by Michael Todd
He mustered all the courage he had and motioned to Max to follow him out onto the floor. Carefully, they advanced across the flagstones and tried to make as little sound as possible. When they reached the center, he put his hand out to stop his companion.
Damian rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck in preparation for whatever would happen over the next few moments. This was it. This was everything they never knew they were being trained for, all wrapped up in the body of three old priests. He smiled at the younger man and winked before he raised his foot slowly and stamped it hard on the stone floor.
The sound echoed through the vacant room and the three Wise Men ceased their chant and lowered their hands to their sides. They didn’t turn, however, and merely stood facing the wall to create a serious moment of tension in the room.
Damian gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes, pissed that they refused to face them. It was like an automatic slap in the face. They knew full well he wouldn’t shoot them in the back.
“We will not allow you to do this,” he yelled. “You are not as cunning as you think you are. This is our world. Our lives. Our species. And you three and your disgusting triplets of hell are not welcome here. We can make this hard and battle it out, or we can make this easy and you can step out of the circle and surrender yourselves to the church. I’m sure they would love nothing more than to experiment on your bodies.”
Max smirked, raised his hand, touching his pointer finger to his thumb, and shook it up and down in approval. The three turned with agonizing slowness and their robes shimmered unnaturally in the candlelight.
Max and Astaroth grimaced, the demon making gagging sounds. Oh, God. Their skin—it's moving and bubbling. They look like demon-faced old men. For the first time in my life, I have to say it. I can’t believe this is spewing from my lips. The demons are more attractive than that.
Max shook his head and his cheeks literally flapped with the jerky motion. “Gross. Old man demon-face.”
Father Judah laughed and his voice melded with that of his demon. “And you and this young moron think you can defeat the three greatest wizards of all time?”
The two priests exchanged glances and both shrugged and nodded their heads. Damian took a step forward, about to challenge them, but the three men shifted and stared in awe behind them.
Max looked sideways at Damian and talked out of the corner of his mouth. “I won’t lie, I’m scared to turn around right now. With the way things have gone on the home planet, I wouldn’t be surprised if Medusa, Zeus, and Hades were standing behind us.”
“No,” a voice called out. “But all of us together might put a hurting on you.”
They whirled, and their mouths instantly dropped open. Standing right inside the door and literally bristling with weapons and armor were Wally, Maps, Rose, Catherine, and even old Abraham, who chewed dip and smiled like an idiot. They had to be the most ragtag apology for a team Damian had ever seen but God damn, was he happy to see them there. Catherine was right. They did have a team that had their backs, and they showed them exactly what that meant.
Wally, for once, didn’t wear his priest clothes. Instead, he wore a pair of green cargo shorts, boots, a wifebeater, and a bandana tied around his head. He drew his pistol and smiled awkwardly at Damian. The rest of the group maintained their angry expressions and brandished a variety of weapons. They stood tall, ready to kick some ass.
Max chuckled. “Well, if this were a movie, we would definitely win. Especially with Father Rambo over there. Ready for action, bitches.”
Damian cleared his throat. “Language.”
Max hissed, and Astaroth belted out a hearty laugh. The two priests turned and shrugged at the three Wise Men. Damian smiled inwardly the whole time. “There you go, guys. I guess you have your answer.”
Immediately, the three priests hurled balls of electricity at the team. They separated and raced across the room to take cover. Damian slid behind an old desk propped in the corner. Sonofabitch, they have that electricity shit too.
Sorry, that did not come up on my radar. Ravi groaned. Good thing we aren’t standing in water.
Blasts of electricity crackled and surged in vivid arcs to strike the stone walls and knock large chunks off and onto the floor. Rambo Wally stood, aimed his pistol, and pulled the trigger, while he screamed at the top of his lungs. Maps muttered under her breath as she grabbed his arm and yanked him down behind a pile of rubble. His head had barely made cover before electricity sizzled into the wall behind them. It streaked and sparked across the stone before it hissed out on the floor.
Maps pointed at Wally. “Keep it under control. I know you’re ready but trust me, you’ll have plenty to do. Don’t get yourself killed right up front.”
One of the Wise Men, now almost unrecognizable stood and spoke in a demonic tongue. The words reverberated through the room and with a crack and a snap, a portal opened to the side. It wasn’t the large one, but it was big enough to allow smaller demons to pour into the church. They scratched at the stone and sniffed for their evening snack.
Rose laughed loudly and rubbed her hands together. “Time for a little payback, motherfuckers.”
Catherine gasped. “Mom!”
Her mother shrugged. “I’m a demon fighter, not a cross-stitcher. Grow a pair, honey, come on.”
Maps looked to her right and caught Max’s attention. She pointed at her eyes with two fingers and then at him. He drew his pistol and nodded, and they both stood and stepped out onto the floor. They fired a relentless volley and demons fell and crumbled or simply exploded into ash where they stood.
The trainee’s gun clicked, and he groaned when he realized it was out of ammo. He shoved it back in the holster and Maps continued to fire and flashed him a confused look when he didn’t reload. It took only a second for her to get the answer to that question. He growled a challenge, thrust his arms out like a football player, and snatched demons by the neck. Astaroth’s extra strength enabled him to fling them head first back through the portal. A couple of times, he even struck an incoming line of them and knocked more than a dozen back inside.
Maps nodded her head. “I like that. I’m impressed, strong man.”
Max smirked and his cheeks flushed bright red.
The mother and daughter team moved back to back and obliterated every demon that got anywhere near them. Rose glanced over the heads of several demons and tapped her daughter on the shoulder. “The Wiz Kids are back there in that other room. I can see their ridiculous robes.”
Catherine slapped a new mag in her gun. “Got it. Let’s go!”
Across the room, Damian leapt over one demon while he severed another’s head with his short sword. Wally pushed in behind him, fired enthusiastically, and cheered when another creature caught the bullet between the eyes. Damian put his hand up and high-fived Wally. “Thanks for coming out here, dude. I did not see that coming.”
Wally shot two more adversaries in quick succession. “I told you I always wanted to be a hero. This is my chance, man. I am ready to send these…these…little bad guys right back to the fiery depths.”
He snorted. “Yeah, you tell them in the most PG-rated way possible.”
Wally holstered his gun and yanked two swords off his back. Damian jumped aside with wide eyes as the man squatted and screamed a battle cry. He blurred into action and hurtled across the floor, swinging his swords in wide arcs and decapitate four demons before they even saw him approach. Green or not, he really kicked ass.
Abraham ran up to Damian and slapped him in the chest. “They’re in the back, dude. Come on!”
He latched onto Damian’s arm and yanked him across the floor. Ravi was not amused. Oh, great, Mr. Boy Wonder is here. I’m surprised he isn’t wearing a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops.
Me too, he grunted as they came to a stop near the door.
Abraham sneaked a quick look around the corner and nodded his head. “Oh yeah. They’re in there, all right.”
Damian smirked. “I thoug
ht you were done forever.”
The merc shrugged. “I’m no fucking pussy. Besides, I can’t sit around drinking whiskey out of a cereal bowl playing video games forever. At some point, enough depression is enough, especially when you have revenge in your heart like I do. I gotta let this shit out.”
A loud crack sent the two men into a low crouch, and they crept into the room and scuttled to take cover behind some boxes. Cautiously, they peered over the top and Abraham gasped. “Good grief. We got Harry Potter, Merlin, and Gandalf up in this bitch.”
Ravi growled. I told you.
Agrus stood with his hands to his head and made a demon throw himself into the wall over and over again. Beside him, Shegrus circled his hands around each other and a metal beam turned and twisted into a knot in midair. Oxon merely stood there until he began to juggle balls of sparking electricity. They were showing their wild magic, which meant things had rapidly become dire.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Apparently, I missed the part where Oxon could fucking create black fire with his bare hands, Ravi yelled as Damian flung himself out of the path of a fireball that danced directly toward him.
Damian shrugged. Is it really that much worse?
If you get hit by it, you will be enveloped by the eternal flame of hell forever, she said calmly. So, I would say yeah.
He sighed. Well, here goes nothing.
Wait, wait, Ravi protested. Take out your cross.
He snarled, ignored her, and marched forward, firing his gun at Oxon’s legs in the hope that he would wound him. What he didn’t realize was that Oxon gave zero fucks about bullets in his legs, special metal or not.
The priest cursed loudly and holstered his gun, finally listening to Ravi. He yanked his gloves on and retrieved his cross. Holding it up in front of him, he winced. I really hope you know more about this than the priest having fire powers.
Oxon hurled a ball of black fire. It hit the cross in the center and hissed and sizzled before it ricocheted back at him. Oxon screamed, threw his hands in the air, and whirled frantically in an effort to shake the flames loose. Suddenly, it erupted into a mini inferno and in seconds, engulfed him entirely.
Ravi grimaced. Ouch. That’ll definitely leave a damn mark.
Agrus and Shegrus glanced at their brother as the fire finally went out and left nothing but the priest’s bones in a pile of ash on the floor. Agrus shrieked in agony as he raced toward Damian and Abraham. Shegrus gritted his teeth and narrowed his now bright yellow eyes, He surged toward Rose and Catherine. Neither of the remaining wizards was playing games, and they were pissed that they had lost their third—their brother, the last clasp to the chain for the portal to hell. But the battle wasn’t over yet.
Rose tried to pull Catherine aside but she was determined not to back down. She held a dagger in one hand and a short sword in the other as she stamped her foot and scraped at the ground like a bull. “Come on, asshole. Come and get me. You’re not so big without your dumb-ass brother, are you?”
Shegrus gestured sharply and a steel bar flung out from the wall and wound itself tightly around Catherine. She grunted and the short sword fell. Despite her efforts to free herself, she teetered on one leg, trapped by the end of the beam and unable to move. Rose’s lip twitched and she bent slowly to draw a dagger from her pant leg. She bolted across the floor and launched at Shegrus with her dagger gripped in both hands.
He paid not a whit of attention to her, his gaze too focused on Catherine trapped in the metal. The wizard began to speak, his voice deep and billowing. “You should learn some manners, Secretary. You will always bow to us, and now you can do it in hell! I’ve wanted to take a bride.”
Catherine sneered and shook her head. “Oh, good God. What kind of fucked-up threat is that? This shit just got real.”
Abraham stopped in his tracks and smacked Damian on the chest to get his attention. The priest frowned and turned to look at the other man. “What?”
His mouth was open, and Damian followed his gaze to where Rose rocketed toward the wizard with her dagger held high over her head. Abraham whistled and shook his head. “Daaaamn, that old broad has mad skills. Do you see the pair of brass balls on that bitch? She is somebody’s grandma. That’s hot.”
He turned his head back to the merc and looked at him in disgust. “Sometimes I wonder how I’m friends with you.”
Rose landed a split second before Shegrus looked up. His eyes widened but he had no time to react. She thrust the dagger deep into his chest and yanked hard to twist the blade in the wound. He howled madly, snatched her by the waist, and hurled her as hard as he could across the room. Wally walked in nonchalantly, looking for demons to slaughter, and Rose careened into him. He thankfully created a semi-soft landing spot for her and they slid back and thunked into the wall.
Catherine had managed to untangle herself from the twisted metal and scrambled out of it, pissing mad. Damian immediately saw the danger. We can’t let her kill him. It has to be me or Max.
I’m on it, Ravi replied.
She whispered quietly inside Damian and used the same trick she had last time to pull some of the magical energy from the priests. The spell drained her but she had no intention to go as hard-core as she had the last time. She needed to keep a level head, but these guys presented formidable opposition.
All right, you’re good to go. Tank’s half-full, Ravi said and breathed heavily.
Damian reached for Catherine, caught her arm, and shoved her back. He began to throw balls of electrical energy at Shegrus, and struck him in the neck and chest. The wizard leapt upward, over their heads, and landed beside his brother. The priest continued his assault, including both brothers in his volleys.
The wizards, however, seemed impervious to the barrage. Damian turned his hands to the side and released the energy in wave form instead, but all it did was knock them back a few steps. Right and left, over and over, he unleashed their own powers onto them. How it manifested that way in him, he would never know.
One of them, Damian. Only one! Ravi screamed.
Damian nodded and directed the wave at Shegrus. He set one foot back for leverage and grunted hard to shove as powerful a blast of energy toward him as he could. Abraham distracted Agrus, who tried to exercise his mind control over his adversary, but the merc was strong-willed and managed to resist.
On instinct, Damian switched to balls of energy again. He worked his arms furiously to hurl the orbs in a constant, relentless assault. Ravi pushed a boost of speed into him and suddenly, his arms worked so fast they were almost impossible to see.
Shegrus was covered from head to toe with electrical current. It twisted up his legs, around his torso, and surged into his veins. Damian maintained the pressure until the wizard ripped fully through the priest’s skin, threw his arms back, and wailed in agony. The priest lowered his arms as the second of the wizard demons exploded into a shower of black, glistening ash.
Agrus keened as his brother exploded. He gestured wildly and launched Abraham into the wall. With his head down, the wizard hurtled at Damian, struck him from the side, and tackled him to the floor. They rolled across the stone flagging and before they had even fully come to a halt, Agrus flipped Damian over and slammed him down hard. His huge demon fist hovered and the flesh of the human priest’s hand hung from his wrists like mittens. With a demented bellow, he plunged it down into the priest’s chest and released a tsunami of energy outward that swept everyone off their feet.
Damian’s eyes widened and his mouth opened and shook violently. For a moment, no sound emerged, but the silence rapidly gave way to a high-pitched whine. His hands clawed at the demon’s forearm as he struggled to hold onto consciousness with everything he had. His neck and face strained hard and his veins bulged on his forehead.
Ravi moaned and then let go, her blood-curdling scream so loud that the rest of the team could hear it like a whisper that floated through the basement of the church. He couldn’t tell the difference between her
screams and the one he shrieked inside his mind. The feeling of Argus’s fist in his chest was unlike any torture that he had felt before.
Each scale on the demon’s palm seemed to scrape and snag on his bulging, beating heart. He couldn’t draw breath, and the world became fuzzy as everything spun in circles around him and Argus. Ravi had gone completely silent, unable to scream any longer. She could feel the demon pushing through her soul.
The wizard looked at Damian and smirked. “You will never stop us, you fool. You may have sent them back to hell, but let me tell you something. They will climb out by tomorrow. We will continue to haunt you forever. You will have the fallen at your feet and on your conscience.”
“Uhhhh…let me think about that. How about no? I don’t think so,” Max said, raised his sword, and rammed it through the wizard’s back and out of his chest.
Argus went silent for a moment, and a single drop of spit dripped off of the remnants of the Wise Man’s lip. He lowered his head and stared stupidly at the blade protruding from his chest. The claws on one hand slowly released Damian’s shoulder from his grip. He withdrew his other claws, and air immediately filled the man’s lungs.
The priest glanced up as if everything suddenly moved in slow motion. Max had his head back and laughed hard as the demon’s arm swung wide. His claws sliced across the young man’s throat, and blood sprayed over Damian’s face. He winced as the warm fluid landed on his cheek and dripped over his neck and lips.
Everyone in the room stopped and watched in terror as the scene unfolded. There was nothing they could do in that moment to stop it. Max’s smile faded and he clutched the incision across his throat, blood seeping between his fingers. A fearful expression slid across his face as he tripped and stumbled back to fall on his ass. He pointed a blood-covered finger at Agrus.
Damian shuddered as the wizard collapsed and his body exploded into black ash that rained down on them. He smiled, seeing the finality of the battle. But his triumph lasted only a few seconds. Maps ran forward and slid on her knees behind Max as he fell back into her arms. She turned, laid his head in her lap, and stroked her hand through his hair.
