Sol's good arm rose instinctively, his gun aimed right at the red-eyed man.
"Everyone, get out of here! We'll hold him off. Go!" Sol shouted to the punks. They responded quietly by grabbing as much of the armor and weapons as they could before leaving through the opening.
"Ah, the imperfects. They'll, like you, have their place in this world." The Red-Eyed man said in an insultingly warm tone while looking at Alex. His eyes flicked to Sol briefly before returning to Alex. "Leave the human, baggage."
Alex blinked. Then blinked again. "Can you repeat that? Maybe in a way that makes sense?" While his words were… not polite, but adequate, his tone was anything but.
The Red-Eyed man grimaced a bit before his expression smoothed out. "Ah, yes, a remnant of your previous… state. Very well. I will explain." His tone, in contrast to Alex, was incredibly nasal and uppity.
The Red-Eyed man began to squat down, dragging his coiled whip across the ground like a cat, before raising it and pointing it at Sol. As he spoke, he began to slowly point the whip at Alex. "We were like this fool. Uselessly human, living meaningless lives and grabbing at scraps."
In an explosion of motion, he stood up. "Then we were pulled here, and it was like an epiphany! A calling from an angel with blackened wings! We could become so much more, we just had to kill, to hunt. Yet there was still something holding us back, a last remnant of the weakness that plagues us in the world above." He paused, a hellish sneer blooming on his face.
"No matter how much power we gave ourselves, we would never reach the high of the demons of yore. Our… human forms would always be there as a reminder. And then it happened! Our leader, the one who set us on the path of strength, lost his eye to a demon! A stupid, simple demon took it from him. Well, he couldn't have that, no… He plucked out its eyes and took them for himself. An eye for an eye, and then it became clear to us. The only way to shed our weakness was to shed our old bodies. Haha! Don't you see!?" His gaze now boring down on Alex.
"You're already on the path of power, an imperfect blend of majesty and chafe! Shed your humanity from your body and become greater than anything else you could have hoped to become!" He shouted, arms spread wide and the whip began to slowly unfurl itself.
Then he looked back at Sol. "Take him for example, weak and hesitant. Oh, I saw there was some fire in you, but you choked up on the first kill of these wastrels and their little toys." He looked back to Alex, "Like I said before, leave the human, he's just baggage."
Alex, once again, blinked. Then…
"You do realize that you killed demons to take part of their bodies as a human before hybridization, right?" Alex pointed out, unsure if his words would be well received. "Also, What do you mean by shedding my humanity? I'm already doing that. Exhibit one." He finished as he tugged at his tri-colored hair before asking sharply. "Or do you mean me to join you and your merry band of murderers?"
"You could join us or fight us, it doesn't matter. Either way, your life will give us proof of strength. What I mean is to finish it." The Red-Eyed man hissed. "Nothing to hold you back, the full body of a demon is the only way to go forward for power!"
Alex would have blinked again if he wasn't just staring at Red Eyes. Full-on staring, without even blinking. In complete silence.
That went on for long enough that even the Red Eyes was starting to get a little bit creeped out. "What?!" He snarled, suddenly on the defensive.
Alex just shrugged. "Look… What do you want me to call you, by the way? I can't keep referring to you as Red Eyes in my head for much longer before the words start losing any kind of sense."
There is a quiet moment that seems to stretch far longer than it should before a truly furious look blossoms across the red-eyed man's face. He took a breath and steeled his expression.
"Allan, that's the name I was given." He stated, his voice strained and angered.
"I just asked what you want to be called, not what your name was. I'm not an asshole that's going to dead name someone, be them because they are trans or because they have decided to throw their humanity away and turn into a demonic entity." Alex crossed his arms and glared at Allan. "Now, are you fine with me calling you Allan or do you want to be called something else?" He asked again, pointedly.
"Do names matter? In this world only strength and the legacy that carries their worth!" The Red Eyed man shouted.
"I didn't realize that you shed your manners along with your humanity." Alex's reproach was dry and on point, something that someone would say to a child who was throwing a tantrum.
"Oh don't tell me you care! Manners are just a nice way of reminding our old selves of our place in the world. Here? They have no meaning. Strength is the only measure of worth here and demons are the only things worth a damn!" The Red-Eyed man hissed.
Alex's expression turned into a frown, before smoothing out in a placid lake that was cold enough to freeze the air around him.
"Fine by me. Then, Allan, here's what I think about your philosophy." The way he had hissed his name was cutting enough that Allan should have started bleeding. "Taking parts of the demons to gain their powers, I can understand. I did it to survive, the Punks did it to replace what they had lost, I don't see anything wrong about it. I'm not a religious fanatic or one of those nazis that are in the tower. But discarding your humanity in pursuit of a higher power?"
He scoffed.
"Don't be daft. The most powerful demon after Sparda was one of his sons. A son that he had with a human woman. That son killed Mundus, before killing the second one, I don't even remember the name. Then he killed a fake savior that had the power of Sparda. Now, that was a whole other mess…"
"You mean Argosax? Oh and don't forget Abigail and Lucifer." Sol said, his tone trying to be light.
"Yeah, those too, and you know what the kicker is? The final nail in the coffin of your piss-poor excuse for a life philosophy that falls apart if you think about it for more than ten seconds?" Alex took a single breath before continuing. "He did all of this by embracing his humanity. By crying, by being defeated, and by helping other humans rise above their station. He rose above countless trials by forgiving and moving forward, no matter what."
Alex sneered at Allan. "So, do me a favor and go fuck yourself somewhere else. I'm not in the mood to deal with your fanaticism. Shoo." Alex finished as he waved his hand like he was dismissing an unruly cat.
Allan was silent again, but where he didn't verbally speak, his body spoke for him. Any part of his body that was exposed, bulged with veins that moved like serpents under his skin. His face strained itself as his eyes flared with open fury until an unseen boiling point had been reached.
"THEN DIE WITH YOUR VAUNTED HUMANITY, YOU IMPERFECT SCUM!"
With his roar, he cracked his whip and two bloody portals manifested revealing new demons. Their red and white undulating skin and flaming scythes clearly identified them as Abysses.
[center]ALLAN GRABACER – PERFECTED DEMON HYBRID SCOUT [/center]
And, while two demons didn't sound like much, Abysses were demons that made it count. A lot.
Alex smiled thinly, before a metal staff with a feathered top was in his hands, the long ribbons that trawled behind it dancing in the wind.
"Seraphim, sing!" The area around him - and the two demons that had tried to rush him - were blasted by a wall of sounds that turned everything into rubble.
Sol fired his gun at Allan who easily batted the bullets away with his whip. "Useless!" The Red Eye shouted before calling out to the two demons. "Get up you bags of blood, and kill this pest! I'll deal with the other."
Before Sol could say or do anything else, the Abysses surged forward, singed from Seraphim's attacks but only a little worse for wear. They were on Sol nearly instantly and he was doing everything in his power to fight defensively.
"Don't try to interfere. The red orbs you and that hanger-on have will be put to better use once I kill the two of you!" Allan roared as he charged Alex.
Alex smiled, but it was more of a baring of teeth than a real smile. "I believe you." And then, it was a fight.
Allan's whip came down on where Alex was standing the moment before, only to hit the cracked concrete, shattering it even more. Then, the Red Eyes was sent careening forward, his back feeling like he had been hit by a truck going full on the highway.
Alex was at his back, Seraphim in his hands, a flinty look in his eyes. He wasn't smiling anymore.
Allan spun, bringing the back of his hand against Seraphim, and attempted to strike at Alex, whip wrapped around his fist like a demonic knuckle duster.
Meanwhile, Sol fell back further and further into the lobby. He was tiring, and he knew it. The Abysses were relentless in their attacks and Sol was forced to move to the collapsed floors, trying to get the high ground as much as he could, using Time Step to eke out a few moments of precious time.
"Come on Alex, kill him, kill him quickly!" He shouted slashing at the closer of the two Abysses.
The metal of the staff slammed against the hand of Allan three times at quick speed before Alex had to Blink away from him, reeling in pain as a lance of fire coming from Allan's eyes struck him.
"I'm trying!" His answer to Sol was quick and hurried, before he Blinked away once more, gaining some distance. Then, pointing his staff towards Allan, he unleashed a beam of energy that the Red-Eye answered with another ocular fire lance, the two forces colliding in mid-air in a brilliant and terrible display of demonic power.
In the meantime, the Abysses had changed their attempts at killing Sol. Now, instead of going all out against Sol, they were darting towards him, trying to strike him a couple of times with their scythes, before going back, like two cats playing with a mouse.
Sol realized it shortly into the change With a snarl, he activated Time Step again, and again just to get something, a second or two of breathing room, a chance at the very least of survival.
*Clang, Clang, Clang*
He batted away more strikes but could feel the blades grazing his arms and legs.
"I don't want to die." He thought.
*Clang, Clang, Clang*
"I don't want to die!" He thought frantically as he watched the two demons move in tandem, watching their scythes bob and arc. A wild idea came to him and in a moment of desperation, he activated Time Step once more.
"I don't want to die!" Sol roared. Dodging a scythe, he came up on the side of one of the Abyss' and held it in front of its fellow, mid-strike. The burning scythe buried itself deeply into the chest of the Abyss and Sol half-stepped backward before swinging Gevaudan at the impaled Abyss's neck. The demon's head came off cleanly, and for a moment, a brief moment Sol felt hope. It was dashed almost immediately.
The remaining Abyss swung upward, pushing Gevaudan and Sol's sword arm high and opening his guard. Sol tried to raise his gun on instinct before the Abyss swung down. The world momentarily went white, and all the sound became muffled… Sol could hear something in the distance, a small, shrill howl cutting through it all.
"Ahhhh!"
The world moved slowly, and his arm felt weird. Why hadn't the Abyss attacked him yet?
"Ahhhh!"
He looked down briefly and realized that his left arm was missing at the elbow. Small flickers of flame licked at the stump. The noise began to become clearer and Sol realized that it was his voice. His voice screaming in pain.
"AHHHHH!"
Sol howled in agony as he fell backward, collapsing down the broken remnants of the building before landing in a bloody heap. Still screaming, he never realized that his severed arm and gun flew into the air and clattered to the floor below next to Alex and Allan.
The Red Eye sneered before attacking Alex again. "Like I said before! He's human, just baggage!"
Alex wasn't listening to Allan. Sol's scream had rent the air apart, a bone-chilling sound that made him lose any kind of focus he could have on his enemy. He turned, his hair arcing behind him, the speed and suddenness of the movement making his hair tie fly away.
"SOL!" His voice was raw and filled with emotion, his eyes wide and almost unseeing. He had lost his sight of Allan, his weapon vanishing back into his inventory in his grief.
That was his mistake.
A spike of pain hit him, the whip that the Red Eyes was using turning into a long spear, impaling him from behind, straight through his kidney and out of his bowels, around the navel.
"That's what human trash brings you!" Allan's glee was almost palpable. Alex wasn't listening to him. He was transfixed on what was happening. The Abyss, behind Sol's prone form, was raising his scythe once more, this time aiming for his head.
Alex didn't think anymore. He just… disappeared.
Blinking forward, Brina out and impaled the Abyss's head, before slashing away three or four times, ignoring his wounds. Once the Abyss had completely lost his head, Alex dropped to his knees, his hands hovering above Sol's shoulder.
"Sol! Sol, answer me! Try to stay awake, you can't go to sleep!" He was pleading and he didn't care how he looked in doing so, tears dripping down his eyes. His friend was more important.
Then from behind, Allan's transformed spear had found his heart. Alex's breath hitched and he turned his head to the side, only to see Allan sneering at him from above.
"Die like a human, then." Even now, the Red-Eyed man was so assured of his superiority and disdain.
Alex… blinked. Once.
*******************Alex PoV**************
I was in a featureless gray plain. There was nothing to see, in all directions. Just gray mists, gray sky, gray land.
A blink more and there was me in front of myself. The me of before the Geryon, before the Statue, before being abducted by a demon with dreams of grandeur.
"So, that's how we die?" Human-Me asked, looking at me with a sort of… resignation. His words were said in a quiet, almost placid tone, his expression neutral. I looked at him.
"I don't want to die." My words were visceral. The Human-me in front of me nodded.
"I know. I wouldn't want to die to that madman, either. Considering." He shrugged. I nodded. It made sense.
With the sound of clopping and a deep, demonic neigh, the Ancient Geryon came, from my left. Human-Me moved a bit to the right so that he was farther away from the demonic horse. When it stopped, they were equidistant from me.
"I'm guessing you know what this is, right?" His question was not a question at all, as it was pretty clear what he meant. I nodded anyway.
"You do know that you haven't been using your abilities to the max, right? The way you fight, the way you move… It's still human. You are not human anymore."
He was right. And yet…
"I'm not completely human. Yes, I took demon bones and a liver into my body, that is true, but I still have a human heart and mind. I'm not going to renounce what I was for what I became."
That seemed to surprise Human-Me, an expression finally appearing on his face. "Why? While what Allan said was horrible and the way he said it was absolutely offensive, he wasn't completely wrong. Demons are stronger, demons have magic, demons are free."
I frowned. "And? Demons don't have friends. Demons don't spend time reading or watching movies, or playing video games, or talking, or doing anything that isn't either resting or fighting. A pretty bleak life, if you ask me."
Human-Me smiled. "So, I'm going to assume that you aren't going to discard me to embrace demonhood fully, then?"
I shook my head. "Not on my life."
Human-Me, then, just shrugged. "Half-demon it is. Now, to be clear: you DO know what this whole trip inside your head means, right?"
I nodded. "I… have a rather good idea, yes." The Geryon neighed, showing teeth that definitely weren't the ones of a herbivore. On his back, something that looked like a Bianco Angelo, but with a strange, haze-like quality, appeared, bowing his head to me. Human Me sighed softly and walked the few steps that separated him from the horse.
"Then, let's go. Think of wings, it's cooler that way." His hand touched the flank of the horse, the armored hand of the Bianco Angelo covering his own a moment later.
Silver light made me blink.
And I was back.
**********************Third Person PoV***********************
When Alex returned to his body, Allan was kicking the still-present corpse of the Abyss, a scowl on his face.
"Stupid pieces of trash! Useless! And you are some of the strongest demons? Bah! Not even managing to kill a human…" His last word practically dripped with disdain.
The spear was still in Alex's heart, the muscle trying to beat even with the metal piercing it through. Anyone else in his place would have been dead. Any other human in his place would have been dead.
Sol, in his place, would have been dead.
Alex wasn't a human. Alex wasn't Sol. Alex wasn't anyone else.
Alex was Alex.
His left hand grabbed the spear from the back and tugged it up, the shaft smoothly sliding out of his body. The wounds left behind bubbled and closed over, leaving smooth skin behind, and no sign of the previous injury.
Then, he got up. The movement was stuttered, like an old VHS tape that missed some frames: Alex went from kneeling on the ground to standing up to grabbing his weapon and turning towards Allan. The Red-Eyed man was still kicking the Abyss's corpse. It was only the metallic clank of his whip spear that made him turn to see Alex.
"How are you still alive?!" His shout bounced from crumbling building to crumbling building, his eyes wide in surprise and shock. While Alex spoke, he didn't answer the question.
"I'm GOinG to KilL You nOw."
His voice wavered and jumped around, the pitch changing randomly before he took a step towards him. Allan, feeling a jolt of fear, unconsciously took a couple of steps back before the whip spear returned to his hand.
Steeling himself, Allan roared. "You couldn't kill me before, and you won't kill me now!" With a powerful thrust, Allan charged forward, the gleaming tip of his weapon aimed at Alex's head. Only, Alex wasn't there anymore.
"I cAN. i WiLl. I am DoINg it NOw."
The voice came from behind Allan. However, upon facing Alex, Allan noted with horror that Alex's face was now hidden by what looked like bony scales, that rapidly covered his form. There was a burst of power that sent Allan skidding backward, and that dreaded and when his eyes found Alex's form once again, dread wormed its way into his heart.
Alex's head looked like he was wearing an incredibly sleek and slim helmet made of bone, with grey glass-looking material covering his eyes. His body was covered in scales that were so tiny and interconnected that looked like shiny leather, including boots and gloves, tipped with claws. Behind him, two leathery wings opened, throwing a black shadow on Allan's terrified face.
"How did you!? Only Zeke can do something like that!" Allan cried out.
"FaNCy THat! EmbRaCIng HUmanITY heLPEd!" Alex's laugh was chilling, making Allan shiver down to the bone. Then, a blade was suddenly in his hand, shimmering and shivering without rhyme nor reason, there for a moment and gone the next.
"Now Die."
Allan turned to run, only to stumble. The next step brought his leg forward but left everything beneath the knee behind. His attempt to bring his weapon up only brought up a stump, the hand, and his whip falling on the ground. The other arm was cut at the shoulder.
He opened his mouth to shout, but Alex was there a moment later, a finger on his lips to shut him up as Brina was driven into Allan's heart one, two, three times in succession before it was removed and drawn across Allan's neck.
A moment later, Alex was back where Sol was, a hand on his shoulder and the other hovering above his wounds. Behind him, Allan's head fell free, thumping on the ground. For several seconds that mouth moved, silently cursing Alex. It was a testament to the Red-Eyed man's augmentations that he was still alive, even if it was only for a few more moments. Until a bullet made of silver energy slammed against the head, pulverizing it.
"Sol? Sol, can you hear me? Can you stand? We need to reach… The Statue, or Rodin or... or... I don't know. I'm... I can't think. Please, Sol, answer me. Don't leave me alone." His voice was not distorted anymore, but it was… pleading. Quiet. Subdued, almost. Desperate.
Eyes wide, and body trembling, Sol's right hand had wrapped itself around the stump of his left arm in a vice-like grip. Beyond this, the only thing that showed there was still life was the fact that Sol kept muttering the same phrase.
"He took my arm, he took my arm, he took my arm…."
The flash of light that signaled Allan's absolute end dragged enough of Sol's consciousness back to the forefront to be vaguely aware of his surroundings. He tried to move, to brace himself on both arms only to collapse. The pain from the light fall shocked him that much further. He rolled onto his back and screamed in agony, before beginning to mutter incoherently, half-formed and thought-out questions intermixing the screams.
"Shh, shhh, sh. It's fine, it's fine. Look, he's dead. I killed him." Alex was still covered in that strange armor, but his voice had stopped doing that strange shifting tone of voice. "I killed him and his demon. The one that took your arm. Look, he's there. I killed him for you. Please, stay calm, ok? It's… It's going to be ok." His words were still hurried and his hands were hovering over Sol, almost as if he was afraid of touching him.
"I killed him. I can't.. God, your arm… I can't.. The.. it's cauterized, I.." His head - as his eyes were covered by the strange, helmet-like growth around his head - swiveled around in a panic, before landing on the still-present corpse of the Abyss. A corpse that still had two arms and was slowly vanishing, starting from the feet.
"I can get you a new arm. Like Nero, yes? You like Nero." Scratch the previous situation: Alex was going into hysterics.
Sol grew still for a few seconds, his dazed eyes slowly turning where Alex was looking. Slurring and muttering he spoke.
"Took my arm… I'm… I'm going to take its… I'm going to take its..."
"Yes, sure, whatever you want. Let me help you." Alex's transition from standing near him to him supporting Sol upright was instantaneous and, as almost all of his movements since his transformation - his Devil Trigger, to be perfectly clear - like someone had skipped some frames on a video. The moment before, Alex was hovering near Sol as his friend was slowly trying to get up, the next Sol was up, while Alex had an arm around his shoulder and was basically keeping him up.
"Here. Can you stay up? I can… Let me…" Calcabrina appeared in his hands before he wrapped Sol's hand around the handle. "Use this. As a cane, I mean. I'm going to… I'll fight. Don't worry, ok? You just. Stay up. Give me…" Alex said before clipping forward, halfway to the Abyss, and then back, his arm around Sol, the other hand, dragging the corpse of the demon with him like it weighed nothing.
Sol gazed at Alex before smiling dumbly. "You… took... a Tin man armor? That's some... poemmy juste right there… let me... my own" He said before shakily raising Gevaudan and slashing down. It wasn't perfect, and Sol wound up falling forward, taking one of the Abyss's arms off halfway up the bicep. Sol stabbed Gevaudan into the ground in an attempt to steady himself before bringing the arm to his stump. Sol looked at the limb like a deer caught in the headlights, turning the limb over several times before looking back at the body. "This is a right arm… Give me my... left... arm back." Sol muttered to the corpse before dropping the limb and grabbing Gevaudan again.
"This time I'll do it… right." He gasped, before hacking at the proper limb. The cut wasn't clean but it was serviceable. The exertion however seemed to take on him and Sol fell once more.
"Just… just have to find a statue…" Sol muttered in a daze.
"Sol, Sol, stop. I said I'll take care of it and I will, ok? Let me…" Uncaring of the blood that he was getting on himself, Alex linked the Abyss' arm to Sol's stump, noticing - much to his relief - that it was a bit longer than it should have been. Sol's cut hadn't managed to hack away at the right point, so out of it as he was.
Deciding that he could adjust the length once they were near a statue, Alex grabbed Sol and moved him to a fireman's carry, letting him hang on the arm. The Abyss corpse was still in his other hand and he didn't let him go for… some reason.
To be fair, he wasn't really going on all cylinders. He had probably just forgotten about it. Still, like this, he had a way to move faster than walking or running.
"Calcabrina! Fly!" The umbrella shot away from Sol's hand and started moving towards the position of the statue, passing under Alex's feet. He jumped and, a clipped movement later, he was on the weapon, flying towards the Watcher of Time.
"I'm gonna bring you to the Statue, don't worry, ok? I'm going to bring you there. And you'll be fine. You'll be fine."
"Yeah sure… just flying high and touching the sky… " Sol mumbled.
"Later. When you have your arm back. You'll touch the sky, I'll bring you up there, I promise…" Alex was rambling, as the helmet-like thing on his head started to vanish. He was going fast, his flight far faster than what he would normally be able to do, but desperation and his first transformation pushed him forward like a drug.
The helmet was the first to fully vanish. Then, the gloves went away. The sleeves, the entire upper part of his transformation.
After three minutes of desperate flight forward, the entire thing vanished and Alex stumbled on the ground, barely managing to turn just enough to take the impact instead of Sol. Cracked concrete and rubble would have broken a few bones if it wasn't for his supernatural body. And still, it was his own body that was betraying him right now. The pushing of his powers to a mature state before they were ready, entering Devil Trigger, and then expending his energy without care was playing merry hell on his organs and nerves. It was only the incredibly powerful regeneration that came with that state that had managed to keep him standing for so long.
Now that he had used all the energy just to reach the intersection before the nest, where the Divinity Statue was located, his transformation undid all of a sudden and he was back in his mostly human body. His mostly human body couldn't withstand the amount of demonic power still in him. Alex howled in pain, as his kidneys began to rapidly fail. His hands dropped everything he was holding on the ground and he hugged himself, curling in a fetal position. And yet, through gritted teeth, Alex struggled to a standing position. With what could only be described as a Herculean effort, Alex grabbed Sol and the Abyss's body and carried them that final distance. Going as far as to ignore the fear of crossing the lone beam leading to the statue. Just as he reached it, his vision swam as pain took over his consciousness. As Alex's vision faded, he felt himself collapsing against the statue.
*******************************
For the last few minutes, Sol's world was filled with pain and confusion. Something had changed. The haze that had been present since... since... had begun to lift from his mind. Sol quickly realized that he was in the familiar white void belonging to statue. He rolled himself onto his knees, attempted to stand, and fell, before fully realizing the extent of his injuries. Where his left once was, was a golden, translucent version that he could feel but couldn't move. It was like last time, like what happened with that damn horse. And lo and behold, what lay next Sol, but a demonic arm slowly sizzling and fading away.
Sol stared at the arm for what felt like an eternity, before using his remaining hand to grab it. Holding the limb toward the statue, his voice hissed, as his frame shook in fear. "You know what I need to do… I have the orbs. Let's just get this over with!"
The menus opened up and Sol gestured to the hybridization. A part of him wanted to go with a perfect fusion, but he had a feeling that Alex needed the intact parts more than he did at this time, and selected Imperfect Hybridization. He watched his Red Orb Count drop by 75,000 and the Abyss's arm flew out his hand and overtook the golden mimicry.
Sol expected pain, but he didn't realize just how painful it would really be. The Abyss arm began to worm its way onto and into him, twisting and spasming as it did so. It felt as though a blinding and burning cold was rushing from his left arm into the rest of his body. He screamed and dropped to his knees, not noticing how the arm pulsed and surged, first rapidly expanding and contracting before shortening in length to match his original arm. It pulsed for a few moments longer before its fingers began to curl and twitch. With one final cry, Sol blacked out from the pain and collapsed into a heap, heedless of the new limb.
Only then Alex did manage to move enough to act a little. The pain hadn't subsided, but he had grown accustomed to it, at least enough that he could distinguish what was in front of his face. And it was hard to mistake the area where the Divinity Statue stood supreme.
"Sol… He...I need… To…" Looking around with as much energy as he could use, he finally noticed the body handing off him and his friend, sprawled on the ground, a new crimson and white-clawed limb where his left used to be.
A huge weight that he didn't think about vanished from his shoulders and a few tears dripped down his eyes, relief etched in his features.
"You're ok. You're ok. You'r-gh!" A lance of pain made him stop, and he had to keep on breathing for several minutes before managing to regain control over himself. He could feel himself grow nauseous by the second, his limbs shaking as his heart began to beat, louder and louder in his ears. So, he turned towards the Statue.
Perfect Demonic Hybridization (Kidneys): 75.000 Red Orbs or Imperfect Demonic Hybridization (Kidneys): 35.000 Red Orbs.
It was not even a thought passing through his mind before he chose the first option. The corpse of the Abyss near them shuddered, convulsed, and then, in streams of liquid light that looked like blood, streamed from the demon to Alex, perforating his body at the kidneys. He shrieked in agony before his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
Fainting from the pain, and dead to the world, neither of the two noticed the approaching figures converging on the statue.
***************************************
Awareness came to Sol slowly. He was aware he was being dragged and more importantly, he could feel his left arm. Someone had him by the wrists.
"Al… Alex, thanks for…" He was cut off as he was backhanded. It shut him up and woke him up fully.
"Shut it, you trash!" A voice, a male voice shouted before someone else, a woman, spoke up.
"That's enough, he's more valuable than you are at any rate."
"You bi!.." The voice shouted again before something happened and Sol felt himself being thrown across wherever he was. When his vision cleared he realized that he was familiar with the female voice. It was the businesswoman from his group and she was different, very different. Her pantsuit, while obviously tattered, showed off her body. He'd have been attracted to her if not for the obvious look of insane cruelty that danced across her eyes and… the blood of the male speaker that was splattered across her side. Sol's eyes looked to the ground and saw a white-clad man with a familiar armband slumped on the ground, his head pulped.
There was someone else with them too, another nazi who took one look at the carnage and ran.
The businesswoman snorted before easily grabbing a piece of rubble and launching it at the fleeing nazi. It smashed into the back of their head and the nazi dropped to the ground, still. "Cowards honestly, can't take the heat when they need to. Not like us. Look at you! You and that.. other one, whatever the hell his name was. You and he were survivors, and now with that arm, well…"
Sol cut her off as he got to his feet. "What the hell do you mean by 'were'?"
The businesswoman laughed, "Ahahahaha! I can't have you taking all the demons and red orbs for yourselves. Besides, I want that arm of yours." With that, she threw two items down, Vendetta and Gevaudan. Sol picked them back up with shaky hands, staring briefly and with no small degree of horror at the undulating crimson and white patterns that danced across his left arm, before meeting her eyes.
"Now! Let's see how you do!" She shouted, raised a massive stone club, and swung it towards Sol.
[center]CASSANDRA STEVENS: DEMONICALLY ENHANCED HUMAN [/center]
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When Alex woke up, he was in a cell. Dark stone, a small sliver of a window high in the wall, chains on the walls - that luckily weren't wrapped around his wrists - and a small door made of heavy wood and metal barring his way.
From the small opening in the upper part of the door, a couple of eyes and a little bit of face could be seen. Icy blue eyes, cold, arrogant, and devoid of anything resembling empathy.
"So you are the one that has the secret to reaching perfection? I can only see a pathetic wretch, but I did also see your transformation." His voice was cold in tone, although his accent could be called somewhat alluring. "No matter. The Leader commanded me to be sure that you won't escape, so you won't. And, once you have told us what we need to know to rise above the masses, your utility will come to an end."
Alex coughed, before, slowly, getting up and looking at the door. He didn't say a word for a long moment, before he croaked something out, his voice dry and raspy.
"You are one of the nazi's that must have been brought here, am I right?"- One couldn't say that his voice held a note of disdain, seeing as - to keep up the musical metaphor - there was an entire orchestra of disdain and disgust in his words.
The man on the other side of the door didn't care.
"Some may say so, yes. Oh, and…" The handle of a certain umbrella could be seen from the slit, before being replaced by the smirking face of the man.
"Thank you for your generous donation to our armory. I'll be sure to put this weapon to better use than you would have, rest assured. Don't try to escape, either. The cell is enchanted with magic to suppress you."
With a laugh, the man closed the eye slit and Alex could hear his feet thumping on the stone as he walked away.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I'll be perfectly honest, this chapter was supposed to be out on Sunday and I am really sorry about that. The Xbox Live Store on the 360 was closing on Monday and I had to move on that to make sure everything was updated the way I wanted and to capitalize on the sales. Bit of an end of era you know? The benefit, I think, with that decision was that it gave me extra time to clean up this chapter, and uh... wow there were some glaring issues from my side of the writing that needed to be addressed.
That being said, I do plan on completing the Hraesvelgr (I've been having a lot of issues posting the picture I want to use as a visual reference on SB, SV, and QQ) and Allan entries in the next few days with the next chapter to be released on Saturday. I am also going to post the Shop entries for Alex and Sol very soon, as we have reached a bit of a turning point here regarding their physical states.
Till next time and I hope you all enjoy!