Chapter 133: Unlawful Imprisonment
Originally, the Children of Azazel would form the bulk of Irwin's army. With their supernatural ability and predilection towards unethical and immoral actions, the Children could prove to be a valuable unit.
However, as times passed by, Irwin saw their value plummet as his personal power grew astonishingly fast. No longer did he need powerful force when he could just buy one with the credits he had from hunting and corpse trading.
Of course, that wasn't the nail that sealed the coffin of that plan. It was that their training would take a long time to be invaluable enough to place in real combat and, even if their powers are offensive in nature to begin with, the resources and time needed to let them grow martially responsible for their own lives were insufficient.
If he was guessing correctly, the death of Dagon would push both factions to the brink of total war. If not for their leaders's foresight and might, demons and angels would run the globe amok with the blood of the innocents.
He also guessed that an advanced angelic force would be fighting the demons that would be released following the brief opening of the Wyoming Devil's Gate. A canonical event that Irwin would let continue with slight differences.
That was why he was adamant about finishing this ordeal before recruiting Ellen and Jo into his fold.
He snapped out of his thoughts, twisting the lock open and entering the fully furnished cell of Ansem Weems. Unlike the neat appearance of the room, Ansem looked as if he was dragged by the neck across a river of glass and a long road of asphalt.
If there were not open, festering wounds in a square of flesh, then it was chock full of bruises and dried blood. Aghast was Irwin's expression when he first caught sight of the man which, now that he thought about it, giving a psychopath like Gordon a pill that would make Ansem's only power not work was a danger in itself.
"My bad." He muttered under his breath as he pulled out a chair and sat opposite Ansem. "Can you hear me?"
Ansem nodded stiffly, agony passing through the slits in his swelling eyes.
"Good. I'm going to give you a chance here. I will either dominate your mind and remove your free will or sign this contract and serve under me for all of eternity." Irwin threw the second volume of the Sancus Protecteri at Ansem.
Ansem gasped before sniffing in pain as the sudden movement of his swollen lips bore further pain. His teary eyes betrayed the anger and indignation with which Irwin had done to him for the past few months.
Such a reaction from the psychic was all within Irwin's expectation, knowing full well that Azazel was still manipulating his Children even after the demon's initial plan being squashed by Irwin. In fact, that was one of the reasons as to why he had yet to kill Ansem.
Ansem was a link to Azazel himself, which could prove beneficial should there be a chance that Azazel flees his current vessel and hides amongst the humans. To his knowledge, not even the angels were able to find the rest of the Prince of Hell after Lucifer's defeat.
'Even if that doesn't happen, I can still milk his powers, which is basically Andy without his moral objection. In fact, I think I know what to do with Congressman Brown.'
"So, what do you choose?" He asked after a while.
Andy sobbed silently before grabbing the scroll and tried to untie it, only to find that his swollen fingers were too sore for exact maneuvers. In the end, Irwin had to untie it for him and prick his finger to draw blood and activate the enchantment held within.
The scroll lit up with an orange-yellow fire before two streaks of golden ash struck each of their wrists, marking them each with a heavy-duty contract. The contract was the same as Brunhilde's, with a caveat that Ansem would not use his powers on any members of the family and his organization without consent from him.
"Good. Now, heal yourselves and get the fuck out of here." He threw Ansem a Health potion, much to the latter's confusion. "Drink it like a honey bottle. Make sure Gordon doesn't shoot you."
With Ansem free from his mind, Irwin set towards the room adjacent to Ansem's, which contained a Special Child who was supposed to die by Gordon's obsessed hand.
While Ansem and Andy had latent telemetric abilities, Scott Carrey had basic electrokinesis. From what Gordon had told him, Scott had electrocuted his cat to death before the hunter had captured him. Even during the retrieval process, Scott had repeatedly nearly killed Gordon by either shocking the hunter or messing with his car's electricity.
Such a potent example of offensive based supernatural ability had Irwin ecstatic about their meeting, pun intended.
'Unlike Ansem, Scott doesn't really know me and I don't have time nor the patience to play caregiver to him. Looks like it's Will Domination with this guy,' Irwin thought as he eyed the sleeping form of the Special Child. 'Or not. Maybe I can talk some sense into him.'
Unlike Ansem, Scott doesn't have one bit of hurt in his body. It was as if Gordon had passed him over, which stunned Irwin into a brief silence before shrugging off the weirdness.
"WAKE up." He Commanded, a wave of torrential energy billowing out of him before passing through Scott.
The Special Child awoke with a startle, erratically looking around the room with fear in his eyes before settling on Irwin's form. He placed his trembling hands in front of his body and bowed his head in silent surrender.
'I guess this'll be easy.' Irwin smirked inwardly before clearing his throat; The act caused the man to flinch. "I am Irwin. I ordered the hunter to capture you. Gordon? You remember him, right?"
"I-I do." Scott answered in a hoarse voice, not daring to look Irwin in the eye. "I just-just wanna go home, man. I didn't do an–"
Irwin clicked his tongue, causing Scott to flinch once more. "Don't say that, Scott. You did do something. You killed your cat, remember?"
Tears flowed down Scott's eyes and Irwin didn't know if it was because of the psychological trauma of being imprisoned and tortured for a month or the fact that deep down the Special Child knew that his actions would soon bite him in the ass.
"Are you still seeing the Yellow-eyed man, Scott? Are you still dreaming of him?" He asked, doubling down on breaking Scott's psyche.
Scott held his head in his hands and screamed in assent, body now trembling from the sheer mental damage he had been taking this past year. If Irwin was a betting man, he'd go all-in on the fact that his recent adventure made Azazel mad and that anger was leaking unto his Children.
"That's why you don't use Infernal magik." He muttered under his breath before kneeling down directly in front of Scott and held the Special Child's arm in place. "Scott, you have to be CALM."
His words prevented Scott's heart from beating itself to death as the latter's breathing stabilized and so did his dilated eyes. Quickly and surely, Scott gazed at Irwin with fearful eyes, yet within that fear lay a string of gratitude.
"You're afraid. Afraid of what you are, what you are capable of doing. I get that, I do." Irwin whispered in a calm yet stern tone. "You've experienced what I can do to you, what more of defenseless people. We are capable of death and destruction, the likes of which the world has forgotten. But, look at me, am I killing people? Am I killing you for hurting one of my men?"
Scott slowly gazed at Irwin, mouth twitching as he answered, "No."
"Do you wanna know why? Because I have given myself purpose. We don't become monsters just because some fucker is telling us that it's our destiny or because we were born abnormal… Fuck no. We become monsters when we let ourselves become one, when we strip away our humanity." Irwin cupped Scott's cheeks, locking eyes with him as he invigorated his magical energy. His eyes turned purple, frightening Scott. "We decide what to do with our powers, our abilities. And I decided that I want to save as many innocent people as possible. I decided to be a savior even if they don't want me too because of what I can do. I gave myself purpose… can you?"
Scott's dim eyes slowly grew a shining light, metaphorically. He straightened his back as Irwin let go of his cheeks.
"I do." Scott replied resolutely.
Irwin smiled, delighted that Scott took the insincere speech to heart. "Then let me help you with that purpose. Sign this contract and we're going to start as soon as possible."
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[Congratulations! You have accomplished your first Quest. Next Quest will be activated on: 29 Day/s]
[Basic Quest Reward: One (1) Colt Bullet Creation Ritual]
[Basic Quest Reward: Two (2) Expandable Enochian Devil's Trap]
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