“Sucks…” Aura muttered. “And for what? Some stupid hole in the ground?” he asked himself, turning his attention to the old well in the corner of the cave. “Of course I’m going to look inside it!” The boy crossed streams and puddles and hopped over stones to get to the well.
When he was standing right next to it he could see the object covering the well was a large, disc-shaped stone. It must have taken someone a long time to carve it into that shape, because etched into the top of the stone was a single word.
“Nemo?” Aura said, reading the stone carving aloud. “Who’s Nemo? I don’t recall a Nemo Satan in any of the history books. Maybe Nemo’s the name of the guy who wasted his life carving this giant stone lid for a well! Sorry Mr. Nemo, but Mr. Draxler is about to sneak a peek at your dirty little secret!”
Planting his feet firmly and pressing his shoulder against the side of the stone lid, Aura strained his muscles to push. It didn’t move for a couple of seconds, but Aura found a little more oomph to give and managed to budge it a single inch. The stone lid grinded against the brick-top well, echoing throughout the cave.
He listened for any sounds of water, but everything was silent. All Aura could hear was the sound of his own heavy breathing and heart beat. He paused for a moment in fear before sticking his eye into the crack. Even with the torchlight from the room, he could see nothing but darkness inside the well. He thought for a second, wondering if he should drop a flame inside to see.
That’s when he heard…something. It was like a soft, almost inaudible groan at first. But then the noise became clearer and loud enough for Aura to hear properly, and there was no mistaking it. There was something alive down here.
“Lll…” the voice whispered from the darkness.
Did it just say something? Aura wondered.
“I-i-illl…” the hoarse voice groaned.
‘Ill?’ Is he trying to say he’s sick?
“Ck… Ck… K-ill…”
‘KILL!?’ Did he just say ‘kill’!? Oh man, this is insane! What if it’s some super-demon that was sealed away by the great hero Aster!? I’d better close this up right now and get out of here! But… If it really is a dangerous demon, I could always just use my ability on him. If Aster could beat him without my ability, I’m sure I could take him easily! Okay! I’ve convinced myself! Mr. Draxler, you are brilliant!
Aura lit a tiny flame on the tip of his finger. The boy navigated the little flame through the opening and watched the miniature searchlight slowly descend the depths of the well. One foot. Five feet. Ten feet. Twenty feet. Suddenly the flame disappeared from sight.
Did it go out? Aura wondered. It doesn’t feel like I’m controlling it anymore…
“Kill.”
It’s that voice again…
“Kill… Kill… Kill!”
“Hello?” Aura called down the well. “Who’s down there?”
“KILL!!” the voice erupted from below. In a split-second flash of light, Aura saw the outline of what looked like a very frail and skinny hairless man. Then the fire came. Aura had never seen so much blue flame in his life. He jumped backward just in time as the flames jumped out of the tiny crack of an opening.
“What the…!” was all Aura could mutter.
“LET ME OUT!!” the maniacal well-dweller whaled.
* * * *
On the opposite side of the underground cavework, Ash was also sticking his eyeball where it didn’t belong. The boy felt his body go numb, almost as if he had been drugged. It was so powerful he could not move. Inside of the cabin wasn’t just something scary, it was something so terrifyingly evil that Ash couldn’t even move in the presence of it.
Which really sucked, because now he wanted to get the hell out of there. The tiny amount of what he could see, lit by his small flame, was terrible enough to fuel his nightmares for years to come. The boy tried to look away, but the fear was paralyzing. There in the small sliver of light, Ash could just make out an object in the hut.
It looked like a giant diamond, or some other kind of clear stone. Or maybe it was a big chunk of ice. Ash wasn’t entirely sure about that detail. Whatever the material was, the boy could see something inside, frozen in time and perfectly preserved. A man.
Ash couldn’t make out specific features on the man’s face, but he could tell from the man’s position that he was frozen in prayer. The man’s wings were just visible behind his back, though they didn’t look like devil wings. They were brighter, less scaly, more avian… Ash had seen wings like that before, just once on the night he was taken to Hell.
The man trapped in the stone was an angel.
“Terrifying, right?”
Ash fell backward, surprised to hear Phoenix talking so soon. The boy took the opportunity to crawl back a few feet, just in case the wave of fear paralyzed him again. Sitting on the ground next to the very beat-up Phoenix, Ash rested and caught his breath.
“What… Who is that?” the boy said, gasping for air.
“Like I said before,” Phoenix replied, “he’s the reason why we’re all here.”
* * * *
“LET… ME… OUT!!” the terrifying voice bellowed from below. Scorching hot blue flames leapt from the open well, threatening anyone who got too close. Aura took cover across the stream from the well, too shocked and scared to move. The crystal cavern trembled as the man in the well screamed with a fury the boy had never before heard.
“You woke… him up?” came a familiar voice. Aura directed his attention across the cave and saw Lionel lying on his back. He was awake now, though not in any shape to get up and move around.
“Who the heck is that!?” Aura shouted.
“Beats me,” the rebel said. “That’s what I came down here to find out.”
“KKKKIIIIILLLLLLLLL!!” the man in the well screamed repeatedly. The cave started to feel more like a sauna now from all the blue flame the man was emitting.
“Close it!” Lionel said. “We can’t let him get out!”
Aura nodded in agreement. Before the room got any hotter, the boy crossed the stream once more and carefully made his way around the bursts of blue-hot flames coming from the well. Cautiously, he maneuvered around the well to the backside. There he struggled to push the lid back the opposite way, covering the well.
“NOOOOO!!” the man in the well screamed. “KILL!!” The screams went silent as the lid slid into place over the opening. No more flames escaped, and the room gradually cooled down. The silence was a welcomed change.
“I’m conflicted,” Lionel said. “I feel like I should thank you for saving me from that guy. On the other hand, I feel like I should hate you.”
“Because I beat you up?”
“Because they’re going to kill me!” Lionel screamed. He faced the floor, lost in thought for a moment. Finally, he looked up at Aura with fear in his eyes. “You should just kill me now.”
“No way! I was ordered to capture you, not kill you. Besides, I don’t even wanna kill you.”
“If you don’t kill me, they will! I’m dead no matter what, and I’d much rather die in a fight with you than be executed in front of the entire Kingdom!”
“Too damn bad! You did the crime, now you have to accept the punishment.”
“Please!” Lionel screamed as tears flew. “I can accept death, but not a criminal’s death! That’s not how I want to be remembered in the end!”
“Look,” said Aura. “I’m not going to let you take the easy way out, so quit trying to put your death on my conscious! It doesn’t matter how you die, as long as you own it! So when the time comes, are you gonna go out like a sniveling coward? Or are you gonna own your death like a real man?”
* * * *
“We don’t have much time,” Phoenix said. They could hear the voices and footsteps of the Royal Guards coming for them through the cracks in the rocky walls. “In case we don’t get the chance to speak again, I have to tell you something. Our fight has cleared any doubts I once had about you. In fact, I
must say I’m quite proud of you.”
“Proud of me? You’re delirious.”
“No, I mean it. You’ve improved so much I hardly recognize you anymore. I know you’ll make a great leader some day.”
“Leader? Me? I think I must have really damaged your brain when I hit you. I’m no leader.”
“Maybe not yet,” Phoenix replied. “But some day soon…”
A man appeared, climbing through the crack in the rocks to get into the cavern. To Ash’s surprise, the man was Goddard accompanied by two Royal Guard soldiers. “Ash!” the Royal Advisor called out to his subordinate.
“I’m fine,” Ash answered. “I have the… criminal. He’s not going anywhere.”
“Excellent!” Goddard commended the boy, grasping his shoulders passionately. “And the room, you didn’t go inside did you?”
“No,” Ash answered quickly. “Of course not! I get goosebumps just looking at it.”
“Good. Let’s all get out of this place right away. You two, carry the prisoner back through the cave!” The two Royal Guards scrambled to pull the injured Phoenix to his feet and dragged him over to the exit. It was going to be a difficult process for them to lead the prisoner back through the cavern. “We’d better go first,” Goddard said to Ash.
As the two of them crawled through the tiny cracks and back down the rocky ledges, Ash couldn’t help but wonder what Phoenix had meant when he said the boy would make a good leader some day. He knew he should feel happy about getting revenge for Shiva, but after witnessing the disturbing frozen angel all the boy could feel was sorrow.
* * * *
Royal Guards spilled into the crystal cavern, where Aura and Lionel sat debating the ethics of mercy killing. The Royal Guards marveled at the dazzling crystals as they slowly made their way over to where the two were sitting.
“They’re here,” Lionel said. “Quickly, this is my last chance – please, I beg you! Kill me now!”
“He’s over here, guys!” Aura called to the guards. “Take him away.”
The Royal Guards swept through the crystal cavern like a SWAT team, some of them even holding fireballs in their hands. When they saw the rebel lying on the ground completely defenseless they moved in and immediately chained his wrists together as they lifted him up to his feet. Lionel struggled to stand up, but his wounds had severely weakened him.
“Aura Draxler?” a soldier asked. Aura recognized him as one of the guards regularly stationed at the castle gate. He was also one of the people who routinely made Aura’s life harder each morning by forcing him and Ash to open the heavy gates on their own. Aura nodded politely in acknowledgement. “Good job here. You really helped us scrape this piece of rebel shit off the King’s boot!”
The boisterous guard shoved his fist into Lionel’s gut as the rest of the guards held the rebel on his feet. Lionel kept his head low, but the punch knocked out what little wind he had left in him. When Aura caught a look at his former opponent’s face as they dragged him off, he did not like the pained expression he saw.
“He’s already been beaten man, you didn’t have to hit him!” Aura said, taking a stand. Lionel kept his head low in shame and defeat. “He’s not a piece of shit. His name is Lionel, and he’s one of the most honorable men I’ve ever met.”
“Yeah well honor don’t count for much when you’re a treasonous scumbag!” the guard replied with a hearty laugh and a rough shove that knocked Lionel back down to his knees. “Oh come on! Don’t tell me you’re ready to die so soon! We still have a fun evening of special activities planned for you!”
Aura stood silently as the guards dragged their prisoner away, then disappeared from the cavern. The death toucher took one last look back at the terrifying ‘Nemo’ well that he hoped he’d never have to see again. The boy stole a final glance at the puddle of blood collected on the cavern floor, the blood that he had spilled. In his heart he knew he’d done the right thing by stopping the rebel, but at the same time he felt abysmal at being the cause of yet another unintended death.
Looks like I can never truly escape Death, Aura thought. Even if I do, He still takes away the people I care about.
* * * *
The death toucher walked the winding cavernous pathway back to the prison. He was glad to finally be going up. To him, it felt like he’d been down there for months. When Aura emerged, he was greeted by a small group of Royal Guards accompanied by Goddard. Standing behind the Royal Advisor was a beat up looking Ash.
Aura hustled over to his friend while they were just shoving Lionel into a cell next to Phoenix. The leader of the rebels looked like Ash had really done a number on him, with torn clothing and black scorch marks all over his body and face. The two captured men sat on the hard stone floor of their cells with their faces expressionless, looking down. They would use their remaining time trying not to think about their inevitable execution to come.
“You survived,” Aura said, slapping Ash lightly on his shoulder.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Ash replied.
“I knew you’d be alright.”
“You two!” Goddard said, turning his attention to the boys. “You did spectacular! Words cannot express my gratitude!” The boys awkwardly nodded their heads in acknowledgement, trying to avoid gazing at their captured enemies. “Just tell me, and be honest, did either of you get a look at what was inside those rooms you entered?”
Ash hesitated to reply, but Aura spoke up immediately to cover his silence. “Just an old well. Nothing special, really. I was more focused on keeping the enemy from reaching it. So what’s down there, anyway?”
“Family secret, I’m afraid,” Goddard told him. “And how about you Ash? Be honest now! You didn’t try to go inside that hut, did you?”
“I already told you no,” Ash said, trying to muster up some enthusiasm behind his words. “I couldn’t look away for even a second. That’s the only way I was able to beat him.” Ash felt bad about lying to Goddard, but he couldn’t tell him the truth. That would have to remain between him and Aura, the next time he got a chance to speak with his friend in private.
“Very good then!” Goddard said, seeming satisfied with their answers. “Now let’s all get out of this dingy dungeon. We’ll have to increase security to this area from now on, as well.”
The Royal Advisor turned to leave with the rest of the Royal Guard following like obedient dogs. Ash and Aura stole one last look back at the men they left behind. Even though they were enemies, the boys couldn’t help but feel they were leaving behind two good men to die.
“You okay?” Aura asked.
“I don’t know,” Ash replied.
“Yeah,” said Aura. “Me too.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight: In The End
Wilhelm Satan moved with stealth down the empty side streets of the Kingdom. When he encountered a demon, he’d end its life as hastily as possible and keep moving. His goal was to find the rebel soldiers, before his murder-happy grandson killed them all. Turning a corner, the old Satan almost ran directly into a masked rebel warrior heading towards the final battle at the castle courtyard.
The rebel drew his sword at the sight of the man. Wilhelm raised his hands at once and said “It’s me!” The rebel lowered his blade and listened.
“The invasion has failed. Flee now!”
The rebel nodded in understanding. At once he removed his mask and cloak, tucking them away inside a small bag. The man rushed out into the street, heading west. Wilhelm sighed with relief at having saved at least one life today. The Great Satan pressed on, aiming to assist as many of the rebel soldiers as possible.
* * * *
All around the Kingdom of Hell, battles were taking place in the streets leading up to the Royal Castle. The Royal Guard stood its ground in the castle courtyard, which seemed to be where the final battle would occur. If the rebels broke through here, they would retake the castle and the King.
A smaller lad that had only been a member of the Royal Guard for one week ran acro
ss the courtyard terrified. Bounding after him was the rebel’s special weapon: a demon wargi. Riding atop it, controlling it somehow, was a rebel warrior. The man wore a hood and goggles to hide his identity.
The unfortunate soldier ran until he could go no further, trapped in the courtyard by the castle wall. The lad turned around and drew his sword, knees trembling. The beast’s humongous teeth were about to bare down on him, but another soldier entered the fight first. With a swing of one giant axe, the wargi’s teeth shattered to a hundred pieces.
The green Royal Guard lad could not believe his eyes. Standing before him was a single man, with what looked like a large barrel full of weapons strapped to his back. It was the former Royal Weaponsmith Amos Draxler who stood triumphant as the wargi kicked its rider off and ran away, tail between its legs.
“Stand up and fight!” Amos commanded the poor lad.
“Y-yes sir!” he squeaked.
Surrounding the two of them were ten rebel warriors, all slowly advancing with their weapons drawn. Amos’s giant axe had suffered some damage when he struck the wargi earlier. Just like the demon’s teeth, his axe also crumbled to pieces. Amos dropped the broken weapon and reached behind his back, fishing for something else.
The first rebel to attack made his move. The man charged in brandishing a sword. Just as he struck, Amos pulled from his back-barrel a sword to defend himself. The two of them locked blades in a stalemate, trying to push one another back. Another rebel decided to join in the fun. That man jumped high into the air, aiming for the preoccupied Amos.
With startling accuracy Amos reached behind his back with his free hand and pulled out a single throwing dagger. “Wait your turn!” he shouted, hurling the dagger at the rebel. He kicked away the man he was holding back with his sword and jumped back. The airborne rebel dropped to the ground screaming in pain. The dagger was lodged in his right shoulder.
Devil Ash Deceit (Devil Ash Saga) Page 39
