Succubus Lord 8

by Eric Vall

  Tannin let out a wail that shook the entire landscape of the swamp, and then he began to thrash around harshly.

  I tried to keep him wrangled in with my spell, but it was too much. My arms were growing heavier by the second, and it now felt like I was trying to hold a six-hundred pound weight in each one. I gasped as I released the sea monster from its telekinetic prison, and he careened back down toward the surface of the water.

  Tannin caused a geyser as he struck the water, and then he slunk back underneath the waves.

  “Did you see that?” Gula exclaimed. “I think I did some damage!”

  “Are you guys ready for round two?” I asked and reinforced the platform underneath my feet. “Because it’s about to start right now!”

  Still maintaining my protective purple spell with one hand, I summoned bronze Hellfire into my open palm. I charged it up for a second or two, and then I unleashed it down at the spot where Tannin had just disappeared.

  The flames spread across the water like a blanket of oil and forced their very molecules to vibrate rapidly. Suddenly, a tidal wave as large as a twenty-story building rose up out of the swamp, and with it came Tannin.

  As soon as the beast was airborne and defenseless, Gula, Todd, Ira, and I all blasted it with as many red fireballs as we possibly could. Each one struck Tannin’s body and left behind dark singe marks, but he remained unphased as he plummeted back down into the depths.

  “Fuck,” I growled. “I really thought that was gonna work.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Ira suggested. “It’s twisted, and it’s gonna hurt. Oh my, how it’s gonna hurt!”

  “Get yourself off later, Crazy Eyes,” Todd said as he snapped his fingers. “What is it?”

  “Ever heard the story of Jonah and the whale?” the Sister of Wrath asked.

  “No, but I’ve seen Pinocchio enough times to get where this is going,” the imp acknowledged. “Get up in there like you’re paying by the minute!”

  If we hadn’t been in the heat of battle, I would have made a snarky comment. However, Ira was already in the air and aglow with her healing magic.

  “As a backup, I’ll try to knock out its soul or whatever,” Invidia offered from above. “Here, Gula. Hold this.”

  The gothic succubus tossed Martatelli into the air, and her redheaded Sister shot up and grabbed him by his leg.

  Another sickly pop emerged from the Shade’s body, and he groaned in his native tongue once more.

  Vidia floated down beside Ira and began to charge up her silver Hellfire.

  This time, Tannin came at us from an angle rather than from below. His gargantuan figure launched out of the water like a rocket, and his mouth opened wide as he flew toward us.

  Ira held out her morning star in front of her, and then she flew directly at the beast as quickly as she could. The Sister of Wrath looked like a golden comet as she shot through the air, and then she disappeared into Tannin’s open maw.

  Invidia’s body was now glowing bright with her metallic Hellfire as she waited for the perfect opportunity to take her shot. Once the monstrosity was within striking distance, the Sister of Envy released her attack.

  The silver beam struck Tannin head-on, and he moaned in pain as the fire surrounded his body.

  However, nothing seemed to happen.

  “Fuck!” Vidia gasped as she kept holding her spell in vain.

  Tannin was approaching fast, and if none of us did something soon, we were going to join Ira in his belly.

  I held out my hand, surrounded it with green Hellfire, and then used my magic to create the biggest portal I’d ever made right in front of Tannin’s trajectory.

  The beast’s open jaws passed through the glowing gateway of green and then reappeared directly behind its hind end. Tannin’s momentum kept his body going, and his razor-sharp teeth buried themselves into his own rear. The creature was only latched on for a second, but it was enough time to do damage. Tannin shrieked and pulled away from himself, and as he did so, a few geysers of dark-red demon blood sprayed from his newfound wounds.

  “Jacob, it’s … it’s not working … ” Invidia sighed, obviously weakened from using her powers on such a massive scale. “I … ”

  Without another word, Vidia fainted and began to fall out of the sky.

  “Fuck!” Gula gasped. “Hold him, Todd!”

  The redhead tossed Martatelli over toward the floating imp, and he completely missed his cue. The scientist’s eyes went wide as he sailed past Todd’s position and plummeted down toward the swampy water.

  At the same time, Tannin lost his momentum and fell back into the abyss.

  Martatelli’s twisted body hit right after the beast’s, and they both disappeared from view.

  “Eh, he’s a Shade,” Todd mused. “He’ll be fine.”

  “I wonder how Ira’s doing?” Gula thought aloud as she flew back over with the unconscious Invidia in her arms.

  “He’s still breathing,” I observed, “so she can’t be doing that much damage. Then again, neither are we.”

  “You know what we need, bro?” Todd pondered. “We need a giant fucking--”

  Before he could finish his thought, an enormous geyser of water shot out of the water and struck our position. I was blown off the violet platform by the frigid water, and I began to flail wildly as I plummeted down into the water. The next thing I knew, I was submerged in the swamp.

  I could feel the weight of the Unhallowed Sword weighing me down, but there was nothing I could really do. It was either sink, or abandon my most prized possession.

  And I sure as fuck wasn’t going to do that.

  Then, in the distance, I saw Tannin. Despite his massive frame, the creature was shooting through the water as if he were a submarine with a turbo boost.

  I couldn’t believe I was saying this, but I needed to fall faster. I looked around and saw a few of the Shades were reaching for my body, and I got an idea. I summoned silver Hellfire to my hands, cast it around the chains on the Shade’s wrists and ankles, and then pulled the liquified metal back into my fist. The oxidized metal shimmered as I willed it to form a large anchor, and then I felt my body jerk downward violently.

  And not a second too soon.

  Tannin barrelled over my head not a millisecond after I had created the anchor. My body lifted into a horizontal position as the current threatened to pull me away, but I was able to hang on.

  I threw down a green portal beneath my trajectory, and I passed through it with ease. My body reappeared about sixty feet above the water, and I quickly released the anchor while simultaneously forming a platform of purple to land on. I rolled into an upright position, shot out a beam of green Hellfire, and caught the anchor in my spell. I heard Tannin make the leap out of the swamp once more, but that was just what I was waiting for.

  I spun my body around on the platform, and the glowing green anchor spun with it. Then I jerked my arms down in a diagonal motion, and the anchor followed suit.

  It spun like a frisbee as it hurled at the airborne beast, struck him in the side of the head, and knocked him to the side.

  The beast groaned angrily as blood spurted from his wounds, and he sank back under the surface.

  “That worked like a charm, Jacob!” Gula exclaimed as she zipped back over to my position.

  The redhead still had Invidia in her arms, but they were both soaked. Vidia’s eyeliner was now running in dark streaks down her sleeping face, and her shiny chest was heaving underneath her black corset.

  The next thing I knew, the bodies of Ira and Martatelli shot out of the water like bullets. The glowing form of the Sister of Wrath cannonballed through the air, caught herself on her giant, bat-like wings, and then darted over and snatched Martatelli out of the sky. The succubus carried the still-screaming man over to my floating platform, and we planned our next move.

  “How did that go, Crazy Eyes?” Todd asked excitedly. “Did ya penetrate the inside of that thing like an Amsterdam whore?”

/>   “I don’t know what that means,” Ira said as she rolled her eyes, “but no. I was able to get a few cuts on his vital organs, but his viscera is far too thick for my weapons or magic to get through.”

  “The anchor seemed to work,” Gula observed. “Where did you find that thing?”

  “I didn’t,” I admitted. “I made it.”

  As soon as the words left my lips, I knew that was the solution. I made the makeshift weapon out of the chains that bound the Shades to their torments. If I could do it again, on an even grander scale, then maybe I could create a stronger weapon that could put a pin in this situation once and for all.

  “I have a batshit crazy idea,” I announced.

  Before I could finish, another geyser of water shot out from beneath the surface. This time, however, I was able to throw up a wall of purple Hellfire, and the swampy liquid shot off in four different directions harmlessly.

  Tannin’s massive figure broke the surface again, and he looked furious.

  I wasn’t sure what the intelligence level of this thing was, but I was starting to assume he was realizing “jump out of the water at these guys” wasn’t a tactic that was working.

  Of course, I wasn’t going to stand around and give him time to devise another one.

  “I need you to keep him busy,” I ordered the rest of the team. “I’m gonna have to get in the water.”

  “That’s suicide, Jacob!” Ira gasped. “The water is Tannin’s natural habitat. He’s got you outmatched in every way when you’re down there.”

  “It better be one Hell of a distraction, then,” I joked. “I have faith in you guys.”

  Despite my friend’s pleas, I took a running jump off the enchanted platform and dove toward the chilly waters below. I broke the surface with a somewhat violent crash, and then I felt the cold, dark embrace of the liquid around me.

  I knew I didn’t have a moment to spare, so I instantly closed my eyes and started to think about this current fucked up situation. How Baphomet saw me as such a non-threat he hadn’t even given us the time of day. The fact that there was no stipulation for a Demon King like myself to enter and exit Hell at will. How, even in death, Azazel was still fucking with me thanks to all the shit he did when he was alive.

  The bitterness swelled inside me as I kept my eyes closed and hoped my friends were keeping Tannin at bay. I heard the waves in the distance crash and assumed that meant things were going well.

  As the silver Hellfire surrounded my body and washed over it with a tingling sensation, I got the distinct taste of iron in my mouth. At the same time, my heart began to thump faster in my chest, and it suddenly felt like my bloodstream was full of the metallic substance. All around me in the water, I could hear the swish of the various streams of liquid metal as they came under my command.

  When I finally opened my eyes, I saw an orb of metallic fluid nearly five times the size of my body.

  This would make a perfect spear.

  I was still weighed down by the Unhallowed Sword at my belt, so I used my purple Hellfire to create a series of tiny ledges all throughout the water. Then I “climbed” up the ledges using my upper body strength until I finally reached the one that sat above the surface. As soon as I breached, I raised a glowing purple hand into the air and ordered our boat to return to me.

  About a mile away, my friends had Tannin completely focused on them.

  Todd was darting around like an annoying mosquito, firing fireball after fireball into the creature’s thick hide. Gula, who still held the unconscious Invidia, was assisting him in the assault.

  Meanwhile, Ira was using Martatelli as a form of human bait. She held the Shade by his legs as she dangled him just outside the reach of Tannin’s jaws.

  Needless to say, the scientist wasn’t too thrilled about his role in all of this.

  Charon’s boat returned to me from wherever it had been, and I climbed up into it in a hurry. I stumbled to the front, raised my glowing silver hand, and brought the giant orb of metallic liquid out of the water.

  Despite their best efforts to distract the beast, this action caught his attention. Tannin swiftly rotated his body so it was facing me head-on, and then he began to shoot through the water like he’d been shot out of a cannon.

  I closed my eyes and willed the metal orb to shape itself into a fishermen’s spear. The liquid responded with a squishing sound, and when I opened my eyes, I saw my creation.

  It wasn’t anything fancy, just a twenty-foot long metal spear with a barb on the end that was larger than a dinosaur’s head.

  Nothing major.

  I raised my other hand, and my boat charged forward. As Tannin and I closed the distance on each other, I took aim as best I could. I’d just sucked up all of the metal in this sector of the Fifth Circle, so if I missed, I was shit out of luck.

  Once the ugly fucker was about fifty feet away from my position, I let out a roar of anger and launched the spear forward.

  It struck Tannin directly between the eyes, and the creature let out a yelp of pain. Then his beady red eyes grew lifeless, and his muscular tail stopped moving.

  It worked. The bastard was dead.

  However, both of us still had plenty of momentum, and even in death Tannin had a massive size advantage.

  I tossed out a green portal in front of the boat, passed through it harmlessly, and then reappeared on the opposite side of the dead creature.

  “You did it, Jacob!” Gula yelled happily as she landed in the boat.

  The Sister of Gluttony set Invidia down on a bench and then ran over and planted a sloppy kiss on my cheek. She pulled back, looked at the ground, and covered her face as it grew red.

  “I’m glad to see you too, Gula.” I winked.

  Todd and Ira floated down into the vessel and plopped down onto the seats with an exhausted sigh.

  “That was intense, bro,” the imp panted.

  “Agreed,” Ira mused and released her grip on Martatelli. “I haven’t had a workout like that in weeks.”

  The water around us was suddenly filled with thousands of tiny ripples, followed immediately by the sound of panicked splashing. As I looked back at the dead beast in the water, I let out a gasp of surprise.

  The Shades, presumably the ones whose chains I’d broken, were now rushing Tannin’s body. Their cold, dead hands reached up and grabbed onto the corpse, and then they began to drag it down into the abyss.

  “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I said as I turned our boat and made a command decision. “Before those Shades decide they want to do the same thing to us.”

  I commanded the boat to move, and we were on our way back to the Fourth Circle.

  We’d defeated a sea monster, outwitted the rules of Baphomet’s domain, and now we were one step closer to going home and replenishing our forces.

  Chapter 12

  The second we were clear of the Shades’ gripping hands, we booked it back through the Fifth Circle until we hit the cave that acted as the gateway. When we passed through it this time, we weren’t taken on a vomit-inducing joyride. Instead, Charon’s boat simply entered the wide mouth of the cavern, and then we reappeared safely back in the Fourth Circle.

  “That was brilliant, you know,” Ira mused. “Not only did you kill Baphomet’s favorite monster, but you also released hundreds, if not thousands, of his Shades from their imprisonment. It’s going to take him forever to get order restored in his domain, and every second he’s doing that is one less second he’s helping Beelzebub plot against you.”

  Just then, Martatelli sat up at the waist. A loud “pop” sounded from his spine, and he grimaced in pain before he began to speak. The Shade was yelling something in Italian and waving his mangled hands around like a maestro, but I had no idea what the fuck he was saying.

  Todd hopped over in front of the Shade, slapped his hands on his face, and looked him in the eyes.

  “Bonjourno,” the imp began. “Me llamo ‘Todd.’”

  The Shade simply raised
his eyebrows.

  “Todd?” he asked curiously as he seemed to understand Todd’s mixture of languages.

  “Si, si,” the imp continued, and then he began to point at each member of the group. “Jacob. Invidia. Ira. Gula.”

  “Is that the first time Todd’s ever called us by our real names?” Gula whispered to me. “It just feels … weird. I actually don’t like it one bit.”

  “I’m sure he won’t make it a habit, ‘Firecracker,’” I shot back with a wink.

  Martatelli looked around the boat, nodded, and then seemed to ask a question in his native tongue.

  Todd looked back at me and shrugged. “I only took two years of Spanish in High School, bro,” he explained. “My work is done here.”

  “Superbia should know Italian,” Ira offered.

  “When did she become bilingual?” I asked with surprise in my voice.

  Ira smirked and shook her head.

  “She knows every language in human history,” the succubus explained. “When you’re a madame for interdimensional sex demons, you kind of need to be able to speak your client’s language. Whatever that may be.”

  “Fair enough,” I admitted. “We can have Sia talk to Angelo when we get back to the castle. For now, though, we just need to make sure he knows we’re friends, not foes.”

  I turned to the scientist, knelt down, and extended my hand in greeting.

  He looked at it for a second before he reached out, grabbed my hand weakly, and gave it a small shake. Martatelli was in pretty rough shape from all of the years of torture he’d endured in the Fifth Circle. His skin was a blue and red canvas of cuts and bruises, and it looked like almost all of his limbs were twisted and dislocated in some way, shape, or form. Even the hand that shook mine was swollen and battered, and I worried I was going to snap his wrist off if I moved it too hard.

  “We’re friends,” I explained. “‘Amici.’”

  “Amici?” he gasped.

  “Si,” I replied. “We’re taking you back to our home.”