Fallen Sepulchre

by J D Franx

“I don’t know.”

  These weapons are useless. Akai snarled. Use the power from the demon to change them. Quickly, before it fades.

  “How?” Kael demanded as he glanced across the battlefield. The horde of demons hung back as if afraid to attack.

  “How what?” Jasala asked. He nodded and pointed to his own head. “Akai?” she whispered. He nodded once more.

  Weapon of choice?

  “I don’t know,” Kael asked, growing frustrated. “I’ve been using what I can get my hands on.”

  Akai snorted in his head. Put both weapons handle-to-handle.

  Kael put his reaper blades butt-to-butt. “What now?”

  Crack the bone handles with your magic.

  Again, Kael did as instructed, using his magic to increase his strength to split the polished white handles. A graying mist rolled out, and Akai’s voice stormed through his head once more.

  Push the blades into the ground.

  Kael eased the blades down until they stood on their own, stuck in the dirt. More pale smoke flowed out, and formed a spirit vaguely resembling a human. The phantom bowed to Kael and Jasala before turning and coiling around the weapons, transforming them into a single weapon. The handle grew in considerable length as three blades retreated, allowing the fourth to grow in size. The phantom evaporated into the handle and the cracks came together but remained visible on the shaft.

  Kael lifted the scythe with ease, shocked that it took such little effort.

  Better?

  “I guess,” he replied to Akai. “I’ve always used two weapons.”

  Of course. Akai chuckled lightly in his head. You saw Jasala’s weapon a few moments ago?

  “She created a dark blade from her magic.”

  Your kind are never defenseless, Kael. Use your magic to pull a second blade from the first, but don’t fight it. An ideal match to your skills with answer.

  Kael focused his magic on the weapon and inhaled sharply as the scythe answered, shedding a smaller weapon identical to a mountain climber’s pick, but with a longer blade and handle.

  “Much better,” he said and grinned. As he slowly swung the magical blade back and forth, long strings of misty energy trailed behind the pick. It took no effort to keep both weapons active.

  Jasala laughed. “I knew it,” she said. “Ready to kill some demons?”

  “We’re still outnumbered. They do want us alive, right?” he asked.

  “With the Tanz’I here, it doesn’t matter, Kael. They can put what is left of us back together as many times as needed.”

  Kael turned and faced the demons gathering across the open valley plain. “Still not giving up,” he stated. “You know that, right?”

  She shrugged and offered a sideways smile. “Never doubted it.”

  With no other options, he once again followed her into the fray.

  LOWLAND MOUNTAIN PASS, HALF HOUR EARLIER

  7TH HELL

  Garz’x and Inys stared into the Lowland Valley as flaming magic exploded out the cave across the valley them. Both watched while their armies engaged Kael and Jasala.

  “The witch has her magic back,” Inys stated and spat to the side in disgust.

  “The boy gave it to her. He is rather unique, even for their kind.”

  Garz’x grinned as the two wizards cut a swathe through the lower demons, but the gesture quickly turned to a growl as Jasala killed one of his own troops and Kael pounded a DemonKind werewolf to a pulp.

  “Send in a Fail and bring those two to heel. Now!” he roared.

  Inys nodded to one of his female Fails, and she leapt into the air, dropping over the edge of the cliff and diving into the battlefield.

  Both demon lords watched intently as the other demons made way for the Fail. The fight was violent but short. Inys howled when the Fail fell dead.

  “Impossible...” Garz’x let out, trailing off as Kael pulled the life energy from the high demon’s dying body.

  “They killed my Fail,” Inys growled. Raking the ground with his back foot, he snapped open his wings. “They will not kill any more of my Fails or my soldiers, Garz’x. I’ll deal with these wizards myself! We need our army for Hell’s conflict.”

  “No!” Garz’x barked as Jasala and Kael engaged the army below once again. “I have seen enough. We cannot risk more lives if that boy can absorb our life energy so easily. Follow me and bring your remaining Fails.” The massive demon lord jumped from the cliff with a snap of leather wings and plummeted toward the fighting, several more Fails flew after him.

  Surrounded once again, Kael stumbled as a small hound backed away and his long scythe met no resistance with his powerful swing. He watched as the other demons backed off the more he tried to fight them. Even the KiPara soldiers had retreated by at least twenty feet. His heightened senses warned him a mere second before two massive demons plummeted from the sky. He reacted on instinct, grabbing Jasala and pulling her into his jump spell. They stepped from the murky smoke with enough distance between them and the demons that he hoped they would have room to fight. He stared up at Garz’x as the monstrous demon lord slowly approached.

  “You are not the same boy from the Animus room so long ago,” the demon said.

  “Apparently not,” Kael answered, readying his weapons.

  “You have no control here, boy. You know that?”

  Kael knew the question was rhetorical. “Yeah. I know. I’m not overly interested in talking to you, Garz’x. Get on with it.”

  The demon scoffed. “I have seen enough of your life, boy, to know I will have to kill and revive you a thousand times over before you will give up. If my Dead Sisters could not break you, I doubt I can, either.”

  “Probably.” Kael agreed.

  “I could,” Inys barked.

  Garz’x ignored him. “Unlike the other demon lords,” Garz’x began, pointing to Inys. “The two of us do not covet your power. Though, Inys would like nothing more than to kill you. He will not. That leaves room for negotiation,” he said and laughed.

  Kael shook his head in disbelief. “You’ve been hunting me since I got here.”

  “Do not mistake me, boy. If I was willing to pay the price for it, I would take your power for myself right now and we all know you could not stop me. However.” he said, motioning to the monstrous winged wolf beside him. “We are preparing for a coming war that will tear the heavens asunder, and for this alliance, there are important matters to consider, and you are not one of them.”

  “Make your offer then, demon,” Kael snapped, not believing for a moment that the demon lord’s good intentions were real.

  Garz’x shrugged and the massive chains ringed through his horns clattered together. “Simple. The extra tokens you carry... do not turn them over to Salo RedMaw should you find your way out of the afterlife.”

  “You’re serious?” he stated with disbelief. Every part of the demon’s body language pointed to him telling the truth.

  “I am very serious, boy.” Garz’x growled as he nodded and held out an assortment of tokens. “And I will do one better. The tokens you need from me, a link of bone chain and from Inys.” Garz’x nodded and the massive wolf grabbed the werewolf Kael killed earlier. Tearing off its tail, he tossed it to the defacto leader of hell. “The tail of a DemonKind. As well as a battle spur from the Ferro, a Tanz’I bone needle, and an eye from the Baallo demon clans. You’ll have to claim the Chire and Moloch tokens yourself. They are not part of our alliance—though you had better grow some wings should you wish to do so. But it is a start. Do we have a deal?”

  “I can’t...” he began, but Jasala coughed, and he glanced her way. Her eyes told him not to mention the demon queen’s deal.

  I agree… if we are voting. Akai chimed in as he echoed her sentiment.

  “Why?” Garz’x barked.

  “Ah, goddammit.” Kael cursed, furious at his situation. Lying to the demon lord would bite him in the ass and he knew it. “Because making a deal with you goes against my bett
er judgment. Period.”

  “Good. We fight then,” Inys said, finally speaking.

  “Kael, you know I’m with you,” Jasala began, letting the rest of her sentiment fall unspoken between them.

  “Fine.” Kael bit his lip, unable to believe he was about to agree. At the very least, it was a quick and easy way to get his hands on several tokens at once. “Goddammit. You win, Garz’x.”

  “Deal.” The demon lord offered up the five tokens, so Kael grabbed them and placed the tokens in his pocket with the others.

  Garz’x nodded, and again, his chains rattled as Kael watched him. “You have a token from every realm in my alliance. You will not be harmed while in the 9th, 7th, 5th, 4th, and 2nd Hells,” he said as a sarcastic edge slid into his voice. “But do not linger. Every hell has feral creatures we cannot control. It would be a shame to see you fall now that we have come to an agreement.” The demon chuckled as he took flight. Inys pulled his thumb across his throat in a warning and snorted before swooping away after Garz’x. The demon army took the initiative to retreat from the valley.

  “Damn,” Kael whispered. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

  “We have to go. Now,” Jasala ordered. There was panic in her voice.

  “Why?” Kael asked.

  “If he finds out you have a soul deal with Reetha, he will chase after us with that army of his, and they won’t be testing us this time, Kael. This was Garz’x plan the whole time—to see if your power was worth losing a large part of his army. If not, he planned to cut a deal. If we jump out of here now, he won’t know where we land, and it’ll be more difficult for him to track us.”

  “Shit. Jesus Christ, Jasala. Does every goddamned aspect of Talohna have scheming and backstabbing?”

  “In my day it did. Everyone has their own agenda,” she told him.

  “Then what’s your agenda? How about telling me the truth?”

  “I have no intention of hiding it from you, Kael. You ask, and I will answer. I have been here longer than either of us can imagine, and you might just well have the strength and cunning to get out of here. If you can and I observe you do it, then perhaps I can do it as well one day.”

  He laughed. “That kind of agenda I can deal with. Now, how do we get our asses out of here?”

  “Oh, you will like this part,” Jasala said. “It’ll take you a while to learn how it works in the real world, but it is worth the effort. Here, it’s like any other magic. Use your willpower to open a doorway, short or long distance.” With a flick her wrist, a rift opened in the air in front of them. “To the Paradise realms?”

  Kael nodded and followed her through the shimmering doorway.

  ARKUM ZUL

  HIDDEN DOCKS

  Princess Corleya Bale heard Damien Krass walking toward her cell long before he arrived. The pirate's heavy boots clomped on the wooden floor as he approached the small holding cells.

  “Ladies and vampyr!” he shouted. Like he did every time he brought them their meager rations, he taunted them. Laughing, he banged on the wooden doors and rattled the window bars as he passed. “Time for slop and spit, prisoners. I added a little something extra for you all this morning.”

  “You are so very generous,” Lycori hissed from her cell.

  “Took very little effort,” he said, smiling through the barred slot. “You can thank me later.”

  Lycori snorted. “Step inside my cell. I would be happy to thank you now.”

  Damien laughed. “Nah. Got no problem waiting, demon-spawn. You can thank me when the time is right. For now, I suggest you eat and drink up. You will need your energy.” The pirate slid a water pouch under the vampyr's door—Corleya knew it likely contained Keske blood. The small goat was prized for its nutritious meat, but its blood barely kept Lycori alive. Two bowls of gruel slid under the door of the cell Corleya shared with Alia, her lady-in-waiting.

  “You are most welcome ladies,” Damien barked as he walked away. “Enjoy.”

  Alia slid across the cell floor and grabbed her bowl, but it fell through her fingers. Corleya frowned at how weak the former Salzaran mercenary had become and was surprised by the confused look on her face.

  “The bowl is heavier.”

  Corleya investigated her own bowl and realized Alia was right. The food bowl was much heavier than normal even though it held the same amount of food. Picking it up for a closer look, she saw the bowl was lined with leather.

  “Odd,” she whispered. “Look.” Turning to Alia, she peeled the leather to the side and revealed the hidden pieces of roasted Keske underneath. “Safe, you think?”

  Alia grabbed a piece and sniffed. “Seems to be,” she replied, popping the meat into her mouth. “If I die, perhaps do not eat it.”

  “Lycori?” Corleya whispered towards the second cell. “Your food all right?”

  “Better,” the vampyr growled. “Human.”

  Corleya knew the starvation was making Lycori more volatile. She was also aging rapidly, approaching the appearance of a seventy-year-old woman.

  “What's going on here?” Corleya asked aloud, more to herself than anyone else. Seeing as Alia showed no signs of poisoning, she dug into the meat and moaned at the savory sensation of real food. Reaching into the bowl for another chunk, her finger touched something metal. She frowned and pulled a key from under the meat. Alia stared at her in disbelief and checked her bowl, finding a second key from among her food.

  “Lycori?” Corleya whispered. “Anything strange about your water skin?”

  “You could say that,” the vampyr answered. “You?”

  “Two keys and roasted Keske meat under the gruel.”

  “Interesting,” Lycori muttered. “There's a crude map drawn on the side of my water skin that leads to some tunnels further into the cave system behind us. Seeing as the skin was full of Human blood, I imagine the single word etched into the bottom here is telling us when to escape.”

  “Which is?” Corleya prompted.

  “Dark.”

  Corleya laughed. “Good thing I can just make out the hidden entrance to these docks. If the vines hanging over the cliffs were any thicker they would block all the light from the outside. I bet one of these keys opens the cell doors and the other your silver shackles.”

  “Let's try that theory,” Lycori suggested.

  Stuffing another hunk of meat into her mouth, Corleya slid across the floor and handed both keys under the gap in their cells. She waited impatiently for any sort of discovery that it was true. Before long, a single key was returned to her fingers.

  “Seems to be real. All my cuffs are open,” Lycori said, though Corleya could hear the doubt in her voice. “No one is near. Try your key in the door.”

  Sliding back across the cell, Corleya stood and reached her arm through the barred window with the key in hand. “Good thing this little window isn't any higher up,” she muttered as she fumbled to find the lock. Praying to every god in the pantheon, she rotated it and felt the lock flip back. Opening the door just wide enough for her head, she peered up and down the hallway to see if they had company. “It’s clear. Should I go check further in and see if I can find the caves?”

  “No,” Alia answered. “If someone is trying to help us, we should wait.”

  Lycori coughed, clearing her throat. “I agree. Leaving now would be disastrous.”

  “Fair enough,” Corleya said. She closed the door and flipped the locked back into place before pocketing the key in the rags of her pants. “But what if this is a trap?”

  Lycori's doubtful grunt reached her ears while she watched Alia shake her head. “We are being held.” The ex-mercenary pointed out the obvious. “A fake, yet elaborate escape plot would benefit our captors nothing. Always play the odds in your favor,” her voice dropped as she continued, “Princess, odds say the escape offer is real.”

  Corleya nodded. Alia rarely spoke, so when she did say more than a word or two, she had learned long ago to listen.

  “Tonig
ht, then,” she said, getting a nod from Alia and a whispered agreement from Lycori.

  Chapter Eight

  “The more we are betrayed, the more we are able to see betrayals and double-crosses on the horizon. Trust is a rare commodity in Talohna and within the walls of this guild it is rewarded handsomely. But when that trust is broken it is punished severely. Only a fool allows such a thing to happen twice.”

  Merethyl Bellas. Date,

  location, and occupation unknown

  HIGH HEAVENS

  YEAR 155

  Kael crouched on a narrow ledge half way up the 3rd Heavens tallest cathedral spire. His stolen cloak of white kept him hidden against the pale steeples and from the angels who guarded the underground prison. He had lost track of the passage of time so many years ago it hurt his head to try and figure out how long he had been in the afterlife. Jasala’s rift to Paradise had been the worst mistake they could have made. Unlike Talohna’s Hell, there were part of the Heavens united behind a Heretic angel named Arreal, and Jasala’s jump took them right to him and his warriors.

  Tired of slowly losing the eternal battle between good and evil as they lost souls to Hell, the angels had united and waited for Kael and Jasala to make their way to Paradise. Kael frowned as the memory of his escape crawled to the front of his mind. Jasala had not been so lucky. After trying to free her from the prison for over a year, he was forced to abandon her and jump into the nearest Hell to continue collecting tokens. It took him decades to track down the demon lord who ruled the 6th Hell and took what felt like centuries in the 3rd. Neither demons gave up their token without a fight, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Their tokens joined the others in his pocket, and the only thing keeping him from going home were the three tokens that he needed which were held by the angels of Heaven.

  Kael studied the movements of the angels below him. He could not leave Jasala to rot, drained of the power he gave her as years turned to a millennia. However, the angels took their duties seriously, and he could see no way into the cathedral’s subterranean tunnels from the outside. Still, he smiled. Over a century of fighting in Hell had taught him a lot, and the angel’s warding would not keep him out like it had before he left. His smile vanished along with the rest of him, leaving behind a puff of dark smoke.