Standing on a beach being bombarded with waves, Jack ran his hands through the sand, his eyes taking in the endless sea of crystal blue water, ruined boats, and destroyed structures that had once been piers, harbors, and docks.
Windermere, the southern hub of Roland's forces. The home of Adolf Hoffman.
Or, it had once been before Jack had marched through here with his army.
“You can't keep running Jack,” Lilith said, standing behind her host as he dug out a canister from his storage device and buried it in the sand. “This is coming from me of all people.”
“I'm not running.”
“Aren't you? Instead of making up with her you ignore her and run away every time you see her. She only did what she thought was best, saved your life too.”
“I'm not- I'm not. Okay? I'm doing what needs to be done. What only I can do,” Jack rebutted, poking his hand into the sand and digging into the grains with wind.
“No. What you're doing is torturing yourself. Do you not realize that I feel everything you feel? That I am you as much as you are me? You can't hide your intent from me Jack so stop lying to yourself. It's pathetic,” Lilith spat, the spirit taking flight.
Jack exhaled, moving several feet to bury another canister into the sand.
“She left me. When I needed her the most…” Jack's brow furrowed. “She left me.”
“Because you couldn't hack it, the world was falling apart, demonspawn were everywhere and you were-”
“I KNOW!” Jack snarled, “I know what she did was the right thing. I understand that… But I can't help feeling how I feel. At the end of it all, I thought I would still have her.”
“You fucking idiot. You DO still have her. You are the only one she loves. The only one she cares about with the exception of your cute brats,” Lilith said, sitting beside Jack.
Jack turned to the specter.
“Hey… you think my kids are cute?”
“Shut up.”
Jack's shoulders slumped, “I know you're right. I do. But I can't help how I feel about it, especially since I know there's something she's been hiding from me.”
Lilith turned away, knowing full well the plot between Selfia and Sahaqiel but choosing to remain silent.
“Then let's finish what you came to do and leave,” Lilith said before fading away. “Besides, she could have left your body at any point after we entered the capital, just know she had a good reason to after.”
Jack stood up, walking to the edge of the beach where his boots touched the water ever so slightly.
“You were right Hoffman… it is beautiful,” Jack said as he closed his eye and reached out, his body glowing with power that was akin to a beacon calling out to those sensitive to such fluctuations.
Jack's eye opened, sighing as he gazed over the city devoid of life.
“I really wished you could have shown me around,” Jack muttered as the sound of beating of wings echoed through the air.
It was time.
Jack turned, facing the headless woman.
Standing at seven feet tall with four black wings adorning her back, the apostle that stood before Jack was a Dullahan-type, one with a tarnished gold shield and a head under one arm whose face was obscured with black plates save for her mouth.
Athena. A former angel consumed by the Infinity Machine. Now one of many Apostles of the End that had been summoned by Jack's awakening.
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And consequently, one of many reasons why Jack couldn't go home.
Not yet.
As much as Jack was hunting he too was also being hunted. Tracked down by abominations that were drawn to his presence like a child to candy.
Last week it had been Gilgamesh, the week before, Brahma, this week, it was Athena.
“You are not Sahaqiel…” The apostle’s head spoke, its voice echoing with the tormented spirits of a thousand damned.
As Jack stood before the being once hailed as a goddess, every hair on his body stood on end as a sickly sensation akin to tar caressed his skin. Telltale signs of corruption.
“I am not,” Jack replied, his silver wings flapping gently as his golden eye took on a red glow and the wind answered his will.
“You… are… us?” Athena said, cocking her head to the side, confusion evident in her tone. “No… Deviant.”
The world around Jack began to stir, the apostle releasing brackish ghostly blue flames that covered the abomination from head to toe.
Subsequently, the fires she emitted burned the wind, sapping Jack's control of the element and robbing him of his most familiar tool.
“It's never easy is it,” Jack grunted.
This would be a hard battle, but that was why he had chosen this battleground.
Humid, with water everywhere and sand he could use against the angel, despite being the cause of its destruction, Windermere would become Jack's salvation against the fallen goddess poised to take his life.
“Well then,” Jack sighed and adjusted his eyepatch, “Let's get this over with.”
To the human eye, the two vanished, leaving behind craters in the earth from the sheer impact of their movement.
The earth split apart, the sand turning into smoldering glass as Jack's feathered spear struck Athena's shield.
Back and forth the two went, trading a flurry of blows with neither backing down until finally Jack was forced to retreat due to the rising heat.
Damn. If this doesn't work I'll be dead.
Several of Jack's feathers broke off from his spear, the weapon curving around the Apostle’s shield to strike at the armored specter.
Shit.
The air exploded, Jack pushed back as the dullahan morphed into a raging blue inferno. Athena raised her head towards Jack, her mouth elongating to glow with spectral power as it leaked with blue magma.
Ruby. Keep her contained.
Out of Jack’s shadow, the black armored einherjar poured forth, screaming to deflect a blast of scorching hit with her own shield as Jack conjured a stream of wind and slammed it into a hole in the earth.
Along the ground, buried in the sand, canisters containing liquid nitrogen lay, courtesy of Selfia.
Twelve canisters rushed up through the sandy beach, propelled by Jack's wind to explode out of the earth alongside a canopy of sand.
Immediately the sand began to boil, turning into glass, Jack's winds guiding the grainy particles into a tornado of molten shards that flew around the Apostle.
Athena roared, spreading her leathery black wings, attempting to leap from the ground, yet Jack anticipated this, Lilith already on standby.
From the sand, spectral chains emerged, shadow tendrils that latched onto the woman to drag her down as Jack focused on creating a dome of swirling sand and glass.
Still, it was getting hard to breathe, but fortunately, what happened next helped to alleviate his problem, albeit, temporarily.
The liquid nitrogen containers exploded, dousing the area, creating a chemical reaction of flash vaporization that snuffed out the apostle’s hellfire and exploded, sending Jack careening safely into the water.
If it had been mana, the beast known as Athena would have no doubt sensed it and moved, but this attack was neither magical nor otherworldly in nature but rather chemical.
A little knowledge Jack picked up to combat the beings of mythology.
Using his mana, Jack floated back up to the surface, taking in the aftermath of his trap with his eyes settled on the glass sculpture of the trapped Apostle.
Jack wouldn't have long.
Shooting forward, Jack reached out, one hand atop the glass to stabilize himself, Gehenna in full effect as the sculpture began to wiggle and glow.
With his angelic vision, Jack could see the being was still very much alive. Still very much angry and gathering mana to unleash a devastating attack.
“I give you mercy,” Jack hissed, pulling back his free arm to deliver a blow that shattered the hard carapace with his hand punching a hole through the goddess’s chest.
Jack's hand tightened, grabbing ahold of the tendril of energy within as flames spurred forth and immolated his quarry in a cacophony of screams.
“Be at rest,” Jack said through the flames that licked his skin, his hand crushing the condensed mass of souls with Jack sent tumbling across the beach as the fallen goddess exploded.
Covered in burns, ears ringing, with blood in his eyes, Jack coughed, his internal injuries forcing blood up through his trachea and out his mouth.
Still, despite his injuries, he was alive, his gaze settling on the mound of glass nearby that was all that remained of the angel hailed by humanity as the Goddess Athena.
“Thank you…” A voice whispered in the wind, a soft voice, one that came from nowhere but simultaneously everywhere. A hallucination? Perhaps, but Jack didn't know as he laid back down and closed his eye to sleep.