Everyone was woken up by a sudden explosion that shook the entire house. Jones quickly sat up, looking around in case of another earthquake, but the shaking had stopped too soon as the sound also had stopped. Whatever was going in right here, something wasn't right.

  Not much after the explosion had happened, a fire alarm started to go off somewhere around the entrance, making Jones run to the door without any footwear, sprinting down the hallway to prevent any fire from spreading. He wasn't one with the power to stop anything big but maybe his clouds could stop the fire.

  With a loud blaring sound echoing through the hall, when he got to the front door, he stopped running, being confused over what could've caused this. There was a big hole in the building entrance, carving a bit into the ground and having blasted the door and part of the wall and roof to pieces.

  “What the…” He took a step back, the sirens still echoing as the sprinklers turned on. While Madison was a bit off the deep end, she was smart enough to install that, though with smoke coming from the explosion, the water didn't really do much to grand vision, at least there wasn't any fire.

  With the sun coming up, it shone through the forest and lit up the entrance. Through the smoke, a silhouette could be seen. They were someone almost as big as he was, thinking that maybe this was a new recruit for their cause. That idea quickly disappeared as the figure slowly walked through the smoke, with David appearing.

  “Johnny! Old pall that you are. Of everyone, I could've guessed that you were the first one to come here. Maybe my sister, seeing her powers.”

  “Jones dickhead.” He knew that he was powerless against him but he stood his ground, not wanting to show weakness. That display didn't really do much as David casually came closer, making Jones scared enough to take that one step back.

  “Johnny, tell me. What are you guys up to?” He came very close to Jones, just smiling and not threatening him with anything.

  “We're not really doing anything. Just the same routines from when you were here.” He didn't know where this smalltalk was going but anything that didn't mean physical pain was welcome.

  David went in a different direction, hitting Jones in his stomach hard enough to make him feel nauseous. He then grabbed him by his throat and threw him back against the doors leading to the garage. “Now, what to do first?”

  As he thought that he had free range to do whatever he wanted, a portal opened in front of him with the rest coming through. The portal was gold and not see through, but that didn't really matter much.

  Out of everyone standing in front of him, Joey was the one he paid the most attention to, standing a bit behind everyone with his rib missing. He found that rather interesting, wondering what had happened. Anyway, he looked at Zoi and Madison afterwards. They weren’t going to be a problem, conjuring a cage and a strong wind burst, blasting all four into the cage, making the door close behind them.

  Angelica quickly used her own trick, teleporting out of the cage and ending in front of him. She didn’t bother looking back at the others, immediately singing her fist at David. Due to her appearing out of nowhere, he barely had time to react, thickening his skin as her fist connected with his face.

  There was a lot of power behind that swing, feeling his tooth come loose as he got flung away against a wall. The hit against the wall forced some air out of his lunges as not soon after, an immense heat scorched his face. His stronger skin withstood the heat but his clothes caught on fire.

  He extinguished his clothes, focusing on the ground underneath her. The dirt suddenly got moved from underneath her, reappearing above her. It was around 8 cubic meters of dirt and rocks falling down on her as she fell into the hole.

  Out of nowhere, a big and strong force hit him in the back, pushing him down onto the ground and covering up his body. He groaned, seeing the lights disappear before teleporting away, landing right outside the building out of view of everyone inside. He was starting to feel tired, taking deep breaths as sweat started to appear. “I’m trying master, I’m not as strong with you here.”

  There was nobody here, but he heard the voice of his master in his head, closing his eyes to talk to him. He knew that Angelica must’ve teleported away and conjured a portal at the bottom of the pit. The dirt that he dropped on her never landed as it was transported to a portal behind him and instead landed on him. If she was as weakened by her master as he was, then they both should start to get problems with continuing this fight.

  As the smoke from his first bomb was starting to fade away, he could see some people past the smoke, mostly just ghostly silhouettes. Wanting to preserve his powers, he conjured 4 small metal pins the size of his hand, shooting it at the 4 people he saw before running to the garage, improving his body to get there faster. While it was true that they couldn’t manipulate living beings, they could manipulate themselves.

  He didn’t really care if he hit someone or not, wanting to enact his plan of weakening the only people able to stop him. Killing Angelica wasn’t going to be easy and as long as Angelica was there, killing the others wouldn’t be easy either. With a bit of luck, the darts had killed someone.

  As soon as David was buried underneath the dirt, Angelica had gone to the cage and broken open the bars of the cage, allowing everyone out which David had seen and threw dart towards them. The dart meant for Joey didn’t do anything, flying through his body and luckily not hitting anything.

  The other three did hit their target with none of them being lethal but still hurting a lot. Madison had been hit in her arm, having seen the things flying towards them and turning away in time. Zoi wasn’t as quick, seeing the darts when it was already too late feeling it enter his stomach. While not too deep, the impact made him stumble back as Angelica got hit in her side.

  With everyone hit and either moaning in pain of trying to figure out what to do with the dart, Joey stepped forth to finally do something. Where is that Jones guy? Shouldn’t we find him?”

  While in the cage, Madison had seen him lying on the ground, gesturing with her good arm towards the broken door to the garage where Jones was lying on the ground. “He’s there!”

  Holding her arm right above the wound, she ran towards him, followed by Angelica and Joey, leaving behind Zoi as he didn’t really feel like trying to move too much, holding the dart but not pulling it out. “Yeah, you three go. I’ll follow… Maybe…” He sighed and sat down against the cage, closing his eyes. “Not now though.

  Madison busted through the door opening and looked down at Jones. He wasn’t awake with blood leaking down his scalp towards his ear into his neck. “No! Don’t be dead!”

  With the other two joining her, Joey grabbed her by her good shoulder and pulled her away from the door. “Run!”

  Being focused on Lucas, Madison hadn’t really looked around much, seeing that David was standing at the garage door which too had been blasted open. The room with ammunition had been raided and sprayed across the floor as David saw them all standing there.

  “Oh boy, this must be a dream.” He chuckled at his own joke, pulling the pin out of two grenades and just chucking them into the room, one towards them and the others towards the ammunition room that still had the most bullets and such in them. “Bye!” With a wave, he disappeared again, leaving behind some smoke and fog.

  Angelica saw Joey and Madison turn and run, knowing that Jones wasn’t going to survive like this. Right before the grenade exploded, she conjured up some kind of reinforced concrete wall, making it thick enough to block most of the explosion. Most wasn’t enough though, getting flung back together with Jones. The wall had blocked most of the sharpness but the explosion triggered a chain reaction, blowing up the whole garage and all the ammunition.

  Right before landing on the ground, Angelica conjured a big matrass, catching both and Jones just in time, panting and not moving for a good bit. “Ah!” The rest that she had hoped for didn’t come, the dart in her side still hurting her and now even deeper, soaking the matrass in her blood.

  Madison and Joey managed to get out of it rather alright, Madison still holding her arm. “Joey, check if Jones is dead.”

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  Joey turned his emotionless skull towards her, arms just hanging and not showing a lot of emotions to any of this. “I’m unable to feel. I can’t feel a heartbeat, the warmth of someone's breath. The wetness of someone's breath condensing on my finger. How do you want me to check?”

  “Alright fine! Get the medical box from the kitchen then! And quick!” She seemed mad at him, getting closer to Jones and rolling him onto his back, wanting to feel for a heartbeat when yet another explosion sounded in the distance, shaking the house as the lights flickered and suddenly shut off, putting them in the dark.

  “Angelica! The basement! David is still here! Stop him! She focused back on Jones who was in the dark now, having difficulty finding where to put her fingers to test for a heartbeat, getting more frustrated. “Kill him Angel! Kill him!”

  That was the first time she had called her angel which was weird in the context that she gave, begging for her to sin. Then again, she was sent here by her master to neutralize David in any way possible anyway. She disappeared, leaving behind nothing and appearing in front of the basement door. She never went downstairs and couldn’t teleport to somewhere she hadn’t been before.

  While looking down the stairs, she could see fire burning from the machines that had exploded together with barrels lying around, all being opened up to get their contents out. In order to not be ambushed, she heightened her senses, wanting to be able to detect David before he could do anything.

  Though while going down the stairs, she felt her body starting to refuse her choices and actions as her legs and arms started to ache. Surely David must be fighting the same exhaustions?

  Down here, it was dark with only the spreading fire giving her some light to work with. While going further down the stairs, she wasn't even sure if David was still here. He could've teleported away already and be back with the others to kill them. Thinking that got her to shiver, not wanting to go back to see their scorched bodies. In the meantime she was still bleeding as well, taking a sharp breath when touching the wound.

  Just as she decided to go back to the others, she heard something flying through the air. Thinking it was another of those darts, she toughened up her skin, getting hit with something more massive.

  David had flown into her, pushing her up and through the basement roof, not stopping there because he went higher, going to the upper floor busting through another floor.

  If he had gotten his wish then they would've gone through the roof as well, but she managed to slam her elbow in his face. The force was enough to make him let go, making him recoil and let go. They were now in the bedroom hallway, having made a hole in the floor with dust and rubble flying everywhere.

  Due to the hit, he had let go of her, dropping her into the ground. She managed to land on both her feet, kneeling with one hand on the ground. At first she didn't seem to be bothered by the drop, but that's when her leg started to give way due to the wound. “Ah!”

  It was clear that David had heard it, hovering right underneath the roof and looking down at her, specifically the hand holding her side. “Aw, did I hurt big sister?” He had a big smile on his face, looking around the hallway. “Interesting place that Madison brought us to. So far from any possible help.”

  His taunting gave Angelica time to recover enough, seeing his eyes glow and reacting quickly and just in time, speeding herself up until her body couldn't anymore which wasn't a lot, but enough to fly up and grab him by his chin and push his head to the side.

  A laser shot out of his eyes, cutting through walls and doors, going towards the stairs as both try to fight for control. He continued to fire it, going to the roof as a part collapsed before finally blinking and stopping it. “You little!” He made a fist and hit her in her side where the wound was, making her fall onto the ground.

  He was flying once more, looking down from up above as his hand was covered in her blood as he quickly landed on the ground. He had to stop using his powers without reason, feeling his body starting to ache as well. He landed onto the ground after flying for a bit, looking from Angelica to the ruins that were the rooms right now. There was no clear winner between them two and if he used too much of his powers, he couldn't escape anymore.

  Seeing the sweat appear on his forehead, Angelica knew that he too was getting close to being unable to use his powers. Right before he was able to disappeared, she summoned a spear gun with a chain attached, aiming it and shooting it.

  David didn't see it coming, feeling a sudden pain in his ankle, looking down at his foot while falling down on one knee, seeing Angelica slamming a metal pin down into the ground to keep him from moving away.

  Unfortunately, while it did hurt him, it didn't stop him from teleporting away. He saw how hard she was breathing, knowing that she possibly didn't have enough energy to make her own exit if things would get worse. He took a deep breath, conjuring a big bomb which landed between them, holding a very short timer before exploding. He didn't wait to see, disappearing and leaving the chain to clatter onto the ground.

  “Not good.” She watches the bomb drop onto the ground and David disappearing right after. With the damage that had already been done to the rooms, she didn't even try to teleport the bomb out of the way, instead instantly disappearing herself, appearing next to Madison as not much later, the ground shook after the bomb exploded with dust falling off the ceiling.

  Angelica felt rather weak after that fight, her side bleeding still and covering her hand as she tried to stop the bleeding. “I could use some assistance.” She gestured to Joey for him to come closer and help her. As he came closer and helped her, she looked at Zoi, seeing a bloody bandage around his body with the dart having been pulled out.

  Madison was leaning against the wall with her good shoulder, her eyes on Joey helping Angelica. “Last night I had another dream. We need to go and collect a new dreamer.”

  She seemed to obsessed with the children that Angelica felt like there was something else going on. Either that or she really cares for them which didn't sound right. Whatever it was, now wasn't the time to go out and collect people. “If you hadn't noticed, we're all hurt here. Not only that, your shoulder got stabbed so how will you drive? You can't even use the transmission.”

  “Joey can drive.” She sounded so sure of it, her eyes glued on the back of his skull. “Joey has lived sixteen years as a human and four as a skeleton. He has the experience to drive a car and can do it. You and the others stay here to recover, find a safe space to sleep.”

  While the conversation went so casually about it, Joey looked up from tending to Angelica slightly confused. “Me driving? I'm a skeleton. What would people say if they see me driving?”

  “We don't have a choice. If we want these next ones, we have to go get them before we lose them forever. The more that there are of us, the bigger the chance of taking out David and doing what we need to do.”

  With both Jones and Zoi being knocked out, it was up to them three to make a decision. Angelica closed her eyes, using a bit more of her power to talk to her own god. It didn't always work but as she tried, nothing came back to her, no answer. “Okay fine. I'll keep these alive, you two get the new people.”

  It was clear that she didn't want it but she had to admit that it sounded like the best plan so far, sitting back as she tried to rest from the wound. “Could you at least tell me who this new person is that you're going to get?”

  Madison was already looking through the rubble on the ground for the car keys as they sat in a bowl next to the front door. “Euh, it's a boy that was infected by some kind of ancient disease causing a literal dragon to grow inside of you, and not in a fun way.”

  “Not in a fun way? Is there a fun way to have something grow inside of you?” Angelica was so confused with that statement, starting to think that the wound was messing with her causing her to start hearing things.

  Stopping with her search for the keys, she looked up at her. “No, not really. Sorry, not really focused on things right now. I'm regretting not taking action and killing David when he summoned his demon father here.”

  Her saying that caused an obvious shock on both Angelica’s and Joey’s face which was surprising since he lacked facial features. It was met with silence and shocked looks, causing Madison to get upset. “We have an arrogant demonic child running around blowing up my house and nearly killing us! Sorry if I get a little extreme!”

  She kicked the broken pieces of wood from the dresser that the keys had been on, going towards the garage in the hopes of finding the reserve keys. “I did not live over two thousand years just so I can be killed by a child with issues!”

  Entering the garage didn't really do a lot either as everything was blown to bits, weapons being destroyed and also the case where she kept the spare keys. “This is just great.”

  Angelica wanted to rest right now, slowly getting up as she was getting weaker with everything she did. As Madison got more frustrated with everything that was happening, she just wanted her out of her so she could collect her new prize and leave them in peace.

  When Madison came back out of the garage to try her luck again with the rubble, she saw Angelica stumbling through the crater that David had caused, a full car appearing in front of her. It looked almost exactly the same as hers, though when coming closer, she saw the differences. “What is this?”

  Before answering, Angelica fell down onto her hands and knees, groaning while slowly lifting up car keys. “New car, new keys, have fun and fuck off. I'm too weak to deal with you right now.”

  The tension hanging in the air was clear with both Angelica and Madison being upset. Wanting to be away from here just as much as Angelica wanted her gone, she took the keys and threw it at Joey. “Drive! I'll tell you where to go.”

  While Joey made his way to the car, Madison got a bit more calm as her interest took control of her. “Why not just make me new keys? Why make a whole new car?”

  Hearing the softer tone being directed to her, Angelica seemed to cool down a bit as well. “I don't know how those keys were but I can't just make one if I don't know what to make. If I had the original then I could copy them for sure.”

  As she talked, it was clear that her voice was weak and her body also couldn't handle much more. She shook her head, slowly getting back and making her way back to the others. “Now go… I'm going to lie down for a bit.”

  “When I'm back, I'll see what I can do in terms of having a roof over our heads.” She didn't wait for Angelica to respond, getting in the car and driving off to the next candidate.

  Angelica conjured three sleeping bags with pillows next to each other, groaning as she was getting close to passing out. While it would've costed less energy to go around the house and find these herself, this was faster.

  She then increased her strength, dragging and lifting the other two in their sleeping bags after which she too got in one. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she passed out, not really thinking about the possibility that David could come back and finish them off.