Incubus Inc. 3

by Randi Darren

  Sam could easily dispatch them one by one, but if they grouped up on him, he’d have issues. His superiority over others came mostly from his combat ability in a one-on-one fight.

  This would be too much without anyone to fight at his side. At this moment, he suddenly lamented that he didn’t have Jes or Aster with him.

  Or even Wren, if he thought about it.

  Any of those three would be quite at home in a situation like this.

  Sighing, Sam realized that his little buffet was over. He needed to move on the city lord’s opponent now. This general who had cost him his “favorite mistress”.

  Snapping his wings out, Sam leapt into the air with several beats of his wings. Rapidly sailing up into the air and clearing the encirclement, he unfortunately put himself into a different frame of danger.

  The Essence-Sorcerers and missile weapons of the army were now targeting him. Several lightning bolts, fireballs, and rods of ice shot out from various points. On top of that were a number of crossbow bolts and arrows, as well.

  Mm. Yes.

  That’s fine, though. I’m not actually trying to escape.

  I just needed enough height so that I can dive.

  Folding his wings and angling them, Sam put himself into a shallow dive. Holding his hands out at his sides, he dismissed his weapon. Right now, it would be more of a hindrance considering his plan.

  Sam searched for a second and then locked his vision on the point where he was planning to land.

  Right atop the enemy general.

  This army was established through the strength of character and arms of one person. Sam would just swing through, pick up the general, and take her with him.

  As if his attention attracted hers, the general’s uncovered head swung towards him. She was a fairly normal looking Demon-Knight.

  Even from this distance, he could tell that was her species due to the horns, skin color, eyes, and aura of Essence bleeding off around her.

  She had short black hair that was pulled back from her face. Her features and expression were hard with steep lines that made her look grim, though not unattractive.

  Her eyes were a glowing red that were a few shades lighter than her crimson-colored skin. Black horns swept backward from her brow for six or seven inches in an elegant curve. She was attractive in general, let alone for her species.

  Quite a few Demon-Knights. They seem to be filling out the upper ranks of this army, as well.

  Hm.

  That’s rather curious. I honestly expected a lesser Pit Demon or some such to be in charge. Or just a Hellfiend, perhaps.

  This is all so strange. Hell is considerably different than I remember it and continues to be strange.

  A second after he finished that thought, Sam blasted by the general. His hands latched onto her shoulders and pulled her clean off the ground.

  “Good morning,” Sam said casually as he held onto the general. “Try not to kill yourself in the landing.”

  “Wh—”

  Before the general could finish a word, Sam let go and followed along behind the falling Demon-Knight.

  Hitting the turf with a thump, she bounced and then tumbled through the grass. She left an impressive channel in the ground where she had struck and slid along.

  Landing within a foot of where the general came to a stop, Sam spread his wings out. Holding his hand out, he summoned his Essence-wrought blade once more and placed the tip at the Demon-Knight’s throat.

  Where he had it right now was all muscle and flesh. There was nothing ultimately important directly beneath his blade.

  But most people didn’t know anatomy that well.

  It’d been critical for him when he was constructing avatars and golems to know all the bits and pieces that went into a body.

  “You may consider your war over,” Sam said while giving her a wide smile. Then he showed her his teeth and pushed further.

  The tip of his blade broke the skin and sank a full inch into her neck.

  The muscles that’d started to tense in the general went slack, her eyes flying wide open in pain. Her whole body froze up as she clearly fought the instinctive nature to jerk away from what was causing her harm.

  “As I said, you may consider your war over. If I were you… I’d probably send them the signal through your brand,” said Sam. Doing such a thing would be the quickest and easiest way to get word to her army that this was done.

  Looking like a mask of pain and rage, the general’s face was stretched taut over a grimace. One that displayed her full set of teeth. Each and every one was serrated and rather pointed.

  “Lovely smile, by the way,” Sam said, tilting his head to one side. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the command group of the general all locked in place. They weren’t going to risk her life by rushing him, but they were also ready to attack if he took her life. “Did you do the work yourself?”

  Wheezing, the general was staring up at him without saying anything.

  Pulling his arm back, Sam let the inch of his blade stuck in her slide free. Blood began to immediately well up from the puncture he’d left behind.

  Lifting her arm, the Demon-Knight pressed a hand to her neck, her leather-gloved hand covering the hole.

  “Yes, I surrender to you, my lord,” muttered the general. “Though… I… my army doesn’t serve under my brand. None of them are bound to me in such a way.”

  Sam raised his eyebrows at that.

  She didn’t bind them? How odd.

  Adam had all of his people subjected to his brand.

  Though he’d said it was a familial one, and not his own personal one. Which made sense at the time considering it was a family-run business.

  Is there something more here?

  “May I cast a spell to declare surrender?” asked the general.

  “I suppose there’s no alternative,” said Sam. “Though I’ll warn you now, if it’s anything I dislike—the spell that is—I’ll just cut the Essence free and you can suffer the backlash. I promised I’d deliver you alive, but not in one piece.”

  “As I said, I surrender myself to you, my lord,” repeated the general. “Will you accept that?”

  “Of course,” Sam said. “How else would I take you captive if you didn’t surrender? Now… on with the spell.”

  Nodding her head, the general lifted her free hand and pointed it palm up towards the sky.

  Between her fingers, she began to form a spell.

  Made from Essence and looking far more like a Human mage construction, Sam felt rather unsure at the moment.

  It didn’t look anything like Essence sorcery to him.

  There was no well of her personal self in it. No brand. A connection to what she wished to happen wasn’t there, nor her visualization of it.

  This truly was some type of bastardized version of Essence sorcery mixed with Human magic.

  Watching, he waited.

  What should have taken her a handful of seconds stretched out to an entire half a minute. The general was also forming Human-made runes into her spellwork.

  “Your Essence sorcery is terrible,” Sam finally said in an irritable tone. He also wanted to prod at this to learn if she even had a brand. He was beginning to suspect she didn’t. “Do you even know what you’re doing?”

  Losing focus, the general’s eyes snapped to Sam’s, her brows drawing down at the center. She was practically glaring at him.

  “Are you just trying to signal surrender?” asked Sam. “Because if you are, just tie the construct to your brand, push your desire through the Essence, channel it into the form, and let it rip. Then control it directly with your brand.”

  “I… don’t have a brand. My family dismissed me,” said the general, the magic in her hand fading away entirely.

  “Your personal brand, fool. Not a familial one,” offered Sam. This was the question he’d been wanting to ask. Except he didn’t know how to ask it without admitting his ignorance to the situation.

 
“Personal brand?” asked the Demon-Knight. “Personal brands don’t work anymore. Only familial brands work.”

  Sam raised his eyebrows at that. He knew for a fact that his own brand worked perfectly fine given that he’d just used it to seal a pact.

  Holding his left hand open, Sam summoned his brand. A fully formed two-dimensional version of it appeared then and there.

  “You lie. As you can see, my personal brand is quite functional,” turning his hand over, he held it palm down in front of the general’s face. “You will cast your spell through my brand now and we will end this.”

  “I—yes, my lord. Of course, my lord. Immediately,” stammered the general. Putting her hand up against his own, she rapidly threw out a proper Essence sorcery spell.

  It lacked determination and definition, as well as being incredibly crude, but it was at least the correct magic type.

  There was no Human magic involved whatsoever.

  A few seconds later and a spell was launched up into the air.

  Detonating a few hundred feet in the sky, it let out a vast feeling of despair and defeat. That those who served her should surrender and lay down their arms.

  “There,” Sam said, standing upright. Dismissing his sword, he put his hands behind his back. “Now, let’s deliver you to the city lord.”

  Ten - Truth of One’s Self -

  The general kept one hand pressed to her neck as they walked back to the city lord. Throughout the field they crossed were countless people.

  Wounded, dead, surrendering, taking prisoners, and everything in between. None of these individuals got near Sam and his captive.

  In fact, they all kept a great deal of distance from him. Creating an odd bubble around them that had no one in it.

  It was obvious to Sam that they weren’t sure what to do with him, but they also wanted nothing to do with him. Though quite a few of them noticed and recognized the general at his side.

  “My lord, may I ask your name? In giving you my surrender, it would be impolite to simply address you informally or by title alone,” asked the general. She was actually keeping pace with him quite well. For all intents and purposes, she seemed perfectly fine.

  The wound he’d given her wasn’t life threatening nor was it even that terrible, but it was still something that would bleed considerably. Not to mention, it would be incredibly painful. Sam had suffered similar wounds in the past.

  Then again, Demon-Knights had better than normal constitution to begin with. Even compared to other Demons, they ranked above and beyond. There was a reason Demon-Knights tended to lead armies of other Demons or Cambion.

  At first, Sam considered not telling her his name. It was of no matter to her and she didn’t need to know it.

  Then he realized it didn’t actually matter.

  She was going to end up a prisoner of the city lord and that meant she wouldn’t be out in public. More than likely, she’d end up locked away in a cell somewhere and to be the lord’s play thing.

  Even if she did manage to somehow not become a prisoner and never knew his name, there was no way Sam could deal with the city lord as a nameless Demon.

  There was no way that he couldn’t give his name. Anonymity wasn’t a luxury Sam would enjoy.

  On top of that, since Sam had used his binding to seal their contract, the city lord likely already knew the first one or two pieces of his name. That was what Sam could at least determine from someone else’s binding, two-dimensional or not.

  “Sameerixis,” said Sam, deciding on the first name only. There was no need to provide her with more than that.

  “Thank you for the gift of a fragment of your name, my Lord Sameerixis,” said the Demon-Knight in a very serious tone.

  Sam didn’t bother to reply to her. Regardless of her respectful response, it didn’t really matter to him in the end. She was a means to an end.

  He just wanted to turn her over to the city lord, collect the promise on his future favors, and go on his way. The sooner he could get into the city, the sooner he could start working on shaking off the damned spell that clung to him.

  Once that was gone, he could see about tearing open a portal back home. Because as much as he was curious about going back to the place he grew up to see the common sights, this wasn’t his home at all.

  He’d grown out of everything he’d left behind here and wanted none of it at all. His old plane held nothing of value for him.

  The city lord was up ahead now, standing with his retinue, and waiting for Sam to arrive.

  This time, his helmet was no longer on his head, but held at his side in the crook of his arm. His other hand was behind his back and his feet were evenly spaced.

  It gave him a look as someone would when they were waiting. Sam imagined the man was quite eager to take possession of his captive.

  Coming to a stop in front of the city lord, Sam turned and held a hand out to the Demon-Knight.

  “One captive, per the agreement,” Sam said with a glance to the general. Then he looked back at the city lord.

  Without his helmet, he looked to be just shy of being middle-aged. With dark-black hair, dark eyes, polished black horns, and a goatee.

  “I—ah, thank you, my Lord Sameerixis. My name is Timithy Klesick,” said the city lord. He sounded incredibly unsure of himself at the moment. “Also, I must inform you that my scouts found your wives on the road to-to my city.

  “I sent a contingent of Demon-Knights to provide them with an escort. They’re being brought here per their request and I’m already preparing refreshment for them.

  “I promise, no harm befell them at all. You will most likely hear that one of my scouts was unkind to them with his speech and-and I swear that the individual who spoke out of turn to them has already been put to death.”

  Sam blinked several times.

  The city lord turned and held a hand out toward a bloody pile of meat that had clearly at one point been a Cambion. They’d been quartered and then chopped down to little better than what might be sold at a butcher.

  They’re deferring to me in an incredible way.

  I’m definitely underestimating how highly they’re treating my ability to use my brand. That’s the only thing that I’ve shown them or spoken of that would go above and beyond what I’ve seen.

  I’ll have to be careful about this until I can figure out everything in more detail. But to do that, I’ll have to trust someone.

  And one doesn’t do oneself any favors to trust in Hell.

  “Yes, well, thank you, Lord Klesick,” Sam said, going with a simple acceptance.

  “Of course, my Lord Lust, it is this humble city lord’s pleasure to serve,” said the city lord, bowing his head to Sam. “And please, you may address me as Timithy, Lord Lust.”

  Hm.

  Lord Lust.

  That certainly isn’t a name I’ve heard in a very long time. The only reason they labeled me as the Torment of Lust on the prime was because those the church worked with from Hell called me Lord Lust.

  Klesick either inferred who I was from my brand… or something else entirely.

  “And how do you know that name?” Sam asked, turning fully toward Timithy. Behind his back, he began to put together the needed Essence to summon his blade.

  Sam was very aware of the fact that he might need to kill Klesick here and now. Depending on the man’s answer, Sam was going to have to eliminate everyone nearby.

  From the captive general to the city lord, to his retinue. The last thing Sam needed was old enemies or rivals to come looking for him.

  He was not at his peak power at the moment. Even when he’d left Hell, he’d been considerably more powerful than he was at this moment.

  Individual strength only counted for so much and Sam wasn’t even up to that level. Nowhere near close, in fact.

  Having the rank and file to assist you in kicking over an enemy was also necessary. If Sam had tried to fight all those Demon-Knights fairly, or at the same time, he’d have
had problems.

  That meant making sure he understood how someone knew who he had once been. Then shoring up a problem if it was one.

  “Ah! My cousin sent a note to me, my Lord Lust. Of a powerful visitor he’d had,” said Timithy in a rush. “I only-I only got the information back this morning on who that visitor might be, Lord Lust.

  “I didn’t even think you were the one and the same who had met my cousin. Adam, that is. I really thought you were just a Demon looking to prove himself to me here. I didn’t think for an instant that such a lord as yourself deigned to assist me.

  “Until you showed me your magnificent brand, Lord Lust, I truly didn’t make the connection at all.”

  In other words… there’s no point in killing him. There are people back in the city who already know. Well, that’s not very helpful.

  I underestimated Adam.

  “Keep my identity a secret,” Sam said quietly. “I didn’t stay away as long as I did just to announce my presence. I just want to live in your city. Quietly.”

  “Of course, Lord Lust, that isn’t an issue,” promised the city lord.

  “Fine. Take your captive then and I’ll be leaving,” Sam said, gesturing to the general.

  “Ah, Lord Lust, please. Remain with us? Your wives will be here shortly and I’ve already set up a meal and refreshments for them. We can go back to Klesick quite quickly with my entourage,” asked the city lord. Now that Sam thought about that, he could see a large tent had been set up not far away. There were quite a few people going in and out of it, as well. “As to the general, of course, I relinquish her over to you. Please. Consider her a present from me to you. I only ask that if you decide to end her life, please send me the head. It would be a fine addition to my collection.”

  Sam stared hard at Klesick.

  He didn’t want anything to do with the Demon-Knight and had no use for her. In fact, he believed that Timithy was likely giving her to him somehow thinking that was what he wanted to begin with. That he was only here to take the general, or to get hooks into Timithy.

  As soon as he made the decision to reject the offer, Sam realized that he actually did have a use for her. She would be quite easy to pump for information while keeping her cowed and in service to him.