by Eric Vall
“Not likely,” Raphael spat up at his former brother. “Jacob has treated his followers better than any demon or fallen angel ever could.”
Uriel scowled, looked down at the dark-haired man, then sighed. “So I take it you’ve chosen death, Raphael?”
“I’ve chosen to take the side of righteousness,” the Archangel shot back. “You’ll pay for your betrayal, my old friend.”
“So death it is!” the floating blond angel hissed.
I noticed that Aruna had completely disappeared, and I assumed she was probably making her way toward Uriel as we spoke. We just had to keep him talking for a little while longer.
“The only one who’s dying here today is you, bro,” Todd sneered. “We’re gonna make you wish that bell had never rung and given you your wings!”
“That’s not how it works.” Uriel chuckled condescendingly. “Good lord, you really are an idiot, Todd.”
“Better an idiot than a traitor.” The imp shrugged.
Uriel rolled his eyes. “Says the man who willingly allowed himself to be transformed into a Demonic creature?” he scoffed. “The only traitor to his lineage I see here is you.”
“That’s quite enough, Uriel,” Raphael growled. “You dare not speak of betraying your lineage when you have broken bread with a Demon.”
“How dare you?” the blond angel demanded and swooped down closer to our position. “You stand there next to cultists and succubi who used to serve Azazel, the Father of Warfare, and you accuse me of unspeakable actions?”
Before he could utter another sentence, Aruna’s chakram zipped past and sliced Uriel’s left wing clear off. The Daeva below hissed as their leader spiraled down onto the ground and bluish-red blood spurted from the stump on his back.
Then, I saw one of the Daeva charging toward the Archangel. As it ran, it glowed with black ectoplasmic substance and transformed back into Aruna. The Rakshasi leapt up into the air and readied her bhuj for the final strike.
There was a primal scream of rage, and then a beam of blinding white light struck Aruna square in the chest. The assassin’s body flipped backward through the night sky, lifeless, and I quickly tossed down a portal of green Hellfire underneath her before she could slam into the ground.
Instead of smacking into the rocky sand, Aruna’s body plopped down into my arms. She was breathing shallowly, and her chestplate had been caved in at the site where the attack had hit her. Thank God she’d been armored, or Uriel’s attack would have torn right through her body.
“Medic!” I called out, and then I saw Sia’s petite frame dash over.
The succubus madame lit up her hands with a glowing golden flame and then placed them against Aruna’s chest. Instantly, the enchanted fire spread across the Rakshasi’s body and repaired her bruises and scrapes. It even reformed the dent in her chest plate. The assassin’s eyes shot open, and she let out a gasp of shock.
“You good?” I asked the injured beauty in my arms.
She looked up at me with her brown eyes and grinned. “I am now,” she flirted.
“Ralsttooonnnn!” Uriel’s scream quickly brought me back to reality, and I set the assassin down so I could face him.
The Archangel was standing in the center of his army of Daeva, and he looked beyond pissed. His blood had stained the feathers on his remaining wing as well as his white pants, and there was a crazed look in his eye.
“You really are a fucking demon,” he growled. “Trying to take out an enemy while they’re distracted? Where is your honor?”
“I must have left it in my other duffel bag,” I snarked back.
“Enough of your games!” the blond man shouted and raised his hands above his head. “Army of the Dejected, make your masters proud!”
The landscape was filled with the sound of Daeva hisses and shrieks, and the demons charged forward in one massive wave.
Chapter 17
“I’m sorry, Jacob,” Aruna sighed as she leapt back to her feet. “I thought I had him dead to rights, but I guess I wasn’t used to throwing from the perspective of a four-foot tall demon.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I reassured the Rakshasi as she took her place at my side. “You just did us a huge favor. Now that asshole can’t fly up into the air and attack us from above. In fact, that might change the tide of the entire battle now that we can have all the cultists focused forward.”
“So I did good?” the assassin asked coyly.
“Better than good,” I promised.
“Uh, guys?” Todd interrupted. “Fight now, flirt later.”
I looked up and saw that the Army of the Dejected was almost on our position. As planned, the hundreds of cultists surrounded our heavy hitters in three massive units and had begun to toss spells of many colors at their foes. The night sky lit up with all the colors of the rainbow as Daeva bodies were tossed into the air like ragdolls.
“If they keep this up, we might not even be needed,” Raphael observed. “Your cultists are much stronger than I thought, Jacob.”
“I believe it,” I retorted, “but I’m afraid we aren’t going to be that lucky. The Daeva’s skin is too thick for a mortal’s spell to break through, no matter how strong they may be. Also, they’re attacking in a massive wave, so we’ll need our big guns to break their line and get to Uriel.”
“Speaking of big guns,” Todd spoke up and summoned Hellfire into his hands, “I’ve got an idea.” The imp motioned to Aruna, and the Rakshasi bent down to his level. Todd skittered over and whispered something into her ear, and then the assassin grinned ear to ear.
“I love it,” she said as she gave Todd a high five. “Let’s see how things play out here first, though.”
“Jacob!” I heard Oliver’s voice call out from somewhere in the crowd. “Are you ready for the first assault?”
“Let ‘er rip, Oliver!” I shouted back over the sound of explosions and hissing Hellfire.
“Part the sea, men!” the white-haired cult leader shouted, and the cultists in front of us began to create a path.
I looked over at Todd and shook my head with a sigh. “We really gotta work on phrasing with him.”
Then, I reached down into my belt, drew my goat-headed dagger, and ran a flaming hand across the blade to turn it into an enchanted sword. I readied my weapon and called forth green Hellfire into my hands.
It was time to kill some demons.
My heart was thumping in my chest so fast that I could practically feel it in my ears. Then, when the final cultist was out of the way, and there was nothing between the Daeva and us but barren land, we charged.
“For Rohaaaaan!” Todd exclaimed as he darted forward and hurled a few baseball-sized fireballs at the Daeva.
The imp’s attacks struck a few of the little demons and knocked them backward, but he wasn’t delivering a fatal blow. Thankfully, Libidine was there to turn the Daevas’ bodies into living pincushions with a swift cast of yellow. It was like watching somebody shooting clay pigeons, Todd would toss them into the air, and then Liby would finish them off with a blast of red or a handful of enchanted spears.
Meanwhile, Raph’s FAMAS was a death-dealing machine. As the Archangel charged, he let out a primal scream and pumped round after deadly round of enchanted bullets into the crowd. Several of the Daevas’ heads exploded, and limbs were sawn off their bodies from the sheer velocity of the projectiles.
Aruna ran toward the crowd, engulfed herself in black ectoplasm, and morphed into a hippo. As unorthodox as it may have seemed, that was actually a brilliant tactic. Those things were the deadliest animals on Earth not because of their blunt teeth, but because of the sheer power of their bite. Two of the Daeva soon found that out as Aruna picked them up in her jaws and crushed their skulls into a heap of bone and brain matter.
I knew that my sword wasn’t going to be enough to pierce the Daeva’s skin on its own, but I had come prepared. Once I was about twenty feet from the tiny demons, I reached into my belt, pulled out the Kevlar snare trap from
Raph’s arsenal, and shot it at the Daeva. The cord made a high-pitched swishing noise as it traveled through the air and then wrapped around three of the black-and-red demons. I clicked the button on the mechanism, and my prey was pulled back toward me at breakneck speeds. The Daevas’ eyes widened as they approached, and then their bodies ran directly into my blade. Blackish-red blood sprayed out of their torsos as my enchanted weapon pierced their flesh, and then their eyes rolled back in their heads, and they went limp.
I tossed the bodies to the side and then immediately blasted a couple of incoming Daeva with a shot of red Hellfire. It hit the tiny fuckers at point-blank range, and they shrieked in agony as their skin was burnt off their bones.
A dagger zipped past my head, and I heard a wet crunch as another Daeva was impaled right before he took a bite out of my neck. Raphael, the origin of the blade, gave me a nod and then turned back to firing on the Army of the Dejected.
I was really fucking glad this guy had my back.
Another small group of Daeva leapt toward me, and I threw up a portal of emerald Hellfire in their trajectory. Their bodies disappeared through the portal and then reappeared about a mile above the ground. I didn’t have time to watch them fall as I had to toss up a shield of violet flames quickly to throw off one of the Daeva who had gotten within striking distance. His sharp claws bounced off my shield harmlessly, and then I lit him up with a blast of red flames.
“I’m out!” Raphael hissed as he used his FAMAS as a blunt force weapon.
“Fall back!” I commanded to my friends.
I threw up a large wall of purple between the five of us and the attacking Daeva, and then we all dashed back into the safety of the cultists.
“That was intense,” I panted once my followers had recreated their human shield.
“I’ll say,” Todd agreed. “Aruna was fucking crushing their heads like watermelons! I’ve never seen a rhino up close before, but they’re even more badass than I thought!”
The large water mammal was encased in ectoplasm, and then it slowly morphed back into Aruna. “Rhinos have horns, Todd,” she explained to the imp. “Though that was my second choice.”
“We make a good team,” Raphael mused as he reloaded his machine gun. “If we keep this up, we’ll have their forces thinned out in no time.”
“How are we doing over there, Oliver?” I asked through the crowd.
“Excellent!” the white-haired man’s voice called back. “Ira is quite the combatant, and Tris honestly scares me a bit with her love of firearms.”
“I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me!” Tris’ voice cackled over the sound of hissing spells.
“What about your group, Sia?” I asked the group on my left.
“All’s well over here,” the succubus madame called back. “These pesky demons may have thick skin, but their airways are just as susceptible to my fear magic as any other enemy! Gula and Cupi are working well together as they always have.”
“Good to hear,” I acknowledged and then turned back to my unit. “Alright, so now we know that we can kick their asses on our own. But if we work as a team, we can clear these bastards out even quicker.”
“I like the way you think,” Libidine agreed. “Five heads are better than one.”
“Unless we’re talking about penises,” Todd interjected. “In that case, having five heads would make you some sorta circus freak. Or the greatest lover in the universe. There is no in-between.”
“Okay…” Raphael chimed in, somewhat disturbed. “What do you have in mind, Jacob?”
“You have Divine light, correct?” I asked the Archangel, who nodded to confirm. “Well, why don’t we hotbox the fuckers?”
“Now you’re speaking my language, bro!” Todd perked up.
“I’m not familiar with this concept,” Raph admitted.
“Simple,” I explained. “I make a box, and then you guys make it hot with your spells. We’ll melt the Daeva’s flesh right off their bones!”
“Just follow my lead, bro,” the imp admitted. “I have a fuckton of experience hotboxing. I’ve been doing it since sixth grade, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”
The five of us readied our spells and waited for Oliver’s next command.
“Cult of Ralston, make way!” the old man’s voice rang out, and the soldiers followed his command. The mass of navy robes parted in front of us, and we charged at the Daeva once more. This time, none of us attacked until we were nearly upon the little demons.
“Now!” I ordered as I threw out two flaming purple hands.
A massive cube of violet fire encased the Daeva, and nearly fifty of the fuckers were trapped helplessly inside. A split-second later, Libidine tossed out a portal of green Hellfire in front of our position, and Todd launched a bunch of fireballs into the gateway. At the same time, Raphael shot a beam of blinding white light into the portal. My friends’ spells reappeared inside of the makeshift prison, and the interior of the cube lit up like a Fourth of July fireworks show.
The trapped Daeva screamed as they were burned to death inside of the glowing purple cube.
As I held the spell, I felt a throbbing sensation on my temples, and then a blue glow told me that I had sprouted my horns. Good. I was going to need all the power I could get if we wanted to keep this up.
When I finally released my spell, the charred bodies of the Daeva crumpled to the ground with a sickly plop. Exhausted, the five of us dashed back into the crowd to regroup.
“I’ll admit,” Raphael chuckled, “that was badass.”
“There’s still so fucking many of these guys,” I observed. “We’ve nearly killed a hundred of them, and they still keep coming.”
“Hey, Aruna?” Todd asked as he patted the Rakshasi’s leg. “I think it may be time to do that thing I told you about earlier.”
“Excellent idea,” the assassin nodded.
Black ectoplasm engulfed her body, and then her entire form shrunk. Her legs got shorter, her frame grew wider, and her skin began to darken. Before I knew it, there was the spitting image of a Daeva standing in front of me.
“How is that going to help?” Libidine asked curiously.
“It’s camo,” Aruna reassured the group, and then she turned away. “Come on, Todd, let’s go.”
The imp nodded, yanked the belt of impact grenades off his torso, and held them up to me. “Could you do me a favor and hold these, Jakey?” he asked. “Go ahead and use them if you need to. We’ll be right back.”
“Where are you…?” I started to ask, but the two tiny demons were already out of earshot. “I really hope they know what they’re doing.”
“When has Todd ever steered you wrong?” Liby asked coyly.
I refused to answer the question, though, to be fair, Liby didn’t know the Toddster in his college days. In fact, it made me smile despite the battle as I thought about how far my best friend had come from those days, just like I had.
Meanwhile, Raphael slung the FAMAS over his back, reached down to his belt, and pulled out a sawed-off shotgun. “This might have a lower rate of fire,” he observed, “but it packs a much more powerful punch. Also, it’s one-handed, which means I can use this beauty.”
The Archangel dug into the other side of his belt and pulled out a knife that was thick like a machete but curved like a boomerang.
“This is my pride and joy,” he mused and twirled the weapon in his hand. “She was forged in the fires of Hell itself, and she can cut through literally anything. Hopefully, that includes Daeva flesh.”
“I hope so,” I agreed as I slung Todd’s grenades over my shoulder. “You guys ready to go?”
Liby and Raph both nodded grimly, and then the three of us looked toward the sea of cultists.
“Separate!” Oliver called out, and the path was cleared for us once more.
This time, I sheathed my dagger. There were much more creative ways to kill a Daeva.
We ran forward and were met with a wav
e of about twenty or thirty demons. Blasts of yellow spears zipped past me as I ran, and I could hear the thundering boom of Raphael’s shotgun off to my left. Once I was thirty or so feet from the Daeva, I pulled one of Todd’s grenades off the belt on my shoulder and hurled it into the crowd.
There was a blinding light, and then a handful of the tiny demons were thrown back to the ground. The blast must have done some damage because there were a few limbs scattered across the landscape, and the Daeva that were still standing were covered with blood.
Without missing a beat, I threw my zipline around the closest demon’s neck, engulfed his body with emerald flames, and then tossed it to the side as I tensed up the cord. There was a sickly crack, and the Daeva’s body went limp.
“Liby!” I commanded. “Pincushion!”
A handful of yellow spears shot past my right side and struck the body of the dead demon. The enchanted projectiles jutted out of the Daeva like a porcupine, just like I had planned.
This would make for a perfect weapon.
I began to spin the dead demon above my head like a makeshift flail, and then I tossed it into the group of enemies that were charging toward us. The spiky corpse shot into the crowd, and there were a few grunts of pain. I yanked the flail back to me like a yo-yo, and sprays of crimson blood were shot up into the sky. One of my targets had actually been impaled by the weapon, and he flailed wildly as he was pulled toward me. The second he was within reach, I lit him up with a blast of red Hellfire.
I released the cord on the corpse, picked up the body with emerald flames, and then tossed it into the crowd. The Daeva screamed in pain when the spiny projectile struck them, but I didn’t have much time to savor their pain.
“Jacob!” Libidine called out behind me. “Shall we create a pit of death?”
“You read my mind!” I chuckled as I blasted another handful of the Daeva with my red Hellfire.
I dashed back to where Liby was standing, and the succubus threw down two large handfuls of yellow spears into the sand in front of us. I closed my eyes and began to concentrate on my feelings of disgust. I thought about how we’d been betrayed by the Archangel who was supposed to be our friend. How he wanted to kill me and everyone I cared about. How he partnered with one of the most evil Demon Kings in existence. I could feel my entire body glowing with the emerald flames, and my body became weightless.
