My Calling: Night Warriors
Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
MAKAI! Seperates Chapters
Chapter 5: Taste of Darkness
Within an alleyway of the human world, an alleycat's dinner of scraps of who knows what from a nearby garbage can was interrupted with the flash and glow of a transfer portal opening up. With an angry hiss, the cat scurried off as Nelius emerged from the portal. Taking a quick look out to the street, noticing a lack of people, he stepped out of the alley and began walking around the city.
'Hn, something about this town doesn't feel right.' Hearing the sound of momentous cheering, he rounded a corner to see an insane throng of people waiting around a concert hall. A few seconds later, a convertible drove up, and out stepped a man.
He stood about as tall as Nelius did, clothed in a leather jacket and jeans fashioned with metal studs, the right leg of the pants bearing the Union Jack symbol. Guitar case slung over his shoulder, he flashed a charismatic grin to the people.
"How's it goin, mates? You want a real show, show me the freakin' money, and come on in!"
Just moments after the rock star entered the concert hall, Nelius had noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye, but didn't get much of a chance to investigate, as the sound of a gunshot caught the attention of the people there, throwing them into a frenzied panic. As he was shoved and jostled around, he could see several humans adorned in brown robes filtering into the hall amidst the confusion.
'That explains it.' Backing away from the frenzied mob, he slipped into the nearby alleyway. Noticing a window several feet above him, he took a leap upward and swung into the open window. From there, he made his way inside and onto the rafters overlooking the concert hall itself where, down below, the man from earlier was getting ready to start the concert.
"Are you ready to rock!!" Eerie silence filled the hall, as the humans in the hall weren't here to enjoy the show. "Bloody hell, this crowd's so dead it's starting t' attract flies. Bad smell." He happened to notice several of the armaments they were carrying. "Garlic... silver bullets... that crap don' affect me none." Several jets of flame quickly changed his mind. "Now, flamethrowers, on the other hand... Fine by me, looks like it's time to roast or be roasted." With a strum of his guitar, his disguise began peeling away to reveal hollowed out eyes, clawed feet, and a giant chest cavity that revealed rows of sharpened rib bones.
The cloaked men wasted no time in going on the attack. Flamethrowers armed, they began taking shots at the ghoul, who managed to dodge and weave through each incoming blast of fire, though one shot had knocked his guitar away.
Close nearby, a white-furred catwoman with blue hair had managed to knock down two of the cloaked men, but her movement seemed slow and tired.
"There's another of them! Burn it!" Almost immediately, several more humans turned their flamethrowers toward her.
"You OK over there?" That momentary distraction was all that was needed for a flamethrower blast to light the ghoul ablaze with a scream.
Nelius had seen enough to know it was time to take action. Gripping the railing of the rafter, he hoisted himself over the edge and dropped down into the small crowd of humans who'd turned their attention to the catwoman, who was now lying prone on the ground. Using a burst of wind, he landed on the ground, creating an updraft that sent the humans flying upward, then thrusted his fist outward creating another gust that sent them flying into another group.
"Who the hell?"
"He's in with them. Get him!" Most of the nearby people turned their attention toward Nelius.
"No mercy for kids, women or furry animals, is that it?" Almost immediately, the ghoul, Lord Raptor, leapt from the flames, his own power flowing. "For humans, you sure got some nasty habits in dark arts." He began to grin. "I like it! When it comes to feasting on souls, I always did prefer dark meat. Here I come, baby!" Seeing that their weapons hadn't any effect on him, they turned tail and ran... or, tried to run, except that Raptor had leapt from his place on stage to the exit.
"Aw, show ain't over yet. Don't you want to buy a T-shirt?!" Rotating his legs at high speeds, he began circulating electrical energy around himself in the shape of a skull. Multiple bolts struck out at the humans, draining them of their souls, causing them to fall over dead. Raptor jumped back to his place on stage, reclaming his fallen guitar.
"Hehe, whaddya say, kittycat, kiddo? You want me to save you a couple of souls?"
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm not much for organized religion."
"I think I'd get heartburn."
"Hehe, I'm kinda nondenominational meself!"
MAKAI!
"There goes another one."
Hitching a ride in the back of a pickup truck, Nelius saw the scale of destruction created by the "Dark Ones" or "Darkstalkers", as most people called the demons of Makai. Cities were leveled, buildings still smoking from the various powers that the demons possessed. All across the scenes, many human corpses were seen, slashed, torn open, or completely destroyed.
'Yeah, definitely like how I heard of demons and humans first meeting back in my home dimension.' Far off, Nelius could see the remains of a few structures that managed to survive the onslaughts of the demons. 'But, hell, things are much worse off here than how back home used to be all those years ago.' It was his mentioning of back home that got him to remember what his original mission was. Regardless of what was happening here, he needed to become stronger and return home.
The truck unexpectedly stopped, tossing Nelius around. Standing up to get a better look as to why they'd stopped, he saw an enormous fissure emanating from one side of the road to the other. The bodies of several hundred demons littered the area, random bodies suggesting their deaths by fire, ice, electricity, and some unknown kind of force.
MAKAI!
Until next chapter,
Cornell Valentine Gainsborough