Devil Ash Disarray (Devil Ash Saga Book 3) (9 page)

Ash dropped to the floor as the viney limb he was wrapped in rewound, reforming into Vashi Tansa’s normal arm. The sight of the chubby man forcefully vomiting out a giant green plant stem was an odd one to behold. With all the dust and debris flying about the room, they couldn’t see much else.

The strange spectacle came to an end as the greater demon fell to the floor, shriveled and dried. It convulsed one last time as it died, the purple cloud of demon soul energy floating away to wherever demon souls go. Vashi Tansa collapsed, unconscious on the floor.

Ash was just coming to his senses, looking around to gauge the scope of the disaster now that it was over. He saw that no one else was on their feet yet, the air still clouded with debris. Sprawled out on the floor near him was Vashi Tansa, his red haired beard a tangled mess, his robes torn and stretched. Underneath the robes, Ash noted a peculiar sight.

Pillows.

Vashi’s robes were stuffed with pillows.

Ash examined the Nobles face a little closer. He couldn’t believe it at first, but the more he thought about it the more it made sense.

Va-shi
, he thought.
Va… Shi… Tan… Sa...
he scrambled the syllables around in his head as he nealt down to scoop up the puffy feathered cap that ‘Vashi’ had been wearing. It had fallen off in the demon transformation, but no one saw what was underneath. Only Ash saw the truth.

He could hear the Royal Guards talking to each other, wondering if it was safe for them to move in yet. Even Aura could be heard, griping about getting knocked back so hard. Apparently his butt hurt, but Ash ignored him. Before anyone else moved in to check on them, Ash reached for Vashi Tansa’s cap and put it back on him. He straightened the crooked beard a little smiled to himself.

Your secret is safe with me, Vashi Tansa,
he thought.
Or should I say…Shiva Satan
!

Chapter Six: The Sneaker Strikes

Otozek gazed down at the tiny creature he held in the palm of his hand. The little goblin demon known as Goblotek sat motionless, legs crossed in waiting. After moments of silence went by, Otozek clenched his fist. His tiny demon companion crumbled to pieces. It was dead.

"
Death
toucher
," Otozek said, repeating the words he heard Goblotek say just moments before his death. "They have a death toucher..."

His fist trembling with anger, the demon prince stuffed his dead associate into his mouth and ate him. It was a kind gesture among demons. A great honor.

A little while ago
...

The team of greater demons arrived at the devil kingdom that morning. Prince Otozek wasted no time in using Goblotek's special ability. The tiny goblin was an expert at reconnaissance, not only because of his small stature, but because he possessed a truly unique and invaluable power.

Demon seed,
he called it. As soon as the demon team arrived at the devil kingdom's walls, Otozek called for Goblotek to come forward. The little goblin scaled his prince like a mountain, coming to a rest on Otozek's shoulder. Without turning his head away from the tall wall, Otozek issued his order.

Goblotek sat in his master's palm and used his power. As the name of the technique implies, Goblotek was able to regurgitate a small seed from his mouth. He could create one per day. This seed had a long stem that split in two and rotated like a helicopter blade, carrying the seed away on the breeze. The seedpod resembled an eyeball, one that Goblotek could actually see through to navigate the demon seed, floating it gently on the breeze and sending it wherever he pleased.

The seed drifted up over the wall and into the devil's kingdom. At that early hour the sun had yet to form. No one could see the tiny demon seed soaring by. Then a wayward fireball almost roasted the small seed instantly. It was the beginning of the formation of the sun, and Goblotek barely managed to avoid getting fried by all the fireballs in the sky.

The little eyeball, flown by its rotating stems, danced on the breeze as the little goblin zoomed around the kingdom taking in all the sights. He flew low to the ground to avoid the rising flames. As it flew, Goblotek informed his prince about what he was seeing.

"Interesting!" Goblotek said. "So many devils! All moving around, so lively! So interesting!"

"Look for a large gathering," Otozek said. "That's our best chance of finding out how many powerful warriors they have."

"I see many devils moving towards a single location! So interesting!"

Goblotek followed the crowds to a building much larger and more prominent than the others. He saw hundreds of devils lining up to get inside the building, a gambling parlor. With little trouble the demon floated down on the breeze, sailing inbetween the cracked door as Marni Narnya arrived. The inside was still empty at the time, so Goblotek followed the devil woman as she explained the days events to her staff.

"The devils are gathering here to duel!" Goblotek reported. "How lucky! How interesting!"

"A duel between devils! Perfect! Now we'll see just how strong they really are." Otozek was quite pleased with the team's timing. This reinforced his belief that he was making the right choice in launching his infiltration scheme.

Of course he had no idea the duels that would be taking place were of the trading card variety. That detail would become clear to them later, after the tournament officially started. Goblotek found a hidden resting place to set his seed down underneath the main gaming table. There he burrowed into the ground, burying his seed and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

After hours went by with no devil soul power activating, prince Otozek instructed his minion to move onto phase two. Goblotek activated the second part of his demon seed power, emerging from the small seed as a giant demonic plant and controlling it with his soul. This is when he took control of Vashi Tansa's body in order to assess the situation further.

Right now
...

Prince Otozek scowled, his light blue face turning a darker shade of midnight blue. "They have a death toucher… we'll need to be careful," he told the remaining members of his team. "Spread out and search for a new way into the kingdom. We'll wait for darkness then commence our invasion. Our top priority is now the elimination of the death toucher."

After clumsily reassembling the scattered cards of his deck, Ash took a few minutes to sort through the rubble trying to find all of Vashi Tansa's cards for…
him
? He'd only just learned of Shiva's alter ego, but he felt a tremendous amount of guilt for everything that just happened to her.

Shiva lay motionless on the floor, still unconscious. With her fake beard readjusted and her puffy hat in place, it seemed Ash was the only one who knew her secret. He was still in partial shock from learning his friend-and-leader was such an illustrious Devil's Duel player. Just that morning when he asked if she'd life to come watch the tournament she told him it was "a child's game not suitable for a true warrior" and "she'd have nothing to do with it."

What a crock!

Most of the royal guard soldiers had already moved out by the time Marni came storming in, a dozen bodyguards trailing behind her.

"My gaming parlor!" she screamed, pulling her hair in frustration. "It's going to cost thousands to repair all this!"

Lorin had finally wrestled away from the remaining strands of demonic vines that kept her out of the battle. After finding her robe, she took her place at her master’s side, sullen and solemn.

"I know this probably isn't the best time," said Aura as he stepped up beside Marni. "But I'm gonna need that prize money now..."

"
What
?" Marni screeched. "You didn't win anything!"

"No, but my boy Ash was about to. He had Vashi Tansa right where he wanted him, and after he beat him he would have beaten Lorin too." He turned to Ash, who was still crawling around the floor on his hands and knees looking for any extra cards that may have belonged to Vashi Tansa. “Isn’t that right, pal?”

"
Get
...
out
!" Marni roared, shoving Aura away.

"I'm all done here," Ash said climbing to his feet.

"Yeah," said Aura, backing away. "We'll settle this another time, then. See ya Marni. Good luck with... all of this. Give my condolences to Vashi for me when he wakes up."

His friend’s words reminded Ash that he couldn’t leave Shiva there with Marni. Since she probably wouldn’t want her to know about her identity, Ash swooped into action. He pocketed her deck of cards and walked over to her.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll look after him until he wakes up,” Ash said. He leaned down and lifted her deceivingly heavy-looking body. “I want to challenge him to a rematch. Our game was way too close to call.”

His kindness was met with a disgusted look of bewilderment from his friend. Marni had dropped to her knees, her eyes free-flowing tears of grief. “Whatever,” she said, trying to regain her composure. “Just make sure he gets home safe.”

Ash nodded. He lifted the unconscious Vashi Tansa off the debris-filled floor of what used to be a fully-functioning gaming arena, now a hollowed out shell of its former glory, and carried away the unconscious girl dressed as a man. With Aura in tow, they made it all the way outside before the death toucher voiced his latest complaint.

"Hold up," he said. "Are we suddenly being nice to Nobles? I say we ditch this guy and go home or something.”

"We could do that," Ash said, preparing to manipulate his friend. "
Or
… We could wait till he wakes up, and
really
rub it in his face that he was saved by
us
." He smiled reassuringly at his friend.

Aura pondered on that as they walked. "I guess that could be fun,” he replied. “It has been too long since I last taunted a Noble.”

“Didn’t you taunt him right before our game? That was like, what, an hour ago tops?”

They continued walking down the busy side streets of North Hell, going nowhere in particular. The artificial sun beamed down on them like a spotlight. Ash was sweating profusely. Everything felt hotter. Shiva felt heavier in his arms. When his heart started feeling like it was all locked up he knew something was wrong. His vision blurred. He could hear Aura still rambling on about something, but his friends voice sounded far away.

“Well, I didn’t get to pay Marni back this time,” Aura went on. “But I
did
get to witness the destruction of her fancy gambling parlor. That’s probably better, anyway.”

A gust of wind kicked up as a blue blur blew by. It was a sight that Ash had yet to see in his time in Hell; a small person, perhaps a child, crouched low on a long wooden board, rolling across the paved street on four small wheels.

Is that a
…
skateboard
? Ash wondered through his blurred vision. He was content to watch and wonder, but the rider stuck out his leg and stopped moving abruptly. With a stomp of his foot the board popped up into his open arms. The rider spun around to face Ash and Aura.

"
Yo
!" he said.

He was short enough to be a child and stood blocking their path. Dressed in dingy cut-off shorts and a baggy sweater, the hood draped so far over his head he had to cut eyeholes out of it just to see. The bottom of his face was concealed by a bandana, the image printed on it resembled a giant set of wicked curved fangs.

Aura paused his speech and put on the brakes, curious. Ash stopped too. He wasn't feeling so well anymore, standing there on legs that felt like rubber. The kid’s aggravated tone didn’t sound so pleasant, but when Ash opened his mouth to say something, he only choked up.

"What's up little guy?" Aura said. "Come to collect our autographs?"

"Drop dead!" the boy said. "I wouldn't even let you autograph my butt!"

Aura lost interest as soon as he realized the kid wasn't going to worship him. "Unless you’re hiding one stellar female butt under those rags, I’ll keep my distance. Now is there something else you wanted, or do we have to walk around you?"

"I'm here to settle the score with
you
!" the sneaker said, pointing his finger at Ash. "I’ll make you pay for what you did!"

Ash wasn't getting any better. He was drenched in sweat and weak in the knees. Though the boy was just ten feet away and shouting, Ash could barely hear what he was saying. Vashi Tansa felt like an anvil in his arms and his legs buckled.

“You do something to piss this kid off?” Aura asked his friend. Ash shook his head no, the best reply he could manage at the moment.

"Look kid, we don't know why you're pissed at Ash. Frankly, we don't care." Aura put a hand on his hip in defiance. "We've had a long day of battling demons. Some in the form of cards, and some were
actual
demons
. We'd like a little R&R between nuisances, you know? So why don't you buzz off now and only come back if you have a hot sister you wanna introduce me to."

"Shut up, turd-breath!" the boy snapped. "I've got you now! There's nowhere to run!"

"
Turd-breath
?" Aura repeated, suddenly concerned. "I don't have bad breath, do I Ash?" The death toucher turned to his friend and breathed a big burst of mouth-air in his face.

Ash fell over. The unconscious Vashi Tansa fell with him.

“
That bad, huh
?” Aura said in disbelief. When his friend didn’t move to get up, he grew concerned. "Ash?" Aura said, taking his attention off the annoying kid and turning to help his friend.

"
Now’s my
chance yo
!" the boy cried. He tossed his skateboard down and jumped on, kicking his way toward the group.

Aura's instincts were conflicted. He turned to address the incoming threat, but the kid blew past him aiming for his fallen comrade instead. By the time Aura knew what was truly going on it was too late.