Chapter 20 - Punishment
Chip suddenly opened his eyes and found he couldn't see a thing. The blackest of darkness filled his surroundings, very much as being inside a coffin. The horrible idea only lasted a few seconds, though, as he soon realized he was actually falling down a pit, even doing it headfirst, as indicated by the throbbing pain in the temples and a primal feeling of being upside down. Then it hit him like a brick. the recollection of his last action on earth. He, Chip Maplewood, had committed suicide by stabbing himself with the magical longswords in an attempt to follow Gadget down to hell. "Yeah, I really outdone myself this time, didn't I?"
No answer whatsoever. "Huggin? Munnin?" He soon realized his paws weren't holding the magical swords anymore, nor they were fastened around his waist or back. Even the scabbards were gone. A distressing thought came to him, the ravens had abandoned him. Their presence had vanished and he could feel it in his mind. "These cowards! How do they expect me to…"
Suddenly, a slithering tentacle wrapped around the chipmunk's body one and two and three times, making him yell in terror as the serpent squeezed him to the point of breaking some of his bones. The helpless Chip was about to pass out of pain when the punishment came to a halt and a powerful voice growled right in front of him. "Lust! Wrath! Violence!" It boomed, then came a pause, after which the obscured judge added: "Suicide".
The grip loosened and the fall resumed. Almost out of nowhere, the entire plane of hell finally opened into view. Chip was spared from the terrible sight, unconscious as he was. For the denizens of these layers, the chipmunk was but one among hundreds of souls falling on that moment like drops of rain into their designated circles of punishment. In the case of the dead ranger, that circle was the fifth one. More exactly, the legendary forest of suicides.
Down he went, ignited in flames. He didn't feel any significant pain, though. Not even when he came into contact with the foliage at high speed and crashed against the ground with all the grace of a meteorite. The chipmunk ended up laying down very still at the base of a ghastly oak, his face buried in a mound of scarlet-dyed leaves.
A cacophony of mournful weeps and moans quickly sent Chip back to his senses. Instinctively he rolled over and, as his vision got used to the dim light of faraway bonfires, he managed to distinguish the features of a rodent face – complete with fangs and snout - protruding off the exposed root, just as if they were fused into a single being. The expression was one of infinite sorrow, with long lines of red that spilled over fallen leaves and bedeviled soil. Indeed, this face was crying tears of blood.
"So, it was true… this is the forest of suicides!" Chip said sucking his breath and, incredulous, reached forward to touch the weeping face. The moment he did so, the mouth opened wide to voice an ear-shattering lament, which was followed by every other gnarled tree and brittle underbrush in the vicinity, causing him to cover his ears, lose his balance and fall backwards into one of the many bloody puddles. "Gah! It hurts!" He said, his own voice drowned in a sea of frenzied screams.
Then, for his utmost horror, he realized there were roots growing out from his paws and feet!
"No… no!" The dead chipmunk yelled and tried to jump straight again, but the forest wouldn't let him go that easily. All the contrary, now branches complete with foliage sprouted out of his head and spine, and he promptly discovered a new kind of pain as his body, arms and legs began to contort in twisting unnatural ways more fitting of a nightmarish plant than a small animal.
The transformation that would forever bind the ranger to the forest of suicides was about to be completed when a swarm of black feathers enveloped and raised him as high as one foot up in the air, dispelling the curse as they whirled and whirled around his body. When Chip opened his eyes again, he found himself back on the ground, clean from the blood and the sprouts, the pair of long swords waiting for him at arm's length. "Well met, hero!" Huggin and Munnin intruded in the chipmunk's consciousness again with loud echoes, very much like a returning mild headache.
"About time, dammit!" He jeered at his lost guides as he got up to his knees and took a grip on the blades. "Where the hell had you been all this time?" He said as the blades together with the scabbards bound themselves to his belt.
"Hidden, of course" Said one shamelessly.
"I can't but notice you missed us, chipmunk" Boasted the other.
"Hmpf! Actually…"
On that moment came soaring out of the trees a beast so hideous, so grotesque that gave the ranger an urgent desire to join the trees in their screams. A large bird with razor-sharp talons and the head of a human woman, known to him and others as a harpy, dived for the kill. "God in heaven…" He muttered, and before he even knew it, was again on his feet and running for dear life.
Following his most primal instinct, he scurried back into the maze of blood-soaked underbrush, the only place where the fiend couldn't reach him no matter how much she tried. All that harpy managed to do was to cause pain to other damned souls as she wildly broke branches and snapped wooden limbs in her attempts to seize the dead hero.
"We must leave this forest at once!" The ranger said to his companions. "Which way should I go?"
"We… don't know"
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"We've never been in hell before!" Munnin confessed. "This place is as unknown to us as it is for you"
"It is a miracle we can still stay morphed into blades" Huggin added. "Some of our magic persist in this layer"
Chip came to a halt behind the trunk of a large thorn tree. The harpy was nowhere to be seen, but her enraged shrieks could still be heard above the dense foliage. "So, there was a chance you couldn't be here at all?" He asked quite irked. "What about shadowstep? It keeps working?"
"There is only one way to be sure"
"I bet it is" He mumbled under his breath, then ran towards the nearest shadow and jumped in it, half expecting to crash squarely. That scenario didn't occur, though. As luck would have it, the ranger teleported out of another shadow sixty feet away. "Not bad at all!"
"The all-father keeps smiling on us even in this vile plane"
Jumping from shadow to shadow, Chip was able to leave the cursed forest physically unscathed. A barren wasteland opened into view, and the dead chipmunk was finally able to take in the atmosphere of that world. The air reeked of musty old death, and the temperature was certainly uncomfortable. There was also a constant rumble, as though from distant earthquakes that made the pebbles around him dance and made difficult for a small creature like him to keep the balance from time to time. An enormous crimson-tainted sun reigned supreme on the sky, bathing everything in different layers of red. Chip almost immediately began to feel overheated underneath his cloak and leather doublet.
The trio of travelers could see the distant flickering lights of what seemed to be a settlement, not far away on the distance. "Do you think…" Chip said narrowing his eyes. "That might be the city of Dis?"
"No idea" The ravens answered dryly.
"We better hurry up. Wait for me, Gadget!"
Just as the dead chipmunk had finished pulling his hood over the face a heavy and spiked mace struck the ground right in front of him with such force that sent the dead chipmunk flying backwards. Then, from above came a female voice, sweet and arousing. "Gadget Hackwrench? Is she your wife?"
Chip stood up with a jolt, only to gaze upon a creature out of the most insane of fantasies. An angel at first sight, clad in rich black full plate armor with a shield strapped in one arm, humanoid in figure and female in gender. However, soon it became clear she was not of divine nature. A pair of elongated horns that protruded out of the forehead, feathery wings that were as red as fresh blood and a long slim reptilian tail gave her away as some kind of devil. A breathtaking female devil. One with sensual curves, ruby red skin, black short hair with long side bangs, golden eyes… as golden and bright as… "Mephisto's…" The chipmunk muttered in awe.
The devil touched ground and frowned. "How do you know that name, little sinner?"
All kind of alarms resounded in the ranger's mind. "What are you doing? Run away!" Huggin cried out.
"Speak!" She commanded, and her voice echoed in all corners of the ranger's mind. "Tell me everything"
"Our host is getting bewitched!"
"Oh my" She giggled. "I thought I was alone with this good-looking chipmunk!" She then walked forward, picked up the frozen Chip, raised him to eye-level and stared intently at his dark eyes, all while wearing a most teasing smile. "Just how many souls are in there?"
The effect of the spell increased by a tenfold. Chip's legs wobbled, his heart raced as if about to spring out of his chest, his mouth opened agape. At that point there was nothing his companions could do to assist him. "I need to find Mephisto" He slowly confessed.
"So, what your business with that old snake is, handsome?" She questioned in a most dulcet tone. The entire landscape of Hell closed in darkness around Chip, except for these golden eyes… these beautiful golden eyes!"
He ended up confessing everything.
The charming spell was dispelled as abruptly as it had been cast. Once again Chip was able to hear and suffer the berating voices of his high-pitched companions drilling through his mind. "Oh, shut up!" He yelled, then immediately got aware of his own situation. "Hey, let me go!"
"Wait!" The erinyes opened his hand. "Let's talk this over!"
"You bewitched me!" He accused as he drew his swords.
"Sorry about that, honestly! She apologized chirpily. "I had to make sure you weren't one of Mephisto's customers! They venture down here from time to time, you know?"
"No, I'm not a 'customer'. I'm exactly the opposite of that"
"Yes, you already disclosed that" She gave him a cocky grin. "Let's just start again, shall we?" She put the chipmunk back on the ground. "So, what's your name, ranger?"
"Chip Maplewood, I already told you as much" He answered curtly.
"Anyway, pleased to meet you" She made a courtesy bow. "I'm Bryseis, I'm an erinyes and a paladin of the order of vengeance"
The ranger relaxed his stance. "An erinyes? I read about them a long time ago…" After a short pause, he quoted. ""the erinyes, that under earth take vengeance on men, whosoever hath sworn a false oath"
The fair-looking devil stood up and applauded. "Oh, someone here has read The Iliad! However, Homer only got our life purpose half-right. An erinyes' job is to bring swift death to any creature of hell that defies the edicts of the nine lords" She patted the spiked maze for emphasis.
"Is that so?" Chip rubbed his chin. "I'd say it sounds suspiciously convenient you haven't struck me down yet, taking into account I'm breaking these laws you just boasted about"
Bryseis fell pensive for a long second, in which the dead chipmunk berated himself for failing at subtlety once more. Then, for his relief, she cracked a wolfish smile. "Well, yours is a special case, as you confessed to be traveling accompanied by these ravens… these agents of the god Odin…" After a pause, she waved her palm in a salute and said: "Sælir, you two"
"Oh, she knows old Norse!" The ravens gasped quite impressed.
"How…" Chip asked sharing the sentiment.
"Oh, l have a knack for learning earth languages. So many of you mortals end up here, with so many stories to tell" She then rubbed her chin. "You know, I'm starting to suspect this meeting of us didn't happen by mere chance. As it turns out, I was on my way to punish Mephisto – permanently-."
Chip's mouth hung open at these words. "You were? Wait… perhaps… you are the one he was talking about! The one he was afraid to meet! He mentioned you during our battle"
"Hmpf!" The erinyes' face darkened. "Afraid to meet me but not afraid to break the most sacred of our laws?" Then she slumped her shoulders quite annoyed. "It is just as daddy used to say, 'A paladin's work never ends'"
"I can relate to that" The ranger nodded seriously. "And what was Mephisto's crime, according to you?"
"To dishonor a contract" Judge stated solemnly. "By collecting the soul of the customer before their natural death by means of murder"
"Oh yes, he exactly did so. Twice" Chip's fists clenched and unclenched.
"You are a mortal. You only see half of the picture" She explained. "Contracts are sacred for us devils and our society. If word spreads that our dealers are deceitful murderers the economy of Hell might collapse! The great lords won't tolerate that. That's why Mephisto must be punished swiftly and remarkably, for everybody to see!"
Munnin then came up with an idea. "What a great coincidence, is it not? We came across not only with a friendly devil, but with one with the same quest as us"
Feeling the chipmunk's doubtful stare, the erinyes stood up and looked at the blood-colored sky. "As I said, I was on my way to Dis when I spotted you from high above. I just couldn't take my eyes out of you, and some strange force compelled me to come and meet you. Your master Odin is to blame, perhaps? I didn't even know he was still alive. In any case, I believe we can benefit from a partnership. Want me to take you to Dis?"
"Of course!"
The ravens' objections were so aggressive that made their furry host back off with a sudden migraine. "By Thor's beard, Enough!" Munnin yelled. "Think with the brain and not with…"
"This is an obvious trap!" Huggin threw in. "Too good to be true! This temptress is going to stab you in the back any moment soon!"
The armor-clad erinyes leaned forward to meet the chipmunk's eyes. "Are your feathered friends giving you trouble again?" She asked with an expression of honest concern.
"As usual" Chip grimaced as he stood straight again. "But they aren't of much help down here so I don't care about their opinion" He shook his head and then gave Bryseis a fanged grin. "Come on, let's go meet our mutual acquaintance"
"With pleasure" The paladin turned around and stepped into the portal. "You are gonna love Dis. It's a city like no other!"
"I wonder…" The dead chipmunk mumbled and bravely jumped on the erinyes' hand, drowning the candid protests of his spiritual companions. From there, Bryseis placed him in the safety of a pouch tied to her belt. Yet, sticky leftovers and a rancid smell of whatever had been stored there previously forced Chip to stick his head and arms out in a frantic attempt to breath cleaner air.
Bryseis took flight again, beating her wings furiously until she gained enough altitude to get her bearings again over the desolate wasteland. An impressive feat considering the weight of her armor, shield and weapon. Soon the group darted past the settlement whose light Chip had seen before, which turned out to be just an outpost of some kind.
The she-devil dived into a portal suspended in the air and in the blink of an eye the landscape changed completely. The sky was now cloudy dull green and shot through with thunder and lightning. Then, an immense city several kilometers in height and hundreds of kilometers wide came into view, filling the chipmunk and the ravens with dread and awe. The walls of the buildings and the stones of the streets glowed with the dull red of hot iron. Wails of woe could be heard filtering up through small vents in the iron walls, where from time to time burned and scarred arms reached out. In the very center of the city rose a massive iron tower of most evil foreboding, from where winged devils of different species and sizes landed and departed.
Bryseis landed flawlessly on top of a fountain situated on a very busy crossroad, allowing Chip to take his first closer look at the citizens of the infernal city. Just like his new partner, every citizen had scarlet red skin, coal dark hair (with a few exceptions) and solid eyes of either gold, white or black. Interestingly enough, winged devils were the minority and red-feathery ones were none to be seen. Pretty much like in Paris, they were all and about with their daily routine. Shops, markets and taverns were crowded, mischievous children played in parks where twisted trees somehow clung to life, carriages pushed by horses of flaming manes and tails ran through the streets without any consideration to pedestrians. Pretty much like back in Paris.
Of course, there was bound to be differences, as the perceptive chipmunk quickly noticed. Little devils known to him as imps were everywhere and annoyed everyone, like pigeons use to do back in the land of the living. "Hey, just a second!" Munnin berated his furry host. "Don't you have a pigeon friend back in your god-forsaken village?"
The ranger was about to apologize when another strange occurrence drowned the words in his throat.
A chorus of high-pitched screams drowned every other sound. At the same time, tongues of fire erupted from chimneys all around the city. The frightening spectacle ended as abruptly as it started but left the chipmunk remarkably perturbed. He was alone on that regard, it seemed, because neither Bryseis nor the people at her side gave that sudden turmoil as much as a second thought. A dark thought obscured the ranger's mind, inflamed by the brash words of the Nordic ravens. "Hey, Bryseis!" He called out as loudly as he could. "Hey, listen!"
Only until the third try did the erinyes noticed the chipmunk's efforts. "Hey partner!" She made an odd little giggle as she lifted the whole pouch to her face, all of this while keeping her fast pace. "So, how do you like the capital of hell?"
"Charming place" The chipmunk stated all too cynical. "I'd rate it higher, but these random outbursts of chilling screams dampen the mood"
The female devil gazed at him puzzled. "Random outbursts of…? Ah, the torture chambers!" She quickly brightened up. "Sorry, when one lives here long enough, can't help but to get numb to the shrieks and wailing of the doomed souls"
Chip kept his serious inquiring expression. "Gadget and Lawhinie, are they being burned and tortured in these chambers as we speak?"
"No, not likely" the paladin ventured, fairly certain she was right. "Usually the dealers keep their acquired souls safe in their homes, like one would do with gems and other treasures. The torture chambers are for common sinners without any significant value. I'm actually betting on our target's greed and hoping he won't dispose of your friends so soon"
These words did little to put Chip's fears to rest, as reflected by his raising brow.
"They won't end that way. I swear it!" A very determined Bryseis crossed an arm over her chest as a sign of commitment.
Chip sighed. "I believe you. 'We' believe you"
"Heh! You can tell your grumpy birds I don't care for their opinion. Now, steel yourself, partner! We are almost there!"
He turned around and found he was being led into a very crowded street, one lined with indoor shops which offered all sorts of strange, bizarre and downright frightening items. The ranger immediately winced at the sight of vials of blood; at the smell of poison dripping from the tips of blades and axes in exhibition; at the pitiful wailing of doomed souls being put in auction for slavery or perhaps worse. Furthermore, a most foul aura of devilry saturated the atmosphere on that street, sending shivers down his spine.
The erinyes furled his wings tighter and made haste walking against the crowd of patrons, window-shoppers and tourists from other planes with her sight fixed on a jet-black two-story building of overblown gothic decorations that stuck out from all other stores in the quarter. 'The grand shop of Desires' its plaque read. A place where customers could find the object of their lifelong dreams on sale, as long as they had enough souls to pay with.
"So that's where Mephisto hides?" The ranger ventured.
"That's right. That's his shop and his lair. That's the place where we'll find him and your friends"
"I'm ready" He declared without any hint of hesitation. "Let's finish him!"
The golden-eyed erinyes smirked amused. "Sorry, I'm confused. Why did you come down here? To kill Mephisto or to save Gadget and Lawhinie Hackwrench? Are you a fighter ranger? Or a rescue ranger?"
That question clearly took Chip off-guard and even sent him into another argument with the voices in his head, much to the erinyes' annoyance. After some seconds of inner turmoil, the chipmunk released his grip on the blades, let out a deep sigh, and met the golden eyes of his new companion with his own flaring dark eyes. "I'm here to save them" He declared with resolve. "I'm a rescue ranger!"
The paladin nodded approvingly. "Now, listen carefully, Chip. It is a well-known secret that Mephisto keeps the souls he collects from his travels to the mortal plane in a hidden treasure room somewhere in the basement. If true, the souls of your friends must be in that room. Problem is, the entrance is supposed to be guarded by a golem"
"A golem?" The ranger raised an eyebrow. According to lore, golems were living statues, usually made of clay and animated through magic, possessing great strength, limited intellect and no free will. In short, the perfect mindless bruiser. "That sounds terrifying"
"It does, doesn't it?" Judge grinned excited. "Now, assuming that Mephisto is desperate enough to call that golem to assist him in battle, you could use your tracking skills to trace the steps back to his original guarding post, right?"
Chip's eyes open wide in realization. "Heh, that's clever! No, wait… that would leave you alone against them two!"
"Oh please, I can easily stand my ground against these clumsy magical constructs. I promise that by the time you return, that golem will be nothing but a pile of rubble and its master a bloody mess at my feet"
"I don't know, I still feel uneasy leaving the main battle to you"
"Aww, what a gentleman! Gadget is really a lucky girl. Hide now! We've arrived at our destination"
A lightning bolt crashed against the studded wooden doors of Mephisto's shop, followed by a barrage of magic missiles and an explosive firebolt. And yet, the wooden doors stood secure. The mob of onlookers booed at the trio of devil merchants and their last failed attempt to break through the protective barrier.
"*Sigh* So many crimes, so little time" Bryseis mumbled to herself as she marched steadfast towards the multitude. "All right, time to make daddy proud"
Just as the frustrated and enraged merchants were about to cast another series of offensive spells, they and everybody unfortunate enough to stand nearby suddenly got their voices suppressed. "Enough!" the erinyes commanded with authority, one hand raised up and the other reaching for sheathed mace. "In the name of our duke, I order you to cease from using magic at once!"
Like rats scurrying away from a source of light, so the crowd ran away as Bryseis entered the scene. Citizens of Dis, unruly as they could be sometimes, knew better than to disrespect or disobey the red-winged erinyes. Even the three feisty merchants refrained from any kind of protest and instead retreated into the shadows without so much as a few soundless growls.
The paladin smirked at her success, then reached up to touch and feel the magical barrier that protected the building. "A few more 'explosions' and the barrier would have crumbled down" She whispered to herself. "Shouldn't be a problem for me anymore". She took a step back and then opened another of her pouches, this one filled with magical scrolls. An intense rummaging ensued, while the few remaining bystanders waited expectantly.
Chip, as well, was curious to see how his partner would get through the obstacle.
"Aha!" Bryseis announced before unraveling the chosen scroll with utmost care, old and fragile as it was. "Dispel" She whispered, then read aloud the words written in arcane language. The barrier that protected Mephisto's lair yielded and shattered in a thousand luminous fragments that evaporated into thin air before touching the ground.
Bryseis wasted no time and opened the doors ajar. The obscured shop welcomed her. She had been there before, a long time ago, in her very first assignment as acolyte of the order of vengeance. It was in this place where a customary inquiring turned into her most shameful experience to date when an object out of the darkest and most intimate desires of the young erinyes materialized out of thin air. Mephisto, that silver-tongued merchant, tried to bribe and corrupt her, and it would have worked were not for the arrival of her superior on the last moment.
"One more second and I would have taken the bribe" She chastised herself as her golden eyes gazed at the empty shelves. "And for that, I would never forgive you"
Bryseis stopped in her tracks and frowned as she realized that the shop was completely empty and strangely cold. There were no sign of her target, the fabled golem or any merchandise on sale. Only darkness, silence and… sticky stains of unidentified origin and pungent odor scattered all over the floor, more predominant at the feet of the now empty shelves.
Chip climbed down the paladin's greaves and dared to take a closer look at one of these rancid mottles. "What…" He had started to say when was knocked over by a psychic blow sent by the ravens which rattled his senses for a moment. "Hrrggh!"
"Keep quiet, stupid!" Munnin demanded. "Not a single word!"
"Why, you goddamned jerk?" The dead chipmunk shot back mentally, al while grinding his teeth in agony.
"He doesn't know you are here" The ravens explained. "His thoughts are fixed on your devil companion only. Let's keep it that way. Stick to the plan and hide in the shadows"
"Grr! I guess you are right" Chip glanced on the direction the raven pointed. Then he realized Bryseis was knelt at his side, apparently busy checking on these strange smudges. Their eyes met for a fleeting moment and she gave him a little hint of a nod before standing up and walk away as if the chipmunk wasn't there at all.
"She has put some faith in you" Huggin commented. "Might as well get going too"
"Aye…" Chip sighed, took a last look at the paladin as she went through a mysterious door at the back of the shop, then turned around and slipped into the shadows of the room, focusing mind and heart on his own duty.
"Crushed souls…" The paladin whispered to herself, increasing her pace to get to the door at the other end of the obscured corridor. "Murdering sinful souls to fuel spells". She grew enraged as she spoke these words. "Without paying a tribute to our lord!"
The door flew open violently. In barged Bryseis, mace and shield at the ready, all too eager to meet once last time the merchant she had come to hate more than any other being in that world. "You…"
At the opposite corner of the room an old devil of slender figure and ghastly yet cruel features welcomed her. He was sitting behind a desk, dressed in jet black robes that made a sharp contrast against his scarlet skin and bright white eyes. "Took you long enough, dear Bryseis" The fiend declared as he heaved himself up with some trouble, then leaned over victim of a coughing fit. "Cough! I was starting to think I won't see your face today".
"Mephisto" The paladin sneered and adopted a fighting stance. "By orders of Lord Dispater, you are under arrest for the crime of breach of contract" She declared. "May punishment be swift and vengeance…"
The old merchant cut the sacred pledge off. "Breach of contract, me? Nay, erinyes, you've got it all wrong! It was my customers' fault; they broke their terms of contract first! They betrayed and murdered me!"
"Who? The mice, you mean?" Bryseis couldn't help but to smirk and tease him.
"Mice or humans, they are the same!" Mephisto bared his fangs. "Impertinent heroes of the old and new gods. Always plotting against us devils, always cheating on us!"
"Save your lame excuses, tempter! You made the first move against your customers, which resulted in their deaths!"
"Lies! That wizard, Bethany Lombardi, forced me to!"
"Nobody 'forced' you to murder these mortals! As consequence, the contracts were invalid and our lord didn't receive his share. Now his wrath has fallen onto you, Mephisto!"
The merchant laughed with scorn. "And then he sent you, his favorite executioner, to settle this matter! Yes, just as I expected" Then, his lips curled into a smug smile as he reached for a small but richly adorned wooden chest at the edge of the desk. "Don't believe for a moment I have forgotten about your unique appetites. Just like that time long ago when we first met. Come on, let's make a deal, shall we?"
The grin vanished the moment he opened the box and gazed at his own severed head staring back at him. "What… is… this!?"
Bryseis, on the other hand, let out a huge breath as a sudden spark of righteousness imbued her body and thoughts. "The naïve soldier you once tried to buy off doesn't exist anymore. She has grown up and matured, and now her greatest and only desire is to have your head on a spike!"
Mephisto's hands clenched with broiling rage as he gazed straight at the erinyes' eyes and realized she was telling the truth. "So be it, girl. No more tricks, no more words, only power!" He pointed a finger at his opponent and released a bolt of lightning without any warning.
Great was his shock when he saw Bryseis still standing firm and safe behind her engraved shield, arcs of electricity running wild across her plate armor.
"… and vengeance be satiated" The enraged paladin muttered, then charged at the evil wizard brandishing her mace in a vertical swing despite the pain caused by the unending torrent of electricity. The blunt weapon found its target but made half the damage its owner expected, as a mage armor spell save the old devil from a sure death. Still, the force she applied sent her foe crashing against the wall, where he slid down quite stunned.
"These mortals really pummeled you out of their plane" The erinyes snarled. "Now there is nothing left for me to chew on" She bared her fangs in a devious grin, then picked up the wizard by the collar and smashed him against the floor again. "Just the hollow discarded skin of a deceiving snake. Die now!"
"No… I refuse!" Mephisto yelled as he crawled away from the paladin. "Irkus, I command thee!"
Bryseis quickly assumed a defensive stance. "Here he comes" She muttered under her breath. "Chip, this is your chance"
The ranger had just jumped out of the shadows at the end of the stairs that led to the subterranean basement of the building. The nightmare-inducing atmosphere of the place sent shivers down his dead spine. There was a corridor, its walls and floor rough and layered with blood red moss and black veins. Faint crimson light lingered beneath this odd canopy, pulsating quietly in slow rhythm out from crystals that protruded out of the ceiling. "I can't… stop trembling" He admitted in a shrill voice, as his faint breath burst in and out and his body urged him to run away. "I can't control myself!"
"A fear spell protects this place" Huggin inferred. "Making it appear more dreadful than it really is"
"This place exudes evil just by itself" Munnin shuddered. "No need to add any special effect"
A heartbeat.
Chip gritted his teeth in an effort to overcome the terror that plagued his mind. "It means… there is something important down here. We are in the right path, if only I could stop shaking!"
"Let us help you with that, little jellyfish" Both ravens grinned impishly. "Let us give you a boost to your courage"
"A-agreed" The chipmunk conceded. "Time is running out!"
And so the ranger let himself be infused again with viking courage and blood lust. He feasted on these feelings just enough to overcome the phantasm of horror and dash forward to the unknown. "Yes, to battle!" He shouted as his heart beat a second time.
Just when we as about to reach the next doorway the ground rumbled and trembled in such a violent way that the rodent lost his feet and ended up bumping aimless along with the pebbles and loosened gravel around him. An approaching metallic clatter made him look up with dread, expecting some kind of sprung trap coming at him. What he gazed upon instead made his face turn pale in fear.
An armored giant was dashing in his direction at an impressive fast speed, wielding a giant great axe with a single hand. "Golem!" The three souls inside the chipmunk's body shouted in unison.
The ravens made use of what little magic power they had in order save their host from being crushed under the boots of the massive iron construct by stretching the fabrics of time and space. Chip dodged the heavy boots of the monster as it made his way towards the stairs, all too focused in answer the call of its master to notice the small intruder he was leaving behind. Or perhaps it just didn't care.
Then came the sound of stones crashing down. "Bryseis…" Chip gulped down.
"That golem was certainly not made of stone, but metal!" Huggin said sharing his host's concern.
"A control rod, we must find a control rod!" Munnin squeaked hurriedly. "That's the only way to stop that golem!"
"A control rod?" Chip turned in all directions. "What is that? Where is it?"
"We… have no idea where could be…"
Suddenly, the whole chamber lit in a white, blinding light. The music of harps and bells filled the air along with a pleasant scent of exotic species and oils. "Follow me" Ordered a strangely lilting voice.
The wall that separated the front shop from the backroom where Bryseis had Mephisto subjugated at her feet came crashing down under the might of the iron golem named Irkus. The erinyes' shock upon watching such a monster charging at her through bricks and wood almost cost her the head, as the golem swung the great axe right at her neck with a sadism unusual for a soulless object. The shield that once belonged to her father saved her from instant death but couldn't prevent her from being hurled away on impact. "Agghh!" The paladin cried as she crashed against the wooden desk and shattering it into splinters.
"Yes, just in time" The merchant said as he clung to the leg of his metallic servant and then used it to straighten himself up again. "I present to you… Irkus!"
Bryseis forced herself to focus on the monster again despite her thoughts still spinning out of control and a burning pain coursing through her spine and left arm. She couldn't help but to swallow hard, amazed she was alive at all. "Iron golems… are forbidden inside the city" She managed to say in a pained voice.
Mephisto gave her a remarkably feline grin, baring his fangs and curling the lips up an inch too much. "They are, aren't they?" He said taking a teetering step aside. "It's been long since I realized that laws are to be broken and buried as one grows in power"
"That mouth of yours will be your downfall…"
He glared down hard at the injured female. "Do you think yourself righteous and incorruptible? Here, in this little wretched world of us, such beings always end up broken in pieces. Allow me to demonstrate"
Mephisto snapped his fingers, prompting Irkus into murderous motion again. Bryseis gritted her teeth, ignored the pain and rolled to one side just in time to avoid being split in half by the gigantic great axe. This time, the golem didn't stop after that first action. Instead, it actively tried to chain more attacks against the paladin, who had to make use of all her training and all of her fortitude to withstand the savage punishment.
Just as she began to lose hope, a strangely lilting voice sang in her mind. "Hold your ground, paladin! Your partner is on the move"
"Who- who are you?" She freaked out for a moment. "You are not one of his ravens!"
"I'm Marius"
"An angel? Get out of my head!" She demanded as she deflected another heavy strike to one side.
"Are you forgetting about the golem's weak points?"
"I'm not forgetting anything, you stinking angel!" The erinyes exploded in an outburst of fury, just in time to canter expertly under the swing of the huge weapon. After all, if there was something every golem had in common, was their straightforward and repetitive way to follow orders. These mindless monsters simply had no imagination in their heads to improvise.
Bryseis slipped below the strong arm of her opponent. A small whisper of a prayer and her mace bathed with the power of lightning. An accurate yet flashing strike into the elbow joint that supported the arm made the whole thing fall down together with the giant axe. The golem took a pair of steps back as if stunned, almost trampling over its owner while letting out a series of high-pitched shrieks that echoed all over the house and the basement below.
Chip Maplewood dropped to a halt and quickly protected his ears in an attempt to drown the high-pitched noise that suddenly bounced from ceiling to floor and wall to wall. "Ack!" He said as he flinched. "What just happened?"
"That mountain of a golem is hurt" Marius explained hurriedly. "Your partner the erinyes got the upper hand, for now"
"We need to get to that control rod and destroy it!" Munnin urged.
"Do you see it somewhere around?" Chip insisted.
Both ravens hesitated. "No, we can't see it. As we told you before, this world is completely unknown to us"
The distressed chipmunk stood up and dragged one paw through his hair. "Fuck…"
"Language…" The bright angelical rodent admonished him, then dropped down at ground level, his light focusing on a wide depression. "We can make it without your pagan companions' help. Now, what does this footprint tells you?"
"Oh, that was made by the golem!" Chip beamed, then stretched his eyes in the direction the angel pointed. More footprints became visible in the darkness. "A path through these corridors"
"Let us go, then. Lawhinie is waiting for me"
"Huh? You came here to rescue her?" The ranger asked then rushed into an obscured maze, one made of shelves, barrels and rackets filled with discarded items of bizarre shapes and ill purposes. The angel followed him close, and somehow the dead chipmunk was certain the divine light was keeping evil critters away. He insisted again with his question. "Your name is Marius, then?"
"Aye" The angel bowed slightly. "Lawhinie Hackwrench and I have some history together"
"Oh" Chip blinked at him. "You are like, her guardian angel or something?" He smirked, and the sarcastic inflection wasn't lost by his new ally.
"Perhaps I was, a long time ago" He said and let out a small sigh. "Before hate, ambition and grief took her down a very dangerous path"
"Hmm" The ranger nodded in agreement.
"However" The angel continued. "There is still a sliver of goodness in her soul, one that is worth saving. Do you know what I'm talking about?"
"Yeah" Chip admitted.
"That's why I came to this foul place. She might have sinned against God by signing that contract, but in the end, she was cheated by that devil and sent to this foul place. By the grace of the lord, I won't let her tale end like that"
"Yeah, a foul place indeed" Chip sneered at the shadows that kept harassing them from a distance. "We better hurry". Judging merely by the screeching sounds of claws against stone, at least two dozen enemies were closing in on the edge of the darkness.
The angel and the ranger dashed through the maze, through its twists and turns, following the large footprints until they hit a dead-end wall. The position of the footprints and their depth in the soil revealed cleared any unvoiced doubts: That was the wall where the iron golem must had stood still like a statue before being called into action by its master.
Chip looked around growing tense. "I-I don't see any door or knob! Not even a lever! Dammit, time is running out! If Bryseis was wrong and…"
Another heartbeat made him stop at mid-sentence.
Marius shook his head categorically. "And yet, I can feel a source of black magic emanating from this spot" He flapped his wings and got closer to the wall, even running a paw up the polished surface. "Emanating… from beyond this wall"
"How so?" Chip managed to ask, before being pounced on by one of the critters that lurked on the edge of the angel's light. "Hrggh!" The nimble ranger managed to jump aside and dodge the bite of a small monster bold enough to defy Marius' blessed radiance. Undeterred, driven by an evil hunger, more beasts charged in. In the small frame of time it took for the dead chipmunk to draw his swords at least four ravaging fiends had rushed at him - snarling, grunting and tumbling into each other as their greasy bodies caught fire -.
'Dretches', the erinyes would call them. Small fiends of long claws, furless bodies, short snouts and elongated teeth; repulsive, self-loathing, devoid of intelligence but brimming with sheer malice. Chip had never seen uglier creatures in his life.
"Ranger!" Marius called out as he went into a dive wielding a spear that materialized in his paws out of thin air. With that magical weapon the angel joined the fray and struck one of these monstrosities from above. It shrieked and thrashed and clawed all the way back to the shadows where it perished. "Listen!" He called again bursting off the ground. "That wall is an illusion! Follow me through it!"
Chip made quick work of another dretch with a deadly well-placed combo of his fabled swords, then turned his gaze up to the angel. "Got it, let's hurry!" He went into a sprint towards the rocky base of the wall ahead, leaving the pack of monsters behind and watching as his white-winged companion disappeared beyond the bricks as if they were nothing but curtains.
He slammed against the solid surface with a sonorous thwack and fell to the ground unceremoniously, the ideas in his head swirling chaotically. The ravens cried out a warning, and their host manage to roll aside just as a pair of sharp claws razors cut through the flickering darkness, missing the face by mere millimeters.
Chip groaned in pain as another claw grazed his spine and tore off his cloak. The Norse ravens quickly took control of his limbs and made their best effort to finish the assailant beast off. Fortunately, the dretch was so consumed by flames that didn't offer much of a resistance. The fourth and last enemy also dropped dead, its ignited flesh becoming the only source of light in that corridor. Light that wouldn't last long. The remaining monsters knew that full well, so they instinctively retreated and waited for darkness to devour everything again.
"What the fuck just happened?" Chip finally said, regaining control of his senses and muscles. Immediately he went and tried again to step through the illusion, a bit more fearful this time, arms and palms outstretched forward. It was no use; the bricks were completely solid and even cold to the touch. "No, no!" He slammed his fists on them. "Don't do this to me!"
"Ranger!" Marius called out from the other side. "Hurry up! I need your help here!"
"I can't go past this wall! It is completely solid!"
"It's an illusion! Didn't' you see me going through it!?"
"Yes, I did! Why I cannot follow you?"
"Hey hero, behind you!"
Munnin's warning came just in time, as darkness took hold and the horde of wretches descended again on the chipmunk. "Grrhhh! Leave me alone!" Chip yelled, while cutting his way out of the avalanche of claws and fangs with a flurry of swings, parries and acrobatics.
The angel's voice echoed in his mind one more time. "Chip Maplewood, don't you dare to fall in this place, you hear me? Everything you are looking for is right behind that illusion. The wall, Chip! there is no wall!"
"I know there is no wall!" The exasperated ranger cried out for everybody to hear. "And yet, it is there!" He vented his failure by twirling on his toe and mercilessly decapitating a dretch that tried to gnaw on his head from above. As an unwanted reward, he got showered in the foul-smelling blistering blood of the fiend. Blinded and scalded, he turned away and let out a primal scream of pain and frustration. "Gahhhh!"
"Raise, hero!" The ravens cried out. "Here they come again! Give us control!"
"No! No… just point me towards the wall, quick!"
Chip felt his waist and legs twist a few degrees to the left. "There!" The voices in his head declared, and not a second later the chipmunk exploded into a run, eyes closed and burning, muscles and fists tensed, all while a series of high-pitched shrieks and screeches ripped at his ears. "I'm coming, Marius!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "Because there is no wall! Because there never was any wall! Because… She is waiting for me!"
Chip ran headfirst towards the obstacle with courage and intention, committed to take the leap of faith with a defiant and fanged grin. "No wall!"
Then came a noise like the shattering of a mirror, followed by a sudden decrease in temperature. The air suddenly reeked old and stagnant, like busting inside an ancient buried crypt. However, is wasn't this weird realization what forced Chip to open his injured eyes wide, but the urgent calls for help that the angel sent from somewhere nearby. Still, it took a moment for the chipmunk to adapt and focus. What he saw made the small rodent catch his breath and shuffle a pair of steps back.
This final room was a circular chamber about eight meters in diameter with an ominous pedestal made of carved bones at the very center, which had on display a grotesque ape-like figurine that exuded an overly evil aura. There were a pair of magical torches at both sides of the doorway that provided some light, but it wasn't as if the chamber needed it. Luminous spheres, perhaps hundreds of them, were running orbits around these objects like planets would around the sun and provided the room with a kaleidoscope of lights and shadows. The bizarre ape figurine continuously produced tendrils made of necrotic energy that reached, consumed and crushed the spheres that were closest to it like a beast of a dozen outstretching arms griping and devouring its prey. More disturbingly, each sphere left behind an agonizing scream, confirming the hero's most dreadful thought: each of these spheres contained a soul.
"Marius, where are you!?" Chip shouted while rubbing his eyes clean of the last clots of blood.
"Up here!" The angel answered, while engaged in an uneven aerial battle against a pair of tendrils set on crushing the brightest sphere of all. "These spheres are being consumed as magical fuel for the golem and Mephisto himself! Lawhinie Hackwrench is inside this one! If she is crushed, Bryseis won't have a chance!".
"Where… where is Gadget!?"
"I don't know! I found Lawhinie using our red thread! Do the same!"
"Red thread?"
In a fit of righteous fury, he drilled the spear through the magical substance that menaced to take his unconscious soulmate, but the sudden recoil of the monster caused him to lose grip of the weapon. "Argh!" He immediately set on bursting in pursuit with a mighty beat of his wings, but with the corner of the eye watched as the second tendril lashed out like a blade. "Oh no, you won't!"
Chip witnessed aghast as the angel put himself between Lawhinie's sphere and the voracious magical being, fending it off with an outburst of heavenly radiance. Twice the tendrils insisted, twice Marius exploded in light. By the third time, the chipmunk's newest ally had started to show signs of exhaustion.
"Marius!" Chip called from the ground.
"Destroy the figurine!" The angel replied, steadying himself up for yet another clash. "The figurine is the control rod!"
"But, but… where is Gadget?" He whispered, growing desperate at the sight of the spheres being consumed without any kind of commiseration.
"Focus, hero!" Munnin shouted. "Put an end to this madness"
"If she is still here, she needs you to act now!" Huggin added.
Chip gritted his teeth and dropped into a four-leg dash towards the pedestal. By then the tendrils had multiplied and the screams that announced death had become an incessant anguished chant. Each second more souls fell victim of the figurine. It was clear that he wasn't fast enough. "I need your help, ravens! I need to shadowstep!"
"You've got it!"
The ranger headed straight to one of the many dancing shadows that were drawn for a brief second on the walls each time Marius's radiance flashed. In another feat of accurate timing, he dived into the shadow, crossed through dimensions, and then appeared out of the wall one meter above ground. Down he fell in the air, but as soon as his body got obscured by another flash of shadows, he disappeared and appeared even higher than before, closer and closer to his goal.
"Keep going, chipmunk!" Marius shouted as he managed to summon forth another blast of radiance out of his beaten body. "You are almost there!"
Chip swerved and weaved along the path made by both light and darkness. More than once he felt he wouldn't make it to the next shadow door, but the ravens were always there to assist and keep him in the air one extra precious second. At last, the ranger emerged out of the shadow cast by the figurine. His eyes glowed with the spark of a true hunter, his blood surged through the veins and his paws tightened the grip on the dual blades. "Will you cut down this beast together with me?" He asked mentally.
"That's why we are here!"
"Yiaahhh!" The three of them shouted in unison as the blades slashed through the ape figurine leaving behind sparks and purple feathers.
On the floor above, the golem let out a grave and guttural growl, then crumbled down at the feet of his badly beaten opponent, like an ordinary armor set whose strings had just been severed. "No! Impossible!" Mephisto watched the demise of his mighty guardian with an incredulous stare. "T-the control rod…"
"Aha!" Bryseis' voice was one of relief. "I knew he'll do it!"
"He? Who are you talking about, whore?" He paused for a second. "Who… who dared to put a foot inside my treasure chamber?"
The corners of the erinyes' mouth tilted up into a slight smile as she said "The one who sent you here in the first place"
Mephisto's expression blanched. He could barely find the words. "Are you saying… that rodent followed me here?" His muscles and veins strained against his scarlet skin as he clenched the teeth hard teeming with infernal rage. "That fucking meddling rodent!"
Bryseis rose to her feet spitting blood out her mouth, beads of the coppery fluid clinging around her tongue like a film of dirt. "You shouldn't have crossed his path. You shouldn't have crossed mine. You reap what you sow, Mephisto". With that said, the paladin of vengeance discarded the tattered shield, unfurled her wings and charged at the deceiver one last time brandishing her mace with two hands. "Time to pay your debt!"
Her attempt to put an end to the encounter was received by a discharge of crackling energy straight out of the merchant's fingers. "Hrggh!" She landed on her knee, covering herself with arms and wings against the intensity of an eldritch blast.
"I owe nothing, nothing!" Mephisto snarled. His aura became one of utter dread as he unleashed the full power of the spell. "Look as I tap into the power of my souls! I'd rather consume all of them before surrendering them to your master!"
"You bastard!" The erinyes got enveloped in a sustained beam of necrotic damage. Still, she refused to yield or even voice the pain coursing through her body.
"Souls of sinners, fuel the spells of your one and only master! Lawhinie Hackwrench, come serve me one last time!"
"Chip's girlfriend" Bryseis realized. "She will too be consumed!"
Down in the secret chamber, Mephisto's commanding words provoked all the captive souls to scream simultaneously. It was then the turn for Chip and Marius to gaze with slacked mouths and blanched expressions up at the ceiling, where a dark hole appeared out of thin air and grew in size and strength in the blink of an eye. The galaxy of spheres flared up all at once and went berserk around the vortex, exploding with agony as soon as they got too close and sending the essence of their captive souls into it, like ships lost in a maelstrom along with their sailors.
The anger was the first to recover from the shock, then darted like an arrow to catch up again with Lawhinie's sphere and cast over it a series of magical wards in an attempt to prevent the evil twin's soul from being devoured, knowing full well these wouldn't last forever. "Lawhinie, wake up!" He pleaded as he slammed his paws on the crystal sphere. "Open your eyes!"
As expected, the protection spells got crushed one by one and the blonde mouse yelped inside her cage like a tortured prisoner. Running out of options, the angel clasped his paws together, held them up like a mace and with all the strength his divine origin could bestow he struck the flaring sphere down. It immediately shattered like crystal, releasing the captive soul of the evil Hackwrench twin. "Lawhinie?" Marius asked as he caught the half-unconscious mouse in his arms. To his horror, the soul of the blonde mouse began to dissolve. "No! Stay away from her!" The winged protector enveloped both in a bright divine aura and the mouse's soul recovered its shape.
Alas, that move was a death sentence for the many other enslaved souls that still orbited the pitch-black vortex, Gadget among them. Mephisto upstairs demanded fuel for his eldritch spell, and so the remaining collection of sinners burned out at an increased speed. Marius realized this as his own voice was drowned by the shrieks of the sacrificed souls.
Chip, who was standing on the pedestal on that precise moment, shared the angel's helpless expression as the massacre unfolded above him. "Gadget… where is Gadget!?" He desperately looked in all directions. Very few spheres remained now, and every passing breath their number decreased further. "Huggin, Munnin, tell me where she is!"
"We don't know!"
"She might be gone already!"
"The red thread of fate" Chip whispered to himself. "That's what he said"
The ranger cleared his mind out of fears and doubts and looked up at the last remaining fugitive withering lights. Despite the chaos and agony transpiring around him a sudden sense of calm, almost divine in nature, washed over him. It was only then that Chip found his gaze drawn to one sphere in particular. One unremarkable little star, exactly with the same shape and brightness as the others around it. And yet, the more he followed its orbit the more the felt attracted to it and more and breathtaking it became. "It's her…" He finally said. "Gadget…"
"Are you… sure?" the skeptical Munnin doubted.
"Just take me there!" Chip commanded as he sprang into action and made a swift leap into the shadow projected by the pedestal. The ravens took him one more time through the plane of darkness and back making him appear exactly over his desired fugitive target. The ranger made sure to give his companions subconscious gratitude.
As luck would have it, the weight of the ranger together with the speed of his fall tumbled the burning sphere out of orbit and together went into a crashing course against the nearby wall. The nimble chipmunk jumped on the last moment and sunk his magical blades into the rock like a climber would do, avoiding a most painful outcome. From that spot he witnessed how the cage got destroyed with the sound of shattered glass releasing… the blonde mouse of his dreams.
Gadget Hackwrench. The soul that appeared suspended in the space in front of Chip was undoubtedly the one of his dear illusionist! The mouse of blonde mistreated hair that fell all the way to the hips, dressed in an expensive black silk robe fastened with a loose purple sash and a rhinestone buckle. As beautiful as the day she met her in the depths of a graveyard.
Another heartbeat.
The last spheres died on the distance, sending chilling screams across the chamber. These screams prompted Gadget to wake up and gaze at her savior with deep blue eyes set on an expression of pure disbelief. "C-Chip?" The blonde mouse finally found her voice, albeit quiet and hesitant. The ranger answered with a nod and a soft smile, prompting her to expeditiously launch herself at his open welcoming arm and melt together in a long overdue embrace. "Chip!"
"Gadget, my Gadget! I thought I would never see you again!" Chip confessed as he shed tears he'd been fighting off since before his death. As these silvered tears soaked the mouse's pale fur and golden hair, the chipmunk gripped her with renewed strength, afraid to let her go and lose her again, afraid that she was but another illusion.
"I'm so sorry, so very sorry!" The witch poured out her own broken heart through never-ending pristine tears. "I'm sorry I died and left you! It was the only way to… to… oh!" Her eyes opened wide, her mouth fell open and she pushed herself out of the embrace. The witch withdrew herself at arm's length, barely registering she was hovering effortlessly like a ghost, for her mind was reeling over with the weight of the sacrifice Chip had made just to get to her. "You… you died?" She said with trembling lips as her stare settled on the exposed chest wounds. "You died and came here … for me?"
"For you, for me, for us both" The brave ranger declared. "Because I love you"
The blonde witch was gifted only one brief moment to assimilate the words of her beloved chipmunk before her very essence was again forcibly sucked out by the vortex in the ceiling. "Ngghh!" Gadget grimaced as she felt the invisible and ravenous force ripping her apart.
"Gadget!" The ranger watched the scene in shock. "Hold on!"
"Chip… I…" Despite her pain, the mouse managed to force a smile, albeit with great difficulty. "I think I'm done"
The dead chipmunk narrowed his eyes. "No, do not give up on me!"
"I'm still bound to my master…" She declared glancing up at the maelstrom in the ceiling. There were no other sinners left to be consumed, she and Lawhinie were the last ones and with her gifted intelligence she soon comprehended that the merchant of souls pretended to use her one last time. "I'm still… a slave" She said somberly.
"No, you are not, dammit!" In a great feat of dexterity, Chip swung off his weapon, described an arc in the air and aimed towards his true and only soulmate. Gadget caught and sheltered him in her arms once again. The inertia made them spin together out of control for a pair of seconds, which they used to hold each other fiercely. Once they settled down and were sent up again towards the black hole Chip entwined his fingers together with the mouse's and held her paw up. The ranger's arm immediately began to dissolve into steam instead of the witch's own. "Ouch! So, any sinner does the trick, huh?"
Gadget had to do a double take as her soul stopped withering and her – nonexistent- breath become steady again. "No, wait!" She struggled to break free from the hold for a moment, but upon failing to do so then confronted her suicidal companion eye to eye. "Are you… are you crazy?"
Chip gave her a taste of his trademark smug grin. "Nah, I'm just counting on a friend to end this madness for good" Then, he flinched as he endured another gash in his tainted soul. "Nggh! Yeah, any moment now!"
On the upper floor, the tide of battle changed once again. No longer the necrotic beams lashed out to wither the flesh of the cornered erinyes paladin. Mephisto looked down incredulous at his hands, at the lingering energy licking the spaces between his fingers. Mere specks of infernal magic and nothing more. "No…" He stammered. "It was not enough? The twins, what have you done to them?"
The old devil faced his opponent once more, watched as she stood with an expression of hatred and murderous intent, watched her and her mace take a step towards him, then another, then another. Mephisto's fear became absolute terror. He backed away in jerky, trembling steps. "No, get away!" He squealed. "I've got friends, powerful friends! They'll punish you, they'll…"
But he wasn't allowed to finish the threat. Up came Bryseis' lightning-charged mace, smacking the dealer in the jaw. He promptly fell to the floor facing down. She then grabbed him roughly by the collar and rolled him over so his dazed eyes could meet hers one last time. "Everybody will praise me" She said with a sneer, then proceeded to return the cruelty she had been subjected to a tenfold to his face. The paladin of vengeance bashed the skull over and over with hellish brutality, finally letting go centuries of resentment and shame welled up within her. After a while, Bryseis realized all she was doing was pounding wet chunks of bone into the floorboards, so she stopped. Mephisto, the merchant of souls, was long dead. The erinyes collapsed on the ground, exhausted.
The vortex, as well, disappeared. The treasure chamber got again enveloped by silence and the dim light of the torches on the distance. "Praised be God, it's all over" Marius announced with great relief while making the sign of the cross with his free paw. Lawhinie, who was cuddled on his arms, reacted to that prayer with a wrinkle of her nose. The angel smiled slowly. "Lawhinie, are you still pretending to be unconscious? The battle is over now"
The evil twin let out a cough and opened her blue eyes, putting an end to the facade. "Oh, you are not fun" She accused, then nestled against his chiseled chest once more. "Give me five more minutes. These strong arms of yours are so comfortable, and I've suffered so much already"
"Well, the time for suffering is gone" He chuckled. "Did you actually believe I would let you down here forever, victim of an illegal contract?"
"Hmm! I guess that's not your style. You have my gratitude, partner"
"Just doing my duty as your guardian. However, I think you should share some of that gratitude with your friend over there"
"Hmm?" Lawhinie glanced at the direction her soulmate suggested, only to turn red at the sight of her sister and the ranger kissing each other with urging desire. "Oh jeez, what the hell? She shouted as she sat upright. "Get a room, you two!"
"Our thoughts exactly" The ravens said mockingly.
Chip and Gadget broke their embrace and stood self-consciously, even making motions to wipe dirt off their clothes. Fresh spots of dark blood - grim remainders of the perils the chipmunk had to overcome to get to the arms of his true love – smudged Gadget's dress. She covered her mouth in shock. "Golly! Is that…"
"No, that's…" The ranger quickly apologized. "… that's not mine" He said in a hushed apologetic tone.
Before he could say another word, Gadget pulled him into a tight hug again. "Thank you, Chip…" She whispered to his ear as she squeezed him. "Thank you for saving me"
The scene was broken by Marius, who put a paw on the good twin's shoulder before calling her name. "Miss Hackwrench, we must leave"
"An… an angel?" She blinked taking a step back. "Lawhinie, is that your…"
"Yes" She shrugged. "My guardian angel. Not the best as his job" She said, testing the angel's patience once more. "Not the worst, either"
"Oh…"
"My name is Marius" He declared with a courteous bow. "Please, we mustn't linger here"
"Where are you taking us?"
Lawhinie butted in wearing one of her trademark wolfish smirks. "So, you'll take our tired souls up to heaven? Will I finally get to meet your boss?"
Marius raised a brow imagining such scenario. "Oh, no! No, no, no!" He said with a bemused smile. "Still, you should be grateful, because you've been granted another chance at the wheel of reincarnation. Another chance to be reborn and improve as a person"
"I will… go back to Earth?" Lawhinie's thoughts zoomed back to Versailles, where the soul of her beloved Sabrina lied captive in that jewelry box – Captive and unaware that her master was dead -. One way or another, the witch had to come back and rescue her maid and lover. "Right!" She beamed. "That sounds good to me!"
"There is a huge chance you won't remember anything from this life" The angel warned, deducing the witch's intentions correctly. "There are rules…"
"Oh, come on!" Lawhinie folded her arms defiantly. "I'm good at breaking every rule thrown at me. I'll definitively remember!"
The angel nodded and took the witch's paw on his own. Then, he turned to the good sister. "you, Gadget Hackwrench, have been granted the same divine mercy. Come and start again, clean and pristine like a blank slate"
The mouse couldn't help but to nod in approval, entranced as she was by the white glowing aura the angel exuded and even more by his soothing promises. "Clean…" She whispered as she reached to take the angel's paw. Then, a sudden sting of realization managed to take her out of the spell. "No, wait! What about Chip?"
The three of them turned towards the expectant chipmunk. "Chip Maplewood" Marius finally said after a pause, and he tried his best to sound as clear and dignified as possible, if only to hinder the incoming argument. "I'm afraid…" He started. "I'm afraid suicide is a sin that cannot be forgiven that easily"
"Yes, I understand" The ranger answered stoically. "I have no regrets". As he said that, the ravens spouted all kinds of profanities at the angelical rodent - Chip could only wonder if any of them reached their target-. In any case, he promptly hushed his feathered allies down.
Another heartbeat.
Gadget, on the other side, went ballistic. She immediately grabbed Marius by the collar of his tunic, losing all manner of respect for the heavenly envoy. "Oh, no!" She glared at him. "You won't let Chip down here! Take him with us!"
"You don't understand!" Marius declared holding the mouse's irate stare. "I'm already taking a huge risk absolving you and your sister. There is no way…"
Lawhinie pulled her friend by the shoulder. "Easy, big guy" She said sternly. "You even admitted Chip was the real hero behind this rescue. Seriously, what would you have done without him fighting by your side? Would me and my sister even be here now?"
Chip went and grabbed the good sister by her paw. "Gadget, there is no use. I'm well aware of the many rules and laws of this place" He said as calm as he could.
"No, it's not fair!" She responded, releasing her grip and turning to face the dead ranger with the same incensed stare. "You didn't do anything wrong!"
On Chip's silence, she broke. "I don't want to… live again without you"
"That will never happen, because…" The ranger started as he guided the paw of his loved one to his fur-covered chest, right on top of the scar of the fatal wound. Then, a sudden heartbeat took the mouse by surprise. She glanced down and up and down again, confused. He simply smirked. "Because I made my own way out from this fucking place"
The blonde mouse covered her mouth in disbelief. "H-how?"
"Tammy" Chip explained gazing up at nothing. "She is a stubborn one, just as I expected"
Lawhinie grinned in complicity. "You foulmouthed sly son of a…" Upon her sister's chastising stare, she refrained from finishing the sentence.
Even Marius couldn't help but to be impressed by the ranger's shrewd play, and he also cracked a smile. "You mortals, always looking ways to cheat death. I'll definitively remember you, Chip Maplewood"
"Look at that white dove, hero" Munnin jested. "You won at his own game"
Paying no mind to his inner voices, Chip pressed Gadget's soft paw over his own throbbing enamored heart. The mouse, in turn, beamed the warmest smile at him, reaching up to caress his face. "We'll… we'll meet again in another life?"
"I'll always find my way back to you. I swear" He declared, before sealing the sacred promise with a deep, love-filled, kiss. Then, as if on cue, the room seemed to be bathed in the whitest light ever witnessed by mortal eyes. Lawhinie and Gadget were taken off the brimstone floor by the angel's faint touch and guided towards the source of the light with a chorus of heavenly voices for company. Chip held his loved one's paw in his grip up to the last moment and, when the time to say goodbye came, they both refrained to speak these words, instead whispering each other "I love you".
The divine glow increased in intensity until it became too strong to gaze into, the ranger was forced to turn around and protect himself. One moment later, everything was over. Chip found himself rubbing his eyes while surrounded by a most oppressive silence.
Another sudden and potent heartbeat made the chipmunk fall to his knees. "Ugh! This one hurt!"
"We are guessing the next one will take you out of here" Huggin reasoned. "And that heartbeat will mark the end of our travel together"
"You made a great service to our father and to yourself" Munnin added. "You are truly a champion of Odin" Then he added with a grin. "And the craziest chipmunk we've ever met"
"Heh, crazy describes me well enough" Chip smirked amused, then glanced up at the obscured ceiling. "Huggin, Munnin… one last small favor"
"What is it, hero?"
"Say goodbye to Bryseis for me. I couldn't have made it without her"
"Rest assured, she'll know"
"Good… Agh!" Another heartbeat accompanied with a bout of pain forced him to bend over. The fatal injuries inflicted to his body were burning again and with a vengeance. "Yes, this is it… the pain of being alive! This is…"
"Farewell, ranger…"
Roughly half an hour later, Bryseis made her way to the basement accompanied by a group of devil city watchers. A few dretches scurried away under their feet, provoking a series of sarcastic comments from the soldiers over the cleanliness of the place and a sour taste of dread in the mouth of the erinyes paladin. She could hardly imagine her small partner surviving unscathed the claws and fangs of these rabid monsters while running blind in the obscured maze. But, somehow, he had reached the control rod…
The group arrived at the large opened doorway of the treasure chamber and frowned at the lack of any door or obstacle. Then, their attention was drawn to six dretches spread dead before the threshold, victims of fire and slashing injuries, one of them actually decapitated. "Chip…" She whispered under her breath. A few more wretches, those who had dared to enter the chamber, had been dissolved into blots of rotten flesh, as if their life force had been drained out of them. "These were consumed" The soldiers muttered, and Bryseis nodded in agreement. Then, she commanded the guards to stay outside while she stepped inside to investigate. It was completely empty, much for her disappointment, save for a lonely pedestal in the center. She hurried to take a closer look as her inquisitive eyes noticed strange carvings on the flat surface. These carvings depicted a single word written in old Norse: "Þǫkk".
She smiled in relief. "Live a long lawful life, Chip Maplewood"