Velvet Redemption

I flew through the sky coming into a large port. The sun was high in the sky, and I guessed it was sometime in the afternoon. The smell of saltwater faded, and the port gradually faded from view as I headed further inland.

My wings felt like they were going to fall off, and I was exhausted. Coming down next to a large hotel, I found a nearby alley and landed.

Falling to my knees, the sound my lungs and mouth were making could only be described as “mammoth breathing.”

I’d been flying as fast as I could across the Atlantic Ocean through the night. I had no idea where I was going, just heading east and hoping I hit land.

A bead of sweat rolled down my face and dropped onto the bricks near my left feet. The entire alleyway and street in front of the hotel were both made of bricks.

After a few more moments kneeling on the ground, I rose shakily. My breathing slowed, and I muttered, “Damn, that’s a big ocean. Good thing I wasn’t flying across the Pacific. Trip took me all night.”

Then I thought, Where am I, anyway?

Collecting myself and throwing my large coat on over my blade and wings, I walked into the hotel.

The inside of the lobby was nice. The hotel probably had twenty floors, and I could see every room just by looking up inside the lobby. Marble floors and a large fountain in the center made me realize this was really a nice resort.

There weren’t really any signs, but there was a large flat screen television above a fireplace on one wall. It had CNN on, and they were covering the lockdown of Egypt.

“The situation here has grown desperate in Libya. Egyptian citizens are trying to flee across the border, but the gunmen in front of me keep shooting anyone that gets close, for fear of the infection spreading further,” a blonde field reporter in her thirties said.

The anchor of the program chimed in next asking, “Has the infection spread beyond Egypt’s borders?”

“No. That’s the strange thing. None of the surrounding countries have reported any infections, and anyone that gets close to the border is killed, so medical personnel can’t examine any of the bodies. This entire situation is unlike anything the World Health Organization has faced before. They can’t get into the country to get samples of the illness, and nobody inside the country can get out to provide them with a sample,” the reporter continued.

At this point, my focus was entirely on the television as the camera stopped watching the reporter and focussed on a commotion with the gunmen behind her.

A family clothed entirely in white was slowly approaching the border.

The military was screaming at them in a language I didn’t understand, but I got the gist of it. They were wanting them to turn around.

“Don’t do it,” I muttered.

The father had short black hair and a black beard. He was carrying twin girls and his wife was in front of him with her arms wide open. They walked slowly. . . deliberately.

Warning shots were fired, and the family continued. . . determined.

“Oh my God. . .,” I heard the reporter say.

“Let them through,” I muttered.

Suddenly, a spray of bullets erupted and tore the family to pieces. Their bodies didn’t stand a chance against the gunfire. The entire family was slaughtered live on international television before CNN could shut it off.

I ran at the television screaming, about to demolish the screen for the violent image that just transpired.

I was just a few feet away when I felt a strong grip capture my left wrist.

The grip was cold, and it stopped me dead in my tracks.

“Control yourself, hero,” a familiar and somewhat quiet voice said.

As I turned to look at who held my wrist, I noticed a shorter girl with red hair and green eyes behind glasses.

“Kareen!”

“You need to get ahold of yourself. You were about to demolish that television and cause a scare in a crowded hotel in downtown Lisbon,” she said.

“Lis- . . . where am I?”

“I figured as much. . . you just flew east across the ocean, hoping to hit Egypt,” Kareen said, putting her other hand over her face.

“Yeah, big surprise. I don’t have built-in GPS. Just tell me where I am,” I said.

“You’re in Lisbon. . . the capital of Portugal.”

“Portugal. . . I need to head southeast then. Thanks,” I said, turning to leave.

She did not let go.

“Wait,” she said.

“What? People are dying,” I said, frustration showing.

She put an object of circular shape in my hand. It was about the size of a pocket watch, and it was heavier than it looked. The outside was made of polished silver, and there was a button on top.

I pushed it, and it opened up to reveal a blank white spinning dial with a red arrow on it.

“That’s a spirit compass. You think of your destination, and it will guide you there,” Kareen said, finally letting go.

Closing my eyes, I thought of Cairo. . . just what I’d seen in a few pictures here and there.

The dial stopped spinning and pointed out of a window.

“Thanks Kareen. Sorry I was snappy with you,” I muttered.

“My lady, Death, had ordered me to assist you by providing this. She regretted not being able to give it to you in person, but this plague and Egypt losing half of its population have required her full attention,” Kareen said.

“I understand. I’m going to end that,” I said.

“Good luck,” she said.

I nodded and then headed for the doors of the hotel. Stopping, I walked back over to Kareen, a new question having popped into my head.

“Kareen?”

“Yes?”

“Death isn’t going to resurrect any of the people Pestilence kills, is she?”

“No.”

I knew it’d be pointless to argue with her. Death had proven to me she was set on not resurrecting anyone. She didn’t make deals for any reason.

Realizing I hadn’t actually seen anyone sick, I asked, “What is the infection, exactly?”

“It’s a plague that Pestilence designed. There is no cure. Anyone bitten or scratched by an infected individual will succumb to the disease’s effects.”

“And those effects are?”

“It’s quite hideous. . . those infected revert intellectually. . . to some kind of predator mindset. Their bodies become stronger, faster, and their senses heighten somewhat. It seems their only goals are to kill and devour the living,” Kareen said, quietly.

My fists clenched tighter than I thought possible.

“What the Hell does Pestilence gain by doing this?”

“I don’t know,” Kareen said.

“If I kill him, will people return to normal?”

“I don’t know. They may return to normal, or they may fall all fall over dead. They may even stay exactly as they are. There is no way to know for sure until Pestilence is no more,” Kareen said.

“Do these things die?”

“Yes. If they are decapitated, or their skull is pierced, then they die,” Kareen said.

“Where are the infected centered?”

“All over the country, Justin. It’d take weeks for even you to kill them all. There are millions,” Kareen said.

Scowling at my options, I realized that I’d have to go straight for Pestilence. Killing him seemed to be the only way to end this once and for all.

Turning to leave, Kareen stopped me once more and said, “That family you saw shot to death on TV?”

“What about them?”

“If you’re interested. . . they have another daughter that was left in Cairo. Those twin girls were each three years old, the man’s name was Esam, and his wife’s name was Anta. He has an older daughter that is ten years old, and she’s still alive,” Kareen said.

“Why was she left behind?”

“She was left with a family relative in case the family didn’t make it out. The twins were sick already and needed medical attention, so, they sought to get out of the country to get help,” Kareen said.

“Can you guide me to her?”

“Yes. I can get you close to her, but it’s hard to sense her exact location with so much magical distortion in the area due to Pestilence’s presence,” Kareen said.

“Take me to her. I’m getting her out,” I said.

I watched her family die, and I’d be damned if I was going to let anything bad happen to her. She had to survive. . . I wasn’t going to give fate any other option.

Kareen came closer and grabbed my hand with her own.

“If we’re going to teleport, don’t we need to be a little closer?”

“No. Simple contact is all that is needed. Why?”

I smiled and thought, Har har, Death.

The same dizzying feeling took over as the room around me faded into black. Then, it was as if light slowly came back on. But the first thing I heard was the most troubling. . . silence.

We were teleporting into the capital of Egypt. I should hear something. . . but instead I heard nothing. As my eyes adjusted, I realized we were in the middle of a street. It looked more like a suburb of Cairo. There were some skyscrapers I could see in the distance, but around me were mostly ruined homes.

Some were on fire. Others had been blown to pieces by explosions. There were bullet holes sprayed on various cars, walls, doors, etc.

“Dear God,” I muttered.

“Welcome to a warzone,” Kareen said.

I didn’t realize she had let go of my hand until I heard the screeching. Turning to locate the source of the noise, I saw them about a hundred feet away, a group of them. It was a group of the undead that Pestilence had created. In this group, there were about twenty all staring at Kareen and myself.

“Can they see you?”

“Yes.”

“Are we vulnerable to the infection?”

“It only affects mortals. We are immune to being infected,” Kareen said.

“That’s good,” I muttered.

“We are not, however, immune to being torn limb from limb,” Kareen said.

What appeared to be a leader emerged from the pack. He didn’t appear too dissimilar from the man I saw on television who got shot. Dark skin, hair, but he had no beard.

Blood fell from his mouth as it hung open. The sun was in the western part of the sky, a few hours from setting. It was sweltering and dry. There was no wind moving as I stared directly at this leader.

“Can I save him?”

“I’ve already told you, Justin. There is no cure,” Kareen said.

“But if I engage them in combat, they’re going to die.”

“They’re already dead, Justin. Look at their deformities. Even if the disease was removed from them right now, most of them would instantly die from injuries sustained while infected. At this point, you’re simply putting them out of their misery, if anything,” Kareen said.

I didn’t like what she was telling me. More than half of the Egyptian populace was like this, and I was too late to stop it. How much sooner could I have arrived here if I wasn’t so busy fighting Death? How many could I have spared this fate?

I’m sorry, I thought, looking at what they had become.

Their skin was blotchy and had different patches of light and dark colorations. Their eyes were solid white. They no longer had any definition of an iris or pupil. I noticed their hair was falling out, and their long nails were dark and often covered in blood.

“Even if we flew from this point-” I was interrupted by Kareen.

“Then we’d have less chance of finding this girl. Her name is Samira, by the way. Justin, you’re going to have to fight them off while we search. I know she is within a quarter mile of here, but I can’t detect her any closer. You’re going to have to use the spirit compass.”

I pulled out the smooth silver compass. I had to hold this while I fought? That would be problematic.

Kareen saw me looking at it, and she took it.

“Give me your right hand, flat, with the palm facing the ground,” she said.

I did as instructed, and she placed the compass on the back of my hand. Then, she pressed down hard, and the compass was absorbed into the back of my hand. Grunting, my right hand felt cold as the Columbia River while she did this.

When she removed her hand from my own, the face of the compass was actually on top of my skin. It was like an animated tattoo.

“Cool,” I said.

I didn’t have long to admire it as the leader finally decided that they could take us. He let out a high screech and five more undead joined the group. They ran at us faster than I’d seen any other human move. Usain Bolt was put to shame by these animals.

Without taking my eyes off them, I asked Kareen, “Got a weapon?”

“I’m fluent in elemental magic,” Kareen said.

“You want me to fight up close while you back me up from a distance?”

“This is agreeable,” Kareen said.

She muttered some kind of spell saying, “O mors Domina. Da mihi virtutem.” A ring of green surrounded her on the ground. It had a radius of a few feet. I guessed that was part of her magic.

“Do I need to watch you?”

“I’ll call out if I’m overburdened,” Kareen said.

“Be careful,” I said.

They were within fifty feet of us now, and I drew Velvet. The blade pulsed, ready to smite what it considered abominations of life.

I ran forward meeting the frontmost undead, a woman who barely had any clothes left on her. She thrust a claw forward. Up close I saw now that their nails were all increased in length, thickness, and they were practically claws.

Her reaction speed was definitely superhuman.

I crouched and sunk to the ground, and her thrust made her arm and head fly over me. She had enough time to look down at me before I grabbed Velvet’s hilt with my right hand and put my left hand behind the middle of the blade.

Shooting upward with blinding speed and liftoff, I easily took her head and arm off. I stopped ascending when I was about fifteen feet in the air. Taking off my coat, my red wings shined in the late afternoon Egyptian sun.

I came down hard right in the middle of the group, blowing them outward from the shockwave of myself hitting the concrete.

The outermost undead were unaffected, and they ran over their fallen comrades to attack me. Five came at me from all sides, and that was when I saw a blue ball of light appear above my head. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the elemental magic formed just above me.

Then, the blue orb exploded and shot downward around me and finally spread out when it hit the ground. It only grew as it expanded, and when it hit the five undead around me, it immediately encased them in several inches of ice.

“Thanks Kareen,” I shouted, spinning with Velvet and taking off all their heads in one swift motion.

The pack split up, with about ten of them heading to attack Kareen, and the other half attacking myself.

With a quick thrust, I pierced one’s skull. Two came at me from behind, one even getting a quick swipe on me under my left wing.

Kareen better be right about us being immune, I thought.

Spinning, I kicked the one that had slashed me, and he flew back several feet. The other, I grabbed with my free right hand. I held its neck and tossed it up into the air. Leaping up, I took its head clean off with Velvet.

“Justin!”

That was Kareen’s voice. Dammit. I knew I should have been watching her. There were a few bodies on fire around her, howling in pain, but the others had gotten a few hits on her.

I yelled, “Shield!”

I flew up above her and charged down at the ground again. This time, I had lightning charged in Velvet, ready to fry the undead around her.

She saw me coming and raised a wall of earth in front of her. I landed abruptly right in front of it, and lightning went out in every direction doing exactly what I intended. The undead howled in agony, and the smell of burning flesh hit my nostrils.

As the lightning faded, the bodies around Kareen and I hit the ground, charred black. This left about eight that had originally been by me before I flew over to Kareen a few yards away. They now charged Kareen and I, unable to summon the intelligence required to know that it was time to retreat.

“Goddammit, give up already!”

I rushed toward them, appearing in front of the first one faster than it could anticipate. Slashing from right to left with both hands on the hilt of Velvet, my slice cut its head clean off.

Sheathing Velvet, I summoned lightning to each hand and made daggers from the pure element. Hurling them at the next two undead in front of me, I pierced their skulls.

I guess they’re not undead anymore. . . now. . . they’re fully dead, I thought, smirking.

Kareen took out the next three. I felt three things fly right near my head and straight into the skulls of nearby undead. They were like spikes made out of the earth. Turning around, I saw Kareen had made them from the wall she pulled up in front of her when I used my last lightning attack. This girl wasn’t joking when she said she was skilled in elemental magic.

“Justin! Two behind you!”

Spinning, I grabbed each by the neck and held them up in the air. Summoning lightning to both hands, I fried their brains. . . what was left of them anyway. Their heads were black when I dropped them to the ground, lifeless.

Sighing, I saw Kareen walk over to me.

“Let’s find the girl and get out of here,” she said.

I heard more screeching nearby.

“Are you sure she’s still alive?”

“Yes,” Kareen said.

“How can you be sure?”

“I can sense her life energy nearby.”

Looking at the back of my hand, I thought of the man I saw on television and his remaining daughter. The red arrow spun a little bit and then pointed down a street. . . with more undead that had just appeared.

This was a smaller group, but I heard more screeching behind us.

Kareen’s left fist became engulfed in flames, and I drew Velvet once more.

“You going to fight up close with me this time?”

“Undoubtedly,” Kareen said.

We fought on for about another hour, killing a few hundred of the screeching undead, but it seemed like the more we fought, the more we attracted. Kareen and I could never get done with a fight fast enough to avoid attracting more.

Decapitating one last undead, I leapt backwards and grabbed Kareen’s right arm.

“Compass says she’s hiding in that house, the attic,” I said, pointing with Velvet.

“Get us up there! Quick!”

I spun her around wrapping my right arm around her tightly. Then, I flew at the attic window. . . hard.

We crashed through. Kareen went into some boxes, but I landed on my feet with Velvet drawn facing the hole we’d just created for fear of the undead following us.

I heard more screeching, but nothing jumped up after us. We were about four stories up, and now that I got a better look at the attic, I saw it was actually quite large.

There were two windows facing the front yard, and we broke through one. There was only one window in the back of the attic, and there were no curtains on any of them.

My inhaling and exhaling went into mammoth breathing mode again. I wasn’t wiped out because Lilandra had trained me better than that, but it was still no easy feat to fight for an hour straight against so many foes.

“Justin?”

“I think we’re okay for now,” I said.

Kareen got up. That was when the girl emerged from behind a stack of old magazines. She was young, and her long black hair was messily tied back in a ponytail.

I put my sword away and kneeled down showing her my palms. She said nothing but looked at me with large and terrified eyes. She had a few bruises on her right cheek and looked like she hadn’t showered in a couple days, but other than that, she appeared fine.

“Samira?”

Her head turned sideways a little, trying to figure out how I knew her name.

“My name is Justin Pierce. I’m here to save you,” I said.

She stood in silence for a few seconds. Neither Kareen nor I moved.

“The girl doesn’t speak English, Justin. She probably can’t understand what you’re saying. I’ll have to transl-”

Kareen was interrupted by Samira running across the attic to me. She threw her arms around my neck and began to cry, albeit quietly.

I stood there, patting her back for a moment while she cried. I wanted to give her enough time to get it all out, but the undead had other plans. One smashed through the back window. Samira turned to look at it and scream, but I was quick on the draw. With my left arm wrapped around Samira, I summoned lightning to my right hand, hurling a continuous bolt at the undead.

It was in the attic no longer than a split second before being blown backward out the window it just came in through.

“Kareen, can you do something about these windows?”

“Absolutely,” she said.

She stood and pointed her palms at the back window. Ice flew from her hands and sealed the back window under a layer that was several inches thick. Kareen did the same for both of the front windows, and I fell to the floor to catch my breath. That would hold them at bay for a moment or two.

“Kareen, can you translate now?”

“I can understand you,” Samira said.

I looked at her, surprised. She couldn’t have been older than ten or eleven. How did she already know English?

“My father taught me English. He always said I was his little genius,” she said, looking at the ground.

“Esam taught you, huh?”

She looked up at the mention of her father’s name. I really hated the question I was going to have to answer next.

“You know my father? He sent you here after me?”

Sighing, I looked at the windows that were covered in ice. Kareen walked over to Samira and sat down next to her. Softly she said, “Your family didn’t make it. That’s why we’re here. Justin saw your family die and wanted to make sure you got away safely.”

What came next I did not expect. Samira didn’t cry. She just looked from Kareen back to myself and then after a few seconds of silence asked, “So. . . what are you two?”

Flabbergasted with how calm she was, I questioned her, “Wait. . . that’s what you want to ask?”

“I said goodbye to my dad, mom, and sisters before they left me with my aunt. They told me they probably wouldn’t make it, so, I said goodbye already,” she said quietly.

“I see. Well, to answer your question. . . I’m kind of. . .well I’m. . .,” I stumbled, trying to think of words to describe me.

Samira suggested, “And angel?”

“God no. I’m more of a spirit. . . with a sword. . . that fights bad guys,” I said, trying and failing to explain my spirit body.

Samira looked confused but then looked at Kareen.

Kareen’s soft green eyes locked with Samira’s, and she told her plainly, “I’m a reaper. I help escort dead people into the afterlife.”

She took it all in and then finally asked, “If my father didn’t send you, how did you find me?”

“That’s a longer story that I don’t think we have time for,” I said, noticing just how many undead had gathered outside the ice, looking in while standing on the roof.

“Where is your aunt?”

“I trapped her in the basement,” Samira said.

Kareen looked at me and said, “I sense no life from her.”

Drawing Velvet, I looked at Kareen and said, “Then it’s time to leave. Can you take her?”

“I can.”

“Get her as far from here as possible,” I said.

“I will take her to the Egyptian Embassy in England. She will be fine there, and they can assist her,” Kareen said, putting an arm on Samira.

Samira looked at me and asked, “Aren’t you coming?”

Shaking my head, I looked at her and said, “I’m going to get the bad guy that did this to your home, your family, and your life.”

She hugged me one last time.

“Thanks for saving me. I hope I can see you again,” she said.

“That probably wouldn’t be in your best interest. It would probably help if you just treated all this like a bad dream and lived a nice life in England,” I told her, trying to be realistic.

“What will happen when this is all over?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to take him out regardless. He can’t be allowed to continue,” I said.

Walking back over to Kareen, Samira looked at me with large brown eyes.

“Justin?”

“Yeah?”

“Next time someone asks what you are, just tell them you’re the hero,” Samira said.

Smirking, I nodded, and Kareen asked, “Going straight to him?”

“Yes.”

“Pyramid at Giza southwest of the city, follow the entrance straight down. His throne room is in the subterranean chamber. Use the compass to find the entrance, and be careful,” Kareen said.

I nodded as the ice started to crack. Kareen and Samira faded from view, and I turned toward the front window where most of the undead were trying to break through the ice.

“Don’t bother trying to get in. I’m coming right out,” I growled.

Bracing myself, I raised my wings preparing to shatter through the group on the outside.

“Pestilence, I’m coming,” I said.

The ice finally shattered, but that was my cue. Like a shot from a gun, I hurled myself forward with renewed intensity. Was I tired from all the undead I’d fought? No doubt. Would I let that stop me from wasting Pestilence? Hell no.

I shot forward. Limbs flew down to the street from the undead I destroyed on my way out of the attic. Flying up in the air, I moved southwest toward the pyramid. Pestilence sat there on a throne waiting for me, I could sense it. He was inviting me in to duel him.

Within a minute I was at the pyramid, and the compass on the back of my hand directed me to the entrance.

I heard words ring out from inside the pyramid.

“Welcome, Justin Pierce. Why don’t you come down here so we can get this over with?”

His voice was deep and booming. It echoed through the desert.

“Oh don’t worry, Pestilence. I’m coming in,” I yelled.

“Do more words need to be exchanged?”

“No.”

“Then enter so that I may take your life and give it to my master, Lucifer,” Pestilence said.

“Don’t mind if I do,” I yelled, shooting down and crashing through a gate. The passage heading down into the depths of the underground throne room was small, but I flew down at a high speed so as not to notice it.

There were two great black stone doors when I came to the bottom of the path. They started to open, but I didn’t care. I busted right through them with my momentum and energy.

As I entered the throne room, I saw the entire underground chamber. It was lit with bright torches, and the floor was made of some kind of light colored stone. It was easily a hundred feet by a hundred feet, mostly empty, and there were paintings on the walls. Pestilence’s throne was on the far side directly in front of me. It was made of solid gold with a design of twisted and agonizing bodies in pain carved into the sides.

Pestilence himself was a tall and rather buff man. His hair was long, brown, and very shaggy. The way it hovered around his shoulders it almost had a paranormal quality to it. His brown beard was bushy and thick.

In his right hand was a weapon I did not expect. It was a trident, and it was a brass color. The ends looked sharp enough to pierce the air around the weapon itself, and I knew avoiding it was going to be my prime objective. . . no . . . fuck that. My prime objective was to eradicate this bastard for the pain he’d inflicted on the forty million souls here in Egypt.

Wasting no more time, I charged straight at him. No strategy, no thought, just destroy.

Velvet glowed light blue as I drew it from its sheath. I was tired from my fights earlier with the undead, but I wasn’t going to let that hold me back. I had to kill him and fast. Every minute he was allowed to live, he was trapping innocent souls in state of undeath with his disease.

I brought Velvet down for a clean strike with both hands on the hilt, and he stood up, throwing up the middle of his trident to block. Sparks flew as our weapons collided. He held his own, and I was stopped where I hovered.

“My weapon is just as strong as Death’s scythe. You lack the strength to destroy it, and you lack the strength to destroy me. You don’t have-”

Angered, I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Shut the Hell up!”

Summoning electricity from inside my body, I sent it through the sword and down through his trident. He could block the blade, but he couldn’t stop my electricity. His face showed signs of pain immediately. Grunting, he summoned more strength to his arms and immediately moved his trident up, sending me back a few feet and breaking our connection.

From there, he came at me in the air with a thrust. Dodging to the right, I was fast as the lightning I intended to strike him with. I landed on the nearest wall for a moment and then came back for another strike at him from his left side.

He spun his trident and deflected my blow. Then, with a speed I didn’t predict, he brought the broad side of his trident down upon my head and smashed me into the ground face first. After that, he came down with the points aimed straight at my back. I was up in time to block with one hand on the hilt of Velvet and another hand halfway up the back of the blade.

I caught him right before he was upon me, and our weapons hissed once more. The way he came down from above. . . he had such strength and power behind his thrust. My legs buckled and gave out from the pressure. Falling to my knees, he backed off for a second and then landed front of me, charging forward.

I rerouted his thrust in time and sent him to my left with one deflection from Velvet, which was held by my left hand.

As he moved by me, a result from the sheer power of his thus unstoppable thrust, I summoned lightning to my right hand and made a dagger.

I stuck his side with it as he went by. He groaned, and before he was entirely past me, he brought the end of his trident up and smashed it into my nose.

The momentum stopped him but sent me flying back into his throne. Surprisingly, the throne didn’t shatter, but it rattled violently. I had Velvet in my left hand still, but before I could reach up to pop my nose back in place with my right hand, the bodies that were carved into each side of the golden throne came to life and wrapped tightly around my arms, so much so that I couldn’t move them.

Then, Pestilence came forward with another thrust of his trident. All three ends ended up piercing my chest.

I wanted to scream in pain, but all I could do was cough up blood. Lilandra had prepared me for pain with her training, but this was intense, even for what she put me through.

Gagging, I felt nauseous as the trident began to glow black.

“I already told you. You don’t have the strength to kill me. You’ve got power, sure, but think about it. The last horseman you fought surrendered. You’ve never actually killed one of us.”

“I didn’t. . . have to kill. . . the last horseman I fought,” I muttered, resisting the urge to scream.

“Irrelevant. She surrendered to you, and that’s a far cry from a true victory, Justin Pierce. You want to be the hero for this planet? You want to make me pay for turning half of Egypt’s population into undead monsters? Tough. As you surely realize by now, you don’t have what it takes to make either of those things happen,” he said.

My wound started to rot, and my legs and chest started to show signs of decay.

“I think you’ll be my favorite undead yet, Justin. Just give me a few more seconds to turn you into a walking corpse,” he said.

I felt so nauseous that I could probably puke up a lung or two, but that wasn’t the way this was going to end. He wanted to see strength? I’d show him it.

Velvet. Burn everything, every last bit of aura. We’re going to crush him, I told the blade.

It obliged by sending a chain reaction through my body. The resulting burn was almost as painful as the wound in my chest. It was agony I hadn’t felt since Velvet surged my body with lightning to counter Death’s scythe buried in my gut.

I closed my hands into fists and screamed as the throne began to shake. I poured out every bit of energy I could, and it took the form of several bolts of electricity forming in circles around Pestilence and I.

He was in pain again as I surged my aura through his trident and into his hands and body. Breaking free from the throne’s trap, I stood up, and the top layer of the throne melted from the heat of the electricity being produced by my body. Pestilence began to back up, but I wasn’t going to let him get away.

I grabbed his trident with my right hand and stabbed him through the ribs with Velvet. Still roaring, I was now surging his body from two points, and it was showing.

Burns began to appear on his body, and he howled in pain, closing his eyes. I could see electricity running between the teeth of his open mouth as he yelled in anguish.

I meant what I said when I intended to burn it all. Every last bit of aura I had was going into this attack.

As I electrocuted Pestilence, I saw him open one eye slowly and then pull the trident back until it was out of my chest. I wasn’t strong enough to pull him toward me with my one handed grip. Then, he brought the broad side of the points up and smashed them into the bottom of my jaw, sending my head backward.

I lost my grip on his trident, and he pulled Velvet out of his side as I flew up into the air a little.

I hit the ground, spitting blood, and Velvet landed immediately to my left. Pestilence had actually leapt backward several feet to catch his breath.

With my right hand, I popped the lower half of my jaw back into place. I did the same for my nose, hissing as I did so. The blows he could strike with that weapon were beyond impressive. What was worse, I’d spent all my aura in that final attack, hoping it’d finish him.

Wiping blood from my face, I looked down at my chest. It appeared to be back to normal, but it was still bleeding. I thought back to Lilandra’s warning about my spiritual body. Normal human weapons went right through me, but spiritual weapons could still harm and ultimately destroy me. Whenever they did damage, my body would react with broken bones, blood, and more.

Spitting the last bit of blood out of my mouth, I picked up Velvet.

The two of us stood, watching the other as we caught our breath. I still had three holes in my chest, and my shirt was pretty well destroyed. I tore off the rags that remained and stood bare chested. Blood ran down over my abs.

Eventually, Pestilence taunted me, saying, “See? You don’t have what it takes to finish me.”

With that, he was back at it, engaging in speedy close combat with his trident. It was hard to keep up with the wounds I sustained and depleted aura. He was attempting to crush me with sheer dominating will and power. Now, he was burning everything he had left to finish me, and I had no defense except Velvet.

I deflected and dodged every blow he threw at me for the first half minute, but eventually, he got the opening he wanted and drove the points of his trident into my stomach. Pestilence threw me upward, holding me up in midair with his weapon still deep in my gut.

Gasping from dizzying pain and shock, I felt him hurl me across the throne room. I bounced when I hit the ground, then, I rolled over a few times until I settled on my stomach. Groaning, my fingers twitched as I tried to move my arms and get up. I had nothing left. This was worse than I ever imagined it could have been.

I was a fool to take on Pestilence alone. I could come close to defeating him, but close would only earn me a faster demise.

“Help. . . me,” I muttered, calling out to a person I wished I was still friends with.

“It’s over,” Pestilence said, jumping up into the air.

He came down toward me with his trident aimed straight at my skull. I watched it all happen in slow motion. Again, I muttered, “Help me. . .,” calling out to her.

Lowering my head in defeat, I started to feel what I could only describe as a constant bee’s sting focused on my wounds. It was. . . familiar.

Opening my eyes, I saw a green circle around my body, and my wounds began to close. My breath came back to me as the pain receded. Turning quickly, I a woman with red wings and long scarlet hair. Her hands were pressed flat on the ground, healing energy flowing out of them.

“Lilandra,” I said, quietly.

We had precious bits of a second until Pestilence came down to strike me.

“Talk later. Fight now. Team?”

Tightening my grip on Velvet and rising to my feet, I said, “Team.”

“Quick! Link your body to mine, let my energy flow through you, and summon it as you would your own,” she said.

I understood what she was asking of me. We had tried this strategy during training, but I could never sync up with her. It was a failed technique on my part.

I had no time to doubt, though. Pestilence was coming downward to crush me with all his remaining might, and I needed energy to meet him.

With a quick sigh, I closed my eyes and felt her body, her presence, and her aura. In all honesty, I had missed her over the past days since our angered parting. I knew what she did was wrong, but I was so grateful to see her at this point that I was willing to forgive her. And with that realization, I summoned her energy, and it came!

As Pestilence roared down, I raised Velvet in the same stance I did earlier, only this time, I had Lilandra’s energy coursing through my body as if it were my own.

With my right hand on the hilt and my left on the back middle half of the blade, I made contact with the trident between the right and middle points.

My knees buckled under the pressure as he attempted to ruin me, but I held my stance.

Lilandra screamed, “Justin! Use it all!”

Closing my eyes once more, I pulled her aura into my body. . . all of it. When my eyes shot open, they were pure white. I roared as I began to output lightning in larger quantities than ever before. It was astounding what I was doing with Lilandra’s aura, and I knew at this moment she turned the tide of the battle. I would use this to end Pestilence once and for all.

“I won’t let you-”

I interrupted Pestilence with another roar as lightning shot out from my body, and I spent Lilandra’s aura like a madman. The ground under my feet shattered from the pressure, but I didn’t budge.

Then, I routed the lightning into Pestilence once more through our contact, and that wasn’t all. I bent my legs slightly, and with a mighty leap upward, we were both flying through the ceiling. Together, we flew up through different layers of the pyramid. I drove him with everything I had, still roaring from Lilandra’s power.

As I used him to smash through his own pyramid, I felt nothing but contempt for him. Everything here was his fault, and he’d pay for it with his life.

At last we were outside again, but I wasn’t done. I changed direction and drove him down into the desert still overpowering him.

I bashed him into a large stone slab and decimated the ground where we landed. Raising Velvet, I prepared to slash downward and finish him, but with the last ounce of his strength, he raised his trident with both hands and blocked my strike, holding his weapon horizontally in front of his chest. It was all he could do he was so damaged.

Taking advantage of this defensive stance, I whipped Velvet back to the right as far as my arm would take it and then used a technique that I hadn’t done since my training in The Dales.

It was my speed strike technique where I repeatedly struck the same point, getting faster with every point of contact until my target was no more. I did that over and over focussing all my energy on one point of his trident. He groaned from the pressure of my attacks, and loose stone fragments began to be blown away from us as the fury of my strikes only increased.

I yelled, “What do you have to say now? Still so sure I’m not the hero?”

He said nothing in reply, too busy trying to block my attacks.

“Consider this the first and final lesson I’m going to pass on. My name is Justin Pierce. I am the goddamn hero of this realm. I will protect mankind at all costs, and you’re just the first in a long line of horsemen that will fall to me!”

And with those final words, the trident could handle no more abuse. It broke in two at the very point I’d struck a few thousand times by now. With his arms falling helplessly at his side, each holding half of his weapon, Pestilence’s eyes grew wide.

“Eat it, you son of a bitch,” I muttered, raising Velvet one final time with both hands on the hilt.

I slashed downward from right to left with such a ferocity that I didn’t just cut Pestilence in two, but the stone slab that remained under him.

With that final blow, Pestilence’s body dissolved to dust, and I fell to my knees, driving Velvet into the ground and using the hilt to steady myself.

Of all the random thoughts to pop into my head, I was thinking about Will Smith crashing the first alien ship in “Independence Day.”

So, doing my best impression, I muttered, “That’s right! That’s what you get! Look at you, ship all banged up. Whose the man?”

Smiling like some kind of idiot, I heard Lilandra’s voice behind me.

“Back there when you were on the ground bleeding out, did you hear the fat lady sing?”

Turning my head to look at her as she walked around in front of me, I said, “Hear her sing? She was half finished with her song when you finally showed up.”

Smiling, Lilandra knelt down beside me.

“Listen, Justin. . . I want to apologize for everything I did. You were right. Velvet and I definitely didn’t have your best interests in mind as we pushed you to fight and defeat Death,” she said.

“Apology accepted,” I muttered.

Honestly, I was too tired to care. I usually wasn’t one to hold grudges. Even though we parted in such a dramatic fashion, the truth was, after that first week I was ready to forgive her.

“That’s two horsemen down. You’re halfway to dealing some serious damage to Lucifer,” Lilandra said.

“That’s true. . . I wonder who we need to go after next,” I said.

“Famine,” Lilandra said.

“You have some idea where I can find him?”

“I know exactly where you can find him. That’s what I’ve spent our time apart doing,” Lilandra said.

“And where is he?”

“He’s in a small village in the nation of Namibia,” Lilandra said.

“And that is where?”

“Southern Africa,” Lilandra said.

“Good. We can be there in a day after some rest,” I said.

“Hold up. We’re going to need a good plan. Famine is under heavy guard. The entire place is swarming with demons. There must be a few thousand of them. It’s a rather impressive army to protect him with. The two of us will likely do little to get near him,” Lilandra said.

As I slowly stood up and sheathed Velvet, I said, “Then I’ll just have to call in a couple friends.”