Duncan woke to bright lights piercing his eyelids. Too bright, in fact. So, unless the Earth had moved several thousand kilometres closer to the sun, there was no way this was sunlight in his face.
He opened his eyes into slits, still feigning unconsciousness. Dozens of lamps and torches were pointing at him from every direction. Whatever wattage the lights were putting out, it was definitely way above the manufacturer’s specifications. It was hard to see in the glare, although he could spot a small figure silhouetted beside him.
“Hilda, Hilda! Are you alright?” Duncan whispered from the side of his mouth, but the girl remained motionless.
A flex of his wrists was all it took to determine that he was tied up to some sort of upright frame. Tight, too. Whoever kidnapped him certainly did not skimp on the quality of rope digging uncomfortably into his wrists. No matter, he had more than enough magic to get out of a simple rope binding—
The witch doctor gasped, his eyes fully opening this time. Magic retreated into the depths of his being as a paralysing numbness tingled throughout his whole body instead.
What the hell? Something is suppressing my magic—
He craned his neck downwards, now acutely aware of something digging into his chest. His eyes widened in shock. A Kiseigumo had buried its head into his chest, its tail pulsating golden. Bloody hell, whoever did this certainly knew how to use the magic-blocking properties of Kiseigumo venom.
“Duncan…? What is going on?” Hilda finally stirred awake. “I can’t move…”
Something moved in the corner of his vision. Duncan strained to keep his eyes on the moving figure, but it turned out to be unnecessary.
“Good morning, lady and gentleman!” an accented voice boomed as a spotlight popped on a slender figure in front of Duncan. He blinked furiously as the lights shining on him turned off at the same time.
With the blinding light now out of his face, Duncan finally managed to take in his surroundings. He was in an abandoned hospital, judging from the empty overturned beds and the general disrepair of the spacious room. The ‘rack’ that he was tied to was nothing more than a hospital bed as well.
The man in front of him looked about fifty years old. He had messy brown hair that barely contrasted with his dark brown skin, and he was dressed in a loose button-up purple shirt. There was a glyph tattooed on his face, not too different from the one Duncan saw on the mask of that mysterious stranger on the train.
Duncan narrowed his eyes. Now that he had a closer look, this glyph was clearly made with black magic, which usually dealt with the manipulation of magic channels. That must have been why it was able to knock him out earlier.
“Oh, that my words could be carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock.” The man’s lips curved into a terrifyingly wide smile. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth until the very end.”
Duncan narrowed his eyes; that man’s voice and accent sounded slightly familiar. “Who are you? What do you want with us?”
“Our saviour has finally arrived,” the man said. “The Angel prophesied to save us all from the horrors of war. Duncan Ward, I apologise for my followers’… uncouth manners. That was no way to treat our saviour.”
Duncan creased his eyebrows in apprehension, but he quickly regained his composure. This wasn’t the first time he was mistaken for some sort of Angel or even the second coming of the Messiah. An immortal wasn’t exactly a common sight, after all.
“If you believe me your saviour, get that damn parasite off my chest and let us out of these bindings,” he demanded.
The strange man straightened his back with a jolt and twitched around as though he were dancing. “Ah, of course. Proof that you are still trapped in a flawed human body. I, Miguel Chukwunyelu, do humbly apologise, Messiah. But precautions must still be made.”
Duncan clenched his jaw. Although the blinding torches on him were already switched off, the natural sunlight streaming in through the broken windows was more than enough to keep the parasite awake. Using magic to escape still wasn’t an option yet.
“That you yearn to be free of these bindings only means that you still have undesirable human desires. No, no, no. You will attempt to stop us, and that cannot be allowed. Not until the final ritual is complete.” Miguel’s voice was steadily growing louder in apparent ecstasy. “But let us take this one step at a time. Come, Angel of Life! Witness our reverence!”
He jumped to an unnatural height before abruptly darting to the other end of the room, as though he was pulled back by invisible strings. People dressed in black and yellow vests began marching in from both sides of the room, all of them chanting something in Cuban.
Duncan craned up, taking in the huge hexagonal symbol carved into the hospital walls. So that recurring symbol belonged to this… cult of some sort.
The people chanted louder in a growing passion of foul cravings as something wailed in the distance. It sounded human, and yet inhuman at the same time. A huge shadow loomed behind the last few cultists walking into the room.
Duncan widened his eyes in surprise as the source of the wailing became identifiable: A young female mermaid bound spread-eagled to a rectangular iron frame by some dark red strings. She was spewing enough vulgarities to put a sailor to shame.
The chanting stopped abruptly, leaving the mermaid’s shrill voice to echo around the room. Miguel walked over to the bound victim, who was still gnashing her sharp teeth and writhing her fish-like tail helplessly.
Her defiant cries slowly died down as Miguel ran a finger down from her naked torso to the shark-like gills on her side. The man paused, taking the time to grin at the mermaid as he trailed his fingers around her gills.
“Brothers and sisters. Comrades in arms! Compatriots… of suffering.” Miguel’s voice echoed in the large hallway. “Paradise awaits us. Our reward awaits us on the other side. For the newcomers, be blessed, for we are already at the last stages of our grand endeavour. The world says that we hate the supernatural; that we are no different from the poachers who hunt for sport. No!”
His voice boomed all of a sudden, but none of his followers flinched. The rebellious look on the mermaid’s face quickly gave way to fear as the gravity of her situation sank in. Miguel turned his attention back to the mermaid.
“That could not be farther from the truth. These… beautiful creatures—” He caressed the mermaid’s face. “—Are different, not lesser. Not demons, but angels. Magic blooms only in the most beautiful of souls, and it shall be our salvation. It is our respite from the endless wars. It is our gift from God!”
Cheers rippled through the crowd.
“Many of our brethren have laid down their lives in our war to end all wars. Let no one forget their sacrifice. Our enemy is humanity. Their power lust, their barbarity, their… violence. So let this be our final answer to humanity’s sins. To go beyond the natural world. To become like him!”
Miguel jabbed his finger at Duncan, and the crowd flicked their heads to the tied-up man in eerie unison.
“To become as he is… Angels of Life.”
Miguel pried open the mermaid’s gills with one hand as he reached for the pocket in his jeans with the other. The mermaid whimpered in fear, shaking her head frantically.
Miguel uttered an incantation.
The creature began crying for her mother in her native language.
The glyph on Miguel’s face glowed slightly as he pulled out his hand from his pocket, revealing four or five Kiseigumos crawling around his arm—
“No, stop!” Duncan yelled, pulling against the ropes with all his strength. It was obvious what that crazed cult leader was about to do to the poor girl. “Don’t!”
The chanting started up again, as though it was trying to cover Duncan’s desperate yells. He struggled harder as blood began to trickle from his bound wrists. The pain of his flesh being slowly ripped off was excruciating, but it was nothing compared to what that mermaid fry was about to go through.
Tears rolled down the frightened mermaid’s face as Miguel shoved his hand deep into her gills, letting the parasites crawl into her body. She wailed in fear as her body started squirming uncontrollably. Blood drained from Duncan’s face. It was too late.
Dizziness struck him again as the huge symbol on the walls began glowing a light green.
Metal rattled as the mermaid let out a blood-curdling cry. Her body spasmed violently as the parasites scuttled around her body under lumps of moving skin, eating away at her magical channels.
Blood spurted as Duncan wrenched half his hand free from the ropes, leaving behind a mass of bloodied flesh. Only bones remained from his wrist up, but he couldn’t stop now. It would only take a few seconds to regenerate the flesh anyway.
Green light overflowed from the mermaid’s mouth as the Kiseigumos converged in the centre of her chest, where her heart— and most of her magic— was. She screamed in pain again as the parasites began chewing into her heart, although it only came out as choked gurgles.
With a final tug, Duncan wrested the rest of his hand free from the bindings. He ripped the Kiseigumo from his chest and crushed it with a single squeeze of his palm. Sapphire flames burst from his other hand, burning the rope into ash in an instant.
“NO!” Duncan leapt into the air dramatically before slamming a glowing fist onto the ground. The ceramic floor transformed into a wave of white and black, crashing into the cultists and scattering them all around the room.
He snapped his fingers with a burst of magic as the ropes holding Hilda disintegrated like it was dust. The girl dropped to the ground, panting in exhaustion.
Duncan wasted no time sprinting towards the mermaid, rage possessing his eyes. That poor girl was already dead; that much was obvious enough from her clouded eyes and pale skin. So he wasn’t going for her.
He was going after the murderer behind her.
With a primal roar, Duncan slapped the cult leader with a glowing backhand. The ceramic wall cracked on impact as Miguel’s body was flung backwards with incredible force.
Duncan raised a fist and smashed it into Miguel’s face, but the cult leader only flashed a psychotic grin in response. Duncan punched him once more. Miguel began cackling hysterically. Duncan hit harder again.
And again. And again. And again—
Something squeezed around his body abruptly and bound his hands to his sides. Duncan staggered back, growling like a wild animal. More strings wrapped him up in multiple directions, all of them pulsating a dark red. Chanting buzzed in his ears as the cultists tugged hard on their strings.
A dark chuckle escaped from Duncan’s lips. He recognised this type of string; it was only effective on mystical or demonic creatures.
Unfortunately for the cultists, he was neither.
“Blessed chains?” the witch snarled. “Try again!”
Raw magic burst from his body, snapping all the strings instantly. The resulting shockwave blasted all the cultists into the walls again, knocking most of them out this time. Duncan turned to look for Hilda—
He coughed uncontrollably as smoke filled his throat without warning. Golden light filled his eyes and magically restored his vision, although his eyes were still watering. He didn’t manage to see who threw that random smoke bomb earlier, but—
There.
A cloaked figure in all black was skulking around the mermaid’s corpse. Duncan squinted his eyes and moved closer. Whoever that mysterious person was, he definitely didn’t look like one of the cultists. What was this man trying to do with the mermaid’s corpse?
“Duncan, help!”
Duncan flicked his head to Hilda’s voice for a split second before turning back, but the intruder was already gone, along with the Kiseigumos that were embedded in the mermaid’s body. How the hell did that man disappear so quickly? Was he some kind of ninja?
Damn it. No time to investigate. This smoke was a good cover for Duncan as well, but it wouldn’t last forever. He had to get out of here while he still could. Hissing under his breath, he ran towards Hilda instead.
“Look out!”
Duncan tensed at the girl’s warning yell and stepped to the side quickly. The air hummed for a split second as a beam of purple light narrowly missed him. A silhouette of two people came into view soon enough, with one very obviously grabbing the other by the arm. Duncan lunged towards them.
A glowing cult symbol flashed in his face without warning.
Duncan braced for dizziness again but strangely felt none this time. What he did feel, however, was a gloved hand seizing his wrist.
“This way,” a low, feminine voice whispered in his ear, followed by the dull clang of a metal hatch being kicked open. Weightlessness seized him as he found himself sliding through some kind of dark tunnel.
He grunted as hard concrete crashed into his feet a few seconds later.
“Duncan! Duncan, are you okay?” Hilda piped up, her face barely visible in the poorly lit passageway. The only light source was pinpoints of light streaming in through the metal grilles just above them.
This hospital certainly had quite a spacious basement. Too spacious, in fact. Its proportions almost seemed physically impossible.
Duncan quickly pulled the girl to his side, glaring apprehensively at the masked figure. He recognised it; that figure was the one who had managed to knock him out back on the Witch’s Train with some kind of magic he didn’t recognise.
“Who are you?” Duncan asked cautiously, hoping this mysterious woman would be less cryptic than Miguel Chukyunwelu. If she started spouting some bullshit as well, she was getting a fist to the face.
“Don’t you recognise my soul, Doctor Ward?” the woman chuckled softly, removing her mask to reveal an unfamiliar middle-aged Asian woman. “I may not look the same as I did five hundred years ago, but surely you’d remember my father’s clan?”
Duncan widened his eyes slowly, golden light flickering in his irises. It couldn’t be…
“Yuri?” he asked hesitantly, almost as though he was afraid of offending the woman. “Yuri Kitagawa, is that… you?”
The woman smiled and nodded shyly. Hilda’s reaction, however, was not as subdued.
“Mother?!"14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfxVi6xdu9t
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