When Hell Froze

by Forrest Minter

  The illusion of safety was shattered a moment later by the sound of clashing blades. Benny and Lilian surged into motion instantly, charging up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, the hallway was a warzone. A hall only wide enough for two people side by side had been occupied by both armies, who were pressing against each other as hard as they could given their limited ability to field their soldiers. Luckily for the erstwhile pair, they emerged on the Demon's side of the fight.

  “Where is Azel?” Lilian asked one of the Demons crowding the corridor.

  “In the throne room. He needs assistance, but these humans are blocking our path. From what we have heard, there are many injured, including guardian Lorbin.” He grunted. Benny glanced at the assembled soldiers, and sighed.

  “Let me through, I’ll get us in.” The Demon nodded, and barked orders to the Demons ahead of him. As best they were able, the Demon soldiers made a thin corridor which Benny was able to traverse. Lilian followed behind her, looking anxious.

  Staring down at her left hand for a moment, Benny steeled herself, and drew her knife. Carefully, Benny opened a small gash in her palm. Dipping a finger into the welling blood, Benny began drawing speed sigils on every part of her face. By the time she reached the frontline, she had managed three on her forehead, and one on her cheek. Stepping up to the pair of soldiers fiercely dueling the pair of human soldiers in front of them, Benny activated the first sigil. Hand moving in slow motion, she activated the next, and the next until all four were functioning simultaneously.

  Time seemed to have stopped utterly now, her hand seeming to take hours just to reach her sword. Benny used this time to plan her movements, knowing that even though time seemed to have slowed, her body was moving at inhuman speeds. Benny examined the hallway. In front of her ranged thirty soldiers. All of them bore the heavy armor, and epaulets of elite temple guard. Benny shook her head internally, wondering what strings the commander of the forces had pulled to draw in such high level troops. They received the same training as her own crimson order, minus the blood-given powers. In essence, every single one would likely have the same level of skill as her.

  Benny released a breath, a strange sensation in her quasi-frozen state, and charged. She ran for what felt like a full day, reaching the first two opponents in less than a fraction of a second. Benny slashed through her foes with ease in a single fluid action, her movements so fast that her opponents hadn't yet registered her presence.

  Before the two corpses had begun to drop, she was already pushing past them. The second pair of opponents fared no better, dead before they even registered her existence. This pattern continued until she was five men deep, a process that took agonizing days of effort from her perspective. It was at this point that her speed began to lessen. Things that had taken days moments before now took hours. Still she tore through the ranks, gutting and decapitating her foes too fast to be seen.

  Ten more men fell before her. It was at this point, facing the final ten foes, that her speed dropped from god-like to only superhuman. She watched in slow motion as her blade was deflected for the first time, ducking under the counter-swing. Still accelerated by her sigils, Benny thrust upward, piercing the underside of her opponent's chin, and up into his brain. It was at this point that his neighbor broke formation, charging around him to strike at her. Even with her accelerated speed, she was hard-pressed to fend him off.

  Benny panicked when the next to men in line moved to encircle her, but controlled her reaction. It was only when Lilian appeared; seemingly from nowhere, knife buried in the back of the soldiers neck, that Benny managed to turn to face the next wave of enemies. She turned a fraction of a second too late, and a slash meant to decapitate her from behind left a shallow gash on her forehead. The blood flowing from the wound erased her sigils, fully returning her to a normal time-scale.

  Despite this, Benny pressed on. With Lilian watching her flank, Benny was able to focus her full attention on the opponent in front of her. Blow after blow flashed back and forth, both sides deflecting the blows through raw skill, neither giving an inch of ground. A small mistake while blocking caused the Temple Guards blade to take more of the force from her blow than intended. With a wrenching sound, the sword shattered, several small shards of metal spraying from it. His weapon destroyed, Benny ended his life a moment later with a swift thrust through his chest.

  When she stepped forward to engage the next opponent, Benny felt like a flame had been lit in her thigh. Looking down, she found a shard of metal a foot long embedded in her leg. With a grunt, she pulled it out. After looking at it uncomprehendingly for a moment, she threw the shard overhand into the unprotected face of her next opponent. Thanks to her adrenaline, and demonically enhanced strength, the shard pierced the bone of his forehead, embedding in his brain. Unceremoniously, he toppled sideways into the wall, and collapsed.

  Mind taken by a psychotic rage, Benny roared; emitting a sound so ferocious that even the five highly trained, seasoned soldiers in front of her flinched backward for a brief second. Exploiting that hesitation, Benny charged mindlessly; sideswiping the soldier that would have been Lilian’s next opponent with her sword as she passed. He gasped, and slumped to the side; upper half connected to the lower by only a foot-wide span of flesh. Lilian ended his existence a moment later, thrusting a knife through his brain.

  Lilian watched as Benny, still caught in her berserker rage, tore through the next man. Benny roared again as his blade left a shallow gash in her side, but his small victory was short-lived as the opening allowed her to ram her blade through his face. It passed through, and out the back of his head as if she was cutting butter. The men in the back of the formation retreated through the doorway at this point, panic overwhelming even their rigorous training. Only the two in front, who knew it would be lethal to show their backs, remained to oppose her.

  Benny growled animalistically, and stalked forward, a predator stalking her prey. Her hunt was interrupted when two knives, both thrown by Lilian, slammed into the soldier’s faces, ending the fight. Benny whipped around to face Lilian, who stared in horror at the inhuman, mindless expression of animal wrath on Benny’s face. Benny stalked forward, eyes fixed on Lilian, who backed up step by step until she ran into the wall.

  “Verilien. Wait.” Lilian begged, but Benny’s mindless fury drowned out the words. Her mind clouded by battle-lust, Benny stalked forward.

  Seeing no other choice, Lilian activated her shadow cube, pouring mana into it at a frightening rate. Lilian hated to use so much mana at once, but it required far more to operate in a well-lit space such as this. The sudden loss of her target confused the simple directives that had overwhelmed Benny’s mind, and consciousness flowed back in through the cracks.

  “Sorry Lilian you can come out now.” Benny said plaintively, voice filled with shame.

  Lilian faded back into view a moment later. “What… What was that?” She asked breathlessly, stamina drained from the sudden massive expenditure of mana.

  “That was… I don’t know. I’d rather not talk about it right now. How did you go invisible?” Benny asked, looking away to avoid Lilian’s eyes.

  “That was...that is... “ Lilian sighed, and pulled the shadow-cube out of her pocket. “Here, pour enough mana into this, and it will render you invisible. It is difficult to generate the effect in areas of high light though, and requires ridiculous amounts of mana output.

  Benny smiled grimly. “That won’t be a problem. I’ve been training my mana reserves lately, so I should be fine.”

  Lilian cocked her head as she handed over the cube. “Training your reserves? How so?”

  Benny shrugged. “I’ve been maintaining the Demon Lord powers at all times. It makes me a bit stronger, and helps me to train my mana.”

  Lilian blanched. “You have been keeping your powers active at all times? All of them? Never mind how it’s even possible that you have enough mana to sustain them. No wonder your sanity is slipping. You need to turn them off.
Right now.”

  “What? But I need them to fight at my best.” Benny protested.

  “No. I don’t care if you’re my commanding officer. I’m telling you right now, turn them off.” Lilian said, eyes filled with panic.

  Benny shrugged. “Fine, I did-” Her statement was cut off by a wave of pain that felt as if it shattered her skull, piercing her very essence. Lilian knelt over her, and it was only then that Benny realized she had collapsed to the floor at some point during the moment of overwhelming agony.

  “You’re suffering from extreme mana sickness.” Lilian declared unsympathetically. Benny tried to speak, to ask what was going on, but couldn’t. She thought she might have managed to move her lips, but the words failed to come out. Her consciousness flickered for a moment until a sharp sting brought her back to herself.

  Lilian pulled her hand back from where she had slapped Benny’s face, talons leaving slight gouges on her cheek. “No. You need to stay awake or you may not return to consciousness ever again. Focus on me. Running a current of mana through your body in short bursts can do wonderful things. Strengthen, heal, even permanently improve you depending how it is formatted. Doing it for long periods of time though, it depletes your bodies resources, and burns your soul. Even a few days of operating with all powers active would injure a greater lord. I cannot even comprehend the massive damage you have done to yourself. I am assuming you have been doing this for weeks?”

  With a great effort, Benny barely managed to nod. The motion seemed to jump-start something within herself, and she began coughing uncontrollably. Blood seeped from her mouth as she turned on her side under her own power. A moment later, she vomited.

  “It’s an impressive feat that it took you this long to break. I admit, it is not truly your fault. Given that you somehow had the mana available for this, and did not know the consequences, I can understand why you would choose to maintain the powers indefinitely. Still, you must never maintain a constant stream of mana for longer than three hours. When this emergency is done, I will take it upon myself to educate you about magic.”

  Benny groaned, and producing the noise seemed to restart her capacity for speech. “How-” Benny hacked up a wad of blood. “How long will it take to recover?”

  Lilian shrugged. “Recovering basic physical functionality? You’re most of the way there already. You should be fine in a few minutes. Mental and spiritual recovery is another matter. You will likely feel bone-tired for the next few days. Your psychotic tendencies may also resurface from time to time until you recover fully.”

  Benny sighed, and rolled onto her front. With a herculean effort, she lifted herself off the ground, and onto her knees. Lilian watched impassively as Benny pushed herself off her knees, achieving a slightly swaying standing position as she fought to remain standing. A few seconds passed as Benny used a breathing exercise to steady herself, and during that time her body reacclimated to standing. Benny let out a short breath, and began walking in a circle to test her legs. They tried to buckle on her first step, but subsequent steps became more and more stable. Benny reached for her sword to test her body further, but found it missing.

  “Lilian, my sword please.” She said, holding her hand out.

  “No Verilien, I don’t think going into combat mere minutes after recovering from the worst case of mana sickness I have ever heard of that didn’t result in a coma is a good idea.” Lilian shook her head vigorously to punctuate her denial.

  “Lilian, as your commanding officer, I order you to give me my sword.” Benny repeated, moving her hand up and down meaningfully.

  Lilian sighed. “As you command Verilien.”

  Begrudgingly, she extended the sheathed sword. Benny grabbed it, and strapped it to her waist. Drawing it, she examined the blade expertly, finding the slight flaws that resulted from her rough use of it. The sword, hers since before she had even joined the military, was in too great of disrepair to suit her needs. Benny sheathed it, and handed it back to a surprised Lilian. Glancing at the corpses on the ground, Benny found what she needed.

  Pulling a finely made straight sword from the hands of a dead man, Benny gave it an experimental swing. It was a bit longer than she was accustomed to, but perfectly balanced. She smiled, and wiped flecks of blood off on the dead man’s coat.

  “Can I also have the invisibility cube please?” Benny asked, extending her hand to Lilian again.

  Lilian shook her head. “Verilien-”

  “I order you to give me the shadow cube. My father is almost definitely in there, and Lorbin is injured. I need to get inside.” Benny spoke authoritatively.

  Lilian handed over the cube begrudgingly. Benny gave her one last command, speaking coldly, mind elsewhere. “Organize the defense of this hallway. I trust your judgement.”

  “Um, yes Verilien.” Lilian responded, unable to disobey.

  Benny turned, and strode to the doorway. With a minor exertion of will, she activated the cube before entering the throne room.

  Chapter 21

  Benny snuck cautiously into the room. A number of tense human soldiers were turned toward the doorway, but when the door closed a moment later, seemingly empty, the soldiers relaxed.

  “Those fucking temple guards, they’ve got us jumping at ghosts and boogeymen.” One of the soldiers muttered to the other.

  “One woman tearing through three squads of Temple Guards? As if, I bet they just got their asses kicked because they sit around guarding the rear all day. They probably just wanted an excuse for why they lost.”

  Benny snorted down stifled laughter at the thought of Temple Guards going soft; nearly giving away her position as she edged around the mass of soldiers.

  “Huh? Did you hear something?” The first soldier asked the second.

  “That’s what I’m saying. Now every little sound has us jumping like some kind of murderous ghost.” The second replied.

  “More like a banshee.” A third soldier jumped into the conversation. Benny pegged his accent as being from the western provinces. “Did you hear all the bloody screaming? Not just the screams of the dying either. I’m talking about that blood-curdling wailing we heard earlier. That freaked me the fuck out.”

  “All in favor of calling the Temple Guards boogeyman the Bloody Banshee?” The first soldier asked.

  “Aye.”

  “Aye.”

  Benny felt slightly embarrassed as she moved past her hearing range of the trio of soldiers, knowing that within a few weeks the legend of “the Bloody Banshee” would be known across the continent. It only took her a few more minutes to reach her destination. Once she was past the horde of milling soldiers, she found a surprising sight. Noraz, Lorbin, and a handful of other Demons stood on the sidelines as Azel fought a desperate duel with her father. Lorbin looked to be critically injured with a massive wound that visibly penetrated into his lungs; Noraz was crouched over him, tending to his wounded brother the best he could.

  Sidling up beside her two guardsmen, Benny whispered to them. “What’s going on?”

  “Lady Verilien.” Noraz jumped slightly, before regaining his composure. “It is good to know you are well. Lord Azel is currently engaged in a duel of honor with your father. If he wins, the human army has agreed to withdraw.”

  Benny shook her head. “They won’t. They’re using this duel as a chance to get rid of Azel so they don’t waste too many lives killing him. If Azel wins, they won’t honor the terms.”

  “But milady, they said they would.” Noraz whined, eyes wide.

  Benny shrugged unconsciously, not thinking about the fact that Noraz couldn’t see her. “Humans don’t share your honor system. By the way, how is Lorbin?”

  Noraz’s face turned grave. “He is dying milady. I am doing what I can to prolong his life, but there is no doubt that he will die.”

  Lorbin opened his eyes suddenly as if startled, and began speaking. “Verilien, I would like you to take my essence. You have seen the ritual once before, it is the one in wh
ich Azel empowered us. If I will go soon, I would rather it be with honor, in the service of my commander, than an ignoble death to an anonymous footsoldier.”

  “What? I can’t do that.” Benny protested.

  “You must.” Lorbin pleaded. “I must restore my family's honor. It is everything I have been fighting for here on the surface. There is great honor in giving your life this way. There is no honor in simply dying to a nameless man upon the battlefield.”

  Benny looked away from Lorbin, tears welling at the corner of her vision, and dispelled the invisibility effect. Most of the human soldiers remained enthralled by the still-ongoing duel between Azel, and Judas. None noticed the sudden appearance of a human woman behind the throne.

  “What do I do?” Benny asked Noraz.

  “Say ‘by your blood you live forever with me.’ Then you stick your hand into his wound, and pour mana into him. As much as you can spare. It will mix with his blood, and begin tearing the soul free. As his soul is extracted, it will flow back to you through the conduits of mana you create. The more mana you use, the more complete his soul will be when it reaches you. The more of his soul you recover, the more honor you gain in this process.”

  Benny shuddered, but followed Noraz’s words. “By your blood you live forever with me.” Benny whispered, a single tear escaping her tight control. The words uttered, she thrust her hand into the wound, and began sending mana through him as fast as she could.

  Lorbin gasped. “So much. Verilien, how do you have this much? Why isn’t it stopping?”

  His body began to glow blue as her magic spread through his veins, replacing his blood with pure energy. Benny almost faltered when his eyes became pure shining blue orbs, but somehow willed herself to maintain the stream of magic.