Devil Ash Deceit (Devil Ash Saga) (9 page)

“Let’s go,” the death toucher said and stepped forward off the pier. Ash waited only a second before joining him in falling to the murky water below. With a splash the boys plunged through the surface and fought their every instinct to swim back up to the top.

Aura’s breathing was all wrong. His survival instincts were going nuts, telling his body to breath faster and harder because he was completely submerged in water. When he started hyperventilating, Ash saw him clutching at his own neck, struggling for air.

“Aura, you have to breathe like normal! Trust me and just breathe!” Ash’s words came out loud but muffled through his helmet. He wondered if Aura could even hear his words of encouragement. In his youth, Ash had been a frequenter at his local lake’s public access beach. He felt totally in his element in the water. He even got used to snorkeling there, though he never saw anything spectacular in his lousy lake.

Their glow-globes failed to illuminate more than a few feet in front of them, leaving them essentially blind and one-half drowning. Aura seemed to be calming though, perhaps even due to Ash’s words. Ash tried focusing his attention on any dangerous demons that might be lurking nearby, looking for an easy meal, as demons tend to do. He hoped the puny little knife he was given wouldn’t have to be used.

After a few seconds of sinking, the boys touched down on the sandy bottom. Because of the rain above, the sea was choppy and rough. The boys were tossed back and forth by the currents running amok. It became hard to even tell which way was up. If the breathing hoses weren’t leading the way, Aura doubted he could even make it back. He began to tremble from both coldness and fear.

“See how peaceful it is down here?” said Ash.

Aura stopped thinking. He tried to turn everything on his mind off. The water, although bitingly cold, had an amazing energy-giving property to it as well. He suddenly realized how alert and awake he was. Suddenly being blown around by the currents wasn’t so bad, it actually felt kind of fun. His fear disappeared, and a thought sprang into his mind.

Thank you, Ash.

Now Ash was experimenting with his glow-globe, seeing how far away from him he could make it go. Pushing a flame through water was entirely different from pushing it through the air. There was an actual force of resistance to go through. He’d managed to move it over five feet away, but still it did nothing to illuminate his surroundings. They were deep in the dark.

Beams of darkness swept across Ash’s face, and after thinking a moment about it he realized what they actually were: shadows.
Lots
of shadows. He checked on his partner, assuming this development would not be good for his breathing. But Aura was clueless, staring off his own way and attempting to push around his own glow-globe.

He
doesn’t even have a puny knife to protect himself with
!
I better grab us a squid quick so we can get the hell out of this mess.

The boy took a step forward holding the knife defensively. More shadowy objects moved across his glow-globe. The current pushed him hard to the left and his foot slipped. At the same time, a creature darted towards him. Then another. Then an entire school of fish swam past him rapidly. He didn’t even have to swing his knife and the fish were gone. Aura watched and laughed. The boy floated around peacefully now, enjoying this new underwater world.

Looks like we got super lucky,
Ash thought. In the second he dropped his guard and lowered his knife a dark tentacle shot forward like a whip, wrapping itself around his wrist. He dropped the knife and the current immediately swept it away. Ash was now officially defenseless.

The boy gripped the tentacle but could not pull it off. He looked up to see a single glowing eyeball drifting closer. The source of the stinging tentacle reared its ugly face. Ash could see more of the shifting appendages working their way through the darkness to reach the boy. He cried out for Aura, hoping his friend could hear or see him.

His arm went numb. The squid’s many tentacles wrapped around Ash’s body and even around his neck. He felt his body go completely limp, he could not move to struggle. The squid pulled Ash closer and a terrible sharp beak spread open. One more second and Ash would be demon chow.

But another body slammed into the creature first, knocking it back. “Looks like you’ve found our squid!” Aura said. “Quick! Pass me the knife!”

“I dropped it!” Ash said.

“You what! Now what am I supposed to do!?”

“Pull on my hose twice!” Ash said. Though the demon’s limbs had loosened slightly, he still could not move. “They’ll pull me in with the squid attached!”

Aura kicked off the demon, pushing it back a little further, and half-swam half-ran towards Ash. He stretched out his arm to grab hold of Ash’s air hose, but a sudden current caught him off guard. He was swept away faster and further and more violently than he’d experienced yet. Again, Ash was alone.

Now the squid was furious. It propelled itself forward and was upon Ash with more intensity than it’d previously displayed. It was probably hungry. The creature’s beak plunged into Ash’s shoulder, tearing through his rubber suit and exposing his bloody flesh to the freezing seawater. Ash screamed, and very faintly above the water and back on top of the pier, his scream of pain could almost be heard by the nobles.

Luckily, the stinging tentacles continued numbing the boy’s body to the point that he felt no pain. He wondered how many devils had died in this same way. Then something bizarre and miraculous happened. One of the squid’s tentacles loosened. It completely unwrapped itself from Ash’s arm and drifted away on the current. Ash strained his eyes to see what happened, as the other tentacles began to loosen and unwrap too.

“
Look what I found
!” Aura said, drifting back towards Ash. In his hand he held the puny knife given to them by Glebeck.

“Don’t try to fight it! Let’s just get out of here!” Ash said. Too late though. The squid was back. This time the remaining tentacles wrapped around Aura’s hand, the one that held the knife. Aura clutched the knife tightly as he lost all sensation in his hand.

“Stupid squid!” Aura said. “You made the wrong move and now you’re dead!”

What is he talking about?
Ash’s mind cried out.
Has Aura finally lost it?

Aura held the knife with his left hand. His right hand shot forward like a torpedo and pierced the squid’s huge beady eye. Bolts of blue lightning shot out, killing the demon in a flash. Ash floated freely with the tides now, contemplating how the heck Aura managed to use his death touch with his hand covered. 

“You did it!” Ash said. “
How
?”

“
Brrr
, that’s cold water!” Aura said, clutching his cold, freezing,
exposed
hand. After getting a closer look at it, Ash realized his friend had used the knife to cut off part of his suit. He couldn’t tell earlier because Aura’s hand was the same black color as the suit. “Let’s get back up there and rub this in their faces!”

“Hang on, I got an idea.” Ash practiced some flame control by drawing his glow-globe close to him. Enough feeling returned to his arms for him to snatch the globe. “I wonder if it will fit…” The boy swam up close to the enormous dead squid to inspect it. He pried open the beak, which spread wider than Ash thought possible. A wicked smile spread across his face.

On top of the pier the amused nobles waited with bated breath. The storm was even coming to calm, allowing a few solitary beams of light to shine down through the cracks in the pier and reach them. They’d almost forgotten what the artificial sunlight felt like. It was so nice out they even put the umbrellas away.

“Clearly they have already died,” said Bliley. “So may I suggest we have a lovely stroll back to the office? I have a show to prepare for.”

“To true! If they were still alive, I’m sure they’d be begging for us to pull them back up by now!” Rumbaugh said.

“Yes, my colleagues, we will go soon,” Glebeck said, trying to remain in control. “But first, let’s at least do them the honor of pulling their dead bodies in, so that we may see the looks of terror on their dumb dead faces.” The group grumbled together in agreement and the dockworker began to reel in the boy’s lifelines.

The dockworker struggled and cranked for a full minute until finally two severed hoses flopped onto the pier. The boys were cut off and still down below. Instantly the group of nobles began to laugh, thinking the deaths of two youngsters funny.

“
Headline
!” Glebeck shouted. “
Sea claims two more stupid people
!” Everyone laughed.

“
Headline
!” Rumbaugh joined in. “
Death toucher gets death touched… by squid
!”

An unexpected explosion in the sea caught the group’s attention as they were showered by seawater. Something flew out of the water, and
fast
. The old men stared in disbelief, trying to make sense of what they were seeing. It was a
flying
squid.

On top of the gigantic squid, two riders stood triumphantly. Half-human Ash Kaplan and the death toucher Aura Draxler looked down on the nobles. Glebeck and his gang rubbed their eyes just to verify what they were seeing wasn’t a hallucination. Ash and Aura were indeed riding atop a flying squid that appeared to be dead.

“T-they… they actually did it!” Glebeck said.

“
They tamed a wild squid
,” Bliley said, his eyes glazed over.

“
Headline
!” Aura said, capturing the attention of the men. The floating squid continued drifting till it was suspended directly above the group of nobles.

“
Death toucher and half-human deliver on squid ink
!
”
Ash said. He and Aura leapt from the demon corpse. The floating glow-globes they’d hidden inside the squid, which they struggled with all their concentration and might to lift out of the water, suddenly exploded. All over the nobles, squid guts and ink rained down, drenching them in a stench they’d never before experienced but also conveniently filling all their buckets. The boys were sure there’d be some good ink in there, somewhere.

“You’ll be getting a bill from our boss,” Ash said. He and Aura landed on the dock and walked past the staggering, sometimes vomiting group of nobles.

“It’s not going to be cheap either, so you’d better get yourselves cleaned off and sell some more papers tonight!” Aura said. The boys hung around just long enough to grab their damp clothes and get one last look at the humiliated and nauseous men and woman.

Ash and Aura left the pier enjoying the silence and the sunshine.

Over the next week, the team divided their time between rebel hunting and advanced flame training with Yazma. Over and over, they practiced creating and sustaining multiple flames, diving and combining fireballs, and navigating the hoop course that Yazma was constantly reconstructing, always increasing the difficulty with each redesign. At the end of the week Ash realized just how much he’d improved with his flames.

He could now create a flame using only a single finger, increase the size of his fireballs quickly and efficiently, and move it independently away from him in any direction. The hoop course, no matter how difficult Yazma made it or how closely she positioned the hoops, was easily navigated by the boy. The last hurdle to overcome was the speed at which he could do all this, which was not very fast at all.

Aura spent most of his time playing around with his flames, not particularly caring to actually work hard. He often tried to look like he was struggling so that he could beg Yazma for help that he did not need. Her teaching instincts too strong, she eventually caved and stopped ignoring the distraught teen. She fell into his trap of spending hours of the day ‘flirting’ with him. At least it was flirting to Aura. To Yazma, it was only tutelage.

Shiva showed the least amount of improvement. She could do everything the boys did, just not anywhere near as fast or as accurately. She lacked the necessary mental strength the boys had. Her grandfather, Wilhelm Satan, would occasionally drop in for an hour or more around their lunch break. It was during these visits that Shiva tried her hardest to impress him.

Luckily for the hungry boys, it was that time again. Wilhelm arrived at the private courtyard with his usual delivery of lunches for everyone. The group stopped what they were doing (except for Shiva, who made her flames burn bigger) and came to eat. They sat in the grass, picnic-style, and dug in. It was a bright cloudless day and even kind of warm. While Ash enjoyed the warmer weather, he knew he would soon have to face Gio to get his peacoat back. The tailor probably finished repairing the coat by now, but Ash knew that he’d most likely give the boy an earful when he saw him.

Shiva tried showing off to her grandfather by passing a small fireball through the hoop course at a slightly faster speed. She tried to take a ninety-degree turn too fast and her fireball split apart and puttered out. She’d barely made it through half the course. As usual, she bit her lip and felt the blood rush to her cheeks.

“What seems to be the problem?” Wilhelm asked, seeing his granddaughter struggle.

“
Nothing
,” Shiva said. “I just have a hard time getting the flames to go where I want them to go. I know I have all this open space to work with, but keeping the flames moving on a specific path is difficult for me. I don’t understand why it’s so easy for
him
though.”

Shiva motioned to Ash, who sat at the edge of the picnic with a hunk of meat dangling from his mouth. The human boy absent-mindedly danced a small fireball around in the air, going back and forth through a nearby hoop. The way he easily moved his flames around,
playing
with them, made Shiva green with envy. He didn’t even look like he was concentrating!

“You will get it,” Wilhelm assured her. “You just need to find what works best for you. Some devils find it easier to manipulate their flames by using tools, like your brother’s sword.”

“Maybe you should get a flame-sword too,” Ash said, dancing a small flame near Shiva’s face. The girl swatted at it like one would swat down a bug.

“That’s Darko’s
thing
,” she said. “I’d rather find my own way, like gramps said.”

Wilhelm smiled warmly. It was easy to see that he enjoyed every moment spent with his granddaughter. Ash understood why people loved him as their king. He couldn’t see how the current King could be Wilhelm’s son. The apple fell
a long
way from the tree in their case. Wilhelm was old as dirt, but buff and cheerful. King Al was fat, balding, and looked like he would have a difficult time fending off an attack from a baby.

“There might be another way for you to control your flames more easily,” said Wilhelm. “If you can learn how to awaken and harness your soul power.”

“I’ve been trying!” said Shiva.

“It may take you a long time if you’re on your own. You need a proper teacher,” said Wilhelm. “Any chance you could help them out with that, Ms. Yazma?”

“Oh,” Yazma said, putting down her bowl of food. “That’s not my area of expertise, I’m afraid. I don’t think I’d be able to help them much with that. I’m sorry, My Lord.”

“What’s the big deal about soul power anyway?” asked Ash.

“Once you are able to freely control your soul, you can do amazing things,” said Wilhelm. “Your strength, speed, and flame control increase drastically when channeling your soul power. If you can figure it out, you could even become as strong as my grandson.”

Aura gave Ash a slight nudge and a wink. Ash returned the smile and nodded his head. This was a skill the boys
had
to learn if they ever wanted to make their dreams come true. Shiva caught on to the looks the boys gave each other and cleared her throat.

“Don’t think you boys will be figuring it out before me!” she said. “We just need to find a teacher first… Hey gramps, why don’t you hang around and teach us?”

“I haven’t got the time or the energy,” Wilhelm said. “But I’ll put out some feelers and see if I can’t find someone who does for you.”

“Well then, shall we return to our practice?” Yazma said. The team stood up and started packing away their picnic supplies. Before Wilhelm could bid them farewell and take his leave, they were interrupted by a screaming voice from above.

From far off the panicked shouting of a man could be heard. “
Great Satan
!
Great Satan
!” The voice came closer as a shadow spread over the courtyard. From out of the sky dropped a Royal Guard, the source of the shouting. He hit the ground at high velocity, and although a landing like that might of hurt Ash, this man showed no signs of pain. When he rose to his feet, Ash saw that he was another old guy.

“
Archen
?” the Old Satan said in disbelief. “What is the meaning of this interruption?”

“I’m sorry Great Satan, but this is an emergency!” Archen said. “A swarm of dire flies has been spotted moving towards West Hell!”

“Damn it!” Wilhelm said, his brow starting to sweat. “That
is
an emergency…”

“What are dire flies?” Ash asked.

“Dangerous demons,” Wilhelm said. “An entire swarm is serious business. What about the Royal Guard? Has a request for backup been reported?”

“My Captain would only allow five men, myself included,” Archen said.

“Blast them! I’m going to have a word with that Captain one of these days…” Wilhelm paced back and forth, twirling his bushy white mustache around his finger as he went. “What about Phoenix?”

“He’s rallying more men as we speak. He sent me to find you, in fact.”

“
Phoenix
?” Shiva asked, her voice full of curiosity.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you all now,” said Wilhelm. “Enjoy the rest of your lesson. Archen, let’s go.”

“Wait just a minute gramps!” Shiva said. “If there’s demons that need killing, count us in!”

“We could use all the help we could get…” Wilhelm muttered, thinking it over. “But it will be very dangerous.”

“Shooting down dire flies will provide some nice target practice,” said Yazma. “It would be a fine opportunity to test your control.”

“Sounds like fun,” Aura said. “Count me in.”

“I guess I’m not getting out of this either,” said Ash. “Let’s go blast some bugs!”

“Alright, I guess our numbers have increased by three,” Wilhelm said with a smile.

“Wait a minute!” Archen said. “Don’t you all know how dangerous the dire flies are? You could really get hurt, even killed if you’re not careful!”

“
Aww
, is it dangerous?” Shiva said mockingly. “Either of you boys want to back out and leave it to me?” she asked her team. Both boys shook their heads.

“As if!” said Aura.

“Bring’em on!” said Ash.

“I guess you have your answer, Archen,” said Wilhelm with a proud smile.

These children…
Archen thought.
They’re just like…

“We should get going now,” Wilhelm said, interrupting the other old man’s train of thought. Everyone else already brought out their wings. “Lead the way, Archen!”

Up, up, and away they went.

* * * *

Across the Kingdom in the territory of West Hell, the team circled the peak of an enormous land formation. A small outpost sat near the edge of a cliff overlooking the barren rocky landscape outside the Kingdom’s walls. The drop from the cliff to the rock valley below was a big one, and if Ash weren’t equipped with wings and the gift of flight, he’d feel nervous being anywhere near there.

The boy remembered going to see relatives in Arizona when he was young. The dry, rocky landscape was one he looked back on fondly. It always reminded him of the ‘old west’ from the movies. West Hell was similar to Arizona. Aside from the biting cold, they both shared similar mountains, canyons, and rock valleys. Ash could see why Wilhelm loved working in the West.

The team landed near the outpost, where a small group of men were gathering. The looks on all their faces were solemn, even ominous. These men weren’t happy about gathering here to ward off the dire flies. Ash was about to find out why.

The crowd split for Wilhelm as the old man pushed his way into the outpost. Shiva and her team were right behind him. There was an extra anxious spring to the girl’s step, Ash noted, as he walked behind her. They all filed into the building, which served as a small station for the inhabitants of West Hell to keep a watch over the valley. The window on the far side of the room was open, with a large telescope pointing out towards the rock valley. Standing at the device with his eye pressed against the viewfinder was a tall man dressed in expensive-looking robes.

“I’ve brought Lord Wilhelm,” Archen announced to the man. He stopped looking through the telescope and turned to face the old men.

“Great Satan, thank you for coming,” the man said with a bow of respect. He stole a glance at the crowd of followers behind them and a strange look appeared on his face. “Is that…?”

“Hello, Phoenix,” Shiva said with a big smile.

“Lady Shiva, it’s been too long,” the man said, returning her smile. “Are you here to help with our dire fly problem as well?”

“Naturally!”

“Shiva and her team volunteered to lend us a hand,” said Wilhelm. “With their assistance and the men gathered outside, we should have just enough firepower to ward off the demons.”

“How fortunate,” Phoenix said. “These are your subordinates, I take it? I thought some children had wandered in here by accident.” Phoenix cast a cold eye over Ash and Aura. Judging by his facial expression, he wasn’t too impressed with their appearances.

“That’s right,” she said. “It’s so nice to see you again, Phoenix. Or should I call you
Professor
Dawnfall now?” Shiva smiled one of her rare genuine smiles. They were becoming less rare these days, it seemed.

“I’m not a professor yet,” Phoenix said with total modesty. “It’ll still be another year before they’re ready to let me stand in front of a class room and teach.”

Aura cleared his throat to get the conversation moving.

“This is my team, I’m in charge of them,” Shiva said, motioning to Ash and Aura. “They’re not much, but they do come in handy as shields for me.”

“Aura Draxler,” the boy introduced himself. “I’m the famous death toucher you’ve probably heard a lot about. And that’s the famous human, Ash Kaplan.”

“Just because you keep introducing us as famous doesn’t mean we
are
famous,” Ash said.

“Not
yet
. We just haven’t told enough people,” Aura replied.

“You mean that those boys are the death toucher and human I’ve heard so much about?” said Phoenix with a disappointed look. “I expected them to be much
older
. Oh well, I’m sure we can find something for them to do so they aren’t in the way.”

Aura looked like he wanted to protest the man’s rude behavior, but Ash stepped on his toes and silenced him.

“I wish there was more time to catch up with you Shiva, but there are more pressing matters at the moment. Take a look out there.” Phoenix guided Shiva over to the telescope and the girl put her eye to the viewfinder. With their bare eyes, the boys could see a dim green glow on the horizon. It seemed to be growing larger, or coming closer.

“That’s a lot of demons,” Shiva said. “But they’re too far away to get a good look at how ugly they are.”

“Leona!” Phoenix called out. “Where is that damn girl?
Leona
!”