Chapter 511: Betrayal
"Uhh... what?"
Laz didn’t know what was happening, but felt that he had missed something.
"Hey? Uh?" Laz turned to Jennia who was the only one not bowing, but noticed a different look in her eyes, one that was akin to tears and anger.
"Long time no see? Can you tell me what’s happening here?"
"It’s part of their pact with their god. I’m not too sure of the details, but for some reason they worship you as their master."
"And you?"
"I’m not bowing to you if that’s what you want. I didn’t join them, I just work with them. But as for my part of it," Jennia came up close to Laz like she wanted to tell him something before slapping him across the face. Laz could have stopped her hand or dodged it, but something in how she was looking at him made him think he should let her go ahead with it, like he deserved it.
As for the the bowing women, they got to their feet quickly and drew there power, ready to strike Jennia down with a word.
"Easy. Easy. We are old friends... I guess?" Laz said, gesturing to them to back off.
"I’m glad you remember your ’old friends.’ Cause there are several ’friends’ who haven’t seen you in years that are missing you day in and day out," Jennia said with a hint of venom in her voice.
Knowing that she belonged to the Black Rose, Laz had a pretty good idea what she meant.
"Yeah. I won’t make excuses about that, but right now we have a bigger problem."
"It’s alright master. Our goddess wishes to meet with you."
"Your goddess? Who?"
"The one who is sleeping below."
It was like a light had flashed in Laz’s head.
"Your goddess is the one in the mausoleum?" Laz asked, once again putting pieces together.
"Yes. She still needed time to recover from her long sleep and is still weak, but now that our enemies have disturbed her resting place, she has no choice but to respond."
"So everything that is happening is because of your goddess?"
"Yes. And she was very clear on the point of wanting to meet and serve you my lord, especially after hearing about your bloodline," the leader told Laz who felt that something was off here.
"Considering what is happening right now, I’m not sure that is a good idea."
"It will be fine. They can’t stop her, only delay her. Once her summons pour forth from the breach, she will turn this entire place into her new territory in order to better serve you. In fact, now that we are free, we’d best go prepare for when she arrives. Come master, she will be most thrilled to finally meet you," the woman said as she began to drag Laz along to the hallway where the bathroom was.
"One moment. I need to speak with Jennia," Laz said, pulling Jennia to the side.
*There is something very wrong here. Don’t speak back, just listen.* Laz said, talking directly into Jennia’s head.
*I don’t know this goddess. Assuming she is actually in the god realm, I have no idea what she wants from me after having heard about me, but I doubt its a good thing. I’m going to touch you now and write on chest. It’s a rune plus a small bit of my black flame. When I go there, break away from here and get started on freeing the others, all of them. If things go according to plan, there should be transport outside waiting for you. I’m sure you have connections to the Hearn Corp and they are from there. Get everyone away from here as soon as possible, understand?*
Laz didn’t wait for a conformation before he roughly grabbed Jennia’s breast.
"If you ever disrespect me like that again, I will make your life worse than hell. Now get out of my sight," Laz said, imprinting the rune on her chest as he squeezed her rather large left breast. To her credit, Jennia didn’t hit him back but flinched like she was in pain and dropped to the ground, panting.
Laz turned away to join Mercy, the leader and the others.
"Let’s go."
While this type of change might raise questions in their minds normally, the fact that they were going to meet their goddess in person was enough to distract them.
Coming upon the second floor hallway, the barricade blocking the door blew open as dozens of guards were sent flying.
"I WANT SUPPORT TEAMS HERE NOW! Warden McKnight yelled into a comm as spikes of stone rose up from the floor to block the door.
The chosen were channeling their power as though they were about the face their greatest enemy while the surviving guards went to drag the others away from the rubble of the barricade. Standing just back from the door while looking on with a weird smile was someone Laz thought he would never see again, but someone he would never forget.
’Annie...’
Laz thought about the last time he had seen her, at the cage fight that took place in Tommy’s house. She had changed, grown older, but still had that crazed and sadistic look in her eyes. In her hands was a black stick that was glowing with a greenish blue power. Once Laz got a closer look, he could tell it was some sort of a riding crop for race horses.
The stone spikes dissolved instantly as a single person walked through, surrounded by dozens of skeletons with strange armor on their body. She stopped after only a few steps and looked around.
"To think you haven’t run after my awakening. Perhaps you pieces of shit had grown a bit stronger in will since ten thousand years ago. But it is a pity that I have no time to speak. After all, I have things I need to do now that I have awakened."
The black mist surrounding the woman dissipated as her half decomposed body was revealed to everyone gathered. With the veil gone, all of the blood and even the dead bodies that hadn’t been retrieved started to slide towards her, as though being pulled by an invisible hand. As soon as the bodies got within a certain distance of her, they began to melt and liquify before sliding up the woman’s leg and molding itself like clay to the exposed inner organs and skeleton.
Once it had taken shape, the glob of blood and flesh vanished leaving the dead body in a much more complete state.
’That’s... interesting... and fucking horrifying,’ Laz thought after seeing what happened.
"Ahh. My servants have returned.,.. and they brought me you...." The woman said, half her face still nothing but muscle and bone.
Everyone’s attention turned to the now arrived Laz with the dozens of blind women behind him bowing along with the not blind outer members bowing as well.
"NATE!" Vera screamed, her head popping up from behind the table where she was tending the one wounded that hadn’t been taken.
"Interesting... How interesting. Yes. You are of the Asura, I am sure. But you are soooooo weak." The woman said, looking Laz up and down as though checking out every aspect of his body. It was only now that Laz recognized that her one good eye looked like the eyes of her cult members.
"Sigh. To think... I assumed that any Asura would be just as formible as they were in the past and as such, I had planned to serve you. But you.... you are so utterly weak that I couldn’t even bring myself to do it. HA HA HA HA HA. TO THINK I WOULD ASSUME AN ASURA COULDN’T BE WEAK! My... how foolish of me. Well... I guess this means a change of plans are in order. After all, your blood is strong, but you are barely even a child in their eyes, so I doubt they will even notice if you are gone. I guess all my plans and scheming were for nothing, but whatever. THIS WILL BE SO MUCH FUN!" The woman screamed as the blind cult members behind him dropped to their knees and began wailing as well.
"FIRE. EVERYONE KILL THAT BITCH!" Warden McKnight ordered as she let loose a stream of fire that blasted through the woman and the entire wall behind her. Following that, massive stone spikes jutted up from the ground to impale her, ice lances buried themselves in her head and a blade of what looked like nothing except an outline in the sky brushed past the woman’s body, severing her head from her neck.
When all was said and down, the powers of the chosen retracted allowing the body to hit the floor.
But much to everyone’s surprise, it didn’t budge, not that Laz had expected it too. If gods were so easy to kill, there would be no point to them.
"HA HA HA AH AH AH... SO GOOD. THAT ALMOST HURT. BUT TRUELY... I do have things to do. So after I harvest all the blood and bone from all of you, I really do have to get going on my way. First things first,"
The cult members who had hit the ground suddenly spasmed, their bodies dropping to the floor and shaking a bit before they stopped moving all together, the life gone from them. The only ones unaffected were the few outer members who had not yet lost their sight.
Their bodies laid there for a moment before suddenly standing, slow, like they were practically frozen. Then they began to stumble in the direction of this dead god.
"Shoot the bitches," Annie yelled out, turning her power on to the dead cult members.
Everyone turned to fire as they were ordered, but armored skeletons started rushing out from the hole in the wall and attacking everyone but Laz and the few terrified girls behind him.
As the bodies reached the goddess, they continued to walk and like some sort of third rate video editing, they vanished as soon as they came into contact with her.
A bright light surrounded her body for a moment as the last of the cult members vanished and the dead, decayed goddess was suddenly made whole once again.
Turning to face Laz, she smile.
"You’re next, my little Asura."
