Mania and the Executioner (42 page)

“COOO
LE!” Cheza screams from the door as I feel the temperature around me drop.

Suddenly, all shooting stops and screams of intense panic move across the battlefield in waves. I peek around the corner
, and I find that all of the werewolves closest to me have been frozen solid and the ones across the field are still freezing. Cheza sprints forward, jumps, spins in midair, and drives the edge of her right foot into the ice as she slides with her landing. The edge of her foot shoots hundreds of shards of ice that shatter each werewolf on impact; I imagine that this is what Sub-Zero’s fatality would look like against one hundred opponents.
19

I have never been so turned on in my life…is that weird? Cheza looks back at me with a slightly embarrassed smile that tells me she knows what I was thinking and that she is out of her Drive state.

A man that is approximately six and a half feet tall with shoulder blade length, silver hair (that wings out in so many places that it has a kind of spiky appearance), and maniacal steel-blue eyes, sprints up behind Cheza.

“Cheza look out!” I think
, but I’m not quick enough. After a crack to the base of her skull that is so fast that I can barely see it, Cheza collapses to the ground. Fenrir scoops her up, throws her over his shoulder, and takes a long look at me.

“Hehe, too easy!
I’ll just be taking my daughter with me now; it’s interesting how quickly children grow up if you take your eyes off of them…Anyway, send Jorgen my regards!” Fenrir chuckles and runs off with Cheza at an insane speed.

Daughter
…DOES THIS MEAN I HAD SEX WITH MY ACTUAL SISTER!?

…

Chapter 38: Into the Abyss will I run…

I
jolt awake in Natasha’s bed. Kita is curled up beside me and my helmet isn’t engaged.

“AHH
…Oh! It was just a nightmare! Thank the Gods!” I exclaim. Kita gives me this pitying look that shakes me to my core before I realize that Pinga and Natasha are giving me the same look; then all I feel is dread.

“Send Jorgen my regards!”

I feel a restraint inside me break. I stand out of bed and put on some clothes. Pinga and Natasha advance to stop me, but I halt them both with a single raised hand. I slice both of my hands open, and flash out of Natasha’s room and toward the dining hall. I stop outside the doors, realizing that the distance to Natasha’s room is indeed farther than one hundred meters, and I hear laughing coming from inside; I throw the doors open and step in.

“Ah! Cole! We were just talking about you!” Jorgen exclaims with a devious glint to his eyes. I see that Alex and his mother have the same look.

I look around the room and I see that, luckily for me, there are no servants or children in the room; however, it is not so lucky for the head family or Jorgen. I flash forward and spear my hand into Jorgen’s stomach. Jorgen groans out in pain as the rest of the family starts panicking.

“Fenrir sends his regards.” I say into his ear while I form a seven centimeter crystal of Octaazacubane.
(4.9 Liters)

“You assholes took her from me…fuck you all.” I address the table as I port back to Natasha’s room.

“Cole? What did you d—” Natasha starts until she is cut short by the massive explosion that can be felt from her room.

“Fenrir took Cheza. Jorgen was in league with Fenrir. The majority of the head family is dead. I’m going after Cheza.” I say in short
, concise, sentences devoid of emotion. “Oh, and she may be my real, half-sister. That dilemma can be solved after I retrieve her.”

“What do you mean she may be your half-sister?” Natasha asks.

“The werewolf I interrogated, the driver of the first SUV that ambushed us, insinuated that I was Fenrir’s son and Fenrir called Cheza his daughter when he took her.” I quickly explain.

“Do you even know where Fenrir is?” Natasha asks.

“Ilulissat.” I reply, somehow knowing that for certain; most likely through my connection with Cheza.

“Specifically, the concrete structures on the cape.” I say and touch my triskele before e
ither of them can add anything.

I find myself about a mile away from the concrete structures. On top of each of the three concrete structures, are five snipers and I’m willing to bet that each of them is equipped with a
.50 caliber anti-material rifle. After engaging my helmet, I watch to get a feel for the number of personnel while slowly advancing, thankful for the aurora borealis. The only light is that being radiated by the aurora borealis, which reflects off of the snow and ice, causing moving reflections, which makes for the perfect situation for moving without being noticed.

From what I observed of Fenrir’s physical prowess, I am completely outclassed in speed and most likely strength. Didn’t he have a weakness in the Prose Edda? Fenrir: wolf, child of Loki and a frost giantess (maybe I could force him to slip up with some ‘Yo momma’s ass was sooooo blue’ jokes), was
prophesized to kill Odin to initiate Ragnarok, bit off Tyr’s hand…wait, didn’t he bite off Tyr’s hand during a challenge to see if he was stronger than a silk rope but the challenge was actually a trick to allow the Norse gods to bind Fenrir? I also recall something about gagged with a sword so that he couldn’t gnaw on the rope without pushing the sword into his brain.

Based on that story, it’s obvious that he is rather conceited and thinks that he is the strongest; also that he can’t say no to a challenge…perhaps this will allow me to get in close with the Mu-cutter because he won’t perceive me as a threat.

Now that I’m closer, I can feel Cheza’s presence in the central structure. From what I’ve seen, this place is practically a fortress. The cape makes for a naturally defendable position that is incredibly difficult to attack from the rear because of the fifty-foot cliff into the frigid arctic waters. Five snipers on the first building all face the front of the cape; the five on the central rooftop are dispersed evenly to have a full circle of coverage; and the five on the far structure are dispersed to cover the 270 degrees of water. In addition to the snipers, there are roughly thirty heavily armed soldiers around each structure. I’m going to have to take out the snipers first or it will just be a repeat of earlier today.

“Airi, do those structures look to be more than one hundred meters apart?”

(Yes, they do appear to be, Master. 5.8 Liters)

Alright, now that I have a plan
and my blood level is back up to full, it’s about time that I started this.

With the suppressor attached
to my gun, I slice into each of my wrists using my rings and port to the roof of the center structure. I fire a WFNGC round into the skull of each sniper on the central rooftop. Before the first body has a chance to fall, I port to the far structure, rinse, and then I repeat for the front rooftop as well. When the slide clicks back, I realize how stupid I’ve been and how lucky I just was; I had forgotten to reload after the five thermal-vision equipped werewolves earlier this afternoon. I am really glad that I conserved my ammo this time around or I might’ve just taken a few holes in my chest.

I peek ove
r the edge of the rooftop and see that the soldiers on the ground are none-the-wiser about the elimination of the snipers. I sit on the roof for several minutes while trying to figure out how to proceed into the building when the answer comes to me. I start up the Mu-cutter
(4.3 Liters)
and I stab it into the roof, before slowly spinning in a circle. I plummet through the roof to the third floor.

Slight problem, there is
no third floor…there isn’t even a second floor for that matter. I ride a two-foot thick slab of concrete down thirty feet, landing on the ground floor in a cloud of grey dust. I start coughing as I try to get my bearings.

“How delightful of you to drop in!
Would you like an appletini?” Fenrir asks me from his chair that is approximately thirty feet to my left.

Fenrir is currently sipping a viscous-looking, bright gr
een liquid from a martini glass, while wearing footy-pajamas with a hood that make him look like a wolf…you have got to be fucking kidding me! How in the hell do I compete with that level of crazy!?

“Why, of course father! I would love one!” I say with only a minimal amount of venom; this may give me the perfect opportunity to catch him unawares. I see a gagged Cheza that is chained to the wall in front of me, about fifteen feet away, looking stunned by what I referred to Fenrir as.

“Cheza! Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” I think.

“No, I’m alright, Cole. He just withdrew a vial of my blood, stuffed the vial in a DHL box, and took it someplace.” Cheza replies.

“Alright, I’ll have you out of here in a second.” I respond.

“Cole, why did you call Fenr—
”

“It seems that
you are under a misconception. I’m not your father; however, I am Chezarei’s. My father told me that he needed the blood of a great wolf and a snow elf to initiate his plan. It was a rather simple task to cloak myself as that elf’s husband, implant my seed in her, and leave before the husband returned.” Fenrir says while mixing my drink with the precision of a bomb maker that still has all of his fingers.

“THANK THE GODS!
Now I don’t have to worry about patricide, or incest, or having a sick fuck that raped a little girl as my father!” I shout.

“Their faces as they were ripped to shreds protecting my daughter from the pack of hungry werewolves without having any idea about what she really was: SO PRICELESS! It was the kind of picture that Kodak would use for their advertisements!” Fenrir exc
laims as he finishes the drink.

I
start to shake as I feel tears fall from Cheza’s face. Something inside me was begging me to allow it to annihilate this bastard, and I was about to honor its request.

“Fenrir…I would just like to thank you…for making me look sane.” I say through gritted teeth as I watch the aura around my blade turn
s black.

“NOW DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH!” I shout.

“COLE! LOOK OUT!” Cheza screams through our connection as I launch myself at him.

I get within ten feet of him when he blurs to the side and I’m hit from six different directions s
imultaneously. I look down and see six icicles sticking into my torso, each approximately two inches in diameter and three feet long. Four of the icicles have been run through me horizontally and two have been thrust diagonally downward, through the tops of my shoulders.

“COOOOOOOOOLE!”
Cheza screams in my mind and against her gag as I slump to my knees.

Fenrir was able to project those spears with the same
amount of force as anti-material rifle bullets. I am so insanely outclassed on this one…

“
Thanks to the injection that Father gave me before he sent me on my mission to create the girl, you can’t even come close to my ability. By the way, do you know what is just FANTASTIC at teaching someone about humility and how to control their emotions? Being tied to a rock for millennia with a sword digging into the roof of your mouth!” Fenrir exclaims.

I forgot one of the cardinal rules of combat: frontal assaults are only useful when your enemy is both weak and stupid. I can usually offset the weakness factor for surprise
, but I learned the hard way with Aengus that it doesn’t always work out. One wrong move with Aengus and I would have been killed, so why did I think a frontal assault would work with an opponent that is even stronger? Somewhere along the line, I forgot that my primary objective is rescuing Cheza; I easily could have used a smoke bomb for cover, cut through Cheza’s bindings, and ported us out of here while Fenrir was mixing my drink, but I didn’t; I was taunted into attacking. Fenrir has beaten me at my own game.

“Now here’s what’s going to happen! I’m going to force you to watch as I kill Chezarei and
drain her of her blood; Father said that only that one vial was necessary, but more can’t hurt! Then I’m going to savor the look of resignation on your face when you realize that you can’t do anything to stop me!” Fenrir monologues before proceeding to cackle maniacally as he slowly transforms into a wolf that is roughly ten feet tall; I guess Sara didn’t know he could do that.

Nothing I can do? Bullshit! There is always my last resort…

I lift my right hand and place it over my heart as I place my left hand over the blood that is running freely from my stomach.

“Sorry Cheza…it looks like I’m not immo
rtal after all hehe—” I think and then chuckle aloud, causing me to cough up blood. “At least I can keep you safe.”

“COLE! NO! YOU CAN’T!” Cheza screams in my mind as tears run freely down her face.

“I’m cashing in that favor now Cheza. I…I want you to move on…I don’t want you to look back at me with lingering attachment forever…I want you to be happy…with someone else.” I tell her while trying to keep my own emotions in check.

“…I don’t know if I can promise that
, Cole…” Cheza thinks quietly.

“All I need is for you to try…Please, don’t make me worry.” I plead as I form silicon carbide inside my heart to seal off the valves. I pump my heart as much as possible until the pressure builds to sufficient levels for amplification.