67 The Strength of a Mother

Vanessa Redfield had many different names attached to her prestige. The human underworld crime syndicate, called her the Soul Marionette, for her ability to control the body of her target. In Mephisto's Hell, she was called the Cunning Thief, for fooling their King, Mephisto. She was a legendary figure that was feared by many, until she went missing around 8 years ago, the day when Edward was born.

Nobody knew what happened to her, as if she never existed in the first place. Her presence just vanished altogether. Even after they built a beacon that allowed them to mark her presence. Yet, it had never shown any indication of activating, until now.

"Pandora's Box."

A small box appeared in her hand, twisting left and right every second. It was one of the items she used back in the day. Originally, Pandora's Box was an ancient artifact that allowed its user to bring destruction using disasters and plagues. Not only that, it records every single disaster that had fell upon humanity. However, Vanessa used her power to make a little bit of an improvement. While still keeping the original power, she enhanced the power to record the souls of the past that become the victim of those disasters.

If it was just a simple disaster, it might be hard for her to find useful warriors, however, the disasters that were recorded inside Pandora's Box also included all of humanity's never-ending wars and slaughters, allowing her to summon those who become the victim in the war as her familiar.

"Come to my aid, warriors of Sparta," muttered Vanessa.

Pandora's box spun at high speed as it produced hundreds of light that landed behind her. Three hundred men with round shield and spear in both hands appeared from those lights, led by one King, Leonidas. Their red capes fluttered along with the night winds as if there is a river of blood flowing behind her. Their helmets were adorned with horsehair plume to intimidate their enemies.

"It has been a long time, Oo the Chosen One." greeted Leonidas after delivering a salute by hammering his first to his chest. His action was followed by his soldiers, making the cold night even more lively.

"It sure did, Your Highness," replied Vanessa, lowering her head toward Leonidas to show respect. And then, Vanessa pointed toward a zombie not far from them, "Did you see those walking deads? Put them all to rest. Don't leave even one single of them left. There are also some annoying monsters hunting around. I hope you can also take them on."

Leonidas nodded, but something was bugging his mind, and so he asked, "Is it only us this time?"

"I'm afraid so, I don't have enough power to summon the others. So all of you have to do it by yourselves," replied Vanessa. She had a lot more subordinates inside Pandora's Box, ready to be summoned. However, the lack of power allowed by the system prevented her from doing so.

Although Leonidas was disappointed that he couldn't fight along with his other comrades, he was excited to finally breathe in the air of the living world after so long. "I will not disappoint you, Oo Chosen One."

Right after his words ended, all three hundred of them split up in every direction, hunting the zombies. As souls, they were immune to physical attacks and they could go through walls or falling debris without the need to evade them. Experience points started to fill Edward's EXP Bar, raising his level at a speed, visible to the eye.

<+300 EXP>

<+200 EXP>

<+2500 EXP>

...

...

Even though it was Vanessa that was doing the job, it was still Edward's body, every EXP that she gained went to her son's body. Of course, she knew about it, that was why she used Pandora's Box the moment she awakened. Not long after, Edward leveled up, and the EXP keep filling the new bar at a much higher speed.

Knowing that everything would be solved by Leonidas and his entourage, she moved her eyes at the current problem that lies in front of her. By the time she glanced back at her guests, they were already recovered. Nemesis, G3, and the six Tyrant, all of them started to approach her. But Vanessa wouldn't let them do whatever they want.

With both hands apart, she gathered her power to summon her most loyal and powerful familiar. The strongest among her cards. Even she would be in trouble if this familiar rebelled one day. He was known as the ruler of the Dark Seas, capable of teleportation, shape-shifting, fire breathing, matter manipulation, even opening dark dimension portal to banish his enemies.

The dark cloud suddenly gathered, spiraling on the night sky, and formed a huge hole. Storm echoed as green mist appeared from the hole, followed by a thundering howl.

"I summon thee... Flying Dutchman!" shouted Vanessa.

The storm started to intensify as the green mist expanded, forming a huge figure of the ghost of a pirate. "Who dares to disturb my deep slumber!!"

His voice echoed through all of the city's corner, carving fears upon those who heard him. His body glowed in green, a pair of yellow eyes with black irises, a scraggly beard, a pirate hat with a chunk taken out, a droopy nose, a coat, little pigtails, and a ghostly tail. More importantly... He speaks with a West Country pirate accent.

His bloodshot eyes started to scan everything and nothing escaped him. And finally, when his eyes moved toward the woman before him.

"Oh hi, Vanessa, how ya doing?" greeted Flying Dutchman, with 180° turn from his previous madness state into a much more peaceful state.

Vanessa noticed something was off with him, and so she asked, "Where's your ship? And why are you wearing a headband?"

Flying Dutchman hid the headband under his hat in a flash, as if nothing was there before. He sighed and started complaining, "A damn yellow square and a pink star wrecked my whole ship, so I turned them into a vegetable after they wished me to become a Vegetarian. They're still in the blender, but I'll eat them later.

"Why are you taking it too far? Can't you just fix it with your power?" asked Vanessa.

"That's not the point, Mama Dutchman is coming tomorrow morning, and I have to spend my whole night cleaning!" complained, Flying Dutchman.

Vanessa nodded in understanding as she knew the identity of the yellow square and the pink star, "Okay, I get it. Now, can you help me take on that 6 giants? I don't want them to interrupt me while I fight those two monsters. Oh, and if you're done, help Leonidas and his men."

"Sure... Sure... Just visit Mama and Sally, they missed you. You've never visited again since the last Hanukkah." Flying Dutchman proceeds to pull out one of his eyes, preparing to finish the job in a flash.

"What are you doing...?" Vanessa's face paled all of a sudden. "Are you planning to send the whole city into the void?"

"Why? I can't do that?" he asked while scratching his cheek.

"Well, not that you can even if you try. I'm severely weakened, so just keep it mild... My family's here." replied Vanessa.

"Now that you mention it, my body felt a bit heavy. I thought I was getting fat," he said after plugging the eyeball back into his socket. He walked toward the six Tyrants and said, "Alright boys, let's change stage."

A green smoke appeared around Flying Dutchman as they wrapped the six Tyrants, teleporting them away along with the Flying Dutchman himself. With the six Tyrants taken care of, Vanessa could finally engage both Nemesis and the G3. But, among the two, only Nemesis presented an immediate threat.

After being blasted once again with the appearance of Flying Dutchman, both of them recovered and charged toward Vanessa. She didn't move from her spot and started to make a hand gesture, forming a circular pattern with his hand. Nemesis was much faster and bigger, he only needs to leap once to reach her. The pattern vanished as she spread her fingers.

"Thread of Agony."

Nemesis's movement paused into a complete stop. He couldn't even move a single muscle, as if he was a doll with strings attached to his body. The light blade on his tentacles almost minced her body into little square pieces. Her ability would paralyze Nemesis for ten seconds. She turned her body and launched the next spell with a single snap.

"Eye of Succubus."

A huge seductive eye appeared behind her, and stare at the approaching G3, slowly hypnotizing him into submission.

"Limbo, awaken," muttered Vanessa. Edward's Oni gauntlet appeared, covering her right forearm. The eyeball on the gauntlet looked around, and when it found that it was not Edward, it went berserk, trying to kill Vanessa. "Calm down, you naughty boy. Your owner is inside this body. If you kill me, you will also kill him."

Hearing her words, the gauntlet started to feel the presence of Edward. She was saying the truth. Limbo's rebellious behavior was something she expected. An Oni Gauntlet would only choose one user for the rest of its lifetime. It was not the first time she met Limbo, once it also appeared before her, but it rejected her, refusing to become her tool. It was so stubborn, if not for its tempting hidden power, she would have long destroyed it. However, that same gauntlet chose her son, making her curious.

"Cooperate with me for now, if you want your owner to keep on living," said Vanessa. The gauntlet thought it was a threat and started trembling in fury, thinking that Vanessa would kill him if it didn't comply. "Calm down, he's my son. That... is the thing you should worry about."

Vanessa pointed her finger toward Nemesis that was slowly getting out of her spell. "If you helped me, I'll let you take his soul."

Hearing Vanessa's offer, the Gauntlet become excited as the iris turned into a slit. After getting control of the Gauntlet, Vanessa spawned Blackbeard in her hand.

Bam! Bam!

The real fight finally begun as two-hole appeared on Nemesis's shoulder.

"Soul Piercer, Reload."

Two bullets appeared inside Blackbeard. Unlike Edward's Mental Bullet, her Soul Piercer had the power to directly damage the soul of her target.

Bam! Bam!

Nemesis screamed in agony as part of his soul fluttered out of him. It instantly absorbed by the Gauntlet, adding more power for Vanessa. Nemesis didn't stay still, it swiped his long claws at her, but it was blocked by another being, and it was the hypnotized G3. With him as a guard, Vanessa could focus on going all out. He used spell upon spell without stopping, carving out the soul of Nemesis and absorb it using Limbo.

Her power keeps fluctuating from 0 to 100 and from 100 to 0 again. It increases was caused by the multiple levels up that Edward experienced and the number of souls that Limbo absorbed, while the depletion of power was caused by her use of multiple spells and her familiar's power.

In another place, HUNK who saw the pillar of light a few minutes before felt something familiar from it. He left the Wolfpack's group and ran toward it with all of his might. But it will take some time until he could arrive. Nevertheless, he didn't stop running and keep ongoing.

Suddenly, a huge green cloud accompanied by a storm appeared in front of him. Six-figure fell on their knees, looking left and right, seeming confused at the sudden change in the landscape. HUNK recognized all of them as the Tyrant-00s, Umbrella's current most effective weapon.

He took out his sub-machine gun, an LE 5, a weapon that resembled MP-5. However, before he could attack them, another being appeared before him. The moment Flying Dutchman arrived, he turned three of the Tyrant into a sheep, blowing fire from his nose to burn down one of them. The two Tyrant that wasn't attacked, leaped toward him deliver a blow, but they could only pass through him. The burned Tyrant's upper body was turned into dust from the heat of the fire.

Flying Dutchman summoned a thunderstorm, enveloping the two Tyrant that attacked him in a magnetic field full of lightning. With two Tyrant trapped and one decimated, Flying Dutchman turned toward the three sheep. The countdown reached zero and they returned to their former body. But they weren't given any time to recover as Flying Dutchman attacked. He teleported behind them and threw two of the Tyrant away from each other using his telekinetic ability, leaving only one behind.

He pulled down a zipper in the air, forming a dimensional rift known as Fly of Despair. With one snap of a finger, Flying Dutchman threw the Tyrant into it to undergo an endless fall while being attacked by the void dwellers. After taking care of that one, he clapped his hand, making the two Tyrants that he threw away earlier returned after hitting each other with their bodies. He started to deliver another set of attacks to them, finally killing the two with his fire breath.

The two Tyrant that was trapped inside the magnetic field of the storm also died after hundreds of lightning passed through their bodies. A zipper opened itself in the air as it spits out the Last Tyrant. Flying Dutchman shapeshifts into a massive monster with a huge mouth and thousands of razor-sharp teeth, consuming the Tyrant's body and minced it to pieces.

Meanwhile, John Wick was dumbfounded by the scene that he couldn't even move an inch. Flying Dutchman who had returned to its original form glanced at him, and then spoke, "What are you looking at? Never saw a ghost before?"

He then turned into the nastiest and terrifying monster of all time to scare John, but the latter didn't even flinch. Flying Dutchman felt insulted by John's lack of response, he gathered strength in his hand to obliterate John. However, the force disappears as it touches him. Now it was Flying Dutchman that was dumbfounded. He didn't know that the man in front of him hold the Gear of Fate in his hand. Unless he wants it, John Wick would never die.