“We’ve never questioned what we were told, Shadow. You’re a demon and you should never forget it but anger and rage aren’t the answer to all of our problems. One day you’ll understand...”
A loud sound echoed downstairs and Abaddon stood.
“They’re here. They just knocked down the door. Hide the short blade.”
Shadow tucked the angel’s blade into his belt under his cloak. Abaddon slowly approached the door and then turned back to face Shadow.
“One day you’ll make me proud. Don’t let my imprisonment consume your life.”
Abaddon turned and walked downstairs. Shadow heard yelling and what sounded like the beginning of a fight. He returned to his closet, retrieved his knife, and rushed downstairs. He paused on the final step. His father stood there in shackles with his weapons strewn all over the floor. His mother was sobbing in a corner. Two demons had taken hold of Abaddon’s arms and a dark figure stood over them, smiling. It was the Lucian, the major demon of lies.
“Thought you’d get away with betraying Satan to the angels, did you? I can’t believe you were being considered for promotion to major demon. What a joke.”
Abaddon spit on the floor and returned Lucian’s gaze.
“You know why I spoke with the angels. It has nothing to do with betraying the Dark One.”
“I know that you’re a traitor. I know that when this is done, I’ll kill your wife and child. I’ve already taken care of Cain...”
Abaddon shook his right arm free from the demon that held it and threw a punch at Lucian’s face. Lucian fell back a few steps.
“Restrain him! On his knees!”
Once he was restrained, Lucian delivered several powerful hits to Abaddon’s head. Shadow’s mother begged Lucian to stop but he wouldn’t. Just when it looked like Lucian was going to kill Abaddon right there, a dark figure rushed in and caught his arm. He followed it with a head butt and then kicked Lucian in the midsection. Lucian fell to the floor. The two demons that held Abaddon attacked the intruder but a quick slice to the left and then one to the right caught both demons straight through their throats. They maintained a look of shock until their heads fell off and their decapitated forms fell to the floor.
The intruder removed his hood. His face was bruised and bleeding, but Shadow recognized his uncle. Lucian stood and more demons entered the house, surrounding Cain and Abaddon.
“Now you’ve done it, Cain. You’re going to rot in prison with...”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Cain grabbed Abaddon under his arm and lifted him from the floor. He placed a sword in his hand and drew another for himself from his belt.
“It’s going to take more demons than you have at your command to take down the brothers of murder.”
Lucian grinned at the two of them and laughed.
“Is that what you idiots call yourselves? I’m impressed that you’re still alive after I sent a small army to kill you. It doesn’t mean that either of you will be leaving this place alive though.”
Lucian drew his scythe from his belt.
Right before the bloodshed began, another demon entered the room holding a scroll and kneeled in front of Lucian.
“I have a message from the Dragon.”
Lucian took it from his hand and read it. When he finished, he picked up the messenger demon and broke his neck.
“What was that about, Lucian?”
“Nothing that concerns you, Cain. You’re going to be dead very shortly.”
Lucian ran at Cain and swung his scythe high in the air, ready to end his life. As he approached, Cain readied his sword but it disappeared. In its place, a scythe appeared and he brought that up to meet Lucian’s scythe. When the weapons met, Lucian and Cain flew backwards in opposite directions.
Cain got back on his feet first and pointed his scythe at Lucian.
“The message said that I was promoted to be the major demon of murder.”
“No it didn’t.”
“I have a scythe. I’m a major demon now and you were going to try to kill me anyways?”
Lucian looked pissed.
“I’m done with all this stalling. Abaddon and his family are coming with me to be tortured.”
“Like hell they are. They’re under my protection now. The Dragon sent you for my brother and you can take him with you. If you try to take my nephew or his mother, I’ll go straight to Satan and tell him what you just tried to pull.”
“Whatever. I have what I came for. You’re brother is on his way to endless torment, jackass. Keep the bitch and the runt.”
Lucian motioned for the demons to take Abaddon and they all left. Shadow ran back up to his room and drew his angel blade. He gripped the handle and let the light soak in but his rage and anger couldn’t disappear – not after what has just happened. The angel’s blade barely dulled it.
Shadow relived this memory as the corpses came down on his bruised form with innumerable fists and feet. As the memory came to a close, he realized what he held in his hands. It was his uncle’s scythe. He didn’t have a lot of room to raise it, but he brought the scythe to the ground with as much force as he could give. The corpses attacking him immediately flew back and tripped other approaching undead.
After regaining his breath and assessing the damage he had taken, Shadow started to swing the scythe in sweeping arcs. Corpses were dismembered and sliced in half a dozen at a time. Once he had cleared the immediate vicinity of himself and Leech, he paused a few seconds in between swings to catch his breath. He also used the opportunity to retrieve his angel’s blade and secure it on his belt.
When Shadow had brought their numbers down to about thirty, he had lost nearly all of his remaining strength. Unsure what he could do to end their approach, he continued to slowly back up until he reached one of the walls of the room. He tried to lift the scythe but swinging it over and over had left him drained and unable to lift it. Finally finding the scythe useless, Shadow left it on the ground and drew his angel’s short blade.
While Shadow was much more effective with the lighter weapon, his strikes weren’t quick enough to stop the undead from closing in and surrounding him. He was about ready to finally give in, even though the thought that he had come so far would enrage him to his final moment. As a corpse leaned in to bite a chunk from his neck, a blade came out of its mouth. The other corpses looked to see what had happened. The blade retreated back the way it had emerged, leaving a hole all the way back through the other side of the creature’s head. When the corpse dropped to its knees, Shadow saw Leech standing behind it, grinning.
“I’m glad you decided to leave a few for me.”
Leech moved in and out of the ranks of the remaining undead like a pro, stabbing with his two daggers and leaving fatal gashes and severed heads. Shadow replaced his blade and picked up his uncle’s scythe. As Leech finished off the final corpse, the scythe turned back into the long, dark sword that Shadow had been carrying. It finally dawned on him that this was the blade from his memory, the one his uncle had wielded prior to becoming a major demon.
CHAPTER 5
“So what the hell happened?”
Shadow thought for a moment, deciding how much he should tell him.
“How much did you see?”
“When I woke up, I saw several large piles of re-killed dead guys. Then I saw you being attacked and fighting them off with your angel’s blade. When I got to my feet, I ran over to help you out.”
So Leech hadn’t seen Shadow wielding the scythe. He would have a hard enough time explaining the angel’s blade at some point; the scythe would be too much. He decided to completely leave his weapon’s transformation out of his story.
“Well, after you got mildly crushed by the sphinx...”
“So that wasn’t a dream. I was hoping it was. The last thing I remember before blacking out was a sphinx foot. Would sorry cover it?”
Shadow smiled.
“In the future, don’t be so impulsive. Wait for my signal or until I’ve
gone in first. You’re a decent fighter but you need to remember who you’re working for.”
“Done, Shady. Never again. I promise.”
Shadow decided to let the nickname go and continued with his story.
“So after you got crushed, I had to carry your worthless carcass into this room. I thought we were gonna be fine until all these dead things started waking up and attacking. I took hundreds of them down and I was running out of energy when you woke up. You sure took a long damn time to decide to help.”
“So you killed the sphinx before all that?”
“Yup.”
“Well I’ll bet we’ve got Nightmare beat already with creature kills in here. I can’t wait to see his face when he realizes that he lost to us.”
“He’s gonna lose to me, Leech. The only thing you’ve really done in here is get knocked out for a long time.”
“What about the snake?”
“It was killed with my sword.”
“That’s a technicality. I killed it.”
“Look, Leech. You’re doing much better than I expected you would. We don’t have time to sit here. Let’s get moving again.”
The two demons left the room with the rotting corpses and continued on through the maze. Both of them were used to extremely high temperatures, having lived in Hell for their entire existence, but they could definitely tell that the corridor was heating up the further in that they moved. They finally arrived at a narrow bridge over molten lava and began to cross it when something stepped out of the shadows on the other side to bar their passage. It was a creature exuding flames and wielding an executioner’s axe. It looked to be part man but with the head of a bull.
“It’s a minotaur.”
“You read a lot before today, didn’t you Leech?”
“Yup. I figured we would run into a minotaur at some point. This is a labyrinth in hell, after all.”
“Any information on how to kill it?”
“Not really. I never read the myth, I’ve only heard it mentioned. It’s a mythological creature that’s half bull and half man. Its mother died in childbirth. I imagine giving birth to it was probably horrible.”
“That doesn’t help, Leech.”
“The only thing I remember is that the people sent it a sacrifice every year to appease it. I’ll follow your orders. Do you have a plan?”
Shadow thought for a moment and then smiled.
“Of course.”
Shadow leaned in and whispered his instructions to Leech, who nodded.
“Got it. No problem.”
“You can’t mess up the timing or this won’t end well for me.”
“No worries, Shady. I’ll get it right.”
“You’d better.”
Shadow remained hidden in the shadows and crouched down, ready to pounce when the beast had moved close enough. Leech approached the creature and bowed.
“I am sent as a sacrifice to appease your anger. The Dragon is willing to send you a yearly offering for your allegiance.”
The minotaur stopped and laughed.
“So Satan hopes to win me over by sending me a small demon once a year? You’ll barely make a meal. I see that you come before me with weapons. Why would the Dragon send you in to my labyrinth armed?”
“I may be small but I am quick and I am lethal when I need to be. I used these daggers to reach this point in the labyrinth. I now offer myself to you, the great minotaur.”
“Before I was slain, I was offered a yearly tribute of seven young men and seven maidens. I won’t accept a demon as a substitute, but I will devour you for entering my domain.”
The minotaur slowly walked up to Leech, who remained kneeling with his head bowed. When the beast made it to within a few feet of Leech, he grinned, savoring the moment that a demon had submitted to him as a superior being. He raised his axe high into the air and was about to bring it crashing down when two blades came sailing through the air, one glowing white and the other of a deep shade of red. Shadow’s short blade pierced the beast’s right eye and his sword sunk into its left eye. The executioner’s axe dropped out of the creature’s hands as it cried out and grabbed at its eyes, frantically trying to remove the blades.
Shadow ran out of the darkness and jumped. In the second before he passed over Leech in the air, Leech tossed his daggers up and Shadow grabbed onto both. He landed on the minotaur’s chest and made sure not to drive the daggers in too deeply. Gravity pulled him down and the daggers cut two parallel lines into the beast’s flesh. Shadow finally let go of the daggers and dropped to the floor. The minotaur, now enraged and gushing blood from its face and chest, charged in the general direction of Shadow. Shadow, now weaponless, prepared himself to meet the creature with nothing but his fists. Shadow swung his arm back to ready a punch. In the moment before the creature’s skull met Shadow’s fist, it fell to the ground convulsing. Shadow saw Leech standing to the side of the minotaur looking pleased. The executioner’s axe was protruding from the beast’s neck.
“That doesn’t count. You used the minotaur’s axe... so it’s basically like it killed itself.”
“Bullshit.”
Shadow smiled.
“The weapon makes the kill, Leech.”
Leech thought for a few more seconds about what Shadow had said. He then pulled something out from his cloak and drove it repeatedly into the minotaur’s skull until it stopped moving.
“Well now it’s my kill.”
“What did you use?”
Leech grinned and opened his hand to show Shadow the weapon that dealt the final blow. It was the crude, sharpened femur bone that Leech had when Shadow first met him. Shadow couldn’t help but laugh.
“You kept that piece of shit weapon?”
“Yup. You never know when you might need an extra one. Actually... I have an idea.”
Leech approached the minotaur again and drove the femur bone into its skull. He then muttered something in its ear, picked up the creature’s battleaxe, and strapped it to his back.
“Wait... what are you doing?”
Leech smiled.
“We traded weapons. I asked him if he was cool with it and he... um... didn’t say no. So the axe is mine now. So now when I get kills with the axe... they count as mine... right?”
Shadow grinned and then quickly returned to his normal facial expression. Leech was slowly becoming like a friend and he couldn’t allow that. He pulled his weapons out of the minotaur’s eyes and reattached them to his belt. He motioned for Leech to retrieve the daggers. Once they were ready to move on, Shadow put a hand on Leech’s shoulder and held out his other hand.
“Give me the axe.”
Leech looked like he might finally resist his command, but he unstrapped the axe from his back and handed it to Shadow. Shadow looked it over, dropped it on the ground, and then started walking.
“Never mind. You can have it.”
Leech picked it up and continued to follow Shadow.
After a short walk, Shadow and Leech arrived at a large gate. They could see Venom and the other demons-in-training on the other side. Nightmare was smiling at them. Shadow guessed they had already taken longer than the twenty minutes it took him to make it through the labyrinth. Leech looked around for a way through the gate.
“How do we open it?”
Shadow pointed at a plaque and Leech read it.
There are five residents in the lowest circle of Hell. Name them and the gate will open.
Leech sighed.
“I know three of them. Reading was a lot more enjoyable than getting picked on for being small... so yes... I’m a nerd.”
Leech approached the gate and said, “Cassius, Brutus, Judas Iscariot.”
“Satan is an asshole.”
Leech looked around to make sure that no one else had heard Shadow’s blasphemy.
“Look bro. You really need to watch it. You can’t say shit like that. Don’t worry about it... I’m sure we can figure out who the other two...”
&
nbsp; “I know who the other two are.”
“How?”
“The lowest circle of Hell is reserved for traitors. Specifically those that betrayed their master. Cassius and Brutus betrayed Caesar, the rightful ruler of the Romans. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The other two...”
Shadow paused, not wanting to continue.
“Satan betrayed God. The final resident of the lowest circle of Hell...”
It finally dawned on Leech who Shadow was talking about.
“It’s you father, isn’t it? I mean... there were rumors that Satan put him there but I didn’t know that...”
“By speaking his name, Satan wants me to admit that he’s a traitor.”
Shadow shoved Leech out of the way, approached the gate, and spoke the final two names.
“Satan and Abaddon.”
The gate opened and Shadow and Leech exited the labyrinth.
CHAPTER 6
“Twenty-two minutes and forty seconds. That’s the final time and scores will now be recorded. Everyone move to the death pit.”
Venom shook his head at Shadow and Nightmare’s grin widened.
“We killed everything in there. It’s pretty obvious that the son of the master liar didn’t.”
“We can prove that I’m the superior one right here, Shadow. Take a shot.”
Nightmare held his chin up in the air. As much as Shadow wanted to knock him on his ass, now wasn’t the time to be goaded into a fight. He could see Venom watching out of the corner of his eye and knew he was ready to step in and break it up again.
“I’m sure we’ll meet in the death pit and Venom won’t step in to save you in there, Nightmare. You can’t run to daddy either.”
Shadow shoved Nightmare out of the way and headed towards the death pit while Venom’s underlings finished tallying the results of the labyrinth. Nightmare looked like he was going to retaliate, but he also realized that Venom was watching them. He settled for a low-pitched, annoyed growl and went to join the rest of the demons-in-training.
What Cain had previously told Shadow about the death pit seemed to be very accurate. The death pit was a large hole in the ground. A layer of thick smoke covered the floor but only rose about a foot or two from the ground so that the contestants could clearly be seen. Spikes jutted out of the walls and the floor had several large rocks that were taller than the layer of smoke but very little could be seen from Shadow’s vantage point.
Minor Demons Page 4
