Chapter Twenty
Arid and Krow had their weapons drawn on Ignitro, Isaic, and Ele-Mental, who all had their arms raised in surrender.
“The fuck happened to you?” Arid asked me. I figured he was asking about the sword still in my stomach.
“I completed the mission,” I said, raising up Shackle’s head for them all to see. All had different reactions, but the most notable ones were Dex’s lack of emotion and Vulcon’s worry. His worry wasn’t directed towards the now dead Shackle, but towards me. It was as if he didn’t know he was working with someone who considered themselves to be a necessary evil.
“Nicely done,” Arid said. “Now, how do you want to handle them?”
“That’s new,” I said.
“What is?”
“Asking for my input.”
I stepped in front of the three surrendering and eyed each of them. The only one willing to make eye contact was the batshit crazy Ele-Mental.
My mind shot to the threatening promise Rose made me about killing me should the world not change. She clearly didn’t want Lynx’s death to be in vain. And here I was with a rare opportunity of wiping out one of Haven City’s most ambitious underground criminal organizations.
I froze the tip of my index finger over and jammed the spiked tip into Ele-Mental’s throat. She shrieked, but it ceased as I let a good amount of black ice creep into her throat and grow upward from her neck. Ignitro and the hooded guard watched in horror as their friend’s face froze, completely covered in ice. I then backhanded her frozen head, shattering it and letting frozen chunks of brain matter and blood fly before I glared at the other two.
“Uh, you know we could just shoot them, right?” Arid asked. I ignored him as I approached Isaic.
“Fuck this. Shoot me if you want, but I’m not going out like a--”
I blew ice at his mouth, freezing it so he could no longer speak. He made muffled noises as he charged at me. Even with the sword still lodged in me, I was able to dodge his attacks. His swings were capable of breaking the sound barrier, but I was faster and I let him exhaust himself before I manipulated the ice that crept inside his mouth and forced it to grow, shooting ice spikes out the top of his head from the inside, killing him as well.
Ignitro dropped to his knees and began pleading. “Please! W-What do you want? Money? I got loads of it. Connections? Plenty o’ those, too!”
I walked up to him and crouched down to his level and tilted my head. “I want to send a message to any other ambitious crime bosses in this city. And the Nobles that find your bodies.”
Then he smiled. “Seems like you’ve made up your mind.”
He tried to shoot flames from his palms at my face, but I sent an icicle through the bottom of his jaw and out through the top of his head. His dying body kept eye contact with me, gritting its teeth and shivering violently from not only the trauma, but sheer cold of the ice. His body was the last to fall as I stood and gazed at my mission partners. I raised Shackle’s head.
“Let’s collect our reward from Erza.”
“You murdered everyone on both sides?” Erza questioned.
“In Amaia’s defense, it would not have made much sense to keep them alive to come after us,” Krow defended.
“Plus, Ignitro didn’t seem like the type to let shit like what happened tonight go,” Arid added. “Just look at the rivalry he had with Lux.”
“How’d that end?” Vulcon asked. He wouldn’t have known after being locked up in the Alpha Corps prison for so long.
“Lux won.”
“Fine,” Erza said, folding her arms and sighing. “At least you completed the mission, and--in turn--fulfilled your contracts. Where’s the--”
I tossed the head at her. Hard. She still caught it, of course, but the sound of her hands making contact with Shackle’s head almost silenced the entire bar. We received looks from most of the patrons.
I was ready for whatever she wanted to throw at me should she retaliate. I had believed she was going to lash out for a brief second as I saw her grit her teeth, but she exhaled and wriggled her finger at me for me to follow her. I complied, leaving everyone else waiting in the bar area and followed the Deal Demon to her office.
I saw the unconscious bodies of Aura Ray and Vice lying on tables, but I averted my eyes to Erza as she spoke.
“What angers you, love?” she asked. Her voice sounded seductive.
“Well, I have a goddamn sword in my stomach from killing someone you could have killed without a second thought--no, without thinking,” I ranted. “And my…subordinates are still unconscious after completing your stupid fucking mission. You could have easily just healed them and I could have been on my way, but you wanted something out of this and I--for the life of me--can’t figure out what.”
“That’s not for you to know, dear,” she said. Her voice was the same tone as the last thing she said. “And as for the sword…”
She walked up to me, placed a hand on my shoulder and grabbed the blade. She smiled at me, looking me directly in my eyes as she carefully but briskly withdrew the Balance Sword. Then she shot her hand out at my stomach and green magical energy flowed from it as she healed my wound.
“It’s going to scar, but you’ll be fine,” she said. She then eyed the sword in her hand, then me. “For another contract, I can fix the sword. Make it stronger.”
“Fix my friends.”
“So now they’re your friends,” she said.
“It’s faster to say than subordinates.”
“That’s how I viewed Rose, Lynx, and Adriel,” Erza told me. “But, I soon realized I was fighting something that was naturally occurring, so I figured, why fight it?”
“You didn’t seem hurt when Lynx died,” I pointed out.
“I was devastated, but I won’t allow that side of me to be shown. The only one everyone gets is…well, what you see,” she said.
“Why don’t you show another side of yourself?” I asked. I was genuinely curious. She tilted her head.
“Is there an advantage to doing so?” I didn’t have an answer. “Well, when you find the answer to that, let me know. If I find it valid enough, I shall try. But, for now…”
With a wave of her hand, Aura Ray and Vice awoke from their slumber. Aura Ray was more than freaked out, and Vice looked around the room, gauging his surroundings. I found both of their responses to be appropriate to their personalities, and I couldn’t help but give a little smile. I wiped it off my face once I saw Erza smiling at my smile.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, you two,” I said. Vice turned to me.
“What year is it?”
“I’ll explain everything on our way,” I said.
“Where’re we going?” Aura Ray asked, calming down once she saw me.
“I have a feeling the Nobles from this point on will be stronger than I originally believed. Ardentia is a good indication of that,” I said. “We need to find Ache. Or his remains if she killed him.”
“I know you have regeneration, but that Balance Sword really did a number on you. I’d take a little longer to heal, or at least sit out your next fight,” Erza recommended. “Let them try to handle whoever you face next.”
I said nothing to this. She wasn’t wrong. It felt as if the sword was still lodged in my stomach. But was I really about to let my…friends fight for my mission?
“Also,” she said. I turned to her to see three contracts floating in front of her. A glowing seal stamped itself on each of the contracts, and the contracts burned up before our eyes, becoming ash. “Let Arid and Krow know.”
“Thank you for everything, Erza,” I said. She waved as we left.
“Feel free to come back whenever you’re in a pinch again, hun. You know where we are.”
I met Arid, Krow, and Dex in the bar area.
“Your contracts have been fulfilled and…burned. You’re free,” I told them. Arid fistpumped and whooped and Krow nodded in appreciation.
I went to walk past them, but Arid stopped me.
“Look, I still don’t agree with what you’re doing, but I do owe you a story about how my group came about and what we do,” he said. “So, come find me here when you wanna talk. For now, I’ll turn a blind eye as to what’s happening out there, for the sake of that agreement.”
I nodded and walked outside with Vulcon, Aura Ray, and Vice awaiting my next orders. I exhaled and let them know.
“We’re going to have to return to the Alpha Corps Headquarters.”
