by Jack Crosby
The first corridor I snuck down was a dead end. So was the second, and then the third. After three straight misses, frustration began to set in. There had to be a better way to do this. Why couldn’t I just reach out and sense Jacoby. I mean we were connected by the same dad for crying out loud. The aura of dark magic was everywhere, yet no single signatures could be detected. Morgan’s powers were very strong.
With little choice, I reached out to the spirit in the sword. “So, any ideas buddy?”
I felt his presence return and it was a bit comforting. “There is a very strong magical barrier up. The intended job I gather is to confuse trespassers and keep them guessing for eternity.”
Huh – that didn’t sound good at all. “How do we overcome it?”
“Ignite me and allow me to lead you.”
I fully trusted the sword and I channeled my celestial fire into the blade. Like a guiding lantern, Asunder took the lead. We went down a path I was pretty sure wasn’t there moments earlier and this time there was no dead end. Instead it veered off to the right and we came to another nexus of corridors and closed doors. “It seems we have crossed a checkpoint.”
He was right, the magic here seemed stronger. “How did you know what path to take?”
Before he even answered, the pull to go to the right and enter the second door called. “There is something about this place that harmonizes with my aura.” We got to the door. “I do believe this will lead us to the final stop before we reach the inner sanctum.”
With fingers crossed, I pull the door open and walked through. He was right again, we’d come to the final checkpoint. This one was different; there was only one door that stood all alone in a vortex of swirling energy. It reminded me of a video game, the final save point before the last boss. “So this is it huh?”
“Yes. Through that door is the source of power for this realm and I am certain it is Morgan Le Fey. However,” this wasn’t good at this stage of the game, “something is still off. This is not just her power. Something ancient is at play.”
So far this trip hadn’t turned up any real hidden revelations. Leave it to the last moments for something to rise up. “Do you care to elaborate?”
“You just assume I am a spirit in the sword. One of the reasons I like you so much is your willingness to accept things at face value.” I wasn’t sure that was a compliment. “In my case, you would be wrong. I am much more.”
“Asunder, this doesn’t seem-”
“When Michael, the great Arch Angel formed me, he used a soul fragment from another to forge this blade. I may have been forgotten in the realms of man, but my name has weight. Asunder is just the blade you carry, the being you speak to is Samson.”
His name was most assuredly not forgotten among the realms of men. “The Samson, as in the judge?”
“Yes, a long time ago I resided over the tribes of Judea, punishing the Nephilim who did as they pleased. One such Nephilim was even more repulsive than the rest. The Greeks called him Kronos. Something here in this citadel is giving off his signature.”
This was fascinating and something I’d love to hear more about later, but now wasn’t the time. Besides, the only thing I’d come across since getting here was a weird dude calling himself The Crooked One trapped in a watery prison. Certainly no Nephilim or anything scary. “I’m sure whatever points you’re trying to make are great, just can’t this wait?”
He was growing irritated, not at me but himself. “It very well could be an echo from long ago.” He didn’t sound sure, just willing to move on. “Alas, you are correct; we needn’t not worry about this now.” Finally, this was better. “Are you sure you are prepared for what lies ahead?”
I was more than ready. “They’ll never know what hit them.” With that, I walked over to the door and embraced my destiny.
Chapter 32 – Of Gods and Men
I was taken to a room that looked an awful lot like Merlin’s. In fact, it was Merlin’s. Cassandra was standing there with her back to me, looking over the cauldron. There seemed to be a thin layer of reality separating the two of us, like we were in the same spot, but at different times. Merlin however was looking right at me and began clapping. “Bravo Oz, bravo.” This was really odd. “I figured you would’ve died before making it to this point.”
What was this? “Merlin, what’re you doing here? Is this some kind of hallucination?”
“Hallucination? I don’t think so. What this is, this is called a revelation. You see, you were becoming a roadblock for me, siding with Mephisto and all.” He showed me the inactive beacon before replacing it in his robe. “So I enchanted that tooth he gave you to bring you back to me should you be successful in reaching Morgan’s inner sanctuary.”
Cassandra still hadn’t turned around. It was like she didn’t even know I was here. “You smug bastard… HOW DARE YOU DENY ME REVENGE?!”
He just chuckled, cold and arrogantly. “You honestly think you can defeat Morgan Le Fey where thousands have failed? Please.” An invisible force hit me in the chest and pushed me against the stone wall. “Cassandra seems to think you are the key to winning this war, but the sooner I eliminate you, my student can go back to trusting in my vision.”
I didn’t understand. “Wasn’t this your stupid idea to bring me on board?”
“To appease her, yes.” He callously pointed to his apprentice with his thumb. “You know how often I had to hear about her vision of true love, the one destined to do the job I was created to do? Then I see you, just another arrogant seed of that imbecile Death. Honestly, I had hoped to lose you in time and deal with things myself, but of course the Mephisto problem arose.”
Asunder, or Samson was still with me. “I cannot tell if he is a fool or if he is part of the problem.”
“The problem, no I am a visionary!” Apparently he could hear our conversation. “Over the centuries, I have plumbed the depths of magic to transcend ordinary man. No what I am, I’m a God!”
He’d officially snapped. “Whoa Merlin, I think you need to take a chill pill.”
“I will calm down once Morgan is dead and the human race is safely under my guiding light.” Talk about a superiority complex. “Plus you took care of my Caspian issue as well. When the fool tagged along with you, I can’t even tell you how my heart jumped for joy.”
I had enough. “You sick son of a bitch, you’re no better than Le Fey. The world doesn’t need you, no it needs less people like you.”
“And who is going to stop me? As we already know, you do not have the power to compete with me.” To prove his point, he pointed at my neck and lifted up. I was quickly pulled off my feet by the motion and slammed into the ceiling. As fast as I went up, I came back down too. He was right, I couldn’t defeat him.
Still, I picked myself back up. “Sons of Death can take quite a bit of punishment Merlin. You didn’t think I’d die that easily did you?”
“One could hope.” Again, I was plucked from my spot and sent crashing across the room. I went over Cassandra and reached out to her, my hand passing through her head. It was like she wasn’t there. “Don’t try to reach here, where we are, only I can transcend the fabrics of time.”
I was quite a bit lost with what he said, but I knew the important part; I was on my own again. I ducked behind a desk to try and give myself a minute. “This isn’t how we need to settle this.”
The desk was flipped over forcing me to scramble away. “We’re past the sentiment where this can work. I reluctantly allowed Cassandra a chance to prove you were a worthwhile addition and you turn out to be just as fucked up as Caspian.”
I snuck around the perimeter, trying to stay low and quiet. Merlin had a lot of junk and it was easy to use as barricades. I settled in behind a smaller bookshelf. “Cas is worth a thousand of you. He’s loyal and willing to die for his friends.”
“Oh yeah, dying for the cause, a real worthy trait.” There was no mistaking his disgust. “You two are pawns just like the Knights of the Roundtable;
disposable, needed to protect the King and die in duty.” A spell blasted the bookshelf I was using for cover. Merlin was right there, blocking my path to freedom. “Rogue pawns are no use to anyone.”
His hands filled with the kind of magic that left nothing to the imagination. He was about to blow me out of existence. With one move left to play, I plucked the beacon from the robe and spoke into it; “Challenge accepted.”
The tracking device came to life right there, knocking Merlin back away from me. Mephisto’s body shot from it, resizing as he landed on the stone floor. “Not the voice I needed to here, but the words were enough to activate this little beauty.”
Merlin raged at the appearance of his old enemy. “Mordred, you insufferable piece of shit.”
Mephisto seemed to take the high road. “This day has been too long in the making. Did you honestly think you would escape without retribution?”
No words were needed for a response. Merlin unleashed the spell meant for me and Mephisto’s rapier appeared to take the force. Both men, or whatever, focused his magic – one to repel and one to kill. Locked in a duel of magic, they began to walk closer to each other, neither giving an inch.
Mephisto had this smile on his face that could only be described as lacking sanity. “How fitting is it you’ve hidden like a roach only to get fat on the power you hoard?”
Merlin’s whole body was glowing at this point. “My life’s greatest regret was not finding a way to kill you. It’s a good thing I know how to banish you!” He dropped the spell, but at the same time a portal opened behind him. “Back to purgatory with you Mordred!”
Oh no, the plan was going to fail! Merlin was actually able to overpower him! Without thinking, I took Asunder and threw him at Merlin. The laser like red blade cut through his right hand and the portal instantly dropped. Mephisto, seeing his opportunity, struck with his rapier directly to Merlin’s chest. The old wizard collapsed, defeated. “Pathetic, it took two of you to stop me.”
“That is the problem Merlin, you always tackled things alone and not with help.” Mephisto actually sounded like a friend to him. “Had you not done things behind my back, things would have been so different.”
All he did was spit at him. “I regret nothing.”
With that being a lost cause, “Oz, it seems you are in quite the predicament.”
“That’s an understatement.” Even though I was alive, I still felt as if I had lost. “Two friends of mine are stuck in a shadow realm and who knows what’s happened to them.”
He looked sorry, but he confirmed everything I already knew. “That was a one way trip. Had Merlin not messed with the dragon’s tooth, you’d still be there too.”
“Caspian Zane deserves his fate.”
I’d had enough. I walked right up to him and punched him in the face. The blow was certainly hard enough to knock him out and it did. “Man that felt good.”
Mephisto placed his hand on the silent wizard’s forehead and he disappeared. “He cannot truly die until Morgan has perished, so until that day, he will be my prisoner in Purgatory.”
“What do I do now?”
He put his hands together. “That is not for me to decide. This is your story Oz, take control of it.” He waved his hand and he was gone. The veil separating Cassandra and I was lifted too.
She turned around. “I added the-” I was the one standing there, not Merlin. “Oz? How did you get here? Where’s Merlin?”
This was going to be one long conversation.
Epilogue – Six Months Later…
“Oz, we’ve got two coming in from the west end of the alley.”
There would be no mercy for the demons working for Le Fey and Jacoby. This was a war and there were going to be a lot of casualties. “I’m ready. Just tell me when.”
I sat there on top of the fire escape; Asunder was ready to come out at any moment. The spirit and I had recently gone through a bit of a dispute in terms of my tactics, but he’d been relenting lately. In my mind I knew it was arrogant not to listen to the soul of one of the most infamous warriors in the Bible, yet as Mephisto said, this was my story.
My inner demon shivered with excitement about the upcoming slayings. If only they didn’t disintegrate upon death – sending the head of one or two of these minion demons back to the sender might’ve been what the situation needed. In my ear communicator, “Now Oz – go!”
Like a predator, I dropped down and caught the demons not ready. Asunder sliced through the Wrath demon’s chest easily, sending him to an early demise. The second tried to grab his sword, but I was too fast. His hand fell limp as his head rolled off his shoulders. Both disintegrated into ash. It was a shame; I was serious about the returning heads thing.
Cassandra joined me on the street level. “Do you think this will bring Chiron out?”
The Destroyer was in deep with Le Fey and my brother. Cassandra and I had been trying to lure him out into the open for months. “If it doesn’t, I don’t know what will.” At this point, he was our only lead to find them. And once we found them, we would force them to open a portal to the shadow realm to save Cas and Khloros.
She leaned in and kissed me. “Don’t worry, we will bring them home.”
As we left the alley, leaving the ash as our calling card, I really wasn’t so sure.
**Caspian**
It was another fine day in this awful realm. When all you can eat is fucking leeches and the occasional Lurker thing that Khloros killed, you were living in Hell. “Dude, maybe we need to go into the castle and do something!”
My new best friend didn’t have the same adventurous spirit that I did. “For all we know Oz is dead or captured. You, being a human, would not last all of five minutes in there.” He hooved the ground in annoyance. “The plan was and still is to wait for help.”
That was so easy for him to say. I knew no one was coming, but he didn’t have the same outlook. “We do this dance every day.”
“So you want to forfeit your life? You know as a horse I cannot go with you. You would be on your own.”
I really didn’t like the idea of venturing off with no backup and really no skills. But when the worst that could happen to you is you get killed and leave this place that way, it didn’t seem like a bad solution. “Tell you what; I’m going to make a go of it. If I can’t scale the wall, then obviously it’s meant for your plan to be the best course of action.”
“Well, at the very least this should make for some good entertainment.” And on that positive note, the two of us headed towards the water fall and the cliff that led to the bad guys.
**Jacoby**
I dropped the dead mermaid on the floor for my mistress to see. She was the last and most difficult of the vile species to kill. “It took quite a bit of man power, but the job has been completed.” In my hand was the pearl from her heart. “The dagger did the job perfectly.”
Morgan, my beautiful dark queen, rose from her throne and plucked it out of my hand. “Well done my knight! When the chance to take this was lost in time, I thought she was gone from us.” She caressed my face lovingly. “I should learn to stop doubting you.”
I dropped to one knee and saluted her. “No, my failures in the past have caused you to doubt me. It is only through compliance and obedience to you that I am able to succeed.”
“Rise my knight.” I did as she asked. “You have earned a reward, one I did not plan to hand out, but the circumstances have changed.” In the mirror on the wall, the one that allowed us to freely enter and exit Kronos’s old realm, was my brother. He just finished slaying two more of Chiron’s demons. “Oz is seeking you, trying to find a way to confront you for the losses you provided him.”
“He means nothing to me, just a worm in our grand scheme.”
“You cannot lie to me.” She flashed me a brilliant smile, the same one that caused me to fall in love with her in the first place. “We have time before we need to gather the moon stone. Take this opportunity to tie up this loose end, fo
r good.”
If this was her command, I would follow it through without hesitation. “Of course my Queen. I will not return until my brother’s corpse is cold.”
As I gathered my sword and began to enter the mirror, “One more thing my love – while you are back in the humans’ realm, let them know of my coming. I want them to tremble with the idea that Morgan Le Fey will soon be their salvation.”
To be continued…
Books:
Grimm’s Reapers Series:
Death Among Us – Book 1
Old War Stories – Book 2
Feast or Famine – Book 3
Divide and Conquest – Book 4
The Witch Wars Series:
Jacoby’s Revenge – Volume 1
The Sons of Death – Volume 2 (Coming 2017)
Crosby Entertainment:
And the beat goes on! Oz, taking over fulltime as the main character brings so much more life to the story. Just how complex is the relationship between Oz and Jacoby? Will the bad blood be spilled in The Sons of Death? Stay tuned in 2017 for that!
In the meantime, our friends at Pseudosynth Press have released The Electric Mile! Jack’s vision of a sex fuel video game novel is off the charts! I wonder if I can sneak my character, Sabrina the Witch into that one. Hmmm…
-Sabrina H.
About the Author:
Jack lives in Chicago with his new kegerator Jim. When not writing immoral stories, he operates an IT firm with his dad Charles. He is passionate about beer and bicycles.
If you are interested in reading more about Roxanne and Derrick Grimm, you can find the following series on Amazon: