Page 16 of Reaper Unhinged
There had to be some stairs somewhere.
Left or right. Which way? Surely I should have come across a celestial by now.
A scream sliced through the silence. Movement to my left. My body reacted by going into fight mode as the blood-spattered figure ran at me, blade glinting in the flickering lights.
Dread.
My hand tingled, signaling the arrival of my scythe.
Don’t.
Wait.
The tingle stopped.
No, what the hell? I called my celestial weapon, swinging it in time to eviscerate the Dread. He fell back, and I swiped again, this time taking his head.
Another scream from behind me.
Shit.
I spun to face two more Dread. But two metal-winged figures rushed out of the corridor in front of me and cut down the Dread with fiery swords. They turned and advanced on me.
Dominions like Cassius.
They thought I was one of the Dread.
“Whoa!” I held up my hands, sans scythe, because the damn thing had gone out once the threat was gone. Except these guys were a threat.
I pulled my daggers out instead, backing up, ready to fight. “Listen, I’m not one of them.”
They attacked.
“Stop!” a male voice bellowed.
The Dominions immediately fell back and parted to let a third one through. This Dominion was larger, blood-spattered, and feral.
“Cassius?”
He sheathed his sword and glared at me. “What are you doing here? I said I’d come to you once I had the information we needed.”
“Yes, you did. But it’s been three days and—”
He blinked sharply. “Three days?”
“Yes.”
He ran a hand over his face. “We’ve been fighting them for three days…How?”
“Cassius, we’re running out of time. The foyer is gone, and so is Celestia. You’re losing power rapidly.”
His jaw ticked. “The Dread’s presence is draining our reserves quicker than anticipated.”
“Then you need to speak to the Righteous and get me answers so I can help.”
The power in the corridor went out, leaving us standing in darkness. If not for the light from the elevator, I wouldn’t have been able to see shit.
The questions surrounding Uriel and the cores in Purgatory would have to wait for now. We needed the location of the power source, and we needed it stat.
