Demorn: Soul Fighter (The Asanti Series Book 3)

by David Finn

  Demorn barely resisted an urge to kick her. ‘Fighting fate is exactly what I do, Josie. That’s why I’m here. You really don’t know that?’

  ‘Oh please, I bought you for the vague promise of maybe saving your ridiculous ex-girlfriend.’

  Demorn’s voice grew cruel. ‘Don’t even bring her into this. Getting her soul back was a bonus and it’s back on the other ship, if you’re to be believed.’

  Josie dragged herself upright to sit on the wall.

  Demorn realised with a grim satisfaction she’d plugged Josephine in the stomach. The witch wasn’t getting back up from this. And Demorn sure as shit wasn’t letting her out of the door. The floor lurched beneath them.

  ‘That was the ship that crashed through the dark portal. Kate’s gone, her soul is disintegrated, I self destructed it on auto.’

  In frustration Demorn punched the control panel. There was no way right now to tell if Josie spoke the truth. No time or space to care. Her watch PINGED. True zero. Were they about to all die?

  Her watch tingled with vibration. She looked down, it was ringing. Maybe not true zero after all.

  She picked up the call. ‘Hi, bro!’

  12

  * * *

  Smile sounded light, the connection clear, almost perfect. ‘What’s the sit rep?’

  Demorn swore violently. ‘Pretty fucked up! The comet is about hit the Bay and I’m in the craft. I’m in a Master Room. Oh, and Josie is a traitor.’

  ‘A traitor? Who ever trusted her?’

  Josie choked on a laugh.

  Demorn winced at the admission, ‘I halfway did. We had a deal that went bad. You kinda had to be here.’

  Smile tut-tutted. ‘She’s a snake in the grass, always has been, always will be, no pun intended. Please don’t tell me she got you with the usual “Let’s Save Kate” shtick.’

  Demorn almost yelled. ‘It was a bonus!’

  ‘Fair enough. Your ex is busy doing late night coffee commercials if you really miss her that much.’

  ‘I don’t. And as for Josie, she might not have much longer to slither. None of us might, bro.’

  ‘Hold on, let me sync with the system. There’s one Banker Key inserted and it’s locked onto the Bay. Did you do this, Dee?’

  Demorn said, ‘It’s not mine. I’ve got mine here.’

  Josie screamed, ‘It’s mine, it’s mine, you idiots! My key! My last chance! My triumph. My holy serpents will inherit the wasteland and my home will be reborn in fire when this dimension finally explodes and the Parallels are adjusted!’

  Demorn turned and shot Josie in the head. The snake woman rocketed back, and then another bigger, vicious lizard burst out of her body. Demorn killed it, with point blank shot after point blank shot, the gun ringing out in the small space. The two of them lay dead, on top of each other. Josephine was just a husk. The thought turned Demorn’s stomach.

  ‘Sorry, bro, she was messing with my flow.’

  ‘That’s cool. There’s more than one Josie walking around out there anyway, if the legends are true. You got a snake, but all of them are treacherous bitches, if you want my advice.’

  Demorn could see sequences of lights running across the panel and her watch glittered with the emblem of a skeleton smile. Ghosts clustered inside the chamber. Not really ghosts, though. Other versions of herself, some of them reptilian. As always she saw her dark variant, with the deeper scar, all dressed in black. Demorn felt a strong pull of connection. Her brother was running some deep programs to escape and neutralise this threat. On the screen, Bay City grew closer and closer. She could feel the heat in the Master Room.

  He came back crystal clear. ‘Did you say you had a Banker Key?’

  ‘Yep.’

  Smile was all business. ‘Cool, you’re on an old school Master Rig. They don’t make them like this anymore but I’ve got one here on the Spire. I think I can slave it from here! There should be an output on the bottom right side, next to her Key.’

  Demorn scanned the rig desperately. Down on the right a shuddering blue key was inserted into the rig. Obviously this had been Josie’s. Demorn fitted her golden key in beside it. It shuddered and took a second to take. Engines whined inside and outside the room, and the console panel was hot to the touch. The screen was hell itself, people dying in the fire. The ghosts, the mad variants, all seemed to be her. She felt the awful cold of translocation and the screen went dark. She saw the black portal. She could feel the ghosts gathered in the Master Room, echoes and parallels alike. A shudder went through the room, and the dark portal was lit up with a nuclear flare. That’s the comet, Demorn realised, that’s the magic bullet, that’s our doom, exploding in nothingness, as we somehow survive it.

  The Room shuddered like crazy. Demorn stumbled, almost fell. She blinked, and saw gods lying slain around her in the Master Room. She saw ancient beings, animal-spirits, and creatures that were a strange mesh of machine and flesh, all lying dead amongst the variant versions of herself. There was blood everywhere. She was coated in it. In all the different dimensions blood covered her. Even this one. Especially this one. The visions faded, drifting into nothing.

  Lying down in Josie’s blood, Demorn pressed her hand to the wall and hauled herself up. Her brother’s voice came in, clear.

  ‘You’re okay, Dee. It worked. The comet just passed over the Bay.’

  ‘We won?’ It was less of a victory cry than a exhalation of relief. Demorn was horribly aware that this kind of victory was an aversion of a threat at best. At worst it became a Pyrrhic victory, where she was wounded beyond repair, and Triton would rise even stronger the next time. This didn’t feel like that at all. She had lived to fight another day. She looked down at the console. It was dead. The keys were melted into it. Demorn knocked against the panel softly.

  ‘We won,’ she repeated.

  Smile said, ‘Triton had a ton invested in this project. They expected to reap an entire dimension. This loss will hurt. It could set them back hundreds of years.’

  Demorn’s hand was trembling. ‘Where have we landed?’

  ‘Bay City. The ship is gone. Torn apart in the portal.’

  Demorn was aware there were questions for which she didn’t have the answer. Was Kate’s soul really destroyed in the destruction of the Banker Ship in the portal. Or was that a lie, too? She didn’t know and the only person who had claimed it as fact lay dead at her feet.

  ‘Was there ever a reset button?’ she said. ‘Josie wouldn’t stop talking about it. She was almost obsessed. It’s kinda why I believed her. She seemed so sure.’

  Smile considered. ‘Maybe there was one. Probably. Not for us though, not for you. Josie played a dangerous game and she played all in. She might even have used something like a reset button before.’

  ‘But not this time,’ Demorn said.

  ‘No. We can all run out of lives. That comet was about to hit the Bay, Dee. No second chances. If you hadn’t been here, if we weren’t a team, it would be all over.’

  It was true. There wasn’t much more to say. She felt lightheaded and exhilarated.

  ‘These Master Rooms are rare, aren’t they.’

  Smile laughed. ‘They sure are. And fewer and fewer of them are functional, because of all the crazy bullshit people like Josie pull and the fact all the old Masters are dead, I guess. You’re damn lucky, Dee.’

  Demorn said, ‘You know what I just realised. I didn’t use my sword on her. Xalos didn’t spawn. I shot her point blank.’

  Smile laughed. ‘You’re more than just a blade for hire, Demorn.’

  She grinned. ‘True. I’ve got a gun for hire too.’

  ‘And steel hands. What does it matter how she died, Dee? There’s more than one way to skin a snake.’

  Demorn pushed the door open and climbed out into the sunshine. The globe-like room had come to rest on the edge of the ocean. Waves lapped Demorn’s feet as she hopped out. The bright sun was a heavy glare after the darkness of the ship. Her sunglasses automatically
adjusted. The heat and waves felt fantastic on her skin. She almost wanted to dive into the ocean and keep swimming.

  She said, ‘Josie’s not the point. I always thought I knew what Justice was. I hardly had any doubts. But the deeper I go and the longer I stay in Firethorn, the fainter that line becomes. Xalos spawns less often so I shoot more people. I tear apart my enemies with my hands. Sometimes I forget I even have the sword.’

  ‘So what does it mean?’ Smile asked.

  Demorn shrugged. ‘Xalos was the first blessing of the Goddess. It’s why I wore the scar. Did I even want to reset everything even if I could? It feels like the blackest days have passed.’

  ‘That’s good, isn’t it?’

  ‘Sure it it is. See ya soon, bro.’

  Demorn hit the end of the sand, and she clambered up a grassy embankment. She could smell hot dogs and tortillas, the start of another busy day beachside in the Bay. She looked back. The ocean was sparkling and awesomely epic in the early morning. Bay City was so warm and beautiful. She was just so happy it had all survived, and so had she. She looked at her watch and went to call her girlfriend.

  ‘Demorn! Demorn!’

  She looked up, amazed. Winter came running across the empty street from a carpark, rushing up to her, rocking a black bikini that Demorn would never wear so easily or so right. She rushed right into Demorn’s arms. Demorn held her tight, so tight, her eyes flooded with tears, incapable of talking straight away, just clinging on to this girl who had somehow brought her back, kept her clinging on to sanity in an insane world. They were so much more than friends now. Demorn’s heart was beating a thousand miles a minute. Winter pulled her face down for a kiss, taking the glasses from her face. Demorn felt naked and transparent and so loved. In the distance, down by the beach, the Master Room glowed and vanished behind them.

  ‘Let’s go get some ice cream,’ Demorn said. ‘Have I got a story to tell you!’

  ‘No joke!’ Winter exclaimed. ‘Is this is one for the comic books?’

  Demorn wrapped her arm around Winter’s waist. ‘Yes, and maybe even one for the Lost Years file,’ she whispered in Winter’s ear, gently nibbling her pierced ear lobe.

  ‘Ohhhh!’ squealed Winter, as Demorn tickled her. They ordered two peppermint ice creams mixed with chocolate. In the warm light of the Bay City morning, the two were reunited. It was the happiest Demorn had felt in years, she could feel the trials and the darkness falling away.

  Winter said, ‘Hey, Dee, can I ask you a question?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Can I come with you back to Babelzon? Just for visit, to see if I like it?’

  Demorn smiled eagerly, nodding, pressed against her new lover, her heart alive and freed of whatever chains she had placed on herself and even those on the ghosts that haunted her. Ghosts like Kate and other girls, other people she had known—Wolf, Baron Santos himself, for so long a companion, even Iverson with his strange disconnected way of doing business—the list went on. Each one of them meant something to her and they had played a role in her surviving this fight.

  ‘Yep. We can go back tonight. I’ve stayed in Firethorn way too long this time.’

  She held Winter closer. ‘And it would be nice to have somebody I love with me. And with Santos dead, well, what’s the point of going back to Ceron?’

  Winter gave her a quizzical look. ‘Santos dead? He’s not dead!’

  Demorn laughed, her mood brightening even further. ‘What! My brother told me, the illness got him.’

  Winter showed her a picture on her phone. SANTOS ALIVE screamed a headline. She saw picture of the Baron addressing the crowd, wearing his longest robes, his body still looking emaciated, but mobile. The Helm covered him.

  ‘But hey, it’s only six p.m. How about we go catch a movie?’ she said.

  Winter’s response was an extremely passionate kiss. ‘Sure, but can we make it one based on a comic where the good guys win?’

  Demorn’s grin was completely genuine. ‘Deal. Race ya to the car!’

  13

  * * *

  Iverson’s body was still shaking as he got behind the seat of the Moth. The coffin slid up into the ship, side doors wrapping around as the Moth exploded off the roof. Iverson’s hands trembled as he piloted a line between the twin red suns. His exhaustion mixed with relief. Every victory in this place always felt like a mini-sized version of defeat. As he reached the portal, blurring in and out on the very edge of space, Iverson could wait no longer. He went to the coffin, brushing the ice off it. Take your wife, Josephine had said. Take your wife and leave this insanity.

  He had kept the comms open with Wolf until close to the end. But eventually, Natalia’s face called him, as it always did. Her image lay across the coffin front. He opened the coffin lid. It was plush and white and empty. Iverson’s heart ached. The portal danced around the Moth, white flashing lights, reminding him of snowflakes. The craft powered on for another hour or more, on autopilot. Iverson barely moved. He took the small audio device Josephine had given him when she gave him the coffin and placed it over his ear.

  Her voice, light and free. I was real, William. They always make you forget, but I was real and we had love. Love, he said the word to himself with a smile. Love. Did people even remember what that meant? How small it was, or how big?

  Babelzon pulsated below him. Even from this high up, on the edge of the atmosphere, he could feel its magnetic tug, the strange pull the city exerted. Josephine had lied. She had claimed to have taken Natalia from the clutches of Kingdom. But she had not, or at least she had not placed her in the coffin. Iverson wasn’t sure that mattered. The rescue didn’t match with the memories, not even the fake ones. He didn’t know what was real and what was not. He guided the Moth toward the flashing future city, his heart a torn out shell. I was real. I was real. We had love. Iverson sank back in his chair and let the Moth carry him a bit farther on autopilot. He hadn’t believed Josephine when she said she had the body, hadn’t believed her when he’d paid her for it, hadn’t believed the last shreds of hope he had for her rescue. She was either dead or had never existed. When he said it so simply and so clearly, he almost felt better. The Moth started to descend through the clouds, and Iverson pulled himself together, closing the lid and preparing for the Secret Council.

  EPILOGUE

  * * *

  Babelzon, The Secret Council

  The room was ice cold and small. There were three people around a dining table, five chairs. Smile sat with Jackie Z. Baron Santos was gone now, but his place remained at the head of the table, and his absence made everything feel more empty.

  Iverson sat across from them, in his black leather jump suit, legs crossed, face neutral. They had played a couple of low stake rounds of Dragon-cage to pass the time waiting for their guest. Iverson’s phone rang with a low hum. He answered it on the first ring. He listened for roughly nine seconds, murmured his thanks and hung up.

  ‘I’m sorry. That was Santos’s people in Ceron. The Prussians have rolled back, and he’s got a lead on the cure. He wants me to assemble a team ASAP.’

  If Smile was surprised at the bad intel regarding Santos, he didn’t show it. ‘Where’s Demorn?’

  Iverson shrugged. ‘Off the grid. She deserves a rest.’

  ‘That she does,’ Jackie Z said. ‘You guys have pushed her so damn hard. She’s a woman with rights, not a god. Let her have some peace.’

  Smile laughed, his teeth glistening. ‘Message received.’

  There was a knock on the door and it opened slowly. The Tyrant walked in. He sauntered up to the table, wearing black sun-glasses and a Knicks cap, jeans and a hoodie. He rolled a soul skull onto the desk. It was white and small, with piercing, green glowing eyes. Smile grabbed the skull, recognising it for what it was. The skull shuddered in his hand, warm to the touch.

  ‘It’s her soul! My sister’s soul! How did you come by this?’

  The Tyrant took his huge black glasses off. His eyes were burnt out ruins.
Smile’s mouth opened in shock. The Tyrant’s smile was a death grimace. Red electronic lights sprang open in his ruined eyes. Iverson shifted on his seat.

  The Tyrant said, ‘With great difficultly. I bring news of Ultimate Fate.’

  Iverson sat upright in his chair. Jackie Z put down the Dragon-cage cards she was holding.

  Smile cleared his throat.

  He said, ‘Close the door. We have a lot to discuss.’

  The End

  DEMORN WILL RETURN IN BOOK 4 OF THE ASANTI SERIES

  DEMORN: ULTIMATE FATE

  AND COMING SOON . . .

  SHRINE

  A Reader’s Guide to the Asanti Series

  Courtesy of Jackie Z, Treasurer of the Innocents

  THE MULTIVERSE: There are many universes, composed of multiple realities. These form the multiverse.

  THE FRACTURE EVENT: A terrorist bombing action by TRITON operatives which collapsed various realities and killed billions within the multiverse, wiping the memory of the majority of the population. Super-cities such as BABELZON and the fortress of FIRETHORN have become beacons of order and civilisation in a dark, chaotic universe.

  Cracks have opened in the walls of multiple dimensions and savage demon gods claw against the Void Wall where they had long lain dormant . . . This disaster is known as the Fracture Event. Demorn remembers the Event, one of a select few.

  DEMORN: Dimensional Exile of Asanti, Wandering Princess of the Swords, are just some of her titles. Carrying a mystic blade, an Athena gun and a bad attitude, Demorn slides between crumbling realities, selling her sword to battle everything from savage demon gods to undead Vikings or criminals for the bounty.

  Demorn is a high-ranking member of the Innocents, a Clubhouse of assassins and thieves within BABELZON. Blessed by the goddess Alodin Mars with blazing eyes that can pierce into souls, Demorn wields XALOS, the sword of Justice, spawned from her ruby heart. Demorn wears the pain locket of a death god, and is a touch sarcastic and nihilistic.