Time Jacker by Aaron Crash (nonfiction book recommendations .TXT) 📕

the ox’s head. It wasn’t enough to kill it. The toenail ox bucked, and Bailey was thrown around like it was Saturday afternoon in Cheyenne during Frontier Days.

Jack had forgotten how many bullets he had for his Eternity Cannon, so he quickly removed the cylinder and replaced it with a fresh one. He had just put the used cylinder in his pocket and the gun back together when Kerrata whipped it out of his hand.

Jack had fixed up his skin, but now he was bleeding again. Kerrata went to lash him once more, but Gabby lunged forward and took the blow.

Another dozen fingernail birds were coming to hit him with the barbs, or to ram their jaggedly sharp nails into him. Another dozen chitin dogs had scurried forward through the remnants of the other creatures that Gabby had blown to butcher scraps.

The angel would’ve blown the horn again, but Kerrata had her tangled up in his whip. He yanked her toward the cart. Jack saw the single hole he’d put in Kerrata’s head with his Beretta back when his adventures began. If only he’d had the Eternity Cannon back then.

Ha. He didn’t even have it in the current fight. The magical revolver lay on the ground about a dozen feet from Jack. He could magically pull it to him, but he needed time to do that.

He just needed a few seconds.

Jack still had his Beretta, but he was down to his last magazine. Bailey was hacking at the ox but couldn’t put it down. Gabby struggled against Kerrata’s whips.

They were about to be overwhelmed.

Worse yet, the rusted hinges of the massive gate let out a world-shattering squeal. The doors were opening. Whatever marched out would be a horror show of literally hellish proportions.

Jack knew it was going to hurt, but he didn’t have a choice. He swept his thumb over the toy soldier, clicking the key farther to the left. Would he be stranded in hell forever? Would he shatter his core? All were distinct possibilities.

But this was their only chance.

Jack felt the clockwork of hell shuddering—he wasn’t just stopping the flow of Kairos. In a place like that, he also had to freeze the Decaysia.

He gritted his teeth and felt his core draining, but time in hell had slowed, then stopped. He’d done it! Both the Tempus Influunt and the Influunt Diaboli were stopped completely.

Whatever system the Clockwatcher had given him flashed to life before his eyes.

Current Kairos: 60/200

Current Decaysia: 210/200

Potential Auxiliary Storage: 100/100

A second later he was down to 50 Kairos and up to 220 Decaysia. He felt the weight of the death energy filling him. What would kill him first? Losing all that Kairos or gaining all that Decaysia?

If he was burning ten points of Kairos for every second he had hell’s timestream stopped, that meant he would run out of Kairos in five seconds. Luckily, he had his auxiliary storage, which gave him a total of fifteen seconds before he completely ran out of time energy.

The headache was already starting to rip through his skull.

Fourteen seconds left.

Bailey was on the ox, which was bleeding from a dozen puncture wounds from where she had rammed that pick home. The demon would need help killing that monster.

Even though he’d healed her, blood still covered Gabby’s face. Those normally gentle blue eyes were now full of hate, completely focused on Kerrata. Nothing would ever break that angel’s will. She was strong. She was good. Her sword was covered in gore, and her divine horn gleamed, however tangled her arm was in the whips.

Jack leapt into action. He holstered his Beretta and pulled the Eternity Cannon to him.

A little voice let out a cheer. Yay! I’m back in Master’s hand!

Yes, it felt good to have the gun back where it belonged. He raced over and freed Gabby from Kerrata’s cat o’ nine tails.

A warning flashed in his vision.

Kairos at zero. Auxiliary storage activated.

Jack felt all 100 points of Kairos fill his core. Still, his headache was growing. It felt like someone had pushed needles into the back of his eyes.

Ten seconds left.

Jack climbed onto the cart.

He cut Annie loose and pulled the hood off her head. Her hair was matted, her face sweaty, and there was a look of such horror on her face. She had the look of a woman who would be forever traumatized by being held captive and then taken to hell.

Jack could help her with that trauma. Not him, directly, but Bailey could.

Eight seconds left.

Jack aimed at the space right behind the ox’s front leg, where its heart would be. That way, if he missed, he wouldn’t hit Bailey because she was up top. Jack pulled the trigger. He made his intentions clear, as he had with the match in the Wycombe House. He wanted that fired bullet to freeze along with everything else.

Jack shifted his sights on Kerrata’s chest and fired again. The instant the bullet left the gun, the round hung suspended in midair, surrounded by gun smoke. One bullet for the ox, and one for Kerrata.

Five second left.

Jack took one last look at the gate of Tanichron’s palace. Half open, he could see inside. There was what appeared to be a market, with stalls and demons of all kinds, and a few things that looked somewhat human. However, striding forward, mostly obscured by the door, was a giant goat-footed thing, hairy and blue.

That had to be Tanichron. The figure was probably fifty feet tall. A big, dark, azure arm flexed a bulging bicep. A huge platinum vambrace covered the Hell Duke’s wrist. He wore a golden skirt of hardened leather. Jack couldn’t see the duke’s face, and he was glad. He didn’t want to mess with such a blasted thing.

There was a good chance he’d never risk stopping the Influunt Diaboli ever again.

Jack stood back and swept his thumb over the toy soldier. The windup key moved to the right one click.

With one second left, the Influunt Diaboli started up again, but the