“What do you mean …?” He trailed off, eyes flicking from the cup to me and back again. Then he flushed nearly scarlet. “Oh, I forgot the umbrella. Silly me.” He slapped his forehead. “Man, I’m such a bad host. Here, hold this.” He shoved the cup into my hand. And the next thing I knew, he was holding out a pair of umbrellas. One pink and one blue. “Which do you prefer?”
“One, did you make drinks?” exclaimed a rough and tumble voice from my right, and as I turned, I was surprised to see four more people standing there.
“Two, Four, Six, Eight,” One said, nodding to them. “It’s about time. I’ve been dealing with these ones forever.” He snorted. “You have no idea how boring it was.” He added, drawing out the word boring for emphasis.
“I’ll bet,” Two said as she walked over, her number prominently emblazoned on her throat. She was about the same height as One and had short red hair spiked in a mohawk. A pair of silver earrings dangled from each earring as she sauntered forward, her short, navy business skirt swishing with each step. “That’s why I brought these guys.” She waved a hand over her shoulders. “Figured the two of us could have some fun time.” She grinned.
“Sounds like a plan, Two.” One tipped his hat to me. “You understand, Builder.”
“Um… yeah,” I said, but before I could say more, he had his arm around me again, drawing me down to his level as he whispered in my ear.
“Can’t ever pass up the pussy when it calls. Never wanna regret not hitting it as much as you can, am I right?” He smacked me on the back hard enough to shatter my spine, and as I collapsed to the ground, he sauntered toward Two and hooked her arm in his. “Tata for now.”
35
“Guess that leaves this to me,” Four said, scowling as he watched One and Two walk away. He stood about five and a half feet tall with wavy blond hair streaked with red and purple. He wore a horned porcelain mask over the left side of his face, and his skin was like bronze edged with a sickly yellow hue.
To Four’s left and right, stood Six and Eight, but unlike the other Generals I’d encountered, these two didn’t seem particularly intelligent. Instead of intelligence, their eyes held that flat, empty look that reminded me of snakes watching mice scurry around.
“So, you brought the goon squad,” Dred said, getting to his feet and glaring at Four. He had one hand clutching his stomach, and his face was still pale from having his spleen ripped out, but I knew it’d only take a few more moments for him to fully recover. I just needed to give him that time.
“Yes,” Four replied, in a thick Spanish accent before motioning toward the massive neon-blue apes on either side of himself. “We let Five test you to see if you were worthy of facing someone like me.” He sighed and gestured toward Six. “But you are not really worthy, are you?” He shook his head before fixing his eyes on me. “You won by trickery, and that’s so boring I can barely breathe around you.”
“So, instead, I’ve brought Eight and Six. The pair of them should be more than enough to deal with you two.” He waved distastefully at us. “Go, kill them.”
Eight roared, raising its arms and pounding its chest like a baboon before charging forward. It charged forward, and as it did, I realized how slow it seemed to be. That’s when I remembered something. I’d been told I could definitely beat Seven, perhaps Six. The thing was, I didn’t know if Dred could handle Eight, and I didn’t want to chance it.
So, as Dred drew Excalibur, stepping back to give himself room to counter, I acted. Pulling the necklace containing the Ark from around my neck, I stepped behind the creature as it passed by me and looped the chain around its throat. The smell of burning meat filled my nose as the Ark burned into its flesh. Worse, the General’s forward momentum, combined with the sudden strain of the Ark around its neck caused its feet to fly out from under it while I shifted my body weight, throwing my hip forward.
As I held its neck in the necklace, I shifted more, lifting it off the ground and choking it. Eight’s eyes bugged in its head as I leaned forward while wrenching the necklace tighter, cutting off the General’s air supply.
Dred’s counter-attack slashed through the air a moment later, and while it wouldn’t have been fast enough to catch Eight otherwise, the General was now wide open. As Eight’s hands went to its throat, Excalibur cut clean through its stomach, spilling its entrails across the ground.
Six came toward me then, rushing forward, spittle spraying from its lips as it snarled. Letting go of Eight, since I was pretty sure Dred could take it from here, I threw my Ark wrapped fist outward. Light exploded from it, blinding Six, and as it raised its hands to its eyes in a vain attempt to block the bright light, I blasted it in the face with Hellfire.
It screamed, howling in pain, and as it stumbled backward a couple steps, I darted forward. I smashed the Ark into the side of its face, and it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Six’s head exploded like a bag of paint, spraying bloody ichor across the ground. Yet, as its bloody, broken body collapsed, I could already see it starting to heal, see its bone and flesh fight desperately to knit itself back together. The Ark might let me hurt them, but it damned sure couldn’t kill them.
“Let me take it from here,” Dred said, appearing beside me. Before I could reply, he drove the still-smoking Excalibur into Six’s back.
“Man, these guys weren’t even a warmup,” I said as Dred absorbed yet another Darkness General.
“Interesting,” Four said, amusement playing across his face as he looked between us. “Perhaps you are smarter than I gave you credit for.” He nodded to the Ark. “That will be quite a prize to set before the Empress.” He looked me up and down. “Normally, I’d give you a chance to give up, to save yourselves, but I think I’ll just pass on that.” He cracked his knuckles as a smile settled on his face. “It’s been ever so long since I’ve been able to fight at full strength. Please don’t disappoint me. If you were to do so after so much buildup, well, I don’t think I could take it.”
“Well,” Dred said, calmly leaning Excalibur against his shoulder, “let’s make this quick, Four. I have no desire to spend all day out here with you.”
“No one spoke to you.” Four’s words had barely left his mouth when he darted forward, his fist slammed into the underside of Dred’s chin, flinging him into the air. Only, as Dred’s feet left the ground, Four appeared behind him.
Dred spun in midair, and as Four’s fist came down like a wrecking ball, Dred caught it on the flat of his sword. The force of the blow flung him downward, but Dred extended his other hand, catching himself as he hit the ground and somehow pushing himself back into the air.
Excalibur flashed, cutting toward the falling General. Only, instead of slicing him in half, Four twisted his body and landed lightly on the blade’s edge with his left foot.
Four’s right foot lashed out, and Dred caught the blow with his left hand. Failing to knock it away, Dred used it for leverage to swing his body upward, trying to drive his knees into Four’s chest. The General leaped, pushing off Excalibur with his left foot, and narrowly avoiding Dred’s blow.
Somehow, Dred quickly swung his legs around once more, wrapping them around the General’s head. The momentum of the spinning flipped their bodies around, Four landing below him to take the brunt of the impact with the ground as they fell.
“Impressive,” Four murmured, “but it’s not enough.”
Four rolled upward along Dred’s body until they were almost vertical, easily breaking free of the hold, but as he shifted to try to slam his opponent into the ground, Dred countered, grabbing hold of Four’s leg, pulling him off his feet as he began to spinning in place.
As Dred released the General, Four rocketed toward the ground, and for a second, I thought it was over. But Four’s hand shot out at the last second, copying the move Dred had used earlier. Four’s fingers hit the ground, and as the muscles in his arm strained, he heaved himself lithely onto his feet.
“Not bad for a human,” Four coughed as
Dred landed a few feet away, Excalibur braced in both hands. “Seems you’ve gained more strength than I expected from my fallen brethren.”
“I’d say the same thing except you’re a terrible fighter.” Dred shook his head. “Your power is an insult to true warriors.”
“That’s what losers and weaklings say.” Four extended his hand. “Come, Dred.” His eyes flicked to me. “You too if you would like, Builder.”
“Don’t,” Dred said. “Let me handle this.” His eyes settled on the Ark in my hands. “You’re more important than I am.”
Understanding flooded through me as Dred launched himself at Four once more. He wanted me to escape with the Ark, to get the weapons to our allies.
The crazy thing was, as I watched them rain blows down on each other, I wondered if he’d win. The thing was, it almost didn’t matter if he did because Two and One were close by. If they rejoined the fight, we’d probably be screwed.
Besides, with them here, well, that meant their towns were unguarded, right?
I turned to find Jophiel only a few meters away. Hustling over to her, I put one hand on her shoulder and shook her. The Archangel of Wisdom’s eyes flashed as she shook off the terror debuff and looked at me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I wasn’t strong enough.”
“It’s fine,” I hissed, grabbing her hand. “I need you to get us out of here.” I pointed at Dred. “He’s gonna buy us time to get far enough away for me to call Wrath.” I swallowed hard, hating to leave Dred behind. “We have to do it before One comes back.”
“What about Dred?” she asked even as she unfurled her wings.
“He’s the Destroyer. He’ll be fine.”
Jophiel wasn’t even looking at me as she spoke. “I hope you’re right.” She launched into the air, her wings flapping as she carried both of us away from the battle.
The moment Sathanus, Archangel of Wrath, appeared in front of us, Jophiel screamed. Her wings faltered, and we plummeted from the sky.
“Got you,” Sathanus called, grabbing my wrist and arresting our fall and nearly jerking my arm out of my socket in the process.
A cry of pain tore from my lips as we vanished and reappeared inside the town we’d captured from Ten. As my feet touched the ground, Jophiel’s body began to smoke, and dark foam burst from her lips. Her body began to convulse, and her eyes rolled back in her head.
“What’s going on?” I cried, reaching down and gathering the angel in my arms, only as I touched her, I felt the overwhelming cold of the Darkness.
“The Darkness is infecting her,” Michelle said from behind me, and I turned to see her staring down at us. She was flanked by Uriel and Phanuel, and as I watched, Sathanus reappeared with Raphael.
“I’ll get the others,” she said before popping off across space and time.
“Good,” Michelle said to the empty air before kneeling down next to me and running a hand over Jophiel’s head. That’s when I saw her grimace.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking from her to Jophiel and back again.
“I can feel the Darkness eating away at her, draining her celestial energy through her mark.” Michelle touched her own mark. “As we are all bonded together, if she is overwhelmed and taken, we will be next.”
That’s when I realized what must have happened. Somehow, someway, Dred must have killed Four and absorbed him, and in so doing, pushed his Flaw past 60%. Now it was too much for his heavenly essence to keep under control and it was starting to corrupt Jophiel.
“We have to break the mark,” Michelle said, looking right at me. “I know you don’t—”
“Do it,” I said as Sathanus reappeared with both Samael and Gabriella. “We can figure out the rest later.”
“Are you sure?” Michelle asked, and when I nodded, she shut her eyes. “Okay.”
Jophiel screamed as I laid my hands on her, and while I’d definitely broken marks before, this one felt different. As I touched her and focused on using the power of the assembled Archangels to break Jophiel’s mark with Dred, I could feel the Darkness trying to devour her whole. It hungered, and in its hunger, it grabbed on like a dog with a bone.
“Get Hell’s Archangels too,” I cried out, drawing upon my power.
Instead of replying, Sathanus vanished.
A few moments later, I felt their presence all around me, and I knew one thing to be true. Even with the combined power of thirteen Archangels, we were going to have a tough time breaking the mark … but we could do it.
36
Achievement: Pinnacle of Heaven completed. The stat limit for your Heaven-based companions has been doubled.
Achievement: Alpha and Omega completed. Abilities, buffs, and skills affecting one faction will now affect both factions.
Achievement: Ascend the Throne unlocked.
Ascend the Throne – Assert your place as the ruler of Heaven and Hell.
37
As I watched the achievements I’d just gained fade away, I couldn’t help but yawn. It’d taken almost eighteen hours to break the mark for Jophiel, and I was exhausted. Still, the moment we’d severed her connection to Dred, she’d gotten better, and now that her mark was firmly affixed to the crown of my head, she was starting to recover.
“Let’s never do that—”
My words were cut off by Wrath as grabbed me by the shoulder.
“Arthur, we have to go. Now.” Her voice was full of panic, and her eyes wild, which was weird because I didn’t see any problems.
“What’s going on?” I asked, glancing around. “There aren’t trumpets—”
“Here there are no trumpets.” She met my eyes. “Hell just got sieged. We need to go. Now.” With that, she teleported, taking me along with her.
My gut roiled as we reappeared within the Graveyard of Statues. As my vision struggled to orient itself to my new reality, the sound of trumpets filled my ears. The Darkness had risen up, causing lizard men and Beholders to swarm from the breach.
The Knights of the Round Table surged forward, weapons out, but as they hit the first wave and began slicing their way through it, the sky above crackled and popped. Then it split open like a pustule that sprayed gobs of darkness across the land that sizzled and popped.
The massive eye of the Empress fixed on me, and as a cold shiver ran down my spine, her throaty laughter echoed across the lands like a thunder crack.
“You are a fool, Builder,” and as those words echoed in my ears, two beings stepped in front of the massive eyeball.
They were both tall and slender, reminding me of high elves from the Lord of the Rings, only instead of having blond hair, they had crimson locks that fell nearly to their feet. The left one’s face was mottled by scars, and his hair was done into a long braid while the other one’s hair was loose, but otherwise, they’d have been twins.
As they hit the ground, throwing up a spray of dirt and debris, more monsters surged forward from the breach, only as they did, I realized something terrible.
“They aren’t going for the town,” Sathanus said as they all moved away from their deployment and burst back into the Darkness, disappearing without even bothering to attack us.
“Fuck,” I snarled, pointing at them. “She’s using the Darkness to move her forces closer to our base.” I shook my head in anger. That was smart, and I should have thought about it. No wonder that force hadn’t done more damage. None of them were trying to attack us. No, they were just rerouting themselves through the Darkness.
I burst forward, intent on cutting a bloody swath through them when I was smashed out of the air by a fist. My jaw broke as I rolled sideways across the blackened plain before slamming into a statue that shattered under the impact. I lay there for a moment, body trying to heal the damage, as one of the two that had stepped out of the portal smiled at me. Steam curled off the one fist he had raised in front of him.
“Allow me to introduce myself,” the General said before arching his neck to the side, and brushing his l
ong red hair out of the way, revealing the number Five. “I am the real Five.” He dropped his fist. “And I’m going to take your town now.” With that, he surged toward the Darkness just like all his troops were. “You can spend some time with Seven though. He’ll be delighted to keep you company.”
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the pain and broken bones and tore after him, only before I could take more than a couple steps, time seemed to slow down. No, that wasn’t right, everything just seemed to stop, and as my foot touched the ground, I felt myself actually moving backward.
A quick glance over my shoulder revealed why. The second of the two Generals that had descended had one hand outstretched toward me. Concentric circles of purple energy pulsed out from it, ripping across the battlefield like the gravity well of a black hole.
“Now you understand,” the Seven said, his smile stretching across his scarred face. “I’ll keep you here until Five has finished with your little town.”
“Or, you’ll die,” I said, opting to let Five go. Instead, I let his weird gravity power hit me full on, and as it pulled me back toward him, I added my own speed to the mix. I slammed into him an eye blink later, my shoulder smashing into his chest with a wet squelch that would have broken all his ribs if he, well, had any.
Even still, it sent the guy stumbling backward across the ground like a broken rag doll. My hand snapped outward as I burst past him and grabbed his braid, arresting his flight with a snap that cracked him like a whip. A cry of pain shot from his lips as I slammed him down into the ground, shattering the earth beneath him.
I raised my fist about to smash his skull into putty when there was a cry of fury from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Sathanus’s axe come down on Five, removing his left arm from his shoulder in one clean blow.
The problem was that the General didn’t seem to care. Instead of bothering to fight back, he threw himself forward, and the moment he hit the rift separating us from the Darkness, he vanished. The arm he’d left behind twitched violently on the ground before bursting into smoke.
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