The days since his talk with Zetina had passed and now they only expected any movement from the fairies or the vampires, they did not want everything to start without being prepared, so during the days they attended classes, and had a normal adolescent life, but At night they kept the forest and the surroundings guarded, they had to be alert in case something appeared, Mick on his own had been investigating that seal but there was nothing that he could recognize in it, so he had concluded that it was either something very old, or that the magician himself had created it.
The brothers continued slowly with their lives, now that everything was underway they had to be careful, the pieces were being moved from each board, the pawns were moving and they were the only ones who quietly waited for one of them to launch the attack, they would slowly finish them off, but for now they had to have patience, there were several fronts to cover, too many risks to take, many victims to save, and they were only two beings, they could be superior to others, and they even had the advantage that they did not they might die in battle but now they had to be very well organized.
Slowly the days passed, the classes became tedious, they were very tense, they expected any strange situation and they became defensive, even Mick had reduced his dates with Jullie, and thus winter gave way to spring.
'I'm fed up Mick, it's been a month and a half, nothing happens, my nerves have me on the verge of emotional collapse, in my opinion, we should look for Acmen and devour him before he is ready to attack if he wants.'
'I want to do it too, but it's too weird that that blood maniac didn't start ravaging him at this point, if he's waiting it's because his plan must be more than just attacking Dracula.'
'What else could he look for? since he was born as a vampire the only thing he has wanted is the domain of that world.'
'Marck thinks, fifteen hundred human years have passed since the dark age where he was sealed, the titanics required the power of the five to defeat him and I remind you that before defeating them I drain them enough of their power, and you know what that means.'
'More power upon rebirth, damn it, now I could be at the level of that maniac of fights in human service.'
'That is why we must go calmly, if he was like when he was sealed, any of us could devour him, but if he now has the level of the king of the night, none of them will be able to defeat him alone, and less if his ghouls are already ready.'
Marck let out a resigned snort, and dropped down hard on the chair he was fed up with everything, vampires, fairies, a mysterious wizard who was manipulating everything from behind, hidden from his instincts, looking for magic items was too much even for them.
'Everything will be fine, the wolves of time and dream will always be reborn and triumph.'
'You're right about that, but you have a bigger problem to deal with, my brother, and he's coming up the stairs.'
'What the hell ...?' was interrupted by the knocking of the door
'Mick Austral, I know you're there, open the damn door and tell the fox that is with you to run because I will rip her head off!'
'Hell, she's furious.' Mick said whitened.
'Get on your knees and she begs for forgiveness, I'll open the door.'
The pounding began to be more intense, Mick threw himself to the ground, while Marck would have slowly the door, the beast behind her came in like lightning, neither noticed how fast it was.
'Mark, if you don't want to die, get out of here.' She said without turning to see him.
'Goodbye, good luck little brother.' He said closing the door behind him, and quickly going down the stairs.
On his way through the city, he toured it several times, explored new corners, ate bites of what seemed to be the delicious and new food, killed time as best he could, his eardrum was that of a wolf and he even listened to the quiet discussion of his "brother" with his girlfriend, for him it was a complete annoyance. He couldn't understand why so much drama, the two of them had left for more powerful issues than a human courtship.
Time slid slowly between the cursed boy's senses, nothing could seem slower than those moments, out of nowhere after walking the same street for the third time he found a small alley that until now had remained far from his sight in his previous tours, he decided to explore it, when he entered he realized that it was not an alley, it was a street a little less wide but it was still full of interesting things, several locals opened a place in the walls that seemed unusable, a small restaurant aroused his curiosity so he entered slowly, he got ready to sit at a table in the back, he stayed there in silence, he did not call any employee, he only saw the small plant that he had in front of him.
'Hello, good afternoon, gentleman, my name is Alexia, I will have the pleasure of being your waitress this afternoon, I will leave the menu for you and return in a few minutes' said a girl with extremely short hair, it was dyed an intense and striking blue tone.
'I don't require the menu.' Marck replied as he looked her up and down.
'Well, I inform you that you must order something to stay here, sir.' she commented with a certain poison on her tongue.
'Two dishes of the stew of the day, a draft stout, a cup of green tea, and for dessert the house specialty, blackberry cheesecake.' he replied in the same scathing tone.
The lady wrote down the order quickly and left, Marck had not looked at her while he was placing his order, his interest had vanished in her as it had arrived, he had just played with the leaves of the plant and looked at the wall, I hope In silence for a few minutes, the girl had already brought him his beer, along with a small plate full of peanuts and some napkins.
'I guess I should bring the green tea with your cake.'
'If you want to do it that's fine, I don't care about the order of the food, everything will end up in the same place.' He replied with heaviness and laziness as he took a drink of his beer.
She withdrew, only an air of annoyance surrounded her, Marck could only keep thinking about all the problems that came ahead, she did not feel like having to return to the fights, she caressed the scars on her left forearm and took another drink of beer cold, the memories of his first life came like a bombardment, the war in which he had participated and the sensation he had when he killed for the first time, it was something that still made his skin crawl as if the harshest winter was still falling on his human body, stirred a little by the sensation but it was only for a few moments, this is how his life passed into small fragments of sensations,
'Here's your stew, gentleman.' said the calmer girl.
'Mark.' he answered.
'Huh?'
'My name is Marck - he said, seeing her for the second time - I hate formalities, I enjoy my food more if you speak to me as a stranger to an acquaintance, please call me by my name or use phrases like "hey you" or "there you go".'
'I'd be fired if I did, this place has a strict customer service and manners policy.'
'You're basically complying with both if you comply with my request.' I mockingly reply.
She said no more and simply withdrew, Marck ate slowly, it took almost an hour to finish all the stew and about twenty-five minutes with the little slice of cake and the cup of green tea when he was satisfied and his boredom had worsened. , I call the lady with one hand.
'Anything else Marck can help you with?'
'The check, please, a kind waiter with flamboyant hair.'
She went to the box, from where she returned with a small wallet with the bill inside, she left it on the table and withdrew, she had not even checked the total as in other places they had opened it, Marck opened it and saw that her consumption had been only eighty euros; I put a two hundred bill, and another couple of twenty as a tip, I called the waitress again to pick up the small folder, when she did and left, he felt that those one hundred and twenty euros did not need them and decided to leave, he left quickly from the place and began to walk slowly
'Hey you, weird guy, you forgot your change!' He said while the waitress reached him
'I didn't forget anything young lady, it was part of the tip.' He said as he turned to face her.
'But it is one hundred and twenty euros, it is too much money, he can't accept it, in total it is double the consumption.'
'I cannot understand the problem, the tip according to me is a way of rewarding the quality of service that you offer me, and if the client understands it well, I decide how much he wants to remunerate for said quality, and in my opinion, the attention you gave me is worth more than the food I consumed.'
She was silent, stunned at the words of the young black-haired man, she could not react, she tried to interpret the words as a compliment or an insult, it was something she did not know.
'If that was all, I have to go I have a lot of unfinished business, we'll see you another day.'
Marck began to advance aimlessly, but as soon as he left that alley, an electrifying and cold sensation raised his skin and every fiber of his being in a matter of moments, now he was paralyzed for longer than he had managed to remember, but it was not the sensation that had left him stuck to the ground, it was the origin of it, there was only one thing capable of causing such a thing, magic, and a quite powerful one, but even among magic there were types and subtypes of it, this was particular magic.
'Demon summoning magic?' He whispered to himself, now a light layer of cold sweat covered his face.
I did not hesitate for a single instant before running off at full speed with Mick, I was sure that he had also captured that energy, no magical creature in the entire range could have not noticed it, much less the huge dangerous presence that was brimming in the air. , even though the origin was very far from them, the pressure that emanated was so enormous as to even make one of the two perpetual beings nervous, in minutes he was opening the door of his home, he hopes that Jullie was not there, but he had no time to worry about her.
'Did you feel it too Mick?' He said as he opened the door wide and almost yelled it.
What he found stunned him, not only was Mick sitting on the couch nervous, Jullie was shaking next to him, they both had a blank stare.
'I'm still sorry, the gates of the underworld and hell were opened and multiple demons have escaped from them, this goes beyond a simple dispute for control of the human world, the existence of reality itself is what is at stake.'
'That's why I told you that we should hunt them all down before even letting them mobilize, this could have been avoided, and what's wrong with her?'
'He also felt the pressure of the summoning magic, it has been like this since then, but calm Marck the fun is about to begin, now you will have more interesting prey to hunt, which should comfort the wolf of time.'
Marck knew well that a human could not have felt that, they were too detached from magic for millennia that they had lost the ability to use it and therefore to feel it, but if the magic had been so powerful that even they were nervous he did not doubt that some other human had been affected, it was something probable even in this era, but just now his blood began to boil with emotion, demons and monsters escaped from all hells would now be his prey, he could give himself feasting and playing like he hadn't in centuries, stopped thinking so much and just calmed down.
'Get her out of the shock, this is dangerous, if any of those things smell your scent on her they will tear her apart and devour her.'
'Are you worried about her safety?' Said the albino dog amused.
'I'm worried that you're not going to focus on hunting because you want to take care of it, it will be fun training for when we have to face the real demons after all this, and we need the exercise, we have lazy too much in these years.'
'I'll take her home right away, and we can go out and have fun for a while, brother.'
The white wolf gently caressed Jullie's cheeks with the back of his hand, making sure that she reacted slowly, she slowly came to herself, but being alert for so long she was exhausted that she fell asleep almost immediately, Mick left the house with Jullie in his arms, walking at a firm but accelerated step.
Marck only saw him walk away between the streets for a few moments before screaming with excitement, he repudiated fights, but the beast inside him adored them, and every time the thirst for blood invaded him it was almost impossible for his mind to think of anything else, he needed to run the blood of those that the wolf that lived in his soul chose and now the presence of at least twenty prey haunted his instincts, he rambled a lot between the tactics he would use to finish them all, so much so that he didn't realize how long it had been until Mick pulled him out of that trance.
'Everything okay Marck'
'Yes, I was just thinking about how we will kill those rats that have appeared on this plane.'
'I hear the plan, brother.'
'We will hunt the weakest first, we will devour their essence to the end, we will plant fear among the rest, we will let them know that hell is really on earth, and in the end, we will go for those whose essence and power are greater, we will leave the main courses at the end, to plunge them into enormous despair.' It was what he said, his voice was higher, it seemed that he was falling into madness.
'I love the plan but first I need you to dominate the wolf Marck, don't let his thirst for blood dominate you, I know the beast is excited by what is coming but she is not you, both are one but you are in control.'
Marck relaxed, his breathing began to normalize, his gaze was no longer agitated, he remained fixed but with a certain calm in her, little by little he returned to being the serene boy who always gave the world, his voice returned to a normal tone and less. rapt.
'I'm sorry, this old dog still fights with the same energy as before' he said, beating his chest. 'It's time to go and control all this overflowing magic.'
The brothers ran away from everything, slowly they let themselves be guided by the sensation of magic, in points it was an enormous pressure, which only transmitted fear and death, in others, it was a sensation of being hunted, but none was an insignificant presence on the contrary. Each one represented a very fearsome beast or creature, little by little they entered the forest, the animals were terrified, none dared to make the slightest noise, it looked like a desert, that would not be a lie, even in the arid lands there is life, here it was like a simple rotten place, now each one advanced carefully, feeling their surroundings, paying attention to every slight movement, even though they were the ones who had gone out hunting, they knew well that they were being stalked by something that could hurt them, promptly the predator appeared before them, roared powerfully and stood up fiercely, the brothers smiled, they did not think that such a monster was in the human world, no alive at least.
'Apparently, Bellerophon did not kill her well, who would say that the chimera was still alive.'
'This time I'm leaving it to you, I don't want the essence of that thing, it's too wild for Mick to control.'
'Why should I fight against that thing?'
'Currently, my essence is too great compared to yours, that ghoul had great power, you must match me before we can advance through the true monsters that are ahead, and what better than the chimera itself to match essence.'
'Since the imbalance between sleep and time is something that shouldn't exist, but will I get help if it gets complicated?'
'Only if you're about to be reborn, it would be confusing for your girlfriend if we disappeared right now.'
'I don't know if that's helping my Marck.'
'Well, it's time to stop talking and get moving.'
The brothers jumped high, leaving the chimera in shock, none of the three had moved, they stared at each other and now the fight was about to begin, Marck was standing on the branch of a tree quite far away with an amused smile, As for Mick, he had already landed on the ground but he was a wolf quite different from the one in the world of fairies, and the one he used to roam that forest, it was a larger version of that monster from the movies, it was anthropomorphic, it was a torso well built as a man, the legs werewolf and the hairy arms ended in huge claws, the face was human but the fangs were noticeable throughout the mouth and it had ears on the head instead of to the sides.
'So Mick will fight with incomplete anthropomorphism, he is confident of his power against this beast, apparently, he has forgotten that he has not fought for centuries, we will see how you do white wolf.' He said as he sat on the branch crossing his legs.
The chimera lunged at the new beast in front of it, the goat head taking a considerable bite against Mick's left arm, while the serpentine tail was looking for a place to attack Mick's neck, for a moment to come. another Mick's arm was ripped off, the chimera devoured him and his body language seemed proud to make it clear that he was the greatest beast in the place.
'That's all the fearsome man-eater can do, the years of terror sown in Lycia City were only myths of an insignificant cub.'
Mick's arm immediately regenerated, on his face a smile that showed every one of the fangs was formed, it was macabre, gloomy, almost malevolent, he immediately jumped towards the creature and a blink sliced the serpent's head that emerged from the tail of it, the chimera reacted with speed, turned and at the same moment a powerful blow from the lion's paw was directed against the white wolf, Mick stopped it without any problem, but the beast could be anything but stupid and both heads of both the lion and the goat threw fire at the defenseless wolf.
'Brother, games can cost you more than a simple scar if you don't stop playing, you can be immortal but you are not invincible.' Marck said to himself even on that branch without moving.
The chimera walked around the flaming body, studying the situation, it was cautious with what it did, it would avoid any strange movement, but in an instant, a laugh sounded dryly producing a considerable echo, the flames were extinguished, Mick was with a smile standing surrounded by small flames that still burned, before anyone could react the chimera lay torn in two, while both of Mick's claws were bloody and he was kneeling with both arms crossed on the other side of the corpse, the inner fire of the Greek beast it began to spread, but Mick began to devour the creature's heads; Absorbing the essence consisted of eating the most representative part of a creature or drinking its blood to the end to acquire one of its many abilities.
'Let's just hope you don't grow two more heads, Mick.' Marck said landing next to him.
'I guess I'll be faster, or I'll be able to spit fire, we'll only know when the absorption is complete.'
'Anyway, at least we saw that the cockroaches that emerged from hell turned out to be rats, a chimera, she was not just any beast, in our first life it was believed that only the son of a god had been able to kill her if the rest of the claw-sharpening toys are of this type. I can't wait to see what saucers we'll take on along the way.'
The remains of the beast were dismembered by the brothers until only pieces of it remained, then both placed several seals around the body, some would seem pagan according to Catholicism but some were very old from the age of initial Mesopotamia, and the most Nearby were from the beginning of the alchemical period in ancient Europe, at the end of both brothers cracked their fingers and the alchemical seals spat out imposing flames, of a powerful blue tone and the remains of the chimera began to char, the fire wanted to expand but the seals Babylonians contained it, causing a whirlwind that little by little consumed all the oxygen in that prison and ended up drowned but leaving only ashes of what had been a mythical beast incarnate from hell.
'I told you that learning to invoke Greek fire with alchemical seals would someday be useful, Mick.'
'Well, using it to turn mythical beasts into nothingness itself never crossed my mind when you proposed it.'
'It's that you lack more vision for the future.' He said letting out a quite peculiar laugh even for him.
'You really love this, don't you? I'll never understand your insatiable thirst for blood Marck.'
'That is not true, it is quite true that I like to fight but not killings, compare forces, give everything to know who is stronger if your opponent or you, the bloodshed I repudiate, but in this battle, I will do everything necessary, is the only way for everyone to survive.' Said the black wolf with a spiteful tone in his voice, it seemed that he was claiming everything that happened from the white wolf.
They were silent at times when the perception of time was very distorted, despite having killed the chimera, the forest was still in abysmal silence, the brothers scattered the ashes along the forest floor so that no one would notice any trace of fight or the fire itself, out of nowhere the ringing tone of Mick's cell phone broke that silent abyss in the middle of the forest.
'I thought you told Jullie you'd be busy in the afternoon.'
'But we're meeting dinner together, and it's an hour before that.'
Marck looked at the clock in his left hand, it was true it would soon be eight o'clock in the evening his hunt for the chimera had been longer than anyone believed, but the most disconcerting thing was that the sun was still out there that none of them had aware of the progress of the day.
'Stop kidding, Marck, break your spell and get us out of here.'
'This time I have nothing to do with it if you let me remind you that a magician invoked I don't know how many demon beasts, and infernal creatures to this earthly plane, some of them must have taken advantage of the fact that we were focused on the chimera to lock us in time.'
'So what were you waiting to get us out of here?'
'It doesn't work like that and you know it very well brother, if I don't know what kind of thing caught us I can't devour the dead time, so until we find out what beast it was or how it channels this trap we'll be here for a long time.' He said as he threw himself next to the base of a huge oak and closed his eyes.
'What we lacked is that instead of doing your job as a time wolf, you go to sleep.'
Marck ignored his brother if something the millennia had taught him was that he should never respond to a provocation caused by despair, if he would do his job he would concentrate to be able to find the flow of magic or something that would help him track down the culprit of leaving them in a dead time, identifying the beast was essential to know how it was better to escape.
Mick's insults did not stop but the black wolf increasingly dominated the trance, but nothing served the energy that the white wolf radiated made it difficult for him to distinguish between what was new or was expelled by his brother, then everything quickly made sense in his mind, he calmly got up and when he was standing he slowly opened his eyes, walked towards his brother and before he reacted quickly rendered him unconscious, he was a sharp, powerful blow to the back of his neck, Mick fell in a sharp blow to the forest floor.
'You've always been a problem brother, you never learn to quickly control the absorbed essence.' He said before lifting it on his shoulders and beginning to absorb part of the new essence.
Soon the trees, the sky, and the ground itself began to break as if it were glass, before exploding and revealing the darkness of the night, Marck was driven out as fast as he could, in minutes they were in the apartment and Mick began to regain consciousness.
'I thought I would have to throw you a vase of water for you to react, little brother.'
'What is your damn problem Marck ?, I just wanted to get out of dead space and you knock me out.'
'My damn problem is that you are useless, I never thought before that I would say this but, you are more human than usual, Mick understands at once, you and I are a couple of MOUNSTRUES, nothing that happens will change it, You will never have humanity again, you better remember that before you do something worse to this damn curse.' He said while he exploded
' What are you talking about?'
'The damn dead space was your fault, you did not control your essence correctly and distorted space-time, and when you absorbed the essence of the chimera you expelled too much energy, that altered the flow of time, even more, you locked us in a cube of loss.'
'You are capable of creating the same ones, I don't see why all the fuss.'
'And I'm the stupid one?'
'If you have something to say, do it once and for all and let's end this situation.'
'Mick, my cubes isolate us from the outside, that's why we lose the sense of time advance, yours locked us in a specific moment in the flow of time and then divided us from the original current, but at the same time it kept us on course, that's why our watches and cell phones were not affected, it was like drifting on a mighty river, we could have been lost for ages before we even noticed we were locked up, your job is to take care of dreams and perception, mine is to monitor the flow of the current of time so that everything is in balance, when the balance is broken and when each one takes roles that do not correspond to them this happens.'
Mick said nothing, now he understood his brother's anger, being trapped in eternity was bad enough, even having the freedom to do things to kill boredom, but being trapped in eternity with nothing to do was torture that I don't know. He had to impose on any living creature but what to do was the question, Mick just remained silent, the vibration in his pocket that notifies a message took him out of the world of the subconscious, he got up and before he could get away Marck said seriously.
'The one with the idea of getting involved in this war was yours but as you are always a coward, you only serve to give heroic and morale-boosting speeches, but you have never served the battlefield, not even with the curse, get away with your precious Jullie, I will go devour all the beasts I can, absorb the essence of each one and then leave the war to you, I will not get involved even once when this really starts, so enjoy the human time you will have with her, because once the magician, Meridian, and Acmen prepare to fight, you will be so inferior in power that all humanity will die and she will not be exempt, the worst thing is that she will die for your lack of power to protect her.'
Now in the room there was only Mick standing in front of an open door and a black wolf on the sofa that came down quickly and crossed the door while letting out a growl as he passed by his brother, and quickly disappeared down the stairs, Mick just came out From the building, he walked through the streets until he reached the cafeteria where Jullie was waiting for him.
'I'm sorry for the delay. I had a lawsuit with Marck.' He said as he took a seat in front of her.
'Everything's fine?'
'I don't think so, I involved Marck in a very delicate matter and as so many times I left him alone with the most difficult part, he finally got fed up and told me that this time he would not solve it alone, he thinks he will take care of the part that We have already started, but I will take responsibility for the rest if someone is injured it will be my fault, he does not think of giving me a hand when the moment requires it.'
'If he doesn't give it to you, I'll do it, because that's what couples are for, to help each other, from what I deduce from the situation I shouldn't ask questions about the mess you caused, but if one day you can tell me, I'll be delighted to hear from you.'
"She will not be exempt, the worst thing is that she will die for your lack of power to protect her.", Marck's words resonated with force and clarity in Mick's mind he knew that Jullie would really die unless he devoured more essence and learned to control it, the centuries without peels had allowed him to become wiser but he had also forgotten an important part of himself, they represented the balance of the whole.
Now Mick was completely out of balance, Marck had to devour more essence and become wiser for his larger presence to maintain the balance with the little one that Mick had been producing until now, his body had to be every time close to the limit that would explain all the emotional wear that he showed and his sudden emotional outburst before he had been able to reserve it perfectly until the today.
Mick was silent, he did not say anything and only looked at the small sugar bowl in front of him while their hands were held together, suddenly some thin hands surrounded his, he directed his gaze towards the black-haired woman who was smiling calmly at him.
'The other option, Mick, is that you go and help your brother, show him that this time you will be by his side to finish the job.'
'But what about us?'
'A relationship does not end up being seen little, you should know that I am not so corny as to love you twenty-four by seven by my side, we will see each other when you can, we will talk on the cell phone as much as possible, and we will do our best to move this forward to proper pace.'
'When you speak like that, it seems that you have more years of life than you appear as if your eternal youth allows you to learn without aging a single day.'
They both laughed calmly, Mick was now at peace, I don't need anything more than a little talk to know that now he had to go running to find his brother and help him show that he was willing to accept his animal part.
'Instead of wasting time my bookworm run out and find that grumpy Marck and show him your true talent, that you are at his level despite the lost time.'
'You're absolutely right, it's time to really fight.' he said as he kissed her and left a couple of twenties on the table, and ran away.
The cafeteria door jingled as Mick sped past it and just as he passed the window he gave Jullie one last smile and disappeared.
-'Who would say that werewolves can be like puppies? Marck, Mick, you still have many surprises to give me.' Jullie said as she got up quietly and left that small place.