Chapter 233: Swallowing Darkness.
—Jord the Belfegor Child PoV—
–A few months ago–
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” my crustecar friend Jack asked. “We were warned from getting close”
“Exactly!” I nodded happily. “It must be something amazing!”
“I don’t think that’s what ‘Don’t come close to the cursed district in Aprilton 25. It might be dangerous,’ means, Jord.”
“I’m scared…” another of my friends commented.
“Father Tristan will be so angry…”
I winced when my friends mentioned our orphanage’s headmaster.
“Don’t worry!” I puffed out my chest. “He’ll just scold us a little. No big deal.”
“You were the one crying the hardest last time Jord,” Rick my fountan friend claimed.
“Whaaaaaatttttt……? No. You must've misunderstood something. You were the one crying the hardest, so you were confused. That’s it.”
“What? No. I didn’t cry at all.”
“Did too.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Yes-uh.”
“Jord,” Misher the centaur said. “Rick really didn’t cry.”
“...Well then I didn’t either!”
I was met with silence. Aaaaaaaaahhhh! Why are they so mean????
“OKAY, do you guys want to see what the Demon Queen Haell is cooking up now or not!?”
“Well….”
“I mean…”
“If you put it like that…”
“But the curse is really dangerous. We shouldn’t.”
“It feels icky and gross.”
“The guards will drag us out and tell on Father Tristan if they find out!”
“FUCKING SNITCHES!!” I stomped my foot.
“GRRRRRRRRRRRRR……!”
“I will bite them! I WILL BITE THEM!”
“Uhhh…. Don’t actually do that, Wendergo.”
“I WILL BITE THEM!!!” he screamed again, and I… was starting to see the appeal.
An earthquake hit before I could think any more on this.
The people still on the streets fled, but kept their windows open, because how could they not be curious? I was too!
“QUICK! LET’S GO!” I announced and ran for the cursed districts.
My friends showed reluctance for a moment, but finally followed.
“Are we really…?”
“But, but…”
“I already feel sick.”
“Fuck yes we are!” I snapped, then tripped after the ground lurched, but I quickly got back up. “Listen. We’ll just go to the outskirts, alright? As long as no one’s using the building. I already have a good lead!”
“Hnnngggg…”
“Fine.”
“We’re doing this? I guess we’re doing this!!”
We did exactly as I said. I reached the cursed road, and I immediately felt my chest constricting as my feet just wanted to run away… but we’ve already come this far!
“Wiz! Harden our minds!” I told my shepherd friend.
“I-I’ll try!” she agreed and then used her mind magic.
The pressure eased, and then I quickly found what used to be an inn. We moved to enter, but the door was locked, so we broke a window and I jumped in!
My expression fell once I landed among a pile of junk. From pots to pans, toys, weapons, clothes, and every kind of object one might think of! The entire shaking space was filled with them, and the many different objects clattered against each other!
“OW!” I screamed, when a mace rolled over my foot!
“Jord… We can’t go through here. It’s packed!”
I bit my lip in frustration. “No choice then. We climb in from the outside.”
I turned back around, and then looked at my crustecar friend, along with the centaurs among us.
“We… can’t all do that, can we?” I asked sadly.
“I-it’s okay.”
“You guys can go ahead…”
I bit my lip and pouted.
“No! No one left behind!” I decided. “We clear a path!”
Luckily, there were plenty of shovels and other implements just lying around. I directed my group to grab them, and then started clearing a path. We raked the junk to our left and right as we moved forward. Others made shields out of planks of wood or chairs or whatever else we could find. I came across an actual shield and cheered!
“Woohoo! Look at me! I’m a warrior!”
“Aaaahhh! Not fair, Jord! I also wanna be a warrior.”
“Gah! Find your own!”
She did find her own, and the eight of us continued through the shaking building, holding onto each other amidst the shaking.
We made it to the stairs that were at least mostly clear of scrap.
“Be careful. Don’t trip,” I reminded as we made our way up, only for my centaur friend Misher to do just that!
“Sorry! It’s… I’m feeling dizzy with all these shaking.”
“Me too…”
“Can we take a break?”
“Well… But… We’re gonna miss it!” I complained bitterly. These damned old houses never consider centaurs or crustecars! Ugh. “Fine! But just a bit!”
“Whew.”
“Thanks Jord.”
“I– Yeah…”
We sat down and weathered the constant earthquakes for these few minutes, before we stood back up to ascend the floors.
“OW!” Wiz shouted just a few levels away from the roof, and we immediately gave her first aid. A sword had fallen at just the right time to bypass her new shield and slice a gash through her thigh!
“Shit! There are too many sharp weapons here!” I complained. “Be careful! Make sure you block them all. And oh! Go grab those greaves!”
“They don’t fit!!!”
“Just toss them on! Tie them with that rope over there if you have to!”
We armored up like adventurers, and then made our way through the rest of the messy hallways, until we finally made our way to the top deck!
Just in time to watch rows of buildings be swallowed by the ground under them.
“Whoa.”
“Holy shit.”
“Goddamn.”
The ones that disappeared were those closest to Pandemonium. Its walls expanded outwards, cracking, crumbling, and bleeding like a beast that was growing too fast. The organs inside writhed as stone and bone rebuilt itself, only to be broken again by the continuing incursion. Over and over, it was a cycle that never ended. A shadow loomed larger as this massive wall grew taller. It compressed itself harder, but also grew thicker.
The wall began to bleed.
The heraldry that was ruined by this period of growth returned. It formed the Mark of The Beast, followed by Pandemonium’s endless warnings.
“KEEP OUT!”
“DANGEROUS PLACE.”
“ENTER AT YOUR PERIL.”
“DEFENSES ACTIVE AND WILL KILL TRESSPASSERS.”
“I think we can take it,” I commented in this heavy atmosphere.
“What…?”
“NO JORD! WE CAN”T!”
I blinked at my friends. “It was a joke. Obviously. Did you think I was just about to charge the walls like all the others who got themselves killed trying that???”
“Yes.”
“Yep.”
“Sounds like you.”
“IT DOES NOT!”
“It’s what Haell would do,” Wiz suggested.
“...Should we charge in?” I asked unsurely.
~~~
—Pollocks the Human Merchant and Former Knight PoV—
—Still a few months ago—
Please stop this madness.
Strike the Demon Queen down.
Save me from the betrayer.
Destroy the Pandemonium that she has created.
Save us from her rule.
I knelt and prayed to the Angels as the walls of my estate shook. Passed down from my parents, built through great pioneering effort: Now it threatened to be torn down. Cursed like the homes of the many great people who once made Astro City great. Swallowed by the evil of Pandemonium.
I couldn’t believe that the traitors who now lived here were just allowing this to happen! The ground was literally being torn asunder by curses, and they ignored it! They were distracted by the endless indulgences that now filled this once stoic place of martial might! All the fight had been drained out of them, leaving only weakness that the greatest traitor of all could exploit.
I expected them to at least have some basic common sense and self-preservation, but they lacked even something so simple and fundamental. This was the rot of the rebels that the shepherds had warned us about for so long. They were brainwashed by that demon!
The world has gone mad.
Haell has killed literal angels.
She was killed by an archangel in retaliation.
She was supposed to be dead!
And yet here the demon remains, to make everyone’s lives a living torment!
Here she was, to take my home away from me.
I heaved a heavy sigh and looked back at the familiar halls of our mansion. I made a mistake; I stayed in this place for too long. I just wanted to protect my family’s legacy, what we managed to build by the grace of the Angels. But it was obvious, I already knew it; this place was gone the moment it lost the sacred protection of the Angels.
Forgive me, I prayed.
I glanced back at my half-packed things, and finally, painfully made the decision to move out.
I just… didn’t know where else to go, now that this whole continent had rejected what’s right. They butchered the Angels and the shepherds, our leaders and protectors. Order predictably collapsed and society crumbled because of their mistakes. It wasn’t safe out there, it wasn’t safe anywhere.
I guess… I’ll see if I can somehow catch a ship to Arrival or Jurasca.
If not… then may the Angelic God forgive me and welcome me to heaven anyway.
~~~
—Back to Haell PoV—
—Back to The Present—
“So that’s where we’re going,” Arx said in awe as we sat upon the canopy of a kilometers-tall tree while gazing upon the shadow of one singular tree in the horizon that towered over even the canopy beneath us.
“Yep! That’s the father tree!” Elfrafim’s legs dangled merrily. “Aaaahhh! I can’t wait to go there again and see the Nature Dragon Gainess!”
For being called the Nature Dragon, Gainess actually had life magic. The best way to get mana of that element was to ask her, which she did give willingly to most visitors. The only ‘problem’ was that she lived in the most dangerous part of this already grand forest, teeming with Mythical level threats.
That’s part of why the elves regularly organized convoys to go there, although that might actually be secondary to meeting the Mother Dragon and the Father Tree for most of them. I was looking forward to meeting the two, considering how much the elves had talked them up, and featured them in their art.
“I think it’s starting,” Moonwash commented, and I looked down to confirm that the number of elves below had gotten a lot more numerous and active. We were just outside one Bellywise Village, which was the designated meeting point for today.
The four of us finally dropped down from the towering branches above to land among the predominantly elven people and the temporary tents and camps and full-on mansions they’d already set up. At least five grills were already making barbeque for the people here, and I made sure to grab my share.
“Hey! That’s not finished yet! Take this one.”
One of the elven chefs scolded me, and I got my skewer replaced.
“Hi Haell!”
“Oh, that’s Haell?”
“Hii!!!”
“She doesn’t look that special.”
“Hey! Be nice!”
More people came to greet us, Jelf and Elfaja among them. Those two were the first elves I met in the Grandest Forest. The people who guided me to where I needed to go so that I may find someone that could save my friends from death.
“Hey!”
“Hello.”
I and Moonwash gave them both a hug.
“That was a great wedding last month,” Jelf commented.
“Yeah. Lacks an audience though. And a parade. Have you considered a big parade?” Elfaja asked.
I didn’t know what I expected, but elven weddings were even more of an outright festival than New Grandera when they did happen. Elves got married a lot less than other cultures, however. And they still basically partied everyday anyway. They always found an excuse. They didn’t need one.
“Yes. We do those too. But I chose a more personal affair for ours because… reasons.”
“Oh. Well, okay! That’s fine too. It was nice! Your house was really great. It’s alive? Pandemonium?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool! Very cool!”
“What is this cool thing and why did I miss it?” It was at this moment that the strongest presence I could sense here–other than myself, of course–finally came by to say hi.
“Hey. I’m Haell. You are?”
“Welfair Madelfine,” The dark-cloaked and aggressively gothic elf introduced herself. Her voice was eerie and hunting, but even more enchanting than a normal elf’s, like the grave of a goddess had deigned to speak. “Have you considered Haelf?”
“What…?” It took me and my three minds a moment to understand, and then I started guffawing in the middle of this large gathering. “Okay. That was good. But I’m no elf. And I very much like my name.”
She nodded sagely. “It’s good that you like your name. I’ve heard much about you Haelf–Sorry, Haell.” She chuckled, totally enamored at her own joke. “You’re a Demon. The only one I know of. If you are a Progenitor as I assume, then that would explain some of your prowess, but not all of them.” The much shorter woman looked at me quizzically, her eyes a uniform black gem. “Is it true that you’re strong enough to fight against elves of my caliber on equal footing?”
I grinned at such an exciting question. I loomed over her, my greatsword soon in my hands. “Why don’t we find out?”
Welfair took one big sniff of the air, before giving me a haunting smile. “Alright. I’ll bite. Let us spar, Demon Queen Haell Zharignan!”
~~~
“Whoa!”
“Haell is fighting Madelfine!”
“Really…? Does she even have a chance?”
“Uh, yeah? She defeated a Kelpie, Konger, and Stormdeer. Of course she does.”
“Oh yeah! That’s right!”
“I saw it too!”
“This is gonna be boring…”
“Let’s just go.”
“Go Haell!”
“Kick her ass!”
“No! Get your ass kicked instead!”
The elves started cheering from atop the branches as I and Madelfine took our positions below. My opponent had an easy-going smile as she took out a dangerous looking axe on one hand, and some sort of dagger short sword with a weird wavy shape on the other.
We gave each other a nod, and then the battle began explosively.
The ground under me cracked apart as I immediately charged for Madelfine. Her eyes went wide at my speed as she barely fended off Atrocity with both her weapons. The small elf was tossed away by the force regardless, and her arms were sent shaking. I was in front of her before she could regroup, and I pressed the advantage. Madelfine desperately tried to retreat as my greatsword rained blows upon her, soon joined by a torrent of magic.
Her own magic pulsed, and the world grew darker. It pulsed again, and my vision was plunged into night. My senses were stronger than that, so I brought my greatsword down and got a good slice from her shoulder down. Like the severeal of the Folded Planes, I had mastered how add a dimensional edge to my blade, and it sliced right through Madelfine’s light armor and flesh like a hot knife through butter!
That left her open, and her dagger hand severely weakened. I pounced on the weakness, and swept Atrocity across for another big hit. Madelfine met it with her axe, when she could hardly hold me back with both weapons before. But then she actually managed to just barely redirect my strike as the axe that she swung suddenly grew several times heavier!
Gravity Magic!
Madelfine’s night spell kept on pulsing, and my surroundings grew progressively darker. Soon my eyes were useless, but I still had my spatial senses. It was inferior enough to my vision, however, that Welfair finally managed to put some more distance between us. Her night magic was far from finished, and soon even my other senses began to be shut down!
Madelfine charged at me from behind, but almost lost an arm for the trouble. My enemy was left with a nasty gash anyway. She must’ve thought that I was already blind and helpless. She underestimated my added dimensional senses. Even that was fading, but not quite yet.
Madelfine retreated, to allow our battleground to become further plunged into the deepest night I’d ever seen. I naturally tried to catch her while I could still sense anything at all, but she proved increasingly elusive. She did not go for the kill again until she was sure that I could no longer sense her.
I took the initiative and began firing magic at random. Bolts of hellfire, blobs of curse, even blades of space. I made rituals in the air that sprayed my magical might in all directions. I did not see the full effects of my efforts as Madelfine’s night magic continued to have dominion over the environment, but I had the mana reserves to pressure her with a blind bombardment. She can’t predict my next move, when even I don’t know what I’m aiming next!
Welfair finally made another strike, and I barely felt her presence before her axe had torn through my thigh armor and then the flesh underneath. I’d only started to glitch out of the way when her dagger instantly followed and scored a hit on my regrowing flesh!
I opened my wings, tossed myself away, and swiftly sprayed hellfire and curses at the general direction of Madelfine. I landed, and then felt a familiar pain in my thigh. A magic that I lived and breathed. An old friend I hated. That dagger of Welfair contained a terrible curse like me!
“Interesting, interesting!” I shouted into the void, but I could hardly hear my own voice.
My minds quickly worked through several possibilities, whereupon I chose to surround myself in a hellfire tornado. It lit up my surroundings and banished the night, but not by much. Hellfire was the brightest flame to begin with, but it’s what I had to work with. Yet even its red glow was gradually decreasing, for I could still feel Madelfine’s magical pulses that maintained this domain.
Madelfine finally made her next attack! The hellfire revealed her just an instant before impact. The pain slowed her just a bit, and that gave me enough time to react. I knew she’d come from behind, so my tail swiftly turned me around for a big counterattack!
I missed.
Madelfine decisively leapt away, as if she had no forward momentum at all.
A few specks of hellfire clung to her as she retreated, however, and that was enough for me to get a general target.
I leapt right for the enemy at my maximum speed, and finally managed another hit, but it wasn’t fight-ending, and Madelfine once again managed to escape from my grasp after she blew away the hellfire with wind magic.
I once again lost sight of the enemy as she disappeared into the darkness. I resummoned my hellfire barrier, and the eerie quiet returned for a time. Nothing happened, and I began to grow impatient.
Finally, there was a change.
Thick night magic came to dim my hellfire’s glow further.
I focused my senses, but Madelfine still managed to get another combo on my broad back before I could react! Gravity axe, and then curse dagger. I twisted around for a counter-attack, but Madelfine evaded it deep inside my guard, and then managed another stab through my previously exposed thigh!
The elf retreated again before I could pursue any further. My wounds healed, but I had to expend more mana for it than normal. Rot and especially curses were inherently more difficult to heal.
Welfair went for another go, and she managed to evade me like last time! She did not take risks and only stabbed me once before once again retreating back.
The gothic elf managed just a few more hits, before I decided to tackle this problem from another angle.
First, I drove her away with another blind barrage of hellfire and curses. I then prepared something, before resummoning a barrier of hellfire.
A minute passed, and then two.
I am ready. COME!
Madelfine finally gathered the courage necessary to challenge me again! She knew it was a grim proposition. Her axe buried itself right on my fucking asscheek, and then a great amount of blood sprayed out!
Welfair was staggered by the sheer force of it. She quickly tried to run away again, but that was when my blood activated. Hellfire, curses, bleed effects, and dimensional blades. It exploded into a kaleidoscope of different effects! She became visible in this abyss.
Like a sword through a stone, I stabbed Atrocity down and buried it right in Madelfine’s guts!
“I win,” I announced, and she did not protest.
The suffering elf dismissed the night and began healing herself.
I crouched down to help my new friend.