There was not a single thought in my mind besides seeing that thing killed.
Its otherworldly appearance. Those pale eyes, that wide grin. The large hole in the center of its head. It moved excitedly, its eyes expecting me to take action.
It spoke no words, made no sound, yet all I could hear was the deafening screams of Rinara repeating in my mind. It was loud, and it wouldn't go away.
Make it stop.
My feet pushed off the ground, the force sending a jolt through my body. My arms angled my Gearsaw towards the shadow, aiming right for the neck with the gear side. I had my finger placed on the trigger, ready to tear the cursed thing to pieces.
Once the distance between us had closed, I brought my arms high, preparing to swing down with all my might.
"…"
However, I was met not with flesh, not with bone, but with a spiked bat. The thug I followed into this alley intervened between me and the shadow. His expression stiffened as he pushed against me in our clash. His spikes were caught in between my gears, making it impossible to spin them to life.
I pushed against the ground, creating some distance between us. The thug staggered forward. I switched the side of the blade I was using and ran around the thug toward the shadow. The thug slammed his bat against my blade to block the attack, sending my arms upward. He swung at my chest; the spike failed to penetrate, but the force of his attack was enough to push me away.
"Not bad, not bad," he grumbled, switching the hand in which he held his weapon. He shook his hand in the air as if he suffered from the recoil of his attack. "Though the look in your eye is quite…concerning."
"…"
The two men behind me readied their weapons and took small steps toward me. I lowered my stance, gripping my blade tightly as I listened to the sound of their footsteps. My eye was trained on one thing and one thing alone—the shadow.
Perhaps the thug realized this as he stepped in front of the shadow. With the shadow out of view, the noise finally faded. I looked up towards the rooftop. There was a pale blue light that flickered along the barrel of the weapon I made for Sara. The light circled the end of the barrel.
Was Lilas controlling her aim? Why are they taking so long?
"You." The main thug took a step closer to me, looking deep into my eyes before analyzing my body from a distance. A stark grin lined his lips. "So, you are the man that Galahad failed to kill. Told us you had some sexy church maiden with you." He looked around, shrugging his shoulders mockingly. "But you are alone, so did she ditch you?" The thug's expression then darkened. "Or was she a tool of that stupid brat?"
"…"
"Silent game, huh?" he approached me. The two men from behind were right behind me, slamming their weapons into their palms, eagerly waiting to strike. I was glad these guys operated off some stupid moral code; otherwise, this battle would have been messy.
For them, had they not, I would never have let them get this close.
"That look in your eye, even when surrounded by us, is frankly annoying. You feel fear, but it is not toward us; it's something distant." The thug leaned closer to me, grabbing me by my collar. "Honestly, hunting you isn't fun. Just be grateful that I, Henry, the Sentinel of the Void Fangs, a group under the seventh head of the void spawn cult, am allowing the mercy of death."
He released me and stepped away, his back turned. The moment he did, a soft pop from overhead sounded, and a small metal canister flew right in front of me.
That fucking dumbass!
I closed my eye.
"Kill him, rip off his head." The second Henry gave that order, a blinding flash filled the alley. Even with my eye closed, I could see the blinding flash as the men behind me groaned in pain.
A sharp ringing noise filled my ears as I reopened my eye. I gripped my sword and turned behind me. The closest man's eyes were bloodshot red, but when he swung his crude weapon—a sharpened piece of sheet metal fastened to a brass pipe—he overshot, allowing me to slam my Gearsaw into his chest. I revved the gears. The blade tore through metal, eventually reaching flesh and blood.
His viscera painted the area as I sawed him in two. Both legs and torso fell, spilling more blood and parts of his organs onto my feet. The ringing stopped, allowing me to hear the blood-curdling, vengeful shout of the man next to me.
The second man surged forward, his eyes a mixture of fury and thrill. But before he could get very far, a pale blue light flickered; his weapon, a rusted iron pipe, was ripped from his hands. Confused, he looked up.
I could only imagine what he saw when he looked for that split moment. Was it a blade? A light? A flash from an unladylike woman? Whatever it was, the moment his head turned towards the sky, his body was split in two down the middle.
A massive sword of steel and crystal crashed into the ground below. Lilas stood on the hilt of the blade with a single foot, her skirt still fluttering from the speed at which she fell. Blood from the man she cut in two stained her thighs and the hem of her skirt.
I popped the steam core out of my Gearsaw and slotted in a fresh one. Lilas gave me a sidelong glance as she jumped off her blade, effortlessly picking up the massive weapon from the ground with a single hand. She took a defensive stance, using it as a massive shield.
That's why she didn't intervene earlier; her weapon was too long for this alley. I cursed myself for not realizing that before.
I turned to face Henry, who stood with his back still turned while looking over his shoulder. He put a silver pocket watch away while looking at the two of us with an assumed expression.
"Thirty seconds was all that it took." He turned forward, kicking the robed man in front of him. "You had enough time to use it."
"B-but, sir!" The man spoke in a trembling voice.
"This is why that woman is useless. She has no control over her men. Then again, she did design those artifacts as a means of revenge."
"H-huh?"
"Oh, she never told you?" Even with Henry's back turned, I could tell there was a twisted grin on his face when he spoke. "You little shits should never have gone after her sister while she was still a regular cultist. You guys should have just stayed content with using her. But you reap what you sow, and the third seat is now sentencing you guys to death."
Henry turned back around, stepping away from the cultist who stopped trembling with fear. The shadow was no longer there. Henry leaned against the wall of the alley, a smug look on his face as he reached into his clothes to pull out a cigarette.
"So she just sees us as tools for her revenge plot? A voice came from behind the shadow. The likes of her will not use me; she should have stayed in the cage. I wish I could turn back time, capture her sister, and do my way with her as she watched!"
A faint snapping noise filled the alley. Henry took a large puff of his cigarette as Lilas lowered her stance.
A purple light illuminated from the robed man's hand.
"I will take the third seat by force." The robed man continued to ramble as the box in his hand opened. "She and her sister will become my personal slaves and I will—Huh!?" The hand that held the box swelled into a blackened mass. The man tossed the box, but it was too late. His arm exploded into a purple tentacle dripping with both crimson blood and clear ooze.
"Axien…" Lilas muttered. Her eye was bloodshot red. "Do something…I can't attack in this alley." She looked up, but all she saw was empty air. Her face turned pale as her eye snapped onto Henry. He paid her no mind as he continued to smoke.
"He—me—KILL!"
The robed man's tentacle arm stretched towards me. I dodged to the side only to be met by another tentacle. His other arm morphed as well…no, that's not right; his entire body was changing while he attacked.
Then he vanished.
"Mother…killer!"
There was a heavy thud from behind. Lilas had blocked a direct attack on me with her blade. She pushed back against the morphing creature. It stepped back. The head of the creature looked around, locking on Henry's direction. He puffed his cigarette, unbothered by the creature's gaze.
"Food…Mother…" The creature looked between the two of us.
"This isn't right," Lilas said. "Why is this thing a Class Two void spawn? It was just born."
The creature looked at me. "Must…avenge—I won't…be…used…" Its body stiffened. The otherworld tentacles wrapped around its head. "L-leave me…kill…man…who…killed…mother…" The creature spoke as if it was fighting itself.
I readied my sword, holding it with one hand while I reached for my pistol. I tossed it to Lilas, and she nodded, aiming at the creature while it was struggling for control over its host.
I revved the gears as a gunshot rang through the alley. A large hole appeared in one of its tentacles, ooze squirting out. The man's face twisted with despair. His eyes were bulging. One was staring off as if looking at something distant, while the other looked at me with a pitiful look.
"G-go a-away!"
The creature released the tentacles around its neck and lashed them towards me. I used my gears to cut them off before another shot tore through the air. It pierced the creature's chest, exposing a beating mass of flesh made to resemble a heart. The creature roared in pain as it tried to run, stretching its tentacles upward and stabbing holes in the sides of the buildings.
A third shot rang out, severing one of the tentacles from the torso. The creature lost its balance and fell onto its face, but before it could get back up, I stabbed my blade into its heart, revving the gears. It screamed in pain as ooze covered my clothes. Once the creature's wailing came to an end, both Lilas and I turned to face Henry.
"Tsk tsk tsk." Something small was in his hands. A brown sack that wiggled and squirmed. "Thank you for dealing with that failed experiment." He said, lifting the sack. "The third seat…you see, she's a friend of mine. I just hate the way she controls her followers. But what I hate more is the way they treated her. This may seem hypocritical of me, given my part in the city's underworld, but I utterly despise seeing freshly bloomed flowers plucked of their petals. Often they are simply tossed once bored with." His eyes narrowed. "Iudicium Dei, was it?"
He grinned as he pulled open the brown sack. Inside was a small girl, her mouth gagged with a white cloth. She looked at me with a fearful expression. The sound of my pistol fell to the ground. I turned to face Lilas; she was glaring at Henry, but she made no effort to move.
"Good girl," Henry said before turning back to look at me. "Let's play a game. Show me that you saved this girl, then maybe I'll trust that you can save my dear friend from the burden of this life."
*Click*
I felt my heart pound heavily in my chest as the noise of a gun's hammer being pulled back filled my ears.
*BANG*
Before I knew it, I rushed over to Lilas, holding her tightly as I rolled onto the ground.
"N-n-no NOOOOOOOO!" Lilas's scream tore through my ears. I looked up. Sara was on the ground; fresh blood painted the walls. Henry crouched down and looked past us with a murderous glare in his eyes.
"You are one h-hell of a coward, y-you know that?" Henry said while panting hard. "Ritair."