by Ryan Attard
His movements were too fast for any of us to keep up with. Amaymon was just a blur, hitting another blur made out of light—Raphael. They would flicker from one spot to another, sending growls, yelps, and cries of pain and effort reverberating throughout the park. Occasionally, something would rip and a massive splatter of blood would blot the area. It was like watching two animals fighting over territory: a messy, primal struggle, far beyond human comprehension. Those two, who were far more powerful than any regular human, magic or not, were going on pure instinct. It was just a drive to do something and devote their entire will to it.
Humans would call that insanity. They called it living.
Finally, they separated and faced each other, standing unnaturally still. Raphael's wings flared and his sword formed again. Lightning descended from the skies and into his hands, in which he held a raging fire. A massive broadsword, far bigger than he was, formed within the flames, iridescent orange and fiery red. It moved like fire spreading through a forest and crackled like static with every movement of the wind.
Amaymon gave Mephisto a signal, and the latter descended in front of us. We were all grouped together behind him, and Mephisto craned his neck to look at us.
"The things I'm asked to do," he said with a sigh. Without interrupting the movements of his arms and the music he was conducting, the wind gathered around us and I felt magic within it. It circled us and solidified into a barrier, one solid enough to deflect any collateral damage and still give us a good view of the show Amaymon was putting up.
"Nice sword," Amaymon mouthed at the angel. "You compensating for something?"
Raphael stomped the ground, and his power went wild. The magical energy was almost too much for me to handle. Even from a distance pain radiated from inside my stomach and an intense pressure began pushing down on my shoulders. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.
But when Amaymon channeled his own power, it came like a tsunami, completely overpowering Raphael's magic. The ground shook as soil, mud, and rock became alive. Earth climbed around him, covering him from head to toe. More dirt kept piling onto him, increasing his mass. The grotesque stone man he had become grew larger and larger, overshadowing Raphael.
And still, it grew.
The massive stone giant reached skyscraper level and went a little beyond.
"Size does matter, motherfucker!" His voice was so loud it surely must have echoed all the way across the Pacific, not just Chicago.
The ground rumbled with every syllable. Metal garbage bins and sitting benches actually scrunched from the sheer power of Amaymon's voice. I couldn't take my eyes off the giant. I mean, less than twenty-four hours ago that dude was my cat. He went from a purring feline to a titanic stone giant that could have used the Washington Monument as a leaning post.
This was no longer a human battle, wizard or not. This had become a schism between two supernatural beings with powers so vast they could literally break the world. This was so far beyond my weight class it wasn't even funny. And to think I had the audacity to believe I could've handled the angel if he went berserk.
Raphael, still in a more or less human shape, looked up at Amaymon's giant form. He didn't even flinch once; instead he raised his fiery sword.
"Demon, you shall fall by my holy blade." Intense fire coalesced around the angel's blade, massively engorging itself, until it was the size of a bus. Light and heat churned violently, like a supernova going wild.
Raphael swung the massive broadsword, and with every movement the intense heat caused the air to scream in protest. He sliced right into Amaymon's midsection, the fire smelting through the rock and stone…
…before bouncing back pathetically. There was moment of stunned silence until Amaymon let out a chuckle which shuddered the earth.
"How?" the angel began.
"You playin' with the big dicks now, dipshit," Amaymon replied from inside his giant construct, his voice shaking the ground he stood on.
And, then, slowly at first, he lifted one gargantuan leg, as Raphael just stood staring in awe.
"This. Is. Sparta!" Amaymon yelled, before stomping on Raphael with a foot the size of a parking lot.
Upon impact, the ground imploded with the pressure from Amaymon's giant foot, causing a cave-in. Cracks snaked from the construct's foot, all the way up its leg, and suddenly the stone giant crumbled like a massive sand castle. Amaymon, in his regular form, emerged from the debris, smirking as usual.
Raphael was on his knees inside the crater. His wings were now only as tall as his regular body and their luminosity nearly gone.
"I will not perish by your hand," he rasped. "I am an angel, demon, Heaven's emissary. I am your bane."
Amaymon rolled his eyes. "Seriously, dude? Just die already."
"Never!" the angel screamed as he got up, one slow movement at a time.
I had to hand it to him. If not for the near-constant holier-than-thou bullshit, I might have actually admired this guy's resilience.
But as badass as Raphael was, Amaymon was better. The demon's form became a blur as Amaymon shot towards the angel with superhuman speed. He struck him once and then retreated.
Raphael summoned his fire sword again, a smaller version.
"You do not fool me, demon," he said. "You're as exhausted as I am." But something was off. I could feel the angel's power resonate but it had none of its previous out-of-this-world intensity.
"What is this?" Raphael cried. The fire sword disappeared, and Raphael himself began evaporating into dust particles. He struggled against some invisible force that shrunk his body, and it was clear he was losing the battle.
"The problem with you newbies is that you think you're top of your class and shit," Amaymon casually said. "What you don't get is that I got a couple thousand years on you and, on top of that, I been on this shithole a little longer. Try three hundred years, while you've been here for only three days, asshole. Might as well call this my home turf."
"What did you do?" the angel said with a growl.
"I messed with your connection to this realm," Amaymon replied. "Right now, your very essence is struggling to maintain your form on this plane. In short, I fucked up your sense of space and time, and you can no longer maintain your presence on dear old Earth." Amaymon stuck out his middle finger at Raphael. "Go back to Anal Plug Land, where all the cogs of society fit and shit. I'll stay here where we have Disneyland and booze. Sayonara, Fuckface."
Raphael gave one last cry of pain and doubled his efforts to get up. He lost his balance, and fell on his face, the impact eliciting a scream. Moments later, he exploded into a shower of sparkling lights and disappeared in a blinding flash. All traces of his power left with him and the pressure around the area suddenly lifted. I could breathe normally again. Abi and Jack stirred back to life, and Mephisto, who had remained in the background this entire time, stopped playing music.
"Well, that was certainly amusing," he remarked.
"Hell yeah," Amaymon hollered. "Nice tunes, by the way. Makes me almost like you again. Almost."
"Oh, do be quiet."
"Enough," I said, fishing out the USB drive I'd gotten from the apartment. All the information about the Verdant Moon game was on it, as well as whatever high-tech spell the Black Ring Society had weaved into it. "Amaymon, can you tell me what magic is in here?"
He snapped it up and spun it in his palm. "There's something in here, but I can't figure it out. Your sister's the real expert in that."
"Send it to her," I ordered.
He turned to Mephisto. "You heard the man."
Mephisto gave me a dirty look. "Very well." He swiped the air and a tiny, hole-sized portal appeared out of nowhere. "Please give me the device, brother, and I'll see to it that it gets delivered."
Amaymon kept looking at the portal. "That will send this directly to Gil?"
"Yes," Mephisto replied condescendingly. "Did the fledgling angel hit you so hard you forgot how basic spatial magic works?"
&n
bsp; Amaymon smirked at him, before lifting the flash drive and tossing it inside the portal. "Fetch, bitch."
If looks could kill, Mephisto would have eviscerated Amaymon then and there. Instead he turned his glare towards me. "Control your pet before someone puts him down for you."
"Whatcha say?" Amaymon growled.
Mephisto gave him the cold shoulder and transformed into a large black dog, nearly the size of a bear.
"Bite me, bitch," Amaymon spat, flipping his brother off.
The dog turned its snout at him. "Anytime," Mephisto said exposing his canine fangs, before leaping into the portal. The wormhole closed behind him.
"Do you really gotta piss him off like that?" I asked. "I mean, I ain't exactly a fan of the guy myself, but he did try to help."
Amaymon shrugged. "It's just how my family works. I don't judge yours, and you don't judge mine."
I raised my hands. "Fair enough," I said, making my way towards Abi and Jack. "Everyone okay?"
"Relatively," Abi muttered. Jack just nodded.
"You guys feel like sharing what you found?" I asked.
Amaymon stepped in. "Me first. Gotta go kick some ass at that rift by the lake shore."
"How's that going?"
He shrugged. "So long as the Etherium Key remains active, the two realities are folding over each other like origami napkins. I can tell you where the dimensional rip is, but I can't shut it down. This thing is a gaping hole in the fabric of our reality and, trust me, we got a whole crowd of monsters who wanna come visit." He shrugged and snapped his head towards the direction of the rift. "Gotta jet," he said. "Welcoming committee is here."
"Can you handle it?" I asked. "I mean, I know you're tough and all, but you did just take on an angel."
He grinned. "You're kidding, right?" He glanced over to the park behind him, where a pile of useless debris stood testament to his gargantuan spell. "This is the most fun I've had all year." He lightly punched me on the shoulder. "Lemme take care of the visitors. You go find that Etherium Key and shut it down," he said, lazily walking away. "Hopefully, before those Black Ring fuckers destroy the universe by mistake."
I looked at Abi and Jack. "You guys good?"
They both nodded.
"Okay, then," I said. "Let's go save the world."
Chapter 13
After following Gil's directions—she had pinpointed the location of the energy signature from the Etherium Key—Jack, Abi, and I ended up in front of a giant office building. It was five floors tall, with those presumptuous tinted glass panes, which gave the wannabe masters of the world inside a full view of their kingdom and at the same time left the commoners wondering what they looked like.
I hated it on sight.
Once we crossed the entrance, Jack detached from our group to cover the back. I had already decided to do this the ninja way. Bursting head first into enemy territory was always a bad idea, no matter how big a gun you were packing. And that was a lesson I learnt the hard way.
"Find out anything at your boyfriend's house?" I jokingly asked Abi.
She blushed and gave me a sideways glare. "He's not my boyfriend. We went out once, and I decided not to call him again," she snapped defensively.
Wow, talk about sensitive.
"Relax Abi, I'm just joking," I replied. "Anyway, what did you guys find out?"
"Not much," she said. "He was being employed by some high-end agency to write code for a game. His team would get a code they had to embed in the system and then run it like any other regular video game." She pointed at the building. "Guess we found his employer."
I nodded, and for a while we silently made our way towards the main entrance.
"So what made you drop him?" I had no idea what possessed me to ask that. I mean, I hunt monsters for a living; not the kind of job that impresses most girls. Maybe I have to live vicariously through my more socially-adept apprentice.
I'm also very nosy.
Abi shook her head. "Thought you weren't going to pry."
"Just curious." I looked at her. "Our lifestyle isn't exactly compatible with the whole falling-in-love and white picket fence scenario."
"You sound like you're speaking from experience."
"Yeah, I'm a regular heartbreaker."
She let out a giggle. "Well, I met this guy through a friend of mine. Looked like a nice guy so we went out. Only he's a real geek." She glanced at me and shook her head. "No, that's not it. He was just weird. At one point, he got all serious and tried to be philosophical about what he did, saying life is a big game and people who thrived were the ones who could either play really well or just plain cheated."
"Sounds like some deep shit."
"Oh, it was shit all right," she replied. “Anyway, after that, I decided I didn’t want to see him again." Then she tapped me on the arm. "You know, I disagree with you. I still think it is possible to fall in love and have a normal relationship even in the life we're living. I choose to believe that."
I smiled cynically. "You're young, with only a year's experience in this business. There's still time to break you."
"That's the saddest thing you have ever said to me."
It was my turn to laugh. "Okay, then, let's lighten the mood. You ready to beat down some rich assholes?" I asked, pointing at the giant building in front of us.
She nodded enthusiastically. "Yep. What's the plan?"
"Nice and quiet. Until it all blows up in our faces. Then we bring the roof down."
"I hope you don't mean that literally."
I didn't answer on account I wasn't sure I could keep that promise. Instead, I peered inside the glass pane of the front door. There were only a couple of businessman-types in suits and a pretty girl behind a counter; probably some fresh-out-of-college receptionist.
Oh, great, civilians. Better keep the violence to the minimum.
"Where the heck is everyone?" Abi was mimicking me in scouting the area.
Good question. Places like this were usually flooded with people coming in and out. By comparison, this place looked about as lively as a gravesite.
"Let's find out," I said, pulling the door open.
The two guys stared at us for half a second before continuing their conversation. It was too deliberate, too unnatural. I had my fair share of experience with people who thought themselves predators. And the first thing predators do is scout their prey: precisely what these jokers tried to surreptitiously do.
That was two bad guys to one presumably civilian girl.
Let's see if we get any late converts.
"Hi," she said.
The girl was attractive, in a too-much-makeup kind of way. Then again, it was probably her job to pretty up the place.
"Hi," I replied. That's when I realized that I had no idea who I was supposed to ask for or what excuse we had for being here.
When in doubt, blunt honesty usually worked surprisingly well.
"Is this where Verdant Moon is made?"
She smiled awkwardly. "Sir, do you have an appointment with one of our departments? What's your name?"
"I'm just looking for the guy in charge," I replied.
"Sir, you're going to have to be more specific than that," she said politely.
I offered her my friendliest smile. "Sure thing."
The two guys sitting in the lobby were now staring at us, eyeing us with suspicion.
I ignored them and looked at the girl. "They'll probably have a black ring tattoo somewhere. Oh, and they can use magic."
Her expression went from polite to utterly confused.
"Hey," one of the men said. Abi and I turned to face them.
"Who are you, guys?" he asked, getting in my face. His breath smelled and I wrinkled my face.
"I'm here for the same reason you are," I replied, not moving an inch.
His eyes got wide. "You're here for the meeting?"
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.
Abi looked at me. "Now?"
"Now."
The heel of my palm smashed into his nose and grabbed his collar with the other one. He began extracting a pistol from his waistband. I grabbed his wrist, twisted it into a lock, and snapped it. The gun fell in my hand. I released the magazine before pulling the slide to relinquish the remaining bullet inside. As I threw the gun away, he reached out and grabbed my leg. I fell towards his chest, digging my knee into his lungs, and struck him hard on the neck. He fell limp on the floor.
Meanwhile Abi kicked her man, took out the Sun Wo Kung staff, and extended it to the length of a baton. She swung it across the man's knee and then at his head. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Abi placed her hand on the secretary's face and smiled seductively. "You can relax."
The secretary's expression went blank.
Abi pulled her close—so close I began having some really dirty thoughts.
"Go to sleep now," she said, running her fingers down the secretary's cheek and neck.
The secretary nodded slowly, sat back on her chair and leaned on her desk, resting her head on her folded arms.
"Impressive," I said.
Abi's succubus nature usually only worked that easily on guys. And since she was also a hybrid, she used her nature to get some awesome mental powers. Still, to hypnotize a person like that, she must have improved like crazy.
"She a lesbian?" I nodded at the snoring girl.
The apprentice shook her head. "Nope. I'm just that good," she replied with a gleeful smirk.
"Hey, Sparkles. Rise and shine," I said, slapping the guy hogtied to a chair.
Abi frowned. "Sparkles?"
"Yeah. What's wrong with Sparkles? They're fun."
"Did you get hit in the head?"
"Little bit." I slapped the guy again. "Wake up."
Sparkles was the guy who had attacked Abi. We had figured he had less of a chance of waking up screaming in pain from a broken wrist and a smashed nose, so we had dragged him inside an empty office, and tied him to a chair with duct tape from the supply closet.
Sparkles mumbled something, and I kicked him in the knee. "English, please."