“Cease your tears mortal. Steel your spine, and face me.” a holy voice commands.
The voice carried an undercurrent of righteous anger. William felt fear and shame as he turned, as if facing a judge.
But instead, he faced a black tumbleweed, with a golden eye in the center. Its pupil is a red flame that rages. And if one were to look within long enough, they would see thousands of damned souls.
“I am Edlic Jiza. The righteous fury known as Justice Incarnate. I have witnessed your end. And I demand we join together to bring justice to those men.” Edlic Jiza states confidently.
William stands straight with new determination. And he smiles wryly.
“No offense, but you’re a tumbleweed. How can you help me kill them all?” William says with good humor.
Edlic Jiza’s eye grows black horns and the flames become darker for a brief moment.
“I will show you. Put your left arm inside me.” Edlic Jiza commands angrily.
William approaches Edlic. His family flashes through his mind. Fury spreads throughout his being. And he thrusts that arm inside Edlic Jiza.
His fury becomes a thousand times greater as he joins with Edlic Jiza. He hears the universe’s cries for Justice as he almost ascends to the reality of a God. And he sees pillars of black flames covering his home planet, Earth.
Then his consciousness is dragged down at breakneck speeds. The world blurs around him until they are just streaks of light he is passing.
And past the light, there is darkness. Pain. And most importantly, stale air.
William tries to touch himself with his arms, but finds his left arm is pinned down to something. He still places his right hand on his cheek to confirm he’s alive once more.
William freezes, his mind stopped in place by the fact he really is alive.
And then he begins to panic as his pinned arm suddenly glows bright white with holy energy.
“Hold on! Why’s my arm doing this?! And it’s all black! What’s going on!?” William yells fearfully.
“William Taylor, steel your spine and calm down. It is by my own strength this is happening.” Edlic Jiza commands with annoyance clear in his voice.
William looks around him, confused and scared.
“Edlic!? Where are we!?” William yells fearfully.
William feels a phantom hand smack him upside the head.
“Shut up mortal. We are in an ancient temple dedicated to Seras.” Edlic Jiza says angrily.
A bright white explosion comes out of William’s arm. It blinds him as it destroys the pedestal that his left arm was nailed to.
Seconds later, when William can see again, he stands up. He shakes his arm a bit to test it, and is satisfied with its condition.
“There’s no time to waste. You must find a way out of here.” Edlic Jiza commands with forced calm.
The room lights up with white flames held in black iron candlesticks spread all throughout. The entire room appears to be made of white marble. And covering almost every surface is black runes, though they are strange runes. Every rune could be described as cute in some regard. One has a little heart over a square. Another is a triangle with wings. And a third is a bunny’s head.
“Is this some schizo girl’s room?” William says annoyedly.
“No, but she’s definitely crazy. It’s Seras, remember? She is similar to me, but represents a stupid ideal. Redemption. Only fools believe criminals can ever be redeemed.” Edlic Jiza says annoyedly.
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“This physical incarnation shit is going to take some getting used to. Isn’t redemption, like some kind of moral? How does she and you exist?” William asks calmly.
The image of the tumbleweed smacking its eye with a hand made of black straw enters William’s mind.
“I don’t want to explain this shit, especially in enemy territory. The basics is that we exist cause of human emotions combining together in the spiritual realm until we gain a physical presence and sentience.” Edlic Jiza says angrily.
“How do emotions combine-” William asks curiously.
“I DON’T FUCKING KNOW! I JUST KNOW I KILL EVIL!” Edlic Jiza yells angrily.
William covers his ears as Edlic Jiza yells, but it’s a useless effort. Edlic Jiza is inside William’s head.
“Lords above, alright. Calm down.” William says nervously.
“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down, I’ll choke you with your own arm.” Edlic Jiza threatens quietly.
William looks down at his left arm, and his new reality finally sinks in. His left arm now seems entirely made of black stone, covered in golden veins. And blazing across his bicep is a scale.
“You will need a weapon.” Edlic Jiza says with forced calm. “Concentrate on a weapon of your choice. I will create it with my powers.”
The first thing to enter William’s mind is a revolver. And so, a revolver made of white energy manifests in his left hand.
“Do not worry about reloading. I provide the…ammunition, for lack of a better word for you mortals. Be warned however. This weapon and all my abilities can not be used on the innocent.” Edlic Jiza says with forced calm.
William brings the gun close to his face. He’s skeptical of this weapon’s usefulness, especially when he can see through it at certain moments as this thing exists.
“Focus on our escape. There is a massive door in our way.” Edlic Jiza commands with forced calm.
William looks up, and sees what he’s talking about. A massive circular vault door. It’s covered in a pentagram filled with cute runes.
William fires at the vault door. A holy bolt flies out the revolver, and smacks against the center of the vault door. A rune is burned to the point of being unrecognizable, but otherwise, nothing changes.
“Hmmm. Do you know anything about these runes?” William asks calmly.
“They’re in Seras’s language. She writes like a child. Just burn them all, I bet it’ll destroy whatever spells keep us inside.” Edlic Jiza says annoyedly.
William sighs. Then he starts blasting wildly. It’s by the seventh shot that an alarm sounds. However, William and Edlic Jiza don’t recognize it as such. Instead it sounds like a piano plays at a frantic pace.
They ignore it, and William keeps blasting. He decides to destroy the entire outer ring of runes around the vault door. And this proves to be effective as the steel door drops to the floor in front of him with an extremely loud thud. Cracks form across the marble. And the room shakes so much William falls to one knee.
“Move.” Edlic Jiza commands with furious strictness.
Edlic Jiza has grown impatient, and forced William to run forward and out the room. They enter a hallway meant for a giant. Thirty feet tall and fifty feet wide. A long red carpet goes down the way. And paintings line the walls.
Edlic Jiza glances at one painting. The image of a man atop a pile of bodies. He wears armor that is blood red at his feet, but that fades away to pure white as you rise up to a crying face.
An angel holds his head in her hands, and appears to be healing him with holy magic.
Edlic Jiza is disgusted by this, while William finds himself intrigued. Edlic Jiza feels William’s thoughts, and becomes infuriated.
“You think that because we pursue justice, we can’t be branded targets of justice itself? An executioner is considered evil for a reason.” he snaps angrily.
William wishes he could’ve froze, but Edlic Jiza forces his body ahead.
“Another important note. What I did to free our arm expended a lot of my energy. Avoid fighting for now. I will need two things to recover that energy. One of them is time. The other I will explain when we can actually do something about it.” Edlic Jiza says with forced calm.
“Yeah, I getcha.” William says nervously.
William hears the flutter of heavy wings. He looks behind him and sees nothing. He turns his head back, and sees an angel with black wings with golden feather tips wielding a golden spear with a black spearhead.
“I see. You have awakened once more Edlic Jiza. As always, we ask if you will end your brutal crusade.” the angel says serenely.
William feels confused at this angel’s approach. But this is interrupted by Edlic Jiza screaming out of his vocal cords.
“Get out of my way, heathen! You all and your God live in denial of reality!” Edlic Jiza screams furiously.
Edlic Jiza compels William to aim his revolver at the angel and fire. The bolt of holy energy flies out and smacks against the angel’s face. It leaves black soot across her face.
“Does this not speak enough of the truth? I resist your attacks.” the angel says serenely.
The image of the tumbleweed rolling rapidly with its sticks stretched out wide forms in William’s and the angel’s minds. Its eye burns with a level of righteous fury that William has never seen before.
But the angel smiles meekly and looks down.
“I see you are still in that mindset. A pity. But I suppose the past doesn’t disappear.” the angel says sadly.
Edlic Jiza makes William fire three more times. These shots burn with golden flames. The angel allows the shots to hit her. They don’t pierce through, but dig their entire length into her chest.
She sighs as sickly yellow blood leaks from her wounds.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say this time you’ve awoken with a stronger Vessel this time.” the angel says bittersweetly.
She points her spear at William. A warrior’s determination clouds what should be a peaceful face.
“This time? Have you done this before?” William says nervously.
“Mortal! Enough with the questions! Shoot this fucking hag! I can smell the blood on her hands!” Edlic Jiza yells furiously.
A vision goes through William’s mind in an instant. A memory stolen from the angel by Edlic Jiza’s ability to sense Sin.
She was once a mercenary. A simple, bloody life of murder. William sees the constant men and women she slaughtered on the battlefield.
He smiles warmly.
“You lasted a long time on the battlefield, huh? I respect that.” William commends.
William aims the revolver now, newfound determination filling him as he learns this angel is not what she seems.
“I feel no need to hold back. I will avenge my family. Get out of our way, or die.” he says firmly.
The angel smiles sweetly. Then she flaps her wings quickly, air dashing to cross the distance between William and her.