"So you are saying the mastermind and main evil behind the ongoing apocalypse resides inside your body?" Bloodfang said, bending over so he was at the same eye level with me, like he wanted to peek through and perhaps get a glimpse of Vorthul lurking inside.
"Yup." I answered, "Since we fought the Fire Harbinger."
Bloodfang stayed silent for a while, pondering, then straightened up, "Then we should probably just kill you and get this over with then."
I didn't blame him for immediately jumping to that conclusion. Not one bit.
Meg jumped up and quickly stepped in front of me like a shield, "Well we don't actually know if that's a good idea."
"Why not? It's a simple enough solution, no?"
"Well, you see, Vorthul is actually not…powerful right now. More like, he can't even do anything at all. He's currently being suppressed by Zephan."
I remembered how Vorthul almost liquified my brain back at the restaurant.
"I wouldn't exactly say I'm suppressin-" I started but Meg punched my gut.
"Anyway, from speaking to Vorthul, we-" Meg continued.
"You spoke to him?" Bloodfang asked, putting up his square glasses.
"It's a long story. But we talked to him and learned his plans. There's two more Harbingers yet to surface. Water and Earth. The Wind Harbinger is still probably somewhere in the skies. We don't know where it is. But according to Vorthul, his Harbingers will prepare the entire country for him, by completely razing it to the ground. Then from here…global dominance."
Bloodfang paced the small office. The office was Hylla's but she wasn't around. Her assistant told us that she had left for a rescue mission with a small team just a few hours ago.
On the walls there were pictures of her with different squads in full battle gear. They all looked battle worn but they were grinning ear to ear.
Other pictures showed her shaking hands with generals and a few politicians.
A small picture in the corner showed Meg, Brody and I during training.
When had that been taken?
Through the windows I could see the entire layout of the camp spread out.
Despite how devastating the last attack on camp was, the reconstruction was already almost complete.
Scaffolding hugged newly rebuilt walls and sounds of swinging hammers rang out from finishing touches. There was a new hope in the air and people were moving with purpose. Even the population of the camp seemed to have increased since the last time I was here.
Now it seemed like the place just needed a little bit of repainting although the basketball court still had a few craters to be filled up.
But considering the camp was almost completely razed to the ground just weeks ago, this was a massive upgrade.
I felt a nasty irritated feeling. A feeling that belonged to Vorthul. A faint murmur rasped behind my eyes, "Stubborn little camp."
That made me grin.
"I still feel we should kill Zephan." Bloodfang said again, "No offense. It just seems…easier and logical."
"None taken." I stepped away from the window and moved to the opposite side of the table across from Bloodfang, "But if I'm killed, sure, Vorthul might actually be ended. But I highly doubt that. Vorthul, his Harbingers and the Scokytocles have all said I'm the perfect vessel. But that doesn't mean other people can't be vessels either."
"You are talking about Hollowbounds?" Bloodfang frowned.
"Exactly. When the Wind Harbinger appeared, he forced Vektor and I into some sort of twisted gladiator ritual to the death." My voice tightened, "I believe the moment I…killed Vektor is when I became the chosen vessel. It could easily have been Vektor instead…if he had killed me."
"So what are you trying to say?"
"If I get killed, Vorthul's consciousness will most likely just slip out of my body and possess someone else. Another vessel."
Bloodfang resumed his pacing again, pondering.
"What if we keep killing each vessel that Vorthul transfers into before he fully materializes."
Meg's face tightened, "First of all, that's messed up in a lot of ways. And there's no guarantee that the next vessel will be able to suppress Vorthul at all."
"And what if he's not even trying to take over right now…maybe he's just waiting for the perfect time." Bloodfang countered.
"But still…I have a somewhat stable resistance to him." I said, remembering how he had shrunk away from Meg back at the restaurant.
Bloodfang was going to say something but his phone started ringing.
He indicated we excuse him and stepped outside to take the call.
The moment the door shut, Meg sighed, "I wish Hylla or Brody was here instead. Bloodfang is terrifying."
I shrugged, "He's not bad."
The door opened again and Bloodfang stepped in.
"Hylla needs back up. A whole army of monsters just appeared. I need you two to gear up and meet me at the camp's garage."
And without waiting for a response, Bloodfang left the office.
***
A few minutes later I was riding shotgun in Bloodfang's Aston Martin (with Meg squashed against me).
Meg fidgeted nervously with her gas mask next to me.
I couldn't blame her for being anxious. The last time she'd been in battle she was sent flying a hundred feet down, through concrete.
"Why didn't we take one of END's aircrafts?" I asked finally, "There's usually a lot of those."
Bloodfang's eyes were fixed straight ahead, "Eighty percent of the aircrafts got smashed to pieces when the Wind Harbinger attacked the camp. The ones still working are in use for other rescue missions.
As the outskirts of the city came into view, I started to hear heavy thuds rolling through the asphalt.
Bloodfang muttered under his breath and floored it.
The air was already getting thick with smoke but I could see monstrous dark figures hanging on the sides of buildings through the haze. Like parasites to the city.
Suddenly the car lurched violently like it had been rammed from behind by a massive truck.
"What was that?" Meg gasped.
There was a loud thud on the roof of the car and a massive dent appeared above our heads.
Something had landed on the roof.
Bloodfang sighed, "This is why I didn't want to bring my car into battle."
The roof of the car ripped open like aluminum foil and sneering down at was a seven foot tall Scokytocles.
"Kill it!" I yelled…at nobody in particular.
Bloodfang twisted on his seat, one hand still on the wheel and sent a powerful bolt of electricity from the tips of his fingers at the monster, lighting up the interior of the car with a bright blue light.
Tendrils of electricity shot up, connecting with the Scokytocles' torso. The monster immediately caught fire—electric-blue flames engulfed the monster and it tumbled off the roof of the car and landed on the road, unmoving and smoky.
Being in such close proximity with Bloodfang's attack had both my hair and Meg's hair stand on end, a lame imitation of Bloodfang's usual spiky white hairstyle.
Bloodfang didn't seem too satisfied after that, like the Scokytocles had gone down too easily for the damage it had done to his car.
Until we got inside the city, Bloodfang kept muttering under his breath about his damaged car.
When we reached the center of what should've been the battlefield, something felt wrong.
I didn't see the usual army of Skyraxes, or any immediate chaos, but the air was tense and stiff.
The streets were quiet and deserted except for distant roars of monsters, echoing between buildings. There was no real sign of battle and that made me even more nervous.
I felt like something was stalking us.
Along the banks of the St. Louis, the Mississippi river lapped lazily at the shore.
I heard Vorthul chuckling in my head like he was enjoying this game.
"This is not good." I muttered after twenty minutes of walking around the city, "The place is completely deserted."
"And there's no sign of Hylla and the others." Meg added.
Bloodfang adjusted his bulletproof vest and said, "Follow me. She should be-"
He had barely finished speaking when a monster burst out from the ground beneath the shopping mall beside us, showering the street with debris.
The monster was like a porcupine but instead of spikes from its body, there were a thousand wriggling tentacles, moving in a weird slow hypnotic rhythm.
Before we could even react, one of the tentacles snapped around Bloodfang's waist and flung him upward at an alarming speed, sending him crashing through the window of a skyscraper fifty feet above the street.
"Bloodfang!" I yelled.
The monster surged upward, clambering up the skyscraper with its tentacles, going after Bloodfang.
Meg aimed her gun and started firing at it but the creature dodged easily. It twisted effortlessly between bullets and in seconds, it disappeared inside the window Bloodfang had been thrown into.
"I'm going after it." I told Meg, "You go find Hylla and the rest."
She nodded and darted away into the street.
I crouched and launched myself off the ground with all my strength, aiming for the broken window Bloodfang and the monster had gone through—
Midair something hard slammed into me and I was sent flying sideways, my back hitting a street lamp, bending the metal.
My body exploded with pain.
Did I break a rib?
I looked up and saw a familiar looking creature towering over me.
A giant two headed humanoid monster with empty hollow eye sockets.
The exact same kind of monster that had spat THE poison on me.
Every instinct in my body screamed DANGER just being near it.
I struggled to my feet and when I looked up, I realized just how screwed the situation was.
It seemed planned. An ambush?
On the side of buildings around, dozens of giant monsters crawled down creepily like giant bugs. They all had bizarre variations—insectlike, half-bird and wolfish features.
Across the street, glass shattered. A civilian family was being dragged out from a building, struggling and kicking, followed by two Scokytocles wielding oversized swords.
My chest tightened.
The rescue mission…
A third Scokytocles followed, dragging two limp forms across the pavement by their legs. I couldn't tell if they were dead or just unconscious.
END soldiers?
One of them groaned weakly and I recognized the voice immediately.
"Hylla…"
Her face was completely covered in blood, I could barely recognize her.
Then as if things couldn't get worse, the river started to surge violently behind me, aggressive tidal waves clashing.
The water climbed up unnaturally, waves clashing into each and molding into a humanoid form.
A familiar dreadful aura washed over me.
The Water Harbinger.
It couldn't be. It was too soon.
I heard a strangled scream behind me and I turned sharply to the sound of the voice.
Down the street, a small figure was kneeling on the ground between two large Scokytocles.
Her END uniform was in tatters and one of her eyes swollen shut.
Meg.
There was a long sword buried in her gut, protruding all the way out her back.
Her eyes were half closed and she coughed up a worrying amount of blood.
And through this horrible nightmare unfolding before me, Vorthul was chuckling loudly and maniacally in my head.
A horrible white hot hate burned out in my chest.
A hate so intense and terrifying, Vorthul faltered, a wave of fear rolling through his presence.
The next words that came out of my mouth carried so much weight, anger and conviction unlike anything I'd ever uttered in my life, "VORTHUL, I WILL KILL YOU AND TEAR DOWN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR MINIONS, ONE BY ONE, EVEN IF I HAVE TO KILL MYSELF TO DO THAT."