“Yes. I could.” There was no other response, and as her voice drifted off into nothingness, I found myself locked in silence. Worse, this wasn’t going to work.
I glanced over my shoulder. The sinkhole was only a meter or so wide, and as I stared at the opposite wall, I had a really bad idea.
“Here goes nothing,” I mumbled to myself right before I threw myself up and back with all the strength I could muster while spinning my body into a flip.
I crashed hard into the other side of the cavern, my feet slamming into the stone with enough force for my bones to rattle. Instead of biting down the pain, I used it to fuel me, to add strength to me as I kicked off the stone once more propelling myself upward.
I hit the original side of the cavern again a few feet higher than I’d started. As I started to slip and fall to my death, I kicked off again, focusing solely on each and every jump, on coiling my legs like springs so the moment my feet touched stone I could push out and throw myself ever higher.
Heat rippled up from behind me, causing me to sweat, and as the rock grew too hot to touch and I felt my skin begin to sizzle, I worked harder. The opening at the top was only a few meters away now.
“Come on,” I cried as I forced myself to leap again with everything I had. This time as my feet smacked into the stone, my chest hit the lip of the sinkhole. Breath exploded from my lungs as I grabbed hold of the ground, my fingers scrabbling on the slick stone like a dog on linoleum.
Only this time I didn’t panic. No, I called upon my power once more. The gauntlets on my fingers exploded to life, allowing me to dig into the ground and hoist myself out. I pulled myself onto the floor, chest heaving, and as I rolled onto my back and lay there staring at the ceiling, a blast of heat burst from the sinkhole so violently it hit the ceiling.
The smell, like sulfuric clay, made my eyes water as it solidified into a pillar of jagged black stone that blocked off the way we had come.
“That was close.” Jophiel’s head appeared over mine as she nodded to the pillar. “You should try to work faster.”
“You could have just gotten me, you know,” I said, shoving her out of the way before pulling my socks out and pulling them onto my feet. Then I put my boots on.
“Indeed. You said that before.” She looked at me curiously. “But this is not only about me helping you. It is about making you strong enough to defeat the Generals.” She slapped me, hard. “I will not coddle you, Arthur. That will help no one—”
My hand shot out before I could stop myself. My fingers wrapped around her throat, tightening in the same practiced strangle I’d used in the shower with her. As her eyes bugged out of her head, I flung her sideways into the wall. She smashed into it with an audible crack as I hoisted myself to my feet and strode toward her, one hand going to Caliburn.
“Make no mistake, angel. I may be allowing you to help me, but I am the stronger of us.” I grabbed her by the hair and raised her to her feet before slamming her backward into the rock. “I will kill you and take your power.” I brought my forehead to hers. “Do you understand?”
Her emerald eyes met mine, and there was no fear in them. Instead, there was something else entirely.
“Answer me.”
She kissed me, bringing her lips to mine, and as she did, the whole of eternity seemed to settle on top of me. The weight of it was so intense I could barely breathe. Before I realized what had happened, I’d released her, and was stumbling backward. My back hit the other side of the cavern as her feet touched the ground beneath her.
“You are not strong.” She watched me curiously. “I gave you the barest fraction of what I endure. For me, time is an open book, and all possibilities are made plain. You will do nothing which I am not aware, no matter how minute the possibility. I will foresee it all.” She moved toward me and pressed one finger to my chest as the images she’d placed within my brain finally dissipated. “And I will show it all to you if it will help.” She grabbed my chin, twisting my head so I could see the solidified geyser. “You did not need my help.” She released me, turning away and beginning to walk down the tunnel. “Come.”
I glared at her. She had a point.
“And do not attack me from behind. If you do, you will be hurt. Badly.”
“Yeah, well …” I threw myself at her. My shoulder slammed into her back, knocking her off her feet and causing her to face plant against the ground. As her lips bounced off the stone, I wrapped my hand around her hair and smashed her face into the floor once, twice, three times.
She fought to move, to throw me off, but the thing was, I’d guessed her game. Every time she’d done that psycho image thing she’d kissed me, and even now she fought to spin over, presumably to bring her lips to mine.
I released her and stood, and as she started to get to her feet, I kicked her in the stomach. The blow lifted her from the air, and as she slammed into the ceiling with an earsplitting crack, I walked beneath her, heading toward I felt Belial.
“There’s a difference between knowing everything and being good enough to put it into practice, Jophiel.” Her body hit the ground behind me as I moved forward. “You’re not fast enough or strong enough to let yourself forget that.”
Her laughter filled the cavern, and as I turned to look at her, I saw her watching me curiously, her eyes filled with amusement. “Indeed.” She wiped her mouth with the back of one hand, leaving a bloody smear across her arm. “Now, remember what I said earlier.” She pushed herself to her feet.
“Surely you can’t think you can hurt me,” I said, turning to look at her right before someone drove a spear through my throat from behind.
9
As the obsidian tip of the spear burst through my carotid artery spraying blood across the wall in front of me, something kicked me behind the knees, dropping me face first toward the floor. As I crashed to the ground, one arm instinctively going to my throat while the other went to brace myself, the spear was wrenched violently free, tearing out what remained of my throat.
Agony exploded through me as gurgling breaths bubbled up from within me as I tried to cough, to breathe, to do something other than blackout.
I hit the stone a second later, trying my best to ignore the damage done to me and react. Only as my forearm touched the stone, and I started my roll, the spear cut through the back of my knee, pinning me to the floor. All my momentum pulled against it, dragging the blade through the ground as more pain surged through me.
My throat was healing, but the lack of oxygen was getting to me. Spots danced behind my eyes as I heard a cry behind me and I felt the weight of the spear lesson. I reached back, grabbing the weapon and tearing it free, nearly severing my own leg in the process.
I spun and found myself staring at Belial. She was staggering backward, her own throat torn open, as she collapsed to the ground, left leg completely severed. She hit the ground with a spray of blood as I realized exactly what had happened.
My leggings, The Merciless Greaves of Wrath, had reflected the damage she’d done to me sevenfold, and unlike most of the enemies I normally faced, I was far stronger than she was, and she’d nearly killed me outright.
I would heal.
I stood a moment later and walked over to Belial. She was still breathing, her neck having healed enough for that, but even still, she was hardly in a position to stop me as I kicked her in the side of the head, sending her spinning into unconsciousness.
“Well, that was easier than expected,” Jophiel said from where she sat a few meters away, idly watching. “Maybe I should let you beat me up more often.” She gave me a wry smile, and I realized she wasn’t even slightly hurt.
“You knew that would happen?” I asked before I realized I didn’t quite care. Instead, I reached down and picked up Belial’s unconscious body. “I’ll be leaving now.”
“No.” Jophiel shook her head. “She cannot be allowed to live. If she does, your chance for success will be reduced by three percent.” She got to her feet. “You mus
t kill the Archangel of Gluttony otherwise she will betray you.” She nodded to the helpless Archangel.
“I’m not killing an unconscious archangel. I need her to give me her mark.” I shook my head.
“Do it.” Jophiel picked up the Spear of Gluttony and held it out to me. “You know I’m right.”
It was true. I did know she was right. I could see it in her eyes. Nearly everything she said had been right. Still, how could I do this?
No. I wasn’t thinking about this correctly. Belial wasn’t a person. She was an enemy. Someone who had joined Dred to take everything from me. She was complicit in Gabriella’s abduction, of the fall of Heaven.
She probably couldn’t be trusted.
“If I kill her, what happens?” I asked, taking the spear and examining it. I could feel Belial’s power running through it like a heartbeat. Right now, it was weak, but it was growing stronger, and I knew that at best I had a couple minutes before she recovered. It seemed crazy, but as I held both the Archangel and the weapon, I knew why. Her body was reallocating itself, breaking itself down to fix the damage I’d caused.
“She will interrupt us before we can complete this dungeon and find the Key of Torment. Then we will have to contend with her again. Only know she will realize your powers of both healing and reflection.” Jophiel gestured at my leggings and my belt. “She will use her power to negate them both.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“Belial’s great power is to negate effects she has seen or experienced. The more you fight her, the more difficult she becomes to defeat because she becomes immune to every attack, every kind of magic you use against her.” Jophiel shrugged. “So, unless you are positive you can convince a billion-year-old Archangel who has already sided against you to join your cause, you should kill her and give her mantle to another who will be more loyal.”
“Oh.” That one word said everything. If what Jophiel said was true, I couldn’t risk this at all. Belial could become my undoing. That couldn’t be allowed. Not with so much at stake.
I dropped the unconscious angel to the ground and looked down at her for a long moment. Then I drove her spear through her eye. It punched through the soft tissue in a spray of ichor before scrambling her brain as it pierced her skull and penetrated the ground beneath.
Her entire body spasmed violently, and as it tried to heal, I snapped the haft of the spear off. Power exploded outward as the weapon turned to dust in my hands in the same way Lucifer’s hammer had shattered in Dred’s grip.
Still, I knew she was not dead. Not yet, anyway, but I knew what would kill her.
Shutting my eyes, I took a deep breath and reached out with all my strength, feeling for where she had given her mark to Dred. Her mouth fell open, and I saw it pulse on her tongue like an entwined serpent.
Gripping her by the tongue, I concentrated, shattering her bond to Dred, and as I did, I felt the backlash explode through her body as it went still.
“Excellent,” Jophiel said, sidling up behind me and leaning against me, so her breasts pressed into my back. Her left hand snaked out, closing around mine where I still held her tongue. Then she said something in a language that hurt my brain.
All at once flame exploded along the whole of Belial’s body, and as I stumbled backward in shock, the Archangel of Gluttony was reduced to a single glittering purple gemstone that reminded me of how Asmodai had been when Gwen had taken her.
“Here,” Jophiel said, picking up the stone and offering it to me. “The Essence of Gluttony. Give this power to someone you trust.” When I didn’t immediately move, she put it into my hand and closed my fingers around it. “Now, come. We haven’t much time to waste. The Darkness will have felt her death, and they will come to investigate. We can deal with the scouts but not what comes after.”
“How long?” I asked, slipping the gemstone into my pocket and trying not to think about what had just happened. “Until the scouts show up?”
“Between three and five minutes.” Jophiel started forward, moving silently through the cavern. “We must be on our way out by two minutes though.”
“Why is that?” I asked, following her, and as I did, the cavern started to open up on a wide chamber a few hundred feet down. Only it didn’t seem like a normal chamber. The ground seemed to writhe and twist, making my gut churn as I stared.
“Because once you kill the guardian and take the key from the pit, that is how long we will have before the entire mountain collapses in upon us.” She looked at me. “Fear not. You have a six percent chance of success.” She smiled. “How do you feel knowing your odds?”
10
“You know, in retrospect, I don’t like knowing my odds of success,” I said as I stared down into the pit. I could still see things writhing in the unending vat of darkness below, but I didn’t see any trace of a guardian or a key.
“I thought so, but I do wish to please you,” Jophiel, Archangel of Wisdom said as she touched my shoulder lightly. “It is best to give people what they want so they can see it is not what they truly desire.” Her grin turned downright predatory. “How do you wish to proceed?”
“Where’s the guardian?” I said, taking a deep breath and readying myself for the coming battle. “We only have a couple minutes, right?”
“Yes.” She pointed past me toward the opposite wall. “You cannot see it, but he resides in an alcove there. He will make his presence known once you enter the chamber. Fear not.”
“Awesome,” I said, looking around once more. “And where is the binding point that holds this within the Darkness?”
“At the bottom of that.” She pointed at the writhing pit below. “Where else would it be?”
“Right.” I nodded to her because she was right. It would be at the bottom of the sludge pile. Well, I’d dealt with worse. “Is it made of acid?”
“No.” She shrugged. “It will not feel pleasant, and there is the kraken …”
“The kraken?” I asked before stopping myself. Sometimes too much information was bad. I had to go in there, kill the guardian and get the key. It was time to get my smash on. “Here goes nothing.”
Gripping Caliburn tightly, I leaped from the edge. My feet hit the ground a half second later, and as my boots sank into the dark goop, the smell of rotten eggs and old diapers filled my nose. The ceiling above me fractured, and a billion bats came flying down to tear through the air in one massive swarm, and as I stared at them, something decked me.
My head snapped backward, and pain shot through my nose as I tried to stagger backward. Only I couldn’t. My feet stuck fast to the ground. As pain ripped through me and I turned my eyes to the asshole in front of me, I found myself staring at some kind of six-armed centaur-like creature. It was huge, like a Clydesdale on steroids, and each of its muscles rippled as the bats circled overhead.
“I bet you eat a lot of cod,” I said, trying to shake off the effects of its blow as it raised two of its arms in an overhead attack designed to sledgehammer my skull like a watermelon. Taking a moment to calm myself, I felt time seem to slow around me as I flung a hand out toward it. The power of Sloth erupted from my outstretched fingers, summoning a golden net that hit the creature in front of me, wrapping it in gilded chains that caused its incoming attack to slow to a snail’s pace.
I shifted my body, allowing the blow to fly harmlessly past me as I burst forward, my boots tearing free of their slimy confines. Driving Caliburn into its gut, my forward momentum allowed me to carry the blade around sideways as I moved, ripping open its stomach and spilling its entrails into the murk.
A cry exploded from its throat as its many hands went to its stomach as they tried frantically to stuff their inside bits back inside. Only I was way past dealing with whatever this was. With a flick of my wrist, I sent a gob of hellfire into the back of its skull. The fireball slammed into it, reducing the entire upper half of its body to cinders, and as it collapsed to the ground, tentacles thicker than elephant trunks explode
d from beneath my feet.
They wrapped around my legs, trying to pull me under as the weird bat amalgamation above swooped down like a giant bird of prey.
I dropped, flattening myself to the ground as bat claws raked through the space where I’d been. More tentacles wrapped around my body, grabbing my arms and hauling me beneath the surface. That was fine though because I wanted to meet Mr. Kraken.
I shut my eyes, allowing myself a quick three count, even though my lungs were burning. It was pulling me toward its maw, and that was exactly where I wanted to go. Doing my best to keep the claustrophobia from taking over, I focused on everything around me. I couldn’t see anything because of the dark goo, but I could feel the current of it around me, feel the tentacles’ muscles as they moved beneath its flesh. I could hear the sound of something huge beneath me.
As the tentacles tightened around my limbs like boa constrictors, shifting me to bring me toward what sounded like snapping jaws, I willed my ethereal armor away. The sudden lack of armor caused the tentacles to falter because they no longer gripped anything substantial. I grabbed hold of one and with a surge of strength, pulled myself down the length of it like a torpedo.
As my armor reformed around me, I brought Caliburn to bear. My blade pierced through something, and as the weapon sank to its hilt, the creature began to shriek. The sound hit my ears like a depth charge as it writhed, tentacles slamming into me like tree trunks. Only I didn’t care about that. Pain was only an obstacle.
Summoning my power, I unleashed a sapphire blast of energy from Caliburn while it was still buried in the creature. I couldn’t see the effects so much as I felt and heard it. The sizzle of the goop in front of me and the cries of the creature as it spasmed before going still.
The Builder's Throne Page 5
