I had stars in my eyes.
No, wait. Not stars. That was an inch of razor-sharp sword arm.
Something prevented them from going all the way into my brain, and I rolled back against the ground. Briefly blind before my Lantern power restored my damaged orb. Pearl rolled away from the fight, having taken one of Amber’s attacks through the shoulder.
It had been just enough to prevent my death. This poison was making me lag. Slower than usual - but I couldn’t purge it. As I gathered my senses together, Wight slid along in front of me. His clawed hands gripped together by his side as he pooled power together for an attack.
[Attack now.]
I raised my gun out and hit the fifteen-foot wide beam of Lantern energy just as he did the same with his beam of entropic power. Against reason, they spiraled together, bright white and pitch black light coiling tighter like a spring as we held the attack. It was blinding, and my wide grin was illuminated even as my arm shook and threatened to tear from the rest of me.
It had maybe been ten seconds before we dropped the attacks, exhausted from the sudden exertion. The humming subsided and clouds of vaporized dust parted to reveal the destruction.
A wide trail has been scoured from the surroundings. Houses continued collapsing in the distance as a bloodied trail of collateral demons led back to where we stood. The Demon with tentacles had taken the brunt of the attack instead of Amber, and had half of one side of his body burned off. The Director herself had taken some damage, but as she uncurled, it seemed as though it wasn’t enough.
Pearl immediately darted toward the wounded demon, her sword arcing around in glowing energy. She had a few wounds healing, but it looked as though she was slower, too. The poison from the demon putting her at a disadvantage.
Before her attack collided, energy washed over us as another Domain changed our location briefly to a swamp, our legs now knee deep in thick mulch.
//Incoming power from the Church.
Dozens of tentacles burst from the fetid waters surrounding us, each with a long, hooked barb at the end. Revolver spun around and I slammed the trigger, taking two out but unable to stop them all.
I blocked the attack from one, the force knocking me back on stuck legs, possibly breaking a rib. Pearl growled out as she stomped through the swamp, one of the severed barbs still embedded in her back. An explosion erupted to my right as Wight used an entropy mortar to open up a space in the muck.
//Now.
While I had been expecting little more than a couple of ice-cubes in my glass when it came to the granted power, it instead felt as though my drink had been flash frozen. Scoured of all malady and refreshed. A brief reprieve, I was certain, as their powers wouldn’t last here in the Mids for long.
It was enough to bring out my imagined second revolver of radiant energy and gave me the strength to move within the thick sludge.
So I fired, with both revolvers, continuously. Turning, aiming between each new segmented appendage that was foolish enough to extend from the depths. The power of my shots burst and split the sharp ends away, causing the broken parts to splat down on the mud.
In panic, the damaged torso emerged from below to scream out - something quickly ended with the flourish of Pearl’s sword. The Domain evaporated, plunging us back to the damaged Hells in front of Amber.
“How is it you always grasp at salvation just when needed?” she seethed.
“Listen carefully and I’ll tell you.” I grinned and pushed my glasses up.
A sharp whisper vibrated around us like a whirlpool, the unmistakable true name belonging to a Higher demon.
“How? You?” She turned her angered gaze to Pearl, who was flipping her off while propping herself up with her sword.
Terrible decision to allow herself to be distracted - her eyes back to me slightly too slow, as she clocked the massive amount of energy powering toward her. I’d used the last of the divine top up from the mortal plane to jettison off a large mortar shot at a low angle.
Second mistake was trying to weather it. Amber crossed her long arms just as it struck her, a flare of radiant light brightly blinding us all as it burned away at her already damaged skin. Just as she lowered her sluggish limbs, I was there. Dagger swung around and through her neck.
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We both fell to the floor, and I rolled away to the side. Turned and brought the blade back down into her eye-socket, stopping her panicked gurgling almost immediately. She shuddered and was dead. No Domain for her.
Muscles screamed as I stood back up. The surrounding terrain had been annihilated, and any demons not caught in the rampant destruction had lost their appetite to engage us. In all the turmoil, I hadn’t noticed how close the Org had gotten to our location. As we panted out through pained lungs, our eyes turned upward to the final stop on our bloodbath tour.
A figure stood atop the roof of the Org. In one hand, a whip. Something that brought back painful memories that bubbled my anger to a flash point. The other held a glowing stone.
“Makkari,” Pearl hissed, clutching at her arm, as if it couldn’t be any clearer.
“You are too late,” he called down. “But perhaps I can help you both find your way back to those who you used to love.”
From here he was just a cliche silhouette, as if I hadn’t struggled all these years only to have a faceless enemy try to rile me up. Unfortunately, the memory of that day was still crystal clear. There was no denying this was the demon who had slain my family, even if I couldn’t see the details before cratering his face in.
“Eric, we need to-”
The shattering of the stone held in his hand broke off the rest of her sentence. Even from down here, we could feel the change in the air. Waves of cold and then hot pulsed through the area as the pressure increased. I hadn't even had the chance to process or gloat over killing the Director. Nor time to fully recover.
[Get down.]
We hunkered to the ground without hesitation just before a shockwave burst against the ruined streets, shattering stone and further destroying rows of houses even hundreds of feet back. I looked up to see crackling lighting splitting around the outside of the darkened Org building. Moving around the demon who was standing with his arms raised.
I tried to stand and my legs didn’t have the strength to. It reminded me of the Jailer trying to keep me down. Wasn’t very nice.
“This amount of power…” Pearl growled, her fangs bared and eyes burning with anger.
[We are too late, Eric.]
Beside me, Wight stood with his arms crossed. An impassive look on his face.
“It’s not over yet.” I tried to focus my energy to give me strength… if I could just fly up there, then…
[Not over, no. We still have one final card to play.]
The final final card.
I looked back up at Makkari, and the demon sunk away. As if he had melted or turned to dust. A pulsing white light started to grow brighter from the center of the Org roof, where we couldn’t see. Silence weighed heavily throughout the area, as if all sound had been stolen away. Mouth moved, but no sound came out. Even Rodney’s attempts to get through weren’t able to dent the thick fog around us.
//Energy… power… -ric? …-ack.
//…
Then it all came back as one. A terrible explosion that sounded like an electric volcano went off. Every inch of my skin tingled and burned from the change in the atmosphere. I struggled to breathe as the resulting shocks tried tearing my internal organs to shreds.
[The Org is falling.]
Like a spent carcass, the large building was now discarded and gravity grabbed hold of it hungrily. And what use would it serve now anyway, as my stomach twisted at the sight of what now grew behind it?
I’d seen my share of gods - more than most, at least. Something about this one was somehow more revolting to my living soul than even the Rat God. A mountainous demon, several hundred feet tall, was now blooming from the ground just beyond the inert Organization HQ. I didn’t even have the heart to compare it to a flower, as it was the furthest thing from any of the positive qualities you could use for that metaphor.
Long, twisting horns each as thick as an apartment block jutted from the side of a wide, ruddy face. Deep pits of smoldering gray light as eyes, over a mouth as wide as a city block - every house a pointed tooth that could carve through the earth itself.
It looked remarkably like Makkari, but much bigger. A wide grin crossed his face as he lifted large arms up to flex thick muscles. Such pride was to be expected.
“Shit. Now what?” Pearl pushed herself up to her feet, but she looked about as good as I felt. The poison has worn us down, and we seemed to be the only ones in the area that had survived being pulped by the immense pressure of the demonic god.
“How lucky you are to see my ascension, if only briefly,” he boomed out, vibrating the very scenery. “I am the pinnacle of my kind. A god of every sin. All of our power combined into one being, thanks to your weak kind.” He took a deep breath in as a crackling trident formed in his hand. “With the souls of the fallen, I truly am… all demons.”
On shaking feet, I wiped away the blood from my mouth to reveal a wide smile.
“Good, I was almost worried I had knocked on the wrong door.” Flickering pages of my memories passed by. Every time someone had recoiled in shock and told me I had to kill all demons. I had to. I couldn’t let them all down. This was all me. “You might need to sit this out, Pearl.”
“I’m not leaving you, asshole. This is my fight, too.”
I tilted my head. “You can barely stand. I know you won’t leave if I ask, but promise you’ll escape rather than die?”
“No chance, cowboy.” She gave me a tip of her hat. “We’re in this together.”
Air escaped my nose. Pearl was just as strong as me - I knew this. Perhaps it was unfair to even suggest she lived on without me, knowing how she felt. It was too late to protect her from the unknown. Our enemy was right before us. We just had to beat out the odds once more, or die. Acceptance cooled me to the core.
[It is time, Eric. It has been… an honor.]
A single relieved tear ran down my cheek as I held my left arm out and pressed the end of my revolver against my wrist. Exhaustion and inevitability had finally caught me up, and now all that was left was a tired man having to flip the table over permanently. No turning back.
“Say hello to my little friend,” I whispered, as I pressed the trigger…
Freeing Wight from the pact.