Of Kings and Demons (27 page)

As Eberhard went into a series of spasms,
Maganus watched in muted discomfort. The creature’s horns grew and spikes
sprouted up all over his body, beefing up his thick hide. The beast dropped to
his knees, and was silent for moment before he leapt to his feet. His winds
spread to their full length and his eyes burned like red rubies. Eberhard had grown
a formidable size larger.

“Maganus, the game is at a new level,”
Eberhard grunted with a twisted smile.

“You know something? You looked more
beautiful before the transformation,” Magnus replied with a wink.

“You will now experience the full wrath of
the Demons, Maganus.”

“Come ye,
bestia
,” Maganus retorted,
swung his battleaxes, and lurched forth to engage the gargoyle. Eberhard
ducked, but Maganus’ decisive chop managed to hit the shoulder and chip off
pieces from his granite-hard hide.

The gargoyle retaliated with his claws and
ripped the fabric off Maganus’s left arm. The Angel dropped a battleaxe. Using
his remaining axe, Maganus battled on with his remaining axe. He had aimed for
Eberhard’s neck but Demon ducked quick. He lost his footing and before he could
steady himself, Eberhard had twirled his tail around the Angel’s neck and
dragged him through the mud. Struggle as Maganus tried, he could not escape the
stranglehold. Eberhard raised Maganus and then slammed him to the ground. The
Guardian Angel lost his grip on his remaining battleaxe.

“Maganus, I’d waited a long time for this
match,” Eberhard said. “Where are your powers? I am waiting to see them.”

Maganus did not respond, busy with a
prayer-spell as the hold on his neck tightened. “Incendia ex Polu
.”
Fire
from heavens
. He muttered as veins on his neck and temples swelled. Soon
his hands ignited with fire, and he laid them tight onto the strangling tail.
Maganus broke loose as the scorching heat sent Eberhard belching in fury.

The infuriated Demon turned around with a
hammer-fist, but Maganus rolled over and missed by just inches. The Angel
struggled to his feet, but his knees failed him. He collapsed to the ground and
clasped his hands to raise another prayer-spell. “
Terra temerarius meus dico.”
Earth heeded my call
.

Eberhard thundered at Maganus like a crescendo
and was only five yards from impact when the ground erupted and opened up. The
Demon tumbled into the hole like a fly swallowed by a predatory flower.

#

Sarah looked out to the fields as anarchy
raged unabated. Like a wave of darkness, the Demons descended on the core of
light, holding out between the dark woods and the ancient castle.

“You will let them die?” Barbatos teased.

Sarah said nothing, her face a cusp of fear and anxiety. Her lips trembled
as she turned to Barbatos.

“I...”

“Show me your powers.”

Sarah shook her head. For the first time, doubt fermented in Barbatos’s
mind. Was the prophecy wrong?
The King who whispers…

Barbatos looked away. He paused. Somehow,
there was something in Sarah that made him uncomfortable. He could not pinpoint
the reason but he felt a sort of hesitation, a subtle mellowing, that arose
from the interaction with the child. In the chilling cataclysm of his soul,
there was growing warmth that gnawed away at his iron-hard core of ruthlessness
and unfeeling. Barbatos felt different but he fought hard to suppress that
awareness.

“What is this all about?” Sarah pleaded.

“Sarah, this is a battle that you will
remember for the rest of your life. It is a day of great significance.”

Sarah bit her lips. “I am not interested in
this fight. I want them to live, my brother. ”

Sarah clutched Barbatos’s hand and caused
the Duke of Demons a tinge of unease.

“Let them live.” Sarah pleaded and this
time the tears brought an effect. Barbatos felt a stirring in his gut.
Not
today, Barbatos.

        “Sarah, I don’t like to plead. Let me provide some catalyst to

“Let us now join your friends on the
field.” Without warning, Barbatos clutched Sarah by the shoulder and snapped
his fingers.

At Count Raum’s behest, the Demons
unleashed an earth-shaking charge at the besieged Guardian Angels. Alfred’s
cavalry responded in kind. As they rode towards the advancing darkness, caution
abandoned, the War Dwarves were a spear of light. Their sturdy steeds crushed
into the rank and file of the Demons, flattening the the advance columns of
darkness.

In the first moments when the two
formations clashed, flesh against flesh, bone against bone, the earth howled in
a chorus of bloodshed. The scent of rough battle was an intoxicating spirit
that stirred his pugnacious senses to Alfred the Dwarf Lord. He roared, cried,
and, at his behest, his tiny battalion fought with vigour. With his battle-axe,
carved from thousand-year-old oak, he felled Demons with gusto.

Jin joined the action with a brave assist,
a stunning volley from the Adam’s bow that launched a dozen fiery arrows into
the columns of darkness. However a second volley was neutralized by a shield of
force raised by Count Raum.

The advantage of the sheer numbers of the
dark side became telling as the action dragged on. Despite the valiant display,
Alfred and his men and the fairies were a weak dam holding back strong
currents. The regrouped Familiars, Goblins, Trolls and Demons, and all else,
had swollen into an unstoppable juggernaut.  

Count Raum stepped up the offensive
momentum with a battery of fresh archers. At his word, hundreds of arrows fell
onto the allies of Angels and sent hordes of dwarves and fairies tumbling to
their deaths. Then Count Raum looked to the east, raised his hands and brought
on half a dozen demonic trolls to join the battle. Their stomping sent the dwarfs
into a reluctant retreat.

The change of events compelled Jin to drop
his bow and joined the action with his sword. It was uncharacteristic of Jin to
use his sword unless circumstances warrant it, but lack of usage does not make
him a lesser swordman.

With sharp strokes, Jin slew the first pair
of trolls but had to battle the remaining four, who attacked with reckless
brutishness and strength. Off to the side, Gwyneth watched with consuming
apprehension. The Allies were being decimated despite their gallant fighting.
Severed limbs and remains of slain bodies lay strewn about, blood and fluid
peppering the grounds. Her heart ached. She tried to do her part but an acute
pain erupted in her chest. She had not fully recovered.

As the fighting dragged on, a gale swept
across the plain and a ball of dark energy, rimmed in red, descended on the
battleground. Lord Barbatos had arrived, and had Sarah with him.

Their appearance brought a momentary hiatus
in the battle. When Mathew saw

his sister, he cried. “Sarah!” He made a dash but was
repelled onto the ground by Barbatos’s dark powers.

He struggled to his feet but Barbatos pinned him on the ground with an easy
turn of his palm.

Jin, who had sliced the last troll, noticed
Barbatos’s motion and sprinted towards Mathew. As Lord Barbatos unleashed a
bolt of lightning, Jin arrived and spread his wings like a redoubtable shield
and took the blow. The deflected energies blew away everything in their path
and scorched all forms of life, familiars and fairies alike. Groans and moans
filled the air as the beings were incinerated. Absorbing the blow had shattered
his verve, and the handsome face of the Jin had turned iron grey; his eyes were
listless and his lips pale.

Mathew struggled for words and choked back
his tears.

“Now you know …” Jin struggled to say.

“Know what?” Mathew asked.

“Angels have wings,” Jin winked with a
frail smile.

#

Maganus assumed Eberhard had been defeated,
buried for good, and rushed off to rejoin his fellow Angels. The cacophony of
combat had become deafening—the yelling and metallic clashes. He was eager
beaver to join the action.

However he did not go very far when the
ground shook. The earth tumbled and a dark form leapt over and crashed into
Guardian Angel like a juggernaut. Maganus dropped his battle-axes.

It was Eberhard!

The gargoyle was battered, with greenish
blood trickling from his temples, and one of the horns broken. However, the
pugnacious ferocity in those raging pupils was undiminished; and he had Maganus
pinned right beneath his foot. The sneak attack has hurt Maganus. Suddenly, he
looked his age, centuries of grey and dust, the hair dishevelled.

“Maganus, your complacency is your fatal
weakness.”

“Stay where you belong, garbage!”

“Piling earth on me is enough to keep me
down? Your naiveté is unbelievable. I am
much
stronger than you think.”

“Heavi…er, you mean?” Maganus stammered,
struggling under the sheer weight of Eberhard. “Perhaps you can let me
breathe?”

“It’s over, Maganus.” Eberhard winked,
jumped up and brought his full weight down onto Maganus’s chest. “Over!”

Maganus felt pain exploded within him and
sensed fishiness in his mouth.
Blood
. It had been a long while since he
had tasted his own blood. The Guardian Angel tried to roll himself away but
Eberhard caught his plaited hair, yanked him back, and hurled him to the
ground.

Maganus steadied his breathing, shut his
eyes, and focused his mind in prayer. He shut out Eberhard’s curses. Gradually,
the prayer rooted in his mind and took on a life. He felt a surge through his
veins, his powers creeping back. Maganus murmured his command and summoned his
allies, his trusted buddies.

Eberhard was too engrossed with his taunts
to realize the ground was shifting. Within seconds, roots of trees, thick like
tentacles from the Mother Earth, slithered over Eberhard and wrapped themselves
around his limbs and torso. 

The entrapped Demon tried to break away,
but his power of flight was constricted. Maganus’s prayer to the forces of
nature had been answered.
If naiveté is my weakness, then Eberhard’s blind
rage is his.

The gargoyle fought hard to break free but
the tree roots held tight and dragged him towards the crater. Maganus swiftly
got back on his feet but he struggled to catch his breath, between coughs and
grunts. His legs ached as he limped away. He got no further than a yard when
Eberhard threw his tail around Maganus’s neck, and jerked him back to the
ground.

The Angel cried. “Return to where you
belong!”

“Come with me!” Eberhard bawled in protest.

Maganus failed to rip the gargoyle’s tail
away and realized he had one option left, a painful one. He had to execute his
own
mutatio vox
. Clenching his fists, the Angel willed the transformation.
Ripples of energy sent the trees into sway, the grounds shaking. Within
moments, his white wings grew and expanded to their full majesty, while his
biceps and fists swelled. The Angel’s white eyebrows thickened, and a white
light burned in the depth of his soul.

Maganus clasped his hands and summoned his
battle-axes. His trusted weapons flew into his hands. The Angel roared ‘
Vox
of Polus’
and rose to his full height. Summoning every ounce of his
energies, Maganus delivered a cutting swipe at Eberhard and severed the head of
the obdurate beast.

#

“Darius, I counseled moderation,” Gwyneth
said as she staggered towards the Duke of Demons. Lord Barbatos ignored the
plea, his eyes focused on the battlefield where his Demons had gotten the upper
hand.

“Darius. Mercy,” she pleaded, and nearly
tripped.

Father Bellator held her before a terrible
fall.

Jin limped right behind, grey and spent
from his exertions. The blow he had taken for Mathew had broken him.

        “Are you fine?” Gwyneth asked Jin who manage a lame nod.

She turned to Barbatos who stood like a
victorious Roman Caesar, hands on waist, shoulders squared and lips curled
etched in arrogance. The ring of dark energies completed his impregnability.
Her former protégé had won their contest of powers. He was much stronger than
all of them. Yet, there was scant joy for this is not the achievement she had
envisaged for him.

A wind blew and soon snow fell, melting
into the puddles of blood and turned the terrain smudged red.

“Gwyneth, calm yourself.” Barbatos said.
“The snow is really a sign of your weakness.”

“Darius…”

“You must get used to the name Barbatos,
only he can achieve all these. Only he, knight of first class in the kingdom of
Hell, can deliver this victory.”

“This is not what I taught you…”

“Yes you had, Gwyneth. You taught me that
traditions are for the ancient majority. The future belongs to the enterprising
minority.” Barbatos asked as his eyes narrowed into slits of hatred. “You
guided me well.
Very well.
”

Gwyneth was dumbfounded, she was helpless
against Barbatos’s eloquence. The Demon Lord stepped forth. “Are you
despondent? Thinking of your past mistakes?”

Gwyneth was silent.

“History is for the dead. I am born to
rewrite history, Gwyneth!”

“Is it worth it?” Gwyneth asked.

“A new age for the Demons,” Barbatos
declared. “A new age for man.”

“You will never win,” Jin said.

Barbatos smiled. “History is being
rewritten as we speak.” He smirked as he surveyed the carnage. “Do you think
you can leave Valmar alive? The kinglings have to die here no matter.”

Jin added, “Mercy, Barbatos.”

“If you lose them, your struggle will have
no meaning. I have made a correct move, my old friends. Your fear validated my
observation.”

Gwyneth spoke in a flagging voice. “This
struggle goes on regardless of the outcome of this battle. Even if we all
perish, there will be other Angels ready to continue this fight. You have
forgotten the root of our existence, Darius. Being raised from death to be a
guardian of the Kings, sacrifice is the essence of my existence.”

Gwyneth paused and then coughed in fits,
throwing up blood.

An unperturbed Lord Barbatos retorted.
“Gwyneth, the human race is weak, ungrateful, ignorant, and yet greedy beyond
imagination. Your love, mercy and forgiveness did not cure them of their imperfection.”

“Their imperfection means they need us, not
you. Only the Demons can offer them the true path.”

“We will stop you.” Jin added.

“Continue in your delusion, Jin.”

“And you in yours,” Father Bellator said.

Barbatos eyed the priest with disdain, then
flicked his pointer finger and sent him against the trunk of a nearby tree.
Barbatos’ sheer power sent off a ripple of force that was felt by all who
watched agape as the priest rolled onto the ground, lifeless.

        Gwyneth shut her eyes in exasperation. “You are not going to win.”

 “It is beyond you now!” Barbatos cried.
“The flame of human civilization is flickering and their darkest hour is upon
them. The tipping point will arrive soon; deaths of your Kings and kinglings
will have serious implications for them. My scheme will succeed.”

Barbatos’s words reminded Gwyneth of her
dialogue with Prince Vassago, and his mention of Barbatos’s scheme.

“You need them for your scheme of
domination?”

“Perceptive.”

Barbatos’s eyes were already on Sarah and
then Mathew.

Gwyneth shook her head. “No.”

Jin nodded. “Gwyneth, he will not change
his mind. The only option now is to fight him. Sacrifice is necessary.”

“Sacrifice? Is it worth it?” Mathew asked.

The others snapped their heads around to
stare at the boy.

        “Mathew?” Jin said.

“I’m sorry, Jin. It is just so
heart-breaking to witness these sacrifices. I have seen enough blood lost, and
I do not want you to sacrifice for us.” Mathew was grim-faced.

J in smiled. “Sacrifice is the essence of all things good and great,
Mathew. Nothing, no great human achievement, is possible without sacrifice.”

“Mathew!” Lord Barbatos interrupted.
“Aren’t you interested in saving your sister?”

“Don’t listen to him, Mathew!” Jin said.
“He is highly manipulative.”

Barbatos sniggered. “Listen to Jin and give
up your sister. Sacrifice her and join the Angels in a lost cause.”

Mathew stood glued to the ground,
immobilized by Barbatos’s taunt. Seeing his success, the Duke of Demons
continued. “You can save your sister if you join me. Let me guide you. A path
of glory is waiting for you. That is your true destiny, not the one designed by
Heaven.”

“He will kill you, Mathew. Don’t,” Gwyneth
said.

However the Demon interrupted. “Mathew,
think of your future. Your heart pines for your fellow friends, doesn’t it? It
can all stop, and I promise that your friends will all leave these plains,
alive.”