Chapter 37

WE SPEAK SOON. MUCH TO TELL. PROMISE TO KEEP. STORM IS COMING. The Storm Crow finished speaking before it faded from in front of Henry. The Tiered Demon battle had concluded, and as the dust settled, so to speak, and the essence had finished flowing into all of his D.E.D., Henry had quickly dismissed the Storm Crow. For now, he didn’t want to draw too much attention. Granted, he was sure everyone had noticed the Storm Crow. After all, even with all the chaos going on around them…a giant, crackling crow was pretty obvious.

“Well that was eventful.” Jewel let out a breath. She was covered in sweat, and her eyes still had a somewhat crazed, exhilarated look in them. The battle, well Henry wasn’t how long the battle had lasted. He knew his D.E.D. had run out of MP. He also knew, all the humans in that single area, all the excitement, everyone playing and battling and everything, had made the freaking temperature seem to jump. That, with the energy in the air from the Rift, had definitely caused even Henry to perspire a little. But he figured Jewel’s had an additional effect due to just how much she really, really seemed to enjoy that battle.

Thanks for the help Newbie. I’ll repay you later- Fro Popped up on his app as he was scrolling through it. The Larpen had been defeated. And while Henry still didn’t know the level of it, nor the level of the other D.E.D. that had participated, he definitely could tell, the thing gave out a crap ton of experience. As in, 5000 points of experience. That had brought his Bladed Drakeling and Evil Eye to level 15. The Storm Crow, which had been level 5 at the start of the battle, had jumped to level 11, off that single battle. In other words, the power leveling, was going really, really, really well.

Happy to help. Henry responded, and he glanced up in time to see Fro give him a friendly nod, before the exorcist headed off into the crowd. That was something that had been stressed to him by Jewel earlier. In order to not draw attention to the actual Exorcists, they tried their hardest to not actually interact with fellow exorcists, especially not during events such as Tiered Demon attacks. Which made sense, especially given how different Exorcists seemed to be from each other. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t a ‘type’ to be an exorcist. All that they had in common, was their ability to resonate with the frequencies from the other dimension. And that, was a nondiscriminatory trait as far as Henry could tell.

“You definitely seemed to be of a more use than I’d expected.” Jewel continued, noticing Henry’s response to Fro. “Perhaps I underestimated you. Though, I had been hopeful you would get that Evil Eye of yours killed during this…”

Henry went from elated at the off handed compliment, to annoyed by her snide remark in the same sentence. Jewel definitely had a magical skill when it came to being aggravating. And the more time he spent with her, the more he was learning this.

“And yet, it didn’t.” Henry responded in kind. “Instead, this useless Evil Eye is now level 15.”

“Which doesn’t make it any more useful.” Jewel said with a chuckle. “Now you’ve just got an even larger waste of experience floating about.” She began moving away from the area. Following their defeat of the Larpen, which Henry felt had taken longer than when he’d been with Loki, the Greater Rift had simply sputtered out of existence. He wondered if that meant Loki had been absence from the fight, and if so, what had the Exorcists been like who were on the Away team. Even more important, had anyone lost their D.E.D. during the battle?

Henry had seen one D.E.D. fall from the home team. A loss which had pained him, even though he knew it was something that could happen. A D.E.D. he had recognized, along with an individual he spotted immediately after, had gone after one of the tendrils of essence. The flaming cat D.E.D., belonging to the cosplayer he’d seen at orientation, had been snuffed out in a single go. Henry had seen it happen, and he’d seen the crestfallen, shocked look on her face when it did. An individual standing by her, an Exorcist he guessed, had been beside her, and quickly took her away when it happened.

From the look on the Exorcists face, the cosplayer had likely been given the same orders Henry had from Jewel, but had been more reckless about their actions. Which, he hated to admit it, made sense. She’d seemed the type to try and do something crazy or reckless, to make herself seen. He just felt bad for her D.E.D. The flaming cat, he’d read, was actually a first form evolution, much like his Bladed Drakeling. However, it was a rare D.E.D., meaning someone had given her a very precious D.E.D., and she’d promptly gotten it killed. Rookie mistake.

“I’m going to make you regret that mindset of yours one of these days.” Henry said as he walked with Jewel back to his car. They still had a little over 4 hours remaining on their shift. Which meant they couldn’t just relax and take it easy, even though Henry was feeling oddly fatigued following that fight. “I’ll prove to you just how wrong you are about D.E.D.”

“Or, you’ll get yourself killed following your foolish ideals.” She cut in. “Trust me when I say this, Henry. One misstep, and you will die. D.E.D. are easy to replace, they are tools. But exorcists are not.” She paused and looked him dead in the eyes. There was a passion, and intensity, that reminded him of when she’d slapped the man previously. His instincts told him to step back, but he was frozen by that look.

“I’ll tell you this, as a prize for actually surviving your first Tiered Demon as a member of Strike Team Alpha.” She stepped closer to him, and while he was looking down at her, given their height difference, he felt like he was the small one. “No matter what your convictions are, no matter what your intentions, your dreams, your aspirations. Every one of us, is equal when it comes to death. And death, doesn’t give a damn about you, or anything you stand for. All death cares about, is who is weak, and who is strong.”

Chills rushed through Henry at that, and he immediately felt extremely uncomfortable. And yet, in her eyes, he could see something more than just anger, something more than just conviction. In her eyes, there was the lingering of pain. He’d been right previously, something had happened in her past.

He opened his mouth to speak, but even as he did, his mind stopped him. It would be extremely stupid to ask ‘who hurt you’ at this moment. Doing so, would have gotten him slapped, and probably a hell of a lot harder than the man earlier. So instead, he closed his mouth, nodded, and motioned towards the car.

“I understand.” He said meekly. “I’ll be careful.”

“You better be.” She said softly as she stepped away, heading towards the car. “Potential alone, isn’t enough.”