A Circuit of Time: Book Two of Spark (A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Six

Thin ice still covered the walls of the tunnel.

"Remind me again, whose team was these?" Marcus asked.

"Looks like Amet's. They were sent out to find this loop's back door into its original time." A soldier answered.

"Looks like they found it." Marcus said.

*

They had lost.

Albiar watched from afar as his people were dragged to shoot propaganda for the enemy before execution.

Sharon tried to fight, and now he's dead. There's nothing he could do to help them now.

But then the man in black mask caught his attention.

The Soulbender, Caul's secret weapon.

In the religious propaganda wights fed to the children, Soulbender was God-Emperor Caul's executioner, a demon in their invented faith.

If you killed a demon, if you could prove that it was mere human, you could seed doubt into the religion surrounding it.

Albiar picked up his gun.

Time to assassinate a demon.

*

The first shot exposed his location.

But Albiar didn't waste any time to think about that, he emptied his gun.

Five bullets in total, all came into contact with its target, three shots on his back and two on his head, all stopped by the matte black material.

Soulbender turned around. "Seize him."

Soldiers swarmed on him, but Albiar didn't resist. He let them drag him to the Soulbender.

The soldiers backed away, leaving two guards holding him down.

"Noah Albiar, Caul have always wondered where the fiercest general in all of peculiar America went." His voice was distorted, mechanical, inhuman. "We have our answer now."

Albiar stared at the mask.

"Kill him." The Soulbender ordered.

A soldier behind Albiar loaded his gun.

Right before he fired, Albiar grabbed his executioner's gun and redirected it at the other soldier.

One guard dead.

Then he kicked the remaining soldier's stomach and seized the gun from him.

Albiar fire a shot at the Soulbender, which bounced off his chest armor. He fired another immediately, this time aimed at the neck where the armor didn't cover. But Soulbender simply stepped aside and dodged it.

Albiar fired again, but the mag had no bullets left.

The Soulbender gestured the remaining soldier to leave.

Albiar threw away the now useless gun and pulled out a combat knife from his coat.

The Soulbender drew his own blade in response.

Albiar lunged and slashed at his opponent's neck, but Soulbender blocked it with his armored arm and stabbed back at the general's abdomen. Albiar stepped aside to dodge the attack and kicked at Soulbender's leg, knocking him off balance as the general had now positioned himself at his opponent's back and smote his head with his elbow then thrusted his knife downward. The Soulbender slammed the back of his head into Albiar, redirecting the blade from piercing into his neck to hitting his shoulder plate, then he immediately whacked his shoulder into the general and turned to slash at him, forcing the general to retreat.

Albiar backed away, then thrusted the knife at Soulbender again. The Soulbender took the hit with his left lower arm and slashed at Albiar with his other hand. Albiar blocked this hit with his free hand and stabbed his knife into Soulbender's unprotected elbow. His knife hand touched the blood.

At that moment he saw the opponent's next move.

Soulbender punched back with his wounded arm and thrusted his blade at Albiar with the other. But the general slammed the back of his knife at the opponent's shoulder before he could punch and stepped back to dodge the blade on his other hand. Then Albiar advanced, faking attack at Soulbender's abdomen then quickly lifted his knife and buried it deep into his opponent's neck.

The general could feel the cold metal in his belly as he collapsed on his knees.

In front of him, the Mouth of Caul pulled out the knife on his neck.

So much blood poured out that Albiar was sure his opponent will soon bleed to death.

No human can walk away with such injury.

But the Soulbender didn't seem bothered by the fatal wound. He walked forward with Albiar's knife in hand.

Albiar pulled out the blade on his stomach, to make one last stand, even if it meant bleeding to death in the process. And it struck him, the terrible possibility he always refused to acknowledge: perhaps Caul and his minions really were something beyond human. Maybe this Soulbender character really is a demon.

But demon or not, Albiar will not allow himself to be defeated so easily, so he raised the knife, ready to fight.

The Soulbender slammed a fist into his face, knocking him down.

Albiar could taste blood in his mouth.

He grasped at the knife, but the masked demon kicked it away.

Then Soulbender grabbed his shoulder and stabbed Albiar's own knife deep into his jugular.

The moment the demon's bloody glove came into contact with Albiar's skin, he saw it, one last vision in his life.

It was of a boy screaming behind bars of blue light.