Hellbound With You (WN)

The demons trembled before Ezekiel. The sight of the huge demon suddenly and easily being reduced into a pile of dust rendered everyone speechless – not just the vampires and witches but more so the demons themselves. It could be seen that every single demon was tensed up and at full attention, frightened that this killing god would target them as the next pile of dust. No one dared to open their mouths again. Though nothing seemed to have changed in Ezekiel's expression, what the dead demon had said earlier on obviously disgusted him – to the point that he deemed it proper to dispose of that demon that way. His merciless action said it all. He would kill anyone who will tell him where he was supposed to belong without any hesitation whoever it was. As to why he seemed to hate it more than anything else… the demons did not have the slightest idea. All they knew was that spouting another word would have them killed in an instant! And no one was fool enough to test it a second time.

The few who were planning to defy him instantly became docile the moment the largest demon was annihilated just by him clenching his fist.

Even the vampires below once again could not quite believe their eyes. To them, the man singlehandedly controlling the demons to return to the vortex was not their pure-blooded prince anymore. The only trace of his vampiric trait was his right eye that still remained blood red. That was all. That singular characteristic was all that identified him to the vampire race. Nothing else about him apart from that one eye resembled anything remotely vampiric anymore.

With their mouths hung open, they watched speechlessly as the demons disappeared one after another like obedient puppets. No one even dared to struggle, and Zeke just remained there, still, and silent within their midst like a god of darkness. This went on until every demon were finally gone.

Zeke then flew over until he was right before the weakening vortex and he lifted both his hands, palms facing forward. The black miasma coming from Zeke's body swirled around and half enveloped the entire vortex and then as if the black miasma squeezed it forcefully, it gradually became smaller and smaller until it eventually became as small as a baseball before finally exploding and emitting a flurry of particles like black glitters.

As soon as the portal from the underworld finally disappeared, everyone felt like they could finally breathe once again. Though they knew this was far from over, at least the demons were now gone. Now it was time for them to return their attention to Zeres. And what will happen next… no one could guess.

Alexander landed on the ground while Zeke remained at the same spot he was in the sky. As to what he was doing, thinking, or planning, not a single one of them had the slightest idea.

Slowly, Alex headed towards Zeres and Alicia. But when he was a few steps away, he halted and just stared at Zeres still crouching in the same exact position since Alicia fell, hugging her as he buried his face in her hair. His body was still trembling up till now. Alex felt that it was truly a pitiful sight to behold.

The others also stood next to Alex. Lilith's tears still falling silently.

They all stayed like that for what seemed like hours. No one spoke or moved until Zeke finally descended. That blacker than the blackest black left eye of his was no longer there and the miasma that was coming from the half of his body was also gone. His majestic black wings were gone as well.

Alex looked at Zeke before he walked over to him. "What are we going to do now?" he whispered, "It does look as if Zeres is not going to do anything anymore… at least with him in this current state right now."

Zeke's lashes lowered as he stared at them. He was silent for a moment longer before he returned his gaze to Alex. "We need to leave this place first." Zeke said decisively as they heard sounds of helicopters approaching from far off. The humans were coming.

Alex looked at Zeres and after heaving a long sigh, he hesitantly approached them.

"H-how about the dead vampires?" Kyle asked, finding it harder to speak to Zeke now even though his appearance was back to normal and there was no sign of the creature from a few minutes ago in him anymore.

"Alex had already dealt with them." Zeke's gaze fell on the rubble not far from where they were. It was the deep hole created when Alex fell during the fight. It seemed that the bodies of the dead were already put in there and they had made the building which was still under construction to collapse and bury everything with it. Since there were no humans living in this area for a long time, no one would bother digging into it anymore as this city would soon be abandoned completely.

"What about the dead vampires by the bridge?"

"Alexander had already sent them into the ocean," said Lucas when Zeke did not respond anymore.

"W-when did they even have the time to do that?" Kyle shook his head slightly as he mumbled to himself in disbelief.

"It's Alexander's wind."

"Oh… I see…"

Everyone went quiet again as they closely watched Alex slowly crouch down beside Zeres.

Hesitantly and carefully, Alex's hand landed on Zeres's shoulder. He did not know what to say even if he had gone through this similar experience. Alex could clearly see himself in this situation and he knew no number of words could ever make anything better. But he had to somehow tell Zeres that they needed to go now.

"Zeres…" he said, putting a slight pressure on his shoulder. "We have to go now. We can't let the humans see us here…"

Zeres did not budge the slightest. It was as good as being deaf.

"Zeres…" he called out again, but the feel of his trembling body made Alex drop his head and then look at Zeke, knowing that Zeres could not even hear anything at all. It was not that he did not want to, but he just could not function anymore.

Zeke faced Lilith and with one gesture, Lilith understood what he wanted her to do. With a shaky sigh, Lilith obeyed, knowing that they do not have much time left and she approached the two witches.

"Take them as far away from here as you can. Towards the northern mountains." She heard Zeke's instructions and without wasting a moment longer, Lilith lightly laid her hand on Zeres' shoulder before the three of them disappeared in an instant.