The Demon's Game (43 page)

Xul went to the dead Guardian, who had been turned
over onto his back. Rasik had a red shirt with black pants and a leather bag
strapped to his side. In the leather bag was his Guardian book and a much
larger grimoire.

Divina took the book and staff. “I will take them.”
She vanished.

“Flash me to my house,” Ronez said.

“Focus on what it looks like,” Ron told him. He still
held my hand with his left and took Ronez’s with his right. The light filled
the immediate area and faded to darkness. Ron squeezed my hand and a small ball
of light formed in front of us.

The room had brick walls and a wooden floor. Other
than the grand fireplace, there was really nothing intriguing about it. The
furniture included a leather couch with an end table. There were a few
paintings. Overall, it looked like the place was vacant. The only
distinguishing feature was the maroon curtains hanging on the north wall.

“You know, one of these days, I should finally be rid
of Vretial,” Ronez said, heading for the curtain.

When he tore them, loudly, from the wall, I pulled
Ron away. A six-by-eight mirror hung on the wall about an inch from the floor.
Ronez reached out and the instant his skin came into contact with the glass, it
was no longer a mirror; the reflection vanished to reveal a doorway. I held Ron
back as he tried to follow.

Ronez paused. “Don’t try to follow. Only Dylan and
myself can make it through here. Anyone else would find it quite unpleasant.”

“I’m your grandson. Surely the blood connection is
strong enough.”

“I’m afraid not, angel. Don’t fret. I will only be a
second.” He walked into the dark interior only to return a minute later with a
sword. “This is it. Flash us to the great, ‘darkest of them all’ so we can get
to the saving Dylan part.”

The sword was a straight, long, double-edged sword
with a simple black handle. I had been expecting gold and jewels or something
after seeing the mirror turn into a doorway. Before I could examine it further,
Ron flashed us to the clearing, where Mom and the dark god were arguing.

“Your face is going to get stuck like that,” Ronez
warned Divina when she scowled at Vretial.

Ron looked at me in alarm. “Hail, don’t scowl! Don’t
ever scowl!” He tried to reach for my face, probably to straighten out any
imagined wrinkles, but I caught both his hands and held them in mine.

“What’s wrong, Mom?” I asked.

“I told you to get the demon, not your mother,”
Vretial scolded me.

“I can do anything the demon can,” Mom argued.

“Sure you can, and more, which is why you cannot be
the one to do this.” When Divina just glared at him and crossed her arms,
Vretial sighed. “The last being alive or not alive that I trust to take Zero’s
power is you. If I destroyed him, I would take his power, and the balance
couldn’t handle that. It would be the same for you or the others. The demon is
powerful enough to withstand this magic and not nearly as likely to absorb
Zero’s power.”

“You want me to kill this being that possesses
Dylan?”

I turned to find Xul behind us. He must have appeared
in time to overhear us.

“If Zherneboh is left to his own devices…?” Ron
started to ask.

“Who knows? Nothing good, that’s for sure. We cannot
risk it. He could decide to kill every single living creature in the universe
just because he can.”

“But we don’t know. Maybe he is good,” I said.

“He took over Dad’s body. He might be killing Dad’s
soul as we speak,” Ron said. 

“If I do this, will it hurt Dylan?” Xul asked.

“Most definitely. It would be impossible to kill one
without the other. If you destroy Zero, Dylan’s soul will be destroyed as
well.”

“No! You can’t do that!”

“You are no longer needed here,” Vretial said, waving
his hand at us. I knew this god, however, so I was already acting before Ron
was even done shouting. Pulling the magic from my brother, I bonded it with my
own power, which was fueled by the desperate desire to protect him, and created
a shield around us. My father would have been proud that the dark god’s magic
couldn’t penetrate my barrier.

Instead, Mom and Ronez vanished, having been
successfully dismissed by Vretial. “We will return the magic to the sword and
then you will destroy Zero.”

“You said you would save our father,” I said.

“Well, I can’t imagine death is worse than what he is
suffering now. This one time, I think I should help him by defeating his
greatest enemy.”

“I won’t do it. If I kill Dylan, it will break our
deal. Ron will banish me to the void,” Xul said.

Vretial sighed. “You owe me a favor. You would never
have survived on Duran, so I sent you to Earth. I then told you not to have
anything you couldn’t afford to lose. If you do not do this, we might as well
all be in the void. Do not refuse, Xul.”

The demon’s face turned ashen. “How do you know my
name?”

“People who don’t return their favors with me end up
losing more than they bargained.”

“You mean Sydney.”

“Yes. She will die. What is more important to you?
Until you break the deal and kill Dylan, you are guaranteed safe from the void.
Once you kill Dylan, I will protect you from it. Choose wisely, before I kill
your dragoness out of boredom.”

I could see every fear, desire, and thought on the
demon’s face. Obviously, Sydney meant something to Xul, but he didn’t believe
the god that he would protect Xul from the void. The demon had to choose
between Sydney dying or spending eternity in the void.

He walked over to where Divina and Ronez had
disappeared and picked up the discarded sword. “How do I do this?”

“The book itself was needed to find the magic of the
weapon. If you try to read it, it would just send you off chasing your tail. We
need to use the book to take the magic out of the staff and into the blade.”

“But if it is the same magic that woke Zero, how will
that help to kill him?”

“Like with the Ancients, there is a measure of
vulnerability in inhabiting a flesh body. It doesn’t make him mortal, but it
gives us a chance. Stab him through the heart with the blade and the magic will
do the rest.”

“There must be another way. You cannot kill Dad,” Ron
said.

“Your father would be offering himself up right now
to save Mordon.”

“I’m not him,” Ron said coldly. “Dad will put the
lives of others above his own and could never resist saving people. I just want
to save my family. Mordon is not expendable. Dad is not expendable. You
are
expendable. I don’t need to figure out how to stop Zeb, I need to figure out
how to put
you
in Dad’s place.”

“That’s your mother showing through,” the god
chuckled. Ron’s steel gaze never wavered. “You come up with your plan or
whatever while I actually get things done. Demon, hold open the book as if to
read from it.”

Xul did as he was ordered. He picked up the book and
Vretial held out one hand for the staff and the other for the sword. The staff
flew from the floor into Vretial’s hand and the sword did the same from Xul’s
grip. Then Vretial let go of the staff and it hung suspended in midair.

He aimed the sword as if to stab the demon, then let
go. Instead of falling to the ground, the blade plunged through the air and
pierced through the binding of the book, only to stop an inch from the demon’s
chest. Xul swallowed, but didn’t voice his panic or relief.

Bright light formed from the staff and shot into the
sword, illuminating the blade for a moment, then faded as if it never existed
in the first place. Vretial made a beckoning motion and the weapon dislodged
from the grimoire before returning to the dark god, who grinned. “I finally
have a weapon that can kill Dylan.”

“Why would you want to kill my dad? I thought you
saved him when he was little,” Ron said.

“Of course I had. Otherwise, he would never have been
able to grow up and rid me of the balance. However, there will come a time when
I am no longer useful to him, and he will no longer be useful to me. When that
time comes, I want to take his power before he takes mine.”

“I can’t tell if you’re really bad or really good.”

“You know… neither can I anymore.”

Suddenly, Ron and I were back in the castle with
Zherneboh. I wrapped my arms around Ron and pulled him back against my chest.
“Where is Mordon?” I asked.

He scoffed. “Whatever defect of this body that
prevents me from killing him has won for now. I decided to send him back and
keep the two of you instead. The dragon may be willing to obey me in exchange
for your wellbeing, but you two have more power.”

“What are your intentions? Are you going to destroy
the universe?”

“I don’t know what my intentions are yet. I have been
asleep for so long. The last time I had any real intentions, it was when I
turned the Iadnah against each other.”

“You started the Iadnah wars? Why?”

He shrugged. “Boredom, I guess. The void can be
terribly boring, and my demons were not powerful enough to entertain me. Life
is chaos, so of course I had to meddle in it.”

“I understand that much. I love chaos,” Ron said,
then frowned. “You said
your
demons… What are you?”

“You really don’t want to know,” Zero said, grinning
cruelly.

“I do,” Ron argued. “I
need
to know. I have
three goals in life; to protect my family, to make my brother happy, and to
become the most powerful being in this universe. Right now, you are more
powerful than the gods, and that means you are the one to beat.”

Zero laughed. “You may surpass the Iadnah someday,
but you will never be a match for me. I am the---”

Surprise showed on his face right before he looked
down, where the very tip of a blade pierced the green t-shirt that my father
wore. Behind him, Xul appeared, having thrust the magic sword through my
father’s heart. Around Xul’s wrist was the metal bracelet. The demon pulled the
sword from my dad’s back and retreated several steps, clearly in shock.

“He would have killed Sydney,” the demon said, as if
begging for forgiveness.

Zero’s surprise faded to a self-satisfied grin. “This
will not be the end. You have merely delayed my victory.” He then collapsed,
but Xul rushed forward to catch him, as if stopping my father’s dead body from
hitting the ground could atone for his betrayal.

A wave of energy pulsed out from my dad and suddenly…

*          *          *

I was standing in the forest again, surrounded by the
demons who had chosen Dylan’s side over Ilea’s. Ron, Mom, Ronez, my dad…
everyone was right back where we started. The pulse of energy had tossed most
people from their feet, but Dad still stood, confused.

“What happened? I feel like time has passed. Why is
Rasik dead?” Dad asked.

Rasik was still lying dead in the grass and the book,
staff, and sword were missing. Xul stood next to my father, clearly just as
confused as the rest of us. “I killed you!” he exclaimed, panicky.

“Fat chance, dip-dunk. Now what actually happened?”

“What do you remember?” Ron asked.

“Rasik shot me with something from a staff, and now
he’s dead.”

“Was it a vision, then?”
I asked.

“Not a chance.”
“Who all remembers what
actually happened?” Mom, Xul, Ronez, Ron, and I did. “So… everyone who went to
the Land of the Iadnah… or possibly everyone who faced Vretial. He must be
behind this.”

“Just tell me you didn’t agree to owe him a favor,”
Mom said. Ron dropped his gaze and she groaned.

“Somebody start explaining before I get mad and cross
people off my Christmas card list,” Dad threatened.

“Am I on this list of yours?” Azenoth asked when he
appeared right in front of Dylan.

“You were. Now, however, I’m not sure. This is your
doing, isn’t it?” my father asked, not batting an eye at the eavesdropping of
the god.

“It is. I apologize for the destruction and chaos my
Noquodi has caused. I’m afraid I was trying to recreate what Tiamat had with
Nano. I wanted my Noquodi to be an informant for me, so I gave him the power
necessary to be able to do so. This made him powerful enough to spy on my
siblings and myself without getting caught. I relied on his fear of me, and I
shouldn’t have.”

“So Rasik was the one to possess and attack the other
Guardians and spy on everyone. He even tried to render the others powerless. It
was probably his fear of you that drove him to it. That’s why he was not
forgotten when he was ‘lost’ in the void. I trust you will be wiser in choosing
your next Guardian.”

“Oh, I will. I want Ronez and Samhail to be my
Guardians.”

“No,” my father refused instantly.

Azenoth gaped. “But your disdain for both Avoli and
Vretial is apparent. I thought you would welcome a better alternative for your
sons.”

“Avoli is wet and Vretial is nuts, but Rasik is the
third of your Guardians that you have failed to control. You cannot handle my
boys. I will support their decision in whoever they choose, but it will not be
you. You may leave now.”

When Azenoth gawked open-mouthed at the Guardian, Dad
waved his hand, much the way Zero had, and the god vanished. Everyone stared in
shock at my father.

“We need to find Edward.”

“I’ll find him,” Ghidorah said before he vanished.

“Zeb, get Earth’s new citizens settled.”

Xul immediately got the good demons out of the forest.
That was when things went wrong.

The Ancient who had been interrupted by Rilryn
suddenly appeared again. This time, he didn’t hesitate to attack. Dad was
already trying to put a shield over Mordon when a second Ancient appeared. Dad
changed his shield to cover himself and the Ancient he faced, so that none of
their magic could accidentally hurt anyone else. I put a shield over Ron at the
same moment he put one over me.