Loyalty Oath

by Edmund Hughes

  Ryoko and Mira drew in a little closer to Jack as they took their own surveys of the harsh environment they’d been dropped into. Ash was falling from the sky like dirty snow, but there was more in the air than just that.

  Every dozen or so feet hung a tiny, glowing purple sphere, no larger than a firefly but with a brighter pulse. Most of the purple spheres hovered in the air, but Jack watched one of them veering closer to the ground.

  The instant it made contact, purple lightning flashed into existence, striking the spot where it had touched down with vicious accuracy. Jack had to blink a few times to clear his vision of the afterimage. He glanced over at Ryoko and Mira only to find that they were both looking at him. Or to be more precise, his ankle.

  “Huh,” muttered Jack, as he bent down to examine the chain. It was a dull white in color and not obviously supernatural. It closed tight enough around the bottom of his leg to be impossible for him to just slip out of, and it led toward a small cluster of spires in the distance.

  “I don’t like this place,” whispered Ryoko.

  “It would be a little weird if you did,” said Jack.

  “We should get this over with,” said Mira. “I do not think Xepher understated the danger. The sooner we can return, the better.”

  Jack nodded. He took a breath and coughed as he accidentally inhaled a flake of ash.

  “Stay close,” he said. “And remember what Xepher said. We’ll move fast, but we won’t rush.”

  They started walking at a brisk pace, staying close enough to each other to occasionally brush shoulders. The chain around Jack’s ankle didn’t get in the way, and in fact, it seemed to reel in as they followed it at a rate even with their speed.

  The red, ominous sky wasn’t empty. Black, humanoid figures streaked through it, flying with relaxed posture. Jack knew without needing to be told that they were demons, the same as Adana and Mezolak. He considered it a small miracle that they still managed to go unnoticed on the ground.

  “Why are they flying like that?” whispered Ryoko. She pointed her finger up at one of the demons that was taking a swirling, complicated route through the sky. It looked more like the flourishes of a plane at an air show than a reasonable path.

  “I’m not sure,” said Jack. “It’s probably better if we…”

  He trailed off as he glanced over at Ryoko. One of the glowing purple spheres was right above her head, and falling downward. He tried to reach out and push her away from it, but he was too late.

  The instant the purple sphere made contact with her hair, it released a jolt of arcing, purple lightning that stretched upward into the sky. Ryoko screamed and seized. She stayed upright, and something bizarre began to happen.

  She started to split into two, or at least, that was how Jack first interpreted it. A hazy, translucent outline was being pulled upward out of her body, dragged by the flickering afterimage of the purple lightning. It looked like nothing so much as her soul being ripped from her body.

  “Ryoko!” shouted Jack. He grabbed her by the wrist and tried to pull her away. It only served to exacerbate the process, giving her soul essence that much more room to escape.

  Mira was at his side, in an instant, and after a moment of hesitation, she tried to grab the translucent outline of Ryoko’s essence instead. Her hands went right through it. Mira bit her lower lip and then cast a spell.

  Jack realized what she was doing an instant before it happened. Mira used a Spectral Hand tendril to attempt what she’d just been trying with her hands. Unlike her physical body, the tendril let her make contact with Ryoko’s outline, and she rather unceremoniously began stuffing it downward, back into Ryoko’s body.

  Ryoko let out a gasp as the last visible portion of the outline was stuffed back into her. She fell to her knees, and Jack was immediately there, holding her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “Jesus Christ. What the fuck was that?”

  “I’m… okay,” whispered Ryoko. She shuddered and hugged her arms across herself. “That was really scary. It felt like… I don’t think I can even explain it.”

  “It’s okay,” said Jack. “As long as you’re okay, that’s all that really matters.”

  “Jack,” said Mira, in a concerned voice. “We need to keep moving.”

  She caught his eye and gestured upward. Descending toward them with a slow but steady pace was a glowing cloud of purple spheres.

  CHAPTER 41

  Ryoko was still shaken up, but Jack knew that they needed to move. He helped her to her feet, keeping one arm around her for support as they started forward. The purple spheres were falling around them at random, and they had to walk in a meandering path that was similar to the way he’d seen the demons flying earlier.

  It was a small blessing that the spheres fell at a slow enough rate for them to plan their route well in advance. Jack figured out, after a few minutes, that it was far easier for them to stay safe if they moved as individuals, rather than a group. As much as he hated leaving Ryoko on her own after what she’d been through, it was too difficult for them to maneuver through the maze of purple spheres as a unit.

  They still stayed close to each other, no more than twenty feet apart. Jack’s focus was torn between watching Ryoko and Mira and keeping himself safe. They made slow progress, and it wasn’t until at least an hour later that the cloud of spheres dissipated enough for them to relax.

  “I really don’t like this place,” whispered Ryoko.

  “I think we’re almost there,” said Jack. “At least now we’ll be able to travel a little more safely.”

  Five minutes later, he swore under his breath for having jinxed them. A large group of demons was flying across the horizon in formation, and it shifted direction in a way that telegraphed to Jack that they’d been spotted.

  “Do you have a plan for how to handle demons, my sweet Jack?” asked Mira.

  “Stick to the advice Xepher gave us,” he said. “Don’t say anything to them. Don’t touch them. And don’t panic.”

  The demon flock flew directly over them. Jack thought they were out of the woods as it started passing them by, until one of the demons broke off from the flock and descended to hover almost directly in front of them.

  It was a male demon, naked in the same way they all were, with onyx skin and a complicated pattern of turquoise lines running over his body. He tilted his head from side to side as he watched them, reminding Jack slightly of an owl.

  “Human?” asked the demon. “Do you speak English?”

  Jack made sure to give no indication of having heard or understood the demon. He swerved to walk around it, keeping himself between it and the girls.

  “Hablas espanol?” asked the demon. “Nǐ huì shuō pǔtōnghuà ma?”

  Jack kept walking, keeping Mira and Ryoko in front of him. The demon leapt back up in the air and descended to land directly in front of them.

  “I know you can hear me,” said the demon. “Tell me. Where does this chain lead, mortal? To whom do you belong?”

  The demon reached a finger down and placed it against the chain.

  The instant it made contact, the tone of the encounter shifted on a dime. The demon blinked its red eyes several times and took a cautious step back.

  “You are unlucky, mortal,” said the demon.

  It launched itself back into flight, speeding up to rejoin the rest of its flock. Jack let out an audible sigh of relief.

  “We should keep moving,” he said. “As fast as we can without looking panicked.”

  “Are we panicked?” asked Mira.

  “Of course not,” said Jack. “I’ve got this all under control.”

  He squeezed Mira and Ryoko’s hands, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. They continued forward at a brisk pace, and Jack appreciated the fact that if nothing else, they at least knew where they were going.

  It felt like they’d been traveling for hours when they finally began to approach the spires on the horizon that the chain was attached t
o. Jack struggled to keep their cautious pace, feeling tempted to just sprint the last stretch and find where the chain was anchored to.

  “We should stop and rest,” said Ryoko. “We don’t know what we might find ahead of us.”

  She had a good point, even though he could only grudgingly admit it.

  “Right,” said Jack. “Five minutes should be enough time to catch our breath, right.”

  Mira and Ryoko nodded. In truth, resting for any longer than that seemed like it would have been an ordeal, given the hellish nature of their surroundings.

  Jack rolled out one of his shoulders and stretched his neck. A small rock had gotten into his shoe at some point, and as he reached down to clear it out, he saw the ash lining the ground shift in an odd, unnatural manner.

  “Huh,” he said. “We should be careful here. It almost looks like…”

  He trailed off as he glanced back at his companions. Mira had frozen in place, her expression locked into a disgusted scowl. A glistening black snake longer than Jack was tall had begun to wind its way up Mira’s ankle and along her calf.

  “Jack,” said Mira through pursed lips. “How should we handle this?”

  “I can use my water magic to blast it off, sir,” said Ryoko. “That might work?”

  “No, it’s too late for that,” said Jack. He scowled and chewed his lip. “It’s already wrapped around her leg. The only way to get it off her would be to cut it off.”

  “So make with the Spectral Sword, then,” hissed Mira. “It’s not a pleasant sensation to have this thing against my skin.”

  “Xepher explicitly warned us to only fight in self-defense,” said Jack. “I’m not sure the situation calls for violence, just yet. Try using Shadow Form to slip loose.”

  “It’s too bright out, even with the eclipse,” she replied.

  The snake reached Mira’s upper thigh, and she flinched visibly as it momentarily poked its head under her cutoffs. It continued upward instead of pushing further in, wrapping itself around Mira’s waist, and then gliding across her cleavage.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” said Mira. “If I survive this, I shall take a shower that lasts for an entire day.”

  “Don’t move,” said Jack. “There’s still a chance that it might just decide to—”

  The glistening snake began to wrap around Mira’s neck. Jack wasn’t comfortable with seeing what its intentions were. He reached his hand to the side and summoned his Spectral Sword. With a single, precise slash, he severed the disgusting creature in two, spewing greasy black blood across Mira’s shoulders and chest.

  “Ew!” she cried. “Ryoko, do you mind?”

  “Of course.” Ryoko extended a hand and swept a curtain of water across Mira, which cleaned her off, though also left her soaking wet. Jack was about to comment on the translucent nature of the top she was wearing when an eerie hiss came from the ash surrounding them.

  A hundred snakes or more slithered forth from the ground, slowly making their way toward Jack and his companions. He whirled, preparing to slash the ground in a tilling motion. Before he could, the snakes shifted direction, pulling together into a single, writing unit.

  “What are they doing?” asked Ryoko.

  “I have no idea,” said Jack.

  The snakes began to spin, and with their motions came a swirling, unnatural wind. Jack reached his arms outward and pressed backward, slowly moving his group out of what he assumed was effective attack range.

  The wind carried the creatures into the air, forming into a grotesque, nightmarish tornado of slimy black snakes. It slowly began moving in the direction of Jack and the others. He brandished his sword at it, raising it into defensive posture just as one of the snakes was flung loose from the mass, heading directly for them like a thrown spear.

  Jack whipped his sword into a side slash, severing it in half without much difficulty. Two more snakes came at them in quick succession. Jack sliced through one of them, while Ryoko blasted the other away with a gout of focused water.

  The snakes began to fly at them, faster and faster, until Jack was slashing nonstop, and Ryoko and Mira were supporting him as much as they could with their own magic. He could see the tornado scooping up reinforcements from the ash as more snakes slithered over to join its swirling bulk.

  Ryoko let her guard down for an instant, and three snakes struck her in quick succession. They began binding her arms and legs, and she let out a terrified scream.

  “Damn it!” cried Jack.

  He swatted another snake to the side with his sword and moved into position to help. Mira let out a muffled cry from his left, and Jack turned in time to see her with a snake pinching tight around her neck.

  He needed to do something, and he wasn’t sure what. He took a closer look at the swirling tornado, noticing for the first time that there appeared to be a shrouded core at its center. It would be impossible to get into range charging at it head on, but he had an idea. A desperate, stupid, but potentially workable idea.

  Jack cast Shadow Levitation and rose into the air as quickly as he could. A few snakes flew loose from the tornado, but they lacked the momentum to reach him as he gained altitude. He lifted himself above the swirling mass of monsters, positioned himself over the center, and then dove downward.

  As he’d suspected, there was an obvious, visible core. It looked like a ball of yarn, similar to the way that snakes mated in the mortal world. In order to reach it, Jack had to drop through the living tornado’s interior. Snakes shot out toward him as he passed by, trying to wrap around his arms and legs and bind him in place.

  His sword prevented that. Jack used his levitation to swirl himself in a complicated, somewhat nauseating pattern, slashing at anything and everything that drew too near. He drove the point of his weapon downward as he reached the tornado’s core, first stabbing, and then hacking relentlessly.

  The snakes fell from the air, raining down on his head and shoulders. He just kept swinging his sword, not allowing any of them to find purchase on his body. Eventually, they began to retreat, slithering off Jack and away through the ash. He curled his lower lip and continued to brush his body off, feeling much the same way he did when a disgusting bug managed to sneak into his hair or shirt.

  Mira and Ryoko were recovering on the ground nearby, shaken but unharmed overall. He helped them to their feet, scanning the surrounding area to make sure they were well and truly out of trouble.

  “A tornado made of snakes,” he said. “I think that’s enough to cross this one off our future vacation destination list.”

  He smiled at them. Mira rolled her eyes, and Ryoko just sighed.

  CHAPTER 42

  The size of the spire they were heading toward became readily apparent as they drew closer. Jack felt tiny, insignificant, and more than a little vulnerable as he stared up at the nearest one. It was as wide across as five city blocks,and extended upward further than his eyes could follow.

  The chain around his ankle was connected to it at the base, hanging from a ring embedded in the strange, pulsating material the spire was composed of. Jack slowed to a stop as they drew near it, noticing that there were around a dozen other rings, with chains leading off in all directions. He reached his hand out to the side and summoned his Spectral Sword.

  “This is it,” he said. “Finally!”

  The relief was almost overwhelming, as was the emotional rebound when a new figure dropped down from the sky, directly between him and his long-sought goal. It was a demoness with a gorgeous body, like a glamour model who’d been covered in the darkest ink and then painted with surreal red fractals. It was someone Jack recognized.

  “My, my, my,” said Adana. “So close, mortal. And yet, so far.”

  Mira reacted first, launching forward from Jack’s side with several Spectral Hand tendrils ready at her command. Adana simply snapped her fingers. Circular confinement cages with bars that were literally on fire burst into existence around Mira and Ryoko.

  Jack w
atched Mira attempting Shadow Form to escape and Ryoko trying to dissolve into water to do the same. It didn’t work in either case. The cages must have somehow been blocking their abilities.

  “Adana,” said Jack, through gritted teeth. “Get the fuck out of my way.”

  Adana just smiled at him. Her eyes swirled with red, different from a vampire’s, or anything else Jack had seen, and her long black hair moved incessantly, as though she was in a swirling current underwater. She was completely naked and her body had all the best kinds of curves, but her black skin and crimson accents made her almost look too strange to be sexy. Almost.

  “I did not come here to fight,” purred Adana. “I came to talk. To offer you a deal.”

  Jack still had his sword in his hand, and it took all the effort he had to lower its tip.

  “I’ll give you one chance,” said Jack. “Get out of my way.”

  Adana’s smile broadened. “You cannot hurt me, mortal. But that’s besides the point. I find you to be a fascinating specimen. So much more than I knew when I reunited you with my brother.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow at that. There was scorn in her voice, and it wasn’t aimed at him.

  “Experiencing a little bit of sibling friction with Mezolak?” he asked. “In that case, maybe we should talk.”

  “Maybe we should do more than just talk.”

  Adana was against him in an instant. For all the weirdness of her body, it still felt incredibly soft and pleasant to be in direct contact with. She was hotter in temperature than a normal human and her skin seemed to hum, like a massager set on extremely low setting.

  She kissed him, and the pleasure of her lips against his was like experiencing a nuclear bomb of pleasure. Jack knew then that he’d made a mistake. And in a few seconds, he’d be plunging a second mistake into her, over and over again, as hard as he could.

  “I can help you, mortal,” she whispered, in a voice sweeter than any angel’s. “Make a deal with me. I’ll free you from your loyalty oath to Mezolak and give you your life back.”