by Ryan Attard
Gil and Jack came to my side, and they hugged me. Jack had this big, stupid grin on his face, while Gil tried her best to remain stoic.
She failed. I’ll leave it at that.
Abi reached behind her and unhooked a parcel that had been tied across her back. She handed it to me. I unstrung the top and let the blanket fall off.
“Hello, old friend.”
Djinn hummed faintly with power within its sheath. The familiar presence of the Jinn inside buzzed against the deepest part of my mind, akin to a supernatural handshake. I strapped the weapon to myself and felt whole again.
Then I unsheathed the blade. Blue light exploded from the short sword, and I raised it.
Everyone froze in place.
“If anyone wants to see sunlight tomorrow,” I said, “I suggest you get the hell outta here. Now!”
Almost everyone left. Those that stayed behind were either too injured, unconscious, or on the verge of death. I ignored them.
“You’re all alone, Greede,” I said.
Greede looked up from where he was kneeling. His eyes were bloodshot and bits of his flesh bulged out, as if the demon within him could barely be contained. Alan Greede was weak.
This was my opportunity to end it.
And he knew it.
“Amaymon.” His words summoned the demon and my former familiar stood next to him.
Amaymon looked at me, and I looked at him. Then he glanced down at Greede.
“Is it done?”
“No,” Greede said. “We need the blood of at least two demons.” He glared at me. “Enough Life magic was drained. The Demon Emperor awaits his servants to summon him.”
Amaymon looked at the altar. I raised my sword.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I growled. The demon looked at me curiously. “I mean it, Amaymon.”
Amaymon said nothing. Gently he raised one hand and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling it down. There he hooked his thumb on a pendant and pulled it out.
The blood red ruby swung around his neck.
Ever have that one moment were everything falls into place? Because as I watched that ruby swing, suddenly the entire puzzle lined up.
That ruby was our contract made incarnate, a physical representation of the bond between myself and Amaymon. By all means it should have been destroyed. The magical bond we once had was gone, that much I was sure of.
But Amaymon had kept the ruby pendant. Why?
Because he wanted you to know, dummy. Amaymon never left.
A word echoed inside my head.
“Nekomata,” I murmured. I swung my gaze towards my sister. “Luke told you he made contact with the Nekomata. You’re him.”
“Demon cat,” Amaymon said. He grinned, exposing his shark-like teeth. “Little on the nose but I like it.”
“Turncoats,” Greede spat as he stood up. Bits of Mammon jutted out of his body.
Amaymon gave him a sideways glance. I never saw his arm move. Greede’s neck simply caved in as the demon karate-chopped him in the throat. The blow sent Greede/Mammon flying into a wall.
“You’re weak.” Amaymon’s voice was cold. He glanced down, where the Necronomicon lay. He reached down.
“Amaymon, don’t!” Gil cried.
But it was too late.
The Necronomicon’s foul magic sprang forth, taking the shape of a series of spikes. They rendered Amaymon’s flesh. Blood splattered all over the altar. The black flame roared again and from within I sensed a terrible being.
Greede, now swollen into Mammon’s bulbous form, reached out with his oversized hand. The Necronomicon shot towards him.
“Mine,” he said. “This is mine!”
“Oh, do shut up.” A gust of wind slashed Mammon’s belly and Mephisto appeared floating at Mammon’s eye line. He raked the air and sharp blades of wind tore into Mammon’s eyes.
The massive demon fell backwards.
Mephisto, still hovering in the air, spun to look at the altar. He met his brother’s gaze.
“Is the farce over, Brother?”
“That depends,” Amaymon said. “I can take your blood if you wanna make this fun.”
Mephisto removed his white gloves and dragged his right index finger along his left palm. Then he whipped the bloodied hand towards the altar. Blood splashed, mixing with Amaymon’s.
The latter nodded. “Much obliged.”
I glared at them. “What are you doing?” I cried. “You’re summoning the Emperor!”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Mephisto said, before looking at Gil. “Your orders, Master?”
Gil opened her mouth to speak, but I moved in first. The first blast of azure energy tore through Mammon as he tried to get up. Still he managed to hold an ethereal, larger version of the Necronomicon open in one hand, a magically-conjured stylus in the other. As he scribbled, sigils appeared.
“Yog-Soggoth.”
Tentacles of black, violet and purple, exploded forwards from the sigil. The creature was gelatinous and amorphous, like a bloated jellyfish. Endless tentacles sprung out.
I glimpsed Greede—back to human form—stepping through a portal.
He glanced back, glaring at me. “Next time, Mr. Ashendale,” he said. “Next time, I’ll make sure to kill you permanently.”
I wish I could have thought of something, but a tentacle was descending on me from the giant jellyfish monster. I slashed it and ducked. Power coursed through me.
Azure from Djinn, gold from Sun Tzu’s gift, black and red from the Life magic pouring out of me.
“Let’s try out something new.”
I held Djinn upright in front of me and willed it to split. The short sword burst into blue flames and a second Djinn formed in my left hand. A blue string of energy connected the two pommels.
I grinned at Yog-Soggoth.
“Guess you’re in deep shit now, ugly.”
I yelled with effort and began slashing. In addition to the dual-wielding spell, I willed the blades of both swords to elongate, doubling their length.
Tentacles and bits of amorphous flesh rained in my wake. Finally I leapt, enhancing my jump with magic. I rose into the air and pressed both Djinn blades together, forming a giant one. The blade grew larger as I pumped all of my magic into it. Blue mixed with gold and black and red until the energy sword was as large as the monster itself.
I swung down. The blade arced over me, smashing through the ceiling, and slammed down on Yog-Soggoth, eviscerating it from top to bottom.
The creature burst into tiny little blobs that screamed and exploded into piles of a disgusting pus-like substance. Thankfully, the goop evaporated rather quickly.
I landed and twirled a normal-sized Djinn. Then I turned towards the roaring black flames.
“Alright. Who’s next?”
Chapter 29
A torrent of black fire erupted from the altar. Heat blistered my skin. The sense of dread I was experiencing before had now turned into pure and utter despair.
Flames mushroomed around the ceiling of the crypt and blasted through it. Mortar rained down and shattered around the altar, and still the flames grew larger and larger. Miraculously none of it fell on us—I suspected Amaymon had something to do with that, but I was too preoccupied with the black flames as they destroyed the church around us.
From within the flames emerged a demon unlike any I had ever seen before. It wasn’t that he was big, because I had seen bigger, or anatomically bizarre, because I had just fought with a Lovecraftian blob of gelatinous horror.
No, it was the absolute power that seemed to hold this creature together. Every inch screamed destruction of the most certain kind, the kind of power that was final and elemental.
Belial only vaguely resembled a humanoid creature. It walked erect—that was pretty much it.
Saurian legs, akin to those of a T-Rex, slammed down, billowing black flames in their wake. Bone spikes jutted out at random intervals and each talon was about the size of my entire height. A long
, thick tail swished to and fro, black flames whipped about in waves.
His upper body was chiseled with muscle. Massive human arms, each the size of a bus, ended in black-tipped claws. A pair of chiropteran wings made out of black fire flared behind him before folding.
His head was triangular with a wide forehead where a pair of horns branched out from his head, curving upwards. His mouth was narrow and wide, a pit of teeth and flames, while his eyes blazed crimson red.
In total, he was about two storeys tall, towering over the remnants of the destroyed church and the buildings nearby.
In his right hand, he held the largest cruciform sword I had ever seen. The weapon was almost as tall as he was, and the edges of the blade were wider than my car.
The newly-resurrected Demon Emperor inhaled deeply. Then he opened his eyes and roared. Black fire exploded from his body, consuming everything in sight.
As it rolled over us in a wave, I understood the nature of the magic. Guess my eyes had not adjusted to seeing things through our reality yet.
That black fire was not just fire. It was all four elements at once, and everything it touched was forced to phase into all four states of matter. Stone, grass, cars, even the air, were forced to become solid, liquid, gaseous, and plasma all at once.
Hell fire, I realized. Mephisto had spoken about it once, decades ago when he was still our teacher. It was the embodiment of Hell’s chaotic nature—entropy made incarnate.
Matter on our plane was in just one state at a time. Forcing it to shift like that resulted in destruction, usually of the explosive kind.
Three demons appeared in front of us, each of them embodying their element.
Amaymon, the tall proud warrior, punched forwards.
Mephisto, silent and maleficent, raked the air.
And unexpectedly, Astaroth, hunched over, with his head cocked sideways, pushed his palms forwards.
The black flames parted and dissipated, leaving behind molten ground and a ringing in our ears from the roar of the fire.
Belial glanced down, towards the demons.
“My servants.” Its voice was surprisingly cold. “You have come.”
The three demonic brothers remained silent.
“No,” Belial mused. “You have not come to serve. You have come to challenge. Amaymon, Mephistopheles, Astaroth. One is missing. Baal. Where is my assassin?”
“We’re more than enough for you, Your Highness,” Amaymon said, shooting his trademark cocky grin.
“Amaymon. Always so brash. Tell me, my general, are you to usurp me?”
Amaymon shrugged. “Like I give a shit about the throne.” He rolled his shoulders. “I just wanna settle the score once and for all.”
Belial nodded, his giant horns trailing fire in the sky with his movements.
“Come then.”
Amaymon looked behind him, eyeing his siblings and us humans.
“This is my fight,” he declared. “Y’all back off, no matter what.” He squinted at me. “Got it?”
I opened my mouth, but he cut me off when he took the ruby pendant off his neck and tossed it. I caught it. Amaymon nodded as if saying the pendant was mine to keep and then looked up at the sky.
“Hey, yo, Fire Boy,” he yelled. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Luke the Pyromancer rocketed from behind us and landed next to Amaymon.
“Preparations complete,” he said.
Luke glanced at Gil. She nodded. Luke spread his arms and blue fire leapt from his fingertips. The fire zigzagged around all of us, never touching us. As it formed a series of symbols and runes, it turned white and fell on the ground, burning a pentagram sigil on the ground.
The world shifted. I recognized the effects of a portal. Fire and light blinded me, before darkness momentarily covered us.
“Shunting spell complete,” I heard Luke say. Around me, Luke and Abi gasped. Rightly so.
I recognized the landscape, a wasteland of bones, dry rock, and grey sand. The sulfur sky and acidic air.
Hell.
We were back in Hell.
Chapter 30
Amaymon nodded at Luke. “Much obliged, kid.” He strode casually towards Belial.
The giant demon waited patiently several feet away, black flames cracking the ground at his feet.
“Interesting,” he said. “You bring me back home. And here I believed you wanted to fight on that pathetic reality, where my powers are limited.”
Amaymon grinned and slammed a fist into his palm. “You’re forgetting something, Belial. You ain’t the only one who can cut loose back here.”
He tilted his head. “Yo, bro! Keep ‘em safe.”
Mephisto grunted from besides Gil. “Of course, brother.” He snapped his fingers, and a dome of translucent air formed around us. The barrier distorted our vision for a split second.
“This was not part of our deal, Mephisto,” Gil said. “One demon cannot handle the Demon Emperor by himself.”
Of course. Of course, she knew. I could kick myself. I should have known there was no way in hell Gil would have not known what Greede’s master plan was all along.
For fuck’s sake, he wasn’t even hiding it!
It all fell in place now. Luke, Mephisto, Amaymon’s apparent betrayal—it was all part of my sister’s gambit to one-up Greede.
Mephisto gave her an apologetic look.
“I shall gladly accept any punishment you see fit, Master Gil. However, the protection offered by Astaroth and myself is necessary if Amaymon is to fully engage the Demon Emperor. This is a fight between demons, in Hell. Had it taken place on Earth it would have shattered your reality. And without this barrier, all of you will surely perish. Which would be a shame given that some of us have just come back.” He glared at Belial. “But I owe this to my brother.”
“Me too,” Astaroth said. I looked at him, surprised his former erratic behavior had gone. Instead, I saw fear, anger, and conviction in his eyes.
Astaroth looked at his brother. “We cannot fight as well as Amaymon,” he said. “But we can make sure what he is fighting for stays safe. That is his wish.”
I looked back at Amaymon.
“Hey, dumbass!”
He looked back at me, half-grinning.
“Kick his ass,” I yelled. “You hear?”
Amaymon gave me a thumbs-up. The ground shook. Amaymon’s form began shifting. I heard him chuckle at Belial.
“Let’s rock and roll, bitch.”
For as long as I had known Amaymon, he had chosen to take two forms. Like I said, magic often responds to your literal thoughts. A demon’s—or angel’s, for that matter—form on Earth is a representation of how they see themselves.
Amaymon had two forms:
A black shorthair cat that he was stuck in as a result of his contract with my family.
And the stocky teenager in grungy black clothing and an attitude to match.
But neither was his true form. No demon can take its true form on Earth.
But this was not Earth.
The bestial roar got lost in the symphony of exploding rock and shattering stone. Or was it the other way round?
Every grain of sand, every speck of stone, shifted and bounced and erupted from the depths which housed it.
Coiling before Belial’s monstrous form was an equally feral beast.
Coming to about half of Belial’s height, the black beast was covered in fur. Light reflected off the fur, and I realized it was obsidian shards and crystals. The beast looked like a cross between a cat and a wolf. I recognized elements of Amaymon’s cat form, but there was nothing cute and cuddly about this thing. It hissed, exposing a series of fangs. Two fangs jutted out, larger than the others, like in a saber-toothed tiger.
Amaymon coiled his back like a cat about to strike and roared again. From his back, two pairs of human arms exploded forwards. Thick, wide and each as big as his entire body, the arms were composed entirely of rock. Each ended with three stubby fingers, an
d thick amethysts jutted out from each knuckle.
Two slender feline tails whipped behind it, erect upwards like rudders.
Belial chuckled as he watched Amaymon’s transformation.
“Thus you meet your demise, whelp.” He raised the sword and swung it down. Hell fire leapt from it, cleaving through the ground.
Amaymon rolled aside, cartwheeling on his massive stone arms, and raked at Belial’s side with his rear legs, just like a cat. Deep lacerations appeared along Belial’s leg.
In turn, Belial swung his tail, catching Amaymon’s flank and sending him flying. Simultaneously, the ground rose up behind him, tilting him forwards. Amaymon threw an uppercut into his throat.
Belial's sword cleft through the punching arm. Amaymon caught the wrist with his remaining arms and twisted his feline body around, raking Belial over and over.
Hell fire blanketed Amaymon. His roar caused an earthquake. Two slabs of rock formed from thin air and sandwiched Belial’s face, shattering against his horns. Amaymon dove into the ground.
A massive pair of stone arms rose from the earth and towered over Belial’s gargantuan form. He sliced one of them off with his sword. The other arm smashed down on him. Belial screamed as it rammed into his back. Rock pierced him from end to end.
Belial raised his blade and thrust it hard into the ground. A scream. He raised his weapon and to my horror I saw Amaymon impaled on it.
“NO!”
Belial turned his head to look at me and grinned. Hell fire slowly crawled towards my familiar.
Amaymon’s monstrous form dissipated into a pile of sand, cascading around Belial’s massive sword. I saw a small dark figure running along the edge of the blade.
Amaymon in his human form leapt, rising to Belial’s eye line. He suddenly transformed again, turning into his demonic form, and shot a massive paw into Belial’s face.
The Demon Emperor tilted backwards, taken fully by surprise. Amaymon reached out with one of his stone hands and grabbed one of Belial’s head horns. He used it as a fulcrum to flip around and land on Belial’s back. His claws dug into his back, while he wrapped one pair of his stone arms around Belial’s arms, pinning them to his side.