Legion's Plague

"Who is....Balthor?" Lazarus asked as he clutched the quarter-demon tightly.

"D-Dad said h-he was....a-a d-demon-slayer. O-One of t-the best, t-to be a-accurate." Alexis whimpered as she wept.

Lazarus was bewildered, but soon understood that he shouldn't be--Balthor slayed all kinds of monsters. Dragons. Vampires. Manticores. You fucking name it, he had a trophy on his wall for each individual species! No wonder Alexis was scared witless--her dad said monster slayers were bad, though he did make note that there were good ones. After all, Katie was a monster slayer before she realized that she herself was a monster. Of course, that didn't stop her from hunting and slaying, though it did narrow her horizons to only the bad ones. Heck, Katie actually had a run-in with Balthor in a past life and barely survived the encounter...only to be soon murdered afterwards by a man who was told to bring the body of a fox before a king. In fact, Lazarus himself would probably shit a mountain of bricks upon seeing Balthor.

God of the Winds. Monster-slayer. Not a very good combination.

"D-Don't w-wanna g-go n-near graveyard..." Alexis chanted over and over.

"Didn't Balthor and his son die hundreds of years ago?" Lazarus asked.

Alexis frantically nodded. Her entire body shook like a leaf.

Thunder shook the house as its rumble ran its course.

"Something tells me the Greek Gods are up to something...but what?" Lazarus asked as he looked outside and witnessed lightning dance savagely across the sky and tear the darkness to shreds for brief moments.

"I-I'm scared..." Alexis cooed as more tears fell off of her face.

Thunder crashed once more.

"I am going to wake everyone up that isn't sick. Just stay put." Lazarus said before he let Alexis go and ran around the house screaming at the top of his lungs like a headless chicken with a megaphone attached to the neck.

Kaleb's voice rang in Alexis' head like a broken record found in a wasteland. What did he want? What was he going to do once she complied with his request? So many questions pounded the inner walls of her skull furiously it was as if her brain was stuck on replay.

============

"A WHAT?!" Fang shrieked, jaw agape.

"Yeah. And now you understand why Alexis more or less pissed herself." Lazarus sighed as he heard thunder rip the sky and the winds outside howling in rage. "Fang, get Alexis now, I've the feeling that if we keep the Greek Gods waiting any longer the world will get flooded."

Fang immediately went into Alexis' room, scooped her up out of bed, and carried her out of the house where the female werewolf, the Wind God, dragoon, strawberry and pinkish-blonds, and murky-haired man had been waiting despite her reasonable protests.

"PUT ME DOWN, HAIRBALL! I AM NOT GOING!" Alexis wailed as she fruitlessly struggled to get out of Fang's grasp.

The thunder sounded so loud it was as if it were right next to her ears. As a result, she simply shut up and whimpered.

"Words of wisdom: Don't offend the Greek Gods lest you wind up like soooooo many others before you." Lazarus commented, "Fang, if you have to, strap her onto your back. Do not suffocate her, though."

"I don't think that's needed at the moment." Fang replied with a sigh.

"Where's the graveyard again?" Lancelot asked as he donned his spear. "Wing, scout the area."

Wing, the female werewolf, shook her head. "Not with this storm. Mom said she flew into one once and a lightning bolt hit her right in the face."

"Ouch." Lancelot sighed, his shoulders visibly tensing up. "What was she doing?"

"Flying away from another demon." Wing answered with a sigh.

"Nick, why are we going to meet this big brute?" Asked the strawberry blond.

"I dunno, Jaden." Nick, the murky-haired man, replied. "Amelia, don't ask."

Amelia, the pinkish-blond woman, nodded.

The thunder roared again and many sharp, jagged veins of purple lightning tore the sky asunder.

Lazarus looked up before shouting "We're getting a move on, it's just that we're having difficulties! Please, calm down!"

The lightning faded. Only the cold rain kept hammering away at the group.

"Let's just find the graveyard before Zeus says we're being too slow." Lancelot stated.

Everyone agreed with a nod.

===========

The group of eight stood in the graveyard's center, and so far, no infected guards gave them any trouble. The graveyard was desolate and gloomy, and many tombstones had lots of moss and vines covering their framework. The rain seemed to accelerate the overgrowth.

"It's getting cold," Amelia complained as she kept walking alongside the group, her hands on her arms. She shivered a lot.

"It's supposed to. What, are you expecting the rain to be warm?!" Jaden counter-complained as he took note the party was now under some sort of roof, seeing as it suddenly got dark.

By now, they unwittingly took refuge in a cave that had mysteriously appeared very near to the graveyard's heart, and it was surprisingly dry as a fire was quickly made. Everyone at this time, save for Fang and Wing, was wrapped up in a quilt.

Lazarus sneezed.

Lancelot kept rubbing his eyes like they itched.

Alexis shook like a leaf from both being cold and afraid.

Amelia was drinking a lot of water.

Jaden was tired.

Nick was fiddling with a metallic crossbow.

Fang was preening his sister's wings. She had the same problem mom did--lack of adequate reach and flexibility.

Suddenly, a muscular figure stood in front of the cavern's mouth.

Everyone stopped to look at the figure. Alexis felt her heart physically stop in her chest immediately. Her mind flew into a frenzy as the figure drew closer to the group.

Now, her heart was running two miles a second in her throat.

Same blond hair, same piercing eyes...it was him all right. The butterflies returned.

"Are these your friends?" Asked the brute, his gaze focused entirely on Alexis.

Alexis nodded weakly as more tears ran marathons down her cheeks. In addition, a raging blush swept the length of her face and her eyes went wide.

Fang glanced at Alexis, then towards the brute. He stood up and found out the brute was a head taller than he. A snarl escaped his lips as he said 'stay away from my woman.'

The man who was evidently Kaleb shot a glare at Fang, his voice deep and king-like. "I have no intention of mating with any sort of monster so as to tarnish my family honor. I am not killing you all, so you lot had best be lucky. I was awoken from a deep slumber of the coldest ice that the god Poseidon placed me in over five hundred years ago. When I questioned why he woke me so suddenly, he said that I was needed to aid a group of people who could rival my clan. I see that the world around me has fallen into turmoil, so I am here to help repair the damage done."

Fang sat back down whilst grumbling about something.

"You, with the mysterious device on your back." Kaleb spoke as he looked at Lazarus, "Are you the leader of this group?"

"No, I am merely the strategist." Lazarus answered quickly.

"Then who is the leader of the group? I have been told by Poseidon to do as they say regardless of their request unless I deem it too irrational." Kaleb asked, raising a brow.

The last thing Alexis needed was for all fingers to be pointed right at her.