by M. R. Forbes
Charis took it from a purse at her hip. When the demon saw it, his eyes lit up.
"Wow. You really do have it?" He scampered over, reaching for the artifact.
Charis pulled it away. "Hold on. You don't get to touch it until you agree to help us. In blood."
He snorted. "My word isn't good enough for you? Even if Dante vouches for me?"
"You have a reputation," she said.
His laugh sounded like a chainsaw. "Okay, fine." He reached down and produced a small knife from his sneakers. "I promise to help you with whatever you need me to do with the Box. In exchange, you'll get me back to Hell." He cut his finger and held it up.
Charis looked at me, and then took the knife. She cut her finger, and put it to his. "I promise we'll do our best to get you back to Hell, in exchange for helping us with the Box."
I hadn't made the agreement, so I didn't feel the pressure of the binding, but I knew Charis would. Alichino laughed again and reached for the Box once more. Charis handed it to him.
"Amazing," he said, turning it over and over in his three-fingered hand. "Do you see these lines?" He traced some of the angel scripture in a fine pattern. "The calculations to reach this kind of simple complexity are beyond insane."
"So, you understand it?" I asked.
He flicked his head towards me. "I've been studying everything I could about Avriel's Box since the day that bastard Bonturo tricked me. I know you guys don't like Abaddon much, but he could have sent me back just by touching me and willing it. Anyway, yeah I understand it. I learned to read the seraphim scripture so I could reverse engineer the calculus. The best mortal nerds would have an orgasm if they could read the source code."
"Wow, nice choice of words," Obi said.
Alichino laughed again. "Yeah, I knew Avriel got trapped in there, even if nobody else did. Well, until they let him out I guess." He held up his book. "I can show you the math if you want."
"How about summarizing?" I said.
He looked disappointed. "Fine. He missed an exponent in the containment algorithm."
"How about summarizing in English?" Obi asked.
Alichino rolled his eyes. "Look, you want to keep something behind an electrified fence, you need to make sure you have enough juice to power the whole fence, right? You don't cover the whole fence, it's all useless. Are you following me?"
"He didn't have enough charge for the fence?" Obi said.
"Exactly. He fed his power into the Box, but not enough. He had two choices then. One, give up and let Abaddon keep eating everything. Two, give it more power. The only way he could satisfy the equation was to feed himself to the Box with Abaddon. Bada-bing, bada-boom, he's stuck inside."
"Fine," I said. "We already know most of this. The question is, how do we feed it enough power to trap the Beast inside, and hold him?"
The demon stopped laughing, and looked at me. "Are you serious?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Look, there's some fuzzy math to calculate the power of a demon, or an angel. Leave enough wiggle room over the top, and you're good to go. There's no way to quantitate the power of that thing."
"We have it on good authority that it can be done," Charis said. "We can up the innate 'charge' by converting the seraphim scripture to the Templar language."
"Templar?" he asked.
"The original writing of the first children of God," she replied. "If the Divine symbols were solar panels, Templar script is the most efficient at conversion."
"Ooh," Alichino said. "That sounds exciting."
"I'll teach it to you. Then you need to figure out how to use it to maximize the charge."
The demon squealed with delight. "What are we waiting for?" he asked.
As soon as we were back in the church basement, Charis shooed us away so she could share what she knew with the demon. Is wasn't that we couldn't have stuck around if we wanted to; but who wanted to?
I found Sarah in the vestibule, kneeling in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary. She had her hands clasped in prayer, her head down. I stood behind her and waited. There was nothing else to do. I knew she would know I was there.
After a few minutes, she lifted her head and stood up. "Hello, brother," she said, turning to face me.
"Hey, kiddo," I said. "I was just checking in with you. Making sure you're okay."
She smiled. "I'm good. Better than ever, believe it or not."
"Not afraid of the end of the world?" I was.
"I have to make choices," she said. "I can choose to believe that what I've seen is all that can be, or I can choose to believe we can change it."
"What do you see?"
"It wouldn't help you to know, any more than it helps me."
Fair enough. "Do you still kill me?"
Just the slightest change in her face, and I knew that was still the future she saw. "Yes. I'm not going to let that happen."
"I know you won't," I said. I wasn't sure how much I believed it. If it came down to it, I would have to make sure she didn't.
"How is mother?" she asked.
I smiled. "She's fine," I said, tapping on my head.
"When this is over, do you think I'll be able to spend more time with her?"
"If I'm here, she'll be here. You know how to get into my head, so I don't see why not."
She returned my smile, and then walked over to be and gave me a hug. "I love you, brother."
I rubbed her back, my eyes fixed on the Mary statue behind her. "I love you, too."
"Landon!"
I let Sarah go and turned my head. Thomas was running towards me.
"What's going on?" I asked.
He stopped and motioned for us to follow. "You've got to see this."
We followed him out of the vestibule and around to the left, into the hallway that led to Father Tom's office. The door was finally open again, and most of the crew had crowded around. I pushed my way in.
"What's the panic?" I asked.
Father Tom was sitting in his chair, his face completely pale, a look of absolute fear written across it. There was a simple wooden box sitting on his desk now, an old AM radio.
"We're getting reports of a civil war breaking out in the Indian city of Mumbai," the voice on the radio was saying. "People on the scene say it is complete chaos in the streets, with civilians attacking one another across the city. According to our sources, the rioters are even going into apartments and attacking people in their homes. The exact cause of the unrest is unknown, but it has been reported that it started at a downtown restaurant, when two of the patrons got into an argument, and quickly escalated from there."
I took a deep breath and looked around the room, at Father Tom, Sarah, Adam, Thomas, Izak, and Obi. "This is not good." I felt a small twinge in my gut. The balance, beginning to slide. We were running out of time. Was the Beast going for the end zone, or trying to lure us out of hiding? "This is really not good."
"What should we do?" Thomas asked.
I looked around the room at them. "We can't do anything right now. We have to wait for Alichino."
"Landon, there are people dying out there," Obi said.
"I know," I said. "There's nothing we can do. The Beast is possessing them, making them attack one another. If we kill one, he'll just take another, and another. Whether we take the lives or he does, the end result is the same."
"We have to stop him," Adam said.
"How?" I asked. "Right now, we can't. Believe me, I know you want to do something. You aren't the ones who can feel the balance starting to-"
A pounding on the door of the church interrupted me. It wasn't a knock. It sounded like somebody was trying to break it down.
"Think they found us?" Obi asked.
"How?"
"They've been fighting out there for hours," Thomas said. "They've stayed mindful of the balance. I think they're done with that approach."
The pounding intensified.
"Izak, go cover the front door. Adam, take the east entrance.
Thomas and Obi, you're on the west. I'm going to go check things out from the roof. We need to give Charis and Alichino time."
"What do you want me to do?" Sarah asked.
"Stay here. Izak, if you can't hold the front you need to get Sarah out through the rift." I tried to think of where. "Take her to Brazil, and stay there."
Izak nodded, and headed for the front of the Church. Thomas, Adam, and Obi headed off to take up their own positions, while Father Tom bowed his head in prayer.
I made my way down the hall. Opposite the stairs to the basement were the stairs to the belfry. I could hear Charis speaking to Alichino down the steps. She had to know the balance was shifting, but she was speaking with a sense of patience and calm. The demon was cooing at her explanations.
"We're screwed," Ulnyx said as I scampered up the steps.
"Whose side are you on?" I asked him.
"It looks like the wrong side."
The belfry was a small room, with the bell a dozen feet up in a small tower. I focused and jumped, reaching the tower and anchoring myself with my feet against both sides. I peeked out, and then ducked back in just in time to keep my head from being cut off by an angel. I heard the sound of Obi's Desert Eagle down below.
The seraph crouched down to find me inside the tower, and I wrapped my hand around his throat. I shifted my other hand to a claw, drove it through chest, and then tossed him away. Before I could begin looking for the next target, I felt the heat of flames headed towards me. I let myself drop, falling to the floor and dropping to my stomach as a gout of hellfire roared through the tower, and it exploded in a mess of mortar and dust. I rolled out of the way just in time to keep the white-hot and melting bell from landing on me.
"Freaking fire demons," I said, getting to my feet. The whole building shook, and I knew it had landed on the roof.
I shifted, bunching my hinds and leaping to the gaping hole in the ceiling. I landed on the roof in front of the demon. It had a huge blade raised over its head, ready to bring it down into the church. A pair of angels stayed airborne behind it, letting it lead the assault.
I closed my eyes and focused, willing myself to be stronger, pushing the focus so hard I thought my head would explode.
The sword came down.
I caught it.
It was blazing with hellfire, but I had made the skin of my claws so tough that it couldn't penetrate, and I didn't feel it. Neither did I feel the bite of the edge. It started to sink into the flesh, but I had forced the huge hands to be as hard and dense as adamantium. I heaved against the force, muscles flexing and threatening to pop, feet scratching along the roof to stay rooted. I focused even harder still, and pulled the huge blade from the demon's hands. It was way too big for me to wield it, but I had another option.
I pulled off the bracelet.
It was useless right now. Even if he didn't know where I was, he would soon enough. As soon as it had fallen down the hole into the church, I focused on the tremendous sword, pulling it around in a wide arc. The fire demon saw it coming, and it raised its arms to defend itself.
It needn't have bothered.
The blade went right through the demon's arms, and right through its neck, severing its head. It fell backwards in the middle of a huge screech, one of its wings slamming into a waiting angel, the sharpness of it leaving a huge gash. The angel hadn't attacked yet, so he hadn't fallen. The demon's poison killed him before the demon had even hit the ground.
The bracelet gone, I focused on my Sight. I wished I hadn't.
If the church was an island, the enemy outside was the Pacific Ocean.
I jumped back into the hole, grabbed the bracelet, and ran downstairs. I scrambled out into the main part of the church. I could see Obi with a knife in hand at the west entrance. The door had been blasted in, and a group of devils was trying to get past him. I found Thomas on the floor. He wasn't moving.
I turned around. Adam had drawn some kind of runes on the east door, and it seemed to be holding for now. He was on his knees in prayer.
"Adam!" I shouted. Obi needed help. He didn't respond. "Adam!"
He was ignoring me. I ran over to him. I was reaching for his shoulder when he stood and turned. "Sorry, Landon," he said. "I was just calling for backup."
"Backup?"
I felt a rush of air, and then Fredeline, the Inquisitors, and Melody came down the stairs from the hole in the roof. The First was carrying the Deliverer.
"It looks like you needed us sooner than you expected," she said on her way by.
She raised the blade and started yelling and running for the devils attacking Obi. It attracted their attention and his, and he watched dumbfounded while she tore into them with the sword. The devils in front crumbled to dust as the weapon dug into them, and those in the back started screaming and trying to run. She and the Inquisitors followed them out, while Melody stopped next to Obi.
"Are you hurt?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Nah. It'll take more than those a-holes to put me down." He looked over to where Thomas was laying. His voice dropped to little more than a whisper. "We weren't all so lucky."
"Thanks," I said to Adam, before going over and kneeling down next to Thomas.
He was dead.
"I'm sorry," I said to his corpse, reaching out and pushing his eyes closed with my hand. He hadn't turned to dust, and I wasn't sure why. I guess Purgatorians didn't get such a clean end.
"He died well," Josette said.
"For once you said something I agree with," Ulnyx remarked.
It didn't make it any easier to take. I closed my eyes and grimaced, feeling the twisting of my gut from the balance continuing its slide. I closed my eyes and focused, using my Sight to check on our situation. I could sense the line of Inquisitors outside, digging into the mass of enemies around us, led by Fredeline and the Canaan Blade.
"What now?" Obi asked.
When I opened my eyes, he was kneeling on the other side of Thomas, looking down on him with his fist to the fallen angel's heart.
"We need to hold out until Charis and the harlequin are done. I just hope that happens before the balance tips." I got to my feet. "I'm going to go check on Izak. Watch the stairs, they'll be coming through there next."
Obi gave me the thumbs up, and he and Melody joined Adam by the stairs up to the demolished belfry.
I moved through the nave and out the back doors to where Izak was sitting, cross-legged on the floor. He had scratched a bunch of demonic runes in front of the doors, and it looked like so far none of the other demons had tried to pass it.
"Having a nice rest?" I asked him.
He turned his head, and shrugged.
"Keep doing what you're doing," I said, starting to turn to go ask Charis for a time estimate. I felt a wave of heat blast towards me, and for a split-second I thought it was my Sight, but then the doors of the church exploded inward behind a blast of hellfire.
I dropped flat onto my stomach as the splintered wood and flames roared overhead, threatening to melt the skin right off my back. I could see Izak stretched out on the floor too, and he didn't look very happy. As the flames subsided, a new demon joined the party.
She was without a doubt the most attractive creature I had ever seen, with long, shining black hair, olive skin, and crystal eyes. She was wearing only slightly more than nothing, a sheer dress that only barely covered the important parts, that shimmered and changed colors as she moved, and gold bracelets that ran up perfectly shaped arms and legs.
She walked into the church, stepping onto Izak's runes. They exploded in another round of light and heat, the blast so strong I had to look away. When I turned my head back, the stone walls of the church had started reducing to slag, but the woman was still standing there, unharmed.
"Mephistopheles," she said. "It's been a long time. Still as predictable as ever, I see."
He rose to his feet and stared at her. He wasn't impressed by her beauty. In fact, he looked like he wanted to rip her face
off with his bare hands.
"And you are?" I asked. I could see a swarm of demons beyond her, and the glow of the Deliverer at its center. She didn't seem to care about the angels at her back.
"Ardat Lili," she said. Her voice was as sultry and appealing as her body. I could feel myself reacting, despite any of my best intentions.
"Keep it calm, meat," Ulnyx said. "It's a bunch of crap. She's a succubus. Actually, she's the succubus. The original that all the other designs are based on. He must have brought her out of Hell. She is something else, though."
Even with his warning, I could tell he was succumbing to her power too.
Izak wasn't. He charged towards her and threw a heavy punch. She slipped to the side, grabbed his arm, and planted her knee in his gut. Then she threw him backwards, sending him sliding along the floor.
"Where is she?" she asked.
She had to mean Sarah. I swallowed, feeling my body building up to some kind of freakish ecstasy, and my tongue moving almost of its own volition, ready to tell her what she wanted to know.
"Landon," Josette shouted.
It snapped me out of it. I reached for Ulnyx' power, to shift and go on the offensive. I found myself cut off.
"Ulnyx?"
"So beautiful," the Were replied. "I don't want to hurt her."
She started walking towards me, her hips rocking from side to side, every action causing an equal and opposite reaction. I swallowed again, fighting against the waves of attraction and passion that were pouring out of her.
"Where is she?" she asked again. "I'll make it very worth your while to tell me."
I felt my mouth moving again. Then another shot of hellfire slammed into her, knocking her away. It didn't burn her though. It just made her more sexy, the shadows of the flames enhancing every perfect curve.
"Landon," Josette shouted again.
I shook my head to clear it. The succubus was on her back, smoke pouring off her. She started to get up. Izak walked towards her, his hand out, ready to launch another round of fire.
"Stop," she said to him, a Command so strong it almost made my ears pop. Izak stopped moving.
