CHAPTER XXV: REIGN
There were no rules in the battle that would determine the next ruler of Hell. Inferno was the arena – the vast smoldering plains and the shattered shores. The fight would continue until the death of one of the combatants. The winner took all.
I looked around the dark chamber where I prepared myself, thinking about the possible advantages that I would have against my brother. I knew that he was not very familiar with Inferno and its peculiarities, while I had spent quite some time throughout the hidden corners of the continent. I also knew that my brother had no knowledge of the spells that I had brought with me from my visits on Earth. I decided that it would be wise to rely on surprises and cunning, as we had almost equal powers. My determination and wrath that had accumulated for so long would have to be enough to fuel my destructive power and crush my opponent. What I needed was good concentration and confidence. With such allies, I could win any fight.
For a moment, I thought about all the events that brought me to that point. Everything had changed so fast and so fundamentally. What was wrong with this world, what was going to happen in the shadowed future?
I went out and headed towards the place where the combat would begin – between the House of Pain and Mount Erebus, an area of hills covered by protruding bone ribs and other bone fragments that were left there after some ancient cataclysm. I saw no one – all demons had hidden within the Stronghold and its crypts. He was waiting for me there, eyes burning and teeth bared. I stopped and looked at him.
How did it come to this, brother?
It does not matter. Destiny is to unfold shortly.
You know nothing of Destiny! But I believe I can teach you a lesson!...
Before I could finish, a bolt of blazing energy flew towards me. I evaded it with ease, surprised that he would start with something so weak. It was a trick – I quickly hid behind one of the ribs that were rooted in the ground as a fiery eruption appeared in the place where I stood seconds before that. I formed two balls of energy in my hands and threw them in the direction I expected him to be. There were explosions and pieces of bone rained on me. Seconds later, balls of fire were raining from the sky, as my opponent used a spell of mass destruction to wear me down. I stepped out of the bone field and assumed position among the scorched lands around the damaged House of Pain. He followed me, thinking that I was scared. The roaring waves of flame that I sent towards him proved him wrong. I levitated above the blasted lands and cast bolts of lightning down upon him. He reacted quickly and teleported somewhere else, immediately followed by me.
He tried to escape into the Unholy Cathedral but I followed the trail of his Gate. I chased him down a corridor in the ancient edifice, lined with a colonnade and stained glass windows. I tried to be precise and hit him with a lightning while he used orbs of explosive energy. I ran after him, among a rain of broken glass and falling columns. My adversary showed good imagination by lifting a statue of a Hell Knight and throwing it at me. The sharp pain in my left arm, which was hit by the statue, did not stop me from collapsing the support pillars and bringing the roof down upon him. Injured to a sufficient extent, he retreated to a long great hall that was filled with abandoned altars and unlit chandeliers. My brother tried to use a similar trick by ripping the tiles from the floor and throwing them at me. He was too slow. A movement of my finger was enough to light the braziers and candles throughout the room. My next gesture caused their fires to grow and coalesce into a fierce storm of fire that incinerated the whole room.
Realizing that it was too dangerous for him to remain there, he ran outside the Cathedral, heading towards a great river of blood that flowed nearby. He tried to use the old trick with the fiery eruptions but I was too quick to be caught in any of them. Another bombardment with fireballs from the sky annoyed me – I called forth my burning wrath, making the blood river boil violently, spilling hot waves over the shore. Desperate, he looked up towards the fortification on the side of the mountain and teleported there. I followed – we were not allowed to go beyond the boundaries of the continent, but we could still fight on the mountainside. Without having any time to rest, I entered combat once again.
It must have been quite a show for the other demons in the Stronghold to watch, as we fought among the fortifications causing explosions and discharges of raw fury. It was there, on the mountainside that he almost won a few times, catching me unprepared with spells of Steel Death. The many sharp blades that he summoned injured me severely and I had to use some of my remaining energy for a healing spell. I responded to the waves of Steel Death with a protective barrier that turned the blades away. Not knowing what to do, he summoned a small fire elemental and ran towards a tower up ahead. He obviously wanted to slow me down – it was very easy to sever the powers that held the elemental into existence and allow it to dissipate. Immediately afterwards, I decided that it would be a waste of time to follow him and therefore I simply summoned a small meteorite that crashed into the tower. From the ruins, my brother came out a bit stunned but willing to go on. I used the opportunity to apply his own favorite trick – I called a fiery eruption from underground that shrouded him in thick smoke.
The smoke did not allow me to see that he quickly opened a Gate and escaped to the Slough of Despair. Slightly irritated with the prolonged chase, I followed. The Slough was dark place, filled with many large slabs of stone and pits of murky slime. It was here that I used my advantage of knowing Inferno very well – I only had to feel where the souls of the slothful and the desperate were at unrest. I felt that spot and I was sure my opponent was there. I decided to use some finesse and unorthodox methods to get him – the impaled human bodies all over the place were the perfect tools. A few well placed magical words, and the corpses came to life, getting off the poles and attacking my brother with their envenomed nails and teeth. My opponent was distracted by the unexpected undead attack and I was able to unleash a volley of molten metal projectiles upon him. Seeing his cape burning reassured me and I launched another spell that caused enormous bone spines to erupt from the ground, trying to impale my target. He swiftly jumped behind a pile of charred rocks and disappeared.
The battle went on, among the rocks that covered the coast of the molten seas of Hell. Each of us used telekinesis and sudden shifts in gravity, attempting to throw the other into the roaring waves of magma that formed a vast ocean. One such shift almost pushed me over the edge, and I responded with rocks that were lifted from the barren shore. Several blinding rays of heat made me retreat, only to prepare and concentrate myself. Telekinesis requires good concentration, and at that moment, I had the perfect opportunity to seize him, and quickly throw him over the smoldering surface of the sea. While falling, he could somehow overcome the dizziness and conjure a spell that quickly opened a small portal.
I frowned when I saw that he had managed to escape again. I followed him to the rocky wasteland where he was – the cliffs near a great chasm, close to the warrens. There we went into a skirmish of fireballs, lightning bolts, and quakes that shattered the rock beneath our feet. You little curious human probably realize that I cannot tell you absolutely everything – suffice it to say that because of our fight, a rather huge section of the cliffs collapsed down into the molten ocean below. Fighting in the open was dangerous and I retreated into the Warrens – I knew the place well, while he had only visited it once in his life. This is what I counted on.
It was cold and quiet – the Warrens were a place of anomalies, warped by the raging souls of the insane. I slowly walked between two trees that hung in the air, upside down. I could not see well because of the shadows and light flashes that were changing rapidly, and the small chaotic discharges that were typical for this place. I felt his presence somewhere within the insane chaos of the edifice – trying to figure out which path to take. The strange thing about the warrens was that, very often, taking a path would return you to the same place you were or get you to an entirely different area – to the Monster Condo, for example. I passed through a yard that perfectly imitated its counterpart in the Hell Keep – the maddened souls had rather strong first impressions from the Keep as they entered Hell.
I heard a footstep – somewhere beyond the hall with the piles of skulls. I moved there and found myself in a maze – somewhere within it, my brother was looking for me. With a twisted smile, I remembered one of the peculiarities of the Warrens. I raised my hand and gently increased the intensity of the magical field in the room. Immediately, the walls of the labyrinth disappeared and I saw my brother in the center of empty room, looking panicked with surprise. The flame wave that I released drove him into retreat through a corridor. I smiled again and abruptly reversed the polarity of the magical field – the corridor turned into a gaping chasm and my brother fell down into a pit, its bottom covered with long sharp spikes. He could not open a Gate in time and fell right onto the deadly trap below...
I was not in a hurry to get down to him. I carefully chose my way through the warrens, passing through something that looked like a messy armory – a distorted reflection of the Hell Keep armory. From there I picked a glowing demonic sword and went down the stairs that led to the spike pit. He was there – looking at me with immense hatred and, at the same time, with pride about what I had just achieved, as well as, perhaps... a hint of pity? I bowed to him and he bowed in response, at least he tried to, considering his grave injuries... I must admit that he fought valiantly and brought great honor and glory to the name of the Gatekeepers. As I solemnly promised that I would not fail Hell and vengeance would fall upon those who had brought us ruin, I lifted the sword and approached him.
I am sorry, brother.
I went out of the Warrens, feeling both victorious and devastated in the same time. For a moment, I tried to imagine what it would have been if he had succeeded and tried to use that forsaken spaceship to awaken whatever was hidden on Io. But that was not important – I saw the group of warlocks and Barons that were quickly approaching me. They arrived and knelt before me, proclaiming me the new Lord of Hell and absolute ruler of the realm. Following the ancient formula, I replied that they were worthy to be my servants and were thereby given the privilege to worship and follow me until the end of my reign whenever it might be. As we walked back to the Stronghold, I saw the armies of Arachnotrons and their Spider Masterminds standing on the fields of Inferno, greeting me with my victory and ascent on the throne. The loud roars that came out from the Stronghold assured me that there would be a grand celebration... And indeed, there was.
When all demons had gathered within the fortress and on the vast fields around it, I got upon the dais of black marble and spoke to all who were there to hear me. I remember it as clearly as it was yesterday, and I will repeat what I said, specially for you, little human...
"Children of the burning pit, I stand before you in a time, when our glory and pride was crushed by our most hated enemies. I am here in a time when a trembling mortal, through deceit and outright trickery that only a coward without honor could resort to, wounded us severely. I stand here as an avatar of Hell's apocalyptic wrath that will drown our enemies and restore our pride as was foretold. Who are they who foolishly resisted our will? The humans! Who are they who sought to halt the triumph of our forces? The humans! Who are they who mocked us and defeated our glorious leader, the eternal Lord Baphomet? The humans! They, and that reckless man, who, in his arrogance, dared bring his foul mortal ways and disrupt the destiny that was promised to us! Here and now, I vow: the humans will pay for their sacrilege, they will witness their home ruined just as they ruined ours, they will see their future shattered just as they shattered ours, their suffering will be our legacy as we put an end to them forever and claim dominion over Existence itself, which is our birthright! We shall prevail!"
The loud roars and screams that echoed throughout the Stronghold were the ultimate confirmation of my absolute power. I raised my hands as a chorus of Lost Souls rose in the burning skies, singing anthems of vengeance and bloodshed.
My reign had begun. And so had the last chapter of this dark story.