Azaria 2-16

Good morning everyone!

Chapter 16: Siege of the City Part 2

Lance

Luna and I moved back to the van to wait for the Powered of the city to come to a decision. I guess it was human nature to second guess something put in front of them in this way. Even Neo. “This is making me feel like the last twelve hours of my life were pointless,” I grumbled as I thought about the two of us just taking over her gang.

At least I got a nice price in the process. Once I absorbed Sao’s body, I felt even more for the man. He was destined for greatness, but much like me had terrible luck. I learned this after asking Luna, but his parents tried to him when he was younger. He survived a bullet to the head but had suffered from a damaged brain from that point. Then the disaster happened.

“Maybe. That is unless this dungeon is able to protect the city. Neo and the others can certainly break the chains,” Luna said through her arms breaking me from my thoughts. She was laying her head on the steering wheel. She must not have completely recovered from the drive over.

“I certainly hope so,” I replied with a sigh. Looking up at the sky, it felt like the crack was widening further. It reminded me of a mouth that was just about to take a bite out of a meal. There was a thud on the roof and a pair of thin pale legs dangled over the edge in front of the window.

“I wasn’t sure you were going to make it. Nice entrance by the way,” Azaria said from above me.

I snorted. My body still ached from rushing all the absorptions in that thirty-minute span. It was recovering as I sat here, but a few minutes ago, I felt like coughing up blood. “You made it sound pretty important. Looking at the situation. This is probably the safest place to be, for now.”

Azaria leaned over and looked me directly in the eye. I felt like she was peering through my soul. Her eyes almost seemed to possess a galaxy in them. “So, you completely gone?”

“Gone?” I asked, honestly not sure what she meant.

“Nothing. Just felt like you weren’t human anymore,” she replied with a shrug and pulled herself back up.

“Ah. Pretty much. I still feel like I’m myself though.”

“You aren’t human?” Luna asked. I had forgotten about her. She just groaned and rubbed her forehead. “I guess it doesn’t matter. I don’t think Neo is a human either.”

“I thought so!” Azaria exclaimed suddenly looking into the van from Luna’s side. “I was sure something was off about him! You have to be right.” Her face looked like a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. “Not that it helped him. One of those chains smacked him away like an annoying mosquito.”

“I wish I had seen that. I know the man has essentially kept the peace in the city, but he lets more than a few elements that would be better off dead running free.” Luna glanced at me and tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “Like your sister. The Shinigami.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you. How long has she been the Shinigami?” I asked. I was always dealing with something else that I hadn’t thought to ask the one person near me who might know.

“Probably… no I’m certain from the beginning of the disaster. Hard to fight something that can grab your heart. If I remember correctly, she’s been doing the rescue service for high rolling criminal powered forever.”

“Huh.” I laid my head on the dash board as I processed that. She was always home when I returned to the house. Hell, I thought she had turned into a recluse due to the constant government surveillance.

“There are plenty of ways to fool the eyes,” Azaria commented from the roof. I chuckled as I thought about the earrings that she made for me. They let me assume the full body of another person. My sister could have easily found an item, or even a person with such a power to watch the house and be watched by the government. It was easier to move if everyone thought you were sitting at home watching TV. Not to mention it gave her an alibi if she ever needed one.

“Dear sister. What I wouldn’t give to understand what is going through your mind,” I said with a deep breath. It might be related to dad, but I’d rather not think about that. Then there was mom’s medical treatment. “Power. Money. Influence. It could be anything. Sadly, I wasn’t every close to her before the disaster.”

Luna reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll just have to ask her next time you see her. And hey, next time she won’t be trying to fulfill her contract and might not try to kill you.”

I laughed. “Maybe. Not sure I can let it go personally.”

“I can’t wait to see that matchup, but it looks like their finally done,” Azaria said jumping into the air and flying back over to the man she had used as a seat earlier.

Luna and I got out of the van and moved to the side, more like interested bystanders than anything. Neo stood at the front of the group. They must have finally officially made him their leader. It was about time if you asked me. Even if he did restore the government to some capacity, he’d left those Powered that would be hard to deal with to each other.

“We accept your proposal dungeon. First, we would like to see if we can break the chain near your dungeon. If we can’t then there is little to discuss.” Neo’s voice barely rose above a whisper, but it felt like it echoed all around us. It was also cold and sharp, like a dagger that was posed against the neck.

“That’s fine, but my advisor warns that it will accelerate the process, causing extra damage to the outskirts of the city,” Azaria called back. She sounded like a young girl but there was a steel in it that was equal to Neo’s. She was nothing compared to herself two months ago. Though that was usually what happened when you kill a few hundred people in such a short time.

“We have already moved people to the area near dungeons. We assumed those areas will be stably even without your influence,” Anna Highlock said with a nod to her husband.

Azaria glanced at the man she was sitting on and he nodded. “Alright then. Start your test.”

Neo looked over to me. “Are you going to help? I already know the incident with Kyle was one of his own making. That doesn’t condone the fact that you lured more than a few people to their deaths, but as far as people go, they were some of the worst and thus I can understand your desire to rid the world of them.”

“Ah. Those. I asked her to bring them to my dungeon. She had to in order not to die. I can’t prove it to you, but she had a magic contract,” Azaria said bringing Neo’s attention back to herself. “I know some of you have had interactions with other dungeons. We are an isolated bunch, but even we have our ways of talking to each other.”

“Is that so. Whatever, we don’t have time to bicker about this,” Neo turned to the rest of the Powered. “Using my authority as leader of Neo-Chicago, I clear all the crimes slated against the one known as Lance Teron.” He turned his piercing eyes back on me. “That doesn’t mean you will get away with future crimes,” he warned.

“Noted. If my name is cleared, then I’m good and I’m willing to help by the way.” My name being cleared didn’t absolve all my enemies, but it did reduce them. For one, I shouldn’t have to watch my back from the Highlocks. Considering how fucking moral the two of them were, they would use more legitimate means to talk to me next time. At least, I hoped.

“Fine. Zaris.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Zaris and Anna moved over to the chain. I heard nothing could get through Anna Highlock’s defense. Perhaps I would finally see if that was the truth. Zaris rubbed his hands together and sparks began to jump in the air. Soon a blue glow formed around him and a sword made from blue-white flames took shape. Even from several yards away, I could tell that thing would kill me if it landed.

He swung at the chain and the sound of pinging steel rang through the air. The roots that covered the chains burst into flames. From what I could tell, it looked like Zaris was managing to melt through the chains, but they were almost two feet thick. It would take several long minutes before he would get through it.

I felt a drop of water hit my face. Wiping it away, I found it was the blood water from before. I looked up as it started to rain the water. A screech that was worse than nails on a chalkboard rang out as a large form dropped from the sky. I heard a humph from Anna just as the creature slammed into her. A flash of light and the creature was sent flying.

The creature landed directly in front of Azaria’s soldiers. They didn’t need any prompting. The front line rushed the few feet to the demon and with the sound of flesh ripping and bone grinding, the chainsaw blades tore the demon to pieces. It happened so fast, that I barely was able to make out the demon’s form, but it reminded me of a gargoyle from the architecture on some older buildings.

“Well, Ophelia?” I heard Azaria ask with my better senses.

“Its flesh and bones are tough. If these things come at us en-masse, it will be hard to say what the outcome will be,” the woman in armor replied with a grim tone. It had looked to me like the women had slaughtered the thing easily, but that wasn’t the truth.

I took a step toward the group about to ask a question on how tough exactly they meant, when the entire city shifted to the left. My left at least. One side of the city rose at least a foot higher than the other. A doom sounded from downtown as the top portion of one of the buildings hit by a chain couldn’t handle the degree of tilt. It crashed to the surface below sending a tremendous amount of dust and debris into the air.

“Zaris stop!”

Zaris pulled his sword from the chain that was nearly halfway melted. The city slowly returned to a flat plane. “Well… That makes things a bit more annoying,” I said voicing what everyone was thinking. Glancing at the sky, I wagered we had maybe five more hours before we were pulled through the dimensional crack.

Next:

Previous: