34.
Shut and Tell
Ram had of course known about the hideout.
Housed up underground, Amon, Mr. Armour, and the other survivors had been sitting in the improvised living room. They were talking and nervously laughing, trying to cope with the idea of having their protector, Dante, leave them.
“It will only be temporary,” Amon had told them sitting in the middle of the room. Each couch was occupied. Dante’s father was to his left, the blonde sisters in front of him, and the other woman to his right. She lay with her eyes closed.
“We’ll still be okay, right?” One of the sisters—the one with the braided hair—asked with a tinge of terror in her light blue eyes.
“Yes. My Magika is still keeping this place sealed, so we should be alright until he comes back,” Amon reassured her. Her sibling placed a hand on hers.
There was a stillness in the room.
“My son.” The voice was soft but it was heard by all. “Who would’ve thought? If only I had some of that power too. I could be out there instead of him.”
Amon exhaled. “Alex—”
“No,” she said, shifting his brown head up from his hands. “His mother left us. She never even properly cared for him. Never gave him anything. How fitting the one thing she actually left him could lead him to death.”
“This whole world is death. Even before the demons invaded.” The woman that was lying on the couch opened her eyes. They were sunken, the brightest feature on her skin and skull face.
“Don’t, Emma,” Mr. Armour said, but she shook her head. It was a slow and weak movement.
“I was a nun for forty-five years when they all came pouring in. When people discovered it was not a terrorist attack but the devil’s legion that had descended upon our land. The churches were bursting with people. Pews had broken from the weight of all who were sitting on them. Floors cracked from the combined weight of people standing on one another.
“All of them, praying and crying, claiming they saw the light. Praying for God to take them now, but there was no light. We are all in the same—demons and humans. How can we not be if Dante, a mortal boy, holds the same power a demon might?” Her tired, blurry eyes shifted towards Amon.
“Thank you,” she told him. “You do us a kindness by keeping us here. If there is something on the other side, I’m sure you’ll find rest once you are called.”
It was when the invisible force had fallen upon them. The living quarters became a still picture of frightened eyes. Appearing like magic, a slithering shadow curled inside the room. It weaved between the scarce furniture and around the still bodies. Its course halted in the middle of the room where it began to swell like a giant balloon. It soon occupied all the space, forcing and pushing ratty furniture and people up against the hard walls. Then it exploded. Dark fragments shredded and sliced through all like daggers. If the survivors had not died by suffocation, then the blades were there to finish them off.
Yet Amon lived.
Ironically, it was his wheelchair that saved him. When he was pressed against the wall, it prevented him from being crushed. It also protected him from most of the Shadow’s projectiles. However, it did not mean Amon escaped unharmed.
He opened his eyes only to be immediately blinded by a hot, cutting light. He blinked, feeling like a thousand little suns had surrounded him. His body was sprawled in a crater of hot clay that seeped waves of heat into his back and arms. A new set of wounds to add to his vast collection of scars adorned his entire body.
The remains of his hideout were now towering ruins embedded in the cracked earth. Several smaller shards glistened around his broken body like stars. As the broiling sun reflected off the debris, baking all that was trapped within, the faint stench of sweltering dead flesh wafted in the air.
Exhaling dryly, Amon blew away the few grains of earth that were wedged between his chapped lips. He had to get on his stomach. It was the only way he could drag himself out of the rubble that was roasting him.
Amon reached up to a huge chunk of metal nearby. He grimaced as his palm began to burn. Summoning his strength, he pushed his weight on the metal. Fresh blood oozed from the cuts on his arms. His torso rose off the ground, freeing his other arm. With the extra support, Amon thrusted himself up to a sitting position. As he removed his hands from the metallic rubble, a thin layer of skin peeled from his palms and melted on the hot steel.
Panting and sweating, his vision blurred and blackened, but he refused to give up. He used the embedded wreckage as a basic ladder to ascend up and out of the crater. Several rests were taken on the larger pieces but they were short to avoid burning himself. After numerous agonizing hours of crawling, Amon at last surfaced from the huge hole. The land on top was unscathed. The Shadow’s attack had been contained only to its target.
That meant it was still there.
A tree. One that Amon had allowed to grow since his move into the house. Despite the fact that Ram’s external training had always ended up with him wiping the plain free of vegetation, that tree still managed to stand. Hopefully it was still standing.
Amon scanned the land for it. His wavering vision spotted the mesquite tree’s shadow in the horizon. It seemed further away than he remembered. Amon closed his eyes and thought of his niece, the only family he probably had left. It eased the burn in his arms.
This time the crawl was less harsh, but it was just as long. Once Amon reached his destination, his hands and arms were raw and blistered and his body was shrieking for rest. He hugged the trunk and pulled himself to sit with his back against the tree. As he rested and caught his breath, Amon’s vision slowly pushed away the cloudiness. It was then his legs came into proper view.
A half sigh, half whimper escaped Amon when he realized he no longer had a left foot nor a right leg.
~*~*~
The blows were still coming.
Dante’s body jerked with each contact the demon’s laced fists made on his head, shoulders, and chest. He was still kneeled over, slashed hands grasping his sword, but despite it all—despite his darkening vision, his numb and bloody body, his buzzing head—he could clearly hear Ram as he slinked around Reyna.
“Two lovers, Sister?” he spoke. “Little sister, you do get around, but we’ll talk of this later. Come. Mother and Father are waiting. I can’t wait for all of us to finally be together.”
Reyna’s eyes darkened. The only reaction she could do. Ram smiled, still unaware that behind him Mundus’ minute movements were slowly increasing with frequency.
The moon demon could move all of his fingers on his right hand to half of their capacity. He was working on stirring his legs that were falling out of their numb state. Despite his limbs’ awakening, Mundus did not break his sight from Reyna. Not even Dante’s demise pulled his protective gaze from her.
Erian had other things on his mind. Unlike the omnipotent Mundus that had the ability to break from such a powerfully fused spell, Erian was not graced with such a chance. In fact, that’s what he was thinking of now. Why hadn’t Mundus broken free already? The fact that the demon price had even been caught in an Illusionist’s web was astonishing. Erian’s capture in it was surprising, but not entirely uncommon; however Mundus’ was incomprehensible.
That mortal’s Spirit is quite powerful. It is the only reason it is holding Mundus. There is no possible way a demon or mortal could grip him even with the power of the highest tier on their side. Erian though.
“It appears Lina is needed to help him power through it,” Azul’s milky soft voice answered.
She was lured away under the impression she was helping Flow. I know that now. If Erian could sigh, he would. Spirits and how they help us is quite a curious and tedious thing.
“Do you find me strange as well, Erian?”
At times, my Azul. He could feel her smile.
“The mortal boy,” she said sadly, “loves her very much.”
Yes. It is annoying. It simply adds more nonsense to the situation.
“But Erian, is it so bad?”
He retorted, It is rash, and Mundus is quite blinded by it.
“Oh, Erian,” she exhaled.
Another meaty crunch suddenly oozed in the air.
Azul spoke, “The mortal boy will die.”
I do not care. What I wish is for this Illusion of Containment to break, he snapped.
“I am sorry I am not strong enough to fight it.” There was genuine sorrow in her statement.
Do not be. This Spirit is quite different and very powerful, Erian said.
“The mortal girl!” Azul exclaimed. “She is free!”
“Dante!” Reyna’s cry erupted through the scene as if it was meant to prove the Spirit’s statement.
Ram had freed her, eager to see what she would do. Which of the two she would run to help. He watched her with amused, anticipating eyes. At his action, a whisper arose from the ground, modified only for him to hear.
“Pray, you let her go?” The Shadow remained unhidden.
“Of course not,” Ram clearly spoke knowing their conversation was private. “I want her to do what I know she’s about to do.”
Reyna was racing towards Dante, a conjured blue shield glowing over her right arm. She slid in front of him just as the bulky demon brought his fits down. They hit her guard instead. Unfazed by Reyna’s meddling, he continued to push down on the azure armor before him. Reyna buckled under the weight as her shield began to crack.
“Ray–Reyna.” A weak whisper emerged from behind her. Dante was hunched over, his body twisted like a soggy rope. An odd protrusion angled out from his right side. His face was beyond swollen, facial features hardly recognizable.
His ghastly sight broke Reyna’s concentration. The fists broke through and connected on her right shoulder. Fire jetted down her arm and she knew it was broken. The force of the blow pushed her off her feet.
Despite his condition and the numbness that had taken over, Dante willed himself to release his sword and open his arms to catch the falling Reyna. New pain erupted and raced through him as she thudded onto his chest. Something occurred to him. He couldn’t feel her. Pain was the only sensation circling throughout his body.
No, he thought. She was in his arms but he couldn’t feel her. No!
Something triggered. Something barbaric.
Nooooo!
Dante’s heighted pulse raced blood around his body. He felt revived but not quite rejuvenated. Again, his skin began to glow red only this time it did not shatter away. It felt warm and it was soothing away his superficial wounds. Flesh began to mend but that’s where it stopped. Fragmented and broken bones remained as so. His body still held odd protrusions where they remained lodged in organs.
Yet he felt invigorated.
Dante gently placed Reyna to the side. She stared at him in disbelief as he gazed at her with emerald irises that began to eat up his entire eyes until only green reigned. He drew his sword out of the dirt with mended hands.
The bobcat demon looked at Dante with mild curiosity. This time, Dante was the first to attack. His foe repeated the same attacks as before only this time Dante’s sword embed itself into the fiend’s arm. Stunned, the demon flinched. Dante thrusted his weapon; a dull knock was heard as the blade made contact with demonic bone.
That sound brought the upper out of his state of shock. He balled his free hand into a fist and slammed it into Dante’s jaw. A sickening crush was heard; however it did nothing to stop him.
The demon’s arm fell down with a loud thud as Dante cleanly slashed it. A waterfall of black blood followed. Before the severed arm could stop twitching on the ground, Dante had already plunged his weapon into the fiend’s stomach and was running the blade up. In desperation, the demon placed a hand on the sword’s edge and pushed down to halt its advance.
Dante gave a lungful yell: one that seemed impossible to do in his current state. He pushed up, slicing off the clawed and lengthy fingers. The demon did not have time to roar in pain before the blade split his torso in half. More dark blood rained down as Dante collapsed next to the demon’s corpse.
“Dante!” Reyna rushed over to him and cradled his head on her lap. Willing her injured arm to move, she placed her hands, one on top of the other, over his heart. Her necklace lit up as it washed her with a healing warmth that channeled through her body and out her palms. Focusing her therapeutic waves on his wrecked body caused her neglected shoulder to pulse with pain but Reyna ignored it. Right away, his broken bones began to slide back to their original spots and fell into the process of restoring.
“Enough,” Ram said and appeared next to Reyna. He pulled her away and cut off her healing mist. Dante’s unattended bones dislodged from their proper place and he descending back into his mortally wounded state.
“Get away,” Reyna spat and forged a blue blade with her uninjured arm. Ram’s Shadow leapt at her from his lurking and enveloped itself around her arms and chest. Her breath began to leave her as it slowly twisted around her.
“Faith, you shall sleep,” it whispered.
“No,” Reyna managed to say. She turned to Mundus and caught his eye.
The pleading looking in her stare angered him for some reason. His right hand that could only wiggle its fingers suddenly managed to enclose in an enraged fist.
“Mundus,” Reyna spoke in a faltering voice. “Save…Dante…”
Ram laughed before disappearing along with the Shadow encased Reyna.
“What!” Mundus roared tearing through the now weakened Illusion like it was paper. “Such a request from that wench!”
“I do not sense them anymore.” Erian, also free, walked up to Mundus.
Mundus didn’t hear him, simmering in his vehemence. Erian said nothing else but turned to his right, sensing Cerus’ speeding towards them. Mundus also felt him but ignored it. Walking to Dante’s still body, he stood over him.
Reyna’s request bounced in his thoughts. Though she had whispered them, a fading behest, they vibrated strongly in him and caused his head to ache. Fangs exposed in rage, Mundus fiercely kicked Dante’s jaw before turning away from the dying young man.
~*~*~
Cerus had been close enough that the essences he felt played out a general outline of what happened. The scene that had concluded a few minutes ago left him slightly awed. He had felt Dante’s power falter only to roar back to life. It was a radiation of raw power, enough to quickly defeat the upper. True, Dante would currently be no match for Cerus, much less Mundus, but his perk of power was enough to make him shudder at the thought of a well–trained, fully driven Dante.
Lina was hovering next to him. Her frame was angled forward, cutting into the wind. Even racing through the desert-like terrain with the blinding sun bashing them and itchy sand whirling around them, Lina’s sorrow still penetrated.
“Oh,” Lina gave a sad sigh. “Master is very angry.”
“Lina,” he spoke carefully, “don’t be sad. It’s not your fault Mundus is angry.”
She shook her head. “This one is sad whenever Master is not happy. Something happened to make him very angry. Something more than being away from the human girl.”
Cerus remained silent, uncertain on how to answer. He looked down at Flow. The little wolf was cradled in one arm. The other cupped his frame as a shield. Flow’s neck was beginning to swell and his breathing sounded like rags being torn.
Hang in there, Cerus prayed.
“Thank you.” Lina’s voice was so soft and her words so odd it sounded like whispers from the wind.
He turned toward her. She gave him a small smile.
“This one is happy Master’s companion is nice to this one. This one really likes,”—she stopped, her lips giving an odd twitch—“Cerus. This one really likes…Cerus.”
The Shape Shifter almost dropped Flow. “You said my name!” he said, his mouth hanging open, blush taking over his face. Lina shyly smiled at him. “I’ve never heard you say anyone’s name before except for the name of Sprits. Well I mean…you’ve never said my name before.”
“This one likes Cerus,” she repeated. “Cerus has always been nice to this one.”
Dumbfounded, Cerus stared at the passing ground before his brain jolted him into speaking. “I like you too, Lina,” he said.
“Flow will be alright.” She smiled again.
He nodded. “We’re almost there,” he said, seeing the approaching silhouettes of Mundus and Erian.
When he and Lina arrived, she hovered up immediately to Mundus’ side. “Master! Please don’t be mad!” she pleaded grabbing onto his clothes. “This one still loves you. That human girl is not good for Master! She does not love you—”
Mundus slapped her with the back of his hand. “Silence,” he spoke in quiet anger. “Return.”
Cerus flinched at the demon prince’s action and his heart crumbled when Lina gave him a long, sad look before fusing with Mundus’ sword.
Erian came up to Cerus. “You should focus on Flow.”
“Yeah,” Cerus absentmindedly said and hugged Flow tighter. “Mundus, could you heal him, please?”
Mundus glanced at the beaten Spirit. “Yes.”
He held his hand out and Cerus, familiar with Mundus’ healing ritual, gently placed Flow on his palm. A green, transparent sphere encircled Flow’s entire frame. It pulled him into the air. He hovered inside the ball as if held by strings. Mundus brought his hand down; the orb remained afloat.
“He shall remain encased until fully healed,” Mundus said. “Do not move him.”
Cerus nodded. He noticed Dante’s body oddly heaped on the blood soaked ground. He was jerking with irregular breaths.
He’s still alive? Cerus thought amazed. I thought I felt him die.
“Mundus, aren’t you going to heal him too?” Cerus dared to ask.
The moon demon’s face twisted in disgust. “Of course not.”
“But—”
“Since when has such boldness arisen within you that causes such constant insolence and vocal defiance?” Mundus ended his final word with a roar.
“I—I am sorry, Mundus. I just believe Reyna would be sad if he were to die.”
An arrow suddenly shot through Mundus’ fog of red anger allowing a ray of reason to pierce through. I would simply be repeating it, he thought.
Sighing harshly, he walked up to Dante and enveloped him in his therapeutic jade bubble. As Mundus saw Dante’s jagged body restore itself, his hatred returned. The thick haze of anger came back in angry, crimson swirls. Mundus was glad he was healing him because that meant he would now be the one to kill Dante.
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Author's Note: Hey there! Hope you all are doing well! ^.^
So...I was thinking that maybe I should make this story rated R since there seems to be a lot of blood and kinda brutal scenes. Why do you think?
I also want to thank you all very much for all your support, whatever it may be--votes, comments, reading...yes, even you silent readers. I'm super glad you all are sticking with my work.
Thank you all so much! Hope to hear from ya! ^.^