds and scars, mementos of passion: every bruise  like foreplay, every wound copulation, and every kill and near death experience an orgasm. Heartbreak came only through loss and satisfaction through victory. Either way he fought without regret and with the utmost sincerity.

          Through bleary eyes he watched his opponent, a thin half-angel. Her extended translucent wings glowed faintly like a distant rainbow. He took a deep breath, looked into her eyes and saw anxiety. A prismatic collage of half-breed blood streaked Shrazz's black sweaty skin: an artist covered with his work. She feared her blood would be the finishing touch for his latest masterpiece.          

         If he could catch her Shrazz would easily rip through her brown gei to the chocolate skin beneath, but exhaustion weighed him down. He had to change her reservations into overconfidence: he feigned a stumble. With a stride and a flap of her wings she thrust her spear towards his heart. He twisted his aching body away, but the skia's spearpoint penetrated his side. Through the pain Shrazz smiled.

         Panic filled her brown eyes. Before she escaped his reach, he held her small frame fast, ripped one of her wings off and suckled its tendon. Salty blood mixed with the tang of Inner, the creative energy inherent in all half-breeds, hit his tongue. Her body trembled, her mouth frothed, and she went into a seizure. Revitalized, Shrazz removed the spear, plunged it through the half-angel's stomach and the metal arena floor beneath her. Her death, like a kiss from a partner he had not seen for years, filled his heart with fluttering joy.   

         A buzzer signaled a break in the contest. The impaled skia wailed.

         "Exous Shrazz, silence her if you please," Duo Hera, one of the leaders of the half-breed federation known as The Falling Curtain, said over the arena's loud speaker.

         Shrazz broke her neck with a stomp.

         "My apologies maam," he said. "You called for a stop." He drained the second wing dry.  Its feathers wavered into view. Their multi-colored phosphorescence dulled to grey, and they fell from the tendon. He wiped his chin with his palm.

         "All of you form a circle," Duo Rahm, the second leader of The Falling Curtain said over the speaker.

         Shrazz's body tingled with battle-ecstasy and he walked towards the middle of the ring with an erection unabashed. Eight half-breeds were in the circle, so the mess of body parts strewn across the floor and alabaster stands of the arena belonged to the 992 losers of the contest. He tried to maintain a salute but could not keep his body from shuddering in delight at the carnage around him.

         "We both congratulate you," the siblings said together, Rahm's low register harmonized with Hera's high. "You six will have a seven minute break to recuperate. Those needing Inner refreshments should visit the locker room."

         Shrazz wondered how the Duo miscounted but did not say anything.

         A geiia, a nature manipulating half-breed, four skia sisters, two green scaly exous and a small charlatan wrapped in white robes: eight.

         "Have you no self-respect?" one of the skia sisters asked. She towered three feet over his six, and her sisters were taller.

         “You just wish you could look as good in this speedo as I do,” Shrazz grinned.

         The other skia giggled and loosened their silver armor on the way to the locker room. Their pale skin bulged with muscle and made Shrazz wonder if they used chanted-steroids.

         Shrazz could smell wet earth all over the geiia as she walked by and a hint of pine. Her brown snake-skin body suit creaked with every movement she made and her long lime-green hair swished behind her.   

         Shrazz watched the green, wiry exous pick through the dead for a snack on the way to the locker room. Shrazz did not know how they could stand the unnecessary weight of the heavy armor they wore.

         The white robed charlatan sat and motioned for Shrazz to join him. Shrazz could not see his face through the shadows of his hood. He extended a thin yellow hand to Shrazz and the exous shook it.

         “Begi.”

         “Shrazz.”

          "You are the first black skinned exous I have seen,” Begi said. “Til now I thought them to be a myth. Do you have any scales at all?"

         "No. I use enchanted lotion," Shrazz said and winked.

         Begi laughed.

         "How many centuries did it take you to attain such strength and control? The exous we fought today constantly had to feed and died for it, while you were able to continue with light snacks."

         "I lost my color and scales in less than a century. No chanted-lotion required. Yeah, I'm surprised those green beasts made it this far. They defended each other when they fed, that is the only reason why. Those skia sisters fought as a unit too.  The only talented one in the group is the geiia. I do not remember seeing you."

         The charlatan smiled.

         "I saw you."

         Shrazz could not wait to fight him.

         "So are you here for the leadership opportunity? Or simply because you feel our people are in jeopardy?" Begi asked.

         "No. I'm here because the Duo promised me war. A war to end them all. My dream demise."

         "I enjoy the heat of battle myself," the charlatan said.

         "I would think so or you would not be here."

         Shrazz sighed.

         "How long has it been."

         "Three minutes."

         Shrazz yawned and stretched.

         "What do you feel when you look around you, at all of the spoils," the charlatan asked. "I know exous feel different things."

         "Bliss. I remember every kill. Some of my exs were in the contest. None of them are in the final group."

         "I'm sorry."

         "It's ok. I was the one who killed them."

         The charlatan shook his head and smiled.

         “Your wounds are opening,” he said. “You should get that fresh one bandaged. The rest would heal if you fed. I have never seen an exous feed like you. It makes me wonder if vampire myths began with half-demons such as you.”

         Shrazz shrugged, heated a palm and pressed it on his puncture wound. It sizzled and charred.

         “Why not just feed to regain your Inner? Then you could heal before we start.”

         “These weaklings have been dead too long for my taste. Besides, I do not plan on this battle lasting much longer. I have a few minutes of fight left in me.”

         The contestants filed out and the charlatan stood.

         "I hope so. Good luck to you, Shrazz."

         "And you."

         "The contest will resume in thirty seconds," the Duo said.

         Shrazz bounced around to loosen up. The skia sisters took to the air and faded from view, and the geiia encased herself in a green glowing shield. Her Inner flooded the metal, and the ground rumbled. The exous stared Shrazz down with hungry yellow eyes. Their long filthy claws made his stomach churn. At the buzzer, Shrazz rushed the exous before they could move.

         He heard the ground explode and a cry of birth from the geiia's metal avatar. He saw the female giant coming for him in his peripheral. Shrazz knew he would have to subdue the hundred foot giant before the geiia's shield would breakdown.

         He jabbed one exous' stomach and hurled him into the giant. It raised a hand, caught the exous and crushed it.

         When Shrazz turned round the other exous was gone. Pain washed over his back. His black eyes met the exous' yellow. He waved a green smoking hand at Shrazz and threw more fireballs. Shrazz ran around the edge of the arena ahead them and watched Begi fight off the skia.

         He deflected their rapid strikes and arrows with two hovering discs of shadow and flew about on a third but did not seem to have much of an offensive. Shrazz dodged fireball after fireball and made his way behind the exous when scalding energy smashed against his back. He fell against the exous, whose punch hurtled him across the arena.

         He bounced on the metal floor like a skipping stone and tore into the stands. He stumbled out of the rubble and into the bear hug of the avatar. Fire burst from his pores and melted her arms. He hammered her head with his fists until it bent and warped, and she liquified.

         The geiia's shield fell as she lost her connection with the metal. He dashed in for the kill. The exous barreled into him and put him in a submission hold. Shrazz broke one of his own arms to twist out of it, kneed his opponent's stomach and bit into his neck while he doubled over. He choked on dust.

         "Dust?"

         The exous crumbled into dirt. He had needed the Inner boost but thought nothing of the oddity. He ran where the fallen geiia should have been, but found a pile of dirt there too. He heard energy coming for him and rolled to the side. Some grazed him and burned his skin. He saw the skia and an exous fighting the charlatan. Shrazz wondered how the exous had survived the avatar's grip. He set the bones in his arm, but it would be useless til he fed again.

         The exous fired energy at Begi, which the charlatan captured in globes of shadow. Begi tossed them at a skia. One connected with her and exploded. Her smoking body fell from the sky. A multitude of globes orbited around Begi. They took flight, some for the skia, others for Shrazz.

         Shrazz stood and waited. It would hurt, but it would give him some energy. One after another the globes seared his flesh and propelled his body upwards. He felt no absorption, only pain.

         Shrazz immolated himself, and the explosion flung away the incoming globes. He oriented himself as he fell before a skia reached him.

         He jabbed the ground with his good arm, and one of the metal tiles popped up. She slammed into it.

         He heated his arm and grabbed her through it, snapped her neck, tossed the tile aside and bit into her. Sweetness and tang filled his mouth. Arrows thumped into her body, and he drank from one of the wings before another flame globe struck him.

         He hurled tiles at the charlatan and popped more of the globes, but Begi floated out of their reach.

         The skia pair attacked Shrazz recklessly. He used the sister as a shield and winced when one of the arrows struck his shoulder.

         One closed in behind him. He ripped the arrow from his wound and swiped at her with it. She flapped her wings to distance herself, but Shrazz sliced her from her left eye down to her chin. He dented her breastplate with a kick, and embedded the arrow in her chest. Her sister cried out behind him. He turned his body and  slashed his back, and he fell forward.

         She pounced.

         He rolled over and grabbed her falling sword. Its blade left gashes on his palm and poked into his stomach, but his effort kept the wound shallow. He saw globes coming for them, laughed, and dug his claws into the skia's huge forearms when she tried to escape.

         Globes exploded against her. He tossed her upward and rolled away, tired but alive. Only Begi remained. He pulled a tile from the ground and used it as cover. Something struck him from behind, an exous.

         Bewildered Shrazz tried to stand, but the exous held him down. He raised his head and saw the geiia's avatar above him. She battered the three of them into the ground and globes detonated all around them. He rolled over to see Begi standing over his smoking body.

         "Concede. You cannot absorb my energy. You cannot best my puppets."

         Shrazz understood then that the skia had been the only real half-breeds and the rest illusions. He swept the charlatan's legs with a windmill kick and leapt for a chance to end the fight. A disc of shadow pushed him back. Begi flew away on another disc and Shrazz tossed fireballs at him.

         Globes caught them, and rocketed for Shrazz. Shrazz ran ahead of the orbs, past the exous and towards the geiia. Begi's orbs demolished the puppets. Shrazz felt confident now that he knew they were illusions. His belief they were real half-breeds had made them powerful adversaries.

         As he bested the illusions Begi's Inner depleted: every time he had to recreate them Shrazz grew closer to victory. Soon Begi had no energy left and could sustain only one illusion. Shrazz attacked him directly. He broke through his shield easily and held him up by the neck. The buzzer sounded. Shrazz set him aflame, and he disintegrated.       

         Cheers rose up from the club boxes.

         Human runners met Shrazz with Inner drinks and escorted him to a video com screen. A red curtain trimmed in gold covered it.

         "Thank you for this opportunity my masters," Shrazz huffed, and kept his head lowered.

         “Look upon us Exous Elite. You have earned that right.”

         Red revealed white beneath it as the curtains parted from the screen.

         Duo Rahm looked like an three foot tall wiry toddler. Two orange-red halos circled his bald head. Smooth yellow skin flowed between isles of black and while Shrazz watched blue replaced his yellow. Shrazz saw five thin scars on his face, like someone scratched him from his left temple to his right cheek. Rahm's pupils swirled like pools of magma and cooled to sea green as his thin lips parted into a grin.

         Duo Hera had only a disembodied head with long opalescent hair. Two blue halos orbited it. Her silver skin shone like sunlight upon shards of glass. She smiled with her full black lips, but it seemed forced to Shrazz as if something troubled her. A white blindfold covered her eyes. Myriads of color shimmered into view beneath her in the shape of a translucent humanoid body, bones formed within it, muscles atop it and silver transparent skin slid over it all. Shrazz thought he saw long thin nails protrude from her petite hands before the process reversed.

         Though both of them looked like infants Shrazz feared them. He could not speak.

         “Your awe matches ours Exous Elite. We have always felt humbled by your performance,” they said.

         “Thank you.”

         “Your employer waits above for an audience. We will meet formally after your mission is complete. Congratulations,” Duo Hera said. Duo Rahm waved before the screen powered off.   

         As Shrazz hobbled up the stairs and to the door he could not help but look over the battlefield like a beautiful naked woman one last time. He entered. It smelled of spring.

         "Hello Shrazz," said a elderly Caucasian man in a robe of crimson flower petals.

         Shrazz saluted. The man pulled back his hood and bowed. Shrazz saw vines covered in yellow, orange and red blooms, stretched from beneath his robes and held his long white hair in several buns.

         "Come, sit. What do you know of evil, Shrazz? The darkest dark?"

         "Evil is a delicacy and sometimes I believe it was put on this earth for me to devour and savor."

         The old man laughed, "You are fearless."

         "Or reckless sir. I am never sure," Shrazz laughed.

         "What is the greatest evil you have known? Did you fear it?"

         "Only when my partner was threatened."

         "You had a partner?"

         "Yes. Centuries ago. She and my childhood mentor helped me lose my colors and control my metabolism."

         "What evil threatened her? What was her name? I assume it was a woman."

         "Riell. And the evil stemmed from a bishop. He killed many of our friends with dark magic, enslaved us and used our Inner to break through dimensional barriers. He wanted to dominate our kind."

         "So tyranny and genocide were the evils?"

         "I suppose so."

         "Those evils placed my love in jeopardy. If I told you the brightest of lights the most benevolent of virtues shelters impenetrable dark, the heart of evil itself, what would you say?"

         "Evil exists everywhere. Just as light and shadow."

         "I was a byproduct of that evil, a byproduct of God's mistakes."

         "Who are you?"

         "I am Satan."

         Shrazz felt cold and stood to leave.

         "You killed my champion Shrazz. How you bested his multitude of illusions I will never know. You must replace him. I sought to have him work beside you but..."

         "You stink of negativity. Not even I could stomach it.”

         “You did not feel that way until you heard my name.”

         “How many contestants were illusions created by your charlatan?”

         “A few hundred. He was the most talented shadow animator I have ever seen.”

         “It was a satisfying contest. Thanks, ” Shrazz stood to leave.

         “What if I told you there was more to come? That this mission will sate your passion forever?”

         “Fighting God is folly and fighting by your side would be an even greater mistake. If the Duo knew your identity they would have not allowed you on these grounds. I would flee while you have the chance.”

         “The Duo are aware. They selected you for the mission before the contest's registration opened. This battle was for my benefit only, so I could test you and remove possible threats from the equation.”

         “Other half-breeds you mean?”

         “Yes. If other half-breeds learned of this liaison they would revolt. We killed 999 of the most renowned half-breed officers from this organization and many others. They will be too preoccupied with mourning and officer elections to even consider foul play. Deadly contests are commonplace.”

         “A brilliant maneuver. Perhaps I will tell others of this and start my own revolt against your vendetta. You have told me too much.”

         “Shrazz. This is not a vendetta. This is about preservation, evolution and ascension. If we do not act a holocaust will find us again.”

         “God is seeking to eradicate us?”

         “No. He is dying Shrazz.”

         Shrazz sat.

         “Dying?”

         “Yes and conflict beyond your imagining will follow his passing. Together we will preserve our people, prevent their extinction. More than that, we will claim a stake in this world. No longer will we hide. Life will finally accept us.”

         “What is my part in this?”

         “You are a unique exous. Capable of rapid evolution under the right circumstances. You will become a greater divine, a being of creation and destruction. The path will be arduous. You will need a partner.”

         “You have seen my prowess first hand. I do not require assistance.”

         “You were impressive indeed but it will not be enough. You need a partner that knows your weaknesses and thus will protect you from them. Your foil, your superior.”

         “No half-breed exists. I almost lost this battle due to fatigue. That is all.”

         “I require this of you.”

         “Alright.”

         “This will not be pleasant.”

         Vines snaked out of Satan's robe and up Shrazz's body. Flowers bloomed on their ends and long suckers extended and retracted from them. They positioned themselves over his ears and plunged into him. Pain consumed him.