Chapter 36

“They’re coming.” Minnie squeezes my hand. “They’re everywhere, Marlowe…”

“Fuck,” I mutter. “Any other ideas?”

The demons stopped by the police are once more advancing toward us. From the end of the boulevard, a few other demons approach, just in time for the ones who’d followed us through the crowd to emerge.

“Only one. A church. Doesn’t matter what denomination. As long as it’s hallowed ground, it should keep out the low levels and significantly weaken the higher ones.”

“A church it is then.”

I quickly take out my phone and search for the nearest church on the map.

“This way,” I say and grab Minnie’s hand, crossing the street haphazardly and heading down a narrow alleyway.

I take the most convoluted way to the church in hopes we can lose them.

“They’re following us,” she murmurs as she glances back. “How much farther is it?”

“There.” I point out to the church’s tower in the distance.

It’s about two or three minutes away.

We increase our pace.

The demons are not far behind. The possessed people all walk slowly behind us, which is odd.

I’ve seen firsthand what a demon can do. So why aren’t they striking? Why are they just following us? More importantly, why are they waiting for us to reach the church when they can attack beforehand.

We soon reach the church. It’s a 19th century Catholic building but also a historical landmark of the city.

The gates are vaulted and imposing. But also locked.

Minnie uses her powers to unlock the doors and we barricade ourselves inside.

“Get any holy items you can find,” she mentions as she looks around the cathedral.

The colored glass filters the light from the outside, lighting up a path for us to find our way in the darkness. I use the flash on my phone, but it doesn’t do much considering the sheer size of this construction. The ceiling is tens of feet high, and if this wasn’t such a precarious situation, I might have taken the time to appreciate the beauty of the building.

As it stands, we’re in a crisis.

Minnie heads to the altar and grabs all the crosses and other religious paraphernalia she can find.

“If they come inside, I’ll use my powers. But there are so many of them.” She sighs. “You hold onto these. If they come near you, use them to defend yourself,” she says as she hands me some crucifixes and a container with holy water. “It might not do much, but it’s better than using your fists.”

“Will they turn into monsters, too?”

She turns to me, her expression grave.

“We’d be lucky if they did. That means they’re low to mid-level demons. But if they maintain their humanoid form…” She trails off, and for the first time I note the fear entering her gaze. “Those are high-level demons and they’re much, much more vicious. And powerful.”

“You’re strong. I saw you in action,” I mention.

She chuckles.

“I may be strong, but I’m not that strong. Four to five high-level demons? Sure, I could handle those and a slew of low to medium. But I have a feeling those are not low or medium.”

“But who the hell would organize this attack? And how would they be able to track you if your gods couldn’t?”

She bites her lip and shakes her head.

“That’s what I’m wondering, too. If they were, indeed, sent by a Son of Tenebreis, then how the hell could they track me? The Sons of Tenebreis have been locked inside Tartareia for thousands of years.”

“Didn’t you say they can control demons?”

“Yes, remotely. But as you said. If Aperite deities cannot find me when we’re physically in the same realm, how could a demon from Tartareia manage that?”

“Has this happened before?” I ask. “Have those Sons of Tenebreis sent demons after a god before?”

She shakes her head.

“Maybe it has and I don’t know. But as far as I’m aware, demons do everything in their power not to be found by our soldiers. This is all so weird.” She takes a deep breath. “Hopefully, they won’t be able to enter the holy grounds and?—”

No sooner Minnie spoke than the doors of the church begin to rattle.

Her wide eyes meet mine.

“Take shelter behind the altar and keep the holy items next to you.”

“I’m not about to?—”

“Do as I say, Marlowe,” she cuts me off.

In the blink of an eye, a thin strip of ice covers her entire body, forming a suit similar to the one she’d had on at my mother’s house.

Kneeling on the ground, she presses her open palms on the floor and murmurs something.

Ice forms from her palms and covers the entire floor of the church, enveloping the walls and the furniture.

She continues whispering the same chant as the rattle of the door becomes louder. But before she can finish her chant, one of the ceiling high windows shatters, and a figure jumps inside.

What the…

Another window shatters, then another. The demons flock inside the church one by one, slowly, methodically, as if they were taking their time.

Immediately, I notice a difference between these demons and the one that had possessed Cara. That one had been volatile, hungry. These ones are sentient.

At last, the door breaks too, and some twelve, fifteen more demons step inside the church.

Their expressions tighten with pain as they step on the ice-coated floor, but it doesn’t seem to deter them. It’s just an inconvenience, but they remain focused on their objective.

“Oh, no,” Minnie mutters, taking a step back.

“What?”

“Take cover, Marlowe! These are all high level. Damn it! I infused the ice with the same blessing chant as the holy water, and it barely tickles them.”

Fuck.

That’s bad.

Especially since I count more than twenty in total.

Twenty fucking high-level demons.

“Marlowe, go!” Minnie yells at me.

I shake my head. I’m not about to let her deal with twenty high-level demons when she just confessed she can only take on four or five at a time.

Clutching onto the crucifix and the holy water, I grab my pocketknife and get ready for those fuckers to strike.

“I’m not going anywhere, Minnie,” I grit out. “If it’s our fate to die here today, then we’re going to face death together.”

“But—”

“I’m not running,” I repeat.

She glances at me, worry reflected in her features.

“You still have my blood in your system, so you should be good for now,” she says. “But please take care.”

I give her a hard nod.

The demons are slowly approaching. It’s almost like watching a zombie parade with the way they’re moving. There’s no urgency, no hurry.

Minnie manifests her ice swords and she gets into a position to fight.

The holy ice she’d created is slowly dissipating now, absorbed by the demons as they congregate in the front of the church.

Minnie frowns.

Instead of striking, they gather in a formation—somewhat similar to the one the sentinels had assumed. But there doesn’t seem to be a leader among them.

They extend their arms, almost touching each other, but not quite. From the first demon’s fingertips, a black smoke erupts, winding out like a thread. It reaches the second demon’s fingers, and he shudders. Black smoke envelops its entire body and he passes on the black smoke current to the next demon. They do this until the first is connected to the last through that black smoke.

Slowly, they raise their gazes toward us, their eyes fully black. And in that blackness, a small, red spot appears, almost like a laser beam.

They move in sync as they come toward us.

Minnie summons her energy shield, and a blue shimmery light envelops her from head to toe. She’s ready to strike as they come closer.

But to both our surprises, the demons don’t pay her any attention.

They pass by her as if she were invisible.

A look of pure astonishment crosses her face and she swivels to follow their movements.

Their attention is focused on the back of the church.

On me.

Minnie’s eyes widen in disbelief.

“Run, Marlowe!”

I throw the container with holy water toward them and back away.

The liquid splashes onto the floor, touching their feet. But it barely makes them wince.

Minnie throws back her arm, a spear of ice growing in her hands, which she throws at the demon leading the formation.

But just as it’s about to strike it, a shield forms over the demon formation, repelling the spear.

Minnie repeats the action a couple more times from a few different angles, but the result is the same. When she realizes they will not stop their advance toward me, she flashes herself in front of me.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” she mutters in a strained voice. “I’ve never seen high-level demons behave like this before. By all accounts, they should be sentient and have a fully developed personality at this level. But this… This is more like a hive mind mentality.”

“They’re linked through that smoke,” I point out.

“Not only. They’re linked through whoever is controlling them.” She takes a deep breath. “I’ve been in countless battles over the centuries, Marlowe, but I’ve never encountered a Son of Tenebreis who could control so many high-level demons at once, and remotely.”

“Do you think he might be near?”

“I don’t know. I truly don’t know what’s going on anymore. They’re not after me, that much is clear.”

The march of the demons continues. They’re not belligerent, nor do they initiate an offensive. Their actions so far have been only defensive, which makes this all the more confusing.

“Then what the hell do they want?”

“I don’t know,” she repeats on a whisper. “But whoever is controlling them must be extraordinarily strong to make these demons immune to my blessings chants.”

“What do we do then?”

She purses her lips. Reaching for my hand, she gives me a quick squeeze.

“If we can’t hurt them, then the only thing left to do is protect ourselves.”

Cold seeps into my skin, transferring from her body onto mine.

The shimmery energy surrounding Minnie extends to me, slowly materializing until it becomes a sphere of pure ice, and we are both encased in it.

The demons don’t react.

They move forward until they reach the sphere, and that’s when they break formation. They create a circle around the sphere, keeping their dark smoke tether in place.

From my vantage point, it looks as if they’re holding hands in a circle around us, ready to start dancing. If this hadn’t been a life-and-death situation, I would have perhaps laughed at that mental image.

“What are they doing?” I ask Minnie, who’s watching them with apprehension. She anxiously nibbles on her lower lip.

“I don’t know,” she whispers.

The black smoke amplifies until it fiercely bursts to the surface. The demons lean back, and a hole opens in their chests that funnels the black smoke and aims it straight at the ice sphere.

Loud bangs reverberate through the domed church, the echo of the blows deafening.

The smoke hits our shield like a myriad of cannon balls, shot in rapid succession.

Minnie wobbles on her feet, her eyes wide. She grasps onto me for balance as the blows become more incessant and more powerful.

Her eyes turn a light shade of blue as she forces more of her energy to the surface, reinforcing the shield with another layer of magical ice.

Her entire body is tense as she focuses her powers to keep the demons out, but I fear even that’s not enough. Not with the way the entire foundation of the cathedral is trembling. Not with the way I can see nothing at all but black smoke devouring our shield.

With the combined strength of twenty high-level demons, I doubt Minnie can last much longer.

“Minnie…”

“I’m trying to reach my brother,” she says in a strangled voice. “But I can’t even make a connection. Something is blocking it. Something…” She gasps for air. “This isn’t right. They shouldn’t be this powerful…”

Oh fuck. If she’s trying to call her brother here despite the danger, that means this is getting out of control. Worry fills me to the brim as I glance from the black balls of smoke that keep hitting our shield to Minnie’s pale features that are marred by pain.

“What do they want?” I ask. “Maybe we can give it to them.”

“What? Are you insane? We can’t give them anything. You can’t reason with demons, Marlowe.”

“They were coming toward me,” I mention. “What if I just surrendered and?—”

“No,” she states categorically. “That’s out of the question.”

Another loud bang rattles the shield. More balls of smoke hit it from all sides, and the first layer is already cracking.

Minnie is almost out of breath.

I hold on to her tightly, but I can tell she’s hanging on by a thread.

Icicles hit the ground as the first layer of the shield collapses.

The demons step forward, increasing their attack.

Minnie’s eyes flicker between a light and dark blue. Her fingers are wrapped tightly around my upper arm as she struggles to keep herself upright.

Her chest rises and falls rapidly as she focuses to maintain the shield, but I can tell this is draining her.

“Tell me how to help,” I whisper. It pains me to see her like this. Not only is she weakening with every passing moment, but it seems the attack on her shield is physically hurting her.

She shakes her head.

“There’s nothing you can do,” she replies, grinding her teeth. “This is as far as my powers go. I’m only a fledgling deity.” She lets out a dry laugh.

“You’re four thousand five hundred and fifty-eight years old,” I remark.

“But my kind is only considered mature at three thousand years old. I’m the youngest in my regimen—was the youngest.” She winces and closes her eyes to take a deep breath. “My brother would have been able to handle this. Anyone would have been able to handle this better than me…” She trails off, her voice filled with hopelessness. “Why do I always mess things up?” She lets out a soft cry as tears roll down her face.

“Minnie,” I start as I shake her.

She slowly opens her eyes to look at me at the same time another loud bang erupts in the air, more ice falling to the ground.

Suddenly, she looks so young and uncertain, and it breaks my heart that she’s doubting herself.

“I destroy everything I touch, Marlowe,” she whispers. “I shouldn’t have come back to Anthropa. I shouldn’t have put you in danger. This is all my fault.”

Panic takes hold of her as her words become more and more erratic.

“I’m so sorry,” she continues to whisper, tears rolling down her face.

I cup her cheeks and wipe her tears with my thumbs.

“You’re the most badass person I’ve ever met,” I tell her sincerely. “And this is not meant to flatter you. It’s the truth. You’re stronger than you think, so don’t you dare give up. We’re not dying here tonight.”

She shakes her head. Tension lines mar her face from the effort of keeping the shield up and running. Her eyes continue to shift color, never settling on one for more than a minute.

“Say it with me. We’re not dying here tonight,” I demand.

She squeezes her eyes shut and hesitates.

“Say it, Minnie!”

“We’re not dying here tonight,” she finally whispers.

“Good. Now let’s think. There has the be a way to separate these demons. They’re this strong because they’re acting as one entity. Individually, they should be more manageable.”

She bites her lip as she turns her attention to the demons and our surroundings.

“Talk to me. How do you usually fight against demons?”

“We draw their essence out and then we slay it. Easy for one demon, hard for twenty,” she adds drily.

“What else?”

She rubs her temples, deep in thought.

“There’s a chant that might work to separate them. I’ve never used it myself, but I’ve seen it done before. It’s used by our High Priestess to cleanse demonic energy from an object, or a deity that has been infected with demonic essence. I’m not sure if it will work, though,” she mentions.

“Let’s do it. What do you need?”

“Water. An offering. And the chant.”

I look around us.

“Can you melt the ice?”

She shakes her head.

“It would require too much concentration and I can’t afford to be distracted.”

“Okay, fine.” I think for a moment. “What about blood? It’s liquid.”

She licks her lips.

“It might work.”

“Good. Next for an offering…”

“It has to be something that you genuinely value for the ritual to work,” she adds.

“What about this?” I ask as I take out the ring I’d made for her from my back pocket.

Her eyes grow wide with surprise.

“How do you still have that? I threw it in the furnace.”

“And I salvaged it.”

“You…” She swallows. “You went into the furnace after it?”

I wink at her. Of course I wasn’t about to let my hard work go to waste.

“Would it work?”

She takes it from my hand, handling it with great care.

A smile pulls at her lips.

“You valued it enough to save it,” she murmurs softly. “I should have valued it more, too.”

“So it works?”

She nods.

The demons blast the shield and another crack appears in the ice.

Sweat beads over Minnie’s forehead as she gets to her knees and places the ring on the floor. Next is the blood. She’s about to cut her own flesh when I stop her.

I take out my retractable blade and cut a straight line across my palm, letting the blood pour over the ring.

“Marlowe.” She gasps.

“Another offering.” I smile at her.

She wants to argue—I can tell. But there’s no time for it.

She’s getting paler by the minute. Hell, if she lost even a bit of blood, I’m sure it would have had an adverse effect on her physique with how weak she’s becoming.

She gives me a tight nod and gets to work.

Splaying her open palms over the blood-covered ring, she starts chanting in a foreign language.

Another blow to the shield creates an even larger crack. One that leads to a myriad of tiny fissures across the entire sphere. From my left, some pieces of ice are already starting to chip off.

Fuck.

It’s only a matter of seconds before they’ll poke a hole in the shield.

I rush to the area that’s about to rupture, and I place the crucifix against the inner part of the ice. When the next ball of smoke hits the weakened area, it’s diverted by the holiness of the crucifix.

Sweet.

I’ll have to ask Minnie later what the deal with holy objects is, especially since she mentioned it doesn’t matter what religion they come from—they’re all hallowed all the same.

That crack is safe for now.

Minnie continues chanting.

But the smoke balls concentrate on the upper part of the sphere now. The sides clear out, the demons becoming visible again.

The holes in their chests have enlarged as they channel that dark energy from within. It spills out of their bodies and spirals out in the air, going up five, six feet before descending with full force over our icy dome.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

With their concentrated efforts on one particular spot, the ice shield is quickly weakening. First, it’s the fissures. Then the small chips on the outer side. Then comes the first crack.

“Minnie…” I call out, my voice hoarse. “Hurry up.”

Her voice picks up the pace as she speeds through the lines of the chant.

The smoke plunges up in the air again and hits once more, this time breaking the shield and flooding the inside of the sphere with the noxious demonic energy.

Minnie coughs and splutters before finally saying the last words of her chant. A bright light flashes out from her palms, enveloping the entire cathedral.

I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to look at it.

My ears ring as a sharp, screechy sound erupts in the air. I wobble on my feet, falling backward.

“Marlowe?” Minnie whispers as she comes to my side, shaking me.

I dare to open my eyes and note that the shield has entirely collapsed now. But the demon formation has been broken as well.

The demons are scattered throughout the cathedral, their chests fully healed up. There’s no more black smoke. Only a lingering bright light that still burns my eyes.

“Are you all right?”

“I think so.” I nod as I get to my feet.

Though the ritual managed to separate the demons, the hardships are far from over. They’re slowly advancing toward us again, with the closest one a mere foot away.

Minnie summons up her swords, and placing herself in front of me, she assumes a fighting stance.

The first demon steps onto the remnants of the ritual, and the moment his foot touches it, he collapses to his knee, his mouth opening on a shrilly scream. Not even a few seconds later, his entire body is pulverized, turning from physical matter to a gray, amorphous smoke that ultimately dissipates in the air.

What the…

Minnie is equally surprised.

“I’ve never seen something like that in my entire life,” she murmurs, stunned.

“It must be the ritual. He stepped on it.”

She nods. “But how do we draw the others to step on it, too?”

No sooner is the question out of her mouth than the other demons begin their attack too. They charge at us from all sides, and Minnie brandishes her swords around, cutting at them.

But these demons… Now I see why they’re high level. They mimic her weapons, though theirs are made out of that dark smoke.

While Minnie fights with a couple of demons to my right, I note a fast approaching one to my left.

I only have my retractable blade, so I block the demon’s sword with it—what a fine David and Goliath moment. Of course the sword cuts right through my tiny blade, so close to my hand that I jerk away. The handle of the knife slips from me and falls to the floor.

Minnie shoots me a worried look, but she can’t do anything since she’s surrounded by more demons now, all going at her with full force.

I suppose the only thing left to do is some bareknuckle fighting.

My palm stings. Even though the wound is healing faster than normal, it’s still not as fast as before when I had Minnie’s blood right away.

The demon charges at me with his sword, and I dodge to the side and push my palm against his shoulder while trying to take his weapon with my other hand.

I only manage to touch the dark sword before the demon’s mouth opens wide, the same shrilly sound from before coming out. He starts shaking violently and crashes to the floor. His body, too, dissolves into a gray dust that’s swept away by the night breeze.

Minnie glances at me in confusion.

This demon didn’t step into the ritual. If anything, he just…

I don’t have the time to think things through as another demon comes toward me. A middle-aged guy with a balding head and flaring nostrils grabs me by my shirt and throws me to the ground.

The breath is knocked out of me. Taking advantage of my position, the demon grabs my hands, pulling them together to secure them with cuffs.

“Marlowe!” Minnie cries out. She tries to come to me, but more demons swarm around her, blocking her path.

“Goddamn it,” I mutter under my breath as I push against the middle-aged demon. He presses my hands close together to tie them up, but as I struggle against him, my wounded palm makes contact with his skin.

Only a few drops of blood are still left on my palm, the wound mostly closed now. But as those drops make contact with the demon’s skin, the same thing happens. He screams in pain before he disintegrates.

I stare in shock at my palm.

It wasn’t the ritual, was it?

It was my blood…