by Diem, J. C.
“What does this one do?” I asked warily. The last rune had spat out a tornado. It had raged around inside the invisible cage that I’d created before burning itself out. He’d made the rune so it automatically deactivated after producing just one whirlwind.
“I have no idea,” he replied with a shrug of his bony shoulders. As midnight black as all demons, his eyes were scarlet and he was the height of an average man. Unlike the rest of the legion, he wore a black robe like all hellscribes wore. “I did not try to craft this one to suit a specific purpose,” he added. “It came to me from out of nowhere.”
“I can hardly wait to see what this one is going to do,” Heather said and rolled her eyes. She had a TV, movies, a radio and books to offer her entertainment, but it had to be boring to be stuck inside me all the time. She should jump at the chance for a bit of excitement. Having seen the magic that Sy had conjured up, I couldn’t really blame her for her reluctance. If he’d had access to my blood, I was sure he would have tested every symbol that he’d created by now.
With a thought, I cleared the living room of the carpet and furniture until it was just a bare space. I removed the paintings from the wall to give him a blank canvass to work on. Next, I held out my hand and a cup of my blood appeared. Sy held his hand out and a paintbrush materialized. He dipped it into the blood and went to work.
When he was finished, he studied it critically then nodded. “I have a feeling this rune will be very interesting,” he said in anticipation then backed away to stand next to Heather.
I created an invisible wall facing the rune then dipped my finger in the blood. I pressed my palm on the symbol and scarlet light flared to life as it became active. I hurried over to the others and conjured up another invisible wall. Whatever was about to be unleashed from the spell would now be boxed in.
A hole about the size of a basketball appeared on the wall a few moments later. Clear liquid came pouring out in a torrent. Sy’s shoulders sagged in disappointment. “Oh. It is just water.”
“I don’t think so,” Heather said and pointed at the floor. “Water doesn’t usually cause that sort of damage.”
My eyes widened when I realized the cement was being eaten away. “It’s acid!” I exclaimed. Fumes that we couldn’t smell wafted upwards as the pool of acid spread. It splashed against the invisible barrier, but it was resistant to the substance. I changed the floor and the other two walls to the same clear barrier. We now had a view of outside and could see the large black house where the legion lived. With the threat of being purged looming over them at any time, they never left their shelter now.
“I think we may have a problem,” Sy confessed when the acid kept flowing out of the hole. “This rune will need to be deactivated manually.”
They both turned to me and I heaved a sigh. “Why do I always have to be the one to deactivate them?”
“Because we’re basically just ghosts inside your head,” Heather reminded me.
Grumbling beneath my breath, I knew I had to act quickly. The acid was already a couple of inches deep. It would end up flooding the entire living room eventually. With a glare at Sy, I walked over to the barrier. I changed it from being invisible to a smoky black color. I’d need to be able to see what I was doing or I’d risk falling into the acid.
“Cool,” Heather murmured as I made all but a couple of feet of the wall disappear. She coughed when the acidic fumes wafted over to her. “Not cool,” she choked. I created a second wall behind me so they’d be safe, not that Sy had shown any signs of discomfort at the stench. He’d lived in hell for thousands of years where sulfur was the predominant smell. I made myself impervious to the fumes that had made Heather’s eyes water.
Even without touching it, I knew the acid would eat straight through my flesh. I had no intention of wading through it. We were in the deep recesses of my mind and anything was possible for me here. I created a black ladder and a walkway about three feet high. It would lead me safely over the danger zone.
“You are surprisingly intelligent at times, master,” Sy said admiringly as I made my way over to the rune.
I sent him a sardonic look over my shoulder and almost lost my balance. I put my left hand on the wall to steady myself and it went straight into the acid that was pouring out of the rune.
“And then you go and do something like that,” Heather added and shook her head.
The burning agony only lasted for a second before I willed the pain away. Just as I’d figured, my flesh dissolved in moments until only my bones remained. “Check this out,” I said and turned to show them my skeletal hand.
Heather’s face turned green and I was pretty sure she would have thrown up if she’d been able to. “Eww. That’s so gross,” she complained. Sy sniggered, not at all put out when I waved at them with my fleshless bones. “Break the stupid rune and fix your hand before I barf!” she said crossly.
Sy sent her an affronted look for insulting his beloved rune. I conjured my dagger up and scraped it on the edge of the symbol. Some of the acid splashed onto the weapon, but it didn’t corrode the dull silver metal. The dagger was magical and it would take a lot more than acid to destroy it.
The crimson light faded and the hole disappeared, but the pool of acid remained. I removed the magical barrier from the floor and the liquid soaked into the bare dirt. Once it was all gone, I put the living room back the way it had been.
“That was fun!” Sy exclaimed and returned to his favorite spot on the floor of the living room. I was pretty sure he didn’t use the couches or chairs because he was so used to the discomfort of being in hell. They didn’t believe in things like pillows or cushions. The carriages were the only things that I’d encountered so far that had soft seats.
“Yeah,” Heather said sarcastically. “We should get together and create acid baths more often.”
Walking over to her, I patted her on the shoulder with my bony hand. “There, there. The ordeal is over now,” I said teasingly.
She looked at the bones in horror and flicked my hand off with a shudder. “You have the strangest sense of humor of anyone I’ve ever met,” she declared.
Restoring my hand back to normal, I shrugged modestly. “You’re not the first person to tell me that and you probably won’t be the last.”
“Have you visited the legion yet?” she asked, changing the subject.
“No. I’ll head over there in a minute.”
“They love the arena you created for them almost as much as Sy loves his runes.”
Sy looked up for a moment. “I am just glad that they have something to keep them busy. An idle demon is bound to get up to mischief sooner or later. It is in our very nature to cause havoc.”
It was an insight into their culture that I hadn’t been aware of. I was doubly glad that I’d given them something to keep them occupied now.
“I’ll see you guys later,” I said and teleported over to the third and final structure.
₪₪₪
Chapter Eleven
I opened the door just as a roar came from the crowd. They surrounded the arena that I’d created in the center of the building. There were too many demons blocking my view for me to see what was going on inside.
Curious about what had them so excited, I changed the arena so it was on a raised platform. Now I could see over the heads of most of the legion. The vast majority were servants or soldiers. The captains were a head taller and Demon Lords loomed over them all. There were only fourteen lords and they stood in a small cluster.
The battle that was raging in the arena paused for only a moment as the combatants were raised higher. Heads swung to see that I’d arrived then swung back again. A captain was facing one of the monsters that were automatically spawned by the magical arena. It was something that I’d never seen before. It was scuttling around, searching for an opening. The creature looked a bit like a cross between a beetle and a crab, but it was the size of a small car. The arena had automatically grown in size to accommodate w
hatever the thing was.
Fascinated and a little alarmed by the new monster, I moved through the crowd to Morax. He looked down at me with something close to a grin. “You have outdone yourself, Hellscourge,” he said in approval. “I have not seen one of these creatures in several millennia. I thought they were extinct.”
“What is it?” I asked.
He did a double take at my question and frowned. “It is a crab beetle.”
“Wow, someone really put a lot of thought into naming it,” I said dryly. The beetle stood about eight feet tall and was twice that in length. It was black, of course, and had a hard shell that only left a small portion of its head uncovered. It had multiple thin legs and two large claws that it clacked in anticipation of rending its foe in half.
“These beetles were deemed too dangerous to leave roaming the wastelands,” Morax informed me. “We spent centuries hunting them down until they were eradicated.”
“What makes them so dangerous?”
“Watch and you will discover the answer to that for yourself,” he replied.
The bug had several pairs of eyes that could swivel independently as it eyed the demon. The captain held his sword in both hands and was sweating as he circled, keeping his opponent in sight at all times.
With a squeal, the beetle spat out black sludge. The captain didn’t sidestep quite fast enough. Some of the spray landed on his arm and he cursed in pain. Shouts of encouragement and derision came from the crowd. The legion had split into two teams. One side was egging him on and the other hoped he would be defeated.
Even above their noise, I heard the captain’s flesh sizzling. “It spits acid?” I asked in astonishment. Was it just a coincidence that Sy had created a rune that had the exact same effect?
“The acid is strong enough to eat through almost anything,” Morax said. “The crab beetles can reproduce at an alarming rate and they are voraciously hungry. They can decimate entire villages in a single day.”
“You guys just disappear and go back to the first realm when you’re badly injured,” I pointed out. “They can’t actually eat you, can they?”
Heads turned and some of the expressions were scornful at my lack of knowledge. “The beetles are smarter than they look,” Morax advised me. “The ones from the outer realms learned how to feast on our kind. The ones that had been in the first realm did not need to develop special tactics. They fed extremely well before they were eradicated.” That made sense. If the demons were already in the first realm when they were caught, they wouldn’t have anywhere to disappear to when they became badly injured.
The captain screamed in agony and my attention was drawn back to the arena. The beetle had spat acid again and this time it had washed over the demon’s thighs. His legs came loose and he crashed to the floor. Before he could drag himself away, the giant bug scuttled in and snipped his arms off with its claws. Instead of finishing him off, it settled down and began to eat.
Watching it cram one of his arms into its mouth with a claw, I felt my gorge rise. “Is that what they did to the villagers?” I asked faintly.
Morax nodded. “They swarm over our settlements and incapacitate us. Then they eat until they are full before moving on.”
Nauseated, I swallowed down my bile as I watched the captain futilely trying to turn over. He didn’t have any arms or legs to be able to crawl away now. “What happens to their victims?” ‘Meals’ would have been a more appropriate term, but I didn’t think he’d find it very funny. “Do their arms and legs grow back?”
Morax nodded. “We are able to repair ourselves, but our master deemed his creations to be too much of an annoyance. I thought that we had eradicated them all.” His master had been Satan back then. The new Hellmaster hadn’t yet been identified.
We turned back to the monster that was eating the captain. “How did the arena manage to create something that I’ve never even seen and didn’t know existed?” I asked.
“That is a very good question. Unfortunately, I do not have an answer for you.”
“Is someone going to go in and rescue him?”
The look he gave me was challenging. “It is your creation. Perhaps you should save him.”
Whispers spread and everyone turned to see my reaction. I’d brought this hideous thing to life and they wanted to see me kill it. The demonic part of me wasn’t about to back down, even if the sensible side told me I didn’t need to prove myself to them.
It wasn’t necessary to enter the arena to save the captain. With a thought, I brought him out of the cage and restored his arms and legs. The beetle slammed a claw on the floor in frustration when its hoard of food disappeared.
“Thank you, master,” the captain said in gratitude then his mouth dropped open when he realized what he’d said.
“Don’t mention it,” I said with a sigh. Soon, they’d all be calling me that. Catching Morax’s sardonic look, I knew he’d resist to the bitter end. It was slightly reassuring that they hadn’t all succumbed to my will.
The crowd parted, leaving me a clear path to the arena. Thanks to Vepar, I now had over two hundred souls inside me again. Hagith and Brie had unknowingly destroyed some of them after they’d purified me with holy fire. Vepar and her kill squad had brought the numbers back up again during their search for Sophia’s store.
I climbed the new stairs to the glass door and turned the handle. Annoyed that its meal had been stolen, the beetle clicked its large claws menacingly as I entered the arena and pulled the door shut. Looking down at me with all of its eyes, it didn’t seem to be impressed. Holding out my hand, I called on Morax’s favorite weapon.
Two mandibles that flanked the beetle’s mouth twitched and it suddenly seemed wary. If Morax was right, then this thing was far more intelligent than it looked. It circled around me and spat acid without warning. I dodged it easily and it splattered harmlessly on the ground. The arena was impervious to damage and the black sludge faded away.
Twirling my axe to limber up my wrist, I concentrated on finding a weakness. The creature’s shell was shiny and reflected my image back at me. It was thick and my weapon would probably just bounce off it. As far as I could tell, the only area that wasn’t guarded was the small section near its face and beneath it where its legs were.
A claw came towards me and I batted it away with my weapon. The crablike thing chittered in anger and rushed towards me with both claws extended. Diving to the side, I swung the axe and it sheared through one of its smaller legs.
Lurching, it swung around and a claw hit my back and sent me flying. I hit the glass wall on the other side of the arena and slid to the ground. The legion let out groans of sympathy when blood spurted out of my broken nose.
“That hurt,” I growled and stood. My nose healed instantly, but my blood remained smeared on the glass for a few seconds before it faded away.
The beetle’s eyes swiveled pointedly to the leg that I’d cut off, as if it was saying that we were even.
“Kill it, Hellscourge!” someone shouted and voices roared in support.
Despite myself, their encouragement spurred me on. They chanted my name as I circled my foe. It lunged at me and I deflected its claw. With a swipe of my axe, I cut off another leg. It spat acid at me and this time I didn’t manage to evade it. Hissing in pain, I looked down to see that my jacket and flesh had been eaten away. I could see my ribs glinting whitely. I repaired my body and clothes with a thought then a red haze of wrath descended.
Moving so fast that the crab beetle couldn’t keep up, I hacked and sliced until half of its legs were gone. It crashed to the floor, helpless to avoid me. I sidled around where it couldn’t spit acid or slice me in half with its claws. Bending, I gripped its shell with one hand and heaved it over onto its side. Its soft center was exposed and it curled what was left of its legs up to protect itself. It squealed in pain and rage when I chopped the limbs off. Changing my weapon into a sword, a few stabs were enough to scramble its insides. Its squeals of pain became fai
nt as it faded then disappeared along with its severed appendages.
Awed silence reigned. I realized what I’d seen reflected back at me just before I’d flipped the beetle over. I’d changed into the demon-like creature I became when I was in hell. Morax strode forward to open the door for me. I descended the stairs and we stood face to face. He was only a few inches taller than me now.
“You are nearly a lord now,” he said and I heard the worry in his tone. “I had not realized how advanced your transformation had become.”
“We are doomed to stay locked inside you forever if you do not find a way to free us soon,” the female lord said to me. Her scarlet eyes were almost accusing.
“I won’t let that happen,” I replied and hated how guttural my voice sounded. “I want you guys gone just as badly as you want to escape.”
I started to fade as the dream changed. Morax caught and held my eyes and I saw his doubt. I didn’t have a soul of my own and they were giving me the only power I had. Without them, I would be nothing. How could I possibly defeat the Hellmaster if I was powerless?
₪₪₪
Chapter Twelve
I was sitting at the table when I received a call from Detective Reynolds the next morning. “Hi, Alice,” he said when I answered the phone. It was a warning that his partner was within hearing distance. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” I replied. “How are things at work?”
“Busy. There’s always some crime that needs to be solved,” he said with an easy laugh. He was an accomplished actor by now. During my absence, Nathan and Leo had continued to help Reynolds identify his colleagues who had been possessed. The detective couldn’t do much to warn the cops that were still human. At least he knew who he could trust.
