"That would explain why I raged out when tearing Callum out of his bone mech. I'm going to have to figure out how to channel that properly." Sol said before looking at his hand again.
"Two down right, that leaves what? Four left?" Sol asked hesitantly.
"Yeah. Four, and then the mastermind of this whole thing." Alex murmured before turning. And dithering for a moment before turning back to Sol.
"Wanna know something?" His voice was rather dejected, and he slowly let himself fall down until he was fully seated on the ground. "I'm tired. Mentally, I mean. This whole situation is a crisis after each other, with no moment of respite. It's exhausting."
"Tell me about it." Sol slumped against the table. "Five legitimate battles we can't avoid, and then home. Going to need a long glove for the future, damn Abyss." Sol paused, a pensive look on his face. "My doppelganger mentioned something about needing sunglasses. What'd he mean by that?"
"Oh." Alex turned towards Sol before grimacing. "Yeah… you got Red Eyes. Sorry."
Sol gave a look before shouting, "Fuck! Of fucking course, I'd get red eyes. Oh, that son of a bitching demon is going to get it now." Sol said while clenching his fist.
"Calm down. You can always use colored contact lenses or… I don't know. Maybe there's some kind of magic I can find. It's not the end of the world." Then Alex looked to the side, a bit hesitant.
"And if it's too much, you can always… take a demon's eyes. You know." He gestured towards the arm.
Sol raised both hands in a placative motion. "I already have technical demon eyes and I don't feel like getting a new pair. I'll explain it under partial albinism."
While Sol and Alex were talking near the statue of time on the first floor, the individuals that had holed up in the mansion began to move throughout the property, most staying within their five-person groups except for two.
"Look, you really trust those guys!? I mean, dammit, one of their arms is all demon-y and shit!" Ian Chrysler half asked, and half yelled as he and his girl, Sadie Dullea, trudged down a hallway that seemed much longer than it actually was.
"And why not!" Sadie hissed, "They knew what they were doing and were obviously willing to tell us!"
"Didn't stop you from coming onto one of them!" Ian shot back.
"So!? It's not like he was interested!"
The two stopped in the hallway and began to argue for several minutes. Barbs were exchanged frequently, and by the end of it, the two people, while not physically exhausted, were emotionally drained.
Ian leaned back against that, in his eyes, wasn't adorned with one of the creepy paintings that seemed to be everywhere here, and slowly banged the back of his head against the wall.
"Look, it's just… it's just that you're my girl, and I want us to get out of here. I mean, we're in hell, apparently, so all we need to do is…
Ian never finished that sentence. If he hadn't been tapping the wall with his head, if he had been less drained, and if he had had the time to truly understand the enhancements that were recommended to him, he would have heard the telltale sound of something pressing against the other side of the wall. Because of his lack of awareness, he was unprepared for the sudden explosion of motion and wood around him as a pair of hands tore through the wall and partially pulled him inside it. He struggled briefly, desperately trying to get any form of leverage he could.
Sadie screamed and watched, horrified before his body jerked and fell limp. It slid down from the partially destroyed wall, missing its head. Then she heard it, a soft feminine voice that was singing and moving.
"Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream. Make him the cutest that I've ever seen."
The wall to her right exploded as a figure leaped out onto her. Disorientated, Sadie tried to push the figure off her before her eyes were drawn up, past a pair of large shears and into a hellish pair of Red Eyes.
The sound of the scream made Alex stiffen in surprise before turning towards the origin of the sound.
"Did you hear that?" And, without waiting for an answer, he blinked away, already beyond the door.
Sol was quick to follow. He'd heard the scream too. Did a zombie or two get in? Was it a last fuck you from Callum? Dammit, they should have taken the time to investigate this place as much as possible.
Sol managed to reach Alex, who was just standing in the middle of a hallway a few doors away from the room of the statue. The rest of the people were looking from the main hall, horrified. Alex was cold.
In the middle of the hallway, there was a decapitated corpse partway into the wall. The second corpse, on the other hand, had been cut to pieces, leaving only the head intact. And, on the wall, there was a message.
For everyone inside the Manor.
"This was just a Dress Rehearsal! You all may have impressive power, but it's nowhere near enough to free yourselves of this nightmare! So give up your hearts and embrace the hell around you!"
"Wha… what the fuck!?" Sol asked, horrified.
"I don't know," Alex said, as cold as the tundra. "But I will find who did this. And I will kill them. Not doing so is something I cannot fathom." Silver light was shining from behind his eyes, hiding the features of his face.
"Help try to find any trace. Did anyone see anything? Speak now. Your lives may be in danger if you don't. Not from me." He added the last part to make it absolutely clear that it wasn't him threatening someone.
Someone raised a hand, and as Sol looked at the person, he realized it was the guy who had been asking the stupid questions ever since they got there.
"I… I think I saw someone head upstairs. I thought I knew 'em, but they didn't look right." He seemed to be deep in thought before something came to him. "They were also carrying scissors, big ass scissors. The kind where you need both hands just to use them."
Alex didn't facepalm, but it was clearly something that he wanted to do. Instead, he nodded towards the guy. "Thanks, that helps. Now, the main problem is… How do we do this."
Seeing the confused look that many people were sporting, Alex elaborated further.
"If one of us goes upstairs, one of us needs to stay here to protect you all. If both of us go upstairs, we may find the killer faster, but you all would also be without anyone to help in case they come back down. If none of us goes upstairs, the killer is free to roam as they please. You see what the conundrum is?"
After Alex was done explaining, the college kids were clearly terrified. But they weren't also able to say anything, so they were absolutely no help.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but the first rule of horror movies is to not split up. I'd rather not look for a psycho killer in a mansion like this but… My guess is that this was the work of the same people the necromancer was with." Sol looked at the crowd before continuing. "Everyone, head back into the room with the statue and close those doors behind you. Stay in there for now." Sol finished before motioning the bane of his existence to him.
The man complied, and Sol pulled him close before whispering. "The wall may have ears. If shit goes south, head out past the garden and up through the sewers. Go past the man-made ice rink, and you should find a group of people like Alex and I. They're good people. Just let them know we sent you guys. Tell the others when you close those doors behind you." Sol finished before directing him back to the crowd.
Sol looked at Alex before asking. "Okay, so how do you want to fly in the face of all that is common sense in a horror movie?"
"I mean, usually, the people in horror movies are haunted by monsters, demons, and murderers. Considering that we fall in all three categories, I think the tropes are on our side." Alex smiled glibly at the situation before closing his eyes and murmuring a short prayer for the two victims.
"You know what's the main problem here? We can't even bring these poor kids back. Because…" He tapped the beheaded corpse with Calcabrina, and it vanished into Red Orbs. "...this happens."
Sol sighed and touched the other set of remains, "I'm not sure what to follow anymore, but we can only hope that they have some measure of peace."
Looking at the crowd, he said. "Get into that room and hole up there until we come back." He looked to Booze, who just gave a shaky nod as the people moved into the statue room.
"Alright, Alex, are you ready to find this bastard?"
Alex took a long, deep breath before nodding. "Yes. Let's go."
The upper floor of the manor was completely uninhabited. Doors and hallways lay empty and without any kind of sign that life was still there.
There was no dust. Only empty halls. And silence.
The sound of two sets of steps was the only thing that broke it. Alex and Sol kept a normal pace through their entire inspection of the place. Normally, they would be tense or scared by the situation, but after what had happened to them in the previous days, this felt just like another day, if a bit more dangerous.
"Do you think it's another Red Eyes?" Suddenly Alex asked, not looking away from the walls of the room they were searching.
"Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised. We've already killed two of them and did so with enough of a racket to draw anyone or anything down on us. Granted, it could be a very smart demon that is fully capable of communicating, but that message… That part about giving up your hearts reminds me too much of what that first one, Allan, said." Sol answered while warily looking into as many off-corners from as safe a distance as he could.
"Right, he did say something about that… Honestly, I had forgotten, he sounded a lot like a nazi, so I wasn't really listening to him." Alex answered before moving out of the room and towards another one. "But yeah, he did say something about that. Still… If it's another Red Eyes, I'm not all that sure that we can save the rest of them."
He sighed, before he kept looking around.
The halls and rooms were seemingly empty, though there was something. There were several drops of blood that seemed to start and end without making sense.
"Alex… are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Sol asked quietly.
*Snip!*
Sol's ears perked up, and with Nymphaeum drawn, he carefully approached the entrance to the hallway before a flash of blades dominated his vision. He managed to raise his gun just in time to block the strike but felt a fist strike him just beneath the ribs. He doubted it would have done much, but the blow caught him off guard and sent him back away.
From the hallway, there was the sound of rapidly fading footsteps and a grim laugh.
"Shit, they were waiting for us!" Sol shouted in alarm.
Alex's eyes went dark. "Not for long. Haste, haste." Twin silver auras appeared around the two hybrids, and everything around them slowed down.
The long-haired guy turned towards Sol. "One of my powers. Consider it a temporary buff to speed. It won't last that long, so we need to move." And off he went, air distorting and dust flying at his passage.
"Right!" Sol said, following Alex.
After several moments of chasing spotty blood trails further through the mansion, Sol had come to a slight realization. If he was going to be honest, he vastly preferred this version of Alex's travel spells to the flying options. Of course, all good things had to come to an end. The trail had led around a corner to a hallway that seemed to stretch on forever.
There was a silence that seemed to drag on forever before an ever-so-slight creak drew Sol's attention. On reflex, he fired, the blast going through a wall or so. Just as it dissipated, he could make out the silhouette of a figure moving out of something before disappearing.
"Okay, looks like the house is playing merry havoc. What do you think we should do?" Sol asked in a low voice.
"I'm gonna assume that breaking through all the walls is not an option." Alex's voice was normal, if a little bit more tired. The aura around the two faltered and then vanished, the spell having reached the natural end.
"So, we either Pincer Maneuver them or we beat them in speed. Considering that we don't know where they are…" And he shrugged before shooting a bullet down the darkened hallway. It threw barely enough light to illuminate the staircase going up at the end… And a silhouette was going upwards.
"Found them, apparently. What are the chances that this is a trap?" Even as he asked, it was clear that he didn't believe that this was anything BUT a trap. It lined up too perfectly. "And, more importantly, what are the chances that we are able to make it go and escape before it cuts our necks?"
"Somewhere between likely and absolutely," Sol said easily. "How about we spring it guns blazing? Show this bastard we're not easy victims."
"Sure, that works. Want to do the honors?" Alex asked jokingly before walking down the hallway towards the stairs. It was time for the killer to face the monsters.
"Well, she nearly took my head the last time, so sure, why not?" Sol said
Sol began to lead the way with some manner of gusto. That gusto quickly began to die as the hallway began to reveal more of its tricks. The first obstacle was a false ending to the hallway. The end was a painted wall whose depth and scope were constructed in a way that gave the illusion of a longer hallway. This soon became a standard for the floor. There were, however, turns that allowed for further pursuit. Several times, there was a noise that indicated a third presence, and it didn't take much for the two to realize who it could have been. They even fired in the general direction of the noise but never quite hit the mark. The hallways began to lead into various interconnected rooms and locked doors.
At several points, there were no doors or hallways leading forward. However, half-circle drag marks along the floor hinted at the truth. Several of the walls could be pushed along one side to expose additional routes and passages that wouldn't have been known otherwise. Using these new passages. The two continued onward until they eventually reached an unassuming stairwell leading to a final floor.
"An attic… that's somewhat cliche," Sol said quietly.
"Assuming it's not another maze like the one we have just left behind, anyway," Alex grumbled, a vein on his forehead quietly pulsing. He was clearly angry.
"Let's go and find this one. I'm going to assume from the lack of shouts and yells from underneath us that they are actively up here, instead of a floor down, slaughtering the others." And, without waiting any more, he started climbing the stairs.
Sol was quick to follow.
The stairway opened to a rather large attic space, one that could have matched the footprint of the manor. It was obvious that the attic had been used for some degree of storage. Not a terrible amount, as there was more than enough space to easily move around or potentially fight. That being said, the star of the attic's attraction was a woman sitting in the far corner. Her back was to them, but she could easily see the two in the reflection of a large mirror. Her pale skin contrasted with her dark clothing and the dark red of her hair readily evoked the idea of a vampire.
She looked at them in the reflection, smirked, and began to drink from what looked to be a glass of wine.
"You know," She began, a lilting accent evident in her voice. "I look at this, I drink this, and I can't help but think, 'Is this wine a memory? Is it real? Will I drink this, thinking it is of vintage only to taste dust?' This whole place is a joke! But!" She stood quickly before draining the glass. "I know what is real here, these people, you, and me." She finished with a light cackle, her other hand slipping into her to retrieve a pair of large, ornate scissors.
"And that's what makes it so fun to kill them!"
Alex didn't say anything for a moment before blinking. "I didn't know that there was a Slut Topic around here. What, Hot Topic, was out of clothes? You had to go and shop at the Bimbo Store for some?"
Then he raised an eyebrow. "Not that they had any, considering how are you… well, let's say dressed. If we can call it that." And he gestured at her body.
The woman let out a booming laugh. "Hahahaha! Oh, that's what I've missed! No one has had the time for goddamned jokes around here. I've had to really work for that and no one seems to be willing to join in. Allan always had his head up his own arse, too focused on his boring little past to embrace our hell. Callum? He really thought that he was given that power. We siphoned off his orbs and gave it to him. Oh, I saw that little fight. You two really tore him a new one, hahaha." She trailed off, her laugh filling the attic.
"And don't even get me started on Ivan and Gabrielle. 'Mr. I can't let anyone fight back because I can't bear the idea of anyone being better than me' and 'Ms. Strict and Prim!' She angrily snipped at the air with her shears. "She's a real leal-hound, that one. All Zeke has to do is tell her to jump, and she already knows how high. Ah, they're no fun." She said in mock sorrow.
"Mhhhhmhh…" Alex didn't even say anything. He just tapped the tip of his umbrella on the floor. "And you are obviously the life of the party." The sarcasm was so thick that one could cut through it with a knife.
To Sol, however, there was something strange in how he was tapping on the ground. It was too regular, too precise.
"Oh, absolutely! You have to have one, otherwise there's nothing worth doing! We're in hell. Why shouldn't we enjoy ourselves?" She said before taking a step forward.
Sol, attempting to buy some time for Alex, spoke up. "You mentioned that you siphoned Callum's red orbs. How? From what I understand, you can only make your own purchases with your own power."
She stopped, and, smiling wider, answered. "Our leader… has a, let's just say, an arrangement. Gives him a little something extra, but that won't matter to you to know, would it?" She finished before making a more intent-filled approach.
"Why? Because you are going to kill us here? I thought you would have tried to be smarter than that." Alex added blithely, stopping her cold, a look of fury on her face.
"I mean, it seemed like that, no? The smart thing. If what you said is true, then your leader is the only other one that has some brain cells in his head." Alex continued.
The levity was gone from her face. "Ivan likes to make people writhe, but I'll make you scream. Come on!" She yelled, throwing the empty wine glass at the two before charging.
Alex smiled like a shark greeting their prey.
"Yeah, I guessed you weren't all that smart." Calcabrina tapped the ground one last time before a veritable web of silver-indigo-purple symbols exploded from under his feet. The spidery writing shot on the floor before crawling upward the walls and, finally, closing above them on the ceiling.
The Red Eyes stopped her movement and jumped back, her weapon raised and ready for anything that was coming. Except that nothing else happened.
"Right, we forgot to present ourselves. I'm Alex, he's Sol. What's your name?" Again, he smiled, all teeth and no warmth.
Her gaze was locked on the symbols before looking at Sol and Alex. As she did, her smile returned, wider than before.
"Laura, Laura Fanu." She spoke before readying her sheers.
LAURA FANU: BLOODSTAINED HYBRID
"Fanu. Fanu. Now, where did I hear that name?" Alex hummed, his umbrella tapping on the ground once more, his eyes turned upwards in a mimicry of a thinking pose.
"Mhhhh…. A literary vampire, maybe? Interview with a Vampire? No, there was no character with Fanu in their name… Dracula? No, she was named Mina… Carmilla, maybe? One of the oldest vampire stories…" Alex continued to muse.
Maybe it was the nonchalance that Alex was displaying or the witty way he was speaking, but Laura's temper kept rising.
"It was Carmilla, you bloody philistine. From Le Fanu, and not the works of Polidori or that bloody frog Feval and his city of Black Jasper!" She hissed before stepping forward.
"So you are right. Sorry, I never read Carmilla or the others, never liked the style all that much. But I'm guessing it's a sore point for you? What, you got insulted in class?" Alex didn't seem to care that he was insulting her and probably hitting some buttons that shouldn't be pressed.
"Tough luck, kid. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." And he pointed that by shooting a charged bullet from the tip of Calcabrina straight at Laura's face.
She dodged out of the way and lunged toward Alex. "Wasn't made fun of, I fucking love that book!" She howled, her blades mere inches from Alex.
Alex's eyes flashed silver, and he bent backward, his back almost parallel with the ground, before he planted the tip of Calcabrina in Laura's gut.
"Buh-bye." And he shot a beam from it, pushing in as much energy as he could.
She managed to parry it with her shears before Gevauden wrapped itself around her. Before Sol could do anything else, she began to rapidly turn towards him, uncoiling herself from Gevuaden and closing the distance.
"I saw that trick with Callum. You better try a new one because that one is getting old!" She yelled while trying to stab Sol with her shears.
"Slow." The silvery aura that surrounded her was sudden and without warning. With her size, a more normal, human one, Alex didn't have to stay still and charge it as much as it could. Something that she couldn't have predicted in any way or form.
"Try this for size." Seraphim twirled in his hands before a wave of sound shot straight towards her.
The blast hit her dead on, sending her flying back into the wall behind her. It buckled briefly before reshaping itself. Despite the effects of Alex's spell, she seemed to be moving, albeit with no small degree of pain. At the point of impact, her clothes had been scorched, and what little skin could be seen already showed the signs of deep bruising. However, while her movements were much slower than before, there was still enough intent with them to imply that she knew she had been slowed.
Sol took the opportunity to attack with a Stinger aimed at her head. She seemed to compensate for her lack of speed and managed to dodge the strike. Two things happened in the ensuing moment. The first was that Sol seemingly bounced back from the wall as his sword barely missed her and struck it. The second was that he hadn't missed completely. There was a thin line of blood slowly leaking down the side of her right cheek.
Her smile slowly began to reassert itself.
"Ah ah. No smiling. You are not winning this." Alex had Calcabrina in his hands before he unsheathed the blade, holding the sheath firmly in his hand. "Let's make this more interesting. Puppet Waltz!"
Then, in a movement that almost looked easy, he opened the canopy of the umbrella and started twirling, the tassels at the edges of the spokes slashing the air apart, forming what sounded a lot like a fan.
Laura blinked at him, looking at the way he was twisting the umbrella, before raising her eyes up to Alex's own. "What… exactly is that? I mean, it's an umb-"
Rays of energy shot from each and every tassel, forming what could be generously called a wall of energy rays. That was strong enough to cut apart all the dust-covered furniture around the place. And also hitting Fanu, the wound running from her shoulder to her hip, eliciting a shout of pain and a hasty roll to the side where Sol was.
She was, at least, smart enough to understand that Alex wouldn't risk injuring Sol.
The sounds of battle had finally died as the last Abyss tried to claw at Ivan's leg. He smiled a thin, sickly smile and pressed the spikes of his axe against the demon's neck. Slowly, he'd push it further and further in, watch as the demon panicked and moved just enough to…
*Crunch!*
Ivan recoiled as Gabrielle's heel crushed the demon's head. He looked at her and, in a rage, began to advance on her.
"That was mine, you bitch! Not yours! You should know better than to…"
He stopped as he felt a hand rest itself atop his shoulder.
"Ivan," A soft, quiet voice spoke. "Need I remind you that we are in this together?"
Ivan swallowed on reflex, and he realized something was pressed against his stomach. One of Gabrielle's fans was lazily held against him. He met her eyes and saw that ever-present quiet disdain for his existence. He was about to say something when she spoke.
"Sir?" She asked the question's true meaning, which was evident by her tone and preparedness.
That familiar rage began to creep back into his vision before the weight on his shoulder shifted in a grip.
"We've lost two already. Do you think infighting is really the best course of action at this time? No, no need for that Gabrielle, you may calm yourself for now."
Gabrielle gave a sharp nod before retracting her fan and walking away from the two. Ivan could still feel the light grip on his shoulder, the subtle twinges of current that raced under the other man's hand.
"Ivan, you understand too, yes?" The voice spoke again.
"Y… yes, sir." Ivan choked out.
"Good, now turn around and face me."
Ivan took a shaky breath, turned, and faced Zeke in all his glory. At a glance, the combination of Zeke's sharp facial features and relaxed body language gave off the image of a movie star or a model. Ivan envied the other man for that reason, among others, but that image was shattered by everything else. Zeke was covered from head to toe in the remains and gore of other demons. His suit seemed to drink the color of the ichor that was splattered across it, and his spear was still buried in the twitching remains of an Abyss. His face, though, was the worst as his emotionless gaze never wavered from meeting Ivan's eyes, even as blood and sweat dripped from his face and long hair.
"Have you seen what I've done? What Gabrielle has done? You have great potential, truly." Zeke said softly as he began to further close the distance between the two causing Ivan to reflexively step away. For a moment, there was actual irritation on their leader's face before it faded away.
"Stop wasting time. You may indulge your fantasies later. However, power… waits for no one. A lesson Allan and Callum should have taken to heart." Zeke said before moving past Ivan.
Ivan, realizing that his hands and legs were currently shaking, stilled himself before something dawned on him. Was Callum dead!? He knew Allan had died, the little runt that he was, but Callum? How did Zeke know, and why wasn't he doing anything?
Ivan opened his mouth to ask before Zeke turned with a disturbingly faint smile.
"I have my ways. Laura should be dealing with the cadre of survivors in that area now. She'll return to us sooner or later." Zeke finished before turning and walking to match pace with Gabrielle, small discharges of thunder leaving themselves in his wake.
Ivan could only stand and stew in his embarrassment. No one could be better than he was. He had crawled his way to where he was before here. He made it to the top, and dammit all, no glorified maid, blood-drunk fool, or emotionless freak were going to one-up him! He'd show them, he'd make them writhe! Ivan grinned at the thought before looking back the way they came. It would be so easy just to slip away now…
Further ahead, the two remaining Red Eyes walked side by side in companionable silence. Gabrielle whipped blood and viscera from her vision, minding the edges of her gauntlets. She looked at Zeke before speaking softly. "He's going to betray us, sir. You must be aware of that."
Zeke, not looking at her, softly smiled before responding. "I'm fully aware, but I trust Laura can handle him with enough effort. And if not, more for us."
Gabrielle could only nod at Zeke's assessment, and together, the two walked further into the depths of hell.
Lusachia groaned in pleasurable anguish as its bulk shook and changed again. Its plan had been, to this point, a success, far beyond what it could have hoped for. These humans feeding their souls and bodies to it without care for their future were perfect, never knowing the true cost. It began to wonder whether or not this was what the fallen Lord Mundus had experienced. Surely the taste of that vaunted fruit was a greater rapture than this.
Lusachia paused and began to think of a new plan, one to instigate after this. Finding another Qliphoth seed would take some time, but with Zeke, it would have the luxury of a more discreet actor to work from.
Thinking about its avatar made Lusachia's second face twitch and grimace. This movement reminded Lusachia of its growing problem. Losing the one known as Allan was not a call for concern. The former human had ultimately been weak and would have died anyway to either Laura or Ivan in due time. Callum, though, that was an issue. His skills made an excellent incentive for wandering humans to acquire as much power as possible. With his death, Lusachia would have to rely on roving packs of demons to naturally find what humans remained.
And then there was the other problem. The last batch of humans had clearly made it here, yet its connection to them was pitifully weak despite its message. What could have caused that? Hmmmm… it'd have to see, to understand and…
"Gah!"
Lusachia paused in its musing and followed the sensation of sudden pain to one of its precious Red-Eyed hybrids. What was going on here? Lusachia questioned before beginning to look at its connection to that hybrid.
Unknown to the participants of the battle, Laura's eyes began to change. The whites of her eyes slowly shifted into a deep purple. With a snarl, Laura raised her arms above her head and tore her bodice shears in two.
"Alright, you fucks, you wish to take me on at the same time? Fine, I'll bathe in your damned blood before I work over those fools below!" She finished before charging the duo.
With the umbrella part of the weapon in his left hand and busy twirling it to form a buzzsaw of energy rays, Alex not only had to protect himself with only the sword but also be careful not to injure Sol.
Surprisingly, it wasn't that big of a problem.
Not when he conjured a bubble of slowed time right before himself when Laura was attempting to hit him with an overhand chop that, if it connected, would have divided him in two. Instead, her weapon stopped advancing as if it was stuck in superglue, prompting her to retreat. The way her arm pulsed and contracted showed how much power she was exerting not to let her blade fall behind.
Without a word, Sol had come around and swung down with his sword. Laura twisted her body and parried his weapon, driving the blade into the floor before slashing at his face. Sol backpedaled and fired his gun at her. The blast hit her in the hand she had attempted to slash at Sol with. It was a testament to her own enhancement and will that not only had the hand remained intact, if not severely damaged, but that she was also still holding half of the shear.
"You're fast," Alex commented before his eyes glowed silver, and a silver aura appeared around Laura again. Her movements slowed down once more.
"But I'm better." And Alex smirked, before twisting on his foot and slamming the heel of his boots against her midsection, sending her towards the walls, before turning and shifting his left hand.
Laura saw the whole thing almost as if she was in slow motion: her uncontrolled flight towards the wall, the movement of the chainsaw of lasers coming towards her. And then light and pain. When she landed on the other side, the front of her body looked like she had passed through a super-heated cheese grater, with what looked like sunburns, cuts, and pieces of shaved flesh hanging from her body.
She clawed at the floor before her hands found her shears, and she used them in an attempt to stabilize herself before collapsing forward.
"I'l… I'll kill you. I'll kill you…" She began to mutter as she kept trying to stand before her body seemed to stutter and warp. It was only for a moment, but as she solidified, it was as if something forced her to the ground. The symbols of Alex's spells that had adorned the walls flared briefly before returning to their original state.
"Wha… What the hell is this? What did you do!?" She howled.
Alex hummed, a self-satisfied expression on his face, the canopy of Calcabrina in his hands closing down, the effect of his technique having run its course. "I'm not stupid, you know? And this isn't my first rodeo, either. So, I've chosen to take some… precautions. You see the symbols around the room?" He gestured grandly towards the walls, floor, and ceiling.
"Those create what is basically a Closed Box. In other words… Welcome to your Boss Battle. Permadeath is enabled, as you well know. Let's see if you can survive."
"This is… I'll rip your bloody hearts out!" She roared before a purple aura began to emanate from her body. There was something there, a change, a feeling of power.
"You mean you will try. And, my dear, you will fail. He and I are not like those kids you ambushed before. Oh, you thought we didn't notice?" Alex's smile was as sharp as his blade, which was now whistling through the air, as he twirled it in his hands.
"You are specialized in ambushes. It's plain as day. The attack from the wall, the run in the maze, the power to phase through walls? You could have stopped and given us a lecture."
Sol spoke in a more solemn tone, "You didn't have to kill those kids. Sure, they could have been a little annoying, but you didn't have to do that. We're not killing you for the pleasure of it, we're doing it because it's the right thing to do."
SOL: PROTEAN ABYSS
ALEX: DESCENDANT OF TIME
Laura jerked back, a look of horror on her face. And something in her eyes shone and blinked away, almost as if her shock was enough to jar something out.
"What… How could you two… No, NO! It's impossible! You haven't killed the kids for their orbs! You haven't covered yourselves in enough blood to drown a town! You are nothing more than two soft-hearted, weak fools that will die out there!" Her eyes shone with craziness, her face turning ugly. A phantom of purple energy manifested around her, something that looked big, unformed, and, more importantly, with two big scissors in her hands.
"You're right. We didn't kill those kids because we chose to fight demons, not become them. So come on! We'll show you what true strength is!" Sol called, feeling the familiar heat of anger creeping behind his eyes.
"Also, differently from our group, we fight together." With a wink, a silver aura shone around him for a moment.
Before lighting up around Sol, the Haste took effect. "Go get her."
"Right." Sol swapped out Gevauden for Vendetta and lunged at Laura. He began with an overhead swing which she attempted to block. Her now giant shears caught the sword, but the damage was done. When the shears closed, the downward swing was driven and focused into one of the blades, gouging into it deeply. She attempted to open the shears again and make space, but Sol twisted Vendetta and spun her around.
The two locked eyes briefly, and Sol realized how different they were from before, but he was more focused on ending this battle now.
"Alex!" He called out.
"Tar Beam!" The giant beam that he had used against Callum shot from his umbrella, passing a hairsbreadth from Sol before slamming against Laura like a speeding truck. She was unbalanced, and resisting it in her state was impossible, which explained why she was sent flying away from Sol, one arm bent in a way that wasn't normal… or pleasant.
She crashed against a wall, collapsed to the floor, and struggled to rise. "Not yet, I can't lose now. Not yet!" She managed to rise to her feet, but it was too late. Sol had cleared the distance within a few seconds and swung down. This time, she couldn't raise her shears fast enough, and Vendetta met no resistance. The giant blade bit into the floor, and Laura's body fell backward in two halves.
Lusachia had witnessed the end of one of its unwitting agents. It felt the phantom pain as her body suffered and died. However, that was not the cause of its anger. No, it was the interlopers, the two, that seemed to have removed its 'gift' from their souls. Oh, it knew very well what had occurred. It remembered that sensation, the loss of connection between itself and the shards hidden within its gifts.
The fact that the two managed to discover the shards and remove them without suffering much, if any, repercussions infuriated the demon. Those were the leashes it had planned to use on every human in this facsimile of hell. If they had known about the shards, then who else could have known how many of its other sacrifices had been compromised?
A sense of rage began to fill the demon. It was not an unusual feeling, but the intensity of it was. Even the very idea of two former humans having the potential for this much drove that rage into a fury the likes of which the Lusachia had never experienced. It howled in its secluded alcove, and the appropriated Qliphoth roots trembled at its fury. Such was it that flames began to pour from all but one of the Lusachia's mouths, burning away flesh and reshaping several of its mouths into a new face. Unlike the first, whose visage bore sorrow, this new one bore a furious visage that would have caused many lesser demons and even those of moderate might to tremble in fear.
It was close now… so very close…
Zeke paused mid-strike, forcing Gabrielle to cover him in dispatching another demon. For a moment, their eyes met, and she saw in them a terrible fury that was quickly hidden.
"We must continue forward," Zeke said without emotion.
"Understood, are you…" Gabrielle began before Zeke cut her off.
"I am fine. Laura is dead." Zeke said with a tone of bizarre finality.
That brought her pause. Gabrielle never cared for the other woman's bloodlust, but she respected Laura's drive. To hear from Zeke that she had died… She shook her head, looked at her gauntlet-covered hands, and felt the claws underneath them. She owed Zeke too much. He had shown her the way forward and gave her the means through which she could survive. She would follow him to the ends of hell itself if she must.
Alex stood there, unmoving, under the onslaught of Red Orbs that split evenly between the two of them. It was an amount that was almost mind-boggling. And yet…
"It was… so easy." With the sound of breaking glass, the spell around the room shattered, flickering gold in the air for a few moments before vanishing. "She was pretty human-looking, too. I know that we didn't have a choice. But the question I asked before still stands now: what are we becoming? Will we be able to look into a mirror and recognize ourselves after that?"
Something glimmered on the ground, where Laura's corpse was a moment before: a couple of shoes, red as blood, a heel sharp as sin and seemingly untouched by whatever ordeal the Red Eyes hybrid had faced till now.
"Maybe Devil Arms? I wonder if Rodin can rework them… Do you mind if I take them?" Alex asked Sol, closing Calcabrina and vanishing it into his inventory.
"No, go ahead," Sol answered, somewhat absent-mindedly, as his mind focused on Alex's question. "What were they becoming?"
He looked down at his hand and then at the remains of Laura before slowly pulling the limb to his chest. He was silent for several moments, his gaze locked where she once stood.
"I… I don't know. I don't think I could ever answer that question. I think, though," Sol paused, deep in thought. "I think we should see a certain devil hunter after all this and ask him. I'll foot whatever bill is needed, but I don't think we can come up with an answer to the question right now." Sol finished, his other hand moving to grasp at his left wrist.
"Yeah… Yeah. You're right. And, hey, if all else fails, I know how to make pizza from scratch. We can always use that as a bribe." Alex tried to smile at Sol, only to give him what looked like a painful grimace masquerading as a smile.
Then he looked around. "We need to find a gateway to Rodin. What do you say? We split up and search the floors that we haven't managed yet? Maybe we'll find a secret room or something."
Sol responded with a tired chuckle, "Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea." Without another word. Sol quietly walked down from the attic and began to search the labyrinthine maze of rooms for either a secret room or a portal to Gates of Hell.
After several moments, Sol drew Gevaudan and began to cut arrows into the walls for reference. In his mind, it would keep his mind off of that particular looming question. Unfortunately, the world had other ideas. As he was passing through one room, he caught movement from the corner of his eyes and turned to quickly face, only to stare into the reflection of a mirror. He was still for several seconds before letting out a bitter chuckle and removing his helmet to wipe some sweat from his brow. It was then he paid closer attention to the reflection itself and saw his face for the first time in what felt like an eternity.
When he realized how his eyes had changed, he threw the helmet at the mirror in a rage. It rolled away from the mirror, and with a tired sigh, Sol went to retrieve it. As he did so, he looked into the shards of the broken mirror, into his red eyes, and turned away. It was then that he saw something blue peeking out from behind what looked to be either an armoire. Before he moved it aside, Sol noted a series of burn marks that were present only on it and nowhere else in the room. There on the wall was the familiar sign of a Secret Room.
Sol closed his eyes before turning his heel and backtracking to Alex while singing under his breath.
"I whittle on my brittle branch of anger. I carve the pointless to the sharpest rage. The Fool forever plays the actor. Another prisoner trapped upon the stage."
In the meantime, Alex was holding the two shoes with the tip of his fingers, making them dangle while he looked at them. Sharp heels, better than a mortal blade, he'd bet. The red was both too vivid and too dark. Very similar to blood. And, strangely, they looked to be big enough for him to use. If his hunch was correct, these were a Devil Arm for sure. Of course, the power that he could perceive emanating from them was a very big hint, too.
And yet, the power inside felt almost… Dormant. As if it wasn't awakened.
"I would try them, to be honest..." Alex muttered to himself before storing them in his inventory. "But I'm not that stupid. I really hope that Rodin can explain what these are. And maybe alter them a bit: I'm not sure that a pair of 'fuck-me' shoes is my style."
Alex chuckled at that before going back down towards the hallway where Sol had disappeared. Seeing the signs on the walls, he turned in the direction Sol hadn't gone and started searching the rooms.
"Hey, what's this marking?" Arthur heard someone ask while he watched the doors. His eyes had never left them since the two others left to… to go after that psycho. He had to drag his eyes away from the door to see what was up.
Maxwell or really just Max, a friend of his, was looking at a strange marking that was on the wall. They must not have seen it when they removed the furniture to barricade the doors. He quickly pushed through the crowd and grabbed Max's outreaching hand.
"What the hell, mate!?" Max shouted in alarm.
"Look, there's a weird marking on the wall, and you were going to touch it." Arthur pointed out.
"Course I was. It wasn't here before, was it? Could be, I don't know, free power or something." Max said.
"Or it could be a trap, and we all die." Arthur stressed.
"What makes you think that?" Someone from the crowd asked.
Arthur looked from Max to the rest of them before speaking. "We all saw the message on the wall, didn't we? We all saw the zombies and the, the giant flesh man thing. Who's to say that Sadie's killer didn't leave this here? That when we were all looking at the message, they didn't just come in here and set this up?"
"What should we do?" A voice asked, and it was then that it hit Arthur. They were all looking at him, to him for something. For an answer.
He pointed to the area where the two other men, Sol and Alex if he remembered correctly, had come from originally.
"It's still light out, yeah? And the zombies are gone, right? We'll… we'll start moving into that hallway and the area past that." He paused and looked at the door. "If we hear anything from either here or the outside, we move back into the other area. And if that murderer, uh fuck it, Jack the Ripper wannabe comes knocking, we leg it up the sewer entrance they talked about."
The crowd was focused solely on him at this point, and they seemed to be agreeing with him. He felt Max tap his shoulder.
"Hey Arthur, you think there'll be a pub up there if we have to run for it?"
It was at that moment Arthur began to realize why Sol had been so annoyed.
Alex had to check five rooms before he found one that was completely empty of anything, including furniture, but with a single, big, red, glowing circle in the exact center.
"That feels almost staged. But it's a good thing that I found the Gates of Hell." With a smile, he marked the door and the wall around it before turning on his steps and walking backward, leaving a continuous line on the wall with Calcabrina.
That way, it would be easy to find the place once again, as soon as he found Sol, anyway.
He did have the temptation to enter and ask about the shoes, but he didn't want to leave Sol alone more than was strictly necessary.
Codependent? Maybe a little. Did he care? Nope.
Now humming, Sol walked back towards the attic before he heard the subtle noise of something cutting into the walls. Approaching it carefully, his mind began to think of three distinct possibilities. The first was that it could have been Alex, the second was that it could have been a demon and the third… He really hoped it wasn't a Red Eye.
He walked through several rooms and halls, following the noise until it grew loud enough. Peeking around a corner…
"Alex?" He asked cautiously.
"Oh, hey, Sol." Alex waved at him, sheathing Calcabrina back. "Sorry for the sound. I was marking the way to the Gates of Hell. It's at the end of this line." And he gestured at the long scratch in the wall. "In an empty room. There's only the portal for the bar there."
"Did you find something?" He turned his attention back to his friend. The weapon vanished into his inventory, expression curious.
Sol nodded before gesturing behind him.
"Yeah, a little ways back, I found this burned armoire. There was a seal for a secret room behind it." Sol said, trailing off slightly.
"I wouldn't have known about it if I didn't shatter a mirror that propped up against a wall by it, so that's probably seven years worth of bad luck coming my way." He said lamely. It was plain as day to tell that he was still bothered by the earlier events, and the slight pause between his statements only added to that.
"Considering our situation…" Alex started, smirking slightly, "I'm pretty sure that the seven years are the one we are living now, just concentrated all together." Then he dropped his smirk and turned towards the room where Sol had found the secret room.
"So, what do you want to do?"
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This... should have been released on Sunday. I'll be honest: It was a busy weekend, and I dropped the ball for Yuki and all of you readers. For that, I am deeply sorry. I will try to get the next chapter out this evening to keep everything on track and not throw off the schedule.
I hope you all enjoy.