Page 91 of Unbinding the Demon
“Good news, Buttercup. We’re almost there.” A wicked grin flashed across his face. “We just have to fly over this valley while avoiding the katabatic winds that blow out of that void over there...” He gestured to the sea of darkness. “Then we’ll be only half a day away from the pantheon.”
Only half a day!? Does this guy even know what “almost there” means?
As I silently grumbled about how long this was going to take, he strode to the cliff’s edge. Perched high above the valley, he crouched like a gargoyle. His wings unfurled behind his back, spreading out on either side of us. I slipped down to the ground between his legs, and he held my back against his chest with his clawed, tattooed hand. He kissed the top of my head as we gazed out over the dark, eerie landscape together. The balmy wind blew through our long, wisping hair, causing it to dance all around us. Meanwhile, I pretended not to feel the massive boner pressing into my lower back.
“Look over there.” Azathoth pointed toward the wispy black wall. My eyes followed his direction as a large black cloud crept out like the looming shadow of death. It was slow at first, but then picked up speed and howled as it boisterously raged across the valley. “Those are sentient carnivorous winds. They come out and devour all things in their path, then return to the void. That’s why the valley is so desolate.” He lovingly caressed my arm as he spoke. “It would be best to wait until that one returns before flying over.”
I placed my hand on his, then leaned my head back and turned to look up at his face. “Azathoth?” I whispered, my words barely stirring the air.
“Yes, Buttercup?” He caressed my cheek with his free hand and tucked a stray strand of unruly hair behind my ear, as he so often did for me.
My breath hitched as I gazed into the glowing demonic eyes that were filled with so much love and adoration for me. Despite the fog of uncertainty shrouding our relationship, he'd stood as my protector multiple times. Now, it was my moment to save him. “I want to—”
A piercing screech cut off my words. We both whipped our heads around to look up at the treeline behind us. At least one hundred dark-gray creatures with long, skeletal limbs climbed through the bare treetops toward us. Their paws ended in long, terrifying claws and their bony, tattered bat wings angrily flapped. Harrowing screeches and sibilant snarls came from their ugly, decaying muzzles.
Oh shit. The undead gargoyle things.
Azathoth’s arms wrapped securely around my body, and his hands grabbed onto me with a steel-like grip.“Fuck, they’ve seen my wings,” he grumbled to himself, agitation clear in his expression. “Hold that thought, and also, hold on to me.” Without any warning whatsoever, he dove off the cliff like a madman as the swarm of gargoyles began to viciously converge on us. I screamed at the top of my lungs while frantically holding onto him for dear fucking life as we plummeted down into the seemingly endless darkness below.
38. A Clash of Carnivorous Creatures
“Ashton!”I screamed like a maniacal madwoman, accidentally using his fake name in my moment of panic.
Time and space seemed to warp and distort as Azathoth and I plunged into the thick, suffocating sea of black. Ashen winds whipped through our hair, making it stream out behind us like the streaking twin tails of a comet. It felt as if we were trapped in some disorienting paradox, suspended in the blackened void. Yet at the same time, hurtling toward the unseen ground below.
Azathoth tucked and folded his wings behind him, like a hawk diving for its unsuspecting prey. The action caused us to pick up speed rapidly as we zoomed headfirst down through the expanse of black nihility. The golden glow of his infernal eyes cut through the sea of darkness, illuminating his concentrated countenance. I clutched his hands and forearms with all my strength, which were wrapped around me in an unyielding embrace.
The shrill screeches and vicious snarls of the undead gargoyle swarm were so loud that they almost overpowered my ear-shattering screams. There was no way to tell how near they were since everything was enwreathed in blinding darkness. But their harrowing screams seemed close and came from every direction except downward. Air whooshed beneath Azathoth’s massive spiked wings as he spread them wide and swiftly swooped upward. A puff of black mist swirled around us as we broke through the wisping wall of the void and entered the desolate valley, alarmingly close to the ground.
Holy fucking moly! This madcap demon is going to get us fucking killed!
His wings powerfully flapped, bringing us higher above the bleak, melancholic landscape. The surrounding air made a swishing noise as he rotated his wings vertically to get a better view of our pestilential pursuers. Both his and my hair whipped across my face, blinding me as I glanced back. I shook the hair out of my face, finding their decaying forms bursting through the wall of black fog with puffs of mist swirling out behind them. The others who were still up on top of the precipice began jumping off toward us. They formed a deranged waterfall of rotten flapping wings and swiping claws cascading down from above.
He straightened us back out and flew toward the side of the rocky cliff face. I screamed as he turned a corner with aerial elegance and agility, hugging the edge of the jagged stones with his outstretched wings. The gargoyles came crashing around right after us, clawing at the cliff side to turn faster. They ripped into the stone, causing huge chunks of rock to plummet to the wastelands below.
The far cliff was now much closer, making it appear more like we were gliding through the forbidding belly of a nightmarish canyon than a dismal valley. Enormous stone columns jutted up from the ground like sharp, twisted daggers, adding a threatening appearance to the landscape. Azathoth began weaving through them, spinning and maneuvering like a skilled acrobat. Explosive cracking and the thunderous crumbling of stone came from behind us as some gargoyles crashed into the columns.
Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!
He folded his wings in and dove into a jagged tunnel that cracked through one of the larger columns. A cloud of dust puffed up around us as his feet landed on the ashy tunnel floor. As he swiftly sprinted through, he tucked an arm beneath my legs and changed the position he was holding me in to bridal style. My arms frantically latched around his neck as I peered over his shoulder to see a foaming-at-the-mouth gargoyle sprinting on all fours, hot on our trail.
“Azathoth! There’s one right behind us!”I screamed as the undead thing snapped its hungry, rotten jaws.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got it.” Without breaking speed, he bent down and spun in a full circle on his heel. His large wing whipped out, and the sharp spike on its furthest tip brutally lopped the heinous thing’s head right off.
He continued sprinting, while my wide, horrified eyes watched as the head flew through the air, with a ribbon of black blood streaming out behind it. Its putrid, skeletally thin body fell to the floor, while the head thumped against the wall. It then rolled out of the tunnel to the barren ground below.
Azathoth leapt out the other side and began zip-zoodling through the air once again. I looked forward and my eyes once again widened in terror. We were flying right toward the massive, formidable black cloud of carnivorous winds. It was coming straight for us, like the Reaper’s shadowy breath blowing across the valley.
“Azathoth! The winds! The fucking winds are straight up ahead!” I shouted hysterically, while gripping his neck even tighter.
“Don’t worry, I see them.” He flapped to bring his speed up a bit. “And you really don’t need to shout. Your head is right next to my ear, after all.”
“What the fuck are you doing!? Fly upward, not faster toward the menacing cloud of death, you block headed buffoon!” I screamed in panic, right next to his ear.
“Just trust me, Buttercup.” He began gliding faster, practically giving me an aneurysm.
My eyes were bulging right out of my skull as the carnivorous winds quickly grew nearer.“Azathoth!” I yelled, my voice laced with fear.
