A Dishonored Demigod

New Power and Discusions

"Calling me a human is an insult. I am far above that weak race."~ Perseus
Bold- Power/Voice change
Italics- Thoughts

I groan and sit up in the Crossroads, the world where my patron resides,"Change the d*** scenery before my brain short circuits."
Instantly the scenery dissolves and reforms into the time period when the last champion lived as my patron speaks from next to me,"Better?"
I take my mask off and push my hair back,"Yeah. It's a nice place to talk."
I reach into my shadow and pull out a small red cobra by its tail,"Figured you'd want a piece of him."
The Outisder holds a hand out and the piece of Apophis' soul is captured in a glass sphere before floating to his hand,"Interesting. I'm surprised you managed to acquire a piece of the snake's soul. Well done on Bakudo 99 by the way."
I slump,"I'm still working on those things. Benzaiten told me I'd get them eventually but now it's just annoying casting them!"
The Outsider chuckles and sits down behind a chess board,"Our game is still on, and it's your move."
I sit down and study the board before moving my bishop across the board to trap his knight and intentionally leave my other bishop exposed to his queen,"Your move."
The Outsider studies the board and points towards a shadowed part of his realm,"He wants to talk to you. We'll continue when you visit again."
I get up and walk into the darkness and stop,"You wanted to talk. Talk."
Multiple eyes open up around me,"IndeEd. Those heArts you feD me cOntaiNed partS of cHaotiC MagIc. In dOinG So yoU uNlockEd moRe of mY pOweR. JaCkie is thE oNly onE to'Ve gOtTen tHis far."
I smile grimly,"What exactly is this power?"
I can feel the glee humming through the blackness as my arms are covered in The Darkness before swiftly spreading over my entire body to form a suit of armor and a mask to cover the lower part of my face. My hands slide over the black substance and the mask peels away so I can talk,"What's the name for this power?"
"It doeS'nt hAvE a nAme. JaCkie acHievEd this in The PiTS of HelL a fEw daYs BeFore hE weNt InsAne."
I frown,"No name huh? I guess I can name it then?"
The Darkness stays quiet so I think for a minute before my face brightens,"Hell's Plating. In honor of my ancestor."
I'm quiet as The Darkness shifts and ask it a question,"What can you tell me about Jackie Estacado? And while we're at it can you tell me about the inevitable enemy who's gonna try and kill me?"
The Darkness is silent before it emerges to face me. A figure sits on a throne of demon bones and his voice is level,"What makes you think someone will come after you?"
I grin and my fangs flash,"Where there's a demon, there's an angel nearby to kill it."
The Darkness laughs,"Hahahahaha! Such a morbid mindset! Then again, you are my host! Indeed there is an being hunting you. It cannot be called an angel as it exists only to kill my hosts, and anybody who gets in its way. Angelus is its name. My complete opposite. Beware my host as the Angelus will take the form of a woman. They generally try to seduce you before they can move in for the kill as to avoid a direct confrontation and put you in a state of shock. Never, never, hold back if you encounter that monster. Destroy it with every bit of my power you can gather and you will activate the final stage of my power."
I frown,"This Angelus you talk about, are they ever different?"
The Darkness is silent as it searches its memories,"There was one who was different. Jackie's girlfriend, Jenny. She somehow....resisted the Angelus until Jackie dove into Hell to save her. She betrayed him and sealed my powers away to keep Jackie locked in Hell. I watched her afterwards and she vanished from my senses. I suppose she died."
I grimace,"So I should be on the alert for a supposedly centuries old supernatural being? Great. What can you tell me about Jackie?"
The Darkness grins with its demented smile,"Jackie was interesting, the most interesting until you. You actually look a lot like him with the same hair, and the way you carry yourself. He was a risk taker and a member of his family's gang until he killed his uncle for killing Jenny. He was one of the only ones to combat me and subdue me in my maddened state. We...understood each other to an extent. Before I was ejected from his body he dove into my power and took my madness on himself to make me sane and to prevent the next host from going crazy. To an extent I admire his will. Besides, he's the one who made my guns so infamous in the supernatural world."
I'm curious now,"You speak as if he's somehow still alive. Is he?"
The Darkness nods,"He neither alive nor dead. He's stuck in limbo from what I can tell. Don't tell me you're going to try and rescue him?!"
I shrug,"It's worth a shot. He is blood after all."
The Darkness waves me away,"Then that's your problem! I don't know where he'd be exactly so you'll have to gather that information on your own."
I smile as my new armor dissolves,"Wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks for the conversation."
I'm ejected from the dimension and wake up with a pounding headache. I quickly make some ice in hand and place it on my forehead,"Good lord! This feels like the time Damasen dropped a tree on me!"
I swing my legs out of the cot I was lying in and get up with wobbly legs,"Whoa there."
I reinforce my legs with ice splints with joints at the knees before walking out of the infirmary and into a glass penthouse,"What the heck?"
"You're awake!"
As soon as I hear the voice my body moves and pins both arms to the wall with my hand covering the wrists. I blink before letting go,"Sorry about that. In my line of work my body just responds on impulses."
The blonde girl seems a little flustered from my actions and rubs her wrists,"It's alright. Not the first time I've accidentally scared somebody."
I rub the back of my head and smile sheepishly,"Still I'm sorry. By the way, where am I? This isn't the First Nome."
The girl gestures all around us,"This is Brooklyn House, the 21st Nome. We brought you here since the First Nome is still being repaired. You've been out for about a day. Honestly we expected you to be up next week since you used up a lot of your magic."
I grin,"I still had some left in the tank. Those last two I used to stall Apophis were just new and had a bad backlash."
The blonde haired girl walks me down to a living room and gestures to a circle of runes,"Amos figured you'd want to talk with him when you woke up."
She activates the circle and we step through and into the First Nome to see teams of magicians rebuilding it. Without a word my mark glows and I lift my right hand into the air. A support beam floats up from the arms of struggling magicians and wedges itself into the roof of the cavern before the iron melts to bond it to the stone and the side of the cavern. As we walk through the place I keep levitating items and put them where they should be until the girl asks,"How are you doing that? It looks like you're using an avatar!"
I smile,"Wind magic. I'm creating small superheated air currents underneath the beams to lift them, then I increase the temperature of the air to melt the metal."
The girl is shocked,"Wind magic?!"
We reach the throne room and I chuckle,"This is where we part ways. It's been truly entertaining miss."
I walk off and enter the secret room behind the throne,"Hello, Amos Kane."
The man tilts his porkpie hat as red glasses lock onto me,"Ah, Fragment. Nobody was expecting you to be walking around so soon."
I grin and sit down across from him,"A benefit of being host to The Darkness, very rapid healing and recovery. I believe we have to discuss the matter of payment for my services?"
Amos sighs,"Yes. I've been informed about your payment preferences. Thankfully the gods have provided me with these two relics."
He sets down a staff and wand on the table between us,"The staff and wand of Cleopatra, last ruler of Egypt."
I examine the two vessels of wood and ivory before finding what I'm looking for,"Ah, there's the money."
Near the top of the staff and the middle of the wand the symbol of The Outsider shimmers in response to the power of my mark,"She was a fool for attempting to use Lord Outsider's power without his permission. The punishment for that is usually a cursed fate."
Amos is at a loss for words,"You're saying that because she attempted to use your master's power, she doomed Egypt?"
I shrug as I place my mark over the one on the wand,"I don't know for sure. Whenever a human attempts to use Lord Outsider's power the effects and backlash vary with the person. She may've cursed just herself, or Egypt as a whole for her foolishness."
I finish with the wand and move onto the staff,"Even if she didn't doom Egypt her choices did lead to its ultimate fall in ancient times. The actions of some mortals really do astound me."
Amos looks at me with a raised eyebrow,"You said that whenever a human attempts to use your master's power they usually are cursed. Then how are you able to use his power?"
I grin and flash my fangs,"Simple, I'm not human." and I elaborate,"Not anymore at least. To make a long story short I fought a goddess that would be considered equal to Apophis and she cursed me. I became half monster and half god before I had my godly blood replaced with poison from an ancient dragon. I'm a demon in a sense, no true humanity left."
Amos frowns,"You seem to young to be thinking like that."
I laugh harshly,"That's true! But, when my former friends found out they didn't take it too well. The gods of the pantheon I belonged to declared me too dangerous to live and exiled me before actively hunting me. I survived in Alaska, thrived more like it. And when they came for me they met a force that crushed them and left them nearly dead. I dealt with the gods myself and destroyed their ruler in a fight when he threatened to hurt one of the people I care about. I've taken on contracts to kill and I've killed my share of demons as well. I'm mentally older than most people here!"
Amos smiles ruefully,"Regardless, you still have a semblance of humanity left. I can see it in your eyes."
I snort,"Dream on old man! I've killed my human part over the past year by severing my personality from his and his connections from mine!"
Amos smiles,"All his connections?"
"I know what you're getting at. I didn't sever all links since they've transmitted over to my personality as well."
I huff and get up from the table while dropping the wand and staff on the surface,"Keep the relics old man. I've already gotten what I wanted from them. I do hope you mention my performance to the rest of those animal headed gods you serve."
I'm gone in a Blink and miss his smile,"Fragment huh? That name truly suits you. You still seem to have a fragment of humanity."