by Eric Vall
The blue and red fire reflected off the shield and smashed harmlessly into the wall.
Sia clapped her hands together and rubbed them repeatedly as she charged up a large red Hellfire attack. She looked over at me and nodded, and I knew exactly what to do. The madame threw her hands forward right as I dispelled my violet barrier.
A giant blast of Hellfire struck the stairs at the feet of the Cultists.
The three of them just looked down and laughed.
“Missed us, asshole!” one of them called down as he readied another attack.
“Did I?” Sia smirked.
As if on cue, the stairs melted beneath the men and sent them falling twenty feet down onto the concrete below. There were a couple of wet pops as they collided with the rock-solid floor, but their groans of pain told us that the attack hadn’t been fatal.
Libidine stood up, leaned over the railing, and unleashed a handful of yellow spears. The groans went silent in an instant, and that was our cue to keep on climbing.
“Sixty flights of stairs doesn’t sound like a lot on paper,” I huffed as we passed the door for the fifty-sixth floor.
The gray fire door flung open, and one of the cultists leapt at me with his dagger.
Even though I had been expecting the attack, this fucker was too quick. I was able to grab his wrist, but his momentum threw me back against the white wall. I grappled with the man as he tried to plunge the enchanted steel of the blade into my heart.
“I can’t hit him at close quarters!” Libidine cried in fear. “I might hit Jacob!”
The cultist thrust his right knee up into my side, and while the pain should have made me release his wrist, it just made me mad. I tightened my grip on the fucker’s hand, and red Hellfire lit up around my fists. The smell of burning flesh filled the staircase as the man’s eyes became as large as saucers, and he began to shriek in agony.
I continued to close my flaming hand around the cultist’s burning flesh until I finally felt myself searing through his wrist bone. With one final effort, I squeezed my hand, and his own mitts popped off like a party favor.
The fucker was trembling in shock, and I unleashed a blast of Hellfire into his face at point-blank range.
The man’s body collapsed to the ground with a smoldering stump where his head had once sat on his shoulders.
“That was too close,” Sia sighed with relief.
I nodded, happy to be alive myself. As I dismissed my flames, I reached into my pocket to pull out my cell phone and checked the time.
It was eleven fifty.
“We only have ten minutes left, with five floors to go!” I warned the succubi.
We sprinted up the final set of stairs and came to a dead end. In front of us was the door for the sixty-first floor, but there was no maintenance hatch or ladder leading to the roof.
“Well, shit.” I shook my head. “There’s still the entire screen part of the tower above us.”
“There must be some sort of entrance out on the main floor,” Sia suggested.
“Ah yes, the Ohana Floor,” I wheezed. “I remember reading about this. It’s the communal space with the beautiful views of the city and the bar and the lounge area.”
“Maybe we’ll have to return here after we’re done with our mission,” Liby joked.
“As much fun as that sounds, I don’t think I ever want to see this building again in my life,” I snickered as I put my hand on the door handle.
I opened the large gray fire door and instantly froze in my tracks.
Standing about twenty feet down the hall was a massive group of cultists. There had to be at least thirty of them, and they all had Hellfire burning in their hands.
It was actually kinda funny to see a large cult clad with navy robes and croc-socks standing in the middle of the modernized design.
I didn’t even have a second to process the humor before dozens of blasts careened toward our position. I clapped my hands together and then spread them apart to create a massive wall of violet fire between us and our attackers.
I was much stronger than any of these assholes one-on-one, but the sheer number of spells that were being cast threatened to overpower my shield.
“Sister!” Libidine called out over the sound of the attacks bouncing off the wall. “Remember that move we did back in the Battle of Babel?”
“Ah yes,” the redhead responded. “It was excellent for crowd control.”
“Whatever you guys are planning to do, you need to do it soon!” I grunted as the onslaught of attacks continued. My stomach was in knots, and I felt like a headache was starting at the top of my spine.
“Lower your shield at the top and bottom,” Sia commanded.
I closed my open palms slightly, and the walls shrunk accordingly.
The second the succubi saw their opening, Liby jumped upward, and Sia fell prone.
Both of the succubi hurled their spells in unison.
Libidine’s yellow daggers struck the ceiling and created the top half of a bed of spikes.
A split-second later, Sia’s ball of red Hellfire struck the floor in front of the cultists. It exploded with such force that it tossed a handful of the fuckers into the yellow spikes above and impaled them. Gore dripped from the ceiling down onto their comrades, who began to panic.
“Finish them, Jacob!” Sia cried. “Drive them back!”
“Drive them back?” I smiled at the idea that popped into my head. “Sia, you’re a genius.”
I opened my palms again, and I made the violet wall in front of me as large as the room would allow. As soon as the barrier was wide enough, I slowly started to push forward onto the position of the remaining cultists.
The fuckers started to panic even more once the realized what I was doing. I saw a few of them desperately trying to cast a teleportation spell, but it was no use. Their anti-telekinesis curse was literally going to be the death of them.
I was exhausted from the climb, but adrenaline pounded throughout my body and gave me newfound strength. I pushed the cultists all the way back to the glass window of the thousand-story building, and their muffled screams of terror resonated behind the violet barrier.
There was a slight resistance, and I realized that the back part of the group was now smashed up against the window.
Just like I wanted them.
“Wanna give me a hand?” I asked the succubi.
Both of the women ran over and heaved against the barrier, and behind the panicking group of cultists, spiderweb cracks started to spread across the glass.
“Just a little bit more!” I ordered Liby and Sia forward.
I gave a final push, and the window shattered. Like lemmings, the cultists all plummeted out of the opening one-by-one. Once the last fucker had gone through the window, I released my barrier. I looked down at my phone again and gulped.
Eleven fifty-five.
“That was fucking badass, bro!” I head Todd’s voice exclaim.
I turned around just as Cupiditas landed at the base of the window with the imp on her shoulders.
“We saw the falling bodies.” The blonde chuckled. “Figured that it had to be you guys.”
“We have five minutes to get up onto the roof, and there’s no exit in sight,” I said as I surveyed the floor in desperation.
“And we still have to break the giant purple spell,” Todd said with a frown. “I really wish Raphy wasn’t off doing other shit right now. He’d probably have some ace-in-the-hole plot device that could help us out.”
The lightbulb went off in my head.
“Guys,” I looked up at the ceiling, “give me your energy.”
“What now?” the imp questioned.
“Remember during the fight with Azazel, how you all transferred your powers to me?” I asked. “I need you to do that again. Right now.”
“Why?” Todd was now completely confused.
“Raphael said I was one of the few beings that could control the power of both Heaven and Hell,” I
explained. “If I can channel that power, I can create an attack powerful enough to break the cultist’s spell.”
“That’s just crazy enough to work.” Todd shot me a finger-gun.
My four friends all formed a circle around me and joined hands. Then they each closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and began to chant. Their bodies started to glow the color of their main Hellfire power, and then a dull throbbing sensation overtook my temples.
I could feel myself growing stronger by the second. My body was surrounded by a brilliant ball of white flame as waves of energy radiated off my friends and into my horns.
“Stand back, everyone,” I commanded, and I looked up at the ceiling of the Ohana Floor.
“Hit the deck!” Todd cried, and then he and the succubi all dashed out of my sight.
I focused my energy, clapped my hands together, and then unleashed a powerful beam of white fire through the roof. I held it for a solid minute, and when I finally let go, I could see the stars of the night sky.
There was no longer any purple barrier. The attack had worked.
“We don’t have a second to lose,” I motioned for the succubi and then pointed at the massive hole in the ceiling.
The next thing I knew, I felt Libidine’s full breasts pressed against my back and I was lifted up into the air.
We flew through the opening, and I saw a blur of cables and the flash of broken screens as we ascended. Liby and I sailed up into the cool night sky and were instantly met with gasps of shock from below.
I looked down and saw a massive group of Cultists atop the Salesforce Tower.
They were all standing around the outer edge of the roof with torches in their hands. At the center of their makeshift circle was a dark-haired woman in a nightgown who was bound to a table by her wrists and ankles. Directly beside the woman stood a tall man with his hood tossed back around his neck.
I surveyed the group to find Jane, and I saw the brunette woman off to the far edge of the building. Her hands were chained to the protective guardrail that surrounded the roof’s perimeter, but she didn’t seem to be struggling to break free whatsoever.
She must have really believed in us.
Libidine and Cupiditas gracefully floated down onto the roof with Sia, Todd, and me in their arms. As we landed, the Cultists mumbled amongst themselves, and the man in the circle’s center shook his head in disgust.
“Well, well, well.” His distorted voice boomed over the howling wind. “It’s the mortal, Jacob Ralston. I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time.”
This guy was fucking ugly.
His face was that of a twenty-something man with brown hair, but his flesh appeared red in splotches. Out of his forehead protruded stubby, miniature horns, and blood streaked down his face from the where they poked through his skin. The man’s eyes were violet, and his canines were sharpened into points.
It was Azazel. Or at least, some freakish mixture of the demon and the man he possessed.
“Sorry to crash your party.” I shrugged and summoned red Hellfire into my hands. “But you’ve got something that belongs to me.”
“And what would that be, mortal?” Azazel hissed.
“Jane.”
Chapter 20
“How precious!” Azazel cackled. “The mortal came to save his girlfriend, and he brought the traitorous succubi along with him.”
“And me, dickweed,” Todd reminded him.
“Oh, yes, and his pathetic little imp.” The demon rolled his violet eyes and then looked over at Liby. “It’s good to see you again, Libidine.”
“Eat a dick, Azazel,” the dark-haired succubus hissed.
“What have you done to my beautiful creation, mortal?” the half-man, half-demon demanded. “The Libidine who served under me would never have the gall to speak back to higher demons, and certainly not with those foul words.”
“Bro, you heard the lady,” Todd reiterated. “Go eat a dick.”
“Thank you, imp,” Azazel said as he clicked his tongue. “Now I know who I will kill first!”
The demon stomped his foot, and a small flame of red Hellfire snaked down into the ground. Not even a second later, it reappeared just underneath the surface of the roof and charged at Todd. The blast struck the imp and sent him soaring up into the air and out over the side of the building.
Without even a moment’s hesitation, Liby backflipped into the air, summoned her wings, and darted after the falling imp. Azazel growled as he hurled a ball of fire at the succubus, but I was quick enough to knock it away with a violet barrier.
From my left and right, the succubi blasted their own red Hellfire at the demon.
The fucker opened both of his palms and then raised them into the air. As he did so, concrete from the roof stretched up to form two thick, impenetrable towers. Azazel grunted, and then the towers tore across the roof toward us.
The three of us were able to dodge the attack, but the pillars continued across the roof, and I heard the screams of a few cultists as they bolted in panic.
“Environmental powers,” Cupi mused. “That’s a new one.”
“My servants!” Azazel commanded as he raised his hands into the air dramatically. “Kill the traitors and the imp! I will handle Ralston.”
I tensed up and prepared for all hell to break loose, but nothing happened. Instead, all the cult members whispered to each other cautiously.
“My servants!” The demon tried again, “Kill them!”
Still nothing.
“It’s no use, ‘Master,’” Libidine laughed as she landed with Todd in her hands. “They doubt your strength. Now that they’ve seen Jacob’s abilities first-hand, they realize that he’s more of a man than you ever will be.”
“Servants?” the demon growled.
When he got no response, he threw back his head and released an inhuman bellow of rage.
“Fine!” Azazel spat, and his eyes started to glow with purple light. “You’re going to follow me one way or another.”
“Close your eyes, everyone!” Libidine cried out.
I slammed my eyes shut and tossed up a purple barrier around the five of us. I heard many of the cultists protesting in fear, but their screams quickly died out into a dull drone that echoed across the rooftop in unison.
“What the fuck is happening?” I asked the succubi.
“He’s taking over the Cultists’ minds,” Sia continued. “Soon they’ll be under his spell, and he can make them do whatever he wants.”
“There…” the demon’s voice said devilishly. “Now, where were we?”
I finally opened my eyes and saw that all the cultists were now completely tensed up, and their eyes were glowing a bright purple.
“Oh yes,” Azazel hummed. “The part where my humble servants rip you limb from limb!”
“There aren’t that many of them, but they could still easily overwhelm us,” I said to my friends. “We need to split them up. Sia and Todd, you guys take the ones on the left. Cupi and Liby, You draw the attention of the ones off to the right. I’ll handle--”
“You know how powerful Azazel is, Jacob.” Sia protested. “You won’t be able to defeat him on your own.”
“Maybe not, but I can try to hold him at bay until you guys are finished with the grunt work.” I nodded. “Then we can finish him together.”
“Phrasing, bro,” Todd snickered, and then he let out a bugle charge and dashed toward the cultists. Sia dashed after him in a huff.
Cupi and Liby pushed off the ground and began to unleash their assault on the right side of the building.
That just left the demon to me.
“Just how cocky are you, mortal?” Azazel shook his head. “You defeat me with a stroke of luck and ancient Vatican trickery, and now you think you’re the most powerful being in the universe?”
“I guess I just live up to the hype.” I shrugged, reached into my duffel bag, and pulled out the goat-headed dagger.
“Cute butter knife,” t
he demon laughed.
I dropped the duffel bag off my shoulder, and then I summoned red Hellfire into my hand. I ran my open palm across the weapon to enchant the steel, and it glowed crimson in response. Even though the knife was still inches from my face, I could feel the intense heat of the enchantment radiating from its blade.
Azazel clapped sarcastically. “A parlor trick that any of these mortal fools could do. I’m trembling in fear.”
“You know,” I said as I took a fighting stance, “you’re a lot sassier than the last time I kicked your ass.”
He ignored my verbal poke as he smiled. “I’m going to enjoy this. You don’t have your telekinesis powers to fall back on this time. Without your ace-in-the-hole, you’re finished, mortal.”
“You guys keep calling me ‘mortal,’ but I’ve killed more demons that most of the Divine.” I chuckled. “You really need to come up with a new nickname.”
“We never will,” the demon spat. “Do you know why? Because at the end of the day, no matter how many of us you kill, you’ll always be a sniveling, pathetic human.”
“Well, at least I’ll have bragging rights,” I snarked, and then I hurled a fireball at the fucker.
Azazel was quick though. He flung red Hellfire into the rooftop and produced another pillar of concrete. My attack struck the rock-hard tower and sent a few chunks of the concrete spraying across the scenery. However, the tower itself was still completely intact.
The demon snapped his fingers, and the concrete began to move like an organic tendril. He shoved his hand forward, and the tentacle of rock plowed toward me.
I threw up a barrier of violet fire, but the blow from the attack was so intense that it sent me careening back into the air, anyway. My heart sank as I saw the edge of the Salesforce Tower pass underneath me, and I was now staring at the ground one-thousand feet below me.
Cupi and Liby were nowhere close, and my emerald fire was useless here.
If I didn’t think fast, I was fucked.
Just as my body spun into the upright position, I threw down my hand and created a small platform of purple fire beneath my feet. My shoes hit the solid barrier, and then I instantly tossed another shield behind my back.
