"Blitzy-boy, how's that 'Emilie' situation goin?" I chatted up the decker the moment Eiger and I entered the safehouse, KSK sniper silently pushing her way to own corner.
"Yeah...Well, sort of. Mostly speculation, truth to be told." Blitz replied, turning to me with more smarts and less sass painted on his face, which was a nice change.
"So what was it? She worked for Azzies or something?"
"Nah, I don't think so. Thing is, I got a message that I've traced back to herself...It said, I quote: Lay off, Blitz. I told you to leave me alone. You've shon admirable self-control over the past year, please do't give up on it now. I'll be back when I can. If I can. Until then, keep away from me for both of our sake.'" Blitz taken a breath and followed it with another drag of a smoke in his hand. "So I've found her and she tells me politely to fuck off. Again. Without explaining anything."
"So, did you lay off or went in bandit style?"
"Hell no I ain't standing down! Where does she get off to, stealing from me and then acting like it was my fault?!"
"Did you found any clues about her? Anything that could pin point her reasons for all this?"
"Well, I did found something that could suggest her working for Saeder-Krup but uh...There were some message fragments conecting her to Schokwellenreiter. I don't know if she's a mole for corps, some double agent of reiters or she's just messing with just to yank my chain-"
"Blitzy-boy...Do you trust my judgement, mate?"
"Huh? Yeah, sure chief."
"Then listen to me closely, fromt start to the end." I inhale, feeling it'll take a while "Her message was anything but cryptic this time. She wants you to stay away from her for both of your sakes. That means she's in some deep shite and manages it because she has no contact with you. No liabilities. You've said yourself she was better than you and you're bloody nova-hot, ay? Damned Blitzkrieg. So if she tells you to lay off, I think you should. For now."
"But-"
"For now, Blitz. You have her pinned, you have the trail to follow. Keep digging around, gently. If you'll come across any chatter about her, listen in on it, but do not contact her. Trust me Blitz, call it intuition but the way she praised you staying away for a year, I don't think she want to stay away from you indefinietely. She just can't be with you now. Do the right thing and let her do her thing, and I am sure this'll come back to you in good karma."
"I...Fine." Blitz deflated greatly but then stood up straight and looked me in the eye. "You're right, chief. I was always going on about me being hot shit but it made me lose Emilie, lose Schwarze Herzen, nearly lost my life to Meat Grinder...I think I gotta think about it."
"You should, mate. You're a bloody damn good rigger, maybe ease off on the deck for now, focus on the drone. It actually helps much more most of the time and when I need second decker, I know I can count on you anyway."
Blitz's face lit up like kid staring at display of candy store.
"I'll stay on it chief, I swear I'll make that thing dance!"
"I know you will, Blitzy." I gave him a pat and then went down to the basement, of course getting hit by furry cannonball named Dante.
Scratching, feeding the dog, making coffee for myself. Three first steps of entering the safehouse were ticked off. Now...
"Glory, all set up?" I ask when brunette meets me head on, instead of hiding in her closet.
"I am. You..." Glory stopped and gave me a glance over. "You've been on a run now?"
"No, just helping Eiger on little errand, nothing big. Night's still young, we can go now if you want." I offer to Glory but she shakes her head slightly.
"Hour and a half. Pack all the gear you need but you can leave the deck, I doubt you'll need it." Glory seemed more lively than usual even if she look distraught. "I'll wake you up when it's time to go, get some rest."
"Said pot to the kettle. You should rest too, Glory." I reply, genuinely touched that she cared.
"When it's over, then maybe. Now I need to prepare something...see you in an hour."
"Rai...Rai!" Gentle tugging on my arm made my eyes snap open, for a second making it feel like dream with Glory's face hovering above me. But she wasn't smiling so it wasn't a dream.
"I'm up..." I grumble and get up, taking a few deep breaths. "Let's go, it'll be a long ride."
I've already prepared my gear earlier so now I just put on all of my weapons and ammo. This time I've loaded up only slugs for my shotgun, to make sure I won't hurt anyone I don't want to. Sliding axe onto my back I suddenly hold my hand over unfamiliar holster. Looking down, I look at the short-barreled revolver I've bought few night ago from Mettbach. I don't even remember strapping it to my belt before, but something, a tiny voice in my head told me to take the small peashooter with me on this run.
Gut feeling is what separates survivors from deadmen.
Packing into the van, I've taken the wheel, gently ushering Glory to passengers seat.
"You alright, love?" I ask faintly, starting up the ignition.
"I wouldn't know what alright means even if I'd trip over it." Glory's vitriolic reply made me clench hands on the steering wheel. "But I hope I'll be alright after tonight."
"We'll get it done, Glory. You have my word."
"I know...And thank you."
Six hours have passed in silence, darkness around us still not letting up. For six hours, Glory did not uttered a word to me and I wasn't pressing her for it, seeing she was not zoned out the usual way.
No, her face wasn't smooth and blank like of a porcelain doll. Brows furrowed, eyelid twitched, lips dried out. There was hailstorm raging inside that girl, my imagination supplying all the juicy horrors of previous life more and more vivid in my head as in hers.
"Schonbuch Forest..." I finally speak when I notice the road sign, taking the turn off the asphalt and into country road between the trees.
"Nothing's changed, as if not a day has passed." Glory commented when we stopped the van two hundred meters away from the compound and crept through bushes towards the farm. "It's all looks so invitng, isn't it?"
I agree with her, the rustic charm and peaceful atmopshere surrounding Feuerstelle was so cozy, immediately making you think about things like fireplace, blankets, warm food...All of the things poor street kids never had.
Glory pulled me deeper into the greens suddenly, making me hide barely in time to escape any attention of the van driving away from the compound and onto service road we came in.
Good thing I was paranoid and hidden our ride a bit between the trees.
"Harrow has left to make rounds. This is our window to get in and clear the place, then just wait for him." Glory whispers, readying up large revolver in her hand.
As we near towards the compound, I feel something gnawing at me, something within me longing to just get in and make myself feel at home...
"Do you feel it? The lure of this place?" Glory's voice made me snap out of it, tearing the invisble string trying to pull me into the compound.
"Yeah, I feel something trying to mess with my head already...We gotta stop this, Glory." I reply, pulling up my shotgun and checking chamber for shell.
"When I was a kid - when I was *whole* - the pull was irresisitible." Glory added, as we begun walking down the rundown driveway.
"I promised to make you whole again, Glory. And you know, I have a fatal flaw of sticking to my word no matter what." I reply and was graced with fleeting, painstaken smile from chrome-laden brunette.
"...We gotta take out Harrow's shrine, in the center of the compound. The moment it's gone, Harrow loses his compelling powers and connection to Adversary. Then we end him."
"Shrine?"
"The literal and proverbial heart of this place. A slab of rock carved with runes and encrusted with bones. Harrow draws power from something toxic, ancient nd very dangerous." Glory clarifies.
It's an idea lasting a heartbeat but I do wonder if silver would have any extra effects on meta-entities like spirits or ghosts.
"It won't, though if it did, I'd love to have some with me." Glory's reply makes me realize once again I was thinking out loud. All I have to offer in reply was a shrug.
"Let's get this going, Harrow won't be away forever."
Entering the large house was an experience itself; from the rain and cold outside the difference of warm room and scent of wood was making you relax outright.
Fooled me once, won't be the second time. Screaming mentally at the unnamed force to go fuck itself, I shake off whispers trying to catch me into web of lies hanging above this place.
"This is it, the doors to the shrine. But we need a key." Glory whispers to me, pointing at heavy, ornated doors marked with horned skull, it's eyes glowing red from magical crystals.
Wow, that's some grade-b satanist embellishment out here.
"Let's look around, see what we can dig up." I propose. "What do we do with any cultists around here?"
"I'm not sure...We can't let them warn Harrow but..." Glory grimaces, not really into idea of killing brainwashed kids. The guilt of doing it before weighs on her like a shadow riding piggyback on her metal shoulders.
"We'll put them to sleep." I propose. "There will be bruises and headaches, but one at the time, they'll be just incapacitated." I finish with rising my fist armed with knuckle dusters.
Glory nods to me and allows me to lead on, herself more focused on walking as silent as possible and trying not to stare over the walls, paintings and everything around that just screamed torment at her while at the same time invited to sit down and rest.
First stop is Harrow's office. For someone trying to play humble and all, he had a flair with gilded throne-like chair, two magical illuminators in the corners and impressive library behind him.
"Guess it's good I've brought Deck afterall." I murmur after aquiring list of bribes Harrow paid to local cops to look the other way for missing kids. "What is this?" I point in the far corner and quickly approach ostentiatously large tome sitting on a crafted pedestal. It looked like a grimoire, straight out of fantasy novel.
"Harrow's manifesto. Handcrafted line of bullshit that he feeds to the initiates." Glory informs me, looking from above my shoulder. "We all ate it up, magical book holding all the answers making us believe Harrow was a genius with all this...Bah!" She torn away, unable to look at it longer. "I bet he even expanded this shit over the years, always adding more chapters to have answer for every possible outcome that'll net him total obedience from people...Can we go, Rai? My skin crawls just being in this room."
"I want to see what he added, you'll never know when you need a logic bomb against fanatics and this shit is as useful to Harrow as it is to us if we use it in proper way." I reply and start leafing through the book quickly to minimize uncomfortable feeling Glory was experiencing.
That Harrow lad was really off his kilter. I felt as disturbed as disgusted while reading through the essence of his own bible, him ranting about four elements of life: Love that boiled down to loving yourself, Self-determination allowing you to kill anyone in your way, Charity making you share forcefully your servitute with others, and Ambition pushing you to do whatever you want no matter collateral damage.
"Rai? There's something in here, like something is watching us." Glory suddenly speaks, looking around the empty office. Her magical essence may've been crippled but hell if I wasn't feeling this too, like somebody else was with us in the room.
But I had to go through this, had to find all the angles and hooks, my gut once again compelling me to risk my neck, like hundred times before. My own inner demon, you can say, different than the ones haunting Feuerstelle.
Going back to reading, I've moved through Rules of Living by Harrow the Psychopath. Hedonistic, downright evil values wrapped up in neo-hippie bullshit that does sound innocent to kids who never tasted education or experienced life. Be free, be selfish, bend over for the stronger because you don't question the foodchain...
"This is written in doublespeak. I bet every single sentence in this bloody book contradicts others in here." I comment.
"A fact that Harrow and I used to our own advantage. We could justify anything by pointing to that manifesto. If one place says no, other part says yes." Glory replied flatly but I did not allowed guilt trip, not now and not anymore.
"Harrow did, Glory. Don't start painting yourself as a part of the brain behind this all." I reply sharply, though still in whisper. "You weren't at Harrow's level, you were below just like everyone else. You. Were. A victim." I press on words, shutting Glory up but also making her lose that downcast look.
I run my eyes over the remnants of the text, seeing wild mix of social Darwinism, free love, Horned God and probably reptilian consipiracy. Nothing new here - pile of bullshit thrown into a blender and made into philosophy that sounds good until you give it a second look. Paper tiger on feet of clay, forgive the malaphor. This thing had absolutely no power over anyone beyond those brought into Feuerstelle, the most innocent and malleable of all possible initiate prospect.
Got you with malaphor, didn't I?
I close the tome with a smack, when suddenly gust of wind sweeps through the room, making me nauseous from the stench of bile, feces and blood. Gurgling sound made me turn around and see something resembling man skinned alive and screaming noiselessly, the horrible spectre hovering few inches above the floor.
Before Glory reacted, I've had axe in my hands. Making a horizontal swing, I've felt small relief when feeling the blade slamming into the creature, seeing if it's corporeal then it can be hurt.
Not stopping the motion I made a crescent move with the axe, extending the motion into circle to strike at the ghost again, just in time to slice it into pieces before it could fire off any attack.
This was the end of it, spectre dissolved into pool of pitch and rancid fat, staining the plushy carpet in Harrow's office.
"What the fuck was that?" I gasp, forcing my breathing to steady.
"The barrier between material and astral plane is weak here. Things...Things can come through." Glory replied and swallowed with difficulty. "But you killed it, I don't feel the aura anymore."
"Well if steel kills it, I don't care what it looks like." I try to be nonchalant, more just to give courage to myself and maybe a bit to Glory. "Are you alright?"
"Not in the slightest. But you keep cold blood, that's impressive." Brunette replied to me.
"I don't dwell on things and do not think what is and what is not possible, Glory. That's the key, love: Go with the flow and make things up as you go."
"Yeah...Let's get outta here."
The next room offered me another shock but somehow way more unpleasant that the infernal ghost trying to set me on fire.
"Is that..Is that what I think it is?" I ask faintly, standing in the kitchen room and pointing at open plastic container from refrigerator.
"Ritual supplies...Adversary likes them aged." Glory clarifies why I was staring at rotting human hand. "Everyone learns how to do it, cut it down and harvest. Nobody likes it at first...Then you just don't give a damn."
"Glory..." I close the fridge and sigh. "This is so fucked up. We really have to end this madness. End Harrow and make sure none of this will ever happen again."
Garage was next, Glory immediately approaching the van standing there.
"I remember cruising the back alleys of Tubingen, looking for kids in need of help." Glory begun, moving fingers against the smooth side of the truck. "Bait girls like Marta and others, lured kids with things like food, money or sex. Whatever it took for them to get into this van. And once they piled in...Harow and I were waiting to *greet* them." Glory's fingers scratch the surface as she pulls away from the van. "I remember so many nights like that, how much I enjoyed all of this...You know, Harrow once told me to kill a man in an electronic store. I did it, because he told me to. When it was over, Harrow laughed and picked up the most expensive tri-vid screen. Laughing, he admitted it was all because he didn't felt like paying for anything. So that's Harrow's Rules of Living in daily life. Since leaving this place I can't look at tri-vid without thinking about that day..."
"Glory..." I grab her hand in mine, making girl stare at me with glossy eyes full of pain. "You are not the same person you were back then. This thing, this whole thing? It's the past. We're here to lay the past into the grave."
Not letting her go, I've pulled gently and hugged her briefly. The short moment she rested head on my shoulder, I felt something within me firmly deciding that no matter what will it take, I will make Glory let go of previous sins and finally get on with the living.
We moved further after a moment, Glory seemingly finding some strength within her now.
"Stop, there are acolytes in there." Glory stopped me from opening another doors. "They are Harrow's inner circle. Only his torturers, wives and bait girls are allowed in here."
"How did you-right, of course." I do not finish the question, recalling her position in here. "We should knock'em down though, make sure nobody will fire in our backs."
"Not like we'll wake any kids, they live outside the house, in barracks and tents." Glory replied and sighed. "How do we do this then? Gunfire won't go unnoticed."
"You have claws, I have an axe. You say they're not just brainwashed, right?"
"No, they're sadists living the dream of victimizing people and getting laid." Glory huffed, springing claws on both hands at once.
"Then we should do little cleaning of this lounge." I decide and kick down the doors.
Running inside, I've spotted three people in hoods, two still sitting at the table while third laying on the couch.
Before any of them could scream, I've slashed onto closest one at the table and God my witness, I felt proud for being able to take entire head off the guy's shoulders.
Extending the motion into a pirouette I've only seen working in movies, I've slammed the blade into the face of second target busy readying up mana for a spell.
Swish of metal razors and juicy splatter told me that Glory diced the third guy cleanly. Proverbially cleanly of course.
"We're good...Glory?" I call to her standing like a sculpture, staring at something above the fireplace. Approaching her, I've taken framed picture she was staring at, transfixed.
My God, it taken me a moment to realize what I was looking at but...It was Glory. In ratty clothes and sporting flame-red hair but she was smiling, so brightly and beautifully...Other girl had arms around her and was kissing Glory's cheek. That probably was that fabled Marta, Glory's love and source of misery.
Looking at Glory, I saw her closing eyes and trying to breath evenly but I knew there was a sob coming, all of the good and bad memories flooding poor girl.
"It makes me wonder..." My voice made Glory look up on me. "Is your smile as cute now as it was back then. I'd love to see you smile again, Glory." I finish and put the picture back onto the fireplace, spotting something was resting behind the frame previously. Picking up a ring of braided silver wires, I turn the jewelry in my hands. "Know anything about this ring?"
"...Marta gave it to me the day that photo was taken. She said it was made for me." Glory replied faintly. "I've left it the night I've left this place. Didn't wanted an anchor like that to weigh me down."
"Maybe Marta still has feelings for you, if she's here?"
"Haven't you been paying attention?!" Glory snapped at me suddenly. "Marta *never* cared about me. She was a bait to lure idiots like me. That was her job, to make people fall into her traps, make people follow her here!"
"If so, then why she kept the ring?" I retort, recalling how much reverence Glory held about Marta even after all those years and things that transpired between them. Love...These two still had something for each other, and I thought it may help Glory later if Marta would come back around her without Harrow screwing people up.
"...I'm taking it, it's mine." Glory snatched the ring from my hands and pocketed it. Internally, I smiled at this silver lining.
Walking out, I've spotted rags in the corner. Rags turned out to be bloodied shirt, Glory telling me it belonged to initiate, fabric being sized for a kid.
"Why?" I ask simply.
"Maybe he wasn't obedient, maybe acolyte just felt like abusing someone. It's free for all and if you have the power you're the one eating others." Glory replied to me. "That's Harrow's Rules of Living to you."
Feeling like we've went down the rabbit's hole deep enough to reach the bottom, I lead to the remaining room and open it.
Ironic, that's how I felt it all was when first word that flew across the room was Glory talking to the girl surrounded by ratty kids.
"Marta?" Glory's voice revibrated with disbelief.
I've taken one look at Marta and knew why she was a bait, why Glory fallen for her. This was a grade-a elven stunner with flaming-red hair. This was beyond usual sex appeal, she had some of that aura of a goddess you want to serve and please.
I know the type, unfortunately for her I liked different kind of women. Like the one I've came in here with.
"Glory?" Marta finally speaks, eyeing up cyberware of her former lover, face twisting in horror.
"Yes Marta, it is me." Glory replied and damned if I haven't felt a chill running down my spine. This was different from her inhumanity before. This was vacuum-cold hatred. "It's been a long time."
"It-it has...What have you *done* to yourself?! And who is this?" Marta nearly shrieked.
"I got *out* of here. Out of this...hell."
Marta changed the tune, turning into puddle of profound sorrow, grieving over Glory. But the moment she tried to touch Glory, chrome-laden woman sprang her razors out and held four blades against Marta's neck.
"Don't. You. Touch. Me." Glory uttered through clenched teeth. "You're one of Harrow's creatures, you always were. You fucking liar!"
"Creatures? What are you talking about Glory?" Marta takes a step back, confused so greatly I almost believed her. Still...
"Glory told me how you baited her, and many others, into coming here."
"Baited? I've saved her!"
"Saved me? *Saved* me?!" Glory's cry made scared initiates huddle in the corner and Marta twitch. "If you'd left me where I was, I wouldn't have hurt anybody. My *mother* would still be alive. I never would've sold my soul to an abomination that you all worship and I would have never sacrfice my body to escape from it! This place has taken everything from me...And it all started with *you*!"
"Glory, please! Calm down...I still love you."
"That's the last lie you'll ever say, Marta." Glory's hand dangerously turned, aligning razors on her fingers, marking my cue to step in.
"I think we should hear her out. Something strange is happening in here, Glory." I try to be calm and just press on the words, my usual tactic of drawing attention of the whole room to my voice.
Marta nodded eagerly, her face telling me she was inches from pissing herself at the sight of titanium blades ready to shred her. "I-I'll prove it to you. Ask me anyting you want, and I'll show you I'm telling the truth! Glory, I never wanted anything bad to happen to you, I swear!"
"Why are you listening to her? She's telling you what you want to hear, lies coming from a fucking bait!" Glory fumes with anger and it wasn't a sight I ever wanted to see again.
"Because of the ring, Glory." My words frozen both brunette and the redhead. "Because of the picture in the lounge. If you haven't meant anything to her, she wouldn't have kept it all those years, no?"
Glory retracting blades back into fingers relieved me. Silently, she motioned to Marta to speak. "Convince me you're not a monster I'm sure you are."
"How am I supposed to do that?!"
"By starting how you sleep at night. You know what happens to kids brought in here. You know what happened to *me*. But you're still here, luring them into Harrow'a clutches. So tell me..How do you live with yourself? Make me believe."
Something was going on with Marta, her emotions spiking and she seemed more than troubled, but then I've heard it, like a whisper passing behind me, and Marta turned confident. Smug.
"Why are you asking me this, Glory? You already know the answers. The kids here, they aren't being *hurt* They're walking path of free and life!" Elf proclaimed with unshakeable faith.
"It's the shrine, Glory. That fucking magic plays with her mind. Even I feel it, the bliss..." I utter to my friend while internally screaming obscenitites to the voices, shaking them away again.
"Harrow is a great man. A prophet. Sacrifices had to be made but what he brings in return...It's love, Glory! You remember!"
"You're right, Rai. She lost it." Glory replied to me, ignoring Marta completely. "After so many years living in here, she'slike a fiddle, singing the tune shrine plays on her." Glory approaches Marta and softly grabs her ex by the shoulders. "Marta, if you really love me, if you ever did cared for me - then please, give me your key to the shrine. It's important."
"Key?" Marta blinked in sudden confusion.
"Whatever you use to pass the wards outside Harrow's shrine...You owe me this much, Marta."
She flips out again, elven girl not in control of herself and rambling like a fanatic about Harrow not allowing her to part ways with key and obey orders and yadda yadda yadda. That was the moment an idea struck me.
"Don't you see anything ironic about a cult devoted to freedom but having a totalitarian leader, Marta?" I begin, catching a questioning stare from Glory that quickly changed into silent understanding. "If Harow actually *believed* in the rules he taught you, he wouldn't have problem with you questioning his orders."
She struggled to reply but the whispers come back again, enforcing control over her.
"You don't understand, you don't see the beauty of this..." Marta replied but far weaker than before. So it did worked...
"Then explain it to me. Answer my questions and make me believe. I want to believe." I retort, already conjuring plan in my head. "Let's start with Harrow's manifesto. I've read it. Did you? There' a lot of talk about charity in there."
"Yes, charity! I do it by rescuing young people off the streets!"
"But then, in his Rules of Living, he says it's all good to be selfish, that you *have to* be selfish."
"Yes but-"
"After that, he says only strong deserve to prosper, the food chain principle of powerful preying on the weak...So which is it finally?"
Oh that was a splinter under her fingernail, turning Marta all fidgety and confused, racking her brain about it before shrine clamped down onto her mind once again.
"You just don't understand the message, the truth behind it." Redhead had little to say this time, even with the help of the shrine.
"Glory said you've spent a lot of time in the lounge, back when she lived in here. What did you do there?"
"Drink, play games, have sex, watch the trid. Whatever lovers do in their free time." Marta replied casually.
"Funny, because we found tattered, bloodstained shirt in there. Kid sized, coming from an initiate."
"Well, that...It doesn't...It doesn't prove anything." She stutters.
"You know the things that happened in that room, Marta. We both heard the stories." Glory piped in, driving the knife deeper.
"These are just...stories." Marta whispered last word.
"You know that Harow hurts all of the newcomers, right? When Glory lived here, he had her kill a man fo a tri-vid player. How can that be right under any circumstances?"
"That...uh...that was very long time ago. And that man...Harrow said he had to die. But I...I don't remember why..."
"No reason, Marta. None that matters." Glory replied, flatly and back in control of herself. "I should know, I'm the one who killed him."
"Give us the key, Marta. It's the right thing to do. We can end this madness here, tonight."
"I...You're right. Something strange is going in here...Why have I *never* seen things doesn't add up?"
"It's this place, Marta. It gets into your head." Glory replied. "Key?'
"I-I can't part way with it, Harrow told not to. I won't go against his wishes." Marta's response killed whatever warmth there was in Glory's eyes when she looked at her. "But I will come with you, if I can help save these kids from what is happening in here, I'll go."
"We're here to end Harrow. We're not letting him get away this time." Glory counter.
"What?! I won't let you raise hand on Harrow! I will stop you!"
"Easy there...We're here to break the spell and the shrine's hold over all of you. Without it's powers, Harrow will have no way of lying to you. Then we will decide if he lives or dies, you will decide, Marta." I placate her and Glory seemed agreeable enough.
Whole three of us move towards the sealed doors, Marta unsteadily trotting in front of us.
"Wait, both of you." Glory called and produced small jar from her satchel. "It's an alchemical balm...Now you know where all my money from runs went, Rai." Glory adds while smearing our foreheads with strange, glistening ointment.
"What is this stuff?"
"Powdered orichalcum. I'll spare you details, just know it'll allows you to fight spirits on their own level."
"So it's a-"
"A silver blade you wanted so much." Glory finished for me and rised corner of her mouth for a second.
"Glad you came prepared." I agree, seeing how she was smearing balm on Marta too.
Then she produced pendants that supposedly protect from posession. But only two.
"I'll be alright, Harrow won't let me get hurt." Marta announces and I know she's in for a rude awakening.
"We have to focus on the shrine...The real power holding Feuerstelle." Glory informs me, making my ears perk up. "Harrow doesn't run the show anymore, not after all those years...He's a servant tethered to the shrine. If I'll be able to purify it, he'll lose all of his power and be just a failed man stripped out of all his compelling powers."
"See, Marta? If all goes along the plan, nobody dies tonight in here. Not anymore."
"Okay..." Redhead only squeaked faintly.
We've entered the shrine and I immediately picked up the heavy air inside. Lingering, sweet smell that made you gag, candles littering the floor with flames, and an altar with large skull boasting impressive horns.
"Welcome home, Glory" A disembodied voice eachoed, sending chill down my spine, forcing my hands to bring my shotgun up but then everything shakes and I feel something like a traincar ramming into me.
I was falling, back first into water engulfing me only to be violently pulled back out.
I blink and my senses are attacked from all sides.
Smoke, burning meat. Sound of fires but all I see is red.
Blinking, I make the red dissuade a bit and I immediately regret it.
"What in the bloody hell is this shite?!" I cry a the rustic walls of Feuerstelle surrounding me, but wood is charred and broken in many places, flames burning behind the wooden walls, holes in the floor leading into literal inferno...
"Hell, I think." Glory's voice made me turn sharply and see her and Marta in here with me. Redhead was clinging to Glory but she didn't seemed to be happy about it, going as far as gently pushing her ex away.
"Hell or not, we're going after that fucking spirit and then we're getting out of here." I command and raise my shotgun. "Marta stay between us, Glory keep your distance from targets until we see the shrine."
It was some strange, hellishly twisted version of the house we've walked through, until we've encountered another spectre of skinned man, accompanied by some doggish, oversized monster with teeth bigger than my hand!
"I'll take the big one!" I call and fire off at the bastard, reloading I hear four shots from Glory's revolver, punching large holes in the spectre's astral body.
I've managed to fire off another shot before I had to roll to the side, away from charging beast that now was turned with its back to me. One rectal pacifier, comin' up...
The roar it emitted told me even spirits and demons doesn't like getting twelve-gauge slug of lead lodged up their arses. Still, it got the job done, both spirits dissipating and allowing us to continue this fascinating voyage.
Moving past another hallways surrounded by flames, we've reached peculiar thing hovering above the floor. Hideous humanoid that smelled like burned fur and coal. It's head being a charred skull with deer's antlers, burning embers in place of eyes.
Wordlessly, the creature spread its arms welcomingly at Glory.
"Glory. Welcome, child" Chorus of clear voices erupted inside my skull. "What a pleasure to see you again."
"I'm not here to please you, Spirit." Glory retorts sharply. "I'm here to end you."
"We knew you'll come back. We knew you'll lash out against our Great Master since you cut away from Him and mutilated yourself."
"That thing is bloody damn annoying me. Let's finish this." I snarl, cocking my shotgun.
"I wholeheartedly agree, Rai." Glory nodded and at the same time the horned entity shrieked, exploding in wave of heat and deafening noise resonating under my skull.
Second later, instead of one demon that had to be the one running this whole shit-show, there were three.
Three cups game I intended on playing the usual way: with gunfire.
Once I've seen two demons being only decoys, disappearing after one shot to materialize again, I've focused my fire on the third, Glory quickly joining in. Demon stumbled, and fallen onto it's knees, making Glory to approach it and quickly start smearing another concoction onto the skull.
Before I could even think about reacting, the burning demon shrieked and seized, ember in it's eyes gone and everything about just...peacing out. Soon, humanoid creature was standing in front of me and Glory, it's image closest to something I've seen in some old game or a movie.
"Leshyi. Ancient forest spirit, protecting Shonbuch but got corrupted by Adversary." Glory answers for me. "Turned into a marionette and middleman between Adversary and Harrow, bound to the shrine and exploited."
"Just another victim added to the long list of Harrow's sins." I reply, still staring in awe how Glory accepts something from opened chest of the Spirit. A glowing crystal that somehow turned into a dust that embedded itself into Glory. For a second, there was a glow around her, making her look almost...angelic.
But then, another actor entered the stage.
"Glory!" Marta's cry brought our eyes to her being held hostage by a handsome, younger man that did not had any qualities that would bring me to trust him or leave any women in his company.
"Hello Glory...Long time no see." Harrow grins from behind his shield, held tightly with a knife to her throat. "I almost forgotten you existed, Marta here done all she could to make me forget about my precious pet." He accented words with lecherous lick against Marta's neck.
"Harrow-"
"Shut up!" Harrow silenced his *wife*. "You're a stupid bitch, Glory. I've let you go, did not chased you after you bailed on me! And that's how you pay me back?! After I gave you shelter? Gave you power? Gave you Marta?"
I've had enough of this and was going to raise my gun but Harrow twitched his hand and Marta cried when crimson fallen down the blade of the knife, her skin cut already.
"Throw your guns down or I will slice little Marta open right in front of you!" Harrow yelled. Motioning with one hand to Glory, I've made her comply and we've dropped our weapons.
"Harrow...How could you?!" Marta managed to stammer out, shocked beyond wildest nightmares.
"Stupid slut, I prefer you using that mouth to suck me 'cause you were never bright with talking." Harrow's reply shot Marta up, only making tears fall down her cheeks. "Now, I'm walking outta here and if you'll even think about going after me then little Marta won't see the daylight..."
Before the bastard can end his trash talk or react, my hands move and I whip out the revolver still holstered on the back of my belt.
It went down quicker than my heartbeats, right hand squeezing the handle and rising the gun while left pulling back the hammer, cocking it for a shot.
*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*
I fan that hammer like best gunslingers from westerns I loved as a kid, all of the bullets hitting Harrow right in the armed hand. He screams something as three bleeding wounds bloom on his forearm, fourth bullet hitting his palm and making drop the knife. Before he or anyone else could react, Glory lunges forward and hacks off the arms completely with her claws.
Something tugs at me at this moment, then pulls down and inside myself, making me nauseous.
Blinking, I find myself back at the shrine inside Feuerstelle, with Glory and Marta standing in front of Harrow who was kneeling, crying as he stared at his bleeding stump of an arm.
"Do you know what it is, Harrow?" Glory's voice made Harrow look up at her with glossy eyes. "This is pain, something you've forced onto every one of us you've brought in here. You lied and used us. Now, there is hell to pay for it." Brunette raised her revolver and fired point-blank, right between the eyes of her opressor. This time he didn't shook off the shot, back of his head exploding with brain matter and bone. Lifelessly, Feuerstelle leader fallen onto the floor, something like a shadow fleeting over us all and then disappearing.
I found it easier to breath all of a sudden, without evil looming over me.
It was over, everything done and finished.
I was waiting in the van I've brought in closer to the farm, trying not to stare at Glory and Marta talking while kids around were packing their stuff and getting ready to leave this hellish place under guide of Marta to look for new, real safe haven.
"Let's go." Glory's voice broken me from zoning out, making me start up the engine and turn the car around.
"You know..." I start after we've rode off a good distance away from Shonbuch "Maybe when we're done with Feuerschwinge and all the rest of this, maybe you should...You know, call up Marta and patch things back between the two of you?"
Glory stayed silent for a long moment before speaking. "She'd very much loved to. She'd love to have me with her right now." She spoken brightly, making me do my best to ignore churning of jealousy in my gut. "But that's not happening."
"Oh?" I only uttered out, surprised at this.
"She did lied to me. She did protected Harrow even after knowing it was all bad...She hurt me." Glory sighed painfully. "She's a part of my past and I'm done with my past. It's a new day coming right now and I want to start anew with it."
"Can't argue with that bottomline." I agree. "Don't worry love, you'll find a proper girl for you in due time, I'm sure of it."
"Who says it has to be a girl?" Her sudden question made me slow down the truck to safely look at her with silent question for a moment. "I loved Marta because she was nice to me. She cared for me and at that time, nobody ever done anything like that for me."
"I wasn't suggesting anything, Glory. Just that's what I thought it was."
"...You know, out of all people I've met in my life, so far only one did not played me or lied to me. At all." Glory ran fingers through her hair and leaned back in the seat. "It's you, Rai."
"I'm flattered, though I wasn't really trying with it. It's just who I am."
"Exactly. Monika loved to talk about helping people and keeping Flux State going but she never strayed away from lying in my face, thinking I wasn't seeing through her. She lied to Eiger, to Amsel, even to Dietrich whom she called closest friend...She always said she was sorry for what happened to me, but she never sat down and asked about it. You did it on the first night you've been running things and could talk to me without Monika standing above your shoulder."
"Yeah well, I'm a really nosy person."
"You're honest. And you promised to tell me about yourself if I'll tell you about me...And you did. I was caving in, slipping down the pit I've started crawling out from when you got me to talk about Feurstelle...Then I've heard you talking to me." Glory looked at me and I've *felt* how soft and emotional her stare was. "You told me about your mother, your childhood and your sister. You told me why you are the way you are. You made me trust you and you did not betrayed that trust. That's more than I can say about other people in my life."
Before I knew it, I felt warmth of a kiss on my cheek, stirring everything inside me.
"So thank you, Rai. For being all this time there for me. I won't forget it."
"You're a friend, Glory. I don't leave people I care about hanging." I manage to reply faintly, everything inside me burning from the kiss she given me. It was nothing really, just an innocent display of trust.
Who am I kidding, at this point I was starving for some company and her being failed crush did not helped my case one bit.
I've managed to supress any ideas or thoughts and just drive back to Krezubasar, welcoming sunrise silently, seeing it for the first time in weeks...