The Chronicles of Exodus 3 The Rapture

Chapter 5 Rough Reunion

I bowed in submission to my master. "It will be done." I said. The Reaper smirked, "Good." It snarled. I picked myself back up and walked towards the prison cells. I turned to the last one. "Hellfire." I opened the bars and watched the looming silhouette of the dragon shroud me. It roared; its bright red eyes illuminated the dark cell. It screeched and unleashed a wave of fire. I dodged back, readying a fighting stance. Not this again. The giant dragon emerged from the cage, prowling towards me. I reached out a hand, trying to regain his trust. Hellfire wasn't listening. Enraged he lunged, and pounced on me, slamming me into the floor. I groaned in pain and kicked him off. He roared and slashed at my chest, knocking me back and drawing blood. He snarled and kept fighting. I fell back, dropping to the floor. He raised up on his hind legs and slammed his tail onto the floor. A bright purple glowed up the spines on his back. Purple smoke flowed out from his eyes as a bright beam of purple fire and red spirals burst from his jaws. I raised my shield up just in time. I felt the heat melting the outer layers of the shield. I started walking back, the force of the flames was shoving me away. My eyes widened in shock as the top of the shield literally melted off. The golden metal seeped down like a liquid. I brought the shield down just as another burst of flames ignited from Hellfire's maw. A blast of flame exploded in my face; a flash of bright light blinded my eyes. I stumbled back, collapsing against the wall. I managed to briefly look up, just quick enough to see the dragon charging at me. Hellfire roared and barrelled straight at me. I just managed to raise my hands above my face before I was slammed through the wall, tumbling out the side of The Nest. I flopped against the dirt, my back ached, and blood dripping down my arms. I looked up but then...Bang! Hellfire stomped on my chest, bending his neck so his face was up to mine. I could smell his foul, coal smelling breath, and see the remnants of animal flesh between his teeth. He slammed me down one last time and roared in my face before leaping off and flying away. My ears ached and a loud ringing filled them. I blinked grime out from my eyes and wiped Hellfire's saliva off my face. I picked myself up and assessed the damage. No broke bones, but multiple minor scratches and a major slash to my chest. I let out another sigh and looked up to The Hive. A giant hole was torn out from where me and Hellfire tumbled through it. I felt The Reaper's glare stabbing into me like daggers. Now that Hellfire was gone, I'd have to find my old friends all by myself.

A light rain patted my back as I kneeled, perched on the edge of a skyscraper in Sydney. It had taken me, maybe an hour to get here from Adelaide. My cloak billowed in the wind and the holes and tears in it only added to my mysterious vibe. I peered down at the streets below. It had been quite a while since I had last seen any normal civilians other than the old gang. It must've been a long and lonely quarantine for them, being locked up inside of bunkers or secured parts of cities, far away from the normal city. Good, they deserve to suffer. The Reaper scourged me, taking control. As the scourge took effect, I felt something different about this time, now I felt more powerful, stronger, more violent! My horns grew, twisted and curled as my cloak was transformed into trails of ripped fabric. A grin formed on my face, and I started to laugh. It was time. FIND THEM. KILL THEM. The Reaper leaped from the edge of the building, the trails of the cloak falling behind him. It roared, jumping from building to building. It began to run on the edge of one building, its feet stomping on the glass as it ran. Tendrils stretched from the ends of its arms and grabbed onto the next set of tall buildings, grabbing onto them, and shooting itself like a missile into the air. The Reaper's wings tore from its back making disturbing cracking and bubbling noises as they emerged and took their form. We glid through the air. As I looked at the buildings ahead, The Reaper scanned the roads below. "THEY'RE HERE! I CAN SENSE THEM!" The Reaper roared and dived towards the ground, just before hitting the floor it shot tendrils out from its back and onto a nearby crane. It swung like a spider up to the beam of the crane and hung upside down beneath it, using tendrils to keep its body suspended. I looked down at the ground below. Just as I was scanning my heart jolted, I clutched my chest and The Reaper began to shake violently, tendrils lashed out. I grabbed my head and began to scream. It hurt. "What is this?" "I sense something!" We screamed and dropped from the crane, crashing onto the roof of a nearby building. We continued to shake, like a seizure but worse! My vision began to quake. I was seeing other people, other places, other worlds. My mind felt like it was being ripped in two. The Reaper kept flailing about, parts of it peeling off and erratically shaking and waving in the air. Gradually the feeling began to settle, but I kept seeing the people. There was a young man, maybe in his twenties, early thirties. He looked, familiar, he looked, he looked like me. He had an axe too. Like the one I once had. And a jar on his belt, like the one The Reaper was encased in by Hades. He looked exactly like me. Then I looked closer. There were tall trees in the backdrop, and a campfire. That was where I found the journal. That must be Jaylen I thought to myself. The Reaper growled. Then my vision sunk in and out again. Now, I saw another man. This one slightly younger. There were very few similarities between us. Only he had blades, dark brown hair, almost like my black hair, and it looked like he too, had a dragon. His looked thinner, younger, less aggressive than Hellfire, but shared some similarities. They both had a large, curved horn on the end of the snout, except Hellfire's was in the shape of a sickle. That dragon also wasn't the same colour. That one was darker, more bluish in colour and had smaller wings, more moth shaped and spiky, but not bat-like, not like Hellfire's huge bat wings with bony armour on the edges. I clutched my head one last time as the visuals changed again. Now I saw a woman, confused, and frightened. This was a warrior, an experienced one. At first, I could only see her back. She was blonde, skinny, looked a little shorter than me. She had a hammer and a shield. But there was something familiar about her, about those tools. She turned around. No, it couldn't be. My head ached too much for me to think straight but that looked like, no, it couldn't be her. That hammer, that is the same as the poison one I used to have. And that shield, that's Aspis, my spartan shield from my time in Greece when training with Ares. My heart beat faster, my head ached and I couldn't stop shaking. I yelled one last time and the vision ended. The Reaper slammed his fist into the ground and got back up, roaring and swinging his claws at the air. It roared and stomped around. I still couldn't get my head over the vision. The Reaper spoke of the multiverse, perhaps, perhaps it is possible they are from other universes. Brought here for whatever reason. Brought here to stop me, stop US. I roared and leaped off the building, spreading my wings and flying off.