“Innn!” Persephone shouted as she pointed at the far side of the open temple.
“Does she mean the cylinder?” Eve asked, and the other woman nodded violently.
“I’m not sure that is actually going to--” I started to say, but Persephone waved frantically and then pointed to the cylinder again.
“Boouudd! Pooowerr! Reeeetuurnn!”
“That is the way home?” I asked, and she nodded.
Then the group of monsters slammed into the door.
“Fuck!” I growled as I pushed my left shoulder and right arm against the seams of the door. My strength forced it closed after they knocked it open a few centimeters, and I could see a horde of the disgusting monster bat-men that I remembered from my previous dream.
Persephone and Eve jumped next to me and pushed against the door as the monsters slammed into it again, but I knew that we wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever, especially if Persephone wanted us to do something with the cylinder.
“I need something to put through these door handles so it stays closed!” I yelled. “Both of you, go find something!”
Eve and Persephone spun away, and I caught sight of the platinum-haired woman jumping in the air and floating away with a beat of her wings. The monsters on the other side of the door were screaming now, but the stump where my left hand had once been was itching like crazy, so I was kind of able to focus on that and holding the door closed instead of their screams.
They beat on the door again, but this effort wasn’t unified, and I was able to hold them both closed while they slammed on it. Part of me, the animal beast side of me, wanted to open up the door and tear into them with my claws and teeth, but I knew that would put my women in danger, so I resisted the urge.
“How’s it coming?” I shouted over my shoulder after the monsters seemed to get their coordination together and had almost knocked me back away from the door twice.
“Here!” Eve shouted, and I spared a glance over my shoulder to see both women carrying what looked like a terminal screen, except it was made out of the same kind of strange stone as the wall. It looked similar in design to the unit I had seen inside of the temple on Uraniel, and I guessed by the way that the two women lifted it that it must have weighed a lot.
I also guessed that it was going to be a bit too large to fit in the loops of the handles.
“This was all we could find besides the tubing on the ceiling, and I don’t think Persephone can pull it down.” Both of their pale faces were red with exertion, and I could see their arms trembling when they walked up next to me.
The fuckers hit the door again, and my feet slipped for three terrifying seconds. One of them managed to get an arm through the gap and claw at my chest, but I let out a roar, threw my body against the door again, and the limb was seared off when the doors joined again. There was a scream of agony from the other side, and I kicked the twitching limb away before turning back to them.
“It looks too big to--” I started to say, but then they both dropped the terminal screen, and it cymbal crashed into the ground. The longest side of the rectangle kind of accordioned so that it was smaller, but a bunch of stone pieces also chipped off from the sides, and the screen flickered to life.
“That will work!” I thrust my hip against the seam in the door, prayed that I could grab the terminal before the fuckers kicked it open again, and then lifted the device from the ground with my one hand.
I had expected it to be heavy, but it felt almost like I was lifting something that weighed twice as much as I did, and my muscles screamed almost as loud as the assholes outside as I tried to force it up toward the door loops. Eve and Persephone grabbed the other end, but they had to lift it up to their chest height.
“Move it with your mind!” I shouted as the fuckers collided with the door again. I almost lost my grip on the terminal when I shoulder checked the doors back, and one of the monsters cut me on the shoulder.
“I am. It is so heavy!” Eve’s voice came out in a panicked rush, and I knew what I had to do.
“I’m going to put it on my shoulder!” I shouted. “You both grab the door on my command. One!”
As soon as I said the word, the doors were forced open again, and I had to head butt a fucker back who got his face through the door opening.
“Two!”
The monsters beat on the door in an uncoordinated attack, but I still didn’t have good leverage against the surface. The door pushed open a little, but I slammed my shoulders back in, and then scrapped the claws on my toes across the stone ground pushing everything closed again.
“Now!” I shouted as soon as I felt I had control of the door.
I yanked up hard on the crumpled terminal and threw my body under it like I was doing some sort of sideways snatching lift. Eve and Persephone both let go at the perfect moment and leapt to the doors, but the fuckers on the other side must have felt the pressure on our side release for just a moment, and they screamed frantically as they pushed again.
I let out a roar of frustration, spun around, and then tried to angle the one side of the terminal into the first loop of the door handles while both women pushed it closed. My heart was slamming in my chest, and my lungs burned like I was breathing fire, but I managed to get the one end into the left-door loop and a bit of the pressure on my shoulder was relieved.
The monsters made a coordinated push, and then the right door where Persephone was got pushed open almost halfway.
Persephone shouted with surprise as three of the ugly fanged humanoid monsters jumped through. I kicked out with my right leg and hit the first one in the stomach, but its hands wrapped around my ankle, and my heart skipped a beat when I thought it might pull me out and into the horde of evil creatures.
Eve threw herself at the monster, shoulder checked it so that it fell back, and then sliced her nails down on its hands. I almost went down as I struggled to balance on one leg while bearing the weight of the terminal and the inward push of the door, but the creature’s grip on my leg let go when Eve sliced his arm open, and he let out a blood-curdling scream.
Persephone shouted and slammed her shoulder into the door. There were still two more monsters that were inside, and I couldn’t really do anything about them, but Eve pushed her hands out, screamed, and then they both tumbled deeper inside of the temple so that Persephone could push her door closed.
I grunted and pushed hard with my aching legs. The door was swinging in and out with the combined movements of the fuckers pushing against us, but the terminal suddenly slid through the second loop, and I let out a sigh of relief as soon as I let go of my burden. It had been a tight fit into the loops, but that actually served to keep the doors from wiggling too much, all I had to do was take care of the two fuckers that were inside, and we’d have a bit of time to figure out what Persephone meant with the cylinder.
Then the terminal cracked down the center with a sound that reminded me of ice breaking.
“Shit,” I growled. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
I turned around just as the two fanged monsters came rushing back toward us. Now that I wasn’t carrying a massive load on my shoulder with one hand, the fight would be more in my favor, and I jumped into the space between my women and the two monsters so that I could deal with them.