The stillness of the room imposed quiet on the tiny rustling sounds of something invisible in the air.
I stood there trying to release a grip of confusion that was fast tightening upon my heart.
His words rang back in my head- "...I was the son of him." Could that be correct? My thoughts had been twisting about themselves, unsure of what was real and what was a delusion.
His bizarre pronouncement was that I was reincarnated because of him. But one question begged my attention: If that were true, why had I lived all these years on earth Shouldn't I have been here-whatever "here" was?
This became one satisfactory reason to give a nearly comical perspective on my confused thoughts, which no longer felt strange. It was one of those happenings my mind could barely grasp.
So now, when I finally looked at the man in front of me, I should say, he was looking unknown to me-he was father! But, if he was really my father, then who was my mother? This question poised with its answer.
It was like he was letting me ponder his impossible claim a bit longer; sensing the turmoil raging deep within me. "Look," I began, my voice hardly a whisper, "I'm trying to make sense out of this."
My protests were aimed at him, but they were more of a hopeless attempt to comfort my confused mind. I swallowed and continued with yet another excuse: "I'm sorry, but it's hard to accept."
Then more thoughts pushed their way in, toward a different memory. "I have parents back in my old world," I added, sounding less of a statement and more like an unsure question.
I had parents, for sure. How was he then the father? All the questions kept swirling around me: directed to him, at times to myself, and who knows, or perhaps at some sort of observer that remained concealed?
"Nodding; the one who just had the audacity to drop such a bomb and now apparently calling me his son."
"Ah-let me do something," he said, unperturbed. With that, he lifted his hands, surrounding them in soft golden light as he executed some kind of magic spell. Light wrapped around me, and warmth flooded through my body, relieving some tension I had clutched.
In the flicker of an eye, what was once familiar was gone. One minute I stood there, in that room, and the next within an entirely different circumstance.
It was like stepping into nothing: a monochromatic eruption of absolute darkness. I wasn't able to see anything at all; the blackness engulfed everything. And then, all at once occurred: A cascade of images and sensations filled my mind. Fragments of memories, not my own yet somehow deeply familiar, streamed through my very being.
Knowledge flooded into my consciousness, answering questions I had never even thought to ask. In that void, all the while hidden from me, came out the counterfeiting of truth.
There came this odd realization that accompanied the insight. It was like witnessing a story I thought I knew but viewed from an entirely different perspective.
Now the figure of Leviathan, considered a villain in such tales, seemed to take on an altogether different. He was not the villain in this new understanding; he was the hero.
Just as suddenly as they came, the memories ebbed away, and I found myself back in the same old room I'd been in before. I must have looked shocked by all that I had just gone through. My mouth opened, ready to speak, ask a thousand questions, but the words had frozen in my throat. I had no sound to utter before Leviathan spoke.
"Got it," he said, a strange mix of questioning and affirmation.
"Now that you know", he went on to tell me something else out of the blue. "That your parents -", he began, waiting a brief second as if gauging my reaction. "Sold your body and soul to me." The words were a physical blow, an almost unbelievable and angering truth.
"And because I bought you," he said, which truly made me feel like an object. "I told them to treat you nicely, and never to use you as their property." It slowly sank in that it was my parents who had done this.
They had sold my very existence. "Well, even if they hadn't, I would have had to go through hardship anyway," I murmured to myself, half-hoping for some acceptance of this crazy situation.
If they could easily sell me, what life was I going to have with them anyway? I guess, by some twist of fate, this other turn of events did not turn out to be all that bad.
The demon, much blackish of accent. Staring straight at me, The great room was quiet and sandy breathed sulfur with a sweetness to it, although something entirely strange.
"Now to the matter in question," the demon said, his voice rumbling low, "what will you think of me?" So direct, the query came, and I had to reflect on what it meant for us to be in this weird, new world. Looking up to his expectant gaze, I made my newly accepted pronouncement: "I will henceforth call you Dad."
An almost imperceptible change crossed the demon's face. A little bit of warmth softened his sharp features. "Very well," he said, and there was an air of genuine happiness in him toward my answer.
I was now going to dwell in this demon world of stark beauty and unknown dangers. It returned me to the thought of how my life would be in a realm so different from my own.
Suddenly, there was an action in the room. Leviathan, as I now knew him, reached out a hand and picked a delicate teacup from the
table beside him.
He slowly lifted the teacup toward himself. The tea within it was shining with entirely unnatural luminescence. After having a sip, he looked back to me again. "Now listen," he said, placing the cup back down with a soft clink, "I am going to give you a mission."
A mission. That word sounded taut in the air. It sounded spellbinding, full of promise, but I've only entered this world today. It's a little too much to be given a task already.
Leviathan leaned a little forward, his gaze intense. "It's rather important," was his emphasized statement at it all. My mind played madly. Perhaps it had something to do with the knowledge I had from my past existence? Human education may have some value in this demonic land.
"You are a knowledgeable person," he continued, his eyes seeming to assess me. "I know I am," I replied, with a little nervousness in my voice, "but could you please tell me what it is now?"
"Can you construct a network?" he asked me. And what an unexpected question that was. I frowned, trying to understand his meaning. "The internet you humans have build on Earth," he clarified, his gaze steady. So, he was basically asking me to set up that sort of complex system in this entirely different world.
Not to sweep the remaining facts under a rug; the smile stretched slowly across my face. This made it a hard task, but the challenge attracted me.
"For sure"
I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. The reality of building a network in this world, having completely unknown resources and technologies, quickly settled in. "Right," I added, my smile faltering a little, "I need time before doing it."
"Thanks," Leviathan said, a hint of anticipation in his voice. I quickly responded, "I can do this, but I need time and resources and other things too."
I watched his reaction, expecting perhaps a list of requirements or concerns. Instead, he simply gazed at me, a knowing look in his eyes, as if he had already anticipated and prepared for all of this.
"Don't worry," he said, a wide smile now gracing his features, filled with both amusement and reassurance. "Take as much time as you want. And 'bout resources, umm, you don't need to worry."
He chuckled softly, and I suddenly realized the fact that I, a human, could potentially create something like the internet in their world was a national level creation. something exciting and perhaps even amusing to them. The matter of fact that I was a novelty because of Leviathan.
"Now then," Leviathan announced, gesturing towards the far side of the room.
"you shall rest some and explore the city."
He then turned and called out to a figure standing silently behind the door maybe, or it could be teleplay though.
"Quirk!"
The individual approached, bowing slightly. He was a smaller demon (not sure) with a wiry frame.
"Escort him," the demon Leviathan instructed. The so-called 'Quirk' nodded curtly towards Leviathan and then turned to me, indicating with a flick of his wrist that I should follow.
He then led me toward the doorway and out of the grand room, presumably toward my new room in my new house within this strange demon city and world.