by Eric Vall
But there was no other option.
“Typical mortal,” Azazel spat. “Here, in your final moments, you show yourself for the coward you truly are. No last words? No final act of defiance? You’re just going to let yourself be killed? I expected more from you, Jacob.”
“I’ve still got plenty of surprises left, asshole,” I reassured the demon.
Then I used the last bit of my strength to reach up and run my hand down my right arm. As I did so, every single tattoo on my body lit up with a blinding white light.
Four beams shot out of my arm, arced through the sky, and landed on the ground about one-hundred feet away from us. There, in the light, stood the figures of the four remaining succubi.
“What have you done, Jacob?” Libidine gasped. “The portal … it’s closed!”
“Portal, shmortl,” Gula hissed and took a step toward Azazel, “Jacob’s in trouble.”
“Wait!” Superbia called out from above. “Jacob and Azazel are engaged in a single combatant challenge. If you step in, it will invalidate Jacob’s claim to the throne.”
Azazel slammed me into the ground two more times and then tossed me to the side.
“Here, succubus filth!” he growled as I landed at the four succubis’ feet. “Take your ‘master.’ He’s not long for this world, anyways.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Azazel,” I said weakly as I forced myself to my feet.
My body was on fire, and I didn’t even know how I was still functioning right now. My ribs were broken, I surely had a concussion, and I was bruised and battered all over.
But, I wasn’t going to let Azazel win.
“It’s time for some divine intervention,” I announced and hoped that my friends would take the hint. “This ends now.”
“You’re right,” Azazel agreed as he walked over and picked up his broadsword. “It ends now, with you writhing at the end of my blade.”
Suddenly, I felt it. A warm, tingling sensation started in my heart and then spread all throughout my body. My hands began to glow with white light, and I felt a familiar surge of energy take over my battered soul.
The succubi and Todd were all channeling their energy into my body, and I was charging up for a big finish.
Azazel laughed. “Oh, this is rich,” he cackled. “Please, please use divine powers on me. There will be Hell to pay if you do.”
Without another word, the fucker charged at me with his sword at the ready.
I stared Azazel down as he approached, and I refused to yield. I felt the sensation slowly turn from a warm tingle into a full-on, electric burst of power. My body was engulfed with Divine Light, and I was charging up for the attack to end all attacks.
The God Bomb.
Azazel was now only twenty feet away from me, and he raised his sword up into the air.
The second he exposed his torso, I unleashed the attack directly into his chest. My eyes were completely blinded by the divine magic, and the earth itself trembled at the release of the God Bomb.
Azazel screamed in agony as the spell overtook him, and his wails of pain continued for a full minute before I finally released the spell.
I took in a deep breath and surveyed the damage.
The King of the Fourth Circle was still alive, but just barely. His red skin was burned to a toasty black crisp, and he was on his hands and knees as he struggled for breath. The area all around Azazel was destroyed, with boulders and debris scattered all throughout the landscape.
I limped toward the fallen demon with the Unhallowed Sword in my hand.
When I finally reached the fucker, he looked up at me with sheer agony in his eyes.
“G-go on,” he rasped out. “End me, mortal. Take your place as King. At least I’ll go to my grave knowing your secret.”
“My secret?” I demanded. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
A thin smile spread across Azazel’s lips, and he shook his head and began to laugh maniacally.
This must have been another one of his tricks, but I wasn’t going to fall for it. I was done with this asshole.
I raised the Unhallowed Sword above my head.
“See you around, mortal,” he cackled. “I’ll--”
I brought down my blade, and Azazel’s head separated from his torso with a bloody plop.
The air grew eerily quiet, and I looked up to see that all of his demon minions had fallen as well.
I dropped the sword to my side, fell down to my knees, and stared at Azazel’s body in disbelief.
“It’s over,” I said aloud to myself with a chuckle. “It’s finally over.”
Chapter 19
“Is he … ” Libidine asked as she and her sisters approached.
“He’s dead,” I laughed, still in disbelief. “Azazel’s dead!”
All four of the succubi looked at each other in shock. Their mouths hung agape as they stared at their former master’s corpse, and then they let out a little squeal of glee and embraced.
“We did it, bro!” Todd called out from the castle wall. “Ding, dong, the bastard’s dead!”
I tried to stand to my feet, but I fell down instantly.
“Get down here ASAP!” Ira demanded. “Jacob is hurt. Like, really, really hurt, and not in the ‘wax candle in the asshole’ kind of way.”
“Is … is that supposed to be good?” I joked weakly.
“You’ll have to tell me,” the succubus flirted. “It’s on my list of things to try.”
“I'll bet it is,” I sighed as Tris and Ira helped me to my feet.
The adrenaline was finally wearing off, and I was beginning to feel just how hurt I really was. My entire face was puffed up from my injuries, and each assisted step I took caused a jolt of pain to shoot up my spine.
The drawbridge of the castle fell to the ground with a loud crash, and Eligor, Todd, Sia, and Cupi came running out in a frenzy.
Sia got to me first, and she wasted no time in summoning her healing spell.
“My lord, Jacob … ” she said, nearly in tears. “He really did a number on you.”
I released the protective spell around my body, and the redheaded madame ran her golden hand over me.
A warm sensation followed her glowing hand, and I felt its healing touch fall over me like a shroud. Unlike before, this was a feeling of being on pins and needles, but in a good way. As Sia’s hand glided over my wounds, the pain disappeared, and the visible cuts and bruises healed themselves up until it looked like they had never been there in the first place.
Within a minute or two, I felt as good as new.
I stood up on my own two feet, cracked my back limberly, and then turned to my friends.
“All hail the Purple Knight,” Todd cackled. “Seriously, Jakey, I told you that would work, didn’t I?”
“You did, Todd,” I admitted. “I guess that means I’ll keep you around a little bit longer.”
“Please,” the imp scoffed. “You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Cupi admitted. “All those years of torture and abuse … and now the fucker’s dead. I should feel happy, but I don’t. It’s like I’m in a dream, like this is a trick and he could come back at any moment.”
“It’s not a dream,” I reassured the blonde. “Azazel is gone for good.”
“At what cost, though?” Sia sighed. “You used Divine powers in Hell, Jacob. That will surely attract the attention of Lucifer.”
“We’ll deal with that when it happens,” I promised. “Besides, I’m the new King of the Fourth Circle. I’m gonna have to deal with the Devil eventually, anyways.”
“You won’t get far if you call him that,” Ira explained. “I’ve never met the guy personally, but apparently he cuts out the tongues of anyone who refuses to call him ‘Lucifer.’”
“He’s very picky about that name, isn’t he?” I observed.
“I’d be pretty pissed off too if I had an elegant name, but people kept referring to me by
some buffoonish nickname,” Eligor chimed in and shot Todd a dirty look. “Thank goodness we don’t know anyone like that.”
“Yeah, thank God, Goldilocks,” Todd shot back without even the slightest indication of taking the hint. “Lame nicknames would get old reeallly fast. Why do you think I spent so much time perfecting Gula’s?”
“I appreciate it, Todd,” the curvy redhead giggled.
Cupiditas walked over to Azazel’s severed head, picked it up, and examined it in awe.
“This seriously feels like a dream,” she mused as she looked over the grisly remains. “Millenia of torture and enslavement, all over.”
I walked over to the succubus, wrapped my arms around her tightly, and embraced her from behind. My nostrils took in the sweet, floral smell of Cupi’s hair, and it was almost pleasing enough to make me forget we were in Hell.
Seeing Azazel’s head, however, reminded me all the better about our current reality. The Father of Warfare’s mouth was open, and his tongue was dangling out over his razor-sharp teeth. One of Azazel’s eyes was closed, and the other was wandering so far to the side I wondered if it was trying to do a full three-sixty in his skull. The fucker’s dark red skin had been burned to a crisp, covered completely by third-degree burns. What little remained of the King of the Fourth Circle was pitiful, just like he had been in life.
Then I had to mentally remind myself that he wasn’t the King of the Fourth Circle any more.
I was.
“Why don’t you put that thing down?” I asked Cupi coyly. “It may feel like a dream, but it’s our new reality. Azazel is defeated, and the Fourth Circle is ours.”
The succubus looked at the head once more, and then she dropped it to the ground and kicked it away like a soccer ball. Cupi turned her head to the side and pressed her lips tightly against mine. She tasted just as sweet as she smelled, and we held our passionate kiss for several, all-too-short seconds.
“The Fourth Circle was where we lived for hundreds of thousands of years,” Sia interjected, “but now, under Jacob’s guidance, it can be the superior Circle.”
“More than just that,” Gula spoke up. “It can truly be our home.”
“Yeah!” Tris exclaimed. “I’ve already got all of these great ideas on how we can fix up this castle, most of which involve large flat screen TVs, comfy sofas, and munchables that are limitless.”
“Now that’s speaking my language, Slothy,” Todd agreed.
“Easy there, Sister,” Ira explained. “Jacob can change the landscape and some of the parameters, but it’s still Hell. This place has to follow Lucifer’s guidelines to a tee, or else we could get audited.”
“Every King and Queen of Hell has a contract,” Sia explained. “Surely Azazel’s was in his castle. If we could find it, Ira and I could examine it and see if there are any legal loopholes we could exploit.”
“Ugh,” Tris moaned, “is that the thing he always carried around that was like twelve-hundred pages long? That’s gonna take forever to get through.”
“We’re going to have plenty of time,” I sighed. “It doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere anytime soon. When I brought you guys down here, the spell holding open the Porta ad Inferos was broken. I have no idea how the fuck we’re going to get home now.”
“What if we don’t have to go home?” Libidine spoke up bashfully. “You now have an entire Circle of Hell that you can bend to your will, Jacob. We can make this our new home!”
For a second, I wanted to believe the dark-haired succubus. I literally had a world at my fingertips, and it had just about everything we could ever possibly need. But then I thought about all the people we’d left behind back on Earth.
My parents were on Earth Realm. Jane and Oliver and the entire Cult of Ralston was on Earth Realm. Our friend Raphael was on Earth Realm.
We couldn’t just leave them all behind.
More importantly, there were still plenty of demons up there who were manipulating, tormenting, and killing human beings.
I couldn’t let that slide, not even if it meant an eternity of relative peace for me and my women.
“All hail Jacob Ralston, the King of the Fourth Circle!” Daniel, the blond Shade we’d saved earlier, called out as he and his friends approached. “What did I tell you guys? He’s a legend in the flesh.”
The large crowd of Shades raised their fists up into the air and let out a triumphant “harooo!” before they all began to break out into a chant of “Jacob! Jacob!”
“Thank you, Daniel,” I said as I walked over and shook the Shade’s hand. “If it wasn’t for you guys, those demons probably would have torn us apart.”
“It’s the least I could do.” The blond Shade shook his head. “You saved us from an eternity of torture and pain. We will follow you to the end of the world, my friend. Or should I say, my king?”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” I chuckled and waved my hand.
“Yeah, bro,” Todd explained, “Jakey gets all weird about titles and shit like that. The girls keep trying to tell me it’s because he’s so humble, but I think it’s just because he doesn’t think he can remember all of ‘em.”
“Or maybe he just wants to remain anonymous,” Invidia spoke up. “Life is too fleeting to worry about bullshit titles given to us by the posers of the world.”
Todd looked over at the succubus and gave her a “what the fuck” look. “Are … are you okay?” he asked. “Like, seriously, do we need to call you a therapist or something?”
“It’s part of her appeal,” Sia explained. “Some men really like the broken, depressed type.”
“The kinda girls who would write ‘This is who I am, nobody says you have to like it’ on their social media and have posters of dudes with eyeliner all over their walls?” Todd asked curiously.
“That seems oddly specific,” Sia pondered.
“I knew a lot of them in high school,” the imp admitted. “I’m sorry to say I even banged a few of ‘em.”
“Are you talking about Sherry?” I chuckled as I reminisced on our youth. “I don’t think holding hands and chanting while dry humping counts as ‘banging.’”
“I still got off, and she got to complete her weird ass wiccan spell,” the imp shrugged. “It was a win for both of us.”
Daniel was watching this entire exchange with a raised eyebrow, and then he turned back to me.
“Well, whether you accept the title or not, you are our king,” he explained. “We are at your mercy and your wrath, although I know you will be a much more just ruler than Azazel ever was.”
“Speaking of that asshole,” I offered, “his body is right over there, and I don’t want it to stay here.”
“Yeah,” Todd interjected, “a dead body would really fuck with the feng shui of the place.”
“Exactly,” I chuckled. “Would you be willing to get it out of here for us?”
Daniel bowed his head. “We would be more than happy, my king,” he answered with a dark look on his face. “Azazel has been the bane of our existence for thousands of years. I’m sure the Shades of the Fourth Circle would love to spend a little bit more quality time with him before we dispose of his body.”
The angry mob of Shades walked over to the body and lifted it up into the air. Another small group approached his head, picked it up, and stabbed it onto the end of a pitchfork. Then the mob walked back toward the horizon, and they carried the two pieces of the corpse while cheering wildly and firing their guns into the air.
“Remind me to never piss off the Shades,” I gasped as soon as they were out of earshot.
“Let that just be a lesson, bro,” Todd explained. “All throughout history, the story of kings always ends the same … even if it does take hundreds of thousands of years to happen. So maybe it is better if you don’t want the crown.”
“Like it or not, it’s mine,” I sighed. “And so is the Fourth Circle. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but thankfully we have all the time in the world.”
; “We’ll find a way to return to Earth Realm,” Libidine reassured me. “We’ll see all of our friends once more.”
“I’m sure we will,” I said with a tender smile. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this whole adventure, it’s that when we work together, we can defeat anyone or anything that comes our way. You guys are the best team a man could ask for.”
“Stop it, Jakey,” Todd said as he put his hand over his mouth and kicked the ground bashfully. “You’re gonna make me blush.”
“But, in all seriousness,” Eligor took over the conversation, “you have one of the most efficient units I’ve ever seen. It’s an honor to have you as an ally.”
“What about you?” I asked the blonde knight. “Are you going to go back to Lilith now?”
Eligor nodded. “Yes,” she explained, “my mistress will want to know everything that has transpired here today. Rest assured, she will be beyond pleased.”
“Great,” I said half-heartedly. “Maybe next time we can meet the Demon Queen herself.”
“Play your cards right, and maybe you will,” the blonde answered matter-of-factly.
I walked in a small circle as I looked out at my new kingdom and took it all in. The Fourth Circle was a vast space limited only by the constraints of my own imagination and stretched on to infinity. As much as I wanted to get back home, I was kinda excited to start rebuilding the whole thing. Ideas were already flitting through my mind, but there would be time for that later.
For now, I just wanted to rest.
I began to head back to the castle, and my team followed. We passed through the open gate, walked up to the keep, and then got comfortable in the lounging area.
We were all exhausted from the battle that had just occurred outside these gates, and we wanted nothing more than to kick back and relax for awhile.
There was a couch in the living quarters Azazel had designed to fit all seven of his succubi plus one more, and that was our seat of choice. The girls all cuddled up to me on the couch as they giggled and tried to get comfortable.
“You know,” Libidine said coyly from my left, “you now have a full Harem and a massive following. That technically makes you a Demon Lord.”
