The Kenza members dismembered and burned the remains of Capucine and Gloria, only ashes were left to rot in a metal pit.
"Nobody's blaming me now. I guess it's all about perspective and context in the end."
"Nero, you missed the point."
"I didn't miss shit. Had you all been there for her ascension, you would have celebrated each of her deaths. You didn't see the eyes she had when I had lost everything."
"What about your own wife?" Karin asked, hiding her face.
"She chose that specific life, that man, that way. That's what happens, it's not that deep. She deserved it, it was her or Kenza, I killed her."
Grant and Karin listened and left without a sound.
"I know what I did. It was for earth's protection, and they know it. Efalis is greatly outnumbered and at this point he knows that coming to our land he will get him killed. He has no more cards to play, and on our last intel, the Followers of Efalis are scattering in fear, outnumbered and losing ground. Ambroise Ler's creatures are supposedly all gone and streets are safe. So what is missing, really? Yeal could guide me, I have to see her."
"I have to leav-"
Seeing no one was around, he stopped talking and left without waiting for any orders. In the hot night, Nero was drenched in sweat, looking for the museum. Finally at the door, he held on to it and listened instead of making noise. He caught a strange emotion in the air.
"A few people are talking but it doesn't seem to be the usual Servants of Yael or Lazarus. I can't make anything of what they're saying. I have to get closer."
"ISMAEL. ISMAEL MUST BE KILLED. HE DOES NOT BELONG TO EARTH. HE IS OF THAT DEMONIC WITCH."
"I mean it would have been strange if somebody didn't want to kill me at this point..." Nero thought, sarcastically. "Can't say that I'm surprised. But more seriously, whose voice is this? I'll get a bit closer and use my angel eyes to the best I can."
By focusing and ignoring all stress and anxiety, all fear and doubt, he was able to see the future, and by seeing the future, he was able to see who those people were. And while he couldn't see anything special in them at first, he quickly understood who the person talking was.
"John, of all people? If Efalis doesn't have any undead soldiers, he'll just spawn some more! Gosh I hate him so much. He can just write the rules and profit! How unfair is this. How the hell am I going to just dismember and burn him? Wait. The brand. That's one thing they don't have and it's the one thing they can't counter. I can actually irrevocably repel them. I hope he doesn't have an angel, I'd be doomed. I have to be careful, just like Ler's angel, some of them can go unnoticed. But even using my eyes I can't see any. Maybe he's just a regular dead. If he's here now, he's probably killed a few of our allies, also I wonder if Awane knows of his return or not. She's aware of most things before anyone else but this is a weird case."
"DO YOU HEAR ME, ISMAEL? IT'S TOO LATE. MY ANGEL WILL TAKE ME BACK TO KENZA."
"He knew I was there the whole time? Are you kidding me? And he has an angel? He said it could take him right back to Kenza, I have to go back."
The first one was Karin.
He went for the youngest one
His entire face showed the inside of his soul, black soul walking with no other intention but to kill. If you could code a program with one single line of code and have it still work, and that line of code would be to kill and nothing else, it would still be a long shot from the state of being John was in. No strategies, no sneaky tricks.
Karin as usual prepared no weapon and went in with confidence, letting her hair go, her long pink hair. She crouched to the ground, waiting for a movement and saw John walking fast without stopping, no change of heart no hesitation. She relaxed her entire body, every vein, every artery, her calmed heart plunged into the Ether.
John unsheathed his katana and lost the sight of her. He kept turning around and glancing left and right, on the first floor or somewhere else, but there was no trace of her. His right hand felt empty and his weapon was nowhere to be found, but instead of panicking, his first killer instinct was to look for it while preparing his fists just in case. And upon feeling movement on his back, he punched whatever was behind him.
Karin was holding his own sword against him, slicing his arm horizontally at full speed. Against all odds, he still grabbed the blade, tearing apart his fingers. John held the blade as high as he could as Karin lost her confidence, he pulls a gun and shoots her point blank, still no hesitation.
Karin took five quick and long steps back and when raising her head back up, her field of view was blocked by the suit of John; fearing for her life she pulled it away from her, seeing he was getting closer.
"This is about intimidation. My connection to the Ether grows stronger every second I even try to focus on it. He won't get me."
John places his katana under his gun and empties the clip on her, but seeing no blood, he retreated for a second. That was Karin's opening. His left hand felt cold, this time because his entire arm was gone.
He closes his eyes and opens them a few times to make sure he's seeing clearly, Karin had attacked with his own hand still firmly grasping the hilt of the blade. She pulls it away and throws it far.
Karin's right foot goes to the left and John once again loses track of her. Knowing that this is the last hit, regardless who's landing it, he shoots his own body to attack from behind.
Karin is on the ground, losing blood and hope. He goes for the kill but his katana slices his right eye. Karin had left, looking for help, leaving a trail of blood to the next rooms in the process.
John followed it nonchalently.
Karin saw Grant and they clapped hands to signal a change, like a tag-team match and went to get fixed in the medical area.
Grant prepared, breathed a couple times and went in for a quick strike, opening up his entire body in a red diagonal on his torso.
"I am looking for Ismael. Give me Ismael."
"Let him through. I'll deal with him."
Grant swinged his blade back its' sheath, standing straight like a soldier. Door after door he found his way to Awane, in her gigantic "room" filled with bodies in suit unable to decompose. Lines holding them up as far as the eyes can see.
He walks slowly and noticed Awane holding a baseball in her right hand. Her legs are crossed and she doesn't seem to be alerted of his presence. Her right arm pulls back and swiftly she launches the ball.
John thought he had cut it in half but she threw it in such a way that it bypassed his vision and reflexes and reaches for his throat. As it was merely a distraction, she cuts off his head in a second.
"You've grown so much, my daughter."
Awane falls to her knees and cries remembering her family. Pictures, images fly by her mind as the door opens. The headless body of John rises up and with one arm, Nero snipes his entire limb off and closes the door behind him.
Nero lets the weapon down slowly and stands in front of her.
"I don't remember serving a weak mistress. Get the fuck back on your feet and give me an order now."