Part Forty: The Lord Of All Nightmares

	As Caleb ascended the final step and entered into the heart of the temple he then heard the door  slam dramatically shut behind him, causing the old gunslinger to whirl round startled before he even had a chance to study the room he was in properly. When he did finally get the chance, Caleb felt his heart sink almost immediately. Before him was a massive circular arena with a monumental pillar in the middle of it covered with various carved human shapes. Leading to this pillar on either side were two ornate doors very similar to the one that had just slammed closed behind him. As he observed this, the old gunfighter could not help but also notice the fact that both of them now appeared to be rising.

	Caleb had been around the block more than enough times to know that nothing pleasant could be waiting for him behind those two doors. As such, it really was no surprise when he saw two fire breathing Cerberi emerge from their hideouts in the wall, even if he still could not have been expected to pinpoint exactly the kind of monstrosity that he was going to be facing. Just like the humbler hell hound that had previously caused both he and Johnny so much pain, Cerberi were massive canines that were both larger and more dangerous than their lowlier counterparts, having the advantage of sporting one additional head more than was the usual. They were double the trouble when found on their own, and now Caleb was going to have to finish off two of them.

	Out of all the ways to die, fire was the one that always made the old gunslinger the most squeamish, even if he still did not have much problem in inflicting it on others. Just the thought of being enveloped in searing flame was enough to make Caleb want to release a powerful high pitched screech akin to that released by a screaming child, something far removed from his usual gruff callous voice and headstrong manner. Despite this urge, Caleb still managed to collect himself. He was not even sure if it was possible for something to die here. The thought brought with it all kinds of metaphysical questions that the gunfighter really was not in the best of moods to solve right now. He would soon find the truth out at any rate regardless, either by meeting his own end or by delivering it to one of his dual headed adversaries.

	Thankfully the old gunslinger did not come into this fight completely unprepared. During his assault on the castle he had encountered an experimental Cabal weapon that the gunfighter had in fact been saving for just such an occasion as this. Named for the famed electrical engineer Nikola Tesla, the Tesla Cannon was capable of shooting electric bolts that could stun an enemy until its firing ceased. With two of these creatures on his tail, Caleb knew that being able to immobilize one while keeping an eye on the other was going to be very advantageous to him. Knowing full well that the beasts in question were not going to be showing him any favours, the old gunslinger jumped right to it, shooting arc after arc of current into the form of the nearest Cerberi.

	Although the species did have a hierarchy, they did not assign any titles from which any single individual could be identified, something that made the practice of telling them apart extremely difficult. There was still something about these two that seemed familiar to Caleb though; he could have sworn that he had done battle with them before. He wondered if they were not the same dogs he had faced during his initial campaign of revenge, if the bounder he was currently shooting at was the same beast that had toasted his friend Ishmael, and if the other animal that was presently trying to circle strafe around him had been the same one that was waiting for him in the Hall of Epiphany, the last to stand guard before his ultimate assault on Tchernobog's throne. In this world, anything was possible.

	The first Cerberi was by now lit up like an X-ray radiograph, its intricate skeleton showing from beneath the punishment of the electrical stimulation that Caleb was now providing. Remaining stoic almost to the very end, the giant hound finally released one microscopic little whine as a single head dropped down to one side defeated. Caleb smiled to himself vaingloriously; he now knew that they could still be killed here. That was all that the gunfighter really needed to know. He the finished off the other with the release of one last gloriously pent up arc, using the alternative fire mode on the cannon. Now he only had the one Cerberi left to deal with. He whirled around and attempted to fire the weapon again. Much to the gunslinger's chagrin there was now no longer any charge left in the device. The remaining Cerberi then bore down on him with, if anything, increased vigour.

	The gigantic creature bowled into him, shoving Caleb off his feet and causing him to roll across the hard ground. It continued to gnash its huge sabre like teeth at him, several times coming close to champing down on the gunfighter's not so fresh flesh. In his mad attempt to stay ahead of the clasping jaws Caleb bumped into a small switch that was embedded in the wall, something that started to lower the pillar that was placed in the centre of the room. The gunslinger got back onto his feet and ran, the sound of heavy padded feet still pressing on his back. The walls of the arena became scorched as the Cerberi started breathing its fiery fury directly towards Caleb, who had to veer and swerve as best he could in an almost vain attempt to stop himself from catching. During one of these swerves Caleb toppled over what was left of the now lowered pillar, sending the object that had been resting upon it crashing down onto the floor.

	Caleb turned to see what it was, and was temporarily shocked to see the face of Tchernobog staring back up at him from the ground. Upon closer inspection he saw that it was merely a mask made to look like him, something that he had encountered before. The Cabal had referred to them as Death Masks, objects of great power which could grant the wearer invulnerability to any kind of attack until the power of the mask finally wore out. He had never known how they were made, but finding such an artifact here was certainly suggestive. Somehow through this outpost the Cabal were discovering a way to cheat death, and this mask was a part of it. Once again, Caleb started to feel the same kind of disgust that had been plaguing him ever since he had arrived here.

	The gunslinger's thoughts were then disturbed however by a large fireball that struck him dead on his chest, exploding the area around him in searing flame. It was his one of his worst fears made realized. The remaining Cerberi howled in triumph, approaching the spot where Caleb had previously been standing intent on finishing off what little must have been left of the man. Then, emerging from the centre of the blaze came Caleb, the Death Mask securely placed on his face, obscuring the rest of his features. He was definitely no longer amused. "I am death, who want some?" he inquired, before firing both barrels of his sawed off shotgun down one of the beast's throats. The creature simply stalled in front of him, allowing Caleb to unleash onslaught after onslaught of shells.

	First one head dropped down, then two. Releasing one last final whine just like that of its fallen counterpart, the enormous beast then joined its pack mate as yet another crumpled heap on the ground. Caleb caught the Death Maks right before it lost its power and fell of his face, casting it to the ground in such a way as to make it smash into a million different pieces. Considering the scale of his accomplishment, the old gunfighter could not help but feel a bit of levity. "I'm a little lamb who is lost in the wood..." he crooned, approaching the fallen form of one of the Cerberi. He then delivered a sharp kick to first of the creature's two heads, forcing it to collide with the other as if it were some kind of furry Newton's cradle. "Yeah right" Caleb added, before carrying on with his prescribed business. Nothing could possibly get in his way now.

Hamish Paul Wilson
December 7, 2014