The Black Angel

After having put Omnis into the device I grew restless and anxious, as I cared more about her than what they would think. I wanted to know her safe, so I went on to even mount a weapon holder under the main desk in the lobby, on which I held a SPAS12 Shotgun.Omnis being in the storage room. I constantly checked the power consumption of her life support, and checking it’s condition. “All right, this should be enough,” I muttered, having a D50 handgun holstered at my right thigh.

[System status: Running]
[Power consumption rate: 125 EU/T]
[Power input rate: 130 EU/T]

----------!WARNING!----------
System energy storage full!
Lower intake rate immediately!
----------!WARNING!----------

-----Systems list-----

[Emergency shutdown] I feared to even think of ending her life...
[Settings] ←-
[Exit]

----------SETTINGS----------

[Energy Management] ←-
[System Performance Management]
[Authorization Management]

----------SETTINGS----------

-----ENERGY MANAGEMENT-----

[Intake: 130 EU/T] ←-
[Consumption: 125 EU/T] Minimum 120 EU/T

-----ENERGY MANAGEMENT-----

-----INTAKE-----

Current: 130 EU/T

Change?
[Yes] ←-
[No]

-----SET NEW AMOUNT-----

<120> EU/T

Confirm
[Yes] ←-
[No]

-----ENTER PASSWORD-----

<***************** >

[Enter] ←-

-----NEW AMOUNT SET!-----

There, it was finally done. The system was all set and running. “Time to change clothing…” I muttered again for some reason. My nanosuit quickly changed its material and appearance. I wonder how the patrol guards would react to seeing me like this… Or… The D50 alone… Time to see, since I need to talk to Moonlight again… I thought to myself this time, and left the building, locking the only door well. After taking about a good 20 steps I heard glass shattering, so I looked back, only to see a colt climb in through the window. I hurried back and went after him. He was searching for where I kept the money, too bad for him, it was on me. “Another unwelcome customer?” I asked, knowing how he would react.

“Shove off,” He replied.

“Leave, or I’ll call the guards,” I informed him. Knowing I would only be justified for shooting him if he were to attack me.

“Or will you?” He asked and darted past me out the window yelling. By the time I jumped the window a group of soldiers were coming toward me… With no good intentions. I raised my hands and stopped.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“The colt claims you broke into his store and tried to kill him,” One of them replied.

“Bullshit! It’s my store!” I replied.

“Then why did you leave through the window?”

“Because the door was locked,”

“Exactly,” They replied.

“No, I mean… I locked it when I left, then returned to him crashing in,” I explained.

“Likely story. Submit your handgun and put your hands where I can see them,” Said the patrol leader. I slowly reached for said firearm, and gave it to him, holding it by the barrel, and did as asked to. They beound my hands with rope, and asked me to follow them. Having no other choice, I had to do so.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Since the General is out of town, the sisters will tell your fate,” One of them replied. We walked our way to the castle. The soldiers surrounded me, one on each side to make sure I wouldn’t run. I see no sense in doing so with bound hands, however… The sisters greeted us well… (Them anyway...)

“Sisters,” The patrol leader greeted them.

“What can we do for you, sir?” Asked Celestia.

“Princess, this man is suspected of a theft and murder attempt. In the absence of General Omnis, we are to consider you the highest authority,” He replied.

“I see too what had happened,” Luna threw in as they both approached.

“Kneel, worm,” Said one of the soldiers behind me, and hit me in the back.

“Hit me again. I dare you,” I replied. He did hit me. I turned around, kicked him in the crotch, causing him to kneel instead. I lifted my hands into front of him, the choked him with the rope between them. “How about now?” I asked, while the others immediately took aim at me. I just dragged him with me, using him as a living shield. What am I even doing?! I’m no soldier, no mercenary or assassin… I’m innocent, I shouldn’t prove otherwise… My line of sight was darting across the room, trying to come up with a reasonable solution. I sighed, then let him free.

“Bad choice,” He exclaimed.

“Go ahead, kill me… But be warned: If you do so, your General will never return,” I warned them. Me being the only one who can open the machine she was in.

“What did you do to her?”

“Nothing bad,”

“Why should we trust you?” Celestia asked.

“You shouldn’t. Ask Moonlight, she will say no different,” I replied.

“Unfortunately, she’s too busy to be bothered with you, so you should follow to the cell,” Said Celestia.

“Well, if anything, then I’ll cooperate to prove I’m innocent…” I replied,

“I take him from here,” Luna replied.

“As you wish,” The patrol leader said, and they left.

“So, what’s your name?” She asked.

“Adrian,”

“Right. I assume you know Moonlight and Omnis,” Celestia threw in.

“I’ve known Moonlight for years now. She introduced me to Omnis days ago,” I replied.

“And what did you mean by not seeing her again if they shoot you?”

“She had a spinal injury. She’s at my workshop in a machine, which is helping her recovery,” I explained. “Here’s the timer, this is how much time is left until she’s fine,” I continued, and showed them the stopwatch on my phone, counting down.

“Sounds out of place... “ Luna noted.

“Hey. Don’t believe me? Follow me, I’ll show you,” I offered.

“You have one chance to prove yourself,” Celestia replied, and we made our way back to my shop. I used the broken window to cut myself free, then opened the door.

“This way,” I said, opening the door, letting them go in first.

“This is… Interesting…” Celestia noted, glancing at the blueprints on my desk.

“Before you see her, let me explain. The liquid inside helps her recovery. Right now she’s unconscious, can’t see or hear us,” I explained, then with the press of a button, the metal plating slid open revealing her, tubes attached to various places.

“Fascinating… Did you make all this by yourself?” Celestia wondered.

“Of course,” I replied.

“And all this was hidden from our sight in the form of a low business store…” Luna continued.

Low busines my a- “So, would you like anything to drink?” I asked. “You know what? There’s that tall white metal thing, check what’s inside, make yourselves at home,” I continued before leaving them in the back. I went back into the lobby, where a colt was waiting. A rather familiar one.

“You again?” We asked in unison. “Still in my store I see, get out before I call the guards,” He continued.

“Go ahead,” I replied calmly, unsure if I should reach for the shotgun, or call the sisters out. I chose to do the later, but only after he left. I opened the door and leaned in. “Sisters, would you please come out here?” I asked them.

“Certainly,” Celestia replied, and they made their way out of the back room. “Yes?” She asked.

“A moment please,” I replied. They made their way into front of the counter, sitting down on their haunches. Seconds later the door was broken down. “You’re gonna pay for that door bro,” I informed the soldier. Only then did I realize that their uniform was different than the usual. What’s up with that? Rank distinction?

Soon after a few more of them barged in, armed and ready. I was holding the shotgun, but it was under the counter so they didn’t see it. “Up the arms and kneel,” He said.

“He’s innocent. The only criminal is the colt beside you,” Luna informed him.

“What’s he to us? What do you think we are? Guards?” The intruder replied.

“Celestia, Luna, go to the back room,” I exclaimed calmy.

“Why sho-” Celestia tried to ask.

“Please, trust me on this,”

“They stay right here,” The intruder replied. I quickly drew the shotgun and took aim. “Think of it. We have silencers, the guard won’t hear our gunshots. Your are a different story,” He continued.

“What do they have to do with you?” I asked about the sisters.

“Nothing, but now that they saw us, we will probably get paid well for their heads…” He replied.

“Through my dead body,” I informed him while walking in between them and the sisters, abandoning my cover.

“You know too much for us to kill you, we need you alive,” He explained.

“Your problem,” I replied, and blew his brains out, doing the same to two others, while the third and last one managed to send a bullet through my side before going down. I dropped my shotgun, took a few steps away from the mess, then leaned against the wall, slowly sliding down into sitting, holding a hand on the wound, while the sisters watched in confusion.

“Adrian, are you okay?” Celestia wondered.

“Do I look okay?” I asked, taking my hands off the wound for them to see. Seconds after the real guards came through, me being the first thing they saw. I just held my hands up again. They quickly closed in around me while the patrol leader looked around, trying to make out what happened, until they noticed the sisters.

“Ah, pleasant surprise. What happened?” He asked.

“The man before you saved himself, and us as well,” Luna informed him.

“How exactly?”

“They came in weapons ready… They said he knows too much to kill him, and that they would be paid well for our hands… He slew them rightfully we declare,” She replied.

“I see. Come on guys, fix him up,” He said to the medics… Or… As they called them, healers. They looked for the bullet, but they realized it went through, lodging itself into one of the bricks in the wall. One of them wrapped me up with some bandages made of simple cloth, about three or five layers.

“Here you go friend, you did well. One against four, and you only took a bullet through,” The healer exclaimed.

“I owe you one… Funny to think, that even a simple craftsman like myself has a chance against mercenaries…” I replied, and stood up.

“We’ll dispose of the bodies and clean up. For your luck and bravery, you can keep their weapons,” The patrol leader said.

“Sure, if they come back, I’ll need the firepower… Not that I’m a trained fighter. I was in luck not to die,” I replied.

“Here, allow us to help…” Celestia threw in, and the sisters used their magic to clean up the mess. “Yeah, only living Humans are immune to magic,” She continued. “Our deeds done, we thank you for your bravery, and wish the best, as we need leave,”

“And so do we then,” Said the patrol leader.

“Any time, go ahead,” I replied. On their way out the sisters fixed my door and window too. That’s nice of them… *Grunt* I have to take a rest… I made my way back to my desk in the back room, and finished the flame thrower blueprint I found on Omnis while putting her in. After finishing it the pain seemed to fade, as I leaned back in my chair. *Sigh* Why is it so hard to pretend being a 10th century craftsman with a high-tech laboratory and factory which contains many facilities and rooms…. I pondered, until I fell asleep. Hours must have passed by, when I woke up to the sound of my phone beeping, meaning Omnis was ready to wake up. The sound startled me, causing me to lose balance, landing on my back. I got up and initiated the Awoken protocol. Her vital signs were nothing out of the ordinary. The tubes retracted, leaving her body without a trace, and she slowly opened her eyes. I was about to reach for the button which opened the capsule, when out of nowhere three more of those gunmen appeared. Not again… “What is i-” Before I finished, I was shot several times. The impacts were enough to send me back and down.

“Told you that was a bad idea,” One of them said. I could barely hear him, as hearing is one of the first things people lose upon death.

To maintain my humor I flipped him off before passing. I have no idea how much time passed, but I woke up to Omnis resting me against a wall. “O… Omnis?” I asked.

“Ssshhh… Easy, you need to relax,” She replied.

“How are you out here?” I asked, vision blurry.

“I’ll tell you later. If you will believe it anyway,” She replied.

“Go on, I can’t feel anything,” I assured her.

“Well… You see… I’m sort of a supernatural creature,”

“What? Are you a god or something?” I wondered.

“Not quite. Uh… I’m responsible with holding back the evil spirits of the damned from harming the living… The innocent ones anyway,”

“And what do I get to do with it?” She just looked at my chest, then back in my eyes. “Right, right, what next? You’ll take my soul, and comes the heaven and hell bullshit?”

“Not really… Not right now, actually. You have things left to do among the living, so you get to walk among them. Except for the fact that now you’re temporarily immortal, but you shouldn’t test it. We don’t want to scare anyone on the streets,”

“Let me guess. Kill those guys?” I asked.

“Not quite. They were just summoned minions… Somebody who thinks he’s a god wants to ruin my life. I’m sorry, it’s my fault you died…” She replied.

“So we need to kill him instead?”

“At least do our best, yes,” She replied.

“Well then. I suggest you go, tell the sisters the news of your return while I clean up this mess,” I threw back.

“Good idea, I’ll be back in at most an hour,” She replied.

“See you then,” She said farewells as well, and left, while I cleaned up the pool of blood. In my spare time I made a chainsaw too, which I could easily store unnoticed with my nanosuit, thanks to the I.S.I.S… No, not the terrorist group, it stands for Intelligent Secure Inventory System. As I finished the chainsaw I heard Omnis come back, and put it away just in time.

“Adrian?”

“Back here!” I yelled out to her.

“Aaham, I heard of the things I missed out on, here, they told me to give you this,” She replied, and gave me my D50 back.

“Nice, thanks, what will you do next?” I wondered.

“I have someone to meet in the castle, haven’t had time to do it yet, how about you?” She replied.

My nanosuit changed into casual street clothing with a face mask, which I put on right away. “I’ll explain tomorrow, do me a favor, and call a lockdown. Don’t allow anyone to leave the city for a day,”

“Sure, but you do better have a reason for it,” She replied.

I left, leaving her keys to close should I not return by the time she left. I made my way down the streets, which was filled to the brim with the average patrol groups, some of them had members wearing the same equipment the intruders had. I remembered their faces, and after finding one of them I followed them back to their home. I waited for the light to die out. That’s when I picked the lock, went in, and set their house ablaze. Causally walking away from the flames, the patrol groups watched as the building burned to ashes, burning those within. I knew he wasn’t alone, but didn’t care. I didn’t want to stick around and listen to their screams, but I had to, as the guards stopped me.

“What are you doing still out here?”

“I was visiting a relative. Unfortunately we had so much fun we forgot about the time,” I lied.

“Sure, are you sure you didn’t set the fire?” He asked.

“With what? Go ahead, search me,” I replied, having the lighter in the inventory. They quickly searched me, but found nothing.

“All right, go, but don’t stay out this long. Things can get ugly at night,”

“I’ll keep it in mind, thank you sir,” I replied, and calmly walked my way back to the store. When I inserted my keys into the door lock I was surprised to find it open. Omnis was waiting for me in the back.

“How did it go?” She wondered.

“Not the best,” I replied, taking a seat beside her.

“What happened?”

“I found one of them, followed him to his home, then set it on fire,” I threw out.

“Damn,”

“The worst part is… He wasn’t alone…”

“Shit… You know that’s not a good point, right?”

“Yes, Omnis, I know…” I replied.

“Well, the past is just that. There’s still tomorrow to live for,” She replied, and went to sleep. I spent the night turning in my bed, I just couldn’t sleep… Their screams didn’t let me afford such luxury… The next morning Omnis and I sat down to talk, we did have things to explain afterall.

“So what exactly is with that suit of yours and this whole place?” She asked.

“Come, I’ll show you,” I replied, and walked her to the end of the back room, where I opened the hidden door. “After you,” We descended the concrete stairs, which I only used because an elevator wouldn’t have fit the space. She stopped at the first door our way.

“What’s in here?” She wondered.

“Before I say anything, you must know that all this is part of who I am, and if it would come down to that, I would trust my life and the work of that on you,”

“Why?” She asked.

“You will see,” I assured her, and opened the door with a DNA scan. We stepped into the storage room. It was a moderate sized room, around 25 square meters, filled with crates, each labelled differently.

“Can I look around?” She wondered. I replied with a nod. I knew the risks of letting her roam free, but I didn’t bother, until she asked about two steel crates. “Lunite, Celestium, what’s with these two?” She wondered.

I walked up to the crate labelled Celestium, and opened it. Inside were a few ingots of shining white ingots. I grabbed one and gave it to her to inspect. “One of the new materials I discovered. I figured it’s best name them after their color being similar to those of the sisters,” I explained. She gave the ingot back, I put it back, then we did the same with the Lunite, which was dark purple. So dark it was basically black.

“So what are you doing down here?” She asked.

“Similar to what Moonlight does, I too am a researcher of my own… Interests… I’m sure Itrix told you how to use one of these, too,” I replied, giving her a phone.

“She hasn’t yet, bu… Wait… How do yo-”

“Did my research, Omnis. I knew who you are before we met. I used to the part of the research team back home, but the Administrator didn’t approve of my deviance on the field of interests... “ I informed her while walking.

“And I’m only yet to know you…” She noted.

“When I entered the research team I had to swear on using my knowledge to better the world, or to do what superiors, such as yourself want… Apparently, I haven’t done otherwise… Yet…” I continued when we arrived to the steel door. Another scan later we were in the Portal Room. It was a large device, which manipulated a dimension rift.

“Am I awake even?” She wondered.

“You should be,” I replied while selecting the goal location.

-----LOCATION-----
[13 9 14 3 18 1 6 20] ←-
[21 14 20 21 18 14 5 4]
[16 1 16 3 18 19 , 16 12 5 1 19 5]
[1 19 19 1 19 19 9 ‘ 19 3 18 5 5 4]
[8 1 12 6 - 12 9 6 5]
[16 15 18 20 1 12]
[20 5 18 18 1 18 9 1]
[23 1 20 3 8 _ 4 15 7 19]

-----LOCATION_CONFIRM-----

LOCATION: [13 9 14 3 18 1 6 20]

[YES] ←- [NO]

“What are those numbers?” She asked.

“Encryption. Keeps the locations secret,” I replied. “Now, please go through, I will follow behind,”

“Are you sure about this?”

“It’s not the first time I use it,”
“What’s on the other side?”

“Just go already. What, are you scared?” I asked jokingly.

“You wish,” She replied, and went through, me right after her. We stepped out of the portal on the other side.

“It’s getting dark, we shouldn’t be out here by then,” I exclaimed, looking at the time on my phone.

“Why? What happens in the dark?” She wondered.

“Things you want to avoid,” I warned her.

“Where do we go then?”

“This way,” I replied, and lead the way to the nearby village, where her first surprise awaited her.

“What on earth are those?” She wondered, glancing at the iron golems pacing around. When one of said golems drew a displeased look on her I realized her finger was on the trigger.

“Don’t… They won’t hurt you, unless you hurt them first, or hurt a villager,” I explained. “They haven’t met you yet, so they’re easier for you to anger,” She did as I asked, but the golem still came close.

“You said…” I cut her short.

“Wait it out… If he attacks, you run,” I continued. The golem stopped a rough meter away from us, and extended a hand towards her, a flower in it. “Take it…” I whispered. She did just that. “Let’s go, okay?” I asked.

“Sure,” She replied, and we made our way into one of the L shaped houses, in which two villagers resided. “Wrong house?” She asked.

“Not at all,” I said to her.

“Ah, Adrian, welcome back,” My old friend greeted me.

“Good to see you too, William,” I replied, shaking his hand. “Omnis, it’s an old friend of mine, William. He’s the one I learned blacksmithing from,” I continued. “William, it’s Omnis, a good friend,” I said to him as well.

“And what exactly does she do?” He wondered.

Probably the AK… “You know about My Little Portal I made years ago, right?” I asked.

“Of course, the one with the world time travel things,” He replied.

“She’s from a different world, and she’s a high ranked guard,” I explained.

“Well, I feel safer now,” He replied.

“You have the beds ready, right?” I asked.

“Sure do, you two look tired,” He said back.

“Oh, we aren’t, but it’s better sleep than be out there,”

“Truth,” He replied, agreeing.

“Wait, wait, wait… How is it getting dark already? It was just morning in the other world,” Omnis asked.

“Good question. It’s because the portal makes sure no time passes in the other world. To make it easier to understand, when we go back, the portal will send us back to my workshop, and in time to the exact moment after we stepped through it on our way here. It works the same way with other worlds,” I explained. “It’s a bit risky, I admit, because if the time calculation goes wrong, we will walk right into ourselves from the past, but that hasn’t happened to me yet,” I noted.

“Basically, if we come through at 12:00 am, we could stay here for a week, but we would still arrive back the same day at 12:00 am?” She wondered.

“Exactly, I’m glad you got it,” I replied.

“Let me tell you… This guy knows more things than there are trees in a forest,” William said to her.

“Oh, quit it, you,” I said to him.

“What? You’re an honest, hardworking and smart young guy, you deserve a few compliments. You did so much for the village already as well,” He replied.

“Let’s just sleep before he starts telling stories…” I whispered to Omnis, and we went to sleep on our separate beds.

[End of Chapter 4]