The Lesser One Arc 2 Version 2 Chapter 2: Clown

 

Clown

I sense a figure behind me. Sebastian turns, and his eyes go wide.

“Watch out!” Sebastian dives, pushing me to the ground as a silver arrow materializes out of nothing, impaling itself in his shoulder.

I roll over to see where the projectile came from. A man wearing a clown mask is standing in the doorway. He is wearing overalls and a white farmer’s shirt, and his pants are well-worn jeans. He holds a small globule of silver energy in his right hand.

“Markus.” He points his finger at me. “My master wants you dead.”

“Do you work for Biren?”

“Biren? No. I work for Deeve.”

“Is he a member of the Silverbones?”

“I am not obligated to tell you. I am only obligated to kill you.”

Sebastian steps in between myself and the clown. “Stay back. I’ll take care of this man.”

“I’ll help you.”

“Stay back!” Sebastian pulls out a dagger. “Summon help. I’ll give you time to perform the ritual.”

I concentrate on drawing out the energy inside of me that connects to the zone where all of the devils live. It’s a kind of alternate dimension. When I look at it this time, I can see that it has grown considerably in population. I pick four devils who look like they can fight and summon them.

Sebastian strikes at the clown. The clown’s ball of metal liquid turns into a dozen cleavers that slice through the air. Sebastian dodges all but one, which slices through his shoulder. He staggers backwards.

The four devils I summoned jump onto the clown. The clown’s metal liquid ball turns into several gigantic spikes that impale the demons who just jumped onto him.

The clown holds out a small boxy device. “Now let’s make it so you can’t do that again.” The device resonates through the ether, cutting me off from my spectral realms. I am no longer able to access the portal world.

However, I am still able to manifest my spirit. I manifest an assault rifle. Pointing it at the clown, I fire.

The clown sweeps his metal liquid ball across the room and a silver wall appears, causing all the bullets to ricochet around the room, breaking glass and tearing into paintings. Splinters and fragments of high-value art pieces fly everywhere. I dive for the ground.

Sebastian charges the clown. He trips on the body of a dead devil, catches himself, and slides through the metal barrier.

The clown uses his metal liquid as a lasso and rips my gun out of my hand. He then stabs Sebastian through the foot as Sebastian tries to get behind him.

Sebastian staggers to the wall and crashes against it, leaving a trail of blood.

I am alone. No one is coming to my rescue. I conjure two tommy guns and open fire. The silver wall reacts to my motions and shimmers exactly where each bullet hits. The room fills with smoke and shrapnel.

I stop firing—the clown is no longer visible behind the wall. I get the sense that someone is behind me and turn around.

A blade passes by my neck with a millimeter to spare, slicing a table in half. I stumble backwards. Conjuring a riot shield, I block two bullets. The shield vibrates, sending shocks through my arm. The clown leaps away, climbing up the wall to hang in a corner. His eyes are bright red. Part of his clown mask has been damaged. He hisses at me.

“Why does Deeve want to kill me?”

The clown chuckles, his voice full of malice. “You are not convenient to my master.” He drops back down to the ground, forming a scythe with his metal liquid. He pulls it back. “There is no escape from the ultimate harvester.” Shining light surrounds the blade of the scythe. The clown laughs maniacally.

I conjure as many objects as I can in the path of the scythe. Tables, chairs, car doors, my riot shield, anything that will come out of my ability.

The scythe flits. With slicing energy, it crashes through my wall, coming to a stop half an inch from my body. There is a long tear in the wall of the penthouse, and every window has been blown out. The lights shatter and go dark. Rubble and plaster bits fall to the ground.

“You survived.” The clown’s scythe forms back into a silver ball. “I imagined you to be much weaker than you are.”

I conjure an RPG. “Yeah, really?” Ping. I remove the cap, fire it, and send the rocket smashing right into the clown. The back wall blows out and large pieces of concrete fly down to the street below.

The clown, however, is nowhere to be seen.

“Behind you!”

I twist around and duck underneath a blade just as it whistles past my head. I roll to the ground and turn away.

The clown suddenly stops. His mouth gapes open and blood pours from it.

Sebastian crawls out from behind the clown. “You forgot about me.” Sebastian coughs up blood. “Now! Markus!”

I stab the clown straight through with a sword. The clown’s mask falls off to reveal a rather attractive man. His eyes look deep into mine. “Deeve will not rest until you are dead.”

“Then tell him I’ll kill him first.” I pause. “Oh, wait. You won’t be able to.” I feel a rush pass through my body. “I’m sorry.” I don’t know what to think about the fact that I’ve just killed a man.

The clown scoffs. “Yeah. You beat me fair and square.” Then he dies. I let his body fall to the ground.

“Sebastian. Are you okay?”

“We’re going to increase your security detail.” Sebastian struggles to get to his feet. “You could be attacked at any time. We know this now.”

“We need to rescue Crayton.”

“That’s not your job.” Sebastian shakes his head. He uncorks a potion and downs it. “I’ll call more devils to clean this place up. We can’t let anyone know what’s been going on.”

“Why do you think they’re after me?”

A voice behind me speaks. “Because you have the key.”

I turn around to see a man in a fedora standing in the doorway. He looks up and down, observing the room. “Looks like you had quite the battle here.”

“Who did I just fight?”

“You fought Colero, one of Deeve’s men. His spirit is liquid aluminum.” The man looked at the corpse. “Was.”

“Who are you, then?”

“My name? It’s Mandrake.”

“Are you with the people who want to kill me?”

Mandrake shakes his head. “No. I’m with the people who want to keep you alive.”

“You’re one of the good guys?”

“You could say that.” He looks at the dead devils on the floor. “You seem to have lost a few men.”

“They were good devils.” Sebastian kneels down beside one of the dead devils. “That was a powerful enemy. We were only able to defeat him because he faltered.”

“Did you know any of the devils who died?”

“Some of them.” Sebastian closed the eyes of one of the dead devils. “They didn’t even stand a chance.”

“I thought they were at least B-class monsters.”

Sebastian shakes his head.

I look at Mandrake. “Are you with the Silverbones?”

“While there are no official distinctions between myself and folks like Deeve, we do oppose each other by principle. When you become one of us you may follow your own path, whatever that path may be.”

I bent down next to the dead clown and picked up the device he used to shut off my access to my portal realm. “What is this device?”

Mandrake held out his hand. “Here.”

I handed it to him.

Mandrake turned the device in his palm. “Looks like a jammer.”

“I could deduce that. What does it jam?”

“It jams aetheric concentrations.” Mandrake put the device in his pocket. “Expect all of your foes from this point on to have one of these objects.”

“So they know I can call devils to help me.”

“Exactly.” Mandrake turns away. “They are nothing if not careful. You’re going to have to defeat each assassin that comes after you using your own power. There’s nothing you can do, no amount of guards that you can have that will keep you safe. It’s up to you and your grit to save the world.”

“I didn’t realize the world needed saving.”

Mandrake waved. “If you want to know more, follow me.”

Sebastian and I follow Mandrake back to the elevator.

“You got in here how, exactly?” Sebastian is hesitant to step into the elevator.

“I used a warp key. However, they’re expensive, and I’d rather not waste one when the elevator is perfectly functional.”

“Ah.”

The three of us took the elevator to the ground floor. Mandrake installed a Bluetooth phone in his ear. “Yeah. Ari? I need someone to clean up the mess that we left. I’ll give you the coordinates.”

“Please be kind to my dead brethren.” Sebastian bows. “Return their bodies to me so I may give them the proper rites.”

“I will.” Mandrake removes the phone. “Here’s where you need to make a decision. Will you come to a secret location with me, or will you try and ride this out yourself?”

“If you can help us, then please do.” I look towards Sebastian. He nods.

“We can always use help against enemies like the one we just fought.”

“As far as minions go, that clown was probably among the weaker ones.” Mandrake shrugs.

“Where does Deeve get his goons?” I rub my arm.

“The same place you got your devils and other various helpers. You aren’t dearth of minions yourself.”

“Ah, right.”

The elevator doors open. A number of policemen are in the lobby. A detective approaches me.

“We’ve heard reports of a terrorist attack on the penthouse.”

Mandrake looks at me and nods. “I’ll take care of everything.” He hands the detective a small card. The detective’s face goes pale, and he turns to his men. “Close up shop, boys. This is out of our depth.”

I lean towards Mandrake and whisper. “Is this the power of the Silverbones?”

“Just a bit.” Mandrake smirks.

“Wow.”

Mandrake looks at his watch. “Hey, Sebastian. Do you mind if we borrow your limousine?”

“Of course.”

Two minutes later we’re driving through the city, towards the East, crossing the Thames and heading to the suburbs. I don’t know enough about London geography to tell where we’re going.

We arrive at a small town house thirty minutes later. We pull up.

Mandrake takes out some keys and opens the door. He motions for us to enter.

We walk into a fairly normal living room. It’s lit by a kitschy chandelier and has a Victorian air to it.

Mandrake walks up to a book shelf and pulls back a book. The shelf rises to reveal an elevator door.

We take the elevator deep into the ground. When the doors open we step out into a room filled with military-like machinery. There are also balls of yarn on a table in the corner, and stuffed animals sit around the room in various locations.

Mandrake sighs and shakes his head as he clears stuffed animals off a machine. “Ari. I need to tell her to clean up after herself.”

The whole room is dusty, as if it hasn’t been used in quiet some time. Mandrake types a few lines of code into the computer, and a map displays on the screen above it.

“The Silverbones. What do you know about them?”

“Not much.”

Mandrake types in a few more lines of code. “Well, then we’re about to have a little history lesson.”