Reno felt like he had just dropped potash into water. He kept waiting for that “BAM!” moment. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to hide behind a well equipped SWAT Team as the masked guy and Wallace faced off.
“ My, my. The moderator himself! What an honour!”, the Mr. Mask bowed.
“ Is this what CERO has become, Sakyo? A direct attack?”, Wallace gritted his teeth, without replying. It did kind of seem rude to Reno.
“ Refrain from speaking about CERO with your filthy mouth. “, Sakyo growled,” CERO has greater plans than you could ever imagine. This is just a fragment of our power. And you are about you become just another sacrifice in its goals. “
“ You think the Guild would let you do as you please? Don’t forget about the Geneva pact. I don’t care if you think you are the archangel something. Your very presence here goes against the agreement.”, Wallace’s features changed to fury
“ The Geneva Pact? Seriously, Wallace? You think those half-assed fools in UN could do anything? All they do is play games with their make-believe policies.”
“ They maintain peace. And the guild will fight alongside them. We stand by a righteous cause.”
” You need warriors to fight, Wallace. The guild had warriors before. But, now? You want fight with these pigs?”, he pointed at Reno, his laughter reverberating through the stone walls.
Reno had once watched a Chinese movie with Indonesian subtitles. Watching Sakyo and Wallace seemed like a flashback. It confused the crap out of him. All the stuff about CERO and Geneva what-not made him miss his Physics textbook. At least, most things there made sense.
On top of that, a guy (who he didn’t even know) was trying to insult him. Reno bit back some of his innovative cuss words.
“ I am fighting with one.”, Wallace spun his scythe into a stance.
“ Very well. A fight it is.”, Sakyo propped his black blade on his shoulders.
Wallace charged head on, his scythe flashing shades of golden. Reno’s eyes could only register a blur as he raced past. Rubble flew out of the way from the sheer force of air pressure that he created. Sakyo watched his movements closely, his hands gripped tightly on the leather hilt of his cleaver. Reno instinctively sensed what he wanted. One blow. A single strike would decide the game.
Wallace closed in excellently, manoeuvring past the ghostly canines and stooping in low. Sakyo hammered down his cleaver with full force, missing Wallace by a hair's breadth. At the very last moment Wallace changed course. A feint.
But Sakyo was prepared for that.
“ RISE FROM THE DARKNESS OF THE UNDERWORLD. You, who rule death, you, who master shadows. Let your wrath seep into this crown of fear. AWAKEN, HELM OF HADES!”
Even being a safe distance away, Reno felt his blood turn cold.
Fear. It had no rationality. No logic. Just the kind of fear that got your excretory system active.
Reno could have spent the day frozen in place. However the deep, canine growl round the corner spurred him back to reality.
Wallace and Sakyo shifted to peripheral vision as his eyes focused on the new danger in front of him.
Let’s back up and a take a moment to appreciate how hideous this predator was. Imagine the ugliest thing you have seen. Now add a disproportionate head, upturned eyes and fur shaped like barbed wire. You will come nowhere close to how it looked. It took “ ugly” to a whole new level.
Reno tried his best not to throw up . It was hard to concentrate on strategy when your enemy smelled like the Manhattan sewage system. He managed to flip open the book of Thoth. Reno summoned all his courage and yelled
“ SHOO!”
Honestly, Reno had thought it would work. Hey, it did work with most street dogs. But his new friend didn’t seem to like the reception. Mr. Ugly growled a deep rumble. Reno translated it to – I don’t like cats. Are you cat?
Out of the corner of his eye, Reno could see the battle raging in every direction. The Guild members had managed to overcome the element of surprise, slowly pushing the ghost army back towards the walls.
Lanza sported a killing frenzy, using his weapon as a staff, knocking down groups of hounds with a blow. Elisa was right behind him, The Sceptre of Apocalypse razing the shadows to ashes. Elsa and Kai stood side by side, which for some reason made Reno feel down. They were the perfect team - Kai raining down arrows and Elsa fending off the attacker's sharp fangs with her gargantuan shield .
Keir slashed through ranks of monsters, her red hair in perfect sync with the trail of blood she left behind.
A sudden surge of adrenaline coursed through his veins. He was part of the Guild now. He wasn’t going to lose to this dog, even though the whole concept of their existence gave him a headache.
The wheels in his head turned. The Helm of Hades was a Greek weapon. Which meant......
The hound pounced at that precise moment. Reno didn’t know why. Maybe he got tired of waiting cats. Maybe he was just plain stupid. Either way, Reno was ready. The book of Thoth glowed warm beneath his fingertips as its magic channelled through him.
“ Aspérgia!”, Reno’s voice resonated in multiple layers of reality.
Aspérgia. Strike down. Reno watched as an invisible force slammed into the hound, knocking it flat against the ground. The hound dissipated almost immediately, but new problems cropped up. Reno’s vision spun out of control. He remembered what Thoth had said about attack spells. Too late to repent. Reno’s knees gave away as he landed on his butt.
His feat with the spell had also attracted attention. Of the negative kind. Four more of the beasts advanced at him, baring their fangs. Apparently, they didn’t get the message that Reno was dangerous.
But, somehow Reno knew he had to survive. He had to get his way out of this mess. Without help. Think, he urged himself. And he thought. Hard.
His mind worked at a furious rate, taking in details from the surroundings. He could sense the tension in the legs of the dogs, ready to pounce. The whole ground split into coordinates and Reno could intuitively predict exactly where the dogs would jump, exactly how they would hit Reno and how their fangs would pierce into his skin, releasing toxins in his veins. Somehow, Reno couldn’t even believe that he was doing this.
The dogs advanced slowly, cautious but daunting. Reno knew he had no time to waste. They would be upon him in seconds. Reno ran as fast as he , which in his case was as fast as a cow. Aiming for a small crack at the corner of the broken wall, Reno twisted his whole body weight into a single kick.
For one horrifying moment, nothing happened. Then, oblivious to his attackers, the cracks multiplied as chunks of stone loosened.
Wait, Reno thought.
The monsters, tired of the tag game broke into a sprint offering some marvellous variations of WOOF. It probably meant “ I'mma kill ya” in dog language.
Wait, Reno propped himself up against a stone pillar.
The monsters , however , were almost upon him.
Now.
As if on cue, the entire hundred pound gate of the arena came crashing down with a roar that would have put Simba to shame. The beasts melted into the shadows after their bodies got reduced to pulp corpses.
Reno panted, his whole body drenched in sweat.
A hurrah made him turn back. The entire guild was staring at him, open mouthed.
Keir was the first to break out in applause. The others followed, grins on their faces.
“ Well done, Kiddo!”
“ Great job doing the gate, newbie. I wanted to trash it for a long time!”
Reno was so distracted by their applause, he would have gotten his faced ripped off if Keir hadn’t shouted “ GET DOWN!” at the top of her lungs. Deadly claws whistled past his face, missing his by inches. Somehow, a fifth monster had materialized.
But Reno was already out of steam. Keir began running towards him, but he knew it would be too late. The dog spun back for a second attempt. This time, Reno was too tired to even crawl away.
And like the climax of a thriller Holly film, a dark shape crashed into the monster, disintegrating it instantly.
“ Hop on.”, Lanza ordered, “ This one is fast.”
Lanza had somehow managed to get a ghostly hellhound for a ride. Judging by his firm grip, Reno guessed he was used to ‘cowboy mode'.
Reno was too tired to argue. He accepted the lift.
Pro Tip: Do not ever accept a lift on a ghostly canine.
Ever had thorns in your underpants? The backseat of the beast was worse than that. Lanza on the other hand, seemed to be fine enough, probably because his eyes were solely focused on the masked guy, Sakyo. He muttered something under his breath which Reno hoped Sakyo would never find out.
Reno hadn’t noticed, but the battle between Sakyo and Wallace didn’t seem to be going very well for either. Sakyo's cloak was torn to pieces and he was bleeding from cuts all over his body. It looked liked he had been having a pillow fight with a cactus. Wallace's right hand looked as if a bullet train had decided to head-butt him.
The worst part? They were both laughing as they dissected each other. Reno could have thrown up anytime, but Lanza had other plans.
“ I hope that gate-crash thingy wasn’t an illusion. You have one minute to create a opening there.”
Reno thought he was talking about McDonalds. Then, he realised that he meant the fighters. The two were fighting in such close quartets that even SpongeBob wouldn’t be able to fit in.
“ Whoa there! I don’t even have the strength to summon a lollipop! You want me to separate those two?”
“ That’s your problem. Get the job done if you want to survive.”, Lanza quipped as he charged straight on towards Wallace and Sakyo.
Reno knew Lanza was right. Even if Lanza could escape by some miracle acrobatics, Reno would surely get skewered if he got between them. The only way he had was to screw up some spell.
The only problem- Reno’s Greek was limited. An attack spell won’t do. Reno honestly didn’t have enough energy to cast another. That left defends and status type spells. Reno’s stock of Greek words depended heavily on mythology. And the Olympians were a violent lot. Reno could find many words that would blow up mountains, but when it came to casting defensive spells he reached a dead end.
Even as Lanza sped on, Wallace and Sakyo’s weapons clashed, sparking off flashes in an otherwise dark Asphodel. Reno couldn’t understand why they won’t settle it peacefully through a meeting or something. Adults fighting are ugly scenes. Armoured adults with glowing weapons are uglier.
“ Indeed, you are correct.”, Thoth's voice cackled, “ What you need right now is peace.”
A grin spread over Reno’s face. He made a mental note to thank Thoth for being the greatest absent coach ever. ( And the smartest, but don’t tell him that.)
“ You ready? “, Lanza asked as their ghostly ride jumped over a boulder.
“ Not at all. But I am guessing there are no concessions.”, he shouted over the whistling wind.
“ Most of the time, there aren’t. You better get used to it.”,Lanza chuckled to himself.
For a split second, Reno wondered if he should obey Lanza after all. After all, he hadn’t exactly been friendly to him. However, Reno deduced that if he wanted to survive this ordeal, he had to follow Lanza even though the guy was an overgrown wimp.
Sakyo butchered down the cleaver with such force that it would have cut through the very foundations of the building. Thanks to Wallace, his time stopping spell proved to be effective enough for Reno and Lanza to crawl past the impending blow. Reno knew this was their chance if they had to do anything.
Flipping open the Book with his right hand, Reno concentrated. Casting a spell was a unique process. You needed to know what you wanted. You needed to visualise what was going to happen. Most importantly you needed to believe that it would happen. Thoth had prepped him on the basics, but it was hard to implement it.
Reno closed his eyes. He wanted this war to stop. He wanted to get back home. He wanted peace.
“ Eiríni!”
Amplified through multiple layers of reality, Reno’s voice commanded through the various ranks of Asphodel.
The effects were drastic. The weapons clanked out of the hands of the members Monsters stopped baring their fangs Thankfully, it also worked on Wallace and Sakyo, both wide eyed from the fact that they had been disarmed. Their ride came to a sudden stop just at Sakyo’s feet. Lanza, the only person who had somehow held on to his weapon jumped onto the fray.
“ Hey Suck-Yo. Ready to die yet? “, Lanza swiped Extinto from his other hand.
This time, Sakyo seemed to get even more annoyed.
“ Step aside Lanza Cipher. My battle is not with the likes of you.”
“ Its going to be.”, Lanza gritted his teeth, “ Get ready for your funeral.”
To Reno, his blood-red irises seemed even more dangerous. But it was the maniac gleam in them that sent shivers down the spine.
“ Those are good eyes.”, Sakyo laughed drily, “ That’s some hatred you have got for me.”
“ Care for a taste?”
Before Reno could react, Wallace flashed in from Sakyo’s blind spot, his sceptre aimed at the back of the guy's neck. Lanza jumped up, intercepting it with Extinto.
Sakyo, in the meantime, managed to escape the collision .
“ What are you doing?”, the surprise in Wallace’s voice didn’t sound false.
“ Sakyo is mine, Wallace. I won’t let anyone else have him. This is my fight.”
Sakyo’s laughter cut through their conversation abruptly.
“ Lanza, my dear, I am surprised by your pleasant devotion to kill me. However, it is simply impossible to kill the Lord of the dead. “
“ We will see when I rip open that mask of yours.”, Lanza roared, “ I will avenge my parents.”
“ I will be waiting at Rio. This time I will show you how lovely your father's head is.”
Reno didn’t know what horrified him more- the sickly-sweet tone of the guy or the rubbish he was spitting.
Hefting Extinto in one hand, Lanza let his weapon loose with a stone hard face.
Somehow, Reno knew that this was a sure-kill shot. He could almost feel the aura of death radiating from it.
Extinto burst into a brilliant shade of crimson as it struck Sakyo, wrapping him under his own weight until he vanished. His pets, the monsters, melted into the shadows as soon as he died.
“ You really shouldn’t go wasting 32 days of your life like that.”, another of Sakyo’s clones materialised from the wall.
Lanza gritted his teeth.
“ Fight with me face-to-face, bastard!”,
Reno couldn’t help admiring Lanza’s slang vocabulary. Boy, was he perfect in everything?
“ Unfortunately, young man, I have more pressing matters to attend. Maybe, some later time, huh?”
Realisation dawned on Lanza’s face as the huge portal opened behind Sakyo.
“ NO! STOP, SAKYO! “, Lanza sprinted towards him.
“ We can play our games later Cipher. Just you, me and some chopped heads.”
Reno didn’t know how he did it, but Lanza somehow grasped Sakyo’s cloak with a humongous jump that would have made a kangaroo proud.
“ I won’t let you leave. Not this time.”, Lanza gasped.
Sakyo sounded irritated.
“ Come now, this portal won’t stay open for long. Do you want us to die?”
“ I thought you were the Lord of the Dead. How can you die?”, Lanza sneered.
“ Good point. Well, you can die for me.”, Sakyo raised his cleaver.
The shock on Lanza’s face was a story to be told. Even Reno couldn’t believe he had been outsmarted that quick.
It was Elisa's quick thinking that saved the day.
“ Guide of the dead, protector of the deceased. Feed on the darkness and grow stronger. Exorcise evil. Release: Sin Vada!”
A black bolt of energy shot out from the Sceptre of Apocalypse, ripping off Lanza and the cloak, deflecting Sakyo’s cleaver.
“ You have improved, girl.”, Sakyo grinned as the last of him disappeared into the portal., “ Bring the boy and we will have a nice little reunion, eh?”
Reno watched as Sakyo vanished into thin air.
For a moment, no one spoke. Reno guessed that this wasn’t an usual happening at the guild. Even Keir, who had seemed full of life a moment ago looked terrified . As for Reno, being scared out of his mind was his default state.
“ That was......”, Arden spoke up.
“ Foolish.”, Wallace completed, “ CERO was foolish to throw their cover and engage in direct battle.”
“ We had known for years, Wallace. We knew they would take this approach.”, Kai put his bow down.
“ I guess this battle can be an eye opener for us. We need to maximise our security.”
“ Stop kidding me Wallace. Maximise our security?”, Lanza stood up shakily, “ What a joke! We need revenge! Let’s put CERO to ashes. If we leave now,......”
Kai grabbed Lanza by his collar, “ Show some respect to your comrades. A foolish warrior rushes to battle. The wise protects its own.”
Lanza slapped his hand away, “ You think you can win this war by philosophy? We need strength, we have strength, Kai. Go polish your dusty idealism in a gutter.”
“ Strength? You are the one to talk. Who let Sakyo esacpe? Wallace had him in his grip!”
“ I would have, if Elisa hadn’t stopped me.”, he shouted back.
As soon as he said those words , Reno knew Lanza was going to be in deep trouble.
Elisa lowered her head in shame, “ I-I am sorry. I really didn’t.....”
Kai shoved him, “ Apologise, now!”
Lanza pushed him back, “ I will do it when I feel like it.”
Reno was almost thankful when Wallace’s scythe separated the two. Fights were something he wasn’t used to.
“ And you call yourself warriors, when you don’t even care about your comrades?”, Wallace snapped, “ You are no better than Sakyo’s Grimdogs.”
Reno turned to see Elisa, almost on the verge of tears.
“ Sorry.”,Lanza lowered his head.
“ Me too. It was foolish to fight over this.”, Kai seemed more embarrassed than guilty.
“ Well then, we all are a little tipped off from the battle, I guess?”, Wallace’s solitary laugh sounded awkward, like a white flag in a zombie flick.
“ You suck at morale boosting.”, Reno observed.
That earned him a cackle from Keir, which passed on to Wallace, catching up Kai and Lanza..... and soon the whole Scorch Squad was laughing their heads out.
The tension dissolved away like salt in water.
It was Zola who poked her head through the gate, “ Jeez, and we thought you were fighting it out.”
She had brought in a first aid kit and some of her top class attendants. Before Reno could blink they were cleaning wounds and wrapping bandages. Zola tended to Wallace. She didn’t seem to be very happy about the broken arm.
“ I swear! You keep breaking them like twigs!”, she snapped.
“ A man's gotta do what he's gotta do, right Wallace?”, Arden grinned from the other side of the room.
“ Keep your testosterone to yourself, Arden.”, Keir grumbled, “ I had enough of your disgusting manly preps.”
“ Well”, Wallace stood up with his plastered arm,” Activation code: 431P5. Renaissance, damage report.”
Reno waited for the familiar metallic voice to speak back, but the only noise was the snapping of band aids.
Wallace tried once again.” Activation code: 431P5. Renaissance, damage status.”
Nothing happened.
Wallace’s face paled. And Reno had learnt the hard way that when his face paled, something was very, very wrong.
“ Kai. “, Wallace called softly.
“ Yessir.”, he appeared by Wallace’s side.
“ Initiate emergency lockdown procedures. Not an insect should get in or out. Call the guild up to the Hall of Eden. This is code red.”, the wrinkles in his face deepened.
Urgency reflected off Kai’s face. Reno figured they didn’t hand out Code Reds very often.
“ But, Wallace... “
“ No questions, Kai.”, Wallace stared back into his eyes, “ Renaissance has gone rogue.”
A/N: My first author's note. Anyway thanks for the immense support guys. To all my readers, if you liked anything or didn't like something be sure to comment . Trust me, I don't bite. Special thanks to 10gates_Rokugo for being there. Aidan-san, you rock with those votes! SanjeevanPaul, thanks for being the unforgiving critic, and hammering the story into shape.
Special thanks to JacquelineIZ, your feedback helped me lot!
Alright, see you next chapter!