My current opponents were an incubus with similar powers to mine, and our direct opposite, a fallen angel. I had very few natural enemies, but an angel’s power was one of them. They’d been born from my own obstinance. My story had inspired conversations by the sophists. They had coined the term parrhesia, which ultimately was the argument for free will. Parrhesia meant speaking truth to power, even at the detriment to one’s own self. Angels were, above all, required to follow their God’s will. Occasionally, in the case of the fallen, they’d learned to break away from God’s will and practice their own form of parrhesia.
Crouching down, I quickly calculated my surroundings. I was physically stronger than the two Demons I was currently fighting, but I didn’t know the landscape as they did. Ravens circled in the sky above the coliseum. I was surprised by this, since we were technically inside of a building in the middle of downtown St. Louis, but maybe this was just commonplace. I noted the boulders to hide behind, and the magical traps on the field. They were likely filled with venomous snakes, if the birds were anything to go by. They were often near each other since their prey typically were the same. I wasn’t sure there was any pantheon or realm that didn’t have omens about snakes and ravens. I focused back on the two Demons and readied myself for Samael’s signal to begin thefight.
The rules were simple: no maiming, no death blows, and fighters were welcome to tap out at any time. Everything else was on the table, including the usage of any magical abilities, unless they were used to break the three simple rules. From my vantage point, there wasn’t a single spectator seat unoccupied. I wondered how long it had been since this colosseum saw any fights, or if this was a regular sport still in the Demon Faction. The crowd wasn’t just Demons, but beings from all factions, and many who I recognized from wars long past.
At the signal, the fallen angel sent out a massive blast of energy focused on neutralizing my succubus powers. I quickly moved behind the nearest boulder to avoid the attack, hoping that the blast used up most of her energy. I summonedVindicta, using the blade as a mirror to see around the boulder to where they were. The incubus was making his way toward me, bo staff in hand, leaking sexual energy like he couldn’t control himself. I pulled that energy into myself, coming out behind the boulder as soon as he reached me to lock my leg behind his knee and pull him down to the ground. He hit his head so hard that he knocked himself out, and I quickly trapped him in the dream realm, in a labyrinth that would’ve made Daedalus proud.
Quickly subduing one of the fighters left me room to focus on the fallen angel. I didn’t know her name, nor anything about her powers, and the beauty of it was that this was typically how we fought battles, so it was a perfect teaching lesson. The best way for me to overpower a fallen angel was in hand-to-hand combat. Our powers sort of cancelled each other’s out.
I let her make the first move, let her subdue my magic so that she thought she’d have a chance. I struck, getting her down on the ground and straddling her lap. When she tried to buck me off her, I pushed her shoulder down and adjusted myself, so I was straddling the side of her hip. She grunted as she struggled to prevent me from pinning her.
“Not today,” I said through gritted teeth.
She snarked back, but I was too focused on what I was doing to pay attention.
I used both hands to push her arm forward, toward the ground and closer to her neck. Before she could gain leverage from her hand on the ground, I dropped my chest behind her shoulder blade, then posted my left arm to stop her moving against me. I drove forward, pushing her body into the ground, then wrapped my arm underneath her right arm, grabbing the neck of her shirt. I snaked my other hand underneath the fallen angel’s head, grabbing the same side of her shirt as the other hand, then tucked my other arm under her knee.
Pulling back my body as I pulled her with me, I used her shirt to choke her with her own body weight. As she fought to escape the hold, she started to sag in my arm from the perfect bow and arrow choke. She tried in one more desperate attempt to lash out with her powers, but she’d already subdued my magic. I laughed as the crowd roared in applause, while the fallen angel beneath me tapped out before she went off into the dream realm.
I offered her my hand, and she took it as I said, “Nice match. I hope we meet again.”
Her lips lifted, “Same to you. I think we can learn a lot from each other. Thanks for the challenge.”
I was so focused on her that I forgot, by allowing her to subdue my powers, the incubus was released from the labyrinthine dream I’d trapped him in. Dreams could mirror reality in many ways, and often those turned into nightmares. However, one thing I’d learned over the years of having dream magic was that dreams could change, too. The energy shifted as the incubus came up from behind me, but I didn’t have enough time to get out of the way before his bo staff made contact with my hip. I imagined the immediate pain from the strike waswhat cracking a log with an ax would feel like if it were sentient. I flew in the air back down to the ground, gritting my teeth at my own grave mistake, as that same hip hit the ground like an earthquake. The ground underneath me shook, but in all likelihood, it was just the pain radiating down my leg and numbing my toes. I focused on slowing my breaths, letting the pain of the injury absorb through the rest of my body as I slowly got to my feet.
The incubus had a light in his eyes and determination evident in his posture. He knew how to fight, that was for sure. I tried not to hobble—the pain from his bo was tearing my hip apart at the joint—and focused on what I could change. It was the quickest lesson when I first learned to fight.
I once again summonedVindicta, letting its blade transform at will into the shape of a Shamshir, a long sword with a curved blade. I brought the weapon above my head, moving my weight off my injured hip as I swept the blade to the side while the incubus parried, trying to swipe my foot out from under me. I moved again, putting weight on the injured leg as I sliced down toward the incubus’s neck. He dipped backwards, avoiding the attack as he crouched and turned. I jumped over his foot as he tried to get me to the ground once more, maneuvering behind him to get him into a chokehold with the curve of my blade to his neck.
He smirked. “Nice move, Vada, but I don’t think we’re finished just yet,” he taunted. He lifted his hands between my arms, breaking my hold just enough that my blade nicked his neck, but he was able to scramble away, getting back to his feet.
We sparred for longer than I’d anticipated, and I was giddy with an actual challenge. I hadn’t encountered that yet, and it felt good to release some of my energy on finding new battle strategies—what I’d learned over the last few days, mixed with some of the Persian fighting styles and Demon styles. Inthe end, I pinned the incubus until he tapped out. We shook hands with the crowd behind us roaring. I had been so focused that I’d forgotten they were even there.
I’d learned that the incubus’s name was Nero, and he was the commander of another Demon battalion alongside Amayah. The fight with him was the most fun I’d had in a while, and we chatted about techniques and how to better train the entirety of thePaxfor a while after. My aching hip had begun to heal, and by the time we’d finished with our conversation, I could walk normally again.
Samael walked up as we were finishing up our conversation. “Vada knows her shit, right? Nero, don’t you think her experience as Asmodaeus’s second means she’s the most qualified to run this Faction?”
If looks could kill, I was certain that Samael would have died a thousand deaths. “Samael,” I said through gritted teeth.
He grinned, innocent as a cat who found a glass too close to the edge of a table. As he went into full Angel mode, full of eyes and wings and other monstrous parts, I searched for ways to stop what was coming. I wouldnotbecome the Faction’s head. It was never on the agenda for me.
“You have a point, Samael,” Nero said. “She has far greater experience than I, and I’ve been doing this a long time.”
I was seeing red. I summonedVindicta, readying to threaten Samael’s life, but he took off like a rocket, and was quickly out of my range. I turned my rage on Nero, who raised his hands and stepped back.
Helpless, I began walking off the field, determined to get out of this coliseum and find anywhere else to be, I was stopped by the two Demons Samael had been fucking days prior as Samael began to speak to the crowd.
“We’re putting it to a vote,” the crowd got quiet, focusingon Samael’s angelic appearance. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen it, but it likely was for the Demons in the crowd.
“All in favor of Vada Livinicus taking the helm of the Demon Faction, say aye,” he shouted.
I was outvoted, and the one thing I’d been trying to avoid since coming to thePaxbecame truth. I was now the leader of the Demon Faction.
Fuck.
March 31st
Iwas putting the pizza in the oven when my phone started ringing.I’m not answering that,I thought to myself as I stood up, but curiosity and annoyance had me reaching for it anyway. Everyone who knew me was aware I didn’t answer calls. However, Vada’s name was on the screen. I debated ignoring the call and asking her to text me, but I answered instead.
