by John Corwin
And I had no choice but to use it.
I opened my eyes and focused on a bare patch of asphalt between the Darkling army and the Brightlings. The surface bubbled like a pool of molten tar. It widened as if oil were seeping up from the ground. The Brightlings backed away, uncertainty in their eyes. The Darklings used the diversion to reform their defenses.
The surface of the black pond swirled upward like a cone. A glowing red eye formed near the base. The spinning vortex seemed to turn inside out, reversing shape. The wide top morphed into a head and torso. Arms with six-fingered hands stretched from the primordial goo. The Abyssal grew in size until it was nearly half the height of the goliaths.
An immense weight pressed down on my entire being. I dropped to my knees and nearly lost control of the carpet.
"The Abyss awaits." The demon spoke in many voices, each with its own distinct tone and timbre. It was almost as if hundreds of people spoke at once.
The Brightlings didn't seem to know what to make of the creature at first. The archangels, however, attacked it immediately and the golems changed course for this new threat.
"There's Dad!" Ivy pointed excitedly to our front lines.
I spotted him as he climbed from beneath a pile of dead hellhounds and pulled Kassallandra out behind him.
The Abyssal extended an arm and raked a stream of black energy at the Brightlings. They screamed in agony as their bodies seemed to come unglued to reality and fell apart. I saw ghostly shapes flying from their remains and into the Abyssal's red eye. The weight on my concentration grew heavier and heavier as the demon killed more of our enemies.
Daelissa's battle mages were ready for such an attack. They swooped in on two large platforms, each bearing a large golden tetrahedron. They dropped to the ground and opened the vessels. The Abyssal sensed the threat and fired beams at one set of battle mages as their pyramid unfolded into a complex hexagonal pattern. Even after the mages died, I could still hear the screams of their souls as they streaked into the Abyssal.
"My god, it's devouring souls." The last time I'd summoned the creature, I'd been too preoccupied to notice this. Then again, the army we'd fought had been much smaller.
The gray golem, Ash, reached the Abyssal before the demon could destroy the battle mages with the other tetrahedron. One of the men waved his staff at the device. It unfolded into a complex pattern similar to the first. The mages directed their staffs at the infernal pattern and activated it.
Light flashed and a sonic boom vibrated the air. Crimson liquid formed in the middle of the summoning pattern. A massive red creature uncoiled from within and rose like a python. At first, I thought it was a snake but soon realized it had hundreds of legs like a millipede. Its head bore the shape of an axe without any discernible eyes.
The Abyssal pounded a fist into the chest of the attacking goliath. It seemed to be having greater difficulty with the lifeless automaton, but finally penetrated the rocky outer shell. Its hand engulfed Ash's spark and ripped it out. The golem crumbled to the ground.
By now, the Brightlings realized the perils of attacking the Abyssal and backed off to let their new pet demon engage it. This widened the gulf between the enemy forces and my allies. More battle mages appeared and activated the other demon pattern. A huge ball of tentacles rose from it and rolled toward the Abyssal. At first, I couldn't find the head of this new horror, but then I magnified my vision. What appeared to be suction cups along the tentacles were actually human faces. Round orifices filled with needle teeth served as their mouths.
"Justin, I don't like this at all." Ivy gripped my arm. "Can your guy beat up the other ones?"
"I have no idea," I said between clenched teeth. The Abyssal's weighty presence in my mind was almost unbearable. I slowly swiveled my head and saw most of our army had escaped. As I viewed the bloody landscape, I began to realize how many of our own had been killed. The wreckage of the news chopper smoked in the middle of the carnage. I felt sick with anger and sadness.
Nausea squirmed up my throat.
The millipede trundled toward my demon. The Abyssal gripped the creature's head, but couldn't stop its body from snaking around it. The tentacle creature rolled over to the fighting demons. A dozen of its appendages shot out and wrapped around the Abyssal's head.
"Justin, we can go now!" Ivy tugged on my sleeve.
"Are you okay, son?" Mom appeared before me. "You've got to release the demon. We have to go through the portal."
Unsummoning a demon was simply the reverse of what I'd done to bring it into this realm, but there was a huge difference between then and now. The pressure of maintaining control balanced on a razor's edge. If I tried to spare enough concentration to send it back, I'd lose my grip on the creature.
"Can't do it," I gasped. "I'd have to let it go, or let it die to the other demons."
"Let me fly the carpet," Ivy said. "I'll take us into the portal."
I shook my head. "No. We can't go through or I'll lose the connection." I peered behind Mom. The Abyssal was completely engulfed between the two demons. It couldn't possibly survive much longer.
I briefly considered relinquishing control. I'd been told that freed demons wouldn't last long in this world because their corporeal bodies would eventually fade without someone to mentally maintain it as Daemos did for the bodies of their hellhounds. If these other demons killed the Abyssal's body, it would automatically go back to Haedaemos.
I felt the Abyssal's presence fade. Relief flooded me and the weight on my mind lessened. They killed it.
The Abyssal's many voices spoke in a calm but very loud voice. "The Abyss is eternal. No less so am I." Its body of dark matter writhed and twisted like water, spinning free from the two demons. It flowed around the millipede. The Abyssal's red eye gaped wide. With a deafening shriek, the eye sucked a shadow copy of the millipede from its own body and drew it inside.
The weight in my head went from unbearably heavy to bursting with pain. I groaned. My bones seemed to crack. My mind screamed to be free. I couldn't take it any longer or I'd die. With frantic desperation, I severed the tether. The Abyssal was free. The tentacle demon tried to flee, but the battle mages controlling it fought back, forcing it to fight.
A deep voice echoed across the parking lot, speaking in a harsh, strange language I intuitively understood. Once the greatest of demons, I now fall to the Abyss. Grant me mercy, dark one, and I will grant thee great power in Haedaemos.
The Abyssal spoke with a thousand sonorous voices. "Well spoken, Holiblothinaal. Your journey ends." It plunged a fist into the mass of tentacles. The creature quivered and screeched. It exploded in a cloud of black energy. A spectral copy of its form hovered in the air before being drawn into the Abyssal's eye.
Daelissa's army had apparently figured out that the Abyssal was one badass they didn't want to mess with and flew into a full retreat. The dark demon ignored them and turned toward me, its single red eye seeming to gaze into my soul. "As foretold, my pattern emerges from the dark. A new consciousness consumes the old. A new journey begins."
"What does that mean?" Ivy asked in a frightened voice.
I wanted to shout something back at the monster I'd just unleashed on the world, but it was all I could do to keep my head from lolling forward.
The Abyssal spun until it turned into a dark vortex. It shrank down to a smaller humanoid form. In a blur, it vanished into the distance.
I had saved our forces, but unleashed hell on earth.
Chapter 23
The next few hours were a blur. When I woke up, I found Dad and Kassallandra sitting next to me, their eyes closed.
"Hello?" I said.
Their eyes blinked open simultaneously, sending creeptastic chills crawling up my spine.
"How are you feeling?" Dad asked.
I sat up, flipped my head to both sides, and cracked my neck. "Other than a little soreness and a slight headache, I feel pretty good."
"We had to help your soul repair itself." Dad
pinched the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. "It really took a beating."
"You almost lost yourself to that creature," Kassallandra said. "Did I not warn you to never summon it again?"
I pressed my face into my hands and groaned. "I didn't know what else to do. We were losing people left and right. I had to do something to save them."
Dad squeezed my shoulder. "I understand why you did it, Justin." He sighed. "We'll just have to send demon hunters after it, provided we survive this war."
"Won't it lose its corporeal body after a while?" I asked, attempting to pluck a bit of hope from this mess.
"Abyssal demons are a special breed," Kassallandra said. "It was rumored they once walked the realms, able to maintain a physical presence until they were banished to Haedaemos by powerful beings from one of those realms."
I felt sick to my stomach. "Will it consume more souls? Did I just kill the human race?"
She shook her head. "I cannot say. It is said they seek revenge on the beings who banished them. Perhaps it will content itself to search for them."
"It ate the equivalent of an entire Chinese buffet," Dad said. "I don't think it'll be hungry again for a while." He stood and stretched. "Besides, we have bigger things to worry about."
I thought about our staggering losses and felt even sicker. "How many did we lose?"
Dad met a gaze from Kassallandra and looked back to me. "Things are bad, son." He put a hand on my shoulder and managed one of his cocky smiles. "Before you dive into the bad news, I think you should enjoy a little good news."
"Good news? Good news?" I stood abruptly. A sharp pain spiked into my head and I winced. "There is no good news in the Overworld."
"It's good enough for me," said a familiar voice.
I turned to the door and felt my heart soar. Elyssa! Ignoring the pain in my head, I ran to my love and squeezed her in a tight hug.
"You saved me," she said. Her warm lips pressed to my cheek. "You saved me." Her kisses moved to my lips.
I felt hot tears sting my eyes and pulled away so I could drink in the sight of her.
"We'll leave you to it," Dad said.
Kassallandra touched us both on our shoulders. "Enjoy your time together. I fear what the future may bring."
With that chilling statement, they left the room, leaving us alone.
I closed the door to the room and realized we were in the healing ward in La Casona.
"I came to my senses when they were bringing you in here," Elyssa said. "Seeing you so battered and bruised snapped me out of my confusion."
"If I'd known that would work, I would've stabbed myself in the hand." I smiled. "Then again, I didn't have much blood left after you got your fangs into me."
Elyssa pressed her hands to my face and kissed me long and deep. "I was quite the hot mess, according to Meghan."
"Yeah, it was pretty painful watching you act like a wild animal."
She led me to the bed and pulled me down onto it. "Can we just lay here for a while? The world's falling apart, but all I want to do is cuddle."
Considering what lay ahead, it sounded like the best idea in the world. I squeezed her tight to me and felt her warmth, her smooth, creamy skin, her soft lips. I couldn't believe I had Elyssa back. Without her, I'd felt so lost. Without her, I'd felt hopeless.
Eden teetered on the brink of destruction. Our army had been brutalized. Our backs were to the wall. I should've felt inconsolable. But Elyssa had ignited a spark inside me. We weren't dead yet. We were just mostly dead. With the right chocolate-coated miracle pill, we could still defeat Daelissa.
An hour later Elyssa and I portaled to Queens Gate and met with Thomas and Ketiss in the war room at the mansion.
"Elyssa." Thomas hugged his daughter and kissed her forehead.
She seemed a little surprised by his affection, but smiled, tears sparkling. "Where are Mom and Michael?"
"They're here. I'll send for them." He reached for his pendant.
"I can talk to them after the briefing," Elyssa said. She wiped at her eyes. "I feel like I've missed out on a lot."
Thomas turned to the Darkling commander. "Legiaros Ketiss, this is my daughter, Elyssa."
He splayed his fingers toward her and nodded his head. "A pleasure."
Elyssa mimicked his greeting and nodded back. "It's very nice to meet you."
"He still hasn't learned to shake hands," I said with a smile.
"Apologies, Commander Slade." Ketiss saluted.
I dropped into a chair at the table. "How bad is it?"
Thomas sat down next to me. "We lost more than half our Templar forces. The Darklings took severe casualties as well—over four hundred soldiers."
"What about the lycans and the Blue Cloaks?" I asked.
"We lost three packs of combined shifter forces." He consulted his arctablet. "The Blue Cloaks were able to minimize their casualties. They lost thirty-two people. Fjoeruss informed me he lost a combined total of one hundred fifty-two golems. He returned to one of his secret bases to construct more, though he warned he would not have time to replace all of them."
I braced myself for the answer to my next question. "Overall?"
"We're at less than half strength." He went through a list. "The only silver linings are the performance of our revived Darklings. Joss and Otaleon have taken over command of those units, which we've codenamed UV.
I raised an eyebrow. "As in ultraviolet?"
"Precisely." Thomas leaned back in his chair. "They were able to shield many of our troops from attack. If not for them, the fight would've been over much sooner."
"Did Daelissa attack Atlanta?" I asked.
He shook his head. "The Abyssal demon caused them to retreat to Thunder Rock." Thomas scrolled down the screen on his tablet. "From the ASE recordings of the battle, we calculated that Daelissa lost about a quarter of her Brightling troops, including approximately thirty archangels. All goliaths were destroyed and her contingent of battle mages was decimated. There were some vampires in the fight, but no sign of Red Cell, the elite vampire army." He pressed his lips together. "We believe they're on guard duty somewhere."
"My people are now dual feeding on human volunteers," Ketiss said. "A sera—I mean, woman—by the name of Katie told me they had procured several hundred more from veteran hospitals in exchange for proper medical care."
"What's the nom political situation?" I asked Thomas.
He set the tablet aside. "Your father informed me that Daemos agents are having success countering Exorcist moles in nom governments. So far, they have stopped several assassinations. Unfortunately, it appears that Russia was already under the control of Daelissa's minions. She is using them to forcibly take Ukraine so she can reinforce Chernobyl and protect the Grand Nexus."
"She's in control of Russia?" I didn't want to think what kind of damage she could cause with nuclear weapons. "How did nobody notice this?"
Thomas shrugged. "The question is moot at this point. The real question is how do we proceed?"
I had no reply. Daelissa had nearly wiped us out today. Despite the loss of her goliaths, she still had several more in production. They would no doubt be involved in future battles.
Phoebe entered the room. "I'm here, Commander." She saw Elyssa and her face lit up.
"Phoebe!" Elyssa embraced her sister.
"I'm so glad you're back with us," Phoebe said, eyes moist. She pulled back and looked at me with a smile. "Justin has been impossible to deal with."
Elyssa laughed. "Nothing unusual about that."
Thomas cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should return to the matter at hand." He looked at Phoebe. "What did you find?"
Phoebe flicked her fingers on the arctablet and projected a holographic image of the battle as taken by dozens of ASEs. She zoomed to the back ranks of Daelissa's troops where Daelissa stood next to some of her closest advisors. Phoebe focused on an archangel I recognized immediately.
"That's the dude who attacked us at the Three
Sisters." He was obviously a bigwig if he got to stand next to Daelissa. "His name is Primarion Arturo."
"Arturo is Daelissa's new strategist," Phoebe said. "She revels in employing overwhelming force even if it's not the best tactic." She grimaced. "As her former tactician, I often had to convince her it was wiser to split forces to achieve multiple objectives simultaneously."
"It would appear she had it her way this time," I said.
"Actually, it was more likely her fondness for extreme force fit nicely with Arturo's objectives." Phoebe zoomed to an overhead view. "Arturo's strategy baited our unprepared army to face his well-prepared forces. Even though the Brightling army has been here only a week or two longer than the Darklings, they've spent that time feeding."
"Do they know about dual feeding?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Unlikely. Even if they knew about it, Daelissa would never allow it." A troubled look crossed Phoebe's face. "She has an unusual aversion to Murk that I could never quite understand."
I snorted. "She's a Murkophobe."
Phoebe nodded. "She absolutely hates it."
I thought back to what Nightliss had told me about her family history. "Daelissa grew up with a Darkling family. When they were banished to Pjurna, she did everything in her power to get back to the Brightlands."
Ketiss looked at us with a somewhat bewildered look on his face.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
He nodded slowly. "I apologize. It is unsettling to hear of beings such as Daelissa spoken about so casually. All my life she and Nightliss were but legends and icons of evil in our religion."
"Stories can lose their original meaning as centuries pass," Thomas said. "I know this is a shock to your system, but we all have to adjust to the realities that face us. Nightliss would never aid Daelissa. In fact, she's the Clarion for our Templar forces."
"It is evident some of the teachings were perverted over the centuries." Ketiss looked at the image of Daelissa and Arturo hovering above the table. "The resemblance between the sisters is very unsettling."
"I feel like I've missed so much." Elyssa shook her head as if clearing it. "Why didn't we have any of Fjoeruss's battle golems in play?"