“Someone’s telling them to,” finished Persephone. “You want to do the gutting or the breaking?”
“Breaking,” said Nyx. “I’m more powerful. I can get her loose faster. Ready?”
Persephone drew her blade, the Hellfire glowing blue on its black edges. “Whenever you are.”
“Then do it.”
Persephone’s sword lashed out, cutting the incubus off at the ankles. It toppled backward. Persephone’s blade lashed out again. The incubus’s head split open, brains oozing.
“All without letting go of your hand,” bragged Persephone as the demons around them roared with rage. She stepped as far away from Nyx as she could and began laying waste to the creatures around them. Demons howled and screamed and lashed out with claws and teeth in all directions, tearing into each other as they tried to find their attackers.
Nyx drew her own blade and smashed the vessel holding Ishtar’s head. A second cut sheared through the bar of Hellstone pinning Ishtar to the ground. Nyx sheathed her sword and grabbed the crossbeam sticking out of Ishtar’s body. With a single hard pull, she ripped the bar free and hurled it into the mass of demons. As it flew, Nyx saw it had been barbed wickedly along the length of it. Nyx winced at the thought of the damage that it must have done.
No time to worry about that now.
Nyx drew her own sword again and cut through the Hellstone chains that held Ishtar’s wings, arms, and legs. Ishtar collapsed onto the blood-and gut-covered ground. Nyx turned her attention to the crowd of demons, hacking through their numbers while Ishtar healed below them. The demons still couldn’t see them, but they began converging where their brethren were getting cut to pieces, flailing out blindly in the hopes of finding enemy flesh.
“More coming,” grunted Persephone.
Nyx looked up. Demons were flowing down the stairs, their numbers so large that they were now pushing each other down and climbing over the bodies to reach the fight. Then Nyx heard the scream of a succubus launching itself from the stairs to fall where they were standing.
“Shit!” Nyx’s blade slashed up and cut the succubus in two before it could touch either of them.
“Ishtar! Are you with us yet?”
Under her feet, Ishtar groaned and pulled herself to her hands and knees, the flesh of her body contorting as bones reattached, and veins and arteries built their walls. She coughed, and silver blood shot from her mouth. Her jaw snapped in place with a click. “Nyx?”
“Who else?” said Persephone, as she cut through another pair of demons with a single swipe. “Now get on your feet. There’s killing to do!”
“How did you…?” Ishtar struggled upright, wincing as her body healed itself. “Does this mean Lucifer’s army is gone?”
“What?” Nyx hacked through six more demons with a single slice. “Gone where?”
“Earth,” said Ishtar, pushing herself upright. She shook her head as her eyes grew back into their sockets. “Tribunal said that, before his plans could come to fruition, Lucifer should lead his armies to Earth and kill everyone there. Said that God wouldn’t notice.”
“Fucking traitorous bastard. I should have made Judas king. When did you hear this?”
“After you were stuffed in the box,” said Ishtar. “I was pinned to the wall, remember?”
“Barely,” admitted Nyx. “Can you fly?”
“Not yet,” said Ishtar, spreading her wings. The feathers on them were growing back slowly. “Still ripped open inside.”
“We don’t have time,” said Nyx. She sheathed her sword and grabbed Ishtar’s hand, spreading the don’t-notice-me field and making Ishtar’s soul invisible at the same time. “Persephone! Up!”
Persephone spread her wings, and the two of them leapt into the air. Nyx dragged Ishtar as if she weighed nothing.
“Clear a path to the door!” shouted Nyx and the demons around them shouted in frustration and anger. The ones on the floor began charging up the stairs, the larger ones knocking over the smaller as they attempted to follow the scent of the Angels. The whole staircase was a swarm of flesh, not much different than a maggoty corpse on a battlefield. Persephone swung in front of the other two, her sword becoming a blur as they flew at the door. Demons were gutted and thrown out of the way in a splatter of blood and bits. Ishtar drew her own sword and began hacking at the ones behind them, keeping them back long enough for the three to make it out the door.
The horde of demons was even thicker in the hallway. Ishtar regained her feet and joined Persephone in front of Nyx. Their blades began flashing faster than any demon could move, even had they been able to see their attackers. Using the strength of their blades and their Angelic power, they mowed through them like charging bulls through a field of dandelions.
“Head for the door!” shouted Nyx. “It’ll take too long to get anywhere else!”
The blades moved even faster, cutting the air with an evil song. The Angels picked up their pace, leaving a trail of blood, slime, and broken demon bodies behind them.
“Nyx!” shouted Persephone over her shoulder. “Where are the Angels? They should be on top of us by now!”
Nyx had been thinking the very same thing. “Don’t know,” she shouted back. “Don’t care just yet. If we can make the door, we can make it out!”
“The foyer’s just up ahead!” shouted Ishtar. “We’re nearly…”
The foyer was filled with Angels. Fifty of them stood or hovered there, swords at ready, their sculpted bodies taut with muscle. Asmodeus, tall, red-skinned and black-haired, razor teeth showing in a grin, was standing in the front of the pack of them, Hellfire flickering on his massive, bare shoulders.
“Well, fuck,” spat Persephone. “Why couldn’t they be all taking a nice nap in the Lake of Fire?”
“We can’t see you,” said Asmodeus. “We can’t hear you. But we know you are there.”
“Good for you,” muttered Nyx. “The demons are coming up behind.”
“Now would be a good time for ideas,” said Ishtar as she swung around and took rear guard, preparing to slaughter as many of the oncoming demon horde as possible.
“More importantly,” said Asmodeus, “Lucifer knows you are here. And he is prepared for you.”
“Last time Lucifer was prepared for us, he dropped half an island on our heads,” said Ishtar.
“I remember,” said Nyx.
“Well, then, think of something!”
“Persephone,” said Nyx. “If they could see us, how many?”
Persephone looked over the Angels before her. “They’re not the 666th. How long?”
“Long enough for us to push through the door.”
“Ten, easily.”
“Ishtar?”
“Maybe eight,” she said. “Assuming a straight charge?”
“Up and down,” said Nyx. “Saves getting attacked from above.”
“Definitely eight,” said Ishtar.
“Then I’ll take the rest,” said Nyx. “We have to be through them and out the door fast enough that Lucifer won’t be able to grab us before I can hide us again. Ready?”
Persephone and Ishtar both grinned. “Oh, yeah.”
“Now!”
Nyx released her grip on both Angels, drew her sword and whip, and hurled herself upward in the same motion. Her whip slashed out at the nearest Angel’s wings. The three heads of the whip were no longer black, but brilliant green like Nyx’s hair, the ends tipped with long, spiked thorns that ripped into the Angel’s flesh as Nyx shredded the feathers off his wings and sent him hurling to the ground. Her sword cut three times in the moment it took her to reach the ceiling, and two more Angels fell, their heads following a moment later.
Persephone and Ishtar sprang into the air behind Nyx, screaming their own battle cries and slashing out with their blades.
High above the Lake of Fire, guarding the portal that led to Earth, Lucifer felt Nyx’s presence. It flared like a burning light in the blackness of Hell, outshining Persephone and Ishtar, whom
he felt fighting beside her. It was more powerful than he expected—vastly so—but he didn’t think about that.
“I knew that bitch would go after Ishtar!” Lucifer crowed. He raised his voice, roaring loud enough to be heard the length and breadth of Hell. “DROP IT!”
Ten thousand feet above Lucifer’s castle, five thousand Angels let go of the giant black stone that Lucifer had made them hold ready since he first learned Nyx had gone missing. It had been the top of a mountain, and he had it carved out eons ago when he and Nyx were first at war.
Glad I never got the chance to use it then, Lucifer thought as he watched it plummet from the sky. He grinned. “Let’s see the bitch fight her way out of that.”
Nyx was halfway across the room, her body, blade, and whip all soaked with the ichor of the Angels she had slaughtered when she first heard the whistling noise.
“He’s doing it again!” she screamed and redoubled her efforts. Wings, limbs, heads, and guts flew in all directions as she hacked down the Angels in front of her, whose ferocious defense might as well have been that of newborn kittens. Persephone and Ishtar were making progress, too, but not as fast as Nyx. Persephone had already gone through five, and Ishtar was facing her fourth when Nyx screamed. Both responded instantly, charging straight for the door. The black and red armored mass of Angels tried to block their way but Nyx, Persephone, and Ishtar were far, far better than they, infinitely more determined, and Nyx was wielding all the power of Epiphenia inside her.
And I’m so not willing to go back to the Lake of Fire. Fuck you, Lucifer.
The whistling above grew louder and louder, becoming a thundering scream. Nyx reached the door first, then turned and hacked at the Angels between her and her friends. She reached Ishtar first and bodily threw her out the door. Persephone used the space Nyx had created to speed out the door herself. Nyx slashed one more Angel in two and flew out the door.
“Fly faster!” screamed Ishtar, who was looking up at the sky.
Persephone redoubled her speed. Nyx poured all her power into her wings. She zoomed past Persephone in a split second and grabbed her hand, dragging her along. Instants later, they reached Ishtar. Nyx caught her hand, too, and yanked her friend through the sky. At the same time, she focused on making the three of them once more invisible to the minds of other Angels, and beyond the notice (save for smell) of all denizens of Hell.
The falling mountaintop struck.
The shock wave hit first, knocking Nyx, Persephone and Ishtar from the sky. Then came the sound, louder than any other heard in Hell. Then the debris—rocks, Hellstone, and the shredded flesh of demons, Angels, and souls rained from the sky, covering the plains below.
It wasn’t really possible to lose consciousness in Hell. Unconsciousness brought freedom from pain, and Hell was built to prevent that. So when the shock wave and the terrible wind and the debris flying through the air drove Nyx and Ishtar and Persephone to the ground, it was agony, but not oblivion. For a moment they lost their senses to the pain, but they didn’t go unconscious, and they didn’t let go of each other’s hands.
Nyx was the first to regain her wits, the power of Epiphenia healing her faster than the others. She sat up and took stock while the other two were still groaning and squirming in pain.
Lucifer’s castle was gone, and a good part of the mountain it had stood on was sliding to the plain below. Dust from the explosion obscured all vision, and debris was still falling. She could hear the cries of pain from Lucifer’s Angels.
“Friendly fire. Gotta love it,” Nyx gasped.
Nyx pulled the still semi-insensate Ishtar and Persephone into the air and started flying as five thousand Angels descended on the ruins.
“Hey! Enough!” yelped Ishtar. Her wings began moving, and Nyx felt the near-deadweight of her lighten. “Not so fast!”
“No,” grunted Persephone from the other side as her own wings began moving. “Faster.”
“You said he can’t find us, didn’t you?” asked Ishtar. “If he can’t find us, and no one can sense us, then slow down and let us heal!”
“We don’t need to heal,” said Persephone. “We need to get away.”
“Bullshit,” said Ishtar. “You’re missing an arm for fuck’s sake.”
Nyx looked down. One of Persephone’s arms was gone, and she was leaving a trail of silver ichor that even a blind demon with no sense of smell could trace.
“And that’s why we need to get away,” said Persephone. “We need to cover some ground while I heal. The sooner I stop leaving a trail, the sooner we really escape.”
Nyx flew faster, pulling the other two along. Persephone groaned as her new arm began growing in. “Fuck, I hate this part.”
“Next time, dodge faster,” grumped Ishtar.
“Next time, I won’t have a fucking mountain thrown at me and a flying chunk of Lucifer’s castle wall rip one of my arms off from behind as I get blown out of the sky because I was trying to rescue you.”
“Like I said.”
“Shut up or I’ll drop you both,” growled Nyx. “Persephone, tell me when you’ve stopped bleeding so I can change course.”
It took longer than Nyx would have liked for Persephone to heal enough that the bleeding stopped. When she had, Nyx made a wide, sweeping turn that took them away from the plains of Hell and into one of the mountain ranges. Angels crisscrossed the sky all around them. Below, demons scrambled over the rocky ground, noses twitching for their scents. All of Hell, save the souls of the damned, was searching for them.
And I bet Lucifer would press them into service if he could.
“How long can you keep us hidden from notice?” asked Persephone.
“No idea,” said Nyx. “I’ve got a lot more power than before, but I haven’t had it long, and I don’t know its limits.”
“Why don’t we use it to get to Lucifer and cut his fucking head off?” asked Ishtar. “Before he sends his army out.”
“Because there are only three of us,” said Persephone before Nyx could answer. “The minute we appear to cut Lucifer’s head off about a thousand Angels are going to drop on us.”
“Lucifer’s the least of our problems,” said Nyx. “Stopping his army won’t mean a thing if we can’t stop Tribunal.”
“And how the fuck are we going to stop Tribunal?” asked Ishtar. “He’s God. And last time he squished you like an elephant squishing a dung beetle.”
“Our mighty Nyx a dung beetle?” said Persephone.
“You weren’t there,” said Ishtar. “One moment Nyx had her sword out, ready to gut Lucifer, and the next she was a puddle of blood and shit on the floor.”
“I know!” snapped Nyx. “Now shut up and fly!”
She’s right, Nyx realized. There’s no way I can defeat Tribunal. Not by myself. And who will I get to help me? Epiphenia would help, if she could. But how will she stop him?
They reached the first of the mountain ranges, and Nyx allowed herself to slow down their flight. She needed time to think, to plan. She needed more information. “Ishtar, what did Tribunal say to Lucifer? Exactly.”
“I don’t know exactly,” protested Ishtar. “I was pinned to the wall with a spike through my head.”
“I don’t remember the spike through your head,” said Nyx.
“It came after. Lucifer had you hauled out, then started toying with me.” Ishtar bared her teeth. “Fucker hurt me really bad a few times, too. What you pulled me out of was only his latest.”
“It didn’t look that bad,” said Persephone. “At least you were getting some action from that cute little incubus.”
“Slut,” groused Ishtar. “Anyway, Tribunal comes in and says that Lucifer can release his armies on the world once the Gates to Heaven are blocked.”
“So the Gates of Heaven are open?” Nyx frowned. If we could get a message up to God… “We definitely need to go back to Earth.”
“No, we don’t!” Ishtar practically spit the words. “We have no chance there! We can’t sa
ve Earth, and we can’t stop Tribunal. We should gather an army here, gut Lucifer, put him in a box in the Lake and rule Hell! Tribunal can do whatever the fuck he likes to Earth, and we can deal with him here!”
“Deal with him how?” demanded Nyx. “You think he’s going to honor any agreement we make? You think we can trust him after what he did to us?”
Epiphenia wouldn’t survive in Hell. She’s strong, but she needs Earth.
“Not to mention what God’s going to do to Tribunal once he gets wind of what’s going on,” said Persephone. “Though God does take his time with things.”
“Tribunal is God!” Ishtar snapped. “Remember? “God’s Son and God’s Self. If Tribunal’s doing all this, God probably already knows about it, or Tribunal’s got a way of keeping him from finding out. Either way, we can’t beat him. So I say we gut Lucifer, gather the armies of Hell, and cut a deal with him.”
All three Angels were silent for a time. At last Persephone ventured, “It’s not the worst idea, Nyx.”
I know it isn’t, but… “What about Epiphenia?”
“Epiphenia’s dead,” said Ishtar. “We watched it. Remember?”
“No, she’s not,” said Nyx. “I found part of her in my palace. She’s inside me now.”
“Then let’s gut Lucifer, take over, deal with Tribunal and then you can take Epiphenia back to Earth. All right? But let’s kill off Lucifer first!”
It made sense. It really did. The more Nyx thought about it, the more sense it made. She could take out Lucifer. She could stand right beside him, gut him, and take Hell back for herself. After that… well, at least after that, she could relax for a minute.
Before Nyx could think further, her awareness was consumed by a power so great it felt like a beacon ripping through the darkness of Hell and shining its light into every nook and cranny.
“Oh, crap,” breathed Ishtar. “Is that…?”
“Tribunal,” said Nyx. “He’s here.”
In Nyx’s palace, Lucifer fought the urge to fall to his knees and worship.
It was nothing that Tribunal did. He looked as he had on Earth—a thin man with a dark beard and long, tangled hair, whose body had the whipcord strong muscles of a carpenter. There was nothing of the divine in his appearance, and he had not yet spoken.