Chapter THIRTY-EIGHT
Rebecca
We came out of the other side of the rift and into the small room Gervais had set aside for it. Vilya was already at the door, holding her hand out to keep us quiet and surveying the hallway.
"It's clear," she said. "Follow me."
We filed out into the hallway, a long corridor that ended in a set of stairs. Brian was a new shade of white at my side, clutching his stomach and trying to hold back another round of puking. He knew we couldn't afford to make a sound, and he made a valiant effort to keep quiet.
We reached the stairs and made our way down, into the lower levels where the archfiend kept his laboratory, as well as his prisons. We moved with a slow haste past the barred cells where corpses of demons remained imprisoned, awaiting their return from the end. They were damaged but well-preserved; Gervais must have been doing something to them to keep them in a more usable state. With every footstep I expected them to rise up and cry out in alarm, or try to rip their way through the runed bars, but they remained still.
I heard Sarah gasp when we passed the final row of cells, having reached the one unique prison where her mother had once been held captive. I glanced back and saw her clenching her hands and teeth, with Izak rubbing her back and gently pushing her forward. There was no time for memories.
We'd reached the archfiend's torture rooms when we heard the murmurs of his voice, speaking to Max from the room beyond. There had been a solid door there once, but now it was missing, the hinges bent and mangled like it had been ripped away. I knew Landon must have done it. I had left Gervais there for him to find, and he hadn't let me down.
"I'm telling you, my Lord, it won't work. Even in your state you can't collect that much power without being burned away by it."
"You promised me you could assist with that, Samael. You swore." Gervais' voice was flat, emotionless. Even his anger came across as a dead thing.
"I can, but I need more time. Malize-"
"There is no more time. Fulfill your obligation."
"Malize hid the ring even from me. He must have known not to trust me too far. I know I can find it given time, but this was to be expected. You can't rely on a trickster like me and not face a certain amount of adversity."
We crossed the room, using their voices to help disguise the sound of our footsteps. I didn't know how the archfiend hadn't sensed our presence, but I had a feeling Max had something to do with it.
"Adversity?" Gervais chuckled. "I'm minutes from becoming a god, and you want to speak to me of adversity? Where is the ring, Samael?" Max cried out, and I heard a thump. The archfiend must have thrown him into a wall. "Never mind. I'll take my chances that you're either wrong, or lying to me."
Vilya waved us to either side of the doorway. I came to rest against the wall right behind her, with Brian still tailing close to me.
"Izak and I will distract him," she said over her shoulder. "Dante will get the Box. You need to grab the swords. Max will lead you through the portal to the Beast's prison."
"What do we do then?"
"We must sink the blades into the Box at the same time. When the door opens, the Beast's power will be drawn into it. We are hoping it will draw in Gervais' stolen power as well."
"Hoping?" I didn't like the sound of that.
"My Lord, you can't," Max said. "If you fail, you will destroy everything."
"I'll destroy everything anyway," he replied. "Once I am a god, why would I settle for just these worlds? The entire universe will be for the taking."
Vilya motioned to Izak, an intricate pattern that I didn't understand. The demon nodded, stepped out into the doorway, and coughed.
There were no words spoken. There was no sound. At first, a stillness sat in the air that threatened to choke off all of reality. Then I felt the coldness of Gervais' power. I heard a crash, and Izak and Vilya rushed ahead. I trailed right behind them, waving for the others to follow.
Max had used the surprise to ambush the archfiend, slamming him hard in the head and throwing him across the small room. He was still on the ground when I entered, getting to his feet and looking amused.
"The deceiver has double-crossed me? Well done, Samael."
Max hadn't waited to see his reaction. He was crossing the floor to the southern wall, where I could see an intricate patchwork of Templar script had been etched. Had he learned the language, or had someone written it for him?
"Go ahead and open it, Samael," Gervais said. "I'll be along soon." His eyes fell on Izak, and he leaped forward, moving so fast I couldn't follow him. A slick of darkness trailed behind, and then snapped forward when he reached the demon. Izak fell sideways, avoiding the dark energy, and Vilya moved in behind the archfiend, slamming into him and sending him ahead. He hit the wall with enough force to dent the metal, rolled over, and got back to his feet.
"Signora, the swords." Dante appeared out of nowhere. The Box and the blades were resting on a small cart in the center of the room. He grabbed the cube and started backing away.
"No," Gervais said, rising to his feet. He put out his hand, and arcs of black energy launched towards the poet. They fell away when Izak tackled him.
"Follow Dante," I said to those behind me. I couldn't waste any more time watching. I dashed forward, coming to a quick stop at the cart. I grabbed the duffel and swung it over my shoulder, returning it to my back.
Dante was nearly across the room, and Max was already there, chanting in a deep voice with his hand pressed to the etched metal wall. The runes were glowing in a golden hue, casting an eerie light that began to fill the room. Adam was leading the others to the same spot.
"I'm done with you, Izak," Gervais shouted, loud enough to overcome Max's incantation, and loud enough to get our attention. He held the demon by the neck with one hand, and had pinned his good arm with the other. Anger and pain swam across the fiend's face. "I tried to make you part of this. What demon doesn't dream of standing in the shadow of such power? Yet you continue to abandon me, first for my sister, and then for my daughter."
"Let him go," Sarah said. Her voice was weary, her face ashen.
Gervais spun to face her, still holding Izak. "Let him go?" He laughed. "Make me."
Vilya was a bolt of lightning, shooting towards Gervais. She had a blade in hand, and she leaped towards him, rotating her torso and bringing it down on the archfiend with all of her strength. He didn't move. He didn't react. He continued staring at Sarah, challenging her, daring her to attack him. The blade struck him at the base of his neck, and disintegrated into nothing.
She had put all of her energy into the blow, and she lost her balance, stumbling away and falling to the floor. The corrosion continued down the hilt of the sword and onto her hand. She held it up to her face, panic in her eyes, and watched her skin and bone begin to waste away.
"You can't hurt me, Vilya," he said, his voice still flat. "None of you can hurt me. All of your tricks, Samael. All of your lies. They're for nothing."
Max finished his work and fell silent. The light from the door was intense now, bathing everything in its glow. The script had faded away to nothing, as had the wall. All that remained was a glowing portal that led to the Beast's prison.
"Let's go," he said.
Dante was the first to go through.
"What about Izak?" Obi asked. "And Vilya?"
"They're dead," the reaper replied. "They knew it was going to end this way. They understood the need." He stepped through.
"I'm not leaving him," Sarah said. Her head stayed fixed on her father, as though she could see him through her eyeless sockets. Her flesh was gaining color, and she continued to flex her hands. "Even if you kill him, I'm going to kill you."
"A pleasant thought I'm sure," Gervais said. "Come and get him."
"Obi, take Brian and go," I said. I took the duffel from my back. "Adam, take the swords. I'll get Sarah."
None of them looked happy, but they knew they had no choice. Gervais would kill us all. Adam took the swords and vanished into the light, with Obi and Brian right behind.
Vilya had stopped screaming. The decay had done its work, reducing her to a layer of dust on the cold floor.
"Well, my dear?" Gervais said.
"Sarah, don't," I said. "We can't beat him this way. We have to go through the portal and use the Box."
She didn't react. I don't know if she even heard me. Her breathing had slowed, and she looked calm and peaceful. It was more frightening than when she had looked angry. She started walking towards Gervais.
"Sarah!" I grabbed her arm. Pain lanced through every nerve of my body, my muscles spasming and freezing and forcing me to let go. She didn't even seem to notice. "Sarah!"
I had no idea how to stop her. I couldn't touch her, couldn't reason with her. She kept walking towards Izak, and I saw lines of blood along the back of her shirt. With each step she took the blood thickened, until it burst in a flurry of cloth and flesh, and a pair of red and gold feathered wings sprouted from her back. They weren't plush and light like a seraph's, but ridged and serrated, menacing and dark.
Gervais laughed.
"I knew it," he said. "I knew I could coax you to change. I knew I could turn you, and bring out your true power. I knew I could break you." He shifted his grip, and pulled Izak's head from his neck. He held it out to her, letting the body fall away. "Thousands of years and all of that power. Wasted on the weakness of love."
Still Sarah was silent. She was getting close to the archfiend now, and her wings had extended fully from her back, stretching wide behind her and obscuring my view. Izak was dead, Vilya was dead. How was I going to stop Sarah from joining them?
"Sarah," I cried, one last time. I couldn't stop her. I couldn't touch her, and I couldn't touch Gervais. All I could do was watch her die.
They stood face to face, father and daughter. They regarded one another without emotion.
"I knew it was there," he said. "We will rule the universe, daughter. You and I."
"No," Sarah replied. "You'll die."
There was no battle. There was no struggle. Her wings folded down and in, spreading and changing as they moved. Two tips caught the archfiend's wrists. Two tips caught his ankles, and another caught his head. The feathers dug into the skin like spears, spreading him and lifting him up off the ground. His eyes widened in surprise, and he tried to move, to touch her with his power, but there was nowhere he could reach. He was pinned tight.
I could barely see through the wings to Gervais' face. Sarah brought her hands up to it, and cupped his chin beneath clawed fingers. "Thank you, father," she said. "I could never have stopped you without you." She turned around and started walking towards me, while I stood there in shock.
"Sarah?"
"Let's finish this, Rebecca," she said, walking past me.
"Rebecca?" Gervais asked. All the defiance had drained from him.
She held him aloft in her wings, and carried him through the portal.
I followed right behind.