Demorn: City of Innocents (The Asanti Series Book 2)

by David Finn

  The Death Cat roared, baring long fangs. She leapt from the Cat, patting it fondly.

  Go now, loyal friend.

  She brushed its decayed whiskers, and it prowled away, carefully watching the river.

  He thinks I will die, Demorn thought with a final smile. Maybe I will.

  She turned back. The Serpent rose from the fire, shiny black scales untouched, undamaged by the heat.

  It was the height of several huge buildings, possibly more, as the great body rose higher into the air, forked tongue flickering. It wore just one symbol, seared into the scales. The first sign of the Plague God, first Keeper of the Serpent. Evil cold leeched off the beast’s scales, extinguishing the last of the river’s flames.

  The water beneath was an unseeable inky black. There was only horror to be found there.

  Ice laced through her soul as the Serpent reared above her, silent and graceful. Xalos howled through her soul. Despair laced with vengeful rage.

  The bodies of the soldiers around her had already gone to bone, then to dust.

  Demorn gritted her teeth, determined not to die, never to succumb.

  She walked almost casually to the ledge, crushing the dust with her boots. She could feel the spells pounding her body.

  The black dragon helm reflected most of the insanity away.

  The Serpent hissed, spitting venom, lidless eyes seeking her. As it reared before her, she grasped the locket and span into the air, howling an Asanti chant about the end of everything.

  The Serpent twisted. The blade was deathly light. Her eyes were burning stars in the Dragon Helm.

  Her hand hit the black scales, slimy and shiny. Her hand shuddered, burning with foul magic, healing instantly as the power coursed through her.

  She balanced with swift feet. The Serpent rose high into the sky. The last of the creature’s slick body rose out of the liquid, the long body snaking and curling in graceful, deadly patterns.

  The creature thrashed in anger, trying to crush her.

  Xalos was only fire now. She ran up the scaly skin, feet light, grasping the locket, her body aflame with pain and wild excitement.

  She saw the Sun, wholly red, the ice worms circling, monsters in miniature, wary of the mighty beast.

  ‘Hush, lizard!’

  She saw the symbol of the Caged One, his first name, before the chaining. Deep and cruel was the marking. The Serpent screamed, pure white noise in her head, shattering something inside her, cutting through walls.

  She almost blacked out, barely holding on. Her magic eyes caught fire. She saw her hands covered in blood, viciously holding to a great scale, chipped and corrosive.

  The Serpent plunged from the sky, falling toward the desert floor, so far below, thrashing in anger, trying to crush her.

  Poison-filled. Unblinking. Neon yellow eyes found her. She felt the sick power grip her. Pale pink acid streamed from the Serpent’s ducts, corrosive upon her helm.

  With her metal hand she brushed away the liquid as it seared and burnt the dragon helm. As they crashed downwards in a crazy death spiral, Demorn’s fading strength was pressed to the limit. She had no more to give, no more luck to spend, no life after this fall. Demorn wondered how the hungry gods of death would carve up whatever was left of her soul.

  His branding swung into view, the symbol of the Plague God cursing her magic eyes. She leapt across to the sign, the stench of death covering her, hanging by her fingers to the charred scales, foul liquid all over her hand, wrapped manically around the pain locket.

  Xalos was almost weightless in her grasp, pure fire. The magic howl of Xalos was louder than the noise of the Serpent to her ears. It seemed to come from the depths of the Cavern itself. She felt her mind touch the Innocents. So many of them barely comprehending who she was and what was being done. Snatches of songs and light laughter. The oblivion in the Ruby Room. The electronic fire and Jackie’s sardonic chuckle while she balanced the books.

  Demorn could feel ghosts moving inside her. Every instinct was alive. She didn’t care about life or death. With a final Asanti cry, she plunged the blade into the heart of the branding sign.

  The Serpent thrashed in mindless anger. The mind scream was immense. The nearby ice worms exploded. She felt her body partially crushed.

  The pain locket coursed through her. Mictecaciuatl gripped through her burnt metallic hand and took a little bit more of her spirit and soul.

  She felt detached from reality, laughing to herself, remembering how she didn’t believe in anything. Demorn dug the blade in deeper, watching the sign flare, the true, horrible name spelt out in all its forbidden glory, before it faded. All through her mind it was emblazoned. She wasn’t sure if the dragon helm was still upon her head. She saw a vision of the Grave, clawed hands upon the prison cage.

  With a triumphant howl, Demorn wrenched Xalos from the Serpent’s hide, the blade covered in acidic gunk. The purple fire burnt low, but it glittered under the red Sun.

  The Serpent screamed, in her mind and in the air, accelerating towards the sky in one last desperate effort, slick shiny black tail thrashing.

  She fell, the locket loose in her metallic hands, Mictecaciuatl screaming out a savage promise as she crashed to the desert floor, into the narrow gap where the river of fire was forded. Hot rocks burnt her skin and she scrambled to safety.

  The Serpent filled the entire sky above. The god face in the sky leered down. It was not the Tyrant. It was not her. It was nothing she had ever known.

  The Serpent span in tight circles, coiling in pain. Psychic tremors came from the acid blood. The Cage. THE CAGE THE CAGE THE CAGE.

  In wonder she watched. The Serpent flew higher. A corrupted mind set free. And freedom was not a simple thing. Her magic eyes could see that the cursed mark was gone, replaced by the great wound the fire and the steel of Xalos had left.

  The Red Sun opened, obeying the mighty Serpent, which was so much older than this one world.

  Through the gap, Demorn saw a thousand planets, nestling in their dimensions. A portal connected to a chain of portals, an entirely different configuration to the Babelzon schema, worlds not yet born, cold and barren, some lit by the low fires of creation.

  The Serpent surged through the Red Sun.

  Her vision snapped back. The great beast was gone, fled utterly from this reality.

  For a single moment cold stars shone through the burnt sky. A great coldness fell across the world. She felt a thousand suns align. Grim Earths and prison planets and milky heavens all in some bizarre synchronicity.

  She felt many of her comrades die. The screaming of her witches. This was the horror the seer had gazed to the horizon for.

  Demorn felt frozen to the spot, beyond life or death, a true creature of the Mirrors, as the Asanti who preceded her. But the feeling passed, like all things.

  She still stood amongst the river of fire. Flames lapped nearby.

  Xalos in her hand, Demorn looked up to the golden city, shimmering on the horizon. Her army was broken. Perhaps that had never been the way.

  She had kept a tight grip on the locket. But when she looked down, the locket was cracked.

  A ravaged, beautiful woman’s face smiled on a shimmering backdrop. Mictecaciuatl stood in a sea of floating coffins. She stood on board a lonely Skull Ship, terribly sad, with wise eyes that saw the world in reverse. Kate, oh Goddess, she looks just like Kate.

  Demorn’s hands and body were healed. The locket was a shattered ruin in her fingers. The power of Mictecaciuatl left her. The Pain Goddess had left this world.

  Demorn suddenly understood what it felt like to be the very last believer. Instead of the sick weakness, Demorn only knew she couldn’t fly anymore.

  She said a simple Asanti chant, throwing the broken locket to the fire.

  The Death Cat meowed plaintively. Alone, he had come back.

  She clambered onto the creature, giving the undead feline a fond pat on his matted coat, and they set off toward the golden city.
<
br />   The End

  A Reader’s Guide to the Asanti Series

  Courtesy of Jackie Z, Treasurer of the Innocents

  DEMORN: Dimensional Exile of Asanti, Wandering Princess of the Swords, are just some of her titles. Carrying a mystic blade, an Athena gun and a bad attitude, Demorn battles everything from savage demon gods to gun-toting cowboy losers who run away with her boss’s money.

  Demorn is a high-ranking member of the Innocents, a Clubhouse of assassins and thieves within Babelzon. Blessed by the goddess Alodin Mars with blazing eyes that can pierce into souls, Demorn wields Xalos, the sword of Justice, spawned from her ruby heart.

  Demorn wears the pain locket of a death god, and is a touch sarcastic and nihilistic. Determined to avenge her lost world of Asanti, obsessed over the loss of her girlfriend’s soul, Demorn fights on, collecting bounties and killing creepers, quick with a smile and her scary laugh . . . few stand in her way for too long.

  MASTER ROOM: A series of ancient Rooms scattered at pinpoint locations across the multiple realities in which ancient entities control and manipulate reality. Damaged in the Fracture Event.

  THE FRACTURE EVENT: On July 17, 1968, in San Francisco, in the Primary Reality, Triton operatives gained access to a Master Room on Haight-Ashbury Avenue and successfully activated a Source Bomb, triggering the shattering of that reality.

  The effect of this Source explosion splintered across the layers of multiple universes, weakening and breaking apart the concepts of time and place, imploding multiple realities into each other, wiping much of the population’s memories through the Primary Reality. Cracks opened in the walls of multiple dimensions and savage demon gods began to claw against the Void Wall where they have lain dormant . . . This disaster is known as the Fracture Event. Demorn remembers it, one of a select few.

  BABELZON: The sprawling, futuristic city where Demorn and her brother crash-landed in the Spire jump ship. Ruled by the Tyrant, home to over 100 million, Babelzon is surrounded by huge portals that are gateways to other worlds and parallel dimensions. Located adjacent to the Grim Earth, Babelzon is a key trading hub and many citizens live and die never leaving the city’s walls. Legend tells that the Tyrant raised the city from the ground by the power of his mind . . .

  THE INNOCENTS: The Clubhouse of assassins and thieves that Demorn works for, located in Babelzon. The Innocents stay below the radar, their base hidden behind laser forcefields in the Inner Sanctum. Their huge clubhouse, funded by Tony and the jobs they take, runs deep underground and accommodates a tight band of fighters, telepaths and killers. Membership is exclusive and every new entrant is screened by leading members within the Ruby Room, their layers stripped bare. The Clubhouse contains many secrets, a whispered myth among the populace. You can pay for Innocence, they say.

  INNER SANCTUM: The most exclusive section of Babelzon. It houses the Council chambers and the Innocents Clubhouse.

  SUB BABEL: A term for the outlying districts of Babelzon, out from the Hub, often used with derision.

  ASANTI: The Mirror World of Asanti was an acclaimed lodestone of knowledge, famed across a huge network of parallel realities, located in a mirror pocket dimension. Asanti was destroyed in the aftershocks of the Fracture Event. A small segment of Asanti refugees including Demorn and her brother escaped on a Spire jump-ship as the planet exploded. Just a few Asanti survive, riding the storm.

  TRITON: In the wake of the Fracture Event, aspects of dark demon gods infiltrated the time-stream, loosened of their chains within the Void. As they sank their savage teeth into reality, the Triton Corporation was formed, backed by agents of the dark gods, humans and aliens who fell under their sway. The Triton mega-corporation seeks to manipulate the present and future by infiltrating the time-stream. Demorn has battled Triton operatives several times across various decades and locales, seeking to avoid a colossal takeover of the present from the past. For all their power, Triton’s grip on reality is tenuous and reliant on fear, much of their labor farmed out to mortal operatives. There is hope . . .

  TONY: A mob boss who has risen to the City Council in Babelzon. Tony’s network tentacle runs deep through Babelzon. He owns multiple business throughout Babelzon, legitimate and otherwise. Tony is close friends with Demorn, giving her many missions, mostly hits, sorting out problems he doesn’t want to touch himself.

  Tony had an Asanti wife, deceased in the Asanti Event. Tony and Demorn share a love for Frank Sinatra and Pina Coladas. Every Wednesday they dine together in the Jade Hotel, watching a clone Sinatra sing the hits. It’s a life, Tony says.

  WHITE LION: Tony’s psychotic bodyguard and primary muscle in the house. Few trust him, and he trusts none. A dangerous shark in a city full of sharks, is how Demorn describes White Lion. They loathe each other.

  ALEX: Demorn’s beautiful friend and chief rival within the Innocents. Fastest gun in the Clubhouse. Most completed Tyrant runs out of any Innocent. Alex is a highly dependable assassin with few morals and a love for cash that outweighs even Demorn’s.

  GUARD DOG: Alex’s bodyguard, ex-cage wrestler, a genetic “freak”, fiercely loyal to Alex who rescued him. Low intelligence, highly suspicious of outsiders. Hates Demorn’s flippancy.

  TOXIS: Lethal Huntress of the mysterious and deadly Blood Clan. Soul sister of Demorn, and a telepath, Toxis is linked to Demorn by the Adolin Mars tattoos on their arms. She carries an enchanted ash staff and often aids Demorn. Toxis originates from the Firethorn dimension. She never stays too long in Babelzon, longing for the deep ice caverns and rolling green forests of Firethorn.

  KATE: Demorn’s ex-girlfriend, hurt long ago in Firethorn on a mission gone wrong, her soul taken by parties unknown. Her ghost lingers around Demorn, while Kate’s physical shell lives on in LA, where she is a C-list actress, hustling for TV gigs.

  FIRETHORN: The Fort by the Sea, and the entry point to an immense fantasy dimension. The Sisters of Firethorn hold the line against the forces who would seek to burn the Fort down. Demorn has been coming to the White Fort since she was ten, prior to the destruction of Asanti. Demorn has been unable to access Firethorn for almost two years, reasons unknown.

  THE DEAD KING: A legend amongst the Sisters of Firethorn, a mythical King who inhabits the wild forest around the White Fort. They search for the Dead King in mad rituals . . .

  THE GRIM EARTH: The term used by many Babelzonians to describe the remains of the Primary Earth, sections of which were untouched by the Fracture Event. Demorn often takes hit missions on the Grim Earth. She often holidays in Vegas with her friend and fellow comic fan, Suicide Sue.

  THE TYRANT: Enigmatic ruler of Babelzon, possibly immortal, the Tyrant oversees all in Babelzon, feared and respected by the entire city. He does not appear in public, although Tyrant propaganda channels broadcast throughout the city. Many venerate him, but as with any ruler, there are pockets of rebellion scattered throughout Babelzon. Many myths and secrets tie back to the Tyrant.

  THE TYRANT RUN: A hugely popular blood-sport competition held and broadcast throughout Babelzon. A series of death traps and challenge fights set the runners against each other. The winner is rumoured to meet The Tyrant, though most Runs end with all parties dead. The Run is the highest rated show in Babelzon, screening across thousands of channels. Alex is the most successful Runner in history. Many Innocents have entered the Run to eliminate targets and collect bounties.

  ALODIN MARS: Patron Goddess of the Innocents. Every Innocent bears her mark upon their body. A Goddess of War, draped in red armour, carrying a holy spear. Every Innocent knows a little of her legends, but nobody knows everything about this mysterious Goddess. Quick to anger, but generous with her gifts, Alodin Mars is the fierce embodiment of the Innocents’ ideal. Her motto, and that of the Innocents, is Straight sword, clean heart. Demorn has remarked that Alodin is just one of the primary aspects of the Goddess. She has seen others. People are never quite sure how to respond.

  MICTECACIUTAL: An ancient evil Death Goddess consigned to the
Void. Demorn carries a locket with a piece of Mictecaciutal, which grants her healing power while flooding her with pain.

  SMILE: Demorn’s brother, tech wizard. Traumatised by the loss of Asanti and non-violent in nature, unlike his sister, Smile has struggled to adapt to life in Babelzon and the ways of the Innocents. Although he has a spare room in the Clubhouse and is close to his sister, Smile spends most of his time on the Spire constructing simulations and seeking to repair the vessel. Three years ago, Smile was snatched from the Spire and experimented on by a New Science cell based in Mexico City, before Demorn rescued him from their tortures. Smile is now only partly flesh and bone, much of his form is a virtual construct.

  THE SPIRE: The Asanti jump ship which crash-landed in Babelzon, carrying Demorn and Smile. The crash has damaged and crippled the ship. However Smile is able to salvage much of the tech and is kept busy reverse engineering the tech.

  PALE SUNS: An ancient race of corrupted sorcerers, normally human, who have studied and delved too long and too deeply into the dark arts. The dread power has fed back and ate into their souls, corrupting their bodies. These sick, lost monsters seek the moment of Emergence. Demorn hates the Pale Suns and hunts their kind with a passion.

  THE GRIM EARTH: This is the term used by many Babelzonians to describe what remains of the Primary Earth Reality, sections of which were untouched by the Fracture Event. The vast majority of the Grim Earth population have no knowledge of the Fracture Event and the worlds beyond them.

  THE GRAVE: A doomed dimension of animated skeletons and undead.

  XALOS: The Sword of Justice, an ancient katana which spawns from Demorn’s ruby heart, burning with purple fire. Demorn sometimes struggles to summon the mysterious blade. Xalos is driven by a deep desire to redress the wrongs and injustices done to others. Once the blood starts to flow, Xalos becomes insatiable, with Demorn barely able to control the fury and speed of the blade. Luckily, Demorn loves the taste of battle and imparting Justice . . .