The lights flickered on and the fans spun…
"Alright, that's our cue." said Aldegar as he jumped up onto his feet, him and Fornicus sneaking to the back entrance of the warehouse.
The dead silence of the night was contrasted by the gentle thuds of their feet, in their best efforts to remain silent. They went around the other side, and noticed two entrances. A door, and a loading bay. Without a second thought, Fornicus made his way to the loading bay, and Aldegar preparing to kick in the wooden door.
As Fornicus leaned back and lifted his right leg high into the air, a surge of superheated plasma surged around his foot, glowing bright hot. With a loud scream, Fornicus kicked the door with all his might, melting the steel on touch. He then reinforced his shoulder with the same plasma, and rushed through. The steel didn't even get a chance to heat up properly, gone in a single touch.
The air around him surged with intense heat, him not being able to localize his temperature in time to avoid adverse effects. A large shockwave protruded from around him - the glass on both the warehouse and the nearby buildings shattering immediately. The concrete of the pillars cracked, and the became charred. All the while, Fornicus was trying his best to balance his power, knowing he needed a temperature high enough to melt the steel, but not too hot to avoid adverse effects.
"Shit," Aldegar thought. "I forgot to alert Incident Control."
Aldegar followed soon behind Fornicus, slamming with all his might into the door, and kicking it open. By the time he got into the main room of the warehouse, Fornicus was already in there, launching his power at the attackers. Mental Map didn't really give Aldegar that type of destructive ability, and so, he just unsheathed his sword and rushed at one of the men.
Most of the men were dodging Fornicus' attacks pretty well, except for the first man, caught off guard. He got set alight instantly by the heat wave he set off, and was rolling around the warehouse floor, his skin burned and charred. In the top left corner sat Aiden, tied to a pillar, the purple-haired man sitting cross legged and watching the combat.
Alas, no one knew that the plan was to wait for Monique. They assailants dodged and dodged, Fornicus launching heat waves instead of his Solar Flare's usual superheated plasma blasts to avoid hurting Aldegar or even worse, destroying the whole warehouse.
Finally, in panic, they all approached the large door, and one of the men struck the large, red button to open it. "Come on, let's evacuate! Benoit has got them covered!" he screamed.
"Monique, now!" Aldegar's voice cut through the chaos.
As the door slowly moved upwards, Monique stood. Her right arm gently extended, and her index and middle fingers pointed towards the men. A small smirk played at her lips, before a large beam of blood expanded from her hand outwards. It flew at a high speed, piercing most of the men directly.
However, Sanguine Blast doesn't have any innate destructive capabilities as is. Instead of mostly physical wounds, like the first two, it allows Monique to take her enemies' lives in another way…
Monique's Blood Sacrifice, she calls it the First Tome, and is her actual power. However, she also has a Second Tome, called Life Drain. Life Drain is a taught technique which is passed down through the generations of the Cosineau family, and has never been taught to a non-member. What it allows, is for Essence to be stolen from people Life Drain users achieve physical contact with.
In this case, Sanguine Blast took the place of a physical touch, and drained their Essence and strength directly, feeding it all back to Monique. Now drained completely, they had no more energy to heal or continue, and perished. The attack could be refined with Essence to deal physical damage, but, in this scenario, Monique avoided it.
Six men were present in the warehouse, other than Benoit - the sleeping toxin mercenary. Four died on Sanguine Blast's impact, one died to Fornicus' Solar Flare, and one went unconscious, but still alive.
"Damn it." called out Benoit, his voice a mix of anger and disgust. "Can these bastards do anything on their own?"
He stood from his place near Aiden, and grabbed a sword from the body of one of his defeated comrades. He proceeded to kick the defeated man in the skull, muttering a few curse words under his breath.
Noticing he stood, and clearly had a plan, Aldegar immediately engaged Benoit. He reflexively blocked Aldegar's sword strike, before backing off. He dashed to the side, and opened what seemed to be a fuse box. He took the sword, and slashed across it, before ramming the sword inside. The loose wires, as well as the sword's metal blade interacted, causing a short circuit.
From the fuse box, sparks flew and a distinct crackling could be heard. The lights flickered, and turned off, the ventilation stopping. The fusebox caught on fire, and Benoit backed away from it.
"Now," he laughed. "The easy part."
He dashed towards the middle of the warehouse, ducking under Aldegar's blade and a barrage of Monique's Crimson Darts. He inhaled deeply, before once more screaming at the top of his lungs. The putrid, purple gas began exuding from him, and rapidly filled the area. Aldegar and Monique tried to back off, but couldn't make it in time, and soon fell down, knocked out.
However, Fornicus wasn't intending on going down without a fight. He ran in a wide circle around Benoit, trying to get to Aiden and release him. The gas did eventually catch him, but he tumbled near Aiden.
In a desperate effort, he burned his own hand with Solar Flare, jolting him awake for a fraction of a second. He proceeded to set the rope that tied Aiden up on fire, before passing out himself.
The rope burned, but Benoit didn't notice it. Instead, he made his way over to Aldegar, and crouched down.
"You couldn't ever guess how much they filled my head with propaganda about you," he said as he lifted the unconscious man up, before throwing him across the floor. "Oh, watch out for Lieutenant Silvius, said that bitch Gabriel. He's a tactical mastermind, he'll easily outwit you."
"Well look who's laughing now!" he said in a loud roar of victory. "It might have cost me my humanity, but, it was worth it. For her, for Nadia…"
He turned to face the captive, but, Aiden was already at his feet. The burning rope woke him up, so he quickly cast it off, and noticed the scene around himself. Fornicus lied next to him, his arm burned from his desperate attempt to stay awake.
His father, Monique, Synnove… these people hurt his closest.
Without a word said, Aiden looked around noticing no weapons were closely available. With an annoyed grunt, he stared directly at Benoit, almost peering into his Soul. He lifted his right fist slightly, and dragged along his left palm, before the fist itself set on fire. A huge blaze engulfed it, one that glew with an almost blue hue. He did the same with the other hand, before bolting at him.
"Fuck," he said as he dodged. "He's fast!"
Aiden was now directly in front of Benoit, punching him rapidly. Hook, uppercut, knee, hook, a never-ending loop.
Benoit attempted to release more gas from him, but it didn't affect Aiden in the slightest. Benoit's toxin worked in an interesting manner. He could knock anyone out with it, but, after one use, the affected becomes immune. That is, until Benoit changes his venom itself. He had no time to do that, Aiden's thoughtless rushing stopping him.
He continued treating Benoit like a punching bag and even further charring and deteriorating his already scarred skin, until he finally fell onto the floor. Now unable to stand, he couldn't do anything. Aiden grabbed a blade from one of the men Monique defeated, before heading back to Benoit.
Before he got a chance to do that, he noticed the enemy Monique had only knocked out. It was the man who released the steam when they first encountered the mercenary group. The man noticed Aiden, and raised his hands up in the air, pleading.
"Please," he barely got out, before Aiden ruthlessly pierced his chest directly with the sword, pulling out the bloodied blade. Once more, just like with Kaji, an orb of blue light rose from his corpse, and got absorbed by Aiden.
Without even flinching at ending that man's life, Aiden returned his gaze to Benoit. He stood atop him, and placed his blade next to his throat.
"Please, Aiden!" he screamed desperately. "Before you kill me, at least listen to my words!"
Aiden neared his blade even closer to Benoit's throat. "Why should I?"
"When it comes to me, I'm a dead man either way." he said, raising his hands in the air. "Please, at least this."
Aiden lifted the sword, and sat down on the floor. "Alright, but hurry."
"The Cult, it's trying to fool you. The Separator is fake." he said as he lifted himself from the ground and sat. "The Separator was a distraction, the real threat, is something called the Overloader."
"The Overloader? Synnove did mention something like that written on Gabriel's sketch." he said. "But, why would you be telling me this?"
"Well, because I was put through the Overloader myself. I'm… corrupted."
Aiden's interest was piqued, but he was also frightened. "What do you mean 'corrupted'?"
"The Overloader, what it does, is it adds Essence to someone, until they overdo their Bound." he sighed deeply. "I don't know the specifics, but, it corrupts you somehow. I mean, look at me, look at my eyes."
"I was poor, living here in the industrial district with my sister, Nadia. The Cult promised me if I helped them, that they'd keep Nadia safe and sound, with a full stomach. I couldn't decline an offer like that. I never knew that'd it'd end like this."
Aiden hated the fact Benoit's words resonated with him, but, they did. He thought of his siblings - Theo and Timo, Valarie, Runa… even Emilia. "Alright, what can I do to help?"
"You actually will?" Benoit stuttered. "I- Thank you."
"This corruption, it'll only spell worse for me. I'm as good as dead. But, you're allies with the Oracle, right? Your dad is the Lieutenant? I know I treated him like shit moments ago, but, it's been hard to think straight lately."
"Considering I'm about to kill you," Aiden clutched onto his sword, fearing that this was a trick of some sort. "Consider it forgiven."
"Aiden, all I want you to do, is keep Nadia safe. She's powerless, help her find an office job, someone to love her, a nice home. I only ask that."
Aiden stood and shook the dust from his clothes. "Consider it done. Even if they don't want to do it, Aldegar will agree. And that means it'll go through."
Benoit laid back down on the ground, and spread out wide with a smile on his face. "I'm glad. Thank you, Aiden."
Aiden approached him with the blade once more, before he asked. "I don't want to kill a man, without even knowing who he is. Tell me, what is your name?"
"Benoit…" he said as he closed his eyes. "Benoit Charnier."