It had begun many decades ago now, the blade that Akago had found in the Aztec ruins all that time ago, the power he possessed but never realised it, the power contained within that dagger.
The twilight darkness began to loom over Manhattan the first few stars coming into clear view of the hustling people below the towering skyscrapers that littered the city but in the streets below, there was a war beginning.
Akagoâs monstrous building was on the corner of 7th Ave and 42nd Street and was roughly the 5th tallest building in the city, across the street police cars barricaded the outside of a bank doubled up with civilian onlookers as a robbery was in progress. All officers had their guns drawn and aimed towards the door as the police chief spoke into a megaphone.
âCome out with your hands up and we will not harm you.â
From inside the bank a muffled voice called back; none of the officers outside heard exactly what had been said, some quickly glancing at each other in case someone did hear. Again the chief spoke sternly into the megaphone, this time less peacefully.
âThis is your last warning, come out with your hands up or we will be forced to take action!â
This quote was abruptly followed by one single gunshot, the tinted outside windows of the bank cloaking everything that happened within. A few seconds later a body was thrown from the door of the bank every officer tightening his grip on his weapon focusing on an injured female, early twenties; blood pouring from her lower torso. She had been shot in the kidney faintly stumbling around before dropping to the ground dead. A few officers were ordered to go and rescue her, two of the three fetching shields and shielding the third as they slowly walked over to the woman, as they reached her several more gunshots were fired at the officers from the inside, hitting the shields, one stray hitting one of the officers that was taking cover behind one of the police cars in the neck. The officer dropped to the ground gurgling and writhing around in pain clenching his bleeding neck as a small pool of blood began to seep from underneath his head. Then all hell broke loose.
âMan down! Man down!â
âOfficer down!â
A few officers returned fire but were quickly ordered to cease fire by the chief, instructing them that civilians were still in the bank. Another three shots were randomly fired from inside the bank, all officers outside now taking cover behind the police vehicles, the rescue team dragging the woman off and taking her to the paramedics, who quickly tried to save her.
Outside the Akago building stood one man in a fluster of scrambling people who were running from the potentially deranged gunman inside the bank; his red hair easily standing out in the huge cluster of panicked bystanders. As the crowed thinned to nothing the gunman saw the red haired man and fired one shot before his .9mm clicked open, dropping the empty clip on the floor and loading in a fresh one. The bullet in reality slowed to a halt, the officers outside the bank knew who it had been fired at but none could react quick enough to do anything, one beginning to yell a warning before the manâs head jolted forward from the impact of the bullet, yet no blood sprayed from his forehead. Slowly the manâs head rose back to where it had originally been, the bullet tapping as it fell to the cold pavement below. Awestruck the officers and gunman stood staring at the red headed man who was still standing, slowly turning his head to the source of the bullet. Eventually his vision was centered through the very hole in the glass the bullet had come through, staring through it for what seemed like a minute but what was only a few seconds before the man seemingly threw his arm around towards where he was staring. As his hand passed the very line he was staring at an orange glaive flew from the palm of his hand, flying through the glass and hitting the gunman in the top right section of his head, before embedding itself in a wall and dissipating into a fine black dust.
Every officer saw the glaive, staring at the mirrored glass of the bank. A few seconds passed before anything actually happened. Where the glaive had passed through the glass it had cut a bigger hole but that had been the extent of it, until the glass around it slightly cracked. Within a second the glass exploded into the bank as if a shockwave had hit the window sending small shards of glass flying dangerously into the bank, one large shard lodging itself into the robbers head. Beside him a hostage was taking cover behind a table, cowering with his hands over his head facing the ground only to hear a strange sound âslapâ on the ground in front of him before hearing a solid thud follow. Opening one eye he saw the robber, a section of his head cut open and his brains in a bloody pool which was growing larger with every passing second. In front of him, the cut off section of the robberâs head, a few small pieces of brain lying within it and large patches of blood spotted around it. One unfortunate hostage had been unable to take safe cover and lay on the floor several feet away from the robber, her bleeding body shredded and impaled by shards of glass. Paramedics and police rushing into the bank to do what little they could.
The man turned back around and continued eyeing each guard that was in the Akago building, watching what each was doing and interpreting their future actions. Each guard was armed with an SMG and all had the same dark glasses on, the whole place looked as if it were a mafia hideout or something very much alike. One of the four guards that stood at the main entrance raised a finger and placed it over his ear-piece for a minute before walking over to another two guards and began speaking to them.
There was no easy way in through any method other than indiscreet, all Kelesk had planned in his mind had just been shot to pieces, just as he was intending on being if he ended up in front doorway wielding a chaotic super weapon. So he began to think of a newer approach.
At the top level of the gigantic complex stood Akago, staring out through one of the huge windows over the city. He could sense that there wasnât something quite right, but he couldnât pin what it was. He slowly closed his eyes and let the questions run through his mind. Letting his idle senses answer what they could.
Why is there something wrong, why do I feel so insecure all of a sudden?
--becauseyouchoosenottoacceptthefactthatyouareentirelysafehere--
But what if there really is something wrong?
--nothingiswrong--
No there has to b--
At that exact moment, all lights in and around the building shut off, leaving the area in pure darkness. Frantic yells and screams filled the corridors of the building, all at once.
âWhat happened to the lights?!â
âWho turned the lights off?!â
âWhat the hell is going on here!â
A moment passed before two shrieks were heard from outside the front door, all the guards within the lobby immediately turned towards the two large glass doors, the brass handles reflecting the green laser beams that were mounted to the bottom of the SMGâs. A few seconds passed seemingly an eternity for the guards that held their guns shakily at the glass doors in such a petrified manner that even a large bug would cause a barrage of bullets to be fired at the doors, then, the lightâs flickered on and off twice revealing the grizzly demise of two of the four door guards. Both were as pale as ghosts with indescribable fear struck looks on their faces, as if all their blood had been drained from them long ago. Below them, enormous pools of blood spread across the tiled exterior and dripped down the small flight of stairs that lead up to the now blood coated doors.
The other two door guards were inside slowly backing away from the doors, one of them shaking so much that the bullets in the clip of his weapon could be heard rattling around the room and then, the lights came back on.
âWhat in the hell just happened, this building runs off itâs own power generator and has several backups, there is no way the power of this building could drop!â
âI donât know what happened Mr. Akago, I can go and speak to the techies that operate the generator machinery and see if they can come to an explanation if you like.â
âYes! Do it and be quick, something bad is happening . . I can feel it . . .â
As Akagoâs bodyguard opened the door to his office the lights again went off, and voices
[whispers]
echoed through the building.
Back in the lobby the guards were clustered together, green laser beams netted the room in search for anything that seemed hostile finally all coming to focus on an orange lightning bolt that struck the floor from a small glowing orange orb floating seven feet from the ground, the lightning itself leaving a mark on the floor, a brightly glowing orange pentacle on the ground that seemed to radiate with energy of some sort. All the guards stared towards the pentacle, guns ****ed and ready to fire at anything that moved, but nothing came, one overly curious guard slowly walked up to it, standing at the edge of the glowing rune, but all went to hell after that. Loud whispers filled the lobby, like several dozen children whispering a foreign language in demonic unison, one guard dropping his weapon and collapsing to his knees, slowly rocking back and forth mumbling Hail Maryâs. Then without warning an enormous shockwave blasted the lobby, shattering every window and cracking nearby windows on higher levels, the entire room was covered in a never-ending runic symbol, from ceiling to floor, wall to wall, the room glowed orange for a second as a second bolt of lightning struck the pentacle on the ground but instead of dissipating it stayed splitting open into what appeared to be a portal, and from it stepped the red haired man.
âHeâs here . . .â Akago mumbled a few seconds before his bodyguard walked back into the room.
âThe generators are completely o--â
The guard stopped his sentence as Akago promptly interrupted him.
âKelesk is here . . The Chaos Spectre . . .â
The bodyguard nodded once and slowly walked over to a briefcase that lay on a chair across the room, as he opened it, it slowly revealed a Jackhammer, and around three dozen shells.
âIf he comes in here Sir, he will be eliminated.â
In the lobby Kelesk stood in the middle of a war field, and he alone was the other side, reaching over his shoulder and grabbing the cold metal staff. As he drew the staff, all hell again broke loose.
âPut the weapon down!â
âPut it down now!â
âPut your weapon down and put your hands where we can see them.â
Kelesk smiled devilishly as the lights flickered again, revealing the bloody slaughter that had been set upon all those around him. The last contingent of lasers that were that were trained on him started to shake with a fearful expression, the rattling of SMG clips forced a smile to the spectreâs face which slowly changed to a demonic grin that would put the devil himself to shame, clenching the staff in one hand as he lowered his head slightly, still staring at the source of the green contingent of light beams that were focused shakily all over him the lights flashed again as two huge yellowy-green teeth burst from each end of the staff, the darkness revealing the two blades of chaotic energy clearly as the last few discharges of energy jumped around the room along metal objects, crackling on them for a few seconds before settling down. A few of the guards who had been looking where the spectreâs face was when the lights flickers immediately dropped their weapons and froze in fear shaking in a near seizure like state. Slowly the two yellow blades moved around and a heavy footstep echoed through the room followed by a low, evil giggle.
Akago was in a near uncontrollable state, frustrated beyond belief with the lighting problems knowing that if the lights were out, so would the security systems; the large tremor that he had felt from below wasnât reassuring either.
âCall for the Elite Spec. Op. guys! Tell them to get here A.S.A.P.!â
âBut Sir, we don--â
âDo it!â
âYes Sir.â
If there is something wrong here, then I am not going to take any chances . . .
Then the forsaken screams and gurgles echoed up through the building corridors and stairwells. Akagoâs eyes shot open in fear as the monitor in front of him flashed on and off as the lights flickered on and off again revealing the bloody wasteland that was left in the lobby. The white marble floor now nearly covered in blood, the walls too had blood streaked across them. Then most of the lights came back on, most flickered and died straight away but the ones that didnât usually blacked out for a while before flickering back alight.
In the blood streaked lobby the Spec. Ops. Team entered through the blood stained glass doors, their red lasers painting every inch of the room in search of the culprit of this manifest of slaughter.
âYou all must be so pitiful to defend a man such as Akago. I could not imagine being thrown into this fruitless slaughter headfirst. You all might as well not even be armed.â
An orange blur shot through the team and one of soldiers dropped to the ground, blood spilling onto the ground below his neck, he was dead before he even had even began to drop. Two of the team looked down at the dropped soldier, his face grew paler and paler as more and more blood ran from a red line of blood that ran diagonally upward from the middle left of his neck, the line of blood ending in the middle of his right cheek just below the eye. Another soldier kneeled down and lifted the downed manâs upper body up, doing so the dead soldiers head flopped backward, opening the wound. The gruesome sight making the soldier immediately drop the man and turn around throwing up. On the wall behind the group the orange energy glaive lay embedded in the white marble wall dissipating after a few seconds.
âThere is no killing what can't be killed; no stopping what can't be stopped. This is dread, truly dread.â
On cue every single Spec. Ops. Soldier opened fire around the room; the M4 fire blanketing the room, littering the blood streaked marble walls with bullet holes and covering the pools of blood with emptied bullet cases.
âCease fire! Cease fire!â
Then the same demonic laugh echoed around the room like before, and the teeth-like blades burst from the staff followed by what looked like wisping smoke from behind the scythe, seconds later bursting into orange flames revealing a human shape within, the creatures demonic orange eyes glowing as bright as the flames that engulfed him.
The creature jumped off a brass railing that was dripping and stained with blood, and into a puddle of blood below splashing it around a bit. The creatures white shirt was stained red with blood and even his dark grey pants were darkened in areas with blood. The creature was smirking devilishly, almost laughing. It was all a game to him; no human could be this destructive.
âChaos Bending!â
The words echoed throughout the building reaching Akagoâs office followed closely by another tremendous rumble, tortured screams taken far beyond pain and suffering could possibly induce and the sound of shattering glass.
âItâs him! Heâs here!â
Akago was in more than a fearful state, he knew what the spectre was after, yet he could do nothing but try and delay him knowing that if the spectre got a hold of the dagger, his power would rival that of the unspeakable one and every one of his memories would return to him. The god of lightning had lead Akago to where he had found the dagger, entrusting him with the responsibility of defending the dagger and although he could hold Kelesk off whilst he didnât have the dagger but his power would be overwhelming if he got close enough to even touch it.
Akago could do nothing but wait in preparation for the onslaught that was coming, and he knew it was coming in full force.
In the lobby one soldier remained standing in a pile of twisted and mangled bodies that had been torn to pieces by unknown forces. He stood dripping with the blood of his former colleagues; he had long ago dropped his M4 and stood paralysed in fear as the creature before him walked over the dead bodies around him and stopped looking down at him, the smile had disappeared and now he wore a serious face the blades of the scythe that had cut open one of the soldiers and thrown him across the room were still active, glowing with a more orangey-yellow colour than the previous yellowy-green.
âWh- What are you . . ?â
âMe . . ?â replied the creature, âI am your worst nightmareâs worst nightmare . . .â he continued, a small smirk appearing in the corner of his mouth.
The soldiers face turned sharply to a look of pain and he finally fell to the ground and didnât move, his hand clenching his chest; his heart had exploded. The smirk grew slightly bigger as Kelesk turned and walked off, the blades of the rogue scythe dispelling back into the shaft leaving the room in complete darkness and headed up the escalator that lead up to the next level, a few feet in front of him an elevator to the higher levels. As he got to the open elevator a few shots were fired at him, his chaos aura flared aggressively as the shots hit it and distorted, twisting and bending before being flung off in a different directions. Kelesk stoped his slow walk forward and turned his lowered head to face the guard that had shot at him. The guards stood shakily beginning to lower his weapon, the elevator was open as that guard had been sent down to see what had happened, though he hadnât made it to the escalator that Kelesk had just come up before seeing him. An orange glow sparked to life in the spectreâs hand before he threw a chaos glaive at the man; the glaive flying clean through his arm, dissipating a few seconds after embedding in the wall behind him. Kelesk smiled as he caught a glimpse of the ring of blood that began to run from the guards arm and kept walking towards the elevator. The petrified guard had no idea what had happened, he had seen the orange light fly through the air but that had been all. Raising the arm he held his gun in he felt a sudden sharp jolt of pain surge through his arm, before quickly lowering it and giving out a grunt of agony. Kelesk stopped and looked at the guard who had finally noticed the ring of blood on his arm, in time to also see his arm fall to the ground; the spectreâs conscience laughed with pure evil as he entered the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor, a scream of agony rushing through the closing elevator doors behind him.
The elevator stopped at the top floor, the level Akagoâs office was on, and things in his room were becoming stranger by the minute. Constant whispers spun around the room, taunting Akago and the guards; the lights flickering on and off as if in a disco room. Some of the guards were even seeing things, their vision distorting and twisting as flashes of orange covering the real world, some of them not mentally stable enough to cope with the intense strain put upon their minds, collapsing to the ground in tears mumbling.
Akago too was beginning to succumb to the spirits that taunted with the minds of the guards, but being mentally and physically stronger he could resist to a degree. Then a sight that made everyone in the room fill with fear. A pure black incarnation of Kelesk stood in the doorway of the room, itâs arms folded. As it took a step into the room Akago walked down the few steps that lead to his desk and stood before the spectre.
âYou scare me not creature . . You will never lay hands on the dagger, not now and not ever!â
With that Akago charged up the nanites in his right fist and threw a powerful right hook at the incarnation which landed solidly on itâs left cheek, but it didnât even flinch.
âI am but a figment of your imagination, coming as a warning . . . Be prepared to bow before me or you all shall perish.â And with that it disappeared into a cloud of smoke and fled into the darkness.
âOh, Iâll be ready for you Kelesk . . . Iâll be ready . . .â
At the end of the hallway leading to Akagoâs office, the sound of bending metal could be heard as the barricaded elevator doors were torn apart by chaotic energies, terrifying screams followed not long after. The only thing hiding the gruesome end of the guards that tried to hold their own at the elevator was darkness.
A loud thud was heard as the last of five guards hit the floor, his wounds the worst of them all yet he struggled to get back to his feet. But the spectre showed no mercy for the weak, any who persisted would die at his feet. Kelesk picked the guard up and threw him to his feet a few metres back, both blades of the rogue scythe sparked to life, lighting the top floor for long enough for the guards in Akagoâs office to see the demise of the other four guards. As the darkness set in, all that could be seen were the two blades of the scythe glowing a fiery orange. They watched as time after time the blades slashed through the guards body until both blades dissipated, the discharge of energy flickering the lights again in time to see the fifth guard fall to the ground in dozens of pieces, blood spilling to the ground before it all went dark once again.
