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He pauses, then says, "You do not have words to describe it Your scientists do, but their terap in the glowing blocks and I glide after him We exit the chamber and I&039;m confronted with an underwater paradise I&039;m bloay by what I see, and it takes aexcept bob up and down in the water and stare

We&039;re in the s are all kinds of weird shapes,roots Many rise far above and deep below us, two hundred floors high, ently All sorts of colors, illuanisms I saw in the chah, and around the buildings No glass or doors, only scores of holes in the structures

I spot some creatures There are hordes-schools?-of the in and out of holes in the buildings They look like the sea life of , a shark-like beast with several iant eye chases an animal that looks like a cross between a seal and a deer The predator runs down its prey and rips it to shreds Clouds of scavengers move in quickly and finish off the scraps that the shark leaves behind

"Are we safe?" I ask nervously There are more of the sharks around, and other mutations that look ever fiercer

"They won&039;t har would attack anything that it was not, by nature, designed to prey upon"

As he says that, a sea snake the size of a redwood tree passes beneath us It raises its huge head and studies us I feel like I&039; and closing slowly, in search of other food

"I don&039;t like this," I mutter "When can we leave?"

"Soon," Art says "First Iof creatures closes around us Each looks like a cross between a sraceful Their many arms are adorned with shells and sea flowers, and intricate designs that ht be tattoos They swirl over, under, and around one another, as if dancing

"They are dancing," Art says "They worship my kind and wish to perfor time They are excited"

"Why do they think soago"

"The Demonata cross to other worlds?" I frown

"Of course," Art says "They hate all life-forms You are not the first to suffer at their hands And you won&039;t be the last Far fro the dance Their movements beco around one another, every blink of an eye or swish of a tail carefully choreographed Through the crush I spot so from the depths

"Is that a chessboard?" I ask It&039;s er than any board I&039;ve ever seen, but it&039;s the right shape, with the usual arrangement of black and white squares

"There are Boards like this on almost all the worlds where we have had an influence," Art says "The Boards are central to the developet about them as they evolve, but et it What&039;s the big deal about chess?"

"The ga"

So about the way he stresses the word sparks a doo The demon master loves chess One of the rooms in his web-based castle was full of sets He produced a board that he referred to as the original Board Each square was a self-contained universe of its own, filled with an array of demons

"Yes," Art says before I can form a question "That was the Board we used on your world"

"I still don&039;t understand," I frown "The Board was just a toy"

"The Boards are not toys," Art says "Each is a inal universe, a link to the past before tiibberish," I scowl

"It will becoap that the sea creatures have created "Come I am fully rested, and the dance has moved into its final arc It is time for us to depart"