Chapter Text
The demon snarled, fire flickering from its eyes.
“Gosh. Darn. It.” I cursed with each breath as I ran. It’s not everyday you meet the Jersey freaking Devil.
Meat more than meet, in a sense. It wanted to tear my legs off and probably eat them. I encountered the thing when I was meeting at a worried couple’s house who had some questions, and the creature came down the chimney and set the house on fire. I just barely got them out in time, and then the damn beast came after me.
Some days it just didn’t pay to get out of bed.
I whirled, shooting a blast over my shoulder, before turning again. The demon just stepped aside and dodged the fire cast. It snarled again, slaver dripping from its jaws. It was a hideous thing, with a donkey’s body but a deer’s head and face, and a pair of red hot dragon’s wings. Its eyes were just smoking orange orbs that trailed fire as they rolled madly about in the beast’s head. The whole thing was two tons worth of demon, complete with a classic arrow-tipped tail lashing at the back, ridged with spikes.
Its jaws parted open, revealing a set of huge dog’s teeth. The canines were elongated, curling over its lower jaw, which was just overkill. Building magic hissed at the back of its throat, and two seconds later a torrent of wild, wind-like liquid flame exploded out of its mouth towards me.
***
I frantically thought of a way to defeat this thing. Then, as the demon’s howling torrents of fire swept past a stop sign, I lit about an idea, but had to move so I didn’t get fried.
I quickly turned a street corner so the fire couldn’t follow me. There was an enormous noise as it smashed into the building behind me, and then several surprised screams.
I winced at my mistake as I pounded down the street. I may have evaded it, but the people in that building would surely have one hell of a thing to explain later.
A pedestrian gawked over at me, just in time to see the huge devil round the corner. His eyes widened and he promptly fled.
The demon stepped over a car, hooves clinking musically on the concrete. Its eyes fixated on me with hungry intent.
What was worrying was that the thing was so calm. Despite all the fury whirling around it in the form of flames, its steps never rose above a relaxed stride.
My gaze landed on a chunk of powered white concrete lying next to a truck’s wheel. Perfect.
Not taking my eyes off the demon, I leaned over. Its lips slowly pulled back in warning as it watched me, as did its ears. Before I grabbed the rock, I swung my staff in an arch. “ Fuego!” I shouted. A blast of flame shot off of the side of the wood, straight into the demon’s face. It jerked back in surprise as its gaze was temporarily blocked.
Quick as a wink, I snatched up the rock and continued running. The devil screamed as it heard my footsteps heading away.
I broke off a piece of the concrete and tossed the rest to the side. It wasn’t chalk but it should work.
I crouched down and turned quickly on my heel, keeping my arm straight and sturdy until I met the start of the white line and was facing the devil once again.
The devil hadn’t moved, but it shook its head furiously, blinking rapidly at the smoke in its eyes. Heh, the irony.
Jersey, hilariously, gave himself a full body shake, grotesquely doglike, before glaring at me with blazing eyes once more.
I had made a circle in the middle of the street, wide enough that it practically went from one curb to the other.
Crouching outside the circle, I held my hand out and charged it up with will, ready to trap.
I widened my eyes and smiled, a battle grin that probably made me look insane. “Hey, pretty.” I said. “Come and get some.”
The Jersey Devil took a few eager strides forward, but paused. Its eyes narrowed, then flicked from me to the circle. It then gave me what I swear was an unimpressed look.
My smile dropped instantly.
I had greatly underestimated the thing’s intelligence .
I had been hoping it would charge in brainlessly and I could send it back to whatever hellscape it came from. Now I saw the evil amusement glinting in its fireball eyes, mixed with fury.
“Oh, crap ,” I cursed, and whipped around to run. But not before I landed another fireball right between the hell donkey’s eyes. The thing screamed, even more furious at being blinded a second darned time, and flung itself over the circle at me.
I ran and dodged, dodged and ran. My new goal was to lead it away from the city before it killed someone. And since I, a wizard, and it, a monster, the thing would be uncontrollably drawn to me and would chase me down until I was dead. So that was good news. . . just not for me. Hell’s bells.
I looked to my left as I bolted, and saw I was next to a wide expense of forest. We were out of the bounds of the city.
I felt myself smile wolfishly as thundering hoofbeats sounded behind me. Time to play a little hide-and-seek.
I turned sharply to the left, feet sliding on soil but thankfully not tripping, and charged right between two hawthorn bushes. Thorns caught on my legs and whipped at my face, but my leather duster couldn’t care less.
The devil screamed again, an unnatural sound like a cross between a donkey and a missile, and dove in after me.
I navigated the forest swiftly, making sure to turn and twist every chance I got.
The devil struggled to follow, and even though it was smart enough to realize it could just burn through everything, its spiky tail and hooves kept getting caught on stuff. And the thick trees stubbornly held up under bursts of flame. It was made for running in large open spaces, not this. It was slowing down. And I was a wolf in the woods.
At last it gave a scream of frustration and launched itself upwards, tearing branches free as it rocketed out of the forest.
I stopped, panting. Branches still fell down in the devil’s wake, and sunlight beamed down in the hole it left.
Hearing wingbeats above me, though I couldn’t see it, my eyes widened. It was waiting me out. The first chance it got to see me, it would burn me until my bones crumbled to ash.
I moved through the forest, albeit quietly, as far away from that spot as possible. At last, I ran out of energy and rested against an ancient oak tree.
I closed my eyes. If I pricked up my ears, I could still hear faint wingbeats and furious baying. My head thunked against the bark. Oh, Harry, what did you get yourself into now?
I rested for a few minutes, exhausted.
Then suddenly I felt a prickle down my spine and tensed up, thinking a spider was crawling down my back. But nothing was physically there.
Magic. It was just a whisper of it, but I was immediately on alert.
I looked to my left, tree, to my right, a clearing, and then up.
And did a double take as I was met with a strange sight, and that was saying a lot.
Two kids sat on a knotted snake of a branch with their legs dangling off, carefully balancing themselves with their hands pressed back to either side of the branch. At least, I think they were kids. One had a yellow pallor to their skin, and their features looked vaguely soft and almost yellow, but I couldn’t tell their gender for the life of me.
The other was different, but was odd in their own way. That kid’s skin was white, and I don’t mean just pale, I mean milk white. And they both wore blue jackets, only I think the first one’s might have been pale lavender.
I stared at the two androgynous kids, dumbfounded. They hadn’t been there a moment ago, I was sure. Birds chirped and trilled in the background as we regarded each other.
“wow,” said one, the white one. “you run in the woods often, or..?”
And by his strangely deep, soft voice, I realized that one at least, was male.
The other sat in silence, serenely waving their legs.
That’s when I saw something else odd. The first had dark brown hair framing their face, but the second was bald—or perhaps also had brown hair—or maybe it was the branches behind him. They both had dark eyes—or maybe that was just shadow. I couldn’t see much from this distance.
“What in Merlin’s name?” I deadpanned. How the heck did two kids get up there?
“i don’t know who merlin is, but same to you.” said the white one. “whatcha name?”
They seemed innocent enough, but I narrowed my eyes. Dark creatures don’t just disguise as adults.
“Get down here and I’ll tell you,” I said, neutrally. I didn’t know how to approach these two yet.
“sure thing, inna minute.” he said.
He didn’t move though, just stayed there with his legs hanging off, pink slippers dangling precariously off his feet.
I opened my mouth, about to tell him his slippers were falling off, but before I could say a word I was rudely interrupted by an unholy screech from above.
* * *
I snapped my head to the right and remembered. Damn it! The clearing!
And sure enough, something came screeching down like a falcon and landed in the clearing. Its eyes scoured the surrounding foliage until they spotted me and blazed bright with triumph.
I got to my feet ready for battle once more.
Or, more realistically, running in terror.
Hoping those peculiar children would be safe, I went to my left before the devil could fire at me. I ran, leaves pulling at my hair, until I burst out, stumbling into the clearing via a different point. Just forty feet away from the devil.
Jersey boy’s head swung around at the noise and its eyes were as raging as ever. Without a second’s hesitation, it charged across the grassland towards me.
This time it was too fast, too enraged. There would be no time to dodge.
Channeling my fear and anger, I prepared my will as the thing reared up on its hind legs ten feet away. I just got my shield up in time.
With a howl, the devil slammed its forelegs down. And came down hard.
I winced as the impact sent shockwaves down my arms.
The Jersey— Chicago Devil, I guess- let out such a loud scream of fury that my ears rang. It withdrew its hooves, leaving dark horse-shoe prints in the magic, and then came down again. It was trying to shatter my shield. Well, that wasn’t gonna happen.
“Bite me,” I told it with a sneer.
So the devil did just that. Or tried to.
Its jaws opened to the point of unhinging and then it slammed its mouth over the curve of the field. I got a nice view of knife-long fangs and slimy pink throat. Disgusting.
I stubbornly held up as it dragged its long, slippery tongue across the field. Every so often it clenched its jaws, trying to puncture the field. Seeing it wasn’t working, the devil broke off and withdrew its head, strings of saliva stretching from its maw.
Condensed-flame eyes glared at me. Up-close, its face…well, let’s just say it’d take first place in an Ugliest Monster contest. All snarling fangs, lips tattered like moth-eaten fabric, small spikes and warts dotting the top of its head. The beast was an amalgamation of dog and deer and donkey but murderous all the same.
It was childish, but I stuck my tongue out at it.
Those eyes widened, and with renewed anger and a howl, it resorted back to slamming its hooves into my shield, again and again. For once, I wanted to smack myself for being an idiot.
On the fifth one I felt my arms and magic tiring. I couldn’t keep this up for much longer. Eyes glimmering, the devil hit again, much stronger. It sensed I was weakening.
Cracks spiderwebbed across my shield.
I desperately tried to seal them, but fatigue was taking over.
And as I did, I heard something. A faint whine, quickly growing into a loud, distinctive whir. Like someone charging up an electric gun, except it somehow also sounded like a beast growling.
BWAAARRH.
There was a following second of silence. Even the birds had stopped singing. The devil froze with its forearms halfway down, as did I. Nothing moved, seemingly for a long time. It was like time itself stopped. This would have been awkward had I not been about to suffer death by an evil donkey.
I slowly started to move my hand, hoping to prepare a strike and wound the creature’s legs below my shield.
But the devil anticipated it. Hissing with impatience, the devil dismissed the suspicious lack of sound and brought its hooves down one final time.
FWOOOOMMSHHHH!!
The most blinding, biggest beam of white light I had ever seen came out of nowhere, slammed into the thing’s flank, and sent the Chicago Devil flying across the clearing with a shriek. Birds shrieked and took off, unseen in the woods and extremely bright light, but I could hear feathers fluttering.
“Jesus Christ!” I fell backward, shield all but forgotten about as my vision was seared.
I blinked until I could see again and scowled. That was a very large output of pure magic, and that puzzled me. Also, it had passed right in front of my face which I didn’t appreciate.
“Stars and stones, the hell was that?” I growled to myself.
“you’re welcome.” someone responded.
I definitely did not utter an un-manly yelp, and turned.
The second kid from before, sans the other kid, stood beside me grinning. I got to my feet to get a better look and his oddly smooth eyebrows shot up in surprise as I rose to my full height. “man, you’re tall.” he said.
I stared down at him, taking in his strange appearance.
He had a round, smooth head, and the Cheshire Cat’s grin. Wore a bright blue hoodie with a gray hood and black track shorts with a white stripe down either leg. In the sunlight his skin was even more pale. He was also very short, barely coming up to my waist, and stood with his hands in his pockets. He had an odd build, somehow managing to look stocky and slight at the very same time.
***
I blinked. Was I saved by a just-under-four-foot tall child? My pride was a bit wounded, but I was relieved nonetheless.
Even in bright daylight, his eyes were shadowy. Then it dawned on me. His eyes were black with white pupils, and no color at all. Whatever this kid was, he wasn’t human.
The ‘kid’ gave me a lazy, friendly look, but didn’t look directly at my eyes. Apparently he knew the wizard custom that you shouldn’t meet gazes with one, lest you enter a soulgaze. Which many people didn’t enjoy, especially from someone like me. “sup.” He said.
What the hell. “Sup,”I replied.
“you have leaves in your hair.” Okay, from his minute vantage point he should not be able to see the top of my head. I scowled, running a hand through my unkempt dark hair—I had collected leaves and twigs from my little romp through the forest.
“oh, you actually be- leaf me.” he said with specific, not-so-subtle emphasis.
I blinked at him, lifting my hand. “Was . .was that a-“
“yup. i’m just oaking with ya.”
So the kid shared my sense of humor. Huh. I didn’t know what to think of that.
“Awesome pun,” I told him. I flicked my gaze over to where the Chicago Devil had crash landed. It lay unmoving, but even from this distance I could see its chest heaving. The damned thing was still alive.
The not-kid tilted his head, his surprise surprisingly pensive. “usually people dislike my jokes.”
“Then those people do not appreciate the brilliance of simplicity,” I replied.
That earned a snort of amusement from the not-kid. A sparkle appeared in his eyes. “that’s what i say!”
I gave him a lopsided smile. “Where’s the other one?”
“the kiddo? yeah they’re fine, they’re safe in the tree.”
That answered one question while simultaneously giving me more. But, now…’kiddo?!’ I thought both of them were kids, but turns out one calls the other kid. That only meant the one standing in front of me was an adult. I was perfectly cool with midgets but this added to the strangeness.
And that white blast, the fact that this undefined person had magic. . The Council would be pissed. Where did this guy come from?
I kept the confusion in me off my face. “Thanks by the way. “
“no prob.” he murmured.
We grinned at each other. That’s when a fireball roared past and almost took my head off.
I scowled. “I’m about sick of this B with an itch.”
“i’m thoroughly dogged as well.”
I whirled, duster flying. “You want another piece of me?” I yelled at the demon, who crouched like a deformed panther. Though half of the thing’s body had been blackened by whatever magic the not-kid had done, its eyes were still blazing unblemished in its mismatched face.
It snarled and rose fully onto its hooves. It certainly wanted me in pieces.
I smiled. “So you do. Fine. Makes my job a helluva lot easier.”
The muscles of the devil’s hind legs tensed.
I spun my staff in my hand, probably looking cooler than I felt.
And then it burst into flames. The thing lowered its head and charged, long, smoke-trailing legs eating up the ground.
It was coming at me, huge, hellbent, and fired up ( pun intended).
I took my fear, my anger and annoyance, and mixed them into searing determination.
And I set my staff right into its face and snarled with all my might: “ Fuego!”
I might as well have put a bomb down.
***
An explosion of flame, big enough to rival the Chicago Devil’s own attack, rocketed out and slammed into the demon. It completely enveloped the hell donkey and hit it with enough raw, rough force to send it flying thirteen meters in the air. The howling silhouette of the devil could be seen struggling in the air hopelessly trying to get purchase with its wings before it fell back to earth. Hilariously, a cloud of dust spread out from the impact like a cartoon character. I grinned at the thought and turned back around. Not-kid was in the same spot staring at me, looking vaguely impressed. Or maybe I just looked mental, who knows. “whoa.”
I shot him a fierce grin. “Nothing like blowing things up.”
The devil scrabbled to its feet, still not freaking down already, but looked a little worse for wear. Ears back, it was prowling forward. It was meant to be threatening. I was having none of it. I was dead tired of bullies and predator pricks.
“Ya still not tired of being tossed around?” I sneered. “Take this, dogface.”
Said dogface dodged my next blast and came at me impossibly fast with a whoosh of flame. That rhyme was unintentional, by the way.
I jerked back. White and blue suddenly flashed in the corner of my eye and the devil gave a sudden dog’s yelp of pain. I looked to see it skidding across the grass away from me, smoking heavily across its spine as its concentration broke and fire dissipated.
What looked like perhaps a dozen blunt white spears stuck out of its flank. The devil twisted around with a snarl, yanked the spears out of its side one by one, and crunched them to bits.
It turned and launched itself, swiping a kneeled hoof at the stranger’s chest, who I hadn’t realized was even there. He leaped back with more grace than I would have thought possible. One hand flung straight up, parallel to his shoulder, as the Chicago Devil changed direction and came at him again with its terrible speed.
BWRAAAAAAAA.
That bizarre charge up sound happened and something shimmered into existence above the not-kid’s head. A robust, white, spike-studded thing—with black eyes similar to his own. I realized it was a skull, and a huge one shaped a lot like a dragon’s. I haven’t seen a true dragon in a while, but that was the closest match. Twin rings of light flicked over to me with the same judging, feral manner of a tiger’s gaze, before they winked out.
I watched, starstruck, as white sparks shot from the beast’s maw. The devil realized its mistake and tried to change course too late. The not-kid threw his arm forward perpendicular to his earlier position, and fanged mandibles parted. A blinding white beam was released right into the devil’s face. It reared back with pain, and as it did, my decidedly not-human ally bombarded it in the neck with more white spears, this time two dozen.
It had all taken less than ten seconds: the not-kid’s feet had just stopped sliding. I smiled weakly. I liked his style, but I was still reeling from what I witnessed.
The devil lost its balance and had to sit back on its haunches, white projectiles sticking haphazardly out of its neck. I didn’t waste any time and rushed forward. The thing was rubbing at its face with its forelegs, a surprisingly human motion.
I scrambled my hand into my pocket and chucked a spare nail at the back of its head to get its attention. Yes, I do keep iron nails in my pocket. It bonked off the back of the demon’s head.
Its head whipped around and snarled at me, and that’s when I realized something. It had scrubbed away some of the black starburst on its face- scrubbed away. Its flesh wasn’t charred like grilled fish; it was unscathed. It was immune to all fire attacks, unlike the other demons whose vessels, in this dimension, weren’t. As far I could tell, this thing was not from the Nevernever. It was a different type I was unfamiliar with, one whose original form had somehow came directly here, but I knew one thing.
Our attacks were useless.
I took a few steps back, chucking another nail just to make sure. It hit the thing in the eye, but it didn’t react at all other than a blink. The Chicago devil snarled and rose, its eyes locked on me. Shoot. This thing was not from Faerie either . Iron would’ve caused it a severe amount of pain, but it did nothing so. ..Where the hell was this thing from?
Suddenly I felt that cold shiver down my back again, and looked just slowly past the devil. Behind it, somehow, my ally was there. He was making a grabbing motion midair, looking confused. I didn’t know what the hell he was doing, but I kept myself very still so I wouldn’t trigger an attack.
The devil looked at me, before its eyes narrowed and it turned its head sharply over its shoulder. My ally froze. At once the thing pivoted on one hoof and went for him. His eyes widened and he flung his hand up. It might have been a trick of my eye, but I swear the demon donkey turned slightly blue and launched upwards without moving its wings.
The devil fought and squirmed midair, before it suddenly dropped back down. When it moved to where I could see his position again, he was gone.
A sudden shriek made me bring my head fully back into the game. Jersey boy was keeling at the sky, white spears sticking out of its back. It whirled, all intelligence replaced with crazed rage, and gave a telltale exhale in my direction.
***
At once I was assaulted with more watery spheres of fire.
The shiver I’ve begun to associate with the strange short guy happened again, and this time on my left I felt his presence. I leaped out of the way as the thing blew flamethrower breath at me, and yelped as my sleeve caught on fire. Wonderful. I frantically beat at my stinging hand until it smoldered out, then realized the guy had vanished again, before I sensed him reappear behind the devil.
My definitely-not-human ally summoned another one of those loosely dragonic guns, but I knew it wouldn’t work. As it fired, the Chicago Devil simply stood its ground staring down the skull. The light bleached out its entire upper body, but when it cleared, the devil was still standing. It slowly opened its eyes and gave the not-kid a vicious smile. Its entire head and neck was blackened and smoking, but he might as well just have dumped black paint on it for all the good it did.
Holy hell. It had figured out the same thing I did; the blasts could hurt it but not kill it.
The not-kid blinked, like he had expected a different outcome, and raised his hand to summon another.
“Fire doesn’t hurt it!” I shouted at him. He looked at me and realization dawned in his strange dark eyes.
He waved his hand, again, I don’t how he did it, and the shimmering of another forthcoming skull dissipated. At once the devil pounced at him, all reaching fangs and rippling muscles.
Fire didn’t hurt it, but force sure had. So I raised my staff and casted my powerful vortex spell. It consisted of tightly wound wind and kinetic energy and was sure to hurt like hell.
“Forzare!”
It smashed into the side of the demon’s face and he staggered from the force of it.
I had given the devil the magical equivalent of a sucker punch. A few teeth were sent flying.
Twisting, the devil spat a liquid sphere of fire that spun towards me.
“Use force!” I yelled, dodging, and the devil snarled loudly over my words. Hell’s bells, the thing was trying to prevent him from hearing me.
But the not-kid understood, and made a different gesture with his hand, a sort of sweeping sign.
There was a rattling noise and then a bunch of blunt white spines broke through the ground, stabbing into the thing’s ankles. The impact propelled the devil into the air, but the devil took advantage and dove, snapping scimitar teeth at the stranger—who I just realized had somehow appeared across from me.
“oh, so that’s how it’s gonna go,” he muttered, and vanished. Literally, just one second he was there, and then the next he took a half-step backwards and wasn’t.
Landing past where he had been, the devil immediately whirled to face me. My lips lifted from my teeth, mirroring the devil’s snarl. It howled and threw its head back, and rings of glistening orange fire enveloped it in an explosive gathering that continued to spread. And within its fire storm, the shadow of the devil hurtled forward in one final attempt to destroy me.
This fight had gone on long enough. I had been reluctant to use it, but it was time to put my foot down. I called upon the Winter Mantle. What better way to fight fire than with ice?
Immediately a feral, cold desire to destroy filled me. I ignored my distaste and channeled it. Frost gathered on my hands, my staff, and I gritted my teeth and slammed one end of my staff into the ground. Ice erupted across the ground, turning the grass into blue needles, the fire into steam, and yet the exposed demon still charged, uncaring and unstoppable in its rage.
I unleashed another ice blast, this one fast-growing spikes that shot up from the ground. The devil crashed through them like a brick through glass, splintering them into spinning shards, and reared. I fired another blast that encased the thing’s hooves in spreading ice. But even as ice crawled up its limbs, it was getting closer.
I stared it down fiercely as it came for me, ready to deal the final blow.
Ping.
Something chimed loudly and suddenly translucent blue rods shot up through the ground. Hopelessly passing right through the thing as it moved.
And, additionally, carving lines straight through its body.
***