Jadis couldn’t breathe.
Surrounded by a crushing mass of mud and bodies, she couldn’t move, couldn’t see, couldn’t hear anything but her own labored gasps echoing inside of her helmet. Even with her eyes wide open, she had no vision, as she was smothered beneath hundreds, maybe even thousands, of mire hounds. She couldn’t even tell which way was up or down, she was so disoriented by the insane, impossible weight that was bearing down on her. Claustrophobia combined with her already rising panic as her mind struggled to deal with the reality of her situation. She had been buried alive.
Except, no, she wasn’t buried alive. Not completely. Only two thirds of her being was trapped under a mountain of Demons. The final third was standing on top of the roof of a nearby building, looking down at that pile of filth that her other selves had been buried under. She even had a couple of her lovers standing next to her.
So at least she wasn’t going to die alone.
“Fuck that,” Jay cursed as she wholeheartedly rejected the fate that was being laid before her. “Aila! Blast them!”
Even her stoic, normally composed lover had been taken off guard by the Demon Prince’s attack. Visibly shaking the horror from her shoulders, Aila raised her staff and immediately cast an exploding force bolt down into the mass of writhing, churning mire hounds that had been spewed into the pit on top of Dys and Syd.
The arcane blast shredded an uncountable number of Demons, ripping their mud and stick bodies to pieces just through sheer proximity. The explosion blasted pieces of Demon away from the pile, but much of the mass stayed in place, the force of the spell only able to toss the mud and gore so far. A second arcane bolt blasted the pit of hounds again, this time somewhat off center to help throw more of the weight clear. Aila had killed dozens, maybe a hundred, of the foul creatures in mere seconds, and yet it felt like no progress had been made at all.
“I only have enough magic to cast twice more!” Aila said as the arm holding her staff trembled. “I’m almost drained!”
“Here,” Eir said as she pulled her backup vial of magic replenishment potion from her belt pouch and passed it to the arcanist. “Drink!”
Eir had her other hand on Jay’s side, already pouring her magic into Jadis to counter the damage that had been done to her body. The crushing weight had hit Jadis’ two selves hard, though her armor had held up and she wasn’t crumpled like a pair of tin cans, so she didn’t need too much healing. The real damage being done was the lack of oxygen. Dys and Syd couldn’t breathe under all those Demons, and even if Eir could heal a person from asphyxiation, something Jadis wasn’t even sure was possible, the damage would be continuous until either the oracle ran out of magic or Jadis pulled her selves out of the mud.
Or the Demon Prince did something to finish the job.
Jay’s eyes were no longer on the pile of Demons, but her gaze was instead focused on the massive wyrm that still hovered its head over the intersection. Vinea had pulled back slightly after its vomitous attack, its colossal form arched over the city wall. Jadis could feel that prickling sensation again, letting her know that it was preparing to cast another spell. Perhaps it was going to place a cap on the grave it had dug for her, entombing her in the earth under Glanum with the horde of Demons who were so willing to give up their own lives to end hers.
Before Vinea could even truly begin to cast its spell, a shining golden light struck the side of its gigantic head. The wyrm flinched back, then flinched again as another flash of divine power sparked against its skull. A lone winged figure was perched on the top of the Demon’s head, striking blow after blow with a shining sword.
Jay caught glimpses of Severina as the paladin bravely attacked the colossal beast, her form like that of a gnat on the back of a serpent. Despite the difference in size, her efforts were not without effect, as the feeling of overwhelming magic being summoned for a spell cut off abruptly. Shaking its head, Vinea cast some sort of lesser spell, which was still obviously powerful, as it caused a shotgun blast of gravel to knock Severina away from its body. As the Demon turned to track the Seraphim who was still recovering in midair, a slicing arc of fire cut across the left side of its multi-jawed face.
Aelius, his flaming sword lighting up the sky, struck at the Demon Prince. Around him, Jay saw two more winged figures, one much larger than the other, striking at Vinea’s head. The three were joined by Severina a second later, and the four Seraphim began a constant harassment of the enormous wyrm. Explosions of fire and rock filled the night air as the Children of Valtar fought the Spawn of Samleos. After a moment, Vinea shifted away, no longer hovering over the intersection as the four flying warriors forced the Demon to withdraw.
Another explosion of arcane power in the pit below drew Jadis’ attention back down to the earth. Aila had cast a third spell, blasting even more Demons away from the hole that Dys and Syd had been buried in. Not just those two parts of herself, Jadis remembered. Her panic was disrupting her focus, and she wasn’t thinking clearly. She was forgetting things that she shouldn’t, and that was only going to make things worse.
“Aila! Noll should be there!” Jay pointed at the side of the pit where she had last seen the therion before he too had been caught in the landslide. “Aim there!”
Despite her growing terror at the reality that she might soon die from being buried alive under a mountain of dead Demons, the cold and logical side of her mind knew that focusing on Noll was a better call. Noll had his claws dug into the side of the pit before the wave hit. He probably would have been able to hold on, so he wouldn’t be as far down under the muck as Jay felt her other two selves to be. If Noll got out first, then he could help get her out.
Aila followed Jay’s instruction and launched an arcane ball of power at the far side of the pit. The following explosion blasted away a swath of Demons, clearing enough of the mass to reveal the sharp edge of the circular pit. Jay’s gaze searched desperately for any sign of her mentor. The muscles in her legs tensed as she prepared to leap down to ground level and start digging. It would mean separating herself from Eir’s healing, but under the circumstances, Jadis didn’t see any other options.
Then, Aila pointed with her left hand, hope raising her voice high.
“There!” the redhead shouted. “Look! It’s his hand!”
Jay focused on where Aila indicated and saw it too. One clawed, darkly furred hand pushing its way up out of the churning mass of Demons. The mire hounds that still lived looked like they were trying to rebury the therion, but the fierce hand shredded any Demons that tried to get on top of it. After a second, the arm had pulled its way out of the mess all the way up to the elbow, and then Jay could see Noll’s snout pushing its way through the remains of a dead mire hound.
“Thank fucking D,” Jay said as she saw the tough old wolf rise out of his grave. “Maybe I can get the others…”
Jadis’ mind raced as she thought of ways to free her other selves from under the mass of mire hounds bearing down on her. Aside from Aila and Eir, her other companions were all still on the building to the east. Glancing in that direction, she saw that they were all fine, if not a little shook up. It looked like the roof they were standing on had broken apart in all the chaos, but she could see all five of their figures moving so the partial collapse hadn’t been too bad. Jay could jump over and carry Sorcha and Kerr to the roof with Aila and Eir, where the four of them could be safe together. Then she could bring Thea, Bridget, and Meli down to the ground with her where they could help Noll dig her other selves out from under the mire hounds.
The building under Jay’s feet shook in a miniature earthquake as Demon Prince Vinea settled down onto the ground once again. Jay saw that the Seraphim were still assailing the wyrm; however, their swooping flyby attacks were rendered less effective thanks to the stone pillars that the Demon had raised all around the breach in the wall its head had made. With Vinea on the ground again, Jadis also guessed that more Demons from across the river would be swarming through its body again, flooding the streets. That meant she needed to get moving, otherwise Noll and her allies would be overwhelmed by more mire hounds and other abominations piling on top of the pit.
With a plan settled in her mind, Jay started to move. Her two other selves were struggling to pull themselves out of the mire, but with the help of others she was certain that this attempt at her life would be nothing more than that. An attempt. She wouldn’t be stopped by a mere avalanche of Demons. If Samleos wanted her dead, he was going to have to try a lot harder.
“Eir, Aila, wait here. I’ll go get—” Jay started to say before a heavy weight slammed into her from behind, cutting off her next words.
Jay heard the twin screams of her two lovers and instinctively tried to protect them by wrapping them in her arms close to her body. She had already been pulling away from Eir, who had been on her right side, so the elf moved out of her grasp as Jay fell forward. The movement brought her closer to Aila, though, and the redhead was pressed tight against Jay’s chest as they both tumbled to the ground together.
A heavy mass wrapped around Jay in a flurry of confusing motion. The surprise attack caught her completely off guard, and even with her enhanced reaction speed it took Jadis time to recognize what had leapt on top of her. There were limbs everywhere, hands and legs of various beings, some humanoid and others not. Fingers, claws, and even pincers dug into her flesh, tearing at her arms, legs, and the helmet she still wore. As Jay craned her head around, she caught a glimpse of massive jaws, split vertically rather than horizontally, as they chomped down on top of her.
Jay screamed as the toothy maw clamped down over her shoulders with bone-crushing force. Her arms were wrapped around Aila, who was in turn pressed against her chest and under her body, so she could do nothing but take the pain as the Demon bit down hard. The dozens of arms clawing into her were holding her in place as they forced her onto the ground. Aila’s scream was of shock, not pain, though, as the Demon’s claws crackled and scraped against the Spectral Armor spell that she had cast over herself before the fighting had even begun.
Jay was experiencing a different kind of shock, as her eyes met a single glowing blue orb.
Grayed fingers reached inside of the Demon’s jaws and pulled at her helmet, ripping it off her head and tossing the piece of dark metal aside. Those clawed hands scratched at her skin and pulled at her hair, yet those groping, assaulting limbs were easily ignored. Jay’s focus was on the horror she could see positioned upside-down in the back of the Demon’s maw. A chubby, child-like face that had a single, large, dark blue eye sticking out of its open mouth.
“You!”
It was the centipede Demon. The same one from the attack on the capital. The same that had attacked her and Alex. The same that taken Severina’s arm and wing. The same. Fucking. Demon.
Jay’s scream of rage was cut short as the monstrosity’s grasping hands tried to worm their way into her mouth to tear at her flesh from the inside. When she shut her teeth tight, more went for her eyes, forcing her to close them as the Demon scratched its claws against the vulnerable weak spots in her Fortitude.
How? How had this Demon gotten here? Noll had been tasked with hunting this Greater Demon down by the emperor himself, and the last the therion had told Jadis, he had lost the Demon when it had crossed the border into the country known as the Rubaline Dominion. The Dominion had been overrun almost completely by Demons at the start of the demonic invasion, and with the Demon Lord’s unusual tactic of entrenchment and fortification, Noll had temporarily given up the chase to rest and resupply before making a hard and dangerous push into the territory to go after the centipede Demon. Certainly, the veteran had lost the trail when the many-limbed monster had retreated into the demonically controlled land south of the Siren Sea, and Glanum wasn’t that far from the borders of the Rubaline Dominion, yet that didn’t explain how the Demon had managed to show up at the same place at the same time as Jadis. The odds were too great for it to be a coincidence.
The flash of thoughts Jadis had regarding the improbability of running into the centipede Demon at that exact moment were in her mind and out again just as quickly. She could ponder the implications later, when the Demon wasn’t in the process of crushing her one body like a constrictor snake while her other two bodies were buried under a mountain of mire hounds.
Jay flexed her arms and tried to break the centipede’s grip, but the grip the Demon had on her was awkward for her to break. Aside from the powerful jaws that had clamped down on her shoulders from above, dozens of hands were clutching onto her, wrapping her up in a bear hug that squeezed her tight and kept her arms forced down around Aila. Or was it that the Demon had grown stronger since the last time they had fought? Jay struggled against the binding force of her foe and while she had grown greatly in strength since the events of that winter ambush, she was still finding it impossible to break the centipede’s grip on her.
As she blindly struggled against the Demon, Jay felt it wrap some of its clammy hands around her neck, squeezing hard in an attempt to cut off her breathing and choke her. In that instant, all three of Jadis’ selves felt just as immobilized, just as blind, and just as breathless as all of her was smothered under the clawing grasp of Demons. It was a true nightmare, one that she dearly wished she could wake up from.
“Jadis!”
Aila’s panicked cry sent a greater chill down her spines than even the inevitability of her impending death. It was a reminder of all who depended on her to live. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t let this monster win. If she did, it wouldn’t just be her whose story would end.
“Jadis, I can’t cast, I used up all my reserves! I’m still recharging!”
Jay couldn’t respond, not with the centipede’s stolen hands wrapped around her neck. She wanted to curse, despite not having the breath to, since if Aila had not spent the last of her reserves blowing up the mire hounds to free Noll, then she might have had some spells to use on the Demon that had ambushed them. Maybe if she managed to last for a little longer, the potion Aila had taken would recharge her reserves enough to cast a force bolt or a dart spray or something that might damage the Demon enough to give her a chance to break free. Even a spike trap might—
Spike traps.
Twisting her lips in a breathless snarl, Jay used her weight and her legs to push herself into a roll. She knew which way to go, despite being blinded, thanks to her sense of where her other two selves were struggling to dig their way out of the pit. The centipede resisted her movement, but not as hard as it could have as it focused on keeping its many limbs wrapped around her in an attempt to crush her and Aila. Together, the three of them rolled across the rooftop, towards the southern edge where the stone and stucco lip would prevent them from falling to the alley thirty feet below.
But before they hit the wall, they would reach the minefield of spike traps that Aila had placed around the perimeter of their roof.
Jay felt it when the spike traps were triggered. While the centipede Demon had no throat to scream with, it still reacted to the pain of having multiple three-foot-long arcane spikes shoot up into its body. She also felt one of those spike traps activate against her left hip, tearing through some of her exposed flesh there on its way to cutting deep into the Demon that had wrapped itself around her and Aila like a constrictor.
The Demon’s grip loosened as pieces of its body were pierced and limbs were severed. Throwing all her strength into her efforts, Jay flexed her muscles again, slowly forcing the Demon to break as one arm after another failed. Bones cracked and ligaments tore, flesh tightened, stretched, then came apart like frayed rope as Jay slowly pressed open her arms. Still the Demon held on, crushing her shoulders with its jaws, choking her with hands around her neck and fingers clawing at her eyes, mouth, ears, and nose. It was a race to see who would fail first.
As it was above, so it went below. Dys and Syd were not idle. Her legs kicked. Her hands grasped and tore at the Demons around her selves. Most of the hounds were already dead, crushed by the weight of their kind pressing down above them. Those that still lived tried to hold onto her, but wherever she could, she would grab them and squeeze, popping the mud-and-stick limbs in her gauntleted hands. She couldn’t swim through the muck, couldn’t pull her way out when she had no purchase to leverage herself off of. Still, she refused to quit. She knew where to go, which way was up. She could sense her other self struggling to break the grip of the centipede Demon. She would not give up. She would claw her way out of the pit. She would climb back up to the light.
She would win.
A glowing blue eye appeared in Jadis’ vision. She could feel the blood pounding in her heads, a sign that she was losing consciousness from asphyxiation, but still she snarled at the eye, even without the breath to spare. She wouldn’t let the centipede Demon kill her, or her lovers, or her unborn children. She would rip its neon blue eye out of its ugly mouth and shove it right up its—
Neon blue. Not dark blue. Neon.
Which of her selves had her eyes open? Jadis had forgotten. Jay was wrapped up with the centipede, but she had her eyes squeezed shut to prevent the Demon from clawing her eyes out. Then what was she seeing?
As blue light began to glow around her, the one neon eye Syd saw resolved itself into three. Thin tentacles tipped with neon-blue light slithered their way across the visor of her helm, bringing her face close to the familiar, beautiful, Demon.
“I have you…” Alex said, her heavenly voice echoing in Syd’s steel helm. “I won’t… Let you go…”
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