by Randi Darren
“Oh! Got it,” she said and started moving ahead quickly.
“Ah, I’ll go first. Just in case there’s some people who’ve woken up. Just tell me which way to go, Erv,” Wren said, moving ahead of the Water Elemental. Yala took Wren’s place immediately, eyeing Sam with a smile.
“Straight ahead,” Erv replied, still holding up the elemental water in front of herself. “I don’t know the layout anymore, if I’m being honest. They’ve changed it or I’ve forgotten it. But the vast amount of power ahead of us… well, it couldn’t be anything else other than the collection point.”
That makes perfect sense.
Sam eyed Yala for a few seconds and found that she really was built in a lovely way. What she was wearing certainly emphasized it. He couldn’t help but wonder what she’d feel like underneath him.
Especially if she’d never had a true orgasm before.
I wonder how wonderful she’ll taste. It’ll be as pleasant as a virgin’s, I bet.
Under his study, Yala looked away, her eyes shifting quickly to anything other than him. It was obvious she could feel his gaze and desire.
Breaking his thoughts away from Yala, Sam put his attention forward again. They’d just crossed over from one hall to another and were now moving toward a distant light that was increasing in brightness. There was also a rather loud noise.
It sounded like the humming of a power transformer on the prime material plane. As if a great many of them were all lined up near one another and receiving a full power supply.
Reminds me of the facility that housed Aster and what it sounded like from the inside.
As casual as he could, Sam glanced over to the Lightning Elemental.
She looked as if she were perfectly normal at the moment. Even though the sound reminded Sam of her previous situation, it was perfectly possible it didn’t trigger her in any way.
“That’s the center,” Erv said as the exit of the hallway came into full view. The light wasn’t blinding, but it was certainly like being out at noon on the equator in the summer.
Everyone held their hands over their eyes as they exited the hall and entered the main room.
Held suspended in midair above them was the source of the noise they’d been hearing.
A massive, roiling, vibrating, tower of Essence. One that filled all the space from one wall to the other and back again. There was so much power right there that Sam could feel the hair on his head slowly rise up as if he were surrounded by a great deal of static.
Looking away from the Essence, Sam glanced at the ground in front of them, then to the walls around them.
All around them were massive progressions of sigil work. One connected to another, then back again. They all coiled outward toward the walls and quite literally through them.
“Alright,” Sam said, then looked back toward the sigil work on the ground. “This is where we’re supposed to be. This is the thing we’re supposed to destroy.
“The problem is that I’m fairly certain the moment I do, this fortress will go up in an explosion. There’s no outlet for all that Essence. It’s beyond the capacity of any one person to handle, either. Whatever this place was made for, other than collection, we’ll never know. I can guarantee, though, that there was an intended transfer point for all that Essence.”
“Oh,” Aster said with a frown, glaring at the Essence above them. “Yeah, that’s gonna make a crater out of this place, isn’t it?”
“Yes, a big one,” answered Erv and then let out a slow breathy sigh. “We can try to set up something that would break the sigil diagram on a delay and head back to the portals. But there isn’t anywhere else we could go that wouldn’t be just as dangerous.”
“What about the portal to where Abrah went?” Wren asked. “Couldn’t we go to that one, fight our way free, and link up with her? We can do the delay thing and run to the portal.”
“I mean, it’s certainly possible,” Erv said with a shrug of her shoulders. “And I don’t have a better plan.”
“Delay won’t work,” Sam said, interrupting them both with an argument. He pointed to the sigil work laid out on the ground. “These are self-replicating. They can be broken, but unless we make sure they remain broken, they’ll just repair themselves. It’s a built-in safety so it doesn’t just explode if someone accidentally breaks a sigil.
“Probably has an alarm built into it, too. Or so I’d guess from those sigils over there.”
Sam gestured at an ugly little red sigil that was built into the exterior of everything. He had the faint impression it would function a lot like a klaxon in some way. Just perhaps without sound.
Looking around at his comrades, Sam noticed they were all nearly empty of Essence. Their various battles and fights had drained them rather dry.
Sam himself was running low, though, he wasn’t quite as empty as they were.
He would need to feed soon and replenish their stock of Essence as soon as they were safe. That also meant he couldn’t rely on them as a battery at the moment.
The only one who had any Essence at all was Yala, who was brimming with it.
On top of that, she didn’t need much to survive on since she was such a lower class Demon.
“I’ll keep Yala here with me and use her as a battery,” said Sam, looking from person to person. “She and I can escape and cycle Essence back and forth to go quickly. I’ll just carry her and empower my body.
“The rest of you should head back to the portal room. Find the portal to Whore’s Ridge stronghold and ready it for us to escape. That way there’s no issue of us bumping into one another on the way out.”
“No! I ref—”
“Aster, my bonded,” Sam said, using a name he knew that would throw her offbeat. “I have no intention of dying here. Because if I were to fall, it’s a guarantee that the rest of you would starve. Please believe me, I’ll be right behind you. But I need you three to secure our exit and be ready to lock it from the other side once we go through.”
Aster opened her mouth to probably argue with him and paused. Then she stuck her tongue out and made a loud raspberry at him.
“Fine. We’ll go get the exit ready. I swear to your dark asshole, Sammy, that if you die… if you die, I’m going to force myself on some mortal, kill them, and then myself. Then I’m going to ride their damn soul to the afterlife just so I can haunt you in line,” growled Aster.
“Right. Understood,” Sam said, nodding his head with a grin. “Now, if you please, get moving. I’d like to leave this place quickly. We’ll give you a few minutes to get to the exit before we start working on the sigil destruction.”
Erv hesitated, then bowed her head to him and turned away. Aster moved to her side, leaving Wren standing there staring at Sam.
“I’ll just kill myself. I don’t even have to hijack a soul to get to the afterlife,” Wren said, pointing a finger at him. “I will drag you to the spiritual plane of Hell and torture you personally.”
Turning her back to him, the large Devil left as well.
“Well,” Yala said, looking at Sam. “Do we have time for you to show me what I’ve been missing sexually? Or do you need to spend that time building your own sigils?”
“As much as I’d love to demonstrate the glory of sex to you, Yala the Boob-priestess,” Sam said with a chuckle, “I do have to work on sigils to get this ready.
“Because I can set it up to go off, then we go wait at the edge where we can monitor it, and flee. Flee very swiftly. Because that Essence is going to go up like an atomic bomb.”
“A what?” Yala asked, her head tilting to one side.
“Never mind. It’s going to explode in a big way,” Sam clarified. Getting down to one knee, he began to scrawl into the dirt with a fingertip. There wasn’t much else they could do. They needed to break this sigil work to get back home.
Time was finite, their resources were as well, and there was no telling what surprises Balahtus or Skipper had left behind for them. Everything
was becoming more and more complicated the longer Sam stayed in Hell.
Minutes passed before Sam finished his work. Looking up, he saw Yala not far away, watching him intently. She was clearly quite curious about what he’d been doing.
“I know someone who can teach you sigil magic,” said Sam, going straight for what he believed she was probably curious about. “Can’t do that until we get back home though. If you were going to ask, that is.”
“I… yes. I was,” Yala said, giving him a grin that showed off her imperfect teeth. They were slightly crowded and one of her teeth had a slight crook to it. “Thank you in advance, then. That is… if we survive.”
“If we survive,” Sam agreed, then stood up. It was as good as he could make it. “Has enough time passed?”
“Yes. We should probably start,” Yala said, then held out the spear to him. “No sense holding onto this if we’re running.”
Sam accepted the spear and returned it to his Essence pool. Then he moved forward and scooped up Yala, getting his hands under her rear end. Moving her around just a bit, he got her comfortable against himself.
“Alright. I’m going to light it now, are you ready?” Sam asked.
“As ready as I can be,” Yala said, then laid her head down on Sam’s shoulder.
Looking back at his sigils, Sam activated them then moved to the exit.
Standing there, he watched his sigil break the other spell. Then it phased out and began to loop into itself, his sigil work replicating the same pattern used to make it.
Skipper’s sigil diagram reformed itself, just as Sam had expected. Followed by a massive burst of Essence that flooded out in every direction. It made his skin prickle and it felt like someone was screaming in his ear that everyone needed to get to the vault.
Sam’s sigil broke through Skipper’s diagram again.
Only for it to be rebuilt, even as Sam’s snaked its way back around for a third pass.
Then a fourth.
Fifth.
Six.
On the tenth pass and break of the sigil diagram, Sam saw the rest of it all began to fail. The diagram rapidly faded away as the whole thing finally came undone.
The massive ball of Essence began to slowly sink toward the ground.
“Time to go,” Sam said and held Yala tightly. He linked himself to her and began to cycle Essence from her to himself, and back to her.
Now channeling the expanded Essence into his legs, Sam began to sprint away. He put as much distance as possible between them and the sigil room as quickly as he could. Behind him, the humming noise grew in pitch. It steadily climbed to a whine that reminded him of certain fireworks.
Then the Essence detonated.
All around them the walls began to shake and tremble. The very ground beneath his feet began to heave and wobble with the force of what was happening.
Shit! Way bigger than I thought.
This is going to rip right through the portals, isn’t it?!
Yala made a squeaking noise and then buried her face into his neck. She held onto him for dear life as he ran.
Behind him, he could feel heat rushing toward them. Heat and light, as well as Essence.
Leeching as much of the Essence out of the explosion as he could while he ran, Sam poured it all back into his sprint. His legs were starting to feel like they were burning.
He wasn’t sure if it was from the heat behind him, over-use of Essence, or the muscles failing.
Turning at the corridor that led down into the stairwell which would take them back to the portal room, Sam jumped. There was no way he’d have time to actually try and take the stairs.
Hitting a step with a great amount of force, Sam skipped off it and propelled himself forward again. He tried to limit the amount of time he spent on the steps entirely.
Except he hadn’t counted for gravity or how much force he’d put into the leap.
Sam was moving faster and faster, but he wasn’t going to hit any stairs. In fact, the bottom landing was rapidly coming into view and growing larger by the second.
Larger and far more solid.
Damnit, I’m going to break both legs, aren’t I?
As soon as he hit the stones, Sam realized he’d been wrong.
Cursedly so.
Not only did his legs break, but also his hips.
Spilling forward with the force of the impact, Sam slid across the stones on his side to try and protect Yala.
Before he came to a stop, someone grabbed him, dragged him into the portal room and then threw him and Yala both.
Sam physically passed through a portal to find Aster and Erv on the other side.
Then Wren crossed over to their side and looked at the Elementals.
They both went to work closing the portals completely. They removed the magic that’d held it open for years upon years.
Slumping to the ground, Sam laid there in agony. There wasn’t anything he could do to help them at the moment. Their survival was now in their hands.
Closing his eyes, Sam ignored it all.
“That was terrifying,” Yala whispered against Sam’s shoulder. She remained pressed against his front. “And amazing.”
Twenty-Five - Feeding Time -
“Here it comes!” Erv said in a slightly panicked voice.
“Shit, shit, fuck, fuck, shit,” growled Aster.
Sam didn’t even need to wonder what they were talking about, he already knew. It was the Essence from the explosion racing through the stronghold. It had been right behind them after all.
“Use the Essence to break the portal,” said Erv. “Reach in and pull what you can through!”
Now that caught Sam’s attention as it was a really good idea.
It was something even he could do right now while lying here.
Reaching out with what Essence he had available to him, Sam began to draw more through the portal. Pulling at the massive amount of Essence that was tearing through Annulus fortress.
Drawing it in as fast as he could, Sam began directing it to his broken body. If he could at least get himself to a point he could walk, he’d consider it a victory.
While he pulled the Essence and pushed it into himself, Sam felt something very strange as well. A small presence that fluttered about wildly. Going one way, then the other. Searching blindly without any real direction.
Then it latched onto what Sam was doing and followed it back through the portal. It began to pull at the Essence in the same way he was.
Except it was little better than a straw drawing water from a pond. Pulling a small trickle of Essence into Sam. Then in the next instant, the straw became a sluice gate in a dam and a massive amount of power blasted into him. Almost at the same rate that he was drawing in Essence.
It all occurred in less than a second, and Sam couldn’t keep up with what was happening. It was faster than he could even think about it.
It’s Yala!
The Demon perched atop Sam had somehow discovered Essence magic and was figuring it out quickly. She seemed to have a greater talent for emotion and intention based magic than even he did.
Everything she was drawing into him, cycled back to her, then to him. Sam had forgotten to disconnect himself from her. They were still endlessly cycling Essence between the two of them.
She was literally learning because she could follow what he was doing, as she was part of his Essence pool.
“Don’t fight it,” Sam murmured for Yala. He knew now that she was trying to imitate what he himself had done. Except where she had built a construct that allowed Essence in, Sam had made one that drew it in. “Just let go.”
The roar of the Essence explosion was increasing now. Sam could feel that Aster was shielding the portal while Erv was closing it. The two of them were working in concert to save the day.
Because even as they were trying to close the portal to Annulus down, there were portals that went to the other fortresses. Fortresses that had open portals to many other location
s and back again, letting the Essence flow freely and wildly.
Yala apparently understood his words and her construct inverted itself. She was suddenly drawing more Essence into Sam and herself than even Sam could handle.
There was no arguing in his mind that Yala was a clear genius when it came to Essence sorcery. He wasn’t sure if she was born with it, or something that came about due to her mentality, but she was incredibly gifted.
“Got it!” Erv shouted at the same time that the portal collapsed on itself and vanished. “Oh my dear god, that was terrifying! Because the portals all bled into one another, there was no resistance at all!”
“Yeah,” Aster said, followed by a thump.
Sam opened an eye and peeked to the side.
Aster was slumped down on her knees, her hands pressed to the ground. She was panting, her skin incredibly pale.
“Hungry,” she whimpered, collapsing down onto her face on the ground.
Just beyond her, Erv fell down on her rear end, her legs spread out in front of her. She was holding herself up by her elbows.
“Yeah… hungry,” murmured Erv, then promptly collapsed backward. She laid down flat on the ground, and then went still.
“Erv?” Aster asked in a whisper. “Are yo-you o-okay ov…”
Aster’s voice trailed off in a strange way and she went silent.
Wren came over and bent down over Erv, then Aster. Looking at Sam, she frowned.
“Both unconscious. I can’t give them any of the Essence I have. It just goes through them,” she declared before Sam could ask aloud what’d happened. “You need to generate some Essence and feed them. Use me and—”
Before she could finish, Wren’s head whipped to one side as she looked over towards a corridor.
“There’s a great deal of bloodlust coming. A great deal,” said Wren. “Must be soldiers of Balahtus coming this way. That warning signal must have brought them. They were probably distracted by Abrah and her forces up until now.
“I… I will hold the line. Yala, feed Sam, help Aster and Erv. That is what you need to do.”
Lifting her large battle-axe, Wren left at a jog. She headed toward the corridor and what lay beyond it.
