Night Two Hundred And Ninety Seven
Age 1992
Village Of Lillies...
"What the hell is going on?" Irene asked as she stared at all the Bestia Macht which were quickly slain. All of them had suddenly been blasted apart by a hail of arrows.
"I have... Yeah I have no idea. Who the hell is that girl though..." Kitsune frowned. They had all been to far away to hear the conversation the girl had with Jackson, Hero, and Maudite.
"Want to find out?" Light asked cocking his gun.
"Already leaving." Ken said walking away from them.
Before any of them could make it over to Hero and the gang they heard a loud growl behind them. The four Enforcers turned around finding the snow rising up as a few more Bestia Macht began to rip their way towards them.
Over with Hero and them they didn't notice as they were all focused on Lee. "There. Now let's go. Anything thats left alive can be dealt with later okay?"
"I guess..." Jackson frowned. "If you are telling the truth, which I still have a hard time of believing, we should stop this..."
"What are we waiting for then." Hero said folding his arms. "Let's deal with it."
"Finally!" Lee sighed. "You girl!" She pointed at Maudite. "Take us to Father Darvin."
Maudite gave a small smile and a shrug. "Well. It seems like I really don't have much of a choice so please. Follow me." She turned and they began to walk back to the city none of them noticing Ken and the others battling that horde of Bestia Macht behind them. Or if they did notice they didn't care since the others could handle themselves.
"This... Shadow..." Hero frowned walking along side Lee. "You said it... Kills me?"
"That's right." Lee sighed. "Listen I said it before but I'm from the Future. Where I'm from the Shadow has taken over most of the world and spreaded out further and further. The world was quickly lost. Anyone who died came back as one of those things..." She hissed.
"Things?" Hero asked frowning.
Jackson turned back. "The Shadow was... Sort of the first made weapon. The first Equation."
"I thought that was the Heart?"
"It was." Jackson nodded. "But... Technically the Shadow came first. See... This was before Humans had Equations and God still lived on Earth. We didn't have things that could battle the Bestia Macht. My Grampa told me small pieces of the story but humans built a machine using some of the aura of the sun, the planet, and God, and with that machine opened a portal into a realm. But... The realm they opened into was Nothing. Literally. Something out of Nothing."
"That sounds like..." Hero frowned as his mind went to the Squid. He had also tapped into Nothing when he was a kid to make Daughter all those years ago.
"With Nothing we made Something. Humans called it the Shadow. It was a dangerous weapon at the time. It infected a person turning them into something that was dubbed the Heartless-Ones. However the Shadow eventually was shut down and destroyed as shortly after someone stole God's Heart and created the First Equation. Afterwards the Forger of Worlds made thousands of other Equations and the Shadow sort of became useless so humans got rid of it. Still. Somethings odd?"
"How so?" Hero asked.
"Well. The Shadow Infects people turning them into the Heartless-Ones right."
"Yeah? Zombies got it." Hero nodded.
"The thing is... One of the reasons it became useless was that it couldn't be used to infect people with Equations."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Shadow was made up of a sort of Dark Matter type thing like a Bestia Macht so the Equations Mantra was a counter. So it was just a pointless weapon. Normally one person is infected and in order for it to infect others it has to kill them and their corpses will come back as Heartless-Ones. The Shadow is able to fix damages to the body re-growing limbs and even organs but once they die as a Heartless-One they die for good. So one person gets infected. That person has to be a normal human though. Being a Heartless-One made them stronger but it had its limits. It came nowhere close to an Equations power. So one Enforcer could easily wipe out several Heartless-Ones and also since a Heartless-One had to kill people to infect more it meant the infection was actually fairly easy to keep contained though you can still see how it's dangerous."
"Wait then how the hell do I die from it?" Hero asked frowning.
"You don't." Lee sighed folding her arms as she walked along side them. "See in the future something about the Shadow changed. I don't know all of it since I wasn't born then but... Something changed."
"Huh?" Jackson and Hero asked staring at her.
"The Shadow started with one person. But that person had an Equation?"
"Wait I thought that it didn't work that way?" Hero asked.
"It doesn't." Jackson frowned.
"Well this one did... Worse yet the person... He was evil. But he was able to control his mind and keep his memories but... His Heart was..."
"What?"
"His heart was lost. He became darker. Evil. He lost himself." Lee sighed. "And because he had an Equation anyone he killed was infected. Even those with Equations. They did his bidding. And it wasn't long before so many people were wiped out. The new Enforcers was created by Gram-Gram to fight him off. I'm currently the last member of the New Enforcers. Agent Lee Storm."
"About that." Jackson said eyeing her up. "Are you... My daughter..."
"No."
"But the name?"
"Don't you have a brother?" Hero asked.
"Well yeah but who gives a s##t about that guy."
"I'm your Grand Daughter." Lee said casually.
"Oh. What."
"So Aka's your Grand Mother?"
"No. Katrina is."
"Jackson you Unfaithful Bastard!" Hero yelled.
"Oh piss off Hero we all know you're babies the one inside her don't call me unfaithful you f##king dick, you're like the reverse of what a hero should be!"
"So..." Maudite hummed. "You claim these are the saviors of this timeline."
"Sadly yes."
"We're screwed."
"Gram-Gram really undersold the whole 'Hero's our only hope' line..."
Jackson and Hero stopped giving each other the death glare as they turned back to Lee. "Okay Lee." Hero nodded. "So. If I'm getting this right... This... Shadow somehow infects people with Equations. You were sent back in time to stop it. You're the Grand Daughter of Jackson Storm, and Katrina. You're part of the new Enforcers. And you were sent back in time to save me."
"Yes. I was given two options. Either kill the man who becomes infected or get you to leave and save the world while we can." Lee nodded.
"Who's the guy who gets infected?" Jackson asked.
"None of you. We don't know his name but he's very powerful. He gets infected and kills you, Irene, and Light. Ken gets Kitsune out of there." Lee stated.
"And me?" Hero asked frowning.
"You die shortly afterwards unleashing a Shimmer-Star to try and take the man out."
"Shimmer-Star?"
"Powerful Bomb."
"Okay sure. So that fails?"
"Yes."
"Got it. And so now you came back to get me to open a portal to the void and get everyone to leave this Earth?" Hero asked.
"Yes. Gram-Gram told me to find you and get you away from here. Once gone we can then use your Dream Crest to get you, and several people to the Void. If her math was right you'll have enough time to transport nearly a full city to the Void before the Shadow is unleashed if we started now. From there we could use the Void to find another world and enter it."
"Huh? Yeah I guess if the Void is connected to other worlds I could use my Crest to jump universes..." Hero nodded. "Well... I know what I'm doing for vacation..."
"Again." Jackson said nodding to Lee. "As good of a plan as that is I won't do it. We can only save one city... That's not good enough. We'll go with your second plan. We'll destroy the Shadow here and stop the man that becomes the new Heartless-One."
"On one condition." Lee hummed.
"What?"
"I could only travel back once." Lee frowned folding her arms. "I can't do that ever again. If I think this plan will fail. I will rip out that Crest in Hero and use it myself to get as many people as I can off this world. Even if it's only a handful."
"Jokes on you only a person with Dragon Clans blood in them, like me or my mom can use these Crests."
"I know."
"Huh?"
Before Hero could question that Maudite turned back to them. "We're here by the way."
Jackson, Hero, and Lee, all looked around finding they stood outside of that large church building. They hadn't seemed too notice that they were walking towards it, since they had been so focused on the conversation about time travel.
The doors slowly opened allowing them to step inside. It was actually freezing cold inside of the building. Even colder then the outside. It was also nearly pitch black making it hard for any of them to see.
"Ow!" Jackson yelled when he felt someone slap his face.
"Whoops." Lee said flatly.
"Umm... Who has their arms wrapped around me..." Maudite said. Before any of them could fess up to wrapping their arms around her, black light lit up the room as several black crystal like feathers grew out of Maudites back giving her crystal angel like wings and allowing them all to see.
"Whoa." Hero said with wide eyes as he stared at her wings. "Also I'm the one who did that sorry." Hero's arms were currently wrapped around her for some reason as they both gave blank looks. "Don't know why... I'll let go." There was a moment of silence as he stood there. "Any second... If my arms want to listen... Any moment..."
"Hero!"
"Letting go!" Hero unwrapped himself from Maudite stepping away.
"Dude what has been with you?" Jackson whispered.
"No clue." Hero took a moment to look around the room they were in. It had no windows or anything and nothing to light keeping it pitch black and cold. There were a few wooden chairs and things like in a normal church as well as a set of metal stairs leading up and a set of stone chairs leading down. "Neat place. Though I don't get why it's pitch black..."
Maudite folded her arms up and stepped forward. "Now. We can speak with Father Darvin and talk about the Shadow thingy. He should be heading down. He likes to greet people."
As if on cue heavy footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. They all looked up finding a plump man above them. He was large. Very large. Nearly ten feet tall and he was extremely wide with a large and bloated stomach. He had long brown hair that was starting to gain some greys in it and a bushy brown beard also filled with many grey hairs and he wore long round glasses. His outfit looked as if it would burst open from how large he was and he gave a smile filled with several rotten teeth. He was seated on a large four legged Bestia Macht that looked almost like a horse but with the head of a wolf and large muscle legs covered in ice, as well as a scorpion like tail. Hero could tell the Bestia Macht was stronger then the Viscount he fought earlier. A least an Earl... As the Bestia Macht walked down the stairs it made ice spread out making it colder and explaining why the freezing outside was somehow warmer.
"He's riding a Bestia Macht?" Hero asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah... Remember some people can tame them. They're basically mega deadly animals when you think about it." Jackson whispered.
"Greetings!" The plump man announced. "I am Father Darvin the man who runs this church! I assume you are all the Enforcers I asked for?"
"Uh yes sir!" Jackson nodded.
"Hmm. I could have sworn there would be more of you..." The man hummed eyeing the three of them up.
"Ahh s##t we forgot Ken and the others outside." Hero sighed.
"Who cares." Lee stepped forward and pointed at the man. "You. Where's the Shadow."
"Oh that." Father Darvin reached up scratching his beard. "It is down stairs. In agreement you three are allowed to destroy but must deal with a Nest that has been sending Bestia Macht our way. Do we have a deal?"
"Sure whatever take me too it."
"Maudite."
"Yes Father Darvin?" Maudite asked taking a knee.
"Please be a dear and take these three down stairs. It is behind the metal door. I assume they already told you of the Shadow?" He asked handing her a large metal key.
"Indeed. I'm slightly ashamed I wasn't informed of the matter Father Darvin..."
"I apologize." He said in a very unapologetic way. "Other things were on my mind."
"Like your next meal-"
Jackson elbowed Hero shutting the boy up. "Well Maudite. Take us to this issue."
"Of course." Maudite nodded leading them down to the stone stairs. They followed after her. Down stairs Hero and Jackson couldn't help but stair at what they saw. The walls were cells. And inside of the cells were several Bestia Macht many of which seemed starved and beaten. Some even whimpered as they passed by. The basement was of course even colder then up stairs with some many ice beasts under it.
Hero and Jackson nearly lost their lunch when they saw a table had a Bestia Macht chained down to it and tools for peeling off its flesh and slices of meat lied next to it. It would have to be kept alive as it was carved up since it could regrow and once it died all of it would dissolve and vanish.
"Call me crazy but..." Hero whispered to Jackson. "I think I figured out how this town is so well fed..."
"I'm gonna report this when we get back..."
Lee didn't look to shocked.
The group finally stopped at the end where a set of massive metal doors rested. "Here we are..." Maudite sighed. "If what Father Darvin said is true, as well as that Time Traveler, then feel free to break this..." She said sliding the key into the door and pulling it open allowing them to finally see inside...
"Oh God damn it not this s##t again it's another f##king vault!" Hero yelled when a large vault door could be seen on the other side...