Yue

 21st November

11:16 GMT -5

I hold up my hands as Euanthe's stake-on-a-vine punches through Satanus' hastily raised shield spell and slices through the flesh on the left side of his neck.

"Guys, I don't-"

Ambrose sticks out his right arm, grabbing something inside Mammon. The Demon Lord's mouth twitches, and a glop of bile shoots out and hits one member of Satanus' cybernetically enhanced bodyguard right in the visor!

"-think this is-"

A small, magically enhanced EMP grenade hits the other soldier as he brings his gun up to face them, causing him to spasm and drop his weapon!

"-really worth-"

Euanthe's vine twists around Satanus' neck. He responds by grabbing it with his right hand and conjuring hellfire… Which does nothing. He realises after a second and tenses, pulling it apart with brute force instead.

"-doing, because it-"

Euanthe rushes Satanus, thick-barked plates covering her body as her right fist comes around to punch him!

"-turns out that-"

Jade raises the Ace of Winchesters, putting a round through… Something Satanus was trying to summon. It explodes in a short-lived burst of gold-white fire!

"-our objectives-"

Ambrose flicks bile from his right hand, then gestures to the door even as the guard outside point their guns at him. It slams shut.

"-aren't as incompatible-"

Demonic runes flare for a fraction of a second over Euanthe's bark before decaying to nothing. Perhaps I should have mentioned-?

"-as we thought-"

Euanthe's right fist strikes Satanus in the stomach and sends him hurtling across the room and into the far wall!

"-during our planning."

"Euanthe, I can't-" Jade tries to draw a bead on Satanus as Euanthe leaps after him. "-get a clean shot."

I take a step closer, making what I hope is a peaceful gesture. "How about you put the gun down-" Behind me, Mr Blood picks up Euanthe's stake. "-and we discuss matters like civilised-" The damned guard who got hit by the EMP grenade reaches for his gun with his right hand. Jade points the Ace at him and fires, hitting the seam where his gauntlet protects his middle proximal interphalangeal joint and severing the end of the finger. "-people."

"You do not need one." Euanthe uses vines to anchor herself to the wall as she drives vicious wooden spikes through Satanus and into the brick behind him. "I can kill this demon myself."

"We don't need to kill the demon ourselves! Satanus just told me that he's basically on the same page as me!"

"Uh-huh." Jade walks around me, stowing the Ace and taking a shaped charge out of her equipment harness as she heads for the door.

"Listen." Ambrose takes a quick look around the room and then walks up to me. "I had a look at the spells he had set up on Mammon, and-."

"He was funnelling Mammon's essence into me. Yes, I know."

Ambrose nods. "Yes, that might have been what it was. Or he might have been trying to have Mammon possess you."

I fr-. No, I don't frown, but I do try. "I'm sceptical that he would chain a Demon Lord up like this, then let him possess someone. He would have to be able to rely on Mammon doing what he wanted."

Ambrose frowns. "Are you.. serious about this? I thought you were just humoring him to get information."

"Human souls have to go somewhere. Satanus had observably improved the liv-. The existences of more conscious minds than most superheroes by doing this. And his plans for the future-."

Mr Blood gestures, and the stake extends into a staff. "They aren't feasible, I'm afraid. Even if reformatting Limbo was possible -and I'm not convinced that-

"Mister Blood, we walked through it."

"-it can be to more than a limited degree- demons like being demons. All Satanus will do is unite them against him. And that assumes that the Silver City doesn't also like demons being demons."

"A counsel of despair. Euanthe, let him down."

She grows a head in her back. "I came here to kill demons. He is a demon."

"Becoming a demon myself has really given me a new perspective on that. There are any number of demons we could kill; focusing on the one who is actually making himself useful is foolish and wasteful."

Satanus himself stops trying to snap the wooden beams impaling him. "How are you.. immune to..?"

"If it helps, Nergal's brother is around here somewhere, and we certainly don't need him."

Euanthe grudgingly removes her spikes, causing Satanus to fall to the-.

He vanishes before he can reach it. Ah… Darn it.

Ambrose grins. "That went well. He'll walk right into the trap, and then-."

"Will you shut up! " He frowns in confusion. "This is a disaster! What if these spells are tied to him? And he's got an army outside, and don't think for a moment-!"

Ow!

I stumble back as an arcane barrier appears before me. I look down-. A circle, Mr Blood drew a circle on the brick. Now I know how the Second of the Fallen felt.

Ambrose nods to Mr Blood, then stands in front of me with his hands in his pockets. "Can't help but notice that you've been a bit off, buddy."

"It's a change of perspective, certainly." I sigh. "We'll just have to stay here until we can work out how to enable me to control Limbo."

"And your friends back on Earth?"

"I'll visit once things have stabilised. The utilitarian requirement to keep this project going is overwhelming."

"And since when are you a utilitarian?"

"Since I got some perspective."

Jade steps back from the heavily mined door. The guards haven't tried to break in yet, but that's sensible on their part. If we could beat Satanus they'd need far more force than they have available locally.

"And what about me?"

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to end our relationship. I gave it some thought, and my prediction is that there's almost no chance of a reasonable return on my investment in time and resources. I'm a demon Lantern and you're a baseline human. No hard feelings, but-."

She raises the Ace of Winchesters, points it at my chest and fires.