After the sex trafficking ring went viral, Lord Caliber had to lay low for a couple of weeks. To his knowledge, Sabrina was still in the custody of the police, and Father Raphael was missing along with the woman he was toying with. Making matters worse, Father Raphael's mansion was burned to the ground, and his security detail was missing.
He had his problems with revelations of his daemonic brothel empire exposed to the public. Fortunately, he was not named as a suspect. All of his locations and properties were filed under false names. It would not lead back to him, but that is just the other side of the law.
He knew he would face the alternatives of justice in the form of MUSCA and The Crux. That is if these two ever co-exist.
But he had to focus on one crisis at a time.
Lord Caliber tried calling his office and his home with no answer. He then broke down, went to his house in the city, and was not there. Fortunately, he got information from his maid that he went to his beach house with his wife in Pevensey Bay.
He would have to make the trip there to see if he was all right. He was still skeptical about the call from his wife. Was he captured? Did he side with the Crux? So many scenarios went through his brain while driving to the destination. He knew where to go since he bought the beach house and gave it to him as a gift.
Lord Caliber wasted no time arriving at the beach house. There was a car that he didn't recognize, and the lights were on. At least he had his Glock 17, just in case things got too complicated. He parked on the other side of the street and went out.
It took him at least a minute to look around the area. Mustering enough courage, he crossed the street and carefully walked up the steps. Before he could knock on the door, a redheaded woman with dark eyes glared back at him. Let's say she wasn't too happy seeing him.
Of course, doing his research, he already knew who she was, "Meghan. We talked over the--"
Meghan spat in his face, startling Lord Caliber.
"I know who you are! I know who you people are!" Meghan bellowed. "you bunch of sick fucks! I have been dealing with your monkeyshines for years in my hospital, Kenny! And you have worsened since your daddy wasn't around to save you!" she screamed.
Keeping his cool, he took a handkerchief and wiped his face, “That was not smart!”
“FUCK YOU, KENNY!” Meghan yelled.
He finally snapped and let his rage take over, pinning her against the door with his hand wrapped around her throat, "No. Fuck you." He said with a smile.
"Hey, hey, hey!" a familiar voice chimed. "What the hell is going on back there?"
Kenny would see the last person he'd ever want to come across in this situation. It was the Holy Mother and his aunt, Maria. She was wearing a blue hoodie with black yoga pants. Lord Caliber lets go of Meghan as she approaches the two, staring daggers at him.
“It seems you two have some issues; I’d take it!” Maria addressed.
“Holy Mother, I--”
"Please, my constituents call me that. But you, Meghan, you call me Maria." She insisted.
It didn’t make Meghan comfortable, “Okay, Maria.”
Maria smiled, "I spoke to your husband, but not about his working relationship with my nephew. As a lawyer myself, I cannot break client/attorney privilege. Like you cannot break your Hippocratic oath, doctor." She explained.
Meghan glared, “My husband is done representing your client.”
"That's between them, doctor, and not for us to decide," Maria stated as she looked outside to see a beautiful day. "And who said we don't have sunshine." She then stepped outside onto the porch. "He's just tired and overworked. We do have a lot on our plate. That is why I suggest the counselor have some time off so that he can return soon. And since he's here, he is relaxed now. Especially with a lovely woman like yourself." She winked with a smile.
Meghan didn’t want to show disgust, but it was written all over her face.
"Now, we shall take our leave. Kenny, I want you to drive me back to the city." Maria said while taking Kenny by the arm.
Kenny relented as he left with his aunt, with a terrified Meghan looking on.
The ride back would be a tough one as the silence was unbearable.
Lord Caliber would vent while driving down the highway, "Look, I... Thanks for stepping in. But I could have handled it--"
“Stop the car...” Maria bellowed.
She didn’t have to say it twice as Lord Caliber did what he was told.
Parking his car at the side of the highway, they sat there for a few minutes.
Then, 'the Holy Mother' finally spoke, "You thought you were so smart that they wouldn't piece it all together? They figured you out since day one."
“No one knows it was me...” Lord Caliber assured.
"They do, but they can't charge you because I will handle it. And now they will assume that we are all in on it. That is why I'm giving you 24 hours to shut everything down when we return once you leave the car. You get your people out of this continent and have anyone still alive working to place them in my sanctuaries so that we can get them back on their feet."
“I thought we were--”
"You are not allowed to think anymore, Kenny!" Maria snapped. "I run this shit! Me, not you! You are only here because he didn't want you to end up like your mother! And I will be dammed to have some product of rape ruin everything I have built because some motherfucker has been desensitized to smut porn and can't get his dick hard anymore, so he has to go out and do the real thing!”
After that scolding, there was silence. Sitting back in his seat, Lord Caliber just took it. He knew that he was in deep shit with his aunt. The last thing they need is more scrutiny. And Meghan knows what happened is going to make it even worse.
“DRIVE, YOU SICK FUCK!” the infuriated Maria demanded as Lord Caliber calmly started the car and got on the highway and back to London.
Driving down the highway, Maria couldn't help but think about her family. She has contemplated what she should do. Why is this even worth it anymore? The grander scheme of things taking shape and forming a bigger picture was becoming clearer than she could ever realize. Of course, her brother didn't know that, or his wife or his fucked-up son. Even the rest of the Four Horsemen that she has appointed.
Her sister that she has a great deal of respect and remorse. Even the Daemonic Triad, or so it seems, under the surface.
Her deep thoughts would take her out of that car, rolling down the highway and finally heading to their destination.
All Lord Caliber had to do was make two more left turns, and they would be—
WHOOSH!
Nobody expected any gust of wind as there was not a cloud in the sky nor any wind advisories. However, it did topple over a 2500 kg car, sending it flying and twisting in midair about 28 times, skipping it down the street like it was an empty soda can.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Miraculously, it looked over about 28 times and didn't land upside down or on its side. But it didn't mean the car was completely totaled because it was. Steam was coming off the engine, the bodywork was destroyed, and the glass was broken out.
A few seconds later, the driver and passenger exited the car. Maria miraculously climbed out of the car first and was on her feet... For a moment, she puked everywhere and collapsed unconscious. Kenny was unlucky as he sprawled and stumbled out of the car. He rolled on the ground with cuts and bruises all over his body and face while writhing in pain.
Shellshocked from the experience, Kenny got on his knees, bewildered by the experience, as he looked around with wide eyes. There were no innocent bystanders, but he could hear those around him speaking at a distance as they were just as surprised.
But it wasn't a matter of what caused this. It was a matter of who, and everyone else, had already discovered who it was.
It didn’t take Maria long to figure out who did it, but Kenny figured it out the hard way as he watched a dark-skinned woman in a yellow and purple dress holding a yellow and purple Sabre Rapière.
On shaky legs, as if he were a baby calf, the shivering Lord Caliber stared at the confirmed Crucis Sentinel before him. Calmly, walking towards him with an expression of anger and disdain.
Out of breath and trying to regain his composure, Kenny breathed out the words of his executioner, “A-Alpha...”
Alpha Crucis' voice boomed that echoed throughout the streets, "KENNETH LEE BOUTONNIèRE. IN THE NAME OF THE SEVEN HEAVENS, REPRESENTER OF THE CRUX, I HEREBY CONDEMN YOU UNFIT TO LIVE!" Readying herself in her fencing stance, she made an incantation, “GALE FANG REQUIEM!”
With her Sabre Rapière, Alpha Crucis launches a series of rapid, flowing slashes that generate wind blades in a cascading pattern. Each blade builds on the momentum of the last, forming a continuous, unrelenting stream of wind-based attacks.
With each successive slash increases in strength, culminating in a massive final crescent blade.
The air channeled the area they were in. But out of instinct, Lord Caliber dodged and rolled out of the way. But his Rolls-Royce Phantom was not so lucky as the gusts were like metal sheet cutting blades that shredded the once beautiful car into ribbons. Of course, one of them hit the engine, and it exploded, sending Lord Caliber flying from the blast into a glass plate window of the bus stop across the street.
Rolling around in the class, now bleeding from his head, hands, stomach, and back, Lord Caliber tried his best to fight through the pain with tears in his eyes.
Now hovering in the air with her air current control, Alpha Crucis towers over him, watching him crawl across the broken glass like a slug crawling on a salt field.
"ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY GUN OF THE THIRD REVELATION!" Alpha Crucis mockingly wailed. "The dissidents and the degradation you have hidden in the dark have now been brought to the light! You will never claim another innocent! No more!"
Pointing her Sabre Rapière at his broken body, she swooped down and performed a lunge—
AMPELOS!
A patch of green vines burst out of the sidewalk and wrapped around Alpha Crucis, binding her and preventing her from attacking Lord Caliber.
Fortunately and unfortunately for the sentinel, she recognized the voice and aethereal cast, “MARIA!” Alpha Crucis shouted.
Alpha Crucis used the rest of her cast to slice the vines off of her easily. At a cost, she had to descend from the air. Luckily, she landed on her feet.
Knowing Maria, she is advanced with green magic. The vines quickly regrew, regrouped, and pursued her. She defensively sliced through the vines using her Sabre Rapière and wind magic.
While Alpha Crucis was busy, Maria staggered to the heavily injured Lord Caliber. She took out her EpiPen and injected his arm.
She was in pretty horrible shape herself. At that moment, Maria should have left him to die. I guess, in a way, he still loved her nephew.
“Now get your ass up and get to the safe house!” Maria wanted.
Alpha Crucis cut the remainder of the vines by aiming at the roots and obliterating them with a small wind tornado. The shredded leaves and vines danced in the swirling air as Alpha Crucis' hair blew into the wind as if she were a goddess of the wind.
"I still owe you for Glenda, Holy Mother!" Alpha Crucis called out. "You have no problem saving a lecherous rapist, but you don't have time-saving for your so-called followers from Hell.”
“Still the vengeful little girl you’ve always been,” Maria echoed.
Alpha Crucis mocked, "I'm not even going to try to find you! I will deal with you later! Lord Caliber is the one I want!"
"I or We? Knowing mama bear Lycka, she didn't tell you to go after my nephew!" Maria advocated while confidently exposing herself out in the open.
She was right behind Alpha Crucis as she turned around and faced her then successor/confidant, now Archenemy.
With a confident smirk, Maria looked at the scowling sentinel, "You have indeed grown into a fine young woman. I surmise that little goth girl cultivated your hatred into something more productive,” She complimented.
“Shut your mouth, you festering cur!" Alpha Crucis growled. "You're just buying time for him to run like he always does!"
"And what if I am?" Maria baited. "You could end the Third Revelation regime right here and now by killing me."
Alpha Crucis scowled, “says the woman who used my people as foil and fodder for her selfish needs.”
"Don't act like you are above everything; you are not special! Always going after the traumatized and broken. We are nothing more than pieces of chewing gum being sucked out of all the flavor and spat out when they are done with us." Maria defended. "Do not blame me for stepping outside of it all and seeing the bigger picture for what it is."
Alpha Crucis already lost her patience as she pointed her Sabre Rapière at her, “If you want to die, Maria--?”
“If you want to die, Alpha Crucis, then stay!” Lord Caliber’s voice echoed the woman behind them.
They both turned around to see the bloodied face of Lord Caliber, wide-eyed and smiling from ear to ear.
Maria was terrified at the new development, “I told you to get fucking lost!” She yelled.
“It’s obvious he wants to die for the cause,” Alpha Crucis mocked.
It could be a two-on-one situation. However, both Maria and Lord Caliber are seriously injured. And with him being hopped up on a cocktail of painkillers and steroids, it's safe to say that this fleeting bout of confidence will have a temporary effect.
"I'm giving you an order, Lord Caliber! Back the fuck off!" Maria demanded as she became the 'Holy Mother.'
Sadly, her constituents didn’t listen, “I challenge you, ‘Sentinel.’ Whoever loses goes straight to hell.”
This challenge amuses Alpha Crucis, "Please... look around you. We're already in hell-- you don't see it yet; war, destruction, poverty, and debauchery that you have caused and contributed yourself!" She yelled as Lord Caliber chuckled hysterically. "You can try to confess your sins, but what is the reason? Your so-called pets did it for you. Some of them will receive the death penalty, and anyone else who works for you and that incredibly vile place because they refused to speak out of loyalty. So when you do go to hell, make sure you save them a seat.”
Lord Caliber smiles as Alpha Crucis looks on without saying a word.
He scoffs and cracks his knuckles, "Always the fighter, but not the lover, huh, Alpha? I have no intention of losing to a pagan like you. I hope there are some muscles in that scrawny body of yours." Magically summoning a modified Glock 17 in each hand.
Alpha Crucis shakes her head, "You don't have to worry about me, Lord Caliber. At least I am the type of woman who is unafraid to fight back!"
Lord Caliber is considered a gun mage who obliviously uses guns as a weapon of choice but can summon magic with them. The downside is that he would experience pain and suffering to achieve such spells. Indeed, he had suffered greatly while achieving such power.
Gun mages vary from user to user. Lord Caliber does not need any physical ammunition since his aethereal sensitivity takes care of him. He can summon or use any gun while using his output. However, his sensitivity is rather limited, and if he uses all of it, he will immediately pull from his life force and eventually shorten his lifespan and die.
That is the only reason The Holy Mother didn’t want Lord Caliber to fight anyone from the Empyrean, especially the worst nightmare scenario: A deeply motivated Alpha Crucis.
The two lunged at each other, while Lord Caliber did a fake out and shot at the sentinel several times while she deflected the shots with her Sabre Rapière without missing a beat. Alpha Crucis did a forward lunge at him. Maybe the adrenaline or the drugs helped Lord Caliber dodge the attack, but the sonic boom pushed him back to the ground.
Alpha Crucis would drag her Sabre Rapière to the ground and do an upward slash, causing another series of slicing gale-force winds. Lord Caliber rolled out of the way while watching another car being sliced in half. On the ground, he would shoot at the sentinel with his aethereal bullets. She was fast because the wind made her fast. It wasn't like she had super speed.
Knowing this, Lord Caliber aimed at a streetlight and shot it, causing a flash-bang effect.
Blinded for only a second, Lord Caliber aimed at Alpha Crucis' head and fired. She blocked it with her sword on instinct, making her stagger backward.
Alpha Crucis started to emit a wind tunnel surrounding her. It acted as a shield for Lord Caliber's shots. In desperation, he continued to shoot as the wind tunnel edged closer.
The moment it dissipated, Alpha Crucis performed a roundhouse-savate kick to his chest. Knocking the wind out of his body, sending him flying to a bolted-down newspaper stand. The impact caused him to bounce off it since the newspaper stand was too sturdy and unforgiving.
Lord Caliber regained consciousness and rose to his feet but didn’t have time to recover as Alpha Crucis ran towards him and started swinging her Sabre Rapière at him.
Gracefully using both of her martial arts disciplines—the Sabre Rapière and savate— Lord Caliber hesitantly dodges every unforgiving technique from Alpha Crucis, destroying any that made it harder for Lord Caliber to dodge and move. It was so bad that he couldn't even get a shot in. Every time he tried to extend his arms to shoot, Alpha Crucis aimed his arms, legs, and shoulders, cutting and stabbing him. He would bleed and lose balance trying to fight through the pain, expending more of his energy.
With all this happening, Maria was a spectator who surprisingly didn't aid Lord Caliber in this fight. She couldn't help but feel a bit choked up watching the little girl evolve into the powerful woman she is today. It only fortified her resolve and motivated her even more to do what she needed to do with the Third Revelation.
