25

Walter

I had wriggled loose from the essence pouring free from the orbs and crawled away, but I couldn't catch my breath. Couldn't move anymore. I had to stand, fight, stop these newly freed demons from killing me or Kell. My eyelids drooped, heavy and exhausted. I pushed my hands off the ground, but my body collapsed, crumpling onto the floor, refusing to obey me. I closed my eyes…just for a second. All I needed was a second of rest, and then I'd figure out how to fix this problem.

Something slurped nearby.

I snapped my eyes open and shot up, panting. Essence had coiled around Kell's leg, wrapped around her calf like a giant slug.

"No," I shouted. Using the Demon's Demise, I sliced the spongy black tar until it fell back and flailed about.

I grabbed Kell's unconscious body, dragging her away from the essence before it regrouped and attacked us. It didn't, though. As I retreated, the essence slid away in the opposite direction.

It left a trail of slime as it wiggled away, reaching the glittery arm of the Fae, whose body had been scattered across the engine room. Once the essence reached the limb, it coiled around the arm, slurping it down like it had tried with Kell.

It wasn't the only released essence acting this way. All the pieces I saw slithered around aimlessly. There was something very off about these Diabolics who'd been released. None of them sought out me or Kell, not really. Yes, one latched onto her leg, but it should've attempted to possess her. Possess either of us in an effort to gain a host body and recover. Instead, all the essence did was lunge out, feeding on stray bits of magic, from the flesh of the Fae corpse to the magic of Kell's witch hat.

I ran over and kicked a chunk of essence before it had fully crawled inside Kell's hat. Picking it up, I chucked it farther away. Again, essence sniffed out the magic and moved at a snail's pace to reach the hat.

There was something very odd about this. Suddenly, it made sense why Eligos hadn't released these demons, only resurrecting the six in the orbs posted high up on the railing. Perhaps they'd been contained too long—but Bez had been locked away for nearly fifty years. How long would it take for a Diabolic to break down and lose their sense? I also had to take into account how the engine room drew upon their energy, tearing it apart and funneling it throughout the villa.

That was why Baron Novus continued collecting demons. However he'd merged them with Fae magics to break through Hell dimensions had caused the Diabolic essence to deteriorate, chiseling away at the consciousness of the demon, and probably burned the essence to nothing over time. Those six acted as the main source of transportation, and the other hundreds worked as secondary sources. Eligos sought to use a devil's essence because it would be infinite, never diminishing.

This essence also had a very different look about it. The black lacked the sheen metallic finish like others I'd seen. In fact, there was something necrotic about it, dying similar to the essence that belonged to the demon with sapphire eyes. There were faint flickers of color representing the aura of the unique demon, but like the blue lights that died out as Bez and Mora devoured the feathered demon.

If I had time to study them, observe them, I could figure out if this was a reversible effect or if they'd lost all form of sentience.

The portal above opened, shimmering a luminescent black light.

Eligos walked into the engine room with Bez at his side. I didn't understand. Bez's body looked a bit beaten, but there were no restraints, no reason he shouldn't fight back. Perhaps Eligos had convinced him I was in danger. Once he saw me, he'd realize there was no need to back down.

"Kneel." Eligos shoved Bez forward, toward his former body, currently impaled by the golden lance. "Now we can add the rest of the essence in your possession to my weapon."

Bez obeyed, dropping to his knees, his shoulders hunched, his posture sagging, and eyes vacant of essence—even the natural crimson irises and pink replacing the whites. Instead, he stared ahead with dull blue eyes and a fogged-over expression.

I'd witnessed Bez lock enough people in Diabolic nightmares to recognize the symptoms, but I didn't understand how Eligos had trapped Bez in one. Shouldn't Diabolics be immune to such things? No. Their elemental strikes were far more effective against each other than anything else. It would make sense they'd be equally susceptible to other Diabolic abilities. I struggled to stand, my body desperate for a break, but my mind unwilling to let Bez suffer another second. The horrors he must be enduring this second, something truly gruesome.

My thighs quaked, sending a tremble through my legs. Eligos had a plethora of nightmares to share with Bez, likely making him relive every awful thing he'd survived in Hell. The few things I'd seen, the handful he'd shared, and the endless eons of suffering he kept to himself.

"Let him go," I snapped, clenching my fists.

"If it isn't the little, worthless mage who holds no value without an ounce of essence coursing through your mortal coil." Eligos approached the railing, belting out his words with boastful diction.

I can play on that.Maybe.

"Worthless. Worthless Walter." Eligos mused, running his gloved hands along the metal rail. "That was his first true thought of you. You were always worthless to him, and seeing how much you have and how much you will fail him has left him lost in an eternal nightmare."

"Shut up." He was lying. The nightmare wasn't about me failing Bez, was it? The thought ate away at me because I had failed him. I should've moved faster, planned better, accounted for everything. Instead, I was worthless.

"I'll allow you to keep your life if you so wish. Not that it's much of one. Though, perhaps without a fake devil at your side, you can find a modicum of salvation."

Fake. I cocked my head. Fake. He knew Bez was a fraud. There was no anger in his tone, no sarcasm, no lilt of resentment for being deceived. He already knew. This wasn't some revelation he'd been tricked by a demon posing as a devil.

No.

I had replayed every single interaction with Ian and my mother for weeks after the carnage at the Magus Estate, attempting to figure out the subtle cues I'd missed of their deceit, their manipulation, their long con. I swore to myself I would never allow someone to make me a pawn in their game of powerplays again, and if I knew anything—I knew Eligos already realized Bez was a fake devil, which meant his goal, his trap, his intentions never involved capturing Beelzebub, but a lesser demon holding a piece of him.

I seethed with rage, pouring mana and saturating the area. It didn't matter what Eligos wanted, what he learned, or how he learned it. I'd fucking kill him all the same and rescue Bez from this bastard knight's clutches.

Nearby essence whipped about chaotically, closing in on my building magic. I needed to escape, to reach Bez, to stop Eligos. Aiming my palms at the saturated floor, I whirled the wind until it propelled me up to the railing. The breeze calmed my anxious mind, blissful, and for the few seconds I ascended, all the fear washed away, allowing me to plan.

There was no way I'd outmaneuver this demon, but he believed I was completely incompetent, unable to face true Diabolic strength. Worthless. Hopefully, he'd laugh off my attack the same way the last demon had when Kell retrieved her grenade launcher. I didn't have a weapon of that caliber or the essence to amplify, but I wouldn't need it.

Hovering in front of Eligos, I swung a fist. As expected, he didn't run, didn't even counter. He just let me bruise my knuckles against his helmet. I continued punching him with each hand, again and again, as the wind kept me afloat. It worked well until I enacted a glamour. I crashed on the metal grates and winced. Pushing upright, I punched Eligos in the torso, eyeing the gaping hole in his chest where dark blue, almost black like a night sky, limbs rolled around each other, coiling and knotting and weaving in a rhythmic pattern.

Just like with the first demon who chased me through the labyrinth, I used a glamour to hide my motives, cloaking the dagger I intended on stabbing Eligos with right in the break of his armor Bez must've provided for me. This demon's arrogance probably wouldn't even bother checking my glamour, analyzing it, believing it nothing more than a—

"Close." Eligos snatched my wrist and twisted it until I dropped the Demon's Demise. "I offer you an opportunity to leave with your life, unbound from a Diabolic, and this is what you do with your ephemeral existence? What a tragic thing you are."

I ground my teeth, tugging against his grip. While acting a fool, failing to release my wrist, I carefully cast saturation into the grates, trickling it toward Bez. If I could link to him, to his essence, I might be able to shake him loose from the nightmare.

SNAP.

"Ah," I screamed.

In one quick squeeze, Eligos broke my wrist. He didn't release my arm but maintained steady pressure, adding to the searing pain that sent a shudder through my aching body.

"You think I wouldn't notice you slinking toward your false devil with poorly cast magic?" He lifted me off the floor, holding me by my broken wrist. I clamped my teeth to bite back another scream as my arm burned. "I tire of you."

He threw me off over the railing, sending me plummeting to the lower reaches of the engine room. I cradled my broken arm, pushing the agony away and attempting to channel mana.

I barely cushioned my crash with the ground, bouncing back at the last second with a poorly worded repulsion incantation. I lay there, unable to think, plan—I couldn't even see straight.

Essence circulated around me, primal and base, lacking any real awareness as it lapped at my fleeting mana. It would do better possessing me, but it had no understanding of how given it lacked sentience.

I widened my eyes. That was it.

Bez refused to possess me after losing so much essence because he worried about the collision of consciousnesses, but these Diabolics no longer had a consciousness to collide with mine.

Still, this idea would probably kill me—a mortal or Mythic could only contain so much essence inside them at any given moment before it destroyed them. Bez took precise measurements when sharing his essence, very particular to offer enough to keep me safe, us connected, but not so much it devoured me from within. In order to stop Eligos, I'd need a lot. Enough to heal my injuries, to rescue Bez, to keep up with the knight's abilities. Enough to kill the demon who harmed my boyfriend.

I grabbed a shard of glass from a broken orb that stuck to the essence, which fed on the fading incantation I'd cast. Looking away, I sliced my palm. Sure, I'd already broken the wrist, but something about actually seeing the cut made it hurt more. Like a fucking shot. I shivered at the thought of a needle stabbing my bicep. The literal worst.

Shaking away my squeamishness, I blew air onto my broken bone, slowly mending it through a simple healing spell I'd learned from Sarai during our years at the academy and had now found a masterful hack for thanks to Kell and her wicked ways.

Craving the fresh mana, the essence crawled toward me. Pinpricks hit my skin as the black sludge slithered into my open wound. I bit my other hand, stifling a yelp. Alerting Eligos would make all this for nothing. Let him think I'd fallen and passed out. Let him think he'd won.

Once the essence made its way inside me, I took a deep breath, searching for its presence. It felt nothing like Bez's essence. There was no connection, no emotion, just raw energy. I needed more.

I slapped my broken hand onto the ground, summoning lightning until it crackled black, indicating a trace of Diabolic essence had truly rooted itself through my veins.

Essence sought me out, creeping toward me until a small horde surrounded me. Reeling back the tiny bit of essence inside me, I let the lightning burn bright and white with natural elemental casting that baited the mindless essence which stalked me. Each lumpy tendril plunged into my open wound, adding to my strength.

Inadvertently, my palm healed along with the joints in my wrist. I snatched the few remaining bits of essence that missed out on my magic due to my sealed skin and chomped down on them. Thick sludge slid against my tongue as they squirmed in my throat, latching onto my lips, reminding me of the horrid sight of Bez eating the live octopus he'd smooshed between a giant s'more. I gulped, swallowing the tarry energy.

My body buzzed. Mana and Diabolic essence hummed around me. This would work.

I balled a fist, staring at the literal aura radiating from my pores—I could see it all, nothing Diabolic hidden from my vision. Despite the presence, I didn't feel the faintest trace of anyone else inside me, not like how possession would work. Not even how it felt having a piece of Bez linking me to him. This was just pure Diabolic power coursing through my veins.

Willing the essence, it obeyed me with the same ease Bez's had over the last few months. I lunged, sending a torrent of telekinesis below me that sent me rocketing off the lower level of the engine room and back up to the railing beside Eligos.

I swung a fist, releasing all the pent-up rage and pain into a telekinetic punch. It landed, hitting the dent Eligos had kept on his suit of armor, sending cracks through the chest piece like splinters that added to the gaping hole in his stomach.

Maintaining the flow, I swiveled around, floating further behind the demon knight, ready to obliterate his armor altogether. Eligos caught my fist, squeezing tight until I released my telekinesis. Dammit.

"You think what you stole is enough to challenge a true Diabolic?" Eligos' golden irises leered. "These fragments you've gathered pale in comparison to the demons they once were."

Pulling his arm back and jerking me forward, he slammed my head into his helmet before flinging me back to the ground. I crashed hard, but it hadn't hurt. The essence protected me, shielded the pain, and helped me land a lucky shot. But I needed more if I wanted to stop him.

"Perhaps enough to snuff your mortal existence, but you won't have enough to challenge a real demon."

Racing to a pillar, I smashed all the orbs, releasing Diabolic essence that I quickly snatched and devoured, taking so much into my body, everything slowed. I smashed another pillar and another and another. If a dozen wouldn't stop Eligos, then perhaps a hundred would. My muscles rattled, flexing, strengthening. Every cell in my being pulsed like a billion independent warriors radiating power and demanding satisfaction for the anger consuming me—a fiery fury fueling my movements.

I shouted, throaty and feral as I commanded the essence to coat my hands in sheen black claws. The subtle hues of countless Diabolic auras bubbled and shimmered, creating a rainbow effect on my talons.

Using the same tactic as before, I studied Eligos' movements, hoping to land a few hits before he tossed me aside, learn his patterns, and come back a third time, then a fourth, a fifth—however many more times it'd take to kill this demon.

Only that didn't happen.

Eligos moved but so slowly that I landed a hit, darting around him, landing a second, and repeating this cycle again and again. I kept the strikes light, relying on the talons to nick his armor, repeating the process like the steady flow of erosion. I couldn't move faster than him and hit hard at the same time, so I went for tactically wearing him down. Eventually, he shifted his posture, pivoting away from me as shadows blossomed behind him, leading to his own private void world where he planned to hide and counter, make it impossible for me to track.

I eyed my discarded dagger, the Demon's Demise, which would kill him. Too far. Not enough time. My heartbeat pounded, thrumming in the back of my eardrums faster than the flutter of a hummingbird.

"Not happening." I snatched his armor, digging my talons into the hole and holding him here. I remembered how Bez snatched me when under Ian's control, preventing me from returning to Mora's void realm in Seattle.

It hit Eligos' armor like a cyclone: the shadows and I held the demon like a game of tug of war. And this particular rope—his armor—was precious to the demon.

His void closed as essence funneled out, prioritizing energy to fix his ripped suit. That'd be his downfall.

In a blink, I whirled behind Eligos, slashing deep into the back of the suit, claws tearing into the flesh of his Diabolic body coiled inside the armor.

When he swirled to strike, I circled him, everything moving in slow motion, then I'd hit Eligos heavy-handed, snap the world back into place, before zipping away and repeating it all over again from a different angle.

A quick blitz here, a deep gash there, and when the opportunity presented itself, a light nick to his actual body peering out to fix his beloved armor.

"Enough." Eligos bellowed, unleashing black flames in every direction.

I eyed Bez, who remained knelt and undisturbed. Having spent my entire life questioning my control over the Pentacles of Power, my ability, my comprehension of magic—I knew how to exploit his elemental attack. Taking a deep inhale, projecting essence into the air, I sucked in all the oxygen while using my Diabolic power to lightly stab at the essence Eligos didn't keep rooted to his core.

It smothered the fire, but Eligos didn't relent. Instead, he snapped his fingers, replacing the smolder with black lightning. Wind wouldn't work. The air itself was too dry to siphon moisture from, and there were no large bodies of water in the engine room, so I traced a single symbolled low-level incantation for creating bubbles. Such a simple spell, it hardly cost an ounce of mana, and I managed to trace dozens of them in seconds thanks to the speed of a Diabolic.

Quite possibly the silliest spell I'd ever memorized, but the first one to pop into my head, allowing me to further dry out the air, amplifying the lightning Eligos had summoned. It moved faster than he'd planned, and when I waved the bubbles with telekinesis, pulling in stray strikes of static along the way, his high conductor of a suit sent all his electricity surging through him.

"I can do this all day." I ground my teeth, ignoring the swelling heat rising in my body. Bez's body always burned hot, but in all the months I'd shared in his essence, the sensation never struck like this. Sure, I'd feel the warmth of his presence, but this was like my blood boiled, scalding my insides.

I needed to expel essence and quickly. The longer it dwelled within me, the faster it'd liquify my organs. Darting ahead, I blurred around Eligos, shredding his armor with heavy-handed smacks. My claws tore the suit, my palms dented it, and the essence within me dulled the ache of hitting metal again and again.

"Wally, what have you done?" Bez stared at me in complete shock.

His crimson irises had returned, snapped free from the bounds of a Diabolic nightmare. Relief hit me until those beautiful eyes widened, evaluating the situation, comprehending the lengths I'd taken in his absence.

I must've looked savage, ruthless, maniacal—things I didn't have the time to worry about at the moment because this demon needed to die by any means. All in all, Bez didn't have to worry about my behavior. He could keep the bad boy cap in our relationship. I only did what was necessary. He hadn't discussed it, we hadn't found the time, but I understood Eligos meant something to him once upon a time. We would discuss it afterward; he could divulge what he wanted and keep quiet about what he didn't want until, hopefully, a day came when he wanted to share his feelings. What mattered was we'd have the time to figure it out after I ended this.

Metal collided with my jaw, cracking the bone and knocking me into the railing. I stretched my mouth wide, popping the many tiny bones until they all healed and clicked back into place.

In those few seconds, Eligos sprang forward, skirting past Bez and reaching for the golden lance embedded in Bez's former body. He ripped it from the corpse, spun around, and aimed the weapon at my devil, still on his knees and looking at me with the most perplexed expression.

Not happening. Not a chance. "You won't ever touch Bez again!"

I chased him, drawing the dagger to my hand with a telekinetic pull, and stabbed Eligos in the hole in his back.

Twisting the blade, I tore through his insides, hacking at limbs, ignoring the slaps of erratic tendrils, watching the golden glow of his essence fluctuate irregularly.

I expelled my essence, sending it forward and seeping into the cuts I'd created, allowing it to consume Eligos. This wasn't like when Bez and Mora devoured the sapphire-eyed demon. Eligos and the essence linked to me cannibalized one another until only droplets of black oozed out of the suit, attempting to flee. A golden shimmer of life.

I burned it away to nothingness, charred the last remnants of Eligos' existence from this world.

"Wally," Bez called out, eyes locked onto my shaky body, not even bothering to check for threats.

There were no threats for him to worry about. I'd actually done it. I'd killed Eligos.

My knees buckled. Instinctively, I cast telekinesis to steady my stance; the vestiges of what remained kept me upright until essence pooled out of my pores, stabbing my skin. I winced, holding back an aching scream as it peeled away layers before fluttering away with pieces of flesh. It hurt. Sores covered my arms. It was okay. I'd survived it.

My body convulsed, all equilibrium lost, and I tumbled over, unable to brace the impact.

Bez zipped so quickly, I lost sight of him before blinking and found him holding me when my eyes opened. I guess all the essence had finally faded away, meaning I couldn't keep up with Diabolic movements again.

It didn't matter. I'd won. I smiled at Bez's sweet embrace, gently holding me with one arm wrapped under my legs and the other around my back as he softly set me down.

Bez cried. Tears splashed my face, sizzling against my skin. Why was he crying?

I reached out to brush away his tears.

"I tried…tried to…stop…" I gasped between words, unable to pull any air into my lungs. "I wanted to help y—"

A surge of pain struck, coursing through my arm, spreading across my chest like a sudden ripple in the water and erupting throughout my entire body. Fiery explosions of pure agony. Each breath hit sharply, cutting my throat. Bez's gentle touch was sandpaper against my skin. Bez's cries pierced my ears until a dull hum replaced it, an incessant ringing. My vision blurred, and all the light stung my eyes, needles stabbing at my retinas making me tear up.

The last thing I saw as the darkness swept in was Bez shouting. Was he shouting? He had that adorable crinkle in his brow when he got pouty and grumpy, but the tears. Still couldn't make sense of those…