Chapter 20
Okay, so the situation is a real clusterfuck. Dad's side was at a serious disadvantage, with those Users channeling to break the place magic around my Father's house he was losing a huge part of his defense. These guys shouldn't have been able to even get close! Worse yet was the fact that they were blowing holes through the remaining shielding of the house, which was letting daylight in. Even ambient light affected Dark Walkers. I needed to shut down those fucking Users.
First things first. I reached into my harness and rifled through my ammo clips. I didn't have a whole helluva lot of weaponry dedicated to fighting Light Walkers. I mean let's face it, when I took this job there weren't any of the fuckers around. Still, I had a few tricks up my sleeve. I jammed in two loads of blessed silver slugs, rounds I had hung onto that had a helluva kickback. Blessed silver would work in a pinch, silver was a pure metal and hurt both sides equally. Technically the blessing should help as well, as it was blessed to pierce my enemies. Let's hope that I could wrangle up some measure of luck. I was gonna have to get Gear on some new equipment of I ever get through this.
Rounds in place I measured out my targets. Dad was engaged with the biggest member of the Greater Flight, though several others were in combat around the grand entrance. My target was the first User in the foyer. That meant crossing several streams of light. I knew what was gonna happen when I did that and while I knew it was gonna be unavoidable, that didn't mean it wasn't at all delayable.
Snapping my guns back in their holsters, I vaulted over the railing and into the entrance hall. I flared out my shields, surrounding myself in a bright Orange aura, fully recharged. While I did that I slipped my hands back into my harness and fished out two more grenades. I didn't keep a huge stock of explosives on me, usually a few holy water affairs and two of these. They were encased in a dark black metal with a sliding knob on the side. I pushed the knob all the way up and tossed the first one in the direction of my Father. In the same fluid motion I brought the other around and tossed it at the User. The grenades lobbed across the floor, bouncing until coming to a rest. There was 2 quick flickers of black light, then the room was plunged into darkness.
Darkness grenades were useful, if not expensive, little pieces of equipment. Contained within the metal globes was a darkness spell, designed to suck light from the ambient environment. The dial on the side would allow you to set how much was pulled and the farther you set it, the more powerful the spell, but the shorter the duration. I packed them for the instances where I was caught out to late as a last ditch effort to control my Daywalker form. Today, they would be more of a help in evening up this fight. I had cranked the dial all the way up, I was going to have to make these few minutes count.
The entire room was pitch black, but I could see just fine. my Second Sight lit up my first target like a Christmas tree and I headed that way, drawing out my guns in each hand. I felt the smooth black grips as I took aim. Before firing, I channeled my essence into the gun and the bullets, charging them with an Orange hue. Let's see this fucker chew on this shit.
I darted through the throng inside the entrance hall, snapping out with the butt of my guns if any of the Light Walkers got to close. I could feel my aura flush with energy, I guess that nap had paid off more than I thought. I drew up on the caster, my Second Sight picking up the swirling mesh of Black and Red shielding. I drew both barrels up, pointing directly at his face. The User was in such a thrall, he didn't even see me.
"Good mornin' mother fucker."
I emptied all 16 rounds into the bastard. Each round hit point blank, crackling with my Ethereal charge. The first few shots didn't show much damage, but by the time each barrel clicked over onto empty chambers, the shield flickered weakly and the stream of magic pouring through the User started puttering out. I jammed the empty guns home and slid free a silver knife. Concentrating all my energy into the blade, it quivered with power, surrounded by an almost neon orange. Then I plunged the knife into the User. I cracked the shield as the knife found flesh in his neck. He issued an almost inhuman roar as the psychic backlash threw me from the body. I was tossed by the Red=Black bolt of energy that had held the connection as my body crashed hard into one of the end tables that lay along the wall.
I had hit hard, the wind rushing from my lungs, but I pulled myself up from the cracked mess of splinters, one hand clutching the wall for support. I took a second, to survey the battle as I caught my breath. The grenades and death of the first User had worked as the one sided battle had begun to turn sides. Dad was still locked in battle with the Greater Flight Angel though, seemingly caught in a stalemate of magical and physical duals. The other User had to go down in order for Dad to get back his full power base. I needed to quit fucking being such a bitch and get out back out there. I shook free the last of the cobwebs and made my way to the front door. I could see the light filtering through the door, and the overall effect of the grenades wouldn't hold out much longer.
As I moved forward my Father caught my eye as I made my way to the front. I could see his face gritted in concentration, but he gave a tiny imperceptible nod. He knew what I was gonna do. I nodded back and turned away. With one hand I clicked free my harness, hearing the clatter fall or equipment fall to the floor. The other hand wrapped my lucky rosary around itself, preparing. Fuck I hate this part....the only good thought was that at least my coat was still in my room.
In between the doorway and the User outside lay several Lesser Flight members, a mixture of young angels and light beings, as well as a few conduits. Obviously meant to act as a buffer between the Dark Walkers inside and the User outside. As I stood at the edge of the darkness spell, I took a final deep breathe, then flung myself forward.
My body hit the light in an explosion of agony. Changing forms was never fun, but the Dark form I knew how to control. With this shit, well it just fucking hurt. My clothes seared from my body as my skin erupted in a liquid light. A churning vortex of molten light energy, sort of the yin to my Dark forms yang. I could feel the liquid light wings form on my back, spreading wide in a blurry trail of flame.
It took every morsel of concentrated thought to stay on my feet as I transformed. Even my screams let forth a flaming ray of pure light. I stumbled a few steps but I kept heading blindly forward, the brightness blinding me to just a field of white.
I had never really delved to the extend of this forms power, mostly cause I couldn't shut it off unless I lost conscious or I was returned into darkness. It was hard to control and harder still to learn the extent of what I could do without risking everyone around me. I finally fell to one knee, my hand burning a hole in the ground as I caught my balance. Concentrate you son of a bitch. FOCUS! People were depending on you. You can't fail them again. In fact I was done failing.
I forced my eyes open, searing my vision. I pushed past the pain and gradually my sight returned, going from blurry white shapes to blurry dark shapes. I could feel the heat my body was putting off, the brightness flooding the already fragile darkness that was in the house. I pulled at the tendrils of power around me, pulled hard forcing the energy inside. It felt as if I would explode, but I corked it up, a hot boiling mess that threatened to spill forth if I gave in. Slowly I stood, one step, then the next. My vision retuning to a kind of quasi-spectrum where I could finally make out the world around me, though every thing seemed to appear in darker tones that remembered.
I took another step, then another until bursting forth in a breakneck speed, the wings behind me seemed to pull at the air, speeding me faster, making me lighter, as I sprung to the open doorway. Planting each hand on either side of the doorway, I vaulted high out of the door, seeming to hover in mid air as I surveyed the exterior. I could see the second User inside of his shield, Black and Red energy pouring from the Heavens throughout the User's body. he was surrounded by several guards, most notably a two members of The Greater Flight and several Lesser Flight beings.
I thrust myself at the Lesser Flight first, streaking like a lighted missile from high as I crashed into the creatures. The energy that I had contained inside I now let go. It felt as if I exploded with the force of a small Sun, my body bursting forth in a globe of such Light and fire that it destroyed the smaller creatures. I futilely tried to claw the energy back inside, but it would not be contained. Cursing, I pushed up and instead walled the pain off in a corner of my mind. It was that or lay whimpering on the floor.
Pulling myself up the Greater Flight advanced on me, shields raised. I decided to beat him to the punch and streaked towards the first one in line, a blur of fire and light. I reached my arm back and threw a punch towards him. My fist hit his shield with a sizzling thud. He had blocked the punch, but not the effects. My molten skin poured over the shield and encompassed the Angel in a burning coat of liquid fire. I could feel his life force flow from himself and into me, almost like how my Dark form would drain anyone else. I tried futilely to release him, but I couldn't control the hunger.
The next Angel had targeted me in the meantime, jabbing his spear across his comrades body. I narrowly managed to force my head backwards and bring my free hand up to grab the hilt of the shaft. Jerking forward, I leveraged the spear to bring in the bearer closer, before my subconscious kicked in. Releasing a scream of pure light from my mouth, the scream burned through the Angel, until only a molten husk remained.
My form, satiated, had abated, and I stood up. Once again I pulled at the stray fabrics of power around me, willing my body to heed my commands. I shuffled forward approaching the User, still clad in his shields. I knew I was going to have to let lose with all I had. I just had to hope that I had enough left to pull it back together.
"Okay fucker. Your about to need some serious fucking SPF."
I focused, pulling at the light around me. Somehow I knew that the light in the air would follow my command, that I could use it. I forced the power inside, my face a mask of sweat and concentration. As I built the swirling mass of energy inside to a frenzy, I heard a voice rise behind me. A female voice.
"Alex Develin. I am afraid I cannot let you do what you are about to do."
I turned around to see a beautiful woman behind me. Long blond hair framed a cherub face, with a small nose and clear blue eyes, like mine. She had an athletic build, but appeared ever so soft. She was dressed in clean white robes and golden plates of armor. A shining golden spear in one hand, a similar shield in the other. It was her wings that caught my eye though. Huge flaming wings emitting a golden light. As I looked at her smooth skin, I realized it was also a liquid gold, though calm, not at all like the raging torrent that spiked through my body. It was the sneer on her face that did it for me though. A derision born of years of disappointment. An unflattering look on an otherwise flattering face. It was a sneer that I had seen on my Father so many times before.
"Allegra......."
End of Line.
Gerrad!
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