Who Is The Enemy?

Aria got off of the crashed train. Her head bleeding, her right arm broken, her fingers missing. She stumbled onto the tracks. The tree line in the distance, the railway shattered, the platform crushed under the toppled-over train, people dead.

Aria looked up at a sign: [New Haven Station]

"I think this is the place..."

She picked up her silver briefcase and carried it across the empty stone-covered road. Blood dripping. The sky turning dark. She walked for hours on end.

Her feet started to feel numb. But she was only half a mile away. So she kept walking.

"Those god damn, purpled eyed... Fuckers! Fuck!"

She walked down the long city streets as trucks and cars drove by. She stared at the drivers as they stared at her. Their eyes were no longer purple, and no longer controlled by the Mind Witch.

"Hmmmm..." She pondered what could still be happening in New York, "either Damon or Olezka defeated the Mind Witch. But It doesn't seem like that's the case, maybe out of his range. He was only able to attack me with people he controlled from the city that got on the train, so maybe I'm good for now. I'll just have to watch out for when I go back."

---

Half an hour later and Aria finally reached her destination.

A small lot filled with hundreds of locked storage rooms. She looked down the long pathways and hallways, hundreds of doors, hundreds of garage-like gates. She looked down at the text message Olezka sent her.

"It's number twelve..."

She walked past the lockers and garage-like gates, before landing on number twelve. She looked at its heavy-duty lock.

"Shit! I'll have to use another fingernail..."

She pointed at the chain and lock and sacrificed her pinky fingernail.

Gravity Spell: [Weighted Pressure]

The lock folded in on itself. Its links snapping and twisting until the metal hinges came undone and the storage locker was open.

Snap!

Aria bent down and pulled up on the garage-like door. She lifted up with all her strength as it swung over like an unraveling yoga mat. When she looked inside all she saw a dark, damp, and musty storage locker filled with...

"Boxes?"

It was all just boxes. Ten to twenty old wooden crates. One stacked on top of the other, each labeled with some kind of code.

She stepped in.

"This all looks like... Old trash? Was Olezka lying? Is there really a weapon in here strong enough to destroy the Immortal Necronomicon?" Aria scanned the deeper parts of the storage locker and realized that there were more boxes in the back, "This could take days. And I feel like I'm bleeding out..." She gripped tight to her fingerless hand, "shit..."

But Aria didn't have time to wait around and play guess who with old ancient weapons, she was determined, she was focused on destroyed the Immortal Necronomicon. So she didn't waste a single second, she got right to opening up the crates.

Step...

Step...

Step...

But before Aria could get the first box open she heard the soft sounds of footsteps echoing down the hallway. So with a curious wariness, she peered out the locker and looked down the hallway to see a woman in all white, with sharp black goggles, and curly orange hair. She pointed at Aria.

Ice Spell: [Icelce Burst]

A string of thin and long icicles were cast across the long hallway. Aria quickly ducked back into the storage locker as the five long and thin icicles flung themselves down the carpeted hallway and past her.

"Who are you?!"

The orange-haired woman reached down to her belt and pulled out three bullets. Aria looked up at the woman in front of her. Her eyes weren't purple.

"Wait! Stop fighting!" She walked out into the hallway with her bleeding hands held up, "wait, you're an Ice Witch, right? You work for the Witch Hunters. I'm on your side."

The orange-haired woman stopped and pulled out a revolver. She placed the three bullets calmly inside the chamber and cocked it back.

"Are you Aria?" she asked.

Aria slowly turned skeptical as she replied with a simple, "yes..."

"Good."

"Do you work for the Witch Hunters?" asked Aria back.

The woman held up her revolver, "I am Dima."

"Dima? I've heard of you before. You work with Olezka."

"I do work with him. But I don't work for him."

Aria slowly stepped back as she tried to get closer to the storage locker, to use it as cover if the situation turned too dangerous. But with every slight step Aria made, Dima would take one step forward, raising her gun ever so slightly closer to her head.

Aria slowly lowered her bleeding hands, "if you work with Olezka, then why did you just try to kill me?"

Questioned quickly flooded Aria's head. Does this woman really work with Olezka? Is she a rouge Ice Witch? Is she following Olezka's orders? Is this some kind of trick? Is she being mind-controlled? Then even more nasty thoughts flooded her head. What if Olezka is going against me? What if he broke our deal and is trying to kill me off? What if he's evil? But why would he do that? What would be his motivation? Why would he...

Dima broke the silence, "we got lucky, you know. It was hard to separate you from Damon. We had to wait for you two to be busy at the same time, to get you two as far away from each other as possible"

"So you used the Mind Witch. You used his attack on me as an excuse to keep Damon busy, while you kill me?"

"Kill you? No-no, not exactly. You're thinking too harsh Aria, I'm not evil, and the same with Olezka. We just didn't trust Damon, we needed his chaotic emotions out of this exchange."

Aria slowly pointed up one of her bleeding fingers.

"So then what are you after?" she asked.

Dima stepped forward, her revolver still pointed out, ready to shoot.

"This is something that I came up with, my plan, so don't blame Olezka. We knew it would have to resort to this method, but it can still end peacefully. You see... Now don't get irrational, Aria. This is something that both of us want. I want you to turn you into a weapon, able to destroy the Immortal Necronomicon."

---

At the same time, Damon finished up his talk with Bai and walked out of the World Trade Center. His body still erupted in eternal flames as the city around him was coated in the same fire. He looked at Olezka who stood on the other side of the street. He stood in his white suit, with white glasses, and a white top hat. In his hand was a long black briefcase. He tossed it across the ground.

"What is that?" asked Damon.

"It's your weapon. You're not done fighting, just yet. The Mind Witch wasn't the first enemy. More are coming."

Damon leaned forward opening up the long black briefcase. He pulled out his ice sword. With its chilling touch, as it shed the burning heat from his right hand, like a piece of dry ice melting fire as it climbed up his arm.

Damon felt it. The same feeling from when he was in Antarctica for that long long month. The fire and ice. The blue on blue. It was the same feeling from back then. But the feeling was different. It might have felt like pain on the outside, but on the inside, he was different. All he felt was revenge.

Olezka kept explaining what was happening in the world, with Witch Families allying with him, and other families trying to take up the mantle the Immortal Horses left behind. He talked about how they all wanted to recruit Damon, and how other families wanted to kill him. But Damon didn't hear a single word he said, all he heard was the sounds of Luna's death, of what the Mind Witch said. That Aria... Aria... He looked at Olezka's face with a glaring stare. Like a dog who was kicked around, and didn't care for its life anymore. Pure rage.

"Damon... Damon are you ok?" asked Olezka back, his face starting to understand Damon's intentions.

Damon extended out his left eternal flaming hand.

"Damon... Damon what the Mind Witch told you. That has nothing to do with-"

Immortal Spell: [Continuous Re-Birth]

He accelerated his regeneration. Making the eternal flames accelerate in the process.

Fhoooosh!

The blue flames spread across the open air. They coated across the blood-filled streets. Coating from one side to the other, like an explosive flamethrower. And Olezka was caught in the middle of it.

Fizzzzz...

"I don't want to hear your excuses..."

Damon turned around as the blue flames coated along the frame of Olezka's body.

Ice Spell: [Ice Armour]

He stepped forward as chunks of flaming blue ice broke off of Olezka's skin. He awoke from the blue flaming cacoon with his fists pointed out.

Ice Spell: [Ice Punch]

Damon turned around surprised as a coating of ice surrounded Olezka's fist. Then he lunged forward punching Damon in the stomach.

Smack!

He fell back, his body recoiling from getting the wind knocked out of him.

Then Olezka shook his hand, as his burning ice-covered fist broke apart leaving him unharmed.

"So you didn't kill the Mind Witch, Damon. You sided with him... You bastard! I was going to go easy on you. And I was starting to feel sad about it... Sacrificing Aria... I thought you would understand. I thought you would."

Damon stood up, his face staring with a new deep deep hatred.

"Olezka... You might have helped me once before- Scratch that, you've helped me out twice before. But I don't owe you a single thing now. You... You've angered me! You've- I'm dealing with a lot right now! I'm dealing with more than I've dealt with in the last five hundred years! And you... You're not going to like what's coming next!"

Olezka crossed his arms, "same Damon, same... You know something. I lost my sister getting you that sword. I've sacrificed everything in my life to kill the Immortal Horses. And I thought you would understand. I thought you were the key to it all. But now you can't even sacrifice, Aria? You can't fight? You can't even think ahead! How many lives have you lost? How many times have you run away? Have you actually thought about the consequences? Of course not. Why did I think you were different. You're just an Immortal. And all Immortals think the same, they're all selfish!"