Knights and Demons: Season One | Omnibus

by Greg Dragon

  “Trace, what’s going on?” he asked, and then he turned her around slowly to look her over for any injuries that may have escaped him.

  “I dunno, Jimmy, I’m just tired. I feel like I haven’t slept in days and my body hurts, like the gunshots and bites from the kreple didn’t heal.”

  James looked around for Jaime and then knelt down in front of her. The young man was nowhere in view, so he lifted her t-shirt up above her breasts and observed her abdomen where the kreple had bitten her when she first met Alysia. There was a yellowish discoloration where the teeth marks were, and when he touched one of them, she flinched hard, almost screaming aloud from the pain.

  “Oh man, this is bad, baby. You’ve got some sort of infection,” he said, looking up at her grimacing face.

  “An infection after all this time?” Tracy asked as she tried in vain to pull him up to his feet. “There is so much going on that I don’t understand, Jimmy. Now we’re trapped in this endless tunnel and I’m sick.”

  “What could have brought this on?” he asked her as he stood up and touched the sides of her face. “We all got knocked out, and now you have this infection. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Right now, to be honest, I just need love,” she said to him. She reached up to touch his beard and he leaned in and kissed her passionately as they held one another beneath the flickering subway light.

  ~ * ~ * ~

  “Why should I need training to fight things that I had no problem fighting with before?” Alysia asked the young girl who stood with her. They were facing some sort of obstacle course that was the first in several trials she was to undertake. She thought the girl was cute, but there was something dangerous behind the cuteness. Her tiny body, bursting with confidence, hinted at severed limbs, intense pain, and her little face laughing as you died in your own blood. She looked like Angelica’s Maria, if she was about eleven years old and taller. She had long, curly, black hair that she pulled back into a ponytail and her complexion was a golden brown.

  “You won’t get it until you fight a real one,” she said in a sweet, melodic sort of accent that reminded her of Debdan.

  “What’s a real one? The one I fought was real enough; turning people into zombies, killing without a care. What can be more real than that? She was dangerous.”

  The little girl laughed, a sinister, yet cute sounding cackle that came from behind a gloved hand that she used to cover her mouth. “That was a mere rookie you fought, Alysia Knight, the equivalent of a newborn. She was inexperienced, and untrained in the way of leading her horde. Had she been left alone for a long enough time, she would have ascended and been given more power. One such as she would have taken more than mere silver and primitive fighting skill to defeat. This is why you are losing your world; you are not prepared to fight them, not without us. Not without us.”

  When she repeated the last three words, she touched her heart and then waved all around her to indicate the rest of her people. Alysia understood the gesture and thought about the cold, the shadows, and the ferocity of the demon that she had fought. A mere newborn compared to what it could have become. The thought gave her chills, and she imagined that its intent was to convert the entire bunker, like many of her sisters were probably doing now.

  With a bunker of servants, their number would grow. If you multiplied that by the amount of bunkers that were all over the country—all over the world for that matter—Alysia was stunned. She looked out at the obstacle course, which consisted of thin logs sticking up vertically from a dark lake that stood stagnant and foul. The sky was a color both unnatural and frightening, and all around them, flying creatures flew in flocks, menacingly.

  “Where are we?” she asked the girl, wondering how it was they had gone from the subway to the outside without climbing. The girl smiled again, forgetting to cover her mouth when she did, and a set of those fanged canines poked out, similar to her master, Chaos.

  “Alysia Knight is not very observant.” She laughed, and adjusted the belt of her kimono. “We are no longer in the world of men. We are in Yalem, my realm. This is where Alysia Knight must train in order to prove herself against the slayer of the lost, Dibolosa Vyne.”

  Alysia looked at the water, the trees, and the mustard-colored sky. There was something about the place that made her frightened and uneasy. There was something even more frightening about the ease in which the demon girl was able to bring her to this realm involuntarily, and she wondered if it was possible that they could leave her there, permanently. What if it was in this realm that her father, Tracy and Jaime were? Chaos had promised to release them if she complied with his wishes for her to become his champion, but what if he was lying, and was merely toying with her to take these trials?

  “Okay, little one, let’s get this show on the road. Show me what to do to pass this test, and I will do it,” she said.

  “Not so easy for a clumsy human like you, Alysia Knight. You must be reformed, to be like us, to do the things we do, to fight the way we fight,” the little demon said.

  “Enough riddles. I don’t care. I want my friends released, and I want to help get rid of the things attacking them. Show me what I need to do. Let’s go; I’m sick of everything.”

  The tiny girl hopped onto the first log, which began to sink slowly beneath her weight, and then she skipped from log to log, traveling down the stream away from Alysia. When she finished, she called back to her, telling her to do the same and Alysia nodded. It can’t be that hard, she thought, and hopped onto the first log.

  It became immediately apparent that Alysia was too heavy for the exercise, and that her balance was not what it needed to be to complete the trial. She jumped to the next one out of desperation. Perhaps if she moved fast enough, she could get past it, but when her foot touched the third one, she fell into the murky waters, striking her head and passing out.

  She awoke on the shore where she started, and the demon girl was smiling down at her. “Now we prepare you,” she whispered to Alysia. She lifted a knife marked with runes, and drove it into her chest. Alysia felt a shock of pain and fire flooded her body. Blood oozed from the wound and she could not move, forced to look up at the demonic pixie, whose face was now grimacing as she concentrated on her cruel work of holding the knife in place.

  Alysia wondered why she wasn’t dying as the blood flowed free. She felt another sensation as the blood ran out; it was as if it was being replaced by something lighter, cooler, and more rejuvenating. When she had been lying still for over thirty minutes, she stopped her panic and relaxed. Maybe now I won’t have to live with the suffering of Mom’s death and the constant worry for Dad’s life, she thought to herself. It feels so good to lie here, under this strange yellow sky with its dark-blue sun. It feels so good.

  The demon girl jerked the blade from her chest and then stuck a finger in her mouth and rubbed the edges of the gaping wound with her spit. The skin began to heal where she touched it, and Alysia noticed that the blade was glowing, throbbing more like it, and it throbbed in cadence with the beating of her heart. Once the hole was sealed, she found that she could move again, and she stood up quickly and observed her arms and legs, trying to find something different from before.

  “You are still you, Alysia Knight.” The little girl laughed. “But, now you are a sister. You can proceed with the tests without the penalties of being fully human, and you can prove yourself against Dibolosa!”

  Alysia tried to feel if there was anything different about her to back up what the little demon was saying. She felt her chest where the wound once was and there was nothing there. She jumped but didn’t get much higher than she could before. She darted this way and that, testing her speed for anything extra.

  She felt and acted as human as she did before the stabbing. She looked at the demon curiously; she was more than a little disappointed at her absence of gifts.

  “Do the trial, Alysia Knight. You don’t have much time,” the girl said with a hint of annoyance.

>   “What do you mean I don’t have much time?” Alysia asked.

  “You must pass the tests in time to save your friends. If you take too long, Lord Chaos will not reward your efforts by healing them. You must beat Dibolosa at the end of the trial to be reunited with your friends.”

  Alysia felt her heart skip. The demon lord had put her father and friends somewhere where he could kill them if she didn’t meet his demands. She looked out at the poles that sat silently in the black water and ran to them, jumping without any care for falling like she did before. Her foot floated down gently on top of the first log, and she found that her balance was intact, as if she was merely playing hopscotch. She bounced from log to log effortlessly, picking up her speed as she did, thinking of her father’s safety. By the time she made it to the end, she was comfortable with her newfound skill. She could be weightless when the situation depended on it, and this was the gift that the dagger had given her.

  When she landed on the far side of the lake, the small girl landed right behind her. She hadn’t heard her when she had followed, but was impressed that she was able to.

  “The kreples… are they from this world too?” Alysia asked as the girl took her hand and began to skip along down a dark path of the forest that led away from the lake of logs.

  “What are kreples?” the little girl asked, and Alysia stopped so she could describe one to her.

  “What is your name, little one?” she asked the girl, and the girl’s face lit up like a cloudless sky when she did.

  “You want to know my name?” she exclaimed. “My name is Isobel! Isobel, warrior for Chaos.”

  “Isobel, that’s a pretty name for a very pretty girl,” Alysia said, and the child blushed even more. “Kreples are big lizards, but they only have legs. They are black and shiny; the ones I’ve met bite and run extremely fast.”

  “Ohhhh, zentans! Nasty, nasty, zentans! They are always hungry, and they attack in packs. Don’t worry Alysia Knight, once you defeat Dibolosa, the zentans will fear you, because they fear the warriors of the Bloody Garot!”

  Alysia wanted to laugh at the tiny girl’s gusto. Whenever she would describe her order, she would get intense. She would ball up her fist and raise her voice, and her eyes would narrow into mere slits.

  They ran for another ten minutes, and Alysia was confused at how fast they could move. It wasn’t like she wasn’t feeling it, but a ten minute run on earth was nothing, since she had been an athlete her entire life. Now, with Isobel leading, their run felt like she was moving ten times her speed. Her lungs labored from it all, and when they stopped, her heart was racing.

  They had gone for over twelve miles in their dash, and she had seen a number of strange, exotic creatures along the path. Some of them seemed predatory, but none were fast enough to keep pace with them. When she had caught her breath, Isobel handed her the runed dagger. The runes still pulsated in tune with her heart, and it felt strangely warm and organic to the touch.

  “Now you must defeat the Dra’yr, Alysia Knight. It is a necessary step to complete your transformation. You are a fighter, yes? One that has fought different types before? Then this is no different for you, but it’s not like the other test.”

  “What do you mean; it’s not like the other test?” Alysia asked, noticing a hint of fear in the other’s voice.

  “You only get one chance to kill him, Alysia Knight. If he kills you, there is no coming back. You will die and your friends will die with you.”

  Alysia strengthened her resolve when she heard this. I’ll treat it like the finals in a martial arts tournament, she thought. Isobel ran up to hug her, then quickly scampered up the trunk of a tree.

  Alysia held the knife to her chest, kicking off the tiny slippers so that she could feel the cold dirt between her toes. She waited, but it didn’t take long for her to hear the snapping of branches as something large pushed itself through the trees to get at her.

  Before she could react, a large, green man with thick black fur all over his body burst into the clearing. He lifted her into the air and slammed her into the ground. The wind left her lungs so fast it was as if she blinked her eyes and was instantly on the ground, trying her best to catch her wind.

  She saw her life flash before her eyes in that instant: images of her mom showing her how to drive, her father making her do repetition after repetition of punches, and her first kiss – from Dylo Veringer, a boy that she hid from her father.

  The beast had his hands around her throat, crushing her windpipe slowly. She looked into the deep pools of blackness that were his eyes and saw that there was nothing there but wickedness. It was then that her training kicked in and all struggles for life took a backseat to fury. She shifted her weight towards her right side and threw her left leg over his head. He struggled to move his head out of the way, but she was too fast and moved her right leg up to meet the left, isolating his right arm in between them.

  She grabbed the left hand that was choking her and rolled to her back, forcing the monster’s right hand to loosen as she braced backwards with his left elbow resting on her crotch. He was hers now, as he kept on trying to regain his right hand grip. She sat up slowly, holding his arm, and then fell back violently, lifting her groin with a sudden thrust and pulling his arm taut while bracing herself. A loud pop came from where his elbow was and he bellowed out in pain, reaching for his broken arm, thrashing this way and that.

  Alysia rolled over onto her knees coughing, trying desperately to put air back into her lungs, but she knew that to hesitate would mean certain death. She looked for the knife, and saw that it had fallen near where the creature was recovering from his pain. She ran for it but he was on his feet, swinging at her face with a fist from his right hand. Instinctively, Alysia put up a tight guard to cover her entire head. She ducked her face as the blow connected, then squatted down to the knife as he swung again.

  The first blow seemed to rattle every bone in her body, but she ignored the pain as she recovered the knife. Then as the creature moved in to swing down at her, she wrapped her free arm behind his knee and used the knife hand to pull his foot up as he lost balance. She lifted his leg while simultaneously driving into him, and he fell backwards as she raised the knife and drove it home into his abdomen.

  Nothing could mirror the sound the creature made when she stabbed him, and she felt a strange sensation as its life force drained into the blade and simultaneously mixed with the blood inside her veins.

  She backed up off the downed monster and looked at her arms. They now held luminescent veins, as the change came through fully to her body. She screamed out in horror as an invisible force lifted her off the ground, and as she felt her wounds heal and her bones break to become stronger, she could only cry out in pain as it finished the job.

  The pain became too intense for her to take. Alysia passed out, and when she awoke, she was back in the subway tunnel, with Isobel wiping her skin gently with a warm wet rag.

  “Hello sister,” the little girl said, and Alysia felt a wave of panic at the way she said it. She ran her tongue along the outline of her upper row of teeth and found that her canines had extended.

  “What does this mean?” she asked Isobel. “What does my change mean? You have to tell me. Am I no longer human? Am I dead? Will I ever get to see my father again?”

  “You are merely a part of us. Don’t you worry, Alysia Knight. You fought bravely, killed the Dra’yr better than any of us did. I told Lord Chaos and he is proud. He said, ‘Alysia Knight will be the one to drive the lost back to our world.’”

  Alysia rolled over and closed her eyes, she allowed herself a little bit of self-pity in that moment. Will I ever be able to love the little things that make me human? She thought, and squeezed the tears out of her eyes as Isobel ran water across her back. Enough crying, CeeCee, your father is relying on you; she said to herself, making the effort to harden her feelings until she had done what Chaos ordered her to do.

  “What else do I need to do to b
e ready for Dibolosa?” she asked Isobel as the girl dried her and began to oil her limbs.

  “Lord Chaos has decided that since you were able to defeat the Dra’yr in record time, you do not need to spend any more days proving yourself. You will be formally trained in our fighting arts, and will be washed and oiled daily by your handmaidens until five days have passed,” she said.

  “Handmaidens? I have handmaidens?” Alysia asked, sitting up so that she could look at the girl.

  “Why, yes, Alysia Knight.”

  “Call me CeeCee. It’s really weird when you keep on using my full name like that,” she said.

  “CeeCee? That sounds awfully childish, but I will obey your command and call you CeeCee from now on. Now, I am your handmaiden, along with Jasmine.” She nodded to a corner where a tall black girl was fiddling with her kimono. “And of course, Koko.” She pointed to another dark corner where the Asian girl from before stepped out and waved to her. “We are responsible for your training and care until your fateful match with Dibolosa.”

  “Did Dibolosa have to go through this same treatment?” Alysia asked.

  “She did,” Isobel replied. “When the lost attacked her home world.”

  “So, the lost, as you call them, have a habit of rushing into people’s worlds in order to build up armies to overthrow your realm. If I’m wrong let me know,” Alysia said, looking at them one after the other.

  “Yes, they have been trying it for over ten thousand years. It is why our lord is building his own army, so that when the lost are driven back and weakened, he can attack them in our own world and wipe them out. That would stop these attacks on your worlds and give us peace. Lord Chaos is a hero in our realm and he has promised our people that he will finish the lost in time.”

  Alysia thought about Isobel’s words and what they meant. Chaos was relying on her to drive out the demons. “Why must I kill Dibolosa?” she asked suddenly, and Isobel looked at her through large, seemingly innocent eyes.