I am feeling chills all over my body... I can see clearly the end so close now, and I hate the feeling of my fingers not typing as fast enough as my mind thinks the words and actions.
After a few horrible days of mind block, inspiration finally strikes with all its mighty force and finally this chapter was finished. Thank you all for your patience!
B.
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Chapter 60
"Thoughts come to Action"
"I will never get used to so much light and... well, nothing? Whatever this is..." Vanessa said after she released a sigh. She and Caliope were holding hands as Angelus took a look around them.
"I can help a little with that, I guess." Angelus said and he tilted his head up, closing his eyes and spreading his arms. A large dark bubble surrounded them and in contrast with the white place, now it was darkness around them; enough to make the space opaque.
Vanessa smiled at him. "Thank you, it is less eary this way."
Caliope sat on what would be the floor and sighed, Vanessa sat next to her and put her arm around her friend, holding silent. Angelus watched them both for a moment then looked away. "I know you want to be with him, with them... I want to be with them too... but if the other guys want to use you against them, maybe is not that bad that you are away?" Vanessa said.
"I know... I know... trust me Nessa, I know... is just..." She sighed. "I feel helpless... what is good of having powers if I can't use them? At least to help them..."
Angelus looked down on her and smiled with a hint of sadness. "Caliope, some of the most important battles have been won without a fight; you would be surprised how strategic is your place in all of this madness and how important your role has become. Right now, you are doing exactly what you need to do."
Caliope looked up at him and sighed, she nodded then closed her eyes. Vanessa on the other hand started thinking and then grinned. "You like to tell stories Angelus?"
He looked down at her and perked a brow. "Tell stories? What do you mean?"
She giggled and made Caliope open her eyes and pay attention. "You said some of the most important battles have been won without a fight, which ones? have you witnessed some of them? I would love to hear a good story... don't you Caly?"
Caliope smiled at her friend and shook her head. "You surely are good at thinking on new distractions Nessa."
Angelus laughed and finally sat in front of them. "Well, I can share a few, have you ever heard of the War of 1000 Nights?"
---***---
Pronab pushed the door open of the old building and heard the painful creak, he didn't wait long to notice no one had entered the location in decades; there were spider webs every corner and dusk on any surface.
"Ugh... I miss my pristine kitchen already." Remesch said almost to himself but Pronab heard him as well and chuckled.
There were a number of things out of place in the ruined location; the windows were twisted, the doors missing, the beds upside down and the tables floating; all clear evidence and signs of great power used and the residual energy left unclean. Pronab remembered the similar setting at their hotel in one of their trips, this made him frown. "So irresponsible of them to leave this place so obviously affected, any human would notice it if their ever entered the place."
"I think they were counting on them not being able to reach this far, it is not as if you could get here easily either." Remesch replied almost sarcastically as he kicked a ragged doll on the floor, the doll jumped on the floor twice and ended up floating towards the wall.
Pronab approached the tilted floating desk and studied the look; there was some faint burning marks towards the center. He pulled the furniture down and started to check the drawers. "This building is huge, but all one big room; it seems they didn't care for privacy from others once they were inside the facilities..." He sighed as he stopped for a moment and took a deep breath.
"She is going to be ok, they both are safe..." Remesch pulled his attention and he looked at him with resignation; there was nothing he could do about it.
"I am counting on that, I am putting my trust in your hands." Pronab said as he examined another set of flying papers. "Only you can access to them, right?"
"Yes, only me and... well, Amra has the possibility, his powers are greater than what we are used to, he has no limitations like we do, yet he limits himself to protect us. If something ever happens to me, he will be able to trace my energy signature and reach them." Remesch replied as he continued to look around for something to bring his attention. Pronab nodded, even though he was not looking at him, he heard him perfectly well.
---***---
"Amra, some of them will come straight at you..." Elaine warned him as they stood in the middle of the huge road lines that connected the city; at their sight in a far distance, creatures from nightmares awaited someone's order to strike.
"I am counting on them to do that." Amra replied, his jaw tense and his arms spread slightly, giving room to his wings and the aura around him that started to glow and grow.
Elaine sighed and nodded, she knew their enemies would not all be stupid enough to attack him but some, the wild ones, will be dumb enough to try; in the many battles she had fought, she witnessed this happen many times, no matter how strategic the generals were, there were always a few who would think they were smarter and more powerful and try to run alone.
Elaine's orders were simple; two fronts on opposite sides of the city, one led by Maxwell, the other by her. The angels presented a magnificent view of their power as they remained quiet and floating still waiting for orders; it was mandatory for them to reveal as little as they could of their powers. On the opposite side, the view of the evil forces ready to strike was the distinct contrast; they had every figure, shape and color, every possible way they could present themselves and inspire fear.
"What are they waiting?" One of the angels asked almost to himself but Elaine heard him.
"They are waiting for us to make the first move, but they know we won't. They are searching for something to trigger us. They want to push our buttons. I can only hope we were able to prevent any kidnappings of Asterias... or else, we would be having a different outcome." She replied for everyone to hear.
Suddenly, somewhere between both of the lines something sparkled; it was brief but bright, and it disappeared as soon as it came. Seconds later, a loud roar was heard and the darkness surrounding the dark Angels began to move and head towards them. Elaine looked at Amra briefly as she commanded everyone. "What was that?"
"Hold your positions... let them come to us." Amra didn't look at her back, but he remained in his spot.
'Amra... we need to find out what that spark was... and we need to find General Alexander as soon as we can... please focus on this... once we find him, we will let the Mengs do their job...' Elaine sent to him mentally. This time, he looked at her and nodded, he knew exactly what to do.
---***---
"This is useless, we are not going to find anything here..." Pronab said as he kicked another piece of broken furniture floating around; the piece hit an empty can that echoed through the entire room.
"I think I found something... these boxes on the corners... they are sealed..." Remesch tried to open a box half the size of him but failed. "Brute force might not be of any use either." He tried again using more force and gave up.
Pronab walked to him and examined the graphics engraved on the surface; there was no visual keylock nor point of entry no matter where they would look, and the symbols around them were repetitive. "Perhaps they work with magic, or angelic essence, maybe something to do with their investigation..."
"I think I've heard of these before, I had a fallen one show it to me once trying to convince me to buy it... a sealed container... but they work with dark energy... I don't know how we can reproduce that to open it." Remesch revealed as he kept examining the sealed object, but Pronab stared at him quiet, something occurred to him that could open it.
"I think I might know what..." Pronab replied as he pulled out something from his pocket. Remesch gave a step back and watched him reveal a pocket knife. He kept quiet as he saw him cut his arm and let his blood drip on the box. "Blood magic, the most powerful and the one that remains constant in the dark Angels, is the one they use for everything."
His cut healed quickly, so he repeated the cut and made sure at least a big part of surface was covered in his blood. When the second cut healed, he left the box on the floor and gave a step back, Remesch imitating him as well. Both locked their eyes on the box that started screaching and shaking. To human ears, the sound alone would make them shriek in fear, but to them, it meant answers.
The box finally split open and revealed what resembled to a human body in mummified conditions. "What the hell were they studying here?" Remesch scoffed.
Pronab moved closer and looked over the body; tattoos and symbols carved on its body any place he could see on its fetal position. "What the hell... indeed." He mumbled in agreement to Remesch words.
As he continued looking over the body, he saw the other boxes and quickly moved to the closest one; he cut his arm again and spread his blood on its surface, repeating the previous process for its opening. After he spread enough blood on it, the box made the same noise than the first one and on its opening revealed another mummified body.
Remesch frowned. "What can we get out of dead bodies? If only they could talk... we are on a dead end here."
Pronab looked at him as if something invisible hit him, he looked around in search for danger but found none. "What did you just said?" Pronab asked.
"What? That we can't do anything with dead bodies? They can't talk Pronab..." He replied.
Pronab pulled out his cellphone and tried to dial a few times but had no answer from the other side. He grunted in frustration and then sat on the floor in a lotus position. "What are you doing?" Remesch asked.
"I can't get Elaine, and I need to talk to Amra... if they are in the middle of a battle it would explain why she is not picking the call, but I have to talk to Amra... there is no time to waste."
---***---
"So you really met all those people? That is so amazing Angelus!" Vanessa clapped with excitement; Caliope laughed and shook her head at her friend.
"Well, in a way I did. I was not involved directly with their actions that defined their legacy in human History, but I was in the background sort of speaking." Angelus said amused.
"Ohhh! Did you met Queen Elizabeth too?!" Vanessa asked as her eyes grew wide with the possibility.
Angelus chuckled and shook his head, she pouted. "But I did met Columbus..." He said with a smirk, and she jumped with a squeal.
Suddenly there was a void near them forming, something was reaching to them and they were taken by surprise. Both Caliope and Vanessa stood up quickly and Angelus stepped in front of them in guard. The void grew and with it the tension as well; finally Remesch was able to peek from there and waved. "Uhm... hi there... Ladies, Gent... things took an unexpected turn, we need you Caliope..."
Caliope gave a step forward immediately but Angelus frowned and gently stopped her. She looked up at him confused. "What unexpected turns? Why do you need her now? This was not part of the plan, she is supposed to be here safe until things are over..."
Remesch nodded at Angelus, understanding his discomfort and disbelief even better than most. "I am with Pronab, we discovered something, I am not sure what it is but he contacted Amra to ask him permission for me to open the portal and bring you back... I guess it is important because he agreed..."
Angelus nodded, still frowning, but insisted on going out first. Caliope smiled at him gently and whispered a 'Thank you'. He went through the portal first, and seconds later, he moved back inside to nod at both of the girls and encourage them to follow him.
When Caliope stepped in the large concrete building, she rubbed her nose and held her breath; she felt a stench and almost made her puke, and Vanessa started coughing.
"Ah, there you are... thank you for coming, and sorry for being in a place like this... but Pronab should explain his wild idea to you as soon as he is done with that other box over there..." Remesch said to her as she looked around the place. "We are in the sealed building Angelus led us, after hours of searching we found these boxes that only open with blood magic... Pronab figured it out of course, and he had an idea apparently... Ugh I don't know much more than that." He frowned.
Caliope's eye widened as she saw herself surrounded by over a dozen mummified bodies, then felt Vanessa rush to her side and gasp. "OMG! Pronab what are you doing?!" She screamed and ran towards him. He stared at her with a faint smile and caught her in his arms, she shook him and checked his arm. "What is wrong with you?! Why are you hurting yourself?!"
Caliope walked to them both as she heard him chuckle. "I won't bleed myself to death, see? It already healed... I was born as a dark Angel... these boxes were sealed with blood magic, it is a kind of dark magic that makes the seal unbreakable... unless you use the same magic to open it... and no matter how much they tried to erase me from their records and history, I am still a dark Angel in blood and spirit, so my blood helps unseal the boxes." Caliope shook her head but sighed with relief as she stood in front of him. He smiled at her as he kept an arm around Vanessa. "Thank you for coming Caly, I thought you would like to know you can be of great help here... unless you want to go back to that white room for who knows how long, of course." He smirked and Caliope shook her head chuckling.
"Tell me... what are these creepy bodies? How can I help?" Caliope finally asked after she stopped smiling.
Pronab kissed Vanessa's head and held her tight to him. "It was what Remesch said... he said that it would be great if they could talk... so I thought... who has the ability to see what others have lived? I know it was only with living people... but we need to try it... Caly... there is an ongoing war and we need to find answers..."
Caliope swallowed hard at Pronab's words, she looked around her and pondered carefully what he asked from her. Why would she deny to try it? What harm could come to her now that she was one of them? What if she could really see what they lived and help them? She looked at Angelus who was still frowning as he studied each dead body on the boxes. "You have no idea what they were investigating... right?" He looked at her and nodded with sadness; making it obvious to her that he wished to know more. She turned around to face Pronab once more and nodded as well. "I have no idea how to do this, but lets try..."
Pronab guided her to the middle of the area where he and Remesch had pulled most of the boxes and then pulled one closer to her. "We have no idea how it is going to work, or if it even will, so do your best..."
She nodded at him and took a look on the body in front of her, she saw the tattoos and symbols as well, and the pose in which he was laid. She gave a step closer and carefully moved her hand to the mummified remains. She closed her eyes and finally touched it.
There was silence, and nothing else. After some seconds Caliope opened her eyes and looked down with sadness. "I am sorry... I dont have the power..."
"Hey, it's ok, we had to try right?" Pronab said to her reassuringly.
"I really wish I knew how to help... I wanted it to work..." She continued, her hand still laid on the shoulder of the body.
"Bullshit..." Vanessa said and everyone stared at her in surprise.
"What...?" Caliope asked almost shocked with her friend's reaction.
"I said... bullshit... You can do it... granted, talking to the dead is not literally on your abilities descriptions, I know, but if something has been clear to me from the start, is your ability to adapt and adjust to what it is needed from you or what you need to survive... you didn't want me to get any harm, bamb...! you suddenly could see the future and saw me dying, so you prevented my flight and death... you didn't knew that you were being separated from Amra yet unconsciously your body knew so it anchored you to the place and Angelus' super bubble didn't managed to make you invisible for Amra to find you... no matter where or what, you seem to acquire something, a power or whatever you call it, to survive and adapt... we need you to figure a way to see what they saw now Caly baby, so take a deep breath, walk around... sleep if you want to... but don't you dare to give up that easily..." Vanessa folded her arms and stared at her friend defiantly.
Caliope was now completely taken, and so were everyone else in the room. Vanessa didn't let that bother her, she had her eyes locked on her friend showing her she didn't regret anything she had said.
After a few uncomfortable moments of silence, Caliope swallowed hard and looked at the body in front of her. She knelt in front of it and rested both hands on its head. "Ok dead body... enough sleeping... time to wake up and show me what you got..." She said with conviction and rested her forehead against the mummy's one.
And then there was darkness; the familiar sign of something else about to happen.