《The science of magic universe - The saint》 Prologue - fact and fiction Prologue All the stories agree that the day I was born was an auspicious day. The common consensus was that the stars aligned themselves into patterns that told of good fortune, that the full moon was brighter than usual as it shone down declaring the birth of a miracle into the world. According to the \''expert theologians\'' of the St. Sophia church that chronicled the event, you could almost hear the heavens themselves sing their approval and happiness as the baby Sophia was born into this world to become the salvation of all humanity. According to them I slipped from my mother womb with barely any effort because I was destined to only heal and never cause pain. I was welcomed into the loving arms of my French mother Jacqueline and my father who wasn\''t important enough to mention. It is a beautiful story, but like most of the stories told by these \''theological experts\'' it couldn\''t have been further from the truth. I was actually born in the midst of one of the worst snowstorms to ever hit St Petersburg Russia in centuries. The violent storm had been causing havoc for nearly three days and the whole city was buried in several inches of snow. The public hospital was swamped because of the blizzard and the staff just couldn\''t keep up. It looked more like a warzone than a public hospital as the rooms started to fill up and the desperate doctors started to treat emergency cases right there in the hallway. Since it was either that or let the people die, they said screw the regulations and did what they could for the injured. In the midst of all this chaos, I was being delivered by an overworked intern who had not slept in a while and was running on fumes and coffee . The midwife was unavailable because he was snowed in and couldn\''t make it to the hospital, leaving the only other available staff , an intern, to do the delivery. The intern tried to remember all the facts that he knew about delivering babies and tried to help as much as possible as my mother started to scream in pain when the contractions started. After three hours of labor , my mother\''s drug ravaged body just couldn\''t take the stress anymore and went into shock. Her organs started to fail one by one and she died before the intern could do anything. In the end the poor intern had to make the decision to cut into the dead body of my mother to take me out before I suffocated. That was how I was really born, dragged out of the corpse of my mother while I bathed in her blood. As for my loving family, my mother was a Chechen immigrant who immigrated to Russia in search of a good future. She was a beautiful woman so she believed that she would at least get a good husband to take care of her, but like most naive girls that come to a big city she fell in with the wrong type of people and got addicted to drugs. To fuel her growing addiction she started turning tricks, until she finally ended up being a prostitute full time. She worked around the seedier bars in downtown St. Petersburg where her pretty face made her quite popular. As for my father I assume he was one of her many customers, I never found out who he was. Frankly I never cared enough to look for him. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. In conclusion I was born with no family to a mother who was a prostitute, during a blizzard that was later labeled one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit Russia, at a hospital that was so crowded that there were people lying on the floor bleeding out while their loved ones begged the people around them for help. I was delivered by an inexperienced intern who had to hack through my own mother\''s dead body to get me out , baptized in her blood. Not quite the idyllic story the \''theological experts\'' told. But then again it wasn\''t the kind of story you want to tell if you want to inspire devotion and piety. People rarely want to hear the ugly truth, they would rather hear a beautiful lie. Continuing on with my story , by the time the poor intern was able to extricate me from the mess that used to be my mother, he was severely traumatized by what he had been forced to do, in fact his mind could not handle what had happened and was starting to spiral into insanity. He was never trained to be a midwife, let alone perform emergency surgery of this magnitude. He stood there just holding the new born(me), just stood there and stared at the blood drenched baby he had just delivered and the baby stared right back with its green eyes. Then something strange happened, the baby smiled at the intern and the insanity that was creeping into the intern\''s mind began to retreat, the poison of madness that was polluting and clouding his reason vanished. The intern never noticed what happened , he thought that the whole episode was a hallucination brought on by his stress. He dismissed the whole thing and just started to clean up the baby with a towel. With all the nurses busy with other cases he personally took the baby(me) to the pediatric ward. He put me down in one of the many cribs in the pediatric ward and made sure I was tucked in and comfortable . Afterwards he shakily sat down to fill some forms about my basic information since I was now an orphan and a ward of the state. While he was filling the forms I was sleeping peacefully in my crib, blissfully unaware that the frazzled intern had not even noticed that I was a girl and that he had named me a perfectly normal name for a boy. He had named me Peter. chapter one - first time Chapter one My earliest memories were those of playing in the orphanage with the other kids. None of us may have had families but we were never unhappy, we were each other''s family. The orphanage was a small building located several miles south of St Petersburg. It was an uninspired boxy two story building that was painted a revolting color of green that would always remind you of ...... well let''s just say it wasn''t spring grass. The inside was nothing to write home about either. The ground floor only contained a kitchen, a dining room, rooms for the adults and a nursery for the youngest children. The upper floor had two large rooms filled with beds, one for younger kids and the other for the older children. Whatever you might say about the building we wouldn''t have ever moved even for the biggest mansion on earth. The reason all the kids loved it so much was that the building was built on a very short hill with a very gentle slope surrounded by a flat field with nothing but grass and small shrubs for miles. To us it was the biggest and best playground ever. In spring it would be blanketed by flowers of every color whose origins would always baffle us. We would run around plucking them and weaving them into flower jewelry. I especially liked to put on a crown of yellow flowers similar to daffodils that complemented my blond hair(this is not a mistake, it is part of the story). In winter the same field would be covered in snow and we would spend our days having epic snowball fights and building snow forts and snow castles. Our orphanage was run by a stern old woman named Vasilisa Blatova along with her two daughters Alexandra and Veronica. Vasilisa, who we were told to call Ms Blatova at all times, was the authoritarian in the orphanage, she was a school teacher before she retired and opened the orphanage so nothing got past her. She was a woman in her late sixties, but don''t let that fool you. She looked quite intimidating with her steel gray hair done up in a tight ponytail and eyes of the same color that looked at you from above her small red glasses that slid dangerously low down her long nose if you did something wrong. Most kids were terrified of what was known as ''the arctic Blatov glare'' and tried to behave as much as possible but kids are kids and we all ended up getting the glare a time or two. Alexandra and Veronica were the carrot to Vasilisa''s stick. They were twin sisters around their mid thirties who had blond hair and blue eyes. Both were slightly over weight , especially Veronica, but to us there was just more of them to love. Alexandra was a nurse before her mother opened the orphanage. She was the one who treated our ''ouchies'' and ''booboos''. She was always gentle and caring. She was the one who usually reads us our bed time stories as we fell asleep. Veronica was the cook of the orphanage, and she had a special place in our hearts that only a person that feeds you could occupy. She not only fed us delicious food but also snuck us sweets on special occasions. I had spent six years in the Blatova orphanage, I was sent here from the very beginning and was now six years old. I had shoulder length blond hair and green eyes, I was slightly on the short side and thanks to Veronica''s efforts slightly chubby. I was a happy child and had many friends, but my best friend was Anastasia who we all called Anna. She was a waif of a girl with long black hair. She looked small and harmless like a mouse but had the tendency to attract trouble. Like most good friendships we had a balance , she would try to push me to do fun things and I would try to stop her from doing stupid things ,which didn''t always work. Let''s just say she succeeded more times than I did. This was one of those times. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. We were outside on the field surrounded by everyone and Ms Blatova was looking at us over the top of her small red glasses with her signature arctic stare. It might not seem like a very big deal but to the six year old me it felt like I was an ant being burned under a magnifying glass. "So let me get this straight, you used the ironing board to slide down the side of the hill and up a ramp you constructed out of rocks you piled up and launched yourselves onto a landing zone you made by piling up a heap of clothing that Veronica had just cleaned. Did I miss anything Anna , Peter ? " I wanted to disappear into the ground so badly, I was staring at the ground trying to will it to just swallow me whole. I could see the feet of Ms Blatova and they were shaking in fury. Each of her words sounded like nails on my coffin. She looked so upset that I thought that this time she might actually kill us. Anna was not as intimidated as I was, she looked Ms Blatova right in her frigid gray eyes and said, " We didn''t hurt anybody, we were just having fun." I almost fainted right then and there, the circle of spectators actually gasped and took a step back. I didn''t have that option , I just stood there rooted to my spot waiting for the bomb that was Ms Blatova to explode and exterminate all life on earth. You never, and I mean never talk back to Ms Blatova when she is chastising you. There are many stories about the last girl that talked back to her, none of them ended well for the girl. So I stood there with my little six year old life flashing before my eyes and wondering how it was all going to end when something strange happened. I was just standing there looking down on the ground and Ms Blatova''s legs when the legs suddenly blurred. I rubbed my eyes to get them back into focus but it got even worse. It was like I was seeing countless images of the same leg transposed over the same leg again and again, but each was a little different creating a blurring effect. I tried to make it go away but I couldn''t even look away and whatever I tried the leg remained blurry. While I was looking at the leg trying to bring it back into focus I noticed something strange about the image that was most prominent. The image that was easiest to see was somehow wrong in my eyes , it felt wrong like hearing a discordant note in a symphony. I was a little six years old girl, so I did what any six year old girl would do I decided to look at a version that didn''t feel wrong. After I chose one and focused on it , it became clearer and clearer until all the other images were gone. I suddenly felt very weak and fell back on my ass. Before long Alexandra had me cradled in her lap and was waving a piece of paper in my face like a fan. My eyes wandered around looking at the concerned faces of everyone around me until they landed on a pair of cold gray eyes that were opened wide in disbelief. Looking at those eyes made me remember something, earlier I thought that Ms Blatova was shaking out of anger but that wasn''t true, she always shook when she stood up on her feet. She wasn''t shaking now. chapter two - past and future Chapter two "It is gone Alexandra, it''s gone without a trace look!" I was sitting in a couch that was in Ms Blatova''s bedroom, which also doubled as her office. It had a bed on one side and a desk and some chairs on the other. Ms Blatova was lying on the bed as Alexandra was closely inspecting her leg while Veronica was sitting next to me with her arms wrapped around me. She had draped a blanket around my shoulders after I had started shivering following what had happened outside. I was munching on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich she made me while sipping from a mug of hot chocolate that Veronica only makes when someone was sick. After the weird thing that had happened with Ms Blatova''s leg I became a little dizzy and very hungry, in fact this was the third sandwich I was eating. Veronica leaned towards me and asked, "Are you alright little buttercup?(that''s her nickname for me) The way you are putting away those sandwiches is starting to scare me. Slow down, they aren''t going to run away you know." I smiled up at her kind pudgy face,"I''m okay V(that''s my nickname for her) I was really hungry at first but now I''m just enjoying the sandwich." Veronica smiled and gave my shoulder a little squeeze," That''s good buttercup, if you feel that anything is wrong my room is always open, OK ?" I just nodded and continued to eat the sandwich. Meanwhile, Alexandra had finished her inspection of Ms Blatova''s leg and had a puzzled look on her face,"The damage to your joint''s cartilage seems to have healed, your joint can now bend normally without the bones rubbing against one another. It appears that the osteoarthritis in this leg has vanished, of course that''s impossible but there is no inflammation and you have full mobility . If you told a doctor that you had osteoarthritis on this knee two hours ago he would tell you to stop wasting his time, hell if I didn''t know any better I''d say you were misdiagnosed when they told you you had arthritis. I need to take you to the hospital to perform some more tests, but from my initial assessment the results will probably be just as confusing. Osteoarthritis is not something that simply goes away like a cold, mom what the hell is happening ?" "It was her, it was Peter ! She was staring at my leg and the pain was suddenly gone!" "Mom, be reasonable. She was looking at your leg when it happened, but you don''t think that a six year old child fixed your leg just by staring at it, do you? " "I know it sounds insane , but I am sure it was her! She even collapsed after it happened, it had to be her!" "Fine mom, if you insist we can talk to Peter. But calm down and let me do the talking, I don''t think you are in the proper mind set to talk to a child." The two finished their private conversation and turned their attention towards me .I wonder why adults sometimes assume that a child can''t hear their conversation if it is not directed at him/her even though they are in the same room. I had heard everything Ms Blatova and Alexandra had been saying and although I didn''t understand most of their conversation it seemed like Ms Blatova was blaming me for something. I didn''t want to get into anymore trouble so I decided I wasn''t going to tell them what really happened, so when Alexandria approached me and asked me if I knew anything about what had happened I vehemently denied it. Every time I denied what had happened, Ms Blatova seemed to get more and more angry until she finally started shouting in my face, The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "I know you are lying you little brat, how dare you sit there lying to me. I have taught kids for forty years ,you think your feeble attempt is going to fool me? Tell the truth, tell the truth right now!" Alexandra finally had to push Ms Blatova back ,"Mother , what are you doing? You are scaring her! I was willing to humor you on your crazy hypothesis , but I will not let you harm the children in any way, physical or psychological. Why are you even upset ? You had your leg healed , why are you shouting at Peter as if she committed a crime?" That was the final thing I heard because at that moment Veronica took me out of the office and led me towards my bed. She apologized on her mother''s behalf and told me to go to sleep. I was pretty tired from the day''s events so I immediately got under the covers and dozed off. * * * For the next three weeks Ms Blatova watched me like a hawk . I don''t know what she was expecting but nothing weird had happened since the leg incident. The only thing that has changed were the strange dreams I''ve been having and the strange things that I sometimes caught in the very corner of my eyes. Whenever I tried to turn around to see what it was it would vanish, but this could all be explained away as a child''s overactive imagination. One afternoon Anna and I were playing a game of tic-tac-toe that Anna had invented where instead of writing down the ''x''s and ''o''s we drew them on rocks and threw them from a distance at the grid. What made the game fun was that you could knock the opponents piece away with your own, so the game could last much longer than a normal tic-tac-toe game. That afternoon we were having one of our most intense games and I threw my piece sharply knocking away Anna''s piece, which sailed away and fell by a pair of black shiny shoes. I looked up to see who the shoes belong to and saw a man wearing a black suit and red tie. He had brown eyes and light brown wavy hair, he was followed by a pretty woman in a fancy looking blue green dress. Behind them was Ms Blatova. The man looked over at me and asked Ms Blatova," Is that her?" "Yes , that''s Peter." "Wait, you still call her by that ridiculous name?" I was a little upset that he would insult my name but I was too shy to say anything, Anna on the other hand was not as shy as me. "Who are you to call my friend''s name ridiculous?" The man knelt down on one knee in front of me and said," You may not remember me but I am the one who gave you that name." chapter three - friend and enemy Chapter three "I am the one who gave you that name." I was very confused , who was this man? Why was he here? I doubt that he came all the way here without a reason. While I was pondering this questions Anna had more questions for the man. "Really? Then why did you name her Peter? Don''t you know that is a boy''s name?" "I was very tired and confused when I named her." "But mister, how tired do you have to be to make a mistake like that?" The man smiled and said," very very tired. May I know who I have had the pleasure of speaking to, I know Peter here and my name is Andrei, what is your name?" "My name is Anastasia but everybody calls me Anna." "Well it''s good to meet you Anna." I finally scrounged up enough courage to talk and said," Why are you here Mr Andrei?" He turned back to me gave me a bright smile, "I am here because of you Peter. I wanted to check on you and see if you were all right." This wasn''t the first time I have seen adults in the orphanage, once in a while people, usually one man and one woman, would come to the orphanage and visit the children , usually the children from the nursery. A few days later a child is taken away by the adults. Veronica had explained what was happening to me, apparently the children who were leaving the orphanage were being ''adopted'' , basically they were getting a new mommy and daddy. At first I was jealous when I wasn''t selected to be adopted by the people coming to the orphanage but after a while I didn''t care anymore. I loved it at the orphanage, I loved my friends , I loved Alexandria and Veronica, I even loved grouchy old Ms Blatova. Now I had a clue what was happening when he said he was here to see me and my suspicions were confirmed when the woman in the fancy blue green dress said, "Are you sure about this honey? There are plenty of younger children here that we haven''t even seen yet, shouldn''t we at least look around?" "I am sure zayka, I delivered this girl myself when I was just an intern under impossible circumstances. She was the main reason I entered pediatric medicine, the first time I held her up and she smiled at me that was the moment that I wanted to help as many babies like her as possible and now that I''m getting married I want her to be my daughter." I was really confused , on one hand I didn''t want to leave the orphanage where I have been happy for all my life, on the other hand if I was adopted I would get a new mom and dad. Plus Andrei seemed to have real affection for me , I could hear it in his voice when he was talking. Somewhere deep down I have always wanted a father and mother who would love me like that. While I was day dreaming about what could happen, Andrei gave me a hug and got up to walk away. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Good bye Peter, if everything works out I will be seeing you very soon. Oh and before I forget I want you to meet my fianc¨¦ Marina, she is the pretty lady over there, if everything works out I hope the two of you will be very good friends." Ms Blatova finally pulled him away saying that he needed to fill out some forms. As the three were leaving I took a closer look at the woman in the fancy dress. She had red hair that was styled in waves , her face was very pretty with a small mouth and a pert nose that made her look dainty. Her green eyes were similar to mine and she wore a lot of jewelry not least of which was a large diamond ring on her ring finger. I was about to look away when my sight began to blur for the second time in my life, but this time I didn''t see many images transposed on top of one another. I saw one image that made me piss myself a little. The image of the dainty looking woman disappeared and was suddenly replaced by a terrifying monster. She was still the same woman but on her head was a crown of thorns that were pitch black, the thorns which were as big as daggers were not only sticking up but also into her head. Where the thorns had stuck into her scalp blood slowly flowed down her face and down the back of her neck dying her green dress red. Her green irises had transformed into black ones and her sclera was now the color of blood. She was crying tears of blood from the corner of her eyes that joined the streams coming down from her head. Her mouth was no longer small, in fact her mouth opened from one ear to the other and was filled with big pointy teeth. Her hands were now tipped with poisonous looking green claws. I saw this image for only a second then my vision blurred again and the normal woman was back . Thankfully all three adults were walking away and didn''t look back or they would have noticed the blood draining from my face. The only person who did notice was Anna who kept asking me what was wrong, but I couldn''t answer her I was frozen in sheer terror like a rabbit who saw the shadow of an eagle pass by. By the time I was able to move again I noticed a piece of paper lying where the woman in the green dress had stood. I picked it up and saw what was written on it. There was a large logo printed in fancy lettering at the top, there was a bold F in blue at the front and immediately behind it was a cursive T in red. To my eyes the way they were arranged made it look like the F was growing red horns and a tail. It was the first time I saw the logo of one of the greatest enemies I would ever face . Underneath the logo written in simple text was MARINA GRIBKOVA FAIRWEATHER TEC RUSSIAN DIVISION not a chapter Everybody is asking about John, he is in this book but only as a support character, just a small part of the plot..........did nobody notice the fairweather name in the last chapter. Don''t you remember that his full name is John Fairweather? chapter four- impossible Chapter four I stared at the card wondering what was it that I had just seen. I only saw the vision for only a split second and I wondered if I should just forget that I saw anything. Maybe it was just my imagination again. Alexandra always tells us that there is no such thing as monsters so there must be another explanation for what I had just seen. I slowly started to calm down then proceeded to calm down Anna who had started to panic at my non responsiveness. I told her I was fine and just freaking out about the whole adoption thing and that I needed a little rest to process everything. I wasn''t even lying about the second part, I had managed to calm down a little but I was still freaked out about what I saw. I went to my bed in the communal bedroom upstairs and just lay there trying to convince myself that what I saw was not real, eventually my exhausted mind couldn''t take it anymore and I fell asleep. Like I have been doing recently I started to dream about a weird place filled with impossible things and things that didn''t make sense. There was the stair that looped around on itself, however long I went up or down I never seemed to be able to get anywhere. There was a room where it was dark but you could hear colors, you could hear the beautiful symphony that all the different colors created but my favorite sound was the sound of red. Although it made perfect sense to me when I was in the room ,outside of it I couldn''t describe or remember any of the notes . After that there was a room that had stormy clouds in the sky and lightning was falling down everywhere you looked but the temperature was so cold that all the lightning falling to the ground was frozen . I wove my way from impossible place to impossible place until I entered a room that was nothing but unbroken white space that went on forever, it had no walls or interruptions. Logically speaking an infinite empty space should have been black but as I have observed until now, logic didn''t mean squat here. The only object in this vast uninterrupted space was a lightly glowing ball that was at the center, I know logically an infinite space couldn''t have a center but as I said earlier logic didn''t mean squat. I floated towards the glowing ball curious about what it was. When I got to a certain distance the glowing ball suddenly got a lot brighter. I felt warmth enfold me like a warm blanket. It felt like I was being hugged by a smile, I know that didn''t make sense but hey remember this isn''t the home of sense. As the ball got even brighter I heard a large yawn, then a voice spoke into my head, < Well hello little one, how did you get in here. I created this place so that nobody could enter. I was thinking of taking a nap you see, and everybody kept disturbing me so I thought to myself ''were can I be that it would be impossible for anyone to find me?'' , the answer was simple , an impossible realm! So I created this place and who should walk in but you little one.> Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. If I could describe the voice it would be jovial and happy, it is what I imagine Santa Claus would sound like, I tried to respond to him and it came out in the same thought speech, < Hello, I don''t know how I got here. I went through a lot of rooms before coming to this place. Do you know what they were and can you tell me who you are.> Hearing that voice and feeling his warmth, I knew he wouldn''t harm me. In fact I knew that he didn''t even need to ask for permission to do whatever he wanted to me, he was a vastly superior being and there would be nothing I could do to stop him but at the same time I knew that if I said no he wouldn''t push the issue,< thank you for asking and not simply doing it, you have my permission to do the search I am also very curious how I got here.> I suddenly felt invisible hands gently going through my very being, it should have been very invasive but the being was so gentle that it was almost the same as a hand going through my hair. < Think about it, all you see around you is impossible but it exists . Why do you think that is?> < You did , little sister , you did.> chapter five - leaving the nest Chapter five I was baffled by what he had just told me, it didn''t make any sense. What did he mean I made myself exist? He seemed to sense my confusion and continued, < Wait, if I am like you why am I not as powerful as you are?> I suddenly woke up from my dream. Now that I knew that I had powers and how they worked I started to think about the monster that I saw, I no longer thought that it was a figment of my imagination. Whatever it was it looked scary and mean so I had to do everything I could do to stop my adoption. First I went to Veronica and tried to tell her everything I saw but she just thought I was making it all up because I didn''t want to leave the orphanage. The same thing happened with Alexandra and even Ms Blatova, they all thought that I wanted to stay at the orphanage so badly I was willing to say anything to stop the adoption. They all insisted that they loved me and also wished that I could stay but the adoption was the best thing that could happen to me. Mr Andrei was a respected doctor who came from a very rich family and Ms Marina was an executive in an international company . According to them , they were one of the best adoption candidates that they have ever seen and they would do everything in their power to make sure the adoption was as successful and swift as possible. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. So despite my many complaints two weeks later I stood in the orphanage driveway having a tearful goodbye with my friends especially Anna while Andrei loaded all my meager belongings that actually all fit into one small bag into the back of an expensive looking black Mercedes. Thankfully Marina hadn''t come with Andrei because she was too busy, but it wouldn''t have been too bad anyway because I had prepared for that eventuality. Still it was a relief that I didn''t have to deal with her at the same time I was saying goodbye to the people I loved. I was finishing up my farewells with Anna who made me promise that I would call every night when Andrei came from behind me and picked me up, "Come on , it''s time to see your new home and don''t be so glum. I bet you are going to love it there, plus I have a surprise for you on the way there!" I couldn''t help but smile at the man who was holding me. It was like he was a giant child himself. Even though he had the expensive car and serious suit , I could tell from the bright smile he always wore and his slightly goofy hairstyle that he was more of a whacky character than a serious man. I really liked Andrei, I was sure he was a really good person and would be a really good father, but I wonder why the monster chose him to marry? I decided then and there ,as he twirled me around and put me in the front seat of the car, to keep an eye on him and protect him anyway I could. The car turned around and drove away from the orphanage and for the first time in my life I was leaving the place I had called home for six years. As the ugly green building started to shrink away and fade into the distance I felt sad that that chapter of my life was coming to an end, I had many happy memories in that orphanage and even though I was leaving I promised myself I would cherish all the memories for the rest of my life. The orphanage finally vanished from view and I turned to face forward with a smile on my face. It might be a little scary but as Anna always says, it''s time for a new adventure. chapter six - new start Chapter six As the car sped down the highway I made inane conversation with Andrei over the radio which was tuned to a jazz station , to be honest I wasn''t a big fan of jazz but I wasn''t going to start complaining this early in our relationship so I tried to pretend to enjoy it while trying to suppress a yawn. To distract myself from the mind numbingly dull music coming from the speakers I started looking out the window at the passing scenery. At first the only thing I saw were the fields and the small shrubs zipping by as we passed them but slowly they started to get replaced by small houses and eventually the small houses were replaced by larger buildings until we turned a corner and I saw St Petersburg for the first time. I had spent my whole life at the orphanage and however much I begged Veronica and Alexandra they would never allow me to go with them on one of their many trips to the city so this was the first time that I saw St Petersburg and it took my breath away. There were large buildings everywhere , I even saw a castle that looked like the ones from the picture books that I read at the orphanage. There were also large buildings that looked like they were made entirely of glass. Everywhere I looked countless cars of every kind passed by , from small cars to giant trucks. Now and then I would catch glimpses of large bodies of water and to top it all off I saw more people than I could have imagined. All this may sound mundane to you but I have never been to a big city, never seen such big buildings except in pictures, never seen so many people(I didn''t even know there were so many people in the whole world) and the biggest body of water I have ever seen is a puddle of water I made with Anna to float our paper boats so as you can imagine I was very excited and turning my head every which way to catch all the new things around me. Andrei just glanced at me and chuckled slightly. We made our way through the city until Andrei parked the car in front of an imposing gray building. Then he got out of the car came to my door and dragged me out saying, "Come on, it''s time for your surprise." I could not imagine what kind of surprise I could get from a building like this. Andrei dragged me through the parking lot and into the front door of the building. The inside wasn''t an improvement on the outside, it wasn''t ugly or anything in fact it actually looked kind of nice with its mosaic like floor tiling and shiny wooden furniture but the atmosphere was so miserable that I nearly chocked on it. It was filled with people, so many people that there were lines everywhere and from all the faces around me I didn''t see a single person with a smile. I started to wonder why Andrei would bring me to this place of misery where smiles weren''t allowed, what where we doing in a place like this? Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. He dragged me to one of the windows that were miraculously free and when we got there the man behind the window spoke in a monotonous voice,"Welcome to the St Petersburg government office, how may I assist you?" So that was the name of this terrible place, why would Andrei bring me here? "I would like to change the name of this young lady over here." "Do you have proof that you are her guardian? Then you can fill out this form, pay a small fee at the cashier and take it to the office at the end of the hall, have a nice day." He thought that we were going to leave him alone and go about our way but what he didn''t count on was the very heated argument that we would have about my new name right there in front of his window. Finally unable to take it anymore the annoyed clerk said," For the love of God, it is not that complicated. She is a cute little girl , just name her Sophia!" And that was how I got my name, because of the suggestion of an irritated clerk I became Sophia Belikova. * * * Afterwards Andrei took me to a restaurant to celebrate. There I stuffed myself with delicious food until I was full. We left the restaurant and drove some more until we reached a residential area. The houses around us were all large and fancy looking, I had a feeling that only rich people lived here, all the cars were shiny , all the people wore fancy clothes and all the lawns and gardens were perfectly manicured.. We passed mansion after mansion until we drove up one of the driveways . Andrei was looking at me enjoying my reaction as I slowly realized what this meant, "Welcome home Sophia." chapter seven - guchi Chapter seven I spent the next few days getting used to the large mansion that was my home now, there were lots of changes from when I was in the orphanage. The first was that I got my own room which for some reason was painted a ghastly shade of bright pink. Inside was a canopy bed of the same color and a wardrobe full of clothing that actually fit me, Andrei later told me that he had asked about what size clothing I wore and sent one of the maids shopping, which brings me to another point, we had eight maids. We even have a butler. The butler was a fit looking man in his mid thirties that also doubled as a bodyguard. I spent most of the day exploring the house and watching television. There was no television in the orphanage because old Ms Blatova believed that television rotted young children''s minds, the only form of entertainment allowed indoors were board games, books , and if Ms Blatova wasn''t around Veronica would take out her radio and we would listen to some music. Now that I have been introduced to the TV I was thoroughly hooked and spent the day feeding my new addiction. My new parents were both usually busy in the day. Andrei, who now got really cross if I don''t call him father or daddy, spent most of his day and some of his nights at a clinic he had opened after finishing his internship and becoming a doctor and Marina, who I called mother so that she wouldn''t get suspicious, spent her day working at what I assume was Fairweather Tec although I doubt that she spent her days in meetings and doing paper work. However we might spend the day we all ate dinner together. Dad( after much nagging on his part I relented and started calling him that, the first time I did it I thought he was going to cry) was the epitome of the loving caring father always doting on his daughter. Mother also pretended to be loving, and because I had gotten the hang of my power I didn''t have to look at the monster underneath her fa?ade, I could pretend she was a loving mother and that we were a happy family. A few days after this routine had been established dad said something that that brought my blissful days of vegging out in front of the TV to an end, "Sophia I have enrolled you into the future hope academy, you will love it there, it was were I went when I was a kid. Anyways you''ll be starting in two days. Kazimir ( that''s the name of our butler) will drive you there." "Two days?" "Don''t worry about it, you''ll be fine. All the kids there will also be new so it will be a great opportunity to make friends." "But I''m not ready dad, I don''t have any books or even the uniform." "The books are in a bag at the back of your wardrobe and the uniform is being delivered here tomorrow, as I said earlier relax , everything will be fine. For a smart girl like you school is going to be a piece of cake." For some reason his words didn''t reassure me. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. * * * Kazimir drove me to the front of a large ornate looking yet very solid iron gate with the logo of the school boldly showing at the center. An armed security guard came and checked both my newly issued school ID and Kazimir''s ID against a list he had in his hands . He only let us through after carefully scrutinizing the pictures on our IDs to our faces. Once inside I was finally able to see what the high fence and iron gates were hiding, it was a vast and carefully maintained campus. There was a lot of free space covered in grass, many different gardens with benches to sit, and a playground for children. The actual school was only a two story building but it consisted of ten separate buildings that were very wide, and when I first got in I thought that it was a small town not a school. After Kazimir dropped me off at the building that was indicated in the brochure that came with the uniform a woman waiting at the door welcomed me and showed me to the room where there would be ''a little meet and greet'' as she put it. Once inside I saw that I was one of the only people wearing the uniform which confused me greatly, aren''t all the children here students? Didn''t they get their uniforms? I decided to forget about the uniforms, instead I did what my father told me to do and tried to mingle with the kids around me. All of them seemed to have formed small groups so I drifted from one group to the other but I could barely understand what they were saying. I knew they were talking Russian but I just couldn''t fathom what they were talking about. Finally I gave up and just stood by the wall alone waiting for the whole thing to end so I could go back home. As I stood there wondering how I was going to survive thirteen years here, a boy in a black T-shirt that was bigger than all of the kids in the room approached me, "They wouldn''t talk to you either, huh?" "No they talked to me , I just couldn''t understand what they were saying. They kept saying things like they liked my guchi, what the hell is a guchi?" He pointed at the label on my jacket which said ''Gucci'' , "it''s the name of your jacket. Don''t you even know what brand of clothing you are wearing?" I looked at him with a perplexed expression," It''s strong, it''s comfortable and it looks nice. Why the hell would I care what is on the label of my jacket." For a second there was absolute silence in the room. For some reason everybody had heard what I had said and were staring at me. The boy suddenly burst into loud laughter attracting their attention and breaking the tension, "You are absolutely right. I like the way you think, by the way my name is Sergei Mikailov." "My name is Sophia Belikova , nice to meet you." And that was how I met one of my dearest friends. chapter eight - eleven years Chapter eight Eleven years later I was making out madly with a redhead whose name I couldn''t remember when the door burst open and Sergei stepped inside, "Seriously Sophia ? This is the third time this month! Are you doing this on purpose?" The last ten years had been very kind to me and the slightly overweight girl was gone and I was now a curvy girl with straight blond hair that reached my waist. All the boys in the school were very interesting in ''bagging'' the prize I had become, problem was I was interested in ''bagging'' some prizes of my own. Which brings me to the situation I found myself in right now. The red haired girl that was sitting on my lap quickly got up , grabbed her top from the floor and ran out the door past Sergei. By the time she got out her skin was as red as her hair and she was unable to meet anybody''s eyes, which was understandable. She was supposed to be dating Sergei not fooling around with me. Sergei looked at me, "That''s three, Sophia . Three girlfriends I lost in one month because of you!" I just looked at him and said, " Not my fault, I told you to not leave any of your girlfriends alone with me, especially not the cute ones. Plus stop being so melodramatic , I know exactly how much they mean to you so don''t pretend that you care. We''ll settle it the usual way , the next month I''ll do three assignments of your choice, no projects though, none of those girls are worth a project and you know it." Sergei''s ''upset'' face melted away," Four and we will call it even , Evelyn was the daughter of one of my father''s lieutenants , I was supposed to seriously consider her and now you''ve blown that all to hell. How did you even do this? I know for a fact that she was straight, we dated for two weeks. She was a straight laced girl, wouldn''t even let me kiss her except for a peck on the cheek , fifteen minutes with you and you''ve already gotten to second base. What the hell?" The last ten years have also been kind to Sergei , the tall and awkward kid was now a tall and muscular man that most of the girls in school drooled over. Coupled with the fact that his father was the head of the Russian mob making him the ultimate bad boy he got more dates than a freaking calendar. Was it really a surprise that I helped myself to some of them? "Alright fine, four assignments. And I already told you every girl is curious, and curiosity is all I need." "You know, you might be a bigger womanizer than I am. Anyway do you mind if I stay at your house tonight? There is going to be a meeting tonight , a big one and I don''t like some of the people invited." "Sure , Mi Casa Es Su Casa. There isn''t anything wrong with your family''s business is there?" "Yeah, a new group is moving into our turf . Started last week, they came out of nowhere and started viciously attacking the docks." "That sound''s bad, you should just stay at my house until this whole thing blows over." We walked out of the school together and outside waiting for me like always was Kazimir in a Bentley, Sergei turned towards me and said, " Are you sure you don''t want to ride with me on my bike instead?" The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. "No thank you, I''d rather be safe and comfortable." He put on his helmet then mounted his prized Ducati and sped off out of the parking lot. I on the other hand calmly greeted Kazimir, entered the Bentley''s roomy and comfortable back seat and enjoyed a cheese cake from the mini fridge on my way home. Why anybody would choose the bike over this is beyond me. As we traveled towards my house I started thinking about how the last eleven years passed. My relationship with dad grew ever closer and now I loved him more than anything else in the world. He was always very busy but he would make time for his family. Mom was still a monster in disguise, she married dad a month after I was adopted. They found out a few months later that she was barren , I wonder if that was because she was a monster or not. We were always civil with each other but we weren''t very affectionate for obvious reasons. I once secretly followed her to the company she worked at, Fairweather Tec and for a whole afternoon just sat there in a cafe across the street from the building seeing who was going in and out. There were a lot of normal people but there were also many people who were monsters like mom although they didn''t look alike. Some had wings, some had tails, some didn''t even resemble humans anymore just bloated worms. My favorite time of day for the last eleven years was at night when I was sleeping because I got to visit the being that I now call big brother. We would spend our time in one of the many impossible rooms just enjoying ourselves and talking. He knew almost everything and he was the one who told me what the monsters were. He called them the Atelli, parasites of the soul. They are either imperfect creations of a fledgling god or the results of some other mistake. The Atelli are incomplete and as such are unable to see , hear or experience anything so they try to inhabit a host to do so. Some are benign even helpful, tagging along with the host and enjoying the ride. Some are malignant , forcing their incomplete souls into the soul of the host , taking control of the body and damaging the host''s soul forever. Over the years as he told me more and more about them I came to really hate the Atelli. Besides sleeping and going to class , the other thing I have been doing is practicing with my powers. I learned that I could do literally anything I wanted but the more impossible it was the more it would sap me of my energy. I practiced mostly by going to my father''s clinic under the guise of visiting him and helping out patients here and there, thanks to that my father''s clinic is now really successful and is sometimes known as the miracle clinic. I was always low key when I visited so no one ever connected the miracles to me. While I was deep in thought I heard screeching tires and gun shots in front of us , I immediately took out the pistol that was under the seat in a special compartment, you don''t become the best friend of the biggest Russian mobster''s son and not know a few things about guns. I cocked the pistol and put a bullet in the chamber as I opened the door of the car that had stopped because of the commotion. I had a feeling that this had something to do with Sergei. chapter nine - lucky shot Chapter nine My power might sound very vague and complicated but it actually boils down to two very simple facts. The first one is that my power is to change things in any way that I want. The second fact is that the physical world doesn''t like to change except in very specific ways. Now this may seem like it would completely hobble me and cancel out my power but there is a work around. In any situation there is an element of chaos, of uncertainty. A situation usually has so many unpredictable variables that very few things are actually impossible. The best way to explain it is with an example, Let''s say there was a deck of a million cards that had only a single ace, if it was shuffled many times in random ways I can make that ace come up every time using my power. But let''s assume the same deck was being shuffled and in the middle of the shuffle the ace was taken out by an expert cheater. I can still make the ace come out on top and the cheater would be holding the wrong card, but it would be more difficult. The reason I can do this is that however remote the chance might be there are variables that might cause the cheater to make a mistake. In the final scenario if the card was removed as I saw it and it definitely was the ace that was removed then it becomes an impossible situation. I can still make the card come out on top but the rebound would be horrible, I would probably pass out or worse. Like everything there are exceptions. The first is healing something. I can use my powers to heal with absolutely no consequence, that includes myself. Big brother said it had something to do with the soul trying to fix the physical body to its original condition and some other mumbo jumbo that I didn''t understand. In the end I can help the soul restore the physical body but if I tried to use my powers to hurt anything with a soul the rebound would most definitely kill me. To put it in the simplest of terms I am literally the luckiest bitch in the world and I''m able to heal anybody including myself. That was why I was feeling pretty confident as I got out of the car with a nine milliliter pistol in my hands. As I walked forward Kazimir tried to follow me out but his door mechanism got stuck for some reason. I smiled as I continued on my way, I had learned early on that any machine with moving parts can fall prey to my power very easily. People were running away abandoning there vehicles trying to get away from the direction were the shots were being fired. There was chaos everywhere but nobody ever bumped into me even though I was walking in the opposite direction. The place where I was walking was like an island of calm in the sea of running people. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. I was finally close enough to see Sergei who was hiding behind a car shooting at a man who was brazenly walking through the hail of bullets like he didn''t have a care in the world. When I finally got close enough to Sergei I saw that his leg was injured and bleeding badly. I doubt he could run away from the man even if he wanted to, which knowing the stubborn man he wouldn''t. He turned around to reload his gun and noticed me, "What the hell are you doing Sophia? Get away from here! That guy is here to kidnap me , but he will kill you!" I ignored his angry shouts and started to adjust my specially customized glock 19 to its semi-auto setting, it was a birthday gift that Sergei got me for my sixteenth birthday. You might say a lot of things about Sergei but he does know what a woman likes. He saw what I intended to do and continued his tirade, "Can''t you see I''ve already sprayed him with bullets, he has some sort of armor and it won''t get through. Just run away!" Sergei was right and wrong, the man wasn''t wearing armor. In fact the man wasn''t even a man at all, he was one of the Atelli and he was one especially suited for this job. His whole body was covered in scales , even his eyes were covered by a thin film. He was completely bullet proof, or at least he thought he was as he walked confidently towards us. What he didn''t count on was me popping up and shooting him in the eye, in the very same location fifteen different times successively. One of the things I have learned is that thanks to the nature of my powers , I never miss. After he was hit in the same spot four times the protective layering over his eyes broke. I knew fifteen shots would be overkill but what can I say, he hurt my friend and I am extremely vindictive. When the Atelli soul tried to leave his dead host I shredded his ass with my power, it was no longer protected by its host soul and it was never a part of the natural order to begin with so it was fair game for my power. When I looked back both Sergei who seemed to have forgotten his leg injury and Kazimir who had glass fragments allover his usually clean suit were staring at me with open mouths. I looked back and said, "Would you believe me if I said it was just a lucky shot?" chapter ten - drive home Chapter ten "Would you believe me if I said that it was just a lucky shot?" Kazimir just looked at me and said, " I am former KGB , you just shot the perpetrator from a respectable distance holding a gun that was customized improperly in a grip that would make any professional laugh his ass off, with a stance more appropriate for swing dance than shooting ,using a glock nineteen, a gun notorious for it''s inaccuracy and recoil which you then proceeded to set in the semiautomatic setting which is used to spray bullets without caring were they landed and you somehow hit the same spot fifteen times. No I will not believe that it was just a lucky shot." Sergei just laughed until he started shaking which quickly reminded him of his injury and cut his laughter short. Kazimir quickly bent over Sergei''s injured leg and started to inspect it, "The leg seems alright, the wound might look bad because it bled a lot but it is actually pretty light. I have a first aid kit in the car along with some antiseptics, I will bandage you up and you should be right as rain. You wouldn''t even have to go to the hospital. Ms Sophia let me take the gun , this is not something you can explain but I still have some people in the KGB who owe me a few favors so I should be alright. If anybody asks I shot the perpetrator as he attacked the two of you." I immediately complied with his instructions but Sergei was doubtful, "Are you sure Kazimir, I am pretty sure I was shot in my leg. It feels serious, maybe I should get a doctor to look at it." Kazimir sighed dramatically and said,"Didn''t I just say I was from the KGB? Am I not getting through to you? If there is one thing I know it is gunshot wounds, and that my friend is not a gunshot wound. I mean think about it, why would the man shoot a person he wanted to kidnap? The most likely scenario is that you saw the muzzle of the tranquilizer gun that is laying there next to the body and panicked losing control of your motorcycle and crashing which is probably how you got that wound. Now if you are done second guessing me I have to go get bandages for your leg before you bleed to death." I looked at Sergei and he looked back at me with a painful expression on his face, not of physical pain but the kind of pain that is caused by excessive embarrassment," Don''t you dare do it Sophia, if you value our friendship don''t you dare do it!" I tried, God knows I tried. I am sure I busted two ribs trying to suppress it but I just couldn''t stop it in the end. I started laughing my ass off," You weren''t even shot.......HAHAHA......you panicked and fell from your bike...HAHAHA.....oh god that was pathetic, I always knew you were a whiny baby but that was ridiculous." Sergei just looked down and said," You are never going to let me forget this are you?" "What do you think? But all joking aside you know what this means right?" "*sigh*... What?" "I just saved your ass from getting kidnapped. This is worth like twenty girls. I won''t have to do your homework this month and it should cover me for at least four more months." "You know you have a serious problem right?" "Oh shut up cry baby." * * * When the cops arrived they put us all in handcuffs until Kazimir made his magic phone call and we were all suddenly free to go. We got into the Bentley, which was looking less than pristine with the driver''s side window missing which reminded me, "Hey Kazimir , how did you bust the window? I thought they were bulletproof." "No, the Mercedes is bulletproof. The Bentley is just tinted." Well that was news to me , but I had more important things to talk to him about, "Kazimir, you cannot tell mom and dad about what just happened, especially mom." Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Kazimir took his eyes off the road to take a look at me, "And what exactly did happen back there?" Sergei also looked curious, "Actually that is something I would also like to know." I took a deep breath and started talking," What I am about to tell you is so incredible that you will probably not believe me if I just told you, so I am going to start with a demonstration," I put my hands over Sergei''s injury so that they could be sure that it was me doing what was about to happen then I concentrated on it a little and healed him. For a second there was silence in the car. Sergei looked flabbergasted and just kept looking for his wound as if he could find it if he looked hard enough. What surprised me though was Kazimir''s reaction, instead of a bewildered look he had a contemplative expression on his face. "Kazimir, you seem much calmer than you should be," "Oh, I''m quite shocked but you can''t work in some of the places I''ve worked in and not come into contact with some very strange things. There have always been whispers of the supernatural in the KGB, this just confirmed some of my suspicions." Sergei was much less calm, " Well I don''t know anything about this so Sophia can you please explain what is happening because I''m starting to freak out here." I told them that I had the power to heal and a few other things(I didn''t tell them the full breadth of my power, that would be stupid) , then I told them everything I knew about the Atelli. I told them what they were, how they hid among us using the faces of the people that they have taken over but on the inside they would be twisted and monstrous versions of themselves. Kazimir looked at me again, "How do you know so much about them ? According to you this things haven''t spread much yet, what is your connection to them?" "Mom is one of them Kazimir, I''m pretty sure the company she works for, Fairweather Tec, is controlled by the Atelli." "How long Sophia, how long have you known?" "Since the very beginning." "And you didn''t think to say anything?" "Before today would you even have believed me?" "Alright , fine you are right. If you had said anything before all this you would have only exposed yourself to danger, but if what you say is true she is a threat to Andrei and needs to be eliminated." "I already thought of that , won''t work. If we kill her it would only attract their attention to him and put him in danger. I''ve been doing some research on the internet and all the Atelli I saw have normal looking families, I think it''s part of their cover to conceal their true identities. As long as he is part of her cover story dad is safe. I know it is a terrible thing to do but unless we are willing to live the rest of our lives on the run and being hunted by the Atelli we cannot kill Marina." Sergei was finally able to speak," Your mom is one of those things? Ms Marina? But she is always so nice......wait , did you say Fairweather Tec? That''s the name of the company that has been buying up property at the docks recently, father thought that it was suspicious that they started around the same time as the attacks but he checked them out and their company was legit. Why would they want the docks?" Kazimir answered him,"Why would anyone want a dock? To take something out or bring something in. The docks here in St Petersburg are low key, barely monitored by anybody except the mob. Take out the mob and they get a place were they can import or export virtually anything that they want." The question was what would the Atelli want to smuggle so badly that they were willing to compromise their cover to get control of the docks. chapter eleven - Hello Kitty Chapter eleven By the time we arrived at my house it had gotten very late . My parents were waiting for us outside with looks of worry on their faces, although I doubt they were both worried about the same thing. Kazimir got out of the car first , I opened the passenger side door and got out next but we deliberately delayed Sergei''s exit. Although Kazimir believed my story he still wanted to confirm whether what I was saying about Marina was true or not. He came up with a very simple plan. The man that was sent to kidnap Sergei was acting alone and Kazimir was sure there were no spotters which meant that the Atelli probably didn''t know that the kidnapping had failed. The plan was to delay Sergei''s exit from the car so that we could see Marina''s reaction clearly without her pretend relief at seeing me getting in the way. When I got out of the car I could see the look of relief on dad''s face the pretend relief on Marina''s face. I could pinpoint the exact moment that Sergei got out of the car because just for a second her eyes widened and her mouth slackened in pure shock before she could get herself under control. She eventually returned her expression to that of relief but it was too late, Kazimir had seen it and as confirmation he looked at me and gave me a little nod. All of this happened in a few seconds , and that was all it took for dad to make it to me . He gave me a big hug then started to speak in that tone that parents use when they are worried and upset,"Oh thank God you''re OK. I was so worried , you are never this late without calling first or arranging it beforehand. You better have a good explanation young lady and why is the window of the car broken?" "Don''t freakout dad but we sort of got attacked by somebody, but Kazimir handled it so it''s OK." "What ? You were attacked? By who? Does this have something to do with Sergei''s father? I told you not associate yourself with him, but you never listen to me! You aren''t romantically involved are you?" "First of all, ewwwww( Sergei in the back ground:"Hey! I''m not that gross!"). Second of all he is standing right there and can hear you so please watch what you are saying.( Sergei in the back ground:"Why don''t you take your own advice!"). He is my best friend dad, how could you ask me to abandon my one true friend because of his father?" Marina stepped into the conversation," She is right honey, you can''t dictate who she can be friends with. Now can you please tell me exactly what happened? You are being very vague about what occurred." "It really was nothing , a man attacked Sergei then Kazimir shot him through the window. He was in a hurry to save Sergei so he had to shoot through the glass of the window. The man died and after talking to the police we came straight home." Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Her eyes bulged in shock again, "The man is dead? Are you sure? Where did Kazimir shoot him?" Her questions were getting so weird that even dad was looking at her strangely. I''m sure that if there was any doubt left in Kazimir''s mind it was gone now. She finally played it off as being concerned and wanting to know the details of the situation. After we told them our heavily doctored version of the story and dad calmed down, he thanked Kazimir and we all sat down and ate our dinner. That night I was in my bed asleep when a light knock woke me up. I wore my silk robe and fluffy pink slippers and went to check who it was. When I opened the door Kazimir was there holding a flashlight along with Sergei who looked as tired as me in his hello kitty pajamas. I was going to speak when Kazimir put his finger to his mouth signalling for silence, he then motioned me to follow him and started going down the hallway. Both Sergei and I followed him although we were so tired we probably resembled zombies. He led us through a side door and into the garden. When we got outside I started having a whispered conversation with Sergei, "Hey, do you know what this is all about? By the way I like your PJs." "I have no idea, and very funny with the PJs. Now give me back my black satin pajamas, that stuff was expensive." "Oh but you look so cute with a cartoon kitten on your butt." While we were talking Kazimir had led us to the corner of the large garden hidden in the bushes where I have never noticed it before was an old shed. He led us inside the old shed were there were some garden tools and a lawn mower. Then he started to speak while rummaging through a drawer," This house was built on the land of an older house that was condemned and demolished fifteen years ago. Andrei bought this particular house because I told him to, but what he didn''t know was that the older house was heavily remodeled during the soviet era. A very rich but paranoid man named Boris Petrovic used to live here and during the heights of the cold war he was terrified of a nuclear attack so he built a secret bunker. When the old house was knocked down they never found the bunker, they just built the new house and forgot the bunker even existed," he seemed to have finally found what he was looking for because there was a click and a part of the floor fell away. "Welcome to Petrovic''s bunker." chapter twelve - conscripted Chapter twelve We went down a ladder that led down from the hole in the ground to a hatch that reminded me of those on the submarines I have seen in movies and pictures. Kazimir twisted the giant wheel at the center and opened the hatch. We then went further down some stairs in complete darkness with only Kazimir''s flashlight to guide us until we reached a wall and by Kazimir''s flashlight I could see that there were at least five large switches on it. Kazimir then walked up to the wall and flipped all the switches. There was a flickering of light and then sudden brightness flooded the space around us as florescent lights turned on above our heads and illuminated an unbelievable scene. We were standing in a giant room that would have been the wet dream of any secret agent. On one side was a long shooting range set up with paper targets placed at different distances, and right next to that was a shelf of assorted guns , knives and enough ammo to outfit a small militia all arranged neatly. On the other side was a bank of monitors connected to what appeared to be big boxes with lots of blinking lights, now I am no computer expert but I was pretty sure that those were servers and the whole thing was a mainframe computer. When I looked closer at the monitors some of them seemed to be showing live feeds from cameras inside the house, some of which I didn''t even know existed. On the third and final side(we came from one side so that makes four) it was almost empty, the only things there were some chairs and a table, although I did notice some rolled up mats that they use for judo and other martial arts. I just stood there gawking and turned to Kazimir with an incredulous expression on my face," I thought you said you were Ex-KGB ?" He huffed and said," There is no such thing as Ex-KGB. Once you are KGB you don''t quit or retire unless you die." He then led us to the table and offered us seats which we gladly accepted. He didn''t sit down but instead started to pace back and forth, finally he cleared his throat and started to speak,"Alright now that I''m sure we won''t be overheard let''s talk about what we need to do about the Atelli." Sergei cut in," What are we supposed to do about enemies that we can''t even tell apart from our friends? Hell even if we could tell them apart somehow, according to Sophia they are all different shapes and their body structure varies from one to the other so we can''t even know how to properly kill them." Kazimir turned to me and put on a grim smile before continuing,"You are absolutely right, the two of us can do almost nothing against these creatures so we aren''t going to do anything but supply support, our main operative is going to be Sophia." "Wait , did you just conscript me into service? Are you really still KGB?" "It''s not that cut and dry, do you know who Andrei''s father is?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. "No, it is one of the things he refuses to tell me. Whenever I ask him he gets really quiet and secretive." "Well his father is one of Russia''s richest people ,the oil oligarch Victor Usmanov. When Andrei decided to cut his ties with Victor and become a doctor I was ''retired'' from the KGB as a personal favor from the director to Victor since they were close friends. Naturally Andrei hired me because all the other candidates for butler were unable to make it to the interview due to mysterious circumstances. So now I am not officially part of the KGB but as you can see I still have access to their resources and I still maintain my connections with them. What I am suggesting is not for you to join the KGB but for you to fight the Atelli while I take care of law enforcement for you like I did earlier today and supply you with information that you may need, I would also like to train you a little in combat, I would at least like to show you how to properly shoot a gun." I thought about it a little but it was a no brainer , I wanted to fight the plague that is the Atelli before they spread anymore. From what I have seen so far they have been moving in a coordinated manner to achieve some goal, and I had a feeling that if they succeeded the Atelli problem would get much worse . Here I was being offered a chance to fight them in a way that was meaningful and would make a difference. In the end there was only one decision I could make, "Alright fine. But I get to pick what missions I go on, you can''t force me to do anything without my consent." "That''s fine with me , I wasn''t going to force you to do anything anyway." Sergei once again cut in," So she is the operative and you are going to be the source of her training and Intel. Why am I here?" "You are going to be supplying us with any information you can get on the mob, we need a way to make a connection to them so we can monitor the situation closely and find out what is going on." I was a little alarmed by where this was going," Why would we need to make a connection the mob? Can''t we monitor things from afar?" "Because the Atelli are gunning for the mob. Right now our one and only goal is to deny them anything that they want and right now they want to crush the mob and take the docks. In the end it boils down to the old saying '' the enemy of my enemy might not be my friend but I''ll help him out to hurt my enemy'' I might have taken a few liberties with that saying so excuse me." Did he just tell me that he was going to make me team up with the mob for my first mission? I guess they were the lesser of two evils when compared to the Atelli. A.n. sorry for the late chapters, exams are approaching so expect more sporadic releases. chapter thirteen - getting ready Chapter thirteen The next day Sergei went home and found out that the meeting had concluded with the decision to hire all the mercenaries and hired guns available in Russia to eliminate the new threat, apparently the mob was unable to kill even one of them so they decided to outsource the work. The invitation was sent out to every assassin and killer with a simple message, come one come all. To make sure that the offer looked attractive enough the mob promised total immunity from the local cops and a hundred thousand dollar reward per head of any enemy combatant. There was going to be another meeting five days from the first one to discuss specifics with interested parties. Kazimir decided that this was going to be a perfect opportunity to insert myself in with the mob. On the date of the mission I was in the underground bunker getting my hair cut and makeup done by Kazimir. Who would have thought that the hard as nails forty year old KGB agent would be an expert makeup artist, but then again the most important part of being a spy is disguising yourself and blending in so in the end it really wasn''t all that surprising. He was changing my appearance to look like a certain assassin who goes by the name Persephone. Ms Persephone was a member of a female only assassin organization called sweet poison. The notorious group was famous for impersonating prostitutes to get close to their targets and poisoning them with a special slow acting poison that was nearly undetectable. In three days the unsuspecting victim who would be completely fine except for some light coughing similar to a cold, would suddenly drop from a painful heart attack and die. The group was highly successful and operated in Moscow, apparently always one step ahead of the authorities, but they got too cocky and accepted a contract on the son of one of the president''s dear friends. They never even got close, before they could even make the attempt their whole organization was systematically found and destroyed. Very few people know what had happened to them and today we were going to take advantage of that fact. I was going to go to the meeting as Persephone, the youngest member of sweet poison. She was currently in a black site KGB facility in Siberia along with the rest of her colleagues so it was unlikely that they could blow my cover. As the newest member she had not had the time to make herself known in the underground community so it should be alright if I go in posing as her. As for how I was going to transform into her, I left that part to Kazimir and he didn''t disappoint. By the time he was done I had very short black spiky hair(at first he was going to use a wig but after he learned that I could ''heal'' my hair back he cut it for real), my green eyes were covered by contact lenses that made them an eerie shade of violet, and he put expert makeup on my face that made me look like I was ten years older. He also made me wear tight leather pants and a black top with small intricate blue flowers stitched along the sides and the edges of a flaring collar framing a large cleavage that was showing off my rather impressive bust that was further emphasized by a special bra. I was also wearing a thick and billowous leather jacket with a fur collar to keep myself from freezing to death in the chilly weather. As a finishing touch he put several fake tattoos here and there and put a clip-on on my nose to make it look like a piercing. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. After he put on the finishing touches I couldn''t even recognize the woman in the mirror, and going by the expression on Sergei''s face neither could he. He stared at me and said,"I know we have been through this in the sixth grade but would you go out on a date with me?" "Answer is still no Sergei, but thanks for asking." Kazimir cleared his throat to grab our attention , "Alright , there are a few things you need to know before going in and I''ve put in a short summary inside of this folder so study this for the next hour and a half. This gum I''m about to give you was designed specially to alter voices, as you chew the gum it slowly releases a compound that acts as a mild tissue relaxant. It will loosen your vocal chords a little and make your voice deeper. Other than that there are two guns in the holsters on your belt and a very small caliber gun in an inside pocket of your jacket. You are not to take any action when in that meeting, this is only a fact finding mission. Your job is to collect information on what the mob have on the Atelli and how hard they have been hit. I would advise that you just go there and listen with minimum interaction with anybody there. Here is your invitation card to the meeting, it''s genuine so you don''t have to worry about getting in. Be careful, this isn''t a very high priority mission so safety first. I wish you luck on your first mission." "Wait , how do I get there?" He held up a key that had the famous logo of the golden bull on it. "You''re getting there in style." A.n. Just had an awesome exam , thanks everyone chapter fourteen - pre-meeting Chapter fourteen The yellow center lines on the road passed underneath the Lamborghini Mercielago so quickly that they started to blur into one continuous line as I put more force on the gas pedal making the engine roar. I was just seventeen and not even a fully licensed driver yet, but with a little help from my power to avoid collisions here and there and also to avoid any attention from the traffic police I was flying down the highway at absurd speeds. The feeling I got was indescribable, the rush of traveling at that speed while weaving through traffic like it was a video game was downright addicting. As I heard the engine make sweet sweet music I started to wonder how I was going to make Kazimir let me keep this beauty because I just couldn''t imagine living my life without her anymore, I loved this car and I was going to do my damnedest to make her mine. Sooner than I would have liked I arrived at the venue where the meeting was going to take place, a fancy hotel and restaurant that had connections , unsubstantiated of course, with the mob. I regretfully handed over my keys to the valet who gave me a ticket in return, not quite a fair deal but whatever. I heard a car coming behind me and when I turned around I saw a man getting out of his silver Porsche . He had sandy brown hair and very striking looks that probably made women weak in the knees , that was probably what he expected when he displayed his bright white teeth at me in a smile but I wasn''t fooled , the smile might have looked friendly but it was as friendly as when a shark did it. According to the files that Kazimir had given me this handsome looking man is one of Russia''s top assassins. His name was Vadim Grekov and he liked to do his killings up close and personal. His weapons of choice were usually knives and other assorted blades but that wasn''t what earned him the name Grekov the butcher. We Russians are a hardened folk, unlike in america or Europe we don''t throw around titles like the butcher lightly so when he was called the butcher it wasn''t an exaggeration. Aside from killing for money he had a nasty habit of kidnapping young women , torturing and raping them for days and leaving their mangled remains in chemical waste. The police knew that he did it, in most of these cases he was reported to be the last one to see these women but since there was no physical evidence to link him to the crimes he always walked out of the police station with a smug grin upon his face and now he was directing that smug grin upon me. "That is one sweet ride you have little lady but I think you should go to another restaurant tonight, this one has been closed for a private event. I can take you to this great little Italian place downtown if you want, best spaghetti you will ever eat even better than in Italy. What do you say? My treat." It was chilling to see how normal he looked while saying that, most women wouldn''t even think twice before accepting his offer. I tried to control my expression as I returned his smile even if it didn''t look even a little real or sincere, "Oh I am here for the private function and I wouldn''t have gone with you anyway Mister Grekov, I know better . Now if you will excuse me ,I believe the meeting is about to start." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. He blocked my way still smiling,"Now hold on,that doesn''t seem very fair. You know my name but I don''t know yours, I think you should introduce yourself to even things out." I raised one eyebrow and said,"You can call me Persephone if you have to call me anything at all but Mister Grekov," I gave him a hard look that made it clear that I wasn''t intimidated or amused by his actions,"I would rather not associate myself with people like you," I pushed past him and he extended his hand in a smooth practiced move that was deceptively quick to try and catch my arm but I was able to evade him and he missed," and Mister Grekov a word of advice, don''t practice your little hobby in St Petersburg or you might find that it is your mangled body that is going to be found dumped in chemical waste." Before he could say anything else I was already through the front door of the restaurant , showing my invitation papers to the armed guards at the door. Right past the door was a security checkpoint where a large man with a metal wand told me to take off my jacket . The lobby was nice and warm so I couldn''t really complain and did what he said. All the male eyes in the lobby and some of the female ones were suddenly aimed at my chest, but the big man with the metal wand didn''t even flinch and remained completely professional which actually made me start to like the giant man. He thoroughly checked both me and my jacket finding all three guns. He looked at the small caliber pistol that looked like a toy in his giant mitts and started to laugh, he then said "You know what, you can keep this one." and gave it right back to me. I wasn''t going to look a gift horse in the mouth so I just said thank you to the giant and put the little gun in my pocket. The other two guns were taken and I was given a ticket that I could use to check them out with my jacket later. One of the hotel staff, a pretty brunette with a very curvy body stuffed into a tight dress, led me to a door that had ''reception hall A'' on it. After showing me to the door she turned to leave. When she was passing me I couldn''t help but to ''accidentally'' brush up against her and feel some of her glorious curves. She didn''t seem to mind, in fact I could have sworn the switch in her walk became slightly more exaggerated afterwards. I guess I had something to look forward to when this meeting was over. I opened the door to the reception hall and entered, it was time to go to work. chapter fifteen - the super hero Chapter fifteen The first thing I noticed when I got into the reception hall was the music, for some reason Luciano Pavarotti was blaring loudly from the speakers. Next thing I noticed were the giant crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. They were an eclectic mix of contemporary, modern ,and classic designs that combined with the colorful and plush rug to create a very beautiful space without being gaudy. There were high backed chairs by the walls of the room, four to a table, leaving the center empty . People in formal wear were walking around , drifting from group to group making pleasant conversation. My thoughts were that it didn''t look like one of the biggest collection of killers in Russia, if anything it looked very refined and civilized. My aim was to remain as inconspicuous as possible so I took a seat at the darkest corner of the room. On the table there were a variety of drinks but what drew my attention were the files that were in front of each seat. I picked one up and started to read what was inside. I had hit the mother load, the file contained all the information I came here to get . There were the locations of attacks , descriptions from survivors that read like horror stories, and grainy pictures taken from security cameras that showed what looked like monsters attacking people. It seems that the Atelli''s cloaking abilities only go so far, when they go all out it appears that their disguise slips. I was digesting this new piece of information when a rough voice next to me said, "Unbelievable isn''t it." I looked over the file that I was reading to see who it was and was met by a masked face. The man was wearing a nice light powder blue suit ,white shirt ,a silver necktie ,white gloves and a cane with a sparkling blue gem at the tip, but what really set him apart was the full face mask he was wearing that was a blank white with small golden sparrows taking flight from his right cheek. He was also listed in the file that was given to me by Kazimir. According to the file the only known alias for the man in front of me was Mike. Known for his colorful attire and different masks, he is usually not associated with the mob or people of that nature. He was more of a vigilante type although he has been known to take contracts on what he considers unsavory people. He had no problem taking money from one bad guy to kill another. According to his bio he was a master of almost every field of combat and also very clever. He doesn''t like to brag or try to get recognized , he was very quiet. He does his job and disappears. If he was anything like what the file said he didn''t seem like a bad guy so I politely replied, "If this is going to strain your imagination I suggest you go elsewhere , I happen to know for a fact that this pictures are not doctored or fake. This creatures are real and things are going to get very dangerous in St Petersburg ." If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "You seem to be knowledgeable about these ''creatures'' as you call them, what are they?" "You would not believe me if I told you." "At this point I think it would be pointless for me to be skeptical, I will hear what you say and consider it seriously." "Alright then, if you insist. These things are a special type of evil spirit that can posses people. You see here in the footage," I showed him the pictures before the monster dropped its mask," that is the man possessed by the spirit. The possession caused him to mutate into this monster, he wasn''t transforming into a monster when the picture was taken he was already one, just hiding himself, or rather itself. " "Assuming what you say is true is there anyway to banish the evil spirits and save the person?" The fact that he wanted to save the person and not just destroy the monster made me like him even more," Sadly no, the person is already gone , his soul mutilated beyond all hope and assimilated by the spirit to create that thing in the picture. The only way to stop them is to kill them, but that is easier said than done as the mob found out. Look I like you, I am not trying to hog the bounty or anything but I honestly would like you to let this one go, the risks are ridiculous." His mask covered his entire face but I could almost feel him smile as he said, "It''s rare for people to worry about my well being, especially in these circles so thank you, but this creatures are killing innocents along with the mobsters. They need to be stopped and I am going to do my best to make sure these bastards answer for everything they have done. Oh, I almost forgot what''s your name? Mine is Mike." "Persephone, nice to meet you mike. It was nice speaking to you, I hope you have good luck on your hunt." He was about to reply when we were interrupted by one of the waitresses, "I am sorry to interrupt but Mr Mikailov would like to have a private word with you." I thought that the waitress meant Mike , he must have also thought so because he got up and said,"It has truly been a pleasure Ms Persephone, I hope we meet again." The waitress stopped him with a raised hand, " I don''t think you understand, Mr Mikailov wants to speak to both of you." I was very surprised by that, I didn''t think I rated a meeting with the boss. The waitress saw my confusion and added,"He said to tell you that he thought that your conversation was very interesting." It seems our conversation wasn''t as private as I would have liked. I got up and followed the waitress together with Mike. My ''remain inconspicuous'' plan wasn''t working out very well but I guess I had to roll with the punches. chapter sixteen - seeing double Chapter sixteen I expected her to lead us to some back room or private area but the waitress led us to the center of the room instead. It seems while we were talking a big table was set up right in the middle of the room underneath the biggest chandelier, it was almost as if the inhabitants wanted to be on display which I thought was odd because I thought that would be the last thing you want to do in a room filled with assassins and killers. When we were a few steps from the table a well built man with the exact same features as Sergei except for being older stood up with his arms widespread in a grand gesture that was way too dramatic for the situation, many things about the situation were too strange for my liking, why was the head of an organization currently under attack being so visible in public? Shouldn''t he be holed up in a very deep hole somewhere? Vladimir Mikailov may be a physically intimidating man but his title was the puppeteer, he is known for manipulating people and situations in his favor without getting dirt on his hand and unlike previous macho mob bosses he was the type to hide when things got too hot. He might sound like a coward but he was the longest reigning and most successful mob boss ever, but now he suddenly grew a spine and was exposing himself to danger, something was definitely off. I looked closely at the man who had the same face as my best friend and something wasn''t quite right. This wasn''t the first time I have met Mr Mikailov, in fact I have met him many times when I went to Sergei''s house and something about the slope of his forehead or the shape of his nose, I don''t know what it was but I knew the man in front of me wasn''t Mr Mikailov. Then it finally clicked in my mind, it was a trap. The man in front of me was a double being used as bait to attract enemy attention, he was literally on display to make him an irresistible target. That was why he was acting so grandiose, as I was having my little epiphany the Mikailov double started to speak, "Welcome Persephone , Mike. Come take a seat and grab a drink, I want to hear more about the interesting things you were talking about earlier. Persephone you say you know that this monsters are evil spirits? I didn''t know that sweet poison dabbled in the paranormal." Mike''s face turned from Vladimir to me and back again, "You are a member of sweet poison?" His whole attitude towards me suddenly changed,his voice was cold and he wasn''t even looking at me when he asked me the question. "Oh my, you didn''t know, but I guess that is why they are so successful. They have a way of insidiously worming into people''s hearts using their beauty , I think that the fact that their poison attacks the same organ is almost poetic. So Miss Persephone was all you said just clever nonsense to snare poor unsuspecting innocent Mike or do you actually know anything?" If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I was seriously pissed at the pompous asshole standing before me, he hadn''t even waited for us to sit down before he started to bash my reputation in front of the only halfway decent man in the room, his arrogant and patronizing attitude made me want to choke him with his own tongue. I leaned in closer to the double and started to whisper into his ear," I think that dressing up as Vladimir is making you think that you are him, but you have to remember pretending to be a dragon doesn''t make you one. The thing you have to keep in mind is that he has power, you do not. He is untouchable, you are not. You might think that you are safe but ask yourself do you think a man like him doesn''t have other doubles? Do you think you were his first or going to be his last double? Why do you think you are here , left to wriggle around like a worm at the end of a fishing line to attract the fish. You do know that the worm doesn''t survive right? So worm , any other smart ass comments about me?" His arrogance suddenly vanished. I was close to him so I could see his pupils constrict into points and the blood drain out of his face, small beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. The look on his face was very amusing, it was the look of a man who pulled on a tail of what he thought was a harmless cat and got an alligator instead. He started to shake a little and quietly replied, "I''m sorry, I''m just trying to do my job." "No you are a two bit impersonator who got high on borrowed power. Your job isn''t to harass me, that was all you." While we were having our little whispered conversation we had attracted the attention of quite a few people and by the time I realized what I had done it was already too late. They didn''t know that I was talking to a double , to them it looked like I was threatening the head of the mob and scaring the crap out of him with a few words. I tried to back away and look as inoffensive as possible, but that ship had already sailed, everybody was now looking at me speculatively and to make things even worse at that exact moment a black haired man who looked unremarkable in any way entered the room. Problem was that the man was Atelli. chapter seventeen - big finish Chapter seventeen If I didn''t know what it was I would have found its form quite comical. The Atelli that had just entered the room looked like a human sized gummy bear. As it slowly waddled to us with its awkward shuffling gait, the lime green gelatinous mass shaped like a bear didn''t look threatening at all, but I had a bad feeling in my gut as it got closer and closer. For one thing he was one of the more outlandish looking Atelli I have ever seen and that was not a good thing. The more human like Atelli have weaknesses similar to humans like hearts, brains and other sensitive organs even if they are armored or deformed, this one had no such weaknesses. In fact I could see right through him and there was nothing in there to indicate any vital organs or any organs at all, he was completely clear. I put my hand in my pocket to grasp my tiny gun, even though I was sure that firing a low caliber bullet at that thing would be pointless it still reassured me a little and helped me to think. I turned to the fake Mikailov and looked him straight in the eye, "Listen carefully to what I am about to say, your trap has worked. The one sent to kill you is a man with dark hair , clean shaven and wearing a lime green necktie. Now don''t panic, simply inform the guards what is happening." "What are you talking about? You have already made your point, you don''t need to make up stories to scare me." "I swear if you don''t do what I say I''m going to break your damn nose, the man sent to kill you is straight in front of you, a little towards your left , I would say around 11 o''clock." "Who that guy? He doesn''t look that tough." , and the idiot started to point right at the Atelli. I was sorely tempted to just walk away and let the Atelli have him. Hell I was tempted to put a bullet in his forehead myself and end his misery, but I was raised by caring people(mother not included , I''m talking about father and the people at the orphanage) and because of that I resisted the urge to shoot the dimwitted bastard and instead focused on Mr gummy bear. When I turned back to look at him he had noticed the idiot''s pointing and was raising his hand with his palm facing towards us. Looking closely I could see crystalline spikes forming inside his gelatinous arms. Suddenly the spikes shot out his palms towards us, at the same time the double vision I always get when seeing one of the Atelli stopped as the thing''s disguise failed and its true form was revealed in all its glory. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I was going to use my power to make the spikes miss but that became unnecessary as Mike stepped in front of me and deflected the spikes by spinning his cane in quick precise motions, then he crouched slightly in what looked like a martial arts stance, I had to admit he looked really cool doing that. As for everybody else once the Atelli was exposed, each one of the guests took out some weapon secreted somewhere upon their body and started throwing them at the thing. In addition to that hidden gunmen with M-16 rifles started raining bullets at it from the roof and hidden compartments in the wall, but it was to no avail. The bullets and different weapons thrown at it simply entered the gummy bear doing no discernible damage to it whatsoever. They just hung there like fruit in jello. He kept shooting spikes at us as he got closer but Mike kept deflecting them with his twirling cane. When he was a few steps from us he crystalized his whole arm into giant blades and leaped at us. Mike was going to step forward and engage the gelatinous monstrosity but I pulled him back as I pointed my tiny gun and took my shot. It didn''t matter how I used my power, there was no way that I could kill the gummy bear by shooting it, but I wasn''t shooting at the gummy bear. I was shooting straight up. The small bullet left my gun and thanks to my power hit the weakest point in the chain that was keeping the giant chandelier above us from falling. When the chain snapped, the giant iron and crystal construct fell down upon the gummy bear , Mike, the fake Mikailov, and me. When the smoke cleared, beneath the twisted wreckage of the chandelier there was nothing but a green smear where the gummy bear used to be and miraculously(thanks to my power) three people standing perfectly in position between the arms of the chandelier absolutely unharmed. I had used my power to guide how the chandelier fell and deformed so we could make our ''lucky'' escape. The people around us were looking at us with open mouthed disbelief. The two men next to me were also frozen in shock and looking at me. I knew it was probably a bad idea not to mention childish and dorky but I just couldn''t help myself. As everybody was watching I slowly raised my gun to my lips and blew on its tip just like they used to do in old westerns. chapter eighteen - wing the magical penguin Chapter eighteen After my little dramatic flare I turned towards the green smear that was underneath the chandelier and saw something quite alarming, the puddle of green goo was starting to quiver and move. For a second I thought it was going to pull itself back together and we would have to fight round two. If that happened our bacons would probably be toast because I doubt the chandelier trick would work a second time, but thankfully it was just the Atelli fragment leaving its host causing the body to revert back into its human form, or in this case bits and pieces of meat floating in a puddle of blood. It was quite disgusting , especially for the fake Mikailov and Mike who had been splashed by the stuff when the Atelli got crushed. For some mysterious reason(my powers) I had escaped from the incident completely clean so I didn''t suffer the same fate. Just like last time when the fragment was completely free of the body , I quickly used my power to crush the defenseless Atelli fragment before it could flee. Since the fragment was invisible nobody even noticed that I did anything. They just saw the green smear turn into a red smear. "Alrighty then, I believe that concludes my business here for today," I took out a card and gave it to the closest of Mikailov''s goons, "Here is my number , it''s secure but I''m sure your people will verify that. Well it has been one hell of a party , very entertaining but I have places to go and things to do so goodnight everybody. This has been fun, let''s do it again." Before anybody could recover from their shock I picked up one of the files on the nearest table and walked right out the door. I took out my cellphone and started to dial Kazimir ,"Hello Kazimir? I''m okay , everything went swimmingly. I have the information you wanted and I am on my way, I''ll be there in about half an hour," as I was walking towards the lobby I spotted the curvy hotel employee from before still packed into her tight dress," Kazimir make that two and a half hours, there is a big pile up in front of me and it could take hours for the authorities to move the wrecked cars. Bye now, see you later." I quickly hung up and approached the curvaceous beauty , maybe I could convince her to show me to the women''s restroom. We didn''t even make it that far, three minutes later we were in a utility closet nearby and as to what we were doing, I don''t kiss and tell. But what I can say was that the makeup that Kazimir used was very smear resistant and that I enjoyed the tramp stamp of my favorite cartoon character, Wing: the magic penguin, that Tanya(that was her name) had on her lower back. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Nearly three hours later we both left the utility closet adjusting our dresses and hair, thankfully I didn''t have much hair to mess up. Tanya programmed her number into my cellphone and walked away. I went to the parking lot, wary that someone would stop me but it seems that everybody had left while I was having my little stress relief session. I retrieved my coat , my guns and my car and drove all the way home. I entered the secret bunker and there I found Kazimir taking a nap on one of his judo mats and Sergei watching something on one of the mainframe''s screens. Kazimir immediately woke up and started grilling me on what had happened. I told him everything that I could remember without leaving anything out. "So let me get this straight, instead of doing what I told you to do ,which was to talk to nobody unless you needed to , the first thing you did was threaten a notorious serial killer, followed by talking about information you should be pretending you did not have with a guy in a mask that was claiming to be the legendary Mike and you topped that off with scaring the Mikailov double in front of everybody and followed that up by killing one of the Atelli using a chandelier, did I miss anything." "Hey, it wasn''t that bad. Nobody died and I got to kill an Atelli, that''s a win win situation in my book. " Kazimir opened his moth ,closed it then opened it again. Finally he just shook his head and went out of the bunker without saying another word. I dragged a chair next to Sergei and sat down. When I looked at the screen he was looking at I saw that he was watching reruns of Wing: the magical penguin. He paused it and turned to me. "What took you so long? I checked the internet , there were no pileups on any of the roads you would have taken." When I remembered what I had been doing to be so late I couldn''t stop a grin from creeping on my face. "Let''s just say I was watching Wing as well." chapter nineteen - why indeed Chapter nineteen The next three days were very quiet, too quite as the saying went. Vladimir Mikailov didn''t call or attempt to contact me in any way. There were no more reports of attacks on the docks. It seemed like losing two of their own had spooked the Atelli and they were probably regrouping. Kazimir used this lull in activity to get more information on my powers. I tried to downplay it as much as possible but it was like trying to hide a bloody steak behind your back from a tiger, in the end he was able to drag a pretty accurate accounting of almost all my capabilities. He looked at me with a thoughtful expression with a finger tapping on his chin, " I think it is a good idea if you get martial arts training to complement your powers. Most of the Atelli seem to have forms that are bullet proof and even with your powers as things currently stand I doubt you would last long against one of them if they managed to get close to you. At first I wanted to teach you some Russian mixed martial arts but I don''t think you would be very suited to it, instead I think it would be better for you to meet my old partner and learn from her." "Why won''t you just teach me your mixed martial arts?". "Because your power would best be complimented by a fluid style that is more about movement and dodging. The martial arts I practice is more about stability and attacking from a position of strength, it is useless in creating the kinds of situations that could be manipulated by your power. For now you can forget about close combat training, at least until I can arrange lessons for you. I think the more pressing issue is that we need to find a way to increase your powers. From what you told me your endurance is very poor when it comes to your powers, in a protracted battle you would be very easily defeated. Isn''t there anyway you can increase your endurance?" "Well I could just practice, but that would tire me out pretty quickly. The best way to increase my powers that I have been able to find so far is to heal people in dad''s clinic, but even there I had to be very careful not to be discovered and because there wasn''t a lot I could do without attracting attention I was very limited in what I was able to accomplish. But whenever I was successful and healed a couple of people I could feel a noticeable increase in how long I can use my " "Wait a minute, doesn''t healing tire you out as well?" If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "No, the other things do but I can do healing easily." "So you are saying that if you found a way to go around healing people your endurance problem would be solved?" I could almost see a lightbulb turn on above his head as he suddenly got an idea. "Yeah, but I don''t think they let anybody into hospitals to see random patients, and besides even if I could somehow get in to heal everyone it would attract far too much attention." He didn''t even reply, he just got up and opened a panel cleverly hidden in the wall behind the chair I was sitting on. When I looked inside it was a huge closet filled with every kind of costume imaginable. Aside from a multitude of casual clothing I could see uniforms from different branches of law enforcement , EMTs , firefighters, and even the green scrubs of a surgeon. Hell I even saw the uniform of a fully decorated general complete with medals. I was curiously looking around at the many different getups when Kazimir went to the very back of the deep closet and came back with a very interesting article of clothing. He came back with the classic black and white nun costume complete with an old fashioned wimple . I could only stare as he started to explain his plan, "You are going to go in as a nun from a remote convent in the Ural mountains. They are known for their belief that prayer has the ability to heal. They go on pilgrimages to as many hospitals around Russia as they can to pray by the beds of as many of the sick and injured as they are able. They rarely come this far west but it has been known to happen now and then. The best part is that they have special dispensation from the government to enter any hospital and visit patients with the consent of their loved ones. When you heal people in this disguise you will still attract attention but the attention will be more on the fact that a miracle of God occurred because of prayer , which I believe will decrease the attention on you personally. Plus no one would suspect you have supernatural powers. So what do you think? And why are you looking at me like that?" "OK Kazimir, I am going to ask you a very important question , please think carefully before you answer it because it might affect our relationship forever." Kazimir started to frown a little," What is it? What is wrong?" "Kazimir, why do you have the dress of a nun in your closet?" chapter twenty - not quite human Chapter twenty(a little mature content) The next morning I was sitting on the couch in the living room in my pajamas eating cereal for breakfast and watching TV like I usually do when a news report caught my eye, "........Breaking news, the body of a mutilated woman was discovered in a vat of chemicals in the Zenith chemical manufacturing plant very early this morning, live at the scene here is Ivan." The camera then switched from the woman in the news studio to a man in front of a building. "Thank you Malvina, the scene was very grim this chilly morning here at the Zenith chemical plant as the police carted away what was left of the body of what the coroner''s office confirms was a young woman. The workers came in early like usual and were in the process of draining the vat in question when they discovered the body. There have been unsubstantiated reports that this was just the latest victim of the serial killer dubbed ''the butcher'' , I can however report that Vadim Grekov, the number one suspect in these murders has been seen in St Petersburg and is now in the custody of the St Petersburg police." "We have reported similar stories before and Mr Grekov always escapes from the charges against him because of the lack of evidence. Do the police have enough evidence to make it stick this time?" "It is unknown at this time Malvina, but I sincerely doubt it," then the man put a finger to his ear like reporters do when they get something on their earpieces, " Hold on, I''m getting a live update. It seems like the body of the deceased has been positively identified as twenty five year old Olesya Aksakova." They showed the picture of a pretty woman with short spiky black hair in the top right corner and continued the report , "and unlike the other murders this one had a typed note found at the scene hidden under the large tank of chemicals . It reads, ''What now Persephone?'' The police were unable to tell us what the cryptic note meant but are hoping the public will volunteer some information that would help them bring the butcher to justice. Over to you Malvina." I dropped the spoon that I was holding suspended halfway to my mouth. I felt completely numb as I watched the report but I was slowly starting to get some feeling back, and that feeling was rage, not the type of rage that burns hot and consumes you but the cold kind of rage that crystalizes intent and makes you focus. I quickly got up, went down to the bunker to grab a few guns and some duct tape. I also grabbed the keys to the Lamborghini on my way out. I put on the violet contacts but I didn''t have time to re-cut and dye my hair or put on makeup so instead I put on a mask I got for my last costume party. I went as the dark swan so my mask was made out of dark feathers that looked like they were from a raven. I walked to the carpark were I had parked the Lamborghini and drove it as quickly as possible to the police headquarters in St Petersburg . Once there I parked across the street and waited. Sure enough the smug bastard Grekov exited the police station with that annoying grin on his face. A man waiting outside gave him the keys to his silver Porsche which was waiting for him right in the parking lot in front of the station. Grekov got into his car and drove away with me hot on his heels. His driving was fast and unpredictable , probably to throw off any police tails, but I stayed on him. I was sure he had noticed me, specially because I wasn''t doing anything to hide. I knew that he probably suspected who I was. But I also knew that he was a narcissistic egomaniac. He probably thought that he was going to take me somewhere quiet and do the same things he did to the other girls. And as I had suspected we left the highways and started traveling in more and more remote areas until we were in a totally deserted stretch of road. I didn''t wait for us to reach our destination, I rolled my window down , took out my gun, and shot his left front tire. He lost control of the car that was traveling at seventy miles per hour and flipped several times before the wreckage came to a stop. I approached the smoldering vehicle pulled the unconscious Grekov out and healed him just enough so he wouldn''t die but not enough that he would wake up. I then proceeded to wrap him up in duct tape making him look like a silver mummy and stuffed him into the passenger seat of the Lamborghini. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. As I drove off I called Kazimir and asked him if he knew any places where companies illegally stored corrosive chemicals. He didn''t even ask me why I needed it, he just told me an address of a remote warehouse. A few minutes later I arrived at said warehouse. I forced the lock open and dragged Grekov inside. The setup was very simple , it was just a wide warehouse full of big barrels . I went to one of the barrels and opened the sealed lid. Inside was yellow sludge that was giving off a noxious smell. I wasn''t sure what it was but I was sure that it would be perfect for what I intended. I went back to Grekov and roughly removed the duct tape along with several layers of his skin. I wasn''t afraid that he would wake up and escape or hurt me . Both of his arms and legs were broken in multiple locations, he could barely even move. What he could do was scream as the duct tape was coming off and the pain forced him to wake up. He then started to blabber, "Is that you Persephone, of course it is you. I could recognize that fine ass anywhere. Hell, I was imagining I was banging that ass as I was raping the girl last night. So you are going to kill me by putting me in chemical waste, how very creative." "Oh, I''m not going to kill you Mr Grekov." "Of course you''re going to kill me, if you don''t I am going to find you and rape you until you die or is that what you want?" "I am not going to kill you, but by the time I am done with you, you are not going to be in any position to rape me or any other girls. You see Mr Grekov I gave you a friendly warning to leave the women in St Petersburg alone but you threw my goodwill back in my face . I originally was going to kill you like you said but now I''m going to do something much worse." I participate in many school sports so I was fairly strong and hoisting Grekov''s broken body into the barrel wasn''t very difficult for me. Immediately the chemicals started to dissolve his skin and his muscles making him squeal like a pig until his head was also submerged and the chemicals entered his mouth , shutting him up. He would have died in a couple of seconds but I continuously healed him so that he wouldn''t die, pass out from the pain or even asphyxiate. I made sure that he felt every moment of what those girls felt and I made him experience it again and again without any pause. Seven hours and several barrels later l healed him back to perfect condition, well at least physically. Psychologically he was a broken man. In his eyes there was nothing but pain and horror. He was trapped in a perpetual nightmare unable to perceive the world around him. He couldn''t talk , he couldn''t even move. He was completely catatonic. I looked at the slobbering mess that I had made out of a living breathing person and I waited for the guilt and disgust to come, but they never did. As I stood there I knew what I had just done would be characterized as evil and inhuman. But you know what? Fuck it, I wasn''t completely human to begin with anyway. chapter twenty one - phone call Chapter twenty one I was back at the bunker sitting in front of one of the screens and it was showing a live police conference. I had a cup of steaming hot chocolate in my hand, it was a habit from back when I was in the orphanage and Victoria used to give it to us when we were sick. With the day I had just had I thought I deserved one. Next to me on my left, sipping a cup of tea that he spiked with vodka when he thought I wasn''t looking was Sergei and to my right drinking his own cup of tea was Kazimir. The police officer displayed on the screen was the stereotypical slightly round man with a handle bar mustache that did little to hide his smile, "One hour ago police received a report that there was an unresponsive naked man found at the back of an office building. Two officers were dispatched to see what was going on and found a naked man with a sticky note on his forehead that read ''garbage'' dumped alongside the trashcans of the building. The officers immediately recognized the man as Vadim Grekov since they had seen him at the station that very same day. When the officers attempted to question him about what had happened to him they found him completely unresponsive. The concerned officers then took him to the psychiatric hospital where he now currently resides." All of the surrounding reporters started to raise their hands and wave them around to get the man''s attention, he eventually picked one of them, "Do you know what happened to Mr Grekov?" "According to the professional psychiatrists at the hospital , he is in deep psychosis caused by weeks , possibly months of intense torture but since we know this to be impossible we asked them whether the torture could be done in six to twelve hours. They all agreed that it was impossible to cause that type of trauma without causing the subject''s death. We called a medical doctor to do a complete physical checkup on Mr Grekov to check if there were any signs of torture. He came up with absolutely nothing, Mr Grekov is physically more fit than he has ever been in his life, even his cavities are gone. The conclusion that the doctors reached after consulting with each other was that a person used some sort of mind altering method like hypnosis to damage Mr Grekov''s psyche. " He chose another reporter who asked," Is there any truth to the rumors that the police aren''t taking this case seriously because of Mr Grekov allegedly being the butcher?" "The only thing we know is that Mr Grekov''s car was wrecked somewhere along route 49 and that he was found naked behind a building downtown completely unharmed, at least physically. There is no physical evidence to even indicate that a crime even took place." Another reporter," What do you say about reports that a bullet was retrieved from the tire of the wrecked car?" "No such evidence was reported or checked into our evidence locker, that means that the reports are mistaken." The police officer wasn''t even bothering to pretend to be serious as he answered that question. He was selecting the next reporter when the phone connected to the computer started to ring. Kazimir quickly muted the video and picked up the phone. I couldn''t hear both sides of the conversation so all I heard was, If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "Hello......yes, you can find that person here, who am I speaking to? .........oh I see, I shall get her right away." He mouthed the words ''Vladimir Mikailov'' and took out a stick of the voice altering gum to give to me. I chewed quietly for about a minute and took the phone from Kazimir. "I''m sorry for making you wait Mr Mikailov, I was a little busy when you called, how may I help you?" "I was just wondering the same tying. I had a background check run on your name and unless you can grow wings and fly all the way from Siberia , you are not the Persephone from sweet poison. Before we can proceed any further who are you really?" "I am the enemy of your enemy Mr Mikailov, my aim is to eliminate as many of the monsters that are attacking you as possible. As for my name , I have grown attached to the name Persephone , you can keep calling me that." "Persephone , the queen of the underworld , I think it suits you. Especially after your recent work, I found it quite impressive." "The meeting was four days ago, if you were impressed by that you would have called earlier." "That was very impressive, but I was talking about your work with Mr Grekov. You know my personal physician went in to see him, he came out completely mystified. You made a man lose his mind because of overwhelming fear without putting a single scratch on him. You wouldn''t share your method with me would you? I will of course pay you for your trouble." "My methods would be totally useless to you, now is that the only reason you called me?" "Not at all, I called to tell you that I owe you a hundred thousand cash reward for the monster you killed four days ago and you can come and collect it at anytime." "Nice try Mr Mikailov, but I wasn''t born yesterday. If it''s about the money I can give you an account number that you can deposit it in." "Alright fine, I want to meet you face to face and talk about the ''monsters'' as you call them." "That''s OK with me, as long as I decide the time and place. And you can relax, it''s going to be a public place so that you won''t do anything inappropriate. I will call you back with a time and place, good night Mr Mikailov." After I hung up I suddenly had a thought, could it be a coincidence that Vladimir ''the puppeteer'' Mikailov suddenly called me after Grekov directly challenged me and lost? Could it be that he arranged for the whole thing as some sort of a test? It does match his Modus operandi and he was paying an awful lot of attention to something that had very little to do with his mob empire, it was very suspicious. I hope he didn''t have anything to do with that woman''s death because if he was responsible for it ,Sergei''s father or not I was going to go after him. And when I get him he will find out what the methods he was so curious about were. When I used them on him. chap.....ERROR..ERROR..WRONG BOOK Chapter twenty two "Captain, the ship can''t take much more of this, the sentinel steel is repelling all the magic but the elemental is attacking us with pure fire. The hull is quickly reaching melting point! We have to retreat if we are going to have any chance of saving the Liberty." All the viewing panels around me showed a blazing inferno so fierce it overpowered the magical lighting in the bridge of the ship, dying everything a deep angry red. I got off my seat and addressed everyone in the room, "How long before the hull is breached and we start taking casualties." "Ten maybe fifteen minutes, the orichalcum plates and air cooling systems are barely keeping up with the rise in temperature but the sentinel steel has a lower melting point, in fifteen minutes the Liberty will be doomed." "Alright Gunther, prepare to do an about face and gun all the engines at maximum capacity. Also prepare to open bomb hatch number three for firing." "But sir we don''t have any bombs left." I walked towards the door leading towards the bomb hatches grabbing my helmet as I went, "I know Gunther, we won''t be dropping bombs." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "Sir, I don''t think that is a good idea." "I know it isn''t Gunther, but it is our only chance at grabbing the artifact before they unlock its secrets. If I don''t come back tell Maria that I love her and that I don''t care that I can barely reach her shoulder , she is still the most beautiful woman I know." I finally stood there above the bomb hatch that was slowly opening , thinking about the fantastic events that led me to this moment and I couldn''t help but smile. I put on the helmet sealing it tight. I flexed the four fingers on my left gauntlet which caused panels to shift on my back releasing four stiff wings. I grabbed my trusty war hammer in my electrified right gauntlet and jumped through the open hatch straight into the heart of the raging inferno that was the elemental. . . . . I woke up from the strange dream that I just had, wondering where it had all came from, then I turned over and fell right back to sleep. chapter twenty two - faith Chapter twenty two I woke up early the next morning with a growing list of things I had to do. First on my list was my first visit to a hospital to ''perform miracles'' disguised as a nun . My little torture session with Grekov had been very enlightening when it came to my healing powers and some other things in general, I was hoping that more healing will help me get more insight into the things I had discovered while breaking Grekov. As for what I had discovered while continuously healing the man, I found out that when I heal somebody using my powers it is more like I am helping the soul restore the body to its natural form. What this means is that I am not really the one expending energy, the person expending energy will be the person I am healing or more specifically their soul. From what I have observed the soul is very powerful, more like a nuclear reactor than a battery, which led me to believe that if someone could find a way to harness this power they would be quite formidable. But my nun impersonating gig had to wait until later. I got up to wash my face ,brush my teeth, and took care of the rest of my morning hygiene rituals. I then started to dress in my school uniform, believe it or not school was still going on and I had to go. I had considered dropping out but school was one of the things that dad was super strict about, so even if it seemed pointless to me at this point, I pulled on my red sweater vest and my plaid skirt, grabbed my bag and walked downstairs to go eat my breakfast while watching TV. An hour later Kazimir drove me and Sergei , who was staying in our guest house, to school. We said goodbye to Kazimir at the gate and went through the usual security check. Once inside we walked through the always impressive school grounds to our designated building. On the way we met some of our school mates and between the two of us we made every girl we passed blush. After a few minutes Sergei noticed something, "Hey, how come more girls are blushing when you look at them than when I do?" "With my powers , I never miss. Think about it Sergei." "Wait, you don''t mean......" "Yup, and word gets around so it is not that big of a mystery." "But that''s cheating!" "I''m happy , they''re happy , I don''t see where the problem is." "But.....when you use your power..... unfair advantage..." While Sergei was muttering to himself we had reached our classroom. Today was the day of the first semester final exams but I wasn''t worried. I am a very good student but I''m an even better test taker. Most of our exams were in a multiple choice format and you know what that means. I quickly went through the exams and Sergei mooched the answers off me like usual. By the end of the day we both went out with smiles on our faces. Kazimir was waiting for us by the gate like usual but unlike other days he didn''t drive us to my house, instead he drove us to a dark and secluded corner of the public hospital. Kazimir then handed me the nun costume and like any gentleman walked away to give me privacy so that I could change, on the other hand I had to literally kick Sergei out of the car and promise that I would shoot his little toe off if he peeked before he would let me change in peace. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I exited the car dressed fully in the black dress and gray wimple which had a white veil that covered my face. I stood in front of Sergei and Kazimir to ask for their opinions. Kazimir simply nodded and put a chain with a cross on it around my neck. Sergei paused for a moment and said, "Is it wrong that this is turning me on?" * * * P.O.V change - Dr Bagrov I am not a religious man. Both my parents were devout catholics and I grew up going to church every Sunday but working as a pediatric specialist in this public hospital for forty years , seeing innocent children suffer the most gruesome fates day in and day out has robbed me of any faith in God or any other higher being. My work had broken not only my marriage but also my will to live. The only reason I didn''t just take a fatal dose of sedatives and end it all is because of the children and what little good I could do for them. Another day, another patient. Today I had to tell the parents that their new born child has a congenital heart defect that could only be fixed by an expensive procedure. The mother was a waitress and the man earned a living hauling crates at the docks, I knew for a fact that they couldn''t afford it. I knew that I was simply handing out another death sentence but there was nothing I could do. As I got up to do my grim task a nurse came in and asked,"Sir, there is a nun outside trying to enter. She says she is from the order of mercy and has official documents that say I should let her in, what should I do?" Throughout my career I have encountered the order of mercy twice. Their prayers may not actually heal but they provide support and solace to grieving families. I might not be religious but most of the people were, when all hope is lost maybe praying will help them cope. "Let her in nurse. We aren''t saving them , might as well give her a shot." An hour later I was still telling the Voloshins exactly why their daughter was going to die when a commotion broke out in the ward. I hurried over thinking that it was one of the children going critical and my fear rose as I saw many parents crying hysterically but when I arrived at the hallway leading to the rooms that held the patients there were none of the loud alarms that indicated that something was wrong. I was running to the first room when a nurse literally run into me with tears in her eyes. "Nurse Garanina what happened ? What is wrong?" "Nothing is wrong, they are all fine." "Then why are you crying?" "You don''t understand they are all fine. They aren''t sick or dying anymore. She saved them, she saved them all." I left the crying woman on the floor and rushed inside the first room, a girl who needed a respirator to keep her alive. When I got inside the respirator had been disconnected and I started to panic but a closer inspection showed that she was breathing just fine. I checked every room after that, every patient was now perfectly fine. For the first time in my life I heard children''s laughter ringing through the halls of the hospital. Hearing that magical sound I couldn''t help but to kneel down and cry from joy. My faith had finally been restored. new covers Two things I wanted to say, 1) how do you feel about the new covers for both volumes? If you have anything better feel free to pm me. 2) please write reviews and rate the book, the top review is something about chocolate cake which makes me hungry and the last thing that this world needs is another hungry Ethiopian chapter twenty three - mommy Chapter twenty three "I ain''t telling you nothing bitch and when the boss gets his hands on you , you are dead you hear me , dead! Do you know who I am? Do you know who I work for? We own this city and there is nowhere you can hide that we can''t find you." I was currently watching the blustering idiot through a hole in the wall. He was tied up to a chair in the middle of a warehouse that was only two warehouses over from the one where I tortured Grekov. Four days have passed since I healed everyone at that children''s hospital. Nothing important happened except for a few exams. Now that the semester was over I have a few weeks of vacation until school reconvenes and I decided to use my first day of freedom to follow dear old mom who was looking very stressed these days. My little hunch paid off and instead of her usual work place she led me to this warehouse where they were holding one of Mikailov''s goons and by them I meant a small man with bald head and big round glasses that magnified his eyes many fold making him look like an insect and a very tall very thin man whose appearance could be summed up by the phrase beanpole. It must have been confusing for the muscular goon to be kidnapped by two people who looked like nerds he probably picked on back when he was in school. But that was only because he couldn''t see what they really were or instead of blustering he would have been crapping in his pants. Beneath the image of the short man with glasses was a thing which was nothing but a mass of shifting smoke, once in a while a face that had absolute horror etched in its face and its mouth open in a wordless scream would be visible in the smoke. After a while I noticed something disturbing, the faces that would appear wasn''t a single one repeated again and again as I had assumed but many different ones. Thinking about what that might mean made chills go up and down my spine. The beanpole on the other hand was a walking skeleton with no flesh. All the bones were twice as thick as a normal man''s should be and were made of see through material that I had a suspicion was extremely hard even though it looked like glass. Its eye sockets were just hollow emptiness and even though his skull was made out of see through material and had plenty of light passing through it, his eye sockets still managed to be dark pits. I knew for a fact that these two were powerful Atelli because of their powerful forms but when my mother entered both of them treated her with respect given to a superior. I had always assumed that my mother was at the bottom rungs of the Atelli hierarchy because of her human like appearance but from what I was observing I might have jumped to a wrong conclusion. She walked over to the goon who had now started to blabber at her. She ignored his ranting and grabbed his head between her hands, The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Congratulations Mr Babichev , you have been chosen to serve the glorious purpose of the shining ones. Unfortunately we do not have the time to take you to our headquarters to be awakened so you shall serve our purpose in a different way. " The crown of thorns on her head started to grow thin tendrils with the same black thorns on them, they slithered down her arms like tiny snakes until they reached the goon. She forced the man''s mouth open with her fingers and the thorny vines entered through it. For a few moments the tendrils kept entering through his mouth until several meters of the things had entered him. They kept stuffing themselves until he stopped moving and even breathing, they finally stopped when two small tears of blood rolled down his pale cheeks. Beanpole and glasses cut off the ropes holding the goon to the chair and he slowly got up. He stumbled and was very jerky when he was taking his first steps but after a little practice it started to look more and more natural. He suddenly started breathing again and his pale face became flushed as circulation was restored to his body. He finally started to speak, again at first it wasn''t very good. His voice was uneven and his words were slurred but slowly he started to sound like he did before. It looked like the man had been brought back to life, but I knew better because I could see what was going on beneath the surface. My mother had inserted enough of her tiny vines inside of him to literally control him like a puppet. They forced his heart to beat, his lungs to inflate and deflate, his muscles to move , and they even controlled his tongue. On the bright side at least he was dead and his soul was gone so he didn''t feel any of it, but my mother continued to speak to him as if he was alive. "You shall now be my eyes and ears and play an important part in bringing the dawn to the people of this world. Your sacrifice will not be in vain, your legacy will be the Utopian future we build when every man woman and child has been awakened. Albert , how long will he last?" The short man in glasses stepped forward and injected the dead puppet goon with a syringe," This formula should keep decomposition from being noticeable for at least two weeks, in the chilly weather of St Petersburg I''m sure he will last up to three." "Excellent , that will be more than enough time to find out about this mysterious menace that has snuffed out the light of two of the shining ones forever." I was so engrossed in what I was seeing through the hole that I didn''t notice the approach of the person sneaking up behind me until it was too late. A hand suddenly grabbed my mouth to keep me from making any noise and dragged me back. chapter twenty four - like totally Chapter twenty four As the gloved hand pulled me back, I imagined scenario after scenario of getting tortured and killed by the Atelli . I started to struggle against the person who was dragging me backwards and thanks to a little application of my powers his foot slipped a little and he fell on his ass but what I didn''t count on was him being able to hold on to me as we fell , pulling me on top of him. In the end we somehow ended up with me on top with my right knee jabbing into his stomach causing him to grunt. In our new position I was finally able to see who had snuck up on me and to my surprise what I saw wasn''t an Atelli but a familiar white mask with small golden sparrows taking flight from the right cheek. I calmed down considerably when I saw that it was Mike until I remembered that I wasn''t wearing any disguises when I went out to follow mother, hell I didn''t even bring a gun. When I saw her leave I just jumped into dad''s old Volvo and followed her. So now I found myself in a very delicate situation, I can''t let anyone know that Persephone and Sophia are the same person. While I was having a mini panic attack Mike managed to get control again and I let him drag me to an ally a few meters away. Thankfully our little tussle hadn''t attracted the attention of the Atelli and now we were far enough away that we could have a conversation. Before he could say anything I did my best spoiled dumb blond impression and said, "Please , don''t hurt me. You can have my purse it''s in my car , here are the keys. Just don''t rape me because I totally have crabs and if you rape me you''ll get them too." "Please calm down, I am not here to rob or rape you." "You''re wearing a mask and grabbed me from behind . That''s totally creepazoid behavior. If you aren''t going to rape me, then why did you sneak up on me? You aren''t like one of those monster people are you, because if you are I promise I won''t say anything to anybody if you let me go." "You know about them?" "Duh, why do you think I am here? I followed my father obviously. Hey does that mean I''m half monster? That would be totally uncool because if I grew tentacles I''m sure my boyfriend would dump me and go out with that bitch Tanya." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "OK miss , can you please tell me your name?" I started to twirl my hair on my finger, "Why do you want my name? You aren''t hitting on me are you? I mean you have a pretty awesome body and from what I felt as we were going down your package is more than acceptable , like totally more than average but I can''t date a guy whose face I can''t see. I mean hello, what if you turned out to be ugly, but then again you could look like George Clooney or something. Just take off your mask so I can see. Why are you even wearing it anyway, you aren''t disfigured or anything are you? Or is it some sort of fetish thing? I guess it could be pretty kinky, I could imagine whoever I want if I did it with a man wearing a mask and I didn''t know what he looked like, I mean I could imagine he looked like Zach Effron and it would be easy because for all I know he does look like Zach Effron. Hey, do you think people already do this or we invented something new?" I could almost see his patience stretch then snap as I continued to bombard him with nonsense,"Alright Miss you don''t have to tell me your name , just stand still as I take your photo." He then took out his cellphone to take a picture. Just when he was going to take the picture I moved my head to the right, blurring the photo that he took," No way, that isn''t my best side. If you are going to take my picture , you should take one of my left side." When his phone was just about to click I moved again, with the help of my powers my timing was impossibly perfect,"wait, I have a great idea. Let me pose for you. OMG I just got the greatest idea , we should go inside and I''ll take off my coat, my boyfriend always says my boobs are my best assets...." As I had hoped before he could get a good picture of me, we heard tires squealing as a car left. He hurriedly left , supposedly to follow the vehicle but some part of me thinks it might just be to escape from me. I stayed in the ally until I saw my mother leave the warehouse a few minutes later with only beanpole for company, I guess Mike went after glasses. I went to the other side of the maze of warehouses where I parked my car and slowly drove home. That was way too close. Like totally too close. chapter twenty five - the misses Chapter twenty five "YOU DID WHAT?" I was back at the bunker telling Kazimir what had happened and he wasn''t reacting very well to the news. In fact he had gotten off his chair and started shouting quite loudly. "She was running out the door without even slowing down to eat breakfast or even pretend to put on makeup. She was in such a hurry that she left her purse. We are talking about the anal retentive Marina who doesn''t like it when when her buttons don''t all align correctly and she actually forgot her purse. I knew something big must have been happening, I had no time to come to the bunker to disguise or arm myself and you were out with dad. My choices were to follow her or let the opportunity pass me by. Look this isn''t the first time I have ever followed my mother, hell I''ve been doing it since I learned to drive, granted I didn''t think that she was quite this dangerous and I would be walking into something so big. OK I''ll admit it, in hind sight it was a stupid thing to do but it was worth it, the information I learned far outweighs the risks I took." "No information is worth your life ! " "She can control dead bodies without making them Atelli for up to three weeks, you know I can see through Atelli disguises but unless I knew to look, I would have never discovered her mole. Now that I know what she can do I will look closely at everyone I meet. This is vital information Kazimir, the kind of information that bites you in the ass at the worst possible moment. But now that we know we can prepare contingency plans." "She can WHAT?" "Control dead bodies , and we wouldn''t even be able to recognize that they are dead until they start rotting." Kazimir sighed and sat back down,"Tell me everything , once again from the top and don''t leave anything out. By the way don''t think that this gets you off the hook for your idiotic actions, there will be consequences." * * * By the time he had squeezed every drop of detail about what had happened and what I had observed it was almost noon and we went to a small Moroccan joint to have some shawarma for lunch. I had the chicken shawarma and it was absolutely divine. Afterwards Kazimir informed me that it was time to meet my new martial arts instructor. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! To be honest I didn''t think that any amount of martial arts training would help me defeat an Atelli in close combat but I was still a little excited to meet the special teacher that Kazimir had arranged for me. He drove me to a small residential area with modest homes and parked in the driveway of one of the houses. Kazimir went out of the car and approached the door of the villa with me close behind him. Surprisingly he didn''t knock on the door or ring the doorbell, instead he took a key out of his pocket and let himself in. Once inside he called out, "Narumi , I have brought your new student." A few seconds later a small Japanese woman appeared from the end of the hallway we were in. She was a slightly older woman with hints of gray showing in her silky black hair that she had in a bun using chopsticks. She was wearing a traditional looking blue Kimono with large pink sakura prints on it. When she walked towards us her movements were the epitome of grace, it was like watching the swaying of a willow tree. This captivating woman walked right up to Kazimir and gave him a light kiss on his lips. Then Kazimir said something that blew my mind, "Narumi this is your new student Sophia, Sophia this is Narumi , your new teacher and my wife." Narumi smiled at me gently and said,"I take it from the thunderstruck expression on your face Kazimir didn''t tell you he was married?" I just shook my head , I hadn''t regained my ability to speak. "Well don''t take it personally dear, he doesn''t like to volunteer information unless he has to, it''s a bad habit you pick up when you are in our line of work." Kazimir turned to me and said," I have some errands I have to run so I have to go, but you''re in good hands when it comes to my wife. She works as a martial arts instructor for the KGB so she won''t go easy on you, I''ll pick you up by the end of the day." Narumi sighed and said, " Those who can, do; those who can''t , teach." Kazimir snickered and suddenly a small knife was flying at Narumi''s face, just as suddenly the knife was caught in a fan that she took out of the sleeve of her kimono. Kazimir just turned around and left with a few parting words. "Honey , I don''t think that saying can apply to you." chapter twenty six - naturally gifted Chapter twenty six "Alright, now that that silly goose is gone we can start your instructions. Come, follow me to the dojo." I followed her down the hall and started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. Kazimir threw a knife at her face and she just called him a silly goose. A knife to the face was literally a joke here, what did that mean for my coming training? I started imagining scenarios like being forced to stand in a single pose over a lake of fire or sparring on a small platform hanging from a cliff. As my own imagination was torturing me with more and more far fetched ideas we reached the dojo. Thankfully it didn''t have any of the painful implements that I was imagining, in fact it was just a simple room with judo mats similar to the ones in the bunker lying on the floor. I was instructed to sit down on one of the mats and as I did so , Narumi''s whole demeanor shifted from gentle and kind to serious and strict. "I will now instruct you in an ancient form of martial arts created by my ancestors, this I do not do lightly. What I am about to teach you is the legacy of my ancestors and as such the way you use it is a matter of honor for not only me, your teacher, but also my family. The only reason I am teaching you is that Kazimir has told me that you are serving an honorable purpose. I trust my husband and that trust now extends to you. I have tried to pass on the secrets of my family''s martial arts only once before and that was to my husband. He failed miserably. This should tell you how difficult it is to learn let alone master. If you are willing to put in the blood sweat and tears that are required to learn my family''s martial arts and promise to use it honorably then from now on you may call me sensei." I could feel the gravity of the situation, I felt that my decision would alter my path in life forever . It wasn''t a matter of showing me a few kicks and punches, she was telling me that I was about to make a commitment by accepting her as a teacher. When most people think of honor they think of Japan but we Russians also have a rich history of honor and pride that most people don''t know about. I knew precisely what Narumi meant and I understood what she wanted. I bowed down deeply and replied respectfully," I will be honored if you would teach me sensei." "Good. Before we begin let me give you a brief overview of what I am about to teach you. Most martial arts use stability to deliver blows and receive attacks, even those that seem flamboyant and have lots of flourishes are dependent on the principle of finding the bodies center of mass and keeping it centered to avoid falling, a method called centering. What I am about to teach you is how to move without ever being stable, without ever centering yourself. I shall show you all the different movements and techniques but they are only pieces of the puzzle. The key to mastering it lies in being able to combine these pieces together correctly. There are no preset orders that you follow, you are in constant motion, always unstable and you have to make the decision of what to do next correctly or you will fall down. What I am about to teach you is as much about honing your instinct as developing discipline. Keep this in mind as you continue to learn. OK now let us start with the first stance, look carefully and try to replicate it." Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I spent the rest of the afternoon either on my face or on my ass as I kept on falling over again and again trying to replicate Narumi''s, or rather sensei''s movements. I thought I was failing miserably but she actually seemed satisfied with my progress. In the end she stopped me to take a break and eat dinner. When she told me I could stop I collapsed on the mat and just lay there. Muscles that I didn''t even know I had were aching and I could feel exhaustion down to my very bones. Sensei tried to cheer me up as she gave me a bottle of water, "You actually did pretty well for the first day, do you take gymnastics or dance classes by any chance?" "Dance , but not very seriously." The only reason I even took dance classes was because of all the girls in their skimpy outfits and tights , plus the teacher was the kind of woman you wouldn''t mind doing extra credit work with, if you know what I mean. The thoughts of my after school shenanigans with my dance instructor in the dance studio managed to perk me up a little. "That''s odd , you have very good flexibility and balance for someone who just does dance casually. I guess you must be naturally gifted." Yeah , I don''t think so. I think that it is more likely that my time with the dance instructor might have helped my flexibility and balance in other ways, she was quite adventurous. That was not something I wanted to share with my sensei so I just chuckled awkwardly and said, "Yeah, I am naturally gifted." chapter twenty seven - 3 billion Chapter twenty seven "What is the meaning of this Persephone?" It was Sunday and the time for my meeting with Vladimir Mikailov had finally arrived. He was sitting in the very exclusive restaurant in the plaza hotel waiting for me, but instead he had received a laptop brought there by a special courier. "Well you wanted a face to face meeting and this is it. There is your face , here is my face. I believe this qualifies as a face to face meeting." "When I said I wanted to meet , I meant in person. If I wanted to speak to a computer screen I could have stayed at home and skyped with you instead of going to all this trouble." "I think you will find that that laptop is a little more complicated than Skype. It is encrypted by several levels of encryptions and any attempts to hack it will erase everything. The signal it is sending bounces off secure satellites owned by several agencies including the CIA , discreetly piggybacking on other important frequencies, basically any attempt to track the signal to me will result in you becoming the enemy of several countries simultaneously. It has been wiped clean of any physical traces inside and out. The courier service I employed were paid in cash and have no idea of my identity or location. I went to all that trouble to find a way for us to communicate , I think going to a restaurant isn''t too hard of a task for you." "That is a little paranoid, isn''t it Ms Persephone?" "Recent events have made it clear that making myself visible would be a very bad idea right now." "Does this sudden cautiousness have anything to do with the three billion dollar bounty on your head?" "That is one of the reasons, one of many." "You never fail to surprise me Ms Persephone, three billion dollars is a lot of money to offer for the death of one person. I know that you are the only one to kill one of these things but three billion dollars seems a little extreme, it seems almost personal if you ask me." "We are not here to discuss how much the creatures hate me." "You are not here at all Ms Persephone but I won''t be so obtuse, pray tell why are we here?" "To talk about your enemy, our enemy. They are called the Atelli, evil spirits that devour the soul of their victims and change them to the monsters that you have been seeing lately. Fairweather tech is their front company and they want your docks." "Please spare me the story about spirits and souls, I have heard enough about souls from my priest. If you don''t have anything concrete to tell me except for fairy tales then I think this meeting is going to be very short." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "Do you want concrete? How about this for concrete, your organization has already been infiltrated by them." "Is this the part of the meeting where you tell me that one of my men are possessed? Ms Persephone if you don''t want to share what you know about this monsters you could have just said so, no need to make up stories." "Does the name Babichev mean anything to you?" "That is not funny Ms Persephone, he is a very close personal friend. I am the godfather to his daughter, I would trust him with my life." "Well I hope you reconsider the last part because the thing using Babichev''s body isn''t going to hesitate to end you. You don''t believe me? Fine , ask him questions that only the real Babichev would know, but I would suggest you do it in a place where you can put a lot of bullets in him when he fails because the thing inside of him isn''t going to die easily. After you''ve done that you can call me again, this time with an apology. Keep that laptop safe, you are going to need it soon." "If you are lying and this turns out to be some idiotic plan to turn me against my men I will hunt you down and kill you." "You can get in line Mr Mikailov." Then I pressed a button breaking our connection and ending the meeting. Kazimir sighed and said," That went as well as I expected. Take off that disguise Sophia, even in the bunker it makes me nervous. Dressing up like that is hazardous to your health right now. Three billion dollars! Three billion! Everyone is going to be gunning for you. And when I mean everyone I don''t mean just from Russia, I mean everyone and their uncle is going to be boarding a plane to St Petersburg just to get a crack at you." "Calm down, I''ll just stop being Persephone until the heat dies down." "You don''t understand, for three billion dollars the heat is never going down. Unless you are going to stop fighting the Atelli the hitmen are going to find you sooner or later, whatever you may look like. These are professionals , they are going to figure it out if you go around slaying monsters." "I''ll figure something out Kaz, I have to continue fighting." "But what if you.....wait, what did you call me?" "Kaz, I think it''s cool. Kazimir is a bit of a mouthful.'' "My name is Kazimir, use it." "Whatever you say Kaz." "You know what, that three billion dollars is starting to sound really good right now." chapter twenty eight - beer gut Chapter twenty eight I spent the next week practicing martial arts with Narumi in the afternoon but the mornings were dedicated to shooting practice with Kazimir. I might have been a crack shot with a pistol but I have never operated an SMG or AK 47 before. He showed me how to shoot and reload each gun in the bunker, and he had a lot of guns in the bunker. As for my martial arts training , it was progressing fairly well. I didn''t fall as much as I used to, although my movements were still a little jerky and uncoordinated , miles away from the fluid dance like movements of my sensei . Even though I couldn''t execute them as perfectly as her I was still able to learn a lot of the techniques that she had to teach me. On the family front things couldn''t get any better. Dad had just opened another branch of his hospital and the amount of money he was making sharply increased (even though he does a lot of probono work it is still a private hospital so it rakes in the dough) He was very excited because he was able to snag several specialists for his new facility which was said to be world class. Instead of focusing on pregnancies and birth , the new hospital is able to give a full range of services by a variety of specialists who are experts in their field. Basically dad poured in most of his money into the new hospital making it one of the largest, most well staffed, and most well equipped hospitals in all of Russia. Of course this meant that he was away a lot, even sometimes missing our family dinners but he was happy and safe , that was all that mattered to me. Mother on the other hand has been getting more and more sullen these days. It seems like her plans weren''t going very well. She was always silent during dinner and when dad finally asked her what was wrong she just said that she was having difficulties at work. That was music to my ears . Vladimir called back two days after our meeting with an apology and put another hundred grand in my bank account although Babichev technically wasn''t an Atelli. He promised to listen to my advice from now on even if he didn''t believe my explanation for the monsters. For a man who has seen monsters in real life he was surprisingly skeptical when it came to souls and spirits. Sergei had been suspiciously absent for a while and when I asked him about it he said that he had a new girlfriend. When I asked him if I could meet her he said hell no and hung up on me. I guess she must be really hot, I suddenly became very curious. It was Monday and I was getting ready for my usual shooting lessons with Kazimir when the mainframe made a sound that indicated that Vladimir was calling. Since I wasn''t in character I switched off the video function and chewed the voice altering gum for a few minutes before answering. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "Good morning Mr Mikailov." "Persephone? I think there is something wrong, I can''t see you." "I disabled the video, it is morning and you have caught me when I''m not quite presentable. Why did you call Mr Mikailov?" "I just wanted to inform you that we are going to attack one of the territories that have been taken from us by Fairweather." "When and where?" "Pier 49 , two hours from now. Will you be there?" "I''ll try my best.", then I ended the call. I looked over at Kazimir, "I think it is time to take out the big guns." * * * It was raining heavily when I drove a van that Kazimir had procured for me to an abandoned building a thousand meters away from pier 49. The building actually had a funny story behind it. A rich business tycoon decided to build a tall building as a monument to his success but it seemed that he wasn''t as successful as he thought because he ran out of money before he could build the last floor of the building. Until all the legal issues were fixed nobody was allowed on sight but a pair of bolt cutters gave me all the permission I needed. For today I had a buzz cut that was covered by a hat, brown contacts covering my green eyes, and using a special adhesive and some small black fibers I even had a 5 o''clock shadow. Bandages had been wrapped around my chest compressing and hiding my breasts and I was wearing a fake bulging stomach. The whole thing was covered by a dirty yellow sweater and a tench coat. To finish off my ensemble I had baggy khaki pants that were stuffed into cheap plastic boots that were covering my feet. All in all I looked like one of the many workers that made their living working at the docks, the beer gut specially made my disguise look authentic. I opened the back of the van and carried a heavy case all the way to the top floor of the abandoned building and because the elevator wasn''t working I had to use the damn stairs . Then I went all the way back downstairs and carried a second heavy case all the way back to the top, cursing all the way there. After I got there I found an unobstructed vantage point of the pier and set up the Macmillan TAC .50 BMG sniper rifle that was in the first case. Since I was a few minutes early I took a seat near the sniper and took out a bag of chips from my trench coat. Now all that is left is to wait for the action to begin. chapter twenty nine - thunderstruck Chapter twenty nine I was checking through the sniper scope for the third time when I saw the three SUVs approaching. I assumed that these were Vladimir''s men coming to take back their turf. They parked their cars outside the chain link fence and five men got out of each vehicle holding high caliber rifles like i suggested. They were cutting a hole through the fence with a bolt cutter when a loud shot rang out and one of the goons fell down with a hole in his back. It seems I wasn''t the only one who had the idea of using snipers to eliminate the enemy from a safe distance. Kazimir expected something like this to happen so he had attached a very special scope to the sniper I was using. It combined infrared heat vision and a new terahertz night vision to make a very useful scope. I used the infrared to track the trajectory of the bullet before the heat dissipated and the terahertz night vision to see through the walls of the building were the enemy shooter was hiding. I wasn''t sure if he was Atelli or not but the second shot of the day ended the enemy sniper''s life. Then the next part of the battle began as the Atelli finally decided to come out of the office building that had a brand new sign that said Fairweather Tech on it. As I have mentioned before , the Atelli are all different and as such their strength, power, and defense varies wildly from each other. When the goons opened fire on the Atelli they managed to take down one that looked like it had no skin, just writhing flesh and another one that looked almost normal except for its multiple clawed arms, before the Atelli wised up and started to take covers behind the large cranes that were used to load and unload shipping containers , and behind the shipping containers themselves. I decided to take out those that looked like they could cause trouble for the goons. The first one I decided to shoot was the one that looked like a bulky praying mantis, his thick exoskeleton looked like it might even stand up to my armor piercing bullets but unfortunately for him his head wasn''t so resilient and it literally vanished when a .50 caliber bullet obliterated it. Another one that I went for was one that looked like a frog. Its skin apparently had the ability to camouflage itself like a chameleon and because of that it managed to sneak up on one of the goons and spit something on him that made his face melt off. When I shot it the frog like Atelli exploded like a fat zit , spraying the same caustic material and melting its surrounding. The goons were doing pretty well, except for the man whose face was melted off and the guy who was shot at the very beginning they hadn''t taken any more casualties. They had eliminated several more of the Atelli and were about to finish off the last five when metal spikes took out five of them simultaneously, changing the tide of the battle yet again. I shifted my scope to see what the source of the spikes was and I saw a man made out of shiny black metal, all the different metal panels and plates made him look like a freaking transformers robot. A few shots confirmed that while the high powered bullets could push him back and make him stagger even hitting him at the joints didn''t allow the bullets to penetrate the armor, they just bounced off. With his face completely covered he didn''t have any weak spots I could exploit. I kept shooting at him to push him back from the goons and help them escape, then I had an interesting idea. The remaining five Atelli had figured out where the sniper fire was coming from and had taken appropriate cover , maybe they weren''t as safe as they thought. I shot the metal Atelli again, making him stagger then I shot him again. The bullet left the barrel of my sniper traveled to the metal Atelli ricocheted off one of his shoulder plates and right between the two large horns of a bright red Atelli and into its forehead while it was taking cover behind a crane. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Now that I knew it was possible I used a similar method of bouncing bullets off the metal Atelli to finish off the other four. When I was done the only Atelli left was the metal one. Before he could get over the confusion of being shot and spun so many times I opened the second case which contained an american made Javelin surface to air missile. This was a very interesting piece of equipment that had an auto-lock infrared homing guidance system. The name javelin originates from its ability to fly straight up and fall down on the top of a target where the armor is usually thinner. It was designed as an anti-tank weapon and I thought it would be perfect for this situation. I engaged the auto-lock function and it quickly locked on the Atelli. When I fired it the rocket left the tube with a whoosh and then the engine engaged sending it upwards into a projectile path that ended when the warhead impacted against the Atelli''s head in a massive explosion. After the fire caused by the explosion died down the Atelli who was now missing an arm and most of his left leg was still twitching. I knew that the Atelli were tenacious bastards and must not be allowed to live so I decided to try out another theory. It was already a stormy day so I manipulated the probability a little so that the positive charges under the metal Atelli would be a little more concentrated than the surrounding area, this in turn attracted the negative charge from the stormy cloud and BAM, what was left of the Atelli was obliterated by a massive lightning strike. Now that all the Atelli had been eliminated , I quickly packed up all my equipment into the van and drove away before the police could arrive. While I was driving home a song came on the radio station that made me laugh my ass off. It was AC/DC''s thunderstruck. chapter thirty - adonis Chapter thirty I was driving along the road nodding my head to the rock and roll stylings of AC/DC when I noticed a red truck in my rearview mirror. After taking a complex set of turns to lose what I suspected was a tail I thought I had shaken him when I noticed the same car again. Again I took a detour to lose him but whatever I did the same car would always reappear somewhere behind me in a few minutes. He slowly pulled up next to me and started ramming my left side , forcing me to make a right turn. By the time I noticed that that was what he had planned to do all along it was too late. What appeared to be a giant stone statue was standing in the middle of the road blocking my way. I tried to brake hard before hitting it but I knew I was too late, but what I didn''t expect was the stone statue to suddenly raise one of his massive fists and bring them down on the front of the van causing it to flip forwards , clear over the top of his head. For a second I experienced the feeling of weightlessness you feel when you are falling as the van went sailing through the air, then the windshield shattered violently as the van landed on its roof. Thankfully I was wearing my seatbelt so I wasn''t seriously hurt except for the bruising caused by the seatbelt itself and a few scratches caused by the flying pieces of the windshield. I promptly healed myself and released my seatbelt buckle , causing me to fall on the roof of the now upside down van. I checked that the guns that I had in my holster, a new desert eagle from Kazimir and the 9 mm that Sergei gave me, were both still there before I opened the back door of the van and got out. What was waiting for me was a large group of Atelli. One of them had bat like wings, I guess he was the reason I couldn''t shake my tail earlier, he must have been following me from the sky and pointing them in the right direction every time I had managed to escape. The one that looked like a stone statue suddenly roared heralding the start of their attack but before they could even move two golden streaks came from behind me and hit two of the hairy looking Atelli. They looked down in disbelief and saw that they had a golden knives embedded deeply in their stomachs causing them to bleed profusely. I turned around to see who threw the knives but all I saw was a golden blur as somebody run past me towards the Atelli. When he reached the hairy Atelli he retrieved his knives by dragging them upwards through their bodies and out the top of their heads, killing them instantly. He jumped on the head of one of the bigger Atelli and somersaulted onto the back of the one with the bat wings who was attempting to take off. He used the knife to sever the wings at their base and jumped off the back of the Atelli adding a little bit of extra force to the body that was already dropping out of the sky due to gravity. He landed gracefully with a roll which he used to get beneath the swipe of a canine looking Atelli and severed its Achilles tendon causing it to fall on one knee. He got up in one smooth motion and decapitated him. He then ran towards what looked like a mass of twisting and twirling blades , I thought he didn''t stand a chance but his golden knives passed through the metallic blades like butter and he defeated the living blender in under a second. The only Atelli left were the giant stone statue and one weak looking lackey. He rushed over to them and cut the neck of the lackey causing bright yellow liquid to spray in all directions. He used that as cover to roll to the left causing the massive stone foot that was attempting to crush him to miss. He slipped between the giant''s legs and jumped up onto its back. He sunk one knife into the back of the giant , then dragged himself up and then sunk in the other one to drag himself further up and in that manner dragged himself all the way up to the giant''s head. When he reached the head he used the knives to stab into its eyes, his whole arm disappeared into the giant''s eyeballs up to his shoulders. The giant slowly keeled forward , dead. The man dismounted gracefully off the falling giant and landed gracefully like a cat. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. When he straightened back up his glowing golden body was covered by the various bodily fluids of the Atelli which painted him various shades of red, blue, green and other colors. His glowing body made these colors light up and it made him look like a walking work of art. But I wasn''t admiring his muscular body, I was pointing my gun at the familiar white mask with the golden sparrows taking flight from the right cheek. "Hello Mike, fancy seeing you here." "Persephone, you look........well let''s just say I like your previous look better. You sure know how to change, don''t you?" "That''s funny , I was about to say the same thing. So unless you are going to tell me you started taking steroids and got fond of golden body paint, how are you going to explain this? Who are you really Mike, and what are you?" "Mike is the name I use when I am working with normal people, in the supernatural community I am better known as Adonis. As for what I am...what was that term you used for it ? Ah, yes now I remember, " he snapped his finger as if he had just remembered some obscure trivia and then calmly stated, "I am one of the Atelli." chapter thirty one - that is the question Chapter thirty one "The next words out of your mouth better be a very good explanation or you are going to end up with a sizeable hole in your fancy mask. Oh by the way good explanations include ''this was my bad attempt at a joke and I have a terrible sense of humor'' and ''I am not sure what Atelli means and might have made a mistake.'' " "That''s an interesting term for us, ''the Atelli'' . Most of us would probably find it insulting, most of us prefer lofty terms like the shining ones but I think Atelli is perfect to describe us. You see Atelli is a word that means imperfect or incomplete. Most of us would find the suggestion that we are anything less than perfect completely unacceptable, it is nothing short of blasphemy to most of us. We force ourselves into believing that our flawed form is perfection while inside we seethe in jealousy , observing other creations that have everything that we are denied. We told ourselves that as we are pure spiritual beings we are not tainted by the need for physical objects and as such are higher beings while inside we secretly craved what you enjoyed everyday the ability to see colors , to hear music , to feel the sensation on ones skin. The trivial things you take for granted we craved beyond reason , for you see we were not only cursed to be deaf and blind but by some cruel twist of fate we could see flashes of your world so that we could know exactly how pathetic our existence really was. The only way most of us could deal with it was denial. We weren''t the imperfect ones, we weren''t the pathetic ones. We started to rationalize these irrational thoughts. Instead of accepting our flaws most of us started to criticize you instead, saying things like you were driven by material needs, that you were destroying yourselves slowly, that you were imperfect and needed salvation and we would be that salvation. Most of the Atelli tell themselves that they are doing this for the sake of humanity, do you know that? They tell themselves they are the good guys but inside they hate you for having something that they were denied and you can see exactly how they feel when they maul the soul of their host and twist them into ugly abominations. But some of us don''t delude ourselves , we are imperfect. We need a human soul to make us complete, instead of forcing our will upon our hosts some of us choose to be symbiotic rather than parasitic and that is what I am." "That''s an interesting story Mike or Adonis or whatever your name is but then who am I talking to, the human or the Atelli?" "You don''t get it, there is no human or Atelli anymore, we are one. When a human accepts an Atelli willingly there is no fight for dominance because the souls are melded seamlessly." Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "Again , a very interesting and completely unverifiable answer. Tell you what, for now I won''t shoot you brains out, you did help me out here after all and killing you after that would make me an ungrateful bitch so this is what''s going to happen, I''ll back away slowly and leave this place. You will not follow me or my decision to not paint the asphalt with your brain will change, understood? Good. Goodbye Mike, it was nice meeting you again." As I slowly backed away Mike started to shrink slightly and his golden glow disappeared as his body turned into a more normal pale color. The strange thing was that the golden glow on his knives also faded leaving them a normal golden color, another mystery I had to look into I guess. Once around the corner I bolted in a random direction while taking out a cellphone that Kazimir gave me to use in case of emergencies. I called him and asked him to pick me up, he got to me in less than fifteen minutes. Back in the bunker I explained everything that had happened to him. He was very interested in what Mike had to say, in fact he made me recite everything he said word for word while recording it with a tape recorder. After I was finished telling him everything Kazimir asked me, "What do you think about this Adonis person, do you think he was telling you the truth?" I thought about it for a moment and I actually did think that he was telling the truth. He could have stabbed me in the back at the beginning of the fight and he did save me from the very real possibility of dying in that Atelli ambush, plus if he wanted to make something up to make me trust him being a good Atelli probably wouldn''t be his first choice. Ironically what made me believe him was that he admitted to being one of the Atelli. "Yeah, I think he is telling the truth." "But do you trust him enough that we start working with him? You are an amazing operative Sophia, especially considering that you have no formal training and your powers give you an amazing advantage but going in alone against such overwhelming odds without someone to watch your back is too dangerous as you found out today. I wish that I could go with you myself but I know that I would be almost useless against the Atelli and probably put you in more danger than if you went in alone. If we can find you a partner that we can trust to fight by your side it would be a huge load off my mind, so do you trust him?" In the end that is what it boils down to. To trust or not to trust. chapter thirty two - from Russia with love Chapter thirty two. (mature warning slight cursing) The attack on pier 49 was only the beginning of a sharp decline of the fortunes of Fairweather Tech in Russia. There were a total of fifteen attacks on Fairweather controlled territories at the docks in the following three weeks of which I only participated in five. Vladimir hired professional mercenaries from morocco and armed them with military grade weapons and explosives and they did the rest. He didn''t care that all that was left was rubble after they were finished, he could always rebuild afterwards. The press were reporting that a group that had links with the Taliban was attacking Fairweather Tech which has several defense contracts with the US and the EU . The credibility of that story went up when the body of one of the Moroccan mercenaries was found in the rubble of one of the places that were attacked. Apparently the mercenaries that Vladimir had hired were not too picky about who their clients were and at some pont had worked for the Taliban as well as other terrorist groups and dictators. I didn''t feel too good about arming known terrorists with high quality weapons but I''m sure Vladimir had it under control. The Atelli didn''t take all this lying down, they fought tooth and nail ( and claws and tentacles ) for every inch of territory but when the other side is willing to use heavy handed tactics like heavy artillery fire, monsters or not they didn''t stand a chance. They were reminded of why they kept themselves secret from the world. They maybe scary monsters but when it came down to it humans can be pretty fucking scary too. They tried to throw their money around, handing out bribes like they were candy to every civil servant they could get their hands on, they even convinced the chief of police to arrest Vladimir on several charges of murder, extortion, smuggling, and racketeering. The Atelli thought that they had won but they had forgotten that Vladimir had home field advantage, he was out of jail in less than thirty minutes and the police chief was arrested and charged with several counts of corruption and bribery by the chief justice himself. The Atelli might have money but Vladimir had connections that he had fostered for decades, he could play the system like a violin. He was so deeply entrenched in his web that he probably could shoot a person live on TV and still come out smelling like roses. They weren''t getting to him in that way. Then things got even worse for the Atelli. Every building and asset that they owned in Russia were all broken into and vandalized. Even the employee''s cars had their windshields broken and their tires slashed. Even my mother''s Bentley wasn''t spared. Not only were their assets under attack but the value of their stock in the Russian market took a sudden unexplainable plunge. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. And finally Vladimir''s ending move , his coupe de grace if you will. The main headquarters of Fairweather Tech in Russia was a skyscraper in Moscow. A government inspector said that there was a dangerous gas leak in a gas main under the building and ordered an immediate evacuation. An hour after the people had been evacuated there was a massive explosion under the building. The press reported that a leaky gas main had exploded under the Fairweather building causing extensive damage to the superstructure and making it unsafe. The fact that no gas mains could run under large buildings according to city regulations seemed to have been completely forgotten. The experts that said that the damage caused to the building were suspiciously similar to dynamite were promptly ignored. The power of Vladimir was such that it allowed him to literally blow up a building in the middle of the capital city in broad daylight and get away with it. Meanwhile back in St Petersburg after taking beating after beating the Atelli lost their final grip in the docks restoring full control to the Russian mob. During the little war I was able to kill a neat 40 Atelli using sniper fire and racked up four million in bounty money making the endeavor profitable in more ways than one. As for Fairweather Tech after all the disasters they went through they were just waiting for the finishing blow and that blow was swiftly delivered by the minister of finance who brought up allegations of embezzlement and tax evasion against the company. State hired auditors combed through their records until they found several discrepancies and leveled several heavy fines against the company in addition to a dissolution order to cease any activities in Russia. Vladimir had the order of dissolution framed and sent to the head of the Russian division of Fairweather Tech who had been recalled to their world wide headquarters in Helsinki with a little note that said ''from Russia with love''. I saw all this unfold and learned a very valuable lesson. Sometimes political power is more important than personal power. I also learned that Vladimir Mikailov was one scary motherfucker. chapter thirty three - science fu Chapter thirty three The fan streaked towards my face at a speed that made it a blur to my sight but after weeks of training my reflexes kicked in and my back bent backwards like a rubber band to avoid getting hit by the incoming weapon, but I wasn''t out of the woods yet, another fan fell towards my neck from above like a guillotine. A few weeks ago if you had asked me if it was even possible to dodge such an attack from such an awkward position I would have told you hell no, but since then I have learned that you can do incredible, almost superhuman feats by being in constant motion. Like for example when I had bent backwards to avoid the attack I had also crossed my legs in the same motion and by using the muscles in my legs I started spinning while dodging to the right. Now most people would think that this would make me too unstable to keep my balance and I would fall over but even though I''m in a position where my center of mass is so off kilter that I should have fallen over I am kept aloft by something called the gyroscopic effect. The gyroscopic effect is a fascinating phenomenon that occurs when an object is spinning. In the simplest terms the gyroscopic effect is when an object spinning at sufficient speed resists changing its axis of rotation even when other forces are acting on it. In my case I was spinning parallel to the ground, so it helped me resist the pull of gravity and prevented me from falling. When I had spun enough to completely uncross my legs I extended my hands outwards to slow down my spin ( conservation of angular momentum ) while at the same time using that momentum to generate enough speed to make the fans I was holding in my hands turn into deadly weapons. Sensei deflected my attack with her own fan and started spinning along with me to dissipate the energy. For a second we were both spinning like dervishes , continuously dishing out and receiving numerous attacks but in the end sensei had way more experience than me and she was able to knick me on the elbow, drawing first blood and causing the match to end with her victory , again. I put my fist to my palm and bowed to my sensei and she reciprocated when I heard clapping coming from the door of the dojo. Apparently Kazimir had been watching us spar and judging from the big smile on his face he was pleased by my progress. "That was amazing Sophia, I know professional martial artists that didn''t last as long against my wife. In fact I think that that might have been the longest I have ever seen anyone last against her. You weren''t cheating were you?" I knew what he meant, sensei didn''t know about my powers and he was asking me if I was using them during the match. "No I didn''t, that was just hard work and dedication." "Then I believe that means you deserve a reward." Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I became very excited and looked at him expectantly but he just laughed and said," It''s not here , it''s back at the bunker." He said goodbye to his wife with a farewell kiss and headed out the house to the Mercedes parked in the driveway with me following close behind him. If I had a tail, it would probably have been wagging and who can blame me? The last time Kazimir gave me a gift it was a sniper rifle and a surface to air missile. Granted the missile was use and drop but I got to keep the sweet rifle and before that he gave me a freaking Lamborghini. At first I thought it was a loaner but when I asked him about it he said not to sweat it. On our drive home my imagination started conjuring up fantastic images of what my reward could be. At the bunker all my excitement was extinguished as if it was doused with cold water when he handed me two fans. They looked like they were made up of silvery blue plastic. They felt grainy to the hand but they didn''t seem to be particularly hard or sharp. Unless Kazimir was giving me the fans as an accessory to cool myself off, which would be ridiculous since winter was approaching and we were in St Petersburg, I didn''t get why he gave me the fans. When I looked at him quizzically he finally answered my unasked question. "I know they don''t seem like much but they are made up of a special plastic that was developed after millions of dollars of research. See the plastic you are holding is the hardest material on earth." I bent the fan back and forth, "No it isn''t." "You didn''t let me finish, that plastic is the hardest material on earth some of the time. See those fans are made up of a special polymer that has very long stable chains linked in a lattice like structure. The scientists used a special process to trap a salt molecule in the middle of each gap in the lattice. The idea was that when the salt molecule is oriented correctly it causes the appropriate charges to shift in the chain causing an imbalance that would greatly strengthen the bonds between the molecules and it worked better than they ever dreamed. The material they created was twice as hard as anything else on earth, the problem was the orientation of the salt molecules shifted randomly making some parts hard and other parts soft, that is what gives it the grainy texture. They attempted to use magnetic fields to properly align them but each salt molecule needed to be in a slightly different orientation to the one next to it so they failed miserably. The whole thing was labeled a failure and the project was scrapped. Thankfully I have a friend in R&D who owes me a favor so I was able to get these made especially for you." My earlier excitement started to return, if what he said was true then these two fans were the perfect weapons for me. There was only one thing left to do, it was time to try them out. chapter thirty four - ace up the sleeve Chapter thirty four I grasped the fan in my right hand and concentrated on what I wanted the salt molecules to do and the ultimate outcome I wished for which was to make it as hard and sharp as possible. Normally using my powers to change the basic properties of some material would very quickly earn me a very nasty rebound and a one way ticket to the morgue but that wasn''t what I was trying to do. The salt molecules are constantly turning around randomly and anything random is susceptible to my powers and I was able to orient them just right by a very minimal effort. As I concentrated on the fan there was a very sudden and very obvious shift in its appearance. The silvery blue plastic which felt grainy to the touch morphed into a completely smooth silver material that looked like a piece of metal. In its new form the fan was no longer flexible, instead it was entirely rigid and had a good feel to it as I swung it around experimentally. It wasn''t any heavier than the original fan so it was still very light but the way it was cutting through the air was very different, in fact it started to make a whistling sound when it was swung above a certain speed. I found out that it could easily shred plastic, wood , or even metal. How did I find out? Well let''s just say I might have gotten a little over excited and started to happily go around the bunker destroying anything in my path. I was in the midst of ''testing'' my new fans when I was interrupted by Kazimir who looked a tad bit upset. I guess I had gotten a little too far when I cut off the barrel of one of his AK 47s . "Alright , enough horseplay. You have a video call with Vladimir in twenty five minutes and you need to get ready for that." I tried to look as contrite as possible while inside I was jumping with joy and wanted to continue my new favorite hobby, "I''m sorry Kazimir, I''ll put these away. Thank you for getting them for me." "Nice try Sophia, but I''m not your father, that look won''t work on me. Hand over the fans before you destroy what is left of my stuff." * * * A few minutes later I was all dressed up as Persephone and waiting for the call from Vladimir. I wasn''t sure what he wanted to talk about but I had a newfound respect and even a tiny bit of fear for the man. Although I didn''t want to continue to associate with the mob it would be rude if I refused to at least talk to him, so there I was waiting for him to call. When he finally appeared on the screen he was in a different room than where he usually calls me from, which was a room similar to a very fancy parlor with comfortable looking stuffed chairs. But now he was in a room that looked more like a place to hold business meetings. The laptop I gave him was set on a long table surrounded by stiff backed chairs that were probably designed to torture the occupants back in order to keep them alert, only at the head of the table was there a swiveling leather seat that looked like a person could seat on it without needing a chiropractor afterwards and sitting comfortably in that chair was Vladimir. He wasn''t facing towards me like I expected but looking at a giant screen behind him. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. I shifted my attention towards the screen and I saw a familiar face. It was an older gentleman with a silver streak running through his otherwise black hair. He had piercing green eyes and was clean shaven except for a van dyke that gave him an overall villainous look, his black suit and bright red tie didn''t help either. On his lapel was a golden pin with the logo of Fairweather tech on it. Although I have never met the man I immediately recognized the CEO of Fairweather tech and probably my number one enemy, Marcus Fairweather. "Mr Mikailov what is going on?" Marcus turned his attention to me and said," Vladimir, aren''t you going to introduce me to this beautiful lady?" His thin smile,his oily voice and the slimy look he was giving me made me want to run out of the room and take a shower. "Of course , this charming young lady is Persephone. She was the one who tipped me off on what I was dealing with and how to deal with the problem. She personally took care of over forty of your compatriots and was probably the only reason I came out on top in our little game. From the horrified and disgusted look on her face I''m assuming that Persephone already knows who you are Marcus." The look that Marcus was giving me changed, it was still predatory but now instead of peeling off my cloth he was now thinking of peeling off my skin. I felt as if Vladimir had thrown me under the bus, no more like under a freight train. What was his purpose in parading me in front of my greatest enemy? Vladimir seemed to have read my expression because he continued, "Oh don''t look at me like that Persephone, I''m not selling you out. Marcus decided to call a truce and asked to make a deal, a treaty if you will. I wanted someone that had experience with dealing with his kind and the only person I could think of was you. That is why I called you, not to sell you out but to ask for your advice." "You want my advice on dealing with Atelli, here it is. You don''t deal with Atelli unless it is by the edge of a blade or at the tip of your bullet. Well there are several other ways as well but you get the general idea." Marcus cut into our conversation, "Don''t be like that Ms Persephone, I am willing to let bygones be bygones and make a deal that would reduce bloodshed and be beneficial to everybody." I glared at the smarmy bastard and said , "Why would we make a deal with you? You were defeated and you ran away with your tail tucked between your legs. You have no more cards left to play in Russia and we would be foolish to invite you back into our country." His smug smile gave me a very ominous feeling, "You are right of course, I no longer have the manpower to challenge the mob for the docks. But I do have one last card to play, an ace up my sleeve if you will. Vladimir where is your son Sergei?" chapter thirty five - negotiation Chapter thirty five "Vladimir, where is your son Sergei?" Vladimir seemed very confused and a little alarmed by the sudden change in topic," What do you mean? Why are you bringing Sergei into this?" Marcus continued to smile, "Humor me." "He is at his friend Sophia''s house, he told me so before he left this evening." Why would Sergei lie to his father about coming to my house? He had told me that he was going out with his mysterious new girlfriend. I had been really busy this past month so he has been hanging out with her a lot lately so I didn''t think it was strange that he was going out with her again but now I was starting to get a very bad feeling about it. Marcus sneered," Well I hate to break this to you but I have footage that says otherwise." The image of Marcus was replaced by a handheld video camera recording of Sergei. He wasn''t tied up , handcuffed, or restrained in any way, in fact he was just sitting down on a chair in the middle of a large room with a dopey smile on his face as he looked at whoever was holding the video camera. A girly voice suddenly giggled and said,"Alright honey, just like we practiced. Look into the camera and say the words." Sergei''s eyes were unfocused as he looked at the video camera and happily declared, " I am being held prisoner, do whatever they say or I will be killed in twenty four hours." "That was great sweety, now for your reward....." The video cut off at that point and the smug Marcus returned on the screen," He sure looks like he is having a good time. It never ceases to amaze me to see what a man would do with a little feminine persuasion, now back to our negotiation." For the first time in my life I saw the cool and collected Vladimir lose his temper," What have you done to my son? If you have harmed a single hair on his head I swear I will hunt you down and kill you after I''ve made you watch everything you care about crumble around you." "No need to bare your fangs at me Vladimir, this is a negotiation. I have something you want, your son and you have something I want, access to your docks so that I could use them to ship some cargo once or twice a week. Look I am not being unreasonable, I am not going to undermine your control in any way. I admit that we made made an error when we initiated the war between us , we severely underestimated you and we paid the price for that. I apologize for any inconvenience that I have caused you and I am willing to pay an indemnity for any loss I have caused. All I am asking now is to let me use the docks for a reasonable even exorbitant fee." The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Vladimir was silent for a second and said," What is the cargo?" Marcus seemed to fidget a little, "Oh this and that. What does it matter anyway? I will pay you the top price for ..." Vladimir cut him off," What is the cargo?" "People , the cargo is people. The homeless, runaways , orphans, prostitutes, the dregs of society, people that nobody is going to miss." "I have been called a lot of things in my life. A murderer , a drug dealer, a gun runner. I know I am not a very good person but what you are asking me is to sell people to you, the monsters." "Oh, a crime lord with a conscience , how sweet, seriously I have tears in my eyes. What you are forgetting is that I have your son. Now I am faxing you the contracts I want you to sign . I want them signed, notarized and sent back to me in twenty four hours. The penalty for breach of contract is the considerable shares you have in oil in the world stock market, so don''t even think about double crossing me. It has been a pleasure doing business with you." Then he disappeared off the screen. All this time I had stayed silent because I didn''t trust myself to speak and give myself away as someone who cares for Sergei. After Marcus disappeared from the screen I said a single word, "Stall." Vladimir was a little startled after I spoke, he was so deep in thought that he had forgotten that I was even there."What do you mean?" "Stall while I get Sergei back, drag out the process as much as you can and if I fail to get him back in twelve hours you can do whatever you want. Hell I can probably do it in six." "You think you can get him back? You are that certain?" "Yes I''m certain. I''m a little worried about his state of mind but I am sure I can rescue him." "But you don''t even know where he is, how are you going to find him?" "I already know where he is." "How?" "Let''s just say I made a really dumb decision that is now paying off." chapter thirty six - wing strikes again Chapter thirty six After I had finished my conversation with Vladimir and disconnected from him, Kazimir hurriedly came to my side and immediately asked me, "Do you really know where Sergei is being held?" Over the years Kazimir had developed a genuine fondness for Sergei. I was best friends with Sergei but I couldn''t really do guy stuff together with him like watching FC Zenit play against their arch rivals CSKA Moscow without falling asleep. For me soccer is just a bunch of men kicking a ball around but Kazimir and Sergei watch it together cheering, booing and shouting like it''s the most exciting thing in the world, so they developed a special bond. I think Kazimir sort of saw him as an adopted son so when he asked me the question there was a note of concern and urgency in his voice. "Yes , I know exactly where he is being held. Remember when I became a total idiot and followed my mother without being in disguise or arming myself? Well the warehouse where she took Vladimir''s goon to kill him and infect him with her thorny tentacle vine thingy is the same place as the one in the video camera." Kazimir looked skeptical, "The room in the video was completely empty and you only saw it for a couple of minutes plus you only saw the inside of the warehouse once, through a hole. How can you be sure they are the same place?" "The first thing was that they used the exact same chair as they did when they were holding the goon, a red metal chair that had faded so badly that it had become pink." "Your basing your assumption on a damn chair? There could be hundreds of similar chairs out there , you can''t be sure that those two were the same ones." "You''re right that wouldn''t have been enough but what really clinched it was the stain on the wall." "What about the stain on the wall?" "It was a blue stain shaped perfectly like wing the magical penguin, it even had her little tiara made out of a different red stain." "You''re sure about this? You''re sure that this isn''t just some figment of your imagination?" "Nope , the stain was real and I''m sure that it was unique." "So to recap, you are sure the warehouse is where Sergei is being held at because of a faded chair and a wall stain that resembles a cartoon character which you were able to notice while you were watching your mother as she was painfully murdering a man and reanimating his corpse by inserting thorny tentacles into his mouth, did I miss anything?" If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "Yeah, it does sound pretty bad when you put it like that but trust me I''m a hundred percent sure that that is the place even if it sounds a little crazy." "Oh no , with the way things have been going lately this is not that bad. Granted, the fact that you were seeing a cartoon character in a wall stain while a man was being killed in front of you would probably give a psychiatrist enough material to write a paper on a new mental illness but that isn''t what''s important right now. What is important is that you know Sergei''s location so we have to get you ready to rescue him." Vladimir handed me my two guns, the desert eagle and the 9 mm that Sergei gave me for my birthday and a few cartridges for the two, then he personally carried a heavy case to the back of the van and then he went back to get some power tools. He unpacked the case to reveal a belt fed M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun. He took out the tripod mount for the gun and bolted it down to the floor of the van. He mounted the heavy gun on the tripod and made sure I knew how to properly reload and shoot the giant monster of a gun. "Remember the safety is over here and it is a high caliber gun so the bullets will travel very far and could cause collateral damage so be careful where you are aiming this thing," he pointed at the small green metal cases that contained the bullets, "those aren''t your usual hollow points that deform when they hit a wall, they are solid lead slugs so they will go right through wood and cement." "Thanks for the warning Kaz, I''ll be careful, plus I think I might be able to do something about the stray bullets with my powers." "Well then all that is left is to say good luck." "You know I''m always lucky Kaz, but thank you anyways." I was getting into the front seat of the van, getting ready to leave when Kazimir called me back, "Sophia, you forgot something!" "What?" "These," he then threw the pair of silver blue fans into my waiting hands, "give them hell Sophia." I smiled as I answered, "I intend to." chapter thirty seven - crystal skull Chapter thirty seven The night was pitch black and it was snowing heavily as I drove to the warehouse. I parked the van to the left of the door with the back facing it at an angle so that I could ambush anyone coming out without bullets flying inside and accidentally killing Sergei. I could probably do something about that with my powers but why take the chance? I opened the backdoors of van and settled myself behind the heavy machine gun. My breath was turning into mist as the freezing cold air invaded the back of the van and I started to throw pebbles at the door of the warehouse. The plan was very simple, I lay in wait outside of the warehouse and threw pebbles to make noise, if an Atelli came out I would unload my giant gun on them. A few seconds later the door opened and an Atelli walked out just like I expected. It was one of my mother''s lieutenants, the one that looked like a skeleton made out of glass and he nonchalantly walked out like he didn''t have a care in the world, right into my cross hairs. I pressed the trigger and the whole van started to vibrate as the M2 started to spray 1200 rounds per minute. Spent casings fell like rain as bullets accelerated to speeds of up to 890 meters per second when they left the muzzle with a bright streak, lighting up the darkness like tiny comets in the night sky and every one of them landed on the skeleton that looked like it was made out of glass but instead of shattering him, they created bright sparks as the fragile looking bones deflected the heavy bullets. They might not have been able to break his bones but they were still fifty caliber solid lead slugs traveling at more than eight hundred meters per second, they packed one hell of a punch so the skeleton was violently flung onto the snow covered ground. I continued to shoot him until he was buried deep into the snow. When I had finally run out of bullets a voice from the warehouse called out, "What the hell is that infernal racket? Do I need to get out there Arthur, do you need some help?" The skeleton raised himself from the hole he had made in the snow, apparently unhurt, "It''s alright Albert, I can handle this one alone. Besides, it''s been a while since I''ve had to stretch my bones and I''m getting creaky , this is just what the doctor ordered." If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. His bony fingers melded together and his forearm lengthened and thickened transforming his hands into two very large crystalline blades with jagged edges that looked like they were made to tear things apart. I quickly got out of the van and took out my fans. The skeleton who was charging at me suddenly stopped and started to laugh, "Seriously fans? Bullets didn''t work on me and you think those will? What are you going to do, wave them at me until I freeze to death?" "Why don''t you come here and find out , Atelli scum." The word Atelli seemed to really piss him off and he resumed his charge . He finally reached me and the fight begun. He had much more power than me and his hits packed a bigger punch, his reach was also longer so he could get to me before I could get to him but since he was used to being ''indestructible'' he had almost no technique and didn''t even bother to avoid any of my attacks. I on the other hand was much faster than him and used all my technique to attack him. I spun around the skeleton , never giving him a chance to get a direct hit. Every time I would dodge his attacks he would get more and more enraged , making his attacks more aggressive and sloppy. I on the other hand was careful, methodical.His body was so hard that I couldn''t cut straight through even with my special fans so I didn''t foolishly attack him every time there was an opportunity, instead I systematically cut small nicks at specific points on his body that he didn''t even notice in his enraged state. His temper seemed to reach its peak as I dodged another of his strikes and he bellowed, "Stop dancing around like a circus monkey! Stand still and fight me!" And he followed that up by a careless lunge overextending himself. I thought that this was a perfect opportunity and decided to finish him off. I had weakened his bones at specific locations just enough that when I sliced at these points with full force my fans went right through them. I dodged under his wild swing and hit him with five rapid attacks causing the skeleton to literally fall apart as his arms, his legs, and his head was separated from his torso. His final words were, "How?" "You are strong and tough but you aren''t very smart. Brains over brawn buddy, brains over brawn." chapter thirty eight - trouble Chapter thirty eight I shredded the soul of the Atelli trying to escape his body then proceeded to the front door of the warehouse. I quietly opened the door and inside I saw a curious scene, instead of a hoard of Atelli I was expecting there were only three inhabitants out of which only one was an Atelli. The Atelli in question was the second of my mother''s lieutenants , the creepy one(and that is saying something when it came to the Atelli) that looked like a living ball of smoke that I was pretty sure had trapped souls inside him. There was a glowing blue string that originated from him and connected to a circle of strange glowing symbols that formed a collar around the neck of inhabitant number two. On the outside she looked like a pretty sweet young lady , her body was well proportioned and she was beautiful in a girl next door kind of way, beautiful but not so beautiful that she would be unapproachable but with my sight I could see what was underneath her disguise and beneath her wholesome girl next door look was a mature woman who was an absolute knockout and looked like she was made for sin. Short black hair styled in a pixie cut , a face that was so beautiful that it could probably inspire poetry and to top it all off she had the kind of voluptuous figure that you could only get in cartoon caricatures. The only thing that kept me from drooling over her was that she had red skin, not red like she had tanned in the sun for too long red but the same shade as a fire engine red. She also had small horns on her forehead and had black wings and a tail growing out of her black. Even though she clearly wasn''t human I was equally certain that she wasn''t Atelli either because of her eyes, they were pitch black as if they were bottomless and burning at their center where an iris should have been was a ball of blue flames. I know that there were a lot of Atelli and they could take almost any form but when I looked into her eyes I knew that she was something else, something different. Which brings us to the last inhabitant of the room, Sergei. He was sitting on the ground being petted on the head like he was a pet dog by the red woman. He still had that dopey look on his face and judging from his expression he thought that getting petted by the woman was the greatest experience in his life. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. As I was looking at this strange scene , trying to make sense of what was going on , a sardonic voice originating from the billowing ball of smoke started to speak, "Well well well , this is surprising. You defeated Arthur? I''m guessing that he won''t be joining us is he?" I didn''t really know how to fight let alone defeat something that wasn''t even solid so I decided to stall. I politely answered, "Do you mean the glass skeleton? He had an unfortunate accident. I''m afraid he won''t make it back now or any other time." The ball of smoke pulsed for a moment then responded, "That''s a shame , I had grown rather attached to Arthur over the years. You are Persephone aren''t you? You know you are the reason that we had to go to all this trouble to capture the boy. At first we were just going to snatch him and have my boss control his body , but now she is terrified of you. You see , you have become something of a boogey man for the shining ones, usually death doesn''t mean much to us because we could always move on to another body but anyone killed by you is never heard from again. After what happened to the last guy who tried to kidnap young Sergei here my boss wasn''t willing to touch him with a ten foot pole so naturally the task fell to me and I had to cook up this crazy scheme that cost me a lot of power to try and avoid your attention but here you are regardless. I am quite impressed." I still couldn''t come up with a way to hurt a ball of gas so I tried to stall some more. I calmly asked him, " So what was your plan? I''m assuming it involves the strange creature over there. Who is she or rather what is she?" The fog seemed to swirl and shake as he chuckled, "Nice try but I am not as gullible as Arthur, I know a stalling tactic when I see one, I might have many sins but pride isn''t one of them. It has been a pleasure to speak to you Ms Persephone but I can speak to you all I want after I have extracted your soul." That did not sound very good. In fact it sounded very very bad. chapter thirty nine - boss battle Chapter thirty nine Since the conversation was so clearly over I decided to strike first, I quickly took out my guns from their holsters and shot at the floating ball of smoke until they were clicking because they were empty but just like I had feared the bullets just passed through the the Atelli without doing any discernible damage. I was wondering if my fans would do a better job against him when the ball of gas started to ripple and pulsate as the smoke started to shift and churn in an ominous manner. From amidst the smoke the figure of a naked woman in her late fifties appeared although it was hard to guess her age with her face twisted into a grotesque expression of pain and horror. She was shackled in chains made of smoke that wrapped around her neck, hands and feet, keeping her immobile. Pieces of her body were missing as if a vicious animal with sharp teeth had taken chunks out of her stomach and thighs. The smoke around her started to move and solidify into several gaping maws that had sharp looking triangular teeth arranged in rows of circles that were all rotating rapidly as they came into contact with the soul, because that was what the woman was, a trapped soul. I watched in helpless horror as the mouths latched onto the woman''s soul causing her to release a wail of absolute agony. I could see a blue light start to travel from the mouths feeding on the soul into the Atelli making the smoke glow the same luminous blue, then the glow was gathered into small balls which flew at me. They were slow enough that I was able to dodge them but I had severely underestimated their power because when they hit the ground they detonated with the force of an exploding grenade, throwing me violently backwards through the door I had come from and I rolled several times before I came to a stop on the snow covered ground. I had never felt so much pain in my entire life. Several of my ribs were broken, my left leg was dislocated and I had burns allover my front, even half of my face was nothing but raw meat because the skin had been burnt off. I scrounged up enough focus through the intense pain to heal myself and picked myself off the ground. Most of my clothes had been burnt off by the explosion and now I was in a sorry state dressed in tatters in the middle of the snow. I knew that the power of souls was immense from my time healing people and now that power was being leveled against me, granted it was a very inefficient way of utilizing the power somewhat comparable to crushing an apple in your hands to lick the juice left over on your fingers but even those small drops harvested inefficiently were enough to throw me around like a ragdoll. The glowing power of the soul reminded me of the glowing daggers that Mike wielded , he could wield the power without consuming souls, or at least I hope he could. That probably meant there was a way that I could use it too but I doubted I could figure it out in the middle of a battle so it was useless to think about that now. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. As things stand I had no way of harming the fog that the Atelli was made of while he could definitely hurt me. I couldn''t think of any scenarios where I survive the fight with him but I could think of plenty of situations that would end in complete disaster like if he was somehow able to trap my soul before I left the physical realm and he was able to tap into enough of my own powers to contain me, he would get an almost endless source of power and since it wasn''t his own personal power he wouldn''t even be breaking any of the rules that could get him evicted from this plane. Imagining an Atelli possessing that sort of power made made me shudder, not to mention the fact that I would be in eternal pain as my soul was slowly consumed. I didn''t want to be tortured for eternity or be the reason that the human race was conquered by the Atelli so I strained my mind, ignoring the biting wind that was slowly giving me hypothermia , to think of a way to beat the ball of smoke. The logical part of me was telling me that if I did not find a good solution in the next few seconds I had to retreat because what was on the line wasn''t just the life of my best friend but also the fate of the planet but I doubted that the Atelli would let me escape so easily ,plus I didn''t think I could just abandon a friend that I had known for over a decade because it was the wise thing to do. The debate in my mind became moot as the ball of smoke in question came out the door, this time he had two other souls he was feeding on besides the woman and the first thing he did was throw one of his glowing blue balls at the van. The balls had become much brighter than before and the van was completely obliterated. All I could think of as I saw it blow up in an enormous explosion was that I hoped that Kazimir had Atelli insurance. chapter forty - butterfly Chapter forty I picked myself off the ground for the eighth time in a row and healed up all the injuries that I had received during my most recent fall, it had become automatic at this point. I kept dodging the Atelli''s attacks but the blast from the little glowing balls of destruction was not something I could avoid so I tried to minimize the amount of damage they inflicted , healed myself and moved on because staying still would be a death sentence. Moving around and dodging have been keeping me alive for the last five minutes but I didn''t think that it was going to work for much longer. The glowing blue balls inside of the floating ball of smoke started to revolve around each other and merge into one large glowing orb , it seems that the Atelli was tired of our little game of cat and mouse and had decided to end it with one giant hit. If he managed to land that giant orb anywhere near me I would be dead, no ifs or buts about it, so I had to do something before he was able to release it. I looked around me desperately and all I saw was the burning husk of the van and small craters where the blue orbs had hit the ground. There was nothing I could use to get myself out of this jam. I took inventory of what I had on me and all I found was one fan stuck in my belt, I had lost both guns and a fan when I was blasted out of the warehouse. I looked at the silver blue fan and wondered if this was the end of the line for me, but I have never been a fatalist and I wasn''t going to start now. I grit my teeth and wracked my mind for an idea , any idea that could save my life. While I was looking at the fan a crazy idea started to materialize in my head. The fan reminded me of the wings of a monarch butterfly and that invoked a memory I had of the first time I saw one. It was back in the orphanage and I was going through the phase when I found bugs fascinating. That day I had found the giant blue butterfly and excited by my new discovery I showed it to my friend Anna who just looked away and said that insects were too small to be important. I had been heartbroken and I cried all the way to Victoria to tell her about what had happened. She had heard what I said ,wiped away my tears and then scooped me up into her arms. She smiled at me then told me that the fact that something was small didn''t mean it was unimportant. She told me the story of how a butterfly flapping its wings in China could cause a big storm in America. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. As I looked at the fan , I thought maybe today I could be that butterfly. I took my fan and swung it in a massive arc as hard as I could. Normally the air molecules are moving randomly and the chaotic motion would cause the energy in the wave of air I created by waving my fan to dissipate quickly, but I made sure that when the wave was passing through a stretch of air at that exact time interval all the molecules were moving in the same direction magnifying it exponentially instead of dissipating it. For every inch it traveled it gathered more and more force. By the time it reached the Atelli it had transformed from a breeze to something comparable to winds found inside of the strongest tornadoes. When it hit the ball of smoke he was blown out like a birthday candle. He lost control of the giant orb he was making and it detonated while it was still inside him destroying what little was left of the Atelli. The three souls that were being kept prisoner were finally free and they slowly faded away, I said a little prayer for them and hoped that their next lives would be better than this one. As for the Atelli fragment that was trying to escape , I quickly trapped him with my powers but I didn''t simply destroy him like I usually do, I had a special plan for this one. I slowly cutout little pieces of him in a similar way as he was doing to the souls he trapped. Piece by piece I shredded him and I could have sworn that I heard a tiny scream coming from him. It took only ten minutes to shred him until there was nothing left, I could have made it last longer but I had to rescue Sergei. It was much less than the bastard deserved but at least for a few minutes he experienced a little bit of the hell he made those people go through. chapter forty one - Delilah Chapter forty one I slowly walked towards the warehouse , picking up some of my fallen items along the way. I found one of the guns , the desert eagle , and some cartridges for it so I reloaded it and kept it in my right hand. I also found my other fan and I stuffed it in my belt right next to its twin. I had my gun raised and ready when I entered the warehouse but the demonic looking lady did not try to attack me like I expected , in fact she was huddling behind Sergei trying to make herself as small a target as possible. I could hear her throaty voice coming from behind Sergei saying , " You have to save me honey, she is going to kill me if you don''t stop her. You don''t want me to die , do you sweety?" Sergei still had that same dopey expression on his face as he replied, "I won''t let her get you baby, nobody is going to hurt you while I''m here." He puffed up his chest and stood in front of me covering my line of sight to her and blocking me from having a clear shot. I could have probably found a nonviolent solution to make him move but I had just spent the last ten minutes of my life being thrown around, I had to heal myself from several painful injuries including burns and broken bones which hurt like hell, I was barely wearing any clothes since the tattered remains of my jeans and T-shirt didn''t cover much skin, to top it all of it was freezing outside and I was constantly healing myself from frostbite. I was having a really really bad day so I didn''t have the time or the patience to deal with this shit. My solution fit my mood at that time perfectly, I shot his foot. He collapsed holding his foot and started to roll around the ground screaming like a little girl but I was just too damn tired to care. I turned my gun towards the demonic looking lady whose eyes had popped out in shock at the sudden development. "I am pissed as hell and you just made me shoot my friend , I really want to shoot you right now. You have two minutes to convince me to spare your life, talk." Even though she looked terrified and she had my threat hanging over her head she didn''t panic or stutter as she explained herself, which kind of impressed me a little, " I was as much of a prisoner as your friend, the man you just fought had a contract on me so I couldn''t refuse when he told me to snare the boy." "OK , that buys you five more minutes , elaborate." "He used magic and ordered me to make the boy fall in love with me, it is as simple as that." "Let''s say I believe you, what exactly are you?" "What do you mean? I''m a normal girl, why would you even ask that?" This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. "No dice , nice try but your little lie just cost you two minutes of your precious time, you now have three minutes left and if you lie to me again I''ll just shoot you. Now I repeat , what are you?" She had sweat running down her forehead as she answered, "I''m a succubus , they summoned me to trap the boy." "So are you really an evil demon from hell?" She actually looked offended for a second which convinced me of her answer,"I am a demoness from the lust circle of hell but that doesn''t make me evil , we are just wardens of a prison." "Good, now this is important, can you release Sergei from your brainwash thing?" "He''s already free , when you shot him you broke all control I had of him." "How long does it take for you to control somebody." "My technique is a combination of hypnosis and pheromones, it would take about a month depending on the amount of time I spent with the target." Her disguise remained as cool as a cucumber but her true form started to fidget a little exposing her lie. I raised my gun and cocked it for dramatic effect even though it wasn''t necessary for this gun, "What did I say about lying ?" She raised her hands and shouted," Wait! Don''t shoot! I wasn''t lying , it does take me a month to snare a new target but if somebody has been under my influence before then I could put them under my control at any time." "This one is for the grand prize, how do I trust you? You lied to me twice in as many minutes , how can I let you live without knowing what you''ll do once I let you go?" She slowly considered her options and I could see her eyes fill with determination as she made her decision , " I pledge myself to you by my true name Delilah Lithafora to serve and to protect until I die or I am released by you." I felt her words resonate inside my soul as a connection was created between us and I knew that she had just made herself my slave willingly. I lowered my gun and looked at her quizzically, "Why would you do something like this?" She laughed for the first time since I met her and it transformed her already beautiful face into something breathtaking. Then she said a something that made her decision make sense, "The worst day on earth is better than the best day in hell, if I have to be your slave to stay here then so be it." And that was how I got my pet succubus. chapter forty two - gloating Chapter forty two "This better be very important Vladimir , you just had me called out from an important business meeting saying that you have something urgent you needed to talk to me about and I find you here leisurely lounging about and smoking a cigar? Do you think that this is some sort of a joke? Do you think that I will hesitate to have your son tortured or killed? Do you not understand the severity of the situation you are in or does your son mean so little to you that you are willing to throw his life away for some meaningless posturing?" Since my cellphone was destroyed and all my money burnt to a crisp along with my wallet and since neither Delilah nor Sergei had money or a phone, we had to walk and hitchhike all the way from the warehouse to the bunker with an awkward silence hanging in the air as Sergei attempted to be as far away from Delilah as possible without leaving us behind while Delilah insisted on being as close to me as possible. But all that torturous awkwardness and trudging through the snow was worth it because I could finally get to do this, I looked at the irritated face of Marcus Fairweather on the giant screen behind Vladimir, put my tongue between my lips and blew a giant raspberry before saying, "Get the stick out of your ass Marcus and stop being so damn pompous, we don''t give a rat''s ass about your threats or ultimatums." I could see the confusion and rage on his face and I couldn''t help but giggle. Marcus turned back to Vladimir and said, "Are you going to let her speak to me like that? Need I remind you that your son''s well-being is dependent on my good will." Vladimir just took another puff from his cigar and replied, " She''s right you know. You need to loosen up a little, nobody likes a stuck up prick." Marcus''s face turned so red that I thought he was going to have a stroke or a heart attack or something along that line. His voice was shaking in rage as he said, "I will give you one last chance, sign the documents immediately and send them back to me or I will have your son''s soul tortured for all eternity." Vladimir picked up some documents and showed them to Marcus , "You mean these documents?" Then he touched one end of paper with the butt of his cigarette lighting it on fire , "oops, I am so clumsy sometimes." Marcus was now so furious we could see veins popping allover his forehead as he put his hands in his pocket and took out his cellphone. He screamed, "You asked for this!" then started to poke the screen of his touchscreen so hard that it cracked and broke from the abuse. He finally had to mash the number manually into a normal phone in the conference room he was in and so we were able to hear the robotic automated voice saying "The number you have dialed is disconnected, for more information and support you can connect to our call center by dialing 905 , thank you for choosing Verizon wireless." Usually that message makes me want to go to their ''call center'' and set off a low yield nuclear weapon but now it was the most hilarious thing I had ever heard. Marcus didn''t seem to find it as amusing because that finally pushed him over the line and he completely lost it. He completely trashed the room he was in, he broke the table in two , he threw chairs around and even threw them through windows. At one point he made such a ruckus a couple of oriental looking businessmen came to check what was happening and saw the ending of Marcus''s little temper tantrum. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I didn''t know how to speak Japanese (that''s what it sounded like to me) but I was pretty sure that they were discussing taking their business elsewhere as they quickly left the room. A few minutes later Marcus was in a different conference room and he seemed to have calmed down considerably even though his usual smug expression was absent and he had a small twitch near the left corner of his mouth, "I apologize for my outburst earlier, I don''t know what came over me." Vladimir just chuckled, "That''s quite alright , it was actually quite amusing." I suddenly cut in, "It was more than amusing , it was freaking hilarious. I actually recorded it and posted it on YouTube. It already has over ten thousand hits in under ten minutes and the video is seven minutes long so you do the math. I''m pretty sure you are going to be an internet star Marcus, although I don''t know how your shareholders will feel about it." The twitch near the corner of his mouth suddenly became more pronounced, "Ms Persephone, why do I feel like all my misfortune is somehow connected to you?" I just smiled innocently and looked as angelic as possible , "Why would you think that?" "Because I had two of my best men guarding the boy, one of them was an elite of the shining ones and even among us he is feared and respected. No bullets could have defeated those two, how did you manage to beat them?" I didn''t want him to take too close a look at me so I took a calculated risk, "You have it wrong Mr Marcus, I wasn''t the one who foiled your plan. It was a man in a white mask who says he is a friend of yours." Either he was a really good actor or he really was enemies with Mike because his eyes suddenly bulged out and his face twisted into an expression of absolute fury. I could actually hear his teeth grinding as he said, "Adonis..." It seems I could trust Mike after all, that was good to know. Marcus finally got his expression under control although the twitch near the left corner of his mouth was joined by a one near his right eye, "Alright Mr Vladimir , I know when I am beaten. I shall cease all operations in Russia until a later time so this is my farewell to you, at least for now. As for you Ms Persephone I have a feeling that you are going to be an annoying thorn in my backside so I am sure we are going to cross paths sooner rather than later so until we meet again I bid you adieu." He would have sounded quite cool and suave if he had not grabbed the armrest of his chair so hard that he broke it when he said that. I just dissolved into another fit of laughter. That was so enjoyable that it almost made what I went through that night worth it. chapter forty three - snack run Chapter forty three Kazimir insisted that we needed to talk about the events that had transpired that night and discuss how we were going to proceed in the future now that the Atelli were allegedly moving their operations out of Russia but I insisted that I needed food in my stomach before my stomach decided to eat itself. We compromised and went to the nearby twenty four hour Chinese restaurant and got a private booth. The Kyung restaurant was an interesting establishment that is famous in St Petersburg for being the best Chinese restaurant in the city. Although the place primarily served Chinese food , the family who owns and runs the place was actually Korean not to mention the fact that the people who actually cooked the food were a trio of Jamaican brothers but since their kung pow chicken was divine and their dumplings unrivaled nobody really gave a damn. We entered the restaurant which was predictably empty this late at night and walked to an area at the back of the room that had sectioned off areas for people who wanted privacy. A lot of teenagers use these booths to make out *ahem* not that I would know anything about that *ahem* so they were called the make out booths. Sergei and Kazimir sat down across from the table from Delilah and me. Sergei kept staring daggers at Delilah and said, "What is she doing here?" I tried to make my voice as soothing as possible , "Calm down Sergei. How much do you remember about what happened at the warehouse?" "I don''t remember much but what I do remember is that she betrayed me to the Atelli." "Well it''s a long story but she''s sort of my responsibility now so I have to take care of her." He seemed to misinterpret what I was saying and got so upset that he started to raise his voice, "What do you mean by that? I know Jasmine is pretty and you are usually a sucker for a pretty face but Jasmine sold me out to the Atelli, you suddenly swooping in and saying she is yours isn''t going to magically absolve her for what she had done to me. She sold me out to the Atelli, Sophia! This isn''t something you can just sweep under the rug." "Dude , that is not what I meant. Look I hate to break this to you but ''Jasmine'' didn''t even exist, she is a fictional character that this woman whose real name is Delilah made up to trap you. I know you probably have a lot of deep feelings for her that are messing with your judgment right now but calm the hell down and lower your voice." "What do you mean Jasmine doesn''t exist? I''ve known her for a month for God''s sake, she''s sitting right there and why do you keep calling her a woman, she is barely eighteen." "Believe you me she is not eighteen and she doesn''t really look like this. Hell, she isn''t even human but don''t freak out , whatever you might have done together she is not a gross slimy monster with tentacles or anything." Suddenly Delilah interjected with that throaty voice of hers, "We never really did anything except kiss once when we exchanged promise rings." I looked at Sergei with an eyebrow raised, I forgot all about what I was going to say to him as something much more shocking was revealed by Delilah, " You have been going out with this girl regularly for a month now and all you could get was one kiss? And you exchanged promise rings, really?" This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He turned almost as red as Delilah''s true form, "She said that she was religious!" Delilah was trying to keep her voice even but I could still hear the humor in her voice as she said, "We succubi have a special instinct that let us know what type of persona we need to adopt to lure in our target, for Sergei it just happened to be a super religious teenage daughter of a preacher and a florist named Jasmine." Now both my eyebrows were up as I stared at Sergei, "Sergei, is this true? Were you looking for true love or something?" "HELL NO! Look girls are throwing themselves at me all the time, it was just nice to actually pursue someone for a change." "OK I am now going to pretend that I didn''t hear you say that girls falling over you too easily was a problem and move on. Let me tell you the whole story of what happened tonight." As we were eating noodle and dumplings , I told them about my epic battle with skeleton man and the soul trapping fog monster although I did tweak the story a little bit so that I looked a little more cooler and might have left out how I got my ass kicked allover the place by said fog monster. I finished the story with how I rescued the damsel in distress Sergei and met the enslaved demoness who pledged her services willingly to me after seeing my heroic deeds. By the end of my story Delilah was on the floor, unable to keep herself in her chair as she was laughing so hard. Sergei on the other hand was fuming, I guess he didn''t like my depiction of him as the helpless maiden. "I had almost forgotten about that, you shot me!" "Well yeah, but its not like I had a choice. You were brainwashed and blocking my way." "And your solution was to shoot me?! I can''t believe you! You not only stole my new girlfriend but you also shot me for no reason!" Delilah raised herself from the ground just enough to say, "But I thought we had established I was a succubus acting as bait , not really your girlfriend." Sergei pointed his index finger at her imperiously, "You got me kidnapped by the Atelli, you have no say in this matter. Now as for you Ms Sophia the charges against you stand as one count of shooting my foot off and one charge of stealing my serious girlfriend." "I object! I only shot your foot to save you and she wasn''t really your girlfriend." "I''m sure that you could have knocked me out without shooting me, plus technically Delilah was still my girlfriend when you took her." I sighed in defeat, "Fine, what will it take for me to make this go away." He smiled triumphantly and said, "The keys to the Lamborghini for the next month." "I will give you a week, but I swear if you put a single scratch on her I will shoot you again and this time I won''t heal you." As we were leaving the restaurant Kazimir leaned over to me and whispered into my ear, "Why are you making such a big deal over the car, with the amount that Vladimir paid you to rescue his son you could buy as many super cars as you want." "Yeah, but Sergei doesn''t need to know that." chapter forty four - goodbye mother Chapter forty four I looked on as my foster mother got out of the taxi at the airport. I thought that ending it like this way too impersonal for my taste so I called her phone from my special ''Persephone'' burner phone as she trudged through the snow with her heavy suitcase, I saw her pause in the middle of the crowded plaza when she noticed that her phone was ringing. She picked up the phone and started to speak right in the middle of that crowded plaza as countless people were moving past her in every direction, "Hello, who am I speaking to?" "Hello thorn queen." I saw her expression shift , all the blood drained from her face and her eyes widened in shock and the beginnings of fear started to appear in her eyes, "Who is this? How did you get this number?" I couldn''t help but snicker when I heard the little tremble in her voice, I had to admit that I was taking a bit of sadistic pleasure from seeing this vile woman squirm. She had always been off limits since she was married to dad and that actually kept him safe in a round about manner but now she was no longer protected by that fact for two reasons. The first was that the Atelli really were leaving Russia, the risk they posed and consequently the reason I couldn''t kill her would be gone with them. The second reason was that she was no longer married to my dad. She had served my father with divorce papers one morning with not even a how do you do, she hadn''t even bothered to make up an explanation as to why she was leaving him and it had broken my father''s heart. She might have been a cold and almost robotic woman but dad had truly loved her since they were kids and was genuinely devastated when she decided to leave him. In his depression he threw himself into his work and barely ever came home. At some point his own staff at the hospital forced him to stop before he worked himself to death and called me to the hospital to get him because they didn''t trust him to drive in his ragged state and it was Kazimir''s day off. As I was driving home with him in the front seat next to me I noticed that his eyes were red and bleary, he had bags under his eyes that were so dark that they looked almost bruised. The gray hairs in his wavy chestnut hair had multiplied exponentially and his face had new wrinkles I had never seen before , it was as if he had aged years in the past three days. "Dad , why did you marry Mariana?" He seemed startled by the question, " I married her because I loved her. We grew up together as children and I knew we were destined to be together since I realized that I had feelings for her in highschool." "What I am about to say might sound cold but seriously think about the answer before answering my question, while you were married did you still love her? Was she truly the same girl that you fell in love with?" This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. "That wasn''t her fault! Her work was very stressful and I didn''t give her enough time because of my job, it''s not her fault that she was a little emotionless sometimes. Maybe if I had spent less time at the hospital and more time with her she wouldn''t have left me." "That''s bullshit dad. If being together with somebody kept you away from something you truly believed in then it isn''t really love anymore, because someone who truly loves you would understand and support you when something is important to you. For example I love you dad , I would love to spend more time with you but you know what? I love you even more because you are willing to sacrifice so much to help people. I love you more because you are so selfless and giving ,not less." For a moment he just stayed silent, digesting my words so I continued, "You know what I think? I think that you loved Mariana very much, I think that you loved the person she used to be so much that you made excuses for her as she changed into the person she is today. I know this sounds harsh but Mariana isn''t a very good person dad. In fact she might put on a civilized veneer around us but underneath that she is cold and uncaring, I mean what kind of person serves divorce papers like she did? No explanations , no warning , not even an argument like normal people have when they get divorced. I''m sure that the Mariana you fell in love with was a wonderful person but that Mariana was long gone. You didn''t marry your highschool sweetheart, you married nothing but a memory of her." After I finished talking he broke down and cried, not for the divorce but for what he had lost when the Atelli had taken his sweetheart from him. . . . As the memory replayed in my head my smile turned more grim, " I am quite hurt that you wouldn''t recognize me thorn queen, I would have thought that I constantly occupy your thoughts thanks to recent events." I could see her knuckles turn white as she gripped the phone and breathed a single word, "Persephone." "Ding ding ding. That is the right answer, and the grand prize? An all expense paid trip to total annihilation." She started to turn her head in every direction as she searched for me, but she wouldn''t find me. I was in a multistory parking lot two thousand meters away from the airport and I was seeing her through the scope of my sniper. "But there is another name that you know me by, mother dearest." I could see her expression change as all the pieces suddenly fell together in her mind but it was much too late because a fraction of a second later a high caliber bullet obliterated her head. That day I was finally able to kill the creature that was masquerading as my mother. chapter forty five - the raven Chapter forty five It had been nearly a month since the death of Marina and I had just finished watching the latest episode of wing the magical penguin with Sergei and Delilah. The two of them had decided to bury the hatchet on what had happened after our midnight snack run to the Chinese restaurant and had quickly become friends, the problem with that was that they now often teamed up to tease me instead of bickering with each other. For example the day after the whole kidnapping thing which was three weeks ago, I was questioning Delilah on her nature as a succubus. Sergei was on the mainframe playing Modern warfare even though Kazimir had repeatedly told him not to download games on his computer. I ordered Delilah not to lie to me and started my questioning, "What superhuman abilities do you posses." "Besides the pheromones and hypnotism you already know about , I could shift my appearance to look like anybody I want although the more I shift the more energy it consumes. Other than that I have retractable claws , my tail is pretty strong, and I can fly for short distances." "Do you have any , how do I put this delicately...do you have any special dietary needs." Her face was expressionless even though I could see a twinkle in her eyes as she answered, "I''m a vegetarian so I try not to eat meat." I thought Sergei was too busy with his game to be listening to us but apparently he was more interested in our conversation and he burst into laughter, "Are you talking about dietary needs that you need to know about because she is your responsibility or because you would only be too happy to assist her with her ''needs'' ." "Look this is a serious question. I know that Japanese anime isn''t the best place to get my information but they all seem to agree that succubi need to you know..satisfy their needs or they die." Sergei immediately latched on to the least important part of my statement, " You watch anime about succubi? You know that means you are watching hentai right?" I was grinding my teeth in frustration as the two tittered together , " This is not about me ! And shut up Sergei , I''m having a serious conversation here. Now I repeat do you need to have sex to survive?" "Not really, although I wouldn''t say no if you offered. I can simply feed off people''s lust." "So do we need to take you to strip clubs or something?" She gave me a lascivious look and winked at me before saying, "I can get all the lust I need right here." For some reason that made me blush like a virgin which caused Sergei to laugh even harder. This was the kind of harassment I''ve been getting from the annoying duo for three whole weeks, from the way they acted you would have thought that they had been best friends for years. But with the stress of taking care of my father , visiting the hospitals several times under my nun guise and just going around town randomly checking to see if I might spot any remaining Atelli that haven''t left St Petersburg, I was always very tired and had very little patience for their annoying antics. The only thing that saved them from a very bloody end was the fact that father had recently started seeing someone again. She wasn''t as pretty as Marina but on the other hand she wasn''t a twisted creature of nightmare either so that evens things out a little. Galina was actually one of the nurses at the hospital and she spent a lot of time with father anyways. One night dad was feeling sad and she had attempted to comfort him , the rest ,as they say, is history. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. She was a nice enough person even though she was a little young. She cared about the same things as dad and they really seem to be getting along but most importantly she had pulled dad out of the slump he had been in. She made him smile again and the old spring in his step had returned and in the end that was all that really mattered to me. I kept a close eye on her but everything seemed to be going fine so my stress level had decreased greatly , thanks to that I hadn''t snapped and strangled the two idiots. But my resolution to not murder them was about to come under serious pressure. As the episode of wing ended we started to surf the internet looking for the next thing to see when Sergei noticed that there was a new video trending on YouTube and strangely enough it was a news report done by CNN but what really caught our attention was the header which read ''Persephone the black raven'' . I quickly clicked on it and the video started to play. It was a report done by a Pulitzer prize winning reporter named Lois Kent who became famous after her report on a Texan highschool swim team coach who was waterboarding his students to increase their lung capacity. Apparently she had been investigating the mysterious case of Mr Grekov, the suspected serial killer who was found catatonic near a garbage can. She had managed to get her hands on a blurry picture of me from a convenience store parking lot camera as I followed Grekov. The picture was pixelated and not very clear but it was obvious that I was wearing a mask with black feathers. She had also offered a cash reward for anybody that was willing to give her information on the mysterious Persephone who she dubbed the raven because of the mask. One of Vladimir''s men must have talked because she was able to link me to the raids on the docks , my mother''s murder and even the chandelier incident. She kept throwing words around like queen of the sharpshooters, the princess of assassins and most frequently just referred to me as the raven of death and madness, or just raven. The annoying part was that people were listening to her and now everybody was calling me the raven on the internet. The two idiots beside me wouldn''t stop making fun of me . They kept playing the video again and again while laughing like hyenas. I was so annoyed that I finally snapped and ordered Delilah to whip Sergei with her tail. For a second I just enjoyed watching her chase him around and whip him until he started to beg for my forgiveness. That managed to cheer me up a little. A.N. there have been some comments asking if Sophia has been shredding the Atelli she has been sniping and the answer is yes. Her powers do get harder to use at a distance if she is fighting the natural order like if she is manipulating probability or healing people but when she is shredding Atelli she is not bending any rules because they are not part of the natural order meaning she can do whatever she wants with them at any distance as long as they are not infecting another soul. I''m sorry if things feel a little rushed but I need to end this arc quickly because there is a lot of adventure and mischief coming up as Sophia goes around the world fighting Atelli. chapter forty six - high club Chapter forty six Once I was sure that everything was going to be fine in St Petersburg it was time for me to leave. Kazimir had gotten some information that Fairweather tech was opening a new branch in Oslo Norway ,added to the fact that my mother was on her way there before I killed her we suspected that the best place to be to mess with their plans would be there. I informed my father that I was going to take a break from school to go around Europe to visit universities I would like to attend, he was cool with it and I could tell he was a little relieved that he could now have his lady friend visit without things getting awkward. A few days later I was at the airport with Delilah getting ready to board a flight to Stockholm Sweden. We could have gotten into a direct flight to Oslo but there had been a terrorist scare in Oslo airports and they had clamped down on security, I doubt that the fake passport that Kazimir had gotten Delilah would have passed their new and more stringent security checks so instead we decided to take a plane to Stockholm and then take a train to Oslo. We went through security with no problems, the only weapons I had on me were the fans and they looked like they were made out of cheap plastic. We boarded the plane without incident and sat down in our first class seats enjoying the great food and watching an inflight movie, or at least I was, halfway through the movie Delilah interrupted me with a hand on my thigh, "Hey I''m bored." I was exasperated by her attitude, "Its not even that long a flight, just watch a movie." "But the movie is boring. I want to do something else." "What could you possibly want to do in the middle of a flying plane." She gave me a devilish smile, "Do you want to join the mile high club?" "I thought you said you didn''t need to do that." "I said I didn''t need to do it , I never said I didn''t want to." I quickly forgot about my movie and accepted her request. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. In the end I was very glad that I did. * * * We both left the airplane with big smiles on our faces and drawing a significant amount of attention from our fellow passengers. Apparently the toilet wasn''t very sound proof and we hadn''t exactly been very quiet. I didn''t really care though because being with a woman who had a tail had been a mind blowing experience for me. As for Delilah she said that the emanations from my soul had been the most amazing thing she has ever consumed. In fact by the end of our little session she looked a little tipsy and unsteady on her feet although that could have been due to a different reason. We quickly took one of the taxi''s outside of the airport to the designated train station where our train would be leaving in twenty minutes. We arrived at the train station just in time to board our train. We had already booked our tickets online and they were golden tickets, meaning we got our own private car with comfortable looking stuffed chairs and even beds to sleep in if we felt tired. We ordered some lunch as we left the station , I enjoyed a very delicious quail while the vegetarian Delilah had Rosti casserole with baked eggs although I thought that eating eggs was technically cheating. After I was finished eating the quail I lay on one of the beds and continued reading the book I had started a while ago before all this craziness started but again I was interrupted by a hand gently resting on my thigh and a sexy throaty voice saying, "I''m bored again." I looked up from my book with an incredulous expression on my face, "You''re kidding right?" "Nope. Do you want to join the inch high club?" "That''s not even a thing!" "We could make it a thing." I sighed and bent the edge of the page I was reading before closing my book, I doubted I was going to get any reading done on this trip. chapter forty seven - checking in Chapter forty seven As I got out of the train station and got my first look at Oslo my first thought was that it wasn''t much different from St Petersburg. It was snowing here just like it was snowing back home and the snow covered buildings and roads would have fit right in with uptown St Petersburg. We took one of the taxi''s outside of the station. I didn''t know how to speak Norwegian and the taxi driver''s English was almost unintelligible but surprisingly Delilah spoke to the man in fluent Norwegian and got us on our way. When I asked her about it she just said that they got sinners from all over the world in hell. The taxi driver took us to our destination which was the Hotel Continental and drove off quite happily after I gave him what I suspect might have been an overly generous tip. I hadn''t figured out the new money yet and I was liable to make a few mistakes before I get the hang of it. When we approached the glass double doors of the hotel it was opened for us by a very polite doorman who greeted us and warmly welcomed us into the hotel, unfortunately neither the staff nor the other guests inside seemed very pleasant as everybody looked at us as if we were stray dogs muddying up the shiny lobby floor. Although I have never had any deficiency for cash I never understood people''s need to buy designer clothes and fancy jewelry or follow the latest craze in fashion, as a consequence of that I am usually dressed in cheap comfortable clothing , usually a pair of simple black jeans , a T-shirt with an image of a show I like or just some funny cartoons on it, and a warm leather jacket if the weather is too cold. When we entered the lobby of the hotel I was in the usual black jeans , a justice league of america T-shirt and a leather jacket that had the logo of The Grateful Dead emblazoned on its back. Delilah didn''t look much different from me although the fur trimming on her boots and jacket gave her a touch more class. We stuck out like a sore thumb with our grungy look surrounded by elegantly dressed people and it was clear that they didn''t approve of our fashion sense. We went to the checkout counter ignoring all the condescending looks and were confronted by a rail thin man with an upturned nose and wearing the same blue uniform as the rest of the hotel employees. He sneered at us from behind the counter and started to speak with a thick accent," I think you might have entered the wrong place, this isn''t some cheap bed and breakfast you can afford. Now run along before I call security." That pissed me off so much that for a second I almost reached over and punched the bastard in the face but I managed to control myself and as calmly as I could replied, " We have a reservation under the name Sophia Belikova." He didn''t even bother to check, "Is this some sort of a joke? Our hotel is the finest establishment in the city , we do not cater to riffraff like you. SECURITY ! SECURITY!" A slightly older gentleman with a suit that was the same color as the employee''s uniform and had the hotel''s logo on its chest walked briskly towards us, "What seems to be the problem here?" The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The man behind the counter answered, "It is nothing manager, it is just a couple of hooligans disturbing the peace of the hotel, I am having security escort them out." The man who was apparently the manager looked closely at my face and said, "Is that you Ms Sophia?" I was surprised that this man knew me, "Have we met before?" "No but I memorize the faces of all our VIP guests so that we could avoid situations like this, I had sent one of the hotel cars to greet you at the airport but he said you were not there." "We came by train from Stockholm, thanks for the thought though." I could see the expression on the clerks face change into horror as he slowly realized the mistake he had made and in his panic he blurted out something that sealed his fate, "Are you sure that is them manager? Look at the way they are dressed, you must be mistaken!" I saw fury gather on the manager''s face like angry clouds , darkening his expression. He slowly turned towards the clerk and spoke in a low voice , "Adrian, are you paid to judge the fashion sense of our guests? No! You are paid to politely serve them and help them check in and check out. If you want to be a fashion critic so badly then go ahead, you are free to follow your dreams because you no longer work here. Pick up your last paycheck and security will escort you out of the building." He then turned away from the frozen clerk and spoke to us in a polite tone, " I am sorry about that, as an apology dinner will be complementary as long as you stay in the hotel. I would have bumped you up into a more expensive room but you are already in our presidential suite. Here is my card, my name is Baltasar and I am one of the managers of this hotel. Feel free to call me anytime you want day or night if you need anything. I will personally check you into your room right now , I hope that you don''t judge our hotel too harshly by Adrian''s actions and again I apologize for what he did." He quickly called a bellhop and escorted us to our room. The room was more like a house with its own kitchen with fully stocked fridge, a bathroom with a bathtub and a jacuzzi , a large living room with a couch and a giant flat screen , and finally two rooms with killer views and king sized beds. I decided that I was going to like it here. * * * A few minutes later in the lobby. An elderly man with silver gray hair approached a bellboy and handed him a roll of bills, "Who was that girl?" "Her name is Sophia, I don''t know her last name but she is staying in the most expensive room in the hotel, prepaid in cash for a month." The man took out another roll of bills and handed them to the bellboy, " Keep an eye on her and if you hear or find out anything about her, anything at all, call me by the number I already gave you, understood?" "Understood Senator Thompson." chapter forty eight - new whip Chapter forty eight Now that I had my accommodations all straightened out , next I had to get some transportation, aka a car. Sadly I had not been able to bring my Lamborghini with me but I had arranged to buy something that was nearly as awesome. I left the hotel room with Delilah''s cute butt planted firmly on the couch in front of the TV. I walked past the lobby and out the door. I kept on walking down the street until I was sure that no one was following me then entered an alley behind a bakery. I gathered up my hair into a ponytail and hid it under a baseball cap then I put on large glasses that covered half my face, it wasn''t as good as my Persephone disguise but it''ll have to do. I hailed a taxi whose driver thankfully knew enough English to take me to the address that I told him to. The seller of the car had told me that she lived at the address she had given me so I had expected to find a house but when the taxi arrived at the location we found that it was a full blown auto repair shop. I thought that we might have made a mistake but the taxi driver was adamant that this was the address so I paid the man and made my way to the door under a sign that said Astrid''s auto repair and customization shop. When I knocked on the door a large muscular woman in a white tank top and blue coveralls whose top she had tied around her waist opened the door. Her brown hair was held back by a black bandana and she had smudges of grease all over her body. She was wiping her hands with a rag so dirty that I wasn''t sure whether it was making her hands cleaner or dirtier. She spoke to me while vigorously chewing on some gum, at first she spoke Norwegian but when I asked her to she switched to English, "I''m sorry, I can''t help help you with your car. The shop has gone bankrupt and its closing down." "I''m not here to get my car repaired, I''m here because there was an ad about a car being sold here. Are you the seller Astrid by any chance?" She extended her hand out for a handshake," Astrid Christensen, mechanic . Yeah I''m the one selling the car." I accepted her callused hand in a firm handshake , "You can call me Alice, I''m very interested in buying your car." She invited me inside and led me to one of the many garages inside the workshop. When she reached the one in the deepest part of the shop she pressed a button and opened the garage door revealing what looked like a normal blue ford focus but I knew better and I started to salivate at the prospect of getting behind the wheels of this thing. Astrid had a sad look in her eyes as she looked at the car, "This is my baby, a ford focus with special ceramic breaks, fully rebuilt suspension system and a special one of a kind power redistribution system I personally designed that is driven by a supercharged V12 engine that was also rebuilt from scratch as a tandem system so that it could fit inside the car by dividing it into two separate engines and placing it in the front and in the back. This is my pride and joy and it breaks my heart that I have to sell it." The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I looked at the car in awe, putting a supercharged V12 inside of a light car like a ford focus was like putting a rocket engine in a toy car, the results were going to be spectacular, awesome, and probably deadly. I wanted this car so badly right now that I could taste it. Astrid must have seen the longing in my face because she cracked a smile and said, "Wanna start her up?" We got into the car with Astrid in the driver''s seat. Once we got comfortable in the racecar scooped out seats she pressed a green glowing button. The engine under the hood started to purr softly until she gave it a little gas and it made a deep growling noise, "That is the primary engine, this is what happens when I turn the tandem system on," she then pressed a red button with a symbol of an exclamation mark in a triangle on it and another engine suddenly erupted from behind us. When she gave it a little gas it was like we were in between two growling lions, the whole car started to vibrate with the amount of power that the two engines were producing. I really really really wanted this car. I turned to Astrid, " You wanted two hundred and fifty thousand for it right? Its yours. What is your account number." "But you haven''t even tested it out yet!" "I don''t need to , I know the work of an artist when I see it. You have put your soul into this car and I''m sure it will perform magnificently." Astrid blushed and puffed her chest out in pride. I called Kazimir and made him transfer the money into her account. She signed over the rights to the car and gave me the keys. I was getting into the car when she suddenly called out, "Wait! This is four times what I had asked for!" "Yeah, but that is what the car is actually worth, I''m not going to steal from you just because you are in desperate need of money. This is a one of a kind car that is unlike any other out there and you are truly a genius for making it. I hope that you use the money to restore your shop and I will be back to buy your next masterpiece." The car drove like a dream. The gauges had been replaced by a screen and the blue luminous numbers made me feel like I was playing a game, the special power distribution system made the car as nimble as a cat because it supplied the right amount of power to the right tire when it was necessary not to mention the fact that the tires gripped the asphalt like they were glued together. In normal mode it was quick and nimble but also civilized, when I turned the tandem system on it turned into an absolute beast. The power more than doubled , the steering became more aggressive and the whole car lowered a little to give it more stability. It was like driving a small rocket, if it hadn''t been for the help of my power I would have died several times. In conclusion the car was pure awesomeness. chapter forty nine - the lead Chapter forty nine I woke up feeling groggy and disoriented. I had spent the past four days going to the new office that Fairweather tech had opened and following different Atelli around town trying to figure out what they were doing in Oslo. Unfortunately I had not gotten lucky so far, all I had seen them do was go to their homes at the end of the day and visit a construction site which was going to become the fairweather tower in the near future. While I spent my days following Atelli, I had ordered Delilah to make herself look exactly like me and go around town doing things like visiting museums and going to malls, things that would make her visible without making her conspicuous. I had this strange feeling that I was under surveillance so I sent her out as a red herring and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Delilah was only too happy to accept this task because it was a rare opportunity for her to go out and just have fun and experience the world. According to her she had seen and experienced most things from the memories of the souls of sinners being tortured but seeing and feeling things in person was just so much more wonderful. Even though she was having a blast going around and having fun she still insisted on being rewarded at night which was the reason why I was groggy and disoriented as I woke up entangled in the limbs of said succubus. I slowly unwrapped her tail which had wound itself around my stomach and slipped out from underneath her carefully so that I wouldn''t wake her up. I had gotten good enough with my healing that a simple application of my power later I was feeling as fresh as a spring Daisy. I silently went out of the bedroom and to the luggage in the living room where we had dumped our stuff and never bothered to move it. I took some clean underwear , my last good pair since Delilah keeps ripping them off with her claws, and some nondescript clothing then proceeded to the bathroom to go through my morning ritual and take a shower. I ordered some breakfast from room service then proceeded to eat the eggs and sausages with great gusto. Once I was done I exited the hotel to a carpark where I kept my car. I drove to the modest office that Fairweather Tech was currently occupying and parked across the street waiting for the next Atelli I was going to have to tail. Right away I knew that I had finally stumbled on something interesting. The Atelli that came out of the office was one of the more humanoid ones. She, because it was so obviously female, had the normal body of a woman with no strange appendages or grotesque additions I could see, but her head was a different matter. For one thing she had three heads, a normal sized one where a normal head should be and two smaller ones growing our from her right and left shoulder. The center head had no hair or any facial features , it was just a smooth ball covered with skin. The head on the right had white glowing hair, white glowing eyes and even light spilling out of its mouth. The head on the left had dark hair that seemed to absorb all the light around it, its eyes were like a bottomless pit and the light around it was dim even when sunlight was shining directly at it but it wasn''t the strange appearance of the Atelli that tipped me off that something was gong on, it was the disguise that she was wearing. Stolen novel; please report. On the outside the Atelli looked like a slightly overweight dark haired woman wearing a frumpy dress and glasses. What really made me suspicious was that she had a bruise on her left cheek as if she had been punched. I have seen a lot of Atelli but what I have never seen was an Atelli showing an image to the world that was less than a hundred percent healthy, but that was what I was seeing now. I followed her as she drove her red Hyundai to the community center. I followed her inside and saw her enter a room. The room had a sign that said ''battered women support group.'' Now the bruise on her face started to make sense but why would an Atelli pretend to be an abused woman to enter a support group? As I stood there wondering what the connection could be when a slightly older willowy woman with very light brown hair and brown eyes with green flakes in them approached me with a big friendly smile on her face, "Is this your first time here? Don''t worry , there is nothing to be ashamed of or to be afraid of. Most of the women here have gone through the same thing and they will not judge you but if the sunglasses and hat make you feel safe then we won''t force you to take them off. Believe it or not most of our first timers come here dressed exactly like you, large shades to hide bruises and hats to hide their identity. We won''t make you do anything you don''t want to so you don''t have to hesitate to come inside. Oh by the way I am the psychologist who started this group, my name is Brenda." Apparently Brenda had seen me staring at the door and thought I was a new member having doubts, which was a fair assumption seeing how I was dressed. I automatically scanned her with what I was now calling soul vision which I always use on new people I meet. It was a precaution I had started taking after I had seen what my mother could do. And sure enough there was more to Brenda than meets the eye. chapter fifty - damaged soul Chapter fifty The soul is an interesting thing. The soul is part of the physical world yet it is also apart from it. It cannot be affected directly by physical means yet it could affect the material world under the right set of circumstances. Over the years of healing people I have developed some insights into the soul, I have seen that the soul is a reflection of our basic selves without disease ,injury or even the blemishes of time. When I peer into a person''s soul I see an image of their ''perfect'' selves. But that doesn''t mean that the soul itself couldn''t get injured. Although the soul is very resilient and wants to keep its pristine condition several things could mar it irrevocably. Some of the children I had seen in the children''s hospital had never been healthy in their lives so their mental image of themselves and the traumatic experience they go through everyday had slowly started to degrade their souls, but those were only extreme cases and I was able to reverse the effects even if it nearly killed me. The point is that if a person''s soul has been scarred in some way it must be the result of something very very bad. Another thing I have learned about the soul is that it constantly produces energy which it sheds off, I am able to perceive this emission as shades of light. When you are feeling a certain way it would change the ''frequency'' of the energy that you are shedding. For example when you are feeling lust you emit a certain ''frequency'' of energy and I am able to perceive that energy as the color pink, incidentally this is the type of energy that Delilah is able to consume for sustenance. The point is that when I use my ''soul sight'' I have a minor insight into who that person is and what he is feeling at the moment and what I saw when I was looking at Brenda was terrifying. On the outside she was a cheerful looking forty something year old woman , on the inside she had bruises all over her ''soul body'' even though her physical body was completely fine. What kind of abuse must she have gone through to have her very soul be marked so severely by it? The light she was emitting at the surface was a bright yellow but beneath the surface darker colors roiled like leviathans beneath the calm surface. Dark blues of depression , deep red of anger and the tar black of hate swirled around in violent storms but then they were collected and drained away as quickly as they appeared by a glowing silver inverted pentagram that was etched over her heart on her very soul. The pentagram took all these negative emotions and gathered them into a ball of energy that pulsed near her navel area. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. I was stunned by what I was seeing from this ''psychologist''. She was more damaged than anybody else in this room, hell she should be in therapy not leading a support group and what was that inverted pentagram on her soul, how did it get there? And what about that pulsating ball of energy? I had to find out what was going on so I let her drag me into the room. Inside I saw several women, some of whom were wearing large sunglasses and hats like me or even scarves wrapped around their faces to hide their bruises or identities. On the other hand there were also members that showed their faces openly and even wore short sleeve shirts to show their bruises and scars as if they were badges of honor. When I scanned them none of the women here were messed up enough that it affected their soul like Brenda but the ones who were displaying their injuries proudly had vague shadows of a pentagram forming on their hearts. They also had more of the darker emotions emitting from their souls than the others. When we were all finally seated Brenda got up on a small podium and started to speak. She was passionate and said things that sounded right but if you listened very carefully her words carried an undercurrent of hate for all men. She jokingly called them several insulting names , making them out to be mindless brutes with only money, power and sex on their mind. She was supposed to be helping this women get over their hatred and pain but she systematically poked at their wounds and made them think of their painful memories. When all them were angry and their souls were dominated by darker emotions , silver strings started to extend from the pentagram on her chest and connected to everybody in the room except me and the Atelli. Slowly shadows of a pentagram started to appear on the hearts of the women who were hiding themselves and the pentagrams on the ones who were not hiding became more and more pronounced. As her speech continued Brenda''s true hatred towards men started to show as she openly began to blame men for every evil in this world. In the end she was speaking with such fury that spit was flying everywhere. She finally concluded her speech and her audience seem to wake up from a trance and started to applaud wildly. I had no idea what was going on here but I had a bad feeling about this. A.n. this post is dedicated to antkiller and skullcrusher , the only people who bothered to comment on my last chapter. chapter fifty one - the fairy Chapter fifty one Even though I did not know what was going on I had a feeling that it was probably a good idea to arm myself with a few guns before shit eventually hit the fan so I talked to Brenda about the next meeting and got out of there before she noticed that I wasn''t affected by her ''speech'' like everyone else who were milling about discussing what she said and quoting their favorite parts to each other. Now the issue of guns was a difficult one because I wasn''t able to smuggle any into the country and Kazimir was also unable to provide me with any options that wouldn''t immediately expose me to the KGB except one, the fairy. He was a French gunrunner who made his home in Oslo. He used to be called Pier but he had an ''awakening'' about who he is and converted his name to Angelica, problem was he was an eight foot tall muscular man who didn''t look feminine even after all the surgeries and layers of pink clothing. In what I assume was a desperate need to assert his feminism he started wearing expensive wings that he had custom made with white dove feathers to look like an angel''s wings. He thought that because his new name was angelica and he wore an angel''s wings it would earn him the name ''angel'' but everybody just called him the fairy although he doesn''t appreciate that fact so people doing business with him called him angel, at least to his face. So here I stood, face to face or more accurately face to silicon implant breasts with a man who was wearing a frilly pink dress which did little to hide massive arms that would look more at home on a silverback gorilla and a jawline that was so masculine it would make a cartoon superhero jealous. I had driven over to his mansion ,which was also painted pink and looked like a life sized replica of Barbie''s play house, and was given a warm welcome once my credit had been checked at the gate, that''s right instead of IDs they were checking bank accounts at the gate before letting anyone in. Apparently my account was good enough that I was taken to see the fairy directly. I tried not to stare at him and maybe make eye contact but his beady eyes were almost completely covered by a bushy unibrow that he hasn''t bothered to trim for some reason. The black unibrow clashed terribly with his blond hair implants making the whole thing even more disturbing. The man, because I couldn''t in good conscience call him anything else even with all the additions and removals, spoke in a thin reedy voice that accentuated his French accent, "Welcome to my home mademoiselle, how may I be of assistance to you?" "I would like to purchase a few guns from you for personal use, I would like to see your best snipers and handguns, money is not an issue. I especially want a sniper that has good range." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "Snipers and handguns you say? Hmmm...that''s a very interesting order. You see mon''amie everybody always assumes that snipers are common and that they are the staple of every assassin but you would be wrong. Snipers, especially snipers of the quality you speak of ,are speciality products for only the very skilled. In fact the list of independent contractors that can use such weapons is very short and since someone who has a backing from other organizations would not come to me , I am assuming that you are on this very short list. That means that this is a very unlucky day for you mon''amie. You see unlike most gunrunners I pay close attention to what is going on in the criminal underworld. I know that the only female assassin who is known to be independent and handle such high powered snipers is also known to hunt the members of the fairweather company which just recently started business here in Oslo. The pieces of the puzzle all fit, you are the mysterious Persephone. That also means that I have the person with the single most expensive bounty on their head standing across from me , completely defenseless." I could see where this was going, five of his men where closing in from behind me with machine guns while the fairy himself was drawing a pistol from one of the folds of his voluminous dress "*sigh*...have you ever considered why my bounty would be so high?" I positioned myself so that his men couldn''t shoot me without risking hitting their own boss. He started to frown as he realized what I had done,"It does not matter what the reasons are , it only matters that I am going to shoot you and make a lot of money." I rolled forward just as he was squeezing the trigger and drew one of my fans as the bullet whizzed above me. I finished my roll underneath the fairy''s right hand that he had stretched out to point his gun. I promptly removed said hand and quickly acquired the falling hand with the finger still in the trigger. I didn''t even bother to take the gun out of the hand, I just used the finger of the mutilated hand to squeeze the trigger and shoot the five men who were just standing there gaping stupidly. They were all wearing bulletproof vests but that didn''t help them since they were all shot squarely between their eyebrows. I turned back to look at the fairy and I saw a sight that would haunt my nightmares forever. His dress had flipped up as he was rolling around in pain and I could see his large hairy feet, but there was something even worse. He wasn''t wearing underwear. chapter fifty two - off to the races Chapter fifty two After I made sure that the fairy wasn''t going to bleed to death and more importantly had covered himself up and wasn''t exposing the world to the horror that was underneath his dress, I held him at gunpoint and forced him to order his men to load up all the equipment that I thought would be interesting or useful. Of course my little Ford focus didn''t have much booty space especially now that it had a large engine stuck where the trunk and the back seats used to be but luckily this didn''t seem to be an uncommon problem because there was a whole line of small trailers that could be attached to cars in one of the garages. The men , who had become super cooperative now that I had their boss at gunpoint, carried all the heavy equipment, cases of ammo, and even some plastic explosives (cause I thought that might be fun) and loaded up the trailer until it was full. They were even nice enough to hitch the trailer to my car. I drove out of there with the fairy still with me and advised them not to follow me, I promised them that I would release the fairy if they complied. A few blocks later once I was sure they were not following me I released the fairy just like I promised but as I drove away I gave him a parting present for being such a good host, I healed his whole body. Now this might seem like a good thing but I didn''t just heal his hand, I healed his whole body. In the rearview mirror I could see his implants burst free from his chest, his hair fell out and a bulge appeared beneath his dress, honestly I think I did the whole world a favor.( there was something I never thought I would say after making a wiener magically appear) Now I can move on to more serious problems, the most immediate being the fact that I had a lot of weapons and nowhere to put them. Thankfully money could fix most problems so I called up a realter and arranged to buy a nice house at a rather exorbitant price. I went directly to the house where I found the real estate agent looking all bright eyed and bushy tailed. I wired the money to him and he signed over the deed to a shell company that Kazimir set up for me under a false name in the cayman islands called Underworld inc. He had also asked me for some ID but a generous tip for his service had made him change his mind. I stored the uhaul in the garage , made sure it was secure and then looked around the huge empty house. At first I had thought that I would move out of the hotel and move here but seeing the empty house and how much effort it would take to furnish it and hire people to run it I decided I would just use it to store my guns so I took out two hand guns from my stash and put them in the glove compartment of my car before driving back to the hotel. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. But before I could make it back to the hotel Kazimir called me and started complaining, "Why are you spending money like you are some wealthy oil sheik? You''ve already spent a substantial amount and unless you plan on becoming a contract killer again you are going to run out of money before the year is out!" "Relax Kazimir, I have a plan to get all the money back." "Does it involve killing people , stealing , fraud or some other unethical activity? You know what, I don''t even want to know, just don''t get caught." "Well ... It was nice talking to you, bye!" After hanging up the phone I stored the car in a parking lot that was walking distance from the hotel and called Delilah''s cell to tell her to stop whatever she was doing and come to our room. I went to the room , waited for Delilah to arrive then switched back to being Sophia while Delilah transformed into one of the many aliases that Kazimir had devised for her and we took the car that the hotel manager was only too happy to give us free of charge complete with a driver. We told the driver to drive to one of the only places in Oslo where gambling was legal, the Bjerke race track or as I would like to call it , my own personal piggy bank. Most people would think that what I was about to do was nothing short of stealing since I would be using my powers to make sure I won. I on the other hand was thinking that it was amazing that it took me this long to come up with this idea. A.n. sorry about poor editing, been busy past couple of days plus the new system is sort of bumming me out, I liked the previous royal road better, it didn''t make my chapters magically disappear like this one did, twice. chapter fifty three - money fight Chapter fifty three We headed straight for the boards where they kept information on the upcoming races. I browsed the board looking for the right horse, I wasn''t looking at the names because I didn''t care what the horse was called , all I cared for was the column that said odds. I searched the board until I found the perfect horse , a horse named ''old gramps thirteen'' who was a last minute replacement for the next race and his odds were a thousand to one. I told Delilah to go to the counter and place five thousand euros on old gramps thirteen, I couldn''t do it myself because technically I wasn''t old enough to see R rated movies let alone gamble, after everything I had done and everything I had gone through I felt a hundred years old but I was still seventeen so all I could do was just stand there and watch as Delilah made the bet and received the ticket from a bookie who seemed to be laughing very hard. We went to the stands just in time to see the previous race finish and the crowd getting up and going crazy, equal parts cheering in happiness and booing in disapproval. We squeezed our way to seats in the front and sat down waiting for the next race to begin. A slightly overweight balding man in a large Hawaiian shirt was sitting next to Delilah and staring at her ticket before he exclaimed loudly, "That''s an insane bet! You are just throwing money down the drain, gramps isn''t even a real racing horse anymore. He was retired last week , the only reason that they even put him in the race is to complete the lineup so that the race wouldn''t get canceled!" We just smiled politely at the man and told him that we were beginners who didn''t really mind losing money. He sniffed and mumbled something about stupid little girls wasting time and money for no reason. The horses were all finally ready and lined up in their small compartments at the start of the race. There was a countdown and the gates opened signalling the beginning of the race. Immediately strange things started to happen , reigns slipping from jockey''s hands,insects getting into horse''s eyes, sudden muscle cramps , basically everything that could go wrong happened to all the horses except for gramps. In the end gramps won by a large margin. Unlike the last race the track wasn''t noisy, instead it was completely silent. Even the commentator had gone silent. The man next to us turned towards us and looked at the ticket in Delilah''s hands. I could almost see the gears in his mind start to turn and he calculated that that small piece of paper was now worth five million euros. He was still staring at the ticket as we walked calmly towards the counter where the bookies were also just staring at the screens that were broadcasting the results. Most were rubbing their eyes and pinching themselves unable to comprehend what had just happened. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. When we showed our ticket to one of the bookies he took us to another man who opened a large safe and with tears in his eyes filled two duffle bags full of money before handing them out to us. We didn''t even bother counting the amount, we just hoisted the heavy bags onto our backs and left the place walking towards the parking lot where the driver was still waiting for us. When he saw us holding the bags the gracious man offered to carry them for us and we happily agreed and handed them to him, "*oomph* ...this bags are heavy, if you don''t mind me asking ,what''s inside?" "Our winnings." "Wait , you mean..." "Yup, both filled with rolls of bills that amount to a total of five million euros." I could see that the man didn''t really believe me but was too polite to say so. We were halfway to the parking lot when the slightly overweight balding man from the stands suddenly appeared from behind a wall were he was hiding with a gun pointed in our direction, "Give me the bags or I''ll shoot you, hand them over right now!" I really didn''t have time for this so I decided to handle this as quickly as possible, "You don''t want to do this dude." "Why? By the time you can call the police I will be long gone with the money." "No, because there is something stuck in your gun barrel and if you shoot it would probably backfire." And in an act of absolute idiocy the moron took the gun and started to look down the barrel of his gun trying to find what I was talking about. The gun ''accidentally'' discharged and blew a hole through his head, killing him instantly. In the end we had to wait for the police and give a statement but we weren''t even taken to the station after several witnesses confirmed our story. The nice police men were even kind enough to escort us to our hotel so that nothing similar could happen to us again. Once we got to our room Delilah and I did the only thing that was logical when you have that amount of money. We opened the bags , removed the bands around the bundles of cash and started throwing fists of money at each other shouting "Money fight." chapter fifty four - hangover Chapter fifty four I woke feeling like my head was split in two. Everything was slightly fuzzy and my first attempt to get up didn''t go very well as I slipped on what appeared to be a towel on the floor and fell on my rump. I looked around trying to figure out where the hell I was and what I saw was a large bathroom with white tile walls and a jacuzzi in the corner. The floor had been covered by layers of very fluffy pink towels and lying under one of the piles completely asleep was a strange woman that I vaguely remembered as the waitress that usually brought our food when we ordered room service. I was also fairly sure that she was naked under the towels because I could see pieces of her uniform scattered allover the bathroom, her skirt was covering the toilet seat , her shirt was on the shower head and there were purple panties on one of the light fixtures....wait wasn''t I wearing purple panties? I looked down to see that the waitress wasn''t the only one in her birthday suit. The only thing covering my body was a bandage on my arm. I slowly removed the bandage and revealed a tattoo of a cartoon succubus that looked suspiciously like Delilah. What the hell had happened yesterday? From what I remember after throwing the money around then rolling around in it we had decided to properly celebrate so we had put most of the money away in the safe that came with the room, took a fistful of cash, and went out to checkout Oslo''s night life. After a few bars and clubs things were already starting to get hazy but the last place I remembered very well because the sign outside said Gotham nights and I am a huge nerd. We were going to go in but there were two problems, there was a huge line and a sign said that no one wearing anything but black was allowed inside. At this point we were drunk enough that we wanted to do the opposite of what any sign told us to do so we went to the closest tailor and came out wearing trench coats. We went directly to the front of the line at the club and silenced the guard that was going to stop us with a five hundred euro bill. Once inside I could see why there was a dress code, there was black light instead of normal light making the entire room an eree violet color except for flashes of brightness when someone showed their teeth or a piece of skin was visible. We went to the middle of the crowded dance floor and took off our trench coats revealing two white wedding dresses, the closest tailor had been a bridal store. I remember that we had banged our head to the heavy metal music while glowing like fireflies, our blond hair flying allover the place as we jumped up and down to the violent sounding music and everyone stared at us as if we were aliens from outer space. The last thing I remember was going to the bar with sweat running down my face (who could have known that a wedding dress would get so hot when you danced in them) and ordering another drink to cool myself off....... Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. As I carefully stepped over the body of the sleeping waitress I wondered what had happened for the rest of the night. I picked up a towel from the floor and wrapped it around myself as I went out the door to the living room. There I saw people strewn everywhere along with what looked like bottles of champaign and beer. There were many hotel employees in uniforms but there were also people I didn''t recognize who I was sure were other guests of the hotel based on their fancy clothing and expensive looking jewelry like the old couple who had fallen asleep on top of the large coffee table. I was wondering if I was going to get in trouble with the manager because of this when I spotted the man in question on the couch underneath a woman who I was pretty sure was a stripper since the only thing she was wearing was a g-string and the manager''s suit jacket. It looked like the manager had a good time so I doubt we would get kicked out. I was feeling hungry so I stepped over the bodies of people who were simply lying in the hallway and made my way to the kitchen. There I saw that someone had already made coffee and was eating breakfast, the familiar white mask was partially pulled up to allow access to the cup of coffee he was sipping on. He pored another cup of coffee and motioned for me to sit down on the seat that was next to the kitchen counter across from which he was standing like he was some sort of bartender. I gratefully accepted the cup and started to drink the strong black brew that cleared my head just a little bit more every time I took a sip. "So what are you doing in my apartment Mike?" "Well Ms Sophia we didn''t have a chance to speak properly the first time we met so when we met in the street and you invited me to the party you were throwing in your hotel room I was only too happy to accept. What you did at the warehouse was very sneaky by the way, very clever too. Now my question is what are you doing here in Norway?" "I thought that seeing what happened yesterday would have answered your question, I came here to have fun." "Please Ms Sophia, the blond act won''t work twice. You are somewhat of a wild child but I also know that you are top of your class and quite clever. I doubt you would take time out of school to ''have fun''." "My mother just died and it has been very hard for me." "We both knew exactly what your mother was, I doubt you shed any tears when you found out she was dead unless they were tears of joy, now stop acting dumb. Who are you that the templars are keeping such a close eye on you?" I became very confused, who the hell are the templars? chapter fifty five - what indeed Chapter fifty five I couldn''t help but articulate my thoughts,"Who the hell are the templars?" He slammed his mug so violently on the granite counter top that it broke spraying coffee and pieces of porcelain allover the place, I could hear the steel in his voice that indicated that he was no longer playing around as he spoke quietly, " This is no longer a joke Ms Sophia, I am trying my hardest to help you here and if you don''t tell me everything you know I won''t be able to protect you. You find yourself on the radar of the templars which either means you are a supernatural they are planning to terminate or they are scouting you to ''offer'' you a position in their organization, neither one of those options would end well for you. Now I might be the only friend you have in this entire country, so you better not try my patience. Even your so called best friend is a shape shifting demoness for goodness sake." Some of what he just said sounded quite alarming but there was something I needed to clear up before he made an unfortunate mistake and did something to Delilah, " Yeah, about the whole demoness thing , Delilah is actually pretty cool plus she is sort of my slave, she swore to serve me so please don''t stab her or anything." "Finally a real answer, so your a warlock? I''m not prejudiced against most groups but most warlocks are pretty nasty, you don''t seem like the type but I guess most of them don''t ." "I''m not a warlock, at least I don''t think I am , I don''t exactly know what a warlock is." "Warlock is a term for a mage who powers his magic using the life force of other people to bind powerful extra dimensional creatures like you did with your demoness. The only way a demon is forced into servitude is if they were forced to by a ritual." Delilah chose that moment to make her entrance wearing a fluffy pink bathrobe made out of the same towel that was wrapped around me, "Not the only way, we could also be scared shitless of somebody and give them our service voluntarily." "Wait, you expect me to believe that you were so scared of Sophia that you immediately swore loyalty and didn''t try to trick her?" "Trust me, Sophia can be plenty scary when she wants to be, but the important part is that Sophia isn''t a warlock who takes lives to get power." Mike turned back to look at me, the steely voice was replaced by curiosity as he asked, "What are you that you scared a demon into submission and have the templars so hot and bothered?" This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "I''m ....... complicated, but that can wait, right now I''m really curious about these templars you keep talking about." "You really don''t know? I mean they are like the boogey men of the supernatural community." "Let''s just say that I''m a new comer to the supernatural community, now can you please just tell me who they are?" "They are the self appointed protectors of humanity. They claim that their only goal is to protect the human race but they are mostly religious quacks who are determined to cleanse the world of anything supernatural. They use technology to make up for their weaknesses but they don''t usually get their hands dirty. They usually use supernaturals they have tricked or blackmailed into working for them. They are some of the most vile people that humanity has to offer and now they have their sights set on you." This confirmed a few things I have been suspecting. First of all there were enough people with powers that Mike called them a ''supernatural community'' . This meant that they were not only numerous but also varied in type. I had to keep a look out to find these people but I was pretty sure that I had already found one.I would bet my Ford focus that Brenda is one of these people. It also confirmed that I was under surveillance and I felt vindicated in my paranoia. I started to wonder how the Atelli fit into this picture and whether I could use one evil against another, " The things like my mother, how do they fit into all of this." Mike scoffed and said, " The templars don''t even acknowledge they exist, they have found ways to block Templar technology and all the templars believe in is their technology. To make things worse the things like your mother actively hunt down the supernatural, in the end it leaves anybody with a gift between a rock and a hard place." Hmmm...so the Atelli were hunting the supernatural? That actually made sense , all Atelli are different and I bet that was because of the souls they infect. If an Atelli is able to infect a powerful soul they would be powerful, in fact I bet that the smokey Atelli that gave me so much trouble was one of the supernatural before he was infected. If the conclusion I reached was correct then I had to do all I can to protect the supernatural community. Mike cleared his throat, waking me up from my rumination, "So what are you?" chapter fifty six - interlude Interlude A.n. This isn''t strictly a chapter but it would put the entire story in perspective, I was going to wait until later to set this up but people seemed confused as to how people were using magic before the rip. At first there was nothing. That statement itself is a meaningless negation as there was no space ,no time and no existence but it is the closest the human mind will ever get to understanding the incomprehensible , the absence of everything. It wasn''t emptiness for there was nothing to be empty, it wasn''t dark because there was nothing to be dark. It was a state of nonbeing whose very existence denied its very nature, something impossible to imagine because how can someone imagine something that isn''t really anything? From this incomprehensible enigma arose something equally incomprehensible , the first spark. Now this wasn''t just any spark, but the first spark whose very existence denied the void. The spark, like all the sparks that came after it, was the embodiment of the idea ''I think therefore I am.''. There was literally nothing but it so it concentrated upon itself and started to expand itself in the only way a thought construct could, by having new thoughts. But immediately there was a problem, how was one to have thoughts if all one knew was nothingness? The answer was simple even though it was inelegant, just like how the being was created it was going to allow absolute spontaneity inside of itself. For some time(this is just a figure of speech, technically there was no time yet and everything was happening simultaneously but that is just confusing) the being dreamt, and his dreams were complete chaos but from this chaos were born ideas and thoughts that it found pleasing, similar to how if there were infinite permutations of infinite pixels of colors ,somewhere in the midst of the chaos there would be beautiful masterpieces and the masterpieces that the being discovered that he liked were ideas of time, things happening in a sequence instead of everything happening simultaneously, the idea of space, things happening in certain location instead of everywhere at once and other such concepts. Slowly the dream of the being began to evolve from something chaotic to something more ordered and elaborate. Entire universes were made and destroyed in the being''s search for growth, but even as the being had grown infinitely large filled with infinite thoughts he still felt empty, that was when he had the idea that maybe what he needed wasn''t new thoughts but a new perspective so he took pieces of his own self and fashioned them into souls. These souls were completely separate from him but he experienced everything in exactly the same way they did. For a time he was happy as he made a paradise for the souls and he enjoyed it along with them. But then the second spark appeared. The second spark was born inside of the first spark''s dream so it knew nothing of the void, in fact all it knew was the paradise that the first spark had created. For a time the spark was content frolicking with the other souls but it slowly grew curious of what was beyond paradise, the first spark was only too happy to show him the void and what the paradise he lived in really was. The second spark was disillusioned, it didn''t want to be in the dream paradise anymore, it wanted to be as grand and powerful as the first spark. It felt like it and all the other souls were like hamsters on a wheel running and running with nowhere to go for the amusement of their owners. There were thoughts that the first spark had thought were too dangerous for the souls , but in his anger and jealousy the second spark offered them this forbidden fruit. The curious souls took the forbidden knowledge and paradise was ripped apart as fear, anger, spite and malice was unleashed on the previously innocent souls, tainting them forever. Stolen story; please report. The first soul who had been creating countless multiverses came back to find his prize creation in shambles and what was left of its inhabitants attempting to annihilate each other. He intervened but they were forever tainted by evil and he couldn''t restore them to how they were so sadly he did what he thought was appropriate, he clothed them in flesh and put them in a physical world where they couldn''t really kill each other, but there was a fly in the soup. They were still pieces of him and so they produced tremendous power that , if properly utilized, can subvert the very laws that he himself had placed. To stop this from happening he created a twin space connected to the physical world that would take the power bleeding out from the souls. The space was eventually filled with power shaped by the thoughts and ideas of these souls and eventually evolved to the ether that has a very complex relationship to the world. As for the second spark he had seen what his foolishness and jealousy had wrought and tried to stop what he had done but he wasn''t powerful enough to do so, in his stubbornness he had refused to give up and by the time the first spark had returned all he found was fragments of him lying among the ruins of paradise. The first spark carefully gathered these pieces and fashioned creatures from them but since they were pieces that were fragmented due to a traumatic event they were forever broken and unable to produce energy like normal souls , instead they needed to consume it. The creatures were sent to a world ''beneath'' the physical world where the souls would come from the physical world to be cleansed after they had died. The creatures fed on the negative emotions like envy, lust , and wrath., by the time they finished a soul would be clean again , at least until it was reborn and those emotions started to creep in again. On the physical world everything was going exactly how the first spark predicted but he had miscalculated, the souls were made up of his very own essence and a part of him was purely spontaneous and completely chaotic. Sometimes a soul would mutate and turn into something different, whether it be the ability to store soul energy instead of emitting it or change that energy into another form. He had to create a system to accommodate these people, he decided that if they reached a certain power that they would be removed from that system altogether. He tried to minimize the appearance of these people as much as possible but he knew that he couldn''t do so without destroying the souls. He was finally satisfied that he had done all he could do and turned his attention to other matters.
Oh and for all the people asking Brenda is the messed up councilor that runs the battered women support group in chapter fifty chapter fifty seven - mama say knock you out Chapter fifty seven "So what are you ?" Apparently Mike''s curiosity won''t be deterred by idle chatter this time so I thought about all the answers I could give him. It had to be something believable yet not so powerful that it would attract any more of his scrutiny, preferably something simple that I could imitate easily. After a second an idea popped into my head that fulfilled all these criterion. "I have a small power in manipulating air." He blinked very slowly, somehow conveying disbelief even though his face was completely covered by his blank white mask. He spoke carefully articulating every word and making sure that I heard the skepticism in his voice , "You are an air mage...you expect me to believe that an air mage scared a demon to submission..you honestly believe that that is a feasible story...really?" I performed the little trick I learned while fighting foggy the soul shredding ball of gas. I waved my fingers causing a very small disturbance in the air, then I magnified the effect of the disturbance that my fingers caused using the same method I used to blow foggy away, causing the air molecules to move in the right direction at the exact same time or as I liked to call it ''the butterfly effect''. By the time the small disturbance reached Mike''s face it was a decent breeze that ruffled his hair, "There , do you believe me now?" "No! In fact you just proved that you are lying because that isn''t even how a wind mage performs magic! No mage is ever able to perform magic effortlessly without chanting some mantra to focus or using some instrument to compliment their powers. You on the other hand just made that breeze wearing nothing but a towel and by just waving your fingers lazily!" Damn it! How was I supposed to know all that? I tried to play it cool as I scrambled for an excuse but I knew that he knew that I was lying and my last ditch excuse was so flimsy that it came out sounding like a question, " It''s a special towel?" Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. At that moment there was a *thunk* and Mike fell face first onto the counter banging his head against the granite countertop before sliding onto the floor, unconscious. Delilah was standing where Mike had been a few seconds ago, holding a rolling pin. She started to speak nonchalantly as if she wacked people over their heads with a rolling pin all the time, "You see a lot of things in cartoons and never think that they would ever work in real life but look at this, one of the classics and it worked like a charm." I quickly went to check if Mike was still breathing and had a pulse , he was doing fine except for a bump on the back of his head the size of a goose egg, "Why did you do that Delilah?" "You had a secret you didn''t want him to know and you were doing a sucky job of hiding it so I did the only thing I could think of to help you, you''re welcome by the way." "How did you even know that was going to work? He is one of the Atelli, what if he went berserk instead of passing out?" "What do you mean he is one of the Atelli? " "Oh yeah, I forgot that I didn''t tell you about Mike. Well, no harm no foul I guess. Can you pass me the milk? " She passed over his prone body and handed me the milk, grabbing a cup of coffee for herself on the way. She sat down next to me , took a sip of coffee and sighed in contentment before continuing, "So you''re friends with an Atelli? How did that happen?" "That''s a long story. It all started when we met during a meeting the mob organized......." * * * We both left before Mike could wake up but at least we put a blanket over him so he wouldn''t get cold and also left him a note explaining how one of the kitchen utensils had fallen off the rack and knocked him out. chapter fifty eight - Sophia PI Chapter fifty eight After we quickly vacated the hotel room we split up like usual, Delilah assumed my identity and went to tour Oslo some more, establishing an alibi for me in the process while I donned my baseball cap and large sunglasses to hide my blond hair and most of my face making me impossible to identify. I walked to my ford and made my way towards the community center where there was another meeting happening today. Since the meeting wouldn''t start in a while I started to do research on the ''councilor'' that organized the battered women support group, Brenda Serafino. I turned my attention to the ultimate source of knowledge, the all knowing and mystical sage called the internet. Thanks to a certain application that Kazimir had given me I could go through most ''secure and private'' government files and according to the files I found Brenda Serafino was the adopted daughter of a wealthy financial broker called Clemente Serafino who originated from southern Switzerland but made most of his fortune in Norway and so had decided to relocate to Oslo. The man had married one of the locals before adopting an eleven year old Brenda but his new wife had mysteriously died of an unexplained disease whose only symptom seemed to have been a very high fever which was ultimately the only thing listed on her cause of death as the the post mortem examination found absolutely nothing wrong with her. Her death was deemed a freak act of nature and everybody had felt sad for the grieving widower who was now left alone to raise the young Brenda. There were a couple of things that I found extremely suspicious about the story. For example there was almost nothing about Brenda before she was adopted by Clemente. This would be very normal in most countries but Norway was one of those countries that kept extensive records about paperclips let alone their citizens. An orphan would at least have an orphanage listed but even that was missing from her threadbare record. Hell the only thing there was the fact that she was born eleven years before she was adopted. It''s almost like she just popped out of nowhere and got adopted by Mr Serafino. The sudden demise of Ms Serafino was another thing that threw up a red flag for me. When I compared the dates I found out that Mr Serafino had started the adoption process before he was actually married. It was almost as if he got married to make the adoption seem more legitimate, while a single man adopting an eleven year old girl would be suspicious ,a married couple adopting her would be much more acceptable and not a month after the adoption had been officially confirmed Ms Serafino develops an illness that couldn''t be diagnosed by any of the very expensive doctors that the ''concerned'' husband had hired, something was definitely wrong with the whole story. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Well whatever the case maybe the young Brenda had been homeschooled until she went to a local university to earn her degree in psychology. She earned her PhD with her paper on abused women and the complex relationship they have with the person abusing them .The paper earned her world wide recognition and it was declared to be the most insightful look into the subject in a long time. Brenda refused multiple offers made to her from prestigious organizations such as Harvard and instead took a job in the local psychiatric institution. When asked about her choices by psychology quarterly she explained that she had taken the job close by to take care of her aging father. From everything I had just learned and the fact that she had a soul that indicated that she had been abused her whole life I came to the conclusion that Brenda''s adoptive father had probably abused her as a child. But what I didn''t understand was why she would still stay with him. Was it some form of Stockholm syndrome or was there something more sinister going on? My musings would have to wait because Brenda and the rest of the women had arrived. The meeting happened exactly like last time so I had to spend the rest of the day listening to her go on and on about how men were the scum of the earth and the source of all things bad. I had to pretend to be enthralled like everybody else in the room. After her speech had ended and everybody had dispersed to go to their homes I decided to follow Brenda. I followed her little Toyota Prius to a secluded residential area where we passed one large mansions after another. I continued to tail her until she drove towards a particularly large mansion surrounded by a large clearing of land that was enclosed by a large fence that looked like it should be around a prison not a mansion, it even had barbed wire on top and a sign that said that trespassers will be shot. I parked close by and observed as someone buzzed Brenda in through the big gate which automatically closed behind her. From the glimpse I got of the inside there were no guards and the garden was overgrown and full of weeds. If my suspicions were correct then there were no gardeners , guards or any staff at all. The Serafinos had a secret so bad that they were too afraid to hire anyone for their mansion. What could be so bad that they wouldn''t even let anyone into their house? What could those high electrified fences be hiding? A.n. owwww.......hangover+sunlight = :( preview to the king A.N. because of popular demand (lots of complaining) I have decided to make this book a part of a separate series that is related to the science of magic called the science of magic universe and move The king from book 4 to book 2. Here is a sneak peak into that book. Prologue "My name is Sophia, yes I''m that Sophia and no I have nothing to do with the actions of the so called church, now before you get too preoccupied with your reunion with Jules I would like to tell you a few things. I want you to listen carefully because I won''t be here to hold your hand through the next bit and it could get a wee bit dangerous, on the bright side you are one of the only truly immortal beings on this plane but that doesn''t mean that you won''t get harmed, in fact Jules might have ascended alongside you but as she is a separate being now she can''t dull your pain for you so if a powerful being was to let''s say vaporize your body a single atom a time you would feel every moment of that and trust me when I say that the mind and soul can only take so much pain before breaking." I was a little freaked out by the way she had worded that last part, "That''s a very specific example you gave, is that likely to happen here?" She just shrugged and continued, " Sure , anything can happen here which leads me to the point I am trying to make, in terms that we can both understand, your powers have been NERFED severely. As I was telling you earlier your powers have increased tremendously and most of the restrictions holding them back have been lifted like for example your solid illusions power has evolved into an outright creation power meaning you can create whatever you want and it will have the properties that you want. Now before you start celebrating here is the part that sucks, although it may seem like nothing has changed on this plane things are happening on a titanic scale meaning that although your powers have increased relatively speaking the amount you can do has taken a large dip. To be exact as you are now you can only make things that are about as large as a decent sized microwave oven. I''m sure you will find a way to increase your ability but until you do it is a pretty severe handicap. The same thing applies to your ability to slow everything down and speed yourself up. The only power that isn''t NERFED is your power to get information. That power has grown so that instead of the ether you are accessing the very essence of reality to get your answers but you have to remember that this doesn''t mean you know everything. If you don''t ask the right questions then you will not get the answers you need. Remember you are no longer the biggest kid on the block , in fact you are the noobie here, you are now officially the runt of the litter and the things here will try to pick on you. Welcome to the big leagues ,John .Well good luck on your journey I have places to go , things to destroy. Oh I almost forgot, stay away from the soul benders, you aren''t immortal enough to survive if one of them get their tentacles on you." Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. She was about to leave when I yelled out, "Wait! What am I supposed to do here?" She looked back at me with a devilish smile and said, "Do what you always do John, stumble around from one mishap to another while turning everything upside down , leaving a trail of chaos and broken hearts in your wake. Just have fun." I could hear her snicker as if she was remembering a very funny joke as she disappeared through a glowing door that wasn''t there a second ago. Why did I have a feeling that I was the butt of that joke. preview to the king A.N. because of popular demand (lots of complaining) I have decided to make this book a part of a separate series that is related to the science of magic called the science of magic universe and move The king from book 4 to book 2. Here is a sneak peak into that book. Prologue "My name is Sophia, yes I''m that Sophia and no I have nothing to do with the actions of the so called church, now before you get too preoccupied with your reunion with Jules I would like to tell you a few things. I want you to listen carefully because I won''t be here to hold your hand through the next bit and it could get a wee bit dangerous, on the bright side you are one of the only truly immortal beings on this plane but that doesn''t mean that you won''t get harmed, in fact Jules might have ascended alongside you but as she is a separate being now she can''t dull your pain for you so if a powerful being was to let''s say vaporize your body a single atom a time you would feel every moment of that and trust me when I say that the mind and soul can only take so much pain before breaking." I was a little freaked out by the way she had worded that last part, "That''s a very specific example you gave, is that likely to happen here?" She just shrugged and continued, " Sure , anything can happen here which leads me to the point I am trying to make, in terms that we can both understand, your powers have been NERFED severely. As I was telling you earlier your powers have increased tremendously and most of the restrictions holding them back have been lifted like for example your solid illusions power has evolved into an outright creation power meaning you can create whatever you want and it will have the properties that you want. Now before you start celebrating here is the part that sucks, although it may seem like nothing has changed on this plane things are happening on a titanic scale meaning that although your powers have increased relatively speaking the amount you can do has taken a large dip. To be exact as you are now you can only make things that are about as large as a decent sized microwave oven. I''m sure you will find a way to increase your ability but until you do it is a pretty severe handicap. The same thing applies to your ability to slow everything down and speed yourself up. The only power that isn''t NERFED is your power to get information. That power has grown so that instead of the ether you are accessing the very essence of reality to get your answers but you have to remember that this doesn''t mean you know everything. If you don''t ask the right questions then you will not get the answers you need. Remember you are no longer the biggest kid on the block , in fact you are the noobie here, you are now officially the runt of the litter and the things here will try to pick on you. Welcome to the big leagues ,John .Well good luck on your journey I have places to go , things to destroy. Oh I almost forgot, stay away from the soul benders, you aren''t immortal enough to survive if one of them get their tentacles on you." If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. She was about to leave when I yelled out, "Wait! What am I supposed to do here?" She looked back at me with a devilish smile and said, "Do what you always do John, stumble around from one mishap to another while turning everything upside down , leaving a trail of chaos and broken hearts in your wake. Just have fun." I could hear her snicker as if she was remembering a very funny joke as she disappeared through a glowing door that wasn''t there a second ago. Why did I have a feeling that I was the butt of that joke. chapter fifty nine - shady meeting Chapter fifty nine As I was driving back to the hotel I got a strange text from Delilah''s phone asking me to meet her in front of the Nobel Peace center. This was very strange because we already had an arrangement to meet at our room in the hotel before going to the restaurant downstairs to eat our complimentary dinner. We even had a plan to order everything on the menu just to mess with the chefs. Why would Delilah change our plans all of a sudden and without any explanations? Hell the text didn''t even have a snarky comment or some sort of a joke which was always present when Delilah was texting me. Another odd thing was the location, I knew for a fact that she didn''t even like the Nobel Peace center. When I asked her if she had visited it yet she had told me that she didn''t want to , in fact her exact words were '' why would I want to visit a place built by money earned by spilling the blood of countless people to assuage the guilt of one of the greatest mass murderers in history. The fact that his name is associated with a prize to reward the greatest achievements of humanity sickens me. In addition to that there are no good places to shop around there so I would rather go somewhere else.'' I thought she was being a bit harsh but she seemed adamant on not going there and now she suddenly changed her mind and wants to meet there at this late hour? It was just too suspicious so I immediately tried to call her but it just went straight to voicemail. When I tried texting her she didn''t respond. Something was definitely wrong, either she was in trouble or this was a trap. Whatever the case maybe Delilah was probably in danger so I had to go and rescue her. I entered the Nobel Peace center as my destination on my GPS and gunned it in the direction it was pointing, swerving in and out of traffic carelessly.On the way there I took out two Berreta hand guns out of the glove compartment and put them on the dashboard in case I needed quick access to them. As I was approaching the two story building I noticed that there were no lights in the area. It was pretty late and it was winter so night had already fallen making the area eerily dark. The only light came from my car''s headlights and a train that was passing by , a second later the train had already passed making the whole area dark except for the two circles illuminated by my headlights. All the street lights had been switched off turning the whole area into a place of darkness and shadows. I slowed down and started to look around, for a second I thought I saw movement in the shadows but then it disappeared. I couldn''t really see anything in these conditions but I had a secret weapon, soul sight. It is an ability that I had developed while healing that allowed me to see the souls of people if I concentrated and using this technique allowed me to see the man following my slow moving car while he hid in the shadows. He wasn''t skulking around and hiding behind trashcans like ninjas on TV , he literally wrapped shadows around himself to hide his form. I couldn''t see what he really looked like because even his soul was shrouded by shadow making him blurry but I was still able to make out his blurry outline using my soul sight. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I kept my eyes on the strange shadow man as I approached the building. The area around the place was completely empty and dark except for a single street light that was on unlike all the others around it. The light shone down brightly in the darkness illuminating two figures standing there on the sidewalk, the first one was Delilah still disguised to look like me. For some reason she was just standing there frozen and unmoving. Next to her was an elderly man with silver gray hair glinting in the light provided by the orange glow of the sodium lamp. He stood there nonchalantly smoking a cigar like he didn''t have a care in the world. A part of me wanted to run out there and quickly rescue Delilah but a smarter and more rational part of me clubbed that part down. I carefully scanned the area and I was able to make out five more of the shadow men hiding in several places. I didn''t know who these people were but they were obviously dangerous, they had subdued Delilah, which is no easy feat by itself , and then used her as bait to lure me in. They had set up this very clever ambush ,they literally put her on display to make me focus on her while they used the darkness to position themselves while remaining unseen. It was a well thought out plan that marked them as professionals who have experience in this type of things and combined with the fact that they were able to pull this kind of thing in such a public place made them even more dangerous. I was especially surprised that they could keep people out of the area. I carefully approached Delilah and the man standing next to her while keeping an eye on the shadow men closing in on me from behind. I grabbed the two Beretta hand guns off the dashboard and exited the vehicle. The old man didn''t even flinch when he saw that I was armed, he only smiled like he was looking at a silly child holding a paper gun and pretending to be a soldier, "There is no need for guns here Ms Sophia, I am not here to hurt you. In fact I am here to help you." For some reason his words didn''t reassure me. chapter sixty - plan A Chapter sixty I looked towards Delilah and I didn''t like what I saw, she was confined in a small circle made out of what looked like rock salt and the salt was glowing slightly in my soul vision. I was able to follow the faint traces of the glow back to one of the men hiding in the shadows. She had duct tape on her mouth and a rope around her torso restricting her hands and wings. As I was looking at her she started to squirm and make muffled noises. The old man followed my gaze towards Delilah and started to speak with a distinct southern accent, "Oh, don''t worry about your little friend. I''ll let her go after you have agreed to sign a few documents." Right now I just wanted to shoot everybody and be on my merry way but I didn''t know what was going on so I decided to go along with the old geezer for a little while, "And who are you?" He chuckled politely and gave a small bow, "Forgive this old man for his lapse in manners, my name is Jebedia Thompson. I am a united states senator whose main purpose in coming here was to hammer down some trade agreements with some rich folks who make their home in Oslo, well at least that was my main purpose until I met you little lady. I must say you took us on one doozey of a ride, making your friend here pretend to be you, very clever. Our agents thought they had a pretty good lock on you, imagine their surprise when they found out that you had given them the old switcheroo. Now most people would probably get mad but I''m just happy you aren''t the airhead you pretended to be, I would rather have competent people working for me than brainless idiots." I was starting to see where this was going, "What do you mean working for you? I never agreed to work for anyone." He took out something from his pocket and threw it towards me , making me flinch and raise my guns. He raised his hands up and started to speak as if he was trying to calm down a startled horse,"Woah there, calm down, I ain''t trying to hurt you. I''m just trying to show you something. Look at what I just threw you and tell me what you think." I looked at it while keeping my gun trained on his face, "It looks like a blown out cellphone, why would you show me that?" He put his hands on his belt buckle and said, "That there is a very expensive piece of equipment that we use to detect people who have gifts. I had packed the damn thing with me just in case but I didn''t really expect to find anything but surprise surprise, I point it in your direction and it literally caught on fire. Do you know what that means?" "No, but I''m sure you are about to tell me." Excitement colored his voice as he boomed out, "You are one of the most gifted people on the entire planet! You have been given this incredible gift by God and now you have the duty, no the privilege of serving our lord." "And let me guess, the only way to serve the lord is to join you?" The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The excitement started to drain from his face as he detected the dry tone in my voice, "You don''t have to take that tone with me little lady, I''m just trying to look out for you and your best interest. Our only goal is to make sure that you aren''t a danger to others or yourself. As our great leader Theodore Roosevelt once said with great power comes great responsibility." "I''m pretty sure that that quote is actually from spiderman and nothing screams we care about your best interest like kidnapping someone''s friend. You sound like a great organization, where can I sign up?" my sarcasm was thicker than the man''s handlebar mustache, which was the only facial hair he had. Said mustache started to twitch as he replied, "What we did wasn''t kidnap your friend, we took a demoness from hell who is leading you astray for her own nefarious purpose! We have heard that she has led you on the road to sin, making you perform all sorts of perversions that should only happen between a man and a woman after they are married. We are trying to get you back on the right road, the road of salvation!" I couldn''t help but burst into laughter after his little tirade, "You think that she made me a lesbian? Oh man, you people are deluded. Now I''m getting tired of this so would you please release Delilah so we could leave?" "Why not stay a little longer? It has taken a lot of time and effort to set this up, I even came alone so that you wouldn''t feel threatened. You should at least hear me out." "Oh, you came alone to make me feel safe, did you now?" I guess it was time to go back to plan A, shooting everybody and rescuing Delilah. I pointed my gun past Delilah and shot the man connected to the circle which was imprisoning her. The shadows surrounding the man suddenly disappeared , revealing a man completely covered in a black body suit. The only thing not black about him was the green lenses on the night vision goggles he was wearing, He lay crumpled on the ground but his bulletproof vest had stopped my bullet, he was still groaning in pain, his vest may have protected him from the bullet but the impact was still pretty bad. "So this guy isn''t with you? That means you don''t mind if I kill him right?" "Wait! Wait! I brought this man to protect me but there is nobody else!" I was getting getting tired of this shit, I turned around and shot the remaining shadow men who were trying to creep stealthily closer towards me and this time I made sure I hit their heads, a kill shot. I turned back to the senator who was looking at me aghast and executed the first shadow man who was still writhing on the ground then I turned the gun towards the old man himself. "What are you going to do little lady, shoot a united states senator?" I smiled and replied, "Yes." chapter sixty one - love hurts Chapter sixty one I stepped over the body of the old geezer and headed towards Delilah to free her but the glow had faded from the salt circle and she was no longer confined inside of it. She used her new found freedom to wiggle out of most of the ropes and snapped what remained by stretching out her wings. She ripped off the duct tape that held her mouth closed and floated in my direction. I thought that she was going to give me a hug so I had my arms outstretched to receive her, what I didn''t expect her to do was to start hitting me in the chest several times, not those girly open handed slaps that you could barely feel but closed fist punches that made me stagger in pain as I started to bruise. She didn''t stop there, she continued to follow me pummel the shit out of me. She started to shout at me and every word she said was punctuated by one of her rib cracking punches, "WHAT *punch* WERE *punch* YOU *punch* THINKING!" I was finally able to stop the attack by catching her arms. I healed my bruising left boob and restrained her from continuing to assault me, "What do you mean what was I thinking? In fact its very simple , you were in trouble so I came to save you, it''s not exactly rocket science. The question is why are you beating me up when you should be thanking me, or is this some weird demon custom?" She was still fuming for some reason. Her breath came out as steam in the cold weather and she looked like a mad cartoon bull getting ready to charge, "Why would you risk your life like that? Don''t you know how dangerous what you did was? You didn''t know what you were walking into or how dangerous your opponents could have been, in fact all you knew was that they were able to subdue me and you know that I am no pushover. Basically you knowingly walked straight into a trap set by people you knew nothing about except that they were extremely dangerous! You could have been captured or killed! Don''t you have any self preservation?!" Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I was starting to understand what her outburst was about,"It''s not like this is my first time doing something like this and look around you, I pretty much kicked everyone''s asses so everything is alright. " "No, everything is not alright! This isn''t about what happened, it is about what could have happened and what may happen in the future! What if this happened in the future and you were unable to prevail?! What if something happened to you?! What if something happened to you because of me?!" I held her close to me and started to lightly stroke her hair, "Nothing is going to happen to me, I''m too damn awesome for that but even if something did happen to me as long as it is to save you I wouldn''t have any regrets. Even if I was sure that I was going to die if I tried to rescue you , I would still come to save you with a smile on my face." Her voice had turned into a whisper as she replied, "But why? I''m just your succubus slave, why would you risk so much for me?" I continued to stroke her hair then turned her face so that I could look into those bottomless fiery eyes which I had come to admire more than any other pair in the world, "I would risk so much for the exact same reasons why you are crying at the mere thought of me getting hurt." She started to chuckle through her tears, "You''re an idiot, you know that right?" I just said, "Of course I am! I put up with you, don''t I?" She opened her mouth, probably with a sarcastic quip or some other joke on the tip of her tongue but I stole her lips in a deep passionate kiss. I stopped her from speaking by using the best way I knew how, by giving her mouth something better to do. chapter sixty two - how to dump a body Chapter sixty two "I have a hypothetical question I want to ask you." I was driving down a highway while speaking on the phone with Kazimir. After I had my little reunion with Delilah , we had dragged the body of the late senator Thompson and stuffed it into the small space that used to be a backseat before a giant engine was placed there. We had then vacated the scene of the mini massacre before any cops could arrive. While weaving in and out of traffic at ridiculous speeds I frantically dialed Kazimir''s number with my free hand, which brings me to the present, The voice on the other end sounded sleepy,"Sophia, do you know what time it is?" I laughed nervously,"Really late? It''s midnight here, so it''s about 1 am there? " "Why are you calling me this late at night?" "I have a hypothetical question that I would like to ask you." I could hear rustling of sheets as he got up from bed, or at least that is what it sounded like, " What kind of hypothetical question?" I tried to sound nonchalant as possible,"Oh, I just wanted to know the best place to dump a body if I wanted it to not be discovered for a long time." "Well, it would depend on who your hypothetical body belongs to, the more important a person is the more people would look for that person." "Hypothetically speaking what if that person was a united states senator?" For a second there was silence, then I heard the sound of ripping cloth and something breaking. Then I heard two voices talking, the gruff voice of Kazimir and the sweet dulcet tones of my sensei. A few seconds later Kazimir was back on the phone panting like he had run a marathon but at least he sounded calm when he said," Why did you kill a united states senator Sophia?" I laughed nervously again, "It''s actually a funny story, you see he was part of a secret organization that kidnapped Delilah and tried to blackmail me to work for them." He sighed, "Did you really have to kill him?" "I didn''t have to kill him, but he was definitely an enemy and you know how I feel about leaving enemies alive so they can have another go at you." "Alright, first things first. Did you remove his watch and cellphone?" "We did one better, we stripped him of everything he was wearing. He is now buck naked." "Good, you have removed all of the primary trackers but there are secondary trackers located within his body." "Already thought of that, we run electricity from the light rail through his body until he was fried crispy and started to smoke. It smells like bacon in here but I''m pretty sure that any trackers that are inside his body are fried." "Very good! Way to take the initiative Sophia, most people don''t think of things like that. Now what you did has removed most of the trackers but there are special trackers that even that couldn''t destroy but on the bright side they are all close range trackers that don''t work unless the people who are looking for you are only a few meters away, I want you to make sure that you are not being followed." If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "At the speed I am going, unless they are freaking formula one drivers I''ve lost them a long time ago." "Alright then, I want you to drive to a scrap yard a few miles west of Oslo, I''m sending the coordinates to your phone. Once you get in there , there is a giant outdoor furnace that runs twenty four hours, you can''t miss it , just follow the giant orange glow. Dump the body there." "Thanks Kazimir!" "Don''t thank me , thank my wife. I wanted to hang up on you and go back to sleep." * * * When we got to the scrap yard it turned out to be a very large clearing enclosed by a chain link fence. The front gate was held closed by a padlock and chains but I was able to get it open using my fans. Kazimir was right, I could see the orange glow of the furnace from the entrance but the problem was that the way there was a freaking labyrinth of crushed cars and other metal debris. I drove to three dead ends before I finally found the right way to the furnace. And what a sight it was. A mountain of metal scrap surrounding an orange glow whose heat I could feel from here. It looked like a metal volcano. I turned to Delilah and said, "Do you know how to operate a crane?" She looked up from the video she was seeing with her cellphone which she had taken back from the senator, "Why would you want to know that?" "Because the mouth of the furnace is at the top of that metal mountain and the only way to get the body up there is that giant crane which has a metal claw or climbing the mountain with the body." A few backbreaking minutes later we arrived at the top of the metal mountain while cursing every cookie and steak that the senator had ever consumed. When we looked over at the mouth of the furnace we saw a gaping metal maw of a monster, jagged metal teeth opening and closing , ready to tear anything apart before it entered its fiery stomach. Every time the metal jaws would open a blast of hot air would come out as if it was the breath of a giant monster. Delilah looked over at me and asked, "Why are you smiling?" I couldn''t help it, looking at the artificial volcano made me grin foolishly, "Because I feel like I am Frodo about to throw the ring into mount doom." She rolled her eyes and said,"You are such a nerd" before unceremoniously kicking the body into the furnace where it disappeared into its fiery depth. As we were driving away I had a crazy thought and turned back towards the scrap yard. I concentrated on the glow that was visible even here from outside of the scrap yard. I could have imagined it but for a fraction of a second I thought I saw the telltale glimmer of a soul. chapter sixty three - agent smith Chapter sixty three Delilah and I decided that going back to the hotel wasn''t such a good idea, although the authorities wouldn''t be looking for us the people from the senator''s secret organization probably knew about us so we were targets. Thankfully I had purchased a house that would be a perfect place to lie low. We entered the empty house that I bought to store my guns, it was a rather large and nice place but it was completely unfurnished. I was feeling tired but there were no beds to sleep in but what we did find was some wood for the fireplace. We quickly lit a fire, and using our thick coats and other clothing as a mattress and blankets we fell asleep snuggled together bathing in the warm glow of the fireplace. We woke up in the morning and wore our crumpled up clothing. As I stretched my body trying to get rid of the stiffness in my back I decided that I was going to have to get a bed for the house. I gave a credit card linked to my offshore account to Delilah and asked her to do some shopping online. I ,on the other hand, had the mission of taking out some luggage from our hotel room without getting in trouble, but it was OK since I had a plan. I drove my car to the back of the train station then I took a cab to the hotel room and quickly got upstairs. I packed some of my clothes along with what was left of the money in one large suitcase and went to the counter to check out. As I was leaving the hotel a man in a black suit and black shades blocked my way, "Wait, I need to ask you some questions." I raised my eyebrow at him, "And who are you?" He took out a badge and showed it to me, I pretended to look at it nonchalantly while in reality I checked for important things that Kazimir had taught me to check for, it seemed ligit. "Agent Smith, Bradley Smith, CIA.". I tried my best not to laugh but I''m sure he was able to see the mirth in my expression,"Seriously? Agent Smith of the CIA? You couldn''t come up with a better name?" "It is the name my mother gave me." "Right. Well putting that aside what can I do for you Agent Smith, if you are here to ask about Neo I''m afraid I can''t help you." "Very amusing miss Sophia," he didn''t look very amused,"Can we go somewhere private so we can talk?" "No thank you Agent Smith, you can ask me anything you want right here in the lobby. I might be blond but I''m not dumb enough to go ''somewhere private'' with a strange man I just met." "But I am a CIA agent." "Especially because you are CIA. I don''t want to be water boarded or something. If you have any questions ask them, otherwise please get out of my way." "Alright, do you know anything about the disappearance of senator Jebediah Thompson?" If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "Wait, What? Does Norway even have senators?" "He is an american senator." "What is an american senator doing here in Norway anyways?" I gave him my best confused puppy look, with my head tilted to the side and everything. He adjusted his shades and looked at me, " Alright , you may go. Contact this number if you get any information." I took the card and as I left I heard him whisper into his watch, "The target was telling the truth. She truly doesn''t know about the disappearance of the shepherd. She seemed to be completely unaware of our interest in her. The location of the shepherd is still unknown although the team of shades were found dead, I believe that a third party intercepted them before they made contact with the target. The necromancer was unable to get anything out of them because their brains were too heavily damaged, we might be dealing with an enemy who knows our capabilities, over and out." I blew out a sigh of relief and chuckled a little at the same time. The glasses that ''agent smith'' was wearing had a small glow on them so I thought that they may be used to tell if I was lying or not so I didn''t lie. I just asked him questions instead of answering him. As for the rest, I didn''t know that there were such things as necromancers but I got lucky because I shot all the shadow men in the head. From now on I am going to have to make sure that I do not leave an intact brain when killing an enemy. I took a cab to the train station where I was followed by a black van. I got into the women''s toilet and jumped out the window. Outside my ford focus was waiting for me where I left it in the morning. I quickly put on my baseball hat and glasses and drove the hell out of there. Back at the house I saw that Delilah had been busy, she had purchased a whole bunch of things from nearby stores and had them rush delivered. We now had couches , a large flat screen TV , a coffee table and even a fully stocked kitchen. "Delilah, why did you buy all this stuff?" "Because it is a shame to have such a nice house and leave it empty, and look I even got you a rack for your guns." I looked around the house and sure enough there was a room full of racks where I could put my guns. I looked all around the house and it was filled with stuff, stuff that we didn''t need because I planned on finishing my business here as quickly as possible, "Delilah!" "What?" "Where is the bed I actually asked you to buy?" She had a sheepish look on her face as she said, "Yeah...about that...." That night we had to sleep on the couch. chapter sixty four - Albert Chapter sixty four One of the many reasons that I had gone back to the hotel room even though it was somewhat risky was because I had a plan to get closer to Ms Brenda , or rather Dr Brenda(she has a PhD) and observe her while she is not in brain washing mode . The next day I got up bright and early to to put that plan into action. I wore my nun outfit and drove to the Oslo university hospital. My plan was very simple, I had gained world wide fame because of my actions back in St Petersburg. I had spent one day in each of the hospitals and clinics in the city healing almost everybody. It has caused a stir not only around Russia but also around the world. It had even earned me the nickname the lady of mercy and the angel of St Petersburg. Now I''m going to use that reputation to enter the hospital and help the patients while at the same time keeping an eye on Brenda. I thought that it was going to be a simple matter since I was now very famous as a nun thanks to a few pictures taken on cellphones but I was proven wrong almost immediately as I was stopped by hospital security, I was a little surprised but I remained polite as I talked to the slightly rotund man with straw colored hair, " Why are you stopping me? Don''t you know who I am? I am here to help the patients inside." He was much less polite as he replied curtly, "Look lady, we have enough problems to deal with without having to deal with impersonators like you. Why would you even pretend to be the lady of mercy , don''t you know that you are giving people false hope? What you are doing isn''t only sick but also cruel. If this is your idea of a joke it is not funny!" I was starting to get the reason why he was not letting me go inside, " Calm down, are there many of these impersonators that come here to the hospital?" "Yeah, some of the bastards even come here with buckets for ''donations''. Look you don''t seem like one of the scammer types so let me give you some advice. Go do something with your life instead of pretending that you are something that you are not. I know that the thought of being as important as her and wielding so much power is very attractive to you but everybody has their part to play in the world, sure her part may seem more grand and important but you should find your place in the world and if you try hard enough I''m sure that you can be just as important as her. Instead of being a cheap worthless knockoff go be something original and I guarantee that you will be much happier than you are now." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. That was actually pretty good advice, " What is your name?" He seemed surprised by my question, "My name is Albert, why do you ask?" I smiled at him even though he couldn''t see it under my veil ," You seem like a very good man Albert and I am very glad that I met you," I extended my arm purely for theatrics and healed all the small aches and injuries that he had accumulated throughout his life including his scars. He had a bad back and a bum knee so I fixed those up. I even took a few years off him and took away his exhaustion, "your advice is sound but I am not an impersonator." I saw it in his eyes as he suddenly realized what had just happened and what it meant, he immediately fell down onto his knees, "I am sorry, I didn''t mean any offense by what I said earlier. I''m just upset that people would use your name to try and trick people who are already suffering." "It''s alright Albert, no offense taken but if you really want to make it up to me then please stop smoking, your lungs were in very bad shape before I healed them. Same thing goes for drinking, your liver wasn''t doing very well either." He nodded his head rapidly, "I shall do as you say. You have given me a precious gift, I am not going to throw it away." "Good, now can I come in?" "Of course you can come in! Please come in and help as many people as you can." He hurriedly got back on his feet and personally escorted me into the hospital. chapter sixty five - the hospital Chapter sixty five We entered the hospital and the first thing I saw was a nurse in scrubs sitting behind a counter typing away on a PC at super sonic speeds. She looked up from her work and her serious expression turned into one of disgust as she looked at me, "What is that doing here Albert? We told you to keep these bastards out of our hospital, we have enough parasites in here , we don''t need any more." She was scowling at me as she was speaking so she missed Albert''s frantic hand signals to stop, by the end he was even jumping up and down while trying to shush her. This impersonation problem must have been pretty bad to garner this kind of animosity from the nurse, I couldn''t really blame her for her reaction so I tried to be as polite as possible,"It is a pleasure to meet you too, I''m sorry that you have been having so much trouble with people pretending to be me. I am not here to cause any inconvenience so I''ll get out of your hair." I tried to pass the counter and go into the corridor with a sign that said pediatrics but I was immediately blocked by the nurse, she attempted to grab my arm but I avoided her lunge by reflex. She tried to catch me again and again but I was a master of evasion so she was unable to do anything. I was getting tired of dancing around her and was about to act when Albert beat me to it by grabbing her from behind, She continued to struggle in his grip while shouting,"What are you doing Albert?" He desperately held on to the struggling woman , slightly raising her off the ground, "It''s the real her Erika, it''s really her. She is not one of those vultures pretending to be her to scam people." She suddenly went limp in his arms, "How do you know?" He slowly let her down, " She healed me Erika, all my pain is gone and I feel better than I remember feeling in recent years. Erika she is here to heal everybody here, she can heal your niece''s leukemia!" I finally understood her over the top reaction, she had someone she loved in the hospital whose only hope was a miracle and after seeing charlatan after charlatan giving her false hope she had grown angry. Her expression was still cynical but there was a small light of hope in her eyes, " .........are you sure Albert? This isn''t some trick?" Albert just nodded. I interrupted them , "Look how about this, I go to the first patient and you can decide for yourself if I''m fake or not?" The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. She finally relented reluctantly, "One patient and if you are lying I''ll personally kick you out of the hospital." She led me to the first room in the pediatric ward, inside there was a sickly little boy who was nothing but skin and bones. He had an IV hooked up into his arm and was asleep on a small bed. Next to him was a man with the same brown hair as the boy and wire rimmed glasses. He had fallen asleep with a children''s book open on his stomach. Erika looked at the little boy with deep sadness in her eyes, "This is Bjorn and his father, he suffers from an auto immune disease that keeps him frail. All his muscles have atrophied and he barely has any meat left. The doctors gave him six months to live but he is now three years old, I think it is thanks to his father who refuses to leave his side. The fact that he survived this long is a miracle in itself but now Bjorn is hanging on by a thread, he had gone critical twice in the past two weeks alone. " Bjorn might have been sick on the outside but on the inside his soul shone like a bright star, I didn''t even need to get closer to him before I could heal him. I just extended my hand from the doorway and healed him. First I fixed the faulty genome that caused auto immune disease , then I slowly rebuilt his atrophied muscles. On the outside he turned from a sickly skeletal boy to a healthy pink boy . He stirred from his sleep and the first word he said was "daddy". The father woke up as if he had been struck by lightning. He looked towards us but then he looked towards his son and we ceased to exist to him. He rushed towards little Bjorn and hugged him close before breaking down and crying. He was saying something in Norwegian but I couldn''t understand him so I turned to Erika and Albert to ask what he was saying but both of them had also broken down in tears and were in no position to answer me. After that Erika and Albert escorted me from room to room as I healed people, hospital staff tried to stop me on multiple occasions but a few whispered words from Erika was enough to make them back down. A few hours later half the hospital staff was following me around in a daze as I went from room to room healing one person after another. I had healed most of the patients with terminal illnesses and serious injuries when I finally reached my goal. The psychiatric ward. chapter sixty six - Brenda Chapter sixty six The psychiatric ward was different from the rest of the hospital. There were some rooms with people in beds just like the rest of the hospital but some of them had restraints on their arms and feet. In very extreme cases there were even some people in straight jackets. There were also those in special white rooms with soft white walls. Although most of the people looked more healthy on the outside in the psychiatric ward they were a mess on the inside. There were some cases of simple chemical imbalance in the brain causing mental illnesses that I was able to fix easily but the rest of the patients were more complicated, most of the remaining patients had souls that had been damaged for various reasons and healing souls was very difficult for me. I started with the cases that had bipolar disorder and similar illnesses. Their souls were cracked or fractured in some way so I carefully put the pieces together. Healing a physical injury took me anywhere from seconds to a minute but putting the souls back together took me many times that time not to mention the fact that I had to supply the energy myself while the universe fought me every step of the way, but I was one stubborn bitch and I was able to finish healing those with fractured souls. By the time I was done the sun was setting and I was sweating so heavily that it started to stain my dress. I sat down exhausted and a hand landed on my shoulder, "Are you alright?" I looked up and met the concerned eyes of Brenda, to be honest I was so focused on healing the people that I had forgotten why I was here in the first place. I must have stayed silent for too long because she continued to speak, "You don''t have to heal them all in one go, you can come back tomorrow for the rest." She seemed to be genuinely worried about me, "Thanks for being concerned but I just need to catch my breath. Psychiatric cases are a little tricky for me." She handed me a cup of coffee and a bagel she had been holding and said, "Here , have some food. I believe that you are human under that veil and I haven''t seen you eat anything all day, you must be starving." I gratefully accepted the food and raised my veil just enough to eat. While I was munching she continued to speak, "When someone is taking care of someone else''s welfare people usually forget about that person''s welfare, you would think as doctors and nurses they would be able to recognize this problem but nope, even the psychiatrists are too busy looking at the miracles happening to their patients to see the toll that it had been taking on you." Her tone might have been soft but the rebuke in her words was crystal clear. All the nurses and doctors started to fidget and apologize. Stolen story; please report. Brenda stayed with me and continued to speak with me as I healed the rest of the patients, which were abused people whose souls were seriously damaged. I had to go even slower but I was able to heal these extreme cases by the time the sun was rising. Brenda had stayed up all night with me talking to me and keeping me entertained as I worked with her patients. When I got up to leave she stopped me with a raised palm, "Wait a minute , you forgot Herald." I smiled, "Oh , he isn''t crazy. He is special, like you." She was startled as she heard what I said, "What do you mean?" "Herald is special, his soul has a third eye on his forehead and he is able to see things other people can''t , as for what I said about you , we need a private place to speak. You are not only special but as hurt as some of your patients." She took me to her office and closed the door behind her, "It''s not what you think." "Oh really? So you aren''t being abused?" "My father has given me everything I''ve ever wanted but he wanted something in return." "Are you saying that the sadistic bastard abused you in exchange for providing you with a good life, you of all people should know that that is unacceptable." "It''s not like that, look my father is a mage but he has very little power , on the other hand I am a terrible witch but produce lots of power so he uses me as a battery, the problem is that the process to extract power requires me to be in pain, the more pain I am in the more power he gets. The ritual heals me as I get injured so he is free to get as creative as he wants." "And that makes it better? Instead of sexual gratification he is straight up torturing you for power? Listen to me , I can help you kill the bastard and you won''t have to be tortured anymore." "NO! He has horded my power for so long that he would kill you very easily. I already have a plan so I will be able to kill the bastard myself, I just have to be a little more patient." After that she refused to tell me anything else. I guess I''m going to have to do this by myself. chapter sixty seven - the burdens of fame Chapter sixty seven Even though Brenda refused my help we parted on good terms, she even escorted me to the front door of the hospital, I was dead tired and my work at the hospital was finished so it was time for me to leave. I could hear some commotion going on outside but I was so tired that I didn''t care, all I really cared about was getting to the house where hopefully, if Delilah didn''t forget to buy one while she is shopping for fountains or something, a bed would be waiting for me. I stepped out of the hospital... .....and walked right into complete chaos. For a second I was blinded by bright lights even through my veil. After my eyes adjusted to the bright light I saw a scene that made me freeze on the spot. There was a large crowd of people waiting outside of the hospital and as soon as I appeared they all exploded , producing a deafening amount of noise. Some were cheering as if I was some sort of movie star, others were booing me while hoisting slogans like ''Antichrist''. I could hear preachers shouting to the crowd telling them what to believe and what not to believe, problem was no two preachers were saying the same thing half were calling me a saint while the other half was calling me a devil. There were cries for help with people hoisting up signs made from bedsheets that said things like ''save my baby'' while at the opposite side of the spectrum there were well made signs that offered me jobs with wages that had way too many zeros in them. There was a whole mix of people but the front of the crowd was occupied by people holding cameras and it was the flashes from these cameras that had blinded me for a few moments. I looked up and I could see several news choppers circling around like flies with their floodlights pointed in my direction. Thankfully the police were keeping everybody back, but things had gotten so bad that they even had riot gear on and were tazing people now and then. One of the cops, an older gentlemen with more bars on his badge than the others and a bushy mustache that made him look distinguished, walked towards me and said in a gruff voice, "Ma''am I suggest you go back inside , I don''t think we can hold them back much longer." I could only imagine how hard it was to hold the seething mass of people back, the fact that the reason that his people were in trouble because of my short sightedness made me feel very guilty, "I''m sorry officer, I didn''t mean for this to happen." If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. His eyes crinkled as he gave me a toothy grin, "That''s alright ma''am , you healed one of my boys in there so I''m going to do everything I can do to help you get out of here," he took off his cap and gave me a little bow, "Captain Stephenson at your service." I had a feeling that even though the captain looked gruff he had a mischievous side.. He led me back into the hospital then he started arranging a plan for my escape, he had his officers purchase four costumes that were similar to mine online and made some of his female officers wear it, then he arranged for five identical armored trucks to come to the hospital. I saw as four of the fake mes get into the armored vehicles and moved forward to get into the last one but captain Stephenson held me back, surprisingly another officer dressed as me suddenly appeared and entered the last vehicle. The captain gave me that crooked smile of his and said, "Where do you think you are going? You haven''t even gotten dressed up yet!" then he threw a something at me. I caught the heavy object and turned it around to see what it was, it was a riot gear helmet. And just like that the captains real plans unfolded, the media and the people dispersed , following the armored trucks while the captain led me out the front door under everybody''s noses , dressed in full riot gear. I was just one of the many police officers in the area, nobody even noticed that I was wearing a veil under the mask of my helmet or that I was thick around my stomach where I had rolled my dress up before putting the pants on. I thanked the police officers after they dropped me off at a nearby park, I quickly went into the wooded area to change and came out on the other side dressed in my civilian clothes. I took a cab back to the hospital and got my ford focus out of the cramped parking lot. Thanks to the Wiley captain''s plan I was home free. And best of all when I got there a king sized bed was waiting for me. chapter sixty eight - the old bastard Chapter sixty eight(a wee bit of mature content) Two days later I followed Brenda to the Serafino estate but this time I didn''t leave, I waited a few hours for all the lights in the house to go out and then used my old friend the bolt cutter to cut through a portion of the electrified fence surrounding the place , after that I was nimble enough to climb over the brick wall. I walked quietly towards the mansion in the darkness past the overgrown shrubbery and paths with tiles missing. I tried to open the front door but it was locked, that didn''t deter me though since the lock looked like a simple cylinder tumbler system and thanks to my misspent youth I could pick locks like this with nothing but some hair pins. With a slight application of my power I was able to get the door open in less than five minutes. Once inside I saw a flashing security system demanding a security code, a quick consult on my phone on the make and model and I was able to find the way to disarm it on the internet before the five minute countdown had finished, in the end it ended up being something very silly like having the administrator reset code posted on the internet, I actually found it on yahoo answers, an idiot had asked how to reset his alarm if he forgot his password and a bigger idiot had answered his question. As I entered the long string of numbers I wondered how anybody would be dumb enough to post such important information on a public forum. After the security system had been disarmed I looked allover the large mansion looking for Mr Serafino but I was unable to find him or Brenda anywhere in the dusty old house but there was one place I hadn''t checked, the basement. I finally found a door behind what looked like the famous Beyeux tapestry which depicted the death of King Harold, the king of England by the Normans in the battle of hastings except that in this one instead of an arrow in his eye he was engulfed in flames instead, there was a creaky door behind the tapestry that led to the basement. As I kept going down into the darkness I was wondering how deep this basement was when I heard muffled screaming coming from ahead of me. I rushed down the stairs, taking two stairs at a time. When I got to the bottom I saw a scene that was straight out of the worst gore films (a.n. I''m not making that up , it is a real subgenre of horror movies.) The room was illuminated by torchlight and I could clearly see that there was a chalk circle with different symbols that was glowing faintly and inside of this circle was Brenda , she was hanging from the ceiling naked and gagged. Not only were there shackles coming from the ceiling but also from the ground, holding her taught in a spread eagled position. There were knives sticking all over her body making her look like some grizzly parody of a pincushion and the pattern suggested that the person who did it knew what they were doing because the knives were placed systematically into her soft tissue without hitting anything vital. The perpetrator of the scene before me was in the process of placing yet another knife into Brenda as I watched, in my soul sight I could clearly see that the old man in a red robe had a very weak soul and that all the power that he produced was going into maintaining a small flame found in the center of his soul but I could also see how the ritual he was performing was stripping the power from Brenda''s glowing core and putting it in various jewelry that the old man was wearing. All his jewelry were glowing brightly in my soul sight , and they were only glowing brighter as he continued his gruesome task. I immediately raised my gun and tried to shoot him but I had made a miscalculation, my bullet was deflected by an invisible wall created by the chalk circle and now the old man was aware of my presence. He stopped twisting the knife he had just inserted into Brenda and turned his attention towards me. He didn''t say anything , he just raised his hands and started making gestures. Using soul sight I could see energy flow from one of his pendants into the small flame in his core and the energy was converted into flame as it was gathered into a sphere then flung in my direction, once it left his soul the ball of flame like energy turned into physical flames as it hurtled towards me or rather where I used to be since I had already dodged. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! As I was dodging his attack , I holstered my gun and took out my fans instead. Using the fans I was able to create winds to deflect his fireballs and got close enough to enter the circle of chalk but as I reached the border I was repulsed by the same invisible wall that kept my bullets out. I was running out of ideas, he was able to attack me from inside the circle while I couldn''t do anything to him from outside of it. As I was thinking about how I was going to get to him the old man stopped his attacks and the gestures he was making changed , instead of a constant stream of energy being drawn from all his jewelry his pinkie ring was completely drained and a storm of fire came my way. The gust of wind I created was not enough to ward it off and I was suddenly engulfed by red hot flames. I felt excruciating pain as all my clothes were burnt off and my skin started to bubble and boil but my power had increased recently thanks to my recent stint in the Oslo hospital and I was able to heal myself as quickly as I was burning up, that did not mean that I wasn''t in excruciating agony. In my desperate scramble to make the pain stop my mind came up with a plan. I jumped up into the air used a wall to get even higher and then plummeted straight down. Instead of rolling to mitigate the impact like sensei taught me, I stomped down as hard as I could on the concrete floor. I used the butterfly effect to magnify the resulting impact as it traveled towards the circle. There were a few things working against me but the most important one was that there was less random motion in solids than there were in gasses making it harder to use the butterfly effect in the concrete. The second problem was that concrete has resistive force of four thousand pounds per square inch which was well beyond my powers at this time but instead of directing the force traveling through the concrete in one direction I made the concrete vibrate just right so that when it reached the chalk boundary it split into two forces that pulled in opposite directions. Although concrete might have four thousand pounds resistive force when under compression this number drops dramatically to something around four hundred under tension and thanks to the heat caused by the bastard who was trying to roast me alive this number dropped even further. A combination of all these factors caused the concrete under the chalk circle to crack and the glow of the circle disappeared, immediately afterwards I threw one of my fans at the old man, decapitating the old bastard. I walked towards his decapitated head and started stomping on it until his skull caved in. I told myself that it was to make sure a necromancer couldn''t get anything from him but I knew in my heart that it was just a futile attempt to hurt the person who had caused me so much pain. I turned around to free Brenda who was looking at me with round eyes. I imagined what I looked like to her, a naked bald chick( the fire had burned all my hair off and I didn''t bother to regrow it) covered in nothing but soot stomping on the head of a man she had just decapitated, she must have thought I was a monster. When I reached out to free her from her restraints she actually pissed herself and passed out. chapter sixty nine - mess up Chapter sixty nine I carefully took out all the knives that had been stabbed into Brenda''s body before healing her. I found the keys to the manacles in the old bastard''s pocket and freed her hands from the chains descending from the ceiling while holding her so that she wouldn''t fall to the ground then I released the ones holding her feet . After I made sure she was alright I carried her up to a room which I assumed was hers because of the books piled in the corner that had titles pertaining to psychology. I put her in the bed and covered her with a blanket before going back downstairs. Back in the basement I approached the dead body of the old bastard. I didn''t really care what happened to it, I''m sure that Brenda will take care of it in the morning and even if she didn''t he can rot away here for all I care, I doubt anybody would come looking for him. No, I didn''t come for his body, I came for his jewelry. I examined each piece of jewelry as I stripped them from the old bastard''s body. All of them had different designs and different colored jewels but each of them had one similarity, they were all engraved with the same symbol, a weird twisting symbol that gave the impression that it was three dimensional even though it was drawn on a two dimensional surface. I took every ring, every necklace, every bracelet and even the earrings that were still on his ears that were on his decapitated head. They were all still glowing with power that the old bastard had stolen from Brenda and I wanted to see what I could do with them. I didn''t exactly have pockets so I wore the jewelry. I walked out of the Serafino estate naked , completely bald , covered in soot, and wearing tons of jewelry. A man passing by in his range rover saw me and slowed down as he stared at me, I couldn''t help but mess with him a little, I struck an exaggerated pose and winked at him. The man nearly crashed into a tree before turning beet red and driving away. I myself jumped into my Ford focus and drove back home where Delilah found my new hairless and blinged out look quite fascinating and decided to get in the shower with me to help me ''scrub my back'', we both had fun trying to get the soot off my body without removing any of the jewelry. * * * Two weeks passed by without any incident, I spent my time keeping the Atelli under surveillance and going to the community center for the battered women meetings. Brenda had mellowed out since the old bastard had died but she still disliked men even though she didn''t seem to hate them as much. As for the rest of the women, they were no longer passive listeners but participated as she spoke. Most of them had a complete and clear pentagram on their souls now but instead of having a ball of power like Brenda , the pentagrams funneled the energy their souls produced into bonds that had appeared between the women. As the bonds grew and became more saturated with energy Brenda started to steer the subjects of the meetings towards the occult and especially liked to talk about the ancient Greek goddess Hestia. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. I was outside of the Fairweather temporary office just observing what was happening like usual when all of the Atelli that I had seen coming in and out suddenly all came out at once. They all piled into a van and drove off, I of course followed them. Their destination was the underground parking lot at the community center. They started to haul metal containers that are used to contain pressurized gasses out of the van. I took a closer look using binoculars and I saw the label on the containers, N2O, nitrous oxide , a gas commonly used as anesthesia. The Atelli were about to make their move on Brenda''s group but that also gave me the perfect opportunity to make my move on them, all the Atelli in the city were gathered in one place next to highly pressurized containers, how could I resist? I put on a black wig and my old raven mask before getting out of my car holding a sawed off shot gun. Because the shotgun used pellets not slugs I only needed one shot to get the job done, the pellets that would have been randomly scattered were positioned perfectly thanks to my power. They not only took off the gas valves on the nitrous oxide containers but they also perforated the gas tank and ignited it. What most people don''t know is that nitrous oxide is actually inflammable but it is also a powerful oxidizer so what happened was a mixture of highly pressurized gasses suddenly escaping and the rapid combustion of gasoline under the effect of a super oxidizer... or in layman''s terms KABOOOOOOOM! Almost all of the Atelli were instantly killed, only one survived and it was the one with three heads. I dropped the shotgun and took out two pistols. I quickly shot off the smaller black and white heads, leaving the center faceless head for last but when I tried shooting that one a shield made out of light and darkness stopped the bullets. The Atelli''s whole body was suddenly covered in bright light and pitch darkness that seemed to feed on each other , growing with every passing moment until it got so massive that it burst through the roof of the underground parking lot causing it to partially cave in, thanks to my powers I was not hit by falling debris. I got back into my car and sped out the parking lot, I exited the underground parking lot just as it completely collapsed. As i sped away in my cat I looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see a vaguely humanoid monster made out of a chaotic mixture of bright lights and pitch darkness tear itself free of what was left of the community center. I saw the monster turn and destroy the five story building next to the community center like it was made from paper mache. I had a feeling that this day was going to suck. chapter seventy - between a rock ... Chapter seventy Things had really deteriorated in the past half hour, most of the area around the community center was now nothing more than rubble. The police had responded quickly and evacuated most of east Oslo but there were many deaths before the police had things under control. I was parked just beyond the place where police had set up a roadblock to stop people from going into the affected area. From here I could hear multiple explosions going off as the police attempted to contain the monster. There was a TV store next to me and all the screens that were in the storefront display were showing the same thing, they were showing footage from a cellphone taken by someone running away on a loop from a news channel, in the video the monster seemed to be pushed back a little and sometimes staggered as large explosions hit it but nothing put a dent in the monster itself and it continued its rampage after brushing off the hits. I sat there in my car gripping my steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. This was my fault, I was the cause of all this death and destruction yet instead of helping I was just sitting here , looking on as the brave men and women of the police force attempted to fight the monster I had unleashed. I felt ashamed of myself and as every second passed I hated myself more and more but the fact of the matter was that I was scared. I have fought many enemies before but this was on a whole new level. There was nothing I could think of that could even harm the large behemoth let alone kill it, he was just too big for me. As I sat there contemplating what I should do I heard static coming from a radio in a nearby police cruiser, a few second later I could hear the familiar voice of Captain Stephenson shouting over the sounds of loud explosions, "Sergeant Hansen the monster is coming your way , evacuate everyone in the area as fast as you can." The officer immediately picked up the radio and said, " Captain I thought you and your team were keeping it from coming in this direction." There was static on the other side for a while and after a particularly large explosion the captains voice returned, "We are going to try to give you as much time as possible but he has us against a wall, officer Anderson is already down. We probably won''t last another five minutes." "Captain maybe I can help, I could get there in less than a minute, two minutes tops." The Captain''s voice was stern as he said, "Evacuate the civilians Sergeant , that is a direct order from your superior officer," his voice softened as he continued, "It has been an honor serving with you Hansen, you were a good cop and a great friend. You are going to have to coordinate the remaining teams from now on, take care of them Cris." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. And the radio went silent. In my mind I started to remember Captain Stephenson , his handlebar mustache , his stern attitude and most of all the crooked grin he gave that made his inner child shine through. I knew that I was probably condemning myself to a painful death but you know what? I had a big smile on my face as I gunned my little ford focus onto the sidewalk and maneuvered the small car around the checkpoint. I roared down the deserted streets towards the direction where the sounds of explosions were coming from. When I was close enough to see the giant monster I took the most direct route I could towards it. I finally arrived at the scene of the ongoing battle a little less than two minutes later. The monster really had the police up against a wall and it was using its massive size to block any chance they might have had to escape. It kept picking up cars and throwing them at the police who were hiding behind armored vehicles and throwing grenades at the monster. The monster was slowly approaching their position and if it got there it would be game over for the cops. I jumped out of my car and run towards the monster while shouting at it. As I was shouting I made the molecules in the air vibrate just right so that the sound of my voice was magnified. By the time it reached the monster it was loud enough that it was blowing out all the nearby windows. The monster paused its advance to the cops and turned towards me instead. It must have recognized me from the parking lot because it forgot all about the cops and started coming towards me instead. I shouted towards the cops as I run back to my car, "Run and get some help, preferably someone with a tank, I''ll distract him in the mean while!" I zipped through the streets , leading the giant monster towards the east , away from the populated areas and towards areas that had already been evacuated but the problem with my plan was that I eventually got to an area so damaged that there was no longer a way to pass through even for my little Ford focus. I looked in the rear view mirror to see the giant lumbering towards me. I jumped out the car and rolled away just in time to see a giant black and white fist smash my treasured car into a flat sheet of metal. Now I was on foot face to face with a humongous monster that was the size of a building who was dead set on turning me into a pancake. Lovely. chapter seventy one - dandelion Chapter seventy one Over the past few months I have constantly used the butterfly effect to help me get out of many sticky situations, it is not an exaggeration to say that it had become one of the most important and most often used way that I employ my probability manipulation and as such it is also an aspect of my power that I have most experience in. What this means is that I have gotten very good at manipulating the chaotic motions of air molecules to create currents of air but this was the first time that I had used it in such a matter. The Atelli was humongous and as such already had a decent amount of air resistance on its body, I made all the air molecules move in such a way that every time he moved they just happened to be moving in the opposite direction making the air resistance acting on his body increase many fold. You might think that a force like air resistance would be inconsequential to a giant monster but it more than halved its speed , in the end it looked like it was trying to move through molasses but even with its speed halved it was still fast enough that it could have caught me very quickly if it wasn''t for the second part of my plan. Whenever the giant was moving it displaced a tremendous amount of air, I used the butterfly effect to magnify these disturbances and made them into gale force winds. What this means is that whenever the monster tried to catch me he would inadvertently cause a giant gust of wind that blew me away, I would then use my fans to create winds of my own so that I could control my ''flight'' . The best way to describe it was that it was like a child chasing a small dandelion with me being the dandelion. After a few minutes of our little game the monster had grown frustrated. It roared angrily and pointed its arm in my direction , its middle finger detached from the hand and turned into a stream of swirling light and darkness as it flew towards me. I tried to manipulate the air and dodge it but the attack was too unexpected and I was too slow. It only clipped my left shoulder but the force was strong enough to launch me spinning through the air, I landed on the waiting hands of the concrete pavement. I used my power to make sure I landed in such a way that I didn''t die but even after using my powers to get the best possible outcome I was severely injured and barely holding on to consciousness. I could feel my broken body tell my brain that it was too hurt and that it needed to shut down but I was a stubborn bitch so I told my body to suck it up and started to repair it as fast as I could. As I was mending my shattered bones, the monster had taken advantage of being free from the crippling air resistance and rushed towards me. I hadn''t even finished healing half of my body when a large foot started to descend on me, there was nothing I could do to escape. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Suddenly there was a giant explosion and the monster staggered backwards before its foot could squash me. A familiar voice started speaking behind me, "I guess that this makes us even." I turned to the direction the voice was coming from and there was Captain Stephenson holding a grenade launcher. "I thought I told you to run away." He smiled that crooked smile of his ," Yeah but that didn''t mean I had to listen, besides seeing that I just saved you from turning into a smear of blood I think a little gratitude is in order." I finished healing myself and got up as the captain rained another volley of grenades , "Thank you captain, by the way where is the military?" He reloaded his gun as he spoke, " At first they wouldn''t come because they didn''t believe us when we told them that there was a monster rampaging in the city but now they are having trouble getting heavy vehicles through populated areas. They have seen what this thing can do now so they are unwilling to condemn their soldiers by parachuting them in and the fools are also unwilling to drop high yield bombs near so many civilians. The only bright side is that choppers have been deployed and will get here any minute. By the way you are raven right?" I still had my black feather mask so I guess that made me raven, "Yeah, I''m raven." "Well raven, I didn''t come alone. I have someone here who says he is a friend of yours." Suddenly there was a golden glint in the sun making me turn in that direction. A golden man holding an oversized glowing golden sword almost as large as he was jumped so hard from the ground that the asphalt was obliterated, he jumped high enough to reach the monster''s face and slashed multiple times in rapid succession before gravity brought him down again. Adonis had decided to join the show. chapter seventy two - new tricks Chapter seventy two Adonis kept slashing at the monster and unlike everything else so far he was able to actually cut the giant monster with his glowing sword but even his large sword that was almost as big as he was didn''t hurt the monster that much, in fact it was almost like a paper cut than an injury to the gigantic monster. Although his attacks were ineffective I learned something important about the monster, at first I had thought that its whole body was hard and impenetrable, but the hard and impenetrable part was just a shell. Once when Adonis slashed its stomach I was able to get a glimpse into the behemoth and what I saw was a stream of light and darkness extending from its core to the shell but the inside was actually surprisingly hollow. A crazy idea was starting to form in my head, and as I was pondering how I was going to make my plan a reality the military choppers finally arrived giving Adonis a much needed break and some breathing space. He was finally able to retreat and headed in our direction as the choppers rained down hell on the monster. "Hey there Persephone, you took a nasty fall back there, are you okay?" "Never been better Mike, I''m good at bouncing back. Hey Mike, can you do me a favor? Can you do that thing where you make your weapons glow?" "Why?" "Just humor me." He took out a small knife and made it glow a bright golden. Under my soul sight I saw his soul sort of twitch and emit a rope of golden soul energy to the dagger. "Okay, turn it off and do it again." He looked bemused but he did as I instructed. I made him repeat the process several times and after I made sure that I knew how he did it I tried to do the same thing. At first I managed nothing more than to look constipated and give myself a headache but after several failed attempts I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, I was trying to imitate what he was doing exactly but we didn''t have the same souls so what worked for him wouldn''t work for me. Instead of trying to copy what he did I tried to adopt his method to my soul by modifying it slightly. I finally succeeded in creating the rope but instead of being golden it was a silvery blue in color. It wasn''t as bright as Mike''s but as I had a more powerful soul it was much more powerful, in fact it glowed less because it was more focused and thus didn''t waste as much energy by shedding light. It might have been less bright than Mike''s golden glow but when my fans were suddenly limned with bluish silver light it was definitely noticeable. Mike stood there in shock while I started to smile, the first part of my plan was successful and just in time too since the choppers had exhausted their payloads and were returning to their base. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Now for the second part, "Hey captain, may I borrow your grenade launcher?" He raised his eyebrow at me, "Do you know how to use one?" "I''m sure I can manage," the monster was headed in our direction again so I guess it was now or never. I turned towards Mike, "from what I have seen so far you are pretty strong so please throw me towards the hole in the monsters chest." Mike tilted his head quizzically, "What hole?" I used my newfound power to empower one of the ammunitions for the grenade launcher until it was glowing a silvery blue making it look radioactive, I loaded it into the grenade launcher and pointed it at the approaching monster as I answered Mike''s question ,"This hole." There was a blue streak from the grenade launcher and it hit the monster squarely on the chest, unlike the bullets before it the glowing bullet penetrated the hard shell before it exploded. The flames created by the explosion were also glowing silver blue and ate away at the hard crust of the monster making a giant hole. I jumped into Mike''s arms and shouted "Now!", to give him credit he reacted pretty quickly and threw me towards the hole. I coated my fans with the silver blue energy and streaked towards the monsters chest like the bullet I shot a few seconds ago. I entered the hole and further inside until I reached the core of the monster where I found what used to be the three headed Atelli. I used air currents to correct my trajectory and my fan headed for the last of the Atelli''s three heads which was the faceless one. Again a shield of light and darkness tried to block me but this time my fans which were glowing silver blue passed through the shield and cut the last head in two. The large monster immediately dissolved into motes of light and streams of darkness which then disappeared. As I was falling through the air with the dead body, the Atelli fragment tried to escape like usual but unlike other times instead of one fragment there were two. I made sure to shred both before I used my fans to create a wind that slowed down my descent. I didn''t bother doing the same thing for the dead body and some twisted part of me enjoyed seeing the bastard go splat on the asphalt. chapter seventy three - consequence Chapter seventy three A couple of hours had passed since the battle had ended. I was laying down on the couch in the living room of my house and using Delilah''s thighs as a pillow but there was nothing erotic about the situation. My eyes were red from hours of crying , I was shaking so bad that Delilah had covered me in a blanket. She was lightly stroking my hair as we saw the news on the television, the source of my grief. The final death count was five hundred and eleven people. Three hundred ninety nine men, ninety one women and twenty one children, all dead because I fucked up. I had talked to Mike about what had happened and he had informed me that the Atelli we had fought were unique among their kind, they were the only ones who were created as twins, they were known as Chelema and Mebrat , they were perfect compliments of each other and even though they were two different entities they couldn''t survive without each other. When they infect a soul they had to keep a balance between their duality and unity meaning that they had to maintain their individuality while still being able to effectively control their new body. They achieved this by making a three head system, one head for each individual Atelli and a third communal head mostly used to perform the most basic tasks. When I shot the two heads I had done the equivalent of removing its higher cognitive function turning it into a rampaging monster driven purely by instinct. And thanks to my actions over five hundred innocent people were dead including two members of the Oslo police force. I felt like there was a knife in my heart. The worst part was that a crazy camera man had snuck back into the danger zone during the fight and recorded the whole thing. Now everyone was declaring that we were some sort of superheroes and every time they showered us with praise I felt as if the knife in my heart was twisting deeper. A cellphone started to ring right next to my ear startling me, Delilah took it out of her pocket and picked it up. She had a whispered conversation then handed it over to me, "Kazimir wants to talk to you." I took the phone and screamed into it, "I KNOW I MESSED UP! I KNOW THAT THIS IS MY FAULT! PLEASE....PLEASE...just leave me alone." Kazimir''s voice wasn''t angry like I expected, in fact it was kinder and softer than I have ever heard it before,"I know this is hard for you Sophia, I know that it hurts and this isn''t the kind of pain you can heal away. I wish I could tell you that this isn''t your fault, I wish that I could just sweep this under the rug and pretend it didn''t happen but it did happen and you were responsible for all those deaths." "If you are trying to make me feel better you are doing a terrible job." Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. "Look it sucks, I know it sucks. Let me tell you a story, Back when I was still working for the KGB I was stationed in Iran. I was tracking a small time terrorist who we believed could lead us to the mastermind behind attempted attacks in southern Russia. In the end I had to choose between going after my main target or apprehending the small time terrorist who I knew was planning something. I decided to go for the bigger fish but the next day I found out that the man that I let escape had orchestrated an attack on a girl''s primary school. Because of my decision over eighty little girls had died. I was devastated but you know what I did? I went after the bastard and caught him before he could do it again. What I am trying to say is that this probably won''t be the last time innocent people will get harmed because of your fight with the Atelli but you have to consider the bigger picture. This monsters want to destroy the human race, that''s billions of lives. Its a tragedy that all of these people died today but if you mop around and do nothing you will be responsible for making the fate of the human race something worse than death." "Then what am I supposed to do?" "The only thing you can do, pick yourself up from the ground , brush yourself off and go to your next mission." That perked my interest a little,"What mission?" "There is a very important project being developed and tested in the Nevada desert by Fairweather tech. They are pouring a quarter of their budget into this project but they have been commissioned to do it for a measly sum of money, mere peanuts compared to what they are spending on it." "Who commissioned the project?" "The European Organization for Nuclear research." I cursed violently when I heard his answer,"So you are interested? I will have a private plane waiting for you at the Oslo airport in an hour, I have fixed all the problems with Delilah''s passport so everything is ready for your departure." Shit, this was probably something big. I got up from the couch and started to go to the toilet to take a shower. Before I was out of the room I turned to Delilah and threw her phone back to her, "Pack your stuff , we are leaving in half an hour." She looked confused at my sudden change in attitude , "Where are we going?" "Las Vegas." A.n. If any of you don''t mind graphic descriptions of gore and sex you could checkout my side project - the ravings of a lunatic http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6172 chapter seventy four - Vegas Baby! Chapter seventy four By the time we we made our final decent to the airport it was the middle of the day and the sun was shinning bright over the Las Vegas valley. We disembarked at the McCarran international airport after a thirteen hour long flight which was very long and boring but at least flying in a private jet was nice. Apparently the jet belonged to the oil company which was in turn owned by my adoptive grandfather who seemed to be only too happy to lend me the use of his own private plane. He even left a letter inside that said that he had only heard good things about me from Kazimir, the letter ended by stating his desire to meet me as soon as was convenient. I didn''t know how to feel about that, I had never met the man but he was trying to make a connection with me even though I am not really related to him by blood. He was not only my adoptive grandfather but also one of the richest men not only in Russia but also the entire world not to mention that as one of the oil oligarchs of Russia he has an inordinate amount of power and influence, if I was to associate myself with him I was probably going to get myself in a whole new heap of trouble and enemies but hey, its not like I''m a stranger to trouble and enemies, so I left a letter in the plane responding to his letter that stated that I would love to meet up in the near future. After we left the nice air conditioned confines of the private plane the first thing I noticed was the stifling heat. It was the middle of December and probably wasn''t as hot as it could have been but for a person who has spent her entire life in St Petersburg it felt like a freaking sauna to me. I quickly removed my grateful dead jacket so that I was just wearing my T-shirt with the ghost buster''s logo on it(oh the irony). Thankfully the trek from the place were the private jet landed to the airport building was short and we didn''t have to suffer the blistering heat of the tarmac and pavement for long. When we got into the airport and finished all the security procedures to enter the US we were received at the gate by a driver sent by the mirage hotel and casino where we had booked VIP rooms. The man helped me and Delilah with our luggage which wasn''t much since we left a lot of it in our hotel room in Oslo. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He drove us straight to the famous Las Vegas strip which was actually beyond Vegas city limits but nothing is more Vegas than the iconic hotels and casinos that we were passing from the slightly wacky circus that is actually modeled after a circus to the very Vegas interpretation of roman civilization, the Bellagio with its humongous fountain that looked more like a lake, to the sphinx of the Luxor hotel and the Arthurian based Excalibur, the Vegas strip was an eclectic mix of themes and appropriated foreign cultures that in the end make it uniquely Vegas. And nothing was more Vegas than the Mirage hotel and casino which was built with a Polynesian theme. There was a humongous marquee declaring the name of the hotel which is actually the largest free standing marquee in the world, as if anybody could miss the giant building which was glinting golden in the sun thanks to genuine gold dust that was used to tint the windows. The Mirage hotel was the epitome of what Vegas was, it is large , shiny and most importantly of all it was expensive. We quickly checked in to the hotel, unlike the debacle in Oslo nobody was looking down at us or judging us because of our grungy style, we were far from the most eccentric people in the lobby so we didn''t even attract any attention. Our room was everything you would expect from one of the best rooms of one of the best hotels in Vegas, hell it was more like a house than a hotel room but I didn''t get to see much of it , I was absolutely exhausted because of the long flight and passed out on the bed. It was probably for the best anyways, if I sleep now I can be nice and rested by the time nighttime arrives which is when the action really starts . I had a fake ID that says that I am twenty one in the middle of the city of sin, when I wake up I am going to have some fun. chapter seventy five - the in-law Chapter seventy five I was violently woken up when Delilah jumped on me performing a classic body slam that knocked the breath out of me, I was still tired from the flight so I didn''t even open my eyes as I said,"Delilah dear, why are you practicing your wrestling moves on me while I am sleeping?" She started to shake me violently while squealing, "Get up! Get up! She called me! She actually called me using our hotel room phone! She is here! She wants to meet up and is sending a car over! I can''t believe that she is actually here! Why are you still sleeping?" I opened one eye lazily to see the flustered Delilah who was was glowing red with excitement which is a very impressive achievement when your natural skin color is red. Her wings were opening and closing like she was an agitated bird and most important of all she was laying on top of me and bouncing up and down, "You are going to have to slow down sweety, first would you please explain what happened to you to make you so excited?" "She called me! She is here and wants to meet up!" Whatever was happening had apparently scrambled her mind a little,"You already said that pumpkin, who called you?" She finally stopped bouncing," Why do you keep calling me weird names?" "What do you mean cupcake?" She looked at me suspiciously, "Are you making fun of me?" "What would give you that idea sugarplum?" She continued her bouncing,"Well I don''t even care about that, she called!" I was finally annoyed and tired enough to shout, "WHO CALLED?" Delilah leaned down and kissed me , "You are so cute when you are angry." "JUST FREAKING TELL ME BEFORE I ORDER YOU TO!" "Fine , fine. Since you asked so nicely, big sister called me!" "Wait a minute, you have a sister?" "Well technically no but all succubi call her big sister, as you can imagine hell isn''t a very decent place and since succubi aren''t exactly known for their strengths other demons try to take advantage of us, well at least they did until she taught us how to handle ourselves. She sort of took everybody under her wings so all the succubi look at her as an older sister. She disappeared more than sixty years ago and we never knew what happened to her. Now get up and get dressed, you have to wear something nice to meet her." Why did I suddenly feel like I was going to meet my girlfriend''s parents? The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. * * * Delilah forced me to wear a sundress with a ridiculously plunging neckline that nearly made it to my bellybutton and ridiculously high heels to go along with it. She insisted on doing my makeup and hair and when she was done she stood me up in front of a full length mirror and asked,"So what do you think?" I looked myself over critically and I was not impressed , "I look like a prostitute." She looked offended that I would say that, "No you do not, you look hot!" "Oh really, then let''s make a bet. I bet that before the day is through I''m going to get an offer to get paid for sex, if I win I can call you whatever I want when I feel like it, if you win I will be your slave for a day, deal?" She pounced on the offer eagerly. We didn''t even leave the lobby of our hotel before she lost the bet. Outside a car was waiting for us just like Delilah said it would. It took us to one of the most iconic locations in Vegas history, the Flamingo. We arrived at the slightly older building with the large pink and orange ornament on it that reminded me of a mutated Christmas ball ornament. We were quickly ushered through a side door and after going through several hallways arrived at a door, a very thick door. I was getting very suspicious of the whole thing so I palmed my fans and stayed alert , it was a good thing I did too . Right after we had been ushered into the room the thick door was closed behind us and I heard a gunshot going off. I rolled forward on instinct and the bullet meant for my heart grazed my back instead. I quickly healed myself and turned in the direction where the shot had come from, there I saw a gun floating in midair without anybody supporting it. I immediately used soul sight to scan the area and finally saw the culprit behind the attempted murder. It was a woman similar to Delilah except that her face looked different, if Delilah looked like an Arabian beauty this woman looked more Polynesian. There were other differences too, her horns weren''t small and dainty , they were large and looked almost like a crown on her head. There were golden tattoos allover her body and her wings also had golden veins running through them. I was assuming this was the ''big sister'' Delilah was talking about, but why was she trying to kill me? chapter seventy six - shocking development Chapter seventy six Well big sister or not I was not just going to stand here and let her shoot me full of bullets. I rolled towards her, dodging another bullet in the process. When I got close enough I saw that she wasn''t actually using invisibility per say, she was just mimicking the color of the wall behind her like a chameleon. I got close enough to slice her gun in half but I wasn''t going to underestimate this opponent, I went behind her and cut the muscles in her back that control her wings while at the same time I severed her Achilles'' tendon and pulled her backwards making her fall in that direction. To finish up I used my folded fans like batons and hit nerve clusters near her shoulders temporarily paralyzing her arms. In the end she fell on the ground completely incapacitated with the sharp end of my fan a few inches from her neck. Her camouflage slowly faded revealing the terrified succubus who was now in a very sorry state. Delilah quickly rushed over to her and cradled her head on her lap, "Lilith why did you attack Sophia?" She looked up at Delilah with a confused look on her face," Isn''t it obvious? I wanted to set you free! Why are you acting like I''m crazy because I tried to kill this warlock." I cleared my throat, "I''m not a warlock." She turned her head to me, "What do you mean you are not a warlock? You summoned her didn''t you? You are her master aren''t you?" "Nope, I didn''t summon her but I am her master." "So she is your slave! You probably make her do whatever you want against her will!" "I wish! I try not to give her direct orders, as for the rest of the time I''m lucky if she listens to me half the time." Delilah lightly flicked her nose and said, "Sophia isn''t one of those accursed summoners , I pledged my service to her willingly and I have never regretted it for a single moment." It took a while for that statement to sink in and Delilah had to rephrase it in several times before she finally understood that she had made a mistake,"I''m sorry , I jumped to conclusions and almost did something unforgivable but I guess I paid the price for it didn''t I?" Delilah looked at me imploringly with puppy eyes, "Please Sophia, Pretty please with sugar on top." I knew what she was asking but I wasn''t sure it was a wise thing to do, "Are you sure we can trust her?" Delilah rapidly nodded,"She is the most trustworthy person I know, she would rather die than betray a friend." "We''re not exactly friends, she just tried to shoot me a few minutes ago." "That was just a misunderstanding, I''m sure once you get to know each other you''ll be the best of friends, I mean we met when you nearly shot me and we''re friends." You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. I guess that was true, "Fine, but if she betrays my secret I''m going to break her and you know how serious I am when I say that, are you still sure I should do this?" Delilah just kept nodding. The woman, I think her name was Lilith, was turning from me to Delilah as if she was following a tennis match, "What are you talking about?" I extended my hand towards her, "This." Her eyes turned as wide as saucers as all of her injuries suddenly vanished. She gingerly stood up and started to tentatively stretch her wings, she slowly discovered that she was completely healed. She turned to me with her eyes literally aflame with curiosity(succubi have dark eyes with flames in the center instead of irises) , "How did you do that?" "No offense but that is need to know information and you don''t need to know. I don''t know you and I don''t trust you, I am cutting you some slack because of Delilah, hell the only reason you are still alive is thanks to Delilah. Next time you act against me directly or indirectly I will go for the kill. I would suggest that you don''t ask any questions about me , I will not answer them and Delilah I order you to not reveal anything about me to this woman." Delilah seemed surprised by my order, I rarely gave her any direct orders so she knew I was serious when I did, "Aren''t you being a bit harsh?" I pulled Delilah closer so that Lilith couldn''t hear our conversation, "I don''t like her Delilah, are you sure she is the person you think she is?" "Is it the whole shooting thing? She was just trying to do the right thing and set me free from what she thought was slavery, she had good intentions." I fidgeted a little because she had a point, "I know that but something about her just pisses me off, the less we have to do with her the better I will feel." She looked and slowly a smile crept on her face , "You''re jealous!" I was gobsmacked, I have never been jealous in my entire life but then again I''ve never had a relationship that lasted as long as this one has either. She started to giggle , "That is so sweet! You care enough that you are jealous!" I tried to deny it but I could feel irrational hatred boiling towards Lilith for no reason at all, was I truly that emotionally invested in my relationship with Delilah? Does this mean I was in a committed relationship? Holy crap, I was in a committed relationship... A.n. Happy easter for y''all of the christian orthodox faith chapter seventy seven - fox in the hen house Chapter seventy seven Lilith showed us around the flamingo and a few other hotels where she had set up ''her girls''. Apparently she had organized most of the prostitutes in Vegas and most high class institutions only allow prostitutes from her organization to enter their establishments. As we went from hotel to hotel we met some of her employees which included a few succubi which she had ''liberated'' from warlocks. While she was giving us a tour of Vegas I noticed something strange, all the succubi we met were not alone. They had at least one bodyguard with them, in fact there were three rather large men following us around as well. When I remarked on this fact Lilith''s eyes became hard , her nostrils flared and her lips turned into a thin line, "There is a warlock running around trying to enslave some of the girls so I''ve had to hire some muscle as protection. It worked for a while but ever since he got a hold of Mammon he had people helping him too. I''ve lost three girls to him this week, you should probably watch your back too." Delilah looked at me imploringly with big puppy dog eyes again. I raised my hands up in surrender, "Fine , we''ll help but we''re only doing this if it takes only a day or two. We are here for a reason, keep that in mind Delilah." She seemed happy with that but Lilith just looked confused, "What are you two talking about now?" I answered her question, "I have decided to help you with your warlock problem but first can you tell me where to find him?" She shook her head, "If it was that simple I would have hired someone to kill him myself but since he''s had Mammon under his thumb he is hiding out with Mammon''s staff protecting him." Delilah cut in, "How did Mammon get here? Better yet how did you get here? When the two of you disappeared a war nearly broke out among the princes, Lucifer himself had to put his foot down before things calmed down." "It all started with Bugsy Siegel, he was a rather famous Jewish gangster , you probably have already heard of him but what you probably don''t know about him is that he was also a gifted warlock. He came to Vegas and built the flamingo but it was initially losing money so in an act of desperation he attempted to summon two princes of hell who he believed would help him with his endeavor, Asmodeus prince of lust and Mammon prince of greed. He was successfully able to summon Mammon but he failed miserably with Asmodeus since he didn''t have sufficient sacrifice, instead he summoned me. By the time he finished the ritual he had used up so much power that he wasn''t able to properly bind us so naturally we eviscerated him and took over Vegas. I took over the Flamingo but Mammon established several companies which now run most of the hotels and casinos in Vegas. He spends most of his time in the Caligula and now this warlock has somehow gotten to him and always stays close to him where it is hard to get to him." Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I started to get the inklings of a plan, "You say that Mammon is the prince of greed?" "Yes." An evil smile crept onto my face, "I think I know how to get close to him and by doing so get close to the warlock." * * * I entered the Caligula casino dressed to the nines in an expensive gown which was designed by a French man whose name I couldn''t pronounce let alone remember. I had my Persephone persona on and thanks to one of Lilith''s staff members I had the appropriate spiky black hair and professional makeup. I walked straight up to the place where they hand out chips and had my ID and credit checked. My ID was a fake one that was linked to my account so it was all good. In the end he asked me how many chips I wanted, I asked him that I was going to start with a single thousand dollar chip. I took the small chip and headed straight to the roulette table , in a single game I multiplied my single chip into thirty six chips. I went from table to table, never lingering for long but always leaving with more money than I had when I arrived. At one point the staff had to get me a small tray to carry my winnings even though all my chips had been converted to higher denominations. I finally arrived at the high stakes tables. I sat down on a poker table with what looked like a man in a tux who looked like he had delusions of being James Bond, an older gentleman with a cowboy hat and a bolo tie, a woman who had so much jewelry that I was surprised she was even able to sit up and a Chinese man in a polo shirt , shorts and flip flops looking totally out of place among everybody else. I had just sat down at the table when another man took a seat next to me and said, "You''ve been having quite the lucky streak haven''t you Ms Heidi ?"(that''s what my fake ID said) I turned around and came face to face with a man who had a very handsome Latino face that went along with his Italian accent, "What can I say, its my lucky night." On the outside he might look like the Italian man straight out of a romance novel cover page but I could see beneath that mask to the desiccated old man with sharp pointy horns and cloven feet, to be honest he looked more like a satyr than a demon but there was no mistake, he was the reason I was fleecing the casino of its money so blatantly, although it was quite enjoyable the main reason I was doing this was to attract his attention. And Mammon had taken the bait. A.n. I''m sorry for today but things are hectic in my house and I doubt I can get another chapter out. Easter is sort of like thanksgiving here, except instead of one meal we sort of eat all day while celebrating with family. chapter seventy eight - bad goat Chapter seventy eight We continued to make light conversation as we played the game, the other players would change periodically but we remained seated , playing poker at the same table. I would lose now and then just to keep things interesting and Mammon who claimed that his name was Tony would invariably win the games that I lost on purpose. Slowly a mountain of chips started to pile up in front of me while the pile in front of ''Tony'' started to dwindle until it disappeared. He got up then leaned over me smothering me in his cologne ,"Well that is it for me, as much as I would like to sit next to such a beautiful signorina as long as possible it appears that I have run out of capital to do so. If you would like to continue our conversation elsewhere I know a special place in the back that is very private." I tried not to gag at his suggestive tone but I couldn''t help but throw up just a little bit in my mouth. I tried to smile at him as I replied,"Sure, I''ll just deposit my chips and join you if you are willing to wait." "No problem, in fact I''ll escort you to the counter myself." He then led me to the counter where all my chips were deposited into my account. He then led me to a door that said employees only. We went down several flights of stairs until we arrived at a room decorated with thick rugs and ornate light fixtures. There were stuffed leather sofas, basically it looked like a Victorian sitting room which was out of place several floors underground. Inside was a thin man that looked about twenty years old wearing a hoodie over his long greasy black hair. He looked pale and combined with his dark clothing and piercings he looked like a classic goth. I used soul sight to scan him and I saw that he had black strands radiating from him like very small very delicate spider webs, in addition to those there were seven glowing strands originating from him and going to the wall on the right, I guess that I found my warlock meaning I have also found my target. I quickly took out my fans and unfurled them , I jumped towards the apathetic looking warlock and ended his life by slicing his neck and severing his neck cleanly before he even realized what was going on. I quickly rolled away from the decapitated body before blood could spray on me and turned to the shocked and confused Mammon and said, "I''m sorry about all the cloak and dagger, I''m a friend of one of your colleagues, Lilith. She sent me here to free you and some of her girls from this warlock." "Lilith hired you?" "Yes. Now that he''s dead you''re going to be fine right?" He nodded dumbly, that was all I needed to know from him and I didn''t question him any further, my true objective was to release the succubi now that the warlock was dead. I headed towards the door on the right wall where the slowly dissipating glowing lines from the dead warlock led. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. There was something nagging at me from the back of my mind and seeing those glowing strands growing out from the warlock''s dead body made me realize what it was, when Delilah was bound she had that same glowing rope connected to a collar made out of symbols on her neck but Mammon had absolutely nothing around his neck or any other part of his body, Lilith had said he was bound and the warlock had been sitting right here with earphones stuffed in his ear but there was no glowing strand leading from the warlock to Mammon. Something was very wrong with this picture. I turned around just in time to duck a cloven foot that had probably had enough power to smash my head into pieces. I used my duck to generate some spin which I used to cut off the cloven foot that was now suspended over my head at the knee. I continued my spin while crouching even lower and took Mammon''s other leg at the knee making him fall down on his back with nothing but stumps where his legs used to be. "That was uncalled for Mammon, why did you just try to kill someone who came here to help you remove your warlock problem , unless of course the warlock wasn''t a problem. You were behind the whole thing weren''t you?" The old demon was panting heavily as he answered, "I own Vegas, I made it what it is! Every cent spent here should go to me but that whore Lilith had organized the prostitutes and started making money, money that should have been going to me! I tried to take back the business several times but she refused to be bought out and thanks to her succubi any rival organization I made was doomed to fail so I decided to hire a warlock to get the succubi for me." "Why are you confessing so easily?" His eyes suddenly locked onto mine and I was sucked into his slitted goat like pupils, I could see images of money , fast sports cars and countless beautiful women dancing around in the depth of his eyes, his voice was hypnotically soft as he spoke, "I will pay you ten times what Lilith is paying you and I will fulfill your wildest desires. I will give you all that you could ever want , just let me go and kill Lilith instead." Did he really think that he could use the Jedi mind trick on me? I walked over to the demon and quickly decapitated him too. Good riddance to bad goats. A.n. there , I somehow managed another chapter. Sorry if the quality is below par, I wrote it while I was sent out to buy some beer. chapter seventy nine - Sophia and the seven...succubi Chapter seventy nine The old wooden door set in the wall of the Victorian looking sitting room was locked but a slash from one of my fans was enough to sever the locking mechanism making it open slowly , the old and rusty hinges squealed like tortured pigs as the door swung ajar killing any chance of stealth I might have had but thankfully there was nothing on the other side that could harm me. I carefully scanned the dark room with my soul sight revealing the seven succubi who were being kept prisoner. Their souls had grown weak and the light that they were emitting had grown so faint that I could barely see them even with my soul sight. I searched the wall until I found the switch to the light in the room which was only a single bulb that was hanging from an exposed wire. It lit up exposing a bare concrete room that contained small metal cages that were holding the succubi inside. They looked quite wretched confined in the small cage, unable to lie down or even stretch a little. Their wings were in tatters and their tails had been removed leaving behind a gaping wound at the back of their spine in addition to several other small injuries that covered their entire bodies. The succubi had grown so weak that they were not even using their ability to look human so I could see clearly how gaunt they looked. Their movements were sluggish and feeble, each small change in position usually causing some wound to rub against the metal bars of the excessively small cage making them release a tiny hiss of pain. The fire that usually burned within a succubus''s dark eyes were nearly extinguished leaving behind nothing but a feeble spark. As I was witnessing the horror of what had been done, an anemic voice which I could barely hear spoke from one of the cages, "We aren''t going to give you our true name Slade, you might have bound us but you do not own us. We will never betray Lilith...you might as well just kill us." I run towards the cages and quickly cut through the bars , setting the succubi free. The tired succubi tried to lie down on the ground but with their whole bodies covered in wounds they were unable to do so. I wanted to heal them but their souls barely had any energy left, I didn''t know what would happen if I attempted to heal them and it sapped what little remained of their energy. There was only one thing I could think of to help, I leaned over each one and gave them a deep lingering kiss on their lips. They didn''t look very appealing with their wasted and tortured appearance but I closed my eyes and imagined what they would look like if they weren''t hurt and kissed their lips with as much passion and lust as I could muster, I could feel the lips I was kissing slowly turn from chapped and clammy to soft and warm as the weak succubi were revitalized by the new influx of energy I was providing them using the kiss. By the end of each kiss the fire in each succubuses eyes had turned into bonfires and they were responding furiously to my kiss. Their souls were glowing bright pink and were strong enough that I healed them of all their injuries. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I pulled back from the last succubus who let go of me reluctantly and looked around at my handiwork. Were previously there had been seven frail succubi with debilitating injuries now there were seven healthy succubi which all looked alluring and beautiful. I spoke up loud enough so that all of them who looked a little dazed could hear me, "Hello, my name is Sophia and I was sent here by Lilith to rescue you. The warlock binding you is dead and I have healed you but to do that I had to kiss you, I''m sorry if that offended or embarrassed any of you." One of the succubi raised her hands as if we were in a classroom, "Hey I don''t feel quite healed enough , can you do that again?" The succubus behind her smacked her in the head, "Stop joking around, we all have enough juice to last us for days if we don''t overuse our powers." The first succubus rubbed her head where the second one had hit her while pouting her already pouty lips, "Ouch, that hurt! You didn''t need to hit me just because I wanted another kiss, besides everybody is thinking about it, I was just the one to say it out loud." The second succubus threw an apologetic look my way, "I''m sorry about her behavior, Lucy has always been a bit of a free spirit," she turned to Lucy and said,"have you ever considered that she doesn''t want to kiss you back?" Lucy looked confused as she answered, "No, why wouldn''t she want to kiss me back? I''m hot!" The second succubus just gave a long suffering sigh and turned back towards me , "Hello I''m Martha, thank you for saving us. As I''ve already said this is Lucy, next to her is Jasmine , Pepper , Dorothy , Kelly, and Nancy." All the succubi were beautiful but each was subtly different. For example Martha gave off a mature and responsible vibe while Lucy gave off a carefree attitude. Jasmine was the most voluptuous(that was saying something among the always gifted succubi) Pepper was the tallest and looked delicate, Dorothy the smallest and cutest, Kelly was the only succubus I have ever seen with short hair and Nancy looked reserved even while she was standing there naked. I greeted each succubus and asked them to transform into their human forms so that we could escape unnoticed. I walked out of the Caligula with seven beautiful women. One , a blond, clung affectionately to my arm while another one who looked like a stern secretary tried to pry her off me, repeatedly apologizing for her inappropriate behavior. I didn''t really mind. chapter eighty - first orgy Chapter eighty We arrived back at the Flamingo in a limo that Lilith had sent for us. We were greeted by a large welcoming party mostly consisting of succubi. As soon as we left the limo we were all dragged into a large banquet hall that had been decorated for a party. Lilith personally welcomed all seven girls and asked to speak to me privately. She pulled me aside to a quiet corner of the room, "First of all thank you for saving the girls. I am forever in your dept but I have to ask what happened? You are wearing Mammon''s prized watch and Lucy nearly cried when we separated her from you." I told her a short version of what happened. As for the watch, I was leaving the prison with the girls when I saw that Mammon''s body had vanished. When I looked closer to see what happened all I found was what remained of his tattered suit and this watch. I took it because it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It was a Rolex made entirely of gems. The cogs , the band , and all of the pieces were made out of highly polished and appropriately cut diamonds. The numbers were made out of bright green emeralds and the arrows were strips of sparkling red rubies. It must have been the most expensive watch in the world and I couldn''t just leave it laying on the ground so I appropriated it. As I was admiring my new watch Lilith was digesting the news that Mammon wasn''t the friend she thought he was ,"Well I guess it isn''t that surprising that the prince of greed got greedy. But there is one thing I don''t understand, why did Lucy and the other girls, although they tried to hide it, act so attached to you? I know that you saved them but this seemed more than just gratitude." Delilah bounded over from wherever she had been hiding all this time and gave me a welcome kiss that managed to curl my toes," I know why, its because she is the best treat a succubus could have." She then leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear, "I''m sorry I didn''t meet you at the door like everybody else but I was a bit busy talking to Kazimir." I smiled at her and said, "That''s alright. So what did Kaz have to say?" "Surprisingly little, he is having trouble finding the exact location of Fairweather tech''s testing facility." Well that sucked, I couldn''t really do anything unless I had that information. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I was lost in thought wondering what I should do next when I heard Lilith ask Delilah what she meant by her earlier remark but Delilah just smiled slyly and said, "Why don''t you kiss her and find out?" I was a little distracted so I couldn''t really react when Lilith grabbed my face and put her lips against mine. After that I sort of went on automatic before I could put conscious thought into it and grabbed her waist to pull her closer. Before I knew it I was kissing Lilith as hard as she was kissing me. I eventually managed to extricate myself from her leaving her breathless and flustered, she turned to Delilah and said, "That was just from a kiss? What the hell?" Delilah giggled , "Yeah I know, she is like catnip for succubi. I don''t even have sex with her unless I have substantial amount of time to recover from the power high." I interrupted them , "What just happened?" Delilah looked at me in confusion, "I asked Lilith to have a taste of you." I was starting to feel like I was missing something obvious, "And you''re OK with that?" She smiled as if finally understanding my question, "A few days ago I probably would have guarded you jealously but now that I know that you care about me I''m not worried anymore." "Wait, are you saying what I think you are saying? Because you know that I want to keep you to myself and it doesn''t seem fair that I am free to sleep around." "Look I now know that you aren''t going to leave me and you are enough for me, more than enough really, in fact after being with you I don''t think I can even enjoy being with anybody else, so my proposal is that you can indulge yourself now and then without pissing me off. Of course if you start neglecting me I will be super upset and you shall face my wrath but otherwise you can have fun." Lilith quickly said, "I am available if you want to indulge right now." Lucy suddenly appeared out of nowhere and said, "Me too." The six other girls I rescued were behind her trying to look inconspicuous while at the same time trying to catch my eye. Eventually the welcome home party turned into a massive orgy. I guess that wasn''t that surprising considering that the room was filled with gorgeous sex demons. chapter eighty one - 3-in-1 A.n. I''m sorry for the late release but we didn''t have electricity for the past one and a half days and I used the last of my charge on the ravings of a lunatic, the electricity is back so I''m posting again. Let it never be said that I don''t care about my readers, to make up for the missed chapters I have written this extra large chapter. On a brighter note, happy birthday to me! :) Chapter eighty one I woke up surrounded by a sea of naked red bodies. I was about to remove myself from the bottom of a mini mountain of succubi that seemed to have formed around me when I remembered that I had nothing to do. Kazimir had hit a dead end in his investigation so I had no idea were to find Fairweather Tech or the Atelli meaning that I have no way of moving forward with my mission, its not like I can drive around the Nevada desert asking directions to secret underground testing facilities. I was just laying there on a banquet table considering my next move when I noticed that I wasn''t the only one awake, I turned to find Lilith''s eyes gazing at me with interest,"What are you so worried about? If you need help with anything just ask." I considered the pros and cons of the situation, if I ask her for help she might figure out all three of my identities, I''m pretty sure she already made the connection between me and the lady of mercy but if I do this she''ll know that I''m looking for Fairweather and that might be enough information for her to know that I''m also Persephone or as I am more commonly known in the media, Raven. In the end I guess it was a matter of whether I was willing to take the risk or not and in the end I decided that if the Atelli were putting so much effort into keeping it hidden then it was probably very important to them, making it equally important that I stop them so I decided to take the risk and just ask her if she had any information on Fairweather tech''s activities in Vegas, I was not really expecting much but I was surprised when she got up and dragged me out from under the pile of bodies and led me to a room without so much as an explanation. The room looked like a professional office that was invaded by purple velvet and cushions. She sat me down on a love seat in one corner of the room and went to the large redwood desk. She picked up the phone there and started to dial some numbers, fifteen minutes later she had apparently found something because she called me over with a giant smile on her face. She handed me the phone and said, "This is Alice, one of the girls I manage. One of her frequent customers is a certain Corporal Damian. I believe you should hear what she has to say." For the next twenty minutes I listened to Alice regale me with her activities with the corporal , she seemed to take great joy in giving me all the sordid and unnecessary details of her affairs with the corporal but in the end I got the complete story out of her. The gist of the story was that the corporal was the aid of a General MacIntyre who was in charge of many facilities around the country including a decommissioned underground nuclear testing facility in the middle of Nevada. The General had the bright idea of making a few million bucks by swindling Uncle Sam and illegally sold said bunker to Fairweather Tech. The sudden wind fall of money didn''t only benefit the General but also the Corporal who was only too happy to spend some money on Alice, afterwards he even bragged about how he got the money in an effort to impress her. A few days later both the general and most of his closest aids including the corporal went to Helsinki Finland to finalize the deal after which the corporal stopped visiting Alice. She asked around about him and found that he was back in the Las Vegas Air Force Station but she also heard that the general and his aides were acting a little strange. That was all I needed to know, if my guess was correct then the General and all his aides were now Atelli and I could probably find the place where the Atelli are holed up in the Las Vegas Air Force Station. * * * About three hours later I was driving a car loaned to me by Lilith , an old beat up Toyota Camry, towards the Las Vegas Air Force Station. Entering the L.V.A.F.S. wasn''t going to be a walk in the park, it wasn''t just a normal military installation but also a part of Air Defense Command and as if that wasn''t enough it was also housed a facility that belonged to the department of energy , formerly the atomic energy commission. What this means is that the place would be locked up tighter than a drum. As I approached the chain link fence I put on my Raven mask in case there were any cameras in the area and holstered two pistols that Lilith was kind enough to provide. I drove the Camry until it was right next to the fence and left it there after taking out a duffle bag. I walked over to a close by shrub and changed into an air force uniform complete with hat (do I need to say it? Also supplied by Lilith). When I was nice and ready I took out a remote control and pressed a button on it causing all the explosives that the Camry was filled with.The Camry exploded into a giant ball of flames that made a sizeable hole in the fence. Immediately the place was swarming with soldiers and I sort of slipped in using the confusion. As I was passing one of the female soldiers I picked her pocket for her ID and continued on my way to the building where the office of the general resides. I used my stolen ID on the ID scanner to get inside. Once inside I used the elevator to go to the top floor where the general''s office was. There I was stopped by a guard who asked me what my business with the general was, he was just a normal human so I quickly knocked him out without hurting him too much. I peered into the room inside and it was filled with nothing but Atelli, thankfully all of them looked weak and humanoid except for things like sharp teeth and extra appendages. I took out two silencers from my pocket and put them on my pistols. I walked into the room and quickly shot each Atelli in the head before they even had the chance to react. I walked to the only other door in the room while reloading my guns in the process. I opened the door and there was the general in all his glory, the Atelli transformation had turned him into a giant slug that was eerily similar to Jabba the hutt from star wars. I ended his miserable existence with a bullet to his brain. I approached his computer and tried to open it but it asked me for a password. I then used my most diabolical hacking method on it, I closed my eyes and typed random letters. Since what I was typing was completely random it was now subject to my probability manipulation powers and voila , the computer was opened. I inserted a special flash given to me by Kazimir which quickly downloaded all the information in the computer to a secure server where I can access it again at a later time. I locked the doors as I exited the generals office, then calmly walked out of the base with my hat still angled low so that my face wasn''t visible. A few meters up the road Delilah was waiting for me leaning on a beautiful poison green Dodge Viper. When I was close enough she threw me the keys and got into the passenger side. It was time to see what this baby can do. * * * Kazimir sifted through all the data in the general''s computer and came up with not only the location for the secret underground testing facility but also the schematics for it. I drove to the location of the facility in a van carrying as many large caliber guns and heavy weaponry as Lilith could get me, which turned out to be a lot. Gun laws in America were very lax and so getting military grade equipment on the black market was surprisingly easy if you knew the right people and Lilith knew the right people. I parked near the hidden entrance of the facility and got out of the van. I walked to the back ,opened the back doors , and started to go through all the guns to choose which one I was going to use today. I was inspecting a modified M16 with a grenade launcher when I felt a sting on my arm and smacked whatever insect had stung me. I looked down at my arm and I saw the crushed remains of a hornet. What was the hell was a hornet doing in the middle of the desert? My suspicions were raised further when another insect bit me , this time a spider, then another insect stung me, then another... I was constantly healing myself from the stings while I turned my soul sight on and just as I suspected the insects weren''t natural, they were more like body parts of a larger organism, an Atelli who was nothing but a large swarm of insects. I picked up one of the weapons from the van that would be perfect for this job. I put the gas tanks on my back like a school bag and pointed the nozzle of the flame thrower towards the main body of the Atelli. While the flames were spraying out I empowered them with my energy turning them into silver blue plumes that were beautiful just as they were deadly. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Most of the insects were incinerated in the blue silver blaze but the Atelli wasn''t dead yet. He concentrated all of his soul into one small silver ant that the heat was having little effect on and tried to escape. I picked up a pistol and shot the ant before it could scamper away. I then shredded the escaping Atelli''s soul marking the death of this particular Atelli but now the other Atelli knew that I was coming. And just like I suspected a group of Atelli came rushing out of a door hidden beneath a formation of rocks. I dropped the now empty flame thrower and picked up the M16 I was eyeing earlier. A shot from the grenade launcher took care of one that looked like a vortex of cotton candy, if cotton candy was filled with razor blades and another one that looked like a giant snake. Before I could do anymore an Atelli that looked like a giant mutant armadillo rolled into a ball, his weird armor started to rotate at a high rate of speed , spraying sand backwards and accelerating him rapidly in my direction. I was just able to get out of his way but he hit the van overturning it. I finally took out my fans and not only hardened them but empowered them with my energy making them glow blue silver. I ducked again from the giant ball of death that was coming towards me and lunged towards an Atelli that had floating pieces of metal around it. I deflected a jagged piece that was floating towards me and used my other fan to cut through to the center were a small ball of metal resided. When I cut that small ball all the other pieces fell from the air and the Atelli perished . As the self propelling ball made another run at me I rolled to its right and cut a small piece of its armor so that it was jagged and sharp. The Atelli,unaware of what I had done continued to spin causing the jagged piece to shred him into pieces before he could stop. What remained of the spinning monstrosity landed among a group of Atelli in a violent jumble of dismembered limbs and splattering fluids. What was left of the Atelli was disorganized and demoralized, I gradually mowed them down until they were all dead. After i finished off the last one, decapitating something that looked like a teddy bear slinging barbed wire, I walked over to the hidden entrance and made my way down the hole. As i made my way down the ladder into the darkness below i couldn''t help but think about one of my favorite books as a child, Alice in wonderland. I couldn''t help but wonder where this rabbit hole would lead me, I doubt it would be anything as fun as a rabbit in a top hat. * * * At first the difference between the bright sunshine outside and the pitch darkness in the hole was quite jarring but as my eyes gradually adjusted I was eventually able to make out some light coming from the bottom of the ladder. When I got to the bottom I could see that the light was coming from a line of florescent tubes that was lighting a circular tunnel that branched off a few meters ahead of me. The underground facility was actually a rather complex network of tunnels that was almost like a maze. It could have taken me a while to navigate the complex which was nicknamed ''the ant farm'' but I had the schematics and I had a feeling that whatever I wanted was at the very heart of the facility, where the main control center of the entire facility was located. I made my way through the facility, alert for ambushes or traps but there was nothing. The only things moving in the concrete tunnels other than me were the video cameras that wirred as they rotated to follow my every move, I was being watched and even though I was wearing my mask and my identity was hidden it still made me feel very unsettled. Finally I made it to the control center without any resistance which only raised my suspicions even higher. When I found that the thick metal door wasn''t even locked I nearly just turned around and walked away but a voice coming from inside stopped me, "Ms Persephone it is very rude to break into other people''s property not to mention murder their employees. If you really wanted to see what was inside this facility so badly all you had to do was ask, I would have been happy to give you the grand tour." I knew that smug annoying slimy voice, I have only heard it twice before but it wasn''t the kind of thing that you would forget. "You don''t have to linger at the door way Ms Persephone, there are no traps deadly or otherwise in this room, scout''s honor. Or are you just shy, I mean you couldn''t be shy could you? The way you managed to ruin my plans and do it so publicly, no one so shy could get so much publicity." I knew that faux polite tone with an undercurrent of violence bubbling underneath. I knew Tue voice of my number one target. I burst into the room fans drawn and glowing brightly and came face to face with Marcus Fairweather. He stretched his thin lips into that smug smile of his and said, "You look disappointed, you didn''t honestly think that I was really there did you?" The face that I was looking at wasn''t a physical face but one on a screen. He continued to speak, "Now that you have arrived we can start, I have something very special lined up for today and I couldn''t think of a better person I would have liked to share this moment with than you. It is fate that you decided to attack this facility on this day at this time so that we can share this moment . I would like to direct your attention to the screen to my right where a countdown timer should appear shortly." A five minute countdown appeared and started to countdown on one of the many screens that covered the wall in front of me,"So that is your plot, some sort of self destruct mechanism?" "Unfortunately that facility didn''t come with a self destruct mechanism plus if I wanted to do that I would have closed the door behind you. No this countdown is for something much more special, a completely unique event if you will. I would like to direct your attention to the screen on my left." An image of a couple of people in lab coats working on computers in a large room appeared, I was starting to get a bad feeling about this, "What is this supposed to be?" His smug grin grew even bigger, it grew so big that it threatened to bisect his face ,"This is the European Organization for Nuclear Research an organization better known as CERN . As you probably know we were commissioned to make something for them, what you probably didn''t know is that it was a piece for the CERN super collider. You see tearing a whole into another world is a laborious and energy consuming process. If I tried to do it myself it might take me years, even decades but thanks to the CERN super collider I won''t have to. All the experiments they have been performing have been wearing at the very fabric of the universe and in exactly one minute and fifteen seconds they will rip a hole into it with absolutely no help from me but thanks to the little piece that we installed into the collider we can make sure that the hole that is created is to my world." "Wait a minute, are you telling me that you are going to use the CERN super collider to open a doorway to your world?" "Exactly Ms Persephone. And when this doorway is created countless shining ones will come to this world and transform every creature on this wretched planet. You are now thirty seconds from the destruction of humanity." As the timer continued to count down I looked at Marcus and said, "Hmmmmmm, the large hadron super collider , such a large and complex machine. In fact I believe it is the largest and most complex testing facility ever built. So many bits and pieces, so many things that could go wrong." For the first time Marcus''s smirk slipped a little, "What are you babbling about, we have had our best people working on this. They have done the math and the chances of anything going wrong is below point zero zero one percent." As his grin started to falter mine started to grow, "But there is a chance that something could go wrong." He was starting to look a little worried, "But the chances that something would go wrong are so miniscule that it is practically impossible." The timer entered the last ten seconds of the countdown , and I spoke as it counted down to zero. "Let (10) me (9) tell (8) you (7) a (6) secret. (5) Nothing (4) is (3) impossible." .......2 .......1 .......0 chapter eighty two - misdirection Chapter eighty two .....3 .....2 .....1 .....0 The image on the screen to the left which was the one showing a live feed to the European Organization for Nuclear Research suddenly changed as sirens started to flash and klaxons started to wail. The formerly ordered group of scientists in lab coats turned into a chaotic mob similar to a disturbed nest of ants as they scrambled about , panicking as their computers displayed numbers that they could not explain. The very sensitive instruments within the large hadron collider that were there to measure and detect the smallest of things in the universe were picking up something that simply wasn''t there before, a new form of energy. At first I had tried to stop the event that caused a hole to be torn in the very fabric of our universe from even happening but I couldn''t, the experiments in the large hadron collider had been going on for years and that meant that the fabric of the universe had been gradually eroded until it now had a resistance equivalent to a wet tissue, a stray wind could have torn it at this point. I couldn''t stop the hole from forming, but what I could do was make sure that all the parameters I could shift shifted just a little , causing all the calculations that the Atelli used to make the equipment to guide the hole being formed to be faulty, so when the time came and the hole was created the guiding mechanism that the Atelli had so carefully designed and built to operate under very precise specifications became completely useless. While this meant that we were safe from the Atelli invasion for the time being, it came with a whole new set of problems. What I did was make the doorway miss, so even though it didn''t open a doorway to the Atelli home world it opened a doorway to somewhere but I had no idea where, anything could come out of that hole now, from a swarm of dragons to a jolly group of smurfs, literally nothing was impossible. I had gambled the fate of this universe on a giant game of Russian roulette and now it was time to see if my gamble had saved humanity or doomed it . As the seconds ticked by and nothing happened except for the scientists running around like headless chickens Marcus''s expression started to darken as he realized that something had gone terribly wrong for him, Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. "What did you do?" I looked at him with my very best innocent girl expression that was somewhat ruined by the shit eating grin I just couldn''t suppress, "Whatever do you mean? I am way over here in Nevada and the hadron collider is way over there in Switzerland, are you suggesting that I was responsible for something that happened thousands of miles away?" I could hear his teeth grinding and I could almost feel another epic tantrum coming from him, he had gone to great lengths to arrange all this so that he could gloat to me about how I had failed but the tables had been turned in a sudden reversal and now he was the one who had failed and I was the one who was gloating. His voice came out in an angry growl as he repeated his former question, "What did you do?" I couldn''t really let him know about my powers so I started to bullshit as hard as I can, "Well I hate to break it to you but your so called ''secret plan'' wasn''t so secret. We have had counter measures in place to stop you for weeks now. Yes I said we, did you really think I was working alone? With how well funded and equipped I am didn''t you find it a little bit suspicious? Didn''t you find it odd that I know your every move before you make it? We are everywhere, the friendly neighbor that waves at you every morning, your underpaid Gardner Jos¨¦, or maybe behind the bushes or in your very shadows, we could be right in front of you and you wouldn''t even know it. In fact we have been keeping you under surveillance for years, we might have thought that it would be unwise to spark a war between our two factions and turned a blind eye to your activities as long as they remained on a smaller scale but now that you have escalated to this level you have pushed us beyond the point of acceptable tolerance and have forced us to act, consider this an official declaration of war." He suddenly got up from his chair and shouted, "Who are you to threaten me as if I was a misbehaving child that you have every right to punish?" I gave him my most serious look and said, "We are the templars." I hope the templars had an umbrella because a shit storm was heading their way. Hopefully that will keep Marcus distracted for some time, meanwhile I had to deal with whatever was going to come through the doorway. It was time to go to Switzerland. What should I do? This story sort of dragged out longer than I thought, what I mean is that this is just the end of the second arc and there are two more remaining, should I continue writing like this and make the book 160+ chapters or should I do a bare bones version and compress it to about a hundred and twenty chapters or should I start releasing jumbo releases like chapter eighty one but only one or two releases a day? You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. P.s. thank you for everybody who wished me a happy birthday. P.p.s feel free to give any opinions you want here , I''m open to any suggestions chapter eighty three - apocalypse Chapter eighty three We had a drawn out and tearful goodbye at the airport that drew far too much attention especially from all the men since all of the succubi had insisted on coming with us to the airport to ''give us a proper farewell'' which involved a rather liberal amount of hugging , kissing and even some light groping done covertly, the succubi of las Vegas finally let us go(not Lucy she had to be pried off by the other succubi because she refused to let go of me) after they made us promise to visit them as soon as possible. Delilah and I boarded the private plane and a few minutes later we were off, on our way to Geneva Switzerland. As I have mentioned before my adopted grandfather is a very rich man so his private plane was fully loaded with all types of extravagant luxuries and exorbitant amenities to make the flying experience as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. One of these amenities was a high speed WiFi connection which I was now using to watch the news. So far there was nothing about strange creatures being sighted or monsters rampaging in Switzerland or nearby areas but I was keeping a close eye on the situation there just in case something happened. I needed to be as ready and as prepared as possible for whatever waited for me in Geneva, that hole led somewhere , whatever was on the other side hasn''t crossed over yet and there might not be anything dangerous on the other side but a feeling in my gut was telling me that something big was going to happen. I could almost feel it, like how you could almost smell the ozone in the air before a thunderstorm. Something was coming and it was probably going to change the world forever so even though I was tired and feeling sleepy I snuggled into my soft chair slash bed and concentrated on the screen of my laptop as the clouds drifted past outside of my window. I must have fallen asleep because my eyes were closed and when I opened them again all the clouds had disappeared and the sun was sinking into the horizon in a brilliant display of deep red and bright gold but it wasn''t the breathtaking sunset that had woken me up. I was having a strange feeling almost like a tingling I sometimes feel when something is about to happen, usually something violent and dangerous that could endanger my life. The hairs on the back of my neck were rising and I could feel goosebumps up and down my arms. Something was definitely up. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. I quickly checked all the major news updates on the internet and found something unsettling. There was no news coming out of Switzerland. I didn''t mean that there was no news as in everything was OK so there was nothing to report. No this was something more ominous than that, Switzerland and a part of France had gone dark as of fifteen minutes ago. No information was going in or out of that area. Cellphones weren''t working , the internet was down and even satellite imaging had become iffy. The last thing to come out of Switzerland was a grainy cellphone video that only lasted a little over two minutes, two minutes six seconds to be exact but it was more than enough to make my heart drop into the pit of my stomach and my blood run cold. It showed flying creatures having an areal melee, one side were bright and beautiful with their giant white feathered dove like wings that spanned over seven meters from wing tip to wing tip as they glided majestically in the skies clad in golden armor and emitting a golden radiance that was like an aura that surrounded each one, their beautiful androgynous faces etched with righteous fury as they wielded flaming swords against their enemies. As for their enemies they were mostly red devils with horns , bat like wings and tails wielding tridents. All of their already monstrous faces were twisted into an even more hideous mask of hatred and malice. One on one they were cut down by the ones in golden armor but they had numbers on their side as they swarmed the outnumbered angels and brought them down by sheer numbers alone and as if that wasn''t enough they also had giant twisted creatures and grotesque abominations among them that they used to devastating effect. It was a scene straight out of the old testament but most of the news networks were showing it mostly as a joke, they were still unaware that their world has changed irrevocably. The apocalypse was here. I had played Russian roulette with the fate of the universe. I could almost hear the bang of a gun firing because I had lost. chapter eighty four - flight interrupted Chapter eighty four I sat there with a despondent expression on my face when Delilah poked me so hard that I probably bruised beneath my shirt, apparently she had been poking me to get my attention for a while now and I hadn''t even noticed. Concern was thick in her voice as she spoke while looking into my eyes, "Are you alright there? You sort of froze in that position for five minutes and wouldn''t respond when I called you, you were starting to freak me out a little. You are not sick are you? Can you even get sick? " "No , I can''t get sick." "Then what''s wrong?" "Oh nothing, just caused a biblical apocalypse, no biggie." "Wait, what?" "Yeah, Switzerland has become ground zero for the start of the biblical apocalypse. There is an epic war between angels and demons going on there. Here , watch this." I handed her the laptop so that she could see the video. It was preloaded so all she had to do was press play. Two minutes and six seconds later she closed the lid of the laptop and said,"Those aren''t demons." I looked at her incredulously, "Of course they are demons , they have horns and everything." She narrowed her eyes at me until they were just slits, "I didn''t know that you were such an expert in demonology, so much so that you are correcting an actual demoness on the subject of what is or isn''t a demon. So Ms expert your criteria for being a demon is having and I quote ''horns and everything'', is that a scientific term?" "It sounds stupid when you say it like that." "That is because it is stupid honey, now that we have your stupidity out of the way I can tell you why they are not demons. There are seven types of demons modeled after the seven deadly sins. You''ve already met greed and lust , obviously not the same as the ones in the video. A demon of gluttony would be so fat that it could barely get off the ground let alone do those fancy aerial maneuvers. A demon of sloth wouldn''t even bother getting out of bed let alone get in a battle. A demon of pride would be too busy looking at its own reflection and a demon of envy would literally be green, the only type of demon that is green not red which is kind of ironic. Finally it is not a demon of wrath because one of those would smash and then gobble down the ''demons'' in the video like a stoner going after cheerios. Ergo they are not demons." A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. That actually helped me cheer up a little, if those weren''t demons then there was probably no apocalypse, "Then why do they look like demons so much, in fact they look more like demons than you guys." I took the laptop back and opened the video again to see the fake demons. She got a faraway look on her face, "Actually I noticed that too, its almost as if they were based on what humans believe demons look like, which actually originated from one of Lilith''s pranks. She visited some Italian''s dream , his name was Dante I think, and took him on a journey through hell or actually what he thought was hell, she made the whole thing up." "You mean Dante as in the author of Dante''s inferno?" "Yeah that guy. Most images of demons are now derived from his book and these ..." I didn''t really hear the rest because the internet wasn''t working and I was too busy trying to make it work again . I tried everything and then I saw that the small icon for the wireless connection was gray indicating that it was inactive. I suddenly came to a very obvious realization, we must have reached Switzerland air space. The pilots probably didn''t know what was going on and since satellite and radio weren''t work they couldn''t contact anyone. If what my watch was telling me was correct then we should be deep in Switzerland where a large aerial battle was happening. We were flying pretty high up but from what I saw from the video height didn''t seem to be a problem for the combatants. All I could say was, "Oh shit!" Delilah stopped in the middle of her tirade and sighed, "What''s wrong now?" "We have been flying in Switzerland for about ten minutes now. You know, that place where there is a giant fight happening in the air that could be hazardous to flying objects, like say a plane." She immediately looked out the window and I did the same thing. We both saw the giant flaming carcass of what I assume was a dead monster coming at us. Delilah backed away while I exclaimed, "Son of a ..." BOOOOOM! chapter eighty five - super fan Chapter eighty five I tried to use my powers to make the gigantic flaming missile of twisted flesh miss the plane but it was just too massive and too close by the time I noticed it, at least I managed to steer it away a little so that it didn''t hit us directly which would have been an instant death sentence for everyone on the plane, instead it clipped the tail of the plane taking that part along with it as it continues its ''flight''. Since we were at a considerable height, when the back end of the plane disappeared there was a large difference in pressure between the air outside of the plane and inside of the plane. Nature quickly attempted to fix this problem which caused rapid and violent decompression , anything that wasn''t nailed down started to fly around the cabin, one of the seats even came loose and nearly took my head off as it hurtled out of the newly created hole at the back of the plane and as if that wasn''t aggravation enough the small yellow breathing apparatuses fell from an overhead compartment accomplishing absolutely nothing except to further exacerbate the problem by accidentally poking me in the eye. But I didn''t have to worry about this problems for long, the collision with the massive missile of flesh had caused the plane to go into a tailspin. Planes are designed to go in only one direction and one direction only, forward. The tailspin caused the plane to experience forces that it was never designed to cope with which resulted in it falling apart as if it was made from Lego bricks. In the end the plane simply didn''t exist anymore , all of us were just strapped in our chairs, hurtling forward at incredible speeds , hundreds of miles up in the air. I used my powers to stop the debris from harming the two pilots and the two hostesses but now gravity was starting to grab a hold of us. I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt and I saw Delilah do the same. I used air manipulation to orient myself and float towards the pilots while Delilah unfurled her wings and then dived to one of the hostesses, she unbuckled her seatbelt and carried the woman in a princess carry. I unbuckled the seatbelts of the two pilots, both older gentlemen who seemed to be trying to say something but were unable to do so because their voices were swallowed up by the air rushing by. Now I had the problem of keeping two pilots aloft, I couldn''t exactly carry them using a princess carry like Delilah. I grabbed them by the scruff of their necks and dragged them towards the last inhabitant of the plane, the second hostess. Delilah was only able to carry one person making the other three my responsibility. I reached the hostess in short order and liberated her from the seat. Now that everyone was free from their seats it was time to stop our plummet towards earth and an undoubtedly painful demise. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Thankfully after my fight with the giant Atelli in Oslo (which I now call the twin destroyer in my head) I had researched ways I could use my powers to fly and came up with a simple solution, mini tornados. I use random air motion to push the molecules above me away which creates an area of low pressure and concentrate the molecules beneath me to create an area of high pressure . The air from underneath me will try to fill that area of low pressure and travel upwards causing lift but as it passes I cause it to spin so that it will generate more lift while traveling very slowly. This causes a small funnel to form around me making it look like I am riding a tornado. I used four of these ''tornados'' , one for each pilot , one for the hostess and the last one for myself to slow down our fall while Delilah was flapping her wings to keep herself and her passenger aloft. Eventually we were able to stop falling and just floated in the air for a moment, looking around and checking for danger. I had taken out my fans , it has almost become a reflex to take them out when I am in danger. The hostess that was floating next to me was staring at the fans with wide eyes. She was a young woman who was short but leggy and was of Asian descent. Something in the slant of her eyes made me think that she wasn''t Chinese or Japanese but most likely Korean. She let out a high pitch squeal, not a scream of fear which would have been understandable given the situation but the unique noise that fans(the person not the accessory) make when they meet the object of their admiration. She started to speak in that same high pitched voice, "You''re her, you''re her. Oh my god you are her. You are Raven, oh my god I can''t believe I just met The Raven. My sister is going to flip when she hears that she missed out on meeting Raven because she switched shifts with me, can I have your autograph? I am your biggest fan, I even have all your comics and action figures." I was amazed that even under these circumstances she looked like a kid who had gotten her most favorite thing in the universe for Christmas, "Is this really the time for this? We are in the middle.....wait a minute , did you say that I have comic books and action figures?" She nodded her head while staring up at me with admiration, if this was an anime she would probably have stars in her eyes, "Yes, and I have each and everyone of them. Even the limited edition one with the fans that glow in the dark." Delilah cut into our conversation when she shouted a warning while somehow managing to sound sardonic at the same time, "I hate to interrupt your conversation about toys but we have incoming at 12 O''Clock." chapter eighty six - angels Chapter eighty six I looked in the direction that Delilah was pointing towards and I could see a speck in the distance, the speck quickly grew and resolved itself into five glowing angels clad in their golden armor, wielding their flaming swords, and glowing like fireflies in June as they flew in a V formation. When they were a few meters away from us the one who was acting as the wedge for their formation raised his(they looked androgynous so it could have gone either way but I decided to go with he instead of the whole he/she nonsense, I''m all up for equality but that stuff is just ridiculous) sword high before he loudly declared, "Release thy human captives foul demon, I shall not allow thee to use thy evil sorceries to foul their souls and entrap them into an eternity in hell. Thy doom approaches foul demon and it rides on the fair wings of the host." He had four wings instead of two like the rest of his friends and was dead serious as he made his speech. I was just trying really hard not to break down and laugh, people rarely take it well when you laughed in their faces and I was hoping that I wouldn''t have to fight these angels. Delilah looked confused as she replied, "Are you talking to me? I''m not trying to take them to hell, in fact I''m trying to save their lives, if you haven''t noticed we are a couple of miles off the ground. Plus why are you speaking like that, this isn''t Shakespeare in the park , just speak normally dude." "Dost thou think that an angel of the host canst wit thy plan to confound and confuse? I am Barabiel , a Seraphim of the host, such beguilement is useless against one such as I." After he said that he struck a pose with his chest puffed out and his long gleaming golden hair waving gently in the wind, "Dost thou see how hopeless it is for thine purpose? Dost thou wish to surrender meekly to my blade instead of being humiliated in battle?" Delilah just tilted her head to one side and said, "Whaaa..?" I couldn''t help it anymore, I started laughing. It started when a snort escaped my lips which I was trying to keep sealed by puckering them as hard as possible, the angels must have thought I was constipated because they were giving me weird looks. But after that one snort escaped it was like a runaway train, it just couldn''t be stopped. The snort became snicker which evolved into a giggle which turned into a full blown belly laugh. Barabiel raised one of his eyebrows at me, "Dost thou find something amusing?" This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I tried to control my laughter and put on a serious face but I wasn''t sure how successful I really was, " I''m sorry your mightiness seraphim Barabiel sir but I think you..I mean thou are jumping to conclusions. Delilah isn''t like the demons you are fighting, she is one of the good guys." He didn''t look reassured , in fact he looked downright infuriated, "Art thou mocking me?" I saw where this was going and tried to avert the incoming crisis but my smart mouth got in the way,"No, at least not intentionally." "Thou hath obviously been bewitched by the demon''s sorcery but I shall save thy soul by purging thy worldly vestments and setting thine soul on the path to heaven." he then raised his flaming sword and flew in my direction. I sent a large gust of wind in his direction which sent him careening backwards , tumbling ass over head before he could regain his balance. Now I was seriously pissed, "Are you crazy? I made one small snide comment about you and you retaliate by trying to kill me? Are you completely insane?" "I am not insane, but I finally understand thy attachment to the demon, thou art a witch! Thy soul hath already been tainted by thine foul rituals, thou hath already dealt with hell to gain infernal powers. Thou art almost as deplorable as the demon, I shall smite thee and free thine innocent captives." I was now officially done with this shit, I was done being polite. It was time to go to to plan v, v for violence. Why does it feel like I always resort to plan v? *sigh* Well at least this time I''ll try to be as gentle as possible but before I cut off all their wings( its plan v, what did you expect?) I wanted to try something out. I created a larger version of the mini tornados that were keeping us afloat to encircle each angel but made the spinning winds much more intense, now the angels were trapped in the high velocity winds but they could still escape upwards or downwards, before they could figure out this fact I warped the winds so that they could form a sort of wind cocoon but now there was no area of high pressure and low pressure to maintain the winds. This is where the experimental bit came in, I tried to empower the winds with my soul energy and it worked! The angels were now all trapped within cocoons of wind that were glowing a silvery blue. Now what the hell was I supposed to do with five angels that I had just put in time out like they were naughty children? *dogeza* Im sorry I''m really sorry but I''m really sick and probably can''t write anything today. I ate something questionable and now I feel like power saws are having a fiesta in my stomach. I''ll try my best to write but I doubt you''ll get anything today. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I am truly sorry. chapter eighty seven - real? Chapter eighty seven Trapping five angels and keeping three people in addition to myself aloft was putting a strain on my powers, I felt that it would be prudent to land under my own power before I run out of energy while I was suspended this high up in the air and crash onto the ground under the mercy of gravity who is a stone cold bitch , unfamiliar with words like mercy . I quickly descended along with my passengers and my prisoners closely followed by Delilah and her solitary passenger who seemed to have passed out. As we descended a scene of absolute devastation started to form beneath us, what I thought was an uninhabited area was revealed to be what looked like an average sized town, at least it used to be. Now it looked like a scene from a post apocalyptic movie. The buildings were in ruins , the blackened and burned out husks of cars were evident in every street and most telling of all, the bodies that were strewn all over the area of what was left of the town. Here and there you could see the bodies of the ''angels'' and ''demons'' but most of the bodies were those of normal human beings that were living their normal lives when this happened, innocent civilians that were going about their daily routines when they were caught in the crossfire between two forces that fought for reasons they didn''t understand, in a war that they never agreed to. Now they lay dead , collateral damage of a meaningless war. Looking around at the pure devastation around me started to make me feel guilty but unlike that time in Norway I didn''t make a stupid decision that led to this, no this time I made the only decision that I could but seeing the bodies of around me, especially those of little children I couldn''t stop myself from feeling something so because my mind was telling me it was illogical to feel guilt while my heart was bleeding on behalf of the innocent people whose lives were cut short, I start to feel rage, hot burning rage that threatened to consume me. I wanted someone to pay for this and unluckily for the five ,angels'' I was keeping prisoner they were the closest things I could lay my hands on. First I released the cocoon around the four winged seraphim, Barabiel. Once he was free he wasted no time in swinging his flaming sword towards me which I blocked with one of my glowing fans while using the other one to cut the sword near the hilt so that there was nothing left in Barabiels hand except the grip of his sword. I then moved forward and kicked him in the chest causing him to fall backwards on his wings, I could hear the crunch of bones breaking as his wings were crushed beneath his heavy armor clad body. He started to scream but I kicked him in the diaphragm , robbing him of breath, If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. "Shut up, you do not get to scream. Look around you oh great seraphim writhing on the ground, look at the things you have accomplished," I punctuated each word with with a kick on different parts of his body. I leaned down and grabbed golden hair and forced him to look around, "Are you pleased that you have accomplished your holy mission oh great seraphim, do you celebrate the deaths of innocent ,even the children? Do you tell yourself that you ''released them from their mortal vestments'' when you killed them? Is that what you really believe? Well let me tell you something, you are wrong. You aren''t an agent of heaven sent here to redeem our souls, you aren''t even a real angel." The bruised and battered face of the once beautiful angel faced me and said with much difficulty because of the numerous injuries I had inflicted on him, "I...am....an....angel..*cough*...of....the...*cough*...host." I looked into his proud eyes and felt the poison of pure anger take a hold of my mind, "Oh , is that so. Are you telling me that you are an angel of the host?" "...yes." "Just like your four compatriots here?" "...yes." I slowly undid all their prisons in such a way that they were visible but still restrained, this configuration of holding just hands and legs was very unstable but since this wasn''t going to take long it was perfect for my purpose,"Look at your brothers, what do you see?" "Four...*cough*..proud...cherubim." "Is that so? You know what I see? I see four fake angels. I see four identical pieces that were made like cookies made by the same cookie cutter. Look at them, they aren''t individuals. They aren''t unique, and you know why that is?" I waved my hand and the four angels literally dissolved into the air, "they are not real." I could see the shock and pain in his face followed by creeping doubt, "Why...did...you..?" "Did what? Murder them? It''s not murder, they were not really sentient, they had no souls. What I did was comparable to blowing out a candle." I saw the doubt on his face multiply then get replaced by fear, for the first time since we met I saw the fear, no fear was too light a word , the absolute terror on his face,"I..am...fake? I ...have...no...soul?" I looked at him carefully then answered his question,"No, for some reason you have something that resembles a soul." A.n. I''m still sick, but now I am under heavy medication and high as a kite, I hope I haven''t messed up the story too much. chapter eighty eight - offer you cant refuse Chapter eighty eight After my anger had a chance to cool off a little, I saw that I might have gone a little overboard while venting out said anger upon bird boy, I even felt a modicum of guilt especially when bird boy started crying. Delilah approached me from behind while I was watching bird boy bawl like a baby, she tapped my shoulder to get my attention and said, "We might have a tinsy winsy problem." I had a premonition that something really bad was about to happen, "How tinsy winsy?" She raised her hand and wobbled it in a so-so gesture, "Not catastrophic. While you were torturing pigeon boy here, which I thought was absolutely brutal by the way, not only beating him up mercilessly but also destroying everything that he believes in and reducing him to this sad ruin of what he used to be, it was absolutely flawlessly executed, anyways as I was saying before I got sidetracked, while you were torturing pigeon boy I was using my hypnosis ability to make sure that the pilots and the hostesses think that Sophia and Raven are two different people but I sort of ran into a little snag." I had a bad feeling that I knew where this is going, "Please , don''t tell me..." She shrugged her shoulders, "I''m afraid so, the hypnosis didn''t work on your biggest fan. Her name is Kim by the way and if she asks me what it is like to be your sidekick one more time I will make her disappear and you won''t have to worry about her anymore." I massaged the bridge of my nose with the tips of index finger and thumb as I felt a headache coming, "Look I don''t have time for this right now, I need to talk pigeon boy here out of the depression he is in so that he can lead us to the doorway he came from so that we may close it or something before the entire world is flooded with warring angels and demons. Please keep Kim occupied while I talk to weepy, the long lost brother of the seven dwarves." She looked over at the crying angel and looked back at me with a doubtful expression, "Good luck with that, I''ll just be over there, trying not to strangle Kim." I went to the weeping angel and healed him, I figured that healing him of his injuries and stopping what I believed to be crippling pain would at least help a little but he didn''t even seem to notice what I had done for him. For a second I just stood there unable to say anything to break the awkward silence that was periodically punctuated by a sob, finally I forced myself to talk, This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Look I''m sorry dude, I shouldn''t have sprung this on you like this." He looked up at me with aching emptiness in the depth of his baby blue eyes, "It matters not how thou delivered the fact,in the end everything I was and everything I had believed to be true is false. I no longer have a reason to exist. Thou shalt just blow me away like my late brethren." "Listen to me , you are not like those copies. I couldn''t do that to you even if I wanted to. You may not be an angel but you are a real person, the question is are you a good person?" "I don''t even know who I am anymore." "Well then let me put it to you in another way, you have two choices. You can help me by showing me the location of the gate to your world so that I can close it and on the way I will destroy the demons and save all your angel buddies or you can refuse to help me and I will twist your soul so that you will feel eternal agony and after I figure out the way to the gate myself I will take great pleasure in plucking the feathers of all the angels I meet like they were Christmas chickens." Just like I had hoped the emptiness and sorrow were replaced with horror and fear, two emotions I could use. He stuttered, "Thou art a monster!" I put on my most intimidating and maniacal grin, the one that I had practiced in the bathroom mirror just in case a moment like this would occur,"You don''t know the half of it bird boy. Not only am I willing to do anything to save my race but I am also able to do to all of those things. I am giving you a choice here, in terms you will understand a giant chariot is departing from here, cooperate and you will get a comfortable seat inside, if you don''t cooperate it will run your ass over and leave nothing but roadkill behind. So what do you choose, comfortable seat or roadkill?" chapter eighty nine - its a bird, its a plane Chapter eighty nine Thankfully pigeon boy folded under my rather extreme threat and agreed to lead us to the hole that was gushing angels and demons. We stashed the pilots and the hostesses in an out of the way area, it was probably not very safe but I really didn''t have time to baby sit them while the world goes to hell in a hand basket. Although she made it very clear that she was very upset with me because of my decision, I made Delilah stay behind and take care of them. Even though I made her stay behind to protect them and keep them out of harm''s way I secretly ordered her to think of her own safety over that of her wards, it was an order I had to give because Delilah had a heart of gold and she would have been happy to lay down her life to save these people, I on the other hand was more selfish , I would rather all four of them die than lose my Delilah. In fact the main reason that I told her to stay behind was to keep her out of harms way, I had a feeling that where we were going was extremely dangerous. Before we left I gave Delilah a goodbye kiss on her pouting lips, I tried to convey as much feeling as I could in that kiss and by the time I was done she had stopped pouting and had a silly smile on her face. I quickly took off using a mini tornado and floated towards pigeon boy who was already in the air, lazily flapping his four massive wings to keep himself aloft. As I got closer to him I noticed that he had a strange expression on his face, a jumble of confusion and disbelief, it sort of reminded me of an internet video of a small puppy looking at a mirror for the first time, he had the same tilt to his head, the same ''what the hell is going on'' expression, really the only thing that he was missing was the droopy ears. As we started flying to the east he said,"You really like that demon , don''t you?" So that was why he was confused, he couldn''t reconcile the image he had of me being a cold heartless monster with this new image of me being someone who cares deeply about somebody else, "No pigeon boy, I do not like Delilah." "So it was all a lie? A trick to fool the demon?" "You misunderstand my meaning. I like pepperoni pizza, I like to play video games , I like curling up on a couch and watching my favorite cartoon : Wing the magical penguin. What I feel for Delilah isn''t something as Luke warm as ''like''. I love Delilah." For the next ten minutes we flew in silence. I looked around the post apocalyptic wasteland of what used to be one of the most civilized countries on earth and found the eerie silence disquieting, "Hey pigeon boy, where is everybody? I would have expected to meet somebody by now." Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. He also looked unsettled by the absence of any resistance,"I don''t know, the last order I received was to retreat to the gate but I was too busy fighting an abomination to heed any orders." I kept turning my head every which way so that I could see if anybody was trying to flank us, I even turned on my soul sight to check if there were any sentient beings in the area but there was nothing. I finally turned my attention back to pigeon boy and looked at his ''soul''. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, souls are usually shaped like the ''perfect'' version of the person''s physical body, except for very few exceptions like mental trauma and other such events. The soul also produces energy which manifests itself in different ''frequencies'' depending on how a person is feeling and I can perceive these emissions as colors so usually when I see a soul it is wreathed in different colors like an aura but pigeon boy was different. Although he was glowing with a golden aura in the physical world , his soul wasn''t glowing at all. His soul was just a ball of energy , granted it was a lot of energy, but it was just energy. It wasn''t shaped like anything and it wasn''t emitting anything but I could see the energy that made up the ball itself shift into different colors, reminded me of the lava lamp I had in my room. A few minutes later we finally started coming across stray demons and angels, they were all small fries who didn''t have souls so I could have blown them all away with a wave of my hand but I only destroyed the demons, the angels left us alone thanks to my escort. As we kept traveling I felt something strange, my powers were increasing. No that wasn''t quite right, the resistance that the universe usually had to my power was decreasing as we got closer and closer to the hole. Something in the air was making the world chaotic and that meant that with every passing second I could do more and more things with my powers. I was wondering what I could do in this environment when I saw a speck in the distance. At first I thought that it might be some sort of a bird but that didn''t seem quite right. My second thought was that it was a plane but that didn''t make sense either. When the speck got close enough I was finally able to make out the red cape, the blue spandex suit with the iconic "S" emblazoned on his chest, the small curl of hair on his forehead , and of course the bright red underwear he insists on wearing on the outside. Holy smokes, it was Superman. chapter ninety - power Chapter ninety I looked at the flying man with his cape slowly shifting in the wind behind him and my mind was suddenly in disarray, the analytical part of me was going nuts thinking about the implications of having this obviously fictional character here, he even had a cartoonish quality about him when I looked closely at him. Under soul sight he was similar to the cookie cutter angels and demons I was able to defeat with a wave of a hand, he had no soul. I didn''t know whether to destroy him or not but if he became hostile it wasn''t going to be a problem. While the analytical part of my brain was piecing together pieces of the puzzle to determine what kind of universe would spawn not only angels and demons but also fictional characters and how this would affect the mission to come , a more nerdy part of me was going absolutely gaga over the fact that I was seeing one of the biggest if not the biggest superhero of all times. I wanted to go up to him and make him sign something, maybe ask him a few questions I had ...maybe he would make me a member of the justice league , I mean I was technically a superhero with superpowers and everything...maybe I can keep him, he is a soulless being, he could be like the largest and most interactive action figure ever... The logical part of my mind noticed the psychotic turn that my nerdy part had taken and suppressed those thoughts before I did something crazy like wrap him in plastic to keep him in mint condition. After I had that minor bout of schizophrenia I quickly destroyed superman but I also came to an important realization , there was one connection between angels , demons , and the man of steel; they all evoked strong emotions in people. Nowadays superheros and even some fantasy and science fiction works have a following similar to a religion, if my hypothesis was correct then the next few hours were going to be very interesting. As we continued onwards we encountered more and more angels and demons, we even encountered ones with souls. These I couldn''t simply wave away but my powers had been growing steadily as we continued our journey and by the time we reached anything with a soul I was able to bisect them with an empowered glowing blade of wind I could create with my fans. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The enemies we were meeting were getting more varied, not only demons from the Judeo-Christian end of the spectrum but from other religions and myths, popular horror movies, or simply common fears. There were now multiple dragon like monsters , giant snakes , twisted creatures of flesh that should never have existed and even mythological beasts. I was now fairly sure that these were all creations of the human mind and the human mind could be a very dark place indeed. The strength of the enemies we were facing was increasing but while their increase in strength could be described in an arithmetic scale mine was multiplying at a geometric rate. Fifteen minutes later we were surrounded by enemies, but at this point it didn''t matter. Something in the air was making everything chaotic , reality was no longer asserting itself and without the rules of nature fighting me I had the power over the earth and the sky , the lakes and the mountains, even the darkness and the light bent to my will. For the first time in my life I felt absolute power to do whatever I want, it was a heady intoxicating feeling. I was throwing around giants the size of buildings like they were toys while wielding a giant sword made entirely out of lightning. I didn''t even need the mini-tornado to fly anymore , I was flying in the air simply because I decided to. A cloaked figure tried to approach me stealthily but while I was in this state he might as well have phoned ahead. I grabbed the thing and it was just a skeleton wearing a robe. I laughed at the thing and said, "And what are you supposed to be?" Surprisingly a raspy voice answered, "I am the ending of all things living, I am the shadow that stalks all, I am the breeze that extinguishes the flame of life. I am death." I laughed at it some more, "You? Death? No, you are nothing but a skeleton in a bathrobe. If you really want to know what death is I''ll show you." I grabbed his skull and crushed it like a beer can, "There , you might not be death but you are now something related to death, dead." I dusted my hand off and continued on my journey, I couldn''t remember the last time I had so much fun. chapter ninety one - the conundrum Chapter ninety one I cut a wake of devastation straight through the monsters towards the direction that pigeon boy was pointing me towards, there I finally reached the hole in the fabric of the universe. How did I know? Well it was the giant glowing hole in the ground that was spewing out creatures at random intervals. I guess it wasn''t very surprising that the hole was in the ground since the actual matter accelerator was located deep underground so the actual hole was located hundreds of feet underground. Seeing monsters coming out of the hole gave the illusion that the creatures were somehow crawling from underneath the earth''s crust. As we approached the giant glowing hole that was like a gaping wound on the earth''s surface, we came across an interesting scene, a large group of angels trying to keep the monsters from leaving the hole into the world beyond. They were doing a fairly good job although they were slowly being whittled down as they were taking casualties now and then. They were obviously being led by an angel who was shining like the freaking sun and had three pairs of wings or six wings in total. He was dual wielding flaming swords and was doing it with ruthless efficiency, I had to admit that he looked awe inspiring as he maimed and killed at a very impressive rate but even with this angel leading them the other angels were flagging , it wouldn''t be long before their lines broke and they were completely decimated. Luckily for them I had a deal with pigeon boy to save as many of them as possible so I floated towards the giant melee battle and made a vague hand gesture, a habit that I had picked up even though it wasn''t really necessary. Suddenly the clouds above started to rain down lightning almost continuously, after the smoke cleared away nothing was left except thunderstruck angels, not literally of course. The demons had been scoured by the lightning leaving behind nothing but ashes and small blackened craters were they had once stood. The six winged angel looked around until he saw me floating there sucking on a lollipop that I had summoned out of thin air, this close to the hole reality wasn''t even relevant anymore so I could literally do whatever I wanted and what I wanted was a lollipop. He stared at me for a second and said, "Who are you?" This angel was a little different from the rest, for one thing he had darker hair unlike the golden curls of the other angels. He was also most definitely masculine and not androgynous like the rest, he was classically handsome and I would have probably gone for him if I swung that way. I popped the lollipop out of my mouth and said, "I am the person who just saved your bacon from being fried, I am also the person who is able to fry your bacon or more accurately fry you like bacon if you annoy me too much, I guess you can call me the cook." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Pigeon boy hurriedly stepped forward and had a quick whispered conversation with six wings. I just continued to float there , sucking on my lollipop while frying anything that made it through the hole. A few minutes later pigeon boy returned with the six winged angel who was looking at me with a complicated expression, "Barabiel here tells me that you are able to close the gate, is this true?" I chuckled and said, "With the power I have I can pretty much do whatever the hell I want but yes I am about to close the portal, I suggest you take all of your friends and go back home before it is no longer an option. You have protected this world so far and I am thankful for that but as you can see I have things covered after this." The six winged angel sheathed his swords and did a little bob in the air, an aerial version of a bow, "Thank you for your timely intervention, I am pleased that this really isn''t the the end of days. We shall meet again either when you perish or when the real end of days happens. I am the Arch angel Gabriel and it has been an honor to meet you." He then grabbed the golden horn that he had slung at his side and put it to his lips, it produced a deep almost mournful tone. All the angels suddenly started going back through the portal towards whatever world they had come from. In the end there was only one angel left, Barabiel or as I like to call him pigeon boy. I turned to him with a raised eyebrow, "What did you tell him to agree so easily?" "I told him that you were a messenger from God." His answer was monotonous as he stared sadly at the open portal. "Aren''t you going back with them?" "Back to what? A lie? To sing praises while sitting on fluffy clouds while pretending I am in heaven? Do you think I can forget the fact that I am not an angel?" I could see the tears rolling down his cheeks and I felt ashamed that I was responsible for them. I quickly tried to steer the conversation on a tangent, "Why didn''t you tell the others?" He turned to me with a sad smile, "Because they are happier not knowing." I put my hand on his shoulder, "I am sorry Barabiel, I saw all the death and destruction and in my anger I lashed out at you. You didn''t deserve what I did to you." I turned away from the sad angel and started to close the portal. At first it was easy but as I continued to close the hole reality started to reassert itself and what I could do with my powers started to diminish. The more of the portal I sealed, the less power I had to seal the portal. In the end it was about halfway closed but I just didn''t have enough juice to seal the whole thing. As I was struggling with the portal a voice behind me spoke, "Use me." chapter ninety two - Barabiel Chapter ninety two Change in POV - Barabiel otherwise known as pigeon boy I led my team of cherubim against the giant abomination. It was all hairy limbs and grotesquely twisted flesh joined together in a completely chaotic manner, there was no beauty or grace in its design. It was a complete mockery of God''s creation and as such needed to be erased. I heard the trumpet signalling a retreat but I was too busy fighting the creatures many limbs to heed Gabriel''s orders. I ducked beneath the creature''s grasping clawed hand and cut at it with my holy sword , my team followed my lead and also cut at the monster with their holy swords. The hair on the limbs of the monster caught fire when it came into contact with the cleansing flames upon our swords and the whole thing went up in flames, I flew back a few meters and rushed the monster which was now making a high pitched noise as it burnt. I was able to deliver a finishing blow to the monster , sending it flying into the sky with my mighty blow. The creature flew a great distance through the air but when it neared the horizon it crashed into a metal contraption that humans had devised in recent times so that they could fly. The metal contraption must not have been very sturdy because it fell apart even though the flaming carcass of the monsters only clipped it in the back. All five of us quickly rushed to the wreckage to see if there were any survivors and to our surprise we found that a demoness had taken five people hostage. Later I found out that one of the humans was actually a witch and an accomplice of the demoness, when I tried to smite them and rescue the four innocent humans I found myself trapped by the witch''s sorcery. After a few frustrating moments of trying to escape the sparkling blue bubble that was keeping me prisoner the bubble disappeared setting me free. I immediately tried to strike the witch down before she could trap me again but even as I flew towards her with my holy sword drawn I noticed the stony expression on her face and the fire that was burning in the depth of her emerald green eyes. Something in the way she was looking at me made me ,a seraphim of the angelic host, flinch in fear. My instincts were screaming at me to run away but it was too late, the witch seemed to blur and the strange blue fan she was holding went through my holy sword like it was naught but butter, leaving me holding nothing but a hilt. She never stopped moving as she stepped forward and kicked my chest, the kick had more force than her dainty feet should have been able to deliver. I fell back on my wings which broke under my weight making immense pain run through my entire back. I opened my mouth to scream but the witch was already upon me delivering a sharp kick to my stomach and robbing me of breath that i needed to scream. Then she started to systematically take me apart physically but much worse than that she told me things that I never wanted to know. She showed me how everything I believed in was a lie, in the beginning I thought she was just using her poisonous tongue to trick me but she demonstrated how my cherubim brothers were nothing but puppets she could destroy at a whim. Slowly her argument seeped into my mind reminding me of things I had noticed but dismissed as unimportant. Her words weren''t a lie, no they were something many times worse, they were the truth, the terrible painful truth. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. At first I was angry at the witch but I knew deep inside that it wasn''t her fault that my entire life has been a lie, my only consolation was the fact that the witch said that I had some semblance of a soul, ''a ball of energy she called it''. At least I myself wasn''t a lie. After she finished beating me she went away to talk to the demoness. I was left on the ground, broken in more ways than one. I cried thinking of everything I had lost which was everything I had been. As I lay there crying in the dirt I felt a warmth envelop me and the pain of my injuries vanished but I didn''t care. I didn''t care for anything anymore. Well at least I thought I didn''t, the witch coerced me into helping her by offering to save my brothers if I showed her the way to the gate. We traveled through the devastated lands and I saw what true power looked like for the first time, the witch was wielding power like she lived and breathed it. She defeated enemies as if they were nothing but insects she was grinding beneath her heels. It was a freighting and awe inspiring display of might that revealed to me that she had been very lenient when she had dealt with me. She even defeated the encirclement of monsters that threatened the Arch angel Gabriel and his throng with a single wave of her hand. When Gabriel came to question her I quickly interceded for his own safety. I told him that she was a messenger from God sent to tell us that the apocalypse has been postponed another thousand years. After the way she had destroyed all the demons he was only too willing to believe me. He rounded up the angels and went back through the portal to heaven but I didn''t follow, that place was no longer heaven to me, it was just another reminder of the fact that everything that I have known had been a lie. I felt a tear fall down my cheek as I watched my former brethren go back home when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see the witch looking at me with sympathy in her eyes then surprisingly she apologized sincerely for what she said to me before she flew over to the portal to close it. A few minutes later she had half of the hole closed but she was no longer making any progress. I knew that if she didn''t close that portal it would spell the doom of the entire human race but she didn''t seem to have the energy to finish the job. Then I remembered what she said about my soul being a giant ball of energy, I might not believe that I was an angel anymore but I still believed in God and I still believed in providence and destiny. I believed that God had put me here for a reason, this reason. I flew over to her and offered my soul to her, she warned me that if she did this that I would cease to exist, true death she called it but I didn''t care. I had found my true purpose, I had rediscovered my faith. As I felt my soul get consumed I was finally as happy and content as I was before I knew the truth, for the first time I felt that I had earned the name Barabiel , seraphim of the angelic host. chapter ninety three - barry Chapter ninety three P.O.V. back to Sophia "YOU DID WHAT?" I was currently talking to my fan but the really strange part was that the fan was speaking back. "Stop being so melodramatic, it is better than being completely destroyed isn''t it?" The fan burst into golden flames as it shouted, "HOW IS BEING A FAN BETTER THAN ANYTHING?" Fascinatingly, although the golden flames were licking at my fingers they didn''t seem to contain any heat. I looked on in wonder as the beautiful golden flames completely engulfed my fingers before receding. I could have played with the flames all day but they seemed to be a sign of agitation so I slowly tried to calm down the hysterical pigeon boy, "Look , I didn''t want to be responsible for your destruction, you might have been a pompous prick before but once you got over the ''thou''s and ''thy''s you are actually a pretty okay guy so I decided to do all that I can to save your feathery ass. Unfortunately although I was able to save your consciousness and most of your memories your body was completely lost so I had to decide where to put what was left of your soul. The choices at the time were this fan or a lollipop stick. Personally I think you got a pretty sweet deal, relatively speaking." That didn''t calm him down at all, he continued to scream, "I was ready to sacrifice myself for the greater good, it was going to be a glorious ending, one worthy of an angel, it was to be my destiny! And now you are telling me that I have to live out the rest of my life as a FREAKING FAN?!" As he yelled out the last part a stream of the golden fire that I thought was so harmless burst out from the fan and hit a small piece of rubble and instantaneously reduced it to ashes. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! My eyes widened in shock as I saw the concrete being turned into ash, granted it was a small piece of concrete but taking into consideration the fact that concrete is already fully oxidized and so isn''t even flammable at any temperature I think that I was fully justified when I said , "What the fuck?" The fan''s flames dimmed a little and a calmer voice came from the fan, "Did I do that?" "Yeah you did! That was completely awesome! You wanted a purpose, there''s your purpose! You are now the world''s mightiest weapon. Question is can you do that on purpose or do I have to piss you off every time I need a little flame action?" "Let me see," I could hear the determination in his voice as he strained to repeat his earlier action. A few seconds later the same stream of golden flames shot out from the fan and engulfed a slightly bigger piece of concrete and reduced it to ashes. "You did it pigeon boy! Well I guess I can''t call you that anymore , let me see...I know! I dub thee fan boy! So you did it fan boy!" Fan boy was clearly irritated by his new name as he said, "My name isn''t pigeon boy or fan boy, it is Barabiel. Use it." I thought about it but Barabiel was just too weird sounding, "Yeah, that''s not gonna work. How about I call you Barry instead?" Barry sighed heavily , "You are going to call me that whether I agree to it or not, aren''t you?" "You catch on quick Barry, welcome to the team." Barry grumbled under his breath but I caught a few words,"......too bad the flames can''t burn her...." I''m just going to pretend I didn''t hear that. chapter ninety four - the world changes Chapter ninety four That day the universe changed forever. All over the world people woke up to find a world that was fundamentally different from the one they had fallen asleep in. They felt the change in the air, there was something there that wasn''t just nitrogen, oxygen, or any other gas. They couldn''t see it nor could they smell it, no they felt it as a wave of goosebumps going up and down their bodies, they noticed it as a tingle on the back of their necks , some previously dormant part of their soul recognized it and that caused a shiver inducing shock to go up and down their spines. Most people discounted these feelings as a result of the cold or just their active imaginations but some people were different, for them it was the start of something life changing. For some it would be wondrous, a source of happiness and boundless beauty. For others it would be terrifying, a source of pain and unimaginable suffering, but for those with ambition in their hearts and greed on their minds it was a gateway to incredible power, a way to get what they wanted , be it money, more power over others , or revenge against those who they thought had wronged them... ....the deep black darkness of the winter night had settled over the city of New York like the thickest of velvet blankets but New York was the city that never sleeps and the many lights of the city warded off the unnatural darkness. One of these lights came from a twenty four hour convenience store, inside of the empty store an Indian woman named Charvi was mopping up some puke in one of the isles, just another normal night in the convenience store. She was just finishing up when she heard the ''ding-ding'' of the automatic doors opening. It wasn''t uncommon to have a customer this late at night, it was a twenty four hour store after all, but when she saw that the man who entered the store was wearing a hockey mask and brandishing a gun , she knew that this was no customer. The man pointed the gun at her husband who was behind the counter and ordered him to give hand over all the money in the cash register. Charvi could only look on as their hard earned money was taken away. In her mind thoughts of her mortgage payments, her children''s tuition fees and other expenses flashed through her mind. As the bitter realization that they would probably have to ask for money from their relatives to make it through the month sunk in she couldn''t help but curse under her breath . When the English curses she used just weren''t enough to express her anger, she turned to her native language but her parents had been careful not to curse in front of her when she was young. The only curse she knew was one that her grandmother used to say. Not even knowing the meaning of the words she was speaking she muttered the rough sounding words with all the anger in her soul. The masked man who had finished his robbery took a couple of cigarettes and was about to exit the store when a translucent snake appeared out of thin air and wrapped around him before ripping his neck out then vanishing back into thin air leaving behind the bleeding wide eyed corpse of the robber and two wide eyed store clerks... ....It was a bright sunny day in Istanbul Turkey. A single father whose wife had died in a car accident only a year before was taking his young seven year old daughter to the playground in the park. Life had been difficult for Ishmael and his daughter Fatima since the passing of his wife but he tried his best to eke out a living while taking care of his only daughter. That day he was pushing her on the swing when his mobile phone rang. He took a few steps away from the noisy playground to talk to one of his precious few customers. He made sure that he kept an eye on Fatima at all times as he talked on the phone so he had a clear view as his daughter continue to swing higher and higher by bending and straightening her legs, he saw as one of the screws on the poorly constructed swings come loose, releasing the swing that Fatima was on and launching her like a catapult. He dropped his phone and started running desperately towards his daughter knowing in his heart that he would never make it in time to save her but incredibly Fatima suddenly reversed her trajectory in midair and slowly floated down into his arms. He didn''t even question the impossible thing that had happened, he was just happy that his daughter was giggling happily and was safe in his arms... You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ....in the outskirts of Addis Ababa the capital city of Ethiopia a young couple entered a fancy house that looked out of place in the ramshackle neighborhood. Once inside they were warmly welcomed by many middle aged women who offered them coffee and other snacks. They were led into a room that was filled with smoke and through the smoke they could just make out the outline of a man. They sincerely begged the witchdoctor, because that is what the man was pretending to be, to help them get a child. They had been trying for many months but were unable to conceive. They begged the great Tamerat for his help. Tamerat was just a swindler, he took all of their money and performed a fake ceremony to ''make them more fertile''. He had seen the ceremony on the internet and thought it was cool so he decided to use it today. Unfortunately for Tamerat the ceremony he was performing wasn''t fake and after he was finished he fell onto the ground and started to convulse because he felt as if something was eating him from the inside. The couple didn''t try to help because they had heard stories of Tamrat''s ceremonies and how people who interrupted would get cursed. They patiently waited until he stopped convulsing and got back on his feet but they noticed that his eyes had changed color from black to a glowing light brown. They assumed that this was also a normal part of Tamrat''s ceremony but what they couldn''t have guessed was that Tamrat was long gone , replaced by something ancient and powerful.... .....in a comic-con convention being held in Montreal , a group of teenagers that were usually beat up and bullied because they were ''nerds'' were playing an epic game of dungeons and dragons that they created themselves, it combined elements of several video games and books plus it was played by larping. They had been so detail oriented when they created their game that they even used ''real'' magic circles from the internet. When they drew said circles on the floor using chalk they attracted the attention of a powerful being that was slumbering in the ether. This powerful being looked on these mortals through the connection that the magic circle created and at first he considered destroying them but he found their game to be quite entertaining. After they finished he thought that it would be a shame if the game ended and granted them all the powers of their characters so that he could continue to observe their ''games''... .....in the dark depths of the red forest inside of Chernobyl Russia, something evil and sinister stirred restlessly as it felt something familiar while it slept... just for kicks, contest A reader pointed out that it might be fun to open this side post so that you guys can post short stories of your own similar to the small snippets I did last chapter, just write any story about the awakening of magic and if I think it would mesh well with the overall story I''ll add it in. chapter ninety five - ignore Chapter ninety five On my way back to the basement where I had stashed Delilah and the crew of the fallen plane I saw survivors struggling out of the rubble of several buildings where they seemed to have miraculously weathered through this cataclysmic event. They all looked dirty and most had small injuries,mostly just cuts and bruises here and there, but the fact that they made it through at all was quite remarkable. I quickly ripped off a long piece of my leather jacket then pocked two holes into it to make an improvised mask before going down to the survivors and helping them out of their wrecked homes. I healed their injuries and reassured them that the demons and angels were gone for good and will never come back. I gave them words of encouragement before moving on to the next survivor. After I was finished helping yet another victim of this horrific event I heard a voice coming from my fan so I took it out of my belt where I had stuffed it because I needed the use of both hands to lift rocks and pull people out of tight spaces. The fan where I had placed Barry''s soul in had been changed by the process, it was now a solid golden color as if it was made from pure gold. It was still made from the same super special plastic material and felt the same but its color had changed from silvery blue to golden. As I looked at the golden fan Barry''s voice floated out from it, "Is this how you normally are or is this just another act?" "Why do you assume that me being a monster and me being a good caring person can''t both be true? Do you really think that helping people and doing bad things are mutually exclusive?" "No, I understand the concept of punishment... or at least I did..." "Don''t worry Barry, there are going to be plenty of days when we just go out and save people or just heal them but there are also days when we will be forced to do terrible unimaginable things because it is the only way to meliorate a harsh situation. When that time comes I hope that you do not hesitate to help me do these terrible things." If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. We flew the rest of the way in silence as Barry digested my words. After a few minutes I finally reached the place where I had left Delilah. She was outside waiting for me instead of in the basement like I had told her and the moment I touched down in the courtyard of the demolished mansion she wrapped me up in her arms and legs and even her tail as if she would never let me go. "What took you so long? I thought that something had happened to you!" "Sorry about that, we were helping out some survivors and the time sort of flew by. Is everyone alright here?" "Everyone is fine, they are in the basement playing uno with a deck of cards they found in an old box. Wait ,what do you mean we? And where is pigeon boy? Did he go back home?" I showed her the golden fan and said, "This is pigeon boy, although he no longer goes by that name. He is now called Barry." She looked at the fan for a second then turned back to me, "Um..that''s a fan." I rolled my eyes at her, "I know that''s a fan captain obvious, Barry is the fan." Barry decided to join the conversation,"Technically I think I am in the fan, not the fan." Delilah jumped back in shock while staring at the fan,"Did that fan just talk to me?" I snickered at her reaction, "It''s not just a fan, it''s the former pigeon boy. I put his soul in the fan to save his life." "Wait, are you saying that the angel is in there?" "Yup." "Does that mean that we can''t do that thing with the two fans anymore." "Not without traumatizing the angel, no." The perplexed and curious voice of Barry interrupted our rapid back and forth, "What thing are you two talking about?" Both Delilah and I suddenly found our finger nails very interesting and started inspecting them closely as we splendidly ignored Barry''s question. chapter ninety six - Kim Chapter ninety six Barry eventually stopped asking what the ''thing'' Delilah and I were talking about was so we went to the basement to fetch the crew of the fallen plane. We entered the dark and damp basement through the doorway which was one of the few surviving structures in the ruined mansion. The room was filled with cardboard boxes which we navigated through with some difficulty until we found the people we were looking for. The two pilots and the two hostesses were sitting on upturned boxes around what looked like an old rusted table with a candle on it , playing cards just like Delilah said they were. As soon as we entered the circle of light illuminated by the candle they noticed us but all of them except for Kim didn''t seem to care that much about our presence one way or the other but Kim jumped up and run towards me like I was a long lost sibling, "Raven, you made it back! And you stopped the apocalypse! You are so awesome. OMG is that a new fan? I have never seen you holding a golden fan before. Is that what you used to defeat the angels and demons? Was it hard to defeat all those enemies? Can you tell me what exactly happened?" I swear to God if she had a tail it would have been wagging as she stared up at me with a worshipful gaze. Although the others were ignoring us at first , they were now staring at us suspiciously. It seems that all the work that Delilah had done to hypnotize them into thinking that Sophia and Raven were two different people had just gone down the drain. Delilah sighed and dragged the three of them to the corner to redo the hypnosis while I took Kim aside to talk to her, "Hey Kim, do you mind if I ask you for a favor?" She smiled beatifically at me as if I had just told her she just won a million dollars, "Of course you can, I will do anything for you." A pretty young Asian girl just told me she would do anything for me, my mind automatically went into the gutter and for a second I had trouble dragging it back out but eventually I managed to get my mind back on the topic at hand and continue the conversation, "I need you to promise me to never mention the fact that I am the raven or Persephone. Do you remember the monster I fought in Oslo? Well there are more evil creatures like him who would hurt my friends and family if they found out. They could be anywhere so I need you to keep this a secret from everyone, you cannot even tell your friends or family or you will be putting me and my family in grave danger. Can I count on you to be my friend and keep my secret identity hidden?" This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. She turned serious as she heard the contents and the tone of what I just said, "Alright Raven, I mean Alright Sophia. I promise to never divulge your secret." I leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, "Thank you Kim, you shall forever have my gratitude. If you ever need any help feel free to call me at any time, I will be happy to help a friend." I might have hammed it up a bit but it was obviously the right thing to do. The way her eyes were sparkling with tears in them and her breathing had become short and quick I knew that my little speech had a deep impact on her and she would probably never reveal my secret even if she was tortured. I left the hyperventilating woman behind and went back outside to see what was going on. The clouds had cleared up and the sun was shining , apparently this made the military feel safe enough to send helicopters to rescue survivors because I saw several helicopters canvassing the city area. They looked military and had the blue flag of the EU and the insignia of NATO on them. Once in a while a helicopter would find someone and it would hover above that area while soldiers would zip line down ropes to help people up rope ladders or in some cases attach gurneys to pulley up those too injured to use the ladders. They were swift and efficient in the way only highly trained people could be and were doing a good job from what I was seeing. I really didn''t want to tangle with the military right now but it seemed that I had little choice in the matter because one of the nearby choppers seemed to have noticed me and was flying in my direction. chapter ninety seven - helicopter ride Chapter ninety seven I went back down to the basement and after a whispered reminder to Kim about not revealing my secret , all six of us went out into the now sunny day and waited for the helicopter to get to us. A few minutes later the gray helicopter was directly above us and the wind from the rotor started pushing down on us , forcing us to bend down our body a little and hold on to our clothes so that they didn''t flap around too violently ,a rope and a rope ladder descended from a wide open sliding door on the side of the helicopter and a soldier zipped down the rope and rushed towards us shouting to be heard over the loud roar of the helicopter''s rotors , "Is anybody hurt? Does anybody need a gurney or immediate medical help?" The soldier was wearing full gear including a helmet , a bullet proof vest with several pouches for ammunition, hell he was even wearing damn googles. I had no idea what he looked like but soul sight showed me that he wasn''t supernatural so I was going to assume he is just a normal soldier, "We are all okay, we just need a ride out of here." "That''s why we are here ma''am. Can you use the rope ladder to climb to the helicopter or do you need help?" "I think we can manage." I sent the others first and used my powers to make sure nothing bad happened then I followed last. Climbing a rope ladder while the wind is buffeting you is tricky but it wasn''t the hardest thing in the world. I finally made it into the helicopter, inside it wasn''t exactly roomy but it wasn''t cramped either. There were two benches against each side of the chopper, I took a seat next to Delilah on the right bench and strapped myself in. The soldier came in after I had settled into my seat, after checking that all of us were properly strapped in he closed the sliding door and I felt the helicopter tilt as we started moving forward. The soldier then handed all of us really large headphones so that we could hear each other over the sound of the propellers, I donned the almost comically large noise canceling headphones and his voice came out loud and clear through them, "I am Ensign Claus Hofmann, NATO has decided to evacuate everybody from this area as quickly as possible so we are airlifting everybody we can to a specially built facility near Munich in Germany where you will be given shelter, food and other basic amenities while you are being debriefed." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I was getting that tingly feeling in the back of my neck again, the one that indicated that something wasn''t quite right, "How long do you plan on keeping us in this ''facility'' of yours?" "Don''t worry about it ma''am, although this catastrophe had caught most of us by surprise I have heard that some people have been working in secret to protect us from the supernatural and now they have stepped forward to help us. I heard that they were the ones that defeated the demons and angels. They told us that some of the creatures can pretend to be human so they will be the ones checking if anything is trying to escape while pretending to be human." I had a feeling I knew who these ''saviors'' were, "Do these people have a name?" "Yeah, actually they do. They call themselves the Templars. Do you remember that thing back in Oslo with Adonis and Raven fighting that monster? Well it seems that the two of them are Templar agents." I tried to remain calm but I couldn''t stop myself from grinding my teeth as I felt absolute rage bubbling up inside of me. Those bastards were taking credit for everything that I did and ingratiating themselves to the government. They are even claiming that I was one of their agents? I was so pissed that I felt like a suppressed volcano. The soldier spoke through my headphones,"Are you alright miss, you are starting to turn a little red." I quickly replied, "I don''t like flying that much , it makes me nauseous." "I hear you, flying isn''t for everyone especially in helicopters. Nothing to be ashamed of, in fact one of my best friends is afraid of flying in the helos. We used to be in the same unit until I was transferred here, he is one of the best soldiers I have ever had the pleasure of working beside, once while we were deployed in Afghanistan...." As the chatty soldier regaled us with storied about his friend in what I think was an attempt to get me to forget about my nausea we continued our journey towards Munich. Meanwhile I continued to fume in rage as I considered what I should do next. chapter ninety eight - the hunger Chapter ninety eight We eventually reached our destination and landed on what appeared to be the only clear space in a sea of tents , we had barely left the helicopter when we were hustled away by a group of six soldiers. We were then led to a small rectangle of unoccupied space then the soldiers gave us two of our own tents and helped us set them up . Before they left they gave us six rolled up sleeping bags and a large duffle bag with a bright number six written on it with red marker. When I looked inside the bag there were basic toiletries, some food in Tupperware containers and bottles of water. Looking at the stuff I was taking out of the bag it was obvious that they planned on keeping us in this place for a considerable amount of time, I mean they even put feminine hygiene care products in here. I riffled through the stuff until I found a sheet of paper. It was a typed out letter that said, Dear Sir or Ma''am, We are sorry for the horrible events that had happened to cause you to be here today. You have our deepest condolences for all that you have had to go through. We are also sorry that our accommodations have been very poor so far , we shall relocate you to a more comfortable location as soon as possible but there are some security concerns that we have to address for your own safety. It may seem like we are trying to keep out refugees from our country but this could not be further from the truth, in fact you shall be given unrestricted access to relocate anywhere in the EU except for Switzerland and parts of eastern France that had been quarantined for safety reasons. We hope that your stay here is short and relatively comfortable. All of you shall receive a heat retaining sleeping bag to keep you warm at night and care packages. These care packages should contain enough toiletries for six people, thick scarves and blankets, your first meal(our cafeteria hasn''t been set up yet so please bear with us) and a simple booklet of rules that you have to follow in this camp. It is highly recommended that you read the booklet but the rules boil down to being considerate and obeying the soldiers that will patrol the camp. These soldiers are not your wardens and this is not a prison. The soldiers are there to keep everyone safe. Feel free to talk to them and ask them questions but please do not hinder them from doing their duty. We hope that your stay here is brief and uneventful, Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Welcome to Camp Bayern, Lieutenant General Kurt Muller. It seemed that the Templars needed time to set up their operations and they were stalling which meant that it was a perfect time for me to throw a wrench into their plans but first I needed to scope out the place, I doubt that taking a stroll around the camp was forbidden so I decided to do that. I looked up from the letter to see four people staring at the Tupper ware containers with ravenous expressions. I quickly handed them out to them and the plastic forks that came with them. They ignored the forks and used their bare hands to quickly devoured what looked like mashed potatoes , sweet peas and some sort of meat. For a second I was transfixed watching them rip through the food like hungry wolves, it wasn''t surprising that the burly pilots were eating like this but the small and dainty looking hostesses were keeping up with them bite for bite. As I stood there watching , the six Tupper ware containers full of food were reduced to just six empty and slightly damaged Tupper ware containers. I looked over to my right and made eye contact with Delilah who also had a wide eyed look of shock on her face, "Sophia?" "Yes?" "Wasn''t that meant for all of us?" "Yes." "What are we going to eat?" "We''ll have to wait for the next meal." "But what if the same thing happens next time?" "I don''t know Delilah, all I know is that I''m not going to get in between these four and food. Maybe we could look for some food? Which reminds me, I''m going to check this place out , want to come?" "Sure, its not like I have anything better to do and who knows ? If we find a secluded area you can ''feed'' me and I wouldn''t have to fight for scraps with these lot." "Really Delilah? You are using this as an excuse to get laid? Are you really horny? Now?" She bared her pearly white teeth in a devilish grin before walking towards me and interlocking her arm with mine. She led me out of our small camp while she leaned into me and whispered into my ears, "Sophia dearest, I''m a succubus. I''m always horny." chapter ninety nine - stalker Chapter ninety nine I took leaves out of my hair as I fixed my blouse into the appropriate position so that my boobs weren''t lopsided. I dusted off my trouser and looked back into the bushes where Delilah was laying on a bed of leaves, she hadn''t bothered to cover herself up and she looked like something out of a playboy magazine. For a second I considered going right a back into the bushes to continue what we were doing but a couple of things stopped me, for one thing I needed to be scoping out the base instead of spending all my time with my girlfriend. Second and most importantly, I was sure that the soldier standing board straight a few meters away had caught the last few minutes of our frolicking. I''m sure that he would have been trilled if we continued to have fun but I didn''t like being watched, I am as kinky as the next girl but exhibitionism just didn''t do it for me so I dusted myself off and told Delilah to dress up and go back to our camp before I took off on my own. For a few minutes I just prowled around the quickly filling up camp of people. As I passed I would surreptitiously heal the wounded from a distance. I eventually made it to the other side of the camp and found a chicken fence surrounding the camp. At first I thought that it was a little too flimsy to hold anybody back until I saw a pigeon land on it and get instantly turned into a charred piece of meat before falling onto the ground. Apparently the fence had a serious amount of electricity running through it. I followed the fence around the whole camp and found that the entire place was ringed with the fence. There were only four exits , one located at each cardinal point of the compass , one in the east , one in the west, one to the south and the last and the largest at the north end of the camp. Each of these entrances were carefully guarded, there was serious military presence at each of these points and by military presence I meant not only armed troops but armored vehicles and even tanks. Outside of the northern gate I noticed a group of large buses that looked more like trains on wheels, they looked similar to to RVs but if possible even larger. As the only place with air-conditioning and heating for miles around I concluded that the buses where probably the place where I would find the big wigs and that meant that it was also the most likely place that I would find the templars, problem was the buses where outside of the heavily guarded gate so it wasn''t like I could simply waltz out and check. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Unable to do anything else I decided to return back to the camp. On my way back I noticed somebody following me from the corner of my eyes , on closer inspection it turned out to be one of the soldiers. I went over to him and pretended to need assistance so that I could see what he was up to, "I''m sorry sir, can you help me? We run out of food in our camp and we need some more, is there any way that I can get some food? I have looked all around the camp but I have not been able to find any kitchens or places that serve food." The soldier''s reaction was not what I expected, I thought that he might get a little shifty or even play the whole thing off like it was normal but instead his skin turned an incredible shade of red as he started to blush furiously, then he started to stutter terribly with a heavy German accent, "....ma''am....that is ...um...we are working on you...er , I mean it...we are working on it.." The soldier was beginning to hyperventilate and I was starting to get worried about him, "Are you alright dude? You look a little flustered. Calm down a little." He mumbled something incomprehensible in German that I couldn''t understand then started fidgeting on the spot. "Do you need some help? You don''t look so good." Then I noticed something strange , the soldier refused to look me in the eyes. In fact his eyes were planted somewhere a little south, firmly on my breasts, "Um...why are you staring at my breasts?" When I said that the soldier stumbled back like I had burned him then he quickly turned away from me and ran away without saying another word. After my strange encounter with the soldier I was on my way back to our camp when I remembered the soldier that we had accidentally given a show to in the bushes, then it all clicked. The soldier I had just talked to was probably that same soldier, that was probably why he was acting so weird. It was a bit creepy that he was following me around afterwards but he didn''t seem malicious, just sexually repressed. I didn''t know whether I should feel sorry for the poor guy or report him to somebody. chapter one hundred - curiosity killed the cat Chapter One hundred By the time I got back to our camp the sun was already setting but there were large flood lights installed periodically throughout the base and they illuminated everything so it wasn''t like it was dark or anything so I was able to find our camp just fine. I had only just arrived at the clearing where we had set up our tents when I saw something strange. It was a trail of lime green light that was drifting through the air like smoke. I looked around to see if anybody else had noticed it but nobody else seemed to be able to see the glowing stuff that was floating in the air. For a second I considered ignoring the trail, I mean a trail of magical smoke that only I could see left at the entrance to my camp? I wasn''t stupid, the chances that it was a coincidence and didn''t have anything to do with me were so miniscule that it was pointless to even consider it. The more likely scenario was that the trail of light was left for me on purpose, now the question was do I follow the trail that was now fading away to what could very well be a trap for me or do I just let it go. The wise decision would be to let it go, in fact it would be downright stupid to follow the trail when I had so little information about it but as the mysterious green substance became even more faint I found myself following the trail of light as it meandered through the sea of tents. Everybody knows the saying ''curiosity killed the cat'' , well you can slap a tail on me and call me kitten because even though I knew it was not a good idea I kept following the light like a cat following the red dot produced by a laser pointer. Finally I arrived at the source of the trail of magical light and it wasn''t what I expected, it wasn''t a monster or some enemy waiting for me with a rocket launcher or something like that. The trail of light ended at the butt of a cigarette and that cigarette was being held by an odd looking man. He was a short man of Asian descent wearing an brown suit that was the color of fresh earth. Underneath the suit he had a revolting pink shirt with ruffles and a comically tiny bowler hat sat crooked on his speckled black and gray hair. His face was slightly wrinkled especially at the corner of his eyes which were a very mundane brown color. He looked like any normal sixty year old man with a terrible fashion sense. But as I have found out in the past looks could be deceiving so I used my soul sight to scan him. I immediately had to stop using my soul sight because it was like staring straight into the sun, I was nearly blinded by the amount of energy this creature was shedding, whatever he may be this man was definitely not a normal sexagenarian. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. He took a deep pull from the cigarette and blew out a ring of glowing green smoke before he said, "It''s rude to stare you know." The ring of glowing smoke traveled all the way to me without breaking apart. When it came into contact with me it suddenly burst into a cloud that surrounded me, after the cloud of smoke cleared away I saw that I was in a room with plush red carpets, two comfortable chairs with overstuffed cushions and a fireplace with a roaring fire in it. The room didn''t have any walls or a roof, there was only complete darkness at the boundaries of the room. The elderly Asian man that I had seen earlier was sitting on one of the chairs smoking the same cigarette and holding a glass of amber liquid with his right hand. He gestured towards the empty chair with his glass and said, "What did I just say about staring? Now take a seat, make yourself comfortable. Do you want some whisky? Or maybe a smoke?" I was still reeling from the sudden change in scenery so all I could do was shoot out questions in a panicky voice, "Where are we? Who are you? What do you want from me?" The man sighed and shook his head in disappointment, "You young ones are always in such a hurry, you should learn to slow down a little. Take a seat and I''ll answer your questions impatient one." I cautiously approached the chair and gingerly sat on it. It was warm, comfortable and most important of all nothing came out of it to attack or restrain me. The Asian man looked at me with a raised eyebrow and smiled sardonically, "Did you really think that the chair was booby trapped?" I just fidgeted nervously and avoided making eye contact with him. He continued on when I refused to answer him, "Alright, if you are unwilling to have a polite conversation then I will get straight to the point. First let me answer your questions. The answer to your first question is that we are in a place apart from the physical world, a bubble dimension I created so that we could have a private conversation without being disturbed. As for who I am, that is a little bit more difficult to answer accurately but you could say that I am Lucifer the ruler of hell and the reason I have brought you here is because I need your help." Sorry again... Some things have come up in real life that will slow down my release speed considerably. I know that my release speed is already slow because I have been working on five books simultaneously while editing the heretic but now the releases are going to be sporadic, if they happen at all. I will try to work as hard as possible so that the stories don''t stagnate but some serious shit is going on in my life so I''m not sure how successful I''ll be. Things should go back to normal in about two weeks to a month but until then please be patient. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Sorry for being such a flaker. Sorry again... Some things have come up in real life that will slow down my release speed considerably. I know that my release speed is already slow because I have been working on five books simultaneously while editing the heretic but now the releases are going to be sporadic, if they happen at all. I will try to work as hard as possible so that the stories don''t stagnate but some serious shit is going on in my life so I''m not sure how successful I''ll be. Things should go back to normal in about two weeks to a month but until then please be patient. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Sorry for being such a flaker. chapter one hundred and one - the mission Chapter one hundred one "I think I will have that whisky now." Being kidnapped to another dimension was bad enough but when the super powerful being who kidnapped you tells you that he is Lucifer aka the devil aka one of the scariest people mentioned in the bible, that is when you know that your day has gone down the crapper. The slightly older Asian gentle man in the god awful corteroid suit who I now knew was the prince of hell conjured a glass of amber liquid out of thin air and gave it to me. I''m Russian so I knew a thing or two about liquor and drinking. I have downed many drinks in recent years although I was technically under the legal drinking age so when I drank the whole glass of whisky in one shot it wasn''t because I was a novice but because I have had experience doing the same thing countless times before. My confidence turned out to be misguided because apparently the devil drinks whisky that was a little bit stronger than the ones on earth. How strong? Well it lit my throat on fire going down and I felt like my stomach was burning as what I can only describe as rocket fuel sloshed around in it. I coughed violently for a couple of seconds then said with a hoarse voice, "....smooth." Lucifer just rolled his eyes , "That isn''t how you should drink whisky, especially this whisky. This is one of the finest vintages I have in my collection, it was brewed by master brewers who were experts at their craft and has been aged to perfection for hundreds of years. This right here represents years of work and a very long term investment. You should savor the fruits of a hundred years of waiting not burn yourself with it by swigging it like a soda pop." My voice was still hoarse so my response just came out as whizzing hisses. "Did you burn your throat? Can''t talk anymore? Good, then you should listen. What I am about to tell you very few people know so I would suggest you rest your throat as you learn one of the greatest secrets in existence, the origin of everything." He slowly took a sip from his glass, "The different branches of different churches fight like wild dogs over each verse of the bible, each word is contested and analyzed , each line turned into a battlefield where ''theological experts'' fight to win the hearts and minds of the masses. But even as they wage theological battle on many fronts there are some things that they all agree on. One of these things is Genesis 1:1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Funny enough this particular verse is wrong, in the beginning God didn''t create the heavens and the earth. In the beginning God created himself." He stood up from his chair and started pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace, the fire behind him transforming the mundane and badly dressed man into a dark silhouette as he wove a tale that was older than time itself while I listened spellbound by his words, "I want you to try something. Imagine nothing. You can imagine the absence of matter, that is easy. You can also imagine the absence of light, also not very challenging but can you imagine the absence of space? Can you imagine the absence of time? It is impossible, it is beyond anything that you can comprehend. I have seen the true void and it nearly destroyed me. Just a glance and I nearly fell apart, it broke something in me and it led to my downfall , but that comes later. Right now we are talking about the birth of God. God was born in a place where there was nothing, less than nothing. He created himself, simply came into existence for no reason at all, how you ask? Because he was a spark, like you Sophia. Sparks are anomalies, they just are. They aren''t created, they aren''t caused by anything, they can''t even be predicted. And in the absolute void one of these anomalies occurred, the being that you call God. He must have found the absolute nothingness boring because he looked inside of himself and started having random thoughts. " If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He paused again to take another sip before continuing, "That is the greatest secret, everything you see around you is but a dream in the mind of the creator. He created everything and as everything came to be he felt alone. He created things to entertain himself but they were nothing but toys that did what he told them to do so he decided to create beings he had no control over, he took pieces of himself and created souls. He created a paradise for the souls and happily watched as his children play in the garden of eden. That was when I was born, the second spark to ever come into existence. I was born in the garden of eden and grew up among the happy souls. For a while I was happy but then my own curiosity and foolhardiness made me ignore God''s warning and I left the confines of eden to look at the void." He stopped for a second, then drained his whole glass in one go and threw the glass into the fireplace making it shatter violently into little pieces," I was an idiot. I saw the void and it made me feel how insignificant I was. I was scared and that made me angry. I felt jealous of God who could exist in such a place. Instead of fixing my own shortcomings I lashed out, I taught the souls in Eden about things that God hadn''t in a bid to make myself feel important but it just turned out to be another stupid mistake. Immediately after I taught them about greed, lust , envy, pride,gluttony, wrath and greed Eden turned from a paradise to a nightmare. The souls that I had loved and called family turned on each other and in the midst of the chaos all I could do was watch. Finally after seeing a dear friend get extinguished I attempted to undo what I had done but I didn''t have the power to do so and I failed miserably. The attempt caused me to shatter into countless pieces. God returned from wherever he had been to find his paradise in ruins and me in pieces. Long story short he created the physical realms where he ''clothed'' the souls in mortal bodies. He then gathered all my pieces and made the demons from them, a breed designed to consume the sin that a soul has accumulated during its mortal life span. I , as the largest piece left from the spark, retained my memory but I was the only a diminished shadow of what I had once been." By the time he was finished with his story my throat had recovered somewhat but my voice was still hoarse when I said,"Why are you telling me this?" "Because you need to know that I am not your enemy. I am the ruler of hell but that doesn''t make me evil , in fact I am more akin to a guardian of the physical realm. I protect the balance and I need your help to save everything in existence. I believe you know Marcus Fairweather? Well he has an estranged son called John Fairweather. In four days Marcus is going to be making a play for John." "And you want me to save this John person?" Lucifer sighed heavily and looked straight into my eyes. "No, I want you to kill him." chapter one hundred and two - making a choice Chapter one hundred and two "Is this John guy evil? Is he one of the Atelli?" I have killed a lot of things and done a lot of unspeakable acts, I''m not exactly a saint at this point. But I have never directly killed an innocent person. Even when all those people died in Norway because of my boneheaded mistake I felt terrible , so when Lucifer asked me to kill this man the first thing I asked was ask why. Lucifer didn''t reply immediately, instead he sighed and turned his back to me to stare into the fireplace. The long pause was annoying me so I prompted him once more, "Well is he one of the bad guys or not? If he isn''t one of the bad guys then why do you want me to kill him?" "...John isn''t a bad person. In fact he is the opposite of a bad person. Lifetime after lifetime he has been cursed with the worst luck. In his first life he was murdered by his brother, in his second life he lost his wife and children to the plague, third life he was a betrayed by his friends and left destitute. Throughout the ages John has been through more shit than anybody else and even in this life he was born cerebral palsy which has robbed him of the ability to walk or even feel sensations properly. But throughout all his lives of misery and pain there has been one amazing fact about John, he never gave up. He remains one of the purest souls in all of creation. You can ask Delilah about him if you want, John is a legend in hell. Everybody , even the demons of envy, root for him when he gets reincarnated." "So why are you telling me to kill the nicest guy in creation?" Lucifer''s voice suddenly deepened and turned into an angry growl as he said,"Because of a two bit egomaniac who calls himself the fate weaver. The pompous asshole is a spark, well he used to be a spark of great power but great power wasn''t enough for him so he hatched a plan and used his powers to set it into motion. You know how you are able to manipulate probability? Well ,he could do that at a grand scale. After making sure everything was just right , he voluntarily shattered himself into millions of pieces, similar to what happened to me but he did it in a controlled and methodical way so that all of his consciousness was in one place. The small pieces of him turned into what you now call the Atelli and he became their leader. With his powers greatly diminished there was nothing holding him back from crossing into the physical realm and getting to John." "But why would he give up all of his power to go after one guy?" "Because he is after knowledge. Sparks are nothing but thoughts, they grow by learning. John''s soul is not only pure but it has also been forged into something almost unbreakable because of all the shit he has been through. Like coal being compressed into diamond by the hellish heat and pressure found deep beneath the ground, his soul is now something quite special. But ''the weaver'' didn''t go after him in this lifetime by chance, in this lifetime John manages to change his body to be receptive to the powers of creation itself and because of his special soul only he will be able to withstand these powers. Not only will he eventually have great power but he will also be able to see into the nature of creation and learn whatever he wants, now do you see why he should not be allowed to survive?" Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. "So let me get this straight, if this ''weaver'' guy gets John he will have unlimited access to all thoughts in existence and since thoughts translate directly to power he will have unlimited power?" "Not only ''the weaver'', if any of the Atelli or God forbid, one of the soul benders get to John , then they would get powerful enough to break the rules set by God to protect the physical world." "But why do you need me? Why don''t you do it yourself?" "Because these same rules stop me from interfering with the physical realms, the only reason I am even able to talk to you is because you are a spark." I thought about the situation for a few minutes as I sat there in silence then after a few minutes of arguing with myself I made a decision, "Alright Lucifer, I''ll help you." "So you will kill John?" "No, I will stop the weaver. I can''t kill John for the reasons you have given me, but I will try to find a way to protect him from the things you have mentioned." "You are making a grave mistake Sophia, he will eventually fall into a malicious person''s hands and that will be the doom of us all." "I''ll make sure that doesn''t happen. If I truly believe that I can''t protect him then I will kill him, but I can''t kill an innocent man just because someone might use him for something evil." Lucifer sighed again before turning back to me and looking straight into my eyes,"Fine, I know that I can''t change your mind. Goodbye Sophia, I wish you luck on your impossible task. The fate of all the universes and the rest of creation rests on your shoulder." Everything around me suddenly started to dissolve into green glowing smoke , even the chair under me. "And as a parting gift, I would advice you to look at how Delilah uses her shape shifting powers. For a person who is trying to conceal their identity I believe that such a power would be quite handy." As Lucifer''s voice faded , I fell through the green smoke that used to be a chair and fell on my ass. The smoke faded away to reveal that I was back at the refugee camp.
Shock drone, I believe that I owe you only one more chapter. chapter one hundred and three - smith again Chapter one hundred and three After that rather strange meeting with the ruler of hell, I was making my way back to the clearing where we had set up camp when I ran into a group of soldiers being led by a very familiar person. The close cut military haircut, the clich¨¦ black suit and the dark sunglasses that looked even more ridiculous because he was wearing them in the middle of the night, his whole look screaming that he was a secret agent or at least he was playing one in a movie. It was the same man who had questioned me in Norway about the late senator, the imaginatively named Agent Smith. "Ms Belikova, funny running into you here. What are you doing in Germany, in the middle of this refugee camp?" I raised an eyebrow at him, "Agent Smith? I didn''t know that this was CIA jurisdiction. Maybe I should be the one asking you what you are doing here." He opened his mouth to speak but he was interrupted by a woman in military uniform who was pointing some machine at me. It was the size of a small calculator but despite its diminutive size it was flashing brightly and making an annoying shrill noise. The soldier immediately put her other hand on the handgun she had holstered at her hip and shouted,"Sir, I think she is one of them." Agent Smith took a few quick steps so that he was standing between her and me. He turned to face her and barked out a short command, "Stand down soldier." An older man who was standing next to her put his hand on the shoulder of the woman who seemed to be hesitant on whether or not she should listen to Agent Smith''s order, but after the man put his hand on her shoulder she relaxed visibly. I could almost see the tension drain out of her. "Smith, is she one of yours? I thought that you had told me about all of your operatives, I don''t remember her being on the list." The man was obviously important, I might not have been well versed in military uniforms but the many stars on his shoulder made that clear but even if he was going buck naked down the street he would still have that unique aura that only men in power possessed. I guessed that his age was around forty, he barely had any wrinkles and his blonde hair hid any gray hairs if he had any. If it wasn''t for his overbearing demeanor I would have thought he was a beach bum in a uniform. "General, she is not one of ours but she is a potential recruit. In addition to that she is the granddaughter of Victor Usmanov, the Victor Usmanov. Killing her will only incur his wrath." Smith''s reply was respectful but insistent. The blond man who was apparently a general narrowed his eyes and studied me carefully,"Are you saying that she is the granddaughter of the frost dragon?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. "Yes." "Does that mean he is supernatural too? He is not a real dragon is he? That is the last thing we need right now. He is bad enough as he is." "No General, dragons aren''t real. Mr Usmanov is perfectly human last time we checked. Ms Sophia here is adopted." I was getting tired of the way they were talking about me like I wasn''t even there so I decided to interrupt their little conversation, "So you are a General? Great, this will make things much easier. I''m leaving this camp tonight. I have had enough of your ''hospitality''." The General gave me a stern look, probably a look he used to intimidate and cow his people, "Ms. Sophia , I''m afraid I can''t allow that. You are being held here under special orders directly from the EU governing body. I can''t just let you out." "That may be but I am a Russian citizen. Are you saying that you are going to hold me, a Russian citizen ,without charging me or arresting me? Are you seriously saying that you are going to deprive a Russian national of her basic rights to liberty?" The General stayed silent. I could almost hear the gears in his head grind away as he weighed the consequences of his actions so I decided to help him out a little, "General, you are already in a shit storm of epic proportions. You already have enough on your plate. There is no good reason to keep me here but there are many good ones to let me go." The General sighed and turned to the woman who was about to shoot me earlier and said,"Fischer, I want you to escort Ms. Sophia here out of this camp and make sure she gets on a plane out of Europe." "Hey, what about my group? When my grandfather''s plane went down , I wasn''t alone." He sighed again, "Fine, escort Ms Sophia and her friends out of here as soon as possible." He abruptly turned around and walked away with the rest of the group following him, leaving behind the female soldier and Agent Smith who turned to me and said, "You know I said that you were adopted but I''m not so sure anymore." "What do you mean?" One side of his mouth raised up in a crooked smile before he replied, "The way you handled that reminds me of your grandfather. Well, I have to go deal with an irate General. Good night Ms Belikova." He then walked away leaving me alone with the solitary soldier who was looking at me as if I was going to turn into a monster and eat her at any moment. Chapter one hundred and four - grief Chapter one hundred and four The soldier kept staring at me with wide fearful eyes all the way back to my tent. It wouldn''t have been so bad if she didn''t insist on being a few steps behind me with her hand constantly resting on her gun. At first I tried to ignore her but I noticed her partially take out her pistol every time we passed somebody as if I was a threat to the people we were passing, that just pissed me off. I stopped walking and turned towards the antsy soldier to give her a piece of my mind only to find myself face to face with the business end of her gun. My mind immediately registered it as an emergency situation and I reacted immediately before I even had the chance to think about it as my training kicked in. I grabbed the muzzle and redirected the gun towards the sky while at the same time I used my powers to mess with the gun''s firing mechanism so that it would jam. My palm shot forward and delivered a precise blow right to her stomach which caused her diaphragm to spasm making her gasp desperately as she found herself struggling to breath. She tried to pull her gun free from my hand but that wasn''t happening. I had my legs spread open and had gotten into a horse stance, a stance I rarely used since most of my techniques need movement not stability. I lowered my torso lowering my center of gravity which simultaneously increased my stability and gave me better leverage when I flung the soldier over my shoulder in a classic judo throw. She landed on her face with me riding on top of her back. I twisted the hand she was holding her gun with behind her back. I increased the pressure on her wrist until the pain forced her to let go of the gun. Once I had the gun I got off her back and backed away from her with the gun pointed directly at her. I gave her a few minutes to regain her breath before I started shouting at her, "What the hell is your problem? Why would you point your gun at my face for no reason at all? " She didn''t reply immediately, instead she struggled until she was on all fours then spit out a mouthful of blood before she looked up at me with pure hate in her brown eyes, "You are one of the monsters, isn''t that reason enough?" "Who the fuck are you to decide that I am a monster? Do you know me? Do you know what I have done?" "I don''t need to. Smith has told us about you and your kind. You are all dangerous just like the creatures who just destroyed a part of Europe. You are all evil! Just shoot me and get it over with, just know that you won''t get out of here alive." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I was starting to think that I was talking to a crazy person, "Why the hell would I shoot you?" "You assaulted a soldier , why wouldn''t you finish the job." "No, I protected myself from an insane woman who was trying to kill me." That seemed to make her angry because she finally got on her feet and started walking towards me with her hands stretched out to the side as if she was trying to present me with a bigger target, "Stop pretending to be human! You didn''t have any problems while you killed all those people in Switzerland and France, why are you hesitating now? You didn''t have any problems killing my family." The last part was said in a whisper but I heard it anyway. The woman had apparently lost people close to her and in her grief she was looking for someone to blame. Unfortunately for me I was that someone. I wasn''t really going to shoot her so I took the cartridge out , ejected the bullet that was already in the barrel then threw the gun away which seemed to surprise her because she faltered on her way towards me and stopped when she was right in front of me. She looked at me and breathed out a single word, "Why?" I didn''t know what she was asking. Why did I throw the gun away? Why did I not kill her? Why did all this happen? Why did her family die? I didn''t know what she was asking and I don''t think she was too sure about it either but I tried to do my best to answer her, "I''m sorry about what happened to your family. I''m sorry that they got caught up in something that wasn''t their fault but that is how the world is. The world isn''t fair. Sometimes things happen for no reason and shatter our lives beyond repair but all we can do afterwards is pickup the pieces and move on. Blaming me for something I didn''t do or getting yourself killed won''t bring your family back. Just live the rest of your life as best you can and hope that you will meet them in the next life." For a second I thought that she was going to attack me but she broke down into tears instead. I closed the distance between us so that I could give her a comforting hug and as my hands moved around her , she buried her head into my chest and started to truly cry as sobs racked through her body making her shiver. I just held her close as she mourned her family. All good! Good news! Things seem to have blown over in real life and I should start updating my fics more regularly now. Thank you for being patient. Yours truly, Habeshabro This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. P.s. Please take a look at my new fic and tell me what you think. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/6863 Chapter One hundred and five - Dawn Chapter one hundred and five Once the soldier calmed down and stopped crying , she let go of me like I was hot iron and I had scalded her. She took a few steps back and murmured something under her breath that I couldn''t quite make out. I looked closely at her and noticed some things that I hadn''t noticed before because I considered her just another soldier. She was actually very cute. The hat she had been wearing had fallen off during our little scuffle and now I could clearly see that she was a woman in her early to mid twenties with a very small face, small button like nose , small pink lips and black hair that was cut in a rough pixie cut. Combined with the fact she had large almost cartoonish brown eyes and her cheeks were blushing furiously as she stared down at the ground, only one adjective could properly describe her, cute. She looked like a bisque doll someone had dressed up in a G.I. Joe costume. She noticed me staring at her and glared challengingly at me, although the effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was blushing, "What are you staring at?" I couldn''t very well tell her the truth so I quickly said, "Nothing, nothing at all." That didn''t seem to mollify her at all, "Come on, say it! Everybody else does! You think I''m too cute or dainty to be in the army!" "Calm down, I don''t think that. Was I surprised that you look so cute? Sure. Do I think you shouldn''t be in the military? No. I know for a fact that what is on the surface usually means very little. I''m sure you are a great soldier." She tilted her head to the side and opened her eyes wide in surprise , making her look positively adorable and softly asked, "Really? You aren''t just saying that?" "Look, we got off on the wrong foot so let''s start fresh. Hello, my name is Sophia. Despite everything the templars might have told you, I am not a monster. I do have some supernatural powers but I assure you that I have never used them to hurt an innocent person. It is a pleasure to meet you, even though you did try to shoot me." She looked up at me with her large brown eyes and giggled so cutely that I nearly had a cuteness overdose, "I''m sorry about that. Hi, my name is Dawn, Dawn Fischer. I am a private second class in the German army and I am a member of the squad in charge of the General''s safety, or at least I was, I''m probably getting booted off the team when I report back after I take you and your friends to the airport." "You don''t have to tell anybody about our little altercation. Here, " I picked up the gun , the fallen cartridge , and even the bullet I had ejected from the chamber. I inserted the bullet back into the cartridge, reloaded the gun and handed it back to Dawn, "Nobody saw us fight and your gun is as good as new. Nobody has to know that anything happened." The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. She gingerly took the gun and tilted her head in that cute way again, "Really?" I couldn''t help but smile at her. I grabbed her hand and pulled her along towards where my group was, "Really. Now come on, let''s get back to my camp so we can get out of here and you don''t get court marshaled for insubordination." * * * Somewhere in camp Bayern "Sir, the operation was a success. I have successfully inserted myself with the target''s group. I believe I have earned enough trust and sympathy that I should have viable information on the target before she leaves the country." "Good work Agent Dawn. You have performed very well today. But you have to remember that her companion is a succubus. She will probably try to erase your memory or brainwash you in some way, be careful." "It is alright sir, I have gone through the mind strengthening program last week. I should be fine for at least a month." "Dawn, we don''t know what kind of supernatural Sophia is. We do know that she is more powerful than most of the things we have seen. If she finds out you are betraying her.....chances are you aren''t coming back." For a few seconds there was only silence on the other end, "....I know sir. But this is a rare opportunity. I know that I should be with the general and I disobeyed your orders by risking that mission to pursue Sophia, but she is unlike anything we have ever seen before. We couldn''t let this chance pass us by." "Your initiative and bravery is commendable Agent Dawn. Good luck on your mission." "Thank you sir." With the connection terminated Agent Smith turned to his laptop and typed out- Agent Dawn has deviated from her original mission to pursue the target The Shepherd was monitoring in Norway before his sudden disappearance. I request permission to change her original mission ''project sunrise'' to following the target so that she doesn''t face any actions for insubordination. A few seconds later a single line appeared on his laptop. Permission granted. Project Sunrise has been raised to a priority level alpha mission. Good luck Agent Smith. Don''t fail me. Chapter one hundred and six - out of the frying pan... Chapter one hundred and six Dawn got out of the port-a-potty with her face flaming red with embarrassment, "I''m sorry about that Sophia, I just couldn''t hold it in any longer." I smiled reassuringly at her and said,"Don''t worry about it, everybody has to go to the toilet. You don''t have to apologize for being human. Now let''s go, we''re almost at the camp." I dragged the still blushing woman all the way to our camp where the two pilots had what looked like a can of beans heating up over an open fire while Delilah and the two hostesses were hanging out near one of the tents. I quickly introduced everybody to Dawn and told them we were leaving. Delilah immediately latched on to Dawn and started to fawn all over her but Dawn seemed strangely skittish when Delilah tried to get closer to her, I guess she really didn''t like being treated like a cute doll. After the introductions were done ,we left our little camp site. We left the tents and the blankets and even the can of simmering beans. We just put out the fire and marched out of there as quickly as possible. We were all sick of the refugee camp and we were happy to leave it behind. Thanks to Dawn nobody tried to stop us as we left through the heavily guarded south gate of the refugee camp. Outside the blockade of tanks and barbed wire , an armored vehicle was waiting for us complete with a driver to give us a ride to the nearest airport which was the Munich international airport. The car was more of a van so we all fit comfortably inside as we cruised away from the refugee camp and towards the city. When we finally made it to the city, we saw that the entire city of Munich was almost completely deserted. Soldiers and other armored vehicles could be seen roaming the streets at regular interval and the people of Munich seemed to have decided to stay inside for the night. We were traveling down the deserted streets when suddenly something blasted through a nearby window and landed in a heap in front of our car. A closer look revealed that that something was the charred and smoking body of a soldier. I got out of the car and rushed over to the still smoking man and healed his most serious injuries before he could perish. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Dawn and the driver of the armored car also got out of the car ,they both had their guns drawn and they started to look around , searching for the source of the danger. Dawn approached me and asked, "Is he going to be okay?" "He is fine, just a few minor bumps and bruises. His armor seems to have taken the brunt of it. Will you help me get him into the car before whatever did this decides to come out and finish the job?" She reholstered her gun and together we were able to drag the soldier into the car while the driver kept searching for the culprit of the crime. Once we had the injured soldier in the car, I went back outside and headed straight for the house with the shattered window. The driver of our car kept shouting something in German but I ignored him and made my way towards the front door of what looked like a bakery. When I got closer I found that the front door was slightly ajar and there was damage to the door frame that indicated that the door had probably been kicked in. I made my way inside and I could hear shouting and screaming coming from somewhere above me. The room I was in was completely dark but I could see an orange glow coming from a staircase so I quickly run up the stairs. When I made it to the first floor I was greeted by a strange sight. A group of soldiers had their guns out and pointed towards a little girl holding a teddy bear. A man was standing before the soldiers with his hands stretched out wide to block their sight of the little girl and a crying woman was hugging the little girl while trying to shield her with her own body. If it was only this then I would have opened my fans and told Barry to toast the soldiers'' asses but it seemed someone had beat me to the punch. Most of the soldiers were already singed and injured as if they had been fighting a flamethrower and lost,badly. I engaged my soul vision to see if there was any supernatural shenanigans at play and found out that everyone in the room was normal. Everyone except the little girl. Chapter one hundred and seven - birds and bunnies Chapter one hundred and seven The little girl''s soul was on fire. Using my normal vision she looked like any normal twelve year old but when I used my soul vision the normal girl vanished and in her place was a shape that vaguely resembled her but was made entirely out of golden flames. From the bright glow that her soul was emitting , I knew that this little girl could have easily incinerated the entire room if she really wanted to and from the way she was getting brighter and brighter that moment wasn''t very far away. I shifted my gaze towards the soldiers. All of them had their guns pointed towards the little girl but none of them had decided to shoot. They all had terrified and desperate looks in their eyes but it seemed that none of them were willing to shoot the cute little girl which actually said a lot about their character and decency. One of the soldiers shifted his body weight a little, an almost imperceptible motion but suddenly a ball of flames shot towards him, hitting him squarely on the chest and blasting him backward so violently that he hit a wall before sliding down to the ground, unconscious. Okay...maybe it wasn''t decency holding them back, maybe it was fear. Whatever the case maybe, I needed to resolve this situation before more of the soldiers inevitably showed up or the little girl goes nova and burns down half the neighborhood. I stepped forward and almost immediately a ball of fire was heading towards me. I could have simply deflected it with my wind manipulation but I had a hunch that that would only scare the little girl even more. No, I needed to do something to distract her from her fear and make her relax a little. I used the wind manipulation to distort and change the shape of the flames. By the time the ball of flame reached me it had transformed into a flock of small swallows made entirely of flames which flew around me before vanishing into thin air. That surprised everyone in the room, even me. I had grown quite adept at manipulating the air but the ease with which I had done it shocked me. It was almost as if reality wasn''t putting up as much of a fight as it used to when I used my powers, but the ''why''s and ''how''s could wait till later because another ball of flames was heading towards me. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. This one I turned into a group of bunny rabbits and the next one I transformed into Wing, the magical penguin princess. Balls of flames continuously headed towards me and I kept turning them into things that I thought a twelve year old might like. After a few minutes the flames stopped. I looked over at the little girl and just like I had hopped she had burned through her energy. Her soul, which had previously been completely engulfed in golden flames, was now completely normal except for a small ball of flames near her heart but even more important than that, the cute little girl had stopped quivering in fear and crying. She had an angelic smile on her face as she saw the light show I was making from her flames. On the down side all the soldiers were now pointing their guns at me. Unfortunately for them, all of their guns had simultaneously developed mechanical problems and they wouldn''t shoot even if they pulled their triggers so I ignored the soldiers and headed towards the little girl with a smile on my face so that she would know I meant her no harm. I first extended my hand to the shell shocked woman who was desperately holding on to the little girl. For a moment she just stared at my hand as if she didn''t know what to do with it but eventually she gingerly grasped my hand as if she was afraid my hand would burn her. I didn''t take it personally and shook her hand with the smile still on my face, then I politely introduced myself, "Hello. My name is Sophia, nice to meet you." Her voice was very timid and she was constantly looking towards the soldiers as she answered, "Hello. My name is Helena." I got down on one knee so that I could be at eye level with the little girl and extended my hand towards her too. She wasn''t as timid as her mother. She immediately grasped my hand with both of hers and looked straight into my eyes before saying, "Are you like me?" Chapter one hundred and eight - Templar idiocy Chapter one hundred and eight "Are you like me?" I was going to answer her question when the soldiers started screaming something in German. I didn''t speak German but I didn''t need to be fluent in the language to know that the way they were brandishing their guns and screaming at me wasn''t an invitation to go out and have a cup of tea. I smiled at the little girl and ruffled her blonde hair before getting up and facing the soldiers, "Do any of you speak English?" They all looked at each other. I was sure that all of them understood me but they all seemed to be afraid to volunteer. They had a whispered conversation among themselves before one man reluctantly stepped forward, "I speak English." "Good, now can you please tell your friends to put down their guns. They are scaring little...," That was when I realized that I didn''t know the girls name so I turned towards Helena and asked, "What is this adorable little girl''s name?" She quickly answered, "Elisabeth." I continued my conversation with the soldier who was now looking at me incredulously, "Put down your guns. You are scaring little Ellie here and as you already have found out that is not a good idea." "Ma''am, I don''t know who you think you are but you are in no position to be giving us orders. We are from the German army, we give the orders and I order you to get down on the ground and lay down with your arms behind your back and your legs crossed together." I sighed at his sudden boost of courage and bravado. Just a second ago he was cowering from a little girl but now all of a sudden he had grown a spine and was puffing his chest out and crowing at me like a cock greeting a new morning. "Dude, I just saved your collective asses from being burnt to a crisp. Now if you don''t put down those guns I will finish the job that Ellie has started." "Are you threatening us?" "Nothing gets by you, does it? Yes I''m threatening you." "You can''t do that!" "I''m pretty sure I just did. Now the question is will you listen to me or are you completely stupid?" The idiot actually pulled the trigger of his gun while pointing it at my face. As you would expect I didn''t take very kindly to that. I walked over to him and grabbed the barrel of the Heckler and Koch MP7 submachine gun he was pointing at me and used the stock of his own gun to bash his face. There was a wince worthy crunch as his nose broke and he went down like a sack of potatoes. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I turned to the rest of the soldiers and asked, "Anybody else feeling stupid?" They all lowered their guns and backed away a few steps. Seeing that the soldiers weren''t going to do anything stupid, I walked back to Elisabeth and her parents. The man who had been standing between the soldiers and the little girl , who I was assuming was Elisabeth''s father, had joined his wife and child. He introduced himself as Baldric and he was indeed Elisabeth''s father. A few minutes of conversation later I found out that Baldric was a baker and owned the bakery downstairs. Baldric and his family lived in the small apartment above the bakery which we were in right now. According to him , his daughter had been perfectly normal and had never exhibited any powers before today. He explained how the soldiers had been going door to door and asking questions. The soldiers had eventually gotten to his bakery and he had freely let them inside. He answered all of their questions and everything was going fine until one of the soldiers had pointed a strange instrument at his daughter and then proclaimed that she was being taken into custody by the German military. Predictably enough Baldric had refused to give up his daughter and tried to push them out. One of the soldiers had punched Baldric in the gut when he refused to give up his daughter which turned out to be a big mistake. Elisabeth had witnessed her father getting hurt and that had flipped her off. In her distress she had made a fireball that flung the soldier who had hurt her father out the window. She had also created many other smaller fireballs that caused the soldiers to be in the disheveled state they were in now. If Baldric''s story was to be believed then I had a large problem on my hands. The templars had sent soldiers to look for people with supernatural powers and equipped with those little gadgets ,the soldiers were going to be successful. What this meant is that situations like this one could be happening all over Munich, maybe even other cities and countries. The moronic actions of the templars had put the lives of both the people and the soldiers in grave danger. Chapter one hundred and nine - getting serious Chapter one hundred and nine After I finished listening to Baldric''s story, I knew that I needed to do something about the giant clusterfuck that the Templars had just caused. I was wondering what I should do to mitigate the disaster when Dawn stepped into the room. "Sophia, what is going on? Why did you attack those soldiers? They are outside telling stories about how you are some sort of unbeatable demon. Thanks to their idiotic rambling , a whole platoon of soldiers has surrounded the bakery and they are making preparations to get in here and subdue you." Apparently the soldiers had snuck out of the room while I was talking to Baldric and now they had called some of their friends to ''subdue'' me. But the situation wasn''t all that bad, seeing Dawn had actually given me an idea on how I could solve the bigger problem and stop the attempted mass detention of anybody with a supernatural ability. "Dawn, do you have a way to contact the general? He is the one in charge of the operations currently taking place in Munich, right?" "Yes I do have his phone number and yes he is in charge of all the nearby operations." "Great! Give me your cellphone." "Why?" "I''ll explain later, just do it." She reluctantly handed me her phone. First things first I did something I should have done a long time ago , I called Kazimir and told him I was fine. He was relieved to hear that everyone in the plane had survived. When I asked him if anything strange was happening back home, he told me that weird stuff has been popping up allover the world. Just like I had feared, the incident of people suddenly getting powers wasn''t a local event. All over the world people were suddenly discovering that they could do amazing things and governments were freaking out. No less than fifteen nations had instituted emergency military rule and were actively hunting down anyone with powers. Some countries like Germany were ''detaining'' people with powers until they could be properly studied. I couldn''t do anything about the other countries but maybe I could do something about it in Munich. So my next phone call was to the General. His phone rang for a couple of minutes before he picked up and answered with a curt, "Yes? Do you have something to report?" "General , this is Sophia speaking. I would like to talk to you about the situation in Munich." "What situation in Munich?" "I just had to stop a group of soldiers from shooting a little girl, that situation." "Wait, that was you? You attacked my soldiers!" "No, I saved your soldiers." There was silence as the General digested my words, "What do you mean?" If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "I mean that if I hadn''t intervened then your men would have been barbecued. I think a broken nose is a small price to pay when compared to that, don''t you think general?" "The girl is that dangerous? We need to get her confined immediately!" "No, what you need to do is back away. You are going to call off all the soldiers that you have sent to capture the people with powers. You will release everyone that you are currently holding under this pretext and you will leave these people alone unless they actually do something wrong." "And why would I listen to you?" "I''m going to make you an offer. I''m guessing that this plan of yours to capture people with powers isn''t going very well. I''m guessing that your soldiers are out there getting hurt right now. Here is my offer, I will go to the places where your soldiers are in trouble and help them out. In return you will do as I say." "And if I refuse?" "I''ll still go out and save your soldiers but I will then use all of my powers to free the prisoners you are holding and that could get a little....messy." "Are you seriously saying that you would attack a military base?" "I''m tired of pussyfooting around general. I''m tired of tiptoeing around problems. I can and I will wreck your entire base if that is what it will take to stop this idiocy." "You can''t do that!" "I''m also tired of people telling me what I can or can not do. Are you refusing my offer General?" There was some scuffling and the General''s gruff voice was replaced by a monotonous and emotionless voice, "Hello , this is Agent Smith. We agree to all your demands, just help the soldiers." "Smith, this isn''t some sort of a trick , is it? I know of the Templars, I know how you guys operate. But before you try to double cross me, remember my power readings? Remember how they are literally off the charts? If this is some sort of a trick, I am coming after you with all of that power." "I get it Sophia. This is not a trick. I went over the General''s head to the powers that be in the German government. The soldiers are retreating. The prisoners are being released as we speak." "Good, I''m glad we could come to an understanding. I''ll go save the soldiers now. " I hung up before he could say anything more and returned the phone to Dawn whose mouth was hanging open in shock. "Well Dawn, it seems your plans to get me out of the country will have to wait. Shit is hitting the fan in Munich and I have to fix things before they can get any worse." She just nodded dumbly and followed me as I left the room. Chapter one hundred and ten - goth on a pink bike Chapter one hundred and ten I spent the rest of the night going around the city and stopping confrontations between panicky people wildly wielding powers unfamiliar to them and soldiers who were trying to do their best to subdue them without using a hail of bullets. From my little jaunt around Munich , I learned that people manifesting these mysterious powers were thankfully few. Munich had more than a million inhabitants but only about a hundred or so people had shown signs of any supernatural powers. If this trend held true for the rest of the world then only about 0.01% of the human population were getting powers. This may seem like a small number but when applied to the world population then it translates to about 700,000 people having powers world wide. Another thing I learned was that people with well defined powers like Elisabeth were rare. Elizabeth''s powers were straightforward , she could make and control fire and she did it with devastating simplicity and efficiency, basically all she had to do was point and shoot but most of the people seemed to have very vague and undefined powers that seemed to operate on will alone. When I arrived at most of the locations , most of these people had some form of a ''shield'' around them but weren''t actually doing much against the soldiers surrounding them. When I looked at their souls I found that they had a large amount energy concentrated at their core but other than forming the shield, they weren''t doing anything with it, all I really had to do in these situations was to calm them down and send the soldiers away. A notable exception to this was a slightly chubby teenage boy with long black hair wearing too much eyeliner and had too many piercings and tattoos , a goth if I had ever seen one. Unlike most of the other people who surrounded themselves with a shield and cowered in fear, he was wielding the power like he had done it all his life. As I observed him flinging soldiers and policemen around with ease , I finally figured out the key to using the vague and undefined power. Through my soul sight I could see the energy in his soul coalesce into strange symbols before they crashed into the soldiers , catapulting them several meters away into cars and buildings. The kid was gleeful forming another symbol when I casually walked in front of him like I didn''t have a care in the world. He looked up from the symbol he was forming and stared at me with confusion, he was so surprised that I wasn''t cowering like everybody else that he lost control of the symbol and it dissolved before he could use it. He frowned as he looked down at the disappearing symbol then shouted something at me in German. I just smiled at the kid before saying, "Sorry kid. Can''t speak German." He angrily replied,"Who are you calling a kid? I an seventeen years old!" "Well you are acting like a kid having a tantrum so I''m calling you a kid." "How dare you disrespect me like this? Astarte has chosen me as his champion in the mortal realm. She has gifted me with powers that you cannot imagine!" His pudgy face contorted in fury as he tried to convey to me exactly how special and important he was. "Astra who? Never heard of her. Is she some sort of god for goths?" That seemed to piss him off even more. His face which was initially red with rage turned purple as more blood rushed to it,"I am not a goth! I am a Wiccan! And Astarte is the goddess of sexuality and war!" I raised my eyebrows at that, "You think the goddess of sexuality chose you? Are you serious dude?" He snapped. I could see the veins pop up on his forehead and begin to throb as he started to create another symbol out of the energy in his soul. This symbol was different from the symbol he was using to push the soldiers around. It was bigger and much more complex with sharp edges like a buzzsaw. I didn''t wait for him to finish, I lazily waved my hands towards him and the symbol burst into countless motes of light before vanishing into thin air. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As I had discovered from my previous encounters , my powers were rather good at disrupting this new energy that was now flooding the world and I barely had to put any effort into disrupting whatever the goth kid was about to do. The goth kid looked down at his hands as if they had betrayed him before he shook his head and started to make another symbol. I destroyed this one too. After three more tries he eventually figured out that it was I who was blocking his attempts to make symbols. He started to shout at me with spittle coming out of his mouth as his voice got progressively shriller, "Stop doing that! I am the chosen one! I am the special one! You can''t do this to me!" By the end of his rant his voice had gotten so shrill that I was sure that only dogs could hear him. "Dude , calm down before I decide to let the military have you. Right now you are in big trouble but I have come to save your ass. Now you have two choices: you can do as I say and peacefully go back home after promising to never use your powers to hurt anybody ever again or you can continue to whine like a bitch which would piss me off and I would hand you over to the military trussed like a pig about to be slaughtered." He was silent for a moment then he muttered, "I just wanted her to love me." "You wanted who to love you?" His face transformed into one of worship as he said , "Caroline. I became a wiccan to be with her but she was never interested in me," He pointed at a house across the street where a girl was staring out a window,"Maybe if she saw how powerful I was she would fall in love with me." I walked towards the love sick boy until I was next to him then I swatted his head as hard as I could, "You idiot! All this destruction and all the people you have hurt and for what? A crush? What is wrong with you? You are lucky that nobody has gotten seriously hurt or killed! " He looked around at what he had done and it seemed to have slowly sunk down into him that what he had done was wrong. Suddenly goth kid started to shiver and then he started to sob, "I''m sorry, oh goddess I''m sorry. I didn''t mean to do this. I don''t know what got into me." I sighed in exasperation. This kid was a mess , from his fingernails which had painted black to his hair on which he used too much gel, this kid had some major issues. I surreptitiously wiped the gel that had gotten on my hand when I slapped his head while pretending to comfort him by patting his back, "Look kid, you might not be chosen by that goddess whats-her-name but you are still pretty special. You do have special powers but don''t let it get to your head. And as for girls, with the power you have, if you play it smart, eventually I''m sure you will be spoiled for choice. Your future might actually be very bright with the gift you''ve been given, just don''t mess it up by doing something stupid like you did today, okay?" That seemed to cheer him up because he had a smile on his face as he almost skipped all the way to the end of the street where he got on a pink bike of all things and rode off into the night , happily ringing the bells on his bicycles. As I watched him disappear around a corner to the cheerful chimes of his bicycle''s bells, I couldn''t help but think that the world was boned if people like him were the ones getting powers. Chapter one hundred and eleven - kicked out Chapter one hundred and eleven After nearly twelve hours of running around putting out fires,only some of which were literal flames, I was feeling so tired that I could feel the exhaustion down to my very bones. Thankfully there were no more emergencies in the Munich area so I was once again heading to the airport but unlike last time I had a sizeable military escort with me and by sizeable I meant that I had a whole convoy of vehicles that would have made any African dictator proud. My performance in suppressing the newly awakened mages (that was what I had decided to call the people with powers) had gained me the respect of the soldiers and they were very thankful because I had saved a lot of them from some sticky situations and that was the pretext they used to ''make sure I made it to the airport safely'' but the truth of the matter was that they were also terrified of me. I had tried to keep as much of my powers under wraps as I handled the mages but even then I had defeated most of them with absurd ease and the soldiers who had seen me do it were now extremely wary of me. In addition to that the good General was upset that I had twisted his arm into doing something he didn''t want to and he was still sour about the fact that I had stood up to him and gotten my way. The culmination of all these facts meant that I had overstayed my welcome in Germany and the Germans were quite eager to see me leave their country. They hustled me and my group through airport security even though none of us had a passport or any type of identification and they stuck us on the first plane to Saint Petersburg, eventhough said plane was full they ''convinced'' some of the passengers to take the next flight. The flight to Saint Petersburg was uneventful, I slept through most of it and only woke up when the plane jolted as we touched down in Pulkovo international airport, the only airport in St Petersburg. I thought that there was going to be a huge hassle when we got out of the plane and they found out we didn''t have any passports or ID but I was wrong. The moment we left the plane, we were approached by a group of serious looking men in expensive looking suits. The most serious looking of the lot stepped forward and asked, "Are you Sophia Usmanova?" "No, I am Sophia Belikova. Who is asking?" He politely nodded in greeting and acknowledged his mistake, "I am sorry for making assumptions Ms. Belikova, I am Boris Yankovic. I work for your grandfather and he has asked me to bring you to him." "I would love to believe that but I''m afraid I''m not going anywhere with you unless you can prove that you are truly who you say you are." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. He didn''t seem offended by my challenging attitude, in fact he smiled wryly before he said, "I guess I owe Kazimir a hundred rubles. He said that you were too smart to go with me without some proof of my identity. Kazimir also told me to tell you that a raven hides beneath the nun''s habit." Unless someone had managed to figure it out, only Kazimir and Sergei knew that I was both Persephone and the mysterious woman known as the angel of mercy so I knew that the whole pass phrase thing wasn''t a clever trap. If Kazimir trusted this guy enough to give him that statement , I guess he must be trustworthy. As I was wondering whether now was really a good time to meet my mysterious grandfather , Delilah sidled up next to me and said, "Sophia , I''m freezing my tits off. Can we please just accept this man''s offer and go somewhere where we won''t freeze to death. If anything happens , I have faith that you can probably handle it so can we please move this along." So with a little encouragement from Delilah, I accepted Yankovic''s offer. My group followed him and his men to three sleek looking black limousines waiting outside, the really expensive ones with tinted windows that only the uber rich could afford. They wanted me to be alone in the first limo but I insisted that Delilah come with me. They eventually caved in and Delilah and I got to ride together in the first limo while the former crew of the downed plane piled into the second one. Yankovic and another man also joined us in the first limo while the the rest of his men divided themselves between the remaining two cars. Once everyone had gotten into the cars , we started moving and the limo''s glided smoothly into traffic. We were off to see Victor Usmanov. A man whose name had scared a German General into letting me go from the camp in Munich without question even though I obviously had supernatural powers, a man Agent Smith and the General called ''the frost dragon'' with respect and even fear in their voices. I was going to meet my grandfather. A.n. The donate button isn''t there to hold chapters hostage. I will continue to do my best to write this story as quickly as possible whether I get a single cent or not. I just wanted to buy a laptop so that I could start writing for real instead of plodding away on my cellphone like I have been doing so far. Chapter one hundred and twelve - horse fetish Chapter one hundred and twelve We traveled for a few hours until we left the Saint Petersburg area and still kept on going without showing any signs of stopping which made me suspicious again. "Were are you taking us Mr Yankovic? I don''t think there is anything of interest so far from the city let alone a place where someone as influential as my grandfather would live and the fact that the two limos behind us had stopped following us about an hour ago isn''t very reassuring either." Boris simply smiled before replying, "You noticed that, did you? Well we can''t really take the people that were with you to see the boss, they don''t have the appropriate clearance and we haven''t done a thorough enough background check on them to let them go to the crystal lake mansion. Your grandfather has a lot of enemies ,some of whom would go to extreme lengths to see him dead so we can''t really take any chances. We are already making an exception for your friend here but Kazimir has assured us that she is trustworthy. As for the rest of the people, they are being transported to another facility to be debriefed about the whole incident." His reply raised more questions than it answered but the part that worried me the most was the so called ''debriefing'' he mentioned, "When you say debriefing, do you mean a nice sit down where you give them a nice warm mug of coffee and politely ask them questions or are you talking about a scenario which involves sharp knives, insidious drugs and other unpleasant methods." "With all due respects Ms Belikova, I don''t think that is any of your business. They are our personnel and we will treat them however we see fit. You might be the boss''s granddaughter but that doesn''t mean that you have any authority in our organization or have a say on how we operate." Delilah, who was sitting next to me and had her eyes closed, suddenly opened her eyes and looked at Boris with eyes full of pity, "You don''t want to do that." Boris still seemed amused as he looked away from me and looked sideways towards Delilah, "Why? Do you think her grandfather is going to punish me?" "You should stop worrying about her grandfather so much and start worrying about her. There are two ways this conversation can go, the hard way where some unpleasant things happen and we become enemies before you do what we say or the easy way where nothing bad has to happen and we stay friends before you do what we say." As Delilah spoke the cadence of her words suddenly shifted. Her tone became softer and I could feel her inject power into her words as she attempted to use her hypnotic powers on Boris but bright light suddenly burst out from a silver pendant that he had stuffed under his shirt and Boris''s eyes that were becoming dull as Delilah''s hypnosis was taking effect became sharp and focused, "Is this why you are so confident? I hate to tell you this but this isn''t the first time we have encountered people like you. Your little tricks will not work on us." This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Delilah sighed and said, "You poor deluded little man, you picked the wrong day to pick a fight." I didn''t wait for her to finish talking before I made my move. The limo we were in was very spacious, Delilah and I were sitting on the seats at the very front of the limo near the driver compartment that was completely sealed off while Boris and one of his goons sat facing us while sitting nonchalantly on a table located near the middle of the limo instead of the seat at the other end. I didn''t know if they thought it was cool or they just wanted to be closer to us but I didn''t really care, their decision was stupid and I was going to teach them why. I used my powers to mess with the limo''s brake systems making them suddenly engage and the limo came to a screeching halt. Delilah and I were facing the back of the limo so we were just pressed against our seats because of the sudden deceleration but Boris and his friend weren''t as lucky. They were both flung off the table and landed on their knees right in front of me. With such a good opportunity in front of me, I didn''t hesitate. I punted both of their heads like they were footballs , making both of them instantly pass out. After making sure that neither one of them were faking it, I took the pendants they had around their necks and sat back down on my seat. "Delilah, you know what to do." A few minutes later both men were awake and firmly under the control of Delilah''s hypnotic powers. After asking them a few questions, we found out that Kim and the rest of the crew of the downed plane were being treated well and were actually staying at a comfortable hotel. Boris was just bluffing to get a rise out of me to see what I would do. He was one of Kazimir''s former students and apparently he had heard Kazimir say that I was one of his best students which injured his pride and made him jealous. He tried to make me flip out so that I would attack him in some way. Not only would that make me look like a loose cannon and untrustworthy in front of my grandfather but it would also give him a reason to show ''the rich spoiled teenager'' what a ''real'' operative is capable of while soothing his own wounded ego. I was pissed at the spiteful little man but there was nothing I could do at that moment so I made Delilah implant a suggestion in his subconscious to erase any negative emotions towards me. I also made her plant a rather vicious suggestion that made him unable to be sexually attracted to anything but male horses. She then erased both their memories of what had happened and I handed their necklaces back to them before we continued to travel like nothing happened. chapter one hundred and thirteen - banter Chapter one hundred and thirteen I thought that this so called ''crystal lake mansion'' would be somewhere in the outskirts of Saint Petersburg but it turned out that my assumption was wildly inaccurate. The limo took us to a nondescript building about two hours away from the city. It was just a normal five story building, the only thing distinct about it was that it had a helipad on the roof. We were led to said helipad where a helicopter was waiting for us and for the second time in a week, I was taking a helicopter ride. I was not much of an expert on helicopters but I knew that the chopper we were riding on wasn''t quite standard issue. For one thing, the whole body was painted a matte black color and didn''t have any distinguishing marks on it. I bet that it was almost completely invisible in the night sky. For another thing, the rotors and motor were almost completely silent. I may not know much about helicopters but one thing I did know is that they are loud so I knew that the fact we were gliding along as if we were riding on a cloud was highly abnormal. The last thing that made the chopper special was its speed. It was traveling at a speed that was at least twice as much as the chopper I rode on with the Germans. If I had to take a guess, this chopper was probably used by highly trained people to do secret things when they needed things done without being noticed. I turned away from the window which was showing the disappearing lights of Saint Petersburg and instead turned towards the surprisingly comfortable interior of the helicopter. "So Delilah, what do you think about all this?" Delilah rubbed her chin as if she was in deep thought before she said," We already know that your grandfather has deep connections with the KGB and we also know that he is one of the oil oligarchs in Russia, which means that he also has very deep pockets. We are now riding a helicopter that is generations better than the best choppers that the Russian military claims that they posses and we are going to a secret hush hush location to meet with your grandfather who makes foreign generals and even members of secret societies crap in their pants. From what you have told me about Kazimir''s reaction to the supernatural when he first learned of your abilities, we know that he had some exposure to the spooky stuff before you met and we know that Kazimir is one of your grandfather''s operatives. Couple that with the fact that the so called ''Agent Smith'' who is supposed to be part of a secret organization that is invisible to everyone but the supernatural community is not only familiar with your grandad but also seems to fear him deeply, I''m going to bet that your grandfather has ties with some sort of supernatural organization, probably a very powerful one at that." If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I scooted closer to her and nudged her playfully, disrupting her ''the thinker'' pose, "Well Ms. smarty pants, if you are so clever then have you noticed we are heading east and by taking our current bearings into account, we are probably heading towards Siberia?" Delilah looked at me suspiciously with narrowed eyes, "Are you saying that you deduced our location by that alone?" "Yes." Delilah simply raised one of her eyebrows in disbelief. "Alright, fine! I might have googled my grandfather''s name and found out that most of his business interests reside in Siberia, satisfied?" "Very. We both know that I am the brains in this relationship. The sooner you accept it, the better." "Is that right?" "It''s the truth." "Then I have a question for you if you are so clever ; when is the next time you will be hungry?" Her eyes turned round as she realized that she was running low on power and would need to feed soon. She immediately smiled her best sales man smile and said, "You are the brains, the brawn and the beauty in this relationship. Your ability is unparalleled and your leadership skills are downright inspiring. You exude an aura of excellence that has no equal. You just might be the greatest person on earth, past or present. It is an honer for me to breath the same air as you let alone be given the privilege of actually knowing you." We both burst out into laughter and I playfully punched her arm. "Did I go too far?" "Just the final bit, other than that I think you were spot on." We continued our little back and forth until we were interrupted by Boris clearing his throat, "Ladies, I think you will want to see this." We looked out the window and we gasped in astonishment. We had unknowingly left all civilization behind and all we could see in the dim morning light was a giant expanse of ice bound land, it was absolutely breathtaking. People always assumed that Russia was just a frozen wasteland but that simply wasn''t true. Russia is a giant country covering a lot of land with different climates so this was the first time I had ever seen anything like this. From horizon to horizon, all I could see was white snow. Boris laughed as he saw our wonder and said, "Welcome to northern Siberia." Chapter one hundred and fourteen - the crystal mansion Chapter one hundred fourteen We passed miles of frozen wasteland covered in nothing but sparkling white snow until we reached a mountainous area that was shrouded by a thick layer of mist, a layer of mist so thick that it looked like a ground bound cloud. Surprisingly enough, our helicopter started to descend into the cloud without any hesitation and suddenly we couldn''t see anything through the window anymore except for white cottony clouds. Seeing the worried looks on our faces, Boris decided to allay our fears by giving us an explanation, "This is a very remote part of Northern Siberia which rarely has any human activity. In fact it is so remote that these mountainous regions don''t even have a proper name, we just call them purple crystal mountains. Anyways, these mountains are located in an area where the earth''s crust is extremely thin so they exhibit some volcanic activity, not enough for an outright explosion but they are the home of some hot springs. Since we are technically in the arctic circle , the weather here is always cold and snowy. This snow combines with this area''s simmering volcanic activity and it produces a dense cloud of fog that constantly covers these mountains all year round. This is the reason we chose this place as our base. Not only is it inaccessible by any form of ground transport because of the incredibly unfavorable terrain, but it is also impossible to get to even if you use air transport but you don''t need to worry about that, not only are our pilots specially trained to be able to enter and leave through the thick mist without any mishaps, we also have special equipments on the choppers and stationed on the ground that help us guide the helicopters during their descent. We are completely safe." Really? My grandfather actually lived in a secret volcano lair? Was my grandfather Doctor Evil? I shook that ridiculous idea away as we finally passed through the layer of fog and we could finally see what lay beneath the thick shroud of mysterious mist, what we saw was a large military encampment nestled into a valley that was surrounded by mountains. We saw other choppers similar to ours taking off and landing from and to various helipads at various locations. Various buildings were strewn allover the valley. Most of these were obviously hangars for aircrafts but there were also many other buildings from which soldiers swarmed into and out of like a disturbed anthill. I also noticed that there were tons of equipment everywhere, most resembled satellite dishes and long tubes which I suspected were some sort of radar system and missile launchers respectively. Overall , the place looked like it would be extremely hard to locate let alone to attack. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Delilah let out a cold breath when she saw the entire setup, "Sophie dearest, I think your grandpa might just be a tad paranoid." Boris shook his head and replied, "No, this is not paranoia, it is simply necessary. Your grandfather has many enemies, some of which are governments of large nations. This is the only way he can keep himself safe." As we made our final descent into the heavily militarized valley, I was getting really curious about my grandfather''s identity. * * * Once we landed, we were not led to one of the many buildings around us. Instead we were taken deep into one of the mountains. We traveled through a system of maze like tunnels until we reached a massive cavern. It was huge, larger than any football field and we finally saw why they called this place the crystal lake mansion. There was a fancy looking mansion made out of some sort of purple stone that was as smooth as marble and this purple mansion was resting in the middle of a lake, not a lake made out of water but a lake made entirely out of crystals. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, a lake almost entirely made out of sparkling purple crystals, some were large and towered almost twice my height, some were the size of grains but the entire area was covered in purple crystals although I could also see shades of green and blue amidst the purple. Boris was once again smiling when he saw our reaction, "This is our destination, the crystal lake mansion; the largest natural deposit of geodesic crystals in the world and the home of your grandfather." Chapter one hundred and fifteen - bloody hands Chapter one hundred fifteen After the awe of what we were seeing subsided somewhat, Boris led us across the crystal lake on a glass walkway. When we reached the door of the mansion, it opened on its own to let us in. There was nobody guarding the mansion but I could see many camera''s inside and outside the house. We went deeper into the massive house but it remained deserted. There wasn''t anybody inside the lavishly decorated mansion, not even a maid. I was starting to wonder if my grandfather had gone out on a stroll or something when we came face to face with a large imposing door. It was also the only closed door that we had encountered so far. I strained my ears and I could faintly hear muffled voices coming from the other side of the door. I was going to rest my ear on the door to hear what was being said when it suddenly opened without any warning, leaving me in an incredibly awkward position which I tried to play off as if I had bent down to tie my shoes while hoping all the while that nobody noticed that my shoes didn''t have any laces. I decided to ignore the giggling coming from Delilah''s direction and instead focused on the people inside of the room. The first person was an extremely old looking man whose face was covered by wrinkles sitting behind a large desk that dominated most of the room. His complexion was extremely pale, so much so that blue veins could be seen beneath his almost transparent skin. He had a rather prominent beak like nose that was bent as if it had been broken many times and hadn''t healed properly. He was staring at me with eyes that were a blue color so pale that he looked blind, combined with the fact that he had snow white hair, eyebrows and even wore a snow white suit, he looked like a ghost. Besides that, he was also the only male in the room so I assumed that this was my grandfather. Apart from him, there were two other people in the room, two women to be exact. One stood behind my grandfather, gazing out through a large window from which the crystal lake was visible and she appeared to take no notice of my presence. All I could see was her back so all I could really tell about her was that she had a good figure which she showed off with a tight skirt and a matching suit jacket, both were a deep black color just like her hair which she had in a tight bun. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The other woman was sitting on the edge of the table while looking at me with naked hostility that made it clear that she was unhappy that I was here. She looked about eighteen, wore black jeans, a black t-shirt, and way too much eyeliner. She looked like a goth who was trying too hard. After I checked out the inhabitants of the room, I did what I usually did and used my soul vision to check for Atelli and what I found shocked me. The woman by the window had a dark ball in her soul which was surrounded by sinister looking red symbols that throbbed and shifted as I watched. I had seen a lot of crap so that wasn''t really enough to trip my alarms but apart from that, her hands were covered in blood. Under my soul vision, her hands were shriveled up until they almost looked like claws and they were covered in fresh dripping blood all the way to her elbow like macabre long gloves. The goth wannabe chick wasn''t as bad. She only had a small dark spark in her soul with red symbols appearing and disappearing every now and then. Her hands still looked normal and lily white without a speck of blood on them. I didn''t know what these two women were but I was sure they weren''t very nice people so I immediately became more alert and guarded. I turned towards the man who I assumed was my grandfather and said quite formally , "Greetings. I assume you are Mr. Usmanov. I am Sophia Belikova , I believe you wanted to see me." Chapter one hundred and sixteen - cousin Chapter one hundred and sixteen "I am Sophia Belikova , I believe you wanted to see me." The man frowned when he heard that, "What is this Belikova nonsense? You are my granddaughter and as such you are an Usmanov, not a Belikova. As you have already summarized, I am Victor Usmanov but you can just call me grandpa. This is your cousin Natalia and the one standing behind me is my sister and your great aunt Olga. We are all family here so you don''t need to be so stiff and formal." Before he had even finished speaking, the goth chick who I had just learned was my cousin, stood up and glared at me with her amber colored eyes flashing fiercely, "Grandpa! What are you saying? She is nothing more than a stray dog that uncle had decided to take in, she does not share our blood and she will never be part of our family!" Mr. Usmanov didn''t like that. He formed a fist with his hand and hit the table in front of him in anger, shutting Natalia up before she continued to spew any more of her poisonous words, "Natalia, hold your tongue. Not only is Sophia a part of our family but she will also be a great asset to the coven." At his words, the woman who had been ignoring everything until now finally turned around. Although Mr. Usmanov, who I couldn''t really think of as my grandfather, said that she was his sister and my great aunt, she looked young enough to be my sister. She was beautiful to the point that she could probably spark off a war between countries with just her smile. The only thing that made her look even remotely like she was related to Mr Usmanov was the fact that she had the same pale blue eyes which were now looking at me with interest, "She has the gift? Are you sure Victor?" "Yes. Kazimir has spoken about it now and then although he refused to tell us anything specific even when I asked him personally. I have also received reports about her from my contacts in the German military. You know how we needed the power of all the covens in your sisterhood to get a handle on things in all our major cities? She took care of Munich, alone." Her eyes lit up when she heard that, "That is quite interesting but that still doesn''t mean that she is qualified to join our coven and it is not your decision to make even if she was. You have to remember your place Victor." If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "I was just making a suggestion sister, I would never presume to have any power over your coven." After I heard their conversation, I got the gist of what was going on and what it might lead to so I tried to put a stop to it as quickly as possible. "Is this why you called me here? If that is so then it has been a wasted trip because I have no interest in joining your coven." Natalia, who had sat back down, stood up again and shouted, "How dare you! How dare you reject us!" I looked at my cousin incredulously, "I thought you didn''t want me to join your family let alone your coven?" She turned up her nose and looked at me with disdain, "I don''t. What I mean is that we can reject you, you don''t get to reject us." At this point, I felt that staying here was not going to achieve anything constructive so I decided to leave before I did something regrettable to Natalia''s face with my fist. "Alrighty then, it has been nice meeting you grandpa. Not so nice meeting you cousin Natalia. Anyhow, I think it is better if I leave now. I do have something urgent I have to get to in England so goodbye everybody, have a nice day." I started to back out the way I had come when the fuming Natalia decided to start yapping like an over caffeinated chihuahua again, "You disrespectful bitch! Who gave you permission to leave? Get back in here!" As she spoke, a dark slimy looking ball started to form on her palm. I immediately stopped trying to leave and instead took a few steps towards her. I had tolerated her outrageous behavior and even stayed silent when she called me a dog but now that she was attacking me , I was no longer going to take any of her bullshit. I waved my hand and disrupted the energy fueling the slimy ball making it disappear before it even had the chance to fully materialize. Natalia stared at her palm with a blank look on her face like she couldn''t even process what had happened. "I tried to be nice. I tried being civil but I am no longer in the mood to play games with you." Chapter one hundred seventeen - makeover Chapter one hundred and seventeen Cousin Natalia looked at her palms like she had seen a ghost, her face filled with unwillingness as if she could deny what she had seen and make it not true, "This is...this is not possible! My spell, how could it just vanish? I am a first circle witch! The youngest to ever receive such an honor! No one can snuff my powers like blowing a candle out. No, it must have been a trick. I am the most talented witch to ever be born in the last century, you can''t be more powerful than me." When I heard her nearly incoherent babble, I laughed so hard that tears began to flow down my cheeks, "Most talented witch in the last century? Are you kidding me? What cave have you been living in? Jesus, I now know what the Chinese meant when they said a frog in a well. You aren''t that powerful Natalia, hell you aren''t powerful at all. If you went out there into the real world, I doubt you would last a day before you annoyed someone with your whiny voice and end up in a ditch. Hell, just a few hours ago I met a girl who was only half your age and could blow you out of the water, literally blow you out of the water, if she sneezed at you at the wrong time. Most powerful witch in a century? What fantasy world are you living in?" Natalia glared at me and stomped her foot in anger, she actually stomped her feet like a petulant child having a tantrum. With that gesture, the last vestiges of respect that I had for her as a human being vanished into thin air. Her entire body started shaking as if it was unable to contain all the rage that she had bottled up inside. Her lips trembled, her eyes started to twitch. I thought that she might actually become the first person to explode because of rage but unfortunately that didn''t happen and instead she started to shout at me in an even shriller voice, a voice that mede me fear for the crystal lake outside. "How dare you talk to me like that? You are nobody! A random dog that my soft hearted uncle took in, you have no right to talk to me like you are superior to me!" "I don''t ? The last time I checked I am superior to you in every way. I am more powerful than you, I am obviously smarter than you, I am more beautiful than you and even after I have said all this, I am still more humble than you. How dare I talk to you like this? I think you are missing something important, I plan to do much more than talk." With that, I took out my fan, the one that contained Barry''s spirit and whispered, "Singe her but don''t hurt her. I want her scared not injured," then I pointed the fan at Natalia and injected some power into it. A gout of golden flames flew towards Natalia before she could react and she was engulfed by the flames until they vanished a second later leaving her frozen in fear. Her jeans and T-shirt had been reduced to tatters hanging off her frame revealing her milky skin and blue lace underwear but her body itself was completely unharmed except for one exception, her hair and eyebrows had disappeared. She was completely bald as she stood there like a deer in headlights. I brought the fan closer and whispered, "I thought I told you to only singe her?" The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Barry snorted and said,"She is lucky she has her skin let alone hair. I can smell the corruption and evil from her soul. The only reason she isn''t a pile of ashes right now is because of your order." I was having a whisper argument with Barry when my supposed great Aunt Olga stepped in front of Natalia and blocked her off from my sight. "Sophia right? Well Sophia, I apologize for Natalia''s actions. I would also like to apologize if you thought that I was trying to belittle your power earlier. Now that I have seen a demonstration of your power and control, I would very much like to invite you to join my coven." I tried to sound polite when I said,"No thank you." "I don''t think you understand, I am offering you a way to increase your power and harness it in ways that you couldn''t have imagined before." "I know what you are offering me. In fact I know exactly what you are offering me but I am not interested. I am not a witch but even if I was, I wouldn''t join your coven. I know that your hands are covered in blood Great Aunt, I know what kind of path you took to get your power and I want no part in it." Great Aunt Olga''s face grew gloomier with every word I spoke until her face resembled a thundercloud, her eyes became cold like ice chips as she stared daggers at me, "Don''t act all high and mighty in front of me! I can see the succubus behind you! I doubt that you picked her up at a grocery store. I know the rituals to summon demons, they all require sacrifice!" I was going to answer her but Delilah raised her hand and started to jump up and down like a student at a classroom who really wanted to answer a question. I looked at her in exasperation before I gave up and pointed at her like a teacher allowing a student to speak. "She didn''t summon me, I chose to follow her." "You chose to follow her?" "Yeah. Basically she scared the crap out of me so I decided to serve her, it''s a demon thing, you wouldn''t understand. Anyways, let me give you some free advice, don''t piss Sophia off. I mean seriously, you don''t want to open that can of worms or more accurately a can of snakes, like really big vipers filled with poison and big enough to swallow you whole." I looked at her and raised my hands over my head in exasperation, "And what is that supposed to mean? I am not that bad!" Delilah shrugged,"Sorry Soph but I think your track record speaks for itself. Do you remember what you did to the last person who pissed you off?" I couldn''t help but glance at Boris who was standing behind me. "Good point. *sigh* Whatever. Anyways, I am not here to make new enemies, lord knows I have enough as it is. So in conclusion ; I am not joining your coven great aunt, I like your new look better than your old one cousin and if you need another makeover feel free to contact me at any time, it''s been nice meeting you grandfather but next time you want to talk let''s Skype instead of all this hooha. Farewell grandfather, great aunt and cousin Natalia." With that I turned around and left. This time nobody stopped me. Chapter one hundred eighteen - Double standards Chapter one hundred and eighteen I left the my grandfather''s office but I decided to stay in the mansion for a little while. Sure, I needed to go to England as soon as possible or the world would be in danger but I had just made a lengthy trip to the middle of nowhere and I wasn''t going to leave until I at least got a tour out of it and who knows? I might even take the time to take a closer look at my dearest great aunt and her nefarious little coven while I enjoyed my tour. Since I had decided to stay, I chose a random direction and started to take a leisurely stroll down a hallway. I was humming the tune for the song ''TNT'' while taking a relaxing walk through the meaninglessly massive mansion to sate my own curiosity and stave off boredom. Delilah, who was walking next to me, was looking at me and shaking her head. "What?" "Nothing, it''s just that I get nervous whenever I hear you sing anything by AC/DC. It usually means that you are going to do something violent." We reached a rather interesting area as we walked. Instead of the regular walls, this area had three sides made entirely of glass affording us a rather spectacular view of the crystal lake. We stopped to once again marvel at the sheer raw splendor that was probably one of the most beautiful natural phenomenon on earth. "It''s not that that bad Delilah. I haven''t decided to act yet. I''m related to these people or at least my father is, so unless I am sure that they are irreconcilably evil, I won''t destroy their little coven." Delilah looked out the window and the light reflecting off the crystal lake momentarily made her eyes flash purple. "And what is irreconcilable evil? You do know that I am a demon, right? Before I met you, I have done things that you might not find acceptable. I have killed the innocent and the guilty alike. I have enslaved good people to do bad things. My very being is dedicated to slowly consuming the lust in people''s souls making them lose parts of themselves. Am I not evil Sophia?" I grabbed her shoulders and roughly turned her around so that we were face to face. I could see that her usual happy go lucky attitude had vanished without a trace. She looked lost, lost in memories that probably spanned centuries if not millennia, memories best left buried. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. We rarely spoke about Delilah''s past and I don''t know what brought this up now but I couldn''t bear to see the sad and lonely expression on her face. "You are not evil Delilah. You never chose to be a succubus. You never chose to be enslaved by the Atelli or the other assholes that summoned you to do their dirty deeds. I may not know a lot of things in this world but I know you Delilah and you are not evil. You are not responsible for the things you were forced to do." She looked away from me, refusing to meet my eyes and whispered, "But was I truly forced? I enjoyed doing it Sophia. I enjoyed sapping my victims vitality until they turned into empty shells. I enjoyed having people under my power, unable to disobey me. I enjoyed the absolute power I held over their lives. You don''t know me Sophia, not really. I am a monster." "Bullshit! I don''t know you? I might not know who you were but I know who stands before me. A monster? Who do you think you are standing in front of? You might be able to hide from others but I can see you. I can see your tail, your horns and your wings perfectly clearly but you know what? I don''t give a damn! I don''t give a damn what you have done in the past. I don''t care how many people you have killed or how much you enjoyed it. So what if you are a monster? Nobody is perfect and everybody has a past but guess what? I still don''t care. I will never care. I love you Delilah, nothing you have done can ever change that." She finally stopped staring at the ground and looked up at me. "Isn''t that a double standard?" I brought her close and kissed her forehead lightly. "Yeah it is but what the hell made you think I would judge you by the same standards I judge everybody else in the first place?" A.N. I know that everybody is probably frustrated and I''m lucky if I retain even one reader because of my schedule but let me try to explain myself. I had surgery on my toe because of an ingrown toenail but it got infected so I was out for a while. I am back now but I am still quite weak. Combine that with the fact that the government in my country has been shutting down the internet intermittently to suppress protests around the country, it really has been a crappy couple of days. I''m sorry for the inconvenience. Chapter one hundred nineteen - Help Chapter one hundred and nineteen We were still hugging while looking out the window when I heard sharp and crisp footsteps approaching us from behind. I let go of Delilah and turned around wondering who it could be. It turned out that the sharp and crisp footsteps were being made by a pair of hard soled white dress shoes that looked rather expensive tapping on the marble floor. I wasn''t sure but something told me that these shoes were not made from bleached leather but the hide of something a little more exotic. The only thing I could think of was the almost extinct African Albino Rhino which would make these shoes very expensive not to mention very illegal. I looked up from the shoes and watched dear old grandpa in his expensive white suit walk towards us with a brisk pace. Now that he wasn''t sitting behind a giant desk, I could see that the old geezer was actually quite fit. His body was quite stocky and it looked like it was capable of exhibiting a lot of strength. He didn''t stoop like most old people, in fact his spine was ram rod straight as he took large strides towards us. His old wrinkled face looked out of place perched upon his well built body. "Sophia, I''m glad I found you before you left." "Why? I''ve already rejected your offer to join the coven." "That is only secondary, the main reason I called you here is to ask for your help." Help? He wanted my help? This guy has an army and was chummy with what I was sure was a decently powerful coven. Why would he need my help? My thoughts must have shown on my face because he continued to speak, "I really do need your help. We have a situation developing that could have disastrous consequences for the entire world. We are already using a lot of our resources to keep things contained but we are failing miserably." "Why don''t you just ask your little witch friends for help?" "Look, I''ll be honest. Kazimir has already told me that you are very capable and from what I have seen so far he is probably right. You are powerful. My sister might be stubborn at times but even she has admitted that you would be a valuable addition to the team we are sending. I''m not asking you to join the coven Sophia but I am asking you to work alongside them to prevent something horrible from happening." "Grandfather, do you know what kind of people you are asking me to associate with? Do you know how they got their power?" "I know. I know they use human sacrifice and pain to get power but it is not what you think Sophia. They are not bad people. They do not use innocents in their rituals. In fact they have been working with us for quite a while and by us I mean the Russian government. They are stationed in most of our black facilities as interrogation specialists. They gain their power by torturing and killing terrorists and murderers." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "Do you also know that their souls have been corrupted by what they did? Do you know that the blood that they had shed clings to them and affects who they are?" For the first time since I met him, the inscrutable and cold expression on his face melted away and I saw a flash of pain deep in his pale blue eyes before he recovered and covered it up with his normal expression. "I know. I know the price that they have to pay for the power they use to protect people. I know the struggle they have to face every day to stay sane because I have seen it in my sister. We know the consequences Sophia. We had to kill more than one family member that had gone insane because of the power but we have no choices. We needed someone to fight all the things that go bump in the night, the things that normal people should never know about and only those who have agreed to it are inducted into the coven. But now things have changed. More and more powerful things are crawling out of the woodworks and the coven is struggling just to keep things together." His explanation made me feel a little sorry for my great aunt and even a little guilty about how I had acted previously. If what he said was true then I had been a total jerk but even now I still didn''t want to work with them. They might have done what they did for a good cause but they are no longer the people they were when they started. They have been twisted by their power. Grandfather might not know but what the government was doing is similar to keeping a pet snake. When they decide that they no longer needed the government, they are probably going to be a bigger problem than the ones they are suppressing. "*sigh* Fine. I will help with your world threatening problem." "Really? You don''t even know what the problem is or where it is and you simply agree?" His choice of words was kind of strange. Yeah, not knowing what the problem is and agreeing may sound stupid but why would the location matter that much? "It doesn''t matter. If the world truly is in danger then I''ll help no matter what the problem is. As for the location, why would it matter? There is nowhere in Russia that could scare me away." He had a strange humorous glint in his eyes as he spoke. "The place isn''t in Russia. It''s in Ukraine." "Wait, you mean....?" "Chernobyl." Chapter one hundred and twenty - old friends Chapter one hundred and twenty Things went quickly after that. We were whisked away in one of the helicopters and landed in the middle of Kiev before we could fully come to grips on what we had actually agreed to do. The capital city of Ukraine was eerily quiet and empty except for the heavy military presence at the north side of the city which was packed with soldiers and armored vehicles. Delilah and I were on the roof of the building our helicopter had landed on and we were standing at the edge, leaning against the railing to see what was going on underneath. It seemed that the entire city had been evacuated. The only sign of movement we could see were scrap paper and plastic wrappers blowing in the wind like tumbleweed. "It seems like something has scared the government of Ukraine so much they evacuated the city and the military is not moving forward. They even asked for help from Russia. What do you think is going on Delilah?" She shrugged,"You ask me but who should I ask? From what your grandfather told us, anybody who goes in doesn''t come out. They don''t know what is in there, how the hell would I know?" "Just asking. So should we go join the party and see who is invited to this shindig? It would be interesting to see who is crazy enough to come here." We left the building we we had landed on, which happened to be a hotel, and made our way to the military encampment at the north side of the city in a Humvee that was waiting for us. We had just made it inside when we were intercepted by a soldier who looked very annoyed, "You are the team from Russia, correct? We have been waiting for you for ages. The other teams were thinking of leaving you behind. Now come! Quickly!" This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The man didn''t even offer an explanation, he didn''t even wait for me to answer him. He just grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away which made me very angry. A quick poke at a nerve cluster and his arm fell uselessly to his side. "Excuse me but I would appreciate it if you do not touch me without my permission. This is your only warning and if you ignore it, you do so at your own risk. Now, explain everything properly or go find somebody with better manners." The soldier stared at his paralyzed arm with shock and horror on his face. "Oh stop being a baby, it will wear off in a minute." That seemed to have reassured him but instead of shock, his face was now red in anger, "How dare...!" I didn''t even wait for him to start ranting, "Shut up! I am here to help out of the goodness of my heart. I have no obligation towards you or your military. I am not your employee or underling that you can order or push around with impunity. If you are going to continue to be rude, I will just turn around and walk away." "Miss Sophia, I don''t think that will be necessary. The people are a little unhinged but don''t take it to heart, they are just scared because they are faced with horrors the likes of which the mundane world has never seen before plus this man doesn''t understand exactly how valuable you would be in trying to solve the problem here. I will send this man away immediately. I will personally lead you to the meeting point and explain everything on the way." From behind the stuttering soldier, a very familiar face appeared. "Why am I not surprised that you are here Agent Smith?" Chapter one hundred and twenty one - Smiths explanation Chapter one hundred and twenty one Agent Smith was as polite as usual as he led as through the military encampment. He explained to us that this was being seen as a global catastrophe and that was why a lot of powers around the world sent teams to help even though weird stuff was popping up everywhere. "Since the CERN super collider incident, the world has been experiencing a sudden influx of an alien energy that we have never seen before. This energy is easy enough to sense because it affects other types of energy but other than the fact that it can affect other types of energy, scientists are unable to tell us anything else about it. The reason we are here is because this energy has a strange effect on fissionable material. Reactors around the world have found that the abundance of neutrons in their main cores was increasing exponentially for no reason at all. Luckily crisis was averted when a French nuclear physicist named Jean Pierre discovered that a good Faraday cage could stop the cores from going critical and exploding." I felt a chill go down my spine when I heard that, "You mean that all the nuclear reactors on earth nearly exploded?" He smiled easily as if he was talking about the weather and not something incalculably horrible nearly happening, "Not only nuclear reactors, all of the world''s stockpile of nuclear weapons nearly exploded as well. The ones in North Korea actually did explode, Pyongyang thought that we were lying to them about the whole thing so they failed to take appropriate actions before their reactors went critical. Anyhow let''s get back to the main topic, you can guess that the Ukraine government was worried about Chernobyl after what happened to the rest of the world. Naturally, they sent a team of scientists and engineers to construct a crude Faraday cage around the exposed reactor 4. Unfortunately, the team vanished at the outskirts of the city and they were never heard from again. The Ukrainian government sent troops,choppers, planes and drones. Same result. The moment they get a certain distance from Chernobyl, all communications cease and they disappear. It has become a complete black zone." If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "It does sound pretty bad but why would this be considered a global emergency? I would think that other world powers had problems of their own and they would ignore something of this magnitude until they get their own shit together." "You''re right, if it was only this much the world would have let the Ukrainian government deal with it but the black zone is expanding and it is expanding at an exponential rate. A lot of our assets in space have been compromised but one of our older model cold war era satellites was able to pick up the radiation signature in the area. It is a perfect circle with reactor four at its center and the circle is expanding. According to our scientists, there isn''t any way for this to happen naturally even if the effects of the alien energy were factored in. The boundaries between the hot and safe zones are too clean cut. They theorize that something is controlling it. They also say that there isn''t enough fissionable material to cause the amount of radioactivity that we have been seeing and as time goes by the circle of radioactivity surrounding Chernobyl has only been getting more radioactive. Right now the radiation signature shows that there is enough fissionable material in reactor 4 to wipe out the entire planet three times over if it detonates." I couldn''t help but gulp when I heard that. Now I knew why it was a global emergency.