Renegade

Part 21

Ren landed soundlessly on the stone bridge, his knees bending to absorb the shock. He barely had time to fully stand and tuck his wings against his spine before Satan's doormen came rushing at him, leaving the huge gates unattended. They probably thought that the entrance was safe, and Ren didn't blame them. Over twenty feet tall, the gates were constructed from some solid black metal and engraved with hellish scenes and tortured faces. Its guards, though, currently charging him, were the current challenge. Two massive black-furred hellhounds, flames flickering in their eyesockets and at their feet with every bound, sprinted full out, snarling. Behind them, four ram-horned demons ran, barbed spears clutched in their purple fists. Ren bared his own teeth in a snarl at the hellhounds, and one gathered itself for a leap as the other continued on the ground. Ren's fingers pulled a small knife from the shadows, and a seeming flick propelled it at one beast, catching it in its throat, but the hound stumbled and then continued on. The hellhound in the air descended from his leap, claws extended and raking, but Ren punched between them, hitting it full in the side of the face. Bone shattered beneath his attack and the thing crashed into the ground, but still the hellhound lived. "Don't you ever die?" Ren snarled. Ren closed one hand on its muzzle and and another on its back fur and slung one hellhound at its charging partner, sending both down in a tangle of snapping teeth. A quick step carried him over, and he grabbed something of each beast's and then hurled them both over the crenellated wall of the bridge. By then the guards were nearly on him, but not quite ready to meet them. Then shadows gathered in his hands, forming the contours of two handguns he was deeply familiar with, two weapons he had put together and fine-tuned himself and had been tested and true for a long time. "Pride goeth before the Fall. Angela. Demonia. Nice to have you again. Or identical copies. Or whatever." With that he raised the pistols and opened fire. A human could have gotten off one, maybe two shots with each gun at the demons. Ren's enhanced speed and dexterity, combined with some nifty rapid-fire modified triggers and his ability to respawn ammunition, which eliminated the need to reload, was something else entirely. A quick bark of shots, and suddenly each demon bore four bullet holes in between his horns. They continued forward several steps and then fell flat on their faces like dominoes, one after another. Ren tucked his guns into the back of his waistband and walked forward, coolly stepping over bodies as he got to them, until he reached the gates. He closed his eyes and ran the tips of his fingers along the embossed steel, straining his senses for any notion of what was on the other side. He got nothing. It was like a huge void in his grid, a patch of nothing. He opened his eyes, stepped back, and frowned. That was odd. He should at least be able to sense something. He spread his mismatched wings and he began to ascend as they beat. He went higher and higher, until he hovered a dozen feet above the faceted glass roof of an observation chamber. Then, as he had done many times before, he tucked his wings and dropped.

The glass shattered as soon as his booted soles, with all his weight behind them, hit it. Glinting pieces chimed and tinkled on the stone, and Ren's guns were to hand as he plunged to the black rock floor. His boots further pulverized the glass shards as he walked down the corridor. Now that he was inside the fortress, he could sense Ally bright and clear, a beam of light amidst the darkness. He abandoned all pretense of caution and secrecy and pounded down the walkway. It ran straight to Ally, and he could sense her beacon brightening as he kept going down that corridor. He ignored the echoing shouts of alarm, the footsteps. Anything in his way was either shot or bullrushed, because nothing could stop him from saving that human. Until the door. He could sense that she was right behind it, locked in. He tried pushing, pulling, lifting, pressing. He tried to pick the lock, shoot the lock, break the lock. He tried to break the wood, the hinges. But despite angelic and demonic bullets and all his newfound strength, Ren could not harm that door. Every part of it remained unscratched and unscathed. Once again, his temper was at its boiling point. Now, though, he could see them. Watching. Pointing. Jeering. Laughing. Sitting and relaxing, even. Demons. Massed at the other end of the corridor. They had seen it all, and now he was at his breaking point. Trembling with rage, sweating with exertion, and almost crying with frustration, he snapped. Ren let loose a primal, terrifying howl of fury, and a shockwave edged in crimson hellfire burst out from him. Surprised, the demons scrambled for their weapons ineffectively, bumping into each other in their haste. The flame nearly sliced the first few ranks in half and then tossed the rest back, burning merrily as it went. Right on the blast's heels was Ren, his eyes glowing fiery red, his fingers transformed into razor-sharp talons. He tore through the demons, quite literally, his rage fuelling his every strike until what had been quite a force was in full retreat and scores of charred and torn forms lay around Ren's boots. Slowly, the claws melted away. Ren's wrath was quenched in blood, and he himself was quite spattered with the stuff too. Slow applause filled the air. "I pronounce myself quite impressed. That was quite a show, I must say, unmatched by anything I've ever seen before. I now know how you could have beaten my champion. Drakos Malachai. The Dragon, the one and only. A true pleasure to have you here." Ren turned slowly, confusion and apprehension weighing down every movement. Standing in front of the door was an incredibly handsome young man in a white robe, his hands clasped behind him. His skin was bronze, his hair golden and tightly curled, and his eyes serenely blue. Despite his heavenly appearance, though, he stank of brimstone, and he gave off an aura of such evil that even from fifteen feet away, Ren's stomach roiled and his head pounded. "Your champion?" Ren choked, finding it hard to breathe. The heavenly figure smiled and nodded. "Yes. Surely you remember her. Rebekah. Your wife, whom you fought yesterday." Ren rasped, "I know who I fought. I'm just trying to get over you." The figure frowned and looked down at himself, then back up. "Me? Whatever do you mean, Drakos? I'm Satan." Ren nodded, then gestured at Satan from head to toe. He could hardly believe what was going on. He had been decimating the Fallen's army for millennia, planned on attacking as soon as he could muster up some energy, and here they were, having a perfectly civil conversation. Satan looked down at himself again. "Ah, you mean my attire. Well, then." He shrugged, and turned into approximately Ren's expectation of Satan: twelve feet tall, ripped, red skin, black eyes, black hair, horns, claws, massive taloned black bat wings. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I just meant that you weren't what I expected." Big Satan shrank into little Satan again and nodded. "That is reasonable. Now, to business, yes?" Ren choked and raised an eyebrow in surprise. He had had no idea Satan wanted business. The Fallen took this as a yes and leaned against the door at his back. "You have been killing my soldiers. Many of them, for a long time. And there seems to be no way to forcibly make you stop, as you simply kill everyone I send. So I will make a bargain with you, yes? I will give you your daughter for you to stop killing my men." Ren snorted and rasped, "My daughter's dead. Your kind made sure of that." At this Satan gave a cunning grin. "We did not kill her, Drakos. Take her soul, yes. We did not, per se, 'kill her'." Ren growled and surged forward. "What?!?" Satan waved a hand and Ren staggered, pushed back by the wave of energy. Ren's snarl was like that of a wild beast, and his voice shook with suppressed emotion. "Nine thousand years. Over nine thousand years I have gone on with my life, believing my child dead. But she is not. She is left alone by her father and raised by YOU!" At the end he was shouting, but Satan stayed unmoving, unanswering. Finally, he just shrugged. "She has been in soul stasis for most of that. Recently we put her in a body of the correct age and released her into the human world, under close observation. She grew into who you probably know as-" "Ally Flynn," Ren murmured, falling against the wall. "Yes. We will relinquish all claim and release you both if you give your oath not to harm my men." Still in shock, Ren could only nod. Satan clapped his hands with almost childish glee. "Excellent! That will do nicely. You've sworn to me so I can hurt you if you go back on it." He turned and opened the door easily; apparently he had none of the difficulties Ren did. A vase came out and narrowly missed Satan's head. "I won't touch anything you demonic motherf-" "Ally!" Ren interrupted. There was a pause. Then "Ren? Why the hell are you here? Did he get you too?" Ren snickered then stopped laughing when he realized the Fallen was probably powerful enough to get him, too. "No," he called. "I'm getting you out." Ren quickly walked over to the door. Ally poked her head out and just as she was about to see Satan, the Fallen winked at Ren and disappeared. When Ally saw Ren, she screeched and ran at him. When she hit him, she wrapped her arms around him tightly and groaned, "Please get us out of here now."As Ren pulled the shadows over him one more time, a pair of blue eyes appeared out of the darkness and bored into his. A vast will pressed down on his own, encouraging him to let it in. It only took Ren a moment to realize- Satan's attempt to possess him. Ren resisted with all his might, refusing to give way, and suddenly the pressure was gone and they were in a mountainside forest at twilight. And that was all Ren knew before his true form melted away and darkness closed in around him.