To all Readers: Thank you for writing your reviews. I've been getting some negative stuff lately, but that's okay. As long as you're honest and not just a jerk, I welcome all feedback, positive or negative. P.S. Glenak, stop writing reviews. They're getting tiresome.
Well, on to chapter 6, I guess.
Aires walked with Seraph for a short time until they reached the selected door. Seraph turned the key and unlocked it unassumingly. Yet what Aires saw next he couldn't believe.
"How did you get this key?" Aires asked in surprise to what door the key had opened.
"A long time ago, when the Oracle and Merovingian were allies, I used to work for that scum. Yet one day she made an attempt to better him as a person. Insulted, the Merovingian sentenced her to death. When he did the Oracle and I fled to the apartment where you two conversed. However, I took the key before he could kill us. That is why he wanted the keymaker: In order for a new key to be built for that door. However, code changes in one of these doors must be sanctioned by the Architect. I guess he wanted the Oracle and Merovingian to do the work of killing the other for him. Furthermore, asking the Architect for authorization to change the lock would have likely meant agents after the Merovingian. So he was never able to change the lock," Seraph replied calmly.
"Now do I go through that great big door at the front?"
"Yes," Seraph replied. "But first you must find the key to that door. It should be there somewhere."
"Thanks," Aires was grateful for all that Seraph and the Oracle had done for him. After all, it wasn't like he was very important in the grand scheme of things.
Aires made his way into the Great Hall as the door closed behind him. It was in shambles, used weapons hanging everywhere with some recently dead corpses sprawled across the bottom floor of the hall. Aires assumed that it was Neo, since there was no one else who might have a quarrel with the Merovingian that would be able to create this heap of bodies. As Aires looked at the decaying programs, he realized that their code was beginning to melt away, as he could almost see the greed encryption beginning to evaporate.
"Weird," he remarked under his breath.
At that moment something leapt from the second floor down to the first where Aires now was. Aires caught a brief glimpse of the man before the stranger grabbed a spear and thrust it toward Aires: He ducked the weapon as it smashed into the wall.
"I thought all the Merovingian's bodyguards were dead," Aires quipped.
"Well you could say I'm the last one," the bodyguard replied coyly.
"Where were you when this happened," Aires asked.
"Let's just say…" the bodyguard went on, "that I am not like the other bodyguards. You see I was designed by the Merovingian to be his most trusted and best bodyguard: After all, he made me himself. So you see, I was, well…enjoying myself when the other guards were forced to deal with that stupid Messiah. Yet my father didn't even interrupt me. He's such a good dad."
"Are you the son of Persephone, too?" Aires asked.
"Well of course," the program went on, "She was the one that gave me my name- Mammon. It means 'Son of Lucifer'. That's about all she ever did for me, though. When it turned out that he loved me more than her, she tried to kill me. That was when he began having the affairs, and why she and I are forbidden to be near each other. Oh well, I think I've told you enough, now I must kill you."
"I'm not sure I can let you do that," Aires replied.
"Oh, but you won't have a choice," Mammon arrogantly exclaimed. "You see, I can guarantee you three things. 1- That you shall not pass. 2- That I am a superior warrior. And 3- That when you lie there, begging for mercy, you will find none. Now prepare to duel for your last time."
The fight began as the two met each other with a flurry of hand-to-hand attacks and defenses. Mammon was very skilled with hand attacks but lacked perfect footwork. Aires exploited this with a barrage of kicks, many of which hit Mammon. Soon, however, Mammon caught Aires foot and threw him into the rail at the top of the second floor. Aires smacked the ground as he lay in agony. He could hear Mammon laugh as he toiled on the ground. Mammon, spear in hand, drew closer in a slow and celebratory way.
"I told you I was too tough for you to handle," Mammon sneered as he prepared to thrust the spear into Aires throat.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The crack of gunfire blew through the air as Mammon fell to the ground. Aires crawled toward the spear, gun in his right hand.
Mammon recovered quickly, as the bullets sucked into his skin. Boom! Boom! Two head shots. Mammon fell back again as Aires reloaded before seizing the spear.
"Alright, get up," Aires, spear in one hand and gun in the other, ordered to Mammon as the programs skin began to heal once again. "I know what program can do that; you're a werewolf. Now I can either kill you now with this spear or you can show where the silver bullets are kept, so I can use you for leverage when I talk to your father. Your choice."
"Fine," Mammon reluctantly replied as he pointed to a gold case sitting atop the Great Halls staircase. "Up there."
"Alright, cool," Aires responded with the spear still at Mammon's throat. "Now walk up to the top of the Great hall, and lean against the wall."
"I'm not stupid. I know what you're thinking."
"Au contraire. You're my leverage with the Merovingian. Now move towards the wall."
With that little bit of assurance, Mammon did as Aires said. With Mammon subdued, Aires would have a way into the club. Better yet, Aires was positive the Merovingian would abide by any request if not doing so meant the death of his son.
"Sorry about this," Aires guiltily said to Mammon.
"Arrgghh," Mammon cried out as the Aires spear thrust into his left pec, "that's a spear wound! Those don't just automatically heal!"
"Why do you think I said sorry," Aires sniggered as he emptied his last remaining clip and loaded it with silver bullets before inserting it in his gun.
"You expect to get out of this with one eight-bullet clip?" Mammon said in a feeble laugh, "you're never getting out of this alive."