Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 10
Chapter 10: The Devil's Advocates
(PART 3)
“Now why would I wanna do that?” said Abaddon, mocking him while holding Daey captive under his right arm and tossing a small marble in his left hand.
“Because I’ll kill you.” Ubica sharply replies.
Abaddon lifts his head back and begins to laugh. “Hahaha, that’s even more of a reason for me not to let this girl go, ain’t ya gonna try to kill me anyways?”
Ubica grits his teeth in anger, he understands that he can’t gain any leverage on Abaddon by threatening him with physical harm.
From behind in the direction of the house comes the sound of a window breaking, they all shift their attention to this and see Napoleon, Niomyo, Strauphius and Rudo stagger out of the broken home. Napoleon and Niomyo look at the destruction of this scene in awe, they both feel like this is eerily similar to the aftermath of Ubica’s battle with Nero.
Rudo pays no mind to the devastation, his eyes are stuck on this unknown man holding Daey captive.
“Princess!”
Rudo pulls his sword from the sheath that he wears on his back, blind with rage he charges toward the man. Blind cannot be used lightly in this situation, his eyes are blurry with adrenaline, but the man in which Rudo is running to stands atop a two story house, there is no way Rudo can get up there in any respectable amount of time.
Abaddon knows this and as if to mock the efforts of a mere human he dangles Daey over the edge of the house.
“Oh? Whaddya think you’re gonna do?”
But much to his and everyone else’s surprise, Rudo jumps incredibly high, and within an instant he is right beside Abaddon.
“Ubica! Grab the princess!” Rudo yells as he swings his sword toward the arm of Abaddon.
Abaddon wears a smile and casually drops Daey to the ground; he quickly moves his arm back and narrowly avoids contact with the sword. Like he transported, Abaddon phases ten feet away and flicks the little marble that he held in his left hand; the marble flings into Rudo’s forehead and sticks into his skin. With a snap of his finger, the marble explodes. Blood engulfs Rudo's face as he feels the warm fluid run down to his chest.
“Gyaaaakkk!”
Rudo falls to his knees on top of the roof and covers the coin sized hole in his forehead with his hand; while applying pressure to the wound, he looks down behind him and sees Daey being held safely in Ubica’s arms. Rudo huffs in relief, he looks at the enemy before him and once again begins to charge.
“Persistent little prick aint chya?” Abaddon says while he guards himself.
Rudo jumps and swings down his weapon with all his might.
But Abaddon simply lifts his bare hand and grabs the blade. With this action, Rudo suddenly can’t move, after a second in this paralytic state he feels himself falling away from the view of his right arm. Rudo falls to the roof top floor, he looks in the direction of this weird sensation and sees a sight straight out of a nightmare. Abaddon is standing above him holding the arm that is still clinging to his broadsword.
Rage jumps in front of Niera to guard her, Beelzebub sees this and puffs air out of his nose with a faint smile. “Now now old friend, no need to be so hasty, we didn’t come here to fight.”
Rage looks confused and asks, “Then what brings a member of the Hierarchy here?”
Beelzebub shrugs his shoulders. “Though I do not know the exact details, I do know that it involves Ubica.”
“Ubica!? Why?”
“Like I said, I don't know. This is all the plan of the Father's child, I am merely playing my part in it.”
This statement is odd to Rage, when it comes to the Hierarchy of Hell, Beelzebub stands as the rank of third, only Satan and one other rise ahead of him as rulers of Hell. So Rage is wondering why such an important and powerful person is necessary for a mission where no fighting is involved. Beelzebub looks across the three hundred meter gap in the ground towards the others and sees his brazen partner with a hostage.
“It seems that it would be wise to retreat before my partner makes an unwanted mistake.” he says as he shifts his attention back at Rage and continues, “But first, there’s something I need to do.”
He holds out his hand and points his index finger in their direction, out of his fingertip comes a red bug, and the bug flies off rather quickly across the crevice.
Though Rage doesn’t know what his intentions for this insect are, he readies to intercept the path of the bug, but is halted by Beelzebub’s voice.
“Best not to be careless Rage, once you make a move, I can easily kill this child.”
Rage grits his teeth and reasserts his guard in front of a frightened Niera. “What are you trying to do?”
Beelzebub strokes his fringe and replies, “It would be much too difficult fighting Ubica whenever he is awakened, that bug carries a specially made poison to limit this possibility. In the small chance he still awakens, he will feel an unbarring pain throughout his body.”
“So basically, you are trying to destroy his natural power?”
“No, far from that. This poison will make his evil grow even stronger than ever before, this is the whole point. The key is making this power more and more vulnerable so it can be controlled.”
“Hmph, there is no way Ubica would allow himself to be controlled by the Hierarchy.”
Beelzebub lowers his head, his light brown eyes shine brightly underneath his hair, with a cold tone he responds, “I never mentioned anything about controlling Ubica himself.”
With these words Beelzebub spreads his arms and disperses violently in the form of a large swarm of flies. His echoing voice is heard, “Soon enough, Dantega will be ours alone.”
“Damn it all.” Rage says, his face cold with anger.
Niera throws off the concerns of what had just happened and looks toward the other side where she last saw Daey held captive. Much to her surprise she sees her sister safely held in Ubica’s arms. She is struck with relief until she sees the ghastly sight of that same man holding up something that looks like a bleeding limb. Though this view is quite far away, making visibility fairly low, the sight is confirmed when she sees Rudo stagger up to his feet with a missing arm.
“Oh no, Rudo!” Niera frantically shouts, she looks at Rage as if imploring him to go over there to help, but Rage can only bite his tongue in frustration because there is a chance that Beelzebub is still lurking somewhere around just waiting for a chance to kill Niera and the rest.
“I can’t leave you here alone, we can only trust that Ubica can manage to keep them safe.”
“RUDO!!!!”
The back of Daey’s throat stings as she shouts this.
Rudo struggles to stand as blood drips under his feet causing his footing to slip, he smiles and says, “No need to worry princess, this stubborn old man will not die so easily.”
Abaddon begins to laugh rather loudly, he callously tosses Rudo’s arm into the abyss and says, “Didn’t ya ever hear that stubbornness ain’t a good trait?”
Ubica scowls at this comment; he gently lets Daey to her feet and says, “You haven't changed a bit Abaddon, I think it's time I get rid of you for good.”
“Oh? Try me ol’ pal, just don’t forget who it was that made the prison for ya to rot in.”
Ubica readies his sword and gets ready to charge when he suddenly feels a sharp pain in his neck. “Ahghh!”
Ubica slaps his neck and feels something crush underneath the weight of his hand, he looks in his palm and sees a flattened red bug.
“No way...”
His body instantly writhes in pain.
“Urryaaahhhhh!!!”
He falls to the ground and begins to uncontrollably shake.
Napoleon, Tsubiri, and Trojia run to his aid.
“What’s wrong!?” Trojia asks with a panicked look on her face.
“It’s Beelzebub! Damn it, I can’t believe I didn’t realize he was here!”
“Hahaha that’s right, yer ol' buddy Beelzebub has come to join the fun. He sure took his sweet ass time talkin’ to Rage, bout time he got ya with that creepy lil bug.” Abaddon smirks as he continues, “Well, it looks like my job here is done. Take it easy Ubica, soon enough, I’ll be back to fight ya seriously.”
Abaddon readies to leave when right behind his back he feels the presence of someone.
“After destroying Papa’s house, did you honestly think that I’d just let you leave?”
This voice comes from Strauphius, he swings his weapon at the neck of Abaddon, and is shocked when he feels the sensation of slicing through air. He looks where Abaddon was supposed to be and notices that he is simply standing a few feet back from where Strauphius swung is blade.
“Woooh you're a fast kid, but...”
Abaddon backs away and pulls a marble out of a sack that hangs off his belt.
Strauphius is exposed because he can only use his power once every few minutes, he has made himself a sitting duck.
“Hmph, after I’m done with ya, maybe I’ll stick around and take a few of the others out too.”
He readies to send an attack, but before he could flick the marble, he feels a sharp object press into his lower back, it’s the one armed old man Rudo.
“Never again will I let you lay your filthy hands on princess Daey.”
Rudo is stabbing a seven inch knife into Abaddon’s back, because of the loss of blood, Rudo’s vision is blurry so he is not sure if he has pierced any vital organs or not.
Abaddon frowns a little and says sharply, “Listen gramps, I’ll have ya know that I am the Angel of Destruction.”
The seven inch blade suddenly shatters and along with it, the bones in Rudo's fingers and hand.
“Hngggyaack!” he winces as he buckles to his knees.
Strauphius rushes to his aid but runs into the sight of a marble ready to be flicked from Abaddon's hand.
Abaddon smiles as he ignores the presence of Strauphius and looks into Rudo's eyes, he begins to explain, “I bet yer wondering how that just happened eh?” Rudo's eyes widen as he continues. “Every object, living or inanimate has a destruction point. It's quite easy to calculate actually, normality flows like a river in one direction for everything. I have an innate ability to control that vector and reverse, speed up, expand, or even shrink it until it reaches an unsustainable balance point.”
Abaddon mercilessly grabs Rudo's face.
“That means that if I wish it so, I can reverse your bloodstream, or perhaps I'll expand the size of your brain till it falls outta your ears. Do ya know how much of a bloody mess you'll be if I decided to do that?”
Ubica is struggling earnestly to get to his feet and help, but his body simply won't move.
“Damn it!”
He looks at Deay, her hands are clasped tightly on her chest as her face is pale with horror, he can only imagine how she is feeling at this moment, and he dearly wants her not to see a loved one die in such a gruesome way.
“Napoleon! Help me up!” Ubica yells with all of his strength.
Napoleon rushes over and lifts him to his feet.
Ubica readies his sword and begins to run toward Abaddon. “Let him go!”
Rudo hears Ubica's frantic voice, he smiles and comes to the realization that his time is up. He thinks back to when he first met Daey...
She was just a newborn, after his many years in the Eiyalazonian military as a high ranking officer, the King asked him to be the official royal guard of his first daughter. As part of this honor, Rudo was able to witness her birth, thus making him her Godfather. He'll never forget her first smile and all of the different moments he was blessed to witness as she grew into the fine young woman she is now.
After reminiscing, he puts every last bit of strength he has left into a shout, “Ubica!! I give the responsibility of protecting princess Daey to you!!!”
These words resound in Ubica's head as he runs, he knows he is not going to make it in enough time to help but he still moves on as fast as he can.
“You asked the wrong person to protect that little girl, gramps.”
Abaddon shows a sadistic grin as Rudo lets out a ghastly scream. Out of Rudo's ears, nose, eyes and mouth comes streams of blood. Rudo's body is shaking violently, blood is squirting in every direction like water off of a mop that's being shaken.
After a few moments, Rudo's body suddenly stops shaking and the blood flow that was once being excreted halts. Abaddon drops him to the floor like a sack of trash and says, “Have a look at that, whatta sight! But I got carried away and killed em too quickly. Huaaaahhhh I want more...”
He looks at Strauphius with eyes full of blood lust, Strauphius backs away while his knees are shaking.
“Beelzebub never told me that I couldn't kill the humans, after all, you people are expendable.” Abaddon takes another step closer and begins to toss a marble up and down in his hand.
Before this blood soaked demon can reach Strauphius, Ubica appears behind him, he swings his sword at Abaddon's torso in a horizontal strike. Abaddon jumps back and flicks his marble from his hand, the marble hits Ubica's swinging sword and deflects it with such strength it actually flings it backwards.
Ubica abandons his sword and ducks to the inside of Abaddon's guard, he twists his body and quickly sends a sound breaking kick that slams onto Abaddon's face, sending him flying twenty meters off the house and into the air.
While flying back, Abaddon spits out blood from his mouth and shows a cynical smile. “Hahahah! Good stuff ol' pal! It looks like it’s finally time to get serious!!!”
He stuffs both of his hands into his red robe and spreads his hands out causing the robe to flair out like a parachute. In between each finger in both of his hands are marbles.
“How can they expect me to not kill you after all this time when you’re right in front of me!!!?”
He readies to throw the marbles in Ubica's direction when he is suddenly engulfed by a swarm a flies. “What!? No! Wait Beelz-”
Before he can even finish talking, Abaddon disappears in the swarm and the flies all disperse into different directions.
Out of another swarm comes Beelzebub; he walks toward Ubica in mid air while the flies form into a pathway under his feet. He stops and looks at Ubica who is obviously in pain from the poisonous bug that had just bit him.
“I never thought I'd see you again.”
Ubica grabs his neck and asks, “What did you just do to me?”
Beelzebub replies, “It's nothing that would kill you if that's what you're implying. Does it still hurt?”
Ubica clicks his tongue.
“I had originally planned on leaving you in agony for a while before your body gets used to the poison, but I'll get rid of the pain early for you.”
He snaps his fingers and instantly the pain coursing throughout Ubica's body dissolves and he feels like he can move to his normal capacity once again.
The fly filled pathway that Beelzebub is standing on grows into his legs and rises up toward his face; he looks at Ubica and shows a faint smile when he says, “With this, I bid you adieu.”
The flies wrap around his body and disperse, in only an instant, he is gone.
“Tch, that bastard.” Ubica hisses to himself.
He then checks to see if the shocked and speechless Strauphius is uninjured and quickly shifts his attention to the mangled body of Rudo. It is beyond obvious that he is dead.
In a normal circumstance, one would close the open eyelids of the dead as a manner of respect, but in this case, Rudo's eyes are hanging from his sockets down to his cheekbone. Luckily, Daey can't see this because of her view point on the ground.
Ubica jumps down from the house and walks toward Daey, he grabs her clasped shaking hands.
“Is Rudo alright...?” she asks with eyes full of hope.
Ubica squeezes her hands tightly and replies, “I'm sorry.”
Daeys takes a deep breath and fails to exhale properly. “ I-I see...”
Ubica's face is filled with guilt, he feels that it is all his fault, he apologizes yet again and looks away.
Out in the distance a faint voice of a young girl is heard shouting, “Daey! Are you alright!”
This light sound is coming from the younger princess Niera who is on the other side of the three hundred meter gap in the ground. Daey takes a sigh of relief knowing that her sister is safe and waves back.
“At least she's ok.” she softly said under her breath.
Ubica assumes that she wants to see her so he runs to jump over the crevasse, he reaches the edge and a murderous shock of electricity pounds through his body.
ZZZNNNNNNNNNKKKK!!
“Hnnnnggghhh!!!”
He is blown back in a plume of smoke and harshly lands on the ground.
“What just happened?” asked Niera after she saw Ubica blown to the floor out in the distance.
Rage walks to the edge and reaches out his hand.
Znnnnkkkkk!
Rage's hand is shocked as if he had just touched a large electrical outlet. “Shit, was this part of their plan as well?” Niera looks at him with a face that's begging for an explanation.
Rage answers, “That man who was holding your sister, he is the Angel of Destruction, and also the key holder of the endless pit. He decides what goes in and what comes out... he made it so we can't rejoin with each other.”
Rage follows the length of the abyss with his eyes and sees that it goes for miles and miles, it's as if the massive crack in the ground never ends. Rage sighs and hops off the house onto the ground, he sees that Phoenix, Luke, and Xavier are safe.
He then walks into the split house and finds Cyrus and Sora climbing out from within a pile of rubble.
“Where is the thief girl?”
The two shake their heads as if saying 'I don't know'.
Rage quickly realizes that the two of them don't even know what had just occurred outside of this broken house, they are not in a position to answer any kind of question, in fact they should be the ones asking.
He looks around and hears Aria's voice from above saying, “I-I'm right here.”
Hovering directly over the endless abyss, she is sitting on a narrow piece of what used to be the balcony. Luck would be an understatement in describing how fortunate it was that she didn't fall into the crevasse, and even more so in the fact that the narrow piece of stone she is on did not collapse during this whole ordeal.
Rage once again sighs and says, “So this is my group huh..?"
Ubica opens his eyes and begins to cough wildly, black smoke pours out of his mouth with each exhale. “I should have figured he'd do something like this...” he said while trying to get to his feet, Trojia and Tsubiri both rush to help him up.
“I assume we won't be able to get back to them for a while, correct?” Napoleon asks.
Ubica looks at the length of the abyss and sees that it stretches as far as the eye can see and replies, “Yeah...”
“Well then, we should get going, lets try to gather as many worthwhile things that are left in the house as possible. I'll bury Rudo afterwards.”
Napoleon says this with no apparent sympathy in his tone, he walks to the broken house and goes in through one of the broken windows. Though the rest of them were hesitant in doing so, they eventually follow, all except Daey.
Ubica sees this and walks to her side.
“I'm sor-”
“Don't apologize!” Daey interrupts him with her shout.
Ubica is taken aback and drops his head.
After a few deep breaths, she uses the palms of her hands and lifts his head up. “I can see it in your face..." she says as she looks into his eyes. "You’re blaming yourself right?”
“........”
Daey puts her head in his chest, “Well it's not... he died doing his job, knowing that old geezer, he'd be happy to die protecting me.”
Though these words sound cold, Ubica can feel the warmth in them, she wraps her arms around the big blue jacket that he is wearing and says, “I'm proud of him...”
A few tears fall from her eyes; she is trying to hold the rest of them back and Ubica senses this.
He rests his hands on her shoulders and says, “Even though these are tears of sadness, if you have someone’s chest to cry into, it could make you feel better, right?”
“I guess it can’t be helped, our newfound friendship is based on tears after all.”
By now, she is bawling into his chest, a person she has known and has grown to care for like a father figure her entire life was just brutally killed in front of her in this strange land she’s found herself in. To add to that she has just been separated from her sister for the foreseeable future; dealing with the trauma of this incident would be terribly difficult on anyone, if not for this new friend whose chest she is allowed to cry into, she’s not so sure she’d even be able to stand on two feet.
Ubica lets her squeeze him as hard as her sadness desires, and he gently strokes her back.
“I can promise you, it won’t always be this way…”
The Devil's Advocates: (END)
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