86. Again? (B)

A clever one liner can be difficult to come up with on the spot. It bothered Everly that no one ever seemed to appreciate that.

"As you bug worshippers can see, my associate here can easily tear you apart no matter how much you struggle to resist," Everly informed them. "Sadly, for me, but luckily for you, I think crushing the weak is boring. Because of that, I'm willing to spare your lives if you'll tell me what you're doing here."

"We'll never give in to you! The Seven will feast upon your soul!" shouted one of them.

Everly frowned and then nodded her head in his direction, a signal that Dullahan quickly picked up on. Before he could react, she had her armored hands upon him and began tearing him apart.

When Dullahan was finished, Everly faced the remaining priests and cleared her throat loudly while she waited.

"So, okay, I didn't even want to be here, I just got dragged into it, seriously, wasn't even looking to mess with you, I swear it on my mother," said one of them, a handsome blonde man in clean green robes. "I'm with Greed's crew; I don't even care about these Sloth freaks. They turn into spiders, that's just nasty."

"It is nasty, but that's not exactly telling me what I want to know," replied Everly.

"Lady Pride put out the word," the follower of Greed said. "She told us something big was going to go down at the headquarters of the eastern temple. Said all we had to do was wait for it to happen, and then go finish off whoever was left standing."

"I thought you said you were with Greed?" Everly asked him. "Why are you running around on Pride's say-so?"

"It doesn't matter which of the lesser six is our primary lord," the man said. "Pride holds the central throne. She's the primary sin. If she wants something done, it gets done."

"So, she's the queen bee, huh?" Everly said thoughtfully. "In that case, maybe she's the one I should be speaking with. What do I need to do in order to arrange a meeting?"

The follower of Greed's mouth dropped open. "Uh, yeah, that's way above my authority, your royal majesty. Is that right? Is that how I'm supposed to address you?"

"Honestly, I'm not certain myself," Everly confessed. "I'm not exactly British, I never learned the proper terminology. Just wing it."

"I have no idea what a British is, but winging it is definitely something I can do. So, uh, your gracefulness, I can't address Lady Pride directly. But I could totally introduce you to my boss."

"Cowardly wretch! How dare you assist the slayer of our lord!" growled one of the ashen priests.

"Shut up, scabby!" the follower of Greed sneered. "The brotherhood of Greed has a lust for life and I'm not going to waste mine getting killed over a proven loser like your master!"

"You will pay for this treachery," promised another priest. "When we tell the others of what you've done, you will be carried naked to the central web and devoured alive by my hungry kin. Your anguish will last an eternity!"

"For the void's sake, it already feels that way whenever you freaks start making your speeches," the follower of Greed snarked.

Everly was in full agreement. With a snap of her fingers, sharpened spikes of stone erupted from the ground and pierced the skulls of each of the remaining ashen priests, snuffing their lives out in an instant. "They never know when to dial it back, do they?" she asked the man after the last body finished twitching.

"Heh, you're telling me," he said somewhat nervously.

"Got a name to go with the face, pretty boy?" Everly asked him.

"Do you really think I'm pretty or are you just objectifying me?" he replied.

In response, she favored him with a smile. "You've got wit. I like that. We can do something with that later."

"I can do a lot of things you might like later," the man said with a smirk.

"Wow, look at you moving to close the deal already. You must really want it all," Everly said with amusement in her voice.

"Hey, what can I say? It comes hand in hand with the crowd I run with. A man of Greed wants it all, your majestic-ness."

"Yeah, well, let's start with your name and see where the evening takes us from there," Everly said.

He really was a handsome guy. He wore his green robes unopened down the middle which made it easy to see his lean, athletic musculature. To her, he looked like a long-distance runner, which he probably was. Followers of Greed were notorious thieves and conmen; they likely had to be prepared at a moment's notice to run for their lives from the people that they'd swindled.

"I'm Nathan," he told her as he held out an easy hand. "Nathan Devere of the order of Avarice."

"Cool," Everly replied. "Nice to meet you, Devere. I'm Everly, the giver of orders. Now, tell me what I need to know about meeting your lord."

Nathan nodded with an easy smile, then opened his mouth to speak before suddenly freezing in place. "Huh?" he suddenly asked before collapsing to the floor.

"Everly?" Dullahan asked in confusion.

"I'm not doing this to him," Everly said as she knelt beside the man.

He was still alive, but his body was trembling violently as though he were having some sort of epileptic fit. Thinking quickly, Everly gestured for Dullahan to approach her. Then she pulled a finger from one of the gauntlets of her armor and placed it between Devere's teeth.

"Oh, what the hell, boss?" Dullahan complained.

"Sorry, I was just trying to act quickly," Everly said to her. "I read once that people having a seizure can bite their lips and tongues pretty viciously. It'd be a bad thing if he bled out before he could assist us."

"Couldn't you have cut a strip from his robe and tied his mouth shut?" asked Dullahan.

"Like the ghost of Jacob Marley?" Everly asked her incredulously.

"Oh, yeah, it would have been kind of like that," Dullahan said with a sheepish chuckle. Then she said, "Scrooge! Scroooooge!"

Everly smirked but then said, "Stop, stop. Something's going on here. Keep your guard up."

As Devere continued to tremble mindlessly on the stone floor, Everly and Dullahan heard footsteps slowly coming their way. They were measured, unhurried strides which spoke to the confidence of this new arrival.

Curious, Everly stared ahead without fear as she waited for the stranger to show himself.

When he finally appeared before them, bare chested and covered in demonic markings and strange runes, Everly let out an amused snort of laughter.

She hadn't seen him in years, but she recognized him at once.

Alec of the eastern temple. The former squire to the order's leader whose life had been stolen away by the now deceased Nalec.

It really was a small world.

"Well, well, well," Everly chortled. "Take a look, Dullahan! It seems our old friend Alec has now entered his goth phase. How've you been, choir boy? Stand up straighter! You shouldn't slouch in front of a lady."

"How is he standing to begin with?" Dullahan wondered. "Didn't you tear off his limbs?"

"It would appear that someone has regrown them," Everly said. "Okay, Alec, I can see you have a speech waiting in your throat to send my way, probably a detailed monologue covering how unpleasant your life became after encountering me. Can we just skip the part where you obviously abandoned your fealty to the light and sold your soul to the Seven in order to gain your revenge?"

"I was not the one who abandoned the light…it was the LIGHT that ABANDONED ME–"

"Aw, you're doing exactly what I asked you not to do," Everly said in disappointment. "Listen, I get it, I did you a few wrongs and now you'd like to have words with me, but there's no need. I–"

Alec raced across the room, faster than even Dullahan could react against, and slammed his fist into Everly's face as hard as he could. His arms, Everly noted, were forged of a strange ebon colored metal that emitted long coils of blackened steam into the air. Whatever sorcerous alloy it was, it granted Alex superhuman strength that was comparable even to Grail, Everly's finest creation. For him to move so quickly meant that his legs must have been made of the same substance. Everly was genuinely impressed at the level of craftsmanship that had gone into him. Whoever had reforged this boy had done a good job of it.

Everly flew backward across the room and slammed painfully, backfirst into a wall, which cracked upon impact, causing dust to stumble down from the ceiling. She then stumbled forward and tenderly brought her hand to her face and wiped it carefully across her mouth.

Her front tooth felt loose. At the slightest touch from her tongue, it fell from her gum. Her hand was also now wet with bright blood.

Before her, Alec loomed with clenched fists, raring to deliver another blow.

Everly smiled at him and nodded. Then she spat out her tooth and said, "Okay. Okay, Alec."

Then she gestured for him to do it again.

His face distorted with anger; Alec answered her taunt with another violent blow which Everly caught with her own hand.

"Hmmm," she said as she grinned nastily at his shocked expression.

Then she ripped him in half at the waist.