The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2) (93 page)

The blob was large enough to contain at least a few dozen knights and mounts around the size of Tom or Sekhmekt, assuming the knights actually were humanoid, which Tom was not sure of. He had just assumed they looked like knights.

“Getting through the Maelstrom could be tricky,” Morok said dispassionately, coming up beside Tom.

“It’s a very nasty gravitational force-field sort of thing,” Sekhmekt said. “As I mentioned in the prep, we can try the portable gravity cannons on them first.”

Their unit was now about a thousand feet from the giant Maelstrom blob. “The key point is that we need to break the Maelstrom and force the knights to emerge,” Sekhmekt said.

Tom nodded. “As planned, let’s start with our two portable gravity cannons and then, while those recharge, we will hit them with the BFG 40K’s, and then riddle the thing with our blasters as the plasma from the BFGs play out over the Maelstrom.”

Tom looked over at the four D’Orcs with the two gravity cannons. “Let me know if you can lock on the Maelstrom with your instruments.” He looked at the BFG and blaster troops. “Same with you guys; I want to take down the visibility levels so they can’t hit us with any ranged weaponry.”

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!

Even as Tom spoke, a bolt of black lightning came arcing through the air, only to be deflected by Sekhmekt leaping forward and batting it away with a large, round shield that shone as bright as the noonday sun, causing Tom and the D’Orcs to shield their eyes. Where in the Abyss the disk had come from was a total mystery, but it was now on her left forearm. The black lightning bounced harmlessly off it into the ground.

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!

Sekhmekt leaped, spinning in the air to deflect another bolt.

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!

The lioness spun again and nearly somersaulted to intercept another black bolt.

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!

Tom blinked at the dizzying speed with which the lioness leaped and spun through the air, catching and deflecting each bolt of inky blackness.

“Target acquired!” the gravity cannoneers yelled.

“Affirmative!” yelled the various rifle groups.

Tom raised the Rod of Tommus above his head and summoned the power of Doom. A shudder shook the ground.

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!
The lioness leaped again.

ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash!
Normal lightning came from the sky, crashing against the Maelstrom as Tom created a large negative electrical potential below it.

Suddenly a grey cloud of ash, soot, rain and mud came raining down as hurricane-force winds began to buffet the region once more. The D’Orcs engaged their suits’ gravlocks to keep their position. Suddenly a thundering blackness came from in front of Tom as the first gravity cannon fired. A giant concussion rocked them as the gravity wave hit the Maelstrom as fast as the blackness that ate the very light around it appeared.
ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash! ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash!
Flashes of Tom’s weather lightning lit the darkness. The light in the region came back to grey and then went black again as the second gravity cannon fired and instantly struck the Maelstrom.

ZZHHHHOHHSSSHTTTT—ZZZSSSSTTTTTHHHSSSSZZZ!
A purplish-green ball of superheated charged gas shot from the first BFG 40K plasma rifle to strike the Maelstrom, spreading out in a fiery, sparkling burst of electricity and luminescent gas against the inky Maelstrom bubble.

ZZHsshhZZZSSHHOHHSSSHTTTT—ZZZSSSSTTTTTHHHzzooohhHHTchchSSSSZZZ!
went the second plasma ball, this one orange, red and white as it struck the Maelstrom.

ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash!
More of Tom’s lightning bounced off the Maelstrom.

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!
Came what Tom assumed was another black lightning bolt, followed by a brilliant flash of blinding light from Sekhmekt’s shield as the bolt bounced into the ground.

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!
ZZHHHHSSSHoohhhssZZTTTT—ZZZSSSSTTTTTHooohhHHssHHSSSSZZZ!

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!
ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash!

KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM!
The thunder of the blaster rifles shook Tom’s eardrums.
ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash!

Tom shook his head. It was hard to see with his eyes, but he could sense the Maelstrom’s darkness on the DoomNet grid. Things were looking rather at a standstill. He reached with his mind towards the nearest magma flow and started pulling it through the ground towards the Maelstrom.

ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash!
Came his automated lighting.

ZZHHHHOHHSSSHTTTT—ZZZSSSSTTTTTHHHSSSSZZZ!
Plasma rippled through the grayish darkness.
KABOOM! ZZHHHHOHHSSSHTTTT—ZZZSSSSTTTTTHHHSSSSZZZ! KABOOM! ZZZZzzztttt!! KABOOM!

This was going to take several minutes. He sent a signal through his links to Morok and the D’Orcs around them to keep firing to keep the knights distracted. Blackness hit them all again as the first gravity cannon fired again. In the distant light of the plasma coruscating over the Maelstrom after the blackness cleared, there did seem to be some changes to the shape of the Maelstrom bubble. He was not sure if that was from damage or from the knights shifting around inside.

ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash!

CRRAAACCKKKK!!!

ZZHHHHOHHSSSHTTTT—ZZZSSSSTTTTTHHHSSSSZZZ!

Tom kept his concentration on channeling magma and superheated gas below the ground. He needed to burst open a giant pyroclastic gusher directly under the Maelstrom. Tom closed his eyes to increase the power and speed of the flow. He could feel the ground around them shaking as he forced the flow, pulling tremendous energy from the Fire portal as well as huge amounts of fluidic material from the Earth portal.

ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash!

ZZHHHHSSSHsshhhhssZZTTTT—ZZZSSSSTTTTTHHHssHHSSSSZZZ KABOOM!

KABOOM! CRRAAACCKKKK!!!
KABOOM!
Even with his eyes closed, he could feel the flashing light of Sekhmekt’s sun shield.
ZZHHHHSSSHsshhhhssZZTTTT—ZZZSSSSTTTTTHHHssHHSSSSZZZ!

Tom imagined he could feel mental sweat on his brow as he struggled to pull the elements together, along with gushers of air. He needed more mental hands than Tizzy had real hands! It was the high air pressure driving the fluid-like earth and magma through the ground. The superheated gas was dissolving the solid ground before it, tunneling towards the Maelstrom.

ZZZZzzztttt!! Crash! KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM!

There!
“Aim higher!” Tom yelled at the top of his lungs as he finally released the pyroclastic flow beneath the Maelstrom. He was about to erupt a small volcano under the maelstrom.
WHOOOOMM!!!!!
The fluid earth shot thunderously skywards, taking the maelstrom blob with it.

Inky blackness and a large
thud
followed as the first gravity cannon’s tracking system followed the maelstrom up and blasted it; almost simultaneously, the second gravity cannon fired at a slightly different angle. The blasters and BFGs followed suit.

Suddenly, giant armored horses and eight-to-ten-foot-tall knights in purplish-black plate armor were falling through the sky and smashing against the ground! They’d broken the maelstrom!

Sekhmekt leapt to the front of their unit and drew a huge breath despite the rainy gray sludge permeating the atmosphere. “
RRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!”

Tom cringed and covered his ears at the loudest, most terrifying lion roar he could possibly have imagined. A roar that unleashed what could only be described as a truly hellish blast of incredibly superheated air. Even behind her, the backdraft made Tom feel like a human who had stuck his head in a furnace. How hot could her breath be if he, a demon, thought the heat was scorching? His face felt like it was blistering in the heat!

As the roar ended, Tom stared ahead. Light ash rather than sludge fell quickly to the ground, the rain in the air had completely vaporized and the muddy ground was now parched, actually burnt and cracked as far as Tom could see, which was several leagues.

There were numerous large horse skeletons now dotting the scorched plane, barding falling from the bleached bones. A plain drier than anything else he had ever seen in the Abyss —which was really saying something. The Knights of Chaos were mostly kneeling on the ground, crouched behind sandblasted shields.

“Wow! Now
that
is a true scorched-earth strategy!” Talarius whispered.

“Unholy terror,” Morok agreed, breaking the stunned silence. Drops of rain finally started falling again; apparently, the roar had dried up the atmosphere quite effectively if the rain had taken this long to return.

Sekhmekt turned and grinned at them. She coughed a bit and licked her lips. “The Roar of the Lioness.” She chuckled. “I haven’t had an opportunity to do that since I created the deserts of Egypt!”

“Yeah, well, remind me not to ask you to blow out the birthday candles on my cake.” Tom shook his head and grinned at the lioness.

The knights were climbing to their feet and getting into formation. “It appears to be time to get back to work,” Morok said, pointing to the knights.

Talarius rotated to face the knights. “Charge!” he shouted, rocketing off towards the Knights of Chaos. The sphinxes leaped over the D’Orcs who had moved in front of them to attack the Maelstrom, and charged the knights.

“AAAAIIIIIGGHHHHAAAIIIIAAAHHH!!!” Sekhmekt let out a terrifying battle scream, although it was quite restrained compared to her roar, and charged the knights.

Tom laughed and slowed the production of new ash and sludge, thus turning the atmosphere completely back to rain. “Twelfth Regiment, fire at open targets at will!” he screamed. Morok laughed insanely beside him as the two charged the knights, who were scrambling to regain their footing on the dust, now returning to its former slippery mush state.

~

“Fafnir’s beard!” Lesteroth shouted to Bellyachus beside him. Both demons stared down at their blistered and burnt skin. “What in the most infernal depths of this damnable place was that?”

The D’Orc he had been fighting had also paused; he, too, was looking severely burnt. “Dung crabs! In six thousand years in the Abyss, I’ve never felt anything that hot!” The D’Orc said.

He, Lesteroth, Bellyachus and another nearby D’Orc who had been in the process of ripping Bellyachus’s right arm off for the third time, looked towards the source of the loud roar.

They had to use their demon sight to peer through the slowly resuming rain to where a giant anthrolioness with a shield as bright as Fierd, a knight of Tiernon, a tall pale D’Orc, and the Demon Lord Tommus, trailed by six giant sphinxes and a D’Orc regiment, were charging towards a formation of Knights of Chaos, who were now on foot.

“Now that is a sight you do not see every day!” Bellyachus exclaimed.

Lesteroth blinked a couple of times. “Is that Sekhmekt?” he asked in awe.

“Yes, the wife of Phaestus,” The D’Orc said, ignoring the smaller invading enemy beside him for the moment.

“Wife of Hephaestus? Also known as pêTah?” Lesteroth asked.

“Yeah. Hephaestus is the smith’s real name. Don’t know about the pêTah part,” the D’Orc said as the battle between the knights and Lord Tommus’s forces began.

“Shit! She’s the Nyjyr Ennead Goddess of War!” Lesteroth exclaimed.

“A goddess?” Bellyachus stared at Lesteroth; the two D’Orcs did the same.

“Yes, an honest-to-herself goddess!” Lesteroth screeched, raising his arms above his head. “Her husband, pêTah, is also known as Hephaestus, God of the Dwarves, and as Vulcan, God of Fire and the Forge.”

“Shit,” Bellyachus moaned.

The first D’Orc chuckled. “Phaestus is up in the turrets getting more heavy artillery ready to slaughter you guys!” the second D’Orc chuckled as well.

“More heavy artillery?” Bellyachus moaned.

“We are seriously on the wrong side!” Lesteroth whined.

“Why are you standing there?” a large D’Orc yelled, strolling over to them. He had Talgorf under one arm and was twisting the smaller demon’s head around in circles, turning the poor fellow’s neck into a corkscrew. Talgorf gave Lesteroth and Bellyachus a very pained stare.

The second D’Orc answered, “We’re watching that battle while letting our burns regenerate. This little fellow says that Phaestus’s wife, Sekhmekt, is a goddess!”

“A goddess?” The newest D’Orc said. “Hmm. I had heard rumors that Phaestus was some sort of dwarven deity, so I suppose that makes sense. Still doesn’t explain how he got such a hot wife.”

“You aren’t kidding on the hot; did you get burnt by that giant blast of wind?” the first D’Orc asked the D’Orc twisting Talgorf’s head around and around.

“Yeah, was that from her?” the D’Orc asked. “Pretty nasty; I haven’t had blisters in at least five thousand years!” He shook his head in admiration.

The first D’Orc nodded and looked back at Lesteroth. “So are you ready for me to resume slaughtering you?”

“Yeah, feeling a bit better now. But I am going to put up a fight!” Lesteroth replied, once more belligerent.