From Hell with Love (55 page)

“Mammon, he just
killed
your father,” Cadmus said, drawing a snarl from the potbellied demon.

“My father?  You mean the one who chose
that
rotting bastard,” he said, pointing at Niccolo with his left index finger before bringing it back to point at his mouth, “over me?  Why the
hell
would I give a shit about my dear old daddy if he didn’t give a shit about me?”

“He loved you, you bastard,” Niccolo said under his breath, causing the potbellied demon to glare at him.

“
No
, Nico, he loved my mom.  He
hated
me; he just couldn’t bring himself to kill me out of that love for her.  Actually, come to think of it, I can see where the guy was coming from,” he said before straightening up and then spreading his lips wide in a grin that stretched his entire face.  “She
was
quite tasty.”

“You’re a monster,” Cadmus uttered, which made Mammon giggle.

“I think that’s the
point
, Mr. Reaper.  I
am
the biggest monster down here.  So it’s only right that I get to rule Hell,” he said, which made Niccolo shake his head, laughing at Mammon’s mistake.

“You stupid bastard.  Azazel is going to Earth.  He’s going to leave you behind,” he said, which made the yellow demon shrug in response.

“So?  He told me he was going up there,” he said, which made the Horsemen look at him in confusion.  “What?”

“Then…why are you doing this?” Cadmus asked, which made the potbellied demon double over with laughter.  Tired of the constant distractions, the Pale Rider slammed his blade against the ground, causing Mammon to look at him in surprise.  “ENOUGH.  Tell us why!”

“You want to know
why
, reaper?” Mammon said, his voice turning dark with emotion and violence.  “I wanted my dear, old daddy dead so I could take that throne over there,” he said while pointing at the shifting throne with his father’s body lying in front of it.  “While he ruled, I was just the Devil’s
son
.  Now I’ll be the
Devil
.”

“That’s not how it works,” Niccolo said, but Mammon only laughed at that before falling over to all fours.

“Well, until someone can stop me,” he said, beginning his transformation into his bestial form, looking up at them as his jaw dislocated and a chorus of seven demonic voices issued from his throat, “
THAT’S EXACTLY HOW IT’S GOING TO BE!”

Niccolo did not wait for his body to morph into its terrible form and instead ran forward, leaping into a downward strike.  The transforming demon noticed his approach and jumped to the side just in time, looking after Niccolo with fury in his eyes.

“No fair!  You have to wait!
” he said, his front arm bulging and snapping as his bones broke through his skin and his body started to grow.  Before Niccolo could respond, Cadmus was already throwing his scythe under Mammon’s body, determined to catch Mammon’s underside.  The yellow demon gasped with seven throats before leaping to the side and digging his bone claws, which had just broken through his fingers and toes, into the stone wall.

“If you and Azazel don’t fight fair, who says we have to?” Cadmus asked before drawing his scythe back and leaping into the air in front of Mammon.  The yellow demon, who was still compensating for his growing body mass, growled before dropping from the wall away from his attacker.  He turned in midair, the bones of his spine growing and stretching the skin of his back, and was only just able to see Niccolo underneath him, launching his bastard sword into a deadly forward arc above his shoulders.  Mammon brought his arms beneath him and screamed as the green metal sank into the flesh of his limbs, cutting all the way into the bone.

“You’re going to die, Hellborn,” Niccolo said, confident that he just needed to finish off the creature still hanging in the air, but soon his blade was pushed back with enough force that he fell back with it, dragging his feet along the stone floor of the throne room.  When he regained his balance, he saw Mammon’s chest heaving and his large eyes filled with anger.

“
That’s enough
,” he declared, jumping backward just in time to avoid Cadmus’ falling strike and then threw his right hand into the reaper’s body, sending the Horseman tumbling toward his friend.  Niccolo and Cadmus could only watch as Mammon was able to complete his transformation, the coarse hair thickening into an outer shell, new muscle fortifying his limbs and the skeletal tail bursting out of the end of his back.  His head ballooned up to a comical size before a red mass was vomited out, the membrane splitting to reveal seven heads on seven necks.  Seven faces then turned to sneer at them.

“
So now that I’m like this, Horsemen, what are you going to do?
” he asked, laughing with his chorus of frightening heads.  Niccolo and Cadmus just picked themselves up and held their weapons ready, standing in defiance of the massive Hellborn.

“What we were planning on doing every step of the way,” Cadmus said before bringing his scythe behind him, a burst of invisible energy flowing through his veins.

“
What’s that?
” Mammon asked, his voice playful.

“Nothing special,” Niccolo said, trying to tease the monstrous beast in front of him.  “Just save the world.”  The statement drew a slow chuckle from the yellow demon standing just a few yards away.

“
Hate to break it to ya, Nico, but you’re gonna have to change your plans,”
Mammon said before leaping forward, launching four deadly bone nails toward his father’s favorite human.  Niccolo countered by slicing up along his side and forcing his green blade through each diamond-hard bone, breaking them easily, and smiled when Mammon screamed with seven voices.

“You sure about that, Mammon?” he teased, waiting for the Hellborn’s reaction.  It breathed in deeply before screaming obscenities and reforming the bone claws extending from his hand, jumping toward Niccolo with his hands ready to slash him to ribbons.  Smiling at the yellow demon’s foolishness, Niccolo was about to taunt him again, but soon he was wrapped in a several yards worth of spinal column.  When he looked up, seven smiling faces were smiling down at him.

“
Pretty sure
,” they teased before yanking Niccolo forward, past his belly and across the room within half a second, sending his sword flying away from him before he crashed into the hard stone of Lucifer’s throne, which shattered once he slammed into it.  Niccolo blacked out for a moment, but regained consciousness in time to see Cadmus slammed against the wall opposite Mammon, a spire of bone broken off from the Hellborn's nails pinning him to the stone.  Niccolo’s gaze was blurry and he was finding it difficult to focus, but he was thrown back to the present once he heard that nasal laugh.

“Oh… Oh man, you have GOT to be kidding me!  The way you two were talking I thought I was going to be in trouble!”
Mammon screamed between fits of laughing, his heads inches away from Cadmus’ pain-stricken face.  He sat back on his hind legs and managed to look at both of them between his seven heads.  “
And here you both get wrecked within just a minute!  It’s really just pitiful.”

“Come…come here and say that,” Niccolo said, coughing up blood because his ribs were broken.  The statement caught Mammon’s attention, and soon the Hellborn was stalking toward him, a look of confusion displayed across three of his faces, the others stretched into grins.  Niccolo took that time to stretch his hand out to find anything within reach, his fingers finally touching on a cylindrical object.

“
See, that’s what I like about you, Nico.  Even though you’re entirely outmatched, you still manage to talk a good game.  But face it, little leper,
” Mammon said as he came close to Niccolo, standing over him briefly before lowering his necks, one of his seven heads directly over Niccolo’s face,
“you never had a chance.  What did you think was going to happen
?” he asked, which made Niccolo smile briefly.

“Well, I figured you would make a mistake,” he said before wrapping his fingers around the handle of the weapon, whatever it was, and then swung it behind Mammon’s extended head.  It turned out to be an old broadsword, its blade almost rusted-through, but it was enough to slice through the pink flesh of Mammon’s tongue and sever it from his body, causing the Hellborn to rear back in pain.

Niccolo sprang into action, realizing the blade had cracked into pieces once it had cut through Mammon’s neck, and used everything he had to jump up into Mammon’s torso, throwing his demonic hand, curled into a fist, up against the yellow demon’s armored torso.  His bones shuddered from the impact, but Niccolo was pleased to see Mammon’s entire body rise into the air and start to turn over, landing in the center of the throne room with a resounding quake, cracking the stone around him and leaving a crater a foot deep.

When Niccolo landed, he did not bother to wait for Mammon to recover.  Instead, he turned around and jumped up, his right leg finding purchase on the seat of Lucifer’s throne.  He then pushed as hard as he could and sailed up to the back wall of the throne room, scrambling up with both of his legs.  With a mighty push, Niccolo flew backward and sailed through the air, twisting so that he could face the Hellborn still lying with its back to the floor.

For a moment, Cadmus watched as Niccolo fell to meet the yellow demon, who was just able to extend six necks to look at his flying opponent.  To the reaper's surprise, Niccolo radiated with a green energy and Cadmus could only stare in wonder at the Horseman’s face.  He had never seen such fury before.

It almost seemed impossible when Niccolo landed on his enemy, throwing his fist down against Mammon’s ribcage with such force that he seemed to plunge his arm through the creature’s body, but then Cadmus heard the crack and the tremors throughout the room.  Before he could react and draw out the bone-nail that was buried in his left shoulder, Cadmus gaped in shock as the ground fell out from underneath the mortal enemies, the two of them falling to the space below.

“NICO!” Cadmus shouted, turning to the bone spire and gritting his teeth before using his scythe to cut off the foot of bone protruding from his shoulder, which had narrowly missed his heart.  He then pushed behind his back and let the bone run through him, gasping in air as he tried to ignore the pain.  When he was finally able to move on, Cadmus held his scythe in one hand and kept the other by his side, hobbling over to the hole Niccolo had made in the throne room.  He was surprised to see the Overlook and the demons fighting inside, but, before he could jump down to join their battle, the Pale Rider heard an ethereal voice which stopped him mid-step.

Cadmus.

***

When Niccolo picked himself up, he noticed that Mammon was lying still underneath him.  His breath came out in sporadic bursts as he tried to figure out where all of that power had come from, but eventually he staggered to his feet and stepped away from the massive yellow demon.

Forty yards ahead of him, Azazel stood in front of a flickering image suspended over the cliff’s edge, his arms crossed in his frustration.  Confused by the sight, Niccolo looked past him and was stunned by the climactic battle occurring over the lake of lava.

Or rather, it had
been
lava.  Amdusias, revealing his power, had covered the entire room in ice, creating a large hill out of frozen water in the middle of the hall.  The demon king was floating above the mountain, gusts of wind and clouds hanging around him while his unbraided hair whipped about freely, when Niccolo watched him throw down a charge of electricity, sending a thunderclap resonating through the massive hall.

In shock, Niccolo looked down to find a lone, armored figure standing where the electricity had discharged, and was even more surprised to see the figure able to move after Amdusias’ strike.  Niccolo then realized from the fading purple light that the person had created an ethereal mark in the air, protecting him from harm.

“BELETH!” a shout came from beneath them as the hill of ice shattered and instantly evaporated, a plume of fire rising out of the center.  Now that he had regained his wits, Niccolo realized that this new demon was Asmodeus and that the twins were fighting the last king allied with Azazel.  The thought brought with it a smile as he realized that Beleth did not have a chance, but before Asmodeus had been able to strike their brother, Beleth had jumped over to the left wall.

“STOP BEING SO PREDICTABLE!” Beleth shouted before pushing off of the wall, flying toward the dragon-scaled king with his long sword at the ready.  Asmodeus was about to counter Beleth’s strike, but before either twin could react, Beleth quickly drew a three point seal in the air below him, creating a surface which he used to redirect his momentum.

Niccolo could only watch as Beleth pushed off the false surface and flew toward Amdusias, who was not prepared for Beleth’s sudden reversal.  In a flash, the traitor was past the storm king, a fountain of blood spraying from a rent in his white armor.

“No!” Asmodeus shouted, his flames burning hot enough to make his armor and exposed scales turn red.  He caught Beleth’s leg as he passed by, the black metal melting to his skin, and then flung him back across the sea of lava.  Niccolo could only gape in wonder as Beleth’s body flew over him and was about to slam into the back wall, but he cursed as the demon king twisted his body and created a purple seal in the air, bracing himself for the impact.  Niccolo was about to throw himself after Beleth when the air above him sizzled, the red form of Asmodeus flying past him and into the traitor’s body, slamming Beleth into the wall of the cavern.

“Whoa!” Azazel shouted, turning from the flickering image and looking at the demon kings struggling, bathed in fire.  He lowered his blindfolded gaze and seemed to stare straight at Niccolo.  “He is
not
happy about
that
.”

“Azazel,” Niccolo said under his breath, his sword forming in his demonic hand.  The grey-skinned demon looked at him with curiosity.