Phantom; Blessed by the devil, Cursed by the gods

Chapter 2 The Call

Sal opened his eyes and found himself lying face up in what looked like an ancient arena, a colosseum, though the ground was solid stone instead of sand and the sky was pitch black, not a star in sight, he got up from the floor and looked around him, the seats in the arena were empty but he could hear voices, thousands of them echoing around him as if they were arguing.

"Hello, what's happening?" he called out.

The voices stopped in unison and then as if by magic the colosseum was filled with people, all of them appearing in wisps of light and shadows.

On one side of the colosseum were large men and women standing and wearing the most beautiful clothes Sal had ever seen, some wore modern-day attire while others wore robes and different types of armour, on the other side were beings shining with ethereal light, looking at them was like looking at the sun itself, they all had wings, some more than others and their faces were bathed with unearthly glory, one word came to Sal's mind, mala'chim, the angels. Farther away from the beautiful creatures were beings clothed in darkness, separated from the beings of light, some looked human but they had a different kind of beauty to them, it was almost menacing, and deadly, others looked like monsters, a combination of different animals, a bat and a dog, a cat and a snake, a scorpion and a lion, like science experiments gone wrong, Sal didn't need to think to know what they were, shedim, the demons.

Sal felt his heart race and his mind go haywire, where was he? and how did he know these things?

"Salome"

Sal turned upon hearing his name, he looked and saw that set apart from the others were two thrones side by side, both of them occupied by a large man and a woman, the first thing that Sal noticed was the eye patch on the man's eye, then the long glowing silver hair and beard, he saw that the man was wearing an armour made of gold and had a spear at his side, beside him was a beautiful woman, her hair was golden, embroidered with flowers and heart shapes and strange symbols, she was examining Sal, as if waiting for him to perform some terrible feat.

"Hey, where the hell am I" said Sal.

The man smiled and spoke.

"Salome Nightshade, I am Odin, Norse god of war and King of the Elder's Court"

"Okay?" said Sal, he was utterly confused.

"I know you must be in shock but I assure you there is no time, there is a matter at hand that you need to take care of"

"I'm probably dreaming, there's no way this can be real"

"Yes you are dreaming, but this is also a message and you must listen carefully, your mind is impressively strong and Morpheus is struggling to sustain this astral projection"

"This is a dream, this is all a dream, you're going to wake up and go back to your semi-normal life," said Sal to himself.

"Salome Nightshade you must listen to me" said Odin.

"My name is Salome Markson, okay and I don't have to listen to a word you say"

"There is no time, the sun will rise soon and once it does this connection will be severed" yelled Odin. "Salome there is a great danger waiting to happen, we need you to find and kill a necromancer or the world will fall"

"What are you talking about?" yelled Sal.

Then the people around him started shimmering and fading one by one.

"The sun is rising Salome, there's not much time left, at least let me tell you one thing, the name of the necromancer, it is..."

And then everything went dark.