As Bathory left her room, she announced that she was leaving, drawing confusion from her servants. The countess had not left the bar in several years. They whispered questions among themselves, wondering why she was leaving so suddenly. Bathory ignored them and went to the outer hall where one of her demonic bouncers stood to bar passage to those deemed unwelcome. She placed a cold hand on his broad shoulder and moved to face him. There was surprise and a little fear in his eyes.
“You know of a way into Hell, right?” Bathory asked sweetly.
The demon nodded. “Yes, ma’am, I do.”
“Good. Take me to Hell, would you?” she purred.
The demon, mildly confused, nodded and pulled a permanent marker out of his pocket. He knelt on the ground and drew a teleportation circle, using the runes that would take him to his home region in Hell. When the circle was completed, it glowed with a bright red light and he motioned for Bathory to step into it with him. They were instantly teleported to an area in Hell that was nearly three days walk from Laarsa. Not knowing where she was, Bathory had no complaint.
“Take me to the capital, please, dear,” she commanded. Again, the demon nodded and they walked further into the small town. He greeted some demons and devils as they passed, but there was no slowing him down. He was loyal to Bathory, but he also feared her above all else. In the heart of the town was a stable for mounts used for transport. There were nightmares, giant hellhounds, and large, bat-like beasts. The bouncer chose two of the flying creatures, paid the handler, and led them out of the town proper. He and Bathory mounted their hell-bats and took off. They flew swiftly and within hours they landed outside Laarsa’s gates. The fires had died down and there were no more screams of the dying. The city was completely taken over. Calmly, Bathory slid off of her mount and walked through the gates of Laarsa. She felt a tingling sensation in her body and she thought she felt ill, but she shook it off. Bathory strode imperiously toward the tower and entered with little fanfare. It did not matter to her if she was announced or not; she would make enough of a name for herself here soon enough anyway. When she entered the throne room, however, it was clear that word of her arrival had spread. A grand assembly of demons, devils, and vampires stood ready to accept her, and as she took her first steps toward the throne, every individual dropped to their knees and bowed for her. She ascended the steps to the throne, and gracefully sat down on the obsidian chair. A tingle of power raced up her spine as she relaxed and she knew instantly that she was queen.
“This will certainly be very interesting,” she grinned.
As Staci sat by Ariel’s bed, holding Adrian’s hand, Zhun, Vincent, and Ariel went about discussing plans for the near future while the two angels rested and healed from the battle.
“It would be prudent to contact the guards of the weapon caches in order to form the beginnings of a new army,” Vincent was explaining. “There are at least a thousand demons and devils on Earth still, all loyal to Adrian.”
“What then?” Zhun asked. She and Staci had been taking turns sitting at Adrian’s side, waiting for the fallen king to wake up. After several days, there was no sign of life within his body. He had not stirred at all. The demoness was as hopeful as possible when she spoke with Staci, but around the others, she was much more honest about her feelings. She was afraid Adrian would never wake up. “With that army, do you really think we can retake all of Hell?”
“It’s better than cutting our losses and living as fugitives for the rest of our lives,” Vincent countered. He was patient with his brother’s lover, but that patience was beginning to wear thin after their time together. He remained hopeful that his brother would return to him, but in the back of his mind, Zhun’s worries were gaining ground. Vincent was starting to wonder if Adrian was truly lost to them.
“You may have to do just that,” Ariel replied. “I hate to say it, but I feel Hell is no longer fit to be your home. Come to Heaven with me and be with your people.”
“And abandon my mother, my brother, and the only remaining demon who I still consider a friend?” Vincent shot back. “No, I still consider the people of hell to be my people. I grew up there. Hell has always been my home. I’m not going to abandon them.”
“It looked to me like ‘your people’ kicked you and your family out of your home,” Ariel stated flatly. “Maybe Hell isn’t your home anymore. You’ll need a new home now, and I know that you’ll be welcome in Heaven. Don’t forget, you have family there, too.”
“Family I’ve never met and, until recently, made no effort to contact me,” Vincent spat. “I’ve known all my life who I am, and who I belong with. The people in this apartment are my family. I will go wherever they go, and I will protect them with my life.”
“A rousing speech,” Zhun commented sarcastically. She was about to say something else, but her ears suddenly perked up. She stood completely still and listened. The others followed suit once they noticed Zhun tense up. Zhun clearly heard something they did not, and she reached for her weapons. After several tense minutes, Vincent and Ariel heard what Zhun had heard. Heavy footsteps were coming down the hall toward Ariel’s apartment. There were too many to get an accurate count, which told them all that fighting while weakened would be a fatal mistake. Ariel motioned for Vincent to follow her to the window and onto the fire escape, while Zhun jumped to her feet and ran to the bedroom.
“My lady, we need to leave,” the demoness stated as she bent to pull Adrian’s body off of the bed. Staci looked up at her in confusion, but rose to follow Zhun without question. Carefully, Zhun shrank Adrian’s body and slipped him gently into a sturdy pouch on her belt. She then led Staci out onto the fire escape, where Vincent and Ariel waited. Just as Zhun stepped through the window, Ariel’s front door was broken down by a large demon. A dozen of the rebel soldiers poured into the apartment and gave chase, but Zhun spotted at least half a dozen more running back down the hall.
“Shit! They’re trying to cut us off,” she shouted as they began running down the steps. By the time they were halfway down, more demons came out into the alley below and started making their way up the fire escape.
“Dammit,” Vincent hissed. “Go up, we’ll get to the roof and escape from there.”
“You two angels plan to fly us out of here?” Zhun spat as she started heading upward.
“Just go,” Vincent yelled. “I have an idea.” As they ran, spells blazed past them, sizzling through the metal catwalk. Ariel yelped in pain as a bolt of lightning grazed her calf, but she kept moving, wincing through the pain. Zhun took a shard of ice in the shoulder as she ran, causing her to list to the side. Luck was with her. As she fell to her left, a ray of necrotic green light lanced upward in the place she would have been if not for the ice in her shoulder. The destructive energy wasted away everything in its path, boring holes in the metal of the fire escape. Zhun pushed herself off of the wall and continued running, hoping whoever sent the green ray was willing to not use the spell again. She continued after the rest of her group and helped Vincent, who had fallen behind. He was still not quite at full strength, and accepted Zhun’s help with a grunt of thanks. Together, they hurried up the winding steps, narrowly dodging the spells being thrown at them. Something must have hit a support beam, because the whole fire escape shuddered and groaned from the strain of so many bodies weighing it down. Without hesitating, they ran faster, barely making it to the top before the whole thing collapsed, sending the demons below crashing to the cement. Their safety, however, was not assured. Another group of six demons had split off from the main team and was waiting on the roof of the apartment building.
“Son of a bitch,” Vincent sighed, drawing his sword. He could recognize one of the demons from Adrian’s team of assassins. He guessed the assassin had lied about his loyalty and found the information about Ariel’s home. Either that, or he had magically tracked them somehow. It did not matter to the angel. These demons were not going to be the end of them.
“Whatever your idea
was, we could use it now,” Zhun growled.
“I need one minute,” Vincent replied.
“You’ll have it,” Zhun said, drawing her short swords. She and Ariel stepped forward and confronted the demons. The lead demon opened his mouth to speak, but Ariel hurled her spear into his chest before the words left his mouth. The only sound he made was dull wheeze as he fell to the ground. The remaining five demons rushed the two women, focusing on Zhun more than Ariel, thinking the angel would be less of a threat since she was unarmed. They were wrong. Ariel met her opponent with her fists swinging. She jabbed him in the jaw and brought her other hand around for an uppercut, shattering bones with each hit. He swung blindly, his face already swelling up, and Ariel slapped his feeble attack away. She pummeled him in the chest and felt every rib break under the onslaught. Fresh demon blood coated her metal gauntlets, and the attacker died at her feet while his partner waded in. This demon was far more cautious, having watched his comrade get savagely beaten. He came in with a wide sweep of his axe, hoping to leave Ariel unbalanced, but she simply backpedaled and leaped in after the axe had gone by. Without enough time to bring his heavy weapon back around, the demon was unable to block the incoming attacks. With quick succession, Ariel punched him repeatedly until his face was completely unrecognizable. He fell to the ground, dead, along with his comrade.
Zhun faced off against her three opponents and kept them all at bay with wild swings of her swords. They kept a safe distance away from the assassin, but they all had a range advantage on her. With her short swords, Zhun was forced to get close to do any real damage, while the three demons had longer weapons, leaving them safely out of her range, but still able to attack her effectively. Still, she was not worried. She had faced worse threats before. She leaped at one and buried a sword into his skull, splitting it down the middle. While still on his chest, Zhun threw her other sword and caught the second demon in the gut. She then leaped off of the first and landed on the third, sending them both to the ground. Zhun pulled a dagger from her belt and plunged it into the demon’s heart. The fight won, Zhun stood while Ariel retrieved her spear. Just as they came back to Vincent, he finished the teleportation circle he had been working on during the battle.
With a pained groan, Vincent stood to his feet and said, “Step in here. I know a place where we can hide.”
CHAPTER FORTY
Vincent, Ariel, Zhun, and Staci found themselves in a mountainous area filled with trees. Ahead of them sat a squat hut that looked to be made from a pile of boulders. A thin line of smoke rose from the small chimney.
“Where are we?” Staci asked.
“Scholomance,” Vincent replied. “Adrian came here to fix his arm, and he brought me here to fix my head. The people here are good people. I’m hoping they can help us again.”
“Scholomance?” Staci whispered. Her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open. “I’ve heard stories about this place, but I always thought it was just a myth.”
“We’ll thank Adrian for finding it,” Vincent stated as he approached the door. He gave a heavy knock and waited. Moments later, the door swung inward and there stood an old man. “Hello, Alighier,” Vincent greeted.
Alighier looked him up and down, his eyes lingering on the blood stained bandages on his side. “Last I saw you, you were a walking vegetable,” he said. “Now you’re wounded and on my doorstep? Why do I have to keep helping your family?”
“I know we’re asking a lot of you in the short time we’ve known you, sir,” Vincent apologized, “but we need help and your school may be the safest place for us. I promise, we’ll help you however we can in return. Give us chores to do. Let us earn our keep. Please.”
Alighier eyed the rest of the group. “You’re refugees, then?” he asked. He barely waited for a response. “Come on in. I wouldn’t want you all dying on my doorstep.” The group entered Scholomance with thanks and were led to some rooms where they could rest. Zhun immediately found a bed and pulled Adrian’s body from her pouch. She returned him to his original size and laid him down on the bed, covering him to the shoulders with a blanket. Alighier walked in while she did this and grunted.
“Is he going to be alright?” the old man asked. His gruff tone hid his concern. “He doesn’t look too great.”
“He’s been through worse,” Zhun murmured. She wiped a tear from her eye and kept herself as calm as possible. “He should come back to us.”
“I’ll have my folks look at him,” Alighier said. “He looks dead, but that’ll happen when you don’t have a heart anymore.”
Zhun thanked him and he left the room to check on the others. He looked in on Ariel, who was tending to her wound. It seemed to be healing well, despite being caused by a demon blade. “Other than Vincent, it’s been a long time since I saw an angel,” he grunted.
Ariel looked up at him and offered a friendly smile. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an immortal human,” she countered.
“Humph… “Blessed” by Artemis thousands of years ago,” Alighier stated with a sardonic smile. “Seems he still wanted me to serve him. You look a lot like that other angel I met. Are you his sister? Daughter?”
Ariel nodded. “I’m Victor’s daughter.”
“Which makes you Vincent’s sister. He looks too much like Victor not to be his son.”
Again, Ariel nodded.
“Don’t let go of your family,” Alighier muttered as he turned to walk away. He found Vincent in the next room, also tending to his wounds. This wound looked much worse than Ariel’s. The angel looked up and gave Alighier a thankful nod.
“Thank you for letting us in,” he said. “We’ve been through a lot lately and needed a safe place.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I can’t rightly call this place a school and a church and turn away those in need.”
“This place is a church?” Vincent asked.
Alighier nodded. “Built this place myself, in dedication to Artemis. He made me who I am and kept me alive so I could learn who I’m supposed to be. He gave me purpose and a new life. I’ll have my folks look at your wounds in the morning.” With that, Alighier continued to the next room. There he found Staci sitting in a chair and leaning on the table with her face in her hands. She looked up as she heard Alighier enter, and he saw exhaustion and despair on her face.
“Thank you for letting us stay here,” she said.
“It’s my pleasure,” Alighier said with a comforting smile. He could see that she had probably suffered the most of the entire group and it was all catching up to her. “May I ask how you are doing?”
“I’m… alive,” came Staci’s response. “Everything fell apart so suddenly that I haven’t quite had time to process all of it, to be honest.”
“You’re safe now,” Alighier said. “I see a bit of you in Adrian. Are you his mother?”
Staci nodded.
“And that would make you Dante’s wife,” he surmised.
Staci looked at him again. “Did you know him?” she asked.
“I did, a long, long time ago. He had the capacity to be a great man. I only knew him when he was less than that. From what I’ve heard, though, he was a good king and father.”
Tears welled in Staci’s eyes again. “He wasn’t perfect, but he was mine. And I loved him.”
Alighier nodded, understanding her pain completely. He remembered losing his wife to Dante’s rampage all those centuries ago. He remembered what it was like to lose a soulmate. “May you find him again in your next life,” he offered, then left Staci in peace. He trudged off, making for his personal chambers. Along the way, Alighier stopped at another room and peeked in. His grandson, a ten year old boy, slept peacefully in his bed. With a warm smile, the old man continued to his own room to the thoughts of his current family. He knew he would likely outlive them, and feared what might be chasing the new refugees, but rested in the knowledge that his home was the safest in the world.
The next morning, Alighier brought his best healers to t
he group and patched them up. Vincent was healed, but was left with a large scar. Ariel bore a scar of her own and shrugged it off. It was just another scar to add to the others given to her over her long life. After they were healed, Alighier treated them to a large breakfast. The hearty meal went a long way to lift their spirits, but they were still burdened with sorrow. By midday, the healers Alighier had sent to look over Adrian’s body returned. They had done everything that they could, but there was simply nothing that could truly be done. Adrian was dead, and he was not coming back. They held a funeral for him that day, and interred him in the crypts deep below Scholomance. After the burial, some of the burden seemed to be lifted from their shoulders. Having the closure would help the healing process truly begin. By the end of the day, Alighier had offered them all permanent residence within Scholomance’s walls. The offer was genuine and sincere, and he would not take no for an answer. They were refugees, driven from their homes, and Alighier had made a promise to Artemis all those years ago to help anyone he could.
Several months passed, during which time everyone had settled in to their new home. They were continuously thankful for Alighier’s kindness, and worked hard to repay that debt. Although the old man always said they need not worry so much, they always made sure to show him that his generosity was appreciated. Eventually, the demons who chased them to Ariel’s apartment caught up to them. They attempted to storm the hut, but they were woefully unprepared for the amount of power stored in Alighier’s home. The old man saw the demons coming, wearing the colors of a vampire he had not seen in hundreds of years, and raised his defenses. He knew that if these demons were under the command of Bathory, they would continue to harass him until he either killed them or he gave up the others. He had no plans for the latter. While fortifying the magical defenses of his home, he allowed the illusion of the hut to fall away, revealing the true form of his home. In the place of the hut made from a pile of boulders, there now stood an immense cathedral, built in the ancient Gothic style. Tall spires reached to the heavens and the black marble gleamed in the morning light. The attacking demons slowed their march upon the sight of the impressive structure, but they continued nonetheless. Their attacks did nothing against the powerful shielding spells Alighier had put up, and they were easily picked off by the residents of the grand cathedral. Only three more attacks came after that, then they were left in peace. Bathory knew better than to challenge the master of Scholomance.
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