“No thanks needed, Archmage. We had fun, didn’t we?” Asag beamed widely as he looked at his companions. The two replied with wry yet exhausted smiles. Then the deity spun around and stared at Se-Osiris. The subtle change in Asag’s stance warned Tyler that unless he intervened quickly, another battle was in the offing.
“Demon hunter,” hissed Asag aggressively.
It was not a question, but a statement. Yet Se-Osiris merely replied with a sardonic smile and a slight bow. Tyler knew the dead mage was warned against initiating hostilities, but if the rock demon attacked, the apparition would be forced to defend himself. Yet even if Se-Osiris was already dead, Asag would know how to tear a mortal’s soul apart.
“Stop!” yelled the young mage. “Se-Osiris is here to help, not fight you.”
“I’ve heard of him of old. Not as bad as that demon lord who also hunts demons not of his domain. Lord Nabu-sin. Raised by humans, now one of the nine rulers of the demonic land between the land of the living and Kurnugia. Well, one of five rulers. He got rid of the others. Been hunting him too. I wanted to test myself against his vaunted abilities, but that lad was too busy being elsewhere. I finally got tired of trying to find him,” explained Asag, not letting up his guard.
Well, we’ve met him outside Maljen, thought Tyler. Hunting demons. But a lad? That damned bastard was extremely powerful!
“But Se-Osiris! Now that’s the mortal version of Nabu-sin. He’s dead now, but still retain his powers. How about a match, oh, dead, rotting mage?” laughingly baited Asag.
“Asag! We have a much bigger problem on our hands!” shouted the young mage, finally losing his temper. The demon still had the infuriating characteristic of ignoring everything when something caught his attention.
“Oh, that thing?” the demon said as he turned to gaze at the tower of energy. Tyler noticed Asag wasn’t affected by its emanations. “It’s nothing.”
Then Asag laughed at what he just said as everybody, including Se-Osiris, watched with consternation. To the rest, it wasn’t a funny pun at all. Tyler couldn’t bear it anymore and quickly walked forward. He whacked him with the staff. It didn’t hurt the demon, but it caught Asag’s attention. He looked at the stave and then at the mage, a knowing smile on his face.
“Grown-up secrets, I see,” said the demon cryptically.
“Forget your personal agenda for a while, Asag. Do you have any idea how to handle that monster when it finally comes out?” asked Tyler exasperatedly. He did have another reason to divert the discussion. Asag’s comment shook him. Mere contact with staff apparently allowed him to have a glimpse inside. It was an alarming development.
“No, and none, Archmage. But I suppose I could test myself against it when it comes out,” mused the demon.
Everybody stared again at Asag. The past few minutes had been a series of strange revelations from the demon, and he capped it all by saying he wanted to battle Ginnungagap.
“Of course, such a test would require my Master loosening a few restrictions on my geas,” said the demon.
“What do you mean?” asked the puzzled mage.
“It’s impossible to fight against a geas with the power of an entire world behind it. Some of the chains limit the power I could use and restrict me to certain forms while on Adar,” replied the smiling demon.
Tyler immediately grasped what the demon meant. Asag may or may not be really a demon. He was, as the young mage initially suspected, something else. Probably not even really related to the mythology of the First World. Asag only wormed his way into it.
“You’re sure about this?” asked Tyler.
Asag nodded with an expectant smirk on his face. The young mage hesitated for a moment, wondering what he getting himself into again.
“Then so be it. But you remain under my ultimate control and that means the shackles go back when you’ve won,” said Tyler.
“If you win,” advised Se-Osiris. “That coming creature wins, and there wouldn’t be any safe place in this world.”
“If I do lose, don’t worry. I’ll still crawl out from any nearby rock,” burst out Asag, chuckling as if he wasn’t going to battle with a fearsome primordial being.
Chapter Fifteen
True Forms
“It comes,” said Asag suddenly. The demon broke into a run and abruptly disappeared.
His unceremonious departure stunned everyone. Even Tyler expected some sort of goodbye. But the demon apparently didn’t care for such human formalities. As he stared into the distance, the mage saw the arcane gateway changing. Its light didn’t hurt anymore, though it had expanded sideways. He had no idea why and turned to Se-Osiris with an inquiring look.
“The Veil had been breached so that thing is now reserving whatever power it has for itself. Whatever was used to allow it to enter merely pricked a tiny hole in the magical fabric between our realities. The power to enlarge the opening is coming from the other side,” revealed the dead mage. “If the energy came from this plane, the side-effects would be enough to wipe out half the continent. That entity did exist a very long time ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had to cross several dimensions to get here.”
Tyler nodded and returned to observing the field before them. Most of the warriors were already near Sigtuna. A futile effort at sanctuary, he reckoned, if what Se-Osiris said was true. But if Asag or the attacking deities failed, then he wouldn’t know what to do. He had already asked his guides, but all they could tell him was that his preparation level was woefully inadequate, even for taking on the likes of Odin or Zeus. To make matters worse, the Norse pantheon and whoever was with them seemed woefully ineffective at what they were doing.
They could run away as suggested by Se-Osiris, but the young man considered it a useless effort. They’d die anyway, but with the added and questionable bonus of being terrified out of their wits while on the run. Tyler would instead get it over with, with his beloved beside him. He glanced at his staff and considered letting his wards out. Then he ruled such a measure out. No sense in frightening them. A quick death for all would be best if the worst happened.
Without warning, a massive dark blob squeezed its way out of the eldritch light. It moved like jelly, nauseously plopped out, and floated above the location of the gateway. The towering pillar blinked out of existence. The new arrival remained immobile though it slowly extruded tentacle-like extremities. Then it blazed with a nimbus of energy similar to what the company saw coming from the dimensional door.
“What’s it doing?” shouted Tyler as he turned his head from the hurtful and baleful illumination.
“Getting its bearings, I assume,” replied Se-Osiris calmly. The tone of the voice meant the dead mage had come to terms with what the threat represented. The ghost was staring directly at the incredible sight of a colossal orb above the plain. Its prevailing emanation apparently didn’t affect the dead mage. The only reason Tyler could come up with was that the nightmarish glare from the gateway also contained discharges from other dimensions. That, or Ginnungagap’s current form was already attuned to the physical resonance of Adar’s material plane. If so, then it wouldn’t affect the spirit of a dead man.
The barrage of magical attacks significantly increased in intensity when the sphere appeared. But they didn’t even attract the attention of the monstrosity. It was as if such strikes were beneath its consideration. For a moment, Tyler feared it was going to lash out. If it did, the Nordic pantheon and whatever assembly of deities that went to its aid were going to be much-reduced ones. Then he felt an incredible surge of energy. A magnitude of power he had never felt before. Nothing, except what he sensed from the avatar of Adar, came close. An overwhelming feeling of gleeful triumph passed through the bond connecting him to the demon.
What the hell? thought the astounded Tyler.
He knew Asag was powerful, and intentionally hid the full extent of his abilities, but what the mage now sensed was way beyond his expectations. It was startling. Terrifying. To think he had such
power under a leash. Tyler knew he was now seeing Asag as he truly was and at full strength. The disturbance confirmed his suspicion that the demon wasn’t of this world or of Earth. The mage even doubted if Asag was even a demon at all. Given such power, he couldn’t find an explanation of how the demon – for the lack of any other description – lost to the pantheons he had brazenly provoked.
But further reflection was forgotten in the wake of the unbelievable sight of Asag quickly growing in mass and stature. The demon had adopted the classic demon appearance familiar to Tyler – horns, fangs and all. At that point, he began to suspect the shape was chosen precisely to twit him. The entity was Asag, after all.
Once Asag had reached a size roughly equal to that of the dark orb, the demon immediately went to the attack. No magical spells were used by both gigantic beings. It was a hand-to-hand struggle. It confused him and Tyler immediately asked the dead mage.
“At their level, magic spells on this plane don’t matter. If magical exchanges were happening, it would be on another level, one beyond our sight. Physically, your pet would try to tear a hole in the armor protecting his opponent while his foe would attempt to simply tear him to pieces,” replied Se-Osiris grimly. “Good thing I didn’t have to face him when I was alive. Not a demon, of that I am now sure.”
The colossal fight remained in the vicinity where Ginnungagap appeared. Though the combatants were shrouded in a flowing, dark mist, the company could glimpse how the struggle was being fought. It was a close-in, grappling struggle. Asag’s fingers were taloned weapons while his enemy had grown more appendages to keep him at bay. Fortunately, the pantheons were smart enough to stop their attacks and keep their distance. Tyler wasn’t sure whether they recognized the massive being fighting the intruder. If they did, he was sure it would frighten them no end that all this time, they had been toying with an extremely venomous serpent capable of laying waste to entire collections of gods.
At first, it appeared that the gigantic creatures were evenly matched. Every move was countered by the other. Then the sudden appearance of several pointed spikes from the ancient being pierced Asag’s body. Tyler felt the incredible pain through the bond and keeled over. As Eira and the companions immediately went to his aid, the mage could sense the subsequent blows suffered by the demon. Asag was weakening and then a bolt of immense pain overcame the young mage. As Tyler lost consciousness, he knew the bond was gone.
Tyler found himself back in the room with the lonely light surrounded by the swirling tempest of destruction. But this time, he felt weak. Extremely so. The breaking of the connection must have drained him somehow. Despite the malaise he was suffering, Tyler cursed. He didn’t know that the bond would be so rooted in his physical and mental self. That was a tricky move on the part of Asag’s jailer, thought the mage. He would have appreciated some notice about that dangerous hook on his entire being. Then he noticed that the darkness around him was more energetic. More substantial. Stronger. For some reason, it was angry.
Yet he couldn’t calm it down or force it to obey his will. Tyler knew that given his present condition, he lacked the willpower and energy. He needed time to recover. Then he sensed it—an immense rush of victorious exultation in the ether. The ancient one was gloating.
Asag was gone. Dead. And Tyler surprised himself by grieving over the demise of the insufferable demon. He had to admit that Asag was more human in many ways, or had learned to become such, than many of the mage’s own race. The demon had shown loyalty, comradeship, and in some instances, a begrudging, though complaint-filled, selflessness. As a member of the company, Asag had proven invaluable even if he needed constant watch lest he flew off toward a problem-filled tangent.
Suddenly, to his alarm, Tyler felt the destructive darkness in the chamber answering the challenge of the ancient void. He could feel its insane fury beating down his mental defenses and control. It was like a mindless, furious beast beating at the bars of its cage. It was now vastly stronger, as if its rage and the proximity of an enemy was feeding it power—a lot of it.
Tyler knew he was losing control. The young mage continued to resist, willing the light in the darkened corner of his mind to brighten its glow. It did, but whatever illumination it gave out was swiftly defeated by black chaos. Yet Tyler knew he was in a losing struggle. Then the mage realized to his horror that the darkness was now able to send tendrils of itself through his body. He could feel it in his bones. Such a thing had never happened before.
Chaos changed me. Channeling the energy of Tartarus even for that one incident had allowed it to permeate my bones. Destruction just found that its way out had become a lot easier, concluded Tyler with dismay. He was aghast at the realization but could do nothing as the unwelcome energy surged through him.
He called out to his guides but got no answer. It was another development that terrified him further. Then the darkness grew some more, and his consciousness sank into a deep, dark abyss.
***
A parched, barren wasteland greeted Tyler’s half-opened eyes when he regained consciousness. He found himself lying on his side, with a throbbing headache that drummed their tiny, weighted beats on his brain. Sitting up was an effort, but it beat kissing the dirt. Looking around, the first thing he noticed was the still air. Not an errant, tired breeze disturbed the air, though breathing in the dry atmosphere wasn’t uncomfortable. Looking up, the mage found no sun in the clear blue sky. The heat was tolerable. Tyler expected either a suffocatingly dry atmosphere or a debilitating humidity. Yet the featureless plain was neither. He could swear the air smelled almost sterile.
The lack of distinguishing landmarks was the second thing that bothered him. The land was flat. No undulations in the terrain, no hills, no mountains. Only an endless vista of brown extending in all directions. Not even cracks on the ground despite the apparent aridity of the soil.
Immediately, Tyler looked at himself, even though he was still groggy and confused. The sight of blue jeans greeted him, and then he realized he had his favorite navy-blue jersey on, the one with the 1960’s New York Jets design and the number “11” in gold at the back. It was a strange enough hallmark to suggest he was hallucinating. Tyler grinned. It was turning out to be one of the weirdest dreams he had the misfortune to experience in such gloriously bright, yet boring detail.
All the mage remembered was falling into unconsciousness before waking up in the unnatural landscape. Tyler quickly thought of Eira and his companions, but promptly admitted that he wasn’t really in a position to do anything. Then the sight of Asag suddenly stabbed with a multitude of spiked tentacles came to mind, triggering alternating spasms of grief and sadness.
After several seconds of the tragedy repeating itself in his mourning mind, Tyler refused to dwell on the shocking loss of yet another companion, believing that he’d probably end up blaming himself. Even if that crazy demon appeared to be in a hurry to confront the apocalyptic intruder. There were too many instances of such grievous incidents and events. Terrible and frightening events that somehow could be traced back to the decisions and actions he made.
Yet Asag even had that cryptic, though chuckling comment before he left – If I do lose, don’t worry. I’ll still crawl out from any nearby rock. The remark baffled him at that time though the mage merely considered it the demon’s usual light-hearted yet self-important bravado. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
Yet the mage consoled himself with the admission that he didn’t know the entire picture. The whole gamut of interlocking and convoluted schemes which often seemed to be at cross-purposes to each other. Even Loki seemed to be a pawn to different parties with opposing agendas. Tyler could even safely say that some plots of some players which inevitably drew his involvement effectively negated the meticulously laid plans of others. Despite the situation, he grinned. At least, it could also be said that his presence made a difference for the better, at least in some instances.
You gave as good as you got, and then some, the protest abruptly ros
e in Tyler’s mind, forcing its way through the pain and heaviness of his headache. But then the memories which came rushing back made him stop and consider his situation.
Am I really dreaming? Or dead? In a coma? wondered Tyler, worry growing in his mind. Then he realized that if he was dreaming, then such thoughts would have never arisen.
“Crapshit. Where the hell am I?” he suddenly spoke out loudly as the realization broke into his consciousness. He didn’t mind yelling. It wasn’t as if there was anybody there with him. Tyler still hadn’t decided what he really thought about the entire situation. At least, its bizarreness had kept his temper and exasperation at bay. Given what he had just been through, Tyler thought it was a good thing. With his luck, giant golems might just erupt from the sleeping earth once he started throwing spells around out of sheer frustration and anger.
The Accidental Archmage: Book Eight (Where Titans Walk) Page 18