Chapter 12: Victor's Triumph

The founder of Gable Finance, tech magnate, entrepreneur, philanthropist and ambassador for world peace; summed up the many titles that Victor wore. Not one man on the face of the Earth was of such importance like Victor that not even the president of the United States of America came close. With his worth marking just over one trillion dollars, the president was quite frankly beneath him.

As a testament to his riches, his Gable Finance Tower was a giant among giants in the Downtown business centre. A modern-day tower of Babel. It stood at a staggering four hundred-storeys, far taller than the other impressive skyscrapers which more or less ranged between the heights of two hundred and thirty-storeys to three hundred and fifty-storeys high. The company itself was heavily invested in the city, selflessly sponsoring the construction of low-income houses for the poor, children hospitals, donating high-tech police equipment, scholarships and so on. He was the beloved son of Beacon City and soon to the world.

At the very top floor of his building, a man was in his lobby sitting anxiously with a green duffel bag in his lap. He held onto it very dearly. He had silky black hair which he neatly secured in a pony-tail. Perspiration ran down his forehead continuously even though the lobby was cold to the point of needing a coat. He then beheld a very confident-looking, Chinese woman walking towards him from a distance; walking as if she was a fierce model tearing down the runway. She wore a neatly strapped blouse and a tight miniskirt. A tablet was hinged at her side as she walked. On reaching the man, she was revealed to be Merci.

"Mr Gable is ready to see you," she greeted with a straight face.

So the chubby-looking man got up with the duffel bag and followed her as she led the way. Once they had reached the CEO's office, she allowed him to enter first and on her way in she closed the door. Victor Gable was the CEO of his own company and he was sitting around his desk looking ten years younger. His skin had fully rejuvenated with far fewer wrinkles and age spots than before. His hair had also started to grow back. Her sister who was already in the office, stood obediently next to Victor's chair on the left. She soon followed and took her place on his right.

"These two are new," the man hesitantly commented with a shaky voice.

"Ah. Meet Merci and Jade. A little gift I brought back with me from my last visit to Hong Kong," Victor replied.

"So they are your bodyguards?" He cautiously asked while resting down his duffel bag on the carpet-covered floor.

"Something like that...by any chance, Otis, did you found what I sent you for?"

"It took me some time, but yes. I've finally found it," Otis replied with a hint of wariness in his voice as he unzipped his duffel bag to present a four feet long sword in his hands to Victor. The sword was still sealed in its original silver case that was intricately engraved with unearthly symbols and creatures. "It's a triumph, Victor. A marvellous sight to behold."

"That it is, Otis," Victor smiled from ear to ear, "that it is."

A beam of sunlight was then reflected off the sword's shiny case and into Jade's face. Right at that moment the flashy sword quite literally caught Jade's eye and interest. Victor shortly after nodded at her to take the sword from Otis, which she did and placed behind them on a shelf that had other interesting relics on display. Howbeit, while setting the sword properly on the shelf, she accidentally pricked her finger on it, drawing blood. But she thought nothing of it and went to resume her place by his side.

"You don't know how much trouble I went through to get that sword," Otis continued. "I had to travel to forty cities throughout the Middle East; twelve countries in all. The locals weren't always friendly and on top of that, I wasn't the only one seeking this artefact. There were others."

Then unannounced, Carlos burst through the doors looking dapper in an expensive-looking brown suit. "Sorry bad habit," he unapologetically shrugged.

Everyone immediately looked at him awkwardly. Then Victor said, "Ladies if you would be so kind to show Otis out," in an attempt to get them to leave.

"What about my pay?" Otis protested passively while the two women began to escort him out.

"They will take care of that. Won't you ladies?" Victor replied, asking them.

"Sure thing, Mr Gable," Merci confirmed, smiling sinisterly with Victor as she closed the door on their way out; giving him and Carlos their privacy.

"My-my, you're sure looking especially young today," Carlos complimented with an envious look.

"I know," Victor smiled before getting up out of his chair and walking over to the glass wall of his building, where he later looked down on the city with an optimistic stare. "Thanks to the Father, I'm whole again. Carlos, I'm a true believer. Now I want nothing more than to see us succeed in our vision for a new world."

"Victor, enough with the games. I know you have it. Now, where is it?"

"What are you babbling about this time, Carlos?" Victor immediately turned around to face him.

"For months I've entrusted my best men to search for a specific Mesopotamian sword. A couple of days ago it showed up in an Islamic antiquity auction over in Tehran. I almost had the sword, but I was outbid by just fifty million from an 'anonymous buyer'," Carlos then looked at Victor suspiciously.

"You got me. Guilty as charged. I had to have it for myself, Carlos...for safekeeping that is." Then spitefully Victor walked over to the shelf, took the sword into his hands and tried to remove it from its metallic case. But he was unsuccessful as the sword seemed to be as one with its case. "Legends say no man has ever removed the sword from its case. I guess I have the right sword in my possession," Victor further taunted.

"It belongs with The Family," Carlos declared, bitterly watching Victor as he delicately placed the sword back on his shelf.

Victor subsequently turned around with a pretend hurtful look on his face. "I'm Family, Carlos."

"No, you're not."

"Have you forgotten? The Father practically named me his right-hand man," Victor called to remembrance, taking Carlos' claim seriously.

"None of the twelve elders including myself voted for your inception. He may have named you his 'right hand', but none of us will ever accept you as one of us. There are set procedures, Victor...procedures that must be adhered to before one can assume a seat on The Family. It has been so for decades."

"Carlos, correct me if I'm wrong, but based on my knowledge there are thirteen seats on The Family."

"Yes, but---"

"Good. Therefore as The Father's right hand, I name myself the thirteenth elder and I say the sword stays with me. End of discussion."

"You think you're all that don't you?" Carlos said, shaking his head in amusement. "You have your money...your company and now a prominent seat on The Family. Everything just keeps falling into your lap. Meanwhile, the rest of us have to go through hell before we can reach anywhere."

"Careful, Carlos. If I didn't know better, I would say you're starting to sound a little jealous."

"Jealous of you? Ha! Never. In less than a week you'll revert to your old miserable self. Why would I be jealous of that? But I bet you didn't know that? Of course not, how could you've known."

A nervous silence then took wing, marking Carlos getting the upper hand in their not so friendly banter. Victor not wanting Carlos to feel victorious then said, "Nice try, but I'm not allowing you to get under my skin this time, Carlos. I was healed. You saw it for yourself."

"But you weren't. Not quite. I've seen him done this before on others like yourself...promising them the world and all that it had to offer. Sadly, it never yet ended well for any of them. They always seemed to wound up as the person they were destined to be: diseased...weak...and...pathetic. You're an old man, Victor. It's high time you've accepted that. A king has his reign then he dies."

"Get out," Victor's top lip quivered in anger. "Get out!"

With a smile plastered on his face, Carlos shamelessly left. His words had done the damage. His work was done. The fire, the pride that was in Victor's eyes earlier, simply began to dwindle. He was left in anguish to contemplate the true extent of his wellness.

Shortly after Carlos had left Deimos appeared out of nowhere in his usual long black cloak which acted like a festering dark aura covering his body. It's important to note that he had a demon form, but he never appeared in that form to them. Instead, he appeared only in the form of a man, the same dark-skinned man that had placed voices inside Essen's head; that attacked him with telekinesis. Presumably, this man was the original leader of The Family. His body was possessed and his soul cast out by the demon when they had released it at CERN some sixteen years ago in their attempt to make contact with other dimensions.

Suddenly, for some reason, he hissed on seeing the sword on the shelf. "The blade offends me," he informed, turning away his face from its glare.

"Is it true?" Victor asked, getting straight to the point. "Am I still sick?"

"Despite how misguided he seems, Carlos is telling the truth. I cannot grant you what you seek. I can merely buy you time until you've finished your purpose."

"Then what, I eventually die while you and others reap all the benefits from the work and the capital I put in? That's not going to happen you hear me! No matter how much time I have left. I can promise you that," Victor threatened, picking up his touchscreen phone from off his desk and selecting a phone number on it. "It was a mistake from the start when I got involved with you people. I'm cutting off all funding right this instance. If I'm going to die, your undertaking is going to die too."

"Wait. I cannot grant you immortality, but he can," the demon pleaded after seeing Victor with his phone at his ear.

"Who can?" Victor quickly asked, temporarily removing the phone from his ear.

"Our lord and saviour. He can free you from your sufferings...permanently. But we need to free him from his imprisonment. You humans'...I mean our machine at CERN can do this, with certain alteration of course. Victor, that is why your continuous funding is of the utmost importance."

"When all is said and done, how do I know he will uphold his part of the bargain once freed from this imprisonment."

"He's a being of light and truth. He will do what he promises and bless all those who serve him loyally. He will cleanse the Earth of everyone just for us, his chosen people to start over. Victor, out of all his disciples you are the most important to him. You are the key to a better world. Just imagine when that happens. We will be gods, Victor," Deimos replied, resting his filthy hands on Victor's shoulders; filthy in the sense that his nails were overgrown and stuffed with black goo and between his fingers laid slim.

"A god you say?" Victor began smiling with himself mischievously.

"A god of gods," Deimos later whispered into his ear, working up his never-ending thirst for power.

This was however bad news for Carlos who had not gone anywhere. He was just outside the door hearing everything he wasn't supposed to hear. He had expected the Father's arrival in his absence and because of that, his heart swelled with discontentment.

Meanwhile, some few miles away, Merci and Jade had carried Otis in the trunk of a car to an isolated part of the city's port. They then took him out of the trunk with his hands tied and eyes blindfolded. They proceeded to direct him onto a wooden dock that was before them.

"I don't understand," Otis worried. "Is this some kind of surprise, because if it is it's totally unnecessary?"

"Trust me this is not a surprise. At least not the one you're expecting," Merci grinned when she said this. Jade, however, frowned at her, knowing what she meant.

"Then what is it?" He further asked as they came to a halt with him at the edge of the dock.

Merci then removed his blindfold and answered plainly, "We're going to kill you, Otis. That's the surprise," she shortly after pulled out a handgun that was equipped with a silencer and pointed it into his face. "The fishes will thereafter feast upon your fat corpse," she continued.

Otis was so shocked when she said this, that it caused him to cry. "Please don't do this. If it's the high price I'd charged Victor for finding the sword, you can tell him that I've changed my mind. He doesn't have to pay me. Tell him it's on the house. Please just don't kill me. Please."

"Quit your whining, Otis and take it like a man," Merci insisted, pointing the gun up into his forehead.

"Please! Please don't do it. Please," Otis begged with huge tears running down his face.

Jade couldn't bear his cry for mercy, so while cringing, she decided to look away. However, her sister noticed.

"You know what I don't have time for this big cry baby. Here, you do it," Merci suggested, handing Jade the gun and tentatively anticipating her response.

Jade hesitated at first. But she eventually took the gun out of Merci's hand and went over to point it into Otis' face. Suddenly she started to have flashbacks of herself holding her katana at Antonio's neck. Then she remembered Merci shooting him in his forehead and the blood that followed, running down on both sides of his nose like tears. Her finger trembled on the trigger when she remembered all this and looked at Otis now in front of her begging for his life.

"Please, I don't want to die. I want to live," he afterwards held down his head and closed his weeping eyes, hoping that he'll just wake up out of this terrible nightmare.

"What are you waiting for? Shoot him!" Merci said, getting extremely impatient with her sister.

But Jade was wrestling with Merci's command, biting her lips and gripping the gun tighter.

"Jade, shoot him!" Merci pressed again.

Then to her disappointment, Jade instead turned the gun on her. "The keys are still in the ignition. Go. Take it and leave now," Jade ordered Otis.

In disbelief, the young man lifted his head and looked at her. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. Now go before I change my mind!"

"Thank you," Otis replied with the biggest smile on his face; jogging to the car with his hands still tied. He somehow got the car engine running and drove away to safety.

"You have no idea what you've just done," Merci shortly warned before Jade rendered her unconscious with a swift hit from the gun butt to her head.

"Forgive me sister, but I have to do this," Jade said regretfully before running off.