Nothing is ever easy. I never made it to Ron Gardener's apartment. While we were stopped at a red light we were rear-ended an some fanatic got out of the offending car yelling something about me (he addressed me by name) being judged. I'd had just about enough of being judged. I leapt from my car and promptly struck him down with Soulpiercer. Symphony disturbance washed over me like a wave. I thought I had just killed a soldier but the crippled Impudite that was following us yelled something about a Shedite.
Things had just gotten a lot more complicated. I had heard of Shedites with their powers to possess humans, but I had little experience in dealing with them. Of course the Impudite could offer no suggestions on how to combat them. As I scanned the situation there appeared to be two vehicles now making their way towards us. My guess was that one Shedite must be a Dominican of sorts, but the other might be the nightmares Shedim who had inhabited Blood Knife Joe. There was no time to solve that puzzle now. I had to get moving. Maybe I could just out run them.
Even disregarding safety in favor of speed I was unable to shake them. If they fell too far behind they'd just jump to a new host and continue the chase. I asked Karen if she could drive. She was dubious of her abilities, but at least understood cars. I had her take the wheel while I climbed out to the trunk to handle these demons hand-to-hand. I crouched until one of the cars came close. Then I pounced onto it, smashing through the windshield with my shoulder. The old lady who was driving panicked and wiped out. It was clear the Shedite had left. I tried to convince her I needed to borrow her car, but she accosted my with her handbag, so I left.
The car behind us tried to run me down. These Shedim are persistent if not crafty. I was easily able to crash my fists through the windshield and feint the Shedim out of the body. The man cringed and begged not to be hurt. I had no intention of hurting him. I set him down in the passenger seat and took control of the vehicle. As we drove the man tried to give me his money and watch, but I refused him. I told him to call the police and alert them to our location and have them send paramedics. Confused and scared, he did as I asked.
Soon I came upon two businessmen holding Karen at knifepoint near our recently won car. I parked and sneaked up on the scene. No one noticed me until I was close enough to attack them both. Alas, the element of surprise foiled me again. Perhaps this was Laurence's way of guiding me towards more honorable methods of attack. The mighty swing did clip my second target, and even this minor blow was enough to finish off the invading Shedite. The second demon took this chance to try to possess me. Ha ha! His information about my mental weaknesses was out of date. I fended him off with centuries of solid memories of identity. The coward then possessed Karen. Poor Karen wasn't able resist. She drew the knife I gave her and tried to stab me. It was a purely amateur move. I caught her wrist, pulled her off balance and slammed the hilt of my sword squarely into her forehead. This knocked her out (and left a terrible lump).
Sirens were drawing near. I yelled at the Impudite to handle the police. Hopefully that would get him off my back. I had to get Karen to a tether before she woke up. I tossed my jacket over her head and wrapped it with my belt so the Shedite couldn't jump if she woke up. My mind raced as I carried her to the car. Where could I take her? The Epiphany of Our Lord Church was out of the question. It would be surrounded by Dominicans. I couldn't take her to the greenhouse, that just wouldn't be fair to Emma. Now the War Memorial, that had merit. Servitors of Michael would understand the situation. Alas, when I arrived the place was crawling with military personnel. The only other tether I could think of was the National Gallery of Art.
Things were OK at first. I got a lot of strange looks, carrying an injured lady with her head covered by a jacket, but I was soon approached by someone who claimed to be the seneschal. He brought me down to the basement. My luck was truly bad this day. I stood on the second to last stair surrounded by dozens of cloaked celestials. The 'seneschal' chose then to utter the worn out phrase "You have been Judged." I would have liked nothing more to stand my ground there and rip them all to celestial shreds with Soulpiercer, but I had Karen to worry about. I had to escape and get her to a tether. There were only two behind me on the stairs. It would be simple to disable them. They attacked me with metal clubs, but they could not connect even though I was on a small staircase and had Karen's weight to account for in my maneuvers. I dealt one of them a crippling blow while I steeled my mind against the assault of mental attacks from below. Foolishly I forgot about the 'seneschal'. He was able to reduce me to a state of apathy. My shoulders slumped. The escape was pointless. I didn't even care when the clubs landed in an attempt to knock me out. Eventually I just gave out, passing out on my own.
I was no longer in the basement of the National Gallery of Art. Cloaked figures stood all around me, but none were really paying me any attention. I figured that since I couldn't break the chains I might be able to free myself if I could get a hand free. The chains might be unbreakable, but my hand wasn't. With a mighty tug I ripped my left hand out of the cuff. I tore off a lot of skin and dislocated my thumb and forefinger, but it wasn't anything a quick song of healing wouldn't fix. Unfortunately the song alerted my captors to my activities. Just my luck Kezef himself turned to deal with me. He did the standard villain gloating thing explaining to me that mine were the last forces he needed to become a Demon Prince. Then he made a minor mistake. He leaned in grab my wrist and re-cuff my hand. I searched his person and my immediate area for some weapon with which I could quickly kill myself, but nothing of the sort was around. I easily eluded his grasp and almost reflexively tagged him across the jaw with a sweeping left hook. It was a fleeting moment of moral victory. He soon employed some song of motion to immobilize my arm and chain me up again. I waited, hoping someone would pass by with a weapon close enough for me to try my hand-freeing trick so I could deprive him of my forces.
Time ticked by and they began some kind of ritual. I could feel the
infernal device go into action. I started to feel very dislocated as
if I were being drugged, but it got worse. I actually start to
flicker and flow. Don't ask me to explain exactly what was going on,
but it felt as if the only things holding me together was the infernal
device and the collars. It seemed pretty bleak, not just for me, but
for our hopes of stopping Kezef. I thought about trying to summon
Laurence. Had Malcolm told Laurence about Kezef's whereabouts? If he
had something would be done, but when? I felt I had to hold out. If
it came down to the zero hour I would have to summon Laurence or it
would be too late to stop Kezef from becoming a Demon Prince. It was
a hard decision, but when the time came and I could feel myself
merging with Kezef I tried to summon Laurence with the message
"If it is too dangerous do not come."
I felt the connection, but Laurence did not arrive. I sighed and
prepared for the end.
The end did not come. Instead Malcolm burst into the room leading a small force of fire servitors. Fighting ensued. I could feel my forces coalesce a bit. Malcolm smote Kezef, but sadly this did not deter Kezef much. Soon his forces had the upper hand. Malcolm was immobilized. Kezef was moving on to some sort of summoning stage. Maybe he wasn't going to suck up my forces after all. Was this his fatal mistake? Seems like a major oversight, but then again I wasn't thinking too clearly, so maybe it made sense to the rational ones there. Kezef called forth Lucifer himself...
Or so he thought!
Instead Dominic stepped through a portal. With a wave and much pyrotechnics Dominic began to shred Kezef's forces. He ripped him limb from limb and stomped the resulting imps, grinding them beneath his heel. All the while I was still stuck in the pesky infernal device, but Malcolm was now free of Kezef's song. He rushed over to free me. I still felt very disconnected. I couldn't smell anything and my vision was blurry and shaded violet. I could barely think. He burnt away strategic parts of the infernal device, but left the collars on me, figuring they were all that held me together. We ran for the door, but Dominic slammed it. and told us we were not leaving just yet.
I gathered a myself and knelt before him (which seemed to please him). I asked him what had gone wrong? How had he come to this? He was puzzled. He felt there was nothing wrong with him. I'm not sure he thought he was fallen. I still had respect for the former Archangel of Judgment. His former deeds had been honorable. I asked him to submit himself before God and Heaven so that he could be as before. But Dominic did not have time to dismiss the idea. Through the door strode Raphael.
I thought I'd seen it all, but there were still more surprises. Dominic addressed Raphael as Lord Kobal.
A moment later Malcolm summoned Gabriel. Gabriel screamed "Heretic!" at Dominic and his cloak burst into flames. I don't think she even saw Raphael. Raphael offer to get us out of there. I asked him if we could pick up Soulpiercer first and he did. In the meantime I nearly fried. The room was quickly becoming an oven. But Raphael grabs us in the nick of time and whisked us off to Heaven.
Once in the Groves I thanked Raphael for all his help and asked what I could do in return. He asked me not to tell anyone what I'd seen just now. By that I'm sure he meant that Dominic called him Kobal, which I suspect he was. I gave him my word.