the storm inside | kitty (boyxboy)

39 | Darkness Descends

Kit woke up to yelling.

"Grab your weapons; whatever can fit in your weapons' belt and whatever you can take!" It was Julian. "Hale's at the beach! He's chanting some spell and he's got the Gold Texts in his hands so get up, Kit, and get out!"

Kit scrambled off the bed, his brain still processing the information as he pulled on his gear over his shirt and shorts and hurried to the weapons room. He slipped the belt around his waist and began to sweep knives and daggers and whips in, and just about every weapon he could lay his hands on.

It was night. No, early morning. Kit had no idea what time it was, but he did know that he was freaking tired. Damn Hale, deciding to start a ruckus at what, 3am? Rude.

Hastily, Kit grabbed his stele before running out of the Institute, scrawling an Energy rune on his forearm as he made his way towards a blinding light on the beach. He pulled a seraph blade from his belt as he saw several figures ahead of him.

Thank goodness Tavvy is in the Spiral Labyrinth with Jem and Tessa, Kit thought to himself. Jem and Tessa had left last night, bringing Tavvy, Max, Rafe and Mina along with them.

"Raguel!" Kit yelled, the seraph blade in his hand lighting up, bright and brilliant in the gentle darkness. His feet skidded to a stop and his mouth nearly fell wide open as he saw what the Shadowhunters were battling.

Two enormous, grimy sea demons had risen from, well, the sea. They had claws, tentacles and odds bits sticking out from their ink-black bodies. As they moved, a trail of black slime followed. Their eyes had so many lids, they merged with the dozens of wrinkles lining the demons' foreheads.

Kit grimaced as he swung his seraph blade, an arc of fiery light as it descended—into nothingness.

The demon Kit had locked his eyes on moved fast, despite its size, and had it not been for Kit's Shadowhunter training, he would have been impaled on the demon's sharp pincers. But Kit was not alone in fighting it.

Beside him, with a short, light dagger, Ty was leaping from a rock and throwing the dagger. Kit had always known Ty's aim to be impeccable, never missing its target, but this demon avoided it easily and jabbed another tentacle out.

And on the other side of the demon, Dru fought fiercely, her dark hair flowing behind her as she shot special darts enchanted with demon-killing properties from a self-made mechanism twisted around her fingers. Dru was really getting to be quite innovative these days, Kit found.

They fought to get to Hale, to stop him from doing—well, whatever he was doing. It was definitely not good though, since they had no idea why Hale chose the beach as his location. Kit had no time to think, though, as right then one of the demon's sea tentacles shot towards him.

"It looks like a hybrid," panted Ty as he ducked a suction cup and sliced it off. "Hale's gotten more powerful. He's unlocked some of the magic, but even this is too much. How in the name of Raziel did he get this much power?"

Kit could see the tiny cogs turning and shifting in Ty's mind. He wondered what it must be like, to possess so much intelligence, yet be unable to put most of it into words.

"Kit," yelled Julian, who was battling the other demon. "Now would be a good time to use the wish you got in Edom, wouldn't it?"

"Can't," Kit yelled back, slashing in front of him. He felt slightly guilty. Now they were all going to die and it would be his fault. "Sorry, I—ah!"

A pant emerged in place of an excuse. Kit pretended to be too focused on the battle to notice Julian shouting at him. He somersaulted onto a rock, and yelled, "Eremiel!"

The seraph blade lit up in front of him as he sliced off a tentacle—but like the first one they had fought, the tentacle respawned. Kit didn't need anyone to tell him the next time he sliced off a tentacle that he had to burn the stump.

Okay, so hydra is part of the hybrid formula.

Hale's chanting got faster. "Surge, o Magna Bestiam de Mare, qui mandata discipuli, et habet virtutem ad bellum contra sanctis, et vincere eos. Qui datus est potentia, et thronum, et potestatem magnam per Draco Magnus, vel diabolus vel Satanas. Qui habet letalis vulnus in caput tuum, sed fuerit sanata."

Kit thanked the Angel he had learnt Latin. Now he knew what Hale was trying to do—or a bit of it, at least.

Hale was saying, Rise, o Great Beast of the Sea, who commands followers and has power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. Who has been given power and throne and great authority by the Great Dragon, or the devil, or Satan. Who has a fatal wound on your head but has been healed.

Revelations 12-13 tells of this beast, Kit remembered. And now Hale was trying to raise it. The beast was worshipped by all and commanded authority—exactly what Hale wanted.

"The spell to raise the beast can only be found in that book," said Magnus, who voiced Kit's thoughts aloud. "If he raises the beast, all hell will descend, quite literally."

A yellow pentagram of light blazed up in front of Hale.

"Da mihi potentiam tuam, da robur, quod ego, ut vincere maria et terras in nomine tuo."

Give me your power, give me your strength, that I may conquer the seas and lands in your name.

"He's not trying to raise it," shouted Kit, "he's trying to transfer its power to himself!"

"That's even worse!" Magnus replied, still battling the sea demons. "He'll burn this whole land to the ground! The beast's power is—urgh, stupid spike, copycat of my hair—unspeakable, the power is forbidden to be spoken of, even in the Spiral Labyrinth."

"But the true question is," said Kit, helping Ty to put what Kit hoped Ty was thinking into words. "How the hell did Hale get so much magic to raise such a being? Isn't this level of magic high as hell?" He saw Ty smile gratefully at him; the translation must have been right.

"It is," Magnus agreed. "I—I don't know either."

"We're running out of time!" said Emma, who had been quiet the whole time, concentrating on beating the sea demons. Cortana flashed in her hands. The demons were nearly dead, just a bit more— "Look at the pentagram!"

The pentagram's light was growing steadier and steadier, its earlier flickering gone. It got brighter, and Kit could see a shape beginning to form in the middle of the pentagram.

"Surge!"

Rise!