The Fall of the Society

Chapter 45: Darkness from Anger

A blur passed in front of Sid and a small thud sounded behind Cisero. A stream of blood began to flow from a fresh slash mark on Cisero's twisted face. The small blade he had thrown was now buried in the wall behind him and he had not seen the attack. He spluttered for a moment while trying to staunch the blood flow, before clenching his teeth and spitting insults back at his opponent.

"You have no chance of leaving this place alive," Sid growled back at the man who began flailing his hands in front of him. Sending a shower of silver blurs soaring across the room toward Sid. In the blink of an eye, Sid had seized a handful of the little knives from the air and returned them to their owner, burying to the bone up the man's right arm. The blades he did not catch collided with the wall behind him, none of them hitting their mark.

"Implausible," Cisero spluttered, pulling the little blades from his injured arm. "My masters employ all the fastest heroes in the world! You must be some sort of traitor!"

"Do not imply that I would ever sully myself by allowing the Society to own me!" Sid spat back, furious. "I am no hero!" he continued shouting. "I am a god! Immortal and unyielding!"

At this statement Cisero began laughing again. "There are no gods!" He lunged forward, his left-hand producing a long blade as he attacked, his right forming a smaller blade. Sid grasped his wrist easily and stopped his attack with ease. "Not...possible..." he whispered as he struggled to force his attack through.

"I see," Sid stated passively. "Your bones are made of metal, and you can produce more of this substance with your hands. Interesting," he finished as though he was looking at a particularly ingenious science fair project. "The outcome is still the same however."

Cisero pulled back with all his might, "Let go of me!"

Sid smiled, "absolutely." Before he let go, he squeezed tight, crushing all the metal bones in his wrist, deforming his hands and forearms.

"Impossible..." Cisero spluttered as he stumbled backwards into the wall. "How are you this strong and fast?"

"You should quit saying impossible because I am all of that and more! Behold, the only god that lives on this plane of existence!" Sid told him. "My glory will be the last thing you ever witness!" Fury exploded across Sid's face in a way it had never done before, rage coursing all through him.

Cisero coward in the wake of Sid's anger before working his way back to his feet. Holding his broken wrist in front of him and began to focus. Metal popping sounds emanated from his arms as they began to reform before silver metal began pushing out of his fingernails and encasing his forearms in a sleek armor. "Don't count me out so quickly!" he spit back. Moving quickly, he threw himself to the side while slashing his arms in front of him and sending silver spikes cascading through the room. Rolling back to his feet, he glanced back to where Sid had been standing to find him gone. A hand grasped his shoulder and slammed him into the wall behind him.

Sid jammed one of the silver daggers into Cisero's forearm as he shielded his body, but the dagger did not penetrate his armor. Cisero began to laugh but was unable to free himself from Sid's grasp. "Nothing can penetrate my armor! I will find a way to break you!"

Without changing his expression, Sid dropped the small silver dagger and drew one of his blades from within one of his pouches. A swift motion and he jammed it through the man's shoulder and pinned him to the wall. Shock returned to Cisero as Sid used another one of his blades to firmly hold the man in place. "There is nothing you can do to stop me from destroying you," Sid told him in a sinister calm. "Just as there is nothing to stop me from tearing down your entire organization." Leaving the man struggling to free himself, Sid moved back across the room and retrieved his blade that was stuck in the floor. A flick of his wrist sent the blade flying end over end back across the room and pierced Cisero's armored forearm.

Cisero let out a shriek of pain and surprise, having expected his armor to protect him. "Wait!" he cried. "I will tell you anything you want to know!"

"Not so fond of your methods when they are used against you," Sid stated flatly. His eyes seethed with rage as he made his way back in front of Cisero. "There is nothing you can tell me that I do not already know." Removing his second blade from its scabbard on his back, he quickly plunged it into the man's abdomen. "You are lucky I am not you," he whispered as he slowly drew the blade back before stopping halfway. Staring directly into the man's twisted face, he grasped the blade that was planted firmly in his armored forearm and drew it out. In the blink of the eye, his blade flashed so fast that Cisero was unable to see all that he had done.

Gazing about dazedly, Cisero looked around, wondering what Sid had slashed with his sword. Sudden realization dawned on his pale and twisted face as blood began seeping from his shoulders. A couple of dull thumps brought with it all the pain that he could not feel due to the way Sid had attacked. Glancing down, Cisero could see his arms and legs laying on the floor, as a pool of blood continued to grow outward. Unable to form words he stared into Sid's furious face as the life drained from his eyes and his body.

The man's head lulled limply while blood continued to trickle from his open wounds. His thought was lost in whether he should have made the man suffer for longer, given he had not allowed his followers to pass peacefully. Anger still flowing through him, he retrieved a cloth from the table and began removing his blades from the corpse hanging on the wall. He cleaned them and then placed them back in their respective places. The last blade he removed was the one through the man's abdomen, allowing him to finally fall to the floor with a wet thump.

A soft spluttering sound brought him around, and he met eyes with the tortured man strapped to the chair. Sid spun around and stopped himself directly beside the man, placing his hand on his shoulder. The man was desperately trying to tell him something but was only able to gasp out a few words. "Didn't tell.... Kept secret..."

Sid made a soft shushing sound, trying to calm the dying man. He kept eye contact with the man as the life faded from his open, glossy eyes. He ran his hand down the man's face, closing his eyes, before grabbing a sheet from the corner and tossing it over him.

"Did you get him Cisero?" a harsh voice coughed. The man who had lunged at Sid was finally stirring, getting back to his feet, and gazing dazedly around the room. His eyes landed on Sid who looked terrifying in his anger. "That's not possible!"

Rounding on the man, Sid began to ask him questions. "Who sent you here? Why are you targeting innocent people?"

"Anyone who has aligned with Maldion is not innocent, they are traitors and shall encounter a traitor's death. As for who sent us, the orders were disseminated through the normal channels, beyond that I am telling you nothing."

"Very well, you have no further use for me," Sid told the man flatly as he drew a blade from a scabbard on his back.

The man held his hands up in front of him as he quickly glanced around the room, catching sight of what had become of his accomplice. "Wait, wait!" Thinking quickly, he began to stutter, "I can't tell you a-anything! I awoke in my Society provided apartment with a manila package, inside w-were the orders t-to come here and extract the information f-from these men!"

"Still not enough," Sid growled, taking a step forward.

Desperation flowed from the man, tears streaming down his face. "I don't know w-who gave the o-orders!" he sobbed. "I went to the rendezvous point to meet up with Cisero, but I don't remember arriving there! That space of time is blank!"

Sid faltered. "Scion," he whispered.

A fresh look of terror split the man's face, "How do you know that name? Those within the Society refuse to speak it openly, whispering it as though to speak it is to bring pain and death."

Sid lowered his eyes, glaring at the man before him. "He is my target, my fixation on him is why you are here. The network you are targeting does not belong to Maldion, it belongs to me and me alone!"

Acting desperately, the man turned and ran up the stairs. Sid did not move but merely swung his sword upward, creating a huge slash through the wooden slats that made up the floor. A crashing sound erupted as the ceiling came crashing down, dust and dirt flew into the air, blocking out the light. The man slammed into the floor and rolled into the wall, spinning, and coming up to face Sid. Fear radiated from the man's eyes; he was trapped now. Sid was between him and the stairs.