by Leo Romero
A spark went off in my mind. “Perina,” I said. “The goddess of magic.”
Draxil nodded. “She evaded God for many moons, spreading magic to the plants and animals, creating magical creatures. Jehovah learned of her presence and tolerated her. She became a new aspect of His divine plan.”
“So Perina was a glitch in the Matrix,” I said to myself with a nod. “So what happened next?”
“After God banished humans from Eden and condemned them to Earth, Perina lured Adam astray, their offspring deformed creatures. Goblins, orcs, fairies. Twisted interpretations of man.”
I came to a stop. “Wait a minute. Perina made out with Adam?”
“I am not aware of what ‘made out’ refers to, but if it means fornicate, then yes!”
I blinked in surprise. “That’s pretty kinky.”
“God grew angry with her,” Draxil continued, “seeing it as a perversion of His already flawed creation. But by then it was too late. The power of her magic had spread. God could not rid the world of her influence without destroying everything. He decided to reconcile. He shunned the creatures borne of magic, and ordered the succubus to create her own realm where she would take all the creatures to reside. The succubus agreed, and it became the realm of magic.”
“The Chicago Underworld today,” I said in a soft voice. “NeverEverVale. That’s insane.”
“As time progressed,” Draxil continued, “the magic world and the human world overlapped at the edges, Perina and her mischievous minions defying God’s will. Humans and magical creatures continued to mingle and live alongside one another albeit at the fringes of society. During this time, Satan identified an anomaly. Every so often, almost as if planned, a being would walk the various realms. One fused with powerful magic but also carrying other rare qualities, ranging from divinity to bestial. A contradiction of God’s will. Satan grew to understand the power of this individual’s blood. It could pick the locks that God had placed between Heaven, Hell, and Earth, but only if handled correctly. And that was where I came in. His disciples spent centuries devising a ritual that could unlock the gates between Earth and the pit and allow Satan to unleash Hell on Earth, and thus fulfilling his twisted desires of fully corrupting God’s divine work. The ritual would require the influence of a powerful demon fused with the blood of the Dark Bearer. This is why Satan allowed me to move up the ranks to Prince. He wished me to grow strong in power, merely to use me for his own ends. Unbeknownst to me, he must have been aware of my planned deceit toward him and thus fooled me.”
“So, what then?”
“Heaven learned of Satan’s plan and devised a counter attack of their own. Whenever a Dark Bearer walked the Earth, a guardian angel would be sent to protect them. To ensure the ritual never took place. That person is now you, Stone.”
I stopped and shivered. “Me? What the hell! I’m just some bum who likes to play cards.”
“You think you’re the first who likes to play games? The Chinese man liked to play mahjong.”
“But I was thrown out of Heaven for gambling. I can’t be this guardian angel.”
“You really think Jehovah cared about you gambling?” Draxil scoffed. “He couldn’t give a damn. You were sent back to Earth because you’re more useful there than in Heaven. You are the Dark Bearer’s guardian angel. Entrusted to stop the ritual from occurring.”
“But you’re walking the Earth now. The ritual is kaput.”
Draxil nodded. “That is because you are the last, Stone. The present Dark Bearer is the last.”
I gulped. “What does that mean?”
A rattle made me turn. The steps up ahead leaped up into a big mound of shivering bones. I casually aimed Bam Bam and fired. The bones exploded outward. I turned back to Draxil, more concerned with what he just said. “Aurora’s the last Dark Bearer?”
Draxil nodded. “Yes. The Six Diseased Disciples of Satan can foresee the future. They told me while I was being tortured I would return during a period of high technology. I didn’t know what that meant, but now I do. The Earth is about to go through big changes. Satan has nearly missed his opportunity. He needs to sacrifice the last Dark Bearer before she dies of natural causes or his desire to consume Earth will fail, and Earth will enter a new phase.”
I stopped and gazed at him, questions forming in my mind. “How did you come back to life?”
Draxil flicked his head to the side. “Those things back there. In the strange attire. One of them was foolish enough to put all of the pieces of the Armor on at once. I consumed his flesh, which allowed me to return.”
“His flesh? What about his soul?”
“Pah, those things have no souls.”
“’Course they do. They’re human.”
Draxil chuckled. “You may wish to rethink that notion. They have no spark of life in them. They are dead. That I now understand is what Satan’s disciples meant by a time of high technology. Those things are beyond God’s creation. Their flesh resurrected me, and now my presence on Earth has alerted the horsemen.”
I puffed my cheeks. “The fun never stops! So now tell me about what the deal is with them.”
“They were created by God to cast His Judgement upon man. They were to destroy the sinful and scorch the Earth. And they almost did.”
“Hold up. Did?”
Draxil nodded. “Yes. God sent them to fulfill their prophecy after He decided the time had come.”
“When was this?”
“A long time ago. Soon after the realm of magic became strong. He grew tired of Perina’s mischief and man’s corruptible nature and decided to start over. However, I stopped him.”
“You?”
Draxil gave me a solemn nod. “On Satan’s orders.”
I recoiled. “Wait a minute. The horsemen were gonna destroy the world, and Satan stopped them? Something doesn’t add up there.”
“Satan doesn’t give a damn about the Earth, Stone. He just wants to be the one who corrupts it. He longs to corrupt man and mock God. There was no way he was going to let the horsemen accomplish his aims on his behalf. In his view, Hell has to destroy the Earth and man, nothing else.”
“Sounds like Batman and the Joker,” I mumbled to myself.
“I am not acquainted with these people. Are they decedents of Abraham?”
I shook my head. “They’re comic book characters. One is the good guy, the other the bad guy, perfect opposites. One kills and maims, the other refuses to kill. The Joker wants to drive Batman insane and constantly encourages Batman to kill him. If Batman kills the Joker, then the Joker wins as he’s corrupted the incorruptible.”
“Sounds like an apt reflection of the battle between God and Satan.”
“So what happened once the horsemen were triggered?”
“It was during a time when demons could walk the Earth, but only through powerful rituals. I and my brothers in arms were summoned to Earth in time to foil the horsemen. It was a long and hard battle. But we managed to stop them from fulfilling their prophecy. The Archangels intervened, and there was a standoff between demon, angel, and horseman. The Archangels declared that God had changed His plans, and the horsemen were not to fulfill their destiny. This angered them. They vowed never to do Heaven’s bidding and turned rogue. They decreed if a higher demon in its true form walked the Earth again, it would mark their heralding. They would return, destroy the demon, and then fulfill their prophecy of scorching Earth. So God appeased them. He banished demons from Earth, using extra powers to lock us in Hell. Only through back doors could we reach Earth, using hosts, never fully able to walk freely in our true forms.
“And now that you’re back...”
Draxil nodded. “A demon in his true form walks the Earth once more.”
“And that triggered the horsemen.”
“Correct.”
I blew the air from my lungs. “Holy moly. So what now?”
“Now we have to defeat them before they fulfill their prophecy.”
�
�But they’re immortal.”
“Yes, but they can be beaten.”
“How?”
“If I am reunited with my brothers in arms. Our combined power can overcome immortality.”
“And where are your brothers in arms?”
Draxil huffed. “I do not know. Once I was betrayed, the others were either captured or fled. I have lost contact with them.”
“So you don’t even know if they’re alive.”
His head dropped. “No.”
“Sorry to be the harbinger of doom, but that plan doesn’t sound too hot.”
“We have no choice. I must be reunited with my brothers in arms!”
“But they might be dead.”
“And they might not!” His eyes flashed with anger.
I didn’t want to upset him, so I quickly thought of another plan. It hit me. “I got it!” I said, clicking my fingers. “We can go back, and I’ll bind the horsemen to cards in my Deck of Death. We’ve got their names, so I can use the binding spell on them. They’ll be stored in the Void out of harm’s way. Job done.”
Draxil shook his head, melting my grin. “Those are not their real names. Their real names are unpronounceable. The monikers they’ve been given are just representations of what they will bring to the world during the Judgement. The Grim Reaper is the embodiment of Death itself, the horseman merely a representation.”
I groaned to myself. So much for that. Back to plan A. “Okay, let’s assume your demon buddies are alive and well. Where would we look for them?”
Draxil shrugged. “I cannot say.”
Something above our heads dropped down. A bunch of bones. They formed into a bat-like creature and swooped in toward us, its bony wings flapping. My eyes widened. “Incoming!” I said as it dived in toward Draxil’s back. “Duck!” I shouted.
Draxil heeded the warning. He ducked down. The bone-bat flew in over him and toward me.
I aimed Bam Bam and fired. The thing obliterated on the air, showering fragments of bone down on Draxil’s back. He turned his head upward left and right.
“All clear,” I said.
He stood upright, pieces of bone showering off his body. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” My eyes fell on the markings running up his arms. “You know, I recently saw another demon with tats like those.”
Draxil’s eyes glinted with eagerness. “Where?”
“Tartarus.”
“Why were you there?”
“It’s a long story. But I needed to go there and stop a satanic elf from sacrificing Aurora. To get there, I needed the help of a master necromancer called Nigella. I didn’t know it until we got to Tartarus, but there was a demon possessing her. He jumped out of her to help us fight Typhon who the elf managed to resurrect.”
“Were the etchings like these?” He pointed at the ones on his forearm.
I nodded. “Yeah. He had those same chains on his wrists too. And he was big. I’m talking really big, like maybe ten to fifteen feet high once he grew out of the back of Nigella.”
“You’re sure the etchings he had were the same as mine?”
“Yes! What are they, some kind of mark of recognition?”
Draxil nodded. “Something akin to that. They are the etchings of Hazatar.”
“Who?”
“Hazatar. A scholar of Hell. To become a demon and thus be on the path to the higher rankings of Hell, one must join a school of Hell’s magic. My brothers in arms and I joined Hazatar. An evil, twisted being of darkness. Although, in all fairness, he was more tolerable than the other wretches on offer. The etchings give each demon status as well as magical power.”
“So who was that demon possessing Nigella?”
“From what you say, it sounds like Lothar. I knew he had escaped Hell. It seems he found a vehicle to hide inside.”
“A vehicle? Is that how you see us?”
“We are demons, Stone.”
“Yeah, but still. Could be a bit nicer about us.”
“Don’t be so sensitive.” He rubbed his head, the broken chain on his manacle tinkling. “We must go and find Lothar.”
“But he’s in Tartarus.”
“And?”
“And Typhon’s there. I don’t know if this Lothar killed him or if Typhon killed Lothar.”
“And that’s what we need to discover.”
“But we blocked off the portal!”
“Well, you’re going to open it up again.”
“I just told you, Typhon’s there.”
“Then we shall kill him!”
“You’ve got no sense of danger, do you?”
“I do not hide, Stone. We need Lothar if we are to beat the horsemen.”
“Why can nothing ever be simple?”
“If things were simple, they wouldn’t be worth fighting for.”
We finally made it to the bottom of the spiraling staircase. The tower lobby faced us, a big circular chamber. Opposite us was the exit, a rectangular door-shape cut into the bones. “Just my luck! Going back to Tartarus!” I grumbled as I stomped toward the exit. I made it a few steps, and the ground rumbled. I came to an abrupt halt. Draxil slammed into my back, sending me staggering forward. I managed to bring myself to a stop in time before the ground ahead of me shot upward into a column of bones. I reeled my arms on the air like windmills as I struggled to regain my balance, my fearful gaze fixed on that huge bone pillar. The bones rattled and danced and formed into a multitude of legs from which a long spinal column rose in the air, a tail elongating out in the opposite direction. Ribs slammed together to form a chest cavity. Two arms grew out of the ribcage a bone at a time, hands forming at the ends. They reached down into the gap now in the floor and plucked out the skull of some hideous creature that made Draxil look like Miss World. It popped its head on the top of the spinal cord, and the vacant eye sockets glowed with blue fire.
I glared up at it. “Well, color me pink,” I said, hardly surprised a bone monster had popped out of the ground of Bone Tower right as we were about to walk straight out of there.
It raised its fists in the air. I jumped back on instinct. It fists slammed down onto the bony ground with a thud, causing the bones in its arms to rattle.
“Are you waiting for a damn invitation?” Bam Bam asked me. “Shoot it!”
I lifted Bam Bam and went to pull the trigger when the bone monster whipped around, its four legs skittling across the bones like a lithe crab. Its tail struck Bam Bam, knocking her out of my grip. She flew across the chamber out of harm’s way.
Ach, the old knock the gun out of the hand with the tail trick!
I fell for it every time. Sucker!
The bone monster rotated back the way it came, its fist cutting through the air. I saw it at the last second and threw my arms up to my head. Lucky I did, ’cause if I didn’t, that fist may well have taken my head off my shoulders. The blow connected with both the side of my head and my forearm, which took most of the blow. Even so, the hit was like being clobbered with a baseball bat. I reeled off to the side, losing my balance and toppling over, my shoulder smashing into the bone. Pain burned through me like acid.
I shook it off and rolled onto my back. The bone monster was already scuttling in for a killer blow. My mind whirled. The most effective weapon I had against it was out of reach, and there was no link to the Void in the Netherworld to summon a monster from my Deck of Death. And by the time all that had registered in my mind, the bastard was already slamming his fists down toward me.
I tried to scramble back, but it was too late. The fists arced down. My heart came to a standstill.
A harsh growl to my left was accompanied by a flash of bright light. I caught a glimpse of Draxil’s etchings flaring into life along both forearms. He clapped both hands together. The etchings burned brighter. He opened his hands; both palms were engulfed with a dark glow. Draxil threw both palms toward the bone monster in the nick of time. Twin streams of dark energy burst from Draxil’s palms like laser beams an
d struck the bone monster in the ribcage. There was a loud whoosh, and the air shimmered and danced. The bone monster was thrown off its feet and across the lobby. It smashed into the wall so hard it clattered on impact, pieces of bone exploding out. Its massive skull hit the floor and stayed there, the blue fire in its eyes sockets flickering out.
The etchings on Draxil’s arms dulled and went out, small wisps of smoke floating up lazily from his palms. He doubled over, grabbing his thighs, his chest heaving.
I jumped to my feet. “Thanks,” I said.
He waved a tired hand at me.
“You okay?” I asked, concerned by his heavy breathing.
“I’ll be fine. Go and get your weapon.”
I went and picked up Bam Bam, my cautious gaze fixed on that skull. I didn’t trust anything. I holstered my gun and turned to Draxil, who was steadily rising back upright. “Let’s get out of here before anything else decides to attack us.”
Draxil held a tired hand toward the exit. “Lead the way.”
Chapter 4
We left Bone Tower behind, moving away from it as fast as we could. We were in the Netherworld suburbs, the Netherworld equivalent of the Loop. Stores selling bizarre wares and ancient artifacts surrounded us. Netherworld monsters shuffled and scampered by, busily seeking out any new items any stores had to offer.
Draxil gazed at the creatures with an open mouth. “Get us back to Earth, Stone,” he said, watching a zebroid—a zebra, human chimera—walk by.
I shook my head. “Can’t. My joker card will take us back to the last place we were on Earth, which was that roof. I’m not going anywhere near it. Not with those cowboys up there.”
“So, we’re stuck here?” Draxil exclaimed, jabbing a finger toward a fishalo—a walking buffalo with a fish head. The fishalo stuck its head in Draxil’s face, popping open its rubber lips in anger. Draxil gave it a growl. The fishalo immediately backed down and scuttled off.
