Mania and the Executioner (18 page)

‘
They look like some sort of flower.’ I think as my aura coats the blades. Suddenly the blades lengthen slightly while dividing out into three separate, inch wide, blades that point forward; they remind me of bladed trident points except that instead of the blades connecting into a square base, they connect into a triangular base.

I notice Natasha is down here as one of the Daeva drops her unconscious form onto the ground.
I continue laughing as my body rushes forward faster than my senses can comprehend. Everything looks like a blur, but I am aware as I cut off an arm here and a leg there while moving towards the Deev that had Natasha. I start to hear the shrieks of pain from the other Daeva as I slice all the limbs off of the Deev that dropped Natasha, leaving him screaming on the floor with his three other comrades.

The remaining six Daeva
have backed up into a circle while facing outward with their swords guarding their bodies. I slice into the first one and sprint in a circle around the Daeva, cutting through their swords and eviscerating every one. I make another run around while slicing through their knees. Standing in the center of the fallen Daeva, I listen to the chorus of their agony and feeling an almost tantric sense of bliss.

I
walk over to the cage, slice through the iron bars, and throw the stunned Peri over my left shoulder while ensuring that she is covered with the blanket. I walk over to Natasha, gently lift her over my right shoulder, and head up the basement steps. While walking up the steps, I notice that the swords’ cross guards are complete diamonds again, the blade is back down to a single tip, and my aura is no longer surrounding them. I exit the book case, leaving the door open so that I can hear their screams as the Daeva slowly disintegrate. I exit the study and walk into the foyer. The partygoers just stare at me in complete disbelief as they block the door.

“Please move.” I ask in the creepy overlapping voice.

A feminine scream pierces the air and everybody panics as they rush to get the hell away from me. Is it something I said? I walk outside and head towards the car as people continue to scream and run away.

“COLE!” I hear Cheza scream as she, Tia
, and Kira appear out of nowhere. Cheza runs towards me, but slows down as she looks at me.

“Cole?”
Cheza asks uncertainly.

“I’m alright Cheza.” I say with the creepy overlapping voice.

“Cole…there are three swords in your chest and your heart isn’t beating.” Cheza says like it’s some sort of secret.

“We need to get him back to the house, like now!” Tia says.

“Agreed, he is drawing far too much attention.” Kira says as she and Tia rush over and each grab one of my arms, before Tia grabs Cheza with her free hand.

Suddenly it feels like I’m falling, and then we are standing in the living room of our house. I toss the stunned Peri on the couch
before carefully setting Natasha down as she may have a concussion or some other head injury.

“Alright, everybody grab a handle. We all pull on three:” Tia says while grabbing the center handle. Cheza grabs the hilt of the blade that is in my heart,
and Kira grabs the final hilt.

“One…two…three!”
Tia shouts as they yank the blades from my chest; I don’t feel a thing. I look down and see that I’m standing in a puddle of blood, despite having been here less than a minute.

“Airi, status.”

(1.9 Liters remaining. You will regain consciousness in about 14 hours. Blood regeneration will be complete in 19 hours and 22 minutes, unaided)

“
I will wake up in about fourteen hours. I’ll explain everything then.” I say in the creepy overlapping voice as I fall forward into Tia.

“Oh, Cole…” Cheza says as she looks at me with tears in her eyes, as mine close.

…

Chapter
15: The Birth of the Executioner

[May 26th]

I awaken in my bed at 2:02pm and find that everything is tinted red. What the hell is this? Everything shifts as the tint fades. I stand and walk to my bathroom, passing by the two swords from last night, which are propped up against my dresser. I look at my reflection in the mirror and in addition to seeing that I’m wearing nothing but clean cargo shorts, I see that I’m wearing a silver helmet that I’m guessing has eye holes that can turn red. The eye slit shifts and starts to glow as everything turns red.

‘
Okay enough of that; turn back.’ I think and they do.

I take a good look at the
silver helmet and see that it form fits around my head, but the face plate is just a wrap-around oval shape. It sort of reminds me of Iron Man’s helmet, but without the pronounced brow or gaunt looking cheeks. Where Iron Man always looks angry, this helmet looks more enigmatic.

“COLE!” Cheza screams as she runs over and hugs me.

“Hey Cheza.” I reply with the creepy overlapping voice.

“Fuck me…
is my voice always going to be like this now?” I say as I try to take the helmet off.

“We weren’t able to take that off while you were sleeping, Cole…” Cheza says as I continue my efforts.

“Why. Won’t. This. Damn. Thing. Come. Off!?” I shout while tugging against the jaw of the helmet. The helmet suddenly warps into the silver liquid from last night and rewinds off of my face, towards the back of my head, before disappearing.

“That’s better.
Much better!” I exclaim when I realize that my voice is back to normal.

“Cole, there’s something on the back of your neck.” Cheza says. I turn my back to the mirror and look over my shoulder
, but the twisting distorts whatever it is that is on my neck.

“Hold on.” Cheza says while running out of my room. She comes back with small mirror
and holds it up to my neck.

“I think
it’s a lotus.” Cheza says as I see a silver pattern on the back of my neck. I think Cheza may be right; it looks like a side view of a five-petal lotus, but the petals are pointier than an actual lotus and the base looks more like a trapezoid then a semicircle. In fact, it is fairly reminiscent of the unfolded cross guards on the swords from last night.

“I’m pretty sure you’re right.” I tell her as I touch the raised silver lotus. “I was kind of hoping it would be a barcode. That way I could shave my head and walk around with fiber wire and silenced pistols while I assassinate people; you know, like Timothy Olyphant.”
8

“You already do one of those.” Cheza
mentions.

“Yeah, I guess one for three isn’t too bad.” I respond.

“Besides, I like your hair.” Cheza says as she reaches a hand through my hair. She grabs my hair, uses it to pull my head down towards her, and proceeds to kiss me.

“Well then, I guess
now I’m glad that it’s not a barcode so I don’t have to shave my head.” I say with a smile.

Then my hearing picks up on a conversation that I’m unsure I want to hear.

“You mean that you’ve known he can do this the whole time and didn’t think to tell me!?” Kira exclaims from Sara’s room.

“We will have to eliminate him. He’s a threat to all of us as well as Chezarei.” Kira says calmly.

“WE WILL DO NO SUCH THING!” Tia shouts. “The only people that Cole is a threat to are our enemies, and anyone who wishes harm to Chezarei!”

“You are letting your affection for the
boy blind you; He is nothing but a mistake, Tia! Last night he single handedly killed a dozen Daeva! He is too dangerous to be left alone!” Kira says in an urgent tone.

“Cole?
What’s wrong?” I hear Cheza say, sounding like she’s far away from me.

“THAT BO
Y IS NOT A MISTAKE!” Tia yells.

“You paint him as
a monster, but he is nothing of the sort. I carved that boy to pieces while training him and he came close to killing me when I stupidly pushed him over the edge…” Tia argues.

“Tia, stop talking.” Sara says under Tia
’s voice.

“…Yet he was able to fight it and stop his swing from hitting my neck at massive strain to his own body!” Tia finishes.

“YOU MEAN THE OVERRIDE COMMANDS DON’T WORK!?” Kira shouts, accompanied by the sound of a sword being drawn. I watch in the mirror as the five petals of the pointy lotus flower spring from the back of my neck and fluidly wrap around my head.

“Cole?” Cheza asks with concern
as the eyes on the helmet turn red.

“Of course they don’t! Illapa would have slaughtered him and taken Chezarei if they did work! How did you think
Cole managed to defeat a head of a mid-tier pantheon?” Tia asks.

“Tia, you really need to stop talking.” Sara says. I can almost see her
squeezing her eyes shut while she shakes her head.

“
Kira, you don’t have to worry about Cole. I threw a knife through his neck yesterday and nearly killed him; He didn’t even do anything! Chezarei
did
try to kill me, but that was sort of the point…” Tia says.

“Speaking of which, why are Chezarei’s abilities coming out now? She shouldn’t have enough Fae blood in her for them to manifest.” Kira says warily.

What the hell does she mean by Fae blood?

“Well, it probably has something to do with Cole’s bl—”

“GODS TIA WILL YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!” Sara screams.

“Quiet Sara!
Tia, you were saying?” Kira says sternly.

“It probably has something to do with Cole’s peril. Chezarei’s abilities first appeared after Cole
was shot in the neck. They have a really deep connection.” Tia says.

“Yes, about that. How did Chezarei know about Cole’s situation last night?” Kira asks. I hear Tia freeze up.

“Tia…do you ever think before words leave your mouth? Seriously? We may as well just tell Kira the truth now!” Sara exclaims.

I look over at a concer
ned Cheza.

“Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
The creepy overlapping voice says.

“Cole!
What’s happening!?” Cheza exclaims as I take off in a full sprint to Sara’s room.

I knock on Sara’s door and walk in. Kira looks at me warily
and I realize that I’m still wearing the helmet. I touch the back of my neck and politely ask it to retract.

(Only because you asked politely)

“Wait, so you control the helmet Airi?”

(I can, yes)

“Well that’s good. I was beginning to think that the helmet was some sort of parasite!”

“That’s better,” I say after the helmet retracts. “I believe I can answer that question for you Kira.”

I go about carefully retelling our story, while leaving Airi out of it because Tia hasn’t totally fucked that secret yet. I tell her about how my Drive is gone, how I used the remainder of my blood to restart Cheza’s heart, and about our resulting connection. I make sure to leave out the Mu-cutter and the tendrils; the creepy helmet probably has her freaked out enough as it is.

“I see. Your silver eye color makes more sense now. It is slightly reassuring to know we don’t have to worry about you snapping and killing everyone. So you and Chezarei can feel each other’s pain and can speak to each other
telepathically?” Kira asks after I finish.

“Yes,
but it seems there are restrictions, such as distance, and there are times when we are completely blocked from each other. Also, it appears that we can transfer memories, or images to each other over a much farther distance. That’s how Cheza knew about my situation last night. The images we send to each other are often unintentional; otherwise, she never would have known about last night.” I reply and Tia’s phone starts ringing.

“Hello…
On speaker? Okay.” Tia says as she presses the speaker button.

“Auntie Kira, if you do not put that sword away this instant, I am coming over there to attack you. See Cole; I stayed put just like you said, but I only did so because the last time that I didn’t, it resulted in you getting three bullets in your stomach.” Cheza says through the speaker.

“Yes you did; thank you Cheza.” I say as Kira puts the sword away. “I seem to send her far more unintentional images than she sends to me; I think I’ve only ever received one actually…”

“Well, in light of recent events, it is rather pointless for The Faction to continue with
this ‘power struggle façade’. Alright, we have two courses of action. One: I pretend that I didn’t see or hear any of this and I continue by telling The Faction about Loki’s attempt to capture Cheza last week by calling a meeting for tomorrow. Going with this course of action ties in with an intricate web of lies where The Agency notifies Sara about Illapa and Tia eliminates him in the same fashion that Inti was killed.” Kira says.

“Um,
how was Inti killed? No one has told me yet.” I ask.

“Anti-material rifle with high explosive incendiary armor piercing rounds
, along with a great deal of luck.” Tia says quietly. Yeah I suppose a round that is designed to punch through tank armor would probably kill a god.