“Now we are just waiting for the computer tracking system to locate the energy source,” I said. “It is taking longer than usual, due to the elusiveness of the signal type.”
“But you say the energy trace had to do with the Necronomicon?” enquired Millie Drake.
“Not precisely,” I returned. “It was very specifically a reading indicating the use of the ‘Kitab al-Azif’, the medieval Arabian book of sorcery that is said to be the earlier and even more potent source of the better-known Necronomicon.”
We were at our secret downtown headquarters, located as it is within the golden trapezoidal rooftop of a certain skyscraper, the ground floor of which is a take-away pizza establishment. Our HQ contains, along with our advanced electronic equipment, a growing collection of unusual objects and artefacts from our storied career as investigators of the strange and unknown.
I was clad in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, jungle boots, and of course my Magen David necklace. My panama hat and one of my favourite opera capes hung from a near by hallstand.
My companion, known as Miss Millie Drake, is an exquisitely beautiful young lady; petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, enchanting violet eyes, and a sun-kissed complexion. The royal blue dress she wore only served to highlight her slender figure.
Also with us was Kit-10, our mobile personal computer that resembles a small mechanical cat.
“Daniel, I know that ‘Kitab’ means a book in Arabic,” said Millie, “but what does ‘al-Azif’ mean?”
“Literally ‘a buzzing’,” I informed. “It is said to describe a sound like unto that of nocturnal insects, the hearing of which noise is said to indicate the presence of certain demonic forces.”
“So this book is definitely a manual of demon conjuring?”
“Quite so, my dear. In fact it is one of the most notorious occult texts in all of history. If someone has truly located it and is utilising its spells, then it is imperative that we stop them as soon as possible. Millie, the Kitab al-Azif is supposedly the text that can be used to most potently conjure the inter-dimensional being known as Kuthalu!”
“Oh my gosh! Kuthalu is the alien monster that ruled planet Earth for untold ages during prehistoric times!”
“Indeed so, and now if someone manages to bring that unspeakable horror back to this dimension, it could subjugate or wipe out the entire human race! We must find out who…”
“S--,” suddenly interrupted Kit-10 in her simulated yet pleasantly-feminine voice, “the main computer has found the location of the energy reading detected earlier.”
(It should be noted here that Kit-10, in addition to her other catlike characteristics, is completely unable to openly show respect to anyone. In fact, the closest she ever comes to it is by addressing me with a slight “s--” sound -- for “sir”, and Millie Drake by “m--” -- for “ma’am”.)
“Put it on the main screen, please,” I said.
A map soon appeared on the large central monitor. It showed a certain location along with the parameters of the signal detected there.
“By the Triple Star!” I swore. “The energy of the Kitab al-Azif magic is coming from a crypt at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cemetery!”
“We need to get over there right away!” announced Millie Drake.
“Indeed we do, love,” said I whilst fetching my hat and cloak. “Come along, Mills and Kit-10. For the sake of the very future of this planet, we must do whatever is necessary to stop the conjuration of Kuthalu!” …
My name is Doctor Daniel Rumanos. With the heritage of the legendary Watchers of Algol, whose technology appears as magic, I protect Earth from all manner of menace. I am -- The Daemon-Star! …
Night had fallen over the city as Millie Drake, Kit-10, and I arrived at the St. Mary’s Cemetery. I parked our car (a specially-modified canary-yellow Edwardian roadster affectionately known as “Lizzie’) at the gates and we entered the graveyard on foot.
“Kit-10,” I said, “are your systems detecting the Azif energy?”
“Accessing,” replied the robotic cat. “Affirmative. Energy detected within the large stone structure ahead of our current location.”
“The crypt!” said Millie. “That’s where someone is attempting to call Kuthalu.”
“So it appears, my dear Mills,” I stated. “Be cautious, but let us continue. We must find out who is committing this outrage and stop them before it is too late for the human race!” …
Little did we know, as we investigated St. Mary’s Cemetery, that we were being watched from someone hidden as much by witchcraft as she was by the tombstones. It was an insanely-buxom young brunette clad in only a shiny black bikini. Her eyes were a luminous blue-green, and her mouth painted like unto an inviting scarlet gash. She smiled wickedly and then ran undetected into the large central crypt, the interior of which was already aglow with an eldritch ebon effulgence.
“Father,” she said. “They’re here!”
The man she was addressing stood behind a stone coffin that was being used as a satanic altar, and was dressed in a black vestment robe. He appeared to be a man of middle years, his face still showing handsome distinction despite being marked with the signs of lifetimes of extreme ungodly evil. His hair was long and dark and his countenance was decorated with a thin moustache and goatee. Most of all, his pale eyes shone with an absolute hypnotic glare as he turned the pages of a large book bound in black leather and containing an archaic Arabic script.
“I am not surprised, Anastasia,” said the man, a look of unmitigated madness on his countenance. “I knew that meddling Daniel Rumanos could not resist poking his enormous nose into my affairs. But it matters not. I have the Kitab al-Azif, and I shall use it to bring forth the mighty Kuthalu, that it may assist me and destroy all that would oppose my plans. Then I -- Magister Don Wingus -- shall become the supreme ruler of this and countless other worlds!” …
My friends and I entered the crypt and soon enough beheld what we were seeking. Standing behind a stone coffin on which were two black candles and an ancient book bound in leather were two figures. One was a girl clad in only a bikini, and the other was a man in an ebony vestment robe who glared at me with a look of unmitigated evil on his face.
“Greetings, Rumanos and company,” he mocked. “My little cutie here and I have been expecting you.”
Of course, I recognised the man immediately. I recognised him as the criminal renegade of my own Algolite race who has become the most wanted villain in all the Universe, and my own oldest and most bitter enemy.
“You!” I said. “Don Wingus. I should have known. So you did escape from Ocean City, and have somehow located a copy of the legendary Kitab al-Azif. Then I see you reunited with your daughter Anastasia and are attempting to call forth the terror known as Kuthalu!”
“I am more than ‘attempting’, Rumanos, you overdressed vagabond,” retorted Wingus, wisps of black energy appearing around him. “I found the book some time ago in an Arabian marketplace. I have already finished the preliminary conjurations, aided by the sexual magic workings that Stacy here assists in, and all that remains is to call forth the mighty Kuthalu into our dimension. Then nothing can stop me from using its power to establish myself as ruler of this planet and so many others!”
“Wingus, you mad unholy perverted fiend! You cannot control the power of Kuthalu. It is a force of absolute chaos, totally beyond any sane reckoning. It corrupts and destroys all that comes within its reach.”
“I assure you I am in complete control, as you will now see -- and feel! Kuthulu, come forth!!”
With this, the bits of darksome power coalesced into something, something horrid beyond all sane belief; for at that very moment suddenly burst forth an image as of myriads of writhing black tentacles, huge of size and accompanied by a terrible sound of buzzing and moaning and howling. The tentacles grew and stretched and looked as if they would soon fill the room before bursting forth into an unsuspecting world.
“Do you see, Rumanos?” exulted the interplanetary criminal Don Wingus. “Do you see?! I have called forth the Great Kuthalu, the one who shall make me ruler of worlds; the one who shall now destroy you and your allies!!”
Can you even commence, my dear friends and most appreciated readers, to recognise the utter unnameable horror, forsooth the compete unspeakable terror of the situation in which we then found ourselves? There we were; the lovely Millie Drake, the robotic Kit-10, and me -- Doctor Daniel Rumanos. There we were, facing the villainous Magister Don Wingus and his unclean daughter Anastasia. There we were, as the criminal Wingus conjured the very being known as Kuthalu, the alien horror that only existed to subjugate and destroy all -- and which as that very moment was being called forth to exterminate us!
“Now you shall die, Rumanos!” reiterated the evil Don Wingus amidst peals of his own utterly insane laughter. “You shall die, and I -- with the power of Kuthalu to aid me -- shall go on to rule over all!”
The darksome energies had by now reached us, appearing as the mass of disgustingly writhing tentacles, and my companions and I began to feel the power of its unmentionable evil. It swirled around us like unto a creeping black pool of deepest iniquity, accompanied by the sound of buzzing and howling and slithering as of the cacophony of a thousand nightmares.
“You are finished, Rumanos!” screeched the felonious Don Wingus in wicked triumph. “You are finished and now will die!!”
Then something very peculiar happened.
“No, father, no!” suddenly interrupted Anastasia Wingus. “Please don’t kill Doctor Rumanos! I like him! Won’t you let me have him to play with when you and Kuthalu rule the world? Oh, please, father! Please do that for me! Please?!”
“Stacy you careless come-rag!” bellowed Don Wingus whilst slapping his daughter hard across the face. “I am so tired of your ridiculous crush on Daniel Rumanos! Do you hear me?! I am sick and tired of it!!”
“Daniel,” said Millie Drake. “Do you notice something?”
“Yes,” I replied, “the energy is not hitting us as strongly now. Hmmm…”
Struggling, I just managed to step forward and deliver a blow of my fist across the face of Don Wingus. Distracted and unready, it sent him sprawling across the interior of the crypt.
I then hurried back to where Millie Drake and Kit-10 were, gesturing to them to retreat from the area of the swirling energies.
“Stand back, my friends,” I counselled. “Stand away and watch what happens!”
My two companions did so, and soon we were at the opposite side of the crypt from Don Wingus and his daughter -- as the hideous powers of monstrous tentacled Kuthalu headed directly to-wards them!
“What!” shouted Wingus in sudden terror at what was transpiring. “No! No! You cannot do this to me!”
Nevertheless, it was too late for Don Wingus and Stacy, as the sickening tentacles of Kuthalu wrapped around both of them, soon blotting them from view. I heard the girl scream, and her evil father let out one final bellow of outrage, before the darkness consumed them completely.
Then all was quiet. The monstrous evil -- the otherworldly thing known as Kuthalu -- had vanished, taking the villains with it.
“Are you all right Millie? Kit-10?”
“Yes, I’m okay now,” said Millie, walking over and taking my hand.
“My systems are also undamaged,” added the mechanical feline.
“But what happened?” asked Millie.
“Wingus was distracted enough to lose control of the situation, hmmm?” I explained. “As I told him, the force of Kuthalu is beyond any complete direction, and even a slight lapse of concentration in its conjuration is fatal. It has taken Wingus and his wretched daughter with it back to its own dimension, a non-corporeal world of darkness and chaos and death.”
“But what about the book?”
I looked at the old Arabic text as it lay on the now-abandoned stone casket. “We will take the Kitab al-Azif with us back to HQ, where we can keep it safely amongst our collection of occult books and artefacts. There it can finally do no further harm to mankind.”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
