by Ramy Vance
The avatar’s face exploded, thick, black sludge rolling from his eye sockets, and a five-foot-long tongue lolled from his mouth when his jaws opened. The bones in his legs and arms cracked and extended, thin, almost fragile-looking things, as his arms grew huge claw-like paddles on their ends. The thing drew itself to its full emaciated height like a starving jackal given the power of the raging demons of hell.
Bennington stood hunched over, his ribs visible, and reached down for Grimnir's horned mask. He placed it on his face before letting loose a pained howl.
Terra drew her axe. "What the fuck is going on?”
Bennington dashed forward and scooped Rasputina up in one move, his hand around her neck. He slammed her into the wall. "How could you abandon me?" he howled. "What we had—how can you toss it away? You built a home in pain across my body. Took me to levels of experience that I have never known. I know you felt it as well. My Mistress! Now you wish to be Queen of the Good?"
Rasputina struggled to breathe as she tried to pry Bennington's hands off her throat. "Bennington! Stop! This isn't—"
"I will not be forgotten, Mistress, nor will I let you forget what you truly are."
Bennington raised Rasputina high and then slammed her body into the ground. He leaped on top of her and bit her throat while two more arms ripped from his side, each of them scribbling sigils around him as he tore ribbons of flesh from his mistress’ screaming body.
A beam of green light shot down from the top of the spire, consuming Rasputina and Bennington. When the smoke cleared, Bennington stood, leaving Rasputina's body on the ground. He took a step toward the DGA. Grimnir's mask was fused to his face and cracked across the middle when a wolf's snout forced its way out.
The Light One turned to Terra. "What is the meaning of this?"
Terra shrugged, looking around for an explanation. "Dude, I'm trying to figure it out as well."
The light faded from Sarah's eyes. Her body went limp, and Abby grabbed her before she hit the ground. Sarah opened her eyes slowly. "What's going on?"
Anabelle tapped Terra's shoulder. "Come on, you and me. Abby?"
Abby held Sarah up. "I'll stay with her."
Grok joined Anabelle and Terra. Their eyes burned bright with the Path of the Lost, and they charged after Bennington.
Terra whirled her axe, and Anabelle's hands burned with fire. Grok's sword slashed through the air.
Bennington bounded forward, two of his hands moving too fast to see, his fingers tracing arcane symbols.
The three women froze in the air.
Bennington knocked them over as he ran past them. He touched his hands to the floor and it opened up beneath him, a tear in hell leading straight into the Netherverse. Bennington leaped down into it, and the hole resealed itself.
A voice came through on Abby's comm. It was Roy. "What's going on down there? The Light One's sphere just vanished from everywhere, and we're getting reports. The dead are waking up."
Grok rushed over to Rasputina, who lay on the ground. Her throat was torn open, and bright green sigils glowed across her body.
"Whatever's happening, you guys are going to have to clean it up quickly," Roy said. "If these fuckers all wake up, we're not just losing Earth, we're losing everything."
The DGA agents looked at each other as Rasputina gurgled on her own blood.
Things had taken a turn for the worse.
Chapter Twenty-One
The spire's walls were crumbling. Chunks fell like autumn leaves shed by a tree. Rasputina lay in the middle of the room, choking on her blood while Grok and the DGA agents knelt by her side, trying to figure out what could be done.
Anabelle calmly pulled off Grok's hand. "We will."
"No! You don't understand. If she dies, all of this comes apart. Not just the spire, everything in hell that she's built. It'll come crashing down."
Abby pulled out the book of sigils Rasputina had given her the night before. "Wait, let us see if we can help." She flipped open the book, her eyes racing back and forth as she searched for a solution. "Here, maybe this."
Abby's index finger converted to a laser and she stood, then walked in a circle, cutting sigils into the ground and muttering under her breath as she read. Then she knelt beside Rasputina, lifted the lich's head, and scrawled a sigil underneath. "Everyone, get out of the circle."
Anabelle and the rest did as they were told, moving outside the magical sphere that shot up around Abby and Rasputina.
The interior erupted in light, making Abby and Rasputina invisible. When the brightness faded, Abby was still beside the lich. She slung Rasputina's arm over her shoulder and helped her to her feet.
Rasputina rubbed her face, trying to gather herself. "What happened?"
"Bennington," Anabelle explained. "He did something to Grimnir. Forced himself into Grimnir’s body, and then he attacked you. After that, he disappeared."
Rasputina felt her neck. "He planned this. He must have stolen one of my daggers, one of the few things it’s hard for me to heal from. And he cut deep, it would seem. Deep enough so I could have died. But he didn't finish it."
Terra looked around the chambers. "The Lords of Death split too. Guess they figured out what was going on. So did the Light One. Just left Sarah's body here."
"We should see how she's doing."
Anabelle, Terra, Grok, and Rasputina walked over to where Sarah lay.
Abby held her wrist to Sarah's forehead. "She's stable. She'll wake up in a little bit."
Anabelle crossed her arms as she bit her lip. "We need to figure out what's going on. Is there a way you can reach out to the lords of death?"
Rasputina nodded. She bit her thumb, drawing blood, then leaned over and pressed her thumb to the ground.
A portal opened a few feet away, and a group of twenty cloaked figures stepped through. One of them walked forward. "We are the emissaries of the lords of death. They regret that they cannot appear themselves since they have judged this situation as problematic at best."
Rasputina sighed. "They understand this is out of our control, right?"
The emissary nodded. "They do, but they will not put themselves at risk for you."
Sarah opened her eyes and coughed quietly. "What's going on?"
Abby helped Sarah to her feet. "Glad to see you're okay. Do you remember anything?"
Sarah rubbed her head. "Yeah, everything. Getting your body hijacked by an interdimensional being isn't something you forget, especially since I was conscious for all of it."
"Can you still communicate with her?"
Sarah shook her head. "No, she's gone, but she left me with a message. The vow is still on the table. If we fix this shit with the valve, no repercussions for any of us. The Dark One is done for, and the Light One will fix everything that's going on with the undead."
"Okay. Then we go to the Netherverse and fix the valve problem before Bennington or the Dark One or whatever that thing is can stop us."
The ground began to shake. A violent earthquake knocked everyone off their feet, and the walls of the spire continued to crack.
Anabelle stumbled to her feet. "Okay, now what?"
The spire's floor cracked down the middle, sending jutting pieces flying. The crack widened, and the Netherverse could be seen underneath.
Bennington, wearing the emaciated, stretched-out body of Grimnir, climbed out of the chasm. Black sludge hung from his arms and legs, tethering him to the Netherverse, yet he moved unencumbered.
The head emissary threw back his cloak, showing a body made entirely of Dark Energy. He held two swords in his hand. "The lords of death do not take kindly to this violation of the laws of hell. We’ve been sent to put a stop to this."
The other emissaries removed their cloaks. They wielded a variety of weapons: swords, chains, and maces.
Bennington laughed as he straightened to his full height. "Do you think you will harm me? My Mistress has shown me the true Path of Pain. What will you be able to do that she has not already done?"
He rushed past the DGA and took hold of the first emissary, lifting him into the air. He shook him violently as he laughed before tearing into the being with his teeth, ripping through his throat before discarding the lifeless body.
Then he turned to the rest.
It was nothing less than slaughter, and the butchered bodies of the emissaries fell to the ground as if they had run through a blender.
Bennington turned his head toward the DGA, Rasputina, and Grok. He drew a series of sigils in the air and then slammed his hands on the floor.
Terra flipped her axe and caught it. "All right, let's fuck this asshole up."
She ran forward, Anabelle at her side, then tripped over her feet. As she stood up, she saw that Anabelle was also picking herself up. "Uh, what's going on?"
Bennington wheezed and sneered. "Strength in numbers has always been your game. Not anymore."
Grok dashed to join Anabelle and Terra but fell, skidding across the floor. She stood up and brushed off her knees. "Rasputina?"
Rasputina sighed as she scanned the sigils on the floor. "He's split us up. We can't all attack together."
Bennington hunched over, growling. "I want to feel your individual pain. Specific. Intricate."
Grok unsheathed her sword as she approached Bennington. "I have no patience for this." She flew at Bennington, slashing at him with her sword.
Bennington took a step back and fell to his knees, then sprang upward and caught Grok in the face with his fist.
The orc flew backward, landed on her feet, and rushed forward. She slid underneath Bennington, got back to her feet, and thrust her sword behind her, catching him in the back.
The monster roared in pain, then chuckled and reached behind him. His spine broke and contorted, allowing him to bend over backward, and he grabbed Grok by the head and lifted her, squeezing her skull. "What do you have to show me?"
Grok let out a scream, her eyes flashing bright as she slipped into the Path of the Lost. She kicked Bennington in the face and flipped away under him. She attacked before her feet touched the ground, discarding her sword and relying on her fists instead.
Bennington's hands deflected each of Grok's attacks even as they grew faster, the orc screaming as she threw everything into each punch.
One of Bennington's hands missed the mark, and she slipped in close and slammed her fist into the monster's jaw. She straightened, ready to continue to the attack.
Bennington leaned into her fist, taking the full brunt of the attack as two of his hands grabbed Grok's arms and the other two delivered two solid blows.
Grok froze, her eyes glazing over before she spat blood and went limp.
Bennington chopped Grok across the neck and then threw her body into the wall. He turned, his mask’s face ominously blank, and stared at the DGA. "Next?"
Terra cracked her knuckles. "I'm going to fuck him up."
Anabelle raised her hand. "No. You saw how quickly he dealt with Grok. You two have similar fighting styles. Hold off a moment. I'll go. If I can't take him down, it'll give you time to figure out a different approach than Grok’s."
Terra looked ready to argue but relented. "All right. How about you make sure I don't have to get my hands dirty?"
Anabelle let out a surge of mana as she went down the Path of the Lost. She approached Bennington slowly, circling him, keeping her head.
Bennington leaned forward. "Scared?"
"Hardly," Anabelle replied. She raised one of her hands and sent a pillar of stone rocketing up from under Bennington. As he twisted in the air, Anabelle jumped, dissolved into smoke, and reformed behind Bennington. She curved the stone pillar toward her, bringing Bennington with it as her hands filled with electricity.
Anabelle's fist hit Bennington square in the jaw, shooting electricity through his body, then threw her arm up and drew another stone pillar into his stomach. The pillar burst into flames and engulfed the butler in a column of fire.
Anabelle didn't let up. Once her feet touched the ground, she stretched out her fingers and pulled four stone pillars from the ceiling and two more from the ground, freezing the former butler in mid-air before converting them to water and then ice and freezing him in place. Then she lunged at him, her body bristling with electricity.
Before Anabelle's fist could connect, Bennington's chest split open, and a dozen sludge-covered hands reached and grasped Anabelle. They pulled her close to his chest and he spun to break free of the ice, dropping to the floor as his fists pounded her head.
The two hit the floor with enough force to create a crater.
Anabelle scrambled to her feet, but Bennington was ahead of her. He drew a sigil, and a piece of paper appeared in front of him. Another hand attached the paper to her head, and a third slammed into Anabelle's chest, pushing her backward. Her skull hit the ground hard, and Bennington held her there until the paper exploded.
Bennington stood as smoke wafted up behind him. "Who will show me pain?" he roared.
Abby looked at Terra. "Do you need more time?"
Terra shook her head, her face nervous. "He tore through Anabelle and Grok like it was nothing."
Abby grabbed Terra and shook her. "You need to keep it together." She turned to Rasputina and Sarah. "Can either of you fight?"
Sarah shook her head. "Not yet."
Rasputina looked from Bennington to Abby. "I don't know."
Abby stood up. "We'll whittle him down. Be ready, Terra. If anyone can end this, it'll be you."
Bennington laughed darkly from the other side of the chamber.
Abby charged her body with kinetic energy, bypassing her energy blockers as she prepared to go all out. She increased the production of nanobots in her blood and her skin. Her reflex speed increased significantly, and the world slowed around her.
She'd watched the last two fights closely, trying to see if Bennington had any weak spots. She hadn't seen any. He’d handled Grok's physical attacks well enough, and Anabelle's elemental magic hadn't fazed him.
Abby hit her thrusters and sped in Bennington's direction. She slammed into him and discharged all of her kinetic energy, then flew backward as she tossed three sticky plasma grenades, which attached to three of Bennington’s four arms.
Bennington swiped down at the grenades, trying to knock them off, but the grenades exploded.
"Finally," he murmured. "Pain!"
Abby slammed her hands together to form her hand cannon and fired, unleashing a steady stream of plasma that hit Bennington with the force of a Mack truck.
Half of Bennington's body was blown away, leaving only charred flesh as he stumbled forward.
Abby zoomed toward Bennington but pulled up at the last minute and rose above him to launch another attack.
Bennington's entrails connected with the ground, sucking up the Dark Melody the spire was built from and remaking the part of his body Abby had destroyed.
The girl deconstructed her cannon and landed in front of him instead, putting all of her energy into her fists. She unleashed a barrage of quick punches, hitting Bennington hundreds of times in the stomach as he stumbled backward. She launched her thrusters and slammed him into the wall.
As Abby pulled away, another arm burst from Bennington's chest and slapped her.
The butler thrust himself away from the wall, his hands tracing sigils.
Ten energy blades conjured around Bennington as he stepped forward, circling him as if he were the nucleus of an atom. "What else do you have, child?"
Abby shed most of her armor, dumping more energy into her power reserves. Her hands smoked from the amount of energy coming from them. She rushed at Bennington and caught him with an uppercut, then grabbed one of his arms, snapping it as one of his blades pierced her shoulder.
She ignored the pain, grabbing the man by the throat as another blade slashed her. She punched Bennington in the face, breaking his jaw before pressing her hand to his head and firing a blast that ripped straight through his skull and then the sp
ire's walls.
Bennington grabbed Abby's hair and spun her around.
As she spun, she burned her thrusters, taking away Bennington's momentum. She raised her hand to fire.
Bennington's chest arm drew a sigil in the air in front of Abby's hand.
She fired.
A small portal opened in front of Abby's hand and caught the blast, then a portal opened behind her. The plasma blast came through and hit Abby in the back, knocking her across the room.
Bennington landed on the floor and cracked his neck before turning to face Terra. "Looks like you're the last one."
Terra swallowed and stood up, looking at the bodies of her fallen comrades. "Yeah, looks like it. I’ll try to make it count.” She rushed Bennington, swinging her axe over her head as she found her way to the Path of the Lost.
Bennington raised his arms to counter Terra, who threw her axe instead of using it to slash and hit the butler in the chest. As he stepped back from the force of the blow, Terra leaped, used her axe as a steppingstone, and brought her fist down on Bennington’s head, slamming him into the floor.
The two hit hard, and Terra was first to her feet. She grabbed Bennington’s leg, swung him around, and tossed him into the wall.
The spire’s wall cracked down the middle from the impact, but he was up instantly and bounded toward Terra, his mask off-kilter, the wolf snout that extended snarling and salivating. He tackled the Hand, and the two of them skidded across the floor. Terra tried to roll out from under him.
The butler dug his feet in, stopping both of them. As Terra flew past him, he grabbed her by the back of her suit. Terra wrapped her hands around one of Bennington’s fingers and pulled it back, snapping it.
Bennington screamed and hit her in the face twice as his free arms drew sigils in the air, and a magical barrier formed around the two of them. Lightning began striking Terra from inside the barrier, bolt after bolt until she collapsed.
The barrier opened, and Terra fell at Bennington’s feet. He laughed harshly as he walked away. “These are the Dark Angels who gave you such a hard time?” Bennington called to Rasputina.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, sweetheart?”
