The face in front of Sam was as hard to describe as it was hideous. The only word that continually rang through his mind was "Death". He looked into the sunken in eyes of the thing, which were composed of only whites and pupils. The whites of the eye might not of even have been described as whites. Their color reminded Sam of the color gray that an eye of a fish, that had been forgotten and left to rot, might be. The being smelled like a rotten fish as well. The blacks of the eye sucked him in. Once he made direct eye contact he found it hard to break. The eyes were dead and possessed no eyelids. The being was eternally stuck in a blinkless gaze. Its eyes held no emotion.

"Death." a voice echoed in his head.

He looked at the mouth of the thing. A lipless grin was plastered onto the face like a smile painted onto a doll. No matter how hard the thing could try, the smile would always be there. When it talked, it smiled. When it didn't talk, it smiled. And thanks to the gaps in the grin, you could always see directly into the creature's mouth.

It was as if the creature was born with only the necessities. The tongue itself was so thin in width that 3 of the tongues put together might be as wide as a human tongue. The tongue ended in a sharp point and slightly curled upward at the tip. The tongue was built so that it could just barely give its owner the gift of speech. The point at the end would be perfect for speaking demonic languages. The tongue was the color of raw and festering flesh. Most of the teeth of the thing were either rotten, rotting, or completely missing. Sam was unsure if they would even be able to eat, if they even needed food to function at all.

Its faces skin was a sickly pale gray-purple. It reminded Sam of when he and his cousin dug up a long-buried coffin of a Night's Child. The people of Philadelphia had been in a panic because according to them the vampire, which they had buried in its coffin long ago, had risen from the grave and was terrorizing the city once again. When they had dug up the coffin and looked inside all they saw was the bloated and purple face of a vampire who had starved to death while in his underground exile.

The face had deep, black cracks running throughout the skin. They reminded Sam of rivers on a map. Bending and winding, connecting and parting. He imagined that the skin might feel like an alligator hide. The eyes of the thing seemed too far apart and too high up; the face possessed no eyebrows or eyelashes. The creature also had no nose. Only two round, miniscule holes where nostrils should have been. Where ears might have been there were also 2 holes, these ones larger and in more of an oval shape. The skin across the face was also very tight. It left no room for expression, for if too much emotion was shown, the skin would tear.

Sam took in all these details as he was being tied to a large wooden post by the being who had spoken to him earlier, and who appeared to be the other beings leaders. The other denizens scrambled to recreate the fire. A shiver crept down his spine and his hairs stood their on ends. He was terrified. He knew the fire was meant to summon a demon who would surely eat him whole.

At first had he cried and screamed and tried to break the thick and tough ropes that bound him. Then he said some demon repelling chants, which did not work, and proved that these beings were not demons themselves. Then he finally tried to bargain with the beings, but got nowhere. It seemed as though they didn't even hear him, or if they did they simply did not care. No expression fell upon their eternally blank faces. Their gravely voices did not falter when they occasionally said something in their bizarre language. Everything that made humans, humans was missing from these beings.

"What do you want from me?!" Sam shouted at the bustling figures.

There was no response or reaction.

"Let me go!"

No response.

"In the name of the Angel Raziel and the Clave I command you to release me!"

No response once again. Sam finally confirmed it was useless to try and communicate with the beings. It was worse that trying to talk to his cousin Thomas. Sam decided he would save his voice for when he was being torn to pieces by a Greater Demon.

When the hooded figures had finished preparing the fire, they once again linked hands in a circle around the pile of wood, while Sam hung over over it. When they began to chant suddenly the wood went ablaze and the fire reached up far enough to lick Sam's feet. Sam let out a yelp of surprise and pain.

As the beings chanted, Sam began to chant himself, but not in a chant of summoning, but of a banishment and repulsion.

"In nomine sanctae et sanctum Angelum Raziel, eieci te ad puteos infernum, ubi sunt iuste.." Sam chanted in Latin. "In nomine sanctae et sanctum Angelum Raziel, eieci te ad puteos infernum, ubi sunt iuste." In the name of the blessed and holy angel Raziel, I banish thee to the pits of hell, where thou rightfully belongs.

The fire would grow and change to a vibrant shade of purple whenever Sam would falter, and shrink and change to a rightful shade of orange when the figures did the same. Finally after minutes of verbal battle the denizens grew louder, and there being more of them, Sam could not reach their volume. The fire expanded and reached up the post to Sam's legs.

He let out a cry of agony so loud that he was surprised the Clave in Alicante couldn't hear him. At first he could feel his pants legs slowly burning off, and then his leg hair, and then top layer of his skin. He screamed and screamed, but the pain did not go away. His skin was being charred and there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening. He continued to scream and scream, because he did not know what else to do in a situation like this.

Suddenly the fire went out after a final fiery explosion. When the smoke finally blew away a figure stood where the fire once blazed. The shape of the figure was entirely human, except for the fact that it was double the size of an extremely tall man. One might expect a being conjured from a demonic flame to be ragged and ugly, but this being was quite the opposite. It was dressed dapperly in a suit and had a face that reminded Sam of a Greek statue. He was different from the beings who had summoned him, he looked human, almost too human. The beings who summoned him all looked up at the giant; Sam had imagined that if their faces could have shown emotion, they would have shown awe and amazement.

He turned his face to Sam, and grinned. Sam blinked and when he opened his eyes the man was now closer to him. Even though Sam still hung on the post, defenseless he at least now had a better view of his adversary. He skin was pale and smooth like marble, and his neatly cut hair was a dark brown. His shiny white smile was inviting, but not comforting, almost like a spider inviting a fly to its web. Even with all his beauty he still looked wrong, especially when a horde of flies began to gather around him. Then Sam saw his were like swirling icey white voids. When Sam looked into them it was as if he could see the pits of Hell.

He saw endless barren fields of gray bedrock. He saw ragged naked men and woman chained to rocks, crying out for mercy as they slowly froze to death, and when they finally did freeze, they thawed out and the whole hellish cycle began over again. He saw people impaled by icicles, trying to gather their own organs which were strewn everywhere. Others lay frozen and frostbitten on the ground, unable to move because their muscles were frozen. One man screamed in agony and icey blue fire danced across his purple frostbitten skin.

Then Sam saw a man, sitting on a throne of snow-white bones. He had the most beautiful face Sam had ever seen. At first he wonder if it was the face of God. But the man had a sinister look about him. His whole aura was dark and mysterious, yet still inviting. He looked like a person who you knew was evil, and you knew could never be saved, but who you yet would still pour your soul into in order to fix. His eyes were as black as night, and yet his hair was still as fair and golden as an angel. Dark runes that Sam didn't recognize slithered across his skin like unwordly serpents.

Sam was snapped back to reality and began to hyperventilate in a panic.

"Did you enjoy what I showed you?" the demon chuckled.

Sam tried and failed to center himself and gasped "What are you?"

"Isn't is obvious?" he cackled. "The better question is, what are you?"

"In the name of Raziel I repel you!" Sam spat.

"Oh." the demon replied. "So you're one of those..."

"Eat me if you must." Sam hissed as flies began to crawl onto his face. "But I hope my blood burns all the way down."

The Greater Demon cackled. "Stupid, stupid mortal." the demon replied. "If I was able to eat you I would have done that immediately. It has been such a long time since I have eaten..."

"I repel you in the name of Raziel!" Sam shouted once again, this time almost swallowing several flies.

"You, repel me?" the being laughed. "The Lord himself could barely repel me. Even with the help of your precious angel you're no match against me. You're lucky I don't strike you down for even mentioning that filthy things name."

Sam looked up at the thing, who managed to even tower over the post that he was tied to. Sam bit into his tongue until he could taste his angelic blood. When he had a mouth full of it he spit it at the demon, where it landed on its face. The demon let out a shriek of surprise and slight annoyance, but not real pain.

"That angel blood is so diluted that it barely even stings" the demon grinned. "Given time I might even enjoy it. Maybe I'll even keep your kind around so I can feast on their blood. Would you like that? Would you like to see me slaughter your entire family?"

"In the name of Raz..." Sam started before the demon raised its hand and slashed him across the face with one quick motion.

"In the name..." Sam started again, bloody streaming down his face, before he was struck once again.

"Are you done?" the demon questioned.

"What do you want?" Sam sobbed.

"You're going to tell me how me how to get into the Alicante and deactive the Demon Towers." the demon answered.

"But why?" Sam asked as flies began to fly to the wounds, licking at his blood and nipping at his raw skin.

"Tell me." the demon demanded.

"How would I know?" Sam sobbed. "I've never even been to Idris."

"Hmmm." the demon started. "That might be problematic."

"In the name of the Angel I repel you!" Sam screamed.

The demon flinched, and the glamor that cloaked the being faded slightly. For a second Sam could see the what the Demon truly looked like. He had the head of a giant fly. Fine hairs covered the face and two large eyes hung on each side. Instead of having the mouth of a fly, it had a giant gaping hole of mangled and bloody teeth. His hand were composed of long and curved claws, like ones of a raptor. His feet looked almost the same, except one of them was chained to the ground by giant black shackles that glowed a dark aura. This demon was not beautiful, and Sam was stupid to think that a demon could be beautiful. The way it truly looked reflected what it actually was. A being of pure darkness, who was hellbent on turning the world to rubble.

"Beelzebub." Sam gasped.

"I will break your bones and suck out the marrow." it wailed.

Sam knew what this Greater Demon was. There was an entire section on him in his Codex. His uncle even taught him and his cousins an entire class on Greater Demons, and his name came up a lot. He was a Prince of Hell, the Demon of Gluttony and Hunger. Its only ambition was to eat and eat, in order to fulfill a hunger that could never be satisfied. Sam also knew there was nothing he could do to banish him. He was too powerful. Banishing him would be a feat alone, killing him would be another matter. It was extremely difficult, if not impossible to kill a Greater Demon. To kill a Greater Demon you must kill it in its worldly and ethereal form. Few had ever accomplished it. The only advantage that Sam had was that only the Demon's worldly form could leave Hell. The Demon was also unable to leave the spot in which he was summoned. The chains that bound him to Hell were even too strong for a Greater Demon to break.

"I'll never tell you anything!" Sam spat. "I'd rather die than tell you anything."

"I think I can arrange that." the Greater Demon, who was now again covered in glamor, chuckled.

"How does it feel to be cast down from heaven?" Sam taunted, trying to buy himself time. He knew signals must be going off all across the Earth. A Greater Demon, especially a Prince of Hell, couldn't break through the Earth's wards without alerting the Clave. If stalled long enough the Conclave might show up and save him.

"How does it feel to know you are slowly withering, mortal?" the demon quickly countered.

"Does that hunger ever go away?" Sam inquired. "Does at gnaw at your insides? I bet it does."

"My hunger will be a thing of the past soon enough." the Demon answered. "I have found one who can break these shackles. While only part of me will be free, it will be enough for me to consume this entire pitiful planet."

Then Sam heard a noise off in the distance, the sound of a howling wolf. Then he heard another, and another. At first he was afraid. A pack of wild wolves was the least thing the situation needed. The Demon himself even turned its head when the sound of large foot prints padding across the ground could be heard. The sounds were getting louder and louder, closer and closer. Sam wondered if these wolves could actually be hell hounds, which had been summoned by Beelzebub himself. But when he looked at the Demon's face he saw fear, which was an emotion you only saw on a demon's face when they knew knew they were about to die.

"You shouldn't have called them." the demon hissed as he reach forward to grip Sam's neck with his gruesome claws. "Now quickly, tell me how to get past the Demon Towers before I pop your head like a mel.."

Right before the giant could finish its sentence a giant wolf, which was the bright silvery color of a full moon, leaped out from the brush behind them and directly onto the giant's face. The demon released its grip from Sam's neck and gripped the back of the wolf's neck, trying to get it off its face as the wolf bit and scratched at it. The demon let out a howl of pain as a second wolf, this one smaller and the color of charcoal, sunk its teeth into the Greater Demon's thigh. Black ichor bled out of the wound and fell onto the back of the second wolf, which let out a yip of pain.

Suddenly the post that Sam was tied to began to shake and sway. Sam looked down and saw that one especially large gray wolf kept charging into the post, apparently trying to capsize it. Sam let out a yip of surprise when he heard the wood snap and he began to plummet back to the ground. When he finally hit the ground he landed on his left shoulder and let out a cry of pain. He looked up to see the same giant gray wolf standing over him.

It's eyes held emotion; it didn't have the expressionless eyes of an animal. He expected the wolf to attack him, tear him to shreds, but it didn't. It nuzzled Sam's cheek, almost like a mother wolf would do to her pup. It effortlessly bit through the ropes that bound Sam to the fallen post. Sam looked down to his wrists, which we bloody and rope burned. He stood up, dusted himself off, and petted the wolf on the head out of gratitude. As soon as Sam's hand left the wolf's head it sprinted over to his companion's, who were slaughtering the beings who had held Sam captive and summoned the Greater Demon.

One wolf leaped feet into the air, which seemed impossible for a wolf, and bit into the neck of one of the beings, quickly and cleaning taking its head off. Another pounced on one and flung it several feet into the air. When it fell back to Earth it make a sickly snapping sound.

Sam turned his head away and pulled out his stele out of his boot and began to draw an iratze on his arm, close to his shoulder, but not close enough that he would feel pain caused by the dislocation. He quickly and carefully drew the curves and and quick twists before it was finally done. It glowed a bright golden color and then sank into his pale skin, not even leaving behind a scar. He instantly felt better and ready to fight, but by the time he had pulled out his seraph blade all of the hooded figures were either dead or gone.

He looked up and saw that every single wolf that was still alive had leaped onto the giant who let out cries of struggle. All the wolves viciously bit into him, ignoring the savage burn of the ichor when it touched their skin. After minutes of battle the demon finally fell to the ground, defeated. When the wolves finally finished him off he let out a shriek of pain and collapsed into himself, only leaving behind a massive horde of flies, all of which scattered in seconds.

The silver wolf, the one who had leaped onto Beelzebub, trotted up to Sam. It had bright blue eyes, which seemed unusual for a wolf. They held a look of mischief and amusement, the same you might see from a little boy who had gotten away with something. Suddenly the wolf changed. One second it was a wolf, and the next a man nicely dressed in a dark gray waistcoat and black trousers.

He had short black hair, which was starting to gray, and the same bright blue eyes that he had in wolf from. His skin was fair, but was slightly dirty from when he was in wolf form. Across his left cheek was a giant ragged scar. It looked like it had been given to him by a giant claw. Most people with scars on their faces look intimidating, but to Sam the claw gave a certain ruggedness to the man who otherwise looked like a foreign prince. He grinned friendlily at Sam and extended his hand in order for it to be shaken.

"Hello." the man greeted. "My name is Arthur Wolfsbane, and I am the leader of the Philadelphia Wolf Pack.