315: A Plague of Phantoms: Old Dog, Older Tricks III

"…I'll deal with these poor buggers, we'll work together ta deal with the others at the end of the tunnel."

The soldiers all looked serious as the drew combat knifes and got into a fighting stance. Many of them glancing between myself and the corpse of their comrade. None of them came rushing at me in a spurt of anger like I expected them to and instead studied me, looking for a weakness.

'Well trained…and used ta seeing their comrades fall in battle. Unlike 'em army brats these Border Guard boys have seen real combat.' I thought.

The leader of the soldiers made quick hand gestures to the rest of his squad and they all fanned out to attack me at once. I took a couple steps forward and started another incantation.

"Gather, condense, and shape to my will! Sever the link to light and life with a biting kiss! Vocallian cast: Libera Chopper" I chanted.

"STOP HIM! NOW!" The leader yelled and rushed towards me but I had already finished the incantation.

A axiom spell sigil formed in front of the combat knife I held in my hand and violet energy flowed from the sigil and into the knife. The energy stretched and elongated the blade until it took the shape of a axe.

The first of the soldiers reached me and threw a punch aimed at my chin while a second soldier came at me from the other side and slashed at my throat. I stepped back and brought the hand with the axe up, dodging both attacks. I then quickly brought the axe down and severed the arm of the second soldier. Then pivoted while grabbing the arm of the first soldier, knocking him off balance and sending him careening into a third soldier that was trying to get into my blind spot.

"Smolder, ash, boil to burst! Reave unto all with crimson heart! Vocallian cast: Agni Ash burn!" I chanted as a offensive spell sigil formed in front of my outstretched hand and a stream of fire spewed from it, catching the second and third soldier on fire.

"GET BEHIND HIM!" The leader yelled.

I dashed straight towards the leader. He backpedaled and let the fifth and sixth solder try to attack my sides but I skidded to a stop and threw my axe to the side. It flew in an arch around me and decapitated the fifth soldier then flew around my body and sliced the sixth soldier in half through the waist before flying back into my hand.

"That's not possible!" The seventh soldier exclaimed as he stumbled backward. The leader skidded to a stop and backpedaled a bit before running over to the seventh soldier's side.

"It's magic laddie, no such thing as not possible." I said hefting the axe onto my shoulder. I leveled both soldiers with a glare and shook my head. "Ya know, all this could've been avoided. But American's are too proud. Yer all gonna die in this cave…nobody knowing what happened ta ya, only saving grace of that bein' nobody'll kno' how easily ya died."

"Fuck this!" The seventh soldier exclaimed then turned and ran back up the tunnel towards the cave entrance.

"Corporal Brooks!" The leader yelled after his subordinate. I sighed, feeling a little disappointed in the boy.

"Well fuck a duck! Now I'ma have ta chase after the little shit!" I exclaimed, watching the terrified soldier disappear into the shadows. I reared my arm back then threw the axe down the tunnel. "Not!"

The axe flew past the leader with a spin and disappeared down the tunnel, a few seconds later the sounds of breaking bones, tearing flesh, and screams of pain echoed the tunnel. I held my hand out and the axe flew back down the tunnel, once again passing by the leader and flying right into my hand.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! MY LEGS! MY FUCKING LEGS!" A voice cried out from further down the tunnel. The leader looked terrified now as he looked back at me.

"I was told you weren't a splicer! This was supposed to be easy!" The leader exclaimed in disbelief.

"If ya had gotten ta live as long as I have, you'd probably have learned a simple truth of this world. There are four types of creatures in this world: humans, animals, evos, and monsters that humans create." I said with a sigh then started towards the leader.

"You're a evo?" The leader gasped taking a step back. I grimaced as a swath of memories and nightmares flashed in the back of my mind. Moments of my childhood that I tried my hardest to keep buried. I shook my head again then opened my eyes to look at the younger man.

"Naw, sadly fer ya I'm the monster." I said then slashes horizontally at the leader, the shaft of the axe lengthened as I swung and grew to allow me to decapitate him.

The leader's body fell lifelessly among the other corpses of his squad. I turned my attention to the screams and cries of the coward of the squad and walked down the tunnel to find him. I found him crawling in the ground, his feet at least six feet from where the rest of his body was. He was barely alive, only hanging on through sheer determination and will to live. I quickly ended his suffering with one chop to the skull.

With the last of the soldiers dead I heaved a heavy sigh then headed back to where I had left Colossus. The little Hell-Hog was sitting patiently where I had left him. He looked slightly confused but otherwise uncovered by the carnage around him.

"We going to kill the others now?" Colossus asked. I arched a brow at that question. I expected him to ask how I could use magic I was a normie.

"Ya don't have questions?" I asked in response. Colossus shook his head.

"You're the old man, Old man Grandsire of Star Shaper, Star Shaper super strong which means you super strong too!" Colossus exclaimed. I was stunned to silence from the simplistic way that Colossus rationalized everything but quickly got over it.

"Come on then, the soldiers at the bottom of the tunnel won't wait forever." I said walking past Colossus and snapping my finger. This undid Slaughter's playground and Libera Chopper. Colossus quickly trotted after me and kept pace with me as we descended down the tunnel.

"Old man, how do you know there are more men at the bottom of the tunnel?" Colossus asked.

"Because the smart move would be to ambush yer target where they'd be at their weakest, exiting a dimly lit cave and stepping into the sunlight." I replied.

"Oooooh! When you'd be blinded temporarily by the light." Colossus exclaimed. I nodded and fixed my eyes straight ahead, to the small glimmer of sunlight in the distance.

"What is the plan Old man?" Colossus asked. I smirked and looked down at the small evo and pulled a small manacite dagger from a slit in the pocket of my pants and held it up for the Hell-Hog to see. His eyes widened when he recognized the knife.

"A Crystal Genesis spell dagger!" Colossus gasped. "How did you get that? Did the Star Shaper give it to you?"

"Not exactly…I might o've borrowed it…just in case." I replied. Colossus narrowed his eyes at me then snorted. His next words surprising me.

"I won't tell if you don't."

"Then this…and everything else will be our little secret." I said then slowed my pace a little.

As we stepped out of the cavern I immediately sensed anger and bloodlust directed at me but saw nobody nearby. I was standing in a mountain side forest, plenty of cover and dark corners to hide in. I sighed and took a few steps further down the pathway leading to the foot of the mountain.

"You all might as well come out. I already took care of the other team inside the cave! They weren't much of threat or a challenge!" I called out.

"They were a bunch of weaklings! The Old man killed them all without breaking a sweat!" Colossus chimed in.

I started to say something else when I suddenly felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up again. I crouched just in time, a loud pop rang out and a bullet whizzed over my head. I grabbed Colossus and dove behind a nearby tree as several more shots rang out, hitting the tree Colossus and I were hiding behind.

'Need ta hurry up and seal off the area afore the gunfire attracts attention…' I thought. A loud explosion suddenly echoed from the top of mountain where the observation deck was. 'Or maybe not…it sounds like Chase picked the right nerve.'

"Deflect all that would pierce, contain all that would alarm, blend and conceal this universe within a well. Vocallian cast: Slaughter's playground!" I chanted while channeling mana into my vocal cords. Several more gun shots rang out and bullets slammed into the side of the tree.

An axiom spell sigil formed in front of my mouth. A blue wave flowed from the spell sigil and spread across the ground stretching outwards towards the direction of gunshots. I expanded the field of the spell as far as I could and ended up catching twenty soldiers in the spell.

'More then I thought…better use that dagger I borrowed from Starlight…' I thought then looked down at a fuming Colossus, who's mohawk was burning a deep blue hue.

"What the fuck? My gun stopped working!" Someone yelled from the woods.

"A splicer? I thought the old man was a normie!" Another called out. I chuckled at that as I locked eyes with Colossus. He nodded his head in affirmation then snorted, blue embers spewing from his nostrils.

I channeled mana into the manacite dagger and started casting an axiom spell sigil in my free hand. A bright green light glowed in my chest, illuminating the manacite core behind my heart and showing every heartbeat. At the same time green energy collected in my hand and condensed into a heart shaped crystal.

'Heh, cute…' I thought then stood up and crushed the crystal in my hands.

"CRYSTAL GENESIS ACTIVATE!" I bellowed.

A wave of mana rushed from the crystal and struck Colossus then sending another wave back that struck me. Colossus was lifted into the air by an invisible force while green crystal started covering his body.

"COLOSSUS CRYSTAL MERGE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Colossus curled into the fetal position then shattered into a cloud of dust that whirled around me before being absorbed into my skin. I closed my eyes and let out a breath, breathing flames instead as I was lifted into the air and my body covered in green crystal.

I felt my body beginning to become altered, my body getting taller by a foot at least, bulkier, and much more muscular. My hands expanding to more than double their size. My face warped and stretched; a snout replacing my nose, two floppy ears sprouting from the top of my head, and four six inch tusks made of solid crystal sprouted from my lower jaw. My feet were replaced by hooves as I sprouted a long vine-like tail, at the end of it a third hand grew until it was the same size as my other ones.

As the last of my body's transformation came to its end I felt Colossus consciousness starting to fuse with my own. The distinction between my thoughts becoming more blurred as I went from being Seamus MacClery: the monster and Colossus: the Hell-Hog and became….

Asmodeus

"ASMODEUS! WE ARE UNITED!" I bellowed as the crystal shell around my body shattered into dust and then reformed into a kilt adorned with flaming skulls and chains around my waist.

"HE CAN FUSE LIKE THOSE FUCKING MONSTERS LAST NIGHT!!!!!" A soldier screamed.

"RETREAT! WE CAN'T FIGHT THAT!" Another soldier yelled.

I stepped out from behind the tree Seamus and Colossus had been taking cover behind and looked out at the forest before me. There were a couple of soldiers hiding behind trees and trying in vain to shoot off their guns while others fled towards the bottom of the mountain. Little did they know that was also in vain.

"Run, fight, it makes no difference. You will all die in the end." I said then held my two arms out and channeled mana into my vocal cords and started chanting a vocallian spell. "Gather, condense, and shape to my will! Sever the link to light and life with a biting kiss! Blaze to life and burst but thrice, a raging cleaver, a reaper's scythe! Vocallian cast: Ignition reaper blaze scythe!"

A small ball of flame formed in front of me and grew until it was the size of small human. I reached into the flames with two hands and pulled out a large scythe made of solidified flames and held it in both hands. I thrust my third hand in and pulled out a blazing axe.

"You picked the wrong old man to fuck with! Time to die!"