Conversation over a cocktail
Since Emeric's last visit, Azazel's house had been cleaned up. The many holes in the walls, the broken furniture, had all been restored to pristine condition.
«Let's go to my bar," the fallen man looked over his shoulder at him, humming thoughtfully to himself. It was clear that Azazel was not in the best of moods. Most likely, anyone who lived as long as he did would be able to read other people's moods so quickly and sensitively. - Last time, because of our... I couldn't show you the brilliance of my cocktail-making skills...
«Hmm," Emeric snorted at that, stepping quietly behind his more experienced comrade. - You called me here for this? To make some kind of drink?
«No drinking! - Azazel cut off all accusations. - And I called you here for. uh... - He looked over his shoulder again. - Should there be a reason for a simple get-together with friends? Especially...
Azazel's speech was interrupted by the ringing of a phone, which came from somewhere under the fallen man's clothes.
«A moment," he nodded at him, thus apologizing, and picked up the phone. - Alo... Yes, Heavenly Bank!..... Why are you, my little dove, offending me so much....? There was no cheating, all the money will come soon!..... Yes, that's right, the demons from Hell will steal your money...! Where to go? You're not allowed to talk like that in the Church. Damn it! - With a curse, he hung up the phone and turned to Emeric. - You're not the only one who's not doing so well. You know, a long-time part-time job that brought in a little, but very, very nice money just the other day just went under the radar.....
By now they had passed through the living room and were approaching the bar, which had a counter and several high seats. Emerica sat down on one of them.
«What kind of part-time job? - Emeric asked with interest.
«No big deal... - The fallen man waved his hand. - To be fair, it did bring in more money than I expected....
Emeric only snorted at that. He was in no mood for further conversation.
Azazel looked him over carefully again and sniggered a couple of times. He wasn't going to ask what had happened in his life, he was too experienced to do anything that was doomed to failure.
He turned to the wall, which was lined with shelves of all kinds of alcohol. He touched some of the bottles thoughtfully, only to shake his head negatively at once; others he took and set aside.
«You know," Azazel began to say, still not turning to him. - Sometimes you need a break from the problems in your head. And there's no better way than to take up another chore. Ideally it should be a hobby that you can immerse yourself in with pleasure....
«How trivial," Emeric stretched out, but nonetheless listening to Azazel with great interest.
«Banal is the best indication of the workability of some phenomenon..... Stereotypes don't appear from nothing. It means that the method is to the liking of the vast majority, and no matter what others say, that's mostly a good thing. - Azazel finally decided on a wide selection of drinks for the day and pulled out two wide glass tumblers with a long coaster. - For example, right here and now, my young friend, I'm going to show you a real master class in improvising cocktail creation...!
Emeric stared with increasing interest at Azazel's fiddling, who had pulled out some simply obscene amount of different alcoholic beverages.
«Listen carefully," he turned to him and took up the bottles, which he poured portion by portion into a special drink shaker. - Two parts vodka... A little rum... A drop of bitter tincture ... A tablespoon of vinegar... - With each new ingredient, Emeric looked at the resulting mixture with more and more apprehension. It seemed as if, even without special magical varieties, this drink could send him on a long journey, perhaps even his last. - A little vermouth. A little gin. A little cognac. Grapefruit juice... Bitter orange... A drop of scotch. Now all that's left to do is stir a little and pour it into our glass... - Azazel finally interrupted the peculiar ritual of summoning the dead Lucifer and, having stirred the drink before, poured them into glasses, which he also decorated with an olive on an umbrella. Emeric watched with squeamish interest as Azazel gingerly tasted his "masterpiece". - Mmm... - He smiled at him, but immediately tossed the glasses into the trash can. - This was bullshit!
«Ha ha ha... - Emeric couldn't stand the absurdity and laughed out loud. - You hahahaha, you saw it on the internet! I saw this movie excerpt too! Where's your praised improvisation, Azazel?!
«Heh," Azazel answered him a little embarrassed. - Honestly, I didn't think it would turn out so... fucked up.
Emeric laughed even harder.
Azazel had gotten his way after all, that is, pulled him out of his shell of depression. Emeric hoped it had been set up that way from the beginning. Otherwise, Azazel had really bad taste in cocktails, and couldn't realize that either way would be bullshit.
Azazel sighed in annoyance, still not hiding the same smile, and simply pulled out a can of Coke for him and poured himself a glass of whiskey.
«So? - Azazel took the floor as they took a sip of their own drinks. - I heard that the Vatican has already come to your city. How are they?
«They seem to be alive for now," Emeric shrugged. - Two Excalibur and some Templar with two Sacred Mechanisms....
By mentioning the Templar, Emeric hoped to get more information about this murky order that had sent a representative to this city for some reason.
Azazel didn't fall for this little provocation though, either he didn't want to give information or the Templar Order wasn't as interesting a topic as he had originally thought.
«Not bad," Azazel admitted. - Not Dulio Gesualdo, of course, but not helpless children....
Nevertheless, the new topic that Azazel had, knowingly or unknowingly, brought up still piqued his interest.
«Dulio Gesualdo," he rolled the foreign name on his tongue. - The strongest exorcist, isn't he?
«That's right," Azazel nodded. - The wielder of the Zenith Storm, or otherwise the Prison of Bright Sky Thunder. The strongest active exorcist in the service of the Church. Rumored to be a true monster...
Storm Zenith was the second most powerful Longinus after the Spear of Longinus. This Sacred Mechanism gave its user complete control over weather phenomena. The ability was so vast in its powers that it gave control over all the elements existing in nature, in general.
Dulio Gesualdo himself was an experienced user of his Longinus, but his true power Emeric did not know. Most likely, the vast majority of demons, and just about any other unclean thing, were not his opponents. Nevertheless, according to rumors, the owner of the artifact himself was a pretty good kid. That is, an excellent character, which does not require the owner to completely genocide all "non-humans".
Azazel continued his talk:
-... Well, he didn't need to be here.
«If he had come, Cockabiel would probably have been defeated too quickly," Emeric guessed. Azazel nodded, sipping from his glass. - Could he have defeated the ten-winged angel so easily?
Emeric was incredibly intelligent, but far from the most experienced demon. Therefore, his skepticism about a confident human victory was understandable to Azazel.
«Don't underestimate humans, boy," Azazel shook his head. - Throughout history, they've broken those who thought they could just dangle their legs around their neck...
«For example," Emeric looked forward with interest, anticipating the story Azazel himself was about to witness. - Which people were the strongest in your memory?
It was a good topic of conversation, and one that the young demon, despite his recent moping, would be eager to support. Azazel, despite his non-serious nature, was very experienced and had seen a lot of things in his "centuries".
«Well," he accepted his game. - Dulio Gesualdo aside, one can just about think of the strongest exorcist before him..... - He scratched his chin thoughtfully. - Vasco Strada would be a great example...
Vasco Strada. The Strongest Man, over a hundred years old. He had been a great nightmare to all the supernaturals in his life. At the moment, due to his age, he was no longer active, so the title was passed to Dulio. However, according to some witnesses, Vasco Strada was still in the "prime of life", so at any moment he could return.
«How strong was Vasco Strada - the mere name seemed to evoke some inner awe -?
«Oh-oh," Azazel began his story with a kind of anticipation. - In his "youth," and by youth I don't mean the peak of his powers, during World War II, he had already fought Cockabiel.... And I'll tell you a secret," Azazel stepped forward. - An old friend of mine barely made it out of there....
«Yeah," Emeric summarized the story. - And you say it wasn't the peak of his powers.... How dangerous was he? At the peak. - He clarified at the end.
«I don't know, to be honest," Azazel shrugged, thinking hard. It was obvious that he was interested in the question himself. - You see, there hasn't been a full-fledged war between our factions in hundreds of years, so the bigwigs haven't fought each other for a long time. But I think," Azazel raised his eyes to the ceiling. - Vasco Strada could give a decent fight to any of the tops.....
The incredible story of how an ordinary man, according to one of the faction leaders, could fight Satan or a twelve-winged fallen angel.
«And what was it that made him so dangerous?
«Well, for starters, he's just incredibly strong in his own right," Azazel corrected himself. - I mean, he's a hundred-year-old mountain of muscle. You'd have to look at him to know he wasn't on steroids, because there's no chemistry or magic that can build 'that'..." - Azazel shook his head. - Secondly, besides the fact that he could tear down mountains on pure strength, Vasco Strada was a Durandal wielder....
«Durandal... - A blue-haired exorcist came to Emeric's mind. - Tell me more about that...
It seemed that over an interesting conversation all sorrows were indeed forgotten.
---
patreon.com/posts/131449407