15

Walter

He decapitated Bez. I watched his head spin around, flopping onto the ground, crimson eyes rolling back as his body collapsed. My entire being trembled, terrified, petrified, locked in place. The demon in the suit of armor cut off Bez's head. I grabbed my throat, inspecting an injury that didn't exist because the essence circulating between Bez and me didn't match or inflict the injuries he sustained back onto me. I wouldn't feel the pain Bez endured, not unless he…he died.

Dead. Gone. Bez just had his head hacked off.

I clenched my fists, trying to contain my shaky muscles. Bez wasn't dead. It took a lot more than that to kill a Diabolic; it required destroying his essence on a cellular level. Or killing a mortal they linked to, like me.

I pushed away the thoughts. I needed to focus on the now. Help. Stop this armored demon knight from actually killing Bez.

"You're the one who captured Beelzebub's heart." The knight's voice echoed not simply from inside the helmet but stirring around the helm.

Did he have a Diabolic shroud up or essence casting a void realm? Was that how he moved throughout the villa unnoticed? No. Bez would've detected it, right?

"You may prove useful, mortal." Eligos made a fist with his free hand and snatched me into the air with telekinesis.

I kicked my legs in a futile attempt to wriggle free, but it was like being dragged by a powerful tide.

Suddenly, my body rocked back and forth midair, frozen and locked in place. Eligos' telekinesis pulled me, yet something stalled his hold. Not something but someone.

Mora.

She strutted toward the knight in shining armor, arm extended and power holding him at bay.

"Lopping off Bezzy's head." She smiled. "Gotta be honest, I'm going to have to remember that one the next time he runs his mouth at one of my parties."

"Morax, correct?" Eligos ground his boots into the floor, shifting his stance.

"The one and only." She curtsied yet kept one arm firmly aimed at me, telekinesis fully intact.

"They call you a king in Bael's charade of a realm, yet the Morax I know was no king, merely an undistinguished noble."

"You've been reading too much mortal fiction." Her joyful expression almost hid the crinkle in her forehead from the strain of overpowering his grasp. "Let this be a reminder of your place. Knights kneel to kings."

Mora lifted her other arm, spinning the air above and slamming a tremendous force of energy down onto Eligos. I gasped, the telekinesis from each of them releasing me. I fell onto my back with a heavy thud, not nearly as hard as Eligos, who resisted every inch. His armor cracked, compressed, and black tendrils laced with golden hues throughout whipped between the openings of the suit, stitching the blemishes together like they fixed a host body.

"Quite powerful. I'd always heard Morax was a demon of cunning, never that she possessed a warrior's spirit."

"Cute." Mora strained, forcing Eligos further into the floor—literally cracking it to pieces in order to push him onto his hands and knees. "I usually kiss my fans before killing them. But I'll make an exception this once since you're rather irritat—"

Kell screamed.

Blood gushed.

Mora panted, barely holding a sword already embedded in her chest.

She stood in front of Kell on the opposite side of the room, saving her witch.

When had Eligos thrown it? How? Telekinesis? A tendril? Some other Diabolic ability?

He'd zipped forward in the few seconds when Mora's hold waned, speeding toward her in a haze. My eyes barely registered the movement, even with essence coursing through my body and months of studying Bez's playful darting about.

"You're as vulnerable as Beelzebub, it seems." Eligos grabbed the hilt of his weapon, twisting it. "But I have no need of a petty, vile demon such as yourself."

Diabolic energy raged between the two of them. Tendrils laced in gold and emerald clashed, destroying everything in the helm. A large gust of black wind carried Kell away, hurling her at the exit.

Exit. I needed to escape. With Bez. With Kell. Mora knew that. I struggled to breathe between the realization that I was facing a demon, Bez was lying decapitated, and the oxygen was being siphoned by the whirlwind Eligos and Mora each summoned, dragging one another into close combat my eyes couldn't analyze.

"Even before visiting Bael's realm with that arrogant clown, Novus"—Eligos continued slowly driving his blade further into Mora's chest—"who traipsed about believing he could master our essence, I'd seen the lackluster conviction of your world."

"So trite, right?" Mora jested, brow furrowed, heels broken, and feet dug into the floor to keep her stance. "I've heard of you, too. The tragic demon knight who deluded himself into thinking his foolhardy valor meant a damn thing. How quickly the world forgot you."

The world, maybe… But this demon Eligos meant something to Bez. I felt it in his memory and the helm, the anxiety in his body's tremble, the patter of his quickening heartbeat, the shocked expression unable to mask mixed emotions.

"The problem with you, Morax, is even the best warriors in Bael's realm couldn't hold their own against the lowliest of Beelzebub's." Eligos whipped behind Mora, attempting to impale her through the back.

"You talk too much." Mora caught the tip of the sword with her palm, slicing her own hand to hold the weapon at bay. Black lightning surged from each of them, clinking against the metal but deflecting from the natural conductor. Eligos protected his weapon. His armor. He had a weakness, too.

"The Morax I know is all talk, a con artist with an aristocratic flair and a heart only for herself. It's nice to see there is some fight in you." Eligos' golden eyes shimmered behind his visor, squinting with rage, the kind of disgusted hate I'd seen at far too many family dinners. "Still, as one affiliated with such a corrupt devil, you're unworthy of the universe I'm creating."

Mora clenched her hand, cracking the blade.

Symbols of high-tier incantations formed from the gaps in Eligos' armor, latching onto the wind that whirled around the pair. Explosions of fire and smog and barriers burst throughout the helm, a cacophony that forced me to press my hands to my ears and squeeze my eyes shut.

One. Two. Three.

The entire villa rumbled. Exploded. I opened my eyes, wheezing and barely able to see through the thick smoke.

Mora stood, feet barely touching the floor as she appeared unconscious, pinned against a wall with blades pressed through her chest, neck, stomach, thigh, and right hand. Eligos had more weapons. Where? How? Must've been the incantations he used to summon them.

Mora roared, tendrils whipping about erratically as Diabolic essence flourished. Her brown eyes burned a bright emerald and fully bloodshot, the whites replaced by a faded lime green.

Eligos revealed a small dagger summoned by an incantation. Upon closer inspection, those sigils were Fae, which meant even without possessing a Fae, he must've fed on a lot of Mythic residue belonging to them. In one fluid motion, Eligos drove the dagger upward, stabbing Mora through her throat and into her skull. She gurgled, body convulsing, and tendrils slowly retreating inside her host body. Her eyes rolled back, and her essence stopped stirring.

All the smoke drifted to the opposite side of the room, funneling into a tiny, condensed ball of gray mist floating above Kell's palm. Her sorcery was skillful, but she didn't seriously believe she could fight a demon, did she? One that defeated Bez and Mora? My chest tightened as each inhale became harder. I needed a plan, needed to help, needed to run. I scanned the helm, searching for anything of use, and my gaze rested on the control panel littered with Kell's projects and a box Bez had gifted me.

"You put your hands on my wife." Kell hurled the ball of smoke, which burst wide when Eligos attempted flitting past it. The smog transformed from a gas to a sticky liquid that held the demon knight in place. As he struggled to get loose, the substance clung to every piece of his armor and hardened to stone. "Now, you die."

Incantations from sorcery floated around Kell; flames conjured by nature's blessing circled her feet; she muttered something that summoned silhouettes of apparitions behind her—the power of evocation, allowing her to commune with the spiritual guidance of deceased witches.

"Get your damn demon-killing blade to stab this bastard." Kell glared at me, her words echoing in my head through a telepathic link that came from psychic perception. "Once I rip every single piece of scrap metal off him, gut whatever foul thing reveals itself, and I'll burn him with flames guided by a hundred generations of witches."

Kell harnessed the Four Corners of witchcraft masterfully and simultaneously: sorcery, nature's blessing, evocation, and psychic perception, all while maintaining a strong unflinching stance. I couldn't even stop the quake in my legs or the panic in my chest.

"Now," she snapped, throwing fiery sigils at Eligos.

I leapt to my feet and darted to the control panel. Something cracked, and rocks were flung in my direction. I spun around, dodging them, and grabbed the box holding Demon's Demise before crashing onto the floor.

"I always found witches tiresome." Eligos stood behind Kell. "I see why the mortals preferred burning you lot from their realm."

He balled a fist, and the protective flames surrounding Kell turned black and burned bright. She screamed, engulfed by a tornado of fire.

"Kell!" I shouted.

In an instant, Eligos appeared in front of me, drawing his sword.

"You should be worried about yourself, misfit mage."

I tried to open the box, saturating mana in the air to create a barrier. Not fast enough. Eligos swung his sword. I was going to die. Bez was going to die. Mora and Kell were going to die.

A black fireball smashed against Eligos' armored head, burning his helmet until tendrils sprang from the visor and smothered the fire. He halted his strike, the tip of his sword pressed against my stomach. We both turned our attention to Kell's burning body, collapsed on the floor.

Tony was perched on the Cerberus' back, guiding Weather into the room. Sunny held my work grimoire in his mouth. It was filled with all the incantations I'd learned over the years. Cloudy licked the black flames burning Kell's scorched flesh and swallowed big gulps of fire. Stormy, in turn, belched the black fire and snarled. Tony used an incantation he took out of the grimoire and guided the flaming projectile at Eligos. They worked in tandem to distract Eligos, who unfortunately deflected the flames with ease, now aware of their presence. No. His posture shifted in the most minute manner, indicating he planned to zip across the room and kill my familiar and Mythic beast.

Not happening. I pried open the box and lunged at Eligos, mustering all the Diabolic essence coursing inside my body to match his speed. I jabbed the demon blade through the open slit of the knight's visor.

Eligos shrieked, thrashing about and punching me in the stomach so hard it knocked all the air out of my lungs. I choked, breathless and shaking on the floor. The blade clinked nearby. Eligos' armor rattled as he attempted to mend an injury his essence couldn't.

Demon's Demise made it impossible for Diabolics to instantly recover since it repelled their essence from wounds it inflicted.

I forced myself up and retrieved the blade, intent on stabbing every weak point in this suit of armor, but a barrage of black elements whirled around Eligos. He wailed, still incapable of stitching the injury to his face. Rocks and fire carried by wind protected him and blocked the only exit on or off the villa.

Fuck.

I raced toward Bez, grabbed his head, and ran out of the helm deeper into the villa with Weather and Tony at my side.

We needed to escape, survive, and find a way to kill this demon later.