Devouring Darkness

by Bradley Counter

Cassandra rushed along more frantic than ever as another distant rumble echoed through the corridor. Her brow creased in worry, she followed the winding corridors through the maze of empty rooms and shattered halls. She’d hoped that following the same wall would eventually lead her to the throne room, but after more than a day of running along beside it, she felt no closer to her goal than she had before.

  I thought I would have more time before he decided to make his move. Babossa is bound to find me sooner or later, and when he does, I’ll be in real trouble. Bolos aren’t exactly easy prey; I’m not sure if I can kill him in such close quarters.

  Cassandra knew that the bolos was the source of all the pounding and rumbling that she could hear in the distance. The noises had started a few hours earlier with a tremendous tremor that she knew meant at least part of the mountain had collapsed.

  An eerie stillness followed the tremor and she stood frozen, listening for anything out of the ordinary. At first, she hadn't known what to think, but after a few minutes the answer came to her. Soft, distant rumbles started behind her and they continued to steadily grow in intensity. She knew what had happened and her panic increased dramatically.

  He's here! Babossa's come for the gallovine.

  Cassandra desperately needed to find the gallovine, but her survival instincts also began to assert themselves. She knew that a battle with the bolos was more than likely, so as she rushed through the corridors, she searched for both the throne room and for a suitable battleground in case the need to fight arose. The rumbling vibrations continued to increase in intensity as they echoed through the corridor toward her. A confrontation with Babossa seemed more of a certainty with every passing second.

  She continued along the wide corridor, running past piles of rubble, tossing her head side to side in search of her goal, but as with the many previous hours she just found more of the same. The corridors were all virtually identical: finely-cut, black stone that rose to a height of about twenty feet. The ceiling was angled inward on both sides along the top as if to serve as a natural brace to prevent it from collapsing, so there was no timber or beams that she could make use of. There were no alcoves or recesses along the walls in which to hide. There was nothing to provide her with adequate cover, nor was there anywhere from which she could launch an ambush.

  When two of the corridors met, the two simply bled into each other, providing no elaborate archways or columns that she could hide behind. Numerous doorways lined the walls on either side of almost every corridor, but most of them led to collapsed rooms full of broken stone. A few of them led to open rooms that stood empty and she decided to take a moment to consider them as potential battlegrounds.

  She came to a stop in front of one of the empty rooms and quickly peered inside. The room had been carved in the same way as the corridors, but it was over twice as wide. The square floor stretched nearly 50 feet across with a two-foot-wide pillar situated dead-center in the room to support the ceiling.

  Well, at least it’s wider than the corridor. If it comes down to it, I’ll have to fight him in one of these rooms where there’s some space to maneuver. Fighting a bolos out in the corridor would only get me killed, so I’ll just have to make certain-

  Her ears picked up the faint sound of lumbering footfalls and her planning abruptly ended. She stepped back out of the room and glanced back down the corridor the way that she’d come. The footfalls steadily grew louder and were quickly joined by another sound: heavy breathing that sounded both menacing and eager.

  No, not yet; I can’t fight him yet; I need to put some distance between us and try to search for the gallovine or come up with a better plan. Fighting him is only a last resort.

  In a swift, fluid motion, she spun away from the sounds of the approaching demon and shot down the corridor as fast as her legs could carry her. Her body attained an incredible speed that would have surprised even her if she were not so intently focused on escape. She ran so fast along the corridor that her clawed feet hardly seemed to touch the ground.

  He’s already so close; he must be tracking me by scent. How could I be so stupid? Had I remained in my human form he may not have been able to track me so easily.

  The black stone walls on either side rushed past at blinding speed. She no longer cared about looking for a place that would work to her advantage in a fight, only distancing herself from Babossa mattered. Even her search for the gallovine was temporarily forgotten.

  As she dashed deeper into the ruins, piles of rubble became more and more frequent, but she didn’t slow at all. With inhuman agility, she dodged around random chunks of rock and leapt over larger piles all while maintaining her insane pace. Her sharp, blue eyes constantly scanned for anything that might prove useful to her in slowing Babossa’s relentless approach, but there was nothing to be found except more rock.

  She ran for nearly a minute before she finally saw something out of the ordinary: the top part of a ramp that led down to a lower level. She abruptly stopped running and moved over to the ramp. It only led down two feet before the entire ramp became buried beneath a massive mound of broken rock. Peering through a gap between the rocks, she could make out a landing below and a second ramp that doubled back beneath her.

  So that’s why I can’t find the throne room; it must be down on a lower level somewhere beneath me. That means that this path probably leads straight to the gallovine.

  The sounds of Babossa’s approach had all but faded away with only the sound of distant rumbling remaining to be heard, but she listened intently nonetheless. After a few moments of steady, distant vibrations, she guessed that she’d gained several minutes worth of lead on Babossa. A smile crept across her lips and she nearly laughed out loud in relief.

  These few rocks are all that remain between me and the power to exact my vengeance. After 80 years, I will finally be the strong one. I will have true power, and I will break my father and his minions. Finally, I will live without fear.

  As Cassandra reached out for the closest rock that barred her way down the ramp, the rumbling behind her increased dramatically. A violent tremor shook the length of corridor around her. Her eyes burst wide in surprise, and she turned just as a huge hand burst through the wall behind her. The wall collapsed around the outstretched hand revealing an arm bigger than Cassandra’s entire body. Looking past the arm, she could see the monstrous bolos that it belonged to.

  “Looks like I’ve found you, thief,” roared a voice from beyond the wall.

  The bolos thrust its other arm forward and shoved more of the rock wall aside as if he was parting a set of curtains. Once he'd created a big enough opening, Babossa lowered his head and ducked through the broken wall less than 20 feet from where Cassandra was standing. Once in the corridor, he rose to his full height and glared down at her as if she was nothing but an insect.

  “I admit I got a little carried away trying to beat you here, but when I was told a spire demon had come to steal my gallovine, I lost control of my temper for a while.”

  “You say that like you knew where you were going, but that’s impossible. I only just arrived here by chance and you were somehow able to track me here.”

  “Do you really believe that I’d need your help to get here? I only hurried to keep you from getting to the gallovine before me. I thought that I would find an actual spire demon down here, not a human-sized weakling. You’re even more worthless than the demi that I crushed on the way down here.”

  “Well, don’t worry; I've already taken care of the rest of them for you. We both know that you would’ve killed them all eventually anyway.”

  Babossa shrugged. He appeared relatively calm, but Cassandra knew that she was in grave danger. The bolos took a slow step toward her and then another cutting the distance between them in half. He only had to take one more step and she’d be within his reach, and they both knew it.

  “I had other uses for them, but it doesn’t matter anymore. The gallovine is all I care about right now.”

&
nbsp; If he gets any closer, I won’t have any way to avoid him. I only needed a few more minutes to reach the lower level, but I guess I have no choice anymore. I can’t run away and leave him here to claim the gallovine, so I’m going to have to kill Babossa right here, right now.

  Her back pressed up against the rubble near the top of the ramp and she instinctively came up with a plan of attack. Without taking her eyes off of the towering bolos, she used her tail to feel along the rocks for one that she could use. Careful not to give away what she was doing, she quietly buried the dagger-like tip of her tail beneath the largest rock that she could find.

  “You seem to have set up quite an elaborate plan for a bolos; too bad it’s all going to fall apart before your eyes.”

  “Are you trying to intimidate me with desperate words and pathetic stares, little demon? Maybe you think you can fight your way out of here? Ha, you were marked for death the moment you crossed me.”

  “You’re a fool, Babossa, if you think that a bolos demon has any chance against a spire demon,” she shouted, trying to enrage him.

  “Normally, that might be true, but you look weak for a spire demon, so I’m certain that you’ll die if I do this!”

  Babossa tried to take another step, but while his leg was still in the air Cassandra made her move. Bracing her feet against the pile of rubble, she bent forward and dropped into a crouch. Her tail shot up over her body like a catapult and whipped the rock directly at Babossa’s face.

  Unimpressed, Babossa didn’t even flinch at the stone and brushed it aside with the back of his hand. As his arm passed across in front of him to swipe at the rock, Cassandra dashed forward with as much speed as she could manage. In less than a second, Cassandra stood directly in front of the momentarily confused bolos. In a single, deft movement, she lashed out and punched Babossa in the groin, dashed between his legs, and whipped her bladed tail back and slashed across the backs of his knees as she passed them by.

  With a roar of pain and surprise, Babossa fell to his knees. He braced himself with one hand while he held his groin with the other. A murderous look of utter hatred contorted his face as he turned his head to look at her over his shoulder.

  “You called me little and looked down on me as if you were something special, yet you fall to your knees just like any other male,” taunted Cassandra as she ran up his back. “You’ll die on those knees!”

  She brought her tail around in a vicious arc just as Babossa heaved his shoulders up and threw her off. Flipping around in mid-air, she gracefully landed a short distance away and looked at the bolos in surprise. Babossa was already beginning to rise up from his knees.

  I didn’t think it would be easy to kill him, but he recovered much more swiftly than I expected. Still, I know I hit him; I felt it.

  She brought the tip of her tail over her shoulder and watched a few fat drops of dark, crimson blood fall away from it. She frowned at it for a moment before turning her attention back to the rising bolos. With a simple flick of her tail, she cleaned off the remaining blood and shifted the deadly appendage back behind her.

  I must have missed his throat when he moved; there goes my only chance at a quick kill.

  “You Bitch!” Babossa roared.

  As soon as he had regained his footing, he turned and swung his huge arm around with him. Cassandra saw his fist coming toward her and nimbly jumped backwards out of the way. Babossa’s mighty backhand narrowly missed hitting her. She watched as it cut through the air only inches from her face and felt the air around her churn from its passing. Her ebony hair whipped about wildly in the sudden gust of wind and her eyes widened in surprise.

  This is no contest in terms of strength; it wouldn’t take more than a couple of those to do me in. Even a single hit would leave me in bad shape.

  Once he was fully turned, Cassandra saw the damage that she'd done to Babossa’s face. Instead of opening his throat as she'd intended, the tip of her tail had carved a wicked gouge up the right side of his jaw. The lobe of his right ear had been severed off completely and blood streamed down along his face and neck.

  “That was a pretty good try for such a puny demon,” Babossa chided as he once again managed to reign in his anger. “But it won’t happen again.”

  Cassandra took a step backward. The calm, rational way that Babossa was talking to her was both confusing and alarming. She could feel that something was wrong with the bolos standing before her, and it sent a chill down her spine.

  What’s with him; any other bolos would be storming around on a murderous rampage at this point? He’s angry, but he’s somehow able to keep it in check. I’ve never heard of a bolos being able to control their anger anywhere close to this point. Besides that, how in the world did he catch up to me? I should’ve had plenty of time to reach the lower level before he arrived.

  “By the confused look on your lovely, little face, I can tell that you have some questions.”

  “Shut up! You’re the one with half your face split open, so don’t talk down to me like you’re in some position of power. This isn’t over.”

  “Oh, but it is over. You missed your chance to kill me, and you’re not going to get another.”

  Cassandra drew in a sharp breath and rushed forward directly at him. She watched him closely as she approached; waiting expectantly for him to attempt to stop her, but the giant demon remained motionless. A sense of alarm rose in her mind, but she ignored it and pressed the attack.

  Knowing that minor attacks would likely not affect Babossa’s towering bolos body, she decided to try another killing blow. With a sudden, powerful leap, she flew up in the air and flipped over mid-flight. As she flipped vertically, her bladed-tail slashed across the entire length of Babossa’s torso from his face down to his stomach. She landed softly between his feet and quickly dashed backward to survey the damage.

  She looked up to find the bolos smirking at her with his hideously grin, completely unharmed by her attack. She backed away a little farther, suddenly unsure of what to do.

  “My attack did nothing?” Cassandra gasped in surprise. “How is that possible?”

  “I told you it wouldn’t happen again. Your attacks won’t work on me anymore.”

  What is this; there’s no way that my attack could be brushed aside so easily. He should be lying in a pool of blood right now, split wide open, but instead he’s standing there mocking me.

  She quickly replayed the moment of impact in her mind. Her tail had struck his flesh directly and with full force, yet he remained completely unharmed. She scowled and noticed the dull ache in her tail.

  I definitely hit him, but it felt more like trying to slash through a piece of blood iron rather than a bolos. Does he have a unique ability like that of a spire demon? That would mean that both his mind and body are different from a regular bolos. How is that possible?

  “That attack was worthless, but what you did to my face earlier actually hurt a little. Since you’ve worked so hard to wound me, I suppose I’ll tell you why you have no chance of winning against me.”

  “How do you figure that? Not only did I nearly beat you to the gallovine, but you narrowly avoided getting your throat split open once you caught up to me!”

  Her eyes drifted across his face to the wound that she had inflicted moments earlier. Crimson blood glistened along the ragged flesh, but it no longer flowed freely from the wound. The gash had already stopped bleeding and was beginning to knit itself back together.

  “Ha, how much time have you spent down here running around in these ruins? A day, maybe a week; you were searching blindly and wasted all your time for nothing. I can tell from all your random running that you had no idea where you were going.”

  “I suppose you think that you could do better,” Cassandra shot back, her own anger beginning to rise. “You don’t know where you're going down here any better than I do.”

  “Oh, but I do, little demon; I know exactly where I’m going. Did you really think that I was following you? I wa
s headed here the entire time; you just happened to be running in the right direction for once.”

  Cassandra frowned in annoyance at the boisterous claim. Her eyes narrowed, filled with fear and doubt. The big demon was undaunted by her skepticism, and turned to point at the blocked ramp.

  “That ramp leads down to the throne room which lies directly beneath us. On the other side of the throne room is a second ramp that I could’ve taken, but this one was closer. There was also the added bonus of knowing that I’d find you along the way if I came to this ramp.”

  “How could you know that; I didn’t even know that there was a second floor to Gormum’s fortress? There shouldn’t be anyone alive with knowledge of this place.”

  “How right you are, little demon, there shouldn’t be anyone left alive, yet I still possess the memories of this place.”

  “You’re lying; you couldn’t possibly have any memory of this place. It’s been sealed for 200 years!”

  “The memories that I speak of did not come with this gargantuan meat suit that I've been forced into; they're my memories from long ago. Back when I first walked these halls, I looked more like you except that I was much taller and more imposing.”

  Cassandra went cold at the startling weight of his words. He flashed a hideous grin at her knowingly and she suddenly began to realize why everything had seemed so wrong about him. Memories flashed back into her mind, and she thought of the bizarre events that had surrounded Babossa since the beginning.

  He’s known all along. He was able to acquire a massive army of demi and keep them under control. He knew about the gallovine and also had knowledge of the correct elevation to tunnel at in order to reach Gormum’s fortress. Without that knowledge we might have dug for decades, and by digging too high or too low, would have missed it entirely. Using his army, he gathered hundreds of human slaves to do the tunneling so that none of the demi would actually be near the gallovine.

  Sweat ran down across her furrowed brow. She stood perfectly still; frozen in place as the thoughts rushed forth to fill her mind. The terrible truth began to take shape and she narrowed her eyes at the huge, menacing bolos that contained a far more cunning evil within it.

  In addition, he apparently has intimate knowledge of the layout of this place. That’s how he was able to catch me; he knew exactly where to go and which walls to break down in order to get there faster. Finally, there are all of the odd behaviors that he has: the ability to suppress his rage, leadership ability and clarity of thought far beyond that of a bolos, and the ability to somehow keep himself from being cut. He’s not a bolos; not anymore.

  Her eyes widened as the thoughts laid themselves out in her mind and she understood the implications. He continued to stand grinning at her, allowing her time to fully comprehend the truth of what he was. The fact that he was giving her the time to figure out what he really was, was all the proof she needed that he wasn’t really a bolos. A wave of disbelief and hopelessness washed over her.

  “When did... no, how did you manage to find one?”

  “So, now do you understand why you have no chance against me?”

  “Answer me!” she shouted, “how did a bolos manage to get a hold of a gallovine?”

  Thunderous laughter filled the corridor, and Babossa looked at her with something other than rage for the first time. Somewhere behind the bolos face was a cold, calculating intelligence that Cassandra doubted she could contend with. She tried to back away, but her tail immediately bumped up against cold stone and she pressed her back into the wall.

  “You’re assumptions are correct; the fruit of the gallovine growing beneath us will not be the first that this body has tasted. A few years ago, back when the tower of muscle before you was just another stupid, nearly-mindless bolos, he made a discovery that changed him forever. The bolos was on its way up the mountain, planning to cross into The World of Light, when it came across a gallovine growing on the slopes. It had been concealed in a pocket of stone that a recent landslide had apparently opened.”

  He took a step closer to Cassandra and his voice grew even louder. Her eyes darted from side to side, searching desperately for a way out, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to escape him.

  “It turns out that the gallovine fruit that this bolos foolishly ate on the slopes had come from Gormum’s fiercest servant, a spire demon named Babossa. His power, knowledge, and experiences all passed to the bolos the instant that it consumed the fruit. Not surprisingly, the bolos's mind was completely incapable of resisting me and I consumed it in seconds.”

  His mouth twisted into a cruel smile and his expression became one of cruel pleasure. Fearful and unsure of what to do, Cassandra stood staring at him as he continued his story.

  “I am Babossa. Once I was only a spire demon, but now I'm something else. More than either a bolos or a spire demon; there has never been another demon like me in the history of The Nightlands. Few other demons could have killed those three lightwielders as I did.”

  Cassandra lowered her gaze to where he was gesturing. Hanging from a rope that dangled about his waist were three human skulls. They stared at her with their empty eye sockets, and she was suddenly afraid. She'd thought nothing of them at first, thinking that they were simply decoration that the bolos had decided to wear. The knowledge that the skulls had once belonged to a trio of lightwielders made Babossa all the more terrifying.

  He killed three lightwielders; I doubt that I could kill even one!

  “Ah, I can see that you’re beginning to understand. I can see it on your pretty little face.”

  No, I refuse to resign myself to death. There has got to be a way to kill him!

  Babossa reached out to grab her, but she snapped out of her paralysis of fear just in time to dodge aside. He roared in anger as his hand grasped only empty air. Dropping into a crouch, she ran beneath his arm straight at his leg. Her fist smashed into the side of his knee before the bolos could react. The blow had easily enough force to shatter stone, but his knee remained unharmed.

  I only need to weaken his legs; if he can’t stand, then he can’t chase me, and I can find a way to beat him to the gallovine.

  She dodged around his leg, avoiding his arm as he brought it crashing down in an attempt to crush her, and continued her attack. Repeatedly, she punched and kicked at his legs, knees, and ankles, but her attacks had almost no effect other than angering him further.

  As it became obvious that attacking his legs was having no effect, Cassandra decided to change tactics. Babossa lifted one of his massive feet and tried to step on her, but she was simply too fast. Dodging around his foot, she stopped directly in front of him and jabbed upward with her tail. The razor-sharp tip caught Babossa in the stomach, mere inches above his waistcloth, but instead of stabbing into him, it bounced off of his rough, leathery flesh without scratching him.

  The jolting impact caught her by surprise and momentarily threw her off balance. Babossa wasted no time and quickly reached out and grabbed the tip of her tail in one of his monstrous hands even as she tried to pull it away. An ordinary bolos would have lost all of their fingers trying to hold onto the tip of a spire demon’s tail, but he hardly seemed to notice the razor-sharp edge. He grasped her tail by the long, bladed tip without the slightest sign of injury or concern.

  With tremendous strength, he swung her up into the air by her tail and slammed her into the ceiling. Rock cracked and splintered as her back slammed into it and the breath was blasted from her lungs. She seemed to cling to the ceiling for a moment in blatant defiance of gravity before a sharp, painful tug of her tail brought her down. She was mercilessly flung to the ground with even more force than before.

  In the blink of an eye, she was crushed down into the floor, face-first, with enough force to leave a small crater of broken stone around her. Pain assailed her from head to toe and she felt as though her tail had been ripped off. She willed herself to move and painfully managed to raise herself onto her hands and knees. Her tail wa
s a mess of agony, but she was thankful that it was still attached and able to move.

  I can’t even scratch him; even at full force my tail just bounced right off of him like it was nothing. He could seriously kill me at will, and I can’t even put up a decent fight. I could try to run but where would I go? Babossa would almost certainly consume the gallovine fruit and find me before I could find my way back out of here, so what can I do?

  “Is that really all you’ve got,” Babossa boomed at her. “You're not a spire demon, you’re just pathetic.”

  Cassandra spit out a mouthful of blood onto the floor in response. Her legs felt weak. She wasn’t sure if or for how long they could support her, but she forced herself to her feet. Fueled by a determination that she didn’t even know she’d possessed, she turned to meet the smug gaze of the towering bolos demon with a glare of her own.

  “You’ve lost, little demon, but don’t worry; I’m not going to kill you just yet. I want you to watch me eat the gallovine fruit. You will witness the birth of a new demon prince and the strongest demon in the history of The Nightlands!”

  Babossa’s deep voice echoed through the empty stone passageway with a barely contained fury. He leaned in close, lowering himself to almost eye level with her. As he glared at her, she noticed the crazed look in his eyes that said he truly believed his own words. Looming over her, he lowered his voice to the most deathly calm voice that she'd ever heard from a bolos.

  “Only then, will I let you die.”

  Frightened and cornered, she was left with no alternative other than an act of desperation. Babossa’s face still loomed only a short distance above her own, and she immediately came up with a new plan of attack. Hoping that his eyes were not as incredibly resilient as the rest of his body, she stabbed up over her head with her long, razor-tipped tail. It moved faster than the big demon could blink, and the bladed tail plunged deep into his eye before he had time to react.

  Howling with rage, Babossa grabbed her tail and wrenched it free from his face. Bulging veins protruded from his neck, straining against his skin in response to his overwhelming fury. His left eye had been reduced to an oozing mess of blood and gore that streamed down his face, but he seemed otherwise unaffected by her attack.

  It didn’t go deep enough to do any real damage; it’s all over.

  His control finally snapped and he punched her in the face. She wasn’t able to dodge while he still had hold of her tail, so she raised her arms to try and shield herself. Even with her arms covering her face, the furious power of Babossa’s punch was too much to take, and she was immediately forced to the ground. She landed with a muffled thud, facedown, in the crater that she’d made minutes earlier.

  Babossa was instantly on top of her. Mercilessly, he tossed her over onto her back and punched her again. Still stunned by the initial blow, she was unable to raise her arms even in mock defense. She took the full force of the impact against the left side of her face. Stone crushed beneath her as her head was driven into the floor and an explosion of pain nearly blinded her.

  He held her body down with one hand across the top of her thighs and began raining down crushing blows on her face, chest, and arms. Rock splintered and broke under her as she was driven deeper and deeper into the floor by his relentless assault.

  Cassandra could do nothing to escape the raging demon that now had a hold of her. She struggled as best she could, but his strength was too immense for her to resist. She was utterly helpless before the four tons of raging muscle bent on destroying her.

  She could feel her bones cracking and breaking with every strike, and she knew that she was going to die under the force of his attacks. The world around her faded until all that remained was thundering blows, splintering rock, and the mess of agony that was once her body. She let her thoughts drift momentarily to her failed attempt at revenge on her father, but she didn’t linger long on the subject before she found a more profound regret.

  I wish I could’ve had more time with Garen. I wish I could have told him that I... love him.