Disc 1: The Many Streams. Ch. 4: My Shiny Teeth and Me

The old mansion was not empty. There were many people scattered around the many stairs and doors, but in a deplorable state. Common Day could recognize that most of them were drug addicts, but all of them had their NCCAG (otherwise, they would be crazy or already dead). He felt like he was in a labyrinth, but there was no point in asking any of the vagabonds around. The weirdest thing inside wasn’t the people, but the fact there were still functional lights. Normally, only places occupied by decent people obtained energy supplies. Even mansions and luxury apartments quickly fell into a decrepit state without any inhabitants.

He grasped Satis and finally reached one of the inner gardens. Using the Left Eye, he found the right path to follow from such a messy garden—full of discarded syringes—and found a stairway going downward. No more vagabonds were in sight, but he could hear a voice coming from some room in the distance. After focusing a bit, he could distinguish the voice clearly and noticed it came from a man—and not an addict.

Satis pointed to one of the walls. There it was: a red banner of sorts, with a yellow cross. Each of the four ends had three points. Common Day felt uncomfortable. If, for some reason, there was a new age religion present in this mansion, this could get even messier. It was weird to find religions in Many Streams, but he’d heard news about them being abundant in other communities—usually implying harsh encounters.

They avoided the area that seemed inhabited by such religion. If Common Day and Satis were lucky, the religious men were only here on some altruistic mission. Using the Left Eye once more, Common Day detected another inner garden, in a lower zone. After reaching it, he could feel how the Moon was about to disappear, as if he was losing his left sight entirely. With some blinks, he stopped the connection, but he already knew where to go.

From this second inner garden, there was only one path in front of them. There was no door, as if it had been torn off by a beast. Satis, who had been gasping all the way, supported herself on his shoulder, trying not to fall to the ground, and recovered her breath.

“...I-I think I need to tell you a few things before we go on. Since you adjusted very fast to my Left Eye, you should know that you probably already have more of my powers.” She now stood up in front of him. “Before I was imprisoned, I watched over the flowing waters—among other things. I wasn’t sure before, but now you also have my speed, and probably my water control…and my bow”.

The demoness was kind of sweaty, which seemed to make her uncomfortable, but she made some symbols with her arms.

“When the time is ripe, you should summon my powers, human…and as with my Left Eye, I don’t know how to teach you the way to do it—but you could try making these symbols with your arms, too”.

No time for discussing this.

Despite the late information, he thought he could still manage when he found those damn bastards. They descended another stairway. Now the wall lights were bluer and bluer, until they reached a floor where everything had an intense blue hue. No vagabonds in sight, but Common Day detected that one of the doorless rooms had a faint yellow light.

They heard some voices coming from a crack in the yellow room, which was the only room full of stuff—ragged clothes, old copper furniture, some empty supply boxes, and a soda vending machine, clearly stolen from outside. Common Day and Satis had an eye in the big crack.

Below, there was a big pentagonal room full of screens, various coolant containers, and a voice commander in the center. There was a reddish door on one of the sides. Cracks marked the walls and floor, probably from the recent earthquake. But what caught Common Day’s attention was the three filthy vagabonds discussing something among themselves.

He jumped through the breach, just behind them.

“I’m Common Day, and today you will meet your demise, wretched creatures!”.

He used all his hope and placed confidence in the arm symbols Satis had taught him, which, in fact, scared the astonished men. Between his hands, a slim, light green brow materialized. It felt cold to the touch, seemingly weightless. In that precise moment, Common Day understood that he was screwed.

No arrows, huh?

Satis smiled at him from the crack in the ceiling, nervously.

After a brief pause, the three men screamed desperately and attacked him disorderly, just their previous encounter. Common Day wasn’t going to let them have their way. This time, he struck back—with the bow. This was enough to scare two of them a bit, but the third one, who seemed the strongest and oldest, kept punching at him. The bow withstood the struggle in this chaotic fight, but it wasn’t very useful.

He landed one final hard hit on the youngest of the vagabonds, who quickly fainted to the floor. Common Day called for Satis.

“Damn Demoness! What else now?! A trick—quickly!”.

“Y-you need your t-two hands for this one.” She made a weird gesture with her hands. “C-call for it, for the flow!”

Common Day was surrounded by the two remaining men. He dropped the bow and extended his two hands to one of the coolant containers—but nothing happened. The vagabonds were confused by his actions, but they weren’t idiots. The one behind grabbed him.

“Give me something better! Your shit isn’t working!”

“I-I have power over water…over flowing water…” She tried to smile at him.

This demoness…

He freed himself from his captor— but not before receiving a few punches. He wasn’t strong enough,probably weakened by some kind of drug addict syndrome. Now, Common Day was in front of both men, who were angrier since he'd taken out the youngest.

“Throw me some sodas!”.

“The what?!”.

“THROW ME ALL THE METALLIC RECTANGLE!”.

The vagabonds repositioned themselves, preparing for a final attack. The bow was far away. His punches weren't strong enough. So he used the only weapon he had left—and started biting.

At first, the two men left thought their victim was just desperate to escape, but they were so wrong. Common Day focused his teeth on the strongest and bit him with all his might. His dental attachments helped him grind the meat of his prey. He managed to tear off a piece of his neck, and quickly started on the right ear.

His plan worked. The weakest of the two looked with horror and dismay as blood gushed out of his companion. He began backing away, traumatized—but the soda vending machine fell on top of him, shattering its glass. Even angrier than before, the last conscious vagabond punched Common Day in the stomach, sending him to the ground.

Common Day felt the soda cans inside the machine and quickly understood what he had to do. Despite the pain in his stomach, he used both hands to call the liquids in the cans. The retained flow, eager to be freed, finally erupted with a rumbling sound. He directed the flow of water with his hands toward the enemy in front of him, who began to retreat, choking under the pressure of the soda.

Using the bow—now in his hands again—Common Day knocked him unconscious too.

Satis jumped onto the scene.

“Behold humans! Behold the power of Satis, the last Demoness who roams against this world! Well done, servant! I hereby appoint you as the bearer of my Bow and the Butler Who Take Care of My Rivers! Now, kill these rebel scum and send me their heads as presents.”

She stood there with a self-satisfied smile.

“Hey, wait a second, last Demoness—what are you talking about? Weren’t we going to spread wickedness through the world?”

“What do you mean?”

“Let me give you a lesson of true evil.”

Satis was confused.