Dawn of the Void - Chapter 140: We have to fight

James didn’t hesitate. He braided ten Heavenly Assaults together and dropped them on the child-like demon.

But in the flicker-flash second before the hugely twined lightning bolt fell, he saw the demon grin, its face suddenly becoming horribly animated, and it disappeared.

The Heavenly Assaults exploded down immediately thereafter, thick as a block to strike at the distant ground and send a shockwave of holy energy blasting forth in every direction. Obsidian elementals collapsed, demons ashed, and it the far distance James saw more levels of higher ranked demons come to life in response.

“He got away,” growled James. “Damn it.”

“Teleportation should be only our trick,” said Yadriel, standing on his Wing to peer into the distance over the demon army. “I think I see him back there. All the way at the back again.”

“Waiting for his turn, I guess.” James frowned. “Fuck. Fuck!”

“He was lying.” Serenity tried to sound careless. “Demons lie. That’s what they do. So there’s no need to let him under your skin.”

Nobody spoke for a spell.

James, Jason and Miriam have stopped making the sex. We’re coming now.

James snorted.

“What?” asked Serenity.

“At least some of us are still having fun. Never mind. Not important.”

“So what we gonna do, yo?” Yadriel ran his hand over his frizzy hair. “We gonna start killing demons? Feels kinda… I mean, not pointless, but less fun now.”

“Yah,” said Olaf. “Like we are performing on stage for audience full of sick fucks.”

“I know.” James tapped the Wing’s handlebar. “We’re gonna talk with the others first. They’ll be here soon.”

The battle raged on below. There were enough Host Angels now that they filled entire square miles, those in the back waiting to get close enough to loose their arrows.

“You know what? We’re not waiting. Come on.” James opened a teleportation circle. Fortuna Aeviternum saved him the point. He led the others through and they appeared in above the bailey. The others were getting ready to leave, Jelly bobbing about as Jason and Miriam got on their Wings, both of them looking raw and refreshed. Kerim and Denzel were talking with Jessica, but broke off at their arrival.

First James looked up, though; the air above the castle was woven with huge ribbons of blue light, each as wide as a tennis court, a thatching of pure divine power that emanated from the lensrooms. Each tower top was now filled with revolving spheres of gold and silver, light passing through the lens walls to become the bands of blue.

“James!” Jessica sounded elated. “I managed to hack the system. This was only supposed to come online at Level 15, which, delightfully, was called Burnrot. I decided to jump us ahead on the schedule – what’s wrong?”

James swung a leg over his Wing and dropped to the bailey alongside Kerim and Denzel. “We had ourselves a chat with the demon boss. The guy we’re supposed to face on Level 18.”

“A chat?” asked Kerim. “How so?”

“He approached us. Anyway. I want a team meeting. Let’s grab a drink and chat.” James activated his demiplane and the bar’s front door appeared.

Denzel glanced worriedly at the walls. “Shouldn’t we stay here to make sure the castle’s not overrun?”

“Fuck the castle,” said Serenity, opening the door. “I need a drink.”

They filed inside, James going last, but before he closed the door he paused. “Hey Jelly?”

Yeah, boss?

Stay out here and make sure nothing goes wrong.

Just me?

You and the Castrum.

I… all right, boss. You got it.

James closed the door firmly. The others had already grabbed stools and high tops. It was clear they were waiting on him. James rounded the bar and set about pouring drinks. His emotions were bubbling, roiling, his anger soured by a deeper humiliation and rage. When finally the drinks were served he crossed his arms and leaned back.

“What did the demon say?” asked Jessica, her Omni bobbing in the air.

James told her, kept his report terse and clear.

“Fuck,” said Denzel. “We ain’t supposed to make it to the last level?”

Kerim raised a hand. “First, we know not to trust everything the demons say implicitly, but second, does this all not seem rather… extravagant a means of selecting a single individual out of eight billion?”

“We can’t guess what they really want or why,” said James. “But there’s one thing I do believe. We’ve not really surprised them yet. I thought I’d been all smart by using the Light Eternal the way I did, but the demons allowed from the get-go that it was a possibility I’d figure that out. And I believe them. It’s not a cheat if it’s a possibility baked into the system. We just availed ourselves of it and got ahead.”

“Did we actually get ahead?” asked Serenity. “Think about it: it’s like we just fast forwarded a movie, that’s all. Billions died, the Pits opened early, and we’re just rushing through these levels till we reach Lord of Increate difficulty.”

“Yeah,” said Yadriel. “Which apparently starts on Level 19. The Obelisk of Pooh Bear.”

“What?” Jason frowned at him. “You’re kidding.”

“Scout’s honor, yo.”

“Wasn’t Pooh Bear,” said Serenity. Then she relented. “But close enough.”

“Fact is,” continued James, “we’re still doing what they want. Fighting. Using our wits to get ahead. Going down into The Pit. When Jessica told me earlier that they’d changed the cycle time from twenty-four hours to six, I thought that meant we had them on their heels. But I was wrong. They were just turning up the heat to keep things interesting. We’ve still not broken free of their plans.”

Everybody sank into contemplative silence.

“Then…?” Miriam looked around. “What can we do? Not fight?”

“We have to fight.” Jason sounded completely assured. “If we don’t, the demons will come out of the Pit and kill the few folks that are left. We have to reach the bottom of the Pit. What choice do we have?”

“Demon dude said only James gets to reach the Pastures of New Hope,” said Yadriel morosely. “Or just one of us do, at any rate. Sounds like we gonna start dying when we meet Pooh Bear, and we only got the one Resurrection left till we reset.”

“Then we wait until Earth Dawn,” said Jason. “Easy. Three resurrections back like that.”

“What are you thinking, James?” Serenity’s tone was soft. “What should we do?”

Everyone oriented on him.

James checked the countdown timer. “Thirty minutes till we win this first round.”

“I did some math,” said Jessica. “The demon army perimeter is about seven miles away from the castle. That’s 476,838,473 square yards.”

Serenity clapped. “Well done! Now can you tell us the volume of a glass of water or something?”

“The point being,” said Jessica irritatedly, “that I figure a single Host Angel takes up about a square yard. That means there’s a spatial cap on how many can manifest in this area.”

“So?” Yadriel looked confused. “Not like we’re gonna hit a cool five hundred mil any time soon.”

“Wrong. Exponential growth means we’ll probably hit it within the next hour. That means the enter desert around the castle will be literally filled with angels. Those that manifest thereafter will appear atop their fellows. Soon our Host Angels will be dying under their own weight.”

Everybody stared at the Omni.

“That’s sick, yo,” said Yadriel.

“Can we dismiss them?” asked Miriam.

“The angels aren’t our problem,” said James, then paused.

And stared at the back wall. The back wall whose face was shattered and riven with cracks like a stepped on mirror. “Actually.”

“Actually what?” asked Serenity.

“The only time I feel like we did something really unexpected was when I followed the Host Angel out. The guy dropped his saintly act and threw me back in here in a panic. Remember how I saw all the layers arranged vertically, and those helix-like support pathways that ran down around them?”

Kerim smiled. “Are you suggesting an illicit shortcut, James?”

“But who would that work?” Jason tossed the last of his drink back and set the glass aside. “We – what? Force our way into this… angel space? And then fight our way down to the bottom? We fight the angels?”

“Aren’t the angels on our side?” asked Miriam.

“No,” said James and Serenity at the same time.

“Only we are on our side,” continued James. “The angels are tools. They’re supposed to serve us, but the Host Angel told me that ‘We are all slaves to exigencies.’ They’re being used, too. We’re supposed to be our allies, but…” He shook his head slowly. “Nothing, absolutely nothing that comes from this system is on our side.”

“Yeah right,” said Denzel. “Jelly wants a word with you.”

James frowned down at the bar.

“Where Jelly at?” Denzel looked around. “Oh. You kept him outside?”

“The demon said nothing we could do could surprise him.” James looked up from under his brows. “Why is that?”

“You think Jelly is a spy?!” Even Serenity seemed shocked.

“Where did Jelly come from? What was used to make him?” James looked around his crew and finally stared at Jessica. “We keep making the mistake of believing what we’re told. Accepting that these powers are really ours. That there’s a chance for us to all win. That we have allies and enemies. The truth of it is that everything that’s not human is an enemy. That even our powers are suspect. Angels, demons, Animuses, everything that comes from them is against us.”

“Damn, dawg.” Yadriel made a face. “That’s intense. I like Jelly.”

“I like him, too. I like him a lot.” James rubbed at his face. “But you telling me we can bet humanity’ survival on his truly being on our side?”

“What about me?” Jessica sounded distressed. “I feel myself inside this vessel, but are you saying I shouldn’t be here, either…?”

James frowned at the Omni. “I don’t know. Can the demons listen in on our communications inside this demiplane? Or tap your own thoughts as they stream back to Earth? Is anything or anywhere private? I’ve no idea. But until we start getting appropriately paranoid we’ll keep playing into their hands.”

“Shit.” Jason rubbed his hand over his brow. “This is getting… fucked. So what are you saying? What do we do next?”

“I think we need to flip the table for real.” James raised his glass of whiskey, went to sip, lowered it back down. “We thought we had, but we didn’t go far enough. I say we break into the angel realm and fight our way down to the bottom that way.”

“How we gonna fight angels?” asked Denzel. “All our powers are fueled by divine stuff.”

“Dark Energy Siphon and Infernum Reaper can fill us up with demonic power,” said James. “Then we use Demonic Form to fight any angels that try to stop us.”

Everybody digested this.

Olaf hesitated. “So we fight… angels… to get to the bottom of hell? What happens if we call our Virtues?”

“Are Virtues angels?” asked Denzel.

“I don’t think any of us can make a categorical ruling,” said Kerim, “but according to James’s logic – to which I am willing to subscribe – they are tools of the enemy regardless. But seeing as we would need to use some manner of tool to defeat the angels, invoking our Virtues could be a desperate last measure.”

James nodded. “Several of our Miracles should still prove effective. Word of Slaughter, Forced Humility, Banishment, Resurrection, Freedom…”

“Invisibility,” added Serenity. “Flight.”

“What about Divine Bastion?” asked Denzel. “I’ve not had a chance to use it yet.”

“Don’t know.” James rubbed his eyes. “I guess we’d need to go finding out. But that’s what I’m suggesting. We head out there now, get as much Infernum as we can, then enter the angelic realm and make a mess.”

“And how do we get back in?” asked Serenity. “You drop the demiplane on another portal?”

“No, that would be too public.” James considered. “We need to sneak in, not shoulder our way past a crowd of millions of angels. I’m thinking…” His gaze moved around the bar and settled on the back wall. “There.”

Everyone twisted around.

“Where?” asked Serenity.

“Why did only the back wall crack and now the whole place?” James walked out from behind the bar, approached the rear, then reached out to run his fingers over the warped surface. “I don’t. I got a hunch we can blow this open and maybe… yeah. Find a way out.”

“Or the whole place explodes and collapses into a black hole,” said Jason sarcastically. “That’s not an actionable plan, James.”

“I think it is.” He pressed his palm flat on the shattered wall and closed his eyes. “Or.” He turned and looked back at the others. “There’s an even better way.” He suddenly grinned. “And a much easier way. Teleport there. I can go wherever I’ve been, right? Well I’ve been there. So we come here and I teleport us there. Done.”

“Better,” grinned Jason.

Denzel rubbed at his brow. “This still feels wrong. Fighting the angels.”

“Better than fighting our way down past Pooh Bear,” said Yadriel. “For real, that demon kid weren’t playing. We gotta zig right now instead of zagging.”

James looked to Serenity. She was frowning, brow furrowed, but met his gaze. For a moment they simply connected, and then she gave a slow nod. “I agree with James. We have to change this up. And I can’t think of a better way to do it then to run a fire drill on the angel dimension.”

“A fire drill?” asked Kerim. “Fire drills involve getting everybody out. We’re going in.”

“Nope,” said Serenity. “Because what’s better than fighting angels than avoiding them altogether? We summon everyone – Dominions down – and then we teleport in. We’ll have a brief period while they clear out the remaining demons here, and while they’re fighting we get the hell down to the final floor.”

“I like it,” said James. “Anybody got any questions? Or final thoughts?”

Nobody spoke.

James began walking to the front door. “Then let’s do it.”