Dante The Void Hunter

Dante was a young man in his early twenties, having just finished university, he was on his way to find a job. Unfortunately, he was not as successful in doing that compared to his excellent grades.

To describe what kind of person he was... One would be his curious mind. He was always curious about things, from human nature to science, etc. This innate curiosity caused him a fair share of trouble as well as success.

But we all know humans are much more complex than that, Dante was naturally the same. Maybe his curiosity was one of the stronger traits in his personality but not the only one. He was also very courageous, not feeling fear at all, perhaps only the dark made him slightly afraid among other things... Well, let me correct myself, let's just say he was courageous but not very.

He was carefree and yet diligent in pursuing his goals; Always relaxed yet with a plan in mind. He was a free spirit and anything that restricted him in any way or form was his sworn enemy. That was why finding a good job was so hard for him, he valued freedom above all else and most jobs took it away.

In any case, on a perfectly normal day, as he was returning from the local pub to his apartment, he found himself in front of a strange door in the street.

He looked around at the people passing by with a confused expression, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at the strange phenomenon.

'Is nobody seeing this?' Just as he thought that a person walked right through the door as if it was just a hologram of sorts that only he saw.

'Am I hallucinating?!' He wondered and blinked a few times, the door hadn't budged an inch.

He felt curious so he naturally walked toward it, but he was afraid others might think he was crazy so he pretended to walk as if he wasn't seeing anything.

The moment he reached the door, he stopped and extended his hand, it touched the door and to his surprise, it was solid and not a hologram.

'Okay, this is weird...' He concluded and made some distance with the door and examined it thoroughly.

Some of the people passing by noticed him staring at an empty space and ignored him, some thinking he was an idiot, and others thought he was high.

The door was brown, it looked old with cracks on the edges. There was no wall attached to it, just a door in the middle of the sidewalk. There seemed to be some strange things carved on the wood of the door but he couldn't quite make out what they were.

'This is either a dream or I am going crazy...' He thought and approached the door.

'No matter which, I have to see what is on the other side if there is anything at all...' He was quite sure of his decision and touched the simple silver-colored handle and opened the door.

On the other side was not the street at all, it was just a strange space. It looked filled with orange clouds and distant stars...

'Okay, this looks like a nebula...' He nodded to himself and walked to the side of the door, looking at it from another side and seeing nothing but a black line made him scratch his head.

'This is so confusing...' He stood in front of the door again, carefully inspecting what laid on the other side.

As Dante was lost in his own little world, trying to explain the particular door in front of him, something that was quite impossible to exist, a shop owner nearby frowned.

The shop owner thought, 'This kid is standing there like a retard, some customers were scared away by him... If he doesn't leave I won't be able to do business...'

Indeed, there were quite a lot of shops that sold clothes on that street, it was no surprise that people were reluctant to enter the one with a strange person standing in front of it.

The shop owner was determined as he approached Dante and put his hand on his shoulder from the back, "Hey, go stare at the sidewalk like an idiot somewhere else."

Dante merely looked at him for a moment and looked back at the door, his interest was piqued by the absurd thing in front of him. He was thinking along the lines of magic and even aliens to rationalize it.

Dante swatted his hand away since it annoyed him, he casually said without paying much attention, "Do you own the sidewalk? No. So go away..."

The shop owner noticed some people looking at him, the street was quite busy, he became angry when Dante ignored him and decided to teach him a lesson.

Even the other shop owners had noticed him walking out and watching, if he did back down, they wouldn't respect him anymore.

So he pushed Dante, to everyone's shock. Dante suddenly disappeared right in front of their eyes.

Dante was pushed through the door into the strange space, he cursed in his mind, 'That bastard pushed me! Fucking...' He turned around and froze when he didn't see the door. There was nothing behind him but empty space.

He became nervous as his heart began beating faster, 'Damn it. Where the hell am I?' He frantically looked around, searching for clues but found none.

He took frantic breaths as he thought, 'At least I can breathe, and I don't seem to be falling which means there is no gravity here... The temperature is also survivable, this place is...'

He continued to float in the middle of the unknown space for a few minutes... He thought about many things and felt many emotions. Thinking about his situation to his death, feeling a wide range of things from terror to shock...

Eventually, something appeared from behind the extremely far clouds. A being that looked horrifying. Dante looked at it with wide eyes. (The Book's cover.)

Just as he thought it couldn't get any worse than that, a dozen more appeared.

"Mortal... You have passed the test of Attunement. Welcome, we are the infinite council." A low whisper reached his ears, he looked at the closest being and knew that it was talking to him.

It took a moment for him to register the words, his fear instantly vanished, replaced by a very calm state. It didn't take a genius to realize the being had done something...

Dante mustered his courage and said, "What is this test?"

The being answered, "The door to this dimension that binds all dimensions opens only to those who are attuned to it. Very few beings in existence have the honor, and you are one of them."

Dante didn't know how to respond to that.

The being continued, "You might wonder why there would be a test in the first place? Why would omnipotent beings such as us bring you, a mere mortal, to this dimension?"

Dante listened carefully, awaiting answers.

"We have... Failed. We were meant to guard existence from creatures of the great void. Evil beings that only wish for absolute erasure of all that is. While these creatures are no match for us, they hide in the shadows and escape our senses; That is how they have passed this dimension and entered the Omniverse..."

Dante couldn't help but ask, "Why can't you go after them, didn't you claim to be omnipotent?"

The beings all seemed to laugh, it answered, "How Naive... Our mere presence would destroy an entire multiverse... If we walk the Omniverse... Only destruction will await it."

Dante gulped and wondered, 'How am I alive then?!'

The being answered, seemingly having read his mind, "You are attuned, that is why. A rare talent, to be sure... You have been brought here for one purpose; Since we can't enter the omniverse and stop them, naturally, another being must do so. That is you."

He was surprised, "How can I? I am just a man!"

The being seemed to nod its head, "Indeed... You won't be stopping them yourself. You shall find them and bring them here, we will do the rest."

Dante asked, "How am I supposed to do that?"

The hand of the being extended and reached him, it tapped on his forehead, "Here... Henceforth you can use this dimension freely, entering it and leaving it will just be a matter of willing it. You may use it as a medium to go anywhere in existence. Will it and you shall be where and when you wish to be. You have to touch the void creature while it is not conscious to resist and bring it in front of us."

Dante took a moment to feel it, some type of warm energy had entered the space between his eyes. He could barely feel it, when he focused on it, it seemed to expand and wait for instructions. He instinctively knew that if he willed to be somewhere while focusing on it, he would teleport there using this dimension as a medium of sorts.

He asked, "What happens if they are not stopped? Is there a time limit?"

The being said grimly, for once there was emotion behind the whisper, "If they are not stopped... All of the existence will be erased. They enter universes and spread seeds of null powered by their being, if the seeds spread all across the omniverse... it is over. The only way is to annihilate them and by extension, the seeds will be destroyed as well. We will do the annihilating. And you..."

It paused for a moment before saying, "Do the hunting. Void Hunter."

Dante didn't pay the last part much thought, he asked again in concern, "How do I find them?"

The being waved its hand, "We can pinpoint the location down to the universe and sometimes to the planet they reside in, the rest is up to you. We leave you free to hunt as you wish. We only care about the result. If you fail, we will replace you and wipe your memory. If you finish this job and hunt them all, you may keep the gift we bestowed upon you."

A sphere of energy appeared in front of the being as it began using its power to do something, it continued saying while doing that, "Time is of the essence considering the grand timestream but it is of no concern within the great timestream. Your being is now governed by the grand timestream thus you have a limited amount of time, if you don't hunt a void creature within 10 Earth years, it is considered a failure. There are a total of 72 of these creatures that have managed to enter the omniverse. You have to bring them all here for this to end. Now go... we have located the 1st one."

Dante absorbed the information and memorized everything, "Where is it?"

His eyes widened as information about a planet within a universe entered his mind, he recognized it. 'I know where that is! It's a fictional world!! Pirates of the Caribbean!!! Fictional worlds exist...'

The beings then slowly vanished, the one who spoke before left a sentence, "We wait here..."

He was left floating alone in space, his state of calm slowly broke and intense emotions assaulted him.

It took him half an hour to overcome the shock, sort his feelings alongside the new knowledge, and calm down. It was a lot to take in after all. Taken from normal life to something so bizarre in a moment's time... To him, it all seemed too surreal, like a dream. But he knew it was absolutely real.

After thinking for a while, he came to a decision.

'If I have to do this, I have to first ensure my survival, I don't know what death will do and they are not around to answer. They didn't make me invincible or anything like that. I am just a man who can go anywhere... Let's return to Earth for now and plan.'

He focused on the energy and willed to be in his room on earth. The energy seemed to be intelligent, it understood him and a moment later, he blinked and found himself in his room laying on his bed.

He quickly turned on his computer and began searching the internet.