Lord of Hell (Alex Holden) (21 page)

I shook my head again, tears falling. “What’s the point in anything if nothing we do matters?”

“It does matter. You spread far more good and kindness than you were supposed to.”

“But what does it matter if everyone’s going to die anyway?”

“It does matter.” It looked like he wanted to reach out to me, but he held back. “I wish I could make you see that.”

I opened my mouth for another denial, but a sob came out instead. I stood in front of an army of angels with the Apocalypse looming over us, and I cried. I rubbed my hand across my eyes, smearing tears all over my face. “So what would happen if I just gave up right now?” Because that’s what I felt like doing at that moment, with despair eating at me.

“Then the battle is over, and it all ends.”

“The world ends.”

“Yes,” he said. “It’s okay, Alex. We don’t have to fight. You can make that last choice to do something different. A peaceful end to the battle.”

A peaceful end. Where Jehovah would throw me and the rest of my army into a lake of fire. And the world would be destroyed. But… no. That wasn’t the only ending.
The Book of Truth
offered another ending: Hell wins. Satan and I rule over a broken, evil Earth. Except Satan was dead, which just left me. Me in charge of the world, and I could do whatever I wanted with it. I had one last chance, one last hope.

It just fucking sucked that Joshua had to be in the way. One friend or the whole world. There was really only one right choice.

“No,” I told him, trying to push my pain aside. Trying to summon the anger that had always come to me so easily. “Your father’s isn’t the only prophecy.”

His eyes went wide. “Alex, no!”

“I’ll give
you
the chance to surrender.” I grabbed Animus’s hilt but didn’t yet draw her. “Lay down your sword. Tell your army to surrender. And give us Jehovah.”

He took two steps back. “He was right about you.” He blinked and clenched his jaw. “He was
right!
” Joshua drew his sword and it shined with holy white light.

I drew Animus, her blade pulsing with red flame. “Then I guess we do this the hard way.” He wasn’t my friend anymore. I couldn’t think of him like that. He’d kill me if I gave him the chance, and I had to be willing to do the same.

We both brought our blades up and I tensed as they clashed against each other. It wasn’t the same as when Animus had connected with Jehovah’s sword. I wasn’t knocked flying. But the power of the weapons sent us stumbling back, fighting to keep our feet. Huge sparks flew.

I got my balance and sent a stream of fire into the air, signaling the attack. Just in case they hadn’t realized the battle had started.

“I trusted you,” Joshua said, coming in for another attack and I countered once, twice. Either his anger was making him sloppy, or he didn’t have much training with that sword. The problem was it was full of power. It might even be Jehovah’s own sword, just shrunk down to normal size. “But you’re just a demon. Evil.”

“I’m not the one who wants to destroy the world.” I shifted to the side to avoid another of his huge, swinging blows. “
That’s
fucking evil.”

“It’s destiny.” He clenched his teeth, his eyes narrowed as he came at me again.

I’d never seen him so angry. It was like he was a different person. That helped. “You’re so fucking blind. You’re such a fucking pawn.” I dodged, spun, slashed. Animus made a shallow cut along his right side. Joshua’s blood was red, like mine. I shook the thought away.

“You’re selfish and prideful. You think you know better than God.”

“He’s just
one
god, and he’s a fucking petty, piss-poor one.”

“Be gone from here, spawn of Hell.” He held up one hand, white light blazing from him.

Oh, shit. I called up my fire as fast as I could and flung it out. The two forces hit each other and some of it passed through. Holy light burned me, and I heard Joshua scream.

I stumbled back, but it wasn’t as bad as when the angels had all hit me at once. Joshua cradled his right hand, the one he’d held out toward me. He was barely holding his sword.

All around us, I heard the armies fighting. Screams, clashing weapons, war cries. But the area around us was empty, like everyone was giving us an arena. That might not last, and Joshua had left himself open. I could end this now.

I rushed him. He got his sword up just in time, but he didn’t have a good grip. I knocked it flying and didn’t turn to see where it landed. Just one quick motion and I could slice him in half. Chop off his head.

I took my left hand off Animus while Joshua was still realizing his weapon was gone. I punched him in the side of the head as hard as I dared.

Joshua crumpled.

Several angels cried out and ran toward their fallen leader. With my sword still in one hand, I grabbed Joshua with the other and shot into the air.

Mew-Mew, get behind the battle. I need you.
I spotted him not far away, tearing into angels. He broke off and rushed through the fight, into the pressing ranks of demons.

What is it?
He found a relatively open space in the midst of my vast army, well away from the fighting.

I landed next to him and ignored the gasps of the demons.
Take Joshua home.

Mew-Mew didn’t question me, just nodded and took the unconscious Christ from me. They winked out.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. A little tremor went through me.

“Spawn of Satan!” Thunder rumbled and the ground shook. The whole battlefield turned dark, lightning flashing overhead.

Jehovah appeared in the middle of the battlefield, and he wasn’t alone. Thousands of angels appeared with him, on the ground and in the sky. No, tens of thousands. So there was the rest of his army. Good, he wasn’t fucking around anymore.

I gripped Animus tightly. There was the old familiar anger. “Right here, asshole.” As if planning to destroy the world hadn’t pissed me off enough, he’d just sent his son, my
friend,
to fight me so he could fulfill his fucking prophecy.

We were gonna find out which ending was true.

“You cannot escape your fate. I will throw you into the lake of fire, where you will burn for all eternity.” He was twice as tall as the last time we’d fought. Just meant I’d have to jump higher or fly to kill him. His comment reminded me of the souls that had been suffering in Hell for no good reason.

And that only pissed me off more. “Try it!” I screamed.

I jumped off the ground, now a roiling dark gray, and flew straight at him. I dodged fighting angels, demons, Valkyries. Our armies were matched in size now. I hurled fire at him and he knocked it aside with his sword.

Jehovah laughed. “I am still amazed by your arrogance.”

There was a bright light, and pain flared through my whole body. I went tumbling from the sky, too hurt and confused to stop myself.

Someone caught me. I jerked to a stop with a grunt.

“Are you okay?” Hayley asked, sounding breathless.

Although I wasn’t, I said, “Yeah.” A rumble echoed across the battlefield and I made the connection. He must have hit me with a thunderbolt.

She carried me across the battle and set me down where it was relatively safe. “Idiot,” she said, glaring. “What were you thinking?”

“I have to kill him.” I took a few deep breaths, trying to shake off the effects of the lightning.

“But you don’t have to do it alone.”

“I need everyone else to hold off the angels while I go after Jehovah.” Especially now that he’d brought the rest of his army for the final battle.

Hayley smacked my arm. “You really are full of yourself sometimes. He’s kicked your ass twice now, just knocked you down like you were nothing. You think you’re gonna beat him on your own? He’ll kill you.”

“And you want to help me fight him? I gave you as much power as I could, but you can’t fight a god. You’ll just get killed.”

“Like you will? If you die fighting him alone, what do you think I’ll do?” Heat shimmered off her, the outline of it clear in the flashes of lightning. “I’ll attack him anyway. I’ll do everything I can to hurt him, and I’ll probably get killed.” There was that face again, making it clear she wasn’t going to back down.

I sighed. “God, you’re stubborn.”

Mew-Mew appeared.
Joshua is safe at home.
He glanced around.
What’s going on?

“Jehovah brought the rest of his army.” I looked at Hayley. “Let’s end this.”

Several gods were fighting Jehovah now. They’d grown in size, too, but were only half as big as him. This was his place of power, so he was at his strongest and the other gods were weakened. Odin and Kali rushed in for an attack. The Morrigan, in the shape of a giant crow, took out angels that tried to attack the gods. Set stood with his arms raised to the angry sky. I had no idea what he was doing until lightning shot down and suddenly forked, striking in the distance instead of whatever the target had been. He was blocking the lightning attacks.

Scattered around, I saw the other gods fighting angels that wore more elaborate armor than the others. Leaders of some kind, maybe archangels. Naamah was fighting one.

Astaroth appeared in front of me. “I will watch your back, my lord.” Just like with Valafar.

I nodded my thanks and launched into the air, Hayley beside me and Astaroth following right behind.

Jehovah, distracted by the gods, didn’t notice my approach. I kept one eye on him and the other on the fighting around me.

What I wanted to do was charge straight at him, put all my power into one attack, stab him through the heart like I’d stabbed Satan. But as much as rage gave me power, I had to think this through. What would give
us
the best chance of killing him?

Jehovah met Odin’s blade and pushed him back, turning to block Kali’s curved swords. It didn’t look easy for him to hold off two gods. Could I slip around behind him? Or… could I give them a better chance at stabbing him? It didn’t matter who killed him.

I grabbed Hayley’s hand and pulled her to a stop. We hovered in the air. “Hayley, ice,” I said, nodding toward the towering god.

“Freeze his legs?” she asked.

“Yeah.” There was so much moisture in the air from the angry storm clouds, it would be easy. “Together. One… two… three!”

Not quite as easy as I’d thought, but with both of us using our power, the ice spread quickly. It shot up from the clouds that were serving as a ground and wrapped around Jehovah’s feet. He tried to break out of it, but the ice spread up his legs to his waist.

He couldn’t dodge the next attack. Odin’s sword went deep into his side. Jehovah grunted and white light blazed. Odin was knocked back and the ice melted. Silver blood soaked into Jehovah’s white robe.

Kali took her chance and he just barely countered her attack. White light flared again and Kali screamed, stumbling back. Several angels broke through my warriors and swarmed Odin, forcing him away from Jehovah.

Jehovah fixed his gaze on me and pointed. “Bring him to me.”

Angels broke off their fights and turned toward me. First a few, then a dozen, then twice that. I brought Animus up, ready for an attack.

Hayley said, “I won’t let them take you.”

I lifted Animus and gathered energy for a huge blast of fire.

Then Astaroth stabbed me. In the back.

Literally.

***

The world lurched inside out and I was suddenly face-to-face with Jehovah. He grinned as Astaroth yanked out his sword, causing me to scream. I fell, but not far. Jehovah grabbed me in his huge fist, large enough to wrap around half my body. Like I was Fay Wray and he was King Kong. He squeezed.

I screamed again and lifted Animus. He hit me with his other hand, so hard it knocked me dizzy and I lost my grip. My sword fell, and he squeezed harder. I summoned fire to burn through his hand, but all I got was some heat. I tried harder, but it still didn’t work. The fire wouldn’t answer me. He was blocking it somehow. He squeezed even harder and things started snapping. My legs, my back, it felt like he was breaking everything. I tried to scream and all that came out was a ragged gasp.

“Thus it ends,” Jehovah said. The pressure let up, just a bit, as he lifted me. He turned his hand so I was facing the other direction. “I want you to see.”

At first all I saw was the two armies fighting, and I couldn’t tell who was winning, or if anyone was. Then I saw the hole opening in the ground, spreading wide. Under the hole in the clouds, far down, was a vast burning pit of lava. The lake of fire.

“No!”

Jehovah laughed and lifted me higher.

Something streaked through the air and Jehovah shouted in surprise and pain. He dropped me. I flapped my wings, pain shooting through me. My legs were crushed, my lower back was crushed, I had a stab wound in my back. It all hurt too much and I could barely slow myself down. I hit the ground, hard. For a moment my vision went dark and bright little spots danced in front of my eyes.

I forced myself to look up, to see what was happening. I got a glimpse of a winged figure on Jehovah’s chest and my own chest contracted with fear. Hayley. She pulled her sword out of his chest. With a growl, he knocked her aside.

“Hayley!”

She went flying into the chaos of the battle. I turned to see where she went, but the motion caused so much pain it made the edges of my vision black.

Alex! Get Animus,
Mew-Mew said.

Jehovah reached for me.

With my power, I reached out for my sword. She was eager and pissed as hell. I almost called her to me, but another thought flashed through my mind. My idea, or hers? I don’t know.

Now!

Jehovah stopped with his hand a few feet away and screamed as someone slammed into his chest. I didn’t have time to wonder who, I had to focus.

With a thought, I sent Animus streaking toward Jehovah. She blazed so bright it left a red line in my vision. She sank into his right eye. Jehovah screamed again, reaching for the wounded eye. I yanked Animus out and sent her through his other eye.

The person on his chest drew back. Not Hayley, but Semiazas. He didn’t have stunted little wings anymore, but huge feathered black ones. He flew out of the way as Jehovah started to fall.