Gabrielle slams her opponent's head on the window. "Tell me when this starts to hurt..." She squeezes, causing him to scream.
Miguel sighs. "Don't interrogate 'im this way, kid," he sighed.
"Fine..." she sighed, letting go.
Miguel sits on the ground and tries speaking with the creature. "Hey... Where's your leader?"
"Seedsowers have alters like you as their first kill... What makes us wanna think that a Miguel like you could rise above the natural order of things?" smirked the mysterious Reaper alter.
"Look. We won't kill you. We're open to torture, though."
"Why do you fight for Supernatural rights, then?"
"I really don't care about that," said Miguel.
"You don't care about what you stand for?"
"I stand for all peoplle."
"No. Y'know what I think? I think you care about all that bullshit about Halimaw and Infected rights... I think you do... And it's killing you to pretend to care about Humans... Least we don't whine about our problems like you do."
"We're all people here."
"You're things. You're freaks. There are no 'people' of animals like you."
Miguel sighs. "Mhm... Keep thinking that. That sure is... healthy..."
"Aswangs killed my family."
"I used to think that you Reapers complain about that being unjustified. Turns out in most timelines, your parents hunted for Aswangs and thus got killed by them... Hunted them for being different."
"Our fears of your kind are palpable. A mentally sick superhuman monster creature? Fuck."
"It's not our fault we were made this way... Born this way... We had no choice of being like this."
"Bark for us, freak," said the Seedsower.
"You're going to jail," sighed Miguel, as two Anna Alters grab him and carry him off into the police van, which transports somewhere else.
Miguel sighs as he walks with Gabrielle into the streets.
"Papa... I hate them."
"I know..." said Miguel.
"I hate how they speak to people like us... to our kind."
"I know. Supernaturals were introduced into this world six years ago... and this world is almost majorly based on Multiversal foreigners who claim this world as their own and our kind being completely hated regardless."
"Seedsowers, huh?" smiled Gabrielle, bruised.
"That Seedsower was already injured from a previous fight. I'm shocked we survived..."
"What are Seedsowers?"
"They're Reaper alters who had done their job in serving Aurora by killing the Princes that eventually join the cause. They think they thrive more under her will."
"Hm... Sounds like they have issues."
"We all do... They ain't Halimaws... They're Miguels usually born as Humans. Some are Halimaws, like Musang, but rarely become Reapers. To emulate the power of Halimaws and Infecteds, they use Usog."
"Sounds like they're stupid."
"Oh. They are. Seedsowers think they solved everything. In reality, they're just desperate. Some Seedsowers, like the Aswang Lord's master I met, kept their Princes alive without their Auroras from knowing... Trained their Princes to kill others like me when they figure out... Sucks..." sighed Miguel.
"Just saying, Papa... The streets are no longer safe for decent people... And no matter how decent we want to be, we're forced to not be... For the sake of the real decent people... For the sake of people who give prejudice toward us..."
"Reaps is one of those people who don't... Like Gerry... Like Fred..."
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"But these people... Others... usually hate us..."
"Extremism isn't a double-edged sword. Extremism always leads to anger, resentment, and hatred, kid... If you wanna be a so-called hero, you gotta let go of those beliefs... Instead, we believe in what's right. Balance. Kindness. Respect. Very human emotions of understanding."
"Even if they hate us...?"
"It makes us... better... than them... And hopefully we lift them as well to our standards."
"They made me hate you... Turned me into a weapon to try and kill you..."
"I know how that feels... a bit too much..."
"So, why not?"
"Because Prometheus wanted to be better... And wanted me to be better than that... And I want you to be even better than that..."
"Papa... I wish to protect them, too..."
"Protection isn't always about destroying the enemy... It's about-..."
A scream is heard in the distance.
Miguel and Gabrielle suit up and charge into the alleyway, seeing a pair of Seedsowers with terrifying Hockey masks.
"Hanged Man... and Death..." said Miguel, seeing their symbols: A Rope around one man's neck and crossbones on the chest of the other.
They silently stare at Miguel and Gabrielle and prepare their Kulams...
Hanged Man charges and hides in the shadows, proceeding to emerge from the shadows and trap Miguel and Gabrielle in the dark corner of the alleyway.
Death stares and destroys the lights with his Mirror Eyes, similarly to the former Aswang King's technique.
"Shit... Not again..." said Miguel, encountering the same power back from the first novel.
The Mirror Eyes turn him into a reflection master, he hides in the reflections and cuts Miguel with the water, but Miguel had gotten a lot stronger than before, tanking the attacks.
Gabrielle, however, is very much vulnerable, having her throat slit by the reflective water blades.
Gabrielle heals as Miguel carries her and runs away, stomping on the shadows.
Miguel realizes he must stay in the light. He proceeds to wall crawl on areas that street lights touch, but his body casts a shadow itself, forcing him to fly inches off the ground. It is night, after all.
Miguel transforms into an Aswang and squeals.
Death gets clever. He begins killing people around the city, angering Miguel as he is forced to attack Death, managing to catch his reflection that zooms from one miror to the other after he threw Gabrielle up in the air and crush it.
Death reappears, emerging from the reflection with fracture ribs as he tosses a blade into Miguel's neck, causing him to fall to the ground. A hand from the shadow manages to catch his foot. Miguel stomps and shatters Hanged Man's wrist.
Gabrielle wakes up and blasts flames at the area but the shadows get wonkier, causing Miguel to get caught by the Hanged Man's hand and have his neck snapped.
Miguel regenerates and bites the Hanged Man's shadow fist, but his teeth break.
Miguel screams in pain as the Hanged Man and Death gang up on him and beat him to the ground. He uses Diwata State but is still beaten to a pulp with relative ease.
Gabrielle blasts flames at them, continuously, but Death proceeds to stab her over and over. She regerates but growls and proceeds to wrap her arms around his neck and proceeds to snap it.
Gabrielle roars and transforms into an Aswang but is beaten by Death with relative ease.
Miguel, who stands before Hanged Man, pridefully even, is easily beaten to the ground, blasting shockwaves upon each strike.
Miguel uses Cold Shot, and Earth Bullet to strike at the Shadow User, but the Hanged Man simply hides in the darkness t evade Miguel's attacks, ricocheting the blades into his own leg, causing his leg to freeze. Hanged Man reappears and stomps on Miguel's leg, shattering it to pieces.
Miguel smiles and grabs Hanged Man by the shoulder only to be strangled to near death, having his head bashed to the ground. "Don't make me do this..." whispered Miguel. "I don't kill... unless I have to... Please... I beg of you..."
Hanged Man doesn't respond and beats Miguel over and over, taking out a dagger and stabbing Miguel's face, aiming for his brain stem. Out of self-preservation, Miguel proceeds to snap his neck, not out of fear from dying, but fear from failing his mission.
Gabrielle is still being stabbed in the corner, now on the ground and bleeding.
Miguel growls and stumbles toward the opponent, jumping, and dropkicking him only for the opponent to grab his feet, carry him up and slam his head in the wall. Miguel falls to the ground, bleeding in pain. He goes back to Diwata State and regenerates almost immediately, but each strike he gives only makes Death beat him down much easier, managing to beat him so badly that shockwaves leave the body, shattering reality itself by causing the creation of open wounds in reality.
Death just beats Miguel over and over, restraining his strength to avoid destruction.
Gabrielle growls, standing up and tackling Death, only to be knocked down once. She stands up and mauls Death, but Gabrielle gets stabbed by a blade in the throat. She screams in pain and is dragged to the wall. He hammers her head to the wall over and over, angering Miguel as he grabs him by the neck and snaps it as well, killing the powerful Kulam-Using Human.
Miguel sees Gabrielle, half dead on the ground. He calls the Holo-Watch to call Athena.
"Yes?" asked Athena.
"Thenes... I need you to get Gabrielle home... She's hurt... very badly... Two low-level Seedsowers in optimum health attacked us earlier... We arrested their third member... and somethin' injured 'im... Someone... I dunno..." he said, growling. "Thenes..."
"Will do, sir..." said Athena. "We'll be arriving in five minutes..." she said, before Hanged Man, whose neck is snapped, stands right back up, with a twisted head, causing him to look deformed.
Miguel sighs. "Shit..."
Miguel powers up to Diwata State but the blades seemed to have poisoned him with Demon Blood once more.
Miguel sighs and punches the enemy, who growls and hammers Miguel to the ground. He beats Miguel over and over, groaning in a horrific way.
Miguel spits out some blood and is beaten again and again.
Miguel is horrified to see Death stand back up as well.
Miguel stands up, bleeding heavily, and is forced to use Hell Fist in this state. He hammers his fist so badly that his entire arm disintegrates, causing massive damage shot through several buildings, killing the pair, but causing some collateral damage as well as he tilts a building.
Luckily, no one was killed, since Miguel restrained the attack enough that it disintegrated his arm instead of half of the Philippines, but, Miguel's heart was torn to shreds.
Miguel falls to his knees, unconscious.