Jiren Du Sang wondered when blood had become part of his life. As he walked the caverns with Ben and Kevin, the younger hunter using the mark on his arm to guide them, he continued to unfazed by the horrors around him. He observed dried marks of blood, signs that this network of corrosive stone had been carved with jagged claws and teeth, and stomached the way sulfur’s odor choked at his throat. Jiren struggled to consider if there was any other choice.
The decision has been to either fight or die, I have not known another way.
In the end, Jiren just decided his own life meant little if he could not protect others. A man who saw this taught him the way of the sword he now carried, first stained with the blood scum in the shape of human traffickers and worse criminals as an assassin, and now monsters were his enemies. They all fell the same.
Ben held up a hand and they stopped. It was completely dark in the cavern, light from an opening up ahead the only source of illumination. He heard the whimpering of children up ahead, three of them, and the nightmarish chuckle.
“Come inside,” a voice said, a jagged noise that sounded like laughing from a throat laced in glass followed. “The children could use some more playmates.”
There were other voices inside, all eager to cause as much pain as possible.
Ben stepped forward, holding three in his right hand, and moved inside. Kevin and Jiren stepped forward carefully, waiting for the moment to strike. Crouching low, Kevin pressed against the cavern wall while Jiren hopped across the doorway and placed himself on the other side. They leaned in to see everything going on.
There was a horrific fire, burning in center of the space that stood five feet high. Bodies, charred and mutilated formed a horrific circle with three children, barely ten years old sweating near the flames. In the demonic glow, Jiren saw them.
Calling them Demons was the easy part, seeing their physical shape and realizing he hadn’t gone insane took some effort. They stood at six feet in height, preferring to be bent into a predatory stance, with cracked ash white flesh that had never known sunlight and glowing red eyes blazing with unhinged rage. Their claws and teeth were long tools of slaughter. Demons never needed to eat, Ben explained that to Jiren, the entire purpose of these creatures was to cause destruction at every opportunity.
Ben held up two fingers, looking at the children.
“Hi,” he said, waiting for the children focused on him. “My name is Ben Wolfcrest, Leader of he Troublemakers, me and my friends are here to get you home.”
“Leaving so soon?” A Demon sneered.
“Where are your manners? Dinner’s just about ready.” Another one said, chuckling as Its brethren joined in, eight in total. Jiren could hear a snarl several feet behind him, a hint of scarlet eyes glittered in the dark.
Ben walked about the space, casually walked around strange symbols Jiren guessed promised an unholy demise if touched, his eyes never left the children.
“Don’t be rude, Troublemaker,” A slightly more built up Devil said, Jiren guessed the Head Demon of the pack. “Look at Me, I’m the reason you and your friends either let us eat or join the kindling.” It stepped forward, just towering over Ben. “Show respect.”
Ben gave the Demon his full attention. Jiren knew little of monsters, but he knew body language. The Demon flinched.
“You get my respect by letting the children go.”
“And you offer yourselves instead?” It grinned as if hearing a good joke, chunks of meat hung on its teeth.
“No,” Ben said, he held up one finger now. “None of you are leaving this place.”
The Demons weren’t laughing and their Leader stopped smiling, the space felt colder despite the fire.
“You’re the ones who burn.”
Jiren knew Ben well enough to guess he was grinning, the Demons always hated that.
The Leader’s body seemed to grow with Its rage. The snarls from the darkness were closer now, Kevin and Jiren exchanged a look and focused on Ben’s last finger, weapons prepped. Ben clenched his hand fully, spreading his arms wide.
“When you’re ready.” He said.
Kevin’s slammed his hand down on the ground. A pulse of light emitted on from the connect and the symbols inside the closed-in space lit up like fireworks. Ben ignored this as grabbed the kids up in his arms and pulled them away as the Leader tried bite their heads off. He shot out a kick and the Leader lost a whole muscular leg, Ben’s strength was intense. As the massive Devil howled Ben brought the kids over to the opening but not completely through. He then turned and decapitated the Leader with a single punch, a confused expression on Its face before being consumed by the fire.
Jiren spun around, realizing how wide the caverns had been despite the darkness. The ten demons Ben pointed out before had them surrounded, now there were horrors on both sides of the opening. All doubt left Jiren as he swung his blade.
The steel ripped through corrosive flesh, a deep black tar splattered on the ground as it gushed from the deep cuts in three demons. He made another slice, two arms and half a head plopped down while Jiren blocked four claws from going through his head. Flames ignited on the tar, two of the demons were consumed, screaming as they burned away back Hell with ashes where they had been. Kevin wrapped a chain with scared charms from every faith around his hand like brass knuckled and slammed them into a demon’s face, the head exploded as the rest flared up. Jiren heard a growl and turned to stab his blade past the children, running another beast through. Ben took on most of the onslaught, his strength splattered the damn with ease. All three fought in the their own ways, but the kept the children at a distance from the madness. In less than five of smashing limbs, clashing steel, and burning tar, the fight was done.
Eighteen more of the Devils gone.
Jiren swatted away a few loose embers on his blade before sheathing it again. Kevin did the same, relocating all his tools. Ben knelt down to look the children in the eyes.
“Are you okay?” He said.
The children nodded nervously. He gave them a reassuring smile, Jiren was always impressed by the way Ben smiled. The man never lost track of what they were working towards, who they fought for.
“You’re safe now,” Ben said reassuringly. “We’re going to get you home.”
Kevin and Jiren did their best to be as friendly as Ben, the Blood Knight managed better because he at least knew how to comfort children after he had saved some from slavers before bringing them to the proper authorities.
The walk back was quieter, no demonic aura left everything a little bit darker. Jiren wondered if Hell was scrubbing away the failed base camp in that battle for New York’s soul, perhaps if he wasn’t careful he’d slip through a gap and fall through to oblivion. All the more reason to step a little more carefully.
They moved faster to get the children out of the unholy locale. The sight of graves had never been more appealing. A woman stood beside the tombstones, her a black dress matched her hair with the same shade of a moonless night sky. The brightest thing about her was a smile. Never speaking a word but always knowing where to be.
Ben told them her name was Ms. Ravenward, ‘a friend’.
She stepped forward, holding out her hands to the children. The kids looked at Ben, he gave them a nod. That motivated them to step closer. Ms. Ravenward knelt down and gently grasped their hands. Jiren almost thought he heard a flutter of wings. It lasted a moment but the kids seemed more at ease with the Troublemakers.
With a wave of Ms. Ravenward’s hand, they were back in the home of the parents with tears in their eyes as their family became whole again. The woman did the same thing to the parents and soon the family apparently understood the grander conflict. A battle between the hidden magic community within New York and Hell, as well as the warriors who stood in the Devil’s way. They promised to never speak of what they knew, grateful to their guardians in the darkness.
The Troublemakers left the home a little bit later. Ms. Ravenward had already vanished to wherever she came from and the three men began the steady walk back to the magic community. Jiren could see from a nearby storefront selling clocks among other novelties that the sun would rise in three hours. This left them a few hours to sleep, wake up, get their things together and greet whatever other horrors came out again to stalk the night.
It was a hard fight, one Jiren sometimes wished he could step away from and perhaps be more than a weapon. But this conflict must be faced, and people needed to be protected from the threats no one else should fear. Besides, Jiren rarely knew a task that made him feel like he had a soul.
Until it was done, a tenacious hunter from Brooklyn, a man with a fantastic eye and strength unmatched, and a former assassin who worked to become a knight in his own right would be there, as the best kind of Troublemakers, making things difficult for nastier beasts in the dark.
When treading the surface of Hell, there’s no better company.
Andrew, Wandering Writer 