Chapter 340: Rebirth
Laz drifted. He had felt this before, once. He knew that.
Gone was the light.
Gone was the warmth.
In the black void, there was only nothing.
And madness.
Laz felt this, but he also felt something else.
Thoughts and Feelings.
Desire. Anger. Regret.
These weren’t his thoughts. In his mind, he saw visions of places he had never been and saw faces of creatures he had never met. He could only call them creatures since they were humanoid, but not human.
All of these things came crashing in as his void palace built itself up, following a blueprint that was present in his blood.
All the while, the energy of beasts kept flowing into him, only to be filtered by the golden drop. If one looked close enough, they could see the tiniest bit of gold mixed in with the filtered energy.
Soon, the void around Laz crumbed as he appeared within his almost built, golden palace.
Even then, his eyes were closed, his body in the lotus position and he never once wavered.
...
A fox with three tails slammed into Death and sent her flying backwards. Lyssa looked over, but only for a brief moment before another song escaped her lips, the language of which couldn’t be found on this planet even if one could uncover all of the ancient languages from the past. The song was being used to confuse the beasts and caused them to attack each other. While she was keeping the huge group busy, it wasn’t much help at the moment. Lyssa risked another glance at Death after she had gotten up.
Without so much as a word, Death grinned as a few drops of blood dripped out of her nose, only to be washed away by the rain seconds later. Her gaze never once left the tiny fox who seemed to be grinning at her.
’This furry little shit is as strong as me,’ Death thought to herself. While she knew what level she was at, she had no clue about the level of these beasts. Looking at it’s cute little form, how would one tell that it was actually a giant in disguise? At first, she had ignored it and slaughtered some of the stronger looking beasts that came with it. But now, she was being forced back by this disgustingly cute creature.
The beast was at least a level four demon beast, something that only it’s intelligent eyes would give away.
"Why are you doing this?" Death asked, not expecting a reply.
Shockingly though, she got one.
"Because you creatures are food. Especially you and that one. I can tell you will make me strong. Maybe even stronger that the long nose. Smarter too. If I can kill him, I can rule the tribes," the fox said, in a voice which sounded like a small child.
Death didn’t understand, but there was one thing her mind focused on. This fox wasn’t the one in charge.
Gritting her teeth, she lifted the strange scythe and charged at the beast again, really wishing she had a smaller and faster weapon.
’How the hell would I know I would be facing a large rat one day?’ She asked herself, questioning her choice in weapons.
...
"THE DOOR IS BREACHED!" Came the cry from one of the security guards. As soon as the hinges broke, the door came down and a large wave of beasts started pouring in.
Behind barriers of couches, chairs, tables and whatever else was laying around, the defenders leveled their guns and opened fire, focusing on the larger beasts. In the area around the door, large metal cabinets had been dragged over from the food storage area, including a freezer and refrigerator, making a make-shift choke point to prevent the invaders from swarming away once they entered.
All of this was because manager May wasn’t an idiot.
And after some stern words from Mike and Stevo, everyone else knew that she was the brains behind this idea.
As such, while people were panicked, they stayed behind the barriers and opened fire, mowing down the crazed demons with a vengeance.
"How long will this give us?" Mike asked changing a clip.
"Hopefully until help arrives," Manager May responded back.
"And when is that?" Mike questioned.
Mary May didn’t have an answer.
...
While Laz sat, both in the darkness and in the makeshift blood bath, he failed to notice a gentle light coming from his chest, right above his heart. While his core was reforming itself, there was something else that came back into being on his body.
Because of that, somewhere far away in a massive, city sized tree in the middle of the ocean, a green haired goddess opened her eyes for the first time in months.
"That little.... he’s alive after all..." She said with a smile.
Getting up off of her bed, she decided it was time to get back to work.
Her eyes flashed with a hint of red tinged in darkness.
...
Scenes passed through Laz’s head. Things that had come before. People, places, enemies...
He wept as he remembered Kat.
He laughed as he thought of his friend Dwayne.
He wondered how Vivi and Tyr were doing.
He swore vengeance on Tommy and the chosen.
Everything that he had forgotten was restored, the scars from his injury finally healing and reconnecting.
While this may seem magical, it would be almost impossible for it to work on someone else. After all, Laz had an immense vitality thanks to his bloodline. And his body had undergone several rounds of strengthening, a type that doesn’t just fade with time. Instead, it was like it was sleeping beneath his skin. Like a land of lush paradise hidden under a desert.
It just needed the rain.
Or in Laz’s case, energy filled blood.
As War looked on in worry, something amazing happened. The improvised blood bath began to boil as the black flames on Laz began to burn. And it was more that just the blood. Even Laz’s skin became red, like a cooked shrimp. It a mere breath, the flames actually consumed the outer layer of Laz’s skin, burning it away like a dried out husk. And the body that was underneath it was one of gray skin, black, tribal tattoos and a very important mark of a dead tree under a blood red moon. Laz’s black hair became white under the flames influence, the normal hint of red even more pronounced.
As War looked on, the golden palace within Laz had finally been completed.
As Laz opened his eyes and looked at War, she fell back in terror.
It was like being stared at by a long forgotten eldritch God.
His eyes shown with a golden radiance of unspeakable divinity, if only for a moment. As soon as he blinked, the golden light faded, as did his transformation.
Standing up from the tub of blood Laz was took a moment to stretch his worn muscles, feeling the strength return to them. Looking up at War, he smile warmly and walked over to her.
While War might have been intimidated at first, she recognized the smile of the man she had acknowledged and smiled back, welcoming him into her arms and embracing him as though afraid he would slip away again.
Perhaps he had other women and would never be hers alone. But in this instant, she felt blessed that she was the first one to see him as he had awoken from his long slumber. The man in her arms both terrified her and excited her at the same time. He was the man who had fixed her as well as conquered her. She would never love another man because of this one in her arms, not that she had ever had an interest in men in general. None of her sisters did either. After all, once you have experienced what they had gone through, it would turn you away from ever wanting to trust someone of the opposite gender.
But this man was the exception.
Pulling back, Laz reached up and ran his hand down her head, then gripped her silky, black hair firmly and drew her to him for a kiss. As their tongues intertwined, she knew for sure that he was back. And from the feeling of strength that he was radiating, he was stronger than ever.
"We need to go..." War finally said, all be it a little weakly. The strength of his passion was hard to overcome and with the fire raging inside of him combined with the fact that he had been alone for over a year, the vibes he was giving out was enough to make War want to service him right there. Sadly though, there was no time for that.
"What is it?"
"It’s the others. Pestilence and Famine have headed out to save Death and your new girl Lyssa, but there is no telling if they will be enough. While this hoard has lots of cannon fodder, I guess there is also some really strong generals behind them," War informed Laz of the situation.
"Alright. Then let’s be off," Laz said with a smirk, grabbing her hand and running for the door.
"Hey, how are we going to get out of here?" War asked, not even bother to resist.
The only answer she got was a smile from Laz.
As he made his way out from the side conference room, he took a quick note of Bruce and the others in guarding position, taking turns to rest, go to the bathroom and eat. Seeing Laz exit the side room, Bruce was going to through a question at them, but Laz turned to face him and just smiled. That smile though was one filled with unspeakable power, causing Bruce to shut up immediately and fall back on his ass.
As Laz approached the ruined gate, he bent down and lifted it, causing the the gate to be ripped off the track that was keeping it in place. As he pulled War to the other side, he then bent it back down and yanked it towards him, before pushing it back straight. While the gate would no longer be useable, it was also no longer on the track or bent, instead, the sides were now jammed into the concrete wall and impossible to release. This made it far more secure that it was before although it was not permanently broken.
As the remaining security looked on in shock, Laz and War made there way out into the rainy night and became quickly swallowed by the darkness.
While the beasts may had retreated for other targets, there were several that were still wandering around, either being too stupid or too weak to take part in the other building’s breaches. This drastically cut down on the obstacles that Laz and War encountered as they made their way through the night. Every time something did pop out or charge at them, Laz finished it off with a single flick of his finger, causing various nightmarish woodland creatures to explode into bloody mist.
Even War couldn’t believe how strong he had become.
War’s strength was in her ability to fight. Her transformation into a dark war god gave her incredible strength, and speed while she was also a master of battle tactics, with every sort of martial art having been drafted into her blood. She could do things that no human would ever be capable of. And despite this, the made holding her arm and walking with her in the rain made her feel like a child holding her father’s hand. Even though they were at the same level now, she knew that wasn’t his match. At least, not without the help of her sisters.
’No. Even then, he is able to kill with barely a wave of his hand. While I could kill them quickly, it would at least take a full punch from me to do so. Even if the other’s transferred me their power, I couldn’t just use one finger..."
While they had their own abilities, when they fought as a team it multiplied their powers exponentially. The could draw from each other as a team, supporting one another to be far stronger than one would think possible or even transfer their energy from one another to boost one sister’s power at the expense of another. But even then, War would hesitate to say if they could match up to the man who was now holding her hand as they walked though the rain.
’Wait, I didn’t even tell him where to go...’ Just as War wanted to open her mouth and say something, Laz brought his finger to her lips. Just on instinct, War opened her mouth and sucked on his finger while running her tongue along it before suddenly stopping and turning a bit red. Obviously he was trying to tell her to stay quiet.
Laz just looked at her and smile. Approaching the crossroads of the walkway slowly, Laz leaned around a bush and squatted down. War followed suit.
Looking over, they could see Death, Famine and Pestilence engaged in battle with a small fox while Lyssa kept back an entire army of demon beasts by making them fight each other.
Even still, the girls looked bloody and worn from the tiny creature who’s human like smile just pissed them off more.
Just as War was going to run forward to assist, Laz grabbed her arm and shook his head.
"Just watch. I will be right back."
Laz then disappeared into the the bush and vanished from her site.
