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  Lilith was floating a few feet off the deck and was seconds away from liberating herself.

  That was enough time—I swung with all my might.

  "FUCK YOU!" I yelled, releasing all of that pent up energy.

  I brought the gargantuan sword around in a horizontal slash. Metal crunched beneath my feet from the pressure. Even the waves below were pushed backwards, rocking the entire ship to one side.

  Djinn's energy blade shot out, rocketing towards Lilith's screaming figure. My magic was stronger than I thought. The energy was so intense it was distorting space and time along its trajectory.

  The already immense energy met Gil's Magnet spell and multiplied. The resulting energy mass carried Lilith upwards and exploded violently. I was sent reeling backwards from the recoil of the spell, and the ship threatened to capsize.

  At the point of impact, a small vortex appeared and sucked everything in. A pillar of water rose up and exploded in a shower of rain. I stabbed my sword into the metal and held fast against the rocking ship. Another aftershock followed soon and created another explosion, leaving me momentarily blind and deafened.

  And then, suddenly, it was all over.

  The ship settled down, rocking gently. The waves were still upset and seawater rained down.

  The attack had distorted space and time on a massive scale. The sun began to peak—I must have sent us at least five hours forward in time.

  On the far horizon I saw the cruise ship, with its passengers still unaware of how close they came to being Lilith's personal buffet, and I exhaled in relief. It was always a good day when you prevented a massacre.

  My magical senses confirmed that Lilith—or Lust—had gone, with no trace of their presence left behind. All that was left was a blob of slime—ectoplasm, left in the wake of one of the most terrifying creatures to ever cross over to our plane.

  I gazed at the rising sun, the first peaks of daybreak, and laughed giddily.

  This was it. All that pain and suffering was over now. I had finally killed the Sin of Lust and now the world could breathe a sigh of relief.

  It was finally over… or so I thought.

  Chapter 24

  I felt familiar magic behind me and turned around. Standing—or rather, hovering—on the ship's deck was an astral projection of my sister. She looked exactly like a ghost, with an opaque form but otherwise behaved exactly like a normal human being.

  She called out to me. "Erik."

  "Gil, are you okay?" I asked.

  The apparition appeared tired but my sister nodded nonetheless. "Mephisto took me back to the pier. Was that you who shifted time?"

  "Yeah. Didn't mean to." I looked at my hands. They were still covered in shadows and underneath the swirling black I could still feel the sharpness of my claws and the power coursing within me.

  "What the hell is going on?" I asked.

  "I don't know. But we can figure it out later," she said. "For now, just keep calm and relax. It should dissipate naturally."

  "Good, ‘cause I’d hate to answer the door like this," I replied sarcastically.

  "I'd call it an improvement over your usual get up," came Amaymon's voice. The demon leapt from the ship’s funnel structure and landed heavily next to me.

  Then he sized me up. "You look different," he said. "Did you do something with your hair?"

  I heard myself laugh in a throaty, glottal voice that wasn't really mine.

  "Glad to see you too. Where'd you drop Abigail?" I asked him.

  "With her," he replied, pointing at the astral projection.

  "Please, don't touch me," Gil replied. "I don't have the strength to reform myself around physical objects."

  "That ain't the reason chicks don't let me touch them."

  "Why did you leave Abigail with her?" I asked.

  "Hey, I got jumped by angels," he replied defensively. "And as much as I don't like them, those clowns won't do anything rash. Besides, the girl is a liability on the battlefield."

  I glared at Gil.

  "We have no use for her, Erik," she replied placidly. "We'll keep her safe here. Mephisto is cloaking the entire area. You remember how good he is at hiding stuff."

  Yeah, I did. I shook my head, repressing that particular memory from my childhood. Sooner or later I was going to have to sit down and deal with all of that stuff.

  I chose later.

  "Fine," I said, waving a clawed hand at her. "But if you let anything happen to her, I'm holding you responsible. Am I clear?"

  "Careful, brother," she said in icy tones. "One might mistake your new appearance for a demon."

  It doesn't take a genius to decipher the threat underneath. Guess she wasn't above hunting family.

  "Bring it on, Gil," I replied. "I took your forces down once and I can do it again."

  "Remind me again why you guys don't got a sitcom on TV?" Amaymon said.

  My sister and I glared at each other one last time.

  "Just keep her safe, okay?" I finally said.

  "Fine. And you clean up after your mess, brother," she replied.

  "What mess?"

  She pointed behind me. "That one."

  I thought it was ectoplasm. I mean it looked like ectoplasm, felt like ectoplasm and behaved like ectoplasm.

  Only ectoplasm doesn't usually stick to ships like tar and converge in a disgusting, writhing puddle, like an enormous piece of jello. In the middle of the ectoplasmic mass I could distinctly see a face—Lilith's face.

  "No," she moaned. "No, my children, no."

  But whatever was inside of her tore her open and Lilith exploded into a million pieces. Then, like a terrible B-movie, each of those pieces grew larger, and larger, taking on a new shape. Soon the deck was filled with every demon, monster and nightmare imaginable.

  They came in all shapes and sizes: giant spiders with fangs on their faces, chiropteran demons flapping around like oversized bats, three-legged crows the size of an apartment block and canines of all sorts. Some even resembled werewolves, the Hollywood kind.

  But worst of all were the asmodaii. They were humanoid with abnormally thin and slender bodies, ranging between five and seven feet tall. They walked on two legs—and that was pretty much all they had in common with us. Their legs were reverse jointed, like a dog's, and their crooked arms ended in either claws or spikes or blades of sorts. Their leathery hides were dark grey in color, like exhaust fumes.

  Worst of all, the asmodaii had no faces; just heads with patches of black where a face should be. But they did have wide mouths, lined with rows of jagged teeth like a shark's.

  These were the foot soldiers of Hell: killing machines bred only for death and destruction.

  "It seems that your attack caused her to lose her ability to hold herself together," Gil said from behind me. "Now, every creature she can compose out of her remains will emerge." Then she gave me her 'I told you so' look. "I suspected this would happen. That's why you should have-"

  Amaymon swiped at the projection, scattering it. "I hate nags," he said with a shrug.

  I couldn't have agreed more.

  One of the monsters, a half-human half-serpent, thrashed about and flung the remaining chunks of Lilith's ectoplasm into the ocean. Not that I was complaining. There was a veritable horde on the ship now, more than enough for us to deal with. Maybe the running water would dissolve the rest of the ectoplasm.

  See? I can be optimistic.

  "What a merry bunch of monsters we have here." Mephisto's cold voice signaled his arrival and he landed gently beside me on the deck. "Master Gil sent me for backup," he explained.

  "You sure you don't wanna sit this one out, bro?" Amaymon hollered. "You ain't exactly the front line fighting type. And bitching behind their backs ain't gonna be much help."

  Mephisto snorted and offered his brother a condescending smile. "Sticks and stones may break my bones-”

  Amaymon ripped apart a sheet of metal and twisted it into a pipe, like a rolled up magazine. "You wanna te
st that theory?" he said sadistically.

  I slipped in between them and held my arms apart. "Hey, guys, we're surrounded by demons. Take your issues out on them.”

  There was a brief second where we all stood still. The only sounds were the crashing of waves against the sides of the ship, punctuated by the scratching of claws against the metal of the decks.

  They were sizing us up: two ancient demons and a wizard with mysterious powers.

  Three idiots facing an army of monsters numbering over fifty. I could see their muscles tensing and relaxing, ready to pounce on us. And if they did, it was sure to be a massacre.

  One of the asmodaii took a cautious step forwards and my power reacted. It wasn't my intention—the shadows seemed to have a mind of their own.

  A shadow tendril shot forwards and impaled the asmodaii. More tendrils branched out from the main one, shredding the monster. Then, just as quickly, the shadows retracted back into my body and there was silence once more.

  But the damage had been done, and less than a second later, war erupted.

  Chapter 25

  We rushed at the horde.

  Amaymon leapt high above the majority of the monsters, landing in their midst. That way he could take them out from the center. Mephisto took to the skies, felling aerial monsters in his wake. Their attacks, and the ship's construction, pushed the rest of the monsters in one direction—towards me.

  My body moved on its own and I found myself lunging forwards. Werewolves, naga, gremlin-looking creatures, chiropterans: they all fell to my blade as I unleashed onslaught after onslaught. I relished in the rawness of the killing, the spilling of blood and ectoplasm. The shadows reacted faster than my blade or body, impaling and crushing all those that slipped beyond my human senses.

  The rawness, the purity, and the need for destruction, they were all so addictive. I knew this was Dark Erik talking and that these were unfiltered emotions. But I wanted to let them run wild. I wanted to cut loose.

  The other side of me, the side tempered by control and helping others, now began fighting back. Now there was a tug of war between nature and civilization. Slowly but surely I was regaining control over my emotions, but I couldn't have picked a worse place. Direct battle is not where you play mind games. One false move and your head could be rolling.

  And with these guys, that was literal.

  There was a group of asmodaii a few feet away that incurred my wrath. One thing you learnt rather quickly was who were pawns and who were the leaders. These asmodaii, despite their legendary fighting prowess, stood back watching.

  Waiting.

  I willed my shadow forwards. A wave of black thinned and elongated from my left arm and passed through the first two. I'm sure if they had a face they would look puzzled as to why their bodies had separated in two. For the remaining three, I clawed with my real hand and the shadows imitated. A giant hand of black grabbed the asmodaii and crushed them together. I kept pressing and pressing until I made demon soup in my big, black fist. Once the job was done the shadows retracted.

  Mission accomplished, achievement unlocked.

  I heard a sickening crack behind me as Amaymon grabbed something reptilian and tore it apart as if it were a sheet of paper.

  A large tarantula had made it up the funnel and was about to jump on Mephisto, who floated in mid-air like a paper kite. Calmly, he spun in midair and spread his arms. A violent wind surrounded the spider.

  The demon closed his eyes and began tapping his fingers like a piano player. The wind whistled loudly as it scythed through the spider, shredding it. As bits of arachnid and gore rained, he splayed his arms and bowed deeply.

  "Show off," Amaymon said, suddenly appearing beside me. At the same time he pulled a naga by the tail, ripping her in half. Then, he calmly dismembered her head and kicked it like a football. The projectile thwacked against Mephisto, who flipped his brother off.

  "You know," he said. "This all seems just a bit too easy. I thought Lilith was supposed to spew out the best of the best."

  "I concur, brother," came Mephisto's voice. "These are no Alphas."

  "Isn't that a good thing?" I asked.

  "If we were mistaken, yes," he replied. "But not if there is something else in store."

  "Ah, whatever," interrupted my familiar. "Bring it on, we'll kick their- Erik, watch out!"

  I spun and raised my sword.

  A pair of fangs descended on me and I barely managed to intercept them with my sword. The giant spider spewed putrid breath and saliva on me as it pressed forwards. I was nearly driven to my knees.

  I willed more power in my body and pushed the creature backwards. Once it reared back, I swiped horizontally. Djinn's blade elongated to ten times its length, slicing through all of the spider's legs before retracting back.

  The spider crashed down next to me with its ugly head still snapping. I smashed my fist on it and wrapped my arm in a headlock. With a grunt of effort, I ripped the spider's head off, spraying myself with blood and black ichor in the process.

  Amaymon let out a low whistle.

  Oh, crap. If I can impress that demon with displays of violence, then it was time to check myself.

  Before anyone could comment, we all felt something in the atmosphere. From in front of the ship, the air shimmered and light particles, like snowflakes, began dispersing all over the area.

  I let the spider's head drop and reached out to grab a particle. It was neither a snowflake nor solid light. It was a small pocket of air and magic which dissolved immediately against my touch. More clustered in front of the ship, like a giant wall.

  "Anima particles," Amaymon said.

  Anima particles were basically left over magic, tiny amounts of energy that were wasted when a spell was cast. Usually the amount was so small that you couldn't even see them, like dust particles in the wind.

  But right over there, there was a solid wall of the damn things. A cluster of anima particles usually meant a summoning ritual of sorts. That kind of magic tended to need so much energy that it left clumps of residue behind. I shuddered as I did some calculations. Whatever monster was coming our way had to be extraordinary powerful to need so much energy that it leaves behind that much residue.

  Amaymon's fist shot three inches from my face. An asmodaii fell dead next to me.

  "Small fry, first," he said.

  And he was right. We could deal with whatever was being summoned later. Right now, I had to deal with the rest of this horde.

  Amaymon disappeared again, leaving me to deal with a small squad of asmodaii. I reached down and a shadow hand grabbed the spider's head. I threw it at them.

  The lead demon swatted the missile away, but fell to my trick. I was right behind the projectile and stabbed Djinn into his head. I wrenched the blade free with a burst of azure light.

  My frenzy felled two more demons before the others dodged away.

  They launched an attack, and I countered, killing three more in the process.

  I slashed at another one and he evaded perfectly. At the same time, his companion came from the side, complementing his attack. I barely managed to keep up but made it through in one piece.

  It occurred to me that the asmodaii had a hive mind, each learning from the rest. That would explain why these two suddenly became so good at keeping up with me. That was why they were the foot soldiers of Hell. They adapted to any situation in a matter of minutes. That was what made them the perfect killing machines.

  I blocked a swipe from one at my left and shot a fist of shadows at the second one, catching him off guard. Asmodaii number two was sent flying off the railing and into the water.

  The third demon cocked his head and rushed at me. He feinted and I fell for it. His foot snapped at my knee, sending me crashing down. The asmodaii stabbed forwards with its claws. I swiped with my sword, severing his arm. My own clawed hand raked at his flesh, also tearing off a good chunk of his torso.

  The demon fell dead.

  But it wasn't
over yet. Another asmodaii approached. This one had an inward curving blade in place of its right forearm, and it brought the falx-like weapon down on me. I blocked with Djinn and struggled.

  Then, I learned something about my new power: it was temporary. It made you think you were invincible, that you were all powerful, but there was always a catch with that kind of power. It was fading when I needed it the most.

  I had made the same mistake as Lilith when she faced me; thinking I was beyond these low-level demons and could easily take them.

  Now that I had used my new powers indiscriminately without knowing its limits, I was about to pay a hefty price.

  My strength faltered under the blade lock. The asmodaii cocked its head curiously, trying to understand what was going on. I felt weak and tired, and it was showing.

  And if there’s one thing a super soldier knows how to do, it's exploiting weaknesses.

  The asmodaii released the blade lock and leapt high, landing behind me. I felt a sharp pain in my back followed by a wave of cold. I looked downwards and saw the tip of the demon's weapon jutting from my chest.

  Chapter 26

  It was like someone had switched off my body but left my brain on.

  I was still aware of what was going on. I got stabbed, was probably going to die again and there was nothing I could do about it. It wasn't painful. At least not until the asmodaii pulled its blade out and circled in front of me.

  I felt my body constricting as my lungs began shutting down. Wave after wave of cold washed over me as blood soaked the decks.

  I heard Amaymon scream my name. A pack of lycanthropes ganged up on him as he was momentarily distracted. He went wild, throwing and killing monsters like a berserker.

  But it was too late. The asmodaii's other arm was equipped with a pair of curved, dagger-like claws. It raised its hand, ready to strike at my face. It would all be over soon. One of those claws would enter my eye socket and rip my face off. He'd most likely take off a chunk of my brain, too. I would die instantly, without much pain.