Children of a Lesser God

Just as Laz screamed to himself, the ring of light vanished as though it had never been there. The thing was only about four feet in diameter and although Laz felt like it looked kind of cool, there would be way to much explaining to do if he had to walk around with it.

Looking down at his chest, Laz noticed that the hole in his chest through his heart was gone. He knew that his babysitter had once again saved him since even with his great vitality, something like that would be enough to kill him. In consideration to her though, he had made the damage as little as possible. The simply fact was that although he was a lot stronger, there were some things that would still be considered weak points. At the same time, if it was someone else trying to kill him, they would never be able to do so as simply primarily because he had done this to himself using his own power.

If he had seen A'ruya's face after having done this, he would had noticed that although she took a brief look at him to make sure he was ok, she was far more involved in the happenings of her people and finding out that his master had just died. In fact, there was a rather large debate going on about continuing to let Laz be under her command considering his bloodline and their history. There was also a lot of jealousy floating around.

But that wasn't something Laz would know about till later.

Seeing that the ring was gone, he was healed and Death herself looked peaceful, he wondered just what her test was suppose to be. It seemed far more like an interview with parents than a test. But then again, perhaps that was the point. These cursed beasts had latched on to four unfortunate girls and were now depending on them for survival. Not only to feed their current needs, but to one day transform them back into the majestic creatures they once were. As they saw it, the girls were their only chance, but somehow Laz had played into that cause. He still had no idea why.

As Laz looked around, found his pouch and got dressed, he debated tucking Death into her bed before he saw her eyes open. For a brief minute, there was a strange light in them as Laz felt like he heard a loud cry from some massive creature. She then blinked and the light was gone, along with the sound as the halo of death settled back into place.

"You... did it."

"Did you see?" Laz asked, meaning the things that he figured out while inside his own mind.

"I did, but not like I was right there. More like I was watching a movie from afar..." Death said, standing up. She briefly looked for something to wear before feeling dizzy and sitting back down. Before Laz could even asked if she was alright, the door opened and in entered three naked yet energetic women, who surrounded their big sister and started crying. She took a minute to calm them down before the three of them jumped on the Laz, dragged him back onto the bed next to their big sister and started to hug him and cry again, their tears soaking his shirt. Even though she could control herself better than them, even Death couldn't resist hugging Laz within the pile of bodies on top of him.

"How can we ever thank you..."

"You've saved us. Twice now..."

"And all we did was curse you in return..."

"You truly were meant to be our master," said Death, who then peeled her sisters off of Laz.

"Sisters. We aren't healed yet and have a long way to go. But at least now, we don't have to worry about dying from a cruse before we can finish our mission," she spoke with confidence.

"YES!" They all responded excitedly.

"What?" Laz asked, confused. Although the girls were no longer on top of him and clinging to him, they were still petting him and cuddling him affectionately. Therefore, there was no where for him to go except be a part of this conversation.

"The curse. We told you that our powers were a curse, except it was deeper than that. It was a curse of our blood. The four beings we somehow freed from their confinement decided that they would try to clear the dark energy out of their bodies by pushing it all into us. It didn't work. Instead, it drew them into us as well, making us a part of them. Even then, they didn't want us to do anything that might put us in danger our expose our secrets. And that was because they didn't want to trust us. Still after encountering you, it seems like they decided to take a chance. I don't know why," Death answered, explaining everything.

"You all saw it too?" Laz asked the other three who shook they're heads yes. He figured that since the way they spoke seemed to indicate that they knew their lives would be better from now on, but he wanted to confirm it was because they knew everything and not just because he had conquered them.

"So I guess... this is it?" Laz asked, looking at the girls who once again shook their heads yes.

"What happens next?"

"Next?" Famine responded, looking at Death..

"Next? We are going south. It's time sisters," she said, nodding her head while the other's faces seemed to brighten up at the same time. Of course, right after that, Laz could feel a dense killing intent permeate the room as all four sisters seemed to start bursting out with bloodlust.

"You're leaving... for revenge right?" Laz questioned. His voice was enough to cause the four to calm down, but only slightly.

"We must master. We made this pact amongst ourselves, one that we can never betray," War answered.

"We will be back though, once we are done. When that time comes, we shall serve you without fail our question," Pestilence followed up.

"Is that acceptable?" Famine questioned.

"Of course. After all, I never needed you to serve me.... Don't look at me like that. I'm just saying that I wasn't expecting this so I didn't plan on having you four around or being tied to you like this. I have to keep moving anyway. Now that the asshole Tommy knows I'm here, I won't be getting a moments peace. He seems to have a thing for me. And I still have to find my parents and hopefully rescue my grandfather." Laz hadn't forgotten those goals, it's just that things always seemed to be popping up.

"And we must do this alone master," Death said, just as the building started to rumble and the power went out.

"What now?" Laz said, spreading out his spiritual sense while Pestilence, War and Famine left in a hurry and Death started getting dressed.

"Holy fuck..." Laz said, watching a row of tanks roll by. Although almost 24 hours had passed, it seemed that there was still a lot going on with those cockroach like creatures Laz had allowed to cross over.

He didn't think it would be this big of a deal.

Just as Laz was feeling conflicted about his choice, the girls had all gotten dressed and packed. In fact, they each dressed slightly which was a small change versus them having worn the same things. Even their color choices seemed to reflect a change in themselves as when they were all together, they couldn't help but look at one another in surprise.

"This...?" Death asked, looking at her sisters.

"What?" Laz asked, wondering what the problem was.

"In the past, we would always subconsciously choose the same outfit and even the same colors. This is honestly the first time where not having spoken about it first, we all dressed different," War answered, looking just as amazed as the other girls.

Laz couldn't help but smile. Maybe they didn't see it, but Laz noticed a distinct similarity to the way the girls dressed now and the colors that were associated with the great beasts whose tainted blood now infected their systems.

But he wasn't going to say anything about it.

"Alright. Everyone ready?" Death asked as Laz had finished getting dressed and met the girls downstairs by the front door.

"Yes!" Everyone responded at once.

"Good! Time to go." Death said, leading the way out the door.

Getting outside in the abandoned industrial park, there was a lot of noise that being inside had blocked out. The sounds of gun fire, sirens and even explosions could be heard. Laz was truly amazed that such an old building could be that well sound proofed.

Just as Laz was about to ask the girls what now, he was quickly given four kisses, back to back, no more that a few seconds a piece before the girls disappeared from his sight, on their way to wherever was next for them.

"I guess maybe I should check in with Ruby and see what's happening?" Laz said before he realized he had no idea where his phone was. Cursing his own stupidity, Laz decided to start walking and see where his feet took him.

Just as he got a few steps away, he smelled smoke and felt a massive increase in temperature and pressure at the same time.

"FUCK!" Laz said and broke out into a run, choosing a random direction.

Turning the look behind him, the once massive factory type building suddenly erupted into flames as several small explosions blasted out all of the windows and doors, causing a huge intake of air to flow in and make the flames burn brighter.

'Well. I guess they have no plans to return here.' Laz thought to himself and took off. Without any destination in mind, Laz decided it was best to get out of the city as fast as possible.

Several minutes later, Laz had arrived on a deserted street full of closed shops. Even though it was midday, nothing was open for business while several of the shops had even boarded themselves up as though expecting a disaster.

Laz walked along without bothering to hurry. He was dressed in jeans and a black hoodie with the hood up and his hands in his pockets, looking completely normal as he almost enjoyed this rare moment of not rushing. Taking his time along the sidewalk, Laz suddenly stopped in place and turned his head, looking down a wide alley on the other side of the street. He had felt it before he had seen it.

One of the massive cockroach like creatures suddenly came around the corner with a strange object in it's hand. Noticing Laz not running, it didn't bother to hurry either. As it emerged from the alley onto the sidewalk and then to the road, Laz caught a glimpse of what it was carrying before it brought it to it's grotesque mouth and bit done, once, twice and a third time before it was able to get the whole thing it.

It had been a human arm, still dripping fresh blood.

Laz noticed something slightly alarming now. This creature didn't look as big and imposing as the massive lead bug that had made it through, but it did look far stronger than the ones that Laz remembered letting through. If that was truly the case, then this thing had grown a great deal in the small time it had been here.

'If these things are allowed to keep growing or escape the city, we might be seriously fucked,' Laz thought to himself as he squared up with the creature and walked out onto the street opposite of him.

The creature growled at Laz's uncaring attitude and without warning, charged forward.

Seeing this beast come at him, Laz didn't bother to even take a stance. Although it had grown in size due to feasting on human flesh, it hadn't yet broken through to a level higher than it had come here with. At least not yet.

Just when the creature was within reaching distance of him, it's claw like digits went for his head. Laz simply ducked underneath and punched forward, slamming his first through it's tough outer shell and into it's chest region before summoning his black flames.

Due to already being inside the creatures chest, the flame expanded outward in the blink of an eye and consumed the creature before it even had a chance to flee.

Laz pulled out his fist as the creature burned to ash in less then a breath of time. The flames on Laz's first burned off the small chucks of flesh until it was clean again. Putting his hand back into his pocket, Laz turned and continued the way he was going as though not having done anything special.

'I guess I should help clean up my mess a little,' Laz said to himself and went to find the next one that was hanging out a block away.

Laz had sensed people hiding in the buildings around him, but didn't think anything of it. That was way he had missed seeing a guy three stories up record the whole thing on his camera from between the blinds.

'That was fucking cool.. I wonder how many views this will get,' the man thought to himself before posting the video on social media with the hashtag, 'Exterminator.'