CHAPTER 440: HELL RAISIN’ DEMON SLAYIN’

"Malachi. Open your eyes, brother. The time to wake up is at hand."

Malachi opened his eyes groggily.

Floating before him were three animalistic spirits.

A crackling inpundulu, a coiled inkanyamba, and a leisure tiger.

All three were glowing with their respective colors.

Malachi only took a moment to look at the three of them before turning around to look for Aisha.

They were still in the dark space, but she wasn’t here.

"Have you guys seen-"

"Malachi. Our time is now up."

Mal stared at Ajani with a questionable look. "What are you talking about?"

In response, he received no answer. The animals continued to stare at him affectionately.

Malachi was slow to grasp what was going on, but once he did, he immediately shook his head in denial.

"No."

"This was always the way that things were going to be."

"I said no you damned snake! Now help me find Aisha."

Malachi turned away.

He stormed away from the conversation defiantly to look for Aisha, but Zazu stood in his path.

"Come on, kid... don’t make this harder than it has to be."

"I will fry you alive if you don’t drop this...!"

Malachi felt his body heat up unconsciously.

He thought he was just getting upset. That was until he noticed the room was brighter than before.

Looking down at his hands and feet, he found them alight in flame.

It was odd, and completely unlike the fire he wielded before.

A strange pitch black flame that gave off a dark-magenta colored glow. The embers produced a crackling noise that was not at all natural. They sounded like distant screams.

"This..." Mal was baffled.

"Do you get it yet, kid? You’re an Arch Demon now." Zazu stared down at his toes. "That means-"

"I... no." Mal brought his hands to his face in horror. "I can still change back. I just gotta get to the cup, and-"

"You’re deluding yourself. Think for just a moment and you can feel it. You’re not the same as when you woke up this morning. That’s just the way it is."

Malachi felt so dizzy that he could no longer stand.

Falling to his knees, he tried in vain to tuck his wings back into his body, in addition to his tail.

Nothing worked.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck...!"

Desperation ate away at Mal’s sanity.

Tendrils of razor-sharp shadow rose up to sever his great wings.

However, his blades passed through his flesh without even leaving a mark.

"Let’s not do the whole self-harm thing if we can avoid it. Pretty sure the big bad already practiced the whole cutting off his wings back when-"

"This isn’t a joke!!" Malachi grabbed the bird by the shoulders.

"I can’t be a demon! My wives still need me! My kids still-"

"I am an extension of you, you know? I can feel the pain. Hear the anxiety in your heart. I know it’s scary. But I also know that there are no barriers big enough to stop us from being the man our family needs. This is a setback. But it’s not a full stop."

Zazu tapped Malachi with his beak and his body started to break down into pure energy.

Energy that flowed right back into Malachi.

"I’ll be around even if I’m out of sight. And I’ll be supporting everything you do."

Malachi tried to stop Zazu, but it was too late.

The bird dissipated right in front of him.

Unwilling to accept it, Malachi desperately backed away to keep the last of the embers from entering him.

His back eventually struck a hard wall of shifting coils.

He lifted his tear-streaked gaze and met Ajani’s cool, sweet eyes.

"Please..." he begged.

Ajani lowered her upper body slightly.

She placed her snout directly on top of Malachi’s forehead, almost as if she were giving him a kiss.

"Steel your heart. It’s very distressing to see you like this. I don’t want it to be my last memory..."

Right before his eyes, the sweet serpent vanished next.

Dread filled Malachi as he heard the sound of familiar footsteps approaching him from behind.

"In the back of your mind, you always knew this was coming..."

"Serosh..."

"My siblings and I were born because your body could not bear the excess power given to you by Bast and Raijin.

We developed the ability to act independently of you so that our power would not dissipate until your body could bear the physical strain. You are ready now."

"SEROSH! I SAID STOP!"

The tiger sat on its haunches just beside Malachi.

He seemed to display a great deal of patience. His tail calmly swished back and forth as he seemingly waited for the time to pass by.

"...None of us wanted things to end like this. We’re fully aware of how terrible the timing is."

Malachi’s face was hidden behind his hair. His voice was so low that it was barely audible.

"If you know that then why are all of you doing this..? First my child, then my humanity, and now my-"

"We are shreds of you. That’s all we ever were. Do not be so overcome with our loss that you find it impossible to appreciate all that you still have. And all that you will have."

Malachi unconsciously envisioned Joanne; her smile bright as she wept and held her hand over her stomach.

"You have shown me great companionship in my time alive. For that, I will leave you with a gift so that my absence will not sting as much. But leave you I must."

"...I don’t get a say?"

"This time, I am afraid not. Probably for the best, since I’m fairly certain you would make the wrong decision. In that regard, you might want to thank me."

Malachi lifted his hand and placed it on top of Serosh’s head without looking up.

He gently ran his thumb over the tiger’s smooth fur and savored the feeling for the very last time.

"...Thank you for everything, Serosh."

The tiger showed all of his pointed teeth in what seemed to be a smile.

"It was an honor."

-

Malachi only awoke when he had difficulty breathing.

It was as if an infernal dust had started to fill his lungs while he lay unconscious. He coughed dramatically, but the annoying burning in his lungs never subsided.

It took longer than he would have liked for him to realize that he wasn’t at home.

He was alone lying in the mouth of a dark cave.

The sky above him was choked with clouds of ash and fire. They seemed permanently bound in their place and did not move no matter how long he watched.

The air was incredibly warm. Mal felt like he was standing in front of an oven at full power.

But as uncomfortable as that should have been, it was only mildly annoying at the very worst. It wasn’t something he couldn’t get used to.

That was something utterly unlike him, as he usually hated being hot.

"Nugh..."

Malachi placed his hand on a nearby rock to help him get to his feet.

Without even meaning to, he completely pulverized it and ended up stumbling back down.

Malachi’s annoyance skyrocketed. He said many bad words he’d been told not to repeat in front of his children.

Malachi tried to get up again, but this time he did so by simply levitating off the ground.

.... But it was too easy for him to move his body now. Way easier than it had been before.

He threw himself into the ceiling without meaning to, and briefly blacked out for an unspecified amount of time.

When he awoke again, his attitude was instantly dialed to eleven.

"...Bitch ass cave. Stupid fucking powers."

Malachi tried to lift himself again, this time much gentler than before.

Once he was upright, his wings and tail stretched themselves out to their full, imposing length.

Malachi looked down at himself and realized his clothes were out of the ordinary.

He wore a long, Greek toga as pitch-black as the cave around him.

A meaningful-looking gold necklace dangled around his neck, along with a set of odd earrings hanging from his ears.

He looked to his hands for his bracelets, but he didn’t find them.

Instead, he found a pair of black and gold bracers that went from his wrists to his forearms. A pair of similarly colored shin guards were fastened onto both his legs.

He smiled bitterly.

’Ma would love this...’

Nyx was always trying to get Mal and Aubrey to wear traditional stuff like this, but they never really went for it. It was a miracle he managed to avoid it back when he was living with her.

He could almost swear this was her idea, but Malachi couldn’t feel any trace of his mother here. Probably for the best.

Malachi floated out of the cave.

Once he was fully beyond the dark stone walls, he felt the heat of the world quadruple. Yet he was still nowhere near close to breaking a sweat.

Mal surveyed his surroundings as best he could.

It didn’t take him long to realize he was exactly where he thought he was.

And the locals were already showing up with a welcome wagon...

He felt them coming long before they actually showed. Their stink and the clinking of the things they had stolen were all too telling.

They crawled out of their surroundings like roaches.

Numbering well over seventy, they were small, red-skinned demons with twig-like limbs and pot bellies.

They had smiles full of sharpened teeth and black eyes brimming with greed.

Disgusting barely even began to describe their behavior.

Malachi watched one drop a steaming load onto the bald head of another. Then a group of them laughed and started rubbing it onto their horns in jest.

"Good luck, good luck! Kekeke!!"

It shocked Malachi that he could understand the little demons. They definitely weren’t speaking in English.

Then again, with everything else that had happened today, this was probably the least surprising thing that had happened so far.

One of the imps raised a clawed finger at Malachi and unleashed an ugly screech.

"EATTT!!"

The demons took only one step forward.

Suddenly, every one of their heads turned a full 360 degrees and popped right off.

They collapsed on top of each other like ugly little dominoes.

Malachi barely felt himself do anything, and what little he did do took him exactly 0.5 seconds to accomplish.

He had more trouble getting off the ground a few minutes ago.

"Whoa... that was really somethin. Never seen a newborn with demon authority before."

Malachi continued staring at the demon bodies without giving any focus to the voice he could hear coming from behind him.

Malachi wasn’t surprised by the new arrival. He felt the person coming long before they actually showed up.

But compared to the imps who were starting to decompose into an infernal black sand, this person felt very non-threatening.

"Holy fried canoli... one, two, three, four- *gasp* You’re an arch demon! Well, that explains a shit ton. Maybe that’s why I’m here then."

Malachi finally turned around. His eyes were unrecognizable to anyone who knew him.

He finally laid eyes on the mysterious demon who had shown up out of nowhere. He was surprised by how human he looked.

The demon appeared as a young boy in black and yellow armor. He seemed no older than fifteen.

The demon had short, illustrious black hair that was cropped around his face neatly and gave him a handsome, rougish appearance.

He only had two wings coming out of his back, where Malachi had four.

A hammer made of stone was slung over his shoulder and a small yellow boa constrictor was wrapped around his chest.

"Wait... you a Greek by chance? Cause you look a lot like-"

"You talk too damn much...Who the hell are you?"

"Well, gee, I’d sure like to tell you that I’m a messenger demon and my name is Andy, but apparently I talk too much, so I won’t be saying a damn thing to you." The demon folded his arms and turned around in a huff.

Malachi blinked. "...Andy?"

Andy turned around with a huge smile on his face.

"I know! I’ve got a name, so that makes me way more special than you! So you better show me the proper respect around here, newbie! Hierarchy is everything in the burning domain, so you’d better shape up quick or-"

"Listen, imp..! I’m in a real shit mood right now...!"

Twenty feet tall flames of dark magenta surrounded Malachi. Andy warily floated backward with apparent dread in his eyes.

He saw the beginnings of a shadow at Malachi’s feet. And it’s shape most definitely did not reflect his current physique.

"Unless you’re going to tell me how to get home, I don’t want to hear you say a damned thing else...!"

Andy gulped.

"Well... the thing is..."