Chapter CLXXII: Advisor by Day, Lt. Kick Ass When Needed ~Multehx

C.R. frowned as he walked through the numerous hallways of the demon capital. He didn’t pass a soul until he was nearly swamped by a fleet of guards running the way he had come.

“Hold, hold it men,” he said, holding up a hand, “what is the matter here?”

“Sir!” one said as he stepped forward, “a number of human demon hunters are attacking the front gates! They’re pretty strong and by their clothes, we don’t recognize which faction they’re from.”

C.R. frowned and rubbed his chin.

Another of the guards inched a step forward anxiously. “May we go, sir?”

The Rip Watcher shook his head. “No...No, that won’t be necessary. I shall deal with them myself.”

The guards let out a slight gasp. “YOU, sir? An advisor?”

C.R. nodded. “Yes, just what I said.” He clenched his hands into a fist, grinning slyly. “Just because I’m an official doesn’t mean I don’t know how to mix it up; eh, common term, learned it from a friend.”

The men nodded and started back down the corridor they had come barging through.

C.R. sighed to himself. “If I’m going to do some rumbling, I can’t very well do it in these nice clothes.”

----

Back in his old room in the capital, C.R. had laid his clothing out on a large bed and was finishing getting on the last piece of apparel he needed. Fixing his hair, he walked over to a full-length mirror and scrutinized himself. He was wearing black velvet pants (a real demon trend at the time), a black buttoned vest, a dark green shirt underneath that, black fingerless leather gloves, white socks, and fashionably crafted black shoes, polished to a nice shine. He nodded at his reflection, and, picking his cane up from where it leaned on the bed, he started out.

----

At the gates to the capital, the hunters had ceased their attacks when it was announced that someone was going to be along any minute to deal with them.

“Might as well conserve energy,” they reckoned.

They consisted of a thin, scrappy, red-haired man, dressed in a forest green vest, black pants and shirt, brown, worn boots, and a green bandana adorning his head, a knight in full armor, that was shades of a religious nature- silver, gold, and white, and a scrawny man dressed in a wizard’s attire; pointy blue hat, flowing aqua hued robes, and pointed navy-colored shoes. He sported what wasn’t a full beard, but what was better called scrub, and his hair was a raven black.

As they waited and watched, a small door by the main gates opened, and a tall, thin figure walked out. As it drew nearer, it could be seen to be an orange-skinned Twilighter, dressed in wardrobe that looked ready to see action. What seemed odd to them was this being’s eyes; they were...an unnamed color which vaguely resembled purple with a mix of all the colors of the spectrum, blue standing out most. He stopped a few feet away from them. No one spoke for a moment. Then the demon grinned.

“I don’t let just everyone see my face, you know. It’s an honor I reserve for those I choose, or those who shall die by my hand.”

The red-haired man snickered. “Pretty confident, aren’t ya?” He swaggered forward a step or two, smirking all the time. Resting an arm on the knight’s shoulder, he cockily asked, “So, you’re the big bad demon who’ll stop us. Isn’t it a little outnumbered? Three to one?”

C.R. shook his head. “You couldn’t have enough men to out number me. Maybe you could equal me, but outnumber me, I doubt it.”

This seemed to make the men even more irritable. “Just who do you think you are, demon?”

C.R. looked up at them and shouldered his cane, grinning. “Your judge, jury, and executioner, all in one package. And I find you boys guilty of screwin’ with the wrong demon; a crime punishable by death alone.”

The wizard started things, trying to fling a Spark Ball spell right off the bat. C.R. spun and batted the orb harmlessly into the ground with his cane. The knight tried next, going with the direct charge and downward cleave with his broadsword. Crude, but nearly effective. It almost made contact with the demon until he brought up his cane, held on either end by a hand, and blocked the attack. He retaliated with a fierce knee to the knight’s stomach. Though he wore armor, the enhanced strength of a demon was evident as the man stumbled back, holding his middle, winded. C.R. took the moment to slam the butt of his pole-like cane into the knight’s faceguard. The metal bent slightly inwards under the force of the blow.

Apparently, while he was doing this, the wizard had been chanting a rather lengthy and thus powerful spell, which was unleashed at that moment. As the magik practicing man crashed the head of his staff into the earth, a circular blue glow surrounded the ground around C.R.’s feet. Almost instantly, it began to glow brilliantly and ice began to encase the Twilighter’s shoes. It rapidly moved up his legs but stopped at his waist. The Rip Watcher looked down at his predicament and frowned. He looked up just in time to receive one of the metal-gloved fists of the knight crashing into his face.

While he would have stumbled back in recoil, C.R. only could withdraw slightly from the hit while his body from the hips down remained frozen where he stood. He shook his head to snap him to full awareness, then closed his eyes in concentration. The knight wound up for another punch. C.R. inhaled deeply. The knight unleashed his attack. C.R. furrowed his brow, his muscles tensing. The punch flew for the demon’s face. C.R.’s eyes shot open and he glared determinedly.

“KyaaaaaaaaAAAA!!” he bellowed as his legs and feet broke free of the ice casing.

He tensed his legs then leapt straight up. The punch soared under one bent knee, nearly grazing the fabric of his pants.

“RUSHNITA’LOH!!” he yelled as he swung his right leg from under him forwards.

His shoe crashed into the knight’s helmet. The man was knocked off of his footing and begun to spin from the blow. C.R. withdrew his foot and landed in a crouch, from which he immediately sprang, crashing into the spinning body of the still falling knight with all it’s might in a powerful shoulder-tackle. The knight was propelled through the air, and thought the wizard tried to evade, he was bowled over by his armored companion.

C.R. smirked at his handiwork, but he didn’t have longer than a second or two when the man with the red hair, presumably the leader of the three, came at him, swinging a silver knife with a golden handle at his face. The demon leapt back, narrowly evading the blade, landed, dodged to the left to avoid a thrusting attack of the dagger, leapt again, did a split to avoid the weapon stabbing him in the leg, and came down standing.

The red-haired man growled in frustration and tried unsuccessfully to land a few more hits. “Nice acrobatics, but agility won’t save you today, demon scum!”

C.R. dodged to the side of another thrust of the dagger. He smirked. “Oh, but I don’t doubt it; my agility is just an added bonus to me. The real trick to avoiding you is something quite different than speed or flexibility!”

“Eh, and what’s *swipe, miss* that supposed *stab, miss, stab, miss* to be?”

The Twilighter smirked. “Little talent of mine that I have naturally and is used in my job; I can see the immediate future; I know just where you’ll *leap to the right* strike!”

The man growled again and drew back his hand with the dagger, preparing for a powerful thrust.

“Oh yeah, well, see if you can predict THIS!!” he snarled as he unleashed the energy his body had stored for this attack.

The hand holding the dagger flew forward. C.R. smirked and simply folded his arms. When the dagger was within inches of the demon’s face, C.R. leapt straight into the air. The dagger thrust into the air where he was standing. As the man looked up, C.R. flipped, came down, and landed, standing on his outstretched arm. He smirked. Fear showed in the man’s eyes. C.R. raised his cane, then swung it downwards at the man’s shoulder.

As cane met shoulder, a sickening hollow “CR-RACK” echoed throughout the air, and pain caused the man to fall to his knees. He held himself up with his still working arm. C.R. landed beside him, smiling. He simply breathed in as if smelling the air and enjoying the evening’s aroma.

“Hmm, you want to know something?” he asked aloud, obviously directed to the man, who was experiencing too much pain to respond. C.R. smiled and went on. “Of the 200 ways that could have played out, in none of them I’ve seen has the bone made a sound of exactly that distinct pitch.” He chuckled. “Sort of funny, eh? Even proves that no one really knows the entire future. Fate’s just a misnomer made to fool folks into believing they’re worthless pawns.”

He smiled at the knight who began to charge him with his sword held high again.

“Still, I’m not one to believe in a written plan for everything,” he said as he leapt up high once again.

The sword sliced the air where he had been, and as the knight look up, he suddenly felt a piercing pain cutting through his chest. Looking down, he saw a slightly bloody end of a mahogany cane sticking out of a newly-made hole in his armor. He blinked and stood there motionless for a few moments before weakly collapsing to his knees, then to the dusty ground. C.R. pulled back his cane, shouldering it again.

“Simply put, as events play out, they tend to hold great similarity, yet there’s always the chance something will happen differently.” He turned to face the wizard, smirking. “It’s this chance that fascinates me so.”

The wizard readied another powerful spell. “If you’re so interested in chance, try your luck with this!”

He swung his hand forward, unleashing a wave of fire that crashed on top of the demon and nearly swamped him. C.R. was slightly burnt from the spell, but he got to his feet and continued walking.

“That chance interests me, because the unexpected always seems to happen then.”

He lifted his hand, looking at it. A black glow surrounded it. He smiled, looking up at the man.

“Like this; bet you weren’t expecting this one,” he said as he swung his hand in an upward arch from his lower right to upper left.

A needle of dark energy pierced the earth behind the man angled towards him and impaled him through the rear. He hung there until his eyes finally closed, then the projection faded and his body fell to the ground. C.R. shook his head, “tsk, tsking”.

“Shame all buy so willingly into fate subconsciously; people are capable of a lot more.”

He turned, heading back in through the door beside the main gates. On his way back to his room, he notified a few of the guards that the attackers were outside, awaiting their disposal. He then continued towards his room.

----

C.R. walked back into the chamber of the Corrupted Waters, dressed once again in his usual blue attire. On the side of the stone tub sat a fully dry and clothed Multehx.

C.R. grinned. “So, just couldn’t wait, eh, Tehx?”

Multehx shrugged and grinned back, standing. “I dunno; that just hit the spot for me. When it didn’t feel any other recovery was taking place, I just got out and dried off, then got back into my stuff.” He rubbed his chin, shrugging. “Oddly, that water seemed to instantly dry when touched with a towel; even that in my clothes.” He continued rubbing his chin and winced slightly. “Tell ya what though, my cheek kinda hurts. Know how that is?”

C.R. laughed, then walked over and put an arm around the agent. “I’ll explain later. Right now, we have somewhere to be; gotta wait at the appropriate location where the Spectrum will land; I programmed it in, it’ll automatically do it once the business elsewhere has concluded and all are aboard, and we can take down the Council for good.”

Multehx smirked, holding out an open hand. The Rhyjulian vanished from its leaning spot on the wall in a burst of black fire, and in a similar explosion of flame, appeared in his hand. He grinned, “sheathing” it on his back.

“Well, let’s be to it then; I got a feeling this’ll be kinda fun.”

The two chuckled to themselves as they left the chamber, a new destination in mind.