Baylahn: A Supernatural Action Adventure Opera (War Of The Angels Book 3)

by Michael Todd

  Pandora didn’t look at her, instead keeping her eyes glued to the shiny edge of her sword. Katie gritted her teeth and reached up, pushing the sword down. “Pandora, this isn’t a game. If you know more than you are telling us, you need to spill it. Whatever is behind these gates could be what Wilson is searching for. It could be what we need to get to before he does.”

  Pandora let out a deep breath and stared at the sign. “You’re right, I know more than I am saying. I just didn’t want to believe it was true.”

  Katie stepped back, lowering her sword to her side. “Whatever it is, we need to know. It can’t be as bad as you are making it out to be.”

  Pandora scoffed. “Can’t it?”

  She sheathed her sword and looked at the ceiling as she began to pace. Juntto jumped slightly. “Oh, I know what it must be. Pandora’s virginity. They locked it up in the belly of a Leviathan.”

  Pandora rolled her eyes. “At this point, that would be a breath of fresh air.”

  Katie snickered. “Probably not. It’s been down here a really long time.”

  Pandora didn’t laugh. Whatever she had in her mind was much more serious than Katie had realized. Pandora swallowed hard and turned toward the two of them. “When Lucifer fell, he didn’t just magically get to take everything he had with him. He didn’t take his wings, of course, but he also didn’t take his armor. When he was cast down in a dramatic scene by God, his angelic sword flew from his hand, landing at the Creator’s feet. The Creator didn’t want it in heaven, but he definitely didn’t want Lucifer to have it in hell, either, for obvious reasons. So, he hid it on Earth, in Baylahn’s belly.”

  Juntto frowned. “How do you know this and we don’t?”

  Pandora put out her arms. “I guess I wasn’t that bad an angel. The Big Guy trusted me with that information, even though he knew one day I would fall too. Apparently he was right to trust me, because it’s the first time those words have left my mouth, even when Lucifer was my husband and sent demons out to search for it.”

  Juntto was beside himself. “You mean to tell me that in this beast is the Sword of Lucifer?”

  Pandora nodded. “Yep. It’s somewhere in Baylahn.”

  Katie shook her head. “So that’s why Wilson is here. He’s not trying to recruit a Leviathan to come to land and kill everyone. He is trying to steal the Sword of Lucifer. I wonder if he has any idea, or is he blind to it all?”

  The sun shone brightly over the brand-new fort closing in the city of Taipei. The air seemed extremely calm, and the temperatures were warm for that time of year. Calvin wasn’t going to complain, though. He liked the warm weather, and he couldn’t wait to get back to California. He was perched on top of the wall, his feet dangling over the edge. He watched as several Damned men and women came to the fort and made their way to the check-in tent.

  It had been made known that they were looking for recruits for the new Damned team, and to Calvin’s surprise, they were having a relatively large turn-out. Calvin could barely remember when he first became a Damned; when he first joined up with Korbin to fight the evil plaguing the Earth. It seemed like so long ago. So much had happened since then. In those days, they thought one incursion every few months was crazy bad. Now they happened at least twice a week, if not more.

  “Hey,” Korbin called from below.

  Calvin nodded and stood up, walking down the staircase to the bottom. “Hey. Sorry, I was just taking in the sun and the scene before I made plans to get back home. It’s a beautiful day.”

  Korbin looked at the sun. “Oddly warm and quiet today.”

  Calvin narrowed his gaze, seeing something on Korbin’s face. “What’s going on?”

  Korbin let out a deep breath. “Come on. I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but I know something is brewing.”

  The two made their way past the new part of the fort and into the rows of buildings on the base. They entered the communications building and went down the hall to a large room on the left. There were screens all over the place showing different parts of the world. Calvin hadn’t been in there yet, but he knew that if Timothy could see it, he would squirt all over himself.

  Korbin led Calvin over to the comm table, where one of the soldiers typed on the computer. “We were told to come see you. Something to do with the main base.”

  Calvin quickly looked over. “What?”

  The soldier nodded. “Yeah, I no longer have a connection with them. I thought at first they had a power outage, but they have generators in place for that kind of thing. Those generators didn’t come on.”

  Korbin’s face fell. “What the fuck is going on? Try to call Timothy again.”

  The soldier nodded and put on his headset, trying to connect to Timothy. “Main Base 1, this is Fort 3, Taiwan. Come in. Over. Main Base 1, this is Fort 3, Taiwan. Come in. Over.”

  They sat there for a moment as the tech switched on the speaker in his headset. It gave out nothing but static. “That’s all I get.”

  Korbin pulled out his cellphone and dialed Timothy. He put the phone to his ear. “We are sorry, but your call cannot be completed at this time.”

  Korbin hung up, looking at Calvin and shaking his head. “Nothing. There is no signal to his phone right now.”

  Calvin looked at the comm guy and back at Korbin. “Maybe Stephanie will be able to get a signal. Try her.”

  Korbin nodded and dialed her number, keeping the phone to his ear as he listened to the same message. His face was blank as he pulled it down and shut it off. “Same message. They aren’t getting any signals in or out at this moment. What the fuck is going on?”

  Korbin was worried. His wife and the rest of the team were at that base. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, reminding himself that Stephanie was trained for this and that she could take care of herself. He had to focus on solving the problem, not worrying about things he couldn’t change.

  Korbin opened his eyes and looked at Calvin. “This can’t be a good sign. I want the entire fort locked down just in case. If there is something going on there, it could easily spread over here.”

  Calvin nodded. “Right.”

  The comm guy switched circuits and put out the signal for battle stations. The lights over the doors flashed red, and a siren went off across the base. Korbin took a deep breath and pointed at the soldier. “Call Romania and Germany. Make sure they know something is up. They should be up and ready in case they are attacked.”

  Korbin turned to Calvin. “Those new recruits might see action sooner than they thought.”

  Pandora, Katie, and Juntto were able to pry the steel gate open since it was obvious it had been opened by Wilson and Red not long before. They hadn’t locked it again, which Pandora knew was ignorance. The rogues shouldn’t have a real idea that they were there searching for them.

  As they walked, the floor hardened beneath their feet. Katie ran her hands over the walls, finding a smooth surface almost like marble. Ahead of them was an opening, and they stepped out onto what resembled a balcony. All three of them gasped in surprise. Below them were the ruins of a large city.

  Pandora gawked. “There are ruins of a civilization here. Fucking ruins in a sea monster’s gut.”

  All over the ground below them were toppled stone pillars, large domed buildings, and empty streets. There were what looked like homes and shops. Everything was crumbling and dirty, but it had definitely been a city.

  Juntto scratched his head. “Looks like that city from a long time ago. I was there once…Rome. It looks like ancient Rome. This must have been a great city in its day, before Baylahn devoured it.”

  Katie narrowed her eyes, looking at all the statues that lined the streets and even the stairwell leading down from the balcony. All were statues of naked women with big boobs and men with tiny wangs.

  Katie had seen statues like that in books but had never realized how small the dicks were. It was like a train wreck; she couldn’t keep her eyes off them. “Why did they make the wieners
so small?”

  Pandora laughed. “Small dicks were a sign of intelligence. Big dicks were seen as brutish. Stupid, in a way.”

  Juntto grinned broadly. “If that’s true, I’m a very dumb frost giant.”

  Katie and Pandora rolled their eyes. Pandora patted Juntto on the shoulder. “If I remember correctly, your dick wasn’t too shabby, but no one will argue with you about how dumb you are. Nobody.”

  Juntto frowned. “Angie would. She likes me the way I am.”

  Pandora lifted both eyebrows. “Well, there’s somebody for everyone.”

  Katie slapped at Pandora. “Hey, you guys, knock that shit off. Look down there. Something is moving in the ruins.”

  They all looked, seeing wisps and shadows of movement among the fallen stones. Pandora nodded. “You’re right. Might be more crabs.”

  Katie let her wings spread wide. “I’ll do a fly by and check it out. Stay here and watch your backs.”

  She took off from the balcony and flew down, soaring over the rubble. Sure enough, as she got closer, there was movement, but it wasn’t crabs. There were men and women pouring out of cracks and running to their homes like ants. The ruins were inhabited by what looked like human beings.

  Katie flew closer to get a better look. The people weren’t quite as shapely as humans. They were short, with huge eyes and very long eyelashes. They were dressed in loincloths, and the women had bare breasts. The sound of Pandora grunting drew her attention back to the balcony, but it was empty.

  Juntto and Pandora had gone down into the rubble. There was a group of the inhabitants standing on the rubble attacking them with spears, bronze swords, and bows and arrows. Juntto and Pandora were dodging the arrows as they pushed away the small people running at them with swords. Katie shook her head and reached to her belt, pulling a gun from her side. It was a small pistol. She flew back behind Pandora and Juntto and hovered, aiming the weapon.

  She pulled the trigger, the bullet grazing one of the inhabitants’ arms. Everyone went silent, putting down their weapons and backing up. Katie landed next to Pandora with her gun out. “What do we do?”

  Pandora shrugged. Juntto pulled up his spear, thrusting it at the beings. They gasped and moved back. Katie put up her arm and shook her head. “Wait.”

  She stepped forward, holstering her gun, and looked at the people. They held their bows up, and their spears pointed toward her. “Take me to your leader.”

  The inhabitants blinked wildly and then began to mumble to each other in a language Katie didn’t recognize. Juntto shook his head, keeping his spear up. “I don’t like this one bit.”

  Katie shook her head and talked out of the corner of her mouth. “We can’t fight them all, and maybe they can show us where Wilson is.”

  One of the inhabitants, an older one, waved them forward. Katie, Pandora, and Juntto walked behind him, with the others surrounding them. Pandora leaned toward Katie. “Are we prisoners?”

  Katie kept her eyes on the beings. “Not yet, I don’t think.”

  13

  Eddie took a deep breath and stepped forward with a candle in his hand. Laid out in front of him on a table the guards had brought into the center was every non-tech weapon they could find—everything from daggers and swords to bows and arrows to a black powder gun. He ran his finger over the weapons and set the candle down. He picked up a WWII sniper rifle and held it up to his chin.

  He nodded, lowering it. “This will do fine.”

  He grabbed the ammo and shoved it in his pocket, heading back toward the center of the base. Turner and his men grunted as they dragged large barrels into the center. They had filled them with diesel. The men stood back as Turner lit matches and tossed one into each barrel, sending flames shooting up in the air. It might not have been the safest thing to do, but there was light now.

  Stephanie took a deep breath and looked around as Eddie walked up to her. She glanced at him and the men. “I need men on the roof, the ones with long-range weapons and a really good eye. Take out anything that you see.”

  Eddie nodded and looked at two of them. “They are my sharp-shooters. We’ll get cozy up above.”

  Stephanie slapped him on the back. “Good. And make sure to keep your eyes open in all directions, including above you. We don’t need a sea of lava falling on your heads.”

  Stephanie looked out into the darkness. There were no spotlights, no corner lights, and no lasers to trip the emergency weapons. None of the computer-guided guns, which they relied on heavily for protection, were operational. She was trying not to get discouraged. She was a warrior, but she had never been in a situation where everything had shut down like that. It was archaic, but she was going to have to use her wits and get around it. That was something she was really good at.

  Turner and Brock walked up to her and nodded. “We are setting up a perimeter the best that we can. There isn’t a whole lot of visual field out there, but once we are in place, we shoot at anything that fucking moves.”

  Stephanie pursed her lips. “Can you two take some barrels out into the desert, as far as you feel you can safely go, and light them? That way we may be able to spot an oncoming force before they are right up on our asses. I don’t want to lose anyone because of fucking darkness.”

  Brock and Turner nodded and headed over to grab a couple more barrels. As Turner poured diesel into them, he looked up at Brock. “You think we got a chance?”

  Brock took a deep breath and put his hands on the edges of the barrel. “We don’t have a choice—we take these fuckers down. I want you to make sure you are back a bit. Remember, you don’t have a fucking demon in you anymore. You can’t roll out there all cowboy-like. You have to watch your shit.”

  Turner didn’t say a word. He grabbed the barrel and began to roll it out into the desert with Brock. When they got far enough, he lit a match and tossed it in. As soon as the flames shot up, they could see the outline of demons in the background.

  Turner raised his pistols and began to shoot. “Oh, fuck! We got company!”

  Brock whipped his rifle around and pulled the trigger, slamming a bullet into one of the front demons, knocking it to the ground. It was too dark for him to see if he’d hit it in the right spot, so he kept shooting. Then Brock grabbed Turner’s shirt, pulling him along as they retreated back toward the base.

  Eddie and his men began firing from the rooftops, sniping as many demons as they could see in the darkness. Turner pulled his men back to the gate, lining up with their weapons and protecting it with their bodies.

  Brock ran over to Stephanie and reloaded his weapon. “What do you think?”

  Stephanie had a straight face and stood there for a moment in silence, cracking her neck. “It seems you and me are the only two Damned on this base. That makes us responsible for these men.”

  Brock smirked. “We going in?”

  Stephanie chuckled. “You bet your fucking dick we are.”

  Eddie pulled back and put out his arm. “Hold your fire.”

  He smiled and watched as Stephanie and Brock charged into the horde heading their way. He shook his head as Stephanie pulled out her knives and began to slash through the oncoming demons. “Those two are crazy motherfuckers. Fuck, I miss that shit.”

  He swirled his hand in the air. “All right, men, fire at will, but don’t hit our fearless leaders or I’ll kick your ass myself!”

  Brock pulled out his sword when his gun ran out of ammo. He leapt and slashed it down, slicing a demon’s head in half. It hit the ground hard, spilling black blood on the sand, and burst into dust as Brock landed. He chuckled and cracked his neck. “That fucking felt good.”

  Another demon rolled up to his left, and without looking, he jabbed his sword outward, stabbing it in the chest. With a flick of his wrist, the sword tore up through the demon and out the top of his head. The demon’s body split in half like a banana peel before slumping into a gooey pile below him and turning to dust.

  To his left, Stephanie roared, backf
lipping. As her legs came down, they smashed into a demon’s head, knocking it face-first into the sand. She ran up behind it and grabbed it by the forehead from behind. Putting her dagger to its throat, she smiled as she dragged the blade through its flesh and then threw it down hard on the ground.

  Brock ran over, yelling loudly over the sound of the guns, “There was a woman leading them.”

  Stephanie narrowed her eyes and looked around. “Where is she now?”

  Brock sighed, seeing nothing but demons. “Not here.”

  The fires in hell raged wildly as Lucifer sat deep in the depths of hell playing with his minions while his team was seeing to the destruction of the mercenary base in Las Vegas. Mania had been on the front lines, but when she saw how crafty the humans could be at killing the different demons she had brought, she knew that she would need more than just them. Besides, they weren’t the only targets in that dimension, and she needed as much power as she could get to take them down.

  The lava flowed hard through the pits as Mania stood on the sidelines, looking lovingly at her crows. One perched on her finger and ruffled its feathers. “You love Mommy, don’t you? I know. We are almost done with play for today. One more little battle and we can soak in the tub.”

  The crow squawked and she giggled, her face quickly toughening as another glowing EMP demon sauntered from the cave behind her. It looked down its body, confused as to why its scales were glowing brightly. The ignorance of the beast made Mania shiver, and she gently let the crow fly above her and circle with the others.

  Mania forced a smile and walked over to them, rubbing one of them gently on the head. “How are you feeling, my little army?”

  One of the demons looked around and shrugged. “I thought it was going to be pleasure?”

  Mania’s cheek twitched, but she held her smile. “What better pleasure is there than fighting for your king as one of the worst-ass demons on the surface of the Earth? You hold magic in your glowing scales, my loves.”