by Samuel Small
“What difference does it make? Any backup is better than none,” Jake said.
“Not really. You guys would be useless against that thing. It’s not like he can juggle fighting an opponent of that caliber and protect both of you at the same time.”
“Well, you seem pretty strong,” Sara called. “Why don’t you just back him up?”
“Eh,” the man said, his hood turning to Sara. “Oh, that, um…” he trailed off, playing with his fingers nervously. “Actually, I’m not allowed to let anyone see me, so just forget that you ever saw me!” He bowed, clasping his hands over his head. “If you don’t I’m gonna get chewed out big time…”
Is this guy serious? Jake thought as he stared at his body, still slumped into a bow. To the trainee’s dismay, he thought he was. And that cult theory, now that Jake had had time to ponder it, was beginning to make less and less sense. This guy’s teammate seemed to be much more rational than him, and if his words were to be believed his eccentric actions were in violation of his orders. And there was logic to his reasoning, although Jake was pained to admit it. Out of the group Dante was the strongest, evident by the ease with which he carved through the Voids earlier. Plus, he’d been the only one who could resist that suited thing’s influence. The hood was fixed on Jake as he worked this out, seeming to see whether or not he’d surrender but…
“No,” Jake said with a shake of his head. Dante may have been powerful, sure, but more than Jake and Sara combined? There was no way their presence would actively be a hindrance. Jake looked up with blazing eyes, staring dead through the shadowy figure before him. “I don’t care what your orders are and what it is you plan to do. You say you want to keep everyone safe but that’s a load of bullshit! If you did, you’d help him! Hell, you’d let us help him!”
But Jake’s angry features soon relaxed. Not because it was out of his system but because the guy’s posture, and the whole atmosphere around him, had changed. He shook his head at the ground, apparently in deep remorse. Before he could understand what that meant the man appeared in front of him. Air hit Jake’s face, thrusting his already bedraggled hair in all directions. Then his nose seemed to explode and he was lifted off his feet by whatever force came with the hit. He landed on his back and struggled to rise to a stand, but found it difficult to see what he was doing through the brown splotch that was his vision. As soon as it had come it faded and Jake grasped his nose, blood running through the gaps between his fingers as he glared up at the man at the top of the steps. He didn’t know if it was some kind of trick of his senses being knocked out of him, instinct, or something else, but he could swear that guy was smiling behind the shadows of that hood.
***
Leaping back in tandem with William’s advances, Dante was barely able to keep his head intact. William had contorted both of his arms into bear-like claws and swiped at him in mad tangents. Dante ducked under one and the sheer force of the attack sent William spiraling to the left. He collided with a column, smashing right through it, which made the ceiling shake like it was going to collapse. Dante dove for the floor just before the stones crushed him.
But the boy had no time to regain his footing. Williams tore out of the dust created by the debris, his mouth wide open like an animal ready to take a huge bite. Dante gritted his teeth and fired as much energy as he could right into William’s arm and somehow managed to stop the powerful attack. He used the brief opening to punch William square in the jaw then fire a blast of energy straight into him. William’s body sailed across the room, crashing through column after column on his way to the far wall. With each collision, there was a giant crashing sound, followed by the entire room shaking. Dust and debris rained down from the ceiling, casting William’s figure in a strange half-shadow. He slowly got back on his feet, apparently unhurt.
“So what’s this bullshit about not feeling anything!?” Dante shouted at him between breaths. “The more I talk, the fiercer your attacks get. If you’re really just some revived puppet then what’s the point!?”
“I told you,” William’s voice echoed from the shroud of dust, “I don’t know why I do what I do.”
“That’s bullshit!” Dante repeated and kicked at the ground. William wouldn’t be able to see him approach with all of the dust, so he could use this opportunity to once again close the space between. His words were having an effect on the guy, so he decided to keep them coming. “You can pull this whole monster shtick if you want but I don’t buy it for a second. You may look different, you may have freaky-ass powers, but at the end of the day you’re still just a person!”
Dante ran to the silhouette, his arm cocked back to attack, but something was off. William’s body was completely slumped, even though he had to know that Dante was close by. Why wasn’t he attacking? He’d been going absolutely batshit just a few moments ago. All of this weighed on Dante’s mind and he found his pace slowed. Before he knew it he simply stood in front of William, his arm still cocked back with no intention of striking him.
“I was never a person!” William screeched.
That scream, that absolute bellowing yell. It wasn’t what William had sounded like before, flat and emotionless. Dante found his raised fist dropping to his side. He watched wide-eyed as William began to hyperventilate, his chest heaving up and down in frantic breaths.
“Back then… I never felt like a person. Never. So don’t you…” The Void King raised his head and those gaping white eyes stared at Dante, seeming to hold an emptiness in them that went on forever. “Don’t you, a total outsider, dare say I was a person!”
With those words, the Void King’s claw came straight for Dante. He was caught off guard, his arms lowered from the first sign of emotion he’d seen in this… thing, leading Dante practically defenseless. He tried to back up and raise his fist into a stance but all that led to was the claw slashing across his forearm. Dante winced as his blood sprayed across the pale skin of his adversary, who then came in with the other arm.
Dante ducked under it then came up with a hook from the only arm that wasn’t tingling with numbness. It plowed into the Void King’s head, but he didn’t seem to care at all. He jerked his arms and head back and a spear tore out of his chest, one that Dante was nearly impaled by, but he managed to avoid it just in time. Behind him, Dante heard it flex, and he knew something was up and ducked. It was a good thing he did, because a scythe-like blade cut off a few of his hairs before returning into the Void King’s body. “You utter fucker!” Dante shouted and let his right fist free. His rage must have focused an insane amount of power in his hand, as it sent William’s head lashing back and his body following. He slammed into the wall a few feet behind him and Dante took the brief hiatus to assess his injury.
Within the pink light Dante was able to tell that he was bleeding badly. It dampened his green jacket to a dark black and pooled on the ground beneath him. But it wasn’t so bad, he’d cut Dante on the outside of the arm, meaning it was unlikely he’d got a vein or artery. Still, the wound was bleeding heavily so—
“Back then…” the voice oozed from in front of Dante, prompting him to raise his head. William’s form, head dropped like his neck was broken, slid up the wall. “Back then, you had the same look about you. The same pain, the suffering. What made you so different?”
Dante didn’t have an answer for him, or at least not one he cared to give. He turned and faced his foe, his fists clenched and ready.
“What’s the difference that allowed you to continue living!?”
The spears came then, one after another, but Dante found it easy to dodge them now. William had lost all composure, and it was showing – his assault was frenzied but misjudged, confused by his rage. Dante was closing the distance now and would be on him in no time.
“Well!? What is it? Answer me!”
Dante slipped to the inside of the final spear, planted his foot, cocked his fist, and stared into his opponent’s expressionless features. His milky eyes seemed to shine with barel
y suppressed tears and Dante knew that was no trick of the light.
“Currently? None,” Dante said and let his right fist free.
William’s head jerked back, slammed into the solid wall behind him, then nodded up and down like a broken bobblehead. Dante took the opportunity to really lay into him, sending a hook, a cross, another hook, whatever the hell he could think of into William’s body in rapid succession. The Void King’s body jerked from each blow like it was made of jelly. Finally, Dante stepped back and wound up for a decisive blow, but when he let his fist free he found it caught by a powerful hand. Dante tried to tear his arm loose, but the grip was way too tight. William raised himself to full height, towering over Dante. He opened his free hand. Pink electricity raced within it, lighting up the room with that demonic sickly hue.
“It doesn’t matter anyway. Now we really will be the same.”
This was the end. Based on those prophetic words, William was going to turn him into a Void. He tried to break the grip, kicking and punching into him, but it was no good. He didn’t react at all and that damn hand only crept closer to Dante’s throat with each passing second. He didn’t want to resort to this but…
With his free hand, Dante began to blast away at the remaining columns that supported the ceiling.
***
Jake grabbed his stomach, his sword clanking at his side, and dry heaved. He was aware of his forehead pressed uncomfortably against the hard flooring, but it was nothing compared to the wretched pain in his stomach. It felt like someone had reached inside and squeezed as tight as they could in an attempt to wring all of the juice out of it. He retched again but nothing came up aside from a dangling string of drool. Just one sped-up attack made him like this, completely useless. “Dammit,” he said and looked up at the dark figure towering over him.
“Why do you keep doing this? I don’t exactly enjoy it, you know.”
But Jake didn’t want to hear that now. He tried his best to ignore the guy and placed his palms on the ground and pushed with all of his might. His stomach burned like somebody had lit it on fire but he ignored it and continued to rise, pulling his sword up along the way. When he stood, he stumbled and nearly fell over but managed to keep his balance. Sara stood behind the man, her palm covering her mouth, obviously just wanting Jake to stop.
But he couldn’t. He couldn’t give up when Dante was in there. And this guy’s stance only pissed him off more. He had his hands on his hips patiently waiting for Jake’s next attack because he confidently knew he could block it. Jake yelled as loud as he could, bringing his sword across his body. He didn’t care about the screaming pain in his abdomen with the twist of his hips. He didn’t care about the exhaustion he felt in his arms. He didn’t care that he might have to endure another beating. All he cared about was taking that smug bastard’s head off.
Before his blade even reached the man Jake heard an explosion, then felt his body jerked back at an incredible speed. He couldn’t even make out the area around him, everything just blended together into a mix of blue and brown and faded green, but he could still hear a steady crash, an ear-splitting sound that he couldn’t locate. His body finally stopped, and he realized he was sitting in the grass of the field they’d crawled through to get here. He was dimly aware of Sara at his side, although he hardly gave it a passing thought, his eyes much more focused on—
On the collapsing tower.
The whole structure sunk into the ground in steady, broken jerks. It spat out stone and debris in frantic fits, covering the stairs leading to it in a matter of seconds. The sound of clanking weapons faintly reached Jake’s ears from behind him, as well as innumerable footsteps, but he could only stare at the collapsing testament to his own failure. One that still held his comrade somewhere inside.
Then someone grasped Jake by the shoulders and shook him, turning him to face them. He recognized Major Miles, although his voice seemed a world away. “Hey, Jake!? What happened? Where’s the Vigilante? And Dante?”
Jake turned his wide eyes to the collapsing structure and Major Miles stopped asking questions.
Interlude
A week after the tower collapsed Jake had barely left his apartment. He really only stepped out to eat. He kept himself occupied with the books on his desk and made sure to read through the chapters in his textbooks regularly so that he didn’t fall behind. Major Miles had ordered him not to attend classes to help with his recovery, but with nothing to distract him he found it even worse.
A formal excavation of the site yielded inconclusive results. The entire tower had collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing but an enormous pile of rubble. There wasn’t any point in shifting through all of it to find a body, especially considering that most of the debris were actually underground, which was also where Dante would had to have been, considering that the tower had collapsed from the bottom. Sara had insisted that he’d never die that easily but Jake had to remind her of the facts, regardless of how much he wanted to disbelieve them. After all, if the collapse originated from the basement somebody had to have caused it, and there was only one person in the building other than the monster.
At the thought of it, Jake gritted his teeth.
That was either the result of intense fighting that went on too long or a gamble by Dante to defeat the Void King, taking the creature along with him. Either way it could have been prevented if Jake had gotten past the man in the black trench coat.
But whatever it was Dante did, it had paid off. Since that day zero Voids had been reported in any of the outlying villages, or anywhere in the world for that matter.
Jake shook his head, sending his messy hair into his eyes before sitting up in his bed. He didn’t want to stay here and go over everything for the millionth time, but he didn’t have much else to do. He glanced at the pile of books stacked on his desk but decided against picking them up. His brain felt like jelly after reading all day. Walks always helped him clear his head, so he stepped out of his room, down the hallway, and out into the Republic’s streets. Jake merged with the milling crowd just outside his door, keeping his head low. He glanced over a trampled newspaper and read the headline: ‘REPUBLIC SQUASHES BUG INFESTATION’ it said in large bold print.
That was the story the Republic concocted to explain the vanishing villages and the military operation. After all, informing the citizens about the existence of demons who apparently had a vendetta against humans personally would lead to chaos. As it was people were already struggling to contend with the rebel’s activities.
Speaking of the rebels, Jake hadn’t heard word of their princess since her departure, or indeed her continued existence. He’d heard through the grapevine that General Iroh yelled at Major Miles so loud people heard it from a floor below and Jake had to guess that was the reason why. But Major Miles hadn’t received any sort of demotion, so he must’ve put up a good argument for why the girl was necessary. Without her, Jake supposed they would have been overrun by Voids at the tower. Probably before that if he was honest, when one of the Voids choked him out. And there were plenty of other little things she’d done that led to their success that Major Miles had questioned him at length about, which he would have no doubt brought up during that meeting.
Jake’s foot hit a puddle, which splashed all the way up to his ankle. The late fall wind seemed to freeze it into ice on contact. That woke him up quickly and he glanced to either side to see people moving around him after he had apparently walked too slowly. He muttered a silent apology and picked up his pace, heading for nowhere in particular.
That was when the device in Jake’s pocket began to vibrate, shaking his entire thigh before he grabbed it and placed it to his ear. “Hello?”
“Trainee Jake, Major Miles here. I’m requesting your presence in my office immediately.”
The comp clicked off before Jake could respond, indicating that his compliance was not optional. It wasn’t like Major Miles to call Jake at a moment’s notice unless he had screwed up, so whatever th
is was it was urgent. Jake’s mind teemed with possibilities as he sped up, making a beeline for the administrative building.
It didn’t take him long to get there, mostly because his apartment was in the same neighborhood and he was aimlessly heading in that direction anyway. Before he knew it he was on the Major’s floor and he knocked twice on his door. Major Miles shouted that he could come in, and he obliged.
The Major sat behind his desk, chin resting on steepled fingers, a chair at the side wherein sat Sara. When she saw him, she gave Jake a tight smile.
“Trainee Jake, I see you’re out of uniform,” Major Miles said.
“Right, I was going for a walk at the ti—”
“Don’t worry about it. I told you to cease guard work for a week and I meant it.”
Apparently he’d given Sara the same instructions, as she sat in a plain white dress. Oddly, she held a suitcase. Her attention was not focused on Jake, or Major Miles for that matter, but on the tiles at her feet.
“Pack your things, you’re going to Niflheim,” Major Miles said.
“W-wait—”
“When my father found out what happened he got really curious,” Sara said. “It’s not like I can explain everything that happened to him over a comp so he called an All World Meeting.”
“Okay, I get that. But why am I coming?”
“You’re one of two people who were on that investigation that we have access to,” Major Miles answered. Jake saw Sara jump out of the corner of his eye, although she quickly settled. Major Mile’s lips pulled into a frown upon taking this in. “So they’re going to want to question you at length. That’s why I called you too, Sara. Prepare for the other nations to be very curious.”
“Right.”
“Sara will be heading to her country shortly. Jake, you leave with me in a week. I’m hereby ending your suspension, but I don’t want you to waste it. Train dutifully, as your skills will be on display for the whole world to see.”