This chapter took 2 days to write and 1 day to review.. Phew, finally it is over. This is part 1.
Some blood and gore details ahead. But if you have been reading this fanfiction from the beginning, you'd know that's a given.
Please comment, good, bad, blah.. anything, give me a shout out. The silence is deafening.
The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. - Confucius
Chamber of Bone
The entire room was in shades of crimson. There were rich, blood red drapes and banners, all along the walls. The fireplace was painted red, against a dull brown wall. A beautiful, large high, Baroque chaise lounge was in a corner, blood red blankets and pillows sensuously arranged on it.
There was an oval, ornate mirror behind the chaise, so that the lovers on the bed could see their reflections in the mirror. All this furniture was towards the corner of the room, the center was empty. The fire was burning high.
Pepper stared at it as it burned with an unusual flame, thin and feathery, like tendrils, like streams of crimson. Is the fire burning with blood? A tremor shook her body at that thought and she felt Tony lightly catch her shoulder, as if to brace her.
They fanned out slightly. Pepper wondered, Where is that bitch? Where is Morganna?
"Morganna!" yelled Tony. "Show yourself, you devil. Face justice tonight!"
Pepper's heart began to thump loudly as the fire began to seep outside the fireplace, onto the floor. It lay there in a thick, shiny, red pool of blood and slowly a body began to rise from the pool. She heard the Blonde from Boron, shriek in fear at the sight. Finally, Morganna stood before them, seductively clothed in clingy crimson robes, midnight hair cascading down her back.
She said throatily "My, my, so many mighty people have come... just to face harmless old me. Welcome, welcome to the Chamber of Bone."
Then she threw back her head and laughed maniacally. "How rude of me, I forgot to mention my companion. He's busy snacking, so you will have to excuse his... appearance."
She gestured violently at the mirror, which began to creepily move forward on its own from behind the chaise lounge. Pepper and the group took a step back. But Tony stood his ground.
The mirror clouded over and then turned black, darkness swirling in it. It cleared to reveal a man, only his torso and head were visible, screaming in pain, trying to crawl away from something behind him. The man's screams were piercing and they heard chomping, smacking noises emerge from the mirror.
Then the man was dragged away into the distance, still screaming. Splashes of flesh and blood began to dot the mirror's surface and drip onto the floor. Pepper wanted to vomit but controlled herself. She's trying to frighten you. Do not fall for it. It can be defeated. Stick to the plan.
She nodded at the Blonde, who had gone very pale. Morganna was looking at them and grinning wickedly. She looked Tony up and down.
"My lord, you are truly a force to be reckoned with. Here I thought you safely dead and instead you are standing in front me. No matter, I admit I enjoy torturing you. This time I will draw it out."
Tony laughed at her and yelled, "I'm not here for you, woman! I am here to face your master." He let out a burst of flame towards Morganna, who fell back to avoid it. Then he broke into a run and charged towards the mirror. Pepper watched with fear as the mirror swallowed him whole.
Morganna watched him disappear with astonishment. "I have to applaud his gall. Now who amongst you is fearless enough to face me? Is it you, my large manly friend?"
She smiled lustily at Happy who gulped. "Now why does a handsome big man like you want to hurt me?"
Pepper tossed a pillow from the ground at Morganna who dodged it. The witch narrowed her eyes menacingly at Pepper, who insolently said, ""Time to face your fears, witch. Time to face me."
Morganna laughed and said, "So be it, red haired fool. Oh, and for the rest of you... handle three of my admirers, will you?"
From her robes, she fished out a handful of what looked suspiciously like bones. Then she threw them down with force. From the impact, four skeletal forms appeared, flesh and sinew stuck to their bones. They began to move menacingly towards the two maidens and Happy.
Pepper faced Morganna, sword raised, shield in front of her.
Astral Plane
Darkness, darkness, everywhere ... Dragon, are you still there?
Yes I am, Anthony and there is our foe. Look to your left.
Tony had explained this to Pepper and Happy. The demon was not completely in the mortal dimension, the one they occupied. He was in an astral plane parallel to it. He spoke to Morganna through the jewel and the mirror let him reach out to the mortal plane. Tony had to fight him in the astral plane and banish him from within it.
Tony hesitantly placed one step forward. There was no pathway or road or even a floor but blackness all around. He was literally stepping onto emptiness and he wondered if there was an edge to this plane and how would he make out, where to walk and where not to.
The dragon murmured, It is fine, there is no edge, it stretches infinitely, you cannot escape it unless through a banishing circle. Walk towards the demon.
Tony reluctantly moved towards the gruesome sight in the near distance. The courtier was ... torn open, his rib cage and bones exposed and his flesh in chunks and pieces around him. Like a cat, the demon was lying on its stomach and chewing on the exposed flesh and organs of the corpse's belly.
Tony swallowed as he saw huge curling horns, like that of a large ram, visible above the mangled corpse. The horns were moving. Then the demon lord raised his head. He stood up and stared at Tony.
He was at least 8 feet tall, muscular and broad chested with huge arms, thick tree trunk-like thighs and hooves for feet. His flesh was dull crimson in color. He had those imposing horns on his head and two, tiny wings at the top of his shoulders. His hands were humanish, with fingers and huge nails. A large pentagram was emblazoned on his chest.
The demon had an intelligent, rather handsome face with a Roman nose and high cheekbones. His eyes were deep set in his face, wide and yellow with no pupils. Then he grinned and Tony halted in his tracks. He had rows and rows of large canine-like teeth. Blood dripped from his jaw and teeth.
Tony swallowed again.
Do not be afraid, Anthony. We are not going to fight him, just stall him, murmured the dragon.
Tony stopped a safe distance away from the corpse. He said jovially, "Greetings, Fair Demon Lord, Prince of Hell, Lord most powerful, Destroyer of Souls."
And Tony bowed from the waist, keeping an eye on the demon.
The demon regally nodded his head and began to speak in an unholy, deep, gravelly voice.
"Greetings, Knight in Blue.
I must applaud your manners.
Most humans either scream or run at me with a sword.
Now why are you here? In the astral plane.
Are you dinner or entertainment?"
Tony had sheathed his sword before entering the plane. He placed a hand on its hilt.
"My lord, I'm afraid I'm neither. Your presence here is unwanted. Of course it is unwanted because you've been eating the poor fools who sleep with your consort. Anyways you must return to the depths from whence you came."
The demon stroked his jaw slowly.
"Again, I must say, a polite knight is almost as fantastical a concept as a demon lord.
Yet here we both stand.
Since you are politely asking, I shall refuse... politely.
I'm enjoying myself too much."
You don't need your sword, Anthony. Remember, we are going to cage him, not wound him. Use both hands on the shield.
Tony raised the kite shield as the demon began to chuckle evilly and his horns began to burn.
Chamber of Bone
Pepper mentally ran through the plan in her head as she and Morganna slowly circled each other.
Tony's going to make a banishing cage for the Demon Lord. Happy is going to make a banishing circle around the witch and he's going to smash the jewel with the rock, right in the middle of the circle. And me? I'm going to make Morganna pay for torturing Tony.
Morganna pulled out a pair of small blades and began to stretch herself languorously.
Pepper gritted her teeth. Slowly and patiently. She's arrogant, I need to fool her into getting over confident and giving me an opening. I also need to wait for the jewel to break.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Happy fight the undead courtiers with the Blonde from Boron and the other maiden.
Morganna suddenly flung both blades at Pepper. Pepper raised her shield and managed to deflect both of them.
She watched warily as Morganna conjured up a long thin saber out of thin air. She gestured at Pepper impudently.
Do not lose your temper. Do not get aggressive.
Pepper took a defensive stance and stood her ground. Morganna charged towards her and Pepper shoved the shield in her face, pushing her back. The impact knocked Morganna off balance and she stumbled.
She picked herself up and struck at Pepper with her sword, using a wide step. Pepper nimbly dodged out of reach.
It was her time to strike and Pepper raised her sword and brought it down on Morganna who raised her saber in time. The swords clashed loudly and Pepper and Morganna pushed at each other with force, each trying to knock the other one down.
Pepper pulled her sword back abruptly, causing Morganna to fall forward. Pepper took advantage of this to box her squarely in the face. Her hand connected hard with flesh and bone. Morganna cried out and moved away quickly, glaring at Pepper angrily. Her nose was bleeding.
First blood drawn by me.
Astral Plane
Tony panted, slightly out of breath as he quickly dodged another one of the demon's fire balls.
The demon was too large to physically chase Tony. Also, he was too full after eating. So he was breathing demon fire onto his hands, rolling it into balls of fire and lobbying them at Tony, who was running in a wide circle around the demon.
Tony felt the demon was playing with him, to tire him out before he actually got aggressive. He decided to aggravate him with some teasing.
"Such tiny balls, my lord? I expected more from a prince of hell. Take a look at my balls!"
Tony charged towards him and raised his gauntlet. He let out a powerful stream of flame that engulfed the demon but did absolutely no damage to it.
The demon chortled merrily.
"Tiny, silly human.
Think your flame can match mine?"
He stopped laughing abruptly as a small rock hit him squarely in the eye. Then another. It was Tony turn to giggle as he threw small stones at the demon, hitting him in the face with great accuracy.
This seemed to piss the demon off. A lot. He roared powerfully and shook his great head. The pentagram in his chest began to burn.
"Disrespectful ant! You dare to throw stones at me!"
He opened his mouth and blew a steady, hot stream of flame at Tony. Who raised his shield in front of his body and blocked it. The shield protected him but he could feel the heat of the flame on his body. He started to really sweat hard in his suit.
Wow, that's hot! I could have fried an egg with this heat. Phew! What do you think Dragon, are we doing fine?
The dragon whispered, Keep this up, Anthony. He hasn't noticed the stone circle around him. Now next step, you need to make a vertical ellipse. Slowly, slowly inch closer to the demon. Preserve your strength.
I hope you like my depiction of Asmodeus, who is a real Prince of Hell. I tried to do him justice.
Tony is actually going toe-to-toe with a demon. Wow, good on you, Tony.
If you expected Tony to physically fight the demon prince, well... that's not realistic. I know you are going to say, "well, this is fiction, is it supposed to be realistic?" But from what I've read, fighting a demon and surviving is next to impossible. Some amount of sorcery is needed.
So Tony and Pepper are fighting separately in two dimensions, at the same time. I hope switching between dimensions doesn't get confusing for you nice readers. If it does, let me know in the comments. I will redo this chapter and the next one.