"I've been wondering about this for a while now," I said to Nixie while she was busy preparing her gear—a new set of guns, this time bigger than her usual ones and looking much more dangerous.
She gave me a look. "What?" she asked, her hands busy loading ammo into her pack.
"How come those things keep getting past our security? I mean, this place isn't as well-defended as the warehouse, but we've been here for a while, and so far there's no sign of those assassins getting in," I explained.
She stopped what she was doing, her eyebrows furrowed as if she were thinking. It was silent for a bit— all I could hear was the soft hum of the machines around the safehouse and the baby's laughter as he played on one of the couches.
"I have a few theories, ranging from magic to having a traitor inside our base," Nixie finally said, breaking the silence. "I have nothing solid, though. One seems more unlikely than the other," she added.
The building shook. I didn't know what those assassins were doing to try and enter the safehouse, but whatever it was, it wasn't working—at least not yet. So far, everything looked okay. Everything felt safe.
"By the way, how are we supposed to get out of here? I'm pretty sure they've got this place surrounded by now," I asked her again. "Do you have a secret passage hidden around here?" I asked hopefully.
She shot me an annoyed look. "Do you think I'm some sort of spy with one of those lying around?" she said, her voice laced with sarcasm. Given her past actions, yes—I fully believed that Nixie was a spy or something similar. She could've been Batman, for all I know.
"We're going to get out of here the old-fashioned way. Guns in both hands—in your case, an axe—guns blazing, axe swinging, and him as our secret weapon," Nixie said, pointing at the baby, who was busy chasing a cup he was making float with his mind.
"Seriously? That's our plan?" I asked in disbelief. "That's a really bad plan," I added.
"Trust me," Nixie said, wearing this amused smile. "All you have to do is not die, and I'll take care of everything."
Given her plan is to just run and gun down everything in our path, I don't trust it one bit.
But Nixie hadn't failed me yet. Maybe there was some wisdom in her plan that I just wasn't seeing.
This time, I was wrong.
The plan went south the moment I stepped outside.
Two assassins rushed at me almost immediately. I blocked the one trying to take a bite out of my shoulder with my axe. The other one—I wasn't so lucky. Pain flared through my stomach as her dagger burrowed deep into my side.
It wasn't deep enough to be fatal, but it hurt like hell, and the blood was flowing fast.
"Really nice plan, Nixie," I said sarcastically as I pressed a hand to the wound.
"You should've been more careful," Nixie shot back, firing her guns at the one who stabbed me.
"Take this," she added, tossing me some gauze and a roll of bandages. "Just patch yourself up for now!"
"We need to go back," I shouted, the pain making me dizzy.
"Move. I'll cover you," Nixie commanded.
But when I looked back at the safehouse, at least a dozen of those assassins were blocking the door.
"We're fucked," I mumbled.
"That we are," Nixie agreed as she hurled a grenade toward the group of assassins.
"Run!" she shouted, pulling me with her just as the grenade exploded behind us.
Losing too much blood was a bit of an understatement. We hadn't run far, but I could already feel my clothes soaked in blood. I kept moving, though—swinging my axe as precisely as I could, trying not to make the wound any worse than it already was.
But I was losing too much.
My vision blurred, my ears rang with every faint sound, and my legs felt as though they were about to give out. My grip weakened with every passing second. At one point, I nearly dropped my axe.
"Hey! Ariane! Stay with me!" Nixie's voice cut through the haze, urging me forward.
I'd really love some help right now, Nyx, I thought. But there was nothing—only hard, cold silence.
Fine. I'll have to push harder, I told myself.
But who was I kidding? Trying harder wasn't going to get me anywhere. I was losing blood, and I was about to pass out. Still, I kept fighting. Nixie kept pushing me forward.
It was hell.
I swung, killing or wounding the assassins who got too close, but it didn't matter. They just kept coming.
Through the chaos, I could hear the baby laughing, like he was having the time of his life.
I could hear Nixie, firing shot after shot.
Then I hit my limit.
My vision blurred to black. I could barely hear anything. My legs turned to jelly.
I found myself leaning against a wall. My axe lay motionless on the ground.
But before I passed out, I felt a familiar chill run through my body—the same kind I felt whenever Nyx lent me her powers.
Only this time, it wasn't her.
I didn't feel her power coursing through me.
It was coming from somewhere else.
I don't know if I was imagining it, but when I looked at Nixie, a thick white mist was swirling around her body.
I wanted to see more, to understand what was happening—
But my body betrayed me.
That's when I passed out.
~~~~
I was really bright when I woke up, I'm guessing around noon.
"How nice of you to finally wake up," Nixie said, her arms crossed. No white mist so far.
"What happened? How am I still alive," I said. "I clearly remember passing out," I added.
"Say thanks to the baby," she said while pointing at the baby who was busy floating around. "He kind of carried you all over the place,"
"Thank you ba-,"
"Shhh," Nixie cut me off like she was listening. This is the first time I took a good look at nixie since waking up and she looks like shit. Her clothes were torn in multiple places. I can see blood on her clothes, not sure if it's her or someone else's.
I tried standing up, but I was too dizzy to do so.
Take it easy, you lose too much blood. Nixie then handed me a piece of dried meat. That should help, she added.
I began eating it right away and it was the best dried meat I've ever tasted.
"So what now?" I asked. I basically can't move, I'll just slow you guys down,"
Nixie just stared at a direction. I can see her mind running, thinking of something I don't know.
"Here's the deal," nixie said breaking the silence, "while you were busy playing sleeping beauty, the baby and I took care of most of the underlings, the only problem is… the god you were talking about earlier. For what I saw earlier, a normal bullet doesn't affect it - more like I'm not hitting it." nixie said, sounding annoyed.
"It was moving quite fast," I said checking my body if Nyx somehow helped me and so far she didn't. "So what can we do?" to be honest, I could probably take her on if only nyx would let me borrow her power.
"Nothing…" Nixie said. Her eyes are still busy looking everywhere. Then I saw her eyes focused on the corner then I saw a glint before a knife came flying from that direction. The baby barely manage to set up a force field - the knife was already inches away from my face.
"Time to move," Nixie strap the baby on her back before running. The baby gestured his hands towards me and I could feel something holding like a hand made out of energy. I was lifted off the ground and was floating next to Nixie as she was running.
Nixie kept on running, I can't see where the enemy was but knives kept on flying towards us. Wait? Are those even knives? On a closer look I can see that it was indeed knife shaped but it was made out of something different. Wait? Are these knives made out of bones?
Another set of knives came and the baby deflected all of it. Then I caught a glimpse of the leader of the assassins, and saw it. No kidding, bones were coming out of her body, she was breaking them as it came out and then magically turned them into knives. Now… I've seen a lot this past days, but that was really—
"Disgusting right?" Nixie says as if she was reading her mind.
"That I can agree with," I said. "What now? We just gonna keep running?"
"I'm still thinking," Nixie said, pissed by my question.
"Then think faster," I told her.
"I got something," Nixie said as she handed me the baby. "Go to the docks," she added.
"NIXIE! Wait! What's in the docks?" I shouted as I was strapping the baby on my back.
"Trust me," she said as she disappeared into an alleyway.
The baby was still making me float, but I can feel him getting weaker, he looks tired - sleepy. "It's just you and me kid,"
Knives still keep on coming, the baby is still deflecting them but the reaction time is much slower now compared to earlier. At one point, one did manage to graze my legs, but it was nothing serious.
I kept on floating, just navigating, pointing wherever we needed to go. I could enjoy this, even if we are being attacked every half a minute but fun nonetheless.
We barely managed to make it to the docks before the baby finally ran out of steam. He dropped me in a very weird angle, almost breaking my arms. I stood up, I still feel dizzy now but better compared to earlier. I looked around, hoping for any signs of nixie, so far the place looks abandoned.
It felt like a ghost town, a ghost town where fire had burnt down at least half of the buildings. I can still see the remains of the boats that were burnt down by the locals earlier this week. On the coast I can see the sun setting, its rays reflecting beautifully on the waves. It was almost relaxing until I felt a shiver run down my spine.
I turned around and saw the assassin leader, just standing there looking at me. This time I can see her clearly. Both of her hands held a pair of knives made out of her bones. She was wearing a mask, the tragedy mask you see in those theaters. I can see her hollow eyes and dark colored lips through the holes of the mask.. I can only describe her body as athletically sexy, like the bodies of those women in spy films whose only purpose is to serve as eye candy.
She threw one of her knives at me. It was a little too close for comfort and it took me a lot of effort but I managed to dodge. I took at her and it felt like it was just testing me. Compared to the other gods, this one felt smarter, she doesn't immediately go all in, she knows she's stronger than me, but still she's being cautious.
"Where's the other one?" she said her gaze locked on to me like a hunter hunting a prey. Her voice was familiar, it was warped but still familiar.
"I don't know? She left us, maybe, I don't really know." I said, trying to sound as normal as possible. Lying under pressure isn't really my strong suite.
"Pathetic, that's the problem with humans, You only care for yourselves," she said, her tone full of pride. "Now, show me how pathetic you are," she said directly to me.
I thought she was going to attack me. But she just stood there looking at me, like she was waiting for my next move.
"Nothing? I gave you an opportunity to attack and you did nothing?" She tilted her head, eyes narrowing like a predator losing interest in its prey.
"I'm not here to play your games," I said. "What do you even want?" I added, trying to prolong the conversation waiting for whatever Nixie was planning.
"From you? Nothing," she said with a sneer, each word laced with contempt, like she was spitting out something foul.
"From that infant behind you, the necklace," she continued, her gaze shifting with unsettling rage.
"Well, we can't really have that right?" I said, gripping my axe tight, getting ready for a fight. I could feel my heart hammering against my ribs, but I held my stance. If I ran now, she'd chase. If I faltered, she'd kill.
"You are quite entertaining, do you really think you could beat me in a fight?" she said as if reading my mind. "You are weak, half-dead, and your benefactor abandoned you," she said. I'm not sure if she was talking about nixie or nyx, nonetheless she's looking down at me right now, and I can use that to my advantage.
"So? I can still take you on, I've already defeated two of you anyway, and as they say the third time is the best one right?" I confidently said. But I knew that cheekiness has its limits.
"No, you can beat me. Those two made mistakes, but me? I don't make those," she said, looking amused. For the first time in what felt like ages. She made her move. She stepped forward and in a blink of an eye she was already in front of me.
"See? In my presence, you are already dead," she said, holding my chin, her knife pointed directly at my chest. "You're only breathing because I'm allowing you. Stop being cheeky and just give up," she added, pressing the blade just enough to draw a thin line of blood.
"If that's the case? Just kill me? What do you want me to do? Beg?" I asked, refusing to break eye contact, even as my voice trembled slightly.
"Why would I do that?" she said, stepping back. "I'm not like those other uncivilized gods. I know how to show mercy," she added, eyeing the tip of her knife where my blood still clung.
"I'm offering you a deal," she said in a way a salesman will pitch his products to someone. It was annoying.
"And what deal is that," I asked pretending that I'm genuinely interested.
"You're freedom," she said, her voice calm, almost gentle, like she was offering a gift rather than a threat. "In exchange for the child behind you," she continued, eyes sharp again, like a vulture circling its prey.
I let out a nervous laugh—it was all I could manage in the moment. "You really think I'd trade this child just to save myself?" I said, my voice steadier than I felt.
"Think about it," she said, her voice soft, persuasive. "A way off this island. No more suffering, no more pain. All I'm asking is that you hand over the child." she added as she was walking towards me.
"But… if I give up this child, what would be left of me?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady, trying to sound like I wasn't shaking inside.
"Think about what you'd gain," she said, gently taking my chin again. "You could have your life back—far away from all of this. No more running, no more bleeding. Just peace."
Then I saw it—a quick glint in one of the buildings behind the assassin. Just a flash, but enough. It was Nixie. I had to keep her distracted, keep talking, and buy Nixie more time.
"But what about the others still on this island?" I asked, forcing my tone to stay casual. "Just walking away… it doesn't sit right with me. Feels like abandoning them."
"Don't think about them. Think only about yourself," she said, her voice smooth and almost seductive—like she already believed she'd won.
"But how do I know you'll actually let me leave?" I asked, trying to sound hesitant, like I was starting to consider it. "What's stopping you from killing me the moment I hand the child over?"
"I'd swear it upon my honor as a god," she said convincingly, her tone steady, almost solemn. She even lowered her knife slightly, as if to show she meant it.
What's taking Nixie so long? Whatever she's doing, she needs to do it now. I can't drag this conversation out any longer. Either Nixie makes her move— or I will. And I chose the latter.
I took a slow step toward her, pretending to be swayed by her sweet, poisonous words. "Just one more thing," I said, my gaze flicking briefly to where I saw the glint earlier. "Before we go through with this."
"Baby, now!" I shouted, hoping he understood what I was trying to do.
The moment I spoke, a pulse of energy shot from behind me, striking the assassin leader. She froze in place, her body stiffening as though held by an invisible force, her eyes wide with surprise.
I gripped my axe as tightly as I could and swung at her with all the strength I had, the weight of the weapon behind every motion, aiming for her head. The sound of the blade cutting through the air was deafening, and for a moment, everything felt like it was in slow motion.
But when the axe blade made contact, the impact felt wrong—dull, like it hit something hard and impenetrable. I stepped back in confusion, watching as what appeared to be bone-like structures gathered around the spot where I struck, forming a protective shield against my blow.
"Do you really think that I could only use my powers to make weapons?" she said sarcastically. "Bad move, Ariane," she added with a mocking smile.
"Well, what's new with that?" I shot back, trying to steady my breathing and ready myself for the fight. I could feel the weight of my decisions pressing down on me, but I wasn't about to back down.I could be free right now, but that would mean sacrificing everyone still alive. Maybe a little power from Nyx would help. "I've been making bad decisions since I set foot on this island, and honestly, this one doesn't even crack my top ten," I said, trying to keep my tone light despite the tension building between us.
"I did offer you mercy, don't blame me for what's about to happen," she said, her voice cold and final, like the calm before a storm.
The assassin leader stood in front of me, her posture sharp—like a predator eyeing at its prey. Her expression shifted from the soft and compassionate earlier to calculating and cruel. I could feel the tension in the air. Our eyes met, and there was a silent understanding—only one of us would survive. I could hear the baby in the back laughing in delight, waiting for what was about to come, his energy barely contained, ready for the fight.
I tightened my grip on my axe, every muscle in my body filled with tension. This was more than just about survival. I had to win—to prove that I didn't choose wrong, that I could survive without letting go of my ideals.
The leader smirked and lunged at me, her bone knives slicing through the air like a hurricane—I had barely enough time to react. I blocked with my axe just in time before her blades could pierce my neck. The force of her strike was heavy, nothing like what you'd expect from someone with such a delicate frame. I staggered back, but I couldn't afford to stop moving—I dodged another strike aimed at my side.
"Too slow. Do you expect to win with only this much?" she taunted, her eyes filled with amusement.
I gritted my teeth, sweat beading on my forehead. "You talk too much." But I knew she was right—I was moving too slow, my body still weak from the injury and blood loss earlier.
I swung my axe again, aiming for her torso, but she dodged effortlessly, her body twisting with an unnerving, almost inhuman grace. She countered immediately, her knives slicing upward toward my chin with godlike precision. My instincts screamed—I stumbled backward, nearly losing my footing. Just as I was about to fall, a sudden lift from behind steadied me. The baby, still strapped to my back, had used his powers to make me float for a brief moment, just enough to help me stay on my feet.
This time, it was the baby's turn. A pulse of energy blasted from behind me, hitting the leader square in the chest. Her movement faltered for a moment—just enough time for me to swing my axe again. But before my axe hit her, her skin rippled, and bone-like armor materialized around her body, effectively blocking the blow.
She laughed, her voice carrying a strange, otherworldly vibration. "Is that all you've got?"
But the baby wasn't finished. A surge of energy radiated in the air, like time itself around me was slowing down. I could see the assassin moving slowly, like she was struggling against a river. Debris floated around us, a mixture of rocks and twisted metal swirling like a storm.
The baby gave me a huge opening. I rushed forward, bringing my axe down with all my might, aiming for her chest. A loud crack was heard when my blade made contact with her armor. I could see cracks forming as she stumbled backward. The baby then sent the debris around toward the enemy at a blinding speed, slamming into her armor, cracks forming on the parts hit by the debris.
But it didn't even matter. Once our attack was finished, the assassin leader just shrugged it off. "You'll have to try harder than that," she said as the bone armor began repairing itself. "You can't win with just that," she added, a hint of satisfaction in her voice.
I took a deep breath. I could hear the baby laughing, as if it were welcoming the challenge—indeed, a very psychotic baby. "Come on, kid," I muttered as the baby released another pulse of energy toward the assassin, restraining her movement once again.
"You're running out of time, Ariane," the leader warned, smirking. "This won't last."
I gritted my teeth and surged forward, swinging my axe with everything I had left. This time, I aimed for her head. Her bone knives raised in defense, but the baby's power was pushing her back, forcing her to stagger.
But even with that, she still managed to block. "I told you, didn't I? Don't blame me for what's about to happen," she said as she kicked me square in the chest. It sent me flying toward a brick wall. I had to maneuver my body to avoid crushing the baby strapped to my back.
I could feel most of my ribs broken, my heart and lungs partially damaged by that kick. I coughed up blood, unable to breathe properly as pain shot through my body. I glanced at the baby behind me—he was passed out. The assassin leader walked slowly toward me, her victory already in hand, a smug look on her face.
"You're stronger than I thought," she said, her voice tinged with pity. "But not strong enough," she added as she prepared a knife.
I tried to stand up, but I just couldn't anymore. I was too wounded to move. I just knelt there, waiting for something to happen.
"You could've been free right now," she said, her voice dripping with disdain. "But you chose wrong."
"And for what?" she added. "You get nothing, Ariane. You will die here, and I still get the necklace," she said, her tone cold and final. "All your resistance was meaningless."
"Good luck with the necklace though," I said, trying to be cheeky until the very end. "There's no way you'll get that from him," I added, a sly grin forming despite the pain.
She paused, her gaze narrowing, clearly irritated by my defiance, but it didn't matter anymore—my words were my last act of resistance.
"I have my ways of getting it," she said, her voice cold and calculating, "but don't bother yourself with that. You won't be around to see it."
She raised her knife high, the gleam of it reflecting the dim light as she prepared to end it.
I just knelt there, unable to move, waiting for everything to end, until suddenly, a loud bang echoed from the direction I had seen the glint earlier.
Then something hit the assassin leader square in the face, shattering her mask, and for the first time, I saw her face. It was familiar—she was the girl I had seen in my dreams, the one who was abducted, the one who was sacrificed.
"You dirty—" she shouted, her voice full of rage and disbelief, but she couldn't finish as the pain overwhelmed her.
Another shot rang out, this time hitting her square in the chest. She staggered back, her eyes wide in shock as blood poured from the wound, staining her clothes.
I watched, heart pounding, as her body trembled with the impact, her breath ragged. The once-confident leader was now faltering, her movements sluggish as the blood continued to pour from her chest.
But even with all of that, she still managed to escape. She just vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but a bloodstain on the ground as evidence she'd ever been there.
And as soon as I felt safe again, darkness took over, and once again, I passed out.