Feros and the Underworld Prince (52 page)

“
Tali, are you only doing this for revenge?” I ask. Tali turns around to face me.

“
Well, it’s also to free the jinn from Horus’s experiments and the Ifrit King’s tyranny, and to allow the ghouls to stop being treated as second class citizens, but I’d say that about sixty percent of my personal motivation is revenge.” Tali replies as she sips her drink.

“
Cole, what are you waiting for? Tell her about Naia!” Cheza thinks.

“
I can’t.” I reply.

“
What!? Why not!?” Cheza angrily asks

“
Cheza, the majority of this woman’s motivation comes from revenge for the death of a daughter who isn’t actually dead. Hypothetically speaking, what if I told you that Addie was still alive and I had lied about her ever dying?” I suggest.

“…
I’d drop everything and go see her.” Cheza replies in a deflated fashion.

“
If we tell her about Naia right now, we will lose her support and be unable to get to Horus. As much as I don’t want to, we have to keep Naia a secret for now.” I think.

“
Well, I think it’s about time we started this, don’t you?” I say to Tali.

She knocks her drink back, grins, and puts her hand on a glyph that has been drawn into the table. I recognize the glyph as being the same one that Naia used in the forests behind Graythorn Hall to contact Horus.

“
Start the operation.” Tali orders once the glyph starts to glow a light-blue. I hear several explosions in the distance indicating that the MGFC have received the order.

“
This way.” Tali says as she stands and walks out the door.

Tali leads us down a hallway and into a foyer where I see a dozen armed and armored jinn, both marid and ghoul, waiting for us. She gives a curt nod and six of the soldiers file out the front door, followed by the three of us, followed by the remaining six soldiers.

“
Isn’t it a bad idea to give away your home’s location by using the front door?” I ask.

“
I won’t be coming back. If we succeed, I will be sitting on the throne in the palace; if we fail, I will be dead. Either way, this ends tonight.” Tali replies.

We head up the street to the sounds of explosions and gunfire in the distance. I consider drawing my gun to be prepared, just in case, but then I realize that my gun is practically useless when I’m surrounded on all sides by guns with bullet velocities that are twice as high as mine.

I feel Cheza’s hand inside mine and a revelation suddenly dawns on me: Cheza still does not have much combat experience. Well it’s a little too late to tell her to go home now.

“
Here we are. Cole and Chezarei, you two will go in first and engage Horus. The rest of us will continue on so I can command the battle for the palace. Good luck you two.” Tali says after stopping in front of an inconspicuous looking adobe archway.

“
Thanks for your help, Tali. Once this is all over, we have someone that you need to meet. See you on the other side!” I tell her.

“
Definitely. If there’s anyone that can defeat Horus, it’s Feros.” Tali replies, causing several bewildered glances in my direction so I retract my helmet. “Huh… I always thought you’d be older.”

“
Wait, so Feros actually exists?” the ghoul, whom I now suspect may be Tali’s chief of security, asks.

“
Of course I exist.” I reply in a tone that suggests that he’s an idiot.

“
We don’t get much news from the other world here, but you’ve become something of a boogeyman to the jinn over the past year. You’re basically the jinn equivalent of how humans view Sasquatch; people claim that he’s real and claim to have seen him, but the majority thinks that you don’t exist. The only reason I guessed who you were is because I’m better informed than the general populace.” Tali explains.

“
Anyway, good luck, Cole.”

Chapter 44: Horus vs. Feros

Cheza and I head through the archway and into the following tunnel. When the tunnel becomes pitch black, I re-engage my helmet and the night vision kicks in.

“
Cole, I can’t see anything.” Cheza thinks when we are a good distance into the tunnel.

“
That’s alright; I can see fine. Just stay close.” I reply.

It looks like Tali was correct; this place seems to be completely devoid of troops. We continue walking until I see a light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel lets out into a large white room with several large cages directly to my left, lab tables with various equipment about fifty feet to my right, and around three hundred square feet of empty space in front of us. A white metal railing is on top of the wall in front of us, and who do I see leaning against that railing besides Horus. I feel rage build up inside of me as his stupid hawk face smirks at me; how the fuck can a beak smirk anyway!? He turns around and starts walking away.

“
Cole, I’ll take care of the ifrits, you go after Horus. I’ll catch up soon. Go!” Cheza commands as I notice the ten ifrits in lab coats to my right.

I get a running jump at the wall, grab onto the top of the railing, and look down. I see Cheza throw an icicle at an ifrit, but he just uses a fire blast to melt it away. Perhaps I should go assist her…

“
No Cole; I’ve got this!” Cheza reassures me. I decide to trust her and pull myself over the railing to the second floor.

“
HORUS!” I shout.

Horus is leaning against a bench along the back wall. He is wearing his signature, red and white, double crown called a pschent, a white and gold skirt, several bracelets around his ankles, and nothing else.

“
Feros! So we finally meet, face to face. I have been greatly anticipating this meeting for so long! I even built a new toy specifically for it! But you seem to have forgotten your toy. Go ahead and form your Mu-cutter, I can wait.” Horus replies.

“
You son of a bitch! I’m going to fucking destroy you for what you’ve done!” I yell back.

I cut into my right wrist with my ring and start the draw for my Mu-cutter. I chance a glance back over the railing and see that Cheza is having a little trouble with the ten ifrits, but she seems to have realized that fire and ice don’t mix so she’s taking them on in closer quarters with her Synergistic blades. I watch Cheza jump and scissor cut the head off an ifrit before I turn back to Horus.

“
I very much doubt that. You see, I know all about you, Cole. I know that your jacket and jeans are bulletproof and stab-proof up to a certain force. I also know that your Mu-cutter has a range of less than one hundred ten centimeters from your inability to cut through Ahriman’s Plexiglas cage. With those two things in mind, I made this.” Horus says and turns to the table behind him. He slips a black glove onto his right hand before picking up a long black handle with a ball on the end that is about six inches in diameter; my silver aura indicates that my Mu-cutter has connected.
(4.3 Liters)

“
Tell me, did that girl call out for her ‘Daddy’ before the wizard killed her?” Horus asks with a smug grin, which I still cannot fathom how that’s possible.

I charge him as a response. His weapon definitely has more range than mine, but I can fix that just by cutting through the handle. Horus meets my charge half way and takes a swing. I hold up my Mu-cutter and angle it so that the mace-like ball will miss the left side of my body when it is severed. The comet hitting my left arm, luckily just below where my artificial arm starts sends my body sailing through the air and notifies me that I’ve miscalculated. My body solidly impacts the room’s right wall and leaves a sizeable dent, but at least I’ve taken care of Horus’s weapon, and I happen to have missed the stairs that are five feet to my left; small miracles, right? I look up from slumped position against the wall and I see that Horus is still holding his complete mace. What in the hell?

“
Do you like my toy? I really have your friend Jason to thank for the idea; using the Void as a weapon is quite ingenious and my business partner was able to help me make this one.” Horus tells me as I pick myself up.

Alright, so Horus has himself a weapon that can reconnect after getting cut. I’ll just have to dodge it instead of trying to disarm him. I charge at him again and take a step back when he takes a swing. Horus swings again in the opposite direction so I dodge again, which is difficult even with my rage-enhanced speed. Our altercation begins to look like some kind of dance as I spin and shuffle to dodge his swings while I keep advancing to try and get within a three foot range as he backs up.

I get him backed up to the bench along the back wall when he swings diagonally downward from left to right. I shuffle a foot to the left and bend left at the waist so the swing swishes past me without putting me out of range and giving Horus the chance to escape. I’m about follow up with a swing of my own when I feel a metal prong jab into my now exposed right side.

“
AUGHHHH!” I scream as Horus hits me with an electric shock from some kind of cattle prod; it must’ve been on the bench.

My legs give out from underneath me as I feel my heart stop. Horus follows up his jolt by slamming his mace into the right side of my helmet. I feel my neck break from the force as my body slides along the floor until its momentum is stopped by the wall. Before I have time to react, Horus flashes to my position and brings his mace down on the bangle on my right wrist, crushing both and disabling my Mu-cutter.

“
I don’t see what Loki was so worried about! Once your tricks are known, you couldn’t be easier to defeat! And don’t even think about exploding; you wouldn’t want to be responsible for the extinction of the jinn after the tragedy in Greenland, would you? Loki just looks foolish now; hiding away and only communicating with me via an array of communication circles. Perhaps I should just continue my research, end my partnership with Loki, and make my own artificial sentient beings to take over the world with… Not that any of this concerns you; you’ll be dead. Permanently out of the equation this time; I’ll feed you to Ammit myself!” Horus roars his laughter while standing over me. Well, it looks like the monologue part of my plan wasn’t incorrect.

(I’ll give you that, but another fallacy that you didn’t consider is that he might not use a bladed weapon, rendering his bisecting you improbable)

“
COLE!” Cheza screams in my mind as I see her crest the stairs that are across the room from my position.

I watch as Cheza’s eyes turn silver while her irises remain their natural ice-blue. She flashes towards Horus as fast as I could and carves several frozen incisions into his body before he knows that she’s even there. Cheza slams her foot into the ground and three black ice spears erupt from the ground to pin Horus in place. Horus is able to dodge all but one, which stabs him through his solar plexus, but it isn’t enough to hold him in place. I try to move using my blood to overcome my paralysis, but nothing is working.

(The electricity did a number on your blood control. It will still be at least another thirty seconds before you can recover)

Horus swings his mace at Cheza and I send her instructions, suddenly realizing what the black glove on his hand is for: only the ball of the mace is solid while the handle is like smoke so the glove is needed for him to even hold the weapon. Cheza steps closer and lets the handle pass through her head as she rapidly stabs Horus in the stomach with both blades while he’s backed up to the wall; the stab wounds freeze over, preventing them from immediately regenerating. She gets in a dozen stabs before Horus lets the mace slide through his gloved hand before grabbing it halfway up the handle, effectively shortening the length to two feet. He brings the mace down vertically now that the ball is close enough to hit Cheza. Cheza dives to the right and slams her hand into the wall, about six feet to the left of my position.

A black ice spear erupts from the wall, into Horus’s back, and out through his chest; however, this means little to Horus. He pulls himself free from the wall and swings vertically at Cheza. With the wall to her left and my prone body behind her, she dives to the right, which seems to be exactly what Horus planned on. Horus grabs Cheza by the throat with his free left hand as she comes out of her roll. He picks her up and slams her into the ground as his left hand freezes from being in contact with Cheza’s body. Horus tosses her up into the air like a ragdoll before swinging his mace, hitting her square in the chest. I watch as blood flies from Cheza’s mouth, her eyes wide with surprise while her pupils are pinpoints, before she goes sailing into the far right wall; she slides down its length before landing face down on the floor.