Chapter 100: Chapter One Hundred

I had to point out the obvious as we looked around the mostly empty clearing (at least if you didn't count the unconscious bodies of the sleepers) "So...thematically I feel like the wings aren't really suitable for the whole murder cultist image. Does this seem jarring to anyone else?" I looked around, seeing Cold Snap raise his hand until Benny smacked him in the back of the head. The...semi-reformed cult mercenary? Glared at my friend and rubbed his head while I turned to look at the hooded form. "So, you gonna introduce yourself? Or just stand there looking menacing?"

I expected the voice to come from Mr. Grey, but this time it issued from under the hood itself. "See. This is why I should have just killed you. But no, I wanted to maintain my image. Still, I expected that little visit to the Bleakest Depths to kill you. I didn't even have to send a second agent for you to tail, you stumbled on the one following the bounty hunter. I suppose that's what happens when you trust braindead meat to run your errands."

The voice sounded...familiar. But not. It was colder than the last time I'd heard it, but the context and the story made it obvious. "Saint Aiden I presume? And how does that even work? You would think being a member of the clergy would get problematic if you worked for the Black Sorrow Cult. You have some way to hide that?" I assumed he WAS an actual clergy member based on the glowing white wings.

He pushed back his hood, revealing that same pleasant, fine featured face. The eyes that had looked kind and welcoming before were still pale blue, but they were poisonous and cold, like chips of frozen cyanide. "Obviously. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be this irritating to handle. Bit of fear gaming with the card to shake you up, then when you were too paranoid to function lure you out somewhere to kill or capture. Most people run AWAY from assassins. And yes they check for it, but I have...ways of getting around that."

Benny raised his hand. "Can I just say that I knew it all along? I mean, I didn't say anything because it sounded paranoid but come on, holier than thou pretty boy? Had to be evil. No one could possibly be that boring unless they were doing it on purpose." Aiden's eye twitched slightly and I had to fight the urge to burst out laughing. Benny always was way too much of a smartass for his own good. "Have to ask though, why would you come here? Like...this seems really fucking stupid."

I was wondering that too. I was also concerned he managed to banish the mist. Whatever that energy had been hadn't had much trouble clearing away a consistent effect from my ability. It made me curious as to what the hell it actually was, because I somehow doubted it was a power he had personally. If that was what he was relying on though, it made sense to show up in person, and it was looking likely based on the fucking wings sticking out of his back. Was it a racial trait? Was he an angel somehow?

His cold amusement didn't fade at all at the question, if anything it intensified. "Hardly. I might be G rank, but I'm at the higher end of that spectrum. Bringing you in will push me to F for sure. The Cult rewards its loyal followers. Not to mention as you've seen I have some tricks up my sleeve. That mist was annoying by the way. Took me ages to gather enough power to break it. Luckily I have this neat Job from the Church and it provides so excellent benefits when used properly."

I raised an eyebrow. "So you're really a Saint? I thought that was just a bullshit title." I wasn't exactly sure how the Church did things or even how job worked, but I'd have expected Saint to be a high ranking job. Maybe I'd misunderstood the way things worked? Whatever was going on the Cult clearly had people in places no one would have expected. The sooner we got them off this planet the better.

His amused smugness slipped as he stared at me for a second in shock before he burst out laughing. "Oh gods. You don't know. The son of the youngest Saintess in the history of the Church of Red Revenant thinks I'M a Saint! That's absolutely hilarious." He laughed so hard he actually doubled over and had to put his hands on his knees, flaring his blazing wings, but I wasn't paying any attention.

My mom. He was here because of my MOM. Not my dad. I knew mom was an A ranker and that she and dad hadn't seen eye to eye about things he'd been doing, but knowing my mom was a Saintess of the Church was another thing entirely. It also meant that Saintess was apparently an A rank job title, presumably the reason I was being cackled at by an obnoxious cult handler. The others were just as shocked, staring at me in awe. I was guessing some of them knew that Saintesses were a big deal. The WCP got around, but the Church was pretty insular. You didn't see many high ranking members outside their Holy Dominion.

Aiden stood up, his laughter abating as he wiped his eyes. "Oh, wow, thank you. I really needed that. As a thank you I'll murder all of your friends quickly instead of beating them all to death slowly like I was planning." He paused. "Nothing personal you see, it's just that you've all been an unbearable nuisance, and I can't have you chasing our golden boy over there back with me when we return him to Cult territory. I can't tell you how excited I am to finally go home. I absolutely abhor this place. It's all so...theatrical. And they call US lunatics."

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I was not looking forward to this fight. He seemed so certain he could win, even against all of us. I wasn't really sure what the hell we were going to be able to do to stop him. We needed a plan, which meant we needed to stall and make one. Luckily this asshole had apparently been saving up an evil monologue for years while he pretended to be a good guy, so I decided to play to his vanity. "How did you keep your image to clean for so many years on this planet as a traitor? It must have been difficult."

He smirked knowingly at me, but didn't call me on the distraction. I think he knew but didn't care that I was stalling. "It wasn't easy, believe you me. But being able to move the meat puppets with my brain made it simpler. Besides that I made sure to use them to gather resources to fund my "charity". The Bleakest Depths was only one of my revenue streams. The charity itself served it's own purpose. Letting me walk among the downtrodden to identify children who might have potential later in life."

That awful smirk turned on Cark. "Like your sister. I remember her you know. Remembered her even before you became such a nuisance. After all, power tends to run in family lines. That's why I took her you know. Because when I was on one of my missions to the megaplex I heard all about you. I was so impressed I decided I wanted a Cark of my very own. Fire users are so useful." He turned to the orange haired girl Cark had been fighting, lying burned and beaten on the ground. "Well...some of them. Speaking of useless disappointments, I see you over there Adrian."

Cold Snap seemed to subconsciously retreat a bit behind Benny. "You've gone too far this time Prophet! I had no choice but to help them take you down." We all gave him exasperated looks. He didn't care about any of that and we knew it, but clearly he figured Aiden would kill him anyway, so he had the best chance at surviving all this if he stuck with us. At least as a group we had a chance to beat him.

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Yes, very moving you little weasel. In any case, I think that's about all the stalling I feel like allowing at the moment. Sorry to throw cut this little chat short but I have places to be and people to murder. If you don't mind, maybe almost all of you can die now." He flared his wings, calling to that same blazing power, and I flinched back from how absurdly bright it was. He condensed and coalesced the energy until he was holding a long glowing sword. I got the impression the thing wasn't going to be all for show.

Of course, he didn't have a chance to use it, because the moron had given us plenty of time for everyone to get ready to fight and get in position, and that included Jessie. Banishing that fog had exposed the whole area (not that she couldn't see through it anyway) and with all the lights from the big flash dramatic skills he was using he was an easy target. Our healer had been pumping Vitality into one of those acorns for the whole time we'd been talking, and when she saw the sword she decided to let loose with her projectile.

Needless to say Aiden wasn't exactly unsurprised when the glowing green acorn came down and smashed into the ground at his feet. He stared at it for a second before the explosion of roots burst forth and wrapped up his whole body in pulsing green glowing plant matter. I saw his pale blue eyes widen in alarm as he was subsumed by roots alongside Mr. Grey, who hadn't made a sound at all during the puppet master's little speech. Within seconds they were both swallowed up by the wood, with not even the light showing through the cracks.

I blinked a few times before turning to the others. "Ok, well as cool as that was I somehow doubt it's going to hold him for long. Whatever that light is it's pretty scary. Anyone have any idea exactly how long we have to figure out what the hell to do before he busts out and tries to murder us all?" It looked like he was trying to tear free, but the green light pulsing inside the roots was repaired them as fast as he could cut himself free, even if it was getting much dimmer as it was happening.

We all looked at Callie, who just shrugged. "Don't look at me, I don't know how Agria's ability works yet. But based on the lights I'd say we have a minute or two at most, so we'd better get planning." With that she started to explain the plan. She assigned each of us a task and I couldn't help but be proud of how cool she was under pressure. She'd been rock solid throughout this whole thing, even when the rest of us were shaken by the mist being banished by that weird glowing power that Aiden had been about to use on us directly.

Speaking of which I had to wonder what that was. Some sort of holy energy? Was that the power of a god, used secondhand? It would explain it being able to get rid of the mist. I was working myself up but I forced my breathing to calm. I vaguely remembered the wish being to summon mist for the duration of the fight. That didn't necessarily mean that mist would be impenetrable, I imagined that would have taken a lot more in the way of stats. I was making a mountain out of a molehill. I made a mental note though to check into this when I was doing my experiments with my power after this was all over. I didn't have time to think more because the roots exploded as he finally got loose, and the fight was on.

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