7 Deadly Instincts (The Sinfire Chronicles Book 1)

The grand staircase had two sides that would meet on landings as they descended into the darkness. In essence, there were two sets of steps because whatever reason, the demonic architects though that having two staircase instead of one made it all the more grand. They weren’t wrong. Even the railings were ornate.

Squad 23 were on the right staircase, in absolute darkness, waiting the demon to stride by them. There was a fifty-fifty chance that the demon lord would pick their side. If he did, he would see them right away. If he didn’t? They had a chance to ambush him as he walked down the staircase on the other side.

Tomi used their backpacks to make a little bed for Pinch on the steps. They gently put her body down, with her eyes facing the wall. She was soon asleep.

Gray found himself drowsing as well. They’d been up and running for over twenty-four hours now. Now, in completely darkness, he wasn’t sure when his eyes were open or when they were closed. He found himself for a second back in the place of water and stars.

Oma gently reminded him he shouldn’t be sleeping. “Precious dreamer, now is not the time. Your Quelling girl is doing a good job keeping watch, but you need to ready. Remember, this fight isn’t about swords or sorcery. This fight is about hope. Can you cling to your hope, precious Gray? Can you choose love even when there’s so much to hate?”

He was jerked awake.

Ames did the have the best eyes for the dark staircase, and yet, he couldn’t believe she could see a thing. There was no light, none at all, except for their cores, but that gave off a different kind of light. Tomi was fast asleep, in her human form, getting mana from the rest. Midj was eating, so she was getting mana.

Rynn and Ames had quiet cores.

But the longer they sat there, the more of that despair was eating away at Lilian. It might be shredding her mind but it was still giving her mana.

And then, they heard the footsteps, coming down, the tromp, tromp, tromp of heavy footfalls.

Gray saw the darkness in the darkness—there was a black figure of mana that seemed to be anti-light. It was the body of the demon revealed, and it was coming down, walking without care, because even though there was no light, Bellichor could see.

But maybe not that well.

Squad 23 was crouched down, against the marble railing on the right staircase, about five feet from the landing below them.

The demon lord was traipsing down the other staircase, and he walked to the landing and kept going.

And that was when Lilian struck.

She channeled mana into her bloodless blade, and it sparked to life even as the fire light up her entire body.

The flames coming off her seemed to ignite the very air. The temperature soared a dozen degrees at least.

She dumped her mana into her meridans, moving faster than she’d ever moved before. She was their sword. She was their vengeance. She was their hope even in her despair.

She crosse the landing, and Bellichor turned, surprise in his gleaming red eyes. The shadows of her fire lit up his grimace as he tried to get turned around.

But Lilian struck him, stabbed him in the belly, even as her flames blackened his skin.

He let out a roar of pain.

It was such a good attack. Lilian pulled her sword out and went to strike him again.

But Bellichor snapped grabbed her black-splattered blade and snapped it in half. He then summoned a spike out of the stone and Lilian would’ve been skewered if not for the ruby necklace. There was a flash of red and the spike turned to ash.

But still, Lilian was unarmed. Her broken sword clattered down the steps.

The princess had the high ground—she was on the landing while Bellichor was several steps down. But he wasn’t there long.

He leapt up and over her, summoning spikes around him, including one in his steel hand.

He hit the landing with a spear in his hands, and he flung it at Lilian, and again, it turned to ash in the glow of the ruby necklace, barely visible because Lilian was still on fire.

Bellichor’s laughter boomed through the staircase. “Well, now, this is a surprise. It’s not the fire that turning my little spikes to dust. There’s an enchantment there but all enchantsment can only do so much.”

Gray channeled mana into Lilian, and yes, she was using her core to keep her Inferno Aura active, but her core was also fueling the ruby necklace. Both had sapped her, and she couldn’t get any more magic into her meridians.

“Rynn! Ames!” Gray called out as they left the steps and hit the landing.

Rynn threw mana blasts, which pounded the demon, driving him back.

Ames clenched her fist and Bellichor fell to his knees, howling in agony.

The Quelling girl started to laugh as her core filled with mana—and her laughter didn’t stop. It sounded like shrieking.

Tomi looked on—she was hulked out in her karujin cat form but she wasn’t attacking because her main job was to make sure Pinch was okay. Besides, against that evil thin in front of him, she couldn’t do much.

Gray could. He drew his bloodless blade and tossed it to Lilian, who caught it and tried to cut off Bellichor’s head. But again, even though Ames had him in her pain grip, he caught the blade. Again, he broke it. This time, however, she held onto the pommel.

Bellichor stood and bellowed laughter. “Oh, I love the tickles, dark elf. Maybe you’ll get a different kind of spiking. The rest of you get the iron in your asses.” The skin of his face was peeling off, burnied off by Lilian’s fire.

The demon lord closed his fist and spikes rose from the floor, and they all would’ve been impaled if Midj hadn’t thrown mana hands onto the ground. She was back against the wall, but one spike dug into her thigh, but the rest tried to break through her mana hands.

A spike rose near Lilian, then another, then another, but she danced through them, or they became ash when they tried to get near her. She lashed out again and again, slashing into the demon with her broken sword—the end was sparking, and it wasn’t as sharp as it once was, since it was magical wasn’t meant to be used.

Rynn and Ames leapt onto the railing, while Gray retreated down the steps on the landing. He made her he was still close enough to Lilian to keep feeding her mana. But he also had Midj to keep fueled. At first.

The goblin girl was pale—the pain of the spike in her leg must’ve been terrible but she was fighting through it. “I can do it, Gray. I can take some of his mana.”

Before he could stop her, Midj switched spells. Instead of the mana hands, she reached out and stole mana from Bellichor, who howled and laughed and howled some more.

He threw spikes into Ames, and while she dodge most of them, she was still skewered—in her leg and in her arm through the upper part of her chest. She fell backward off the failing and managed to land on the steps.

Rynn hurled more mana blasts but the demon caught them this time, caught them absorbed the mana, which allowed him to throw more spikes. He hurled them again, but Rynn leapt over them, dancing on the railing and using an agility that Gray couldn’t possibly have matched.

Every muscle had mana and it allowed her the dexterity to not only traverse the back railing but she hurled herself at the demon lord. And when a spike rose to implae her, she caught it, used it to spin her body, and she kicked him in the head with all of her might. A horn was torn lose as were any number of teeth.

Rynn then launched herself off the spike and onto the steps on the other side.

Even as Lilian stabbed her blade again and again into Bellichor was spouting black blood from any number of wounds.

He staggered back, spitting more black blood onto the steps. “Oh, Settie outdid herself. How can you all have so much mana? And you fucking angel-headed bitch. You keep stabbing me. But don’t you understand? I am not made of putrid flesh and black blood. I am magic incarnate!”

And in a flash, every wound was healed. His fangs were back in his mouth. And even his horns had been restored.

It was like he was during the start of the fight.

Bellichor dropped his arm and spike slammed up into Rynn from the step, driving up through her shoulder, pinning her place. To get free, she’d have to tear herself apart. She dropped her sword and screamed in pain.

The demon lord summoned another spike and threw it into Midj, transfixing her to the wall. She screamed and wept. It was clear she would be casing no more spells.

Tomi stood near Pinch, shaking in terror. Her eyes were wide, and yes, she was in her karujin form, but it was clear, she didn’t have the courage to attack. More than that, what could she do? If she tried anything, she’d be spiked.

Lilian, though, on fire, with broken sword in hand, didn’t stop. She kept on cutting at the demon, even though there was no way she was going to enough damage to harm him. She knew she couldn’t win. And even though it was insane, that knowledge filled her core with mana which allowed her to fight on.

And though the spikes couldn’t harm her, every time she turned one to ash, the ruby necklace would get dimmer and dimmer. She only had so much protection left.

They were going to lose. They all knew it. And Lilian liked that. Gray could see that in her eyes.

Hope. Oma had been right. The entire battle had come down to hope.

Gray didn’t have a sword, but he had his stick. And he loved that stick.

Hadn’t Oma said something about love?

Gray also had his magic. And a strong heart. And the love of his friends. This wasn’t like the gladiator games he’d watched his entire life. They weren’t performing for a crowd. They weren’t delighting a blood-thirsty audience.

They were battling evil on a staircase near the shithole of the world.

Gray was glad Tomi wasn’t wading into the battle. She might be their only witness.

He reached out and grabbed Lilian’s core—her core, like her body, was so familiar to him. He didn’t pull out her mana, but he did steal some of her flames.

It emptied his core some, but that was good. It allowed him to fill his legs with mana, and he leapt from the staircase on the right—and landed on the railing. He’d taken a page from Rynn and walked along the marble until he could leap next to Lilian.

Both of them were on fire, sharing the same flames, and hence, sharing the same immunity to the fire.

Gray didn’t have the ruby necklace, though. A spike could end him.

He couldn’t let that happen. He was feeling crazy, and so afraid, and yet, he was so full of confidence. He had his own humility resonance, and he knew he’d spent his entire life training for that moment.

He went to hit the demon with his stick, but of course, Bellichor grabbed it and went to break it.

It should’ve spanned easily. But it wasn’t just a normal stick. It was a part of him, and it held. Just as he would hold.

Gray vented the mana in his stick and there was an explosion. The demon lord’s hand was blown off and he screamed again. This time, it wasn’t just pain, it was fear.

“You think you’re magic, asshole?” Gray said laughing as crazily as Ames had. “You’re not the only one. The heart, Lil, aim for the heart.”

As the demon had staggered back but Lilian charged forward, once again emptying her core into her meridians. She drove the jagged end of her broken sword into Bellichor’s big scorched chest, cutting a hole there. The demon was on fire now, and the smell of his cooking skin was sickening. He was blackened to a crisp even as his inky blood dripped down from the unimaginable burns.

But that wouldn’t have killed him, no. It was just skin. He’d put on a different skin to pretend to be Blonko, and he could regenerate that. And yet, there was fires were so hot, several of the spikes around them had started to liquify.

If they weren’t careful, they would burn to incinerate their friends. Rynn and Midj were still pinned to either side of the grand staircase.

He and Lilian together were not just burning, they were getting mana—she was getting magic from her despair. She didn’t think they could win. He was getting mana from his hope. He knew they could. Together, they were hotter than the flames of hell.

Gray charged forward even as a spike drove into his gut. It didn’t even hurt. He knew it would probably kill him, but not before he killed the thing in front of him. He channeled more mana into his stick, as much as it could take.

He pushed himself further down the spike in his belly, and the pain of in his abdomen made him nauseous and dizzy. Then—when he was close enough—he pushed his stick into the gaping wound in Bellichor’s chest.

The demon lord…one of Malchutt’s Offal Guard…got a look of genuine fear on his face, eyes widening. “It’s not possible.”

Gray grinned. “I know. We shouldn’t have won. But we did. Say hello to Malchutt, mother fucker.”

He vented the mana in his stick, right inside the demon, and then, there were lost in a mist of black demon blood as pieces of meat rained down among them, plucking down, here and there. But it wasn’t really flesh—Bellichor was a demon, he was made of mana, and once he’d lost enough of himself to the slaughter, the meat turned to crispy bits of charcoal. It didn’t even steam away, like normal demon flesh, but went from charcoal to ash in seconds. His horns flamed a bit as they died, but they were on a skull that was already dust.

Tomi had somehow pulled Midj off her spike and was dragging her and Pinch up the stairs, away from the maelstrom of flames on the landing. Ames had healed herself, but she hadn’t removed the spikes, and so she was pulling herself up with them still inside of her.

Rynn had freed herself and healed herself and was descending the steps on her side of the grand staircase.

And still Lilian burned and burned and burned. The only reason why Gray wasn’t killed was because he was sharing in her Inferno Aura because of his adept skill. And he could heal his body, even though there was still a spike in his guts.

She turned to him, tears streaming down her face, but they weren’t tears for long. The turned to salt on her cheeks. She gazed into his eyes. “I wanted to lose. I wanted to die.”

“I know.” He took her hand—it was so strange, standing there in a curtain of fire scorching the rocks and melting the iron spikes around them. And yet, they were talking as if they were standing in the rain.

“I don’t think I can forgive you,” she whispered.

“I know that too.”

Lilian closed her eyes. “I don’t think I can forgive me. Or the gods. Or the demons who built this world. I hate it, Gray. I hate it all so much.”

He didn’t know what to say to that, so he pulled her too him. She fell into his arms, sobbing. Ha. She didn’t have a spike in her belly, but oh well. Maybe she had something worse.

He held her all the same. Oma said that Gray had that same hatred for his life and the world and all the evil in it. He hadn’t thought that was the case, but it was the truth.

He and Lilian were so similar in some many ways.

Except he fought his despair. And she embraced it. And that made all the difference in the world.

His friends were calling to them, saying that they were going to destroy the staircase…that they were going to kill them from their fire.

Gray did the one thing he could think of. He pulled all the mana out of Lilian, used a good portion of it to heal himself, because by that time, the spike in him had turned to slag, burning him, but that was better than the feeling of being impaled.

Both he and Lilian ended up on the floor—the marble burning them now that their flames were gone.

It was just more pain to run from.

And run he did.

Gray was grateful for the darkness. But only because he knew he’d open his eyes again to look upon the living faces of his family.

It was only a few minutes later that Ames was healing me. “It’s not time to go back to the palace yet, Gray. But soon it will be. Would you like to win the Reckoning?”

He brushed some sweaty white hair off Ames’s face. “Let’s go.”

He didn’t know how that was possible, but he knew enough not to argue with the wife. Not when she enjoyed inflicting pain on people…especially demons.