by Eric Vall
The queen cawed in agony, and then her harpies began to swarm again. She struck me in the torso with her falcon-like foot, and I was sent tumbling back into the dirt.
The second I hit the ground, I threw up a wall of purple flames to dispel the incoming swarm. All the light in the world was blocked out as the harpies came down on me and tried to tear me limb from limb for harming their leader. Although my barrier was protecting me from their razor-sharp claws, I could feel myself being driven further and further back into the ground.
If I kept going at this rate, I would suffocate underneath a pile of brimstone.
So, I called forth green Hellfire into my hand, placed it at my back, and created a portal underneath my body. Thanks to the push of the harpies above me, I fell backward through it with next to no effort.
Then I commanded myself to appear in the sky, just above the Harpy Queen.
The second I reappeared from the green portal, I realized that was a fucking mistake.
The air around me was thick with shrieking harpies, and they zerg rushed me the second I was visible again.
I called forth purple Hellfire, slapped it against my breastplate, and covered myself with an enchanted armor. It surrounded my body seconds before I was hit by the first talon, and thankfully it held up against the deadly claw.
However, another harpy grabbed me by the arm and tossed me up further into the sky. As I ascended, a bunch more of the creatures swarmed.
I felt my limbs being yanked in all different directions, and I could feel the deadly talons stabbing into my body. The armor was holding up, but I didn’t know how long I could keep this going.
Instinctively, I summoned red Hellfire into my hands and blasted it in whatever direction the harpies had aimed them. There was a loud shriek as the fuckers were fried, and my arms were now freed.
Then I reached down, snatched the goat-headed dagger from my belt, and lashed out wildly. I heard the distinct splatter of blood as my blade sliced at the harpies, but none of them seemed to be letting up.
I needed to step up my game.
So, I called forth my silver flames in one hand and my green fire in another. I liquified the metal ball on my belt and then formed it into a circle of razor wire all around my body. Finally, I used the emerald flames to spin the razor wire like a top.
The harpies howled as they were disemboweled by the spinning strand of metal death and lurched away from my body. Gravity then took over, and I began to plummet toward the ground.
A few more of the harpies tried to snatch me up as I passed, but they paid the price with their talons.
Finally, there was nothing between me and the Harpy Queen but air.
I aimed myself so I was positioned just above the creature’s head, landed with my feet on her shoulders, and then drove the spinning wire into the back of her neck.
The Harpy Queen wailed in panic as the makeshift buzzsaw sliced her open and sent gore spraying into the air all around us. I felt her warm blood cover my entire body as I drove the saw deeper, but I wasn’t going to stop until this bitch was dead.
Finally, the Harpy Queen’s head popped up into the air like a champagne cork, hung in the air for a moment, and then hit the ground with a wet plop. Her body went limp, and I rode it to the ground as it fell.
I halted the momentum of the spinning razor wire, liquified it once more, and then returned it to my belt as I stepped off the queen’s body.
There was a stunned silence in the air as all of the harpies turned their attention to their dead queen. Several of them turned their heads inquisitively as they tried to figure out exactly what had happened, but none of them seemed to understand.
Then the swarms of harpies began to panic. The air was filled with squawking and yelps of confusion as the airborne monsters zipped off in all directions without rhyme or reason.
“It worked!” Sia gasped. “Without their queen, they have no idea what’s happening. They’re lost and confused.”
“More importantly,” I added as I returned to my friends, “they’re not attacking us.”
“That was a sick move, bro,” Todd noted, “it could totally be your wrestling finisher. We could call it the ‘Necksaw’ and everything.”
“You should be thanking Pazuzu,” I joked, “I got the idea from that snake-penised motherfucker.”
“All hail the snake-penis,” Todd snickered, “no homo.”
Our group watched as the army of harpies fluttered up into the sky and then disappeared in every direction possible.
“Abaddon probably isn’t gonna be too happy we fucked up the system in his Circle,” I observed.
“The harpies will find another queen,” Eligor explained as she wiped the blood off her swords, “it’s only a matter of time before another one steps up into the role, and they will be back to torturing those poor Shades for eternity. But for now, we are victorious.”
“Speaking of the Shades,” I noted as I turned back toward the burning trees, “is there any way we could put these things out?”
“On it.” Sia stepped up to the plate and blasted her black Hellfire around the nearest tree.
Instantly, the madame’s counter-magic spell caused the flames to sputter, flicker, and then die.
The Shades who had been attached to the branches were still alive, but they were covered from head to toe with third degree burns. Each one of them moaned loudly, almost as if every move they made hurt.
“Heal them up,” I ordered the petite redhead.
“Jacob … ” Eligor warned, “I don’t think that’s a good idea. He may not be antagonistic toward us right now, but this is still Abaddon’s Circle. He won’t take too kindly to you helping his Shades.”
“We have to, Eligor,” I shot back, “I’m not just going to sit there and watch these people suffer even more than they already have. Especially since the burns are our fault. Also, didn’t you say the harpies would be back anyways? Even if we heal them, they’ll get what they ‘deserve’ eventually.”
“I suppose,” the blonde knight sighed and crossed her arms, “but I still think it’s a bad idea.”
“Put out the rest of the fires and heal the Shades,” I commanded Sia, “then come rendezvous with us at the camp down at the foot of the hill.”
“I’ll be right there,” Sia confirmed, and then she blasted the tree with a shot of golden Hellfire.
The rest of us sauntered up the hill and then looked down at the carnage that had happened below.
“Well, on the plus side,” I joked to my friends, “it looks like Gressil’s forces have already been thinned for us.”
“But not Gressil himself,” Eligor noted, “there would have been much more fanfare if the King of the Sixth Circle was killed, especially if it was by Abaddon’s harpies.”
“Well, of course the Green Goblin got away,” Todd muttered, “there’s no Spidey here to catch him. Besides, he’s a fucking ‘endgame’ villain anyways. You never kill those guys during the first encounter.”
“This is great news for us, then,” Eclipse smiled, “we were prepared to fight Gressil’s entire army, but it looks like the harpies did most of the work for us.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I shook my head and motioned for the rest of the team to follow me, “Gressil’s whole power set allows him to resurrect and mind control people, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he had an entire army of zombies the next time we saw him. I’m actually surprised he didn’t steal the Shades out of this ring and turn them to his side.”
“He probably tried,” Eligor noted, “but the harpies most likely scared them all off.”
“Wait … ” Gula gasped and then let out a disgruntled groan, “did anyone else notice there were no Shades in the first ring? Outside of the ones who served Abaddon, that is.”
“Mother fucker … ” I muttered as I realized she was right. “Do you think Gressil is responsible for that?”
“Probably,” Eligor shrugged, “that would also explain why Abaddon
wanted us to go out and kill Gressil. He normally wouldn’t care about his harpies and his desert of fire, but the King of the Sixth Circle now has the one thing he fears. Disobedient Shades in large numbers.”
“Son of a bitch,” I growled.
“Abadabadoo played us, bro!” Todd exclaimed. “He fucking pulled the scrotum skin down over our eyes.”
“Wool, Todd,” I sighed and shook my head, “it’s ‘pulled the wool over our eyes.’”
“Not when he’s literally fucking us like this, it’s not!” the imp disagreed.
“We can deal with Abaddon’s lies later,” I reassured the group, “but for now, we need to push forward before the harpies come back.”
We waited at the foot of the hill for a few more minutes until Sia returned. Then we enchanted Charron’s coin and allowed it to lead the way once more.
The journey was much longer this time, but thankfully there was nothing to get in our way. Every now and again, we would hear a squawking harpy off in the distance or the scream of a tortured Shade. However, the only thing between us and the third ring of the Seventh Circle was a flat, dark field.
Eventually, we saw a large, circular glow off in the distance. As we got closer, the red shimmer got brighter, and its warmth radiated out of it like a furnace. When we finally approached the edge of the hole, the heat was nearly unbearable.
“This has to be it,” I announced to the group as I stared down into the abyss.
Unlike the previous gateway, there was no darkness here. Instead, the entire vertical tunnel was encased in dark red Hellfire. Down below, I could see ground that resembled a sandy beach.
This was definitely the entrance to the final ring, the place where we’d find Gressil.
We just had to survive the flames first.
I looked over at my friends cautiously, nodded, and then inched over to the edge. I was still covered head to toe with my enchanted purple armor, but I didn’t know if that was going to be enough.
There was only one way to find out.
So, I took a deep breath and then stepped off the side of the pit.
Chapter 16
My stomach flew up into my throat as the ground disappeared from underneath me, and I plummeted straight down into the tunnel of pure Hellfire. Even through my protective armor, I could feel the intense heat of the flames as I descended, and it was only made worse by the fact I was sweating bullets. I fell for what seemed like ages, and the whole time I worried my armor might give out and I would be fried to a toasty crisp. Or, even worse, my armor could get superheated, and I would then just boil from the inside out.
Neither one was the way I wanted to go.
Then, just below, I saw the sandy ground of the innermost ring. I quickly summoned green Hellfire into my left hand, slapped it against my chest, and covered myself with an emerald flame. I let out a grunt of determination as I tried to catch myself mid-fall, but I was going way too fast.
I had to do this. If I didn’t conjure up some better magic, I was going to end up in a crumpled heap at the bottom of this chasm. Even in the best-case scenario, the one where I break most of my bones but don’t die, it would still hurt like a bitch.
Green Hellfire was triggered by disgust and jealousy, so I needed to get really fucking disgusted, really fucking fast.
I closed my eyes and began to think about these last few days. I thought about how Abaddon had got us to do his dirty work for him, and how Gressil and Beelzebub were near the end of their long ploy.
If they succeeded, they would march into my Circle, kill all my friends, and turn my Shades into slaves once more.
The very thought made my stomach churn.
Suddenly, my body halted in place. I slowly opened my eyes and saw I was hovering a few feet from the sandy ground below, completely covered in a brilliant green flame. If I’d been just a few seconds later, I would have been in a world of hurt.
Instead, I lowered myself down onto the desert floor, decast my spell, and tried to take in my surroundings.
This was a desert, alright. There was nothing but large sand dunes as far as the eye could see, interspersed by an occasional rock formation. Off in the distance, I could see some stony hills, but that was it. Rather than the Mojave-like landscapes I was used to back home, this place was a lot more like the Sahara.
There was quite literally nothing around but me and sand. That was it.
Not to mention, the entire fucking place was on fire.
Intense flames radiated up off the landscape, almost as if each and every grain of sand was enchanted with the spell. It created a massive refraction wave on the horizon, and just looking at it made me feel exhausted. I could feel the heat against my armored feet, and I quickly tossed down a platform of purple, stepped up onto it, and then looked up to the sky.
I was the only one in my group who could harness the protective purple Hellfire, and I needed to make sure nobody else got burned on their way down. So, I closed my eyes, lifted my hands toward the tunnel opening, and then summoned up a tunnel of my own. This one was made out of pure violet Hellfire and was hopefully strong enough to protect my friends from the deadly flames.
I let the spell continue to climb until I finally heard a loud whistle from all the way up above. Then I halted my flames and waited.
Eligor was the first one down, as she carried herself on her large, black angel wings. Libidine came next, and she carried Superbia in her arms. Then came Todd, Gula, and finally Eclipse.
As each of my friends landed, I made sure to point out that they needed to stand on my platform, and nowhere else. Finally, once we were all safely in the inner ring, I decast my Hellfire.
“Jesus, it’s hot down here,” Todd panted as he pretended to tug on his collar. “I thought Lola was bad in the summer with no air conditioning, but this takes the cake.”
“It’s like we’ve been trapped inside of a giant oven,” Libidine added as she wiped a bit of sweat away from her forehead. “I really wish we would have brought Cupi right about now.”
“We don’t need Cupiditas,” Sia explained as she stepped toward the edge of my platform, “observe.”
The redheaded madame summoned her black Hellfire into her hands and then blasted it directly into the ground in front of her. The dark spell shot across the landscape in a straight line and doused all of the fire it hit like a fire extinguisher. The Sister of Pride looked back at us playfully as she took a step off my platform and onto the formerly-flaming ground.
“Huh,” Todd mused, “I never realized ‘demon fire extinguisher’ was part of Strawberry Shortcake’s power set, bro.”
“It’s still hot as all get out,” Sia noted, “but at least we won’t be consumed by searing hot flames.”
“That’s a plus,” I laughed and then followed the succubus off the platform. “But, just to be one-hundred percent sure … ”
I raised my hands straight out to each side of my body, called forth small walls of purple in front of each of them, and created a small, movable barrier that would protect us from any potential spreading of the fire.
“That’s great and all,” Gula spoke up from the back of the line, “but how exactly do we know where we’re going? This desert is massive.”
“Look around us, Gula,” I called back to the curvy redhead, “what do you see?”
“Nothing,” she admitted. “There’s not a soul around for miles.”
“Exactly,” I explained. “There should be hundreds of Shades down here, burning for all eternity in the hot sand. Where did they all go?”
“They’re probably under Gressil’s control,” Liby suggested, “at least, that’s what you thought happened to all of the ones in the first ring.”
“Exactly,” I nodded, “and if Gressil suddenly took hundreds of Shades to a secret location, what would they leave behind?”
Gula’s eyes lit up with recognition as she realized what I was getting at.
“Footprints,” she said. “They’d leave behind footprint
s.”
“That’s right,” I grinned, “and those footprints are going to lead us right to ‘ol pointy-nose fuckface. We just have to find some first.”
“Just be careful, bro,” Todd warned, “I hear these guys march single file to hide their numbers. There could be thousands of ‘em out here, waiting to attack us on their giant-ass wooly mammoths.”
“They’re Shades, not Sand People.” I rolled my eyes and continued down the path.
“You say that now, Jakey,” the imp continued, “but if they catch you by surprise, I’m not doing a weird-ass dragon scream to scare ‘em away. The Toddster’s got a bit more dignity than that, bro.”
“I don’t think we have to worry about it,” I reassured my friend, “but I’ll be sure to be on the lookout.”
The seven of us wandered through the desert of flames under the protection of my purple shields and Sia’s fire-cancelling spell for nearly an hour before we came upon anything. Even then, it wasn’t the footprints we were looking for.
It was the body of a small, goblin-like creature.
“Another Targlin,” Eligor scoffed as she drew her sword and used it to roll the corpse over. “Disgusting creatures.”
“What the fuck is a Targlin, anyways?” I questioned the Knight of Hell. “I know they work for Gressil, but what’s their deal?”
“The Targlin are a demonic race created specifically by Gressil, circa the thirteen hundreds,” the blonde woman explained, “he created them in his image, using the reanimated corpses of his fallen allies.”
“Fuck, that’s dark,” I whistled.
“Oh, it gets better,” Eligor continued. “Gressil not only uses these things as his personal servants and warriors, but he also sent them up to Earth so they could collect the world’s wealth and bring it back down to him. Including what he called the Earth’s ‘fertile wealth,’ as well.”
“Ewwww,” Todd gagged, “does that mean Green Goblin’s got barrels of baby juice somewhere in his castle? I don’t envy the person who has to clean up that room … ”