Death's Mantle 2

by Harmon Cooper

  Danira blasted the Death Hunter again, her two cherub crows spiraling forward and trying to rip the man’s body apart.

  He whipped them away with his tail; Lucian got to his feet, figuring he would add a wildcard to the mix.

  Menor’s cannibalistic ax formed in his hand, and he glanced down to it, the bit melting away as teeth formed.

  He threw it in the air, the ax going straight for the Death Hunter.

  The man managed to block the attack with one of his swords, but then the ax came around again, this time chomping into his leg, and dragging him down.

  “It’s my kill!” Lucian shouted again as he took off, his gun that fired electric tripwire now in his hands.

  Danira heard him this time.

  She nodded as her wings pressed her body backward, Lucian firing the tripwire once he was moving faster.

  He triggered another round, dropping a net made of oscillating electric energy over the man, which shocked him every time he tried to press against it.

  More of his injurecrows materialized into existence, all of them circling over the Death Hunter before dropping. The explosions were large enough to cause the ground to quake, another minaret falling.

  “Finish the demon!” Danira cried, the angel just a few feet behind Lucian.

  “I plan to,” he growled.

  Lucian’s particle-beam cannon formed, and he even thought about putting on the pair of aviator sunglasses that he had clipped to the side, but decided against it as lights began to scale up the body of his newest weapon, reaching the two energy packs.

  Before he could fire off a shot, the Death Hunter exploded out of Lucian’s tripwire, tackling Lucian and blasting off through one of the walls of the mausoleum. Marble layer after marble layer fell on top of them, the man driving Lucian as far down as he could.

  The two were deposited in a dark room with two sarcophagi holding court in the center of the space.

  Lucian immediately started to press himself up, his Soul Points appearing before him, letting him know that he still had plenty of juice.

  “You have created quite a name for yourself,” the other Death said, his accent reminding Lucian of someone who spoke Spanish as their first language.

  “And the day is young,” Lucian said as his two crows tore into the underground tomb, spiraling toward the man. He whipped them away with his bladed tail, the Death Hunter leaping onto one of the sarcophagi. Lucian’s cape came in next, his opponent ultimately cutting it away with his swords.

  He spun in Lucian’s direction with his swords wide, Lucian diving out of the way just in time.

  His ax spiraled down through the hole in the ceiling, dust and debris falling with it.

  It slammed into the back of the man, driving him forward.

  Lucian took this as an opportunity to lunge for him, retrieving his ax by its handle, his foot now on the man’s back, even if the man’s tail was seconds away from piercing the back of his skull.

  He drove his ax into the man’s back just as a stinger tore into the back of Lucian’s head.

  His vision now distorted, Lucian returned the favor, blood spurting into his face as he cut in even deeper with his ax.

  The man’s tail lifted Lucian and flung him backward.

  Everything buzzing on the periphery, Lucian called Grim Mecha to him, his replicant appearing in a matter of seconds and engaging the Death Hunter with his bladed arm.

  The Death Hunter was quite the swordsman, and even as the back of his head and neck healed, he managed to block all of Grim Mecha’s attacks.

  But he was overwhelmed, and this gave Lucian the time he needed to call upon his particle-beam cannon again, his vision starting to stabilize.

  His ax twisting through the air, his crows swirling all around, and Grim Mecha going toe-to-toe with the Death Hunter, Lucian triggered his weapon, the blast instantly hitting his opponent.

  He trained the beam on him, knowing how it worked, that it would take a moment.

  The resulting explosion was practically a supernova considering the small and confining space.

  Lucian was thrown into a wall so hard that he broke through it into the soil beyond, momentarily covered in dirt. He kicked his way out and fell to his knees, the dust settling as he looked up to see if he had done the job.

  A spiral of energy rose into the air, blindingly white as it descended upon Lucian.

  His Soul Points appeared; Lucian saw that he had gained over three thousand by killing the hunter.

  He rolled onto his back, his arms out wide, sucking in deep breaths as his wounds began to heal. Lucian could see up to the top of the tomb now, and he knew Danira was up there waiting for him, that she’d let him finish the job, just as he had requested.

  It was time.

  It was time to go after Connor’s parasite.

  Chapter Twenty: Boss Battle

  “I hate to see the place like this,” Lucian said as he joined Danira, both of them now hovering above what was left of the Taj Mahal. It was bleak, ugly. To see such a famous structure turned into a pile of rubble, even though he knew what he was witnessing wasn’t real, made Lucian’s heart sink. The only thing left was the famous reflecting pool, its waters muddied with debris.

  “It will be okay,” she said, clearly agitated by what had happened. “And he’s gone?”

  “He is, and before you can accuse him of being associated with me somehow…”

  “No, I know who that one is,” Danira said firmly. “He’s a Death Hunter known as the Spaniard.”

  “The Spaniard?”

  The angel ran her hand through her hair, parting it over to the left side of her head. “I have fought him before.” She took a deep breath. “That was a tough battle.”

  “Did you lose?”

  “He was still alive, wasn’t he?”

  Lucian smirked, his crows buzzing around him. “Sort of. Did he always have a sword tail?”

  “Not at first, but the second time I fought him he did. And I guess from that time onward.”

  “How many times have you fought him?”

  “Seven or eight times. He was responsible for killing one of the lower-ranked Progeny of Light.”

  “Hold on,” Lucian said, tilting his head as he looked at her. “I thought you said my kind couldn’t kill your kind.”

  “Why would I tell the enemy that I am vulnerable?”

  “Okay, fair point. Well, regardless of what he did in the past, he won’t be able to do it again in the future. I put an end to it.”

  “You actually killed him?” Danira asked, no change in the tone of her voice. “I thought he ported away.”

  “Now my third Death. I’ve killed three.”

  Danira nodded, but Lucian couldn’t tell if she was impressed or not. “Three, huh?”

  “What do you know about Death Hunters?”

  “When demons kill each other, they help thin their own ranks, so I have no real opinion of them,” she said with a shrug.

  “What if I were to become a Death Hunter of Death Hunters? Would you have an opinion then?”

  “You only want to go after those that go after your own kind?”

  Lucian shrugged. “We have it hard enough as it is, being omnipotent and all.”

  “Nice humblebrag.”

  “All kidding aside, killing the Progeny of Darkness, as you call us…”

  “Or demons, more appropriately,” Danira corrected him.

  “Or that, my pet name.”

  “More like your nickname.”

  “You say tomato, I say tom-ah-toh. Anyway, if you didn’t know, killing one of my own multiplies my power tenfold, twentyfold even. It’s not even calculable. In a short amount of time, killing those three has made me stronger than I would have been had I been doing this for a year. Well, maybe not that long, but you get the picture.”

  “And you are asking what I would think if you became a hunter of your own kind?”

  Lucian hesitated as he tried to decipher the look on
her face. One of Danira’s eyebrows raised as she took him in, the angel still with that shimmer about her that always caught Lucian’s attention. “Yes.”

  “And my opinion matters to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I think it’s fine,” she said with a smile. “The less of you there are, the better.”

  “You know, when you say things like that…”

  “I’m just stating the facts. If you grow stronger by going after the most ruthless of your kind, it’ll prevent them from coming after me. It also leaves the angels responsible for monitoring and removing the Progeny of Darkness with an easier task.”

  “So you still want to remove me, even after all we have been through?”

  “Did I say that?”

  “You didn’t not say that.”

  She floated just a bit higher, her wings taking her up.

  “Wait, are you going?”

  “Well, our little encounter with the Spaniard has definitely put me in a foul mood.”

  “Just hear me out. I was thinking about trying to go after Connor’s parasite,” Lucian explained quickly. “Now that I have even more power, I might be strong enough. Who knows? Want to come?”

  Danira slowly lowered to Lucian. “As you may recall, I can’t do anything to that demon.”

  “That’s okay,” he said, waving her concern away. “You can act as support for me.”

  “Your sidekick again?”

  “Would it make you feel better if we just agreed for me to be your sidekick?”

  Danira couldn’t help but grin at him. “I don’t know what it is about you.”

  “We can try to figure that out later,” Lucian said as he offered his hand to her.

  Danira’s golden cherub crows hovered over her shoulders as she looked into Lucian’s palm with hesitation. Eventually, she lowered her fingers onto it, Lucian feeling a spark move between them.

  They reappeared in a parking lot outside a hardware store in Beverly, exhaust smoke billowing out of Connor’s truck as he sat in his vehicle. The windows were slightly fogged, Baby Jen’s handprint visible on the passenger side window.

  “I thought he would be with Jen,” Lucian said.

  “Did you check on him earlier or something?”

  Lucian gulped, remembering his brother going to the dealer’s home and doing a line before picking up his young daughter. “It was bad.”

  “How bad?”

  “He…” Lucian grimaced. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt her know what it happened, he explained the situation, Danira’s wings slowly shrinking as she shook her head.

  “I hate to see this type of selfishness, but this isn’t the first time I’ve seen it play out in the lives of humans, and it won’t be the last.”

  “Yeah,” Lucian said, feeling dark all of a sudden. “Let’s see what we can do about it.”

  He pressed his head into his brother's window, tuning in as Connor spoke on the phone.

  “Don’t worry, Sam,” Connor muttered.

  “But what did they say?” she asked, her voice coming out of the phone’s speaker.

  “The position has been filled. That’s what they said. I told you it was useless for me to come down here and check on it.”

  “It’s good to make an appearance; you never know if that person is going to show up for the job or not. You just never know.”

  “Why wouldn’t they show up for the job?” Connor asked, staring out at the sidewalk in front of the hardware store, the snow and ice pressed to the far end to make a walkable path.

  “You have to keep trying, Connor. You can’t stop now.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Also, I was checking the account—what happened to some of our emergency savings? It’s like half of what it used to be.”

  “That’s what the emergency savings is for,” Connor told her, his eyes flaring wide for a moment. “This is an emergency. I don’t have a job right now.”

  “I understand that, but what are you spending it on? I mean, I’m not trying to pry here…”

  “But you are, and I’m spending it on expenses; you know how it goes.”

  “What expenses? I’m covering the mortgage and the car payment.”

  “I still have medical bills,” he said bitterly.

  “You do? I thought those were paid off.”

  “No, I’m on a payment plan. Don’t you remember?”

  “I didn’t think we did a payment plan. I thought…”

  “I’m handling it,” Connor told her. “Don’t worry about it. I’m coming home. Do you need me to pick anything up from the store?”

  “No, we should eat here tonight.”

  “That’s not what I’m saying. Do you need something in particular? Some vegetables, milk, I don’t know. Beef? Do we need beef? I could sure use a beer. We have beer?”

  “Just come home. We have everything we need here; let’s save money.”

  Lucian’s handgun took shape as he glared at the demon bug, which was partially sticking out of Connor’s shirt, a piece of it attached to the back of his skull.

  Figuring he would test it out before he really lit into the parasite, Lucian squeezed the trigger.

  The parasite screeched, ballooning in size and tearing out of the windows and roof of the truck, the vehicle toppling onto its side as Lucian was thrown backward.

  He was caught by Danira, who quickly lowered him to the ground.

  “It worked!” Lucian said, feeling elated. “I have to do this; I have to do this, now!”

  With a wave of his hand, Grim Mecha appeared, followed by the second Grim Mecha. Lucian summoned up a cube of injurecrows, all of which he sent forward immediately, led by Hugin and Munin. His cape swelled off his shoulders, spiraling toward the action as well.

  “Give it everything you’ve got,” Danira said, her gun in her hand now even though she wasn’t able to touch the demon bug.

  Explosions rang out.

  Lucian waited for the smoke to blow away to see that the clear parasite with yellow stripes running through it had grown even larger, all but engulfing his brother’s truck, a giant blob of spiked tendrils radiating animosity.

  One of its tendrils struck Lucian so hard that he was thrown into the hardware store, a display of power tools falling on top of him.

  He pushed himself out of the rubble.

  More tendrils came to him, Lucian hearing additional explosions and the report of weapons firing as his two replicants took on the parasite.

  He erupted through the wall, his lava sword in one hand and his MX-11 in the other as he made a beeline for the demon bug, which had grown even larger.

  A fist connected with Lucian’s jaw, throwing him backward again, Lucian now skidding onto the rooftop rather than tearing through another wall.

  “Armor,” he said, his bone armor instantly forming, the skull mask knitting over his face.

  He took a running leap and landed on top of the parasite, tentacles and eyes all around him as he started driving his sword into it, again and again, screaming as he did so, simultaneously firing his weapon, oblivious to the tentacles wrapping around his legs, moving up to his knees.

  His body was torn in two just a few seconds later, Lucian’s torso tossed to the ground.

  Danira landed, grabbed him, and lifted into the air before pair of stingers cut into the pavement of where he’d just been.

  “It’s getting larger,” she said, supporting Lucian’s entire body weight with one hand.

  “You’re strong,” was the first thing out of Lucian’s mouth before he snapped back into the action, willing his legs to regrow faster, even though he knew they would reform on their own.

  He watched for a moment as his two replicants continued blasting and cutting into the demon bug, which only grew larger, now practically the size of the entire parking lot and pressing into the hardware store, the brick giving way.

  “Wait…” Danira gasped. “We have to stop; tell them to stop!”

  “What? Why?”
Lucian asked, his plasma blowtorch already appearing in his free hand.

  “Your attacks are making the demon stronger!” she said, realization painting across her face. “We have to try something else…”

  “You think?” he asked, just as more of his injurecrows slammed into the side of the demon bug, its form bubbling, growing even larger as the smoke cleared.

  “Just look at it closely for a second!”

  “Okay… okay…” Lucian called back his creations.

  His crows, his cape, and his two Grim Mechas all retreated at once, the enormous blob of parasite now writhing with anger, its tentacles twisting into the air as they tried to locate Lucian.

  His Soul Points appeared:

  “I’ve made it this far,” Lucian said through gritted teeth. “I have to do this now.”

  “It’s not working.”

  “Then what? How do I kill it? How would I do it in…” Lucian’s head bobbed left and right.

  “How would you do it in what?”

  “A video game…”

  Danira’s eyes went wide. “You’ve lost your mind, demon.”

  “No, I haven’t, angel.”

  Lucian recalled a video game he’d played several years back that had a boss who absorbed all of his attacks, growing stronger with each blow.

  After several hours of trying to beat the boss, Lucian discovered by accidentally selecting the boss with the cursor that he could heal him, which was unusual.

  So he tried doing that, and he found that healing him actually drained his own power but also injured the boss, preventing his opponent from absorbing his attacks.

  Of course, Lucian didn’t have enough hit points to completely kill it, so he had to go back to a dungeon and level up for a few days before returning, healing the boss until he killed him.

  Lucian tried at that moment to explain all this to Danira, who seemed like she was about to short-circuit by the time he finished.

  “I don’t know what that has to do with the situation,” she finally said, exasperated.

  “I have to pour my power into it. I have to get closer to it, I have to…”

  “You have to let it absorb your power and destroy itself; is that what you’re suggesting?”