Succubus Lord 12
Page 26
“Even worse,” the blonde sighed, “he went after their children. The Targlin are the creatures your culture calls ‘goblins,’ the ones who come in and snatch up children as they sleep in their beds.”
“Waaaaaitttt,” Todd pondered aloud, “so I shouldn’t be calling him ‘Green Goblin.’ This dude sounds way more like a ‘Jareth.’ But I swear, bro, if he’s wearing tights and a giant-ass codpiece, I’m out.”
“What the fuck does he do with the kids he takes?” I growled as anger boiled up from the deepest pit of my gut.
“He … he extracts their souls from their bodies and then uses their empty vessels to create more Targlins,” Eligor said darkly.
“Damn,” I muttered as I shook my head in disbelief, “and here I thought Gressil was the least evil of the Unholy Trio.”
“When you’re dealing with Demon Kings, there’s no such thing as ‘least evil,’” the blonde knight sighed, “they all ascended to their ranks in different ways, but those ways usually involved lying, cheating, murder, and several other unspeakable acts. No one in charge of a Circle of Hell is ‘good,’ Jacob. No one but you, of course.”
“Well fuck,” I growled, “this just makes me want to kill that fucker even more.”
Eligor tossed the Targlin’s body back into the flames, and then we pressed on. We traveled for another hour and a half with no luck until finally, Libidine let out a gleeful squeal.
“Look!” she exclaimed. “I found a pair of footprints! Actually … it looks like there are a bunch of them.”
Sure enough, just off to the right of Sia’s pathway were at least six sets of footprints in the sandy ground. They were all distinctly human, and they appeared to be wandering around aimlessly before they came together and set off in the same direction.
That was the direction we needed to go.
Our team followed the footprints down the nearby sand dune, up the winding path of a rocky hill, and then back down into a valley surrounded on each side by a massive pile of sand. Once the footprints made it there, however, they disappeared completely.
“Hmmm,” I joked, “this doesn’t seem suspicious at all. And this place definitely doesn’t look like a good spot for a secret hideout or anything … ”
“Then we know what we must do,” Superbia nodded, “I have a feeling that if we start to dig, we will find our missing Shades.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, our teams ran over to the nearby sand dune and began the excavation.
Todd swiped at the side of the sand dune in rapid succession, like a dog who was trying to bury a bone. Meanwhile, Libidine tossed a few yellow darts into the sand, snapped her fingers, and then blew it away with a small controlled explosion.
Superbia had a much harder time trying to dig out the sand, as none of her powers really gave her any sort of advantage. Eventually, she settled on using her black flames to pick up small chunks of the ground, move it to the side, and then toss it to the ground. Gula stood right next to her as she chipped away at the flaming ground with the broad end of her battle axe.
Eligor and Eclipse both had the easiest time digging thanks to their powers.
Eligor simply used her lime green Hellfire to move the sand out of the way with a simple movement of her hand. In seconds, she’d burrowed all the way through the dune and out the other side.
Eclipse simply tossed out a small, nebulous blob of black Hellfire and stood back as it sucked the sand particles into its black hole.
As for me, I figured I could just shake the sand away. So, I summoned bronze Hellfire into my hands, took aim at my part of the sand dune, and blasted it at full power. The spell hit the side of the dune and caused it to begin to shake violently. However, it didn’t seem to do much in the way of digging.
Finally, I heard Eclipse let out a loud gasp.
“I’m not sure what I just found,” the tattooed succubus admitted, “but it looks really damn important.”
The rest of us stopped what we were doing, dashed over to Eclipse’s position, and then tried to get a good look at what she was talking about. There, buried deep within the sandy hill, was a large brimstone plaque with Inferoglyphs carved into it hastily.
“What does it say, Eligor?” Superbia questioned.
“It’s kind of difficult to read,” the blonde knight admitted, and then she let out an amused chuckle, “I can’t believe it. It says ‘Psalms sixty-eight, six.’”
“Ironic,” Eclipse scoffed, “I’m sure whoever wrote that down knew exactly what they were doing.”
“Psalms sixty-eight, six … ” I pondered as I tried to remember if I knew anything about that particular verse.
“Oh, come on, Jakey,” Todd sighed, “‘God provides homes for those who are deserted. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious live in a scorched land.’ I slept through every single Sunday School we ever did, and I still remembered that, bro.”
“Let’s think this one through,” Sia muttered and stroked her chin, “is the clue in the ‘prosperity’ part of the verse?”
“Perhaps to find the castle, we have to give up some great offering?” Libidine suggested. “You did say Gressil and his Targlin were fond of riches.”
“It’s worth a shot,” I admitted as I fumbled in my pocket for Charron’s coin.
I pulled out the golden token, encased it with green Hellfire, and then moved it over to the brimstone sign. Then I set it down on the top of the stone, stood back, and waited.
Nothing.
“Okay,” Superbia sighed as I called the coin back to my pocket, “back to the drawing board. Perhaps it’s referring to the ‘rebellious’ in the verse. The Demon Kings of Hell are certainly seen as rebels in the eyes of the Exalted One.”
“I think it has something to do with the scorched earth,” Eclipse spoke up, “considering that’s what we’re literally standing on right now, I’d say that’s a big hint right there.”
“But what about it?” I pondered. “Surely there has to be some sort of hidden door or spell we need to cast or something like that … ”
“You’re overthinking it, bro,” Todd clicked his tongue and waggled his finger, “we just gotta Batman Sixty-Six this out.”
“Batman Sixty-Six it out?” Sia questioned with a grimace. “Is that some sort of sex position?”
“Of course it’s not, chum,” Todd shot back as he threw his voice to sound like Adam West, “you just have to talk yourself through the problem, and then all will be right as rain.”
“Uh, I’m not sure that’s the best--” I began, but Todd was already deep into character.
The imp began to pace back and forth slowly as he rubbed his chin in thought.
“The verse says something about a ‘scorched earth,’” he mumbled to himself, “well, the Sudanese translation of the word ‘scorched’ is ‘bau,’ which rhymes an awful lot with ‘cow.’ And what do we do with cows, old chum?”
“Eat them?” I guessed, but the imp shook his head.
“No!” he exclaimed. “You brand them, usually with a red-hot iron that bears your symbol. What’s red-hot around here? The sand! What we need to do is draw a symbol in the sand.”
“Okay … ” Eligor continued with a raised eyebrow, “but how will we know what symbol to write?”
“Ahhh, that’s where the plot thickens,” Bat-Todd chuckled, “for that, you need to look at the subjects of each sentence … The Exalted One, prisoners, and rebellious. Now, ‘Exalted,’ ‘prisoners,’ and ‘rebellious’ all have three syllables in their name. This must represent the holy trinity, but in our case, the meaning is reversed because the verse is located in Hell.”
“And the reverse of ‘holy trinity’ is unholy trinity!” Libidine gasped. “The Unholy Trio.”
“That’s the rub, old chum.” Todd nodded. “That. Is. The. Rub.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Eligor scoffed, “there’s no way Gressil would be stupid enough to make the code to get into his secret base the names of him and his allies.”
“Just humor him,” I whispered into Eligor’s ear, “worst case scenario, we waste a few minutes drawing lines in the sand. Can you spell out their names using Inferoglyphs?”
“Spell them out?” the blonde knight shot back. “In the Inferoglyph language, each of the legendary Demons has their own symbol, including the Demon Kings and Queens.”
“Is that what the wilted lotus flower on the box in your bunker was?” I asked. “Is it the Inferoglyph symbol for Lilith?”
“Very good, King Ralston,” Eligor said through a sly grin, “Lilith is symbolized by the wilted lotus because the lotus is a symbol of fertility. And, if you remember the story of my Mistress, she wanted to be anything but a typical, child-bearing woman.”
“Basically, a giant middle finger to the Exalted One,” Todd added.
“What are the signs for the Unholy Trio?” I continued. “I sure as fuck know what I’d give them … ”
“It’s actually quite simple,” Eligor noted as she sauntered over to an empty clearing we’d made, drew her sword, and began to doodle in the sand. “Baphomet is the easiest one. The former King of the Fifth Circle is represented by a pole with two snakes wrapping around it. If you’ve ever looked at human depictions of the Demon King, you’ll always find this thing present.”
“What about Brundlefly?” Todd interjected. “Please tell me it’s a giant half-human, half-fly abomination.”
“Not quite,” Eligor chuckled as she finished up Baphomet’s symbol and then moved onto the next one, “Beelzebub is represented by a pair of wings mounted to a simple short bow, and Gressil’s symbol is a spiral with a square underneath.”
“I get the first two,” I admitted, “but I’m struggling to understand that last one.”
“Gressil is the King of the Sixth Circle, Jacob,” she explained, “his sole responsibility is sealing away Shades inside tombs of Hellfire for all of eternity. The spiral lines represent his main weapon, the horrific blade everyone in Hell calls ‘the spine screw.’”
As the words left Eligor’s mouth, she finished up her three drawings in the sand, stepped back, and admired her work.
However, there was still nothing.
“Well, it was a good guess, bro,” I explained to the imp, “but I guess we’ll have to--”
Before I could finish my sentence, the sand dune on the opposite side of the valley began to rumble and quake. All seven of us turned around to see a small portion of the dune’s side slide open and reveal a passageway just large enough for a demon to fit through.
“T-That worked,” Eligor gasped.
“Booyah, bitches!” Todd cackled as he jumped up and down, victorious. “Never bet against an imp with a brain like Holmes and a dick like Moby.”
“I’m sorry I doubted you,” I chuckled to myself. “You totally saved the day on this one, bro.”
“I wonder if it’s nothing but Hellfire in there, too,” Eclipse sighed as she stared down the secret passageway.
“Only one way to find out,” Sia noted.
The redheaded madame blasted her black Hellfire out in front of her and completely quashed the flames between us and the doorway. Then, with Superbia leading the way, all of us wandered into the side of the sand dune.
Before us stood a long, winding, square tunnel that reeked of sulfur and mold. Every single inch of the thing was covered by either soot, cobwebs, or crawling insects, and its path seemed to stretch on for as far as my eyes could possibly see.
There were torch holders on the walls, though, and each and every one of them was lit.
Somebody was definitely here.
“We need to proceed with caution,” Eligor warned as she noted the torches. “If this is really where Gressil has decided to hide out, there could be danger around every corner.”
“I’m not too worried,” I admitted somewhat jokingly. “It looks like those Targlin things die pretty damn easily.”
“They may be weak, but they are large in numbers,” the blonde knight continued as she ran her hand along the wall. “If we aren’t careful, they could completely overrun us. They’re not exactly pushovers with their daggers, either. If a Targlin gets the jump on you, they won’t need a second chance.”
“So, they’re basically paper tigers?” I mused. “Great. We’ll need to be on the lookout for anything small, round, and obnoxious.”
“Don’t be talking about me up there, bro,” Todd warned. “I’m the one who got us down here, remember?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I chuckled, “if I wanted to talk--”
I heard the distinct sound of chattering up ahead, so I stopped talking immediately and motioned for my friends to be silent.
Just up ahead, down the path to the right, came the sound of two nasally, high pitched voices. They were speaking a language I wasn’t familiar with, but I was catching hints of both Latin and old Norse in their vernacular.
It had to be Targlins.
“Eclipse?” I whispered to the tattooed succubus. “You’re our guest of honor on this quest. Do you wanna do the honors?”
“Gladly,” Eclipse nodded, and then she stepped to the front of the group, “I’ve already got an idea on how to take them out without so much as a single sound. I will need one of you to help, though.”
“I’ll do it,” I volunteered. “Just tell me what to do.”
We watched with intrigue as the dark-haired succubus sneaked over to the corner, peered her head around, and then looked back at us. She made a signal that she could see three Targlins as she summoned black Hellfire into the same hand.
I sauntered over so I was beside the succubus, peeked around the corner, and saw the three creatures. They were ugly as fuck, with their stubby little legs that just barely held up their slimy, bowling-ball shaped bodies. Atop their equally stubby necks sat a head with giant, pointy ears and deep crimson eyes. As each of the Targlin tried to talk over each other, flecks of spit splashed out onto each other.
They really were disgusting little fucks.
Eclipse took a deep breath, lined up her aim, and then tossed three small blobs of black Hellfire toward the monsters. At the same time, she summoned her naginata and motioned for me to follow her into action.
Both of us took off at full speed toward the Targlins with our weapons at the ready. I whipped out the Unhallowed Sword with my right hand and my goat-headed dagger with my left and then prepared to take these bastards out.
All three of the Targlins turned and began to shout something in their strange language, but all of their sounds were absorbed by the floating black holes in front of their faces.
There was no way for them to sound the alarm, and they were totally fucked.
I held out the Unhallowed Sword and skewered the first Targlin straight through the stomach. Then, before the second bastard could make a move, I brought the goat-headed dagger down directly between his eyes.
The Targlin’s tongue flopped out of his mouth, and his red eyes rolled back in his head as he crumpled to the ground. Meanwhile, his friend was lying on the ground writhing in agony. His pained expression and mouth movements told me he was trying to scream, but nothing was to be heard.
I looked over at Eclipse and saw her stab her naginata straight through the torso of the last Targlin, and he went limp instantly.
“Nice trick silencing them,” I snickered as I walked over to the Targlin with the gut wound and ended him quickly.
“Ugh, can you imagine the bloody hell he would have raised if he could still talk like normal?” The tattooed beauty made a face of disgust. “We’d have Gressil’s entire army on us.”
I walked over to the fork in the tunnel, waved for the rest of the group to follow, and then we continued on through the hidden fortress.
The further we pushed on, the deeper underground we went. There were se
veral brimstone staircases in these tunnels, and each one of them took us deeper and deeper into the depths of the Seventh Circle. The air became more and more damp the lower we got until each breath we inhaled felt like breathing through a humidifier.
Finally, after nearly twenty minutes of travel, we saw a literal light at the end of the tunnel. Up ahead, it looked like the silo opened up into a large, cavernous room with a platform at its center. Even from all the way back here, I could see the figures of several Targlins interspersed with Shades who were surely under Gressil’s control.
However, two figures towered above everyone else in the room. The first had dark green skin, with goblin-like ears, a pointed nose, and glowing red eyes. His body bore a black scaly armor with pauldrons that would make an eighties pop star jealous, complete with a contrasting red belt that bore his sigil.
This was fucking Gressil.
The other figure stood a good foot taller than Gressil, with curved black horns and equally dark wings that covered his body like a cloak.
“Jacob … ” Libidine gasped. “Is that--”
“Beelzebub,” I growled. “They’re both fucking here.”
The last two members of the Unholy Trio were talking with each other, and they appeared to be getting heated.
“What should we do?” Gula hissed. “We can’t fight both of them at the same time.”
“We need to get in closer,” I explained. “Maybe we can eavesdrop for a bit, figure out what they’re planning, and then get the fuck outta here so we can regroup.”
“Todd,” Sia asked the imp, “do you think you could make us invisible? That way, we can get up closer without being noticed.”
“On it, Strawberry Shortcake.” Todd nodded, and then he held out his hands for all of us to grab.
We formed a human line, and then the imp got to work. Todd bowed his head, muttered a few words to himself, and then made an exaggerated grunting sound.
“It’s Morphin’ Time!” he giggled as his body began to flicker in and out of our vision.
I felt a wave of magic wash over us like a ray of sunshine, and then my body was warm and tingly.
It must have worked.