Inquisitors; Rulers Of Past

Prelude to the End of Pride

The feed hadn't told them the full story. In the dome was bigger on the inside and it was also a labyrinth. That was why Jared had been taken out so easily. In the dome, time seemed to stretch; a full minute felt like an hour, an hour felt like eternity. Heck they'd only been there for a forty five minutes and they were already losing it.

"Stan, you good?" he asked. But there was no response. Princess, who was in front of him turned.

"Stan?" Reynolds called, but there was no response, only darkness.

"STAN!"

Reynolds lowered his head, welling up with anger. Stan, Jared. Who else. All these daemon did was take and take.

"Sir?" Princess called. Reynolds turned to her. He knew better than to fall into despair. This situation always happened. It was to be expected. It was their job. "Let's go. Stay close. The sooner we find this daemon, the better."

"Yes sir"

Barry was surprised. A labyrinth in a dome? A space this large crammed in a dome, well, it was frightening. Barry walked forward for a bit, his spear readied. He turned around a few times, but continued forward. Right now his only bet was to find the center of the dome. That could be the source of it. He looked forward to see someone slumped on the side. He rushed to his side. The guy was a Shield agent, he had been badly wounded by the daemon and judging the size of the hole that was in below his chest, he wouldn't have long to live if he wasn't given immediate healthcare.

"Don't worry buddy," Barry comforted the guy, "we'll get you outta here in no time."

The guy turned to him, dazedly. He had lost too much blood. "Ple...ase...Rey..." The guy passed out. Barry stood up and continued onwards. He said Rey. He probably meant the guy they were talking about, Captain Reynolds. Can't say he had heard of him. Barry thought. Still, he needed to find him. That is, if he was still alive. Barry turned a corner and took another left. He marked the walls with x's tracking where he had come from, in order to not get lost. A loud cry of pain made him stop. That wasn't human. He quickly dashed to the direction of the cry, coming face to face with a girl instead. The girl was also bewildered to see him.

"You're the..." Barry started.

"No time!" Candy said. The two dashed to see the daemon clutching one of its eyes. In front of him was the injured man. The daemon, in anger, reached out to finish the job. Barry moved swiftly, slashing its arm in half. The daemon, turned to face Barry, growling at him. Candy slid underneath it and, jumping in the air, slashing the daemon on the head with the end of her whip. The daemon tried to claw at her, but missed. Barry stabbed the daemon in the abdomen, pinning it to the wall. The daemon tried to frantically grab at him. Candy wrapped her whip around the daemon's neck and pulled tightly, forcing the daemon to try and rip the whip off its neck. The daemon, seeing no other alternative, tried to charge up a ball of energy from its gapping mouth. Barry, seeing this, pulled out the spear from the daemon and drove it into the daemon's head, causing a slight explosion and almost splitting its face in half. Without any warning, the daemon caught Candy's whip and pulled it closer to it. Reynolds dashed out of the darkness and with rapid succession, rammed his fists into the daemons chest. Princess followed from the other side, driving her Sais into its sides. The finishing blow was delivered by Barry, spun his spear and drove it deep into the chest of the daemon killing it. The four stepped back, relieved that the daemon was dead.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Barry dug his spear into the ground, sitting back on the ground. "Great work guys," Barry said, "Nice working with you."

"For the record," Candy said, "I work alone."

"Yeah, and we don't work well with you guys," Princess said, pointing at both Barry and Candy, annoyance written all over her face. Reynolds, however was silent, watching the corpse of the daemon.

"Normal daemon corpses should dissipate, right?" Reynolds asked, "I mean, it's still in its black phase."

Barry looked at the corpse. True. It was also true that the daemon was entering the white phase based on the white cracks all over its body, so that put a sort of block in his thoughts. But then, even if it didn't dissipate, shouldn't it at least drop to the floor, like a normal body.

"I feel we should keep a closer eye on that daemon." Barry said, "Just in case. "

"C'mon." Princess said, "Its dead."

"Yeah, but it isn't dissipating."

"Didn't you stab it in its core?" Candy asked, "You did stab it right in its sternum."

"But then, eight months ago," Reynolds started, "There was a daemon that's core was stashed away somewhere."

"Yeah," Barry muttered, remembering that horrid day. "Took six guys to find the damn thing."

"Do you think that it could be in this labyrinth?" Princess asked, "It could take days."

"Not exactly." Reynolds said. He touched the walls of the labyrinth only for it to fade away after a few seconds. "The daemon was probably using its abilities to create this...labyrinth. Probably to just elude us. The barrier, the labyrinth. This is just one shitty daemon." Reynolds grit his teeth. He glanced at the dying body of Stan and at the daemon that stood still.

"Princess and I would stay here." Reynolds said, "The two of you should go find the core."

"Us?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, why them?" Princess asked, "this is our mission not theirs."

"Stan is dying!" Reynolds said. "Right now isn't the time for whose faction gets to take the kill. This is about survival. And one of us has to watch over the corpse. Now go,"

Barry stood up, ready to say something to Candy only to see that she was already gone. "Stay safe," Barry said.

"Yeah. You too."

Reynolds watched him disappear into the darkness.

"The press is going to have a field day when they hear that we helped a rogue and an inquisitor." Princess said.

"Oh I bet they will." Reynolds said, "But then I value my life. Learn this Princess. Our job is to save lives and kill daemon. Not public opinion. Pride has no place in our line of work, especially when our lives are involved."