Death's Mantle

by Harmon Cooper

  He got under the blankets, and shut his eyes, a deep sleep coming to him.

  When Lucian awoke it was still night.

  He didn’t know how long he had been out, nor did he really care.

  After checking his stats to see that he had indeed charged back up to over a hundred SP, Lucian tried to remember the exact location of Yoshimi’s beautiful Japanese home.

  His eyes shut, he pressed his thumb and pinky together, reappearing in the air over a vast stretch of snow and ice, a thick mist hovering above the landscape, bits of moonlight pressing through it.

  Lucian’s cape took shape over his shoulders, the hood coming up.

  He could not feel cold, but seeing the thick ice and snow below and hearing its howl definitely tricked Lucian’s mind for a moment, causing him to cross his arms over his chest, and consider pulling out his lava sword for added warmth.

  His two crows materialize in the air in front of him, both of them tilting their heads as they looked to Lucian.

  “I’m pretty sure this is where she was supposed to be,” he told them. “But don’t quote me on that.”

  Wondering if an explosion would draw her attention, Lucian equipped his grenade launcher and aimed it at the ground, firing two shots that kicked up fire and smoke into the air.

  The wind stopped.

  He recalled Yoshimi telling him that she didn’t want to be bothered, and while he didn’t want to fight her, he was prepared for anything.

  But it wasn’t a female Death that Lucian now saw floating toward him. Instead, he saw a muscled angel, with black wings and dark gray armor.

  “Shit.” Lucian equipped his scythe and tossed it into the air, letting his cape take it as he went for his plasma blowtorch.

  He placed his hand on the lever, aiming it at the angel, his weapon starting to charge.

  “That will do little good against me,” the man said, now floating behind Lucian, just a few feet away.

  “How did you...?”

  Lucian’s carbine appeared in his hand, and he pointed it at the angel.

  “Another weapon that would not affect me. I’m not here for you, Lucian North. I’m here for her. You have progressed, but I’m only interested in targets that present a challenge to me,” the man said, his mask peeling away and revealing a chiseled face, the man’s hair long and dark, his eyes golden. “And you are not a challenge.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Most call me Azazyel, and you may call me the same. I know that she is around here somewhere, but it may be awhile before I find her. No matter. She will be mine in the end, mark my words, Lucian.”

  Silence stretched between the two men.

  “Perhaps we will meet again.” Azazyel finally said. He flapped his black wings, slowly rising above Lucian, his armor reforming. “For your sake, let’s hope that isn’t the case.”

  A column of black and purple light struck the angel, the man exploding toward the sky, leaving Lucian standing there with his gun in one hand, his jaw wide open.

  His two crows buzzed next to him.

  “That would have been bad,” Lucian said, noticing that there was still an electric feeling in the air leftover from the angel’s strange energy.

  And was it an angel?

  He hadn’t seen one with black wings yet, which made Lucian think it might be something else, perhaps…

  “A fallen angel,” he said, nodding at his crow. “A Watcher.”

  His cape resettled on his shoulders, his scythe fizzling away. Lucian was just about to press his thumb and pinky finger together when he saw something flash below him, Yoshimi’s home coming into shape.

  Lucian bolted toward the place, landing on the rooftop and watching as a manicured tree in the backyard began to rise, swiveling as its branches curled, as color returned to its leaves. Blue cherry blossoms started to form on the tree, falling to the ground below.

  Lucian slowly descended, clearing his throat to announce himself.

  “Yoshimi, it’s me, Lucian,” he told a wall made of blackened glass. “I’m sorry to disturb you. But I figured if anyone could point me in the right direction, if anyone knew the answer to the question I have, it would be you. I’m sorry again for coming here.”

  He lowered his head, waiting for her response. When one didn’t come, he turned back toward the tree behind him, which had started to shed its flowers, the blue and white petals floating to the ground below.

  There was no snow in the courtyard, and regardless of the tundra outside, it was warm enough to be able to have a small pond with large white and orange koi fish moving under the water, circular stones stacked on top of one another in one corner of the pond, a well on the other.

  “I really wished you hadn’t come here,” Yoshimi said, suddenly floating in front of Lucian.

  “I’m sorry,” Lucian started to tell her. “So much has changed, but that’s not why I’m here, why I’m here…”

  A portion of the courtyard expanded, a table taking shape.

  “Please, sit.” Yoshimi lowered down to the other side of the table.

  Lucian did as instructed, a small stone kettle slowly materializing in front of him.

  It lifted into the air and filled a stone cup without a handle. Lucian gripped the stone cup with both hands he took his first sip, the tea warming him.

  “Your tea is always amazing,” he told the woman, who wore a traditional Japanese kimono tied off by a dark blue obi.

  Yoshimi took a sip of her tea as well. “Tell me what troubles you; tell me why you are here.”

  “I’m here because of my predecessor. We went out for parasites, his idea, and he was taken by angels.”

  Her dark pupils twitched. “Taken by angels?”

  Lucian nodded. “I have been doing my own research through some of the books that he kept, and I believe he may have been taken to Heaven through something known as the South Wind. Have you ever heard about it?”

  She nodded.

  “He also had this map,” Lucian said, the map appearing in his hand. He was just about to hand it to her when one of his crows used its retractable claws to carry it over to Yoshimi.

  “A map of the Middle Kingdom,” she said after looking it over, Lucian’s crow hovering near her.

  “Where?”

  “Your predecessor knew that the entrance to the South Wind would be here, but he didn’t know how to find, which is why he had this primitive map. The South Wind is the entrance to Heaven on Earth. It is always open. It was developed by Life as a quick escape just in case the Watchers, or any other fallen angels, grew powerful enough to prevent them from simply teleporting away.”

  “Watchers, huh?” Lucian said as his crow returned the map. “That brings me to a new development.”

  “What’s that?”

  “There was an angel looking for you, one with large black wings. His said his name was Azazyel.”

  Yoshimi finished her cup of tea. She set it on the table, her stone kettle refilling it. “That’s the type of news no one likes to hear,” she finally said.

  “He’s a fallen angel, isn’t he?”

  She nodded. “One of the most powerful ones out there, one who hunts Life and Death alike. He was banished from Heaven because of the gift he gave man.”

  “Which gift was that?” Lucian asked, trying to remember if he’d ever heard this story at Sunday school.

  “He gave man swords and armor, and in doing so taught them about weapons.” One of the blue cherry blossom petals spiraled down to the table, and Yoshimi picked it up and examined it. “I will have to move my location, possibly somewhere that he will never be able to find me.”

  “He didn’t even blink at me. He said I wasn’t strong enough for him.”

  “You are lucky; he would have destroyed you in a matter of seconds. He has been doing this for thousands upon thousands of years and he generally only hunts those worthy of a fight against him. I suppose one way I could take this would be as a compliment, that he considers me s
trong enough to fight. Then again, perhaps he has just killed the Deaths that are stronger than me, and now he has moved down to another level.”

  “He didn’t say much, only that he was looking for you.”

  “Unfortunate, but to be expected. Well, I wasn’t expecting this for another century or so, but it is hard to predict these things.” She shook her head. “Regarding going after your predecessor, you do realize that this is not possible, correct?”

  Lucian grimaced. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”

  “I didn’t say you shouldn’t try, I merely said that it wasn’t possible.”

  “Do you know how to get to the South Wind?”

  She nodded. “Getting there is not as hard as it sounds. Dealing with those that guard it is where the difficulty lies.”

  A spark of white energy signaled they had company.

  Two Deaths appeared in the courtyard with large swords drawn, their blades jagged and defined by a blistering purple light that rippled from the top to the bottom of their weapons.

  “Yoshimi,” the male Death said, his skin dark, a white skull painted across his face. “We were hoping to find you here.”

  “I will take the rookie,” said the female Death, her eyes black and a swath of black paint smeared across her face.

  “Menor, Alice.” Yoshimi floated to her feet. “You will regret coming here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Death Hunters

  A sphere enveloped the four Deaths, collapsing and then reforming in a vast desert, the sun setting on the horizon.

  “Is this the place you choose?” the Death named Menor asked.

  “I’d rather not stain the courtyard of my home with your blood,” Yoshimi told him as dark robes took shape on her body, two black katanas forming in her hands.

  She brought her two weapons to the ready as a large ax appeared in Menor’s hand, the cutting-edge forming sharp teeth that gnashed together.

  “Last chance,” Yoshimi said.

  “Last chance indeed,” said the female death named Alice as she fired a pair of black revolvers at Lucian.

  The bullet struck Lucian in the shoulder and chest, sending him to the ground.

  He responded by launching his injurecrows at her, four of them digging into her body and exploding. One of Alice’s legs flew in the opposite direction, a huge hole in her chest now, her arm missing.

  Lucian’s carbine appeared in his hand as Yoshimi and Menor’s weapons met. He approached Alice, unloading his magazine into her fallen form.

  His feet were swept out from under him before he could finish shooting, the ends of Alice’s robes pulling him to the ground and wrapping around his body. Lucian’s own clothing fought back, but the distraction gave her the momentum she needed to heal, and the woman was standing again by the time he broke free.

  “Fancy guns will only get you so far,” she said as Lucian’s eyes jumped from Alice to Yoshimi and Menor, who continued to trade blows, neither overpowering the other.

  “That’s not all I have.”

  Lucian went for his whip, throwing it forward and wrapping it around her ankle. He dragged her over to him, his lava sword appearing in his other hand. She stopped his next attack by crossing her arms, a devious look on her face.

  And before Lucian could interpret the way she was looking at him, a giant barb extended from her gauntlets, tearing through his chest.

  She flung him face-first into the sand, her weapon returning to her gauntlet.

  Rolling on top of him, Alice began choking Lucian, a wild grin on her face.

  “So young to die,” she said, her grip tightening, claws beginning to tear out of her fingertips.

  Lucian conjured more injurecrows, which immediately struck Alice’s body and sent her flying off him. He rolled to the side, his hands coming to his chest as he gasped for air, as he felt the hole in his chest start to reform.

  Once he was back on his feet, Lucian invoked a few more injurecrows, which he spun off in Yoshimi’s direction, hoping to aid her some.

  His cape separated from his body just as his scythe took shape, which he quickly handed off, and not a moment too soon.

  Alice slammed into Lucian, tackling him to the ground. She brought her fist back and Lucian caught it with his own clawed hand, digging his nails in and flipping her around.

  The woman headbutted him, and Lucian’s cape drove his scythe into her body. The cape managed to pull her off his body, giving Lucian the second he needed to conjure fireball daggers. Alice spawned a shield that deflected them all and sent them right back at him.

  She tossed her shield to the side and went for her black revolvers again, firing them at Lucian, the bullets exploding once they reached the inside of his body.

  Lucian fell to the ground, his torso in tatters, trying to get back to his feet and heal at the same time.

  He equipped his tripwire gun and squeezed the trigger. The three-muzzled weapon shot a blue electric rope that wrapped around her body, bringing Alice to the ground.

  His body still healing up, Lucian went for his plasma blowtorch.

  He pulled the lever back all the way and started frying the female Death, the heat causing the sand around her to turn to glass, the woman’s form sinking into it as Lucian laid on more thermal energy.

  And he might have finished it too had it not been for a blast of sharp magic that sliced Lucian’s torso in half.

  His upper body went to the left, his lower body to the right. Lucian was shocked when he saw that his waist and legs were a few feet away from him.

  “Don’t panic, don’t panic,” he whispered to himself as he tried to crawl back toward his legs, the sand not giving him anything to use as leverage.

  He felt hopeless at that moment, paralyzed, the grains of sand impossible to grip, Lucian growing frantic.

  Menor had cast the magic. The dark-skinned man with the white skull painted on his face was up in the air, firing similar blasts at Yoshimi, who was speeding in a curve around Menor, clearly charging up.

  She fired a blue sphere of rippling energy at Menor, which formed a barrier around him that prevented the man from attacking. Try as he might, every attack he used against the spherical barrier was simply absorbed.

  Yoshimi flashed over to Lucian as his cape brought the rest of his torso to his body.

  “You should go now.” She looked from Menor, who was still struggling with her sphere of energy, to Alice, who had just started to press out of the molten glass, her arm reforming, an absolutely furious look on her face.

  “I want to help you,” Lucian said, gritting his teeth.

  “You are sweet.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “And powerful. But these two are just getting started.”

  “I… I can help,” Lucian said. More injurecrows materialized before him and took off toward Alice.

  “I will be leaving soon as well. They won’t win this fight, not today anyway,” she said.

  “How did they find you?” he asked.

  “These two have been tracking me for a while; this isn’t the first time they have attacked me.”

  “Why don’t you kill them?” he asked point-blank.

  Yoshimi shook her head. “I’m not that kind of Death. And I believe you aren’t either. I will come for you in three days. Wherever you are, I will find you. I will help you get to the South Wind, but you are on your own after that.”

  “I want to stay and help,” Lucian told her.

  “You have three days to grow as strong as you possibly can. Now go.”

  Lucian’s cape settled over his shoulders, his crows hovering just above his body. He took one more look at the mysterious woman and nodded. “See you then.”

  Lucian pressed his thumb and pinky together, cursing under his breath.

  Lucian fell onto his bed, his cape settling around him.

  He pressed himself up and immediately touched his thumb and pinky finger together, trying to teleport back to where he’d just come from, feeling like a coward for
leaving.

  Try as he might, Lucian wasn’t able to return to the location.

  To make sure that he could still teleport, he pressed his thumb and pinky finger together again.

  His form took shape on the beach in Portland, Maine.

  The sun was starting to set, and a few bundled-up Portlanders sat on an old quilt sharing a bottle of wine and watching waves sluice against the shoreline. Seagulls landed near Lucian, one approaching him and then stopping dead in its tracks, turning away.

  His stats hovered in front of him:

  Lucian had expended almost half of his SP in the fight against the two Deaths.

  He still didn’t quite understand how the mechanics of this worked, why some fights took more of a toll than others, but his assumption was it had to do with a number of factors, from the intensity of the battle, to how strong his opponents were.

  Regardless, he needed to get stronger, and now he had a timeline.

  Lucian floated along the beach and up to the small cliff that overlooked the sea.

  He saw the bench that the old man had been sitting on when he first visited this place, the one that was repeatedly muttering the name Steve. Lucian took a seat on the bench and looked out at the sea, closing his eyes for a moment.

  It had already been an eventful day, from meeting the fallen angel to the fight he’d been in with the two Deaths. Now he had three days to get stronger, three days until Yoshimi came for him.

  If she came for him.

  Part of him worried if she would make it through the fight; the other part of him had this feeling that she was holding back, that she wasn’t going full-throttle.

  Regardless, it was time to hunt, and while he figured it would be helpful to find new hunting grounds, there was still plenty to clean up at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.

  Lucian tapped his pinky and thumb together, and appeared on the rooftop, looking out at Midtown, skyscrapers blinking all around him. A smog hung over the city, and he had the urge to fly over it once again, to see Times Square at night, but he suppressed this urge, knowing that it was time to get down to business.