Gods From the Machine (32 page)

“
This is going to mean more trouble for us,” Nick said.

“
Are you up to it? I’ve never faced a Specter before without a group of at least ten men,” Paul said.

“
Maybe there are alternatives to brute force. Are you good at riddles?” Nick said.

Nick knew a little about Specters. They were different than most demons in that they were
intangible creatures used by higher ranked demons to guard their valuables and prisons. These Specters were designed to ask difficult riddles that were impossible to solve without knowing the answer beforehand. If answered correctly, they would grant safe passage. However, an incorrect answer, then they would manifest themself physically and devour their prey as punishment.

“
I am many things: a tactician, a genius combatant, but the one thing I am not is a riddle master,” Paul said.

N
ick and Paul followed Vermeek closely. After another series of twists and turns, he stopped in front of double doors at the end of the labyrinth. However here, Vermeek stood his ground.

“
Why are you stopping now?” Paul demanded. “If you’re trying to set us up…”

A set-
up would be hard to spring on Nick as he was on full alert mode now.

“
According to our agreement, this is as far as I will take you. After this room you will be at the entrance of the main laboratory. Up ahead and behind those doors is the girl you seek,” Vermeek said.

“
That was the deal,” Nick said.

“
However, I am also seeking Doctor Numerous. Perhaps, I will go with you the rest of the way,” Vermeek said.

Behind
the steel doors an incredibly foul stench hung in the air; it, attacked their senses. Nick twisted his face in disgust. Paul pinched his nose and cupped his hand over his mouth. Vermeek happily sucked the air up his nostrils.

Paul turned to Nick.
“Ugh, what is that smell?”

“
The refuse from the deceased left by the Specter,” Vermeek said with delight.

T
he floor crunched as Nick walked past the tattered and discolored colors of former Garrison member uniforms. Curiosity took the better of him and he looked down to see the dead and rotten bodies of his allies. The odd floor feeling was due to being covered in their bones, and from the looks of it, they had been there for some time now.

“
Our brethren…used as fodder for this monster.” Paul said.

It was strange, but after the initial shock to hi
s senses, the stench no longer affected him. In fact, now that Nick had time to let it settle in, it started to give off a distinct aroma. Perhaps it was the demon inside him acting as a buffer, dulling his innate human repulsion.

However, seeing dead people spread before him was another story. Memories from the Den of Pain came back to him, and he felt an intense despair like he had never before. It was earthshattering
to know that these many fallen soldiers devoted their lives to protecting their homeland, and now they were lying in heaps underground like those hounds. Like dead dogs. They deserved better than this.

One particular corpse stood out, looking more recent than the others. The
clothing wasn’t like the others: it wore a red blazer, meant for a smaller framed body—a woman’s. Nick could just barely make out the nametag that read “Abigail,” otherwise known as Garreth’s secretary. It was painful to see how an innocent woman was mutilated and killed for merely being at the wrong place at the wrong time. She, like the rest of them must have had feelings of pure terror permanently stuck on their faces right until the end. This Specter was much more dangerous than he thought, perhaps more so than Astaroth.

“
The Specter did all this?” Nick murmured.

“
Yes, my lord. Doctor Numerous insisted the Specter be properly nourished in order to be combat-ready for you,” Vermeek said. “He had been using prisoners from both Glenhaven and Hyperion to quench the demon’s blood thirst for years, priming the Specter with strength several times its original. With the way he’s been preparing this particular Specter, I don’t even think a force of fifty Garrison knights can defeat it!”

“
This is troubling,” Paul said.

“
Let’s hurry and get this over with,” Nick said. Knowing there were bodies lying around them made standing there unbearably uncomfortable.

“
Very well, now that my promise has been fulfilled I will be taking my reward!” Vermeek screeched. The rodent demon clawed at Paul, ripping his coat pocket and stealing the Soul Eater files.

“
You—” Paul said. They chased the demon, but its speed on all three legs made it impossible for them to keep up.

They continued until they came across a giant red painted
symbol on the floor. It was hard to tell by the sheer size, but the brush strokes and general look of it appeared to represent a demon seal, more specifically the Seal of Pestilence. There was something different about the seal this time. Instead of being black, it was red, the primary marker for a summoning. And inside the outline of a skull that was melting away, as if rotting.

“
He got away…” Nick said.

“
And now we’re trapped behind this seal!” Paul stamped his foot. “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted him!”

“
How did this happen?” Nick said.

Paul lifted
his foot with red slime covering the bottom of the boot. “The Seal of Pestilence is painted in red paint here. This has to be where it was summoned.”

Nick took in a deep breath, and
shook his head. “That’s not paint.”

White smog began
to fill the room from the floor, seemingly from nowhere. It crept in slowly at first, before coming up together into a thick cloud before them. The large cloud swirled and fanned out, becoming a maelstrom that tossed the two of them to the wayside.

Nick staggered back to his feet. He stood wide-eyed as the cloud
molded itself into a monstrous shape with giant arms coming out from a rotund body. After a few minutes, the smog dissipated to reveal its true form in the shape of a large, furry feline-like demon with two giant arms that reached around them like a cage. The arms had five long, sharp claws on its ends. Where its face might be was a gaping mouth with rows of sharp teeth that seemed to run across its entire head. Nick half expected the demon to topple over with such heavy and disproportioned limbs, but the lower half of the creature floated in midair. It was indeed an apparition, but a frightful one to behold.

“
IN ORDER TO PASS YOU MUST ANSWER MY RIDDLE. IF YOU CANNOT, THE CONSEQUENCES WILL BE YOUR DEATH. ARE YOU PREPARED?” the Specter boomed, the force of which almost knocked them over again. “THOSE WHO DISOBEY THE RULES SHALL PERISH!”

Nick turned to Paul then back to the apparition.
“What is the riddle?”

“
I am a greater good than the gods, a force more destructive than the evils of sin. I am what the wealthy desire, but the poor possess. To consume me would be death. What am I?” The Specter said.

“
We only have one guess and that’s it. It will devour us if we get it wrong,” Nick said.

“
You don’t know answer?” Paul said.

“
If only Gabriel was here with us,” Nick said.

Paul closed his eyes and muttered
to himself. Nick watched as the knight was trying to make connections here and there in his head. It was like witnessing a machine or a supercomputer make calculations, trying all the algorithms in order to come to a significant conclusion.

However
, he couldn’t rely on Paul to solve this riddle nor could he rely on Agrian’s brute strength. He may have been a demon, but he was a human first and foremost and had a capable mind of his own. This was a chance to prove he was smart enough in his own right to perform in an area in which his demon side was lacking. Though he never regarded himself a genius of any sort, he wasn’t about to lose in a battle of wits with a nebulous creature.

Nick
broke down the riddle in literal form. Nick thought about a “good greater than the gods.” The possibilities were very limited. The only gods he knew in history weren’t really deities, but angels that ruled over in Sanctuary. They were the ones who created life, and in essence the demons. Demons were a “force more destructive than sin” and were the bane to the existence of people. In many ways these two were like mirrors of each other, like two sides of a coin, or black and white. Angels were the epitome of good and the demons were the greatest form of evil. There was nothing that could outmatch these two because nothing else could be so absolute.

However, what he could not grasp were the parallels between the rich and the destitute. How could a wealthy man desire something that only the poor would possess? What could be consumed but result in death? The only solution he had was the poisonous plant, Dolere Flos, but that was only because he had been
dealing with it recently.

“
I’m drawing a blank,” Paul said finally. “I’m afraid the only solution we have is going to have to engage and kill this thing.”

“
Wait a second.” Nick waved an arm to silence him.

The more he thought about the poor and the rich, the more he realized how closely related they were to good and evil. They were both also at opposite ends of the spectrum. The riddle was more or less repeating the most common truths that people knew, yet could not relate to. Humans themselves were gray and had many traits that could never put them in such simple
categories, and that was the reason why Bergice could not fathom how Nick could betray them.

Bergice was a demon, and was bound by that due to his nature. He was created as an agent of fear and molded to be the ex
act opposite of the angels Ozarael detested. And that was when it finally dawned upon Nick, how simple the answer must be.

“
Answer now, mortal,” the Specter said.

“
Nothing,” Nick said.

Paul
’s jaw dropped. “Nicholas, you fool! Don’t give up without at least even trying!”

“
I didn’t give up,” Nick said. “That is my answer, Specter. Nothing.”

The Specter made no antagonistic gesture or any move that indicated whether his answer was co
rrect. Nick’s thumping heart beat through his jacket as they waited. Maybe he was wrong, but even so it was the best he could do.

“
YOU MAY PASS,” the Specter finally said.

W
ith that the hulking demon disappeared the same way it came, into a cloud of smoke that dissipated into thin air. The seal on the floor stopped glowing as well, a sign that the effects of the summoning had worn off. Left behind from the smoke was a green keycard.

Nick picked it up, shook
the slime from it and saw that it was labeled “Plant Room.” He turned to Paul. “This keycard was put inside the Specter as some kind of prize for beating it. Another ploy by Doctor Numerous?”

“
It seems that way. The more time we spend playing as his pawns, the less time we have to stop him before he enacts his plan,” Paul said.

Now that
the Specter was gone, they were one step closer to saving Alyssa. They opened the door and entered to find two more doors with their purposes painted on in bolded, black letters. One was labeled “Plant Room” and the other was “Main Laboratory.” Nick could practically feel her in his arms once and again, and was primed and ready to finish this mission before Paul grabbed his shoulder.

“
What are you doing? Alyssa is right through these doors!” Nick said.

“
There is something hidden in this Plant Room, Nicholas. I can feel it,” Paul said.

“
I don’t care! We’re too close to get distracted now.”

“
I didn’t think you were dumb enough to fall for another trap. Something isn’t right with this. Somehow I don’t think Doctor Numerous gave us as a keycard as a reward,” Paul said.

“
I know rats, and I know that rat lied to us. Vermeek knew much more than he led on. Why didn’t he mention a plant room?”

“
He was a lesser demon. A flunky.  He probably wasn’t given any information,” Nick said.

“
Look, Graves said he created the labyrinth to conceal his own private Garrison. Up to this point he made a pretty good imitation of all the rooms—except for this Plant Room. In all my years I’ve never heard of such a thing. For whatever reason, it must have been Doctor Numerous who designated this room for a purpose not related to the Garrison. Combined with the fact that this room also has keycard entry only suggests it is something of great importance—like that Soul Eater Project,” Paul said.

Nick
faced the main laboratory and then to the Plant Room. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“
In most circumstances I would agree with you, but we can’t pass up this opportunity especially if it is also possibly related to his plan. As knights we have an obligation to investigate strange occurrences and this one seems the strangest of them all. I think we should check it out.”