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  ?Chapter 58. Meeting Adjourned

  The smoke cloud continued to billow outwards to envelop the room, momentarily blocking out the lights but causing no harm to the assembled combatants. The smoke was so thick, it obscured Bruno and Delilah, although they stood less than an arm’s length away.

  Jeremiah heard Lyle incanting in a low voice, then a ripple went through the smoke, and he felt a pulse of familiar wrongness . “He summoned something!” he shouted.

  A rush of wind pushed the heavy smoke backwards. Delilah was holding the end of a hose emitting a constant powerful airstream, the other end of which snaked back inside the Giant’s Bag. The heavy cloud resisted the wind, but gradually Delilah cleared the space around them, pushing the smoke back against the walls, where it smeared and stained the fabric of the tapestries.

  The wind also revealed a trio of demons, and Lyle nowhere in sight.

  The first demon scuttled up the wall the moment the smoke cleared. It had the shape of a huge spider, but its limbs were made of barbed chains. The chains bulged and writhed, dribbling blood from between the twisting links. Over the grinding of metal, Jeremiah heard muffled screams from within it.

  The spider demon reached the corner of the ceiling and screeched, then launched a single chain link, red with heat, at the assembled group. The link landed at Allison’s feet and exploded against her armor, sending her stumbling backwards and the others diving for cover.

  The next demon had not moved from where it stood at the center of the room. The ram-headed beast with its violet flame surveyed the group, raising its open hands in a welcoming gesture, but Jeremiah didn’t have time to contemplate its desires, because at that moment, the third demon sprang into action.

  With an ear-splitting roar, the demon, which had the form of an immense ape as large as a troll, crossed the room in a single bound. It’s head was grotesquely oversized and misshapen, with a distended lower jaw that wobbled and swung as it charged. With one swipe of a massive paw, it sent the guards flying.

  “ A gorugun demon ,” said Flusoh’s voice in Jeremiah’s mind. “ A big brute, but quite straightforward.”

  Delilah raised her longspear and charged the ape, gouging the spear head deep into its thigh. It swatted her aside with the back of its hand.

  “Regroup on me!” cried Allison. More royal guards were pouring into the room. She dodged another explosion from the spider demon, and hurled herself towards the ape’s legs.

  There was no response from the guards to Allison’s order. Jeremiah poked his head around the toppled chair he crouched behind, and spotted them, surrounding and attacking the ram demon, who continued to stand, statuesque, in the center of the room. Their non-magical weapons seemed unable to break the demon’s hide.

  “ A Baphocyst, neat! ” said Flusoh. “ A mesmerizer, have fun with that one. ”

  As Jeremiah watched, one guard fell to his knees. “Glory! Glory to the true horned god! My blood for you, my bones for you!” Tears of rapturous joy streamed down his face.

  “Dean, what the hell are you doing?” said another guard. “Get up!”

  “He’s gone mad!” said another. “He thinks he’s worthy of the horned one’s gaze!”

  “I’ll not have one of my men turning traitor against the Empress!” the head guard turned his spear on the supplicant, skewering him through the neck.

  The mote of flame pulsed brighter. Jeremiah glanced at it, and in an instant, everything made sense.

  There was only one being worthy of power in the universe; Baphomet. It was just true. A simple and beautiful truth, something you could be sure about, truly sure about. How could you not strive to be held in Baphomet’s regard? It made no sense to do anything else.

  Gus kicked hard in his robes

  “Don’t look at the flame!” Jeremiah shouted.

  At that moment, Jeremiah’s chair exploded. In his rapture, he’d forgotten the spider demon. His arms were lacerated by burning splinters, but at least the ram’s mesmer over him seemed to be broken.

  The guards’ squabbling was beginning to turn violent. They raised sword and spear against another, the ram forgotten, barely even slowed by another explosion in their midst.

  Bruno loosed an arrow at the spider. “Jay, we have to stop that chain thing! It’s ruining the rightful worship of the He Who Dwells!” The spider hissed, its rasping voice mingled with distant screams, and began firing projectiles towards Bruno instead, forcing him to run for cover.

  Allison’s roar of anger drew Jeremiah’s attention. The ape gripped her around the torso, and held her aloft even as it roared in annoyance at Delilah’s darting spear jabs.

  “Let me go!” Allison punctuated her words with axe gouges into the ape’s fingers. She wrenched the axe and one of the ape’s fingers was severed. The ape roared with fury, and shook her, whipping her back and forth through the air. When the shaking stopped, Allison hung limp in the its fist.

  “Allison!” cried Jeremiah. He cast an acid ball and launched it at the ape. It sizzled and burned away layers of fur and skin, sending globs of acid down towards Delilah who was trying to pierce it’s knee.

  In one smooth motion, the ape hurled Allison at Jeremiah and seized Delilah. Allison’s armored form collided with Jeremiah like a battering ram, knocking them both backwards. Her weight was crushing on top of him, she was so much heavier than she looked.

  “Al, wake up!” he gasped, trying to wriggle free.

  Allison didn’t respond.

  Jeremiah finally worked a hand free and flipped her visor up. “Allison!”

  With a start, Allison came to. Her eyes focused on Jeremiah, and she rolled to the side. “Sit rep!”

  Blessed air rushed back into Jeremiah’s lungs. Some of his ribs were bruised, but he couldn’t worry about that now. “Help Delilah!”

  Allison spotted the Ape hooting and waving Delilah around like a ragdoll, and rushed to help. Jeremiah clambered to his feet, clutching his side, and spotted Bruno, now loosing arrow after arrow at the remaining guards, still trying to murder each other amid the explosions.

  “Bruno! What are you doing?” cried Jeremiah, reaching to lower his bow.

  “They are unworthy, they are all unworthy of His promise.” The magic bowstring sang as the mechanism of Bruno’s prosthetic released again and again. Another guard fell, a fountain of blood erupting around Bruno’s arrow lodged in his throat.

  “Stop!” Jeremiah swiped at the bow, but Bruno twirled out of reach. “You’re mesmerized, snap out of it!”

  The last guard fell to Bruno’s arrow, and with a roar of triumph, Bruno turned towards Jeremiah, who immediately abandoned his attempts and leapt for cover. Bruno’s bow sang and an arrow grazed the back of Jeremiah’s calf.

  “Delilah, lay down some smoke!” Jeremiah called.

  Delilah was lying stunned where she’d been discarded by the enraged ape, one leg crumpled beneath her, as the ape grabbed with both hands at the frantically evading Allison. At Jeremiah’s word, she nodded weakly, and pulled a flask from the Giant’s Bag.

  An explosion rocked her as she’d cocked her arm to throw it, sending her and the flask tumbling and releasing the cloud of gray smokescreen around her. The ape finally caught Allison again, and stuffed her into its hanging mouth. The dangling lower jaw suddenly snapped upward like a sprung trap, the teeth sparking and denting the magic armor.

  “Bruno!” Jeremiah screamed on reflex, only to duck his head back down as an arrow sailed through the space his head had occupied. “Oh, right.” He stretched his senses towards one of the fallen guards.

  Rise.

  Three of the guards littering the floor surrounding the ram climbed to their feet and charged towards Bruno. As Bruno pivoted to evade them, Jeremiah dashed out of cover and made for Delilah’s smoke cloud.

  The cloud was so thick, Jeremiah was instantly blinded. Thankfully, Delilah caught his arm before he could collide with her. “Bruno or Allison?” she asked.

  “Allison,” he said. “We need her to take down the goat thing.”

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  “ Baphocyst,” Flusoh reminded him.

  “Okay,” said Delilah. “I can get her free, but I need you to cover me.”

  At once, Jeremiah raised the rest of the fallen guards and ordered them to attack the ape. Delilah didn’t say a word, but Jeremiah felt her move away. Mere moments later, he became aware of his zombies being torn asunder. He hoped Delilah had had the time to do whatever she was going to do.

  Another explosion went off far too close, and Jeremiah’s smoke cloud was dispersed. His ears ringing, he nearly missed the twang of Bruno’s bow just before an arrow buried deep into his shoulder. “Arghhh!”

  “Accept the Lord of the Deep or perish.” Bruno loosed another arrow as Jeremiah flung himself to the side, deliberately choosing to fall on his injured shoulder. He grunted with both pain and satisfaction as Bruno’s arrow went wide, anticipating a dodge in the other direction.

  There was a roar of rage behind him, and Jeremiah whirled to see Allison drop to the ground, her armor sporting new dents from its time in the ape’s jaws, but otherwise unharmed. Delilah’s longspear jutting from the ape’s cheek and a riot of smoke and sparks erupting inside it’s mouth.

  “I’ll slow down Bruno,” Delilah said, reaching into the Giant’s Bag, “you guys take down that goat!”

  “Don’t look at its horns,” huffed Jeremiah as he and Allison sprinted towards the ram centaur. Allison nodded once and turned her head to the side, regarding their target with her peripheral vision.

  “Your blood is fit to sate His—oh god no not again!” Bruno broke off with a yelp as a pouch smashed against his armor. He began scratching at himself, dropping his bow to frantically claw at the gaps in his armor in a mad jig.

  With a battle cry, Allison leapt the final few yards to the ram and slashed her axe across its flank, body checking its bulk to stay beneath the sight of its mesmerizing flame.

  The ram did not react, except to turn its head slowly towards Allison. No blood sprung from the wound. The blow was accompanied with an odd tearing sound, like a stack of paper being ripped in half.

  Jeremiah reached the ram and began hacking at it with his magic dagger. Whereas the mundane weapons of the guards had failed to penetrate its hide, the magically enhanced weapon sliced through easily. He slashed at it again and again, watching as the violet skin parted to reveal a strange papery flesh that tore and crumbled away from his knife.

  “Jay, look out!”

  With a shout, Jeremiah fell backwards from a dark, angry cloud that spewed forth from the Ram’s wounds. With a menacing buzz, the cloud streamed into the air, pulsing and undulating, before diving back down towards him.

  Swatting at the cloud. It enveloped him, and suddenly he was within a hurricane of buzzing, angry wasps. Their tiny heads were those of people, all moaning and wailing as they stung with long razor stingers. Jeremiah was being covered in searing red welts as the cloud swirled around him.

  “ Oh, lookit that!” said Flusoh. “It was a hellwasp nest this whole time! Very interesting species. Invasive to the Abyss actually, quite the ecological problem down there. ”

  With the concentration born only through brutal training, Jeremiah shoved the incredible pain aside and focused. He spoke the words, exhaled his own cloud, a sickly poisonous gas that soon enveloped the swarm surrounding him. He held his breath as the stings slowed so as not to breathe in his own poison.

  The insects were falling all around him, but it wasn’t fast enough. Jeremiah swayed on his feet. Only then did he notice the welts all over his body were tinged with green, creeping poison making its way into his veins.

  The angry cloud around him was gone now, but its damage had been done. Jeremiah watched the scene before him as though in slow motion—Allison tearing through the body of the ram, which seemed to crumple as more and more wasps swarmed out of it. Bruno was no longer dancing, but had picked his bow back up and was exchanging volleys with the spider demon, leaping constantly from point to point to evade the explosions.

  “More gas…need to make more gas,” Jeremiah thought, as he watched the rest of the hellwasps coalesce into a new swarm and dive towards Allison. He muttered the magic words as darkness encroached on his vision and prepared to cast.

  Another sting on the back of his neck, and Jeremiah nearly breathed poison gas directly into Delilah’s face. She retracted the needle and said something to him, but all he could hear was his own heartbeat. Her face blurred and pulsed with the sound.

  Then she grew clearer, and the graying world was rushed through with color. Jeremiah gasped as all the noise he’d missed slammed into his eardrums at once and his heart raced.

  “No time to explain,” Delilah was saying. “Need you to take care of—”

  She was yanked off her feet mid-sentence, back in the grasp of the enraged ape. The spear was gone from its cheek, leaving a purple bloody mess behind. Delilah screamed as the ape tilted back its head and raised her over his mouth.

  “Shit shit shit!” Allison charged the ape, hellwasp swarm and all. It didn’t seem concerned about her axe biting into its legs, but when the swarm began to sting at his flesh as well, it yowled and squealed in pain, turning away from the half-elven morsel and swatting at the source of its agony.

  A nearby explosion interrupted Jeremiah’s calculations, and Bruno dashed past, twisting to avoid another projectile. “Can you give me a hand with this thing!?” he asked. “All my arrows do is annoy it!”

  Jeremiah opened his mouth to try and cast an acid ball, when he heard Flusoh’s voice again.

  “It’s a Chain Sepulchre. Technically not a demon, but only demons know how to make one. Buncha souls crammed in there. Look for a blood red chain link—it’s the one that never moves. Break that and the whole thing falls apart.”

  Jeremiah relayed the information to Bruno.

  “How the hell do you know that?!” Bruno yelled back, scurrying between the Chain Sepulchre’s legs and using its own body for cover.

  “Wait, how do I know that?” thought Jeremiah, “how do I know any of this?”

  He knew some things about demons. But names? Weaknesses? He’d never studied them that much in detail.

  “F-Flusoh?” thought Jeremiah.

  “What?” answered Flusoh.

  “Flusoh are you talking to me right now!?” thought Jeremiah.

  “Obviously?” said Flusoh.

  “Since when?! How long have you been doing that? Can you read my thoughts?”

  “How is this surprising? You can hear me can’t you?”

  “Well yeah, I mean sort of. It just feels like thoughts I’m thinking.”

  “What did you think telepathy sounded like? You weren’t going to hear me.”

  “But I didn’t-”

  “Focus!

  Jeremiah ducked another explosion. The ape seemed to have decided the hellwasps were Allison’s fault, and had seized her again, roaring as the stings peppered his hands and face, swinging both her and Delilah through the swarm like fly swatters.

  “Goddammit stop picking me up!” Allison laid into the ape, switching to her sword and sliding the blade up into it’s wrist, popping tendons with meaty twang . Enough of the ape’s fingers went limp that it dropped her, but immediately started grasping for her again.

  Struck by sudden inspiration, Jeremiah rushed towards them. He picked a tile just beyond the current melee, and rapidly inscribed If Contact, Adhere into its surface, and charged it. It was the fastest he had ever inscribed anything in his life, and it was perfect.

  “Allison, stand here!” Jeremiah pointed to his diagram, then scrambled out of the way as his friend leapt towards it.

  She stomped her foot into the tile and the magic surged. Delilah still in his other fist, the ape swiped to grab her again.

  This time Allison didn’t budge and began hacking at the ape’s wrist. It barked in outrage, and pulled on her harder, straining to lift the warrior. Jeremiah feared Allison’s leg would be pulled off, but fortunately the armor was taking the pressure.

  The ape, in mounting rage, spiked Delilah into the ground. She bounced and went stiff as a board, hands curling up and eyes rolling back in her head. It seized Allison with both hands, ignoring even the attacks of the hellwasps, so fixated it was on failing to lift Allison. “Put your back into it!” she yelled.

  Jeremiah ran to where Delilah had landed. Jeremiah jammed his hand in the Giant’s Bag, “That thing she waves under people’s noses when they’re knocked out.” he thought. In his hand appeared that exact item, a small corked vial. He waved it under her nose and she gasped, startling back to consciousness.

  “It has a heart!” she gasped out, “I could feel its pulse, it has an axillary artery, the layout is similar to a human’s, get my spear and stab it deep!”

  It hurt his soul to leave her, but he did, turning to survey the room. All furniture had been reduced to splinters and debris, around which Bruno continued to leap and twist, arrow after arrow searching for the key link. Jeremiah shut out the distraction of Allison’s tussle with the ape and the near constant explosions from the spider and focused.

  There! The haft of the longspear was the only unbroken piece of wood in a pile of crushed chairs, its magical properties protecting it.

  As Jeremiah hurried to retrieve the weapon, Bruno let out a whoop of triumph. “Gotcha, you leggy sonuvabitch!” The tortured screams that had been backdrop to the battle rose to a trembling fever pitch, then the chain sepulcher exploded, flecks of metal ricocheting hard enough to shatter stone.

  Absent the constant tattoo of explosions, the only sounds were Allison and the ape screaming at each other. “Bruno, help me with this,” said Jeremiah, hefting the longspear.

  The ape paid them no mind as they approached with the weapon, but continued roaring in fury and yanking on Allison while she cut it’s arms to ribbons. Jeremiah thrust the spear as deep as he could into the ape’s back, under the ribs and upward. Bruno gripped the haft behind him, and together they drove the spear into the demon. The demon’s dense muscle resisted the killing blow until Delilah grabbed ahold as well,

  “Push with your legs not your arms!” she growled, and the head of the spear drove into the demon’s core.

  With a final agonized roar, the ape shuddered and collapsed. Jeremiah quickly cast his poison breath to relieve Allison from the hellwasp swarm, and broke the enchantment holding her in place. Delilah limped over to check her for injuries when a cackling laugh echoed around the chamber, making his blood run cold.

  “My, my, quite the show,” said Lyle, “I have to say, that was much more entertaining than the usual cabinet meeting.” The space above the table began to distort and change color like the air itself were bleeding. Lyle stepped from the warped distortion, coalescing from the mix of colors.

  “Face us, coward,” growled Allison.

  Jeremiah’s entire body throbbed with pain, but the thought of taking down Lyle made all of that seem irrelevant.

  “Face you? It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered such a fun group,” said Lyle thoughtfully. He broke into a crooked grin, one that was somehow too big for his face, and continued in a voice quite unlike his own. “You know what? I think I will.”