Deathwish, Part 13: Redeye

Part 1: Cinderfell
Part 2: Deal With a Vorpal
Part 3: Calmsquare Cantina
Part 4: The Wailing Chamber
Part 5: Grector Smash
Part 6: Rebmauk
Part 7: Chantim
Part 8: Homesick
Part 9: Traitorous Humans
Part 10: Journalistic Integrity
Part 11: Crime and Punishment
Part 12: Breakdown

Alicia had a bag over her head, so she couldn’t see what was happening. When it was finally removed, she was face to face with a Enlightened officer while she was tied to a chair in a dark room. What she could see was her captor wore a full suit of white armor, the gold lion emblazoned on the chest. He had a longsword hanging from his belt, and his red hair was perfectly combed. He had an outrageous mustache, making him look like some kind of eccentric merchant, though Alicia knew his garb meant such an impression couldn’t be further from the truth.

The man twirled his mustache as he examined Alicia. “Hmm… you don’t look like much. And yet, our intelligence operatives tell us you have considerable power.”

“What? What the rift are you talking about? Let me go!”

“Let you go? Not a chance. After what happened, if we have no use for you, we will simply kill you. Can’t have too many loose ends, after all. So, to be perfectly blunt, your life depends on how you answer these next few questions…”

The man leaned down towards Alicia, face only inches from her ear. “How did you kill an entire brigade outside of a Vorpal city? They had artillery, footsoldiers, commanders… all killed with barely any resistance.”

Alicia realized he must be referring to the incident outside Calmsquare. “I didn’t kill anyone. And how do you even know it was me?”

The man pointed his finger in the air. “Ah hah! So you WERE there. The answer is simple; we have light serializers attached to our secret projects for security reasons, and though the destruction of one of our wailing chambers broke most of them… one still managed to obtain an intact image. Of you. And some other Vorpals. Which leads into the next obvious question… why were you consorting with Vorpals? Against your own species, no less.”

Alicia was not about to help the Enlightened understand Vorpals better. They would only commit evil with such knowledge. “I had my reasons. There was no choice, if I didn’t cooperate, they-”

“Let me rephrase that question. Vorpals attack any other sentient race on sight. They obviously didn’t attack you, since you are still alive. So, why is that? Because I have a theory. I think you know how to control them.”

“I don’t control them.”

The man grew impatient, holding an unsheathed sword up to Alicia’s neck in a blur of motion. “Then you have some explaining to do.”

Alicia felt the blade cut against her neck, drawing a small trickle of blood. “It’s casting, all right?! It’s casting!”

The man pulled his blade back, sheathing it again as he looked at Alicia with raised eyebrow. “Casting? What does casting have to do with anything?”

“Vorpals… at least, some of them, only want to kill casters. They don’t care about non-casters, like me. So, I was able to talk with them.”

The man was fascinated, unconsciously fiddling with his mustache. “You… spoke with them? I’ve seen grown men torn apart by them, and you actually tried to REASON with them?”

Alicia could no longer control herself, shouting her response. “They aren’t evil! They are just misunderstood!”

The man turned around, pacing a short distance away as he chuckled to himself. “Misunderstood… I find that unlikely. I can understand their bloodlust perfectly well.”

Alicia saw an Enlightened run to the door. “Sir! We have a swarm converging on us! We need to move!”

The man turned to his subordinate, disbelief in his voice. “You forget your station. I make the decisions, here. We have nearly a hundred class fours or higher in our ranks. What Vorpal swarm could possibly stand against us?”

“It is… something else. We’ve lost ten men already.”

The man scowled, drawing his broadsword again. “Then I’ll handle it myself. Bring the girl, I want to put the fear of god in her so she doesn’t try anything that she will regret.”

As the subordinate apparently being a gravity caster, Alicia found herself levitated along with her chair behind the mustached man as he stormed out of the building. She got a good look at the area they were keeping her as they walked; a massive city with tall buildings that clawed against the starry Inverse sky. Each rose to a sharp point, making them appear to extend indefinitely, but the skyline suggested it was just an optical illusion caused by their shape. Alicia wondered what this abandoned city had been made for originally, until she saw the piles of bodies.

Countless Vorpals, all slaughtered and piled in the streets. They continually dissolved, generating a black mist along the stone pavement that was pushed aside as Enlightened marched through. Jets of fire or arcs of electricity from Enlightened casters periodically covered piles of bodies, eliciting ear splitting screams as the Vorpals never completely regenerated.

Alicia was horrified. “You… monsters!”

The mustached man responded bluntly. “We aren’t monsters. We fight against the monsters.”

The trio reached the scene of the conflict, as Alicia recognized a familiar face finishing off two more Enlightened with a wave of his hand, causing their skin to bubble and combust. The surviving Vorpal noticed the leader of the Enlightened forces, smiling. “Ah… you look like a bit more of a challenge. But you are also guarding my target, so it looks like you may be my last challenger as well. Very well… my name is Chantim, and your life is now forfeit.”

Chantim closed the distance in a moment, staff colliding with the Enlightened warrior’s broadsword midswing. They clashed multiple times, the Enlightened managing to hold his own against Chantim’s strange powers. The mustached man attempted to stab Chantim, but found himself frozen in midair as he struggled to move. Chantim’s staff ignited, three balls of fire orbiting it as his opponent scowled. “You aren’t normal… but you still can’t beat me.”

Chantim burned the man alive, but the fire dispersed. The Enlightened, though singed, was still alive. “Is that… all you’ve… got?”

The man broke out of his imprisoned state, moving blinding fast to cut Chantim clean in half. However, the two separated parts quickly rejoined as Chantim nonchalantly turned to again face the Enlightened. “Impressive… for a human.”

The Enlightened officer actually began to look concerned. “How are you doing this? Vorpals can’t cast! What sorcery are you using?!”

Chantim just laughed in his face. “You talk a lot for someone who understands very little. Maybe you should have learned more about Vorpals from the honorable Alicia. Now, prepare to-”

Both stopped fighting, as an eerie calm suddenly overtook the battlefield. They both dove for cover as a beam of light tore through where they had been standing moments ago. The Enlightened guarding Alicia fell as the beam burned a hole through his chest, causing her levitating chair to hit the ground hard and tip over as she remained bound.

Alicia felt herself picked up and pulled into the building, and was surprised to see a frantic Dapper working to untie her. “DAPPER! What’s going on, how did you-”

Dapper covered her mouth, shushing her sternly. “Chantim brought me here, and brought me up to speed! We need to get out of here, now! But please, be completely quiet…”

Alicia lowered her voice, but couldn’t stop herself from asking. “Why? What’s going on?”

Beams of light tore through buildings, as Alicia could hear Vorpals and Enlightened alike crying out in pain before falling to the ground. Dapper spoke with a rare cadence of fear. “It’s Redeye…”

As Alicia snuck through a city that was quickly being turned into ruins from the ongoing conflict, she continued pestering with questions. “Who is Redeye? Wait… didn’t Oracle say something about that one time?”

“What? When could Oracle have told you… nevermind. I don’t know who, or what, Redeye is, but he’s dangerous. We can’t run into him, or he WILL kill you.”

“But why? Is he a Vorpal? A caster? Does he-”

“I DON’T KNOW! We just can’t run into him!”

A shadowy figure materialized in front of Dapper and Alicia, surrounded by black smoke and having glowing red eyes. But the most disturbing part was the smile. He had jaggedly sharp teeth, stretched wide in a malevolent grin. He said nothing.

Dapper attempted to attack, but the presence vanished in a puff of smoke and appeared right behind Dapper. Alicia tried to warn him. “DAPPER! Look out!”

But it was too late. Following a blinding light, Dapper lost not only his head, but his arms and legs with multiple slashes by an invisible blade. Redeye turned to Alicia, smile unchanging.

Alicia didn’t know what to do. Everything was quiet. All Vorpals and Enlightened in the area were presumably dead at the hands of the being in front of her. And Alicia had no idea where in the Inverse she was located, nor how to get back to a Gateway.

Redeye said nothing, and drew a sword of blinding light, slowly walking towards Alicia with his horrible smile and glowing red eyes.



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