Infernal Father of Mine

by John Corwin

  Maloreck seemed to know he had me. "You fought well, but you are not strong enough."

  "You couldn't take me one-on-one," I shot back. "Your little pals are the only thing that saved you, you lily-livered pansy." As insults went, it certainly wasn't my best work, but I was in absolute searing pain. My eyes felt like miniature volcanoes. The places where Maloreck had bitten me stung like a swarm of mutant bees had made me their own personal pin cushion.

  "Your insults will not win this fight," he said, sounding closer than a moment before. "Nothing will, now."

  I braced for his next attack and fervently wished I'd trained with a blindfold like Elyssa had often suggested. I had no way to see this creature, and from the sounds of battle, it didn't seem anyone was coming to my aid anytime soon. If only I had Minder Justin with me to show the way.

  An answer slapped me in the noggin. I didn't need eyes to see this jackass. I had incubus abilities. Despite the searing agony in my eyeballs, I managed to extend my senses. I still couldn't open my eyes, but I felt the presence of Maloreck nearby. He was a few feet in front of me, pacing back and forth. I felt a burst of glee from him and his clawed hand slammed me in the side of the head.

  I staggered left. Another surge of manic joy pulsed from him and I braced as another blow punched into my gut.

  "Your life will add to mine," he gurgled. "I will be mightier than the bright one."

  "You sure enjoy playing with your food," I said. "Admit it. You're afraid to fight me even while I'm blind."

  That remark triggered what I could only describe as hurt pride. I sensed a surge of emotion and knew he was coming in. This time I was ready. I ducked and charged forward. My shoulder met what felt like his stomach. Maloreck grunted. A shock of surprise emanated from him. Using my momentum, I leapt forward and slammed him earthward. Air burst from his throat. I guesstimated where his throat was, and managed to find it on the first try, gripping it with both hands and squeezing.

  He flailed, hissing and gurgling. His claws dug at my face. I held my head back, and squeezed my eyes tighter. I felt more Nazdal leap onto my back. This time, I ignored them. The pain they caused was nothing like the infernos in my eyes.

  How long does this stuff take to wear off?

  I squeezed with all my might, desperate to end the fight fast. Maloreck's claws raked against my stomach. I knew the armor had failed when I felt my flesh ripping. At this point, I didn't care. I had to kill him or die.

  "I'll save you, Justin!" I heard Ivy shout. The Nazdal on my back screeched. I smelled burning flesh. The load on my back lightened and the attacks stopped. Something wrapped around my midriff and tore me loose from Maloreck, depositing me on the floor.

  A tremendous roar sundered the air. "Xhi kakini xhe," bellowed a demonic voice. I will kill you.

  I felt tender hands press against my face. "Hold still, Justin," Mom said. "I'll make you better."

  Cool, cold liquid splashed down my face and the agony subsided. I blinked my eyes open and saw Mom's face through a haze. She trickled more of her miracle fluid into my eyes, and the haze faded until my sight was once again clear. I stood, looking desperately for Maloreck. When I found him, I saw I had hurt him. Blood poured from multiple wounds. Even so, he still looked as dangerous as ever, though not as dangerous as the towering red-skinned demon facing him.

  "Leave my son alone," my father said, his voice deep and booming. "I think it's time you died."

  Mom grunted. "I concur, David."

  Ivy stood next to Mom. "You hurt my brother," she growled. "Let's finish this!"

  "You are not as strong," Maloreck hissed at my father. "If he had not injured me, you would have no hope of winning."

  "Now look who's crying foul," I bellowed.

  Maloreck seemed to know the gig was up. Faced with the four of us, even he didn't have a chance. He turned to run. Ivy threw out a hand. A net of blinding white shackled him to the floor. Dad made a fist and punched upward. His hand opened wide. A fiery hand ripped from the ground and clenched the Nazdal's midriff. He screamed as his flesh steamed and burned. Dad squeezed his hand tighter. Bones crunched. Gouts of blood spewed from the creature's mouth.

  Dad looked at me. "Finish him off, son."

  I roared and charged the trapped Nazdal. Using all my strength, I karate-chopped him in the throat. Maloreck gurgled. I chopped again. Breath rattled from his mouth. Gripping his head in my large hands, I twisted and yanked. With a sick, wet pop, his head dislocated and hung loose by the flesh. Maloreck wheezed his last breath.

  I saw several of the larger Nazdal racing for the body. I knew if they took his life essence, we'd have another huge problem on our hands. Mom came to my side and pressed her hands together. She drew them apart, displaying a roiling ball of white light. She thrust her hands forward and a beam of Brilliance sliced through the first Nazdal. Mom swept it left and right, shearing off limbs and heads.

  "Ivy, get rid of the body," I said.

  Still maintaining the net of Brilliance around Maloreck's corpse, she swung her arm and hurled the body far back behind our defensive lines.

  Looking across the room, I caught sight of Elyssa and a group of Templars finishing off the remaining Nazdal.

  "We did it," I said, hardly able to believe it.

  "We sure did, bro," Ivy said, wiping her hands and scowling at the remaining force. She looked me up and down. "You actually look kinda cool as a demon. Maybe I could learn how to—"

  Mom grimaced. "Ivy, find Nightliss and help her."

  Ivy pouted. "But she doesn't need—"

  "Ivy," Mom said in a stern voice. "She needs you."

  My sister sighed. "Fine. But I want to learn how to be a demon too." She looked across the chamber and sprinted where Nightliss was helping Templars fend off flanking attackers.

  I shoved the demon back in its cage, resuming my normal form.

  Dad also shrank back to normal size. "We still haven't finished off the brain," he reminded me. "I can't believe Serena hasn't shown up—"

  The words had hardly left his mouth when dozens of sentinels burst through the door. I caught sight of Serena through the open passage, eyes glittering with what could only be anger. The sentinels weren't the only thing coming through the door. I saw ghouls shambling close behind. After them came more Nazdal. I remembered Serena saying there were hundreds of ghouls and god only knew how many more of the crawling sub-human Nazdal.

  The light of victory vanished from Dad's eyes as he looked at the oncoming horde. "Okay, now I'm pissed."

  Chapter 38

  "We're outnumbered," Mom said.

  I heard Elyssa shout a command and saw the Templars reforming their ranks. Bodies littered the floor. How many Templars lay dead, I couldn't tell, but at least the dead Nazdal seemed to outnumber our people. Elyssa spoke with two other Templar squad leaders, and then ran over to us. "We're going to hold the line."

  Mom's eyes flashed wide. "Impossible. We need an orderly retreat." She glanced at the arch. "I can remove the rune, but it will take several minutes. Once the last Templar is through, I'll remove it and shut down the arch."

  Elyssa shook her head. "There's no escaping this room once the portal is closed. You'll be trapped and Serena will still have it."

  "We can blast a hole in the back wall." Mom seemed to measure the distance. "If you take care of that and provide me with a flying carpet, I can hide until we find another way out of the Gloom."

  "These walls are incredibly thick, not to mention magic resistant." My girlfriend clenched her jaw and looked at the encroaching force. "They have a numbers advantage, but not all of them can fit in this room."

  "That door is a bottleneck we can take advantage of," Dad said, pointing to the narrow opening.

  A Nazdal and ghoul squeezed through the door at the same time. The ghoul roared and grabbed the Nazdal. With a savage swing, it slammed the creature against the floor like a sack of flour until it hung limp. Another ghoul shambled through while the first subhuman sn
acked on the body of its victim, seemingly oblivious to anything else around it. Other Nazdal crowded around the body, probably taking what little life essence they could.

  "They're not a coherent fighting force," Elyssa said. "Just a bunch of monsters. Maybe we can use that to our advantage."

  Even as the ghouls and Nazdal bumped and crowded through the door, more infighting erupted. By now, the Templars formed a solid wall. Those in the front held their shields in an overlapping pattern while Arcanes and swordsmen stood behind.

  Dad took Mom by the arm. "Before you go trapping yourself in the Gloom, let me try something else."

  She looked up at him. "But, David—"

  "You remember the Battle of the Sand Canyon?"

  She nodded.

  "We beat impossible odds then. We can do it again."

  Mom smiled. "Just like old times, isn't it?"

  He chuckled. "Never a dull moment when you're around, Alysea. Besides, you know me; I always have another card up my sleeve." He gripped my shoulder. "Come on, Justin."

  He and I jogged through the Shadow Nexus portal and into the Three Sisters arch control room back in the real world. Racing from beneath the Alabaster Arch, we took the aisle to the front of the chamber. A Templar manned the modulus. Dad pulled out an arcphone and dialed a number. I heard a female voice answer. "Looks like I'll need you after all." He handed the phone to the Templar. "Please do as she says."

  Before I could ask who he'd called, Dad turned and raced back toward the portal to the Gloom. Through the portal, I saw Mom and Elyssa looking toward the wall of Templars—a thin black line standing between Serena's forces and the rune. My stomach sank as I thought of how close we were to losing this battle and how close Daelissa was to realizing her dream of world domination.

  We stepped back through. I opened my mouth to ask Dad who he'd contacted when Elyssa raced up to me. "We're trying to push enemy forces back toward the door. The Arcanes are at a disadvantage because they're at floor level."

  I raised an eyebrow. "I don't get it."

  She pointed to what looked like a large pile of ebony lumber. "Those are self-building mage platforms, but I can't spare anyone to set them up." She looked at my mother. "Alysea, I need you, Nightliss, and Ivy on those platforms. We need all the help we can get."

  A bloodied Templar jogged from the front line. "We're unable to stop the dreamcasted sentinels. Our attacks have no effect on them."

  "The brain," I said, looking at Dad. "We have to destroy it." I suddenly remembered something. "Elyssa, remember what my minder said?"

  Her eyes widened. "We can try to summon our own minders." She looked at the only entrance to the chamber. "But how will they get in?"

  "We'll figure something out," I said.

  "Do it," Elyssa said. She pulled out her phone and issued commands, explaining how to call the minders.

  "Soon as we figure out how to get them in, I'll give you the signal," I said.

  "I'll get Ivy and Nightliss," Mom said, and raced away.

  Dad and I dashed over to the pile of unconstructed mage platforms and took several. Each one looked like an ordinary chunk of lumber. I touched a symbol on the surface, and tossed it on the floor. With a loud clacking noise, the wood unfolded itself, shooting upward until a square platform with a ladder balanced atop a tripod. It stood no more than twenty feet high, but that was probably all the height someone with a staff needed.

  Dad grabbed a handful. The two of us ran behind the line, throwing up platforms until we were out of them. Arcanes on the ground climbed the structures. From their height advantage, they were able to easily pick off targets from a distance. I saw Mom, Ivy, and Nightliss mounting platforms behind the center of our line.

  Some of the Nazdal had taken to scaling the walls, probably hoping to drop behind our lines. The Arcanes picked them off as they tried, sending charred corpses falling back into the midst of the monsters below. But the Arcanes were already tired. No matter how many monsters they killed, more popped out of the woodwork.

  I climbed to the top of one of the platforms and looked down at the battle. Some of the ghouls and Nazdal were still fighting among themselves. Others tested the Templar line only to be hacked to bits. I quickly saw the biggest problem—the sentinels. As the Templar messenger had mentioned, the dreamcasted warriors had no problem crushing any resistance. Swords did nothing to them. Arcanes blasted the faceless mannequins with all forms of magic to little effect.

  Even though the sentinels numbered less than fifty, they formed a coherent line that was cleaving through our forces like they weren't even there, and the Nazdal were taking full advantage of the breach.

  "We need our minders," I said to Dad. "But how will they get through?"

  He joined me atop the platform. "We'll make a hole."

  "How?" I nodded toward the only way into or out of the arch room. "It's more crowded than a strip club on payday."

  I heard a blood-curdling howl and spun around. At least forty people appeared through the portal in the Shadow Nexus. With them were the biggest nastiest-looking dogs I'd ever seen. No, not dogs—hellhounds. I recognized the shapely blonde woman leading the group, my dear Aunt Vallaena.

  "That was fast," Dad said. He waved his sister over.

  "Hello, nephew," she said to me in her usual reserved tone.

  "Howdy." I looked at the horde of hellhounds tagging along behind the other Daemos.

  She raised an eyebrow. "So, how may we serve the cause?"

  I suddenly realized she was asking me. "The Nazdal are breaching our lines right behind the sentinels." I pointed them out. "We need help holding the line. The problem is nothing we've done can contain those things."

  Dad explained to her about how they were dreamcasted. "Don't even waste your time with them. If you can control those crawling freaks, that would help even more."

  She nodded. "Very well." She raised a fist, and the Daemos manifested into demon form, bodies bulging with muscle, horns and tails sprouting. Some of them had blue-hued skin. One of the females looked almost purple. All of them looked badass. "Onward!" Vallaena shouted. The hellhounds howled, and they charged the hole.

  Some of the Nazdal looked at the oncoming demon spawn, and something like surprise or fear finally registered on their ugly faces. The Daemos mowed through the enemies who'd poured through the breach in the line slashed by the Sentinels. Templars roared and cheered. But the line wouldn't hold long unless we did something about the sentinels. Even now the dreamcasted soldiers were harassing another part of our lines. The Daemos could help, but they couldn't be everywhere at once.

  I spotted a large Nazdal racing up and down the line of his troops, probably rallying them. He wasn't as huge as Maloreck, but between him and at least three others I spotted organizing their ranks, we were about to have another big problem on our hands. The sentinels had effectively stopped the Templar push. Nearly twenty yards filled with enemies stood between us and stopping up the entrance to the chamber.

  Vallaena and the Daemos raced up and down the line, shoring up the weak positions, but for the Templars to push forward, the sentinels needed to be gone for good.

  A light bulb lit in my head. I clambered down the ladder and stood next to my father. "Remember your earthquake trick back when Montjoy banished us? Think you can use that to break a hole in the wall?"

  "These walls look thick, but we can give it a try."

  The two of us sprinted across the open ground to the back of the chamber. I saw Elyssa rallying the troops where the sentinels had broken and scattered the ranks.

  "How did you do that fiery hand out of the ground trick?" I asked as we ran.

  "It's like summoning hellhounds. Instead of forcing a minor demon into a hellhound form, I give a more powerful demon a chance to reach out and touch someone." We reached the back wall. He tapped on it and frowned. "Elyssa was right when she said the wall is thick and magic resistant. It's going to be a hard nut to crack."

  Dad knelt and braced
a hand against the obsidian floor. "Hope this works." He closed his eyes. For several seconds, nothing happened, or at least it seemed that way. I felt a tremor in the earth behind me and spun. A thin crack in the rock ran from the portal and grew in our direction. I stepped to the side as the anomaly raced past me and beneath Dad's kneeling form.

  The fissure met the wall. A tremendous grating noise overwhelmed my ears. Chunks of rock burst from the ground. It sounded like a giant sledgehammer striking rock over and over again. I clamped both hands over my ears. After all this racket I'd be lucky if I didn't need hearing aids. I fought to keep my feet as the ground trembled and shook.

  Sweat poured off Dad's face. A grimace peeled his lips back to reveal clenched teeth. "C'mon, damn it." Chips of granite fell from the wall, but so far only a hairline fracture ran up its surface. Just because the walls were magic resistant didn't mean they were magic immune.

  I drew upon Murk and channeled a thin wedge into the hairline crack. Ultraviolet energy flashed along the tiny rift, filling it. I imagined the energy solidifying and expanding. A tremendous weight settled onto my shoulders and dropped me to one knee. It was like trying to break a mountain in half by prying it open with my fingertips. I heard the straining and cracking of rock. The infernal forces Dad employed slammed into the wall again. The crack widened an iota.

  Once again his underground battering ram slammed into the weak point. The instant it made impact, I sent a burst of energy into the breach. Dozens of cracks formed a spider web across the surface. Ultraviolet Murk flooded the small fissures, straining and pushing. I drew upon Brilliance and as Dad slammed the wall, fired a burst at the center of the damaged wall section. Most of the energy splashed harmlessly away, probably due to the magical resistance.

  It didn't matter. With a snapping groan, a section of the wall collapsed into rubble. Dad panted. Whatever magical force he'd employed raced back into the portal, leaving a small fissure behind.