Hell's Ascendant (Mantles of Power Book 3)

by Benjamin Medrano

  It was primarily steel, which made the small artifact rather heavy for its size, which was about as large as a child’s head, and it had additional protrusions that made little sense to Ordath, though each was engraved with carefully formed symbols that someone had lined with platinum. The device was in its own harness, and all it would take to drop was Phina pulling two of the straps of her own harness, so it wasn’t like it was terribly complex.

  “Just remember that we don’t know how violent the reaction will really be,” Ordath said, surprising himself as he looked at Phina calmly. “Don’t get any closer than you have to, just to be safe, and the moment you drop it, try to get through the portal again.”

  “Of course, Archangel! I’ll do my best to get the job done,” Phina assured him, bowing her head deeply, even as Yimael glared at Ordath.

  Ordath just returned the look impassively, as she hadn’t been exactly looking out for the young woman’s health. He didn’t think that Phina would be in much danger, but he did prefer to take precautions where possible. It was hard enough to recruit members to the society even without sacrificing them unnecessarily.

  “Well, we’re pretty much ready here. Do you think everything is going well elsewhere?” Yimael asked, huffing unhappily as she crossed her arms in front of her, obviously still displeased with Ordath interfering.

  “Ethan’s in charge of things there. If anything doesn’t go as planned, it’ll be because other people changed plans, which will definitely annoy him,” Ordath said, his smile growing a little more. “I’m sure it’s going fine. We just need to do our part.”

  “Good. In that case, let’s open the portal,” Yimael said, looking over at the five angelic magi waiting patiently. She smiled grimly as she nodded at them. “Alright, open the gate. I want to ensure this is done as efficiently as possible.”

  “As you say, milady,” the leader of the magi replied, bowing deeply.

  Then the magi turned to begin their ritual as Ordath slowly walked toward the edge of the continent.

  The endless skies of the heavens were always soothing to him, though he did frown when he saw the darker clouds slowly working their way in their direction. It looked like it’d be raining, which wasn’t appropriate for the day that was going to be one of the society’s greatest triumphs.

  “Ah, well,” Ordath murmured, looking downward instead. The weather didn’t matter, just the results.

  Bells tolled over Skyhaven slowly, filling the air with their music. The sound reverberated even deep within the Hall of Wisdom, where the Holy Council was preparing to meet, and the first of the councilors were already present.

  The chamber was large, carefully designed to make it easy for a speaker’s voice to be heard throughout the room, and all around it were desks and chairs for the four-dozen angels who made up the Holy Council. In the center of the room was a raised platform for whoever was speaking, while lights illuminated exquisitely carved and painted walls. Few places in the heavens were more richly appointed, and the councilors certainly reflected that.

  Half a dozen councilors were present, and the men and women wore robes and dresses made of the finest materials found in the heavens, from the hides of rare beasts to enchanted fabric that would have fed a village for a year or more just for a tunic, and all of them were immaculately poised as they spoke with one another. Even the representatives of the heavenly orders practically oozed wealth and confidence, though only the woman who headed the Order of the Dragon was present, sitting in her chair as she went over a few documents.

  Other than the councilors, a dozen guards were stationed around the room, each in enameled white armor with gold trim, swords at their sides and with cloudpiercers in hand. They were ignored by those in the room, by and large, but when they moved, each showed the grace of a highly trained soldier.

  “Any word on Anathiel?” one of the female councilors asked, sounding distinctly unhappy.

  “Nothing,” another said unhappily, shaking his head in annoyance. “From what I’ve heard, she’s been ignoring all the letters other people have sent her as well, but I’ve seriously considered going to try to speak with her myself.”

  “How rude! She went and vanished for an incredibly long time, leaving us in dire straits for the entire time, then she returns and doesn’t have the common decency to come speak with us?” the first woman snapped, her eyes narrowing. “We’re the ones who’ve been protecting the heavens for all these years; she should show some respect!”

  “Calmly. She’s an archangel, and one of the more powerful ones at that. If she wanted to, she likely could form an alliance that would threaten even our power,” another man said, shaking his head as he frowned at her. “I’m no happier with what she’s done than you are, but there’s no point in getting upset yet. She could simply be getting her bearings after being absent for so long.”

  The woman scoffed at that, but didn’t verbally disagree, instead ruffling her wings a bit as she scowled and changed the subject. “What about today? What’s our agenda, since you said there was something new.”

  “I’ve received some worrying news from the Forest of Sighs. When Alserah closed her borders to angels we lost many of our usual information sources, but some has been getting through anyway. Apparently, she’s blaming the attack on a faction of angels and even has a prisoner!” the second man said, a note of shock in his voice as he looked at his companions. “I’ve noticed that she isn’t blaming us, but even so it’s inconceivable!”

  “How dare she?!” the woman snarled, her lips curling as she continued. “We’re the only reason the hells didn’t overwhelm the mortal world ages ago! Her little nation wouldn’t even exist without us, so she shouldn’t make wild accusations!”

  “Regardless, it’s a worry, particularly since she’s called several other deities to her side. I have no idea what they’re planning, but—” the man continued, but paused as the doors opened and more councilors began pouring into the room. He sighed and shook his head as he changed the subject. “Alas, it appears we’ll have to wait. I see that it’s about time to call the session to order.”

  “Very well. We’ll just have to consider how to put her properly in her place for those accusations,” the woman muttered, heading for a chair, while the other men gave each other nods, then headed for their own seats.

  It took a few minutes for all the councilors to filter their way into the room, and a low rumble of conversation filled the room as they spoke with their neighbors, talking about everything from crops to the most recent events in the borderlands between the Alliance of Light and the Kingdoms of Darkness, but the most common subject was Anathiel. Not all of the councilors were as upset as the first group, but many of them were, and others were simply suspicious of her motives.

  Eventually, the second man looked around and nodded to one of the guards, who closed the door as he stood and adjusted his clothing slightly before stepping up on the platform. Most of the others grew quiet as the man looked around and nodded to them.

  “Thank you all for coming today!” he said, speaking loudly so his voice would clearly be heard throughout the room. “I call to order the seventh session of this year’s Holy Council meetings, and—”

  The man never finished his sentence, as at his words, magic sparked to life. Incineration stones placed below the platform detonated in a near-simultaneous ripple of fire and death that ripped him apart instantly, sending stone and wood shrapnel flying across the room. Yet that wasn’t the end of it.

  All around the room, desk after desk exploded almost as one, instantly killing the councilors sitting there before they could even react. Most of the angels didn’t have time to do more than flinch before the fiery waves hit them, and screams echoed in the chamber with the explosions that mercilessly enveloped its inhabitants, even as the room’s shape channeled the blast upward to weaken the roof’s supports.

  The doors were blown off their hinges, and before the guards outside could begin to react, the walls creak
ed, groaned, and the roof came down on the smoldering remains of the Holy Council.

  Chapter 38

  Phina took a deep breath, excitement rushing through her despite the weight of the device she was carrying. It was incredibly heavy, making her flight labored at best, but it was all worth it in her mind. She was going to be striking the first of the blows necessary to eliminate the hells at last, and that was an immense honor. Ordath’s presence before she took flight simply thrilled her even more, as it meant an archangel would be watching as she did it. Phina descended carefully toward the portal to the hells, trying her best to avoid breathing in the stench rising from the volcano-like mountain.

  The continent below her was Dolia, from what Phina understood, and she admired it for a moment. Even from her height she couldn’t see the oceans in the distance, the air wasn’t clear enough for that, and the portal mountain was a decent distance from the nearby mountain range. The lands were green and verdant for the most part, and Phina looked on the fortifications around the portal in approval.

  Once the volcano rim might have been simply a road up out of the hells, but the defenders had gotten rid of that ages ago. All the interior roads leading up to the rim had been demolished, and they’d carved the rim itself into a gigantic circular fortress, with siege engines in place to deal with any flying creatures that came through, and a gigantic net in place to keep them from getting away easily. Even now she could see the ant-like figures of soldiers patrolling the walls, and she nodded, hoping the blast wouldn’t be too big. They were fighting the good fight against the hells, after all. Still, getting past the net was why she’d been told the device created blades of air which would cut through it on its way down.

  Not that she could see the device at the moment, with the invisibility spell in effect. Still, it wasn’t too windy, so Phina descended a little more, beating her wings quickly as she took a position near the center of the portal, if far above it, and glanced upward. She could just barely see the portal to the heavens, and only because she knew the pale circle of radiance was there. It was beautiful, compared to the inky darkness of the portal to the hells. So after a moment she looked down, doing her best to hold her position as she took hold of the straps to drop the gatecrusher.

  “May the Lord of Light’s radiance purge all evil!” Phina said, smiling widely as she pulled the two straps hard.

  There was a sound of metal rasping on metal, and the gatecrusher was suddenly visible as it fell, leaving her invisibility spell. The sound had been a rod leaving the device and activating it, and the sudden loss of its weight caused Phina to surge upward abruptly. She only glanced at the device as it began glowing, then she quickly beat her wings as she headed back toward the portal as quickly as she could. It was a long climb, though, and she wouldn’t have time to reach it before the gatecrusher reached the portal to the hells.

  Not that she wouldn’t try, though.

  “What’s that?” Norman asked, and Josh blinked, looking over at the dwarf.

  “What’s what?” he asked, letting out a breath in annoyance. Josh hated being paired with the dwarf, since they were similar heights, but his superiors and squad mates thought it was hilarious seeing them next to each other.

  “That!” Norman said, pointing toward the center of The Pit, as most people stationed at Dolia’s portal to the hells called it, and Josh looked up, blinking in confusion.

  A golden light was falling toward the portal incredibly quickly, and he couldn’t make out any details, but Josh couldn’t help frowning in worry. Still, there was an easy explanation, in his opinion.

  “Maybe it’s a falling star? Hell, nothing we can do is going to stop it, though. I doubt the net’s going to stop it, and—see? It went right through it,” Josh said, gesturing as they watched the light barely slow as it hit the net and continued downward. “Let’s let the captain know when we get back. I’m sure he’ll want to—”

  The light reached the portal as he was talking, and the world suddenly lit up as the inky black portal turned brilliant white. Josh cried out in pain as he suddenly couldn’t see anything, and beside him he heard Norman curse.

  “Earth and stone, what in all the—” the dwarf began, but he didn’t have time to finish. Before Josh’s vision could begin to clear, the earth convulsed, and then he was falling sideways for an instant before everything went black.

  “Heaven’s Tears!” Ordath cursed, raising a hand to mute the sudden glare of light from below.

  It was like the sun had suddenly risen through the portal, and the sheer strength of it worried him, since it meant that other people would probably see it, too. They’d been planning to keep the attack at least somewhat hidden, but this was far more obvious than he wanted it to be.

  Relief rushed through him as the light vanished a moment later, but his relief was short-lived as he saw that it’d been replaced by a sphere of pitch darkness. That sphere seemed to be sucking everything in, and Ordath’s eyes widened as he realized that he couldn’t see the crater the portal had been in at all, and it was collapsing on itself.

  “That’s not supposed to happen,” Yimael said, cursing in her rough voice as she rubbed at her eyes, scowling downward. “And what is that?”

  “Close the portal,” Ordath said, fear rushing through him suddenly, as a sense of crisis enveloped him. “Close it now!”

  “What? But we won’t see what—” Yimael protested, only to be cut off as he glared at her, unleashing his mantle ruthlessly.

  “Now, Yimael!” Ordath thundered as his glow washed over her, and she paled, then gestured at the magi.

  “You heard him,” Yimael said, and the five magi nodded, ending their chants. The portal faded away below them, as did the vision of the mortal world as Ordath relaxed. Yimael turned to him, scowling as she asked. “Now why—”

  In the hells, the mountain looked the same as it always did, at least at first. The summit of the mountain was buried in a black portal, but unlike Hellmount, this one was rarely used these days. The portal in Dolia was simply too heavily guarded, and multiple demonic fortresses dotted the landscape around its base, as did villages, most of whom hoped to find some hardy mortal world seeds that’d been blown through the portal.

  Still, some of the people there looked up, sensing that something had changed just as the first cracks of white spread through the portal. Moments later the cracks spread, and then there were monstrous groaning and popping sounds as the mountain abruptly fractured, cracks ripping up and down its length, immense amounts of mana pouring out of it ceaselessly.

  Animals and monsters instinctively began panicking, but it was far, far too late, for at last the portal that had been there for countless years suddenly detonated, and with it exploded the mountain as well.

  The earth shook like an immense volcano had erupted, and the shockwave destroyed everything within a hundred miles of the mountain, flattening forests and cities without pity, even as a hail of lava and molten stones pelted the region. Where the mountain had been was an immense geyser of magma erupting upward like the rage of the gods themselves, and earthquakes wracked the land.

  Nothing was left to see it, though, as the sheer violence of the eruption destroyed everyone and everything as well, save for a few tattered foundations of particularly sturdy buildings.

  In the mortal world, the black sphere collapsed on itself just as the portal to the heavens closed. Phina never made it near the portal, and the angel only had a moment to look down as she wondered what she was supposed to do, fear rippling through her at last. Of course, it was far too late, for at the same time that the mountain exploded, so did that tiny black sphere which was hovering over the near-perfect spherical hole where the mountain and portal had been a moment before.

  The shockwave it unleashed killed the angel instantly, mangling her unrecognizably as it shattered the ground around itself, the blast wave shredding the towns that’d supported the garrison as well as the fields and forests, turning a lush, peaceful region i
nto a desolate wasteland in an instant.

  If that had been all, it would have been bad enough as it was. Unfortunately for everyone, the blast wasn’t merely physical.

  Just as Yimael was demanding an explanation, the ground beneath Ordath’s feet trembled, then bucked, staggering the archangel. A thunderous boom split the air a moment later, followed by more bucking that caused Ordath to sway in place, while Yimael fell to one knee.

  Ordath glanced down and paled suddenly, as he saw where the portal had been. A wave of black and white energy was fading as he watched, while he could also see a vortex beginning to form where it’d been. Far worse were the crackling, popping sounds he was hearing.

  “Take flight, now!” Ordath snapped, even as he was following his own advice. He barely had a moment to feel guilt for Phina’s sacrifice, as he was far more concerned with his own safety at the moment.

  Yimael managed to take off a moment later, as did a couple of the magi, but before the others could react, the entire continent lurched in front of Ordath’s horrified gaze, and a vast, miles-wide section of the continent began sloughing off into the void. The ear-splitting sound made conversation impossible, and Ordath felt like his ears were going to bleed as the vortex tore the shard of the continent into pieces, swallowing the stone and trees mercilessly.

  All but one of the magi made it off, as even so the process was slow, but one of the men screamed as a tree toppled onto him, and Ordath’s guilt grew as he saw a tiny angelic village was on the land being consumed. He circled higher, fighting the turbulence as he looked down and saw a handful of angels staggering in the village. One spotted him and reached out as if calling for help, their figure so tiny he couldn’t quite make out more than the fact the man was blond, and it was far, far too late.