Trialled by Reapers Read online

  Trialled by Reapers

  The Purgatorium Saga - Book 5

  Amy Starr

  Copyright © 2020 Amy Starr

  All rights reserved

  Contents

  Trialled by Reapers

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  The Next Adventure

  Ascended to Heaven

  ✽✽✽

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  Prologue

  The dark cavern stood on the lonely plateau like a memorial to great kings. Small and scrawny demons crawled up the cliffs or flew with tattered wings into the cave’s gaping mouth. Scattered all over the floor of the grotto were a range of material objects. This included golden coins from the age of the roman empire, letters of admiration and love written in language unknown to humans and piles of shiny jewels and treasures.

  Deep within the cavern, the lesser demons crowded around huge amethyst-like crystalline structures. Huge pillars of salt encrusted each crystal, preventing the demons from getting too close. Some of the little imps were crying, others were flinging themselves onto the floor in front of their masters.

  One figure, however, towered above these small followers of demonic entities. It had the form of a hunched over old man, holding a stick in one hand to support its frail body. The ancient demon glared at the four figures suspended in the pillars. One of the dark shadows depicted a giant insect, its leg curled inward as if it had died long ago. Another had the form of a large and bulky monster covered in jagged spikes. The third looked suspiciously human if not for the tongue that lolled out of its mouth like a hissing snake. The final figure was a small ball of blackness that had the resemblance of a black hole.

  “Look at you, my foolish brothers.” The figure muttered in a dry voice that sounded as though it had not spoken in decades. “You went too hard and fell due to your vices. What would our father say? Absolutely pathetic. He would be ashamed of every single one of you.”

  The old demon sighed as one of the lesser demons approached it on tiptoes.

  “Prince Belphegor, we’ve tried all we can. The salt barrier is too strong for us to crack. If we try any harder, we risk the lives of all demonkind who live here. A few of the more powerful entities are trying to make contact with your mortal worshippers, but it has been tricky. The veil is not as thin as it used to be.”

  Belphegor turned its watery gaze out of the cavern. In the distance, he saw figures moving on the plains. Even from this distance he could tell that three out of four of them were not demons. Before he could comprehend what was going on, they were gone through a door.

  The smaller demon’s eyes widened. “Those were the mortals and the banished reaper, with Sugrat.”

  The lesser demon spat on the ground in disgust. “Traitor to demonkind. Should I send a battalion out to find them?”

  Belphegor closed its eyes. In the demon’s mind sanctuary, it came up with a plan. “No. Bala, tell Asmodeus to guard the entrances. I am going after the demon hunter.”

  Bala let out an uneasy chuckle.

  “Sir, with all due respect, you and Asmodeus are all that is standing between us and a raid from upstairs. If we lose another demon prince, we will not know what to do.”

  Without pausing, Belphegor placed his gnarled hand onto the smaller demon’s head. Bala’s body froze up, its eyes growing glassy and wide. The demon prince brought the lesser demon close to his mouth and he muttered something. Seconds later, he released Bala. The imp shook its head and stood up straight.

  “My prince, your journey shall be difficult. Let me gather your tools.”

  Bala marched away as Belphegor looked on with a tight frown.

  Chapter One

  Hudson was fuming. The moment they had entered the reapers’ portal, he and Poppy had been led to a small blank room. Not just lightly furnished or a room with a minimalist aesthetic. It was completely blank. The walls, ceiling and floor were a plain white colour that hurt his eyes to look at.

  The reaper who had brought them there had told them to stay put. It had placed a golden hourglass on the ground with them. Black sand ran from the top half of the hourglass to the bottom half.

  “When the sand reaches the bottom, we will come back to interview you.”

  After saying that, the hooded figure had floated through a wall. That had been at least an hour or two ago, and Hud was getting fed up. The sand had barely moved in the hourglass. He wondered if it even moved at all.

  “What’s the point in all of this? We agreed to help that…that reaper, and what for?” Hudson grunted, holding the tome close to his body. Thankfully, the reapers did not seem too bothered about confiscating their belongings.

  Poppy shook her head. “I don’t know, I thought we’d be able to find Emma-Lee in the black sea.”

  She gazed around the room, squinting in the light that somehow came from all directions of the room, despite there being no light source. “This looks nothing like the Purgatorium.”

  Hudson agreed with the psychic. It felt like they were stuck inside a mental institute he had seen in a horror movie. There wasn’t any windows for them to peer out of. The reaper had entered and exited thanks to the portal it could summon with its shining scythe.

  Seemingly going stir crazy, Poppy had started pacing the room and pressing her hand against the wall. Now that they were alone, Hud could not help but think everything over.

  “Uh, Poppy?”

  “Yeah?”

  Hud took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He had no idea why this was making him feel so anxious. He had fought demons yet talking about his feelings for Poppy made his legs shake. “I know that we’re in the middle of…all of this, but I feel like I need to say something-”

  Poppy turned to face him, raising an eyebrow playfully. “Are you asking me out?”

  Hud let out a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his head. “Well I mean, you were the one who kissed me.”

  He failed to mention the fact that they both thought the psychic was going to die.

  The psychic came up to Hud and stood a pace away from him. “You got a point there, I suppose. Tell you what, when we finally get out of this place, we can talk about it.”

  She gave him a teasing smile that made Hudson’s body tingle as if he were a middle schooler asking a girl out to the movies. Getting up on his feet, he also began to feel the wall, looking for an exit along with Poppy.

  “Hud, come check this out.”

  Poppy gestured to one of the walls and Hudson inspected it. There was a strange shimmer to the otherwise blank wall. She pulled her fingers along its surface, and they went through it as if it were made of smoke.

  “That was definitely not like that before.” Hud murmured, staring at the strange glistening wall.

  He stood in front of Poppy and, hesitating slightly, stuck his arm in. He winced, preparing for something to bite it off or burn it. Nothing happened. He gave the psychic a glance and she nodded her head. They did not have anything to lose.

  “I’ll go in first.”

  Without thinking too much, Hud leapt through the gleaming mist that made up the wall. The scene that met his gaze on the other side made him blink in surprise. He was in a hallway as empty as the room they had been in. Well, it was almost empty, except for the three reaper cloaks that littered the ground. He jumped back almost instinctively, but then he realized that the cloaks were empt
y.

  He thought back to the reaper that he and Poppy had destroyed back in the real world. Had something similar happened to these hooded figures?

  “Hud, what’s going on?” He heard Poppy murmur to him.

  “Come and take a look for yourself.”

  Poppy phased through the wall, her eyes widening as she saw what remained of the reapers.

  “What happened here?”

  Before Hud could answer, he felt the tome began to glow warmly in his arms. Seconds later, a large hulking figure rounded the corner of the hall and began skittering towards them. It had muddy green scales all along its crocodilian body. Its tiny beady eyes glared directly at the two of them and it released a loud and terribly angry hiss as it closed in on them.

  Hudson instinctively stuck his hand into his small bag and threw a salt bomb into the reptilian creature’s eyes. Despite this attack, the monster did not stop scuttling towards them. With a gigantic leap, the creature was on top of Hudson.

  Chapter Two

  Poppy held a salt bomb in her hand, ready to lob it at the monster. Without warning, a long spear shot through the wall of the hallway. She leapt back, narrowly avoiding getting her cheek slashed by it. The spear pierced through the creature’s body. The crocodilian demon let out a pained roar and rolled to its side, writhing in pain. Hud scuffled back, staring at the dying demon in shock.

  A tall woman in a black overcoat stepped out of the wall after the spear, watching at the creature stopped squirming. Once it was over, she approached Hud and offered a hand to him. Hudson gave her a suspicious glare before standing up on his own. The Demotome was still glowing under his arm.

  When Poppy saw the figure’s face, her hand lowered slightly, but she was still on her guard. The mysterious woman was young, and she shoulder-length short black hair and light green eyes. The lady was a little taller than Poppy and had a noticeable hourglass figure.

  She held her hands up and chuckled again, looking at the salt bomb in Poppy’s hand.

  “You don’t need to waste your ammo on me. Look.”

  The woman pulled a necklace out from under her coat and showed it to Poppy and Hud. It depicted the red hand holding the bristled stick. Hud walked close to the stranger, his eyes wide.

  “You’re a demon hunter?”

  The woman gave a small nod.

  “You bet I am. Morgana Smith, one of the last descendants of the Pact.”

  She held her hand out and Hud took it and gave it a firm shake. Poppy frowned. This all seemed a bit strange.

  “What are you doing here, and what happened to all of these reapers?” Poppy asked. “And why is Hud’s book still glowing?”

  Morgana sighed and put her hands on her hips. “Demons. They are all over this damned place. They keep destroying reapers.”

  She kicked the body of the fallen demon in front of her.

  “I’ve taken a few out, like this one. Quite a lot. I’ve been stuck here for about…what, twelve years?”

  Poppy and Hud glanced at each other with wide eyes, causing Morgana to laugh. “I’m not pulling your leg, I swear. I was sent on a mission from the Northern Base and I got into a sticky situation.”

  “The Northern Base?”

  Morgana nodded. “The Northern Base of the Pact. You haven’t heard of us?”

  Hudson and Poppy shook their heads and Morgana chuckled.

  “You’re newbies, I assume. Well, demons are sneaky, as I am sure you’re aware. I’ve been investigating their infiltration into the reaper ranks. Unfortunately, I’ve gotten trapped in here.”

  “For twelve years?” Hudson asked, sounding slightly sceptical. “You’ve been in here since you were a kid?”

  The black-haired woman shook her head. “Mortals don’t age here. Listen, this place is like a goddamn maze.”

  Morgana pulled a map out of her pocket and spread it on the floor. The map depicted an intricate layout of what appeared to be a maze. “I’ve been stuck in this quadrant for a decade. See that room?”

  The woman pointed to a small room in the top right corner. “I couldn’t find a way out for a good six months, even with all of my tools.”

  “Jesus.” Poppy muttered.

  “Yeah, if it wasn’t for meditating, I think I would’ve gone insane ages ago.”

  Morgana tapped another corner of the crudely drawn map. “That route will take us back to my base. If we work together, we can get back there.”

  Hudson shook his head. “Can’t do. We have to find… someone in the Purgatorium.”

  Morgana lifted an eyebrow and a curious smile grew on her face. “Oh, you’re trying to save someone from there. No can do; once you’re there, you’re as good as dead. Trust me, I have tried before.”

  Hudson tightened one of his fists and Poppy spoke in his place.

  “She is saveable. Her body is in one of the Pact’s fortresses, and she’s tethered to it through that black sea inside the Purgatorium.”

  The tall woman let out a low whistle. “That’s…incredibly rare. No, that’s highly impossible for a tethered soul to appear.”

  “Well, it happened.” Hud growled, walking towards Morgana. “And we need to find her now, then we can get out of here.”

  Morgana stood up and stretched his arms over his head. “Right then, you’ve made this ten times harder, but I always like a challenge.” She pulled a nub of a pencil out of her pocket and began making marks on the hand drawn map.

  “At the moment, we’re in the endless hallway. It has been designed to confuse demons, and apparently mortals too.”

  The woman drew her finger along the long hallway on the map until she got to a large room with a scythe and a set of scales crudely sketched onto it.

  “Once we find the exit, we’ll be in the Justice Hall. I have no idea how we’ll get to the Purgatorium from there, it requires a psychic connection that only reapers have.”

  Poppy perked up. “I can get us there; I’ve been to the Purgatorium before.”

  A smile grew on Morgana’s face. “Well that is going to help us a lot. We’ll use your power to get into the Purgatorium, save your friend and then make a run for my base.”

  The psychic felt an uneasy feeling grow in her stomach. “We’re here for a reason though, the reapers need us for a trial.”

  Morgana shrugged his shoulders. “Well, you’re free to stay, but trust me when I say that there are demons here, and they are angry. All of us will be their first targets.”

  “Uh, just give us a sec, okay?” Poppy murmured, pulling Hudson to the side. They went over into a corner of the hallway and began talking out of earshot of Morgana.

  “I don’t know if I trust her.” Poppy murmured. “It just seems so convenient that she is right here, don’t you think?”

  Hud glanced over at Morgana and a small frown grew on his face.

  “Yeah, she’s a bit weird, but she’s been trapped in here for years.” Hud replied, studying Morgana. The woman was kicking the wall and sniffing it, as if she were checking for some unseen force.

  “Look, she has a map, and she knows how to get to Emma-Lee. We have to take a chance Poppy, please?”

  Poppy glanced into Hud’s pleading eyes and gave him a defeated smile. “Okay, okay. If she does anything weird, we’re dumping her.”

  They turned their heads just in time to see a reaper looming over them. It glared at them and from under its hood, a pair of red eyes began to glow ominously. “What are you doing outside of your room?” It hissed in a deep and growling voice.

  Before Hud or Poppy could react, the reaper began to jerk about as if it were performing a strange dance. Letting out a small shudder, it fell to the ground. Morgana stood directly behind it, a taser clenched tightly in her hands. When she saw their horrified faces, she waved a hand at them dismissively.

  “It’s okay! I haven’t killed it. Reapers are susceptible to electricity. C’mon, let’s go before it comes to!”

  Not stopping to look at the fallen reaper, Morgana
began to sprint down the hall. Giving each other an uneasy look, Hudson and Poppy followed her.

  Chapter Three

  The room the reaper had led them to originally had been small. It had also taken them a while to find the space to escape through. That was all child’s play compared to the hallway they were stuck in now. It was seemingly hundreds of times longer than that room. Hudson was starting to lose faith in whether they would find a way out.

  “Poppy, can you find any weaknesses in the walls?” Hud asked, feeling along the wall of the hallway.

  The psychic felt up and down the blank walls, a slight frown on her face. “No can do, I can’t find a fault anywhere.”

  Morgana grumbled and ran her hand through her hair. “This is going to be difficult. These halls extend for many miles. If we cannot find a way to escape soon, those reapers will catch up to us.”

  She raised her hand to the wall and closed his eyes, letting out a small hum. “I’m not picking up anything either.”

  The sound of something shuffling behind them startled Hudson. He glanced around and saw a dark figure at the very back of the hall. It was about the size of a pinprick but as it moved, it grew larger.

  “Shit.” Morgana muttered, pulling a pair of glowing scissors out of her backpack. “Looks like we’ll have to do this the tricky way.”

  Hudson stared at the blades of Morgana’s scissors. It was a dark black that sparkled under the light that seemingly shone from every inch of the hall.

  “What’s that?”

  Morgana showed the scissors to them and snipped them a couple of times. “It’s space fabric shears. I nabbed them off a lesser demon not too long ago. They can provide a gateway to a random area with a ten-mile radius. It may help us, or it may just get us even more lost.”

  Hudson turned his head. The reaper was gaining on them. “Alright, use them.”

  Morgana shoved the blade of the scissors into the wall and cut up, creating a tear between two parts of the wall as if it were nothing but paper. Morgana slipped between the two flaps of the wall, followed by Hudson and then Poppy.