Gloom Rising (The Book Wielder Saga 1) (3 page)

"Let's hope so," Winston said doubtfully.

The two Book Wielders walked in silence until they came closer to the entrance. It was a large metal double door engraved with writhing humans and feasting demons.

"Feel like knocking, or shall we just blow the fucker to bits?" Lewis asked jokingly.

"Let's take it out. They’ll be on us as soon as we're inside anyway." Winston held his free hand up in the direction of the door.

"Knew you had it in you,” Lewis laughed. “We’ll make a weapon of mass magical destruction out of you yet.” He holstered his stun gun and raised his hand towards the repulsive door.

Bright blue concentric circles appeared just in front of the Book Wielders' hands. Glowing blue runes and elegant flowing script wove themselves within the lines, and the air rippled as the raw magical energy increased in intensity. With a recoil that sent their arms shooting back, two powerful bolts of pure magical force were sent hurling into the double doors. The bolts exploded in a pale blue blast that forced the doors inwards at an absurd speed and shattered the surrounding stone blocks, sending dust and small fragments in all directions. Winston was right about his suit; the trip was going to ruin it.

Inhuman screeches and growls sounded from within. In a matter of seconds, the first Demons charged through the hole. They were horrid man-sized creatures with purple and pink muscular bodies that looked like someone had skinned them alive. Their faces were scrunched up in expressions of pure rage and hatred, saliva dripping from their long razor sharp teeth. Their eyes were triangular slits of glowing red, and instead of forearms they had huge bone scythes that made them look like a cross between man and praying mantis.

Winston automatically struck his lighter and manipulated the fire into a torrent of flame that doused the maniacal creatures, while Lewis quickly did the same with the electricity from his stun gun, shooting forks of lightning into the fray. Almost as soon as the Demon's charge had begun, the fight was over. Their charred forms littered the entrance, though they still twitched with life.

"I was right," Lewis began, "the real competition is going to be upstairs."

Winston eyed the convulsing bodies. "They look like they’re still alive."

"Oh, they are. Takes a lot more than that to kill a Demon, and they'll heal up quick unless we're careful." He pulled a switch blade from his pocket. The small enchanted knife grew until it was a thin slither of evil looking metal about a meter long, and remorselessly began to slice the limbs and heads off the Demons. "One good thing about working for the Trinity – they have such fun toys to play with."

The bodies, limbs and heads still quivered with life. "Even that doesn't seem to be working, Lewis."

Lewis retracted the blade. “Didn’t say it would, but it will stop them from getting back up in a hurry.” He kicked a few severed parts away from their respective owners and casually made for the entrance. “Come on, we better be quick about this."

Winston followed him, carefully avoiding the grotesque array of Demon bits and pieces that adorned his path.

The inside of the tower was a large square clearing, and braziers blazed with fire painting the stonework a sinister shade of orange and red. The ceiling was so high it was shielded in shadows, and barred windows lined the room in between broken statues. In the centre of the room was a circular platform emblazoned with a green pentagram and smaller magical runes. Scorch marks, bullet holes, and debris were all over the place, showing the signs of a massive fire fight preceding the damage that Winston and Lewis had caused. Strangely enough, the room appeared to be healing; if focused on clearly enough, the damage seemed to be repairing itself. Bullets were being pushed out of their holes millimetres at a time, bits of statue and dust were crawling towards their origin points at a snail’s pace – even the dented double doors seemed to be slowly slithering back towards the entrance.

Winston viewed the damage with awe. "Looks like the place is still ruined from the last Book Wielder. It must have been one hell of a fight”

“You said it,’ Lewis agreed. “This will work out very well for us. Those mongrels we fought out front must have been freshly healed. We might have had a bit more of a fight on our hands if they were at the same strength that they were when your predecessor got here."

"Let's hope the rest of the place is this devastated."

"There's only one way to find out." Lewis gestured towards the platform. "Magical elevator, I'm guessing."

The Book Wielders walked towards the platform and stepped onto it. The magical engravings flared momentarily and two green triangles appeared in the air, one pointing up and one pointing down.

"Fancy checking out the basement?" Lewis joked.

Winston tapped the triangle for up. "No, I certainly do not. How is it you can joke at a time like this?" he asked, as the platform rose slowly and silently into the air.

Lewis shrugged. "We're in a dangerous line of work. Could die here in the Gloom or in a gang fight back in the real. If we die, we die. Beats living a life of mundane bullshit, working shit jobs to pay for shitty bills and scraping enough together for a treat every month or two. At least we can say we've lived a little, we've played with magical powers, we’ve seen the world that hides behind the world – we’ve even seen a totally different world!"

Winston found himself confused at how much he agreed with what Lewis had just said. "True, but I'd prefer not to die at all. Well, not for a long while anyway.”

“Same, but how is being all stuck up, reserved, stressed out, and scared shitless going to increase your lifespan? As long as you as you keep your wits about you and stay careful you don't need the other useless baggage."

Again, Winston couldn’t fault Lewis’ logic, or at least think of a plausible argument, so he just stayed silent as the elevator took them through a hole of orangey-red light in the sea of black that was the ceiling.

The second floor was like the first in terms of unpleasant fiery lighting and rusty iron barred windows, but the rest of the interior looked like the result of a pyromaniac visiting a big square library. The burnt out remains of tall bookshelves lined the room, and the floor was covered in black and grey ashes. Just like with the first floor the damage was receding at an immensely slow pace, but the sheer scale of the destruction was so great it would probably take years for the library to heal.

Staggering, slithering, and sliding in between the charred bookshelves were disgusting half-formed Demon acolytes. They looked like skeletal black robed humans, robbed of a limb or two in some cases, and doused in boiling tar. Except in this case, the tar that they were pooled in seemed to be their essence trying to slowly reform them. They moaned and cried out with anguished voices. One of them raised a hand and tried to send some sort of spell towards the Book Wielders but only a few sparks flew from its gnarled fingertips, and they fell to the ground in front of it like a flutter of fireflies.

"Aww, how cute," Lewis sniggered. "I think they want to be friends."

"Let's just do this."

"Allow me, mister serious." Lewis invoked the same raw destruction spell that they had used against the front of the building, and directed the bolt to the centre of the conglomeration of foetal Demons.

The bolt hit home, and the acolytes flew apart in a shower of sticky black liquid and entrails that covered the room and the Book Wielders.

Lewis laughed as he tried brushing some of the gloop off his face and outfit. "Hope that's not your best suit."

Winston just grumbled as he wiped himself down the best he could and tapped the up symbol again.

"I think this will be the top floor." Lewis got out his gun and made sure it was loaded correctly. "Be ready for anything.”

“Right.” Winston also checked his gun and brought to mind some defensive spells that his book had taught him.

The elevator brought them into what looked like a tyrant’s throne room. Pillars rose to the low ceiling sporting long elegant blood red banners, and in-between were large arched windows covered with spiky metal grating. Torches burned with the same unpleasant flames of the other floors, and directly ahead of them were stone steps leading to a Demon Overlord sitting on a marble throne.

The Demon Overlord wore a full masquerade mask of black, white, and woven gold with a calm expression crafted onto it. His entire body was covered in a crimson cloak, except for one human-like dark purple hand that cradled a crystal chalice filled with coagulated human blood. Behind the Demon was the source; what was left of Winston's predecessor was hanging from the ceiling by barbed wire wrapped around his legs. His head, arms, and skin had been removed.

The Demon Overlord calmly drained his glass and spoke with a snobbish drawl. "More refreshments come to visit?"

"How about fuck you?" Lewis shouted.

The Overlord threw his chalice to the floor, shattering it into a thousand pieces. He chuckled behind his mask and slowly rose from his throne. Winston immediately launched a fireball from his lighter that set its crimson cloak aflame, just as Lewis sent bolts of electricity from his stun gun straight into its face, blasting the mask into pieces and revealing an all too human face beneath.

The dark purple creature just laughed, its mouth elongating to a disgustingly abnormal size as it made the horrid metallic grinding sound of its amusement, long metal fangs glowing in the reflected torchlight. The Overlord's body suddenly became far more muscular as if it had been inflated like a flat tire, and its hands and feet became claws. Its red eyes remained quite human but they were filled with a sick, psychotic, sadistic amusement.

Lewis discarded his stun gun and began unloading precious Sanctium rounds from his real pistol. Bullets hammered into the throne as the Overlord deftly dodged them with inhuman speed. Half a clip was gone in an instant and the creature jumped from pillar to pillar, clinging to them on all fours like an animal. Winston tried to get a clear shot, but it was no good. Lewis on the other hand fired until his gun was spent, and it was as he reached for his spare clip that the Demon made its move.

It launched itself from the top of the nearest pillar straight into Lewis, sending them both sprawling. The Demon was on him in an instant, pinning each of his limbs with its clawed hands and feet. The Overlord's mouth grew larger and larger, like a snake dislocating its jaw, as it went to eat Lewis' head.

As this was happening, Winston was taking aim, the endless shooting practise his father had forced him through as a child now seeming like a blessing. He was far from a pro, but he was a good enough shot to put four bullets into the creature before it came for him.

"Move to the side!" Lewis cried as he rose to his feet with feline grace.

Winston dived to the side with as much speed as he could muster. The creature was much faster by far, but at least he was out of the way of Lewis' counterattack. The blonde Book Wielder summoned a thick lance of ice and threw it like a javelin into the creature's back, and it howled as it was fastened to the pillar in front of it.

The bullet wounds Winston had inflicted upon it were starting to grow as the Sanctium ate away at the unholy creature like an ultra-powerful acid. It was still strong though, and began pushing itself backwards in an attempt to free itself.

Lewis walked over to the Overlord and raised his now loaded pistol to the thing’s head.

The Overlord seemed to gaze upwards for a moment. “…betrayed me!” it snarled, half slurred, before Lewis unloaded the entire Sanctium clip into the creature’s head until it was nothing more than mush.

"Eat that," Lewis said sternly as he regained his composure.

"Cliché. Very, very cliché," Winston said, relieved that the ordeal was over.

"Hey, shut up. You saved my life so I won't slap you this time," Lewis chuckled.

The rest of the Demon's body melted into a pool of black slosh. Lewis leaned over and started sniffing.

"What the hell are you doing?" asked Winston.

"Come here. Does 'Sanctium' smell like bleach to you, or kitchen cleaner, or some kind of soap?"

"It smells like dead Demon, and no, I'm not sniffing it. Trying to work out the secret recipe?"

"Yeah. This might help my theories. The Trinity say examined Sanctium rounds are rendered inert to prevent anyone else getting the formula, but that won't apply to spent rounds, will it? I'll gather some of this prick's remains and you search for the Artefact."

The Demon Overlord's remains fizzled into nothingness and the room began to spin with a sickening speed. Both Book Wielders held their hands to their mouths and fell to their knees as the fabric of the Gloom was altered around them.

Suddenly they were on the top floor of a derelict looking World G.O.V.T building with murky window panes, and dusty desks sporting rusty old typewriters in lieu of computers. The whole place was lit by a glowing white feathered quill that fell into Winston's hand; it was the artefact.

      
"Looks like those theories are going to have to wait for another time," said Winston as he walked towards the remains of his predecessor that were now slumped ungracefully on a desk top.

"Yeah," sighed Lewis. “Well, mission accomplished. Now let's get out of here. Don't forget about the energy potion." Lewis retrieved his vial and downed the contents in one hit.

"One second." Winston struck his lighter and cremated the old Book Wielder's remains as he drunk his potion. It tasted sweet and sugary, and put the spark back to his worn out body and mind.

Using the quill as a source of illumination, the two Book Wielders left the building via the staircase, as the enchanted elevator had also vanished when the Demon Overlord had died. All other evidence of Demon habitation was also gone; the Overlord had woven all of what they had seen previously into existence. The building looked just like all of the others in the Gloom. Even all of the damage caused before and after their arrival was no longer evident. They travelled in silence until they reached the grisly statues where they had first met.