Netherworld, Soul Guardians Book 4 (17 page)

David sliced through the first line of
demons easily. Black liquid sprayed his face and the ground at his
feet. The creatures withered and imploded. More came. He twisted
around, slashing feverishly. The demons wailed a chorus of death.
Their bodies shriveled and exploded into dust.

Kara stepped protectively in front of
Peter. A lesser demon lunged at them. Its mouth opened, and Kara
could see rows of sharp yellow teeth and smell its rancid
vinegar-like breath. She sliced its head right off. The body fell
limp to the ground and disintegrated.

“
Kara, behind you!” yelled
Peter, as he crouched down.

Kara whirled around. Three lesser
demons leaped at her, their claws dripping with yellow ooze. With
calculated precision, she sidestepped and swung her blade up and
across. Warm liquid spattered her face. With a terrifying shriek,
the demons fell. Their bodies twisted grotesquely as they wailed
and withered away.

“
There are too many of
them,” cried David. “We can’t keep fighting them off like this.
Let’s get out of here. This way!” urged David. He kicked a demon in
the gut, stumbled backwards, and fell.

“
David! Are you hurt?” Kara
rushed to his aid.

David pushed himself up on wobbly
legs. He teetered for a moment and held his head in his hands. He
looked confused and frightened. “I—I don’t know. I just felt really
dizzy all of a sudden…and weak. It’s nothing. I’m fine
now.”

Kara laid a hand on his shoulder and
steadied him. She studied his face and leaned closer. “Peter felt
the same way a moment ago.”

She looked into David’s eyes. Kara
tensed in near panic. This had been a very big mistake. “David, I’m
worried. Something is wrong. Maybe bringing you guys here wasn’t
such a good idea—”

“
Uh—guys.” Peter pointed at
the new mass of lesser demons charging at them. “I think we have to
move.”

Without a second to waste, Kara let go
of David, and the three of them doubled back and headed back the
way they came. Another giant building appeared before them. The
ground shook. The street cracked and lifted Kara and the others
into the air. She landed hard against the ground and rolled. She
pushed herself up. Peter and David lay a hundred feet away from
her. David scrambled up and ran towards Kara. His mouth moved, but
Kara couldn’t hear what he was saying.

Welcome home
Kara…

Kara struggled forward. A shadow
appeared at her feet. She halted. She felt a presence behind her.
She whirled around.

A structure made of brick and metal
loomed above her. Black windows lined the front. It hovered over
her. A great door on the bottom flashed with green light and tiny
bolts of lightning. She staggered back.

The door swung open—and Kara was
swallowed in.

Chapter 13

A voyage in the Dark

K
ara couldn’t move. Her body floated in impenetrable darkness
as if she were soaring through space but without the stars to
illuminate the way. Whatever had captured her had enormous
strength. It was like trying to fight against a god. She felt
hopeless, but she pushed her desperation away. Whatever pulled her,
would eventually release her, she hoped. She wondered if the others
had been taken as well. Maybe they would all end up in the same
place. She felt a sharp tug. The force released her, and she fell
down on a hard surface.

Kara steadied herself and looked
around at the darkness. Something was burning out there in the
darkness. The air was strangely hot, too hot for such a dark place.
She reached out her hands before her—nothing. Where was she? The
silence was ominous. How could she get out if she couldn’t see
anything? She was blind. She couldn’t tell what was north or south.
Completely disorientated, Kara yelled out in
frustration.

“
David? Peter? Where are
you?”

A soft green light appeared. A mist
poured along the ground and neared her. Green light flickered in
the mist. Kara could see that the lights were a green electric
current that snaked around in the haze. The sudden mist gave her
the creeps, but she was thankful for the light it gave
off.

“
David, are you in here?
Peter? Hello?”

The mist continued to pour around her.
The sparks of green light intensified, and soon a large passageway
revealed itself. The mist curled around her legs. Where was the
mist coming from? It flowed towards her like a white stream; she
knew it must be coming from somewhere up ahead.

With her soul blade clutched tightly
in her hand, Kara ventured forward. Every hair on her body stood on
end. There was something very wrong with this place. She wanted to
run, but she made her way stealthily through the haze. Her boots
hardly made a sound against the hard floor. Maybe this was Lilith’s
lair? Kara had to find out. She had to look for Jenny. She only
prayed that Jenny’s body hadn’t been ripped to pieces. She shook
her head and tried not to think about what Lilith might be doing to
Jenny.

She concentrated on Lilith instead.
Lilith’s greenish-white skin, white flowing hair, black eyes, and
sharp delicate features didn’t look at all like that of Kara. Kara
looked like a normal teenager girl, whereas Lilith looked like a
demon who needed serious help with her wardrobe. In fact, Kara
found it hard to believe Lilith had had a mortal mother, when there
was nothing mortal about her. She had killed her own mother. Kara
grimaced in disgust. She would have loved to have a real sister.
But under the present circumstances, she hated Lilith as much as
she hated Asmodeus. Whatever Lilith was, Kara was her exact
opposite.

She walked through the mist for what
seemed like hours. The passageway kept on going into the bleak
darkness. Maybe she was walking around in circles? Perhaps this was
what Lilith had intended all along, to trap her in the netherworld.
She had wanted Kara to suffer. What was worse than to spend the
rest of your days in total darkness without ever seeing another
soul? She would be trapped here forever and never see her friends
or David again.

David…

She cursed out loud. How could she
have been so stupid? This was her mission, not theirs. And yet she
let them come. It was because of her that Jenny had been taken in
the first place. What’s worse, she might not even be able to save
Jenny. Perhaps she was already dead. And now she was burdened with
the guilt of losing Peter and David—if only she hadn’t agreed to
their plan—

Something moved inside the
mist. Kara froze. A shadow of a creature scurried across the
passage and disappeared under a wave of fog.
What the—?
Kara searched the ground
with her boot. Nothing. Just rolling mist. She took a step forward.
Rattling sounds echoed behind her. Kara whirled around, her weapon
brandished in her hands. The white haze poured out behind her for
hundreds of feet and was lost in shadow. What was going on? Surely
Lilith wanted her to go mad. Then she’d be an easy kill.

“
I know you’re here,
Lilith. Show yourself, you coward!” Kara rushed forward in the
darkness. She regretted calling Lilith a coward. Kara knew that
Lilith had dangerous powers, and she only had a soul blade with
her. She doubted if she could do any real damage to the demon girl.
A storm of anger rushed through her. How was she ever going to get
out of this mess? She knew there had to be a way out. And she was
determined to find it. If David and Peter weren’t in here, then
they were somewhere on the outside, still fighting the city’s metal
creatures. She had to get to them. They needed her help.

Something moved in her peripheral
vision. A tiny misshapen leg the size of her finger disappeared
into the fog. Kara edged closer for a better look. A shape scurried
near her feet. Kara yelled out in surprise. ...and then another.
Soon, hundreds of tiny creatures surrounded her. With their
crab-like bodies, they wiggled around in the mist but never
ventured too far from it. It was as though they were connected
somehow. Their white bodies were camouflaged in the fog. It was no
wonder Kara hadn’t seen them before.

A sudden tug pulled on her pants. One
of the creatures crawled up her leg. She pulled it off immediately.
She inspected it closely. She cringed. It had six legs, and at
opposite ends atop its carapace-like body were two small twisted
humanoid heads. Their black beady eyes watched Kara, and the pointy
teeth in their large mouths snapped at her. Suddenly the demon
twisted out of Kara’s grip and braced itself on her leg. Kara
screamed as it bit into her angel flesh. She sliced the demon in
half with one strike, and it fell to the ground in a puddle of
black liquid.

The deep gash on her calf poured out
brilliant light and illuminated her hand. For such a small creature
it had done real damage. She had nothing to cover up the wound.
She’d be really easy to spot now, glowing like a
flashlight.

Wails erupted around her. The
crab-like demons formed a line in front of her. Their small claws
scraped the floor. There were hundreds of them. She knew she
couldn’t fight so many. Only one had caused serious damage. She
glanced over her shoulder. More scurried in and around the mist.
There was only one thing she could do. Run.

Kara bolted. The demons launched
themselves at her. She slashed her soul blade in the air and sliced
through their hard bodies. Pain exploded on the back of her neck.
She pulled a creature off of her and threw it against the wall.
More jumped out of the mist and came for her. Kara feverishly
fought her way forward. She ignored the pain on her back and
continued on. Claws pricked her legs and back. Their teeth
punctured her flesh. The pain was excruciating. She slammed her
back against the wall. She heard the pops as their shells burst.
Cool liquid poured down her back. She pushed herself off the wall
and kept running. She heard the crunches of the little creatures
under her boots. The demons kept coming, and Kara kept whacking
them down with her blade.

A shadow appeared and a creature
suddenly fastened itself on Kara’s face and scratched at her eye
with tiny claws. She screamed. The demon’s mouths bit at her cheeks
and forehead savagely. She tried to pull it off, but the creature
held on, eating away at her face. She took her blade and slid it
under the demon, careful not to injure her own eye. With a flick of
her wrist, she cut the demon in half. It slipped from her
face.

Liquid sprayed her face as she fought
through the horde of flying demon crabs. She wished she had a
blowtorch to fry the little monsters. There wasn’t much she could
do with only a blade. She was running blindly in the dark,
following a mist that teemed with demons. She tried to call upon
her elemental power. There was a flutter of an answer deep inside
her. Her power awakened for a moment, and then nothing. It was
dull, as though it had never existed.

There had to be a way out. Kara
continued to slash away at them as she ran. Then the mist subsided
and evaporated. As though they were frightened, the crab demons
disappeared with the fog.

Kara sighed in relief. She couldn’t
believe her luck. She reached up and touched large gashes on her
forehead and on her cheeks. The wounds burned at her touch. Those
nasty little buggers had done a number on her face. Still, she
wasn’t too gravely injured. She was sure she had enough strength to
find the way out—to get back to her friends.

Green light flashed up ahead. A tiny
green sphere hovered in the air. It flickered and then grew
brighter. She averted her eyes until they became acclimatized to
the light. She felt pulled towards the light, like a longing for
comfort. She walked towards it curiously. The green light shimmered
and grew brighter until Kara stared at an enormous green
sphere.

The giant sphere hovered above a
massive chamber that seemed to grow in size as though it were
breathing. Kara approached it cautiously. She looked carefully
around. There were no signs of Lilith or Jenny anywhere, or even of
demons—just a giant green sphere. Loud humming sounds reverberated
around the chamber. The ground vibrated beneath her boots. The
burning smell increased and charred Kara’s nose. The brilliant
green sun grew in size for a moment, and then it shrank again. It
repeated the motion as though it was breathing.

The humming intensified. Bolts of
green electricity flashed out of the sun. It was like a giant
electric plasma ball. The electricity licked the walls and ground.
The current flailed like arms trying to grab something. A bolt shot
out of the sun and scraped the ground at Kara’s feet. She took a
step back.

The electric current
cracked and boomed. Kara shivered. The hair on her head stood on
end. The current streamed inside her. Her teeth chattered, and she
clenched her jaw. Her clothes swayed and ruffled in an invisible
wind. Kara stood before the green sun. She wrinkled her
brow.
What the heck is that
thing
?

“
Welcome, Kara.”

Kara stumbled backwards. The voice
reverberated across the chamber like a whale song. It echoed
through Kara. The voice came from the sun. It was the same voice
she’d been hearing all along.

“
We’ve been waiting for
you.”