by Layton Green
-41-
The lower floor of the baths reeked of rot and decay, reinforcing Val’s impression that the entire level was diseased, contaminated by the arrival of Asmodeus and his demonic minions. The party’s boots squished on disgusting molds and toadstools as they strode warily through the rough-hewn passages. Patterns continued to form and then disperse in the thicket of moss and fungi covering the walls and ceilings.
When exposed, cracks in the plaster revealed rudimentary brick walls. The passages were tighter and more convoluted than the first level, the rooms much smaller. Steam drifted up from shafts bored into the rock floor.
“This level appears to have no correlation to the one above,” Adaira said. “Where is the water source for the upper level? Why the abrupt temperature change on the staircase?”
I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Val thought.
“Could this be another dimension altogether?” Dida pondered. “Perhaps a nexus between this world and the domain of Asmodeus?”
“Who knows what that blasted crown did,” Rucker said. “There’s no sense fretting about it. Let’s get it back and return to the surface.”
As they followed a curving passage deeper into the interior, a peal of wicked laughter emanated from farther ahead.
Rucker spat. “Succubus. Vile temptresses.”
“We must be close to the throne room,” Val said.
The rooms they had passed so far, irregular chambers with steam whistling up through bore holes, had all been empty. They ducked into the next one, an alcove with walls covered in green slime, and began to implement their plan.
Dida set to work creating an invisible Rune Box big enough to fit them all inside. The plan was to steal the crown, flee, and hide inside Dida’s magical contraption until things calmed down. Retrace their steps to the tower or, if forced, make a mad dash through a different section of the sewers.
As the bibliomancer spoke in a low voice and twisted his fingers to inscribe intricate shapes in the air, Val prepared a spell he had been working on the entire journey, an advanced form of Wizard Shield based on condensed spirit instead of hardened air.
After Dida finished, the party rehearsed the plan a final time. Once the bibliomancer drew within sight of the crown, he would form a Rune Passage that would allow him to travel across the room undetected, snatch the crown, and return. As opposed to opening a door of spirit and traveling through the dimensions, Val gleaned that a Rune Passage was some kind of advanced mixture of magic and mathematics that allowed a bibliomancer to warp time and space within a limited range.
If Dida failed or was detected, the party would create a diversion and try to cause enough chaos to escape to the Rune Box. It was not much of a plan, but Val agreed it was their best hope. Another option was to wait until Asmodeus left the throne room, but time was not on their side, and Val preferred to take proactive steps. Better to make a play for the crown than have their hands forced.
After what everyone had been through on the journey, no words of encouragement were needed. No speeches made. One by one, they filed grimly out of the chamber, knowing this might be their lone chance to return to their home world. Val and Adaira exchanged a look that spoke volumes, a mutual desire for a future that might never come to pass.
Molds and yeasts and puddings pulsated with green and amber light as they crept down the passage. Another round of laughter, musical and unhinged, drifted through the corridor. Closer than before. Growing nervous, the party waited while Dida cast a spell to mask the sound of their footsteps.
Fifty feet later, a red glow appeared as the passage spilled into a cavern dotted with four-foot tall toadstools and slimy tendrils hanging down from the ceiling like gelatinous horses’ tails. Just past the cavern lay the basin of seething lava Val had seen from above. As the party fanned out to hide behind the mushrooms, Val caught a glimpse of Asmodeus on his ivory throne, on the far side of the lava basin.
A pair of succubi, their backs to the party, reclined on a bed scooped out of a giant blue mushroom, steps away from the obsidian walkway that surrounded the lava. Val noticed the succubi were eating live scorpions out of a silver urn, giggling as they dined.
He caught Dida’s attention and raised his eyebrows. The bibliomancer shook his head. I can’t see the crown from this angle, was the unspoken reply.
Val tensed as his friend, ever so slowly, edged to the corner of the mushroom and peered around. Not liking what he saw, the bibliomancer returned to his position and, after expelling a silent breath, tried the other side.
Dida stayed in position for so long Val felt sure someone would notice him. His friend’s lips were moving, his hands tracing patterns in the air beside the mushroom. As Val watched in dread and then awe, Dida stuck his arm out from behind the mushroom. Yet instead of exposing his position, the bibliomancer’s limb disappeared into midair. Dida slid the rest of his body into the invisible Rune Passage, and Val exhaled with relief.
A waiting game ensued. Val ran through his spells in his mind, keeping the magic on a razor’s edge, ready to bring forth Spirit Fire or erect a defensive shield at a moment’s notice. Adaira’s back was pressed into his, her scent drifting to his nostrils, a touch of humanity among the horror. He reached for her hand and squeezed it.
The seconds ticked off in Val’s head. A full minute passed, then another.
What was taking Dida so long?
It was only supposed to take the bibliomancer a few moments to fly through the Rune Passage, grab the crown, and return. Asmodeus must be watching his prized possession closely.
A bead of sweat trickled down Val’s forehead. At any moment, one of the succubi might decide to walk to the back of the cavern. He exchanged a grim look with Rucker, who was squatting behind the next mushroom over. Synne and Ferin were to Val’s right.
Asmodeus is torturing Tobar, he told himself, and Dida simply has to wait it out.
A few moments later, a deep chuckle boomed through the cavern, as if amplified by a megaphone. The very sound of it caused a shiver to whisk through Val, vibrating his nerve endings and turning his muscles to slush.
“I AM WONDERING HOW LONG THOU WILST WAIT ON THY FRIEND TO RETURN,” the powerful voice said. It sounded as if someone was shouting in Val’s ear. “BUT MY PATIENCE HAS EXPIRED. COME, HUMAN WHELPS. SAY HELLO TO MY COURT. EXTEND A PROPER GREETING.”
Val swallowed over and over as he tried to control the trembling that had overcome him at the sound of the demon lord’s voice. As the members of the party exchanged a worried glance, unsure what to do, a scream tore through the cavern.
A human scream, familiar and wracked with pain.
Dida.
The leering face of a succubus peered around the mushroom, clapping in glee when Val and Adaira jumped back in terror. The demon-spawn flew out of reach as Rucker roared and charged her with his axe.
“I’ll scatter yer bones across the cavern, wench!”
The succubus cackled.
“COME, SPIRIT MAGE FROM ANOTHER WORLD. COME AND PAY HOMAGE.”
Shaking like a leaf, unable to get a grip on his fear, Val gripped Adaira’s arm and felt her shaking as well. A glance at Ferin told Val he was in even worse shape. Synne looked rattled but in command, and only Rucker seemed unaffected by the words of the demon lord.
Adaira’s eyes flicked towards the return passage. Val shook his head. He wasn’t leaving Dida behind.
When Val emerged from behind the mushroom, he realized at once how badly they had miscalculated. How foolish they had been.
Earlier, when he had peered through the grate, he had not been able to observe the entire chamber. Now he could see four hulking humanoids, formed of flesh and fire, standing with arms crossed at the corners of the lava basin. Giant curved swords hung from ruby scabbards on their backs. Far more succubi and incubi than Val had realized filled the alcoves surrounding the walkway. Dozens of them.
Val’s eyes fell to the ivory throne atop the obsidian platform, and Asmodeus
boomed another chuckle when he noticed the party’s reaction.
“DOST THOU THINK THE PRESENCE OF MY MINIONS TIPS THE SCALES IN MY FAVOR? DOST THOU THINK THOU HAD A CHANCE TO DEFEAT ME WITHOUT THEM?”
The chuckle turned into a belly laugh that vibrated the air and stole what remained of Val’s courage. The sheer presence of Asmodeus overwhelmed him, the immensity of his physical form combined with the eldritch magic suffusing his being.
He sensed that Asmodeus wanted him to walk forward. Val complied, as if his legs were under the control of the demon lord. As he left the mushroom cavern and emerged onto the obsidian walkway, he saw something that caused his shivering to increase.
To Val’s left, directly across the lava basin from Asmodeus, was a giant portal in the middle of the air. The circular gateway was tall enough for even the demon lord to step through. Val gazed through the gauzy surface and saw madness incarnate. A realm of black-spired cities and misshapen forests and seas that burned, tortured souls and disease-wracked bodies and beings out of nightmares whose form and substance, whose very existence, twisted Val’s mind to the point of breaking.
Trembling, he forced his gaze away. The glimpse of Asmodeus’s realm had stripped even more of his resolve, and he had the overpowering urge to lay prostrate on the walkway and beg Asmodeus to end his life. Anything to avoid being sent through that portal. The compulsion became so strong that Val started to kneel, head bowed, his mind overcome and his legendary will broken.
As his eyes lowered, moving from the demon lord to the base of the three-tiered platform, he saw another thing.
He saw Dida.
The bibliomancer’s arms and legs were stretched apart and attached to an iron wheel. Dozens of dagger-like barbs protruded from points all over Dida’s body, pinning him to the blood-drenched contraption. Val had no idea how he was still alive. Two incubi, their smooth male faces grinning in pleasure, slowly spun the macabre device.
Shudders coursed through Val again, though they stemmed from a source other than fear. If the demon lord had not tormented his friend, Val might not have summoned the strength to fight. Instead, his rage gave him the fuel to shake off his terror and regain control of his mind.
Spirit Fire surged to his fingertips. With a roar, he flung his hands at the two incubi spinning the wheel, lancing them from across the lava basin. The two male demons didn’t even have time to scream. They simply disintegrated.
Asmodeus gave a chilling smile. “SO HE COMES TO PLAY. THANK THEE FOR DEMONSTRATING, MAGE CUB, THAT THY POWER IS ENOUGH TO SUIT MY PURPOSES.”
Val lifted his arms and focused twin bolts of Spirit Fire on Asmodeus, aiming for the center of his chest, infusing the spell with as much power as he could muster. The magic flared as it streaked through the black veins covering the demon lord’s torso, then dissipated as Asmodeus stood to his full height and roared with laughter. “AN ATTACK BY A SCHOOLCHILD? ONE NOT YET OUT OF WIZARD SCHOOL?” He flicked a wrist. “ENTERTAINMENT, PLEASE. LEAVE THE MAGE WHELP FOR ME.”
As Val despaired, shocked by the easy absorption of his magic, the lesser demons in the room surged forward, the succubi screeching and taking to the air, wingless incubi racing down the obsidian walkway, the four fire demons striding across the lava basin.
“It has to be my axe,” Rucker said, in a low voice beside Val. “It’s our only chance to defeat him.”
Not our only chance, Val thought.
He doubted it would matter, but he had a final card to play.
Ferin screamed as two succubi lifted him by the arms and carried him towards the portal. Rucker noticed and raced to free him.
Val handed his staff to Adaira, so she would not be defenseless. “Synne,” he said, “watch my back.”
He lanced Spirit Fire into the ranks of demons surging towards them, annihilating the front ranks and causing the rest to scatter. He turned to attack the fire demons but, while the spirit magic hurt them and halted their attack, the cost was too great. He was running out of fuel, and doubted he had enough to deal with all four. It would also leave him defenseless against Asmodeus.
Rucker freed Ferin and raced out to meet the fire demons, running right across the lava, his movements again strangely unaffected. That’s a powerful ring, Val thought, as the first fire demon swung a vicious, two-handed blow that Rucker rolled beneath. He came up swinging, and his axe bit deep into the leg of the demon, bringing it down with a familiar wisp of smoke. Rucker moved on to his next opponent, his head barely reaching its chest, whipping the eback and forth as if it were a toy blade. Whenever the ensorcelled weapon met one of the demons’ fire swords, the blade shattered as if made of glass. Rucker spun to block another attack, but a different demon backhanded him, causing him to drop his axe as he tumbled across the lava. Just before the fire creatures converged, Val levitated Rucker out of harm’s way, then whisked the axe back into his hand.
Synne destroyed anything that dared approach Val on foot. Succubi used their wings to swoop down from above, but Adaira fended them off with Val’s staff. One evaded her swing and got behind her, but made the mistake of grabbing her choker. With a sizzle and a flash, the necklace turned the demon into ash.
Though the party withstood the initial attack, the battle went downhill. The three remaining fire demons realized Rucker was no easy foe and attacked in unison. It took everything he had to stay alive, and they had him surrounded in the center of the basin. Ferin was fighting a losing battle in one of the alcoves, Adaira’s arms were tiring, and Val could tell Synne had not fully recovered from the poison. Even if the party staved off the attack of Asmodeus’s minions, they would have nothing left against the demon lord.
Through it all, Dida whimpered in pain on the wheel, and Tobar watched the battle with unseeing eyes, sitting on his mock throne like a marionette on a shelf, the crown shoved low on his head. Val tried to whisk the crown across the room, but it was somehow grafted, through magic or other means, to the mage’s head. Val even tried to lift Tobar himself, but realized he was attached to his chair.
Asmodeus laughed at the failed attempt. “PREPARE THYSELF TO TAKE TOBAR’S PLACE, YOUNG ONE.
Val knew the demon lord meant to crush his spirit. While Asmodeus’s words terrified him, they also fueled his anger, and revealed that the demon lord didn’t mean to kill him. At least not before he tried to syphon Val’s magic to harness the power of the crown, then fling his dried-up soul into hell.
“Adaira,” Val said, “do you have enough magic to fly me across the lava?”
She fended off a clawed attack from above. “I think so.”
“Then I’m going for Asmodeus. Synne, I’ll meet you there.”
As the majitsu took off down the obsidian walkway, clearing away the lesser demons with a flurry of attacking limbs, Val shouted across the lava basin.
“Rucker! Ferin! Now!”
Rucker turned his head and noticed Synne pulling Ferin into a sprint towards Asmodeus, while Val and Adaira linked arms to take flight across the basin. With a superhuman effort, Rucker fought through the ring of fire demons, taking a terrible blow to the back that almost brought him down. He stumbled but regained his footing, racing across the lava just before they could grab him.
Asmodeus boomed another chuckle. “THOU COMEST FOR ME? LET US PLAY, THEN.”
The demon lord stood and grabbed a six-foot scepter off the side of the throne, a black rod topped with a cluster of gray baubles. When he pointed the scepter at Val and Adaira, a cone of gray light shot forth. Anticipating the maneuver, Val erected a wall of Spirit Armor in front of them as they flew. The gray cone slammed into the invisible barrier. Val felt the air shudder, but his Spirit Armor held.
“THOU HAST POWER, WHELP. I GRANT THEE THAT. BUT NOW FEEL MINE.”
Asmodeus opened his mouth and roared. A blast of air assaulted Val and Adaira, far more powerful than any Wind Push Val had ever felt, blasting through the Spirit Armor and tossing them all the way back across the chamber. Val and Adaira slammed into a r
ock wall and slumped to the ground, fighting to stay conscious.
Synne had reached the bottom of the throne. She leapt up it, clearing ten feet with every bound, and drove her fists straight into the chest of Asmodeus. The demon lord didn’t even flinch. He grabbed Synne by the neck, thrust his thumb through her eye, and flung her at the lava.
“No!” Val shrieked, halting her descent just before she landed in the bubbling magma. As Synne swooned in pain, he whisked her across the cavern and to his side, trying not to look at her bloody eye socket.
Ferin, trailing behind Synne but unwilling to attack the demon lord, dropped to his knees and begged for his life. Asmodeus reached down, picked him up, and flung him at the portal.
Ferin saw where he was headed and screamed. Val tried to levitate him back, but Asmodeus overpowered his attempt, thrusting Ferin faster and faster through the air. Val reeled as the black sash gypsy shrieked a final time before he sailed through the portal and disappeared into the hell dimension.
Asmodeus reached down and spun Dida’s wheel, inducing a fresh round of screams. As the demon lord stepped off the throne and onto the obsidian platform, Rucker leapt out of the lava and swung his axe with all his might, taking a chunk out of Asmodeus’s calf.
Black ichor gushed from the wound. The demon lord bellowed and stumbled back. He pointed the scepter at Rucker and another gray cone of light shot out, slamming into Rucker’s chest and throwing him into the lava.
“Save him,” Val said to Adaira, as Rucker sank unconscious into the molten fire. His ring might protect him from immolation, but it would not keep him from suffocating to death.
Rucker had given them a final chance to succeed, a sliver of hope, and Val meant to take it. While Asmodeus was distracted, he flew towards the demon lord, low and silent across the chamber, almost reaching him before the giant being took notice. When ten feet separated them, Asmodeus stepped forward to meet him with open palms, amused.
Val drifted closer. Asmodeus smiled. Just before they met, Val removed the stopper from the tiny azantite container concealed in his hands, and threw the soul jar right into the face of the demon lord, propelling it with magic.