"Good evening, heretics. I'm Brother Matthaios from the Department of Inquisition," Matthaios proclaimed into the microphone. The "Armor of Uriel" a blood-colored suit, proceeded slowly toward the civilians. He kept the nozzle of its flamethrower carefully aimed. "I have come here to annihilate you. Resistance is futile. I would appreciate it if you would behave while I crush you."
The flame that came out of the end of the nozzle was terrible and beautiful. People were fleeing in all directions. Those who didn't manage to escape fell to the floor, living torches.
Matthaios gave a simple order to the machines behind him: "Number Three, Number Two: burn everything in sight." He then returned to operating his own flamethrower. He caught a glimpse of a mother running hand-in-hand with her daughter. It was only three-hundred feet to the entrance of the tunnel. He watched as they fought with all their might to save their insignificant lives.
"The Lord is all knowing. He is all powerful. He watches over everything. If they are not meant to die here, then show me a miracle. Save them from the flames. Those lives that are not saved by the Lord's hands are worthless anyway," Matthaios muttered to himself.
He pulled the trigger on the flamethrower. But the flames didn't consume the mother and child. A flash of white light had sliced the flamethrower to pieces before it had fired. The Uriel jumped back, narrowly avoiding having its head chopped off.
"The AX member Hugue de Watteau is here!"
The swordsman jumped at inhuman speed toward the retreating Uriel. His slashing sword created a beautiful arc in the air.
"I won’t let you win!" Number Two tired his cannon to protect his commander. The bullet left at the perfect angle. It was heading straight for the blonde priest. No human on the planet should have been able to outrun that. However, the bullet never found its target. The priest had skillfully avoided it. To add insult to injury, the priest then slipped through the next spray of bullets, avoiding every single one. He managed to run right up next to Number Two. "That's impossible!"
"Run. Number Two!" But Matthaios order came seconds too late. The swordsman sliced the suit's body into sections. Then he jumped back to put some distance between him and his enemies.
"Humph, so you're Sword Dancer?" Matthaios said with glee. He replaced the cartridge in his cannon. "You evaded bullets from a cannon. You really are as amazing as they say."
"The bullets are only as fast as the men who pull the trigger." The swordsman's eyes glittered as he spoke. "Yon can sense the movement of the person before they're even consciously decided to pull the trigger. Once yon have grasped that art. Then you can evade any attack."
"I see. But how about this? Take a look behind you." Matthaios was smiling cruelly. "What about that mother and child over there?'
The swordsman tensed. There was a woman crouched in fear, clutching her baby. He didn't know where the enemy was hiding, but he was going to find out.
"You coward!"
"Coward? That's not very nice. I'm not going to tell you to save them. But if you don't, then they'll die." Matthaios grinned and readied his gun. He faced the swordsman who hadn't moved an inch. He was going to pull the trigger.
"Hey! Aren't you hot under all that?"
Finally, Matthaios realized that there was another voice calling to him. He turned around and saw a large man in a cassock.
"You've been doing whatever you like, haven't you? Now I am your opponent. "
"I see; there's another AX Agent is here?" He glanced at the giant and turned his machine toward the new prey. This priest was in a vehicle. He continued to keep his cannon fixed on the swordsman. Matthaios then correctly identified the new priest: "So you must be Father Leon Garcia... Dandelion? I looked you up on the Department of Inquisition's database, but there was no information on you."
Matthaios took the other flamethrower that he had been hiding on his back. "Oh well. I guess you don't have access. Well, whatever. Maybe I'll hand you over to Intelligence Department. I bet they would love to speak to you," Matthaios joked — badly.
He wielded the flamethrower around and pulled the trigger. But the person engulfed in flames... was Matthaios.
Leon had managed to return fire with his own attack!
"What?!" Matthaios' world went pure white. "Dammit... my monitors!"
The outside cameras were knocked out. The flash had burnt out the monitors.
Finally, they buzzed back to life. But the large man was now nowhere to be seen. And the swordsman had also disappeared from in front of his cannon. Instead, he caught a glimpse of the taillights of a retreating vehicle.
"I won't let you go, Dandelion. Number One and Number Three: follow them!"
There were three people behind him, according to his display. He ignored the swordsman who had jumped up to protect the mother and child. Matthaios howled. The two subordinates who were also recovering from being blinded ran out in front of Matthaios and began pursuing the vehicle. Matthaios could murder civilians any day of the week, but he didn't want to let an AX Agent get away. He turned his jet skis to full power and sped off.
"This is strange."
But the Inquisition officer didn't have time to hesitate. Matthaios realized that the vehicle was heading for the south of the valley. They would find it difficult to follow there.
"He's trying to get away from the mine." Or was he leading them somewhere?
He could be leading them into a trap, if he was playing at guerilla tactics. But Matthaios thought that was probably too obvious and would be too childish. This was the man who had managed to defeat Berlusconi and his entire unit.
However, Matthaios' guess had been on target. The vehicle was stopped in a pit. Something must have happened to the engine as, there was black smoke pouring out from under the hood.
"Your Eminence, please be careful," Number Two warned him, scanning the area. There was something suspicious there. "I'm getting a lot of metal readings. Probably landmines."
"Understood." Matthaios sounded a little distracted. He moved his machine forward. He carefully stepped on a spot that was giving off a reading.
"Yo-Your Eminence, what are you doing?!" Number Two screamed.
Uriel was consumed in an explosion. He had stepped on a landmine and should have been blown to smithereens. But...
"Hmm. Not what I expected," Matthaios muttered.
Matthaios was feeling a little disappointed. He had been looking forward to something more. He moved Uriel forward. "He can't really be this obvious about it." The final trump card was a field of useless land mines? It looked like the end for Leon. "Fine. I'm leaving him to you now. Do what you want."
"Sir!"
Matthaios watched the gray-colored suits run after their prey.
He stopped Uriel.
He'd thought that he had met an opponent who would really give him a run for his money, but his elation had been short-lived. The AX Agents were evidently only skilled at combat; in war, they were lacking. Matthaios had been wrong to expect more...
A voice entered the ears of the disappointed Inquisition officer. "Your Eminence. It's Gambia, on the Jahoel."
There was a lot of background noise. Matthaios thought there must have been a weather problem causing the interference again.
"We received updated information on Dandelion from Rome."
"Anything of interest?"
"Yes, he's a man with quite an interesting history. Special Forces Commander in the Hispanic army. His specialization was explosives. He served in both Morocco's War of Independence and at Gibraltar. He was decorated for his work."
"Decorated at Gibraltar?" Matthaios squinted. He looked like he'd just been given a bad omen by the oracle. He thought that he had defeated this man; now, he couldn't help but look uneasy. "Why did he join AX?"
"Oh, right. Well two years ago, he killed his wife and thirty clergymen—including an archbishop. He was sentenced to death. But before he was executed, he was instead sentenced to a thousand-year prison term. There were rumors that the pardon was AX's doing."
There was probably more to tell, but Matthaios' mind was busy working. "Hispania... Commander of Special Forces..." He reached to the scar on his forehead. "The Royal Land Forces, deployed in Africa, Twenty-Second Raid Party... 'Leoncoat.'"
All the while, his two subordinates were still chasing the vehicle. They were either delaying things or the driver had extraordinary skill, as they still hadn't managed to catch up with him. He watched on the monitor as the smoke continued to bellow from the landmine that had exploded.
As he watched, the smoke seemed to form a giant circle across the ground. It surrounded the pit, forming a perfect arc. For the first time ever, the Inquisition officer experienced fear.
"Moroccan War of Independence... Gibraltar War... Occupation of Tangier!"
No one outside of Uriel could have heard the bellows. Cambio was still talking, but Matthaios cut him off, changing the frequency to a local one. He screamed into the microphone: "Number Two, Number Three: stop the pursuit! Flee!"
The vehicle was driving back toward the landmine that Matthaios had purposefully set off minutes ago. The Inquisition officer's screams turned desperate. "Don't fire! You have to flee. It's a TRAP!"
But Matthaios' communications didn't get through. Matthaios watched in horror as the smoke continued to grow. Number Two seemed oblivious. The vehicle was littered with bullet holes already and seemed to be trying to flee to rocky higher ground. Number Two waited for the right moment and then fired.
"STOOOOOOOOP!" Matthaios screamed.
The ground beneath Number Two's feet vanished. The explosion had caused the precarious snow banks to give way. The suit lost its balance and toppled over into a wide chasm.
The Uriel was no exception. Matthaios stood, dumbfounded, as the snow caved around him. Soon the widening chasm would swallow him up too.
"Leon Garcia! At Tangier you were the one... Ah!"
That scream was his last.