by Declan Finn
Hail Mary. Double-tap.
Full of Grace. Bang.
The Lord is with thee. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Whateley leaped for me. I leaped for him. We collided in mid-air in front of the bonfire. As the clouds gathered and darkened, the bonfire was the only true source of light.
As we grappled, we threw knees, elbows, head butts. He could never punch through my armor. I could never damage him enough to disable even an arm. But it didn’t matter. As long as I fought the lead demon, at the focal point of the ceremony, every demon had eyes on me—assuming that they could see through the maelstrom Lena had created.
Then, like a killer from a slasher movie, Bokor Baracus leaped out of the cloud, machete and athame held high. He screamed something in French, heading straight for Whateley.
Unfortunately, from the water charged something else. Something eight feet tall and four feet wide, with horns even wider still. It seemed like a Minotaur, charging in like the bull he resembled. He body checked Baracus and flung him into the air. He didn’t stop moving, and his shoulder glanced me and Whateley. The glancing blow was so powerful it bowled over both of us.
The Minotaur kept charging and slammed Bokor Baracus into the side of the cliffs.
22 The Call of Tiamat
It was not a Minotaur, but Kusarikku. He was a spawn of Tiamat who had preceded “her.” Kusarikku had the arms, torso, and head of a human; but the ears, horns and hindquarters were solid bull. As Tiamat represented sea salt in its mythology, Kusarikku represented mountains. Like the cliffs that it pummeled Baracus into.
I swept up the Necronomicon with both hands and whirled on Whateley, smashing him in the face with it.
Then with a whirl, I hurled the book into the bonfire.
Whateley’s eyes went wide, and he hurled himself after the book.
I turned away from both the professor and the book and charged after Kusarikku and Baracus. My helmet’s display highlighted the monster from the depths as I bounded for it. Kusarikku showed up with his name and as a “summoned demon,” and that was it. No suggestions on how to fight it. No thoughts on what to do with it once I got my hands on it.
I reared back with my fist and prayed, picking Psalm 5.
Give ear to my words, O LORD; understand my sighing.
Kusarikku was one more bound away, and I made it.
Attend to the sound of my cry, my king and my God!
I drove my fist into the back of Kusarikku’s head. Its human face drove into the cliff wall, leaving an additional hole right next to Baracus’.
For to you I will pray, LORD; in the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will plead before you and wait.
Kusarikku whirled on me and backhanded me away. I went flying back twenty feet. And Kusarikku followed hot on my trail. A fist the size of my head crashed into my chest armor, caving it in. The blow sent me back along the sand. My armor couldn’t heal the wound before the next swing came in. I sheltered the wound with my left arm. Kusarikku drove its fist into my bicep.
My arm broke with a crack so loud, it could be heard over the breaking of my armor.
You are not a god who delights in evil.
I groaned in pain and wheeled around, twisting my entire body into the punch. I drove my right fist into Kusarikku’s face and kept my wounded side away from the demon.
Kusarikku smiled.
No wicked person finds refuge with you.
I ducked under the next swing, and leaped up, driving my knee into Kusarikku’s face. The blow sent it back a step. I came down with both armored feet, smashing into its foot.
The arrogant cannot stand before your eyes.
Kusarikku grunted and bent over, running its nose into my right elbow.
You hate all who do evil. I backhanded it.
You destroy those who speak falsely. I drove the sole of my boot into its knee. I kicked off of the leg, jumping back instead of breaking the knee.
A bloody and fraudulent man the LORD abhors. Kusarikku came in and casually swatted me in the chest plate. The armor had healed itself enough that the blow sent me sprawling instead of killing me.
Kusarikku rose over me. And it laughed.
But I, through the abundance of your mercy, will enter into your house.
Baracus leaped on its back and drove his athame into its shoulder. The blade punctured down to the hilt. Kusarikku bled seawater and roared in pain.
I will bow down toward your holy sanctuary out of fear of you.
Kusarikku whirled around, trying to get Baracus off of it. The bokor wouldn’t budge. He locked his arm around Kusarikku’s neck like a vice. He pulled out the athame and stabbed Kusarikku again and again, laughing at the demon’s pain.
LORD, guide me in your justice because of my foes; make straight your way before me.
My armor clicked as the last plate of clay slid into place. Then it worked on fixing my arm. I grit my teeth against the pain and pushed myself up. I wasn’t going to let Baracus fight Kusarikku alone.
The wind picked up. A burst of holy salt the size of a cannon ball smashed Kusarikku right in the face. Lena had seen the way the battle had been going and decided to focus on us a little. The salt burned the demon with a snap and a sizzle that sounded like meat hitting a fry pan. It cried out in agony.
For there is no sincerity in their mouth; their heart is corrupt.
I darted in swinging. I delivered three quick body blows with my fists, and followed it up with a low roundhouse kick to Kusarikku’s leg that would have felled a tree.
It all did nothing.
Their throat is an open grave; on their tongue are subtle lies.
I jumped up and drove my right fist into Kusarikku’s face, where the salt still clung. Its head snapped back, and more water came from its lip. That hurt it.
Declare them guilty, God; make them fall by their own devices.
A path opened up in the salt maelstrom. I feared for a moment that the mad or the possessed had found a way to create an opening.
Instead, it was Alex. Pearson was right behind him. Pearson read from his prayer book. Alex ran in, hand in his pocket.
“Hey asshole, pick a card!” Alex screamed, and his hurled a metal saint card into Kusarikku’s side.
The holy card bit into Kusarikku’s flesh like it had cut into the fruit yesterday morning when Lena had thrown it with her mind. The blessing burned through the demon’s hide like a hot knife through water.
Drive them out for their many sins; for they have rebelled against you.
I drove my fist into Kusarikku’s side where the card bit in. It shrieked and hurled Baracus off at long last. It whirled around to face Alex, and I jumped onto its back the way Baracus had. I grabbed Kusarikku’s horns and bent him back, opening him up to Alex throwing four more cards in quick succession.
Then all who trust in you will be glad and forever shout for joy.
As I struggled against Kusarikku, I endeavored to rip its head off with the horns. “For the grace … for the might of our Lord … in the name of His Glory … time for you to go back to Hell.”
Without warning, Whateley smashed into me, driving me off of Kusarikku. We went sprawling across the sand and crashed into the cliffside. Baracus took my place to tangle against Kusarikku as Whateley pounced on me.
You will protect them and those will rejoice in you who love your name.
Whateley raised an undamaged Necronomicon over his head and brought it down onto my chest. The clay armor smashed like glass against the enchantments and dark magic of the book. He drove the book into my chin and ripped the helmet right off of my face.
Whateley loomed over me and threw the book aside. My face and chest were wide open. “I don’t think so. I’m the only god here today. And my name is death.” He raised his arms together, both hands folded together into one fist. “And what do you say to the god of death?”
His hands came down as my hands shot up. The gloves and arms of the armor acted together to clamp onto
Whateley’s hands. The armor locked and held fast. They were mechanical grips against an organic force.
I smiled in his face, just to piss him off. “Not yet.”
I twisted my body, and threw Whateley away like the garbage he was.
For you, LORD, bless the just one; you surround him with favor like a shield.
I clamored to my feet. Kusarikku threw Baracus off to one side, leaving Alex as the only thing between him and Pearson.
I charged Kusarikku, moving as fast as I could on sand.
But Kusarikku charged Alex and Pearson, his head bowed, the horns aimed right for my partners.
Kusarikku was faster.
The horns speared through both Pearson and Alex. The horn pierced Alex in the right ribcage, leaving a hole the size of a softball in his chest. The cards fell from his hands as he was taken off his feet, and he screamed. Pearson was run through the stomach.
Kusarikku pinned them both up against the cliff-side. Blood came out of Alex’s mouth in great globs. Pearson only had a little leaking from his lip.
Kusarikku ripped his head out of the wall and out of both of my partners. They dropped to the ground, bleeding out right in front of me.
I ran towards them. I had once healed Mariel when her throat had been slit. Maybe if I—
Motion in my right eye caught my attention. One of the dead bodies had started to move. I looked to Baracus, and he was still getting to his own feet.
Bokor said that raising zombies might not work against demons. Which means…
I glanced at the dead rising. The wounds in their heads were healing. They weren’t being raised as zombies. They were coming back as the possessed they were.
Dying had only slowed them down.
The bluetooth earbud in my ear rang. It had been held in place by the armored helmet. It automatically picked up, even as I staggered towards Pearson and Alex.
“Sinead?” I answered as I stumbled in the sand. “Tell me you have the package!”
I was answered by a roar of wind and rain that sounded like solid static. “—ommy! I—” Sinead cut out for a moment. “—the package. The rain—” The flickering signal went dead for a full four seconds, which felt like four minutes.
The signal came back in. “I can’t get to you!” came through crystal clear.
I blinked. The package was lost.
I crawled to Alex and Pearson and laid hands on them, and quickly prayed, ripping through an Our Father and a Hail Mary.
It wasn’t working. Either I was too distracted, or the answer was a simple, “No.”
Either way, my partners were dying.
Whateley had gotten to his feet and laughed at me. “Poor little saint. Can’t save anyone. Can you? And you thought that you were going to save the world?”
Ten-foot waves crashed down on the shoreline. The sea became choppier. The winds picked up, blowing away all of the holy salt and sand from Lena’s maelstrom. Lighting crackled all around me.
And out in the water, several lines broke through the surface of the water. They emerged as fins. But they weren’t from sharks. They were serrated and elongated.
The fins broke through the water, and the smooth arc of heads started to come up. It was like seven kaiju were ready to break the surface any minute.
Each dragon head that broke through the surface was bigger than a house. Each head was a different color. From right to left, they were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Before it even rose out of the water, I knew that all of the necks snaked down to one trunk of a body.
Tiamat was rising.
23 Unleash Heaven
There was no way that I could have fought the possessed rising around me, as well as Kusarikku, and Tiamat, and save my partners.
I had to stop Tiamat. Even if it killed me, and my family, and my friends. It had to go back to Hell.
Only without Sinead and the package she carried from Rome, there was nothing I could think of that could stop the Cthulhu demon.
Behind me, Whateley laughe at me. At us. At the world.
At God.
I’d had enough.
My golem arms were still intact, as were the legs. I pushed off my feet, flinging myself backwards, and driving my fist into Whateley’s face so hard, it lifted him off of his feet. I reached down and grabbed his ankles in midair and twisted. I spun Whateley in the air by his ankles and made it through two rotations before I hurled Whateley and threw him into Kusarikku. The possessed professor and the demon hurtled down the beach, next to the massive bonfire.
“You think you’ve won?” I roared at them. I charged Kusarikku and drop-kicked it in the face. The Minotaur staggered back. I charged to my feet, then drop-kicked its knees. One leg went out from under it, dropping it to perfect uppercut height. I drove my fist into its chin, knocking the head back.
I whirled on Whateley and backhanded him with the gauntlet. One of his feet went flying. “As long as one of us still alive, you’re doomed.” I grabbed him by the lapels and headbutted him in the nose, crushing it. “All one of us needs is the Lord. What are all of you against Him?”
Whateley smashed his arms through my grip and shoved me away so hard I flew through the air. I landed in the sand and rolled. He straightened, smiled, and brushed some sand off of him. “Oh, we know. That’s why we kill all of you first.”
In the ocean, Tiamat flexed her wings.
The ocean parted in two tsunamis, one to either side. The one that went north crashed into the taller cliffs and broke off the cliff face.
The southbound tsunami swept through the parking lot, sweeping away half of the cars and crashing into the land. It came down on everything like a steamroller, flattening everything. There were three skyscrapers in its path, and they all toppled over like towers of Jenga blocks. There had been homes where the tsunami made landfall further down the beach. There was no sign of them when the wave passed. Even the foundations had been swept away.
I had only seen a glimpse of Tiamat before the waters rushed back in. Even the heads were massive.
Tiamat stomped down one step forward. The resulting tusnami was smaller this time, and headed away from shore, out to see. It took out three cargo ships, a dozen fishing boats. Even under the water, it shoved a submarine twenty miles off course. This didn’t even include the countless sea life stunned or killed by the shockwave.
The clouds gathered so far and wide, it went to the horizon. There was no sun. The horizon itself was capped with clouds. They blocked the sun and turned the afternoon into night.
The gathering storm unleashed a barrage of lightning that sounded like a bad day at Verdun – all of them, all at once. It destroyed the better part of Eastern Massachusetts. Each individual lightning bolt cratered a city block. And there were thousands of lightning bolts.
And Tiamat had just arrived.
God. I suspect I’m screwed. But I’d like to take this thing with us if you wouldn’t mind.
My armored arms were still intact, so the first thing I did was charge Kusarikku. Without thinking, I leaped for him and kept going up. I grabbed his horns and levitated with the demon. It squealed in surprised as I took it off of its feet. I levitated over the bonfire and dropped Kusarikku into it.
Then, I kept levitating straight up.
Professor Whateley laughed at me as I flew away. He called after me, “Look down, saint! You get to watch me kill your friends!”
He looked down and stepped for Pearson and Alex, only to stop. Bokor Baracus stood between Whateley and my partners.
The bokor held his machete and his athame before him. His eyes narrowed, and he smiled, ready for a new fight. “No, demon. You will not.”
Whateley scoffed at Baracus and waved him aside. “Get out of the way, bokor. You work for us. Hell owns you. We own you.”
Baracus grinned at him. “Except that I have made a deal with Nolan. And these two behind me. And if I have nothing left, it is that I keep my bargains.”
Whateley bli
nked and took a step back. “You can’t hope to win, Baracus.”
The wide grin became evil. “I raised you and your legion once, demon. You bet I cannot send you back?”
I levitated up the cliff face, past everyone. I didn’t wave back at Lena when she called out to me. I didn’t even glance at my wife or at Sinead. I didn’t have the time. I didn’t have the seconds.
I levitated over to the church roof and landed on it. The stone crucifix on the roof faced Tiamat. The winds increased so heavily that my overcoat blew out, whipping around me in the maelstrom. The lightning cracked past me, even though I was the tallest point in the area. I grabbed the stone crucifix next to me, and braced myself against the rushing wind.
Tiamat kept coming, unabated. Nothing slowed her down. Lightning flashed past her, illuminating all seven heads. Lightning even struck two of the heads. She didn’t even blink with the strike. The seas themselves became uneven and choppy as Tiamat passed, trying to rebel against this unnatural thing.
Tiamat’s head towered over me, and she wasn’t even out of the water yet. Her hips were still submerged beneath the waves. She was at least a mile tall and could destroy cities by walking past. She was taller than the tallest skyscraper. She was wider than the widest mountain.
She was death incarnate.
Dear God. If it is Your Will that this creature not destroy the world, then please, let us stop it now, before it gets to the rest of the world. Let not this terror from damnation be a scourge upon this Earth for one second more than it has to be. If I must die in order to do this—if we must all die in order to do this—then each of us is willing to do it… Okay, maybe not Baracus but certainly the rest of us.
Tiamat reared back and roared in defiance at God and Heaven. The red head shot balls of fire from her mouth to the sky. The orange unleashed a stream of fire. The mouth on the yellow dragon unleashed a torrent of lightning that lit up the clouds with electricity, which she distributed and unleashed back upon the Earth like a bombing run. The green mouth unleashed a stream of red-hot, boiling acid. The blue, indigo, and violet dragon heads unleashed streams that mirrored the heads on the other side.
