Chapter Twelve == The Other Demon
ONE – To the palm of Fate
The hallways finally came to an end. When Elesis breathed the cold air of the night, she didn't even notice. The first thing that took over her was anger: they had gone the wrong way. Instead of returning to Mineral Section, they had left the building. Lass stomped the floor, furious (his stomp, Elesis noticed, had left some cracks on the concrete floor).
"God-fucking-damn it!" he cursed. "We left! How in the world did we leave?"
"Calm down", said Elesis, trying to do the same. She knew it was harder to think blinded by anger. "We took a wrong way somewhere, so we only have to go back in and—"
"Back in?" interrupted Lass. "There will be no 'back in' now. We have to move and—"
He stopped taking because he had looked up. Elesis looked at where he was staring and her eyes stopped as well. There was a new sun shining on Jacksonville's sky.
"What is that?" she asked, not expecting an answer, though.
"Most certainly a spell, and a big one", Lass said.
"Big one, my foot. That thing is huge. What's happening here? How did they know we would be here? Who summoned that thing?"
"Okay, asking questions is good to get them out of your head, but it doesn't mean you'll get answers. I also have a shit lot of them, but I think we should…"
Lass' talk was interrupted by a voice. It didn't speak with sound, but inside their heads, and it was Mari's voice. She was screaming, and the message was clear.
"Did you hear that?" asked Lass.
"Mari is in danger", said Elesis simply. Hearing her best friend's scream for help had placed an iron ring around her heart. She threw the 'remain calm' idea straight through the window. "We have to go!"
Lass immediately tried to argue.
"Ellie, we don't even know where to start…" he began, but Elesis didn't listen. She was already running along the wall to go around the building.
"Oh, fuck that shit…" muttered Lass, and started running after her. It was easy to catch up; Elesis was getting tired.
It didn't take long for Elesis to notice there were orcs all over the perimeter of the museum. One of them got in their way and started what seemed like a scream for help, but Lass ran past her at an incredible speed and hit the orc with a dropkick. The energy in the blow was strong enough to shoot the orc ten meters across the air. After it landed Elesis and Lass simply continued running. Stop to kill the orc would be a waste of their already narrow time.
It all changed when they turned around the corner of the building.
A red, roughly thirteen meters long, four to five meters tall, shining and imperious dragon was standing on top of a fountain, in the middle of the plaza in front of the building's front entrance. Under the flaming sun, it looked like something coming from the depths of hellfire. Its front legs were a pair of claws, apparently as sharp as any sword they were carrying. When her mind radius reached the dragon, Elesis lost her breath. She'd never sensed so much energy in a single living being. It was almost like an aura around it. And when it turned its head towards her and Lass, she saw not the emptiness or savagery she expected in its black eyes. She saw thought. She saw wisdom.
The dragon was, apparently, rational. This was proved when a voice of fire, deep and forceful, spoke in her head:
"Welcome, you who are chosen, to the shadow of Fate's hand. I am the Red Gorgos, servant of Lady Kaze'aze and harbinger of ill destiny" it said.
Around the Red Gorgos there were about two or three hundred smaller dragons, apparently not nearly as strong as the large one. He waved his head towards these smaller dragons and spoke again, not with voice, but with thought.
"You have no chances. The Ram may be defeated, but, even though Fate determines the Grand Chase to be stronger than all, you are not yet fulfilled. I may not be the worthy opponent of the chosen ones, but that doesn't matter. It won't be me or my minions to bring down the lost Angel or her servant. He is coming. He will be the harbinger of your fate."
Elesis and Lass looked at each other. He said:
"Did he just call me your servant?"
"Did he just call me Angel?" she shot back at him.
"I think so."
"But there is a way", said the Red Gorgos. "Give her to us. Give us the First Born. Do that and your Fate will be denied. You are not tied to her, neither is your Fate to you. Only hers is inescapable. It shall bring death upon all those who follow her."
"Wait, time out!" said Lass, loudly. "Give you what exactly?"
"You play fool with me?" asked the Gorgos' voice, now sounding somewhat upset. "Give us the First Born. Give us Nairi!"
"Na-what? Is that a name?" asked Elesis.
"We don't know this person. And what are you saying with First Born? I thought they were all gone", continued Lass.
This time, the voice who spoke was carried by sound. It apparently came out of nowhere, but it was still a sound, sensed by ear, not mind.
"They don't know, Gorgos. They know nothing. And must they die in ignorance? For that is the worst of all deaths, and rightful to those who stand in The Lady's way", said the voice. From the shadows of the trees around the plaza, came out the figure of a man. To their surprise, the Red Gorgos came down from the fountain with a jump and bowed its enormous head to the man. To surprise Elesis and Lass even further, they sensed in the man even more energy than the dragon had. Elesis felt something bloom in her mind, making it cold and painful.
Fear.
"My Lord", said the Gorgos, still bowed down.
"But you, who are not from here, would do wrong in dying in this pitiful world", said the man, directing his words at the two Corporates. "The hand of Fate moves, and now the Cores are awakening again. When the core inside this place is ours, we'll come to you. You shall awaken the other core. And die. There is nothing more to be done."
Elesis and Lass were motionless. Both of them were thinking the same thing. If that man wanted, he could kill them right where they stood, having so much power and a giant dragon at his command. What is he going to do?, they wondered. None of them was expecting an answer, but it came.
"Face the true power, Grand Chase", said the man, and, in a second, he was in front of them, both hands raised, palms turned to them. When he hit them, Elesis calculated she'd never been hit with so much strength before. It made Arianne's training sessions look tame. She was pushed into the air like a leaf and, when she landed, the man was already on top of her. He punched her straight in the chest, making the little air she still had escape from her lungs, along with some blood. The ground under her body cracked. Lass tried to get up, but the man turned and hit him with his foot, making him drop again.
The man raised his hand above the head, and Elesis noticed he was preparing a spell. The energy was concentrating above him.
"Now go, and meet your destiny! OPEN!" this last word was shouted as a Commandment. The energy of the spell exploded from within, and what they saw was a gate, like the one opened over Meridiana Park more than half a year ago. Now Elesis recognized the gate for what it was: a dimensional rift, forcefully opened across realities, a wound in the Fabric of Truth, the skin of existence, opened to the darkness beyond the boundaries of the Old World. Where to? Well, there's only one way to find out, she thought. And that's exactly what happened.
Moving at that same unexplainable speed, the mysterious man grabbed Lass by the neck and threw him into the gate. Elesis stood frozen and, when the man turned to her, she didn't even try to react. He didn't grab her, though. Instead, he placed his right hand on her left breast, right on the heart, and said:
"Kûiki: Aetrephai Isinnesaya!" Elesis only had time to see it was a spell before she felt as if the man had placed a round, incandescent piece of iron in her chest. At the same time her head (in fact, her entire body) broke in a pain as such she'd never felt before. She screamed to the dark sky, but it was for nothing. The man's hand was still there, and the pain started to focus on her heart, leaving the rest of her body completely numb. The pain grew to the point she thought her heart – beating, she would think later, at more than two hundred beats per minute – would simply stop, and she would die in that place, that museum on that city of the United States of…
And it stopped.
But not completely. The numbness was still there and, without feeling her legs, she fell to her knees. She still felt a surge of pain in every heart beat.
"What did you do to me?" she asked. The weakness of her voice was surprising even to herself.
"The gears are in motion now", said the man. "From my hands to the palm of Fate. This is where it all begins, Angel. And if it goes as I plan, this is also the moment that will define your painful death."
This time he did grab her neck and his grip was an iron ring, like the one placed around her heart by the voice of Mari's desperation.
"From my hands to the palm of Fate", he repeated, before throwing her in the rift.
The last thing Elesis remembered was thinking why had the man called her angel. And then there was darkness.
And the drums.
TWO - Immeasurable
Once upon a time, there was a high school student called Lass Stronghold. He wasn't exactly normal. He had two people that were closest to him: Ronan Erudon, his brother from another mother, and Lire Versignassi, a beautiful girl who loved most of what came from Japan, specially food and mangas. They had a Physics teacher (who was in fact a Soul Crafter, though they didn't know that at the time) called Arianne Lothos. In these relatively normal and, in some ways, happy days, they once had a Physics class where their teacher mentioned an infinite result. Some funny student asked her how much exactly was infinite.
"Infinite is the immeasurable. It is something so great that it can't be conceived", she'd answered.
"Immeasurable?" asked the student.
"Exactly. It is a hard idea, in fact, the immeasurable. Can anyone here even think of anything immeasurable? Something that escapes our capability to count, to conceive, to think?"
"The universe!" someone said immediately.
Arianne laughed.
"Of course, that would be the first guess. But no. We have –" she used the pen to make a very small dot on the white board. "— the Earth. Twelve thousand kilometers of diameter. Big."
She drew a slightly larger dot.
"We have the sun. As large as some millions of Earths, these drawings are off-scale. Big." She drew a circle around the two dots. Still very small. "We have Pluto's orbit. One billion and some more kilometers of radius. Big." A fairly large circle. "The black hole at the center of our galaxy, whose gravity holds us all together, and its Event Horizon. As big as some millions of Suns, and probably as heavy as millions of millions of millions of Suns, but it doesn't matter. Big. And heavy, of course."
She stopped.
"If I were to draw our galaxy here, even off-scale, it would not fit. It's big. It's part of something called the Local Group, which is part of some other thing that's even bigger, the Virgo Supercluster. Yes, the universe is huge. But, everyone here probably knows this, it's in expansion. It's growing. Tell me, if it's already immeasurable, then it already is complete, and has nowhere to grow into. The universe, from this sight, has a limit. A boundary, if you please. It's big. But it is not immeasurable."
The class was quiet. Arianne always did that. Kept their attentions. Their focus.
"Another guess?" she asked.
"The number of particles in this huge universe?" asked Lire.
"That's even better!" said Arianne, excitedly. She turned her back and drew a number one in the board, followed by zeros. Many zeros. As she drew the zeros, she resumed talking to the class.
"Everything is made of particles. From the clothes you are wearing, to the trillions of bacteria inside your bodies, and the sun in that sky out there and the stars that are larger than your imagination can picture. And particles are a motherfuckerly small thingy. Even so, an atom of hydrogen has its number of particles. So does bacteria and the stars." All the time, she was drawing zeros. There were already three lines of them. And she continued. "And since the universe is limited, so is the number of things inside it. So after a lot of counting and recounting, some very smart and unoccupied people came to the conclusion that the number of particles in the universe was not only measurable, but possible to represent in this rather small white board."
With a theatrical gesture, she drew one last zero on the board.
"They came up with this number. Ten to the eightieth potency. One followed by eighty zeros. This, my maybe-to-be friends, is the number of particles in the universe. No matter how motherfuckerly large is the number of galaxies in the universe, with a motherfuckerly large number of stars, planets, atoms and particles. It all comes down to this one. Big. But not immeasurable."
Once again, the class was completely silent. Focused.
"You are approaching it the wrong way, my dear students. Most of the time, the answer to an apparently unreasonable problem is clear if it's approached differently. Immeasurable isn't something too big to imagine. It's something you can't even picture in its own greatness or simplicity. Like a feeling."
She walked over to two students who were sitting side by side. They were a known couple in the school. Arianne indicated the two of them.
"Do you think these two love each other?" she asked, addressing to the class. Lass didn't believe too much in love at the time, but had to agree those two were a good match. And he'd also love to have a girlfriend with breasts as big as the girl's. Luck was a bitch alright. He said yes, as well as the rest of the class.
"And how much is that?"
No one even tried to answer.
"Well, I'm sure the best some of you could tell me would be 'a lot'. You wouldn't give me a number or tell me exactly the amount of feelings they have for each other" Arianne turned to the couple in question. "I doubt even you could tell me that."
The two of them nodded firmly. No.
"This is immeasurable. The feelings a man and a woman who are in love have for each other is immeasurable. Not only because it's big, but because it's too big to even think about."
When Lass Stronghold, the demon, got thrown through a dimensional rift one and a half years later, he finally came in contact with the infinite that holds reality.
That was the first time he came in contact with the immeasurable.
When Lass crossed the rift, it didn't hurt. He actually only felt a strange pull in his head. Then, he was thrown into something else. There was no light at first. No air. Nothing. Just the blackness around him. Then, something changed. At first he felt it like the wind. Something was going by him. Then, a light appeared, far away, only a shard. He heard voices, carried by the wind. He didn't understand the words (if they were words) they said, but he noticed it was a song. Beautiful. Enticing.
The light was moving towards him, and the wind grew stronger. He was starting to get pushed by it. Only when the wind got strong enough to move him out of his floating stillness, he noticed the familiar vibration in his bones. Energy. He tried to see it with his mind, and gasped at the result: It was around him, everywhere. Moving. So much energy that he felt it physically, like the wind. And when the light got past him and lit all around him he noticed where he was.
He was inside one of the Strings.
But could it be? Master said the Strings could not be touched, only felt… but he wasn't touching the String, he was feeling it, with both his body and mind. All his thoughts were tossed like leaves at the wind, though, when the true energy of the String reached up to him. That was the immeasurable, the true infinite. Lass wondered how could so much energy exist. He thought the dragon had a lot of energy. He thought the man had a lot of energy. But they were nothing, less than nothing, compared to that river, that flow, that Flux of energy that was all around him, carrying him, and there was light and darkness everywhere and he felt himself moving farther and farther away from the Old World where he was before, and faster and faster, until he could no longer exist, he was part of the energy stream, part of the immeasurable…
With a painful hit and the sound of that song still in his ears, Lass Stronghold crossed the barrier of reality for the first time and landed on another world. On his right shoulder.
THREE – The dead World
The first thing that happened after his painful landing was Lass noticing how that place smelled terribly. The second was a strong wind hitting him from behind and Elesis falling on top of him. He went straight to the floor again. This time, with his face.
"Ouch…" he grunted against the floor, feeling the salty blood in his mouth for a second, before the cut was closed.
"Lass?" asked Elesis. He felt her moving on top of him. But not getting up. Not that it bothered him too much. She was amazingly light.
"That was me, last time I checked. Now could you…"
"Ah, sorry!" she said. Her weight left his back, and he got up.
"I was going to ask you to sit somewhere else, since I couldn't breathe, but this'll do too", he said.
"Where are we?" she asked, ignoring him.
Lass looked around. If he had to guess, he'd say they were somewhere in New York, in some shadowy alley between two really tall buildings. Except the stone of the buildings and the concrete floor were dark grey, and the visible sky was grey as well. There was no sound. No one, anywhere. Lass saw a trash can turned over, a bottle of cheap wine and a piece of paper lying around. Nothing else. The very air appeared to be still. All around him gave away one feeling: abandoned. The last living thing that passed through that alley had probably done so a long time ago. The place was completely and utterly dead.
"In another world, I think", Lass finally answered. "Except that… I've never been to other worlds, but was supposed to be so…"
"Quiet?" completed Elesis.
"Yeah."
"I don't know. This place is like it's not seen even the wind going by in ages. It's all so still. Almost as if everyone here simply left. And this smell…"
"Hard to stand", said Lass, agreeing.
They remained quiet, listening to the silence. It was almost oppressive, like the air itself was heavy and hard to breath. That is, until Elesis screamed and fell on her knees, clutching the left side of her chest. Lass saw something shining from under the suit and her hand. He kneeled down beside her.
"What is it?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.
She, apparently, wasn't listening to him. Whatever was shining under her suit started to make a sound of hot iron burning flesh, and she screamed again. Lass didn't know what to do. He reached out to remove her hands, but she shook him off with a harsh move and, surprising Lass, she grabbed the neck of her suit and pulled it open. And it was right there. Little above the heart, to the left of her sternum, there was a circle, with a six-point star inside and some strange indentations around, reminding him of the spell gates, who opened when a spell was cast. There was a single symbol inside the star. It reminded Lass of the Japanese kanji. No, whispered a voice in his mind. The name is jyuu, and it means kûiki. And what does kûiki means?
"Decree", he whispered. "It's a seal…"
And how did he know that? It didn't matter at the moment. He knew what it was, and he would take whatever advantage could come out of it. A seal… That meant it was supposed to hold something. But what? Her powers? Was that seal the cause of her apparent weakness? Could it be that she was sealed, all along, and no one noticed? And if she was, who placed that thing there? Elesis moaned and dismounted on the floor. Passed out.
"Great. Now what?" he grunted. Well, first I should find a place to get away from the open. He looked around the alley again, but there were no doors in there. He zipped Elesis' suit back up her chest and took her arms, passing them over his shoulders and lifting her (once again, he noticed how light she was). That done, he walked out of the alley. The scene around him was breathtaking. He was in a long street that reminded him of Second Avenue. There were many cars scattered across the street, which stretched as far as his eye could see through the strange and oppressive gray smoke that filled the air. Lass walked up to one of the cars and finally found out where were the people of that place. And where the smell came from.
There were three highly decomposed bodies inside the car. One of them, in the passenger seat, was almost only bones. Lass looked at the street again and now he noticed just how many bodies there were lying around there. Against the walls, inside cars, buses, lying on the ground, there were bodies everywhere. He didn't know what had happened, but one thing was certain: that world wasn't simply silent. It was dead.
"Dead, yes", said a voice from behind him. "And so it's been since the Core awakened from its long sleep."
Lass turned in place (not really quickly, Elesis' body hindered his movements) and faced the place where he imagined the voice coming from. Some point above his shoulder. There was nothing there.
"Up here", called out the voice. Lass looked up and, on top of one of the tallest buildings around, there was the figure of a man carrying a katana. Without warning, the man jumped from the building. Lass thought he was insane, because the building was apparently more than 150 meters tall and in fact when the man landed on top of a car it was smashed with a loud crushing sound and lifted a lot of dust. He walked out of the dust cloud, though, apparently unscathed. His katana was about seven to eight feet long. He was wearing red samurai-like armor and a white mask. Lass pulled out his left hand and called out one of the daggers. The man looked at it.
"Trisarkria. And I imagine Or-Könia is with you too. I remember those. Put your weapon away, demon. I'm just passing by. I may not be your ally, but I'm not here to fight you or your protected", he said, making his sword disappear as he spoke. "See? I disarm myself as well."
Against his will, Lass sent the dagger back into the joker.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am Gaikoz" answered the man.
"What do you want here?"
"I didn't know he'd send you here. Though it makes sense, since the Core is here, waiting for a chance to be free again. I am a servant of The Lady", said Gaikoz. Lass immediately recognized the name the Red Gorgos'd said and pulled out his dagger again.
"That makes you my enemy", said Lass, already calculating how he would fight that man and protect Elesis at the same time.
"I said put that away, young demon. The way you are now, you can't face me. Neither am I interested in exchanging blows with one who is already doomed along with his beloved", Lass felt a shiver run down his spine at that. "And you didn't let me complete. I may serve under the Lady's armies, but I'm not her man. I do as she tells me to, yes, but she didn't tell me to fight you. It doesn't matter much to me if you survive or not. In fact, I'd very much prefer to see Gorgos, Gardosen and all those bastards under the ground."
"If so, could you tell me what's going on here?" asked Lass.
"Maybe I can. I have some time", stated Gaikoz, simply. "Now, listen. There is no use for me telling you who is The Lady. You can ask your master later. What you have to know to survive this world is: she is after your group. You pose a great threat to her. You, the Grand Chase."
"Grand Chase? Never heard that name."
"Of course you didn't. But now you will, and you must adopt such name, for that's who you are. I think you can put your protected down now, I mean you two no harm."
Lass placed Elesis carefully against a car and asked:
"And why is this Lady after us?"
"Because, among you, is Nairi. And it is your fate to guide her, protect her and make sure she fulfills her Fate, which is to bring the Final Judgment upon The Lady with the power of the Creator. All of you, the Grand Chase as Fate determines it, are the last Duinath, the last Circle. All of you are both straight and round, keys to your own power, and your Fates are interconnected in such a way only a Circle can have it. You are the harbingers of the Lady's utmost Fate, one even she can't escape. And the Maker of such a fate is Nairi."
Lass interrupted Gaikoz's speech.
"Wait. You gotta be mistaken. There isn't anyone among us called Nairi."
"Oh but there is, demon. I know what I speak of. She only goes by another name. Among your group, you call her Lire."
FOUR - Eraser
When Arme ran into the Mineral Section, she instantly raised her left hand and punched something that flew straight to her head. Her hand contacted something hard, she heard a crack and a crimson flying thing screamed (really high was that scream) and fell to the floor. Head smashed. Victor looked at her, amazed.
"I didn't see that comin'", he said. "When did you become so fast?"
"It's not fast, it's just reaction time", explained Arme. "As you can see, it's useful."
"GUYS! It's Mari! She's alive!" screamed Ryan, pointing at a cloud of those red flying things. The Big Red One (of course, the dragon outside was big, red and, hopefully, only one) was surrounded by those small dragons when Arme saw him through the window. They seemed to obey him. It made sense. Who issues the orders? Me, of course, 'cause I'm the big one and, if you don't obey I'll step on all you bitches. All over again, the big one points the targets. But they seemed to have chosen the wrong targets in that Section. Surprisingly enough, the place was full of dead orcs. There should be almost fifty of them lying around. The largest orc, who talked to them, was now fighting Sieghart, along with two small ones. No one else was anywhere to be seen but, in the middle of the cloud of crimson dragons, was Mari.
She was bathed in blood, from the orcs, the dragons or her own, Arme didn't know. Her grimoire was roughly twenty feet from her, on the ground, probably swept from her hands by a dragon. She was protecting herself with the WDW knives Arme'd seen before, in the Island. The dragons were flying around her, dashing and making small cuts in her suit and the skin beneath from time to time. She already had a worthy of worry collection of those. There were some dead dragons there as well, but not many. As Arme watched, another dragon dashed on, cutting her left arm. She waved the mentioned arm and a blade followed it, cutting the wings off the dragon, along with a piece of its back. With the same high scream of the others, the dragon fell, bleeding heavily. After seeing the thing's blood, Arme decided to act. Using something called instant dash the witch disappeared from the place she was standing to be, with almost no delay, kicking a dragon with enough strength to make the floor crack when the creature hit it. The sound was always the small explosion-like wave.
Before getting hit by any dragon, Arme turned around and hit the next dragon with a roundhouse. Same explosion-like sound and same incredible force. Arme felt, satisfied, the dragon's bones snapping under her foot before the thing was pushed and thrown against the opposite wall by the kick. Something moved at her left side, and she instinctively raised her arm, hitting a third dragon with the elbow right on the head. The fourth was dispatched just as quickly, burned by a fireball Arme shot from her hand with a quick and basic spell.
"GET DOWN!" screamed someone. Arme didn't even think: considering it was a human voice, she simply obeyed, throwing herself on the floor. She looked up only in time to see Mari holding what looked like a blue cannon half as big as her and pointing it to the dragons.
"ERASER!" she said. Arme recognized it was a commandment, before a blue beam of light erupted from the cannon. Mari turned it and the beam sweep through the entire Section. Arme watched, amazed, as the light cut the dragons, the objects scattered across the room and even the columns, leaving a long and smoking mark on the walls. The dragons fell like flies right after getting hit by the beam. The destructive power of that thing was probably enormous.
The beam and the cannon disappeared after Mari completed a whole rotation. The girl fell to her knees, apparently exhausted. Arme got up and saw how many dragons there were left: only about six. Victor wiped five of them out with a dazzlingly fast sequence of side punches (any punch with the side of the hand was deadly if you held a Vajra) and the last one fell under Ryan's axe.
Arme decided to take a quick leadership:
"Victor, Ryan!" they looked at her. Ready. "Go help Sieg, I'll stay with Mari"
Both men ran towards the battling orcs, and Arme kneeled down beside Mari.
"Are you alright?" asked the witch.
"You… have no idea… how much energy… that thing… requires… to fire", mumbled Mari, breathing heavily.
"Well, looking at your state, I kinda do", answered Arme. "Where're the others?"
Mari grabbed fiercely, despite her weakness, the front of Arme's suit, startling her.
"Lire!" she said, her voice unsettlingly nervous. "You've got to… find her…"
"Wait, now you're too weak, I need to take you—"
"Forget me!" ordered Mari, angry. "You don't get it… they're here… for her"
"How do you know that?"
"It doesn't… matter. Find her! HURRY!" she added when Arme didn't move. "I'll be fine!"
Arme got up hastily and talked to Mari one last time:
"If I find anyone, I'll send them here"
"Whatever, just go" hurried Mari.
Arme looked around, just to make sure of what she already knew: Lire wasn't in Mineral Section. She hurried to the nearest exit, thinking on the way:
Lire, where are you?
FIVE – The dead Samurai
Astonished, Lass took some time to react to that piece of information.
"Lire?" he said. "How can that be? If she's a First Born, that would make her more than", he did some counts in his head. "…two thousand years old!"
"Don't ask me, demon. I don't know and neither do I care" said Gaikoz. "I was only sent here to carry out the mission given me by the Lady. You will find heavy resistance on your way, for I have provided so."
"What do you mean?"
Gaikoz turned to the building he was standing on before and said:
"Do you know why I was there, demon? Of course you don't", he interrupted himself, and pointed along the long street they were in. "This street goes all the way to the other side of this place we're in. Down there, there is a single, ancient spear of rock coming from the ground. Inside it there is something of great value. A Core of the Ancient World. It has been awakened for some time, and now its power has been provoked by your arrival."
"So that's why he threw us here" realized Lass. "But what do we have to do with this Core?"
"So you met him. A mostly unpleasant experience, I am sure", Lass felt a trace of humor in the samurai's voice.
"Who is he?"
"His name is Gardosen. He is a demon lord of the All-World, and his name is highly known there. There is not much good in whatever you hear of him and, out of it, the bad is mostly also true."
"And he works for this Lady", stated Lass.
"Yes. So does the Red Gorgos. The Lady will do whatever it takes to escape her fate, even take rule over the likes of those two. And of a ghost such as me."
"Ghost?"
"I have been dead for some time, demon. The Lady turned me into a dead man walking. I cannot go against her words."
"And why are you Lady's men after the Core?"
"The Cores. There is more than one. And their power is the power of the one who made these realities who orbit the Strings. Power of a far higher order than anything even a god can bring to existence. Only two can control this power: The Lady and Nairi."
"And what do we have to do with that? I mean, I'm not Lire, neither is she", he indicated Elesis. "We don't control these Cores."
"The Cores are all under powerful bindings. Only one touched by Fate has the authority to undo the seals to unleash its power, but now you are here, there is no need for that. But you still can" explained Gaikoz. "One such as yourself. Or the Angel."
"Why do you guys keep calling her 'angel'?" asked Lass.
"For the same reason I call you demon, because that is what she is. You will find out. That is, if you live."
"Live through what?"
"I was sent to put obstacles in your way to the Core. You must not get there before Gardosen. Or at least that was the plan. There is a way, though, and I can tell you if you want."
"Why would you do that?" inquired Lass, suspicious.
"This place", said Gaikoz, ignoring Lass. "—is very much like the Manhattan Island of the Old World, but there are differences. You can go through the sewers about half the way, for there are fewer corpses there to be affected by my magic. After I leave this world, the spell I have cast upon the dead will make effect and they will be turned into my ghost soldiers, so I recommend you to go to the sewers. After that, you should go to the rooftops and stay there. But, of course, in this unknown place, you most likely do not know your ways. That is why you will have a guide."
"A guide?"
"Yes, a guide", confirmed Gaikoz. "If you do not find her, she will find you. You will know who she is, certainly, for it requires a liar to recognize liars as much as it requires a demon to recognize demons."
"Demon? There's a demon in this place?"
"You will know in due time. Right now, I must go. We will probably meet again, demon. Anyone who tries to interfere with the Grand Chase will be touched by their Fate, as I am now."
"Wait. Just tell me one thing", asked Lass. Gaikoz stood waiting, and he continued. "What did that Gardosen dude do to Elesis? What is that seal on her chest?"
Gaikoz shook his head.
"I am not authorized to speak about the Angel, demon. Ask your guide when you find her. Meanwhile, try to keep her away from the sun and, when she awakens, make sure she eats something. Anything will do. She will need all the energy she can get.
"Now take her, and leave this place before it turns from a graveyard into a battlefield."
Lass took Elesis up and asked:
"How do I get to the sewers?"
"Get in that building I jumped off from. Follow the signs and they will lead you to the underground. But keep in mind, I'm only giving you're the least dangerous route. There will still be ghosts down there. Always keep at least one eye open and aware."
"And how do I know when I must go up?"
"She will know. Now go, demon. You are a good person, after all, and do not deserve the cruelty that Fate has in store for you. May we meet again when you are not in a life and death situation and me, not in a mission to bring your death."
"Same here. Thanks for the intel, samurai", said Lass. He began running towards the building to find an entrance. When he found it, he was running so fast he didn't even look up to see the lifeless neon sign above the entrance. Neither did he look back to see when Gaikoz silently slashed his katana and ripped open a dimensional rift as if it was nothing, and muttered a Commandment before jumping into the darkness beyond reality.
"Awaken."
SIX – The undead City
All over the dead city, another type of life began to replace the beating hearts, running blood and electrical nerves that filled the world before the end. As the spell cast by Gaikoz took effect, the many corpses that lay inside that version of Manhattan started being moved by a different power source: magic. But magic was not as perfect as the breath of life that it replaced. There was no spirit inside the reborn corpses, no will, no beating heart or running blood. There wasn't even flesh, truth be told. They were ghosts. Not alive, but not dead. It is curious how many people consider narrow the space between alive and dead, and how they are mistaken. There were many ways of being alive, but not dead. Being a dead man walking. The ghosts were not dead, because they could be killed, but they were not alive, for their bodies were already rotten from a long time being dead.
Under the now living dead city, Lass Stronghold, the demon, walked into a dark and dirty subway station, still carrying Elesis Winchester, the Angel, on his back. He looked up to the only source of light in the place: a sign that read Subway evacuation on indefinite hold. That explained why there wasn't a single body down there. Lass breathed, relieved, and found a bench to put Elesis on, before sitting himself next to her. He calculated that, as long as they stood quiet, there would be no reason for the ghosts outside to break through the doors he sealed on his way down. For now, they were safe.
Now, it was time to know his ground. He, unwillingly, stood up again and started walking around the station. It was cramped with luggage left behind and turned over benches. Written on a column there was a message left by someone who was, certainly, already dead:
God is across the Strings. We are forsaken.
Lass wondered what happened to that world. Gaikoz said the end began with the Core's awakening. If only its awakening caused all this, he reflected, what will it do when it's released? There were so many unanswered questions burning his thoughts he didn't even know where to start. One of them, though, sounded louder than the others in his head: what happened to Elesis, and how could it be reversed? Whoever was that guide Gaikoz mentioned, that would be a great time for it to show up. He returned to Elesis and sat down next to her once again. He looked at her. When she fell in that alley, there was a tortured expression on her face. Now, she seemed to be simply sleeping, and her fair skin was flawless, without any marks or wrinkles of worry. Her calm sleep instilled in Lass an exhaustion as heavy as the tons of earth above his head. He fell asleep, his left hand resting, just for safety, on Elesis' leg.
SEVEN – The Low Town
Lass woke up with someone shaking him gently. At first, his consciousness refused to come back, as if it knew the hell that waited for it outside the world of the dreams, but he ended up coming to senses, to see Elesis' breathtaking eyes staring at him.
"I waited as much as I could", she whispered. "But I think it's time for you to tell me what the fuck's going on here."
Lass, still sleepy but regaining his mental facilities, whispered back:
"How are you feeling?"
"I've been better", she answered. "I can't stand too long, and feel like I just got beat up really hard, but I'm still breathing."
"Aren't you tired?"
"Very tired. But it's my turn now. Where are we?"
After Lass told her all about Gaikoz and his mysterious words, she remained still for some time before saying anything.
"You mean this world… everyone is dead?" she asked.
"Yes. And that thing on your chest", Lass said. "That is a seal. I don't know of its nature or purpose, but it is a seal, and I have no clue on how getting it off from you."
"Maybe when we come back to the Old World, master can do it", said Elesis. Lass felt his chest tighten. Maybe we won't even make it back to the Old World.
"Hey, don't look so down", said Elesis, placing her hand on his face and making him look again into her emerald-green eyes. She probably didn't realize her gesture had made his heart speed up its beats. "That Gaikoz said we have a guide, right? An ally. We'll make it to the Core."
"Yeah, we best", said Lass. "Before whatever killed this world catches up with us. Or with our ally."
"That's right. Now, I think I saw a food vending machine over that way. Maybe there's something worth taking."
"Great", said Lass, sarcastically. "Now we're stealing from dead people. Is this any better than looting a battle ground in which you took no part?"
"No, it's not. But it'll have to do. Besides, we're not even sure those things are edible."
Lass had to leave Elesis on the bench and go find the vending machine. It was still whole, which he considered a miracle, and there were some things inside it he considered safe to eat. When he took them back, he laid them down before the Angel and said:
"So, which one do you want?"
"You went for them, take your pick", answered Elesis.
"You need to eat. Gaikoz said you'll need all the energy you can get. That sounds reasonable to me. You take your pick."
"Okay then… I'll take the potatoes and those cookies over there."
"There you go, Elesis-sama", said Lass, handing the requested items to her with a half-smile.
"Sama?" inquired Elesis. "Interesting."
She opened the potatoes as quietly as she could and started eating. Lass picked up a chocolate bar. It wasn't exactly good, but it was certainly not poisonous. He ate three of them and placed what was left in a plastic bag (since there were many lying around among the junk). After Elesis finished her meal, he commented:
"I'm afraid now you're thirsty."
"Sort of. Nothing to be desperate about" she said. "Now, for the troublesome things: where do we go from here?"
"One thing I'm sure", said Lass. "Not up. It's crawling with those ghost freaks."
"Did you see them?"
"Sort of. From afar and only concentrated on not making any noise. It's way too dangerous to walk around up there. I don't know the level of their strength, but they can easily overcome two of us on the numbers. You didn't see it, how many bodies there was up there. If every single one of them is now a ghost…"
He saw Elesis' understanding it. She sighed and said:
"Well, then we should follow this tunnel and find a way into the sewers. Maybe we can find our guide there."
She started to get up, but Lass forced her down and said:
"You won't be walking if I can avoid it. I'll carry you like I did when you passed out."
"But I'm fine", protested her. Lass shook his head.
"Waste too much energy, and you'll pass out again. If you stay conscious, we'll be two looking around instead of one."
"But…" she seemed hesitant. "Won't I be just dead weight then?"
She seemed genuinely worried about that, and Lass saw the worry through her eyes. Like he always did in these times, Lass resorted to humor.
"Hey, c'mon, that look is blackmail", he said, getting a smile out of her. "It's not like I'm doing such a great thing, since you're actually pretty light."
"Always good to hear that from a guy with superstrength", mocked her.
"And how much do you weight?" he mocked back at her. She slapped his arm, laughing.
"Don't you know it's rude to ask that to a girl?"
Lass apologized and noticed how the mood got a little better between them. That was good, not only because he wanted to be in good terms with her. If they were working together, things would be a little easier. Not a lot, but a little easier.
"Well, then let's get going" he said, picking her up again. "We've stood here for too long."
She agreed silently and, after packing their little stuff up, they took off. Elesis was carrying the bag with the food and water they gathered. As Lass walked inside the long tunnel, he cast a quick spell to make a bottle in his hand glow like a flashlight. With that feeble light shining in his hands, Lass Stronghold walked into the darkness, with Elesis Winchester vigilant behind him.
EIGHT – The other Demon
The first time Lass saw the ghosts created by Gaikoz, he was running not only for his life, but also for the life of the sleeping angel on his back. This time, though, he was walking under the undead city of New York with a weak light on his right palm, and the world weighted on his head. The light revealed about thirteen ghosts. They were not at all the ethereal beings Lass'd expected to see, instead they looked simply like corpses, walking around and shining with a faint iridescent green light. Lass, silently, put Elesis down (he was glad to see she stood firmly on her feet) and pulled out Trisarkria and Or-Könia. Elesis pulled out the Undoing as well, but she'd already agreed with Lass not to fight if she could avoid it. Well, they're just unarmed corpses, Lass thought. How hard can it be?
This was answered when, all at once, the ghosts' hands were lit with green, lifeless flames, which converted to pale swords. Also, all at once, their energy shone to Lass' mental eye like lights in the middle of the ghosts' chests.
And they were huge.
"Oh, my, do you see that?" asked Elesis, behind him. Lass figured she was referring to their energy.
"That looks like trouble" he said, assuming a defensive stance.
One of the ghosts appeared instantly in front of him. A normal human would never keep up with that speed, but Lass was already expecting it. When the ghost slashed its pale blade, Lass held the blow with his right hand and returned it with the left dagger. He assumed the sharp blade would cut the ghost in half, but it merely ran through its body without touching it. It seemed ghosts were, in fact, immaterial.
One ghost ran past him with that incredible speed even his enhanced senses had a hard time to follow. He realized where it was going before it was even halfway though and materialized in the thing's way, slashing both daggers at it simultaneously. It did no better effect than in the first try, and the ghost hit the side of his head with its sword's hilt, throwing him against the tunnel wall violently. There was almost no pain, though, and he immediately got back on his feet, only to see the ghost already standing before him, raising his sword to strike a final blow. Lass instinctively looked at Elesis for help, but there were two ghosts trying to strike her. No help in on the way. Lass had time to consider that, maybe, he would not heal from a cut made by those ghostly swords. That was, before his help arrived.
Punching the ghost straight in the ribs.
The shockwave was amazing. Lass calculated that punch as to be strong enough to throw a car in the air. His thoughts, running at a high speed, registered that somehow that hand made contact with the ghost's body, unlike his slashes. The ghost was thrown almost parallel to the ground for about ten meters, and landed loudly on the stone floor, which cracked open at the impact. Lass' eyes flew back at the person who punched the ghost, and he only saw a blur when the figure dashed towards the ghosts attacking Elesis. With almost simultaneous blows, the figure launched both ghosts against the wall, making holes on it with the force of the impact. The figure stopped and stood erect. Lass got a good look at its face.
It was a girl. But unlike any other girl he'd ever seen. She wore a dark training suit, open at the sides and revealing much of her curvaceous figure. Her hair was dark pink, and her eyes were green, darker than Elesis' emerald tone. The girl's skin was pale like Lass' own, only a different, purple-like tone, and a playful smile danced on her lips. The most unusual feature to her, though, was the fact that there was a purple horn coming out of her head on the left side, and five smaller ones coming out from the right, being that two of them ran along her face, instead of being erect out of the skull. The first thing Lass thought upon seeing her was: The ghosts were bad. This one is worse.
"Well, well, you are having trouble with des morts vivants, the unliving? Such a pity", she said, turning to the ghosts. Her voice carried a heavy French accent. "Those are worthless creatures, who are not even capable of putting up a decent fight."
She turned those green eyes to Lass and smiled openly. He noticed her canine teeth were extremely sharp.
"You'll have to wait" she said, pointing at him. Then she turned back to face the ghosts. "Right now, I have to claw all these puppets to shreds!"
That said, she jumped straight to the front, and the ground where she stood cracked at the pressure of her feet. She hit a ghost with an uppercut, and Lass noticed she was only hitting them with her left hand, where she was wearing a most strange glove. It was only on the points of her fingers and the hand itself, and made of an unknown metal. And, apparently, it greatly boosted her physical strength. There was a purple aura around both her fists.
Lass considered she could easily destroy all the ghosts only on the punching, but she backed off and he heard her voice muttering quickly a spell. To his surprise, she was chanting in English:
"Make way to the force that erases even light, the focus deadly upon the fabric of truth", she chanted quickly. When she raised her hand, the glove was shining with purple light which colored the walls with a dead luminescence. He noticed energy focusing at her back.
"Sphère Gravitationelle!"
A purple spell circle appeared behind her and about ten balls of black energy hurled from it. When the black spheres came in contact with the ghosts, they simply dismounted like dolls whose limbs are pulled from the main body. Lass appreciated the fact he was away from the ghosts, for their blood bathed that section of the tunnel from top to bottom. Curiously, their blood was not red, but blue and fluorescent. After the black spheres stopped flying and disappeared, there wasn't a single ghost standing in their way. Only the mysterious girl who slaughtered them all single-handedly was now between the two Corporates and their way into the sewers. To Lass' desperation, when she turned to look at him, the homicidal look in her eyes had only gotten more pronounced. She smiled again, exhibiting her long canines, and said:
"Now, it's your turn."
She disappeared and Lass, remembering her strange glove, dived to his left, knowing she would strike him with her left hand first. He could survive a hit from her right fist, but if she found his body with that super-destructive left hand, it would be a one-hit K.O.
He calculated correctly. When the girl appeared before him, she punched the place where he was standing a millisecond ago with her left hand. The blow hit the wall behind him and smashed it, making a frightening sound all across the tunnel. She'll bring the whole fucking place down this way!, he thought. He tried to pull out his daggers, but noticed he was not holding them anymore. He'd left them on the floor when he dived to avoid the assassin blow from the girl's hand. Unarmed it was, then. His hopes were shrinking. Elesis, he noticed with the corner of his eye, was now standing and holding the Undoing firmly, yet without knowing where to strike. The mysterious girl had disappeared in that phantom speed again and, one second in time, he saw her coming at him once again. This time he jumped, slightly to the left side again, and again it worked. Her powerful punch passed right under his raised right arm, and he felt a strong wind on his face. Moved by the energy wave of her punch, he realized. And pushed by the impact.
This time he tried to return the blow. With all the strength he could gather, he tried to hit her with his right fist, but she disappeared before his punch landed. The energy wave of his own punch hit the floor where she stood before evading, making the dust on it rise in a suffocating cloud. Fuck! Now he would not see her coming. Luckily, the dust also impaired her sight and, when her blow came, it was with the right hand. Her fist hit him on the sternum and he was pushed back with overwhelming force. He landed on his back three meters away. The blow hurt, but only for a moment. He jumped back on his feet and saw Elesis waving the Undoing at the girl, enjoying the lack of visibility provided by the dust could. The girl managed to avoid most of the sword's extent, but still a small cut appeared on the immaculate skin of her cheek. She dashed backwards, out of the dust, and laughed. Lass watched, terrified, as the blood (hers was red) ran down staining her skin for a moment, before the wound closed by itself. Quickly. Lass was left with no doubts of what he was facing now.
The girl was a demon.
"Is that all two Chasers can perform?" she asked, taunting them. "I seriously expected more of the legendary last Circle."
"Fuck off, demon" said Lass. "We don't even know who you are!"
She materialized in front of him, her hands at her back, and said right at his face:
"And who are you to talk of me, demon?"
He reacted, trying to hit her with his right hand again. She ducked and avoided the punch. Lass grinned, and simply waited to see three cuts appear on the girl's face. The delayed energy put in that punch did that. After a split second, the demon girl was responding to it with a blow from her left hand. Lass was already expecting that answer and dashed to his left, easily avoiding the otherwise devastating blow. Instead of trying to hit him again, the girl jumped and kicked him right across the face. Her kick was also pretty strong, but Lass managed to withstand the impact and stay on his feet. He reached out to grab her leg, but she, to his surprise, dashed while on air and avoided it. After she landed, she raised her glove-covered hand to the cuts on her cheek. After they healed, she said:
"Well, maybe you're not a complete waste. You managed to see through my strength and avoided all my left side strikes. But it's still too far from defeating me. If you don't put up a proper fight…" she paused and licked the metal glove on her left hand, seductively. "I'll claw you to shreds where you stand."
"Well, then you'd better get ready", said Lass. "'Cause now you've lost the surprise element, I'll be going all out on you!"
NINE – Lass Stronghold vs. Ley of the Crimson River
"What do you mean?" asked Elesis. "You want to fight her by yourself? I'll help!" she determined, holding the Undoing with a stronger grip.
"No", said Lass, waving his hand at his fellow 'chaser'. "Avoid fighting if you can, remember?! I can handle this one."
"A not very smart-ish idea, my fellow demon", said the girl. "You are not nearly as strong of a demon as me."
Lass didn't answer. He was making his energy run through all the muscles of his body, making them tense, ready to act with incredible speed and strength. That was a full activation technique that Arianne had taught him in the beginning of his hand-to-hand fight training, that expanded a rather large amount of energy to top the user's physical prowess during the skill's influence. And, to fight that girl, he was going to need his maximum skill.
He attacked her and, just like before, the floor cracked at his feet's extreme pressure when he jumped, reaching an insanely high speed. The demon girl seemed able to follow it, since she parried his punch and tried to return it with her destructive left hand. Lass avoided it by bending sideways and, being now even faster than before, managed to grab firmly her arm and pull her to the front, while placing his elbow in front of her face. The blow's double impact knocked her to the floor. Before he could hit her with his foot, she used her own to kick his legs and make him fall down as well. Both of them jumped back on their feet immediately, as if nothing happened, and resumed exchanging blows at increasing fury and speed.
Lass was faster than the demon girl, that was evident after a minute or so of fight. This was counterweighted by the fact that he was being forced to avoid, at all costs, being hit by her left hand. After three long minutes fighting, neither Lass nor the girl managed to land any particularly strong hits, and Elesis, watching from a safe distance, was amazed by the speed and force of their moves. Many holes were now opened on the tunnel walls, thanks to the missed punches and kicks from the two fighters. In the middle of the battle, Lass had stopped and summoned a single-layered barrier around himself. Those barriers were used to deflect physical and magical attacks and could be single or multi-layered. The multi-layered ones could drastically increase one's durability, making them very hard to hit, since any strike or spell had to, before hitting the user, pass through the barrier, which would dissipate its impact and energy. Lass, though, wasn't fool enough to believe a low level, single-layered barrier could hold a hit from the girl's left hand: that barrier was supposed to hold any spells she could decide to cast at him. And, in fact, after he managed to deliver a rather strong hit at her stomach, she backed off about five meters and started casting, once again in English.
"May the up become down and light turn to dark, reversed be the worlds and compressed onto the same void of the primeval landscape" she chanted. Lass focused on his barrier and thickened it as much as he could, preparing to hold off whatever that spell created.
She raised the glove on her left hand, and it was shining even more fiercely than during her first spell.
"Passage Secret!"
This time, the spell circle appeared around her wrist and a single black sphere came hurling at him. The energy in that sphere was palpably larger than in the other spheres from the first spell, and it was heavily condensed. If Lass had that kind of energy thrown at him half a year later, he would have known what it was going to do and exactly how to counter it. The current Lass, though, wasn't even a complete demon, and the limitations of his soul hindered his potential heavily. Being so, he didn't try to avoid the sphere, but to take it and withstand whatever came out of it. His weak barrier fell at the first energy wave of the spell.
To understand exactly what happened to Lass at that time, it's required to go inside his memories, to a day around April, when Arianne told the Chasers about condensed energy.
"Most spells fully unleash the activation energy the caster pours into their formulas" spoke their blonde master. "Those common spells can be quite devastating, since they are simply energy output. But, if you're the type of fighter who likes to put up some strategy, there are two ways of doing so: condensed spells and delayed spells."
"Delayed spells, like a spell you cast and hits only after you're dead meat on your enemy's hands?" asked Jin, with a laugh. The Chasers laughed too, but their master simply waited for them to stop, to then resume.
"Or a spell that only works to get you to somewhere in time if you're late?" suggested Sieghart, getting more laughs. Arianne nicely asked them to shut up (she threw a stone table at Sieghart) and said:
"I won't teach you how to delay spells, since most of you can't even cast a whole one. Rather, I'll tell you now the concept behind condensed energy. Some spells consume a fairly large amount of energy to be created, but don't give off the looks of being so powerful. That's because the activation energy of those spells is condensed. Around the condensed energy, there's a membrane of thicker energy, to contain the spell's true power. Once the spell's membrane hits something, anything, it will blow and the energy within will burst. The first expansion, the membrane's explosion, has an incredible barrier-piercing feature, making condensed spells the best call against low to middle level barriers. But, because the membrane will trigger at any contact, they are also very unstable, and dangerous to use in a place where there are allies which can be hit."
Lass had never seen a condensed spell in his life, so he didn't recognize that the demon girl's was one. His barrier was wiped out by the first expansion as if it was merely a piece of fabric, leaving him to withstand the spell's full power only with the durability of his demonic body. Luckily for him, he was no standard demon. He was a pureblood, and both his demons parents were, even though he didn't know at the time, demons with amazing powers. Even limited by his soul, Lass' power was strong enough to survive what came after his barrier was lost: the spell's effect didn't seem to be an explosion, but instead it was pulling him in, holding him around what looked like a small black hole. Gravity magic?, Lass wondered. That was the last thing he actually thought, because, for the first time in about one month, his body was assaulted with pain. His bones were breaking beneath the skin and his brain seemed to be swelling in the skull. Repeatedly he felt his arms and legs snapping like matches and going back to place, mending just to be broken again by the spell's powerful gravitational field. And all the time expanding his energy to do so. Lass drove all of his tortured mind's efforts into stopping the regeneration, otherwise his death from lack of energy would be unavoidable. First, his breathing would stop. Then it would be his heart. Finally, brain death. Game over.
And suddenly the spell was over. Lass fell on his knees, so great was the surge of exhaustion from healing over and over again from having his body shattered. But, he noticed, still in one piece and bearing only superficial wounds. At the last moment, when he thought his energy was going to be wasted to the last, he managed to stop the auto-heal of his blood and keep his life. He was in a terrible shape now, panting heavily and feeling like he'd just run from West to East Coast. Between his hard breaths, he heard someone else panting. When he looked up he saw the mysterious girl, hands on her knees, also apparently exhausted. The spell did this to her? According to logic, a condensed spell would expand more energy than a standard one. And, it seemed, the demon girl had just crossed her own line.
"To survive such spell", she said between her breaths. "You are more resilient than I thought."
"Heh", he grinned. "Right now, I'm in a pretty bad shape. I think it's your win."
She shook her head.
"No. I intended to fight both of you and now, if I challenge the Angel, she will defeat me even limited by Gardosen's seal. You won, demon", said the girl. After that, she did something that surprised Lass to the extreme: took off her glove and threw it at his feet, going down on her knees next. "Now my fate is in your hands."
Lass was left speechless, so Elesis spoke to her.
"How do you know about the seal? Who are you?" she asked.
"I know because that seal was not put on you by Gardosen. Not even he has what it takes to seal your powers. They are far too vast for that. He only activated it. You've been carrying that limiter ever since you came from the All-World."
"Came… from the All-World?" muttered Elesis.
"And, about who I am… My name is Ley of the Crimson River, and right now, I'm your guide to the Core of Pride."
TEN – Ahead and inside
"Guide?!" asked Lass, incredulous. "You mean you wanted to do this all along?"
"Not a chance", proclaimed Ley. "Were you not able to defeat even moi, there wouldn't be a chance in hell you'd reach the Core."
"Why would we want to reach the Core anyways?" asked Elesis.
"Oh, you don't know?", Ley seemed rather surprised. "Thought Gaikoz would've told you, that sword-happy fou. There's no way to remove your chains, Angel. They were placed on you by a power beyond your imagination so far. Even the Knight Master isn't capable of breaking that. Only an even greater power can cancel the seal."
"And that would be the Core's power? You want me to use its power to break this seal?" she asked, placing her hand over the spell circle tattooed on her skin.
"No way", answered Ley, looking at Elesis as if she was surprised by the redhead's innocence. "One does not use a Core's power. It's uncontrollable. If you try, it will kill you before you even notice. But the Core's been asleep for so long, and now it's awakened, it needs to be released. And do you know how it will be released? You do, correct?"
"By being touched by a person under the influence of Fate", realized Elesis.
"Yes!" exclaimed Ley, looking very pleased. "And now for the part that I'm sure as inferno you don't know: the first one to touch it will, if not die, be left so close to death they will actually be reborn!"
She laughed at that for about two minutes, while Lass and Elesis switched between looking at her, bent by the force of her laughs, and looking at each other, both with the same "What-the-fuck" face. After Ley finally ceased laughing, Lass asked:
"What do you mean by reborn?"
"That was a funny way to put it, wasn't it?" she asked, all smiley and sympathetic. Lass didn't answer, and she closed her expression. "Well, fine, if you didn't like it!" She crossed her arms and turned her back.
Once again, Lass was left with no words and a puzzled look by her reaction.
"What, are you not going to apologize?" asked Ley, fiercely.
"Apologize for what?" asked Lass, confused.
"You just offended me!" yelled Ley.
Lass looked at Elesis and waved his shoulders, looking for support, and found her looking at him intensely. Her lips formed the words "just do it". Nike style, huh? Just do it.
"Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything like that" he made up. "How about if we… uh… start again, eh?"
She turned to face him, smiling that same dangerous smile form when she turned to fight him.
"Okay. But if you do that again", she advised. "I'll claw you to shreds."
"Claw me to… ah, fuck that shit", grunted Lass. "What did you mean by reborn?"
"I meant", she explained. "That the first one to touch the Core of Pride will have his or her soul completely cleaned. Of everything. That means, if the Angel—" she pointed at Elesis. "—is the first to touch it, her seal will be removed. Along with all the gifts from the gods, of course, but I judge that's a good deal."
"Wait!" interrupted Elesis. "Why do all of you keep calling me 'angel'? What does that means?"
"Well, that's obviously because you are an Angel", stated Ley.
"Huh?" admired Lass. "You mean angels exist as well?"
"They exist", confirmed Ley.
"And… I'm one?" asked Elesis, hesitant. "But I'm just human, how can I…"
"Just human?" asked Ley, incredulously. "What, does that seal affects your ears too? I just said you're an Angel, so you logically can't be 'just human'."
Lass didn't know what to say. Elesis being an angel? I guess I can believe it, since I'm a demon myself, he reasoned. But, in fact, he thought demons were scary creatures who served Satan, the Devil or whatever. Turns out, they were just another race from the All-World. Could the angels also be?
"She's an angel…" started Lass.
"Good, you got that much!" cheered Ley.
"So angels are a race of another reality as well?"
Ley walked up to him and hit his head with her knuckles. Not strong enough to hurt, just a very strange act of reprieve.
"Wrong", she said. "Demons are a race, so angels are too, that's what your head made up? Makes sense, but no. A demon is just some guy who has demon blood. Pure, like yours, or mixed like mine. An angel is a war construct, crafted by the gods to be the greatest, most powerful, most amazing warriors you can think of. They're really rare, you know. Glad we have one with us!" she finished, clapping her hands together.
"War… construct?" stuttered Elesis.
"Aye."
"Made by the gods?"
"To the last bone."
"How?"
"Geez, how should I know? They're gods."
"Whose gods?"
"Well, they live in the All-World, I know that, but more I can't tell you. The Knight Master overknowledges me in that. You should ask her."
"Overknow… Ah, fuck it. You mean she knew?" Elesis suddenly seemed really angry.
"Ha, of course she knew. She was in the war fifty years ago too. Pretty much everyone in the Polygonal Net knows who you are."
Elesis would probably ask more, but a loud crashing sound came from somewhere behind them, echoing on the crushed walls of the subway tunnel. They all looked at that way, and Ley reached out to take her glove from the ground. Once she had put it back on her left hand, it created a beam of purple light from the palm. The demon girl directed the beam to the tunnel. Not far from where they stood, a side door had just been broken open and three ghosts had passed through it. Ley immediately turned off the light and whispered, so low they only heard because of their sharp ears:
"This way. Quietly."
Lass and Elesis followed her steps, along the metal rails on the ground. Soon, the noises were gone. Only their footsteps were heard, and they were so weak it was practically nothing. The oppressive silence and darkness were everywhere. After about twenty minutes of that dark and silent walk, Ley suddenly came to a halt. Lass and Elesis stopped and Lass asked:
"What?"
"It's here", whispered Ley.
She kneeled down and lit a weak light from her hand, revealing a hole blasted on the stone floor, under a rail and therefore barely visible. It led to the most complete and overwhelming darkness Lass'd ever seen, like a hole in everything, leading to nothing. Ley said:
"We'll have to crawl, and it is fairly long, but I guarantee you, there is a way out, and it leads to the sewers."
"You mean that's a tunnel?!" asked Elesis, her voice shaking with apprehension.
"Aye. Fairly long, as I said, but you'll just have to endure it. Why, are you that kind of person who is afraid of tunnels and snake-ish places?"
"Claustrophobic?" suggested Lass.
"Yes, that one. Fucking long words", cursed Ley.
"No, I'm not claustrophobic", answered Elesis. "I can do it, I just… won't like it."
"Like?" mocked Ley. "Well, I guess a mole would like it. I won't like it either. Just go."
Neither Lass nor Elesis moved.
"After you", said Lass. Ley smiled, though without any amusement.
"Don't trust me yet, do you?" she asked. "Fair, and wise I'd say. Fine, I'll go first."
After she snuck in the hole, Lass muttered:
"How the fuck could we already trust her after she tried to break my neck?"
"I can hear that", came Ley's voice from the hole.
Lass waved his shoulders and stepped aside so that Elesis could get in. She looked up at him, puzzled.
"I imagined you'd go first", she whispered.
"Yeah, well, I want to be there if anything crawls at us from behind", answered Lass. "So, go."
She didn't argue and followed Ley. Lass was the last to disappear in the small tunnel. On his knees and hands, he crawled in to the true blackness.
ELEVEN – The takeover of Pride
"Wow. Now this is black", admired Lass.
All he could do was hear his voice. His hand, right in front of the eyes, was not visible. He could only hear. Smell. Infer.
That was really turning into the worst and longest day of his life.
"What, are you scared of the dark?" asked Ley's voice, scornfully.
"No fucking way", denied the demon. "I'm the man around here."
"Were you a real demon", replied Ley. "The dark would not be a problem, asshole."
"You mean you can see in the dark?" asked Elesis, curious judging by her voice.
"Kind of", her voice's sound was followed by a short sequence of footsteps and a loud slapping sound. Lass cursed loudly.
"FUCK! That was you, wasn't it, you hell-hooker?! Want me to beat you again?"
"Like you could" she said. Lass noticed through the sound that she was standing right before him. "You're so blinded down here I could claw you to shreds using only two fingers."
Lass muttered something and suddenly a sphere of blue light appeared, revealing the two demons, standing, arms crossed and shoulder against shoulder, less than a foot from one another, exchanging a fierce look.
"You wanna fight, I'll put up some lights so I can see you bleed!" provoked Lass.
"I'll feed on your lifeless carcass, you failed devil", threatened Ley.
"STOP!" yelled Elesis, putting a commandment into the word. Even though she had no hope of beating one of the demons in an all-out fight, her command worked. They simply stopped.
"If you have the time to build up rivalry", said the redhead. "Then you can walk, while our beloved guide can answer some questions."
At first they didn't move, but soon Ley walked away and raised her hands.
"Okay, wouldn't want to give the Angel any reasons to hate me", she said. "We'll continue later, bleach head."
"Anytime you want, half-breed."
"Can we get moving?" asked Elesis. Ley began walking to their front, but Lass asked:
"How do you know it's that way?"
"We have to move to a certain place near the Island's border" she explained. "The ground, if you notice, isn't level. It's designed in a way that, when there's a great flux of water coming through here, the inclination will lead the flood out of the island. If we move with that flow, that is, down, we'll be going outside, closer to our way up and to the Core of Pride."
"Seems like you know this place well", commented Elesis, following Ley. "How long have you been here?"
"Ever since the Core awoke", said Ley. "This world's decay was quick, and its end merciless."
"How did everyone die?"
"The Core of Pride poisoned the minds of their leaders. They were led to believe nothing could stop their growth. The place where the Core woke first was also the first to break. Iran, or this world's version of it, decided to create the ultimate weapon, to overcome all others. In an attempt to stop this, the United Nations attacked them, leaving only a wrecked desert and millions of refugees on their wake and, eventually, coming in contact with the Core itself.
"After that, everything went downhill. The United Nations started to avert in interests. That always happened, of course, but this time the Pride was taking them over. It was the Core talking through their mouths. It was not too long before the built up tensions from Iran's invasion and the UN's arguments turned into a worldwide conflict. Two weeks after the beginning of the war most of the world was a nuclear ruin, but the president of the USA, convinced that nothing could kill him, unleashed the final blow on the life of this Earth. He exploded his strongest nuclear weapon in the Earth's orbit. The EMP that followed destroyed pretty much all the electronic devices below the Equator, while the North Hemisphere was burned to death by the ionized atmosphere. Everything turned to ash up here while, down below, the anarchy swallowed them all. I don't believe there're many alive now. Those who live, do so just to survive."
"And how did you survive?" asked Lass.
"The Core protected this area from the blast. The people here died because of something else." she said. "Radiation. It's still around."
"What? You mean there's still radiation here? That means we'll die as well?"
"Well, radiation does kill. Humans. But there isn't a single human in this cheerful group of ours, is there?"
Lass saw the veracity of her words.
"You mean radiation doesn't affect us?"
"It won't kill you, if that's what you are asking. But it does hinder demons. Our dear Angel, though, is completely immune."
"How?" asked Elesis.
"Well, radiation is very deadly; there aren't many things in the Omniverse completely immune to it. So, when the gods created their weapons, they made you Angels immune, so that you'd be even more the perfect soldiers. You are weapons of war, I mean."
Lass noticed Elesis wasn't pleased at all for being called weapon of war. I wouldn't like, too.
"So… explain this better", said Elesis, changing the topic. "If I get to the Core before anyone else, I can break this seal on my chest?"
"Aye", confirmed Ley. "All the Cores were made by the Creator to bind all of the forces that are capable of destroying Creation. Therefore, the magic that makes their existence possible is far higher than anything even the Gods can make. When anyone with Fate's touch comes in contact with the Core, it will be released, in such a storm of primeval energy that the one to release it will have his soul extinguished and born anew. The person lives, the power doesn't. If you succeed, Angel, you will be returned to you original state. Free from the chains placed on you by your own makers. But also rid of the powerful flames they gave you on birth."
Elesis stopped taking for a while to reflect on those revelations, as they moved on through the tunnel. The smell was just like Lass'd have guessed the sewers of Manhattan would smell: terrible. Besides the darkness, that was the most screaming feature of the place. The sound of their footsteps echoed all the way.
"What is it that this seal is… sealing?" asked Elesis. Lass noticed her voice was shaking.
"The main stream of your powers. It also causes you to expand energy during Rupture and, if you were to ever begin doing Soulcraft, it would make you sick and weakened, as well as making your skin react to the Sun. All intended so that you wouldn't develop to be as strong as you were before, ever again."
Lass noticed the same thing as Elesis, but she asked first, some hope returning to her voice:
"You mean if I get rid of it, this sunburns will stop too?"
"Aye."
"Then I don't care about the price. If I return to being normal human strong, it won't change much, since I'm not that strong, anyways. I will reach the Core and destroy this thing—" she placed her left hand on the seal. "—before anyone else does."
"That's good", said Ley. "Keep that in mind, while we cross this dead city."
The three continued their walk through the sewers of Manhattan for almost two hours, time when Ley told them they should find a way up.
"Already?" asked Lass. "I thought it'd take longer."
"Well, Manhattan isn't so big", justified Ley. "If we go up this stairs", she indicated a vertical ladder on the wall. "—we can reach the top of a building. It will be harder from now on. On you, I mean."
"What do you mean, 'on you'?"
"I mean a demon with soul may not succeed", she answered, scornful. "Why don't you give me yours?"
"Fuck you, half-breed", cursed Lass. "I'll be there before you can say 'where is he'!"
"If I don't knock you out of a rooftop first", threatened Ley.
"Stop… it", muttered Elesis. Lass was terrified to notice her voice so weak. She was getting worse. "Let's just mo… move on."
The effort of speaking seemed too much for her. She leaned forward and Lass noticed she was going to fall asleep again. He moved, faster than the eye could follow, and held the angel before she hit the stone below.
"Ellie", called Lass. He was, again, trying to keep his cool, so as not to make anything stupid, but it was quite hard with the girl he liked sick in his arms. "Hang in there. Are you awake?"
"Yes", confirmed her. "Just… dizzy."
"Just hold tight. I'll carry you from here again", assured Lass. "Try not to fall off."
"Worry about yourself", advised Ley, firmly. "It'll be a long way up, specially carrying someone."
"I don't care. Just lead the way."
Ley turned and started climbing the ladder. Without Lass noticing, she smiled. The first real smile that crossed her face in a long time.
Author's Afterword: I stopped writing this story in the last couple of months. A couple of months in which I did absolutely nothing but work, sleep and play games in my free time. I genuinely saw no reason to continue writing. I still don't, but I decided to start writing again. It just does me good, to get this out of my head. Someone else might read. Isn't that the point of ?
So I give you my longest chapter thus far. Fourteen thousand words, my (hopefully) readers. You want blood? I'm giving you blood!
Some people don't like long texts. I enjoy both long and short fics. One-shots are enjoyable, if done properly. Long fics are enjoyable if done properly. I'm always worried about doing properly. It's good, I think. Keeps me on my feet, always double, triple, quadruple checking stuff before publishing. Another reason I take long.
Just updated the story description. Rated M for language. This may change. Later. I'll leave that in the air for your conclusions *evil laugh*.
Reasonable reviews are welcome. Focus on reasonable. Concrit is very welcome. Flaming is not welcome, and you want to flame me, might as well save your precious time and read something else. Trust me; you won't be saying anything I haven't eventually told myself already.
Nobody questions me more than I question myself and nobody hates my stuff more than I do. Until next time.
