The stench of piss and fear hung thick in the air, mingling with the acrid smoke of burning buildings. Lucifer's boots squelched through something he'd rather not identify as he stalked through the chaos-ridden streets of Paradise City.
All around him, the night echoed with screams and the sickening crunch of breaking bones. It was a symphony of suffering that stirred memories best left buried.
Part of him—a larger part than he cared to admit—reveled in the pandemonium. The Prince of Darkness was no stranger to the music of mayhem. But as he rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a group of terrified civilians, Lucifer felt an unfamiliar twinge. Protectiveness? How... quaint.
They were too frightened to make out his devilish features in the gloom. If they had, he was certain they'd have run the opposite direction, straight into the maw of whatever horror pursued them.
"This way!" he bellowed, gesturing towards a nearby subway entrance. "Underground! Now!"
As the wretches scrambled past, Lucifer turned to face whatever had sent them fleeing. He didn't have to wait long.
With a sound like reality vomiting, a massive shape erupted through the wall of a nearby building. It was vaguely canine—if dogs were bred in the deepest pits of Hell and fed a steady diet of nightmares and broken souls.
Its body seemed to be made of writhing shadows, punctuated by glowing red eyes and far too many teeth. Each fang looked sharp enough to tear through steel and twice as long as Lucifer's forearm.
"Wonderful," Lucifer muttered, "as if this night couldn't get any worse."
The Rebis—for that was what this monstrosity had to be—fixed its gaze on him. For a moment, neither moved. Lucifer was half hoping it would run the other way after seeing his face. No such luck. With a bone-chilling howl that set his teeth on edge, the creature charged.
Rebis' were creature's of the demon world. They came in many shapes and sizes, some with fur, others with scales, tentacles or something hellish. This particular one had fur.
Lucifer felt power surge through him, but it was a pale shadow of what he once commanded. His fall had stripped him of much, leaving him with a bastardized mixture of unreasonably 'white' hellfire and the city's sickly light. It twirled around his hands in a swirl of muted light, more fitting for a cheap magic show than the Lord of Hell.
He bared his teeth in a grimace that might have passed for a grin in better times. "Come on then, you overgrown mutt. Let's see what you're made of."
The Rebis was on him faster than he'd anticipated, its massive jaws snapping shut inches from his face. The stench of its breath—rot and sulfur and something far worse—made his eyes water.
Lucifer ducked and rolled, coming up with hands blazing. Bolts of energy shot from his palms, searing into the creature's shadowy form.
But where once he could have reduced mountains to ash, now his assault barely singed the beast's fur. The monster roared, more in annoyance than pain, and lashed out with claws that left deep gouges in the asphalt.
Lucifer leapt back, his reflexes saving him from being gutted. But he wasn't quite fast enough to avoid a glancing blow that sent him flying into a parked car.
Metal shrieked as it crumpled around him. Pain spreading across his back, sharp and insistent. Lucifer tasted copper in his mouth as he spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Fuck," he groaned, extricating himself from the Lucifer-shaped dent in the vehicle's side. "I'd forgotten how much being mortal hurts."
The Rebis stalked towards him, its form seeming to grow larger and more terrible with each step. Lucifer felt a flicker of something he hadn't experienced in eons—doubt. This thing was powerful, far more so than anything he'd faced since waking up in this godforsaken city. Could he really take it down alone?
As if in answer to his unspoken question, a familiar voice rang out.
"Luu! Down!"
He dropped without hesitation, feeling the displacement of air as something whistled over his head. A beam of blue energy struck the Rebis dead center, sending the creature stumbling back with a howl of agony. The smell of burned fur and something far less pleasant filled the air.
Ezra landed beside him, her sword glowing with that same radiant energy. The ridiculous cat plushie was nowhere to be seen, but Lucifer noticed a small bulge in her jacket pocket. Even now, she couldn't bear to part with her prize.
How sickeningly sentimental.
"Fancy meeting you here," Lucifer quipped, climbing to his feet and wincing at the sound of protests from his battered body. "Come here often?"
Ezra's lips twitched in what might have been a suppressed smile. "Thought you could use a hand. Unless you had this under control?"
Lucifer glanced at the Rebis, which was already recovering from Ezra's attack and looking even angrier than before. Its red eyes blazed with hellish fury, and strings of molten drool dripped from its jaws, sizzling where they hit the pavement. "Oh yeah, totally under control. I was just about to invite it over for tea and crumpets."
"Focus, Luu!" Ezra quipped.
Their banter was cut short as the creature charged again, moving faster than something its size had any right to. Lucifer and Ezra leapt in opposite directions, flanking the Rebis.
What followed was a desperate display of light and shadow, steel and wavering flame. Ezra's sword sliced through the air, each strike precise and devastating. Where it bit into the Rebis's flesh, the creature's shadowy form seemed to unravel, wisps of darkness dissipating into the night air. But for every wound she inflicted, the beast seemed to grow stronger, its injuries closing almost as quickly as they were dealt.
Lucifer's powers manifested in bursts of sputtering white fire, more spark than inferno. He dodged and weaved, relying more on his wits than his waning strength. Each near miss left him panting, his reserves of energy depleting far too quickly for comfort.
The Rebis, for its part, was a whirlwind of fur and fang and claw. It moved with a speed that betrayed its massive size, striking out with limbs that seemed to stretch and contort in impossible ways.
One moment, Lucifer would be facing its snapping jaws, the next dodging a paw that came at him from an angle that shouldn't have been possible.
"This isn't working!" Ezra shouted, narrowly avoiding a swipe that would have taken her head clean off. A few strands of her hair drifted to the ground, severed by the creature's razor-sharp claws. "We need to end this quickly!"
Lucifer nodded, his mind racing. There had to be a way to take this thing down permanently. As he rolled away from another attack, his back screaming in protest, his eyes landed on a fire hydrant at the corner of the street. An idea—crazy, reckless, and possibly suicidal—formed in his mind.
"Ezra!" he called out, ducking under a massive paw. "I need you to keep it busy for a minute. And when I give the signal, hit it with everything you've got!"
***