Lucifer's Odyssey

  ***

  Lucifer rammed his wings into planetoids as he circled the Order jet and traced it through Chaos. Behind him, his uncle and brother grappled with other space objects and kept their distance. Symbolism and convention were just as important to demons as acts themselves, and wherever Lucifer went now, he needed to be at the front.

  Ahead of them, the deflector loomed larger than life, and in front and to the sides of that monolithic structure lounged the troops of the Third Legion.

  Lucifer stopped just out of striker range and ordered Batarel and Sariel forward.

  The two wizards blinked out of sight and then reappeared fifty feet from the army. Sariel twirled his daggers as he paced in front of them, but it was the calm, imposing form of Batarel that drew the most apprehensive glances.

  Batarel crossed his arms and scanned the gathering demons inside the atmosphere bubble that had been constructed around the deflector.

  “The prophet Lucifer will now destroy the jet,” he said.

  Lucifer wing-walked across asteroids and chunks of ice toward the beam.

  An officer of the Third Legion stepped forward. “The combined powers of the Council couldn’t stop that thing. We’re all doomed.”

  “I am not the Council,” Lucifer projected his voice into their minds.

  He raised a magical barrier, grasped the pen tightly, and lifted himself into the stream. The jet wrapped around his shield and continued to bounce off the deflector.

  “No!” the officer cried as he dropped to his knees.

  Lucifer turned around so that they could see his face and expanded the shield. The beam trickled across the deflector and then bounced off his three-hundred-foot-wide transparent shield instead.

  “Fear not,” he told them.

  The officer came to his feet, and the demons filed in between Batarel and Sariel.

  Sariel sheathed his daggers and shrugged at his uncle. “It’s like we’re chopped liver or something.”

  Lucifer twisted with his wings and faced the jet’s onslaught. He dug his tendrils into a barren, crumbling moon and snarled as he pressed the pen’s head through the shield and clicked the black button.

  Inside the artificial atmosphere bubble, the winds picked up and tossed demons around. Batarel and Sariel shielded and drove their wings into the monolith, and the shielders and strikers of the Third Legion followed suit until they had proper footing to try to pursue Lucifer again.

  As the voiding mode increased its suction, the jet’s disappearing act accelerated, and Lucifer punched his wings into asteroids and space junk to build his own momentum to follow in step with the retreating energy beam. As his velocity increased, small eddies of pure energy leaked past the pen and streamed off the shield.

  The demons of the Third Legion followed behind him, cheering him on, but Lucifer used a small magical push that Batarel had taught him to continue his acceleration far past the speed of light without using his wings. The Third Legion decelerated to a stop and the last Lucifer saw of the army commander was a smile.

  Lucifer streaked across the universe, until he returned to the barrier between Order and Chaos.

  Slow down, the pattern said. But keep the voiding mode enabled. Jehovah will have to close off the Order pattern or he will lose everything.

  “How will I know when he’s closed the jet’s source?”

  The pattern chuckled. Should happen any moment now.

  Lucifer kept the pen pointed at the white, retreating light and squinted as the beam grew fainter. The light blinked and then went out.

  “That’s it?”

  The pattern cackled maniacally.

  “What’s going on? Is he saying something?”

  Press yourself through the barrier and into Order. Shouldn’t need to be deeper than your ears.

  Lucifer reset the black button and enabled the safety before putting it back into his pocket.

  The pattern giggled, and Lucifer felt its happiness course over him.

  “What are you so giddy about?”

  You’ll hear soon enough.

  As he approached the porous barrier, a soft buzzing sound greeted him. He pushed his head through the membrane, and a high-pitched siren forced him to plug his ears with his fingers. He yanked himself back into Chaos and shook his head until the buzzing faded.

  “What the hell is that?”

  Jehovah screaming.

  Lucifer smiled and returned his head through the membrane. He closed his eyes as the screams of Anne’s real killer echoed inside his skull. He imagined Anne’s head nuzzling into his chest and ran a hand through her ghostly red hair.

  First of many victories, the pattern said. Now, get back to Alurabum. Your second miracle awaits.