The Seven Princess and The Gates of Hell

by Steve Wharton

  *****

  Ryan and Maria arrived in Balad to find that the temple was out in the open and not hid. It was still a active house of worship to Lucifer and Enepsigos. There were demons all around the temple and Ryan knew that he had his work cut out for him. The temple was set back in a small valley between the mountains. Watching the temple and scouting the area Ryan estimated that there was somewhere between three and four hundred demons at the temple. The area around the temple was rugged and remote and would make it easy to attack or to defend. Ryan and Maria climbed the northern side of the mountain and found a place that would be easy to keep hidden and yet easy to fire the Marlin or a grenade launcher from.

  Ryan left Maria at their base on the mountain and he climbed back down and returned to the Hummer. Ryan opened the back of the SUV and pulled out the 444 Marlin and a grenade launcher. He packed up several hundred rounds for the launcher and a couple hundred rounds for the Marlin. He also selected a MAC-10 and filled several magazines for it. He then picked two nine millimeter pistols and several extra clips for each. He also packed several box’s of ammo for the nine millimeters.

  Ryan slid his arms thru the arm slings and lifted the pack off of the SUV, Ryan knew he would have to make at least two trips to get all of the munitions he wanted. The first pack weighed almost one fifty pounds. The trip back to Maria took almost an hour because of the extra weight Ryan was carrying. He slid the pack off and told Maria to empty it and set the items in the pack in groups of like items. He told Maria he would be back with another pack. The trip back to the SUV and back up the mountain took another hour. When Ryan returned Maria told him that another group of demons had arrived at the temple. She estimated that it held another two hundred demons. Ryan said “well they already know that we are in the area, but they probably don’t know exactly where we are so they are going to try to bolster their defense’s at all the temples for the female fallen, it will make it a little tougher to destroy the temples and the fallen.”

  “Do you think it will be like this at all of the remaining temples?”

  “Yea this and worse. The closer we get to destroying all the female fallen, the more demons we are likely to encounter, but it won’t change how we deal with them.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Help me set up this camouflage netting it will help hide us as long as they don’t come to close to us, then we can set up the bed rolls.”

  “You must plan on being up here for a while?”

  “I think it will take at least a day to get the demons and the temple.”

  Ryan and Maria had finished setting up the camouflage netting and bed rolls and they were settling in for the long haul. Ryan took the binoculars and looked thru one of the built in holes in the netting when he spotted one of the demons coming their direction. Ryan pulled out one of the nine millimeters and screwed on the sound suppressor and took aim on the demon. If he got too close Ryan would have to shoot it. He hated the thought of giving away their position so quick. The demon flew with two hundred feet and turned away and Ryan watched as the demon returned to the temple.

  Ryan settled back and explained to Maria what had just happened. Ryan told he that there seemed to be ten to fifteen demons at the temple entrance at all times, He didn’t think that they would be able to keep the initial attack a quiet one. He decided to use the grenade launcher for the initial attack. He guessed that three grenades would do the trick.

  Ryan picked up the grenade launcher and three of the grenades, he loaded the launcher and moved back to the hole he used with the binoculars. He took aim at a group of demons that were standing around the entrance to the temple. He fired the launcher bouncing the grenade off the wall so as to give the appearance that the grenade came from a different direction. The grenade rolled between the group of demons and they looked at the grenade not sure what it was. One of the demons started to reach down to pick it up when it went off and blew apart the group of demons killing all of them. While the first group was trying to figure out what the object was Ryan let a second round go quickly followed by the third. When the third one went off the remaining demons were killed. Ryan waited to see if more demons were going to come out from the temple.

  Ryan waited for several minutes and nothing moved so he grabbed a couple more of the grenades and he fired again blowing the doors off their hinges. Fully expecting a response from inside the temple he was surprises when none came. Ryan picked up the Marlin and used the scope to look inside the temple, the darkness inside prevented him from see much. He set the Marlin aside and said to Maria, “I am going to try to climb above the temple and see if there is another entrance.”

  “Be careful you are going into unexplored territory.”

  “I will be I promise.”

  Ryan picked up the smaller of the two packs and he took the extra nine millimeter ammo as well as several hand grenades. He thought about taking the grenade launcher but decided the regular hand grenades would do. He took two of the four nine millimeter pistols. Ryan carefully slid out from the camouflage net on the side away from the temple entrance and started to make his climb. He slowly made his way up and back to his right keeping the mountain between himself and the entrance. Ryan climbed about sixty feet and he found a ledge where he could see the entrance and the top of the temple as well as the rear. Looking thru the binoculars he scanned the area and could not see anything that looked like an entrance or a place where demons had gathered.

  The only thing that Ryan could see from above the temple was rock, the only good thing about this discovery is that meant that there was only one way in or out for the demons as well. The bad part of it was there was only one way in or out for him as well. Ryan slowly made his way back down the mountain following the same route down that he took climbing up. The trip up and back down the mountain took almost two and a half hours. When he slid back under the camouflage net he looked right into the barrel of a nine millimeter, When Maria saw it was Ryan she lowered the pistol and hugged him.

  “I am so glad your back.”

  “Did something happen while I was gone?”

  “Several of the demons flew up this way right after you left but I don’t think they saw me or the hiding place.”

  Ryan moved over to the opening and looked out at the temple with his binoculars and he was shocked to see close to a hundred demons milling around the entrance looking up and pointing at several directions on the mountains.

  “We may have visitors soon. They seem to be looking at several locations up the mountain side. They pointed in this general direction so we better be ready.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “You take the MAC-10 and keep it close by, if anything breaks thru the netting shoot it.”

  “Ok I will.”

  “I want you to try to get some sleep before the crap hits the fan. I’ll keep a lookout, we can swap in a couple of hours.”

  Maria just nodded and slid into her bedroll and tried to get some sleep. Though the sun had set it was still hot and made sleeping difficult. Ryan kept checking the temple entrance but saw no movement by any of the demons to leave the entrance. The good thing about nightfall was Ryan could use the grenade launcher and not have to worry about a flash from the barrel.

  Ryan was glad that his binoculars were night vision, he could see the demons at the entrance and they seemed to be getting anxious about standing around. Ryan decided he would give them something to be anxious about. Ryan picked up the grenade launcher and he loaded it and sent one of the grenades flying. The grenade hit the floor almost in the middle of the group of demons. When the grenade detonated Ryan could hear the screaming of the demons and saw the light of many of them bursting into flames then fade away as the dead demons disappeared.

  The demons were at a loss as to where the device came from and they took to the air to try and find the source. They circled for more than an hour but found nothing though they did come close to where Maria and Ryan were several times. Ry
an sat back against the mountain wall and just sat there thinking about their next move. Ryan had estimated that there were several hundred demons and his two attacks had maybe killed thirty or forty. Ryan would let it settle down some more and then he would launch another grenade. Maria woke and asked “how long have I been asleep?”

  “Maybe an hour and a half, while you were sleeping I fired a grenade down into the demons and it caused quite a stir. They flew up looking to see if they could find where it came from and got close to us a few times but nothing to worry about.”

  “Why didn’t you wake me?”

  “Like I said there was nothing to worry about.”

  “I want to be awake if you do it again, I want to be ready.”

  “Ok I think I am going to fire again in another half an hour or so. I want to let it settle down some more.”

  The settled back for a little while and waited for some time to pass. Ryan checked his watch and saw forty-five minutes had passed, he made his way back to the opening in the net and looked down at the entrance with the binoculars and he saw that there was no room for the demons to move there looked to be more than a hundred of them down there and they all had their eyes scanning the sky. It looked like they were determined not to let another grenade hit them without them seeing where it came from. Ryan looked above their vantage point and he spotted another group of demons circling the sky looking down.

  It would be a little tougher firing the launcher this time they might see it pop out thru the hole. He doubted he could throw a hand grenade and make it to the temple entrance, so he discarded that option. He decided to wait a little while longer before launching another grenade.

  Ryan looked to Maria and pointed to the sky indicating that there were demons above them. She nodded her head telling Ryan she understood. He pointed to his watch and held up one finger telling her it would be at least an hour before he fired again.

  They settled back against the wall and Maria placed her head on Ryan’s shoulder and snuggled in closer to Ryan. Ryan liked the feel of Maria snuggled in close to him. He knew that he had fallen in love with her a long time ago, but the feeling just kept getting stronger. He was just waiting for the right time to ask her to marry him. Ryan sat there for more than an hour snuggled close with Maria

  Ryan gently shook Maria and told her it was time to look over the temple. She sat upright and Ryan moved over to the hole in the net. Ryan checked the sky and didn’t see any demons flying around. He checked the entrance to the temple and saw the same large cluster of demons. Most appeared to be sleeping or in smaller groups talking. Ryan picked up the grenade launcher and loaded it then slid it through the hole in the net, Ryan aimed the launcher and fired it. He quickly reloaded and fired again. He pulled the launcher back inside the net and grabbed the binoculars he looked down just as the first grenade went off the second one exploded a few seconds later. Almost half the cluster of demons burst into flames and then disappeared. The remainder of the demons instead of trying to see where the grenades came from all ran into the temple.

  Ryan picked up two more grenades and fired the launcher so the grenades would sail into the temple. He watched as the flashes from the grenades lit up the inside of the temple for a short period of time and Ryan saw what appeared to be flames dancing around just inside the temple. Ryan was sure that he had killed a few more of the demons.

  “Maria start packing up the packs we are going down, time to storm the front entrance.”

  “Is that a wise thing to do?”

  “I think so, it looks like the demons have taken refuge inside and it’s time to flush them out.”

  Ryan grabbed the large pack and started packing it. It took them the better part of an hour to pack everything, Ryan took the large pack and put it on his back and helped Maria with the smaller pack. Ryan adjusted it and asked Maria if she could handle it. She assured him she could. They made the climb back down the mountain and made their way to the SUV. They emptied the packs back into the Hummer and Ryan started to pack the smaller pack with extra hand grenades and grenades for the launcher. He added extra magazines for the MAC-10 and the extra nine millimeter rounds and clips.

  Once they had the pack loaded Ryan hoisted it on his back and they started out on the way to the temple. They rounded the corner into the valley where the temple stood and they stopped about one hundred yards away and hid behind some rocks. Ryan took out the grenade launcher and half a dozen grenades. Ryan loaded the launcher and stood and carefully took aim at the doorway. He squeezed the trigger and the grenade flew towards the temple. The grenade went right into the temple thru the doorway that once held the doors that Ryan had blown off earlier. He rapid fired the remaining five grenades and they followed the path of the first one.

  Ryan and Maria ran closer to the temple and came to the bottom steps that led into the temple. Ryan handed Maria the MAC-10 and said, “as I clear a room in the temple take a position at the doorway leading into the room I just cleared make sure no one sneaks up behind us, if you see someone shoot it.”

  Maria nodded her understanding of her job, she was protecting Ryan’s back. They started the climb up the stairs and when they reached the door Ryan pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it into the room. Ryan pulled one of the nine millimeter pistols and charged the room. Just as he entered the temple he rolled onto the floor and lay flat on the floor scanning the room. He didn’t see anything and rolled again to his right. He kept his eyes to the front only moving them as he scanned the room.

  Ryan cleared the main room into the temple. He looked for other entrances but there was only a single door at the other end of it. Ryan moved towards the other door when it flew open and twenty or thirty demons came out of it. Ryan started firing the nine millimeter with deadly accuracy and the demons fell as fast as Ryan could pull the trigger. Ryan killed all of the demons that had come out the door, he pulled a grenade off of his belt and pulled the pin and tossed the grenade thru the open door.

  When the grenade went off Ryan heard screams from whatever was behind that door. He pulled another grenade and repeated the same toss with the grenade. The grenade exploded a few seconds after he tossed the grenade. He charged the room behind the door and rolled onto the floor as he entered the room. He spotted a few demons and he quickly fired the nine millimeter, the demons fell to the floor as fast as Ryan could pull the trigger. Ryan reloaded with a fresh clip and continued to fire, when the last of the demons fell he had just one round left in the clip. Ryan called clear to Maria and she came to the door and took her position guarding the door making sure that no one demon or not would get by here.

  Ryan scanned the room and found a single door, he turned the door handle and it opened easily. He peered down the set of steps behind the door, blackness as far as he could see. Ryan tried his flashlight and the darkness just swallowed the beam of light up. Ryan reloaded his nine millimeter with a fresh clip and removed the unspent round and placed it in his pocket. Ryan smiled at himself at that action knowing he still had tem extra clips left in his pants and backpack each clip holding fifteen rounds.

  Ryan let the beam of the flashlight lead the way and slowly started down the stairs. Taking deliberate steps making sure he was making no noise he descended down the stairs counting each step he took, wanting to know how many steps in case he had to make a hasty retreat. When he reached the last step he had counted forty-three steps, the light shined at a closed door at the bottom of the stairs. He shut off the flashlight to see if there was any light coming from under the door. With the light out Ryan could see there was indeed light coming from under the door. He reached into his backpack and took out five hand grenades, he pulled the pins on the first two and let the pins fly he opened the door and tossed the two grenades in so they would roll about what he guessed was half way into the room. He pulled the next two pins and tossed them to either side of the room and then the last one back into the center of the room. Ryan was just able to step to the side of the door before the f
irst two grenades went off seconds later the next two went off and finally the third. He heard some screaming for just a moment before the flames lit up both the room and the stair way before the flames faded.

  Ryan stepped into the room and found nothing more than some burn marks on the floor. Ryan was in a bit of a pickle in this room, there were three passageways leading in different directions, he called Maria down and when she arrived he said, “We have a bit of a problem down here there will be four entrances you are going to have to watch or we just blow the temple here. I don’t know how each passage goes or to where they go.”

  “What is your gut telling you?”

  “We need to find the fallen she may or may not be here.”

  “Then let’s do that.”

  Ryan picked the first passageway on the left of the room, he slowly started making his way down the hall being careful not to trigger any traps like were in Vepar’s temple. This passage led to a door which Ryan opened and when he did he was rushed by demons. Ryan slammed the door closed and got ready to start shooting if they came out of the room. None tried to come out so Ryan pulled a grenade off of his belt and pulled the pin. He held the spoon tight in his hand until he grabbed the door handle. When he opened the door he let the spoon fly and tossed the grenade into the room and slammed the door closed. The grenade blew and Ryan heard screams from behind the door. He grabbed another grenade and repeated the process again. Ryan opened the door again and he found around thirty demons in various stages of death. He walked to each one and put a bullet in its head. He watched as the last demon burst into flames and disappeared.

  Ryan checked the rest of the room and came to the conclusion that this was a bunk room for the demons. There were bunks set up all around the room and many were damaged or destroyed by the grenades. There were no other entrances in the room. Ryan made his way back to the main room and he told Maria what he had found. He then selected the next passageway.

  He slowly made his way down the passage and came to another door at the end of the passage. He grabbed the handle and opened the door. Inside were three hellhounds chained to the wall, Ryan quickly closed the door and made his way back to the main room.

  “Maria we have a problem there are three of the hellhounds at the end of the passage I just came out of, they are chained to the wall.”

  “That could be a problem, are there any other doors in the room?”

  “I really don’t know I didn’t stay around long enough to check.”

  “What do you want to do about it?”

  “I think maybe tossing in a couple of grenades and see what happens. I really don’t know what kind of effect it will have on them but I don’t want to have the grenades cause the chains to come loose and set them free.”

  “Maybe we need to check out the rest of the temple and then deal with the hellhounds.”

  “That sounds like a better idea than mine.”

  Ryan headed down the third passage and he found three doors at the end of this passage. One right in front of him and one each on the left and right side. Ryan left the door on the left as he felt in went back into the room with the hellhounds. The door on the right would be the first one he checked. He opened the door and found it to be a storage room. Things were all over the room just stacked on top of each other. They must not have heard of a box when this room was packed.

  Ryan closed the door and shifted to the third door. He opened it and a sword came slicing across the doorway. Ryan jumped backwards as soon as he spotted the sword. He held his hand up and called the Angel Sword and it appeared in his hand. He rolled inside the room and came right up to his feet with the sword at the ready. Standing behind the door was Enepsigos with her sword in her hand. She was not expecting Ryan’s next move as he charged her and swung the sword and put a slice in her leg.

  She spun around quickly and blocked the return swing of Ryan’s sword. They spent the next fifteen minutes thrusting and swinging at each other and blocking each other’s move. They both were waiting for the other to make a mistake, the first one would to make the mistake would be the first to take a blow that might be deadly.

  Enepsigos made a move to charge Ryan but her foot slipped on the floor and when Ryan made the move to block her charge he sword came down across he hand and cut it off. Her sword fell to the floor and she knew that she had been beat. Ryan told her, “Repent and turn yourself back to the Lord God and I will let you live.”

  “Never.”

  Ryan swung his sword and brought it down across the neck of Enepsigos and her head rolled away from her body. She burst into flames and disappeared. Ryan returned to the main room and told Maria of the sword fight and that he had beheaded her.

  “Now I need to figure out how to deal with the hellhounds.”

  “Is there a chance the C-4 would kill them when we blow this place.”

  “There is a good chance it may, I think I may put a couple of bricks in that room. It will make one heck of a blast.”

  Ryan went to each of the other rooms and placed the C-4 and detonators. When he finished all the other room he took three full bricks of C-4 placed the detonators in them. He opened the door to the room that had the hellhounds and place the C-4 in front of each hellhound just out of their reach. Ryan left the room closing the door behind him, he made his way back to the main room where he connected the detonators to a timer and set it for one hour. Plenty of time to get out and get to the hummer and move way down range from the blast. The two of them headed back up the stairs Ryan with both nine millimeter pistols at the ready if they would be needed. The made it clear of the temple and as they started down the stairs of the entrance Ryan spotted thirty or forty demons circling the temple. Ryan pointed to some rocks that they headed for to take shelter. He needed to real fast work of these demons or they would get caught up in the blast. Ryan took the MAC-10 from Maria and he opened up on the circling the temple. He emptied the first magazine before the demons knew what had happened.

  The demons started a dive towards Ryan and Maria and Ryan reloaded the MAC-10. He opened fire again killing four or five demons round of firing. He reloaded again and got ready to begin shooting again when one of the demons had already made it to their location he flew into Ryan knocking him to the ground and sending the MAC-10 skidding across the ground. Ryan found himself pinned down by the first demon landing on top of him and three other demons quickly joined their brother. They were tearing at Ryan’s flesh with their fangs and claws. Ryan was trying to fight back but the demons were too much for him. He could feel his strength draining from him, he was about to pass out when he heard what sounded like the MAC-10 firing. One of the demons fell off of him and burst into flames. He could see several more demons falling and bursting into flames. He heard several more shots before he passed out.

  Maria picked up the MAC-10 that had been knocked out of Ryan’s hands and she started firing into the demons that were flying down. She had knocked down most of them when she turned and looked at where Ryan was and saw that he had five demons on top of him and they were biting and tearing at Ryan. She flipped the MAC-10 to single mode and took aim at the demons that were on top of Ryan. She was picking them off one at a time, the last one being the most difficult to hit as he was right on top of Ryan. She aimed carefully and took the head shot on the demon just as it raised its head to slam it’s fangs into Ryan. The demons head exploded and it burst into flames.

  Maria ran to Ryan and knelt down beside him and checked for a pulse on his neck. She could feel that he had a pulse but he was bleeding badly. She took the pack off of his back and found his water bottle. She splashed the water over his face until he regained consciousness, Maria helped Ryan to his feet and urged him to move his feet they needed to put as much distance between the temple and them as they could. It took over half an hour to reach the SUV and Maria helped Ryan into the passenger seat. She closed the door and ran around to the driver’s side and jumped in. She started the SUV and pulled away she pushed the g
as pedal to the floor and was starting to pick up speed when the blast went off. The concussion from the blast knocked the back window and the heat and rush of wind caused Maria to lose control of the Hummer and it rolled over two or three times. Neither Maria or Ryan were wearing seatbelts and were tossed around inside the SUV, the Hummer landed back on all four wheels and settled to a stop. Maria looked over at Ryan to see if he was ok but there was so much blood from the attack by the demons she could not tell if there were any new injuries. Maria had a sore shoulder but other than that and some small cuts on her head and arms she was fine.

  Maria tried to start the Hummer and to her surprise it started right up, she put it in gear and headed back towards their motel in Bagdad. The drive would take just more than an hour, she hoped Ryan could hold out until they got back to the motel. Maria pushed the Hummer as hard as she dared. The trip to the motel took less the forty-five minutes, Maria parked the wrecked SUV in front of the door to their room and she ran to the passenger side and opened the door and helped Ryan inside their room. She helped him onto the bed and she stripped off what was left of his clothes, there were so many wounds and many of them were deep. She looked through the boxes and found the field first aid kit.

  Maria started to lay out the dressings and the things she would need to clean the wounds. Many of them looked like they were already infected. She looked up and said “OH GOD PLEASE HELP ME.”

  A bright white light appeared and an angelic form started to appear. “My child what can we do to help you?”

  “Oh Gabriel I don’t know what to do. He had so many demons on top of him and he is now hurt so bad, please help him.”

  “My child, Ryan knew that I could not save him again. His own will to live will be the only thing that saves him.”

  “Gabriel how can you not save him, he is doing God’s work, what the Lord God himself cannot do or what you cannot do, you will allow him to die and let Lucifer win.”