The Record of the Saints Caliber (72 page)

“S
MELL IT, WOMAN!
T
ELL ME IF IT MAKES YOUR NIPPLES AS HARD AS IT MAKES MY COCK!
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
G
O AHEAD, DIG YOUR FINGER INTO HIS PUSSY!
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
”

Buckthorn struggled to stand even as Hadraniel propped him up. He was mumbling and trembling with pain. Nuriel clenched her eyes shut and brought her fingers to his crotch. She could feel the terrible, warm, wetness consume her finger as the man howled in pain. Slowly, her arm trembling, she brought it to her nose. “It…it…it makes me want you…exalted…Kraken.”

“H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
T
HAT’S WHAT
I
THOUGHT!
B
LOOD AND PUSSY!
L
ET US CELEBRATE!
H
ADRANIEL, FUCK THIS MAN SO THAT HE MIGHT TRULY KNOW HE’S A WOMAN NOW!
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
A
ND YOU, MY WOMAN
S
AINT, YOU COME HERE AND KNOW THE
K
RAKEN’S TENTACLE!
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!”

Nuriel heard something of a whimper escape Hadraniel. She bit her lip, struggling to lift her eyes upon the monstrous man before her. He was looking down at her with those dark eyes. His shit-stinking beard bouncing as he laughed. Her lips turned up into a snarl all of their own accord. She hadn’t meant to say anything, but the word just pushed past her lips. “No.”

The very air seemed to go still. The dead silence may have only been a fraction of a second, but within that church it seemed an eternity.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!
WHAT DID YOU SAY?!
” The entire building shook.

Lightning couldn’t have struck faster than Nuriel had her sword out. “I said ‘no’. You fat, disgusting, monster.”

The stone beneath his feet began to crack and tremble. His very form seemed to grow larger, his shadow more consuming. A darkness with a terror all its own became his face. His bones cracked and popped as he held his arms out. His chest heaved, devouring the very air around him.

Nuriel stepped back, her sword held in an offensive position. Adrenaline surged in her. There was focus and clarity in her mind. She felt purpose within her body and mind. Battle was her thing. She knew that now. It wasn’t cutting down commoners or doing the will of Kings. It was battle. Battle with those who were her equal, or her better if it came to it. It was what she was born for. She was the youngest to ever receive her Call to Guard. The most powerful of her day. She smiled and flourished her sword. Battle. Battle was her calling.

Kraken roared as he tore the sword from his back. He held the massive handle in both hands, and Nuriel thought that the term ‘sword’ was not quite fitting. This was a slab of iron upon a handle. It was broad, heavy, rusted from years of blood. A weapon only this man could possibly wield.

With a bellow that shattered the windows of the church, Kraken brought his sword down. Like a flash of light Nuriel dodged to the side and leapt at him. Her sword bit into the side of his armor with the shrill moan of tearing steel, but he swatted out with his arm and Nuriel felt a wrecking-ball crash into her breastplate. She tumbled across the stone floor, bricks breaking and cracking beneath the weight of her armor, but she rolled right back onto her feet and shot in at him.

Nuriel leapt up, her black claymore a blur as she swung it around. Kraken had his titanic blade up in time to meet hers. To her surprise, his iron slab resisted her star-metal. Sparks of black and red exploded as Nuriel landed on her feet. She whirled her sword before he could get his own back down, and to the sound of shredding steel, the belly of his armor was torn wide open. Flesh oozed out of the gap; gelatinous, pale blobs trying to escape their confines.

“H
A!
H
A!
H
A
!” boomed Kraken, whipping his sword across, forcing Nuriel to leap back. “I
CAN’T BE KILLED
!” He brought his sword down and Nuriel leapt away as the floor exploded into fragments of stone. “I
CAN’T BE STOPPED!
” He whipped his sword around, pillars shattering like glass and Nuriel had to duck and tumble away. “I
AM THE
B
EHEMOTH!
” He stomped his foot and a shockwave tore through the church. Nuriel felt the floor heave and she was sent off balance. Kraken came in, his fist driving right into the side of her breastplate.

Despite her unbreakable armor, the shock of the impact was felt right into her core. Air was ripped from her lungs. She felt herself crash through a pillar, the broken stone raining down on her. She got to her hands and knees, struggling for breath. She felt her hair painfully bundle into his giant hand and she was lifted to her feet, her sword falling to the floor with a thunderous crack.

“H
A!
H
A!
H
A
!” he boomed, dangling her by her scalp before his face. “I
’M GOING TO FUCK YOU TO DEATH!
H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
” He brought her close and his giant, cow-like tongue invaded her mouth.

Nuriel choked as the wet, slimy mass slithered down the back of her throat. Her eyes teared up and she gagged. She flailed her arms and legs, reached behind her head and tried to pry his fingers from her hair, but the man’s strength was unnatural.

“H
A!
H
A!
H
A!
H
OW ABOUT
I
EAT YOUR PUSSY
!” he opened his gaping maw, revealing his large, white, horse-like teeth, and began to move in at her crotch.

Without thinking, Nuriel reached out a hand, her Caliber flaring a blinding white. She felt a massive slab of broken pillar within her Caliber’s grasp and brought her hand in, hurtling the stone from across the room toward him. Just before his mouth met her crotch, the heavy stone shattered into the side of his face and she felt herself fall. Her star-metal boots impacted the floor with the crunch of stone, and in less than a second she had her sword in her hand.

Kraken stood up, holding the side of his face, and Nuriel tumbled between his legs, standing up with her sword raised just as she passed beneath him. She felt her sword bite through armor and tissue. Blood rained down on her and she shot away, twisting and tearing her sword free as she did so.

Kraken howled in pain, the entire church shaking. He spun and looked at her, his dark eyes flashing with rage. Blood poured freely from between his legs. “YOU BITCH! YOU CUNT! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU!” He charged at her.

Nuriel spread her arms wide, feeling slabs of the stone floor and fragments of broken pillar gather into her Caliber’s grasp. The earth shook as Kraken came at her. She brought her arms together and hundreds of pounds of brick and stone smashed into him from both sides. He staggered for a moment and Nuriel leapt into the air, her sword a blinding flourish. She felt tissue tear; felt blood spray. She landed behind him and turned.

Kraken turned too. His left eye torn open in a horrific, bloody wound. He roared and stomped his foot. This time Nuriel leapt in at him before the shockwave could strike her. She swung her sword in mid-air, but Kraken got his slab of iron up in time to meet it.

Nuriel landed next to him and rolled back just as Kraken’s sword impacted the ground. She jumped up onto it, it’s broad blade making a nice little ramp for her to run up and drive her sword right between his eyes. Nuriel twisted and tore her sword out, blood and brain matter flying, leaving a gaping hole in his forehead. She flipped back, landing on her feet in front of him.

Kraken released his blade. It fell to the floor with a boom. His hands went to his forehead and he staggered back. Nuriel watched in disgust as the man removed his giant hands from his face and blood flowed out of the wound like water from a faucet. His eyes crossed for a moment, and Nuriel thought for sure he was going to fall backwards, dead. Instead, Kraken’s remaining eye found hers and his lips twisted up into a terrible smile.

Nuriel gasped.

Kraken’s face started to ooze from his helmet. It fell to the floor, trailing with it massive amounts of pale, gelatinous flesh. The giant blob hit the floor with a wet smack and Nuriel backed up. The empty shell of Behemoth’s armor collapsed to the floor behind it with a terrible clamor. The mountain of misshapen flesh began to coalesce up into something vaguely humanoid in form, though it had no apparent skeletal structure and seemed quite immobile. It had thick stumps for legs that were curled up around it, and hideously oversized genitalia. Its arms were long and drooping with excess fat and skin; its body round and rippled with many folds. Its head was somewhat flat; a deflated and deformed likeness of Kraken’s, with the long black beard hanging down. It cursed Nuriel in a garbled, slurred tongue; something not quite as booming or powerful as Kraken’s voice had been, but instead more demonic.

“Nuriel, watch out!” shouted Hadraniel.

Nuriel spun just in time to see Hadraniel dash in with his sword. Kraken’s mighty horse was charging through the church’s broken entryway, hot breath smoking from its mouth and nostrils, its eyes glowing a bloody red beneath its serpentine helmet. The horse reared up, kicking its legs, and Hadraniel was forced to skid to a halt and leap back. The horse brought its massive hooves down with a crash. Its teeth opened and closed, chattering like some sort of otherworldly insect.

“My baby!” the horse rasped in a voice that sounded like a thousand independent tongues speaking as one. “My baby! Give me my baby!”

The horse’s four legs slid out to the side from under it, its body coming to rest upon the floor. Its legs began to split into pairs and stretch out, transforming into something like tentacles, eight in all. Its heavy, green armor began to slough off like an unneeded shell. It’s body arched up and came up toward its head and they joined and fused into something like a bulbous, black body. The horse’s face elongated into a sharp, curved beak, and to Nuriel’s surprise she found herself looking at some sort of demonic, tentacled, creature.

“Give me my baby!” it rasped, and scuttled forward on its tentacles.

Hadraniel flourished his sword, swiping at the creature as it came, but it bowled past him and he was forced to leap to the side. Nuriel was next, and it brought a tentacle down at her but she sliced at it with her sword before rolling to the left. She regrouped with Hadraniel just as the creature came upon the mound of flesh that had been Behemoth Kraken. It scuttled on top of it protectively and turned to face Nuriel and Hadraniel.

“My baby! My baby! I’ll find you a new home. I promise. We’ll find you a new home.”

“He was a fucking Infernal!” shouted Hadraniel, looking upon the creatures with the same disgust as Nuriel.

“Two Infernals.” said Nuriel. “Him and his horse. We should’ve known.”

There were basically three types of demons all Saints were taught about at Sanctuary: Bounds, Unbounds and Infernals. Bound demons were shackled to Hell. Usually they were the charred forms of those doomed to Apollyon’s torment, other times they manifested as something more bestial. All bound demons lacked the ability to walk freely upon the earth. To do so, they had to be escorted by a more powerful Unbound. The typical bound demon hardly posed a threat to a Saint. However, in numbers they could be quite dangerous, and of course, you’d have to contend with their escort, who was invariably a powerful Unbound or Infernal.

It could take ages for bound demons to shed the weight of their sins and torment, but when they did, they could become true demonic beings, known as Unbounds. To become Unbound, a bound demon had to shed the weight of its sins through torment, proving itself worthy to Apollyon. Once it did, it was given a Golothic: an artifact of Hell. ‘Golothic’ was a demonic word that meant ‘a promise bound by sacrifice’. A Golothic was a manifestation of Apollyon’s very will.

To become one of the terrible Unbounds, the demon had to trick a mortal into taking its Golothic. This was tantamount to selling one’s soul to the demon, and some people needed more tricking than others. The trick for the demon was in giving the Golothic to the most pure and innocent person he could, for the more pure the soul, the more power Apollyon would grant the demon. Once given, the Golothic became a bind between the person and the demon. The demon would grant a favor, and in time the person would give up his soul. Unfortunately for the person, the Golothic always exacted a terrible price. Only once the demon gave a mortal its Golothic did it become Unbound from Hell, free to walk the mortal earth at its leisure.