Page 90 of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World
“That’s why you haven’t devoured me,” I said. “Not because of some promise. If I die before Management unravels the thread that binds us, you’re stuck. You’ll be anchored here, to this one little world, until the last star dies and the universe sinks into cold, dead silence. That’s a long time to hunger. A long time to starve.” I felt Eric’s gaze on me but forced myself to keep watching The-One-Who-Hungers. “You Abominations arose from the worst parts of humanity, but you’re a threat to far more than us. If you were allowed to drain this world dry, you’d be strong enough to move on to the next, and the next after that, because the worst parts of us have no limit. You’d swallow everything, eventually.That’swhy Management bound you, and why They made sure that even if someone freed you, there was a fail-safe in place to keep you here.” I paused to take a breath. “I wondered why you kept popping up everywhere I went. Now I know. You were terrified that if I died too soon, you’d be stuck on a dead chunk of rock orbiting a small and unimportant star instead of devouring the multiverse for the rest of time.”
Slowly, the Abomination bent its neck.You’re right, of course. Only Management can sever the connection between us. All of this—it flung out its arms as if trying to encompass the devastation it had wrought—was to get Their attention, to lure Them out so we could chat. They’ve been remarkably recalcitrant, however. Even after I invaded Their building and took Their people, all They did was throw a few executives at me.Its tone became almost petulant.I’m a little miffed.
I released the page and let it waft gently to the floor at my feet. “Maybe They’re waiting for the board to soften you up.”
It laughed, a sound like bone scraping on bone.You humans are so stupidly optimistic. It’s almost endearing.Slowly, it began to recede back from the flames outlining the ritual space.I know what you’re doing here. I remember these markings, those words. I’ll keep my distance, if it’s all the same to you. But here’s arealpromise, Colin: once we’re no longer tethered, I’m going to keep you around. You’re fun. All that rage and self-loathing puts a smile on my face—or it would, if I had one.It bent at the waist in a polite bow.Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must slaughter the rest of the executive board and then wait for Management to appear. I should be strong enough by then to…persuadeThem to release me.
Lifting the scalpel still clutched in my hand, I pressed it deliberately to the side of my neck. “I learned a lot of things in Human Resources,” I called out, my voice surprisingly steady. “Like where the carotid is, and how quickly someone bleeds to death when it’s severed.”
“No!” Eric shouted from off to my right.
“Colin!” Amira screamed at the same moment.
You won’t do it.The Abomination had paused, its pale flesh fitfully illuminated by the dancing fire between us.You’re too selfish. Too desperate.
“I am those things,” I agreed. “But at least I’ll die knowing that I beat you.” Then I closed my eyes, lifted my chin, and started to draw the scalpel across my throat.
There was a whisper of sound, a moment of tilting disorientation, before icy fingers grabbed my wrist with bruising force and pulled my hand away from my neck. I opened my eyes. The-One-Who-Hungers loomed over me, stinking of despair and death.
“Gotcha,” I said.
Lex shouted something and blue flames roared in response, exploding upward from the circle around us to form a towering curtain of fire. From the corner of my eye I saw Eric leap unscathed through the flames, his sword shining with brilliant golden light. Behind him darted his comrades, Corrine swinging her chain in both hands while Ivan twirled matching knives, their weapons glimmering with a silvery radiance that reminded me of moonlight. As one, they advanced on the hovering monster, moving to flank it on three sides.
Still holding my wrist in its hand, the Abomination wrenched back my arm. Pain lanced through my shoulder and I let out an involuntary cry, the scalpel falling from fingers gone suddenly numb, but before The-One-Who-Hungers could do more than that, Eric was there, his sword flickering out in one blurring slash after another. The grip on my wrist vanished and I stumbled away, instinctively holding my injured arm close to my body as Ivan took my place next to the monster, knives flashing in a deadly series of strikes. Lex was still chanting on the far side of the ritual space, one hand clasping Amira’s, the other now holding a silver disc that shimmered with unearthly radiance. Sweat gleamed on Lex’s forehead as they brandished the seal I’d broken when I freed the Thing, their voice hoarse now as they continued to recite Management’s incantation. Next to them, Amira had closed her eyes, a look of fierce concentration on her face.
The three Conclave agents fought with a practiced grace that took my breath away, shifting and ducking around The-One-Who-Hungers as if they’d choreographed every step. Ivan dropped low and sliced his knives at the creature’s legs, each cut shredding its dapper suit and exposing unhealthy-looking white flesh that smoked with silvery fire. Corrine’s chain was a whirling blur in her hands,flicking out to knock back a blow or twining around an arm to pull the creature off-balance. And Eric…sword shining like the sun, he slashed and parried faster than I could follow, his entire body a lithe and deadly instrument.
Even with my life in mortal peril, I’d never been hornier.
As swift as they were, however, the three of them were fighting a monster as old as humanity itself. Its hands blurred as it deflected their attacks before launching strikes of its own with those long arms. The shadows of its face split into tendrils that lashed out faster than a serpent’s tongue, trying to pull them into its ravenous maw. Corrine had to fall prone and roll away to avoid a vicious punch that would have caved her head in, and Eric jumped back as an inky tendril scored a hit along his side, ripping a hole in his leather jacket that might have been fatal had it struck him directly. Without pausing, he leaped back into the fray, forcing those shadows to retreat from the brilliant light of his sword, but it was increasingly clear that each of them was only a single mistake away from disaster.
When that mistake finally came, it did so with brutal suddenness. Contorting its body in a way that should not have been possible, The-One-Who-Hungers lunged at Ivan and punched a hand into his chest. Bones splintered with wet popping sounds beneath the impact, and he let out a high-pitched scream that ended abruptly as his lungs disintegrated. The monster’s fist tore through Ivan’s back and his entire body convulsed, knives falling from his hands. Then he sagged lifelessly around the arm that had impaled him. Blood rained onto the obsidian floor, wet and gleaming in the strange firelight.
Overwhelmed by shock and horror, none of us moved, and that was when The-One-Who-Hungers flickered out of existence, leaving Ivan’s unsupported body to collapse with a jarring thud I feltthrough my shoes. A heartbeat later it reappeared behind Lex, both hands closing delicately around their head, smearing Ivan’s blood through their mohawk and across their face. Lex faltered, stumbling over the rolling incantation, and in response the walls of blue flame shrank almost to nothing. Then we all heard their glasses give way with a small but audible crack as the Abomination began to squeeze.
I tried to move, but my legs felt like they belonged to someone else. Helplessly, I watched Corrine’s silver chain whip around one of the monster’s arms, smoking and sizzling where it touched the bloodred suit. Eric threw himself into a forward roll and came up beside Lex, his sword flaring with light as he slashed at the creature’s other arm. The Abomination released its hold on Lex with a pained hiss, and Corrine used her chain to yank it backward while Eric drove it even farther with a dizzying flurry of attacks.
Lex’s voice failed as they lurched forward. Amira steadied them, her wrist still bound to theirs by that golden chain, and then her body stiffened as her eyes went milky white. The flames around us guttered on the brink of failure, but before they could die Amira began to recite the ancient incantation, picking up where Lex had stopped. Next to her, Lex shuddered and lifted their head, eyes now white as well behind their broken glasses, voice rising to accompany hers. Minds joined, they spoke as one, and the blue fire flared with new life.
Pain pulsed through my shoulder as I forced myself into a shambling run toward The-One-Who-Hungers. Eric and Corrine were pushing it back to the edge of the ritual circle, their weapons leaving glowing tracers in the air as they danced and darted. Behind them, Ivan’s steel-rimmed glasses sat in a spreading pool of blood. That could have been Eric. It might still. Forcing down my terror, I liftedmy hands, spoke the nine words I’d committed to memory, and brought down the Grasp of the Endless Void.
Practitioners of the black arts love their flowery titles, but in prosaic terms, all I did was inflict the gravitational force of a small star on every particle of the monster’s body. It went pretty much as you might expect. As my magicks closed around it, one of its arms contorted with a dull snap of breaking bone, then the other. Its legs, dangling several inches above the ground, compacted like an accordion. There were more pops and snaps as gravity bore down on The-One-Who-Hungers and forced it inward to a central point. Tendrils of shadow snaked out, fighting to escape, but inexorably they were drawn in as well until the Abomination was nothing but a tiny bead of darkness hovering in midair.
Silence fell, broken only by the sound of Lex and Amira chanting and the muted roar of the bright blue flames. My gaze went to Eric, breathing heavily a dozen feet away, sword held loosely in one hand. Blood seeped through a tear in his jeans and more glistened wetly on his jacket, but he was alive. That was all that mattered. “We did it,” he said softly. “I guess we didn’t have to bind it after all.”
Corrine limped to Ivan’s mangled body and crouched next to it, face drawn with weariness and pain. “Just end it,” she told me dully.
Stepping closer to the quivering bead that was all that was left of The-One-Who-Hungers, I reached back and pulled the Black Blade from behind my belt. Relief poured through me, making me giddy. It was done. We were safe, and a whole future stretched out in front of us, bright with possibilities. I lifted the knife, bringing it a hairsbreadth from the tiny sphere before my hand stilled. The bead had started to vibrate erratically, oscillating more strongly with each passing moment until it was a black blur suspended in midair.
Something was wrong.
“Get back!” I shouted, turning toward Eric. Then an overwhelming force punched my entire body and I was lifted off the ground, limbs flailing. A heartbeat later, I connected shoulder-first with the floor. Already weakened by the wrenching pull I’d suffered at the hands of The-One-Who-Hungers, something inside the joint crumpled with an agonizing snap as the world reeled around me. The pain was unbelievable, like a searing, red-hot poker twisting through cartilage and bone. Gasping for breath, I clawed at the slick obsidian, trying to orient myself, sparking new jolts of pain until I managed to get my left arm underneath my body and then lever myself up onto my knees.
The first thing I saw as my senses returned was the Black Blade. It lay just out of reach, its dull metal now marred by a jagged chip in one edge. I hadn’t realized it was so fragile. My head turned as I searched for Eric. There—he’d been blown behind me by the force of the explosion. Blood sheeted down his face as he struggled to push himself upright, though one of his legs seemed badly injured. Beyond him, Corrine sprawled facedown on the floor, unmoving, maybe dead. Through the ringing in my ears I heard Lex and Amira, still chanting. They’d escaped the blast.
Slowly, my gaze turned upward. A massive cloud of darkness billowed and coiled overhead like black smoke, far bigger than the dapper, unnatural body I’d crushed into a quivering point. Its edges slowly expanded as if stretching after a lengthy confinement.
That’s much better.The hollow, inhuman voice was everywhere, reverberating from the walls of the lobby and the ceiling high overhead.It was Management Who shoved me into that body, you know. Another prison I couldn’t escape. You’ve freed me a second time, Colin.
