continued his progression. “Why did you stop, Seth? What’s wrong?”
“Listen.”
The ground shook with a sudden tremor followed by a bellow of air and a booming sound. Another quickly followed and another on top of it.
“What in the world is that?” Levi shouted. “Almost sounds like cannons!”
“Almost,” Seth said. Then he listened again as the thunder continued.
“We had better keep moving,” Levi said.
“Wait, there’s something else.”
Levi tried to discern what Seth was referring too. Then he heard it. Mad screeching from animals, only multiplied a thousand times and soaked with panic.
“Is that?”
“Lie down as flat as you can, Captain, and be sure your clothing is pulled tight to your back. Cover your nose and mouth with your hand and try not to breathe unless you absolutely have to!”
The thunder pounded through the tunnel walls even more oppressively. Levi wanted to be out of this hole now. The panic flooding down the tunnel only added to his own anxiety. He pressed against the walls, trying hopelessly to turn himself around. He had to get out of here now!
“Captain, do as I said and we may get out of this alive!” Seth pressed his body down flat into the slime and lay perfectly still.
The screeching grew in volume and intensity as the pounding continued. The pulses of air blasting through the tunnels carried the added stench of filthy living things. Things about to pour through the place where Seth and Levi lay trapped.
“Lord Shaddai, help me!” he cried and pressed his body down flat. Levi covered his mouth as Seth had instructed, shoving his face reluctantly into the disgusting mire. It squished between his fingers trying to reach his mouth. The filth oozed into his ears, muffling the screeching just before it reached him. Then it happened.
Thousands of tiny, clawed feet stampeded across his body in the pitch black darkness of the tunnel. Rats! Hundreds, maybe thousands, poured through the sewer drain in a panicked attempt to flee from whatever danger was producing all of the noise around them.
Levi fought the sensation to vomit into his hand. He knew it wouldn’t have worsened the conditions, but he still had to have a way to breathe. The tiny claws pricked his skin over and over again until he felt like he might go mad right there in the tunnel. He fought to keep down the urge to flail against the creatures in a vain attempt to kill them and escape the moment. Instead, he muttered a prayer into his grimy palm. He tried to focus on why he was even doing this at all. “Oh Lord, help me to rescue my friends. Please let them be all right. I can’t do this without you.”
He wondered if Seth might be holding his own private vigil ahead of him. The rodents continued to wash over them in a seemingly never-ending wave of terror. After an eternity submerged in the madness and filth, Levi felt a single tapping on his shoulder. The change of sensations almost startled him. Then he heard Seth’s muffled voice calling out to him in the darkness as he shook him with his hand. “Captain, are you all right?”
Levi raised his face out of the slime with a loud sucking sound and took a moment to breathe again. Compared to what he’d been through, the ever-present stench seemed like bouquets of fresh flowers. “I’m all right, Seth.” He puffed a few more times, taking in what little precious oxygen was present.
Seth smiled. “Then we’d better keep going. It sounds like your friends are in greater danger than we suspected.”
Levi nodded and the two men began their trek forward again.
EXPLOSIVE RESULTS
The demon-possessed soldiers hacked at the barred wooden doors behind them as Ethan followed Gideon. The priests rounded a corner and came into the throne room where they had originally been introduced to King Nichols. Ethan paused while Gideon ran ahead toward the archway where they had entered before.
Ethan searched the shadows. Something didn’t feel right. More demons? He couldn’t place the feeling of imminent danger on any particular source.
At the far end of the throne room, more of Nichols silver and blue clad soldiers poured through the archway. Gideon grinded to a halt then reconsidered and launched into them head-on. Ethan ran toward the fight to help Gideon.
The polished stone ceiling of the throne room exploded downward. Stone and fire fell upon Gideon and the soldiers. Ethan cried out for his friend, then saw the elder priest evade the avalanche only to be swallowed in a cloud of dust again.
Ethan noticed a low whistling sound coming from outside through the damaged ceiling. He saw several small projectiles arc through the sky toward the castle. He didn’t know what they were-only that they were extremely dangerous. He followed the path of one that would enter the throne room and reacted.
Ethan flung the physical sword in his hand precisely into the objects path. Only after he had let go of the weapon did he wonder if it had been the wisest course of action. The projectile managed to fall just beneath the shattered roof when Ethan’s sword struck it.
The weapon exploded. A fireball raced out across the room with a shockwave that pummeled everything in its path. The soldiers, still visible in the dust from the first explosion, fell like wheat to a scythe. Ethan crashed through a heavy wooden chair and tumbled across the stone floor.
He remained conscious, but now he had no idea where Gideon had gotten too. Had his fellow priest even survived?
Ethan tried to catch his breath to shout Gideon’s name, but his feeble effort was swallowed up by a thunderous cacophony of explosions assaulting King Nichol’s castle. He found the strength to stand again. Great pieces of stone fell from the ravaged ceiling of the throne room amid a thick veil of dust and smoke. “Gideon!” He cried, but there was no response.
Soldiers broke through the doors behind him. Only the inhuman shrieking of demon voices through mortal vocal chords pierced the terrible noise of the attack coming from outside. He couldn’t see any way to go in the direction Gideon had gone. The demon-possessed would see him in the physical or the spiritual.
Ethan realm shifted anyway and flew to the pile of rubble left from the first explosion. Ethan searched frantically for a body, but Gideon was gone. The soldiers came into the other end of the throne room, apparently caring nothing for the collapse of the castle all around them. They spotted Ethan and tore through the chamber after him, some running perpendicular along the face of the stone wall while others bounded over and around the rubble.
Ethan still had the advantage of phasing through matter. He leaped through the wall as the soldiers attacked. Their swords bit into the stone after him.
Ethan came out into another room he didn’t recognize. Massive alcoves had been carved out of the castle here by the explosive attack. Many bodies littered the ground, some partially buried under wood and stone.
Two demons shot through the walls at Ethan, forcing him to defend himself. One struck at him before he could retrieve his weapon. He dodged the attack and locked his arms around the demon’s arm, then wrenched the weapon away. He released the brute and thought to use its weapon, but the spiritual sword evaporated in his grip, reappearing in the demon’s hand again.
“You’ve much to learn about this realm, warrior!” the demon snarled.
Ethan’s blade flew from his side to his hand, then morphed into a triple jointed staff. Both demons leaped at him. They struck furiously with their swords, but Ethan blocked with the middle section of his staff, then attacked with both ends.
The demons came again, but more cautiously. Ethan flourished with the staff, then spun around as the weapon morphed into two swords in his hands. No longer did the nightmarish legions of Mordred frighten him. His priestly training had done much to quash the childish fears.
They circled him and attacked yet again. Ethan defended between the two and managed to strike one in the chest. The creature reeled back and disintegrated like wind blown sand. The other demon growled at him. “It’s not
