Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3)

by Mitchell Olson

  And fear can be quite tiring. As she ran for her life, and the life of her comrade, she heard a welcomed voice calling out from above.

  “Hey! Raley! And is that… Ash?”

  The girl stopped dead in her tracks as the black-haired man with the gauntlet on his right hand dropped out of the sky, landing in front of her.

  “What happened?” Aura asked, stepping in to examine his friend. Oddly, his jet-black hair and clothing were soaking wet.

  Aralia was overcome with fluctuating emotions, so much so that she couldn’t properly respond. She had no more breath to speak, even if she wanted to. She could feel the water droplets that had been amassing in the corners of her eyes starting to leak. A sudden immense joy replaced her overwhelming distress.

  “Mister Aura Sir!” Aralia said, tears of happiness flowing. “It’s… after… us!” she cried between her heavy sobs. Some of the tears fell on Ash’s face as his head rested in the girl’s lap. The warm tears were not enough to wake the boy.

  “Whoa girl!” said Aura, kneeling to help keep Ash from spilling onto the gravel. “Slow down. Take deep breathes. Relax. You’re safe now. You’re with the Drax man.” Aura flashed her the dazzling smile that won so many young girl’s hearts in the Kingdom of Hell already.

  “I just finished cleaning up a mess that some greater demon made, in fact. Now tell me, what happened to you and Ash?”

  “We have to move!” said Aralia, craning her neck to look behind them. “He might still be after us!”

  “Who?”

  “The Commander!”

  “Stryd?” Aura asked.

  “Yes!” Aralia replied. “Err… no. It was, but it wasn’t! He was possessed! We gotta go!” The girl tried sitting up, but could not stand and lift the boy. Her legs were still trembling too much to stand on.

  “No,” Aura replied. The death toucher was totally calm. He looked Aralia directly in the eyes before breaking his stare and climbing to his feet.

  “Let him come,” said Aura. “I’d very much like to meet the demon that did this to Ash.”

  Aura turned his back on the girl and stepped forward. His left hand gripped the gauntlet on his right hand. He pulled it off and clenched his dark fist. Blue bolts of shining soul power shot in every direction. The boy gripped his wrist and held his cursed hand high.

  “You hear me demon?” Aura yelled. “I’m the famous death toucher, Aura Draxler! I just death-punched your fish friend, and I’d love to do the same to you! Come try to attack Ash again! I dare you!”

  Ten terrifying seconds passed where Aura emitted his freakishly powerful soul energy. He let out as much as he could, using his anger for fuel. He was aiming to intimidate the demon. The blue electricity his cursed hand produced flashed and crackled more brilliantly than he’d ever seen. The boy’s overwhelming power did not only succeed in driving off the pursing demon, but also made a young girl nearly pee herself out of fright.

  At last, the death toucher cut his flow of soul power. The blue sparking jolts of electricity stopped spraying out of Aura’s hand. He turned to face the girl again, a pleasant smile adorning his face.

  “Guess I scared him off,” he said. “Come on. Let’s take Ash home.”

  The two worked together to lift Ash up to his feet and let the girl up. They both wrapped one of Ash’s arms around their shoulders and carried the boy through the streets, failing to notice the boy’s open eyes.

  “Guys…”

  “You say something, Raley?” Aura asked.

  “Not me,” Aralia replied. “I thought you said something just now.”

  “Guys…!”

  Aura and Raley tilted and turned their heads to get a better look at Ash’s face. Now they saw his eyelids wide open, his eyes shifting side-to-side, alert. His jaws clenched as he struggled to move his mouth.

  “Para…” he said, forcing his muscles to move. “…-lyzed!”

  “He’s awake!” Aralia said with glee.

  “I think he said he’s paralyzed,” said Aura. “So that’s what the demon did to you, huh? You did well just to survive and make it back to us with that information. Good job, pal. Now let’s get you home safe.”

  By the time Shiva returned home to West Hell the invasion sirens had gone silent. After the defeats of Orkazek and Podavek, the public was to believe the demon threat inside the kingdom had been extinguished. Only a handful of devils knew the truth. But the groups of armed citizens taking to the streets could only mean that more were becoming suspicious. A state of panic appeared on the horizon.

  “Big news,” Shiva said as soon as she passed through the front door. “The demons have infiltrated the Royal Guard. And a Captain, no less.” She stepped inside with Uverstarr right behind her.

  Aura Draxler sat across the living room in ‘his’ recliner. He changed into dry clothes and caught a short catnap after escorting his friends home. He lifted his head and yawned in response to Shiva. He raised a curious eyebrow at the little annoying orphan boy.

  “What’s he doing here?” Aura Asked.

  “Hey! I just helped Prin-sis over there kick some demon butt!” the boy said, stomping his foot. “Or at least, I think we did… I don’t remember seeing a butt anywhere on that demon. I should have asked it about that when I had the chance.”

  “That’s just great,” Aura replied, his eyes closed, his head resting comfortably. “Raley’s upstairs in Ash’s room. Go say hi.”

  “Ral’s here?” the boy replied. He moved upstairs and disappeared.

  “Knock first!” Aura called after the boy as he went.

  Shiva went to the kitchen and ran cold water from the sink faucet. “I take it your demon encounter went well?” she asked, sticking her lips to the stream to drink.

  “I nearly drowned like a hundred times,” the sullen death toucher replied. “Other than that, it was a piece of cake. Just an ugly fish. Nothing special.”

  Shiva lifted her head and wiped the excess water from around her mouth. “My opponent was an annoying armored insect. You just never know what you’re going to get.” After drinking her fill, Shiva stepped into the living room to talk more with her teammate. A sudden thought dawned on her.

  “Wait, why is Aralia in Ash’s room?!” she said, staring at the part of the wall that divided their living room and Ash’s bedroom.

  “It’s quite the story,” said Aura. “I was lucky I ran into her when I did. She was terrified, running through the streets of West Hell with Ash in her arms. She told me everything on the walk home. Ash fought that demon Prince guy. Apparently, he attacks with a long tail that can paralyze you. That’s what happened to Ash. We were lucky that Aralia was there to rescue him.”

  “That girl saved Ash?” said Shiva. “And they’re alone together in his room right now?”

  “Until Uverstarr walked in on them, yeah,” Aura replied with a shrug.

  Shiva left the living room and went upstairs. Instead of turning to go to her bedroom, she went the opposite way toward the boy’s bedrooms. Without so much as a courtesy knock Shiva burst into Ash’s room.

  “Oh, that’s not even the worst part!” Aura called behind her. But she was already gone and definitely not paying attention to him anymore.

  Inside Ash’s darkened bedroom, Shiva found an odd scenario playing out. Ash was wide-awake sitting upright in bed, propped up by about four pillows behind his back. He wasn’t moving much, except for his mouth. Aralia sat at his bedside, hand feeding the boy grapes. Ash looked reluctant and embarrassed, especially when his eyes strained wide open at seeing Shiva enter the room.

  Uverstarr stood by Ash’s desk, engrossed in the human’s small collection of items from Earth he’d found or bought since moving to Hell. There was his ipod, which he received from Shiva. The battery died long ago. Uverstarr picked up an aerosol can of deodorant and pressed the cap down, spraying the stinky substance through the air and making him sneeze. He put the can down and picked up a book. The cover depicted a young looking boy changing in
to some kind of Earth creature. He mostly tried to ignore Shiva, after putting up with her for so long already.

  “What’s going on?” Shiva asked. “Are those my grapes?”

  “Miss Lady Shiva!” Aralia said with a gasp, jumping to her feet and greeting the Princess with a polite curtsy. “It’s an honor to be in your presence once again!”

  “Can it with the honoraries,” Shiva replied. “You don’t have to treat me any differently than any other girl. And I’ll treat you the same.”

  “Yes, of course Miss Lady Shiva!” Aralia replied, turning red in the face. “I’m sorry I took your grapes. They were the only food in the fridge that wasn’t rotten or moldy, and Ash was hungry. I’ll replace them as soon as I can afford it.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said, waving the girl off. “We need a moment alone. Will you two please wait downstairs?”

  “Yes! Of course!”

  “Whatever, yo.”

  Once the orphans had left the room and Aura entered to replace them, Shiva glared to Ash, placing her hands on her hips. “You. Report. Now.”

  Shiva and Aura listened patiently as Ash recanted his encounter with Prince Otozek. He’d regained most of the movement in his head, and could even do small gestures with his hands and arms. In just ten minutes he had them up to speed and fully informed.

  “Damn it!” Shiva screamed, pounding her fist into her palm. “They got all the Captains and Stryd! They’re probably already inside the castle!” She grinded her teeth as her fist trembled, still clenched in her other hand. “We have to get over there and tell someone! Goddard, my brother or father: anyone. We need to raise the alert and squash the demons before they can hide from us again. We should go right now!”

  “Hang on just a second,” said Ash. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly in the best shape to continue the mission…”

  “Oh I noticed,” said Shiva. “I warned you, didn’t I? I knew your strength wouldn’t hold out. Well, are you satisfied yet? Or do you need to push yourself any further? How long do you think your good luck streak is going to last, huh?”

  Ash looked down, forlorn.

  “Cut him some slack,” Aura said in his defense. “It sounds like this demon Prince is a cut above the demons we faced. As far as I’m concerned, Ash did kick ass just to make it out of there alive.”

  “Aura, don’t,” said Ash, his head still hung low. “You don’t have to defend me anymore. I made a big claim that I was fine, but I definitely wasn’t. Goddard’s medicine helped alright, but it didn’t give me enough strength to even compete with that demon. Prince Otozek was…seriously terrifying.”

  There were tears in Ash’s eyes, though he struggled to hold them back. He forced himself to keep talking, struggling to recall the traumatic encounter. “He played with me like I was just some cheap toy. I’ll never forget the carefree expression on his face. His relaxed posture, his crossed arms. He knew I wasn’t even a challenge for him. But I had no idea…”

  “Let it go, Ash,” said Shiva. She looked like she was growing uncomfortable seeing the boy break down. “You’re alive and that’s all that matters. We still have a mission to discuss, and right now things are bad. What do you say? Can you get it together here or what?”

  After taking a deep breath, Ash lifted his head. “Yes,” he said. “I agree with you. This is real bad.”

  “As your leader, I say our next move is to storm the castle as soon as possible and flush out those demons before they get to my family!”

  Shiva stomped her foot hoping to spur the others into action, but no one moved. Instead, Aura cleared his throat and put a defiant hand up.

  “Actually, I think we should wait,” he said with confidence.

  “I agree with Aura,” Ash said instantly.

  “What!” Shiva replied. “My family is in direct danger and you two want to sit around here feeling sorry for yourselves? Man up and let’s go fight some more demons! Before anyone else gets eaten…”

  “I understand how you feel Shiva,” Aura said, speaking with more compassion. “I’d hate to stand by and wait while my family might be in danger too. But if we rush in there without properly thinking things through, we’ll likely walk straight into a trap.”

  “How do you figure?” Shiva barked in reluctance.

  “The demons have had a lot longer to plan out their next move than us. If they’re interested in infiltrating the castle, we can assume they’ve probably already done so by now, given their choice of host bodies. Running over there now, unprepared, is a recipe for disaster. I say, since your brother can watch after your dad, we should look for Goddard first. He’ll know best what we should do from there on out.”

  Shiva remained silent for a while, pondering it over. Though she was hesitant to come around, she eventually changed her mind. “Okay then, let’s do that. That’s our plan. So why don’t we go do that now?”

  “First, I’d like to ask Ash something,” Aura said, stepping closer to his bedridden buddy. “You’ve lost all your medicine, haven’t you?” he asked.

  Ash nodded.

  “That’s a shame, if it was actually helping.”

  “It was.”

  “How about a way to defeat that demon?” Aura asked next. “Can you think of anything?”

  “If he knew how to beat the demon he would have beat the demon,” Shiva said with a rude scoff.

  “Actually, I’ve been thinking about it this whole time I’ve been paralyzed,” Ash said. This got their attention. “I just kept thinking it was all because of his stupid tail. All these stingers come out of the tip, and they’re like 99% unavoidable. But, I realized that the stinger would only come out of his tail. I just kept thinking, if I wasn’t so sick, maybe I could have cut his tail off.”

  “Cut off the tail, huh?” Aura repeated with a smirk. “Sounds like the start of a plan. That’s what I’m talking about!”

  “You should take my sword, Aura,” said Ash. “You could probably pull it off.”

  “Thanks pal, I will,” Aura replied.

  “Okay,” Shiva interjected. “We’ve got our plan: find Goddard and slice the demon Prince’s tail off! Easy as that! Let’s go!”

  “There’s still the matter of our two little guests to discuss,” said Ash, looking more stern than usual. “We’ve really got them all tangled up in this mess now.”

  “Should we send them home?” asked Aura. “Tell them to keep this all a secret?”

  “I don’t think that’ll work this time,” said Ash. “Raley’s seen too much. So has Uverstarr. They’re both too stubborn to walk away from all this now.”

  “We can’t make them go home,” said Shiva. “For all we know, the demons could still be out on the streets looking for us. It’s safe to assume those two are targets now as well. Instead of sending them home, we’ll let them stay here. Just until we get back from stomping the demons at the castle. BOOM! Mission: planned. Let’s go!”

  Ash and Aura looked at each other and shrugged. With a smile, Ash said “That’s our fearless leader for you. Always antsy in the pantsy to go fight demons.”

  “Don’t mention ants,” Shiva said, fighting back her gag reflex. “Or centipedes. Or any other bug with gross little stick legs that wiggle around and… Urk…”

  “Just what have you been through?” Ash wondered aloud, cutting the tension in the room. For just a moment, everyone managed slight smiles. It felt like old times again, despite the awful situation they were in. Then Aura brought the mood right back down to dire.

  “You don’t have to go with us, you know,” he said to his friend. “Given your condition, I think you’ve done enough already. No one would think any less of you if you sat this one out.”

  “I hate to say it, but I’m with Draxler on this one,” said Shiva with a heavy sigh. “I don’t mind protecting you if you insist on tagging along, but I could just as easily do without all that. So just do whatever you want.”

  The room went silent as they wai
ted for Ash’s response with bated breath. After staring into the corner of the room for a moment, Ash straightened his face and looked at his friends. With the resolution sounding in his voice, he said, “I’m going with you guys.”

  “I knew it,” Aura murmured to himself with a little elbow pump.

  “You sure about that?” Shiva asked. “Can you even stand up?”

  In response, Ash pulled the blankets back and exposed his legs. He was able to swing both legs over the side of the bed and move them around easily enough. He tested his ability to stand and found he could get up and on his feet with no problems. He was finally able to stretch his limbs again, moving as if he just awoke from the best night of sleep he ever had.

  “He said I was injected with a toxin called Ultra Relax,” said Ash. “He said there was no cure, but that it was nonfatal. Whatever that means. I think he was only telling half the story though, because I feel just fine now.”

  “Maybe…” said Aura. “Maybe, if this Ultra Relax is some sort of ability, it could have the same limitations the other demon’s abilities had. Like dosage, or proximity.”

  “You mean the toxin only works if you’re close to the demon?” asked Shiva.

  “Could be,” Aura replied. “Or we could be totally off. Who knows. Either way, we avoid his stingers like I avoid fat chicks.”

  “You’re so noble,” Shiva said rolling her eyes in disgust.

  “So does it kick back in the next time I get close to him?” asked Ash. “Add that to my list of problems already piling up. Going anywhere near those demons is practically a death sentence for me right now…”

  He paused for dramatic effect.

  “Still,” he went on. “They’re coming for me soon, and it won’t matter where I am. I want my team by my side to back me up when they come. I’m really counting on you guys here…”

  “You got nothing to fear, duder,” Aura said with a confident smile, clapping Ash on the shoulder. “I’ll slice, and maybe even dice, that demon Prince before I suck out his soul! Ain’t no demon gonna lay a hand on my bro!”