Original Sin

Corruption (Chapter 7)

"What did you do?" The man asks.
"Who are you?" Alex roars back. His blood boils.
The girl who grabbed him - she has blonde hair, and looks frail compared to her muscular companions - moans lightly. "What's it doing in me?"
Anger writhes again, but not in his body.
They won't tell you. These are The Holy Spirits - The Divine One's assassins.
"Are they spirits?" Alex asks it.
Yes, but like no other. They are not bound by the same rules that the other Spirits are. None of the Seven have ever defeated them.
"First time for everything."
"Hold him," the man commands.
The woman looks at him curiously. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. You saw what he's done to Grace."
"Get the others. We can still finish the exorcism."
"Others? How many of you are there?" Alex exclaims.
Seven.
"Does everything come in sevens with you guys?"
We need to move.
"How?"
I've got this. Be ready.
"Who are you speaking too?" The man - Strength - asks.
Alex glares.
Grace twitches. "Guys..."
Strength looks to her. "What is it?"
She looks at her hand. Black fluid, like oil, is spreading over it.
"Something is terribly wrong with me..."
Alex exhales quietly. "Are you ready?"
Lets go.
"What are you doing to her?" The other woman screams at Alex.
"What is he doing? What am I doing?" Anger roars.
Grace's irises go dark, with the ash black and bright red markings scratch their way from her eyes. Anger takes control of her for a moment, and darkness seeps through her body, turning all her veins black.
Grace screams, taking control back temporarily, but then Anger is back in command, howling as the others stay stock still, paralyzed.
"Help..me..." She whines.
"You want to see a magic trick?" Anger asks.
A sword forms from Grace's stomach, punching through her clothing. Another rips out of her back, Grace screaming all the while. Black blood seeps from her eyes like tears.
Strength comes to his senses. "Grace!"
Anger slashes at him, making him back away from his companion.
"Say 'aah'."
One more blade comes from her mouth. Grace drops to the floor, quivering, dark patches spreading across her skin. She shivers.
"It's...tainted me..."
"Get back to Heaven," Strength commands, "be purified. We can handle it."
Grace fades away, and Strength stands up. Alex feels Anger slip back into him.
"You bastard-" Strength begins.
Alex moves first. He grabs Strength by the shoulders and throws, tossing him like a sack of potatoes into the shelves of alcohols. The glasses shatter on impact, showering Strength in stinking liquids.
Anger twists in his head again.
I found their weakness.
"Good for you!" Alex replies. Faith - the other woman - lunges at him; Alex makes shield to block her attack, and then counters with a blast of darkness. She goes sprawling.
We need to move.
Four more figures make their entrance, and throw ropes of light that tie around Alex. They burn his skin and his blackened soul. He roars.
"Hold him still! We can still get it out of him!" One of them cries.
"No! It's gone too deep," Strength replies, "We have to kill him!"
Anger screeches, sending dark energies through the ropes and making them burst.
Go!
Alex looks at the ceiling, and it rips apart above him. With an enhanced leap, he clears two stories and lands on the roof with cat-like prowess.
Strength follows up in a heartbeat, hovering in the air. He extends an open hand at Alex, and unleashes a blast of light.
Alex swings a hand across in front of him, and a dark wave follows in its wake. The two attacks annihilate each other.
Anger slams a fist against the ground; a burst of crackling red blackness erupts under Strength, launching him away from them.
"Do we run?" Alex asks, as their foe recovers.
We run.
Alex turns his back on the spirit and runs, hopping from rooftop to rooftop in massive bounds and extraordinary speeds.
Another spirit cuts off his path again; Faith. She catches him with a swift uppercut, that sends him sprawling, smashing into a skylight. Alex coughs once, and then as she and Strength advance on him, releases the red tendrils across the roof, weakening it's design and causing it to collapse beneath him.
Someone screams in the room he lands in - Alex lets out a pulse of darkness that knocks his opponents away from him, and kills the person who was screaming. Anger is howling. The markings around his eyes start to grow, taking up space on his cheeks.
Strength wraps more glowing ropes around Alex's legs, and pulls him over, onto his back. Faith tries to capitalise on the opening; Anger again throws itself from Alex's body, trying to slip through her defenses and enter her soul. Faith dodges, missing her attack, and Alex draws power to destroy his restraints.
Strength severs the trail connecting Alex and Anger, forcing it to retreat back into his body. He chains the movement to throw two projectiles, that Alex blocks barely. Faith cuts open his side while he's distracted; Alex only just manages to move so the wound isn't fatal. He scratches back, cutting off one of her arms when she blocks, and then when Strength attacks in his opening, Anger launches itself backwards, out of the room, the house, and onto the street.
One of the other spirits is waiting; the send him flying with a blast of force. Alex swings a hand down below him, to slow and stop his slide - Strength plummets down onto the street, cracking the tarmac when he lands.
Alex screams in outrage. The markings are now covering his entire head.
He blasts away another band of light before it can land on him, and releases a pulse of force to clear some room, before shattering the walls of the buildings around him, sending the shards of stone forwards as piercing projectiles. The two Holy Spirits at the front block them - Anger launches forwards at insane velocities, and shreds through both their shields and their bodies. The two evaporate, reforming slowly.
Faith's arm has nearly completely healed - she sends a wave of light that engulfs the entire street. Alex plants his feet and braces, enduring the blow. He sends a blade of black back in response.
Something is shifting in him, more than it ever has before.
Darkness is crackling over his body - Strength tackles him at full force, driving him into the ground and smashing him in the chest. Anger rips free of Alex again, and snatches Strength off of its host, dashing it against a wall. It stabs and pulls itself inside of Strength through his midriff - Strength cuts himself in half to stop it from infecting him fully.
Alex screams again. People in the street, fleeing the carnage, burst like balloons. Anger wraps him in darkness, increasing his strength tenfold, one-hundredfold. One of the other spirits wraps itself in light and lunges - Anger extends its hand, grabs it, and bites into its throat, riping it clean out.
More. More. MORE!
Alex roars, his teeth changing, sharpening. The five remaining spirits go for him in unison.
He grows bigger, Anger filling him beyond his capacity.
Jagged whips of darkness hang from his arms - he slashes with them, creating currents of air that rip through the street, casting dust and blood into the air. The spirits evaporate as the whips slash across them, reforming as fast as they can.
Anger shatters the very earth, shooting darts of black out of its body, from the ground, Strength and Faith adeptly avoiding every attack to stab it in the shins.
Anger roars. Alex's blood boils, oozing out of the red cracks on his jet black skin.
"More!" He screeches, in absolute fury.
Anger launches both of the offending spirits away from him, and Alex scoffs. Is that all? Is that it? Is that ...
He blacks out.