Chapter 318: Grim Reaper Part 2 (1/2)
Iris was chasing after Riley tugging Jehovah along the way, taken back. ”Mortem? But how is that possible? Alton destroyed her during the fall of Victoria, right? He did stop her?!”
Riley looked at both sides of the street, running ahead nodding. ”That's right, he should have. From what I've heard from others, Mortem fell that day…. But you see, Mortem is a cunning, manipulative bitch who never knows when to give up. She probably had backups ready to preserve her until she found the perfect vessel. If that feeling was anything to go by, she's gone and done it.”
”As if Alton wasn't enough to worry about. Are you getting involved now then?”
”What sort of question is that?! Of course, I am. Get the kid out of here. Things are about to get messy.”
Jehovah took serval deep breaths struggling to keep up. ”I…. I can fight too.”
”What? Why the hell would you, of all people, fight your own kind?”
”The way I see it….” Jehovah whispered, standing up catching her breath. ”I'm dead to the Garden; they'd only kill me if I ever went back. My best chance is with humanity now. I may not be a fighter without my Stage, but I know Mortem. I know her weaknesses.”
”Try me.”
Jehovah pointed to the sky, hovering towards the blood moon. ”That blood moon isn't the real moon. It's her power source feeding her energy through negative emotions. If we took out or even blocked out the source of her power, Mortem would weaken enough for you to take her down.”
”I like a plan when I hear one. Could you do it?”
Jehovah shook her head, coughing. ”No…. One of you would have to do that.”
”You want someone to remove that wretched thing from the sky, correct?” Riley and Iris turned, finding Alice standing on the rooftop looking at the blood moon. ”Consider it done.”
”Alice! You're alive.”
Alice looked to her sister deflated as she hesitantly replied. ”Please don't call me that…. Alice was a failure who couldn't even save Eve…. I only go by Maya now.”
Alice flew off, jumping between portals, ready to fight. The name startled Iris to the core as she began whispering. ”Maya…. That name.”
”Is it important?”
”It was our mother's name.”
”My lady, we don't have time to chit chat with these peasants. If we are to stop Mortem, we need to move now.”
”Right, you are Haggis. But don't underestimate these two. Are you going to wake up from this nightmare of yours and do the right thing?”
Riley held her hand out as Iris took a while, but her mind was made up as she took it, nodding. ”Time to take the fight to them.”
****
While the fighting had begun, Stag was still coming to grips trying to pull herself together. The frozen burns across her body began to ache as she was drowning in her self-pity. No one had seen her face in years, so for Zinnia to barge in and see it so suddenly had affected her poorly. Staring at her broken skull mask, she had the shards of bone in her hand, knowing she had to stop Gale. It was her responsibility to make sure this never happened to anyone else anytime soon. That's why she kept fighting; that's why she became Stag in the first place. Standing up and tying her hair into a ponytail, she went outside to fight another battle to the death.
”The true power of Mortem…. The grim reaper of the Garden.”
The others came rushing out as Gale swung his scythe around, cutting the veil protecting them from Alton's world as monarch began to fall, returning to the scrap yard. Gale's eyes were blood-red as night fell and the blood moon began to rise. Screaming with almighty rage, he slashed the sky as meteors began crashing down over the city as the revenge of Mortem had begun.
Sam and Harmony met with Zinnia and Tempo as Mortem's attack begun. Zinnia was still devasted seeing another one of her dear friends corrupted by the Garden. ”First Percy, then my father and Alton. Now, Gale! How much more will the Garden take from me?!” Zinnia rushed in, swinging her katana around, striking Gale. He, in turn, called on his shadows, cutting Zinnia off, slashing her arms, forcing her to drop the katana. His scythe dug down, sending her tumbling to the ground.