by Jake Stone
“Uh, Xander?” Rachel asks as she glares up at the mighty demon. “What the fuck is happening?”
“I have no fucking clue,” I whisper back.
“Now,” the demon says, “for the second part of the ritual.” It glares down at Rachel. Chained to the stone beneath her, she can only grip my hand as she tries to hold onto her sanity.
The demon’s mandibles click with excitement, its right hand rising into a triumphant fist. “For five hundred years you have been exiled, my lord. Now, the time has come to end this curse. With the blood of these two humans, I will free you so that you may once again lead your flock into this abysmal galaxy!”
I watch in terror as the demon reaches for Rachel’s neck, it’s long black nails slicing through the air like daggers. She recoils from its touch, her eyes wide with fear, her breathing quick and heavy. It’s in that moment, just as the monster is about to finally reach her, that I hear the sound of a pulser firing.
The demon’s head snaps back and it stagers away in dismay, a roar of pain escaping its insect-like mouth. When it removes its clawed hand from its face, I see a stream of black blood leaking from one of its many eyes.
“Who dares injure me?” the demon demands.
I glance back at the entrance, proud to find Chun Hei aiming down the sight of her sniper rifle, a plume of smoke lifting from its barrel.
A crack shot indeed.
The attack is a rallying cry, one that asks to be answered—and it is.
Atia stands bravely with her spear, her beautiful face hardened into a look of determination. But Petronelous and Zorel are still hesitant. They linger in the mouth of the cavern like frightened children, shocked by the terrible figure looming before them. Even Chun Hei, the crack sniper who just shot the demon in the eye, seems afraid, her eyes unblinking, her mouth slightly agape.
And that’s when I realize: they’ve never seen a demon before. Their only image of it has come through description and hearsay. Now, the image of it has frozen them in place and as prepared as they once thought they were, the reality of it, I can see, is far, far more terrible. It takes the commanding voice of Atia to shake them from their fears.
“For the Republic!”
The women break formation as each of them charges the demon in their own way. Chun Hei fires ceaselessly at the monster, while Petronelous and Zorel try to outflank it, using blades and elemental energy to bring it down.
I take the opportunity to free Rachel. The chains are unbreakable. But not the stone. I reach for one of the pulsers on the ground and aim it at the concrete where her manacles are bolted.
“What are you doing?” Rachel asks, worried.
“Freeing you,” I say. “Look away.”
Bits of stone splinter from the block as I fire, hitting me in the face and head. But I don’t care. It’s nothing compared to what the girls are suffering around me. I keep shooting, drilling away at the rock until it breaks free.
When it does, I lift Rachel from the slab and run away from the havoc, resting her against one of the jagged walls, where I hurry to make sure she’s okay. Her wrists are still manacled, linked to the long, thick chains dragging along the ground behind us. But other than that, she looks okay. “Are you hurt?” I ask, brushing the dark hair from her face.
The front of her nightgown is open, and I can see the curves of her large breasts. Her face is pallid, her hair long and loose. But her beauty is unchanged. She’s even more stunning now than ever.
Her brow furrows as she examines her arms, chest and legs, feeling them out to see if they can still move. “I think so,” she says, her eyes quickly finding mine. “But what is all this? What’s happening?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Of course, I do,” she replies. “But what is that thing? And who are these women?”
“They’re Purifiers,” I say. “They’re helping us.”
“But why?”
“Because,” I say, suddenly hit with a strange feeling, “they’re my…friends.”
“Friends?” she repeats, a mocking smile touching her lips. “You have friends?”
“Is that so hard to believe?”
“No, it’s just…”
“Just because I keep to myself, doesn’t mean that I’m not a likable guy.”
“I didn’t say that. I’m just saying that sometimes you can be a little difficult.”
“What do you mean, sometimes?”
“You have your moments.”
I snort, my hand touching her face. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
“Neither did I,” she says, cupping my hand.
My heart feels whole at that moment, and all I want to do is hold her, to grip her as tightly as I can and never let her go. “I don’t want to lose you again,” I say.
“We might not have a choice,” she says, motioning to the fighting in the background.
She’s right, I know. This may very well be the last time we see each other before we’re either killed, or sacrificed. I need to use this precious time wisely. “There’s something I have to tell you,” I say.
“What?” she asks, looking up at me with expectant eyes.
“I…I think I’m…”
“Yes?”
“…in love you.”
For a moment, she just stares at me, my words burrowing into a part of her heart she probably never thought I would try for, but then, just as quickly as it came, it vanishes, replaced with a look of anger that puts me on my heels.
“What?” I ask, suddenly worried.
“Now?” she says, rolling her eyes. “Now you tell me? Seconds before we’re about to be killed by a demon?”
“What?” I say. “It took me a while to figure it out.”
“Goddamnit, Xander. For someone so smart, you’re such a jackass.”
“Sorry,” I say with a shrug. “But at least, I’m your jackass.”
She snorts. “Yeah, I guess you are,” she says, caressing my face.
We stay like that for a while, looking longingly into each other’s eyes, until finally she speaks.
“Well?” she says.
“Well, what?” I ask.
“Aren’t you going to kiss me?”
“Oh shit, my bad.” As quickly as I can, I lean in to kiss her, feeling the softness of her lips against mine, the parting of her wet mouth as we sink our tongues into each other’s wanting mouths, and she takes it with a wince of pleasure that fills my chest with such satisfaction. Reluctantly, I pull away.
After all this time, I’ve finally told her how I feel, and because of it, I feel like a giant weight has been lifted from my chest. I’m not scared anymore—of anything. “I have to go,” I say, reaching for the pulser on the ground and rising to my feet.
“To where?” she asks, her eyes filled with worry.
“I just got you back,” I say, shoving a new battery pack into the pulser. “So now I’ve got to protect you.”
“Be careful,” she says.
“I will.”
I turn toward the fighting, joining the women who’ve helped me out so much, ready to give my life for them if need be. I add my attack with theirs, firing at the demon, round after round, careful to stay out of their way as they do their stuff.
Each woman is a trained soldier, a warrior forged in the fire of their own heartbreak, and they fight like there’s no tomorrow.
Petronelous slashes at the demon with her blades, while Zorel hits it with a ball of energy that lights the cavern. The demon shields itself from the attacks, shutting its wings around it and absorbing the crackle of blue electricity into its dense skin. When the attack is over, the wings snap open, and the demon counters with an attack of its own.
“Fools!” It roars. “All of you!”
The demon lets out a breath of fire at the women, chasing them down as they run for cover. Thankfully, they’re quick. Each manages to escape by the slimmest of margins.
By now, Chun Hei has spent her last sniper round
and has joined the battle with her sidearm. She fires it as she circles the demon. And she proves that her aim is just as good with a sidearm as she is with a rifle. The demon jerks its head back as plasma bolts sizzle against its face, bursting a few more of its eyes. “Die, you wretched cunt!”
It swings a clawed hand at her face, the force of it enough to knock off her head. But just as it’s about to hit her, the attack is suddenly thwarted as a bladed spear swings through the air, slicing the demon’s hand at the wrist.
The demon stumbles back in horror, shocked to see a stump where its hand used to be. A pained look on its face, it turns around, finding Atia standing proudly before it.
“No!” she declares, aiming her spear at the demon. “We will not allow the darkness to succeed here. We will not allow this wretched filth to sully this land. We will send it back to its master. And punish it as we do so. Agreed?”
“Agreed!” the women chorus.
“With me!” Atia yells as she leads them once more.
Petronelous’s will is unbreakable. Zorel’s power is incomparable, and Chun Hei’s aim is true. Yet, as amazing as they are, as deadly as their skills have been honed, they’re still no match for the demon. It drives them back with the swing of its arm, knocking them through the air in different directions.
Only Atia remains.
She stands firm with her spear, refusing to give even an inch to the damned monster. To say that she is a marvel to watch would be an understatement. She’s beyond amazing. She goes toe-to-toe with the demon using only her spear and will. And it is in this very moment, that I witness the truth of her legend.
“Go back to hell,” she commands as she thrusts her blade into one of its wings.
The demon rages with anger, frustrated that this human—a mere soldier in a cape—has been able to match its strength. All it can do is try to distract her with its sharpened tongue. “I will enjoy the pleasure of your body,” it grumbles, fighting through its pain. “For an eternity, I will allow the diseased filth of my world to fuck your cunt with their cocks. Night and day will become one for you. And your pain will be ceaseless.”
“Shut your fucking mouth,” Atia commands, ramming her spear into its shoulder.
At that moment, as the demon roils in pain, I join her. “Need some help?” I ask. I’m nowhere near the warrior she is. But I’m no pussy either. I’ll fight till the end—for Rachel, for my friends.
“Not really,” she says, drawing the ire of the demon. “But I’ll take it anyways.”
“Okay, then,” I say, readying to outflank the monster. “I’ll go left.”
“No,” she says. “You’ll go second.”
I watch as the Purifier charges the demon with her spear. Her movement is so fast that even the demon struggles to react in time. It bellows in pain as her blade plunges into its chest, dropping it to a knee.
The demon bends over as it clutches the wound, its mandibles dripping with black blood as it glares up at Atia, who towers valiantly above it. “You think you’ve won?” the demon asks. “You think you can hurt me? I’m immortal, infinite!”
“Well, you’re dying now, asshole,” I say, joining Atia in her view.
The demon snorts in amusement. “That’s where you’re wrong.”
Atia flies back as the demon backhands her. She lands against the ground, her eyes shutting as she passes out from the impact.
I stagger back with my pulser, aiming it at the demon’s chest and firing. But it’s empty. I search the ground for a fresh cartridge, click it in place and begin to fire again.
The demon presses forward as plasma bolts tear into its muscled chest, my arms and hands fighting against the sudden recoil of the weapon. The bolts are enough to drop it to a knee. But not enough to keep it down.
Frustration grips me when I hear the empty click of the chamber, and whatever hope I once had suddenly dies as I see the plasma wounds begin to heal right in front of me.
No…
I toss the weapon to the ground and reach for the blade still stuck in the Tulgas’s stomach. Dripping with blood, I hold it out at the demon, readying for its charge.
“You’re not going to have her,” I declare.
“Defiant till the end, eh?” the demon says. “Good. Your blood will serve my master well.”
“There’s not going to be any ritual.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
I stumble back in fear, bumping into the concrete table behind me. I’m trapped. There’s nowhere to go. Watching in horror, I feel my heart banging in my chest as the demon marches toward me. It’s terrible in its fury, a nightmare with wings. I take one last stab at it before it kills me.
“Fuck you!” I yell.
The demon blocks the attack with ease and tosses my blade aside. I’m done for. It’s over. It grabs me by the throat and lifts me up with ease, my legs dangling beneath me as I struggle for breath.
“Fool!” the demon says, leaning into my face. The stink of its breath is putrid. And I can feel the burn of its skin through my thin shirt and padded vest. Its voice then suddenly darkens even more, transforming into a vibrating resonance that echoes through the chamber.
“Do you really think that you could defeat me? I was born before the world was begun, before the stain of light ruined this disgustingly beautiful world. And I will be here forever after, feasting on the souls of your kind, until the world dares to begin anew.
“Don’t you see? It is my destiny to undo this accursed hope, this pointless place of wonder, to once again set loose the darkness once more so that we can rule the world as in the ancient times.”
Over his right shoulder, I see something like a vortex opening in the distance. It rips across the fabric of reality, tearing a hole the size of a garage door. I feel the weight of its despair, the pull of its gravity, as does the cavern. Dust lifts from the ground. Rock begins to break from the walls, drifting away on the pull of the wind, and I have to close my eyes to keep the sand from burning them.
“Yet, here you are,” the demon continues, “a pathetic human, fighting. For what?”
“Love,” I manage, the word escaping my lips.
The demon roars out in laughter, its grip tightening around my throat. “Love.” It spits the word out like phlegm. “There is no love—only loneliness.”
My heart begins to race, my gaze shifting nervously about the cavern. Where’s Rachel? Where’d she go?
The vortex is growing larger now, and with it, the pained sound of tortured voices screaming across seemingly endless planes of existence. Streaks of lightning flash across the projected planes, and I feel the tremble in my body tearing into my very soul.
Oh God…
The pain is unbearable, but the fear is even worse. The atoms of my body feel as if they’re rotting, poisoning my very essence to the point of decay. I’m not Xander anymore. I’m not a person. Just an empty shell, brittle and broken.
My destruction is almost complete when, out of nowhere, I see a figure stalking in the shadows. It’s Rachel. She jumps onto the demon’s back and throws her chains around its neck, wrapping them twice and using all of her strength to pull.
The demon is shocked, angered by the impudence of this single woman. “What?” it demands, glancing over its shoulder. “What is this?”
“You want to go back to hell?” Rachel asks, her face grimacing as she tugs the chains with all her might. “Then why don’t we go together?”
“No!” I scream.
I feel the demon’s grip loosen around my neck, as it reaches for the chains wrapped around its throat, clawing at the thick, metal links that appear to be burning its skin. Rachel pulls even harder, inexplicably dragging the demon away.
“What are you doing?” I yell, looking up from my knees.
“I’m sorry, Xander,” she says. “But I just got you back. So now I have to protect you.”
And with that, she throws herself into the void, disappearing amidst the tortured voices and fla
shing lightning.
The demon’s eyes widen in terror as it realizes what she’s done. She’s sacrificed herself to save me, and now that it’s done, the ritual is over. It has failed.
The demon claws at the ground in desperation with its good hand, lodging its razor-sharp nails into the thick rock as it cries out in pain from the burning chains. But it’s too late.
The chains are unbreakable, and Rachel is the anchor. The force of the void is beyond resisting, and the demon breaks upon the very source of its power.
I watch, my chest heaving, tears running down my face, as the demon slides across the ground. It roars out in defeat, vowing to return for my bones, for my blood, for my soul, promising to devour the world in fire and punish me for my insolence.
But I say nothing in turn, suffering from the pain of having to have lost my love one last time.
Then, with a jolting pull, the void commands the demon to return, dragging it down into the plane of hell, where it suddenly disappears.
The void closes, and the wind stops, and I’m left alone in silence, forced to stare at the empty air where she once stood.
Rachel…
Chapter Twenty-Four
Never have I received such a welcome.
We march through the grand chambers of the palace with an escort of twenty Palace guards, their golden armor clanking as they lead us across the marble floor down the aisle.
I trail at the end, my heart a million light years away.
Everyone has come, at least, anyone of note. Foreign Dignitaries. Politicians. Businessmen. And, of course, the clergy. The old men, dressed in white robes with gold trim, honor us with applause for our success in unearthing the beshai’s plot.
It’s a relief for them, I’m sure. The beshai was nothing but a pain in their ass. His constant criticism of the church, his refusal to take part in its secretive past times, it has all made him a wildcard amongst its ranks, a liability that could’ve toppled the pillars of the church.
