Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian (59 page)

Nathaniel stepped in front of Alec as he arose from the ground, and his friend swung his sword in a blurring shield to block the demon from reaching Alec.

“Thank you,” Alec gasped as he took a position near Nathaniel. “You go tell Moriah to drag Rubicon over to Rief for healing, and I’ll lure the demon away from you in the meantime.

“And tell our archers,” he added, “tell them to aim at the sorcerers in black, so we don’t have more demons in the future. Use the air ingenairii to help boost the arrows’ flight.”

Nathaniel looked past the monster at Moriah, and nodded his head. “I’ll be right back,” he pledged.

“I hope so!” Alec said with a slight grin, and darted in towards the demon to draw its attention, as Nathaniel slipped around its side towards Moriah. Alec skipped backwards as the monster furiously assailed him with a rain of blows that he successfully blocked, and he slowly drew it into a different part of the open grassland between the two armies. All eyes were on the melee, and no soldiers from either side attempted any other action.

A quick glance showed Alec that Moriah was dragging Rubicon towards the frontline help leaving a frightening trail of dark blood stains behind, while Nathaniel was running back towards the battle with the demon. To his horror, Alec realized that the demon’s right eye was healing, and the creature was overcoming the multiple wounds that had been inflicted on it over the course of the running battle.

We can get healed, but it can heal itself too
, he realized. The only strategy that would be effective would be to inflict massive wounds on it in a sudden deluge, before it had time to repair itself.

Unaware that the right eye of the monster was useful again, Nathaniel came around its right side, at which point the demon suddenly kicked out a leg that hit Nathaniel’s chest hard and flung him twenty feet away. Then, it launched another attack at Alec than caused him to stumble and fall backward. He maintained his momentum with a further roll to try to gain space, but the demon came charging at him.

Alec drew in a deep breath as he saw how close the demon was, but a sudden water puddle developed in front of it and the demon slipped in the mud, falling forward towards Alec. He crouched and jumped as high as he could, clearing the length of the demon, and swiping his sword below him as he passed over, opening a slice down its backbone that caused it to writhe in pain.

Alec landed hard and rolled three times before he could rise again. Moriah was running towards him, and the demon was still down, as was Nathaniel.

“Moriah, take Nathaniel back to Rief and Bethany, and tell Bethany thank you for that puddle!” he instructed her as she arrived.

“No Alec, you take him back and catch your breath,” she countered. “You must be exhausted. You’ve been fighting the whole time. I’m rested.”

“We don’t have time to argue,” Alec said urgently. “You’ve got a baby back there, and I’m not going to leave you out here to fight the demon alone!”

“Let’s both take him back and see if we can get there before the demon rises and starts up again,” Moriah suggested a compromise, grabbing his arm and dragging Alec over to Nathaniel. He picked his companion up and began backing away from the demon, as Moriah escorted him. He hated to give up the ground they had gained; up to that point, they had lured the monster far from the lines of their own army, providing safety to all.

Alec’s last attack must have been effective, as the demon struggled to roll over slowly. But by the time Alec was more than halfway to Rief and Bethany, it was standing and starting to slowly stalk towards them.

“I love you,” Alec told Bethany as he lowered Nathaniel next to Rubicon. “Thank you for saving me. Will he be okay?” he asked with a motion towards Rubicon.

“I can’t promise anything,” she answered as she and Rief both knelt over Nathaniel. “Be careful out there Alec. Don’t take any chances,” she said in a low voice.

“I love you,” he repeated without acknowledging her advice and he stood up. “Tell the archers to pick off the sorcerers in black,” he repeated his most urgent concern.

The demon was picking up speed as it healed and approached, and now the imp was following closely behind, apparently intending to join the fray. Alec and Moriah were the only two warrior ingenairii left in battle condition, and he realized it was only a matter of time until one of them went down as well. Alec jogged away from the medics and picked up his knapsack that he had abandoned before the start of the battle. He grabbed an item out of it and stuffed it in his pocket, then ran out to fight the demon further. Moriah, he saw, had headed directly towards it, and was going to engage it first. She stood between the demon and the close-by forces of Oyster Bay and Stronghold, as Alec remotely noted the approach of new flags from Goldenfields on the far side of the bridge.

The monster struck at Moriah and she dodged left, but it hooked a paw out that intercepted her flight pattern, and Alec saw with fear that its claws had punctured her right side chest.

Those wounds would be deadly
, he thought with horror, and he screamed at the demon as he ran all-out to reach it before it could further assault Moriah. He launched himself in the air and stabbed it in the foot as he landed and rolled behind the demon, causing it to scream and whirl with incredible speed, lashing out and raking his leg as he moved out of its range.

He tried to stand, and found that the wounds to his leg were as damaging as they felt. Rubicon was in bad shape, Nathaniel was injured, and Moriah lay on the ground. He was not going to last much longer. There would be no further warrior ingenaire to keep the demon at bay, after which it would wreak havoc among the mortal soldiers of his army, and clear the path for the Michian invaders to seize control of the bridge. There were no alternatives left for him to use to win this battle, he could tell. Pulling John Mark’s last jar from his pocket, he broke the seal of the container he had carried so far, and sprinkled the dust in a wide circle around him. He then stripped the glove off his left hand, relieving the pain he felt, and revealing the stigmata he had suffered when he had touched the body of Christ.

The demon was staring at him, apparently trying to decide whether to go after the injured Moriah or the injured Alec; the imp though had decided to test Alec. He waved his sword in a challenging invitation, urging the demon to come to him too, so that the healers would be able to take care of Moriah.

The imp darted at Alec’s feet, and he slashed at it, then landed a kick that sent it flying several feet away. He saw the demon take exception to his treatment of its companion, and it started to run towards him. With every ounce of self-control he possessed, Alec willed himself to stand still, full of terror and fear over what he was about to attempt to do – he feared both success and failure equally.

As the demon arrived the imp too stood and jumped towards him. Alec poked his sword point into his stigmata, bringing searing pain and a fresh flow of blood, then he crouched low and swung his sword in protection as the demon attacked. At the same time the imp landed on his back and began to close its hands around his throat.

He coughed as his air was cut off, but he focused on the large demon’s attack, and as one of the scaly limbs passed over him, he sliced it with his sword and thrust his bloody left hand into the bloody cut.

The result was as bad as he had feared success would be. The overwhelming Spiritual power of his wounded hand blasted open a connection between his consciousness and that of the demon. He felt and thought the demon’s thoughts. They were full of hellish hatred and cunning ingenuity that desired corruption, death, pain. There was nothing good in the world. He sensed an allegiance to an entity of evil so profound his soul began to wither at the very concept. And he could feel a second connection to the malevolent imp. The two satanic creatures were sharing their pain and loathing, and now they were jointly beginning to tear through his mind.

Physically, his hand began to grow into the demon’s flesh, and he felt his body absorbing the entity of the demon, which sought to live in a natural, permanent body on earth. The demon’s monstrous body bowed over and lay prostrate, losing its motive as the demon abandoned it to possess Alec.

He was becoming absorbed by it, as he thought its thoughts of triumph. There was barely enough of his independent soul left to complete the step he had planned. “Help me, John Mark,” he croaked.

Chapter 51 – The Demon Plunges

Alec arrived in John Mark’s cave, and found himself where he had hoped and prayed. The demon within him was screaming with pain at the sudden exposure to sacred ground. Alec battled to retain control of their mutual body for a few seconds longer, and likewise screamed in pain, both physically and spiritually, while the imp which was physically present in the cave with him, was also suffering from being present in such a holy place; it removed its hands from Alec’s neck to hug itself tightly as it wailed, and Alec felt it disconnect from his soul.

They were in the underground tomb, where an open sarcophagus lay within a niche in the stone wall. The lid was off, leaning against the side of the stone container. Alec lunged towards the coffin, despite the weight of the imp on his back and the pain of the battle the demon was waging within him, simultaneously offering rich rewards for cooperation and eternal damnation if Alec did not comply.

Alec started to fall, unable to withstand the strain of the battle, but he flung his left hand into the coffin, and into contact with the holy body of the Christ. His soul was beginning to fall apart, dissolving in the heat and pressure and awful adverse conditions of the demon’s presence.

As Alec’s hand reached the Christ, a sacred spark sizzled between their two human bodies possessed by non-human powers, and the demon was sucked from Alec’s body, then dragged down through Christ into the depths of Hell. As it went, hating the maneuver that was depriving it of plundering earth, it reached out and laid its hooks into Alec, pulling him down with it, while the imp jumped off his back screeching in horror and bouncing against all the walls of the cave that was a holy torture chamber for its evil intentions.

He felt the demon’s disgust and pain as it returned to its home, so far from the world it had planned to ravage. Alec endured that pain himself as his soul felt the isolation from God that existed in Hell, knowing that for all of eternity now he would feel the horrific lack of grace, and the pain of separation from God.

His endless fall was suddenly interrupted as a bright rope appeared and wrapped itself around him, pulling him free. He knew that Christ had reached down to rescue him, as the deity’s omnipotent abilities reached even into the heart of where his adversary was strongest, to reclaim Alec’s ravaged soul.

Alec had an image of himself climbing a cross up out of a fiery chasm. He reached the top, and looked up to see a smile and a hand extended in assistance at the end of his escape. Grabbing the hand, he let it lift him to a peaceful landing in a verdant pasture, where he said a prayer of thanks and re-emerged into consciousness in the Cave once again. The imp stared at him as he reappeared, then it dove at him and sank its claws into his shoulders, full of fury over his gambit. Alec desperately reached for his last thread of warrior powers as he felt the imp begin to re-enter his soul. With a weak hold on his powers, he grasped the imp and tore it from his flesh, then ran out of the small crypt and hurdled the imp into the vast dark cavern outside. He heard it wail, then there was a flash and a bang, and the imp disappeared. Alec stared in wonder for a moment, then passed out in pain and exhaustion.

Epilogue - Bondell

Forces from both sides of the battleground stared in astonishment as Alec and the demons disappeared, and wails of anguish went up from both armies at the apparent loss of their champions. Nathaniel and Moriah rose back up to receive healing, and charged into the battle against the Michian forces, leading the allied Dominion armies on the offensive.

By nightfall the Dominion forces, bolstered by the arrival of the Goldenfields army and cavalry, had pressed the invaders back away from the bridge, and set them on the retreat back into the mountains they had fought to escape. Rander called together all the allied leaders together in his tent for a meeting that began long after nightfall.