As the last woman standing in the slaughterhouse that was the underground cave, Katie couldn't help but look around. Corpses laid all around her. Dead Basilisk descendants. The remains of the beast itself. Harrison's body was steps away from her, now void of life. Reading the memories of the giant took all the life he had from him. Katie was sure she could find the remains of Harrison's son somewhere around here...if she looked hard enough.
She let out a quiet sigh. People around her had a tendency of dying horribly. To be fair, she really put in the efforts here. Without her contributions, the two vampires would've been crushed defenselessly, with their sacrifice achieving a grand total of nothing. At least she got the information Harrison was looking for, though the old vampire would never benefit from that insight.
Honestly, Katie's attitude toward Harrison was mixed. From the perspective of his fellow vampires, Harrison was a saint. He gave his life to give his own people a tiny chance of survival. He was a martyr. Then again, he died to ensure his race could live on, the same race that feasted on human blood. From the perspective of ordinary human beings, he was no better than the Dark Pantheon.
Giving the dead vampire one last nod of respect, Katie turned and headed for above ground. The dead could rest, but the living had work to do.
The brunette made her way through the tunnels, the same tunnels she came through not too long ago. When she arrived, she was joined by a group of over fifty people. Now, at least half of these people were gone, their bodies buried in the middle of nowhere and would likely never see daylight again.
It took Katie over ten minutes to find her way back to the slope where she and the others first entered the tunnels. When she hopped out of the entrance, she found herself staring at the muzzle of several automatic rifles.
Oh yeah...the War Wolves also got out. They better have kept her jacket safe!
As soon as they saw that it was Katie who got out, the War Wolves around Katie quickly lowered their weapons. A few of them glanced at the layer of red armor covering her body in a mixture of surprise and horror, but they didn't say anything. Sometimes, knowledge only meant danger.
"Ms. Lockwood." Moss quickly walked up to Katie, brushing past the other mercenaries. He had a polite smile on as he looked behind Katie and discovered she was the only one. "Congrats on making it back here."
"Thank you." Katie looked around. She could see that the War Wolves were securing the perimeter. It was clear that if it was the Culls that got out of the tunnel, they would've felt a lot less chatty. She held her hand out. "My clothes?"
"Oh…" Moss turned and nodded at a female mercenary, who walked over and handed Katie her black jacket. This brought a small smile onto the brunette's face as she put the jacket on.
As that was done, she turned back to Moss, who clearly had more than a few questions.
"The Culls are dead. Here…" She handed Moss the debit card she had been holding on the way up. "This is his debit card. Password is 1029. He said it only has a few million dollars in it, which I guess is not at all close to what was promised to you. But they're dead now, so..." She shrugged. "It's pretty difficult to collect a debt from corpses."
Moss nodded. There was a high possibility Harrison never planned on completing the transaction. After all, the War Wolves were never supposed to survive this. 50 million dollars was a lot to spend on a group of mercenaries, regardless of the quality of the ones hired.
"It's better than nothing." He was optimistic. Then again, that might be the only thing he could do in a situation like this. "I'll get you your 2 million as soon as possible…"
Usually Katie would be satisfied by a promise like this, but as of the moment, she had bigger things to worry about than some cash.
"Don't bother." She shook her head at the mercenary leader. "Forget about my cut. If I were you, I would take this money and take your people as far away from Los Angeles as possible. This city...it is no place for you. And...it should go without saying, but whatever you and your people saw down there, they should stay down there."
Moss nodded once again. He could tell Katie was serious at what she was saying. The carnage underground made him realize the painful fact that no matter how trained or well-equipped his people were, most supernatural beings could slaughter them like sheep. Getting into supernatural affairs as mere mortals was suicide.
In fact, if it wasn't for Katie, all of them would've died underground. She was the only reason they still got to see daylight again.
"It was a pleasure working with you." The large bear-like man finally declared to Katie. "Once again, we all owe you one. Here...here is my number. If you need us in the future, for anything...just give us a call and we'll be there."
Katie couldn't help but chuckle to herself. Wow...this was perhaps the first time someone worked with her and ended up thanking her. Ok...to be fair that also happened with Mira. Speaking of her...Katie wondered where Mira was now or what she was up to. Hmmm...she had a feeling she would run into the psychic again.
The large man gave Katie one final nod before turning to his people and waving at them. Slowly, the rest of the War Wolves got into their black SUVs and started driving away. As they were gone, Katie finally came to one stunning realization.
The group first arrived here in SUVs...yes, the same SUVs that the War Wolves just drove away in. In other words, she had to walk home...from the deserts...on foot. This probably wasn't on purpose by Moss, since the man just saw how Katie was able to literally teleport. So getting back home shouldn't be too difficult for her, right?
When Katie got back to her home in the Sunny Apartment Complex, she found Gadreel lying drunk on the sofa, a bottle of booze on the counter beside him. Katie shoved him a couple of times. When that failed to wake him up, Katie disappeared in the kitchen and returned with a bottle of acid.
"Cold water is for losers." Katie scoffed before pouring the bottle of acid onto the poor Angel.
What followed was...messy. There were screams. There was the radiating light of the Angelic grace. There was a lot of complaining from one Gadreel, and even more chuckling from a satisfied Katie.
Finally, as things settled down and the playful, at least Katie considered what happened to be playful, banter was over, the brunette moved on to the more serious matters at hand.
Namely, what she just learned.
Katie could tell Gadreel was trying very hard to maintain his composure as she spoke. After all, despite what he had been saying for a while now, Gadreel was still technically an Angel. Falling from Heaven to Earth wasn't exactly a pleasant experience for him or any of his people. He had reason to be angry at the entity that caused the descension in the first place.
By the time Katie finished, Gadreel was as silent as a rock. Katie raised her eyebrows, expecting a lot more reaction from him. "So...questions? Comments? Concerns? You alright?"
Gadreel froze there for a few seconds before giving Katie a quiet nod. "Yeah...it's just that I never thought I would actually learn anything about what happened to Heaven. I mean...we have been looking into this, and all we got was loads and loads of casualties. Eventually...we all just gave up." He reached out and grabbed a can of beer and took another drink. As he finished, he finally started talking.
"I am going to do some deductions based on the information you just told me. I may be right and I may be wrong...but this may be the only option we've got right now."
"If what this Harrison saw in the memories were accurate and not just some hallucination, then the Basilisk was a member of a group of...well, travelers from beyond. They may be aliens or...maybe visitors from a parallel universe? I don't know. Heaven didn't have any knowledge regarding external worlds as far as I was aware. Apparently, these people go by the name of Voyagers."
"Because they take voyages across the worlds. How creative." Katie noted. "When Harrison was in the persona of one of the Voyagers, he said something about...the endless worlds? No...the infinite realms. So I'm leaning more toward the parallel universe idea. By the sound of it, there are a lot of them."
"Perhaps." Gadreel didn't spend too much time debating about that. "Either way, we know that these Voyagers are extremely powerful. You said the Basilisk was effective against magic users?"
"Extremely effective, and even that would be an understatement. I couldn't dash at all near his proximity. Magic was useless against it. I think the Culls could be considered top magic users in the city, but the Basilisk tore through them without breaking a sweat. Even a legion of sorcerers and wizards may not be able to as much as injuring it. The only way to kill it was by physical blows, and it still took me way too long."
"So...physically impervious to magic and has the ability to enforce the fabrics of space, thereby making teleportation impossible." Gadreel repeated slowly. "So...how did the Basilisk get into the underground cave?"
Katie frowned. She thought of that question before, but she didn't think it was that significant. As she was still pondering, Gadreel continued. Perhaps some Angels weren't too experienced with the ways of the material world, but Gadreel was stationed on Earth for countless millennia before his fall. He learned a thing or two.
"You said it yourself. The tunnels were way too small for the Basilisk to make its way through. The cave was also too deep for it to have dug its way in. And how big did you say the Basilisk was? It was essentially a giant, and it didn't have any spell or curse to cover its tracks. The world would've noticed it if it was out in the open alone at any point in time."
"Now, there are a few possibilities, such as some other magic user hiding it and smuggling it underground, but the most likely one, and the most terrifying one...is that someone teleported the Basilisk, by force, into the cave."
Katie's eyes widened. It almost sounded ironic. A living weapon designed to kill magic users without leaving them a chance of escaping becoming the victim of a forced teleportation. But...that made the most sense given the context.
"The Protector." She realized. "The one Harrison told me to find and kill. The one that apparently caused all this. The one...the one the Voyagers stumbled upon."
"And likely the one that massacred all the Voyagers." Gadreel added. "You said it yourself. In the Voyager's persona, Harrison sounded horrified, shocked, and desperate. He was rallying his men for a last stand...and we all know how that went. The Voyagers most likely lost the battle. That's why the Basilisk was never retrieved from its imprisonment. If they won, they would've certainly come back for such a powerful being."
"The Voyagers all died, but the Protector must've survived. She has to be really powerful. I suppose she then took out Heaven and wiped out most of the Angels? So she can have free reign over Earth? I mean...for better or for worse, Heaven used to guard humanity from supernatural threats." Katie continued with the deduction. "I guess it's possible she was able to cull all the powerful entities in the supernatural world as well? On the same day when the Voyagers first popped up?"
"And the vampire said killing the Protector will solve everything. So maybe she is still controlling the Dark Pantheon from behind the scenes?" Gadreel shrugged before realizing something critical. "Wait...all the factions that showed up after that day ten years ago, the new factions...it is likely the Protector is controlling all of them too if Harrison was correct."
"So...all the new factions have the same boss?" This theory felt a little off to Katie. "The Sect of Ascension? The Dark Pantheon? Section U? Are you telling me they all work for the same side? But...that's highly unlikely. I mean...some of them are sworn enemies. They're sabotaging each other as much as the old factions."
"There are a lot of possibilities. Maybe only the leaders know what is really going on? Maybe this is a competition to see who is the most powerful? Or...or perhaps the Protector lost control over these factions. Remember, what Harrison saw came from a beast from ten years ago. Its memories may be incomplete or flawed." Gadreel came up with a list of possibilities. "But...I suppose those are just assumptions. The most pressing question we have now, Katie...is what should we do with this information?"
"Someone is playing a big game, and we need to find our place on the board."
Katie sat there in silence. She was uncharacteristically serious about this matter. The knowledge she had at hand put her in a precarious situation where she knew a lot more about what was going on than most in this world.
This also gave her the rare opportunity to make a decision. A choice.
"This so-called Protector is really dangerous. Perhaps the most dangerous entity on this planet." Gadreel reminded quietly. "She killed an unknown number of Voyagers, who by themselves should be powerful beyond imagination. Yet they died without the rest of the world knowing a thing about what happened. The Protector is also likely responsible for the destruction of Heaven and the disappearance of all the powerful players around the globe. She created the factions that are now taking over the world. Granted, she may be injured after what happened ten years ago, which may be why she isn't wiping out Los Angeles personally. Yet we don't know that, and even if it is true, she will still be impossible to find, much less kill. Oppose her...and we will likely end up as dead as those Voyagers. The new factions, for one, will definitely intervene."
He looked up at Katie and stared into the young woman's eyes. He was expressionless.
"Yes. I mean we. You are impossible to kill for most, Katie...but are you really willing to bet that your immortality will last against someone of that caliber?"
"Well, I'm always a woman of experiments," Katie replied quietly as she matched Gadreel's gaze with her own. "Let me guess. You want to run as far away from Los Angeles and the new factions as possible?"
The Angel threw his hands up into the air. "You know me well, my friend. I am a coward, and I will always be a coward."
"Hmmm...it doesn't take a detective to know that." Katie tilted her head before she suddenly chuckled. "The problem is...I don't know if you can leave anymore."
Gadreel's face turned pale as Katie continued.
"Come on, Gadreel...you know this as well as I do. You just don't want to admit it. The new factions are hunting down the old. They want to get rid of the supernatural entities that they have replaced already. Whether you want to admit it or not, Gadreel, you are an Angel, and you are and will always be a part of the old. The same old that the new is trying to purge."
She stood up and strolled to the window and looked at the city outside.
"The only reason you haven't been hunted down by Section U or the Dark Pantheon already is because you are in Los Angeles. The city of the Angels. The last fortress held by the old factions. The last city controlled by the hunted. The same people that have been hunting you, the Angels, have also been working to keep you out of the hands of the new factions."
"Leave Los Angeles, and you're dead. You won't last a day out there."
Gadreel leaned back in his seat and sighed. Of course he knew it. Yet, a part of him just didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to admit staying and fighting was his only option left. Not when that was what he had been trying to run away from the entire time.
"I never really had a choice." He stated quietly before turning to Katie. "But how about you, Katie? I mean...I know you're all into fun and thrills and such, but I guess you will fit in a lot better with the new factions. You're not an Angel or a Demon. You're not really a vampire. You still have a choice. If you really want to flee, I doubt the new factions will be able to find you and hunt you down."
Katie stood there in silence for a few moments before drawing her Knife from her belt. She stared at her own reflection on the blade. Her thoughts briefly flew to a distant time...and a long-lost friend.
"I will kill every single Dark Pantheon scum I come across. No question asked. No mercy granted. This is a promise I made a long time ago." She declared coldly after a moment of silence. "My decision was made long ago."
"The new factions want Los Angeles? Fine...but they'll have to pay for every inch of conquered ground with their blood and agony. I...I will make sure of it."