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  Annihilation

  The Demon Gate Chronicles: Book 3

  By S. C. Mitchell

  Table of Contents

  Prelude

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Interlude 1

  Chapter 8

  Interlude 2

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Postlude

  Bio: Adventure in Fantastic Worlds.

  Also by S. C. Mitchell

  Son of Thunder – Heavenly War: Book 1

  Daughter of Darkness – Heavenly War: Book 2

  The Blarmling Dilemma – Hearts in Orbit: Book 1

  Pirates of the Dark Nebula – Hearts in Orbit: Book 2

  Between Venus and Mars – Hearts in Orbit book 2.5

  Captives of the Kratzen – Hearts in Orbit: Book 3

  Z-Bot – Xi Force: Book 1

  Phaze – Xi Force: Book 2

  Wylde – Xi Force: Book 3

  Triptych – Xi Force: Book 4

  Awakening – Demon Gate Chronicles: Book 1

  Alliance – Demon Gate Chronicles: Book 2

  Text copyright © 2012 & 2019 by S. C. Mitchell

  All rights reserved. Published by Lake Scrawls Publishing. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic of mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. All resemblances to real people are purely accidental or used fictitiously and are a result of the author’s imagination.

  This book is dedicated with much thanks to

  Mark & Louise

  for their unwavering support.

  Acknowledgments

  I’d like to thank my incredible group of beta readers. Jen, Louise, Mark, Don, Eve, Michele and Kate. I’d also like to thank the Wisconsin Romance Writers of America (Wausau branch) and the Writers Voice writers group. Words cannot express how much I appreciate your input, feedback and support.

  * * *

  First Edition*

  *This book is a re-edit of a previously published book by the name Seeds of Immortality. The book has been updated and some elements changed, but the story is essentially the same.

  Annihilation

  The Demon Gate Chronicles: Book 3

  Prelude

  The man-god, Nathan Gray, felt the drain on his energy trickle to a stop. It was done. He was exhausted, but he would now be able to recover his strength.

  Nine months ago, when he’d implanted his Seed of Immortality in the Templar Knight, Geoffrey le Courte, the situation on the world of Ballor had been desperate. It still was. He faced the entrenched demon-god, Shoth, his Ballor lords, and their legions of lesser demons.

  Nathan’s stalwart band of human worshipers had been unwavering. They’d persevered and continued to fight with no power from him. Their faith had kept Nathan strong and safe, and because of that, they would have a new and powerful weapon in their struggle to free this demon infested world.

  The Seed of Immortality had passed from Geoffrey to Kelly Grant, and now resided in the babe she carried, fully formed and ready for birthing. It would be a child of great power—a demigod. The babe, just days from being born, was the edge they needed to push ahead with their struggle on Ballor. But there had been a risk, and a price to pay.

  The act of implanting his Seed had greatly weakened Nathan, leaving him unable to send magical aid to his followers. Had Shoth made a concerted effort against them, they’d have had to rely on swords, bows, and clubs for their defense.

  Weak as a kitten, Nathan had hidden as best he could, trusting Geoffrey and Kelly to lead the human rebellion and continue its growth without his aid. And they had. The population of freed humans on Ballor continued to swell. His worship grew with each day that passed. But that worship, that power, had gone to the child. Now that the babe was fully formed and approached birth, Nathan’s strength slowly began to return. The power of his worshipers once again funneled into him.

  It had been a risky move, but Shoth seemed to have his focus elsewhere. The timing felt right. It had been a risk Nathan was willing to take for the sake of the human rebellion he was fostering here in the demon realm. Nathan thanked whatever distraction had kept the demon-god occupied the past nine months.

  As Nathan Gray lay back, he felt a rumble from the other side of the cosmic doorway—the doorway leading to the realm of Earth. Something climactic was happening there. The door was locked, he couldn’t return, for he’d no believers in that dimension. Worship wasn’t something he’d ever sought in his parent’s realm. It was bad enough they’d fought each other for Earth’s believers.

  And after a millennium of fighting each other, his parents seemed on the path to reconciliation. There was still much to do in their war with the invading demon-goddess, Shimone. However, Nathan had left them united and in a good position to defeat and expel the goddess and her demons from Earth’s realm.

  What he felt now chilled him to the bone. His parents had sown their Seeds of Immortality—both of them. It was an unexpected and unprecedented move from Gaia and the High Lord. Could the state of affairs on Earth have become that desperate?

  He’d been gone from Earth less than a year. When he’d left, the situation had been stable; his parents held the high ground in their battle with Shoth’s daughter, Shimone. What had changed?

  Still the door was locked to him, the way back barred. Whatever it was, his parents would have to deal with it.

  The Ballor Lords fight each other, in their own realm and here in ours. They feel the rivalry makes them stronger. Perhaps, they are right. – Sigmund Fitch, 19th century Templar historian.

  Chapter 1

  Where were the fucking templars?

  Salina Frye gritted her teeth as she battled her way forward into the massive chamber filled with demons.

  The Templars were supposed to meet them here. The strike had been set; the timing crucial. But the templar force hadn’t shown, and the Arcanists were forced to attack on their own or lose this critical opportunity.

  The unexpected swipe of the Drogga demon’s massive arm threw Salina across the room and into a curio cabinet, knocking her senseless. As the coppery taste of blood seeped down the back of her throat, she gagged and struggled to see past the starbursts and haze clouding her vision. The distinctive tang of sulfur and ozone clogged her senses. The air crackled with arcane energy.

  She shook her head, trying to clear the fog. A painful spasm shot across her lower back. She’d probably be a wreck for the next few days, if she survived this battle at all.

  Fierce fighting filled the room around her. The mansion that served as the demon’s compound was extensive, but the Arcanists hadn’t encountered much resistance until they’d entered this large, living area. The chamber was the size of a high school gymnasium and filled with an assortment of plush couches and chairs. The demons had been lounging, unaware of the invasion, until the Arcanists entered. However, it had taken the creatures no time at all to mobilize and attack.

  Salina’s head spun and pain wracked her body. She knew she had to get back on her feet and defend herself. Lying here helpless would only get her killed.

  The shadow of a hand, a human hand, waved in front of her face offering help. Salina grasped it. Strong, callused fingers wrapped around her
wrist and pulled her to her feet. Her vision cleared and she found herself staring into deep brown eyes and an expression that smoldered with sensuality. It took her a moment to recognize the handsome features belonged to Ryan Chamberlain.

  Gaaa…of all people!

  “Are you okay?” There was concern in Ryan’s voice, but the commotion next to them drew his attention away from her. He raised his Barrett REC7 assault rifle and sprayed a hail of bullets into a descending Falgolite demon. The creature’s flame-red eyes widened and its fanged mouth, dripping with saliva, let out a high-pitched screech. As bullets riddled its leathery hide, the ebony demon’s bat-like wings folded and it dropped like a rock, flopping to the floor at Ryan’s feet.

  “I’m fine.” Salina moved away from the man. A shooting pain in her side made her grimace. She wasn’t fine, but Ryan didn’t have to know. He probably hadn’t even heard her over the barrage of gunfire erupting around them. Hell, he probably didn’t care anyway.

  Damned Templar!

  As the haze cleared from her brain, Salina noted the black-clad force of gun-wielding men and women blasting its way into the large room, taking down the demon horde in droves. The Templar force had finally arrived.

  It’s about freakin’ time!

  Whatever had delayed the Templars, put Salina and her Arcanists in danger of being overrun and wiped out by the attacking demons. Not that she trusted the Templars in the least, but she had to thank the goddess they were here now.

  Still, she wondered. Had the Templar’s delay been on purpose? Salina counted three of her Arcanist companions lying in crumpled heaps on the floor. How many friends would she lose today?

  She pulled mystic energy from a nearby power pool and flung an arcane bolt at the big Drogga demon dominating the center of the room. Droggas resembled grossly overweight, bald-headed humans. Some towered over eight-feet tall when not shrouded by illusion. The massive creatures had pale gray skin, giving them a death-like pallor.

  The energy beam shot from Salina’s palm and burned a hole straight through the creature’s chest, but it didn’t go down right away. Drogga were powerful creatures, but quite stupid. This one seemed too dumb to realize it was already dead. It continued swinging its great arms even as it slumped to the ground. Green ichor oozed from its wounds, puddling on the floor beneath it.

  Off to her right, a Falgolite was picking up one of the fallen Arcanists. Salina recognized the limp body as that of her friend, Kim Wakefield. She’d seen the girl go down and had feared the worst. Salina had been fighting her way toward Kim when the Drogga’s blow flung her across the room. If a Falgolite was bothering with the body, it meant Kim was probably still alive.

  “Oh no you don’t, bastard.”

  Salina drew on the last of her energy, throwing everything she had into a tight beam toward the creature. There was a sizzling sound as the attack caught the demon under its chin, then blasted off the back of its head.

  With the help of the Templar force, the surviving Arcanists managed to take down most of the demons in the room, pushing the remaining creatures through the back exit. The sounds of battle reverberated in the hallways around her, as Salina made her way toward her fallen friend.

  “Come on Kimie, don’t you dare die on me.” She pulled her friend’s head into her lap as she checked the young woman for wounds.

  Kim’s chest rose and fell—she was breathing. Grasping at Kim’s wrist, Salina located a strong pulse. The telling wound was the red welt on Kim’s right leg—an obvious sign of a Kolthas sting. Thankfully, Kim was only unconscious from venom injected into her system by a Kolthas demon. She’d be out for hours, but should recover fully, provided she was cared for.

  The sound of gunfire got softer as the battle moved away from her present location, deeper into the compound. Relief flooded her as she gently laid Kim’s head down on the floor and went to check on the others. Stacey Hanson was also unconscious with a huge lump on the back of her head. Blood flowed freely from a ragged tare along her upper right arm. Salina feared the young woman would bleed out and used healing energy, draining power from her own life-force to staunch the flow of blood and stabilize the wound.

  On the other side of the room, Stacy’s brother, John, lay face down. Salina rolled him over but knew the young man was dead when she saw the pool of drying blood under him and the gaping wound across his stomach. Clawed hands, probably a Whargan demon, had ripped him open. A tear slid down her cheek. Stacey would be devastated; he was her younger brother, only twenty years old. It was a tragic loss.

  And more than likely, there would be others. It shouldn’t have been like this. Why had the Templars arrived so late?

  “Miss Frye?” Ryan Chamberlain’s voice cut through her grief like a jagged blade.

  She turned to confront the Templar Knight’s leader. He was tall, well over six feet. Salina had to look up from his expansive chest and shoulders to look him in the eye. Though he stood at ease, his dark visage reflected tension.

  “Where the hell were you?” Salina shook with rage. Fisting her hands at her hips, she glared at him.

  This should have been an easy hit. It was one of the smaller demon dens—only one demon lord, his lady, and fewer than fifty lesser demons. If the Templars had only arrived when they’d said they would, attacked when they should have, John would probably be alive. “We trusted you and you let us die.”

  “We were given the wrong address…from one of your people.” Ryan said it softly, but he was unrepentant. The Templars were always this way. Things were never their fault. Only other people made mistakes, not the high and mighty Templar Knights.

  “Oh? It wasn’t that you read it wrong? Or maybe purposefully misinterpreted it?” She wasn’t letting him off the hook that easy.

  Ryan’s tone was conciliatory but firm. “Salina, our war is over. We’re working together now. I can assure you, we received the wrong information. And I plan to launch a full investigation as soon as I get back to headquarters.”

  His face was stern, unemotional, but Salina was not deceived. Three thousand years of distrust was not wiped out in a few months. The Arcanists and the Templars were not working together.

  Salina pointed at John Hanson’s body. “This is what working with you gets us!”

  Ryan shrugged. “We did what we could. As soon as we realized we were at the wrong place, we checked in and were given the right address. We got here as quickly as we could.”

  Rage threatened to boil over. It was a mistake working with these egomaniacal idiots. Ryan Chamberlain was the worst of the lot, no matter how good looking he was…and, damn it, he was good looking. Salina hated that she noticed.

  A soft voice interrupted her thoughts.

  “He’s right, Salina.” Joyce ‘JJ’ Jorgens joined them. “The mix-up appears to have been on our end.” The usually bright and sassy old woman looked tired and drawn. The past few months had aged her as she’d taken the reigns of the crippled Arcanist organization. JJ looked sadly down at the body of John Hanson. “It was probably just an honest mistake, but it was a costly one.”

  John, and who knew how many others, dead because of a mistake? A fucking clerical error?

  JJ placed her hand on Salina’s shoulder. Strong eyes captured her gaze. “I sent Ryan to find you because I want you both to see something. You must set your grief and rage aside for the moment. This may be important.”

  A Templar healer team came into the chamber to treat the wounded. They draped a white sheet over John’s body, as Salina followed JJ and Ryan out of the room. She passed four more shrouded corpses on her way through the compound. There would be more pain, more loss, but she resisted the urge to pull back the sheets and view their faces. She wasn’t ready to know which of her friends she’d never see again.

  She almost ran into Ryan’s back when the Templar stopped short.

  “What is it?” Ryan’s voice had a deep, rich tone that instantly commanded attention. Salina looked around him at the device hanging on th
e wall in front of Ryan and JJ. It resembled a mirror with a rich golden frame, ornately cast and intricately tooled, but the surface of the mirror did not reflect. Instead, colors swirled within, like in Salina’s crystal ball when she enchanted it to view a past event.

  “They called it a shimmer.” The man who spoke was rail thin and wrapped in a blanket. “I was not allowed near it, even when I cleaned this room, but I saw the demon lord use it once to talk with another demon lord.”

  The Ballor captured humans and pressed them into slavery. They were worked hard and fed little. Most died within a year of capture. This man must have been a house slave and seen the device working.

  Ryan turned toward Salina. “We’ve found these before, but they’ve always been shattered, broken. I thought they were just ornate mirrors.”

  So, the Templars weren’t infallible.

  “We’ve also never recovered one of these in working order,” JJ affirmed.

  Rumors of a demon device which could communicate between the dimensions to the creatures’ home world had circulated for the past hundred years. Technology brought over in the last great crossing, from the demon dimension.

  JJ pulled the former slave aside to question him, but Ryan and Salina continued to stare at the shimmer. The whole thing pulsed with energy. Not the arcane green energy of Gaia or the bright white light of the High Lord. This was blood red—pure demonic energy. Salina had never encountered it in its raw form. A chill crept up her spine.

  “A shimmer,” Ryan said as he reached out to touch the frame. Salina saw the device’s aura intensify and swirl ominously. It was going to attack. She should probably warn the Templar.

  With a vicious explosion of power, Ryan was thrown back away from the device, shattering the small coffee table he landed on.

  Salina felt the corner of her mouth pull up into a satisfying smirk as he struggled to stand back up. At least there seemed to be a little justice left in the world.