Note: Warning - this is where the chapter earns itself its M rating, if it had not already done so with all the finger burning. Keep that in mind but enjoy nonetheless, the action is coming thick and fast!

Inferno

Twenty-Five

"Miss Cackle!"

Mildred was torn as she saw her headmistress faint, her eyes moving from the fallen teacher to the gathered adult magicians, and from them to Maud, next to her, holding her arm in an iron grip. Her friend had pulled her back into the safety of the group of girls when Miss Hardbroom had collapsed those few minutes previously, and at that time Mildred had been too shell-shocked to protest. Now, she felt she had a better hold on herself and she tried to push forward, pulling Maud with her.

"Millie please," pleaded Maud. "Stay back here with us, safety in numbers."

"I have to agree with Maud," said Enid on her other side. "The Chief Wizard's helping her Mil, there's nothing we can do, face it. We're safer staying here."

"We have to do something!" Mildred snapped. "We can't just stand here like lemons! What happens when we don't have Miss Cackle or Miss Hardbroom? They're our best chance!"

"I'm with Mildred." Mildred turned to see Ethel stepping forward beside Enid. "We can't stand here and expect the adults to fight our battles for us."

Mildred could see the pained look in Maud's face before her friend gave in with a sigh.

"Come on then," she said. "But we'll all go." She muttered something under her breath, and Mildred caught a repetition of her earlier words 'safety in numbers'. She, Maud, Mildred and Ethel set out to trip the short journey across the perilous ice to see for themselves their headmistress's wellbeing. By the time they reached Miss Cackle she had begun to recover, the Chief Wizard helping her into a sitting position.

"Miss Cackle, are you alright?" Mildred asked, just as Miss Bat skidded to a stop and toppled forwards onto the ice next to them, before getting to her feet and brushing herself down.

"Amelia!" she cried. "What's happening? What are we going to do now? We're all going to die, aren't we?" The chanting teacher was heading for another bout of hysterics, thought Mildred, and if they weren't careful then they would have a third faint on their hands in the space of ten minutes. She cast a glance over at Miss Hardbroom, who was still leaning against Della for support, looking over at Miss Cackle with a near-sisterly concern. Mildred's gaze returned to her headmistress, who, whilst sickly pale, had regained consciousness quickly, and was looking at Miss Bat with an expression that was part worry and part exasperation.

"Miss Bat... Miss Bat!"

Miss Drill moved for the first time since they had stepped out onto the ice field, coming forward to the group gathered around the headmistress and gently pulling Miss Bat back, taking her shoulders in a firm but friendly hold and leading her away, murmuring soothing reassurances to try and get the petite singing-mistress to calm down.

"Are you going to be ok Miss Cackle?" asked Maud quietly. Miss Cackle nodded and carefully lifted herself off the ground using the Chief Wizard for support.

"I think I will be fine, Mildred, it was just the shock of seeing Agatha... of seeing her..." Miss Cackle shook her head, unable to bring herself to finish her sentence. "She may have been evil to the core, she may have sold her soul, but she was still my sister. Her screams..."

Having ascertained that the headmistress was going to be alright, Mildred decided that perhaps it would be best to leave her to grieve the loss of her family member in peace, and Maud's actions, tugging at her arm to guide her back to the rest of the students, mirrored her train of thought. They moved away, back towards the comparatively safe haven in the shadow of the castle walls, passing Miss Drill and Miss Bat. The latter was regaling the former with a story from her childhood, something completely unrelated to their current situation. She was so absorbed in telling the tale that she didn't notice the half-smile that the PE teacher gave to the girls over the top of her head. If getting her to think about something mundane and far-removed from their present reality was what it took to get Miss Bat away from the verge of palpitations then Miss Drill was prepared to listen to the far-fetched and slightly incredible yarn.

"It really is most interesting," said a too-familiar voice, and the girls stopped, turning back. In the confusion that Agatha's damnation and Miss Cackle's faint had engendered, Mildred had completely forgotten about the presence of the Devil, even though they were still undeniably in the confines of the ninth circle. She watched him as he moved from the shadows and walked with measured steps onto the plain, moving around the small groups with a genuinely fascinated expression. "Most interesting indeed."

Mildred shuddered as he passed by her, and she thought for an awful moment that he was going to harass Miss Hardbroom into unconsciousness again, but he bypassed them all to come to a stop in the centre of the section of the ice that they occupied, surrounded on three sides by magicians and non-magicians of varying ability and inherent power.

"I have never seen such a closely bonded group of people. The ties that bind you together are unlike any I have ever seen. So stoic even in the face of death, staring at the jaws of eternal damnation. It is usually in these circumstances that even the most strongly founded and purest of friendships crumble leaving every man for himself and every magician standing alone against a common foe. But here you are, in the very depths of your despair, and you are solid till the end. A most uncommon bond, one that not even I can touch."

He smiled cruelly.

"I may just have to keep you here a little longer for observation."

Mildred thought of the souls beneath the ice, Agatha the latest among their number, all kept there because the Devil found the evils that they had committed in life to be 'interesting' and warrant an eternity's worth of further research. He had virtually said as much when he had forced Agatha down to join them. Now they were to become the newest additions to his collection, though they had committed no crime.

"You said they would be safe!" The voice was akin to the hiss of an angry cat, and almost unrecognisable until Mildred saw its owner push forward a few paces. Miss Hardbroom broke away from Della and made her way uneasily towards the Devil, stopping well short of him and still within the reach of her companions. "You promised me that the girls would be safe!"

Mildred gasped inwardly, remembering the inaudible words that he had whispered to the teacher before she had fainted. Had he really been guaranteeing their freedom? Surely his most recent actions with Agatha showed that one could never trust the Devil.

"And so they will be," said the Devil, matter-of-factly. "You'll think of something to get you out of this latest scrape, you always do. You came so far in such a short space of time in these past two days, I really would be most disappointed if you couldn't think of some miraculous escape plan in time."

"Beast! Liar!" Miss Hardbroom snarled, throwing her hands forward and unleashing an unsullied stream of magic, red sparks shooting wildly from her fingertips, the raw power bubbling through her, almost palpable in the air. The display of power – the combined force of Della's channelled magic with the deputy head's inherent skill and strength – was something almost mesmerising to watch, a stunning visual display, but the Devil was not so appreciative. He snarled, his face contorting into something near-inhuman, for the first time looking truly demonic and otherworldly, and as the bolt could hit him, he melted into ink just as Agatha had done, leaving no trace behind. Miss Hardbroom stopped, panting slightly, and leaned over to catch her breath.

Mildred looked around wildly for the Devil, wondering where he could be, but she could see no sign of him. She peered frantically into all of the many shadows that the icescape afforded but she could see nothing. She didn't trust her eyes, she hadn't done for a while, and an inner sense was telling her that he was still there, somewhere, that the danger was not over and had just become even more frighteningly real.

"Is it over?" asked Della quietly. "Is that it? Our combined power killed him?"

Miss Hardbroom shook her head as she straightened up once more and pushed her still-loose hair out of her face.

"No," she said grimly, voicing Mildred's exact thoughts. "No, he's still here somewhere, he's got to be. It can't be that easy. Life is never that easy."

"Of course it isn't," said the Devil's voice, but there was still no sign of any physical form. "No no, I am still perfectly intact. Agatha, rest her soul, was not the only illusionist among us. She had to learn the talent from someone, after all. Oh no, I'm afraid that you have been duped again."

Mildred felt the unnatural icy breeze that had been blowing in the background throughout their time in the ninth circle suddenly pick up, lifting the ends of her plaits and buffeting her around the face with them. She grabbed the bunches of hair before they injured her and looked towards the far horizon, where the very atmosphere itself seemed to be shimmering with the same invisible force that had surrounded Miss Hardbroom's fingers when that illusion had been revealed.

"The person that you saw and whom you all so naturally assumed was the Devil was not actually my true form, just as this is not my true voice. It was merely a physical manifestation of my consciousness, an image I created from my long-imprisoned mind."

Mildred could hear a roaring under the mellow tones of the disembodied voice, and she was certain that it was a sound separate from the whistling wind.

"It was a very effective image, I might add, no regular hologram can catch swooning damsels in distress." The voice sighed, and the shimmer began to melt away, the illusion starting to reveal itself. They were about to come face to face with the true Devil, and Mildred had a vision, a vivid, nightmarish vision of the Devil from legend, horned and tattooed and terrifying. "Alas, despite my desire to continue to fool you, your magic has forced my hand somewhat, and the time has come for you to meet the true me."

The shimmer fell, and several of the pupils screamed. Mildred did not; she could not, her breath was catching in her throat. Before her was the image of her vision, but stronger tenfold.

The beast was horned, each curling antler as long as the castle was tall, the appendages protruding from a black, snarling head, raw flesh inscribed with blood red markings in a language incomprehensible to her. The roaring was coming from its mouth, a gaping orifice filled with jagged fangs. There was no skin, Mildred realised with a jolting stomach, and she could see the way the muscles stretched over the bones, see every line and sinew, all pitch black and carved with the same scarlet markings. The creature had wings, tattered and torn sails of muscle bursting from its back and flapping wildly in beat with its clawed arms as it struggled to free itself from the ice where it was imprisoned from the waist down. The violent movement, Mildred now knew, was the cause of the veritable hurricane battering the group.

The piercing red eyes were the only thing that this awful apparition shared with its human manifestation, a manifestation which flickered briefly in front of the beast, smiling cruelly and allowing the gathered group to see the scant similarities between the two.

"Here we are," said the voice, and Mildred strained to hear it above the terrible sounds of the beast. "May I have the pleasure of introducing you to... myself? I think I shall leave you all to get acquainted. After all, you only have an eternity in which to get to know each other."

The image melted into ink for good, and the gathered party stared in horror-struck awe at the true shape of the Devil.

"Satan," Maud whispered beside Mildred. "In Dante's Inferno, he is imprisoned in the centre of hell for the ultimate sin, his flapping wings creating the wind that freezes over the ninth circle."

Mildred could not reply, she could only gaze in mute terror at the awful vision.

When Miss Bat gave a whimpered and barely audible moan of 'we're all going to die', no-one attempted to contradict her.

Note2: TO BE CONTINUED

(Erm, I should have pointed this out earlier I guess, but this story has no religious undertones - it's linked solely with other pieces of literature, not any semblance of my religious views.)

Coming up on Inferno: The power of three, the power of the Devil and yet another ruddy cliffhanger...

*Kimmeth gives puppy dog eyes... please review in spite of the above...*

But on a real note people, there are but two chapters and an epilogue left. We are nearly at the end! *Sobs.*