Lost Time

by M C Ashley

  I shouted in anger and attempted to turn back and stop Beleth. At the same time, Zea sent a blast its way that the demon avoided. I tried to charge up an attack, but was never able to release it. Beleth reached Cinderella, picked her up with its right hand, and then transformed its left hand into a blade. Beleth then struck her in the abdomen.

  I yelled out “NO!”

  Cinderella looked down at her wound, her face pale, but made no sound. Blood ebbed down from her abdomen. Beleth took out its blade arm and threw Cinderella to the ground. Beleth looked over at me and laughed.

  Trembling with fury, I let out a defiant roar that I doubt I could ever replicate if I tried. Gathering energy from around myself, I brought the light offered by the blood moon above us to surround myself in a swirling whirlpool of pure light. I pointed over at Beleth, and uttered gibberish I barely understood to attack it.

  The light charged forward, bombarding Beleth so that it couldn’t stand upright. It shielded its face. Had I been thinking at the time, I would have noticed why, but I was too driven by rage to care. I crafted another blast, once again using an unpronounceable invocation to send at the beast. It simply bounced off this time, whatever had fueled it the first time failing miserably. Invocations that didn’t utilize discernible words to focus with were simply too weak to be used too often.

  But it had given me enough time to do something else. Running to their position, I activated Ageg and fired a shot at Beleth, hitting its arm, but once again it bounced off harmlessly. If I could just penetrate its skin, the purifying energy would cause it harm. It had never failed before. Or even one of my silver-coated bullets would work. At the very least my faith in their ability to work would cause it some minor damage if they failed to activate inside the beast’s body.

  Providentially, the arrow served its purpose, distracting Beleth enough to let me get in closer to Cinderella. I raced over to her position and picked her up. She stared at me, her eyes too weak to look anywhere else. Her body was limp, but she was conscious enough to know she was in danger. Gathering my strength, I ran away, attempting to avoid Beleth as it recovered in time to attack us. I sensed danger behind me and turned around to see another volley of hellfire headed my way. Prepared for the worst, I stepped to the left, but it followed us. The heat crept up on me. The wounds from the first attack opened, causing me to reexperience the pain. But before the hellfire could sizzle me, a green beam of light came out from Zea’s fingertips, a perfected Adamant Faith now protecting us from harm. I nodded at her and leapt over to her side.

  “Take her!” I yelled. “Get her healed up and I’ll take care of this!”

  “The hell you will!” Zea cried out.

  “The hell I will! Shut up and do what I say!”

  Zea glared at me, but backed down when I glared back, preparing a shield around them so she could charge up a healing invocation. She was smart enough to know she was the only one capable of healing Cinderella’s wounds. I wasn’t losing anyone else. Too many of us had died. This world needed the Christened to return. This world was my responsibility now. I finally understood what that meant.

  I stood in front of Beleth and aimed Ageg at it. It chuckled.

  “Haven’t you learned anything yet, boy?” it asked. “My skin is impregnable! I cannot be hurt by your weapons, whether they are purified or not! I am the ultimate demon! I am the destroyer of souls! I am Beleth!”

  “And I’m not impressed!” I shouted back. “I am Blake Azarel, Sentinel to the Gray Forum and Guardian of its holds! No matter how many times you crawl back up from the dust, no matter how many times you force me into the ground in return, I will rise up and wipe you from existence!”

  “Fool! You barely understand the words that babble forth from your mouth! How could you? To be born in such a fragile form!”

  “This ‘fragile form’ is more than enough to take you out, Beleth! I know your kind! There’s nothing special about any of you!”

  “It is I who bring men to lust and women to crawl down to their basest desires!” Beleth roared. “It is I who charged the abilities of Zoë Slinden beyond her potential, granting her control over this city in the name of her father! But I never served him, despite what he may have thought! I work for a higher calling! I will strike every home in the world, bringing the message of the end of days to every door I enter!”

  “All right, man, listen,” I said, holding up a hand. “The last thing this world needs is another door-to-door cult. One could only hope the Jehovah’s Witnesses were one of the things that didn’t make the cut after the world ended. There’s no way I’m allowing anyone to endure that kind of suffering again.”

  “Mock all you want, worm!” Beleth bellowed. “I don’t care what love surrounds your heart! I will find a way to consume your very soul! You will be mine!”

  “Apparently, I’m already spoken for, so I’d really rather not have that awkward conversation. I have enough trouble on my plate without explaining the new demon who lusts after my soul to the family, especially one that sounds like a demented Valentine’s Day card.”

  Beleth charged at me and I raised Ageg to block it, right as a whip of wind came to upturn the beast, allowing Clooney the chance to knock me out of the way.

  “You…are reckless,” he said, panting, still clutching his side.

  “It’s just who I am,” I said, picking him up. “Go to Zea. Make sure Nathan isn’t doing anything stupid. You’re too weak to fight like this right now.”

  “No complaints here.”

  He murmured something to himself and faded from sight. I turned to Beleth, who stared me down.

  “Still you resist?” Beleth asked. “I strike down Cinderella and you stand. How? Not one of your attacks has harmed me. There is nothing you can do to stop me.”

  “Perhaps, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t thorough,” I said, crafting a light orb and closed my eyes. “Mico excan!”

  Beleth held out its hands in front of its face and cried out, unable to see. Using this to my advantage, I crawled over its body and wrapped my arms around its neck, looking for anything to exploit. Its eyes looked regular. Maybe they weren’t covered by the diamond skin. Its fingers were pure diamond and the insides of its ears seemed to have a slit that was covered up periodically by a thin diamond filament. Beleth regained control of its sight and grabbed me, flinging me off.

  I recovered and rolled to my right, missing a line of hellfire that would’ve flambéed me into oblivion.

  “I really need to stop doing stupid things,” I said.

  I brought out Ageg to block Beleth’s diamond blade, the impact sending me flying. I hit the side of one of the cages. I looked up at it, relieved that there was still no one inside of them. At least I’d done something right.

  Now I just had to keep up the winning streak.

  Come on, Blake, think, I ordered myself. How can you use this to your advantage now? What are you missing?

  Beleth’s diamond skin prevented us from penetrating it. There were barely any signs that we had chipped it, if you could call it that. Diamonds could be cut by jewelers with the proper drill, using it to shape them into a desirable form. I could potentially construct such a device out of light, but a Green Lantern I was not. Even if I did make one, I doubted I had the energy to make it rotate fast enough to cut through the demon’s skin, so that was out.

  Maybe I was going about it the wrong way. Perhaps I didn’t have to cut into the diamond at all. What if there was another spot on Beleth’s body that I could use against it? Something that would bring it down in one hit after enough damage had been done.

  It was foolproof and I was fool enough to test it.

  “Zea—Clooney—Idea!” I managed to shout out.

  “What?” Zea demanded, still healing Cinderella.

  “How do you break a diamond?”

  “You don’t! They’re too hard!”

  “Not if you know where the shatterpoint is!” Clooney offered, healing Cinderell
a with Zea in favor of his own wounds.

  “The what?” Zea asked.

  “The part where if you know exactly where to look, you can destroy the whole object, no matter how strong it is!” I shouted back.

  “As if I could possess such a thing!” Beleth growled, moving to attack us.

  I looked straight at Beleth and grinned. “Eyes don’t lie!”

  I swept to the side and tripped it, but the force of its assault caused me to lose my balance and fall as well. I picked myself up and fired a round at Beleth, but it bounced off the demon’s impenetrable skin. I nodded. Silver wouldn’t be enough, but with the right shot placed in the right place, things would be different. Not all of it could be diamond. It still needed Zoë’s body to allow it to interact with the world. And bodies had weaknesses.

  “Understood,” Clooney said, eerily guessing my next move. “Zea, to me!”

  Zea maintained the shield over Cinderella—who had passed out—and rushed over to Clooney and stood in place. I gazed at Cinderella, finding that her wounds were sealed for now, but would reopen if the invocation was not continued quickly. Clooney raced forward, grabbing Beleth by the face and throwing it in the ground. He quickly jumped backward to avoid its retaliatory attack. I trained my gun on it, waiting for the shot.

  Zea fired an arc of electricity from her fingertips, but since diamonds weren’t known for conducting it, the attack did very little damage. I noted to myself that we needed to discuss simple science if we made it out of this.

  “Gaoithe tapa!” Clooney yelled, crafting a gale that grabbed Beleth and deposited it in the middle of the air.

  Beleth struggled against the wind, attempting to fall back to the ground, but found itself unable to flee. For a moment, in a mad rush to seek escape, it looked directly at me.

  “Now!” Clooney yelled.

  I pulled the trigger.

  The bullet struck squarely in Beleth’s right eye, causing the beast to howl in anger. The wind disappeared. Unable to penetrate the back of the demon’s head, the bullet stayed in its body, the silver working as a purifying agent. Beleth clawed at the eye and opened its good eye. I shot it too, sending the beast into further agony.

  Clooney and Zea grabbed the demon by its arms and held it in place with all of their might, but it flailed around and flung them off. Zea recovered first and was about to rush forward to pin it down again, but I held out my hand.

  Calmly, I walked forward, hearing it moan and snarl at its wounds. I tried not to let the satisfaction show on my face, but decided it didn’t matter since Beleth couldn’t see anyways and smirked. I stood in front of the demon and watched it writhe on the floor.

  “Beleth—Zoë,” I said. “For the crime of causing the deaths of countless human lives and sending the remnants of the Gray Forum into hiding or death, I judge you unworthy of life.”

  “You dare judge me!” Beleth howled. “I have been around for eons! Since before the formation of this world! I was there when we Fell! I saw the darkness of Hell and wept at my fate! I vowed never again to stay there, so I managed to escape, ready to exact my vengeance on this world! For years I skulked in the shadows, waiting for the time to get back at the Creator for His unjust treatment of those who rebelled against Him and His despotic rule! He condemned my kind to an eternal darkness!” Beleth stood up and charged another round of hellfire. “I will never submit to darkness again!”

  “Well then it seems to me that it’s time for you to see the light!” I said, charging up my attack. I forced my fist into its unprotected open mouth. “Fiat lux!”

  White energy flooded forth from my fist, erupting throughout the beast’s body, purifying its insides. Beleth shook violently, but was unable to counteract it. I briefly heard Zoë screaming as well, trapped in a body she could never regain control of. The medallion that hung around its neck snapped off and fell right beside me. Beleth howled and twisted in odd contortions no normal body would survive, eventually falling to its knees. The diamond skin that had once kept it perfectly safe from outside harm blew off piece by piece, rendering it defenseless.

  Beleth stared at me, defiance filling its eyes. It attempted to reach out for me, but I swatted it away.

  “I am but the first, little worm,” Beleth said. “We are The Thirteen and I…am its weakest member.”

  The medallion shined with a black light. I regarded it for a moment. It called out to me, begging me to use it to empower myself further. I rolled my eyes. I had enough questionable magical jewelry in my life.

  “Then let them know they’re going to meet the same fate if they dare step foot on my world,” I said, smashing the medallion with my heel.

  Beleth cried out in terror, a white light ushering forth from its mouth and into the sky as the demon’s body disintegrated from view.

  I fell to my knees. It had worked. Clooney limped over to me and picked me up. I looked at his wound, but he waved a hand in front of me. I heard a crowd of voices cheering behind us in unison. I turned around to notice our actions hadn’t gone unnoticed. The cameras were still watching us. I grinned. I always knew I was meant for television.

  Walking over to a miraculously, remaining microphone, I picked it up and looked at the people of Vice City and then at the camera in front of me. The human operator gave me the thumbs up.

  I smiled. “Hello,” I said, simply, but then grew emboldened. “People of Vice City! You are free!”

  The crowd was silent for a moment, perhaps wondering if their earlier cheer would cause repercussions with the enforcers, but the remaining human enforcers that had arrived after the earlier gate smashing had thrown down their weapons. But still they were silent, at least until one woman’s voice rung out from the center of them all. I gazed at her, finding Dorothy looking back at me. Then they all chanted my name. Nathan ran up from the crowd and joined us on the stage, pure serenity on his face.

  I bowed my head. I didn’t deserve their praise. We weren’t ready yet.

  “You are no longer under the control of the Sanguine Collective!” I yelled. “From now on Corpus Christi is under my protection!” I turned to face the others. “Under our protection!”

  Clooney picked up Cinderella, who worried over his wound. She winced at the pain of her recently sealed abdomen. Zea led them over to me and offered me a weak smile. I returned to the people.

  “For too long you have suffered under their yoke, forced to endure horrors that have made you feel less than human!” I continued. “But no more! The day of the vampire is over! The rise of God’s children returns in this city! We will rise up so that we may exterminate all the dark forces that claim this world for their own!”

  But we weren’t the Gray Forum. We didn’t have their resources, their talent, or their numbers. What then would we call ourselves?

  You have nowhere to go but ever upward, Nathan-Prime’s voice rung in my head.

  “We are Excelsior!” I shouted, motioning with my hands to my companions and then to the crowd itself. “We are the rightful descendants of the Gray Forum, the chosen few who will bring this world back from the brink of annihilation!”

  I pointed at the camera and glared. I placed the microphone closer to my lips and growled.

  “This is a message to anyone stupid enough to not learn their lesson about what happened here today,” I said. “I don’t care who you are, what organization you belong to, and how inflated your ego is. None of you will ever set foot in this city again. We started here because we were meant to, but you have stolen what is not yours. You have taken the welfare of humanity for your own selfish desires. Join us and receive forgiveness. Fight us and face damnation.” I pointed to where Beleth had been. “Demon, vampire, or rogue wizard, I don’t care who you are—you end up like that.”

  I paused, gathering my breath.

  “But to anyone stupid enough to try, I say this: Bring it. We’ll be waiting.”

  I dropped the microphone and turned to the others. Before they could react, I hugged them al
l, crying in relief.

  Maybe we wouldn’t be ready for the fight so soon after this, but I knew that when it did come, I had a group of people I could depend on for help. That was all I needed.

  Chapter 24

  1

  I walked through the halls of the Silver Fortress. Survivors of the Feast gave me looks of praise as I passed them. I smiled, wanting them to feel welcome in our home. Most of them had been grateful, but there were a few who were just as wary of us as they were of the Sanguine Collective. I couldn’t blame them. It had been a terrifying battle and few people had ever seen Sentinels and Psionics in action before the Forum’s fall.

  But the sounds of laughter and joyous conversation made me forget all about that. Here were people, finally able to act like themselves again. This was how things were supposed to be, and we’d managed to regain some semblance of that the day before.

  My gait was slower as my body was still healing from the fight, but I had been too stubborn to stay in bed while there were things to be done. Zea had almost forced me back on the bed to attend to my wounds, but I had managed to talk her out of it. There were others who needed her care more than me. Besides, I needed to talk to Clooney.

  He, like me, had refused treatment after a while, wanting others to be taken care of first. But I suspected he had other reasons for not wanting Zea to examine him. An enigma ceased to be so once it was explained, and I had a feeling this one had no desire to be solved just yet.

  I found him in the Hallway of Self-Discovery, in the room he had claimed for himself. It was a modest room, mostly used for Forum members who were staying at the Fortress temporarily and thus had very few personal belongings left behind by its original inhabitants. Clooney had added nothing to the room, and instead he had adapted to the modest surroundings as if they were extravagant gifts that should be cherished. The room was spotless, carefully cleaned through methods I made a mental note to ask about later.