Forged Legacy

Chapter 148 - Nothing Is Yours

Like the rest of the city, small apartments sat on top of the various small restaurants, shops, and businesses across the road from the bank they’d hidden in. Harvey agreed with Cash’s plan of getting on the roof, but it took a while before they found the rusted gate hiding a stairway leading upwards. The hallways were dark, only the occasional lightbulb still glowing over dirty tiles. Harvey made sure to step carefully, worried that the floor might collapse beneath his feet. Nothing moved besides the occasional plastic wrapper skittering across the floor, carried by the wind coming in from shattered windows.

“What a dump,” Tyler scoffed.

“This was somebody’s home,” Steve reminded him, voice wavering as the wooden walkway groaned ominously.

“Did the System really rip this place from Earth? I’ve been wondering whether the trial grounds are real or not,” Harvey asked.

“It uses your planet for inspiration, but these buildings aren’t real. Once the trial ends, all this will disappear,” Cash clarified.

Harvey nodded. He’d been worried that even if they did make it back to Earth, all that would be left would be a bunch of holes where entire forests and cities had been recycled. He hadn’t thought much about what he’d do once he made it home, other than keep fighting. The odds of humanity succeeding in every trial were slim to none, so the war for Earth’s future would be far from over when he finally made it back. Hopefully, Hannah and Elena would have already established a base of operations for their resistance, but who knows if they’d appeared together or popped right back to the place they died.

Eventually, they worked their way up to the roof. There hadn’t been any ladders or staircases easily accessible, so Harvey ended up using Innovator’s Arsenal on the Sentinel’s Arcblade to carve a round hole in the ceiling. Dust and drywall filled the air when the chunk finally hit the floor.

“Here, I’ll boost you up,” Harvey said, cupping his hands. Tyler stepped in, and on the count of three, Harvey hurled him upwards.

“Ahh!” his brother screamed, sailing about 10 feet higher than he needed to. Harvey saw him desperately waving his arms to try to right himself before landing with a heavy thud. The whole building shook precariously and dust rained from the ceiling, but it settled soon after.

“Whoops! You ok?” Harvey asked. A pained groan answered, and Harvey looked at his father sheepishly. “I promise that was an accident. Sometimes I forget my new Strength.

Steve just sighed, shaking his head before stepping up and putting his own foot in Harvey’s hands. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Dialing it back, Harvey tossed his father before letting Cash do the same for him. The angel couldn’t exactly fly despite his large wings, but he could boost himself enough to make the short jump. Tyler was already back on his feet, the fall having rattled him more than actually hurting him, thanks to his rapid leveling speed. Harvey scanned the sky nervously, worried that the noise might have given away their location.

“What now?” Steve asked.

“Stay low and keep your eyes peeled. I’m sure that brimfiend’s coming back, we just need to see what it brings with it,” Cash said.

The four took cover behind a bank of air conditioners and searched the sky. Harvey took out half his stock of real arc charges and handed them to Tyler. Most of the time, Harvey conjured replicas instead of using the real thing. Truthfully, they wouldn’t do much good in his brother’s hand, but he wanted to make sure he always had something he could throw just in case. He’d already made good use of the Inkbound Ordnance, but Harvey had to make those himself right before the battle started, since the crystal orbs wouldn’t last forever.

“Are these the lightning grenades?”

“Yes. They need one of my skills to detonate, but if you let me know when you throw one, I can activate it for you,” Harvey said.

“We need a code word,” Tyler mused. “Like Thunderball.”

“Thunderball?” Harvey chuckled. “You trying to pretend you’re a Pokémon?”

“You got any better ideas?”

“At least a dozen, but now that I think about it, we’re going with Thunderball,” Harvey smiled.

He also filled a half-dozen orbs with his Heaven’s Wrath ink, giving his family a decent stock of ranged options on top of their rifles. They waited for a long time, each watching a different direction, looking for any signs of more fiends flying their way. After half an hour, Harvey was beginning to doubt that anything was coming, but he froze when he heard voices down on the street below. It was hard to hear from this height, but luckily, the man was shouting.

“I wish these damn things could talk. My shift was supposed to end 20 minutes ago! I should be two beers deep at a blackjack table right now!”

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“You think I want to be here?” a female voice complained.

“Then let’s just leave! None of you sinners will snitch on us, right?”

Harvey crept around the old machines just in time to see a group of four humans in black tactical gear nodding profusely towards a tall, handsome demon in a full suit. His black wings were pierced with golden rings. Beside him, an injured brimfiend was tugging on the dress of a beautiful woman, desperately pointing at the blood trail where its brother crawled away.

“These are holy wounds,” she scoffed. “Only an angel could have done this. The sooner we kill them, the sooner we can get out of this shithole.”

“I don’t know why you’re in such a rush to leave. That Las Vegas place the System copied for us is pretty fun!" the man replied.

“They might call it Sin City, but it’s not the real thing,” she huffed.

Harvey crawled back, beckoning the others closer before whispering.

“Two demons. Real ones, a man and a woman. They’ve also got four sinners with rifles,” Harvey said. He couldn’t see their faces, but their death grip on their weapons and gently trembling hands said enough. Harvey knew they were worried he’d make them take the lead as they had for the last fights. Killing hellhounds and brimfiends all around level 30 was already pushing it for two humans who had just gotten their Class, and Harvey wanted them nowhere near this fight.

“I’ll go for the humans first. Once they’re dead, the rest of you can start throwing grenades.” Not waiting for an answer, he dropped two golden beads of ink into his own orbs before creeping back towards the ledge. The demons were still arguing whether the hunt was worth it, distracting the four humans until an explosion of holy fire erupted in their midst. In their panic, two clenched down on their triggers, dumping their magazines into the air.

“Shit!” the male demon shouted as a golden barrier sprang up around him just in time to catch the second explosion. He’d managed to protect himself, but the screams of his subordinates proved they weren’t so lucky. Harvey leaped from the roof, using Booster to glide down into the receding flames. Two of the humans were already dead, and a shot to the head finished the others before they had a chance to fight back.

It was easy. Way too easy. A quick check of the kill notifications showed they were only Level 23. The humans fighting on hell's side were so weak, but his own family was even weaker. These demons were at least level 60 and could probably rip his brother in half with their bare hands.

[End it fast,] Julius said.

Harvey raised his gun toward the shield and fired twice, causing shallow cracks to appear for a moment before rapidly mending. The demon stood smiling within, light reflecting off his gold teeth.

“What do we have here? I don’t see any wings on you.”

Before he could answer, Cleo walked out from behind the barrier. She was wearing the same dress he’d seen in the video of her making out with that guy in the club. It hugged her curves just right, revealing just enough to make him fantasize about the rest. The integration had been good to her. Everything about her was just… better than it had been. Her skin was clearer, her lips were fuller, and her long legs were toned like they had been back during her tennis days.

“Let’s see…” she said. “Harvey? Is it? A human. Pretty strong too,” Her voice changed, taking on a sad tone that reminded him of the last words he’d heard before crashing into Dean and Alice’s car. “I’m so sorry, baby. I never meant to hurt you. Why don’t you let me make it up to you?”

Harvey couldn’t help but stare and found himself stumbling towards her. She puckered her lips and bent down, giving him an impressive view down her dress before she was enveloped in golden flames.

“Harvey!” his father shouted. “It’s not her!”

Of course it wasn’t. Cleo wasn’t 8 feet tall, and this illusion had jumped a few cup sizes. Only now did he see that the comically large tube of lipstick in her hand was actually a dagger dripping with pink liquid. She turned towards Steve, morphing into an enhanced version of his mother. It would’ve been a great impersonation if her hair hadn’t been on fire.

“Honey? How could you?” she sobbed. “Attacking your own wife?”

Harvey felt himself getting pulled back into the illusion, but his aura, infused with his Tempered Heart, roared back to suppress whatever skill the demon was using. Steve and Tyler weren’t so lucky, forcing Cash to yank them back from the ledge as they both tried throwing themselves off. Instead of two lovestruck humans, the demon found something else diving towards her. A lion.

Harvey hadn’t seen Cash use the skill since he’d first rescued him. Back then, it had fought off the conjured serpent the fire-wielding demon used. Harvey had asked him why he didn’t use the familiar much, and Cash had said it was too expensive. He only used it when he thought his healing wouldn’t be enough, and apparently, he agreed with Harvey that there wasn’t much they could do if these demons got to Steve and Tyler.

Pink mist that smelled like wine and roses exploded from the demon's body, dousing the remaining flames from his Inkbound Ordnance. She disappeared within, leaving the lion stumbling out with rosy streaks staining his form. At the same time, the man’s golden barrier retreated into a ring on his right hand, the large diamond slightly dimmer than before. Golden strands shot out of it, wrapping around the dead sinners and infesting their clothes, weapons, and corpses. The equipment melted into golden motes that rushed up the strands and into the ring, restoring the diamond’s luster. The bodies shriveled up, all the remnant essence within siphoned away into a second ruby ring.

Harvey took aim and shot one of his Heaven’s Wrath bullets right at his chest. He expected a second barrier to block the attack and was happy to just drain the ring. What he didn’t expect was for the demon to let the bullet sink into his chest, ravaging his insides with golden flame. Harvey didn’t know why he’d willingly take the shot, but he didn’t like what came after. Blood stained his golden teeth, but his smile never wavered as his own revolver appeared in his hands.

That’s my gun!

The oversized handgun looked almost like Rupture’s shadow. Instead of silver with strands of aetherial gold, his was black with veins of red. Harvey desperately channeled essence into Innovator’s Arsenal, creating a spectral copy of his shield infused with Tempered Heart. The projection he conjured was the strongest he’d ever made, but it cracked when a bullet infused with infernal flames drilled into its center. The sound echoed off the concrete walls, reverberating down the street and dispersing some of the mist creeping closer to him.

He’d slowed it down enough for his real shield to absorb the blow. Barely.

“You’ve got some nice toys!” the demon smiled, inspecting the gun. “I want them.”