Book IV, Part 25
In their travels, the companions from the West had faced many dangers, horrible opponents that they had defeated through teamwork and sacrifice. But now, confronted with the power of the Beast, a demon more imposing and terrible than anything they could conceive, they found themselves confronting their greatest challenge.
They did not hesitate, knowing that even more than their lives, their very souls were at stake in this battle.
At Cal’s cry they leapt to the attack, but even their moment’s hesitation allowed the demon to get in the first strike. The demon raised one muscled arm and pointed at them, and a dark, twisted, roiling cloud of corruption erupted around them. Cal, Delem, Lok, and Benzan were familiar with the evil power of the unholy blight, having survived a similar attack from a cleric of Cyric long ago. They were tougher now, but so too was the dark energy of the demon. The companions staggered from the cloud, each fighting off a lingering sickness that seemed to cling to their souls like a taint.
Lok emerged from the cloud already beginning his charge, although the demon was too far away for him to reach quickly. Dana, however, her speed still augmented by the expeditious retreat spell she’d cast during the earlier battle, quickly caught up to him and touched him on the shoulder.
“Good luck,” she said to him, as the power of her spell passed into the genasi, and he lifted into the air with the power of magical flight. Lok met her gaze for an instant and nodded, then shot off quickly in the direction of the demon.
Jerral had emerged from the opposite side of the cloud, and quickly fitted an arrow to her own bow. The arrow burst into magical flames as she drew and fired, but even though her shot hit the creature her missile bounced off as harmlessly as Benzan’s shot of a few moments before.
“We can’t hurt it!” she cried, her voice cracking on the edge of panic.
“My sword bears a more potent magic—it should be able to harm it!” Benzan replied, hoping that his guess was true even as he drew the sword and he broke into a run toward the creature. He didn’t glance back, hoping that Jerral was following him.
Despite her fear, the ranger hefted her axes and did.
Delem emerged from the fading edges of the blight, hardly the worse for wear. He pointed toward the demon and summoned his most powerful spell. A bead of fire blasted from his fingertips and streaked past his charging companions to explode against the body of the demon. The fireball scorched the stones of the cliff face with its intensity, but when the flames cleared, the demon stood there, utterly untouched.
The demon made a wretched gurgling sound, which the companions belatedly realized was laughter.
Cal was the last to become visible as the blight faded into wisps of nothingness. He lurched and staggered forward, clearly hit hard by the dark power of the demon’s magic. He saw his companions already moving to the attack, and for a moment a twinge of uncertainty passed through the gnome’s small frame. He understood better than any of them—save perhaps Benzan—the nature of what they faced, and he knew all too well that the magic he possessed would be of little or no use against such a monstrosity. He felt once more a surge of guilt—had he failed his companions, electing to turn aside from the path of greater magical power as he had? Would more powerful spells have enabled them to vanquish this adversary?
But the gnome was not one to let such thoughts steal his resolve, and with determination he pushed them aside for deliberation later. Right now, his friends needed the best that he could give. Calling up every ounce of fortitude that he could muster, the gnome began a rousing song to strengthen the resolve of his companions. At the same time, he drew forth a wand that he’d purchased after a battle with another demon in a faraway place. Somehow he knew that the protection from evil summoned by the wand would not keep this foe fully at bay, but he hoped that whatever protection it could offer would give his allies an edge that they would most certainly need.
Even as he sang, the gnome rushed forward, his short limbs carrying him slowly but steadily to where the demon waited.
Only the beast was not waiting idly for their arrival. As the companions neared it the demon reared up and issued another terrible roar that shook the very stones of the cliff behind it. Then, as it lowered its head again, it called upon more of its dread magic, calling into being a cloak of dark, wavering, unholy energy that filled the air around its massive form like a second skin.
Lok, flying in a straight line toward the creature, did not hesitate, hurtling toward the creature’s head while he lifting his axe to strike. The demon, with its incredible reach, lashed out at him with a massive claw before Lok could draw near enough to strike. The heavy blow rang off of the genasi’s shield, knocking him off his course and sending him twisting through the air. When the demon drew back its hand, however, there was a gash in its palm, and fat drops of hot ichor dripped from the wound to sear the stones below.
Lok had drawn first blood.
“See, it can be hurt!” Benzan shouted in encouragement, although inwardly he wondered how they could possibly injure the creature enough to slow it, let alone slay it. Still, he grimly charged onward toward the creature’s flank, hoping that Lok could distract it enough for him to get in a telling blow.
It would have to be a low blow, for Benzan barely came up to the creature’s knee.
Delem also drew nearer, frustrated by the creature’s apparent immunity to his fire spells. He called upon the power of Kossuth to summon a minor spell to aid his companions, a blessing to counter the dark forces that hung around it, but he knew that his friends needed his firepower to have a chance.
Looking up at the huge bulk of the creature, an idea came to him.
Dana approached the creature from the far side, moving at an incredible pace over the slick stone. As it struck Lok she was already summoning the divine might of Selûne, channeling the power of the goddess into a divine bolt of searing light that she blasted into the chest of the demon.
It was a potent spell, and one newly acquired by the mystic wanderer, but as the beam of light struck the demon and its writhing cloak of darkness it fragmented and disintegrated into a harmless splash of reflected energies.
Lok, meanwhile, had recovered and dove again at the demon, his own battlecry matching the terrible, eager growl of the demon as it met his rush with its own charge. Lok’s axe clove downward and tore into the demon’s shoulder, releasing another spray of ichor that steamed in the cold air as it dripped down the demon’s torso. The demon, however, responded in kind, twisting its head to and fro in a sudden motion that drove its horns into the genasi’s armored form. One thrust slashed through his defenses and gored him deeply in the side. The demon did not relent, lunging at Lok with both outstretched claws. The warrior managed to twist in the air and deflected the first rake with his shield, but the second massive claw closed on his hip and squeezed, crushing the genasi within his armored shell.
Benzan saw Lok’s plight and charged at the creature from the flank. Close up, the creature was even more imposing and unnatural, its long legs bending at two joints rather than one, ending in cloven hooves that were the color of old bloodstains. Benzan raised his sword to strike, but even as he did he felt a strange sensation roll over him. His stomach twisted and a roaring filled the back of his mind, but within those disorienting feelings there was something else, a disturbing empathy with the demon that touched something deep inside of him.
Benzan cried out as he fought through the disorientation and thrust his blade at the demon’s leg. The blow missed badly, however, the magical bronze glancing harmlessly off the demon’s armored hide.
The demon, however, turned and looked down at Benzan. As those fiery eyes locked on his, he felt a dark presence enter his mind.
Ah… greetings, brother, a sibilant voice sounded within his thoughts. You I will allow to live, to watch as I tear your mortal friends asunder, and feed on the essence of their souls…
Benzan cried out again, a terrible moan of despair as the demon’s laughter echoed in his mind.
The others were rushing to help, but it seemed as though nothing they did could affect the demon. Dana tried her magic again, summoning a spell to dispel the dark shroud protecting the demon. Her power faltered against the fell power of the Abyss, however, and the cloak of roiling energy barely flickered under her attack. Cal added the bolstering effect of his voice, but he was still too far away to use his wand to protect his companions. Jerral was close enough to see the effect of the demon’s stare upon Benzan, and even though she wasn’t the target of those eyes she felt a twisting terror crawl through her skin just being close to the thing. Every instinct told her to run, even as the pure horror of the monstrosity whispered that flight would be futile, that the demon would not stop until it had destroyed all of them utterly.
Belatedly she realized that she was running, not away, but toward the demon, and that she was screaming incomprehensibly at the top of her lungs as she hefted her axes with white-knuckled hands.
As the demon glanced down toward Benzan, Lok shook himself free of its grasp and launched another series of attacks. His strokes were powerful, but they struck the intangible wisps of black energy around the demon and glanced off as though they were steel plate. The demon’s head snapped around, and it locked its eyes on the stalwart genasi. Lok lifted his axe, ready for whatever fell power the demon might release upon him.
Yet he could do nothing as lines of black energy, each as thin as the strands of a spiderweb, formed around him. He tried to fly out of their grasp, but the strands held him there, forming in the blink of an eye into an intricate prison of lines and angles that held him within their matrix.
And then, Lok vanished.
“No!” Benzan cried, shocked by the sight out of his haze and into action once more. He saw Jerral, screaming madly, slash into the demon’s right leg with her axes. The blows had no apparent effect, but they drew the demon’s attention in that direction even as Benzan renewed his attack on the demon’s left. This time his sword bit into the limb, penetrating through the energy shield and tearing the muscled flesh beneath. The thrust wasn’t deep, but by the demon’s roar it clearly felt it.
Benzan drew his sword back out of the wound and spun around to the rear of the creature, hoping at least that he could get one more thrust in before the demon tore him to pieces.
By then, however, the demon had other things on its mind.
Delem had not been idle while his companions desperately battled the demon. Having seen it casually shrug off his most powerful spell, he knew that his fire had little chance of affecting it through its potent resistances and magical defenses. As he looked up at it, however, its huge bulk looming against the backdrop of the canyon wall, he’d had an idea.
He raised his hand, the one bearing the bronze ring whose power had already come to their aid several times. His gaze focused on a narrow cleft halfway up the length of the cliff, where a large boulder was pinioned within a natural fork formed by the gap in the stone. Focusing his full concentration through the ring, he tried to touch the rock with his mind.
It was heavy, far heavier than the ring’s power could lift, but he wasn’t trying to lift it.
Only nudge it free.
Sweat broke out on the sorcerer’s face as he focused on the stone, adding the power of his own will to that held within the ring. The stone shifted in response. Delem saw only the stone, did not see Lok trapped within the maze spell cast by the demon, did not see Benzan stab it in the leg, did not see it turn and direct the full force of its hatred upon the tiefling. He saw only the stone, shifting, rocking, falling…
The boulder slammed squarely onto the demon’s skull, filling the air with a sickening cracking noise as it drove the creature’s head forward and down. The demon staggered, but did not fall, lurching like a drunken man one uneven step forward, then a second. Its head came up again, its terrible visage now made more fearful by the threads of black blood that ran down across its face and the fury that blazed like twin suns within its eyes.
The demon lurched forward, its double-jointed legs driving its bulk inexorably forward like a charging bull. Benzan and Jerral tried to slash at it as it passed, but their weapons glanced harmlessly off its hide, and the creature ignored their futile attacks. Cal leapt out of the demon’s path, its massive hooves crushing the ground only a few feet from where he’d been standing, but the demon paid him no heed either.
It was clear what the demon’s focus was.
Delem held his ground—there was nowhere else he could go, not with the charging mass of the demon coming straight for him. His gaze fell to the ground at his feet for a moment, but when he looked up again, the demon looming over him like a juggernaut, the flames were dancing in his eyes.
A stream of fire blasted from his hands into the demon’s chest, their eager tongues flashing across the demon’s body.
The demon, unharmed by Delem’s attack, lowered its head until it was nearly bent in two, slamming the bony bridge of its forehead into the sorcerer’s comparatively frail form. The shock of the impact knocked Delem backwards with the force of a battering ram, to fall limply to the ground ten paces away. The demon’s momentum carried it forward until it stood over his unmoving body.
The others were already running to their companion’s aid, although the demon’s rush had carried it beyond their reach for the moment. Only Dana, her speed enhanced by the power of her spell, was there immediately, and she screamed as she leapt and slashed at the demon. Her kama could not hurt it, but she continued cutting at it as it reached down and scooped up Delem in its massive hands.
“Let him go!” Dana cried out in frustration, knowing that nothing she could do would hinder this monstrosity.
The demon cast its gaze down at her, panning its stare to take in all of them, as well as the limp form clutched in its hands. Benzan, and Jerral ran up and halted a few yards away, with Cal just a short distance behind, still closing.
“Let him go,” Benzan repeated, his voice as hard as the bronze sword that he held at the ready before him. “We can still destroy you, demon.”
The demon returned his stare with reflected hate, but the fact remained that the demon was grievously hurt, the effects of the attacks by Lok and Benzan and Delem’s stone clear on its otherworldly form. The demon also knew that the genasi would soon return, his arrival dependent on his intelligence and his ability to work his way through the extra-planar corridors of its maze.
The demon looked down at Dana, who had backed off to join the others in a half-circle facing it. The young woman’s eyes widened as the demon’s sickening voice sounded in her mind.
You love this one, the demon’s voice said.
“Yes,” Dana whispered.
Then come and claim him. I will be waiting.
And the demon vanished, teleporting away with Delem’s unconscious and battered body.
