Extinction (The Divine Book 7)

by M. R. Forbes

  Of course, having Alyx to do his dirty work hadn't hurt.

  "Heaven," I replied. "Have you heard from Dante recently?"

  The demon ignored the first part as if I went to Heaven every day. "Yeah, he's been stopping by every few hours to see if you're back. I forgot where you told me you went last time I talked to you, but he knew. He made me write it all down." He took a piece of paper from his pocket and scanned it. "Oh yeah, now I remember. He sent you to find a way to Heaven. I guess you did?"

  "I did."

  "He'll be happy to hear that. We've got trouble, Landon. Big trouble."

  I already knew that. Just because I had the sword didn't mean we were on the verge of victory. Far from it.

  "Sarah?"

  "Among other things."

  "I felt the balance shift."

  "Yeah. You need to see this."

  He wandered over to one of the workstations. The Turned woman in front of it swiveled her chair to face us. She was young and attractive. All of Espanto's former servants were.

  "Show him what you showed me," the demon said.

  "Yes, my Lord," the woman said.

  I glared at Alichino, whose leathery snout flushed. "I didn't tell her to call me that," he complained. "Did I?"

  "You suggested that when Mistress Alyx is not present, we should refer to you as-"

  "Well, it doesn't matter, does it?" Alichino said, interrupting nervously.

  I continued staring at him. All of the Turned here had been abused by Espanto in one way or another, and subservient monikers weren't going to help them get past it. Alichino could be helpful most of the time, but he was still a demon.

  "Fine," he said. "I just wanted to know what it was like for someone to call me Master."

  "Now you know," I said. "If I hear someone call you that again-"

  "Okay, okay. I get it. No need to get huffy about it." He pointed at the screen. "Let's stay focused, huh?"

  I looked over at the screen. There were two satellite images displaying on it, side by side. The left side showed what looked like an old military bunker somewhere in the middle of a forest. The right side showed the same bunker, but the forest looked as if it had been burned away from it.

  "I take it that isn't from a forest fire?"

  "It's what's left of a demon army," he said. "That's why the area around the bunker is toast, and the rest of it is intact."

  "Sarah?"

  "Yeah. We got the report over the wire. The bunker belonged to a Fiend Warlord in Somalia. He had a whole militia of Turned soldiers hiding out there, along with a Hell rift that he could use to ferry demons up. He was about to launch an assault on a rival warlord. That never happened."

  "Sarah killed them all on her own?" Obi asked.

  "No, she wasn't alone. A fallen angel was with her. One with a sword for a hand."

  "Adam. He's helping her kill angels and demons?"

  "No," I said. "I don't think he knows what she did to the angels. I think I may have been wrong about him. Or mostly wrong. He hates me, sure, but maybe he still loves God despite his fall. Look at what happened to Raguel. His uncontrolled anger turned him into a monster. That hasn't happened to Adam. Plus, he was in contact with that blue-eyed angel from the Mass, and she saved Alfred from Sarah, and Sarah killed her. Not the kind of actions you would expect from someone who was in on it."

  "True," Obi said. "So Adam is fallen, but he's helping Sarah kill demons. Do you think she told him she's fighting for the good guys? I don't see how he would buy that?"

  "Help me kill demons, and maybe God will change his mind and reinstate you," I said. "If he were desperate enough, I could see how that might work."

  "I just can't believe Sarah is capable of all of this," Obi said. "I never knew she was hurting so bad."

  "Me neither, and that's my failure. My cross to bear. We have to take it where we are right now. The rest of it won't matter until we catch up to her." I looked at the satellite imagery again. "I felt the balance adjust. How many demons?"

  "Three thousand?" Alichino guessed. "Give or take."

  "What about the Turned? I don't see any bodies."

  "I think they're all inside."

  "Any ripple effect?"

  "Of course," Alichino said. "The rival Warlord has claimed the territory. Other factions are gearing up to challenge. A lot more people are going to die because of this."

  I shook my head, frustrated. "More innocent people caught up in the Divine war games. And we don't know where Sarah is, or what she's going to do next. Will she go after another group of Turned? Will she hit a seraph Sanctuary? Or will she go for more demons?"

  "We need to find her before she can do either," Obi said.

  "A good thought, but I don't know how we can," I replied.

  "I'll see if I can dig anything else up. Maybe there's another clue on SamChan."

  "Okay. Allie, can you get Obi set up with a workstation and access to everything?"

  "Yeah, sure."

  "What are you going to do?" Obi asked.

  "Wait for Dante. I need to talk to him. After that?" I held up Uriel's sword. "Start killing Divine."

  Thirty

  Not that I was eager to kill Divine.

  For one thing, I didn't enjoy destroying anything. Ending Raguel was its own bitter pill. The Archangel had been a loyal servant of God for eons, and his fall had happened so fast and been so complete. In my mind, I had still killed an angel, not a demon. In my mind, his end was more directly my fault than any other. He had turned because I had failed.

  Maybe that wasn't true, but it was hitting my conscience regardless. The thought of going out there and finding Divine to slaughter to increase my own power? That was like asking a nun for sex. I didn't want more power; I wanted less. Especially with the latest understanding that my very existence was part of the growing instability in our corner of the universe.

  And then there was the fact that whatever I did, Sarah was going to do the opposite. If I killed demons, she would go after angels. The more power I absorbed, the more she would remove from the other end. She was still part-mortal, but she could feel the balance as well as I could. Probably better. She would know what I was doing. She would understand that part of my plan. Would she try to stop me, or was there a part of her that wanted me to win?

  Whichever way it went, I needed to be ready. I couldn't rush in and start claiming power without giving real consideration to whose power I was taking. Just like wiping a fiend's zone of control away in Somalia was going to cause a wider outbreak of violence, taking out the wrong Divine could create ripples that only added to the chaos.

  It was a level of finesse that I wasn't really prepared for. One that I wasn't sure I was even capable of.

  Thus, Dante.

  I had no idea how long I was going to have to wait for him, and to be honest the waiting sucked. I made my way down to the training area of the facility, where Espanto had taught Alyx to kill more efficiently, more like an assassin than a were. It was a grim place, filled with sharp objects, the walls bloodstained from the targets the demon had placed for his slave. It was an unnerving reminder, but it also gave me a sense of purpose. I wasn't looking to destroy Divine for my sake. I was trying to save everyone else the only way I could.

  I practiced with the blade for a while, going through the motions I had learned from Josette, whipping the sword around like a badass ninja. The exertion brought minimal calm to my mind and body, but it did serve to pass the time relatively efficiently. I was in the middle of one of the more difficult seraphim forms when the door to the room opened, and Dante walked in.

  I froze mid-sweep, throwing the blade down. It buried itself four inches deep into the foam mat and cement floor below it, sticking straight up like Excalibur. I had already dealt with that blade. Frankly, I was pretty sick of them all.

  "Signore," Dante said, smiling. "I see your efforts in Heaven were successful."

  "Mixed bag," I replied. "I got the sword, but the seraphim
are a mess. There may or may not be an extended conflict continuing up there because of what Sarah is doing down here."

  The smile vanished. "A war in Heaven is a problem for all of us."

  "I know. I figure the best way to stop it is to take care of things here. I got to see Josette while I was there, so at least something good came out of it."

  The smile didn't return. "She is well?"

  "As well as can be expected. Of course, she's worried about Sarah."

  "As are we all. Alichino handed me your message as soon as I arrived. I'm surprised that you wanted my advice."

  "Why wouldn't I? I thought I could handle things without you. I can't. I have the sword, and I already absorbed a fallen archangel's power with it. It isn't enough. It isn't close to enough. I need to kill more Divine, and the thought of it is making me sick to my stomach. Worse, I have no idea who to target that won't cause a major backlash."

  "I understand." He rubbed at his chin, considering my words. "It would make sense then that we would target the most powerful demons who aren't in control of large territories of their own."

  "But then Sarah will start attacking the angels again."

  "I know. The problem for you, signore, is that all angels on Earth have the same overall level of Divine power. Some may have slightly less depending on how many they have Touched, but the difference for you will be negligible. Demons, on the other hand, have a massive variability. One which you can exploit."

  "Except the most powerful demons are usually in control of a large number of less powerful demons. Or they spend most of their time in Hell."

  "A difficult position to work around, but not impossible. Archfiends will often summon stronger demons to fight for them when the need arises. We need to create a mapping of this information and make an attempt to predict when and where an inter-demon feud will occur. Then we can intervene."

  "If I remove the strongest player, it will change the outcome of the battle. That could be a problem."

  "Why should it? Does it truly matter who wins or loses if both sides are evil?"

  I thought about it for a minute. "Maybe not. Still, we could be waiting days to put something like that together. I need to move on this now before Sarah forces our hand."

  Dante resumed rubbing at his chin. "That is true. This is quite a bind, indeed."

  He began pacing the room, not reacting to the visuals at all. He kept his head down, his hand working on his face.

  "You will need to maintain the balance on your own. Attack angels and demons randomly. When Sarah sees there is no order to it, she will be unable to counter. You may also succeed in slowing her down."

  I thought about it for a minute. "Or we might end up pushing things too far if we wind up attacking the same side at the same time. Is that a risk we want to take?"

  "It is another option. I will continue to consider."

  He paced again, up and down the space a hundred times or more. I stood beside the sword, waiting patiently for him to come up with something. Maybe I could have brainstormed it too, but I knew he would figure something out. He had hundreds of years more experience than me.

  He stopped at last, looking up at me, a measure of discomfort on his aged face.

  "I can think of another approach, signore, but I'm not sure if it will meet our needs."

  "Which is?"

  "A son of Lucifer is walking this realm, are they not?"

  "You mean Zifah?" I said. I wasn't sure I liked where this was going to go. "Yeah."

  "He will be quite powerful in his own right. He also double-crossed you, and his only affiliation is with Gervais." He smiled. "Who is also rather powerful, I might add."

  I couldn't argue the logic or the motive. I also couldn't argue that I would love the chance to use those two the way they used me, and to put an end to both of them once and for all.

  "A good reason to take them out, and under most circumstances I would agree that it's a pretty solid way to go. There's only one small problem with that."

  "The Fist of God."

  "Yes. I can't defeat it."

  "Are you certain?"

  "I'm oh-for-one so far."

  "One interaction is a small sample size, signore. Besides, your power has already increased, and we should be able to improve it a little more before you have to confront the Fist or the demons or Sarah. Yes, an idea has come to me. I told you that I could be useful to you, signore. Now is my chance to prove it."

  Thirty-One

  "It's not like it's just magic," Alichino said, shaking his head. "I mean, I don't just type 'Fist of God' into the computer and a bunch of results come up like this setup is freaking Google."

  I was back in the command center with Obi, Dante, and Alichino. The poet had approached the demon with his idea, which first and foremost consisted of finding out who Gervais and Zifah might have been in contact with over the last few days. Even with the Fist of God, the pair would need allies if they were going to try to get to Sarah, if for no other reason than to distract or delay her.

  "You don't need to find the Fist," Dante argued. "You need to find out who these two demons might have been in contact with."

  "And how am I supposed to do that? I've been trying for weeks and haven't gotten squat."

  "That was before Sarah started turning things upside down," I said. "If they're going to make a move, they're going to do it soon."

  "I can help you track them down, little guy," Obi said.

  Alichino shot his snout toward Obi. "Little guy? I don't need your help. This equipment is the latest and greatest, and I've optimized it with some extra data processing algorithms that increase parsing speed by thirty percent."

  "So you can just type 'Zifah' into it, and a bunch of results should come up," I suggested.

  He turned his stink-eye my way. "Funny, Landon. Really. You should be a comedian. I'm going to have to look through all of the meta-data we've collected from the archfiends around the world. Gervais wouldn't waste his time with anyone too far down the chain. Three, four days should be enough, don't you think?"

  "Probably," I said, noticing that Obi had gone back to the workstation the demon had set up for him. "How long do you think this is going to take?"

  Alichino shrugged. "Five, six hours at least. I have to cross-reference datasets, reindex the blobs, that sort of thing. I know it seems simple, but really it's-"

  "Got it," Obi said. "Phone record from yesterday."

  "What?" Alichino said. "How did you find it that fast?"

  "Typed 'Fist of Gervais' into the search box," Obi replied.

  "You're kidding," I said. That was what Zifah had called it during our little meet.

  "Nope. Got a hit right away. Some archfiend in Indonesia named Srizyl had a chat with your friend Zifah about the Fist. Apparently, Gervais is claiming that they can make more of them, and offered her one in exchange for her assistance in capturing Sarah."

  "And she believes him?"

  "Apparently enough that they've scheduled a demo for later tonight so that they can show off the Fist."

  Was this going to be easier than I had thought? "You're kidding."

  "Still nope, man."

  "Signore," Dante said. "You know what they say about things that appear too good to be true."

  "Yeah, I know, and this fits that bill perfectly. The only thing that has me thinking that it might not be a trap is that the call was made before I got back from Heaven with the sword. How can you set someone up for a date and time you can't be sure about?"

  "If anyone could do it, Gervais can," Obi said.

  "If Gervais didn't want you to know about it, he would have used a messenger," Dante said. "Since he didn't, consider that he does."

  "He's hoping that once I have the sword, I'll come to him with it. Maybe he already guessed either he or Zifah would be a target. We have to assume he'll be prepared, whether the meet is specifically designed to lure me in or not. If he could show off the power of the Fist against me, that would b
e a pretty good sell to get this Srizyl on board."

  "If he even intends to make a deal with her," Obi said.

  "He can't make a deal," I replied. "Nobody can recreate the Fist. The archangel who made the original scripture is dead, and there isn't another like her that can replicate it. Cain may have modified it somewhat, but he's gone, too."

  "Which only makes this more obviously a trap," Dante said. "Gervais has taken advantage of you too many times for you to fall for this."

  "I wouldn't call it falling for. It was your idea to take out whichever archfiends Gervais tried to ally with to build my strength, and we can still do that."

  "While being attacked by the Fist?"

  "If that's what it takes, yes. I can avoid it while I go after Srizyl. Once I have her power, it will even the odds a bit more."

  "Enough to fight it? Enough to kill Zifah?"

  I glared at Dante. I was getting frustrated with him. He wanted me to take this approach, and now he was questioning every part of it.

  "I need to get a hold of Zifah if I'm going to level up enough to challenge Sarah. If they want me to come to them, then that's what I'm going to have to do. It's not like our other ideas were much better."

  "Landon," Obi said.

  "Signore," Dante said.

  As much as I disliked their hesitation, I also understood it. Being forced to put too much faith in Gervais is what had cost me the Fist in the first place. Even so, it had to be done. Again.

  The difference? Maybe this time, I could go in a little more prepared. Maybe this time, I could outthink the demon and come out ahead. Gervais would do anything he had to in order to get his hands on the sword. That was something I might be able to use.

  With a little help from my friends, of course.

  Thirty-Two

  My friends, and some other people who weren't quite my friends.

  Whenever I needed something I didn't have and didn't know where to get, I went to see the Nicht Creidem. In this case, I needed two things from them, neither of which I was certain they could provide, but both of which would prove invaluable to surviving the obvious mess I was going to put myself in the middle of.