Читать книгу GATES OF DIVINITY - TOI BLASIER - Страница 17

Meanwhile, Lilith disembarked the Minotaur Line, a railway system that provides the main transportation through the Nine Circles of Hell. She did not know where Asteroth was, but she had a fairly good idea how to find him. She could see Peak Malice off in the distance and knew she had a long journey ahead of her. Lilith stood atop the ridge of a bare mountain-scape and looked down where she could see the Zethu Estates. She descended the ridge like an opaque shadow in the moonlight.

Lilith wasted no time and moved hastily across the landscape, passing up Zethu Estates as stealthily as possible to avoid any contact with the demonic populous and continuing past Acheron. When she got to Moloch, she had her work cut out for her. There was no way around the fortress. She would have to get inside in order to get out the other side. She was not thrilled about this, for inside Moloch, she would have to face the entity named Moloch and he would no doubt demand a grand sacrifice which she had none to give. She could have easily waited for Lucifer to reenlist the services of Beelzebub so that he could have Moloch grant her passage. She realized that her impatience and overzealousness to please Lucifer had put her in a difficult situation. The fortress had no entrance and was surrounded by factories that were menacing in appearance. Many of Hell’s resources were routed here to be mass forged to the needs of its operations. The fortress towered over the factories as if it were an overwatch to all their operations. The fortress of Moloch stood high with barren walls and few windows. The environment here was harsh even by demonic standards. Lilith determined she would have to find her way in through one of the windows in one of the towers. She drew her pair of twin daggers from behind her and began to scale the towers.

She made it to the nearest window opening and climbed in. The Fortress seemed to be completely dark except for what little bit of light that came in through the windows from the Infernum. There were many pillars in the structure that supported its framework. She maneuvered her way through the darkness and was immediately haunted by faint whispers that seemed to come from shades moving about in the vast spaces of the fortress. They always seemed to move out of her peripheral vision as if they were nothing more than trickery of the eye. Lilith knew better though. The shades were short in stature and sometimes giggled like children. Lilith was unwavering in her pursuit of Asteroth. She was after all the mother of demons and there was nothing in existence that could deter her. Inside, despite the rooms consisting of vast spaces, the fortress was like a maze. Lilith moved like a phantom in the night and was able to map where she had been quite easily. Most anything would get lost and trapped in here and quite possibly get confused and go mad from the disturbance of the whispers. Not Lilith though, she was a master of focus and she was unshakeable. It was not long before she came upon a door that stood out from the rest. It was bigger and grander with intricate carvings of children being devoured. “This must be it” she thought. She took a moment to compose herself and approached the great doors.

Just shy of the great doors, one of the shades obstructed her path and attacked her and let out a loud shriek as it did so. Long blade-like claws came down on Lilith and she blocked them with her twin blades. She could see its overstretched and exaggerated mouth open and its shriek was continuous. Lilith smirked. She loved it when there were creatures of Hell who did not know who she was, for in Hell, ignorance is never bliss. Lilith reciprocated its attack with a high-pitched siren’s call. With every passing moment her pitch kept on rising until finally the very foundation of the shade’s manifestation began to visibly crack as if light was trying to escape from inside it. Her pitch just kept on getting higher and higher. Its shriek turned into screams of a hundred children. Finally, its exterior shattered like glass and a shockwave lit up the room and dispelled all the other shades upon the return of the darkness. Silence filled the room. The great doors where now unguarded and she could proceed through unhindered.

She placed her hands on both doors and pushed them open. The great doors swung open with a loud creaking slam. As she walked in, she could see that the room was dimly lit with torches. She paused for a moment and looked around. It seemed like there should have been someone here, but the room appeared to be vacant. “You cannot hide from me, Moloch.” she announced. A low guttural laughter filled the room. Out of one of the shadows, as if it were an interdimensional gateway, one of Moloch’s hoofed feet stepped out. As the rest of him stepped through, the torchlight revealed his humanoid figure with two sets of arms, a set of wings and a bull’s head with huge horns that covered the top of his head like armor. The cuts and creases of his musculature glowed like molten steel ready to be forged. “I guess there’s no hiding from the mother of demons.” his voice rumbled. When Moloch spoke, flames emitted from his nostrils and mouth. When he looked at her, his eyes were made of fire. This did not unnerve Lilith in the least. “Allow me to pass and I will spare your life, demon.” she stated unamused. Moloch let out a loud roar of laughter that filled every hall in the fortress. All the lesser beings inside the walls of the fortress could feel it shake. “You? Let me live?” he inquired rhetorically. He laughed again. “Let me be transparently clear with you. First, I will let that first insult slide because of who you are. Secondly, I do not care who or what you are, but you’re going nowhere unless you have a sacrifice for me.” and with that he snorted into her face allowing the flames from his nostrils to just fall short of her face.

Lilith remained unflinching and gave no reaction. Moloch was bewildered and then he noticed a smirk crack across her face. She was about to make her move. He raised one of his wings up just in time to deflect one of her bladed strikes. “You will have to do better than…” he began when she quickly followed up her attack with a flurry of calculated strikes. Sparks bounced off him with each successful assault. Her twin blades would not be enough to fell this giant. “You will have to do better than that, girl!” he taunted. “As long as I am within these walls, I am impervious to death. Or did you not know that?”

Lilith needed to come up with a plan and quick. She had to figure out a way to get him outside and a means to break his armor. She felt ill-prepared for this situation, but now she was in too deep. She had no choice but to follow through now. Moloch charged at her like a bull and now she was on the defensive. She lowered her center of gravity and waited until he was right up on her. Timing was everything right now. She leapt up and grabbed him by the tip of one of his horns and yanked down with all her might. It threw him completely off balance and his momentum caused him to tumble off center like a careless boulder into one of the pillars. His crash into the pillar echoed through the hall as debris flew outward from the contact. A crack shot up the side of the pillar. Lilith noticed right away, and an idea began to form. Moloch pulled himself back up to his feet and snorted out a stream of fire in frustration. “You will know the price for not meeting my demands. It will be your undoing, Lilith.” he stated assuredly. He turned to her and she could see that the glow of his lines and his eyes were increasing. She had to react fast. She sprang at him as quickly as she could. He began opening his mouth and she bounded over him as flames shot out of his maw. She cartwheeled over his head and as she was coming down his back, she again grabbed on to one of his horns and swung her legs out to swing his head around. As she did so, flames continued to shoot out of his mouth and up into the air. Moloch opened his wings out for balance and tried grabbing her with one of his arms. His fire burned so hot that the fortress itself was catching fire. He swung his wings wildly to throw her off and in doing so, smashed the pillar behind him, crumbling it. He then swung his wings to fan his flames towards his horns and she used the momentum of his wild swings to propel herself in the other direction to safety. One pillar destroyed. She began to wonder how many it would take. Getting one destroyed was hard enough, she would have to improve on this plan. Perhaps, if she gave chase, she could get him to destroy more of the fortress. She would incorporate her talents for stealth and hopefully frustrate him into being the mindless raging beast she intends him to be.

Lilith took off at a dead sprint. She had to put some distance between her and Moloch to have a chance to disappear into the darkness. If he got too close the plan would never work, especially with his ability to breathe fire. Moloch shook off the debris that had fallen on him and when he looked up, she had already taken off. He looked around and barely caught a glimpse of her. He immediately began to pursue her and lost her in the darkness. Lilith’s plans were now successfully in motion. He began to wander his halls cautiously. She would make a sound here and there to confuse him and then she would strike him randomly with her twin blades to frustrate him. “You can’t keep this up forever!” he shouted. “I won’t have to.” she giggled. “Over here.” she whispered into his ear. He swung his horns wildly in the direction of her voice and smashed another pillar. Once again, he got covered in debris and shook it off. “Over here, over here!” she kept on repeating from different areas of the hall. Now he was getting frustrated just as she had planned. He blew a large burst of fire to illuminate the room causing it to catch fire at the same time. He caught a glimpse of her hiding behind a far-off pillar and charged it. As he neared it, he blew another wave of flames at it and smashed into only to reveal that she was not there. At this point, he stopped caring about anything falling on him and immediately began searching for her. “Over here” he heard again. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw her once again sticking her head out from behind another pillar. He was now blind with rage. He charged at the pillar with the same strategy as the last. Just like the last time, he turned up empty-handed. The plan was going exactly as she had hoped. However, it was getting harder and harder for to remain hidden as he continued to set more and more of the fortress on fire. She was running out of time and places to hide. The fire was doing an excellent job at consuming a large range of the space inside. Still, she continued with her plan. Moloch was at a point now where he just continuously breathed fire. The inside of the fortress looked like a raging inferno now and a lot of pillars had been smashed away. Everything inside was beginning to crumble from the vast destruction brought on by Moloch.

He had her in his sights now and she was across the room waiting for him. She had to play the rest of this by ear. They stared each other down for a moment. The fire and the lack of support from the pillars was causing everything to crumble and fall apart at a rapid rate now. Moloch smiled and she smiled right back at him. He began his charge at her and she planted her feet. As he made his way across the hall towards her, she noticed a crack form across the floor. It formed and spread like a crack on thin ice. He did not seem to notice. All he cared about was feeling her little body crush under the pressure of his fists. She held her ground as he leapt for her. She was so sure the floor would give away before he had a chance. A miscalculation on her part. He tackled her and they both went crashing through the floor. Fire and debris rained down on them as they fell crashing through one floor after another. She could feel his grip constantly tightening around her. Pain began to sear her senses as she felt him begin to crush her body. She began to despair; her plan had failed. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she heard the crushing sound of a body and then she felt nothing at all.

It took her a moment to realize that Moloch’s grip on her had loosened and the sound of the crunch was not her body. They had reached the bottom and the broken half of a pillar had impaled Moloch through the chest. His eyes were still fixed on her and she rolled out from his grip as fast as she could. Pain still surged through her body, but she could not take any chances. He tried to say something, but all that came out were gurgles of what looked like molten lava. The fortress continued to crumble all around her, and she had to get out fast. Before she did, a sharp pointy piece of rubble impaled Moloch through the head. Lilith quickly made her way to the other side of the fortress to continue her journey to Peak Malice.

Once she put some distance between her and Moloch’s fortress, she turned around to gaze upon it one more time and was shocked at what she saw next. The fortress reassembled itself and looked completely undisturbed. Despite the pain she felt through her entire body, she made the ascent up to the peak.

She stepped up to the doors and let herself in. Upon entering, the entire complex appeared deserted. Lilith continued to ascend through its levels until reaching the top balcony, noticing along the way that every hall and room were completely devoid of any décor. She stepped to the balustrade and Asteroth was nowhere to be seen. There was no doubt in her mind, this is where she had to be. She could not go back to Lucifer empty-handed. Her patience paid off; it was not long before Asteroth appeared before her. Her appearance still revealed evidence of her once being a heavenly angel. Her wings were still covered in angelic feathers and her poise still maintained heavenly grace. However, her gender has since transformed to female and her corruption robbed her of any beauty. Her face looked like it had been superficially stretched and the skin on the lower face had turned black. Her mouth dripped with venom and she always wore a white blindfold despite having full use of her eyes, she did not need them. Lilith held a magical silver ring to her face to protect herself from the angel with fetid breath. They held their gaze for a moment. “Lucifer is back.” she finally said. Asteroth acknowledged devoid of any emotion. With that, another piece of Lucifer's grand plan came together.