Horrible screams were ringing throughout the halls. The reek of death was strong—war has begun.
The man from the shadows kicked open the door.
“What’s happening?” Celeste asked.
“Enough death that even Genghis Khan would blush.”
Those words were almost drowned out by the raging gunfire.
It was like a whole damn infantry was a few steps away.
“The Devil I mentioned earlier must be coming for your head.”
“Let him come.”
He scooped Celeste into his arms.
“Can’t let a golden goose like you get hit in the crossfire.”
“Who are you?”
“That question once more—didn’t like my original reply?”
“I want to know.”
“Well, I’m the man who’s going to kill the Devil.
The name Keyser—the true Devil.”
The buckshot ripped through the men like a knife through fucking butter.
Heads pop like balloons.
Little pieces of skulls littered the ground, and pools of blood drenched the floor.
Men kept flooding the hallway of this underground tunnel system.
I bashed five men's skulls in with the butt of the shotgun.
Blood stains my face.
The corpses that had eyes looked up at me with empty voids.
Their short swords painted my white flesh red.
Broken blades lay next to used shells.
The corpses were bathing in their own gore.
“Is this noise coming from the better Devil? I’ve heard so much about.” A voice over an intercom said.
“I don’t know about this better Devil business, but I am the Devil HERE to do the DEVIL’S work.”
“So-called better Devil, if you dare come here, you must want me. KEYSER.”
The name was like a matador beating the ground to anger a bull.
The man who kidnapped a comrade.
The man who dares to fire upon my comrades.
A man who stole children to take their fucking blood.
The rage that burns within me like Rome's eternal flame engulfed me.
“KEYSER!
I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD!”
“Then let’s dance in the madness and see who is the real Devil.”
I have seen the horrors of all of human history.
I’ve seen men gut each other alive and wear each other’s skin.
I have seen the end of
Kings,
Empires,
and Gods.
A man who thinks he could call himself the Devil will be like stepping on a bug.
I have seen the end; I do not fear it.
“There is a house in New Orleans.
They call the Rising Sun.
And it’s been the ruin of many poor boys, and god I know.”
God, I know,”
I’m one.
I decided to stop wasting my sawed-off shotgun’s ammunition and started to use my Bowie knife.
My flesh painted their blades with the sickening crimson.
”Even if your blades touch me…
Do you think you have the ability to kill the likes of me?
The Devil itself has appeared in front of you, and you think mere mortal blades can end my life.”
The man's body started to shake in fear.
Their hands shook at such great speed that they started to drop their blades from fear, and their bodies then became limp from death.
As the men in front of me dropped, more approached around the corner.
Bullets started to fly with the sound of machine gun fire destroying my unprotected ears.
The ringing grew louder, and blood started to cover my one good eye.
Red lights flashed across the whole tunnel system.
Making me feel like I was in a damn nightclub.
I ducked into a room.
The room had weapons sprayed across the walls, and six grenades lay upon a table.
And a hell of a lot more than a fistful of bullets.
I pulled the pin out of a grenade and chucked it down the hallway.
The halls shook, and small streams of dirt fell upon the concrete roofs.
I walk out of the room, seeing guts spread across the floor. Pieces of men were shot throughout the hallways.
Broken M60s were on the floors, and I wondered what sickness had cursed this land to mix all of history into this one fuck-up point.
I had to think it was that men who were brought from my world who had brought such sickness.
Miyamoto once said that all races of this land once lived together in some form of peace, but something destroyed it.
I believe it was the first man who was even sent here.
Maybe not maybe is.
But how did I get here?
Was it the people of this land?
A god.
Or just bad luck.
A bullet ripped through my right leg.
“FUCK!”
I turn around and fire a round from my Jericho into a guy's skull.
Shit!
I ripped a piece of cloth off one of the corpses and made a tourniquet and started to run.
Running with a hole in my leg.
I started killing one after another, emptying everything.
The cut that appeared above my good eye at some point was now pouring out like a faucet.
Causing me to wipe off the blood with my blood-soaked clothing.
Everywhere I looked, there was either the dead staring at me or the living shooting.
The farther I drove into this hell, the more equipped the men had.
M16M1s
Glock 18s
I stole a Winchester Model 1892 lever-action rifle off some dead guy with around a hundred rounds of 44-40 (44 WCF) wrapped around him. That was weird.
Howa Type 64 battle rifle.
Even more fucking grenades.
Why are there so many goddamn grenades being used underground?
I guess they never read a bloody OSHA booklet.
The walls are being destroyed, as if Hell were grasping around me, trying to pull me under.
These men had the mentality of suicide bombers. They just kept throwing themselves at me like wood into a fucking woodchipper.
In one night, I kill over a hundred men with Miyamoto.
This day or night or both.
I think I could be considered a mass murderer at this point.
Is this a battle?
Or a bloodbath.
I was growing tired.
My arms were giving out.
The pain from my leg and my missing eye is driving me mad.
Tears do not, dear, come upon my horrid face, knowing I’m not worthy of such emotional existence.
My soul shall never gain such a power to feel anything more than that of pain and nothing.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
This battle was a waking nightmare.
As if I could ever slumber without nightmares.
The air was thick with death.
Death comes for us all, but for some reason, it won’t fucking keep me.
And the blood from all the dead reached up to my ankles.
Hell was open, and I was the central piece.
The ringing in my ears was deafening, and madness grew to newer levels.
An audio system turned on.
“You’re still alive. I don’t know how you killed this many people, but if you are able to come above ground and fight me.”
With blood coming out of my mouth, I started to look around.
The click of a door opening up, and I started to walk towards it.
I fire three rounds into the skulls of three men, killing each of them.
I walked up into the light, ready for killing or dying.
I walked into a gray, square building.
The fading light cut into the darkness of the building.
A speaker rang out again.
“Take the elevator up to the thirteenth floor. That is where you find me.”
I walked onto the metal death trap.
It could be a trap.
It could end with my death.
Who cares?
I’m in so much pain.
I fought in a war ten hours ago.
Some of my ribs are probably broken by a fucking demon that ran straight into my chest.
I got shot in the leg like twenty fucking minutes ago and am covered in blood.
I’m bitching as I always do. What else am I supposed to do, riding an elevator playing "Stayin' Alive" for some reason.
Ding
The doors opened, revealing an empty hallway and a large wooden door painted red.
I kicked the door open and chucked a grenade into the room.
Hugging the left wall next to the door.
With both of my guns drawn.
Boom!
“Jesus Christ! Is that how you open every door?”
“Yeah, when the asshole who has been trying to kill me for the last day!”
“Well, it didn’t, Jack!”
“I could tell.”
I walked through the doors that were now covered in ash.
Glass poured across the floor, causing the light from the setting sun to paint the walls and floor.
Wind swept through my bloodstained body.
Two figures were dressed in the remaining shadows; one stood, and another sat next to the standing figure.
I pointed my right gun up.
“To be or not to be,” the man in the shadows said.
“A man after my own heart. Resisting a monologue I put to memory at the age of twelve.”
“At ten, I had the whole thing memorized.”
“At sixteen, I entered college.”
“At fourteen, I graduated from college, top of my class.”
This game of verbal tennis was a bitch to get a upper hand in.
“I’ve killed hundreds of men.”
“I’ve controlled hundreds more.”
The man in the shadows starts to walk to the right, so I walk left.
“I’ve seen the horrors of all men.”
“What god cursed you with such knowledge?”
“A mad one.”
I believe the other figure was Celeste.
“Why did you take mine, comrade?”
“I needed her blood.”
“What about those children who were in the Chinese restaurant?”
“Prototypes.”
I fired a shot I believed would hit.
Missed.
Damn.
He pulled out a piece of his own.
A Nambu M60.
“Another heart grabber.”
“I like much more personal weaponry, but you fired a round, so I’ll do the same.”
He pulled his gun to his left eye.
Two men
Looking at the barrels of two guns.
Walking in a circle.
“You ever kill a man, Keyser?”
“Yes, about a dozen by hand. Not as much as you, of course, but I like to think I have a good technique.”
Keyser started to walk in the light, revealing two blades around his hip. His face was covered by sunglasses with darkened lenses and black frames.
“Finally stepping into the light.”
“And you are stepping into the shadows.”
We were walking closer and closer to where the other once stood. The question I kept wondering was when the battle would begin.
Five steps.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
Bang!
He fired his shot.
I dodged it.
He jumped towards me with both blades drawn.
I pull both pistols out.
He swings at me with both blades.
I use my pistols to block both of them.
“Never seen a man do that.”
“I guess you should get used to that.”
I fired a round next to his ear.
He shuffled back with a cruel smile.
I started to fire.
Bang
Bang
Bang
Keyser was dancing around my bullets.
“Can’t say I’ve seen that.”
“Thank you.”
He fought with the grace of a deer but with the bite of a hippopotamus.
Clink
Clink
Clink
I had to move my pistols faster than the beast's blades.
I kicked his stomach.
He cut my right arm.
Keyser continued to speed up.
Getting more and more cut off.
They were shallow but helped wear me down.
When I was able to shoot, I could only get off shallow wounds.
This battle will continue to be a war of attrition if we keep at this.
Death could come for both of us if we keep dancing like this.
What boring ending that would be…
A pistol was slashed out of my hand.
I knock one of his blades out.
One Gun.
One Blade
Bang!
Both weapons blow out of our hands.
“Oh, shit!
Oh, shit!
Oh, shit!
I just created a huge fireball, V!”
Keyser and I look over to Celeste.
Revealing what Celeste said.
“Throw it upwards!” we both said.
The ball of flames created large holes through each floor of the building.
The flames then imploded, causing the building to catch ablaze.
The two of us.
Keyser and I.
Returned our gazes to each other.
We both jumped back.
“Should we use our fists now!?” I yelled.
“Not yet,” Keyser replied as his blades flew back into his hands.
“Let's do this.”
But instead of jumping at me, he held his two blades together.
A gray light glowed around them.
Creating one long blade.
I pulled my crowbar out, holding it like a blade.
“A crowbar?”
“I refuse to learn the blade.”
We jumped at each other with sparks flying.
“Your crowbar play seems good.”
Keyser hit my bar with a strong slash.
“Of course not as good as my swordplay.”
The power behind the strike shook my hands.
“Can’t you feel it?
This dance of madness.
A slash from my blade and a blow from your bar.
1
2
Clang
3
4
Clang
1
2
Bang
3
4”
Bang
With every number he muttered, he swung.
Each time, he tries to take my head.
“I’ve never been much for dancing. Due to not liking partners and never having been one for romance.”
I was able to reply with my blows.
Aiming for his head.
This crowbar is a stupid fucking weapon.
I’m not sure how to hold it in long-term fights.
I’m holding it in the middle.
Attacking with the bent part.
Sometimes using the back of the bar.
Twenty-four inches of metal in my hands compared to his fifty.
Christ!
I remember that I have one last tool.
My Bowie knife.
This is how I’ll gain the upper hand.
I could throw the blade into his leg.
But if I let my guard down to throw, I would be cut to ribbons.
With each hit and every slash, Keyser grows closer, and my life grows shorter.
Like an abusive father, an idea smacked me.
Use the knife as a distraction.
Best goddamn plan I've come up with so far.
My left hand would have to leave the bar for about thirty seconds to grab my blade.
I stood in the shadows.
Keyser was standing in the light.
We were about twelve feet from a broken window.
Caused by my grenade from the start of the fight.
Ok
3
2
1
Ready
My right hand left my bar, leaving every hit from his blade to feel harder.
“So were you always this mad, or did something make you into this thing?” I question
“Well, madness is a subjective state of being.” Keyser replied.
“Not of the means are agreed upon by the masses.”
“I understand the statement, but different populations have different opinions from culture and religious ideals. Madness to one may be sanity to another.”
“You do bring up an important point, but I doubt there's any population that disagrees that the morality of sticking children dry and killing them is objectively wrong.”
Why is it so goddamn hard to grab a knife in the middle of combat?!
“Well, first thing, may I call you V? I heard Celeste call you that, and I want to, too.”
“V is much more personal, Keyser; the name Devil is used in professional matters like these.”
“Fine, fine, I call you only the Devil, but back to your point, I believe the Romans would disagree.”
“And why would that be?”
Bang
Clink
“If I remember my history correctly, Devil, the Romanins' main belief was in power. I wasn’t butchering children; I was using them to gain power. You must know the feeling of wanting… No the need for power.”
“Never have I needed something so much that I abandoned my belief.”
“And what are these beliefs that you hold so dear?”
“I don’t kill the innocent.”
I grabbed the handle of the knife.
“I protect my comrades.”
I pull my blade out.
“AND I AM THE DEVIL!“
I yelled when I threw the blade.
“Come on, V, you think you could have tracked me with that?”
“No!”
I replied with my crowbar sinking into his left eyeball.
“Ahhhhh! You… you cheating bastard!”
I jumped in front of him and pulled my saw off out.
“There is no such thing as cheating in mortal kombat.”
I blasted a round of buckshot into his chest.
Knocking him back six feet.
“And it doesn’t matter. I’m the Devil, and the Devil doesn’t fight fair!”
I said, as I ran right to him—right into a dropkick, causing him to fall back right out the window.
“V know this! This isn’t the end!” Keyser yelled.
“It never is,” I muttered, lighting my thirteenth cigarette.
“Hey, V, do you think he meant what he said?” Celeste asked while I walked over to her.
“He meant it, but don’t worry, he’ll look like a fine jam on the sidewalk soon.”
Celeste's face revealed only for a few seconds that she didn’t believe my perfect lie.
“Sure thing.”
On my walk over, I pick up my knife and my two Jerichos that still work. Then place her on my back like Yoda on the back of Luke.
“Are you grateful that your clothes cleaned and repaired themselves?”
“Yes, Celeste, you don’t have to bring it up every time there’s blood on my coat or a cut on my pants.”
“Well, it’s the only way you have ever let me help in combat.”
“When you’re eighteen, you can do whatever you want, but until then, you won’t see the front lines.”
I could hear my bones swearing at every step.
Thank the architect; there's an elevator.
Neither of us talked after getting on. We couldn't find the word to use or if there was anything to say.
Ding
"Stayin' Alive” was still fucking playing.
“V, stop moving so much; it’s making me suck.”
“I can’t help it; the song has too strong of a beat.”
“How do you have any energy after doing all you just did?”
“Because I’m stayin' alive,” I replied.
“I hate you.”
“Oh, come on, no one important is dead, we got you back, and I don’t have to walk down thirteen flights of stairs.”
“Sure.”
“Life goin’ nowhere.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Ahhhhhhh
I’m stayin’ alive.”
Ding
The doors open to Celeste's delight and my somewhat disappointment.
I reached into one of my pockets and took out two sets of earplugs.
The new one is for Celeste.
The other one is mine, of course.
“Put these in. I’m about to fire two to three rounds into the sky.”
She did.
I fired.
I really should have had these in during the underground clusterfuck of blood and mire.
My ears were ringing like church bells ring when a good man dies.
Too bad, no bells will ever ring for me.
We waited fifteen to twenty minutes when this huge dog with the kid and Miyamoto on its back appeared.
“What's with the huge dog, Miyamoto?”
“The kid’s dog can change size.”
“How am I just learning about this?”
“You never ask,” Violet said.
“Yeah, you never asked.” Miyamoto also said
“Shut up, Miyamoto.
Ha.”
“Ha.”
“Ok, to be serious, now help Celeste up.”
“Got it.”
Miyamoto jumped down, grabbed Celeste with grace, and laid her on the back of the adorable beast.
Miyamoto jumped back down.
“You need help getting up, too, I’ll be guessing.”
“Yeah, but I need to do something beforehand.”
“I’ll join you.”
“You better help me walk then.”
“Sure.”
“We’ll be right back, you three,” I yelled back.
We walked to where Keyser should have dropped.
Nothing.
As I expected.
“Why did you want to come here?”
“Just needed closure.”
We walked over a bit more, and I found a piece of paper.
”To the man who calls him both V and The Devil
At the end of the battle, I became unsound, and I must apologize for such actions. But you must understand the pain of cheating. I would have killed you in a fair fight.”
He is true on that point.
How did he even write this… Whatever, there is a bit more left.
“But I won’t hold such things against you. I just hope you become a better fighter next time we cross arms. Also, you may get the answer to whether I was born this way or made into it.
Sincerely, Keyser.”
“What does the paper say?”
“Just a note from another person trying to kill me. I gotta make a list of who wants me dead. I think I'm at three.”
We started to walk back to the crew.
“I have about six.”
“Six, Christ, Miyamoto, you don’t seem the type to have enemies or let them stay alive.”
“We all are young once, V.”
“I guess you’re right.”
The five of us rode into the distance, getting ready to continue standing alive.
