by Mark Tufo
“Can’t stop! Gabriel’s gate will be like an ‘Open Late’ sign to every enemy still outside the walls of Denarth.”
“Shit.” I scooped Azile up into my arms; she could barely wrap her arms around my neck.
“Let’s go,” Lana ordered everyone. “Kalandar, is any one place better than another?” she asked.
There were three, bright, pulsing lights. “Yes, away from them.”
We’d been found. “Angels or demons?” I asked.
“Fiends. I do not believe angels would dare come here, knowing the fiends were sure to follow,” he answered.
“Why not? They’re already engaged in battle,” Mathieu pointed out as he helped some of the injured.
“Here, the fiends are more powerful; on your plane, they would be close to even.”
“And in Heaven, the angels would have the advantage,” I finished the logic.
“So I am told,” Kalandar said.
We could track the movements of the fiends. They were leaving dust trails like mounted riders on dry, dirt roads. They had separated and got to points roughly equidistant away from each other so that they could approach us on three sides.
“Have we traveled far enough to go back over?” Mathieu asked me.
“We’d better hope so. Gabriel, now might be a perfect time to make good our escape,” I said as I watched the fiends coming. They were moving so fast the horseback rider analogy didn’t hold weight; the only Mustangs they could be on looked Detroit-built. We could maybe make it, if we went through right now.
“Can’t,” Gabriel whispered.
“I sense their hand in this. A protective summons will have the boy shielded from his power,” Kalandar replied. “I never imagined I would die in my homeworld at the hands of archfiends as I defended mortals. I find that I am saddened that no one will ever know of this. These victors will never tell my story, and the chance there will be survivors is not so grand.”
“Put me down, Mike,” Azile said into my chest.
“What are you going to do? Fall into them?” I asked, holding her tighter.
“I can help facilitate their souls, allow some of them to escape this place in the non-corporeal realm.
“I love you, Azile.” I gently placed her in the center of our defensive circle. Mathieu and Lana had positioned themselves right at the forefront of one of the incoming. Kalandar and myself were on the other two with the rest of the soldiers and citizens backing us up. My sword was again glowing gold; I was as ready as I was going to get, right up until there were rapid bolts of blinding, flashing, red lights all around us. By the time my eyes had adjusted, I noted that a great many gate guardians had surrounded us. Sebastian was in the middle, talking to Azile and receiving a light head stroke. When he was done with her, he came over to me. Was expecting him to say something contemptuous; so far, this day was full of surprises.
“You have protected her well.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked him.
“We plan on fighting, and, most likely, dying by your side.” He answered before I could ask him why: “They should not be fighting over your world; each of them has their own place. For some reason, they feel that this new realm presents a chance to start over, to right the wrongs that plagued the old. They do not understand that they will take their problems with them. The only way to create a utopia is to not populate it.”
“That’s a pretty dark view, even for you, Sebastian.”
“Perhaps. Are you ready?”
“No.”
The whatever it was stopped some fifty feet away. It had no form; more of a swirling mass of energy that alluded to a shape. If I had to pin it on some animal, I’d go with something along the lines of a stingray, as black lines swirled out from it in flat wings. What I took to be its mouth was somewhere in what I figured should be a chest.
“Lethaland,” Sebastian hissed what I came to learn was the demon’s name.
“Do you believe this to be a wise course of action, gate guardian?” Lethaland asked.
“This has to stop,” Sebastian replied.
“And you think you are capable of this?” A low, heavy, hitching growl led me to believe that the demon was laughing.
“With all of us here? I have no doubt we can do exactly as I say.”
“He doesn’t believe that,” Linnick whispered. Sebastian shot a look to the breatine that sent her scurrying to the deep edge of my pocket.
“You realize who stands with me, do you not?” Sebastian asked.
Lethaland’s colors swirled from deep blacks to fluorescent purples. “This is the one that killed Grammler. I will take great satisfaction in avenging his death.”
“Not thinking that went as planned,” I said to Sebastian.
“He is agitated,” Sebastian replied.
“Just means he’ll hit harder.”
Fine, silk-like threads began to flow from the top of the demon. At first, there were only a few, then more and more, so that the mass of them looked as thick as a tree trunk. The filaments swirled in and around each other.
“We’ve got shooting webs or something here!” Mathieu shouted out. I turned quickly and saw that all three of the fiends were up to the same trick, even if the color was different for each of them.
“This is not good!” Kalandar felt the need to add. “It is a hellfire web!”
I gave the quickest of glances to Azile; she was too worn out to even be concerned.
“All ears, Sebastian, if you have any ideas,” I said.
“I’ve always hated that expression, and you would, too, if you had ever seen a lobenatter.” Sebastian shook his head to dislodge what was, apparently, an unpleasant image forming in his mind. “They need all three to complete the circle.”
I was already on the move. “The threads are moving synchronically.” Linnick was tracking them.
“That’ll work,” I told her as I ran straight for Lethaland.
“Do you believe Maker’s offer is still valid?”
For her sake, I wished it was, but I did not think we would be getting any last-second heroics down here.
“The web is changing color.” Her tone was full of alarm and resignation.
“Now or never, I suppose.” I lashed out with my sword; a blue filament spiraled out as if I had cast a fishing line. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what, if anything, it would do if it struck. Might have looked wholly unthreatening to me, but Lethaland saw something in it that made him take his focus off the web. He deflected my strike easily enough, but at the point his force met mine, an explosion occurred that sent me backward nearly ten feet. I had the better end, though, as the strike was closer to him. Unlike me, the swirling mass that composed him appeared to still be standing. As he seemed not to be completely solid, I would imagine that a fair amount of the energy passed right through him; nevertheless, he was swaying, and it looked as if he’d just received a standing eight count after a dominating knockdown punch. Really, though, it was too difficult to tell what he may have been feeling. All I knew was that the hellfire web had stopped spinning, and that gave us a chance.
“The others are coming,” Linnick announced.
“Which others, Linnick?” I was trying to get close enough that I could strike with my sword. Why I thought I’d be able to get steel through to him was beyond me. I’d have an easier time getting wet in space.
“Everyone.”
I spared a glance; I noticed the other brown-black swirling masses approaching from either side, and I could hear the pursuit from those behind me. It appeared that we were going to have a royal rumble, just like in wrestling–and here I was without my metal folding chair. I was swinging for the fences once I got within range, and as of yet, I still hadn’t encountered anything that would lead me to believe I wasn’t going to make contact. I accepted that as true all the way up until I felt something pop, or give, in my head. Like, maybe the hamster that was spinning the wheel up there had a stroke. I felt like I was all right
; I just couldn’t make things work the way I wanted. My right leg was taking longer strides than my left, causing me to veer off sideways, and my right arm, which had been in mid-swing, was now hanging down, dragging my blade on the ground.
“What is going on?” I asked without a hint of a slur, I zipped right past Lethaland and was coming around right into the waiting arms of another demon. Didn’t think I could do much more than collide with him. I couldn’t even force my legs to stop working, I went back to what I had learned the first time I skied; if you’re losing control, fall over. Seems like a simple enough task, yet so many fail to let go and make everything worse, just like I was right now. It was Sebastian’s right hip that sent me sprawling to the ground.
“It’s a synaptic spike,” he said, as if I would have a clue what to do with that.
“Concentrate!” he urged as he headed straight for the other demon. There was a loud shriek from him as a wisp of black peeled off from the beast and struck the side of Sebastian. I could smell burning flesh and an angry pulsing welt quickly formed down the entirety of his body. He was in a massive amount of pain, and it was the empathetic feeling I had for him that allowed me to come out from under the grip of what that demon had done to me. Stepping back from my mind, it was easy enough to see the black dagger the demon had stabbed into my left hemisphere. Sebastian wasn’t out of the fight yet, and with three of his gate guardians coming to reinforce him, the demon spun away from me.
“Leave them alone, Kojawraith!” Sebastian yelled as the cats fanned out.
Kojawraith let out some guttural utterance. Could have been a laugh or a signal of disbelief. I mentally yanked that spike out and the effect was instantaneous. I was closer to Lethaland, and it still looked like all the demon’s moving parts weren’t lubricated correctly. Kojawraith was going to have a difficult time getting past the guardians and to me before I struck. Want to know what happens to smoke when you swipe a blade through it? Absolutely nothing. I mean, I did push some material around, but other than that, nada. I could sense Lethaland was beginning to come to his own and once he did, I was going to be the one that brought a metal stick to a magic fight.
“Your mind, Mike, use your mind! I realize that’s a secondary tactic for you, but go with it.” This from Azile; she had spoken directly into me. I didn’t even have to look to know she was still back where I’d left her, with the rest of the people. I knew intrinsically this wasn’t the optimum way to go about using magic, in the middle of a battle, figuring out what to do, dwelling on how to do it and then wondering if I could even execute the plan, but it was all I had. It happened fast enough, but compared to how the fiends could wield it, I was like a beginning piano player plinking out Chopsticks, walking amongst prodigies tapping out Chopin.
I was pissed off I couldn’t hit the demon, his lack of physicality being the problem. I demanded, or maybe commanded, that he become cohesive. I gotta say, if it came down to a decibels check, Lethaland and myself were neck and neck in terms of scream volume. The pure amount of power that poured out of me was a shocker. I didn’t know if I had just let go an unchecked command, like sending ten thousand volts to power up a nightlight, or somehow the magic I was using knew what it was going to take to perform the required task. There was no deflection this time–he was absorbing everything I had. At first, the swirling mass expanded, like it might dissipate, then it began to collapse in on itself, like an exploding star.
What I found strange was that his true form, which was revealed in those final few moments, was much closer to humanity’s than the angel’s had been. What does that say about us? My throat burned and my vocal cords felt shredded as I kept yelling. I didn’t know if I would have enough to give before I collapsed or just ceased to exist. I had my sword-wielding arm cocked back and ready as the smoke thickened and a ghostly image began to appear. The specter gained depth and substance; I knew to strike too soon would lessen the damage I could do and there was no chance I would be able to muster up the reserves to try this tactic again. Had to figure there were a dozen different, less taxing ways I could have gone about this, but I’d made this bed. Okay, it was an old mattress I’d found at a highway underpass and it was riddled with piss and shit stains and literally could move on its own due to the bedbug and lice infestation, but this bed was mine, and I was going to lie in it. I’m wicked smart like that. Especially since this part of the highway was right next to the mattress warehouse superstore and I had just got my tax refund.
As soon as the demon transformed from dark mist gliding down the hallway of a haunted house at three a.m. to a full-blown physical entity, I swung. I thought, at first, perhaps I had made him too solid. When my blade made contact I felt the shockwave of it up my arm, like I had struck a stone. Something gave, either it was my shoulder or his ribcage, and both of us again resumed our bellowing. Lethaland absorbed the hit and seemed to wrap his body around it. As he bent over, I drove my knee into his face. For all the similarities of our bodies, our faces were polar opposites; anyone could see we were not from the same world. Where his nose should have been were three perpendicular slits that led to a rather sizable, round mouth completely encasing a frightening row of serrated teeth, which I’m sure were as sharp as a puppy’s and I had no desire to check the validity of that statement.
He had some sort of seeing organs, but it would be difficult to call them eyes. There were two almond-shaped places on his face where his tan skin was lighter and the softest of glows emanated. Perhaps where he resided it was necessary for him to make his own illumination. I imagine he didn’t see like we did, but rather on some other spectrum, like infrared or ultra-violet. There were no ears, nor ears holes, but instead two bony protrusions that could be mistaken for horns, especially in the dead of night, to a terrified person all alone in a darkened, quiet house. My guess was they were for pulling in sound waves, though at the time, I couldn’t care less.
Its puckered mouth was open in a stuttering scream. I wanted to punch the offending orifice but I thought better of it, thinking it could take my arm, elbow deep, once those teeth started chewing. I reached down to pull my axe free then I sent that sharpened blade deep into that glowing socket. Wasn’t sure what to expect; in a perfect world it would have fallen down dead, which would have made my life a lot easier. That wasn’t the case. It shot out defensively with a barbed fist. Three of its fingers and a thumb broke through my side and somehow stuck; I was forced back from the blow then pulled in close as it retracted its arm. It was leaning in and I was trying to pull back. My entire side was on fire, like he had injected me with lava-fueled venom. I could feel it spreading out through my torso and toward my extremities.
I yanked my axe free and kept striking, like I was trying to fell a Sequoia. My sword dropped away as I could no longer control that arm. It was a ghastly dance to see who could kill the other first. The demon’s head looked like pummeled hamburger, but he was still shaking me around like a makeshift marionette controlled by a palsied puppeteer. Once I lost control of my left hand, it would be all over–that was if my heart didn’t just quit beating. When I finally cracked through to its green-tinged brain, I knew why he’d been able to take so much abuse; his skull plate was over an inch thick. When I finally landed a shot into the control center of the beast, he pulled his hand free, though I don’t think it was voluntary.
As Lethaland fell and would rise no more, I could hear the hissing and screeching of multiple cats as they fought Kojawraith, though their battle was one of attempting to tire out their opponent by absorbing as much of his punishment as possible. Victory by defeat. Broken, dead and dying gate guardians were strewn all across the battlefield. Mathieu, Kalandar, and Lana were doing all they could to fight their opponent as well, but they were losing. The black mist turned and was poised to strike Lana with what would amount to a killing blow, when a gate appeared in front of him and swallowed him back to an unnamed hell. He’d had no opportunity to avoid it as he had been charging. With my friends relativel
y safe, if not sound, I turned my attention back to Kojawraith.
He seemed to sense he was in this alone, but instead of finding the nearest exit, he looked as if he was doubling down. I did not know if I had enough in me to solidify another mass, and the pain flaring up my right side was all-encompassing. Plus, with the wound, I was losing a fair amount of blood which dropped to the ground in fat red droplets ringed in a sheathing of gold. I was running toward an incredibly powerful demon with nothing more than a hand axe and a prayer, or I guess more like a wish, though that seems to be what most prayers are anyway. It’s times like these I wonder how I made it out of my youth, armed with this level of decision-making skill, or more aptly, lack of.
I took note that where the cats struck, the mist there would swirl and congeal so that as their claws and teeth hit, they would do damage. What I didn’t know was whether the cat’s magic, or perhaps Azile’s, was causing this and I didn’t have the time to figure it out. I more than expected my swing to go straight through so I would fall into and out of the Koja’s body. The idea–that I would simultaneously hold the same space as it–concerned me; would I momentarily be demon possessed? I swung anyway, and connected. I was once again rewarded with the solid wallop and numbing vibrations up my arm. Obviously, Koja had never suffered from calcium deficiency. I was hit with something I could neither see nor identify and which I was no match for; I felt like R2 in the first Star Wars movie when the Jawas captured him. An electrical storm was roiling around my head and body, but it was nothing like a Taser. Instead of my muscles contracting to the point of folding in on themselves, I found I was stuck in place.
Again, it was Sebastian there to save the day. Of course, it was with a bite to the back of my calf that felt like he’d tried to jump start my leg with a car battery. Whether the bite interrupted our connection or it had its own properties, I don’t know. All I do know is that Koja’d had enough. Drops of mist were falling off of him; I figured it to be his form of blood, but who knows. Happily, he winked out as quickly as he’d come.