“Young man,” said Victor Deimos, “are you certain that the ritual involved the Green Corn Ceremony?”
“Yes,” answered Todd from across the table, “I went to the silver waters of Cheetum Hammock with him, and came out to see my flames turn emerald on him.”
“Still, that shouldn’t have been enough to cause such a drastic transformation.”
“The last time we were there, he modified the ritual with scientific means. I think it was to force Zariah to enter the ritual with him, but it ended up killing both of them.”
“Zariah is dead!?” Garrick, Hannah, Kenny, Aaliyah, and Zhou Deimos yelled in unison from the couch. The yell startled Emily awake.
“I guess I didn’t mention that part.”
“I see, then he has twisted even the most sacred and romantic of gestures into a weapon. I’m sorry,” said Victor, “this is my fault. I let my son continue on his path… no matter how violent… or how cruel… because I saw no other path available to us. And even after I realized it was too late. I was never able to lift my blade against my son. I was too weak to face him; I am a failure.”
“Don’t say that mister Deimos!” Hannah bolted to the table to hold his hand, “No one would want to hurt the people they love. No one would call a father a failure for refusing to kill his soon.”
“I will always appreciate your kindness, Hannah, but this is what separates him from the rest of us. When facing daemons, there is always a possibility that even your closest comrades will be tempted against you. No matter who it is, for the sake of the greater good, Tejieue would have no hesitation. That’s part of what made him the ideal daemonslayer, I suppose. I was grateful to raise champion for the sake of mankind, but a selfish part of me wonders if it was worth losing a son for.”
“Ty- Tejieue, he would kill no matter who it was?” asked Aaliyah.
“Yes. Even you. If you intend to confront him, especially after restoring such a despised enemy, then he won’t hold back.”
“Despised? This guy goes to literal hell, what did I do?” asked Garrick.
“We allowed Carol Muse to take the fall for the destruction of Australia, as well as many other daemon attacks attributed to mutants. Much of the resentment he felt for the decision at the time has passed on to you, unfortunately. Young man, is there anything else you need to ask about?”
“Uh, he did this thing where he cut up his body to get the scales of an alligator before we did the ritual last time. Is that important?”
“No, that’s just regular scarification. Well scarification isn’t regular around here but it’s not magic,” said Victor. Aaliyah came to the table.
“At a time like this, he would scarcely perform without reason,” said Aaliyah, “may I see this scarification?”
Todd showed her the pictures he had: Tejieue meditating under the waterfall, in the forest with the water glistening over his muscles, and the final product of scales down his torso and arms. Aaliyah requested that these pictures be sent to her for further study. Todd obliged.
“If you that is all you have to ask, then allow me to speak. Even if you succeed in overloading his magical capacity, that will only temporarily dispel the effects of the ritual from his body. Removing magic will also remove the burden that he carries with it. Even one coupling through this ritual would be enough to cripple an ordinary person, which was why it was saved for late ages and strong relationships.
If he has performed it as much as you claim, all those weights hindering him will fall.”
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Two weapons carved from midnight: a crescent axe and a three-moon sword. Their weight was enough to crumple an unprepared man, but The Gator held the axe at its beard and the sword at its middle wrung with one hand each. The baleful yellow lenses of the mask surveyed the surroundings and the tear in the front bared teeth like an open jaw.
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The plan had been to hide in the tunnels as his overload ran its course. Then they would support Hannah while he was without any magic. But GalvanGal was still recovering from the last fight. She was their best chance at victory; however long it took, they had to protect for her.
The Gator had Aaliyah within his jaws. It took only a blink for him to close the distance. As much as they needed to protect Hannah, the question of how they could protect themselves remained. His grip under the beard, the axe blade already sliced into her cassock. In a split second, her rib cage would be ripped open and her head mangled off.
In that split second, no one else could have been faster.
A streak pushed Aaliyah off the upswing of the axehead. They skid down the tunnel and Streaker wailed at the gnash up his back, but she was safe. She turned him with his back on her and set to healing it as she surrounded them both in a bubble. If GalvanGal was their best means of defeating The Gator, then Aaliyah was their best chance at surviving. The spear and shield needed to be kept alive even if it cost everything else.
From behind, Todd unleashed a spurt of flame that was dispersed with a whirl of the sword. Garrick’s gauntlets cast a beam that froze The Gator’s boots to the ground. Limiting his mobility was the best option. Especially in this confined space where he couldn’t use the full reach of those long weapons of his. Even an amateur could understand that a cramped space limited the arcs of his swings, which must be why he held his weapons so strangely.
He threw the axe back to grip the base of the handle and swung such that it dug through the wire mesh, through the concrete siding, through the stone cavern walls underneath, and burst out with a spew of shrapnel that Todd and Garrick narrowly ducked out of. Swinging through the wall slowed him down, and doing too much damage could risk destabilizing the drift they stood in, but he had to establish the threat. An amateur could make a basic observation, but couldn’t anticipate how that weakness could accounted for.
He had hoped to take out Aaliyah at the start, as with her or Hippo out this fight would have already been over instead of being dragged out. Besides failing that, what concerned him was the wound on Kenny. Kenny should have been torn apart from that swing, and as is the pain should be crippling. But now that Kenny has bitten his tongue to stifle the screams, Tejieue felt it as he swung: concentrated time slow, not just on the swing, but also on the muscles and neurons in his body. This was going to get annoying.
The axe was launched forward, and though Todd and Garrick flinched on reflex, it was aimed at GalvanGal who was shielded by a bubble that bounced away a slowed axe. But while they protected her, The Gator leaped out of his ice shackles at Garrick. Another spurt of flame that was dispersed with a whirl bought time for a bubble to form around Garrick. The Gator landed on the bubble and used it as a launch pad to lunge at Todd. Todd ducked a sword swing that cleaved open the wall and sundered the elevator gate.
“Kenny, I know it hurts, but you have to slow him down as much—”
“I am slowing him down!” he grunted.
The toy soldiers made it back and most began firing cryobeams to cool down GalvanGal and the boiling plasma blood. The rest fired cryoblasts at The Gator. The coat absorbed most of the blasts while the sword blocked the beam from Garrick. The suppressing ice bought time for Todd to ready another torrent of flame.
The Gator hurled his sword at Garrick, the blade carving into the cryoports of the gauntlets and forcing him off his feet. Todd was tackled to the ground and a hammer blow crashed down on his face. His brains should have been splattered, but the fact that it was still together confirmed Tejieue’s suspicion: Hippo powered up the rest of them to give them a fighting chance. No wonder she was low on battery so soon. Enhanced durability to blunt the damage and healing to fix them back up. They have the strategy, but there’s no chance this group has the experience to enforce it. Even if you enhance them, the pain will still stun these unhardened dilettantes.
Tejieue ripped the sword from the gauntlets and dashed toward Kenny and Aaliyah. With Todd holding his head from falling apart and Garrick’s gauntlets busted, the toy soldiers were left to helplessly pitter The Gator’s back. The sword was left a crack in its trail at was dragged through the floor and hoisted out in a shockwave that traveled under the bubble to discombobulate the pair inside. With Kenny also fallen to the side, Aaliyah was left to face the guillotine alone.
A crack of thunder shook the tunnels as a bolt struck the Gator. The sword had blocked GalvanGal’s hands and burnt in her grip with the same venom as the Onyx lightning, forcing her to let go. Nonetheless, she pushed The Gator to the dead end of the tunnel away from the others behind her.
“We should have asked about that sword and axe,” said GalvanGal under hoarse breadth, “I always wondered about it, but I guess we didn’t expect you to use them on humans. I figured that stuff was meant to fight demons.”
“I’m fighting some daemons right now; some foolish imps that openly challenged a daemon-slayer. Certepe and Seletega are the blades of your execution.”
It was clear to see that GalvanGal had not fully recovered, but she couldn’t let what was in front of her continue. The toy soldiers had cooled the pools of plasma that blocked the way to the rest of the facility. Aaliyah healed Kenny and Todd enough for them to stand on their own again.
There was no turning back; the real fight had only just begun.