Chapter 4
A fight and a chance meeting
It’s been 2 years since that night. Still burned freshly into our minds. We have spent the last 2 years learning and developing our powers and collecting information on the invaders. The demons are very well organized and as varied as the species are on our planet. They have a social hierarchy. There are 6 named generals called the Pillars. They only answer to one demon that we can’t find a name for. We have taken to just calling him "Him". The demon army has taken over much of the world. Small patches of society still linger but are fighting a losing battle. My brothers and I spend our days looking for survivors and searching for the Pillars and info on how to fight the demons. We have run into small groups of people that have developed magic abilities since the invaders arrived. Raw energy seemed to be more plentiful these days, no doubt an unexpected side effect of their hostile occupation of our world. These new magic users were low powered and could do nothing like what my brothers and I can do.
We currently are holed up in a damaged apartment building. We came to this town looking for a book said to hold answers about the demon’s true origins. We found the book but the damn thing just gave more questions than answers. I've spent night after night reading and rereading but I got nothing. I get up from my chair and rub my eyes. I walk over to one of the boarded-up windows and look out. The city we are in was in ruins the demon forces had looted and killed most the people here. Baker and Shyft walk up the stairs to the second story. They had been out looking for supplies and covering our tracks.
"Did you find anything useful in your book?" Shyft asks as he sets his pack down.
"Not a thing. I do need to find a latin to English dictionary. I did find something written on the title page in the margin but I don’t know what it says." I answer.
Baker sits on the couch with a huff "Damn man I thought this was going to lead to something." he says disappointed. "How does it look out there? Anything noticed we are here?" He asks looking at me.
"I don’t know let me check." I answer and then close my eyes and focus a burst of sensory magick. I push it outwards passing through the walls and out through the streets. Over the last 2 years I have trained my range which was now several miles, in a spherical area. I can feel everything in that sphere. Several scavenging animals, a flock of blood hawks, a few scavenger demons, and there are several magical traps that had since run out of all but a shadow of its energy.
"Nothing of consequence." I say after retracting my energy back to me. We rested for a few hours until I got a ping from one of my proximity glyphs, a trick that I came up with mixing my sensory magick with glyph magic from Roland's books. I had every building on this street and at the entrance of the town rigged with these invisible magical traps. I let the energy from the trap enter my mind and I could feel a small radius from it that there was a large contingent of soldier demons entering the town headed towards our location.
"We got to go we have incoming." I say quickly
"Eta?" Shyft looks out the window as he asked.
"Maybe 10 minutes." Baker was already throwing his gear in his bag and strapping on his shield and opened his spear.
Shyft wrapped his warriors chain around his wrist and slung his bag onto his back.
"Then let’s get going." Baker says cautiously opening the front door. I ping my radar and motion them forward giving the all clear for the moment. We head out the door and move from building to building working our way in the opposite direction as the incoming army. I ping my radar keeping it close only within a few blocks to decrease the chance of being felt by any of the demons that might have magic ability. We get several blocks away and then hear a loud howl.
"Shit wulves caught my scent." I say to my brothers. Wulf demons were altered wolves, altered by magic to track anyone magical or not. Wulf demons could "smell" a person’s aura and track it relentlessly.
"Where do we go, we need cover." Shyft says looking down one of the side streets keeping an eye out for the wulves.
"I saw an abandoned army navy store a few blocks north. We might be able to use that as cover and maybe find some more weapons." I spoke up.
My brothers agreed that the army navy store was as good a destination as any, so we set off to the north using side streets and alleyways. We turned down the last alley that ended on the street with the store. We weren't but half way when two large grey and black wulves came into view. Their large heads sniffing the air. They turn to see us and immediately start howling. Another pair of howls sound behind us.
"They set a fucking trap." Shyft growls readying himself for a fight. I put my back to my brothers, trusting them to watch my six.
"Guess we have to fight." Baker says. I ready my bow and nock two arrows. The two wulves in front of me growl and crouch ready to attack. The two squaring off with Baker and Shyft attacked first. I dare not take my eyes off the ones in front of me so all I heard was a mixture of hits and growls. I decide to end my fight quickly so I charge my arrows with my magick and take my shot. Both arrows zoom down the alley. The head wulf leaps out of the way gracefully using the walls of the alley like a free runner to dodge my shot. The second wulf was slow to act and my arrow buries deep in its shoulder. The wulf staggers and yelps. It rights itself and starts to sprint toward me but my magick was quicker. Sharp barbs of green black ice explode from inside its pelt originating from where my arrow penetrated. The wulf fell to one side panting heavily. It let out a whine and draws a few ragged breaths before it goes still. The other wulf, obviously enraged by the death of its pack mate, rushes me with all its speed.
I slam my hand on the ground and focus a large amount of energy into producing a wall in front of me about 5 yards out. The telltale sheen of ice snakes on the ground to the spot I wanted and stretches across the alleyway touching wall to wall. Then a thick layer of ice starts to rise from the ground. The wulf noticing his window of opportunity was closing tries to leap over the rising wall of ice. It didn't jump high enough the wall had finished being created just as the wulf smashes into it snapping its neck. I release my energy and the wall melts away. The wulf lays there with its neck twisted at a 90-degree angle. I walk up and kick it one to make sure, but it doesn't move. I turn to my bothers still tangling with one of the wulves, the others carcass was ablaze with cobalt blue flames evidence of Shyft's kill.
The last wulf was crouching at the end of the alley defensively, calculating its next attack. Baker stepped forward and waits hands outstretched and fingers all pointed at the enemy. The wulf knowing it had speed on its side came bounding down the alley using the walls to hop back and forth as it ran making it a hard target to hit. I saw Baker’s energy flair in his fingertips in the form of needles. He launches a barrage of these little needles making dodging almost impossible. The wulf stops its attack and lands a few yards from us. Its pelt was dotted with these needles but they didn't seem to hurt it too much. It shakes itself and a few of the needles fall off and disappear.
Thinking the attack failed it lunges for us, obsidian black teeth wet with saliva, eyes full of hunger glowing with feral magick. Baker didn't back down he just flares his energy again and spreads his outstretched fingers apart quickly. Each of the needles splits in half and fires across the alley embedding into the walls. In a split second the wulf goes from lunging at us to being completely trapped in what looked like a steel spider web. It snarls and strains but with each movement the spikes in its pelt seem to burrow further in to its hide. Shyft takes the advantage and wreathes his hands in flames and runs at the demon. Steps before being in biting distance he turns the run into a slide, right under the snapping jaws and rakes the soft belly of this beast with his flaming hand. The wulf jerks once and dies . Baker releases his magic and the corpse falls to the ground buring to nothingness.
We look at each other and smile. "Where did that spell come from?" I ask Baker.
"I saw a spider the other day and it just came to me." He answers proudly. We sat down for a few minutes to calm ourselves after the fight. I focus my energy and send a directional radar ping towards the direction the encroaching army is approaching from. I get up quickly and say,
"We have maybe 5 minutes before they will be in range to sense us." My brothers get up quickly and follow me to the end of the alley. We look out of the alley cautiously to see if the coast is clear. Even with my radar ability we have encountered several variety of demons that had an aura cloaking ability and some that just didn’t give off a radar ping. We file out of the alley and make our way to the army navy store.
The front door and windows are boarded up and the second story has a few broken windows but it looks structurally sound. Baker takes a step forward and flares the energy into his hands and wedges them between the boards. A few seconds later he pries the boards over the door loose. We enter the building and when the door shuts we are engulfed by darkness. It took a few minutes but my eyes eventually adjust to the darkness.
"Legolas, what do your elf eyes see?" Shyft says jokingly referencing a movie from our youth. Baker started laughing.
"Just a balding jackass and his blind jester. Oh, and btw fuck you." I said giving him the finger. The store was a mess but there was still a lot of merchandise left in here. I found a couple of flashlights in a drawer behind the counter and brought them to my brothers. Baker walked over to the door and windows. He flared his energy and put his hands to the ground. After leaving several shining metal sigils on the ground. The image of a thick metal wall extended from the ground to the ceiling making a secure defense for the shop for the time being. I walk up and add a few glyphs across its surface, meant to keep the incoming demons from sensing us easily.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Searching the store front didn’t give us much, but we found a few things we could use. After some more searching, Shyft came running from the back of the shop with a huge smile of his face.
"What did you find." I asked.
"They had a weapon stash, probably a black-market seller." He answers. "and they left most of the merchandise when they abandoned this place." He added gleefully. We follow him to the back to find a portion of the brick wall moved aside like a door and inside was a treasure trove of firearm goodies.
Pistols, machine guns, rifles, grenades, you name it they had it. Now from our research, we knew that small caliber arms had no effect on the demons. Their hide was thick enough to stop anything under a .357 magnum round. We have heard that explosive rounds and sabot rounds are the most effective, but that is what the military uses and aren’t very accessible to normal people. There were a few things in the books I carry from Roland's stash that describe how to augment weaponry with magick so here is a good time to try it out. Baker grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun and .45 pistol. Shyft grabbed two .45 sub machine guns. I found a .308 rifle and a .357 revolver that I liked. We set to augmenting them with magic. Inscribing magical runes and glyphs charged with our energy onto the ammo and the weapons themselves.
We also found a small cache of claymore mines and a bandoleer of grenades but after inspection most of them were deactivated. My brothers were having fun fawning over the weapons we found. I sat back and rested against the wall, letting my mind wander a bit. While sitting there I decided to ping my energy into the rest of the building and I got the telltale ping of something magical near us. The energy didn’t feel demonic, it didn’t have the twisted feel. It kept jumping all over the building so I couldn’t pin it to just one place.
"I’ll be back I have to go check on something." I told my brothers as I got up to find the source. I pinged out my sensory magic again and get back the feeling that whatever it was, it was upstairs.
I cautiously ascended the stairs with my kukris drawn. The upstairs area looked like an office, with cubicles. Somewhere at the back office I noticed a shadow move and I took off after it. Every time I thought I had the shadow cornered it seemed to appear on the other side of me. I closed my eyes and filled the room with my energy, as I started to get the feedback I got hit from behind and fell to the ground. Something rolls me over and I notice a petite framed girl kneeling over me with a dagger to my throat.
"Who are you?" She asked forcefully.
"I'm Wingless and you are?" I answered unbothered.
"What are you?" She seemed on edge. Eyes always moving looking for danger
"I'm human, why do you ask?" I asked back at her. She seemed to ease a little bit but her dagger did not move from my throat.
"Would you mind removing the dagger?" I asked her. She closed her eyes for a split second and I took my chance. I gathered energy on my chest and created a bubble of water between us. I forced her off of me and sent her sprawling across the floor. She got up quickly and vanished.
"I thought you said you were human, lying demon. I can’t believe I fell for your deception. I will end you." She said through gritted teeth.
"I never lied to you, I am indeed human, I just have the ability to use magick to a major degree." I answered condensing my aura into a protective shell.
"No human has the ability to do what you can do." her voice seemed to originate from several different directions at once.
"Apparently, you haven't been out there much because there are quite a few people that have magic ability now." I answered her.
"No anyone that has the ability to use magic has an ancestor that wasn’t human. Pure human’s physiology can’t take the strain of magick, it breaks down and causes major health issues." She answered from behind me. I felt my aura take a blow.
"Well if I am indeed not human I don’t know anything about what I am." I answered truthfully. "Can you come out of hiding I mean you no harm." I continue as I lay down my weapons on the ground and release my aura shield.
The girl then rematerialized in front of me several feet back. "Ok." she sat down with a dagger on each knee. "Why did you break into my hideout?" she asked.
"We were unaware of anyone living here and we needed shelter from the army of soldier demons headed into town. We don’t know if they are here for us or not, but we thought best to get further away from them." I answered.
"We?" she tensed and looked around quickly.
"My brothers are downstairs gathering gear." I said matter of factly.
"Are they like you, able to use magick?" She looked nervous.
"Yes, but like I said we mean no harm." I answered calmly trying to ease her tension. Her grip eased a little on her daggers, but she was obviously ready to run at a moment’s notice.
"So, what are you and your brothers doing in this town? There is nothing here to speak of." She asked a bit of curiosity in her voice.
"We are looking for ancient tomes that were said to have info on fighting these demons mainly how to fight the Pillars and 'Him'. The problem we have run into is the book we found here had nothing in it that helped. There was an inscription in the margin obviously written in, but it is in an old dialect of latin that I don’t recognize." I told her. She moved a little closer
"Do you have the book or remember what the inscription was?" She asked softly. I slowly pulled my bag around front and unzipped it. I withdrew the tome and laid it down in front of her. She waited until I backed away to start looking through it. She had produced a small orb of light that hovered over her shoulder almost automatically. She pondered the book for a few minutes reading to herself and occasionally shaking her head. She finally stopped at the page with the inscription and turned the book sideways to read it better. She leaned down closer to the book and the little orb of light seemed to know that it was needed because it drew closer to the page to increase the light. She sat in silence for a span of minutes.
This silence left me time to study her a little more. She was a lithe young woman of about 19 maybe 20. Small in stature and height like a gymnast. Her aura was a pinkish purple, a color combination I had never seen before. She was stunningly beautiful especially with the incandescent glow of the magical light by her face. Her hair was short cut and a dark red fading to pink at the tips. I guess she felt me looking at her because she looked at me quickly and the orb dimmed enough to hide her features.
"It’s not polite to stare." She said offended.
"I'm sorry, but I'm still trying to figure you out." I said keeping my thoughts on her appearance out of the conversation. "Your aura is different than any I've ever seen and your abilities, the disappearing and reappearing and the little light orb are very interesting. I've given nothing but the truth to you so tell me who and what are you?" I added. She smiled for the first time in our encounter and stood. "My name is Dani, I apologize for my rashness before but one cannot be too careful these days. I am half human and half fae. My mother was a fairy and my father was a human. I inherited my mother’s magic. I didn’t always have these abilities, but when the demons came I just started to be able to do these things. Over time I learned how I did them and how to get better at them."
She quieted down and looked at the book. "I know what it says, before all this I was a renaissance history major and latin was my language of choice. It says, 'The keys to open Solomon's treasure.' I don’t know what that means but that is what it says." She looked back at me. This was the first time I saw her eyes clearly, they were a beautiful purple hue, shinning like amethysts. One of my glyphs at the apartment we had been hiding in hours before triggered and I got the tell-tale ping from it. The soldiers were looking for us.
"I have to go now; the demons are looking for us and if we stay much longer they will find your hideout. We will lead them away to make sure you are safe." I smiled at her reassuringly. "Take this and if you ever need help just charge it with your energy and I will know how to find you." I pulled a pendant of an arrow out of my trench coat pocket and whispered a spell onto it. It was a long-range tracking spell that fed off the raw energy around it to stay alive and only activated if enough energy was charged into it. She took the pendant and put it around her neck.
I heard the footsteps of my brothers clomping up the stairs and I turned to see them enter cautiously.
Shyft spotted me and asked "What are you doing up here Wingless? You have been gone for nearly 20 minutes." I turned back to where Dani was sitting but she was gone.
"There was a girl in here and she told me what the inscription in the tome said." I answered confused.
"What girl? You are feeling alright?" Shyft asked.
"I'm fine she was here. She was a magic user like us." I said still confused. We headed back down stairs where my brothers had all the ammo and gear we were taking in duffle bags. "The soldier demons are searching for us by the way guys, I just got a ping off my glyph at the apartment we were just at." I say to my brothers as we started to gather our newly acquired equipment. My new rifle was humming with my energy and the glyphs on it were glowing a dark green something that always happened when I empowered glyphs.
Baker looked up with his gear packed and says, "How long do you think we have before they track us here?"
"I don’t know brother but I'd say maybe 15 minutes." I answer him. "That girl I saw knew what that written part in the margins said. She said it was an archaic version of Latin and it read as 'The keys to open King Solomon's treasure'. I don’t know what that exactly means but it is something to go on." We headed towards the back exit of the building and entered the alley way. We found a truck, full of gas and ready to go waiting in the alley.
"What a find, I guess the previous owners must have had this as a quick get out vehicle but never got to use it." Shyft says.
"Well let's use it to get the fuck out of here." I said. My brothers agreed so we loaded the gear and piled in.
"Where are we headed?" Shyft asked from behind the wheel. I pull out a map of the US and start chanting over it.
"What are you doing?" Baker asked looking back from the front passenger seat. I finish the spell and wait for something to happen. "I'm trying a locator spell that was in Roland's book. I think I may have figured out what the excerpt from the book was talking about but I don’t know how it will help us. I'm looking for the remaining copies of the Lesser Key of Solomon." I answer.
"Isn't that the book that has the names of demons and how to summon them in it? I thought those were hoaxes." Shyft said starting the vehicle and slowly moving us away from town.
"Yes, from what we knew back then they were thought to be fake, but with what we know now there might be more to them." I said. The map then caught fire but the fire wasn’t hot. It stayed lit for a few seconds and then went out on its own. What was left was a blank page.
"Well that didn’t work." I said disappointed "I was hoping it would give us something on where to find the Keys of Solomon." as I said the name the map started to change in front of my eyes. Ink welled up on the page and started moving around on its own. When the ink stopped moving there was a crude map of the US with 5 spots glowing dark green. One of which was maybe a few hours away in what used to be Ohio near one of the known portals that the demons had used to enter our world. I relayed the info to my brother and we set off towards that dot.