That single word was a Word of Command.

The roar shook the church, and all the pews quaked. The stand on the podium rattled and fell over. Despite himself, Alejandro finally found his arms and legs. He moved, stumbling away from whatever was about to happen next.

The dog moved with him.

It was obvious by now that the creature was trained to destroy every member of this Holy Order—and nothing else. It immediately did a turn of its own, paper rattling all over its body, and mounted the nearest pew. With a push, it bounded into the air. The creature shot over the benches like a furry missile, with its mouth once again opening into a wide yawn. Sizzling saliva splattered all over the aisle, burning into wood and ceramic alike with sharp hisses. Clark was counting on it, and intercepted it again in mid-air.

He did so by smashing his hands together. His fingers danced over his knuckles in some indecipherable message. When he pulled his hands apart, there was a snapping in the air. A sliver appeared over the pews, directly in between the leaping monster and its intended target. It widened into a huge, ragged looking square, and the dog barreled straight into it—

—only to reappear at the wizard’s feet, where the token had been laid.

Interdimensional travel, but only for a few feet.

The head appeared, followed by the body.

The golden retriever maintained the same momentum charging out of the portal, and Clark speedily snapped his wrist over its neck. Glowing sigils appeared on some of the tags attached to the creature, and the energy in them formed metal links from nothingness. Soon, Clark was holding onto the ends of magical chains conjured from the ether, twirling his arms like a cowboy showing off his new lasso (and maybe that was, in a way, what he was doing). The whole thing wrapped itself around the dog’s neck with practiced ease as the chain bit into the creature’s neck, just below the bright red leather collar.

Clark pulled on it.

A click of his heels—just once this time—and he flew.

Hovered over the monster as he tried to twist the creature’s head off with the magical noose in his hand. On the other side of the chamber, Alejandro heard fur sizzling as the links of the chain glowed red. The dog reared up, snapping its jaws. Its teeth closed around air as Clark twisted agilely away. The tall wizard raised a leg, and brought down his heel harshly upon the beast’s neck. He was still stone and earth, a thin crown of brambles now encircling his head. He must have weighed a ton, and the force of the blow drove the dog’s face into the floor. Tiles shattered. Broken pieces flew everywhere as he pulled upwards with both arms. Clark struggled with the malevolent creature. He opened his mouth, rained down a booming cry over its head.

“Yield!”

It did not. Still, the force of the word hammered into it like an invisible wave. Alejandro held his ears again. When Clark spoke, he did so in the echoes of a massive, ringing church bell. As the dog pushed upwards again, he cried: “Yield!” and it uttered a yelp of pain before being flattened over the floor.

Clark stomped down on its head.

“Yield!”

The creature fought back against its restraints. The monster was not going down without a fight. The golden retriever raised its head, and defying the laws of physics, snapped its head around a hundred and eighty degrees. The mouth opened wide again, and Clark stared into it. The double rows of teeth were joined by a third, and more grew as he watched. Deep within the gullet, the wizard thought he saw spinning, mesmerizing lights.

There was no explaining what they were—no explaining what the creature was beyond the only available answer.

Alejandro was right: It was a hellhound.

The lapdog of the Betrayer; the guardian of the gates of hell.

In some stories it had three heads. And just one today was almost more than what Clark could handle. He did not expect the creature would be so powerful. Heck, he wasn’t expecting the creature at all! The wizard didn’t have the appropriate spells prepared, and he was doing the best he could with limited resources.

Clark looked into the monster’s throat. He saw smoke building there. A purplish, green fog pushed upwards, and immediately the wizard knew what it was. He smelled it, and the stench nearly made him throw up. He could have recoiled away from the blast of incoming poison, but didn’t. To do that would put Alejandro in danger. Clark wasn’t sure he possessed the proper enchantments to protect him if the poison was loosed.

Instead, the wizard leaned forward. Breathed. Out. A hiss of air flowed downwards towards the creature’s throat, and the breath was freezing cold. A few feet away the boy shuddered despite himself. Clark’s breath condensed, became a focused blast of sub-zero temperatures that went down the hellhound’s throat like an icy arrow. A white-blue vapor crystalized into a stake, and the result was the thrust of a cold spear that drove slowly through the monster’s body before pinning it to the floor.

It howled then—and the howl died into a hacking cough. Icy smoke spilled outwards from the side of the dog’s mouth, and the lolling tongue rapidly turned blue. Clark floated higher. He hovered over the creature, but was rapidly running out of breath. He continued pulling on the chain, and for a second it looked like the dog was about to lie down. Its paws stretched over the floor, its back legs crumpled, splaying to both sides. It whined. It was a pitiful noise.

Clark did not let up. His heart might as well be also turned to stone, for he only redoubled his efforts. His reward was the hellhound suddenly came leaping to its feet. Its deception failed, and it fought back mightily. On all four legs, it gave a whirling toss of its head, regardless of the thin, sturdy icicle still pinning it in place. The pale pillar shattered. Before that, it tore bloody chunks out of the monster and splattered ichor everywhere as the abomination threw its head forward with stupendous strength.

The word was not lightly used. In this case, it was very much deserved. The dog jumped and struggled like a runaway bull, and overpowered the wizard in their tug of war with about ten times its prior strength. It flung Clark into the podium on the end of its chain.

A huge crash!

The podium was made of wood, but hollow on the inside. A two-hundred-pound man wouldn’t have gotten back up from the wreckage, but thankfully Clark was (still) made of stone. He was thrown into the upraised platform like a kite on a string, and the wood gave way. The whole thing splintered and broke to pieces beneath him, with the impact marked by an explosion of debris before—

The wizard remained unscathed getting back up.

He picked bits of wooden splinters out of his shredded coat, before shrugging out of it altogether. He shot a glance at the beast from across the chamber, and the hellhound responded with another hacking cough.

Poison spilled from its mouth. The golden furs were all but riddled with open wounds, and from these orifices also tumbled the putrid smoke. Clark’s eyes widened. Before his eyes, the fog condensed into clouds, crawling across the floor at astonishing speed. Clark saw grasping tendrils find purchase along the floor tiles, and somewhere off in a corner Alejandro began to cough.

Panicked, the wizard searched for him. His hands formed seals for an incoming spell of protection. He wasn’t sure the ward would be enough, for spells are delicate work, and like medicine, very specific to the kind of malady they aimed to cure. The one he was calling forth was one such that guarded against bodily harm, but even Clark was not certain the poison won’t slip through the cracks.

He needn’t have bothered, for just then, a flash of light appeared from where Alejandro was hidden. Clark stopped moving his hands. The sickening smell in his nostrils was replaced by something else, and he could not place it. The closest comparison was that of blooming wildflowers. The fragrance hovered the air, pushing aside the poisonous fog. In it sat the young man. He was cross-legged over the floor, swooning a little and swaying left and right. He had his hands on his knees, and his lips moved quickly in muttered prayers.

It worked.

His faith was his protection, and it guarded him better than any spells the wizard had on him at present. Even Clark was not un-affected. He looked down at his feet, and probably would not have been surprised to see grass suddenly poking through the cracks in between the floor tiles. The wizard looked up. At the same moment, Alejandro opened his eyes.

They blazed. The same white-hot fire poured from his irises as when they first met in the Vaughn parking lot, as he raised his hands and got to his feet. In it, shimmering and barely visible, was the outline of a sword made of air. He advanced upon Clark, who smiled a little. Together, they turned towards their foe.

The beast still lay on the floor. By now, it was completely covered by the poisonous vapor. A deep purple mist blocked it from view. As Alejandro made it over to Clark, stepping up next to the wizard, the two men exchanged knowing nods.

Clark whirled on the monster. He let out another long breath. The spell took form as a strong gust of wind and blasted down the center of the aisle. It smashed into the thickest portion of the venomous fog like a hammer.

The cloud broke.

The mist blew upwards before scattering into the ceiling.

The wind was cold, but against the unnatural heat permeating the church, it felt coolly refreshing against the skin. As the poison dissipated, the dog was revealed in its center. Alejandro looked on in horror at what he now beheld. In the place of the golden retriever sat a monster from his worst nightmares.

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