AllFreeNovel
Share Us
An obscure figure approached from the horizon, donned in a red-tinted, steel armor suit and a helmet with three pointed prongs that curled back over his head. Two menacing eyes glowed bright from the depths of the steel mask concealing his face.
“Hello, Grandfather,” I muttered.
Black, horned wings emerged from behind him, and he took flight. A darkness rolled in, swallowing the overcast sky. From the palm of his steel-clad hand, he shot a red flame toward me, and when it grazed my leg, an intense pain struck my shin. I looked down to see a deep gash that’d seared my leather trousers, and as if the flame carried some corrosive acid in it, the pain sank to the level of my bones.
Gritting my teeth, I volleyed a bolt of lightning that struck his armor. His body convulsed in it, as the electricity danced over the metal, and his eyes glowed redder than before. On a growl, he shot across the sky toward me.
I bolted toward him.
We clashed midair on a blast of white lightning and flames.
I let out a growl as the pain washed over me in the brawl. He dug his metal claws into my flesh, and I shot another jolt of electricity over his suit. The two of us tumbled through the sky, the world spinning in my periphery too fast to discern whether I was up or down. I only knew that to release my hold on him would be my demise.
I threw my palm against his stomach, and a bolt of lightning tore a hole clear through his body. He let out a roar of fury and gripped my skull with both hands. A high-pitched sound rattled inside of my skull, one so debilitating, I fell into convulsions.
My stomach went light, and seconds later, a force slammed into my spine, as I crashed to the ground on a sickening crack. The pitch heightened, and I lay on the ground, curling into myself, writhing from the intensity.
Letifer strode up to me, looming over me like a dark cloud, but the sound had affected my vision and I could only keep focused on his steel boots planted alongside me.
“I will imprison you, just as I did your father. I will tie you to my heart. So that, should it be destroyed, you will perish with it.”
66
VASZHAGO
The corridor stretched on in what seemed like an eternity, as Vaszhago strode back toward the beginning with Farryn hoisted over his shoulder and Letifer’s heart tucked in his palm. The boy followed behind, carrying a lantern that lit the way, though Vaszhago could’ve easily seen through the darkness.
Sounds reached his ear. Feet pattering against the concrete. He upped his pace, and came to a stop alongside a door. Figures emerged around the corner ahead of him. Some Mortunath, others creatures he hadn’t yet encountered. Ones that had bony legs, like a spider with a skull head and fangs. On a painful shriek, they bounded toward the three of them.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered, and ducked into the room beside them, looking around to find they were in the prison that Jericho had sprung him from weeks before.
The platform stood off toward the center of the room and, beyond it, levels upon levels of cells. Ogre-sized demons stepped around the platform, jagged teeth bared in threat.
“Fuck me.” After gently lowering Farryn to the floor, Vaszhago rubbed a hand down his face and shook his head, handing the heart to the boy. “Watch this. Keep it safe. And should anything come near you, scream as loud as you can, okay?”
The boy took the heart into his hands and gave a nod.
“I need you to watch her. Guard her, yeah?”
He nodded again, and Vaszhago rose to his feet, turning to face the demons whose eyes glowed a menacing red. “This shit is getting old.” He held out his hands, sending a blast of his paralyzing power toward them, but the place had taken its toll. Weakness consumed his muscles, his powers draining. Blade at the ready, he unfurled his wings and flew up into the air. With quick strikes, he stabbed the giants in the skull, one by one. As each exploded into a crumble of dust, the platform shot upward, and Vaszhago frowned as he watched it slowly lower back down to the ground.
More demons piled out of it.
A scream echoed from behind him, and he snapped his attention toward the boy. Looming over him was the heavyset clergyman he’d seen back in the room where Jericho had been tortured.
“Hey!” Vaszhago yelled, holding out his palm to keep the demons away.
The man wrenched the heart from the boy’s hands.
As Vaszhago turned, raising his hand to stop the man from slipping through the door, a force struck him from behind, kicking him forward.
He spun back around to the nearly two-dozen demons practically foaming at the mouth to get to him. With both hands stretched outward, his powers fading fast, he made his way back to Farryn and the boy.
The old man scampered out of the room.
On a roar of frustration, Vaszhago hoisted Farryn over his shoulder and followed after the clergyman, back out into the corridor. The boy stayed at his heels, as Vaszhago rounded the stony-gray corner for the next door. Just past it stood more of the Mortunath, clustered together. He threw out a shaky hand, struggling to hold them back, and followed the boy into the room. A hallway stood lined with tall, open-arched windows, like those found in a church. Beyond the arches, the Mortunath growled and screeched in the courtyard below.
Thousands of them.
