“Twelve thousand, Simon, and my immense gra—”
“Mr. Shulman?” Alex shouldered Gribovsky to the side and placed his little bundle on the counter. “Could you tell me what’s inside this handkerchief?”
The single eye behind Shulman’s monocle flashed slightly and started shifting, almost as if the antique dealer was trying to find a way out.
“How should I know that, boy? Who cares about your dumb handkerchief, anyway?”
“I’ll ask you again, Mr. Shulman. What’s in this handkerchief?”
The antique dealer ground his teeth, his right hand twitching convulsively.
Gribovsky reached for his gun.
“You came to ask about Poseidon’s Ball, didn’t you?”
“I heard a different name.”
“Idiots! The real name is Poseidon’s Ball. Poseidon used it to play—”
“Let me ask you for the third time, Mr. Shulman. What’s in this handkerchief?” Alex pressed, throwing his will behind every syllable.
Shulman was twitching all over—it looked like he was going into an epileptic seizure. His monocle fell off and rolled across the floor.
“A cig—…cig—…”
“Shoot!” Alex screamed, using his will to throw up a shield-like black seal in front of him.
Without asking any questions, Gribovsky pulled the trigger.
Doom finally got to see an enchanted gun in action. When Gribovsky pulled the trigger, having yanked his gun out of its holster so fast that Alex saw nothing but a blur, dozens of overlapping magic seals flashed in front of the muzzle. A stream of red light burst out of the barrel to transform into a shiny Lancelot’s Spear spell.
Just the heat it generated was strong enough to shake Alex’s defensive spell. Made of pure light and fire, setting the air inside the shop ablaze, the spear pierced the antique dealers’ chest, sending him flying off into the dark corridor to flare up there as a furious whirlwind of light and fire. He broke through the whole building and dissolved high in the sky.
[Spell detected: LANCELOT’S SPEAR of the Fire and Light School. Mana usage: 3,742.]
“Fucking shit,” Alex cursed, standing up and finding himself amid the wreckage of the once-perfect shop. Broken floor planks. Smashed glass covers. Damaged artifacts and relics. Holes in the walls. Burn spots and acid traces. Flashes of spells dying away.
“That wasn’t me,” Gribovsky said instantly.
“Of course not,” Doom replied with a nod. “Damn abyss. Old Shulman didn’t go down without a fight.”
“Wait, what? That was…an illusion? Then who was that? Who did I just shoot?”
Alex just pointed at the occasional fiery flashes popping out of the dark corridor.
“I wouldn’t be so sure you shot him.”
“Who? Who the fuck are you talking about?”
“A demon, Gribovsky. A very evil, very powerful…and now very displeased demon.”
As though in confirmation, another fiery flash illuminated a figure in the darkness. It was a figure Doom would be seeing in his troubled dreams for a long time.
The twelve-foot creature roared, swept the remnants of the door away with its shoulders, and burst into what had been a flawless storefront.
Chapter 49
“What the devil is that?” Gribovsky, either insightfully or on gut instinct, refrained from sending another bullet hurtling at the monster. Instead, he jumped away, rolled across the floor, and hid behind the demolished statue of some ancient god.
That precaution saved the lives of both men.
Alex, falling instantly to his knees, slapped both hands on the floor. Spreading out around his fingers came flashing red sparks that merged to form a seal looking nothing like anything ever created by human wizards.
[ERROR. ERROR. Structure cannot be recognized. The authorized agencies have been informed.]
“Cancel that message!” Gribovsky bellowed in an unfamiliar voice. “Damn it, Alex. What the fuck are you doing?”
Doom bit his lip, saying nothing. Drops of blood fell onto the outer perimeter of the seal with a roar. The rumbling sound blew out the remnants of the double glazing still remaining in the windows, and lightning spanning all the visible colors gushed out of the seal to mix into a single, variegated mess.
It wasn’t even demonology. It was…
“Demon magic,” Alex hissed, feeling his strength leave him like sand from a broken hourglass. His other source (not the dark lilac, but the blazing crimson one) could only cast a few of those spells.
With the next drop of blood, the seal began to vibrate. The bolts of lightning entwined into a giant clawed paw that gripped the roaring monster a moment before its great sword came crashing down on Alex’s head.
The monster looked almost human. Twelve feet tall and seven feet from shoulder to shoulder, it was covered in golden armor. Its goat legs ended in hooves, and paws flashed long claws. Only the muscular gray torso was bare for eyes to see and weapons to cleave.
The demon’s right hand held a sword formed by two very broad blades, a void between them.
The creature’s face couldn’t be seen. In fact, Alex doubted it had one at all. Where the face should have been was a cast metal plate surrounded by hair that looked more like porcupine needles.
“So, it’s true.” Gribovsky involuntarily crossed himself. Alex gritted his teeth as bitter pain flashed through him suddenly. His seal shook, and the monster’s sword edged lower. “You really can…”
“Lieutenant! It’s a soldier demon from a second-hundred legion!” Alex had his red source pour more force into the seal, and the clawed paw made of bloody lightning grew denser. The demon made a metal sound that was something between a growl and the clang of steel. “A dozen times as strong as that thing at the museum!”
“Why didn’t you say so before?” Gribovsky asked as he aimed his gun.
“No!” Alex yelled. “It can absorb magic!”
“Damn.” Spinning the gun around his finger, Gribovsky dropped it into his holster. “How long can you hold it?”
“Eight seconds, maybe.”
“Four is all I need,” the lieutenant replied with a nod. He got up from behind his cover and held out his left hand, which sported a broad leather wristband and a gleaming metal plate.
“Seal removal,” he said in a commanding voice. “Authorized: Guard Warrior Julidor Gribovsky.”
“Juli…shit…dor?”
“My parents were high when they named me,” the red-haired warrior replied, shrugging.
The metal plate on his wristband flashed a silvery glow that enveloped his whole hand and stretched forward to form what Doom at first thought was a metal bar.
But when the glow vanished, it turned out to be a blade some six feet long and as wide as a man’s palm. It had a bas-relief of a goat skull with spiraling horns stretching six inches to either side in place of a guard.
“Don’t look so skeptical, pumpkin,” Gribovsky said as he tossed another Skittle into his mouth and prepared to attack. “Our armorer is a big fan of Devil May Cry.”
“A fan of what?”
“Ignoramus. Let our friend go.”
Alex glanced over at the twelve-foot demonic “friend.” Even absent the lieutenant’s order, he wouldn’t have been able to hold the creature back any longer without draining his second source completely.
As he took his hands off the floor, Doom simultaneously pushed off with both feet, sending his body flying. That was just enough for the monster’s giant sword to sever the floorboards instead of his skull. A window down into the dark cellar appeared.
“Happen to have heard of the polka, pumpkin?” With that poor excuse for a battle cry, and brandishing his great steel weapon as if it were weightless, Gribovsky rushed in to attack. He hit the demon’s genital area with his shoulder and…no, he didn’t break his shoulder blade. His ribs stayed intact, too. The red-haired mortal with just six hundred mana points sent the giant, several-ton demon flying back ten fee
t.
Not happy with that result, Gribovsky pushed off the floor, soaring all the way up to the ceiling, and came down to land a powerful slashing blow on the reeling beast.
His two-handed sword, just a bit less monstrous than the demon’s, cleaved through the air, leaving a smoky trace as it dug into the otherworldly creature’s shoulder. Cutting through armor that could have withstood multiple direct artillery shell hits, it buried itself in the monster’s hard muscle. The demon roared, plumes of greenish-black blood gushing through the air.
Tightening its free hand into a clawed fist, it drilled Gribovsky in the chest. A blow like that should have come out the other side; instead, it just sent the guardsman flying against the opposite wall. His back sent cracks spreading across the masonry. But Gribovsky landed catlike on his feet and rush back in for another attack, shouting as he ran.
The recovering demon wasn’t about to wait where he was. Instead, almost mirroring his opponent’s move, he also rushed forward. The double blade arced through the air so rapidly that Alex failed to spot where the move started or ended.
Gribovsky ducked beneath the swing. Almost touching the floor with his nose, he flew in an inch below the blades, wriggled like a snake, and thrust himself off the floor. He whirled around in the air.
He was like a whirligig with a deadly spike of a six-foot sword. Made of adamantius, Alex guessed based on the tingle in his fingertips. Fucking dragon-blood-enchanted adamantius. What else could explain the yellow fire flashing across the sword to both slice the giant demon into tiny bits and even fry it like an overdone steak served right from hell?
Landing on the floor, Gribovsky brushed the sweaty, sticky hair off his forehead, jabbed the sword into the floor next to where he was standing, and leaned on it happily.
The monster, or whatever remained of it, was smoking where it pooled, gradually spreading a mixture of slime and supernatural plasma. That was the end of all otherworldly creatures.
“Just like in Prague, that thing was too weak to get in a good workout.” Gribovsky blew his nose on the creature’s remains.
Doom shifted his gaze silently between the mortal, his sword, and the fallen demon.
Fucking Guards. I was so naïve to think they would employ Practitioners at the 6th level.
“By the way, pumpkin, thanks for your help. Did you get some rest while I Danted that demon?”
“Danted? You mean dented?”
Gribovsky cursed.
“Do you really not know who Dante from the Devil May Cry agency is?”
“I don’t.”
Gribovsky cursed again.
“And this guy works as a demon fighter for the Guards’ dep—”
“I don’t work for you,” Alex interrupted. “And if that thing was so easy for you to kill, you probably won’t have any trouble dealing with those, either.”
“Those? What are you talking about?”
Alex just pointed at the dark corridor. Stepping out of it, slowly and sideways in a way that would have looked funny if it hadn’t been so dangerous, were four monsters just like the dead one.
Gribovsky jerked out his sword and strode forward to shield Alex.
“Is the summoner that far away?” the lieutenant asked seriously.
“Probably not,” Alex replied. Around his left hand, a chaotic glow appeared, the color hard to detect. “But by yourself, you—”
“Then go get the bastard.” The redhead spat and spread the saliva around with the tip of his cowboy boot. “I’ll deal with these kids.”
“You sure?”
Gribovsky just jerked his head toward the door.
Alex wasn’t about to argue.
“Hey, pumpkin?”
“Yeah?”
“Cut loose.” Alex couldn’t see Gribovsky flash a predatory smirk, but he could feel it. “You’re not in a museum full of kids this time, so do your worst. The Guards will clean up after you.”
It was Alex’s turn to grin like a dashing pirate.
Chapter 50
Stepping outside and leaving the sounds of battle behind him, Alex stooped to wipe some of the thick, black slime off his shoe. He kneaded it with his fingers and blew on it.
Sparks flew from his lips, setting the substance on fire. It flared up instantly in a ball of green flame that vanished in dense smoke. The ball, which was resting on Doom’s palm, bulged and bubbled until it turned into a scary-looking bird.
“Go find your master,” Alex commanded.
The bird twitched, struggling to break free from the chains of Doom’s will, but the latter was unwavering. No longer a novice in the black magic arts, he was even less so in the demonic ones.
As for what the lieutenant said…he decided to think about that later. He wasn’t sure how the Guards came to know one of his main secrets.
Finally bending to Alex’s will, the bird flew off along the empty avenue. The occasional car was the only thing out in the early evening—everyone else had heard the sounds coming from inside the antique shop and was staying as far away as possible.
Doom could hear the sirens, though. The cavalry’s coming.
Running up to his bike, Alex jumped on the seat and rolled on the throttle as he pulled up the kickstand. The rearing chopper started right off the bat, rushing down the street.
The wind drew tears as it slapped his face, but Alex waved it aside—both literally and metaphorically. In front of his face, shielding him from wind and video surveillance alike, appeared a cloud of dark fog transparent only from the inside.
[ATTENTION! Prohibited spell used: DEAD MAN’S SHROUD of the Death and Darkness School. Mana consumption: N/A.]
If the Guards were on cleanup duty…
“Where are you?” Alex glanced around, trying to figure out where the bird was taking him. They raced away from the Central District and crossed the suspension bridge over Myers City’s main river to arrive in the Financial District. It was where all tourist routes inevitably ended. Scraping the sky there were the tallest buildings, all owned by the Atlantis aristocracy.
It was the heart of the steel-and-glass jungle, not a single blade of real grass to be found outside the vast park at the district’s edge.
Alex dashed over the street markings, ignoring the occasional horns and screeching brakes. The closer he got to where the rich families lived, the more expensive magic cars there were making those sounds.
“There we go.” Wheeling his chopper around, Alex braked hard. He slid across the special road coating that looked nothing like plain asphalt as he watched the tall, shadow-cloaked figure pat the smoky bird clinging to it.
The figure’s face was masked.
“Who are you?” Alex asked, firmly and loudly, not at all caring that they were in the middle of a busy eight-lane street watched by hundreds of eyes and dozens of surveillance cameras on every side. The cars flowed past like schools of fish. The neon light cast by billboards and club signs was bright enough to turn the night into a dusky kind of day.
Patting the bird one last time, the Mask closed his fingers around its slender neck to disperse the spell.
That wouldn’t surprise a magic amateur, but Alex wasn’t sure he could have dispersed a search spell that easily.
“Who are—”
Before Doom could finish, the Mask held out a palm. Dozens of red seals appeared in front of him like an impenetrable wall.
Just like the spells in the shop, they weren’t from the demonology school. They were demon magic.
Just as pure as Alex’s.
“That’s imposs—… Who are you??”
Instead of answering, the seals flashed all the colors of Chaos, releasing a roaring maw with bared fangs. It belched black smoke and gray lightning bolts, covering four of the eight lanes.
The cars lucky enough to survive with just a brush flew in all directions like empty cans.
People screamed, running away and swarming like ants around a destroyed anthill. In just a moment, the city changed completely
.
Soaring cars crashed through the boutique windows, restaurants, and clubs, even breaking office windows up to the eighth floor.
Anyone who found themselves directly in the spell’s path was beyond helping. Neither flaring up nor turning into lumps of sliced metal, they just vanished, crumbling into fine dust. They had no time to scream or pray to their gods.
As he watched the approaching maw in what seemed like slow motion, Doom saw the monstrous jaws swallow a little toy kitten still clutched in a child’s hand.
He took his hands off the handlebars and threw them forward.
Both of them.
Although he was capable of forming seals by pure will, he could put more magic in them within a much shorter time by using his hands.
Dozens of black and lilac seals flashed in front of him, forming a wall like the one the Mask had just cast.
The spell hurtling toward him was filled with pure demon magic. Neither First Magic University nor the Guards’ practice ranges, not to mention anywhere else, could have prepared anyone for something like that.
And that was because everyone believed that no human or member of a sapient magic race could use demon magic.
No one but demons themselves were believed to be able to use it.
But there it was. And the fact that it was a spell made it similar to all the other spells out there.
Alex knew that better than anyone.
His thoughts galloped. Add protection. Increase the temperature. Set the decay limit. Neutralize the elements. Condense. Twist. Break powers. Narrow shields.
The spell formed right before his eyes, the overlapping black magic seals oozing strength and energy. The black strips entwined to form a long, thirty-foot spear in the shape of a ram’s curved horn.
[ATTENTION! Unregistered modification of a prohibited spell used: BLACK GOAT’S HORN of the Death and Darkness School. Mana consumption: N/A.]
Just before the open maw reached Doom, it was hit by the black spear horn. A bolt of gray lightning flashed across its tip followed by the sound of a powerful explosion.
Alex covered his head with the flap of his jacket to protect himself from the road metal raining down. The pebbles (or whatever they really were) scattered like lead shot, preceding the ball of crimson-black fire formed by the two colliding spells.
Dark Wizard's Case Page 27