18th June
10:58 GMT -5
Satanus staggers sideways as the horde swarms over him, though I imagine that he does so more in surprise than fear.
"
Aagh!"
Mister Lester is less sanguine, cowering away as much as he can with Satanus' hand still clamped onto his shoulder. Okay, I didn't ask John about him
directly as I assumed that his fate was a bit of a sore point, but to the best of my recollection he had Mnemoth sealed inside him then got bricked up in a small room in Linton Smith's basement. Not that I think he wouldn't have sold him on to Satanus if the price was right.
Satanus responds, exhaling black/purple fire to burn through the Praexis Demon that had latched onto his face then turning his head in an arc to incinerate as many others as he can. They dissipate after a second or two then fall from the rings to renew their attack, several already showing the distended bellies which indicates that we're about to witness another wave of vomit-births.
Joy.
What next? The Praexis Demons can probably keep his attention but given how powerful I imagine him to be I doubt that they'll make much progress-
Satanus is briefly surrounded by a storm of lightning, which fries the Praexis Demons all over him as well as the Hellwraith. He gets all of half a second's respite before they're all over him again.
-in draining him completely, which is just about the only thing they can do to finish him. Tubbs!
The Praexis Demon I call stops mid-air and turns towards me.
Get into the Hall's zeta tube and fetch the Sword of the Fallen and the Ace of Winchesters from the mountain.
But food?
Go.
He slumps slightly.
I go. Then he flies off towards the entrance of the building.
Satanus is lashing out with his free hand in a slightly more controlled way now. I think he's realised that the Demons aren't an immediate threat. Giving him think-time is not ideal.
"Orange Lantern, your…
Things aren't giving us a clear shot."
Ms Thal sounds moderately disgusted by them. I wonder..? Oh, I'm a grandfather, that explains it. I suppose she won't have seen that happen before.
"They can't die, sir. Feel free to fire through them. Alternatively, if you can secure the Hall or Mister Lester, that would be quite helpful.
"
"Who is he?"
"An associate of Mister Constantine.
" A grey/black portal opens next to Satanus and he grabs a struggling Praexis Demon by its head and shoves it through before closing the portal again. Yep, sending them to a different part of Hell will work perfectly well.
"There's a rather unpleasant Famine Elemental called
Mnemoth inside him. It killed eighty nine people last time it was in New York.
"
Satanus opens another portal, this time showing watery sludge on the far side. Just in case he's having to concentrate on that I open up with my railguns once more.
"Gah!"
Yes, yes he does. And
agh-!
I drop through the air, construct armour gone and armour smouldering. Ring, what was that?
Massive electrical discharge detected.
And I didn't get advanced warning because..?
Unable to detect prior to impact. Probability analysis strongly indicative of conjuration.
Fair enough. I re-establish my construct armour and add an ablative sphere around me. Praexis Demons, next time he tries shoving one of you through a portal, try eating it.
I get a vague impression of obedience back through the link.
What exactly is this in aid of? Satanus is about as powerful as Demons come, yet he hasn't brought any backup with him that I can see. No cultists, none of those minor Demons that Mister Gregor or the Polyhedrite had. I mean,
yes, I don't think I've done more than mildly inconvenience him so far…
Ms Thal dives out of the rear hatch of the fighter and flies into the Hall at speed while her husband remains on overwatch. He attempts another volley of shots from the plasma repeaters, but all this does is remind Satanus that he's there. Turning suddenly in the fighter's direction he negligently backhands a Praexis Demon towards a portal leading to an area of densely piled and still animate skeletons. In a surprising display of coordination, two other Demons grab hold of it and shove it upwards so that it hits the portal mouth first. The Praexis
gulps, its mouth expanding, being sucked along the outer surface of the portal. Satanus looks back from throwing fire at the fighter, staring at the Praexis with the first genuine concern that I've seen in this fight.
The Praexis Demon
grows, not getting fat but expanding, the solid orange of its body being corrupted with grey and brown.
"Raaaaaarr!"
"How-?!"
Perfect. Angel Feather round, fire.
A portal starts to form to intercept it but another Praexis gulps it down immediately, sloughing off to the side as it too begins its metamorphosis. Satanus is left wide open as the Source-touched round strikes him.
"RAAAAAAAAGH!"
Golden fire erupts all over his body, his clothing burned off and his skin blackening and charring!
"
Gabriel!" Golden sand swirls around him as he opens a rift to Hell with himself at the centre. The golden flames gutter and fail. I suppose that makes sense. According to John, Hell grew up around the First after God told him to 'get out of my sight'. Presumably the Source's presence doesn't extend there.
"Enough of this!" Satanus releases Mister Lester's shoulder and the man falls to his knees before
frantically scrabbling to get out of the way. "Clearly, I should have paid more attention when Truggs told me of your skill." I open fire with Mage Slayers again as he raises his right hand and blasts Mister Lester in the back. "Enjoy the reward of your labours."
The rift collapses around him, taking him back to Hell with it as flies begin to crawl out of Mister Lester's charred body. Mnemoth will be joining us in a moment or two.
"Katar! More soldiers in the Hall!"
Hellwraith, go and assist her. Praexis Demons, eat as many flies as you can.
The swarm swoop in, but the demonic flies are literally materialising from nowhere. It's quite possible that they're just a side effect of Mnemoth's spirit being close at hand rather than acting as his physical body. Plus, the Praexis Demons aren't the world's most agile fliers.
"So full!"
And I've got a distinct feeling that my new living Hell portals are going to be a problem. Okay, more flies and they're increasingly larger and more demonic-looking. The crowd -who had started to edge forwards like the filthy rubberneckers they are- start backing up again as the centre of the plaza blackens from the sheer mass of insect bodies.
I don't think that the Polyhedrite had desires of its own. But I can see from the filthy orange glow emanating from its small avatar bodies that Mnemoth
does. It wants people to suffer and starve so that it can spread. Of course, having desires of your own to which you are totally beholden isn't an entirely good idea when facing an Orange Lantern.
Orange light envelopes the entire area in which it is trying to emerge, hundreds of connections forming between the rings and its central consciousness. It's intelligent but not particularly clever, as expected from a life form that flew into the blatant trap John and Mister Smith set up.
Ring, can we assimilate it?
Presence of intense unrestricted desire indicates little resistance to assimilation.
I imagine a cloud of orange Demon-Flies covering the skies.
No. I don't think I want
that.
