Astral Plane

I was sitting; almost paralyzed by the figure I had in front of me. There was a copper winged being with a very muscular torso and a brown bull head holding a very intimidating trident standing in front of me. It looked like a Minotaur. Shit. I had left dreamland and was now in awful- nightmares-land.

"Shall we go, Aníbal?" the Minotaur asked with a deep voice.

My heart seemed ready to beat out of my chest as I wondered how the hell did the Minotaur know my name. And where the hell was it... he planning to take me?

Gathering my courage, I looked him in the eye and asked him, "What the fuck are you and where the hell do you want to take me?"

The bizarre being pointed to the silver path that got lost in an emerald hill with one of his four hooves.

"And what the hell are you?" I asked again, trying to hide my fear.

"I am an Exux," he replied, a puff of white smoke leaving his nostrils.

"I'm like a guardian angel," he elaborated, seeing the confused look on my face. "I was sent to protect you until you reach your destination."

"A guardian angel? And what are you going to protect me from?"

Without answering, the muscular Minotaur invited me to walk ahead of him. I decided to start walking, I mean, flying.

I looked down. My feet were hovering around seven inches from the floor. I only needed to think about walking and I was magically levitating along the silver path.

"Hell, I don't have enemies! At least not as far as I know... Where are you taking me to?"

This intimidating animal looked at me with deep fire-like eyes and a stern look on his face. Then, with one of its hooves in his he gestured for silence.

"Shhhh... Do not say that," it whispered. "Say what?"

"That which should not be spoken!" "Huh?"

"You're an Atlantean Hunter" he said with some pride in his eyes. "That I am a what?"

"An Atlantean Hunter."

"And may I ask... what the hell is that?" This was the most confusing conversation ever.

When this hairy creature grabbed my right hand, I noticed how it spread its wings. Now we were flying much faster.

"Why me? What's this Atlantean Hunter thing? Where am I? God, don't understand anything at all!"

The Minotaur stopped and we landed lightly on the cold path, next to a cliff.

"Bloody hell!" the Minotaur shouted.

"Wasn't that the word that shall not be pronounced because it invokes them?" Whoever 'them' was; that wasn't exactly clear.

The Minotaur took up its trident and put itself on guard position. I clung to him and saw ten or more spots approaching very quickly. Those things were flying very close to the bright grass and making a horrible infernal noise.

"Do you already know how to defend yourself?" Now his eyes became red and I could see a few clouds of smoke coming out from his nostrils, just like a bull about to face a bullfighter.

"Well... I am a person who prefers to resolve things peacefully," I told him, smiling nervously. "Damn it!" I said worried and looking at these weird figures from a small hill.

"Those are demons. Seventeen of them, actually." "Shiiiiiiiiit"

"Hold on to my neck. You better stay on my back so I can protect you. There are too many, I've never seeing so many demons after a single soul." The Minotaur flexed one leg and, with some difficulty, I climbed on his hairy and muscular back.

At that point I saw what we were going to face: truly ghostly entities. All of them were dressed in funerary clothes, with the peculiarity that these beings didn't have bright colors; instead they were pale, like a gray scale. I felt a great force caused by the long wings of the Minotaur that made us elevate three feet from the ground and speed up incredibly. My winged companion roared so hard that it echoed in my ears. The dark things began throwing us black balls of energy. The Minotaur evaded the balls, which exploded like bombs. Some of them, however, would have hit us if it weren't for the fast reflexes of the Minotaur, who put up his shield and blocked them.

The Minotaur was shooting several rays of light with his trident, and when those rays hit the creatures, they made a hellish noise and disappeared immediately. I felt the heat of the flashes that crashed in the shield of this brave Minotaur.

One of the energy balls actually exploded next to us. The tip of the right wing of the Minotaur ended up burnt. There were at least ten evil creatures and they were gradually winning this battle. After several detonations, I saw an ivory conic tower just in front of us and I heard, besides the blasts, something that I never thought that I could hear in this strange nightmare: the sound of the sea. That was crazy!

At the end of the silver path there was an incredibly tall ivory tower, on the top of a steep cliff, and right when I started to hear louder the sound of the sea I felt how part of my back was burning because of the impact of a boiling ball. I screamed in pain and started to roll over the damp soil. After that painful landing, my head was spinning. I tried to find my friend and I saw it badly wounded. Its wing was all destroyed, the shield was halved and its right arm was quite burnt. It turned around and watched sparks of energy that emulated blood getting out from its nostrils.

"Go to the tower! Now!" he growled.

Forgetting the pain, I started to run. Behind me I heard the noise of a real war. After levitating at high speed, I saw in the distance a human figure getting out of the ivory tower. I heard the cry of pain of my defender. When I turned back, I saw the huge winged creature being shot down by five gray creatures that didn't stop shooting energy balls even when they could see that the Minotaur was already on the ground. One of them pointed at me and then I tried to run faster. In this very real dream, images of my friends, my futsal team, my brother and, of course, Suhail passed through my head. The explosions were getting closer and the ivory tower was still far away. For the first time I felt death approaching me.

One of the explosions hit near my feet and the blast pushed me forward a few feet and made me land in a heap on the ground. When I turned around, I saw the face of one of these souls.

I was chilled to the bone. Instead of eyes, a swirling black mass stared at me. I tried to sit down but in a matter of seconds five pale and threatening creatures surrounded me with their hellish screams. All of them were holding fireballs, one in each hand. They emitted a peculiar noise, like a wounded animal. The leader of these monsters stopped in front of my tired body, while the others were flying in circles over me. This... thing... made a face as if having me at his disposal pleased it.

Suddenly, blinding light came out of nowhere. I closed my eyes and waited for the worst.