An Imperceptible Ruse Indeed (The Gods' Executioner Series) Page 22

  “She went into the town when things started getting frantic and told me to stay here. When those things attacked, Charlotte took me down the passageway and resealed it behind me. I didn’t want to leave without her, but she ordered me to go… I continued down here when those things appeared in front of me so I ran and barricaded myself in here…” Lila tells me while looking ashamed.

  “Don’t worry; Charlotte will be fine and I’ll go after Aine. Is Colton still in the house?” I ask, thinking that Lila might’ve brought her pet chinchilla home.

  “No, a friend in Fogquartz is watching him for me while I’m here on break.” Lila replies.

  “Good. Brighid, I need you to take Charlotte and Lila to my house. Stay there and whatever happens, don’t come back.” I order as I turn towards her.

  “You aren’t going to keep me from coming back to fight, Cole!” Brighid exclaims. Something is telling me to beat her into unconsciousness and drag her to the house myself, but I refrain.

  “Right, your fighting… how was that working out against the shades? Did you manage to kill even one of them?” I ask with a condescending tone.

  “I—” Brighid starts.

  “You are underpowered and underequipped to face this threat. I don’t know quite what the shades are capable of; all I know is that you can’t kill them, but they may be able to kill you. Should the worst come to pass and we discover that they can kill gods, that’s all the more reason for you to stay out of it. I might be able to save Tir na nOg, but if the heads die, there is no coming back from that; Tir na nOg dies, and all of Ireland will probably fall into the ocean.” I tell her with a grave tone, helped by the ‘Sith’ voice setting on my helmet.

  “Alright…” Brighid concedes.

  “Let’s go to the gate.” I reply, deciding that an escort would be a good idea just in case shades have reappeared.

  Brighid snaps us to the gate and I see nothing around except burnt grass and dead bodies. I hand Charlotte off to Brighid when I realize something.

  “How do I get to the fairy town?” I inquire.

  “Just head straight out the doors of the palace. The path through the forest takes you to the town.” Lila replies.

  “Alright. You two head to my house and get medical help for Charlotte. It’s the same house that you visited for the house warming party a few months ago, Brighid.” I tell her.

  Brighid nods, grabs Lila’s shoulder, and ports away. I suppose I should get back to work now. I touch my triskele and port to the front lawn of Aine’s palace, the surrounding trees noticeably less on-fire. After turning around, I notice the path that Lila was referring to so I take off down it.

  After running for about a half of a mile, I exit the forest and see smoke rising over the hill in front of me; that’s not a good sign. I crest the hill and see a meadow of flowers—that is on fire—along with a quaint little town in the center of the meadow—that is also on fire. I see Dagda’s black-winged soldiers fighting the shades, as well as several light-winged fairies and creatures that I’m not familiar with; they look like humans, but their central auras look like a wreathe of brambles backed by earthen tones… druids perhaps?

  The fighting is not looking good for the home team, but roots have ensnared several shades; the fairies or druids must be using nature magic. I take to the skies and fly over to the center of the town. I float there for a few moments as I pinpoint all of the shades, and then Void tendrils shoot out of my arm and leg. The pencil sized tendrils spear through each of the shades that are below me, sending them back to the Void.

  I remain airborne and search for Aine while taking out any shades that are outside, and several that are inside after sending my tendrils through the roofs of those buildings. I’m going to attribute my knowledge of the shades’ presence in the buildings to my Void state. Something about a large house at the far edge of town attracts my attention so I fly over there.

  A total of six shades are in the house: two engaging two people on the first floor while four are upstairs, advancing towards a grouping of five people. I crash through the roof and slash through the four shades with my claws as two tendrils shoot out of my right leg, through the floor, and eliminate the two shades that are on the ground floor. I turn around and see Aine, along with Lila’s friend Aimee, Aimee’s mother, Lila’s other friend Megan, and another woman who is presumably Megan’s mother.

  Upon seeing Megan, I remember that I still haven’t forgiven her for dosing me with fairy alcohol and being the direct cause of me waking up next to a naked Lila four years ago. I grab Aine, touch my triskele to port to the gate, and immediately port back to my house; it’s really convenient that the time limit doesn’t affect me when porting within Tir na nOg.

  “MOM!” Lila exclaims and hugs her mother while Aine is still shocked.

  “Fairy town is secure now and I’m going to be heading back to clear out the rest of the shades.” I announce.

  “Cole?” Aine asks, finally realizing who I am.

  “Yeah?” I reply.

  “Thanks for saving us.” Aine says.

  “No problem.” I respond as I fight the impulse to kill everyone in this room. Cheza must sense this because she starts walking towards me.

  “No, Cheza. I’m not done yet so I’ll hold out; I only have ten more seconds.” I tell her while holding my hand out to stop her.

  “No… Manannan mac Lir is dead…” Brighid softly announces with a fallen face.

  “Shit… Stay here!” I order and port back to Tir na nOg.

  Once at the gate, I touch my triskele and port to the foyer of Dagda’s palace. The first thing I see is that the doors to Dagda’s location have been blown away; the second thing is the waves of shades that are in the hall. I step into the hall behind the shades and notice Manannan mac Lir’s husk off to my left. My phone starts ringing as my tendrils surge forward and deal with the shades. The resulting black mist settles in time for me to see Sydney slamming a black claw, much like my left arm, through Dagda’s chest.

  “NO!” I scream and charge forward.

  Sydney throws her free left hand at the ground and a cloud of red smoke fills the area… wait, red smoke? Despite the smoke, I’m still able to see relatively well, especially her silver and black aura. Sydney’s aura flares as Dagda’s body comes flying and hits me in the chest.

  “Rango-fay urus-may!” Sydney’s modulated voice calls out as I hear the sound of rock breaking.

  I watch as Sydney sprints away, presumably out a newly made hole in the wall. I roll Dagda’s body off of me and stand up.

  “Wait lad! I don’t have much time!” Dagda coughs and I turn around; I thought he was already dead…

  “Take my position as head.” Dagda tells me.

  “Dagda…” I reply and reach into the hole in his chest with my left hand. Despite the hole being made with a Void weapon, the core doesn’t appear to have been absorbed at all and is flaking apart, like gods’ bodies seem to do when they suffer enough damage.

  “Avenge us, boyo.” Dagda requests.

  “I will.” I emotionlessly respond.

  I open my hand to pierce the edges of his core with my claws and quickly absorb it, feeling rather indifferent to taking the life of the man that has been my friend and mentor for the past five years… and also thinking that this might be the plot of Transformers with Optimus and the allspark… it is kind of similar. Now that that’s settled, I have a black leather clad, motorcycle helmet wearing bitch to catch.

  Upon remembering that Sydney is really fast, and having no idea which way the gate is on foot, I port to the gate to intercept her. What I see when I arrive at the gate is Sydney—Void claw sticking into another person’s chest—and Brighid—with a claw in her chest.

  “Dammit Brighid! This is exactly why I said to stay at the house!” I shout to her while her core is absorbed, feeling little towards seeing my friend killed in front of me.

  Sydney tosses Brighid’s husk to the ground and turns towards me because
I’m blocking the only way out of this place.

  “I suppose I should kill you now for what you’ve done.” I nonchalantly tell her.

  I point my left hand forward and tendrils spear out towards her. With her speed and being a hundred feet away, she has plenty of time to dodge, but she allows the tendrils to hit her. The tendrils pierce her suit and hit her skin before bouncing back and retracting; I notice that the holes that several of the tendrils made show Void-black skin and others show pale white skin.

  “Huh… so I guess the Void isn’t going to be effective against you.” I comment as I pull my Diamond sword from over my right shoulder.

  “Nor will the Void be effective against you.” Sydney says and grasps her left arm with her right hand. She pulls her right hand away and blood streams from her left arm until she’s holding a red, three foot blade in her right hand.

  “You know, I was wondering how you made that cloud of red smoke back there.” I reply.

  Sydney and I look at each other for a moment and flash forward. We meet each other half way and our swords clash. We go at it for several rounds and I find that she’s pretty good. Sydney blocks and counterattacks with ease, showing no signs of fatigue while displaying finesse. She suddenly disengages and jumps back to put some distance between us, going into a more relaxed stance.

  “Aw, come on! It was just getting good!” I exclaim.

  “As much as I would love to stay and play with you, I really must be going; I got what I came here for anyway.” Sydney tells me and raises her right hand.

  I’m suddenly engulfed in black flames that seem to be slightly different than the ones that were caused by the shades, and things get blindingly bright, even to the point that my helmet can’t completely neutralize it. Water flows over my body and extinguishes the flames as I turn towards the gate.

  “See you soon!” Sydney calls out; I can barely make out her aura as it disappears.

  So, I now know that Sydney can control her blood like I can, and based on her use of sun and flame based magic without incantations, she also killed Harry and absorbed his core.

  Fucking fantastic…

  Thanks to my Void enhanced senses, and possibly to Dagda’s power, I notice that the ‘off’ feeling of the plane has disappeared with the shades’ presence as I trudge over to the gate and port back to the house.

  “Cole! How’s the situation?” Aine asks as I notice that only she and Cheza are in the living room.

  “Manannan mac Lir is dead, Dagda is dead, Brighid is dead… so not well.” I reply.

  “What!?” Aine says in a state of shock.

  “Aine, I need you to focus, turn around, and take your blouse off.” I respond.

  “Why?” Aine asks while trying to hold it together.

  “I was able to take Dagda’s position as pantheon head before he died so I need to transfer that power to you.” I quickly explain.

  Aine processes the information for a moment before turning around, unbuttoning her shirt, and lowering it past her shoulder blades. I set my left hand on Aine’s back, the blades on my fingers cutting in slightly while I fight the urge to sink my claws into her. I close my eyes and the computer-like screen pops up in my head. I click and drag the Dagda’s folder over to Aine’s folder.

  “Would you like to name yourself as the successor in the event of the receiving party’s demise?” a pop-up asks.

  I click yes and my eyes shoot open. My nerve endings are set on fire as a burning in my chest tells me that I’ve gone too long without killing anything. Cheza rushes over and rips open my suit, placing her left hand on my chest as she reaches up with her right and pulls my head down to meet hers. My chest cools down and a tingling inflicts itself as I feel the Void receding. Once my Void state vanishes, the grief I should feel at the loss of my friends hits me all at once. Cheza embraces me and opens our connection.

  “I couldn’t save them, Cheza… I watched two of my friends die in front of me and the worst part is… that I felt nothing. I took Dagda’s core, dealing the final blow, and then I ported to the gate to stop Sydney and watched Brighid die… and you know what? All I did upon seeing Sydney’s Void claw sticking into Brighid’s chest was joke about how I told her to stay here…” I think.

  “Cole…” Cheza replies, unsure of what else to say.

  “Come on… let’s go lie down.” Cheza suggests, takes my hand, and leads me upstairs. I strip out of my suit and we lie down in our bed when a question occurs to me.

  “How’s Charlotte doing?” I ask.

  “She’s suffering from a good deal of blood loss; Natasha and Sara are at The Agency office getting blood for her so she’ll be fine.” Cheza answers and I close my eyes to get some rest.

  Despite trying, I don’t get any. I get up and go to the bathroom about an hour later. I finish my business and wash my hands.

  “So how do you like them? My pets?” Loki asks. I guess the lights don’t flicker if they’re off initially.

  “I see you finally succeeded in creating your own army of artificial sentient beings.” I reply.

  “Artificial sentients? I gave up on that plan years ago; too difficult. After all, it was much easier to just alter a race of beings that already existed.” Loki says with a broad smile and the truth dawns on me.

  “The jinn… the jinn turned into shades when you flooded the plane with the Void…” I summarize in shock as I hear my phone ring.

  (He certainly seems to have lost his morals; the old him never would have done something like this)

  “The next event should be starting right about now.” Loki says and disappears, his broad smile being the last thing to vanish, reminding me of the Cheshire Cat.

  I fetch my phone from my suit pocket.

  “Hello?” I answer.

  “Cole… Help!” Reyna exclaims, her voice cracking and sounding distressed.

  Great… What now?

  Chapter 23: Laws of the Universe

  [January 1st]

  After getting dressed, I immediately port to Reyna and Jason’s house to find Reyna crying in the kitchen with Hel comforting her.

  “What’s the situation?” I ask.

  “Alice has been kidnapped. She and Jason went for a walk in the park when she was taken. To top it all off, a war for Underworld has been started and my resources are stretched thin.” Hel answers.

  “What do you mean a war for Underworld?” I question.

  “Fighting in the streets across all districts. Manannan mac Lir seems to be behind it based on the bizarre black creatures that are flooding out of Annwvyn.” Hel replies.

  “That’s doubtful…” I say.

  “Why is that?” Hel asks.

  “Because Manannan mac Lir was killed not too long ago. What do these bizarre black creatures look like?” I inquire.

  “All black humanoid creatures with thin arms, no facial features, and incredible speed. How was Manannan mac Lir killed?” Hel questions.

  “Shades… so Loki is behind this one too…” I respond.

  “What does my father have to do with this?” Hel asks.

  “Loki created the shades for the specific purpose of giving me an enemy that only I could kill. He sent them to Tir na nOg with his right hand, Sydney, and they tore the place apart; killing Dagda, Manannan mac Lir, and Brighid in the process. They seemed to disappear when Sydney left so I wouldn’t be surprised to find that she’s behind this as well.” I reply; that coincides with what she said about getting what she needed as well since she had already absorbed Manannan mac Lir…

  “Back to the kidnapping, where’s Jason?” I inquire.

  “Shot in the neck with a tranquilizer. When the fighting started, I sent a patrol to go bring them back and they found him face down on the trail. He’s still unconscious on the couch.” Hel points and I see Jason’s feet hanging off the edge.

  “Do we have any leads?” I ask.

  “No…” Hel admits somewhat shamefully.

  My phone suddenly beeps loudly
; one of those impatient sounding beeps that notifies me when I have an unchecked message. I pull out my phone and see that I have a missed call from an unknown number and a message from that number. I press play and put the phone up to my ear.

  “Feros… I believe I have something that you want.” I hear Osiris say before pulling away from the phone.

  “Say it… SAY IT!” Osiris shouts in the background and I hear a slapping sound.

  “UNCLE COLE!” Alice cries.

  “I’ll be seeing you soon.” Osiris says and the message ends.

  “Osiris…” I say as I slip my phone back into my pocket, the tingling in my arm and leg intensifying.

  My kidnapping statistics ring through my head and fill me with a sense of dread. This is my fault… I promised her that I’d protect her… I promised her that I’d keep her safe… I promise… that she won’t end up like Addie. The Void crawls across the entirety of my right leg as the tingling crosses the bridge of my nose.

  “Cole?” Reyna warily asks.

  “I’m going to bring her back, Reyna… I swear I will… and I’ll make Osiris pay for this. I’m heading to Duat; fair warning, the shades can’t be stopped by normal means. Just stay out of my way, and I’ll bring her back.” I coldly reply and touch my Haglaz rune.

  I appear at the entrance of Duat to the unmistakable feeling of shades in the area, courtesy of my heightened sense of awareness due to my Void state. The rush of excitement at the ensuing battle makes my spine tingle as I take off towards the concentration of shades, and presumably Duat’s palace based on the direction.

  As I round a corner, my right leg suddenly pivots, causing me to spin. The asphalt road ten feet behind me explodes as I hone in on a sniper with an anti-material rifle on a rooftop half a mile away. I pull my .460 handgun from my back and take aim as the gun is dyed black and the purple lightning bolt surfaces on the back of my hand. I pull the trigger and lightning shoots out of the barrel with the bullet following close behind. Despite being unable to see the bullet hit, something tells me that the threat is eliminated so I continue towards the palace.