Without ever expecting it, Harry had been convinced that these men were part of the cult, since the tattoo on one of their necks had its symbol. And suffering a deep shock, he stood still in paralysis.
"But it's no way it could be them, right? No way this could have been a coincidence…" Harry said, turning his head back to the men who began sitting at an empty table.
He squinted his eyes, closely observing them. Despite the coincidence, Harry felt that it actually was them, as no regular person would casually wear the tattoo of a diabolical cult or even know of it.
"Sir, could I help you? You look troubled..." The worker standing by the door said, looking confused. Harry quickly turned to look at them.
"Ah, no. Sorry." He said, walking back to his table.
Then noticing the surprise in Harry's face, Jay began to look confused.
He raised one of his eyebrows and asked, "What's wrong? Found something?"
"Yes. I found them." Harry stated, which provoked Jay as rage quickly filled his eyes.
"Where are they?" Jay muttered.
Harry pointed behind him and said, "Three guys in one table. One's wearing the tattoo."
Right after he finished speaking, Jay jumped out of his seat, slowly walking towards the other end of the room as he clenched his fists. He eventually approached the group of men and looked down at them with a murderous glare on his face.
"Hey." Jay said, fixing his ghastly eyes on the man wearing the tattoo as he was sitting.
He had short brown hair and wore a dark jacket. With stern and slightly surprised faces, the man Jay had spoken to looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Your tattoo. Why did you get it? Is there any meaning to it?" Jay asked, interrogating one of them.
"What are you talking about? I got it cause it looked cool." He calmly stated.
"It's the symbol of a cult. Surely you would know that, right? No ordinary person would've."
After staring at Jay for a couple of seconds, the confidence in his voice began to drop.
"I'm not a part of any cult, get the hell out of here, man."
"How the hell does this guy know the symbol? Only other members are supposed to know…!" He thought to himself.
"Maybe..."
"Hey." The man whispered.
"Are you also a member?"
Jay, provoked, immediately leaned over and grabbed his shirt, pulling him across the table. The man soon got irritated, clenching his teeth as the two others widened their eyes in shock.
"Don't ever try pulling a bad lie on me again. I'm going to take your head off the moment you step outside." Jay muttered in the man's face.
Harry then called after Jay and began pulling him off.
"Enough! No need to cause a scene here. Everyone might go and think *we're* the bad guys!" Harry stated.
Jay, quickly regaining control of his temper, let go of the man's collar and kept his glare on him for a moment before walking back to his table.
"Harry, let's wait for them to leave this place, then we follow after them. When nobody else is around, I'll kill them." Jay insisted.
"As much as I'd want to lay waste to them, we can't. We're angels." Harry stated.
"And what would happen if we did?"
"Demiurge will consider it a sin. It'll be harder for an angel to get away with killing since we're working under his orders." Harry mentioned.
"Then what are we supposed to do? We didn't wait this long just to do nothing about them!" Jay exclaimed.
"We can do anything else but kill them." Harry replied.
Afterwards, Jay got up from his seat.
"Then I'll just do it myself." He said, walking towards the building's exit.
After leaving, Jay leaned against the wall a couple feet away from the door and looked up at the evening sky, surprised at how fast time had went. Then taking away his attention from the sky, he kept an eye on the building entrance, waiting for the men to leave.
About half an hour passed by, and the men had finally emerged from the building. Stealthily, Jay stayed far behind them, unnoticed in the moderate crowd of passerby, following them as they went along. With every block they passed, the environment had lesser people. Then, after a couple more blocks, the streets were almost empty, and the men suddenly turned and walked deep inside an alley.
Jay moved around the other side of the building and proceeded into another alley connecting it, making his way closer to the men. He began to hear the sounds of their voices echo through the darkness of the passageway. As he made his way past the building's corner, Jay saw them in the distance huddling together, as they seemed to be plotting something. Creeping up closer to them, their voices started to become audible.
"Oh, by the way, how did that guy know about the org?"
"What? Oh, you mean at the inn. I could have sworn he was one of us."
"I don't think he is. Why would he attack us like that?"
"I don't know. Don't recall ever having any cqptives escaping, either."
"Well if he isn't one of us, we probably shouldn't let him live. He could spread word of our existence."
"Dont worry about it, the org is good at staying hidden. I'll tell the boss when I see 'em."
"Alright. By the way, how's the girl doing?" One of them said, pointing over at the large, wooden trapdoor next to the dumpster.
"I still have her kept down there, they're doing just fine. They don't like to scream, though."
"Huh, that sucks. You think they've gone crazy?"
"Probably."
"Lisa...!" Jay thought.
"You pieces of shit!"
Having been provoked, he charged at one of the men unnoticed, punching him in the jaw hard enough to make him fall down. The two others went after Jay, and the first one to get close was struck with a series of punches and a kick to the gut, dropping him to the ground. He went at the other man, but missed, and one of the others got up and helped the other hurl Jay into the wall. He then punched Jay in his stomach, winding him.
"You damn kid!" The man shouted, rubbing the small amount of blood from his mouth.
"I don't know who you are, but you screwed up getting into our business. You also found out about the cult, somehow, but It won't matter once I put your ass to waste!"
"That kid might have some valuables on him. Check his pockets first." One of the men said.
After checking it out, one of the men said, "Lame, all he has is some weak elixir."
He then unsheathed a knife from his waistline, then thrusted his arm forward with the blade directed towards Jay's neck as he sat on the ground in pain. With the knife being a centimeter away from his neck, a sudden force stopped his hand from moving any closer. He was then struck in the stomach, launching him into the alley's wall.
"Harry...!" Jay muttered, regaining his breath as he got up slowly.
Leaving one of them, the two others quickly ran off in fear.
"I recognize your face." Harry said, walking up to the man.
"You're a long time regular at Coyote's Inn...
...So you're the one who kidnapped my wife?"
"Listen, man!" The person exclaimed with intense fear in his eyes, pressing against the wall.
"You don't understand! They forced me into this! They'll kill me if I try to leave or disobey their orders! What am I supposed to do?!"
"And you think I believe that? Why would a cult force you to believe what they do?" Harry stated.
"You know, I really loved my wife. Just like my daughter, she was precious to me, it would hurt a lot if I weren't able to see her again."
Then, Harry raised a tightened fist.
"Surely, you would know where she is, right?"
"I'm sorry ... if I knew where she was I would've told you...!"
Then, Harry chuckled, and soon began smashing the man's face in with his punches. After a moment had passed, Harry stood back up after wiping the blood and tears from his eye.
"I'll ask you again. Where is Violet?"
"I ... don't know..." The man said with a hoarse voice after coughing up blood.
"The overseers handle all of the captives...! I'm just a scout!"
Then, Harry let out a deep sigh.
"This guy doesn't know anything..." He said.
"Scum. What have you been doing to Lisa?" Jay said.
And after waiting for a response, the man couldn't answer.
"Imagine how it felt for her, witnessing her mother who she loved so dearly get taken away before her own eyes. And now Lisa is here suffering again from the same shitty cult. You single-handedly ruined the lives of an entire family, and as her only friend, I'm going to make sure they get their well-deserved revenge."
"Please, spare me...! I won't do it again! I won't do it again! I promise! Don't kill me, please!" The man exclaimed as he panicked and trembled.
"As much as I want to kill you, I won't. But I'll make sure you won't do it again." Jay said. Harry then took out a rope and tied the man up.
"Good thing I decided to carry this with me." Harry said.
Jay then picked up the man's knife from the ground.
"I'm going to need this." He said.
He then went to the trapdoor the men had talked about.
"You better hope someone finds you in time." Jay said as he looked back at the man.
Then turning back around, he opened the trapdoor and began to walk down the steep stairs.
"Lisa is in here." He said to Harry, who followed after him.
As he followed him, Harry's eyes grew stern.
As they finished walking down the stairs, they entered a very large, dimly candle-lit chamber. The chamber was almost completely empty. However, there was one person at the other end of the room; It was Lisa, her hands chained to the wall as she was sitting down, staring at the floor. Her face looked emotionless as Jay and Harry both rushed up to her.
"Lisa!" Jay said, holding her by her shoulders as she began tearing up.
"Are you alright? We're going to get you out of here!"
"Thank you..." She uttered, struggling to speak.
Picking up a pendant off of the ground, Harry grew full of anguish.
"This is my wife's pendant."
"She's dead..." Lisa uttered.
And Harry then closed his eyes, clenching the pendant in his hand as he tried to hold back his tears.
"Be careful…" She said, pointing at the entrance.
As both Jay and Harry looked back, Jay saw the odd, dark-suited man from before, holding a longsword in one of his hands and a soft grin on his face as he stood by the entrance. Next to him was a mysterious man wearing a black cloak that shrouded his identity.
Jay was soon quickly filled with anger.
"You…!"
"Hey! Happy to see me again?" He said provocatively, slightly waving his hand.
Right after he spoke, Jay made a lunge at him holding the knife. Before he had gotten close enough, the cloaked man slowly walked forward, instantly teleporting behind him as he walked towards the other end of the room.
"Handle that one." He said, continuing to walk away as Jay's dagger clashed with the man's sword.
"Okay!" The man said, shoving Jay away with his sword.
***
"Where do you think you're going?" Harry asked.
The cloaked man remained silent, then pulling out a shortsword as he rushed towards Harry. Right before he was slashed, Harry immediately pulled out his battleaxe from a bright golden magic circle. The man's sword then clashed with his hilt. Before Harry could kick him away, the man dodged and stepped a few feet away.
"Did you not hear me the first time?" Harry said.
"Stay out of my way." The man replied, sprinting at him again.
***
"Why are you doing this to us!?" Jay exclaimed as they continued fighting and clashing weapons.
"I'm only following the cult's orders. I wouldn't wanna go against them, either."
"You piece of shit..! Why did you join them?"
"We merely share the same goals."
"What are your intentions!?"
"Do I really need to tell you that? If I did, you angels would only get in our way. That's why we're here to kill you." He said, barely slashing Jay on the side of his face.
Surprised for a short moment, he jumped back, feeling up his wound. He then looked at his hand and noticed the blood on it, which was white in color.
"Pay attention!" The man said, charging at Jay and swinging his sword.
Not being able to keep up, he kept stumbling and breaking guard after each of his swings. Quickly, the man then booted him in his stomach, knocking him to the wall. He then slid down closer to the ground, sitting down in pain as he hugged his stomach. The man kept an ominous smile as he slowly walked towards Jay.
***
After guarding himself from the quick barrage of swings, Harry swung his battleaxe. The man dodged under, lunging his sword towards his stomach. Missing, Harry grabbed his arm and threw him into the air. Landing his feet on the wall, the man sprung towards Harry, producing a small shockwave after they clashed weapons again.
After pushing him back, Harry then threw heavy swings with his axe. The man ducked under his swing and jumped in the air after the second, soon blocking Harry's third swing with his knife. However, the brute force of his swing threw him away, but instantly stabilizing himself, he landed his feet on the ground then circled Harry as he moved rapidly.
Taking throwing knives from under his cloak, he launched them at Harry. He dodged most of them, but unable to dodge one, he stopped it with his hand as everything but the knife's hilt pierced through. Using his teeth, he soon dislodged the sword from his hand and threw it away.
The man ran towards him again, but before he was able to get too close, Harry swung his battleaxe again. However, at the same time, the man had his sword held right up to Harry's stomach. Both of their abdomens had then been slashed, and the man's cloak had been ripped off. However, their wounds weren't too deep.
The man soon dropped his sword and kneeled, throwing and ripping off the cloak's pieces. The man was pale and shirtless, wearing only black slacks. He was also odd-eyed: His left eye was dark purple, and his right eye was grey, with a vertical scar that went across it. He had wavy, long black hair, and a small, dark purple horn had jutted out of the left side of his head. He then slowly got back up.
"It's time for harvesting." He said as he grew an ominous smile.
***
Walking up to Jay, the dark-suited man lifted up his sword with one of his hands, preparing to slice Jay in half. Right before he could, however, Jay spun around, dodging it. Avoiding another strike, he quickly lifted himself up and sprung out of the way, then guarding himself with the knife.
"He has a clear advantage on me since he's using a longsword. Not only that, but he's too skilled at using it. If this keeps up, I might die." Jay thought to himself.
The man then started approaching him.
"...I need to think of something, quick!" He thought.
But suddenly, the man prepared to swing again. Thinking quickly, however, he took out the elixir he had made before, splashing the liquid into the man's face as he quickly moved out of the sword's way.
Having blinded the man for a short moment, he swiftly inserted the knife deep into his neck, slicing through it and finally ending the fight. Trying desperately to catch his breath and regain energy, Jay slowly dropped down to the floor.
But without rest, he immediately felt extreme, agonizing pain, and he squeezed his head as he bellowed in agony.
***
The horned man continued to smile as he once again teleported, reappearing right in front of Lisa. His hands quickly turned into claws, as his dark purple nails had extended and sharpened.
"Get away from her!" Harry shouted as he sprinted towards him.
However, it had been too late, as the man's hands were already buried deep in her chest. Ripping out her soul, Lisa's body had soon disintegrated in an instant. By the time Harry got close, he was swept away by the large gust of wind from the spread wings that the man had summoned. On one side were the snow-white wings of an angel, but on the other were the dark, bat-like wings of a demon.
"No…" Harry said, upon the realization that he couldn't save her, as her soul was then again left vulnerable to the enemy. He then well knew what the one-horned man was about to do.
And suddenly, after putting the wispy soul in his mouth and ingesting it, the man began feeling excruciating pain, trying his best to endure it.
The man then teleported again, standing in front of the dark-suited man's dead body. He crouched down, pulling out his soul as well, then shoving the soul in his mouth and swallowing.
Harry ran towards him, throwing his battleaxe, but he vanished into a thick black cloud of darkness before it could reach him. Summoning his wings, Harry quickly threw Jay onto his shoulders and flew outside of the room, flying right above the houses. The man, appearing out of thin air, had stood on top of a roof.
He raised one of his hands, aiming it at Harry as he tried to fly away. Soon, he summoned a small magic circle, which slowly grew larger after every second. Eventually, it stopped growing.
"Blessing of light: Radiant beam."
After he chanted the spell, a large ray of light had shot out of the magic circle, barely missing as it had aimed towards Harry. He then summoned a purple ball of fire on one of his hands. The fire then began absorbing a dark energy from the air around it as it rapidly pulsated in size.
"Curse of fire: Burning Void"
Pushing his hand forward, the small ball of fire moved quickly above the houses, aiming right for them. As it got near them, it unleashed a massive explosion, creating a large, burning crater as it devastated the houses and everything else in its path.
Although the explosion missed, the shockwave almost made Harry lose his balance in the air. He soon stabilized himself right after, continuing to fly away. Then, the man created multiple, smaller magic circles in front of him as he swiped his right hand all the way from his left shoulder. Immediately, small, condensed beams of light were released from the magic circles, all bending in the air as it chased after Harry.
Unfortunately, most of the beams had hit Harry, piercing through him as he threw Jay into the air. They then tumbled onto the ground.
"Caught you." The devilish man said.
And with the thought that he killed the both of them, the man had teleported away, never to return.
Slowly getting up, Jay began limping towards Harry, eventually making it up to him.
"Jay, thank you … for helping." Harry said, coughing as he struggled to say his words.
His body noticeably began to disintegrate.
"Did you save Lisa…?"
"No." He said.
"I failed."
And after he said that, Jay was shocked.
"I'm sorry." Jay said, closing his eyes tight as he held back tears.
"I could have prevented all of this.
"Stop thinking like that." Harry stated, slowly reaching in for his pocket.
He then took out the pendant that he had found in the underground room.
"Here." He said.
"Keep it."
"...Are you sure?" Jay replied.
"Lisa made this for the people she loved, so you should have it." Harry said.
Then, Jay gently took the pendant off of his hand, looking at the beautiful, skillfully crafted violet gem socketed into a flat, diamond-shaped metal frame.
"Cherish it." Harry said, his voice soon turning into whispers.
"Every time you look at that jewel…"
"...Just remember the ones who love you..."
Soon, Harry had vanished completely, and Jay held the pendant over his head and put it on. Then looking up, he watched Harry's bright soul slowly ascend high into the air until it hid among the stars that gleamed in the night sky.
Soon, his vision had gotten hazy, until finally, he had fallen unconscious.