by Ramy Vance
Terra laughed. it was a cold, harsh sound. "Here we go again. Done pretending you don't hate humans, you racist piece of shit?"
Anabelle held her hand to her heart. "Me? Racist? I'm the only reason you backward-evolved monkeys even got a chance."
A plasma blast shot past Anabelle, gazing her chin.
Smoke floated from Abby's hand cannon. "Don't you ever call me a monkey," she said, pulling back her hair.
Mana pulsed around Anabelle. "Do you really want to do this, girl? Because I will rip you apart."
Abby's body vibrated with kinetic energy. "Try us."
"Having another one of your special moments?" Terra spat. "We already know you're in love with Anabelle. You don't have to broadcast it. Persephone might get pissed."
Abby whirled and hit Terra in the face with a plasma blast. The pulse sent Terra flying through the air with so much force she crashed through the building behind her.
Abby spun back, ready to fire at Anabelle.
The elf was already moving, energy crackling off her as she slipped down the Path of the Lost. Her eyes turned white and she screamed in rage as she punched Abby, her hand filled with energy.
The girl threw up an energy shield that took the bulk of the attack. She fired her thrusters, spun around Anabelle, converted her hand into a plasma blade, and went for the elf’s throat.
Anabelle broke apart into mist and reappeared behind Abby, who shot into the air. The elf jumped after her, grabbed Abby by her wrist, and slammed her into the concrete.
Terra leaped and landed on top of Abby, driving her body into the ground. The girl spat blood. She stomped Abby's head for good measure, then pivoted and elbowed Anabelle in the face, the gladiator's eyes glowing red as her muscles bulged.
Terra was finding her own way into the Path of the Lost.
Before Anabelle could recover, Terra kicked Anabelle in the chest.
Abby shouted to Martin, "Increase my nanobots!"
Martin flittered into Abby's field of vision. "Abby, something is wrong. You're fighting—"
"Do what I fucking said!"
Abby's thrusters fired and she launched into the air, then spun and hit the ground. She fired her thrusters again and charged at Terra, who turned around just in time to pull out her axe.
Abby's arms hardened, deflecting the axe's blade, and she plowed into Terra. She opened her mouth and a plasma beam fired, engulfing her entire head.
Terra fell to her knees, her face smoking.
Abby leaped up and roundhoused Terra in the face before realizing Anabelle was floating above them both.
Abby fired two plasma bolts from her shoulders and slung more from her hands as she sped toward the elf.
The two collided, their fists moving faster than any mortal could have seen. Abby teleported behind Anabelle, and the elf burst into mist and recombined to avoid the attack, then launched her own.
Abby could hardly see in front of her. All she saw was the seething bright red rage of her desire to murder her friends. She wanted to wring the life out of Anabelle's neck and drive a knife through Terra's skull.
Out of nowhere, Terra exploded from below, grabbing both Abby’s and Anabelle's heads, dragging them back down with her as she drove them both into the ground.
Terra lifted Abby by the throat, crushing her windpipe as Anabelle struggled to charge her hands with all of her mana.
As she gathered her magic, Anabelle darted for Terra, who threw Abby at her.
Abby teleported out of the way as the elf burst into mist, but she reformed too early, colliding with Terra's fist.
Terra grabbed Anabelle as she fell and drove her kneecap into her forehead.
Abby sped forward and caught Terra off-guard, slamming her hand into her nose and shattering it.
Terra stumbled backward as Abby fired two more plasma shots, hitting Terra in her kneecaps, shattering both of them.
Then Abby's hand shot a net that caught Anabelle as her other hand converted into a cannon. She diverted all power to the cannon and pressed it against Terra's head.
Terra spat in Abby's face, tears trickling down her cheeks. "Do it! I fucking hate you! Just do it!"
In the net, Anabelle tried to stand up. Abby mentally increased the pressure until she heard Anabelle choking.
Abby vented extra energy in her arm as her cannon started to sear the flesh on Terra's forehead. She could see Terra's skull exploding from the back, showering brain and blood and bone across the concrete.
Like what had happened to her father.
Abby recoiled and fell to her knees.
Terra surged forward, grabbing Abby by the throat and lifting her into the air. "You fucked up. This ends now."
"You're right."
Abby deactivated all of her systems.
Her armor disappeared, leaving her vulnerable.
Terra looked at Abby with a mixture of anger and confusion. "What the hell are you doing?"
Before Abby could answer, Terra punched her in the face.
"What are you doing?" Terra shouted as she kicked the girl in the ribs.
Abby rolled over, coughing blood as she struggled to her feet.
"Get up!" Terra shouted. "Fight me!"
Abby stood, but she didn’t raise her fists. "Why would I do that? You're one of my best friends. I love you."
Terra drew her axe. "Fucking idiot." She swung it at Abby's throat.
Abby closed her eyes, waiting to feel the blade hit her throat.
It didn't happen. She slowly opened one eye.
The blade was a centimeter from her throat, trembling.
Terra was crying, one hand over her mouth. "Oh, my God, Abby, I'm so sorry."
She dropped her axe and ran to the scientist, and the two of them collapsed into each other's arms. "I'm so sorry, are you okay?"
Abby nodded, the motion sending pain shooting down her body. "We'll live." The nanobots were already starting their repairs.
"All those things I said, I didn't mean them. I don't know where they came from. It came out, but I don't know from where."
"Hey, guys!" Anabelle called. "Can you let me out? I'm not murderous anymore either. I want a hug too."
Abby released Anabelle, who looked extremely embarrassed as she hugged Abby and Terra. "The moment I stopped moving, everything slowed down," Anabelle explained. "And I could see what was happening. Resentment, that's what got us. Old anger. You know exactly where that came from."
Terra nodded. "I was hoping we could have a cute moment without talking about that."
Abby shook her head. "That's all we need to say. It was old. That's not how we feel now."
Anabelle nodded. "Yeah. Abby's right. I love you guys."
Terra hung her head, still crying a little. "I love you two. Both of you. You're my best friends. The best damn thing to ever happen to me." She turned over to Anabelle. "And you owe me twenty bucks."
"For what?" Anabelle gasped.
"Remember we bet that if we ever got in one of those anime fights, Abby would kick our asses? She definitely won."
Anabelle crossed her arms. "I was tied up. That does not count."
Abby stood up and looked at her compass. "We'll call it a draw. We should get going and find this demon before anything like that happens again."
Terra walked over to Abby and slung her arm around her shoulder as Anabelle walked by their side. "All jokes aside, that was probably the best fight of my life. Glad I could share it with you two. Let's never do that again."
Chapter Seventeen
"Let's never do this again."
Sarah was sitting with Kravis in their tent on the outskirts of the gnomish city. They were both looking at a table covered with stacks of paper. "Never again," Sarah repeated.
Kravis climbed onto the table and kicked over one of the piles. "I'm more than happy with that. This was your idea to begin with."
Sarah glared at Kravis. "Don't act like you didn't want to get married."
Kravis hopped
off of the table and sat in his chair. "Yeah, I definitely did, but you were the one who got the ball rolling. So, naturally, I'm going to take the chance to shift the blame to you."
Sarah grabbed a handful of papers and hung her head. "We can unseat the Dark One from the gnome planet, but we can't deal with tax forms?"
Kravis drew his knife and stabbed one of the piles of paper. "We can't kill our tax forms. We could just not do them. What do we have to pay taxes for? The whole world is going through a reformation. They're building entirely new infrastructures. How are they going to keep track of this if we don't do it?"
Sarah shook her head, then removed Kravis' knife from the paper pile. "It doesn't work like that. If we don't fill these out, we're not going to be eligible for any of the repopulation programs."
Kravis sheathed his knife and avoided Sarah's eyes. "We don't have to do that, you know. It's not our responsibility."
"Yeah, I know it isn't, but you need to tell me what you want. You can’t wait for me to drag it out of you. That’s not fair."
Kravis nodded as he looked at the paperwork. "If it requires all this, I'd say let the gnomes die out. If we're strong enough, we'll survive. Though, I'm not sure if anyone would survive this much busywork. Can't we just go back to killing things? And you’re right. I’m sorry."
Sarah grabbed a pile of paper and rolled it up, then bopped Kravis on the head with it. "It’s okay. Just don’t forget we need to be talking, and even if we hate these forms, we have to take care of them. We're an example to everyone. So, no. We’ll kill things when we’re done."
Kravis picked up a pen. "You act like you wouldn't prefer to be killing the remainder of the Dark One's forces."
Sarah looked up from the worksheet she was filling out. "I'd prefer to be. But I know we won’t be doing that until this is finished. Myrddin's not going to let us go out in the field."
"We could go rogue again..."
Sarah tossed her pen at Kravis. He dodged, and the pen hit the canvas of the tent. "Hurry up so we can get to bed. There's repopulation we need to take care of."
"I was trying to repopulate this morning."
"You did. You fell asleep right after. And we're not calling it that from now on, just so you know. Now come on, let's finish this up."
Kravis sighed but blew a kiss at Sarah. They hunched over their paperwork.
Terra, Abby, and Anabelle were still making their way through the circle of anger, looking for the demon who was in charge.
Even though they had ended their argument and fight, Terra could still feel the rage in the back of her head like a snake waiting to strike.
The three women were giving each other space, making sure not to speak much. Even after they’d stopped fighting, they’d still snapped at each other. They quickly decided Anabelle would continue guiding them with the compass, neither Terra nor Abby were going to ask any questions, and they would speak as little as possible.
So far, it was going pretty well.
The familiar part of the city had disappeared. The towers and skyscrapers had been replaced by sparse trees that towered as high as skyscrapers.
The trees had windows, and Terra saw eyes peering out from them at times. If she stopped paying attention and cast her eyes up toward them, she saw figures moving in their shadows as the windows shifted and changed shape.
They journeyed farther into the dead city as it became a forest. Above, screeching harpies flew about, paying no attention to those who journeyed below.
Suddenly Terra became aware of a horrid stench. It was like nothing she'd ever smelled, a sweetish scent, like incense muddled with decomposition. Terra wasn't certain how she could tell it was something dead.
They came to a hole in the concrete. It reminded Terra of the pit she'd seen the lich climb up through.
She leaned over to get a better look. "What do you think is down there?"
Anabelle took a deep breath, composing herself before she answered. "Probably whatever ugly son of a bitch we need to kill."
Abby, who was grinding her teeth, nodded. "We should do this as fast as possible." She leaped into the pit.
Terra almost said something about Abby's impetuousness but thought better of it. She bit her tongue and followed, and Anabelle leaped after her.
Terra's feet hit the ground, sinking into moist earth. The smell was even stronger down here. Whatever it was they were looking for, they were getting close to it.
The ground sloped down into the darkness as they journeyed into the heart of hell.
Abby raised her hand, silently stopping Tera and Anabelle. "Do you guys see that?"
Terra moved closer, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. Then she saw it.
A great winged creature lay at the bottom of the pit. The size of a submarine, the creature’s wings were tightly folded around his body, with only his head exposed. His face was caked in blood and covered in maggots, but that wasn’t the most disturbing thing about him. No, what was most disturbing was his expression of utter defeat, a face whose complete sadness somehow also carried with it no hope.
Abby gasped as they walked closer to the bloated corpse. "Is that an angel?"
Terra shrugged, taking her time to inch closer. She swatted at her face, killing a fly that had landed on her.
Millions of flies swarmed around the decomposing celestial body. "Fuck if I know."
The body started to twitch and convulse. The head split open, and an oozing trail of maggots poured out. One, larger than the others, forced its way out, and as its putrid, thin-skinned body flopped onto the ground, six insect wings sprouted from its back as hairy fly legs ruptured from its sides.
As if that wasn’t weird enough, a crow's head tore out of the front of the maggot as its wings flapped, pulling the demon into the air. Another head, that of a possum, punched out of the middle of the maggot's body. Finally, a human head melted out of what Terra had assumed was its ass.
She thought the head bore a striking similarity to Christopher Columbus.
The skin of the maggot hardened, growing thick with coarse hairs as its legs twitched. The flies that had tended the angel's corpse swarmed around the demon. "How rare for the living to walk among the damned!" The demon cackled. "Count yourselves lucky, mortals. Not many gain audience with Beelzebub, Lord of Flies, Prince of Revenge, Second only to Lucifer himself, Scourge—"
Terra sneezed loudly, blowing snot out of her nose onto the ground. "Ew. Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt you. Are you the demon for this circle?"
Beelzebub raised one of his insect arms as if saluting himself. "Demon of this circle? Human, I am the second prince of hell. I was known as Baal for hundreds of thousands of years, eater of children, devourer of—"
"Okay, cool. You sound pompous enough to kill.”
Terra winked at Anabelle. "You see what I did there? The direct, quippy nature of my taunt? Abby, you want to finish this one off?"
The girl’s arms converted to cannons. "You can call us the extermination squad."
Terra fist-pumped. "You see, Anabelle? That's how it's done."
Anabelle shrugged as her hands filled with fire. "Whatever."
Beelzebub let out a rage-filled roar and flew at the DGA, along with the swarm of flies surrounding him.
Abby fired her plasma cannon.
The swarm of flies flew in front of the demon, absorbing the blast. A pile of them fell dead to the floor, but it made no difference. There were still enough flies to obscure Beelzebub.
Suddenly the demon appeared behind the DGA, then opened his mouth and vomited forth a stream of flies and snakes.
Anabelle stepped forward. She slammed her hands on the ground, creating a flaming shield as Terra unsheathed her axe and flung herself at the possum head.
Terra held on tightly as she started to hack at the head. Flies swarmed around her, biting her skin. "I’m assuming no one brought bug spray!"
Abby flew through the swarm of flies, firing plasma bolts as she went. "Why don’t
you get angry? You practically tore our heads off before!"
Terra drove her axe through the possum’s neck, severing the head from Beelzebub's body. "That was easy! You guys are easy to be pissed at. This guy is just gross. Reminds me of a couple of my old roommates!"
Beelzebub rolled over in the air, the swarm rolling with him as he spun, vomiting flies and bile. Terra was tossed off.
Anabelle slammed her fist on the ground, sending up a pillar of stone that drove into Beelzebub's soft stomach.
The stone spear ripped through his abdomen, which spewed rotting food and garbage.
Abby threw up a shield as the contents of Beelzebub's stomach showered her. "God, this is so gross."
Beelzebub fell to the ground and weakly crawled over to the corpse of the cherubim. Once he was above the corpse, he vomited a white substance on the decomposing angel and shoved his head into the sticky mess, gnawing on it while the wounds in his body started to heal.
Abby aimed her cannon at Beelzebub's backside. "He probably shouldn't be doing that, huh?"
Anabelle shook her head as a flaming aura surrounded her. "Nope. That’s probably a bad thing."
Terra threw one of her axes at Beelzebub’s exposed backside. It sank deep into the demon's body and he reeled back, screeching in pain.
The three DGA agents sprinted at him. Abby launched into the air and peppered his bulbous body with plasma bolts. Anabelle stopped a few feet away, slammed her hands together, and shot forth a jet of flame, while Terra ran along the side, slicing along the demon's ribs with her axe.
Beelzebub flailed as his entrails poured onto the ground.
Terra tried to step back, but the tidal wave of filth knocked her down. "Tell Cire I love him and I died in the entrails of my enemies!" she called as she was washed away.
Abby flew alongside Terra, then scooped her up and away from the sludge gushing from Beelzebub's writhing frame. She landed behind Anabelle, who was pulling up dozens of earth spikes and impaling the demon.
