The Demon's Game (42 page)

“Do either of you have nicknames to call you by in
order to hide your real name?” They shook their heads. To the blue-haired
demon, I said, “I will nickname you Blue Jay to keep your true name a secret.”
His red-headed brother looked nervous. “Your nickname is Phoenix.” I stepped
back. “Now both of you get up.”

All of the gods except for my wife had vanished and
taken all the people with them except for Ronez. The only people left were my
father, Ghidorah, the boys, Mordon, Xul, Divina, and the demons.

“I’m going to check on Edward. I’m sure he just lost
track of time with Meri, but he should have come when the Guardian distress
signal went off.”

“Dylan, one of those demons is untrustworthy,” Mordon
warned me.

Xul had reduced Ilea’s pack to a group of ten demons
who were willing to swear not to harm anyone. Those who wanted to continue
Ilea’s work were sent back to the void. While I figured there would be some
problems with betrayal among them, I didn’t think we’d have one so quickly.

Grateful to have my magic back, I sent my energy out
over the remaining demons. The energy came back to me with a sort of image.
Most of the demons weren’t all that different from people. One of them,
however, was as least ten times more powerful than the others, and he had
nothing but greed and disdain for humanity.

He grinned at me, knowing full well that I had
discovered him. “You have enslaved one of us and killed another, but you cannot
defeat us,” the demon said. He looked very similar to Xul, but he was a little
taller, cleaner, and had a few more pounds of muscle. The others backed away,
probably as much afraid of being associated with him as being caught in the
cross fires.

“Do I know you? I know you.”

“I looked a little more familiar the last time you
saw me.”

“I thought Regivus killed you,” I said. This was the
demon who got around Xul, who’s easy defeat bothered me.

He scoffed. “The Iadnah mildly broke my grip on the
universe. I was not destroyed, only sent back. It was really just annoying.”

“I prefer friends to enemies,” I said. “You don’t
have to do this.”

“But it’s so much fun. You are known to strike fear
in all demons. When I destroy you, there will be no doubt who is more powerful.
Then there will be nobody standing in my way.”

“There are twelve gods, nine Guardians, my sons, the
most powerful dragon alive, and my demon standing in your way.”

He smirked. “All I have to do is defeat you and they
will fall. Even the gods could never overthrow us.”

“But you can’t defeat me today. So run, demon, and
have more than words to back up your threat the next time you face me.”

He held up his hand as if to attack, but it was a
distraction. Mordon growled and I turned to see another Ancient attack him.
This was another female with long black hair and dark brown eyes. She moved far
faster than a human and had the dragon on the ground, pinned in a split second.
An energy shield went up around them, she pressed her palm to his heart, and a
black glow emanated from her fingers.

Sydney tried to attack the female Ancient, but Xul
held the dragoness back. As hard as she fought his hold, she wasn’t a match for
the demon.

Mordon’s eyes, claws, and teeth shifted. He reached
up to claw his opponent and ended up convulsing in pain. She looked at me,
grinning. “I can stop his heart before you can twitch.”

Mordon’s skin started to darken. “No! Don’t shift!” I
yelled. “What do you want?” I asked her. Fortunately, my brother listened to
me.

“We’ll take your book,” the male Ancient said.

“Why? What good does it do you when you can get here
from the void?”

“The minor demons are our servants. If their names
are in the book, there will be nothing in this universe to keep them in the
void except for us. Also, if they fail to accomplish what we want, we can hold
it over you.”

“So that if I don’t do as you say, you’ll destroy
Earth.”

“Of course. However, if you don’t hand over the book
now, we’ll kill Mordon, and your death will be imminent.”

“Dylan, you cannot give up the book,” Divina said.

Her next words were drowned out as Mordon shouted
again in agony. Pain started seeping through our bond when a wall suddenly went
up between us. Mordon was trying to protect me from his pain. The Ancient
pressed her palm harder against his chest.

I opened the flap on my bag and reached into it for
my book, which tingled and pulsed with power as I pulled it out. The male
Ancient gestured to the female and the glow faded. Mordon panted hard.

“Swear that if I give you this, you will never
endanger Mordon. None of you will. If you do, you will never see the outside of
the void for the rest of eternity.”

He grinned. “You have my word that your dragon will
not be harmed by my hand.”

“That is not a binding oath,” Xul warned me. “He will
betray you.”

The Ancient grinned wider. “Believe me or not.
However, if you refuse to give us that book, we will kill the dragon now.”

Sydney fought harder against Xul, but it was in vain.
I held the book out and it shot from my hand to the Ancient’s. His sneer made
me nauseous.

“You really are not as powerful as we were told. I am
almost disappointed.” The enthusiasm in his eyes told me this wasn’t over. He
vanished, but in his place appeared Rilryn.

“How could you give him the book?!” Divina screamed
at me.

I ignored her and helped Mordon up. Once standing, he
punched me in the shoulder. “Why the hell did you do that?” he asked me, angry
but still weak from the Ancient’s attack. “We need to go after him and get it
back.”

“You are more important than that book. Just trust
me.”

“What are you doing here?!” Xul yelled at Rilryn.

I was hoping for one tiny bit of good news on this
lousy day, but the Guardian looked haggard. “Rilryn, are you okay? Did you get
the weapon?”

“I did, but it was stolen from me. I think I was
followed.”

“Dylan, he is the one who has betrayed the gods!” Xul
exclaimed.

The confusion on the Guardian’s face told another
story. This was my father’s friend; I could trust him.

“I don’t understand. I never betrayed the gods. Who
are you?”

“Ry? What happened?” my father asked.

The Guardian’s brain caught up with his eyes and he
stumbled back a step. “You died.”

At that moment, at the absolute height of confusion,
the last thing we needed was anyone else appearing. Out of everyone I could
have expected to join us, the last was Rasik. Since Azenoth had retired his
first two Guardians, Rasik was much younger than the others and had his share
of ditsy moments. The cruel grin he gave me was out of character, but so was
the staff he held.

I knew little about staffs. The only one I knew of was
extremely powerful and had a crystal on the top. This staff was the same in
most ways to the mage’s staff, nearly as tall as Rasik, but on the end was a
scarab made of lapis lazuli. I knew enough about Egyptian mythology to realize
that this would not end well.

When it suddenly dawned on me how it couldn’t have
been anyone else, I wanted to smack myself. Why did I always have to be too
late? Rasik wasn’t at Edward’s cabin when we were spied on, and when he
explained that he was intercepted by Azenoth, I never bothered to confirm it
with the god.

He raised the staff at my brother and I had no time
to think. I pushed him out of the way, towards Divina, and put a shield over
both of them. I knew it was the Guardian’s intention; I knew I was the real
target.

I felt the oddest heating sensation and then nothing.

Hail

I felt the power of the staff before the Guardian
could use it. At that moment, the only thing that mattered was protecting Ron
so, using his own magic, I created a shield around him. The Guardian was very
quick, however, and light shot from the stone on top before my dad could do
anything to defend himself.

He didn’t collapse like I expected, so I hoped that
he was fine. Rilryn and Ghidorah both started to attack Rasik, but the traitor
waved his hand back and they both dropped, unconscious. The shield Dad put over
Mordon and Mom disintegrated.

“Dylan…” Mordon groaned as he started to collapse.
Mom caught him.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know.” Mordon held up his hand, forming a
ball of fire, but the fire instantly turned to ice. He dropped the orb and it
hit the ground, spreading frost over the grass that only stopped a few inches
from my feet.

All of the demons who had surrendered as well as Xul
knelt and bowed. For a few seconds, I thought it was just creepy, until Ron
knelt, too. His eyes were the same milky-green they were when the balance was
in control.

“What are you doing?”

“Can’t you feel it?” He was breathless, dazed, and I
was trying not to panic.

“Ron, stand up.”
There was no acknowledgment.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him up, but he wouldn’t stand on his own. Dad
turned to us and a chill ran up my spine. He grinned, cruelly, like I had never
seen from him before and I knew it wasn’t my father.

Only when he turned to Rasik did I feel like I could
breathe again.

“You are the one who woke me,” the being that
possessed my father said. Rasik nodded, still holding the staff in front of
himself like a weapon. “Why?”

“I have enough power to defeat the gods, but not the
balance. I knew with your help, I could conquer---”

Dad waved his hand in a nonchalant gesture and Rasik
convulsed. What looked like his shadow, a dark copy of his figure, was torn
from him. He screamed until the dark shape was detached, and then he dropped
dead.

“Not interested,” my father said in a bored tone. The
shade-copy burst into ash.

“What are you?” Mom asked, shaking.

The aura of this being inside my father was powerful,
and grew more so with every moment. Every instinct I had screamed at me to get
Ron and run. Since I was always willing to start a fight to protect my brother,
the flight instinct was foreign to me.

“I am far more powerful than you. Now, bow.”

“Get out of my husband.”

He laughed. “You know nothing, you pathetic little
child.”

“I am Iadnah!”

“And I can crush you into dust before you can blink.
You can feel my power.”

“Are you an Ancient?”

“I am far more powerful than those worthless
creatures.” Mordon, of all people, tried to strike Dylan with lightning, but
Dylan just waved his hand and it vanished. “You can die first.” In his palm
formed a sphere of bright white energy, which he aimed at Mordon. Just as the
magic reached the dragon, it was repelled as if by an invisible wave and then
dispersed. The being possessing my father was clearly startled. “What is this
magic? There is nothing in this universe more powerful than me.”

“I am Dylan’s balance. You cannot hurt me in Dylan’s
body.”

“I am more powerful than the balance of this pathetic
universe.”

“There is nothing in this universe more powerful than
the balance.”

“Then why does this child bow before me?” he asked,
indicating Ron, who was still trying to kneel. He held out his hand like he had
done to Rasik and Mordon yelled in pain. The shadow of Mordon emerged, just an
inch from his body, before Mom shoved him away. He hit the ground, too injured
to rise, but alive. Mom, on the other hand, was now the target.

My father wasn’t stopping. This was my family, and
though I knew it wasn’t my father in control, I couldn’t have stopped my
actions. I left Ron’s side and wrapped my arms around Dylan’s waist. “Please,
Daddy, don’t hurt Mom!”

I knew I wasn’t getting through to him when he
sneered, but as he did, Divina dropped to the ground, having been let go. He
let her go. “Get off me, boy, before I kill you, too.”

The sound of Ron crying startled me, and everyone
turned to him. He was kneeling and crying openly, brokenheartedly.

Dylan vanished.

Mom climbed to her feet, but Xul took her arm
roughly. “You can’t go after him; you’ll just get yourself killed.”

Mordon rose unsteadily. “He’s right. Whatever is in
Dylan right now is more powerful than any of us. We need a plan. He can’t hurt
me. We can use that to talk him down.”

“He can hurt you, obviously. What kind of plan? What
does he even want to do?” Divina asked.

“He wants to destroy,” Mordon asked. “I can feel it.
I don’t care about the balance or the gods. Dylan is gone. I can’t sense him at
all, only the creature that…” Mordon trailed off with a growl. “The balance
between us is gone.”

He didn’t have to say anything more; I understood.
The balance between them kept them on the same side. Without Dylan, Mordon was
unstable and unpredictable.

“Why did he stop?” Divina asked.

I looked at Ron, who was no longer crying. I
understood that, too. Nobody, not even the most evil creature in the universe
or void, could withstand Ron crying. Without Mordon, the only chance we had of
getting Dad back was Ron.

And suddenly, our surroundings changed.

We were in an old castle, no different than any other
of Mokii, with stone walls and floors, a window displaying the sea below, and a
bed piled high with dark blue blankets and pillows. However, there was no
mistaking this place for Duran, because the gravity was… wrong. So was the
energy for that matter.

“We’re not on a planet. It’s like the Land of the
Iadnah… Where Vretial did our training. There is no nominal energy here,”
Ron said in my mind.

“You are very perceptive, child,” the creature
possessing my father said. He stood by the window casually.

“You shouldn’t be able to hear into my mind.”

He sneered. “You two have no idea how insignificant
your power is compared to mine.”

“The fact that you overpowered my father is enough to
prove your superiority,” Ron said obligingly. “Is he dead?”

“That is an interesting question. I really don’t
care.”

“He’s my dad.” Ron’s eyes were weepy and his voice
was gentle.

“Don’t you cry, little thing.” He approached us. I
wrapped my arm around Ron’s shoulder, but Dylan didn’t look threatening. Of
course, it was difficult to see my father as threatening. He stopped right in
front of us and put his hand on Ron’s jaw. “You have strong potential. Your
power will never amount to anything, but your spirit is intriguing.”

“You know, no matter how powerful you become, if you
are ignorant of your foe, you will eventually lose,” Ron said. The enemy
grinned. “What do we call you?”

“You want a name? I guess you could call me Dylan.”

“No, Dylan is the name of a man who is kind of heart,
brave of soul, and very quick to figure out how to save everyone. You are
something else. If you have no name, I will name you Zherneboh.”

“Really? You want to give him a name? He’s not an
abandoned puppy,”
I argued.

“I couldn’t care less what you call me. I may be
willing to keep you alive for petty uses,” he told my brother. Then he put his
hand on my chin and forced me to look him in the eyes. “You are not useful.” He
let me go and turned away.

His words were an arrow of ice and pain that sunk
deeply into my heart. Besides my brother, Dylan was the only one who loved me. “Why
did you bring us here?”

“Well, I figured I could do with a couple of pets. I
think most powerful people have pets.”

Ron’s suspicious gaze met mine. That seemed like a
very odd thing for a creature older than the gods to say. I had no idea what
this being was, but Zherneboh was not acting as I believed an ancient super-god
would act. I reached for my brother’s hand, but he took a step away. He was
keeping his feelings to himself and I didn’t approve.

“What if we don’t want to be your pets?” Ron asked.

“Then I will kill you both.”

 “You are from the void, right? I mean, I can feel
it. The darkness, the balance… it doesn’t know what to make of you other than
that you don’t belong.”

“Yes, you can say that I am from the void. No being
of life can ever be more powerful than me.” Mordon appeared with the azurath
blade ready, but Zherneboh just laughed.

“How did you find us?” Ron asked.

“Let the boys go,” he told Zherneboh, ignoring us.

“And if I don’t? Are you going to try to kill me?”

“I want to, but I know better. I know you have
nothing to fear from me. Thirteen years ago, I met Dylan and since then, I have
faced all kinds of foes. Most of them are more powerful than me. I didn’t survive
by making enemies of those stronger than me or with idle threats; I survived by
not betraying Dylan, and by being more useful alive than dead.”

“How can you possibly be useful to me?”

“I am willing to betray anyone to protect Dylan and
the boys. Use your imagination.”

Suddenly, Ron and I were back in the forest on Earth.
Our mother, Ronez, Ghidorah, Rilryn, and Xul were there, but not the one we
needed.

“Where is Mordon?” Divina asked.

“Zero must have kept him.”

Ron took my hand to share his support.
“Zherneboh,”
he reminded.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?”
I asked him.
“We need to get Vretial to help us save Dad.”

“Dylan isn’t dead then?” Mom asked, her cheeks wet
from tears.

“Mordon flashed to Dad. The only way for him to do
that is if at least some small part of the bond between them is still intact.
Thus, Dad must be alive,” Ron explained.

“Then we can save him,” she said.

I nodded. “You keep trying to find him. Ron and I
will ask Vretial for help.” Before she could argue, Ron took us to the place we
normally met the eccentric god. We appeared in the forest before an apple tree.
Vretial sat upon the usual boulder, dressed in black pants, a black button-up
dress shirt, and a black trench coat.

“Hello, children. Come to check up on me have you?
Just making sure I haven’t died here on my own?”

“On your own? What would you die of here besides old
age?” my brother asked rudely.

“Oh, I would love to die of old age, just to keep my
power from you.”

No, the god was not allowed to die of natural causes,
because my brother had already decided that when Vretial’s time came, it would
be at the hands of Ron. “We need your help,” I said, trying to move it along.

“Of course you do. No one ever comes to me for a
chat.”

“It’s because you are quite out---” I cut Ron off by
putting my hand over his mouth. When he stopped, I removed my hand. “We need
you to help us save our father. I’m sure you know all about Zherneboh.”

“I’m sure I know nothing about anyone with that
name.”

“He’s the ancient, powerful being that took over my
father. Help us.”

“Ancient, powerful being? Oh, that does sound
terrible. And dangerous! No, not good… not good at all. However, if you really
need me, then of course I shall help you defeat this Zero creature.” He stood
from the boulder with a kind smile.

Ron glared. “What do you want in return?”

“Want? Me? Well, I just want to help you, of course.
Did I ask for anything in return when I gave you the griffins?”

“This won’t make us any more likely to choose you
over Avoli.”

“Certainly not. You should make up your own mind.”

“Then what is it that you want for your help?”

“I can’t really think of anything. After all, I have
everything I could possibly want. Let’s just say you will owe me a favor.”

I hated Vretial. I hated him with everything I was.

“Whatever,” Ron said without consulting me. It wasn’t
that he was foolish enough to trust the dark god, he just honestly believed he
would soon be powerful enough to overthrow Vretial. “Now help us save our
father. How do we do it?”

“Hmm. Well, we will need a weapon for this.”

“Mordon has the azurath sword, but we would have to
get to Mordon,” Ron said.

“No, that would never do. I do know of a sword that
would work. However, it might prove difficult to obtain.”

“Where is it?”

“Ask your grandfather.”

“Is it one of Edward’s swords? That should be easy
enough to get.”

“Wrong grandfather,” the dark god said with a smirk.
“Ronez was kind enough to hide it for me. See, I’m terrible about forgetting
where I put something.”

“You can’t forget anything,” Ron said, glaring.

“No, I can’t. It makes it rather difficult to hide
something from myself if I can’t forget where I put it.”

Ron laughed, his irritation completely forgotten.
“You’re so silly.” Vretial gave him a kind smile and I pulled Ron closer. “So
we will ask Ronez to bring the sword. How will that save Dad from this evil
void-born creature?”

“It is not that simple, for the power of the weapon
comes in two parts. The sword is nothing much on its own; it’s the physical
bit. The second part is the magic, which is in a special staff. I assume you
have seen it, as it is the staff that woke Zero in the first place. To save
your father, I need the sword, the staff, and the book. Tell Ronez to bring me
the sword and tell your father’s demon to bring me the staff and book.”

“What book?”

“In order for Rasik to have found the staff, he had
to have had the book. It will be on his person.”

A bright flash filled the area and left us with the
others.

“Did you find out anything?” Mom asked.

Ron nodded. “Ronez, he said you have a sword that he
asked you to hide. He needs it. Zeb, he wants you to bring him the staff and a
book that Rasik should have on him.”