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The White Flame It was painful. The Claw of Hell was still impaled through the Inferno Fiend's torso, burning his chest. It was a numbing pain. His arms and legs began to feel cold. Crimson robes flowing, Darchon laughed, the ghostly demon's upper body sticking out of the ground behind him, surrounded by a blazing ring of Hellfire. "I'm surprised," the Demon Mage said, "that you've survived this long. Then again, you are a Shadow, and I'm sure Skias built you with durability in mind. It's only a pity that I must break you, and then Skias will have one less toy to play with." "I am not a toy!" Vince roared. Throwing both arms forward, Vince fired a blazing inferno toward the Demon Mage. Unfortunately, his attack was stopped by the Hellfire ring. "Oh, I think I might have forgotten to mention," Darchon replied. "While the Claw of Hell is spiritual, this barrier of flame that protects me is quite physical and will block all your attacks. You'll have to do better than that." Screaming in frustration, Vince flailed at the Claw with both arms, trying desperately to break it. But it was useless, all useless. No matter what he did, his attacks simply phased right through the Claw. Even worse, whenever he touched the Claw, his arms would flare up with excruciating pain, just like the pain in his chest. Pain... There was only one other time that Vince could remember being in so much pain, and that was against the Water Fiend. Only this time, the pain was concentrated in his chest, where the demon's talon pierced his heart. To inflict so much pain without even using the water element, the Claw of Hell must have been one powerful technique. This attack, however, was unblockable. It was spiritual, made of Deathforce. He couldn't stop it with his body. He couldn't stop it with his flames. But there had to be some way to stop it. What did Vince have as a weapon? He had his flames, his flesh, his armor, all useless. He needed something spiritual to stop the Claw. But wait... of course! The Claw of Hell was targeting his Lifeforce. What if he, too, could call forth his own Lifeforce and use that as a weapon, just like how Darchon used the Deathforce as a weapon. Vince closed his eyes. He needed to find his own Lifeforce, find a way to control it, for his survival depended on it. Focus... where is my Lifeforce? He felt it flowing, from his limbs through his veins into his heart, trying to replenish the Lifeforce that was being destroyed. He could reverse the flow, bring the Lifeforce to his hands. He would risk stopping his own heart, for his heart might not beat with a supply of Lifeforce, but it was worth the risk. Focus... He felt it flowing, the other way this time. The pain in his chest grew stronger, but Vince refused to let it break his concentration. And he felt the Lifeforce gathering into his hands. "Wh-what?" he heard Darchon cry nervously. "What is that technique?" The Inferno Fiend opened his eyes. His hands were ablaze, but not with red flame. They burned with a majestic white flame. "It won't matter," Darchon shouted at Vince, regaining his confidence. "No matter what you do, you cannot stop the Claw." The Inferno Fiend smiled. Giving a shout, Vince plunged his hands into the sides of the demon's talon. With a roar, he pulled. The Claw moved an inch. He pulled again, and the talon moved further. "Impossible!" the Demon Mage exclaimed with disbelief. "How are you--" A warcry emerged from Vince's lungs, and he pulled his hands outward, shredding the Claw of Hell into pieces. The ghostly demon roared in pain. The pain in his chest faded away, and Vince felt all his strength rushing back. The white flame grew, spreading across his entire body until he was burning with the white flame. He then threw both hands forward, firing a massive white blaze, incinerating the demon's arm. Still roaring, the demon sank back into the earth. "What?" the Demon Mage asked, now with apprehension. Darchon took a step back, but by now, it was too late. The white flame was enormous. It passed right through the Hellfire barrier. Darchon screamed as he burned. At last, the white flames subsided. The Demon Mage lay on the floor, gasping for breath. Vince slowly walked toward him. "No, stay back!" Darchon screamed. Vince continued to approach him. Quickly, Darchon staggered back onto his feet and fled. Vince chased after him, but the Demon Mage fired beams of Hellfire into the surviving buildings, smashing them apart. Tons of debris came avalanching down between them. Vince stopped and protected his face with his arms. Clouds of dust blew into the air as the debris crashed into the street, blocking his view. When the dust finally cleared, the street was covered in broken bricks, splintered wood, cracked cement, and crushed cars. The Demon Mage was gone. "Damn it!" Vince shouted as he kicked a brick away in anger. Then, he collapsed to the ground. His Inferno Armor melted off with his black hide. Breath panting, arms aching, and face sweating, Vince finally noticed a stinging sensation in his hands. He lifted his arms and looked into his palms. His fingers were bleeding. "That's funny," he said. "I don't remember taking any wounds there." With a grunt, he slowly climbed to his feet. "I don't ever remember being in this part of the city either," Vince said. "I wonder how I can get back to the Community Center." He took a few steps down the street, and something yellow caught his eye. "Hey, a school bus!" Vince shouted with glee. Finally, Vince found some transportation. Hopefully, this one would work. "Great! Just great!" Stephanie shouted. "The demons just had to attack while Vince was gone." An aerial demon flew toward one of the third floor windows of the Pedos Community Center. Unfortunately for it, it smacked into glass. Stephanie stood by a different window, an open window, and fired Holy shots at the oncoming demons. Robert defended yet a third window, on the other side of the room, with a pair of guns. Huddled in the middle of the room were the children, many of the crying from fear. Alice and Amy frantically, yet futilely, tried to comfort them. They were afraid, too. Another demon came at the closed window. This time, it broke through the glass before crash landing on the floor. It bounced a few times on the floor before it finally stopped in front of Alice, who screamed. In her fright, she backed into the children and she, along with five or six others, tripped and fell. The demon finally righted itself and hissed at Alice, who screamed again. Lucky for her, before it could do anything, Steph cut it in half with the blade end of her staff, splattering demon's blood over the children. "There are too many of them," Stephanie shouted in frustration. She had retreated to the center of the room to defend the children from a few flying demons who had managed to make it through the windows. "Just a little longer!" Robert shouted back. "I think I see Vince! He's coming back with a bus!" "What? Vince? Here?" Steph asked. "Almost," Robert answered. "Just give him a minute, maybe less." With a newfound strength, Steph took a few steps toward the windows, toward the invading demons. With a shout, she fired a beam of light from her staff. The speedometer read 80 miles per hour. Vince never even knew they made buses with this kind of speed. It was a good thing, though. He needed to get to the Community Center fast. It was in view already. There was only a minute or so more. A building on the right side of the street up ahead came crashing down. A giant twelve-foot beast of a demon emerged from it with arms the size of tree trunks and fists big enough to lift cars in one hand. In fact, that's what it was doing at that moment. It carried a car in each hand, which it then threw at Vince's bus. Quickly, Vince turned the steering wheel and the bus swerved. The debris pile that had once been a building wasn't too steep. Vince could probably roll right over it. Of course, at this speed, it was very unlikely that the bus would stay on the ground. "Well, then, let's just see how far this bus can fly," Vince said to himself. He floored the gas pedal. The speedometer moved. The next moment, it read 90, 100, 110, 120, then 130 miles per hour. As Vince hit the debris pile, he turned the steering wheel to aim the bus back at the Community Center. It spun out. The bus went airborne as it swerved, flying over a legion of demons. It finally hit the Community Center, crashing sideways through the second story wall. Vince was thrown off the driver's seat and into the door. Frantically, he climbed back behind the wheel and started the bus moving again. He crashed through a door and forced the bus halfway up a flight of stairs. "Oh, how did they work this thing," Vince muttered as he fumbled with the switches at the front of the bus. Within a few tries, he pulled the right switch and the bus door came open. "Stephanie!" he shouted. "Down the stairs. I have the bus. Get the children down here!" He couldn't see, but Vince heard a door open. "All right!" Stephanie yelled. A few seconds later, the first children came, led by Amy. They quickly boarded the bus, followed by Alice, then Stephanie, finally Robert, carrying Mindy. "Hold on tight," Vince said as he pulled the switch back to close the door. "This might be a little rough." The bus backed up and turned to face the hole in the wall Vince had made earlier. Stepping again on the gas, Vince forced the bus out through the hole. It flew through the air for a while as some of the children screamed. The over-muscled demon that Vince had encountered earlier stood on the parking lot, in front of the bus. However, the bus simply hit it on the way down, knocking at aside and sending it rolling across the concrete. Hastily, Vince turned the wheel some more and brought the bus to a stop. "Hovercraft?" Vince asked. "I'll take care of it," Robert volunteered. The door came open and Robert made his way to the hovercraft, which had been parked right next to where Vince stopped. As soon as Robert touched the hovercraft, the bus began speeding down the street again, plowing through a few more demons. "I-I think we're safe now," Alice said as the bus came onto the street. Most of the demons were now behind them, in the parking lot. There weren't any on the street. "They're chasing us," Stephanie said plainly. "What?" Alice asked. "Shit!" Stephanie quickly popped open the rooftop emergency escape. Two aerial demons were flying above them, following them. Stephanie fired Holy shots from her staff, but the demons easily evaded them. "I can't get a good shot," Stephanie said. "They're too high up." The demons dived down toward the bus. "Oh, crap crap crap!" Stephanie screamed as she dropped back into the bus. The demons came within a few feet above the bus when suddenly something tore through their wing. They bounced helplessly off the roof of the bus and onto the street. "Huh?" Steph asked. "What happened?" "Up there!" Alice shouted, pointing up through the roof. Fifty feet above them, Robert leaned halfway through the hovercraft's open door with a gun in his hand. "Paetre Cave," Vince announced. "At least, that's what this map says." "Where did you get that?" Stephanie asked. "I picked it up at the Community Center," Vince replied plainly. The bus and the hovercraft were parked against the cliff wall, on either side of the cave. Everyone had already gotten off the bus--Vince, Steph, Alice, and the children. Robert stood with them, looking at the cave. The entrance was pretty small, only about six feet tall and four feet wide. From here, there was a tunnel that went into the cave, before the absolute darkness cut off their vision. It would serve as a good chokepoint. "It should be safer in here," Vince decided. "The rock wall should be much stronger than the building walls." "Let's take a look inside," Steph said. Waving her hand, she turned her staff into a beacon of light. Then, she took her first steps into the cave. The children hesitated. "Come on," Steph said to them. "It's safe in here." She continued on, and the children followed behind her. After about a hundred feet of the tunnel, they came to an expansive chamber with several more tunnels and holes leading to other chambers. "It looks pretty good from the inside," Steph said. "We just need to put up some torches for light." "I can do that," Vince answered. "We need to decorate this place, too," Alice said. "It looks so drab. Hey, kids, you wanna decorate a cave?" "Yeah!" most of the children yelled. "Decorate it with what?" Vince asked. "Oh, we can find stuff on the beach," Alice answered. "Okay, you do that," Vince said. "I'm gonna go get Mindy from the bus now." As Alice and the children huddled and made plans, Vince made his way back through the tunnel, back out the cave and onto the beach. Opening the bus door, he climbed inside and heard a yawn. Mindy had just sat up from the front seat of the bus and was stretching her arms. "Mindy," Vince said. "You're awake." "Hmm?" Mindy blinked. "Oh, hi Vince." He wrapped his arms around her and held her. "I've been so worried about you," he said. "I'm glad you survived." "It's good to see you, too," she giggled. He looked up at her. "Tell me," he said. "How did you get away?" "Huh?" "From Gehenna," he explained. "From the demons. How did you end up here in Pedos?" "Oh," she said. "Well, I flew away on my hovercraft, but then a whole bunch of flying demons attacked me and the broke the hovercraft, and the last thing I remember was that I crash-landed somewhere." Still in his grasp, she took a look around. "How long have I been asleep?" she asked. "I dunno," he said. "I haven't been with you the whole time. Probably three of four days?" "Wow," she replied. "I certainly took a nice long nap, didn't I? But it's good to be awake once in a while, right?" She laughed. He hesitated for a moment. Then, a smile broke out and he shared her laugh. "Mindy," Vince said. "I'm glad you're awake, too." |