by HDA Roberts
"Upstairs, now!" she said, yanking Bill up and onto her shoulder before leading the way up the big stairs as the Demons came for us, horrific creatures, every one of them, things drawn from the darkest human nightmares. I saw leech-like horrors with piercing limbs, massive spider-creatures with human faces, quadrupedal horrors with hooves and scales, a hundred different things, and no two exactly alike.
I was reminded of a verse from a hymn. It used to be one of my favourites. Not so much now:
...I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black,
It's hard to dance with the Devil on your back...
I was calling Light, Fire and Force as we ran, I felt Demise leeching Entropy from the environment.
She pulled us into one of the front bedrooms.
"Are we in Hell, or has Hell come to us?" she asked.
"The latter," I said, "I think that they surrounded us with a Dimensional wall. It's not my area, only barely touched on them in my reading, but we just have to hold out long enough for whoever's casting it to run out of juice."
"Are you sure?"
"No, but it's our best bet."
A demon ripped through the floor next to Bill. I used my Will to yank it away from him and a lance of Force to rip its head off. It fell to the ground in pieces as another one came through the door, a snake-looking thing with insect legs and a mouth full of acid. Demise got that one, a beam of deep purple searing through it and killing it instantly, leaving it to crumble into ash.
"Definitely still on Earth," I said, "The Demons are being banished. They aren't dying!"
I used my Mage Sight to track the Demons and send Chaos beams at them. The attacks were effective, but draining. I missed my Shadows.
That house was getting torn up pretty badly; my attacks had already ripped enough holes in the floor that a good third of the rooms across from me simply collapsed, crushing several Demons on their way down. A bit of the ceiling fell in on us, and I barely got a dome of Will in place to deflect both it, and the Demon that tried to land on Bill.
Demise banished it, tearing another hole through one of the supporting walls; the house creaked ominously.
"We need to get out of here!" I said over the groans, picking Bill up with Will and aiming Force at the Wall behind us. I blasted it away, raining brick and cement onto the lawn. Demise jumped out first, Death Magic lashing out as she fell, disintegrating half a dozen of the monsters. I came after, throwing out Chaos Spheres that detonated on impact and threw bodies and limbs all about the place.
My Will deposited me gently on the ground, and I laid Bill down under my Shields. Really speaking, these Demons weren't much of a threat to me. They were mindless animals, not a one was sentient and none of them had that Hell-Magic that might have posed a problem. Any that got to my shields simply bounced off, not even denting them.
I was actually feeling pretty confident... but then these little black, scaly goblin-looking things came out of nowhere. They screeched loudly, but otherwise appeared harmless. When you had seventeen feet long, six legged, horned and spiked black lions with six inch fangs charging at you, things that looked like mutated toddlers weren't something you sweated.
We started paying a lot more attention when they exploded against out shields. I lost half of my layers to that first hit, and barely deflected the next two out of the way before they detonated.
Demise wasn't so lucky. Her shields didn't have as many built-in redundancies as mine, and she lost the lot on the first hit. If it weren't for the temporary clearance made by the explosion, she would have been torn to pieces. She staggered back to her feet, weaving a little, and I covered her as she began to restore her defences.
And that's when the real attack materialised.
I felt it coming. My heart soared at its presence, my soul cried out in joy and my mind nearly collapsed in dread.
Black Magic. My temptation, my darkest desire.
I got a Will shield in the way, the only defence I could manage without my Shadows. But it wasn't aimed at me.
Demise saw it coming as well, but too late. She still managed to twist mostly out of the way. The beam grazed her side instead of piercing her heart, but she still fell to the muddy earth with a horrible scream. I threw out a wave of energy that tossed and burned every Demon nearby so I could reach for her and drag her under my shields.
"You alright?!" I shouted over the cacophony that surrounded us.
"I'll live, but I can't fight them and this," she said, gesturing at the already black wound. Her voice trembled and tears ran down her face.
The Demons gathered for another leap, and then a voice dragged from the deepest pit of Hell spoke out in a language that made my ears feel dirty just hearing it. The Demons halted, some even retreated. Two men appeared through a hole in the Demon ranks, tall and strong-looking, perfectly attractive, in dark suits and tasteful jewellery.
At least that's how they wanted to appear.
The reality was something quite different.
My Mage Sight let me see them how they really were. They were twisted, hunched little things, their wings, once massive, white and beautiful, were black and bent, feathers missing in clumps. Their skin was green-tinged and blotchy, their eyes black and staring, like sharks'. They wore rags and the tattered remains of armour, once burnished gold and now encrusted with what looked like eons of muck and filth.
Angels. Of the Fallen variety. They all but pulsed with the Black. That dreadful power called to me, begged to be used, to be a part of me. I clenched my fists and walled that temptation up behind a barrier of sheer stubbornness.
"Greetings, Lord Shadow," said the one on the left with a deep bow, "I am Illiel. I have an offer for you."
"Oh? Do tell," I said ironically, replenishing my energy stores while I talked.
"Don't bargain with it!" Demise hissed, still focussing on her injury, which seemed to be spreading, but one lethal problem at a time.
"She would say that," Illiel said, "Give us the woman, and you and your friend may leave unmolested, my word."
"You know, Dee, I have to say it's nice that I'm not the one they're after for a change," I said. She glared at me.
"You're waiting for the barrier to drop; stalling," Illiel said, "It's not going to. I am its power source. And I think we can both agree that you are no match for me."
"Is that so? Then why are you trying to bargain?"
Illiel laughed heartily, it made me feel sick.
"Clever, clever boy, I can see why he likes you so much, but this isn't the time to go to war with Us. Give us the Death Mage. Now, please."
The other one stepped forward, and a black sword appeared in its hand, radiating Death.
"What's his name?" I asked, pointing at the swordsman.
"Rashur, why?" Illiel asked.
"For my biographer, mostly."
I let Rashur have it, a Chaos beam that would have taken a lesser creature's head off. But he was so fast! He dodged and took the tiniest hit to his shoulder, which was barely enough to scorch something and send him tumbling back, grunting in pain.
"Is she really worth your soul, Magician?" Illiel said, darting away as I sent a similar beam after him and missed entirely, "Think of what we could give you. I'm willing to bargain. But if we take you here, that's it, you come Home with us."
That horrified me no end, I can tell you. But even if I could trust him, which I couldn't, I wasn't leaving Demise to them. She was only here because of me. I'd be damned before I just left her to face Hell alone.
Even if it cost me everything.
Rashur threw a lance of Shadows right at me, and I had to redirect Light to break them.
That steamed me a little. Using Shadows against me? That was annoying. I let the Light continue its path, and Rashur howled as the beam grazed him, tumbling and running out of the way. The Demons resumed their advance.
Light! It was as if the word popped into my mind.
Light of the Soul.
What?
<
br /> The easiest thing in the world...
Oh!
No, that wouldn't work, surely?
Then again, the Fallen Angel had howled when the light had hit it. And it was still smoking...
Worth a try, if it didn't do the trick, I could just go back to what I was doing.
I called a big chunk of my Magic and let it gather in my hand. I took a moment to deflect a ball of Black Magic with Will before it was ready. Then I lifted my hand, and cast Mage Light.
But not just any Mage Light; this one burned like the sun, I had to close my eyes to keep from being blinded. It made me grunt in discomfort, but I heard the Fallen Angels and Demons scream.
Light of the Soul. In a very real way, that's exactly what it was, a burning piece of the very heart of me. It wouldn't have worked this well in any other situation. In a way, Illiel had made it possible.
He'd brought Hell to Earth, soaking this little patch of the Newtonian World with the full power of the Pit, making the demons stronger and faster, giving the Fallen the power to manifest fully. But that came with a cost, because along with all the strength of Hell came its weaknesses.
Under normal circumstances, this sort of light wouldn't be that much of a threat to a Demon; sure, it would make them uncomfortable, maybe give them the equivalent of a sunburn, scare them a little, but here, where Hell soaked into the Earth, it was something different, something... more.
Light of the Soul, light made by a human soul, itself a tiny piece of Creation, the part that brought forth the stars, a teeny piece of what gives life to our little blue marble. Hell couldn't tolerate that.
Hell burned at the sight of it and Hell screamed at its touch.
It was a little strange for me. As a Shadowborn, I hadn't really made use of Light before, not in any subtle way, but now it was saving my life, and using it felt as natural as breathing, like it was precisely the right thing to do.
Demons started to smoke, sizzle and burn. Many burst into flames right there. A couple of those Goblin-things exploded, causing more carnage. The rest started running.
The Angels screamed as their feathers caught fire and their skin turned black. Rashur leapt for me, sword held high. His eyes were burnt out; his lips were charred, pulling back over his teeth as they burned away.
He brought his sword down and I caught it with my Will, wrenching him forward along with it and right into my ball of Light. He let go of his weapon and screamed one more time as the light touched his skin and turned him to ash. There was a boom as he was banished, flattening what remained of the grass for twenty metres in every direction and taking a chunk out of my shields. There was no killing him in the Newtonian world, but that had to hurt.
Illiel was running. He had to, his wings had been burned down to stumps. If he got away, he could continue sending waves and waves of Demons into my Light until I was all out of energy, or he was, and I didn't like the idea of having to out-last him, not if he was standing in Hell.
He had his back to me and was running for the barrier between Hell and Earth. I picked up Rashur's sword with my Will and I aimed, putting every scrap of Force I had into it.
I let it go. I don't know how I managed that shot, but it hit him square between the shoulder blades just as he crossed over back into Hell.
At which point it occurred to me that I might have made a bit of an oopsie.
Because that was an Angel's sword, used on another Angel, in his home realm.
I'm pretty sure it killed him.
I'm just going by the explosion.
Illiel screamed as he tried to drag the blade out of his chest. I saw lines of black spread from the wound site. What few Demons remained in the general area ran like hell (so to speak). I put up a whole mess of shields, and a good thing too, because there was a flash, a whining thump, and then noise that I barely prevented from shattering my ear drums. The blast wave tore the portal apart in an instant. And just like that, we were standing back in the world.
The transition was jarring. One second I was fighting for our lives and the next... we were safe! We'd survived!
My Shadows surged back to me and I whooped with joy as the connection re-established itself. I turned to look at Demise and she smiled sadly, a tear rolling down her face as she clutched at her side, now a mass of black muck as the Fallen Angel's spell continued killing her.
"No...," I whispered, dropping to her side, all thoughts of triumph vanishing in an instant.
"It's okay, Mathew," she whispered, "I'm ready."
I switched the mode on my Mage Sight and nearly cried.
The Black had spread its tendrils from the impact site and well into the surrounding tissues. Skin, muscle, and organ were already little more than sludge. She was down to a fraction of her power, and without it, she wouldn't be able to stay alive very long.
"Thank you for letting me live a little," she said to me, "I never knew what I was missing."
She closed her eyes.
Chapter 19
"Oh no you don't," I said, slapping her face.
Her eyes darted open, and she glared.
"You die when I say you die, understand me?"
I had exactly one trick that would fix this. Only a Death Mage would be able to survive it, and it might well kill me to do it.
She glared as I reached out and put my hand over her heart.
"What are you...?" she said, "No! Mathew, don't you dare!"
Lifelink.
I hated that spell. It hurt like hell.
I felt her injury like it was my own and nearly screamed. I bit back on it and went to work. I knew that I could share my Well with another Archon, but I'd never initiated the sharing before, much less with a Sorcerer. I was muddling my way through, searching through the heart of her through my Lifelink, which was slowly but steadily killing me. I had minutes in that state. I was already shaking as my Vitality was drained to keep her alive.
"Mathew, stop, d'you hear?" she shouted.
I looked her square in the eyes and she recoiled from the stare.
"Just this once, do what I say!" I barked.
I found it, her Well.
"Let me in," I said, "That is a command from an Archon. Do it!"
She swallowed, and I felt her relax her defences. The power in our Wells merged, which is to say, my power flowed into hers refilling it right to the top in an instant.
She gasped and her energy surged, driving right back into battle with the Black, Entropy versus Evil. She could hold it a while.
"Keep at it, we're almost there," I said weakly.
It's a good thing I'd become good at carving off pieces of myself, or I'd never have managed while in so much pain. I yanked away a chunk of my living energy. Normally it just went straight into my Well, but this time I held onto it with every fibre of my being, in spite of the unspeakable agony it had caused to remove it. I shielded her from my pain as I moved that ball of life force into the breach in her side, and let it flow.
Life Magic. The quick and ugly kind; the desperate kind. The kind I'd unknowingly used a long time ago to save my brother. It very nearly didn't work.
But Demise was on the ball, and as I attacked the Black from the outside, she rallied and fought it from within, eradicating the tiny tendrils I couldn't reach while my Life Force neutralised the main site of infection.
The black flesh turned grey and then a healthy pink as I trickled my energy into it, and Demise's own power met mine at the surface of her skin, stripping away all the death from within as I restored life from without.
It took seconds that felt like hours.
And then the Black was gone.
Demise caught me as I fell, the last of my enchantments and spells petering out. I was down to practically nothing, Magically. My life force had been reduced by a half, what with the Lifelink and the chunk I'd removed. I felt sick, I could barely breathe, and I certainly couldn't move.
"Why?" Demise asked, tears in her eyes as she looked down at me, "Why would you d
o that?"
"Why wouldn't I?" I managed to gasp out.
Portals opened. I barely felt them, I was so sleepy. I recognised the new arrivals. Hopkins generally noticed when I left the planet and also tended to show up to yell when I got back.
"Demise?" said a familiar voice, "What's happening?"
"Lady Hopkins..." Demise said, "I can't explain it, there was a trap, and a portal. Demons and Fallen Angels. He... he saved my life. I can't get him to tell me why."
"It's alright now," Hopkins said, kneeling next to me, "Mathew Graves, what stupid thing did you do this time?"
I smiled and she took my hand, "Crap, we told you not to do any more Life Siphons!"
"S'fine," I managed, "Just a little chilly is all."
"Bloody hell, now what?" Palmyra said, landing next to me and looking between me and Demise, "Oh my, just how dead were you?"
"Dead?" Demise said.
"You're full of his Life Force," Palmyra said running her hand over me, "and he's almost down to a level that would put him in a coma."
"I didn't mean... I begged him not to... he ordered me to let him," Demise protested.
"Look at that, Matty, someone actually did what you said," Hopkins said, patting my shoulder.
"When I can sit up, I'm going to get you for that," I mumbled, feeling awful.
"Bugger, he's already got three infections making progress," Palmyra said, finishing her diagnosis, "and I'm worried about his heart rate and B.P."
"Can you do something?" Demise asked.
"Of course," Palmyra said, "But most of this, I can't fix. He needs to replenish it on his own, over time."
She did something, and suddenly everything sharpened up. My breathing improved, my heart stopped pounding, and I felt a little more energetic.
"Oh, that's so much better," I said.
"Report, Guardian!" barked a voice from behind us, making me jump.
Demise shot to attention and dropped me on the ground as she turned towards her master. She started telling him what had happened while Kron glared.
"Ow," I said. Palmyra smiled.
Hopkins helped me sit up again and I took a look around.