Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan)

by Langland, J.

  To her dismay, she found that it came from all around them, there were at least four wizards out there. Even as she searched, two more fireballs came roaring down the mountainside to engulf the wagon behind them and one of the peasant wagons at the rear. She only had time to note that the soldiers were already down, the largest group of them had already been roasted alive along with their horses. Most of the grass in the bottom of the valley was on fire. Lightning rained from the cloudless sky. Sick at heart, she reached out to the nearest wizard. She called to the grass at his feet to rise to her command. Shouting words she herself couldn't even hear in the roar of the fireballs and the flames from the burning grass and other wagons, she caused the grass around her target to rise to three times its normal height and begin to entwine her enemy.

  The grass began to strangle him, it tangled his hands and arms so he couldn't cast any spells, it would take a while to kill him, but she didn't know what else to do. Now that she had quit the conjuration part of her spell, she no longer needed to shout, all she needed to do was concentrate. She just about lost her concentration, however, when she heard what Jehenna was saying beside her.

  "Tomasedwardperkinje, by thy name and this ring I thee summon. Come! I command thee obey. For I, Jehenna, art thy Master, thou art my servant, thou art bound by the power of this ring, by the Covenant of the Ring. Thou must appear. Aid me now, in this time of need. I command thee." Jehenna shouted at the top of her lungs.

  Jenn was having all she could do to hang onto her concentration. It wasn't enough that they were under ambush, the madwoman was summoning a fourth order demon with a ring alone! No protections, sigils or triangles! The damn bitch was insane! What would they do? Only Jehenna's will and the ring would keep it from destroying them. True, Jehenna would probably be safe with the ring, but everyone else?

  In front of the wagon, the flames rose even higher, towering up and up, easily shooting twenty feet into the air. A roar louder than any so far grew with the flames. Out from the flames stepped the demon. A true creature of nightmare. Towering as high as Jehenna who stood in the wagon, the thing's evil body gleamed purplish red in the flames. Flames danced behind it and within its eyes. Sparks seemed to jump from its horns. It bared its giant fangs in a grimace of hatred; it stood with its hooves planted four feet apart, its tail swinging angrily back and forth. Its huge phallus, there between its legs, a monstrous obscenity to the ways of nature. Its forearms stretched outward from its sides and flexed their razor sharp ebony claws. It seemed to be flexing its legs, as if to spring upon the wagon and rend them limb from limb. Small puffs of smoke rose from its nostrils, while its giant bat like wings fanned the fires around it, to quickly speed the destruction of the wagons.

  "WHAT WOULDST THOU HAVE OF ME? THIS DAY I COME OF MY OWN WILL. SPEAKEST QUICKLY LEST I DESTROY THEE IN MY WRATH!" bellowed the foul creature; the voice shook Jenn to her very bones, and as it spoke, her concentration at last broke, and she could no longer maintain her spell, knowing full well that she was about to die. She offered a silent prayer that the thing would get careless, and forget, and kill her first, before it raped her. This was pretty much all she could think of as she slid to the foot rest of the wagon.

  The wagon, on the other hand, was doing its best to come up and meet her. The horses were going absolutely insane at the presence of the demon. They were rearing and screaming, kicking and jumping. Every movement that the harness allowed them, they performed. In quick frustration, Jehenna, trying not to lose her concentration, pulled Tanthor's Wand of Paralyzation from her robe and quickly zapped the horses, with it. They fell to the ground with a large crash, breaking the guide poles on the wagon, but due to the nature of the wand, were unharmed themselves, simply unable to move.

  ~

  Trying to regain her equilibrium, Jehenna continued, "know oh demon, Tomasedwardperkinje, that you are mine to command...you must do as I say." Jehenna's brow was sweating mighty heavily. Something wasn't right, it just didn't feel right, she thought. "We have been ambushed by our enemies, I command you go out and destroy those who attack us!" The demon leered at her, its evil grin, giving even her a slight pause. Slowly it looked at the horses on the ground, apparently hoping, in its lust for destruction that they were dead. It then looked at her; and then around at the rest of what was left of the wagon train, as if sizing up the situation. It didn't move to follow her orders.

  ~

  As the wagons spread out into the valley, Trisfelt too felt the surge of magic. Although many laughed at the pudgy wizard, and considered him to be perhaps the least of Masters of Lenamare's school, mainly because of his paunch, he was no slackard when it came to magic. As quickly as Jehenna, he flung up a fire shield about his wagon., He only wished it could go farther, but the spell had its limits, especially when cast ad hoc. He could only grimace as most of the other wagons went up in flames in the initial assault. As soon as the flames died enough to release the shield, he tracked down his enemies and located them.

  Calling upon his vast supplies of energy, one reason he ate so much was to get the physical energy that magic required of his body, he flung mighty bolts of lightning at the wizards. They fought back, trying to resist his bolts, but he rained them down incessantly, and they did crack. He managed to kill two of them, before he noticed the tower of flames from before Jehenna's wagon.

  "What is she doing?" he asked rhetorically. He knew; he could feel the conjuration spell. As the demon stepped from the flames, the wagon rocked, and he turned to see Rupert diving from the wagon. He yelled to Rupert to get back in, but the boy ignored him He couldn't leave the wagon, that would risk the other children, damn that boy. As he frantically thought of what to do he suddenly heard what the demon was saying.

  "Own free will?" puzzled Trisfelt, that wasn't good, demons didn't usually say that sort of thing unless it was true, and that tower of flame wasn't right either. At this point he noticed enemy soldiers on horseback charging down the hill, and they had bows. "Fuck," said Master Trisfelt.

  He jumped into the back of the wagon with the rest of the kids. This wasn't good., Only one thing left, he thought as he gathered the kids to him. He raised his hands and shouted, "Exodilium transportatum, cyrilius seat flux, Universum Solum, globum teraturam Astlan sig faltum. Translatus por crealum, nos patrium siyenta." He focused his mind on his charges and their current surroundings while superimposing their destination in his mind. He created the juxtaposition of temporal coordinates necessary for nontranslational motion. As he brought his palms together above his head, bluish light flared from his chest, engulfing the four of them, and then they were gone.

  ~

  The demon glared at Jehenna for a few moments more, it then slowly turned and began to move towards the oncoming soldiers. Temporarily relieved, Jehenna breathed a sigh of relief. Then she noticed the oncoming bowmen on horses, as they started to rain arrows upon her and the few remaining guards, who were charging them. "Shit, this is not my day." Jehenna swore as she quickly tore off the demon's ring, she dropped it on the floor of the wagon, there wasn't time to put it away, as she quickly put on her Porisiun’s Proven Personal Protection Ring, cursing the limitations of conflicting elemental affiliations in the rings.

  She hated to give up the demon ring, in case it changed its mind before she was ready, but she couldn't ditch the Lenamare's Locator Ring, and even though it might be useful in the future., That will be then; this is now, she thought. Just as she slipped the new ring on, an arrow went by her throat, narrowly missing her. "Damn good thing I switched," she muttered as she tossed stuff off the wagon trying to get under the seat. Finally, the path was clear, and she reached under and grabbed her book. "Wouldn't want to lose this. Now bastards," she said as she turned, "Freehold here I come." She raised her arms above her head, and repeated words similar to Trisfelt's and left in a flash of blue light. Jenn, simply sat limply on the foot rail.

  Originally, the storming troops had thought the demon an illusion summoned by their own wiz
ards, thus they paid it no heed and simply finished butchering the last of Lenamare's soldiers, and tried unsuccessfully to nail the witch on the wagon. They ignored it, that was, until it began ripping them to shreds. It moved with lightning speed. Arms, legs, heads, it didn't matter, the demon ripped them all off the soldiers, indiscriminately.

  ~

  Gastropé staggered up, finally freeing himself from the spot where he'd damn near been strangled to death by those weeds. Damn glad someone killed the turd of a wizard, he thought as he stepped out from behind his boulder. Now what was all the noise going on down there? He'd seen Carlisle and Gleston under attack by lightning on the other side of the valley, he didn't have much hope for them, the attack had seemed fairly devastating. The valley was quite red. There seemed to be blood everywhere.

  "What the Abyss?" he asked as he gazed around at the destruction. The far side of the valley, was the worst, of the twelve soldiers charging from that side, and their horses, there was no sign. Just an awful lot of red, and an occasional small mound. Commotion brought his attention around to his right. Screams were coming from that direction, now.

  As he looked over, he saw a human head go flying over the boulder that blocked his view of the battle This was not good. "Demon, well, I'll take care of that." Quickly he drew himself a protective pentagram, and warded it with the strongest spells he could manage in such a primitive situation. When he finished, he called out, "Demon, attend! I am the Wizard Gastropé, and I shall be thy master. Ceasest this destruction at once, I command thee." With that he sent out a mild enforcement spell that should make it heed his word.

  Something came over a boulder and rolled to a stop at his feet. It was Martel's head. "Damn, that wasn't good”, he was probably the only wizard left, and the demon had axed Martel, that meant it was probably a third order demon. "Bitch." Gastrope cursed. He’d never even seen anything above a second order. A third would stretch his limits. He hoped he was up to the challenge.

  "Comest now demon, I command thee!"

  "OH DO YOU?" thundered a remarkably bass voice from behind the boulder.

  "Yes, shithead, I do!" One had to be tough with these things or they'd walk all over you.

  A hoof stepped out from behind the boulder, and then the rest of the demon followed. "Oooh shit." Gastropé's eyes grew wide as he took the creature in. Biggest damn thing he'd ever seen. "Did I say shithead?" was all he could say. The demon just grinned wickedly. Gastropé licked his lips.

  "Gastropé is it?" asked the demon, in a much softer, but still very deep voice.

  "Uh, yeah." Damn. He was only nineteen, just graduated from his journeymanship two months ago. Why did it have to end so damn soon. He knew he shouldn't have signed on with that asshole Exador. "Uh, you know, I'm really sorry. I really didn't mean to be so rude...you know...the exuberance of youth and all...heh, heh," he laughed sickly. Gastropé did not feel good.

  The demon took a step forward. "By the way," Gastropé smiled, "I am warded, you can't get through." The demon took another step forward, its hooves were causing the grass it stepped on to smolder. "I don't think," he added as the demon stepped closer still.

  "Hey, let's call it even. My...associates torched your...master's party, you shredded my associates! Fair is fair, right?" The Nightmare from Hell stepped another step closer. It was within its own arm's reach. Gastropé felt like throwing up, he was scared. He'd even wet his pants. Damn, he hadn't even done anything. His fireball had fizzled on a shield. He had all he could do to keep from crying. He really didn't want to die horribly.

  "You know," Gastropé almost sobbed with desperation, "these wards would be a real pain to try to break. I won't bother you if you don't obliterate me." The demon reached out and grabbed Gastropé by the collar. His pitiful wards went pop. Not even a hesitation on the demon's part. Gastropé sobbed again.

  The demon lifted the wizardling off his feet, and held him up, face to face. Gastropé stared into the demon's eyes. It was like staring into the very depths of the Abyss itself. He saw himself, agonizing for eternity, imprisoned, tortured every waking second. The demon opened its gaping maw, and ran its tongue along its sharp fangs. Gastropé relieved his bowels in his silk pants. The demon slowly began to bring Gastropé's head toward its fanged jaws of death. Gastropé broke down. He cried. Tears streaked down his dirty face. He was going to die, and he hadn't even gotten to live.

  The demon brought Gastropé's nose right up to its horrible snout, but Gastropé could hardly see any more, the tears in his eyes practically blinded him. "Get the fuck outta here," said the demon in a very tired, human sounding voice. Suddenly Gastropé was flying through the air as the demon tossed him away like a doll. He hit the ground hard. The wind was knocked out of him. It didn't matter, though, that he couldn't breathe; he struggled to his feet and began to flee as fast as he could.

  ~

  Jenn raised her eyes as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching from behind. Slowly she turned her head. She began to shake; it was the demon. It had finished off the enemy and had come back for her. What could she do? She couldn't handle a first order demon without wards, let alone a fourth order. Desperately, she looked around for something to defend herself with. Suddenly, her eyes lighted on the demon's ring, left by Jehenna. Salvation! Her only hope. Quickly she grabbed it and slipped it on.

  As she heard the demon come up behind her, she spun, holding the ring on her right ring finger before her. "Halt...Halt, d.d.demon," she stuttered, as she shook. "I...I have thy ring and I command thee to obey me!" The demon stopped about a foot from the wagon. It towered over her. Its gleaming scaly red body glistened with the blood of soldiers. Its ebon claws dripped with the rich satin red blood of its victims.

  Its malevolent eyes glared hatred down upon her. If not for her faith in the ring, surely she would not have the courage to do this she thought. "Thou art mine..." she desperately tried to remember its name, "Tomasedwardperkinje! Thou must obey my will. The power of the Covenant of the Ring binds thee to my will, demon!" The demon seemed to sigh, as if acknowledging her power. She began to hope.

  It reached out and grabbed her wrist. She lost hope. It didn't immediately snap her hand off, though. Instead it almost gently pried her fist open like a small child's. All she could do was stare in horror. Almost casually its right claw came up and slid the ring off her finger. How! How could it do such a thing? Then it did something it never should have been able to do. It squished the ring between its fingers, like a clay ring. Jenn then did something she'd never done before. She fainted.

  Chapter 29

  Thomas Edward Perkinje sat on his throne of granite, bored. True, it was nice not to be serving his accursed master Lenamare, but there wasn't exactly a whole lot to do here in the Abyss during one’s days off. True, he could go exploring, but most of the place looked pretty much the same. It might be nice to go out and make some friends in the demon world, but then a lot of demons didn't exactly seem like his kind of people.

  Thus it was that he was thinking over his options, when he heard a voice calling his name. He thought he recognized the voice of Lenamare's female friend, but he wasn't sure. She was commanding him to come, as if summoning him, yet strangely felt no compulsion whatsoever to go to her. She was shouting something about the ring, probably the one they'd made to bind him. If he concentrated hard enough he could see her in his mind.

  She was standing up in the front of a wooden wagon, pulled by two horses. Beside her sat a young girl that looked familiar, although he couldn't place her; she seemed to be concentrating on something. It was peculiar, Lenamare’s cohort was certainly acting like she was summoning him, however, there were none of the pentagrams and braziers only her ring; and he felt no compulsion, it was simply the fact that she was speaking his name that caused him to even notice her.

  Normally, Tom would have ignored her. If the damn Astlanians didn't force him, there was no way he'd want to help them; however, she did appear to be in a bit of a pinch; there were fl
ames all around her, and what looked to be soldiers on a mountainside beside her. Exactly what was going on, he couldn't be sure, but considering his boredom, it was at least worth a look.

  Trying to achieve the feeling of dissolving that had accompanied all his other trips to Astlan, Tom could feel himself siphoning through, as if through a small hole. To speed things up he pushed at the hole with his mind, and was rewarded with it growing to fit his size. The growth was also accompanied by a roaring noise. Quite strange really. He wasn’t fading so much as slipping through a hole.

  As he felt himself emerging into Astlan, Tom decided it would save him a lot of grief if he played the demon role to the hilt; let them know exactly why he was here, on his own terms. Thus using his best demonic voice, he said, "What would you have of me? This day I come of my own will. Speakest quickly lest I destroy thee in my wrath!" Overall, Tom thought, suitable enough, it seemed to have the desired effect, especially when coupled with the flexing of his muscles and his heroic pose. The girl seemed to collapse in on herself, and even the wizard who called him was sweating.

  The horses pulling the wagon were literally going wild at the sight of him. The woman pulled something from her robe and shot them. The fell straight to the ground and didn't move. Then she started talking, in a typically obnoxious wizardly manner about an ambush and destroying her enemies. Not really worth it, reflected Tom. He looked around at the scene around him, first at the horses., He wanted to reassure himself that the woman hadn't killed them; he could see them breathing, apparently she had just immobilized them somehow.