(Wednesday, 8th of Dream King Moon, 2021)
Jack and Alice left the tree, and they were carrying the blue orb in a plastic bag in secret, not sure how everyone would react upon seeing it. Jack would have tried to hide it, but it was hard to hide something that was roughly the size of a basketball and glows. Jack was about to send the orb back home using his watch, but then an alarm bell began ringing throughout the city. Both Jack and Alice instantly understood this as the signal for the monster attack. The two of them ran towards the entrance of the walled area to see crowds of people flooding in, and Simo running towards the ladder that leads up to the top of the wall. Jack ran up to Simo, and shouted for him.
"Simo, what the hell is going on?!" Jack shouted at the Finnish sniper, who looked down at his friend holding the blue seed in a bag.
"Ned found a bunch of monsters inside a cave not too far from here, and now there's a wave heading here right now." Simo answered while his rifle was slung over his back. "Robin has these drones flying around, find one and he'll give you all orders."
"Way ahead of you." From behind Jack and Alice, a magenta colored sphere appeared to hover around Jack's head. "Jack, Alice, I need you two to join Mifu and Saorise on the front lines. If you see Ned and he needs help, then help him. Molly will handle the gates, Caroline will handle the skies, while Gaia guards the ground. Simo, stay sniping!"
"Got it!" Alice then took a breath in, and a black magic circle appeared at her feet. "Alighieri 2nd Ring of Inferno: Lust."
A purple aura surrounded Alice's body, and she began to grow small demonic wings that had a dark purple tint to them. Her hands grew delicate yet sharp black claws with purple nails that could have passed as gauntlets. Small, purple horns emerged from Alice's head, and they pointed straight back. Alice's eyes glowed a purple color, and a heart-tipped tail emerged from her lower back.
"You look like a Succubus." Jack commented on Alice's transformation. "Is it me, or did your chest get bigger?"
"Hey, my eyes are up here." Alice suddenly summoned a trident made of lightning. "So what are you gonna summon?"
"Death Bride and Hyperion, just so I can keep things light." Jack summoned Death Bride, a black pouch, and fastened it to his side. Then he summoned a yellow, sci-fi looking motorcycle with machine guns on either side of it. "Alright Alice, you think you can keep up?"
"Yeah, you take care of the monsters dead ahead, I'll take care of the ones around us." Alice suggested, and Jack put on a pair of sunglasses while he jumped onto the bike. "Where the hell did you get those?"
"Oh, I just got them with Hyperion to help keep bugs out of my eyes." Jack informed his best friend who used her wings to fly over him. "Ready?"
"Ready."
"Then let's go."
Jack pressed the gas on Hyperion, and the motorcycle took off, flying past the massive wooden gates of the walled area. While passing the gates, Jack saw Molly guiding civilians inside the gates until all the civilians were inside. After everyone was inside, Molly put on a sci-fi looking backpack, and it began to change shape until something bronze covered her shoulders, arms, and hands. The machine shifted and emitted steam until it finally stayed in one solid shape, and revealed that it was a set of bronze pauldrons with armor connecting it to the gauntlets. The shoulders had a set of exhaust pipes that appeared to continuously emit steam. Molly then proceeded to use these gauntlets to forcefully close the wooden doors.
"Weird, guess everyone got something new after Tartarus." Jack noticed how there were monsters running towards both him and Alice as the two of them made their way down the street. "Hold on, what's the deal with those monsters?"
Jack used 'All Vision' to enhance his vision, allowing him to see the monsters in the distance in more detail. He looked at the monsters in horror, and Jack began to notice how all of them had one thing in common with one another. They looked like regular citizens of the enchanted forest who had been turned into mindless monsters. Their bulging red eyes reminded Jack too much of Kaimu when he was turned into birdman. It may be a stretch, but he was beginning to think this was just like that. Jack began to wonder if killing these innocent people was the best option, but Alice spoke up.
"Jack, they may look like another Kaimu Akamu case, but they aren't." Alice informed Jack, and ne wondered how she knew that. "I don't know how, but I feel like these are different. Look at their behavior."
"You're right.." Now that he paid attention to the minute details, Jack could see that while these people may have been turned into monsters like Kaimu, he could tell that these people didn't have their consciousness remaining. They have been turned into pure monsters. "Is it still okay to kill them though?"
"I don't know, but all we can do right now is bring an end to their suffering." Alice looked kind of depressed, so he sighed and began the fight.
Jack pressed the triggers that rested on the edges of both his handle bars. The machine guns revered up, and they began to fire from the sides. The machine guns had blue lasers on them, specifically the kind that just helped with aim. The machine guns began firing at the monsters directly in front of Jack. Bullets tore through their necks with almost unreal precision, and the corpses began to fall onto the ground. Hyperion rode atop of the corpses, yet amazingly, the ride wasn't bumpy to Jack in the slightest. The reason for the smooth sailing was because of Hyperion's stability ability that not only makes guns shoot more accurately the longer Jack fired, but also keep the bike perfectly stable while riding it. It was a pretty simple mechanism, the tires just kept the whole bike steady.
"Jack, be careful!" Alice shouted before extending both her palms outwards, and pitch black lightning electrocuted all the nearby monsters. "Focus or something!"
"Right, sorry!"
As Jack and Alice rode down the roads to deal with the monsters lurking on the streets, one woman in particular was fighting monsters close to the riverbank. One of the monsters had a massive bear's paw, and it swung that massive paw at the girl, but she blocked the swing with a turtle shell shield. The girl held an anchor in the opposite hand, and used that anchor to pierce the neck of the monster before knocking it back.
"Phew, I guess this weapon is okay compared to guns." Saorise sighed before slamming the bottom of the shield into the ground, bracing it to block the tackle from a monster with a bull head and four horns.
Saorise appeared to lock the anchor inside the shield, and she pulled an M1 Garand from a satchel on her side. Saorise aimed the barrel of the gun at the Bull monster and pulled the trigger. The bullet spun rapidly, and even had a golden aura surrounding it. The bullet pierced straight through the skull of the Bull monster and out the other end. Saorise then aimed the gun at the next monster, firing another bullet, followed by another. This went on until Saorise heard a 'ping' noise, and she was forced to swap out weapons for an M32 Rotary Grenade Launcher. Before Saorise could fire, she suddenly heard the sound of an engine roaring behind her.
"Saorise, duck!" Saorise heard Jack's voice shout from behind her, so the woman set aside her weapons.
Saorise did just that and crouched to the ground, just in time too. Jack was soaring over the selkie whilst riding Hyperion, and Alice was still flying over him. Alice looked at the ground, and she saw that the ground was covered in water that reached up to Saorise and the monsters' ankles.
"Jack, lift Saorise up with a plant!" Alice ordered Jack as she charged a black magic circle over the body of water.
"History Maker: Kernunnosl." Jack summoned the black snake tattoo that coiled around his hand, and he aimed his palm at Saorise.
The tattoo glowed green, and a green colored, transparent serpent appeared on his arm. It mimicked the tattoo perfectly and remained perfectly still as he conjured a log to form underneath Saorise's feet, raising her into the air. Alice then sent black lightning raining down atop of the marsh, and even if her strikes weren't precise, the water conducted the lightning perfectly, so the black lightning electrocuted all the monsters, and Saorise jumped off the log Jack summoned in order to stand atop more solid ground that overlooked the electrocuted water. Saorise was about to thank the archeologist, but Hyperion landed on the marshy ground and continued to ride forward. As Saorise watched Jack and Alice dash back into the town from the marsh, Saorise noticed how more and more monsters appeared to follow the two. Then she noticed the blue orb that was inside the plastic bag.
"Is it me, or are there a lot of monsters behind us?" Alice pointed behind Jack both, and he looked back as he rode back onto the road of the city.
"Bloody hell, I guess they're after this thing." Jack held up the orb he grabbed earlier. "I have an idea, is there a volcano nearby?"
"I know what your planning, but no, I don't think there are any volcanoes in the area." Alice then summoned a black magic circle in front of her. "But I have a form that can probably help in the same way. Alighieri 4th Ring of Inferno: Greed."
Alice's demonic form didn't change all that much. Her gauntlets grew slightly larger and had gold nails instead of purple. Her wings now had a golden tint, her tail lost its heart shaped tip in favor of a Diamond tip. Her horns also changed into more of an S-shape, while her eyes glowed gold. Jack used Death Bride to create a string of grenades, and the archeologist handed them to the warlock. Alice disappeared into the air, and Jack kept on riding Hyperion in an attempt to lure more and more monsters into following him. He dashed past Mifu, who seemed to be faring well against the monsters. Jack looked at Mifu's sword, and noticed how it looked shorter than it once did. He watched as Mifu gracefully jumped from the rooftop and landed right on the back of Hyperion. Jack then noticed how she was actually dual wielding a long katana and a wakizashi looking weapon. While both resembled her original weapon, Sakura, they were both too short to be Mifu's weapon.
"Mifu, what happened to Sakura?!" The archeologist shouted at the sword user who cut a monster in half while it tried to tackle Jack's motorcycle.
"According to Mansa, it evolved to suit me perfectly." Mifu answered, and Jack did notice how every one of her swings were a lot more graceful and quicker compared to when Sakura was in one piece. "In actuality, it broke and Nikola was kind enough to modify it to make it usable."
"Yo, Mifu, Jack, fancy seeing you guys here!" Ned was riding atop his horse, Seabiscuit, while firing one of his revolvers down at the monsters behind them all. "So where are we going?!"
"Beats me, but these monsters are after this orb thing!" Jack held up the plastic bag with the blue orb inside it. "No clue why, but we can use this to our advantage."
"If these monsters are after it, then maybe Nihilism is after that." Ned guessed, and Jack didn't know who Nihilism was.
"Who the hell is Nihilism?" The archeologist questioned before pulling a grenade out from a Death Bride, pulling the pin, and throwing the grenade at the monsters.
"Long story, but I'm willing to bet he's the guy who created these monsters." What Ned said almost made him lose balance on Hyperion. Jack recalled what Herakles said when the headmaster told Jack about Kaimu's condition. How one of those entities may have made him into birdman.
"Where did you find this person?" Jack grit his teeth and mentally steeled himself for combat, but Ned simply looked at everyone.
"I don't remember exactly where, but I know fighting him is gonna be a bad idea, even for you." Ned shot another bullet at the monsters chasing them all.
Jack, Ned, and Mifu soon reached the town center, and he could see that monsters were coming towards them all from every direction. The archeologist almost pulled some sticks of dynamite out of Death Bride, but all of a sudden, a black magic circle appeared overhead. Out of nowhere, a glowing liquid began to emerge from the cracks and gaps in the ground. The liquid appeared to avoid a circle where Jack, Ned, Mifu, and Seabiscuit were all standing. Upon closer inspection, this liquid appeared to be melted gold, and it covered the entire street except for where they all were standing. Jack saw Alice standing atop the nearby belltower, holding her palms straight outwards. Alice used this melted gold to melt and burn the monsters until they were reduced to nothing. Upon the death of all the monsters, Alice made the melted gold seep back into the gaps in the road, disappearing all together in the process. Alice flew back down to the group, and her demonic transformation came undone.
"So what was the price you had to pay to do all that?" Jack asked his friend, who looked somewhat alright, aside from the fact that her eyes were a little bloodshot.
"The Lust form took a single fingernail." Alice showed her best friend her pinky nail, and how it was missing one whole nail. "Meanwhile, Greed took decent amount of my eyes' moisture."
"Do you need eye drops or something?" Jack asked Alice, who pulled some eye drops out of her pocket and put them in her eyes. "Okay, with that out of the way: Ned, you said you knew where these monsters were coming from?"
"Yeah, but there was some guy there, and he gave off bad vibes, so I don't wanna go there." Ned was then met with the collective glares of Jack, Alice, and Mifu. "Fine, we'll go, but I'm running away at the first sign of danger!"
With that, Ned rode Seabiscuit towards the outskirts of the city, and Jack followed him on Hyperion. Mifu and Alice rode on the back of Hyperion with him. The four of them followed tracks until Ned finally showed them all a cave. Jack got off Hyperion and used 'All Vision' to see inside the cave, but there was nothing there.
"This is where I met Nihilism, the guy who I think made those monsters." Ned kept the barrel of his gun aimed straight down the cave, but there were no signs of life to be found in the area.
"This chill...it's that feeling when a passing deer just misses a bear." Mifu appeared to have goosebumps on her arm. "Ned, on a scale from one to ten, how strong would you rank this mysterious person?"
"One hundred, that's all I have to say." Ned was shivering, and Jack noticed Alice looking around. "That thing, it's on Herakles' level at least."
"Alice, you good?" The archeologist noticed that aside from the slightly bloodshot eyes, Alice looked relatively okay.
"This feeling...why does it feel so familiar?"