“Calling a nephilim an angel is an insult.”
The demon spun towards the source of the voice. He looked frightened.
“I didn’t know you were a nephilim, ma’am. I’m fairly certain I’m blind. Please point me in the direction of Hell and let me go. I’ll never wander anywhere near nephilim territory ever again. Please.”
The demon fell on his knees and pleaded. That’s when Lucia believed he was blind. He was pleading in the direction of nothing. She had kept walking and was now almost behind the demon again.
“I’ve never blinded a demon before, so I guess that makes you special. I’ll turn you in a direction that leads out of the forest and let you go. If you try to attack me, I will kill you.”
“I’m terrified, ma’am. I have no intention of trying to attack you. I didn’t even know anything had the power to blind demons. Maybe Archangels can. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never met one. I’m just a demon-in-training. Please point me in the right direction and I’ll leave.”
Lucia helped the demon to his feet and turned him towards a path that led out of the forest. She gave his back a shove and he started walking.
“Thank you for sparing my life, ma’am. You are far better than the angels.”
The demon moved slowly on the path with his arms outstretched, trying to avoid running into anything. Lucia actually felt a little bad for him, but was overjoyed at her newly acquired power. It would take some fine-tuning, but she had actually blinded a demon. She went to retrieve her backpack and noticed that an object wrapped in cloth had fallen out of her backpack. She retrieved it and unwrapped it. She gasped when she realized what it was. It was her father’s guns, the soul shooting weapons he had used as a middle demon along with a note. She holstered the weapons and read the note.
Lucia,
I’ve had a feeling that you would be leaving. These are the soul shooting guns that your grandfather, Baal, gave to me when I was a middle demon. I want you to have them. Remember me wherever you go.
Dad
“Well now I feel bad.”
Lucia heard a loud crunching noise in the distance.
“You should feel bad. You blinded that demon.”
Lucia turned to see where the voice was coming from. There was a large demon standing over the limp body of the demon she had blinded. Lucia drew the guns and pointed them at this intruder. He laughed.
“This isn’t the first time those weapons have been pointed at me. You’re Leech’s daughter then?”
“Who the fuck are you?”
“The name’s Nightmare. I wonder what I could get Leech to do in exchange for his daughter. He’d probably hand over the entire city.”
“You’ll never get the chance to find out. Either I die or you die right here.”
Lucia tried to cast her blinding spell. Light shot out through her hands, but Nightmare just laughed again.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, sweetheart. I may be an outcast, but I’m still a major demon.”
Nightmare drew his scythe, Rage, and started walking slowly towards Lucia. She unloaded round after round from the guns. Each shot that hit Nightmare just made him angrier. He started moving faster and faster. As he was about to close the distance between them and strike with Rage, a stream of water shot out and hit Nightmare’s left side, knocking him off course. Reaper stepped into view.
“Nightmare, this is my girlfriend, Lucia. You may hate her parents, but you won’t harm her.”
“I decide who I hurt! You are not in control here!”
Reaper turned to Lucia.
“Run. We have to hide until he cools off.”
Lucia and Reaper turned and ran. Nightmare followed, but they were eventually able to lose him and hid in the upper branches of the trees.
“I was wondering if you would come. I know this whole situation is a mess. I did some things I shouldn’t have done and I definitely said some things that made it worse. I’m so happy to see you though, Lucia.”
Lucia smiled.
“We’re happy to see you too.”
“We?”
Lucia put Reaper’s hand on her now slightly protruding belly and he felt a kick. Reaper grinned.
“So…”
Lucia nodded and Reaper kissed her.
“I know Backlash blew things out of proportion, but we won’t raise our child the same way you tried to train your brothers. The second I sense that…”
“It won’t be a problem, Lucia. Even though Backlash did exaggerate, I realize that what I did was a mistake. We can move on. I’ve accepted that I shouldn’t be the ruler of Necropolis. I just want to be a nephilim warrior and a good dad. That’s all.”
Lucia smiled.
“Well good. Those are the things I want you to be. Now how long is it going to take for Nightmare to cool off?”
CHAPTER 50
It didn’t take long for Cerberus to find Lucia’s scent and lead Shade, Nissa, and Backlash to the path she took. The three-headed dog happily trudged along, occasionally stopping for snacks. When Cerberus felt he had reached his destination, he looked directly at a tree and barked. Shade got in front of Cerberus.
“This isn’t right, buddy. Lucia isn’t here. This is a tree. We need to keep looking for her. Did you lose her scent?”
Cerberus looked up the tree and all three heads barked simultaneously. Backlash grinned.
“Maybe she took a leak on this tree and Cerberus is confused.”
Nissa rolled her eyes.
“He wouldn’t stop here unless he was sure this was the end of the trail.”
Nissa looked up. The tree was very tall, but she thought she saw something moving the branches towards the top. Nissa started to climb. Shade looked up and saw the same thing. He started climbing as well. Backlash summoned water from a nearby stream and used it to catapult himself towards the top. When he saw the two figures at the top, Reaper punched him in the face. Backlash couldn’t maintain his spell. The water fell and so did Backlash. Shade saw what was happening and reacted quickly. He hopped down from the tree and got in position. Shade caught Backlash, but doing so knocked the wind out of him. Nissa hopped down to see if they were ok.
Reaper summoned a tornado and lowered himself and Lucia to the ground. He held up both hands.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him. I just know how he would have reacted to seeing me up in that tree. I’ve accepted the punishment given to me by the council. Lucia and I have left Necropolis. Please just leave us in peace.”
Backlash was on his feet in seconds, fire in each hand. He let the pain and anger flowing through him take control.
“The council is not your judge. I am. There’s no one to save you this time. We’re going to finish the battle we started outside the gates of Necropolis.”
Lucia tried to get between them and Shade summoned an icicle in his right hand. He shook his head. Lucia nearly lost her temper.
“We left. Reaper’s sorry he went a little too far training his brothers, but he didn’t kill anyone. I’m not going to let this fight happen.”
“You don’t get to make that call, Lucia. Nissa and I told Backlash we would help him get justice. If necessary, we will remove you.”
A crashing noise came running through the bushes. An enraged Nightmare arrived on the scene and quickly surveyed what was going on. When he saw Shade, he mistook him for Shadow and started attacking. Shade started backing away quickly and did his best to shoot ice at the raging demon to slow him down.
“Nissa! Keep Lucia out of the fight!”
Shade turned and ran. Nightmare followed. Cerberus ran after Nightmare, hoping to protect Shade.
“Do you really think you can keep me out of the fight?”
Nissa turned to see Lucia radiating light. She shielded her eyes and reached inside her trench coat. Nissa knew that she was going to have a hard time aiming so she needed a weapon that would be effective no matter where it hit its target. As Lucia made her way towards Nissa, Nissa pulled ou
t a blowgun and shot a dart. The dart hit Lucia in the leg. Her radiating light dimmed. Nissa smiled.
“Hard to keep blinding me when you have a paralytic toxin running through your veins, isn’t it?”
Nissa turned to Backlash.
“This is your shot. Shade’s doing his part. I’ll do mine. This is your one chance to bring justice. Good luck, Backlash.”
Backlash nodded. Nissa removed her motorcycle from her trench coat. She drove right at Lucia, lifted her on to the bike, and drove off into the forest. Backlash and Reaper were alone. Backlash expected Reaper to smile or make some snide remark. He didn’t.
“Nothing to say to me? You know I’m going to kill you, right?”
“I know you’re in pain, Backlash. I am too. I never should have put so much pressure on the two of you. I know you’re angry, but you aren’t going to kill me.”
“That’s not up to you.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Backlash.”
“Amusing. Now that I’m a threat, you don’t want to hurt me. Too bad I don’t feel the same way towards you.”
Backlash threw two fireballs at Reaper. Reaper caught them both and then clapped his hands together, extinguishing the fire. Backlash followed it up by channeling water from the nearby stream in a torrent straight towards Reaper’s chest. It hit Reaper right as he extinguished the fire. He flew backwards until his back hit a tree. Backlash stopped the torrent of water and Reaper fell a few feet to the ground. He tried to land on his feet, but fell to one knee.
“You’ve improved.”
“Hate is a strong motivator.”
“I still don’t want to fight you.”
“Then just keep on defending. Defend yourself to death.”
Backlash tried to throw a torrent of water at Reaper again, but Reaper channeled the water around him and sent it straight back at Backlash. Backlash stomped on the ground and a large rock flew in front of him. The water hit the rock. Backlash hit the rock and sent it flying at Reaper. Reaper jumped out of the way but it grazed his shoulder.
“I guess you were right, little brother. I can’t just keep on defending. My situation has changed. I can’t die. It looks like I’m going to have to attack you.”
CHAPTER 51
Leech kicked open the doors of the nephilim council where he saw Steam, Selene, and Lilith seated.
“We’ll have to cancel today’s meeting. We need to get out there and help Bumalin.”
Selene frowned.
“Leech, there’s a lot on the agenda for today. We’re supposed to elect a new member of the council. I need to report on sending Shade, Backlash, and Nissa on a training mission. We need to go over the wall expansion progress. There’s just too much that…”
Leech held up a hand to silence her.
“Bumalin is marching here with 2,500 demons. They’ve come from all over the world and they finally joined in together for the last few miles. The angels found out. We’ve been told an Archangel may be in the area. Bumalin is too important to lose. Steam with me. Lilith with Selene. We’ll defend them from the east. You two go west.”
Lilith and Steam were quickly on their feet. Selene sighed loudly and followed. When they arrived outside the walls of Necropolis, they split up.
Lilith and Selene found a few demons huddled in a group, trying to catch their breath.
“Where’s Bumalin?”
One of the demons looked up and shrugged.
“We… don’t know. We were… separated. We… followed Coconut. He’s… back there somewhere.”
The demon pointed behind him and Lilith nodded. Lilith and Selene ran off in the direction the demon had pointed. They saw Coconut firing his bow and arrow at someone they both recognized. Gangrene and his forces were attacking Coconut’s small band of demons. Lilith ran to get in front of Coconut and lit her whips on fire.
“Turn around, Gangrene. Bumalin’s army is moving in with the nephilim.”
Gangrene spun his scythe and grinned.
“You don’t give me commands, Lilith. Leech doesn’t either. Not anymore. These are rogue demons. Bumalin and Coconut both have death warrants on their heads. We’re taking them back to Hell. I still have a small amount of respect for Leech, but it’s slowly fading. If you and your friend turn around right now, I’ll spare your lives.”
Selene defiantly pulled her swords from her belt.
“And if we refuse?”
“It’s pretty simple. You’ll fall. I know neither of you brought a nephilim army here. I don’t see Leech or Steam. It’s just the two of you.”
Selene started walking slowly towards Gangrene, ready to strike.
“We only need to let Coconut’s demons make it close enough to the wall. The snipers and arches have really great aim.”
Gangrene pointed his scythe at her.
“Neither of you is walking away then? Well at least tell Leech I tried to do you one last favor.”
Selene charged and Gangrene prepared to defend himself. As Selene struck at Gangrene, he brought his scythe up to meet the blow. He felt one of her blades graze his arm and saw that his scythe had one of Lilith’s whips wrapped around it. He pulled hard and then sliced down with his scythe, cutting the whip.
“Two on one? I’ve faced worse odds before. Fortunately, stopping Bumalin was a priority and I brought backup.”
Raven hopped down from a tree and nearly split Lilith’s head in half with her scythe. Lilith jumped out of the way just in time.
“I am one of the Six now. Gangrene and I decided we would have to kill you eventually. It’s best to just get it done as soon as possible. We’ll deal with the pain afterwards.”
Selene turned to Coconut.
“Rally your demons. Get as many of them as close to the wall as possible. When you’re all against the wall, show the snipers this.”
Selene removed her shield from her back and gave it to Coconut.
“They’ll do as you say.”
Coconut took the shield and nodded before calling out to his demons.
“Everyone follow me! We’re going to make a run for the walls of Necropolis!”
Coconut turned and started running. Raven tried to pursue, but Selene kicked out her legs from under her as she ran and took a quick swipe at her with one of her swords. Raven landed on the ground with a gash in her back. Selene laughed.
“This is what qualifies as a major demon now? Pathetic.”
Gangrene rushed at Selene. He swung wildly with his scythe several times and Selene expertly blocked his blows. She suddenly felt a searing pain in her foot and looked down. Raven had crawled towards them as they fought and had stabbed her with her scythe. Gangrene tried to capitalize on the distraction and swung the scythe over his head, bringing it down to split Selene’s skull. Lilith knew her whip wouldn’t have the force to divert Gangrene’s attack, so she ran at him full speed and tackled him. The scythe pierced Selene’s armor and dug deep into her shoulder instead of splitting her skull. Lilith tried to drag Selene back towards Necropolis, wondering if they were going to survive. Gangrene and Raven pursued. Just as they were about to finish Lilith and Selene off, a figure appeared with a glowing short sword. There was no mistaking it this time. It was Shadow.
“Turn around and leave. I won’t let you kill Lilith.”
Raven shook her head.
“This can’t be Shadow. This is a trick. Lilith has learned sorcery and…”
Raven had been advancing towards Lilith with her scythe while talking. Shadow let her walk past him. She grinned.
“I was right. This is a trick. Shadow isn’t here.”
Raven brought up her scythe. Shadow teleported in front of Lilith and swung Michael’s short blade cleanly through her stomach. Gangrene rushed Shadow in a rage but stopped when Shadow pointed his sword at Gangrene.
“I can’t control Abaddon for very long. You’ve lost your girlfriend. Leave before you lose something else.”
Gangrene lifted the two halves of Raven’s body int
o his arms and retreated. He never took his eyes off of Shadow. Lilith ran to thank Shadow, but he took Raven’s scythe and then teleported away before she had the chance. She quickly returned to Selene and continued to drag her towards the walls of Necropolis.
CHAPTER 52
Leech and Steam frantically searched for Bumalin, but none of the demons they came across had seen him. Leech pointed all of the demons towards Necropolis and the two of them made their way further into the forest. When they came out the other end and arrived on the grassy plains, they saw an army of angels marching swinging their weapons wildly at the air. Within a few seconds, Leech and Steam saw what they were fighting. All of the angels thought they were fighting Bumalin. Something tapped Steam on his shoulder. He spun and pointed his staff. Bumalin fell to his knees, blood streaming out of his nose, eyes, and ears.
“I can’t keep this up much longer. It’s Raphael. He saw my army on the move towards Necropolis and came here to kill me and all of my demons. I’m pretty sure Gangrene hit us from another direction. I sent Coconut off to divert their attention away. I don’t know what happened to…”
Steam touched Bumalin’s forehead with his staff and the demon fell asleep. The angels stopped swinging wildly and started looking around.
“I’ll get him back to Necropolis. You stall Raphael and his angels. You stand a much better chance than I do, Leech. I’ll move quickly. Just give me all the time you can.”
Leech nodded.
“Keep him safe, my friend. Nothing in existence has the powers of Bumalin and we need to keep him alive. I should be able to give you enough time.”
Steam turned and summoned a large panther-looking creature with tusks protruding from its lower lip. He climbed up the creature’s side with the sleeping Bumalin and kicked both of his feet into the creature’s sides. It started running at a very fast pace. By the time the angels had discovered Leech, they were nearly out of sight. The angels surrounded Leech and Raphael stepped through their midst. He was slowly clapping and grinning.
Minor Nephilim Page 17
