Chapter 49: I Am the One Who Rings Death's Bell, Part 3

He didn't know why that monster had decided to get poetic, but at least it wasn't difficult to intuit what she meant. If Hell followed Death, then what preceded both things was War. The one who rang the bell as a signal that the party was about to start, an endless cascade of deaths.

"War," said Sam.

"Bingo," replied the woman, giving a small curtsy. Those movements accentuated everything worth accentuating. Her swan-like neck. Her large chest. Those long exposed legs, she preferred stockings that reached above the knee, but she wasn't too demanding either. She had the look of a mischievous schoolgirl.

Ahem. It was a serious moment, a matter of life and death. He should have other priorities, but his head was in the clouds. Or rather between her legs. But if he wanted to survive, he had to fix that quickly.

Sam took a deep breath. Everything unnecessary left his body. Behind only remained the killer intent. In an instant, he transformed into the God of hellfire that had devastated the Wright family.

"I thought you'd be a man," said Sam. "The four horsemen, after all."

"Well, no. We're four sisters."

"The apocalypse," murmured Violet. "My God."

"God has nothing to do with this," said War. The monster took a few steps forward, moving like a panther. Her boots made the grass crunch. There was something strange in the air. He should have noticed from the beginning, but it became more evident with each step. It was as if she was more alive, as if she was more real than all of them. And, therefore, required more oxygen than them. It was as if she was leaving them without oxygen.

"He abandoned the building a long time ago."

"Lies," said Violet.

"You can think what you want. You're just a background character, anyway. Everything revolves around that man. What do you say, Samuel?"

"Sam. I don't like how Samuel sounds. And I say, well... I say go to hell. Tell daddy that for me."

War laughed. He was completely focused on killing her, so it sounded like a deeply unpleasant laugh to him.

"Yeah, I imagined. This is just my job, boy. I don't want to be here any more than you do. I have no idea what Satan is planning. I mean, who would say yes? Who would give up their body for the rest of their life? I'd rather die instantly than be trapped inside my own body. Me and anyone else, for sure."

Satan's plan wasn't understood even by his subordinates. What did that say about him? Apart from the obvious, that he didn't tell them more than they needed to know? He had no fucking idea. How the hell was he supposed to guess?

"So, what now?" asked Sam. "Are you going to try to capture me? Risk that you can catch me even though you have to hold back, without being able to kill me?"

War smiled again, stopping.

"Yes. I'm perfectly capable. Enough talk."

Sam started running backwards, forming ice spears around him, which floated in the air for a tenth of a second before shooting out. They accelerated as they fell, if that wasn't enough. He had no doubt that she would be strong enough to withstand them and fast enough to dodge them, as had happened with Castiel. But unlike then, he wasn't alone, he had help.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

So that bitch had more to worry about than his ice. Christina's water, shooting out like a whip to punish her, trap her, twist her. Violet making the earth tremble, raising dust clouds, throwing chunks of compressed earth. And in the midst of that, an ice storm.

It should be overwhelming, but he never dared to expect it to be effective. It couldn't be that easy, they were dealing with a damn horseman of the apocalypse, and it wasn't. But he would never have imagined to what extent.

There was no damage, not even any effort. War didn't even run to dodge all those attacks, but somehow none of them had reached her. Had she dodged them? Simply by walking forward, as if she were taking a quiet stroll? Sam felt a chill, again. What the hell had happened here?

"Well? Do you understand now the difference between us?"

No, and that was precisely what bothered him. What kind of power had she used? How to overcome something he knew nothing about? It was impossible, of course, except by chance! And he couldn't rely on luck in a fucking life-or-death fight.

"This changes nothing."

Maybe he couldn't defeat War, not now, not even with the other three powers he had as aces up his sleeve (yes, he had only gained four new powers from the massacre, whatever the reason). But War couldn't defeat him either. As long as Satan didn't rescind the orders to keep him alive, sooner or later he would escape from War's clutches and manage to gut her and the rest of her fucking sisters along with anyone who stood in his way.

Even a cornered rat would fight for its life, but that simply meant that War and the others would only fight when he had a serious chance of winning. As long as he couldn't do anything to her like now, War wouldn't go for the kill. A cold and logical judgment. After getting rid of everything unnecessary, he was incapable of making any other kind of judgments.

"No, I didn't expect it to. You're like your father," her voice was soft as silk, despite her nature.

"I'm nothing like him!" he exclaimed, offended. It was the reaction he was supposed to have, the correct reaction.

"If that's what you have to tell yourself to sleep better at night, go ahead. I wonder if this will change anything." The woman spread her arms to the sides.

An army of puppets emerged from the darkness of the night. Sam had to look towards the house to make sure the bastards they had torn apart hadn't reassembled while they weren't looking. The pieces and blood were still where they should be. Indeed, it was a new batch of puppets.

"So what? We took them out easily the first time. Even if you attack with them, they won't even serve as a distraction." Christina expressed what the three of them were probably thinking.

"Yes. You killed innocents very easily." A sinister smile.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Violet was the one who responded, Christina was too surprised for that.

"Haven't you ever heard? If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's a duck. They're not some kind of monster, they're people from a distant village. Under my total and absolute control, innocent at heart. No matter how much blood they've shed."

So they weren't anything special, after all. They were human beings that she controlled like a puppeteer. It didn't matter. Sam took a step forward, preparing to attack. The ice spears didn't fly towards their target. Christina stopped him before that, grabbing his arm.

"Wait! Didn't you hear her? They're innocents."

You knew Christina was young and innocent (that had been a significant part of the fun), that is, she was bound to be fucking stupid. But to such an extent? How the fuck did she intend to get out of this without killing those beings before they could do it to them? The guray hadn't been innocent.

The worst of all is that he might be forced to follow that stupidity. If he started massacring innocents in front of her, he would lose her. And with her, Violet, obviously. Or he could cut to the chase and forget about his toys once and for all. He could always find others.

He couldn’t think of a diplomatic way to express his thoughts, so he just said it outright. She’d forgive him for it, assuming they made it out alive, given they were in a high-stress situation.

“How the hell do you expect us to survive this if we can’t hurt War and you won’t let me take out her army?”

Christina seemed surprised. That he had spoken to her that way, that he wanted to do it—she suspected it was more because of the former than the latter. The girl bit the inside of her cheek. It was obvious from how it sunk inward. She was biting hard enough to draw blood.

"I don't know, but it's not their fault. They're being controlled. We have to do something, brother."

"That's exactly why! Because I'm your brother! She won't kill me, but she doesn't need you. I have to think about your survival. I'll feel terrible after killing all those people. If I'm the only one who survives? I'll be dead inside."

"We can at least try. Please."

War and her small army were approaching slowly, but they were approaching. He didn’t have time to think it over.

"Alright."

Fuck.

I Am the One Who Rings Death's Bell, Part 3: END