Dancing With Demons
“Hold this line! If we surrender here, then the war is lost!” Elaine screamed over the sounds of battle and men trying their damnedest to hold the invading hordes off. Castle Romin was the last hold on the front lines of the War with Hell. The last 11 years have only seen loss, bloodshed, and death. Elaine has lost many friends, family, and even her home was destroyed in this war. Elaine would never stopped until the war was over, and the Prince Belial was slain by her hand. Which is why Castle Romin must stay in human hands. It was the closest hold to the demon citadel, the Black Spire, and was also the closest to the nearest Wizard Hall, as well as the several villages that supplied about a third of the human forces food. Elaine began running towards the men pushing back against the castle’s large, fortified door, raising her arms and began chanting the words to her spell in her head. “Shining Palm!” Elaine said, using the condensed spell name to shoot two large hands from her palms. The hands pushed against the heavy doors of the castle, helping to reinforce it from the forceful wave of demons on the other side. The crosses on the hands shone with a bright light, readying to be used as weapons.
“Bless you, High Priestess! Bless you!” several of the soldiers by the door shouted. However, their praises soon turned into screams as several demons jumped from the shadows of the walls down on to the soldiers, killing them in one move. Elaine cried in shock, seeing the men in her care just abruptly murdered, and then roared in fury as she moved her arm, sending one of the hands to slam and flatten three of the demons below. In response, the doors that Elaine was holding were destroyed, and the wave of demons came crashing into the castle courtyard, spilling out of the bottleneck of the door, and slowing spreading and covering every inch of ground with blood, corpses, and filling the air with screams. Elaine kept battling with her hands, punching small hordes of demons and using the crosses on the back of the hands to begin slashing the larger ones. Elaine grunted as several of the heavily armored larger demons grabbed one of the arms of the hands, holding it in place. Elaine couldn’t move her arm, so she released the magic, causing the arm to disappear and the demons to smile cruelly. One of them began barking to a group of others, and then that arm also became immobile.
“Everyone close, listen and get closer to me. I’m going to try and shield us.” Elaine said, preparing to cast a spell as the other magical arm disappeared. But no one heard her as the swarm of demons heightened their blood lust, swarming the soldiers in the courtyard, killing all those they stood against. As the battle dragged on, Elaine and a small group of soldiers were all that was left as they were pressed against the wall of the courtyard. “This is it!” One of the men shouted right before a sickly blade stabbed his abdomen. “Peace be with you, men” Elaine said, accepting her death as a demon began to raise its claw to deliver the killing blow.
“Nonsense love, the caverly’s right here!” A familiar and rough voice said from behind the demon in front of Elaine as a barrage of fireballs rained down past her and hit a swarm of demons square on. “Now, whatcha say we send these boys back straight to hell!” the voice said as a sword protruded from the demon, causing it to slump dead when the sword was removed. “Argeth, praise the Thanes! Where have you been?” Elaine said as Argeth put his sword into the scabbard on his side. The stout man smiled as he cracked his knuckles “Well, I was out clearin the path for Elvar and Jace from the south, as well as gettin word our boyo’s on the way. Now, I see you have a wee infestation. Let me get that for you.” Angeth turned to the fresh battalions he brought and began barking orders to them as Elaine prayed silently. Strength began to flow through her, the divine energy of the Thanes blessing her with renewed strength and vigor as Elaine looked around the battlefield. The new mages were helping the remaining mages recover there mana with potions and spells, while the reinforced soldiers led scores and scores of ones another into charges against the demonic forces, each side losing soldiers at astonishing rates. Elaine began to run to fight, calling and firing spells faster than whizzing arrows, her targets either obliterated or mortally wounded by the cleansing light eating away at their sin stained souls.
The revived battle continued on for what seemed like years, however, the outcome was slowly going the way of humans, especially since several more battalions, both led by Jace the Archmage and Elvar the Northern Hunter entered from the eastern and western gates, slaughtering the demon armies on each side so that all was left was the decent sized armada of several hundred demons outside the northern gates. Each battalion added helped pave the way for the upper hand of the fight, pushing demons from the courtyard back towards the gate. Elaine only felt confidence as what first started as impossible to win now seemed unlikely to lose. However, just as the final push was made to secure the northern gates, a spine-curdling roar ripped through the symphony of battle. Jace froze in place, fear plastered to his face not unlike a masquerade mask. “Jace, what is that?” Elaine said, her mind running through the possibilities. A second roar froze Elvar, and a wicked smile plastered his face, saying “A real challenge. Finally!” At that moment, the gates were obliterated as two colossal demons of varying color barged in, killing all those in the immediate vicinity, demons and humans alike. Both demons stood roughly eight feet tall from Elaine’s position, and probably were just a half foot taller up close. They also stood on two legs, with no cloth or armor on their bodies. But what they lacked in exterterior clothing was made up for in a severe amount of muscle mass, razor sharp quills sticking out in clumps along their backs, elbows, and knees. The only thing that distinguished the two behemoths was that one was snow-white, with pale blue eyes filling the entire socket, the other black with pink eyes. Soldiers charged right at them, but all disappeared into a red mist and dismembered body parts. However, both creatures stood, not a scratch on them. “Elvar, what are those?” Elaine asks, a new sense of horror apparent in her voice. “Those, High Priestess, are Tyrants.”
Elvar began to laugh heartily as the Tyrants roared again, like he was looking at children playing. “Elvar, have you gone mad?” Jace asked, readying his magic. “No, but I was bored. Now, I’m excited.” Elvar said, knocking a clip of his blessed silver bolts into his crossbow. Elaine’s fear began to take over her mind, the once divine strength she had now almost gone, reduced to just embers of light in the overwhelming darkness that was her terror. The Tyrants began to walk towards the group, and began to kill or destroy anything in front of them. A quartet of soldiers were reduced to nothing more than shreds of iron and flesh after a rash charge, while a small band of demons were killed from behind simply for being in the way. The two Tyrants continued this until they stopped just paces from the small group, the path behind the two behemoths looking like a red carpet, as the blood-soaked ground merged the blood of humans with the black ichor of demons. But it was when the two towers of death separated that really sunk terror into the heroes.
He wasn’t huge, like a Tyrant, but he was a tall man, with an enormously muscular frame. His raven dark hair was long and greasy, nearly covering his long horns, and went perfectly with the sickly smile on his face. One could have thought him human, except for the fact that he had red eyes, his sword was as dark as his sins, and his forehead was adorned with three studs. The studs were arranged in a triangle, with the bottom two being made of pure obsidian, marks of a Prince of Hell, one of several Generals of Hell’s Army. Each Prince was said to be as strong as ten thousand men, and had unique abilities based on their sin. The third stud at the top of the triangle was orange, signifying that this was Mammon, the Greedy King. “Welcome, my friends. My name is Mammon, but you may call me Lord Mammon.” mammon shouted as he walked up the blood soaked ground, the sloshing of blood and ichor present with each step. “Now, I’m here to secure this castle for our armies, but well, who else would I be if I didn’t take more than asked. I’m giving you all the great honor of swearing your fealty to me and renouncing those insufferable bastards called the Thanes. Now, before you object, the alternative is my pets will squish you like grapes and I will be a bit sad. So, any takers on joining me?” Mammon said as he stopped just two steps in front of the Tyrants, his arms spread wide, palms open like he was the ringleader of a circus asking the audience to applaud.”Oh, I got an answer for the likes of ya” Angrath said as he pulled out his broadsword. “We will never be swayed by your wicked lies. The light burns in all of us!” Elaine said, her voice ringing louder than church bells as her inner emotions were of complete shock due to what she had said. “Before we kick your ass here, Your Highness, at least let me take the mutts with me. They truly are exquisite beasts, prime game.” Elvar said as he aimed the crossbow right at Mammon, perfectly in line with the center of the triangle. Jace took a deep breath and raised his arms “What my colleagues mean to say is that you can go and rot in that fiery pit you call home.” Jace said and roared out the spell he was preparing “Regal Flame!”. Golden flames shot out and barreled right into one of the Tyrants, flames spreading over its white chest and consuming it until the Tyrant was out of range. Smolders of flesh and smoke were sprinkled as the black-skinned Tyrant roared and jumped towards Jace. Angath cut it off with a shoulder charge, the stout man pushing the behemoth inches away from colliding with his target. Jace began to move back as the white-skinned Tyrant began to charge, the spines on its back bristled like a porcupine. Jace began to run east, heading away from the other Tyrant. Elaine began to run after both the white Tyrant and Jace.
Jace spun back to face the beast as soon as he was far enough away from the other one. He knew that having both Tyrants and Mammon in the same room would only end in defeat, so defeating them individually was key. Taking the beast into the local forest would help, as Jace was agile enough to maneuver through the forest nimbly, and could even lose the beast in the tight spots if need be. The Tyrant was nowhere to be seen for a minute, until Jace looked up as he heard the roar of the beast from above. Jace narrowly dodged the Tyrant’s slashing claw, noticing that the edge of each talon was sharp enough to slice an individual hair. Jace quickly pushed the creature back with the force of his palm, and then jumped back. Preparing his spell, Jace barely had enough time to cast it before the Tyrant’s second attack, using the condensed name for his spell again. “Scorching Blaze Breath!” Jace shouted as he blew a stream of fire at the Tyrant, covering it again in flames. However, the Tyrant slammed Jace back with the back of it’s enormous paw, sending him flying and the stream of fire billowing upwards until it stopped abruptly. Jace looked up from the ground only to see a large stump begin its descent to slam into his ribs. Jace cried out as he felt several ribs break, and all the air left his lungs. The creature lifted it’s leg again, this time aiming for his head, and Jace only prayed the Thanes were merciful when he died. As Jace began to accept the inevitable, he gasped as a ribbon of light wrapped itself around the other leg, and began to pull the beast backwards, causing it to tumble back. “Leave him be!” Elaine shouted, her hand holding onto the ribbon. Her other hand was projecting a magic circle, multiple lines interconnecting in every way, as the symbol of the Thane Rapheal blazed in the center, a crescent moon with with a shining star next to it. Elaine pointed the circle at the Tyrant and began chanting a formal spell name: Evocin Rapthan, guidas Elmastar un divance wud, Stratas Shinus Maxis Shimig! Elaine shouted as she finished the spell, a large, shining ball sped towards the target faster than anything Jace had ever seen. The ball raced towards the Tyrant, and on contact exploded in a blinding light that surrounded everything and lit up the darkest recesses of the forest.
As the light settled, both Elaine and Jace looked at where the Tyrant was last seen. A small crater was now in the place of the beast, easily as wide as a man was long and them some. The surrounding trees were destroyed, and even the larger rocks were cracked in two. As Jace got up, Elaine groaned as she began to drop, passing out due to using too much of her magic. Jace raced over to Elaine, and picked her up, helping her stand. She was almost as pale as the light she shot, her breathing almost nonexistent. As Jace propped her so they can walk over to the hole, the archmage peered in and gasped. The Tyrant’s body was sprawled out in the hole, a giant hole filling up most of its chest. Deep, painful groans could be heard from the beast, as smoldering remains of the light began to eat away at the creature’s essence. But the creature still tried to get back up and kill them, hatred shining in its blue eyes, the white claws reaching for the jugulars of its opponents. As the Tyrant took its last breath, its body began to burn, the light Elaine hit it with purifying the sin that fed the soul of the beast, causing it to scream until it was reduced to nothing but ashes. Jace sighed happily as he watched, and sat Elaine on a tree stump. She was now three “We’ll wait here for a minute. Give you time to catch your breath.” Jace said as he also sat down. But Jace’s face betrayed him as he thought about how strong the Tyrant was. In fact the only thing running through Jace’s mind was how strong that thing was, as it almost killed him, and how it took all of Elaine’s magic and part of her life to kill it. A rustling from the bushes startled Jace from thought, causing him to jump up and try his best to defend himself and Elaine. But as a figure emerged, Jace breathed heavily and cursed it. “Where the hell have you been?” “Sorry, got held up at the Sanctuary. But I’m here now. So, what are we up against?”.
