Chapter 42

Almost as soon as they arrived in hell, the pain False was in lifted. This didn't surprise Kisara at all, after all she'd felt a mild version of it herself. That was how she was able to recognise it for what it was, a homing beacon set up to call all demons back to hell. Once there the sheer immensity of the force reeking destruction through all planes of hell was more than Kisara could bear. Instantly she became concerned about her parents. The force felt indiscriminative; she didn't think it was going to care about little things like good demons, just in destroying all it touched.

'What do you think it is,' False's voice sounded as a bolt of dark blue lightning struck down nearby.

'Don't you mean who,' Kisara flicked her gaze towards him.

'You think a person is causing this?'

'You don't?'

'Last I checked there wasn't any demon down in hell with this kind of power,' he shook his head.

'Then you shouldn't be thinking demon,' she met his gaze, 'you should be thinking Chaos.'

'You think its Jo, but…'

'No,' she cut him off, 'it's definitely not Jo.'

'Then who?'

'Crovell.'

'But Crovell's…'

'This new mentor of yours,' she cut him off, 'exactly how powerful did you say they were?'

'I didn't.'

'But they are, aren't they? They're more powerful than anyone you've encountered before, bar maybe Heirs.'

'How do you know that?'

'Because I'm thinking they'd have to be to give Crovell his Chaos back.'

For a few moments False was silent and the look on his face clearly suggested he was more than a little stunned by what she'd said. Leaving him to dwell on it she surveyed the horizon.

'What if you're wrong,' False lifted his voice above the noise of several more lightning bolts. 'What if it was another force entirely that's doing all this?'

'You mean what if it's not Crovell,' she glanced towards him.

'The Teen did absorb his Chaos,' he pointed out.

'His Chaos yes, but not his power.'

'And you're sure this is Crovell's power?'

'Aren't you?'

Again he was silent, his whole body strained in thought.

'I don't know,' he eventually admitted, 'I don't know what Crovell's power feels like.'

'Well I do,' she turned her gaze back towards the horizon.

'How?'

'He's one of my charges now, remember?'

'You can sense him, can't you?'

Slowly she nodded. Unfortunately though sensing him was the easy part. Working out where he was and why he was so upset on the other hand… Sighing heavily to herself, she closed her eyes for a moment. She'd barely seen Crovell in the whole time she'd been working for them, how the hell was she meant to calm him down from this?

'What the…' False gasped, causing her eyes to open towards him.

'What is it?'

'Look,' False pointed away from them.

Glancing in that direction, Kisara's jaw almost hit the ground they were hovering half a mile above. There, as plain as day, was the Army of Sen Pay, minus the beast and three generals which led it, marching across hell under the orders of Ni. For a few long moments Kisara felt as though her vocal chords were paralysed. When she eventually found she could speak again, all she could manage were a few flabbergasted noises which barely formed words, never mind made sense. Beside her False gripped a hold of her hand, as if to reassure her she wasn't alone and she certainly wasn't going mad.

'How,' was all she eventually got out.

'Maybe the beast is another one of Ni's bed fellows.'

'The beast has no gender of its own. No interest in sex.'

'Then maybe it has something to do with the fact Ni's daughters created it.'

'No,' Kisara shook her head, before meeting his gaze, 'you know as well as I do the beast respects no one's authority. It's stronger than all of them, even Ni. The only reason it's not considered the most powerful demon in existence is because Ni has the bigger kingdom. Ni's authority has always been by default, no matter how you try to look at it.'

'The beast could still be loyal to Ni.'

'The beast has no loyalty, only the will to destroy. To torment.'

'We don't know that. The beast has hosts, maybe…'

'The beast has never been influenced by…'

'We don't know that Kissy. We know very little about the beast, because the beast isn't from our…'

'I know,' she cut him off, 'but you were training to be a Balancer, remember? We know everything they have written about it, don't we?'

'Right now I'm not so sure we do.'

'What do we do,' Kisara felt as though she was falling apart. 'How do we stop this?'

'Stop what exactly.'

'This,' she indicated towards the Army of Sen Pay.

'I wish I knew,' False admitted, 'but I don't think we can.'

'Then we need to warn them.'

'Who?'

'The Mistresses, the Wins, the Heirs, everybody. We need to warn them of what Ni's capable of.'

'What about Crovell?'

'I don't know,' she suddenly felt torn, 'I know we can't leave him, but…'

'We have to warn the others?'

'Right and who knows, maybe one of them will be able to calm Crovell down.'

'Like Jo you mean?'

'Exactly.'

'The others are a little spread out right now,' False mused. 'Who do you want to go to first?'

'The Pure or the Face of Friendship,' there was no hesitation in her, 'and then to Jo.'

'Right,' he nodded, 'then let's get going.'

At that False disappeared, but before following him Kisara found herself holding her breath and staring out towards the Army of Sen Pay. There were a lot less of them than there would ever be demons down in hell, but each one of them was probably stronger than three normal demons combined. And their leader… She shuddered at the thought; no one liked to think about the beast. No one.