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I glanced around the room.
The very, very burnt out, exploded, barely-there-anymore room.
Then I nodded approvingly.
"Right, I think that's all of them!" I cheerfully declared.
There were several simultaneous sighs of relief.
"Finally! I swear, I thought they would never stop coming!" complained Jane, leaning against a nearby wall… or what was left of it after several rather intense minutes of non-stop fighting.
I kicked one of the nearby remains of a possessed suit of armor, before looking at what had to be dozens more scattered all over the place.
It was kinda hard to say how many had come, considering the many pieces scattered all over the room. Alongside all the bits of the room itself, for that matter…
"Well, at least we know we're making progress! They wouldn't have sent so many of those things if we weren't, right?" I replied, eyeing carefully a piece of charcoal-black burnt ceiling which seemed about to fall-
*CRASH!*
Oh wait, never mind it just did. Along with a good chunk of the right wall, too.
"Right." grunted John. "Well, I'm definitely eager to find where the last part of this damn castle is, because I'm getting tired of these nasty surprises."
"Look on the bright side, John. If you're getting tired of those traps, imagine how the other side feels when they keep failing to work!" I joked, before glancing at Frederick checking that his wife was still fine after the latest assault, before both turned towards me.
I nodded at them, before walking forward.
"Right! Let's see what awaits us onwards!"
We walked for less than 5 minutes…
And then found a wide open room with some kind of insect hive the size of a small house hanging from the ceiling.
There was a moment of silence as we all considered the sight.
"I'm going to need a bigger gun, sir." dryly remarked Jane.
I hummed… then shrugged.
"No need, you have me!"
I raised my left foot… and then hit the ground hard.
The entire room shuddered… and then the ceiling cracked, and broke.
The hive, no longer held by the ceiling, crashed down into, and through, the ground of the room, disappearing in the darkness of the earth below.
I walked forward, up until I stood towards the new hole in the ground, and looked down.
After a moment of peering downwards into the darkness, I shrugged, concentrated… and then a few new holes opened in the walls around the hole, as I used magic to create paths for the lava I had seen in other parts of the castle to go down and fall right on top of where the hive should have fallen.
Then I turned back and gave a thumb-up to the four ISIS soldiers watching.
"Alright! That ought to deal with that. Come on, let's keep going!"
Naturally, that's when my radio crackled to life, and I activated it with a frown.
"Aeon! Aeon, do you copy?"
I blinked at the controlled panic in Leon's voice. "Yeah, I get you. Problems?" I asked.
"We're- Ah fuck, on your right!- being attacked by some kind of giant flying insects! We're holding them off, but- Grenade!*BOOM*- we're a bit busy at the moment!" he shouted, sounds of gunfire and screamed orders echoing through the radio.
"I can hear that. But I'm in the castle, I can't help you, you should be asking for support from-"
"One of them got Ashley!" Leon interrupted me, and I scowled slightly at the news. "It's gone, probably to bring her back to their leader or something- Get down, Winter!- but I'll double back to the castle as soon as I can! Try and see if you can locate her, perhaps even rescue her!"
I nodded. "Will do, Leon."
"Thank you! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to fight off these bastards first, before I can try and join you!"
The radio crackled, then fell silent as Leon cut the connection and went back to focusing on the fight.
I pursed my lips in thought for a moment, while my bodyguards all looked at me.
"Orders, sir?" asked John.
I grunted. "We keep going. We have no idea where she is, but she's most likely headed straight for Salazar. We find him, we find her. Now come on, the mission is on a timer now, because I'd prefer not to let Graham in the cult's hands any more than absolutely necessary."
We kept walking, moving faster now that we couldn't simply afford to be more cautious since we needed to stage a rescue, before I held up a hand when we found ourselves outside… and in the distance, I saw Ashley be escorted inside one of the towers of the castle by several cultists.
"This place is really giving me a headache… We almost constantly went downward, and yet now we're outside, coming out of one of the Castle's towers…" grumbled John.
"And it's not going to get any better. Now come on, I caught a glimpse of our missing VIP over that tower over there. Let's double time it, with some luck we can catch up!"
Naturally, our sudden arrival in open air didn't stay hidden for long, and soon enough we had to fight our way through waves after waves of cultists who obviously had no intention of letting us go deeper into the castle, but sufficient amount of firepower solved that problem pretty well.
And then we actually made it to the tower where I saw Ashley being led into.
Only to find an Alien look-alike waiting for us.
For a moment, we all stared at it.
"Are they fucking serious-" began Jane incredulously, only for the thing to screech at us and jump, claws outstretched straight at me.
I didn't even think, the damn thing was surprisingly fast… at least by regular mortal standards.
Either way, if I wanted to kill this thing, I needed to do it fast, and brutally.
My plasma gun came up and fired, the damn thing trying to twist mid-air to avoid the shot.
Against someone else it might have worked, but not against me. Proof of how tough the monster was, it didn't die, didn't even roar in pain, it merely stumbled backwards from the plasma bolt hitting it straight in the torso.
Considering one of those plasma bolts could blow through a wall, no issue, it really said a lot about how hard to kill this bastard would be using conventional weapons.
I was, therefore, not in any mood to play around with it.
Luckily for me, making it stumble backwards was plan B if the shot didn't straight up kill it.
Time to go back to the basics, I thought with a vicious smirk as I Quickened forward.
Before the black monster could regain its footing, I was now standing in front of it, and I didn't waste time.
My left hand glowed dark.
Dark as the Void.
It moved forward, plunging straight into the torso of the creature, meeting a moment of resistance before continuing onwards, the outer shell of the monster, one strong enough to resist a plasma shot at close range, not able to last for more than a fraction of a second in the face of the all-consuming hunger of the Void.
Molecules broke, atoms dissolved, Quarks disintegrated, the very concept of Creation unravelling as my hand moved onwards, the Void consuming everything in front of and around my hand, until finally it laid deep within the monster's chest, right where its heart should have been on a human.
It wasn't, I wasn't sure if it even had a heart, but it didn't matter.
My dark eyes turned Black.
Begone.
Tendrils of purest black shot through the creature, reality breaking and showing through impossible, jagged windows into the very Space-Time Continuum itself, for but a second, the true, final fate of All Things:
Absolute Oblivion.
The creature did not screech. It did not roar.
From one moment to the next, its insides ceased to exist.
The hollowed out monster fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, a wet sound faintly heard as the flesh-less body hit the rocks at our feet.
I held back the hunger of the Void, sending it back from whence it came, allowing reality to repair itself with the frantic desperation of a lie peeled back to reveal a terror-inducing truth.
The jagged windows into a realm beyond the universe's boundary closed, allowing things like Time, Space and physics to return, the oh-so-fragile Laws of what mortals considered "Reality" taking their place once more.
For now, and for countless aeons to come, it would remain that way.
But one day, I knew, the Void would claim its due, and the Dream of Space and Time would end.
No matter. I would be there for it, as I am here and now.
I turned to look back at my people, who had barely time to recognize that the Alien look-alike had moved, much less me.
And with my body in the way, none of them saw the windows into the Void.
It was better that way. There were things that mortals were better not seeing.
And the Abyss beyond Time and Space was certainly one such realm.
It would rather defeat the point of being a protector of the Earth if I accidentally mindfucked my people into being Nihilistic by witnessing the End of All Things, after all.
Even if I could fix their minds from the Revelation peering into such things would bring, it was better to not to tempt fate in the first place.
So instead I smiled at them. "Well, I guess that I'll have to create some Alien-inspired simulations once this is all over!" I said cheerfully.
My bodyguards blinked, and then groaned as one.
I laughed, then turned and bid them to follow me, as we went deeper into the tower.
And I ignored the way they glanced at the hollowed-out monster corpse on the ground, looking like a discarded Halloween costume, and the way they all shivered at the sight before hardening their expressions and following me.
They knew better to ask questions after fighting for years by my side, after all.
Leon stared at the two burning giants currently screaming in agony as they burned in the lava pit they had been thrown into.
Then he slowly turned to look at the two responsible, who were looking half smug, half sheepish.
"What." he said flatly.
Sergeant Brads snorted.
"Yeah, that's a pretty appropriate reaction to seeing those two at work for the first time. Isn't that right, Private Jenkins? Lieutenant Rose?"
The Lieutenant in question raised a hand.
"I plead the Fifth." she replied solemnly.
The Private by her side raised a hand.
"I-"
"- had no excuses, because I told you that there was too much explosives in that bomb you were cobbling together." bluntly finished the Lieutenant.
The Private slumped. "Yes, Ma'am."
Leon waved at the two giants, whose bodies were now firmly under the lava.
"But… how-"
Lieutenant Rose shrugged. "Look, Maxim 6 apply, so no need to think too hard about it, alright?"
Sergeant Brad looked at the hole where the lava was. Then at the hole above.
"I dare say the 10th works, too."
"And the 11th." pointed out Corporal Briggs, sounded very much amused by Leon's bewildered look at everything that had just happened.
Lieutenant Rose looked at where the two giants died, alongside Sergeant Briggs, before nodding.
"The Corporal does have a point." she mused.
"Right. You know what? I'm not even gonna ask. Let's just keep going, we need to find Ashley."
Also, I really don't want to think about why the soldiers with Lieutenant Rose are exchanging money while muttering about "Air-droppable enemies." Just… nope.
Leon stared at the wagons on the old, rusty rails leading onwards, deeper into the mountains.
The now greater teams, combined between that of sergeant Brads and Lieutenant Rose, looked at the wagons with him, and even with their armors on it was obvious they were all staring at them blankly.
"Lieutenant?" said Private Jenkins.
"Yes, Private?"
"Please tell me we won't take those old wagons to ride on those rails that looked old when my ancestors fought WW1, Lt?"
"Very well, Private, I won't say that."
"Oh, God have mercy…" he muttered.
Leon sighed deeply, then got into the wagon at the front.
"You can stay here, you know. It's my mission to find Ashley." he offered.
Sergeant Brads snorted. "No can do, Leon. We got assigned to you and Graham, and we lost her. Like hell we will abandon you now."
He and his team got into the wagons.
Leon glanced at Lieutenant Rose, who stared for a long moment at the wagons before slumping.
"Aw, damn it. Well, at least it probably won't be as bad as some of the simulations the Boss put us through…" she grumbled, getting into the waggons.
The rest of her team followed, looking like they were all mentally writing their last Wills.
Leon would say something about that, but…
Well, Aeon trained him, too.
All things considered, she was very likely right.
He looked on in the darkness beyond and smiled.
Well, what's the worst-
He stopped himself.
Yeah, no, Gods existed and Aeon was a sadistic troll enough he'd make him pay for that thought.
Better to just quietly hope for the best and prepare for the worst, then.
"Why are there so many cultists in the caves?! Why are they all trying to jump into those damn wagons?! They can barely fit us as is!" Screamed Private Jenkins, shooting madly like the rest of them at all the cultists gathered on platforms which lined up the rails they were on, all of them waiting for them to pass to try and jump aboard for some insane reason.
If they all needed confirmation that these guys had no survival instincts whatsoever, it would be given time and again these last 5 minutes.
"Less complaining, more shooting!" screamed Lt Rose back, hefting her massive weapon in her hands and shooting again and again.
Leon tried very hard not to think about said weapon. He had no idea how it even worked, much less how the hell someone like Lt Rose, who wasn't the tallest or strongest of people as far as he could tell, could wield the damn thing in battle, but she made it work and he wasn't going to say anything.
Either way, Aeon was obviously involved. It certainly seemed to fit his usual brand of insanity, and casual disregard for what Reality said should and should not work.
"Lieutenant! These guys have molotovs!" screamed Private Jenkins, pointing at a number of cultists up ahead.
Leon, alongside everyone from ISIS, stiffened in dread at those words.
"Oh, shit-"
The molotovs were thrown.
Leon finally finished coughing from all the smoke around him.
Behind him, he heard Lieutenant Rose mutter to herself repeatedly.
"Never again… I'm never going into a cave system ever again… Just bomb them all, screw Maxim 1, just burn everything…"
Leon looked up ahead.
He promptly blanched.
"Everyone, hold on! It's going down- and hard!"
Every ISIS soldier looked up ahead.
They all promptly swore violently at the way the rails suddenly went sharply downwards.
"Why is Maxim 45 happening so often in ISIS?! Why?!" screamed Jenkins.
Things quite literally went downhill from there.
At the very least, Private Jenkins wasn't the only one screaming his head off.
"Hgg… I'm gonna be sick…" complained Jenkins.
"Private, I swear to the Boss if you vomit, you better do it outside the waggon I'm in, or I'll ask the Boss to create a simulation like this, but worse,just for you!" screamed Lt Rose back.
"Lt Rose!" Leon screamed.
"What-"
"The rails end up ahead!"
They all looked onwards.
At the rails ending up straight into a gaping hole, right in front of the continuation of the cave system.
"Fuck! Alright, everyone, be ready to jump! 3…2…1… JUMP!"
They jumped.
In a mess of limbs, groans and shouts of pain, everyone made it to the other side.
Then-
"Private Jenkins, I swear if you don't remove your hand right now-"
"I'm so sorry, Ma'am!"
The Lt promptly grunted in pain.
"And don't knee me in the gut while trying to get up! Damn it Jenkins!"
"I'm so sorry, Ma'am!"
Leon carefully entered the wide open room in front of him… and then stopped and stared, the ISIS soldiers with him doing the same.
"I thought villains created statues in their honor only in movies, but apparently not." said Jenkins, staring up at the dozens feet tall stone statue of the lord of the castle, Salazar.
"Apparently not. Anyway, it doesn't matter, we're not here to stare at the obvious signs of megalomania of our enemies, we're here to rescue Grahams, so move!"
They all did as asked, stepping on the small stone bridge in front of the statue leading onwards deeper into the castle.
Then they all froze, as they heard stones moving behind them.
They turned, their eyes going wide as the previously unmoving statue of Salazar suddenly began walking towards them.
*STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.*
"Run!" shouted Leon, and they all ran like hell towards the nearest doors.
Pillars of stone fell one after another in the path of the giant statue, and they all cursed loudly as the ground shook with every step of the statue and every pillar falling onto the ground.
"Keep running!" screamed Lt Rose as they all made a mad dash towards the nearest doors.
Leon reached them first, shoulder-checking them wide open and then continuing to run towards the tower right in front of him on the bridge leading up to it.
The ISIS soldiers followed closely behind, Jenkins being the last one to make it through the door.
"There!" he shouted. "Surely we're safe now, it can't break through the wall-"
Everybody flinched as the statue shoulder-checked the entire wall of stone standing in its way, before continuing it's inexorable march towards them.
"JEEENKIIINS!" screamed Lt Rose in enraged exasperation.
"I'm so sorry!" he screamed back, running like hell as massive chunks of stone fell all around him.
Leon reached the tower, turning back to look at the ISIS soldiers running-
His eyes went wide as the statue's weight proved too much for the bridge they all were on, and the statue fell as the ground underneath it broke, before continuing to break more and more towards where he was standing.
"Keep running!" he screamed to the ISIS soldiers, who glanced behind them before blanching as one when they saw the crumbling bridge and the depths beyond.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuuck!" screamed Jenkins, sprinting even harder as the crumbling of the bridge began gaining on him.
The other ISIS soldiers made it to the tower, before turning around to look at Jenkins.
"Jump, Private, jump!" screamed Lieutenant Rose, and Jenkins immediately did as she asked a fraction of a second before the ground fell from underneath him.
For a moment, the world slowed down and Leon saw the Private mid-air-
And then he fell on the ridge of the tower's ground they stood on, a "Ooof!" sound escaping him as he scrambled to hold onto something as his legs dangled in the air.
"Get him up!" shouted Rose, and her and a few ISIS soldiers got him on firm ground again, whereas he promptly collapsed on his back, panting hard.
"That… was way too close… Lieutenant…" he panted.
"That'll teach you to not taunt the gods and Murphy, Private!" she replied harshly, though the sheer relief in her voice betrayed her concerns.
"Sorry Ma'am… Won't do it again, Ma'am…" panted the soldier, coughing slightly as he caught his breath.
"You better not." she said with an angry snort, before sighing.
"Right, take a bit of time everyone, then we will enter the tower and see what's inside."
"You know, you all really need some additional training in stealth after this."
They all turned, weapons rising before they froze, staring at a smirking Aeon leaning against the tower's now open doors with his bodyguards behind him.
"Aeon." Leon said with relief, happy to see him here. "Ashley is close?"
Aeon made a thumb up pointing upwards. "At the top of the tower, with Salazar no doubt. I swear, we've got a real Princess in the tower/castle vibe going on, here! Couldn't have a more cliche setting for a climactic confrontation if I tried!"
Leon rolled his eyes at Aeon's smirking face and comment, though he couldn't deny the truth of the man's words.
Still, he trusted Aeon to have been more worried if Ashley was in danger, so if he was relaxed enough to joke it meant they weren't too late.
Aeon's eyes fell on Jenkins, and his smirk widened.
"In the future Private, I wouldn't recommend taunting the universe like you did. You never know if the universe might actually be listening, after all." he declared with amusement.
Jenkind blinked, opened his mouth, closed it, and then frowned.
"Wait, how do you know-"
"I'm the Boss, I know everything." said Aeon with a wide, smug grin and twinkling eyes.
Leon's eyes narrowed. Wait, are they literally twinkling?
Unfortunately, Aeon turned his head away before he could confirm.
"Now come on, let's stop wasting time, we've got to reunite Leon with his personal princess! Who knows, you might even need to kiss her to wake her up!" he declared with glee at the very thought.
There were a few amused snorts, and Leon rolled his eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure Ada isn't watching…" he trailed off, sending him a wink over his shoulder. "Or is she?" he finished with mischievous amusement, and Leon stiffened despite himself at the possibility that Ada might actually be around.
Knowing Aeon, he probably made sure she saw everything, just so that she could enjoy seeing me run for my life. He thought wryly.
Leon shook his head, before focusing on the mission at hand.
He saw Aeon pouted slightly as he did, but his own face hardened and his black eyes turned cold.
"Come on then, let's go save the princess from her tower."
Leon and Aeon bursted into the room at the highest level of the tower, the ISIS soldiers accompanying them fanning out behind them.
Seconds later soft curses erupted from them, as they all took in the sight of the altar in the middle of the room, with Salazar and one of his bodyguards standing in front of it, and a massive… plant-like organism covering the opposite wall nearly entirely.
Salazar turned around, his cold eyes looking around at all of them, a false smile of joy on his lips at the sight.
"Ahh, you all just missed her. The ritual is over. She left with my men to an island." he said with glee.
"What?!" Leon exclaimed, eyes wide with dread at the thought of failing his mission.
"Huh. How did you manage to sneak her out of the castle? It's surrounded… and so is the island you speak of." said Aeon, not looking much surprised by the news, but more curious.
"We have our ways, mister Aeon. Now then, I suppose it is time to pay due respect to your impressive will to survive." spat Salazar, glaring at them, the mask of joviality fading away to reveal the cruelty beneath.
A number of vines from the plant took hold of Salazar, and his bodyguard lifting them up in the air as the castle's lord closed his eyes-
"Weapons free."
Only for his head and much of his upper half to be disintegrated by a hail of blue plasma bolts shot by every ISIS soldier and Aeon at the same time.
Leon blinked as the plant monster shook in pain as several of the bolts hit it, before two massive vines the size of a human being broke through the walls on the right and left side of the plant.
Aeon grunted, then an actual, full-blown cannon appeared in his hands, which promptly caught on fire and shot a flaming cannonball straight at the centre of the monster, while Leon and the ISIS soldiers began firing on the two tentacles having appeared and who were currently trying to slam into them and crush them to a bloody paste.
The cannonball hit, and the tower shook even harder as the wall of flesh from the plant caught fire on top of having a new, massive hole in its body.
More vines appeared, trying to kill them by coming from the walls, the ground and the ceiling, but Leon and the ISIS soldiers either managed to dodge them or, in the case of a few unlucky ISIS soldiers, their armour withstood the hits well enough to save their life.
Leon tried to not gawk at Lieutenant Rose cutting her way through the vines, that way lay distractions he couldn't afford in battle.
"Cover me!" shouted Aeon, before he began running towards the center of the plant, jumping on top of the altar and then outright using a tentacle trying to kill him as a jumping board to get even closer to the center of the plant, while everyone else either shot at the vines near them or those nearing Aeon.
And then Aeon reached the center of the plant… and shouted in glee.
"One PUUUUNCH!"
And then he punched the plant.
Only for him to outright shatter the wall it stood on.
Needless to say, hearing Aeon's surprised shout of "Ah, shiiit-" as he fell through the newly open hole and into the water at the foot of the tower made Leon facepalm.
Hard.
"So, Ashley is not here any longer." Leon said with a frown, while Aeon nodded.
A dripping wet Aeon he might add, much to the visible amusement of most of the ISIS soldiers around them, several of whom had wasted no time teasing their leader once they had met up again.
Said man had merely grumbled about "World of cardboard" and "Damn weak-ass monsters, can't even take a proper hit anymore!" in the face of said teasing.
Also something about "Trollish True Self" that Leon really didn't want to think too hard about.
"Honestly, I'm surprised they pulled that off. But turned out the reason we saw so little opposition while making our way to Salazar at the end was that he had sent all his remaining troops to a nearby location where a boat was, and used those troops to fight off the rest of ISIS forces off while a few of his men took Ashley off to the island facility they have not too far from here. On one hand, that means that right now the castle is ours, since all remaining defenders were pulled out to allow Ashley's breakthrough our lines. On the other hand, it does mean that she managed to reach the island where Saddler is."
Leon grunted. "So, what now?"
Aeon shrugged. "The nearby mountains are pretty much cleansed, the castle too, honestly at this point the only remaining stronghold the cult has is their island."
He grimaced. "Of course, they have a warship there, and while I heard that some progress was made at taking their stronghold, in no small part thanks to vigorous use of snipers and Chris pulling a few incredibly risky stunts- I heard the only reason he didn't get a trip to the Dream was Blood Healing at one point- the warship is still there, refusing to give up."
Aeon grinned. "Honestly, at this point I'm thinking of just taking the damn thing myself, because goodness gracious that warship alone proved more of a problem than anything else the cultists threw our way so far, and I'm sure that Insight Corp. could find some use for a warship."
Leon tilted his head with a frown.
"Wait, but doesn't that warship originally belong to someone else?"
Aeon paused, before shrugging.
"Good point. I do wonder how much we can get from the Spanish government when we give it back, then… A question for later. In the meantime, you see that cave entrance over there?"
Aeon pointed at a cave entrance on a nearby cliff.
"Yeah, I do. Why?"
"You should go there. You'll find a boat which can get you to the island."
"You're not coming?" asked Leon with surprise.
Aeon shook his head with a smile. "Not quite yet, at least. I've got to organize things over here, now that we've taken the castle and the surrounding lands. I'll show up at some point, don't worry about that, but I want to make sure we aren't missing any straggler or any nasty surprises that Salazar or Saddler could have left in the area."
He winked at Leon. "Besides, you're the big damn hero who is supposed to save the girl, can't take that away from you!"
Leon snorted and rolled his eyes.
"Well, in that case I need to go..." He paused, before looking back at Aeon.
"Any news about Luis?"
Aeon nodded. "He's with Rebecca, last I heard. With the mountains cleansed she was free to go take care of him. He's in good hands, don't worry."
Leon sighed in relief. "Alright, that's good. When I heard he got badly wounded I was worried, but if he's got Rebecca watching over him he'll be fine."
With that concern answered, Leon left towards the cave, walking deeper into them until he found himself before a small underground dock with a boat waiting for him.
An occupied boat.
Leon tensed and inhaled sharply at the sight of the red-clad woman smirking at him.
"Need a ride, handsome?" Ada Wong asked, visibly enjoying the surprise on his face.
He relaxed, staring at her with wide eyes.
"Ada." he whispered.
Her smirk softened into a smile. "Leon."
Leon slowly approached, hesitating a moment before, with a sigh, getting on the boat.
"I'm surprised you're helping me out so overtly." he said after a moment of silence as Ada warmed the engines and they left the dock towards the island controlled by the cult.
Ada shrugged. "Aeon knows I'm here, and so does the cult. Hiding from you at this point is pointless. And you've been helpful in providing a very good distraction from the cult while I sneaked around. What? Not happy to see me?" she teased with a grin.
Leon stayed silent for a moment, before glancing at her.
"You're working for Wesker." he said bluntly.
"With Wesker, Leon. Not for. It's an important distinction." she said firmly. "And honestly, I hold no love for the man, a sentiment which is fully shared. He'd get me killed if he could get away with it and I wasn't so useful. We just so happen to work for the same organization, at most."
"And why do so in the first place? Ada, you've seen what the viruses can do to the world! You were here in Raccoon City! Do you really want to help spread the horrors of it to the whole world?" he replied, frowning at her.
She sighed.
"Leon, it's not that simple-"
"It could be." he said firmly. "You-"
"Are an international criminal hunted by many countries and organizations, remember?" she finished for him.
Leon fell silent, before shaking his head. "And so what? All that you are doing is making things worse for you by working with-" he sneered at the word "-the likes of Wesker."
"And you've got a better idea, Leon?" she replied, raising an amused eyebrow at him.
Leon fell silent, before looking at her in the eyes.
"Work with ISIS."
She blinked. "Leon-"
"Why not? I'm certain that Aeon would agree." he said.
"And you're sure of that? That he'd trust me, just like that? After all the years where we fighting on opposite sides?" she replied mockingly.
"If he didn't trust you at least somewhat, he'd have killed you by now." he bluntly answered.
Ada said nothing, but Leon didn't miss the way her jaw clenched at his words, and a flicker of unease flashed through her eyes.
"You're so sure he would be able to-"
"Without a doubt. And you know what? I think you do, too." he interrupted, expression firm, almost grim.
Ada looked at him for a long moment, before looking away, saying nothing.
He sighed deeply, looking towards the island in the distance. The flash of explosions and the distant sounds of them could faintly be heard, growing clearer the closer they came close to it.
"If anyone could protect you from your past, it's him and Insight Corp., Ada." he said softly. "I don't fully know what stops you from switching sides, but… Aeon shared some of what he knew about you with me. And none of it changes the fact I genuinely believe that you would be great on our side."
As the island's cliffs came into view, he looked at her in the eyes again, expression pleading.
"Think about it, okay? I know that you could make it work if you tried."
He looked away, finishing in a whisper. "That we could make it work." he said so softly that Ada almost didn't catch it.
But the way her hand clenched so tightly on the steering wheel that her knuckles went white betrayed her inner conflict.
Then she violently turned the steering wheel towards the right, the boat shifting hard enough that Leon grunted at the sudden movement.
Ada took out a gun which fired a small harpoon which embedded itself in the stone of the cliff, and Leon turned to look at her only to blush slightly as he caught sight of her standing up with her red dress riding up and revealing most of her legs and ass.
"I've got business to take care of." She looked back at him, her eyes glinting with amusement as she caught him staring at her ass.
"See you later." she promised, before jumping up and away towards the cliff.
The boat spun around with the strength of her kick as she jumped, and Leon desperately tried to take control only to have the boat hit a nearby cliff and brutally come to a stop.
He laid back on his seat, sighing.
"Ha. Women." he said with exasperation.
As Leon made his own way into the island, the distant and not-so-distant sound of gunfire and explosions echoing in the air, he suddenly froze when after turning a corner he got out of a cave and straight into what had to be a cultist outpost.
But what really caused him to freeze was that, a second before a heavy stone door fell in front of her, his eyes met that of Ashley, being held on on the shoulder of a very tall cultist who was leading her up deeper into the island's underground.
He just had the time to see her eyes widen, the beginning of his name on her lips, before the stone door closed.
He scowled, even as his heart soared- he obviously wasn't too late to rescue her yet!
With that thought in mind, he immediately charged forward…
Only to have to duck behind cover as a second tall cultist holding a machine gun appeared on his path and began firing, while the Spanish shouts of more cultists echoed across the outpost.
"Great, machine guns wielding cultists. Just what I needed." he cursed softly, though he wasn't too surprised.
It made sense that the primary stronghold of the cult would have better equipped soldiers, especially when they had access to such things as a warship.
Didn't make it any less annoying to deal with, though…
Leon looked down at the dead soldier at his feet.
The dead, fully equipped with military gear soldier.
"Of fucking course they have brainwashed Spanish soldiers. They have a warship, why not actual soldiers to boot?"
He sighed. No wonder ISIS had issues with this place if they were dealing with an actual, proper military, he grumbled to himself.
Good news was, they visibly weren't as smart as actual soldiers. Turns out, brainwashing soldiers by infecting them with parasites made them less capable of using actual tactics.
How shocking.
Not.
Bad news? What they lost in cunning they made up in toughness.
Or, well, they would, if he hadn't gotten his hands on a plasma gun. When he saw that a regular las-pistol took several shots to kill them, he had switched to a plasma gun, and well…
The half-liquified remains of the dead cultists all over the place speak for themselves on the results.
The other bad news being, of course, the fact that they had actual military weapons. No lasguns or anything, thankfully, but proper rifles, machine guns and more were certainly present.
Leon couldn't afford to be careful however, as he needed to get to Ashley, the faster the better.
Killing one more brainwashed soldier, he walked up to a corner leading to-
He paused, blinking incredulously.
"Welcome! What are you byuin'?" asked the shady merchant cheerfully.
Leon opened his mouth.
Closed it.
And promptly decided that there was not anywhere near enough alcohol around to deal with this shit.
He sighed deeply.
"What do you have?"
Leon killed another cultist, then carefully entered the building he had come across.
The sound of explosions, gunfire, shouted orders in Spanish and more echoed in his ears, and in the distance he could see beams of red light from las bolts coming from ISIS soldiers fighting against the remaining members of the cult, the night sky almost looking like the middle of the day from how fierce the fighting was.
Thankfully, it appeared as if the cultists were too busy to fight off ISIS to worry about him, which suited Leon just fine.
Coming onto the island from the boat and scaling the cliffs seemed to have hidden his presence, though Leon held little doubt that Saddler suspected that he was somewhere on said island by now.
If nothing else, the outposts worth of soldiers he had killed going silent would certainly serve to warn them that something was killing their soldiers.
As he entered, it quickly became obvious that this was a more important facility for the cult, as visibly mutated cultists with armour and some high-quality military gear stood amongst the regular brainwashed soldiers.
Still, fighting in corridors with a plasma gun was just cheating, considering that anyone not in cover were just asking to be melted into a steaming puddle, and anyone in cover swiftly and fatally discovered that there was no such thing as a good cover against a man with a plasma gun.
Leon took a moment to very enthusiastically thank Insight Corp. in his mind for creating such powerful weapons.
They really made this whole mission incredibly easier.
Leon had to hold back a shudder at the thought of fighting these bastards with bullets.
It could probably be done, sure, but it would have been a lot more dangerous.
As he stepped over yet another steaming lower body of a former cultist, Leon's eyes widened as he saw he had found a security room…
And one of the cameras was recording Ashley screaming for help in a cell.
"Ashley." he whispered, swiftly coming closer to the screen.
Then his expression hardened as he saw that there were two cultists alongside her in her cell, one of which threw her backward and into the ground to make her stop screaming for help.
Then the cultist who threw her down looked up, staring at the camera, his eyes widening before he looked at the other cultist, pointing at it.
A second later, the camera's feed shut down.
He scoffed, stepping back.
"Pfft. Amateurs." he couldn't help but mock.
Then his frown returned, and he sighed.
"Just hang in there Ashley, I'm coming for you."
Looking around, he found the plans for the facility, and then left for the prison cells.
Though he did make a pit stop when he found the shady merchant cheerfully greeting him in one of the rooms of the facility.
Leon really didn't bother trying to understand how the hell he got there before he did.
That way laid madness.
And probably smug gods laughing at him (if they weren't already).
Still, as he continued to make his way throughout the facility, Leon couldn't help but note how dilapidated the whole place was.
Rust was everywhere, and the corridors and rooms looked like they hadn't seen any kind of cleaning in years.
It was a surprise the place even had working electricity, much less everything less!
And then Leon found out what the facility was used for, and he tensed at the sight of his discovery.
Right in front of him laid a medical facility, and on top of a bed was a new kind of BOW's.
Grey-skinned and unmoving, the size of a man, Leon felt his carefully honed instincts scream at him that this thing would be a pain in the ass to deal with, in comparison to the regular cultist.
The document he found in a nearby room only confirmed it.
"Regenerators." he whispered. "Great, just great. So now those things can regenerate like a Hunter taking Old Blood… Fucking perfect."
At least there was some good news, since it appeared that these things could be killed if one shot at the parasites inside their bodies.
Problem was, he would need thermal imaging to see where those things were…
He paused, then glanced down at his plasma gun.
Then he grinned.
When he heard movements from where the grey-skinned monster was, he turned around, opened the door…
And stared into the now very much awake Regenerator.
The Regenerator stared back.
Leon grinned at it.
And then he pressed the trigger of his plasma gun.
Once. Twice.
Then three times, because he had been instilled with a healthy dose of paranoia from training with Aeon.
By the end, the only things left were scorch marks on the ground and smoke.
Leon chuckled. "I definitely owe the R&D department at Insight Corp. a drink or ten after this mission."
He kept walking forward, heading deeper into the facility and killing any other Regenerators he came across by literally melting their entire body.
No need to worry about where the damn parasites were if the entire body didn't exist anymore, after all!
He could almost see Aeon giving him a thumb up of approval at that thought!
Then again, it is Aeon, he thought with amusement.
There was no greater master of overkill than the guy who once mentioned turning an entire battlefield into a small volcano just because that way his enemies couldn't use the ground to dodge his attacks anymore!
Shaking his head, he focused back on his mission, killing another regenerator-
"Leon! Leon help!"
He tensed, before smiling.
Apparently Ashley was close enough now that she could hear the sound of him fighting.
He rushed forward, though not so fast as to not be cautious.
Which saved his life, as the next corner turned out to almost be his last.
Only his Aeon-trained instincts allowed him to throw himself backwards when a shotgun fired right at him, wielded by a man just slightly less tall than Aeon wearing some kind of ragged steel armour, and his mind caught flash of another such elite cultist by his side standing as guard in front of Ashley's cell.
Leon grunted in pain when some of the buckshot hit his right shoulder, a slight grimace crossing his face at the pain, before he snarled.
"Ashley! Get down!"
And then he released his hold on his plasma gun with his right hand, took a grenade and then threw it at the corner he almost got killed in, the grenade bouncing on the wall and into the corridor leading to the door of Ashley's cell.
Leon took a step back-
*BOOM!*
- And then stumbled slightly when the grenade went off.
Still, he didn't waste time, charging once more across the corner and taking sight of the first cultist having been blown to pieces.
The second, however, had apparently been shielded by his companion, and only had a number of bleeding flesh wounds to show for the explosion.
Leon didn't give him time to recover, bringing his plasma gun up and then firing, the bright blue bolt hitting the remaining cultist in the chest.
The man's armour disappeared along with his upper torso, his head and lower half showing third-degree burns from the plasma, which kept on going and melted the steel door of Ashley's cell, before making a deep, steaming hole in the wall opposite the door of the cell.
Leon kicked the remains of the door, which flew backwards and crashed on the ground loudly, before he entered, pausing at the sight of a wide-eyed Ashley who was staring at the steaming trail of destruction caused by a single shot of his plasma gun.
"Hey, Ashley. You okay?" he asked.
She blinked, before smiling brightly.
"I am, thank you! Thankfully they didn't do anything… Or didn't have the time to do anything." she answered.
He sighed in relief. Of course, she was still infected and they had lost several hours because of the fact the cultists managed to capture her again, but it could be much worse.
"Come on. Let's get the hell out of here. I'm getting sick of this place."
"I know what you mean." she replied with some grim amusement.
Leon turned, but paused when Ashley put a hand on his arm.
"The ISIS soldiers who were with us… Are they-"
"They are fine, don't worry." he answered with a smile, before huffing in amusement.
"They are trained and equipped by Aeon, they don't have much to fear."
He waved at the melted wall opposite them.
"Just look at- hmf." he paused, grimacing slightly as the wounds from his shoulder ached and made themselves known, now that the fight was over.
Ashley blinked, before her eyes widened in concern at the sight of his bloodied shoulder.
"You're wounded!"
He smiled. "Don't worry, I got this."
He took out some medi-gel, applying it with a pained, then pleased hiss as the substance went to work, closing and cleaning the wounds in seconds.
His shoulder still ached slightly, and felt a little stiff, but that was still much better than before.
"See, good as new!" he joked.
Ashley stared at his shoulder with concern and fascination both.
"Come on, we really need to go- the longer we stay here, the more we risk reinforcement coming in."
"Right. Right." she whispered, before she nodded at him, making it clear she was ready to follow him.
Giving her one last grin, Leon turned and focused back on the mission.
They were both currently deep behind enemy lines, ISIS was currently busy fighting the cult elsewhere on the island or hunting down survivors on the mainland, and any hope of reinforcement were dubious at best for the time being.
Also, Ashley was still infected, so he needed to worry both about protecting her and keeping an eye out in case she turned against him.
He held back a sigh. Never a dull day on the job… he thought dryly.
Leon made a few steps towards the broken door… and then paused.
There, coming from the barred window of Ashley's cell, came a paper plane with a lipstick kiss on it.
Leon's eyes narrowed, and he took the paper to read
Perhaps you have figured it out already, but you might be able to get out of here by using the waste disposal vent.
He glanced at the nearby window, before stuffing the paper in one of his pockets.
Obviously, Ada was keeping an eye out for him.
Which on one hand he was happy about… and on the other hand made him a bit concerned about what, exactly, she was planning.
Nothing to do about it but to keep going, though.
Leon shot another cultist's upper half into non-existence, before going to the hole where the waste disposal vent was and looking down.
He pursed his lips, thinking quickly. The drop wasn't too bad, though he had to worry about Ashley. If she fell badly, she could get hurt, which would make his mission even more complicated.
On the other hand, he could hear the shouts of many cultists coming closer, as apparently the fact he was here and managed to get Ashley back had spread to Saddler, and now a small army's worth of cultists was charging the facility to try and find them.
He did take a moment to consider what having all these cultists here and not on the frontlines fighting ISIS would mean for the battles across the island, but beyond the overall satisfaction at the knowledge it had no doubt helped them, he was more concerned about succeeding at his own mission.
And right now, he didn't think it would be a good idea to lead Ashley into a fight against so many cultists.
He held back a sigh, and then nodded.
"Looks like this is it." he said.
"Bwah! It stinks!" Ashley cried out when she came closer, putting her hands over her nose.
He snorted. "Sure does." But not as bad as Raccoon City did during the outbreak. Less corpses, no doubt, he noted.
He turned towards Ashley with a smirk.
She glanced at him, then at the hole before her, then back at him with wide eyes.
"No way, Leon!" she exclaimed, taking a step back.
"Yes, way!" he said firmly, a smug smirk on his face as he took her left hand and then dragged her forward to jump down with him.
"Ah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Ashley screamed, first in surprise when he grabbed her hand then in fear as they fell downwards in the garbage chute.
Seconds later they hit the bottom, Leon grunting once then getting up quickly, while Ashley groaned loudly.
Then she sat up with a cold glare.
"Are you out of your mind?!" she shouted, still in shock at what just happened.
"I knew you'd be fine if you landed on your butt." he replied with a slight smirk, glancing around for any hostiles or anything useful he could grab that had been thrown down here.
"Bah! You-" she growled, before pausing when he turned and extended his right hand for her to grab to more easily get up.
With an annoyed grunt she did so, Leon nodding at her. "Come on, let's go."
As she got up however her hand brushed up against something strange, and she jerked towards him.
"What is that thing?!" she shouted, staring at a human-looking thing buried underneath the garbage.
Leon's eyes widened when he spotted the grey skin… and a second later the Regenerator got up with a growl.
Ashley screamed, but Leon simply took his trusty Plasma gun and melted the damn thing into a steaming puddle.
He wrinkled his nose at the smell, before shaking his head.
"As I said, let's go."
Ashley threw him a wide-eyed look, but didn't waste any time following very closely behind him when he turned on his heels and left.
As they made their way through the underground paths of the facility, Leon's trusty Plasma gun proved its worth time and again, to the point that even Ashley was sending it appreciative glances when she saw how quickly it killed anything in their way.
He glanced back at her with a dry look.
"Mine. I saw it first." he deadpanned, lips twitching as he held his new favorite gun tighter.
Ashley huffed, before turning thoughtful.
"I don't think I remember my dad telling me that the US Army had plasma guns… I do know that laser guns were being sold to many of the world's countries by Insight Corp., but I can't remember anything about plasma guns."
He grunted. "ISIS is the armed branch of Insight Corp., and you saw what they faced. Are you that surprised that they keep their best stuff for themselves?"
She frowned.
"Then what about you?"
"First, I'm friends with Aeon. That opens doors that most don't." he pointed out. He's also training me, but let's not reveal that tidbit unless absolutely necessary.
"And secondly? If you haven't noticed, the situation is pretty FUBAR when the daughter of the US President is kidnapped by cultists. You really think they'd try and stop me from having any and all advantages I can get that would help me get you back to safety?" he finished.
She stayed silent, before her right hand softly touched her neck.
"To safety, heh…" she whispered, looking sad and fearful.
Leon grimaced. Yeah, there was still the matter of the parasite within her.
He wasn't too worried, worst comes to worst he could just have Aeon take care of that, but he couldn't exactly explain why.
"Because he's a god." probably wouldn't fly, after all.
And even if he could convince her, that'd only open an entirely different can of worms that he really didn't want to worry about.
So instead he just stopped walking and put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a kind smile.
"Hey, you don't have to worry, okay? If we don't find a clue on how to cure you here, then I'm sure that the scientists back in Insight Corp. will, and sooner rather than later at that. So you don't have to fear anything; I promised you that I'd save you, and I will. Saddler won't win, okay? I promise you."
Ashley looked at him with wide, trembling eyes, and he could see that everything that she had gone through since she had first been kidnapped was definitely taking its toll on her.
Still, she kept going and had yet to break down on him, so all things considered she was doing shockingly well for a civilian thrusted out of nowhere on what might as well be Hell on Earth as far as she was concerned.
"You really trust Insight Corp. that much, huh?" she said softly.
He nodded. "I truly do." he said firmly.
Then he grinned, holding up his plasma gun.
"And hey, they are the ones who made this gun and medi-gel, so you know they are good at their stuff!" he joked, and Ashley's lips twitched in a grin.
"You certainly seemed to appreciate their work, that's for sure." she remarked with amusement.
"'Course I do! They do great work, after all!" he said cheerfully, before his smile softened and he gently squeezed her shoulder.
"As I said. You don't have to worry, no matter what, I'm getting you out of this damn place. I swear it."
She swallowed, turning her head away to hide her tears.
"Thank you." she choked, and he politely turned his head away while she wiped away her tears.
When she was done, she took a few deep breaths then nodded at him, and they kept going in silence.
"You can drive, right?" he asked, as they looked at the vehicle before them.
She nodded. "You keep them off me, and yes I can."
He grunted. "Good."
He got up on the back end of the bulldozer, plasma gun in hand.
Ashley took the driving seat, and thankfully for them the keys were on.
Soon enough they started moving, and as Leon feared there were a lot of cultists all heading their way.
Good news was, the bulldozer was more than capable of forcing its way through any barricades they tried to put on their way.
Second good news, his plasma gun proved as useful against any vehicules the cult tried to use against them as it was in reducing groups of charging cultists to ashes.
The bad news?
Turns out, the facility they were in was connected by underground roads to other facilities, and that meant a LOT of cultists were rushing their positions.
Leon held back a wince when he heard the distinct *CRUNCH* sounds of a cultist being crushed underneath the bulldozer.
It was a sound he was rapidly becoming very familiar with, and he couldn't help but shout in concern.
"You're alright, Ashley?"
"I am!" she shouted back.
This time, he couldn't hold back his wince.
The first time she had crushed a cultist to death, she had frozen and it took her a few seconds of him shouting at her to get them moving again.
The more time passed and the more death however, and the less she seemingly cared about the deaths she caused, and by now she outright accelerated whenever it became clear another group of cultists was about to be crushed.
He wasn't sure if she was just suppressing her emotions for the time being, or whether she was taking this as an opportunity to take her own revenge against the cult for everything she was put through, but either way her kill count was swiftly rising up.
Unfortunately, he couldn't both hold the cultists behind them at bay and drive the bulldozer, so that was just something he would have to worry about later, when they had a moment to catch their breath.
For the moment, he kept firing his plasma gun, melting the upper body of two cultists and half the head of a third one behind them.
At least ISIS's tech proved itself as reliable as ever.
"Everyone's ready?"
"Sir, yes sir!"
"Good! Then let's bag us a warship!" I cheerfully shouted.
And then we broke out of the sea from around the warship, where we were previously hidden under bubbles of air I had created around me and my bodyguards, flying up and unto the roof of the warship, taking a moment to adjust to once again being above water after having sneaked our way underneath the ship by walking on the sea bed for a while, and making sure we all knew where every hostiles around us where.
And then we opened fire, and the former Spanish Warship fell into utter chaos as it suddenly got attacked by half a dozen hardened killers out of nowhere.
Me singing "Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me!" alongside my bodyguards probably didn't help the utter confusion the cultists were under, either