Gods and their Saints I needed this. The heat of my blood, the sweat on my brow, the satisfaction of cutting something's head off. Oh, I've missed this.
Mak and I plow through a street down in the southern quarter just outside the castle gates. Darius killed everything inside in those few seconds after he blew Xaxias to the underworld and back. He was not happy to say the least, though I can't say I was much better off after finding the Mater bleeding and her throat red from being choked.
Thankfully, the explosives were in fact fake and the powder nowhere nearby, and the castle still stands. The three hundred people left untouched by the Pater's rage all flew out of that ballroom like witches on brooms. I brought Mak with me to close the gates so no one could get out, and so nothing can get in. They all panic in the courtyard, even as Tanith grabs their minds and has them joining hands in large groups so we can mist them out quicker.
But there are three-hundred Gods be damned people.
"I think we bit off more than we can chew," Mak yells, giving a quick glance to the gates behind us.
I bring down a Wailing Krov, freezing it in time and beheading the nasty little beast. "When have you known us to back down from a challenge?"
She impales the body of a scrawny man possessed by an Ashmodai, then tosses the body into a nearby fire we lit for that reason. Without destroying the body the Asmodai will repossess it, missing limbs and all. "I'm just saying. The others won't be able to fight if they drain themselves with that shit - fuck!"
I duck beneath the claws of a Scurii as it flies overhead. It aims for the gates but gets frozen midair before it can. I behead a Hell Hound and then shoot an arrow to cut off the tail of the Scurii. It falls to the ground, now nothing more than the dust it rose from. "I hate those bastards."
"Well here comes a whole flock!"
I look up, seeing the dozen Scurii that pursue the same standing prey behind us. "We could really use some duplicates right about now."
"Sorry to be a disappointment." I glare at Mak in between killing two Nidras. Their serpentine bodies shrivel at the death blows.
I face off the Raver that all the lower demons step aside to let through. "Just get up there."
She looks between me and the Raver, offending me with her hesitation to do as I say.
"Nice knowing you."
She sheaths her swords and spreads her arms wide. A quick flash and an orange-tipped cinereous vulture shoots to the sky towards the Scurri. I don't watch to see how she faces off the dozen demons. Not when there's a drooling Raver prowling towards me, its claws clicking on the cobblestone and scales gleaming against the firelight.
"I don't suppose you'll be nice and make this easy?" Its mouth opens, that small blue light at the back of its throat glowing. The only warning of the chaotic scream about to shatter your eardrums. "Didn't think so."
A flick of my wrist and the Raver's body turns into a statue. A throwing knife hurtles for that light and I take off in a run. Restarting time, the Raver's voice cuts off with a choke as the knife drives home, and I slide on the ground beneath the beast while it's distracted and slice through its throat, all four knees, and drive my sword from sternum to tail through its body. When I roll and stand, now behind the demon, I find it laying on its side bleeding out. The lower demons screech their anger.
"Oh, shut up." I toss a hand over my shoulder and cut off their screams as I stride for the lame beast.
Nilsa mists in at the head of the Raver then, the Mater beside her. I sniff for her injuries finding them healed and the blood on her stomach and face still fresh but not oozing. Kat will not be happy about the ruined dress.
"Oh, good timing," I greet them both. I point a thumb to the lower demons behind me all still held in my mental grasp. "You mind?"
Nilsa smirks at them and I fold my power back within myself, letting her have her own fun. "Above you," I tell the Mater as she opens her mouth. She looks up to where Mak takes down another Scurii, then tears the wings off of a few with her own power.
Someone's in a mood.
I bend down in front of the Raver still twitching and fighting to live. It'll heal itself in a few minutes, which would've been seconds if I hadn't done so much damage. I hold in a gag and thrust my hand into its chest and past the now severed cartilage of its ribs, to the heart beneath. "Gods I hate this shit."
With a hard yank, I relieve the demon of its heart, then toss it into the fire before I can process the gooey gelatin feeling of the organ. A shiver creeps its way up my spine like chills.
"I really fucking hate that shit."
"You got some on your face," Nilsa calls, walking back for the Mater with her sword sitting on her shoulder, the bloody wake of the demons she clearly gave no mercy to flooding the streets. The asshole doesn't have a spec of demon blood on her.
"I like bathing in the blood of my kills."
Mak lands on the ground on her own two feet, the vulture now gone with the Scurii all dead. At least, those on this end are.
"How many are left?" I ask Mak.
"Half."
Nilsa and I curse at the slow progress of getting those people out. A hundred and fifty people left to still get out of this hell hole.
"What of the demons?" Clarice asks, her eyes pinned to the ground. She's taking an inventory of her own.
"They're chasing anyone they can through the city, but they are all heading straight for the courtyard."
"We need to get those people out. Now."
Clarice stops Nilsa's movement to help our sisters in the courtyard. "We have something bigger to deal with."
I sigh up at the sky. "How many Banevenin's?"
"It's not them. I already killed them before they could rise from their nests." All of shoot our brows upward in only slight shock.
Well damn. When in ten hells did she do that?
"Then what is it?" Mak asks.
Her hands splay toward the floor, feeling for whatever it is she's tracking. "Something that swims."
"For fuck's sake. I was really hoping we wouldn't meet any sea monsters tonight."
"Yes you were," Nilsa counters, carrying a smirk that says she was hoping for one too.
Can you blame us? We've been bored for ten years - and while we're aware that bigger and badder demons aren't a good sign, it's still way more fun than fighting more Wailing Krovs and Ashmodai's all night.
"How far out is it?" I ask.
Clarice's head tilts to the side slightly, eyes narrowing. "Ten minutes, give or take."
"That gives us five minutes to get their asses out of here." Clarice doesn't stop us this time as we all turn and walk for the gates. I take her hand and mist us into the center of the mass. Tanith stands there, arms widespread and eyes glowing silver.
"Count us in," I tell her.
Three new groups of thirty people separate and link hands and we head for them. The water around the courtyard rises from its calm state and forms a dome over our heads. The two trees on either side of us begin to move with it, though they form their dome over Tanith and herself.
"Be back in a sec!" Mak calls, then mists out with her thirty, Nilsa on her tail, and then myself.
I drop my group into the King's Garden of Fernweh castle, glancing at the highly overpopulated area before leaving them in the care of healers who rush over. I return to Cadorelin and take another group already ready. I repeat it a few more times before everyone's out and all that's left are all eight of my sisters, the others more tired than me, Nilsa, and Mak. Tanith's arms are still widespread and her eyes silver.
"Go to the quarters," Clarice orders.
A location appears in my head thanks to Tanith, and then I'm misting to the western quarter and find a whole living room full of cramped people.
I beam at them. "Hi!"
I take the woman's hand closest to me and get them all to Fernweh.
A new location waits for me when I return to Tanith. Three more trips and she finally releases a long breath, her power with it. "That's all of them."
"Well, almost all of them."
We look up to find demons ramming themselves into the water dome.
The dome snaps then, entrapping the demons who were stupid enough to be near it. The branches of the trees strike quick and fast, severing necks, hearts, and tails. Soon the dome is tainted black with blood, and the water falls back into the small pool around us, sloshing against the dead grass.
"Anyone have a match?" Clarice asks casually, not looking like that tired her out one bit. I don't know how she's still standing after tonight, but I'm liking this part of the Mayer Natura.
Tsillah disappears randomly. We hear a window smash nearby, then she returns with a shard and holds it out. Kathika shoots a light beam through it. A few seconds and it sparks fire on the dead grass. Tanith uses the shard to dig out the small flame from the dirt, then throws it into the water. It lights like a trench.
I suppose it's a good thing that demon blood is flammable.
"Right. To the sea monster then?" I ask Clarice.
"Sea monster?" Serephina exclaims, eyes wide and hungry.
"You six go help Darius. We'll be there when we can."
"But-"
"Go." Dee, Mak, Inna, Tanith, Kathika, and Tsillah all pout at the fact that they don't get to fight a sea monster. We haven't come across one yet, but I sure as shit am glad that I'm not one of them.
They mist to where Darius and the Bhaltayr currently hold Xaxias in the northern quarter. I'm fairly certain that there won't be much of a wildflower field left after tonight.
Nilsa, Vanya, and I mist the Mater to the southern quarter on a rooftop that overlooks the quiet port. The ships and boats sit quietly on the docks, their sails tied up and abandoned. Ships anchored further out don't show any signs of a sea monster beneath them.
"I thought it was supposed to be here by now?"
"It is."
I follow Clarice's gaze to the eastern point. I have to squint to still see nothing. I start to question her abilities when something breaks through the surface.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Vanya mumbles, suddenly regretting her choice of coming along.
Three spiked fins split through the water, along with two large tentacles that look similar to that of an octopus. A deep rumble vibrates through the water, shaking the small waves that lap against the shore.
"I have a really bad feeling about this."
The three fins approach the far ends of the longest docks, pushing aside the large ships as the monster's scaled back rises from the water. Those tentacles extended from the thing's shoulders, the head following as it smashes wood beneath its spindly, long-nailed, hands.
Gods and their Saints that's one big mouth. A single row of gigantic teeth lines its border, the gentle welcome to the blazing maw. Why does everything always have to have some kind of deathly fire coming out of their mouths?
It looks reptilian. Scaled and spiked all around its head and neck. Its chest is thick, slimming in its torso and shorter back legs. It's like some kind of dragon-headed, fish-finned, tentacled, demon-handed, spiked, monster. It's a monster.
"Oh, I so regret coming with you guys." I'm inclined to agree with Vanya. This...this is not what I had in mind. "Uh, guys? Where's the Mater?"
I whirl around, eyes scavenging the rooftop for Clarice. She's not here - of course she fucking isn't! I curse up a storm and go to the edge of the roof and look down. Lo and behold the Gods gifted woman is walking down the street, straight for the thing that could swallow her whole.
We jump over the wall, misting to her side. "I'm assuming you have a plan?" I ask her.
"Do you know how to kill it?"
"If we knew how to kill it, that's what we'd be doing." I scowl at Nilsa's sass.
"Beheading and heart-ripping?" Vanya suggests.
The Mater turns left down the next street, following it as it heads for the castle. It moves oddly slow for what you'd expect. "It doesn't have a heart."
"Well that's just peachy," I say sarcastically.
"And I don't think we'll be cutting through that neck." Nilsa's right. We'd need a giant and his giant ax to do that.
"Wait, how do you know it doesn't have a heart?"
"I couldn't feel a heartbeat while it was in the water. Only its breathing." Fair enough, then. "There's a membrane between its brow. Completely exposed and soft as a pillow. That's how we kill it."
"You want us...to go up there...and stab it in the head?"
"Now that we're on the same page, get to work. I'll keep it distracted. Oh, and don't be near the membrane when you cut it open. I'm sixty percent sure that's where it stores the fire or whatever it is it breathes. Wouldn't want you to fry like a chicken on a spit."
She turns sharply around the corner of a building. I jump the next steps to follow, only to find she's burst into an outright sprint for the damn monster. I debate running after her.
"How in ten hells are we supposed to get up there without getting impaled on those spikes or caught by the tentacles?" Vanya asks, craning her neck to see it.
"Not to mention stay out of its eyesight," Nilsa adds. "It's got thirty-two of them watching every angle of our possible attack onto the membrane."
I'm beginning to think the Mater gave us the hard part and set us up to fail.
Sighing, I spread my feet and ready my body for the oh so much fun to come. "Well, we're not going to figure it out by standing here and looking at it like it's an antique painting. Come on. Let's get this over with."
I unsheath two long knives from my hips and mist up to the tallest building by its front leg. Nilsa mists right beneath it, Vanya several blocks away on its other side. I debate waiting for the mater's distraction when the ground beneath its arm suddenly caves into a sinkhole. It leans to one side at the imbalance, and the ground seals around the elbow before it can right itself.
I don't wait and mist into the air above it, free-falling to find that membrane she mentioned. It's right where she said it was, and glowing a bright teal. Someone calls my name in a warning and I look up to see one of those massive tentacles aiming to crush me. I mist back to the rooftop before it can, landing hard on my shoulder and rolling until I hit the wall.
The floor groans as I stand, quaking the roof a little. I run for the edge looking up to see Nilsa now falling through the air. The beast turns its head as she grows closer. She's forced to mist to avoid one of those damn spikes killing her.
Below me the ground cracks. "Shit."
I mist a block back, just making it before it pulled its foot out of the ground and crushes the building I had stood upon. Its other leg gets sucked into a sinkhole, this one deeper. Behind me the sound of water rushing has me turning to find the ocean waves growing larger and larger, slowly putting the small shops closest to the docks beneath it.
I have no idea where the Mater is, but she is really angry.
Misting to Vanya's rooftop I get there just as she mists above me. I catch her in my chest, cushioning her fall when the impact takes me out. "Ow."
"Thanks." I grunt as she rolls off of me, my ribs not having liked the hit.
"Any ideas?" Nilsa misted here too, but she was smart enough not to help Vanya. I stand and dust myself off, which really only smudges blood all over my leather and armor. I'm going to hate scrubbing that off later. "Can you hold it?"
I shake my head. "At the beginning of the night, maybe, but I don't have enough energy left to keep the entirety of it still long enough for you two to get up there."
"Can we mist right onto the membrane?"
Vanya shoots down Nilsa's suggestion with a shake of her head. "Those spikes aren't solid like horns. They move. If we get close they'll impale us on the spot before we can penetrate the membrane."
"And we're sure it's a thin membrane and not like the Banevenin's encased heart?"
"It moves like a sack of water," Vanya answers. "It's thin."
I start listing all the facts in my head. The dos and don'ts and possibilities and what could work and what definitely won't. None of us say a thing, all trying to come up with a plan. It gets its leg free again, only for both of its back legs to go under next. It roars its anger and we slap our hands to our ears and crouch down away from it.
It's no Raver's scream, but it's loud as hell.
I peek over the wall. Its back legs are stuck all the way thanks to their shorter length. Water rushes past them, now moving with double the speed and force as it takes a block in seconds.
"I know how to get to the membrane."
"What!" Vanya yells, hands still plastered to her head.
"The membrane! I know how to get to it!"
"Now's not the time to be thinking about food, Rohana!"
I flip Nilsa off.
"I said-" The beast stops roaring then, and I stand and look for where Clarice could be hiding. "I know how to kill it."
"Well don't just stand there and expect us to know your plan."
"Where's the Mater?"
"In the chapel's clock tower," Nilsa answers, pointing to the tall tower in the distance of the eastern quarter.
Good, then she's far enough. Wait how..how in ten hells did she get all the way over there so quickly?
Nevermind.
"The tentacles are its first defense. I misted higher above it and it used those to keep from getting closer. Nilsa went lower and it tried hitting her with those larger horns around its neck. And we can't get close to the membrane without the moving spikes killing us. So we trick it."
I tell them my plan quickly, eyeing the quickly rising shoreline. When I finish they leave to their positions. I hop on my toes, praying to the Gods and their Saints that Clarice can hold its back legs for the next two minutes. Otherwise, we're as good as dead.
"They better build me a big ass marble statue for this."
The waves overtake the next block and I mist high above the sea demon for a second time. Nilsa's power wraps around me, distorting my view for a few ripples before it resettles, spreading her illusion and hiding my fall. A squinted glance above and I see her replica of me and the tentacles swiping for it. I look back down at the closing distance and focus myself. Just where Vanya said I spot the moving spikes around the membrane. My power fills in my chest, readying to release. Closer and closer I fall, but I don't let it go. Not until Vanya's body appears ten yards beneath my own.
She twists her knives to form an "X" over her head, and I stop the spikes in time. She flips in the air, tucking her knees to her chest, and lands right on the membrane that ripples like water at her impact.
The beast roars again, its head bucking so fast that I end up hitting one of its horns and slam into the scales of its neck. The two impacts knock the air out of me, blurring my vision enough to have my power slip slightly. I shove it back outwards forcefully, keeping my focus there while my lungs figure their shit out.
I try taking several breaths but none of them take. Not while my diaphragm has been shocked into a spasm and can't expand. A short panic starts to scrape my mind when the muscle finally rights
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