Chapter 70

“You’re an idiot.” JJ said, staring in disbelief around him. He’d been more than a little disorientated following the healing he’d received form the dragon. And only after he’d calmed, had Henry told him what had transpired. “A fucking idiot.” JJ said, shaking his head.

“Dude. I wasn’t going to let you die.” Henry responded firmly. His D.E.D. were circled around JJ, the Naiad still pumping healing energy into JJ, just in case there were injuries that hadn’t been healed.

“You’ve no idea what you just did.” JJ muttered. “Seriously, do you have any idea how hard it was to even track down a fragment of that power?”

“So, what was I supposed to do? Let you die? Then what? What would have happened then?” Henry was more than a little torn up over everything that had been happening, meaning his patience was at a literal zero. He’d nearly been killed. His best friend had nearly died before him. And for what? The Consumer was still out there.

“Yes.” JJ said with a growl. “If I’d died, Tianlong’s shard would have materialized, giving him a physical form, and the ability to guide you to his shards. Once his essence had been fully gathered, the freaking Heavenly Dragon would have been able to help against The Old Ones.”

“Well, maybe you should have mentioned that part of the plan, before you went and nearly died.” Henry was practically shouting.

“Oh yeah, because you’d totally sit there and do nothing if I told you I was sacrificing myself to the dragon?” JJ made a good point. “If I’d told you the extent of the plan, you would have gotten in the way.”

“Your plan was shit.” Henry retorted. “Not only did The Consumer not die, but now the dragon’s gone as well.”

JJ let out a heavy sigh. “The Consumer was gravely injured. Killing him, was beyond my power. I knew that before this started.” His voice went quiet. “The truth is, killing him is likely impossible for anyone. The best we could do is scatter his essence enough that it would take him years to reform. I knew that before I started the fight. But, with the Old Ones coming, I figured getting rid of my grandfather for a few years, at the very least, would buy everyone time to focus on stopping The Old Ones.”

“If that was your plan, why even go through it?” If JJ had the dragon’s power all this time, why not focus on tracking down its other portions? Sacrificing himself, this whole ordeal, seemed pointless.

“Because The Consumer wouldn’t stop until you were dead.” JJ said quietly. “Once he’s set his eyes on someone, he won’t let up. He has a one-track mind, and all it seeks is power. That’s always been how he was, which is why he turned into the monster he is now. I, I couldn’t stand the thought of him killing you.”

“None of this makes sense.” Henry countered. “You said the director had tasked you with killing the Consumer, and she knew you could do it.”

“She, knows who he is.” JJ grumbled. “My father, apparently, was rather close to her. And they’d worked together in the past, to try and stop my grandfather.”

“What happened?” From what Henry knew, JJ’s father had to have been a powerful Demon Hunter. Especially considering the D.E.D. JJ had. Afterall, JJ was fused with a D.E.D. that literally existed as a god in mythology. That, was massive.

“They were betrayed.” JJ said with disgust. “Someone in the Exorcists found out about the D.E.D. my father had. They tried to ambush him, and he fled into hiding. He secretly transferred his strongest D.E.D. to me, and then went away, drawing his pursuers far away from me. His final secret, that he took with him to the grave, was that he’d found one of Tianlong’s essence shards, and planted it in me, to grow.”

“Alright, that’s fucked up.” Henry knew there were problems between the exorcists and the Demon Hunters, but he was really hating how it seemed more and more the side he was on, was the side he didn’t want to be on. Seriously, what the hell was going on within the Exorcists?

“Yeah. Why do you think I hate getting involved with Exorcist bullshit? Emelia is fine, and hell, probably most of your branch. But there’s too much bullshit in the background. Too many people abusing their power, and too few who actually care about the world.” JJ shook his head. “And trust me, the fact you cost Tianlong his power and resurrection, is going to land you in a massive load of trouble.”

“You keep saying it was a shard of his essence, and I ruined his resurrection, what the hell does that even mean?” Henry’s mind was running a hell of a lot slower than it had been. The day’s events were finally wearing on him, and he was exhausted. No amount of caffeine could cure that unless he wanted to risk a heart attack.

“You at least know, the strongest D.E.D., who originally helped mankind, combined their essence into powerful weapons and artifacts for humans to use, yeah?” JJ asked, slowly standing to his feet as he started speaking. They’d been sitting on the torn-up football field, and the chill in the air was starting to bite.

“Yeah. I know about that.” Henry thought back to the fight he’d observed against Varkoth. The powerful spear that pierced the dragon. The spear that the Dragon had used to nearly kill Jewel.

“The original weapons were powerful, but holding the essence of such powerful creatures, caused extreme strain on the wielders. They found, through trial and error, they could spread the essence of the creatures out, across a multitude of weapons and equipment, in order to lessen the strain on the humans, and create a larger arsenal at their disposal.”

JJ stretched, and Henry couldn’t help but marvel at the fact not even a single scar remained from his grievous wounds.

“Doing so, allowed the humans to arm themselves and create forces spread far and wide, that would be capable of stopping possible invasions, whenever they occurred. However, because of the power these weapons possessed, over time, greed began to set in, and the weapons, instead of being shared, and treasured, were hunted down. Organizations rose up, the Exorcists rose up, and began trying to horde all of these weapons.”

“Then, shouldn’t it be easy to track down the remaining shards of Tianlong?” If the Exorcists had gathered them up, it should be easy, right?

“You act like anyone would willingly part with such weapons. Many, choose to release the essence trapped within the weapons, in order to either deny those who were trying to steal the weapon, or empower themselves to a degree they could kill those who’d come for them. As you saw, infusing yourself with even a fraction of that power, is certain death.”

“Meaning, in their quest to acquire the weapons…many were lost?”

“Exactly. And for each shard of power lost, the essence was spread out, and the D.E.D. was weakened further. Centuries of stored power, lost in seconds. Mankind lived up to the universal truth, that they are their own worst enemy.”

“So then, why should we even try and track down the other shards? Would Tianlong be that strong, even if his essence has been scattered like you said?”

“Tianlong, is a special D.E.D.” JJ said with a sigh. “He’s ridiculously strong, but it’s not his combat strength that matters.” JJ motioned around the football field. The area the battle had taken place, was completely decimated. However, outside of the barrier Tianlong had formed, nothing was damaged.

“The Heavenly Dragon excels at creating barriers. He has the power to create statis fields that prevent D.E.D. from escaping, and, if enough of his essence is gathered, he can seal off rifts. I didn’t need his power to fight the Old Ones. We needed his essence, to seal any rift that the Old Ones tried to emerge from.”

“Oh.” Henry went silent, thinking about that. Come to think of it, The Consumer hadn’t even tried to flee. It was also strange, during that fight, that the Consumer hadn’t come after Henry. Instead, he’d solely been focused on fighting JJ. His essence had faded away, and now Henry had to wonder, if that had been due to JJ’s weakened state during the fight. If that, had given The Consumer a chance to flee.

“Yeah, oh.” JJ spat on the ground, rubbing his temples with a hand as he did. “So now, life just got a helluva lot more complicated, for everyone involved.”

“So, what do we do now?” Henry asked, knowing from JJ’s tone, that his friend was already trying to think of a way forward. The Demon Hunter knew D.E.D., that was for sure. And as much as JJ hated Exorcists, Henry knew his best friend cared about doing all he could to help against the D.E.D. who threatened mankind.

“We,” JJ let out a heavy sigh, “need to speak with Emelia.” He pulled out his phone, glaring at it as he pulled up his contacts. “If we survive all of this, I’m going to make you regret keeping me alive.” JJ said with a forced chuckle. “I swear, all you’ve done is cause me trouble.”