The Seven Archangels

18 - I Get Blasted into Pieces - Percy

We put up our camp in the woods near a big city. I was a little concerned about curious citizens or burglars trying to steal our stuff but Aurelius reassured me it wouldn't happen since he would set a protective shield around us.

The next morning, we decided to try to invoke our true forms. Well, Aurelius would do that and I would enjoy a good swim. We packed our camp and swung my backpack around my shoulders. We started to make our way towards the nearest ocean, me in the lead since I sensed a big body of water a couple of miles north from our position. Both of us wanted to walk and gather some valuable information about this new world.

We walked through a suburb of sorts. Nobody gave us second glances, we looked quite normal. We didn't wear our cloaks today, it would've raised a lot of suspicions. We looked a little like assassins in those cloaks.

People here looked also quite human which surprised me because I had thought there would be creatures with antlers, tentacles or antennas. Skin color definitely was something that wasn't constant. There were people from bright pink to complete black.

Aurelius did a good job with looking casual and being normal while he probably was tense and ready to draw his sword if needed. I had only riptide with me, which turned out to be a good choice since nobody had weapons here. At least they didn't show them if they did.

This place seemed to be quite high-tech, at least compared to Earth. There were no flying cars like in bad movies but their ways of transportation were definitely more advanced than on Earth. A huge tube made out of some clear material zigzagged through the city where normally would be a main road. High-velocity carriages traveled through it all the time. There seemed to be stations where people would get out and in to these carriages. It was basically a more advanced version of busses or tramcars.

I also noticed that there was no pollution in the air. I pointed that out to Aurelius and he said he had noticed it too. It was a nice change to Earth's current situation. It also reminded us from the times before the war with the ancestors.

Shortly we came to the gates to the main city itself. It was surrounded with high walls and a force field. There were heavily armed soldiers everywhere near the entrance. I glanced at Aurelius, wondering if he had noticed that too. His eyes were narrowed and his left pinky was twitching, like anticipating a fight.

"I don't like this. Too many soldiers for it to be just a security measure," he said. I nodded in response, my hand making its way to my right pocket where I had Riptide. "Identification pass," came a rude voice behind us. Before I had time to turn around, Aurelius' hand fluttered slightly. I looked at him curiously and saw that his face was completely green and his eyes were twice as big as human's eyes. I probably would've screamed if Aurelius didn't speak first.

He turned around and smiled sweetly at the soldier. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" he asked. The soldier's face became joyous like Christmas had come early and he took a gun from its holster. "You are not welcome to this sector, Aoros!" he said. Aoros, green or immature in Greek, my brain told me. He pulled the trigger.

Aurelius' hand shot out from his side and the speed of light and he grasped my arm and dissolved us into light as he made a vision of us blasting into pieces. I wanted to vomit after seeing all that blood and gore but I couldn't in my current form. I looked at Aurelius, his face showed only disgust at the man. Bystanders only shook their heads like this was a common thing to happen.

We flew across the sky and landed inside an abandoned warehouse. As we solidified, Aurelius spoke, "So that's what those green guys were. Aoros, green or immature. Either Aoroses are some kind of criminals or there's something fishy happening in that city." I nodded, agreeing with him completely.