Hybridization

Chapter 150 – Internal and External Struggles

“Sometimes the magical energy known as essence can be condensed to form things in the real world. A simple example is a rift core, condensed energy that develops a will of its own. A complex example is the reverse, a will that gathers and condenses energy to form a being. Elementals, some angels and golems are prime examples.” – Monstrum: A guide to supernatural creatures, their abilities and their origins.

“Oh, such disobedience, hiding within my territory.” Rindi heard as she suddenly found herself standing several paces from her target.

Rindi was stunned. She had never in her long years of life ever been so thoroughly man handled. Woman handled? She was sprinting her way through the layer just under reality where everything was a shadow of the world above. It was the way she had always opened a fight and usually ended it. A good thing too since it took too much out of her to do more than a couple times in quick succession.

So, how was it that this… girl had not only seen her but then evicted her from the entire dimension? Then her eyes flicked to her target and she felt like her heart was about to explode. His presence was barely tolerable in the shadow dimension but now it felt like she was about to be simultaneously condemned and forgiven at the same time. She couldn’t tear her eyes off his face, set in a firm neutral mask as he stared at her in curiosity. He blinked.

That was enough to snap her out of whatever was going on, and she flapped her wings once. The large membranes, combining with her backward jump to launch her into a full retreat. She landed at the top of the slope and ducked around the corner.

“Is it done?” Garik asked.

Rindi shook her head. “No, I was kicked out of the shadow realm. They know and we must flee.” She urged the dwarf.

“Useless as always.” Garik scoffed “Manto, Tanska, let’s go. Rindi, you better not fuck this up again. Wait until we distract him to stab him in the back.”

“But-“

“Do as you are told you worthless freak.” Manto nearly screeched as he withdrew his pretentious gleaming long sword.

Tanska was right behind him, pulling two wands from her sleeves. She followed after their master who was hot on the heels of the angel as they stormed down the ramp. Rindi didn’t know what she wanted to do, prove that she wasn’t useless or curl up into a ball and wait for death. Perhaps she could flee? No, the slave mark would keep her within a few miles of her master at any time. She didn’t feel like that would be enough to escape that man.

Hearing the stupid battle cry of the angel followed by the shriek of steel on steel, she made up her mind and tried once again to sink into the shadows, lingering on the periphery until she could strike. She hated every moment of this plan and just wanted to let this one go, but had no choice in the matter anymore.

She attempted to go back out and around the building, dropping down over the railing to fall a few feet to the ground below. Upon reaching the ground, she found that she wasn’t alone. There was another presence in the sub dimension with her.

It wasn’t a complete person like she was, but it was vastly more powerful and commanding than she expected. Rindi flinched and shied away from the presence, taking the long way around. She was able to cut a few corners, passing through some minor obstacles that weren’t fully there as she kept the radiant presence of their target in her sight.

She didn’t make it far before there was a sudden wall of shadow condensing in front of her. “Damn it.” She swore to herself before debating on pushing through the obstacle or going back around. She didn’t think she could go through the wall, given it had that same commanding presence radiating from it. She had never seen anything like it before except for other people who could move through the sub dimensions and even then, that was limited.

In the end, she decided to vault the low wall to the parking garage again and… and do nothing because she bounced off another wall of shadow. It prevented her from going forward around the building and from going through it…maybe…

Rindi jumped, easily reaching the railing above and hauling herself over it to end up right where she started. She then ran up the ramp toward the front of the building where she could drop off the slightly higher balcony and… go nowhere. Another obstacle appeared before her.

“Greetings.” Said the shadowy outline of something with ears and two fluffy tails.

The figure before her slowly condensed, the shadow seeming to harden and fill in to form… a kitsune? They weren’t wielders of shadow or dimension magic. Her confusion only grew as a slow pulsing spot in the figure’s chest began beating in time with a heart.

With every pulse the figure grew more distinct, and it began to walk forward. “From whence do you come? For what purpose?”

“I-I-ahhhhhh…” Rindi did not know how to answer that. She also wasn’t sure about having a conversation with the person when she could faintly hear the sounds of fighting reaching out to her through the shadows.

The figure tilted its head at her curiously. “Why do you desire to murder Kurt?”

Rindi flinched at the accusation. “I don’t! I don’t want to, but I have no choice!” she reflexively yelled in her frustration. She was being honest and trying to back away only to find the shadow follow her, step for step.

“We all have options.” The shadow insisted in its strange, overtly formal choice of words.

“Slaves don’t!” Rindi shot back, her voice filled with spite and regret. She was shocked when it made the figure pause.

Another voice cut through the muffling shadows. “Rindi, save me!” her master had given a command and she was forced to obey it. She immediately flapped her wings and used the limited amount of mana she had left to reach him in a flash, darting through the small gap between the railings of the ramp.

*****

“For the Lord of Light.” Screamed a familiar looking man as he ran toward them with a very shiny sword.

“Got him.” Kristi said, stepping forward with her own pole axe and an expression that looked… hungry.

“SHIT!” Kurt yelled aloud before switching to his implant. “Jade, trouble in the parking ramp.”

“Understood. In route.” The saintess responded

There was a dwarf with a spear in the mix that seemed to be absolutely focused on Kurt, but he was more concerned about the human woman behind the short man who had a pair of wands. “Fuck it. Guns are good.” Kurt called and summoned his rifle again.

He leveled it and centered the dot on the mage before firing a trio or suppressed rounds. To his shock, all three were stopped by a blue barrier that sprang up between him and the mage. He was about to switch to the dwarf but then she slid in front of him and they kept running at him.

“Val, cover me.” Kurt said as he sent another couple rounds at a lower trajectory but the shield seemed to extend to the floor too.

“Can’t. I’m in it with the tiger lady doing shadow shit.” She said in a rather unhelpful way.

“Fuck. Penny, push right and see if that shield goes all the way around.” He immediately revised his plan.

“Got it.” Their manager responded before taking a couple steps to give him some space and summoned a submachinegun from her ring. It coughed twice as she fired a couple short bursts.

Her attack didn’t make it through, but it made the mage hesitate and divert just as the dwarf tried to land a thrust at Kurt with his spear. Kurt deflected it with his hastily summoned lucerne but was forced to take a step back as the mage fired some sort of spell at him. It missed but it reminded him that this was a multi person fight and he couldn’t get tunnel vision.

Kurt glanced left to see Kristi putting a lot of pressure on her opponent. It looked like the man was having a hell of a time fending off her pole axe with his much shorter weapon. His focus was returned to his own fight a moment later as the dwarf yelled at him.

“Die, mark.” Then he feinted a thrust low that Kurt attempted to side step. The head of the weapon instead flashed upward and sliced a line in his leg, parting his jeans and skin like wet paper.

Hissing in pain, Kurt retaliated by driving the head of his hammer into the cross bar of the spear. The action forced the spear to slip in the dwarf’s hands and he was suddenly missing a couple feet of weapon that was now behind him.

Kurt stepped in, aiming a thrust at the man’s face with the spike on his weapon but it was blocked by another shield. Though it looked the same this one was sort of soft, slowing his weapon rather than stopping it outright. He stepped back and let another spell fly past him, predicting the incoming attack and getting lucky.

PAK-PAK. Penny punished the mage’s lapse in attention by putting a double tap into the her shield, making her curse and focus on the aggressively approaching changeling.

That extra space had bought the dwarf time, and he was able to get his hands back on his spear. He made another slashing lunge at Kurt, flicking the razor-sharp point upward to try and catch him under the chin.

Sidestepping, Kurt made a gesture and cast a single fire bolt, trying to test a theory. His theory proved true as the fire bolt splashed over a hard shield an arm’s length from the dwarf. The sudden flash of light seemed to adversely affect the dwarf’s vision because he began rapidly blinking as he tried to circle Kurt.

His circling action was stopped by a PAK-PAK-PAK. As three more rounds smacked into his shield. The Mage let out a frustrated scream and then cast a spell at Penny who dove for cover behind a car. Kurt once again glanced to Kristi in time to see her taking down her opponent.

Kristi baited the man in, overextending with her weapon as it glanced off his high block. The man then stepped in, bringing his long sword around for a slash along the length of her weapon only for Kristi to pull a fast one on him and just drop it. She let the polearm fall while ducking in, shooting for his waist under a translucent barrier that rebounded the sword.

She tackled him around the waist and took him to the ground, making his head bounce off the concrete with a hollow thud. Scrambling up, she got into a full mount position and drove a fist into his face, once again bouncing his skull off the ground. She then summoned her trusty seax and drove it into his temple.

What Kristi didn’t see but Kurt did was the absolutely insane expression on her face as she slew the man. Another thing she couldn’t see but Kurt could, was the little ball of aura that was suddenly pulled from the corpse.

That golden ball of light then seemed to be sucked into Kristi’s chest and vanished. The dragoness let out a short shout of triumph before suddenly slumping forward. She didn’t get up immediately, but he noticed that her aura suddenly intensified and she was twitching on the ground, clearly alive.

“KRISTI!” Kurt shouted but was quickly pulled back to his own fight as the dwarf attempted a stab at his face while Kurt’s repost was once again slowed by a shield. “Oh, Fuck this.”

Kurt kicked the dwarf, sending him sliding back several feet as he pointed to the mage and summoned rune circle in midair with a series of jagged symbols following an arrow. He insta-cast a trio of lightning bolts at her the moment the rune circle flashed into existence. In the same instant, Penny popped up from behind her car and dumped a half dozen rounds into the woman.

There was a cacophony of noise as the spells and bullets hit then overloaded the shield around the mage. Kurt had once heard that lighting was rough on shields but also consumed so much mana that it was barely worth using. In this case, that was true as the shield failed after the second bolt while the third went wide. What didn’t miss was rounds 3, 4 and 6 from Penny’s suppressed UMP.

The mage jerked and flinched from the impacts before turning to run only to fall after a couple paces where she began to crawl. Penny followed up with another long burst into the downed mage’s back, putting her down for good.

“R-Rindi rescue this one!” Squealed the dwarf as Kurt closed again, feinting toward him with a heavy swing of his lucerne only to drop it and summon his glock. He then ran a bill drill on the dwarf, stitching a line of 10mm rounds up his torso and into his neck. He crumpled to the floor, barely kicking as a sudden form arrived to stand over him.

“MAssssss….” The winged woman from the beginning of the fight suddenly appeared and the word she spoke died before it was even completed. She stared in shock at the body on the ground between them before she suddenly screamed and grabbed at her hair while her wings, tail and ears vanished. “AAAAAHHHH Gods be damned! Less than a week remained!” she then fell to her knees and began sobbing.

Kurt felt a stinging pain in his left forearm but didn’t react. He ignored it as he centered his red dot on the distraught woman, but his eyes flicked up to where Kristi was suddenly getting to her knees. He was torn on what to do but it was solved a moment later as Val appeared.

“Go, I got this one.” She said and trained her rifle on the woman who was now ugly crying and muttering about idiots and how she was correct.

Trusting Val and Penny to take care of it, Kurt skirted around the middle of the ramp to run to Kristi who had only just sat up while clutching at her chest. “Kristi!” he called as he ran but slid to a stop a few feet away as she whipped her head around to look at him.

There was an intensity in her eyes that made him very uncomfortable. Almost as uncomfortable as how she was literally glowing with a near golden hue that was streaked with green. A moment later she grimaced as the look on her face and the ethereal glow both faded away.

“Shit… What is-ah.” Kristi began haltingly, but stopped as her body suddenly convulsed again and she hunched forward.

Kurt put a hand on her and noticed he could feel the heat radiating off her through her clothes. It faded slowly as she panted there on the ground. Eventually, she was able to stand up with his help. “What’s happening?”

“Don’t know. Feels like… power. Hot. Heavy but fast.” She said while still panting rapidly.

Kurt wanted to ask more questions but could hear sirens. “Shit. Let’s get the bodies and everything cleaned up.” He reached down and stored the corpse of the man Kristi had killed while she grabbed the dropped weapons.

They returned to see that Penny had already grabbed the other two corpses. She was cleaning up the brass and blood with some sort of spell while Val held the other woman at gunpoint. She at least had stopped crying and was now only looking like she wanted to.

“Val we gotta get going.” Kurt told her. “And maybe deal with the cameras.”

“Already done. I was holding an interference field around us which is how I sensed her.” Val said and gestured toward the woman who seemed to realize there were other people around.

Kurt wasn’t sure how he was going to deal with her, but Val beat him to the punch. “Are we killing you or taking you hostage?” she asked.

The woman shook her head and stood up, keeping her hands out at her sides. “It is of no need. I am his property and can’t willingly hurt my master.”

“Uhh, what?” Kurt asked and saw Penny was already done with clean up. “Shit, never mind.” He summoned a pair of flex cuffs and placed them around the woman’s hands. She looked at him with that odd expression but didn’t resist.

“Come on, we are leaving.” He said and tugged her toward where their car was parked near the exit on the other side of the ramp.

She followed along immediately. “Yes, master.”

“I already told Jade to stand down and meet us at the Order warehouse.” “Oh, I have so many questions.” Penny said as she checked behind them. She then gave the captured woman a stern look. “Oh, I have so many questions.”

Kurt thanked her and quickly peeked around the corner for the next row of cars. “Yeah, and here’s one. Are there any others or just you four?”

“Only I remain, master.” She sniffled and kept following him.

Val opened the rear door of his car while Kristi hobbled around and got in the passenger seat. “Come on, we are running out of time.”

“Hurry up and get in.” Kurt shoved her forward but was surprised when she offered no resistance. She clambered into the back seat and Val then pushed her all the way over to the far door. She then turned around and pointed a pistol at the strange woman who just sat there with her head bowed.

Penny piled in after her and Kurt took the wheel. They were exiting the ramp a moment later, thankfully not having to pay a toll due to the free evening parking. He spun the wheel and turned right instead of left, heading in the opposite direction from the street to get them to the hotel.

“Where are we going?” Kristi asked.

“Order warehouse. We already told Jade to meet us there.” Kurt answered as he made sure to stop at the 4-way and not attract attention from any police. “I am not dragging a handcuffed woman through a hotel lobby.”

“Restraints are unnecessary, master. I will obey.” Came the meek voice from the back seat.

“Yeah, forgive me if I don’t believe you.” Val snarked.

Kurt kept driving, seeing several police cars heading toward the parking garage with their lights on. He stopped and let them pass while one slowed down a little to give them a second look. When the car sped up to follow the others, he had a sneaking suspicion Val was doing something.

“What are you doing, Val?”

“Changing what we look like.”

Kurt frowned. “And what do we look like?”

Val didn’t sound amused, but he thought that might be because of their guest. “Like a minivan driven by a middle-aged woman with a few kids in the back seat.”

His response was cut off as Kristi groaned and leaned against her door. She glanced at him and he saw her aura surging again, growing bright for a moment before dimming. It still had that green and gold mix but was much dimmer than before. “Hurts.” That was all she said before leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes.

“I notified Jay, and he will meet us there.” Penny said as she tapped away at her phone.

They finished the drive in relative silence other than Kristi squirming in her seat and their prisoner sniffling like she was about to start crying again. Kurt found the building and pulled in through the already opening door that quickly closed behind them.

An Order employee in a high-vis vest waived at him to follow before he began trotting toward a large square painted on the ground with reflective paint and recessed lights. A couple of large overhead lights bathed the area in a harsh white light but otherwise it was just a big parking space.

A big parking space with a lot of Order personnel standing around with guns. And also, a familiar daemon wearing a suit and a frown. Kurt had the sudden thought that, of the two, he would rather fight the soldiers with guns.

Kurt pulled into the space and stopped, watching the hand signals of the man in the reflective vest. A moment later he told them to kill the engine and step out in a specific order. Kurt went first, ushered to the side where his identity was checked. Kristi went next but stumbled and was helped through a similar check before Jay appeared at her side and put her on a gurney. Kurt ran over as soon as he was cleared to, despite there being nothing he could really do.

Then came Penny and Val who slid out of one side of the back seat as they were replaced by a couple men with guns. A moment later, their captive half slid, half hopped her way out of the seat and was taken to a small prefab building within the warehouse. She went willingly, barely even looking up as the two guards guided her through the door.

Kurt’s attention returned to Kristi as she groaned again and clutched at her chest. “Yeah, I bet that hurts.” Jay commented from where he was standing beside her.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Kurt asked. He really didn’t want to play games with his boss at that moment.

Jay nodded. “Indigestion.”

“Indigestion?” Kurt asked incredulously.

“Mhm, she got into a little tussle with an angel, didn’t she?” When Kurt didn’t answer, Jay rolled his eyes. “That is rhetorical. Yes, she killed an angel and ate a bit of him.”

“Ugghhhhaa. I didn’t eat anything.” Kristi moaned.

“Perhaps ‘ate’ is the wrong word. Absorbed might be better, but it’s a willful act, so maybe consume? Yeah, let’s go with consume.” Jay said with a faux quizzical expression. “Either way, you took that essence and absorbed it into yourself. What you are feeling now is your own angelic essence pool expanding.”

“Then whyyyyyyyyyAAAAAHFFFFuuuuck.” Kristi groaned again. “Why does it hurt?”

Snorting as he stepped aside for Val and Penny to gather around, he waived his hand at her. “Because, dear Kristi, you are not completely an angel. You just got a bit of that bird in you, so you are forcibly adapting it to your own.”

“What exactly is essence?” Val asked.

“Just a catch all term for your specific combination of will, mana, aura and other bits that make you, who you are. Think of it as your energy pool that you can slowly grow over time and either use or concentrate. Both you and Fido here grew yours too, just in different ways.

“I-think, I think its fading.” Kristi said after they stood there for a few minutes as she kept thrashing and groaning. “I think I’m gonna take a nap now…” then she closed her eyes and passed out, head lolling to the side. They all just stared as the formerly agonized woman just fainted until Jay cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Now that she is… whatever this is.” he waved a hand at Kristi. “Let’s go talk to our guest in the containment cell.” He pointed to the small building where the guards had taken the strange woman and began walking in that direction.