Necessarily Evil- Prophecy

by Shad N Freud

  “C’mon gang. We seem to have worn out our welcome.” Carl shook his head at Cenere’s questioning glance and mouthed, “Later.” The group then boarded the train bound for the Lascaux caves.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Carl snorted awake as the train rattled its way down the tracks. He smirked as he looked around the compartment and then stared out the window, his hand absently reaching for a pack of gum since smoking was prohibited on the train. He chewed on the licorice flavored chicle infused with nicotine, thinking about the delicate nature of the situation they were barreling towards.

  The Lascaux cave complex was the source of countless hours of speculation. It was largely agreed upon by most anthropologists that the Neolithic Dwarves of the early Germanic tribes first settled in the area. The caves are supposed to be marked with proto-runic engravings and cave paintings, immense murals of various fowl, game, fish…and shadows of the dark things that plagued the early Homo pusilli. The largest and most advanced cave was largely unexplored to date, as it had been caved in. At first, researchers believed it had been a natural occurrence until they translated the runes nearest the cave in and determined they’d been placed there as a warning of the danger within.

  A shame, really, as the cave was likely a treasure trove of historical discovery. It had been excavated using ancient pickaxes, and the metallurgical analysis conducted thus far had determined the pickaxes were iron. Considering iron wasn’t used in tool making by any other humanoid species until thousands of years later, it’s understandable that anthropologists were itching to clear away the rocks that had been deliberately caved in, signs of those same pickaxes being used to collapse the passage deeper into the caves on purpose. The translated script near the tunnel warned of a great evil, an intense darkness far worse than any of the early abyssal incursions.

  To further complicate matters, a recent earthquake-like phenomenon in the area had caused the wall of another tunnel to collapse, revealing a path deeper into the earth that was blocked with a massive wall of ice that refused to melt. Cave paintings near it depicted a massive white lizard locked in a battle with a winged shadow, the pair much larger than the tiny people shown near them. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and grinned at the only other person awake in the compartment.

  Sachi paused, an oily rag spread across her lap as she cleaned her field stripped machinegun. Carl had waved her away when she’d tried to hand him back the M240 after the battle. She’d smiled sunnily and, as soon as the train left the station, had begun cleaning and sharpening her weapons. She and Carl shared a glance before he put his finger to his lips and proceeded to pull out a permanent marker which he used to draw crude penises on Cenere’s face while he slept. She fought the urge to laugh, her face slowly growing redder and redder as Carl added greater details, like wings and veins to the penises, locking the simple drawings in mortal combat on the Tiefling’s handsome face.

  Carl was quite the enigma to her. He was the most dangerous man she’d ever met and downright horrific when angry. He’d earned his reputation of being a hard-boiled bad ass with a penchant for collateral damage by getting the job done, regardless of the odds. It was part of the reason why he’d been selected to become the protege for the beloved Cardinal l’Orange, despite Impious VI trying to blackball him which was legendary by now. He was also one of the kindest, gentlest people she’d ever met, his vicious demeanor softening whenever children were around and instantly becoming a favored uncle to children he’d only just met. He was incredibly patient, a gentle giant with a razor-sharp tongue, and a very generous man despite his vows.

  Sachi could tell, despite his strong front and abrasive demeanor, that his absence from home was slowly killing him. She’d caught him sneaking a peak at what he cherished most, the picture he kept in his wallet of a strikingly beautiful woman holding an adorable lime green moppet with tufts of red hair, both being held by the massive man currently drawing dicks on his subordinate’s face.

  She smiled as she rubbed her eyes, trying to wipe away her lack of sleep. She’d been plagued by nightmares ever since they’d left the pyramid. She smiled at the sleeping couple closest to the window. Cenere was sleeping with his head against the window, his coat balled up and serving as a pillow. Now there was a very pretty man, and Sachi grinned at the sight of her best friend using the Tiefling’s muscular legs as a pillow, drooling lightly in her sleep.

  The pair were dancing around each other like school children, both refusing to admit to more than petty lust. The attraction on his end was rather obvious; Camilla was a gorgeous woman, tough as nails, and covered with a roadmap of bad-assery, faint scars traced all over her body intermixed with a mosaic of tattoos. Cenere’s own adornments were largely confined to his ram-like horns that curled back from just past his hairline to just behind his long, pointed ears. His horns were inlaid with intricate gold traceries that were unique to his clan, as with all Tieflings. Sachi recognized the iron traceries inlaid into the tips of his horns as based around his faith, his connection to Hell. A small infernal iron earring adorned one ear in the shape of a pentagram encircled by barbed wire. The only other piece of jewelry he wore was an ornate golden locket that glowed softly with gently glowing aetheric wings that emitted a faint aura of comfort.

  She smiled as she watched Camilla scratch her nose in her sleep. The Scottish black woman was a prideful sort and had never had much time for frivolities like romance. Which was why, gruff and tumble as her best friend was, Sachi was not in the least bit surprised that the walking wrecking ball had fallen for the tiefling. The man was an arrogant, snarky little jerk, but dear God was he gorgeous. And a funny little shit, on top of that.

  There was a reason that a disproportionate number of comedians were faithful Satanists, largely in part because they knew that this life was one to be savored, enjoyed, and lived to the fullest. Dying young was no real tragedy, as the longer one lived, the longer they spent in the oven. That was also why so many test pilots, astronauts, and soldiers were Satanists. Suicide being a mortal sin, they sought dangerous professions to seek honorable ends. To most members of One World Faith, this desire to die young was an alien concept.

  Sachi shook her head to clear her thoughts, then allowed her gaze to wander around the compartment as she reassembled her weapons.

  The pair on the other side of the compartment caused her to smile. Jin was an oft foul tempered genius and she could honestly say he was the second most dangerous person in the compartment due his slightly unpredictable nature, prodigy-level control of the arcane arts, burgeoning talent with enchantment, and downright terrifying skill with a blade or pistol. Zeke, on the other hand, was a walking mass of contradictions; he was a devout Buddhist, but an obligate carnivore. A peaceful, meditative monk, yet a vicious berserker when the bloodlust would overtake him. Kindly and almost eternally patient with his friends when it came to the pranks they’d pull on him or jokes made at his expense, but easily enraged when he’d see the meek or helpless being harmed. He was often Jin’s personal mount, the others had joked, and nicknamed “Master Blaster” after one particularly fun movie night in the mansion, when they’d watched a remastered version of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. The two were incredibly close friends, not unlike her own friendship with Camilla. They were as close as brothers, while she and Cammy were kin in all but blood.

  She fought the urge to giggle as she turned her attention back to the window. Her eyes grew wide quickly when she saw what was outside. She and Carl shared a worried glance, then began rousing their friends as they felt the train slowing.

  Outside the train, in the middle of summer, was deep snow. That alone wasn’t the problem. It was the depressions on the ground, the bare spots where snow should have been that had caught their eyes. As the train slowed, the bare spots became easier to make out. Hundreds of footprints in the knee-deep snow. The white snow stained with blood and filth.

  In short, demons.

  ∞∞∞

  The train bar
reled back the way it came, leaving the group standing in the middle of a snow field, most of them shivering angrily in the cold. Jin was waist deep in the snow but didn’t seem to have a care in the world, reveling in it an almost child-like smile on his face as he kept his eyes peeled for the demonic horde that clearly infested the area. Dead animals littered the area, their blood and viscera staining the virgin snow.

  Sachi’s cheeks were red from the cold, but she was likewise grinning like a kid as she swept the area with her keen eyes, pausing as she saw pinpricks of reflected moonlight in the bushes. Her MP-5 burped a short burst of hot lead into the bushes, drawing out an inhuman scream as several lesser demons became bloodied smears on the now filthy snow. Zeke growled while he drew his sword, his teeth chattering in the cold, and Cenere rolled his eyes as he sprayed a gout of Hellfire into the underbrush, incinerating the demons hiding in the greenery. Larger demons lunged from the treeline and were quickly felled by an angry group of cold, tired gestalts and their fearless green leader, turning the white snow into a sodden red mess.

  Camilla cackled loudly, hexing the enemy as Cenere sang a death metal hymn he infused with a hint of Hellfire, the snow on the ground melting as the demons began smoking, scrubbing furiously at their skins as the group began shedding their outerwear. Zeke’s eyes burned as he leapt into the nearest knot of shrieking demons, a feral grin on his face.

  It was time to send these bitches back to the Abyss.

  ∞∞∞

  The rocks that blocked off the cavern shifted as the ground shook. The rocks rattled, dust slid, and crude seals began breaking. A deep, resonant laughter echoed throughout the cave as purple smoke poured out through the cracks in the rocks. Deeper in the tunnel, a vast cavernous city became lit by purple fire, the undead within rising as their patron awoke, a being lost since the days before man wrote out receipts in clay tablets with lengths of reed, before the pyramids were erected by the stone masons of Egypt, before man domesticated the horse. Since the first days that men mastered fire. The desiccated, leathery undead helped each other to their feet, their short stature making the journey to the blocked caverns easier, since they didn’t have to stoop to walk.

  It had long been pondered what had happened to the Neolithic dwarves, and the truth was about to be brought to light. And in the center of that city of the dead, an ancient dragon arose, the stalactites that pinned him to the ground breaking free as his mummified body broke loose. Red pinpricks in the back of the wyrm’s eye sockets flared brightly and its skeletal snout pointed up to the ceiling. The dracolich known as Blkk’Wng spread his bony wings, the leathery membranes in between having rotted away millennia ago, replaced by a purple miasma of darklight that filled the empty space between the bones, as it roared in triumph. The scream shattered the rocks above his head and caused a snowy cave in. He then clawed his way to freedom, followed by a vast army of undead retainers, armed and armored in gear far more advanced than they had any right to be, bearing the standard of the undead dragon that now lead them, blackened bones that burned with the foul energies of the Abyss.

  The lost Demon Prince had arisen, and the world these shaved apes had created would burn.

  ∞∞∞

  The previously impenetrable wall of ice that blocked a separate tunnel began melting rapidly as a challenging roar answered the one that tore apart a large section of the cavern complex. Within, the sleeping dragon that had kept careful watch over this land cursed as she broke herself free of the permafrost that had encased her during her century long nap. She then began tunneling her way out, the stone and ice parting before her claws like water to a boat. Fr’sst-Lsstr had to fulfill the duty passed down from layer to hatchling for the past fifty millennia. The foul one needed to either be contained or destroyed. She dreaded what would happen if she failed.

  ∞∞∞

  Carl lit a smoke, taking a nice, long drag after the last demon fell. It was odd, as there was no sign of demonic portal activity. These demons were also rather sluggish, like they’d been asleep for a while. Carl mulled that over for a moment before his hand began burning with an intensity familiar to the train depot. “Bloody Hell! Alright, which one of…” Carl’s cigarette fell out of his mouth as he watched an enormous shadow rise out of the gloom, large enough to block out the moonlight with a roar loud enough to be heard from miles away as the shadow hovered in midair. Carl could feel the terror rolling off of the great ruddy lizard. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  The rest of the group watched in horror as the beast turned in their direction and howled. At first, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the snow began churning as stout bodied zombies dug their way out of the snow and debris, each clad in gleaming armor and bearing battle axes. Cenere facepalmed as Camilla screamed in anger, unslinging Thumper as her blood began to boil, her brogue becoming thicker with her anger. “Haw come th' bugger is it zombies? Haw come is it aye zombies? Haw come cannae be aliens, or dinosaurs, or even just plain orcs? Er, nae offense, Carl.”

  Carl snarled as he put away his baton and pistol, then threw off his coat as he slipped on a pair of infernal iron knuckledusters. His eyes went fully red as he roared in rage, his lower canines flying out of his mouth as a pair of strong, orcish tusks burst forth from his lower jaw, a loud guttural roar accompanying him as he charged into a thick knot of confused dwarven zombies and unleased hellish brutality upon them.

  Jin watched in awe as Carl’s very being became enshrouded in Hellfire, each blow setting an undead dwarf alight and screaming as it tried to flee. The gnome smiled sinisterly; they felt pain. That meant that the zeds were sentient. Jin began throwing fireballs to and fro, electrifying the air with lightning and encasing some of the dwarves in sudden snowbanks. He could truly let loose on the poor bastards that decided today was the day to attack the world of the living.

  Zeke, meanwhile, had likewise put his sword away and had given into his rage, his Ki allowing him to move quicker as he scythed his way through the much smaller undead, heads and limbs flying everywhere as the murder lizard flowed through the enemy, leaving broken bodies in his wake.

  Cenere was lashing his whip hither and yon, careful not to strike one of the berserkers clearing the field. He reared back with his whip and flung a handful of knives into the crowd of zombified dwarves when he felt the ground rumble. He rolled to the side just in time to avoid a massive head the size of a Greyhound bus as it burst forth from underneath his feet. White scales gleamed in the diminishing light as the massive dragon clawed its way out of the frozen ground, roaring a challenge to the bony dragon above. The ancient dragons began screaming at each other in Draconic as Cenere dodged an axe that dried to bury itself in his forehead, his temporary distraction discarded in favor of trying to keep his head attached to his body.

  The dracolich above began chanting a spell in Abyssal, and the broken and destroyed bodies of the dead began reassembling themselves, broken bones and flesh becoming whole again as the dwarven draugr put themselves back together. The white dragon on the ground sprayed a fine mist of spittle on the reassembling undead. She then stood on her haunches, picked up the mass of hardened ice, and flung it at the dracolich above. The Demon Prince dodged the twelve-foot shard of diamond-like ice nimbly.

  Jin watched the dueling dragons in awe and then glared at a dwarf as he relieved it of its sword arm using his kama, incinerating the jerk with a firebolt. He watched as the lich above chanted another spell and began chanting a counterspell himself, a spell to prevent the bones of the fallen zombies from being used to form chains to bind and drain the white dragon as she dodged crossbow bolts from the dwarves.

  Blkk’wnng glared down at the tiny gnome as his spell failed, then paused. He felt a massive surge of power building within the tiny gnome, as if something was awakening. His eyes flared brighter as he snarled and began drawing together the energies he’d need to cast a death curse.

  Jin focused all of his energies on protecting the white dragon as she began casting a spell of
her own, one that would make the air around the lich above turn to stone and remove his advantage of flight. Jin kept flinging spells upward as the defenders on the ground handled the undead horde. The white dragon cocked her head in curiosity as she watched the little one cast spells at a feverish pace. Finally, the air around Blkk’wnng hardened and the lich fell, cursing all the way to the ground. As he fell, he fired off his death curse at the white dragon, the spell traveling too quickly for her to dodge.

  She closed her eyes just before the impact and heard a terrible clamor as the curse was arrested by a massive dome of rainbow light, the small gnome screaming in agony as he pumped far too much aether through his body. The smell of burning hair and flesh coated the back of her throat and nearly made her lose control of her stomach. Finally, the dome faltered, the death spell was defeated, and the Demon Prince lay in pieces on the ground, thrashing as it tried to reach its other body parts.

  The remaining undead collapsed, sighing in relief as their torment finally ended. Their bodies crumbled to dust as the energies keeping them animated dispersed. The Demon Prince’s dislodged head roared in fury as his red eye tracked the white dragon, who had shifted into a humanoid form. He shrieked in fury as she picked up the little gnome and handed him off to the tiefling before walking towards him.

  “Black Wing! You are once again defeated! This world shall not fall under your vile control. And, as you’ve broken free of your containment, I shall now find your phylactery and destroy it. Your reign of terror ends forever more!”

  The demonic dracolich laughed in response, his fetid breath just about causing the assembled heroes to wretch. “I shall rise again! I shall never die!”

  Carl tossed a shaped charge in his mouth and pushed the button. He’d taken the time during the train trip to duct tape a couple of disruption wands to a brick of C4, just in case one of the Demon Princes decided to make an appearance, and now seemed as good a time as any to use it. He motioned for everyone to cover their ears then he hit the deck. The ten second timer hit zero and the C4 blew up, causing the wands to fragment and unleashing all of the stored energy at once into a massive explosion that disrupted only the lich’s head.