章 160: A move of the horse
The demon paused, looking with interest at the boy who was trying in vain to break the strong threads. The ritual had already weakened Simon, taking most of his mana, so he was no more dangerous than an ordinary man.
"Why are you telling me all this? It sounds like the speech of a typical villain in a second-rate detective story.
"Huh, it really does look like it! But, no. It's not because of theatricality, and it's not because I want to show off, and you can hardly appreciate the amount of work I've done. I'm just saying all this to help you make the right choice I mentioned a while ago. You see, you're the Key, and you're already in the lock, figuratively speaking. But, unfortunately, you have defense mechanisms built in at creation, so it won't be so easy to turn you in the keyhole. I've been in this decrepit body, which is literally falling apart without the support of magic, for too long, and I can't spend much time trying to break your will. So I'm offering you a Choice."
The Master waved his hand, and three large double doors appeared before the boy's eyes.
"Right, you will join Geo Populus and become my right hand."
"What about Gotham?"
"You will be my right-hand man, so you will have the right to decide his fate. But some of the city will have to be sacrificed, but we'll think about it," the demon in the form of an old man winked conspiratorially. - The left door simply leads to the destruction of Gotham and does not oblige you to anything. Hmm..." he pretended to think about it. - That would be a little unfair. Right, the plague won't affect a small neighborhood called the Village. That's where your friends live, right? And what's more, I'm saving Rachel's life. She's infected and won't survive without my help, even if you do save the town.
"Liar! Tom spoke to Beth, and she said Rachel was safe," Simon shouted angrily, knowing it was true. His senses, awakened after the ritual, made it clear that the creature in front of him was telling the truth, or else he wouldn't have reacted so violently to the revelations of an incomprehensible creature, but instead would have tried to attack after the exchange of pleasantries.
"Is it? Why don't you look for yourself? Just send your eyes to your friend."
"I can't..."
"You can. You have a lot more power than you think. Close your eyes and focus on what you want to see. In this place, you can feel every infected person."
Worrying about Rachel took any other thoughts out of his head, so he immediately closed his eyes and concentrated. It was even easier to fall into meditation than it had been after the ritual of knowledge. A few minutes passed, and the darkness began to rapidly fill with colors. Thousands of red threads of varying thickness dotted the space beyond perception. But it was as if he knew which one he needed. As his consciousness reached for it, Simon didn't even realize he was in a familiar apartment in the form of his own projection.
The still world made it easy to see the girl tied to the chair with several extension cords, as well as her parents. The father of the family was holding a blood-soaked towel to his torn side, while the mother was dialing emergency services. Rachel's face and exposed body parts were covered in small sores and had an unhealthy yellowish tint to them, and her eyes burned with a frightening red light. Realizing that he really had plenty of time, the boy scrambled among the variety of paths and his own mind, looking for anything that might help, until he came across a real rope hidden amongst a tangle of finer threads, and it passed only a couple of meters away from his real body. It was almost ten minutes before Simon snapped out of his meditation, focusing his attention back on the Magister.
"What's hidden behind the center door?"
"I was hoping you wouldn't ask. A world of pain. Behind it, torture awaits you, the most brutal torture imaginable," the older man gently touched the black casements, which were smeared with blood. - It will sound strange, but I am not in favor of such methods, so I hope for your prudence. You've had time to think, and now it's time to choose.
The demon moved a few meters away, and after a moment, the invisible restraints fell away, allowing Simon to move again. A slight smile appeared on his face as he felt the source filling with life-giving energy again. A step, another step, the boy stopped in front of the center door.
A sad sigh was heard from Moss' side.
"I suspected that you would choose this option, but I had hoped for a different outcome. You really could be a wonderful addition to my entourage."
"You know... - the boy touched the sashes, imitating his interlocutor. Even through his gloves, his fingers felt the texture of the unusual material, which resembled both wood and steel, and his mind was filled with visions of terrible suffering, against which skin being torn alive didn't look so terrible. - Throughout our conversation, I sensed that you were telling the truth. About my inhuman nature, about the dark rituals and Mr. Farmer's part in them. Rachel, she's really in trouble... I realize now that Tom lied to me, hoping to keep me from the horrible truth.
"Then why not go with option three? I'm willing to swear an oath that I will truly heal your friend and leave the neighborhood untouched. Even more, I guarantee that the released demons won't even look at the residents of the Village if they want to leave Gotham territory."
"You don't have to, I believe," Simon shrugged indifferently.
"Then why? - The creature's voice was sincerely sympathetic.
"I just found something when I was traveling along the threads. A mind, an incredibly powerful mind, firmly bound to the Gate. They became its defense and at the same time its greatest weakness, allowing me to realize. It doesn't matter what I choose, does it? One way or another, "the key will turn in the lock," the doors of Eternal Night will swing open, and no one will be able to lock them from either side. Throughout our conversation, you've been forcing me to choose from the options you've offered yourself. But, as a friend of mine said, "if you are eaten, there are at least three ways out"."
"Aren't there two?"
"You can still chew your way out."
The surface of the creepy door seemed to crumble away, exposing plain white sashes.
"You?!"
In an instant, the snow-white room took on its true appearance, hidden behind the illusion. Thousands of jaws and tentacles littered the vast space from edge to edge. One particularly long limb towered above the mass, taking on the form of an elderly man who, like the light of a dodger, should lure unsuspecting prey to him.
Simon hesitated a little at the open passage, standing on a small ledge.
"This is going to sound very rude, but I can't help but still quote my friend's words, "dick in your snout, you fucking freak"."
The shutters abruptly slammed shut, cutting off the path to the hidden dimension within the Gate, after which the surrounding space shuddered with the roar of a thousand throats of the Beast emblem, but that was all he could do, for the real Guardian had already crossed the border and would soon finally take over.
***
The main danger of Hounds, aside from their ability to penetrate almost any fixed defenses and travel between worlds, is their numbers. Few would want to mess with even a small pack, knowing that after killing one, the rest would hide in another dimension to attack when you least expect it.
At the same time, there is only one such creature against us now, albeit with the support of a rather strong demon. However, I would be more confident in victory, if not for the depleted supply of diamonds and the hostile altar at my side, whose energy imposes the desire to dissolve into an amoebic mass. Although a couple of options began to stick, because it's hard not to notice that near our allies demonic mana begins to behave less aggressively, which, however, does not eliminate the problem of rapid degradation of weaves outside the aura.
Well, while I was thinking hard about how to set up a rather large-scale seal, the enemy began to act.
"Edax Flamma!"
An unusual red runic circle with a triangle in the center, inscribed with ornate symbols reminiscent of Arabic script, appeared in front of the man's outstretched hand. A moment later, a blob of black-red flame flew toward us. Luckily, I had time to react, bouncing away from the rest of the team, dragging the pretty girl with me.
The fireball flew past, scorching hot, and then exploded, damaging one of the columns at the far end of the room. The dark marble not only shattered, as if from a tank shell, but also melted, suggesting that the temperature of the balloon was clearly over a thousand degrees.
"Tz, I was hoping to finish in one blow..." the black-eyed demon grumbled unhappily, tossing aside the jacket torn by the transformation.
During the formation of the circle, the man had grown to two and a half meters, channeling an enormous amount of mana and transforming into a Balrog whose body was covered in black growths. There was no trace of his past wounds, and even his horns had grown back, glorious in their majesty and sharpness. Though a slight shortness of breath and a slight tremor of the right limb hinted that the cast of such a powerful spell was not without consequences, and it was hardly possible to fire it like a machine gun. And such a thing could not but be happy, but the pet that had turned to smoke, which was drawn into the nearest joint of the floor and the wall, made him a little nervous.
"Stay away from the walls, and if you see dark smoke coming from beneath your feet, jump away. It'll keep the Hound from moving into the material world," I shouted in one breath, throwing a napalm grenade at the demon. It wouldn't do much damage without light, of course, but it would create an additional source of illumination and give me a few moments to prepare.
The first drops of blood from my cut finger fell to the floor, glowing with a mysterious reddish light, but most importantly, falling even a few meters away from me, they didn't think to stop glowing, even though the mana invested was minimal. So the theory works, and the blood can really resist foreign energy, due to the presence of its own aura.
In general, one of the problems with catching Tindal Hounds is that they prefer to take on an intangible form when hunting, and only become normal when attacking, well, or wanting to show off in front of a future victim, feeding off the terror and hopelessness of others. Because of their connection to space-time intersections, these creatures of the underworld can enter almost any dimension through the angle between any two planes, if it is ninety degrees or less, though at sharp angles, the speed of appearance is noticeably reduced, allowing you to see that the head appears first, and only then the main body. At least, that's what it says in the book of one mad Arab, who just loved to study various infernal creatures and dark deities. I was not too lazy to copy the necessary pages to my tablet when I realized what a precious thing I had in my hands. I didn't expect that I would have to use this knowledge so soon, and even without proper training.
"Harley, grab Tom and go with plan "G"! It's just like the spiders, only this time it's you!"
The adrenaline shot into his bloodstream made him blurt out a smile of anticipation, which was immediately mirrored by the blonde.
"Got it, Mr. J! Detective, stay awake! - The frail-looking girl yanked Kirk from his seat with one hand and dragged him to the right side.
I and the rest of the company, of course, got the left half of the temple. It was necessary to separate them so that they wouldn't get in each other's way if the demon wanted to throw a fireball or something else. And how would I be able to create a suppressive seal if I stood still?
"From below! - I catch the appearance of the fog, jumping up sharply and severing the monster's connection to our world.
~Bah~
A revolver shot distracted the demon at the entrance, who was up to some suspicious shit again, palms outstretched in our direction.
"You miserable bugs! - he grabbed his wounded shoulder.
Huh, it's still a long way from Gaius' durability, but the regeneration and ability to use magic makes up for it. The next two bullets collided with a translucent barrier that looked like a standard kinetic shield. As if catching my wish, the film cracked as several bloody spikes flew into it, and a bright flash from the faithful companion flashed as an appetizer.
"Argh!" came an indignant roar from different parts of the cathedral.
I knew what to expect, so I managed to cover my eyes, but the rest of the squad, with the exception of the tentacle meatball, were temporarily blind. Harley works not with the mind, but with pure illusions, which make no distinction between enemies and allies.
Home and walls help, the winged expression was more accurate than ever. The not-so-strong demon, backed by the Hound, was successfully overpowering our entire team, so much so that after about ten minutes of fighting, only Harley and I were more or less intact. Susie had lost a third of her tentacles, which were too slow to regenerate when faced with dark flames, her son was covered from head to toe with deep cuts, having taken a clump of air blades intended for me, Gaius Cerberus had his hand chewed off, and the detective literally lost his head and two upper limbs. The last part was a plus, though, because the aura that blocked demonic mana remained, making me and the girl more mobile.
"If there's even one scar left, I'll kill you! - Kirk's outraged voice came to my ears.
"Tom, it's just one hand. Don't be so greedy."
"I would have taken the one that was torn off, why would you cut another one off? It fucking hurts! - The head in the girl's hands still wouldn't calm down.
So what if I had to take a piece of the detective, and all because the other limb was almost at the opposite end of the temple, and the body, there it was, right under my feet.
"Take this as a contribution to our future victory. Ha-ha-ha! Ouch!
The severed arm curved and pinched my side, where the Hound had recently attacked. The stone skin had survived the ordeal, but it still couldn't absorb the energy of the blow, leaving me with a hematoma and what looked like cracked ribs.
"If you keep distracting me, we're gonna die."
"You're right about that," the demon appeared next to me, his fist raised in a dark flame. - Die!
"Venite, et implete fedus, Spiritus Venti!"
A powerful stream of wind blew out of a small talisman with a blue stone in the center, sweeping the infernal monster to the end of the hall. I don't know how, but I could clearly hear the wind howling with profanity. Apparently, our new ally didn't like the energy spilling around him, so he began to take it out, igniting his own source. Unfortunately, the altar was much stronger than the older elemental, but it gave me a chance to get on with the plan.
I was not only splashing my blood around, creating light sources, freaking out the demon, and preventing the Hound's sudden attacks, but I was also drawing a spatial seal to stabilize the space. We danced almost in the very center of the Dark Cathedral, so there were not many exit points for the infernal creature, all that was left was to lure it out, force it into a material state, and then deprive it of its head. The latter is especially important, because its regeneration is at a very good level even without the altar stone, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life in an isolated room, waiting for a sudden attack.
"I need two minutes! - I shouted, jumping to the nearest column and beginning to form a weave. A circle, another inside, several lines crossing the flat drawing, glowing with excess mana. It was really just a simple illusion to lure the Hound out, and it didn't fail.
The black smoke that rose next to me only had time to form a head before the column stained with my blood grew an additional plane, forming a thirty-degree angle with the floor.
"H-sa! - Two powerful tentacles tried to grab one insolent clown, but caught only air, but I managed to throw the last defensive grenade into the open mouth and activate the seal.
The blood spilled on the floor, as if alive, formed a huge circle and glowed with pinkish light. The space itself hummed, almost forcibly forcing the creature to fully incarnate in the material world, and then there was a powerful explosion, from which I was saved by the shield, generously supplied with the last remnants of energy.
"Cerberus! - When the demon saw the death of his pet, he tried to break through to me, but it only weakened his own defenses, which the elemental took advantage of. In an instant, the air was filled with thousands of sharp blades that literally shredded the infernal creature to pieces.
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