Succubus Lord 7 Page 17

  I released my spell and stood up to admire my handiwork.

  My friends must have been hovering in the air behind me, because they fluttered down to my side.

  “H-holy fuck,” Cupi stuttered.

  “Holy fuck is right,” Eligor added. “I don’t think I could have done that if I’d tried. And I have environmental magic.”

  We stood there and watched for nearly twenty minutes as all the fire from the lake drained into the crevice. The Lake of Fire must have been dozens of feet deep, because we were now standing over a huge crater in the brimstone that only had a thin layer of fire across its bottom. The intensity of the heat had dissipated in the air around us, so we all took a few steps closer. Now, even at the very edge of the lake shore, all I could feel was a dull throb of heat that was mildly uncomfortable at worst.

  “There’s our island!” Cupi exclaimed happily as she pointed toward the horizon.

  The succubus was right. There, far-off in the distance, was a part of the lake that was shaped like a massive pillar of stone. That would be our island.

  Without another word, I felt Cupi’s body press against my back and lift me into the air. We zipped toward the island as fast as the succubus’ wings could carry us, and Todd and Eligor kept the pace at our side. Before long, we were over the promised land.

  The island itself was no larger than a high-end condo, about one hundred feet long by one hundred feet wide. The island was completely bare, minus one horrific, gory feature.

  Right at the far side of the platform sat a rather large, upside-down “L.” The upright portion of the structure was composed entirely of Shades skewered Vlad the Impaler style on a pointed wooden stake. The top of the “L” looked harmless enough, a simple wooden plank.

  What made it terrifying were the ghastly figures that hung from it.

  Attached to the “L” were three more Shades, each with their intestines ripped out of their abdomen and strung up around the post. They hung from their macabre execution and swung back and forth in the breeze.

  The worst part? They were all still alive.

  The hanged men moaned in agony as they swung back and forth in the breeze, their guts squishing and squelching as they moved.

  The impaled Shades, on the other hand, didn’t make much noise. Rather, they simply whimpered in sorrow every time they moved in the slightest.

  The whole scene made anger boil up from my very core. If I hadn’t already known Azazel was a cruel and sadistic fuck, this would have been the final nail in the coffin.

  We landed on the ground, and I instantly approached the tortured Shades. I nearly gagged at the smell of rotting flesh and old, stale blood that assaulted my nose, but I persevered.

  “What … what happened to you guys?” I asked as I tried to keep myself from dry-heaving.

  The Shade on the bottom of the human totem pole, a muscular blond man with a full head of hair, spoke up first.

  “W-we are the ones wh-who came for the Unhallowed Sword,” he moaned weakly.

  “How the fuck did you guys get all the way out into the middle of the Lake of Fire?” Todd pondered aloud. “It took us forever to figure that shit out.”

  “We didn’t,” another Shade, a lanky man with brown hair and green eyes, interjected. “We w-were br-brought here by… Him.”

  “Azazel,” I said with a nod.

  Instantly, all of the bodies on the “L” froze and began to make a gurgled hissing noise.

  “Do not speak his n-name,” a third Shade argued. “We h-have been hum-humbled before his grace. No n-n-need to summon h-h-him here.”

  “We’re not servants of Az … Him,” Eligor explained. “We’re here for the Unhallowed Sword.”

  The human totem pole made another hissing noise.

  “Lies!” the first Shade objected. “Y-you came out t-to tempt us. You were sent h-here by-by him to t-t-tempt us. We w-won’t give up the l-location of the sword. Honestly.”

  “This is gonna be trickier than I thought,” I sighed. “What if I freed you? Would you believe I wasn’t working for the King of the Fourth Circle then?”

  I took a step back, pressed the glowing hand tattoo on my bicep, and summoned forth Superbia.

  The petite redheaded succubus appeared in the shimmer of the spell, and then she stepped out of the light.

  Instantly, the Shades gasped in horror.

  “It-it is a t-trick!” one of them groaned. “I recognize that s-s-succubus.”

  “My name is Jacob Ralston,” I explained as I drew my goat-headed dagger from my belt. “I defeated Azazel on Earth Realm--”

  “A m-mortal?” one of the Shades scoffed. “Defeat the Father of Warfare?”

  “I know,” I admitted with a shrug. “I couldn’t believe it myself when it happened, either. But I did. And in the process, I’ve been stealing everything he owned up there. His succubi are mine. His cult is mine. Hell, even a bunch of the Earthly institutions he had an influence on are now mine. Long story short, I kicked Azazel’s ass, and I took everything he had up in the human world. Now, I’m here to take this sword and kill the fucker once and for all.”

  The Shades stood there in silence as they pondered my words.

  “I can vouch for this badass mother fucker right here,” Todd said as he slapped me on the back of the calf. “He’s got bigger cajones than a prize-winning boar.”

  “That’s an oddly specific analogy,” I laughed as I raised an eyebrow at the imp.

  “Have you seen the cajones on the boars at the State Fair, bro?” Todd shot back. “They’re bigger than my fucking head. No homo.”

  “I don’t think you have to say ‘No Homo” if it’s an animal,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

  “You can never be too safe, Jakey,” the imp reminded me. “Every day, men across America fall victim to the classic trap. Accidentally glance down in the locker room shower? No homo. Get bumped on the subway and fall back into another dude’s lap? No homo. It’s an epidemic, bro, and not one that I plan to be a part of any time soon.”

  “Riggggghhhhtttt,” I muttered as I turned to Sia. “Here’s the deal, Superbia. I cut them down from here, and then you heal them up. Got it?”

  The redhead nodded to confirm, and then I got to work.

  I dashed over behind the first skewered man and drove my dagger into the flesh of his back. He let out a muffled scream as I slid the blade down his entire backside and warm blood spilled out at my feet, but I stayed the course. Finally, his body fell forward with a disgusting thud as his remaining guts threatened to spill out the giant opening in his back.

  Sia didn’t waste another moment before she sprang into action. The redheaded succubus jumped over to the fallen man, called forth her golden Hellfire, and placed it against his back. Instantly, the massive wound was engulfed with a shimmer of gold, and it closed up on its own.

  I continued up the pole, cutting down the remaining ten Shades and having Sia heal them as they fell. When I got to the hanged men, I quickly cut open their intestines with a slash of my dagger, and then the healer of our group worked her magic. I climbed down the pole, wiped my dagger off on my armor, and then put it back in its sheath.

  “There,” I muttered. “Does that convince you? If I were working for the demon you’re all so afraid of, why would I have cut you down?”

  “It certainly doesn’t make the island any bigger,” Todd grumbled as he pushed his way through the small crowd. “Now where’s this Unhallowed Sword? I’m not seeing anything on this island other than bodies and rocks.”

  “That is the great irony of it all,” the blond Shade sighed. “We all went out looking for the sword, hoping to bring down our enslaver. But the Father of Warfare caught wind of our endeavors before we could even come close to locating the weapon. As punishment, he beat us to bloody pulps and brought us here to suffer for all eternity, right in the spot where the treasure was located.”

  The blond man extended his finger toward the bloody “L” structure.

/>   “It’s in there?” I asked as I felt my adrenaline begin to surge.

  “Apparently,” the man explained. “There is some sort of enchantment that protects the sword and makes the wood around it impenetrable. The King of the Fourth Circle showed it to each of us when he brought us here, probably as some sort of twisted joke. He lit up the pole with Hellfire with us still attached, uttered some words in Latin, and then the Unhallowed Sword would appear.”

  “Do you have any idea what he was saying?” Cupi demanded. “I kinda know my way around incantations, especially the Latin kind.”

  “I distinctly heard the words ‘reveal,’ ‘sword,’ and ‘beholder’ in his spell,” the Shade sighed. “I tried to study it so I could repeat it and break free, but he always talked too fast, almost like he was speaking in tongues.”

  “Satanic Gibberish,” Cupi exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. “I haven’t had a chance to do one of those in forever!”

  “What is--” I began, but Todd cut me off with a wave of his hand.

  “It’s a form of speaking in tongues developed by early followers of Lucifer,” he explained. “It was created to be an ‘unbreakable’ spell against ancient demon hunters. Buuuuttttt, that all went to shit in the time of the Romans, when Christianity became mainstream and suddenly you had government-sanctioned ‘magic users’ of the faith. It didn’t take ‘em too long to crack the code. It’s like you don’t read my blog at all, Jakey.”

  “Of course I read your blog, Todd,” I lied through my teeth and turned to Cupi. “Do you have any idea what spell he would have used.”

  “The words make me think of The Rite of Deception,” the fit blonde pondered.

  “That would be too simple, even for someone as cocky as Azazel,” Eligor chimed in. “Maybe it was the Curse of Insidiousness?”

  “That one seems too hard,” Todd sighed as he rapped his chin with his clawed finger. “What about Sight of the Unseen?”

  “That’s too niche for Azazel,” Sia admitted. “You should try Shroud of Darkness, Cupiditas.”

  “Am I the only one here who doesn’t know any Satanic Gibberish?” I laughed.

  “Maybe, but I don’t fault you for it,” Cupi said with a playful wink. “I think our best bet would just be for me to try out as many as I can remember. Jacob, would you like to do the honors?”

  I nodded to the succubus, summoned red Hellfire into my hand, and then launched it at the “L” structure. The wood caught fire instantly and started to snap, crackle, and pop as it smouldered.

  Cupiditas walked over to the burning spire, placed her hands together in front of her body, and bowed her head. Then the succubus began to speak in tongues with the occasional recognizable Latin word thrown in every sentence or two. Her first attempt didn’t seem to work, and she let out a frustrated sigh before she started in again. Cupiditas went through another four spells, but nothing happened.

  Finally, on her sixth attempt, the flames reacted.

  As soon as Cupi uttered the word ‘sword’ in Latin, the red Hellfire turned a bright shade of green. It seemed to swirl around the post like an ectoplasmic tornado for a minute or two, and then the wooden post unraveled itself as if it were a banana peel.

  “The Condemnation of the Protector,” she laughed and shook her head. “Of course.”

  There, at the center of the gory pole, sat the Unhallowed Sword.

  The weapon was unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life. It wasn’t silver or gray like a typical sword. Instead, it was made of some sort of pure black metal that looked like it was as dark as the night itself. At the base of the sword sat a crossguard shaped into two long, black, curved devil horns that curved about four inches up the blade. The hilt was just as jet-black as the rest of the weapon, save for the ruby-red diamond encrusted into a circle at the end of the weapon.

  “Go ahead, Jacob,” Sia prodded as she motioned toward the blade. “It’s yours. Take it.”

  The Unhallowed Sword glinted in the light as I stepped forward and wrapped my hand around its hilt. The instant I did so, I felt a surge of energy shoot through my body, almost as if the sword had fused itself with my very soul. I pulled the weapon from its hiding place and began to examine it.

  It wasn’t as heavy as I was expecting. In fact, it was actually much, much lighter, almost weightless. Now that it was closer, I could see all of the engravings in the blade. All along the length of the weapon were carvings of pentagrams and the various pentacles of Solomon, with some rune-like letters every now and again.

  If you took all of the heavy metal music on Earth and turned it into a weapon, this is probably what it’d look like.

  “It fits you quite well,” Eligor mused as she watched me twirl the blade in my hand.

  “I agree,” Cupi said coyly. “It’s almost as sexy as your warhammer.”

  “Warhammer?” Todd spoke up. “Jakey doesn’t use a warhammer. He uses a dagger and a-- oooohhhhhh. The warhammer is his penis. Got it.”

  “Something isn’t right,” Sia sighed as she scoured the air nervously. “That was too easy.”

  “Easy?” I scoffed. “You call what we just went through ‘easy?’”

  “Jacob, all of the legends of the Unhallowed Sword say that it’s guarded by Leviathan, the Great Dragon of Hell,” she warned.

  I held out the Unhallowed Sword and pointed to the landscape around us. “Sia, there’s nothing around for miles,” I explained. “If there was a dragon, don’t you think we would have--”

  The next thing I knew, my friends and I were knocked off our feet by a gust of downward wind. Above us, in the dark storm clouds, arose the sound of massive, beating wings. A shadow appeared in the darkness of the fog, a shadow nearly one-hundred feet long and about half as wide. As it grew closer, I could just make out its white, bony skin with razor-sharp spines jutting out of its back. The creature had a long, narrow snout and a skull with a triceratops-like shield on its forehead. It’s eyes were sunken deep into its skull, but they glowed a bright, evil red.

  “That would be Levithan,” Sia said in horror.

  “I fucking knew this was too easy, bro,” Todd sighed and summoned Hellfire into his hands.

  Chapter 10

  “What’s the situation on this thing, Sia?” I asked in a panic as I tightened my grip on the Unhallowed Sword and summoned Hellfire into my hands.

  “Leviathan is the Great Dragon of Hell,” the redheaded succubus explained as she tried not to get swept away by the beat of the monster’s wings. “He’s insanely powerful, with scales thicker than the strongest armor and wings that bring down buildings when they beat.”

  “I think we get that, Strawberry Shortcake!” Todd exclaimed.

  The imp had surrounded himself with black Hellfire so he could fly, but he was clinging onto the remains of the “L” structure for dear life as powerful gusts of wind tried to knock him loose.

  Meanwhile, Eligor had used her elemental magic to cover her feet with rocks, and Cupi had her polearm stabbed securely into the ground. The Shades all around us flew off the island from the shockwave, but I was able to catch most of them with a barrier of purple fire.

  I was somehow able to remain standing. The Unhallowed Sword was making a noise in my hand, a strange ringing sound like it was a tuning fork that had been struck and left to vibrate.

  “We need to get out of here,” I ordered as I sheathed my sword and brought forth green Hellfire into my hands.

  I quickly thought about all the things Azazel had done to these poor Shades. At the same time, I let all of the elements of my disgusting environment seep into my senses. The smell of putrid, rotting flesh was still high in the air, and I could feel the hot breath of the dragon as it barrelled down on us.

  Immediately, I felt a blast of power shoot through my body, so I threw out my hands, pictured the rocky shore where we had come from, and cast my teleportation spell. My body became weightless for a second, and then I felt it crash down onto a stony surface. I forced my
eyes open and saw all of us, Todd, the succubi, the Shades, and me, were all safely back where we started.

  Off in the distance, Leviathan let out an earth-rattling roar.

  “We don’t have much time before he figures out where we went,” I observed and leapt to my feet. “Is there anything we could use to bring this thing down? Any weaknesses? Any handy tricks or special weapons?”

  “I- I don’t know,” Sia admitted. “Leviathan is a creature that is often heard, not seen. But I am confident we can defeat him. He may be a creature spawned from the very depths of Hell, but as we’ve discovered, anything can be killed if you try hard enough.”

  “Then we’ll need to try our damndest.” I grinned with a nod. “I think I have a plan, guys.”

  “Good,” Todd sighed. “Because the only plan I have right now is the one where I try to figure out how to not shit my pants.”

  “First things first,” I explained, “we need to weaken Leviathan down enough that Sia’s black Hellfire will work on him. But first, we need a distraction.”

  The blond Shade stepped forward. “I’ll do it,” he volunteered. “We’ll all do it.”

  I raised my eyebrow at the man curiously. “Are you sure?” I asked. “If Leviathan catches you … ”

  “We’re already dead, my friend,” the Shade chuckled. “If he catches us, it’ll hurt like a bitch, but we’ll be fine. Besides, we owe you a great deal of gratitude for saving us from our eternal punishment.”

  “Alright, so the Shades will act as bait,” I continued. “Cupi, I hate to ask this of you, but I need you on the front lines. Your freezing spell will be the perfect counter to his fire breath or whatever sort of shit he has.”

  “Don’t apologize,” Cupi said with a grin. “I love a good battle.”

  “Sia and Todd.” I turned to the redhead and the imp. “While Leviathan is distracted, I want you to throw everything you’ve got at him. Fireballs, boulders, water spells, fuck, piss on him if you have to. Just keep him away from the real target.”