24

Beelzebub

This fight was endless and impossible. Nothing I attempted broke through the layers of essence dividing us from the villa. Every effort I made to counter, block, or flat-out attack Eligos failed. He tossed me around like a fucking ragdoll, pummeling me before vanishing back into the shadows.

"You possess essence from the most potent Hell, yet received tutelage from a second-rate demon proclaiming herself a king," Eligos said with a mix of arrogance and contempt.

Mora had learned early on during our training even without accessing the devil essence in my possession, my own demon essence quickly overpowered her. It turned out I was a natural for violence from so much time spent observing the battles and deaths, all meant to provide Beelzebub with an ounce of entertainment. To say the skills went a bit to my head was an understatement, but each successful strike Eligos landed reminded me that the demons from my Hell battled on a level unlike any other Diabolics.

Eligos fought with such finesse; there was beauty in the blurring blows breaking my bones, ripping my flesh, bruising my muscles, all in an effort to force my depleted essence to heal the injuries or lose a second host in a day. These attacks were tactical—just strong enough to force instinct over strategy but not enough to provoke my essence to lash out chaotically. I shook away the blossoming admiration I had for his fighting style and dropped to my knees again.

Everything stilled. The trickling rainbow comets. The slithering shadows. The subtle patter of Eligos. He didn't know what to make of it, that much I was certain of. I'd gathered after the first hundred attacks that he planned to drag this out at a crawling pace, something vindictive and petulant. Not at all like the knight I had once respected.

I closed my eyes, stopped my breathing, and turned off every single sensation except for my hearing, which I amplified with everything I had. My joints locked in place, hands laying defenseless on my thighs, neck tilted, showing the exhaustion I feigned, all so I could stall his next attack and find him.

He knew I was faking. Otherwise, he would've struck already. No. He worried I had something planned, something he couldn't quite make sense of, so like a sneaky serpent, he hid and bided his time, believing he had all the time in the world. But he didn't. Soon he'd be dead.

"Taunting me, perhaps," Eligos whispered from afar, slightly to the right facing forward about six meters. I tightened my attention, pinpointing the slightest slither of his multitude of limbs seeping in and out of shadows. "I learned long ago not to arrogantly attack you. Play your game; I can wait for you to reveal your move."

I forced a cough, spitting blood I'd held down to add to feigned defeat and also relieve the thick burn in my throat. Blood dribbled down my chin. "That so?"

"Oh, yes." His voice echoed behind me, four and a half meters more centered than before. "I stalked you for the better part of a year, deducing the strength of the devil, believing my rebellion had left him wounded in the mortal realm, completely unaware you were a fake."

"When was that?" I licked my lips, savoring the taste of iron before letting the flavor fade so I could follow the near-silent drifting of Eligos moving to my left—now five meters exactly.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is my shortsightedness allowed me to fall into the clutches of a curious Fae seeking answers to questions I'd never once pondered."

"Bested by the baron?" I snickered. "He wasn't even that strong."

"His best years were behind him, having sunk most of his magic and power and influence into the creation of this villa." There was a gentleness in Eligos' voice, a hint of awe for Novus.

"Mad I killed your boyfriend?" I waited for the physical reaction it provoked… Nothing.

"Saved me the time," Eligos replied, no biting back rage or resentment, no hidden feelings whatsoever. Novus' death wasn't something I could exploit. Too bad. "While I lay captive by him for centuries, suffering the indignities of his experiments as he sought ways to properly utilize Diabolic essence in tandem with Fae magic, I eventually brokered a trust with him."

"How's that?" Carefully, I redirected essence into my fingernails, cautious and quiet.

"I showed him how proficiently I could take down my brethren, offering him more demons for experimentation all in some drive to control the very threads of the universe itself."

"And here I thought you loved us all. Guess it's okay to betray your own when you mean well."

That incited a reaction. Eligos' many limbs coiled round and round each other, muscles tightening and flexing.

I smiled, bright and bloody in his shadow realm, knowing my glistening teeth were the only light in the darkness since the comets had all but fizzled out. Their faded colors no longer reflected off Eligos' abandoned armor, but I kept my attention on the suit, awaiting any potential clank of metal.

He remained where he was, knotted in fury, too tense and unfocused to counter.

Now.Now was my opportunity to hit him where it hurt.

Unveiling my wings, I flapped them furiously, unyielding. I would beat Eligos. Before shifting my senses back to equal proportions, I caught Eligos unbinding his body, preparing to lunge for a strike.

Releasing my three tails, I bounced them against the shadowed floor, shifting my trajectory midway to colliding directly with Eligos, and went for my real target.

Eligos screamed, a pained, visceral, hateful sound as my claws met his suit of armor and sank into the metal. I shredded the stomach and hollowed out the back, brandishing a huge hole. I laced enough essence into that attack to know it'd take weeks, months, years for him to mend the wound. Hell, he'd be better off tossing the thing out with the trash. Host bodies, organic or not, didn't recover that well when ripped to bits by Diabolic attacks.

"That's for Mora, you cunt."

Eligos tackled me, the two of us entangled in the throes of chaotic combat, each slashing and hacking at the other. Too much of his essence had been redirected, aimed to fix his armor, his treasure, his most precious sentiment. I roared with laughter at his rage, ripping at his Diabolic flesh because he couldn't feel it without the suit, and didn't realize the deep level of damage I caused. Even in this Diabolic void, we were both outside of Hell, and sensation required possessing something from these lesser realms.

"You filthy—"

I reached out, plunging my claws into his jaw and ripping it off. The warmth of essence spilling from his gaping mouth fueled me, filled me. I continued attacking Eligos, gutting his meaty torso, hacking off limbs, taking deep bites of flesh and tearing it from him.

The shadows of his conjured world fell away, and we returned to the villa.

I stomped the few meaty chunks of his remains into the clay flooring.

"You lose." I relished the victory, taking delicious and sweet breaths before I'd seek out Mora to assist with her demon foes. Then we could enter the engine room together, where we'd save our Mythic and mortal companions.

Perhaps she'd won the battle. Despite amplifying my senses, I couldn't hear her rhythmic battle against the three demons Eligos had pitted against her.

I stared at the floor, the cracked tile flooring of a golem's hide. This wasn't the labyrinth.

Where was I?

I whirled around, studying the restored bars that had once held Wally. The cage that Novus used to trap Wally after tricking him into accepting a false offer of opportunity.

"It won't work," Eligos said.

I returned my gaze to the floor, where his broken remains had vanished. Dammit.

"Your measurements aren't precise enough to account for the glory of Diabolic essence," he continued; his voice came from the door leading out of this dungeon.

Eligos walked into the room adorned in his unblemished armor, aside from the single dent he kept for sentiment's sake, alongside the noble Fae whose head barely fit between the threshold, a literal representation of his arrogance. What was happening?

"You believe I underestimate your kind," Novus said with a smile that consumed his bulbous head. "But I think you give far too much credit to Diabolics. For eternal entities possessing such veracity, you lot lack elegance and refinement, and honestly, it is only your base ability granted by devils that holds any value whatsoever."

Eligos clenched his fists, golden eyes leering at the Fae, who waltzed toward the cage, strutting through me like a specter.

I was inside a memory. Fuck.

Eligos fed me his essence, pouring his consciousness into me, and I devoured it like an utter fool. This level of vulnerability was meant to be sacred. The most prying magics couldn't peel away hidden truths without force, and I certainly didn't attempt to delve into Eligos' history. There was consent involved, even when I shared my mind, my truth with Wally, I knew more than anything I wanted him to see the sordid lies, frightened he'd reject me, and relieved beyond belief he had accepted me for all my flaws—no desire to fix or change them, but merely co-exist with a broken being that he hoped to grow with.

I loved Wally so much.

I missed him.

I needed to find him, which meant I had to escape this memory.

Novus stepped toward the cage, hand outstretched; his long snow-white fingers were bare without a single ring or jewel to accentuate his hand holding an orb. A Diabolic orb. I trembled in this memory.

Broken, bloody, beaten essence whirled toward the orb. I recoiled at the reminder of my own tattered flesh that'd peeled and fallen apart, sucked inside one of those awful artifacts once upon a time. All after I'd defeated a hateful magus who sought to lay siege on the Fae domain in an effort to strengthen the Collective's hold. It took everything I had to slaughter him and his many mages, but it was the onslaught of Seattle's regiments striking at me under the guidance of the treacherous Abraham Remington who led them that had shocked me most that day.

This demon hadn't fallen to betrayal or lesser beings. No. I recognized the injuries. I currently carried them outside this memory. The demon funneled into the orb had been defeated by Eligos and lacked the resolve or ability to resist the overwhelming force of a Diabolic orb siphoning their very being into an orb twice the size of the one which contained me.

Their essence shuddered within the confines, discombobulated, and floating like the frost of a snow globe. Purple lightning crackled inside. I cocked my head. Not once in my time spent locked away in my orb had I found it possible to harness my essence to resist and fight back. Perhaps I hadn't tried enough, hadn't proven I didn't deserve life bound inside an orb.

I covered my ears, backing away, and unable to look at the demon fight for their freedom, a freedom Novus laughed at stealing.

"It worked." Novus spun around, joyous and vile, and suddenly I wanted to smash his skull in all over again. No. I wanted to go back and drag his death out longer, make it hurt more, make him beg and cry and barter before I shredded every trace of his existence. I had refrained on Wally's behalf, but a being as sadistic as Novus—one who used Diabolic orbs—deserved the pain only one taught in Hell could inflict.

"She's putting up more resistance than you said Diabolics could," Eligos said, his golden eyes studying the orb and flickering purple essence fighting against imprisonment.

"It doesn't matter; she's contained. We've successfully locked away our first demon," Novus said. "Soon, I'll create more of these, contain an army of Diabolics, and then we can capture the devil."

"The fake devil." Eligos held such venom in his words, more hatred acknowledging my impersonation than he ever had for the actual devil who punished all of us for our displeasing existence.

Novus wrapped his elongated fingers over the knight's plated shoulders, a gentle embrace bringing the two closer. "I allowed you to follow your fancy, send demons to taunt and test this Beelzebub roaming the mortal world. I can't be held accountable for your dreams not coming true."

"It's not that," Eligos said, practically spitting in his helmet. "I wasted resources, I deluded myself into believing I'd weakened a devil, and found a way to bring all of this carnage to an end."

"Not an end, dearest." Novus slid his hand up Eligos' neck, resting it atop the knight's head. "This is a beginning. A beginning for us. A beginning for the universe. A beginning for your dream. Soon, we'll defeat the false devil, and it won't matter what demons were lost seeking him out for a challenge."

What? I ground my teeth, recalling every demon that sought to challenge the devil Beelzebub in his mortal coil, believing him—me—weak and easy prey. It was difficult, but I slaughtered every foe and sent them to a true death, far out of the reach of their devil and home for resurrection. Still, I wondered too much, too long, if I carried a false bravado unbefitting of a devil. It turned out Eligos had learned the truth of my life and tested the limits of my power for the better part of a century. It wasn't until the 1800s Diabolics learned to avoid me. To think I resented Mora, believing it a part of her whispers and tests and manipulations.

I approached the memory of Eligos, seething and panting heavily against his untarnished armor, the armor I did well and true to ruin. "Fuck you. You sent five hundred demons to their deaths."

Give or take. Plus, I couldn't know if he was behind every demon who challenged me, seeking glory in their newfound freedom or retribution for their fallen devil at my hands—not my hands, but hands they believed were the cruelest devil. Hands that wrapped around their throats and choked the lives from their being, shattering their essence, devouring them entirely, and casting them into the oblivion of death.

"Yes, we created the orbs as a trap for you," Eligos said, turning his head while in his own memory. "But you haven't gotten to the best part yet."

I shuddered. How did he move within his own memory? I'd never experienced such a thing. It shouldn't be possible. He was self-aware while reexperiencing his own recollections? No. He should only be able to observe, not interact. Even the best mages couldn't handle both. And this type of memory exploration came more from their saturation magic than it did our essence.

The room swirled, twisting into an intoxicatingly painful surge of rage and anguish and destruction. I relished the high of the memory, lost in the blissful whirlwind of chaos until the room settled and everything stopped just in time for me to lock eyes with Magus Remington, only it wasn't Magus Remington. No, he was still young and sweet and filled with hopes and dreams and deceitful kindness. This was Abe, my friend, the one who believed Diabolics could co-exist with mages and Mythics.

I averted my gaze, even if he couldn't see me. Not really, since I was a phantom in this memory.

Still, his youthful face, his boyish expression, his haunting resemblance to Wally sent a shiver down my spine. How I hated the magus who lured me into love. Into what I deluded myself into believing love could be. It was a lie. I knew that now. Abe never accepted me. He teased me. He promised me things. He lied to me. All for his ambition.

Why was I seeing this memory? This was my memory, right? How did Eligos enter my memories?

Was that the purpose here? Eligos must've sought something buried in my past so he could exploit it—that was why he melded our minds and memories during the battle. I wouldn't allow it.

"You think he'll actually use it?" Eligos circled Abe, cloaked by a Diabolic shroud, so his presence remained hidden from the mage.

"But of course," Novus said, appearing out of thin air, revealing himself to Abe through a flicker of glittering lights.

Abe stared wide-eyed as Novus extended a hand holding a Diabolic orb. Not just any orb. The one which Magus Remington trapped me inside for nearly fifty years. The prison which removed me from the world. The Fae spoke to my mage captor in high-pitched tones, each piercing syllable something from the Sylvan language.

"How do you expect him to follow through on the plan?" Eligos scoffed, pulling Novus into the confines of his shroud, leaving Abe with the orb as his eyes curiously studied the symbols etched along the glass. "You gave him a message and washed away the memory in the same motion. Fae and their incessant need to remove all recollections of their presence."

"You Diabolics truly do lack finesse in every way." Novus tilted his head, whispering melodies to Remington. "We Fae make our moves delicately, precisely, and unbeknownst to lower beings. I've whispered inspiration, feeding his ego, fueling his passion, and sparking his curious desires. He'll trap the devil as his ambition dictates. He's already sought it, craved for a way to rid the world of the filth that is Beelzebub."

Eligos… Novus… Not only had they created the orbs and given my prison to Abe, but they had whispered the idea in his mind. I shook from the revelation. No. Abe was cruel and spiteful, taking glee in mocking me when alone together in the repository. Had that all come from the Fae whispers?

"My words will echo in his subconscious, fanning the flames of inspiration to his dream."

"It'd be easier if we took this false devil ourselves."

"No, it wouldn't," Novus said. "He possesses a lot of strength, more than we've been able to rightfully observe. We'll allow the mage and Collective to contain him. I predict betrayal of the heart is an easier thing to exploit than the shock of a Diabolic and Fae working together to bring this devil down."

I backed away, pressed against a wall, wishing to experience no more of this awful memory.

"In a few centuries, when our tests are fully completed, I'll retrieve the devil from wherever the Collective decides to store him," Novus explained. "In the meantime, we can relax knowing the mages have security no one but the Fae themselves can break through. And none of my fellow Court members have even a musing of curiosity for Diabolics like myself."

Centuries. They had planned to keep me locked away inside the repository, the vault, for centuries rotting inside that orb. But the coup against Magus Remington as Chancellor Alden and that misfit Ian conspired had led to my early release.

"When you got out ahead of schedule," Eligos said, breaking the mold of his memory and stomping toward me. "I convinced Novus it was necessary we collect you ourselves. You were once again being a loud tyrant, having decimated Seattle after some childish tantrum."

"That wasn't me." I snarled.

"You were also bound to a mortal with too many enemies for Novus or myself to account for, so he agreed it was best we keep you stored inside the villa until the right time to enact our plan came."

"And what is your plan?"

"To take that fragment of devil essence in your possession and create a weapon strong enough to pierce and kill devils." Eligos conjured an illusion of his golden lance—its transparent form indicated that much. "Adding it to the Diabolic essence I've already gathered and cultivated, I'll be able to enter Bael's realm and slaughter my first devil."

Of course, since Bael was one of the few devils who kept his Hell doorway open for any demon to come and go as they pleased. If I had to guess, he wanted to use my piece of devil essence to defeat and contain a full devil so he could finally pass through sealed Hell realms such as Beelzebub's.

"Precisely." Eligos' voice echoed, not from his armored helmet, but a rattling inside my head. His words beat against my skull, soft whispers slithering deep within my very being.

He'd gotten into my thoughts. I roared, resisting his intrusion.

Abe ripped loose from the strings holding him in place of this memory and approached me. This wasn't right. This was an illusion.

"No one could ever love you." His glare cut through me, almost as foul as it was on the battlefield when he encased me inside the orb so long ago. "You're unlovable, Beelzebub."

The symbols on the Diabolic orb glowed. No. I wouldn't allow it.

I raced out of the room, refusing to be locked away again. Never again.

"It's pointless, false devil," Abe and Eligos' voices chased me along the walls, following me at every turn. "You're worthless."

I'm not. I am loved. Wally loves me. He sees every flaw I possess and loves me still.

"Bez." Wally's beautiful voice cut through the taunting hatred. "Bez, help me!"

I flew through the empty Magus Estate, searching for Wally.

Each hall was empty, filled with haunting words from Abe and Eligos.

Finally, I caught Wally's scent and ran along the borders of this illusion.

He lay at the bottom of the stairs, bloody, lifeless. No. I shook my head until Wally's corpse vanished. This was a lie.

Wally screamed from afar. A sharp blade plunged into him, the sound of it gutted his insides, and he collapsed somewhere deep within the estate.

"It's not real. It's not real." I covered my ears. "This is an illusion."

Wally's bloodcurdling wail drained all the strength in my body. I collapsed to the floor, crawling ahead, compelled to chase the screams. To find him. Save him. I had to save him. Not here. Not in this lie. Outside this illusion.

Every second, every step, a new cry followed. Another death of Wally before I reached him before I saved him. A thousand times over, he died, leaving me searching the estate only to find corpses.

"You'll be alone forever," Eligos and Abe shouted in unison, an echoing horror only drowned out by Wally's dying screams.

Eligos hadn't shared his mind with me to unravel my secrets; he'd done so in order to lock me in a Diabolic nightmare of his making, forcing me to experience Wally's death again and again and again.

My essence was too weak to overpower this trap, my thoughts too fractured to navigate my own mind.