Helena could only watch helplessly as the last light faded from Acedia’s eyes. Her power was upon her, true magic sang at her command, and she couldn’t do anything.
The woman Acedia had saved burst into tears, refusing to let go of the body. “Why? Why? This can’t be right…” Aoi patted her on the back, whispering words just to keep her locked in the present. Behind her Camila was brooding. Stuck between fury and grief.
She wanted to join in. To wail and cry at the unfairness. But she was a magician. And she had so much to do. Grief could come later.
Six coins from her pouch. She grabbed the largest as quickly as she could. Then she pressed the bribe into Acedia’s hand. “Sanzu wo heiwa ni wataru,” she intoned, putting her power into the words. Death had many faces, and with this the one to see her friend off wouldn’t be the Christian guide back to hell, but a Shinigami.
Aoi looked up at her as the spell finished. “Helena…”
“She deserves a better chance,” Helena said as she stood. The corridor that the cultist had fled down was empty, but Helena felt the ritual forming down there. The fallen angel’s awakening, and a bigger spell. It seemed this group had not one but two trump cards for their defense. Clever.
Too bad it wouldn’t save them. “Aoi, you’ll need to create a barrier around the orphanage. I don’t think the battle will affect it, but I want to make certain.”
“Right,” Aoi replied. That removed the last weight from Helena’s shoulders. Aoi would handle things here.
Now she could let her rage run free.
She motioned to Camila as she strode down the corridor. “Let’s end this then.”
The jiang-shi woman’s eyes cleared and Camila moved beside her. “Yeah.” She looked over. “What’s the plan?”
“You start with the fallen angel, I start with the cultists, whoever finishes first keeps killing until they’re all dead,” Helena said. She felt space twist around her and her left hand was bleeding miasma.
“Fallen angel? Didn’t you say Acedia won? That wasn’t a lie, right?”
“She wasn’t doing it purely for charity, but to scum self sacrifice is self sacrifice,” Helena said. “It will be weak. Poorly formed. Which is why they’re trying to send their ritual chamber to hell.”
Camila blinked, then snarled. “Fighting in hell? Guess I don’t need to worry about breaking stuff.” She wasn’t afraid. Good.
A stairway leading down appeared in the darkness. At the bottom were doors of iron, blasphemies and demonic figures inscribed on the front. Beyond them she felt the ritual approaching its peak.
She strode down the stairs, her own power flaring. “I’m tired of chasing.” The ritual began ripping reality apart as she placed her hand on the door. “This time I’m going to lead.” She threw the doors open as the spell completed. And with that she tore the strands of power that were transporting them to hell.
It was madness. There was no way the simple act of opening a door could give her the strength to take control of a ten person ritual. Especially not one that had been carefully crafted and designed over weeks of work. The best that she could hope for was to shatter the spell and send them all into the void between realities. Most likely she’d simply burn herself out trying.
But she didn’t care what reality thought.
If reality wanted to stop her she’d destroy it too!
This was true magic. The base rewriting of existence to her whims. Dangerous. Perhaps even mad. And it was all hers to command. Against all the rules of the universe, all the rules of magic, she tore control of the spell from the cultists. And with that control she gave a different command. “Go to Hades.”
And the spell obeyed.
The walls and ceiling disappeared. They were on an island in the middle of a dark cavern. More an oversized rock really. The waters of the Styx lapped at the shore behind her. And her new guests looked confused.
There were ten of them. All wearing robes or dark clothes, arranged in an uneven circle with their leader opposite Helena. And in the middle stood the fallen angel. A hideous monstrosity of flesh. Helena had to admit the nine foot tall, skinless, four armed horror with grisly wings would be fairly frightening, if it wasn’t going to die horribly.
It screamed a challenge at her and she felt it was only polite to reply. “Welcome to the Underworld. I’m afraid I’ve dropped you off in the Styx, but Lord Hades gets annoyed when we have magical duels among his pomegranate bushes. Please take a good look around, because you’ll be here forever.” The curses around her swirled and laughed in approval as she threw her arms wide and proclaimed, “I am Helena Aoede, the Curse Gunner. Rue the miserable fate that made me your enemy.”
The cult leader took a step forward. “So be it. I am-“
“No one of importance,” Helena snapped. She thrust her left hand forwards and unleashed all the rage and hatred that had been building there. “Emma’s Tongs.” The curse rushed forwards, shattering the woman’s wards and ripped out her tongue.
The woman collapsed to the ground gurgling her death cry.
As the humans shrank back, the fallen angel screamed again and rushed forwards. Then with a meaty crack Camila was in front of it, kicking it in its horrific face. “Don’t know what part of Acedia you stole to start running around on your own,” Camila hissed. “But I’m gonna tear it right out of you!”
Helena flung her hands to either side. Two bullets laced with clumsiness curses flew out and slammed into the cultists that were closest to her. A man and a woman she noted. The man to her left was blown head over heels, the rage fueled shot killing him before he even hit the water. The woman’s defenses kept her from being killed instantly, but as she stepped back, the curse caused her to slip. She screamed as she fell into the waters of the Styx and sank. The water here did not let humans float.
She staggered as a wave of fatigue hit her. The rage that had been driving her on cooled, and the tempting madness of true magic slipped beyond her grasp. She’d been pushing her limits as a magician, and she’d reached them. Now she could only rely on her natural power and skill.
Camila on the other hand seemed to be only getting stronger. She was weaving in between the fallen angel’s brutal swings, responding to each one with a blow that made the beast stagger. Already one of its twisted wings was broken, hanging limply from its back.
Helena focused her attention back on the cultists. There were seven. One was cowering and praying, though Helena wondered who he expected to help him. Two had drawn knives and were slowly moving forwards. Four were chanting attack spells, and that was a problem. She couldn’t disrupt four spells at once.
With a quick jump she took to the sky, shooting up before janking to the side. Two hellfire blasts missed, while the death curses reaching for her clawed futilely at her protections before succumbing to her will. She used the time she’d bought to craft a second shield, calling upon the guardians of the underworld to protect her.
One of the knife wielders crouched then dashed forwards. Helena dodged upwards, but the woman juked towards Camila. “Behind!” she yelled to her friend. They were going for her talisman again. The first attempt would fail but after that…
There was a snap and a scream as the cultist’s hand smashed into one of Camila’s green energy shields. “Seen it,” Camila sneered, before grabbing the woman and dodging away from the fallen angel’s swing. “This is what you wanted me to do to everyone in that city,” the jiang-shi said before dragging the struggling woman in front of her and draining her chi.
A barrage of bloody blades slamming into her defensive spell forced Helena to pay attention to her own fight. She reinforced them right before a second barrage shattered the shield.
The surviving knife wielder leaped towards her, giving her the opportunity she needed. Helena channeled magic into her body, strengthening herself. As the man stabbed at her she caught his wrist and squeezed. Bone shattered and the knife fell out of his limp hands. She spun around and flung the screaming man into his ally’s hellfire blasts.
She felt something flying towards her and dodged just in time to avoid being hit by Camila’s flying body. The woman regained control a few feet back, grimacing. “Stupid magic ran out,” Camila snarled. That explained it. The woman’s arms and legs were locked again.
“Need help?” she asked as she started forming another shield.
“Nah. Been practicing fighting like a corpse,” Camila said before swooping back into the battle with the fallen angel.
Helena turned back to her own foes just as they launched another wave of spells at her. She dodged to the side, but the bloody bullets homed in on her, breaking her shield again. The cultists had paired up. The one in front shielding while the one behind shot at her. They wanted to make this an endurance test.
Fine. Here in Hades’ realm she had endurance to spare. She didn’t want to waste her last trump card. She would need it for the demon.
She rushed into the homing bullets as she reached into her pouch for a vial of quicksilver. Three of the daggers slammed into her personal wards, tearing her dress and leaving a bloody line down her cheek, but that bought her time. She summoned up another shield with her right hand, while shattering the vial with her left. Two orbs of silvery metal appeared next to her and began spraying the cultists with poison bullets.
The weak attacks couldn’t break the defensive spells, but it pinned the cultists maintaining them down. In response the two cultists on the offense began pelting her with more powerful aimed attacks, sacrificing sure hits for killing power.
Helena dodged and weaved through hellfire and blasts of dark energy that screamed like the damned. She’d trained for years as a kid for duels like this, and while her enemy’s attacks were meant to kill instead of merely sting, they weren’t nearly as good at it as her tutors. This battle would continue until someone made a mistake.
A horrific snapping sound and an inhuman scream made the shielding cultist on the left turn, and Helena pounced. She grabbed a sliver of amber and hurled it at the woman behind.
With a blinding flash and roar lightning blasted through the half formed shield into the woman’s chest, leaving her dead on the ground. The man threw his hands up in shock, but the poisoned mercury darts struck him. He fell, convulsing.
Heat grazed her arm and she hissed in annoyance. She’d stopped dodging and been rewarded with a fireblast for her mistake. But it didn’t matter now. Two against one was no contest. She flew away, while turning both streams of mercury bullets on the remaining two cultists. They hunkered down against her assault. She turned to see how Camila was faring with the seconds she’d bought.
Her jaw nearly dropped when she saw the state of the fallen angel. Even if the thing wasn’t properly finished, it was strong. Capable of smashing through city walls and slaughtering armies.
Camila was tearing it apart bit by bit. Both wings were tattered bloody masses, it was missing a horn, and two of its hands were broken. The creature was kneeling now, its left leg twisted, knee shattered.
As she looked on, Camila swooped in again. The creature lashed out but its hands hit her walls. The fallen angel punched through, but Camila just accepted the hit. Then she grabbed one of the arms with her hands and pulled.
Helena heard the joint snap and turned away as the creature screamed again. Camila had things handled. She should finish her own fight.
The two cultists broke apart just as she looked back at them. Her mercury bullets splashed against the rock as they ran along the edge of the island, each preparing an attack.
A nice try, but futile. She snuffed the weaker man’s curse, while firing another tripping bullet at the man who threw a firebolt. His shot went wide as he fell screaming into the Styx.
The last cultist froze. He must be panicking. He was trapped after all.
Helena didn’t give a damn. She pushed more magic into her metal orbs and slowly pinned him with the crossfire.
There was another ear piercing scream, a tearing sound, and then a grisly missile hit the cultist into the Styx before Helena could shoot him. She looked over to see Camila had ripped the fallen angel’s head off. The jiang-shi was covered in gore, but otherwise seemed fine.
“And that’s the end of that,” Helena moved to land.
She hit the ground awkwardly and stumbled a bit. A hand caught her and she waved Camila off. “I’m fine. Just a little tired.”
“Not too tired to get us home right?” the woman asked. A reasonable worry.
“It’s okay. The spell was always temporary. For us.” Helena took a deep breath and let the threads of the transportation spell unwind. The island on the River Styx faded away, replaced by a large ritual room. “Hades isn’t as picky about the outskirts of the underworld, so leaving is easy. If you’re still alive.”
Dead was another matter entirely. As those scum would find out when the Erinyes caught them.
Helena straightened up then leaned against Camila when she staggered. “Sorry. Guess I used up more magic than I thought.”
“Long fight,” Camila said quietly.
“Yes.” Helena looked to the door and the stairs beyond them. She knew what was waiting for her up there, and she didn’t really want to go. Camila seemed reluctant to move as well.
That all came to nothing though as a squad of armed men stormed down the stairs. “BAPD! Freeze!”
Helena and Camila both sighed. “Little late,” Camila muttered.
“Just in time to make our lives worse,” Helena replied.