Book 1 of the XIII Saga

The Gathering of the Lost Thirteen

.

The god of Death ran north and the Abomination followed him. Through sun scorched dessert and frozen wastelands he moved on and on, one exausting step at a time. Each seeping the little energy left in his body with only the thought of revenge in his mind pushing him on and on to catch up with leader of the 13 evil spirits.
The so called chosen ones or evil spririts had slaughtered his whole community which was family, the only family he had even know and the only place he had eve been acdcepted and loved, they had chased himnd his mother, untill she had hidden him and flew to face the moneters wh had tortured disfigured maimed and killed her too in a most brutal and savage way while he had watched it all, but they had made the mistake of leaving him alive, not seeking out the young shild at the edge of puberty but leaving his to die of the elements and wild animals and mosters instead.
The son of a dark seeker and a witch of the wild Egil was considered an abomination no better than a mutant or and AEM (advanced evolutionary mutagen) evolved and would be shot on sight by any paladin or even dark seekers. Hell anyonw who would find out who his paretns were would try yo capture his and burn himand kill him, for witches of the wild were considred evil and blood thirsty worst than shadow walker or any monster even if the wasteland people or even the people of the free sector knew nothing about them except the stories that were made up or recorded by some confused and deluted scholar humdreds of years ago.
However he looked completely human, no different than any other man of the cursed decaying world. And he could walk around the mortals frrely as long as he did not revel his powers too obviously. He had used his gifts to become afamoud moster hunter in order to fund his journety but he was always but a step away from revealing his true nature so he was always on the ove seeking the trace of the 13 night riders the evils on the wind the demi gods that spread terror all around doing whatever they wanted in the nqame of the death god.
Egil was not sure what they were seeking for but it was clear that they were lloking for a child of some kind a special chidl that had a strong conection with dust and they had no issues detroying whole comunities to get this done.
SO Egil had followd them fisrt then he had founf the death god and after facing him once and receiving the bveating of a life time and being left for dad he began following him, planing how to kill the monster next time they met.
He knew he could not catch up with the death god, and he knew that once he found out about him he would send the 13 after him and that was his plan. He knew he could not take on the Macro and Obscura corporations and live but he knew he could kill the 13 spirits. Maybe not all of them but he knew they could be killed now. He had killed 3 of them before but the hd resurected but now he had a few surprized for them and there would be no resurection when killed by a Timorian life dagger. The price for usig the weapon was steep, he could become nothing antimatter himself in the process, he could become a vessel for the Dark one himself, but he had enouth c 4 strapped on him should tha happed to blow him self to a fine pink mist. It was never wise to use Tiorian anti and dark matter weapins so he kept them as a last resort, but those were not his only waepond like his olde froend Mozar the mizreable he also possesed a house of death Andormed ampire rift dagger, which also suckd the users blood but in smaller dozes as ewll as a blu fire MWGC wraith sword created by the Solarian star born that could cut throu space time continum itself but needed a week in bright sun ligth to charge enough for a few housre of use and also suckd the blood of the user sice it was designed to use solarian blood and was modifed for human use after the second Deus Machina wars allowing the blade to be powered by human blood insteas of solarian energy. He had many more weapons as well and magic powers as well as ESP abilities some inherited form his father some from his mother some learned from his family but even so he was no match for the god of death the control bolld mqagic and had infused him self not only with dust but artefidial 13 shards as well as the first shard of anti 13 a terrifying source powere and a creation that had to be distoryed.

Rumor was that far north the death god controlled giant cities that were filled with billions of people and strched for hundreds of miles in all directions but he had never seen any proff of this so if it was true it could give him a better chance to approach the dark one.
He was not sure the god of death could be killed but if anything could kill him the blood dagger the dark wizard had given him could poison his soul and leave him ill and mad if nothing else. Egil knew that to use the death dagger on such a powerfull being would mean his death as well but he did not care.
He looked at the endless glass like wastelands in front of him and covering his face with the rebreather he moved on one step at a time, closer and closer to the north where his desteny and death awaited.
He was stiil not sure where his load would lead him and what he would do once there but the mind of his eye and the eyes of his spirit were lovked on Abadon and there wsa no escape for him. One day sooner or Later Egil the first and only Dark seeker warlock would find him and once he did he would do all he could ann he had to do no matter the price to kill abadon and send his sould to the void where he would chase it down and burn it to cinder untiil there wsa nothing left of him.

He moved on slowly one step after another his breathing calm, his mind set his doom certain, but he would not turn back. Never no matter the cost.

Egil was a monster hunter the only one with true powers and gifts unlike the other ones who were just men with no gifts or powers. And it was this blessing that was his curse as well. He was the bastard son of a Dark seeker and a witch of the wild, an imposibility sonce Dark Seekers were all supposed to be streile and withces of the wild barren yet he was born, and despite not knowing who his father was his mother had told him he was the only known offspring of a dark seeker.
He never told anyone this nor that his mother was a witch of the wild an apostate and as the Dark Sekkers vanished the monster hunters guild was formed to try and fill the void and protect the people from the mutants, mosters, infected and all the evil that lurked in the dark. At first the Guild was successful with the help of the unity rangers and the Iron clan they had the weapons and armomr the needed to take care of the smaller monsters but as the real monsters came out with no Dark seekers to stop them the guild started taking heavy casulties.
Egil however had inherited his fathers thoughness and endurance his vision in the dark and his healing factor, he was stronger, faster, thougher and could not be poisoned or killed by radiation or desase. His mind could not be twisted and he could fight even AEMs, but he worked alone and always kept his secret. To add to this his mother had thought him wild magic, the power of the chains of sin and how to use blood as a weapon, dark magic that was prohibited and forgoten now, he could summon and control fire as well as command animals and mutants and conect with their minds to do his will. He could uise wind at will and summon storms and lightning to attack his enemies and even more he could cast spells to trap monsters or to shield himself from them.
He had become the most famous and powerful monster hunter seeking out the creatures that no one else could kill, and life was good for a while, but as all good things inlife this too ended. It was the apperance of the All Father and his legions of undead giants that had forced Egil to reveal his true nature and fight with all the powers he had for weapons had very little effect on dead giants, even high powered ranger rifles bullets to the brain would only slow down and confuse for a moment the giant blue skined monsters.
At the cost of his true nature Egil had fought and defeated the All father with the Iron clan and the remains of the monster hunters but now all knew he too was an abomination. At first no one mined and all praised him as the savior of the world, the chosen one. Then things changed and he was asked to leave placews, the rangers no longer wanted to see him, and the circle of light declared him a danger and a monster, his own settelment had asked him to leave and finally the monster hunter guild told him he was no longer part of them.
To make things worst with the all father and most of the great threaths gone there was even less work for him now and the little work there was no one wanted him but someone else. So he traveled farther and farther seeking a place he could live and rest and eat and sleep but he found he was no welcome anywhere.
With no monsters to hunt he began working as a brigand hunter and slaver killer. Yet he soon discovered that slavers and brigands were far more vendictive and had far more friends in places that did not support murder and slavery and he became a hunted man. Finally he had enough and had decided to move of to the wild lands in the south where no one knew him and he could find peace.
However as he traveled he had found that something was wrong even in the wild lands. Settelments that he was told to visit were ruined chared graveyards. Something sinister was happening even here and with no rangers or crusaders or iron clan these setelments were being burned and hundreds of people murderd and mutilated.
So he traveled on and sought an answere. He had reached the wild lands and had found a new quest here in the lands of wild men and canibals mutants and mosters he could again be a savior and not a monster.
But it was clear to him that whatever was destroying the seteelments were no mutants or carns but something far worst and his concern grew as he had paswsed through 3 settelments that were just burned mass graveyards. Still he traveled on and finally he had reached the town of last hope and it was not destroyed.

Egil walked im slowly into town knowing that a man in dark metal armor with a power hammer a super sledge on his back an alpha rifle and several pistols on his side as well as the tattered lng cloak would attrack all kinds of wrong attention.

**
Abadon, the god of death, the black death as he was called by many was having a bad day. Not that there have been many good days since the start of it all but this day was a particularly bad one for him. It seemed as if every fear and problem that he had and could come up to ruin his plans was happening. Fury knights had been seen on the road to Zion, and these were not fake self proclaimed power monger but the real deal, and one of them could be death ithself, the title Abadon had taken and had been working so hard on becoming seemed to have finaly appeared out of nowhere after thousands of years.

A dust born was awaken far far south as if the Fury knight were not enough and the fucker was on his way to seek out the all father and the Legion. At least he still did not know he had any powers so Abadon hoped he would die fast enough for after all he was just one man and Abadon had sent a lot of monsters and creatures to kill him before he could become a threat.

As if this was not enough two dark seekers had been seen alive and well. One of them was not a problem but if the rumors were true it seemed that fucking Ensenge the one and only true and first dark seeker was alive and wondering the north. To top it all off a smaller wildering had somehow managed to cross the draagon paths between the worlds and he knew the bitch would find the God killer, it was the only reason the elders would allow her to cross and if God killer joined in the mix it could all go to hell far faster than Abadon had planned.

He was close to creating another piece of the XIII, he alrready had thousands of shards and dust to last a life time but he needed to create all the pieces of the XIII in order to end the cycle once and for all. The 13 spirits were doing a decent job but they would not be powerful enough to face the fury knights a dust born and the god killer at the same time, not without the power of several pieces of the XIII and there was still no trace of the dust child any where.

The all fathr and his legion of undead were doing a good job kidnapping thousands of women and children and sending them all to him but so far the only dust born had been the one in the south that they had not capture but was on his way to run them down. Even the black fuckign wizard had reapeared out of thin air and was meddeling about attacking his shields trying to see inside the Obscura Tower at the center of the massive mega city where Abadon gathered all the humans he could. Only the free secotr to the east was still not under his controll and the Legion in the south east but soon they would run into each other and then Abadon would send the all fathers legion and the 13 spirits to mop them up and end them both. Two fucking legions, one made of undead under his rule and another under the command of a Shadow walker that rulled them as slaves giving them a tiny bit of power for some fucking reason.

The sahdow walker concerned him too. He had made sure the Dark Seekers had taken out all the blood born, and Shadow walkers and yet here was a Shadow walker Lord building an army of slaves for some fucking reason while he wondered the south looking for the all Father. He was not sure what the Vampire lord was up to, but he would not engage him untill he was sure that he would die. He had enough enemies and worries to pick a fight with a Shadow walker.

And to top it all off there were the two fucking Lilliths, the true and first Lillith the demon wife who had spend eons with the watchers that was also Ensengs lover for a long time and was after Abadon as well since he tried to have Ensege killed. He had failed but at least Ensenge had taken out the Demon lords and he had come after him to mop them up and enslave those he could not kill.

Angry like very day he took the elevator to the top of the tower high in the skies where it was permanent darkness, with clouds of thick black that never left and constant ligthing that he had created to power the great machins that contorled the Ether and the labs where they worked on creating the artificial XIII. Having gained controll of the Valhala sector was the only good thing that had happened for a long time. That and having dealt with the pest known as the Valhala man and the blood quees at least was something. Ensenge had also done him a favor when he had killed Sanguine and destoryed Babylon and Abadon had made sure that all the dark seekers had been kille with the blood born but it seemed he was wrong.

He got out of the elevator to a gaint laboratory with hundreds of machines and work tables and thousands of men and mutnants all in the light green coats working on the thousands of projects he had going on. The head of the shift an Advanced Evoulitionary mutagen evolved saw the Death god exit the elveator and bowed.

“Gretings my lord.” He spoke in a gurgelled voice bowing deeply avoiding all eye contact.

Abadon towered over the creature at 7 feeet tall and over 400 pounds of muscle Abadon looked like the god most blieved he was. His frame was thick with muscles and powerfull, his hair long and jet black his eys a piercing blue his lips red and full his smile inviting and terrifying at the same time, his face and features perfect. Unlike the men there he wore black jeans and boots with greaves of gold and a black tunick with gold threads as well as a golden chest plate made of thousands of interlocing pieces all made of dust. His hair was braided with golden dust wire as well in the style of anvient norther people who he had learned to admire after he had secured the Valhala sector.

“What progress has benn made?’ Abadonn asked not even looking at the 5 foot hunch back weasel like face mutant but staring over the giant room and all the work on weapons, magic artifects and technology being worked on.

“So much my lord,” the mutant began slowly, “we have stabelised the last portion of the nebula cloud so the power is now always at full cpacity, we have also finished the work on all the ancietn weapons you commisioned for the 44 riders as well as the dust infused armors. On the biotech side we have finished the creation of the giant wilderings you wanted to send to the free sector, they are now 9 feet tall and will live up to 190 plus days without food, if they eat regularly they might live for over 10 years, the skin canot be penetrated by any standard weapons and it will take high powred fire arms to injure them and the stenght of a god to stab them, their jaws can crush a rock the size of a human head without taking much damage and they feel no pain, no remorse nothing but rage and blood lust, they can out run horses with eease and jujp as high…”

“Yes, yes very good!” Abadon snapped cutting off the little mutant. “You know what I am interested in so don’t waste my time.”

“I am sorry my lord.” The mutant bowed again and took two very small stepps back starting to shake a bit.

“Fear not.” Abadon laughed clapping the tiny creature on the shoulder, then lowered him self to one knee to be eye to eye with the small rodent that looked like a man. “ I like you Grishma, I always did, everyone here has to fear me but you do not have to I give you my word.” He smiled and looked like an angel instantly.

“I am sorry my lord.” The mutant smiled back with his giant buck tooth grin. “We have finished crating another 2000 grains of dust, and another 27 shards. They are all stable and ready to be used.” The mutant said happyly noticing the dissapointment in Abadons eyes then with great pride and straightening himself he turned around and brought back a giant looking revolver that seemed comickly too big. It was dark black with a long barrel and a black handle with ancient iron sights and seemed too long and too clumsy to even be a good weapon.

“I have also managed to create this.” He said proudly presentling the ancient looking revolver to Abadon.

“This better not be a joke.” The god of Death said taking the pistol gently which in his hands did not seem so big and clumsy.

“No my lord,” The mutant said in delight, “We have finished the 13 of mind and it is stable ussing it I have created you the weapon of a fury knight. The hand of god, the hard caliber, the mind killer is finally yours my lord.” The mutant said with great pride and so much delight Abadon could not help but smile.

“You are an amazing creature Grishma.” Abadon said in awe admiring the famous hand of god or hard caliber as common folk who knew of them called them. “And it works, just like the legends say?”

“Yes my lord,” grishma said concerned now, “but please I need all the workers here, maybe tyr it somewhere else?”

“Oh Grishma,” Abadon laughed again, “you know I have to kill someone in here or they will not work as hard.”

Grishma bowed his head but said nothing.

“Tell me how is Knack doing with the chains of sin and the secrets of the blood born magic?”

“He has wasted more dust than a drunk gambler wastes on hookers and I think the only secret he discoveres is that he can bleed too much.” Grishma said honestly and sadly.

“Well then I guss he will be no great worker to lose?” Abadon smiled.

“No my lord,” Grishma agreed, “he is as stupid as he is incompetent but then again blood magic is very hard since its not dust based but demonic and we have no access to demonic powers since they are not around much as you know.”

“Oh I know,” Abadon smiled. “I made damn sure that it is that way, now allow me.” The death god smiled and lifted the pistol. He pulled the trigger and an explosion thundered to be followed by the reptilian mutant across the great hall exploading to a thousand bloody chunks flying all over the place as if hit by a rocket.

“amazing.” Abadon said l;ooking at the smoking gun in his hand.

“I am glad you are pleased, not so glad you made soup out of Knack since I assume you will not be organising the cleaning of his work station.” Grishma said sassyly and Abadon laughed long and hard, the sound rich and powerful like thunder and music.

“No I will not be cleaning it but you my friend you can ask whateve you want for this is amazing after eons you have created the hated weapon of my enemies. This is something to be proud of.” Abadon told him.
“It was not easy but I am glad you are pleased my lord Grishma bowed again. “There are howeve a few differences between my verison and the original hand of god pistols.” He confessed.

“Such as?” Abadon aksed still examining the gun checking every inch of it.

“It can not use any ammo like the originlas it must use these.” The mutant said producing a box of large amunition he handed the giant. The bullets were glowing gold and red and other than that seemed like ordinary .45 caliberr.

“Infused with dust?” Abadon guessed

“Yes and went through the same process as the pistol using the 13 of mind to be able to follow the orders of the shooter.

“How many rounds did you make and how many pistols can you make in what time?” Abadon asked stuffint the revoler in his belt and taking the box of 100 rounds.

“I made the 106 rounds well 105 you have my lord and I can creat around 60 more rounds in 5 to 10 days. To create another pistol will take at least another month and will consume at least another 30 souls to the ether and maybe 40 to 400 grains of dust. It is more of an art than science.” The mutant confessed.

“Good, good job my friend. Start making more right away I want at least 9 of them and at least 9000 rounds of ammo as fast as possible use all the dust you need and take as many souls as you need from the city.” Abadon smiled.

“As you wish my lord.” Grishm bowed again.

“Now tell me what do you want? You can have anything for this achievment.” Abadon told the mutant.

“I like it here my lord.” Grishma smiled childishly, “I would ask for one of the blond women that I see often in the lower tower they are very lovely but I would want them to love me and not look at me with discust.” The rodent confeset sadly.

“Grishma you will have all the women you want, and as far as discust how would you want to look you imagine it and I will infuse you with dust myself.” Abadon laughed.

The mutant was shocked but tried to keep his calm. Abadon did not allow for the AEM to change their apperance it was a waste of dust and a sin in his eyes one that was always punished by death.

“I don’t know my lord,” grishma said honestly, “I never though of it, I would like to be handsom I guess but still look like me and tall and strong like you my lord, well not that tall or that strong but I would want for the women to look at me like they look at the pictures of the elder gods I guess.” The rodent mutant said humbly and afraid as well.

Abadon laughed again and with a snap of his fingers Grishma felt the horrible pain as his body began changing. He grew taller his back straightened and his shoulders spread out, his clothing and coat ripped as he screamed and fell to his arms and knees. Then the pain stopped and he looked at his arms. They were thick with muscles and no fur covered them five long perfec fingers and perfect legs he looked at his groin and saw a giant member and felt his chest that was wide and muscular.

“Take a look.” Abadon told Grishmas as he dragged his naked body to a mirror. In disbeliefe he saw a dark haired 6 foot 2 muscular man with the face of an angel and green eyes straight nose and muscular body.

“Now you look just like a god of lod.” Abadon laughed as he began walking away. “any women you want is yours, I was not sure about this particular gods cock so I gave you what I think all the ladies will like.” The death gods laughter thundered, “Just remember finish my weapons and do a good job and if you have to fuck and work at the same time so be it but do not spend all your time on fucking I want 5 more hard calibers in 4 months and all the ammo you can maek.”
Abadon walked away laughing.

The day was not so bad after all. Now he had a hard caliber and soon he would have more, then he would begin the hunt and cut down his enemies one by one. He had three 13s now, mind, darkness and hatred. Darkness he knew how to use a bit, hatred was too powerfull and it had cost him his empire twice, so it was locked away, but mind was something else. With the 13 of mind they could create hard caliberrs they could manipulated dust in ways they neveer could before.

With the 13 of mind he might even dare attack his enemies now. He still nedded strength or power, the problem was that he knew the Fury knights had at least 2 or maybe even three 13s and they did not have artificialy created replicas but the real thing and he would not risk anything untill he was sure of what and who he was up against.

The other Lillith was still in Zion the queen of the lightning men, a shadow walker her self she liked to call her self the queen of the damned and she still rulled most of Zion, he could reach out to her and use her to find out more, he just had to be carefull the Fury knights did not know of Sombra and Enseng was as ussual walking around in circles wasting his life away. They were millions of miles away, all of them and only a pth finder could find all the 13s and that is what he feared the other fury knigh was since it was reported that a younger and older fury were on the road to Zion and he kne Lillith had the 13 of fear but he could not attack her without creating a major rift and calling too much attention to himslef.

No let the fury knights take it let them kill the bitch and then when the time was right when he created his new army and beffed up the All fathers legion with a couple more thousand men he would go to full out war, time was on his side and there was no ancient gods left to stop him now, no guardians, just one confused dust born and a couple of lost dark seekers and fury knights chasing their own tails.

All he had to do was wait and all would come to him just like the hard caliber he held now. Smiling Abadon moved on to the highest part of the Sombra tower and watched the masive city that sprawled below the grey and black clouds, he could see all for he too had the eyes of a dark seeker and he smiled as the grim grey sea of buildings and lost sould streched forever in front of him.

It had been years, decades, maybe longer since Ensenge had begun his track across the underground tunnels below the wastelands. At first there had been crazies and rotten ones, then deeper when the darkness surrounded and swallowed everything even the crazies and the rottens ones did not go too deep too far. Below mutants and other creatures of the dark roamed the tunnels and underground passages as did darker, more ancient evils, things unknown, things forgotten.

The warrior stopped at the large tunnel that descended deep into ancient archaic catacombs built by the forces of nature that should take him to the western plains across the wasted lands. He was beyond tiered, he was wasting away and only did the gift combined with the Omega chip and the Advanced Evolutionary Mutagen combined keep him full of strenght when he should of died years ago from the radiation and the poison gases alone.

“You are tiered Warrior.” A sweet, soft female voice whispered into his mind.

“Go away demon.” Ensenge cursed with the smallest of sm iles touching hios lips as he heard the voice in his mind.

“I can lead you out of here.” She insited.

“And lead me deep below the earth to spend a couple of hundred years with you.” Ensenge smiled as he pushed himself on into the darkness.

“Did you not have a good time with me my love?” the voice carried on sweetly.

“I did.” Ensenge admitted. “All up until the moment when I had to kill all of your underlings and your brothers that wanted to consume my soul, but other than that it was a good time.”

“My brothers died, as they deserved you know I would never betray you.” The female voice pleaded.

“I know.” Ensenge admitted after a short pause.

“Why wont you come to me?” Lillith asked honestly trying to hide her longing for the mortal.

“You know why.” Ensenge replied softly focusing on the sound of naked feet or paws of the fllor in the tunnel around him.

“Give up the quest warrior.” Lillith pleaded with Ensenge. “Nothing good aawits you at the end.”

“I know what and who awaits me at the end.” Ensenge relpied pulling his short sword and slashing across the face of a strange looking mutant that could have been human hundreds of years ago. The blade bit into the mutants face as he jumped out of a dark tunnel for the warrior fangs and talons extended.

The burning blade slashed across the mutants arms and face like butter cutting throught the flesh and bone setting it on fire as Ensenge side stepped for its dead burning corpse to fly by him and fall onto the wet cave floor where it twitched for a second as the flames cast shadows of the hundreds of rotting ones all around him before they died out and the darkness swallowed the warrior again.

The flaming blue blade gave off some light but Ensenge did not need it his eyes were far beyond those of the mutants, he was one of them in a certain sense of the word, a fully adapted human that the AEM worked on unlike the billions it turned into monsters over the centuries.

“Come to me my love.” Lillith begged with him this time and with a smile Ensenge planeted his feet.

“Next time.” he replied as the monsters rushed him.

His left arm swung up producing a large pistol with a blade attached at the end of it and the cave roared with the explosions of the gun shots as Ensenge blew six mutants to hell before he side stepped one mutant from his left slashing its head clean off with a single stroke before he stabbed another with his pistol in the open jaws before he pulled the trigger and blew the mutants head clean off. Spining he fired of three more rounds dropping the mutnats on his back and he slashed on his right taking a mutant in the neck that had jumped for him half severing the head off the beast as it fell into its companions on Ensenges side. He fiered the remaining 5 shots into the mosters flying for him before he sheated the weapon and drew another short sword. With ease he slashed left and right dismembering and butchering the mutants as they pilled up all around him trying to get over the butchered bodies of their companions

Ensenge kicked one mutant in the chest as it loomed over him than tok tis head off with a swipe before he spun slashing with the fire blade, cutting across the chest of one mutant who fell back screaming and then continued to slash across the neck of the next one. The mutants head burst into flames as it fell backwards the neck no longer supporting the giant head and still aflame and pumping dark almost purple blood it fell back onto the ever growing pile of bodies.

Left and right Ensenge slashed as the walls of dead mutants collapsed under their own way in all directions making the floor slick with greay blood and chopped and severed body parts scatered everywhere among the corpses that were almost waist high now in every direction. With dozens turining to hundreds of mutants what reamined of the cretures ran back to the side tunnels dragging away as many of their dead or injured with them. Ensenge did not move of chase, he just stood there a statue covered in blood, a burining blue blade in one hand, a dripping blade covered in purple blood in the other, his face set, his ears picking up every sound in the tunnel.

He spun as a woosh of air hit him and an enourmous mutant charged into him its head low using the shoulder to throw the warrior across the cave. Ensenge fell heavily inot the chopped bodies of the dead mutants and rolled up as soon as he hit the floor. The Alpha mutant the leader of this hive was burning with rage Ensenge had just slaughtered half his tribe if not more. Bellowing a war cry that even made Ensenge pause the beast ran at Ensenge bothe giant arms with claws over 10 inches long going for the warriors face.

Ensenges blade flew up to meet the giant arm as he moved out of the way at the last second from the second paw like dark musceled armed the size of a tree trunk aiming for his head. The blade bit deep, going through the thick armor like hide and cutting though the flesh bitting into the bone where it got stuck with a loud thud. Ensenge tried to let go of the weapon as he continued his spin but the Alpha mutant was beyone enraged and with the blade still in his arm he smashed Enseng again sendiung the warrior flyiong one more time. Enseng slammed into the cave wall this time all air knocked out of him, but he landed lightly and was ready for the giant Mutant that was charging again belwoing bloody murder on top of his lungs already on Ensenge swinging for him with his good arm trying to tear off the wqarriors head with a single blow.

Ensenge ducked in time as the claws slashed the wall behind him tearing through the rock like dirt. With all of his speed Ensenge plunged the blue sword into the mutant but he was fast as well and managed to twist just in time so that the balde missed any vital organs and just got trapped in the collar bone and ribs exiting by the mutants neck. Releasing the blade Ensenge jumped back as another sloppy swing form the giant monster crushed rockes out of the wall where Ensenge was but a second ago.

Rolling to his feet Enseng looked at the beast in front of him. It was at least 2 meters tall if not taller. It was musceled so much it made mutant bears seem small. The burining blade entering its chest and exiting by his neck had set half of his torso on fire and some of his face but the mutant just smashed the fire with its good paw and locked its blood red eyes onto Ensenge.

The warrior could feel the fear in the beast now. It had rulled these tunnels for god knows how many years it had raised its tribe here and its power was unchalanged by anything down here and now, for the first item in who knows how long it could feel that it was dying. It knew fear again and it was not charging any more but waiting to see what Ensenge will do next.

The warrior had pulled out his red fire weapon, a weapon that was considered an aboination and was feared and hated by all who knew of its exitance, a weapon of the old age a weapon that could melt all organic tissue and shoot through the tickest of metlas turn sand bags into glass and bring down rock fortreses, but now as he locked eyes wioth the giant Alpha he was not so sure he should end its life after all mercy had showed to be very valuable in the past for him.

So he sheated his weapon, instantly the monster in front of him shook out the blade from its injured arm and charged again at lightning speed. But Ensenges mind was already made up, he would spare the Alpha if he could. The beast was taking no chances and jumped at Ensengfe with all of his speed and might hoping to close its jaws around the mans neck and face. Ensenge on the other hand had different plans. Even as the beast had jumped for him the Omega chip had calculated all the possible trajectories and moptions the beast could take and had a counter measure for it all. With lighting speed Ensenge executed a Jumping upper cut, catching the jumping monster in the jaw as it flew at him. With a snapp and a sickening pop the monsters jaw slammed shut as the titanuim armored fist smashed into it sendiong the beast side ways crashing into the floor ontop of the pile of dead mutants.

This time it got up slowly and watched the unarmed warriorl, then it sank back fallin on his back its belly exposed. Blood was pouring out of its wounds on the stomach and shoulder, but the arm where he had pulled the sword freee was gushing purple blood like a torrent.

Enseng approached the monster and it screamed its rage at him but did not move.

“Can you mind meld.” Ensenge projected his question into the beasts mind. There was no way it could speak but maybe its mind could still be accessed by telepathy.

“I word uman.” Suddenly the monster gushed out its mouth ussing real words.

“You can speak?” Ensenge asked in shock.

“Yes,” the mutant slurred clearly growing weaker by the momnet. “You good killer, you kill good, many of brothers you kill, I glad you kill me. No good killers here for many many cycles all weak, no good fight for Roar.”

“Your name is Roar?”

“Yes uman, me Roar, I have most loud roar all creatures run from ropar but not you.” It slurred even more now its eyes becoming distant. “Good fight, good die, I happy.”

“What if I help you?” Ensenge asked, “What if you don’t die?”

“You save roar?” the beast whispered, “Only clan would save roar, and not all caln just few, many love to see roar die.” the mutant chuckeled all of a sudden. “Too late for Roar I go find my love on other side uman.”

Ensenge approached the beast and stood right in fornt of the dying mutant. Then pulling out a tiny metla box from a paper from a double sealed pouch inside another pouch eh produced a tiny slice of a grain of what looked like radioacitve golden dust.
He focused on what he wanted the dust to do and with a flick he threw it an Raors body. Instantly his wounds began closing and his eyes came back to life as light filled them again.
Within a few minutes the wounds had closed and while the mutant was still exausted he could feel he would not die.

“Friends?” Enseng said trusting out his hand.

“No friends,’”Roar replied with anger, “You kill my family, my best warriors, my worst warriors, you kill so much of clan no friends, you caln now.” Roar smiled or at least thats what Enseng guessed the grimace on the giant face that seemed to belong to a bear with horns and a double mouth with shark like teeth.

With much difficulty roar managed to get to a sitting position and placed on paw on Ensenges shoulder. The very carefully he lifted the other towards the warrior and with the gaint claw he scratched a deep mark into the warriors tianium helmet.

“Now mark on your face you clan. Not one of ours atack.”

Enseng took off his helmet on for the first time the dead cold blue eyes of the warrio met with the Mutant.

“You demon?” Roar asked.

“No I am like you.” ensenge replied honestly.

“Stronger, better killer but Roar happy you say so.”

“Mark my face.” Enseng told the mutant who looked a bit confused.

“Men no mark face, men makr face and die.” Roar replied shakkiing the giant shaggy blood covered head.

“Mark.” Enseng orderd and Roar obeyed.

With his claw he stabbed Ensenges face and the warrior could feel the mutant claw poision going into his blood straight for the brain, but the AEM and the gift surpressed it instantly as Roar cut the long line on Ensenges face from his eye brow down to his cheek where he made a few small lines along the way that represented his clans markings that were all along their territory on walls carved into the bed rock.

“You not uman but Roar happy you clan now. I go sleep and then we come for dead. You move, clan angry and will want death and Roar would need with many clan and kill many. No good no more killing so you go and when you need help you call through brain and Roar come.”

With that the giant mutant managed to get on its all fours and slowly it moved off into the darkness walking across the dead bodies of its clan slipping on the chuncks of meat and blood.

Enseng watched it go. It had not even noticed when the warrior had pulled out the blue fire blade out of him, nor that he had fixed the broken bones and everything else he had damaged during the fight including the massive jaws he had brokne and the doxens of teeth he had smashed when the jaw had snapped shut at the speed of sound.

With a smile on his face he watched Roar dissapear and he moved on slowly trying to get away from the slaughter cave as fast as he could.

“Magnificent killer is the word the beast should of used.” Lilliths voice came again to him.

“You still here.” Enseng joked knowing her spirit had never left.

“soon you will reach the higher tunnels and then the old world yunnels and I will no longer be able to go there it is too dangerous for me. Come to me now my love and I will take care of your wounds, your spirit and make you strong again.”

“I just beat a whole clan of emerald mutants and then their Alpha so I think I am still rather strong my evil temptress.” Ensenge joked as he finally got out of the cave and headed deeper into the darkness his vision spinning his muscles burining his head processing a million thing trying to find the best way to allow him to push on without burning too much muscle and saving enough energy for more combat.

“ A hundred years ago you would of done it in half the time.” She told him.

“A hundred years ago all I did was fuck you all day every day so not much I could of done back than other than maybe fuck Roar to death.” Ensenge told her.

“And that might have been the best way for a creature to die.” she laughed, ‘we could have it all again just say yes, and all pain will be gone and you will be with me.”

“And will you show the way to the rift?” Ensenge asked he turning to her spirit in his spirit form facing her directly.

“No.” she replied with infint sadness. “Forget about the quest, the rift, the dark one and my brothers, come with me and we will live a life on endless pleasure away from all of this where no one can find us.”

“I am sorry Lilith but you know my path.”

“I am sorry too.” she said with sadness that hurt Ensenge and then she was gone, no poof, no swoosh no nothing one second her essence was there he could feel the soul and the next heart beat she was gone, the warmth, the smell, the darkness of a demonic presence as well. But he allreay missed her. He cursed loudly spitting blood and moved on.

Ensenge put his helmet back on and walked on a step at a time one by one bring him closer to the part where the tunnels would start heading back up and to the surface.

“Come back to me my love.” A sweet demonic voice whispered inside his mind and the warrior could not help but smile.

“I thought you said you could not reach me after the high tunnels, that it was too dangerous.” Ensenge joked. “ Besides have I not killed enough of your family?” he asked back with just a hint of anger in his voice remembering the demonic legion that had assaulted him inside Liliths palace deep below the earth in the heart of the wasted lands that he had crossed.

“I did not call them,” she pleaded with him, “I would never betray you.”

“I know,” he smiled despite himself, “but your sisters did, and you called your sisters to you.” he told her calmly.

“I called them for you my war lord.” she pleaded, “all I wanted was for you to stay forever with me.”

“You know I am mortal. And that you are a demon, right?” He chuckled, “besides I am set on the path I must take and not even you and every single member of your family can stop me, and you know that as well.”

“I know.” she said sadly. “And you know that the road you are on will lead you to your death. Nothing but death awaits you on the other side of this hill.”

“Death comes to us all lady.” he smiled while checking his sword and pistols.

“Not to all of us.” She said sadly slowly starting to pull back as Ensenge took another stepp and reached the top of the hill. “ I will miss you my warlord, my champion.” she whispered inside his mind from far away before she dissipated and the warrior was alone again.

*
The Zion Man

Jerrick Black Crow was the last fury knight left in existence as he knew, it was not a hundred percent sure thing of caures someone could of survived as long as he did after all Angel was far smarter, cruel and imaginative than Jerrick, but Jerrick was deadlier, he was cold as the deepest winter storm that froze and snapped bones. Jerrick was death and like death he walked the grey roads alone, but there could be another one or two who might of survived the end of their dimension, their world, their reality, Arthas maybe, Ulrik, Cuthbern maybe? In the end it did not matter, as far as he knew he was alone and it had been so for a long time now.
Centuries or had it been longer warrior? A voice deep inside his mind asked him, has it been Millenias? Does it matter? Jerrick laughed back at the voice and slowly took to the demolished road again.
He wore all black, the colors of the Black Crow Clan his clan, the color of the knights of fury as the commoners called them, the knights of the XIII, the knights of strength, they had acquired a thousand names before the world had ended and now it was all left up to him. A big black revolver that seem just a little oversided hung on each of his hip, a huge knife on his right side, a double barreled sawed off shot gun pistol on the left besides the gun higher in the hip. A leather pack on his back held the long rilfe of the same caliber as the revolvers as well as a long double headed battle axe. On the back of his belt hung a hatchet and a throwing axe as well as a side pouch and a beat up canteen.
Long, leather, rugged, heavy set, armored, black trench coat that had seen much action and even more travel that was fading and more grey at many spots than black now. Heavy walking boots and knees guards made of holy metal as well as grievs all from the first Guardian of the XIII their true name in a sense, that had fallen out of the sky thousands of years ago. Now all that remained of the guardians reliques were the grievs, knee and elbow guards, as well as the fore arm and shoulder guards that Jerrick had arored his coat with. Whatereve the metal was made from it was stronger than anything his world had seen. It could bounce authomatic riflw fire with little to no difficulties and even TNT or Smelters that would melt steel in seconds could put a dent in them.
Besides the armor there were a few more reliques of the guardian and of his world and order Jerrick had saved but there was very little of anything left now. It had been a long road and the enemy had gotten sloppy after their great victory. Who ever was in charge of destroying the Temple of the Guardians of the XIII and get the shards and the 13 of strength had failed to do the latter and they had destroyed a whole plain of existence with billions of innocent souls in their desperate attempt to kill Jerrick but they had failed, and after a few confrtontations the attacks had seemed to stop.
SO Jerrick had done the only thing he could, he had begun the last quest left to do, the quest that his order had been doing for millennia, to seek and unite all the shards and pieces of the XIII and solve the great mistery. The only problem was that only the chosen one could do it, it was foretold by the first guardian that a man one day will find and unite and understand all the pieces and would destroy the great enemy and end his reign of terror across the plains of existence but no one had been successful in the millennia, only a few had braught back shards, but out of them only a hand full had not been driven mad by the power of the shards. Most common men could not handle a grain of dust of the XIII, one could do all he imagined but he would need to think wisely, he could jump of the top of the world, but he would need to think about how he would not get hurt or the dust would not take care of it, it he wanted to fly and he flew to fast he could but again he would take his skin off or freeze to death or run out of oxygen unless he protected him self from the dust.
The use of dust by people who are not trained for it always ended in death, death of the used and ussualy at least another couple dozen or hundred people in the area. But if one was smart one could use dust to become a creature of incredible power, it was part of their training but dust was a tricky thing. Some believed if enough dust was consumed the XIII could not be put back toghetere, others claimed that the dust was unimportant that only the pieces and the shrds mattered. Jerrick knew that it did not matter either way this was his quest, on the day when it had all gone to hell after the last stand had failed and the Dark giant, the black spirit in blood armor, the great enemy had pushed through the temple slaughtering all Jerrick had taken the thirteen of Strenght from it resting place and had placed it inside his vest, inside his shirt pocket. Then with the pistols of the founder of the temple a man who had known much about the thirteen and was considered to be the chosen one by many one of the few that had braught shrds back and had not gone insane Arthas of the Elder Clan, Jerrick had stepped out of the temple two furry calibers in his hands, the thirteen of strengths on his breast and faced the beast blowing it to hell discovering the powers of the ancient weapons that were connected to the warriors mind.
By the time he had destroyed half an armored division with 3 rounds laughing like a mad man going crazy with the power he was not even channeling the dark lord had shattered the bridges and began to burst the bubble that contained the univers the guardians existed in. There were other guardians in other universes sure, but only in this one was there the 13 of strength and a warrior that had blown his face off, then exploaded him to mist and chunks of charred meat, so the dark lord crushed the whole dimension, the whole universe in a massive display of power and fear but Jerrick had escaped, and through out millennia he and the thirteen had been on the road looking for the other piececs, more shards.
Waiting for the dark lord to show his face again so he could eveaporte every atom of him. It would probably not kill hinm, finding all the oieces and all the shards was he true answer to defeating the Timorian, but it was a long way to get there. And there were problems. Like Arthas Eld had discovered after his many quests after questing for centuries or millennia Jerrick had realized as Arthas had that despite all signs saying he is the one, the one that is meant to find the XIII he knew he was not. Arthas had been given knowledge on how to make the fury calibers and a few knights had carried these weapons, but none compared to the once Jerrick carried the guns of king Arthas the one who was to find the XIII.
Still Jerrick had come across other information for the thirteen talked to him, like Arthas before him he was given wisdom, secret knowledge and he knew that he was the one who would take part in the quest for the XIII, most importantly he was to lead but he was not the chosen one to understand the XIII, the path finder was to find it, a person he still knew not, or where he would meet him, but meet him he would, and the heart would understand the XIII while the spirit would put it back togheter, and Jerrick, Jerrick had to kill the great enemy and find them all he was sure of that. How long it would take to do this was a question of some debate, but he knew that the great enemy was seeking the shards and pieces as well so their paths would cross again andn he just had to make sure he had more shards than the dark one when it did happen.

Chapter 1 The End knights

The multi colored, yet very grey behemoth that once was the last and greatest settlement humanity had ever built or seen stretched in front of the two men forever, north, south, west, and up into the sky way beyond the sinister, lightning ripped, black swirls of clouds. Still away from the city on a small hill ledge two men were laying down looking over the city. Both men were smoking hand rolled cigarettes, and were loaded with gear and weapons to the point they looked more like two piles of junk and guns rather than two persons laying down on their bellies.
The city was Zion and only god himself knew how long it had been in this condition.
“So boss? Any clues?” The younger man asked.
Jerrick, the older man turned his attention from the city to his partner and smiled at the young writer.
‘Boss? That sure is funny coming from you.” Jerrick told him.

Ethan, the man that once was a writer smiled back, but inside he was already getting angry. Jerrick and his relationship was a strange one, and even if they were connected by destiny to be on this last, holy of quests, Ethan had almost killed Jerrick twice, and the older men had beaten Ethan black and blue more than once. But that was the past.
That was when they first met, when Ethan was a freedom fighter, running a hundred men guerilla unit of survivors fighting an unbeatable war, against monsters from hell itself. Now the writer that had become a warrior, then killer, then butcher, and savior at the same time, not to mention hero and legend, like Jerrick a knight of the Furry, a keeper of eternity, an end knight and Jerrick was boss.
Still Ethan had a way of losing his shit fast with Jerrick. The man rarely talked straight, and Ethan knew that every move the bastard made, had been calculated, thaught about twenty times, and then executed all in less then a heartbeat. Conversation was no exception. And instead of answering Ethans question, or at least staying on subject Jerrick went straight for the bait Ethan had set up.

‘Don’t be an idiot kid.’ Jerrick suddenly said snapping Ethan out of his train of thought, ‘I have no clue, and you need to stop with all of this rebellion, and I will not be told what to do shit. You know where we are, what we are doing, you know the parts that we are to play out, you made your choice, now bite the bullet and ride the bitch.” Jerrick snapped.

This time it was Ethan that laughed. Jerrick was a strange man, and his way of talking was very proper, and old fashioned, yet for the last year, it seemed he had strated to speak like Ethan every time he got angry, and the writer found it hilarious.

‘I am sorry, I guess provoking you is too sweet.’ Ethan admitted, shooting a glance back at the city. ‘What do we do?’ he said calmly next, all of his concentration went back to the moment at hand.

‘Well I guess we go down into the abomination and pray we find the next portal before something else finds us.’ Jerrick answered.

‘You think we still have tails?’ Ethan asked suddenly cold, remembering the last ambush of wild men that had followed them for days before they finally attacked. Four handed two headed freaks with stone axes, and jagged teeth popped out of everywhere and Ethan swore they were dead men. Still with the first second of panic past Ethans guns came up, and Jerrick was already dealing death with the power of God himself. For some reason that last gun fight had been so loud and so violent that Ethan was not sure what to make out of it. Why had it been so different? So loud? He was a veteran of a war, and not just any war, but the last war that humanity was ever to wage, a war against the evolved, and as civilization as Ethan knew it, fell and was ripped to peaces by man like sparrows, crows, and fucking pigeons that are seven feet tall, all armed with swords and clubs, Ethan lived on, he fought back, he found survivors, he began taking it back, and with a sharp mind, endless imagination, and the determination that comes from knowing one is totally fucked any which way you look at it Ethan became a warrior then the butcher of the Evolved, discovering a way to fight back, becoming a hero, a legend, then came Jerrick, and everything changed again.
He became a fury knight a holy killer, and with Jerrick he had seen some shit, crazy shit that could leave anyone insane, but Ethan had been fine, all along their bloody road, Ethan had kept his cool.
Yet that last ambush, those beast men things, running at him as he blew their heads away one by one with deadly precission emptying one gun, holstering it, and pulling out the next, in less then four seconds, not missing even a shot, not coming even close to missing a shot. His next weapon came out, and in a second all six bullets had done exactly what he had wanted them to do, and he continued doing this all the way he ran out of loaded pistols and puled out his hard caliber, his holy weapon, a pistol that Jerrick had exposed to the strength 13 and had made into the weapon that was connected to the wielders mind. It could go around corners, expload, go through, or stay in the victim, the bullet was guided by the knights mind, as was its effect, that was a hard caliber. And when Ethan had fired his at a mutant that was at point blank distance his anger had exploded the mutation to a billion bloody chunks, spraying the world red. The explosion had been horribly loud, and the muzzle flair was blinding setting the flying chunks of meat aflame.

The rest of the mutations had run at that point and Jerrick laughed at the blood covered Ethan. Ethan on the other hand did not find it funny. It was not the first time he had shot someone at close range, and even if this thing was a mindless blood curling monster, something bothered Ethan about what he did to it.

‘You still thinking of the muty you blew back to god in atom sized portions?’ Jerrick asked still smiling.

‘Yes damn it, it really got to me. Care to give some wisdom, because I am in a bad way here.’ Ethan cursed, looking back at Jerrick.

‘Well,’ Jerrick began turning his cigarette out, and pocketing the bud, ‘you blew a muty to hell because you are far superior, you feel like a baby who snaps its hamsters neck after it bits him, confused and guilty for blowing away life so easily.’

‘Wow, deep shit Jerrick, a baby snapping a hamsters neck. Where the fuck do you pull these stories and shity metaphore out of any way. I don’t feel like an innocent killer, I feel that I have been given to much power, too much killing ability, and instinct to kill. I thinck that I am becoming too dangerous to be around people, Jerrick. And when and if we finish this god knows what I will be. You know my path as well as I do…’ Ethan was to say more but Jerrick raised his hand.

‘You are a Fury an end knight!’ he snapped at the young man, ‘A mutant came at you and you gave him the fury of god, you gave him the fury of the XIII!’ the older knight yelled at him. ‘Your path, mine, and everyone elsese who is to be a part in this quest has been assigned for a reason. Your destiny will lead you down your path Ethan, as you will lead us all down ours, and when the last moment comes, when we are all to be gone, or all is to be saved, we will know who is death, and who is life, and just what the XIII is.’ Then the knight broke into one of his extreamly rare smiles, ‘Then, once that is done, well then we will deal with the rest of the things that destiny, and that whore called lady luck have prepared for us. Untill then you will learn to live with the fack that you are an instrument of death, I know what bothers you because I have been there, many, many years ago I was you Ethan and I felt just like you did.’ Jerrick stopped and took a long look at Ethan. ‘You don’t know if you even held the gun, do you? That is what bothers you, did you still have it in your hand when that last mutie crept up on you? Or did you holster it already. Logic says you holstered it, but maybe you kept it out. Maybe it was holstered and you pulled it out as the mutant jumped you, but you don’t remember, all you remember is pointing with your arm and death, arm of God like death struck the muty.’

‘How did you know?’ Ethan asked amazed, never having mentioned this to Jerrick.

‘Like I said, I was you a long time ago, a baby with a hamster, which does sound wrong, how about a chic? A small chicken, you know?” Jerrick asked looking at the city once again.

‘Yes I know what a chic is for fuck sake.” Ethan snapped.

‘Well a baby, with a chic, it plucks you, and you did something and death followed. I know its shit, but its all I got right now. You have no luck Ethan. I had great teachers, wise men, and good companions with silver toungues that could explain all much better then me. I was never that good at explaining or teaching.” Jerrick admitted with just a bit of nostalgia in his voice.

‘So what were you good at?’ Ethan asked already knowing the answer.

‘I am and always was good, really fucking good, as you say friend, at surviving, at killing, and doing those things that can’t be done. I do, that’s what I am great at, what ever you put in front of me, I find a way to do what ever it takes, and it seems that I am immortal.’ He smiled at Ethan, confortable since for the first time he knew he could not out live Ethan. Before that statement meant that everyone who is to come close to him is dead, and it had been that way, for years, then he had completed the first major step in the quest, and he had found the path-finder, he would soon descover his abilities, and he would soon be telling which way they head.

‘Glad to see you feel good, you old bastard.’ Ethan commented putting away the rest of his smoke. ‘Do we go down and do a little exploring?’

‘Lets.’ Jerrick smiled back and he got up followed by Ethan. Quickly the heavily loaded, armed, and armored men began making their way down towards the outskirts of the ruined city.

Jerrick pulled out his long repeated and Ethan followed suit by pulling out the heavy assault rifle he had gotten from a dead shock trooper what seemed another life time ago, when he and Jerrick had just met, and the world they were in still had people, wars, governments, something. Now stairing at the grey bone yard of death that ate away the land and skie Ethan only wished he was back in the chaos of some other place. But there was no going back, they were here now, and Ethan knew Jerrick would never give up, the XIII was all that mattered and Ethan knew that now it was the same way for him as well.

They slowly descended into the city getting slower and slower with every step they took, and the wastelands scorched ground turned to trash, strange looking goo, and pavement. The city and the huge building were still far away but they had entered the outskirts fast. Even out here there were several generations of buildings, some futuristic, some rustic made of trash or wood, but mostly it was all debris and huge piles of dirt, broken buildings and trash with a few walls still up here and there. The city was on the west coastof a great grey ocean, and Ethan and Jerrick were coming from the east, descending the great mountains that had taken them almost a month to cross, and had nearly killed them every chance it got.

They had almost reached the beginning of the city where buildings, and huge toppeled roads on columns laid scattered, some crashed, some tilted, some still standing. The sheer size of the roads was gasping, Ethna guessed it was at least some 30 lanes if not more, and even the small buildings here, were not small, they just looked small compared to the monolithic dark giants behind them. What they were approaching were normal 20, 30, 40 maybe even more storie buildings, and behind them began a section of much bigger building, maybe a hundred and fifty floors, maybe more, and then a few miles away began the giants, stretching so high into the sky that Ethan could not even guess how big they were.

‘Lets keep moving,’ Jerrick said with a note of nervousness in his voice, ‘its getting dark, and we need to find a relatively safe place to spend the night.’ He finished and Ethan nodded.

They picked up their paces, and they were about the enter the first city block of broken buildings when the strangests thing happened. A man dressed in a white toga robe, with long brown hair and a beard came running out. If Ethan had to guess which he did he would swear Jesus was running towards him. The man seemed haggered and tortured, he was beaten, and had several burn scars.
‘Help me.’ He barely voice as he ran up to them and Jerrick motioned Ethan to hold his fire.

The man in the dirty robe and sandels ran up to them and fell on his knees in front of the two men.

‘Help me please.’ He said simply looking up at the two fury knights.

Ethan felt strangly disconnected, something was wrong, something was so fucking wrong it was making him feel as if his souls was screaming at his brain to do something, something drastic, and something fast.

‘How can we help?’ Jerrick had asked while Ethan had his inside out of body experience.

‘There are men in the city, evil men, men that have defied the will of my father, men who worship the fallen one, they worship Lucifer, and Molech, they seek to sacrifice me to the lord of darkness, and the prince of lies, so the antichrist and his father may rule for a thousand years. You must stop them and protect me.”

Ethan swallowed hard, already scaning the city, and Jerrick was doing the same thing. It did not mattered that neither of them belived every word of what the man had said, bad men they believed in. And if they wanted this guy dead that meant they were probably close by, and getting closer. Still Ethan could not resist himself.

‘Tell me friend who are you?’ he asked the man.

‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the lamb of god, the chosen perfect sacrifice so all of man kind sins can be forgiven.’ He said calmly, and very coherently.

‘Right,’ Ethan said slowly, ‘and I guess you are totally insane as well, right buddy?’ he smiled still watching the whole city.

‘No my child,’ Jesus said, ‘Look and believe.’ Jesus pointed at a puddle of water and touching it with his finger the water turned crimson red. ‘Drink and you will see it is wine, the best you ever tried.

Ethan looked at Jerrick, but he doubted the Fury Knight ever heard of Jesus still he seemed preaty impressed. Ethan went to drinck and Jerrick yelled him to stop.

‘You first, lamb of god.’ He insisted.

Jesus nodded and he couped some wine in his hands not spilling any, as if his hands had become a chalice he took a sip, and then offered it to Jerrick. The fury knight looked away. Then he offered it to Ethan and the writer could not help himself.

‘I would not drink any ting a crazy man colored red from a toxic puddle.” Jerrick snapped, but Ethan had to do it.

He took a sip and tasted it. Jesus stepped back smilling, and by god he radiated, so much that even Jerricks mouth opened a little.

‘He who has faith will find the way to my father.’ Jesus said in a voice that was almost hypnotic.

Ethan tasted and moved the liquid in his mouth and it was as promised perfect, it reminded him of an argentinian wine he drank once, only if it could be combined with something like liquid sex.

‘It is wine.’ Ethan almost yelled, “and damn it is the best thing I ever tasted period, not just wine.’ He turned to Jerrick and saw that the knight was looking far into the distance ignoring him.

‘Jerrick it is wine, water to wine, Jesus, Jerrick we have found the son of God, we are in Zion and we can save the second resurrection of Jesus.” But Jerrick only held his hand up.

Ethan burned with fury inside but did not let it show, instead he went back to Jesus, and he crouched down in front of the man.

‘Tell me, if you are who you say you are, how did you get here, what is going on, what do you know of the XIII? Tell me everything, the meaning of life, why are we here, is the bible true, what is going on, and I swear that nothing, and no one will ever even lay a single finger…”

Suddenly there was a hiss and then Jerrick appeared out of nowhere literarly flipping Ethan over and throwing him away just as the missle exploaded into Jesus. There was an explosion, a huge blue, orange explossion and all three men were thrown far, but of Jesus only pieces remained. Gear and weapons were falling down everywhere as both Ethan and Jerrick twirled through the air, losing all of their gear in the process.

Ethan landed hard. He was aflame, or at least his left arm was. His pack was thrown off, as was his shot gun, and his MM-77 heavy assault riffle. Over the years he and Jerrick had aquiered a huge if not sick collection of weapons and a lot of them were flying through the air as they were too, along with bits of Jesus as well.

Ethan rolled as he heard engines of heavy vehicles, diesel engines, and tires shredding dirt and trash. He rolled behind a large pile of rubble just as several laser shots slammed right by him. War hollers came from all directions as dirt columns from vehicles rose in every direction. Ethan was shocked and he did not even see Jerrick crawl next to him as the heavy laser fire continued.

‘They killed him,’ Ethan muttered looking at the sky and the shower of red beams flying above them, ‘They killed Jesus…’

‘I am sure he is in a better place now.’ Jerrick snapped, ‘Get your guns and lets go!’ Jerrick ordered but Ethan remained shocked.

‘You don’t understand that was the son of god, we could of changed all, we could of accomplished all, gotten all answers, that was,’

‘It was a Robot!” Jerrick yelled as he slapped Etahn back to his senses showing him the twitching remains of the cybor that was Jesus. No blood, just some blue gel, metal and wires. ‘Snap out of it, they are coming.’ Jerrick finished.

Ethan nodded and he pulled out his USSR K-21 a compact version of the AK 4070, the gun that the Russian-Chinesss forces used to invade Europe, only god knows when or where, but Ethan had gotten it from a crazed chinesse command undead zombie. It was single handed fully automatic and carried a fat 150 bullet clip of the medium sized 5.56mm ammo. Without another word from Jerrick Ethan rolled out and opened full fire at the source of the laser fire. It was a bunker of some kind, a makeshift one from god knows what junk and a store display counter so Ethan could not see the shooter. Still he emptied the clip, creating swiss chess of the bunker and the laser fire stopped long enough for Jerrick to sneak around to the next pile of rubble. Ethan rolled back as his gun clicked empty and three seconds later the laser shower began again.

Most of Ethans assault weapons were scattered around and his revolvers or automatic pistols would do little damage to the bunker. So he pulled out his hard caliber and he waited for Jerrick to make his move. A second later a loud explosion went off as Jerrick appeared on the left side of the bunker, shooting the door aside and then filling the place with lightning and death.

A vehicle appeared with a mounted gatheling gun and it screetched to a stop opening fire on Jerrick. The fury knight jumped into the bunker, as chain fire fell on him. Like a bolt of lightning Ethan holstered his hard caliber and he jumped to snatched the Templar arms 101, the gun that won the west back, from the commies, the french, chinesse, Russian commies that is. It was a plasma high cicklick rate, very high tech weapon that had smart armor piercing explosive bullets, they are only 4 mm but they pierce any armor to an inch then expload with the force of several grams of high exploasives leaving holes of mens head or bigger, exploading a non armored combatant in an instant, just like Rambos arrow. Thanks to the small ammo that did incredible damage, the rifle could level a whole platoon of tanks, airplanes, mechs, samurais, anything.

Ethan leveled the rifle, and he sent two rounds. The vehicle exploded after Ethan had separated the minigun from it, cutting the base off it in order to save the weapon. Two more vehicles came into sight, both fiering at Ethan this time, so the knight did not hesitate. He turned on the first armored vehicle, a strange looking bus with rocket engines, and no wheels, but a hovering platform, and he sent a three round burst. The vehicle exploded, twisted in midair and landed side ways, before it exploded once again, sending shrapnel all over the place. The second vehicle opened fire, but slowed down and tried to make it to a corner, Ethan stood up, and opened full auto fire, exploding the vehicle and bringing down the whole corner of the building they were going for down in a second. An explosion came from behind him, and he ducked and spun just in time to see Jerrick shoot another armored jeep with his heavy caliber. The jeep just stopped since Jerrick hoped to get a working vehicle. Two strange looking men jumped out and emedietly they opened fire at Jerrick. Ethan left the Templar and he pulled his hard caliber.
Jerrick had killed one man, and Ethan took the drivers arm off before Jerrick put a slug through his head making a tiny entry wound, but exploding his brain upon exiting.

Four more vehicles had appeared but they were far enough to see what had happened and had descided to tuck tail and run. Finally Jerrick took one last shot, and a man with a bazooka fell from ten stories above, splatering on landing. Unfortunatly his bazzoka went of when it landed, destroying itself, the ammo, and the man, or what ever was left of him. The vehicles disappeared quickly, and Jerrick holstered his weapon.

‘Fun times,’ Ethan said to himself as he pulled out a cigarette, still holding hid G&G long barreled hard caliber.

‘You said it, now let us go see what we killed.’ Jerrick told him lighting a cigarette himself.

Ethan holstered the big pistol and followed Jerrick to the Jeep. The whole Jesus thing had just got his mood worst, and even if he was following Jerrick to examine their kill, all Ethan wanted to examine was the Jesus robot. The sun had started going down, and soon it would be dark. Both Jerrick and Ethan knew that even if the other vehicles had ran, they would return, probably with the darkness, in larger numbers, looking for vengeance. They certainly had the technologie and the fire power to kill the two men, and it was only thanks to Jerrick Ethan had lived, had the knight not thrown him away, like Jesus there would be nothing left of Ethan.

‘You saved my life, yet again,’ Ethan told Jerrick as they walked to the jeep, ‘I acted like a fool, and I could of killed us all, because of a robot.’

‘You were tricked my friend, my luck is that I have seen all and I know that god would not live long enough in this world to seek help.’ Jerrick smiled.

‘You know of Jesus?’ Ethan asked, never thincking of asking the question before.

‘Sure I have heared the legend, the myth, of the shiny savior that feed the starving with nothing, turns water to wine, and who dies for all man kind. I even once read pieces of the book, the biblos, and found it fascinatingly close to my ways of worshiping god, and to the people of the way, and followers of the path, but I had no idea he would have such an impact on you, but they did.’ Jerrick explained pointing at the dead body by the jeep.

‘Where I come from, where I once lived, Jesus was not a legend, or myth, it had been just over 2000 years since his death, and the religion is called Christianity, I once followed their teachings, but left the church early.”

‘Logicly, any wise man leaves an organization eventually Ethan, men corrupt all, even the work of God, and when you unit men in any commun cause there will be the ones that are corrupt, and eventually the realy strong, and wise leave the community. That is why you are here, and why we are both doomed to this existence.’ Jerrick said calmly comforting Ethan.

‘I guess in this world Jesus has been around as well, and he is still ussefull to some.” Ethan confessed, felling his humor returning, ‘We were just ambushed by Jesus Jerrick, that is something, I now only wish to survive long enough to tell someone about it with a drink in my hand and a women on my, well you know.’

‘Spoken like a true belivere.’ Jerrick answered very profoundly, which confussed Ethan, but he said nothing and kept smilling to himself.

They reached the dead bodies and the armored Jeep. Jerrick turned over the man Ethan had mutilated, and he had made his head an empty shell with just a face. Due to the condition it was hard to tell if the creature was human or mutant, since the whole face was suncken, and twisted horribly in the eternal lock of a horribly painfull death. Ethan started getting weird again feeling the guilt and weakness and Jerrick shoot him one of his glances. Ethan had been having trouble for some time now looting the dead, seeing the horrible damage he was doing, the incredible pain he was causing, yet in the moment of fighting, at the moment of killing, there was no stopping him. Like Jerrick had said, he too now was an instrument of death.
Nonetheless one glance from Jerrick calling him a pussy and Ethan got his shit together as best as he could.

The dead man was what Jerrick called a Junker, it was a general term he used, so the men, if they were men, would probably call themself something else, but the conescept was that they, like scavengers lived off of what they found in the world around them but unlike the scavengers, they usually collected all, and everything, junk of all kind, as well as technology and knowledge, and all they could. They were ussualy tribal in organization and were known to be well aromored and armed with very good weapons. These guys however were as Jerrick called them an extream form of Junkers, with weapons of incredible power and great technology.

‘The last time I saw a running engine or vehicle was when my world fell, Jerrick said, and then when I met with you.’ Jerrick told Ethan as he unarmed and striped the first corpse of armor and gear.

‘It has been a long time since we have seen technology, but look at this city,’ Ethan said pointing at the vast, ever darker beast in front of them, ‘I think we have hit the motherload here Jerrick, we might not make it through this one.’ Ethan said throwing his cigarette and pulling out another one.

Jerrick smiled, and tossed the semi body of the junker away. The man had a good combat armor of some kind, metal, with kevlar like material, maybe even something better, but it only covered the torso, and shoulders. He also had a strange looking pair of long star wars like blaster weapons.

‘The Ti-320,’ Jerrick said giving one to Ethan, ‘I have seen these before, a long time ago,’ the knight continued not looking at Ethan but examining the weapon, ‘Back then, when I ran into this weapon, the long time ago, a very intelligent man, probably the greatest, and smartest man that had ever lived had told me this was an alien gun, a blaster from another planet, from different creatures that came from distances that not even the XIII could reach or affect.’ Then the knight turned quiet and continued to the next body.

This mans face was completely gone, as was the rest of his head, so once again even if the bodies were human enough neither Jerrick or Ethan wanted to strip a body naked and do a physiology exam, so they just striped the armor, weapons and any other gear but other than that they left the junker dressed and then they tossed his body away as far as they could too. This man had two A-25 blasters, neither Jerrick, nor Ethan had ever seen this weapon but it was clearly a blaster like the one Jerrick had called an Alien gun. It too was the same design except it had a wwII nazi luger like look on steroids with a buck rogers, or Flash Gordon touch to it. Any way both Ethan and Jerrick took one. This man also wore the same high tech body armor and this they stripped as weel, he had a pack so they took this too and once they threw the Junkers body away they spilled the contents of the pack.

They found a big collection of drugs, and medicine known and unknown , but between their combined knowledge they knew they had hit a jack pot of medical and emergency supplies. God know nothing comes as handy as a hit of army made morphine pack into a bullet filled arm while you are still fighting to stay alive. There was some meat but since it glowed they threw it away, and other than that he also had an animal fur which seemed to be pristeen clean.

Having spent enough time examining the bodies they turned to the vehicule. Jerrick had dissabeled it good, much better than he had hoped, but he said he could fix it by morning. Ethan did not see how he could do it, but why argue. After they had collected the massive laser gastheling gun Ethan had saved, and all of their gear and weapons the two men began pushing the jeep away. Two hours later they had gotten to a part where the buildings seemed strangly beefed up with armor plates, and then a massive gate. It was almost dark, and suddenly flood lights hit the knights.

‘Please state your name and intention.’ A sweet robotic voice said out of a speaker from some where above them.
‘I am Jerrick Shadow Crow, guardian of Eternity, and knight of the fury, holder of strength of god, and we are seeking shelter.’ He commanded rather than stated.

At first nothing happened, an eternity seemed to go by and Ethans hands felt a desperate urge to slide down to his hips, but they stayed on the door of the open vehicle. Then the lights dimmed down and a static filled the air.

‘Please stand back, gates opening.’ The same female voice said, although this time it was not sweet and robotic, but human and very scared, annoyed, or was it pissed? Ethan was not sure, but there was definetly anger with another underlying emotion. The doors began rummbeling, and then lifting open as Jerrick and Ethan rolled their vehicle back. There was a lot of light and noise coming from the other side of the gate, and several armored men, in high tech fully plated armors came out, They wore no helmets, and while two carried bazzokas, four of them seemed to have very long rifles, also in the buck rogers space stile design. The gate fully lifted to reveal a courtyard of stone with two mashine gun nests and several mean looking men all armed and armored in the same kind of high tech armor as the ones they found on the junkers, except these were presten clean, silver, and seemed to be thiner, almost as if they were made out of acrylic and not metal like the clunky looking junker aromor they found.

‘Quick damn it.’ One man yelled nervously as the very tiered Ethan and Jerrick began pushing the jeep forward. ‘Damn it Ramires, Johnson, help them, move!’ the same man yelled extreamly upset and two men shot up, reaching the back of the jeep, beginning to push at a sprint. They were inside in seconds and Jerrick and Ethan barely managed to just keep up witht the two solders that were pushing.

Then the massive gate went back down, and another massive door opened. This one was much thicker, made of steel twice the thickness of a man, and opened inwards splitting in the middle. Both Jerrick and Ethan instantly noticed this big flaw in the defence design but said nothing, and they were lead into the strange looking town. Maybe town was too strong of a word, Ethan thought, settelment, or scwat was a much better name for their current location but Ethan was not there to decide the importance of the settelment. What did interest him were their defences. He had spoted several weak points and a few exchanged glance with Jerrick revealed more and confirmed his. They finally pushed the car inside and the doors were slammed shut, then barred, then extra suppots were put on it side ways, and nailed to the floor. Now looking at it Ethan realised that the door was far more reinforced, and he figured that if what ever they were trying to keep out got in, well, running out was problably even worst of an idea.

They all seemed alot more relaxed now and suddenly Ethan got a strange feeling, a felling he knew Jerrick had probably had for a while now, something was wrong, just like with Jesus there was something very wrong here.
He looked at Jerrick and saw the man was calm, almost seemed serene and this only meant one thing, death was to come next. 'Jesus fucking Christ!' Ethan yelled at himself on the inside. How many books, movies, and games have you played read, and watched, and still this man who never saw a sci-fi movie knew so much while Ethan kept on falling into traps every step of the way.

'Well, well, well, the carrier of the holy XIII, boys.' a female voice said from somewhere above them.

The squat Ethan had decided to call town in his mind was not a hasty or bad construction. It had massivly tall walls of what seemed to be concrete, with a sheet of steel on the inside wall, going up the whole 12 meters all the way to the ceeling. The first floor was at least four meters high, if not more, and it boasted a mighty redondel right in the middle with a massive building in front and several room/houses to the left and right. It was an odd building, that seemed to be a town inside a building inside another building. Terraces were on each house, and there was not one inch that could be called a window or even a vent. Where ever they were, Ethan knew that the only way they could make it out is by force and gunfire.

'Whats the matter great warrior, did you realise where you are at?' the same female voice said, but now it was full of malice, and something that Ethan could not place but chilled him to the bone nonetheless.

The men that had seemed normal a minute ago, heavily sci-fi armed and armored but normal, now looked dark tanned and yellow, dried out, with lipless mouths srteched across yellow fangs, not teeth but fangs.

'No lady,' Jerrick said extreamly calm, extreamly polite, 'How could one mestake Aishas layer for anything else,' he said smiling and the room turned cold instantly, Ethan swore that at least twenty degrees fell, and the men, the zombie like men seemed to give off black steam. Fear hit Ethan like he had never experienced before, his knees buckeled, his head felt cramped and his heart wanted to escape through his throat. His hands still did not move, but his musceles were so thigh he felt he could exploade into a rain of death any second.

'What is it you seek Fury?' Aisha hissed from some place in the high darkness.

'I seek fear princess, I seek the piece of the XIII that you have used to keep yourself and your...lightning-men, alive.' Jerrick said with no respect jercking a thumb at the furious looking creatures in high tech armors.

'It is mine, and I see no reason why to give it to you killer.' she hissed back.

'I dissagree,' Jerricke resumed with his polite tone speaking to the darkness, even if Ethan could not see Aisha he knew Jerrick was stairing the bitch right in the eye. 'As you have said I am the great killer, the fury knight, and now that you greed has allowed me in here I have your life to bargain with.' Jerrick told her very cold all of a sudden.

'You thinck you can kill us all?' Aisha moked as her men all pointed weapons at him and Ethan, weapons Ethan had never seen, but by their name, he assumed they either shot some kind of super chared electrtical charge, or plasma, or something that looked like lightning, so speed would be of the essence.

'No, no,' Jerrick smiled almost laughing, becoming strangly charismatic as he changed from killer to charmer. 'The boy would kill all your men then I would put a bullet in that beautifull face of yours, befroe you even managed to think of attacking.' The fury knight told her becoming the cold killer again, and silence followed. Ethan swore one of the lightning men would attack, but just as the man was to start hell Aisha stepped out of the dark, jumping down. Her men backed up a bit and the almost dead lightning men relaxed again.

'I dare you.' The dark haired women told him as she stood up. She was shorter than Jerrick, Ethans high, and she was gorgeus, velopscious body wraped in a high tech armor that failed to hide the curves of her body. Fair skined, with dark eyes and aquilan lines Ethan felt an instant of hesitation. Her face was so familiar, as if he had known her from another life time, as if he had loved her, and suddenly the idea of Jerrick blowing her head off seemed terrifying.

What happened next was beyond Ethan. Jerrick and Aisha were still at the stand off, but Ethan knew Jerrick was but a heart beat away from blowing her away. Speed was off the essence. It had been a long road here, and while on it Ethan had turned from a regular guy, with a few talents and a though mind into a killing machine that could be compared to a weapon of mass destruction, like Jerrick he too was a Fury, a knight of fury and like him he had the skills and the power of death. He carried the 13 of ice and he had two hard calibers and was as good with them as Jerrick was, but speed was of the essence, and Jerrick had so much more speed. Nonetheless Ethan did what he had to do, and like never before his hands flew out weapons flashing like thunder. There was twenty three Lightning men and Jerricks bullet heading for Aishas face, and Ethan had less than a quarter of an eye blink window of time to hit them all. The USSR K-21 came flying out as Ethan jamed down the triger with an ice cube he summoned, and he threw the weapon. Before it had even left his left hand his right hand had pulled out and fiered five of the six shots his G&G revolver carried, then he fierd the last projectile towards Aisha, slicing her skin, and smashing Jerricks bullet away, just as it reached her face. Aisha fell then dissapeared in the dark as an amazed Jerrick stood for a second. Ethan on the other hand had dropped the G&G and had pulled out his other hard caliber and finished the seven shot clip killing his seventeenth lightning man. Two more guns came out, the two blaster he got from the junkers, as Ethan dropped down to clean up the lightning men. Only five remained but Ethan did not know how efective theses laser guns would be against the armor and the browning or the Le mat revolver would probably do no damage. It was a mistake, or better said a calculated risk, since he could still pull out the heavy assault rifle and the templar would punch through anything.

A bolt of something very similar to lightning flashed by Ethans head, singeing his hair, and burning his face. Furious now the knight opened fire from both weapons unleashing blue and green plasma on the lightning man turning all five of them into glowing piles of blood molten meat, bone and metal.

'Nice move.' Jerrick said slapping Ethan on the shoulder, then on the side of the head turning his smoking hair off.

'I am sorry." Ethan said, feeling if he had lost too much hair.

'No, I am impressed, you shot a hard caliber out of its path. I don't thinck any one has ever done that before, not sure anyone ever though of doing it either, but,' Jerrick said very patiantly, 'the problem is that, well...' the older man paused, then lost his shit compleatly.
'You let Aisha, the Demon queen escape, she holds the fear 13 and without it we can not go on, we came this far, and we could of finished it all at once, but instead you decided to go and fall in love with an ancient evil!' Jerrick yelled at him.

'As I said I am sorry,' Ehtan said, 'But you failed to mention we are walking into a trap and that we would be killing an army of, of... what ever the fuck those things were.' Ethan protested.

'I could not tell you, since you would not act natural then and we could never get inside her lair.' Jerrick told him.

'Are you calling me a bad actor?' Ethan asked hugely offended.

'Yes, but fortunatly you are a damn good shot, and since you want to go and fuck the queen of darkness be my guesset and drag her out of her dark corner.' Jerrick said.

'You meant it? You won't kill her?' Etahn asked.

'Hell if you drag Aisha out, I will help you hold her down so you can consume your marriage.' Jerrick smiled.

'I would never rape a women.' Ethan said discusted.

'Well good thing but, Aisha will rape you, then ripe out your heart, or cock and force feed it to you while you still live, so, to the dark part of the fort you go, and Ethan,' Jerrick became suddenly serious. 'She will kill you, I know that you have strange thoughts about the last days, this whole path, our way of being murderous on purpous, but she will rip out your heart and spit, or even shit on your body. She is evil, not gorgeus, and you are just confused, don't die for a stupid memory. Aim to kill.' That was all that Jerrick said and he would say no more no matter how much Ethan insistead.

Jerrick gave him one of his hard calibers, the strange weapon of the fury knight, the force of fury pistol. It was definetly far more powerfull than Ethans hard calibers even if it as the same caliber, but the design of this weapon the strange cruves, the size, the sheer sound, and the speed of the bullet, it was just too great of a weapon, the epitath of guns. Mix magic, an experiment that should off never been done, playing god, and man kinds endless thirst for killing and you eventually get Jerricks hard caliber. Jerrick also gave him the fire 13 and with all of his guns back on and fully loaded Ethan went into the darkness as his beaten brain tried to remember where the hell did he know this queen of demons from, and just why the hell did he save her. As the religioes fear and cold hit him again he knew that he was getting close, and now he almost wished he had not saved her.

Something moved and Ethans hand went up even if he wanted to stay it, a bullet roared out and to Ethans never ending gratefulness the bullet hit the wall and bounced into the dark.

'Good, like that,' Jerrick said from the square, 'just aim for her head next time and not for a wall on the other side of the room.'

Ethan swallowed hard, and he pushed on, into the darkness where Aisha waited for him. Don't die over a stupid memory, Jerricks voice rang in Ethans mind. How the hell did he know Ethan had recognised the women, had he seen the light of recognition on Ethans face right as she came out?
Maybe, but very unlikely. Ethan knew that there had to be alot more going on, Jerrick was not the tipe of man that gave into whims easily, and there was no reason he should let Ethan go on this little quest of his, but he did. Why, well that was the true question, was it a test, was he trying to teach him a lesson, was it something elses, was it a combination of those and other things. The possibilities were endless, but he had no more time. A keen mind knows when to stop thincking and when to start acting, and as darkness surounded Ethan he knew he was way beyond the thincking.

Still he needed a plan, so far, shot 'em in the head, then shoot 'em some more was preaty much standard procedure, but what the hell was he to do now. So he did the only thing he could. He stood up tall, and he turned on his flood light.

'Come out...' he began saying but even before he could finish the sentance Asisha had jumped upon him, dagger in hand. Surprised and terrified Ethan took a blow to the chest, but the dagger snaped, and failed to penetrate his combat armor. The blow was still very painfull and combined with the impact of her weight Ethan went down. Her hand came up, another dagger in it, and this time she went for the neck. Gratfully Ethan managed to get his shit together and he blocked Aishas blow with his left, then he connected a right cross, sending her right off him. Quickly he got up, and so did she. Even if she had two blaster like pistols the women only held her dagger.

'What pretty boy, don't want to shoot me?' she asked him, as she liked the blade fresh with blood from Ethans arm.

'You want your ass handed to you in a basket?' Ethan mocked her feeling the power of the XIII taking the fear away. 'Fine!' he told her.

He droped his pack, and all of his weapons, he poped snappes, buckells and belt untill he was compleatly unarmed, and unburdened.

'Come on baby, lets get this done.' he told her.

Aisha jumped at him with murderous rage, screaming as she went for his neck again. But Ethan knew she would do this, and unlike her, he was a trained fighter, he had been through hell and had beaten the devils hench men into a bloody pulp with his bare hands, only Jerrick had ever beaten Ethan, and now Aisha was about to enter a world of pain. Even if she was over a thousand years old, an ancient evil as Jerrick had called her, she was no match for Ethans speed and agression. He let her stab by him, then he kicked her in the side with all of his strenght, keeping the leg close to his body, delivering crushing force, Bruce Lee style, and Aisha flew, chocking a scream of pain, surprise or horror, Ethan was not sure how to describe it. She landed heavily, and seemed hurt, but right away she got up and was back at Ethan slashing, and trying to sink her teeth into him. Ethan bobbed out of the blades way, then he hit her with a hard left in the same side he had kicked her, then he spun with all of his force, conecting a spining shaolin fist right to her temple, sending her flying, and splashing her blood all over himself. Still she did not stop, bleeding like a stuck pig and without even the knife, crazed, and terrifying like a demon Aisha jumped on Ethan trying to rip him appart with her bare hands and mouth. She tried to grab Ethan and bring her face to his neck, but once again Ethan saw it coming. He let her jump just close enough to him, then he released a murderous combination of almost twenty punches to the face and body. Her eyes closed, he crushed her nose, cracked her jaw, broke several ribs, and maybe an arm as well, before Ethan delivered a deadly hip and heel punch that he aimed right through her face. Like a lifeless doll Aisha was thrown back, bleeding from her beaten face, landing clumsily rolling as she fell.

A full hour and ten more sevear concussion, or knock out hits Ethan came out of the dark, dragging a bloody queen of the lightning men with him.

Jerrick smiled as a scratched, cut, beaten, bitten, and blood covered Ethan first dropped his gear, then Aisha like a bag as well on the floor. Jerrick had striped the lightning men and he had found a vehicule as well, which he was loading with gear.

'So what now?' Ethan asked as he fell by the car, into a sitting possition. Jerrick smiled and took his gun, and the 13 back. Then he pressed his pieces of the XIII to Aisha and a piece litterarly came out of her chest, she seemed about to die then she rejuvinated, and all malice and craziness that had been there locked in her beaten face was gone.

'Now that is strange.' Jerrick said as he put away the XIII.

'What is strange in this fucking world?' Ethan asked, feeling strangly faint.

'The XIII, it healed her, it saved her, it would seem you were right my friend, she is to live.' Jerrcick told him.

'Well,' Ethan began feeling even drousier, and strangly tiered, 'I told you I had, an instinct about...' but he never finished, he slumped and he fell to sleep, he was so tiered, mortaly tiered, and so much fucking blood, where did it all come from, no way it was all hers, but Ethan did not remeber getting stabbed. He was going to check for a stab wound after he finished the sentance, or at least tell Jerrick to do it, but damn did he need his sleep. His hands were sticky, and his back was wet, drenched, god damn he was cold suddenly.

He saw Jerricks face in front of him, he could feel slight stings as the older man slaped him hard as hell, he knew he was slapping him hard, and he could see his lips move but he could not hear what he was saying. It did not matter, all would be better when he woke up, he needed just a little more rest. It had been a long way since he had joined forces with Jerrick a long fucking way, and all Ethan wanted was some rest.

By the time Eric woke up the blood on the side of his head had already dried. He tried to move but his body was numb, asleep dead if he did not know better. His beard itched like the devil and he realised he was lying face on cold dirt. He tried to raise his hand to the injury on his scalp and realised his hands were bound by something as were his legs. The pain was great but the panic was greater. Then the stench hit him and he puked bile in front of him adding to the pain that was allready too much to handle.

How did I get here? He asked himself followed right away by where he was as the second question. The last thing he remebered was a battle against giant undead men, blue of skin with terrifying weapons of a kind he had never seen before. Hand held gatelng guns that spat out bullets so fast they screamed in metalic symphony of death. They had taken the women and children! His mind screamed at him as he remembered following the undead legion after they had left him for dead in the ashes that was once his home town.
He remembered gathering what gear weapons and ammo there was left among the dead and chasing down a horse. Then he had followed the legion and suddenly darkness had taken over him. He tried to remember what had happened but all there was, was darkness. He forced his eyes open and saw that he was inside a mud hut of some kind surrounded by bleached human bones everywhere, then the memory hit him like a blow. Carns, eaters of men, that was what had happened to him. He had been on the legions trail getting closer and closer when the flesh eaters had jumped him. He had fiered the 45 revolver point blank into the face of the monster that had jumped him but his h6rse had already been spooked and the explosion of the revolver was the last drop making the animal buck wildly and as Eric fought the flesh eaters that had kumped him with knife and pistol he too fell of the horse.
He rolled as he hit the dirt, taking off the hand of one carn and fiering point blank into the chest of another as dozens of the painted wild men descended on him. He smashed in the skull of one flesh eater as he firered the remaing projectiles into the milling flesh eater and then came the blow to the side of his head and darkness took him.

He looked around and forced himself from the lying position into a sitting one and moved his hands from behind him to the front. He tried to open the knot that held his hands with his teeth but the rope was tied to tightly and he would need a blade. He released the rope around his feet and tried moving but he could not stand without dizzines and the feeling he would vomit. So instead he crawled as fast and as best as he could through the filth and the bones looking for anything he could use to cut his bindings. He found a sharp bone that might do the trick but it truned to dust as he tried to cut the ropes.

The doors opened on the other side a 3 carns walked in, covered in blood smelling of death and decay. They saw the gunslinger and ran for him. Eric tried to get up and fight but he was swiftly knocked off his feet and dragged outside by the 3 flesh eaters. They dragged him to a clearing covered in dead bodies and dropped him among a pile of human guts and filth. He tried to get up again but a foot caught him on the chin and he flew back down, the taste of blood in his mouth, the world spinning.

So this is how it ends for me? He thought as his head smashed into the ground. No rescue of the loved ones no glory or riches, no revenge, nothing just a swift death among the crazed eaters of flesh to be eaten like an animal. You deserve no better he told himself as he forced his eyes open despite the pain and dizziness. He watched as the big carn walked over to him giant knife in his hand, madness in his eyes, covered in blood and filth, black and red all over his body.
This is the end. Eric thought and he sighed with sickness dread setteling over him as he saw the faces of the women and children being dragged away by the undead giants. He raised his bound hands to try and stop the knife but he knew it was to no avail.
The knife rose and suddenly the carns head exploaded as the shot that killed him thundered but half a heart beat after. The knife fell from the headless flesh eaters hands and Eric grabbed it mid flight and fell back to the ground trying to cut his bonds.
All chaos broke as shots thundred across the camp and carns felt dead left and right. Eric could not see who was fiering but he had almost cut his ropes and his vision seemed to clear a bit as the adrenalin hit him to replace the dread and despair of certain death. He cut the ropes just in time as a carn ran at him stone axe in his hand. With his left Erick blocked the blow that would of crushed his head and with his right he stabbed the flesh eater in the belly under the chest driving the big knife into the lungs and heart. He fell back down as the carns momentum threw him of his feet. He fell hard knocking the air out of him the foul flesh eater on top of him his rancid breath on his face. He tried to roll clear but he had no strength remaining, and darkness tried to take him again. He fought the darkness as best as he could as carns fell left and right.
The flesh eaters were no longer fighting but running for their lives. Eric fought with all his strength and pushed the carn off in time to see the tall man in black twin pistols on his hips two blood covered swords in hand. He cut down carns left and right with ease as if he was dancing never stopping switching weapons with ease as if they magicaly appeared and dissapeared from his hands whitin the blink of an eye. From gun to sword to fist, killing all in his way.
Then as suden as the noise of battle had started it ended and Eric tried to sit up but could not force himself up. Instead he cried out for help and found himself looking at a very cruel but handsom face of a killer with dead cold eyes that seemed to burn right throu him.
“Help me.” Eric begged with the last dropps of power he had.
“Why?” The cruel man had asked.
“I will die if you don’t…” Eric had replied then darkness took him again.

Ilidos watched the man pass out and sneered, all things die! He told himself and turned around determined to leave the man, yet as he walked away a voice inside him whispered:
“All things but you…” the voice had caceled and Ilidos stoped. It was the same voice always the voice of his dead brother the one he had failed to save the one who had drove him to madness and to become a Shadow walker, an undead, unholy creature that no one would ever take in no one would ever love a drinker of blood no better than the crazed Carns he had just killed off.
Angry he turned around and wenmt back to the man. He looked for a puls and found it. It was weak, but it was there, the man was still alive but barely. Still angry Ilidos examined the man. He had been beaten and thrown around, dragged and tied. His whole body was covered in scratches and cuts but it was the head injury that had probably almost killed him. The skull was cracked and a piece of it had been pushed into the brain, it was amiracle and not a small one that the man had surived at all much less this long and had been able to fight and kill a carn with an injury that should of killed him instantly.

How did you survive? I lidos asked himslef as he closed his eyes to try and see the mans sould. All around the souls and auras of the carns were leaving the bodies red of color of anger and fear while the gunslingers soul remained with the body shinning a golden purple and Ilidos opened his eyes and smiled. Maygbe you are worth saving after all. The shadow walker smiled.
He sliced his hand and poured blood onto the gun slingers skull, and even if the wound had begun healing it was not enough and the gunslinger began dying. God damn you Ilidos thought as he poured more blood ontoo the injury but it was not enough. Again the shadow walker closed his eyes and began the prayer of the chains of sin as he opened the gunslingers mouth and sliced his hand deeper this time to make sure the wound would not heal uinstantly. He placed the bleeding hand over the gunslingers mouth and poured blood down his throat and made sure the gunslinger swallowed and would not caugh up or puke it out. It seemed he was too late at first but then the gunslingers wound healed and his eyes opened.
Ilidos removed his hand and Eric coughed and spat as he woke up, but he had so little energy even this was too much.
“what have you done to me?” the gunsluinger demanded as he felt the darkness and hate grow inside him.
“I helped you,” Ilidos told him as he got back up, “as you asked while dying.”
“What did you do to me?” Eric asked again feeling his strength returning and sitting up.
“What I had to do to save your life.” Ilidos replied and walked away to loot the bodies and the huts of the carns.
Eric watched in silence as the tall man in black moved around the camp gathering suplies, weapons, ammo and gear, dragging dead bodies and throwing them all on a pile in the centre of the camp. Then as night came he brought two horses and helped Eric onto the smaller skinier horse that probably belong to some unfortunate soul the flesh eaters had killed and consumed.
“do you think you are strong enough to ride for a little while?” The cruel man asked and Eric only nodded even if he did not think he was strong enough he wanted to get away from the carns camp as fast and as far as possible.
‘good.” Ilidos smiled. He walked to the massive pile of corpses and with a motion of his hands it seemed as if he had called all the blood of the dead into himself. A giant red mist rose out of the ground and bodies to be absorbed by Erics savior. As the mist dissapeared he saw the carns now looked like mummies hundreds or thousands of years old and he felt chills all the way to his bones. Then with a snap of his fingers the pile of dead bodies began smoking and burst into flames. The air was filled with thick black smoke and the smell of burning flesh and filth and Eric was sure he would vomit again.
“Time to move on.” The tall man in black told Eric as he mountaid and lead the way out of the burining village.
The tall man lead Erics horse as the gunslinger used all of his strength and both hands just to stay in the saddle. Just as he tought he would pass out the reached a small hill next to a stone mountain some 20 miles away from the camp and Ilidos stopped the horses and took Eric off sitting him down his back against a giant rock.
The gunslinger watched the tall man set up a fire pit and tent as well as the rest of the small camp. He then took off the saddles of both horses and brushed them down befor he made a ire and light it again with just a snapp of his fingers.
“What are you?” Eric asked the tall man as he put a pot over the fire to boil water.
“I am or was a man like you, but now I am more like the carns, a monster that feed on the life of other to keep me going.” Ilidos smiled as he opened his pack to pull out herbs, cofffe, sugar and two very old looking tin cups.
“Carns don’t make clouds of blood or fire with just a motion of their fingers.” The gunslinger replied.
“no theses are the gifts of my kind, but in many ways we are the same. I am a shadow walker, an ancient evil, a vampir if you like better.”
“Blood drinker.” Eric whisperd remembering the stories he had heard about them as a child.
“Close enough.” Ilidos smiled as made himself coffee and a foul smelling tea for Eric.
“Why did you save me?” eric asked as he vampire forced him to drink the tea.
“why indeed.” The vampire smiled. “now go to sleep.” The shadow walker commanded, “it is a long trip to the nearest settelment and I need you strong enough to ride, Carns are not the worst of thing that roam these hills at night.”
Eric wanted to protest but he had no energy the Shadow walker had saved him and something more he could feel that he had been corupted but he could not see how or understand why. From the stories one could only recive the gift of darness if he was taken in a servant of the shadows and that the ritual is dark and long yet he did not remember any ritual all he remembered was the taste of blood and darness filling his mind and soul and then he was back in the carns camp.
Ilidos watched the young man fall asleep and pulled out his pipe. He filled it with a mixture of brown green and dark leafe and smoked it in peace. His mood lightened and he though of his descision to save the young man. He was now doubly cursed, yet he did not know of either of his curses. A dust born that could not use the gift of dust for he was still too young and had no one to tell him or train him how to use his power yet he had been strong enough to use the gift to remain alive even if he had been killed, and now thanks to Ilidos he also had the curse of the Shadow walker eternal life fuel by the life force of others.
But maybe the dust would keep the Shadow thirst away for a few hudred years at least. Whatever the case if the young man had clung to life so hard it meant he must have something very important that drove him on to continue living for days even after he was killed and dust born were so rare it seem like sacrilige to let him die. It matters not! Ilidos told himself angry all of a sudden. You saved him and the day after tomorrow you will leave him at the trader post and you will never see him again. You did your good deed and now you can move on. He told himslef yet despite everything he told himself and despite the leafe he still could not find peace he still felt ill at ease and he cursed .
“damn you gunslinger.” He whispered and began th long watch as darkness took the land and the monsters came out.
Erics dreams were haunted. He was back in town 3 days ago when the undead giants attacked and his sister and every child and women they did not klill were taken away. He had rode in with all the men that were out hunting the strange giants and did not realise they had been pulled out to allow the main force of undead giants to attack. When they did return the town was burning and the giants were killing all in their way. The held gateling guns but they fired more bullwets faster than any gun eric had ever seen. They had explosives twice as stron as dinamite sticks but smaller and round. Eric fiered at them but the bullets did no damage, only a head shot in the eye or under the helmet that would pierce the brain would kill them, but even armed with this knowledge there were too few of them and they were being cut down fast while the undead giants in thick metal armor and dark leather took dozens of shots before the defenders got a head shot to put them down.
Eric had stepped out with rifle and 4 pistols shooting the giants in the head left and right each shot a head shot each shot a kill emptying the repeating rifle before he pulled out the 45s and continued raining death as hailes of bullets rained by him untill a flying bomb landed next to him and blew him off his feet into the tavern which collapse on him.
He screamed in agony as the building fell on him and woke up grabbing for his pistol but it was not there.
“Bad dreams?” he heard the shadow walker ask him and he turned around to see the tall man sitting by the fire a pipe in his mouth a strange looking rifle layed across his lap.
“yes.” Eric replied and got up. He was still in the blood and filth covered clothing and he took off the ripped up shirt and threw it on the ground allowing the stench to leave him. His guns and belt were gone as was his knifes and his vest and all of his gear, he had a blanket the shadow walker had given him and he covered him self in it walking to the fire.
“recent dreams, or old nightmares?” Ilidos asked and offered the gunslinger a cup of coffee.
Eric accepted it with a smile and sat across the tall man in black.
“Recent dreams,” he confessed “my town was attacked by giants of blue skin with black blood that does not move. They took the women and children and burned it to the ground, I was the only survivor.” Eric explained.
“Sounds like the all fathers legion.” Ilidos spoke as he drank his coffee.
“You know of them?” The gun slinger said almost dropping his coffee.
“A bit.” Ilidos confessed, “I am awarew of all of those that use the branches of sin one way or another.”
“where can I find them?” Eric said standing up.
“east, somewhere, I do not know much about them, I have killed a few of them and sought to look for them but never got around to it.”
“You are hunting them too?” the gunslinger asked excited at the thought of the shadow walker helping him.
“Not exactly,” Ilidos smiled, “ I seek to find the source of their power and use it for me if I can but I have other business now so I gave up on searching for them.”

“I see.” The gunslinger said finishing his coffee and giving the cup back to the Shadow walker. “Did you find my guns at the carn camp?”
“Hard to tell for I do not know which were your guns.” The vampire smiled. “But I can do better. A warrior should not go without weapons.”
The tall man stood up and walked to his saddle bags, from them he pulled out a black shirt and vest which he gave to Erick. The shirt was a bit too big on the gun slinger but it was clean and the vest was a perfect fit. Then Ilidos handed him a pair of 38 revolvers with 60 rounds and a short sword of somew kind. Then he gave him a belt of heavily oiled black leather with bullet loops a shoulder holster and a front blet holster for the 38s.

“These were mine but I no longer can use them.” Ilidos said pulling out two massive looking revolvers that lookled older than age to Eric.
“They are massive.” The gunslinger observed as the tall man handed him the two ancient revolvers in black holsters.
“The are what some call true guns or hard calibers, they are very old and hold many secrets.” The vampire smiled.
“secrets?”
“You will figure it out,” the vampire smiled, “or you wont, but they are 45s and will stop anything that comes in their way even the All fathers legion, no head shot requiered.”
“I thank you.” Eric said confused not understanding why the vampire was so generous all of a sudden.
“I was waiting for the right person to give them to, and I think you are it, so take them and may they kill many enemies that stand in your way.” The vampire laughed handing Eric a bundel of rounds for the pistols.
Eric nodded and placed the guns on his hips and filled the belt with 45s and 38s then fully dressed and armed he looked at the smiling vampire.
“I am Eric Darkwood.’ He said extending his hand.
“Ilidos,” the vampire smiled “Ilidos Blackcrow.” He said grabbing the gunslinger arm in a warriors hand shake.
“now Mr Darkwood,” he said getting up and packing up his camp. “we need to get riding if we are going to make it to the post before night fall.”
Eric nodded and with the camp packed up they mounted and left. The journey was uneventful, They move slowly across mountains and valleys making cold camp at night For three days. The shadow Walker kept mostly to himself and Eric did not push him to talk.

Eric had enough his mind as it was. The last few days have been hard enough without the vampire that joined him. he decide it would be best to Leave him alone until he was ready to talk.
Trying to three days to get the Trading post. it was a small settlemen but full with people and busy with All kinds of things.
Eric and shadow Walker Road into the settlement slowly.

The vampire seemed Feel at as you sent very well you sent very well. Eric followed his lead And did as a shadow Walker.
They left their horses at the stables and then move by foot to the drinking house.
It was an ugly town small and cramped. With small wooden buildings and camp fires everywhere. it smelled off filth both human and animal.
The people there themselves were not much better looking than the town. Ugly disease filthy nothing about this place seemed welcoming or nice to Eric. Yeah it was civilization and he could get weapons and supplies since he was sure the vampire would not go along with him anymore.
The shadow Walker did not seem to mind the humans or the filth and the foul smell. They made their way to the drinking house and found their way to a secluded table in the corner of the building
A haggard, old and broken down serving maid came to take their order. Eric ordered a beer as well as steak and eggs, while the shadow Walker ordered wine and just a rare steak. The serving maid took their order and moved off quickly to disappear in the crowd.
So what do you think of This lovely town.
The shadow Walker asked with an evil smile.
It is as foul looking as it is foul smelling. Eric replied with look of discussed on his face.
I just hope the food is better than what we have seen so far. Eric smiled.
I would not get my hopes up if I were you. Ilidos Smiled back.
The survin maid returned far far Too long after they had ordered without a face as the town and the people.
the steak was like a old shoe sole and the eggs were not better but Eric was Starving and wolfed the meal down In a matter of seconds. He washed down the foul meal with the even fouler beer.

Well that was fucking horrible to say it lightly Erick said and walked outside to smoke a cigarrette. Ilidos joined himnd was about to say something when Erick felt very strange. There were no words to describe it he just felt danger and nausia, then out the corner of his eye he saw a silver clad giant in some kind of mechanical armor and it had a very large weapons of somekind pointed at them. Before he could do anything Ilidos pushed him far away sending him flying into the barber shop through the wooden wall.

Erick could not see what was going on out side but he heard a great woosh and then a massive explosion sounded.

Outside I;lidos smiled as he absorbed the blast of the massive weapon and faced the p[aladin that had fierd it at him.

‘Well well, Saras we meet again.” He smiled as he locked eyes woth the angry paladine of the iron clan his arch nemessis as she like to think of her self bnut nothing but a giant pain in his ass for many years.

“Thos time you will die abomination!” She hiseed anger consuming her.

“Sure why not and why not kill the whole town with me since that last explosion would of reduced all to cinder around here had I not absorbed it.

For a second the paladin faltered and Ilidos took his chance like a ghost he rushed her and before she could even react he send a fist into her armored face sending her flyong sky hogh out side of town where she crash landed like a rag doll.

I;lidos joined her putside of town and watched her get up her helmet bent her breather and visor cracked.

“Looks like you are lossing you touch and sanity: he smiled

But she wsa ready for him she jumped up and pulling her electric chain sword she slashed and hacked for him as he dogded and moved out of the wepaons way

Ilidos suddenly stumbeled as one of his legs buckeled below him.

“the blast was not an explosion you coky fuck but a sun blast,” The paladin smiled and smashed him in the face with a mighty kick sending him flying.

Ilidos felt the Solarian weapon begging to take away his power and he knew he was in trouble. He had absorbed the full blast and soon he would be as weak as any mortal.

Now you die once and for all. The paladin smiled and slashed for him again. He dodged and blosked relyimng on his armor but he was allready dying. Then she puched him and slammed the cahain sword into his collar bone cutting deep with electorshoking him buring his tissu.

The vampire felt life ebbing away from him when out of no where 6 shots exploaded hitting the paladin right in the face all of them sending her to the floor.

“Now wait just a god damn fucking minute who ever the fuck you are!” Eric roared as he approached the battle.

Ilidos removed the sword and stumbeled falling and crawling towards EWric.

“what did she do to you?” Erick asked helping his companion up.

“the bitch finally got me.” Ilidos smiled his face pale his eyes blurry.

“How can I help?’ the gunslinger asked.

“ use the chins of blood and heal me.’ The vampire whispered bearly speakign

“How?” Eick said but the vampire had passed out.

Without knowing what to do Erick closed his eyes and allowed his brain to work on auto
Slowly he felt a strang felling as blood tentacles came out of his hands and shot into Ilidos. He felt the power of his blood healing the shadow walked but then he too was shot by the white light canon as the paladin got back up.

Unlike Ilidos he did not feel any damage but felt stronger instead.

The paladin stood up and jumped at Erick and even in the mechanised power armor Eric was able to throw her off him and pull his pisotl and put another 6 rounds into her face. She fell to the ground her helmet smashed and she did not move.

Stanidng above two passed out strangers Eric felt as in a dream, he felt powerful stronger than even ahd he went on to heal Ilidos. Once he was sure the vampire was stable he walked over to the passed out paladin and removed her helmet ready to put a bullet in his brain.

However when he did remover the helmet he found himself stairing at the most beuatifull women he had ever seen. Blue eyed with shining gold hair thick lipped and despite the bruising and the blood shot eyee he felt an instant attrackion to her so he decided not to shoot her, but stripped her of her aromr instead and tied her up.

When Ilidos woke up he began laughing like a maniac seeing the hog tied paladin and Erick cooking coffe in a make shift camp he had made.

Well I will be damed if I were not allready the vampire smiled and stood up.

Who is she? Erick asked passing a cup of coffe to the injured vampire.

She is Saras the high preistes of the iron circle and the most powerfull of the paladins around, and you my friend took her out like if she was nothing but a child in a fancy armor and that is something to be proud off.

They drank their coffe in peace until Saras woke up and began curing them like crazy. She broke her bomnds and charged them shooting white light out of her hands, But Erick got in her way absorbing the light blows. The as she jumped him he blovked her blow and send a cross to her face thaat send her spinning and sprawling to the ground.

Well well Saras it would seem that you have met your macth Ilidos smiled as he approached her and offered his hand. She spat at him fury burning in her eyes.

What the hell is he? She hissed looking at Erick with murder in his eyes.

Take a good look and you tell me. Ilidos smiled.

She did and it seemed to Erick that she was stuck by a physical blow after a few seconds.

What have you done you mad man. She saked as she stood up and aproached Erick who was tensing up.

I saved his life, and maybe corrupted him a bit. He smiled

You turned a dust born into an abomination. She hissed.

Or I have finally found death waler. Ilidos smiled.

Defeated Saras sat down by the firs lost and confused. “is nothing sacred to you?” she asked

My life. Ilidos smiled.

“ok I had enough!” Erick stormed. Who are you and why did yopu attack my companion he roared at the paladin.

Yopur companion is a dark spirit an ncietn evil that had kille thousands if not millions and its my job to hunt his kind down to make this world a better place.

Well he saved my life and has done no evil since hehas been with me Erick stormed back. Now tell me why should I not kill you right now?

Saras looked at him in dissbe;liefe and smiled. I can help you she said finally.

How so Erick hissed angry still.

I can teach you how to use the gift of dust.

Fine I will let you live Eric replied nut in exchange you will join me on my quest.

And what quest would that be the paladin asked standing up.

He seeks to find and destroy the all father. Ilidos smiled.
And you too, Eick barked now I saved you life so we are even and since I dtill don’t know what you did to me you will help me as well.

Ilidos stood for a moment looking at the furious Erick and smiled back.

Fair enough I have been planing to find that asshole for a while any way. What do you say Saras do we help this man find his people and stop the legion.

The paladin looked at Ilidos and then and Erick and with a sight she replied. I will help you find the all father and fight the legion but in return we must take him to the circle of light.

No! Erick stormed no one is taking me anywhere or telling me to do shit. I am the one saying what is to be done is that clear.

Ilidos smiled and looked at Saras.

Fine the paladin agreed, where is my armor.

Destroyed. Erick hissed in anger.

Well, she smiled back in good humore now, then at least I need to go and get a new one.

Reclutantly Eric agreed and then next hour Saras and Ilidos rode off to get weapoms anromr and supplies leavinf Erick to wait for them.

It has been over 3 weeks since Erick had taken to the road, separating from Ilidos for the first timwe since his path had crossed the shadow walkers. The vampire had gone with the paladine to get supplies they would need to continue thew jpurnay and EWrick was to wait for their return. At first he had been patient and good but then a darkness and restlessns began building up[ inside him and he had to go out of town or he feared he might kill everyone insde. The Vampire had warned him about it and told him when he should feel this to use as much drugsa and alchohol as he could and to avoid all people for the blood lust would be great so Erick obeyed and had been outside the town for a while now yet the rage and restlesness had not passed him yet.

Then one night in a drunken haze he wondered off into the desert half naked but fully armed with a bottle of some foul spirit and an even fouler devils grass he was starting to believe was just regular grass and had already planned to find the asshole who sold it to him and beating the shit out of him, when he had run inot the black figure that had changed his life forever.

Erik had seen the fire and wondered to it seeing the man wrapped in black cloths ands cloack with a large pointy wizard hat and burning red eyes that seemed to shimmer and shine like embers or fire at moment.

“May I sit by your fire sir Wizard?” Erik had asked politly trying not to laugh.

“Wizard,” the demonic eyed creature giggled, “you are more educated than some so yes you may share my fire if your story is not boring.”

Erik sat down and took another swig from the bottle offering it to the wizard who refused with a shake of his head.

“Your choice,” Erick said putting down the bottle and lighting the shitty devil grass again, “I have to dissapoint you wizard but my story is boring, just a man traveling to see how far I can get before my body or spirit gives out.”

“Ahh but there is more is there not,” the wizard cackeled. “You are trying to kill yourslef and yet at the same time you want to fight on and help others so they never have to suffer the faith you did. Not a very original life but still deeper than you say, is it not?”

“What do you think you know of me?” Erik asked unafraid to show anger in his voice.

“i know you sought a cure for your wife and that once you found it you returned to find her and all three of your children murdered, I know you went on a killing spree seeking the bandits who did it and that along the way you saved hundreds of lives and took over 700, which is no small number for a man alone, and that once you had finished with you vengance there was nothing left inside you and you are now lost. Unale to decide what to do because you don’t know your self nor do you have the right motivation.”

The wizard was suprized to see Erick strange looking gauuse pistol pointing at the wizards face the drugs and alchohol gone from the burning eyes stairing down at the wizard.

“What are you and why should I not kill you right now?” Erik hissed.
“Because I can give you the motivation.” the Wizard laughed

“Who are you?’’ Erick pushed.

“I am the black wizard.” the shrouded person laughed and Erik put his gun away.

“My, my are you not fast to anger, I guess that explains the 700 dead.” The black wizard kept on laughing

“What do you want from me?” Erik asked

“You keep the bones of your family?” the wizard asked.

“Yes.” Erik replied, “in a sack on a puch on my belt, its hard case so they will last forever as long as I dont open it to let air in.” Erik explained not sure why he did.

“And why do you think you did that warrior?” the Wizard asked as if reading Eriks mind.

“I don’t know.” Eric confessed.

“Well, never mind,” the wizard shook his hand and pulled out a pipe of jis own which he light and passed on the Eric. Erick took it and took a puff then another on, maybe too big one before he passed it to the laughing wizard.

“There is a place called the Valhalah sector Eric, there man used inholy devices that can break inot the Ether the place where sould go and call a soul back out, they also made machins that can creat a whole human from a bone or a hair from the age that person was when the sample was taken, so if you found it you could recreate your family and call their souls back to you bringing them back to life.” The wizard told him as the world began to glow strangly.

“That is some strong smoke wizard.” Eric laughed trying to hide his panick.

“You have no idea son!” the wizard said in slow motion with a voice deeper than gods or giants.

“I need to..” close my eyes Eric though he said as he closed his eyes and bright colors flashed into his mind.

He was on a hill in a strange combat armor with more weapons, there were other men with him a giant that was in heavy armor and seemed more machine than human, a tall sinister looking blond that was as seductive as she was inocent and evil looking in lighter but very advanced combat armor as well except she had huge wings of blood oming out of her back and she giggled demonicly. A third man in heavy combat armor a bit lighter on the robotics with a little less weapons was there with them as well, he too was a scafed veteran and like the other two seemed like gods or demons to Erick. The looked over a bleak land of Jagged rock, black molten glass like land and grey dust that connected to a lightning torn grey sky that went on for ever. And in the middle of it all a giant fortress of steel and iron rising like a tower out of the eatrth surrounded with giant walls and fences stood in front of them. The massive center of the base a tower that seemed to go up inot the sky forever where it turned a bright blue where lightining kept hitting it at al times form all direction far up inot the glouds where just the massive blue light could be seen but not the top of the tower.
“We all know what to do, and what must be done.” the giant man in the rbotic aromor and hundreds of weapons on him said in a deep voice that sounded like rolling thunder breaking through the storm with ease.

He smiled than and slapped Eric on the shoulder. Then the vision ended and darkness took Eric. He was sick for the next few days and when he finaly woke up he was in a hut in a hammock being taken care of by a young women. Whne she saw he was awake she left and the Back Wizard came.

“Awake at last.” The wizard laughed. “I knew that stuff would not kill you.”

“Great.” Erick smiled giving him the finger trying to move. “Where is my stuff?”

“its safe,” the wizard assured him, “plus I can give you any weapon or armor you want, tell me did you see it, did you see the tower that goes into the sky so high no end can be seen?”

“Yes.” Eric told him getting out of bed.

“And you were there? Alone? Inside?”

“No, I was in front of it, with a few very strange and dangerous looking people I would say a demon, a robot from the tales of space humans and some kind of super warrior type, I cant remember.

“never mind.” the wizard smiled

For a few more days he trained and questioned and confuzed Eric then one morning he was gone and Erick was left alone again, but far in the distance he saw Ilidos and the Paladine and knew it was time to move on again.

*

The Ghost, The Dark Seeker and The Legionnaire

It had been over 20 years since Sanguine had been killed and Babylon had fallen and this was the twenty first time Ensenge was heading there. He was not sure if it was guilt, pride, or respect that drew him to the grave of the blood god every year, but once per year he would head out back into the southern deserts and comute with the spirit of Sanguine.

It had been the last say of the word As Ensenge knew it, while he was engange with Sanguine at the tower of Babel, the Dark Seeker Fortress had been attaked and leveled to the ground by heavy canons from the desert born. What little of the Seeker Masters and DarkSeekers remained scattered and fled. Wile Ensenge Killed Sanguine barely escaping death himself as the tower Of Babel fell and Babylon burned below it as the united forces of the free sector attacked the desert born army and pushed them back to the city where it all went to hell and thousands died in the ecplosions and fire that folowed the fall of the tower after Ensenge defeated Sanguine and destoryed the Blood atrat where his power came from.

Even if it had been only 20 years it seemed another life time to Ensenge now, he had been on the move looking for the survivors of the fall of the Dark tower but so far he had only found two dark seekers both house of owl, both dead by the time he found them. But there were more clues and rumors he was exploring and following, and certainly one day he woud find someone wh remained.

The storngest clue he had was that what remained of the Dark seeker leaders had escaped to the Valhala Sector and were regrouping there. That was what he hoped for ut in truth he knew that the Obscura corporation was rulling the valhala sector and that if any dark seekrs were there they would be foe and not friend. He had allready met a few now they were part of the 13 evil spirits servants of the coprotation and the Chaos beast even if they did not know it convinced they were saving the universe when in fact they were doming it to a permanent demise .

So in the last twenty years he had been traveling the lands he had become a legend among legends of what the Dark Seekers the saviors of humnaity once were for 3 centuries that they existed and protected the world of the worst of the monsters the alien bug, the cure for the alien bug and the AEM (advanced evolutionary Mutagen) had created along side the radiation and other toxic poision that showered the planet once everything went to shit.

But every year he would head back to the heart of the southern deserts and spend a few days with the spirit of Sanguine talking of the past, future, dreams, hopes, philosophy, he was a bit ashamed to admit it but he found the company of the mass murdering self declared deity the God of Blood quite good company.

He had left his six legged giant of a mount back at the last settlement at the edge of the dessert and had proceeded on foot. It was not easy going but he was well designed for the dessert he was house of the Serpant, the only surviving snake eater for the last 2 centuries at least. So he could take the desert, he could take the heat, he could take the sun, so he walked on into the blistering heat and he walked for days. Sleeping during the hottest parts of the days and walked the whole night until noon then rested and walked deeper and deeper into the deserts.

His body regulated the heat as tiny beads of sweat appeareed on his face. He walked on slowly step after step reliving the battle against the Blood God and his elite warriors the blood born, killers of inhumane killers as he climebd the tower higher and higher until he had reached Sanguine, waiting for him as if it was the mans birthday gift not an assassine come to kill him and bring down his empire.

The man had been excited to meet Ensenge. Finally a worthy opponent a famous Darkseeker. He had killed many Dark seekers and he was determined to be the end of them and the new law of the land. With the Dark Seekers dead no one in the free sector could stand to his powers.

The battle had been bloody and Ensenge had barely surived and everytime he tought of that last trick that last moment when he had tricked the Blood God and destroyed everything. He falt guilt and pride in the same measure he had defeated the undeafeatable but he had done it with a trick.

“War is won byt trickery and fool can calculate strenght, martial arts are based on deception.” Sanguine had comlimented him when they had first met when Ensenge had summoned his ghost and more surprising when the Blood gods spirit had appeared.

Ensenge had asked him why he remained in the ruins to watch the ages go by tormented by his past when the blood god had laughed at him:

“And where would I go boy, to fight demons and monsters as me in the void? No I am tiered of killing even monsters, and do you think they would open the doors to everlasting paradise to a murderous monster like me?” He had roared in a painfull laughter. “No boy I will remain here, and talk to you if you come visit.”

And so Ensenge had begun visiting every year he was still unsure what had driven him to return that first time but he knew since then that he and the blood god were to be connect for as long as he lived for one reason or another. If nothing else at least if Sanguine would not tell his secrets to others that itself would be worth the yearly visits.

He was alost there a little over a kilometer when he stopped. He saw men walking around the ruins of Babylon. Not much had remained of the dessert city piles of rubble, a couple of stone momolyths as well as the one oand only surviving statue of Sanguine in the centre of it all, in his full combat armor, blood blade in his hand. The statue had been at the entrance of the city and Ensenge had ordered it left alone.

The men could not see him unless they had a powered scope and even then he would be hard to notice with the sand covered cloack and hood making him blend into the desseert so that even the best of snioers could not find him even with heat vision.

Still he aprroached slowly, carefully, studying the men at the camp set around the staute. The camp was well built four tents around a fire pit, weapons racks by each tent, spiked logs and a stockade of rock on each side of the camp. There were armors on the raks by the weapons at least two dozen of them and they seemed to be forged, shiny and not made of scrap or junk metal.

Unless he was mistaken there was a unit of some kind at the grave of Sanguine and Ensenge felt his heart beat quicken for a second. Another army, one he had not run into so far, a new threats? Was it just a small warlord or something worst, had someone else talked to Sanguine, was someone else looking for the power source of the dead God of blood and the desert born. It has been over 3 decades since Sanguine has died a finger snap in Ensenges almost 300 year long life, but for most people 30 years was long enough to forget about something even as terrible as Sanguine.

Yet he knew that his evil would not be forgtoen and those that are seeking power would always remember the blood god and wonder if they too could ever be that powerful. At the moment only the golden city and the Baron would be someone Ensenge would think of who would pose a problem bu t then again he has been wondering the world for the last 3 decades like a ghost stuck in a day dream, from slaying monster to whore house to drug den, and so in a circle, constantly trying to get high or drunk constantly almost there, but the body would not allow him to get fully intoxicaed. He was looking for a clue a lead that would take him to Valhala Sector any word of other Dark Seeker but still even now he was out of focus, out of his prime, there was something off abou him since the day he had killed Sanguine and the Dark Seeker fortress was burned to the ground, He had recovered fully yet something inside him never recovered and he was no longer in his prime any more and he knew it but there was not much more for him to do, no setting down, what was he to do, just sit around and wait for time to run out for some system to colapse within him.

He was approaching the ruins slow but steady, he was not concealing himslef too hard, but he was not exposing himself either. He wnted to see how discipline the man at the ruins were. Most of them were moving around oblivious to their souroundings some carried short swords and axes on their belt on one side, some kind of pistols on their right side. He saw only one man with a rifle slung across his back but there were a bunch of them on the weapons rack by the armors.

He was onlt some 400 meters away when he saw the sniper hiding in one of the only boulders. It was a well hidden one but the scope glint gave its position away. He stopped and zoomed in on her with his eyes. Unlike mortal a Dark seeker could take out a man with a rock at a mile away throwing the rock faster than the speed of sound.

So this seemed like a perfect oportunity to see what they are made off so he picked up a fist sized rock and aimed with half of his strenght he threw the rock at the sniper, aiming below the perch the sniper was hiding on. The rock left with an explosion as the sonic boom was created by the acceleration of the throw. It flew straight not arched and impacted under the sniper perch. There was a loud explosion, rock falling and dust, followed by general confusion and panick amongst the man at the ruins. Some ran for covers others for their weapons. But in general they had no idea what was going on or why the sniper position had exploaded.

Circleling them Ensenge went around the ruines north to east, once he had circled them he approached them slowly as they sought the enemy north.

Right behind them now he pulled out his mind caliber and held the pistol behind his back in his left hand while his right remained on the but of the other pistol.

“You boys looking for something?” He asked calmly as the 12 men scattered around the ruins jumped from their covers pointing their rifles at Ensenge.

There was open hostility in all of them and visible confusion as well, Yet they did not engage, they kept checking with the one man that wore the full armor. It reminded Ensenge of aromors of ancient times that he read about as a child, Folded chest pieces that had shoulder proetcotrs attached on then that went almost down to the elbow and then some kind of leather fore arm protecto reinforced with metal as well. He too wore a faded red tunic and brown leggings. Metal greaves with reinforcment and a knife shiedled his lower legs and a war belt with two sword, a knif pistol and canteen hung on his belt. A thick metal circular chest piece rested over the segmented armor he wore and the letter SPQR were engraved in it. Over the armor he wore a chest rig with a few pockets, that Ensenge assumed carried ammo and maybe some medgear. It was clear even if most men had taken off their amror this was a n army, and the first one he had seen on 30 years that was not part of the free sector.

“What is it you want stranger?” the fully geared soldier finally barked his rifle still poiting at Ensenge.

“This is a holy shrine I come to communicate with the passed every year.” Ensenge replied simply seeing how the men would react.

“You know what this place is?” the officer said lifting his rifle a bit the gleam of curiousity in his eyes?

“Yes I do.” Ensenge smiled, “but do you?”

“We are legion!” the man barked back, “we know everything!” he said angrily leveling his rifle again.

“The camp you made is on holy ground.” Ensenge replied with a smile seeing that the men of the so called legion were terrified. “This is the grave of Sanguine the Blood God and I its guardian.” Ensenge finished darkly watching the hostility and fear turn to horror something he could not identify. Had he just told them what they have needed to know, he assumed it was so, which in turn confirmed his fears that the men were not there randomly a lost patrol, far recon or anythig they were there looking for Babylon.

“I need food and water.” Ensenge continued with a smile taking a step forward.

“You are in the wrong place stranger but I will tell you what,” The legionar replied, “since you look like a desert wraith and walk like a ghost we will let you go if you leave right now.”

Ensenge smiled and taking another step forward he dropped the heavy sand colored cloack and hood, revealing the full Darkseeker black combat armor, and all the weapons on him. They could not see what type of rifles he had on his back but they could see the four pistols on him, the blood blade, the chainsword and the rocket sledge hammer on his back and the mood cahnged instantly.

“I am Engsenge DarkWood the last of the Dark Seekers in the free sector.” He hissed as he approached now unstopped and the legionairs began taking stepps back or digging in ready to fire. “I am death and Homus Novis do you think you have what it takes to put me down little man? I have killed the God of Death and brought down Babylon, I have stopped the fall of this god forsaken world more times than I can remember in the last 3 centuries and you think you can threaten me?” He asked stairing at the legion leader but a few inches away from his rilfe now.

The Legionair swallowed and Ensenge had know even before that the man had made his choice despite being terrfied out of his mind they were fighting, the men were at least disciplined and had heart, Enseng would give them that.

The shot from the rifle surprised everyone but Ensenge who had already moved out of its way and in a fluid motion had pulled the blood blade and slashed the barrel of the rather strange looking repeater rifle with a pistol grip, a rail of some kind that a flashlight was mountaid on, and he also noticed they had some kind of scope that could be a red dot os somekind. His brain collected all of this information for him without much thought he had been fighting for so long now that his brain analyzed stored, processed and categorised every second of everyevent and than compared it to every previous encounter in his 280 year long life all withing 1 third of a second, much of it was the AEM in him, part was the years, and part were the implants and the augmentations that he had received when he was but 19 and had been upgraded with all the UHF, MWGC and UGC tech that was left at the disposal of the planet at the moment.

The rifle barrel fell as the blade bit through the mans armor cutting right through it, lacurating the soft flesh and bone below. The legionair screamed in shock and dissbeliefe as the blood exploaded from the giant gash across his whole chest. The he fell into the sand face first and yelled no more, a pool of blood spreading around him. The strange looking blade seemed to vibrate and appear and dissapear as it hummed a song of death at the frozen legionairs who stood stock still stairing at the man in black armor splashed with blood of their leader. The could not see his face for he had put in the black gas mask with helmet so that the sand would not bother him and his voice seemed even stranger through the masks voice box when he spoke to them.

“Your leader is dead.” he said calmly, “what happens to you is your choice.” he told them and waited.

He had truly hoped that they would surender, that they would run, but he knew they would not. Even as he had finished speking one man had begun squezzing the trigger on his rifle leveled with Ensenges head. The Dark Seeker began moving as the hammer came down on the rifel and the pin slammed down sending the projectile at Ensenges head. But he had already moved and had calculated everything. He could see the paths of every rifle held by every legionair, every possible direction they could fire even before they had even moved the first shot came off but Ensenge had already side stepped rolled and came up slashing the meteor sword up opening the legionair groin to head like butter. His insides spilled out as the man died without a sound dropping into what used to be his insides. Ensenge side stepped as two bullets smashed the rock by him and in one single motion he raised his left arm. What the Legionairs did not know is that the metal arm guard also contained 3 mini missles from the UHF that the gunsmiths of the free sector now knew how to produce.

With a thiugh he sent a missle at the largest clusters of legionars as two more bullets slahed by him to hammer into the rocks behind. A huge explosion followed as the rocket hit its target and exploaded with tremendous force sending chuncks of men, wepaons rock and dust high into the sky. Like a ghost Ensenge sheated the meteor sword and pulled his blood born pistols. They were .45 produced by Sanguine for his army 30 years ago. They were stocky ugly weapons with 2 magazines one in the grip one on the weapon with a long barrel and a rail for a light and for sights. The free sector had improved on these weapons and made even better ones now but many rangers still carried revolvers and despised the Blood guns as they were called by the ones old enough to remember the war 30 years ago, and the horrors Sanguine had comitted.

With lethal precision Ensenge walked through the falling cloud of rock, dust, blood and chunks of legionairs as they began falling back down to earth and he leveled the pistols one in each hand. He opened fire as shots flew by him, not even one coming close as he shot one man in the face with the left handed pistol and shot down another in the chest and the face with the right handed weapon. He side stepped and rolled to avoid a huge boulder crashing down and two more projectiles that hammered where he had been standindg a second ago. He retured fire with his right handed pistol hitting the man twice in the chest then shot another burly looking angry man that was pumping shot after shot into the dust right in the face killing him instantly.

Getting up from his roll he leveled both guns at the group of remaining Legionairs and opened fire from both pistols fanning out as his bullets cut them down left and right. The dust setteled as the last chunks of legionnaires landed with a splash and a meaty thud and the remaining legionairs had either been crushed by the falling rocks or killed by the shock blast. He did not check if any had run, for he did not care, but he hoped at least one of them was smart enough to have begun running when he had exploaded half of them sky high.

He checked for any surviviors but no one was moving, no one was breathing, suddenly tiered from the killing he reloaded the blood born guns and sheated them on the back of his back in the weird semi open holsters made for guns with a double clip.

“Well that was impressive.” Suddenly the voice of Sanguine came to him.

“I am not surprised you enjoyed it.” Enseng snapped a bit harsher than he intended but was mellowed out by Sanguines deep laughter. It was rich and powerful and resonated in his mind with good humor.

“I see you are still a jusgmental stuck up dick you always were.” Sanguine laughed as his image appeared next to the statue and like every time Ensenge was shocked for a second. Sanguine was as close to a god a man could come to. He was tall and build like a mountain at almost 7 feet tall and perfectly rpoportionat muscles for a body that large he seemed like a deity, the long blond hair pulled back in a lose tail, the buring blue eyes and the face of an ruler that seemed to be chizeled out of marble with a perfect nose, full lips and a cruel smile always on the coenrer of the lips he seemed like the god he called himself to be. He wore the dark red black armor Ensenge had killed him in even as the ghost he was and on his side as always hung only the legendary blood blade that had been lost under babylong along with the reamins of Sanguine if anything remained of his body, for their last battle had been brutal and Ensenge had gone so far that he had not only killed Sanguine and all of Babylon and everything that lived in or near it. He blamed himself for the death and destruction of his home as a punishment for what he had done at Babylone, for it was a sin he had justified many times in his mind but would haunt him forever.

“Judging yourslef now?” Sanguine laughed again as he approached Ensenge and laid his ghost arm on the shoulder of the blood covered warrior.

“I am always judging myself.” Ensenge replied calm now.

“Thats why you are a monster hunter and will never be a god.” Sanguine told him as he walked on to examin the dead bodies sucking all blood and god knows what else out of the corpses.

“Whatever you are doing if you do anything stupid I will just kill you again.” Enseng told him as he whiped down the blood and took of his helmet and mask revealing the scaed face, with the green cat like eyes the slasehd lips and the not so handsome face of a predator that looked a bit more animalistic than human if looked at too long. The eyes seemed to shimmer from darker to lighter green, his lips too were thick, his chin strong his features handsom but he was nothing in comparison to Sanguine like night and day, dark haired and unshaved he had large rings under the bloodshot green eyes.

“I am just collecting the blood, it is a shame to let it go to waste since you already sacrificed them to me it might as well go with me to the void, or would you prefer it to wake up some random of my priests who could actualy do what these idiots came to do.” Sanguine told him insult clear in his voice.

“I am sorry,” Ensenge smiled clad he had managed to get a rise out of the blood god, “it has been a long year, he smiled putting his helmed down on a clean boulder and sat down.

“Long indeed it has been a year and 4 months and 2 weeks that you were here last, and no I am not counting hours, I am not desperate for companionship.” Sanguine roared in laughter again.

“Good,” Ensenge smiled back, “it would not be fitting for a god to be desperate.”
“So tell me anything killed in Babylon will go to you or could it bring back a priest or a blood born, do I need to destroy everything here, nuke it to glass?”

“No need, the power source is long gone, as is my body, as far as a blood born or a priest coming back to life I was being dramatic, but there is one danger...” Sanguine stopped as if lost in though.

“Go on,” Ensenge insisted calmly pulling off his gloves and pulling out a hand rolled smoke.

“It is the blood blade.” sanguine told hi honestly.

“Would blood bring it back to the surface somehow?” Ensenge asked lighting the cigarette with a sanp of his fingers.

“ah showing off are we?” Sanguine smiled, “have you practiced the branches of life and death as I have instructed you?” the blood god asked with more than some interest.

“No I have not taken your art of weaponising blood. I am sorry some elemental and Esp powers is all I use now, and stop changing the subject tell me of the blade.”

“Well you would need a lot of blood and you would need to take my skull with it for without me it will consume the wielder. However who ever carries mt skull would also carry my spirit with him, for I am bound to this place by it.”

“So to make sure no one gets the blade I need to find it and your skull and carry you with me at all times?” Ensenge replied taking another huge drag and exhaled slowly enjoying the taste of the mix.

“Yes but I would not be around always for you, I have to go to the void every now and then and protect my sould for a part of it is here and a part in the void.” Sanguine explained.

With a nod, Ensenge took another drag and began scanning the ruins.

“Did anyone get away?”

“Two men ran into the desert, but I don’t know what chances they have of survivng, other than them the sniper you exploaded by throwing the rock at her is still alive and well under the rubble that you buried her in. But no worries she will never dig her way out of there and she too will die probably in two to three days of torture, torment agony and terror.” Sanguine laughed and Ensenge cursed.

He took off his pack and laid his weapons down as he began lifting the rocks to find the burried sniper. After an hour he had pulled out a young blond women in the same segmented armor and red and brown clothing with the vest and everything. Her rifle was crushed as were parts of her armor that Ensenge ripped off revealing a well built velouptious young women stuffed in an armor three times too large for her. She had suffered several contusion, but had no internal bleeding or any broken bones, she had taken a hit on the head and would have a concusion but all in all she would recover. Enseng carried her to the now destoryed legionaires camp and made a bed for her where he laid her down and again snaped a fire to life after he had build it up as night had begun falling and so did the temperature with it.

He talked long into the night with Sanguine. The blood god told him of his battle against the creatures and monsters in the void to protect his soul and of his dreams and the things he had seen. Ensenge felt sad for the tormentend sprirt for there was no redemption for him this was it for him a yearly visit from his killer and an eternity of fighting to keep his soul alive, other than that he could chose an option worst than hell even if he never talked what that meant exactly, so Ensenge decided that he would look for his skull and the blood blade.

“Why would you do that?”

“You are the only ghost friend I have it seems right does it not?” Ensenge smiled and then with a smile he got up to scan the ruins of Babylon. The blade would not be easy to find but Sanguine could guide him.

He was not sure why he was doing this but he knew that if the blade and the skull were fith him the world would be a safer place for sure. Long long time ago, right after the fall of the world there was an evolved called Abadon, a mad man who had declared himslef god as well, Ensenge had fought him and had defeated the undestoryable Abadon even if the man had better implants and amps than Ensenge but despite it all the man had not imagination so the power was wasted on him. Several years later he had run into another Alpha enhanced a man with half the power and weapons of Abadon and Ensenge had been beaten half an inch of his life and had only been saved by the other dark seekers. So even if the blade and the skull would not make someone into a new blood god, he knew that if it fell into the arms of the wrong person with little imagination it could spread great suffering and death or something even worst.

With all of his strnght he dug and shattered bolders moved dirt and dug until he freed an entrance to the undeground of the fallen Babylon. It was dark and damp and Ensenge could smell rotting flesh and death and decay.

“I will lead you to the skull and the blade but I must warn you, there are creatures down there.” Sanguine smiled.

“Creatures?” Ensenge looked at the tall ghost smirking.

“Well nor everyone died when Babylon fell some just got burried and could not leave for 30 years, some of them had enough Aem in them that it kept them alive so they changed from the men they were when they were blood born to creatures that could survive in their new enviorment.”

“You lied to me again.” Enseng told the ghost.

“They were my men and my brothers, they deserve a chance at rest, and if not that at least a chance to fight for their existance in the void as men, not to roam the dark like beasts.”

“They will all die.” Ensenge told him.

“Make sure they do.” Sanguine replied his voice full of sorrow.

Ensenge nodded and put on his weapons and helmet back on before he jumped into the darkeness. The gas mask protected him from the smell but the oxygen was good so he did not put on a filter.

He did not need a light for he saw perfectly in the dark, but he did have a feeling that Sanguine did not tell him everything. He pulled out his meteorite blade, it was an ancient weapon that was given to him by the darkseeker master before he had gone to face Sanguine. It was the holiest and most ancient weapon on the planet made from a meteorite and several other unkown materials there was nothing the blade could not cut, no armor that could stop it. Its properties went straight into the ridiculus and Ensenge had been told that if used right the weapon could even slice space and time itself. He had never tried it but then again there was a lot of gear ad weapons he had that held many secrets that he had not tried before.

He walked slowly counting the creatures hidding in the dark by the foot fall. They were not by pedal but moved on all four, they were slow and carefull, they were following him and studying him. Slowly their numbers grew and Ensenge counted at least 50 on each sied of the giant moldy, ocergrown by some organic grey matter dark, evil, sinister tunnel he was inside that looked like the walls would swallow you or worst if one got to close to them. The skull and blade both rested at the very bottom of it all at the end of the giant maze of tunnells all criss crossed clearly dug by the inhabitants of the catacombs of Babylon. There was no light of any kind nad Ensenge could hear echo locations used by the creatures ahead of him as they all split up inot tunnels going up, down, left right. The screams were on a frequency too high for humans to hear but Ensenge heard everything, from the hearbeat of a sleeping squirl in the barn above him when he slept to the flow of the blood through a persons veins and how it changed with their blood pressure, no sound was beyond him, no creature, demon or monster could hide from him, not even the great old evil, the original fallen saint, the right hand of God himself he shattered the XIII for the first time and created this whole cluster fuck that was known as existance acorss the billions of realities, and paralel universes and paralele realities and other realities man could not even begin to fathom alternater realities of higher dimensions and cosmic bubbles that all contained a reality of its own in a cutain of realities forever dying off and new one taking their places, but the XIII spitaled an effect that created a tear in the great curtain outside all realities and even if it was put toghether then destoryed again then out tigheter and taken appart again the damage it did to the mulit verses of the mutliverses of parralllel and alternate realities and multiverses created a chain effect that affected every single one of the XIII in every singel one of the realities in all that ever was ever will be, in a way no one understands not even Ensege. He had meat a Fury knight, a Guardian, A genesian, A timorian and killed him 3 times for good measure, over dozens of alien species from all across the milky way and Andromeda and only one person had known the whole truth a man he despised and had no idea what he was and honestly scared him a little the only man who seemed to know more than Jerrick and Ethan the fury knight, the people Ensenge was sure would fix the whole XIII debacle was the black wizard. He had run into Jerrick and Ethan two grizzeled warriors and killers that took out an army of some kind of mutated humaniod monsters that looked like Skjarr or a Deus machina reaver taking over some biological organisam but these two had magic like he had never seen before, they had power and skill and speed that left Ensenge the highest most advanced weapon ever created in both the Milky way and Andormeda galaxy under the United galacti Councli as the most elite fighting unit ever looking like a rookie. They had found a shard of the XIII, which they had funny names for and rituals but they tought Ensenge about Dust and the shareds and the XIII and after that he had begun his journey to find his meaning his redemtion, and finaly he ended up here on this world creating the dark seekers, to have them all killed off in a war against Sanguine whos skull he was looking for in a maze of putrid living wall catacombs filled with blood thisty mutated monsters because he felt there was nothing better to do with his life at that moment.

He had moved slowly, lost in though but always presen, his eyes analised everything, his mutation picked up even more information that was all analized instantly feeding it all into his brain, preparing him for everything. Quickly he traced the evolution of the monsters, clearly blood born that had survived the fall of babylon but knew sanguine was dead yet for some reason Ensenge was starting to believe that they had not leaft the catacombs as a choice, they decided to stay, and the mixure of the AEM that Sanguine had exploaded and the blood magic and god know what other shit caused it perhaps even Ensenges use of dust to kill Sanguine changed the mutated blood born as well. They were clearly able to exit and dig their way out and moved on, they were able to reach the surface probaly even before Ensenge had woken up himslef and limped away. Then he thought about it and realised it was Sanguine that had kept them around and that the creatures were there to protect the skull and blade, if they moved to far from it the blood gift would fade and the pain would be murderous for them. They had buiild their home around the object that gave them comfort and eased the pain and eveoled by the large doses of AEM to become what they were now in such a short time. He also figured it was the reason they did not attack him yet.

The tunnels were wide and humid, but it was some kind of dark toxic sludge and not water mixed with sand, and Ensenge assumed by the smell that it was rotting blood that was bubbeling up from the heat and the millions Sanguine had killed and stored their blood in the mother stone at the base that Ensenge had destoryed. He walked through the decrpit tunnels finding rotting skeletins of half gnawed blood born that had not turned and were devoured and butcherd by their fellows who had evolved.

He was reaching the very bottom and could see a faint glow of the famous blood blade the only waepon the meteor sword had not cut through. The sounds of claws kept getting closer and closer and louder and louder. Deep underground now almost knee deep in crusted over blood and dirt that would crack under his feet for him to fall through the crust into the rotten black smelling ooze he could see the chamber at the end of the tunnel.

There on a golden chest plate laid several bones, the skull of Sanguine with his vampire teeth and all bleached and covered in black and red lines that seemed to be carved into the skull in what seemed to be glowing runes of some kind. And by it, still gripped by a skeletal rotting hand layed the blood blade. It was made of a strange black metal with red Damascus lines all along it and it too had red runes that glowed. He knew that Sanguine had used the foulest and darkest of magic he could get his hands on but Ensenge was no stranger to that either, after Lillith he was no longer strange to anything. He sighed as he though of her, but could not feel her presence. To be in love with a demon that thrives of death, murder, deciet, orgies, he like the orgies, but not the sacrifices, or the whole demonic satanic thing, but she was kind to him and he only championed her, what she did was her business and he did not do her dirty work, if she wanted to corrupt a village and drive the women into insane sex fiends and watch as the men run around fine with him, if it bores her and she decides to turn the women into vessels that turn to vampire like creatures and kill all the men and feed Lilliths sould, not his problem, as long as the children are not harmed, he had seen billions die, trillions of deaths, he himself had lost count after the 3 three point 5 million kills and could be easily have reached over 20 million kills by now, so who was he to judge he had exterminated whole races, doomed whole planets all in the name of a war they lost and the universe still fell to shit and they made everything a million times worst, no to the point that he did not even know how long existance all of existance had left to go, and yet he was thinking of his blood thirsty veloupsious, black clad in shiny black armor that covered her shouldrs and top of her arms but left her breasts almost fully visible held in place with just black satin and silk wrapped tightly making them bounce a bit less. Her war belt and a black thong with a se throu silk segmented skirt offered no protection and full visibility of her ass and legs and in between them when she moved too much for the underwear was very soft and very small. She did ware black grieves and black boots, but she was untouchable by weapons of humans and the weapons that hurt her were of the etheral kind and the armor was just for looks because she knew Ensgene liked the way she looked dressed like that, covered in blood, with a long and short sword on her hios, short axe and dagger her long currly jet black hair hanging loose all the way down to her perfect back, as he stared at her berfec stomach and wide hips that were also the way he liked everything about her was great except the killing, the demonic powers and rituals, her being a demon and the whole her trying to kill him thing, but he could not help feel sorry and miss her just for a second as the image of her walking to him, her hips swaying licking a blade. He never helped her do her work, he only defended her when any demon was stupid enough to challenge her, A champion only fought by challenge he would not go to war or fights or defend her on the field only when she was challanged to a trial by combat and all 7798 demons that had been stupid enough to think they can kill Ensenge died at his hands while he spend an eternety with her lost in darkness, debauchery, sex, drugs, ain and insanity, and yet looking back he did not think of it as a bad time, mostly as what it was good times with bad times. You date a demon you will have super powers, crazy orgies all the durgs and pelasures you want on the other hand she will be killing and raping and murdering and sacrificing people and stealing their souls so pluses and cons. He smiled his mind clear again and he blinked twice reseting all his senses and systems to full combat mode.

Slowly Enselnge approached. He knew once he grabbed any of the items the monsters would be on him. His weapons were ready, primed, relaoded and ready to be pulled out and used. He opened the side pouch that he kept his gas mask in and in one smooth motion he grabbed the skull and as many bones as he could and stuffed them in there. Instantly the beasts appeared out of holes that were not even there but the beasts had created to burst through at a moment like this. Without thinking Ensenge grabbed the blood blade and felt a strange power and hate, blood lust fill him like never before.

Beasts fell upon hims from all directions, talloned arms punched out of the ground grabbing his feet as beasts descended on his from the roof, and all sides of the tunnel. With a slash he decapitaed the beasts that burst through the wall in front of him. He grabbed the beast that fell from the roof with his left and snapped its massive neck as it was a twigh and threw the 300 pound foru legged monster agains another beast on his left smasing it back into the wall which it came out of. He spun as he did so slashing the long blade acorss extended clawed arms and fanged faces that rushed at him. He accelerated as much as he could without reaching the speed of sound for fear a lrager sonci boom might bring all the tunnels down. The monsters fell back in hesitation for a second as dozens fell into bloody parts all around. Ensenge ran instantly as the mosters jumped back at him he slammed the meteor blade on the magnetic sheet on his back and pulled the rocket chain sword and the short UHF copy of the powerful one handed sub machine gun. He fiered into the mass in front of him emptying the whole clip exploading holes the size of grapefruits in the monsters in front of him. He pumoed at them ad he slashed the heavy whirling chain sword blade across a monsters face on his lefr and smashed another monsetr in the face with the submachine gun smashing its teeth out and spinning it around dropping it to the floor. Talond arms grabed him from the back and the left and he hacked at them. Finaly as the milling mosters began clawing from all directions now he had no choice but to activate the rocket boost on the sword which increased its speed greatly and set everything on fire as he spun with the blade using the tiny jet propeler to slice thsought everything in front of him. He sheated the submachine gin and pulled the plasma blade and with both blades he hacked everything that came at him. Bodies snak into the thick ooze and it made walking even harder but Ensenge was almost out of it and on solid ground. He slashed a bests arm off with the chain sword that had grabbed his leg then melted right through four if the blood boen turned mutations with the plasma blade the flaming charred pieces falling to the ground with out a sound.

He was on hard ground again and most of the monsters in front of him were dead and only the ones behind him remained and they had begun keeping their distance waiting now for the right time to strike they separated int groups and scurried off up other times jumping out of the ceiling or the sides of the wall and then rushing Ensenge to try and bring him down. They attempted this three more times before he saw the light of the entrance to the tunnels. He was covered in blood, old and frech, dirt, shit, sludge and god only knows what else but he was almost out of the fucking hole. The Blood born mutations were common mutants four legged with powerfull arms and legs evoleved for digging rock and dirt huge jaws and almost no eyes since they evolved to use other senses in the totlat dakrness like Ensenge himself had found his vision failing when he had been with Lillith in the darkness of the world between time deep under the world when he was her lover and champion, probably his biggest regret in life.

Yet it seemed appropriate that out of all people to fall in love with and defend a Demon a dark seeker seemed the right choice. Not a day had passed by in the world of men for the 300 years he had spent with Lilith but in truth it did not matter much, what difference did it make if he was 280 years old or 580. Neither number made a diffeerence any more. He had seen the world fall three times, he had witnessed the fall of the greater system, he carried several of the great secrets of the planet in his mind and even Sanguine who had become almost immortla and horded knowledge had not known half of the things Ensenge knew.

A monster jumoing out of the wall braught his mind to the presen and he shot it in the face with his Blood born pistol sinc he had retacted the plasma blade as there was no more heed for it. Two more beasts jumped at him from the right and two more from the back but he slashed acorss ons arms making it fall short of him tripping the other mutant behind it and he shot one of the mutants on the right in the face kicking the second in the face spiniing as he did to shoot the beast behind him twice in the face as it jumped for him, rolled out of its way as if flew and came back up putting three more bulllets into the face of the remaining monster before he ran on.

He was almost at the entrance and he spun around emotying the rest of the magazine into the now renewed frenzied chase of the blood born. Sheating it he raised the rocket ports in his shoulder back and arm guards that were stord in the aromor and he fired 2 rockets from all six missle projectors, nitting the mass f mosters with 2, one in the ceiling, one in the ground and one in each wall. He jumped out as hard as he could and slightly overcalculated the power needed and shot out of the hole like a rocket going for the moon. The tunnel shot up a giant fire ball before it collapes in on it self sucking in sand and rubbel for what seemed forever before a giant monolyth finaly lugged the hole and it all went quiet.

Ensenge came back down farther from the ruins since he knew he would create a crater if he did not manage to correct his out of controll jump, and slow down ussing his rocket boots. He mostly managed to get out of the spin and fiered the rocket boots seconds before he hit the ground. There was an explosion and a huge cloud of dust as the 400 and some pound of Ensenge and his gear landed.

Slowly and a bit annoyed he climbed out of th esmall crater and walked back to the camp where Sanguine was luaghing and the girl that had been passed out now sat huddeled in the corner pieces of her companions all over the place, her camp a blood covered battle fieled with dead bodies everywhere.

“Well at least you are still alive.” Ensenge told the girl as he reached the camp and looked around. Sanguine had sucked the blood out of the bodies so they looked like mummies but mummies with bullet holes and twisted faces of terror and the grimace of a violent death nonetheless.

“I apollogise for the mess.” Ensenge said feeling kinda embaraced. “I had been bussy had no time to celan your companions remians I appologise. Just so you know I offered them the chance to walk away and then to run away and only tow of them chose very wisely as well to run off once they reialised I was not joking.”

She staired at him blankly and siad nothing.

“Say something girl, just so I know you are well.”

“You are a dark seeker.” She whipered and closed her eyes.

Enseng smiled and nodded. The he went to pull the corpses away until he got sick of it and asked Saguine to help. He stripped the bodies of gear, vests, belts, swords, ammo, and weapons that had not been detroyed and braought it back to a new camo he was setting up against a rock where the shell shocked terrifie legionair sat in slilen shock and watched first Ensenge floot the corpses first, then watched as an invisible force the murder of her companions was talking to made the dead bodies turn to dust and were blown away by the wind.

“It would have been a lot easier for me to loot them after that.” Ensenge cursed out Sanguin who again burst into laughetr. “Well go ahead I am sure you missed a lot of stuff.

Annoyed but enterained Enseng went back to the dusty piles of clothing with dry blood on it and colected it all shaking off the dust before he braught it akl back to the camp as well.

The girl had not moved and remained in shick wrapped in the cloak Ensenge had left her in. Once he was glad that all the bodies were gone and it no longer looked like a slaughter field. He discarted all the tunicks with hole and blood on them ripping them into long wide strips. He pulled out two torch handles from his pack and wrapped the tunicks rags around them until he had build up two torches that he greased up every layer with a mix of fat oil and wax that would burn a long long time. Then he took two pair of pants that were his size and folded them up and put them in his pack. A bunch more of pants that remained he folded and laid next to the girl, she flinched as he approached but she was still in shock. He proceded to pile up the 12 revolvers he had gathered, as well as over 20 some blades of all sorts. He did the same with the armors and then finally he bgan building a fire pit and set up a tarp by slaming a meter long spikes into the rock wall and extending two small rods to 6 feet tall he placed a tarp over the girl with the fire pit right in front of it.

He created a tippod from three ruined rifles after he striped them and ripped off the parts he might need, welding several pieces into a long cooking tripod. Most of the rifles had been destroyed, but three remaind and it seemed not all the legionairs carried rifles. They were definetly factory made, mass produced, cast recievers and barrels, all spoke of a well armed kinda organised army from somewhere beyond the great souther desert.

By the time he had put the food to cook the girl had mostly gotten out of shock and was now in visible pain and stairing at Ensenge with murder in her eyes.

“I see you are doing better?” Ensenge told her as he took off his heavy vest and armor that protected his from and monster, bullets, explosions, radiation, poison you name it. He sat it down and took off his war belt with the several pistols and sowrds on it. It felt better instantly with all the wieght off his body the dessert cool wind blowing against his skin.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I missed when I threw the rock,” Ensenge smiled, “well I actualy threw it too hard and missed so instead of just shaking you up I blew you to rubble that was my mistake, but it probably saved your life as well as you seem like a fighter. “

“No I mean with the men of the legion did you tell them who you are?” she asked.

“No, I did not even know I am known in the south, but I gave them a choice to saved their lives and they refused.” Ensenge paused, “I am sorry I know how hard it is to lose brothers in arms but that is war and you look like an army.”

She nodded but said nothing. Ensenge had moved around arranging his gear and cleaning and relaoding weapons then he pulled The blood blade and the skull and placed them by the fire.

Sanguine appreaed and the legionair scremed in horror.

“Holy shit she can see me.” Sanguine eclaimed with great delight.

“She can hear you too.” the legionair said despite not wanting to talk.

“Well at least it will not be a boring evening.” Ensenge exhaled as he finished reloading cleaning and holstering all his weapons and then placed six pistols back on his belt. And finally sat back against a rock using his blanket rock and pulling out a half smoked cigarette. He light it and inhaled deeply. He offered it to the legionair who did the same and caughed immediately.

“Such a poor sport,” Sanguine smiled sitting down between the two of them givvong a lady drugs.”

“It will help with the pain you dick.” Ensenge smiled.

“Pain makes us sronger.” Sanguine ponitified.

The girl took another too drags and held the smoke in as long as she could and did not caught this time.

“Thank you.” she said as she handed back the smoke to Ensenge.

He smiled and took it back taking another drag, a long drag before giving it back to the injured girl.

“All yours.” he said as he stood up to go to his pack, he dug around for several minutes and produced two pills and braught his canteen to the girl.

“Drink these.” he told her. “one will take away all the swelling and th apin and the other will relax your muscles and brain taking away anxiety and making it easier to heal faster.

Se again said nothing and swallowed the pills as Ensenge helped her drink.

“Such a noble man, such a white night.” Sanguine commented again off hadn mocking Ensenge.

“What is that thing?” the Legionair whispeared.

“Thing?” Sanguine stormed with his whole fury terrifying the women as dust rose and the skies darkened his image growing and glowing black and red. “I am Sanguine God of Blood, destoroyer of worlds, father of the Desert Born!!!” He thundered as the legionair cowed behind the smirking Ensenge. “A pleasure to make your aquaitance lady.`’ suddenly the blood god smiled and radiated wthite light and comforting power like if he was the god of love lifting the terrfed womens hand and kissing it with kiss etheral lips.

“You are also a huge asshile and an attention whore who is dead.” Enseng pointed out.

“A fuck you white knight!” Sanguine waved Ensenge off and went back to sit by the rocks laughing with delight walking through the food and the fire without disturbing them passing right through the objects.

“There you go, now I walked my massive ghost god dick through your food so enyouj that mortals, he cackeled on amaed at his own humor.

“What is going on?” the legionar asked terrified

“This is the ghost of Sanguine the blood god who ovetook all of the western plain tribes and all of its tribal inhabitans enslaved and sacrificed them and then he moved on to greater things, and attacked the free sector after he failed to find any enemies east in the wastedlands, he almost conquered the whole known world to him at the time and had build a great empire and a magnificent capital here that was called babylon from where he ruled by dark blood magic and mass murder and slavery.” Ensenge smiled stairing at the now angry Sanguine.

“And who are you?” she saked looking up at Ensenges scared face and strang ever changing almost robotic or alien eyes.
“He is the little fucking prick that killed all of my people, women and children included in a firey inferno or by crushing them to pulp, he also destroyed my empire and blew up my whole city and everyone in it, again with lots of little children sleeping in their beds to a pile of meaty chunks, and rubble on which we sit now.” Sanguine put in very gladly.

“The death of your people is on both of us blood god.” Ensenge put in calmly bringing a battered and very used deep metal plate filled with some kind of stew in it and gave her a poon of metal as well.

“Eat. You will need energy if you are to go home. Where ever it may be.” Ensenge told her.

She nodded and took the plate but she was still too facinated and confused about what she was seeing and what she had heard. She knew he stories of the blood god and of the dark seeker know as the Valhala man but she could not believe she was seeing either of them much less one that had died 30 years ago.

“And you my friend shall we get to our ritula?” Ensenge asked of Sanguines, whos face instantly light up.

“It was about fucking time.” The blood god cheered and ran to the fire.

The legionair watched in detached fascionation as the ghost and dark seeker sat cross legged across each other an a ches boared appeared before them out of thin air.

Enseng pulled out a small blade and sliced the bottom of his palm which bleed a little over the board before the wound stopped bleading and healed.

“Oh arent you a cocky little fucker today.” Sanguine laughed.

He put his arm forward and some sore of blue liquid seemed to dropp onto the board it was only three drops, but ot light up the board light blue ghostly chess figures on Sanguines side, Dark blood filled chess figures on Ensenges side.

They played long into the night cursing and lauging talking about phylosophy, the past, the future of the human race, and moany topics like blood magic, the branches of blood and arms of sin and things like that, but mostly it was a conversation two old friends would have after they had not seen each other for a long time.

She ate her food and listened but after the meal which was strange but delicious she found it hard to stay awake. When the monolyth she was on exploaded and she was burried she knew she was in for a long and agonising death. She had heard the conversation and the killing the shooting and the explosion but she could barely breath she coud not call out for help, and when she had opened her eyes and had seen the Valhala Man pulling her out of the rubble she was sure she had either lost her mind and was halucinating before death was to take her. All her life had been about a moment like this and now that she was vitnecing it she could not help but fall asleep as the men did not even finish the first game of chess and she did not see what happens to the blood and the blue liquid.

The shock had worn off as did the adrenaline and she asssuemes whatever meds The Valhala Man had given her worn off and all she felt now was stiffness and pain. Still she guessed none of her bones were broken and she could see still walk fine. She got off the cot she was on and stood up slowly. Her clothin was dust covered and smelled of sweat and dirt, but she did not mind. All the armors and guns were still there as was most of the vests, and ammo. She was all alone and she could not see Ensenge or Sangunie anywhere. At first she thought the dark seeker had abandoned her. But she saw that part of his gear was still there and she felt a weight of her heart. She was not sure why the idea that a mass muredering mad man that seemed to walk around with a ghost of another mass murdering mad man with him. But it still comforted her.

She found an armor that was a good fit that had not taken any damage and pulled on greaves and boots. She looked for a vest that fit and threw it on. There was a med kit left in there as well as a mess kit and the standard higiene and ammo making kit as well. She dug through the other vest seeking out primers and ammo, gun powder and shells. She put in a war belt and selected a single edged serrated sword with a rocket mode as well as a long tant she plaed by the sword. She also got two of the 8 shot 45 boxy looking pistol that all legionairs carried that used the same ammo as the rifles. She picked up one rifle that was still in good contdition and added a sight to it which gave 4 times magnification before she screwed on a canted red dot and a flash light on the repeating ten shot rifle made of dark steel and woodlike materials.

Fianlly she found a pack of one of the legionairs and stuffed more ammo, food, and pistols in thete she threw it and another long two edged sword on her back and slung the rifle over her shoulder.

“I am gled to see you are feeling better.” Ensenge starteled her approaching from the back as he spok.

She almost dropped the rifle but managed to catch it as it slipped of her shoulder when she had jumped.

“Yes, I feel better.” she said softly trying to hide the pain.

“Is the pain great?” Ensenge asked as he began putting his gear togheter.

“It is there but I can manage.”

“Good, I see you aremed and geared your self up that is good. The question is what do you want to do now?” he asked her

“What do you mean?”

“Well you can try to make it back to your home with those two half empty canteens of water and the little food you have left but I assume you will probably die before that.” Ensenge offered.

“And what is my other option?” She asked.

“You can come with me, I am heading to Unity and a few other places along the way. I could use your testimony and knowledge of the legion to warn the Free Sector and you can see what you are up against and then make up your mind who to sitck with.”

“And you trust me?” she wondered out loud.

“You can’t kill me you an betray me but I have no fear of any wrong doing you might do, to me you are just a confused child with no perspective of some unkown nation, so I don’t trust you but I have no fear of you either so we can travel togheter if you want. I am offering you a chance at life.
“So where do we go first?” she smiled.

“The Golden City.” Ensenge replied with a smile as he threw his pack on.

*

Aisha-Irene; the queen of the damed.

When Ethan woke up there was a familiar female face looking down on him, at first there was reliefe then panic as he realised he was looking into Aishas dark eyes. He looked for Jerrick, but the man was no where to be seen, and she was armed to the teeth. He on the other hand was naked and in a make shift bed. The last thing he rememeberd was, was, as much as he wanted to deny it was dying. The bitch had stabbed him in the back while they were fighting and Ethan had not felt it due to the effect of the fear 13, then he had beaten her half to death before he had slumed against the jeep, and died, in that dark stone court yard of a hell hole where robotic Jesuses ran around and vampire queens survived beatings that would kill a bear. He had dreamed of his life before he had met Jerrick while he was between life and death. He dreamed of the first days when the evolved had appeared butchering man kind, and how he had barely survived those first days. He dreamed how he and his men had slaughtered the evolved for years, saving the planet from being cast into total darkness. Eventually he and his survivers would move off north, first towards Italy then to France. He dreamed of the first two months when things were simple, when he was gathering survivers at the hospital, making an army of personal defenders. He dreamed of their butcherign runs, and then the day when they had hit the main forces of the evolved, when Ethan had realised what he was up against, the day hope had died. When he had learned the secret of the eveolved that they could evolve any animal and that they prefered birds only due to them being simple and easy to deal with, mean the human race was doomed. rats outnumbered us in the millions and if there was a rat evolution like a bird one there was nothing one could do. Their inteligence equaled ours, and the army had said they had enegry weapons. Jerrick had shown up a little later, when Ethan was on the run back to France after he had lost almost all of his men, and everything had changed then. with Jerrick, and the knowledge and power of the XIII the evolved were eventually destroyed by Etah and Jerrick, and the Ethan had taken his vwes as the first knight of fury to do so in the last three thousand years, and he was probably to be the last knight ever to be named. His dreams had stopped after that, but right now it was his future that worried him, since it was starting to look thin.

'Aisha?' he said simply, knowing the answere was both yeas and no.

'No, she is dead, you beat her to death before she stabbed you.' the women said sadly.

'Good, she was a bitch,' Ethan said softly.

'You have no idea.' the women told him.

'You will excuse me but you d bare great resemblance to her, and seeing that Jerrick is no where to be seen, and I am naked and you are armed I would very much like to know your name, and intentions for that matter. No offense intended lady." Ethan told her as simply as he could.

'Well that is a little complicated, but I assure you my intentions are all good.' she smirked and Ethan smiled back felling a strange shiver when flirting with a women he had killed and had killed him back. "I am Irene, the women that Aisha used to be before the 13 of fear had taken her, now that you killed her, and Jerrick pulled out the thing out of me I have been cured, given my life back, a chance to make up for the crimes that I allowed Aisha to commit with my body.' She told him.

'Jesus you are on our side.' Ethan moaned knowing Jerrick had allready started some kind of crazy plan and like ussual he had no fucking intention of telling him anything about it.

'Are you all right?' Irene asked.

'You have been talking to Jerrick, haven't you?' he asked her, 'He told you about the chance to make up, for the sins you lost, right? so you decided to join us right? Aid the holy quest?' she nodded and Ethan felt his heart thighten. 'This quest is not what you want to do, if you have been given a second chance don't join us, we are murderours, and killers, we bring only the thunder and death. If you want a second chance, take my advice and run as far away from us as you can, for tell you the truth I am not sure how different me and Aisha were, but Jerrick, he is worst then any of us, that one could shoot the devil in the face and smoke a cigarete as he reloaded to shoot down god as well if he got in the way or in possesstion of a 13.' Ethan told her gravely.

'But you are different, you slay the evil, you set free the inocent, you have saved me, and I heared from Jerrick your story how you saved a whole world from dasrkness. You are a hero of legends, both you and Jerrick and I would be honored to die by your side, you have saved me from Aisha and I chose to follow the path of the XIII.' she said confidently.

'Then you chose death.' Ethan snapped.

'And death will be delivered to all in great quantities and measures and such.' Jerrick said entering the room, and as much as Ethan hated himself for it he ionstantly felt better when he saw the older warrior.

Jerrick was the living image of a legendary hero. He was tall and wide shouldered, skinny, and laeathery looking, yet definetly not someone you wnat to fuck with. He had the crazy Clint Eastwood eyes, but was dressed like mad max on steroids and had several weapons including the two obscenly large hard calibers, they fury arms, the last existing weapons of Center world, Jerricks home world, the birth place of the XIII, and the very center of existance where the tear and the coliding began.

'How is the buthcer of Belgrade feeling today?' Jerrick asked, ussing the name Ethan hated the most.

'Like shit, how about you, you manipulative bastard, and pardon for not comming up with a snappy title to piss you off,' Jerricks hand came up, and as much as Ethan wanted to go on a shit fit at Jerrick he was his superior, the boss, so Ethan shut up.

'We need to be moving fast, can you walk?'

'Yes,' Etyhan answered calming down seeing both Jerrick and Irene were worried, 'What is wrong?' he asked.

'Turns out Irene here, well Aisha had supperiors, and they are ridiculusly evi;l things that demand ridiculusly evil taxes, and when these are not met, and sent they do alll kinds of crazy and ridiculusly evil things, which would include comming here and ripping us all to thiny bits, and if these creatures would get their hands on even on piece of the XIII all, and I mean all would be lost.' Jerrick said a little too calm for Ethans taste.

'What are we dealing with here?' Ethan asked.

'We are dealing with the enemy.' Jerrick confessed calmly and Ethan felt himself go numb.

The enemy, there was no name for them, they did not deserve one, and even if they did have dozens of names they gave them selfs Jerrick always refered to theses creatures as "the enemy". He spoke of them with great awe, and respet, almost as if dealing with gods, and it terrified Ethan. He knew that one day "the enemy" would find out that Jerrick still livces and that he actually has several pieces of the XIII, the enemy would send all it had at them.
Now the day had come, and Jerrick had convinced anther person to throw her life away in a bloody pursuit to reach a goal that was so distant that in the end it did not even matter. Trying was what mattered and even if Ethan knew this all along it was getting harder and hareder to bear.

'How long befroe they get here?'

'Well we have time, they have no clue Aisha has been slained, so they will probably send a scout to demand in outrage to see Aisha, him we will capture, and ... question?' Jerrick suggested, 'then we go on to seek the next path, and the next piece of the XIII.'

'Simple as that?' Ethan asked.

'Simple as that.' The older man replied.

'And the enemy I suppose they will just sit with their thums up their ass while we "question" their men and run around this behemoth of a city seeking a path, door, gate or portal that could take years or lifes times to find." ethan told him.

'Right, except we have a guide, and vehicules, and with luck you should find the path within miles of it, since now I have all 3 pieces of the XIII, and my time to lead the way is done.' Jerrick smiled, and Ethan swallowed hard.

'Right.' Ethan replied.

'Get dressed, get armed, get ready and come down, we leave as soon as you are ready.' Jerrick said, and left the room smiling.

How strange it is that Ethan should both hate and love Jerrick so much at the same time was very strange to him. the man was like a father but there was a cold calculation about everything that he did, that it left him looking alot more like a machine, a robot than a man. And that was what Ethan hated the most, the cold distance that the man had about everything, even when he was killing someone he was calm and distant uintouched by the death he had created, like a true fury, like a force of natur, like a god damn fucking tornado he would blow in bring death and then compleatly untouched he would disspear into thin air.gone with what and who ever he needed and wanted. Yet the man was not evil, quite the opposit, he stood alone against the dark for thousands of years, and even if he did kill he saved lifes as well, and ultimatly he was saving everything, everyone, all existance. If they failed, if Jerrick and now he fell, it would alll come down, all existance, all reality, all exist ance, god, heaven and hell, all would cease to be, so Ethan understood the gravity of not having the luxury of making mestakes or taking chances, yet there was no other way to go about it, but the way they have been going, blindly in the dark with guns blazing.

Irene helped Ethan get dressed, then to put on his armor. It was a strange experience, even if she claimed Aisha was dead Ethan swore he could see her deep in Irene as she let her hand glide across is chest to buckel the aromr, he swore she would up and sink her teeth into his neck, then he thought she would kiss him, but she just looked deep inside him, and he felt as if a demon had walked over his grave.

Dressed, armored, fully armed, strangly aroused and terrified Ethan ran from Irene, down stairs as fast as he could. She followed slowly enyojing the suffering she caused in him, or at least he thought so as he turned around to be cut down by her look, almost as if she was a large cat and he her snack to be. Yet how ever terrifying it might be, Ethan was enyojing the attention more than he remembered enjoying anything in a long time. Down in the court yard Jerrick awaited with severa old, old, old really fucking old looking men in siver armors, that looked like a combination of medival armor and some futuristic space suit. When Ethan descended among them he was greeted as if he was a conquering hero of old, and the old fellows beat the living shit out of him with smacks of encourigment, hugs, kisses, and just joy beyond Ethans understanding. Only once Jerrick stepped in did the old men leave Ethan alone. They looked over a thousand years old, yet they did not seem frail, or dying, they stood stright, they were thick, their eyes shined with life, and they sertainly had strnght or Ethan was still fragile, probably both.

'Well gentlemen,' Jerrick began, "I believe it is time for the legendary lightning men to make one last famous lightning run? Is it not?' He asked, and the ancient warrior roared back in approval, shaking the whole building to its foundations.

Smilling Jerrick turned to Ethan, cold eyed, handsom bastard, he really could be the devil, Ethan thought to himself as the the warrior clasped him on the shoulder.

'You ready, hero of Zion?' he aske Ethan with that evil grin, and the writer felt like a dog trapped in a corner, Hero of Zion, man did that sound bad, Jerrick had spun god knows what story, and now he had convinced two dozen of old men to ride with them into certain death, not his and Ethans, no they would live on, and if they focus, Irene would live too, but he knew these men, these lightning men were not comming back, or going any where elses after this last run, and they knew it too, he could see it on their faces, and it was all Ethans fault. That was why Jerrick had let him hunt Aisha, so he could make a hero, and drag out the last of the surviving forces he could use. Kill the demon, then get the lightning princess back, and drag her followers to ride one last death trip in her name, still if they chose death who was Ethan to deny them that choice, he certainly would let no one tell him to lai in bed and wait for death. In the end he too like the lightning men would give death the finger and go out guns blaizing, on one last glorius run, so fuck it, he figured it was all beyond him any way, he was there to find the path, and the piececes of the XIII, anything that got in the way was to die, and so he would only thinck, and foucus on this, just like Jerrick.

'I guess we are going on, and that there is something you should, or will not tell me, but I assume that buckets of shit are about to be hitting the fan soon.' Ethan said grimly lighting a cigarete, and Jerricks grin turned to a long smile.

'Coldness is a tool Ethan, and death comes to all. All we can do is try to be just, and stick to a code that makes us better than the ones we slay.' Jerrick told him, and then he went to finish packing their gear.

Irene showed up later, fully armed and armored, taking comand of the lightning men, and organising them before the last run. There was alot of talking, and much hugging and tears, but Ethan could not hear it.

'She was their leader, over a thousand years ago when this city got hit by monsters, the ones they call stalkers, they are similar to the evolved in a fashion, they too were a product of the XIII, fear 13, she accquiered the piece, but it corrupted her, and used her, yet it never defeated the great lightning queen and Aisha the abomination, the queen of darkness was born. She has rulled Zion for a thousand years, and only a hand full of her men had refused to follow her, becoming outcasts. Through her will Irenen kept them alive, as she kept all of the lightning men alive, but unlike the ones we killed theses were not turned to monsters. You actually beat Aisha to death and when I pulled the 13 out of her heart, the XIII revieved her, and fully healed her, as if she had never been Aisha. She too is to find a piece of the XIII, but not fear, her road is still ahead, and you will be in great danger, for you are allready in love, and eventually we will all die Ethan, and she will probably be the first, and you might be the last to go.'

'Shut up!' Ethan snapped at Jerrick louder than he had wanted, but he did not want to hear any of it. Some of the lightning men turned to check, but only briefly.

'What is it with you?' Jerrick askede Ethan as the younger man turned to him.

'I don't know, I guess I am a drama queen and that killing and dying, and butchering, and leading dozens of people to death, really gets me bitchy.' Ethan asnwered.

'So it is not a perfect world, but it is better then what it was like before we came. With the fear 13 gone the stalkers will slowly wain and die away, and life will return. Sure there will be raiders, death, rape, violence and blood but life would return slowly, and eventually communities would rise again, and god knows if we find all of the XIII the path might open itself for us to set all things right again, as if none of this had ever happened, none of the deaths, none of the darkness, as if it had all never happened. All the worlds would still suffer, still bleed and die, but at least there would be no monsters like the ones XIII creates.' Jerrick said calmly and Ethan relaxed.

'I am sorry, it has been hard on me lately, but I am well, soon I will feel better, as soon as we leave Zion.' He admitted, and Jerrick agreed with him.

Chapter 4

Leaving Zion- The last lightning run.

The lightning run was something these men used to do a thousand years, something that has not been heard of in the last millenium, and the only people Ethan ever heared using the lighning run, were of course Hitlers troops and the blitzkriege, lightning war. Hitlers idea was to hit hard, and hit fast, like lightning and leve the enemny crushed from one big attack with all your forces movin g as fast as you can. How the lightning men of Zion waged war was unkown to Ethan but he was about to descovere. They were to travel in a column of vehiculs, 7 vehiculs to be exact, 6 containing 12 lightning men and one with Jerrick, Irene, Ethan, and their driver, a grizzeled, almost inhumanly wrinkeled ancient called Sam. He was the oldest of all, and he knew the city best. He saw the doubt in Ethan and he stepped in front of the warrior. As fast as lightning Sam went for Ethans hard caliber, and by instinct Ethan tried to stop him but failed to grab the pistol, untill it was allready out. Sam tried to toss it from one hand to the other, but Ethan saw the move coming, read it from Sams shoulders and he actually caught the gun blindly, holstering it much faster than Sam even thought possible.

'Nice move old man,' Ethan said amazed, 'I must admit that I have beeen too fast on judging you fellows.' Ethan told him calmly, yet menacingly.

'I just wanted to show you that we are not old fossils dragging along, unfortunatly I am old and you are, well a fury, a hundred years ago I might have gotten the gun from you, maybe I heared that a furies gun can never be taken away, and I always dreamed of being the first one to do this.'

Ethan though hard about it, then he pulled out his Desert Eagel, the weapon was a hard Calibar, and it had take Jerrick a minth to convert the weapon into the magic slaying machine, for all Ethan knew he could nt make any more hard calibers for they had left Jerricks world a long time ago, yet his gut told him to do it. SO he reversed the grip of his pistol and offered it to Sam.

'I am sorry to have broken your dream Sam. But I do belive that a furry has never given away his hard caliber either,' he looked at Jerrick for comfirmation, and Jerrick nodded, surprisingly he was just surprised, not angry or bossy, and he let Ethan carry on, ' may you be the first man who is not a fury to have a hard caliber as his own weapon.'

Sam took the gun with wide eyes and he held it like a child would. 'I have heard of the hard caliber, but we always thuoght them a legend, a tale for children, a weapon that was conected to the mind through magc did not sit well in our world.' Sam told Ethan as if in a dream, 'but to hold and have one, I only wish now to live long enough not to bew unworthy of such a great gift.' Sam told him sadly.

There was not much said after that. There was no need and Ethan truly felt like shit. How could he now watch them all die at the hands of some monsters like the ones that had destroyed his own world. Ethan hated himself even more now, the hero of Zion, the butcher of Belgrade, Bane of the evolved, knight of the furry, in truth he was just a killer, and Jerrick was shaping him into a weapon of mass destruction, while he built a legend out of him, everywhere they went he did this, he used Ethan as the front man, keeping himslef, the truly menacing figure, the true fury and fist of god out of the light, and Ethan hated it. Even worst there was the terrifyin thought of Jerrick dying, if he was killed and Ethan was left alone to hunt the XIII he was sure the universe, the multiverse as a fact, and all existance was truly fucked.

How ever the job was still there, and with morning light the seven heavily armored vehiculs left the fortress of Aisha the queen of damned and at great speed, way to great for Ethans comfort, the caravan zoomed down town.

Ethan was sitting as gunner, sticking out of the roof of their car, and he tried to focus on threaths, as Sam ramed everything like a mand man, screeetching down turns, and running into walls at great speed only to turn at the last second to smash through thin walls onto trash, and skeleton riddeled bullevards. Of course there were other obstacles as well. Ruined vehicules, pieces of fallen buildings, huge gapping holes in the ground, then came a wole section of the elevated road that was gone, knocked over side ways, leaving at least a twenty meter gap, going at least fourty meters down into darkness, and even if there was no way in fucking hell they were ever making it over Sam sped up. Just as Ethan wanted to scream Sam pushed a button and the heavy vehicule shot up, exploading wings from the sides, and rocketing into the air, propeled by what seemed to be lightning. All 7 cars did the same and the column now moved as crafts soaring above the ruined roads avoiding most of the obstacles easily. Then Sam told Ethan to get ready. Jerrick as well who was riding shot gun. Both of them were ussing the templar assault rifles, probably the most advanced, and powerfull rifle ever made, it was no hard caliber, but as far as destructive weapons with shit load of ammo that went through any aromr, the templar was the best. They entered Stalker territories and the shooting began.

Strangly it reminded Ethan of the first runs back in his world when he went with his troops on the buthcer runns where they hunted, and butchered teh Evoved which eventualy culminated in them hiting the main evolved force. This was far worst than those runs, but in a way it was similar, as if it had been good training. Ethan saw a stalker and was not surprised to see a Bear like creature with a bazooka like weapon taking aim for them. This would of surprised Ethan some time ago, would of shocked him a life time ago, now it was strangly expected. He opened fire and did not save on bullets, spraying almost half of his clip, aiming first for the creatures weapon, then its face and chest. They were moving fast, so everything was hapening twice as fast as ussual so ethan had barely time to check before he had to shoot at another creature. This one he knew, a rat man, creaturs he had killed in his world, yet these had clothing, rudimentary armor, several weapons, not that it mattered really, Ethan opened fire again, spraying the rat to a thousand pieces. Jerrcick was shooting just as much as were the men from every car, as suddenly hundreds of creatures began poping out of everywhere.

The caravan sped up, as Ethan emtied his clip, and strugeled to reload. Jerrick reloaded quickly and opened fire like a mad man again, everywhere explosions were going off, missles, and plasma or bullets kept hiting by, and the cars directly but so far the armored flying lightning vehicles were holding out fine, and they were moving down whole city blocks as they moved on. Then suddenly the lead car exploaded and Sam weared left then back righ hard to avoid the crashing car. The vehicle hit the ground and exploaded fast, but then it was gone in a second as the colum flashed on, weapons pouring death in every direction. Another car went down, and the last one crashed almost as well, but managed to save himself and join back up with the caravan. They turned right hard and Ethan opened fire on a group of creatures in a wierd boat like vehocule that floated on air. He emptied the whole clip, bringing the vehicule down, mowing down the six or seven creatures before the whole thing turned ablaze, and then suddenly exploaded. They gathered speed again, and through a narrow tunnel they burst into the center of Zion.

The city was even bigger then it seemed from out side, and actually contained 12 cities insides a huge circle of city sized buildings, It was all conected by loops of enourmous super high ways that were over 20 or 30 lanes wide on each side. Whole settelments stood scatered along the huge highways, as well as beelow and above them on every side. The city was build over 12 hills, and at its time it must have been something amazing to see. Now its size only added to the enourmous sense of dread and death of the whole monster the city had become. From a place of life to a place of death, from sanity to insanity, and the fall of man, no matter how huge Zion was and great it might have been, it took Ethan only one look to know that there was no more sanity or anything good to be found here, only death, darkness and madness.

The caravan sped on as they seemed to lose their tails, and the concentration of monsters decreased. Then they zoomed through a small settelment and the shooting began anew. Once again they braught down the whole settelment as they passed through it, but several vehicules took hits and Ethan knew it was only a matter of tiem before they lost another one, five to go. And he was still supposed to tell them which way to go. Jerrick had not mentioned anything, and he had not asked anything of Ethan, and the writer was starting to feel panic creep into his mind. He had to switch weapons since he would run out of ammo for the templar and he pulled the French chiness Ak and waited to blow the next set of buildings down. Then as they roared over the roads, Ethan heard the XIII calling to him, he was not sure how he knew, but there was no doubt of it, somewhere down below them, somewhere in the worst looking part of the center Ethan saw a gate, a huge two dimensional drawing on a metal wall, and he knew that was the path they needed to take.

'I know the way.' He screamed to Jerrick who nodded and told Sam which way to go, Ehtan assumed Jerrick would ask directions when he needed them, but he also assumed that Jerrick could hear the XIII as well, and needed Ethan for the very end to point him to the gate.

Another set of buildings, with road blocks and machin gun nests began approaching fast, and Ethan got ready to open fire with the Ak 4070. Like him everyone elses was ready, and fire began descending on the settelment even before they reached it. The whole settlement was braught down, then Sam screamed fro Ethan to come back down. Ethan descended back into the vehicule, and put the smoking machin gun back in his weapon rack.

'Time to go down.' Jerrcik told Sam, and Ethan agreed. 'Describe to hi where we are going.' Jerrick told Ethan, and the younger man began telling Sam what he had seen in his mind. Sam laughed, and both fury knights were surrpirsed.

'That place is where it all started, it only figures it should all end there as well.' Irene told them reloading her sub-machine gun, 'Things will get rough now.' she said then.

'Oh now they will get rought, I thought that eight of your men dying and two vehicules exploaded was preety rough.' Ethan confessed, a little angry.
Sam told them to hold on then, he turned side ways, and increased speed by a hundred percent. Now they moved llike a plane, a combat jet of some kind, twirling, going left, and right, at such great speeds that Ethan was sure Sam would kill them all. Then the vehicule produced two enourmous weapons up front, and began moving down enemies, and buildings out of its way. The other four vehicules had split up, rizing, and spliting, attrackting as much attention as they could, creating a horror behind themselfs shielding the craft Jerrick and Ethan were inside, givving them time to slip away. No longer was there only cobstant small weapons and rpgs, now they were in a full war zone. Heavy weapons were fiering everywhere. laser anti batery guns, huge explosions, lightning, and then enemy crafts.

'Lighting men!' Irene screamed and Sam increased speed, and got lower to the ground entering the maze of trash, buildings, and debris. The weapons were on constant aut fier now, and several alarms were screaming as Sam pushed the craft through the streets just inches over the ground, twirling, ussing the rocket engine constantly to get more speed, as they race so fast that Ethan was sure they were way past super sonic, not that he could tell, since the world was moving so fast, and there were explosions everywhere.

Witht the apperance of the other lightning men that were not faithfull to Irenen, but thought her dead things got much worst. Crafts were going down left and right, and the whole city was aflame, exploading, burning, dissapearing.

'Here we go!' Sam screamed at Ethan, as they approached their target.

etahn had no idea what to say or do, did the gate needed to be opened, did it work. Suddenly he knew what he ahd to do.

'Open the roof!' Ethan screamed and without protest Sam fliped a switch and the roof opened. Insantly he slowed down a great amount but the gate was approaching at great speed. The crafts weapons jammed and Ethan saw the gate. He pulled his hard caliber and aimed as explosions went all around them as another craft began fiereing on them. Ferrick got out his window, and at the same time both men fiered. The craft behind them exploaded, and Ethans shell hit the gate oppening it, in a bright flash of blue light. Sam punched it as Irenen dragged Ethan inside.

'Hit it!' She yelled, and the ancient fliped another switch as they entered the gate. Etahn could see a flash, but Irenen turned his head away fast, just before it would of blinded him.

The craft punched trough the gate, as Zion went up in a cloud of 10 000 megaton explosion. Destroying the whole downtown in a second. The shock wayve, and emp puls followed the craft through the gate way, destoying it, and rending the craft dead, before it punched through the web of existance on the other side. Suddenly from the dark corners of Zion, and it huge crammed streets with so much junk, now they were suddenly in a huge golden dessert, devoid of everything for thousands of miles in every direction.

There was silence for a secondthen the panic began as Sam told them to prepare for a crash landing. The craft was compleatly dead, and there was no getting it back to life, like a rock they began to plumet out of control since with no power the craft was not that friendly to fly, since it was a brick , a fucking land rover like vehicule with wings.

' WE NEED JUICE OR WE ARE DEAD!' Sam screamed as he faught to get some control over the plumeting vehicule.

Jerrick checked his gear, as did Etahn, and unlike the car, both of them were fully powered, all computers were working well, watches, every thing, which meant that the emp plasma spike worked too. Both furry knights began diggin like mad man through their bags for the weapons they got off the brigand lords when Jerrick had gotten the fire 13, and they produced them at the same time. Sam saw Jerrick activate the weapon and his eyes opened wide. He took them both from the men then he slamed both into the bottom of the craft, turning them on at the same time, melting the floor, yet filling the craft with just enough of a power surge, to turn it the right way, and fiere the rocket engine one more time to get them straightned. They were still going way to fast, but at least they had some kind of chance now. The spikes could of been used only once since they melted the remainings of the circuts, and the engine and Jerrick barely caught them as most of the crafts middle of the floor flew away.

'Brace yourself!' Sam Yelled as the ground got alot closer at terrifying speed.

Sam focused hard for them moment they hit the ground, he hoped for flats, since he hoped to roll onto land then just deselerate and hopefully not take off again. He did not have much choice about where they landed, but he did hit the ground smoothly, just touching it moving slowly along it, then came the first bump, and the smoothly going vehicule was thrown into the air side ways at horrifying speed. Sam tried Steering but with no power, and no way to influence the vehicule it was pretty usless. they hit back down, hard, and something came undone in the vehicule. It began cracking everywhere, and they were still flying along. Then a wing thore off, and the other began barrying in the ground slowing them down but also turning them and then it broke, sending the vehicule tipping savagly to the other side. A wheel finaly borke away, and the vehicule lost all control going up side ways, spinning, and comming apart, sending man and gear flying everywhere. then it crashed back down. Smashing in the sand rolling another thousand times, bouncing like a crazy dradel, spun by god himself through the dessert.

Chapter 5

The Wastelands.

Jerrick woke up, but he could not move, maybe he could, but he would not risk it, not in the next few seconds at least. He was alive, and that was something, but would he remin alive, the landing was horrible, and he, Ethan, and Irene were thrown out at that last moment when they went up, Sam on the other hand had been fully straped in the pilot seat, and there was no where he was going but with the vehicule, and the last Jerrick had seen it had been bouncing through the dessert so hard that he doubted much more then soup remained of poor old Sam. Suddenly he heard something moving and sniffing behind him, and he needed to move niw, dead or alive injured or with no legs it did not matter any more, if he got eaten by some kind of dessert mutant. Closing his eyes Jerrick turned around and open his eyes relieved to see he was still in one piece. his left arm was broken, and his right palm was crushed, he was beaten and bruised but he did remember landin on his arms and rolling, before darkness had passed him out. His legs were not broken and that was the only thing that truly mattered, for a broken leg in the hostile lands he moved was a death sentence. He could not pull his weapon or stand up, but there was no need. to Jerricks amazment it was an animal, not a mutant, but a real animal, something that looked like a dog, it had a long black snout, but the rest of his fur was almost golden, like the desser. The animal had dark rings around its eyes and bg ears that pointed up, and broke half way t flop back down. It almost looked like a dog, so Jerrick decided that was a good eniough clkassification for now, almost dog. Maybe the animal was mutated a little bit, but it was no mutant and it was just looking through the stuff that was everywhere from their landing.

Suddenly he heared his name being called and he stood up, as best as he could. Almost dog also heared the call, and its head came up, seeing Jerrick stand up, the animal seemed a little confused, and miss trustym but not agressive, and that was all Jerrick cared about. His name was called again, and this time he was sure he recognised Ethans voice. Alomst dog suddenly took off, and Jerrick followed. Over the hill, and down the black trai of thorn dessert dunes was Etahn fiereing his weapons, standing over a unconsouse Irene, as dozens of what seemed to be mixture or rat-lions were attacking from all directions. Almost dog did not wait or hesitate, like and animal possesed he blended into the golden sand and dashed towrds Ethan and Irened. A rat-lion had circled Etahn who was too bussy killing other charging bests to see it, just as it made to jump for Ethan almost dog appeared, jumping out of the sand, like if he was part of the dessert, only his black head pocking out, srticking at the neck of the lion-rat, pulling the hwole animal back down, snapping its neck, and killing it instantly before it dissapeared in the snad again, only his long black head showing, as he kept close to Ethan who had not even seen him. Jerrick began walking down, pulling his hard caliber with his left hand as best as he could, he took a long breath, and then he fiered. Six shots, and seventeen bests exploaded as if hit by a tank cannon. Ethan mowed down the last few running ones, then he dropped the rifle and he sat down. Jerrick approached fast, fearing Ethan might see amlost dog that was now starting to raoam again, nd god forbid shoot the creature.

Just as he was there Ethan saw almost dog, and his rifle came up, but Jerrick knew he would not fire, and he did not he kept it up for a second then he put it down and actually called almost dog to him. It was definetly not what Jerrick had exected, but it did not surprise him when he thought about it. After all Etahn was extreamly emotional, and not to mention in need of some comfort and relaxation even if it meant to pet a dog. Well almost dog.

Ethan, like Jerrick was badly beaten, and bleeding from several gashes, a nasty one on his temple. Gratefully he had no broken limbs and he could not help but mock Jerrick for breaking both hands. Irenen on the other hand was alive, but barely, gratefully she was moving, but her legs were broken, and Ethan and Jerrick did the best they could to splinter them, and then make a strecher for her. That night was hard but Ethan had made a shelter for them, after he had splintered first Jerrick then Irene, then he had gathered as much of their gear with almost dog following and guarding him, but keeping his distance as well. Jerrick had told Ethan how the animal had saved him, and how it was a good omen. Then with night falling, and the temperatures plumeting Jerrick for the first time reveled magic of the 13 to Ethan, for selfish and useful reasons. Now that he had all three of the ones he was to carry he could do more than just make hard calibers. He told Ethan that they would talk soon but that he needed his rest first, which was true and a lie. Even as he was speaking Jerrick had begun healing himself, through strenght 13, and tomorow he would heal Irene as best as he could, assuming she made it through the night. Jerrick had summond a huge fire using the 13, and on it he and Ethan roasted cut of lion-rat they had cut earlier and prepared for dinner. The raosting meat got almost dogs attention fast, and he dared approach the camp, then when Ethan began throwing him chunks of meat, all fear dissapeared, and almost dog sat by the fire and waited eagerly sitting on his tail, waging it back and forth as more slices of meat were pulled of the fire. Once fully fed, he troted off to clean himslef in the sand then he returned to sit by the fire, close enough to feel its warmth, far enough to be just out of the camp. Ethan and Jerrick sat after dinner as Ethan rolled a joint and Jerrick smoked a ciggarete. Ethan finished fast and light up as well. He was exausted, and greatfully Jerrick said, that tonigh they did not need to set guard. Almost dog would wake them if any more creatures came,and they all needed to get their rest. Morning came fast, but uneventfully, and jerrcik woke Ethan telling hiom to cook breakfast, gather the rest of the gear, then wake him in four five hours. Ethan nodded and got up, he was not fully awake yet, but then he saw Irenen hopping towards him. Ethans jaw dropped as he lookde at the women hopping on what seemed a badly twisted anckle.

'How the fucking hell did that happen?' Ethan said dumbly pointing at her legs.

'What?' she asked.

'Your legs, they were crushed to pulp last night, gone, shatered, and just a bloody mess of ground flesh, and now you are fucking walking around.' he told her still too amazed to contain himself.

'I have no clue,' she said, 'I woke this morning with Jerrick over me. He asked how I was feeling, I said fine, he told me to begin gathering equipment, and so I did, I told him my leg hurts,' she siad suddenly to her self, smiling, 'and he said I should enyoj the pain, and you would explain. I guess I got my explination.' she smilied.

'Dirty, old , sunnofa bitch.' Ethan told himself.

'What?'

'Nothing, talking to my slef. Now preety lady why don't you cook and I will gather the gear.' he told her, and she agreed, 'Oh and that black snout,' he said pointing at the barely visible almost dog, 'well, he is a new companion but I am sure the smell of roasting meat will be a great ice breaker for him and a good oportunity to meet you.' he explained.

Irene nodded and walked, or better said hopped away, back to the camp. Ethan on the other hand began walking into the dessert and picking up anything and everything he could find. Most of their gear had been recovered by now, but they would not know until they did an inventory, and only god knows when they would get to do something like that. Irenen had started frying meat, and making someting else in a pot, and even if Ethan was positive that almost dog was there, yet he only approach when Ethan had gone back to the camp. Then he approach Irene and took a piece of meat from them. They ate in silence and saved a portion for Jerrick letting almost dog finish everything else. The rat lion was not particularly tasty, greasy, and heavy, but it was good enough for the moment. Ethan could not, but literarly not remember the last time he had eaten before this set of meals, and he wondered how he and Jerrick had ever managed to get this far. He still did not dare thinck of the future, and what it held, with the memories of the spining world from their crash still fresh, the quiet of the dessert was more than suiting at the moment.

He woke Jerrick five hours later, and by now Ethan was exusted, for waltking and draggign gear through the dessert all morning long. They spend the rest of that day gathering gear, and resting. Jerrick spent some time with Ethan and the former writer noticed his crushed righ palm was fine now, Jerrick used the13 of strenght to fix up Ethan and re-energize him a little. Almost dog stayed with them all day, and that night, eating what ever they gave him, getting a little, and little colser everytime it interectead, but it was clearly still not trusting any of the 3 strangers in his dessert. After a day and two nights of reorganizing, healing, and resting the trio was finally ready to move. And it was only then that Ethan heared the XIII calling him, the same strange song on the wind of existance that he had heared in Zion during the lightnin run.

So he told Jerrick and the older warrior smiled, and told him to lead the way. So Ethan lead them slowly down the track their vehicuke had carved in the dessert floor but a day ago. They walked slowly, picking up scraps of gear as they moved along. Almost dog stuck with Ethan at the head of the column, keeping to his left, and staying a little ahead of Ethan, sniffing the sand and air with every step. They had walked the whole day, and night had fallen by the time they reached the shattered remains of what was the car they flew in. There was not much left of the vehicle, most of it had disentegrated to tiny bt of scrap metal, or its basic part, eaving basicly a twisted and very smashed chassis. Of Sam there was no sign, no where. There was blood everywhere on the crushed body of the vehicle, but it could belong to any of them. They pocked around a little more, then they made torches, and after gathering all they could they moved on to make a cold camp.

That night they kept watch, and right before dawn Ethan swore he saw shadows, moving and flickering all around them, suddenly nervouse, the young fury jumped up, and screamed alert to his companions, the shadows suddenly turned violently fast, and Ethan opened fire from the AK. As soon as he burst the shadows dissapeared, and Jerrick appeared on his right.

'What did you fire at?' he asked Ethan, and the warrior addmited he did not know.

They went to examin if Ethan had killed anything, and the former writer cursed himself for not ussing his hard calibar, with it he would of killed at least one shadow for sure. Jerrick did not seem that troubeled, and Ethan guessed like ussual there was something he was not telling him. They looked around for a while but they found nothing, well no bodies or blood at least. But there was definetly somethign or someone there before them. The ground was covered, in stange prints, as if they had been dragging their feet at gret speed, which did make soe sence to Ethan, but then again, thing did not make sense for a long while now, there was no more normanl, normal had been shot in the head and left to die a long time ago. Ethan pulled out a cigarette and cursed softly, soon they would be out of smokes as well, always missing something, food, water, smokes, company, logic, several buckets of blood, always something. He offered the cigarette to the knealing Jerrick who took it gladly. Then he straighend up, and he took another good look around.

'We will get going.' he said simply, and he walked back to camp, to gather his gear. An hour later they had packed up and moved of.

By sun down they had reached a huge cannion, and on the other side was grassland with fucking horses nonetheless. Both Jerrick and Ethan were prepared to trie and jump the cannion just to get a ride, but gratefully they had still some logic left this time.

'How do we get across?' Ehtan said out loud rather than ask.

'We can corner them and swing onto their backs by the neck as they either stand or run by, once on them, its just a matter of holding on with your legs and ridding him out for a while.' Jerrick told him, for his mind was far acrosss the cannion.

Then with no warning at all, or another word Jerrick began descending into the cannon. Not having or knowing any other or better way to go about it, Ethan and Irene followed. Hesitantly Ethan began working his way down the sharp looking rocks followed by Irene. He was trying to watch her movements to see how well she could climb but all he could do was stare at her ass, so he focused on his way down instead. Ethan had been a rock and mountain climber, summeting over 6000 meter mountains, so he knew he would be fine and since Jerrick did seem to be immortal Ethan guessed he would be fine as well, leaving only Irenen to be conserned about. Still she seemed to have no problem, and a few minntes into their climb Ethan was not surprised to see her move much faster than him, almost flying down. Her agility was breath taking, almost beyond human, way beyond him or even Jerrick. An hour later, an a million cuts later Ethan reached the bottom of the cannon. He was the last to make it don and both Irene and Jerrick were flying up the cliff face, almost as if they were racing. Deciding to get his shit togheter and show them how its done Ethan slowly looked up the clif side, then he too began shooting up. Less then half an hour later all three had made it to the top, the climb was hard, but the trio felt refreshed rather then beat. Still both Jerrick and Ethan took off their gear as soon as they had summeted. Then as one both men cursed as they turned to llok for almost dog.

They both looked and called for him but to no awail. Irene figured it was better to wistel, and just as Jerrick descided to go back across Irene yelled as almost dog jumped into her lap.

'How the hell did he get across?' Ethan asked in astonishment.

'I don't know.' Jerrick replied just as amazed.

'Maybe he found a bridge.' Ethan suggested.

'Don't be an idiot, there are no bridges,' Jerrick told him, 'you can see that for your self.' the older knight told him.

'I mean maybe he found a bridge we can't see.' Ethan replied a little angry.

'He did not have enough time.' Irenen said, petting the beast.

'Then how the funky doodle did he get across?' Ethan joked this time, and both Irenen and Jerrick smiled a bit confused at what the man was saying.

Jerrick mearly shruged his shoulders and pet almost dogs head. He had thought there was more to the almost dog then met the eye, now he was sure of it. Just as he had planned Jerrick went about capturing a horse.

Getting the animal was rather easy since the horses were just as glad to see them, and approached the three people and a rather misstrusty almost dog.

‘Is this strange or not?’ Ethan asked as a huge stallion began nuzzeling then very rudely going through his pack.

‘I don’t know, I am not even sure where we are at.’ Jerrick confessed. ‘I would have to talk to someone to see where we are, or at least find some sort of city or settlement, just like this I can’t say where we are, and much less what is normal and what is not. For all we know this could be a world that has not fallen yet, or even a world like mine was, that had fallen, and had recovered a little and was ready to fall again, once and for all.’

‘Great.’ Ethan said sarcasticly, pushing the enourmous animal away from him. ‘Jesus its like they want us to ride them.’ He finished as the stallion got as close to him as possible without sitting on him.

‘They are scared.’ Irene said suddenly, as if in a dream.

‘How so?’ Ethan asked still trying to explain to the stallion that he was not interested in a life long relationship with him.

‘They were left here a long time ago by their masters, now they have chosen us to be their new masters.’ She told them simply approaching the mares and allowing them all to come to her and be caressed.

‘How the fuck can you know that?’ Ethan asked directly, as the stallion finally got his whole head inside Ethans pack.
‘She can talk to spirits, all spirits, of man and beast.’ Jerrick said darkly pulling the stallions head out of Ethans pack and giving the huge horse the bag of sugar he had been looking for. The stallion devour the sugar, then he ran around happily, to finish his performance by raising himself on his back legs, and come down so hard that Ethan swore the whole ground shook.

‘So can we ride them, is it safe?’ Ethan asked Irene as she continued to carress four horses.

‘Yes, and you are safe, the alfa has taken a likeing to you.’ She said pointing at the insane looking stallion that had been digging through Ethan pack.

‘I can’t ride him, Jesus. I doubt I could even see the ground from on top of him.’ Ethan said looking at the enormous stallion as he jumped and ran around.

‘I think you will do fine.’ Jerrick said smilling.

‘Oh thanks a lot.’ The younger knight snapped as the huge beast came back to Ethan.

In fact it did not come, but rather run to Ethan, and for a second Ethan was sure the horse would try and jump into his arms and crush him. Fortunatly at the last second the horse stopped and only his head gently touched ethans chest as he lowered it to be caressed by his new master.

‘Well fuck me and call me Susy.’ Ethan said as he caressed the strange horses head.

The Stalion looked up at him, and raised his head, only to lower it again and look straight at almost dog. At first it seemed that the stallion would attack almost dog or vice versa, but instead they took off running, playing, racing. And since the horse and almost dog seemed to be staying apart, and well out of each others way, Ethan relaxed. Living inside a nightmare was hard enough even without pets and companions, so Ethan could not worry about everything all the time, hell just traveling with Jerrick was a death sentace, and he knew this better than anyone, on their way to here Ethan had seen the bright light at the end of the tunnel more than a few times, and yet Jerrick never seemed to get seriously injured, plus Ethan guessed that the strength 13 made him this way, super human, un-killable to a certain degree. Sure a well aimed bullet to the head would do it, but then again Ethan was not sure that anything less then a hard caliber would be needed to kill Jerrick, that or a clip of the templar.

‘We might be in horse raising country.’ Jerrick told Ethan. ‘And if we are, it would not be strange to find horses whos riders were killed or lost, or are just gone for the moment.’ The older knight explained.

‘So their masters could still be alive?’ Ethan asked.

‘I doubt it, my guess is their master crossed the cannion and headed into the dessert on foot. None the less we are taking them, stealing or not.’ Jerrick confessed.

‘I thought stealing went against your code.’ Irene said.

‘It does, but these are strange times, and last days, and to make it you have to take what you need and keep what you have, and to keep now days mean to kill all that try to take it from you. The lines of grey get quit stretched at moments, especially now, when we are getting close to the end game of the only quest that will ever matter again, so yes for the XIII, and to see it all end we have to break our codes, and do things that are against our beliefs, of which stealing a horse is the least.’

‘So where do you draw the line?’ Irenen asked darkly, ‘when is it too far, and when does grey become black?’ she asked darkly.

‘Way before we start drinking blood and hiding in the dark to feast on the flesh of innocent Aisha.’ Jerrick snapped at the girl reading her thoughts.

‘I am sorry,’ Irene said quietly turning pale all of a sudden.

‘No need to be girl, but you must trust us,’ Jerrick explained, ‘we are not leading you into darkness or to death, we do this for all of man kind, for all existence, and I swear to you that while you are with us Aisha will not return, and you will not slip back into the dark.’

She nodded but did not answer, but Ethan saw she was convinced. Then Jerrick light a cigarette, and with Ethan they began making camp. Next day they rode with no saddles, and they found a rich land in front of them. There was cattle, and fruit tress, and even some field that have been cultivated years ago, but so far it seemed that there was no people around. They made camp in a lush green valley the next day, and for the first time, in a very long time, Ethan was relaxed and at peace.

‘So my friend,’ Ethan asked Jerrick the next day, ‘any ideas as to where we might be?’

‘Not yet,’ Jerrick said as they cleaned the horses, and let them graze, ‘but with all the life, the pastures, the catle, the horses we are definetly in some kind of land where they raise stock, and that means civilization.’

‘That is good right?’ Irene asked as she joined them.

‘Could be, could be bad, it all depends what kind of civilization it is and who they serve or think of as god, sometimes it can get tricky, or worst.’ Jerrick said darkly.

‘You think the people might attack us?’ Irenen wondered remembering what Zion, her last home was like.

‘They might, there might be no people, I know very little of the outer worlds, and I fear we might have gone past them, or perhaps we have gone in a completely new, or different direction. It is hard to know for I have still seen no cities or land marks, desserts and green valleys look the same everywhere, well almost everywhere.’ He smiled.

They had made their camp by a slow running but deep creek. Jerrick deemed it clear, and almost dog and Ethan agreed with him. The horses drank as well, and if a horse drinks it must be good, Ethan told him self as he refilled all of his long dried canteens. There were woods, with real fucking trees, not those shriveled black things, but real trees with brown bark, green leaves, photosintesis all that good stuff. And for the first time in a long time they had a real fire, that consumed real wood, not just that phantom glow of the magic fire created by the 13. Ethan made dinner from the remains of his food supply. He still had a can of beans and spice which he cooked in a pot in which he previously fried all the remaining rat meat with some wild onions Jerick had dug up. Tomorrow they would fish, and make saddels, and they would hunt, and make a better camp, and they would rest more.

Next morning found the company in a good mood, strangly the whole herd of horses seemed to have migrated with them, following their leader, which was Ethans horse now. Ethan had name the horse Bucefalus, since like Alexanders mythical stallion this horse was huge, bigger then life and dark as the heart of a demon. With that came the discussion of almost dogs name, and Rex was offered and accepted quickly. Jerrick found it strange to call a dog king, but after Ethan told him the other names that were as commun as Rex, the fury knight accepted it clladly.

‘There is something to him,’ Jerrick said, ‘he could easily be the king or god of his people, and Rex will do just fine.’

With morning they ate a small breakfast of last nights left overs that had been left aside thinking of the first meal. Then Jerrick went to go deer hunting while Irene and Ethan made a better camp, and Ethan scouted their sourondings. There was no point making a camp if they had to leave in a hurry.
Once he had scouted the whole area Ethan returned to the camp. Irene had begun making a shelter, and Ethan helped her with the scorching of the ground, and making of the floor they would sleep on. Then Ethan went to the forest to cut and collect wood they would use for fire, the camo, and the saddels they would make if Jerrick caught enough deers. Before he had gone hunting Jerrick had showed Ethan how to make glue from sap, and how to bond and curve the wood they would use to make the skeletons of the saddles.

An hour before dusk Jerrick had returned with six dead deer. He called Ethan and Irene over to him, and togheter he and Thean skinned the deer, cut the choice pieces of meat which Irene took back to the camp to be fried and smoked. They worked long into the night, first by the stream cleaning and washing the skins removing all fat and other left overs of the hide. Then they shaved and stretched them leaving them to dry. They ate a dinner of fish and deer stake, leaving a pile of meat to be smoked over their fire in a make shift smoker Ethan and Jerrick had made. They ate a big dinner and after a smoke Ethan and Jerrick told Irene a bit more of their journey across several worlds, that eventually lead them to her. She told them of the year before zion had fallen, and her life while she was still the lightning queen before she had found the fear 13, and had become the queen of the damned, the consumer of souls. Then once the stories had become too painfull, and too uncomfortable to share the group went to sleep.

The whole next day they spend working, first on putting padding and the leather over the saddle skeletons, then they did inventory of their gear, something both men had dreaded to do, ever since they had landed in the dessert. For all they knew they were pulling over 400 pounds of ussless junk, and it would take days to fix. Ammunition needed to be counted, and then all of their weapons needed to be double and tripel cheked. Ever since they had landed, sort of saying, both men had feared that their weapons and gear was destroyed. What ever had survived the emp of the nucklear war head, was then thrown around in the dessert, and Ethan knew that he was lucky that his weapons worked at all when the rat lions had attacked them.

Irene helped the two men with the gear, then she gave an omni-tool to them. It was based on XIII technology, and an omni tool could be used tobreak any material down to a gel like plastic that could be used to fix and improve weapons armor and gear. The tool could turn any material into a gel that then like play dough is formed into the missing piece or part by the user. With it they could repare any weapon, no matter how bad it was trashed.

They worked diligently on fixing their weapons, then their armor, and finally their computerized equipment. This took the longest, and Ethan was amazed just how proficient Jerrick was at everything. From hunting, to shooting, to fixing a computer so small and so complex that Ethan could only look at it and guess what it’s made up of, fixing it, well that was a little beyond Ethan, for he could not even fix his lap top, much less a 30th century wrist computer. Rex stood guard over them and the horses while Irene helped the two men use the omni tool to its maximu abilitly.

‘What is Rex?’ Ethan asked Jerrick as they worked.

‘I am not sure, he could be a remenant of old days, or a lost pet of the ancient ones, an experiment, or more likely the descendadt of an experimental pet. They had frighteningly high technology, even surpassing what we saw in Irenes home.’ Jerrick told him.

‘Could he be a spy, or an…’

‘An enemy?’ the fury knight finished for him. ‘No, I have a nose for these things and while I am sure there is a lot more to Rex than we know right now, I am also sure he is no spy or enemy. The enemy is not that original, or clever, and that s our main advantage.’

‘How comes?’ Ethan asked a little confused.

‘It simple,’ Irenen said this time,’ A creature of darkness has no struggle, no finess, only a creature that has good and evil in him struggles with finesses and plans, a creature that is pure evil like the enemy is blinded by the darkness, seeking the simplest and quickest way to deal with all his problems and enemies. He finds and destroys. If the enemy knew where we were he would just kill us, not try and spy on us, or have an agent of his befriend us, that is too human.’ She explained with more than some shame in her voice.

Later that day, Jerrick and Ethan had shown Irene how to use a hard caliber. Ethan had given Kelly his G&G revolver to use, and Jerrick gave one of his enourmous looking pistols to Ethan. Irene was a fast student and after Ethan had demonstrated the several tipes of shots a hard caliber could deliver Jerrick explained all to her.

‘A hard caliber is more than a weapon, throught the XIII it is an extention of your mind, and the horribly destructive power it possese. Only trough the strenght of 13 can you wielde a hard caliber, and only a fury can wield the horrible power of his own mind to obey his imagination.’
They spent another day teaching Irene how to wield and use a hard caliber. Like Jerrick had known and Ethan had suspected, Irene was a natural with the weapon. She was much faster than Ethan, but she was still nowhere close to Jerrick and the blur like motions the man possessed. She was however much more elegant then both men in her attacks, even if she lacked the sheer brutality Ethan possessed, or the surgical coldness Jerrick used in everyone of his shots. Still even if she was not as destructive as Ethan or as deadly as Jerrick there was no doubt that she was on her way to become a fury knight.
‘Only two other women have ever been fury knights,’ Jerrick told her at the end of the day as they ate a cold dinner while Rex jumped around them, begging for scraps, ’one of them was my mother, and the other was her sister, you I fear will be the last female fury the world will ever see.’
Irene listened and nodded and the fury knight smiled. They finished the dinner in silence then Ethan and Jerrick shared a cigarete as Irene scratched Rexes head, while all four of them staired silently at the dancing flames of their small fire.
They slept the whole night with no watch, since they had spend the whole day fireing hard calibers none the less, and not a soul had showed up. Next morning they saddeled up the horses and moved on with no breakfast since they were starting to run low on food.
Sometime during the afternoon Jerrick had stopped the ridders, and instantly Ethan knew the blissful time of peace they had enjoyed was about to end.
‘What is it?’ he asked as calmly as he could not to reveal his excitement and terror he experienced at the same time.
‘A village is ahead.’ Jerrick replied calmly, way to calmly for Etahns taste confirming his fears.
‘I don’t see it.’ Ethan admitted.
Irene raised her binoculars, and the high tech goggles picked up barely the smoke rising from the small hamlet way up ahead.
‘How the hell could you see it?’ Irene asked amazed, for there was no way in hell any human could see that far.
‘That is irrelevant,’ Jerrick smiled, ’soon you will see the vilage as well.’
‘Are there people there?’ Ethan went on, already used to Jerrick inhuman abilities.
‘Yes, and they are under attack. Time to uphold our promises and pledges knights of fury.’ he told them as he urged his mount forward.
Ethan first saw the smoke, which at first he thought were clouds. Then he began hearing the gunshots and his heart began to race as fast as the horse below him. They thundered to the village which the closer they got to, the more it reminded Ethan of an archetipe of a western movie town. Jerrick broke into a savage gallop pulling out his hard caliber, racing towards the flaming town. Ethan and Irene both urged their horses after Jerrick, as they pulled their hard caliber out as well. Their horses huffed and almost roared as they all flew across the grass lands, reaching the village, town, junk yard setelment.
The whole place was aflame and even if it had looked like a regular western town from a distance Ethan could clearly see there was a lot of metal, and junk used to build or repair the town, it was like a marriage of a mad max town and a Sergio Leone movie, and even if Ethan had seen dozens of towns like this so far, as soon as he rode in he knew there was something wrong, something more then the dozens of bandits. If the filtht covered mad men with guns, torches, and bayonets could be called bandits.
Jerrick reached the settelment first, his horse jumping over a burning cart, as the fury knight fiered two shot, blowing two madmen straight to hell, in two crimson explosions of bloody haze. Ethan followed next jumping the same flaming cart set up at the entrance of the town. He fiered his own pistol, not even calculating his shot, or thinking of his motion or the speed of the horse below him. His arm came up, the hard caliber roared like the voice of god himself, and he emptied his pistol sending dozen bandits flying in bloody chuncks all over the settelment. Irene followe Ethan step for step, keeping on his left. They enterd town one after another, clearing the burning wagon, the hoofs of their horses crushing the burning corpses on the other side. Like Ethan she too pulled her hard caliber and opened fire into the sea of strange looking robbers. She too emptied her clip, completely emersed in the moment of battle. And even if she had fought and killed before as Aisha, even if she had bathed in blood, killed inocent and enjoyed killing before, this was different. She was not lose as she had been when she was Aisha, she was no longer blinded by the lust for blood and death. Her mind was clear, her vision cristal, her thoughts her own. She felt as if she had found herself, and not lost herself, as if she was in a magic moment, reborn completely.
Then Jerrick pulled out his browning high power, and his A-25 blaster they had found in Zion, and he began pooping and liquefying the raiders around him, breaking the magic the hard calibers had created. Ethan followed suit, holstering his hard caliber and drawing two Z-68 valkieri sub-machine gun pistols he opened fire as well, cutting bandits left and right, as the high cicklick rate sub spat flamin lines of bullets cutting through mens flesh, wood and metal armor and walls as if they were butter. Irene was the last to holster her hard caliber as it took her almost a second more to come out of the dream like state she had found her self for the first time. Then she too pulled out her blaster, the long nosed alien Ti-320 blaster that fiered concentrated shots of green, red or blue plasma depending on the heat and power of the shot. In two seconds the burning village was ablaze with lights and muzzel flair as bullets and blaster rounds shred through the ranks of confused attackers.
The bandits had been taken by surprise, surprise that quickly turned to sheer horror as the three mounted warriors cut through them like a tornado. Seconds after the fury knights had fallen on them, what remained of the 30 some bandits broke into a run. Without any hesitation or thought the bandits threw their weapons and ran into the flames just to get away from the ridders. Jerrick and Ethan gave chase but only for a little while, just to make sure no bandit returned to try and take another shot at them. Ethan pulled his horse to a stop, as he leveled the Templar rifle, and fiered at the last robber he could see. The still flaming robber was thrown forward onto his face as several templar rounds pierced through his back, exploading through his chest, stopping him dead in his tracks.
Securing the area, knowing the dangers of leaving an enemy alive, Jerrick and Ethan rode around the settelment twice more putting rounds into any robber that still twitched or moved. Then they returned to the center plaza where they had slaughtered the robbers, and they got off their horses. The fire had strangly lost power, and seemed to die out by itself, but the smoke still remained. The village or hamlet as Jerrick had called it seemed no better now that the fires had died down, whats more, it looked even worst. Locals slowly came out of nowhere, and they gathered around the fury knights. They did not look much different from the men the riders had chased off, but at least they did not have the crazed empty eyes like the attackers had. The fury knights reloaded and holsterd their weapons as three men in dirty jeans and rough looking hide shirts pushed their way to the front of the small crowd.
‘Hail men of thunder!’ the oldest of the three men said loudly, almost screaming raising both of his hands high into the air, much like as if he was praising a god.
‘Hail father. May we find you well, and may your nights be long and days pleasant.’ Jerrick replied in much the same tone.
‘Long have my days been. And I am well now, better then ever before, for I have lived to see a Fury descend on the enemy of my people.’ the old man smiled pointing at Jerricks hard caliber. ‘That is the weapon of a fury, a hard caliber, is it not?’
‘Yes father,’ Jerrick grinned strangely, ‘we are furies and these are our weapons, forged by the force of the XIII.’ he finished.
‘I knew it.’ The old man cackled, then he turned to the crowd, ‘we are finally safe my friends, now we may rest in peace, for no fool would dare face a Fury knight, specialy if he had lived trough it once to tell about it. We are finaly free!’ the old man screamed lossing his fragile voice at the end of the sentence.
The crowd however seemed no less frightened or dark, they all remained motionless and scared, and Irene shot a glance to Ethan that he was not sure what it menat, so he shot one to Jerrick, and he saw that the knight, like him and Irene was on his guard, and if Ethan felt something was wrong, then sure as shit Jerrick knew it too.
After the old man had given his speech, and performed the introduction ritual with Jerrick the crowd like it had appeared out of nowhere seemed to dissapear into the mist, clouds, or smoke that still surrounded the settelment. The three old men lead the fury knights into a big wooden building, and now it was Jerricks turn to shoot a glance at his companions, unfortunately ethan knew exactly what the glance meant. It ment trouble, or killing, or both. Why Jerrick would tell him to be ready to kill three old men they had just rescued was strange, but there was no question about it, no confussion, no space for missunderstanding. Jerrick had clearly meant it, and Ethands left arm stiffened as his right relaxed and almost unoticably dropped onto the but of his hard caliber.

Inside the building looked like a tipical western bar. The three old men lead the gunslingers to a big table and offered them a seat. As one the three warriors sat down as if they were one entity. Then Zoloft, the oldest one, and the Hamlet leader that had greeted Jerrick began explaining to them about the robbers they had chased off. According to him the raiders belonged to a group of bandits that were lead by a famous gun fighter called Edward Cale. Unfortunatly Cale had dissapered and ever sionce then his men had turned to wild beasts ridding or walking around, attacking and killing all and everything they ran into. For the next four hourse, Jerrick and Zoloft palavered while Ethan and Irene watched and listened. According to Zoloft Old New York, a large settelment that used to live off cattel and horses was less then two days away of ridding. Ethan found the name both funny and terrifying, but he remained quiet.
Zoloft told them that his settelment was an outpost of Old New York, but ever since Cale had appeared the city had abandoned their outpost to secure the lands right around their town. Then when Cale dissapered and his hundred and some men turned mad, all communications ceased between New York and them. No one had gone to New York since Cale had gone MIA, and no one came to their settelment, other then the mad men to kill, and burn. Zoloft went on to tell them how he suspected that Old New York had probably fallen to the brigands as well, since they had left Zoloft town alone for a long, long time.
Jerrick listened and pulled as much information as he could out of Zoloft. Then as night fell, and the bar began filling, the fury nights got up, and took their leave of Zoloft. Like if they were one, Ethan and Irene shot up as soon as Jerrick got up. They followed their leader outside quietly, and passing by the muted crowd of locals they made it outside, with noone dying. Jerrick pulled out a cigarette and light it, taking a long drag. Ethan followed his lead and light one as well.
‘So what now?’ Ethan asked their leader.
‘Now, we ride to New York.’
Ethan shivered at the name. Could it be a coincidence? Or was this the world he had left behind, were all of these world they had seen and cut their way through with guns and fire his world at different times?
‘What?’ Jerrick asked cutting through Ethans thoughts as if he had a mental knife.
‘New York. it’s a name from my world, a huge town where I thinck almost ten million people lived at my time. We could be heading into another Zion, and to make things worst we might be still in my world, where you found me all that time ago. We could just be in the future, we could be going in circles here.’ Ethan told him.
‘All is possible.’ Jerrick commented not looking at him, but keeping his eyes on the bar door. ‘You are probably of the great ones, or the ancient ones, the ones that started the whole problem with the XIII.’
‘Jesus Christ.’ Ethan lamented out loud.
‘Who is that? The robot that died at Zion?’ Jerrick asked raising an eye brow.
‘Yes and no, the robot was a copy of a great man who lived some two thousand years before I was born. It is a long story, in essence he claimed he was the son of God, and he performed amny miracles as he preached a message of love and understanding that changed the world and strated one of the biggest religions my world had seen.’ Ethan explained as best as he could.
‘I see, well do not let names troubel you,’ Jerrick explained, ‘people are not that creative, and due to the XIII now you speak all languages, you just don’t know it for it is all the same in your ear. In my world we had three Yorks, old, new, and just regular York, so don’t let it bother you too much.’
Ethan seemed to relax but just a little, so Rex who had stayed with the very shifty looking horses ran to him and jumped almost into his arms.
‘We should leave.’ Irene said suddenly, and both men agreed.
They had left town quickly, and they made their camp under the stars as far from the settelment as they could reach in the total dark. They had still not talked about what had happened or what was going on, but it was clear that something bad was going on. Jerrick was quiet and dark, but that was his usual demenor. Irene on the other hand had turned from the cheerfull sweet dispositioned girl that spend hours caressing Rex, into a copy of Jerrick. She sat quietly with her kness drawn to her, her head down, her mood somber. Ethan was sure both of them knew something they were not telling him, but if he had learned one thing about people since he had been on this nightmare like adventure with jerrick was that if you pushed someone for answers the only thing you would get were lies or deflections, so he let his two compaions be. Not that there was really need to ask them. Just like them he too had felt that something was very wrong with Zoloft and his whole damn Hamlet, not to mention the dead eyed villagers that seemed terrified of everything, especialy them, a strange relationship to take with some one who had just rescued you. Nonetheless he was overjoyed that they had left the junk town, since there was no way in hell Ethan was going to spend even an hour longer in that place, much less a whole night.
Jerrick made a fire and dinner as Irene, Rex and Ethan unsaddled and rubbed down the horses. They ate in silence, then Ethan rolled a joint which he shared with Irene and Jerrick. Jerrick took one hit and so did Irene, so Ethan turned it off, after he took three hits. He did not care too much how high he got. He nedded to relax, so either he would or his paranoia would increase, another good option since he was sure that the dark, dark night was about to bring them another surprise.
Around three in the morning at the darkest time of the night Rex jumped up from besides the dead fire, his hair raised, his nuzzel pulled back revealing the large bone crushing teeth. Ethan was fighting the paranoia when he saw Rex jump up, and without a single thought Ethan was up as well, his hard caliber out. He saw something move from the corner of his left eye, and the hard caliber thundered, blowing what ever was running through the dark off its feet, and into a million tinny pieces. Suddenly all hell broke loose as dozens of the villagers they had rescued earlier jumped out of the dark. Their eyes were no longer terrified and big and cow like. They now had the same mad eyes the robbers had, the same madness twisted faces, and to top it off they had enourouse jagged knife like teeth, and tallong like nailes that seemed too long and too sharp to even be attached to a human much less something natural. They moved with great speed and elegance, jumping up into the few trees that were available, or just running around the camp, and them jumping out of the dark.
Ethan emptied his hard caliber even before one of the villagers had gotten close enough to jump for him. A villager jumped for him, his tallons extended then enormous mouth wide open, but Ethan saw him coming and he smashed the monster across the face with the empty hard caliber, and just as he had imagined the monstrous villager was thrown across the camp. The Jerricks hard caliber roared, disintegrating the villager to a million pieces as he flew across the camp fire.
Ethan rolled out of the way of another two villagers and came up with the AK 4070. Night turned to day as Irene joined Ethans full automatic fire. Villagers were thrown back as the AK cut them down, twirling them through the air. Trees fell, and villagers dropped out of them, jumping out of the foliage towards the men. Jerrick pulled the mm-77 and began picking off the remaining villagers.
Ethan dropped the smoking rifle and rolled as a villager jumped out of the woods and knocked him to the ground. The monster tried to bite down on Ethan but gratefully Ethan managed to avoid the jaws, then almost dog jumped out of nowhere, head butting the monster out of the way. Ethans Le Matt revolver jumped out of its holster, blowing two gapping holes through the mouth of the monster, and exiting the back of his head, blowing its brains all over Rex. Behind him Irene fell as well as two crazed villagers jumped on him, bringing her down. Jerrick blew one off of her, then he pulled his 9 millimetar glock, and put a round into the head of every monster he saw. Ethan shot back up like an arrow, pulling out his Cimarron Frontier six shooter, emptying all the shells. Irene also got back up, unharmed saved by Jerrick as he blew all the villagers that were on her, or running for her. Blowing the last villager away Ethan holstered his weapon away.
A few more villagers shuffled away into the dark. Ethan pulled and fiered again into the dark, but he was not sure if he hit anything. The bodies of the dead had turned into leathery looking mummies, and quickly they began turning to dust already. Irene dropped the lightning men rifle, and she dropped to her knees. Rex ran to her, and licked her face. She smiled at almost dog and caressed his head.
‘What the fuck did just happen?’ Ethan asked as he reloaded and holstered his weapon.
‘They are what you call blooders, what I was, what you call vampire.’ Irene said softly.
‘Nice, and why did neither of you tell me anything.’ Ethan asked.
‘So you would not go out and try to beat, and convert them.’ Jerrick smiled.
‘So if they are vampire why do they look and act like that?’ Ethan pointed out.
‘Because they are not exactly vampires, they are more like servants of vampires. Their masters are what you know as vampires, ussualy there are several dozen blooders serving under one vampire master.’ Irene explained.
‘Zoloft!’ Ethan cursed out loud.
‘Yes, he probably armed some of his blooders and set that whole show in town to distract us. If we come into town guns blazing, saving people then we could be distracted long enough for Zoloft to send us away, or ambush us. I thought he would ambush us back in town, but he must have sensed that we were onto him.’ Jerrick told him.
‘He could have recognized me as well,’ Irene admitted, ‘I felt the evil but was to afraid to do anything in case he would spot or recognise me.’
‘So you mean he knew we were coming?’ Ethan went on to ask.
‘Yes, they must have spirit animals spying on us.’ Jerrick pointed out.
‘Rex?’ Ethan whispered.
‘No, Rex is something else.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Absolutly.’ Jerrick put firmly, like the last nail in a coffin.
‘Good,’ Ethan said releaved, ‘what now?’
‘Now we wait for Zoloft.’ Jerrick smiled.
‘Are we sure he will come?’ Ethan asked hopping to hear at least one no.
‘Yes,’ Irene whispered, her eyes distant, ‘he has no choice now, he tried to kill us in town but he was afraid to die, so he sent all of his blooders to kill or at least injure us. Now with no blooders, no illusionary town, he has no choice but to face us and hope to kill us. If we live we will tell people of him, and his secret, which is alsow his way of getting food will disapear.’
‘Why not go out and hunt?’ Ethan asked.
‘He is too weak to hunt during day, and too scared to get hurt if he hunts at night, a weaker vampire stuck out here could die if he was shot, or trampeled by a pack of horses, with no fresh blood, or servants to use as food, he would die. Now that he has no servants he will come, one way or another.’ Irene told him.
‘But we were in town for hours, surely that was the best time to attack.’
‘Yes but we were too strong back then. He saw us butcher his blooders in less then a second, something he definetly did not count on. No, once he saw that we were truly furies he recalculated, planning to delay us, and keep us close enough to attack at night, we are lucky he did not come with his servants, for togheter they might have overwhelmed us.’ Jerrick said.
‘Don’t count your blessings yet knight!’ a sinister voice hissed from the darkness.
Ethan went to draw his weapon but Jerrick stayed his hand. Ethan looked at his leader and saw the sinister grin the man got right before he would trick and brutaly murder someone who taught they were untouchable.
‘Come out of the dark, you son of whore!’ Jerrick commanded, his voice booming into the dark.
‘Ahhhh, why would I do that knight?’ the voice hissed again, ‘do you fear what you can not see?’
‘I fear nothing!’ Jerrick thundered, and Ethan swore that the world rang when he shouted. The fury knights hard caliber jumped out, as if it had a mind of its own, as if Jerrick had summoned it into his hand, and two bullets roared out to punctuate Jerricks words, like a final, bloody excamation point.
Both bullets flew raced and not even a second later, Zoloft fell out of a tree, screaming in pain, his left leg blown off at the knee, his whole right arm, ripped clean off, with the shoulder and everything. The scream was long, piercing, animalistic, and would haunt Ethan for the rest of his days even if he lived a thousand years.
Jerrick walked towards the screaming vampire, followed by Ethan while Irene remained behind. As they approached the vampires screaming stopped and was eplaced by a strange language Ethan could not understand.
‘The dark language is outside the XIII, and is one of the few you can not understand.’ Jerrick told Ethan as if reading his mind. Then he continued walking.
The vampire kept cursing them, and even if Ethan could not understand even a single word of what he was saying he knew when he was being cursed and cused at.
‘Shut your mouth!’ Jerrick stormed and to Ethans surprise the vampire actualy obeyed.
The vampire stared up at them from the ever growing pool of blood with such hate that Ethan could feel it as if it was a physical force.
‘May you be damed you Center world cock suckers.’ the vampire hissed, spat and moaned. Then Ethan swore the vampire was about to jump at them, missing limbs and pool of blood and everything.
Gratefully Jerrick had not planned for more conversation, and as Zoloft worded his last curse, the fury knight put two bullets into him. One in his heart, and one into his forehead, exploading the monsters head as a ripe melon.
‘Jesus on a pogo stick, with tap dancing shoes!’ Ethan mumbled as the hate and evil vanished from the air as if they had never been there.
‘I would like you to tell me of this Gee-Zeus one day.’ Jerrick said as he walked away from the vampire back towards the very pale Irene.
Ethan nodded dumbly as he stared at Zolofts body. When they had met him a few hours earlier that day, he looked like a hundred year old bum dying of AIDS. Before Jerrick had deep sixed him for good, he had looked like a fierce wild man, of Ethans age, if not even younger, he almost looked like Leshtat, the Tom Cruise character from interview with a vampire, and Ethan was sure they were dead when he tried to jump for them. Now like the blooders they had killed before Zoloft was quickly turning into a leathery looking mumy. Then a few minutes later, there was only ash, and the grime covered clothing he had been wearing.
Ethan returned to the fire where Jerrick and Irene waited for him, while almost dog ran to him and jumped into his arms. The young man carried the almost dog back with him to the fire and sat down by Irene. Rex put his head into her lap, while most of him was still in Ethans lap, and the pale looking girl smiled some color returning to her face.
‘He saved my life.’ Ethan said, as he scratched the dog.
‘I am glad he did.’ Irene smiled back, and Jerrick could not help but let out a small laugh.
‘We are all glad he did.’ Jerrick added still smiling.
Ethan nodded but said nothing, he was exhausted, a feeling he had left behind a few days ago, a feeling that was returning quickly as he stared at his blood covered hands.
‘Will more come?’ Ethan asked.
‘No,’ Irene said, ‘Once the fear master, or vampire as you call it is dead, the blooders are released from the spell, and they will either die, or run.’
‘Fearmasters?’ Ethan asked.
‘Yes, for fear is their greatest weapon, and their greatest strenght. Had one of us been alone Zoloft would of used the fear to get us into a trap. When he uses the fear, it is much like fear 13, and almost any man would die, for when a fear master uses his weapon one is paralyzed by an un-natural fear that flows from the monster.’ Jerrick said.
‘You have faced them a few times before haven’t you?’ Ethan asked calmly.
‘Once,’ Jerrick said with more than some pain to his voice. ‘When I was young, just a little over a boys age.’ He said no more and Ethan saw that pushing the subject would be a bad idea, both him and Irene had a painful past involving vampires and vampirism. So he gave it up, and with Jerrick they rebuilt the fire.
They did not sleep any longer that night, Jerrick did take a nap, but it was short, just a little over half an hour, and Irene and Ethan stayed up, sitting in silence, stairing at the fire. There was no more doubt in Ethans mind about the peace they had enjoyed, it had lasted for a few days, he had received bliss, and now it was all over. No doubt, no questions, no second guessing, the peace he had never wanted before had been ripped away from him now that he wanted it for the first time.
When the sun broke over the horizon a little later the trio quickly moved off. As they moved on they ran into several more piles of dust covered sack like clothing. The wooden town was gone and only a huge decrepit shack surrounded by a huge circle of trash stood there now. It must have been the bar they were in, and Ethan did not even dare imagine what the inside really looked like.
They rode off quickly deciding not to even examine the shack, for it still gave all three a bad taste in their mouths. They were heading for Old New York, even if Ethan doubted they could trust Zolofts instructions. Still when he brought his concern to Jerrick the older knight dismissed him quickly.
‘He was not lying, I would of noticed, and he would of known, plus he had no reason to lie, he was planning to kill us so he could tell the whole truth, as long as we were distracted and did not ask the right questions, which he did rather good.’
That was good enough for Jerrick so it was good enough for Ethan. Without further discussion they continued riding. What Jeerick was concerned about was the Cale character ands his outlaws, they were probably the one holding the next shard of the XIII, and if Cale had held it for a while now, he would be no easier to find than Aisha was. Unfortunatly this time Jerrick had no inside information, no legend to go about, Zion was the last place he had heard off, the incredible world of high tech, now they were on an unkown path to him, Ethans path, and if Cale turned to be difficult Jerrick was not sure how things would go. The next few days of ridding were uneventful, and Ethan began fearing the moment their peace would be ripped to pieces in a moment of bloody hell. Then came the village, a real village.
The riders slowed down, still worried about what is expecting them inside. The last time they interacted with a village things did not turn out that well. Ethan was the most nervous, he was still worried about his ability to judge whom to shoot and whom not to execute. There was a lot of people moving around, and despite Ethans fear it was clear that the people were normal looking humans, doing normal human things.
This village or town was made out of wood as well, timber, and rock. There was even a rock church in the middle of the settelment. There was a big wooden building that looked like some kind of city hall behind the church, and several more two and three storie buildings on each side of the street heading away from the plaza, or Redondo where the church and town hall were located at.
Jerrcik rode in the center while Ethan covered his left, and Irene took the right. Rex came behind them, sticking close to Ethans horse, just as nervous as the riders above him. Jerrick pointed towards a big building on the right, and Ethan nodded in understanding. They were heading for a building that looked like a mixture of a medieval inn, and a western hotel. Half of it was wooden, and the other half was completely out of rock. The population had stopped doing what ever they had been occupied with and their whole attention was turned to the three riders now. Silence swallowed the town instantly, and even if it was eeri and uncomfortably quiet it was clear that this was a real settelment. Unlike the settelment Zoloft had cast the illussion of this town had all the details one would expect from a real place where real people lived. Trees surrounded the whole place, as did big walls made of rock, wood, and other trash. A huge round well was found in the center of town, right in front of the church, and ethan spotted another small one at the entrace of the settelment.
Wooden side walks stood in front of every building, and the people that walked it seemed equaly disturbed as glad to see the riders. But so far no one had done anything at all. People had just stopped what ever they had been doing and they were staring. The three riders reached the inn, or bar like building and they dismounted as one. Ethan looked at the crowd of people and quickly he began relaxing. So far he had seen the normal things. Some hate, a lot of fear, and just as much hope and curiosity.
As they had dismounted three men dressed in black shirts, and very old looking jeans approached them. Each man wore a cowboy hat, jet black as well, and four pistols. Two automatics of some kind, but Ethan had never seen such weapons, and two long barreled revolvers, one on each hip, hanging in western styke huge leather holsters, bullets and everything. The revolvers were also unknown to Ethan but it was clear the weapons were smaller caliber, .32 or something like that, and he guessed the same went for the automatics. Black glowes, black bandanas under their hats, black leather boots, silver stirups, the men seemed to know what they were doing. All three men were grim faced, yet good looking, each in his own way.
Still the first thing that Ethan saw, to his great reliefe was the silver star each man carried above his heart. He guessed the simbol could mean something else, but like Jerrick had said, and he had discovered, people really were not that creative.
‘Welcome meeners.’ One of the star wearing men said.
‘May we find you well, and may your days be long and calm.’ Jerrick replied in his cold diplomatic voice.
‘We are Old New York regulators, and we are the law around these parts.’ the same man kept saying.
‘Aye, well we mean no harm to no one, and we only take war to those that attack us.’ Jerrick told him even colder.
‘That is good…’ a second slightly shorter star wearing man said, ’and as a sign of good will we have to take your weapons, all of them.’ he said trying to imitate Jerricks icy tone.
This time it was Jerrick who smiled, and it was a genuine smile full of warmth and good humor, which only made the next line so much colder.
‘We leave our guns to no man, we are knights of center World, and no outer world pup will lay his hands on a hard caliber in this reality.’ Jerrick told him so coldly that Ethan swore the world had turned just a little darker when he spoke.
The regulators eyes narrowed, and Ethan felt his hand slide to his pistols grip.
‘Knights you say, well we are big on legends and myths here, so prey sir knight, which line do you belong to?’ the regulator mocked.
‘We are the fury of god. The line of Shadow crows from Center world.’ Jerrick thundered, his voice booming out like thunder. ’And you, you should watch you tongue slim, less should you want me to rip out of your mouth.’
Ethan was sure that death was to follow, quick and violent death, but it did not. The regulator that had spoken first first stood his ground, then he slowly relaxed and he began walking away, still facing the three knights of fury. Then when they had put a little between them selves and Jerricks group the regulators had left, but only to return a few second later, and a much larger group of eight men returned this time.
‘Well, well, sir knights, now we will see if you bite as hard as you bark.’ the regulator said smiling.

Even as the regulator was speaking, both Jerrick and Ethan had begun drawing their weapons. The regulators too had began drawing, but it was too late for all of them. Sixteen shots rang out, and the eight regulators were blown back, twirling, bleeding, exploaded to bits. Of the eight regulators only one managed to get a shot off, and that was a dead mans twich that fiered it, and it hit a beam high above Ethans head.
Silence came again after the storm of thunder and violence, and swallowed the town again. It seemed to last for an eternity, and Ethan wondered if there were more regulators hidding around town. But slowly people that had hit the deck, or had ran inside came up, or back out, and slowly a small crowd began surrounding the gunslingers. People began murmuring and whispering, exchanging glances, and looking at the bodies of the eight blown to hell regulators. Finally three rather well fed, older looking guys made their way out of the crowd and approached the fury knights, and a very untrusty growling almost dog.
‘God damn it you sons of bitches, why the hell did you go and do that for?’ Yelled one of the older looking fellas. He was heavily red in the face, and was heavy all around his body. He had huge eye brows, bushier and bigger than anything Ethan had ever seen, it was almost as if the eye brows were holding up his huge grey sombrero.

‘I beg you pardon, meener,’ Jerrick said politly, ’but these men asked for death, and all we did was fulfill their desiers.’ Jerrick told him calmly.
‘Forgive him sirs,’ the second of the chubby trio spoke. He looked like he was the youngest of the three, he wore no hat, and his longer hair was slicked back, making him look even younger and stronger compared to his two companions. ’We are not used to violence around here, much less seeing mighty warriors of legend blow aeay eight killers that have terrorized us for god only knows how long.’ He explained.
‘You are right, I cry for your forgivness.’ Jerrick said changing his voice to sound a little sweeter.
‘God damn it Fred, cut the shit!’ the first man, bushy, as Ethan had named him inside his mind cut in. ’You know that is not the fucking problem here.
‘Quiet Herb!’ The third man snapped. There was so much authority in his voice that even Jerrick seemed to lose a second.
The third man was by far the most interesting, and definetly the leader out of the three there. He was old, sixty something, maybe seventy, but there was no mestaking it, he was a leathery mother fucker. Combined with his deep blue eyes that shined underneath evil looking eye brows there was definetly the mark of the killer and the look of eagels about him. He wore black leggings, probably made out of leather, as well as a black shirt of some kind, over it he wore a poncho, underneath which a large revolver stuck out.
‘What Herbert means is that these croocks you shot were more than just abusive pests, they also served as protection, without them here we are left unprotected and it is them we fear the most.’ the black clad old man said pointing at a dead regulator.
‘I understand.’ Jerrick said quietly.
‘You understand, well is that not nice!’ Herbert blew up, getting as red as a tomato before hand.
‘Excuse Herbert,’ Fred, the youngest man said, ‘he has been stressed lately.’
‘You bet you ass I have been stressed,’ the red faced bushy man kept on yelling, ‘it is my land, and my stock that keeps getting hit by raiders, and butchered day after day.’ Herb protested.
‘And these regulators, the defended your lands, and fended off these raiders when they came?’ Jerrick asked calmly stairing strait at Herbert.
‘Yes, well…something like that. Robbers leave us alone for the regulators are from New York, and attacking them is to attack New York, plus these men carry serious fire power with them.’ the red faced man replied calming down as Jerrick turned his grey eyes on him.
‘Well if you point us in the direction of you raider problem, I am sure we can solve it for you.’ Jerrick said cold as a grave.
‘All in good time,’ the oldest of the trio said adjusting his poncho, and pushing Herbert back, ‘Allow me to introduce myself, and my companions. I am Alain Delon, and these are Herbert Stock, and Fred Aster.’

Ethan shook hands with all three as did Jerrick and Irene after Jerrick had introduced them all. Ethan Eastwood, and Irene LeStat meeting Alain Delon and Fred Aster. It was su-real, far beyond sarcasam and fun, it had become freaky. If he heard another name from his world, Ethan was sure he would lose it. After that rex introduced him self by barking and making other noises that sounded eerily close to words.
After that short but sweet introduction Alain lead the three knights to the center of the square behind the church in front of the town hall. Quickly the citizens of the small setelment had stripped the regulators of all weapons, and had dragged their bodies away, covering the bloody pools and drag marks with fresh dirt and saw dust.
The table set out in front of town hall was large but not too big. Fred spoke with a terrified looking women on the side before he joined the other five at the table. Herbert was still visibly shook up, but he had managed to remain sitting down, even if Ethan was sure the man would get up to leave, cursing and cussing at everyone and everything around him. A minute later several women came out of the big building carrying trays of food, and pitchers of drink. They served the knights first, quickly and descisevly just make sure that they did not have to interact with them again. Then they served their fellow townsmen and left.
Jerrick, Ethan and Irene drank several cups each, but ate only a little bit, knowing that food must be scares, even in a rich, and alive world like this one. Then after they had finished eating Jerrick and Ethan both light a cigarete and offered to Alain, Herbet and Fred. Fred refused but Herbert and Alain both were glad to accept the smokes.
‘It is kind of you to share such a luxury with us.’ Herebrt said in a strangly polite voice. ‘I was wrong knights, I beg your pardon.’ he finally said lighting his cigarette.
‘It is nothing.’ Jerrick assured them.
‘Compared to your offer to get us rid of our raider problem it might be nothing, but to us it means a lot.’ Alain told them.
‘How so?’ Ethan asked, making a break from drinking.
‘Well it is complicated, part of it was that the regulators you…dispatched, for which I am grateful,’ he added, ‘they were a small part of a large army of gunslingers.’
‘So they never fought the raiders, but mearly stayed here as a bluff, and just torture you.’ Ethan concluded.
‘Something like that, and now we are unprotected against everything again.’ Alain told them
‘So what would you have us do, if not get rid of these robbers?’ Ethan asked.
‘We would ask you to delay them, here, and give us time to run to New York.’ Alain said calmly, waiting for the reaction of the knights.
‘You meant defend an empty town, maybe die for nothing?’ Irene asked speaking for the first time.
‘Not for nothing, but for our lives.’ Herbert said softly.
‘Pray explain all.’ Jerrick told them calmly, surprising Ethan with his calm demenor.
‘There are many strange things going on these days. The truth was that the regulators you gave an early retierment were running even as you rode into town. They had packed up, and were ready to leave us to our faith. They said they were going to get help, but the bastards were scared.’
‘Scared of what? What is going on?’ Ethan asked as he turned out his cigarette and pocketed the bud.
‘No one knows really, but there are stories of an army of brigands controlled by a demon killer that holds great power, and an ancient artifact that turns men into monsters, he is called a god by his followers, and demon by all the others.’ Alain said.
‘A god?’ Jerrick asked.
‘A giant man with burning eyes that can read the minds of men, and has no enemy that could kill him, he is invulnerable to any attack, and can not even be injured. The stories get wilder and crazier, but I don’t think even what I told you is true. Yet there is a new leader of brigands, and they have become wilder, crazier, and more aggressive in the last few weeks.’ the olde man explained.
‘So what is true of this?’ Ethan asked.
‘Most of it is.’ Jerrick said darkly knowing what was up ahead.
‘Nice, well what do you suggest?’ Ethan asked hios leader.
‘We go to him, and we kill him.’ Jerrick concluded.
‘But you can’t face him, even if he is no more than a demon he is far more powerfull than any creature that walks this earth. If you face him you will all die for sure.’ Alain insisted.
‘And if we stay and defend an empty town, we can live?’ Ethan asked confused as to why facing this man was death, but fighting him here they would have a chance.
‘No, if you stay here you will just face his men, and with your skills as killers, and you weapons you could easily defeat his army.’ Fred said getting back into the conversation.
‘Why is this brigand Lord unwilling or unable to move?’ Irene wondered.
‘Neither, he is consumed with something else, he never leaves his fortress, where he seeks…something.’ Alain explained.
Jerrick stood up, and instantly ethan and Irene followed as if they had received a telepathic message to follow Jerricks lead.
‘Friends we are grateful for you food, the drinks and the information that you have given us, but now our path is set, and we can not stray. We will go and face your demon lord, and we will kill him, for that is our destiny.’ Jerrick said with no modesty. ‘Whatever happens to us I tell you this, we will end your brigand problem one way or another, so you have nothing to fear no more, yet if you still think you will be safer in New York then you should go right away.’
‘And what of you friends?’ Herbert asked in a strangly embraced voice.
‘We go on, and we will seek you in Old New York.’ Jerrick smiled at the bushy eye brows man.
‘May it be so.’ Fred said smiling.
‘May our roads cross again.’ Ethan said, shaking hands with Fred, Alain, and Herbert.
Irene did the same as did Jerrick. Then the trio was lead back to the strange looking inn, where they unsaddled their mounts, and lead them to a stable where a scrapy looking 10 year old took all three horses at once and lead each to a different box. Jerrick gave the kid some food, and an old shirt made of leather that was a little big on the boy, but much better than the ripped rag he wore at the moment.
Ethan gave the last bag of hard candy he had to the kid as well and the smilling child took it greedily, like he had never seen a greater treasure.
Then the trio was lead to their rooms. The inn, or hostel as Ethan preferred to call it was not a beautifull building, but it was definetly interesting. It boasted a large eating room, or bar at the floor level that was set with several tables, and scaterred chairs everywhere. There was an enormous fire place on the northern wall, that took up most of it, and a large destroyed piano on the western wall while a huge bar stretched across the whole southern end opposite the large fire place.
The three fury knights headed up to their rooms. All three decided to stay in room, even if it seemed a little strange to Ethan he did not think about it at all. He just followed Jerrick to the room, and as soon as they entered the two men began stripping and throwing gear off. Half an hour later they went back down and they changed pieces of their gear for some food. The food itself was nothing special, bread, with no yeast in it, and meat that resembled and looked like a shoe soal. There was a strange tasting green salad as well, and all three of them devoured everything before they had retiered to their room. There were two beds in the room, one big and one small. Jerrick said he would take the small one, and that Ethan and Irene should share the big one.
Then without another word he took off his boot, his pants, and shirt, and puuting his hard calibar under his pillow the fury knight felt into a coma.
Ethan and Irene stayed up on the other hand. Ethan tried to keep himself bussy and his mind off Irene but it was seeming more and more impossible as she began stripping. she took off her lightning men armor, and her weapons off, revealing a thight body dress that stuck to her as if it was painted on. She quickly took off her shirt and black pants, and she rolled into bed. Ethan had left his gear alone and had begun rolling a cigarette, mixed with other plants, hoping that if he over baked he would just fall into a come like Jerrick and would manage to stay away from Irene. Still even as he light his contraption he knew that his battle might be lost.
He had taken only one drag before Irene called him to bed, with a smile that was terrifyingly close to Aishas face. The warrior wondered what to do, and a second later he had turned off his smoke and he too, took off his clothing. He was bone weary, but he was sure that if he got into bed with her that would make no difference. For days and days now he had been watching her, and she too had been watching him, smilling at him, touching him slightly here and there, and Ethan knew that there was chemistry between the two of them, but what future did they have to look forward. Probabilities are that both of them would end up dead in a ditch somewhere in this destroyed universe with several bullet holes in them. Still Ethan did what he was asked for, and he got into bed with her. He rolled on his side facing her, close enough to feel her breath on his skin. He swallowed hard, suddenly feeling so self conciense almost as if he was 21 again. She smiled at him, and those piercing eyes of her seemed to shine brighter then ever. Ethan closed his eyes and felt her embrace him. He opened his eyes and smiled back at her. She moved in close to him, and he embraced her as well. She nesseled on his chest, and closed her eyes. Ethan took another deep breath, and closed his eyes as well. Almost dog laied down by the door, and with a loud huff he too went to sleep without protest.
Next morning found the knights of fury in good spirits. As a matter of fact Etahns spirit and other parts were in very good spirits. Unfortunatly Irene was a cuddeler, and she had embraced Ethan in a dead grip that he could not free himself from. She woke up as soon as he began struggling to get out of her embrace. Her eyes locked with his and she smiled. Ethan smiled back and tried to still get out. She let him go, but only after a long caress down his chest, over his stomach and his groin. She grabbed him, hard, and he almost yelled, from surprise more than anything else. She pulled him in even closer, and this time Ethan did wince but just a little. She let him go with a smile and Ethan got up, stuffing himself into his pants as fast as he could. Gratefully Jerrick and Rex were gone, so at least Ethan did not have to share this moment with them.
‘What is wrong?’ Irene asked as Ethan turned to face her again.
‘What do you mean?’ Ethan asked trying to get some kind of cool back.
“I mean what is wrong with me? Why do you not wish to be with me, some parts of you definetly do want me.’ She pointed out.
‘Nothing is wrong,’ Ethan assured her, ‘not with you at least, but if we do this what future do you see in it?’ he asked her.
‘I did not think about any future I must admit.’ She smiled back at him.
‘What do you mean?’
“It simple, we are alive right now, we are here, we have this moment now, we might as well live it, and let the future take care of itself.’ she told him simply.
He smiled back and her and sat back down on the bed. She took his arm, and he turned back into her.

An hour and a half the three fury knights rode away from the small town to find the srtange raiders that Alain had told them about. Ethan knew that they were getting closer, he could hear the 13 calling him, but there was something else as well, something that should not be there. Another voice that was mixing with the voice of the 13. Ethan could still not figure out what it was telling him, but it was clear that voice was trying to tell him something. At first Ethan confussed it with threats but then the closer they got, the better Ethan could hear it, and it was not threats, but a warning.
As afternoon came Ethan stoped Jerrick to tell him of the other voice he had been hearing while they were ridding.
‘And what you think we should do?’ Jerrick asked seriously after Ethan had told him of the warning the carrier of the 13 was sending him.
‘I don’t know, but what I do know is that this is not the water 13, it is something else, something far more sinister, something much darker.’ Ethan confessed as the 13 kept calling him.
‘All the pieces of the XIII are equaly sinister, including death, dear and darkness, since they all are the XIII they can mimick their brothers, so fear can use fire, ice, water, darkness, death for its purposes, only it does not have such force as the 13 of fire or ice or death.’ Jerrick reminded Ethan.
‘Should we ride around?’ Irene asked.
‘It would make no difference,’ Ethan said, ‘plus our only way is forward, and our only goal ever is to move on.’ he added as he fought for control over the voice of the 13.
‘We ride on.’ Jerrick put in firmly, and that ended the break.
They rode on for most of that day, then a few hours later they made a small camp to spend the night. They built a small fire and turned in for the night early. Ethan and Irene only one for the two of them and Jerrick only smiled when he saw it. He wished them good night, then he turned around and went to sleep. Ethan had the first wathc, and Irene would take the second, while Jerrick would take the last watch before sunrise. They were deep in hostile land and they all knew that any second they could be attacked, so guard was a must. Ethan kissed Irene good night as she turned in to get her sleep, then he walked out of the camp, into the darkness to keep watch. Out side their make shift cabin almost dog was working on either on some small bugs or something like that he had caught, and was cracking trying to through what ever armor it had on. Ethan sat down by him, and light the roach of the joint that he had smoked the night before he had gone to bed with Irene.

*

Aisha-Irene; the queen of the damed.

When Ethan woke up there was a familiar female face looking down on him, at first there was reliefe then panic as he realised he was looking into Aishas dark eyes. He looked for Jerrick, but the man was no where to be seen, and she was armed to the teeth. He on the other hand was naked and in a make shift bed. The last thing he rememeberd was, was, as much as he wanted to deny it was dying. The bitch had stabbed him in the back while they were fighting and Ethan had not felt it due to the effect of the fear 13, then he had beaten her half to death before he had slumed against the jeep, and died, in that dark stone court yard of a hell hole where robotic Jesuses ran around and vampire queens survived beatings that would kill a bear. He had dreamed of his life before he had met Jerrick while he was between life and death. He dreamed of the first days when the evolved had appeared butchering man kind, and how he had barely survived those first days. He dreamed how he and his men had slaughtered the evolved for years, saving the planet from being cast into total darkness. Eventually he and his survivers would move off north, first towards Italy then to France. He dreamed of the first two months when things were simple, when he was gathering survivers at the hospital, making an army of personal defenders. He dreamed of their butcherign runs, and then the day when they had hit the main forces of the evolved, when Ethan had realised what he was up against, the day hope had died. When he had learned the secret of the eveolved that they could evolve any animal and that they prefered birds only due to them being simple and easy to deal with, mean the human race was doomed. rats outnumbered us in the millions and if there was a rat evolution like a bird one there was nothing one could do. Their inteligence equaled ours, and the army had said they had enegry weapons. Jerrick had shown up a little later, when Ethan was on the run back to France after he had lost almost all of his men, and everything had changed then. with Jerrick, and the knowledge and power of the XIII the evolved were eventually destroyed by Etah and Jerrick, and the Ethan had taken his vwes as the first knight of fury to do so in the last three thousand years, and he was probably to be the last knight ever to be named. His dreams had stopped after that, but right now it was his future that worried him, since it was starting to look thin.

'Aisha?' he said simply, knowing the answere was both yeas and no.

'No, she is dead, you beat her to death before she stabbed you.' the women said sadly.

'Good, she was a bitch,' Ethan said softly.

'You have no idea.' the women told him.

'You will excuse me but you d bare great resemblance to her, and seeing that Jerrick is no where to be seen, and I am naked and you are armed I would very much like to know your name, and intentions for that matter. No offense intended lady." Ethan told her as simply as he could.

'Well that is a little complicated, but I assure you my intentions are all good.' she smirked and Ethan smiled back felling a strange shiver when flirting with a women he had killed and had killed him back. "I am Irene, the women that Aisha used to be before the 13 of fear had taken her, now that you killed her, and Jerrick pulled out the thing out of me I have been cured, given my life back, a chance to make up for the crimes that I allowed Aisha to commit with my body.' She told him.

'Jesus you are on our side.' Ethan moaned knowing Jerrick had allready started some kind of crazy plan and like ussual he had no fucking intention of telling him anything about it.

'Are you all right?' Irene asked.

'You have been talking to Jerrick, haven't you?' he asked her, 'He told you about the chance to make up, for the sins you lost, right? so you decided to join us right? Aid the holy quest?' she nodded and Ethan felt his heart thighten. 'This quest is not what you want to do, if you have been given a second chance don't join us, we are murderours, and killers, we bring only the thunder and death. If you want a second chance, take my advice and run as far away from us as you can, for tell you the truth I am not sure how different me and Aisha were, but Jerrick, he is worst then any of us, that one could shoot the devil in the face and smoke a cigarete as he reloaded to shoot down god as well if he got in the way or in possesstion of a 13.' Ethan told her gravely.

'But you are different, you slay the evil, you set free the inocent, you have saved me, and I heared from Jerrick your story how you saved a whole world from dasrkness. You are a hero of legends, both you and Jerrick and I would be honored to die by your side, you have saved me from Aisha and I chose to follow the path of the XIII.' she said confidently.

'Then you chose death.' Ethan snapped.

'And death will be delivered to all in great quantities and measures and such.' Jerrick said entering the room, and as much as Ethan hated himself for it he ionstantly felt better when he saw the older warrior.

Jerrick was the living image of a legendary hero. He was tall and wide shouldered, skinny, and laeathery looking, yet definetly not someone you wnat to fuck with. He had the crazy Clint Eastwood eyes, but was dressed like mad max on steroids and had several weapons including the two obscenly large hard calibers, they fury arms, the last existing weapons of Center world, Jerricks home world, the birth place of the XIII, and the very center of existance where the tear and the coliding began.

'How is the buthcer of Belgrade feeling today?' Jerrick asked, ussing the name Ethan hated the most.

'Like shit, how about you, you manipulative bastard, and pardon for not comming up with a snappy title to piss you off,' Jerricks hand came up, and as much as Ethan wanted to go on a shit fit at Jerrick he was his superior, the boss, so Ethan shut up.

'We need to be moving fast, can you walk?'

'Yes,' Etyhan answered calming down seeing both Jerrick and Irene were worried, 'What is wrong?' he asked.

'Turns out Irene here, well Aisha had supperiors, and they are ridiculusly evi;l things that demand ridiculusly evil taxes, and when these are not met, and sent they do alll kinds of crazy and ridiculusly evil things, which would include comming here and ripping us all to thiny bits, and if these creatures would get their hands on even on piece of the XIII all, and I mean all would be lost.' Jerrick said a little too calm for Ethans taste.

'What are we dealing with here?' Ethan asked.

'We are dealing with the enemy.' Jerrick confessed calmly and Ethan felt himself go numb.

The enemy, there was no name for them, they did not deserve one, and even if they did have dozens of names they gave them selfs Jerrick always refered to theses creatures as "the enemy". He spoke of them with great awe, and respet, almost as if dealing with gods, and it terrified Ethan. He knew that one day "the enemy" would find out that Jerrick still livces and that he actually has several pieces of the XIII, the enemy would send all it had at them.
Now the day had come, and Jerrick had convinced anther person to throw her life away in a bloody pursuit to reach a goal that was so distant that in the end it did not even matter. Trying was what mattered and even if Ethan knew this all along it was getting harder and hareder to bear.

'How long befroe they get here?'

'Well we have time, they have no clue Aisha has been slained, so they will probably send a scout to demand in outrage to see Aisha, him we will capture, and ... question?' Jerrick suggested, 'then we go on to seek the next path, and the next piece of the XIII.'

'Simple as that?' Ethan asked.

'Simple as that.' The older man replied.

'And the enemy I suppose they will just sit with their thums up their ass while we "question" their men and run around this behemoth of a city seeking a path, door, gate or portal that could take years or lifes times to find." ethan told him.

'Right, except we have a guide, and vehicules, and with luck you should find the path within miles of it, since now I have all 3 pieces of the XIII, and my time to lead the way is done.' Jerrick smiled, and Ethan swallowed hard.

'Right.' Ethan replied.

'Get dressed, get armed, get ready and come down, we leave as soon as you are ready.' Jerrick said, and left the room smiling.

How strange it is that Ethan should both hate and love Jerrick so much at the same time was very strange to him. the man was like a father but there was a cold calculation about everything that he did, that it left him looking alot more like a machine, a robot than a man. And that was what Ethan hated the most, the cold distance that the man had about everything, even when he was killing someone he was calm and distant uintouched by the death he had created, like a true fury, like a force of natur, like a god damn fucking tornado he would blow in bring death and then compleatly untouched he would disspear into thin air.gone with what and who ever he needed and wanted. Yet the man was not evil, quite the opposit, he stood alone against the dark for thousands of years, and even if he did kill he saved lifes as well, and ultimatly he was saving everything, everyone, all existance. If they failed, if Jerrick and now he fell, it would alll come down, all existance, all reality, all exist ance, god, heaven and hell, all would cease to be, so Ethan understood the gravity of not having the luxury of making mestakes or taking chances, yet there was no other way to go about it, but the way they have been going, blindly in the dark with guns blazing.

Irene helped Ethan get dressed, then to put on his armor. It was a strange experience, even if she claimed Aisha was dead Ethan swore he could see her deep in Irene as she let her hand glide across is chest to buckel the aromr, he swore she would up and sink her teeth into his neck, then he thought she would kiss him, but she just looked deep inside him, and he felt as if a demon had walked over his grave.

Dressed, armored, fully armed, strangly aroused and terrified Ethan ran from Irene, down stairs as fast as he could. She followed slowly enyojing the suffering she caused in him, or at least he thought so as he turned around to be cut down by her look, almost as if she was a large cat and he her snack to be. Yet how ever terrifying it might be, Ethan was enyojing the attention more than he remembered enjoying anything in a long time. Down in the court yard Jerrick awaited with severa old, old, old really fucking old looking men in siver armors, that looked like a combination of medival armor and some futuristic space suit. When Ethan descended among them he was greeted as if he was a conquering hero of old, and the old fellows beat the living shit out of him with smacks of encourigment, hugs, kisses, and just joy beyond Ethans understanding. Only once Jerrick stepped in did the old men leave Ethan alone. They looked over a thousand years old, yet they did not seem frail, or dying, they stood stright, they were thick, their eyes shined with life, and they sertainly had strnght or Ethan was still fragile, probably both.

'Well gentlemen,' Jerrick began, "I believe it is time for the legendary lightning men to make one last famous lightning run? Is it not?' He asked, and the ancient warrior roared back in approval, shaking the whole building to its foundations.

Smilling Jerrick turned to Ethan, cold eyed, handsom bastard, he really could be the devil, Ethan thought to himself as the the warrior clasped him on the shoulder.

'You ready, hero of Zion?' he aske Ethan with that evil grin, and the writer felt like a dog trapped in a corner, Hero of Zion, man did that sound bad, Jerrick had spun god knows what story, and now he had convinced two dozen of old men to ride with them into certain death, not his and Ethans, no they would live on, and if they focus, Irene would live too, but he knew these men, these lightning men were not comming back, or going any where elses after this last run, and they knew it too, he could see it on their faces, and it was all Ethans fault. That was why Jerrick had let him hunt Aisha, so he could make a hero, and drag out the last of the surviving forces he could use. Kill the demon, then get the lightning princess back, and drag her followers to ride one last death trip in her name, still if they chose death who was Ethan to deny them that choice, he certainly would let no one tell him to lai in bed and wait for death. In the end he too like the lightning men would give death the finger and go out guns blaizing, on one last glorius run, so fuck it, he figured it was all beyond him any way, he was there to find the path, and the piececes of the XIII, anything that got in the way was to die, and so he would only thinck, and foucus on this, just like Jerrick.

'I guess we are going on, and that there is something you should, or will not tell me, but I assume that buckets of shit are about to be hitting the fan soon.' Ethan said grimly lighting a cigarete, and Jerricks grin turned to a long smile.

'Coldness is a tool Ethan, and death comes to all. All we can do is try to be just, and stick to a code that makes us better than the ones we slay.' Jerrick told him, and then he went to finish packing their gear.

Irene showed up later, fully armed and armored, taking comand of the lightning men, and organising them before the last run. There was alot of talking, and much hugging and tears, but Ethan could not hear it.

'She was their leader, over a thousand years ago when this city got hit by monsters, the ones they call stalkers, they are similar to the evolved in a fashion, they too were a product of the XIII, fear 13, she accquiered the piece, but it corrupted her, and used her, yet it never defeated the great lightning queen and Aisha the abomination, the queen of darkness was born. She has rulled Zion for a thousand years, and only a hand full of her men had refused to follow her, becoming outcasts. Through her will Irenen kept them alive, as she kept all of the lightning men alive, but unlike the ones we killed theses were not turned to monsters. You actually beat Aisha to death and when I pulled the 13 out of her heart, the XIII revieved her, and fully healed her, as if she had never been Aisha. She too is to find a piece of the XIII, but not fear, her road is still ahead, and you will be in great danger, for you are allready in love, and eventually we will all die Ethan, and she will probably be the first, and you might be the last to go.'

'Shut up!' Ethan snapped at Jerrick louder than he had wanted, but he did not want to hear any of it. Some of the lightning men turned to check, but only briefly.

'What is it with you?' Jerrick askede Ethan as the younger man turned to him.

'I don't know, I guess I am a drama queen and that killing and dying, and butchering, and leading dozens of people to death, really gets me bitchy.' Ethan asnwered.

'So it is not a perfect world, but it is better then what it was like before we came. With the fear 13 gone the stalkers will slowly wain and die away, and life will return. Sure there will be raiders, death, rape, violence and blood but life would return slowly, and eventually communities would rise again, and god knows if we find all of the XIII the path might open itself for us to set all things right again, as if none of this had ever happened, none of the deaths, none of the darkness, as if it had all never happened. All the worlds would still suffer, still bleed and die, but at least there would be no monsters like the ones XIII creates.' Jerrick said calmly and Ethan relaxed.

'I am sorry, it has been hard on me lately, but I am well, soon I will feel better, as soon as we leave Zion.' He admitted, and Jerrick agreed with him.

Chapter 4

Leaving Zion- The last lightning run.

The lightning run was something these men used to do a thousand years, something that has not been heard of in the last millenium, and the only people Ethan ever heared using the lighning run, were of course Hitlers troops and the blitzkriege, lightning war. Hitlers idea was to hit hard, and hit fast, like lightning and leve the enemny crushed from one big attack with all your forces movin g as fast as you can. How the lightning men of Zion waged war was unkown to Ethan but he was about to descovere. They were to travel in a column of vehiculs, 7 vehiculs to be exact, 6 containing 12 lightning men and one with Jerrick, Irene, Ethan, and their driver, a grizzeled, almost inhumanly wrinkeled ancient called Sam. He was the oldest of all, and he knew the city best. He saw the doubt in Ethan and he stepped in front of the warrior. As fast as lightning Sam went for Ethans hard caliber, and by instinct Ethan tried to stop him but failed to grab the pistol, untill it was allready out. Sam tried to toss it from one hand to the other, but Ethan saw the move coming, read it from Sams shoulders and he actually caught the gun blindly, holstering it much faster than Sam even thought possible.

'Nice move old man,' Ethan said amazed, 'I must admit that I have beeen too fast on judging you fellows.' Ethan told him calmly, yet menacingly.

'I just wanted to show you that we are not old fossils dragging along, unfortunatly I am old and you are, well a fury, a hundred years ago I might have gotten the gun from you, maybe I heared that a furies gun can never be taken away, and I always dreamed of being the first one to do this.'

Ethan though hard about it, then he pulled out his Desert Eagel, the weapon was a hard Calibar, and it had take Jerrick a minth to convert the weapon into the magic slaying machine, for all Ethan knew he could nt make any more hard calibers for they had left Jerricks world a long time ago, yet his gut told him to do it. SO he reversed the grip of his pistol and offered it to Sam.

'I am sorry to have broken your dream Sam. But I do belive that a furry has never given away his hard caliber either,' he looked at Jerrick for comfirmation, and Jerrick nodded, surprisingly he was just surprised, not angry or bossy, and he let Ethan carry on, ' may you be the first man who is not a fury to have a hard caliber as his own weapon.'

Sam took the gun with wide eyes and he held it like a child would. 'I have heard of the hard caliber, but we always thuoght them a legend, a tale for children, a weapon that was conected to the mind through magc did not sit well in our world.' Sam told Ethan as if in a dream, 'but to hold and have one, I only wish now to live long enough not to bew unworthy of such a great gift.' Sam told him sadly.

There was not much said after that. There was no need and Ethan truly felt like shit. How could he now watch them all die at the hands of some monsters like the ones that had destroyed his own world. Ethan hated himself even more now, the hero of Zion, the butcher of Belgrade, Bane of the evolved, knight of the furry, in truth he was just a killer, and Jerrick was shaping him into a weapon of mass destruction, while he built a legend out of him, everywhere they went he did this, he used Ethan as the front man, keeping himslef, the truly menacing figure, the true fury and fist of god out of the light, and Ethan hated it. Even worst there was the terrifyin thought of Jerrick dying, if he was killed and Ethan was left alone to hunt the XIII he was sure the universe, the multiverse as a fact, and all existance was truly fucked.

How ever the job was still there, and with morning light the seven heavily armored vehiculs left the fortress of Aisha the queen of damned and at great speed, way to great for Ethans comfort, the caravan zoomed down town.

Ethan was sitting as gunner, sticking out of the roof of their car, and he tried to focus on threaths, as Sam ramed everything like a mand man, screeetching down turns, and running into walls at great speed only to turn at the last second to smash through thin walls onto trash, and skeleton riddeled bullevards. Of course there were other obstacles as well. Ruined vehicules, pieces of fallen buildings, huge gapping holes in the ground, then came a wole section of the elevated road that was gone, knocked over side ways, leaving at least a twenty meter gap, going at least fourty meters down into darkness, and even if there was no way in fucking hell they were ever making it over Sam sped up. Just as Ethan wanted to scream Sam pushed a button and the heavy vehicule shot up, exploading wings from the sides, and rocketing into the air, propeled by what seemed to be lightning. All 7 cars did the same and the column now moved as crafts soaring above the ruined roads avoiding most of the obstacles easily. Then Sam told Ethan to get ready. Jerrick as well who was riding shot gun. Both of them were ussing the templar assault rifles, probably the most advanced, and powerfull rifle ever made, it was no hard caliber, but as far as destructive weapons with shit load of ammo that went through any aromr, the templar was the best. They entered Stalker territories and the shooting began.

Strangly it reminded Ethan of the first runs back in his world when he went with his troops on the buthcer runns where they hunted, and butchered teh Evoved which eventualy culminated in them hiting the main evolved force. This was far worst than those runs, but in a way it was similar, as if it had been good training. Ethan saw a stalker and was not surprised to see a Bear like creature with a bazooka like weapon taking aim for them. This would of surprised Ethan some time ago, would of shocked him a life time ago, now it was strangly expected. He opened fire and did not save on bullets, spraying almost half of his clip, aiming first for the creatures weapon, then its face and chest. They were moving fast, so everything was hapening twice as fast as ussual so ethan had barely time to check before he had to shoot at another creature. This one he knew, a rat man, creaturs he had killed in his world, yet these had clothing, rudimentary armor, several weapons, not that it mattered really, Ethan opened fire again, spraying the rat to a thousand pieces. Jerrcick was shooting just as much as were the men from every car, as suddenly hundreds of creatures began poping out of everywhere.

The caravan sped up, as Ethan emtied his clip, and strugeled to reload. Jerrick reloaded quickly and opened fire like a mad man again, everywhere explosions were going off, missles, and plasma or bullets kept hiting by, and the cars directly but so far the armored flying lightning vehicles were holding out fine, and they were moving down whole city blocks as they moved on. Then suddenly the lead car exploaded and Sam weared left then back righ hard to avoid the crashing car. The vehicle hit the ground and exploaded fast, but then it was gone in a second as the colum flashed on, weapons pouring death in every direction. Another car went down, and the last one crashed almost as well, but managed to save himself and join back up with the caravan. They turned right hard and Ethan opened fire on a group of creatures in a wierd boat like vehocule that floated on air. He emptied the whole clip, bringing the vehicule down, mowing down the six or seven creatures before the whole thing turned ablaze, and then suddenly exploaded. They gathered speed again, and through a narrow tunnel they burst into the center of Zion.

The city was even bigger then it seemed from out side, and actually contained 12 cities insides a huge circle of city sized buildings, It was all conected by loops of enourmous super high ways that were over 20 or 30 lanes wide on each side. Whole settelments stood scatered along the huge highways, as well as beelow and above them on every side. The city was build over 12 hills, and at its time it must have been something amazing to see. Now its size only added to the enourmous sense of dread and death of the whole monster the city had become. From a place of life to a place of death, from sanity to insanity, and the fall of man, no matter how huge Zion was and great it might have been, it took Ethan only one look to know that there was no more sanity or anything good to be found here, only death, darkness and madness.

The caravan sped on as they seemed to lose their tails, and the concentration of monsters decreased. Then they zoomed through a small settelment and the shooting began anew. Once again they braught down the whole settelment as they passed through it, but several vehicules took hits and Ethan knew it was only a matter of tiem before they lost another one, five to go. And he was still supposed to tell them which way to go. Jerrick had not mentioned anything, and he had not asked anything of Ethan, and the writer was starting to feel panic creep into his mind. He had to switch weapons since he would run out of ammo for the templar and he pulled the French chiness Ak and waited to blow the next set of buildings down. Then as they roared over the roads, Ethan heard the XIII calling to him, he was not sure how he knew, but there was no doubt of it, somewhere down below them, somewhere in the worst looking part of the center Ethan saw a gate, a huge two dimensional drawing on a metal wall, and he knew that was the path they needed to take.

'I know the way.' He screamed to Jerrick who nodded and told Sam which way to go, Ehtan assumed Jerrick would ask directions when he needed them, but he also assumed that Jerrick could hear the XIII as well, and needed Ethan for the very end to point him to the gate.

Another set of buildings, with road blocks and machin gun nests began approaching fast, and Ethan got ready to open fire with the Ak 4070. Like him everyone elses was ready, and fire began descending on the settelment even before they reached it. The whole settlement was braught down, then Sam screamed fro Ethan to come back down. Ethan descended back into the vehicule, and put the smoking machin gun back in his weapon rack.

'Time to go down.' Jerrcik told Sam, and Ethan agreed. 'Describe to hi where we are going.' Jerrick told Ethan, and the younger man began telling Sam what he had seen in his mind. Sam laughed, and both fury knights were surrpirsed.

'That place is where it all started, it only figures it should all end there as well.' Irene told them reloading her sub-machine gun, 'Things will get rough now.' she said then.

'Oh now they will get rought, I thought that eight of your men dying and two vehicules exploaded was preety rough.' Ethan confessed, a little angry.
Sam told them to hold on then, he turned side ways, and increased speed by a hundred percent. Now they moved llike a plane, a combat jet of some kind, twirling, going left, and right, at such great speeds that Ethan was sure Sam would kill them all. Then the vehicule produced two enourmous weapons up front, and began moving down enemies, and buildings out of its way. The other four vehicules had split up, rizing, and spliting, attrackting as much attention as they could, creating a horror behind themselfs shielding the craft Jerrick and Ethan were inside, givving them time to slip away. No longer was there only cobstant small weapons and rpgs, now they were in a full war zone. Heavy weapons were fiering everywhere. laser anti batery guns, huge explosions, lightning, and then enemy crafts.

'Lighting men!' Irene screamed and Sam increased speed, and got lower to the ground entering the maze of trash, buildings, and debris. The weapons were on constant aut fier now, and several alarms were screaming as Sam pushed the craft through the streets just inches over the ground, twirling, ussing the rocket engine constantly to get more speed, as they race so fast that Ethan was sure they were way past super sonic, not that he could tell, since the world was moving so fast, and there were explosions everywhere.

Witht the apperance of the other lightning men that were not faithfull to Irenen, but thought her dead things got much worst. Crafts were going down left and right, and the whole city was aflame, exploading, burning, dissapearing.

'Here we go!' Sam screamed at Ethan, as they approached their target.

etahn had no idea what to say or do, did the gate needed to be opened, did it work. Suddenly he knew what he ahd to do.

'Open the roof!' Ethan screamed and without protest Sam fliped a switch and the roof opened. Insantly he slowed down a great amount but the gate was approaching at great speed. The crafts weapons jammed and Ethan saw the gate. He pulled his hard caliber and aimed as explosions went all around them as another craft began fiereing on them. Ferrick got out his window, and at the same time both men fiered. The craft behind them exploaded, and Ethans shell hit the gate oppening it, in a bright flash of blue light. Sam punched it as Irenen dragged Ethan inside.

'Hit it!' She yelled, and the ancient fliped another switch as they entered the gate. Etahn could see a flash, but Irenen turned his head away fast, just before it would of blinded him.

The craft punched trough the gate, as Zion went up in a cloud of 10 000 megaton explosion. Destroying the whole downtown in a second. The shock wayve, and emp puls followed the craft through the gate way, destoying it, and rending the craft dead, before it punched through the web of existance on the other side. Suddenly from the dark corners of Zion, and it huge crammed streets with so much junk, now they were suddenly in a huge golden dessert, devoid of everything for thousands of miles in every direction.

There was silence for a secondthen the panic began as Sam told them to prepare for a crash landing. The craft was compleatly dead, and there was no getting it back to life, like a rock they began to plumet out of control since with no power the craft was not that friendly to fly, since it was a brick , a fucking land rover like vehicule with wings.

' WE NEED JUICE OR WE ARE DEAD!' Sam screamed as he faught to get some control over the plumeting vehicule.

Jerrick checked his gear, as did Etahn, and unlike the car, both of them were fully powered, all computers were working well, watches, every thing, which meant that the emp plasma spike worked too. Both furry knights began diggin like mad man through their bags for the weapons they got off the brigand lords when Jerrick had gotten the fire 13, and they produced them at the same time. Sam saw Jerrick activate the weapon and his eyes opened wide. He took them both from the men then he slamed both into the bottom of the craft, turning them on at the same time, melting the floor, yet filling the craft with just enough of a power surge, to turn it the right way, and fiere the rocket engine one more time to get them straightned. They were still going way to fast, but at least they had some kind of chance now. The spikes could of been used only once since they melted the remainings of the circuts, and the engine and Jerrick barely caught them as most of the crafts middle of the floor flew away.

'Brace yourself!' Sam Yelled as the ground got alot closer at terrifying speed.

Sam focused hard for them moment they hit the ground, he hoped for flats, since he hoped to roll onto land then just deselerate and hopefully not take off again. He did not have much choice about where they landed, but he did hit the ground smoothly, just touching it moving slowly along it, then came the first bump, and the smoothly going vehicule was thrown into the air side ways at horrifying speed. Sam tried Steering but with no power, and no way to influence the vehicule it was pretty usless. they hit back down, hard, and something came undone in the vehicule. It began cracking everywhere, and they were still flying along. Then a wing thore off, and the other began barrying in the ground slowing them down but also turning them and then it broke, sending the vehicule tipping savagly to the other side. A wheel finaly borke away, and the vehicule lost all control going up side ways, spinning, and comming apart, sending man and gear flying everywhere. then it crashed back down. Smashing in the sand rolling another thousand times, bouncing like a crazy dradel, spun by god himself through the dessert.

Chapter 5

The Wastelands.

Jerrick woke up, but he could not move, maybe he could, but he would not risk it, not in the next few seconds at least. He was alive, and that was something, but would he remin alive, the landing was horrible, and he, Ethan, and Irene were thrown out at that last moment when they went up, Sam on the other hand had been fully straped in the pilot seat, and there was no where he was going but with the vehicule, and the last Jerrick had seen it had been bouncing through the dessert so hard that he doubted much more then soup remained of poor old Sam. Suddenly he heard something moving and sniffing behind him, and he needed to move niw, dead or alive injured or with no legs it did not matter any more, if he got eaten by some kind of dessert mutant. Closing his eyes Jerrick turned around and open his eyes relieved to see he was still in one piece. his left arm was broken, and his right palm was crushed, he was beaten and bruised but he did remember landin on his arms and rolling, before darkness had passed him out. His legs were not broken and that was the only thing that truly mattered, for a broken leg in the hostile lands he moved was a death sentence. He could not pull his weapon or stand up, but there was no need. to Jerricks amazment it was an animal, not a mutant, but a real animal, something that looked like a dog, it had a long black snout, but the rest of his fur was almost golden, like the desser. The animal had dark rings around its eyes and bg ears that pointed up, and broke half way t flop back down. It almost looked like a dog, so Jerrick decided that was a good eniough clkassification for now, almost dog. Maybe the animal was mutated a little bit, but it was no mutant and it was just looking through the stuff that was everywhere from their landing.

Suddenly he heared his name being called and he stood up, as best as he could. Almost dog also heared the call, and its head came up, seeing Jerrick stand up, the animal seemed a little confused, and miss trustym but not agressive, and that was all Jerrick cared about. His name was called again, and this time he was sure he recognised Ethans voice. Alomst dog suddenly took off, and Jerrick followed. Over the hill, and down the black trai of thorn dessert dunes was Etahn fiereing his weapons, standing over a unconsouse Irene, as dozens of what seemed to be mixture or rat-lions were attacking from all directions. Almost dog did not wait or hesitate, like and animal possesed he blended into the golden sand and dashed towrds Ethan and Irened. A rat-lion had circled Etahn who was too bussy killing other charging bests to see it, just as it made to jump for Ethan almost dog appeared, jumping out of the sand, like if he was part of the dessert, only his black head pocking out, srticking at the neck of the lion-rat, pulling the hwole animal back down, snapping its neck, and killing it instantly before it dissapeared in the snad again, only his long black head showing, as he kept close to Ethan who had not even seen him. Jerrick began walking down, pulling his hard caliber with his left hand as best as he could, he took a long breath, and then he fiered. Six shots, and seventeen bests exploaded as if hit by a tank cannon. Ethan mowed down the last few running ones, then he dropped the rifle and he sat down. Jerrick approached fast, fearing Ethan might see amlost dog that was now starting to raoam again, nd god forbid shoot the creature.

Just as he was there Ethan saw almost dog, and his rifle came up, but Jerrick knew he would not fire, and he did not he kept it up for a second then he put it down and actually called almost dog to him. It was definetly not what Jerrick had exected, but it did not surprise him when he thought about it. After all Etahn was extreamly emotional, and not to mention in need of some comfort and relaxation even if it meant to pet a dog. Well almost dog.

Ethan, like Jerrick was badly beaten, and bleeding from several gashes, a nasty one on his temple. Gratefully he had no broken limbs and he could not help but mock Jerrick for breaking both hands. Irenen on the other hand was alive, but barely, gratefully she was moving, but her legs were broken, and Ethan and Jerrick did the best they could to splinter them, and then make a strecher for her. That night was hard but Ethan had made a shelter for them, after he had splintered first Jerrick then Irene, then he had gathered as much of their gear with almost dog following and guarding him, but keeping his distance as well. Jerrick had told Ethan how the animal had saved him, and how it was a good omen. Then with night falling, and the temperatures plumeting Jerrick for the first time reveled magic of the 13 to Ethan, for selfish and useful reasons. Now that he had all three of the ones he was to carry he could do more than just make hard calibers. He told Ethan that they would talk soon but that he needed his rest first, which was true and a lie. Even as he was speaking Jerrick had begun healing himself, through strenght 13, and tomorow he would heal Irene as best as he could, assuming she made it through the night. Jerrick had summond a huge fire using the 13, and on it he and Ethan roasted cut of lion-rat they had cut earlier and prepared for dinner. The raosting meat got almost dogs attention fast, and he dared approach the camp, then when Ethan began throwing him chunks of meat, all fear dissapeared, and almost dog sat by the fire and waited eagerly sitting on his tail, waging it back and forth as more slices of meat were pulled of the fire. Once fully fed, he troted off to clean himslef in the sand then he returned to sit by the fire, close enough to feel its warmth, far enough to be just out of the camp. Ethan and Jerrick sat after dinner as Ethan rolled a joint and Jerrick smoked a ciggarete. Ethan finished fast and light up as well. He was exausted, and greatfully Jerrick said, that tonigh they did not need to set guard. Almost dog would wake them if any more creatures came,and they all needed to get their rest. Morning came fast, but uneventfully, and jerrcik woke Ethan telling hiom to cook breakfast, gather the rest of the gear, then wake him in four five hours. Ethan nodded and got up, he was not fully awake yet, but then he saw Irenen hopping towards him. Ethans jaw dropped as he lookde at the women hopping on what seemed a badly twisted anckle.

'How the fucking hell did that happen?' Ethan said dumbly pointing at her legs.

'What?' she asked.

'Your legs, they were crushed to pulp last night, gone, shatered, and just a bloody mess of ground flesh, and now you are fucking walking around.' he told her still too amazed to contain himself.

'I have no clue,' she said, 'I woke this morning with Jerrick over me. He asked how I was feeling, I said fine, he told me to begin gathering equipment, and so I did, I told him my leg hurts,' she siad suddenly to her self, smiling, 'and he said I should enyoj the pain, and you would explain. I guess I got my explination.' she smilied.

'Dirty, old , sunnofa bitch.' Ethan told himself.

'What?'

'Nothing, talking to my slef. Now preety lady why don't you cook and I will gather the gear.' he told her, and she agreed, 'Oh and that black snout,' he said pointing at the barely visible almost dog, 'well, he is a new companion but I am sure the smell of roasting meat will be a great ice breaker for him and a good oportunity to meet you.' he explained.

Irene nodded and walked, or better said hopped away, back to the camp. Ethan on the other hand began walking into the dessert and picking up anything and everything he could find. Most of their gear had been recovered by now, but they would not know until they did an inventory, and only god knows when they would get to do something like that. Irenen had started frying meat, and making someting else in a pot, and even if Ethan was positive that almost dog was there, yet he only approach when Ethan had gone back to the camp. Then he approach Irene and took a piece of meat from them. They ate in silence and saved a portion for Jerrick letting almost dog finish everything else. The rat lion was not particularly tasty, greasy, and heavy, but it was good enough for the moment. Ethan could not, but literarly not remember the last time he had eaten before this set of meals, and he wondered how he and Jerrick had ever managed to get this far. He still did not dare thinck of the future, and what it held, with the memories of the spining world from their crash still fresh, the quiet of the dessert was more than suiting at the moment.

He woke Jerrick five hours later, and by now Ethan was exusted, for waltking and draggign gear through the dessert all morning long. They spend the rest of that day gathering gear, and resting. Jerrick spent some time with Ethan and the former writer noticed his crushed righ palm was fine now, Jerrick used the13 of strenght to fix up Ethan and re-energize him a little. Almost dog stayed with them all day, and that night, eating what ever they gave him, getting a little, and little colser everytime it interectead, but it was clearly still not trusting any of the 3 strangers in his dessert. After a day and two nights of reorganizing, healing, and resting the trio was finally ready to move. And it was only then that Ethan heared the XIII calling him, the same strange song on the wind of existance that he had heared in Zion during the lightnin run.

So he told Jerrick and the older warrior smiled, and told him to lead the way. So Ethan lead them slowly down the track their vehicuke had carved in the dessert floor but a day ago. They walked slowly, picking up scraps of gear as they moved along. Almost dog stuck with Ethan at the head of the column, keeping to his left, and staying a little ahead of Ethan, sniffing the sand and air with every step. They had walked the whole day, and night had fallen by the time they reached the shattered remains of what was the car they flew in. There was not much left of the vehicle, most of it had disentegrated to tiny bt of scrap metal, or its basic part, eaving basicly a twisted and very smashed chassis. Of Sam there was no sign, no where. There was blood everywhere on the crushed body of the vehicle, but it could belong to any of them. They pocked around a little more, then they made torches, and after gathering all they could they moved on to make a cold camp.

That night they kept watch, and right before dawn Ethan swore he saw shadows, moving and flickering all around them, suddenly nervouse, the young fury jumped up, and screamed alert to his companions, the shadows suddenly turned violently fast, and Ethan opened fire from the AK. As soon as he burst the shadows dissapeared, and Jerrick appeared on his right.

'What did you fire at?' he asked Ethan, and the warrior addmited he did not know.

They went to examin if Ethan had killed anything, and the former writer cursed himself for not ussing his hard calibar, with it he would of killed at least one shadow for sure. Jerrick did not seem that troubeled, and Ethan guessed like ussual there was something he was not telling him. They looked around for a while but they found nothing, well no bodies or blood at least. But there was definetly somethign or someone there before them. The ground was covered, in stange prints, as if they had been dragging their feet at gret speed, which did make soe sence to Ethan, but then again, thing did not make sense for a long while now, there was no more normanl, normal had been shot in the head and left to die a long time ago. Ethan pulled out a cigarette and cursed softly, soon they would be out of smokes as well, always missing something, food, water, smokes, company, logic, several buckets of blood, always something. He offered the cigarette to the knealing Jerrick who took it gladly. Then he straighend up, and he took another good look around.

'We will get going.' he said simply, and he walked back to camp, to gather his gear. An hour later they had packed up and moved of.

By sun down they had reached a huge cannion, and on the other side was grassland with fucking horses nonetheless. Both Jerrick and Ethan were prepared to trie and jump the cannion just to get a ride, but gratefully they had still some logic left this time.

'How do we get across?' Ehtan said out loud rather than ask.

'We can corner them and swing onto their backs by the neck as they either stand or run by, once on them, its just a matter of holding on with your legs and ridding him out for a while.' Jerrick told him, for his mind was far acrosss the cannion.

Then with no warning at all, or another word Jerrick began descending into the cannon. Not having or knowing any other or better way to go about it, Ethan and Irene followed. Hesitantly Ethan began working his way down the sharp looking rocks followed by Irene. He was trying to watch her movements to see how well she could climb but all he could do was stare at her ass, so he focused on his way down instead. Ethan had been a rock and mountain climber, summeting over 6000 meter mountains, so he knew he would be fine and since Jerrick did seem to be immortal Ethan guessed he would be fine as well, leaving only Irenen to be conserned about. Still she seemed to have no problem, and a few minntes into their climb Ethan was not surprised to see her move much faster than him, almost flying down. Her agility was breath taking, almost beyond human, way beyond him or even Jerrick. An hour later, an a million cuts later Ethan reached the bottom of the cannon. He was the last to make it don and both Irene and Jerrick were flying up the cliff face, almost as if they were racing. Deciding to get his shit togheter and show them how its done Ethan slowly looked up the clif side, then he too began shooting up. Less then half an hour later all three had made it to the top, the climb was hard, but the trio felt refreshed rather then beat. Still both Jerrick and Ethan took off their gear as soon as they had summeted. Then as one both men cursed as they turned to llok for almost dog.

They both looked and called for him but to no awail. Irene figured it was better to wistel, and just as Jerrick descided to go back across Irene yelled as almost dog jumped into her lap.

'How the hell did he get across?' Ethan asked in astonishment.

'I don't know.' Jerrick replied just as amazed.

'Maybe he found a bridge.' Ethan suggested.

'Don't be an idiot, there are no bridges,' Jerrick told him, 'you can see that for your self.' the older knight told him.

'I mean maybe he found a bridge we can't see.' Ethan replied a little angry.

'He did not have enough time.' Irenen said, petting the beast.

'Then how the funky doodle did he get across?' Ethan joked this time, and both Irenen and Jerrick smiled a bit confused at what the man was saying.

Jerrick mearly shruged his shoulders and pet almost dogs head. He had thought there was more to the almost dog then met the eye, now he was sure of it. Just as he had planned Jerrick went about capturing a horse.

Getting the animal was rather easy since the horses were just as glad to see them, and approached the three people and a rather misstrusty almost dog.

‘Is this strange or not?’ Ethan asked as a huge stallion began nuzzeling then very rudely going through his pack.

‘I don’t know, I am not even sure where we are at.’ Jerrick confessed. ‘I would have to talk to someone to see where we are, or at least find some sort of city or settlement, just like this I can’t say where we are, and much less what is normal and what is not. For all we know this could be a world that has not fallen yet, or even a world like mine was, that had fallen, and had recovered a little and was ready to fall again, once and for all.’

‘Great.’ Ethan said sarcasticly, pushing the enourmous animal away from him. ‘Jesus its like they want us to ride them.’ He finished as the stallion got as close to him as possible without sitting on him.

‘They are scared.’ Irene said suddenly, as if in a dream.

‘How so?’ Ethan asked still trying to explain to the stallion that he was not interested in a life long relationship with him.

‘They were left here a long time ago by their masters, now they have chosen us to be their new masters.’ She told them simply approaching the mares and allowing them all to come to her and be caressed.

‘How the fuck can you know that?’ Ethan asked directly, as the stallion finally got his whole head inside Ethans pack.
‘She can talk to spirits, all spirits, of man and beast.’ Jerrick said darkly pulling the stallions head out of Ethans pack and giving the huge horse the bag of sugar he had been looking for. The stallion devour the sugar, then he ran around happily, to finish his performance by raising himself on his back legs, and come down so hard that Ethan swore the whole ground shook.

‘So can we ride them, is it safe?’ Ethan asked Irene as she continued to carress four horses.

‘Yes, and you are safe, the alfa has taken a likeing to you.’ She said pointing at the insane looking stallion that had been digging through Ethan pack.

‘I can’t ride him, Jesus. I doubt I could even see the ground from on top of him.’ Ethan said looking at the enormous stallion as he jumped and ran around.

‘I think you will do fine.’ Jerrick said smilling.

‘Oh thanks a lot.’ The younger knight snapped as the huge beast came back to Ethan.

In fact it did not come, but rather run to Ethan, and for a second Ethan was sure the horse would try and jump into his arms and crush him. Fortunatly at the last second the horse stopped and only his head gently touched ethans chest as he lowered it to be caressed by his new master.

‘Well fuck me and call me Susy.’ Ethan said as he caressed the strange horses head.

The Stalion looked up at him, and raised his head, only to lower it again and look straight at almost dog. At first it seemed that the stallion would attack almost dog or vice versa, but instead they took off running, playing, racing. And since the horse and almost dog seemed to be staying apart, and well out of each others way, Ethan relaxed. Living inside a nightmare was hard enough even without pets and companions, so Ethan could not worry about everything all the time, hell just traveling with Jerrick was a death sentace, and he knew this better than anyone, on their way to here Ethan had seen the bright light at the end of the tunnel more than a few times, and yet Jerrick never seemed to get seriously injured, plus Ethan guessed that the strength 13 made him this way, super human, un-killable to a certain degree. Sure a well aimed bullet to the head would do it, but then again Ethan was not sure that anything less then a hard caliber would be needed to kill Jerrick, that or a clip of the templar.

‘We might be in horse raising country.’ Jerrick told Ethan. ‘And if we are, it would not be strange to find horses whos riders were killed or lost, or are just gone for the moment.’ The older knight explained.

‘So their masters could still be alive?’ Ethan asked.

‘I doubt it, my guess is their master crossed the cannion and headed into the dessert on foot. None the less we are taking them, stealing or not.’ Jerrick confessed.

‘I thought stealing went against your code.’ Irene said.

‘It does, but these are strange times, and last days, and to make it you have to take what you need and keep what you have, and to keep now days mean to kill all that try to take it from you. The lines of grey get quit stretched at moments, especially now, when we are getting close to the end game of the only quest that will ever matter again, so yes for the XIII, and to see it all end we have to break our codes, and do things that are against our beliefs, of which stealing a horse is the least.’

‘So where do you draw the line?’ Irenen asked darkly, ‘when is it too far, and when does grey become black?’ she asked darkly.

‘Way before we start drinking blood and hiding in the dark to feast on the flesh of innocent Aisha.’ Jerrick snapped at the girl reading her thoughts.

‘I am sorry,’ Irene said quietly turning pale all of a sudden.

‘No need to be girl, but you must trust us,’ Jerrick explained, ‘we are not leading you into darkness or to death, we do this for all of man kind, for all existence, and I swear to you that while you are with us Aisha will not return, and you will not slip back into the dark.’

She nodded but did not answer, but Ethan saw she was convinced. Then Jerrick light a cigarette, and with Ethan they began making camp. Next day they rode with no saddles, and they found a rich land in front of them. There was cattle, and fruit tress, and even some field that have been cultivated years ago, but so far it seemed that there was no people around. They made camp in a lush green valley the next day, and for the first time, in a very long time, Ethan was relaxed and at peace.

‘So my friend,’ Ethan asked Jerrick the next day, ‘any ideas as to where we might be?’

‘Not yet,’ Jerrick said as they cleaned the horses, and let them graze, ‘but with all the life, the pastures, the catle, the horses we are definetly in some kind of land where they raise stock, and that means civilization.’

‘That is good right?’ Irene asked as she joined them.

‘Could be, could be bad, it all depends what kind of civilization it is and who they serve or think of as god, sometimes it can get tricky, or worst.’ Jerrick said darkly.

‘You think the people might attack us?’ Irenen wondered remembering what Zion, her last home was like.

‘They might, there might be no people, I know very little of the outer worlds, and I fear we might have gone past them, or perhaps we have gone in a completely new, or different direction. It is hard to know for I have still seen no cities or land marks, desserts and green valleys look the same everywhere, well almost everywhere.’ He smiled.

They had made their camp by a slow running but deep creek. Jerrick deemed it clear, and almost dog and Ethan agreed with him. The horses drank as well, and if a horse drinks it must be good, Ethan told him self as he refilled all of his long dried canteens. There were woods, with real fucking trees, not those shriveled black things, but real trees with brown bark, green leaves, photosintesis all that good stuff. And for the first time in a long time they had a real fire, that consumed real wood, not just that phantom glow of the magic fire created by the 13. Ethan made dinner from the remains of his food supply. He still had a can of beans and spice which he cooked in a pot in which he previously fried all the remaining rat meat with some wild onions Jerick had dug up. Tomorrow they would fish, and make saddels, and they would hunt, and make a better camp, and they would rest more.

Next morning found the company in a good mood, strangly the whole herd of horses seemed to have migrated with them, following their leader, which was Ethans horse now. Ethan had name the horse Bucefalus, since like Alexanders mythical stallion this horse was huge, bigger then life and dark as the heart of a demon. With that came the discussion of almost dogs name, and Rex was offered and accepted quickly. Jerrick found it strange to call a dog king, but after Ethan told him the other names that were as commun as Rex, the fury knight accepted it clladly.

‘There is something to him,’ Jerrick said, ‘he could easily be the king or god of his people, and Rex will do just fine.’

With morning they ate a small breakfast of last nights left overs that had been left aside thinking of the first meal. Then Jerrick went to go deer hunting while Irene and Ethan made a better camp, and Ethan scouted their sourondings. There was no point making a camp if they had to leave in a hurry.
Once he had scouted the whole area Ethan returned to the camp. Irene had begun making a shelter, and Ethan helped her with the scorching of the ground, and making of the floor they would sleep on. Then Ethan went to the forest to cut and collect wood they would use for fire, the camo, and the saddels they would make if Jerrick caught enough deers. Before he had gone hunting Jerrick had showed Ethan how to make glue from sap, and how to bond and curve the wood they would use to make the skeletons of the saddles.

An hour before dusk Jerrick had returned with six dead deer. He called Ethan and Irene over to him, and togheter he and Thean skinned the deer, cut the choice pieces of meat which Irene took back to the camp to be fried and smoked. They worked long into the night, first by the stream cleaning and washing the skins removing all fat and other left overs of the hide. Then they shaved and stretched them leaving them to dry. They ate a dinner of fish and deer stake, leaving a pile of meat to be smoked over their fire in a make shift smoker Ethan and Jerrick had made. They ate a big dinner and after a smoke Ethan and Jerrick told Irene a bit more of their journey across several worlds, that eventually lead them to her. She told them of the year before zion had fallen, and her life while she was still the lightning queen before she had found the fear 13, and had become the queen of the damned, the consumer of souls. Then once the stories had become too painfull, and too uncomfortable to share the group went to sleep.

The whole next day they spend working, first on putting padding and the leather over the saddle skeletons, then they did inventory of their gear, something both men had dreaded to do, ever since they had landed in the dessert. For all they knew they were pulling over 400 pounds of ussless junk, and it would take days to fix. Ammunition needed to be counted, and then all of their weapons needed to be double and tripel cheked. Ever since they had landed, sort of saying, both men had feared that their weapons and gear was destroyed. What ever had survived the emp of the nucklear war head, was then thrown around in the dessert, and Ethan knew that he was lucky that his weapons worked at all when the rat lions had attacked them.

Irene helped the two men with the gear, then she gave an omni-tool to them. It was based on XIII technology, and an omni tool could be used tobreak any material down to a gel like plastic that could be used to fix and improve weapons armor and gear. The tool could turn any material into a gel that then like play dough is formed into the missing piece or part by the user. With it they could repare any weapon, no matter how bad it was trashed.

They worked diligently on fixing their weapons, then their armor, and finally their computerized equipment. This took the longest, and Ethan was amazed just how proficient Jerrick was at everything. From hunting, to shooting, to fixing a computer so small and so complex that Ethan could only look at it and guess what it’s made up of, fixing it, well that was a little beyond Ethan, for he could not even fix his lap top, much less a 30th century wrist computer. Rex stood guard over them and the horses while Irene helped the two men use the omni tool to its maximu abilitly.

‘What is Rex?’ Ethan asked Jerrick as they worked.

‘I am not sure, he could be a remenant of old days, or a lost pet of the ancient ones, an experiment, or more likely the descendadt of an experimental pet. They had frighteningly high technology, even surpassing what we saw in Irenes home.’ Jerrick told him.

‘Could he be a spy, or an…’

‘An enemy?’ the fury knight finished for him. ‘No, I have a nose for these things and while I am sure there is a lot more to Rex than we know right now, I am also sure he is no spy or enemy. The enemy is not that original, or clever, and that s our main advantage.’

‘How comes?’ Ethan asked a little confused.

‘It simple,’ Irenen said this time,’ A creature of darkness has no struggle, no finess, only a creature that has good and evil in him struggles with finesses and plans, a creature that is pure evil like the enemy is blinded by the darkness, seeking the simplest and quickest way to deal with all his problems and enemies. He finds and destroys. If the enemy knew where we were he would just kill us, not try and spy on us, or have an agent of his befriend us, that is too human.’ She explained with more than some shame in her voice.

Later that day, Jerrick and Ethan had shown Irene how to use a hard caliber. Ethan had given Kelly his G&G revolver to use, and Jerrick gave one of his enourmous looking pistols to Ethan. Irene was a fast student and after Ethan had demonstrated the several tipes of shots a hard caliber could deliver Jerrick explained all to her.

‘A hard caliber is more than a weapon, throught the XIII it is an extention of your mind, and the horribly destructive power it possese. Only trough the strenght of 13 can you wielde a hard caliber, and only a fury can wield the horrible power of his own mind to obey his imagination.’
They spent another day teaching Irene how to wield and use a hard caliber. Like Jerrick had known and Ethan had suspected, Irene was a natural with the weapon. She was much faster than Ethan, but she was still nowhere close to Jerrick and the blur like motions the man possessed. She was however much more elegant then both men in her attacks, even if she lacked the sheer brutality Ethan possessed, or the surgical coldness Jerrick used in everyone of his shots. Still even if she was not as destructive as Ethan or as deadly as Jerrick there was no doubt that she was on her way to become a fury knight.
‘Only two other women have ever been fury knights,’ Jerrick told her at the end of the day as they ate a cold dinner while Rex jumped around them, begging for scraps, ’one of them was my mother, and the other was her sister, you I fear will be the last female fury the world will ever see.’
Irene listened and nodded and the fury knight smiled. They finished the dinner in silence then Ethan and Jerrick shared a cigarete as Irene scratched Rexes head, while all four of them staired silently at the dancing flames of their small fire.
They slept the whole night with no watch, since they had spend the whole day fireing hard calibers none the less, and not a soul had showed up. Next morning they saddeled up the horses and moved on with no breakfast since they were starting to run low on food.
Sometime during the afternoon Jerrick had stopped the ridders, and instantly Ethan knew the blissful time of peace they had enjoyed was about to end.
‘What is it?’ he asked as calmly as he could not to reveal his excitement and terror he experienced at the same time.
‘A village is ahead.’ Jerrick replied calmly, way to calmly for Etahns taste confirming his fears.
‘I don’t see it.’ Ethan admitted.
Irene raised her binoculars, and the high tech goggles picked up barely the smoke rising from the small hamlet way up ahead.
‘How the hell could you see it?’ Irene asked amazed, for there was no way in hell any human could see that far.
‘That is irrelevant,’ Jerrick smiled, ’soon you will see the vilage as well.’
‘Are there people there?’ Ethan went on, already used to Jerrick inhuman abilities.
‘Yes, and they are under attack. Time to uphold our promises and pledges knights of fury.’ he told them as he urged his mount forward.
Ethan first saw the smoke, which at first he thought were clouds. Then he began hearing the gunshots and his heart began to race as fast as the horse below him. They thundered to the village which the closer they got to, the more it reminded Ethan of an archetipe of a western movie town. Jerrick broke into a savage gallop pulling out his hard caliber, racing towards the flaming town. Ethan and Irene both urged their horses after Jerrick, as they pulled their hard caliber out as well. Their horses huffed and almost roared as they all flew across the grass lands, reaching the village, town, junk yard setelment.
The whole place was aflame and even if it had looked like a regular western town from a distance Ethan could clearly see there was a lot of metal, and junk used to build or repair the town, it was like a marriage of a mad max town and a Sergio Leone movie, and even if Ethan had seen dozens of towns like this so far, as soon as he rode in he knew there was something wrong, something more then the dozens of bandits. If the filtht covered mad men with guns, torches, and bayonets could be called bandits.
Jerrick reached the settelment first, his horse jumping over a burning cart, as the fury knight fiered two shot, blowing two madmen straight to hell, in two crimson explosions of bloody haze. Ethan followed next jumping the same flaming cart set up at the entrance of the town. He fiered his own pistol, not even calculating his shot, or thinking of his motion or the speed of the horse below him. His arm came up, the hard caliber roared like the voice of god himself, and he emptied his pistol sending dozen bandits flying in bloody chuncks all over the settelment. Irene followe Ethan step for step, keeping on his left. They enterd town one after another, clearing the burning wagon, the hoofs of their horses crushing the burning corpses on the other side. Like Ethan she too pulled her hard caliber and opened fire into the sea of strange looking robbers. She too emptied her clip, completely emersed in the moment of battle. And even if she had fought and killed before as Aisha, even if she had bathed in blood, killed inocent and enjoyed killing before, this was different. She was not lose as she had been when she was Aisha, she was no longer blinded by the lust for blood and death. Her mind was clear, her vision cristal, her thoughts her own. She felt as if she had found herself, and not lost herself, as if she was in a magic moment, reborn completely.
Then Jerrick pulled out his browning high power, and his A-25 blaster they had found in Zion, and he began pooping and liquefying the raiders around him, breaking the magic the hard calibers had created. Ethan followed suit, holstering his hard caliber and drawing two Z-68 valkieri sub-machine gun pistols he opened fire as well, cutting bandits left and right, as the high cicklick rate sub spat flamin lines of bullets cutting through mens flesh, wood and metal armor and walls as if they were butter. Irene was the last to holster her hard caliber as it took her almost a second more to come out of the dream like state she had found her self for the first time. Then she too pulled out her blaster, the long nosed alien Ti-320 blaster that fiered concentrated shots of green, red or blue plasma depending on the heat and power of the shot. In two seconds the burning village was ablaze with lights and muzzel flair as bullets and blaster rounds shred through the ranks of confused attackers.
The bandits had been taken by surprise, surprise that quickly turned to sheer horror as the three mounted warriors cut through them like a tornado. Seconds after the fury knights had fallen on them, what remained of the 30 some bandits broke into a run. Without any hesitation or thought the bandits threw their weapons and ran into the flames just to get away from the ridders. Jerrick and Ethan gave chase but only for a little while, just to make sure no bandit returned to try and take another shot at them. Ethan pulled his horse to a stop, as he leveled the Templar rifle, and fiered at the last robber he could see. The still flaming robber was thrown forward onto his face as several templar rounds pierced through his back, exploading through his chest, stopping him dead in his tracks.
Securing the area, knowing the dangers of leaving an enemy alive, Jerrick and Ethan rode around the settelment twice more putting rounds into any robber that still twitched or moved. Then they returned to the center plaza where they had slaughtered the robbers, and they got off their horses. The fire had strangly lost power, and seemed to die out by itself, but the smoke still remained. The village or hamlet as Jerrick had called it seemed no better now that the fires had died down, whats more, it looked even worst. Locals slowly came out of nowhere, and they gathered around the fury knights. They did not look much different from the men the riders had chased off, but at least they did not have the crazed empty eyes like the attackers had. The fury knights reloaded and holsterd their weapons as three men in dirty jeans and rough looking hide shirts pushed their way to the front of the small crowd.
‘Hail men of thunder!’ the oldest of the three men said loudly, almost screaming raising both of his hands high into the air, much like as if he was praising a god.
‘Hail father. May we find you well, and may your nights be long and days pleasant.’ Jerrick replied in much the same tone.
‘Long have my days been. And I am well now, better then ever before, for I have lived to see a Fury descend on the enemy of my people.’ the old man smiled pointing at Jerricks hard caliber. ‘That is the weapon of a fury, a hard caliber, is it not?’
‘Yes father,’ Jerrick grinned strangely, ‘we are furies and these are our weapons, forged by the force of the XIII.’ he finished.
‘I knew it.’ The old man cackled, then he turned to the crowd, ‘we are finally safe my friends, now we may rest in peace, for no fool would dare face a Fury knight, specialy if he had lived trough it once to tell about it. We are finaly free!’ the old man screamed lossing his fragile voice at the end of the sentence.
The crowd however seemed no less frightened or dark, they all remained motionless and scared, and Irene shot a glance to Ethan that he was not sure what it menat, so he shot one to Jerrick, and he saw that the knight, like him and Irene was on his guard, and if Ethan felt something was wrong, then sure as shit Jerrick knew it too.
After the old man had given his speech, and performed the introduction ritual with Jerrick the crowd like it had appeared out of nowhere seemed to dissapear into the mist, clouds, or smoke that still surrounded the settelment. The three old men lead the fury knights into a big wooden building, and now it was Jerricks turn to shoot a glance at his companions, unfortunately ethan knew exactly what the glance meant. It ment trouble, or killing, or both. Why Jerrick would tell him to be ready to kill three old men they had just rescued was strange, but there was no question about it, no confussion, no space for missunderstanding. Jerrick had clearly meant it, and Ethands left arm stiffened as his right relaxed and almost unoticably dropped onto the but of his hard caliber.

Inside the building looked like a tipical western bar. The three old men lead the gunslingers to a big table and offered them a seat. As one the three warriors sat down as if they were one entity. Then Zoloft, the oldest one, and the Hamlet leader that had greeted Jerrick began explaining to them about the robbers they had chased off. According to him the raiders belonged to a group of bandits that were lead by a famous gun fighter called Edward Cale. Unfortunatly Cale had dissapered and ever sionce then his men had turned to wild beasts ridding or walking around, attacking and killing all and everything they ran into. For the next four hourse, Jerrick and Zoloft palavered while Ethan and Irene watched and listened. According to Zoloft Old New York, a large settelment that used to live off cattel and horses was less then two days away of ridding. Ethan found the name both funny and terrifying, but he remained quiet.
Zoloft told them that his settelment was an outpost of Old New York, but ever since Cale had appeared the city had abandoned their outpost to secure the lands right around their town. Then when Cale dissapered and his hundred and some men turned mad, all communications ceased between New York and them. No one had gone to New York since Cale had gone MIA, and no one came to their settelment, other then the mad men to kill, and burn. Zoloft went on to tell them how he suspected that Old New York had probably fallen to the brigands as well, since they had left Zoloft town alone for a long, long time.
Jerrick listened and pulled as much information as he could out of Zoloft. Then as night fell, and the bar began filling, the fury nights got up, and took their leave of Zoloft. Like if they were one, Ethan and Irene shot up as soon as Jerrick got up. They followed their leader outside quietly, and passing by the muted crowd of locals they made it outside, with noone dying. Jerrick pulled out a cigarette and light it, taking a long drag. Ethan followed his lead and light one as well.
‘So what now?’ Ethan asked their leader.
‘Now, we ride to New York.’
Ethan shivered at the name. Could it be a coincidence? Or was this the world he had left behind, were all of these world they had seen and cut their way through with guns and fire his world at different times?
‘What?’ Jerrick asked cutting through Ethans thoughts as if he had a mental knife.
‘New York. it’s a name from my world, a huge town where I thinck almost ten million people lived at my time. We could be heading into another Zion, and to make things worst we might be still in my world, where you found me all that time ago. We could just be in the future, we could be going in circles here.’ Ethan told him.
‘All is possible.’ Jerrick commented not looking at him, but keeping his eyes on the bar door. ‘You are probably of the great ones, or the ancient ones, the ones that started the whole problem with the XIII.’
‘Jesus Christ.’ Ethan lamented out loud.
‘Who is that? The robot that died at Zion?’ Jerrick asked raising an eye brow.
‘Yes and no, the robot was a copy of a great man who lived some two thousand years before I was born. It is a long story, in essence he claimed he was the son of God, and he performed amny miracles as he preached a message of love and understanding that changed the world and strated one of the biggest religions my world had seen.’ Ethan explained as best as he could.
‘I see, well do not let names troubel you,’ Jerrick explained, ‘people are not that creative, and due to the XIII now you speak all languages, you just don’t know it for it is all the same in your ear. In my world we had three Yorks, old, new, and just regular York, so don’t let it bother you too much.’
Ethan seemed to relax but just a little, so Rex who had stayed with the very shifty looking horses ran to him and jumped almost into his arms.
‘We should leave.’ Irene said suddenly, and both men agreed.
They had left town quickly, and they made their camp under the stars as far from the settelment as they could reach in the total dark. They had still not talked about what had happened or what was going on, but it was clear that something bad was going on. Jerrick was quiet and dark, but that was his usual demenor. Irene on the other hand had turned from the cheerfull sweet dispositioned girl that spend hours caressing Rex, into a copy of Jerrick. She sat quietly with her kness drawn to her, her head down, her mood somber. Ethan was sure both of them knew something they were not telling him, but if he had learned one thing about people since he had been on this nightmare like adventure with jerrick was that if you pushed someone for answers the only thing you would get were lies or deflections, so he let his two compaions be. Not that there was really need to ask them. Just like them he too had felt that something was very wrong with Zoloft and his whole damn Hamlet, not to mention the dead eyed villagers that seemed terrified of everything, especialy them, a strange relationship to take with some one who had just rescued you. Nonetheless he was overjoyed that they had left the junk town, since there was no way in hell Ethan was going to spend even an hour longer in that place, much less a whole night.
Jerrick made a fire and dinner as Irene, Rex and Ethan unsaddled and rubbed down the horses. They ate in silence, then Ethan rolled a joint which he shared with Irene and Jerrick. Jerrick took one hit and so did Irene, so Ethan turned it off, after he took three hits. He did not care too much how high he got. He nedded to relax, so either he would or his paranoia would increase, another good option since he was sure that the dark, dark night was about to bring them another surprise.
Around three in the morning at the darkest time of the night Rex jumped up from besides the dead fire, his hair raised, his nuzzel pulled back revealing the large bone crushing teeth. Ethan was fighting the paranoia when he saw Rex jump up, and without a single thought Ethan was up as well, his hard caliber out. He saw something move from the corner of his left eye, and the hard caliber thundered, blowing what ever was running through the dark off its feet, and into a million tinny pieces. Suddenly all hell broke loose as dozens of the villagers they had rescued earlier jumped out of the dark. Their eyes were no longer terrified and big and cow like. They now had the same mad eyes the robbers had, the same madness twisted faces, and to top it off they had enourouse jagged knife like teeth, and tallong like nailes that seemed too long and too sharp to even be attached to a human much less something natural. They moved with great speed and elegance, jumping up into the few trees that were available, or just running around the camp, and them jumping out of the dark.
Ethan emptied his hard caliber even before one of the villagers had gotten close enough to jump for him. A villager jumped for him, his tallons extended then enormous mouth wide open, but Ethan saw him coming and he smashed the monster across the face with the empty hard caliber, and just as he had imagined the monstrous villager was thrown across the camp. The Jerricks hard caliber roared, disintegrating the villager to a million pieces as he flew across the camp fire.
Ethan rolled out of the way of another two villagers and came up with the AK 4070. Night turned to day as Irene joined Ethans full automatic fire. Villagers were thrown back as the AK cut them down, twirling them through the air. Trees fell, and villagers dropped out of them, jumping out of the foliage towards the men. Jerrick pulled the mm-77 and began picking off the remaining villagers.
Ethan dropped the smoking rifle and rolled as a villager jumped out of the woods and knocked him to the ground. The monster tried to bite down on Ethan but gratefully Ethan managed to avoid the jaws, then almost dog jumped out of nowhere, head butting the monster out of the way. Ethans Le Matt revolver jumped out of its holster, blowing two gapping holes through the mouth of the monster, and exiting the back of his head, blowing its brains all over Rex. Behind him Irene fell as well as two crazed villagers jumped on him, bringing her down. Jerrick blew one off of her, then he pulled his 9 millimetar glock, and put a round into the head of every monster he saw. Ethan shot back up like an arrow, pulling out his Cimarron Frontier six shooter, emptying all the shells. Irene also got back up, unharmed saved by Jerrick as he blew all the villagers that were on her, or running for her. Blowing the last villager away Ethan holstered his weapon away.
A few more villagers shuffled away into the dark. Ethan pulled and fiered again into the dark, but he was not sure if he hit anything. The bodies of the dead had turned into leathery looking mummies, and quickly they began turning to dust already. Irene dropped the lightning men rifle, and she dropped to her knees. Rex ran to her, and licked her face. She smiled at almost dog and caressed his head.
‘What the fuck did just happen?’ Ethan asked as he reloaded and holstered his weapon.
‘They are what you call blooders, what I was, what you call vampire.’ Irene said softly.
‘Nice, and why did neither of you tell me anything.’ Ethan asked.
‘So you would not go out and try to beat, and convert them.’ Jerrick smiled.
‘So if they are vampire why do they look and act like that?’ Ethan pointed out.
‘Because they are not exactly vampires, they are more like servants of vampires. Their masters are what you know as vampires, ussualy there are several dozen blooders serving under one vampire master.’ Irene explained.
‘Zoloft!’ Ethan cursed out loud.
‘Yes, he probably armed some of his blooders and set that whole show in town to distract us. If we come into town guns blazing, saving people then we could be distracted long enough for Zoloft to send us away, or ambush us. I thought he would ambush us back in town, but he must have sensed that we were onto him.’ Jerrick told him.
‘He could have recognized me as well,’ Irene admitted, ‘I felt the evil but was to afraid to do anything in case he would spot or recognise me.’
‘So you mean he knew we were coming?’ Ethan went on to ask.
‘Yes, they must have spirit animals spying on us.’ Jerrick pointed out.
‘Rex?’ Ethan whispered.
‘No, Rex is something else.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Absolutly.’ Jerrick put firmly, like the last nail in a coffin.
‘Good,’ Ethan said releaved, ‘what now?’
‘Now we wait for Zoloft.’ Jerrick smiled.
‘Are we sure he will come?’ Ethan asked hopping to hear at least one no.
‘Yes,’ Irene whispered, her eyes distant, ‘he has no choice now, he tried to kill us in town but he was afraid to die, so he sent all of his blooders to kill or at least injure us. Now with no blooders, no illusionary town, he has no choice but to face us and hope to kill us. If we live we will tell people of him, and his secret, which is alsow his way of getting food will disapear.’
‘Why not go out and hunt?’ Ethan asked.
‘He is too weak to hunt during day, and too scared to get hurt if he hunts at night, a weaker vampire stuck out here could die if he was shot, or trampeled by a pack of horses, with no fresh blood, or servants to use as food, he would die. Now that he has no servants he will come, one way or another.’ Irene told him.
‘But we were in town for hours, surely that was the best time to attack.’
‘Yes but we were too strong back then. He saw us butcher his blooders in less then a second, something he definetly did not count on. No, once he saw that we were truly furies he recalculated, planning to delay us, and keep us close enough to attack at night, we are lucky he did not come with his servants, for togheter they might have overwhelmed us.’ Jerrick said.
‘Don’t count your blessings yet knight!’ a sinister voice hissed from the darkness.
Ethan went to draw his weapon but Jerrick stayed his hand. Ethan looked at his leader and saw the sinister grin the man got right before he would trick and brutaly murder someone who taught they were untouchable.
‘Come out of the dark, you son of whore!’ Jerrick commanded, his voice booming into the dark.
‘Ahhhh, why would I do that knight?’ the voice hissed again, ‘do you fear what you can not see?’
‘I fear nothing!’ Jerrick thundered, and Ethan swore that the world rang when he shouted. The fury knights hard caliber jumped out, as if it had a mind of its own, as if Jerrick had summoned it into his hand, and two bullets roared out to punctuate Jerricks words, like a final, bloody excamation point.
Both bullets flew raced and not even a second later, Zoloft fell out of a tree, screaming in pain, his left leg blown off at the knee, his whole right arm, ripped clean off, with the shoulder and everything. The scream was long, piercing, animalistic, and would haunt Ethan for the rest of his days even if he lived a thousand years.
Jerrick walked towards the screaming vampire, followed by Ethan while Irene remained behind. As they approached the vampires screaming stopped and was eplaced by a strange language Ethan could not understand.
‘The dark language is outside the XIII, and is one of the few you can not understand.’ Jerrick told Ethan as if reading his mind. Then he continued walking.
The vampire kept cursing them, and even if Ethan could not understand even a single word of what he was saying he knew when he was being cursed and cused at.
‘Shut your mouth!’ Jerrick stormed and to Ethans surprise the vampire actualy obeyed.
The vampire stared up at them from the ever growing pool of blood with such hate that Ethan could feel it as if it was a physical force.
‘May you be damed you Center world cock suckers.’ the vampire hissed, spat and moaned. Then Ethan swore the vampire was about to jump at them, missing limbs and pool of blood and everything.
Gratefully Jerrick had not planned for more conversation, and as Zoloft worded his last curse, the fury knight put two bullets into him. One in his heart, and one into his forehead, exploading the monsters head as a ripe melon.
‘Jesus on a pogo stick, with tap dancing shoes!’ Ethan mumbled as the hate and evil vanished from the air as if they had never been there.
‘I would like you to tell me of this Gee-Zeus one day.’ Jerrick said as he walked away from the vampire back towards the very pale Irene.
Ethan nodded dumbly as he stared at Zolofts body. When they had met him a few hours earlier that day, he looked like a hundred year old bum dying of AIDS. Before Jerrick had deep sixed him for good, he had looked like a fierce wild man, of Ethans age, if not even younger, he almost looked like Leshtat, the Tom Cruise character from interview with a vampire, and Ethan was sure they were dead when he tried to jump for them. Now like the blooders they had killed before Zoloft was quickly turning into a leathery looking mumy. Then a few minutes later, there was only ash, and the grime covered clothing he had been wearing.
Ethan returned to the fire where Jerrick and Irene waited for him, while almost dog ran to him and jumped into his arms. The young man carried the almost dog back with him to the fire and sat down by Irene. Rex put his head into her lap, while most of him was still in Ethans lap, and the pale looking girl smiled some color returning to her face.
‘He saved my life.’ Ethan said, as he scratched the dog.
‘I am glad he did.’ Irene smiled back, and Jerrick could not help but let out a small laugh.
‘We are all glad he did.’ Jerrick added still smiling.
Ethan nodded but said nothing, he was exhausted, a feeling he had left behind a few days ago, a feeling that was returning quickly as he stared at his blood covered hands.
‘Will more come?’ Ethan asked.
‘No,’ Irene said, ‘Once the fear master, or vampire as you call it is dead, the blooders are released from the spell, and they will either die, or run.’
‘Fearmasters?’ Ethan asked.
‘Yes, for fear is their greatest weapon, and their greatest strenght. Had one of us been alone Zoloft would of used the fear to get us into a trap. When he uses the fear, it is much like fear 13, and almost any man would die, for when a fear master uses his weapon one is paralyzed by an un-natural fear that flows from the monster.’ Jerrick said.
‘You have faced them a few times before haven’t you?’ Ethan asked calmly.
‘Once,’ Jerrick said with more than some pain to his voice. ‘When I was young, just a little over a boys age.’ He said no more and Ethan saw that pushing the subject would be a bad idea, both him and Irene had a painful past involving vampires and vampirism. So he gave it up, and with Jerrick they rebuilt the fire.
They did not sleep any longer that night, Jerrick did take a nap, but it was short, just a little over half an hour, and Irene and Ethan stayed up, sitting in silence, stairing at the fire. There was no more doubt in Ethans mind about the peace they had enjoyed, it had lasted for a few days, he had received bliss, and now it was all over. No doubt, no questions, no second guessing, the peace he had never wanted before had been ripped away from him now that he wanted it for the first time.
When the sun broke over the horizon a little later the trio quickly moved off. As they moved on they ran into several more piles of dust covered sack like clothing. The wooden town was gone and only a huge decrepit shack surrounded by a huge circle of trash stood there now. It must have been the bar they were in, and Ethan did not even dare imagine what the inside really looked like.
They rode off quickly deciding not to even examine the shack, for it still gave all three a bad taste in their mouths. They were heading for Old New York, even if Ethan doubted they could trust Zolofts instructions. Still when he brought his concern to Jerrick the older knight dismissed him quickly.
‘He was not lying, I would of noticed, and he would of known, plus he had no reason to lie, he was planning to kill us so he could tell the whole truth, as long as we were distracted and did not ask the right questions, which he did rather good.’
That was good enough for Jerrick so it was good enough for Ethan. Without further discussion they continued riding. What Jeerick was concerned about was the Cale character ands his outlaws, they were probably the one holding the next shard of the XIII, and if Cale had held it for a while now, he would be no easier to find than Aisha was. Unfortunatly this time Jerrick had no inside information, no legend to go about, Zion was the last place he had heard off, the incredible world of high tech, now they were on an unkown path to him, Ethans path, and if Cale turned to be difficult Jerrick was not sure how things would go. The next few days of ridding were uneventful, and Ethan began fearing the moment their peace would be ripped to pieces in a moment of bloody hell. Then came the village, a real village.
The riders slowed down, still worried about what is expecting them inside. The last time they interacted with a village things did not turn out that well. Ethan was the most nervous, he was still worried about his ability to judge whom to shoot and whom not to execute. There was a lot of people moving around, and despite Ethans fear it was clear that the people were normal looking humans, doing normal human things.
This village or town was made out of wood as well, timber, and rock. There was even a rock church in the middle of the settelment. There was a big wooden building that looked like some kind of city hall behind the church, and several more two and three storie buildings on each side of the street heading away from the plaza, or Redondo where the church and town hall were located at.
Jerrcik rode in the center while Ethan covered his left, and Irene took the right. Rex came behind them, sticking close to Ethans horse, just as nervous as the riders above him. Jerrick pointed towards a big building on the right, and Ethan nodded in understanding. They were heading for a building that looked like a mixture of a medieval inn, and a western hotel. Half of it was wooden, and the other half was completely out of rock. The population had stopped doing what ever they had been occupied with and their whole attention was turned to the three riders now. Silence swallowed the town instantly, and even if it was eeri and uncomfortably quiet it was clear that this was a real settelment. Unlike the settelment Zoloft had cast the illussion of this town had all the details one would expect from a real place where real people lived. Trees surrounded the whole place, as did big walls made of rock, wood, and other trash. A huge round well was found in the center of town, right in front of the church, and ethan spotted another small one at the entrace of the settelment.
Wooden side walks stood in front of every building, and the people that walked it seemed equaly disturbed as glad to see the riders. But so far no one had done anything at all. People had just stopped what ever they had been doing and they were staring. The three riders reached the inn, or bar like building and they dismounted as one. Ethan looked at the crowd of people and quickly he began relaxing. So far he had seen the normal things. Some hate, a lot of fear, and just as much hope and curiosity.
As they had dismounted three men dressed in black shirts, and very old looking jeans approached them. Each man wore a cowboy hat, jet black as well, and four pistols. Two automatics of some kind, but Ethan had never seen such weapons, and two long barreled revolvers, one on each hip, hanging in western styke huge leather holsters, bullets and everything. The revolvers were also unknown to Ethan but it was clear the weapons were smaller caliber, .32 or something like that, and he guessed the same went for the automatics. Black glowes, black bandanas under their hats, black leather boots, silver stirups, the men seemed to know what they were doing. All three men were grim faced, yet good looking, each in his own way.
Still the first thing that Ethan saw, to his great reliefe was the silver star each man carried above his heart. He guessed the simbol could mean something else, but like Jerrick had said, and he had discovered, people really were not that creative.
‘Welcome meeners.’ One of the star wearing men said.
‘May we find you well, and may your days be long and calm.’ Jerrick replied in his cold diplomatic voice.
‘We are Old New York regulators, and we are the law around these parts.’ the same man kept saying.
‘Aye, well we mean no harm to no one, and we only take war to those that attack us.’ Jerrick told him even colder.
‘That is good…’ a second slightly shorter star wearing man said, ’and as a sign of good will we have to take your weapons, all of them.’ he said trying to imitate Jerricks icy tone.
This time it was Jerrick who smiled, and it was a genuine smile full of warmth and good humor, which only made the next line so much colder.
‘We leave our guns to no man, we are knights of center World, and no outer world pup will lay his hands on a hard caliber in this reality.’ Jerrick told him so coldly that Ethan swore the world had turned just a little darker when he spoke.
The regulators eyes narrowed, and Ethan felt his hand slide to his pistols grip.
‘Knights you say, well we are big on legends and myths here, so prey sir knight, which line do you belong to?’ the regulator mocked.
‘We are the fury of god. The line of Shadow crows from Center world.’ Jerrick thundered, his voice booming out like thunder. ’And you, you should watch you tongue slim, less should you want me to rip out of your mouth.’
Ethan was sure that death was to follow, quick and violent death, but it did not. The regulator that had spoken first first stood his ground, then he slowly relaxed and he began walking away, still facing the three knights of fury. Then when they had put a little between them selves and Jerricks group the regulators had left, but only to return a few second later, and a much larger group of eight men returned this time.
‘Well, well, sir knights, now we will see if you bite as hard as you bark.’ the regulator said smiling.

Even as the regulator was speaking, both Jerrick and Ethan had begun drawing their weapons. The regulators too had began drawing, but it was too late for all of them. Sixteen shots rang out, and the eight regulators were blown back, twirling, bleeding, exploaded to bits. Of the eight regulators only one managed to get a shot off, and that was a dead mans twich that fiered it, and it hit a beam high above Ethans head.
Silence came again after the storm of thunder and violence, and swallowed the town again. It seemed to last for an eternity, and Ethan wondered if there were more regulators hidding around town. But slowly people that had hit the deck, or had ran inside came up, or back out, and slowly a small crowd began surrounding the gunslingers. People began murmuring and whispering, exchanging glances, and looking at the bodies of the eight blown to hell regulators. Finally three rather well fed, older looking guys made their way out of the crowd and approached the fury knights, and a very untrusty growling almost dog.
‘God damn it you sons of bitches, why the hell did you go and do that for?’ Yelled one of the older looking fellas. He was heavily red in the face, and was heavy all around his body. He had huge eye brows, bushier and bigger than anything Ethan had ever seen, it was almost as if the eye brows were holding up his huge grey sombrero.

‘I beg you pardon, meener,’ Jerrick said politly, ’but these men asked for death, and all we did was fulfill their desiers.’ Jerrick told him calmly.
‘Forgive him sirs,’ the second of the chubby trio spoke. He looked like he was the youngest of the three, he wore no hat, and his longer hair was slicked back, making him look even younger and stronger compared to his two companions. ’We are not used to violence around here, much less seeing mighty warriors of legend blow aeay eight killers that have terrorized us for god only knows how long.’ He explained.
‘You are right, I cry for your forgivness.’ Jerrick said changing his voice to sound a little sweeter.
‘God damn it Fred, cut the shit!’ the first man, bushy, as Ethan had named him inside his mind cut in. ’You know that is not the fucking problem here.
‘Quiet Herb!’ The third man snapped. There was so much authority in his voice that even Jerrick seemed to lose a second.
The third man was by far the most interesting, and definetly the leader out of the three there. He was old, sixty something, maybe seventy, but there was no mestaking it, he was a leathery mother fucker. Combined with his deep blue eyes that shined underneath evil looking eye brows there was definetly the mark of the killer and the look of eagels about him. He wore black leggings, probably made out of leather, as well as a black shirt of some kind, over it he wore a poncho, underneath which a large revolver stuck out.
‘What Herbert means is that these croocks you shot were more than just abusive pests, they also served as protection, without them here we are left unprotected and it is them we fear the most.’ the black clad old man said pointing at a dead regulator.
‘I understand.’ Jerrick said quietly.
‘You understand, well is that not nice!’ Herbert blew up, getting as red as a tomato before hand.
‘Excuse Herbert,’ Fred, the youngest man said, ‘he has been stressed lately.’
‘You bet you ass I have been stressed,’ the red faced bushy man kept on yelling, ‘it is my land, and my stock that keeps getting hit by raiders, and butchered day after day.’ Herb protested.
‘And these regulators, the defended your lands, and fended off these raiders when they came?’ Jerrick asked calmly stairing strait at Herbert.
‘Yes, well…something like that. Robbers leave us alone for the regulators are from New York, and attacking them is to attack New York, plus these men carry serious fire power with them.’ the red faced man replied calming down as Jerrick turned his grey eyes on him.
‘Well if you point us in the direction of you raider problem, I am sure we can solve it for you.’ Jerrick said cold as a grave.
‘All in good time,’ the oldest of the trio said adjusting his poncho, and pushing Herbert back, ‘Allow me to introduce myself, and my companions. I am Alain Delon, and these are Herbert Stock, and Fred Aster.’

Ethan shook hands with all three as did Jerrick and Irene after Jerrick had introduced them all. Ethan Eastwood, and Irene LeStat meeting Alain Delon and Fred Aster. It was su-real, far beyond sarcasam and fun, it had become freaky. If he heard another name from his world, Ethan was sure he would lose it. After that rex introduced him self by barking and making other noises that sounded eerily close to words.
After that short but sweet introduction Alain lead the three knights to the center of the square behind the church in front of the town hall. Quickly the citizens of the small setelment had stripped the regulators of all weapons, and had dragged their bodies away, covering the bloody pools and drag marks with fresh dirt and saw dust.
The table set out in front of town hall was large but not too big. Fred spoke with a terrified looking women on the side before he joined the other five at the table. Herbert was still visibly shook up, but he had managed to remain sitting down, even if Ethan was sure the man would get up to leave, cursing and cussing at everyone and everything around him. A minute later several women came out of the big building carrying trays of food, and pitchers of drink. They served the knights first, quickly and descisevly just make sure that they did not have to interact with them again. Then they served their fellow townsmen and left.
Jerrick, Ethan and Irene drank several cups each, but ate only a little bit, knowing that food must be scares, even in a rich, and alive world like this one. Then after they had finished eating Jerrick and Ethan both light a cigarete and offered to Alain, Herbet and Fred. Fred refused but Herbert and Alain both were glad to accept the smokes.
‘It is kind of you to share such a luxury with us.’ Herebrt said in a strangly polite voice. ‘I was wrong knights, I beg your pardon.’ he finally said lighting his cigarette.
‘It is nothing.’ Jerrick assured them.
‘Compared to your offer to get us rid of our raider problem it might be nothing, but to us it means a lot.’ Alain told them.
‘How so?’ Ethan asked, making a break from drinking.
‘Well it is complicated, part of it was that the regulators you…dispatched, for which I am grateful,’ he added, ‘they were a small part of a large army of gunslingers.’
‘So they never fought the raiders, but mearly stayed here as a bluff, and just torture you.’ Ethan concluded.
‘Something like that, and now we are unprotected against everything again.’ Alain told them
‘So what would you have us do, if not get rid of these robbers?’ Ethan asked.
‘We would ask you to delay them, here, and give us time to run to New York.’ Alain said calmly, waiting for the reaction of the knights.
‘You meant defend an empty town, maybe die for nothing?’ Irene asked speaking for the first time.
‘Not for nothing, but for our lives.’ Herbert said softly.
‘Pray explain all.’ Jerrick told them calmly, surprising Ethan with his calm demenor.
‘There are many strange things going on these days. The truth was that the regulators you gave an early retierment were running even as you rode into town. They had packed up, and were ready to leave us to our faith. They said they were going to get help, but the bastards were scared.’
‘Scared of what? What is going on?’ Ethan asked as he turned out his cigarette and pocketed the bud.
‘No one knows really, but there are stories of an army of brigands controlled by a demon killer that holds great power, and an ancient artifact that turns men into monsters, he is called a god by his followers, and demon by all the others.’ Alain said.
‘A god?’ Jerrick asked.
‘A giant man with burning eyes that can read the minds of men, and has no enemy that could kill him, he is invulnerable to any attack, and can not even be injured. The stories get wilder and crazier, but I don’t think even what I told you is true. Yet there is a new leader of brigands, and they have become wilder, crazier, and more aggressive in the last few weeks.’ the olde man explained.
‘So what is true of this?’ Ethan asked.
‘Most of it is.’ Jerrick said darkly knowing what was up ahead.
‘Nice, well what do you suggest?’ Ethan asked hios leader.
‘We go to him, and we kill him.’ Jerrick concluded.
‘But you can’t face him, even if he is no more than a demon he is far more powerfull than any creature that walks this earth. If you face him you will all die for sure.’ Alain insisted.
‘And if we stay and defend an empty town, we can live?’ Ethan asked confused as to why facing this man was death, but fighting him here they would have a chance.
‘No, if you stay here you will just face his men, and with your skills as killers, and you weapons you could easily defeat his army.’ Fred said getting back into the conversation.
‘Why is this brigand Lord unwilling or unable to move?’ Irene wondered.
‘Neither, he is consumed with something else, he never leaves his fortress, where he seeks…something.’ Alain explained.
Jerrick stood up, and instantly ethan and Irene followed as if they had received a telepathic message to follow Jerricks lead.
‘Friends we are grateful for you food, the drinks and the information that you have given us, but now our path is set, and we can not stray. We will go and face your demon lord, and we will kill him, for that is our destiny.’ Jerrick said with no modesty. ‘Whatever happens to us I tell you this, we will end your brigand problem one way or another, so you have nothing to fear no more, yet if you still think you will be safer in New York then you should go right away.’
‘And what of you friends?’ Herbert asked in a strangly embraced voice.
‘We go on, and we will seek you in Old New York.’ Jerrick smiled at the bushy eye brows man.
‘May it be so.’ Fred said smiling.
‘May our roads cross again.’ Ethan said, shaking hands with Fred, Alain, and Herbert.
Irene did the same as did Jerrick. Then the trio was lead back to the strange looking inn, where they unsaddled their mounts, and lead them to a stable where a scrapy looking 10 year old took all three horses at once and lead each to a different box. Jerrick gave the kid some food, and an old shirt made of leather that was a little big on the boy, but much better than the ripped rag he wore at the moment.
Ethan gave the last bag of hard candy he had to the kid as well and the smilling child took it greedily, like he had never seen a greater treasure.
Then the trio was lead to their rooms. The inn, or hostel as Ethan preferred to call it was not a beautifull building, but it was definetly interesting. It boasted a large eating room, or bar at the floor level that was set with several tables, and scaterred chairs everywhere. There was an enormous fire place on the northern wall, that took up most of it, and a large destroyed piano on the western wall while a huge bar stretched across the whole southern end opposite the large fire place.
The three fury knights headed up to their rooms. All three decided to stay in room, even if it seemed a little strange to Ethan he did not think about it at all. He just followed Jerrick to the room, and as soon as they entered the two men began stripping and throwing gear off. Half an hour later they went back down and they changed pieces of their gear for some food. The food itself was nothing special, bread, with no yeast in it, and meat that resembled and looked like a shoe soal. There was a strange tasting green salad as well, and all three of them devoured everything before they had retiered to their room. There were two beds in the room, one big and one small. Jerrick said he would take the small one, and that Ethan and Irene should share the big one.
Then without another word he took off his boot, his pants, and shirt, and puuting his hard calibar under his pillow the fury knight felt into a coma.
Ethan and Irene stayed up on the other hand. Ethan tried to keep himself bussy and his mind off Irene but it was seeming more and more impossible as she began stripping. she took off her lightning men armor, and her weapons off, revealing a thight body dress that stuck to her as if it was painted on. She quickly took off her shirt and black pants, and she rolled into bed. Ethan had left his gear alone and had begun rolling a cigarette, mixed with other plants, hoping that if he over baked he would just fall into a come like Jerrick and would manage to stay away from Irene. Still even as he light his contraption he knew that his battle might be lost.
He had taken only one drag before Irene called him to bed, with a smile that was terrifyingly close to Aishas face. The warrior wondered what to do, and a second later he had turned off his smoke and he too, took off his clothing. He was bone weary, but he was sure that if he got into bed with her that would make no difference. For days and days now he had been watching her, and she too had been watching him, smilling at him, touching him slightly here and there, and Ethan knew that there was chemistry between the two of them, but what future did they have to look forward. Probabilities are that both of them would end up dead in a ditch somewhere in this destroyed universe with several bullet holes in them. Still Ethan did what he was asked for, and he got into bed with her. He rolled on his side facing her, close enough to feel her breath on his skin. He swallowed hard, suddenly feeling so self conciense almost as if he was 21 again. She smiled at him, and those piercing eyes of her seemed to shine brighter then ever. Ethan closed his eyes and felt her embrace him. He opened his eyes and smiled back at her. She moved in close to him, and he embraced her as well. She nesseled on his chest, and closed her eyes. Ethan took another deep breath, and closed his eyes as well. Almost dog laied down by the door, and with a loud huff he too went to sleep without protest.
Next morning found the knights of fury in good spirits. As a matter of fact Etahns spirit and other parts were in very good spirits. Unfortunatly Irene was a cuddeler, and she had embraced Ethan in a dead grip that he could not free himself from. She woke up as soon as he began struggling to get out of her embrace. Her eyes locked with his and she smiled. Ethan smiled back and tried to still get out. She let him go, but only after a long caress down his chest, over his stomach and his groin. She grabbed him, hard, and he almost yelled, from surprise more than anything else. She pulled him in even closer, and this time Ethan did wince but just a little. She let him go with a smile and Ethan got up, stuffing himself into his pants as fast as he could. Gratefully Jerrick and Rex were gone, so at least Ethan did not have to share this moment with them.
‘What is wrong?’ Irene asked as Ethan turned to face her again.
‘What do you mean?’ Ethan asked trying to get some kind of cool back.
“I mean what is wrong with me? Why do you not wish to be with me, some parts of you definetly do want me.’ She pointed out.
‘Nothing is wrong,’ Ethan assured her, ‘not with you at least, but if we do this what future do you see in it?’ he asked her.
‘I did not think about any future I must admit.’ She smiled back at him.
‘What do you mean?’
“It simple, we are alive right now, we are here, we have this moment now, we might as well live it, and let the future take care of itself.’ she told him simply.
He smiled back and her and sat back down on the bed. She took his arm, and he turned back into her.

An hour and a half the three fury knights rode away from the small town to find the srtange raiders that Alain had told them about. Ethan knew that they were getting closer, he could hear the 13 calling him, but there was something else as well, something that should not be there. Another voice that was mixing with the voice of the 13. Ethan could still not figure out what it was telling him, but it was clear that voice was trying to tell him something. At first Ethan confussed it with threats but then the closer they got, the better Ethan could hear it, and it was not threats, but a warning.
As afternoon came Ethan stoped Jerrick to tell him of the other voice he had been hearing while they were ridding.
‘And what you think we should do?’ Jerrick asked seriously after Ethan had told him of the warning the carrier of the 13 was sending him.
‘I don’t know, but what I do know is that this is not the water 13, it is something else, something far more sinister, something much darker.’ Ethan confessed as the 13 kept calling him.
‘All the pieces of the XIII are equaly sinister, including death, dear and darkness, since they all are the XIII they can mimick their brothers, so fear can use fire, ice, water, darkness, death for its purposes, only it does not have such force as the 13 of fire or ice or death.’ Jerrick reminded Ethan.
‘Should we ride around?’ Irene asked.
‘It would make no difference,’ Ethan said, ‘plus our only way is forward, and our only goal ever is to move on.’ he added as he fought for control over the voice of the 13.
‘We ride on.’ Jerrick put in firmly, and that ended the break.
They rode on for most of that day, then a few hours later they made a small camp to spend the night. They built a small fire and turned in for the night early. Ethan and Irene only one for the two of them and Jerrick only smiled when he saw it. He wished them good night, then he turned around and went to sleep. Ethan had the first wathc, and Irene would take the second, while Jerrick would take the last watch before sunrise. They were deep in hostile land and they all knew that any second they could be attacked, so guard was a must. Ethan kissed Irene good night as she turned in to get her sleep, then he walked out of the camp, into the darkness to keep watch. Out side their make shift cabin almost dog was working on either on some small bugs or something like that he had caught, and was cracking trying to through what ever armor it had on. Ethan sat down by him, and light the roach of the joint that he had smoked the night before he had gone to bed with Irene.

*

The God Killer

Nyx was a man from earth, a human

The Trial of the Dark

The trio set across the desert as the sun descended. Ensenge lead them throught the dark, shooting a monster here and there, slashing a sneaky mutant with his plasma blade as he tried to ambush them but for most of the night they were undisturbed. Sanguine would shimmer in and out of existane for a second or two every now and then, but for the most part it was only the dark Seeker and the legionair walking across the desert.

Ensenge was not much for conversation for he had won only one of the three games last night and he blamed it on the legionair, but he knew it was something else, something else was out of place, he could just not feel what it was.

“So do you have a name?” Ensenge fianly asked the exausted legionair as dawn came.

“Aria of the 9th Legion.” she rpelied with a tiered smile.

“That is a pretty name Aria,” Ensenge smiled back and she was shocked at how much younger and more handsome he became when the look of death came off his face. “I am as you called me known to some as The Valhala Man, but my true name is Ensenge BlackWood of the 1st DarkeSeeker Legion.” he finished.

“There are legions of men like you?” she asked in shock and horror.
“No,” Ensenge smiled again, “There used to be a legion every generation when it all began some 200 years ago. We had a thousand men at one point so we became a legion. Every couple of decades new DarkSeekers would complete their training and joing the ranks and some or many would die and a new legion would be sworn in new blood brothers in cause. We were of course all men of different abilities when we joined and depending on how long we lived so some of us became stronger than our comareds but there was a new legion for around 160 years.” he siad turning quiet checking the suroindings.

“What happened to you, to your people?” Aria asked.

“ I happened,” Sanguine suddenly appeared above them floating in the air on his back, “While Ensenge here came to stop and kill me I had sent my whole force against his comarades sure that they would kill them off and that I would kill Ensenge and rid the world of all DarkSeekers.” he explained sounding remorseful at least.

“I was of course wrong and I caused the death of my own people, and the destruction of Babylon when I tried to Kill Ensenge even as he tried to save my people for which I cared nothing, they were equal to cattle or food. And yet he took blows to save some of them before everyone was killed by my actions. My men however seem to have faired better and destroyed Ensenges club house and probably killed off most if not all of the the few hundred dark seekers that remained in the 16th legion. In return they killed all of my men as well and I helped there too and everyone died.” He concluded and wanished into thin air again.

“Well is he not just a great travel companion.” Ensenge smiled as he began walking again.

“Is any of that true, did he kill off your people destroy your hime?” Aria aksed as she struggeled to walk on, her limbs stiff, every atom of her body in pain.

“Yes all of it, but I am as responsible for it all as he is. Also...” he hesitated for a second, “I looked for the bodies of my people, I found many and I dug throught the fortress for six years and I dig every bit of ot up and I found out that at least another 45 to 65 DarkSeekers survived. Due to the heavy artilery it was hard to judge if a man was alive or not if you only had a foot or an arm.” he explained and she nooded not sure how to reply to any of it.

“Come we will make camp down there, there is a noatural shelter from the rock and the sand dune.” he pointed out to a large boulder sticking out of the desert.

They made a small camp with Ensenge summoning a fire much to Sanguines disliking of him using what he called filthy sorcery and Ensenge refered to accelerating atms to ignition via telkenesis on an atomic level, Aria did not mind the strange fire that burned with no fuel.

But then again the ghosts mood seemed to change suddenly from the times that he appeared and dissapeared. Ensenge had explained to her that his soul was under constant assault from monsters in the void and that he had to go back and forth from this world, or plain of existance to the void to defend his soul and while it would seem seconds to them it could be as much as a few weeks of constnat combat for Sanguine.

She nodded and said nothing any time either the ghost or the Dark Seeker tried to explain something to her. The topics were of dead souls dead empires, ancient technology, magic, sorcery, blood magic, it was all the stuff of legends and stories she had heard by camp fires at night as a child. Back then it all sounded wonderfull but now it was confusing and strange, and far beyond her so she nodded and smiled.

“You bore and confuse the hell out of the poor girl trying to explain everything.” Sanguine said in a tiered voice as he appeared again looking more tiereed than ever even for an apparition he was transparent.

“Long fight?” Ensenge asked as he laied back getting a small pouch from inside his bag.

“Ohh it was not a fight.” Sanguine replied almost slurring his words, “It was a slaughter of biblical proportions,” he laughed, “funny how the thing I sought in life turned out to be my eternal punishment.” he laughed again but weaker thins time.

Ensenge pulled out the skull and bone fragments that used to be Sanguine and with a flick of his wrist a few drops of blood fell on the skull and were instantly absorbed.

“Ahh the generocity.” Sanguine laughed as he glowed stronger his energy returning, “The darkseeker comiting the very sin for which he condemed and destoryed me what will be next, might warrior, bleed her for me, uhh or a virgign child.” He laghed and Ensenge Jsut smiled back.

“I am sorry lady,” Sanguine said his voice a bit stronger now, “we are bad company for the living.” the ghost smiled. “I will rest now. Thank you friend.” he dissapeared and Ensenge laid back enjoying the silence.

Aria nodded but again did not reply, the mood was strange to say the least, the man was somber and dark, but the ghost was moody and went from pleasant and amusing to dark and angry. Not to mention that he was considered a legend a myth where she came from and now she was camping with a man that had expoladed a monolyht by throwing a rock too hard at it.

“Are you going to kill me?” She asked suddenly not even sure her self why she did it.

Ensenge gave her a long look and a lazy smile as he layed back on his wrapped up cloak he was ussing as a pillow.