• Chapter 4: Nocturn Gets a Clue

    Aeulus could not help but notice the vortex spinning near the building. Jack, because of his abilities of illusion, bluffed the escape. In reality, they just landed on a building only a few blocks away. Vortexes to Paralleliux create immense energy, but are only seen through infrared lens, so it was completely concealed under the naked human eye. It is also the reason behind alleged ghosts. People who go through the vortex become only visible through infrared for a few moments. He sometimes questioned why they would go through abandoned houses, though.
    “Can you sense that?” inquired Aeulus, looking at Jack.
    “I can smell it,” murmured Jack with a sickly tone. “Who do you think did it?”
    “I only know of two Dieu de la Mort who can open vortexes: Ignus and Charles Houston.”
    At that, Jack smiled. “I think we should track that vortex.”
    “No. We might get bombarded as soon as we get in,” warned Aeulus. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
    “What is it?” snapped the voice from the other side.
    “We checked that entire building and nothing’s in there.”
    “WHAT?”
    Aeulus grimaced. The man he was talking to was a member of an equal and opposite form of the High Reaper Senate. “We’ve ripped through every human, burned every paper, broke every wall, and nothing.”
    “You told me that it was there.”
    “I was wrong.”
    The man sighed, a sound that sounded like a growl through the phone line. “I know who does have it though.”
    “Who?” Aeulus fought the need to ask: ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
    “Contact Aile in the building known as the Empire State Building; she will know what to do.”
    Aeulus shivered as he heard that name. “Aile, sir?”
    “Yes,” replied the man as he hung up.
    “Aile?” chuckled Jack. “Isn’t she—?”
    “Aphrodite’s successor.”

    Nocturn woke up with the sound of a phone vibrating.
    “Mission time!” called Viola, reading her phone. She was already dressed and clean.
    Nocturn got up, rubbing his head with his left hand. “It’s morning already?”
    Viola nodded. “Do you remember what happened in Paralleliux?”
    “Something about the HRS hunting down Aeulus?”
    “That’s about right,” nodded Viola. “Here’s the mission: Hunt down the gargoyle near St. Patrick’s Cathedral.”
    Nocturn moaned and went for his bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower,” he grumbled as he closed the door. He stripped himself of his clothes, walked into the shower, and turned the water on to the coldest it can get. The Cathedral? I’d rather be hunting down Aeulus. After a few moments of grumpy thinking, he dressed himself in his usual attire: black clothes under a robe that is cut so that it covers the bottom portion of his face and stops at the center of his shin, and black Converse All-Stars.
    He left the room, finding Viola on the suite’s phone. “Okay, bye,” she giggled.
    “Who was it?” inquired Nocturn.
    “Frank. He wanted to say hi, but you were taking a shower.”
    Nocturn ruffled his hair. “When should we go?”
    “Go where?” asked Viola dreamily.
    “To the mission.”
    “Oh! Now is a good time.”
    Nocturn nodded as the duo left the suite.
    After a few moments, a taxi picked them up. “Where to?” asked the taxi driver in a Bostonian accent.
    “St. Patrick’s Cathedral,” directed Nocturn. With a nod, the taxi driver took them down the street and turned the corner. “Why does it have to be the Cathedral,” moaned Nocturn.
    “What’s so bad about the Cathedral?”
    “I just don’t like going to places where I don’t worship or even care about the person who lives there.”
    “It’s just for the mission, Nocturn. We’re not going to sit and pray.”
    Nocturn blinked. “It’s a big place, Viola. Don’t get lost.”
    “Don’t get lost?” repeated Viola with a hint of scrutiny. “What do you mean by ‘don’t get lost’?”
    Nocturn looked out his window. “I’m supposed to be your guard, right?”
    Viola reached for Nocturn’s sleeve. “Don’t worry. I won’t get lost, and you won’t lose me.”
    The taxi driver stopped at the sidewalk in front of the Cathedral. “That’ll be about…three fifty.”
    Nocturn eyed him strangely. “Isn’t that—?”
    “Too little? Nah. You just have fun with your girlfriend, you hear?”
    Nocturn heated up. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he muttered, handing the taxi driver five dollars. “Keep the change.”
    “Okay, boss,” chuckled the driver as he hit the accelerator and drove away.
    “Are you okay, Nocturn?” questioned Viola, noticing that he seemed a little shaken.
    “Yeah, I’m okay. Now where’s this gargoyle?”
    Viola pointed at the roof of the Cathedral. “What are the chances it’s up there?”
    “Pretty high,” replied Nocturn in his usual emotion-less tone as he sped towards the Cathedral. He stopped right at the front steps, looking up at the immensely tall cathedral. The mayor of the city, who was also among the ranks, had extra floors added to the Cathedral for the increasing population.
    “Do you think we can actually make it up there?” inquired Viola, panting. “I have to hit the gym more often.”
    “I doubt we can make it up there from down here. We can try to go to the top floor and climb from there.”
    “Good idea.” The duo walked into the Cathedral just as a mass started. “This way,” whispered Viola, directing Nocturn to the staircase to the left. Nocturn stepped on the first step as a deep growling sound erupted from above. He looked up. Nothing. I wonder if that was the gargoyle.
    The staircase, despite being so close to the mass, was silent. “Don’t these people have jobs?”
    “They’re worshipping what they want to worship, Nocturn.”
    “I though it was usually on a Sunday.”
    Viola shrugged. “Faith doesn’t have a day off.”
    “I wouldn’t know about— do you hear that?”
    The deep growling sound returned.
    “That has to be the gargoyle,” remarked Nocturn as he started rushing up the stairs.
    “Wait up!” called Viola from behind. The stairs coiled around the church up until the fifth floor. The room was quiet as Nocturn stepped inside.
    “This one’s empty,” he muttered. The smell of ancient stonework seeped into his nose. “It’s close.”
    “How do you know?”
    “I can smell it. And hear it.” Nocturn stopped to listen. “It’s coming from the roof.”
    “Then up we go.”
    “How do we get up there?”
    “Scaling the wall,” said Viola, sounding sick. Nocturn walked towards the nearest window, opened it, and looked up. He spotted a stone claw just moving back onto the roof.
    “There it is. Stay here.” He pierced the wall outside using his claw. Then, using a hidden knife, he started to climb up the wall. After a few minutes of painstaking scaling, he made it to the slanted roof of the Cathedral.
    A hiss, the sound of stone crashing through stone, and Nocturn was down on his back. He was barely on the roof when he looked up to see the terrifying stone face of a gargoyle. It was a griffin, with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. But it also had large bat wings folded around it. The bat wing’s opened as the creature hissed at Nocturn again. “Damn you’re ugly,” he muttered as he kicked the gargoyle back with the heel of his foot. He got back up, unsheathed his blade, and, shakily, moved up the slanted roof. Holding the rapier-katana hybrid in his right hand, he attacked the creature, only to have his sword rebound off the creature’s beak.
    The gargoyle retaliated by swinging its claw at Nocturn’s chest. He was flung to one of the spires of the Cathedral. It lunged itself on Nocturn, trying to pummel him even more. Nocturn punched it with his right hand, sending it back. He pulled out a hidden blade tucked in a compartment on his gauntlet and threw it at the gargoyle’s left eye. The knife stuck as the gargoyle staggered back. Panting, Nocturn pulled himself back onto his feet and tried to attack the creature with his sword again. The creature ducked as it continued to whimper. Nocturn tried again, but the creature fell to the floor in pain.
    “Stay still,” snapped Nocturn as he slammed his foot down on the creature’s head. The stone head cracked as Nocturn pulled his foot away. He started to hack at it, deepening the crack. Once the gargoyle’s rocky skull was pierced enough, Nocturn reached into his robe and pulled out a smaller version of a rifle used during the 19th century. Using only one hand, he pulled the trigger, sending the bullet into the creature’s head. The gargoyle’s entire body started to crack, and then finally crumbled into dust. “And that’s the end of—”
    A loud, deep roar sounded from below. “Nocturn!” called Viola’s voice. Nocturn almost went over the edge of the roof to climb back down when he saw a larger, more menacing gargoyle terrorizing the park below. The people around it ran away, looking like ants from the top of the Cathedral.
    “Why is it that the mission guy always fails to mention that there are more than one of our targets?” snapped Nocturn. He dove for the window sill, and, his claw dug into the stonework, swung himself back into the room at the fifth floor. “That thing’s huge.”
    “Well we have no time to lose, right? Let’s go!” urged Viola. With a nod, Nocturn followed Viola down the steps of the Cathedral. The lower floors were in mayhem. People rushed into the church, praying to their deity. Fanatics… The front door was blocked by rushing crowds of people. Nocturn pushed the panicked humans, accidentally striking some of them with his claw. He kicked the door open, seeing that the park outside was already littered with garbage. “Wow! The things that frighten humans, huh?”
    “Humph,” mumbled Nocturn as he unsheathed his blade. The gargoyle was a few hundred feet in front of him, crushing some stands. With Viola close behind, he rushed towards the creature with his sword raised. The gargoyle was a large griffin, towering just below the tallest of the trees in the park. “This one’s even uglier.”
    “What do we do?”
    “Shoot the back of its head. I’ll find something big enough to drive into its head.”

    Viola was already awake before her phone rang, alarming her of the mission. The HRS was going to hunt down the Usurpers involved with yesterday’s incident. She was worried about what Nocturn said. He probably forgot anyway. He always does. Nocturn was strong in many ways, but his memory was one of his weak points. The vortex’s immense energy can do strange things to a person’s mind. If a human goes through, they would go insane. If a Mort like Nocturn goes through, it would be like heavily drinking.
    But Nocturn sounded extremely anxious about what Dunkel Chronos Easton, her brother, said: “Aeulusiò, Jack, and Ben must be found, and executed.” Nocturn and Aeulus were formally best friends, and Viola, along with most of the Dieu de la Mort near them, knew that Nocturn never wanted harm done to his former friend.
    But what has to be done has to be done, thought Viola as the phone rang. It was a mission text. “Mission time!”
    “It’s morning already?” yawned Nocturn.
    Viola eyed him, remembering her thoughts. “Do you remember what happened in Paralleliux?”
    “Something about the HRS hunting down Aeulus?”
    “That’s about right,” she lied. They’re going to hunt and kill him. “Here’s the mission: Hunt down the gargoyle and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.”
    Nocturn got up, groaning. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
    A few seconds after he was gone, she heard the suite’s phone ring. “Hello?” she answered.
    “Hello? Who is this?” greeted the voice at the other side.
    “Frank? It’s me: Viola.”
    “Vi? Hey! You’re still staying with Nocturn?”
    “Yeah, I don’t have anywhere else to stay.”
    “Normally, I’d be complainin’, but seeing that you and Nocturn are so happy together.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Aren’t you two…you know?”
    Viola felt her face brighten. “Oh no, no! We’re just friends!” Am I really that obvious?
    “Oh. Lemma guess: he doesn’t know of it yet.”
    Viola chuckled. “Right.”
    “Well, tell Nocturn I said hi and have a great day.”
    “Okay, bye,” she giggled. She heard Nocturn’s footsteps behind her, which is rare, since the former assassin was trained to be completely silent.
    “Who was it?” he asked.
    “Frank. He wanted to say hi.” She almost commented on Nocturn’s hair, combed straight instead of its usual messiness, but he ruffled it. I like him that way more, anyway. I met him this way, she thought. She remembered the first time the two have met. It was during the Renaissance in Italy, right before she went into her prime. He was an amateur assassin, despite him looking like a ten year old. She was just the daughter of a painter, just like many of the other girls growing up in Italy. The half-wolf was assigned to assassinate Leonardo Da Vinci for knowing things that were beyond his time. Viola urged him not to assassinate the painter. The amateur assassin took her urges into consideration and persuaded his hirers to cancel the mission. She had fallen in love with the sensible boy ever since.
    Nocturn said something. She woke up. “Go where?” she asked in sync with her memories.
    “To the mission.”
    She blinked her eyes. “Oh! Now’s a good time.”
    The two left the building and, after a few moments, went into a taxi. Nocturn directed the driver for St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “Why the Cathedral?” he moaned.
    “What’s so bad about the Cathedral?”
    Nocturn and Viola got into a small conversation about the Cathedral from there, up until Nocturn said: “It’s a big place, Viola. Don’t get lost.”
    “Don’t get lost?” she repeated angrily. “Why do you mean by ‘don’t get lost’?”
    “I’m supposed to be your guard, right?” he replied, looking the other way. Viola fought the need to humiliate him in front of the driver by hugging him.
    “I won’t get lost. And you won’t loose me.” Again, she was surprised at how sensible Nocturn (who she knew as cold and quiet sometimes) was. Again, she found herself falling in love with him even more. She stared at the Cathedral, five large floors towering over the trees around it. She was terrified of heights. Most of her missions were done on the ground, away from towers and skyscrapers. It was just when she moved into the United States that she was assigned such missions.
    Fighting the need to vomit, she turned around, noticing that Nocturn seemed a little sickly, his version of nervousness. “Are you okay?” she questioned.
    “Yeah, I’m okay. Now where’s this gargoyle?”
    “What are the chances it’s up there?” She pointed at the top of the Cathedral with a perfectly manicured fingernail, an advantage to being a female vampire. Female vampires had smaller fangs than male vampires and were much more attractive. Male vampires fit the stereotype about ugly, insane vampires. Dracula was, in fact, created from the stereotypes, not the other way around.
    “Pretty high,” replied Nocturn in his usual emotion-less tone as he ran for the steps. Without saying anything, Viola rushed after the half-wolf. Half-wolves were not what humans would call ‘werewolves’. Most were strictly carnivorous and had abnormal traits. For example, all of the half-wolves had natural hair colors that did not belong in the human hair spectrum (Nocturn’s being blue or Aeulus’s being green). Also, they were extremely durable and dexterous.
    Seeing that it was too large, they decided to get to the top of the Cathedral. “Stay here,” commanded Nocturn as he started scaling the wall outside. Viola sat down as far away from the window as possible, feeling sick in her stomach. To ease her pain, she started to dream again.
    She was with Nocturn, doing nothing in particular. She felt his hands holding hers, breath puffing at her face. Oh if this could ever happen, she thought, holding back tears. Then she imagined Nocturn before he had his gauntlet. Those were much simpler times. Nocturn would have been much more aware of Viola’s feelings. But it all ended when Aeulus betrayed them. Viola’s thoughts became furious upon remembering what Aeulus has done. He caused Nocturn’s right hand to become crippled. He caused the gap between him and Viola. Because of him—
    A loud roar sounded from outside. Viola got up and rushed towards the window. A larger, more menacing gargoyle came into view, terrorizing the humans around it. There was a time, before Viola was born, when these creatures were invisible to most humans. “Nocturn,” she called instinctively.
    Nocturn came back into the room, trying to mask his irritation. “That thing’s huge,” he muttered.
    “Well we have no time to lose, right?” said Viola quickly. She rushed down the stairs, Nocturn following her. The stairs corkscrewed around the church once before it reached the bottom, which was filled with a mess of panicking humans, and still more poring in. The gargoyle’s doing his job. It’s warning the people about the power of the Devil, making them go into the church! Viola was about to share that notion with Nocturn, but he was already pushing through the rushing humans. “Wait up!” she called, although she knew Nocturn’s hearing was not so acute that he can hear above a screaming crowd. He kicked the huge doors open, letting them exit the Cathedral.
    “What do we do?” asked Viola as she stared at the gargoyle with a stone eagle head and a lion’s body.
    “Shoot at the back of its head. I’ll find something large enough to drive into its skull,” commanded Nocturn as he ran the other direction.
    Viola took the safety off her gun and started shooting it, piercing the hard stone head with her enhanced bullets. They were made to be extremely light, fast, and powerful, being able to rip through whole rows of buildings in a few seconds with the correct gun. Pistols can cause fatalities no matter where they are aimed to with these bullets. The only problem was, Viola’s Muzyka magic is not for offense, but instead for support. Her magic halves the power of her gun.
    There was a hole deep and wide enough to drive an entire bus into it as the creature turned its head, setting its stone eyes on Viola. She stepped back a little, continuing to shoot at it, but in vain. Its beak was blocking her shots as it stepped forward, causing cracks in the floor, swaying the trees around it. It swung a claw at Viola. She jumped back, hitting her head on a fallen trunk.
    She felt dizzy, the head injury made worse by her shaky feeling from looking down from the fifth floor of the Cathedral. The gargoyle looked down at her and roared. Viola only looked up in fear, seeing quadruple. I wasn’t built for combat. The creature raised a claw to finish off Viola, only to have it cut off by a stray hot dog cart.

    Globules of steaming oil spattered on the floor as Nocturn ran up the griffin’s arm, his sword ripping through it as he went. He jumped from its shoulder, landed on its beak, and stabbed one of its eyes. The monster roared, raising its head so Nocturn would fall off. The half-wolf stabbed his claws into the top of its head. He reached for his gun again, hanging off from the top of the open hole in the griffin’s head. He shot at the inside of its skull, shattering the stone until it became nothing but pebbles. As the broken pieces of rock fell, he landed and ran for Viola, shielding her from the raining rocks.
    “Are you okay?” he inquired, noticing that she had a pinched look in her eyes.
    “I just bumped my head really hard,” she replied dizzily.
    “Can you walk?”
    She nodded as she got up; supported by the trunk she was sitting near. They went to the end of the park, waiting for a taxi. When he saw one, Nocturn signaled the taxi driver for him to stop in front of them.
    “Where to—? Hey! You’re that guy from earlier!” exclaimed the driver, turning his face. Nocturn noticed that it was the same blue eyed, brown-haired taxi driver from earlier. “You and your girlfriend have a good time?”
    Nocturn fought the need to grunt. “Yeah, we had…fun.”
    “Whoa,” remarked the driver, noticing the mess. “What happened there?”
    “A statue was getting transported there and it fell,” Nocturn lied.
    “Wow. Where to?”
    “Back to the suites.”
    “Okay, boss,” replied the driver as he accelerated down the street.
    “You don’t look well,” said Nocturn to Viola.
    “I have a really bad headache,” mumbled Viola. “What can I say? I hate heights and I bumped my head on a tree. Silly me, huh?”
    “We’re almost there, boss,” announced the taxi driver as he turned around the corner.
    Nocturn nodded. “Just rest a bit, okay?”
    Viola nodded. “I hate this mission.”
    “Gargoyles are the worst, aren’t they?” remarked Nocturn, trying to ease Viola’s pain. She can’t hide it. That bump was too hard.
    “Here we are, boss. That’ll be three-fifty.” Nocturn handed the taxi driver another five dollars.
    “Let’s go, Vi—,” muttered Nocturn before he noticed that she fell asleep. With a sigh, he picked up Viola, his left under her head, and his right under her leg. “Have a good day,” he said to the taxi driver.
    The driver nodded and drove off. Nocturn continued into the building, surprised at how light Viola was. She had a healthy figure, just like most of the Dieu de la Mort, since they do not need to eat as much as humans. Unnoticed by any of the staff, he got into his suite and set Viola on a couch. “Nocturn,” she breathed.
    “Hm?”
    No response. That’s strange, he pondered as he sat down and turned on the TV.

    Night had finally fallen again as Aeulus had his chauffeur drive him to the Building. He showed a guardian of the building his pass. Passage into the Building had been restricted only to people who have bought passes since the War for New York City of 2015. The homeless population in New York had swelled during those times, about five years ago. The most powerful homeless man, with what little power he had, managed to join all of the homeless in the city together to wage war on the richer citizens of New York City. The homeless were imprisoned, killed, or disappeared after about a year after the war started. Ten years have passed since then, and the homeless population stayed at zero, thanks to the efforts of Jane Silinkiar, first female president of the United States and ranked highly in the Dieu de la Mort.
    The guard accepted the pass and let Aeulus through. The inside of the building was the same as always, lobby lit up with yellow lights, steps leading up to long halls with elevators lining them. He went to one of the elevators and pondered on what floor. Four, he finally decided. The elevator opened at the fourth floor, showing nothing but a small observation deck, which seemed useless: there was not much to see from down there.
    “Aile,” he called to a woman looking out the window. The woman turned her head, her long, light pink hair swaying as she did. She set her dark blue eyes on Aeulus and smiled.
    “Hey there, cutesy,” she said, winking as she walked towards Aeulus.
    Aeulus seemed unaffected by her flirtatious greeting. “I’m not here to flirt around with you, Aile,” he snapped as she got closer. “I don’t have time,” he looked around and, seeing that they were alone, added: “I’m a wanted man.”
    “Well why wouldn’t you be?”
    “You know what I mean.”
    Aile nodded straightening the wrinkles that formed on her light pink v-neck sweater. “What is it that you need?” she sighed.
    “The boss said that you knew where the Nocturnal Arsenal is.”
    “Let me guess: my dad?”
    Aeulus nodded, smiling slightly.
    “Well I don’t know exactly where it is,” she started. “But I do have an idea.”
    “Where is it?”
    “Do you know of an Ignus Pyre?”
    “The jug-headed associate of the High Reaper Senate? Yes, yes I do.”
    Aile giggled. “He probably has it. Or at least he knows where it is.”
    “Aile, do you know how important that thing is?”
    “It holds the power to destroy entire continents, blah, blah, blah… I know that!”
    “Well you and I and every Usurper knows of Arborous. And you know what that…thing can do, right?”
    “So we have to keep it out of its hands, I know that!”
    “And the—”
    “The Dieu de la Mort has Arborous on their side, okay I get it.”
    “So are you certain about the location of the Nocturnal Arsenal?”
    Aile breathed hard. “I’m certain. Why do you doubt me so much?” she inquired, already using her flirtatious tone. “Don’t you trust me?”
    Aeulus turned around, but Aile grabbed his hand. “Where ever you’re going, I’m going with you,” she said. He eyed her. “It’s boring here,” she explained.
    “Fine, but just don’t get in my way,” muttered Aeulus as he stepped into the elevator. The Nocturnal Arsenal is within our reach, after a century of waiting. And I will be the first one to touch it.