Chương 133: 46 - YOUNG BODIES, OLD SOULS

T'balt, Tyene, and Vienna took a car upstate, leaving Abbot Kilgrove in charge of the church until their return. The trip to the Loot Thief was going to take half a day, Tyene had said. It was a pain for T'balt to have to sit in the car that long. No matter how fast Vienna drove, it wasn't going to match the speed of the Wanderer, leaving him antsy in the backseat. Though Tyene was there to fill up the empty space with conversation so it didn't feel too bad. He felt like he could talk to her for hours.

There was so much to say between the many lives that they lived. It wasn't the usual repeated conversations that he would have with Ellie and the others. It was all new ground, and just the idea that he wouldn't have to worry about repeating the conversation in another life felt almost exhilarating and at the same time nerve-racking. There weren't any retries with her. There was no already knowing what she would say. So when they spoke, it felt like all he could give her was the real T'balt, whoever that was now.

Talking with Tyene somehow made everything he'd gone through since deciding to search for the Looter's Paradise feel worth it.

"So random question," he started.

"Are you really 36?"

"Excuse me. Do I look 36 to you?" Tyene turned to him sharply from the front of the car.

"Oh no... sorry. I was just curious. I know that's a rude thing to ask…" he started to feel like he did before Zero Day, getting clammy and nervous and not wanting to offend her. But he should've known by now that Tyene never got offended at normal things. It was always just a tease.

"I'm 35, thank you very much. I'm a few months younger than Vienna."

"Oh, interesting."

"Is that a problem?" She saw the contemplative look on his face.

"No. I just didn't realize you were 10 years older than me."

"You poor summer child…" She feigned pity.

"You really have to stop thinking like a normie."

"What do you mean?"

"My body is 10 years older than yours, sure, but I'm a Redeemer, remember. In reality, I have to be at least 120." T'balt choked on his own gasp, causing Tyene to laugh hysterically.

"What, didn't realize you were talking to an elderly woman? 25 years old. He's such a wittle baby, isn't he, Vienna?"

"I've always thought he resembled a child in an adult's body," Vienna said without even a hint that she was joking.

"Shut up." T'balt's face was beet red.

"I'm at least 28 now. But it's hard to keep track. I'm probably way older than that… so what kind of beast is the Loot Thief anyway?" He was desperate to change the subject. Tyene smirked, reading his intention but answering anyway.

"It's a strange one. They call it a thief, but it doesn't exactly go around thieving. It sits mostly in one spot. I used to call it the surgeon, but I'm never the first to name it, so of course that wasn't the one to catch on."

"It only sits in one spot? Why?"

"It's waiting."

"For what?"

"People to find it, I think, but who really knows? Who really cares? We just gotta kill it." It wasn't long before the call pulled over on a bridge overlooking the downtown area of a city. It was half-decimated, tall buildings destroyed and cleaned out, week-old corpses in the streets, human and demon. The ground looked like it would implode at any moment. It looked like the remnants of a war. But that wasn't the most alarming thing about it. It was far from the most alarming thing. That was downright normal.

What wasn't was the army of Seraphs floating in the sky. There were dozens of them just aimlessly floating above the city. Giant stone angels with eyeballs decorating their wings and stone tomes in their hands. T'balt almost croaked right then and there, remembering what just one of those things was capable of.

"What the hell? Why are there so many?" Tyene and Vienna looked up at them after getting out of the car. They were unconcerned, Tyene having seen this before and Vienna being Vienna.

"Oh, those things? Yeah, they're a real pain in the ass sometimes."

"Why didn't you tell me about them?"

"Don't act so scared. You literally killed their daddy. It's like freaking out at the minions when you've already beaten the final boss." T'balt got out of the car behind them.

"Yeah, but…" Then she remembered.

"You really don't remember doing that, do you?" This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. T'balt shook his head.

"It's fine. I can take em."

"You're gonna fight them?"

"Of course not," she scoffed.

"I'm going to take a speed loot, and I'm gonna run as fast as I can."

"When did you go out hunting for speed loot?" T'balt asked.

"I stole it from your stash," Vienna spoke quickly, not giving him time to be upset about it. She pulled the speed loot out of her pocket and handed it to Tyene, who pushed aside her long red hair to equip it. The black stamp formed right under her Redeemer stamp.

"Those Seraphs are here to guard the Loot Thief," Tyene said.

"Trying to take them all on at once is basically suicide, so not many are even able to get to the thing. But they have a huge murder-boner for Redeemers. It'll be easy to distract them. While I do that, you and Vienna can go in the subway tunnels and deal with the monster." She took off her jacket and handed it to Vienna. She was wearing a thin black tank top and matching shorts. Something a woman might wear to the gym.

She also had a grey beanie on her head, far enough back so that a small orange pigtail could stick off the side of her head. Between her and Vienna, who wore a track jacket and yoga pants, they just looked like two girls going to the gym and not like two women about to face down alien monsters. Tyene started stretching.

"So what happens when we reach the—" T'balt tried to ask. Then he realized he was talking to the air, as Tyene had disappeared, running into the city. She sped around until she got close enough to one of the Seraphs to throw a rock at it.

"Has anyone ever told you that you've got some real bad resting bitch face!?" she yelled at it. It slowly cocked its head. When it saw her, the stone creature opened its mouth, and something sounding like a screeching choir came out. That alerted all the other ones. It only took a few seconds before several bright flashes of light appeared above her, standing in the middle of the street. The light reformed the bodies of twelve Seraphs, all pointing their finger at her.

The tips of their fingers started to glow brightly before shooting out radiant beams of light at her location. She was already moving by the time they aimed. Because of their massive frames, they weren't hard to avoid. Just cut between buildings and down alleys that their bodies were too big to fit through, and all they could do was shoot their light at her. Though those weren't easy to dodge. The beams struck their targets almost instantaneously, being made of light and all.

She had bad memories of getting turned to Swiss cheese several times. But those memories told her where to dodge and which alleys to run down.

"Tag you're it," she called, leaping from a building to slap one of the Seraphs on the ass as another shot a beam of light at light that turned into friendly fire as it blew a hole in that same stone ass. She started laughing once she landed through the broken window of another building. It was the first time she pulled that trick and was decently satisfied with the result. Or maybe not.

She didn't recognize the building she was in now, and there were suddenly three Seraphs on each side of it, ready to blow it to kingdom come.

"Uh oh." T'balt watched a cacophony of bright light destroy a skyscraper in the middle of a city.

"That can't be good." His instinct told him to run in that direction, considering it looked like a dramatic death scene from an anime. But he stopped himself.

"If that killed her, we would've reset by now." Then he watched the Seraphs fly out towards the city outskirts in a rampant panic, continuing to phase in and out of light and shoot from their fingers.

"I guess she's fine then…" he groaned.

"I wish she would've given me something more than just some subway tunnel. How am I supposed to find the Loot Thief?" Vienna gently folded Tyene's jacket and placed it in the car.

"I'll show you the way. Lady Tyene… I mean, Tyene instructed me on how to find the beast, and I've memorized the complete layout of the city's subway system. Get in the car." She commanded a bit too aggressively.

"Right…" Without all the Seraphs around, they were able to drive freely inside the city. Once the pile of abandoned cars got too much to drive through, they went the rest of the way on foot. Vienna led him to a set of stairs on the city sidewalk that went underground. It was completely dark down there. T'balt felt like he was about to step into an abyss. He had no idea what kind of monster was going to be waiting for him down there. He hesitated. But Vienna had no mind for something as silly as, you know… fear.

She walked straight down the stairs, using the flashlight she brought to light the way.

"Hey, wait." T'balt had to run to catch up with her before that stream of light disappeared down there. It was like something out of a horror film down there. Everywhere the light flashed was broken infrastructure, crumbled concrete, and blood splatters. Every few steps T'balt had to catch himself from tripping over a corpse. It was often easy to forget how rough Zero Day would've been for everyone who didn't know it was coming.

This place was the finest example of what a bloodbath that day was outside the comfort of the church. Eventually, they made their way to one of the train stops. A train looked to have derailed onto the middle platform, blocking the way. A bunch of people were on it when it crashed. He could only see what Vienna pointed the flashlight at, but knew the stench of death all too well at this point. And it was the most potent he had ever smelled it here.

"What kind of demon can derail an entire train like that?" he wondered out loud. Vienna directed him to climb over one of the train cars before dropping into the rail tunnel, right onto the tracks. She pointed the flashlight down the tunnel. It was so dark that it just looked like shining a light on a black wall.

"It's down this way," she said. At this point, the goosebumps were practically crawling on his skin.

"Are you sure about this?" As he said it, he tripped over a body lying face-down on the tracks, landing right on his face. Vienna stopped, shining the light directly on his face.

"This is per Tyene's instructions. I'm sure." He reoriented himself and pushed the flashlight out of his eyes.

"Tyene's instructions… I forgot you don't have any sense of self-preservation. You're telling me you don't have a single bad feeling about this?" She shook her head.

"I trust in Tyene's word as she trusts my ability. Don't forget, like you, I have killed these things'… daddy. That's why she trusts me to handle this." He paused, remembering Tyene's story.

"Right. Tyene never even saw the Prime Redeemer. It was you that killed it." He had to remember to think of Vienna in that light. Even though she didn't have the memory, there was a world where Vienna had killed the most powerful beast the apocalypse had to offer. In that light, he was in capable hands. But that didn't mean he was willing to walk into darkness. He didn't have a choice, though, unless he wanted to be left in the dark because Vienna's flashlight was in danger of disappearing down the tunnel.

"Okay. Fine."