[The Dead Apostle is here in the school.] I sent to Lancer without hesitation.
[I am returning right away.]
[No, finish the Ghouls. That's just as important. I can…manage for awhile.]
[Master, this is an unwise decision.]
I frowned. [If the ghouls rampage, they can make more ghouls. If it gets bad enough, my city will get condemned by either the Church or the Mages Association. If worse comes to worse, I have the command seal to summon you back.]
She was silent for a moment.
[I will endeavor to destroy these monsters as quickly as possible.]
From the videos I saw, there were a lot, and they were scattered. It was going to take her more than a few minutes to do so, not to mention, it's pretty far away from us.
The only reason I was calm was due to the training I've had from my parents to control my emotions.
My heartbeat was already skyrocketing. I felt the hairs on my arms stand up, and anxiousness set in pretty quickly.
I was firmly stuck between a rock and a hard place with few good options.
I was also furious.
"Hey Sparky, do you have a pocketknife on you?" I kept my voice very quiet.
I had barely paid attention to him when I sat down, and he to me, but at this point, I was happy that Greg thought they were friends.
Sparky just shrugged, reached into his pocket, and let me borrow it.
Immediately, I started carving into the table.
"Freddie! You're going to get in trouble." Greg whispered.
I was startled as a screech was heard, but it was the principal, Mrs. Blackwell, adjusting the microphone on the stage.
"Hello, children!" It wasn't her who spoke, but the Dead Apostle who looked over the crowd. Everyone perked up because there was an apparently homeless man addressing the whole school next to the principal. "Now, I know you're all wondering why you're here. Congratulations, you all will be involved in something wonderful. My ascent to a greater level, to become something greater!"
He was grandiose about it.
I honestly paused for a second myself because I was taken aback by his tone and mannerisms.
He looked around, furrowing his brow. "I thought I would get a reaction. How about this?" He swiped his hand, and Principal Blackwell's head went rolling across the ground, blood splattering everywhere.
There was a single beat as everyone processed what just happened and before the first scream. Then a table was knocked over, and everyone immediately started panicking, trying to run away.
"Cape!"
Several others bolted to the doors smartly, but they were locked by key, and the other 'staff' just stood there blankly.
At Winslow, everyone knew how to survive in a situation like this: run.
But there happened to be nowhere to run.
"Now, now, calm down. If you just – "
A gunshot rang out; it landed right on the Dead Apostle's chest, making everyone immediately stop their chaos.
The one who shot him looked like an ABB gang member. "You're breaking the rules, you stupid bastard! Do you think the Dragon will let you off!?"
The Dead Apostle looked down at the gunshot wound and clenched his jaw. "How impolite."
The wound began to heal.
Did he cast a Curse of Regression that quickly and without a need for an Aria?
I didn't even catch it.
He jumped off the stage and moved. He was very fast; I barely caught him out of the corner of my eye as he impaled his hand through the gunman's chest.
The corpse and blood that sprayed from it sent another frenzy through everyone in the cafeteria. Someone took a loose chair and threw it at a window in hopes of breaking it, but it merely bounced off.
"Now, now, children." He paused, and his eyes glowed. "Stop!" He roared, and it reverberated through the building.
I felt the wave of magical energy wash over me.
Mystic Eyes of Enchantment.
It was a very common ability of Dead Apostles.
Everyone, while not hypnotized, froze in place at his words.
Though it felt really crude? I don't think he even noticed that I wasn't affected.
"Now that I have your attention. Behave, and things will be…less messy. And don't bother trying to call for help; your dear principal seems to have had a signal blocker in her office that she was more than willing to let me use."
I'm fairly sure a signal blocker is illegal unless it's explicitly approved by authorities.
I was almost done.
"Good children." He smiled disgustingly. "Don't worry, your assistance is your honor. You will help me ascend far higher than you could imagine."
A large-scale sacrificial ritual? To use an entire school, that's the only thing I could think of.
But he has to be out of his mind to do something like this. This is the kind of shit that has you on everyone's shitlist. The Church will maybe even send Burial Agents if it becomes public.
The Queen of the Clock Tower may even make a move for a low-level Dead Apostle like him, just to make a statement.
What the hell is he thinking?
Out of the corner of my eye again, I saw something move.
There was a faint black shadowy mist, and I recognized a silhouette moving through the wall. It was Shadow Stalker, one of the Wards. More specifically, it was Sophia Hess, the school's resident bully.
Her costume wasn't as 'professional' as the one she wears when working, it seems. But you can't fault her for that specific detail in a scenario like this.
She apparently had snuck away once she had things to think about and presumably grabbed a bag she stashed at the school to arm herself.
Immediately, she fired a crossbow bolt that hit the Dead Apostle's shoulder.
He also was genuinely surprised to see her.
That surprise turned to elation.
"A Parahuman!" He exclaimed. "Excellent, excellent!"
"Die, you bastard!" Shadow Stalker's voice came through as she shot another bolt at him.
He casually dodged it and took out the one in his shoulder and tossed it away.
He lunged at her, but she turned into her shadowy state as he passed right through her as she slid across the ground and took out a small hand crossbow from under her cloak and fired it at his back.
He barely even twitched.
Shadow Stalker had to turn into her shadow state again to avoid him trying to grab her, but the game of cat and mouse slowly ended as Shadow Stalker ran out of crossbow bolts.
That, and the Dead Apostle was much faster than her.
One last bolt went flying past his head, and he caught her arm right as her shadowy state ended.
"Let me go, you fucker!" She tried to kick him, but he just caught her leg. "You're fucking dead, you hear me!?"
"I can't have you running away; your powers are troublesome to chase you back down. But don't worry, you're also very valuable. This will hurt a bit, unfortunately." He ignored her words and stabbed his hand into her lower stomach, then he stomped on one of her legs.
It sounded painful.
She screamed out as he pulled his hand free. Everyone could see the blood dripping down her stomach and the hole she now had in her abdomen, and her leg was bent in a way it shouldn't be.
Without hesitation, he also grabbed her mask and pulled it off.
"How curious." He said simply, tossing it to the side before dropping her to the ground.
Plenty of the kids gasped in surprise at her reveal.
"Y-you fucker!" Sophia, to her credit, cursed him in that state. "You're fucking dead; you just unmasked a Ward! You're going to get a kill order, and Legend is going to shove his lasers up your ass." She coughed out blood but still glared at him.
"My loyal servants, come detain this one." He continued to ignore her as he snapped his fingers, and the controlled staff members came over and aggressively pinned Sophia down despite her wound.
Perhaps I should thank Sophia later; she did buy me enough time.
"Axis, Turn." I intoned, and my circuits flared to life.
Just, ever so slightly, I saw the Dead Apostle's nose twitch.
And he turned his head in my direction.
I used the pocketknife to stab my hand quickly and slapped the bloody flesh against the table.
Underneath my hand were sigils of the Biblical variety, with the Four Archangels representing the Four Directions carved into the table.
Subtlety and silence were now gone.
I could simply sit still and let the Dead Apostle kill some more people and let Lancer clean up her end first before summoning her without revealing myself.
It would be simple, really.
But this was my city.
This was my responsibility.
"Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."
My magical energy surged.
"Make me to hear joy and gladness;
That the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice."
He saw me, and his eyes widened. Maybe excitement, but there seemed to be a slight panic. I was concerned that he came to this school because I was discovered, as small a chance as that was. But from his reaction, I could easily guess he had no idea I was here until now.
"Hide Thy face from my sins;
And blot out all mine iniquities."
My words carried across the building, reverberating within the steel and wood of its construction as a faint light flickered across the tile and roof.
The Dead Apostle picked up his pace as he made his way towards me, unceremoniously throwing any obstacles between us to the side.
He casually lifted a table and threw it, hitting several people. Amidst the screams that followed, he shot off the ground at me.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me."
He jumped at me, and just as he was about to grab my neck, I leaned back, narrowly dodging it, and I used my leg to kick him over me, sending him into the wall.
My heart was racing as I quickly continued.
"Cast me not away from Thy presence;
And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me."
It barely slowed him down as I narrowly dodged his grasp again, but then I felt a sharp pain in my throat as his nails extended from his hand and managed to stab into my thigh."
"Restore unto me the joy of Thy Salvation;
And uphold me with – "
He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up, slamming me into the wall.
"You're a—"
I reeled my head back and headbutted him while casting Reinforcement on myself hastily.
He let out a startled gasp, reeling back as his grip loosened.
"And uphold me with Thy free Spirit!"
"Amen."
The sigils on the table burst out with light as it used my blood as the final catalyst to actualize. The faint light crawled across the ground and up every corner of the walls, covering everything within the building.
Those who had been hypnotized with their eyes glazed over suddenly snapped back.
The Dead Apostle screamed.
A blood-curdling scream that could be felt all the way from his soul.
It was a prayer to sanctify a building.
He was now—at least temporarily—on Holy Ground.
And his body began to burn. He was already running around during the day, weakening him noticeably, and now he was standing on holy ground, which only further began to sear him apart.
He fell to the ground, rolling around with every scream before he leapt up and jumped through the window.
I slid to the ground against the wall, gasping for breath.
Everything happened so quickly, and I was mostly moving on instinct. My heart was still racing, and it felt like it was going to burst from my chest.
The adrenaline at least made it so my leg wasn't as debilitating as it probably should be.
Unfortunately, my bastardized attempt at sanctification wouldn't last more than an hour, if I was lucky. And that was if someone wasn't going to try and bust it down from the other side.
The large room was eerily silent.
I know the Dead Apostle had used his Mystic Eyes to calm the chaos, but I could feel all their eyes turned to me.
The unpleasant feeling was pushed down as I stumbled to my previous seat.
Greg stared at me, and so did Sparky.
I reached into my bag and pulled out my stuff.
My shoes that had runes on them. I carefully put them on, tying the laces tight. I took off my hoodie, tossing it to the side because it would get in the way—intentionally being a size too big.
I found the leather gloves I kept in my 'just in case' supplies.
Just like the shoes, they had a rune sewn in them.
The Black Keys I kept; I grabbed those too.
I looked at Greg, who was looking at me like I had three heads.
Sorry, Greg, I need you.
Awkwardly, I grabbed Greg; hearing him softly yelp, I unfastened his belt.
I was fully aware of how this looked, and I didn't have time to care.
I pulled it off quickly, then wrapped it around the wound on my leg and pulled it tightly to stop as much blood loss as possible.
"Stay inside." I grabbed Greg's shoulder, making sure he heard me. Though I said it loud enough that I'm pretty sure everyone heard me. "You'll be safe inside, okay?" He didn't respond, but I said it firmly and directly enough that Greg should understand.
Family was important.
At the very least, I would make sure Greg didn't get hurt, for his parents' sake too.
I corrected my hastily cast Reinforcement to do it properly.
With a breath out and a breath in, I cast it as much as I could over my body.
I walked to the exit and kicked the door nearly off its hinges, not caring to be meticulous about undoing the lock or finding the key.
A 'physical' barrier like this meant absolutely nothing when it came to protection.
I used my teeth to pull my gloves on tightly and clenched my hands to get a feel for them.
The Dead Apostle was just getting up after rolling around on the ground outside.
The effects of standing on consecrated ground for a Dead Apostle of his level wore off quickly, but I'm sure it weakened him a bit even if he wasn't screaming in pain anymore.
I doubt every student in the school made it to the cafeteria, so someone must have called for help, somehow.
So, I didn't need to win; I just needed to make him lose.
Either by Lancer or a SWAT team arriving to scare him off.
"You– " He rasped.
I responded just as Bazett taught me. "Fehu," the rune under my right foot, actualized, and I stomped against the ground. It increased my speed several times for a brief moment, and my knee slammed right into his face.
His body jerked backwards from the impact as blood sprayed from his nose and mouth. I touched the ground and grabbed his arm, pivoting, and using the momentum to throw him over my shoulder into the wall.
Talking wasn't a free action.
[Line break]
A/N
Well, this escalated.
There's now an extra chapter up on p.a.t.r.e.o.n . c. o. m / astoryforone for this snippet.
I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the same name