The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2)

by J. Langland

  Davron and Gandros came online at that moment. “We are working to ward the foyer; we will need to be able to contain the damage as much as possible!” Gandros said.

  Randolf looked; sure enough, the two were making their way around the edges of the foyer, working on trying to create containment wards. They should consider installing permanent runes to make such containment systems easier to bring up. They were really starting to have too many deadly events around here, Randolf thought to himself.

  Lenamare came online with the link; Jehenna was still busy casting various protection spells around the two of them. “Damien is not responding; I have everyone else. You’ve studied the wards; do you think you can take his place?” Lenamare asked Randolf.

  “I can try, with the wards in their current state, the destabilization should be minimal,” Randolf replied.

  “Let us go for that, then. Even once you are in, it’s going to take me a bit to get everything back up. Particularly with both of us up here rather than down there,” Lenamare said.

  ~

  Master Hortwell and Zilquar banged on the door of Sier Barvon. “Open up!” The two wizards shouted over the klaxon. Finally, after a few minutes the door opened.

  “What the Abyss? What is that damn racket?” Sier Barvron complained. “Loud enough to wake the dead!”

  “But not you!” Zilquar yelled.

  Sier shrugged. “I’m a deep sleeper.” He stuck his head into the hallway. “It’s louder out here! What the hell is it?”

  “Do you not attend any of the emergency preparedness meetings?” Zilquar asked in disbelief.

  “I’m always prepared, so there is no point in going,” Sier stated.

  Zargoffelstan snickered behind Hortwell, who shook his head. “Well if you did, you’d know it’s an evacuation klaxon!”

  “Evacuation? Why?” Sier shouted over the klaxon

  “Gandros ordered it after Ruiden cleaved Exador in twain!” Zilquar shouted back.

  “Well, that seems a bit rude,” Sier said with a shocked expression on his face.

  “Exador thought so too, and now the two are dueling it out in the Grand Foyer,” Hortwell yelled.

  “How do you out duel a self-wielding sword?” Sier asked loudly. “What do you aim for?”

  “That’s exactly the problem! Exador is going to realize that at some point, give up and start blasting the demon dung out of everything!” Zilquar yelled.

  “So, we are sure he’s an archdemon then?” Sier yelled.

  “Well, how many wizards get cleaved in two at the waist and re-form in a blaze of fire, fully armored with a large sword?” Zilquar replied at the top of his lungs.

  “Seems like a fair point!” Sier conceded. “What now?”

  “Gandros is putting up a containment field around the foyer; we need to put one up around the entire palace in case it expands beyond the foyer!” Hortwell shouted.

  “Abyssal arthritis, that’s going to be a pain!” Sier stated, shaking his head. He gestured for them to lead the way.

  ~

  “Lilith fornicator!” Exador screamed at Ruiden as the archdemon fell over after losing his balance when Ruiden sliced his right leg off at the hip.

  Randolf looked up in surprise upon hearing the loud clatter of the archdemon falling over. He had just gotten into the wards and was working with Lenamare to stabilize them after the handover.

  “Enough with this farce!” Exador screamed as he engulfed himself in flames that seemed to grow higher and higher.

  “I think we are about to experience full archdemon!” Randolf yelled over their communication link.

  “Really getting tired of demonic invasions,” Jehenna said; she had come online a few moments earlier.

  “We are almost there on the foyer containment spell!” Gandros said. “Zilquar, Sier and Hortwell have rounded up some other senior wizards and they are working on a palace containment spell!”

  “Where is Alexandros?” Tureledor asked.

  “I got a reply that he is coming, but not sure how fast he can get here,” Gandros said. “He said he had to get some components together.”

  “I hope they’re worth the wait, because this could get ugly fast!” Jehenna said.

  Exador’s flames were now nearing the high ceiling of the foyer and a form—a very large form—was appearing. It appeared to be about twenty-five feet tall and probably eight feet across the shoulders. Large pinioned wings, very unlike typical demon wings, appeared on the demon’s back. Other than that, Randolf realized quickly, it looked just like Exador.

  “Sword!” Exador roared at Ruiden. “You have pissed me off more than anyone has in a long time. Not even Lenamare could annoy me as much as you have!”

  Randolf noted that Lenamare, still working on ward stabilization, frowned, possibly insulted by the comment.

  “Since you were forged in metal, I will assume fire will not be useful against you, nor lightning. So how about cold?” Exador suddenly inhaled and then pursed his lips and blew—in fact, he whistled—directly towards Ruiden.

  Randolf blinked his eyes, realizing that he could actually see Exador’s breath, as if on a very cold day. No, he corrected himself, the breath was frost. No, now it was ice and it slammed into the sword golem as a solid blast of what appeared to be liquid ice? Or ice water? Randolf was not sure, but what was clear was that Ruiden was now completely buried, hidden in a very solid mound of ice.

  There was a loud clanking noise as Crispin and a large pile of gear suddenly appeared behind Randolf. Crispin went to work quickly to distribute objects in their correct positions.

  “What is this?” Exador asked. Apparently, he had heard the noise of the arrival, even over the klaxon. That was very good hearing, Randolf decided. He glanced up at Exador.

  “Randolf, my employer. What does your catamite have there? It looks like demon-binding equipment,” Exador thundered.

  Randolf turned to face him. “Well, my no longer trusted employee, you are astute, I will give you that. Much brighter than most of the demons I’ve bound.”

  Exador looked at him as if he had just lost his mind. “Most demons that you have bound? Have you ever bound a single demon?” He chuckled. “And now you think you are going to start with me. You have clearly become unhinged.”

  “Perhaps,” Randolf said. “However, I have begun to question your loyalty. You have been absent way too much recently. I am beginning to suspect you may have other allegiances than Turelane.” He was trying to buy time for Crispin to get things set up; he could not leave the pentagram he was in without breaking it.

  Exador tilted his head and stared at him. “You are definitely acting oddly; you have not been possessed by the demon the sword was looking for, have you?”

  “No, I am afraid not. I am just rather tired of your scary wizard routine. I think it’s time for you to move on,” Randolf said.

  Exador laughed. “So what, are you firing me?”

  “Got it!” Crispin shouted. Randolf shook his head; the djinn should have said that over their link.

  Crispin’s shout got Exador’s attention. “Ah, Randolf, sending a boy to do a man’s work?” He shook his head. “That sounds like you.” Exador waved towards Crispin and a giant bolt of lightning flew from his hand and struck Crispin with a loud crash of thunder. As the flash cleared from their eyes, it was clear that all that was left of the boy was a smoking, extremely charred corpse. More like a pile of charcoal.

  Randolf heard gasps of shock over his link with the others. His fellow councilors knew how he felt about Crispin, even if they did find the apparent age difference in their relationship to be morally questionable. Randolf stared at the corpse and then turned back and looked up at Exador.

  “You probably did not want to do that,” Randolf said calmly.

  Exador laughed. “What? Are you upset I broke your toy? What are you going to do about it?”

  Randolf shook his head slightly. “No, I, personally, am not that upset. Thus, for th
e moment, I am not going to be doing anything about it. And for the record, you did not break “my toy” so much as piss it off.”

  Exador stared at Randolf in puzzlement for a moment, not understanding what he meant. Randolf gestured with both hands to the four fireplaces along the two side walls of the foyer. Exador turned his attention to see large plumes of smoke and ash pouring from the four fireplaces, streaming through the large room towards Crispin’s crispy corpse.

  “What is this?” Exador asked, puzzled.

  Randolf chuckled; the other wizards in the room not busy casting spells also stared in surprise as the four large streams of smoke, soot and ash converged on the corpse into a single black cloud; a cloud that swirled upwards higher and higher. A cloud fed by four fireplaces containing hundreds of years of soot and ash, as well as a deep elemental affinity to fire, air and smoke.

  The cloud began to crackle with small lightning bolts as Randolf resumed speaking. “And you did not simply piss him off; you will have pissed off his entire race. You know an attack against one is an attack against all, do you not?”

  A booming laughter filled the room, emanating from the black cloud of soot over the now-hidden catamite’s corpse. The smoke and soot from the fireplaces continued to stream unendingly towards it, the streams then bending and rising directly up above the site of Crispin’s charred corpse. The upward streaming cloud was now as tall as Exador, and began to form a cross-like shape. At about waist height, the cloud suddenly lightened and changed.

  Within moments, the upper half of the cloud had formed the upper torso of Crispin, or an older, more mature and hugely muscular version of Crispin. His gleaming muscles shone through the sleeveless, open front vest, and rock-hard abdominal muscles showed above a red sash that separated the human-appearing torso from the black cloud.

  “Master,” the new Crispin said, nodding to Randolf, showing those below the top of his very elegant, formal red turban. “This infidel has tried to damage your property.”

  “What the…?” Exador’s eyes were wide in shock.

  “Here’s the thing, Exador,” said Randolf. “You have been a pain in my family’s side for a very long time. However, our closest allies could not move against you until you attacked one of them directly. You have now done so, unprovoked by myself or Crispin.” He chuckled. “You see, in order for the djinn to move against you, you would need to attack Crispin in a manner unprovoked by either of us. You have now done so, for which you have my greatest appreciation.” Randolf flashed Exador a very wide grin.

  “My master is correct, demon. You have now given all of Djinnistan a reason to hunt you down and exterminate you like the vermin you are,” Crispin said, grinning at Exador.

  “Crispin?” Randolf said.

  “Yes, master?”

  “I wish you to punish Exador for damaging my property,” Randolf said.

  Crispin grinned widely, steepled his hands before him and bowed at his smoky waist towards Randolf. “Master, your wish is my command!” With that, Crispin and his smoke cloud quickly enveloped Exador. The sound of thunder and lightning resounded around the room even as the whistling roar of the air being sucked down the four chimneys rose to a level that drowned out the claxon.

  “Quickly, everyone; we need to move fast while Crispin buys us time!” Randolf shouted across his link to his stunned fellow councilors. He had to twist his jaw to pop his eardrums; the air pressure in the room was getting quite extreme.

  Crack! Crash! Crackle! Crash! Crunch! CRASH! The large upper windows in the foyer were being blown out by the very high air pressure in the room. Randolf had to brace himself as the wind levels within the room began to approach cyclone level. Fortunately, the air pressure had pushed the window glass outwards. Glass shards raining down on them was the last thing they needed while trying to cast spells.

  Randolf shook his head and began casting a very local shielding spell around himself and his accessories before they all blew away. Gold braziers and similar instruments were heavy, but there were limits. He just needed to deflect the winds around his small area so he could actually cast some spells.

  Once his local air shield was in place, Randolf flicked his wrist at the nearby brazier that Crispin had set up before his metamorphosis, lighting the components within. “Astuos trineptos, eskelon nor tufos!” Randolf began his incantation.

  “Is that Herodite’s Horrendous Hellion Scourge?” Jehenna asked over the link, apparently to Lenamare, yet everyone heard.

  “Sounds like it. I’ve never done it myself,” Lenamare said, having temporarily forgotten about the city’s wards. Randolf smiled grimly as he worked to cast the spell. Unfortunately, the most truly devastating spells against demons relied on a binding link between the master and demon. Thus, against foreign demons, most wizards were forced to use traditional non-demon spells which had varying effects.

  Fortunately, there were a few demon-specific spells that could piggyback on a normal wizard link, such as the ones they all had as councilors. Herodite’s Horrendous Hellion Scourge was one of those. It was also seldom used due to its complexity.

  He had to really concentrate on this agonizing spell, making sure he added the pre-prepared components to the brazier in order. He thus could pay little attention to what others were doing. He did note that Tureledor was sending force bolts into Crispin’s maelstrom. That was a great idea; they would have little effect on Crispin’s gaseous form, but would be able to do quite a bit of kinetic impact damage to Exador.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Davron was creating a pentagram around himself, preparing to use conjury against Exador. Excellent.

  “Aargh!” Exador screamed as a rapid barrage of razor-sharp ice bolts pummeled him. The bolts appeared to come from Gandros’s direction. At least, Randolf assumed they were pummeling him, as no one could actually see Exador inside Crispin’s smoky cloud. Suddenly Exador was coughing loudly. He must have inhaled after his scream; that would have drawn Crispin into his lungs.

  Randolf shook his head; that was not going to be pleasant. Suddenly there was a new whistling sound as all of the smoke and soot began streaming into Exador’s nostrils. Once inside the demon’s lungs, after being initially inhaled, Crispin was able to pull the rest of his smoke and ash cloud to himself inside Exador. This was a standard djinn attack; Crispin would not only be attacking with lightning from inside, but also increasing the air pressure inside Exador. Mortal creatures generally exploded; that probably would not happen here. Exador would probably shift to fire or some other insubstantial form.

  Yep, there he goes, Randolf noted to himself as a huge blaze started inside the smoke cloud. He shook his head while reciting his spell. The wind, combined with Exador’s giant flames, were reaching out to the whipping tapestries and drapes. In moments, the upper walls of the foyer were a conflagration to match the pillar of flame in the center of the foyer.

  “Fiat Completum!” Randolf screamed at the top of his lungs while thrusting his staff towards the flames of Exador, releasing his spell. Greenish-black tendrils each about six inches in diameter extended quickly from his staff and began wrapping around the flames.

  Randolf really had to concentrate now, chanting under his breath to direct and manipulate the spell. He had to force the tendrils to wrap around all sides of Exador’s flames, as well as above and below. He was going to need to get this in place quickly. The two insubstantial beings were now at a stalemate.

  Tureledor’s force bolts were now useless with nothing to impact upon; however, the stream of ice bolts was likely still hurting Exador, as the flames were sizzling as the bolts struck. While the bolts did melt, they were also poking holes in Exador’s flames. There! Randolf mentally yelled to himself. And now to squeeze. Holding his staff in his right hand, Randolf began making a fist with his left.

  There was a horrendous scream from the flames as Exador began to feel the pressure. Randolf waved his staff in a scourging motion as if he were whipping Exador, which in esse
nce, he was. The flames shifted back to the solid, winged Exador, who was red with fury and glaring with a hideous malevolence at Randolf.

  “You sycophantic sociopath! How dare you!” Exador raged. The archdemon pointed at Randolf and giant bolts of lightning flew from his large index finger, crashing against the shielding of Randolf’s pentagram, even as Exador’s body was pummeled from behind by more force bolts from Tureledor.

  Randolf laughed. “Wizards use pentagrams to protect themselves from demons, in case you were not aware of this.”

  “To the Abyss with your pentagram!” Exador screamed at ear-splitting levels before he started choking again as Crispin again tried to fill his lungs when he inhaled. Perhaps at some point Exador would learn better, Randolf thought, grinning. Around a smoke-formed djinn, breathing was a seriously bad habit.

  Exador dove to the floor with both fists forward, slamming hard into the floor while screaming a very loud, very deadly curse word. The ground rocked with the impact, far more than Exador’s actual weight would have caused. He had done some sort of geomantic spell; that was obvious now as cracks began radiating out from the impact point of his fists.

  The foyer shook with the force of the quake and the smaller tremors that followed. It had to have been some sort of ground-quake spell. Randolf began whipping harder, which naturally caused Exador to scream in pain again.

  “He’s got two columns!” one of his fellow councilors shouted over the communications link. Randolf could not tell which one it was, but he turned his attention enough to see that a crevice had reached and opened up the ground under at least one of the nearby columns. Crap! The columns were definitely load bearing, and were starting to collapse.

  “I will work to prop the columns up!” Gandros shouted over the link.

  “I’d help, but I’m trying to redirect the crevices from Lenamare while he works on the wards!” Jehenna shouted.

  Randolf glanced at her; she was gesturing and chanting rapidly to redirect or ameliorate a very large crevice coming at her and Lenamare.