Major Demons (23 page)

CHAPTER 51

The camp was a lot quieter once the berserker army had left to pursue the Dragon. Shadow asked Muan to go for a walk with him in the woods. Muan wasn’t sure what to make of the request.

“Is there something you need before we find and kill Azazel?”

“No. There’s just something I wanted to talk to you about. Adrenaline made you an offer before he left. I think you should take it.”

“What was the offer?”

“A middle demon position in his army. He’d train you to be a berserker so you could combine your transformation powers with the fighting abilities and rage of a berserker. I’ve trained in their methods and they’re a very powerful order.”

“So after we kill Azazel and Abaddon…”

“No. They’re going to fight the Dragon’s armies. Adrenaline wants you to catch up with them and take the position now.”

Muan looked confused.

“Did I do something to piss you off?”

“No. It’s nothing like…”

“Then why are you sending me away?”

“It’s better than anything I can offer right now. I don’t have armies to command. All I can offer from here on out is the chance to die fighting creatures we’re not even sure if we can kill.”

“I don’t care. I want to fight.”

“Your loyalty is admirable, Muan, but let’s be honest. You were a leader before all of this happened. You had your own armies and you were good at what you did. I don’t think that should be thrown away out of loyalty. I think you should take Adrenaline’s offer.”

“And if I refuse?”

“I’m not demanding that you leave. It’s your choice. I just think it’s a lot better than being my personal tracker demon. You’re more qualified than anything I can offer you right now. That’s the reason I let Gangrene go and that’s the reason I think you should go.”

Muan sighed and looked at the ground.

“I hope it’s not cowardly to admit this, but I’m not ready to die yet. There are still things I want to do. Things I hope to accomplish. If you seriously mean what you say, I think I’ll accept Adrenaline’s offer.”

“I’m glad to hear that. It’s probably best if you take off now. Lilith will throw a fit. I’m sure Leech will have something to say, too. I’ll explain everything to them.”

“When you get back, check your map. I marked something on there that’ll help you out.”

Shadow nodded. Muan turned into a crow and turned to leave.

“Just one more thing, Muan.”

The crow turned back and listened.

“You were never a coward and you aren’t one now. Pursuing your dreams is always harder than the escape that a quick death offers.”

The crow appeared to nod before it flew into the air and glided into the sunset.

Shadow called a war council that night. He informed everyone that Muan had left and explained why. Lilith was angry, Leech was angry, everyone else seemed fairly indifferent. Shadow changed the topic.

“We need to split up again. I’ve tried to think of a different way to deal with this, but time is not on our side. The Dragon is leaving which means now is the time to strike. We need to deal with anyone who might interfere in my battle with Abaddon which means we need to deal with Azazel and Uriel. Thoughts?”

Leech responded before anyone else could.

“Azazel is mine. I’ll take Lilith, Steam, and Thanatos. The rest of you can go after…”

Lilith cut him off.

“I don’t think we should be splitting up again. All it ever does is cause problems. Why don’t we all go kill Azazel and then all of us go deal with Uriel?”

Shadow shook his head.

“You still don’t get it? If we let Abaddon destroy much more of the Earth, there will be nothing left to save. It’s already going to take decades for humanity to get back to where they were after all the earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and everything else he’s been unleashing up here. The Dragon is out of the way now. So here’s what we’re going to do. Leech, Lilith, Steam, and Thanatos will go after Azazel. Samael, Weapon, and Hypnos will deal with Uriel. Make sure you take them out quietly. We can’t have Uriel’s armies following you back. I’ll track down Abaddon. When Uriel and Azazel are out of the way, we all meet again and attack Abaddon together. I’ll send word once I’ve found him and I’ll track him until the rest of you arrive.”

Weapon looked annoyed.

“I just got away from Uriel’s army. You want us to go
back
? He’ll kill us.”

Samael shook his head.

“He won’t. I can take him down this time. Leave Uriel to me.”

Hypnos nodded.

“Yeah. Stop acting like a scared little girl, Weapon. You’ll be fine.”

Shadow looked around the room. Everyone seemed to at least be in agreement that his plan was a logical way to address everything. He moved on to the next step.

“We can’t all teleport. There’s a spell that can bring all of you to me after you finish your task. I had Jess write it down for me a while back and Steam thinks he can pull it off.”

Steam nodded.

“That or all of your heads will explode. I think I got it though. We should be ok.”

Everyone stared blankly at Steam. He smiled nervously.

“It was a joke. I’ve read Jess’s incantations. I can pull it off.”

Shadow placed a large black pot on the table and passed out knives to everyone present. Lilith looked excited.

“Finally! We’re all going to become blood brothers!”

Shadow ignored her.

“We need a drop of everyone’s blood for the teleportation spell. Lucia’s already covered. She scraped her knee playing around yesterday and I got what I needed. Everyone else needs to cut a finger.”

Lilith had already sliced her hand across the palm and was letting blood drip into the pot.

“Oh… well I guess I’ll teleport really fast.”

Everyone cut one of their fingers and let a drop of blood fall into the pot. Steam added some other ingredients from his backpack. He re-read the spell when he had finished.

“Alright. Shadow will be the transportation source. I need everyone else to say what they’re going to do before they teleport to Shadow.”

Leech’s group said, “Kill Azazel” and Samael’s group said, “Kill Uriel.” The liquid in the pot started bubbling and turned a murky brown. Steam started handing out cups. Weapon protested.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You want us to
drink
that shit?”

Leech had finally had enough.

“You’re welcome to leave, Weapon. Thanatos can switch teams. We can do this without you.”

Weapon didn’t respond.

“No? Then shut the fuck up and drink.”

Everyone drank a cup of the thick liquid and Lilith slowly helped Lucia drink some from her sippy cup. Shadow nodded his approval.

“Thanks, Steam. We’ll split up tomorrow. Good luck.”

CHAPTER 52

Muan caught up to the berserker army without any issues and accepted Adrenaline’s offer. Adrenaline had Muan begin berserker training immediately. He caught on quickly and was soon learning to integrate his animal transformations into berserker rages. Adrenaline didn’t have a large army, so he gave Muan control of half. His other middle demon, a berserker demoness named Nissa, was commander of the other half. The berserker demons in Muan’s army respected him after they saw what he was capable of as a berserker demon.

After a few days of pursuit, the berserkers could see the Dragon’s armies in the distance. Adrenaline invited Muan and Nissa into his tent to strategize.

“We have a couple of things to talk about tonight. First, we’re working on making a new berserker staff. It isn’t as powerful as the other two yet because we haven’t used it as much. It hasn’t absorbed enough rage or seen enough bloodshed. So it isn’t actually a legitimate berserker staff yet. It’ll get there eventually though and it enhances berserker powers slightly as it is. I’ll be using it when we catch up to the Dragon.”

Muan looked at the new berserker staff.

“Can I pick it up?”

Adrenaline nodded his consent. Muan picked up the staff and immediately felt the urge to hit both Adrenaline and Nissa in the face with it. He placed it back on the table before the urge overwhelmed him. Muan looked over at Nissa, but she shook her head.

“Nope. I’ve held one before. I know what it feels like. That’s great that Adrenaline got a new weapon, but I don’t need to touch it.”

Muan sat back down and Adrenaline continued.

“Second, the Dragon disgraced our order in favor of those idiots in Nightmare’s armies. They don’t know the first thing about being berserker demons. They don’t know our culture, our traditions, and the power they’ve been granted is misused. The goal of our attack is to demand to be reinstated into Hell’s armies. We won’t work for the Dragon directly anymore. I’ll demand to be made a major demon. There’s an opening from what I’ve heard. Astaroth was killed by Gangrene.”

Muan grinned.

“Nice. Old Toxic Touch put down the snake bitch. Good to hear.”

“If the Dragon denies my request, and it’s likely that he will, I’ll attack him directly. I’ll go into a berserker rage and take him down for good. Nissa is in charge when I die.”

Nissa looked pleased with the news and decided to rub it in.

“Don’t feel too bad, little guy. I have way more experience fighting as a berserker and it’s obvious that I should be in charge.”

Muan laughed.

“Good for you, Nissa. I’ve worked for Shadow and commanded an army larger than all of Adrenaline’s forces combined. I’m a better fighter and a better leader… but go ahead and feel good about yourself for being a berserker longer.”

Muan started a slow golf clap. Nissa lunged at him, but Adrenaline cut her off and shoved her back.

“Enough. There’s no need to insult and mock each other. This is going to be difficult enough as it is without us turning on each other. I won’t have any more of that shit from the two of you. Understood?”

Nissa turned and left without another word. Muan stayed behind.

“You really want her leading the berserkers after you’re gone? She’s a hot-headed mess.”

“It’s an army of berserkers, Muan. They’re all hot-headed messes. This is for the best. If our order is to be led into extinction, she’s who I trust to get us there after I’m gone.”

“So if the Dragon accepts you as a major demon, Nissa isn’t necessarily your next in line then? Only if we’re headed for extinction?”

“I think that’s fair to say. The two of you are equal in my eyes if our order can live on. She has more experience if we need to rush into death.”

Muan turned to leave, but paused before stepping outside.

“I’ll keep that in mind and may even hold you to that.”

A few days later, Gangrene received a report that a force of demons was rushing towards them. Gangrene immediately informed the Dragon, who emerged from his tent in demon-form as Lucifer. Gangrene could tell that the injury inflicted by Abaddon was nearly healed. Lucifer showed barely any sign of injury as he walked. He smiled when he saw who was approaching.

“It’s Adrenaline and his outcast band of berserkers. So they fled to Earth when I disgraced their order and cast them out.”

He turned to Gangrene.

“Be ready to destroy them. We have them ridiculously outnumbered.”

Adrenaline stopped his army a short distance from Lucifer’s armies.

“I will give you this one chance to accept us back. Not as one of your armies, but as an independent major demon with my own scythe and power. If this is unacceptable to you, I personally challenge you to a fight to the death.”

Lucifer laughed. He held out his hands together and then pulled them apart. His armies opened a path straight to him.

“Attack then, berserker.”

Adrenaline tightened his grip on the berserker staff and looked to Muan and then to Nissa. They both nodded. Then he charged. Lucifer didn’t move. Adrenaline hit Lucifer several times in the face with the berserker staff. Lucifer smiled and took the hits for several minutes until a single drop of blood started to roll down his right nostril. He frowned, stepped back, and hit Adrenaline hard on the shoulder. He fell to one knee. When he got back up, Lucifer had changed form into a dragon and slashed with his right claw. At first, it looked like the claw had missed, because Adrenaline was still standing. Then, suddenly, his limbs and head fell from his torso and his body fell to the ground in six pieces. The berserker staff hit the ground and rolled a few inches from his open hand.

Muan looked at Nissa and could see tears rolling down her face. He knew that she was going to follow Adrenaline’s final order, but he had to try to stop her anyways.

“That’s Gangrene with the Dragon’s armies. I can get him to talk to the Dragon. We can be spared. There’s no need to throw our lives away.”

“We aren’t throwing them away, Muan. We’re adding an exclamation point to Adrenaline’s final words. That asshole deserves to die.”

Muan turned into a cheetah, ran towards Adrenaline’s corpse, and retrieved the berserker staff. Several demons in the Dragon’s army tried to stop him, but none of them were able to. He ran back to his berserkers.

“Adrenaline told me that whoever held the berserker staff after he fell would be in charge of our order of berserkers. I hold it now. We will not rush to our deaths. I know the demon at the Dragon’s side and I know he can be reasoned with. There is no need for pointless sacrifice.”

Nissa looked at Muan like he was a piece of shit.

“You
liar
! Adrenaline left me in charge! Give me the staff.”

She held out her hand. Muan shook his head. None of the berserkers looked ready to intervene.

“Take it from me if you think you can.”

Nissa ran at him. Muan turned into a crow, caught the falling berserker staff in his beak and flew into the sky. He could already feel the effects of the staff flowing through him. Once he was at a height of about fifteen feet, he turned into a gorilla, aiming a fist at Nissa as he fell. When he landed, she was no longer there. He felt a strong kick to the back of his head and it pissed him off. The next kick was caught in his large gorilla palm and he lifted Nissa into the air. He grabbed one of her arms and one of her legs and let the berserker staff fall. He caught the staff on his foot. Then he pulled with all his strength and ripped Nissa in half. He kicked the berserker staff into the air, changed back into a demon, and caught it in his right hand.

“Anyone else have a problem with me being in charge?”

The berserkers fell to their knees and bowed to Muan.