Stronger Together chapter 213 (Patreon)

Now from an outside perspective sending us to fight in a planar death  tournament seems like a random and stupid decision, but looking at it  logically I saw where he was going with this. We were expendable assets  who had proven we were strong enough to put up a fight. It made a ton of  sense to throw us at his enemies because us dying made no difference to  him. As for why he thought we would actually do it, based on what I'd  heard around here this was the kind of place where you do as you're  told.

It wasn't a bad strategy, especially since I was  pretty sure he didn't even really want to win. I doubted this greedy  bastard had any real interest in leading the charge of the armies of  hell to...wherever...they were-. Shit. I looked up at the demon with a  casual smile. "We would be happy to help out my friend. Just out of  curiosity where are these armies going to be heading?" I had a pretty  good idea, but I was really hoping I was wrong. I didn't know if the  infernal planes had been part of the invasion in the books, since we  never got that far, but if they were trying to stage an attack that  would be bad.

Realistically it should have been too soon,  but thinking back I'd been doing my damndest to cut off their roads of  influence. Offing Lord Raith and Shagnasty would have put a crimp in  their plans but nothing big enough to justify moving up an attack.  Unless there had been ripples from those things I didn't know about,  which based on the escapee from Demonreach there definitely had been,  shit. The Lord of Dis grinned, baring his creepy jagged gemstone teeth.  "Why, the outer gates of course. Where else? Our great sovereign has  decided to besiege the armies of the enemy."

I had been  afraid of that. Like really genuinely terrified. If Lucifer was joining  forces with the outsiders and bringing the armies of Hell to bear on the  outer gates from the inside I needed to call a meeting of the accords.  Everyone had to be warned about this before they hit the Winter armies  from behind and routed them at the worst possible time. If the battle  lines at the Gates collapsed the outsiders would pour into our world in  force and we would all be royally and inexcusably fucked.

The  only problem was that I had no idea how to get back, which meant we  needed access to somewhere that knowledge would be prevalent. I had the  sneaking suspicion getting topside wasn't something any old demon could  do, which meant we needed someone powerful and important. I sighed  internally. "So where will this tournament be held? You said all  thirteen of the cities will be coming to do battle, so I assume it will  be in some neutral location." If there was a place we could get answers I  was betting the kind of place this thing would be held at would be it.

That  unsettling gemstone grin got even wider. "Balam, the thirteenth city,  and the current seat of power of the Courts of Punishment." His gold  eyes reflected avarice when he spoke of the place, but I'm pretty seeing  someone eat a chocolate bar would give this dude a greed boner so that  wasn't a huge surprise. Still, there was an almost sanctimonious quality  to the way he said the name. He licked his lips. "The sovereign and his  princes live there, as does his brother, Leviathan. The nine great  brutalities and their retinues. Balam is the largest city in the  infernal planes, dwarfing Dis by several orders of magnitude."

I  admit that sounded impressive. Dis was fucking huge, being one of the  largest cities I had ever seen, and thinking of what "orders of  magnitude" meant made me want to gulp. I shook that off and offered my  best confident smile. We needed to make this trip so of course we would  say yes. "An honor, my friend. It would be an honor to stand for your  great city. When do we leave on this mission? I assume this tournament  must be close at hand to have you so focused on finding a participant?"

Which  was my way of letting him know aside from being expendable I was aware I  was also convenient. I'd showed up at just the right time, so two birds  one stone right? If I died I would have been punished, if I won, he had  technically been magnanimous and let me off the hook so I had no reason  to come after him. Which was fine, I didn't begrudge him my usefulness,  especially since I would get something out of it too. He didn't know  that but it hardly mattered, this was the best of both worlds and if my  progress getting home I could let him feel like he was taking advantage  of me.

With a regal nod he leaned back further into his  throne of gold and jewels. "The tournament begins in six weeks. I will  of course make any and all training resources and  facilities available  to you for your preparations, and I will dispatch your guide to continue  his service." He paused and glanced skyward for a moment as if  thinking. "Ah yes, Malachi. He will be at your disposal until such time  as you leave." I cursed to myself, I hated that asshole but fine if  that's what it took. I would just send him to do menial, terrible jobs  for my own petty amusement.

Thanking him for his  hospitality (which he didn't really show us, but whatever) I put my arm  around Yang again to act as a shield and we headed out of the castle. As  we walked Malachi appeared next to us again, seemingly cheerful at  getting to guide esteemed guests instead of gate breaking assholes who  had forced their way in. "The Lord commanded that I bring you to more  suitable accommodations in an inn closer to the castle proper. We've  arranged a place for you at the Prideful Prince, one of the premier  luxury inns in the city."

We stepped out over the basalt  bridge, striding into the streets on the other side and Malachi led us  off to one side, chattering excitedly. I tried to pay attention to see  if now that he liked us and was treating us like a meal ticket he was  more bearable, but no, he was still a huge dick. I sidled up to Yang,  lowering my voice so I knew she could barely hear me and hoping that the  ambient noise of the Demon city would cover up her response from prying  ears. "Ok, so any ideas? This has been a roller coaster but if you  spotted something I didn't I'm happy to take suggestions. I have no  fucking clue what I'm doing here."

Yang looked troubled  but resigned and just shook her head. "No, sorry. I mean if he hadn't  mentioned the gates I would have said we should tell him to go pound  sand but with that kind of an attack on the table no way we sit this  out." She shrugged. "Even if we can't make it back up top we have to  fuck up that army deployment best we can. From what you told us about  the gates those are at the top of the do not fuck with list, and if they  go down literally everything in universe is fucked." I hadn't even  considered sabotage, but now that she brought it up all I could do was  nod. She was right.

I slipped past another fallen,  hustling Yang aside. This close to the castle the people were literally  all fallen. It like a medieval village as played by an Abercrombie and  Fitch catalog. Everyone was dressed like a supermodel at a renfaire and  it was a little disconcerting. When we arrived at the inn (a huge white  marble building shot through with veins of gold and what appeared to be  literal crystallized blood) I realized that even employees here were  fallen. Granted they were younger and weaker but fallen all the same. I  was pretty confused about how that was possible considering the fall  couldn't have been million of angels from what I knew, and I actually  asked Malachi about it.

I figured now that we were useful  keeping up the fiction of us being fallen was useless. Or I guess not  even a fiction, we just hadn't mentioned not being from hell. Malachi  didn't seem to think it was too odd though so maybe visitors from other  planes were common. When I asked about the angels he just laughed. "The  original lords of the hosts of the morning star numbered in the  thousands. The fallen you see around you are not born of the heights but  of a joining between others of their kind. These are true born fallen,  albeit many generations removed."

I blinked. That wasn't  right, angels couldn't have kids. But then I frowned. Nephilim were  mentioned throughout the bible and mythology, and not as just the  children of male angels. If angels could have kids with a human then why  not with another angel? It also made the prospect of these rallied  armies much more terrifying. If every city was stocked with potentially  millions of true born younger generation angels the forces arrayed  against Winter were...formidable. Honestly even I wouldn't be confident  fighting something like that and as arrogant as it sounded Winter didn't  have many my level.

I was  betting Mab could put up a hell of a fight and possibly Lea. Mother  Winter would almost definitely eat me for breakfast and then pick her  iron teeth with my leftover bones, but other than them Winter didn't  have anyone that packed a punch like I did, and these angels, while not  at my level either, were most likely superior to any random fae. Sure  the Winter forces at the gates were fucking endless, but against this  kind of quality it might not matter, and certainly wouldn't if they hit  them from behind just to break their ranks.

We  spoke to the proprietor, a lovely well endowed fallen who looked to be  in her early twenties but carried herself like she was older, and were  shown to our rooms, a lovely set of apartments much nicer than the  previous place we stayed in. They had built in bathing areas, and a  dining room, as well as a pull rope attached to a bell with a menu next  to it. There was no common room here, we would order and we would get  room service. Which would have been so much nicer if we knew what any of  these fucking foods actually were, but hey, we made do.

Finally  Malachi turned to leave, stopping to give us a last word of advice.  "The Lord has made all training facilities available to you at no cost, I  would avail myself of them were I you. The Prideful Prince is where all  visiting nobility stays and they prefer to keep their skills sharp. The  training rooms provided are exquisite ." With that he left, swirling on  his heel and snapping his wings, causing annoying feathers to shoot all  over the place and get in my face. I sighed and glared after him for a  minute before closing my door.

I  turned to look at Yang, who was lounging on the bed with a smirk. "Wow,  old Mal is kind of an ass huh? No big deal though, we won't be here too  long." She slumped back with a groan. "Gods I'm exhausted. This has  been a non stop mess since we got here. But hey at least we get nice  digs. Also hopefully the food is more than just fruit. Plus...y'know,  hopefully it's also edible." I chuckled at that and slumped down next to  her, starting to drift off almost immediately. Yang chuckled sleepily  in my ear. "Get your beauty sleep big man, because tomorrow we train.  Gotta be in shape for what's to come."