Darned to Heck

Prince of Wrath

My body reacted quicker than my mind as I instinctively dodged his first attack. My new muscles flexed with lightning speed, and combined with my heightened demon reactions I was on a par with my attacker. Or at least I thought I was.

Satan turned aggressively to strike at me, landing a solid blow in my shoulder. I felt the bone disintegrate on impact and a pained animalistic noise ripped between my teeth.

Leviathan and Asmodeus jumped up from their seats to protect me but were slammed back into them by an incredible unseen force. I saw the shock in their eyes as the voice of their father sliced into the minds of everyone in the room.

It is not your fight.

The words were harsh and unforgiving, leaving no room for disobedience. My head whipped back around to Satan, his eyes were lost in fury. I saw his muscles tense as he leapt towards me again, covering an unbelievable distance in less than a second. My eyes were sharp and focused, and I found that I could move my body quicker than I could have ever imagined was possible.

Clutching my injured arm I dodged again only to find that I had moved right into him as he predicted my movements. I quickly realised that this was not going to be like any fight I had been in before; this wasn't your regular schoolyard catfight. And I had no idea how to deal with my assailant. I kept trying to dodge him but he knew exactly what I was going to do almost before I did it. His millennia of experience had me stumbling away, dripping with blood, crippled in two of my four limbs and crying like an animal. All within minutes.

"STOP!" I screamed desperately as he came at me again, this time aiming for my chest. The fury in his eyes had dulled a little, and was replaced with regret as he collided with me. I coughed and spluttered, trying to clear the blood from my airways as I lay on the floor. It scattered around me like red rain, staining the thick carpet.

The blurred silhouette of Satan stood over me, my body was healing rapidly, but not quickly enough to keep up with the damage he was causing. I had to fight back.

I gritted my teeth and forced my body up from the floor. To my shock strange vindictive words began spilling from my mouth, words that I knew from somewhere deep inside but at the same time were completely new to me.

Seerath esch alta.  I breathed.

Instantly upon the last word leaving my tongue an indescribably sharp blade of rock shot up through the floor, smashing into the shocked figure of Satan before instantly melting back into nothingness. Its angry jagged edges had torn through the flesh of his arm, and in one hit had completely severed it from his body.

It landed with a dull thud a metre to his right.

With a shocked growl he jumped back as blade after blade of rough rock shot through the floor, impaling and battering him with unfeeling brutality. I didn't give him chance to avoid them let alone defend himself.

The words continued to tear their way out of my mouth, picking up pace and fluidity as I commanded the rock into its deadly attack. I stood, power from the rock seeping into my bones and healing me instantly. My eyes became completely black and I could not hear his protests. As his pace began to falter, mine sped up.

"Father!" he cried out as another sword of rock sliced into him, almost taking another arm.

But he wasn't listening; the devil's eyes were filled with a kind of sick glee as he watched the power surging from me. A power that could bring one of his own mighty sons to his knees, a power that could take over heaven and earth.

"Brothers!" Satan tried, because shit was really getting serious.

The Devil released the bond that had held the other six princes to their chairs throughout the fight and they sprung forward, darting in between the spikes like cats running through brambles. Belphegor and Beelzebub ran to Satan. The former easily lifted his brother onto his shoulders and leapt back to safety whilst Beelzebub deflected the relentless attacks I directed at the pair and retrieved the severed arm of his brother.

Mammon, Leviathan and Asmodeus ran towards me. Enraged beyond reason I turned my attention towards them, my brain could only perceive them as a threat despite the calming words they were sending to it.

I sent down my rage from above, raining hundreds of razor pointed arrowheads from the ceiling, slicing and piercing their clothes and bodies as well as continuing to spear them from beneath. Any normal demon would have been incapacitated in seconds but these were the Princes of Hell, and they weren't going down that easily.

Leviathan transformed into a hound without breaking step, the arrows glanced off his midnight black fur and he gained distance over his brothers, spurring forward on his great black paws. They danced and ran around me, occasionally I would hit them but they just became quicker and quicker, learning the pattern of my indelicate strategies with each hit I sent towards them. They had been schooled in fighting and their experience outweighed mine dramatically.

In the time I had been attacking the three brothers Lucifer had drifted silently behind me.

"Sleep." He whispered gently in my ear. My brain shut off and I collapsed into his waiting arms.