Chapter 47: Dead Man’s Switch

  The noxious tang of blood flooded Jude’s nostrils as Dante’s hand closed in around her face. Yet, her body remained frozen in place.

  She had been here to help Ace, but she was the one who was going to be slaughtered. Her body rattled as she locked eyes with the monstrosity in front of her, the last thing she would ever see.

  Then—warmth. Dante's fingers grazed her bangs, almost parting them.

  Almost.

  Fire exploded between them. The shockwave threw her back as a blazing figure slammed into Dante, ripping him away.

  Felix had arrived.

  The flames from Felix’s feet roared like jet engines as he drove Dante upward, their bodies spiralling into the sky, far away from them.

  Yet, Jude found herself touching her neck. Her head was still attached to her body and not crushed into a pulp. Above her, a loud thud rang hollow, and the barrier surrounding the hospital rippled. She could only stare, dumbstruck.

  A warmth closed around Jude’s wrist. Her body jerked forward as Ace pulled her forward, breaking into a run. The muscles in her legs spasmed for some godforsaken reason. She started to go down, but Ace did not stop running. The grip on her wrist wrenched her forward, her shoulder screaming as her body hung at an impossible angle. Fall or run.

  She ran.

  “Why are you here?!” Ace demanded, looking at her over his shoulder.

  Jude twisted her wrist out of his grip, having found her own rhythm. “To save your ass? You got hauled off!”

  “You could have died!”

  Jude pried open her injured eye—the lid stuck, crusted with blood, and fresh pain seared through her skull. Worth it. She needed Ace to see both of her eyes. “How would I know that Mr Higashino would go berserk and then turn on–”

  Jude could have gone on, but the wind got knocked out of her lungs as her body was thrown sideways. When she regained her bearings, she found that she was in Felix’s embrace and squeezed together with Ace. All the peace she had not made with death spilt out of her mouth in a torrent of vulgarities, supplemented by Ace’s shouts. Ace’s eyes seemed as though they were going to fall out as he pointed behind Felix. She followed his finger and started yelling into Felix’s ear as multiple black tendrils homed in on them.

  “LEFT!” screamed Jude.

  “GO LEFT!” echoed Ace.

  “YOUR LEFT OR MY LEFT?!” Felix barked.

  “DOWN! DOWN!” Jude latched on to Felix, digging her nails into his shoulder. The smell of burning rubber stung her nose and eyes, but it was a welcome change from rancid blood and fluids.

  The world spun as Felix flipped onto his back, holding them both close to him. “NOT YOUR MEAT SHIELD!” Ace exclaimed hoarsely.

  “I can see better this way!” Felix shot back as he whizzed in an irregular, jagged path.

  “With your fucking hair flying all around your face?!” Jude exclaimed.

  “Could be worse,” shrugged Felix.

  Jude noticed Felix squinting extremely hard, and the whips chasing them exploded into a shower of sparks. “Jude, release whatever technique you have now!” he commanded.

  “I ALREADY DID!” Jude squeezed her eyes shut.

  “Good!”

  Jude felt her stomach drop as Felix turned off the engines. The remnants of Essence around her eyes told her that he had reduced his Essence output to absolute zero. The impact came sooner than expected, but Felix absorbed most of it. Judging by the sounds, Jude realised that they had landed in a field.

  When they came to a screeching halt, Jude immediately rolled off Felix, whose chest was heaving up and down. His face was crunched up in a tight grimace as he picked himself up. “Are you two alright?” he asked. “Sorry, I took so long.”

  Despite landing on grass, the friction had shredded the back of Felix’s shirt, leaving numerous cuts on his back. Jude clamped her mouth shut, grateful that he had saved her and Ace. Yet, he did not make a sound of complaint but asked where Leonhart and Kazuya were. “They are near the parking area,” Jude answered, her sentences tumbling out in an incoherent jumble. "The pharmacy! But it's half gone—"

  “Go to them now. Stick together. Tell Kazuya to keep his shield up no matter what."

  “Kazuya's going to run out of stamina!” Jude protested.

  Felix clicked his tongue. “Then try your best to hide. Do not leave this barrier. Its nature has changed. It traps everyone, good or evil,” he said quickly.

  “Dante–” Ace started.

  “I’ll deal with Dante myself!” Felix barked. “Now go!”

  Jude could offer no alternative. All she did was grab Ace’s wrist and break into a sprint.

  ***

  Consciously suppressing the flow of Essence was like holding a breath in a filled and sealed tank of water. Felix minimised the amount of Essence flowing out of him until Jude and Ace were out of his sight.

  With a deep breath, Felix unleashed his flames thrice.

  The first release healed the wounds on his back, offering Dante a whiff of his presence.

  The second release was a shot at the barrier with a simple fireball. The impact sent ripples back to Dante, who was probably sitting on it like a spider on its web.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  For the third release, Felix placed his palms together in a prayer. “This body is a temple.” The words tasted like ash on his tongue. “House of my soul, hearth for my Will!”

  Felix leapt back. The shell of himself had half a second of life before Dante's fist obliterated it.

  Felix did not stop moving. Every step, every pivot, he left another avatar, each frozen in the position he had assumed. His father had drilled the incantation into him until he could spit it out in under three seconds. Faster than that if he skipped the blood, left the avatars hollow. Empty husks with just enough Essence stuffed in the sternum to read as alive.

  Felix had kept this knowledge tucked away in his core. Boring, but it had proven useful time and again.

  Dante tore through all of the avatars like paper. But that was fine. Felix just needed him distracted. He circled, studying each movement as Dante hunted. His eyes followed the fissures, the veins all the way to his gloved hand.

  There it was in all its cursed glory: Obscure Scarlet.

  Felix knew he had to rip it out.

  Surrounded by a dozen false heartbeats, Dante gripped his head. His head whipped left, right, trying to pinpoint the real one. He let out a roar and decided to burst them down with a flurry of tendrils that shot out from his body.

  Felix inhaled sharply as he felt one of the tendrils pierce his forearm. He let out a harsh grunt, manifesting a concentrated beam of flames to cut the tendril. Dante, having found true blood, swung for his exposed side.

  Felix zipped behind him. Clenching his jaw, he reached for Dante’s hand.

  But he heard the menacing crackle of the Regalia first.

  Blood sprayed as the Regalia pierced his chest in two spots, but Felix knew that neither was fatal.

  After all, Dante had cursed him with a slow and painful death.

  The barrier surged toward Felix like a tidal wave of hate. He tried to brace himself, heels grinding into the dirt, but it was like slamming on brakes that no longer existed. Useless. Then came Dante’s shove, brutal and unrelenting, driving him up against the barrier.

  The scream that tore out of Felix’s throat was not human. It was raw, broken, something closer to a wounded animal. His skin blistered on contact, heat devouring flesh faster than he could register. Blisters split open, oozing, nerves flaring white, and burning hot until the agony eclipsed thought.

  Felix’s mind recoiled, tried to claw itself away. Then, mercifully, it went dark.

  When Felix regained consciousness, he found himself on his back. His arms flailed about to shield himself from Dante’s blows. His flames were engulfing Dante’s body, but they hardly melted away his indifference. His knuckles were soaked in appalling crimson and were brought back down in another shuddering blow.

  “D-Dant…” Felix wheezed, his nose broken. “Pleash-”

  “ALL YOUR FAULT! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!” Dante roared and seized his neck, putting his entire weight on it. “I WILL! NEVER FORGIVE! NEVER!”

  The fight in Felix evaporated. He released his grip on Dante’s wrists, not because of the lack of oxygen but because of the look that he was giving him.

  I can’t... You left me with Requiem… I can’t…

  Dante’s face was locked in a tight grimace, the same look he had when he partially activated Requiem ten years ago. However, black tears were falling from those blank eyes of his, the same tears that mixed with the rain when he left for good.

  Nothing could ever undo the pain Dante had endured, but Felix still wanted to try. His hands trembled with quiet resolve as they cradled Dante’s face, yet the warmth he hoped to offer was met with a cool indifference radiating from the other man’s skin.

  He could not bring himself to hit Dante.

  “I-I…” Felix gurgled, the edges of his vision fraying. “S-Sor…ry…”

  As Felix choked out what was meant to be his final words, Dante’s head snapped to the side, immediately leaping off him. Felix rolled over to his side, gasping for air. He caught a glimpse of Jude standing in the distance, her uninjured eye glowing like a tiny firefly.

  Stupid brats! Felix immediately razed the area next to him in an attempt to pull Dante’s attention back. His Essence immediately drowned out Jude’s, but before Dante could pounce back on him, the chains of a rope dart looped around his ankle. It snapped tight as Kazuya pulled it taut.

  “Hang on!” Kazuya tossed the free end of his rope dart into the air. A cheetah caught the chains in its teeth and bolted, dragging Felix behind it.

  Felix swore under his breath as he conjured a pile of half-assed avatars behind him.

  The cheetah dumped Felix on the smooth floors of the hospital unceremoniously. Ace, Leonhart and Jude immediately hovered over him. Kazuya established a shield around their safe harbour. “Feel free to use your abilities!” Kazuya exclaimed. The shield thrummed under his splayed fingers. “My barrier should be able to block any Essence that tries to escape. It should buy us some time!”

  Weak and warbled groans bubbled from Felix’s bloodied mouth as the adrenaline started to wear off. Blood soaked through his shirt and trickled down his torso. Jude pressed a cloth against his wounds. “Jude-” Felix hissed as he shifted slightly.

  “Shut it!” Jude exclaimed. “Worry about yourself first!”

  "You shouldn't have done that!" Felix admonished.

  "It was my idea," Ace interjected. "Don't go after her."

  “You don’t need to get so worked up over me,” Felix said weakly, letting out a soft chuckle. “I can stop the bleeding by focusing my Essence on my injuries.”

  “How do you expect us to believe you?!” Leonhart snapped, pushing the bandages in his face. Felix noticed that her eyes were extremely red and puffy. “You said that he was your best friend!”

  Felix pushed away Leonhart’s insistent hands gently. He placed a hand against the hole in his chest and breathed out. The warmth of the fire licked his wounds, and soon, only a reddish mark remained. Only then did Leonhart put away the bandages. “The things you can do with almost infinite Essence,” Felix mused, turning to Ace. “Your arm-”

  “The rest helped me put together something,” Ace replied, pointing to his bandaged arm, which had runes scrawled all over it with a marker. “It’s good enough for now…”

  “So… I suppose the Johann Faust dude pissed him off?” Felix asked.

  “You knew?” Ace asked. "How?"

  Felix nodded. “He’s dead now,” he said, sitting up slowly. “Cuz’ next on his shit list is anyone from the Lee family since we walked right into the net.”

  Before anyone could ask, Felix went on. “That is Reqiuem, the manifestation of Dante’s anger and everything that comes with it,” he said. “He’s become a slave to his blind rage and will kill everyone who has crossed him before, which includes me–”

  “And Jude?!” Ace exclaimed.

  “Which includes me and,” Felix sighed mid-sentence, “my extended family. Throw in every sorcerer who crossed him, and it would probably add up to half of the population. Maybe more, I don’t know. I’m not too much of a math guy.”

  Felix stopped himself as he saw Ace’s face fall. Shit, I shouldn’t have run my mouth, he thought, rubbing his neck with his hands and healing it.

  Even as the pain faded away, the ghost of Dante’s grip lingered on it. Yet, he had to finish what he started. “Given Dante’s personality, who does he hold the most anger against?” Felix asked softly.

  “Himself,” Ace answered after a beat.

  Felix snapped his head towards Ace, but he was already looking away. He knew that it was not a mere guess. Ace knew more than he had expected him to.

  And that made his heart sting a little.