His sword appears in his hand, and that stupid fucking gladiator uniform takes over as though he’s summoned it.
How the hell did he do that?
Why did he do that?
My weapon appears, though I still don’t know what has his hackles—
“It’s an illusion!” Ezekiel shouts from behind us, just as Gage spins and stabs the wall beside him.
The wall starts bleeding, and the walls begin to waver until the illusion shatters. I suck in a sharp breath when I notice we’re completely surrounded. We’re not in the hallways of the Heart, either. We’re inside a large, cavernous area full of soldiers in onyx, knight’s armor.
Jude flops down, the faux wall no longer propping him up, and his head slams into the scorched stone ground beneath us.
He grunts and groans, as we all look around at the hundreds and hundreds of soldiers packed into this place. Our circle is damn small, because there’s not much space between us and them.
“I picked the wrong night to get drunk,” Jude grumbles as he struggles to his feet, swaying as his scythe appears. “But I’m still good to kill a bunch of fools. So long as they’ll stop spinning.”
A man falls from the end of Gage’s sword, and writhes as he turns to ash.
“You picked the wrong guys to fuck with. Especially tonight,” Gage says as he smirks.
I twirl my triton, my own excitement growing. I have some frustration to work out, since we voted we couldn’t fuck Paca tonight.
Jude swings out his scythe, and the front row bend backwards in an unnatural, quick way dodging the blow.
Jude staggers as they just lift back up like one of those creepy demonic possession movies. Red and black smoke plumes around them with their movements, ceasing once they’re still again.
“The fuck?” Ezekiel asks as we back into each other.
“I don’t know what just happened, but that whole row should be a shriveled pile of ashes right now. Why isn’t my power working?” Jude gripes as he backs into us as well.
Gage swings out his sword, and the same thing happens. They dodge effortlessly, even as he strikes again, careful not to put too much distance between us.
He quickly backs into us as the red and black smoke reappear with their unnatural movements, the metal of their armor the only sound in the cavern.
“My power didn’t work either,” Gage says quietly. “Something’s not right,” he adds.
“Okay…so we physically fight our way through this. Should be simple enough. After all, it’s still Hell. Even I can feel that,” Jude says as he tosses the bottle down and twirls his scythe.
“No, don’t—”
Gage swallows his words as Jude launches a reckless strike, swinging the scythe over and over, until he’s sucked into the masses that close up on him.
I watch in horror as they run a spear through him before we can slice our way in his direction. We’re forced to leap over them when they duck and dodge our attacks.
I manage to slice through two, who turn to ash immediately, and land at Jude’s side as he chokes on his own blood, the spear sticking through him as he drops to his knees, gasping for air.
“The fucking hell is that thing?!” I snap, noticing they’re all armed with those spears that light up with that same red and black smoke that is now swirling through his middle.
“S-s-someone’s t-t-trying to break into my mind,” Jude gargles.
One of the soldiers steps forward, and they all militantly clear a path for him as he marches his way toward us.
Gage rips the spear out of Jude, who muffles a sound of pain, as the lone soldier comes to stand at attention in front of us.
“Surrender yourselves,” it says.
The voice sounds like it’s comprised of a thousand voices of varying pitches and tones that all echo around the massive cavern. The hair on my body all tries to rise at the same time, because this can’t be good.
“Surrender yourselves,” it says again when we stare ahead.
“Think this is Lucifer or hell-spawn?” Ezekiel asks quietly.
“Our powers have been stifled, so I’d say there’s a good chance,” I point out as I try and fail to use my own power.
Jude chokes up more blood, bleeding heavily.
“We need to get him the fuck out of here and to see a healer. Now,” Gage grinds out.
“Get drunk one time, and this shit happens,” Jude groans, even as he visibly fights through pain. “Something wants in my fucking head,” he goes on, while the nefarious smoke continues to plume from his wound.
“You can’t defeat me,” the chilling medley of voices continues. “I will rule. Surrender yourselves. Take my mark. Free me.”
That chill slithers all the way up my spine this time, and I swallow thickly.
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask in a hushed tone full of dread.
“Apocalypse will destroy the world. I will take their souls,” it goes on, only making that sick knot grow tighter. “Surrender yourselves.”
“I’m getting a little tired of hearing that. I’ll be damned if you get in my head,” Jude says through clenched teeth as he manages to stand, clutching his hand over the wound as he holds his scythe. “Even wounded and drunk, I’ll still hack them all to ash.”
As one, the entire set of soldiers lift their spears.
“I wish you’d shut up for a minute,” I state dryly, taking a steadying breath as I prepare to face a lot of those fucking spears.
“Yeah, I’m starting to see I’m only making it worse,” he confesses as he collapses to the ground.
“Jude!” Ezekiel shouts, stepping in front of him as we all surround him the best we can.
He’s motionless and defenseless, and all it took was one fucking spear.
“Surrender yourselves,” the voice says again as they all lift their spears higher in that same eerie unison.
“I’m guessing that means we become the same mindless drones on puppet strings as these guys,” I note, kicking at Jude and feeling better when he groans in pain.
At least he’s still alive.
“Don’t fucking surrender,” I tell him.
“I’m not that damn weak,” Death grumbles. “But kill them so I don’t have to fight so hard. It’s taking all my strength,” he confesses. “It’s trying to force me.”
“Don’t let those spears pierce you,” Gage says like that’s not obvious.
The first wave of spears come at us from all angles, and we all spin, batting them down as quickly as they fly in, and barely manage to stop them before the assault ends just as abruptly.
“Surrender yourselves. There is no other way. You will not win.”
“Then why come after us like you’re desperate to ensure we’re not a threat?” Ezekiel snaps.
“I don’t think our powers are stifled,” I tell them.
“You have no power. Surrender yourselves.”
“It sounds like we have to give up our free will on our own,” Gage says as we all try to think of some miraculous way to get out of this.
“What do you mean about our power, Kai?” Ezekiel asks me.
“We were designed to obliterate humans with human souls. These guys have no free will, since their souls have likely been surrendered, so War has no effect. They’re already deader than the denizens of Hell, or trapped in suspended animation, so Death had no reign. That smoke is some sort of disease infused with them, so it’s overpowering mine. And since they hunger for nothing in this state, famine is pointless,” I explain, glancing around for an alternative escape.
There are just too damn many of them.
“I won’t lose. Surrender yourselves,” it goes on like the broken fucking record it’s becoming.
The next strike of spears comes in twice the amount, and I narrowly dodge a few, and barely catch one before it hits Ezekiel in the back. It takes all I have to swing it and my triton around to block the next onslaught.
“This isn’t going to work for long!” Gage barks, cursing as we both dodge one that flies right between us and also misses Ezekiel by less than a centimeter.
Three of us were nearly speared at once. We’ll never last at this rate.
“You’re scared of Paca,” Jude bites out, wheezing through the pain now. “I can feel it.”
“You won’t win. Surrender or die.”
More spears appear in their hands, and they ready them again.
“Final warning. What is your decision?” it asks.
We hesitate, stalling, waiting for inspiration…
“Wrong decision,” it says as all the spears are launched at once.
My breath hisses out, my eyes widen, and I prepare myself for—
The spears slam into an invisible barrier of some sort, glancing off it and falling all around us. My gaze darts around as a familiar black ooze sprays all around, and red lightning crashes through the cavern right behind it.
The entire room booms and rattles as chains shoot up from the ground, and in a matter of minutes, a large chunk of the tin soldiers turn to pure ash.
“Wrong decision,” the voice says again as the rest vanish from the room, blinking out so quickly that it doesn’t even seem like a true siphon.
I spin, spotting Manella, along with a fully healed Pico. A freshly healed Caesar, who has two arms attached to his body, moves into view as well.
They’re silent as they stare at us, and Gage leans down with Ezekiel to lift Jude from the floor.
“Why’d you help us?” I ask them, readying myself for whatever retaliation they may have in store for the beating Paca delivered.
“They truly are still ungrateful little brats,” Pico drawls as he twirls his wand before it disappears from sight. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Manella yawns and stretches.
“Jahl breaching Hell with his fleet of dead, surrendered souls is old news. The cage weakens more daily. You should be more careful. Stay with your girlfriend instead of going off on your own, since you’re all still embarrassingly weak,” Caesar states in a flippant, bored tone as he picks lint off his shirt.
“If anything happens to you four weaklings, our very powerful, yet completely young-again sister, will blow everything to pieces. She doesn’t have much control,” Pico adds as he begins examining his nails.
“We didn’t realize this was even a fucking issue. Why wouldn’t someone warn us about this?” I snap.
“I meant to,” Manella says as he turns and starts walking away. “I forgot. It’ll take Death a few days to heal, and it’s going to be a long, miserable recovery,” he says as he disappears.
“Wait! What the fuck do we do?” Ezekiel calls to the Gemini Twins, as they turn to leave as well.
“There’s nothing you can do. He’ll have to heal organically, and fight the temptation to surrender,” Pico says as he looks over his shoulder, smiling as he does. “It’ll be pure agony. Tell Paca we saved the rest of you. Maybe you’ll learn your lesson now.”