by Tim Hawken
It truly pained me to keep anything from her, but I knew deep down the truth would come out soon. She would know everything in due course, as would I. Lotte saw the steely expression on my face and nodded again. She was a soldier of fate in this, just as I was. We had to create our own path.
“Are you ready?” I asked her, reaching out to take her hand.
“No,” she answered, her resolute gaze returning to the battlefield below. “I could never be ready for this. But I will create your diversion. No one will come after you.”
TWENTY-ONE
ACROSS THE FIRST HALF OF THE JUNGLE, Lotte and I flew hand in hand. It almost felt like we were Wendy and Peter Pan, flying to Never Never Land. But this wasn’t a fairytale. There would be no happy ending.
The conflict on the desert sands took realistic form, ceasing to be far off birds and becoming a bloody massacre. Smells and sounds rose up that could melt a person’s soul. I let my grip on Lotte’s palm loosen, our fingertips sliding away. Turning my head to her for what I thought could be one last time, I smiled. She nodded back firmly. There were no words to be spoken. Anything but the language of her eyes would have been worthless. Drawing a shroud of invisibility from the elements over me, I watched Charlotte go on her way. The cloak I had made would never be able to fool an angel up close, but it would be enough, so long as Lotte kept her end of the deal.
I swerved in the air, directing myself to the edge of the battle. Below, the sands swarmed with demons, fighting recklessly to hold their ground. The full might of Heaven now pushed their backs against the jungle, but I could see our legions fighting valiantly. I spotted Smithy’s Apache helicopter showering a chorus of angels with bullets, which detonated as they hit. Hellfire engulfed the pack of Cherubim, who plummeted down, becoming living missiles of flame. Our ranks on this far side were crumbling under the pressure of the Principalities and Virtues. The beings of light cut demons down wherever they shone their glory. The insubstantial forms of their bodies made it difficult to resist in any real way. I paused, thinking perhaps I should assist my people. Then Charlotte struck with all her wrath. I saw her hit the earth like a dark star. In a spray of sand, an earthquake rattled the entire scene, sending both armies toppling. Not stopping for a moment, she sprang back into the air, directing her charge right at the remaining Seraphim. It was circling the Archangels and Pure Seven, who were still pitched in an even struggle. Charlotte turned herself into a brilliant ball of fire as she speared up. She blazed right into the Seraphim’s belly, splitting through and out the other side. The monster burst alight, completely gutted by a fire which burned from its insides. Lotte rounded on the Seraphim and, in a howl of elements, pulled its body completely apart, sending sprays of gas and blood over the heads of the Archangels below. They looked up, pausing from their fight with The Pure Seven. Charlotte had their undivided attention: a true Elemental was in their midst. The danger she presented could not be ignored. They peeled up towards her, screeching hatred. The Pure Seven were in hot pursuit. The sinful angels gripped their nemesis’ ankles to hold them back and pulled them once again into hand-to-hand combat. Charlotte, seeing she was clear, started to summon a cloud of molecular energy over her head, ready to launch into our enemies.
A curdling cry from right beneath me drew my attention down. I looked to see a new force surging from out of the jungle towards the main battle. I started to rush down to stop them, when I recognized the figure leading their charge. She had raven-black hair and was wielding twin hatchets, screaming blue murder into the sky. It was Clytemnestra with The Furies at her side. The women of the Necropolis were trailing out behind them: millions of wondrous Amazons coming to the aid of Hell. Their assault lurched into the fray, causing confusion amongst Heaven’s troops, who hadn’t seen them coming. My heart lifted with purpose. I watched again to see Charlotte was blasting a wave of atomic destruction into the angelic forces. I had to leave. Hell was in good hands.
Resuming my flight, I carried myself as fast as the elements would allow. The desert swept below. Mutilated bodies littered the surface, victims of a battle that had left them for dead. There were angels and inmates of Hell, all starting to painfully heal. Coagulating blood of different colors drew back out of the sand and into fallen soldiers. Their wounds knitted together. Dead eyes opened. Those who had regenerated enough to stand were already making their way back towards the battle. The sight made me realize that this fight could go on forever. An army that couldn’t be cut down was an army that wouldn’t stop. Both sides would be at each other’s throats until someone called a truce, or a higher being intervened.
Eyeing the black hole in the atmosphere above, I carried on, hammering up with speed, ready to enter the void. I drew every ounce of acceleration I could, hoping my momentum would carry me through up to Heaven. Little resistance met me as I went up. A few stray elements swept past as I arrowed into the space. As soon as I passed through the buzzing purple entry, an overwhelming sense of emptiness met my body. I shot inside. A cliff of solid rock towered up on my right. It was a sheer wall that rushed past as I went up. My impetus began to slow. There were no longer atoms of air I could use to help propel me forward. I wasn’t able to grip onto anything, or push off a surface to continue my flight. This really was a void, even more so than The Perceptionist’s, which still contained the elements he wanted at his call. The gravity of the vacuum, which was still pulling final earth elements out into Hell, worked against me. However, my speed was enough that I continued up. I had almost slowed to a stop when I reached the roof of the void. Stretching upward, I shoved my arms into the purple field which contained the nothingness below. The elements within allowed me to dig inside it and pull myself through. As my head entered the thick layer of power, a whispering came into my ears. It was the essence of Germaine. He wasn’t completely gone. The powerful consciousness that had defined his spirit was still alive. It wasn’t totally coherent, but I knew he was there and I felt he had welcomed my presence. He existed as a worldless being in this atmosphere around me. It was like liquid you could breathe in. My desire to move forward stopped me from pausing any longer to feel my way around. No matter how much I wanted to stay, my real duty was above.
Almost swimming onward, I gathered what elements I could at my back. The light upward began to grow bright as I reached the surface. My body broke free and I entered a flow of atoms that was being manipulated by someone else. Wading through thick strands of elements that tugged at my soul, I knew this was the incomplete filter that my father was trying to reconstruct. Asmodeus was near. Hate, guilt and regret swarmed at me. There was no power in it yet, but the potential was clear.
I pressed on, against the atoms that were being pushed downward, with the talent of a true maestro. Searching up and peering through the tiny gaps in the construction, I spotted the source. The jaws of the entry to Heaven were right around me. At the top, Asmodeus wove his magic. He was in a trance of creation, vibrating with the light of his labors. Like a silent shark breaking the waters of a black ocean, I burst forth from the flow, elements dripping from my body. I pushed every shred of emotion at my call in front of me as a battering ram. Glee entered my soul for a fraction of a second. I thought I had caught him off guard. I would cut him down like the deadwood he was. As I struck, a zapping of intense electricity pierced my ears and I was blown clear of his body, flying further into the sky. It was as if the energy he was using to create the filter had repelled me, like a magnet of similar poles. The shock caused my body to go limp and I rag-dolled, head over heels, crashing down onto the immaculate lawn of Heaven. I rolled on the ground for a moment in pain, twisting as if my skin was being melted away, while sapphire statues of angels looked on. Through the agony, I felt a tap of energy snap closed. Heaving myself to my knees I looked back toward the entry to Hell. Still standing, the figure of my father turned. As Asmodeus faced me fully, I nearly gagged in revulsion. One side of his face had been ripped away and hadn’t healed. Black plasma oozed forth, bubbli
ng out from his stinking soul; it was a grisly wound from his previous fight with Zoroaster. Where his right eye should have been, a blue dot of pure energy glowed in his head. His other eye was a beacon of red destruction, focused right on me.
“You have interrupted me yet again,” he said, his voice full of malice. “This will be the last time.”
TWENTY-TWO
ASMODEUS TORE IN TOWARD ME with godly speed. He rushed in, gripping me by the hair and lifting me up. I was swung like a broken pendulum, down into the ground. My body thudded into the dirt, forcing every ounce of air out of my lungs. Whipping atoms of hate in his hand, he shot them into me as I desperately grasped to defend myself. I had hoped his efforts in building the filter and his injury would have weakened him, but there was no sign of fatigue at all. Power leapt out of him like an eternal spring of supremacy, straining to break me apart and scatter me to the wind.
I slapped his attacks back with desperation, trying to get away and create some space to counter. It was all I could do to stop him from flaying my soul away one element at a time. Rolling over on the ground I kicked up, but he punched my foot back down. I whipped a blast of spirit to push him away, but he sucked the elements into his own power and pushed them into my body. The tentacles of death wedged between my consciousness and began to expand. My grip on reality started to falter. In one last gasp of instinct, I stopped fighting. Instead, I expanded my self outward so his attack fell through me. I lifted up blindly over him, flipping to my feet and locking myself back whole again, reeling at my own ingenuity as I struggled to keep my balance. Asmodeus span, also stunned at what I’d done. I remembered The Perceptionist’s teaching: there was no way I could beat a creature who could see what I was going to do. I had to let my mind stop and my intuition take control. Allowing the knot within me to loosen, synapses in my very pores started to spark with impossible swiftness. Before I even knew what I’d done, a blast of light detonated from within me, sending Asmodeus sprawling to the ground. The fright in his normal eye spurred me on. In a hurricane of vitality I descended upon my father, sending fists and elements in to slice at his very essence. He scrambled backwards, as I had done from him only moments before. With every element in my soul I pursued him. Scuttling in retreat, he fired a counter attack into me, pushing himself back towards the edge of the opening to Hell. I blocked his feeble attempt and leapt in, grabbing his throat so I could look into his broken face as I ended his existence.
Squeezing at him, I pushed my life force into him. Still, he resisted, his superior body naturally repelling my best efforts at getting under his skin. Gathering as much strength as I possibly could, I reached up to pull more elements around me. The move was a mistake. I had thought about it too much. With a jerk of his fists, he impaled his arms into my chest. I slumped. Blood flowed out of my mouth onto his face.
“So close to a god, but still a human soul,” he laughed malevolently at me, as my life bled all over his smile. He rolled over so I was pinned beneath him. “I am impressed,” he sneered. “You definitely pushed me. Still, it wasn’t good enough.”
Asmodeus wrenched his fists inside me, pulling at the chord that held me together. There was no release I could undertake. No attack I could now launch that would save me.
“A pity,” he said, enjoying his victory. “We could have made such a team. But what am I going do to with you? The stuff of your soul could be used to help heal my face and create a new eye.”
He squeezed my insides, wriggling his fingers right into my spirit and scratching it apart. I choked in agony, and would have blacked out – if it wasn’t for the sound I heard next.
“He’s not your soul to take,” a voice said, quivering with rage from behind both of us. “His heart belongs to me!”
Asmodeus looked up in alarm at the words. His hold on me loosened as he pulled his hands from my chest to meet his attacker. It was too late. With a sparking chord of elements, a chain of pure hate wrapped around his neck and flung him off me and away. Scrambling to my knees I pulled myself up and looked down into the gateway of Hell. Asmodeus was hurtling back through his unfinished filter, into the void, Charlotte strangling him with her passion.
TWENTY-THREE
I WATCHED IN DREAD as Charlotte and Asmodeus disappeared into the cycle of elements below. My love had saved me from certain destruction, but had signed her own death warrant in return. I stumbled for a moment, instinctively pulling strength from out of the air around me. I had to stop this.
Digging my hands into the edge of the opening as if I was on a diving block, I propelled myself down after them. Tucking my arms at my sides, I made myself as sleek as possible, torpedoing back into the void. The incomplete filter shot past and Germaine’s atmosphere roared by. My eyes cleared to see Asmodeus and Charlotte. They had crashed down onto the single cliff that remained below and were rolling from the fall. I speared forth toward them in a dive I couldn’t really control. The pair below was rounding on each other to fight again already.
Turning so I was as flat as possible, my body fell between them, thudding an impact into the cliff top. Elements of earth showered upward as I struck. Both Charlotte and Asmodeus stumbled back. I groaned, rolling to my knees hopelessly. I tried to heal myself, but there were no elements on hand to do so. I had to let my ethereal body recoup on its own. Ignoring the crippling pain as it did so, I struggled to get back to my feet. My arrival had made Asmodeus and Charlotte pause. They were standing off against each other, staring loathing into the other’s face, with me caught in the middle. I saw Charlotte flick her hands as if to send atoms toward our enemy, but nothing happened. Asmodeus did the same, instantly realizing his error. There was simply nothing there to command. Keeping my wits I gripped the earth beneath me, rolling it into a rock missile that I shot at my father. He blocked the move easily. The attempt was like throwing confetti at a tank. The primal elements split apart and floated away, drawn down toward the black hole below.
Asmodeus looked around, weighing up his options, while I steadied myself properly. Charlotte came to my back, holding me up. I wanted to ask her why she had broken her promise, but there was no time for words. My father peered over the cliff, looking as though he might jump at any moment and take his chances in Hell. Using the earth at our feet as a weapon was out of the question. Something so pitiful against fellow Elementals would do zero damage. He looked up to us again and smiled his hateful smirk.
“We seem to be at a stalemate,” he said, clasping his hands in front of him.
I knew he was buying time, trying to see a way out. He wanted nothing more than to go back above and finish his filter, but we were a thorn in his side that would fester until it was removed. I took a single step towards him. A churn in my guts made me pause. The warmth inside me grew. The prophecy of Phineus rose into my mind. My final training with The Perceptionist came forth in a flood. Asmodeus had felt it too and his smile fell. True fear captured his face. He turned and ran. I reacted, sweeping Charlotte back away from me. Pushing my fingers in front of my body in a horizontal prayer, I tore through emptiness. My instinct caught hold and my hands dug inside nothing. I could feel my skin prickle under the fabric of the universe. Beneath, searing heat and freezing cold swirled together, but did not cancel the other out. I spread my fingers wider, to create space. With all my strength, I pushed my hands further forward. The rip sent a wave of elements out one way and pure darkness the other. The new life I created sparkled upward. It shimmered in its positive goodness: the building blocks of Creation. But it wasn’t those elements I was interested in. It was their opposite: the seeds of Destruction. My mind clutched onto the dark matter, forming it into a javelin of annihilation. I watched calmly as my father fled. There was nowhere he could hide. Asmodeus took one final look of desperation back and cast himself off the cliff to escape. I sent my weapon after him as he fell. The darkness caught up with him in a blur. Evil forked into his back. Not even his body’s strength was a match for its subtraction. In a hiss, his ski
n dissolved to become one with the void. His spirit zapped into oblivion. Every element of his soul withered away to become the gift of nothing. In moments it was over. My father, Asmodeus, was finished.
TWENTY-FOUR
I SPAN BACK TO CHARLOTTE, whom I had knocked down in my haste. She was sitting, staring at the space where Asmodeus had been and was now nothing. I rushed in, lifting Lotte to her feet and hugging her. We had done it. We had done it! I held her close, whispering in her ear.
“I love you. We’re safe,” I said, feeling the weight of all of my fears evaporate away in a single phrase.
Her hands clung at my back. Her lips met my skin, wet on my neck and then my mouth. The intensity was increased by the joy we both felt. She pulled back to look me in the eyes.
“How did you…?” she began, with tears falling onto her lips.
“It doesn’t matter.” I hugged her against me, burying my face into her hair and smelling blessed victory. We were together. We had won. “You came after me,” I whispered. It wasn’t said as an accusation. It was pure gratitude.
Her palms nestled softly against the back of my neck. Her fingers rubbed up along my twisted ears. I wondered strangely if they would go back to normal now, without all of the separation Asmodeus had created. It would be a brave new world with us leading the way.
“I couldn’t let you do this alone,” Charlotte said. “The war was being won when I left. Clytemnestra and The Furies came…”
“I saw,” I cut her off. Our conversation was a rush of half finished sentences, even though we had all the time in the world now. It would take getting used to – Peace. Without Asmodeus to stir more conflict, we could convince the angels to lay down their arms. They would be forced to surrender. There was no power they had now to oppose us for long. Hell would dominate the realms.