Chapter 32: Chapter 32

IRIS

The world around us was no longer a place; it was a screaming nightmare of flesh and darkness. The ground below us was breathing.

A putrid, pulsating rhythm, as if the earth itself was slowly being digested.

The trees were no longer trees. They writhed like giants burned alive, their bark bursting open, black, viscous resin oozing from the wounds, contorting into human-like faces.

The leaves. They weren’t just on the ground; they were crawling. Withered, stiff fingers clawed at our footprints as if to hold us back.

And the sky...it bled.

No clouds—something thicker, slimier, winding in swirling strands above us, sometimes cracked like an old wound from which a blackish fog dripped.

Not a sound you could hear with your ears; it was a giggle that scratched right inside your skull, as if a thousand insects were brushing their little legs over your brain.

The creatures here were not animals, not humans—they were failures.

There was one whose body shifted like hot wax, sometimes four legs, sometimes six, its head a jumbled puzzle of eyes and mouths, all whispering at the same time.

Another crawled on a mountain of bones, its body so thin that you could see the things moving inside it.

And then the shadows that weren’t shadows—they detached themselves from the trees, snaked across the ground like smoke, and where they went...life withered.

“IRIS!” my head echoed.

The voice of my amicus was a pinprick in the cacophony of terror.

I pointed forward, but my arm was trembling so much that it was little more than a twitch. But Bael understood anyway.

His face was numb, his pupils constricted to tiny dots.

We crept along. Every step a torture.

Because the beings here...they smelled us.

Their nostrils quivered, their mouths opened, and out poured not breath, but voices. Fragments of words that we knew.

The place I could hear my amicus from was a cave. A gullet, not an entrance.

The stones around it were teeth, smooth and yellow, like old gravestones.

From the depths came a hum—not a sound, but a pressure that made my eyeballs throb.

“Iris...come to me...” it called this time.

My amicus’s voice was weaker now, as if it was muffled by water.

I wanted to rush off, wanted to flee, but then I felt something.

Not a body, not a shape...just the violent weight of attention.

Something staring at me, not with eyes but with holes looking through me into something unspeakable.

It was like looking into a mirror and seeing your reflection smiling back at you as your skin slowly peeled away from your face.

“They are here,” I whispered.

My lips moved, but the sound choked as Bael’s power broke.

Not with a bang, but with a scream that was emitted by all the creatures around us at the same time.

And then they appeared.

Abbadon. Belial. Amon.

They didn’t come out of nowhere; they unfolded like a flower of flesh opening in slow motion.

Abbadon’s face was not a face, but a constantly changing mosaic of pain, each second revealing a new, strange person in agony.

Belial’s body was made up of scars moving like living worms.

And Amon...Amon didn’t have eyes.

Two black holes gaped where they should be, and in them you could see things no human mind could bear.

Geometries that hurt. Colors that did not exist.

The creatures around them threw themselves to the ground, not in deference, but like insects writhing before a flame.

“Iiiiiiris...” the words echoed in the air.

A voice so full of rage that it made my blood quiver in my veins.

It was Amon speaking, but his mouth did not move.

We could hear the name echoing from everywhere—from the trees, from the ground, from our own throats, as if we were speaking it.

“We missed you,” Abbadon said, mockingly.

And then, they all laughed at once.

“And as a bonus, we get the Traitors for free,” Belial said, laughing as he spoke to Bael and Devas.

An unspoken duel of stares ensued between them, so full of hate...full of despise.

All the creatures moved to surround us after Abbadon raised his hand.

Their movements were fluid, fast, and precise. They followed commands, preparing to attack us. To carve us up.

“We can do it the easy way and you just come with us...or we can do it the hard way and we’ll kill all your little friends,” Abbadon said as he looked around and pointed at all the creatures.

They would tear everything apart—such horrible creatures that you would long for death if you were in their clutches.

“How did you know we were here?” Bael asked.

“You think you can hide from us?...Trickster,” Belial replied, amused.

“You were created by us. We gave you your gift, you stupid demon,” Amon said, venom in his voice.

“Thank you for leading the girl to us,” Belial added. He bowed mockingly to Bael and Devas.

Both stood protectively in front of me and gave us the signal to prepare for Plan B.

Plan B...escape.

No! I wouldn’t flee. Not if I was here just a few feet above my amicus.

I could feel his pain, and he knew I was here.

But I couldn’t put my friends in danger anymore.

“Jade, open the portal and bring them all home,” I said loudly in my head as I broke my barriers to Jade.

She looked at me, her eyes wide with shock and fear. But she understood my intentions and immediately began to open the portal.

Seeing this, Abbadon gave the order to attack. The creatures started running and climbing in our direction.

“Take battle stance,” Aidan called as he stood next to Bael and Devas.

The creatures charged at us mercilessly, hatred and malice burning in their eyes.

Like mad dogs that had broken loose.

They attacked us from all sides, so we all surrounded Jade to protect her from them.

She had to focus to open the portal, and we had to protect her.

Aidan and Inna were such a well-rehearsed team that they easily crushed a small horde.

Bael and Devas were very strong and devastating with their powers.

The others fought and held together in the common fight.

When I saw our resistance succeed, I knew the princes of darkness would not let me go.

They would destroy my friends to get me.

So I had to hurry to save my amicus because Jade was almost done with that portal.

“I have to free him,” I yelled at Avery while running to the spot just above the cave.

“Iris, we have to get out of here!” Avery yelled.

When I got to the point, I looked at my friends.

They were fending off the attack as best they could. Everyone used their powers and kept the creatures away from me.

The creatures snapped at them with their fangs and spiky tails, and they were driven toward the portal.

“Iris, you have to come immediately, the portal is open!” Devas shouted at me.

But at that moment, I focused on my strength. I saw my power floating around me.

I could see it now, feel it, and control it.

With the last of my strength, I clenched all the power in my fist, my veins burning with pure energy as I stood up and hammered the stone floor with a tremendous blow!

CRACK!

A thunderclap of pure will split the earth in two. The ground shook as if a gigantic being had awoken deep below us.

Cracks shattered like glass, shooting out in all directions, and then the world fell apart.

Chunks of stone became tumbling avalanches that swept away the onrushing creatures—shrieking, clawing, swallowed up by the yawning darkness.

But as the earth shifted in all directions, the abyss opened up directly under my feet.

“IRIS!” Avery shouted.

His voice was a single, desperate scream, but too late.

The ground crumbled beneath me, and for an endless moment I hung in the air, surrounded by swirling dust and the horrified faces of my friends.

And then I fell. Into the gaping blackness of the cave.

Darkness embraced me like an old enemy.