“Lucifer will be waiting for us inside there. I couldn’t see how the battle went, or anything after he appeared, but we will have to face him. Kuro is practically leading us into his hands, and we can’t do anything besides watch it happen. He has a horde of demons waiting on the other side of the river for us should we try to run. It’s either that we give up and try to make it out alive by running, or we face Lucifer head on and at least try to come out victorious.
“Does Lucifer know that you saw this?” Water asked, getting the important things out of the way first and foremost.
“No.” Neither of us questioned why he was so sure about that. We all understood our powers very well, even if Fire had some issues with his at times, but I trusted Fire’s judgment. If he was wrong, then we could just blame him later.
“So it’s up to us then?” I asked grimly. We had the fate of Icestar and Foreststar to look after, but then again, they had made that decision back in Vladimir’s cavern when they had decided to accompany us to the end.
“I don’t see any reason to change tactics. It’s not like we weren’t aware that this could happen, so why completely reform to something that was already possible?” Water looked at both of us, licking her lips in a nervous tendency.
Fire looked at me, waiting for my say. I considered this for a moment, going over what we knew and what we suspected. Only one of us had an advantage over Lucifer and that was Waterstar, though her power had proved futile against Vladimir. We would be relying on numbers to overpower him, not skill. According to Firestar, we couldn’t count on Kuro’s help in the fight, but I doubted that she would fight against us. I wasn’t even sure if she was capable of fighting.
That would leave five of us against what would commonly be referred to as a god-like entity. While that was troublesome in thought, many people in legend have overcome such feats. It wasn’t impossible; everything had to die eventually. But if we could do it was questionable.
Then again, what would be the point of giving up now? There was still the possibility of defeat against the demon army, and we’d have to get past Vladimir after crossing the Shadow Lands without the help of him or Kuro. That could be almost as dangerous as Lucifer himself, especially when you considered what had happened to Sunstar.
What I couldn’t figure out is why Kuro led us here instead of Vladimir just keeping us busy in his cavern. Lucifer could have easily shown up there and killed us before we crossed the threshold to his world.
“I say we fight.”
I didn’t know how long I had spent thinking, but I could tell it might’ve been longer than I had thought. Both of my friends seemed like seething balls of tensed pressure, and it was interesting to see that almost visibly leave them.
“Then fight we do,” Fire said in conclusion. We nodded in agreement and I pulled the others from their dream-like state. Kuro blinked and looked around, but other than that they showed no indication as to the lapse in their surroundings.
I approached the black cat. “Kuro, I think we should just go ahead and continue inwards. It won’t do for us to keep waiting here, letting the stress take over and cloud our thoughts. The sooner we battle him, the sooner we can be done and over with this. Yes, defeat is likely, but it isn’t helping us by standing out here.” I barely laced my words with my power, but I hoped it was enough to get her to agree, and slight enough for her not to notice.
Kuro blinked twice before giving me what I felt was a suspicious look. “Alright. I guess we should enter then, but there is the very real possibility that Lucifer will be lying in wait, like a cat at the end of a mouse hole.”
I could hear Firestar sigh in relief behind me.
“Here goes everything,” he muttered under his breath as we entered the tunnel. It was actually a lot shorter than I had imagined, and ended in a door nowhere near as ornate as the one to the entrance of the Underworld. It seemed to be made of plain oak, and soon enough, Waterstar was pulling it open. I felt my muscles tense as I waited for an attack, but nothing came. We proceeded in as a group, all wary.
Inside, the room was brightly lit by dozens of the flameless lanterns. It was the brightest area I had encountered in the Underworld as of yet. The rock face here was as smooth as polished stone, and gleamed as if damp. Here, I was able to see the roof of the cavern where massive stalactites hung down, like the gaping teeth of a massive maw. Toward the left of the chamber, there were troughs full of meat, grain, and water heaped high with the necessaries for survival. The most prominent thing in the place, however, was not the point rocks, or the weird smoothness of the walls, but the complacent animals that wandered around, perfectly content with the intruders.
There were five of them, all familiar to the hand drawn pictures I had seen before. Hovering in the air was a phoenix, smoke trailing after him as he looped lazy circles. As he passed over us, I gazed into his eye. It reflected the light from his own wings, but there seemed to be a great sadness that laid behind the surface. A griffin was curled up along the wall, clear on the other side of the room from the door, his lion’s tail flicking back and forth. The griffin shuffled a wing and moved his large, beaked head further behind the barrier of the feathery membrane. A unicorn and kirin were prancing around each other, though they looked almost completely different besides the vague equestrian style about their body build. The kirin’s fur had a ripple type effect from the scale like pattern to its fur, while longer strands decorated its tail and head, creating a golden mane around it like a crown. Two thin antlers stretched from the kirin’s head. The unicorn was more graceful in appearance, but also less ornate. A gleaming horn stuck half a foot from the center of its temple and the unicorn’s fur gleamed in the bright lighting. It almost looked like tendrils of pure silver floated about the tail and mane similar in style to a horse.
The fifth animal was a dragon. He was sprawled out in the center of the room, lumbering larger than a house, and by far the largest animal there. His eye was probably the size of both of my fists together, and it was barely cracked open as he watched the intruders in his home. A puff of smoke slithered out of the dragon’s nostrils and he flicked his russet brown tail, the scales glimmering in the light.
“We don’t have to fight them, right?” Foreststar asked behind me.
Firestar snorted behind me. “Like we could. Cerberus was hard enough, but five creatures of legend at once? Not even heroes could hope to accomplish that.”
Waterstar tisked at the two. “Don’t be stupid. Who the hell would even want to fight them? They all look so magnificent and awesome.”
Icestar made a sound of agreement, and I had to concur. It would be madness to consider harming any of the creatures, with their beauty in different ways. Plus, they were our key to victory. Finally, it was at the tips of our fingers, and we just had to get them out of here in one piece.
But of course, not even in Hell do things ever go as planned. The door suddenly slammed shut behind us, and we all spun around. Fire and Water looked less bewildered than everyone else, but still. Knowing that the moment to fight a god was rapidly approaching never settled someone’s stomach.
“Lovely, we have magically slamming doors. I’ve always wanted one for Christmas.” Waterstar was a bundle of optimistic sarcasm, as usual. Some things just never change, even in the direst of situations.
I felt someone’s hand brush against mine and I jerked back in surprise. Firestar motioned his head toward one of the brackets that contained a lantern. The unwavering light it gave off was slowly dimming, and I slightly glanced around me to see all the others doing the same. Normally I was a big fan of the dark, but I really wasn’t looking forward to what was going to come afterwards. Why it was such a dramatic entrance, I don’t know. From the reactions I could see from my comrades, most prominently Forest and Ice, it was getting to them though. Lucifer was playing with our minds, making us uneasy before he even appeared. Trying to win the battle before it begun.
By instinct, Water, Fire and I moved into a l
oose circle with our backs facing each other. Soon, the others followed suit and we somewhat had a five pointed star, with Kuro still standing on the outside, though facing the center of the room. Her tail twitched in anticipation.
“Well this should be fun,” Forest muttered from my left. His voice was tense and I spared a glance for him. Forest’s neck muscles were bulging, and I lightly placed a hand on his arm. He jumped and looked at me warily.
“Relax. It’ll be worse if you don’t.”
Foreststar curtly nodded and I could see the effort it took him to force his muscles to lose their stiffness.
I turned my attention back to the center of the room as a faint orange glow started to bloom from the ceiling. All of the animals quickly moved toward the griffin, who was still sleeping in his area. The beat of the two equestrians’ hooves echoed through the otherwise silent cavern, drawing everyone’s attention to them. They all seemed to hide behind the massive bulk of the dragon, who seemed to be in charge of their little band.
Soon, the soft light from the ceiling was covering the walls and enveloped everything. It had no temperature that I could tell of as the light expanded out toward us, before suddenly withdrawing into a single point on the ground of the room. It bloomed from there, creating a vague, human type silhouette. Slowly, it became more distinguished until I could see that the person was male. His skin was the same color as the light and it appeared to be cracked and dry. He had pitch black hair that dusted the top of his head, making way for the double horns on each side of his head. The top two curved grotesquely until they came inward, at least half a foot above the man’s skull. The other two stuck a few inches to either side of the man’s head, as if someone had driven it horizontally through his skull. All four were white as bone and gleamed as if they had been polished to the maximum. The man smiled without magnanimity and revealed a full mouth of perfectly straight teeth, though the four canines curved inward like those of a wolf.
“Welcome everyone, to my home! Isn’t it such a wonderful place, full of interesting wonders to you humans. It is magnificent to finally meet each of you in person, though I hope you can live up to my expectations. You see, my son has told me much about you, and I am profoundly curious. Ahh, but you must be wondering who I am. I hope you are smart enough to guess by now, but either way I shall tell you, for it is quite impressive, if I do say so myself. I’m sorry to say that I only have a first name, but I am sure you will recognize it either way. I am Lucifer.”
Who would’ve thought that Lucifer would be so verbose?
WATERSTAR
So… this was Vlad’s father? The almighty King of the Underworld who could very well eliminate humanity off of the face of the universe if it was his will? Well wasn’t this a cheery aspect, though one thing stuck out more prominently in my mind. “Wait, what do you mean ‘My son has told me much about you.’?! Why would he?”
“I mean exactly that, he told me everything he knows about you; and I have not forgotten a word of it. You’re special abilities are similar to those of the original people on Calsh, though you humans think it was from the sudden onrush of pollution from Earth to Calsh that made you develop them, but it wasn’t. Anyways, my son informed me of it all.” I swear my heart just about jumped out of my chest to commit suicide while saying ‘screw this.’ I guess Firestar was right about the betrayal, though I don’t know why it was affecting me so much. Why the hell should I care if Vlad was on our side or not? I crossed my arms defiantly and glared at Lucifer.
“Don’t listen to him! He’s just trying to weaken you mentally, Vlad would never betray you, he cares about you Waterstar, he really does.” It was Kuro… Kuro who was Vladimir’s cat. And such a pathetic reason to back her claim. If anything, she should’ve said that Vladimir doesn’t care for his father’s philosophies instead of putting it onto a person level for me.
“Well whatever you guys say, I’m freaking pissed now, so how about you stand aside and let us take the Animals back to the HQ, there’s no need for a fight.” I could feel my power swelling inside my chest. I was in one of my ‘You mess with me and your head will be under my freaking punk shoes’ type of moods. When was anything that simple, though?
“Oh, but that is where you are wrong my dear, for we do need to fight.” I wanted to make a smart ass comment, but decided against it. Maturity would be helpful here, I believe. “Here’s my proposal, we fight, the six of you against me, you can use any surprises you want and I’ll just use my strength and magic, no weapons. You win, you can have the Animals and I’ll let you pass worry free. But if I win, all of you will stay here as my slaves, but there’s a catch. You won’t keep your mortality, instead, you will join my demons in their unending life. To do that, you must die first. It is quite similar to how the Romans once operated, before their empire fell, well with the demon exception.” He smirked at the end.
“What if we don’t agree?” Dark asked from beside me.
“You don’t have a choice,” Lucifer opened his mouth and let out a short laugh. I really didn’t like his teeth, they were just too unnatural.
“Well then, what are we waiting for?” And with that, Firestar launched himself at Lucifer.
We really need to work on our people skills.
Chapter 10: Fight Against Fire
FIRESTAR
Let’s just make this clear. Don’t try to fight Lucifer or any other extremely powerful being by yourself. You’ll just get swatted like an annoying little pest. Literally.
“Ugh,” the groan left my lips as I opened my eyes and saw Kuro staring back at me.
“Nice job, but next time wait until you can do a group attack. Come on Fire, get up, the others are still fighting.” I peered around Kuro and caught a glimpse of the battle; it was so bizarre I wondered how anything was being accomplished, and how no one was dead.
Waterstar had her legs wrapped around Lucifer and her hands had a death grip on his horns while he spun around, trying to dislodge her. It looked like it was taking all of her concentration to keep her grip, but it looked like she was being rather annoying to the Lord. Dark and Forest were following them, constantly getting in Lucifer’s way. Every time he went to attack one of them, the lights would flicker and two guys would be somewhere completely different. So the speed exercises at the rebellion had been useful. And specials were already being used. We show so much restraint with things that tire us easily.
Meanwhile, Icestar was kneeling on the ground and messing with some wires. At a closer look, I saw that there was a ring of ice around the mechanic, which Lucifer seemed to be avoiding. I’d bet you almost anything that he had slipped there earlier. The edges were melting, however, the only display that it was taking a lot of effort from Icestar.
I also noticed that there were random plants sprawled across the floor, and everyone was drenched. It seemed like this was an all-or-nothing battle, specials were being used left and right. If we made it out of this alive, I don’t think we’d be doing much for a few weeks.
“Well, it’s not a party until things get heated up.” I stood and followed the group in Lucifer’s blind spot; it wouldn’t be helpful if he knew that I was back in commission, because man was he going to get a nasty surprise. I may sound cocky, but I am a straight up badass. You have to be one to be on the Mystic Team.
“Darkstar,” I whispered into my headset and I saw his eyes flicker toward me. “Make the room pitch black for ten seconds, I have a plan.”
Lucifer reached out once again to grab Dark, but the lights went out before he came anywhere near, but this time they stayed out. There was a faint glow emanating from Lucifer that looked like heat radiation. I wondered why he hadn’t used his magic yet; Lucifer had said he would. I quietly crept around him until we were face to face. He was standing still and looking around himself, trying to find the others by sound. Waterstar had become completely neglected, nothing more than a nuisance.
“Boo,” I whispered before allowing my magic to burst from my hands and i
nto his chest. I molded the fire to keep Waterstar safe on his back.
As my power started to ebb, I released the fire. The lights were back on and an odd sound was ringing throughout the room. It almost sounded like a banshee, except it was much deeper.
Lucifer was laughing and clutching his sides, as if this was the most merriment he had experienced in years. “You think you can beat fire with fire? Especially with that pitiful excuse that you say is a flame? Or maybe you forgot that I am the King of Fire. What you just did was nothing more than a tickle to me!” He chuckled again before continuing and pretended to wipe a tear from his eyes. “I was just toying with you weaklings, but now I am getting bored. I’d say my final good-byes if I were you.”
Lucifer reached behind himself and grabbed Waterstar by her hair. I saw her eyes widen as she realized what he was going to do. He pulled her off of him, hands still tangled in her hair and Water gasped in pain, but didn’t scream. She would be strong until death. Lucifer swung her around and threw Waterstar at the wall where her shoulder made a cracking sound as it collided with the rock. Water slid down the surface and hit the ground with a small thud that echoed through the silent chasm. She didn’t move after that.
“Icestar, anytime now would be excellent,” Foreststar muttered into the headset.
“Try not to get screwed over for a couple more minutes, I’m almost done.” Ice’s voice was strained and it took me a moment to realize how much of his special he was using. He kept refreezing the trickles of water that were spilling from his circle of ice; the heat of the Underworld wasn’t in our favor.
“Firestar, let’s do plain inferno,” Dark said from my other side. I looked at him like he was mental.
“But fire doesn’t-“
Star Rebellion Page 13
