Middle Demons (Angels and Demons Book 2) (19 page)

CHAPTER 37

Belial made good speed on his way down through the circles of hell. He paused only when the pain around his lost hand caused him to take a short rest. He knew Murmur was pursuing him with an army but he was pretty sure he had lost them days ago. Once he became the major demon, it wouldn’t matter if they caught up to him. He would attack Murmur with his scythe and take Dragonscale from his corpse.

As he approached the Dragon, Belial kneeled.

“Great Dragon, General Leviathan has fallen. I have defeated Tannin in battle and there is no one left to challenge me for major demon of jealousy.”

“That’s not true.”

Murmur walked up behind the kneeling Belial and twisted his neck backwards until it broke. He then picked up the fallen scythe. He kneeled at the Dragon’s feet.

“Great Dragon, I am Murmur.
I
killed Tannin and Belial. I wield both a scythe of power and the shield Dragonscale. I am the sole living middle demon of the department of jealousy. I would like to be officially named the major demon of jealousy.”

The Dragon stopped torturing his victims long enough to speak with Murmur.

“I am told that there is a war going on up there. I see new demons far too often requesting that they become major demons. We need to get back to torturing the humans and collecting souls from earth. If I grant your request, whose side will you fight on?”

“The stronger side seems to be Baal and Shadow, my liege. Vixen is close to defeat, Nightmare has disappeared, and Astaroth is the only remaining threat. If I add my forces to Shadow’s, Vixen should fall within the week. Then it will be Shadow, myself, and Baal against Astaroth. We can get back to business as usual. I imagine Astaroth will give up in order to preserve her life.”

“I have a condition. You can become the major demon of jealousy but only if you spare my daughter’s life. Keep Vixen alive. The attempt to wipe out my sons and daughters annoys me. I don’t care what you do to the rest. I am hungry and I’m tired of demons neglecting to do their job. Maybe if you new major demons can pull Hell’s head out of its ass, we can get back to soul harvesting, tempting, and torturing.”

Murmur nodded.

“I will keep Vixen alive, Great Dragon. You have my word.”

“Then go and end this war, young demon.”

Aim and Jess eagerly watched as Murmur returned.

“Is it done? Are we both becoming middle demons?”

“Shut up, Aim. This isn’t about us.”

Murmur grinned and Jess decided she couldn’t restrain herself either.

“But we
are
becoming middle demons, right?”

“I don’t know. The two of you would be replacing Belial and Tannin. I just… don’t really see it. Convince me.”

Jess pulled her staff from her back.

“I’ve been studying necromancy.”

“You realize we live in Hell, right? Everything is already dead and already living on.”

“Well it’s not a particularly fruitful area of magic for demons, but I think I can call back slain demons under my control.”

Murmur looked interested.

“Alright, let’s see it Jess.”

“Who should I bring back?”

“Reno, the demon I killed on Earth. If you truly have control of him, he won’t try to attack us.”

“Fine. I can’t keep it going for very long though… so… don’t expect too much.”

Jess waved her staff in sharp, practiced motions and spoke the words of the curse. Reno appeared faintly in front of her. He looked angrily at Nightmare and Aim. Jess twirled her staff and Reno turned. She brought her staff down and Reno kneeled. Just as his knee hit the ground, he disappeared again. Blood ran slowly from each of Jess’s nostrils and she fell to the ground. Aim was incredibly excited.

“That was SO cool! I had no idea you could do cool things like that!”

Jess thought about responding but she hadn’t yet caught her breath. Murmur helped her back to her feet.

“I’ll admit I’ve never seen anything like that before, but it doesn’t seem like you’ve reached the point where it’s useful yet. Can you hide yourself in mists and fire like Belial did?”

“Yup… that’s easy.”

Jess waved her staff and was soon hidden behind smoke.

“Now stay like that. I prefer to not see your ugly face.”

Jess twirled her staff and the mists vanished. When she reappeared, she was flipping Murmur off. He grinned.

“Good enough for me. Jess can have Belial’s middle demon position.”

Aim pulled his crossbow from his back, ready to demonstrate his ability to hit a target from a distance.

“Not good enough, Aim. I’ve seen that you’re an excellent marksman. Can you show me something new?”

“Such as?”

Murmur thought for a minute.

“I want you to take on ten middle demons.”

“No problem.”

“They’ll surround you.”

“Still not a problem.”

“You won’t have any of your weapons. I’ll let you borrow Dragonscale. You have to defeat them with the shield.”

“Who thinks up shit like that?”

“Your general and the head of this department does.”

“Fine. You doubt my close combat skills but I’ll show you what skilled fighting looks like… er… General Murmur.”

Murmur handed Dragonscale to Aim and called in ten fully armed minor demons.

“Don’t kill any of them, Aim. Our army has suffered enough losses as it is. Take their weapons and knock them out.”

“Would you like me to tuck them in and read them a bedtime story as well?”

“Sure. If you think you have time for that.”

Jess laughed but then tried hard to regain her composure.

“You can do this, Aim.”

Aim didn’t want for an official start. He tossed Dragonscale in the air and drop kicked it when it was in perfect alignment with one of the minor demon’s faces. The minor demon flew backwards, dropping his sword. Jess cast a spell and a dark bubble appeared over the minor demon, leaving him trapped.

“That’s one.”

The remaining nine all attacked at once. Aim did his best to block the incoming assault but he couldn’t block everything. He eventually turned and ran. Three of the nine pursued close on his heels but the other six decided to hang back. When Aim was surrounded by the three minor demons, he crouched down and spun with Dragonscale. All three of the minor demons tripped. Aim moved quickly and delivered a punch to each of their faces, knocking them out. He then retrieved one of their swords. As he ran back to face the remaining six, Jess cast another dark bubble over the three knocked out minor demons.

Murmur hit his staff against the ground and Hell rumbled. The remaining six minor demons looked at him.

“One at a time now.”

A minor demon with nunchucks stepped forward. Aim blocked his incoming hits with Dragonscale and then sliced the minor demon’s leg. He grabbed at the injury on his leg and Aim swung Dragonscale hard at the demon’s face.

The next minor demon attacked immediately with a staff. Aim caught the blow aimed at his head and brought his elbow down hard on the demon’s face. The last four minor demons turned and ran away. Aim grinned and Murmur shook his head and sighed.

“Fine. Aim can be a middle demon too. Give me my shield back.”

“Maybe I want to keep it.”

Murmur hit the butt of his scythe against the ground and everything rumbled again.

“Here’s Dragonscale back, General Murmur.”

“That’s what I thought you said.”

CHAPTER 38

As they made their way to Vixen’s palace, Lilith called out to Eiseth.

“Come on out, sis! I’m ready to kick your ass!”

“That’s amusing, Lilith. I thought that you guys would send Shadow or Leech to challenge me. You know… someone powerful. They must not give a shit about you if they sent you here to die.”

“I thought about sending my horse in to kill you, but I figured that would be demeaning. I’ll at least grant you the honor of seeing my beautiful face before I take your scythe away and kill you with it. Also, Shadow thinks you’re annoying, ugly, and that you smell funny.”

“He didn’t say those things…”

“He said the annoying part and I speculated from there.”

Eiseth jumped from the balcony of her room in Vixen’s palace and landed a short distance from Lilith, in front of the gates. Lilith readied her whips and light and fire extended along them.

“Your shiny whips won’t help you. I have a scythe.”

Eiseth raised the scythe over her head but Lilith struck with one of her whips and it wrapped itself around the scythe before she had a chance to strike. Lilith struck Eiseth’s face with her other whip. It left a short mark but Eiseth grabbed her face with one of her hands.

“That burns! What the hell are those things made of?”

“Not sure. They come from the heavens so… probably puppies and love and apple pie.”

“I see what this is… you just wanted to mark up my face because I’m prettier than you.”

Lilith struck again with her free hand and connected with Eiseth’s face a second time.

“That’s blasphemy! No one is prettier than I am!”

Shadow shook his head while watching from the sidelines, wondering why all fights in the department of lust always devolved into an argument over who was prettier. Lilith struck with her free whip and wrapped it around the scythe as well. She pulled and Eiseth let go of her face so that she could hold on to the scythe with both hands. Their insane tug of war continued until Lilith realized she needed to try something else. She uncoiled one of her whips from the scythe and started striking at Eiseth’s hands. Eiseth’s hands started to burn, but she held on.

“Ow! That’s not fair! Stop doing that!”

After a few minutes, Eiseth’s hands burned enough that she had to let go of the scythe. Lilith pulled it in and uncoiled her whip from it. She grabbed the scythe in both hands and rushed Eiseth. Eiseth turned and ran but Shadow blocked her path. He shook his head and made a turning around motion with his finger. Eiseth turned and faced Lilith again.

“Give me my scythe back!”

“Fuck you. This isn’t yours. It was Vixen’s and now it’s
mine
!”

Lilith ran at Eiseth and hit her on the head, hoping the death powers that Vixen claimed she should possess would strike down her sister. Eiseth looked at Lilith like she was insane. Lilith shrugged and cut her cleanly through her stomach. She then lightly touched her top half with the edge of the scythe and Eiseth crumbled into to pieces, bleeding into the ground. Vixen walked up to Lilith and held out her hand.

“Give me my scythe back.”

“No. I think I’d rather kill you and take over command of your department.”

Leech stopped Lilith from advancing to kill her mother.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I told you a long time ago that I wanted to kill her. Now is the perfect time.”

Leech looked past Lilith at Shadow.

“You’re ok with this?”

Shadow nodded.

“We told her we were ok with this when we let her tag along with us on Earth. Let her finish it. It’ll help us end this stupid war a lot quicker. Just about everyone who started it is dead.”

Lilith allowed a wide grin to spread across her face. She walked slowly towards Vixen, bringing the scythe up for a final strike. She drew it out for as long as she could. When she finally brought down the scythe, Murmur appeared in a burst of flames and blocked the blow with Dragonscale.

“Sorry. Can’t let you do that. Dragon’s orders.”

Shadow approached his old friend.

“What do you mean, Murmur? We’re about to end this war. Wait a minute… since when do you have a scythe?”

“I’m the new major demon of jealousy.”

“And Lilith can’t kill her mother because…?”

“Because the Dragon literally just told me not to let anyone kill her. He’s not amused by this war, but he also isn’t willing to let his daughter be killed.”

“Did he say the same thing about Baal?”

“Nope. I guess Baal is fair game.”

Leech cut in.

“Wrong. Baal is protected by me.”

“Fine. Whatever. I don’t really care. My orders are to keep Vixen alive and end this war.”

“Where are your armies?”

“On their way. They can’t teleport.”

Shadow tied up Vixen’s hands behind her back again.

“Lilith, keep her scythe for now. Murmur and I need to talk.”

Shadow led Murmur down to his tent and the two of them entered. Lilith and Leech tried to follow him in but he blocked them with his arm.

“I have a feeling Vixen is going to try to make a run for it. I want the two of you to stay out there with her.”

“We have Muan and Gangrene for that.”

“Fair enough, Leech, but Murmur doesn’t know the two of you. I should just talk to him alone and figure out what’s going on.”

Leech reluctantly agreed and waited outside.

“So what happened? The last I saw you, Nightmare had taken you as a demon-in-training.”

“Yeah that sucked ass. I guess Leviathan thought you would owe him a favor if he helped me out since we used to train together. He sent Tannin to get me out of there.”

“So you moved over to the department of jealousy?”

“Yup. I went to earth to collect a cache of souls with two other demons-in-training. When we returned, the three of us were made minor demons. Tannin and Belial killed Leviathan and then fought over the major demon position. I saw an opportunity. I gave Tannin the angel stone you gave me a long time ago and it weakened him. Belial won the fight, but lost a hand. I took control of Tannin’s armies and Belial’s armies as Belial ran down to the lowest circle of Hell to request the major demon spot. I caught up and broke his neck right before the Dragon could consider his request.”

“Interesting. Well congrats bro. So the Dragon gave you the department of jealousy?”

“On two conditions. I have to end this war and I have to keep Vixen alive until the war is over. Maybe he meant longer than that… but I don’t know and I don’t really care. I’m not going to babysit her forever.”

“So whose side are you on?”

“Yours. I’ll join in with you and Baal. Nightmare is missing and so are his armies. Astaroth is the last real threat now that Vixen is neutralized.”

“Any idea where she is?”

“I imagine she’s still fighting Baal. Not sure though. I had to get up here pretty quick to make sure Vixen stayed alive.”

“Couple more questions. Where’d you get that armor? It’s dripping blood. It looks like my uncle’s armor…”

“It is. Leviathan got it from Cain’s corpse. Do you want it back?”

“No. My armor is much stronger and it was passed down from my direct ancestors. You can keep Cain’s armor.”

“Good. I wasn’t planning on giving it back anyways. I just wanted to know if you
wanted
it back.”

Shadow laughed.

“Your shield?”

“It’s called Dragonscale. Another treasure of Leviathan’s. It can block scythes.”

“Before I became a major demon, I wouldn’t have thought that was possible. I believe you though. My armor is scythe-proof as well.”

“I have some questions now, Shadow. How’d you get that armor? I thought you didn’t have much to remember your father other than some angelic items. I didn’t know you had a full set of Abaddon’s armor.”

“I didn’t. My grandmother gave it to me. I made a quick stop there before taking over the department of murder.”

“Queen Persephone’s still stuck in that room then?”

“Yup. She’s an… interesting demoness…”

“You still trust those two? Leech and Lilith?”

“Definitely. They helped me get to where I am. I’m sure you trust the two minor demons that helped you become a major demon.”

“Jess and Aim? I killed them.”

Shadow raised an eyebrow at Murmur and wondered if he really had. Murmur let a smirk spread across his face and burst out laughing.

“I’m kidding, Shadow. They’re both middle demons in my department now. Jess is a sorceress and Aim is a combat specialist and a really good sniper. They each control half of my army. They’re kind of annoying sometimes, but I imagine you know what that’s like.”

“Oh you’ll find out. Lilith is insane. I’m not really sure how Leech is still alive with all the stupid shit he pulls. I get it.”

“So they’ll follow you? Are you still planning on saving your father?”

“I am. I’m hoping you’ll march with me for that as well.”

“I’ll have to think about that one. I don’t know if we’re powerful enough to assault the Dragon head on. Let’s just finish up this stupid war first.”