Free Dark Calling by Darren Shan

Who Could Reproduce. We Inhabited The Black Zones,
     And Were Sterile. That Did Not Trouble Us. Since There Was No Time, We Were Immortal. Death Did Exist—We
Could
Be Killed—But It Rarely Bothered Us. We Roamed The Endless Depths Of Our Zones, Peaceful And Content.
    “Demons And Old Creatures Were Never Meant To Mix. The Kah-Gash Kept Us Separate.”
    I spot a disturbance among a group of demons clustered around one of the white panels. Until a few seconds ago, they swarmed
     around the panel like ants, but now they part, forming two neat ranks. One of the beasts glides between the others, angles
     for the panel, then brushes against it and is absorbed. I wait for it to emerge but nothing happens.
    “The Demon Is Dead,” Art says. “It Was Ancient, One Of Those Who Existed In The Original Universe. No Living Creature Can
     Touch The Panels And Survive. Most Of The Original Demonata And Old Creatures Choose To Perish Here When It Is Their Time.”
    “One down, just a few trillion to go,” I chuckle humorlessly. Then I pause. “Is that why the other demons are here, to bid
     farewell to the dead one?”
    “Yes.”
    “I didn’t think demons worked that way. Those I’ve known don’t care about any of the others.”
    “The Original Demons Are Different,” Art says. “They Have Known Each Other For So Long That They Have Formed Bonds. We Would
     Normally Stay Away At A Time Like This, As They Do When We Gather Here For A Funeral. But It Was Important To Protect You.”
    “I thought you said you don’t kill here.”
    “We Don’t,” Art says. “But If They See A Human, They Might Attack. We Will Distract Them If They Grow Curious, And Defend
     You If Necessary.”
    We watch the end of the ceremony. Nothing much happens. The demons hold their ranks for a while, then break apart and drift
     towards the ring of fire that encircles the Crux.
    “Initially We Were Not Aware Of The Demonata, And They Knew Nothing Of Us,” Art resumes. “But The Demonata Were Curious. They
     Tested The Barriers Where White Met Black, And Found A Way To Cross. They Discovered Us.”
    “And they attacked,” I guess. “They set out to kill you all.”
    Art sighs. “We Knew Nothing Of War. We Fled For The Furthest Reaches Of Our Zones, Hoping The Demonata Would Lose Interest
     And Let Us Be.”
    “Some hope!” I snort.
    “It Was Brutal,” Art says softly. “We Learned About Pain, Suffering, And Loss For The First Time. We Were Innocent, But We
     Matured Fast. We Had To Or They Would Have Slain Us All.
    “We Fought Back. Your People Know Much Of Warfare, But They Have Never Seen It On Such A Scale. Universal, Timeless, A War
     Of Magic. The Universe Burned. The Kah-Gash Buckled. Ultimately It Could Stand The Strain No Longer.”
    We’ve been drifting closer to one of the black squares. It’s bigger than I assumed, several miles high. I feel tiny as we
     pass within its shadow.
    “We Knew We Should Stop,” Art whispers. “The Laws Were Shattering. The Universe Was Crumbling. The Kah-Gash Could Not Hold.
     But Still We Fought. We Had Become Slaves To War.
    “In The End The Kah-Gash Fractured. In A Blinding, Destructive Flash, All Sixty-Four Zones Shrank To The Size Of A Speck.
     A Split Second Later, The Ball Of The Universe Exploded. Everything Was Destroyed And Reborn. Life As You Know It Began.”
    “And that’s when the universe was created?” I ask.
    “Universes,”
Art corrects me. “There Are Two. Although There Were Sixty-Four Zones Before The Big Bang, There Was Only One Universe. The
     Laws Of The White Zones Differed To Those Of The Black, But They Were Held In Place By The Kah-Gash. Now The Two Universes
     Are Separate.”
    “I don’t understand why they exist at all,” I mutter. “Why wasn’t everything wiped out in the explosion?”
    “The Kah-Gash Protected Us. Its Last Act Was To Create Two Individual Universes, Dividing The Warring Races. It Hoped The
     New Structures Would Keep Us Apart. As You