Damoren (37 page)

All worlds.

“Icthwyn!” Urakael screams. “I call you!”

The swirling colors surge and spin, consuming the last of the ring
’s power. A howling wail shrieks down from the heavens as Tiamat flies down toward him, connected to the circle by an almost invisible thread of light.

The earth shudders as she lands.
Lips curl from ivory fangs.

“
Urakael,” the eels utter as one.

He attacks.

She darts to the side, smearing corpses beneath her. Claws splayed, Urakael wheels around to face her. Tiamat swipes a scythe-like talon. He ducks. They whoosh over him, nearly taking his head. Seizing the opening he springs. His claws rake across her wide ventral scales, but they are too hard.

Tiamat lashes to the side, knocking Urakael to the ground.
Her reared head shoots down, jaws open. He rolls away as the demon mother snaps. She strikes again, but Urakael jumps out of her path.

He leaps, digging his claws into the flesh behind her forearm.
The tiny scales of her shark-like skin peel open, chipping his claws as he tears into her.

Roaring, she buckles and thrashes, trying to knock him free.
Urakael holds tight, his toes and left hand dug deep. He slashes her again. Tiamat’s serpentine head strikes. Urakael springs out of the way and lands in a crouch.

The agile demon whips around and attacks.
He barely escapes, her talons ripping through the flagstones behind him. He leaps for her tail and digs in. He needs to weaken her. Slow her down.

The human-faced eels along her back hiss and strike.
One bites his calf. Its long fangs pierce deep, striking bone. Poison burns his veins.

He howls.
The venom is quick. It cuts through his veins like broken glass.

He swipes, severing the rubbery eel
’s neck, then falls, crashing into the hard stone.

Tiamat rears above him.
The headless eel along her back detaches and drops to the ground with a wet thud. The hole it occupied closes and a new maggot-sized worm sprouts.

Urakael tries to stand, but falls.
Dark blood seeps out from around the claws in his poisoned leg.

The demon mother
’s thin lips twist into a smile. “Did you really think you could best me?” the eels ask.

He meets her cold gaze.

One of the longer eels slithers out from her neck and flies off into the night.

Tiamat ignores the pale hatchling.
“Pathetic.” Her jaws open, wide enough to swallow Urakael whole. She strikes.

Urakael leaps away.
His father had blessed all his children with a gift. Few understood his. He can’t teleport, or attack shadows. He can’t wield fire or ice. Father gave him fortitude. The blessing that allowed him to survive being broken as a sword, allowed him to inhabit a pistol, its bullets, pieces of him, constantly replenished. The blessing enables him to survive a toxin that would have slain most of his kin.

Tiamat
’s diving maw strikes the empty ground. Stone buckles. He springs onto her snout, safely away from the writhing eels. He slashes through one of her giant eyes, shredding it like pudding.

She screams, lashing her head like a whip.
Blood and ooze slings through the air. Urakael holds tight. He tries to blind the other eye. His weakened toe claws break under the strain, ripping free. She snaps her head to the side, sending Urakael flying into the castle’s wall.

He falls to the ground, beside the body of a dead cultist.

The shrieking demon continues to thrash. Black blood pours from beneath her closed eyelid. Three more eels wriggle free and escape.

Urakael stumbles to his feet.
His injured leg wobbles beneath him. Blood runs from the empty sockets at his toes. Dark pinheads begin seeping around the claws at his hands. He tastes it in his mouth. One fang begins to loosen.

With a roar she charges, slithering across the yard like a rampaging train, her taloned hands raised.
Favoring his left leg, Urakael springs and rolls out of the way. He swipes at the passing demon, but hits her hard belly scales. Tiamat’s long tail wraps to the side, boxing him in. The ring of eels along her back leer down at him. He’s too weak to safely jump them.

The demon
’s one eye glares hatefully down at him. Her jaws open.

An engine roars and a green, flat-faced bus bursts
through the castle’s gate. Tiamat and her eels turn to face the newcomer. Seizing the opening, Urakael, hobbles and leaps over the tail, taking one of the brood out with a passing swipe. He staggers away, leaving bloody footprints in his wake.

Brilliant light shoots from the bus
’s lamps. Tiamat’s pupil shrinks to a narrow slit.

Allan and Luiza race
through the open gate door and cut to either side around the yard. Luc and Malcolm step out from the bus.

Tiamat grins wickedly, she strikes at Allan.
The child swings Ibenus and teleports out of the demon’s path. He brings the sword up, slicing her behind the jaw. She rears high, blood staining her long neck. Another eel detaches and wriggles away.

“
I told you to go,” Urakael says to Allan.

“
We did,” the child replies, his eyes on the swaying demon. “We’re back.”

Tiamat
’s jaws shoot down at them. Urakael rolls away. Allan blinks to the side, but the demon lashes her head, knocking him to the ground. She snaps at the fallen human, but Urakael leaps onto her neck and bites through the rough skin.

She whips her head, but Urakael holds tight, ripping a mouthful free.
She swipes a talon, splitting his side open and knocks him loose. He hits the ground with a thump. Two of his claws are gone, still lodged into the demon’s neck.

Malcolm races past, Hounacier high.
Tiamat raises a talon to strike him, but a long slice opens along her back, severing four of the eels. She bellows in pain. Another opens, showing white bone beneath. The child Luiza stands against the far side of the yard, hacking at the great shadow cast by the bus’s light. She stabs, driving Ausva into the darkness, then pulls it out and to the side.

Tiamat wheels about to face her.
Luiza opens a three-foot gash along her belly. The monstrous demon flounders. Luiza swipes again, but Tiamat moves her shadow out of the blade’s path. She turns back to the bus. She starts toward it, but Malcolm steps in and hacks Hounacier into her side. Luc and Allan close in. Allan chops deep into Tiamat’s flesh. Luc bashes her with Velnepo, sending a visible shockwave through her body.

She falls.

Limping, Urakael runs and jumps onto the back of Tiamat’s head. More weakened claws crack and break free but he holds tight. He bites deep into the base of her skull. Blood explodes into his mouth and Urakael rips in deeper, tearing through bony scales.

Tiamat wails, trying to rise, but Luc, Allan, and Malcolm, tear into her.
Three pale eels wriggle free to escape, but Luiza hacks their shadows, and the spawn fall writhing to the ground, encased in amber flame.

Urakael, rips a scale plate free from Tiamat
’s neck. He spits it out and punches down into the exposed bone. It cracks and gives way. He drives his arm deeper into her skull, plunging through the fibrous sludge. He twists his remaining claws.

Tiamat
’s body seizes, then collapses, nearly crushing the child Luc. Power surges and swirls around Urakael’s arm. He pulls it free, unleashing a geyser of gold and silver fire. Flames erupt from her other wounds, quickly spreading over the slain demon’s body. They wash over Urakael, straddling her neck. He licks the fiery blood from his hands, tasting power unlike anything he’s ever fathomed.

The burning poison in his veins subsides and his wounds mend.

Absolution.
Revenge. He has won.

Urakael closes his eyes, savoring the victory, then releases his
control on the child Spencer.

#

Matt slumped, his strange body numb. Brilliant demon fire burned all around him. He slid, then fell off the great demon’s corpse.

He watched his hands, coated in flaming blood, shrink down to human size.
The glinting claws retracted and smoothed out into his normal fingernails. Bones and ligaments popped and shifted. Shadows invaded the dark recesses of the courtyard and colors dimmed as the dusty window of humanity fell back into place.

“
Matt!” Allan ran toward him. Tiamat’s fiery blood blazed along Ibenus’s blade.

Matt scrunched his eyes, trying to force himself to sit up.
His cheeks were wet. Tears.

Hands rolled him onto his back.
He opened his eyes. Luc and Allan crouched above him.

“
Is he okay?” Malcolm yelled pushing his way between them.

“
Matt?” Allan repeated. “Matt, are you all right?”

Matt blinked at them.
Their halos of color were gone.

Footsteps raced across the yard toward them.
Matt rolled his head to see Luiza, Akumanokira in her hand. Ausva. Its true name was Ausva.

“
Matt?” Luc said. “Say something.”

Matt
’s lips quivered. The memory of Tiamat’s taste still on his tongue. “I...I’m fine.” He glanced up at the moon. A white sliver shone at the edge. The redness faded. Had it only been just a few minutes? He’d seen lifetimes, eons. Memories like an endless ocean. He could spend the rest of his life exploring their—

His eyes widened.
The memories were vanishing, receding as quickly as they’d come. “No!”

“
What?” Allan asked.

Matt shook his head, trying to form the words.
“I need you to listen to me. I know everything. The origin, where they come from.”

The Englishman
’s brow creased.

“
Remember saying you couldn’t understand why someone would want to be possessed?”

Allan nodded.

“Then listen. Help me remember before I forget.”

Reaching them, Luiza dropped to her knees taking Matt
’s head into her hands. “Are you all right?”

Matt met her eyes and smiled.
She was beautiful. “Yeah,” he said, pressing his hand against hers. “Yeah, I’m good.”

The Origin of Demons and Holy Weapons

By: Sir Matthew Hollis

Introduction:

In the brief time that I shared the mind of the entity Urakael, I learned the answers to what Valducans have questioned and theorized for centuries. What I can tell is only a small glimpse of that revelation, which, in many ways, leaves only more questions. However, I will answer them to the best of my ability.

The root of all the answers lies in the origin.

Demons, as we
’ve understood them, are otherworldly entities that can possess the bodies of living creatures. To sustain themselves these demons feed on humans and animals, either physically eating their bodies, or their life-energy. The physical bodies a demon inhabits can be killed, but killing the demon itself requires a holy weapon. This theory is true.

Holy weapons, as we
’ve understood, are physical weapons that can kill a demon. Whether that power comes from a divine blessing or by being possessed by an angelic entity has been the subject of much debate. The truth is that holy weapons are possessed by a living entity. Though calling that entity an angel might not be entirely correct. They are closer to demons than anyone had suspected, more akin to “Higher Demons” or a more evolved demon. These entities do not sustain themselves by consuming the bodies or essence of organic life, but instead feed on demonic souls.

The process of creating a holy weapon, or possessing a weapon with a divine being as we now understand, has always been a mystery.
No successful combination of ceremony and precious materials has ever been duplicated. The reason for this is simple. Every angelic being is unique and requires different ceremony. Demons, for the most part, are not unique. There are many werewolves, rakshasas, and other demonic breeds, and a ceremony to summon a species will always work, providing the summoner is not attempting to invoke a specific entity. For that reason, priests and Valducans were never able to successfully repeat the same method. Furthermore, like demons, possession can occur spontaneously if the perfect combination of factors exist. A soldier taking his officer’s sword, holding absolute faith that the power of his Emperor will save him is how Akumanokira, a nondescript army katana, came to be blessed.

While it is within their power, these
“angels” do not possess living things. There is a sacred oath that they will never dominate or inhabit a living creature. Instead, they choose to possess inanimate objects, imbuing them with their essence, and feeding on demons through them. Urakael is the only one of these entities, that I know of, to break this oath. An act that it very much regretted and was shunned for.

There are many reasons for this oath.
First, destruction of a holy weapon does not kill the entity itself, only severs its physical tie to our world. Mortality, as we know it, is only achieved through inhabiting a mortal creature. Second, they consider demons as inferior, and therefore will not demean themselves by lowering to their level. Most importantly, their refusal to possess living creatures is based on an oath given to their father, Dythn. Dythn, for the lack of a better word, was a god. I do not believe he was a god in the sense that we normally use the term, but merely an evolved entity like themselves but far more powerful. Dythn taught his children that humans are their children, and must be protected. Dythn was killed and consumed by his wife, Icthwyn.

As I have said, I do not know all of the answers.
However, in the following pages, I do hope to answer many of our greatest questions.