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Chapter 6

Into the Mist

Charlie Belmond and David Jazzman now accompanied by Lances Jacob find their way back to Devil's Antiques, once inside the elderly Lances jokes around with his younger friend. "I have never ridden on the back of a motorcycle before. That was most amusing."

David cuts into the conversation "I have never been the type to back off from a scrap, and to spite how much of a babe that alien was I still need to ask, who were those guys?"

Charlie places both hands on his head and pushes his hair back catching his breath "I don't know. Cravixs called them 'the Watchers' I think."

Both men tern to Charlie in a moment of shock and disgust vocalizing a rapped fire line of incoherent questions. Charlie tries to reply once he thinks he has caught up with the gist of what they are saying "Yes! I don't know why but Cravixs was there at the Monster Den and he had helped us."

Lances stops talking long enough to take in what Charlie had just announced "I know that name." he looks for a place to sit down and pull out the book of prayers. He rest one hand on top of it as he tips his eye upwards thinking. "before time, before spaces there was nothing, but then the darkness started to dream, that dream formed a river, and that river gave birth to a tree, the tree of beginnings from which all fruit would fall, the tree gave light to the dark and with light came time, the time of the premortal. And so the darkness grows weary, and with the first light the darkness sleeps, with the rise of the darkness the light sleeps."

"and so it came to pass that in the hour between light and dark the darkness spoke to the light and said, 'I am lonely' so from the tree of beginnings the first fruit was picked, and from in side that fruit sprung four gods, first the god of the sky, then the god of the earth, then the god of beast and at last the god of the stair."

"then it would come to pass that the gods wanted names. And some the light spoke their names: the light said onto them 'I am light, and I shall call myself Yggdrasil. You my sons I shall call; the sky Lous-Day-O, the earth Filleus-Mammon, the beast Sa-La-Day-NameO, and the stairs Chaos, the ground on which you sleep I will call Eden, and the water you drink I will call Mana, And my love, and my beloved I shall call Cravixs. All these things I shell say and no more."

Lances looks to the men that are now his friends "I am never going to see my family again. am I?"

David thumbs over the spines of a hand full of his books "where the hell did you hear any of that. I know all the names you just went over but there is no way linked. Yggdrasil isn't a person, it is a place, Mammon is literally translated from Latten into English as earth..."

Lances cut David off "and if you use the phonetical spelling of Lous-Day-o, 'Laius Dios' you end up with something roughly to the effect of 'I Lord'. So, what?"

David shrugs and looks to Charlie "I have been meaning to ask you, where did you get those gnarly scars?"

"werewolf eat my face." Charlie states frankly.

David laughs "what? And what happened after that?"

"well I curb stomped him righteously, then sowed my face back on in a gas station bathroom using tool I found in a tackle box."

David slaps his lag nearly falling over with morbid laughter at the absurdity of the story "that is the most metal thing I have ever heard. You stitched yourself back together with fishing line and a fishhook?"

"And whisky. Which was the single most painful experience I have ever had." David is balling with laughter; Lances is squinting in disguised Charlie has a non-cholent expiration. "I can't grow facial hair anymore, and I lost hearing in my right ear after that still have 20/10 vision amazingly, and I can smell sometimes. That last one might not be related to my..." he ushers to the deep red marks covering much of his face.

Lances whispers "I wasn't going to ask."

Charlie smiles and slaps a wall near by working up some optimism "anyway! The resion I brought you here Lances. Do you remember that monster you vomited up last time we saw each other?" the question is rhetorical, Charlie know already "the shadowy monster that place that thing in side you. We are going to hunt it."

Lances shacks his head in disbelief "I never told you about that." Lances stands up.

Charlie pulls away from the wall and cuts off Lances to knock his train of thought off balance. "Don't get caught up in the small details. Think broad strokes. You know that there is a real monster out there. One that is as big and bad as they get. You saw him face to face. You fought him, you scared him off. Now Cravixs is on the run. We can take him."

Lances squars himself with Charlie "you are not the Charlie Balmond I met at 'the Lamia's Back' you are different; smarter, stronger, more confident. If you are a demon attempting to confuse me you are doing a piss pore job at it."

Charlie starts to explain himself "But think about what has..." Lances pulls a bottle of blessed oil form his pocket and splashes it at Charlie. Charlie blows the some oil from his lips "Not a demon." He explains. Lances produces a peace of flat breed form another pocket and whispers a blessing before thrusting it at Charlie. Charlie with an embraced expiration retorts "Not a Methuselah ether." Lances pulls a silver dirk form his belt. Charlie holds both hands out in front of himself defensive. "Damb-it Lances if you would just let me finish!"

David interrupts "Ok cowboy let him talk."

Lances menacingly steps uncomfortable close to Charlie standing noise to noise tipping his head gaily "Talk fast."

Charlie has just opened his mouth to start to talk when an earsplitting hiss catches the three man's attention. An instant later the side wall of the shop burst inwards. Charlie pushes Lances over hiding behind the desk. Jazzman walks out to center stage to meet this threat head on.

Milli Malagaurd slinks into the room armed and ready to continue their brawl. Jazzman theatrically holds his arms open in grating "Gratings my love!" he shouts "By chances did you bring my sword back with you?"

There is a split seconds confusion that flashes b Milli's eyes "are you straight up bonkers?"

David cartwheels onto his desk and reaches onto the wall producing another sword, this one having more than a touch of steam-punk on its shape, there is a gear on the handle and a motorcycle like clutch in the hand-guard, there is a hinge on the revers of the blade and it is painted a corroded brown-red, the blade is a third too long to look like it can be held comfortable in one hand, the reversed edge is slightly shorter than the combative edge, and the main edge has a slight hook to it on both the point and going over the hand-guard crating a bassinet, there is writing on the blade in David's native tongue that reads 'If only We had more blood to shed.' -Hensen Hijoji-. Jazzman hold the demon blade before him in both hands "It's ok, I have another."

Milli drops her weight down to brace RONA, she flips up her grip to hold a new set of handles on the alien riffle. A steam of burning sludge leaves the barrel setting the antique shop ablaze.

Jazzman is fireproof, the flames cut around him harmlessly but he protest nevertheless, showing genuine anger he shouts "Oh come on, do you know how hard it was to find all this stuff?" Jazzman jumps at Milli. Milli seeing the flames had no effect flips the gun around to activate a new function. A ray of positronic parodical burst from the gun creating a web of light around Jazzman on hitting him. This cusses intense pain freezing Devil in his tracks.

David tries to twist free from the lasso of light but can't seem to brake free to spit his heroic straight. Milli drags him forward shorting the stream "Maybe next time you will think twice before picking a fight with a girl holding a nuclear acceleration device."

Charlie looks down at Lances as the two of them are in hiding. "Do you mind waitghting here a few seconds?" Charlie doesn't wait for a replay, he takes off his coat to reveal a black tank top underneath and the tatous' cut into his arms. Five rings of gradually smaller size, one half of each ring on each arm.

Charlie stands up and whistles. "Milli!" He hold his arms out in front of himself. Lighting entangles his arms, typhoon like winds whip around the room extinguishing the flames. Thunder howls as Charlies arms draw in closer to one-another slowly closing the circuit. The back wall crumbles away reaveling a wall of flesh inside it as it would seem.

Milli drops her arms to her sides and Jazzman terns to look wanting to see what she can see. The front door opens and two more men step in to watch the showing of cosmic power; Joe Dove being followed by what looks like a preteen boy with mannerisms and dress from a century passed. Lances Jacob backs away in horror as the wall of flesh grows teeth, not flat human teeth but hooked fish like teeth, then a mouth forms, starting as a vaccum pulling the wall of meat inward, then forming a bottomless twisted vortex with red sparkling webbed walls a near fallopian appeal.

Lances Jacob stands up entranced by the spinning twisting gash in space.

Joe Dove looks down to his assistant "Amarant, what the hell is that thing? Another Exzoner?"

The half fairy boy Amarant Springfield shouts over the thunder of the vortex "If so it has noteworthy distinctions form the others of its kind we have encountered so far; the others have had a diameter of ruffle seven feet, this one looks to be closer to ten, aslo the coloration of the membrain is lighter and the teeth pronounced. I can only ascertain from this that if it is an Exzoner it is at an advanced stage in its lifecycle. Also this one lack antinomies motion." Amarant points "this one is being controlled by that man!" he points to Charlie Belmond.

"Can you take control of the portal?" Joe ask

Springfield holds his arms out to call down a ring of protection, he locks his thumbs together and starts to cast a spell to see if he can overpower the portal. After a few moments of trying and sensing that the portal is becoming angry he looks up to Joe "I can't brake that man's hold over the monster, and even if I could I feel this would-be disadvantages. Regrettable I must admit, his powers are similar to my own. I am sorry."

Joe grunts "that's because you are not fighting one man's will. That is the Belmond, every time one of them dies the next one in line gains all their powers. This one has the straight of twenty or more men." Joe whispers to himself "Dammit, the Belmond is an unstable element, I pay good money to keep him out of this."

Once the gate is fully formed Charlie looks back over his shoulder to Lances "Lances, step though the portal. I will protect you!"

Lances starts to move forth before Joe Dove calls to him "Lances. Don't." his voices is calm and loving, masculine and seductive. "Lances. Come with me. I know what you are. I can help you." Joe inches forward outstretching one hand.

Amarant stop focusing on the magic momentarily to call to Joe "Ser, Please stay inside the circle, or I can't guaranty your safety." He then quickly gets back to sustaining his spell to stave off the progressively more violent storm raging form the portal.

Lances turns to look at Joe Dove, A look of preponderances taking hold of his expiration. Questions echo in his mind 'who is this man? What does he know?'.

Joe smiles invitingly holding one hand out still beccining Lances over. "you are experiencing what Abits call 'Awakening'. I have help others through it. I can help you too."

Charlie shoots Lances a concerned glance "Lances, I need you to trust me. Step into the portal."

Lances shakes himself free from Joe's hypnotic aura. Lances eye's go cold as he turns his back on Joe facing the magic gate again. He pulls his hat down across his eyes and takes a harsh breath.

Joe calls forth in fear and frustration "Lances please..."

Charlie interrupts "ho, and exhail before you pass the event horizon. You will thank me when you reach the others side."

Lances Jumps at the portal, once past the mouth he his pulled out of sight with mock force disappearing into the mist faster than a human could preserve.

"David, you are next!"

Jazzman regains his wits and run at the portal without hesitation "this is going to cost you extra!" he exclaims as he barrels out of sight.

Charlie call to Milli "Milli, please stay with Joe this time." His voice heave with greef as he remembers his last life.

Milli howls with buzerk rage running forward. Both Amarant and Joe try calling to her, Milli pays them no heed. Once Milli is gone Joe loses his cool shouting at Charlie "You have no Idea what you have done do you!? You cant possible comprehend the ramifications of what you are doing! Where you are going? What you are doing? You don't understand any of it do you? Why Charlie? Why?"

Charlie smiles boyishly "I know what I am doing. I am going to change our fate." And with those last words Charlie pulls his arms apart braking the connection, the portal quickly starting to collapse in on itself. Charlie turns and dives into the gate as the last remnants of it return into nothingness.

The storm is gone, the fire gone, the antique shop is nothing more then a shell of a building hallowed and empty. Amarant fall onto all fours his energy sapped after the mystical confrontation. Joe softly proclaims "Fuck."

Joe pulls out his phone and call home base "Aska, I need a cleanup team hear ASAHP."

The voice on the other side ask "Black bags and gag orders?"

Joe adds "Bring a shovel also." He hangs up and stares into the recage. One hand finds his eyes as he whimpers slightly for the first time in a long-time face with in on-winnable conflict. Joe has spoken to the demon orchestrating the end of the world as they know it, so he understands better than anyone that with each 'key' he looses the probability of him preventing this war gets exponentially wears. He has now lost twice, the antebellum is drawing to a close. The time of peace is almost up, and Joe is not yet ready for the War.