Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) (32 page)

I stood there in awe for another few seconds wondering what the hell had just happened. Of all the people in the world, I would have thought that Howie would have been the last person that could send a chill down my spine with a single threat but something about the tone of his ambiguous posturing had made me dread the thought of what he could possibly have in store for Wells once this was all over. The more I thought about it the more I realized just how right he had been when he said I would soon realize that he wasn’t weak. He wasn’t the most physically imposing individual but with a mind like his who knows what kind of diabolical plots he could come up with if he had the right motivation.

I wasn’t sure if I could really kill Howie if it ever came to that but something told me that if he really meant to go through with his plan to assassinate Director Wells… killing him would be the only way that I could stop him.

- SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

IT HAD BEEN NEARLY SEVENTY YEARS SINCE I HAD LAST defended the Right Hand of the Crown. So long that I had almost forgotten the very thrill of it all. Though The Reaper had shown some impressive flashes of resilience he was still clearly no match for me, yet I admired the fact that he had not only chosen to face me alone but he continued to get back up no matter how much punishment I dealt upon him.

A swift kick to his chest sent his bloodied body crashing into a row of parked cars thirty feet away from where I stood. We had been fighting inside of that dimly lit parking garage for nearly twenty minutes by that point and while I was enjoying every second of the battle I knew that it would soon come to an end.

Reaper’s battered body slid from the hood of the crumpled SUV that I had thrown him upon and he collapsed to the floor as I slowly approached to finish him. I paused and watched in awe as the headlights of the hundreds of vehicles that filled the garage suddenly began to flicker and a strange crackling noise filled the air as The Reaper began to stir.

“Get up, Reaper! Reaper, it’s Echo! You have to get on your feet right now! Do you hear me?!”
a male voice suddenly shouted. It took me a few seconds to realize that the voice had come from the speakers of every vehicle that was parked within the garage.

“You can’t go toe to toe with him, Reaper!”
the voice continued.
“You have to use your speed, remember?! He’s not nearly as fast as you are, now get up and show this son-of-a-gun what you can do!”

Hoping to end it quickly I charged forward and prepared to crush his broken body beneath my boot but The Reaper rolled out of the way just in time, causing my foot to smash into the concrete below instead. I whipped around and sprinted after him but he quickly pulled himself from the ground and darted away before I could attack him. I could hear the mysterious voice still calling out instructions to The Reaper as I chased after him. Just as the voice had said, I soon realized that I wasn’t
nearly
as fast as he was. Still, there was only so much room for him to run so I eventually cut him off and threw my right fist at him with all my might. Somehow he still managed to dodge the punch and zoom further into the garage while my fist smashed through a five foot wide concrete pillar, sending dust and debris into the air as the massive pillar crumbled under the force of my blow.

The fire within my chest blazed brighter as my aura spilled out of my eyes and I unleashed a massive blast of my mother’s holy energy as The Reaper rocketed away from me. The blast of energy tore after him and sent an entire row of nearby vehicles up in flames. For a second I thought for sure that I had gotten him but as the smoke cleared The Reaper was nowhere in sight and there was nothing left before me besides a large charred sedan which was now standing upright within the path of my blast. I realized that The Reaper must have used this vehicle to shield himself from my power when the car suddenly shifted forward and came flying at me as if it were shot out of a cannon. Luckily I was able to dive to the right just before the vehicle could hit me, but The Reaper zoomed in out of nowhere and hit me with a powerful uppercut that sent me crashing against the concrete wall behind me.

The entire parking garage trembled as he zoomed forward and hit me with another left jab that bounced my head against the wall. I blocked his next attack and forced him to back away with a failed overhand right. He quickly slammed his hands into the charred car that he had thrown at me and whipped around with the vehicle in hand and slammed it against me hard enough to crash me against the wall once more. For the first time in years I saw stars as the back of my head slammed against the thick concrete wall and he began to repeatedly smash the vehicle against my face as the mysterious voice continued to shout instructions to him.

Several pieces of metal and glass fell from the vehicle each time that he used it to drive my head into the wall, but with a perfectly timed right jab I finally punched through the crumpled sedan and tore it in half before The Reaper could hit me with it again. He quickly turned to flee once again but my left hand instinctively lashed out and latched onto his arm before he could get away.

To my surprise, The Reaper suddenly turned and yanked his arm away from my iron grip and darted away before I could stop him. It was not without great effort, but the fact that he was now somehow able to pull away from my grasp absolutely baffled me.

How is this possible?
I thought as I desperately raced behind him.
How is it that he seems to be getting stronger?

In a flash, The Reaper zipped up the entrance ramps and stormed onto the top level of the garage before I had even reached the first ramp. I chased after him as fast as I could run but as soon as I made it to the top level of the garage a large SUV slammed into my face and sent me tumbling back down the ramp.

Furious, I scrambled to my feet and stormed back up the ramp, but I was once again pelted in the face by a flying vehicle as soon as I made it to the top. I angrily galloped up the ramp once more and leapt high into the air just as he threw another car at me. The vehicle sailed underneath my feet while I soared through the air. The fire inside of my chest smoldered as my mother’s holy energy emerged from within my soul and manifested itself around my right hand. The Reaper hurled another car at me as I sailed through the air, but the vehicle missed its mark and my fist smashed into the concrete beneath us as I landed and sent a powerful wave of energy ripping throughout the entire level of the garage. The vehicles that were parked within the top level all exploded in an instant and the wave of bright blue energy that I had unleashed spread outward and collapsed the entire roof within seconds. My eyes widened with dismay as I realized that The Reaper had somehow managed to leap into the air and escape the blast. He continued to sail upward as I fell through the collapsing concrete below my feet and tumbled into the level below. Seconds after I crashed into the floor The Reaper descended upon me and hoisted a massive piece of broken concrete above his head as he loomed over me.

His left eye was still swollen shut and the rest of his face was so badly bruised from the beating that I had given him that he would have probably been unrecognizable to even his closest of friends. Still, despite the devastation that he had endured at my hand he refused to back down—as if resilience alone would somehow lead to victory in a battle that he didn’t stand the slightest chance of winning. I ferociously smashed my fist against the giant chunk of concrete and reduced it into rubble as soon as he threw it at me. In a blur I lunged forward and grabbed his legs before the debris had even hit the ground. The Reaper toppled to the ground as I yanked his legs from beneath him and I forcefully shoved him down once more as I climbed on top of him just before he could scramble away.

“It’s over, Reaper,” I urged as I pinned his face to the floor with my left hand and pulled my right fist into the air. “I must admit that you have fought well and proven yourself worthy of the challenge—but in the end, your destiny is to die, as is the fate of all who foolishly seek my Father's crown,” I snarled as my fist became wreathed in the blistering flames of my mothers holy power.

“Then what are you waiting for, dammit?! Go ahead and do it!” The Reaper barked as he gripped my left wrist with both hands while I continued to pin him down by his neck. The mysterious voice that was speaking to him through the speakers of the cars that remained within the garage repeatedly bellowed something about a “triangle” to him but I wasn’t quite sure what he was saying because I could barely hear a thing over the sound of my own heartbeat echoing in my ears.

The fire in my eyes intensified as I threw my flaming right hand towards his head. The veins in his forehead bulged beyond belief and his woefully swollen face ignited with fear as he strained to remove my left hand from his throat before my arching deathblow could descend upon him. I was convinced that he was finished; mere seconds away from meeting his doom—but somehow The Reaper managed to loosen my grip on his throat just enough for him to pull his head out of the path of my deadly blow.

With my left arm still locked within his grasp, my right hand crashed into the concrete below us and sent a cloud of dust and debris flying into the air. Still holding onto my left arm, The Reaper kicked his legs into the air with astonishing speed.

Defiant to the end I see,
I thought as he pulled my left arm and yanked me toward him as he locked his legs around my head into a surprisingly tight triangle choke hold. I slammed my right hand against the ground and pushed myself to my feet with The Reaper still locked around my neck and arm like a rabid wolverine. I could not free my left arm from his grasp as he was using both his arms to keep it pinned against his chest but my right arm was free and I knew that it was only a matter of seconds before I pulled his legs away from my neck.

My heart skipped a beat as my first attempt to break the hold was unsuccessful. I yanked at his legs again with my right arm but to my surprise The Reaper tightened his legs around my neck even more and I was not able to gain even the slightest bit of leverage. I staggered backward as I yanked at his legs with all my might, but no matter how hard I tried I could not free my left arm from his grasp and my right arm alone wasn’t strong enough to overpower the strength of both his legs.

Still hoping to break his hold, I fell to the ground as quickly as I could and slammed his back against the concrete below us—but even as the back of his head bounced against the pavement The Reaper would not relent and before long I could feel myself starting to become lightheaded. Hundreds of cracks spread through the pavement as I slammed The Reaper to the ground again but no matter how hard or how many times I crashed his back against the pavement he still managed to somehow squeeze harder.

My struggle took a turn for the worst as I lost my balance and we both toppled to the floor. I then pounded him in his side with a series of punches that could have derailed a freight train but even as I felt his ribs crunch beneath my crushing blows The Reaper would not let go.

Smoldering blue energy consumed my right hand as I used it to desperately claw at his already disfigured face. The bloodied skin on his battered head began to peel and flake away as the holy energy that engulfed my hand threatened to corrode his entire face away. But even as my fingers burned deeply into his skin, The Reaper would not break the hold. It was only then that I realized the true extent to which I had underestimated him. In the beginning of our battle he had been so weak that he could barely stagger me with his blows but somehow he had gotten significantly stronger as the battle progressed.

I was fading in and out of consciousness as our deathly struggle continued and I realized at last that there was only one way for me to defeat him—the same way that I had been able to defeat Cyrus, The Godhand, who, by all accounts, was by far the greatest Anokian warrior to have ever lived. To this day, I am still disappointed to have had to rely on my mother’s energy in order to defend the Right Hand against The Godhand, and it was even more embarrassing to know that without it I would not have stood a chance.

There were always grumblings amongst my kind because many thought my gifts to be an unfair advantage but in the end the same can be said about The Godhand’s astronomical size and power as well as The Reaper’s lightning speed and unusual ability to gain strength throughout the course of a battle. My mother’s energy was my birth right and it was given to me for the purpose of protecting the very Crown that The Reaper now sought to obtain. So what if relying upon that energy meant succumbing to another wound to my inner pride? As long as my father remained in power, that was all that mattered.

I closed my eyes and concentrated as The Reaper continued to choke the life out of me, but within seconds I was suddenly invigorated as a fire ignited within my chest and an inferno of power surged throughout my body. Every part of me began to violently shake and vibrate as the rush of power gave me the strength to lift myself to my feet—even with The Reaper still locked tightly around my neck.

Time seemingly stood still around us as I opened my mouth and roared just as a blinding wave of blue light filled the garage. The Reaper held on for dear life as a powerful blast of energy suddenly jolted from within me. Despite his vehement resilience, he was soon thrown into the air against his will as a smoldering ball of blue and white flames filled the room in an instant—and The Reaper, along with everything else in the garage, was completely consumed by it.