Unaware was I that Belial was just behind us, watching. Her usual indifference hid the slightest curiosity.
“You did that.” She wasn’t asking.
“Did what?” I shrugged, offering Luci a hand. In her puzzlement, she took it, rubbing the side of her head.
“That!” Belial feverishly waved her hands to where the Ethereals disappeared into. “Those things… listened to you, Aramis!”
I shook my head. “That’s… impossible.”
“It’s what I saw,” she countered, raising a brow.
Luci blinked. “What just happened?”
“Exactly,” I sighed in relief. “We better get—“
Before I could finish, a dull, throbbing pain in my head brought me to my knees.
I stared at my arms. The wisps of life-force escaping me kept increasing. I clutched my head and closed my eyes.
No.
‘What the earth demon said is true,’ said Alessandra, watching at me with those mismatched eyes from the mouth of her cave. ‘You are becoming one of us.’
Panic came over me. It was happening again.
‘It won’t be long,’ she said with a grim smile.
With a loud grunt, I forced my mental walls upon her. A door slamming on her face. Strangely, she didn’t push it back. She just… waited.
Was it true then? If so, I didn’t have time to mull it over.
Panting, I coerced my knees to get me up. Sweat trickled from my temples and I was shaking. I leaned on a nearby tree to catch my breath.
“What is it, Aramis?” The concern was apparent in Belial’s voice. Still she was cautious on approaching me.
“Nothing,” I lied.
“You look pale,” Luci noted. “The wraith again?”
“And that’s why I like you so much, Princess.”
“But if you will only learn to control it; maintain a state between an immortal and a wraith, you can exploit Ethereals, wraiths… even Swarths to do your bidding!” she rambled uncontrollably, her eyes having that wild passion that scared me. “I must record this. Perhaps, perform clinical tests in a controlled environment.”
“If you haven’t noticed yet, we’re in the middle of a rescue mission,” I snapped. “This isn’t your laboratory, Luci and I’m totally not your test subject!”
“B-but…” She was giving me the eyes.
As if.
I waved the thought away and urged them to draught faster. It was hard enough trying to keep Alessandra at bay. What Luci proposed was way impossible. She acted like Hector in a dress and that irked me in a whole new level.
As we neared the labyrinth’s borders, I saw two figures dart through the woods. Both were small, but one—the male—was smaller.
We made an abrupt stop and hid behind trees.
Luci and Belial threw me looks that said what now?
I put a finger over my lips, shaking my head. At this point, we weren’t sure who were our allies and enemies.
A subtle rustling sound came from the borders. Next second, someone burst through the walls the willows created and streaked right past us.
As our eyes connected, his face registered to me.
“Amyr!” I hissed.
He grabbed my hand and took me with him.
As we draughted, I couldn’t help but notice that his black hair had gone past his broad shoulders. His hand felt rough against mine. The black leather coat he wore was torn in places. Just merely touching him, I felt like a lot changed.
“Hurry,” he said, throwing me a glance. “They’re closing in.”
He wasn’t smiling this time.
“Who are we running from?”
“Sentries,” he answered sparingly. “New friends?”
Risking a look over my shoulder, I saw Luci and Belial draughting after us. I gave them an ‘okay’ nod. “It’s… complicated.”
“Why?”
“Long story.”
“Can they fight?” Amyr’s tone was flat.
“As long as it ain’t in Halja.” Belial butted in.
In less than a minute, I spotted our pursuers: eight men in red hooded robes. For royal sentries, they were much slower than I expected.
“Nice.” He pointed a finger forward. “See that tree? We stop once we get there.”
“Who put the familiar in charge?” Luci mumbled pouting.
Amyr sniffed, looking at me from the corner of his eye. “Now, I get it.”
I trained my eyes on the tree. It looked like all the other trees in the area. Huge. Ancient. Daunting with their convoluted trunks and twisted branches. But this one stood out in my eyes. Even as it was no more special than the others, Rosario’s blood would always be smeared all over it. It was her last resting place.
Just as we reached the tree, I braced myself.
Cataclyst or Scythe? Either could give Alessandra the chance to take over. But picking one was better than doing nothing.
As I deliberated, Belial stopped a few draughts sooner. She crouched on all fours, freeing her braid from the bun. Something sharp and crystalline was attached to the tip of her braid. It started to rise in an undulating movement until it almost touched her forehead. Like a scorpion’s tail.
Before the sentries arrived, Belial put her hands together and slammed them against the ground. It sent a roll of tremors forward. The earth under their feet swelled, unexpectedly disgorging jagged crystals.
One sentry was pierced right through the stomach. He floundered screaming then fell really quiet. A few were wounded, the rest, momentarily distracted as their dead comrade smoldered into ashes. No fireflies though.
Just in time, the two figures I saw from earlier draughted from both directions. Vladimir with his rope-like Binds and Mei with her chained blades. In one blink, they slew three of the remaining seven and somehow restrained the other three into a tight Bind.
Again, no fireflies. They all just exploded into ashes as soon as Mei’s blade pierced into their bodies.
Amyr broke one’s neck. Belial struck another with her ‘scorpion tail.’ I just stood there like a statue, both awestruck and horrified at how casual the slaughter had been.
“That was…” I gulped. What’s the word? “Easy.”
Patting the dirt off his hands, Amyr let out a lackluster sigh. “Newbies.” He said that like it was a bad thing.
“They are not like us, Aramis,” Mei explained.
Amyr sucked his teeth. “Dead bodies with artificial souls. The typical Undead. Straight from Hector’s lab. Easy to kill, but there’s like thousands of them. Death’s building up an army just for us.”
“How thoughtful of him,” I muttered.
As Belial’s braid snaked around the last sentry’s throat, Vladimir raised a hand.
“My brothers,” he questioned the sentry in a voice a tad deeper than before. “What’s my father planning to do with them?”
When it looked like the sentry wasn’t planning to answer, he gave Belial a nod.
“With pleasure,” she yawned.
The braid slowly constricted the sentry’s neck. His face went from red to white to blue. I was scared his eyes would pop out of his head as he made desperate choking sounds.
“I think he’s ready to talk,” Vladimir told Belial.
Rolling her eyes, she loosened the loop enough for the man to speak.
“Punished…” the sentry whimpered. “Will use them… Bait… For you. Tortured to… make… T-thirteenth tell… Grandmaster w-where… familiar hiding. P-please.”
“Oh God…” I whispered. “Where’s Vincent? How long was I gone?!”
“Calm down, Aramis,” Amyr hushed, placing a hand on my back.
But I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t. “How long has it been since Vince got here?”
Amyr and Mei averted their gazes. Vlad just gave a look that scared me.
“How long?!”
“A few weeks…” Amyr said from the corner of his mouth. “Maybe two months.”
I caught my head with a hand. “And where is he?”
Vladimir said, “It was his choice, Aramis. Max and Alex were captured. They’d be executed if we didn’t comply with Father’s demands. Vincent had to do it.”
“Do what?”
Hesitantly, Mei’s eyes aimed north where Death’s castle towered over the tree line. Then came the answer I was hoping not to hear.
I tugged Amyr’s arm like it was my only strand of hope. “I… We have to get to him.”
For the first time since I arrived in Halo, he grinned. Or at least tried to. “Nice to see you again too, Noob.”
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