Major Demons (17 page)

CHAPTER 36

“So what do we do now? We’re kind of… stuck down here without any friends. If we head for Earth again, Jess, Aim, and Murmur will attack this time. We can’t ally with them because of the way things went down. We don’t really have any options and it’s making me nervous…”

Gangrene nodded, acknowledging Raven’s comments. He had a solution, but he knew she wasn’t going to like it.

“We could always have a meeting with Nightmare and Astaroth.”

Raven looked at Gangrene with wide-eyed disbelief.

“Hear me out. We could meet with them and agree to side with them. When the battle starts, we take my army and flee to Earth. Everyone will be preoccupied with the war. No one will be watching for us to leave.”

“You’re seriously considering siding with the assholes who fought against Shadow, Leech, and Lilith?”

“Not really. It’s a strategy… and it’s honestly the only good strategy we have at this point. We need Murmur, Jess, and Aim off our backs. Our other option is to sit down here until one side wins the war and then comes for us. That doesn’t sound very appealing.”

“But the thing is…”

A demon arrived and bowed in front of Gangrene.

“General Nightmare and General Astaroth are ready to meet with you, if you’ll follow me.”

Raven slapped Gangrene across the face. The messenger demon looked horrified and brought his eyes back to the ground.

“You set up a meeting without talking to me!”

“Better to ask forgiveness than permission. I knew you weren’t going to agree with me… but babe… it’s our
only
good option. All other roads lead to death. You know I’m right.”

Gangrene got up to leave. Raven turned away from him.

“You’ll see it was the right thing to do when you see your sister again.”

Gangrene followed the messenger demon to Nightmare’s headquarters. He was escorted inside a large stone building and led to a room on the third floor.

“A drink while you wait, General Gangrene?”

“Not thirsty. I also don’t trust Nightmare and Astaroth to not poison me.”

“You sure? We have a lovely witch from the 17
th
century. It’s aged nicely.”

“Fine. Bring two glasses. If I’m going to have a drink, you’re going to have some with me.”

The messenger demon went away and returned with a bottle and two glasses. He handed one glass to Gangrene and poured a portion of the damned soul in both glasses. Gangrene took both glasses and poured them down the messenger demon’s throat. When he didn’t die after a few minutes, Gangrene took the bottle from him.

“17
th
century witch, huh? Nice.”

Gangrene took a long drink. He hadn’t had anything quite that refreshing in a long time. A few minutes later, the door to Nightmare’s conference room opened and Gangrene entered. Nightmare and Astaroth were already waiting.

“Gangrene. Glad you decided to meet with us. With you on our side…”

Gangrene held up his hand and took another swig from the bottle.

“Nothing is decided yet. I heard what Murmur, Jess, and Aim had to offer and then they pissed me off. Now I’m willing to hear what you have to offer.”

Nightmare pointed to a seat across from Astaroth. Gangrene took it.

“We don’t have any hard feelings. You were trained by Shadow and Leech and they’re both powerful demons. Obviously we aren’t willing to work with either of them, but we’d be willing to cut you in on the spoils after we kill off the three pretenders. What you do after that is your call. I’m not going to pretend that we have to be buddies and rule as three kings…”

Astaroth cut in.

“Two kings and a queen.”

“Right. Well we don’t have to rule Hell together. Those three just need to be put down. I heard about Aim’s attempt to kill you. How’s your foot?”

“You don’t need to remind me that they’re assholes. I still came out way ahead from that whole thing though…”

Gangrene removed White Death from the strap around his back and placed it on the table. He pointed it at Nightmare. Nightmare looked hungrily at the weapon.

“I had heard that Aim was running around with that. I guess he isn’t anymore.”

“I told them it was the only way they walked away alive. It would have been a bloody battle, but I think I could have put both Jess and Aim down.”

“Well there’s no need for bloody battles if you join with us. With your demons added to ours, we would outnumber Murmur’s combined forces by about five to one. We could end this whole ridiculous nonsense quickly.”

“Didn’t you meet with Murmur and offer to side with him initially? Didn’t you ask him to kill a demon you made look like Muan? Now you’ve turned on him. I wonder what’s changed or if the two of you are just…”

Astaroth slammed her fist down on the table.

“
We
didn’t turn on him. He lied to us. He was never going to back us against his buddies.”

Nightmare looked at Astaroth with an expression that told her that she needed to cool down. Gangrene and Murmur had some of the same friends. Nightmare waved Astaroth’s comment casually away with his hand.

“It’s a moot point now. I hear Shadow, Leech, and Lilith are all on Earth now and they don’t want to be major demons anymore. Good for them. You also need to remember that when we had a common enemy, even Shadow and I were able to work together.”

“The legion ring. Leech told me about that. What was it like fighting the Dragon?”

“The Six becoming Legion was the most power any of us has ever felt. The Dragon didn’t frighten us at all when we were merged as that abomination. Given enough time, we would have killed him. It’s too bad that things happened like they did… but we’re getting off topic.”

Gangrene grinned.

“I know we are. I just wanted to hear your side of that whole legion experience. I had heard the story from Leech but I wanted to hear the other angles. Astaroth, what did you think of it?”

“I agree with Nightmare. We were a being of raw power. Of course, I didn’t get to control more than a small part of Legion and Shadow took that away from me before…”

Nightmare grabbed Astaroth’s knee under the table and squeezed hard. She stopped her story and then looked furiously back at him. Gangrene watched the exchange with amusement.

“Well I have to admit that Nightmare really is the most talented liar in Hell. It’s pretty obvious Astaroth still hates Shadow and I imagine Nightmare feels the same way. I’ve been meaning to ask, why didn’t you ever avenge your son?”

Astaroth tightened her grip on her scythe.

“You know… the one Cain killed. Venom? Cain broke his neck so loudly that everyone in Hell could hear it. It echoed.”

Astaroth was up from her chair and across the room in seconds. She swung at Gangrene with her scythe. Gangrene blocked the blow with his own scythe and kept his other hand on the trigger of White Death, which was still pointed at Nightmare.

“Well that tells me what I needed to know. I came here to find out if the two of you are capable of putting your emotions aside to work with me. It’s pretty clear that you aren’t. I’ll show myself out.”

Nightmare stood and drew his scythe.

“I’m afraid we can’t allow you to leave, Gangrene.”

CHAPTER 37

“Today we learn how to utilize the power contained in the drugs we use.”

Sarah and Shadow were sitting in front of Adrenaline with several other berserkers in training. Adrenaline tossed a small leather bag to both Sarah and Shadow. Sarah sniffed its contents and stuck out her tongue.

“This smells like chili pepper mixed with lots of other terrible stuff. It’s supposed to make us fight harder?”

“Take a sample. Snort it.”

Sarah plugged one nostril and sucked a small amount of the powder up her nose. It burned. She was about to blow it out when she felt an odd sensation in her head. It was as if the neural pathways were connecting faster. Movement around her was slower and she had more time to react. Her muscles felt stronger. She could see openings to attack. She looked at Adrenaline before hopping to her feet.

“I’m ready. Tell me what I need to know.”

Adrenaline grinned.

“The first thing you need to know is that the drugs are more powerful than you realize. There’s a reason I asked everyone…”

Sarah fell over.

“…to sit.”

Some of the berserkers in training chuckled behind her. Shadow suppressed a grin.

“I appreciate your enthusiasm, Sarah, but this is something we can’t rush. Your body has to adjust. It will take time.”

Shadow tossed his drugs back at Adrenaline.

“I don’t need this. I’m in control of enough power without throwing this into the mix.”

Adrenaline threw it back at Shadow.

“You may change your mind with what we have planned for today.”

“And what might that be?”

“A free for all. Everyone is going to adjust to the drugs over the next few hours and then we’ll give you more. Every demon in training against every other demon in training. Anything goes. Please try not to kill each other, though. We have a hard enough time finding recruits.”

The demons adjusted to the drugs over the next several hours and then Adrenaline refilled the small bags he had given them. He started pacing with his hands clasped behind his back.

“No weapons. No spells. If I see either, you will be immediately disqualified. The winner will go one on one with me. If you defeat me, there is an additional prize.”

Shadow gave a half-grin to the remark.

“Which is?”

“Win and find out. It could enhance the powers of even someone like you.”

All of the demons got up and handed over their weapons and armor to the berserkers. Shadow wrapped Michael’s short blade in his cape without anyone noticing. They all painted their faces, took their drugs, and waited for the signal.

“Go.”

Shadow was immediately attacked by three berserkers in training. They held his arms and the third one put him in a headlock. Sarah wound up and delivered an uppercut to his jaw. Shadow tasted a small amount of blood. He had bit his tongue. He shot an angry but amused look back at her.

“Fight to win, right? We’re not friends in here.”

Shadow spit blood from his mouth.

“I see.”

He pulled his arms together and the two demons holding his arms cracked skulls. There was a loud noise and they fell over, unconscious. Shadow jumped into the air and used the downward force to flip the third demon over his shoulder. He adjusted his positioning and came down on the demon’s throat with his elbow.

Sarah was taking on two at once and Shadow decided to exploit this. She was expertly dodging their attacks and countering with kicks and punches. Shadow saw a brief opening and went for it. He delivered a roundhouse kick to her left side. Shadow a couple of her ribs crack and she stumbled but didn’t lose her footing. She charged him but he stepped out of the way and tripped her. She went down hard and Shadow finished off the two demons she was fighting. When Sarah got back to her feet, she realized what she needed to do.

“None of us can win until Shadow goes down. We need to attack together.”

Even in their enraged state, Sarah’s words made sense to the demons. They all stopped fighting and attacked Shadow. Shadow dodged as many of the incoming attacks as he could, but it was too much for even him. The last thing he saw before he lost control was Sarah charging at him. Shadow turned into a rage monster. He grew in size and ferocity and lost all control. He pounded several demons with his fists and squashed them. Sarah turned to run. The rage monster scooped her up into his massive fist and opened his mouth, ready to consume her.

Adrenaline started clapping slowly. The rage monster turned to see that the berserker commander was wearing his armor and held Damnation in his right hand. The rage monster threw Sarah to the ground and went after Adrenaline. Adrenaline held his ground. As the rage monster punched, Adrenaline carefully aimed and struck back with Damnation. The rage monster started to bleed from a large gash in his hand. It made the monster even angrier. From somewhere deep within, Shadow’s mind turned back on and decided to take control. Rage and power were not the answers here.

Shadow changed back to his normal form. Adrenaline looked confused.

“You’re not going to keep coming at me as a rage monster?”

“No. The tricks you’ve taught us are pretty cool and there’s definitely a time for them. Now is not one of those times. That’s my weapon and my armor. I can’t beat you as a rage monster without killing myself in the process. My mission is too important to let that happen. So now that I have a clear head, I know to do this.”

Shadow held out his hand. Damnation began to shake. Adrenaline grabbed the weapon with both hands, but it sailed into the air and into Shadow’s open palm.

“It was a trick I watched Azazel do once. I decided to learn it after he used it against me. No one can take Damnation away from me. It’s infused with my blood and it will always come back.”

“So we have a stalemate then. I know what I’m wearing. This is the armor of Michael the Archangel. Even with Damnation, you won’t be able to kill me.”

Shadow grinned.

“We could always find out.”

Adrenaline nodded.

“Very well. Give me a moment to prepare a new weapon.”

Adrenaline looked to one of his berserker demons and nodded. The berserker produced a staff wrapped in cloth. He unwrapped the cloth onto his hand and then tossed it to Adrenaline. Adrenaline pointed the staff at the fallen demons that Shadow had killed. Markings began to appear on the staff and glow a bright red. The souls of the demons left the remains of their corpses and joined with the staff. Adrenaline pointed his new weapon at Shadow.

“Is that…”

“It’s another berserker staff. We’ve been working on it since Nightmare stole the last one. If you defeat me, I will trade it to you in exchange for a promise.”

“What promise?”

“That’s not important right now. You haven’t defeated me.”

Shadow held Damnation in his right hand and summoned ice in his left.

“Let’s go then.”

Adrenaline struck as soon as the words had left Shadow’s mouth. He hit Shadow twice across the face with his new berserker staff and then hit him hard under the jaw with an uppercut. Shadow flew backwards through the air. When he landed, he felt dizzy. He could see three Adrenalines approaching him and couldn’t focus the image into one. Adrenaline raised the berserker staff over his head and swung down hard. Shadow brought Damnation up to meet the attack, but wasn’t ready for Adrenaline’s follow-up. Adrenaline spun and hit Shadow hard in the back of the head with the berserker staff. Shadow went down. He tried to push himself up, but Adrenaline kicked him hard in the ribs. He went down again. When Shadow looked up at Adrenaline, Adrenaline swung down forcefully with the berserker staff. Shadow blacked out.