The Living Lighting still ravaged Fate's insides, giving him the air of a puppet being manipulated as he moved forward in jerky, halting steps. His dragon form helped immensely against the sentient electricity, but it didn't make him immune. He'd have to finish this quickly and get back in the air.
V charged forward just as Fate closed the distance, letting out a low shout as Fate swiped forward with his good hand. Since the lighting within him held almost no Divine Energy, he couldn't absorb it or use it to heal himself.
Fate used a perfectly timed execution of his Manifest Power to let the fool bumble right through him, the trajectory of his claws not wavering in the slightest. As the claws grew nearer, he saw Jenna's eyes flash with several emotions in the span of a second: anger, regret, spite, and then finally, acceptance.
She closed her eyes as Fate lopped off her head, her face peaceful as the head spun through the air, showering Fate in yet more blood and leaving a foul taste in his mouth.
This woman went out with peace in her heart, a death these monsters didn't grace their experiments with. Why should she be allowed to come to terms with her death when he was certain she took great pleasure in violently and horrifically murdering others?
He turned his ire to V, who was staring in shock at Jenna's head rolling along the ground. The athletic man caught Fate's gaze, adopting the same self-righteous fury these Advanced bastards seemed so good at wearing.
A look that accused Fate of being in the wrong, when the evidence of V's disgusting acts was currently staring at them through a reinforced glass door.
It made him sick.
Fate planted a solid foot forward, toes leaving faint dents in the metal as he walked forward.
The Living Lighting had stopped once Cage breathed his last breath, leaving Fate free to retract his wings. With a combined telekinesis strength of twenty-four hundred, and their Manifest Powers deflected or sapped away by Fate's Concept, the three survivors now had no choice but to submit.
And unluckily for them, he wasn't in a good mood.
Fate looked up at the ceiling above, panting heavily. V and Ursa were now bloody smears and chunks of flesh, not a single scrap of them recognizable under all the crimson.
Sema stood off to the side, laziness gone entirely as she stared apprehensively at him. She flinched when he turned his glowing gaze to her, but gulped silently and stood tall.
When Fate got to work on the V and Ursa, this woman had stopped all attacks and just stood there. He also noticed that during the aerial battle, she hadn't been putting her entire heart into aiming.
Not a single one of her attacks got close to him, although they were smartly timed so it looked like he had simply dodged them.
"Give me one good reason, and I'll let you live," he growled. "But I'm not in the mood for games."
"When the first alarms blared and we read your file, I was amazed at what you've accomplished. Escaping your captors, freeing the victims of these monsters' experiments. I was hoping you'd get me out of here. That's why I didn't go at you with everything I had."
"All right, then. I have two questions for you."
With a flap of his wings, he flew through the air and landed in front of her, gazing down at the shorter woman's green eyes with an expression of utmost seriousness. "Did you enjoy what you did here?" he asked.
"No." Her eyes were as unwavering and confident as his own.
Fate nodded. "And what do you plan to do if I help you?"
"I've heard the Flaming Crows are hiring," she said. "Anything I can do to take down these heartless assholes, I'll do it."
Again, Fate could find no hint of a lie in this woman's words. While there was always the possibility that she was lying, he found it extremely unlikely for the Advanced to deem all of this worth it.
"Does this cell have exploding chips?" he asked.
"I dug mine out months ago and rewired it," she said. "It'll protect me from the Living Lightning and give me access to the restricted areas of this planet, but they can't use it to kill me. Once we get out of this place, I can turn off the tracking feature as well."
Fate nodded again, considering her words. "If you can explain that technology to the Flaming Crows, I'm sure they'd accept you. Help me get the Shyv out of here, and I'll ask my contacts to help you out. What's your name?"
"Sema."
"Don't stab me in the back, Sema," Fate warned, walking over to the glass door. "All that'll do is make me angry."
Sema stayed behind, barely hiding her joy at finally escaping from this hellhole. After reigning in her emotions, her face once more grew blank and lazy as she jogged off after Fate.
Fate put his hands on his hips as he stared at the massive glass door, his destroyed hand having healed during his massacre of V and Ursa. "Any ideas on how to open this thing?" he asked. A jab from his Divine Grasp didn't even scratch it.
"You have to work the locks on each side at the same time, turning them with our Divine Reach in unison," Sema said, pointing at the locks on either side of the door.
There were six locks, each with chains connecting them to the others in a web of metal.
"We have to turn all four at the same time, or else the alarms will sound and we'll be locked in this building. This was designed for four Embodiments to work together, but with that ridiculous telekinetic strength you have, you might be able to do it by yourself.
"The minimum requirement is five hundred pounds per lock, which I'm sure you surpass. But if you need help, I'm here."