Devil Ash Days (Devil Ash Saga) (28 page)

Ash brought out his wings momentarily for an extra boost, leaping high above Apsat. When Apsat finally got up to the elevation Ash was at, the boy was waiting to strike with the last hit. Ash raised both hands above his head and locked them together. He swung with all his might, connecting with Apsat’s head and sending him rocketing down to the ground below. Apsat collided into the gravel street, creating a crater-like hole.

Ash was relatively sure that Apsat was finished, but as one last final precaution, he collected an enormous amount of flames in the palms of his hands, crafting a fireball nearly double the size of a beach volleyball. He shot it down directly into the crater where Apsat lay, making such an explosion that Apsat was sure to not recover anytime soon from.

Ash dropped to the ground, sucked his wings in
, and extinguished his burning hands. The crater where Apsat crash-landed was smoking, his body lay charred inside it. 

“
I’ve fought tougher bosses than
that
before,” the boy said, smiling. The crowd remained silent no longer, erupting into even louder cheers than before. Aura and Shiva joined in as well. Even Commander Stryd cracked a nervous smirk.

“That was awesome, man!” Aura
said.

“You finally learned how to
make flames!” said Shiva, impressed at just how much growth he had demonstrated in a short matter of time. Something else had struck her as odd, though. Ash was using his own soul power!
But Ash is far too inexperienced to use soul power
, she thought. Shiva herself hadn’t even figured out how to use it yet! She filed this idea away for the moment, and returned to just being happy to be alive.

Inside the crater
, Apsat’s muscles deflated like a giant balloon, except that his body didn’t shrink back to its normal size. It remained a disgustingly-stretched-out pile of loose skin. He had finally exhausted all his borrowed power, and would not be getting it back. His pale skin was dark all over from the many bruises he had incurred from the battle with Ash. At the center of each bruise was a burn mark that was still smoking.

“Dude,” Aura said, finding the strength finally to get up and make his way over to Ash. “
The plan
…” he whispered. Ash shook his head in silence, signaling that the plan was no longer an option. He had no idea why Apsat gained so much power, but the boy didn’t want the same thing to happen to him. If he had to become a monster to get home, he wouldn’t want to go. Not like that.

“We’ll find another way,” Ash whispered back, smiling.

“What are you two whispering about?” Shiva asked.

“Oh, I was saying I suppose we should grab God’s Blessing now,” Ash lied, reminding Shiva of their only remaining goal.

“That’s right,” Shiva said. She approached the hole in the ground, pausing to peek inside. Apsat didn’t look like he’d be getting back up again, and even if he could he didn’t appear to be a threat with his saggy body. Shiva bent down and snatched God’s Blessing right off Apsat’s deflated flab of a neck, then stuck her tongue out at him.

I think that qualifies as a new high score,
Ash thought to himself as he surveyed the damage their fight had done to the street and buildings around him.

“Alright, let’s get this thing to Goddard and finish up this crazy mission!” Ash said with a smile. Aura was reluctantly smiling
as well. It seemed like everything turned out alright, even if their plan hadn’t worked out. They retrieved the stolen item and apprehended the criminal, so at least their first mission was a success. Shiva couldn’t help but succumb to the good vibes that were going around and even shared a smile with her teammates.

Then, with a quick flicker of light, God’s Blessing disintegrated
to dust in the palm of Shiva’s hand.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Mission Complete?

The sandy shards that used to be God’s Blessing slipped through Shiva’s hands and blew away in the breeze. The three were shocked to the point of silence as Shiva was left holding only a golden chain. Aura was the first to break the silence.

“
What’d you do
?!”

“It just…” Shiva began, but nothing else came out.

“Dissolved!” Ash finished her sentence.

Commander Stryd took this moment to try to assert himself as the one in charge. He marched over to Shiva and peeked down at Apsat, just to make sure he wasn’t moving. Feeling reassured that the fight was over,
the Commander started shouting.

“Good work
everyone,” he said, more-so to his own men than Shiva’s team, who had done most of the work. “We’ll take it from here,” he told Shiva. “
Men!
” Three of his less-injured guards came running. They collected the body of Apsat and hauled him out of the crater. “Don’t worry about filing a report or anything, we’ll handle it all.” Stryd said, being uncharacteristically nice for a change.

“Uh,” Shiva grunted,
never taking her eyes off the gold chain.

“Well then, Lady Shiva, we
’ll be off!” The Commander turned back to his soldiers. “Move out, men!” His soldiers, most of them injured, shambled to their feet and limped away with him. Without so much as a thank you to Ash for bailing them out, they dragged the saggy body of the monster that was Apsat with them. In that time, Aura managed to limp over to where Apsat had tossed his metal gauntlet, retrieve it, and walk back to regroup with his team.

“What now,
leader?
” Aura asked Shiva, slipping his gauntlet back on.

“I guess we
should go report to Goddard,” Shiva said, finally breaking her stare at the golden chain.

“But our objective was to bring God’s Blessing back…” Ash
said.

“I
know
that!”

“So does that mean we failed?” Ash asked,
afraid of the truth. A small part of him wished he had just gone through with the plan of trying to escape from Hell.

“No, no…” Shiva replied, not the least bit assuring. “We’ll just have to see how Goddard takes the news.” Ash and Aura exchanged a solemn look.

“Okay,” Shiva said with more enthusiasm. “Let’s head back to the castle. Stryd said he’d file a report for us, so we can look forward to not having to do that,” she said, trying to look on the bright side. Despite their victory, Ash and Aura weren’t feeling very positive at the moment.

“Can you guys fly?” she asked.

“My
wings
aren’t what’s sore,” Aura replied, stretching.

It took at least an hour before they were able to speak with Goddard. Though he hadn’t actually been present at the battle with Apsat, once word spread of an impossibly strong foe moving towards the castle, there was a lot of work to do in securing the safety of King Satan. Goddard had been busy moving Satan to a safe, all while ordering the various castle guards and servants around. Once word spread that the fight was over, there was still a lot of work to be done in tidying up all the confusion.

Shiva, Ash, and Aura waited patiently
on edge in their usual meeting room. At last, Goddard finally appeared with a stack of fresh notes. His usually tidy hair was disheveled and he appeared exhausted from all the excitement, yet surprisingly happy. He could have never expected such wildly favorable results from his rushed little scheme.

“We’re here
to give you our report,” said Shiva.

“I’d like to speak with you all individually,” Goddard said. “I’ll start with you,
My Lady.” He motioned Ash and Aura out the doorway. Once the boys were outside, the Royal Advisor began his one on one with Shiva.

Shiva recou
nted their entire investigation, starting just after Goddard gave them the warning about Ash and God’s Blessing. She went over their sparring match with Stryd, how Aura and Ash worked together to best him, and then their search for the crippled-wing thief. She mentioned their skirmish with Aura’s friends, and the realization that the thief, a man named Apsat Glumb, was actually a prisoner in the castle at the time. She told him how they split up the list of buildings to search, and then skipped ahead to the fight.

“The Royal Guard’s
records will say that Commander Stryd was officially the one to defeat Apsat,” Goddard said with his hand furiously scribbling notes. “I think it’s best we leave it at that, while
we
know the truth.”

Shiva
then realized why Stryd had been so nice to her team following the battle: he had planned all along to take the credit for subduing Apsat! She kept her mouth shut however, and nodded in agreement. She knew she’d have other opportunities to upstage Commander Stryd in the future, and she fully intended on it.

* * * *

In the hall, Ash and Aura found some chairs to sit in and made small talk while Shiva gave her report. They made jokes about how Shiva would probably claim all the credit for stopping Apsat, and how little Ash and Aura had done to help. Their joking ended when Aura made a serious and heartfelt apology.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Just sorry things didn’t work out,” Aura said, keeping his voice low in case someone overhear
d them. “I really wanted to go to Earth with you.”

“It’s okay, really,” Ash
said. “I couldn’t leave you, or even Shiva. Apsat would have killed you.”

“We should have just run. Let the Royal Guards deal with Apsat, while we made a break for the castle. With him acting as a distraction, there’s no way they could have stopped us.”

“I couldn’t let that happen,” Ash told him. “I was responsible for the whole thing. I don’t know how it happened, but I think Apsat stole some of the power I was supposed to get.”

“Do you think you would have turned into a monster like he did?”

“I don’t know,” Ash replied. “But I’m glad I didn’t. I still believe we can find another way back to Earth, one where so many people won’t have to die.”

“Y
ou’re too good for this place,” Aura said with a smile.

“I know,” Ash told him, smiling back. “
I know
.”

The door to Goddard’s meeting room opened and Shiva stepped out, looking around for the boys. Spotting them in their chairs down the hall, she called out “You’re next,
Draxler
.”

With Aura gone, Shiva took his place in the chair next to Ash. They remained quiet for a little while, until Shiva broke the silence.

“I think I may owe you an…” she stopped, hesitating here. This was her last chance to avoid what she was about to say. But in her heart, she knew it was the right thing to do. “…An
apology,
” she finished. Ash was speechless. Rather than say something, he listened silently and waited for her to continue. “I treated you like dirt because I thought you were useless,” she said. “Not only did you prove you weren’t useless, but you also saved a lot of people. Without you, I might be dead or
worse,
” she paused, remembering Apsat’s words:
How would you like to be my wife?
She shuddered at the thought. “So I’m sorry I treated you like crap. That’s it.” She was not accustomed to apologizing, and immediately regretted doing it. She hoped Ash wouldn’t say anything back, that maybe he didn’t even hear her.

“I’m sorry too,”
the boy replied, surprising Shiva even more. She cocked her eye at him suspiciously, until he continued. “For a moment, I thought about running away. Using my newfound strength to storm the castle and steal a gate key. To get back to Earth.”

The girl cocked a curious eyebrow.
“But you didn’t,” Shiva said. “You came to rescue us instead.” Ash nodded. “Why?”

“Because you guys are my friends,”
the boy said. Shiva looked perplexed. She’d never once treated Ash like a friend, nor did she think of him (or Aura) as her friends. They were her
subordinates
, nothing more. She didn’t have any friends. At least that’s what she thought. The pair sat silently again, while Shiva thought on all the new information she’d taken in. It was a lot for her to digest.

Finally, Aura exited the room and motioned to Ash. “
The boss wants to see you now.”

Ash entered the room to Goddard’s icy stare. He took a seat, and at the beckoning of Goddard, explained what happened. He of course left out the part where Aura and him schemed to use God’s Blessing for themselves.

After the recap, Goddard began with his questioning. He started by asking Ash to recount every small detail about when God’s Blessing activated, his quill-hand trembling in anticipation.

“There was a blinding light,” Ash said. “And then I felt paralyzed. All I could see was Apsat growing larger. There was all this…
tingly
power flowing through the air, and I felt it coursing from me into Apsat. It felt really weird, but not painful. I think I passed out for a while after that, because the next thing I remember was looking at the ceiling. I felt really good after that. Refreshed, like I got a full night’s sleep. But I also felt…
different.
More powerful. And I could finally make flames!” He lit a small fire in the palm of his hand to demonstrate.

Goddard stopped writing notes. He
listened intently to Ash, taking in every single detail. He asked the boy another question:

“Ho
w did you find your teammates?”

“Well, that’s another weird part,” Ash said. “I kind of…
felt
them. I don’t know for sure, but it was like I could sense where they were. I also felt what I thought was Apsat. Except that he had a way different vibe than Aura or Shiva. He felt kind of like…well, me, I guess. Except bad.”

Goddard slowly put the pieces together. He figured that because Ash and Apsat touched God’s Blessing at the same time, the artifact activated and meant to release Ash’s stored up soul power.
Because Apsat was hitching a ride, the power must have free-flowed into him as well, sucking up a lot of what was meant to be Ash’s power.

Such an amazing coincidence
, Goddard thought.
Or was it something like fate? Part of God’s grand design?
The thought of God being able to control events even in Hell gave Goddard a chill.

Next question: “What you’ve described sounds like soul power. Are you familiar with the concept of soul power?”

Ash shrugged. “Not really. I’ve heard it mentioned a few times, but I still don’t quite get it.”

“You should read the section on souls in the book I gave you,” Goddard told him. “Figuring out how to harness your own soul power would make you an invaluable asset to the team. You’d be able to join the ranks of very few devils that can actually use their full potential, including The Prince.”

“You mean I could become as strong as The Prince?” Ash asked, in awe. Goddard nodded a silent reply.
I may still have a shot at getting back to Earth,
Ash thought. After that, Goddard called Shiva and Aura back into the room to wrap up their meeting.

“I’ve finished my report,” Goddard told them. “You’re all dismissed.”

“What about the mission?” Shiva
asked. “Did we fail?” Aura and Ash exchanged uneasy glances, afraid of that question and its answer.

“Fail?” Goddard
said. “Oh, because God’s Blessing was destroyed?” Shiva nodded. Instead of replying, Goddard pulled a small box out from under the table. He opened it up and pulled out a familiar looking golden pendant with an enormous jewel set in the middle. “Catch.” He tossed it to Ash.

The boy
caught it, and with a suspicious look, he realized what it was: God’s Blessing! But how could the item be here with Goddard? And how did Ash release his soul power if it wasn’t the real item? Then he realized the truth. “This is a fake!”

“To be completely accurate, it’s a
replica
,” Goddard said. It looked exactly like the real God’s Blessing, except Ash could tell it was a little lighter. And it wasn’t activating and releasing his soul power, which was another dead giveaway.

“You h
ad a replica made?” Shiva asked.

“I knew how much your father liked it, and in the worst case scenario that the item wasn’t retrieved, I had a backup plan. He’ll never know the difference,” Goddard smiled at his clever thinking. While Shiva debated the ethics of lying to her father, she
ultimately decided she liked that idea more than admitting to the destruction of The King’s favorite fashion accessory.

“So it looks to me as though you succeeded in your first mission,” Goddard told them.