Chapter 143: Kali

Richard could only stare at the draconic Adrian as the giant skeletal dragon began to slowly advance on him once again. Vaas unintentionally released Katrina so he could speak to Richard,

"Hey Richy! Uh, are you sure you want to try and fight your not son that badly? Because I'm pretty sure he will eat you...whether or not that ends up being literal I'm not sure on either." He didn't have time to listen for an answer, as Katrina snatched Soul Reaver off her back, parrying the light machete out of Vaas' hand, and then turning her attention to Salem, only to recieve a holy bullet to the shoulder, sending her to the ground. She cried out, getting Adrians' attention, and the giant skeleton stopped, turned, and saw Salem keeping his gun aimed at her head,

"Go on kid! Make you move! You know I have no problem putting a bullet in her head!" Adrian paused, and turned back to Richard, shocking Salem and Vaas, while Katrinas' heart shattered, until she saw Adrians' giant boneshell tail swing towards the two villains and knock them away from her by about a football field or two. Richard could only watch in horror as he continued to back away from Adrian, unsure of what to do,

"I AM A GOD ADRIAN!" He shouted, weakly attempting to intimidate Adrian to no avail. The skeletal dragon simply plucked Richard off the ground by his neck, hoisting him up to where they were eye level,

"Bitch you are not a god, just another devil," Adrian bluntly stated. Richard whimpered, but only for a moment until he looked straight up, and a smile spread on his face, causing Adrian to look up, and his one eye widened; there was the missing Halo, in its original size, and far enough away from the planet so they can see it in its entirety. But what stood out was that in the middle of the ring was a giant red magic circle, slowly growing to fit inside the ring turning the blue sky to a blood red.

"You know what, you're right," said Richard, "I am just a devil, but you'll be nothing but dust in a minute!" Adrian returned a glare to Richard silencing him, and crushed the mans' windpipe. He then tossed Richard into the air, grabbing his ankle, and slammed him into the ground firmly. Richard rolled onto his back, and Adrian walked up, planting a boneshell encased foot on Richards chest, crushing his ribs like they were made of crackers. The man coughed blood, and despite having the power to destroy Adrian, he was simply too afraid to use them, so Vaas and Salem leapt into action, with the mohawked lunatic latching onto Adrians' boneshell wings, wanting to slice them off with his machete, while Salem was shooting his gun at the large skeletal dragon, only to see his light bullets bounce off the hard boneshell. Adrian keeping a firm foot on Richard, grabbed Vaas off of his back, and with his large claws he began to crush the psychopath, while he used his free set of claws to grab Salems' gun hand, crushing it, and lifted the masked man into the air, causing all three men to shout or scream in pain. Katrina should have been happy that Adrian was winning, except Adrian wasn't trying to kill the three villains; he was trying to make them suffer.

"This isn't right..." she said to herself, standing up and clutching her injured shoulder, "...this isn't Adrian!" She then sprinted to Adrian, "ADRIAN STOP!!" She shouted, causing the skeletal dragon to look down at her, "THIS ISN'T YOU! YOU DON'T WANT TO MAKE THEM SUFFER! VICTORIA WOULDN'T HAVE WANTED THIS!" Adrians' only response was to bring back one of his boneshell wings and smack her away, sending her skidding across the cracked desert ground. He then proceeded to slam Vaas down on the ground, the mohawked human barely breathing as he spit blood out the side of his mouth, and shifting his grip from Salems' arm to his masked head, slowly crushing the metal on the scarred mans head as he screamed in agony. Richard, managing to build up some courage, sent several tendrils at Adrian, who simply caught them in his free set of claws, wrapped them around his boneshell grip, and tore them from Richard, taking the mans' arm in the process. Richard screamed as he quickly regenerated his arm, but Adrian dropped Salem, and picked up Richard by his ankle, spreading his claws, ready to start slashing until he couldn't regenerate anymore. Katrina, not caring if Adrian lashed out at her again, ran up to the giant skeletal dragon, hugging him tightly around his waist, tears streaming down her face once again, "Adrian! Please!" Adrian looked down at Katrina, and something welled up in Adrians' heart, melting the cold spot that had formed in his heart, causing him to drop Richard, and the boneshell began to crack, falling away as Adrian shrunk down to his original size,

"Katrina...I...I'm sorry." She continued to hug Adrian, and the one eyed devil simply returned the hug, tears rolling down his cheeks as well. Richard, Vaas and Salem simply watched the two as they picked themselves up and stepped away.

"So what's our next course of action, Richard?" Asked Salem. The man shook his head,

"We get to the Halo, fire it, and watch as it sends those two devils into oblivion." Richard raised his hand, and the three villains vanished in a flash of red and violet lightning. Adrian and Katrina looked at where the villains once stood, then up at the Halo, and they saw the red magic circle had finally filled the inside, and glowing brighter and brighter,

"Something tells me we won't survive that..." said Adrian. He felt his head tilted back down, and saw Katrina was only focused on him,

"If we don't, then lets not waste this last moment..." Then, to Adrians' shock, Katrina closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his. Adrian hesitated at first, but he closed his eyes and accepted it as well, right as the ring above them began to shine with a pinkish red glow, signifying the ring had fired. The glow began to gain on Adrian and Katrina, but neither one were paying attention, instead they were more focused on each other, trying to make the moment last forever, and soon the blast was not even a foot away from them...

"Awe, now isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen?" Adrian and Katrina opened their eyes, pulling their lips from each other, and they saw they were no longer in the desert, but were instead in a large throne room, with tapestries hanging from large ivory pillars and rugs covering the marble floors. What caught the two devils off guard, however, was the topless woman seated on a gold throne with her legs crossed at them. She had shockingly bright blue skin, a slim yet toned body, long dark hair, dressed in pinkish billowing pants that stopped at her knees, held up by a blue sash, gold bracelets, anklets, equally gold ritualistic tattoos, and a large pointed golden crown on her head. When she stood up, the two devils saw her most distinctive feature of all; she had four arms coming out of her torso instead of two!

"What in the hell...?" Wondered Katrina,

"Am I?" Finished the multi-armed woman, "I think the question should be 'who in hell am I?' And that answer is Kali, Hindu Goddess of Death, Goddess of Doomsday, Goddess of Sex, Violence, Motherhood, and Goddess of something our one eyed friend up in front should be quite associated with now." Adrian tilted his head, and when he straightened up, he finally figured out what she was saying,

"Goddess of Time...so you pulled my uncle James from his timeline!" Kali placed a finger to her lips, quieting Adrian,

"Spoilers," she said with a wink.

"But...he's already vanished. You already had to have pulled him," said Adrian.

"Maybe I have, but I haven't yet..." said Kali, approaching the two, and giving them both a good look over, "...damn, if only you two were a year older or I was a few years younger," she said, admiring them.

"Okay, ignoring the creepy vibe, what do you want with us?" Asked Katrina, not really approving Kalis' looking over. Kali straightened herself up,

"Well, for starters, I would very much like a 'thank you, for keeping the God-Slayer Halo from killing us,'" she said, "and second, as Goddess of both Death and Time, I am getting real sick of Zeus' nonesense."

"'God-Slayer Halo?' That ring thing?" Asked Katrina.

"Zeus used magic on it, and now not only can it kill any living thing, but it can now slaughter any and all dieties as well," explained Kali.

"That explained the giant ass magic circle that was in it," stated Adrian.

"And that's where you two come in," said Kali, "because while the other gods are saying it's not their problem, and our worlds Lucifer, Michael and Azazel-."

"'Our?'" Katrina interrupted.

"Welcome back to your home dimension sweetie," Kali said with a grin, and continued, "-are too busy ensuring their own peace to bother with him, I've taken the liberty of taking matters into my own hands." Kali then emphazied her point by holding up all four of her hands, to which Adrian scoffed,

"'Hands,' yeah, funny, so how is recruiting us going to work, exactly?" He asked her, "I already lost an eye trying to fight him, Katrina lost a finger, and we both lost our friend Damon. Plus we don't even know where he is." Kali placed her lower hands on her hips, her upper right hand on his shoulder, and with her upper left hand she made Weskers' car keys appear in her grip,

"Just worry about getting there, I'll take care of the rest."

Before they knew what was happening, Adrian and Katrina were now inside Weskers car, parked on a dark highway, all wounds (save for the missing eye and finger) healed, with the keys now in Adrians' grip.

"So where exactly are we supposed to find Zeus if we don't know where we are going?" Asked Katrina. Adrian sighed, holding up the car keys,

"I think I know where he will be," and Katrina saw it; a small keychain that had not been there before...a Statue of Liberty keychain...