Second Genesis

All three women looked at Grey at the same time as though they were all equally offended.

"Can you be fucking serious for once?" Amunet hissed, her eyes darting back and forth between Grey and the statue that was clearly their number one threat here.

"I am being serious. I’ve heard that they can be a real burden. Not that you’d know."

Amunet smiled a dangerous smile. "You sure talk a big game for someone swinging around a little pecker."

"You know that’s what they call a self-report. How would a little pecker be swinging? If you want a closer look, I’ll gladly oblige. Just say the word."

"Can you two please stop flirting?" Thi Lan hissed. "We’re facing a little bit of a problem here."

The angel’s head had turned a few degrees too much to be natural. Her body was contorted, leaning back and away from the ball of chaos. By all logical rights, if she was real and not a statue like she seemed, she should have already tipped over from that alone.

But because of how tall she was, easily three meters or so, just to look toward them she had to turn her head not just to the side, but even further than that to get a downward look.

If Grey hadn’t been so distracted by her ample chest, he probably would have been making jokes about her being a wannabe owl instead.

While Grey was distracted, though, Thi Lan was most definitely not. So all she could see was the eeriness of it all. This wasn’t a laughing matter at all.

"I am being serious," Amunet replied, looking up at the angel. "Miss, if you want to kill him for the disrespect, please go right on ahead. We won’t stop you."

"You say this like you wouldn’t be absolutely heartbroken."

"I would be having the time of my life," Amunet corrected.

Thi Lan pinched her forehead. These two were going to be the end of her.

The angel woman suddenly grinned. The eeriness intensified, and then it suddenly felt as though the world turned black.

Grey reacted quickly, sweeping up Amunet and Thi Lan’s waists into his arms and exploding backward. His butterfly wings of red-gold pulsing magnetic lines took shape in less than a breath’s time as a black rod descended from the skies like a javelin.

BOOM.

The earth shook, and Grey’s pupils constricted.

’What the fuck... that rod doesn’t have an edge at all...’

It was a level of control that Grey had never seen before. It pierced into the ground so hard and heavy. Logically, at that speed, more of it should have been buried. But if so little of it had disappeared into the ground, then, just as logically, the ground should have exploded and cracked around it.

Yet, other than a little shaking, nothing had happened.

Grey let Thi Lan and Amunet go, his brows furrowed into a tight frown.

His Last Paladin Spirit was practically screaming at him. This opponent was more skilled than any he had ever faced before by a substantial margin.

"Shit," Grey cursed softly.

"What’s wrong?" Thi Lan asked as Grey let them go.

"You two stay back. If you interfere, you’ll only get in my way."

The two women looked at one another, frowns in their eyes. But they couldn’t say anything to refute Grey either. They didn’t know how powerful he had become, but before this he was already stronger than they were, and now the gap felt even wider.

The angel woman’s arms spread, her back still wildly arched as though she were only stretching. Her long, slender fingers reached toward the black rod, and she wrapped them around it, gently stroking it as though a long-forgotten feeling was awakening inside of her.

"Don’t you dare say it," Amunet hissed.

Thi Lan was already rolling her eyes.

"Am I that predic—handsome?"

"Yes," they both said at the same time, and then they immediately glared at Grey, realizing he had changed his words at the last minute.

Grey grinned. "Why, thank you, ladies. I’ll forever remember your kindness as I ride off to battle for your honor."

Extending his hands, Grey brought out a pair of hammers.

"Such a heavy burden... so long, so heavy, so dense..."

"Hey, lady with the honkers. Can we cut the Dark Souls character dialogue, please? I have places to go, things to do, concubines to collect."

The angel didn’t seem to hear Grey as she slowly pressed a palm beneath the sphere of darkness, lifting it above her head with one hand, and then slowly stepping down from the fountain.

Despite the weight, she walked across the surface of the water with light, airy steps until she was on the ground.

The earth shook.

Holding the sphere in one hand and her heavy rod in the other, she turned to face Grey as the arch of her back slowly straightened out.

"Holy shit..." Grey whispered.

"What’s wrong this time?" Thi Lan asked, missing Amunet’s warning a bit too late.

"They’re even bigger when she’s not stretched out like that."

"Remind me never to ask him a question like that again."

WHOOSH.

The angel lady spread out her wings, hurricane-force winds slamming against them and sending all three sliding back. Amunet and Thi Lan were nearly blown off their feet.

BOOM.

Grey slammed the head of a hammer into the ground, his body standing boldly and proudly forward.

’Fuck me,’ Grey complained.

If her wings alone were making this kind of force...

This was definitely going to be a problem. Being both this skilled and this powerful was a lethal combination.

Grey took a breath, but when he looked to his left, he saw that Amunet had appeared, and then he looked to his right to see that Thi Lan was there.

"You pin her down if you’re such a manly man. We’ll sprinkle in where we can," Amunet said.

Grey was about to respond when the angel moved.

’Fuck. She’s fast.’