The black mist swirled around Zeke, still shrouded in its darkness. It completed one revolution, then a second, much faster, and another, faster still, and another.
Jules grew heavier with each rotation. Wind rushed from Zeke and the swirling column of mist, which towered ever higher. He lifted an arm to protect his eyes from stray dust and debris. Zeke repeated some chant, some invocation or Script, from within. Each chant withdrew more of the full moon's light.
Jules’ clothes flapped in the wind, and the column of mist spun around like a tornado. Soldiers, Sailors, and Pirates alike fell to their knees or collapsed flat to the ground. Maddie and Thorn’s unconscious bodies dragged along the ground, inch-by-inch, away from the storm’s force.
All at once, the wind halted, and the mist drifted down to the ground. Jules’ body felt light again, though the strain of remaining upright had drained some stamina.
One other figure, shrouded in dark gray, remained standing through the gale.
Zeke…?
Its cheeks were hollowed out and gaunt. Like everything else, his skin had turned gray and paltry. The robes he had worn were now weathered away and frayed at the edges. A wispy cloak shrouded Zeke’s much thinner frame, and a wicked third eye replaced the medallion that fused into his forehead. Its sharp iris narrowed and looked around, first at Jules, then to Maddie, and back to Jules.
Rukia, that eye has a mind of its own.
“Zeke,” Jules whispered. “What have you done?”
“Zeke is…no more.” Zeke's voice overlayed with at least a few others when it spoke.
“Then who the hell is left? Another puppet of the Iron Maiden?”
“In fact, the opposite. The Iron Maiden Herself deemed us worthy of the Black Sacrament, so she had one Forged for usss… Oh, the irony of a Virtue personally handing it over to us.”
The surrounding crowd looked on in horror. Even Jones’ men looked afraid, but no one dared stand or even move.
“You’re not here for just me and Envy, are you?” Sorry Kat. You’ve been made either way. Silence filled the air. Dammit, Maddie. Wake up. “You want the Virtues as well, but for what?”
“Our charge goes far beyond the Sins, to all Arcanics. Sins. Virtues. Familiars. The others…”
The others?
“I’ll ask again, if you’re not Zeke, then who are you?” Jules reinvigorated the Sound of Fury with Rukia’s white embers.
“We have become purifiers of the world, an elite few who have sacrificed our very souls to stamp out your kind.”
Us? So there's more.
“You’re no messiah, Zeke.”
“Not Zeke!” The shrillness of its shriek sent a tremor throughout Jules. “We have become one with the Judas Priests, the inner sect of the Iron Maidens. Her ultimate purpose.”
DISGRACEFUL, A VIOLATION OF OUR TERMS SET FORTH. I AM TEMPTED TO FORGO OUR DEAL AND KILL HIM MYSELF.
By all means, please.
“Now,” the Judas Priest raised his hands to the new moon, “I complete the offer!”
The Priest peeled away scaly skin from its chest and exposed a shallow heart that beat too slowly for any living man. It ripped it from itself, and the heart faded from gray to black, as its very life was sucked out of it.
Its hair thinned, and along with its skin and two original eyes, turned an eerie shade of gray. The cloak split at the seams until it clung tattered and frayed and flapped in the wind, moving around like the mist itself, which settled down onto his frail skin and solidified as armor. The golden sheen of the Holy Enchanted weapons dulled to matte black. A mask materialized over the lower half of the monster's face, and a wide-brimmed hat expanded out and covered its eyes—all three of them. The ghoul dropped to his knees. Its spine contorted until four ghostly arms pierced the sky, like a spider emerging from an egg.
Rukia—any advice?
Kill him.
Great pep talk.
Strike while the iron’s hot, and while he only has one weapon.
Jules listened and sliced off two of the Priest's new limbs, who didn’t bother to defend itself. Zeke’s body became translucent, ethereal, and the limbs mended back together. The glossy sheen of a Ryoku Shield engulfed it, and the translucence faded to opaqueness.
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The Judas Priest slammed his black warhammer at Jules. It crushed the ground wherever it struck, and he swung it with the speed of a knife or dagger. With Rukia’s strength, Jules dodged the attacks, but his opponent’s speed would become an issue as their cumulative Ryoku Pool drained.
Zeke stopped his assault and approached a group of Royal Navy men who cowered from him. He ripped weapons from their hands with each of his—pikes, swords, bows. He tested out his new arms and the weapons on their owners. They all collapsed into pools of their own blood.
“These will do.” The Priest spun around like a tornado at Jules.
Jules blocked what strikes he could and took strategic hits from others if it meant he could avoid a second, deadlier blow.
? Fire ? [?33,400 // ?174,501]
Jules and the Sound erupted in an inferno of yellow flames. “Let’s see if you burn from the inside out.” He unleashed a flurry of attacks he’d mastered from Kaizen. In a single attack, Jules struck Zeke nine times, two of which Zeke blocked.
The Priest's body burned, but it weapon absorbed most of the fire, into a swirling vortex at the war hammer's center.
Dark Magic. He can absorb your blows into the void. Jules—
An uppercut from the warhammer launched Jules into the air.
[?23,400 // ?174,501]
He saw the battlefield laid out, its threats everywhere. Jules landed beside Maddie, Thorn, and August, who tended to his crew. August looked into his eyes.
“You're the only one brave enough to move,” Jules said.
August’s eyes turned blue.
? Water ?
A column of high-pressured water struck the Judas Priest from the side.
That water again…
The ghoul ignored the attack and slammed all of his weapons into Jules at once. Jules lifted the Sound and emitted another inferno to block him. Zeke pressed down hard. Jules’ arms trembled.
CRACK!
The Sound broke again. The Vessel ejected Rukia, and the shockwave pushed Zeke back a few steps. Jules didn’t see where she landed, but he sensed Rukia's was severely injured.
[?8,400 // ?174,501]
Jules scrambled away on his back and bumped into August.
Fear filled both their eyes.
What do I do now?
TAKE THE DEAL.
The Priest tossed aside all of its weapons—even his warhammer—except for one deceased Soldier’s great sword. Four of its hands grasped the entirety of the hilt; its other two hands grasped the bare blade just above. It staggered over to Jules and pointed the blade at Jules’ heart, at his Seal.
? ? Leviathan’s Roar ? ?
August leapt between them and stunted the attack with a column of high-pressured water. Where is all that water coming from?
The sword penetrated deeper inside August's barrier—
The Fountain! Jules locked eyes with Patience’s Altar. I can get him from any of those.
He abandoned August for the Fountain. Jules hurtled over a retaining wall and stabbed the splintered end of the Sound into his palm. Blood dripped down, he reached out for the Altar and—
The Judas Priest gripped him from behind and slammed Jules into Patience’s Altar. It grabbed Jules like a rock and crushed the monument with his body. It crumbled on the fourth slam, and the Priest moved on to the next Altar.
[?3,400 // ?174,501]
“You fucking bastard!” A cutlass pierced where the Judas Priest's heart should have been. A massive sonic boom followed Maddie's strike.
Jules took the opening. He fumbled around for a piece of broken marble, anything to get Kaizen back. His fingertips grazed against a rock, but the ghoul stomped a boot on Jules’ hand. It dragged its foot along the ground and knocked away the other remnants of Patience’s Altar, and raised that great sword again.
The Priest chopped off Jules’ left hand.
The next thing he knew, five hands suspended Jules in the air. The Priest flayed Jules' flesh and used Dark Magic to torture him and amplify the pain. The monster healed Jules’ body back and continued to torment him.
Jules howled like a wounded animal and shrieked like the Sirens of the Cove. Maddie laid crumbled before one of the smashed Altars. She watched Jules’ torture in horror. This is…
What lies ahead for you, too.
The Priest removed Jules' sword arm next.
“AAGGHH!!” Jules flailed around, still stuck between the grip of five arms, like an ant caught in a web.
The Judas Priest moved around the edges of the crowd while he worked, to showcase a Sinners final judgment. No one stepped forward to stop it. No one stepped in to join it. The infighting had stopped. Everyone remained perfectly still, gripped by sheer terror.
After some time, Jules became numb to the pain.
All he could feel were the underlying reverberations of torture and hopelessness.
The Priest arranged Jules’ body like a puppet, then forced him to kneel, execution-style.
“The Sinsss curse is you cannot die… So we will decapitate you and stunt your Regeneration while we kill your friends and family, like you made us witnessss…”
Jules’ neck flopped back in agony. He gazed at the moon. What was once so full of light, has fallen to darkness.
“That is the gift we give to you, Wrath. Afterward, the Iron Maiden herself has other plans for you. Eternal torture, for one.”
Poor bastard doesn’t know. He’s about to really kill me, here and now. Shame, I would have liked to have seen it, I think. The edge of the Apocalypse, how I’d stop it. Maybe that does make me a sinner…a Sin.
Time halted. It wasn’t like last time, where Jules froze.
This time, time had halted.
Cy?
The Painter?
Rough metal grated against more rough metal.
Heavy iron boots clanked behind him.
Sweltering heat opened Jules' pores.
No. Not you. Not now.
“I didn’t agree to anything…"
Wrath stomped past Jules and stopped in front of what used to be Zeke. He tilted his head side to side as he studied the Judas Priest.
“HMM. A BUG… OR A FEATURE? EITHER WAY, DEATH SNUCK THIS BLACK SACRAMENT INTO THIS CYCLE.”
“Just let me die already.” Every breath strained Jules. “The Apocalypse will end.”
Wrath spat at Zeke's boots.
“FOOLISH CHILD. YOU FIGHT DEATH HIMSELF, IF NOT A LESSER VERSION OF HIM. HE HAS BROKEN THE RULES. A NEW GAME IS PLAYED."
Jules hung his head low. Salvos, please—Make it stop.
“So what happens if that’s him—Death?”
“MASS DESTRUCTION. I WILL GUIDE YOU, JULES. BEFORE YOU DECLINE, ALLOW ME TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING.”
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