Succubus Lord 12

by Eric Vall

“Alright, bro,” I whispered to the imp, “keep it up. We’re gonna go in closer.”

  I slowly led the human chain through the rest of the hallway and into the giant room where the party seemed to be going on.

  Now that we were inside, I could see just how massive this thing was. We were at the center of a giant, hollowed-out brimstone cylinder-like silo that stretched hundreds of feet up into the air. Every dozen feet or so, there was an opening with a brimstone banister across the front, almost like what you’d see in a multi-layer mall.

  Each layer was packed to the gills with Targlins and Shades, and I didn’t even want to think about how many of them were in the room right now.

  Then, at the center of it all, were Gressil and Beelzebub.

  “The time is now, Gressil,” Beelzebub implored, “if we want to kill Abaddon, we need to strike while the iron is still hot.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Gressil shot back with a snarl, “it will be my forces who lead the charge against the King of the Seventh Circle while yours remain safely in your own domain. My army may be growing by the hour, Beelzebub, but I’ll be damned if you think I’m going to do this on my own.”

  “I’ve told you once, and I’ll tell you again,” Beelzebub warned, “if I were to send my forces into the Seventh Circle, I’d be leaving myself wide open for attack. Even now, I bet the Nephilim is planning on doing some asinine black-ops mission to sneak into my domain. I’d hate to leave myself exposed like that.”

  “Stealth mission into the Eighth Circle?” Gressil scoffed. “That would be foolish, reckless, and suicidal all at the same time.”

  “Which is exactly why the Nephilim would try it,” the King of the Eighth Circle reiterated. “That sort of a crazy mission has his name written all over it.”

  Well, he definitely had me there.

  “So, what am I to do, then?” Gressil sighed. “Do you really think this army of Shades and Targlins will be enough to overrun Abaddon? Serpico alone could wipe out half of my forces.”

  “The Shades will be enough,” Beelzebub nodded, “they cannot be killed, remember? Abaddon’s soldiers, on the other hand, can be. Even the mighty Serpico is still killable at the end of the day. However, we need to move fast if we still want the element of surprise on our side.”

  “Element of surprise?” the goblin-like Demon King scoffed. “Abaddon already knows I’m here, and by now I’m sure he’s figured out I’m converting his Shades. There is no ‘element of surprise’ to be had.”

  “King Ralston has not made this discovery yet,” Beelzebub’s eyes narrowed as the words slipped out through his slimy tongue, “and I could care less about Abaddon. He’s simply a barrier we need to break through to get to the Nephilim. Once we’ve got his territory in our hands, the war is ours. Even with his mighty Shade army and those sorry excuses for Demon Lords he has on his side, the environment of the Seventh Circle gives us a tactical advantage like no other place in Hell.”

  “Forgive me, but I’m not quite sure I understand,” Gressil sighed, “how does owning one of the most desolate, harshest terrains in all of Hell help us win the war?”

  “Because, my friend,” the King of the Eighth Circle grinned, “if it becomes ours, then we may change it up as we wish. Think about it … A battlefield shrouded in pure darkness? Or one that was literally on fire the entire time? Nobody could penetrate our defenses!”

  “I suppose you’re right … ” Gressil pondered aloud, “but I have one last question for you before you go. Does he know?”

  Beelzebub’s expression looked like he had swallowed a sour grape.

  “He knows everything, Gressil,” the Demon King sighed, “he’s been watching me and taunting me this entire time. Trying to goad me into being his second in command, I suppose.”

  My heart sank into the dark pit of my stomach when I realized what he was talking about.

  Lucifer. Lucifer was pulling the same shit with Beelzebub that he was with me.

  He wasn’t showing up to me because I was his “favorite son” or because he wanted me to rule at his side. No, Lucifer must have thought this was some sort of sick and twisted game, pitting the two strongest Demon Kings in Hell against each other.

  Well, he was about to get his wish. It looked like this war was going to come to a head sooner rather than later.

  “Just keep me informed,” Gressil nodded, “when Lucifer is involved, I’ve always found you need to stay one step ahead of him.”

  “Let me know how that works out,” Beelzebub chuckled, and then his body slowly began to evaporate. “You can’t outsmart the Prince of Darkness. Trust me, it’s impossible. Beelzebub, over and out.”

  The King of the Eighth Circle’s body disappeared with a puff of green smoke, and then it was just Gressil alone on the stage. That must have just been a projection of Beelzebub.

  Thank fuck. There was no way we were ready to fight both of them at the same time.

  But this was still going to be tricky. We were surrounded by Gressil’s forces, and attacking him here and now wasn’t exactly the best idea. We needed to see if we could backtrack out of here, regroup, and then formulate a plan of attack before we charged headfirst into a battle we weren’t prepared for.

  However, as we turned to exit the large cavern, the door slammed shut behind us. The next thing I knew, the ground beneath us began to rumble, and then the stage at the center of the room began to rise up into the sky with Gressil still on top of it. At the same time, the walls of the silo began to move in toward the rising stage, with us still between them.

  If we didn’t move right now, we were going to be smashed by the closing walls.

  “Aw, fuck,” I growled, “we need to get up top, now!”

  “But what about the invisibility spell?” Gula hissed.

  “The invisibility spell isn’t going to do us much good if we’re smooshed into jelly,” I shot back. “Todd? Can you hold the spell while we fly?”

  “I can give it the ‘ol college try, bro,” the imp admitted.

  I’d seen Todd’s grades in college, so that statement didn’t exactly make me feel any better.

  I felt Libidine’s hands wrap underneath my armpits, and then the seven of us took to the sky while still holding hands so we could stay invisible.

  We rocketed upward, out of the path of the closing walls and toward the roof of the cylinder. We shot past Gressil’s position, aimed for the ceiling, and then--

  A blast of red Hellfire struck Libidine in the back, and she let out a loud grunt of pain as we were knocked loose from the group. Liby tried to catch herself, but her wing must have been badly damaged because we spiraled out of control, down toward the rocky platform beneath us.

  I tossed out a series of purple shields to stop our momentum, and then we slammed into them at full speed. Our momentum was halted, but our bodies were both tossed back and forth between the platforms like balls in a pinball machine. Finally, we hit the ground of the stage with a powerful thud.

  “I knew we weren’t alone in here,” Gressil mused. “Didn’t any of your little succubi friends inform you I have a Sixth Sense about these sorts of things?”

  “Can’t say they did,” I grunted as I pulled myself to my feet and looked across the way at my opponent. “Too bad your little boy-toy took off. I was looking forward to kicking his ass, too.”

  “Such vulgarity,” Gressil scoffed, and then he plucked an elegant-looking throwing knife from his belt. “Though I must admit … I’m looking forward to kicking your ass, too.”

  This was it. There was no backing out of this one now.

  Ready or not, it was time for us two Kings to face off.

  Chapter 17

  I’d been in some rough spots before, but this one definitely took the cake.

  I was standing completely exposed in the center of a massive brimstone silo, about to face off with the King of the Sixth Circle. To make matters worse, his entire army of Targlins and converted Shades were staring down at me from the
many levels of the structure above.

  “Before I fuck you up, I gotta ask,” I growled as I called silver flames into my hand, “how did you know we were there? Todd’s invisibility spell usually does the trick.”

  Gressil shook his head and rolled his eyes as I transformed the ball of metal on my belt into my giant, eloquently-decorated warhammer.

  “Like I said: I have a sixth sense,” he stated as he tossed his throwing knife up into the air casually and then caught it again. “It’s how I knew you were here, and it’s how I know your friends are sneaking up on me right now.”

  Gressil enchanted his throwing knife with green Hellfire, spun around, and launched it up into the air behind him.

  Almost instantly Todd, Eligor, Eclipse, Sia, and Gula appeared out of thin air and scattered in all different directions as they dodged the attack.

  “Watch out, Jakey!” Todd warned. “This fucker can see dead people! Even though we’re in Hell, so technically everybody we see is dead … ”

  The imp quickly tossed out a slew of red fireballs at Gressil, but the King of the Sixth Circle was light on his feet.

  Gressil backflipped out of the way of Todd’s attack and then ducked down to avoid an incoming blast of red from Gula. As he came up from his roll, the bastard tossed out two more throwing knives.

  The first one stabbed into the brimstone right between Todd’s legs, and the second just barely missed the airborne Eclipse.

  My friends’ attacks hadn’t hit, but that was all the time I needed.

  I dashed over to Gressil’s exposed back, lifted up my hammer, and brought it down on his position.

  But the fucker was ready for me.

  In one swift motion, Gressil spun out of the way, twisted his body, and stabbed a throwing knife into the crease in my armor around my elbow.

  I felt a sharp stab of pain as the knife skewered my right elbow, followed up by the reverberation of the warhammer striking the brimstone. The mixture of sensations caused me to let go of my weapon, and I was just barely able to get out a small shield of purple to deflect the next knife. Then I drew my goat-headed dagger with my free hand, grunted loudly, and stabbed it into Gressil’s right shoulder.

  The King of the Sixth Circle let out a yelp of pain as he pulled away and grasped at his shoulder, and I followed up with a handful of yellow and red shuriken directly into his chest.

  The tiny, spinning discs lodged themselves into Gressil’s breastplate before they exploded and sent his body tumbling back across the rocky platform. As he rolled to a halt, a tendril of brimstone, guided by Eligor’s lime green Hellfire, wrapped around his body and lifted him up into the air.

  “Wanna get hiiiiigh?” Todd giggled as he blasted the trapped Demon King with his dank silver Hellfire.

  Gressil began to cough violently, and then Gula came at him with her battle axe.

  However, she didn’t make it there.

  Before her deadly weapon could connect, the body of a Shade landed on top of her from behind and knocked her trajectory downward. Instead of slicing Gressil’s head off his shoulders, the blade of her axe struck the tendril and created a spray of brimstone across the sky. Meanwhile, the end of the tendril was separated from its body, and Gressil was released from the trap.

  He tossed out a few more knives as he fell, and my friends had to be quick on their feet to avoid them.

  But I wasn’t going to let it be that easy for the bastard.

  I summoned green Hellfire into my hands, threw up a portal underneath Gressil’s falling body, and laughed to myself as he fell through. Then I used my silver Hellfire to turn my warhammer into a large, pointed spear, and I reopened the green portal just above it.

  Gressil came careening out of the emerald gateway like a bat out of Hell, and then his eyes went wide when he saw he was headed straight for the pointy end of the spear. He tried to twist his body out of the way like an acrobat, but the point caught him through his lower abdomen and sent a spray of blackish-red blood onto the ground.

  I started to liquify the spear once more, but Gressil was already on the counterattack. I had to decast the silver fire and toss up a shield of purple as two more glowing red knives shot toward me. They were knocked away with a flash of violet, and then I planned my next move.

  “Tear these fools apart, my loyal subjects!” Gressil commanded as his eyes glowed intensely with white Hellfire.

  Next, the King of the Sixth Circle let out a grunt of pain as he summoned red Hellfire into his hand, slapped it against his wound, and cauterized it. Then he rolled away from an incoming blob of black Hellfire.

  Unfortunately for him, Eclipse’s magic was more than just a one-shot attack. The nebulous blob of black Hellfire halted in place and began to inhale everything in its vicinity.

  Gressil stabbed two of his knives into the ground and held on for dear life as Eclipse’s black hole tried to suck him in. He didn’t seem to be going anywhere, but he was completely exposed.

  I just had to get to him without getting sucked into the spell myself.

  I grimaced as I grasped the hilt of the knife in my elbow, yanked, and removed it with a spray of blood. My right arm fell limply to my side, and I was worried Gressil had severed the joint completely. I could feel it throbbing inside my armor, and it was swelling up by the second.

  “Sia, a little help!” I called out as I glanced up in the sky and gasped in horror.

  The Sister of Pride was being held in Eligor’s arms, and she blasted a shot of healing golden fire down in my direction.

  But that wasn’t what I was worried about.

  Mind-controlled Shades were now throwing themselves off the balconies at every level of the silo and plummeting down with malicious intent.

  As I felt the warm, healing power of Sia’s flames overtake my body, I realized we would soon be outnumbered by the incoming Shade army. Thankfully, I was fully healed within seconds, and I called my warhammer back to my belt with a cast of silver fire.

  Todd, Eclipse, Eligor, and Gula dodged in and out of the onslaught of falling bodies, but there were way too many of them.

  It was literally raining Shades, and we all eventually ran out of room to dodge.

  Eclipse decast her black Hellfire as my friends were tackled out of the air by the mind-controlled soldiers and then fell down to the ground with a sickly thud.

  Sia’s healing fire was on them instantly, and then they were all back to their feet.

  “Now I know what it’s like to be on the other side of a fucking piledriver,” Todd grumbled as he rubbed his head groggily.

  “Sia!” I called out as the bodies fell around me. “Get to Libidine! She still needs assistance!”

  “I’ll see what I can do!” the petite redhead reassured me, but then the crowd of Shades cut off my sightline.

  Now, I was completely isolated from the rest of the group and surrounded by unkillable, mind-controlled soldiers.

  I’d been through worse, though.

  So, I quickly drew the Unhallowed Sword, enchanted it with red Hellfire, and took a fighting stance.

  The first few Shades came at me with their bare hands, and I made them pay for it. I sliced a deep gash into my first attacker’s face with the blade of my weapon, and then I pumped the second one’s head full of deadly yellow shuriken. Next, I ducked down, spun around, and lopped off the legs of the Shade coming at me from behind. Two more of the fuckers actually got their hands on me, but I dispelled them with a quick blast of incendiary fire.

  They both recoiled as they were burned by red-hot fire, but they didn’t make a single sound. Then I separated their heads from their shoulders with a slash of my sword before I turned back to my next attackers.

  This time, they didn’t take turns. The entire army of Shades bum-rushed me at the same time, and there was little I could do but flail as they overran me with their sheer numbers.

  Their fists and feet struck me violently as they pinned me to the ground, but thankfully my armor held up. Alth
ough, my armor wasn’t going to do me any good if I was going to get torn apart limb-from-limb.

  “Not today … fuckers!” I snarled as I summoned bronze Hellfire into my hand and sent it coursing through the Shades currently holding me down. In the split-second that they pulled away, I slammed my enchanted hand into the dirt below me and forced the entire ground to vibrate intensely.

  The mind-controlled Shades were knocked to the ground, and then I hopped to my feet before they could recover.

  I scanned the environment for anything I could use against these bastards, and then I groaned when I saw what was coming.

  All of the Targlin were currently charging down the sides of the walls like a colony of ants who had just found a cube of sugar.

  We were already fish in a fucking barrel, and it was about to get a lot worse.

  Or so I thought, until I saw the lever jutting out of the side of the wall. It must have been the lever that activated the stage’s movement and the opening and closing of the walls.

  That was my ticket to victory.

  From afar, I saw Gressil was beginning to pull himself back up to his feet.

  I couldn’t have that.

  So, I slammed my bronze hand into the ground once more, and all of my stirring opponents collapsed back to the ground.

  “You--You gotta stop that, Jakey,” I heard Todd’s voice call out from somewhere in the crowd. “I-I’m about to get seasick, bro.”

  “Well, it’s about to get a lot worse,” I warned. “Everybody get away from the edges of the stage!”

  All of my succubi and Todd quickly rolled, jumped, and cartwheeled away from the sides of the silo and joined me in the center of the brimstone stage.

  Then I reached out, encased the lever with green Hellfire, and pulled it downward. As I did so, the ground beneath us began to rumble and croak, and then it started to slowly lower itself. At the same time, the outermost edges began to retreat back into the wall, and the newly-created chasm swallowed several of the Shades into its depths.

  Gressil leapt up from the pile of fallen bodies, stabbed his knife into the side of the silo, and watched as we continued to descend.