There are a lot of things about the life of an immortal that would blow the mind of mere men. Well not in a literal sense but in a more metaphorical manner. One of the most important things about being immortal aside from not dying of course, obviously is money.
A lot of it. Because really, what's the point of living through centuries of wars, empires, plagues, and revolutions if you're broke? Yeah that wouldn't do because Immortality without wealth is just an extended suffering arc. Power needs infrastructure. Influence needs reach. And reach, unfortunately, costs an obscene amount of money… like a fucking shit ton of it but let's leave it at that for now.
Michael understood that early on… well more like even before he died and reincarnated into this world and became the very thing he'd only read about in most novels and seen in most movies with wealth that could buy off the pyramids.
Gold turned to land. Land turned to industries. Industries turned into systems so vast and interconnected that no single collapse could ever touch the whole. By the time the modern world caught up, his wealth no longer looked like treasure. Now, it looked more like normalcy with corporate shares and quiet holdings. Of course every business man also has another type of treasure that ensures that no questions asked and eyes are turned away from some… not so legal thinks… Invisible leverage.
That was how Incandescent Inc. came to be.
On paper, Incandescent was a clean and spotless modern multinational-communications, data routing, market analytics, consumer tech, logistics optimization. No scandals and or liabilities that couldn't be buried under a thousand pages of compliance with the right people of course. Brandon was the CEO, the public face, the man investors trusted and saw every meeting they had. Brilliant, driven and human. Exactly what the world expected.
Behind him was Cara, his ever efficient assistant, razor-sharp, and aware of far more than her job description implied. She was also the one in charge of digging up dirt in all their contestants or bury things they didn't want the public to see.
And beneath all of that was the real company.
Private security contracts that never reached public bids. Monitoring systems that didn't just track trends, but movements. Joint partnerships with surveillance and security firms that specialized in "emerging threats." Weapons research that officially didn't exist and is kept internal, justified as defensive contingencies for "hostile environments."
Internal problems required internal solutions after all and that's was where Hadrian came in.
Hadrian no longer answered to the name Hadrian in public. Now he was Harry, the head of private security. The Death Dealers operated through shell divisions and quiet task forces, embedded just enough into the system to move freely without ever being seen and even if they were then Cara would take care of all the evidence and witnesses.
Which was how Michael found himself standing outside a warehouse on the edge of nowhere, while looking at the phone in his hand.
On the screen played the captured, heavily encrypted footage which under normal
Circumstances would be a private recording but he got it through his connections which is of course very much illegal. On the screen were two entities. One looked like a massive and chained mummified hulk with enough human like structure to say it was a hulking human. The other looked like a woman in black robes. She looked pale, elegant, and weirdly beautiful.
Cade's pets.
Michael had been chasing them for nearly two months now which to say the least is very Impressive, honestly.
He sighed. "You know," he muttered, "for creatures that look like a rejected horror pitch, they're annoyingly good at hide-and-seek."
Beside him, Harry adjusted his grip on the gun at his sides. He wore a black coat with a calm posture and a predatory focus.
"You sure you don't want backup, boss?"
Michael flicked his eyes toward him, canceled the footage, and casually tossed the phone over. Harry caught the device without looking.
"Hm," Michael said. "You can take the Infernals. I'll handle those two."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Don't complain when they overwhelm you."
Michael stopped walking then, slowly turned around to look at Harry with a hurt look on his face. He placed a hand on his chest with theatrical offense. "Oh my goodness. Such lack of faith in me." He shook his head. "Aww. You make me sad."
Harry snorted as they moved into the warehouse.
The interior was cavernous made with steel beams, stacked empty containers. Something moved above them and then another skittered behind a wall to their far left but they both ignored it.
Then, something leapt at them from the dark, Harry's gun was out in a blink. And one shot cracked through the air.
The bullet hit its mark and the Infernal collapsed on the floor and a second later, it glowed. Orange light split through its form before it was reduced to ash, scattering across the concrete like burnt paper.
Harry glanced down at the smoking remains, then at the faintly glowing bullet casing on the floor. The casing looked yellow and radient while still flickering with what looked disturbingly like flames before it died out.
Michael didn't say anything as he kept moving, he didn't have to. The bullets were his design, an idea born from the weapons he'd seen the werewolves use in the underworld movies. Ultraviolet rounds used by werewolves against the vampires capable of burning through the vampires instantly.
So he did the same. He'd already stolen their name so why not go all the way and steal more ideas from there.
A fragment of his hellfire was compressed, sealed, and bound into every round the Death Dealers carried. Dormant until impact. Upon rupture, the flame was released inside the Infernals completely erasing them.
Michael paused mid-step. "I'll leave them to you."
And then he was gone.
Harry nodded once as the warehouse came alive with dozens of Infernals spilling from the shadows, walls and ceilings.
He grinned then drew his second gun.
"Well then, come on now don't be shy" he said lightly, voice slipping into an almost playful tone while looking at the Infernals that now surrounded him, "let's rock and roll people."
They lunged at him and Harry opened fire.
Patreon.com/fredozy