They all stood in silence at Axel's words.
A God? Thought Jun. Why would you ask for such a thing?
"But a God sighting hasn't been reported since the first part of the war. And it was only once." Iris explained.
"Exactly. And that was in an attempt to squash the emergence of the slayers. But why do you think they've been silent ever since?" Axel said.
"No one really knows." Jun replied. "After the God of War appeared and wiped out several countries in an instant, there hasn't been a single appearance by a God since. Only the occasional archangel and even rarer Seraph.."
"Too many words. It's because you guys SUCK at this!!" Axel said, loudly.
"Dude we've been cleaning up angels in this city for monthsss as a team! Just because you show up randomly one day and get in a lucky hit you think you're the king of the streets or something." Jayden started.
"You guys pose no REAL challenge to the Heavens!" Axel said as he threw back his head in exasperation. "I was hoping that you guys would be enough together to beat the archangel and maybe something higher would appear. But, nope. It was only a matter of time before that archangel had done one of you in and the others would've fallen apart. With this system we could literally rock their shit but you all wanna hold hands and play house instead."
Jun didn't seem pleased at Axel's response. "You may have taken down an archangel, but a God is in a category of its own. The slayers that were there when the God of War came were only able to push it back. They were unable to defeat it and almost no one made it out alive. Something like that…needs numbers, not bravado."
"Mommy, it's them!"
The slayers all turned their attention to the source of the voice - they hadn't seen that everyone was starting to empty back out onto the streets from the shelters. Sarah had run off from her mom when she saw the slayers.
"Sarah, get back here!" Her mom said as she ran after her.
Iris looked at the kid and smiled, "Why hello there. What's your name?"
"I'm Sarah." She said with a smile. "Thank you for saving us! It's not nice for people to say mean things about you."
Jun chuckled softly, "We appreciate your thanks. As long as you guys are safe that's all that matters to us."
The mom finally caught up and grabbed her daughter's hand. "Okay, time to go sweetie." She looked up and awkwardly smiled at the slayers. "T-thanks." She then attempted to shepard Sarah away, but she still had one more question.
"Oh, do you guys come from heaven too?"
Before anyone else could speak, Axel had stepped up to the little girl and taken a knee to be at her level.
"Well little girl, not quite." He gave her a big smile, "You see it's kinda like this….you know how there are good people and bad people in the world?"
"Yes." Sarah answered.
"Well the good people get to go to the Heavens when they die and live happy, go lucky lives and lick ice cream and pet puppies all day!"
"That sounds so cool! I wanna go! Wait..what about the bad people?"
Jun reached out to Axel, "Axel, you should stop-"
"Well the bad people," Axel went on, "go to a place called the Underworld where it's really really hot all day and you keep living out your worst nightmares endlessly. It's absolutely horrible. Oh, but there is this Queen there who is pretty easy on the eyes if you catch my drift."
"I don't like that…" she said in a scared tone, "they shouldn't treat people like that!"
"Well you see, these people deserve it. Before they died they were very very bad people who did very very bad things. And they didn't regret it. Or even say sorry!"
Sarah gasped.
"I knowww, right?" Axel continued. "And I don't mean things like stealing someone's pencil in class or lying about a bad grade." He leaned in closer to her face. "I'm talking about…murder. Stabbing someone in the face enough that their own mother couldn't recognize them."
"What??" Sarah yelled out.
"Axel, you've gone too far!!" Jun yelled out as he yanked him back by his shoulder.
"What's wrong with you people?!" The mother yelled out as she tried to whisk her daughter away. "She's only a child!"
"This is her world too!" Axel shouted with a grin as the mother was walking away. "But she needs to know that those sick deranged souls that suffered endlessly in hell, are standing in front of her right now! Slayers are nothing more than hell bound souls given another chance to run wild!"
Jayden pulled Axel out of Jun's grip and decked him across the face with his fist, *POW!*
Axel stumbled backwards a few steps. "Hey, what the hell-"
"Are you stupid or just REALLY fucking stupid?!" Jayden yelled. "You can't just go saying shit like that to a kid!"
"Why not? I was just telling the truth."
Jayden's face was scrunched in anger. "Didn't you say you were some kind of hero? What hero acts like this?"
"The hero you need, but not the one you deserve."
"....Isn't that line like from a movie or something?"
Jun stepped between them. "Do you truly not regret who you were before you were a slayer? The way you carry yourself…you're no better than the first freelancers."
"Do I regret who I was? Hah! Maybe that's your problem there, Jun. Can't change the past." Axel scoffed and turned away from the slayers. "I'll be around guys, so feel free to take some vacation or something. I got it from here for a bit"
As Axel walked away, Jun, Iris, and Jayden all felt a bad taste in their mouth.
Jun knew that the teamwork they had worked on for all this time will now be jeopardized because of the random factor that is Axel. Someone that wanted to draw in the strongest power in the known universe to their city.
Jun sighed, "This day could've gone better."
"Ugh, I can already feel the migraines coming on." Iris moaned.
Jayden meanwhile stared down at his hand - the one he had used to punch Axel. His hand was shaking from the impact as it felt like punching a stone wall. It felt immovable.
"Everything alright, Jayden?" Jun asked.
Jayden lowered his hand. "...yeah, I'm good."