Major Demons (9 page)

CHAPTER 18

Gangrene made his way up the stairs to Murmur’s headquarters. Lilith had told him they wanted to make a deal. She seemed to be doing better and Gangrene noted that she was less depressed. Something was driving her. He had no idea what it was, but he was glad that she was feeling better.

A small demon tugged at Gangrene’s cloak and pointed down the hall, then ran off to announce that he had arrived. Gangrene entered the room at the end of the hall and realized something. Murmur was doing a lot better than he led them to believe. Many of the legendary items of Hell rumored to be lost were on display in the room. He imagined some of them weren’t even fakes.

Murmur sat in Leviathan’s old golden throne at the head of a long marble table. Jess was seated next to him. He extended a hand for Gangrene to sit.

“Lilith told me you guys met her at Dagon’s. Why am I getting the special treatment?”

“We need your help with something. Jess is going after a new mage staff. It’s guarded by three giants who can only be harmed by scythes. We’ve already made a deal with Lilith. She’s in. We need to know if you’ll help us.”

“What’s in it for me?”

Murmur grinned.

“What do you want?”

“It’s simple, really. I command Shadow’s armies after he renounced his major demon position. I want to take Leech’s spot. Major demon of idolatry. I know the traitors from Leech’s and Lilith’s armies are now under your command. I don’t want them back. Fuck them. I want you to recognize my claim until the Dragon returns and support me after he’s back.”

Jess shook her head.

“My brother, Aim, has already tentatively taken the position of…”

Murmur cut her off.

“With Shadow renouncing his claim, I think we can make something work. You become the major demon of idolatry. Aim becomes the major demon of murder. There’s no reason we can’t switch things up to make a deal.”

“That’s a good way to look at it. It’s all just speculation anyways. Yes, I have an army and a scythe. There’s still the possibility that the Dragon could shoot down my claim to becoming a major demon when he returns. I’m sorry…
if
he returns.”

Murmur looked confused.

“What do you mean ‘if he returns?’ He’s the Dragon. I’m not sure he can be killed. We took him on as the Six and weren’t able to kill him. You think that Abaddon has a better shot than the rest of us?”

“The only being in existence that could kill the Dragon is Michael. Well… scratch that… Michael and God. God doesn’t come down from Heaven to kill things though… so Michael. Abaddon is a combination of Michael and Queen Persephone. An angel and a demon. Nephilim are also generally more powerful and deadly than either angels
or
demons. So there’s a real possibility that Abaddon is stronger than Michael. I think he has a good chance of killing the Dragon.”

“Interesting. I always thought it was a foregone conclusion that the Dragon would return. If he doesn’t, the balance of power tips in our favor. We could march on Nightmare and Astaroth and destroy them.”

Gangrene held up his hands.

“Slow down. This is all just speculation. We were talking about a deal to get the monkey stick thing for Jess. I’m in if you agree to my terms. I’m acting major demon of idolatry. I have the best claim with Shadow’s army and Leech’s scythe. Are we agreed?”

Jess and Murmur both nodded. Jess stood and stretched her arms.

“Enough talk and enough deals. Let’s go get Lilith and take care of this. Just the four of us. The three of you fight the giants with your scythes and I’ll run in and grab the staff of the monkey king.”

Gangrene and Murmur were less enthusiastic, but they both stood. Murmur extended his hand towards the exit.

“Your mission… you lead.”

Jess walked out the exit and headed towards Lilith’s house.

Lilith had been living in the house of her adoptive father, Panic, for several days. Panic had been killed in the wars of the major demons and had no other family, so Lilith took possession of the small shack. She had known it was possible he would die but had been too focused on other things to care. After losing Leech, Panic’s death just added to her sadness. Lucia cried in the other room and Lilith opened a can. The can screamed. She placed the damned soul in a bottle and gave it to her daughter, who sucked contentedly on her meal.

Jess knocked at the door and Lilith let her in.

“I found a spell that should give Leech a chance at returning. It’s definitely more than my current staff can handle, though. I made a deal with Gangrene. You ready to take on the giants?”

Raven entered the small house from the back and nodded at Lilith.

“Looks like my babysitter is here. Let’s do this and then I’ll hand over my scythe. Lead the way.”

CHAPTER 19

When Shadow saw the explosion, he immediately teleported to where Sarah was and stood in the path of the fire. The flames ate at his cape and but his armor shielded him from any serious injury. When the explosion finally stopped, Shadow turned quickly and hacked the charred remnants of Scapegoat into several pieces.

“I should have killed you a long time ago.”

Shadow turned to Sarah, who was lying motionless on the cold ground. It looked like she had tried to freeze herself before the explosion but was unsuccessful. Her arms and legs appeared to be badly burned.

“I guess the two of you weren’t ready to leave the protection of the angels after all…”

In one swift motion, Shadow pulled Damnation from his belt and turned to face the voice. He saw Gabriel frowning at him.

“She wasn’t ready to fight a nephilim.”

“Agree to disagree. The nephilim is dead. No one knew he was going to suicide bomb her.”

“And yet you sent her in anyways instead of demanding the fight for yourself.”

“Well I have a couple thoughts. First, you don’t know any more about nephilim than I do. So stop pretending this could have somehow been prevented. Second, how about you stop bitching and see if you can help her? I don’t have any healing powers. That’s an angel’s job.”

Grabriel kept a tense expression trained on Shadow as he bent down to feel Sarah’s pulse. He put his hand over her eyes and muttered some words Shadow couldn’t hear. Sarah coughed and her eyes opened briefly but she didn’t sit up or say anything. Gabriel lifted her into his arms and Shadow put his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.

“You’re not taking her away.”

Gabriel turned to face Shadow. His eyes burned with a white hot flame and his voice dropped several octaves and gained a booming, thunder summoning quality.

“You will no longer interfere with my family, demon. She is done here. I should have taken her back when it was clear we couldn’t work with your kind.”

Shadow raised one of Damnation’s blades to Gabriel’s throat.

“Put her down, old man.”

Gabriel did as requested, but only to draw his sword. Shadow could feel his adrenaline kicking in. There was no one to stop him from killing the Archangel this time. Sarah had closed her eyes again and appeared to be out cold.

Shadow swung Damnation and Gabriel met the attack with his blade. Gabriel punched Shadow in the face. Shadow felt his nose start to trickle blood. He responded by head-butting Gabriel, which drew a similar reaction from the Archangel’s nose. Shadow grinned.

“I guess Archangels bleed just like everyone else.”

Shadow saw Gabriel summoning ice in his hands and did the same. The two streams of ice met in the middle and started creating a large icicle. While Gabriel continued to shoot ice, Shadow crashed through from the other side of the icicle and kicked the Archangel hard in the gut. Gabriel fell to one knee.

Shadow didn’t waste any time. He brought down Damnation swiftly at Gabriel’s head. The attack reminded him of the short battle he should have conclusively won against Nightmare in the trials. Surprise registered on his face when Damnation stopped before embedding a blade in Gabriel’s neck.

Gabriel had reached up and grabbed one of Damnation’s blades with his hand. He brought his forearm down on Shadow’s arms and was able to pry Damnation from his hands. Gabriel turned and threw the weapon as far as he could.

“Let’s see how cocky you are without your scythe, demon.”

Gabriel lunged with his blade and stabbed Shadow through the heart. Shadow cried out in pain before falling to the ground. Gabriel savored the moment only to be punched in the face. He looked at the place where Shadow had fallen and realized that Shadow had cloned himself. The clone vanished when it hit the ground. Shadow grinned again.

“I didn’t think that would work on you, old man. I thought you were better than that.”

“You still don’t have your weapon, demon.”

Shadow retrieved Michael’s short blade from his belt. He cloned himself again, this time producing five Shadows. They all attacked at the same time. Gabriel stabbed his sword into the ground and looked up at the heavens. Lightning struck and Shadow’s clones disappeared. Shadow flew back and dropped Michael’s short blade.

Gabriel retrieved his sword and charged. Shadow grasped for the short blade but it was out of reach. He knew he didn’t have much time before Gabriel would close the distance between them. Instead of grasping for his sword or attempting to get back on his feet, he stretched his arm in the direction he had seen Damnation fly when Gabriel threw it.

Gabriel stood over Shadow and smiled.

“You will no longer be a plague on my family and an abomination on this Earth.”

Gabriel stabbed down at Shadow but his blade was met by Damnation. Shadow climbed the scythe fist over fist until he was back on his feet. He delivered a spinning back kick to Gabriel’s chest and Gabriel stumbled backwards several paces.

“Another illusion? I thought I threw that away.”

“Ever met a nephilim named Azazel? He liked taking my scythes away from me too. I talked about it with my friend, Jess. Damnation was forged with my blood because I needed a way to make the second blade invisible when I showed my scythe to the Dragon. Jess cast a spell that allows me to recall it because it’s a part of me. Azazel can’t keep it away from me and neither can you.”

Gabriel laughed.

“Clever, little demon. However, all you’re doing is delaying the inevitable. I have an offense I’ve developed over thousands of years. You have nothing but little tricks and an inflated sense of your own power. It’s only a matter of time.”

Gabriel didn’t continue his attack. Shadow could tell he was hesitating. He sensed something else approaching from behind and quickly stepped out of the way. An arrow sailed past him and directly at Gabriel. Gabriel cut it in half with his blade.

“So you’ve got Remiel hiding in the bushes somewhere?”

Gabriel attacked again and Shadow deflected the blow. As they traded hits, it dawned on him that Gabriel could simply be distracting him while Remiel quietly dragged Sarah away. His theory was confirmed when he looked at the spot where Sarah was and saw Remiel hoisting her onto his shoulders. Shadow continued to fight with Damnation in one hand but lifted his other towards Remiel. Remiel lifted off the ground and moved towards Shadow. When he dropped the few inches back to the Earth, Shadow grabbed his head and quickly planted a hallucination. Remiel loaded an arrow from his quiver and shot it at Gabriel. Gabriel deflected it.

“What did you do to him?”

“Another ‘little trick,’ as you like to call them. I’m in Remiel’s mind. There’s not much in there, so it was pretty easy to take over.”

Shadow saw a crow land at Sarah’s feet. Shadow nodded at it and then continued to attack Gabriel. The crow changed into a bear, lifted Sarah, and ran away. When Shadow saw that they were nearly out of sight, he cut off Remiel’s head and teleported away.

CHAPTER 20

Jess, Gangrene, Lilith, and Murmur quietly circled the first giant they had found guarding the staff of the monkey king. The giant had two heads and they seemed to be arguing with each other.

“It’s time for a snack.”

“No it isn’t. We already had a snack. It’s time for dinner.”

“We haven’t even had lunch yet!”

“I can have dinner whenever I want.”

“No you can’t! Not without my permission!”

The giant’s right fist swung up and punched the left head. Jess giggled.

“Alright guys.”

Lilith frowned.

“Alright guys… and Lilith. I know it looks like we should just attack the two-headed giant all at once. The other two giants have to be near here though. My plan is for one of you to fight this one and then the other three will move on. Any volunteers?”

Gangrene nodded.

“Yeah… I’d really like to kill this one. Listening to them arguing is giving me a migraine. Who the hell argues with themselves like that?”

Jess nodded.

“Fine. Gangrene can take on this giant and the three of us will move on. Go ahead.”

Gangrene started running towards the giant.

“I really need the two of you to shut the fuck up now. I’m tired of listening to you. It’s time for you to die.”

The two heads looked at each other.

“Can we eat him?”

“Of course we can.”

“But is he lunch or dinner?”

Gangrene slashed at the giant’s foot with his scythe. It didn’t draw blood, but the giant started hopping around and clutching its foot. Jess, Lilith, and Murmur used the opportunity to sneak by unnoticed. After a minute of running, they felt the ground shaking. Jess, Lilith, and Murmur snuck up on the second giant. The giant was larger than the two headed giant and was skipping while chasing a vulture. The ground shook every time gravity brought him down. He was also singing.

“Birdie! Birdie! Birdie! Birdie!”

Lilith put her fingers on her temples.

“Wow. This is worse than that two-headed idiot.”

Jess nodded.

“So you want this one then?”

“Sure. Why are the giants so annoying? No wonder they all got sent to Hell.”

Lilith ran towards the giant. The giant saw Lilith approaching and changed his direction and his song. He started running at Lilith and yelling.

“Demon! Demon! Demon! Demon!”

Jess and Murmur ran past the second giant. A short time later, they saw a large ball rolling around in front of the entrance to a cave. Jess pointed at it.

“I think that’s the third giant.”

Murmur looked at her skeptically.

“That rolling ball of fat? It’s going too fast. How am I supposed to stop it?”

“You’re the major demon. You tell me.”

“I guess I’ll find a way. The staff is in the cave?”

“If Aim’s intel is accurate. So… who knows?”

Murmur grinned.

“Well good luck then. I’ll go take on that rolling ball of fat and see if I can put a stop to it.”

Murmur ran towards the rolling ball and readied his scythe like a baseball bat. When the ball got close enough, he swung as hard as he could. The ball unfolded itself and fell over. It was the third giant.

“What did you hit me for?”

Murmur wasn’t sure how to respond. He decided to answer with a question.

“Why were you rolling around like that?”

The giant scratched his chin and thought for a moment.

“I… I don’t know.”

Murmur rolled his eyes.

“Talking to you is a waste of time.”

“Oh… alright then. I’ll go back to rolling around.”

Murmur struck with his scythe and Jess ran past them. The cave had very little light but Jess was accustomed to seeing in the dark. She occasionally thought she saw little creatures running around in dark corners but tried to ignore it. She wasn’t afraid. When she came to the end of the tunnel, she stepped into a large circular room. A small fire spread in a circle, blocking the way she had come. The light from the fire showed what the little creatures were that had been following her.

“They’re cute little monkeys! How adorable!”

The monkeys ran to the center of the room and started climbing on each other. They merged into a larger monkey with a staff.

“I am the immortal monkey king. It’s rare that I have visitors. Those idiot giants outside usually annoy everyone away. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“My name is Jess and I’m… uh…”

“Here to steal my staff?”

“Not steal. I didn’t know you existed. I’m a sorceress and I need it for something very important.”

“Well… it’s mine. Are you going to try to take it from me?”

Jess thought for a moment before responding. She had assumed the staff would just be waiting for her unguarded in the cave. Count on Aim to not find all of the details when it wasn’t something he was personally interested in.

“Like I said… I need it. There’s a demon that’s in between life and death right now. I need to bring him back.”

“And you need my staff for the spell. I see.”

The monkey king looked as if he was considering the request. After several moments of silence, he shook his head.

“No.”

Jess waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t.

“That’s it? No?”

“Correct. No.”

“That’s unacceptable.”

The monkey king seemed to get a little annoyed with her response.

“No… let me tell you what is unacceptable, Jess. It’s unacceptable that the Dragon took away most of the giants he promised would guard me here. It’s unacceptable that you somehow got through the three giants that were left. It’s unacceptable that you entered my cave and it’s unacceptable that you are trying to steal my staff.”

Jess readied her staff.

“I guess we don’t have anything further to discuss. I was willing to make a deal.”

“No. No deals. No. No. No.”

“You sound like the giant out there that’s chasing a bird. He doesn’t have much of a vocabulary either.”

The monkey king’s eyes turned red.

“No… once again you don’t understand your situation. It is you who has a lacking vocabulary. I’m the
immortal
monkey king. Immortal means I can’t die. Wandering in here hoping to kill me was incredibly foolish. Attempting to steal my staff was an asinine idea. I will place your rotting corpse at the entrance of this cave with a sign that says ‘I was dumb enough to attempt to steal from the monkey king.’”

Jess went with her go-to first attack, corpse hands reaching up from the ground grabbing at anything they could reach and pinning them down. The monkey king flashed briefly and then disappeared. Moments later, Jess felt something fall on her shoulders and hit her hard on the head. She felt dizzy and fell over.

“I won’t even need to use spellcraft to slay you. You are a novice. I’m still immensely surprised you made it past the giants given the state of your sorcery.”

The monkey king brought his staff down hard, aiming at Jess’s head. She brought up both hands in an attempt to block it, unsure of where it actually was because of her dizziness. The staff connected hard with one of her forearms. She ignored the pain and quickly grabbed it with her hand. She started muttering a spell and the staff began to heat up. Fire shot from the staff up the monkey king’s furry arm. He kicked Jess hard in the face, threw his staff across the room, and then rolled around in the sandy cave floor until the flames on his arm were extinguished.

“Well that was… unexpected. I guess I misjudged you. I don’t come across many demons who can summon flames. It was a miscalculation on my part… one which I won’t repeat.”

The monkey king ran across the cave and touched his staff briefly before withdrawing his hand. It was still too hot. Jess knew she had a limited window of time to act. She shook her head, hoping to clear her vision, and grabbed at her staff. Jess summoned a snake that slithered over to the monkey king and wrapped itself around his body, pulling his arms to his sides. The monkey king laughed.

“I’m a monkey. My feet work the same as my hands.”

The monkey king grabbed his staff, which was now cool enough to handle, with his feet. He cast a spell and the snake turned into a string and fell off him. Before Jess could get back to her feet, the monkey king attacked.