Chapter 44: Chapter 44
There it was, right in front of her, the portal. The final one. And all she had to do was raise her hands and say the incantation. All of this would be over. If Thanatos wasn’t here, she couldn’t kill him. Surely, Raphael would understand that. She’d just close the portal and sneak away, leaving that confrontation for another day.
Except she knew it wasn’t that easy. Just because she didn’t see him didn’t mean he wasn’t there. And even before she could raise her hands, the pull from inside of her became overwhelming, causing Ru to double over. The air between the edges of the portal continued to ripple and wave, and Ru recognized the sensation from both of the previous portals. Something was coming.
She looked at Cutter and for the first time she could remember, she saw fear in his eyes. “They’re coming,” she whispered.
He opened his mouth to say something, but before anything came out, a rush of heat shot out of the portal opening. Both of them instinctively dropped to the ground. Ru raised her hands over her head but glanced up between them to see what looked like a solar flare shooting out between the trees. It singed the trees flanking them, sending rivulets of smoke into the air. Once it had passed, Ru jumped to her feet, Cutter beside her. Six forms, still in the shadow of the portal were making their way through. None of them looked human.
The sounds of footsteps approached from behind her, but Ru didn’t turn around. She could tell by the sounds of their breathing who it was. And then Rider shouted, “What the hell was that?” as confirmation just as the first demon stepped through.
Suddenly, Cutter’s body was barreling toward the portal at breakneck speed, almost slamming into a tree in front of them. He was struggling against the pull, but only managing to slightly slow the swiftness at which he was being carried. Around his waist, Ru could see a thin black line that looked like a string reaching back to the outstretched hooves of the beast that stood on two legs before them. He looked like some sort of horse, though he was upright and his snout was shaped more like a lion’s. Nevertheless, the blackness in his eyes left no mystery as to what he intended to do once Cutter reached his destination.
“Jume!” Ru remembered Windy was telling her about him just as Max had shown up to take her to Larkin. He used his lasso to draw in his victim before destroying them. Raising her hands, Ru shot her blue light at his face, causing him to let go of the rope. He let out an angry roar as Cutter toppled to the ground at his feet. Though he was clearly dazed, he had enough presence of mind to raise his hands as well, causing Jume to let out another roar.
Behind the demon, Ru saw another form come forward, and then another. She didn’t have time to look to see who they might be, but she could see more shadows beyond these demons. Lyric, Rider, and Ivy sprang into action. A gust of air blew one of the demons backward into another and the forest began to vibrate as Ivy unleashed her powers, existing vines shooting out of the surrounding trees as new ones sprang forth as well. Rider was engaged with a large snake-like creature. Ru’d had enough snakes from her encounter with Medusa, so she was happy to let him handle that situation.
Despite Jume’s strength, with both of them concentrating their power on him, he was soon confined, and Ru shouted the words she knew would free them both with confidence and full belief that they would work. “Infernus et perdere faciam te in nomine Domini!” Jume let out another loud bellow before he disappeared in a plume of light.
Ru wanted to run to Cutter to see if he was alright, but he was already on his feet, engaging the next creature, and Ru returned her attention to the portal. Stilling herself and trying to regain her focus, she raised her hands again, thinking if she could just close the portal, all of these beasts would be locked on the other side.
As she brought her hands up once again, the ground beneath her feet began to tremble even more violently than it had with Ivy’s powers. One boom after another resounded through the forest, causing the ground to quake such that Ru couldn’t keep her footing. She looked from one friend to another to try to determine what was happening, but each of them looked just as flabbergasted as she felt.
The ground shook again, stronger this time, knocking Ru off her feet, backward onto the hardened lava ground. Her hip smarted where it made contact with the earth. Before she could regain her footing, there was another shudder. This one sent her bouncing backward almost five feet. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening as she continued to take to the air and land again every few seconds as the violent ground sent her farther and farther away from the portal. In front of her, she could see her friends on the ground as well. Even the demons they’d been fighting had lost their footing and were sent sprawling.
The portal was in the distance now, some fifty feet, but Ru stayed focused on it each time the jarring let up for a brief second. What she saw before her was almost unbelievable, despite the fact that she’d seen demons she never would’ve thought existed and had recently seen an angel fly. Nothing compared with the implausible scene playing out in front of her.
At first, only a toe protruded from the portal opening, a massive one which filled up the void of the entryway. It had to be nearly half Ru’s height if not taller and just as far across. Once it made its way through, she could see the rest of the foot slowly leaking its way past the confines of the narrow opening, and before her very eyes, a giant began to take form, one liquid appendage at a time. It was as if he were pouring himself through the portal from the bottom up.
His reformation brought a halt to his forward progress, which allowed Ru and the others to clamber to their feet. Her legs and side hurt badly, but she knew she’d have time to worry about that later as she stood, steadying herself for a moment with one of the trees.