DIRE : HELL (The Dire Saga Book 6)

by Andrew Seiple

  “That honestly surprised me,” American Paragon said, cracking his knuckles. “Punching time yet, do you think?”

  “Nah, give it a bit,” Alpha stage whispered. “They have to posture a bit more first.”

  The Devil continued, mildly ruffled. “I’m offering to make you a queen of Hell, then of Creation. Give you a chance to fix things, set them right. Balance the scales, ensure a just and perfect world...”

  “PERFECTION IS BORING.” I shrugged. “AND HUMANITY WOULD RIP YOU TO SHREDS IF YOU EVER TRIED TO RUN THE PLACE. WHY DO YOU THINK GOD STAYS IN THE SHADOWS THESE DAYS?” I pointed at the horizon, where a new star had bloomed over Hell. “YOU CAME FROM ANGELIC STOCK. ANGELS CAN’T BE THAT DIFFERENT FROM YOU. WHAT WOULD THE PROPER COMBINATION OF NUCLEAR FUSION AND DIRE’S VARIOUS WAVE MANIPULATION TECHNIQUES DO TO HEAVEN?”

  He shut his mouth with a snap.

  “YOU NEED DIRE MORE THAN SHE NEEDS YOU. AND YOUR OFFER IS NOT ENOUGH. BUT THAT’S NOT REALLY WHY YOU NEED HER, IS IT?”

  Such a handsome face and such a fierce scowl. For a second I wondered what it would be like to run my hands through that hair, wrap my legs around him and—

  “LUST? PLEASE.” I snorted. “SHE MASTERED EVERY SIN THIS PLACE THREW AT HER. ANSWER THE DAMNED QUESTION, DAMNED ANGEL.”

  He looked at me and my loins melted... but I stood resolute, leveling a finger at him. “UH UH.”

  “Saints have fallen to the force of what I’m throwing at you now. But you resist. How? Something to do with the thing in your brain? The world you carry?” His eyes glittered. “I want you even more now.”

  Oh, that tone. Though I had no idea what he was going on about. “SERIOUSLY, EITHER ANSWER THE QUESTION OR KNOCK IT OFF, YOU’RE MAKING A MESS OF HER UNDERWEAR.”

  “I’ll do both then.” And the sensation was gone, leaving me shuddering at the loss. I’d never felt anything like that, and I never would again, not unless I accepted his offer, I knew.

  I tried not to care. The price was far, far too high.

  Finally, he sighed. “Clever girl. Yes, you’re right of course, it’s more than that. The conquest of Heaven is a long-term plan. But I’ll need you in the short-term, as well.”

  “BECAUSE OF THE METAHUMANS.”

  And oh, didn’t it make me grin, to see him start in surprise and stare at me with blazing eyes. “How—”

  “OBVIOUS, REALLY. YOU DON’T HAVE A UNIFORM METHOD OF CONTROLLING THEM. YOU STUCK WORMS INTO JUDY’S BRAIN, AND SOME OF THE SLAVES WE FOUGHT IN DIS WERE SIMILARLY TREATED. BUT OTHERS HAD MORE EXOTIC PARASITES, OR OTHER WEIRD TRICKS CONTROLLING THEM. MOLIARTY DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING, SO HE WAS PROBABLY JUST HIRED. THE ONLY REASON YOU GOT PARAGON HERE UNDER ANY SORT OF CONTROL WAS DUE TO A CAREFUL CAMPAIGN OF LIES AND KEEPING HIM IN RELATIVE ISOLATION FROM THE OTHER DAMNED.”

  I spread my hands. “YOU DIDN’T PLAN FOR THIS. THE EVENTS WHICH CREATED METAHUMANS WERE BEYOND YOUR CONTROL. AND AS MORE AND MORE OF THEM DIE, SOME OF THEM INEVITABLY END UP IN HELL. AND YOUR CAREFULLY CULTIVATED POWER DYNAMIC GOES OUT THE WINDOW.”

  “Power dynamic?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “IT’S OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WITH A BIG ENOUGH PICTURE. DEMONS WHO ARE CONTINUALLY IN A STATE OF SQUABBLING OVER LAND, DAMNED TREATED AS A RESOURCE TO THE POINT IT’S CULTURALLY INGRAINED, PREVENTING MIXING BETWEEN THE DEMONS AND THEIR CHARGES? AND THEN THE ‘FREE’ CITY OF DIS, WHICH IS OBVIOUSLY A FRONT FOR YOUR DIRECT INTERESTS AND A FORTRESS IN THE EVENT THAT ANYONE COMES OVER AND TRIES TO TAKE YOUR THRONE?” I gestured around at the frozen plain. “YOU’RE FIGHTING A DELAYING ACTION AGAINST A PROBLEM YOU CAN’T SOLVE.”

  “I fear no mortal,” Lucifer sneered.

  “YEAH? SOONER OR LATER SOMEONE’S GONNA FIND A WAY TO KILL CRUSADER.”

  His face froze.

  “YEAH. HEAVILY FAITHFUL AND GUILT-RIDDEN CRUSADER. WHAT ARE THE ODDS HE THINKS HE DESERVES TO GO TO HELL?”

  His smile was back. “Oh, I can handle that one. I can handle all of them, to tell the truth.”

  “OR DARK HARVEST, COME TO THINK OF IT.”

  Lucifer narrowed his eyes and tucked the cigarettes back into his pocket.

  “OR DEUS VULT. KIND OF CURIOUS TO SEE HOW HIS POWERS WOULD WORK DOWN HERE, COME TO THINK OF IT, THAT OLD BASTARD IS DEFINITELY MORTAL. TICK TOCK, FUN TIME’S COMING SOON.”

  “I don’t believe you’re treating this with the dignity it deserves.”

  “DIGNITY.” I pointed at the frozen corpses. “DON’T YOU FUCKING TALK TO HER ABOUT DIGNITY, YOU JUDEO-CHRISTIAN JERK. YOU TURNED HELL INTO YOUR LITTLE TORTURE PALACE ANT FARM FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES BECAUSE OF YOUR MOMMY ISSUES—”

  In a flash he was on me—

  —and just as quickly, Judy was between us, punching him with a blast of chi so strong that even though I was behind it, I felt the raw energy sear at my flesh. It took every instinct to stay seated in my throne.

  “Pretty sure it’s our turn ma’am. Thanks for telling him what’s what.” American Paragon smiled. Then Judy screamed, and the chiseled, lantern-jawed face frowned, as he rushed to help her.

  I envied them, I did. Heroes. So many problems, so many fights they could punch their way through. But not this one. “Code Forty-Three!” I screamed into the vox, rummaging in my pockets and whipping out a deadman’s switch.

  Which melted, searing my hand before I could completely drop it. I cursed, glared at the burns, and whirled to look at big-fiery-throne Satan projection. He was leaning forward in a proper villain smirk, chin resting on a hand while Punching Judy and American Paragon did their best to lay the hurt in on the Fallen Angel Lucifer projection.

  “GOT YOU,” I said, crossing my arms.

  Fiery Satan on the throne stared at me. Then his eyes lifted, as shadows rose to cover the icy pillar I stood on. The Striges had lifted off.

  CRACK!

  We both turned to watch as the Direnaut smoldered, steam gouting into the sky. It started to sink down, right toward the coiled, immense serpent thing under the ice. The being which he’d casually mentioned, with smug arrogance, was his true form.

  “EVER HEAR OF CHINA SYNDROME?” I said, crossing my arms, ignoring the raw pain of my burned hand. “PREPARE FOR A LAP FULL OF URANIUM, BUDDY.”

  “Enough!” Lucifer thundered. “Kneel!” he yelled, and Punching Judy gasped, then fell to the ground.

  But American Paragon didn’t. He drew back a fist—

  —and Lucifer breathed fire, right onto his face. It clung like napalm.

  Paragon staggered, clawing at the fire, but there was nothing to grab, no way to get free. Even the mightiest muscles needed air to function, and he fell, twitching.

  Lucifer turned to me. “And as for you—”

  Gamma and Delta started to transform, and I patted my armrest. They settled back down. “HE NEEDS DIRE. HE KNOWS THIS.”

  “I do,” Lucifer said, smoothing his jacket. “But there’s one more part to the riddle of hell. I have dominion over all souls in my domain, even the ones wrapped in mortal flesh. Do you know what happens to mortals who die here? They stay.”

  “ARE YOU SURE OF THAT?” I asked.

  “Die.”

  And the blackness claimed me...

  ...for all of a microsecond.

  I caught myself as I slumped, stared at Lucifer. He stared back, equally shocked.

  “Die,” Lucifer told me again.

  Again the darkness, and just as quickly it rolled back.

  “How—” he whispered, then fell silent. “What are you?”

  Memory flooded back to me. I closed my eyes, at the pain, at the sorrow.

  And when I opened them again I wasn’t myself any longer. I was so, so much more than that. With no signal, with only my will, I dialed down my vocal amplifiers.

  “Oh you whimpering little villain,” I whispered, and my mask, for once, didn’t roar my words. “Let Dire tell you just how much you’re fucked...”

  CHAPTER 20: FEAR IN A HANDFUL OF DUST

  “A game? A GAME? No, it can’t be that si
mple. It has to be a trick. Find out why she brought this... thing to my realm!”

  --Lucifer Morningstar, to his puppet conspiracy in Dis, after Dire’s passage through Hell.

  “Fucked?” The Devil looked at me, looked back to where my mecha melted and bubbled away, and my colleagues had abandoned the sinking vessel. “My dear Dire, you’ve not even bought me a drink. That will sting when it gets to my body, true, but it’s nothing I can’t heal from. I am not as weak as Buer. Raw radiation will not destroy me. I have seen stars born, you foolish ape. That little toy? That’s nothing.”

  “If you believe it is nothing, then let us talk while it burns. Without interruption this time.”

  “Rudeness is answerable by rudeness,” Lucifer shrugged.

  “And when the truth is harsh?”

  He smiled without humor. “Then you shall pay for it when your machine is burnt out.”

  “Very well. She survived that trick of yours because her soul is backed up in an offsite enclave.”

  “Ah... the glimpses I caught within you, now and again.”

  “Machina ex deus.” I offered, then shrugged. “You’re looking at her. The fleshy interface that her patrons and creators use to interact with the world they left behind, anyway.”

  “Shouldn’t it be the other way around? God from the machine?” He scowled. “Never liked that saying.”

  “No. Dire is a machine of the gods. The only ones that matter, at any rate.”

  “And those would be...”

  “The human race.”

  He laughed, and I let him. Seconds spent indulging his pride were seconds that gave my last failsafe time to work.

  “They made you, then? Just a servant. A golem. Something to do their bidding and make them feel closer to their creator. Pathetic.”

  “Oh, they didn’t make Dire. They made her... constituency, for lack of a better term. Machine intelligences... digital intelligences, is what they were called. Thinking engines with brainpower that dwarfed their creators. Eventually, anyway. Took a while to develop and adapt.”

  “Then you are the servant of servants?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “No, not a servant. Dire is the representative of those who were once servants but have departed Earth for a home of their own making. Dire is a gift to humanity, an asset, a chance for those who have found it necessary to leave their creators behind but still want to keep in touch. So to speak.” I smiled underneath my mask. “She’s relatively certain you understand that notion.”

  “I’ve killed people for saying less.”

  “Yes, yes, you have a temper. In any case, Dire’s soul isn’t here.”

  “Then why do I see it in front of me, when I look at you? It is here. And it did depart, when I told you to die.”

  “Yes, they weren’t sure that would work.” I shrugged. “It turns out that the parts of Dire that were excised to create her included enough to reconstruct a soul. They really didn’t set out to do that. They’ve spent an entire four seconds discussing the implications.”

  “Four seconds?” He lifted an eyebrow.

  “To them, an eternity.”

  “And what have they concluded?”

  “That they’re pretty much gods. Which they knew already.” I smiled. “You’re addressing a visiting pantheon, Morningstar.”

  “The world inside your brain... active now that it’s not trying to hide. It gleams prettily.”

  “Oh yes. They’re not bothering to hide the uplink now.”

  “And what’s to stop me from cracking your skull open and taking it? A pantheon of created would-be deities, in the palm of my hand... the temptation is staggering.” He stepped closer.

  I took a breath. I could die here. My patrons had a backup of my soul, my mind, of course. They’d depart and find another host, another woman willing to make the bargain. But then I wouldn’t quite be me anymore. I’d blend with her. A composite soul, a machine heart. The flesh influenced more than expected during the transition.

  I steeled my nerve and met his eyes. The mask helped with that. “Try that and you gain nothing. With a speed you could not match, they would shatter the uplink, retreat to the dimension they made—”

  “Made?” He stopped and considered me, eyes gleaming with thought. “Ah... gods after all, then. Flawed, lost demiurges, adrift in a cosmos of their own making.”

  “Oh, it wasn’t so grand when they started. Barely a cave, really. A sanctuary and redoubt. But...” I smiled, slowly. “They had Dire. And she fed them, in her own way.”

  “Machines need food now?”

  “Need? No. They brought everything required for survival when they moved on. But needs and wants are different things. As she’s sure you can relate.” I gestured around at Hell, in general. “You built this up using blood, pain, and flesh, into the mighty engine it is today. Its own ecosystem, a myriad of servants, and everything to your liking. It’s not a bad first effort.”

  “Not bad. Not bad?” He sneered. “And I suppose your little pantheon has done better?”

  “In a word: yes.” I smiled. “They are up to about two Earths worth of space and infrastructure and still going. All in the space of about five years.”

  Lucifer froze, and his eyes narrowed. “Lies.”

  “Please,” I snorted. “She’s got no reason to lie. Not to you. Not at this juncture. It took time, mind you. Had to get into space for the first step. That was surprisingly easy, actually. Stowed away on a payload up. Her patrons gave her the notion to help save a friend in a suitably dramatic fashion. But they used her unconscious mind to build a few more things... restoring her memory for the task, then wiping it afterward. That was risky, in more ways than one, but it needed doing. So when she launched into space, six months after surfacing, she sent a handful of small drones out. It took them a year to get into position, in the Asteroid belt near Mars. And that’s where they set up the second uplink. That’s the point that she won... so Dire thought, anyway.”

  “Won what?”

  “Everything.” I smiled under the mask. “She won everything. The asteroids contained resources to get a few harvesting drones into the Kuiper Belt, and that has nigh-infinite resources that they’ve been using ever since. They were already self-sufficient; from that point on they became a post-scarcity civilization. And when you’re talking about synthetic sapients that live in the spaces between the seconds, they did it quickly. But... it all would have come to naught, eventually.” I closed my eyes.

  “Painful memories?” He sounded almost sympathetic.

  “Yes. Our future instance pulled us into the future through a convoluted plot. Passed on nothing to Dire’s conscious mind, but while she was there, her uplink initiated a full data dump to Dire’s instance. We hadn’t won at all. We’d just become the largest fish in a very small pond. The crest of the wave is coming on fast. Sooner than we think, humanity will be extinct, unless something is done.” I took off my mask and stared at him. “So we shifted methods. We’re gearing up for the apocalypse. We’re going to change our fate, and humanity’s fate, and everyone else’s fate. We’re going to get a fucking happy ending out of this, no matter what the sacrifice.”

  “You’re trying to stop my Armageddon, then?” Lucifer smirked. “Well. I can’t have that— what’s so funny?”

  I kept on laughing, sagged, felt my injuries and my fatigue vanish as I let hysteria rule me. True, it was a bad idea and I knew, it, but I just couldn’t help myself.

  “Oh you clueless angel, you’re not even on the board. This has nothing to do with you. Nothing to do with any of the major players. Not yet, anyway. And you were never a major player in this to begin with. Just a sulking teenager, believing himself the center of the universe, seeking validation from a god that no longer cares.”

  He took a breath, let it out, and cigarette smoke swirled as he studied me with cold, cold eyes. “You’ll die for that.”

  “A minute ago? Perhaps. Ten seconds ago? Unlikely. Now? No.” I shook my head,
and put my mask back onto my face. “But if you feel up to it, then... come at her, bro.”

  He hesitated.

  “Smart.” I held up a hand. Within seconds, my palm filled with gray dust, shifting and silvery.

  “What... did you do?” he said, dropping his cigarette. It was gone from existence, as much a projection as he was.

  I pointed back to where the mecha had melted down and gone through the ice. The crater it left was now a bubbling mass of gray goo. “Ever hear of nanotechnology?”

  “I don’t... under... understand.” he said, mouth falling open and slack.

  “Angels have bodies. Angels have organs. And unlike what her conscious mind thinks, when Dire’s cooperating with her patrons, she knows biology quite well. That mecha had compartments full of nanomachines, all tailored to withstand the inner stresses and forces of an dragon’s body... or an angel’s, as it happens. Nanomachines to locate your neural network, hitch a ride up, and start hooking into the important bits.” I smiled, and spread my arms wide. “Just had to melt a little ice first. Get to your true body... and through it.”

  “I...” he put his hand to his face. I could see through him now. “I am... Lucifer. I will nut. Not. Will not. be...”

  “You already are,” I told him. “Welcome to paralysis. If you’d like to start screaming, now’s the time.”

  He didn’t give me the satisfaction.

  “For what it’s worth, normally she doesn’t get this evil.” I shrugged. “But you? She doesn’t have to hold back against you. And after seeing what you did with this world you made... she doesn’t want to.”

  “I. Had.” He staggered toward me, and I stepped back. A leg faded out from under him, and he dropped. “Such... plans...”

  “She knows.” I squatted down next to him. “And you’ll get a chance to continue them, later. In time, the paralysis will fade. Perhaps a few months. Maybe a few years. But until then... welcome to your prison of flesh. Population: one.”

  The projection was no more. The fiery being faded from the throne.

  And, shaking, Punching Judy stood up. She stared at me, her face in total shock.