Darned to Heck

Reappear

"Uh-hh-um..." I stammered as the shadow creature suddenly vanished and reappeared thirty centimetres from my face. I instantly regretted not listening to Azeolar as the realisation of this thing's true power crushed me like a fifty foot wave. I stared right into it as it towered above me, it seemed as solid as rock but moved constantly, like a liquid that was somehow trapped within itself. Scientists would sure have a hard time classifying whatever it was made of.

It tilted its head in the same curious way it had before and once again every emotion was sucked right out of me. I choked back tears as it felt like it stole every breath I had ever taken and then became still. Unable to think, unable to move as its shadow dragged me into a never ending night.

I watched silently as it reached out to me with its makeshift arm and produced a familiar piece of rock. Balancing it on its palm gently it tilted its head the opposite way and slowly pushed its palm and the rock against my chest. Expecting to feel pain from its rough edges I closed my eyes, but the pain never came. Instead all I felt was warmth. As the demon pressed harder the warmth grew and tingled, spreading out from my chest and over my skin like static. The sensation ran and danced through my veins until finally I couldn't feel the rock against my skin at all. From what I could tell the little piece had dissolved right into me. The buzzing in my skin rippled up my body and my ears started ringing. My bones locked and my muscles became rigid and I fell backwards into the wall without a sound. Falling deeper and deeper every thought became silent and I dissolved, loosing every part of myself to the rock.

I took in a breath, and suddenly I was out.

Sat once again on the high tower of rock where I had started, and once again the shadow creature stood, watching me intently.

That. Was the single most insane thing I have ever done. The voice of Azeolar resonated around my consciousness as I blinked in amazement.

"How the hell....?" Was all I could say. The shadow creature hummed ecstatically and booped its head up and down like it was dancing or something.

"My life is a mess." I concluded as I rubbed my eyes, there was no logical explanation for how I had been transported literally miles in less than a second. And right now I was too out of it to try and think of one.

Azeolar... I thought

Yes?

What the hell just happened?

The only way I can think to explain it is... you became rock. You dematerialised into the wall in one place, and reformed out of the rock in another. This is a powerful gift Allie, you can go anywhere, anywhere in the demon realm. In any realm where there is rock. You can transport between the layers of reality. You can transcend what is possible and become anything, anywhere.

...Dang.

Indeed.

I turned back to the shadow creature that was still doing some form of victory dance and smiled at it. "Thank you." I said simply. The creature stopped dancing and bowed its head deeply; it seemed to be filled with both joy and relief. And I felt that it had waited for a very long time to give somebody that little piece of rock.

I leant my head back and let the feeling of the rock consume me once more. I had places to go, and there was one place in particular where I felt my wonderful presence had been absent for far too long.

___________________________________________________________

~Belphegor~

"Rasarius I expect your soldiers to be ready to fight before the morning bell. Develius, you must have the shadow riders in position by dusk and Atar, if your runners have not found some trace of Allison in the next twenty minutes I will behead you."

"Yes Sir!" the three generals chanted in union. The clank of armour sounded loudly as three hands rose in a sharp simultaneous salute.

"Now get out of my sight."

The three generals bowed stiffly and marched from the room as my Father rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Imbeciles." He muttered quietly before turning back to us. Asmodeus had returned immediately upon hearing of Allie's disappearance, and in the three weeks that she had been gone my Father had prepared almost every soldier in the underworld to fight.

He was to launch the most ferocious attack on Heaven that either world had witnessed in untold centuries. And at the heart of it all was one girl. One girl that had been stolen by the Angels for no reason other than that they feared her powers. I wondered whether they were aware of what they had started, and came to the conclusion that they would not know the meaning of the word 'fear' until they had seen what my Father had planned for them.

"I'm sure that I do not have to tell you what I expect from you. What the Angels have done is unforgivable. If you have to give your life then so be it, it goes without saying however that if you do you will not be honoured in death. As I have trained you to be above death, and any one of you that dies by the hand of an Angel has not only failed me, but also themselves."

I nodded in agreement with my brothers who sat around the table with me. Tensions had been running high between us since the disappearance of Allie, but I knew that when the time came to fight, we were prepared enough as a team to decimate even the most elite of Angels. We were a weapon that my Father had been crafting since birth. And we would stop at nothing to return what had been taken from us. Even their God could not save them if they had killed Allie. And the fire that my Father had bred into us almost hoped that they had so that I could unleash the true power of my rage without restraint.

"Leave now, there is little time left and you must ensure you are ready." My Father turned away from us and walked over to the large window that looked out upon his kingdom.

"Yes Sir!" we echoed the words of the generals before us and rose simultaneously from our seats. Turning to leave I saw something out of the corner of my eye which caused me to stop mid step. Lucifer's sharp eyes watched me and I could sense his curiosity as to why I had, before he sensed it too. Something was approaching, something incredibly powerful and unknown. Within an instant every demon in the room was on edge, ready to fight whatever it was that made the air settle heavy and cold around us.

My Father spun back to face us just in time to see the table at which we had been previously sat shimmer and ripple like the deep dark waters of a lake. And out of the table grew a shape that swirled and undulated in such a deep black that it looked as though it had no substance at all. From this shape a form melted into reality that was at once strangely familiar and at the same time completely unknown.

The still form lay on its back in the centre of the table and became more and more familiar the longer I looked at it. As slowly as an autumn leaf falling from a tree the realisation dawned on me, and I stumbled back from the table, nearly tripping over my own feet in surprise.

The shape sat up suddenly and drew in a sharp breath. The rock melted away and there sat Allie, choking in deep lungfuls of air like they were the first breaths she had ever taken. She coughed and laughed at the same time, before lying back on the table and drawing in another deep breath.

"It worked Azeolar!" she cried out incredulously before bursting into another fit of giggles. "It fucking worked!"