[image proffered]
Why, that's stirring in me! Where are your-
Deep within ye, devil. Ye have it all, now. Elminster in thy head.
I-I-
See her, devil Such magnificence, as she throws back her head and glares fearlessly around Hell, seeking us. See her as I do. How can one break or bend such a bright blade? She could be everything to ye! She could be thy warrior-scourge of Hell, smiting all who stand against tbee, loving thee as fiercely and hungrily as she now slays...
Tongue of asmodeus, human! You almost make me want to-
Remember her lips, her silver hair lashing and then caressing...
Yes. Ohhh, yes.
Recall her embrace, her murmured promises, her-
Yes. Yes! This is the one for me!
Aye, see that memory again, as we-
Are hurled back again, Hell crashing and quaking around us, as the scepters that the Simbul had plunged into her own flesh like daggers boil away with the last of their power exhausted and are gone. She shudders, going to her knees amid the flames of strewn devil-corpses and shattered stone citadels, and we want to reach out to her, to draw her close and comfort her, to heal…
Eyes look up and catch flame once more. "Your Her growl rises into a scream that spits raw, snarling power out of her. Nergal knows pain.
Aarghh! Nessus twist you, bitch! I-I-
Love thee. Love thee more than all the fires of Hell.
Yes! [slaying bolt hurled wide] Ye.-no! Fangs, human, what are you doing to me? Get out of my head.'
The Simbul's next spell rains bright knives of flame down in a hissing cascade of death upon rippling diabolic thews. She spins like a dancer to send the same fury down the throats of the devils now converging on her across the broken rocks of Avernus.
Black and red flesh convulses. Screams rise in a ragged chorus of woe.
Nergal shudders and catches hold of a nearby horn of rock to steady himself, gasping at the pain.
I cannot smite her! She's so bright, so beautiful' i must have her, i must-alassra, here i am.' here!
The Lord to Come of All Deep Hell bounds into the air, tentacles become mighty wings, arms spread in welcome.
Queen of me, here I-
The bolt that shocks out of the Simbul is so fierce that it plucks her from her feet and hurls her backward. As she falls, she sends her will riding along the beam, to pierce the mind of her foe even as the bright lance of her silver fire stabs him.
[In a brief glimpse across Avernus, a lone human female rises into the air like a beacon, her hair a halo of flame around her. Devils everywhere wince and roar and cringe. Distant mountains erupt in smoke and flame.]
Silver fire crashes into hot darkness, roiling...
*El, I am come.*
I live, and love thee. I am in this devil, all of me. Mystra, but ye are magnificent!
[amusement] *But of course.*
Nergal, roaring in torment at the fire raging in him, the Simbul ruthless in her scorching and searing, leaving him a broken as Hell that lives only because her Elminster is trapped within it, only to fade as her fire does, fade away...
No, leave me not!
No, leave me not! Fade not from- what am I saying? Out, human worm. Out of my mind. you infect me, you- get you gone!
[Nergal summons all of his power, a black-and-red wave, dark and swift enough to shatter even the Simbul's fury. He thrusts. Images whirl in insane chaos, brightness like shards of shattering glass, memories and tears and laughter all together, into the thing in the offal pit. A naked human retches and squirms as Hell is torn apart around him.]
Now, witch, it's your turn!
[Red-and-black bolts howl out of the great winged devil, cleaving the blood-red sky like reaching fingers.]
Crash, stagger, bright beauty still standing...
Bloody lips twist. "Is that the best you can do, devil?" Slender fingers point, and fire surges forth, a little wearily now...
Burst of blue-white fire, Nergal screaming...
[frantic red lightning, and flight]
This has gotten out of hand! where is Asmodeus? Where are the hosts of Hell? Is she going to be allowed to kill us all?
Fires of the pit, she can strike at me through you!
[mind bolt, dark and huge, sent to slay, roaring through the vaults...]
[... and rebounding back through the darkness to slap down Nergal]
Sobbing and convulsing, the tentacled devil rolled in darkness, his chain melting away.
"Sorry," said the naked, filthy man beside him. He waved stumps that were his arms. "We're too closely linked now, devil, for that to work."
With a sudden, furtive movement, Elminster raised one arm to touch what was tangled in his hair. He said in his mind, cold and crisp and hard, By the will ofTanthul and my need, let it be my bone shards, yonder-and let it be now.
Nergal had just time to dart a look at his mind-slave before the bone fragments in him expanded into duplicates of the larger bones they'd been a part of-and the archdevil's body burst apart with a deep, wet roar.
[song, mad music wild and screaming, red fire and staring, disbelieving diabolic eyes, fading to darkness... oblivion]
Alone and maimed in a cavern deep in Avemus, Elminster went to his knees and sobbed bitterly. The mind that had ridden his for a seeming eternity was stilled and gone…
It's a dark thing to lose any being one knows so well.
[red, writhing pain, drifting back so slowly through torment, at last to the light...]
"Fires take all," Nergal muttered, as weak and sick as he always was when coalescing back from tattered smoke and essence to solidity once more. He glared around blearily at the offal-choked cavern and the small, round black stone that was always there when he cheated death. More mighty contingency magic spent, wasted because of carelessness.
"That was a near one," he whispered, not yet strong enough to growl. "I'll never reign in Hell if I go on underestimating humans."
"Too true," a voice said sweedy, from behind him.
Nergal, rightful Prince of Hell, whirled around as quickly as he could on rubbery limbs. He stared into the smiling face of the Witch-Queen of Aglarond, who floated less than an arm's-reach away.
Her smile was as wide as that of a wolf, and her eyes were two dark flames.
"Go down forever, devil," she hissed-and spread her hands. Holy water that was afire with blue-white and silver flames burst over him in a torrent. The last thing Nergal ever heard was the Simbul snarling,"For what you did to the one I love, I just wish I could slay you again and again!"
A dark, scaled hand set down a goblet that smoked and bubbled green in the gloom. "How amusing," Asmodeus observed from his throne of linked, living she-devils, and meant it.
Idly the Lord of Nessus reached out. Slaying magic built and snarled darkly up his arm and filled his cupped hand. When his palm was full, he'd flick his wrist and sent it to Avernus.There it would slay the exhausted, sobbing human sorceress whose image floated above him. She even now embraced the ruined, armless body of a man in a hidden cavern, all her attention bent to pouring her vitality into him.
Asmodeus started to smile. Ah, sweet irony...
***
In a void of drifting stars, Mystra drew the howling man from her breast. She held Halaster out to face a whirling vision-the greatest devil of all smiling as dark fire filled, his hand. She whispered urgently,"Now!"
Halaster Blackcloak broke off a slobbering sound that was half-howl and half-giggle, drew himself up with dark eyes blazing, and snapped, "Asmodeus! Bow down!”