Heais shouted to his men, “Restrain him!”
‘Leithan’ laughed as he dodged their gunfire easily, punching out anyone who tried to grab him, “I have to leave so if you don’t mind.”
A voice spoke from a distance that made the warrior freeze on the spot, “I wouldn’t if I were you.” His face went pale as the woman with the silver smile stepped from the shadows. Behind her were three guards, each one holding one of the girls. He tried to assess their health, never breaking eye contact with the woman. Shi seemed to be centering herself and using the breathing exercises that he had taught her. Hepta seemed furious that she wasn’t in any condition to fight back, her bandages seeping a little as she jerked against the guards. Zwei gave him a determined look that seemed to be telling him to wait for the right moment. They had no idea who they were dealing with. He stood down, not breaking eye contact with the woman. She was amused by this, even blew him a kiss. “I have a deal to honor. Out of respect for our history, I’ll add an addendum. If you don’t complicate this deal, I’ll make sure your beloved students go home alive.”
He growled as he side stepped a henchman trying to grab him. “If you give me your word as a merchant, I’ll accept.”
She beamed and motioned one of the men, “Of course. I’m only as good as the last deal I honored.” The man dragged Hepta to the arena. “Toss me your blade and we can finish this deal and I can be on my way.” He grumbled and a look of shock crossed Zwei’s face as he did what he was told, tossing the blade in a gentle arc towards the woman who caught it effortlessly. “Excellent. Mr. Tun.” She motioned the mafia boss to join her in the arena. A look of unease crossed the criminals face, but he was finally going to see this through. The woman’s silver smile filled Hepta with fear, “Oh, don’t worry honey. This will hurt a great deal, but you will survive. How about this? I’ll tell you a secret in return for your cooperation.” She leaned in close and whispered in her ear. “There. That’s a fair trade. Now, Mr. Tun. Raise this blade and pierce her through her shoulder.”
Heais did as he was told, the blade cleaving through her flesh as dark red blood began to flow. As it hit the sand, it began to pool only to be pulled back to the blade, as its metal began to glow crimson red.
Master Phoenix’s face twisted with guilt as it happened, whispering, “Courage pierced by a blade that has never known fear shall make the power of gods appear.” He hissed to himself, “I fucked up.”
——————
Gavin lead the rabble of assorted criminals out of the cell block and to the cargo bay that they had parked his freighter in. As he ran, he opened the comm line, “So, what’s the status?”
Sai explained, “We found the person who knows too much. We managed to bail as planned. This bot is pretty beat up, but I think I can do my part. With Tak ready to nuke this place from orbit in an emergency, we just need to clear the area. You got all the prisoners in the clear?”
“Negative. Still in the blast radius but we will be out soon. Also, we are… gonna have some new members to the crew.” Gavin cleared his throat.
“Repeat? Did you say members? Or member?”
He cleared his throat again, “Muh-members.”
This silence on the line was reply enough. Eventually it was followed by, “Copy.” Great that’s a conversation they would need to have back on this ship. But still, they were almost there. As they ran, the ground began to shake. The comms lit back up. “Ship! Ship! Get to the ship!”
Gavin shouted, “Hot leg it! This temple might be start collapsing soon!” Hearing this, most of the criminals who valued their lives began sprinting for the cargo bay. Arriving swiftly, they saw his freighter with the loading ramp down and ready to go. Katsi was standing at the top motioning everyone in, but Gavin motioned her to take the wheel. He shouted, “Plan GTFO!”
She was surprised for a moment but nodded and ran for the cockpit. Shortly after the craft began to lift from the ground, ramp still down. It quickly began flying towards the crowd of escapees and all of them were desperate and smart enough to jump for it. The ramp scooped them all from the air, but the sudden jolt of the ship colliding with the hanger walls caused some of them to fall back out. She lingered just long enough to get them on the ramp as debris began to fall around them. They clung desperately to the craft’s ramp as it moved at high speeds to get clear of the structure.
——————
Heais lifted the crimson blade high before driving it into his own chest, the building beginning to crumble after so long without maintenance, now being put to the test as the power flowed through the area.
Phoenix noticing that SHE had left, quickly disappeared and reappeared next to Hepta. In a moment later he was near the other two, punched the air hard enough to shatter space itself, and tossed all three into the resulting hole.
They were disoriented to be in the medical bay with Sita and Ellefu. Sita swore in a few languages before throwing Hepta on the table and began sealing her wounds. “What happened?!” Ellefu gave Zwei a firm glare, judging her silently
Shi explained coldly, “A lot of things no one could have known. I’ll give a full explanation to Ett afterwards.” Hepta was shouting in incoherent rage. Shi struck a point on Hepta that knocked her out cold. “Work fast. I don’t know how deep the wound was.”
Ellefu examined it and shook her head, “It doesn’t seem to be bad. She was really lucky. A lot of blood but nothing permanent.”
Sita asked, “Who did this?”
Zwei shrugged, “Some woman. Master Phoenix seemed scared of her. I was counting on him to back us up, but his face…”
Ellefu looked at Sita who nodded back to her.
——————
The Phoenix Emperor donned his armor as the crimson light consumed the crime lord. The old soul sighed, “So, this is true power.” He turned, his attire changing to a dark suit and a red formal shirt, the lenses of his shades becoming a crimson hue. He turned towards The Emperor and held up his hand, “Let’s start small.” He snapped his fingers and a pulse of red energy left it, evaporating all of his men and causing the experienced warrior to lose his footing. “Interesting.” He approached the warrior and dusted the armor of his guest off. “Sorry for that. I am still used to this kind of thing.”
The Emperor taunted, “What? You going to become the king of crime now?”
Heais shook his head, cold to the deaths he had just caused, gesturing restlessly, “This is just a hot mess. I just needed some insurance. Sorry about your friend. I hope she feels better soon.” He sighed, “Actually, I want to make a deal with you, but I need you to stand next to me for a moment.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because they are about to fire that gun of theirs and I would prefer my business partners alive.” The Phoenix Emperor was a bit surprised before he realized what Heais was saying. He didn’t have much time before the world was engulfed in searing light.
