The Devil's son - 13. All Hell breaks lose

Without a second thought Arthur had willed his sword to him and beheaded the nightmarish beast that had called Jayden “cousin”.

“What was that?” Samuel screeched. The night and all recent events started to take their toll on the young man and he was nearer to a nervous breakdown than he cared to admit.

“That was Oni, the son of one of the Fallen and, as such, my cousin” Jayden explained. “All Fallen were, before they fell, sworn brothers, even closer than brothers by blood so they consider each other’s children they nieces and nephews causing the children being cousins”.

“Fascinating, your genealogy” Samuel said, more than a little annoyed. “The thing I want to know is how this upper level demon I take he is …” Jayden confirmed it with a nod. “ How this upper level demon managed to break out of Hell and kill someone who Jayden knows. No, cancel that! I want to know it all, right now!”

“To answer your first question, Phjierl warned us the seals in the Gates of Hell were weakening because of the number of souls that were gathered. 666 pure souls are needed to break the main seals on the Gates of Hell. Demons like Oni can escape Hell in one of two cases: as a result of a very difficult spell that costs several lower level demons their energy, or because the main seal is broken.” Jayden thought for a second. “If they performed the spell I mentioned Oni will be the only upper level demon on our plain of existence and will be for a while. The spell is difficult, uses the mystical energy of a lot of lower level demons and reduces the abilities of Satan’s mystics for quite some time. However, if the seal is broken …”

“If the seal is broken, all Hell will break lose” Samuel finished.

Shocked, Arthur turned to his half-demon lover.

“Jayden, we have to go to Wall Street” Arthur shouted.

“Why?” Samuel asked. “Want to check your stock? We could have a crisis on our hands!”

“We need to go to Wall Street because of this crisis, young man” Jayden said. “We need to go to Wall Street to see if all Hell broke lose or just a small portion of it”.

“I don’t get it” Samuel said.

“The Gates of Hell have a physical representation in our world” Arthur explained to Samuel, noticing Jayden was running low on patience with the guy. This might be a problem in the future if his lover and his best friend can’t stand each other. “Jayden explained to me last night that physical appearance of the Gates of Hell is at Wall Street, which is why the Dutch build the Wall there in the first place”.

“If more demons are going to be free from Hell they will emerge there so we will know whether or not the main seals were broken” Jayden chimed in. “And I’d love to discuss more of this with you, but not right now. Right now, we have to see if we have a fight on our hands”.

“Well, you can explain more on the way over there because I’m coming with you” Samuel said, effective silencing Jayden, but not Arthur.

“Yeah, don’t think so, Samuel” Arthur said.

“Arthur, I can help” Samuel pleaded. “Remember, I would be there for you if you needed me”.

“If I needed research done or if I needed to talk to someone about the crazy idea of having wings sprouting from my back. Not to possibly fight a demonic army. Jayden and me might not come out of that alive, let alone someone without supernatural powers”.

“I’m a grown man, Arthur, an adult man” Samuel said, getting a little angry with his friend. “Maybe I can’t throw thunderbolts or shoot death rays but give me a sword like yours and I’m sure I can stand my ground against a couple of demons”.

“No, Samuel, you can’t. You don’t have the strength to wield an angelic sword” Arthur said. “Not only are they heavy in actual weight but they also are heavy because of what they represent. The flaming swords get their power out of the believes of every religious person on the planet. A mere mortal being can’t handle either the emotions nor the responsibility of that.”

“Arthur, there must be something I can do” Samuel said, returning to pleading again.

“Yes, you can make sure you stay out of harms way and survive all this” Arthur said. “Not having to worry about you will make my job a lot easier”.

“Arthur, please ….”

“That’s enough, Samuel” Arthur said. “You will not come with us. That’s an order!”

And, as before, Heaven’s Law did it’s work. “Yes, master Ar’Thurian” Samuel said, anger showing in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Samuel” Arthur said. “But I need you to stay alive. I need you to live. In time you will understand and forgive me although you’d love to kill me for it right now”. And with that Arthur transformed himself into Ar’Thurian and took off, closely followed by Jayden who switched to his demonic form, leaving Samuel exactly where he was. Dark clouds were packing over New York City despite the promise of sunny weather.

As soon as Ar’Thurian and Jayden flew over Wall Street they knew they were in trouble.

“Lasciate ogni speranza” Jayden whispered, slightly in awe. Demon after demon materialised in the middle of Wall Street, each of them uglier than the previous.

“Jayden, we’re completely outnumbered” Ar’Thurian said. “There’s no way we can defeat so many demons”.

“Well, we do have one slight advantage” Jayden said. “As you see they all have wings so they can fly. But earth’s gravitational pull is stronger than in Hell. Also, the atmosphere is different. Demons are used to high concentrations of sulphur in the air and there is hardly any here. They will adapt but the upper level demons will need a few hours. The lower level demons, like Phjierl might never succeed to fully adapt but we only have a few hours before the armies of Darkness are at full strength. When that happens we only stand a chance with the aid of the Armies of Heaven”.

“Jayden, with this number of demons they don’t need their wings or their full power. They could all just pile up on us and squash us like a couple of bugs. Even my armour won’t be able to stand that kind of weight or assault”. Jayden sighed. “I just hope he is still sensitive enough to me so I can call him from a distance”.

“Who are you talking about, Arthur?” Jayden asked.

“Please call me Ar’Thurian when I look like this, Jayden” Ar’Thurian pleaded. “Arthur is a young human male who is madly in love with you and I can’t deal with that right now.” Tears were forming in Ar’Thurian’s eyes. “I love you and I can’t have that distraction if we’re going into battle with a legion of demons”.

“I’m sorry, Ar’Thurian” Jayden said. “But, as I told you before, I can only see you as Arthur”.

“I know” Ar’Thurians said.

“So, what were you talking about, Ar’Thurian?”

“We need help, and lots of it” Ar’Thurian said. “Besides me, there’s one other angel in Manhattan. The commander of Heaven’s Armies, the Archangel Michael”.

“So he was the man in white I saw a couple of weeks ago with you?” Jayden asked.

“Yes, but when was that?” Ar’Thurian said.

“Doesn’t really matter” Jayden said, trying to think of a way to change the subject. “Do you know where to find the Archangel Michael?”

“No, but in the past the subcommanders never needed to find him. We were able to communicate with Michael telepathically. I just hope he is still listening to me and that I am still a master of that craft” Ar’Thurian said.

Ar’Thurian tried to clear his mind which was not an easy task with a stream of demons materialising in the street beneath the roof you’re standing on and it took Ar’Thurian longer than ever to make the connection. But after a while he managed to sense Michael. Now Ar’Thurian hoped Michael was listening because Michael would not be prepared for his former right hand to contact him like this.

Samuel was fuming with anger. How could Arthur, or Ar’Thurian, doubt him like this? And than Jayden, being an upper level demon. Now Samuel understood why he had reacted the way he did on Jayden. He reacted instinctively to Jayden’s demonic nature and still Arthur trusted Jayden more than he trusted him! Unbelievable! A warrior angel trusted the Demon Prince more than his best friend! Well, let’s see about that?

Samuel started walking in the direction of Wall Street. After a few meters he expected to feel that annoying tingling in the back of his skull, warning him he was about to put his life in danger by infringing Heaven’s Law, ordering him to stand down, to do his master’s bidding or suffer the consequences. However, the tingling sensation never came. Even after walking almost a hundred meters towards Wall Street he was not alerted to Heaven’s Law.

“How is this possible?” Samuel asked himself. “Arthur made it very clear I was not suppose to come. …… To come WITH THEM!” it suddenly dawned to Samuel. Arthur had said specifically he could not come with them, and although they both knew what Arthur had meant they had experienced before Heaven’s Law didn’t work that way. Heaven’s Law was literal, not figurative. Heaven’s Law would only stop Samuel if he did something against Arthur’s literal command, not if he violated Arthur’s meaning. Samuel found it strange Heaven’s Law had such a flaw but right now he was ok with it. He would prove to Arthur he could be helpful.

“Taxi!”

Michael had felt on edge all day and he had no idea why. Ok, so a lot had happened but that never caused him to feel the way he felt right now. Maybe it was the fact he stayed in New York so long. Maybe it was time for him to go to a more sacred place, like Vatican City. Yes, tomorrow he would lock his hidden quarters and he would go and stay at the Vatican. Maybe the headache that started a couple of minutes ago would also be gone again. He never had a headache, not since the Rebellion against Heaven. Not since his subcommanders last communicated with him telepathically.

“I’m such a fool” Michael whispered to himself, before sitting down and clearing his mind, opening himself for his subcommander. It must be important or one of his subcommanders would not try to communicate with him like this.

“Ar’Thurian, is this you?”

“Yes, Michael. I’m so glad you’re listening” Ar’Thurian responded.

“Yes, well. It got me quite a migraine” Michael said. “What is the problem?”

“The Gates of Hell are open” Ar’Thurian said.

“WHAT?!” Michael screamed so hard Ar’Thurian got a nose bleed. “That’s impossible! 666 pure souls were needed to undo the seals!”

“New York cityhas suffered from a large number of baby deaths” Ar’Thurian said. “At the moment I didn’t understand the importance but today Jayden and I got a visit from a lower level demon who connected to dots”.

“Jayden? Lower level demon? Is the lower level demon still there?” Michael asked.

“No, he was killed by a demon Jayden said was called Oni. I killed that one” Ar’Thurian answered.

“Oni. Figures. And this Jayden character knew him? How? And how the hell did you manage to kill an upper level demon so easily?”

“According to Jayden they are not at full strength yet because they need to adjust themselves to the higher gravitational pull of the earth and the low concentration of sulphur in the atmosphere”.

“This Jayden knows a lot, from the sound of it” Michael said. “And how exactly does he know so much?”

“Jayden is also called the Demon Prince” Ar’Thurian sighed.

“Shit” Michael thought to himself.

“I’m on my way”.

When Michael arrived at Wall Street 5 minutes later he was not a happy camper. High from the sky he had seen the massive stream of upper en lower class demons materialising and they started quite a bloodbath among the traders of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). There would be a lot of job openings the next couple of days if they somehow managed to survive all this. Still, the streets were covered in blood and filled with both the raw laughter of the demons and the screams of pure fear from the humans. Michael spotted Ar’Thurian and a demon he assumed must be the Demon Prince. He descended and landed next to Ar’Thurian, in front of Jayden.

“I should kill you right here and now” Michael said to Jayden.

“You could try but I assure you I’m more than well adjusted to living on earth already and I‘m quite a bit stronger than your average upper level demon” Jayden said. “Besides, I think it would be wiser to work together. Or do you think you and Ar’Thurian can manage such a huge number of demons?”

“You are the Demon Prince, the sign the End of Days is upon us” Michael replied. “Killing you should end the threat of the End of Days.”

“Or set the entire thing in motion” Jayden said. “I have no intention in destroying the universe, handing my father his victory. The universe is as it should be and I want to keep it that way. It’s very well possible my help is what stops this crisis and killing me might destroy the only hope you have in defeating the armies of Darkness”.

“For now you live” Michael said. “Because indeed I do not know what your role in all of this is supposed to be. But I promise you your “status” will be revaluated once this crisis is dealt with”.

“Can you call the Armies of Heaven?” Ar’Thurian asked. “Even the three of us might have a hard time dealing with this”.

“No, I can’t call them from this distance” Michael said. “The amount of power needed increases with the distance and I just don’t have enough power to make a mental call all the way to Eden”.

“Why don’t you fly there?” Jayden asked, still taken aback by Michael’s comment.

“Because I can’t, ok?” Michael growled. “And no, I have no intention telling you why. Besides, if we work well together we might not need the Armies of Heaven”.

“And how do we do that?” Ar’Thurian asked. He had expected Michael to call on the joined angelic forces to squash the demons but now they were just with the three of them. Hardly an improvement over just him and Jayden.

“Even with 666 pure souls to counteract the 666 condemned ones to seal the Gates of Hell there is a failsafe. You can’t expect a soul to remain pure if it’s used to open the Gates of Hell so within 24 hours after the seals are broken they will reseal themselves since the souls are not pure anymore. However, if innocent blood is spilled, either by the demons from Hell or because humans get … inspired to kill others, the seals remains weak and broken, keeping the Gates open”.

“Well, those demons are quite busy spilling blood in the street” Ar’Thurian said.

“Like I said, innocent blood keeps the Gates open and there is not much innocent blood at Wall Street” Michael said. “Although all blood does keep the gate open we are in serious trouble if they succeed in killing a 21 year old male virgin”.

“Because those are the most pure and innocent?” Jayden asked.

“No, because that means I lost the bet those couldn’t be found in New York City” Michael said. “Of course because they are the most innocent!”

Jayden decided to keep silent.

“Shouldn’t we go down there and start killing some demons” Ar’Thurian asked.

“Yes, we should. However, although it’s important to kill the demons, make sure we kill new demons as soon as they materialise and contain the demons to this part of Manhattan Island as much as possible” Michael said.

“Anything else? Solving world hunger? Finding money to pay off the national debt of the USA?” Jayden joked.

“Funny, Demon Prince, very funny” Michael said. “I’ll try to keep myself from laughing while we’re killing your kind, alright?”

While the angel, Archangel and demon took off from the roof a yellow cab entered the area and things took a turn for the worst.

It had taken Samuel far longer than normal to reach Wall Street. On the way they saw several creatures that Samuel knew were demons but the cabdriver had freaked more than a little. Also over the radio they heard very strange things so after a while the cabby didn’t want to go any further. However, Samuel had a very convincing argument: a loaded Glock 19.

“Trust me, this goes against everything I believe in but I have to get to Wall Street” Samuel said. “This is more important than you or me”.

The cab driver looked at him with both fear and disbelief. But there was no more discussion and the cabby brought Samuel to Wall Street. But Samuel almost regretted it as soon as the NYSE came to sight. Demons everywhere and the street was slick with blood.

“Oh God …” Samuel moaned as soon as he left the cab. The cabby didn’t even wait for Samuel to close the door and sped off. Unfortunately he headed in exactly the wrong direction, directly towards the Gates. A large, very ugly demon grabbed the cab and pulled out the cabby through the open door. Before the cabby even had time to scream the demon had ripped him in half.

“That was so not the meaning” Samuel thought. But he didn’t have a lot of time to think about that poor man since a rather mean looking demon came towards him, clearly having murder in his mind.

“Yes, please. Make my day” Samuel said as he pointed his Glock on the demon’s head and fired.

“How the hell did Samuel bypass Heaven’s law?” Ar’Thurian fumed. “My order was clear!”

“What did you say exactly?” Michael asked.

“I told him he couldn’t come” Ar’Thurian said.

“No, you said he couldn’t come with us” Jayden said.

“Everyone knows I meant he couldn’t come” Ar’Thurian said.

“True, but that doesn’t matter” Michael said. “Heaven’s Law only enforces the exact order, not the order meant but not spoken. So that pup did exactly what you told him. He couldn’t come with you but you never said he couldn’t come on his own”.

“Well, that’s a mistake that’s going to be corrected immediately” Ar’Thurian said, changing course directly towards Samuel. But he was not in time to stop the large demon advancing on Samuel. Ar’Thurian was stunned when he saw Samuel raising a gun to the demon, both because of the gun and the fact that Samuel thought it would be effective.

“You can’t kill Abalam with a gun” Jayden said in disbelief. But that disbelief only increased when Abalam’s head exploded when the bullet hit him. “Impossible!”

“Ok, so maybe Samuel wasn’t wrong when he said he could help” Ar’Thurian said. “But he will still get an earful when all of this is over”. But while Jayden and Ar’Thurian were looking at Samuel Michael stayed behind. He had not told Jayden and Ar’Thurian everything.

Although Satan rules Hell on his own, he has 5 trusted aids, the 5 Demon Lords: Abaddon, Beelzebub, Rahab, Ereshkigal and Oni. If these 5 are free they can summon the power needed to break the final seal to release Satan from Hell. Ar’Thurian had killed Oni but there was a potential successor: Jayden. The Demon Prince was next in line to become the next Demon Lord. The final condition was that Jayden took at least one human life since he made it to earth. If Jayden had never killed anyone they would be rather safe because they would have to wait until the Devil’s Sabbath to select the next Demon Lord. If Jayden killed someone by his own actions, even if it was only once, the first of 5 Demon Lords would be free already.

While Michael was thinking about this and hoping Ar’Thurian and Jayden didn’t know this information, both Jayden and Ar’Thurian watched Samuel shooting demon after demon.

“I just don’t understand why those demons are affected by that gun of his” Jayden said.

“Well, let’s just be glad they do” Ar’Thurian said.

“Ar’Thurian! Look!” Jayden said. The first demons started to spread their wings and managed to hover a little. “They’re adapting!”

“Oh, shit!” Ar’Thurian responded but Jayden didn’t know what that statement was about because at the same moment a larger demon with an even larger spear approached Samuel from behind.

“Samuel, watch out!” Ar’Thurian screamed but it was no use. The scene was just too noisy for Samuel to hear his friend. So Ar’Thurian did the only thing he could think of. He changed course, heading for Samuel. He tried to slay the demon with his fiery sword but missed so he landed behind Samuel, pushing him out of harms way. That also meant he was right in harms way. Only milliseconds after pushing Samuel away Ar’Thurian felt a sharp stabbing pain in his back. When he looked down he saw the point of the spear sticking from his chest. Jayden landed only a meter from him, rushing towards his lover.

“Baby, don’t move. It will be ok” Jayden said but both he and Ar’Thurian knew better.