Lucifer Damned (Morningstar Book 3), Percival Constantine [electric book reader .txt] 📗

The pair began moving across the terrain. And as they started their journey, they heard the sounds out in the distance of beasts and savage demons howling. Lucifer already began regretting his decision to come here, but he had no other choice other than to press on.

9

Time wasn’t something easily tracked in Hell. Lucifer had no real idea how long they’d been walking, but it certainly felt like hours. His legs were numb with exhaustion and his breaths had grown heavy. They hadn’t seen anything in the time they’d been on the move yet, which Lucifer could take as a positive sign. Running into something in the Badlands usually meant it was kill-or-be-killed time.

Mara seemed unfazed by the trip so far. She showed no signs of fatigue or exhaustion. She’d also remained relatively silent during the trek, preferring to focus on the path they took. Mostly, she tried to keep to the road. Although it meant they were more likely to possibly come across scavengers or bandits, they were less likely to run into any of the beasts that roamed out in the wild. And of those choices, the former were far preferable to the latter.

“I don’t suppose there’s much sense in asking how far we’ve got to go,” said Lucifer.

“Unfortunately not,” said Mara. “What does distance really matter in a place where time is difficult to measure? One mile or one hundred is kind of meaningless if you don’t know how long they’ll take to complete.”

“You’re not the one who has human limitations to worry about.”

There was no sun to speak of, though the temperature was hot nonetheless. Lucifer paused beside a rock formation jutting out of the ground and leaned against it.

“And on that note, mind if we give my human parts a brief respite?”

Mara stopped and surveyed the land. “We seem okay for the time being. But we shouldn’t stay here too long.”

“Thought those words didn’t mean much out here,” said Lucifer with a smirk.

Mara gave a soft chuckle herself. “Good point.”

“You know what I could really go for right about now?” said Lucifer.

“Some ice water?” asked Mara.

“That would be nice. But more than that, a car. With really powerful air conditioning,” said Lucifer. “Maybe one of those on-demand entertainment systems, too.”

“Don’t think you’re likely to find something like that out here,” said Mara.

“I suppose that’s why they call it Hell,” added Lucifer. He stopped leaning against the rock and stood upright. “I think I’m ready to go on. At least for now.”

Mara nodded and they continued walking. More silence passed between them. To Lucifer, everything looked the same. But Mara appeared to have a sense of where she was going. Lucifer couldn’t quite understand how she was capable of navigating the Badlands, but somehow she managed.

Suddenly, she stopped. Mara held her palm out towards Lucifer in a signal for him to do so as well. Lucifer did, then tried to see if there was something worth stopping for, but saw nothing. Mara remained alert, like a cat waiting for her prey to move. Hellfire forged a spear in her hands.

A sound came from above. Woomph, woomph, woomph. The volume increased. And as it did, a shadow flew past them, but was gone almost as soon as they had seen it. Lucifer’s sight tried to follow whatever it was, but proved fruitless.

“What was that?” he asked.

The sound came again, once more increasing in volume. The shadow came a second time. Mara jumped at Lucifer, pulling him with her out of harm’s way just as the shadow crashed to the ground. The pair rolled for a bit before coming to a stop. They both looked up as the dust began to settle.

It was a quadruped easily as tall as they were and about three times as long. The body had a thick coat of black fur and strong claws that dug into the earth. But lining its arms were sharp quills that also ran along its spine. The head had a mane of wild hair and its face looked like a mixture between a man and a lion. Serpentine wings flared out to the sides and its tail was like that of a scorpion’s, complete with a pointed stinger at the end. When the beast roared at them, three sets of razor-sharp teeth could clearly be seen.

“Manticore,” said Mara. “Just had to be a hell-damned manticore, didn’t it?”

The manticore lowered the front half of its body, arms curled as its tail rose in an arc and positioned right over its head. Its crimson eyes burned against the dark fur and it pounced.

Mara pulled Lucifer with her as she jumped free of the beast. “Stay back,” she said. “I’ll try to draw its attention.”

“And what happens then?” asked Lucifer.

Mara had no response for a moment. Then she shrugged and said, “To be honest, I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

The manticore roared and brought its tail down. Mara rolled away just as the stinger struck the ground. It swung the tail at her again, and Mara slapped it away with her spear. But that only seemed to anger the beast further. It dipped its head as low as possible and some of the quills along its spine fired.

Mara used a combination of dodging and ducking to avoid the projectiles while deflecting others with the spear. In her grasp, the spear changed shape. The front tip became a large weight and the staff section slackened, transforming into a rope. Mara swung the meteor hammer and hurled the heavy end at the manticore.

After it struck a blow to the face, the manticore flew into a rage and flew right at her. Mara jumped towards the beast, her own wings emerging from her back. She used them to evade his claws and threw the meteor hammer again. It changed in mid-air as it reached its destination, now becoming a lasso that the manticore’s head flew right through the center of.

Mara pulled the lasso tight and held on as the manticore