Napalm Riot

Salvation of Faith

So long...floating within oblivion.
He could hardly remember anything, could hardly even think. He could not comprehend his state, his self, his entire world even. He was surrounded by nothing...he was nothing. That alone was the sole thought he held. In this eternal instant, this instantaneous eternity, all he knew was that there was nothing to know.
But all that...was soon to change...

In the midst of his endless, numb, non-existence, he was suddenly assaulted by a sensation so intense it eclipsed his entire awareness. Burning through him and consuming him. Then he realized...it was the feeling of the air around him as his lungs inflated for the first time. In contrast to his previous state, the returned sensation was brutally agonizing.
It was a glorious feeling.
As he opened his eyes anew, he beheld infinite darkness...pierced by four points of light.
"There. You have him now."
Two of the points approached him, stopping mere inches from his face.
"So he IS alive, then."
A sound like dry leaves being crushed to powder met his ears...The laughter of the more recent speaker.
"You don't know HOW hard it WAS to find you!"
"Amid the trillions buried here, I had hoped to NEVER find him again..."
"Yes, I imagine you thought there was no chance you could ever recover him again."
The speaker laughed again.
"You have him! Take him! I do not want to see his wretched corpse again!"
Two of the points vanished like snuffed candle flames. The dry laughter rang out once more, this time more of a snicker.
"You must forgive my brother, you HAVE made him miserable, he was SO busy when you were in the world above."
"Where am I?"
"Unimportant. You are soon to leave anyways. Do you remember who you are?"
"...Yes."
"Excellent. What do you recall before you came here?"
"...I reached the bottom..."
"Yes you did! Bravo! Too bad my brother was fed up with you and waiting there himself. His assistants were all gone and no good against you anyways."
"What do you want?"
"Actually, I am here to send you back where you came from."
He narrowed his eyes. He was not inclined to trust this disembodied figure. But then again, he hardly had any other recourse.
"And then what?"
"That is up to you. You see, I have developed a bit of an interest in you. And it is VERY hard indeed to impress me."
"So?"
"So, once you return, I want to see that you get a well deserved...vacation, i suppose you could say. I want you to...enjoy yourself a bit. To be happy."
Happy? he thought. Happiness was for fools who didn't realize their own mortality, those that thought that with enough distraction, their end might run astray of its intended time. He sneered at the figure.
"Happy? What use do I have for that? If you want me to enjoy myself then send me back to where I was before! I've got my own task to attend to!"
His face, for the first time in an eternity, bore the glare that made him infamous.
"Give me back all that I was before! The power to kill relentlessly, to be inhuman, to BE ME!"
A bellow of laughter resounded from the other.
"HAHAHAA! So, forever has not moved you one bit! Excellent! I chose my disciple well!"
The glare deepened, a face that no one has seen and lived to recount.
"I am NO ONE'S servant!"
"I said DISCIPLE, not servant! By all means! Do as you wish! I will get all the satisfaction I need from watching you!"
"...Then i guess this meeting is concluded."
"So it seems! I look forward to seeing you work again! Now, all that is left is for you to find your OWN way back!"
He felt a sickening shift, like every piece of him was being pulled up by a separate force. Then, light entered this dark place for the first time since he awoke, a brutal flare of brilliance...
And in this light, he finally beheld the one to whom he had spoken.
Black robed and hooded, eyes glowing, the ragged hem of the robe reaching out like tendrils of some malicious dark creature. The tendrils, he realized, that controlled every facet of affect.
As the light faded, he knew to whom he had spoken.