Feros and the Underworld Prince (7 page)

“
Wow… I’ve never seen anyone beat the Colonel before.” One of the soldiers whispers.

“
That was quite impressive Cole; defeating a daughter Ereshkigal/Inanna’s War persona is no simple feat.” Saquib says.

Great, so I just possibly made an enemy of the Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld’s war persona, as well as the Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, which is the same goddess in some sources. I neglect to respond and just wait beside Nahid until she awakens about ten minutes later. She regards me with a look of disgust.

“
Alright, let’s get moving.” Nahid orders and then exits the building with four soldiers following her; by the way Mr. trigger-happy is stumbling along, my guess is that he was injected with morphine.

“
We should get a drink sometime. Here, I’ll write down the address of this great bar I know of that has this really interesting place across the street.” Saquib says as if he’s speaking in code while he writes down an address in a notebook that he pulled from his cargo pants. He rips out the paper and hands it to me.

“
Be careful of Nahid. She is up to something.”
is written underneath the address. Could Nahid be working with Ahriman?

“
See you around, Cole.” Saquib says as he walks toward the entrance.

“
Yeah, see you.” I respond.

“
Ready to go you two?” I ask while turning towards Jason and Reyna. They both nod and Jason ports us back to Jericho’s place.

Chapter 9: It can’t be both!?

“
Hey CT… uh, thanks for having my back, back there… you know that I don’t blame you for killing me, right?” Jason asks once we get back to Jericho’s.

“
I know bro, but I’ll still always have your back!” and will probably always blame myself for your death.

“
I’m going to try porting using my Haglaz to port back to Irkalla and scope this place out. What are you guys going to do?” I ask.

“
We need to go report to my mother about Ahriman. How about we meet back here in about an hour?” Jason suggests.

“
Sounds good; let’s get to work!” I say.

“
Be careful CT, and make sure you port out of there if things get too heavy.” Jason says.

“
No worries bro! See you guys later!” I tell them and port to the intersection that Jason ported us to in Irkalla. I look at the paper and see that the location that Saquib wrote down is on 16th and Kur, so I port across the street from Alam’s building and start walking.

I spend the majority of the next hour walking to my destination, but I finally reach what appears to be an abandon building. Saquib seemed like a pretty cool guy so I doubt he would send me on a frivolous trip as a prank. Maybe the building is supposed to look abandoned for stealth purposes? I guess I’ll go check it out. I can just say that a girl gave me the location and said a party was being held there if I get questioned by guards and I can always port out as a backup plan.

I walk up to the door, but I can’t see anything inside through the glass pane on the door. I pull on the handle and the door swings open so I step inside.

“
Hello? Is Allison here? She said there was a party?” I ask the darkness, preparing my back story.

“
Is anybody h—” I’m interrupted by a blunt force trauma to the base of my skull as an electrical current courses through me.

…

I awaken to find myself chained to the back wall of a concrete cell that is about 15’x15’ with a Plexiglas wall in front of me. It seems that I have been captured. How am I even thinking coherently? Isn’t being unconscious for longer than five minutes supposed to be evidence of brain bleeding or some other severe head injury?

(Yeah, it’s like super bad for you. That’s the reason you were unconscious for so long: I had to heal the bleeding in your brain)

“
Well, thanks Airi, but where am I?”

“
If Apep uses his magical gaze to hypnotize him then you will have a powerful warrior.” I hear Saquib’s voice say from about one hundred feet in front of me and twenty feet below; the cage must be on the second floor, or perhaps he’s in the basement. I now realize that Saquib was really the one I should have been watching out for. By telling me to be wary of Nahid, I subconsciously trusted Saquib when I had no reason to trust either of them.

“
You did well. I was expecting that capturing The Faction’s Executioner would be more of a challenge than this… I will contact Apep and by tomorrow, we should have ourselves a powerful new weapon.” A second voice says that reminds me of the crunch of gravel; it’s just a hunch, but I’m willing to bet that’s Ahriman.

Apep was a giant snake in Egyptian mythology that constantly fought with Ra, the sun god. His characteristics were incorporated by Set, husband/brother to Nepthys, brother to Osiris, known for killing his brother and chopping up Osiris’s body. I think I just discovered who is behind all of this; now I just have to figure a way out of here. I can’t touch my Haglaz with four shackles on each arm; maybe I can cut myself on the shackles?...no dice, I’m restrained too tightly and my wrists aren’t shackled so I can’t just rotate my wrist until it bleeds. The shackles seem to rely on the integrity of the chain to stay locked so if I can just break the chains…

“
Are you alright?” I hear a feminine voice quietly ask from the corner. I turn my head towards her, but my shackled arm is blocking my vision so I can’t see her.

“
Yes, thanks for asking. I’m Cole; how long have I been here?” I ask.

“
I believe you have been here for about three hours. My name is Naia.” Naia says.

Jason and Reyna are probably freaking out already and they have no idea where I am.

“
It’s nice to meet you, Naia. Why are you here?” I inquire.

“
I do not know. I woke up here and all I could remember was my name…” Naia responds quietly.

“
Haha I’ve been there! I had amnesia up until two days ago. Don’t worry Naia; I’m sure that your memories will return to you.” I say while trying to sound reassuring.

“
Do you truly think so?” Naia quietly asks.

“
Of course! And I’m sure it won’t require you to get stabbed in the stomach or be directly followed by the death of your… girlfriend…” I say, starting out lighthearted with my demeanor falling quickly.

“
Cole?” Naia asks.

“
It’s nothing… so how long have you been here?” I inquire.

“
I have been here for quite some time… it has been really boring and all of the guards would pass by me as if I didn’t exist. I was beginning to believe that I was invisible until you responded to me.” Naia replies.

“
Well it’s possible that you are invisible; I still haven’t seen you yet.” I point out.

“
That is true isn’t it?” Naia says and then stands and walks into my field of vision; I’m pretty stunned by what I see.

First, I’d like to point out that she is dressed in black lace panties and nothing else. Is there some sort of unwritten rule about requiring various states of undress for girls locked in cages?

(Yeah, what about dudes…? hint hint)

I look down and see that I have been stripped to my boxers.

“
Correction: rule about requiring various states of undress for being locked in a cage.”

Naia is five feet tall with tan skin, purple eyes, dark purple hair that reaches her lumbar, and breasts that must add quite a bit of strain to said lumbar; her breasts are probably the same size as Natasha’s, but they look much bigger on a frame that is several inches smaller. Now on to the less normal attributes: Her pupils are vertical slits, like a cat’s, and she has a purple devil’s tail that is about two feet long. She also has purple dragon wings sticking out of her back, which explains why she isn’t wearing a bra. I find her to be quite attractive, but her eyes are freaking me out a little.

Is she a succubus? Because that would be awesome and it would totally give me an excuse to sleep with her without feeling guilty.

“
No Cheza, I still love you! I was just helping her; it’s not like she can fight her nature!” I’ll say when caught.

(Planning to get caught before you’ve committed the crime is a fairly good indication that you shouldn’t do it to begin with)

But before that, I have a few very important questions.

“
Well I can see you. Hey Naia, by chance do you remember how old you are, or what you are?” I ask while trying hard to keep my gaze from her breasts, but they just keep staring at me.

(Are you forgetting that you possibly have a child?)

Oh… right.

“
No, I do not.” Naia responds with a puzzled look on her face.

“
Don’t worry about it.” I say with a sigh and then my hearing picks up activity below me.

“
We have him shackled in the cage with the girl.” Ahriman says.

“
Good; I can use my magical gaze through the glass and th—” A voice that must be Apep says before being interrupted by a siren.

“
How can we have intruders!?” Ahriman shouts as I hear a loud smack.

“
I don’t know sir; I was careful when bringing him here and he didn’t have anyone with him. There shouldn’t be any way for them to find us!” Saquib quickly says in a panic.

“
COLE! JUST HOLD ON! WE’VE COME TO RESCUE YOU AND WE’LL HAVE THAT DILDO OUT OF YOUR ASS SOON!” I hear Jason shout from below me; I don’t even want to know what Jason is picturing my situation to be.

“
Naia, I need you to cut open my arms with your fingernails.” I say urgently and Naia does so without questioning it.

I quickly form eight RMX explosive crystals in the shape of darts with five milliliters of blood on the inside of each.
(4.2 Liters)

“
Alright, now wedge these darts in between links in each of the eight chains; then stand in the corner and plug your ears.” I instruct her.

I engage my helmet while praying that it will be enough to keep my eardrums from perforating. When I’m sure that Naia is a safe distance away and plugging her ears, I detonate the RMX darts. It works like a charm and the chains fall from the wall, loosening the shackles and freeing my arms.

Now that I’m free, I stand, walk over to the clear Plexiglas ‘door,’ and see the carnage below, as well as a sight that takes my breath away: Cheza, her beautiful silver hair tied back into a ponytail as she flaunts her curves in a skintight, one-piece, black leather suit. The enemy’s force is frozen with the exception of Ahriman; who is being engaged by Jason and Nahid using black mist/shadow powers to make black hands come out of the ground that try to grab Ahriman; and Apep, who is fighting Cheza. Apep’s lack of golden aura gives me hope for the situation, but also confuses me because Apep is supposed to be a god. Regardless, Cheza seems to be having some trouble fighting the giant fifty foot snake. I need to get down there to help her, so I start the draw for my Mu-cutter to cut through the Plexiglas.

(That will not work; the Plexiglas is approximately forty inches thick)

Since my Mu-cutter is only thirty-six inches long, I don’t have any means for getting out now. I beat my hand against the wall in frustration and watch as Cheza starts slowing down; no doubt the dozens of frozen vampires having taken their toll. Apep uses his tail to sweep out Cheza’s legs and she hits the ground. In my mind, I see Cheza getting to her feet as Apep’s hooded head comes down on top of her.

No.

I won’t fail again.

I won’t lose Cheza.

I feel my body switch to autopilot as I put my left hand against the Plexiglas.

“
I create nothing. I preserve nothing. I only
erase.
” I hear my voice say as it’s overlapped through the helmet.