Drummer Boy - Back Into Hell Ch. 10

Aurica turned to look at Jason, giving him a pitying look. "You 'umans, so obsessed wiss size," she said. "It matters less than you sink."

Then she smiled. "And, lest you forget," Aurica said, "we are ze Three."

Aurica's eyes sparked with green flames. Above her, an enormous lenticular portal, limned with the same green flames, opened like an eye. Out of that portal flew Electra, weaponless, but as big as ever, and looking just as pissed off as the last time he'd seen her. She made a beeline for Pearl.

"Oh, no," Jason said.

"You see?" Aurica said. "Ze situation is under control."

Kristin stood up, and stepped in front of Jason, facing Aurica.

"Yield," Kristin said.

Aurica smiled. "Ah, ze other cambion," Aurica said. "Very pretty. And of my tribe. Kneel, child, and show fealty to your Regent."

Kristin's sword appeared in her hand. "Yield," she said again.

Aurica made a frown of false sadness. "Aurica yields to none," she said. "Come to me, so zat I may teach you zis thing."

"Kristin, don't!" Jason said, but Kristin was already moving. She ran toward Aurica, and once she was within range, she started swinging.

Kristin's sword whistled through the air with such rapidity and force that Jason couldn't clock it. All he heard was swishes and whistles.

She missed Aurica every time. Jason didn't even really know how. Aurica moved very little, taking small steps and leaning slightly from side to side. She was only inches from Kristin, but somehow remained untouched throughout.

After a few seconds of this, Aurica brought her tail into the action. Quick as a flash, it wrapped around the blade of Kristin's sword, yanked it out of her hand, reversed it, and thrust the tip into Kristin's chest.

The sword went right through her, three feet of it emerging from a spot in her back, right between her wings. Kristin was stunned by this, and Aurica chose that moment to wrap her tail around Kristin's ankles. She lifted Kristin up with her tail, slammed her against the ground, and then tossed her back, to land next to Jason. Kristin's sword vanished, and she collapsed into a bleeding, broken heap on the ground.

"Zat is your lesson," Aurica said. "Now, sink upon what you 'ave learned."

Jason stooped down and held Kristin, examining her. The hole in her chest was bad, but the wound was slowly closing. Her breathing was shallow and her eyes fluttered. He glared at Aurica, who had resumed viewing Pearl.

"Show wisdom, 'uman," Aurica said. "Or, if not wisdom, zen at least restraint."

"I may," Jason said, "but Pearl won't. She already took down one of you."

Aurica spoke mirthlessly. "Settle yourself," she said. "Zis is demon business. And in such matters, we are without peer. Observe."

Electra had reached the place where Pearl was whaling on Palladia. Electra may not have had her living weapon, but she had other means at her disposal. She glared, and twin lines of flame erupted from her eyes.

The flames engulfed Pearl from head to toe, resulting in a colossal pillar of orange fire. Then the flames were abruptly extinguished, and Pearl was gone.

This seemed to confuse Electra. She scanned around, looking for Pearl, who was nowhere to be found.

"Careless," Aurica said. "But my sister has ever relied too much on her mental senses."

"What do you mean?" Jason said.

That was when Jason saw Pearl reappear, winking into existence some distance behind Electra. She was normal-sized again, but her sword was still gigantic. She pointed it at Electra and let it go. It shot away from her like a rocket, changing shape as it flew, so that by the time it reached Electra, it had become a lance of solid light.

The lance shot through Electra's shoulder, tearing a hole in one of Electra's wings in the process, and then disappeared.

Electra turned around, but seemed otherwise unaffected. She was looking around for Pearl, who had disappeared again. While she scanned the landscape, Jason heard Aurica speak up.

"Life glow," Aurica whispered.

With that, Electra and Aurica, and Kristin as well, were wreathed in white light. Jason even saw the glow around his own body.

He also saw another outline of white, hovering in the air behind Electra. Knowing it was Pearl, he held his breath, not wanting to betray her by even the slightest thought.

Whatever plans Pearl had, though, came to naught, when Electra spun around. The Pearl outline reacted, but not quickly enough. Electra caught her in one hand, plucking her out the air as easily as Mr. Miyagi catching flies in "The Karate Kid".

"Hello, child," Electra said. "You have earned this."

Electra closed both hands around Pearl, covering her completely, and squeezed.

Jason, like Electra, expected a sickening crunch of bone and flesh. Instead, a golden light emanated from within Electra's hands.

Electra furrowed her excellent brow, and squeezed harder. Pearl's voice could now be heard, chanting a spell that echoed across the battlefield.

Electra responded, the sound of her voice overlapping with Pearl's syllables. While Electra chanted and squeezed, golden rays of light streamed out from between Electra's fingers.

There was an explosion, so bright that Jason was blinded for a few seconds. When he could see again, Pearl was free, and flying away from Electra very fast.

Electra, on the other hand, was now missing a hand. She looked in disbelief at her brand new ragged stump, and roared.

"Hmm," Aurica said.

"'Hmm' is fuckin' right," Jason said. "Face it, you guys are gonna lose."

"Will we?" Aurica said.

"Damn right!" Jason said. "Pearl's taking you apart, one by one."

"Is she, now?" Aurica said.

"Answering with questions?" Jason said. "What are you, a shrink?"

"Nay," Aurica said. "I am a tactician. And zat means seeing all ze cards, and discovering ze path to ultimate victory."

Aurica's robes vanished, just sort of dissolved around her. Underneath, her body was surrounded by chains. Black iron links looped around her torso, between her legs, over and under her shoulders, across her neck, cradling her breasts. The chains were in constant motion, slithering and sliding along her body, producing faint clinking sounds as they moved.

Then she spread her arms. All six of them.

"Okay, nope." Jason said. "Too much."

"It is natural to feel overwhelmed by my superiority," Aurica said.

With a gesture from Aurica's hands, hundreds of tiny cubes appeared in front of her, themselves arranged into a larger cube. In them, Jason could see three-dimensional representations of the battle between Electra and Pearl.

"Ze Three have mastered all aspects of reality," Aurica said. "Palladia, matter and energy. Electra, magic and mind. But only Aurica commands space and time. It is, zerefore, a simple matter to eliminate ze unfavorable passways..."

With one finger, Aurica flicked at one of the cubes before her. It disappeared, and another one appeared in its place.

"...until all ze possible solutions collapse to ze desired result."

"Doesn't matter what kind of VR game you play," Jason said, "You're still not gonna-"

Aurica flicked at one of the cubes. Suddenly Jason was on his hands and knees, staring up at Aurica. She flicked another cube, and then he was upside down, with his horns stuck in the ground. He had just enough time to flail his arms and legs around, when she flicked again. This time he was laying on the ground some distance from Aurica, and wrapped up in chains.

"Space and time," Aurica said. "Ze sings zat none may stand against. Not even your beloved magister, as you shall see."

Several lengths of chain broke free from Aurica's body. Working with them and her many hands, Aurica went to town on the array of cubes before her. They flicked some cubes away, moved others around, collapsed entire lines of them. The megacube became a constantly shifting series of images that seemed to show the same thing, with subtle differences that only Aurica was able to perceive. She concentrated on it, taking the whole picture in, seemingly searching for something the whole time.

At last she said, "Ah!" She touched one of the cubes inside the megacube, and it became outlined in green light. Jason couldn't make out what was going on inside it, but there were definitely big things happening in there.

Aurica looked at him. "It was you all along, 'uman," she said. "I dared not hope it would be zis easy."

"Whaddaya mean me?" Jason said.

Aurica smiled. "I prefer not to spoil ze surprise," she said. "Nonezeless-"

Aurica broke off suddenly, looking at something. Jason looked, and Kristin had gotten to her feet.

"Remarkable!" Aurica said. "You have excellent potential, my child."

Kristin was as beat up as before, but had apparently found some new, defiant streak of resolve. Her sword had reappeared, and she held it at her side. Her eyes glowered at Aurica with renewed defiance.

"Yield," Kristin said.

"Oh, child..." Aurica said.

Kristin took a couple of steps toward Aurica. Aurica flicked at a cube before her. Jason felt a wave of nauseating wooziness, and then Kristin was right back where she started. But of course she was: she had never started walking in the first place.

Kristin paused, and then walked toward Aurica again. Aurica flicked at another cube. Jason felt the wooziness, but this time Kristin kept right on walking. Aurica flicked at a few more cubes. The woozy feeling happened each time, but Kristin was unaffected, and homing in on Aurica.

The array disappeared, and Kristin charged. Aurica did some sort of sideways flip that took her out of the way. In her stead, Aurica's chains tied themselves into a complex pattern, seeking to ensnare Kristin again.

Kristin dove into a roll, narrowly avoiding the chains, and used the momentum of her roll to cast her sword at Aurica. Aurica just barely avoided the tip of the blade with another impossibly executed leap.

Aurica's chains darted back to her. The end of one wrapped itself around her hand, while the others hung obediently in the air.

Kristin's sword returned, and she held the weapon before her, contemplating her next move.

"You are no match for me, cambion," Aurica said. "And ze steel you wield cannot hope to match zat of my living weapon."

Aurica cast her arm back, raising the chain again like a whip. But when she tried to bring it back down, her arm stopped. She tugged on the chain to find it pulled taut. Then she was abruptly yanked off her feet, flying into the air on the end of her own chain.

The other end of the chain, it turned out, was wrapped around the blade of Fuck-Bringer. And Fuck-Bringer was in the capable hands of a familiar Grand Wing Mother.

"Granny!" Jason said. "Man, am I glad to see you!"

"Aye," Granny said, never taking her eyes off of Aurica, who had landed a good distance away.

"How'd you get here?" Jason said.

"I borrowed the energies of Aurica's portal. Although," Granny said, with a quick, precise swipe at him with her sword, cutting through Aurica's chains, "I did 'fuck up the time signature' somewhat."

Jason stood up quickly. "Better late than never," he said.

Aurica had risen to her feet. Granny and Kristin stepped in front of Jason, blades ready.

Aurica regarded them gravely. "Ze mathematics has changed," she said.

The chains around her body uncoiled fully, and then broke into seven long lengths, one for each hand and one for her tail. The undulated hypnotically in the air.

"But ze solution is ze same," Aurica continued.

"Then you will not mind if I check your work," Granny responded.

Then they started doing some truly ridiculous fighting shit.

Granny took to the air, attacking from above and behind, while Kristin went full-frontal on the ground, dividing up Aurica's attention.

And dividing her attention was crucial. Aurica's style of fighting was literally inhuman. Her chains functioned both independently and cooperatively as needed. In addition to striking and grabbing with them, she used them to block and feint, often at the same time. Aurica was also crazy agile, just like the other Tail Jason had met, capable of leaping and contorting her body into impossible positions in an instant. With the aid of her many arms and the chains they wielded, she was able to duck and twist out of the way of even the most subtle of strikes.

Even with all that, though, Granny and Kristin, fighting together, still managed to keep Aurica on her toes.

Looking behind him, Jason saw Pearl, busy fighting the now one-handed Electra. They were mostly just blasting each other with energy at this point. She seemed to be holding her own against the winged Regent, but Jason was disturbed to see a faint smear of azure energy in the air, connecting Electra and the remains of Palladia. That sure didn't look good.

The sound of Granny chanting drew his attention back to the fight with Aurica. She'd gone way high up, and the air around her was shimmering.

Aurica noticed it too. She sent two lengths of chain to keep Kristin busy, and used the others to make steps that hovered in the air. Aurica leaped up these steps, the lowest ones darting up to form new ones, until she was up at Granny's level. Once she got to the top, she just flat-out tackled Granny, wrapping all six arms around her.

The ground shook. Jason spun around.

Palladia had risen. Somehow, she'd been put back together. Glowing red lines criss-crossed her body, marking where her chunks had been reattached. She rose up to her full height, and with her horns glowing like crazy she looked like a pissed-off Frost Bank Building.

She glared around the battlefield, and shouted, "PARTY'S OVER, BITCHES!"

From above, where Granny was grappling with Aurica, Jason heard Aurica's voice say, "Here."

Palladia smiled, and then leapt into the air. She quickly became a speck. Then the speck began to grow larger. With dawning horror, Jason realized that she was coming down directly above him.

"Oh shit," Jason said.

Aurica was suddenly right in front of him. She kissed him on the cheek.

"Goodbye, 'uman," Aurica said with a smirk. Then her chains reappeared, wrapped themselves completely around her, and then they vanished into themselves.

Jason tensed, ready to sprint for his life. Instead he got the wind knocked out of him, as Granny scooped him up at what felt like half the speed of light.

She carried Jason some distance away, dumped him on the ground, and then went zooming back for Kristin.

But she wasn't gonna make it. Palladia was a hurtling meteor, and Kristin was still at ground zero.

At the last instant, a glowing star flared into life next to Kristin. Pearl spread her arms wide, and an opaque golden sphere appeared, surrounding the both of them.

Palladia struck, and a sphere of rocky debris exploded outward, obscuring everything. A second later, he saw Granny vanish into the expanding cloud of dust.

Then the shockwave hit Jason, tossing him to the ground. For a few seconds, there were only reverberations from the impact, along with the sound of boulders raining down onto the ground.

Then, Jason heard laughter. Palladia's laughter, coming from inside the cloud.

Then came the sound of great wings beating the air. The cloud of dust dispersed, revealing the Three. Palladia sat on the ground, chortling away. Aurica, concealed again in her white robes, stood beside her, with Electra next to her, flapping her wings. All three were staring at a spot on the ground before them.

"Got 'em," said Palladia's booming voice. "Fuck... that was harder than I thought it would be, though."

"Zere were ozair forces at play, sister," Aurica said. "Neverzeless, we 'ave triumphed."

"Put up a good fight, I gotta hand 'em that," Palladia said. "Get it, Ellie? 'Hand'?"

"You are repulsive, sister," Electra said, sparing a glance at the stump at the end of her arm. "It shall take simply ages to regrow such perfection."

"Y'ever think about gettin' a hook?" Palladia said.

"A hook?!" Electra said.

"Yeah a bone hook," Palladia said. "Make 'em think twice about fuckin' with ya, eh?"

"Disgusting!" Electra said. "Were you not my own sister, I would-"

"Cease your bickering!" Aurica said. "Zere is still much work to be done."

"Right," Palladia said, "but first, let's talk compensation."

"That was ... difficult."

Jason turned around, and there was Granny. She held Pearl's and Kristin's limp bodies in her arms. She was breathing hard, and looked totally worn out.

"Granny!" Jason said. "Thank god you got 'em!"

"Only just," she said. She set Kristin and Pearl down on the ground, and then stumbled, almost falling over herself.

"Why can I hear them?" Jason said. "And why are they talking like we're still there?"

"Because, in a certain sense, we are," Granny said. "An illusion, containing a portion of our essences. But it will not fool them for long."

"Okay," Jason said, "so what's our next move?"

Granny looked crestfallen. "That, I am afraid, was it," she said. "Purleen and Kristin are spent, and I am nearly so."

"Come on ... seriously?!" Jason said. "Isn't there somewhere we can go, or-"

"We have failed, Jason!" Granny said. "They are simply too powerful. Even if we could somehow escape from here, they command armies. Wherever we go, whomever we meet, we shall be set upon. Our only choice now is to prevent them from reaching Earth. Which means that, at the very least, Purleen and I must die."

Granny picked Fuck-Bringer off the ground. "I can ... dispatch my child ... but I am afraid it shall fall upon you to-"

"No!" Jason said. "There's gotta be something else we can do!" He thought. "Quick, gimme a handjob!"

"Excuse me?" Granny said.

"Or put my dick in your mouth or something!" Jason said. "If I can cum all over you gals-"

"There is simply not time, Jason!" Granny said. "Any moment now the Three will-"

Suddenly, Jason felt a tingling in his brain. Granny must have felt it too, because she cocked her head to one side, as if she was listening to something.

"What the hell is that?" Jason said. "It feels like someone's DMing me."

"Aye," Granny said, still focused on what she was hearing. "It appears that a friend has found us."

"What does that mean?" Jason said.

Granny began chanting magic words. Using her toe, she drew a line in the sand. That line erupted upward into a wall of fire, and then the fire vanished, leaving behind a portal to someplace dark.

Granny picked up Pearl and Kristin, one under each arm. "Come, Jason!" she said. "Hurry!" And then, taking the senseless women with her, she stepped into the portal.

Jason heard Electra's surprised voice. "Sisters!"

"The fuck-!" said Palladia.

Jason looked at where the Three were, only to find the Three looking right back at him.

"Oh, hell no!" Jason said, and hopped into the portal.

Once on the other side, Jason noticed a few things.

The first thing was that they were back at their starting point, that is, the barracks of the Aerie that Jason now knew was called Fist-of-Dark. Hello, old suspenders! Merry Christmas, old Naughty Chair!

Second thing: there was another portal there, already open. Pearl was nowhere in sight, and Granny was in the process of tossing Kristin into it.

Third thing. The portal that he had come through was still wide open. It looked like it was trying to squeeze itself shut, but couldn't. That was probably because of the chains around its crackling rim, pulling at the edges and holding it open.

"Jason!" Granny said. "Go! I cannot hold them!"

Dumbstruck, Jason watched as Palladia's enormous fingers appeared, grasping the rim of the portal. Along with Aurica's chains, they pulled outward, and the portal widened, expanding into a gaping hole in space. And from out of that hole, Electra's head and shoulders emerged.