Chapter Seventeen: Bleeding Gold

Samuel,

Arrival was as twisted as this morning, with Madison Square Garden struck by a gas pipeline explosion. A large circular dome had broken off from the center and thrown on its side. The surrounding ground had broken apart with ripples going from the Madison into multiple directions, as wide as 3 to 5 feet. While the large rectangular building behind had caved inwards from the center.

Now that the moaning and moving sea of crazed people had clam down. The quietness of the crackling bones underneath the beating sun layered the streets of Manhattan. At this point, it had become a ghost town and for once, I was starting to appreciate the bustling streets.

Moving towards the demolished building of Madison Square Garden. I could see it emitting heat as swirling vapors dancing on top of it and it conjoined with the smell of burning corpses. Walking closer to its wide-open gates, the feeling of deranging nausea started to take hold.

There was a sort of creature that came into view, lying on a coagulated mess of revolting and fistula-filled flesh of his own. His arm folded and his mouth agape upwards in a trance. Behind him, was the chasm, responsible for the heat and smell of burnt flesh.

...

My heart started racing, as my breathing became lighter. My body tensed up, shooting electricity in different directions. Everything was becoming untrollable, the thought of cities and towns still sanding tall and the world still in motion, distilled me with anxiety.

His pupils came to and he looked at me, a hobbit-looking person. The top half resembled an old frantic naked fool and the rest blow his stomach was yellowish bloated flesh with leaking blisters of all sizes. "Ah...Samuel... you came. Good... come closer", it said in a raspy hushed tone. Since I could hear him clearly, despite the distance between us.

"What the fuck are you?", I barked back, unnerved with unusual aggression, but something didn't feel right. I felt this urge to break him, to burn him. Yet his words had a different persuasion to them. "I am... Someone who can give you... which she can not provide and which he... will not give to you. Do you not want power... is that not why you came here?", he whispered.

My mind went silent with strange numbness flowing through my body. "Power? I...I came here to?", I said hesitantly, not sure anymore as to why I was here. "Yes, yes! Power to be a disaster for the world... A power to destroy those fools you dare to question. They think controlling you is easy... they see you as nothing more than a child", he spoke with a sudden out-breath tone with me.

My teeth grind against each other. "They think I am a child!?", a thought that never occurred to me. The electricity only heightened, turning the metal on my glove cobalt blue. "Yes, especially that bitch!", he said in a deep-throated voice. "Now come to me and I will guide you to power... that you seek", he said and I smile.

"You will give me more?", I asked in a joyous tone. Hearing what I liked and wanted, made me step forward, reaching out for his lanky hand. Then she grabbed me by the ear and pulled me back.

"Owe, owe. let go!", I yelled and she stopped pulling it. I turned around to see her again, Raymond, but with a disappointing expression towards me. "What are you doing, playing in the paws of that fool. Have you forgotten why you were here?", she asked me.

I stared at it for a moment, feeling had disappeared by then, allowing me to feel my skin again. This caused me to rub my face with both hands. "I know... fuck me", I said turning around to face the bloated old fart but was left stunned.

My eyes tried focusing on what I was seeing, dotting around. "What hell is that, this was not...?", I said unable to make sense of the ever-shapeless black smoke and fire, burning to no point. Flowing back and around in a sphere. "Demons don't have a form to speak of. They twist human perception into a comprehensible figure", she explained.

"Neither do you...", a voice came out from the smoke. "why shall you interfere when it's not in your nature to do so? Running around with a corpse of a human...it's truly befitting you", it spoke without a mouth, his words hitting my mind.

She didn't give it a satisfying reaction to his taunt, just pointed her finger at it "pig". A torrent of rotten grime shot out of her fingertip, decaying bones, foul flesh, festering organs, and moldy skin. All colorizing onto the formless shape of the demon, giving it an unneeded mass to speak of.

Bones took on a humanoid structure, with flesh sticking onto the skeleton and skin stretching across, coming to life with reddish skin tone. Soon the creature made up of human scraps, stood up on his feet like a giant, usually muscular. Cracking its neck, his horns penetrated out of its crown. Curling inwards similar to a goat's, its ear pulled back and snout above two rows of sharp teeth.

She grabbed my shoulder while I stared in awe and came next to my ear. "Look closely now, though that is not what it should be, it will give you a target to strike upon and this definitely can die. But be careful, though it might not want to kill. It does want to drag you into hell. So be quick on your feet, okay" she explained in whispers.

As she shared the words of confident, his eyes opened with a soft golden glow. Opened its mouth, as if to yawn, only to choke on the air. Immediately pulling back its face and making a disgusted face. "What the fuck...is, what am I tasting...Ah! this is more putrid than my murky pit! What did you do to me!", Mamon snarled back.

"You want yourself back", she pushed me forward. "Kill him and you can have it your way". "Wait, wait, wait...what about me". I said, turning back and she gone with the wind. Facing back to Mamon, his wrinkle cheeks moved upwards, making a grin.

...

Raising both of his arms, he caused the ground to shake violently and break apart from beneath my feet. At that moment I turned around to make my escape, electricity wrapping around my feet. A deep roar came from behind me and it started, raging wind hit the face obscuring the groundbreaking apart and hurling towards me.

A glance and I caught the one right in front of me. A burst of electricity shot me over it, stepping on the edge, I jumped forward. Only to catch one hurling at me sideways, right in my face, causing my head to jerk back and I fall back onto the ground. Shaking the feeling of nausea, I quickly opened my eyes to see a falling iron beam coming right at my face.

A burst of electricity shot me off the ground, as the beam broke into the ground next to me. "Why are running, I won't hurt you...I swear!", Mamon roared. looking up, I saw the remaining ceiling had begun to come down at me. Railings and all, he wanted to bury me.

So I decided to make my escape from above, the only exit near me. While multiple pieces of sheets of metal and iron beams came flying through the air. I scrunched down, as it was time to try to fly. Letting electricity build up for a second, before launching myself up.

Seeing one of the beams, I aimed my hand and tethered myself to it, pulling myself onto it. As soon as my feet made contact with the iron beam, I released a quick burst, launching myself to the next one and continuing the tethered. "Hell yeah, Spiderman can eat shit!".

"Come here you coward!", I heard him roar below. Reaching the outside with a final blast, I came under the shade of a cloudy sky. Pulling myself onto the powerline, sliding across and blasting myself off again, towards the rectangular building behind it. I landed on it a little shaken, I hunched on my knees, my mind was racing alongside my heart.

Why was my head still in one piece, I just hand a large chunk of concrete hit straight on? I never broke a bone in my life, but this was a bit ridiculous.

...

I went straight, wiping what a little snot had come out. Looking right ahead at the tallest building in the world, sticking out like a sore thumb, the Empire State building. The moment of admiration for something which was now on my bucket list to destroy was cut short by a large roar behind me and a heavy rumble.

Coming to edge, I saw him, now looking more beast-like. Hunch down on all four, his back stretched forward and his shoulder rearranged. Bulkier than before, with massive arms and buck-like legs with hoofs. His lips again curled upwards on his pig face, turning in a grin that sent shivers down my spine.

And then it started running, I didn't think and started running myself. Coming to the edge and Leaping off the building to the streets below and was halfway to reaching the next one. When he broke out from the middle of the building from behind me at freighting speed. Looking behind me seeing him with his creepy ass grin, as grabbed me with a hand that was easily able to grab my whole body.

Instantly I was pushed onto the pavement, immense weight crushing my body. I felt my spin bent inwards and my arms and legs scratched outwards, unable to move them. Felt that they might break, but not. It should have been impossible for him to move this fast with a massive body like his.

"HAHA, look at that! A fucking pimp thinking it could run away! Maybe that bitch filled your ear with too many lies! The truth is you are nothing just fucking shitty mistake! A scared little dumb shit child! You hear! A fucking coward!".

"Shut up!", I yelled in frustration gripping my hand tightly while eating dirt. Releasing as much electricity as I could. But then he just started laughing even harder. "Funny, that tickles! Oh well, time to take you to hell. HAHA!", he said pushing me further into the road. There I realized that I was stuck to the ground while trying to shock him.

Unaffected and completely unharmed, my electricity didn't shit, so much for a fucking candle to be put out. This caused me to lose hope, believing that the next few moments might be my last When suddenly the weight disappeared and the pig roared in pain.

He stumbled back while crawling out from underneath a rotting arm and away from a sort of grave. I turned around to look at the Mamon with a severed arm, bleeding molten gold. As it fell to the ground, immediately it started to cool down.

He turned his head to his side, which I followed, seeing Raymond with a slay expression. Then came a deep rumble from the demon's belly, a chuckle of sorts. He turned to me, "Look at that, the bitch is pitying you".

I snapped and electricity wrapped around me, as I swung my hand at him. Shooting a wave of electricity cutting through his face and hitting the building behind him. While he roared in pain bleeding gold from his ruptured eye. I turned around to book it, tethering myself to the powerline at the corner of the street, pulling myself onto it.

...

A painful roar quickly turned into one of rage, his voice verberated through the surrounding air. While I zoomed across with electricity, as the thumping began, I ignored it. I didn't want to admit it, but I was scared, all I needed was some time to think, get my thoughts straight. While lost in my head, my body went up in the air, my vision became upside down.

I caught myself on the street, my body hitting with a loud thud. I jumped off the ground while confused, turning around to see Mamon pulling back the powerlines, snapping them off from the rest. The next moment he flicked them toward me and they came to life, moving on their own accord. One immediately whipped through the air and appeared right next to my face.

I hunched down in time with my hair getting severed with speed, but was unable to dodge the one heading for my legs. Crack and my legs flew upwards, causing my head to hit the street. My brain shook inside my skull. I raised my arm to push myself off the ground, only for a line to zip at me and wrapped around my wrist.

Pulled me off instead and whipped me to my left, then with a jolt, it swung me towards the other side. Stright into a clothing store to the side, part of the Manhatten Mall. I covered my face, while my body went through the glass and concrete, cheap T-shirts and accessories flying everywhere.

Focusing my mind with all my might, I grabbed onto the cable and pumped as much electricity as I could into it at that moment. Causing the wire to heat up red hot, until it melted away, releasing me.

But nothing made sense in the next few moments, as powerlines acting as whips, broke into the store. While I covered my head and began to run, just to get caught with incoming powerlines from all sides, wrapping around and pulling me outside. Afraid of getting caught, I instantly released as much as electricity at the moment and it worked, melting them away.

Not before they threw me back on the street, seeing my clothes and my body still clinging to my person. I shook my head and tried to get back up, just before I noticed the giant standing next to me. I looked at him, his arm pulled back and his pig face grinning and showing his sharp teeth, which had already healed from the side. Along with his arm as if nothing had happened.

My shoulders dropped, realizing full well what was to come. Just before he swung his massive hand at my torso, with an unimaginable force.