by Diem, J. C.
Nathan was bound to his body and couldn’t leave it, but wings burst from his back. Unlike the others, he didn’t have a halo. It was another sign that he was different from his kin.
Staring into his cobalt eyes, we both knew what was about to happen. Taking my hand, he teleported us to Times Square. Even the humans had felt residuals of magic and had left their homes and workplaces to investigate. They stood frozen, waiting for something to happen. A piece of paper floated on a breeze and I knew I’d seen this exact scene in a dream before. It was the only movement for a short while, then the screaming began.
Humans fled as demons swarmed through portals all over the city. The wards had been removed. Angels and demons were no longer restricted to their spirit forms. They could appear in the flesh without needing to possess a vessel, but I wasn’t sure how or why.
I had a sinking feeling that I was to blame for this. I’d done more than unlock the doors to hell, I’d changed the rules that had been set in place to stop them from wreaking havoc. Any magic that had prevented the angels and demons from taking their corporeal forms had been destroyed.
Shrieking in terror, people stampeded for the dubious safety of buildings. Holding Nathan’s hand, despair overwhelmed me when a group of hellscribes marched into view. They’d constructed runes on slabs of petrified wood and activated them as we watched. Fireballs streaked through the air and smashed into fleeing people, setting them alight. Cars caught on fire and exploded, sending wreckage flying in all directions.
Watching as a huge fireball hit a building, I was amazed to see it simply sputter and die rather than smashing through the windows. “Did you see that?” I asked in a daze.
Nathan smiled grimly. “Elijah has been busy since he joined our team. He and some of his most trusted colleagues have blessed many of the structures in Manhattan.”
Their faith was so strong that even demonic fire couldn’t break through their defenses. Humans were dying, but hopefully it wouldn’t be the catastrophic slaughter that I’d witnessed in a vision that Hag and Orifice had shown me.
Seeing a familiar female Demon Lord stride into view, my breath caught in my throat. Turning my head, I saw a little blond girl standing all alone. She was crying and was petrified with fear. The lord grinned and drew her sword back to skewer the tiny child.
“No!” I shouted and held my hand out, knowing I couldn’t stop what was about to happen.
A hulking figure appeared in front of the child, protecting her from the blow that would have killed her. Morax had arrived in the city and had felt my alarm. He’d come at my call for help. He raised his beloved axe and stopped the sword’s descent. Punching the female lord in the face, he sent her staggering back a step. Black blood poured from her broken nose for a moment before she healed. A brave human bystander raced forward to grab the little girl as the Demon Lords circled each other.
“I heard that you had turned traitor,” she spat. “You have forsaken us in favor of a mere human!”
“Hellscourge is no mere human,” Morax replied. “She has reminded me that there is more to our existence than pain and misery.”
She gave a bark of laughter. “Do you think you can redeem yourself, Lord Morax?” She sneered, showing her fangs and forked tongue. “You are a monster, just like the rest of us.”
“We have all been given a choice,” he said with far more calm than I’d ever seen from a demon. “I choose to side with my master.”
Her eyes flicked to me in disbelief. They moved over my shoulder where I could sense the rest of what remained of my legion. Sy and the lords had teleported to me and were guarding my back.
With a scream of defiance, the female lord swung her sword. Morax easily blocked it and kicked her legs out from under her. His axe descended and lodged in her chest. With a feeble gasp, she shimmered and disappeared. I felt her essence being drawn to the portal that led to the first realm of hell. The demons apparently still couldn’t die even though they were in their solid forms. At least they were being sent back to hell when they were defeated in battle, and not being drawn to me.
Seeing a blinding flash of white light, I looked up to see Hagith, Orifiel and their host of angels appear. With their blazing blue swords, pristine robes, wings and halos, they were the very picture of avenging angels.
The host sent blasts of holy fire at the demons. Scribes tilted their runes upwards and fireballs streaked through the air. Brie, Dom and Jed were among them. Dom used his special talent to create illusions of his kin to draw the fire away from them. The illusions of holy fire couldn’t harm their enemies, but it was enough to confuse them.
Sirens sounded as the cops converged on Times Square. Their numbers were pitifully few since half of them had been possessed. The vessels would be lying where they’d fallen, waiting to recover from being puppets. Shots rang out and demons flinched when the bullets penetrated their leather armor. A scribe was hit in the head and went down. He shimmered and disappeared, which meant normal weapons could be used against them. It was a weakness of their being in their solid forms.
Reynolds’ car pulled up and he, Sophia and Elijah climbed out. They were horrified to see us surrounded by Demon Lords and a lone scribe. Reynolds pulled his gun, but I held up my hands to stop him from shooting. “They’re my allies,” I told him. Morax peered down his nose at the puny humans then inclined his head regally. The others copied him, but I knew they were itching to go to battle.
“What’s the plan?” Reynolds asked. His tone and posture were tense with fright, but he was determined to stay. He would do his bit to help his fellow man from being slaughtered.
I could only shrug helplessly. “Satan and the new Hellmaster have to be here somewhere. They’re bound to fight each other for supremacy. We should find them, see who comes out on top, then try to take down the winner.” It wasn’t much of a plan, but no one else had any better suggestions.
“We need a better vantage point,” Nathan said. We gathered into a group and he teleported us to higher ground.
₪₪₪
Chapter Forty-Five
Nathan took us to the observation deck of the Empire State Building. We were so high up that I couldn’t make out the people below. Fire streaked across the sky as the scribes targeted the angels. Their wings gave them the agility they needed to evade the attacks. They could also teleport out of danger.
My eyesight wasn’t good enough to see very far, but Nathan’s was exceptional. He pointed towards Central Park. “I see two gigantic demons fighting each other. They both have red skin.”
“It is Satan and the new Hellmaster,” Morax confirmed. “We should move closer and observe their battle.”
Nathan nodded and shifted us all to the park. We hid behind trees as the two fifteen-foot-tall demons fought with huge scarlet swords on a grassy field. Satan was clearly the better swordsman, but he seemed to be having trouble focusing on his target. Even while standing in plain sight, his usurper was hard to look at. My eyes kept sliding away from him. All I could see was a long black robe that covered most of his face and body. Only his hands, cloven hooves and hypnotic eyes were visible.
Satan landed a blow that staggered his opponent. A flash of golden light from beneath the Hellmaster’s robes caught my attention. I took a step forward and Nathan grabbed my arm. “It is too dangerous to get any closer,” he warned me. I followed his pointing finger and saw Vepar, Bob and hundreds of lackeys waiting on the sidelines. Like us, they were awaiting the outcome to see who would be their master.
“He has something I need,” I said in an almost drugged tone. I tried to step forward again, but Morax grabbed my other arm to halt me. “I can’t be whole until I have it back,” I said, trying to explain what I could barely understand myself. Every fiber of my being was screaming at me to go to the golden light and to claim it as my own.
“What is wrong with her?” Morax growled to Nathan over my head.
“I do not know,” my guardian replied in a disturbed voice.
Sy timidly offered his opinion. “Perhaps Satan is attempting to compel her again.”
“It belongs to me,” I said and anger began to swell as I realized what the golden light was. “He stole it and I want it back.”
“Who stole what, Violet?” Sophia asked.
I looked at her and she flinched back. I saw myself reflected in her eyes. Mine were glowing as gold as the light that belonged to me. “He has my essence,” I said. It was all clear to me now. I knew who the usurper was and how he’d reached such a lofty position. “He stole it from the cemetery and he’s been using it to make himself appear to be far stronger than he really is.”
“You know who he is,” Morax said. It was a statement rather than a question.
“There’s only one demon it could possibly be,” I replied. “He’s been scheming for power for thousands of years. He was there when Hannah spoke the prophecy about me and he worked his way up as high as he could. He allied himself with the most cunning, ambitious lord he could find. He isn’t strong enough to travel through the hellgates himself. Vepar must have brought him through to visit Earth at least a few times. She’s his liaison for the Collectors. She’s been taking the grace to the Scriptorium and he used it to keep Satan caged.”
“Are you saying Dantanian is the Hellmaster?” Sy asked in astonishment. He could barely bring himself to look at the false leader of hell. The Head Scribe’s spells were as strong as they were insidious.
“What you’re seeing is just an illusion,” I explained. “Dantanian is using my essence to boost the spells that he’s been hoarding for himself.”
Nathan and Morax exchanged a look then released me at the same time. “We will break Satan and Dantanian apart and retrieve your grace for you,” Nathan said and called on his sword. With his wings and holy weapon, he looked like the warrior of God that he’d always been.
“Come,” Morax said to the other lords with a fierce grin. “Let us battle our former masters.”
With a whoop of joy, the lords teleported into the fray. Nathan zapped the two monstrously sized demons with holy fire and they broke apart. Startled that anyone would dare to interrupt him, Satan roared in fury. Unlike his minions, his upper half was bare. As I’d suspected, his skin was as thick as armor. The few wounds that he received were healed in the blink of an eye.
Still disguised as the Hellmaster, Dantanian fell back to the trees and ushered his troops forward. Vepar and Bob hung back to guard him, but I knew they just didn’t want to risk losing their status by being defeated. Neither of them wanted to become lowly servants and have to work their way back up again.
My few allies would be overwhelmed in seconds and they didn’t have any backup. They were going to be cut down and sent back to either heaven or hell right before my eyes. I clenched my hands, feeling weak and useless. I was Hellscourge and I was standing there watching futilely.
Using their teleportation abilities, Nathan and my lords flickered in and out of sight as they chose their targets. Instead of attempting to defeat Satan, Dantanian’s lackeys were protecting him. The Devil had reasserted his authority over them and they were now his minions again.
Seeing Dantanian gloating from the sidelines as my guardian and lords engaged Satan, my anger grew. I could feel my hair stirring even though there was no breeze.
“What’s happening to her?” Reynolds asked and drew Sy, Sophia and Elijah back a few steps.
“Her wrath is rising,” Sophia replied. “I believe we are about to witness Violet finally become the scourge of demonkind that she was always meant to be.”
I started walking across the grass and used Sam’s camouflage ability to make myself blend in with my environment. Having hundreds of angelic souls inside me had given me the boost I needed. My ability to become almost invisible had reached new levels.
When I was fifty yards away from my quarry, I heard Vepar talking. “How are you going to defeat Satan this time?” she asked her ally.
“I have a few spells up my sleeve that he has not seen yet,” Dantanian replied. He was attempting to sound unworried, but I heard the tension in his voice. “I have power that no other demon has ever owned before. Not even our master can defeat me.”
He didn’t see me as I strode up to him. He didn’t feel it when my hand slid beneath his robe and touched the vial that hung from a chain around his neck. I could sense the spells on the chain that were keeping it in place. My new ability didn’t just allow me to open locks, it also enabled me to dispel any rune. “Are you sure about that?” I said and made myself visible.
The fake Hellmaster’s mouth dropped open in horror when he realized I had my hand on the vial. “No!” he shouted, but he was too late.
I touched the chain and the spells instantly became deactivated. The illusions that Dantanian had hidden behind dropped away to reveal his true face. The vial came free and I closed my hand around it. Mesmerized by the golden glow, it intensified as it sensed me. It knew who I was and it wanted to be rejoined with me.
Dantanian, Vepar and Bob scrambled backwards as I touched the lid. A sense of doom rose and spread out to every demon in the vicinity. Pausing in their battle, they all turned to stare at me in dread. Opening the vial, my golden essence spilled out and hovered over me. Closing my eyes, I drew it in. For a moment, nothing happened. Then all hell broke loose inside me.
₪₪₪
Chapter Forty-Six
In the blink of an eye, I grew to the size of a Demon Princess as power swelled inside me. Now that I had my soul back, I could no longer store the angelic grace, and two human souls inside me. Hundreds of former angels were expelled in a blinding white light that I could see even behind my closed lids. Sam and Heather were also evicted. I felt my friends and the former angels being drawn to a dimension that I hadn’t been to yet.
I opened my eyes to examine myself and was astonished by what I saw. Instead of being a hideous demon, I was something far more majestic. My wings were gold and feathery rather than black and leathery. My armor had returned, but it was the same golden color as my wings, skin and eyes. Even my bracelet was no longer scarlet. It had turned gold as well. The twin skull buckles that had become a breastplate were still bronze. They made a nice contrast to the overwhelming amount of gold.
My feet weren’t cloven and I no longer had fangs, but I reached up to touch the horns that swept towards the back of my head. My dual natures had changed me into a cross between an angel and a demon. I was glad to see my hair was as blond as always. It was the only thing about me that hadn’t changed.
Not all of the grace had been drawn back to heaven. One was hovering in front of Sophia. She took a deep breath and braced herself as her grace returned to her. Ejected from her vessel, Sophia took on her solid form. Her vessel fell and Elijah caught the body and eased her to the ground. Robes, wings and a halo manifested, along with her holy sword. With a glance at her fallen human, she sent me a joyful smile then joined the battle as it began to rage again.
As if they had been waiting for my full attention, memories of my earliest childhood flashed through me. I’d been a happy baby rather than the monster that I’d expected to be since I was a hated Nephilim. Then the memories changed and became dark and dismal. I saw Nathan and Asteraoth hovering over me before my guardian put me into a deep sleep. He cut my heart open and my essence was drawn into the vial. He healed me, but the ugly red scar remained. Even after eighteen years, it still looked fresh and newly made.
My soul had been kept in a lightless box beneath a cemetery for a few months before Dantanian had found it. He’d tried to ingest it, but he’d been unable to draw it into himself. Yet he was weakly linked to the essence. That strange connection was how he’d sensed it hidden so deeply beneath the graveyard. Although he couldn’t assimilate my power, he’d found a way to use it to boost his spells.
He’d mistakenly thought he owned my soul because of his weak link to it, but he was wrong. It was finally back where it belonged and now he wo
uld pay for everything he’d put me through. I’d been created to scour demons from the Earth and that was what I was going to do.
I stared down at the puny hellscribe who was cowering away from me. Dantanian’s black robe was covered in runes. His illusions had hidden them well. They’d been deactivated and now he had no protection against me. “You stole my essence,” I said in a voice that was a cross between the musical notes of an angel and the gravelly tones of a demon. “You have used it to cause misery and to attempt to destroy mankind.” He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. “You have incurred my wrath, Head Scribe of the Scriptorium.” I paused for a moment before speaking the words that I never thought I’d say. “Or should I call you ‘father’?”
Shock coursed over Vepar’s and Bob’s faces, but Dantanian didn’t seem to be surprised. He’d been the demon possessing the vessel who had raped Asteraoth. He’d sensed part of his own evil essence in the vial that Nathan had used to harvest my soul. His connection to my essence was how he’d managed to use it to boost his spells and illusions. No other demon could have pulled that off.
“You do not want to kill me,” Dantanian said in a wheedling tone. He wrung his hands together as he backed away. “I never wanted you to be harmed. I knew you were my progeny, which is why I ordered my minions to bring you to me alive.” His words became more and more desperate when he saw they were having no effect on me. He changed tactics. “I will be an invaluable asset to you when you assume control of hell.”
Stalking him, I ignored the fight that was raging behind us. More angels had arrived and were engaging the lesser demons. My friends and allies were focusing on taking Satan down, but he was far too skilled for them to defeat.