“Yeah?” I said to Sin.
“It’s time to stop masturbating and come in to work. Amony’s got another job.”
“I bet she ended your session first,” I retorted. “Be there in a bit.” I hung up.
“Well, off I go, I guess,” I told Amelia.
“Pssh, as if the witch is going to break our time apart. I’m coming along. I want to see you use that sun energy in combat.”
“This is more than likely a meeting,” I said. “Most demons don’t come out in broad daylight.”
“Yeah, just the stupid ones. Still, I’m coming. If you guys are serious about going up against Sunset, then you’ll be wise to give me as much information as possible.”
“No argument there.”
The goddess returned text messages to her friends while I put on my shoes. I chose my usual style of shirt and jeans—no point of getting any fancier clothes covered in blood or muck if the occasion came up.
I concentrated essences into my hand and then made a silent call to my sword. Ruin warped from the floor into my grasps. I strapped it to a sheath on my belt.
Amelia’s enchantment activated, which caused it to go invisible each time I sheathed it. I can’t be the lunatic out in public with a sword. The humans would toss me right into jail.
When Amelia was ready, we set out toward Secure Corps. It was only a couple blocks away, so distance didn’t faze us. We could simply ascend there but abusing the use of essence could attract unwanted attention in the form of hunters. And believe me when I say I didn’t need that shit right now.
The Sunset threat had to end asap or they’d attract more Fallen. Fighting one is just impossible. There isn’t a guarantee that Mother Nature aka Amelia’s mom would appear to save our asses again. I forced the thought of my goddess’s mom out of my thoughts. I tried…but holy cow, she was a frightening being at the same time.
There are only a small number of primals in existence. The King of all gods and I think his son are special primals. Then there’s Conus and Amelia’s parents. There were a few more, but I haven’t kept up with Heavenly-being101 lately, so whatever. I’m not too sure about Karma. Maybe I could’ve tried out for the position back in the day. Nah. No matter how strong I get, I can’t be considered an “original deity.”
Just then, I felt a presence, no, multiple presences… The vibe felt off, dark. Amelia stopped, sensing it too.
“That way,” she said, pointing at a park that shouldn’t be abandoned at this time. It was also covered in fog. Just there. How obvious can they get?
Demons.
Sure enough, when we entered the fog-barrier, we saw them. About six of them ranging from lizard-like creatures the size of a bicycle, to spider demons with human-like teeth and snake-like longs hanging out of their mouths. They noticed us within a second.
I excepted them to attack but the bastards ran.
“Well, so much for no combat,” I said to Amelia then we both chased the demons, grinning. The one with the higher kill count gets the bragging rights.
Chapter Four
I manifested a Desert Eagle and got off a few shots, nailing two of the spider demons. The spiders shrieked their last breaths, black blood spraying like geysers.
An aroma of dead rat and garbage water quickly swept the area as if pushed by an unseen gale.
Amelia manifested her bow, no reaction on her face due to a shit ton of demon-killing experience, and released a small volley of arrows that killed three.
The one that she missed went intangible at the last second.
I hurled a large chunk of force, knocking the lizard into a tree.
Amelia finished the demon with an arrow that had an unusual red glow around it. I assumed this new arrow of hers killed even intangible prey. The beauty of innovation.
Note to self: ask about it later.
If she could teach me to utilize the red whatever-it-is, my job would be a hell of a lot easier.
“They never learn,” Amelia said as she dissipated her bow in one flicker of light.
“Nope,” I replied. “Only the dumb ones would live in a city guarded by a goddess and her awesome demigod boyfriend, is known for angel sightings, and is home to a misthanger queen that survived a stab from Michael’s sword.”
“Boyfriend, huh,” Amelia said.
“I’m trying to use human terminol—”
“Don’t try to write it off, you actually acknowledged us for once,” she said, still smiling.
I shrugged.
“I’m pretty sure I did…just not big on the sappy stuff.”
Amelia gave me a look that said she wasn’t buying whatever excuse I’d conjure up.
The goddess raised a finger into the air, released a nearly-blinding light, which dispelled the fog a second later. Fortunately, there weren’t any soul traps anywhere. The less lives claimed, the better.
There were no more demon sightings along the way to work.
Amony would normally express her annoyance at me being late but Amelia’s presence made sure no such thing happened to my delight. Nobody enjoyed the witch’s endless bitching.
“Elly’s currently investigating a tipoff from my sources, located on Velvet Street. We should get results in a few. In the meantime, teams are being mobilized and trained for hopefully a successful Sunset sweep. Your group should be getting a new member in a few days. I think you’ll like what she can do.”
Amelia nodded.
“You’re doing a pretty good job leading this operation, ancient witch. I’m looking forward to a success.”
Amony smiled.
“Thank you so much, great goddess.” I ruined the moment before Devante had the chance to beat me to it.
“Is that a tear?” I said. “Don’t start crying on us, boss.”
Before she could retort beyond the forming glare, Amony’s phone buzzed. She glanced at what I assumed to be a text message or email of some sort. You know, because all the corporate fancy-heads love their emails and frown upon the “youngsters”’ for texting and sending each other pictures.
I do admit, I’ve heard humans take the pictures too far. Why would you want to send a stranger a picture of your balls? Well, okay it’s funny, but not when you send them to women. Meme material. Human mating rituals in a nutshell for the information era, I guess.
Amony looked at us with resolve in her eyes.
“Get to Velvet street now. Elly has spotted that Sunset demon from before. This is the chance we’ve been waiting for.” She patted Devante on the back. “That scale worked well, good job.”
He shrugged.
“What can I say?”
“I’ll ascend us,” Amelia said, “but I won’t intervene right away, so show me what you got.”
When we arrived at the spot, I noticed a few things. First, Elly and the demon boy were locked in a Mexican standoff. Second, this corner consisting of tiny shows and restaurants was suspiciously empty—the human instincts doing their job. Lastly, the look on the fucker’s face when he noticed us. We brought a goddess just in case he tried to make a run for it again.
Chapter Five
“Well now, it seems like the rest of the peanuts gang managed to track me too,” the demon said. “Just fucking great.”
“Now I know Double-Dee isn’t talking,” Devante struck back. “Listen, Ed-boy, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours.”
The snicker from Amelia made it harder for me to contain my laugher and ignore the gold references.
“Yeah, I don’t think so, Blade,” the redheaded skinny boy said then he shapeshifted into his sharkman form. The familiar cracking, which sounded like the lightning crack before the thunder clash, echoed throughout the area.
“Oh no, motherfucker, you’re not escaping this time,” I said as I manifested the huge gun again.
Elly had more brains than me because not only did she go intangible and move out of the way, the succubus predicted that the sharkman would do the same thing. So ye
ah…Not only did I miss but fired with Elly being too close to my target.
“Watch where you’re shooting, shithead,” she barked.
Amelia snatched the Desert Eagle from my hand and dissolved it.
“You’re going to use pure solar energy for this fight. No complaints.”
I could’ve put up an argument, easily refused, but after today’s training, the demand made sense. I focused on the sun for a second, absorbing its stinging energy into my tank.
Sin flashed toward the demon in a blur, but despite the perfect sword swings and other crazy fancy techniques, Sharkman’s intangibility made it impossible to progress. No damage was dealt to the fucker.
Elly backed off to let Sin continue to strike at the demon, while appearing to charge some kind of spell.
Devante was muttering what sounded like a poetic reciting that would take all damn day.
I looked at Amelia. She simply winked at me.
“You’re overpowered,” I said to her. She laughed.
“Come on, try to come up with something creative with your solar power.”
“Like what?” I said. “It’s basically energy.”
“Use your imagination. We don’t have your father’s Helios power instruction manual. Improvise.” Amelia wagged her finger playfully.
I imagined the solar energy within as a mass of bright, shapeable light, then made a fist, aimed, and kept it following the sharkman.
Concentrating at a level I never had before, I pushed the energy out. A fist-shaped mass of light rocketed from my knuckles and bashed the demon hard enough to floor him.
Everyone looked at me, curiosity in their eyes. I grinned then had myself a boxing match with the air.
In retrospect, I probably looked fucking ridiculous. It didn’t take the demon long to start dodging BUT, to my happiness, his intangibility didn’t work against my solar.
He looked confused more than likely at a loss for ideas. After minutes of punishment from almost everyone, the demon let out a rage-induced bloody roar.
“Come mere you son-of-a-bitch!” he snarled then charged me. “I’ll tear you to shreds and then feast on your organs—you’ll learn, fuck-face for daring to mock Sunset.”
Talk about hitting a nerve.
Everyone moved aside, allowing this duel for some reason.
I surrounded myself in solar energy and blocked his oncoming punch. To give credit where its due, it hurt. The sharkman threw blows so heavy, they’d probably dent a truck. I wasn’t a pushover however, as each punch, kick, and snipe solar-shot from me took a toll on the demon. His panting and loss of cockiness was proof of that.
Still, this is just one minion. I needed to deal with this guy now or forget about the upcoming raid.
Let’s try something. I pulled my solar energy back inside then imagined it as a circuit for my locked states. I told it to forcibly unlock the second state—even though I wasn’t fully trained for it. Yikes. There are somethings that one should never do without being fully capable of executing takes without incident.
This was one of those things.
A mistake.
My power started off the out-of-control wagon with a massive continuous earthquake. I could see thick, chaotic silver heavenly-light dancing around me. Liquid essence that looked like blue goo rapidly oozed from my hands. Upon contact with the road, the goop sizzled like acid, melting right through it a millisecond later.
My thoughts begin to cloud—who was the enemy, who’s on my side or should I just wipe everyone out. A tiny part of me, maybe what was left of my rationality, remembered that this feeling, this state, happened before—an improvised self-fall. My vision briefly went red and then with a roar, hit the nearest being—the sharkman, spiraling the fucker at least thirty yards.
The demon reverted to his human shape, groaning in pain, unmoving.
Devan…Devante…I think that’s his name…took the time to release his spell. A pillar of light surrounded the demon like a prison.
I didn’t give a shit. Someone needed to die, I must spray blood. I…I.
A warmth covered me. Why the hell…oh…. ah shit.
The earthquake, the goo, the light, all of it vanished. Everyone stared at me, mouths agape. Amelia’s hand was on my shoulder.
“Well,” I said in a humorous tone, though the feeling wasn’t there, “I now know that it’s a bad idea to try to use solar energy to forcibly unlock my second state.”
I gave a sad smile while trying to ignore the destroyed road and even a few ruined buildings, around.
Amelia turned me around to face her.
“Do not ever do that again, you hear.” She shook her head, eyes intense then folded her arms. “Self-falling should be impossible—but with you…Epex, you should always remember that you’re next in the line for the universal throne, whether you accept it or not. You may have abilities that could affect the earth. Falling is a shape of grief, darkness, sorrow, and hate buried within. It’s supposed to be a mechanism controlled by the universe.”
“So, the question is, how did he do it?” Sin said.
“Yeah, what the fuck?” Elly said. “We were whaling on that thing for like twenty minutes and you one-shot it?” Everyone looked at her, gazes blank. “What?”
Chapter Six
Amelia transported us back to Secure Corps, demon included. She and Amony started a good ole round of interrogations in the basement while Elly, Sin, Devante, and I headed upstairs to enjoy lunch. Damn, I love it when Amony’s servants bring us food. Half the time, I don’t know what the hell I’m eating but if it tastes good, no complaints from me. Rich people. Am I right or am I right? A long time ago, it’d be the pot calling the kettle black. But…fuck Paradise Realm.
“Sin I’ve been meaning to ask,” Devante started. “Are you and the boss…”
“Having sex? Yes. In a relationship, no,” Sin said.
“Sex buddies?” I said, chuckling. “Guessing you have reasons not to push closer. Besides the age difference.”
Sin shrugged.
“Don’t get me wrong, she’s one hell of a woman. And she did bring this up a few times, but we’re from two different worlds.”
“No, you’re not idiot,” Elly said. “Are you being serious right now?”
“I’m the prince of Hell,” Sin said. “I know I don’t act it but don’t forget. I’ve got a lot more problems on my plate than just the Fallen.”
“Want to share?” I asked. He just stared at his half-eaten plate of food.
“It’s cool, none of our business,” Devante said.
“You’re the prince of Hell?” Elly turned to look at him, eyes wide.
“To think we haven’t brought this up once,” I said. “So much for knowing our teammates.”
“For the record, I found out when we encountered the night terror back out the college,” Devante said. “Ex-prince is the best word for it.”
“Yeah, Devante had so many questions,” Sin said. “But I was kicked out some time ago. Not sad about it at all.”
“Did you like, burn in flames?” Elly asked.
Sin shook his head.
“Where I lived is completely different than what Epex experienced and what tortured souls, demons, and other things go through. I was raised in an earth-like city, had blue skies and certain demons were allowed in if they took on a human form, had human-like intelligence and so on. It was like here, but worse. Demons aren’t really about trust and the royal devils are always plotting. One of them even tried to convince my father to force me to marry her, in attempt to get into our family.”
Devante chuckled.
“Was she a beauty?”
Sin rolled his eyes.
“Devil-women will show you all the physical beauty but the truly horrific, disaster, is in the inside.”
“Never mind that,” Elly said. “Why is there an earth-like place in Hell?”
“Rumors state my father created the dimension, but he never talked to me about his past.”
“Fitting for Demon King Ghost,” I said, waving my arms in mock fear.
“That title is dumb,” Sin said. “My father…never mind.”
“So why obsess with the Fallen, anyway?” Elly said. “Your fuckbuddy offered these awesome jobs, benefits, to kill off Sunset. Then what?”
“Sunset is just a nick of the big picture,” Sin began. “I didn’t ask you to get involved in a war against my father. But…” he paused. “I suppose it won’t matter if I tell you. “
“You better,” Elly said. “I like this job. Let us help more.”
“Yeah man, don’t toss us out,” Devante said.
“Says the professor,” I said to Devante. “At least you have something to fall back onto. I..I could start something, only to get it completely ruined by the hunters.”
“I don’t want to go back to being a waitress,” Elly admitted. “If making a shit ton of tips is all I can do just to pay for my classes, then…”
“You’re in college?” I said, interrupting her thought.
“The local, normal college,” she responded. “Not the fancy university your goddess goes to.”
Sin cleared his throat.
“We weren’t planning to kick you off. Despite having a goddess and even a misthanger queen, Middleburg is still a demon hotspot. There will be plenty of demon patrols to clear out well after Sunset is dealt with.”
“Good to hear,” Devante said. “I like fighting with you guys and then getting beers afterwards.” Everyone nodded in agreement. “So, what’s the other reason why it’s imperative to nuke Sunset?”
“Any of you know of the King God’s tears?”
My eyes widened. Sin eyed me.
“I wonder why it haven’t dawned on me to ask the heavenly-being in our group,” he said.
“Not much of a heavenly-being,” I said. “And I’ve heard of the tears from Amelia’s bitch-sister Karma but don’t know much about them. Supposedly they give anyone the power of a god.”
“It’s rumored that my father’s looking for them,” Sin said. “There’s also another rumor from the underground that points to Sunset having one. We can’t have these things in the hands of the demons or my father. He’s more likely to get double-crossed by a royal devil and then we’ll all be fucked. So…I want to destroy them.”
Till the Last Breath (Blood for Soul Book 2) Page 3