by Evan Currie
They were all blank slates, interchangeable and utterly expendable.
Aside from minor differences in appearances, a demon of the Ninth Circle was absolutely indistinguishable from any other of his fellows.
More screams sounded around them, and he spotted a swarm of those be-damned snakes slithering out of the jungle, with spiders and various other nasty pests joining them.
“Fires! Burn them out!” he ordered as more demons and human slaves fell to the blind attack.
Magical fires roared around them in response, lighting up the world and bringing searing heat washing over both sides as the fight was joined.
*****
“That,” Merlin said, surprised, “was unexpected.”
“I’ve never seen animals do anything like that,” Simone admitted, eyeing the imagery that Merlin was showing her. “I know that many don’t like demons, but that is . . .”
“Agreed,” Merlin said, puzzling over what his probes were recording.
It was true that animals generally did not like the presence of the demonic. It had been supposed that it had to do with the dimensional resonance being detectable to many species of animal that could tell that they were facing something that didn’t belong. Wolves, particularly dire wolves, had oft been allies of humans in the early days of the war. Unfortunately they had also been common targets of the demonic forces, and the last of the dire wolves had died a long time earlier.
To his knowledge, however, sharks were not among the species that were prone to attacking demons out of the blue . . . sea, as it were.
Of course, Merlin wasn’t aware of many times when demons had opted for combat of any sort in, or even on, the open water, so perhaps it wasn’t that unexpected.
He and Simone watched as the sea and land practically roiled with a surge of animals, drawn to the area by some instinct to attack blindly at the demons and be attacked quickly in return.
“If only we could help,” Simone whispered. “It would take hours, though, to move even a few of our people there . . . and I would be afraid of being mistaken for a demon.”
“True,” Merlin said, considering as he shifted his focus slightly. “However, I may be able to do something.”
One of the images began to move, drawing Simone’s attention.
“What are you doing?”
“The probes I am using to monitor the area have the capability of acquiring . . . samples,” Merlin said. “They were designed for wildlife preservation efforts. While they’re distracted, I believe I can buy us some more time.”
Simone watched, wide-eyed, as one of the images moved unsteadily through the air toward the standing stones. The scene was confused enough on the other images, she found, trying to understand what was going on. Though the moving one was impossible, somehow Merlin got it into position among the stones and settled in without any of the demons apparently noticing.
“This will be . . . tricky,” he said with a hint of nerves in his voice that Simone had never heard from the entity before.
She looked over, concerned. “What are you talking about?”
“Disrupting a rune cluster can have rather . . . disturbing consequences,” Merlin replied. “And as close as that island is to Atlantis, I would rather avoid any of the more disastrous ones if at all possible.”
He spoke casually, but the majority of his intent was focused with laser precision on the task he had set himself. Given the risks of allowing the demons to complete the task, Merlin supposed that he might chance the destruction of Atlantis if needs be, but he would at least attempt to evacuate them first if it came to that. However, this time he did not believe that was necessary.
Merlin would avoid the activated runes and thus avoid any defenses the runic specialist might have emplaced that would likely befoul his entire attempt and reveal the presence of his probes. Until the runes were properly linked with the subquanta, they were merely pretty symbols carved into stone.
He might be extremely concerned about messing with activated runes, but pretty symbols had no such worries for him as he activated the probe’s sampling mechanism and laser cut away a small section of the rune before picking another random location and repeating himself.
“Hurry,” Simone urged him. “The animal attacks are falling off . . . the demons’ defense is working.”
“Unsurprising,” Merlin said. “Fire will deter most beasts . . . and men as well unless they’re properly prepared.”
Simone grimaced. “Speaking of which . . . we may need to make some preparation for dealing with fire; otherwise our own attack will be rather . . . short-lived.”
“Point,” Merlin conceded as he withdrew the probe to a safe distance, having accomplished his goal by using the sampler to sabotage key parts of the runes. “I have some equipment seconded to fire suppression units that might be of use. However, it will not protect against everything in the same manner as armor.”
“We’ll take what we can get.”
Merlin nodded. “I will have it brought from storage.”
Simone looked at the screens. “Do you think it was enough?”
“Time will tell.”
*****
Caleb grunted as he tossed a massive slab of wood to the beach, watching it bounce slightly as it thudded to the sand with enough force to startle everyone in the area.
He was getting better with the armor, and it amazed him just how intoxicating it was to have as much strength and power at his command as this seemingly simple piece of clothing offered. With the ability to lift so much, move so quickly, it was all he could do not to push harder and faster with every step as he sought to find where the limits lay.
It had taken very little time to get used to it, and he’d been slowly bringing up the power of the armor as he progressed from just relearning to walk to actively helping with preparations by lugging materials from the forest to the beach for others to turn into something of use.
He was barely able to contain his excitement for seeing just what it could do in a fight.
Caleb wanted to face off with demons, and he wanted to do it soon.
For now, though . . . Caleb thought with a grin as he pulled the axe off his belt and bounded back toward the forest, it’s time to do battle with some more trees.
*****
Tel gritted his teeth, ignoring the shards that broke loose as he spat them to the ground and took in account of the results of the “attack” his forces had just endured.
The animals had been killed or finally driven off by fire, but they’d done damage before that had happened.
He had lost scores of his warriors and more slaves than that. The Ninth Circle general worker drones had probably suffered most. They were of no particular value now that the stones were in place and the heaviest work was done, so he could manage very little concern over those losses.
Human slaves were more valuable by far than the dregs of the Ninth Circle. At least the humans could accomplish work that required attention to detail, assuming you could trust them not to sabotage your operation. Since these had all been slaves for many generations, sabotage didn’t even enter into the minds of most of them.
It was entirely possible that they would not do a job out of laziness or some similar motivation, but he doubted any of them had the mental fortitude left to actually contemplate any sort of active resistance against their betters by this point. That was how the authority of the lower circles wanted things to be, and that was how they had become.
Humans still had to be watched, of course. Unlike Ninth Circle dregs, they had free will, for all the good and ill that came with such an affliction. A good slave could spot problems and correct them before they became more than a small matter . . . but bad ones could be lazy and deliberately obtuse in ways the automaton nature of a Ninth Circle demon simply didn’t allow.
That made humans useful but dangerous.
It had taken centuries of annihilating any resistance, promoting comforts for those who behaved, but in
the end the demons got what they needed from the humans.
Placid obedience.
They had learned a long time ago what happened to a human who stood against demons.
Chapter 14
The howl sent a chill down her spine as Elan watched the trio of demons break into a sprint directly at her. She felt that deep urge to run fill her but ignored it as she brought up her own rage and sent the momentary fear fleeing her body in response.
She had faced a legion; three would not stop her.
Her hand wrapped around the grip of her weapon as she plucked it from her belt, intent on the largest demon in the center as she brought the bore of the weapon up level with the ground.
Targeting information, most of which she had barely begun to understand, flowed across her eyes. Warnings of potential collateral damage screamed at her as she realized that there were people all around. Not demons—people.
I can’t kill all those people, she realized in a horror-struck moment.
The moment’s hesitation was almost her undoing.
Before she could work out how she was going to deal with the situation, the fastest of the trio was on top of her. He looked like a mangy beast, with patches of fur over leather flesh, more animal than man. He snarled and charged inside her defensive radius so quickly that only her reaction saved her from the dripping teeth as she swept her weapon up and instinctively sought out a blade to defend herself.
The sidearm shifted as the wolf leapt, catching the beast in the chest and impaling him a third of the way down the blade. Elan flinched away as he snarled and snapped at her, clawing at the blade to drag himself closer as his maw lunged and bit at the air just inches from her face.
A last pull on the blade brought the wolf close enough to snap his jaws down on her head, but Elan had recovered sufficiently by then to properly react. She roared as she lifted the blade up and away from her, pushing the beast away as well, then cocked back her other hand and hammered it into the beast’s head.
Once. Twice.
On the third time, something cracked, and the beast went into a frenzy. Elan grabbed him by the maw and forced the snarling teeth up and away with all the combined strength of her arm and armor in one, until another snap was heard and she wrenched the blade out and down.
Blood and organs spattered on the ground, and the body hit a moment later, Elan’s blade sweeping down and around as it cast an arc of blood and viscera about her feet in a gory circle of protection. She glanced to see the second coming fast and stepped into the fallen body so she could hook her foot into the corpse and kick it hard into the air.
The flying demonic corpse slammed into its former fellow, sending both sprawling as Elan twisted just in time to see the third—and largest—dropping through the air right onto her position.
She threw up her blade at the last second, catching the overhanded blow on the edge of her weapon as black sparks flew from the meeting of sword and demonic flesh, and she was ground down to one knee by the force. The demon roared down at her, ignoring the thin line of black ichor seeping from the thin cuts caused by her weapon. He withdrew, then hammered his fists down again and again against her sword. The force stressed Elan’s armor to the very limits as she barely kept her defense in place under the assault.
*****
Jolinr jerked in place, hammer held up in his grip as he started forward out of the building, but the hand of Brokkr pulled him roughly back.
“Not yet,” Brokkr hissed. “Let her handle this.”
“What?” Jol couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Even I would be killed by him alone, Brokkr. She’s just . . .”
“Just what?” Brokkr asked, amused. “Female? A child? She flattened you earlier, Jol. She has the tools; she may have the skills. Let’s see what she does with them.”
Jol growled, but the hand on his shoulder was iron and refused to give even under his best pressure.
“We shouldn’t just watch,” he said, frustrated, casting his free arm around, his gesture taking in the cowering people around them who were just looking on. “That makes us no better than any of them!”
Brokkr just grinned nastily. “Why do you think I want to see how this plays out?”
Jol looked confused as the girl and the demon were locked in mortal combat just a few dozen meters away. “What?”
“If you go out there and win against Krovak, do you know what they’ll all say?” Brokkr asked.
Jol just looked confused.
“They’ll all say, ‘Oh, that Jolinr. He’s such a stupid fool; this is just like him,’” Brokkr told him. “They’re used to you being you. I want to see what they say when they see another human warrior stand up to the demons. So stand down, Jol, and let this play out.”
Jolinr hissed but then glanced around. “Wait . . . where’s Sindri?”
“I said we’d let it play out,” Brokkr grinned, looking past Jol. “I didn’t say we wouldn’t take out some insurance.”
Jolinr looked over in the direction Brokkr was looking, and his eyes widened in surprise.
*****
Gose was stunned by what happened to Wolf. The short and brutal encounter had gone in almost exactly the opposite way of what Gose had predicted when the other tracker reached the human first.
For the first few moments of the fight, he had been angry that Wolf was faster than him, and then the other tracker had almost been split in two, and suddenly he wasn’t so unhappy to be slower. The carcass of his oft competitor had caught Gose by surprise again, sending him to the ground and covering him in the viscera of the other demon. Gose kicked himself free and scrambled to his feet as Krovak engaged the human, hammering her into the ground, though she put up a surprising defense.
Gose gathered up his own weapon and elected to move around to get at her back to end the fight in a hurry.
Wolf had been a smug, insufferably and incredibly aggravating sort . . . but he was a demon, and that made him worth more than every human in existence.
No human gets a kill like that and has it go unanswered, Gose determined as he picked his way cautiously around while keeping an eye on the fight.
Krovak had the upper hand, but the human was still managing to keep the bigger demon at bay, which spoke volumes for how dangerous this one actually was. Gose steeled himself and prepared his weapon as he picked a point on the girl’s back as his target and prepared to charge.
Gose didn’t even feel the slide of the iron blade as it carved into his lower back, seeking out and finding vital organs as the iron ground out his internal magic and the necrotizing nature of the change began to slowly turn his body to decomposing sludge.
Gose gurgled as his legs buckled and he fell to both knees, a hand in his hair pulling the head back so his eyes remained on the fight.
“Watch,” a voice whispered in his ear. “What you’re seeing is the beginning of the end of a very long war. Be happy you’re here to see it . . . few get to witness history like this.”
Gose tried to speak, but his lungs didn’t seem to be working any longer and he couldn’t even turn to see who had him by the hair.
“Who wins in the end, I don’t know yet,” the voice admitted as Gose felt himself dying. “But it’s going to be a glorious final battle. I was worried, you know. After such potential, the humans seemed ready to go softly into oblivion . . .”
The world started to go dark, and Gose couldn’t see anything anymore, but he could hear the voice still chatting conversationally to him as he died.
“Let’s see if this can wake them up.”
*****
Elan screamed.
She was being hammered into the ground, barely holding the demon off, but she refused to let it end in so ignominious a fashion. She screamed as she forced herself up, a scream that turned into a roar as she slashed with her blade on the next strike and deflected the blow off to her left and into the ground beside her.
Surging up, she led with her right fist. Still clenching the hilt o
f her sword, Elan drove it in a straight powered jab that shattered the jagged, diseased teeth of the demon bent over her and sent it reeling back. With a little extra room, she crossed with her left to the demon’s extended jaw and heard a nasty-sounding crack.
Elan got to her feet and took a step back, giving herself a little fighting room as she swept her blade around and slashed across from the right, then around and down from the left. Black sparks flew as the blade skated off the demon’s impossibly hard flesh, opening only the slightest of wounds with each slash and eliciting a roar of rage instead of pain as she had hoped.
The backhand caught her by surprise, lifting her off her feet. She was thrown back to slide along the stone as her weapon skittered out of her grip. Elan saw spots in front of her eyes but knew she couldn’t take the time to shake them away. She rolled over her shoulder, getting her legs under her, and surged back to her feet as the demon came rushing in.
At the last second she decided that meeting Krovak head-on was not a winning strategy.
Elan ducked low, planting her shoulder into his guts, and let the demon fold in half over her before she snapped straight.
The motion catapulted the demon through the air, tumbling wildly until he slammed into a stone wall with enough force to send a rumbling crack snapping such that no one who heard it could tell if the demon or the stone broke first.
Elan cast around, spotting her sidearm highlighted through her armor’s display, and lunged toward it.
The demon caught her just mere feet from the weapon, snapping a kick to her guts that folded Elan in half as she was lifted off the ground and sent straight up over a dozen feet. The armor spread out and absorbed a lot of the force, but enough still transmitted that her breath was blown out of her chest and she gasped futilely for oxygen as she looked down to see the demon launch himself into the air after her.
With no breath in her lungs and her brain screaming for oxygen like she’d not had a taste of air in weeks, Elan forced herself to twist as the demon’s talons reached out for her. She got under them by undulating her body out of the way, then grabbed on to pull herself in close where she could get enough leverage to start hammering one powered blow after another into the demon’s ribs.
