Firstborn (The Legacy Series) (19 page)

And then
, it was all over.

The ship settled down, rocking gently. The waves were still upset and seawater rained down. The attack had distorted space and time on a massive scale. The sun began to peak – I must have sent us five hours forwards in time. The cruise ship, still unaware of how close it came to being Lilith’s personal buffet, had been far off on the horizon when the battle started. Now
, it was nowhere to be seen.

I saw a small cl
ump of black mass fall into the water – probably residue ectoplasm. My magical senses confirmed that Lilith or Lust had gone. I gazed at daybreak and laughed giddily.

That’s it. All that pain and suffering was over now. I had killed the Sin of Lust with my power and now the world can breathe a sigh of relief.

It was finally over.

24

As it turns out, no, it wasn’t over.

Must be a guy trait – we celebrate too early. If you don’t get the joke don’t worry about it. Amaymon told me that, which means it’s obscure and dirty.

Just like h
e is.

“Erik.” I turned around and saw an astral apparition of Gil behind me.

“Gil. Are you OK?”

The apparition appeared tired. “Mephisto took me back to the pier. Was that you who shifted time?”

“Yeah. Didn’t mean to.” I looked at my hands, still covered in black power. “What the hell is going on?”

“I’ll explain it later,” she said. “But for now
, just keep calm and relax. It should dissipate naturally.”

“Good, c
ause I hate to answer the door like this.”

“Not that y
ou usually look any better,” came Amaymon’s voice. The demon leapt from the chimney-looking thing and landed heavily next to me. He sized me up.

“Y
ou look different. You do somethin’ different with your hair?”

I heard myself laughing. “Glad to see you too. Where’d you drop Abigale?”

“With ‘er,” he replied, pointing at the astral projection.

“Please
, don’t touch me,” she replied. “I don’t have the strength to reform myself around physical objects.”

“That ain’t th
e reason chicks don’t let me touch ‘em.”

“Why d
id you leave Abi with her?” I asked.

“Hey,
I got jumped by angels. And as much as I don’t like ‘em, these clowns won’t do anything rash,” he replied defensively.

I glared at Gil.

“We have no use for her, Erik,” she replied placidly. “We’ll keep her safe here. Mephisto is cloaking the entire area. You remember how good he is at hiding stuff.”

Yeah
, I did. I shook my head, repressing the memory. Sooner or later I was going to have to sit down and deal with all of this.

I choose later.

“Fine,” I said. I waved a clawed hand at her. “If you let anything happen to her, I ‘m holding you responsible. Am I clear?”

“Careful
, brother,” she said in icy tones. “One might mistake your new appearance for a demon.”

It doesn’t take a genius to understand the threat beneath. Guess she wasn’t above hunting family.

“Bring it on, Gil,” I replied. “I took your forces down once, I can do it again.”

We stood there glaring at each other.

“Remind me again why you guys don’t got a sitcom on TV?” said Amaymon. “Oh, right, cause you can’t act for shit.”

My sister and I glared one last time.

“Just keep her safe, OK?” I said.

“Fine.
And you clean up after your mess, brother,” she replied.

“What mess?”

She pointed behind me.

“That one.”

I thought it was ectoplasm. I mean it looked like ectoplasm, felt like ectoplasm and behaved like ectoplasm. Except ectoplasm doesn’t usually stick to the side of the ship like tar and slide back up in a disgusting, writhing puddle.

It converged like an enormous piece of jello and I could distinctly see a face – Lilith’s face.

“Nooooo,” she moaned. “No, my children, no.”

Lilith exploded into a million pieces, each transforming into a demon, monster or nightmare.

They were of all shapes and sizes − giant spiders with fangs on their faces, chiropteran demons flapping around like oversized bats, three-legged crows the size of an apartment block and canines of all sorts. Some even resembled werewolves – the Hollywood kind.

But worst of all were the A
smodaii – they were humanoid, ranging between five and seven feet high. Their bodies were slender and abnormally thin. They walked on two legs – and that ended their similarities to us. Their legs were reverse joints, like a dog’s, and their arms ended in either claws or spikes or blades of sorts. Their leathery hides were dark grey in color, like exhaust fumes.

Worst of all, the Asmodaii had no face
s – just heads with patches of black where faces should be. They had wide mouths, though, lined with rows of teeth like a shark.

These were the foot soldiers of Hell – genocidal machines bred only for death and destruction.

I heard Gil snicker. “It seems that your attack caused her to lose her ability to hold herself together. Now, every creature she can compose out of her remains will emerge.” She frowned at me. “I told you this would happen.”

Before I could retort, Amaymon swiped at the projection, scattering it.
“I hate nags,” he said with a shrug.

I couldn’t agree more.

One of the monsters, a half-human half-serpent, thrashed about and flung the remaining chunk of Lilith’s ectoplasm into the ocean. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing – who knows, maybe the new monsters will drown.

“What a merry bunch of monster
s we have here.” Mephisto’s cold voice signaled his arrival. “Master Gil sent me for backup,” he told me.

“Y
ou sure you don’t wanna sit this one out, Bro?” hollered Amaymon. “It ain’t like we’re gonna need you.”

Mephisto snorted. “Sticks and stones may break my bones–
”

Amaymon ripped apart a sheet of metal and twisted it into a pipe, like a rolled up magazine.

“You wanna test that theory?” he said sadistically.

I slipped in between them and held my arms apart.

“Hey, guys, we’re surrounded by demons. Take your issues out on them,” I said.

There was a brief second where we all stood still. The only sounds
were the crashing of waves and claws and other body parts scraping against the metal decks.

They were sizing us up – two ancient demons and a wizard with mysterious power.

Three idiots facing an army of monsters numbering over fifty. I could see their muscles tensing and relaxing, ready to jump on us − to leap forwards and massacre us.

One of the Asmodaii took a cautious step forwards and my power reacted. A tendril of liquid obsidian shot forwards an
d impaled the Asmodaii. More tendrils branched out from the main one, shredding the monster.

Then
, just as quickly, the shadow retracted back into my body. That was it − the fire starter, the signal for war.

25

We rushed at each
other.

Amaymon leapt h
igh above the majority of demons, landing in their midst. That way he could take them out from the center. Mephisto took the skies, felling aerial monsters. Their attacks and the ship’s construction pushed the rest of the monsters in one direction – towards me.

My body moved on its own and I found myself lunging forwards.
Werewolves, Naga, gremlin-looking creatures, chiropterans – they all fell to my blade as I unleashed onslaught after onslaught. I relished in the rawness of the killing, the spilling of blood and ectoplasm. The shadow reacted faster than my blade or body, impaling and crushing all those that slipped beyond my human senses.

The rawness, the purity,
and the clear intention of destruction were all so addictive. I knew this was Dark Erik talking and that these were unfiltered emotions. But I wanted to let them run wild. I wanted to cut loose.

And the other side of me, the side tempered by control and helping others – that side began fighting back. Now there was a tug of war between nature and civilization. Slowly but surely
, I was regaining control over my emotions, but I couldn’t have picked a worse place. Battle is not where you play mind games. One false move and your head could be rolling.

And with these guys, that’s literal.

There was a group of Asmodaii a few feet away that incurred my wrath. One thing you learn rather quickly is who are the pawns and who are the officials. These Asmodaii, despite their legendary fighting prowess, stood back – watching.

Waiting.

I willed my shadow forwards. A wave of black thinned and elongated from my left arm and passed through the first two. I’m sure if they had a face they would look puzzled as to why their bodied had separated in two.

For the remaining three
, I clawed with my real hand and the shadow imitated. A giant hand of black grabbed the Asmodaii and crushed them together. I kept pressing and pressing until I made demon soup in my big, black fist. Once the job was done the shadow retracted.

Mission accomplished, achievement unlocked.

I heard a sickening crack behind me as Amaymon grabbed something reptilian and ripped it in half as if it were a sheet of paper.

A large tarantula had made it up the chimney and was about to jump
Mephisto, who floated in mid-air like a paper kite. Calmly, he spun in midair and spread his arms. A violent wind surrounded the spider.

The Elemental closed his eyes and began tapping his fingers like
a piano player. The wind whistled loudly as it scythed through the spider, shredding it. As bits of arachnid and gore rained, he splayed his arms and bowed deeply

“Show off,”
Aamymon appeared beside me and pulled a Naga by the tail, ripping it off. Then, he calmly dismembered her head and kicked it like a football. The projectile thwacked against Mephisto, who flipped his brother off.

Yeah – show off. Like you’re one to talk, Amaymon.

“You know,” he said “This all seems just a bit too easy. I thought Lilith was supposed to spew out the best of the best.”

“I concur
, brother,” came Mephisto’s voice. “There are no Alphas.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” I asked.

“If we were mistaken, yes,” replied the butler. “But not if there is something else in store.”

“Ah
, whatever,” said my familiar. “Bring it on, we’ll kick their – Erik, watch out!”

I spun and raised an enhanced Djinn.

A pair of fangs descended on me and I barely managed to intercept them with my sword. The giant spider spewed a putrid breath and saliva on me as it pressed forwards. I was nearly driven to my knees.

I willed more power in my body and pushed the creature backwards. Once it reared back, I swiped horizontally. Djinn’s blade elongated to ten times its length, slicing through all of the spider’s legs before retracting back.

The spider crashed down next to me with its ugly head still snapping. I smashed my fist on it and wrapped my arm in a headlock. With a grunt of effort, I ripped the spider’s head off, spraying myself with blood and black ichor in the process.

Amaymon let out a low whistle.

Oh, crap – if I can impress that demon then it’s time to check myself.

Before anyone could comment, we all felt something in the atmosphere. From in front of the ship, the air shimmered and light particles, like snowflakes, began dispersing all over the area.

I let the spider’s head drop and reached out to grab a particle. It was neither a snowflake nor solid light. It was a small pocket of air, light and magic which dissolved immediately at my touch. More clustered in front of the ship, like a giant wall.

“Anima particles
,” said Amaymon.”

Anima particles are basically left over magic – tiny amounts of energy that are wasted when a spell is cast. Usually the amount is so small that you can’t even see the
m, like dust particles in the wind.

But right over here, there was a solid wall of the damn things. A cluster of Anima Particles usually meant a summon of sorts
. That kind of magic tended to need so much energy that it left clumps of residue behind. I shudder to think how much energy was needed to produce this wall and pull off this summons.

And what in hell was actually being summoned.

Amaymon’s fist shot three inches from my face. An Asmodaii fell dead next to me.

“Small fry
, first,” he said. He was right – we’ll deal with the summoned monster later. Right now, I had to deal with the rest of the horde.