Well this has been fun to write, I loved seeing you guy's reactions over Luz not having magic.
My birthday came and went, so I guess I am even more of a boomer than I was 15 secs ago.
I apologize for the delay, I have not been in the mood for writing lately.
Also hey, I've designed some new set of glyphs a while ago and I prob will incorporate those to this story, you can have a look at them here if you want: r/TheOwlHouse/comments/13pagq6/i_fanmade_kings_glyphs/
-Lilith-
The MCU's mobile unit, a road outside Gravesfield / Saturday december 2nd 23:30 hs
Lawrence yawned for what could be the hundredth time and she rolled her eyes.
"Do you need another coffee? You look like you can barely stand" She side-eyed him with worry.
"Huh? Oh no, it's okey" The man rubbed his tired eyes "I just need tah- *yawn* I just need to refocus, that's all"
"I know this may be a lot to ask of you, but try to stay sharp, okey? This is a big operation"
"I know, I know. Usually I am good with pulling all-nighters, especially since I became an officer in charge, but I guess that just applies to doing paperwork, if I try to mix it with field work then I end up exhausted"
"You'll have to get used to it, we can be called to our duty at any time" She had forgotten the amount of times an emergency appeared when she was in the office and she had to leap into action "There's always the chance of something happening at every second in our line of work"
"I knoooow" He shot her an annoyed look "I know how this work may be, and I'm fine with it, really. The action and the chase do not bother me in these cases, mostly because the adrenaline carries me away in those circumstances, and I am always ready to fight. But this is different. We have been sitting here for the last three hours while the teams prep things out, there's nothing for us to do besides wait and it's killing me! I would have no problem staying awake if I had something to do but we are stuck like this"
Sadly his assessment was correct. They were inside of the MCU's mobile unit, which was just a fancy name for a big truck with their most important scientific equipment. Most of their team was outside, fine-tuning the gear for the mission, and they were looking at the cameras from inside the vehicle. There wasn't much that they could do from this position except waiting from their teammates to be ready and the greenlight from hq.
"Well, consider it endurance training, then. You'll have to get used to this one way or another" She shrugged and he let out a boisterous laugh "Something funny?"
"N-N Nothing, it's just that Marcus always uses that as an excuse for whenever he makes me do shitty tasks" He wiped a tear from his eyes and she rolled her eyes.
"God, he still does that?" She was amazed to learn that her mentor was still using his antiquated teaching mentors "I shouldn't be surprised. Does he still do the random drills at 3AM?"
"Oh yeah, we had one of those yesterday" That would explain his tiredness.
"Last minute change of agendas?"
"Yup"
"Solo missions that you are not supposed to tell anyone about?"
"You got it"
"Always tosses stuff at you without a warning expecting you to catch them, and then calling it 'reflex training´when you complain?"
"He claims it's for ´hand-eye coordination´now"
"Does he still listen to those old man songs?"
"God don't remind me, I had one of those stuck in my head for days"
"And the files, he still organizes them in a weird way doesn't he?"
"Oh my god, yes!" He facepalmed while laughing "He doesn't do alphabetical or by the date, he just puts them by order of importance for him, that way only he can understand it and I have to guess which thing goes where" he laughed a little more and Lilith sighed, her old mentor could be really eccentric "It is a bit weird to talk to you about this. Normally I'd hate to be reminded of it, but it's really funny coming from you, it just shows that you really were his apprentice"
"I thought that you were aware of that already"
"Well yes, but so far there hasn't been anything that shows it. Both of you behave so differently, with your personality and work methods, that and the way you two seem to avoid each other when you are not required to interact makes you look like total strangers"
Lilith grunted and gave him a stern glare. He was obviously trying to pry into her past but she couldn't blame him for it. What he had said was true, she did ignore Marcus when they were together and her work ethics were totally different from his, that must've generated some sort of curiosity in him. Lilith didn't feel like sharing her private life with him, but she supposed that Lawrence deserved a little bit of information.
"My relationship with Marcus is… Complicated. I still respect and care about him, even if it doesn't look like it. It's just that we have different priorities and methods, even if we share the same goal"
That was a huge oversimplification of that matter, and a partial lie. Lilith did care about her mentor but she did not share a common end goal with Marcus anymore, in fact, she didn't share a goal with her organization either. The Magical Containment Unit existed for three reasons: To protect humankind from magical threats, to keep the truth of the multiverse from the normal people, and to ensure that those extra dimensional beings living among us remain in peace. She agreed with everything except the last reason, it included creating programs for magical beings living on earth and ensuring the peaceful coexistence with humans.
"Pfft, as if that would be possible"
"Oh ok" He looked forward at the monitor they were supposed to be watching, it displayed all the cameras their team had put in the perimeter. So far, there wasn't anything noteworthy in any of them, but that could change at any second.
"Soooo, maybe I am crossing a line here, but it looks like there's something else going on here, besides the difference in work ethics" Lilith just sent him a death glare "Ok ok, I get it, I'll shut my mouth"
"God damn it, he's more persuasive than I thought"
"Commander! Do you copy?" A voice came from her intercom and she was glad for the distraction.
"Yes, alpha squad leader, we copy, what's the situation?"
"All units are in position! Awaiting for instructions to commence operations ma'am!"
"Great, remain on standby as we await orders from the higher ups" She said with a smile.
"I'll message Marcus to tell them to hurry up" Lawrence said.
"I still do not know why he isn't here in the first place, it was his idea to start" She complained.
"He wanted to make sure the IT guys could handle it, you know how he always likes to oversee things himself" Lawrance said with a tired face.
"Seriously, that man needs to learn how to delegate things to other people. Well, besides you I mean"
*Chuckle* "You are talking as if you didn't do the same thing. Tell me, didn't you attend every single meeting your squadron had this past week? Even those minor ones that weren't necessary?" He taunted with a cocky smile.
Lilith bit her inner cheek to avoid yelling at him. The main reason for that was that he was absolutely right, she tended to hover around all operations like a vulture and breath on the neck of her interns.
"I guess I also got that from Marcus"
There was a knock in the truck's door and Lawrance went to open it and the same person they were talking about came inside.
"Uff, it's getting a bit cold here, sorry for arriving late" He said as he wrapped himself in his long coat"
"You know that apology would mean something to us if you actually meant it" Lawrance said with an annoyed expression "What took you so long anyway?"
"The transmissor doesn't work, we had to go with plan B" He announced.
"Wait, what? But you checked the equipment yesterday yourself!" Lawrance yelled in disbelief.
"Yes, and it was fine yesterday. It seems that someone must have messed with it" Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose. Kikimora's schemes were nothing new but this was the first time it compromised an operation "We'll have to make do with what we got"
"Are you kidding me? The recording was something that we did 'just in case', but we knew that it wasn't going to work" Lawrance said.
"And what do ye suggest we do? There's literally no time to do anything else"
"We could wait" he suggested "We know their location now, as long as they don't notice us we could-"
"That's not an option" She interrupted him "Any more time that we are on standby those witches could be doing something to harm more people, we have to act now" She turned to face Marcus "I thought that my idea was plan B"
"Well since your plan consists on raiding their household and submitting them with violence I decided that it would serve better as a plan C" He looked at her with serious eyes "I know that you are trying to do good but if we engage with them in combat we would say goodbye to any chance of solving things peacefully, we won't gain anything by antagonizing them"
"But they are antagonizing themselves! Or did you forget how they raided three of our facilities and killed many of our agents already? This is not the behavior of someone peaceful, I say they already lost their chance to do things right"
"If there's a slight chance of ending things without a full blown battle against three witches in the middle of the city we are going to take it! I will not let Gravesfield be turned into a warzone" Marcus finished his sentence by stepping closer and looking at her in the eyes. Lilith was taller than him but he still managed to impose.
"I would argue that it is a warzone already, but fine… have it your way" She grumbled and stood back in her chair.
*Sigh* "Look, we are gonna have the lads prepared in case everything goes to shite, is that good enough for you?" He asked.
"If we do your plan first we would be giving away the element of surprise. But I guess it's better than nothing"
"Copy that. Lawrence, coordinate all of the units, dispatch the strike team and surround the building, I want every civilian in the block evacuated without the witches realizing…"
As he dispatched orders to his apprentice, she zoned out and thought about the importance of this mission.
Less than nine hours ago, the wild witch and one of the coven witches fought on top of an abandoned building, there hadn't been any eye witnesses or recordings that they knew of, but the sounds of the battle were heard by many people. Luckily the scuffle ended without any civilian dead or injured and all the property damage had been done in a small area, but what made this fight special had been the aftermath; One of the coven witches (A demon, to be more precise) ended up encased in an ice prison, it managed to free itself and fled the scene after a while, but not before one of our agents managed to plant a tracking device without the demon noticing.
Once they managed to pin down the demon's location they sent a surveillance team to scout the area, and they found out that the other two witches were living with it. They didn't lose any second and set up this whole organization to catch them by surprise.
"But no, let's forgo a surprise raid when we got everything in our favor and just talk with them, I'm sure that won't go wrong. Peh, witches don't deserve mercy anyway"
This was the main source of discussion between her and her mentor. Marcus believed that magical beings could be reformed and incorporated into human society, he wanted to solve things without escalating into an all out war against other nations. Lilith could see the logic behind his point of view, even if she disagreed with it. For her the war already started the very moment those creatures decided to cause mayhem on their world.
"...and that's why we need your units here Lilith, Lilith?" Lawrance called her name and brought her back from her thoughts.
"Hm?" She blinked twice and noticed that the two of them were looking at her "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"
"We were just reviewing the battle plans, you know, in case there is a battle, and I was saying that we could use your units in the east side, what do you think?" He explained.
"Yes, that seems reasonable" She rubbed her temples, maybe the lack of sleep was finally catching up with her.
"Are you alright?" Marcus' worried tone made her scowl.
"Yes I am fine. Now come on, the sooner we end this the better will be"
"The sooner we deal with these threats the better I'll be able to sleep"
-Hunter-
Hunter couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned into his bed but there was no way, his thoughts were running laps around his head, trying to fix their problems.
Last night Wrath had found the griffin's new nest and had called them for back up. Sadly the wild witch managed to get there before they did and he had to hold her on his own. It ended as bad as he expected: The Griffin had fled with the wild witch chasing after it on air, and Wrath had been easily overpowered by his foe on this occasion. Now Hunter didn't blame him, she did manage to elude the three of them that last time, but he couldn't help but feel frustrated, she could have the piece all to herself for all they knew, and there was nothing they could do.
"I know Wrath did his best but… I can't help but feel angry at the situation" At least he didn't discharge his own anger on the guy, like Abigail did after he came back "I won't be able to catch much sleep at this rate either, might as well do something"
He got up and turned the lights on, after blinking several times to readjust his eyes he examined his room. There wasn't much decoration in the walls because they kept moving from place to place, but he had some objects of his own on top of his nightstand: His human novel cosmic frontier (He considered reading it to fall back asleep, but decided against it), the laptop he used for research, some ankle weights he used for his physical training (He couldn't build magic, so he might as well build something else), a box with some of the magical relics they manage to salvage from the humans (He didn't have many of those, with how stingy Abigail was), and his staff on it's compressed form.
A part of him didn't like that his room was so empty, it didn't feel like a home to him. Back in the Emperor's castle he had the walls filled with decorations and shelves with his personal items, alongside all the trophies and souvenirs that he had collected in his missions. But another part of him, arguably the most practical one, told him to not get attached to this place because they might move to another one in any given second and that this realm will never be a place for him, the boiling isles was his one true home.
"I really need to get out of here, maybe going for a walk won't be a bad idea" He thought as he opened his room's door.
As soon as he stepped into the corridor he could hear Wrath's snores, they were pretty formidable but it was nothing compared to his experience in the barracks, he had to share a room with several demons and a witch from the bard coven, who knew that bard spells were able to be activated with snores.
He took great care to not disturb his roommates as he walked. Stopping in the kitchen, he grabbed a glass of water and kept walking silently until he reached the balcony. Hunter sighed as he felt the nightly breeze hit his face. It was refreshing, even if it came with the intoxicated smell from the nearby city. He found it astonishing that he could still smell it even how far away they were.
Things like these made him miss the demon realm even more. The boiling isles had its fair share of big urban centers, but none of them were this messed up: Since they had no cars there was zero pollution the air in the cities smelled as fresh as the one in the wilderness, and since the witches weren't as overpopulated as the humans they had no need to build so many obscene tall towers. If he was in a building this high in the demon realm he would've been able to see the entire settlement, but in the city all he could see were the buildings towering over him and the people inside of them with their unusual nocturnal habits.
"I think that once we recover the staff and go back to the demon realm, and if Belos allows me to come back here on my free days, I would like to visit a less populated area of the human realm like this. Maybe to a farm or a forest, I hope they have internet there though"
*Chirp-chirp*
An annoying and extremely familiar sound interrupted his inner thoughts. He growled and faced the intruder who was standing on a nearby pole.
"Ughhhh, what do you want!?" He yelled at the red bird "You've already frustrated two of my missions and embarrassed me in public more than once! I refuse to let this go on!"
*Chirp-chirp-chirp* the palisman jumped back and forth from the pole and pointed with its beak to the right, it clearly wanted to show him something.
"Yeah, whatever. I don't speak 'bird', bird" He grunted and pinched the bridge of his nose "How about this? I will not tell Belos nor the others about your existence as long as you will leave me alone, how does that sound? That way I don't lose credibility by letting a palisman go and you could move on from me and try to corrupt the next unfortunate soul that crosses your path, deal?" He even extended his hand to the small animal.
The bird, however, wasn't interested in making deals. Its movements got more erratic and it seemed to be worried about something. It flew towards him and, before Hunter had even time to react, pulled hard from a strand of his hair.
"Ow! What in the titan's name? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Once he realized how loud he yelled he covered his mouth and looked back inside, half expecting to see his roommates waking up. When nothing happened after a few seconds he released the breath he was holding "You are so lucky I don't have my staff with me…"
The bird seemed to be equally angry with him too. It chirped loudly at him and then, when he realized that he wasn't getting Hunter's attention, flew inside the apartment through the door he had left open.
"Wait, no- what are you doing?!" Hunter followed him in panic.
This was one of the worst situations ever; If that bird went inside and got itself caught he would be in big trouble. Dealing with an Abigail who was woken up from her slumber was bad enough, but if they found out that he had let a palisman free it was over for him. The two of them might cast him out and Wrath might even feel betrayed by him, he was the one who gave him the statue after all.
"Ok ok, you can do this. All you have to do is catch that really fast bird… that has eluded you several times… with your bare hands… in total darkness… without making any noise… yeah this isn't going to work"
He went, nevertheless, and started searching for that feathered menace. The place was dead silent which was both good (because it meant that the bird was being careful) and bad (because it would be harder to locate). He advanced through the darkness searching for any clue, until he noticed something weird about the place: The third door to the right of the corridor, which was Abigail's room, was opened entirely, which was weird because he remembered it was closed before.
"Oh no" He dashed towards it as he felt his heart leap from his throat "Nonononono"
This was the worst possible outcome, if Abigail was woken up by that annoying palisman she would tear this whole place apart trying to kill it.
Luckily it didn't come to that. When Hunter reached the open door he saw a red blur flying above his head, he quickly closed the door as quietly as he could and then he dashed towards the bird. He didn't have to run much because it stopped flying and landed on the table that was in the living room. He leaped with his hands extended in the air and actually managed to catch it, his celebration was cut short when he realized he didn't plan how to land and they crashed into the floor.
"Ouch, that one hurt" Luckily they didn't make any noise when they fell.
"Ok, that's it. I offered you a deal and you didn't took it, I'm going to put you in a cage until I have to present you to my uncle"
The bird seemed to have other plans however, it struggled against his grasp and didn't stop pointing at the living room's table with its beak. Hunter's curiosity got the best of him and turned to see what was so important. There was something on top of the table, something that wasn't there before, he got closer to examine it and found out it was one of the magic items they had recovered from the humans.
"Were you trying to steal magical relics from us?" That did not make sense. Palismen had their own wild magic so they didn't need magic items, not to mention that most of them didn't have the appendages to operate them.
The bird shook its head and kept pointing at it. Hunter still didn't trust it but he was genuinely interested by this, so he turned on a small light with one of his hands while he grabbed the paliman with the other, and then went to investigate what was this all about. The item in question looked mundane for the untrained eye: Just a pair of goggles with a brown leather strap and a golden casing, the lenses were made with a purple crystal and they had a hexagonal pattern that resembled the eyes of a bug. He recognized the relic immediately, it belonged to the oracle's coven and it was called 'the future sight lenses'.
"Hmph, what an inaccurate name, just like every other thing from the oracle coven. No magic can see the certain future, not even theirs, they just pretend they do while watching some of the possible futures and people eat it up. This thing can't see a person's future, it only detects possible threats that may or may not occur"
"Ok, what do you want with this garbage? And how do you know that Abigail was hoarding it? Have you been spying on us?"
He lifted the palisman on his hand to his eye level, but it refused to look at him. It kept pointing at the table and started pointing at his head desperately
"Do you want me to put it on?" He asked and the bird nodded.
Now he was starting to feel cautious about this situation. He knew about the relic's power and how it worked, so he was more than confident that putting it on wouldn't hurt him, but the fact that the palisman wanted him to do it made him feel suspicious. It could've corrupted the goggles with its wild magic and rigged them to explode when they came in contact with his skin, there was a reason why these things were considered dangerous by the emperor. However, it only grabbed them for a couple seconds, there was no way that it could have done anything in that amount of time.
"This is really stupid, I shouldn't even be considering this. I have to go back into my room and figure out how to make a cage for this thing" But the bird in his grasp seemed to disagree. It struggled against his hand and kept chirping loudly "Gah fine. At least this way it will shut up, what do I have to lose anyway?"
"Fiiiine. You win, stupid bird. I'm gonna put them on, but you are going to stay quiet if I do it, deal?" The bird nodded and stopped resisting "Ok, here we go"
Feeling rather stupid, he walked towards the table and grabbed the googles. It was a bit awkward to try to put them on with just one hand (especially considering that his left wasn't the dominant one), but he wasn't going to let the palisman free. Eventually he managed to put it over his head, he took a deep breath and adjusted the ocular piece over his eyes.
Everything became a shade of purple, but weirdly enough he could see more in the darkness this way, he supposed that it was a built in function.
"Well, there you go. I hope this was worth all this ruckus" He scolded the bird on his arm.
He was about to take them off when he noticed something. Far away in his sight he could see a lot of white specs alongside the sea of purpure, he remembered that this was how the relic represented the possible threats that could come to the user: The size and the shape of the spots could be used to identify them, their closeness represented the distance, and their brightness indicated how possible it was for them to manifest. At first Hunter didn't pay them any mind, there were a lot of possible threats for him in this world after all, but then he noticed how many of them were and their high intensity.
"That is not normal. The goggles always show some specs because there's always the possibility of something bad happening to the user, literally thousands of odds. But to be showing me this many… there has to be certain danger in my imminent future"
He kept looking at the specs. They kept getting brighter and their forms started emerging. Suddenly he could tell that all of them had a humanoid shape, some of them were carrying some familiar objects on their hands.
Hunter took the goggles off, he had seen enough. He dashed towards his room and started grabbing his things, he let go of the palisman but he couldn't care less about it right now. A runaway bird was really mild compared with what was about to come. As he got dressed a part of him wondered why it would try to warn him about what was going to happen, but the rest of him was just focused on the task at hand.
A few minutes later he was completely dressed. He hurried towards Wrath's room and banged the door several times.
"Wrath! Wake up! You need to see this!" He kept pounding the door until he opened it.
*Yawn* "What is it, Hunter? Isn't too late?" The grey demon answered drowsily. He was drooling and still in his pijamas.
"We are in danger! I need you awake!"
"In danger?" Wrath's mind was slowly turning back on "How?"
"Put these on and you'll understand!" He shoved the goggles on his chest "Once you are done, get dressed and start packing, but don't make too much noise when you do it" he went back to his room to prepare his stuff without offering any more explanations.
A few minutes passed and he could hear Wrath doing the same thing in his room, which meant that he got the message. Unfortunately it seemed that they weren't silent enough and they ended up waking up Abigail.
"Ugh, what are you two dorks doing? Don't you know it's the middle of the night?" She said as she entered the living room with her messy hair and pijamas. Then she stopped complaining when she saw him "Wait… why are you dressed?"
"We have an emergency. Someone is going to attack us and we are preparing for it" He watched how her sleepiness melted away.
"Who? The wild witch?"
"Nop. Humans" He tossed her the goggles.
"Hey! These are from my personal stash!" She exclaimed.
"Don't worry about that" He didn't have a possible explanation and really didn't want to have this conversation "Just put them on"
Abigail huffed and did as she was told. Once she started looking around she recoiled.
"Wow, so many. Are those?"
"Humans? Yeah" Wrath came into the room and joined their conversation "We don't know exactly how many of them are around but we do know that they are patrolling our surrounding area, it is only a matter of time until they find us if they haven't done it already"
"But… isn't this relic not accurate? Hunter you said that it always showed you this stuff"
"It's supposed to always show little undefined specs. When it shows you bright, defined shapes it means that the threat is imminent"
"Besides I confirmed it myself" Wrath pointed at his face "I can smell them from here, there's a lot"
"Ok, this sounds like fun! What are we doing then?" She seemed excited.
"We are packing all of our resources along with supplies and money, then we were going to devise an escape plan. I would usually recommend leaving the city but that's not possible with the griffin still around, we will have to lay low and…"
"Hold on, hold on, wait a minute" She raised her hands to stop him "You said that you wanted to run away? Why?"
"Uhhh, there's a regiment of armed people on our tail?" Hunter really understood her question
"So? They are humans! We'll just blast them away!"
Hunter looked at her like she was crazy. These probably were the same people in suits that they had fought before. They were really trained and heavily armed, they only reason why they were able to overpower them so easily was because they used the element of surprise and planned things well but now they were surrounded and overnumbered, attacking them head on would've been suicidal.
He opened his mouth to tell her exactly that but he was interrupted by a noise. It was the sound of a very powerful speaker being plugged in and a very familiar voice coming from it.
"Children of the isles, hear my call" Belos' voice said.
It was as if someone just hit the three of them with a freezing spell. Wrath stopped moving in the middle of pouring himself a glass of water and actually dropped it, the vase shattered in the ground.
"I have come to take you back to my care" His voice continued.
"It can't be…" Hunter felt a strange sensation appear at the bottom of his stomach.
"He came here for us!" Abigail was the first one to recover from the shock. Her face blossomed into a wide smile and her eyes sparkled with joy "Lord Belos! We are here!"
She immediately bolted out of the room to follow that omnipresent voice. Wrath followed after her but Hunter just stood there, baffled.
"He's… he's really here" He felt really strange.
All this time in the human realm he swore he would go back to him, to serve his uncle's rule and to provide help with his constant battle against wild magic. Earth had nice things, but he knew that his real home was the boiling isles.
"I should be happy that he is here. So why do I feel weird?" Every hair on his body was sticking out and his heart rate was accelerating. His instincts told him to run away and hide "Something is wrong here, it can't be him. The googles-"
That's when he realized what was happening: The goggles had shown him multiple incoming threats, but nothing about Belos, so he couldn't actually be here. He grabbed his things and dashed to catch up with his friends.
He found them on the rooftop. Abigail was looking around and Wrath was sniffing the air around.
"Guys! Quickly! Get down and hide!" He ran towards them and started tugging them away.
"Hey! What gives?" Abigail resisted.
"That's not Belos! It's a trap!" He guided them back inside and crouched "The googles showed us threats! And we didn't see the emperor in those!" The color seemed to drain from her face.
"Maybe the relic is wrong? It gathered dust in the vault for ages so-"
"He's right" Wrath interrupted her "I don't smell any humans around, something's wrong"
"So? The humans that we saw ran away! Probably Belos scared them" The hopeful look on her eyes made Hunter feel irritated and pity her at the same time.
"No, it's not just that. There aren't ANY humans around, not even those who live in the same building as us!"
Hunter was shocked upon hearing that.
"They evacuated them" He realized "They are preparing for a big fight"
Before he could voice his concerns the sound appeared again and the fake voice resonated in the air to give another announcement.
"My covenmates, please, I know that you are afraid. You have been living in this twisted world for far too long, I've come here to take you back home, follow my voice and find your way back in the isles"
Hunter flinched, it sounded just like him but something was… off.
"He said please…" Abigail trailed off. Every trace of hope had abandoned her face.
"What?" Hunter asked.
"He said 'please', the Emperor never uses that word" A fiery wrath started emerging from her eyes "He commands, he orders, but Belos never asks for permission, he's not a weakling who cannot impose his will"
"So we all agree then, this is a trap" When the other two nodded he started making plans in his head "Ok luckily we have already we need to flee, so we gotta act fast. First of all we need-"
"Hunter" Abigail interrupted him "Do you have the goggles?"
"Uhm, yeah" He searched in his bag and showed them to her "Why?"
"I wanna see if I can find the humans with it, since they are outside of Wrath's range" She put them on and looked outside.
"Ohhh, I see. If we find where they are we might be able to design a better route of escape, clever"
"Pfft, escape? Yeah sure" She walked forward with the goggles on her head, after a minute she stopped and pointed to the east "There they are! I'll make them pay!"
"What?" Before she could answer, the voice resonated again.
"My children I know that you are having doubts because you can't see me, trust me, if I could I would be there to rescue you in person. But sadly, as you know, I do not possess the means to physically cross dimensions, that's why you have to come to me, my new friends are here and they will help you get home, you can trust them!"
"Oh this is the last straw…" Abigail was shaking with raga now and Hunter knew he couldn't stop her at this point "They are impersonating Emperor Belos! This shall not stand!"
She pointed upwards and a ball of blue fire emerged from the tip of her finger. She grunted and the ball grew up until it was bigger than those red plastic balls humans used to exercise, she then punched it and the ball went flying towards the direction she had pointed earlier. The fiery missile left a blue trail behind it and sounded like a firework elevating to the sky, once it collided with a building it made an explosion so big that the shockwave knocked them prone, even if they were more than two hundred meters away. The blast was so bright and loud that Hunter wanted to cover both his eyes and ears.
"Thank the titan that we live in a separated area. When was this when we fought the wild witch?"
"What was that?" He asked when he got up.
"I've been tinkering with a magical artifact for some time. It improves your attunement to certain elemental spells" The look on her face was unique for her; Usually when she fought she enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and the eagerness of battle, but now she had a serious demeanor and a dreadful expression "These fuckers impersonated Belos to try to get to us, there's no forgiving that crime"
She turned back and started descending the stairs back to their apartment.
"I'm going to grab my armor and weapons, you two can stay here or flee, I don't care. Although you might wanna hurry on that choice, because I'm sure they will retaliate soon"
With that Hunter was left alone on the rooftop with Wrath.
"Well this complicates things…"
"Wait a second captain! We are going…"
"Wrath hold on!" Hunter put himself in front of the grey demon to stop him "Things are going to get way too heated up after that attack, we don't wanna get caught in the middle of it!"
"But we can't just abandon her!" He protested.
"We might not have a choice!"
Before his coven mate could retort a huge explosion was heard and the both looked at the source of the noise. A ray of light was emerging from near where Abigail had tossed that giant fireball, it raised to the sky and then started falling towards them.
"Crap! It's an enemy attack!" He was about to suggest running but he saw that they didn't have enough time "Quickly Wrath" He extended his staff and started casting a shield spell "Get behind me!"
"But what about-"
"Abigail is inside the building! She'll be safe!"
With that he positioned behind him and Hunter summoned a barrier using his artificial staff, they were envolved by a red bubble of energy and braced themselves for an impact.
The arc of light finally fell on top of their heads, but Hunter didn't remember what happened afterwards. All he could recall was the sensation of pain and a searing light so bright that it forced him to close his eyes, after that he passed out.
He didn't know how much time he ended up being unconscious, but he knew it couldn't have been that long, he forced himself to get up and ended up waking up in the middle of chaos.
"Oww, my head" His ears were ringing and his vision was blurred "What happened?"
When he finally managed to open his eyes he saw that he was laying on top of a pile of rubble, his body was angled in a weird position and he had some injuries, judging by the way it hurt every time he tried to move. All around him were smoking craters and fiery rocks, which were the result of the explosion. He wasn't on the roof of the motel anymore, instead he was at the side of the road.
"Wha-what was that?" He asked while he looked at his surroundings.
"Oh, thank the Titan you are alive" He heard Wrath's voice and saw how the demon was crouching over him, he seemed to have some bruises but he was fine "I was afraid you were dead"
"Uhh, my head. What happened, did my spell fail?"
"No, you were able to protect us… but not the rest of the building. We survived the initial blast but as the floor crumbled you lost your concentration and we were blasted away" Wrath explained.
"I see… Wait a minute! My staff, my things!" He tried to get up and look for them but he winced as pain surged from his ribs.
"Easy. I have your things, they were also protected by the barrier but the fall might have damaged them" He presented Hunter a white bag and he hugged it as if it was the most precious thing ever.
"Thanks buddy" He put his mask on and grabbed his backpack "Where's my staff?"
"Uhhm… It's here, but it's not in a good condition" Wrath showed him the staff; While most of it was fine, the crystalic part at the top was shattered and the metal mechanism was crooked.
"No…" He thought with apprehension.
That artificial staff was everything to him. It portrayed the same magic that the emperor used, it was the sigil of the Golden guard and a symbol of both his status and power, to see it in these poor conditions was terrible for him.
But the worst part was that now he was magicless, right when they were in the middle of a fight against a brigade of heavily armed, hostile humans. The wild witch was still flying around and they were nowhere near to finding a way back home, this was the worst possible time for something like this to happen.
"Maybe I can repair it? I did study how they work. But I would need time and materials, and there's no way I can find those now"
"Hey Hunter, HUNTER!" Wrath's yelling took him away from his inner thoughts "I know that was important for you but we have problems"
He pointed towards the charred remains of the motel, Hunter squinted his eyes and noticed several figures in the area.
"Right, I don't have time for this. We need to get out of here alive, I can worry about the staff later"
"Have they noticed us?" He managed to get up despite the pain in his chest.
"No, but they are getting closer. Also here" He put a necklace over his head; It was light blue and it had the healing coven symbol. He started feeling better right away "This is the relic that we used to heal the captain's leg, I figured that you would need it"
"Thanks buddy, but what about you?"
"I am fine. Different constitution, remember?" That was correct. Wrath's species were more resistant to physical blows than the average witch, and he seemed to be just fine even though he fell from the same height as Hunter.
"Fair enough. Uhhh, have you seen Abigail?"
"No…" He could tell that he was shaking with worry. She had been in the middle of the motel when the attack happened so there was a good chance that the structure would've protected her from the initial blast.
"It's fine, we'll find her" He was surprised to notice that he actually wished his covenmate was fine "If someone can take care of herself it's her"
"Yes but how are we-" The sound of maniacal laughter cut him off.
He raised his fists in a fighting position, totally expecting humans in front of them, but then he realized that it was coming from a different place. In the middle of the swirling flames and rubble another explosion erupted, at first he thought that it was another human attack, but then when he saw how the color of the blast was the same as the big fireball from before.
"Well there's the answer, she's alright" He winced when he saw how Abigail's spell blasted several humans to pieces.
"RAN AWAY YOU LITTLE SHITTERS!" She roared a battlecry and charged at the other agents that weren't affected by her attack.
"Yup, she's fine. Now let's go, I don't think we can convince her to stop, so let's just hope she'll retreat on her own when she realizes that she is heavily outnumbered" It was a vague hope, but hey a guy could dream.
"No! We are not going to leave her!" Wrath insisted.
He was about to argue when he saw a projectile coming at them at high speed. He ducked out of the way but Wrath received the full impact, a light beam hit him but he seemed fine, he staggered backwards and looked back for a possible aggressor. Looking at them were two squads of humans, more than twenty in total.
"Target confirmed! We got eye contact on the remaining two witches!" One of them spoke to his communicator.
"Great. This just keeps getting worse"
Wrath roared and shifted his arms into blades, then he lunged at them and they started shooting at him with those strange guns of theirs.
"Wrath!" Hunter called. He was going too far away and he couldn't keep up.
"We'll meet again when we are done with this! For now, fight your way out of this and regroup later!" He answered as he breathed fire towards the piles of humans.
While that would be a good idea Hunter wasn't in any conditions to fight, thanks to his broken staff, but of course the big demon didn't know that. He had been expecting Wrath to guard him as he escaped, but now he entangled himself in a fight against a horde of humans, effectively abandoning him in the middle of a battlefield when he couldn't defend himself.
"Ok don't panic, you can do this. Right now they are too busy with those two, so I should be able to just slip past and hide"
He started moving away to execute his plan. Unfortunately fate had other plans for him.
"There he is!" An unfamiliar voice spoke and Hunter cursed under his breath "The masked witch!"
He turned around for a quick second to assess the situation and saw another squad made out of at least fifteen humans. He wasted no more time and started running away as he heard the gunshots.
"He's getting away" the same voice said.
"Crapcrapcrapcrap"
His thoughts were filled with only running away, but the question was to where. He was in the middle of a road outside the city, there wasn't anything he could use as cover; The motel had been the only structure around and now it was torn to pieces, he could try to hide in the rubble but it would be only a matter of time until they found him, there weren't any trees around and nearest house seemed to be miles away.
"What do I do? Do I use one of the magical items to face them? But I'm not used to those and most of them aren't optimal for battle. Aghh, think Hunter, thin- uh!" His inner ramble was cut by him falling into a ditch, running around in the middle of the night hadn't been the best idea.
"Surround the target! Don't let him get away!" A new voice commanded.
He scrambled to his feet but a sharp pain in his right hand interrupted him, it seemed that one of the agents managed to land a shot on him. He looked back and saw that the entire squad managed to catch up to him and they were encircling him, leaving Hunter no way of escaping.
"Crap…"
They all aimed at him with those special weapons that they had. They weren't quite the same as those guns he had seen in the tv, they were white as marble, instead of opaque colors, and they didn't shoot those metallic bullets, but rather light projectiles that reminded him of the plasma blast spell: Not that deadly but really hurtful.
"Do not stand together! Or else he'll get several of you in one shot!"
"Enough" A new feminine voice said. The humans at his front stood aside to make way for a woman; She had black hair, pale skin, cerulean eyes, and a slender build. She seemed pretty old, but the confidence in her step told him she was bad news "Just form a perimeter around him and try to restrain it if it tries to escape, I'll handle this"
"Yes ma'am!" The people surrounding him said in a chorus.
With that she stepped forward while the others just formed an improvised ring while pointing at him with their weapons. Hunter felt weird by just looking at her, something about her appearance was throwing him off but he couldn't tell why.
"Agh, there's no time for this! Focus, Hunter. The only reason why they haven't blasted me to death yet is because they think I'll use magic to blast them back, but once they see me fight they are going to realize that's not the case with me… unless"
*Hmph* "So you think you are pretty tough, huh human?" He was really thankful his mask was hiding his nervous face, his acting skills were really poor "Well then, in that case I'll indulge you. I won't use my magic for this, that way when you lose it's gonna make me look even better"
"Do you seriously expect me to believe that?"
"Believe what you want. I'm pretty certain that I could take one of you in hand to hand combat" He took off his mantle and put it in the ground alongside the bundle where his things were "How about this? If you win I will tell you everything you want to know, but if I win you'll let me go"
"Not a chance"
"Afraid that you will lose? It's fine I can't blame you, we are superior than you after all" She raised an eyebrow at that.
"Racial superiority? I shouldn't be surprised. If this will help me stop your rampage then I might as well indulge you" She took out her belt with her weapon and placed those in the ground like he did.
This was a terrible plan and he knew it. He had no reason to believe she was keeping her promise, or that the others wouldn't shoot him right away, not to mention that this wouldn't last forever. Still, it was all he had, and maybe by buying some time the other two would come and help him. So, trembling with anticipation, he raised his fists and assumed a fighting stance.
"Afraid I see, good"
"It's not fear, just eagerness. Haven't had a good sparring match in a while"
"Sparring? Is that what you think this is? Oh no, you are wrong. This isn't a match, this is called retribution"
Without any other words she charged at him. Hunter was startled by her speed, it seemed too much for someone her age, but he was prepared: Using his battle-trained reflexes he stepped to the side and kicked her, but she intercepted it and retaliated by throwing a punch which he parried. The battle remained like that for a while: Fake outs, parrys, grapples, shoves, they were locked in an even matchup where they countered each other's moves and neither of them could get the advantage over the other, that was until he got bored. Grabbing a bit of dirt from the ground he faked a punch, only to throw it at her eyes at the last second.
"Gah!" She gasped and covered her face with her hands, leaving her abdomen exposed.
With one huge leap he lunged at her and actually managed to strike her stomach. Then he followed it up by sweeping her legs and making her trip.
"Finally! A solid hit!"
"Ugh! You witches and your dirty cheats! I should've known that you wouldn't fight honestly!"
"That wasn't a cheat, that's a tactic. In a battle you have to seize every opportunity you have to defeat your opponent, especially when your life is in the line" He raised his fighting stance.
*Hmph* "You don't say?" She asked with a raised eyebrow and whistled loudly.
Hunter felt a searing pain in the back of his left leg and fell to his knees. With a hazy mind from the pain he looked backwards, one of the human's guns was smoking and it aimed right at him. The lady got up at an amazing speed and kicked in the ribs, they weren't fully healed yet so it hurt like hell, then she grabbed his right wrist and twisted it behind his back while she stood over him.
Hunter grumbled and resisted, but she just applied pressure on his wrist and stepped on his head, forcing him down. Her strength was nothing like before, it seemed that she wasn't serious when fighting earlier.
"You didn't really think that I was gonna adhere to the rules of honorable combat either, did you?" She slid some metallic brace on top of his forearm, it latched on it with a *clic* sound "See this? It's a magical suppressing cuff, you won't be able to cast any spell while wearing it, and I am the only one that can unlock it, so don't even think on trying anything"
She punched him one more time on the ribs and he spat out blood inside his mask. Then she forced him to get back up.
"Now you'll come with us. If you behave nicely I won't have to break any more bones"
Hunter wanted to cry, everything really went horribly wrong this night. He had no chance of escaping and if he was captured he wasn't going to go back home anymore. He wouldn't be able to help his uncle fulfill his mission.
"Reporting to headquarters" Another human said "We have successfully captured a witch, we are transporting the prisoner now"
"Hey what is that?" Someone else asked.
Hunter couldn't see what was happening, but it seemed that something had made the agents upset as they were shouting and shooting at the sky. His captor looked up and grunted when something red came flying by and started attacking her face, he couldn't see it but he had a good idea of what it was.
The lady's grip on him loosened as she got assaulted, so he took advantage of that and kicked her in the shin to escape her grasp. She yelled and tried to reach for him and grab him again, but he was too fast for her.
Hunter knew that the other agents were going to shoot him dead as soon as they saw him struggling against her, but he had a plan for that: When he left the bundle containing his magic items he left a really useful relic on top of it, for easy access in case he needed it, and he really needed it now. Sliding on the ground to avoid the incoming shots he dashed towards his stuff and grabbed the first item of the pile: A necklace with a bronze pendant. It also had a blue jewel in the middle of it with the shape of a tear, he pressed it and a light surged from it, it expanded and formed a big bubble of energy around him, the light blasts from the guns bounced out of it and went straight back at the ones who shot them.
"Agh!" The humans who shot themselves complained.
"He's got an energy force field! Concentrate fire in one spot! Amplify your shots to their maximum level!" The woman ordered the others.
"But that's incredibly dangerous-" One of the other humans started to argue and she grabbed him by his collar.
"I don't care. DO IT" With that they approached in formation and started to tinker with their guns.
Hunter had no way out of this and he knew it, he had hoped that this would buy him more time to escape, but there was no such luck. The force field would only last less than a minute under heavy fire and there wasn't anything he could use for cover after that, there were a couple of trees some meters ahead but he would be gunned down before he could reach them.
"Sorry that I failed you Uncle. I will- huh?"
He noticed something coming from behind him, at first he thought that it was an enemy but then he saw how the bird palisman entered his force field like nothing. It chirped and flew towards him, landing on his hand.
"What are you doing? How did you even-"
"He's gonna use his familiar! Quick, break the barrier!" The agent shouted.
All of the humans lined up and aimed at him, the barrels of their guns started emitting a faint light, signaling that they were getting ready to shoot.
Hunter didn't think, he didn't even consider the ramifications of his actions, he just acted.
The palisman on his hand shone a little bit and transformed into a staff, with the bird at the top of it. He grabbed his bag and mounted the staff just when the humans unleashed their light barrage. The barrier held out for about three seconds before cracking, at first he thought this was it, but then he felt a surge of adrenaline and lightning course throughout his body. One second he was in the middle of his force field about to get blasted to death by magical weapons, the next he was ten meters to the left hovering in the air.
"What the?!" He couldn't help his surprise. This felt way too different than his usual dashing spell, it was way more powerful.
The combined blast of the agents pierced through the barrier one second later and actually destroyed the landscape, the place where he was one second ago became nothing more than a burning crater.
"Did we do it?" One of them asked.
"No, you idiot! He's there!" The woman pointed at him and he started floating away "Get him!"
"We just used the guns on their maximum power ma'am, they need some time to recalibrate!"
"Use the spares then!"
He started swerving left and right to avoid any incoming shot. It was very difficult for him because this staff was way more instinctive than the other one and moved in a different way.
"Gah! This staff is weird!"
Several blasts of light passed near him but he managed to dodge them using erratic teletransportations to throw them off. Eventually he reached the treeline and flew above the canopy. He thought he was safe, until he saw what was behind him.
"What in the titan's name?"
The black haired woman was just right behind him. She was running at an even faster speed than when they were fighting and was jumping from branch to branch with the agility of a forest creature. She had a look of furious determination in her eyes as she chased him.
"I will not let you go!" She roared and jumped high to catch him.
Hunter had never used a palisman staff, so he didn't know what kind of tricks it got. Still he decided to use it and aimed the top of the staff at her. A lightning ray emerged from the bird in the staff and hit the woman fully in her chest, knocking her down.
"Ahh!" She fell into a thick branch and became entangled with it.
Hunter couldn't resist himself. He was feeling pretty euphoric after escaping certain death.
"Have fun climbing down! See you later, byeeeeeeee!
If you guys are curious about it Lilith would've totally won that fight if both of them decided to play honorably. She was just using that exchange of blows to gather information about him and then finish him off later.
Also again, I am super sorry that this took longer than it should have.
Also I'd like to apologize for everyone who thought that we were continuing with Luz's arc. The idea was to do something with it in this chapter but I got really into writing Hunter's part. I promise that the new update will be in this month