Into the Hells

by Christopher Johns

  All of us stood and followed dutifully. The guards at this wing of the multicolored crystal hall didn’t acknowledge any of us as we trudged through. I wondered why they were here but soon found out why.

  In the large room behind them was an archway similar to the one we had fooled outside, but this one was made of gold, platinum, and crusted in precious jewels along the outside. Inside, glyphs, sigils, and runes moved, dancing and shifting back and forth along slate-gray stone that was indecipherable to me, and assuming from the whispered words of awe coming from the others—they had no clue what they meant either.

  “This will be your doorway; it is what the key is attuned to. Do not lose that key. Do not give it up. If you do and the demons get ahold of it, they can send their strongest here, and I shudder to think what will happen if they do.”

  So, that was a thing to worry about. Damn. Okay. Focus.

  I hugged Maebe one last time, and she turned to the others.

  “Be safe, my friends.” Her formerly sad face was now serene, a mask of support and elegance.

  “You too.” Jaken smiled.

  Bokaj gave her a salute. James gave her a nod and a thumbs up with both hands. Muu offered a soldierly salute with his fist over his heart and heels clicking together.

  Yohsuke walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “You be safe too.” In a whisper that I was close enough to hear, he added, “We’ll keep him safe and make sure he comes back.”

  “I should hold you to that,” she smiled sadly, “but this time, I want all of you to return.”

  I scoffed, but she seemed to appreciate the gesture; whether it had been a playful ribbing on his part or not, she took it seriously.

  She stepped back and observed with us as Questis began to tap the shifting symbols and hum a tone that sounded like chanting at first, then a song. Finally, he barked a single word, “Inferni!”

  The symbols he touched glowed golden, then red and shifted from the stone to the center of the open air in the center of the archway. As they spun, burning and leaving trails of light in the air, Questis stepped aside and slapped the stone three times before the flaming symbols halted and burst.

  The heat was unbearable at first, then began to abate.

  “Go now!” the Druid shouted over the sound of the now-open doorway into the Hells.

  And we did.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The transport was instantaneous. One second we were standing in the Prime plane, safe and well, and the next, we stood in a darkened, red-hued landscape with flames that cast shadows over barren grounds. Craggy mountains that reminded me of skeletons or long-dead corpses grew in the horizon and a sky of light gray.

  And the bones that littered the area. There were thousands that almost seemed to be as much a part of the ground as what we stood on.

  “Oh, what the hell is this shit?” James muttered as he lifted his feet in disdain.

  Muu looked at him, blinking once exaggeratedly. “Why it’s the Hells, sweetheart. Did you expect snow?”

  Rather than wait for them to bicker, I looked to Yohsuke.

  “You know where we’re headed?” I raised an eyebrow as I fished in my pocket. “Think we should try to get in touch with Balmur?”

  He nodded. “Give me a second to try and find out on my end as well.” I could see Yoh’s mouth moving as he did what he could.

  I pulled the raven out of my inventory and poured a hundred mana into it before speaking, “Balmur, buddy, we’re here, and we’re coming for you. Can you tell us where you are?”

  The raven flapped his wings, then a purple, spectral version of it took off and disappeared west of our position. “It’s heading west,” I advised my friends.

  “That’s where we’re headed, according to the demon I’m contracted with. When we get closer, he will have further instructions,” Yohsuke stated. “Let’s get moving.”

  “… and that’s probably why your mother dropped you as a child,” Muu finished, and it looked like James was too stunned to even come up with a comeback.

  “Would you two shut the fuck up?” Bokaj growled. “We’re in the Hells, and we’re on our way to get my best friend. Get your shit together.”

  The others had calmed down significantly after that tongue lashing, but the heat did little for our moods—until an idea occurred to me. I took out the Mobile Spring Rod, and instantly, the heat around us cooled significantly.

  “That thing is fucking genius, man.” James sighed in relief. The sweat that had been building in the fur of my forehead and on the others began to abate a little, and I checked to see that we left no trail. “Seriously hadn’t thought that would do the same thing here but opposite, you know?”

  I blinked at him. “Yeah. I gathered that, man.”

  “I’ll just shut the hell up.” I gave him the finger guns, and he waved me off. As we walked, the small, spectral version of the raven reappeared in front of us and landed on the figure.

  When it opened its mouth, I heard Balmur, his voice rough but resolute, “You get out of my head! I know you demon assholes are fucking with me, and when I see you at the negotiation circle, I’ll end you all!”

  “Fuck.” I filled the others in on what I had heard, and things looked bleak. “What do you think is going on?”

  “I don’t know, but it sounds like they’ve been able to get inside his head,” Bokaj growled. “There’s no telling what he’s been through. Better to just go radio silence until we get close to him.”

  I nodded and put the item away. “Let’s get moving then.”

  We moved cautiously, every now and again seeing figures in the skies that looked like perverted versions of birds with many eyes and grasping claws. The sight of them made me almost ill, but I didn’t dare shapeshift into an owl. I did let Kayda out of the collar, still in her parrot-sized form, and had her watch the skies and our backs so that we would be prepared. She sat herself on my left shoulder, and although I was now blind on that side with the sight of her feathers, I trusted her to see for me.

  After a couple of hours, the sight of a growing cityscape dawned on the horizon. An hour after that, we broke for some food and a little planning.

  Yohsuke, sitting among us, gave us the skinny on what was about to go down, “The demon I’m contracted with lives in that city, and I’ve been in contact with him since we got here. The deal is still good, and he’s got information for us. Once we get there, he will give us detailed instructions on where to meet an imp who will take us to him. He was explicit that we not have any of our holy weapons showing. It’s okay if we’re attacked, but outright brandishing them will get us unnecessary attention.”

  “Anything about what to do if we’re attacked?” Muu asked around a mouthful of food.

  “Dude, we may be in hell, but manners?” I grunted.

  He looked at me dryly, but Yoh answered before he could speak, “What I said would happen when I made the damned deal—if they get in our way, they die. Period.”

  “Okay. Looks like we get to go on a rampage!” Jaken grinned ferociously.

  “Woah there, holy boots.” Yohsuke tutted. “Pump the divine brakes for a moment. If they actively keep us from getting to Balmur, they die. If they’re doing their job and shit, only if they absolutely have to. If anyone tries to fuck us over or attacks us, you can take the first swing, but I need you to keep yourself and your religious smiting in check. Cool?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Just Paladin, you know?” He pointed to himself, then our surroundings. “Everything about what I do is meant to fuck this place up.”

  “We get that, but you gotta stay under wraps with it until it’s needed. Now, let’s move on.” Bokaj stood up as the others finished eating, and we prepared to move once more.

  It was well past dinner by the time we reached the city proper. All of us arrived surprisingly unmolested but dirty and hungry.

  The wall around the city was more like a wall of spikes with bodies and other things hanging from them in v
arious states of decay or undeath. I saw one figure reach out from several feet up, only for one of those bloated, creepy-eyed birds to land on it and begin pecking at the exposed flesh and soft bits.

  Do not throw up now, damnit. Don’t. Do. It, I growled at myself angrily as bile began to rise in my body.

  I could take a lot of shit, but holy hell, that took the cake, man. The blood room the lich had going to his evil-ass basement was a water park compared to this.

  The guards, two hulking demons, their skin a deep maroon with goat-like legs and cloven hooves for feet, stood beside the gates. Their features reminded me of Tim Curry’s character from the movie Legend with the high angled cheekbones, narrow chins, and gaunt cheeks. Their horns were filed down to nubs though, rather than his Minotaur-like ones.

  Both of them stood almost nine-feet tall with great swords planted in the ground before them.

  Each of them had a title and their level displayed above their heads. Left being the lower level.

  Guard 1 level 73.

  Guard 2 level 75.

  The one on the right spoke first as we approached, “Ah look, Byla, more souls to corrupt,” the figure on the left, his name changing above his head, snickered but remained quiet, “and what, pray tell, are you doing here without your master or masters?”

  “We don’t have a mas–” Muu began indignantly, but a flying figure slapped him cleanly across his face, shocking him into shutting up.

  “Speak out of turn again, slave, and you will see the enforcer’s whip!” A small, blue-skinned imp with a single horn sprouting from the left side of his head flapped his tiny wings in front of us. He turned his attention to the guards. “Byla, Scrot. You two knew I was expecting something for my lord. How dare you attempt to claim those who are claimed. Again.”

  Imp level 34.

  By this time, the little imp was inches from Scrot’s face. The larger demon looked bored but sighed, “Can’t blame me for trying, can you, Zirex?”

  “I expect nothing less of a no-horned goon from the guard,” Zirex spat, but I thought I saw a wink. “This is the last shipment today. Shouldn’t be any tomorrow, but next week may be more fruitful. I hear tell that a certain pillar captain is expecting a fresh batch of meat, five of nine—if you catch my drift, that is?”

  “Awful kind of you, Zirex,” Byla answered, the deep grumble surprising us. “Go on, you lot, and don’t do anything stupid.”

  As we walked by, I heard Byla speak to Scrot, “You see the tails on that one? And the Fae-Orc? Reckon he’s some kind of gods-touched Paladin. Poor bastard what owns them has their work cut out for them. Hope the one Dragon gets sent to the pleasure district, be fun to tear the wings off…”

  I shuddered and tuned them out, instead looking to the blue imp, Zirex as he flitted about herding us into a caged cart. “Get in, get in. No time to dally.”

  “If you think I’m getting in that thing, you have another thing coming,” Yohsuke growled. The beast that sat in front of it, tied to the thing, observed the scene with what seemed like a placid look. It looked like an ox of some kind but larger, and the fur was a coal-like color with bits of red here and there. It had eight legs and four eyes. Weird looking thing.

  The imp dropped in front of Yoh, and they were dangerously close to touching noses. “The demons and other creatures of this city will take you from me if you are not in chains or a cage—which do you prefer. Chains? Or cage? The latter will not be locked, but I have no qualms about taking you to my master the other way. The way I prefer.”

  Let’s just get in the damned cage, man. Bokaj patted him on the shoulder and opened the door wide, testing it. I may not be Balmur, but I can pick a lock, and I’m pretty sure Muu can just kick the damned thing off the hinges.

  Fine. Muu and Bokaj get in last, Yohsuke grumped.

  We got into the cage that was more than large enough to fit all of us comfortably before Zirex slammed the cage shut with relish and the cart lurched forward.

  While we moved forward into crowded streets, we watched and took in our surroundings. The first things we noticed were the grotesque, hideously twisted forms of some of the demons and creatures that inhabited the city. Some of them seemed more like gelatinous blobs of skin with many faces stretched impossibly in agony and torture with a main face that seemed normal in comparison. There were creatures of bone with long, lanky limbs, fangs inside their skulls and milky sinew that held the bones together, their long, sharply-pointed fingers reaching and grasping.

  Some grasped at meat hanging from hooks outside what looked like a butcher shop with a tall, ogre-like creature that I swore looked like an oni of Japanese myth. They had long faces with huge fangs and insanely muscled bodies. It cleaved the meat before it in one slamming of the butcher’s knife in his great, meaty hand.

  The others had been too far to see their levels, but the one butcher? Fuck me.

  Butcher level 83.

  Don’t get involved in his meat market. Got it.

  Weird that all these levels seemed to be so readily on display here. It was like it was the opposite of the Fae realm.

  I mean, in a lot of the books I had read about both worlds, the Fae were a chaotic and alluring people, designed to trick and be mischievous as a whole. Demons, though evil and vile and despicable as a rule, upheld some kinds of lawful order. If it was law, they obeyed.

  Didn’t mean they didn’t find ways to work around it, but they stuck to their deals, and if you worded things well enough, then you could get a decent deal. Yohsuke had managed it.

  The buildings around us, for being in a hell realm, were well made. They were brick, brass, and sometimes bone, but only the shoddiest looking places had bones in them. After half an hour of navigating the roadways, we crossed into a nicer part of the city. These buildings were made of large sections of stone that reminded me of castles with finer cuts and mortar made of… what the hell was that?

  You know what? Not going to get into that. Didn’t wanna know. Nope. Noooo. Not me. Fuck that.

  This place is tripping me the hell out, man, Bokaj groaned to us. The rest of us agreed, and we decided to stop being so observant of our surroundings and simply watch for threats. Even that was unpleasant, but that’s life.

  “We will be arriving in a moment. Look lively!” Zirex called back to us. We all simultaneously flipped him off. Damned demon. He just laughed, his high-pitched voice grating on our nerves further.

  A few seconds later, we were shepherded through a large gate into an open yard with several creatures watching patiently under cloaks, their forms hidden from sight. The only things we could make out were their eyes, glowing multiple colors or missing completely but the vacuous space seemed even more terrible.

  All of them were just out of our range to see their levels, but I figured it was safe to assume they weren’t weaklings.

  “Welcome!” a voice that was familiar greeted us from a balcony.

  Other than lavish clothes he wore, the white shirt stark against his deep-red skin, the demon looked the same as he had in the Fae Realm where Yohsuke had summoned him with Maebe’s help. He stood an easy ten feet tall, not including the scaly, curved horns that jutted out of his forehead coming to a pointed tip a foot above him. His face was stunning, staring at us with glowing, red irises, blackened, pouty lips that let a little bit of fang peek through almost as if practiced. His jawline and cheekbones would have made a male model jealous and most women weep with joy. His body was slim and athletically muscled, but I knew for a fact that he had some serious supernatural strength going on—I had read it in dozens of books and seen it in all kinds of movies and shows.

  “Amazing that you all have made it a point to stay alive,” he pointed at Yohsuke, “and you keep drawing more and more from my power. I like your hunger, child. You are an excellent warlock, though you do waste your time with that sword.”

  “You remember our contract, demon?” Yohsuke called back to where the demon stood.

  “Yes, morta
l, I do. For now, you may call me Archemillian.”

  “I’ll call for my information—where’s Balmur, and how do we get to him?”

  The demon hopped over the side of the rail, his large wings fanning out behind him majestically and slowly descended to the ground before us.

  Demon lord level 124.

  Fuck. I blinked and fought my body for it not to go rigid.

  Holy Hells, that level! Bokaj grumbled into our minds.

  Not now! Yohsuke barked.

  “You always were a straight dealer,” Archemillian pouted. “That’s hardly any fun. How about this? I’ll sweeten the deal a little—your soul, and I will tell you where he is right now and how best to reach him without being seen.”

  “Fuck you,” Yohsuke spat.

  “That wouldn’t cost a soul, but alas.” He bent until he looked into Yohsuke’s eyes. “Tomorrow morning, he will be in the negotiation circle. It’s how we higher-born demons and evil entities settle deals and bets without dirtying our own hands too much.”

  “So, then we wait and go to this thing tomorrow and then bust him out,” Jaken growled and punched a gauntleted fist into his other hand.

  Archemillian tsked softly. “Ah, therein lies the problem. You are masterless non-demons with nothing to negotiate and would be denied entry. Likely taken into slavery and eventually sold for various reasons.” His pout became a smug grin. “But I can offer you the deal of a lifetime. Two, in fact.”

  “We aren’t giving you our damned souls.” James huffed loudly. Several of the smaller demons and creatures around us stared at him, making him visibly shudder.

  “For this, I will forgo the souls and skip to the deal—I want you to fight for me.” He motioned to the group of us and continued, “I want to be in a much more powerful position than I am currently, and the only way to do so is for one of you to fight the other demon lord’s negotiator. In this case, your ‘Balmar’. Did I say that right?”

  “Balmur,” Bokaj corrected, then looked at us and spoke telepathically. It sounds like this is the best shot we have.