I awoke after a few hours. It was late evening. I got up on my feet and dusted myself off. My back felt a tad bit stiff after the fall. I looked around the building I was in. It was the Downtime City Hall and I was in the central area of the hall. I surveyed the hall area I was in. Pillars that were not visible, held the prestigious hall up.
I had not wanted to stay and await for those demons to come around for their next meal, me, so I had to leave. Luckily enough for me I didn't sense any demon around the hall that wanted to attack anything that walked. However, the hall itself was eerily silent and I didn't like the silence.
As I approached the nearest exit, that was behind stairs that led to the first floor, I heard rubble that was kicked by something from behind me. I dashed for the stairs to take cover before whatever that was could see me. There I had taken my guns that had appeared in my hands. I held them close to my chest so as to enable me to look around toward where the sound originated. It was dark in the hall to see what it was and the only light was the moonlight that didn't improve my situation.
I had thought that I imagined the noise but then light shone from the back of the central area slowly approaching. I could only barely make out the silhouettes of those figures approaching. I stayed in my position and observed their movement. They were searching around the area for something. One of them spoke to the others and it was familiar.
They moved closer to my position. I needed to see who they were just to be sure. They wore suits like armour, just like the one I had worn hours ago. It was my team and was washed over by relief. I got up and approached them. I called out to attain their attention.
"Captain, is that you?" Mary asked.
"Yeah, it is me," I replied.
Tarius came up to me holding a white suitcase in his left hand. He handed the suitcase to me, which was my suit. He patted me on my back and whispered into my ear, "Suit up." He then looked me in the eye and nodded.
Donny, stood by Mary, glaring at me while I put on my suit. I pressed the suitcase on my chest and the nanites covered my whole body. I was back in my suit. Donny was still glaring at me. He was still pissed at me. I sighed and thought that I owed them an explanation. I opened my mouth to utter a word but Donny cut me off.
"Don't waste your breath, liar," he said.
"Donny, listen to what I -" I tried to explain.
"Shut up you fucking demon. Were you planning on taking to your leader from the very start of your so called mission or you wanted to get us killed, huh? That ain't gonna happen. From now on I am taking charge," Donny said.
"Look, if I was gonna kill you all I would have done it anyway, however I don't want to. I want to stop these demons as much as you want to but I made mistake of not telling who and what I am. I am your captain. That hasn't changed and never will. I thought I would tell you later on. Things got out of hand, and you found out at the wrong time. Tarius knew about me but you didn't the chance to explain on my behalf," I told Donny.
"Is that all you had to say to us?" Donny asked spitefully.
"No, I am not finished but we don't have the time to go back and forth on this. I will explain tomorrow evening. Right now we have to rest up. Donny, you have trust me on this," I said.
Donny went silent and walked away frustrated. I let him go and cool off. Mary walked up to me and asked, "Are you really with us or against us?" I answered her plainly and simply, "We are here to send those demons back to hell, not to keep them here." I slowly smiled and she nodded and went to Donny to talk and help him cool off.
I thought to myself of what we were to do next. I then remembered of the Beacon we had found earlier. I inspected the beacon and wondered it did. How was it going to get to the dimensional gate. Hmm it had me stumped for quite a while.
I then checked the digital map on underside of my suits arm. it didn't show where the gate was but when I held the beacon over the map, it glowed. How do you work? I whispered under my breath. I decided that I shine my suits lights onto the beacon. An image that I couldn't make out appeared.
Tarius looked down and inspected the image on the ground. He looked back up to me and explained that the image was a message that was left in the beacon. He also said to find the dimensional gate was difficult as the directions made little to no sense. That wasn't the wall we wanted.
"Brother we should look into it further in the first light of day," Tarius said.
"You and I can figure this out tonight," I told him.
"If we do, who will watch over and protect them when they are resting? They are exhausted after all that happened today. Don't you think they deserve that much, brother?" he asked me.
"Fine but this is our only key. Unless you need me to figure it out myself, if it comes to that. For now I shall rest up myself. I have a long to think," I told him.
"Very well brother," he said.
I put the beacon away and sat down on the floor. I stared at the stary night through the skyline. Then it me. What if this beacon wasn't our guide? I remembered the ambush. How did those demons know our exact location in the library. That had me thinking for a moment then I sensed something strong coming toward us.
I got to my feet as quick as possible and faced the city hall's glass doors. I looked out and raised my arms in order to brace for impact. I flew across the central area and hit the wall. I fell back to the ground in pain on all fours. I looked up to see our attacker and it was another demon. Glowing red eyes, larger horns, a glowing mouth with tiger like fangs. It was black with red spots. Its name was Lazorath.
The team jumped on guard, rifles out and shooting at him. The guns were doing damage to him but he thickened his scales. He attacked Tarius first. Punched him so much that when he hit the wall it deformed so much that he was stuck in it. He looked at Donny and Mary and walked toward to them.
I got up and pulled out my rifle and shot at him. It was ineffective. It continued toward them. I rushed to step in front of it before it reached Donny. It attacked me, I block it with my arm and punched his sides. He slid back a few centimetres. He looked impressed. The thing is, I held back because I was close to Donny and didn't want him caught in the midst of the fight. Plus I wanted to test his endurance with how much force he can take.
Lazorath and I had a fierce fight. At that point, I held Titan Slayer, which had appeared in my hand. Lazorath didn't give me much room so I made the most of the space I had. I ended our fight by slashing him twice. He looked at the blade and realized who he was fighting.
"You... the traitor,... are still alive? We thought... you had perished... with her," Lazorath uttered in pain.
" Never have I thought I would hear you utter such words. I know what I chose and these humans do not deserve annihilation from your hands or his," I told him.
"Ha, you fool... once I die... they will know you... had killed me. We all... want... you... suff-" he said.
I decapitated him. His blood spewed out of the remains of his neck. I grew impatient of his words. His death marks my return? Did they know that I was here? They used Lazorath to answer their question. How? I put them in more danger than they were supposed to because of me. I dropped to my knees and Titan Slayer disappeared out of my hand.
Donny and Mary ran to me hurriedly. They were worried about me. They called out my name to get my attention. All of Donny's anger disappeared and replaced with care and sympathy. I felt my abdomen hurt, so I put my hand. It felt warm. I moved my hand slightly in front of my face. It was my blood. I was injured but how.
I stood up and held the beacon in my right and crushed it in anger. I brought this upon my team. I look at Donny, Mary and Tarius. They faces were invaded with concern. I spoke to them about our situation. Donny and Mary were silenced by surprise and disbelief. Tarius said nothing but grumbled. Donny wanted to say something, Mary stopped him from doing it. She knew what he wanted to say and it would have been unnecessary.
"Brother, why did you destroy the beacon? Didn't you suggest that it was our guide to the dimensional gates?" Tarius asked.
"I did suggest that, however that was my mistake I had committed. It was neither a map nor a key. It was just a tool for them to follow us this whole time," I said tensely.
"What do we do now, brother?" Tarius asked.
"Look, Donny, Mary and Tarius, our next course of action is to leave this place. It has been compromised and the demons know this location," I told them.
"Wait, you mean to tell us that those demons know our exact location?" Mary asked.
"Unfortunately that is our case. We are in a dire situation and we are not safe here. We must leave as soon as possible," I told them.
"Captain with all due respect, we cannot leave until you and your brother's wounds get patched up. Especially yours captain, you need medical attention and I have the supplies," Mary told me.
"There's no need for that Mary. I just got a minor graze. Right now your safety is my top priority. Once we get somewhere safe you can attend us, then," I told her.
She was hesitant to comply. She kept standing her ground in the argument. She was quite stubborn but I had succeeded in convincing her to leave before attending Tarius's wounds. During our conversation I had healed up. Tarius's healing took some time to occur.
I had checked the entrance of the city hall. I had scouted ahead and there was no sign of demons nearby. I signalled my team that we were clear to go. We were now got into a dangerous and I carelessly got my team involved. The cycle restarted.