Darkness pressed against Zareth's consciousness like a heavy wool blanket. He stood, or perhaps he floated, in an black void where the laws of physics seemed to have taken a holiday. He took a tentative step forward.
Plip. Plop.
The sound was distinct. It was the sound of a stone dropped into a still pond.
Zareth looked down. Beneath him, the floor was a seamless expanse of water. With each step he took, a new ripple formed and expanded outward in perfect concentric circles. It felt strange because the surface held his weight without breaking. He was walking on water, yet his feet did not feel moist.
'What is this place?'
He ventured further into the darkness. He walked for what felt like an eternity, yet his legs did not tire. In fact, he couldn't feel his legs at all. He tried to look at his body, but it wasn't visible. He thought of looking at his hands, yet he couldn't feel or see them. He was simply awareness; a point of thought drifting through a liquid void.
'How strange. How strange indeed.'
As he questioned the nature of his reality, a voice drifted into his awareness. It was a whisper, cold and desperate.
"Let me out."
Zareth paused. He scanned the darkness but couldn't identify the source. Then, a flicker of light caught his attention. Far in the distance, a fire burned. It was blue and cold.
As he got closer, the flames flickered and blazed with a spectral intensity.
'Could it be the voice came from this fire?'
He continued his approach, but another voice drifted into him. This one was jagged, angry, and hot.
"Burn them. Burn them all!"
Zareth turned around. Another floating flame hovered in the void behind him. This flame was orange, roiling with a destructive temperament that seemed to boil the air around it.
"Are you my Gospel?" Zareth asked the emptiness. Then he addressed the flames directly. "What are you?"
The fires did not answer with words immediately. Instead, they shifted.
Hiss... Crackle.
The blue fire produced thick smoke that swirled and solidified. Scales formed from the vapor. A snout elongated from the heat. In seconds, a dragon's head materialized from the blue flame.
The orange fire did the same, though its form was jagged and brutish.
Zareth recognized these shapes. A memory surfaced from the chaotic battle above the clouds. He remembered something Vanderznak had mumbled while drooling over his mutation.
"Hades Dragon?"
The blue fire Hades Dragon snapped its jaws. Its eyes were chips of ice. "Release me! This vessel is too tight! I demand to be let out!"
"Shut up!" the orange Hades Dragon roared. Sparks flew from its nostrils. "We don't need freedom! We need fuel! Burn everything! Turn the world to ash!"
The conversation took a sharp turn as the blue dragon snarled at its counterpart. "Silence, you brute! Your shouting is disrupting my concentration!"
The orange dragon became enraged by this insolence. "You dare command me?"
FWOOSH!
The orange Hades Dragon spat a torrent of fire that crossed the void and almost burned Zareth's awareness.
Zareth recoiled, though he had no body to move. He was baffled.
'Is this my Gospel taking self-awareness? Or is this because of Vanderznak's mutagen?'
Just as he asked these questions, a deeper fear took root. He wondered if he was still alive. Last he remembered, he had fallen into the dark depths of the sea after ripping Vanderznak's arm off.
'Could I be wandering the halls of the underworld? Is this hell?'
Though Zareth thought his thoughts were secret, the Hades Dragons both heard him. They turned their heads in unison to glare at his spectral form.
"You aren't dead, you fool," the blue dragon hissed.
"But you will be soon if you don't release us!" the orange dragon bellowed. "Let us take the reins! We will consume the world for you!"
They lunged at him and snapped their jaws in a threatening display. But they stopped inches from his face. Invisible chains seemed to hold them back.
Zareth watched them struggle. He soon realized that they were just bluffing. If they could harm him, why were they begging for his approval to let them out?
"And by the way," Zareth asked calmly, "let you go where? We are in a void."
Zareth was still puzzled by this strange anomaly, but he refused to be bullied by his own hallucinations. He told the dragons to calm down.
"Settle down. This isn't how rational folks converse. If we are stuck here together, let's get acquainted first. What do I even call you beasts?"
The orange dragon snorted. Scales of magma hardened along its neck. It boasted. Its voice shook the watery floor.
"I am power incarnate! I am the apex! I should be called something like 'The World's Most Powerful, Devastating, Majestic, Destructive Predator'!"
It threw its head back and laughed. "Guhahaha! Unlike that icicle over there." It mocked the blue fire dragon.
The blue one narrowed its eyes. "Ignore the idiot. I inherited the host's intelligence, unlike my counterpart who only inherited barbarism. I am refined. I am lethal precision. Thus, I should be called something like 'The Most Intellectual, Elegant, Poised, Cunning Serpentine Overlord'."
Zareth listened to the two dragons bickering and sighed. The headache was metaphysical, but it felt real enough.
"Fine. I'm not calling you all that. How about Hades Blue and Hades Blaze?"
"Unacceptable!" the orange dragon shouted.
"Too simple," the blue dragon scoffed. "It lacks sophistication and power."
The blue one swirled around Zareth. "My flames are cold and biting. I am the deep-sea dragon of the polar void. Hence, I should be called Hades Borealeth."
The orange one slammed its tail on the water. "My flames are harsh and destructive! I am the deep-sea dragon of the living inferno. Hence, I should be worshipped as Hades Ignivaros!"
"Fine... fine..." Zareth waved a non-existent hand. "Borealeth and Ignivaros. Whatever keeps you quiet."
Hearing this, Ignivaros laughed boisterously. "Excellent! Borealeth, did you hear that? This subject is worthy of serving me!"
Ignivaros turned its burning gaze to Zareth. "My name will bring fear to your enemies! While Borealeth sounds too passive and weak. Weak as a toddler's grip!"
"You uncultured swine," Borealeth muttered.
Zareth listened to them bickering again and felt a deep annoyance settle in his soul. He thought about what Vanderznak had turned him into.
'I bet that madman didn't even know such a mutation would occur with my Gospel. Two sentient heads? Bickering in my mind? Good grief. I wish I could get rid of it. I'd cut them off myself if I could.'
Both Hades Dragons froze. They sensed Zareth's thought instantly.
They turned on him. Their eyes burned with shared hostility.
"Get rid of us?" Borealeth hissed.
"Ungrateful host!" Ignivaros roared.
ROAAAAAR!
Borealeth and Ignivaros both opened their maws and spat flames at Zareth. Blue flames and orange heat converged on his awareness.
The sheer terror jolted him.
"GAAH!"
Zareth's eyes shot open.
Above him was a strange, wooden ceiling. The air smelled of herbs and old linen. This didn't feel like he was deep underwater. It was dry. It was warm.
'Then where the heck am I?'
Just as he was about to turn his neck, he felt a sensation on his lower half. A damp cloth touched his legs.
Twitch.
His muscle reacted instinctively. This alerted the person attending to him.
"Oh?"
A soft voice drifted to his ears. "I see you've finally woken up. Thank the goddess."
Zareth looked down.
It was a woman. She wore a simple, peasant-style dress that did little to hide her buxom figure. She had a kind, noble appearance, though her face was worn with care. She was cleaning Zareth's legs with a warm towel.
Her eyelids were closed. She did not open them even as she spoke, yet a warm smile formed on her lips as she turned her face toward him.