Agent Haven waited for the second wave to come. He dreaded it, yet at the same time was impatient for it, as the first of his two tricks would be put into play in order to disrupt it. Saja had made it safely back to friendly lines, having been briefly engaged with several winged demons. They'd been no challenge for her, but the walkie talkie hadn't survived the encounter.
"They are coming," Saja, who was standing next to Haven, said abruptly. "Will you be deploying Minagi and the young succubus?"
"That's the plan. The idea is to disrupt them before they can mass for another attack. You say they've already started?"
"Yes," Saja replied. "I can hear the orders of their taskmasters from here."
"Good enough for me," Haven said, picking up his walkie talkie. "Powell, you ready to go?"
"Roger that, sir, we're all set here!" was Powell's enthusiastic reply.
"Get in the air then. Over and out."
Now all Haven had to do was wait. He estimated it would take about five minutes for his bombers to reach the battlefield.
"I'm curious," Saja said. "How exactly do the jets get here? They are in a hangar in another dimension."
"The jets are equipped with dimensional travel capability. They don't need a runway, they just teleport into the air at full engine power. Pretty tricky to pull off."
"Did that angel Promestein provide you with such wondrous technology?" Saja asked.
"Unknowingly, yes," Agent Haven chuckled. The chuckle died in his throat once even his limited senses could hear what was coming.
The horde, looking denser and more organized than in the first attack, surged towards PROTECT's lines. Rather than the winged demons and the faster land demons getting ahead of their forces, this time the horde moved at the speed of its slowest members, in order to stick together and hit their enemies all at once. That was just how Haven wanted it. He put the walkie talkie to his mouth once again.
"General Ferry, fire at will."
The first artillery rounds arrived seconds later, impacting the closely packed demons with devastating force. Tank shells and small arms fire contributed to the carnage. But the demons cared nothing for their losses. From what Haven had been told, they weren't suffering real losses at all. If they were destroyed here, they merely returned to hell, and presumably back to the battlefield at some point. That was not a war that humanity, even with the help of monsters and angels, could win.
The Ancestors moved to the front again to intercept the wave of demons. The demons never reached them. One hundred yards away from the front of PROTECT's lines, massive explosions ran across the leading edges of the demon attack. At the same time, more explosions impacted the demons' rear guard.
"Whooooooo!!!!!" Ashley cried in delight after releasing her bombs. "Take that, evildoers!"
"Stay frosty, Red Two," Drake's voice said over her radio. "They probably have ways to bring us down, so watch yourself. Don't want to lose my favorite wingman."
"I thought I was your favorite," Minagi teased over her own radio. "Uh oh, I don't like what I'm seeing. Do you see that, Drake?"
"It's Red Leader when we're in the air, Red One," Drake scolded.
"Whatever, tasty boy," Minagi replied. "Weren't we supposed to be disrupting a frontal attack?"
"Roger that, Red One, and we did a damn fine job of it."
"I don't think that was their goal," Minagi said.
"Explain, Red One."
"Maybe my eyes are just sharper, but it looks like their main force is trying to flank our guys' lines."
"Are you sure?"
"Very. As big as that frontal attack we just blew away was, that force to the east is even larger."
"There's another to the west!" Ashley added. "I think they are trying to encircle us!"
"Break off, Red One and Red Two! Blow the hell out of the east force, I'll deal with the west."
"I can't blow that many demons, Drake," Minagi replied.
"Again, it's Red Leader, and you know what I mean!"
Agent Haven and General Ferry were already aware of the danger, thanks to Saja's telepathic warning from Minagi. An immediate retreat was ordered to avoid encirclement. None of this was unexpected. Their force was small and it was a big desert. A pincer move by the enemy was a basic tactic. PROTECT had simply hoped that the enemy wouldn't attempt encirclement so quickly. A complicating factor was the speed with which some of the enemy could move. The agent and the general had not accounted for part of the demon force being able to move over sixty miles per hour through desert sands. Haven spoke into his radio once again.
"Agent Walter, get the thing ready, it looks like we're going to need it!"
"I've got it in my hand right now, just tell me when!" was Agent Walter's reply.
"You'll know when! If you see demons behind you, that's when!"
"Copy!" Agent Walter said, as small arms fire could be heard in the background.
Whereas the first battle had ended with a cry of frustration from the demon horde, this time an anticipatory cry of glee at the slaughter to come could be heard. The PROTECT force was unable to retreat quickly enough to avoid being semi-encircled, and the Ancestors could not defend enough ground to prevent the demons from breaking through the lines in multiple places.
Agent Walter saw demons above and behind him, with even more coming from the east. Following orders, he pressed the button on the device he had been entrusted with.
The cry of glee quickly changed into mumbles of confusion as the demons' enemies simply vanished. Every tank, every individual soldier, every artillery piece, had disappeared. The demons began to mill about in their confusion, looking under pieces of debris that had not been teleported away, hoping to find stragglers. Their discipline, poor under the best of circumstances, completely broke down as they began to rampage around the now empty battlefield.
That's when their enemy made his reappearance behind them. The entire PROTECT force returned to the battlefield a mile behind the enemy rearguard and immediately opened up on them. Ashley, Minagi, and Drake added their own firepower, taking an incredible toll on the hopelessly disorganized demons.
What's more, the PROTECT force had achieved an objective that had been part of Micaela's plan from the start: securing the portal, now that they knew its exact location.
"Doesn't look all that impressive," General Ferry observed. "The Gates of Heaven look a lot more imposing."
"Agent Walter, if you would do the honors," Agent Haven said.
Agent Walter, pulling out another device from his duffel bag, attached it to the drab looking gate. "Let's hope this works," Agent Walter said.
"It's not a permanent solution, but it buys us some more time," Agent Haven replied. "As long as that thing holds, no more demons can come through those gates."So now we concentrate on mopping up."
"Heck of a mopping up operation," General Ferry growled. "That demon force is still fifty thousand strong at least."
"Then I suggest you finish them off before they can get organized again," Agent Haven said.
General Ferry saluted and stalked off. Agent Haven's walkie talkie beeped.
"Agent Haven here."
"This is Kanon," a woman's voice said over the radio. "The demons are in full flight."
"Okay, good, I know they're fast, but you Ancestors can teleport, right? Get ahead of them, block their retreat."
"We're on it," Kanon replied. "But you should know that the demons aren't retreating just to retreat. They are heading straight for Sabasa."
Agent Haven's blood ran cold at that news. This was also not entirely unexpected. PROTECT had placed its force in its initial position precisely to prevent the demons from descending upon a populated city. The barrier had been a secondary objective if they were encircled. But just because it wasn't surprising didn't mean it was good. If all those demons reached Sabasa….. Except for the Ancestors and his paltry three bombers, they could not reach the demon force. The special device had been a one shot deal. It was now a glorified paperweight. Assuming the Ancestors and his pilots couldn't finish the demons off, it was up to heaven's forces to protect Sabasa.
Ben was helpless. His grip on the spirits had been shattered the second Black Alice's vagina had plunged down, engulfing his penis to the root. As if that wasn't bad enough, it felt like he was being licked by a dozen tongues inside her.
"You didn't know that some monsters can control the insides of their pussy, did you?" Black Alice taunted. "I used to be a Monster Lord. I learned my sexual techniques from Lilith herself. I know you've heard of her. You probably didn't think she was real, did you?"
"Aghuh…." Was all Ben could get out.
Emma was faring no better. She hadn't laid a glove, a sword, or anything else on Zurith. Given the extreme mismatch in power, Emma had to count herself lucky to still be alive and in the fight. At least she'd forced Zurith to draw her own weapon to defend herself, a giant black sword that reeked of dark magic. Emma didn't want to find out what would happen if that sword should wound her.
Meanwhile, Black Alice was thoroughly enjoying herself at Ben's expense. "Hmmm, this technique may be great at keeping you immobile, but Zurith is probably getting impatient with me. Time to finish this."
Black Alice tightened her pussy and began to move up and down. Ben could feel the orgasm rising and tried to hold it back, knowing that critical ecstasy would mean doom. Not just for him, but almost certainly for Emma as well. He felt worthless for not being able to resist Black Alice's sexual techniques. Some hero he was! He imagined that Luka would have shaken her off with ease.
Suddenly, his penis was no longer being assaulted by the extreme pleaure, as Black Alice was ejected from him by a bolt of white energy. Ilias? No, Promestein! Ben was abruptly lifted to his feet by a companion who he seemed to have met a lifetime ago.
Emma was not so lucky, as Zurith's dark sword slashed across her midsection. Zurith immediately attempted to follow with a killing blow, but was interrupted by several fox tails pulling her away from Emma. Enraged, Zurith sliced at the tails, severing four of them.
"My tails!" Tamamo yelled, then with a moment of concentration restored them to their former glory, before wrapping Zurith up in all nine and squeezing. "Using my beloved Horace against me? That was low, although I guess it's to be expected from the ruler of hell!"
"Horace was the least of your awful deeds!" Zurith countered. "When I kill you, you will get to relive all of them for eternity!"
With a blast of dark magic that seemed to emanate from her entire body, Tamamo's tails went limp. Zurith placed her hand around Tamamo's neck and squeezed. To Tamamo's surprise, she began choking. How strong is this demon? Tamamo wondered. I have my full earthpower summoned!
A blast of pure white energy hit Zurith from behind. She retaliated with a blast at the offending source, but Promestein had anticipated the counter, and had a shield of Luka's energy up. She was relieved to find that his power countered Zurith's as well as it had countered holy and dark magic.
"Tamamo, mind switching opponents?" Promestein asked. "Ben could use a hand with Black Alice. This ring was made for fighting someone like Zurith."
"I've got a few scores to settle with her as well!" Tamamo yelled eagerly, doing a forward flip right over Zurith's head and slamming headlong into Black Alice, who had been trying to use various magical attacks to put Ben down so that she could resume raping him. But Ben had the spirits summoned once again, and was no longer distracted.
Promestein leveled her ring at Zurith and called up the biggest blast she could. Zurith staggered back and retaliated again with her unique form of dark magic. Another hastily summoned shield blocked it. Promestein hit Zurith again and again with Luka's power, dropping her to one knee.
"So that is the alien magic Black Alice warned me about," Zurith said, chuckling. "Not nearly as impressive as I thought. It may be able to hurt me in this form. But in my true form, you have no hope of victory."
Zurith spread her arms out wide and began to grow. Her dark beauty transformed into the most terrifying sight any of the combatants in the cave had ever witnessed. It was so appalling and frightening that even Black Alice recoiled from the sight, momentarily forgetting her opponent, Tamamo, who also stared, mouth agape. Tentacles began to replace Zurith's appendages as she continued to grow. Still more tentacles sprouted out of her monstrous form. Everyone scattered as those tentacles lashed out at her opponents.
Heidi walked down Seventh Street, headed towards her favorite coffee shop for her lunch break. Her company had been gracious enough to transfer her to Sabasa. Most rat girls had fled New Remina as soon as the demon attack had been defeated, fearing that the city was cursed. Sabasa, on the other hand, had a history of strength, having never been truly subjugated in its written history. Heidi felt much safer in Sabasa and regretted moving to New Remina in the first place. It was that damn college education, she thought to herself. Sometimes ancient wisdom was superior. Her parents were so proud of her but had begged her to work anywhere but New Remina.
As Heidi walked out of the shop with her coffee, she gazed up at the skyscrapers of downtown Sabasa. For some reason Sabasa's skyscrapers just seemed more solid. They stood proud in a way that New Remina's did not. She'd never noticed it before, but New Remina's skyscrapers always looked as if they were on the verge of falling down. She knew that was probably empirically wrong. New Remina was seismically unstable, so its buildings were built under much more stringent regulations than Sabasa's. And yet somehow, her instincts told her that Sabasa's buildings were more secure.
She sighed in contentment as a flock of birds flew towards Sabasa's largest skyscraper, the UBC building. UBC was the successor to the Earth company Apple and had been producing three quarters of the world's tablets and phones for centuries. Technically, it had been a subsidiary of Apple's, but once all legal intercourse with Earth had been cut off two hundred years before, it had become effectively independent, although still legally owned by Apple. She had considered applying to work for UBC, but their hiring process was slow and cautious, and she had received other offers first. Fitting for a "technology" company that was so conservative that a tablet made one thousand years ago didn't do much less than a tablet made today. Their last operating system update had been twenty years ago!
Heidi frowned as she watched the birds. They seemed to be crashing into the building en masse rather than flying around it or landing on it. Birds hitting skyscrapers wasn't unusual in a big city, but a flock of that size, all making the same mistake? No, some of them were landing on it. In fact, they were sticking to the building and breaking its windows. What kind of birds did that? Were they angry harpies, or….?
Heidi dropped her coffee and stared as the sun was blocked out by an even larger flock of huge flying demons. She began to hear screams and saw people beginning to run. Thanking her instincts, she immediately assessed that her situation was the opposite of the old saying. She could hide, but she couldn't run. She would never outdistance those flying creatures, and even many of the demons barreling down the street towards her were faster than she was. She leaped into the smelliest dumpster she could find and rubbed the trash and debris all over her body, hoping to disguise her smell. She cursed at being brought to this point. Rat girls in dumpsters was a common stereotype and now she was living it.
Heidi stifled a scream as the dumpster was banged on by demons running into it, jumping on top of it, or just hitting it for fun. She did scream when she felt the dumpster being picked up and slammed down by something she didn't even want to imagine, but the sound of the dumpster must have drowned out her scream, because soon it was quiet.
After waiting for what seemed like hours but could only have been minutes, Heidi cautiously poked her head out from under the lid. The alleyway was empty, trash and debris strewn everywhere. She had chosen her hiding place well. The demons would concentrate more on the main streets, where there were plenty of pedestrians and drivers to terrorize. She also hoped that the angels had come to save Sabasa as they had New Remina. Her next step then, would be the same as last time: find a building with good armed security and find a closet to hide in. A hiding place was nice, but a hiding place with armed security was even better.
Heidi climbed out of the dumpster and took a peak at Seventh Street. No good. Although there wasn't a huge wave of demons, there were still more than enough to make crossing the street nearly impossible. She ducked back into the alley. She considered getting back into the dumpster, but then spied a fire escape leading to a balcony with a broken window. An apartment building was unlikely to have armed security, but at least it had a lot of closets to hide in and unless the demons took over the city, they wouldn't take the time to look inside every single one. She remembered reading that in Remina the demons had mostly slain people caught outside, not bothering to go into buildings. Perhaps she would be safe there.
Making her decision, she scampered up the fire escape and into the apartment. On the contrary, demons had been here. Whoever lived in the apartment, assuming they were still alive, they would come home to find the place wrecked, furniture thrown about, bookshelves toppled, kitchen appliances smashed. Bad for the owner, good for me, Heidi thought. Any demons that wandered in looking for prey would assume the place had already been cleaned out. She saw no bodies. Whoever owned the place was at work. She grabbed a kitchen knife for self defense. Although she had claws and sharp teeth, she hadn't used them in a fight since she was a child. The kitchen knife seemed much more reassuring. On second thought…. She searched through drawers to see if perhaps there was a gun in the apartment.
She entered the bedroom, and rifled through more drawers in search of a better weapon, but found nothing useful. The kitchen knife would have to do if she was found. She went to the bedroom closet and opened the door. The closet was already occupied by a whimpering little boy.
The boy screamed when he saw her and tried to shove himself as deeply as he could into a corner of the back of the closet. Heidi realized that she was still holding the knife and threw it away.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you!" she whispered. She considered leaving and finding a different apartment to hide in. But that's what a stereotypical rat girl would do. She'd been living her life trying to fight those stereotypes. It was bad enough that she was dirty and smelly. She wouldn't leave a helpless child behind. "Where are your parents, little boy?"
"Mommy's at work," the boy sniffled. "There's monsters everywhere!"
"Not monsters, honey, demons," Heidi corrected, then realized how crazy she sounds. This was no time for political correctness, and in any case even monsters often used the term as a pejorative.
She wracked her considerable brain, trying to figure out what to do. Hide in the closet with the boy? No, she was ashamed to admit to herself that the boy smelled too delicious. It was a wonder that the demons or demons that had been in the apartment hadn't caught his scent. Perhaps the demon hadn't been a monster demon, but a human demon? She recalled what she knew about the legends surrounding hell. Evil monsters and humans alike went to hell. Therefore, if a demon that had once been human had been in here, he might not have been able to detect the boy. Any monster would be able to in a heartbeat, so strong was his beautiful smell. Perhaps she should take him to the dumpster? Better, she thought, but insufficient. If a demon succubus got close enough she would smell him even through the garbage, and it seemed as if half of the demons were succubi. No, now she was committed. The only way to keep the boy safe would be to put men and monsters with guns between him and the demons. She would have to get to a secured building.
"Wait right here, little one, okay?" she asked, as if he was going anywhere.
She closed the closest door carefully and went to a window overlooking the street. She saw what she had seen before, several demons within her sight rampaging about. There were no more living victims to prey on, so they were contenting themselves with breaking things at random. Some eyed building windows where people huddled easily within the demons' sight, but unable to look away lest what they couldn't see could hurt them worse than what they could see in front of their faces. Humans, mainly, Heidi scoffed. No survival instincts whatsoever. However, the humans had done her a service.Where the winged demons could easily break the windows, they had done so. If those buildings' windows were too difficult for the demons to break, and there was armed security on the ground floor, that could be a sanctuary. There! She spotted the Bennett Bank Building. It would be a heck of a run, about three hundred yards, but just maybe, if she were fast and lucky….
Her heart jumped into her throat when she saw another wave coming. These were slower moving demons, unable to keep up with the faster moving once. They appeared to have been mostly humans in life, twisted into muscle bound monstrosities(there she went, using that word negatively!) They smashed things wherever they went, cars, lampposts, signs, and trees. Heidi guessed that the faster, monster demons were mainly sent to kill people. These human demons seemed to be following behind, destroying everything else. Including any stray humans that got in their way. Would they pass so that she would get another chance? Or would they tear down the rickety apartment building she was in brick by brick?
Before her fears could overcome her, a single angel landed in the middle of the street, about a block away from the slow moving mob of hulk-like demons. Eden? No, she was blonde and wielded a sword of pure light rather than Eden's flaming sword. The angel stared intently at the approaching demons.
When the demons caught sight of the angel, a cry went up from the horde, turning into a roar of rage and anticipation. The previously slow moving mob dashed towards the angel with more speed than Heidi had expected. She was relieved that she hadn't tried to make a run for it. Even the slower demons might have caught her, especially if she had been carrying a child in her arms.
The angel raised her sword to her face and concentrated. Heidi instinctively leaped out of the way as a portal opened under her. What the hell was that?! She wondered. Thank goodness for my rat reflexes! She looked back out the window. The angel's sword was now raised, the demons rapidly moving towards her position. She stood completely still. Then, when the first huge demon got within ten feet of her, she swung her sword in a wide arc. Pure white energy sliced through the advancing demons, extending as far as Heidi's eyes could see. Every single demon lay in pieces on the ground. In seconds, they all turned to dust and disappeared.
"Perhaps you are not so rusty after all, old friend," the angel said, kissing her sword. Then, she too disappeared
Heidi was not about to miss her opportunity. She raced to the closet to retrieve the boy, only to find that he wasn't there. She looked around frantically. He couldn't possibly be gone! She thought. I would be able to smell him anywhere in this apartment, and he would have had to get past me to exit the apartment! Unless he tried the fire escape? She went out onto the balcony, abandoning her natural caution and sniffed deeply of the air. She could not catch his scent.
She went back inside and looked out the window. Something felt different. What was it? Then she noticed. It was the silence. All of the demons were gone, destroyed or sent back to hell by the angel. But there were no people about, either! She looked at the windows in Bennett Building. No one was there either. Enough was enough. She left the apartment by the front door, went downstairs, and entered the street. The street was still deserted. She decided to make a break for the Bennett Building. Even if there was no armed security, it was huge. She would pick a closet, one of hundreds in the building, and hide.
Before she could even make ten yards, she was lifted into the air. She squealed and struggled with all her might. "Easy, friend, I'm a living, breathing person!" her captor yelled.
Deciding to trust the person, obviously a monster of some sort, simply because she was living, seemed to make perfect sense given the situation. As she was flown over the warehouse district, she saw demons running about on the ground. She looked around furtively to see if any were in the air nearby. She saw none and breathed a sigh of relief.
They landed in front of one of the warehouses and Heidi was released. She looked at her rescuer. She was a lovely succubus with dark hair and enormous breasts. How did she get off the ground with that rack? Heidi wondered.
"What were you doing out on the street?" the succubus asked. "How did you not get teleported away?"
"Teleported away?" Heidi asked, confused. "Was that what that portal was?"
"Yes! Anyone on the ground within a square mile just disappeared! I wasn't on the ground, but I saw it! That angel had some powerful magic!"
Heidi cursed the very rat reflexes that she had been thankful for a few moments earlier. "Are we going to hide in this warehouse? I don't think that's as safe as the Bennett Building."
"It's not," the succubus replied. "But it's a way out. There's a portal in there. I was going to go to it myself, but I saw you down in the street and figured you could use a hand. I'm Sofia, by the way."
"Thank you so much, Sofia!" Heidi squealed gratefully. "Where are we going?"
"Ever wanted to visit Earth?" Sofia asked with a confident smile.
Ilias and Alipheese continued to wander through the caves, trying to find the others.
"If you've got a theory about this place and how to get out of it, why don't we just get out?" Alipheese asked.
"I'm not leaving without Eden," Ilias replied.
"I never knew you cared about your creations as much as I did."
"I don't," Ilias replied. "I don't have the power to act on my theory. I have to walk Eden through it. It's so annoying!"
"The more people change…." Alipheese muttered.
"Hey! When Zurith showed her ugly face last time, remember that I was the one that raced to the surface to go fight her. Alone."
" I woulda helped, but remember, no interaction? I wouldn't have been able to get close enough to the fight to help."
"Well, be that as it may, I was still the one who put her ass on the line! You're welcome!"
"And then you were willing to see the world burn unless you got your way," Aliipheese pointed out.
"What kind of existence did humans have anyway, under your daughters' thumb? Are we really arguing about this again? I thought you had given up the pious attitude about wanting to preserve the world. You only wanted it preserved because you had something to lose! The humans had nothing to lose! Death or slavery! That was the choice you left them!"
"When this is over, what say we go to Vegas and hash this out for the hundredth time over drinks?"
"Good idea!" Then Ilias muttered under her breath, "bitch."
The two goddesses continued to wander around the caverns. There seemed to be no end to them. That made sense to Ilias, since this was presumably a subdimension that she didn't know about. If they did find an exit, it probably led only one way: to hell. Getting anywhere else would require the ability to hop subdimensions, which Ilias could only do if she was familiar with them at her current power levels, much like teleportation worked for monsters. Eden, however, could be taught to do it safely. Her only loyal Seraph may not have been the brightest of the three, but she wasn't stupid either. She was quite good at complex spells when taught carefully how to cast them, step by step. Ilias could only hope that they wouldn't be facing Zurith without their allies by the time they got back into the fight.
"I wonder why we haven't been attacked?" Ilias wondered aloud.
"Probably because we're not in a physical dimension," Alipheese mused. "Everything here is a shade. This place wasn't designed to kill, it was designed to make you want to die, and be punished, for all the bad shit you did in life. Of course, since beings like us are beyond good and evil, nothing here can hurt us if we simply choose to not give a shit. Something which were both pretty damned good at."
"But Eden isn't," Ilias noted. "She'll be a basket case by the time we reach her. It'll take forever to calm her down enough to get us out of here!"
"I'm worried about Tamamo, too," Alipheese said.
"Good for you," Ilias retorted. "Wait, I think I hear her. I'd know that whine anywhere."
Alipheese heard it as well. It sounded less like a whine than a keening cry of anguish. Alipheese was thankful that she wasn't the guardian of hell that many humans had thought she was. Alipheese could never have inflicted the kinds of tortures that could make someone cry out like that. Alipheese had killed plenty in her time, but she preferred to do it, or order it done, with pleasure. She had scolded Kanade severely for choosing to kill Luka with pain rather than pleasure. That had resulted in Luka blowing her to smithereens whereas if she'd used pleasure, he would have dissolved happily and without resistance. It had been unnecessarily sadistic. Kanade was one of the few people that Luka had never forgiven, in part because she'd never expressed remorse for what she'd done except to note that it had been dumb.
Up ahead they saw a mob of humans and monsters gathered around like zombies from Night of the Living Dead, one of Ilias' favorite movies, presumably noshing on her favorite Seraph.
"Out of the way, fuckers!" she yelled, burning each one to cinders with a touch. Alipheese helped, using her dark magic to vaporize the shades just as effectively, if less satisfyingly. It was interesting to Ilias to contemplate how they were both made up of dark and holy magic now, and yet they still preferred to use the powers they were used to.
The process took some time. Ilias thought of using her holy power to simply burn them all, but decided that she could risk hurting Eden if she did. These shades couldn't actually hurt Eden. They couldn't even cause her genuine pain. As an angel, she couldn't feel pain even when damaged. Eden was being tortured by her own guilt. She'll get over it, Ilias thought.
Finally, they reached her. Ilias stepped over her prone, whimpering form to cut loose with holy fire that destroyed the rest of the shades. Alipheese bent down to comfort her.
"I'm so awful, Alipheese!" Eden wept. "I deserve to be damned! I can never atone for what I did!"
"Maybe not, hon, but we all have to try," Alipheese soothed. "The good news is that you'll be around a long time. Let's hope it's long enough that you never have to see this place again."
"Yeah, yeah, we can cry on each others' shoulders and eat a lot of ice cream later!" Ilias interjected. "Right now I need you, Eden!"
Eden slowly got to her feet, eyes fixed on Ilias. "You!" the Seraph growled. "You created me to love, but then used me to kill! You ordered me to hurt all those people! You never told me about pain!"
"Like I'd know anything about pain, Eden!" Ilias replied with exasperation. "And I had to use you to command my armies because my other two Seraphs deserted me!"
"As I should have!" Eden shot back. "I had faith in you! I believed that even your cruel acts had a purpose! You were my goddess! I couldn't question your wisdom! But you will never pay the price for the things you ordered me to do! I will pay that price upon my death!"
"Then don't die," Ilias replied. "You're immortal. Don't get killed. Then you never have to pay."
"I hate you!" Eden cried, drawing her flaming sword and pointing it at Ilias.
"Are you pointing your sword at your goddess?!" Ilias said slowly. "I'm not the enemy, Eden. Zurith is. We can talk about this later."
"Oh yes, Ilias," Eden replied coldly. "We will talk about this later. But for now, I can't stand to be around you. Goodbye, Ilias."
"Wait, where do you think you're going?!" Ilias shouted.
"To do what you really created me to do," Eden said resolutely. "to kill."
With that, she vanished.
"That went well," Alipheese said wryly. "I thought you said she didn't know how to do that."
"I didn't think she did," Ilias replied. "So either she did, and she's… wherever she decided to go, or she's dead. In which case she'll end up right back here."
"So what do we do in the meantime?!" Alipheese asked.
"Tamamo!" Ilias said with sudden realization. "Tamamo can learn the spell, too! We'll find Tamamo!"
"Oh, now we're going to look for my Tammy?" Alipheese retorted.
"Didn't you say you were worried about her?"
"I am. About her mental state. I'm not worried that she's still here. She already knew that spell. I taught it to her. She was probably the first one to escape."
"So that just leaves.. us?"
"That's about the size of it."
"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Ilias raged. "We both know the spell to get our but neither of us has the power to cast it!?"
"Yep. Now the only way we get out is if Zurith is defeated, or if she kills our allies and plucks us out to kill us."
"Or she could leave us trapped here until we try to get out ourselves, which will also result in our deaths!"
"We'll come back," Alipheese shrugged.
"Yeah, to a world that's a hell dimension!"
"Well, I guess we might as well just pass the time," Alipheese said, reaching into her cloak and pulling out a bottle of rum.
Ben's initial elation at being a superhero faded quickly when he found himself flying for his life, twisting and turning, dodging tentacles that tried to grab him, whip him, or slash at him with razor-like appendages. He preferred this kind of fighting to dealing with Black Alice, however. All the spirits in the world couldn't save him from critical ecstasy, and he was weak to pleasure attacks. Better for Tamamo to deal with her, he thought, as he narrowly avoided a tentacle with a blade at the end of it that surely would have beheaded him. He struck back as best he could with Angel Halo, but could see through the flow that he wasn't doing very much damage.
Promestein was actually having more luck, teleporting herself from spot to spot in the large cave, making it impossible for Zurith's tentacles to draw a bead on her, hitting the demon queen again and again with blasts from Luka's ring. Everywhere the ring's energy struck gouged a wound into Zurith's enormous true form. When she hit tentacle, the tentacle died. Even though she didn't have Luka's full power, his power was even more effective against Zurith than she had expected. Perhaps his power had been made just for an opponent like Zurith? It made her wonder just how and why Luka had his crazy power. She'd had theories over the years, but none that she could test.
Tamamo and Black Alice were tied up, Tamamo caught in Black Alice's hair, Black Alice caught up in Tamamo's tails. In such close quarters, all Tamamo could deliver were rabbit punches. Even with her considerable earth power, they did little damage to someone as powerful as Black Alice. Black Alice couldn't do any real damage to Tamamo, either. Tamamo knew that this was to Zurith's advantage. She'd sent everyone she could to that quasi-hell in order to divide and conquer her opponents. Having Black Alice literally tie Tamamo up kept Tamamo out of the more important fight, at least until Zurith could vanquish her foes and deal with Tamamo singly. Tamamo, much to her disgust, realized that her only chance might be pleasure attacks.
Just as Tamamo attempted to lean into kiss Black Alice, the hair holding her in place was cut cleanly by a flaming sword. Black Alice's head followed a split second after, leaving Tamamo holding Black Alice's headless body, which turned into dust seconds later. Tamamo found herself looking into the grim face of Eden. Tamamo didn't like the look in her eyes at all. What had happened to her down there?
Eden didn't waste time chatting, taking to the air immediately to attack Zurith. Tamamo remembered how effective she'd been in the fight against Black Alice so long ago. With Eden fully in the fight and mad as hell, she thought, they just might have a chance. Where were Ilias and Alipheese? She had to hope that they were on their way. Tamamo began to leap into the fray, but demons began streaming out of the portal machine thingie whose name Tamamo couldn't remember. They were headed straight for Promestein, whose attacks with the Luka ring seemed to be the most effective against Zurith. Making her decision, Tamamo moved to intercept the demons. Eden had the same thought, landing in their midst and swinging her sword with more savagery than Tamamo had seen from her even during the Great Monster Wars.
"Ben! Destroy that machine!" Tamamo ordered.
Ben heard her and flew towards the machine, striking it with Angel Halo. The recoil from the strike sent him tumbling to the ground. Tamamo could see that the machine was undamaged. Magical shield, she thought grimly. Lovely.
More demons came out of the portal to attack Ben, who was sprawled nearby. They dog piled him, fists and claws raining down. Tamamo saw several of them go flying as Ben's own earth powered strength threw them off of him. Deciding that they probably couldn't hurt Ben, she focused on Emma. Emma at some point had been knocked out cold by a tentacle. Tamamo decided to get her to safety. There was little that she could do against an opponent like Zurith anyway. Tamamo lifted Emma easily with one of her tails and brought her to a small rock outcropping where she could take shelter from all the flying tentacles, debris, and magic being thrown around.
"I'm fine," Emma protested weakly. "I can still fight."
"Your fight is over, young one!" Tamamo ordered. "Stay here! Not that you'll listen if you can move, but please, if you're going to sacrifice yourself, don't do it cheaply! Pick your moment!"
Emma nodded, grimacing in pain. Tamamo could see that she had indeed taken a hellacious blow from a tentacle. There was blood all over the right side of her head. Her skull might even be cracked.
:Look," Tamamo instructed, pulling Emma's shotgun from its holster on the warrior's back. "Prop yourself up and use this. Pick your shots wisely! And try not to hit any friendlies!"
Emma took the shotgun and assumed a sniper's position on top of one of the rocks. Tamamo, wasting no further time, leaped back into the fray. A demon that leaped at her that she hadn't seen disappeared in a cloud of dust, a victim of Emma's shotgun. So much of Granberia in that one, Tamamo thought proudly. She hoped that Emma would live long enough for her skill to match her guts.
Tamamo's life, on the other hand, suddenly became very much a questionable proposition as a tentacle struck her legs, causing her to flip onto her back. A razor sharp, sword-like tentacle followed, impaling Tamamo.
Promestein was momentarily distracted by Tamamo's plight and prepared to blast the tentacle pinning Tamamo to the ground. The distraction was her undoing. One of Zurith's countless tentacles scooped her up and brought her up to the demon queen's face. Promestein tried to get the ring up to blast that face, but a small tentacle wrapped around her wrist while another small tentacle with a razor on the end sliced her ring finger cleanly off. Promestein screamed in pain and despair as her finger and the ring fell to the ground, the ring falling free of the finger and rolling away.
"Your cute little weapon was formidable, I'll give you that," Zurith said. "You're a fascinating one, angel but not quite an angel. I've heard that angels can't feel pain. But clearly you can. Let's explore that a little."
Promestein's clothes were ripped off as tentacles wrapped around both of her legs and forced them apart. Other tentacles entered her anus and her vagina. Promestein screamed, before her scream was cut off by a third tentacle entering her mouth.
Emma surveyed the battle. It was not going well. Eden was doing pretty well, but was in such a berserker rage that she wasn't working with her allies. Promestein was clearly in distress, being horribly violated, and yet Eden wasn't even acknowledging her plight, instead attacking Zurith with her flaming sword. To her credit, Zurith seemed to be on the verge of letting Promestein go, so vicious was Eden's attack. Ben was still engaged with numerous demons, flailing about with Angel Halo, vanquishing a demon seemingly every few seconds.
Emma took a shot at the tentacle pinning Tamamo. Damn! Missed! Shotguns weren't sniper rifles. She rose, to get closer and perhaps free Tamamo with her sword, but only made it a few steps before collapsing onto the ground. She could feel herself losing consciousness fast. As her vision faded, she saw the ring inches from her face. She weakly reached out to grasp it.
Ben had finally dispatched the last of the demons, for now, anyway, and took to the air again. He saw Promestein's plight and screamed in rage and revulsion at what was being done to her. He slashed at one of the tentacles holding her as he passed by in flight. The tentacle released her. Ben prepared to make another pass, hoping that hitting one more would free Promestein. Then he would have to be sure to come around one more time to catch her, lest she fall to her death.
As he turned to make his second pass, Ben saw what he could only describe as a star being born. Light filled the cave, nearly blinding him. He covered his eyes and bounced right off of Zurith's body, and then to the ground.
Promestein felt the tentacles withdraw from inside her, followed by a sensation of falling. Too bad I don't have wings anymore, she thought listlessly as she fell. She hit the ground back first, her head impacting a rock. I'm still built tough, though, she thought deliriously. Not dead yet. Not even unconscious. But useless. No ring. Shit. Gotta go get that ring.
Eden was immune to being blinded by bright lights, being native to the natural brightness of the heavens. It did serve to startle her out of her unaccustomed berserker rage, however. The Seraph looked around, trying to find the source. What she saw astonished her. Zurith was no longer even paying attention to her. Instead, the demon's baleful glare was focused on Emma. The dragonkin was floating in the air in front of Zurith, her wounds healed, with a look that she hadn't seen since Granberia had fixed her with a similar gaze so long ago.
Nearly all of Zurith's tentacles lashed out at Emma. They never arrived. Emma simply raised her hands and hit Zurith with a stupendous blast of power, far greater than anything Eden had seen even from Luka. Zurith was instantly vaporized into dust.
Eden, now thinking clearly, flew towards the portal generator and destroyed it with one sweep of her flaming sword. No demons would be bothering them any further.
Emma landed and raced to Tamamo. The kitsune was barely conscious, bleeding profusely from a wound in her abdomen. "Eden!" Emma cried. "Heal her!"
Eden wasted no time placing her hands on Tamamo's wound. Eden could see right away that the wound was mortal, at least it would be if not healed magically. This would be difficult. Tamamo was a powerful being, hard to hurt, but by the same token, hard to heal when hurt. Eden focused all of her healing power on Tamamo. When she removed her bloody hands from the wound, she could see that all of her efforts had been for nothing.
"Eden, heal her!" Emma cried. "You have to heal her!"
"I tried, child," Eden said gently. "She resists my power."
"Resists? I don't understand."
Tamamo's hand reached up to touch Emma's face. "I've lived a long time, Emma. I don't want to be healed. I want to join my Horace. I want to join my Luka. I want to join all my children."
"Didn't you hear what Zurith said?!" Emma protested. "You're not going to where Luka went! You're going to be with Zurith, not your loved ones!"
"No," Tamamo said with a soft smile, shaking her head. "Zurith is the mother of all lies. She tells people they can't be saved from her domain because she doesn't want them to try. But Luka was right. I've spent the last two thousand years trying to make this world a better place. But most importantly, I lived with love in my heart. I know that my heart will lead me back to the ones I love."
"Bullshit, Tammy!" Alipheese said, appearing suddenly and leaning over Tamamo. "You're delirious. Deluding yourself! You know as much about theology as I do! Do you really want to place your eternal fate in the hands of an unknown god that you've never met? Trust that she'll have mercy on you?"
"Just admit that you don't want to lose me, mother," Tamamo replied weakly.
"I don't want to lose you," Alipheese said tearfully. "You know where I go when I cease to exist? Nowhere! Once you're gone, we never see each other again! Ilias, please heal her!"
"I can't, Alipheese," Ilias said sadly. "Eden is far more powerful than me, now. If she couldn't, I can't."
"You!" Alipheese yelled, grabbing Emma. "You have Luka's power now! You can heal her!"
"I don't know how!" Emma cried. "Violence just seemed easy and natural with this power, but I'm afraid if I tried to heal her I'd just obliterate her!"
"That power works through your will," Eden said. "Simply will Tamamo to be healed. You can do it."
Emma looked to Tamamo. Tamamo weakly nodded, surrendering. Hands trembling, Emma placed them on Tamamo's wound. She closed her eyes and imagined Tamamo's abdomen completely healed. Even before she opened them again, she could hear the others' reaction to her success.
"I wouldn't mind some of that special healing," Promestein said weakly as she staggered towards the others.
"Oh, you're fine!" Ilias scolded. "I'll handle this."
Ilias coughed the stumbling Promestein and applied her own healing magic. Promestein sighed in relief as her pain subsided.
"That's the nicest thing you've ever done for me, Ilias," Promestein said when Ilias was done.
"I owed you one," Ilias replied with a smile. "You found me another hero after all. I just didn't think it would be a monster. And… she wasn't the one you were looking for, she just sorta tagged along. Still, good job! I'll definitely use you the next time I need someone to find me a hero."
"Go fuck yourself," Promestein replied, and checked on Ben, who had his hands over his eyes and was stumbling around himself.
"I can't see!" Ben cried. "Did we win?"
"I think so," Promestein said. "We still need to close the main gate, though. I think I know how to do it, too. Gonna need you, though. So…."
Promestein placed her hands over Ben's eyes. His vision cleared up in seconds.
"I'm impressed," Ilias said. "Guess you didn't get rid of all of your angelic qualities."
"I hurt myself a lot," Promestein shrugged. "I can't heal much though, so thanks for taking care of those really bad wounds."
"They weren't that bad, Promestein."
"Well, they felt bad. Let me inject you with something that'll make you feel pain and then violate you in all three holes and you can tell me what it feels like."
"I wish you would!"
Promestein was about to retort, when all hell broke loose. Almost literally. One second that had been just the six companions in the cave, the next Zurith was among them, tentacles flailing. Everyone scattered again.
"What the hell!?" Ben yelled to no one in particular.
"The main gate!" Ilias yelled back. "She came through it and teleported back here! We need to close it!"
"Go!" Emma yelled, lighting up and taking to the air. "This bitch is mine!"
As Emma began blasting her with her newfound power and Zurith retaliated with blasts of her own, Ilias grabbed Ben and teleported him out of the cave.
Ben found himself staring at what indeed looked like a gate. Bodies were everywhere, some dead, some unconscious.
"Don't worry about that now!" Promestein exclaimed, teleported to the location by Alipheese. "You need to destroy the gate!"
"Destroy it!?" Ben exclaimed in turn. "Won't that just bust it open!?"
"No, no, she's right!" Ilias said. "The only reason I never did it was because the gates of hell can't be destroyed with just holy power! But you can command all of the elements! Including holy and dark power!"
"How?"
"Emma mentioned this move to you some time back," Promestein said. "It's called quadruple giga. With your aptitude for the spirits, you should be able to pull it off! What you do is infuse all four of the elements into your sword!"
"Okay, like this?" Ben asked, willing the power of wind, earth, water, and fire into Angel Halo.
"Wait, not all at once!" Promestein yelled, then paused. Ben's sword glowed with power, but was completely steady in his hands. "Wow. That's incredible."
"Okay, now I add my holy power!" Ilias said, grasping the handle of the sword with Ben. "Alipheese, add your dark power, and hold onto the sword with us!"
Alipheese took a position on Ben's other side and grasped the sword, adding her dark magic.
"Now strike the gate!" Promestein yelled.
With a scream of determination, the young man and the two goddesses brought the sword down on the gates of hell. Ben remembered nothing after that.