Major Demons (5 page)

CHAPTER 9

“So what’s the plan?”

Murmur shook his head.

“That’s not how this is going to work. Your mission means your plan. I don’t want you partially blaming me for any losses we take.”

“No problem, boss. I was planning on listening to whatever you said and then suggesting a better plan anyways.”

“Fine then. Let’s hear what you’ve got.”

“Currently, your army has five snipers. I use that term very loosely. One of them still sometimes points his gun the wrong way and looks down the barrel to clean it. It’s enough for what I have in mind though. I’m going to position them in the following spots.”

Aim pointed at five different spots around the cliff that led down to the demons guarding White Death.

“We start shooting. They’ll start looking up and taking shots around the cliff edges. You teleport in and start butchering them while they’re looking up.”

“You want me to go down in there and take out 500 demons? On my own? This is about your death debt, isn’t it?”

“Well yeah. If you die, I just have to kill one demon in Nightmare’s army and one from Astaroth’s. I believe in you, boss. 500 kills is nothing for the major demon of…”

Aim realized Murmur was looking at him like he wanted to kill him.

“It was a joke. You go in first and start butchering them. Then Jess teleports small groups of our armies in to surround them and close in. We’ll take some losses but it’ll be worth it. I’d like to remind you once again that you currently have five snipers. That’s pitiful and we should all be ashamed of ourselves.”

“And Jess is on board with this?”

“Do I think it’s a good plan? No. Do I think it’s a decent plan considering the fact that my idiot brother came up with it? Kind of. Am I willing to transport demons in to back you up? Absolutely. We can’t let anything happen to our fearless leader, Murmur, the overly large teddy bear.”

“I’d kind of like to kill both of you right now.”

Aim smiled and started running towards his position on the cliff.

“Perfect, boss. Now take that attitude into the canyon and kill all the cowboy demons.”

Aim signaled to the other snipers to take their places. The ragged band of demons ran to the spots he had pointed out to them earlier. None of them found adequate cover. Aim tried to signal to them that they needed to find better cover. None of them understood his signals. Jess, who was still standing next to Aim, shook her head.

“This is a really bad idea. You’re going to get Murmur hurt down there.”

“I think everything will be fine. He’s a tough demon. Plus he knows that I want this sniper rifle really, really badly.”

“And you think that affects his ability to kill 500 demons?”

“Shouldn’t it?”

“I’m holding you responsible if he gets hurt.”

Aim put his right eye up to the scope on his rifle.

“Yeah, yeah… Murmur said the same thing. Don’t worry so much. Also… go get in position. It’s kind of obvious where I am when you’re standing right next to me. Not great for a sniper.”

Jess waved her staff and a large sign appeared next to Aim’s position. It pointed directly at Aim and said “I’m with stupid.” Aim’s read it and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“Not funny, Jess. Get that sign out of here.”

Jess grinned and waved her staff again. The sign disappeared.

“Please go get in position. Murmur’s life is actually in
your
hands. You need to be consistently transporting demons into the canyon to back him up.”

“Fine. Just make sure the um… what are we calling them again?”

“Cowboy demons.”

“They don’t look like cowboys.”

“It’s because they’re gunslingers and we’re robbing them and… just call them cowboy demons. That’s what they’re called in my plan.”

“Make sure the cowboy demons keep their focus on you and your ‘snipers.’”

Jess made air quotes when she said the word snipers. Aim frowned and Jess jogged off to get into position. Aim gave the signal to get ready and his snipers started firing. Aim smacked his forehead and then joined in. After a few shots, he realized that he was the only one hitting any of the cowboy demons. Murmur teleported in and started attacking. He heard five loud bangs and saw all of Aim’s snipers fall off the cliff.

“Shit.”

Murmur cleared a path backwards with wide swings of his scythe. His armor and Dragonscale had deflected the shots fired on him but he was beginning to worry. The cowboy demons realized what was going on and closed in around Murmur. He was surrounded with hundreds of guns trained on him. He had barely made a dent in their ranks.

“Well, well, well… General Murmur. I thought you worked for the Dragon, but as soon as you realize he’s gone to Earth you try to steal from him. So… you didn’t think he would leave anyone competent in charge? And you try to distract us with… what was that? Six idiots with guns? I guess only one of them had any skill and he’s stopped firing now. I guess he doesn’t want to give away his position. In other words, you’re screwed and I’ll be taking your place when the Dragon finds out that Murmur, Jess, and Aim are all traitors.”

Murmur held up his scythe.

“I have enough in me to at least take you down before I die. Go ahead and give the command. You won’t become a major demon but maybe one of your demons will.”

“I really don’t believe that. Either way, you’re about to die. You can’t talk your way out of this. Jealousy will be the downfall of the major demon of jealousy. That’s hilarious.”

The commander raised his hand and dropped it. The demons started firing on Murmur but Murmur didn’t hear hundreds of clinks as bullets hit his armor and shield. Murmur looked around and saw Jess standing next to him, holding her arms in the air. A dark, semi-circle covered both of them and was deflecting the incoming bullets.

“Hey, Murmur. So… my brother is a dumbass. All of his ‘snipers’ are dead. I would use air quotes for snipers, but my hands are kind of busy right now.”

“How long can you hold that for?”

“Long enough to implement Aim’s modified plan. In other words, Aim is a dumbass and it’s my turn to put a better plan in play.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Don’t stress the details; just be ready to kill in swarms.”

A few seconds later and Jess was beginning to sweat. Murmur could tell that holding the dark shield up was taking its toll.

“Come on… you can do it.”

Murmur grinned.

“I didn’t know you liked to give yourself pep talks.”

“Not me.”

A dozen demons from Jess’s army transported in outside the circle of cowboy demons and started attacking. They caught the cowboy demons by surprise and quickly killed off dozens. A few seconds later, another wave transported in and started attacking. By the time the third wave transported in, Jess was about to lose control of her spell.

“How did you…?”

“I had a backup plan for Aim’s plan. I trained two other demons to cast transportation spells in case I needed to get in here and help. They’re the ones who transported me in here. I can’t cast it on myself… unless you want to hand over your scythe.”

Murmur laughed.

“I think you’re doing fine without it. I’m ready to resume killing. Let me know when…”

“3… 2… 1…”

Jess dropped the shield spell and waved her staff. Dark, shadowy hands started to appear from the ground, pulling the cowboy demons under the sand. Murmur resumed killing several demons with each swing of his scythe. When the cowboy demons fell to under 100 in number, their commander surrendered.

Aim walked down into the canyon, grinning at Murmur and Jess.

“See? My plan worked great!”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Your plan was idiotic. I’m going to refer to it from now on as the ‘Aim Clusterfuck Campaign.’ Murmur, I think my brother needs a performance review after this shit. This was embarrassing.”

Murmur nodded.

“Jess is right. This was fucking terrible. I’m tempted to give the sniper rifle to her. She’s the one who pulled this off tonight.”

Aim’s jaw dropped.

“But she doesn’t even
need
a sniper rifle.”

“That’s enough. I don’t want to hear from you for the next few days.”

“But…”

“Days, Aim. Shut the fuck up.”

Aim bowed his head and finally looked defeated. Murmur leaned over to Jess and whispered in her ear.

“Go get Aim his damn gun. Kill the prisoners and have your demons take inventory… what weapons we gained and how many we lost.”

Jess nodded and ran off.

CHAPTER 10

“So Shadow really told the angels to get lost?”

“That’s what our scouts report, Lily. They’re returning to Heaven. Fine by me. I don’t think the angels were really all that helpful or committed to dealing with this problem anyways.”

Lilith pouted.

“I don’t like it. I wanted Shadow to hook up with Sarah.”

“Maybe he did. We won’t know until we meet up with him. It shouldn’t be…”

Leech was cut off as Azazel transported in front of them. Scapegoat appeared by his side and an army of nephilim appeared behind them.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Azazel.”

“We know who you are. You’re the asshole Shadow warned us about.”

Leech stepped in front of Lilith and Gangrene moved forward to stand next to him. Azazel smiled. He snapped his fingers and Leech’s scythe appeared in his hands. His smile slowly arched down and he dropped the scythe before backing up several paces. Leech laughed and retrieved his weapon.

“Shadow warned me you might try to pull something like that. My name is Leech and my scythe slowly sucks the powers and strength of anyone who takes it from me. I’m the only exception. I promise you it’s a powerful, unbreakable spell. If you want a fight, you’ll fight fair.”

“Turn over Lilith and the child and I’ll let the rest of you go.”

Leech’s eyes started glowing red.

“There’s no fucking way in Heaven, Hell, or Earth that I’ll let you take either of them. We’ll fight you to the death.”

Leech turned and saw that all of their armies had abandoned them. Their fear of the nephilim was too great. He realized that he would have to take on Azazel, Scapegoat, and their entire army with Lilith, Gangrene, and Raven. Leech didn’t need long to do the math. There was only one play to make.

“Gangrene, get Lilith and my daughter out of here.”

Lilith shook her head.

“We’re not leaving you.”

“I’m sorry, but you are.”

Leech held his scythe out for Gangrene to take. Gangrene refused to take it.

“Leech, you just got done explaining how it drains the life out of whoever touches it other than you. Even if it didn’t do that, I won’t take it. We’re not abandoning you.”

“Gangrene, the spell only targets anyone who takes the scythe from me. I’m
giving
it to you. Please just do as I say. Get them out of here.”

Gangrene reluctantly took the scythe. He started pushing Lilith in the opposite direction but she refused to move.

“I’m sorry, Lilith.”

Gangrene hit Lilith hard across the face with the butt of the scythe. He caught her before she fell. Gangrene handed baby Lucia over to Raven and hoisted Lilith over his shoulder.

“Leech, are you sure you want to do this?”

“I’m sure. Go.”

Raven and Gangrene turned and ran. Azazel nodded as if he respected the way Leech had handled the situation. He grinned and started clapping slowly.

“Well done, Leech. You had your scythe ready for me, because you knew I’d try to take it. You didn’t teleport out of here and lead me to Shadow. You were even able to get your friends to safety. That last part won’t matter though. I can find them again after I kill you and this time there will be nothing to stop me from killing them. We were going to give Lilith and your child a pass for being nephilim and give them the option of joining Abaddon’s forces. You’ve ruined that for them though.”

“No worries, asshole. I don’t plan on letting your army leave this place. You see, there’s only one thing that I value more than ambition. Family. I won’t let you harm my daughter. I won’t let you harm Lilith. Shadow never needs my protection, but I’d step between you and him to kick your ass, too. Just like everyone else in fucking existence, you’ve underestimated me. I’m just a small little demon. The outcast offspring of Baal. Well fuck you and fuck your army. If I don’t kill you all, I’ll come back from the grave to finish you off. That’s a promise.”

Leech grabbed his axe and dragged it in the sand. He ran circles around Azazel’s army. The nephilim all laughed at him. Azazel grinned but looked slightly curious.

“So we’re wondering what the hell you’re doing. Care to explain? Has your impending death driven you mad?”

“I’ll show you what I’m doing.”

Leech held out his hand and a large green circle formed around the nephilim conforming to the circle he had drawn in the sand with his axe. Azazel applauded once again.

“Oh cool. I had no idea you were a sorcerer, little guy. Thanks for the lights show.”

“I’m not a sorcerer. This is the final evolution of a ring of power I received a long time ago. Your army is trapped in there and they won’t be leaving. There’s one way out, conversion into energy that I’ll absorb.”

“You’re not that powerful.”

“I’m the best friend of Shadow, the most powerful nephilim in existence. Command your army to step outside the circle if you’re so sure.”

Azazel nodded and one of the nephilim attempted to step outside the green dome surrounding Azazel’s armies. He was converted into a green mist that flew through the air to Leech’s outstretched hand. Leech breathed in the power and his eyes started to glow green. Azazel’s jaw dropped.

“What do you think now, blacksmith? Are you worried that maybe you underestimated me?”

Leech held up his other hand and the green dome started to slowly shrink, causing the nephilim inside to panic. Several of them tried to teleport out but found that they couldn’t. One by one, they were all converted into a green mist and flew through the air to Leech’s outstretched hands. When Azazel looked back in Leech’s direction, he saw nothing but a glowing green light. His army was gone. Azazel tried to teleport away but Leech teleported behind him and put him in a headlock.

“Shadow warned me that I couldn’t kill you. You’re simply too powerful. I don’t believe that he was right. Regardless, I can slow you down and keep you away from my family. You see, I can’t hold all the power I just took in from your army. That’s why I’m glowing green. I’m about to go nuclear. You can try to teleport away, but I’ll go with you and in a few more seconds…”

Azazel clawed at Leech’s arm around his neck but Leech wouldn’t let go. He looked up to the heavens as he felt his final seconds slip away.

“I love you, Lilith.”

Leech exploded.