Two days had passed and Alek had not yet returned. Rafael kept turning the situation over and over in his head, unable to find any other solution than to attack the Church of the Covenant. In any case, it was too late to have second thoughts. There was only an hour left before the meeting with the other members of the Association at the convent.
He had spent half the afternoon refining his energy in the sun. This was still summer, even if it was coming to an end, and his spirit would be stronger than last time he fought the priest. However, he couldn't be sure of the outcome. The priest was a tough enemy, and Rafael did not know how many other shamans there were in that cult.
He checked his equipment one last time. His enchanted wooden amulet hung around his neck, accelerating the energy flow between him and his plant spirit. His staff of disruption, designed specifically to counter the priest, attached to his bag. In his pocket was a pepper spray, but the priest would surely expect it this time.
He also had the Alchemist's ointments, seeds of various plants, a packet of flour, his lucky stone, and a change of clothes. He had decided to go without shoes, no matter how people would look at him in the street. Better to have direct access to the earth.
He would have liked Jay to share some of his good fortune with him, but he knew that, against Dino's powers, he would need everything he had been able to accumulate over the past few days. No, as much as he wished for help, he was the only one who could handle the priest... He had to take care of him, for Leonard, and for the city.
Rafael looked at the clock again. It was time to go. He kissed his parents goodbye, which surprised them, as he didn't usually bother. Then he went to the garage and got on his motorcycle. He fiddled with his helmet for several seconds before deciding to start it. In a few minutes he would be attacking a religious building. It felt irreal.
Rafael took the road, forcing himself not to go too fast. He wasn't afraid of having an accident, not with his reflexes enhanced by spiritual energy, but he didn't want to linger too long in front of the convent waiting for the others. It wouldn't make sense to get spotted because he had arrived too early.
He parked one street away from the convent, and looked at his watch. Only five minutes early, it would be fine. Ilona and Orphelia should already be at St. Catherine's Church, waiting for his message to begin their work of destruction. It was all in the timing. Too early, and the priest might notice something. Rafael couldn't let him get away this time.
A car door slammed behind him. He turned to see Jay getting out of his car, accompanied by Tiffany and Jazz. His friend wasn't late. That said a lot about his determination to settle the score with Dino, and it showed on his face. Rafael had never seen him so closed and focused.
What's more, a vortex of energy was absorbing the luck all around Jay. Rafael couldn't usually feel it, but here the effect was so intense, so dense, that he felt that even a mundane could sense it. This was serious stuff. He almost felt sorry for Dino.
"You ready?" asked Jay to Rafael.
"He won't run away this time," he assured him.
Jay nodded. He opened the trunk of his car, took out Orphelia's water gun and said:
"Same with Dino, you can count on it."
Diego's car arrived in turn. He had picked up the Omarov brothers, and Rafael also knew that they had met the day before to discuss how to work together. Having bonded animal spirits, they had a lot of raw power, but were not very versatile. That said, with Diego's experience, they should be just fine.
"Is everyone ready?" asked Rafael.
The others nodded, a serious look on their faces.
"Good, let's go!"
They made their way to the back of the convent as quietly as possible, but, given the size of their group, and the daylight still present, they were unlikely to stay off the radar for long.
It didn't matter, they only needed a few moments.
Rafael approached a part of the wall he had spotted earlier in the week. Two things had made him choose this site. First, it was a little far from the street, and few people passed by. Second, there was already a thin crack running along the facade. This would make his job easier.
Rafael took an elm seed from his pocket, and inserted it into the crack. With his water bottle, he soaked it generously, then put his hand on it.
This is it. We're really breaking in.
Without giving himself time to be afraid, or to change his mind, he sent his spiritual energy inside the elm seed. Immediately, roots grew inside the crack. Rafael emptied the rest of his water bottle, and continued to use the power of his plant spirit.
Ten seconds later, the roots were the size of a finger, and the wall was already starting to crack. Thirty seconds, they were the size of an arm. The sound was deafening, pieces of cement fell all around Rafael. He stretched his will to make the roots penetrate even more deeply. It wasn't enough to destroy the wall, he had to create an opening.
His enchanted amulet was burning against his chest, but he didn't stop feeding the tree so that it would continue its meteoric growth. With a rustle, branches and leaves grew above him, the foliage shading him. But most of his magic was focused on the roots.
They hung on the wall as if to give it a death hug. The coating had long since fallen away, revealing rows of increasingly disjointed and broken cinderblocks. Until, finally, the weight of the trunk toppled them, opening a gaping hole in the building. A stream of water poured out of it, coming from pipes torn off in the process.
"Let's go," Rafael said.
He went into the hole first. Behind the wall was a dormitory with about a twelve beds. Rafael saw a sudden movement near the door, and turned his head just in time to see a frightened woman running out. There must have been several of them in there before he collapsed the wall.
Rafael stepped out of the way to let Diego and the Omarov brothers in. For now, everything was going according to plan.
"Over there," he told them. "Some women have run away, they probably know where Melinda is."
Without taking the time to answer him, Diego sped off down the hallway like an arrow. Hippolyte and Borka hurried to avoid losing him.
Jay entered the convent with the water gun in his hand. He was completely focused on his objective, and scanned the surroundings without paying attention to his friend. He also headed down the hallway.
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"Good luck," Rafael said.
Jay replied without stopping. "I'll use all the one I need."
Rafael wasn't worried about him. In truth, Jay's powers were terrifying, and there was no way to protect yourself from them. The only way to beat him was to survive until he exhausted his reserves. Dino would never be able to last long.
Rafael looked behind him to make sure Tiffany and Jazz were okay. They were near the rubble, pretending to film it with their phones. Perfect, they wouldn't risk much among the mundanes.
He took out his phone, and quickly sent a message to Ilona:
Rafael: We're in, get ready.
Then he prepared a second message. He would only have to press a button to signal them to start their work of destruction.
It was time to go hunting.
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Diego had almost caught up with the two frightened women who had fled the dormitory. But when they saw that someone was chasing them, they had accelerated and managed to reach a small chapel where they had locked themselves in. The police inspector was drumming vainly on the door for them to open it.
"I mean you no harm," he shouted. "I'm just looking for my wife, Melinda."
No answer. Behind him, the Omarov brothers had just arrived. They quickly understood the situation.
"Let me handle it," said Hippolyte, cracking his neck.
He stood by the door, took a deep breath, and his body suddenly began to grow. His neck widened, his muzzle lengthened, and his legs became more bowed, like the hind legs of a horse. Half-turning hinself, he threw his left foot back with all his might. His shoe hit the door with a deafening clatter, and the latch gave way, half torn from the wood to which it was attached.
Eyes fixed on Hippolyte, stunned by his transformation, Diego took a few seconds to regain his composure. Borka put his hand on his shoulder and asked:
"Do you want me to go in first?"
Diego shook his head.
"I'll go," he said, pulling his pistol from his holster.
The door offered no resistance when he kicked it open. He then entered, his gun pointed forward. The two women were huddled near the altar, holding each other, and murmuring prayers.
Diego looked around the rest of the room. No one was there. Yet he did not put his weapon away. The two women seemed harmless, but perhaps they were acting. Tiffany's transformation had left its mark on him, and Hippolyte's was still fresh in his mind. He was not going to be deceived by the physical aspect of the two cultists.
He walked toward them, but stopped cautiously a meter away.
"I'm looking for Melinda Martinez," he said as calmly as possible. "Do you know where I can find her."
One of the women began to cry, he wouldn't get anything out of that one. The other, seeing his brandished gun and his serious look, decided to speak. She stammered:
"Not Martinez, the only Melinda I know is named Desousa."
Diego trembled inwardly. Her maiden name!
"That's her," he said, controlling his voice so as not to betray his emotion. "Where is she?"
"In the infirmary, she wasn't feeling well this morning. Because of her children. Sister Marie Chastety said it was just a phase, and that she was going to take care of her..."
"I'm the one who's going to take care of her," Diego growled, waving his gun. "How do we get to the infirmary?"
The woman, white as a sheet, pointed in the direction.
"Down the hallway, to the right, and right again. Don't hurt us, I beg you."
Diego was already gone. There was no time to lose, they had to be out of there before the police arrived. Hippolyte and Borka followed with a delay, leaving the two women alone and terrified in the chapel. The broken door offered no protection, but they did not have the mental strength to find a better shelter.
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Jay walked through the corridors of the convent with his eyes half closed, water gun forward. He didn't know where he was going, but he didn't care. The image of Dino's lifeless body floated in his mind, and he used it to guide him through the twists and turns of possible futures.
You shouldn't have gone after her, Dino. That was the end of your luck, and now you'll have to suffer the full fury of my spirit.
The vortex of energy surrounding Jay had grown again. It was now absorbing luck from a dozen meters away, regardless of who might be caught in the absorption stream. Anyway, everyone who was hanging around was part of the cult, isn't it?
His core couldn't hold all the luck he had accumulated over the past few days. The surplus floated around him in a gigantic halo, plunging him into a kind of fog that could distort reality. He was no longer in control of his movements, the image he was visualizing was directly directing them.
Jay turned left, pushed open a door that was luckily not locked, and entered a closet filled with cleaning supplies. There he stood still, letting the seconds tick by. He wasn't impatient because he knew he was on the right path, and that something was going to happen.
Suddenly he felt something. A butterfly of light flitting through the fog. He concentrated, sending his spiritual energy through his luck token to bring it to him. When it landed on his skin, his hand automatically rose, pointing the water gun in the corner of the room. He fired.
The ground exploded. Concrete debris flew in all directions, miraculously avoiding hitting Jay. He didn't even get a scratch. There was now a huge hole in the ground where he had fired, allowing him to see the basement. A room with no windows in the middle of which was a bed. And on it was Dino, his shoulder bandaged, sneezing from the dust raised by the explosion.
Jay fired again. Dino reacted with superhuman speed, bringing his hands forward. The stream of water rushing toward him slowed to a crawl, and fell into a harmless puddle a few feet away. Dino then grabbed several pieces of concrete that had fallen near him, and stood up, looking hard toward the ceiling.
The two men's eyes met.
Jay's left hand was raised, two fingers forward, his token against his palm. He had just finished drawing a rune with the energy he had accumulated, and Dino was right in his sights.
"You pushed your luck, and now you're going to die."