The ELs and the EL Process are a distraction. Now that the rich have a way of creating superhuman soldiers, you can bet they've secretly made an army of enhanced lifeforms that the public doesn't know about. And, of course, the noble families have reserved the real EL Process for themselves.

― Anonymous, from posters pasted all over the District 9 slums

Israfel

Seraph was walking stiffly, without his normal grace. His hair still didn’t move in the breeze. I was reminded of a ghoul stalking its prey from the old movie “Death Walking.”

Asteria kept some distance between them, telling Seraph to stop whenever he came too close, then letting him continue when she’d walked farther away. She led him away from the rest to a small cove where she stopped and let him approach her.

“It’s alright,” she said. “I’ll take care of everything.”

Her fluffy golden blonde hair was lifted by the ocean breeze, exposing the delicate line of her neck. As Seraph’s shadow engulfed her small form, I remembered the first time I’d seen her. Back then she’d shrunk away from the monsters when they towered menacingly over her. I expected her to flinch away from Seraph, but she just sighed and put a hand on her chest. Her other hand went into her pocket and emerged with a knife.

“Sweetie, where’s the candy?” she asked. Then, while Seraph frowned and reached into his jacket, she attempted to stab Seraph in the heart.

Of course, Seraph was fast enough to foil her asinine plan. He simply caught her wrist with one hand while he fished out a small bag of candy with the other.

I wanted to slap my forehead and scream, “This is your plan? What are you, stupid?”

“Let go! Ely, let me go! I’m gonna vomit.”

Seraph let her go.

I felt sorry for the girl when she staggered off a few steps and dry heaved into some bushes. I should have known this little girl wouldn’t be able to stop the world’s greatest warrior. My mind raced as I tried to come up with a plan, any plan, but every plan I could think of ended with “and then Seraph decapitates me.”

“You’ve got it wrong, Ely. Look, don’t you recognize this?” Asteria held the knife up for Seraph to see. “This is going to help, I promise.”

Seraph didn’t react, but Asteria wagged a finger at him anyway. “Just stay still. You’re ill and this is going to help you.”

Asteria took the bag of candy from Seraph’s hand then she moved her other hand slowly until the tip of the knife was in the proper position.

This was crazy! Was she really going to kill him?

I couldn’t believe my eyes when Seraph let her stab him this time. The knife went in easily. Was it a magic weapon of some sort?

I sprinted towards them, but I wasn’t fast enough to stop Seraph from collapsing on top of Asteria. Her head hit the sand with a muted thump. I heaved Seraph’s body off the girl. Asteria sat up and lifted a hand to her head.

“Get off.” Asteria waved her hand at me as I was about to check Seraph to see if he was still alive.

I backed off to give her some space. To my relief, anima crystallized around Seraph’s body. I’d heard about this advanced healing skill. He should be alright. Stab wounds to the heart were normally fatal, but it did take a few minutes for people to die, and Asteria was a very good healer.

“Help me, please,” said Asteria. Her complexion was even greyer than before. “I need to move away from him.”

I didn’t understand, but I helped her stand up then carried her away from the spot where Seraph was. I put her down when she said she was far enough. To my surprise, she sat down cross-legged on the sand and closed her eyes. The glow of anima surrounded Seraph. It looked like a healing spell, but golden instead of green. I couldn’t see any change in Seraph’s condition, but I had more urgent things to worry about right now.

“I’ll go back to the others,” I said.

“Try not to hurt Sariel too much,” she said.

“Of course. Shouldn’t we have taken the knife off Seraph first?” I asked.

“Only if you want him to bleed out and die,” said Asteria.

Ah, sarcasm. She must be feeling better.

I ran back to the others, carrying Seraph’s crystallized form. With him out of commission, we might be able to defeat this weakened, black-eyed version of Sariel. I put Seraph down and joined the fight.

Sariel was slowing down. It hadn’t been that long so it was unlikely that he was running low on anima. Perhaps it was the allergic reaction, or whatever it was, that was causing his skills to rapidly deteriorate.

We continued to dodge Sariel’s attacks, waiting for another opening. When Oren raised his fist, we all sprung into action.

Katja threw an enormous rock. Ravn made it rain bullets. Even Sofia cast a light spell, presumably to blind Sariel.

I was the fastest, so I reached Sariel first. I went low, sliding towards his feet. Sariel sprang back to avoid me, but Oren was coming in like a freight train on Sariel’s left, while Katja was just behind Oren.

Sariel dodged Oren’s sword. Then he kicked Oren away, but that kick left him slightly off-balance, giving Katja the perfect opportunity to kick him in the face.

Sariel, who was no slouch in the hand-to-hand combat department, moved his head just enough to avoid a direct hit. Katja’s foot dealt him a glancing blow to the side of the head.

I closed in with my sword and kept Sariel busy while Katja and Oren attacked him from different angles.

Three versus one weren’t odds to sneeze at, even if you were an EL. Sariel lasted for much longer than I thought he would, but we eventually wore him down until he made a mistake.

Sariel punched me in the face. I reeled back two steps, which gave him space to kick Katja away. Oren came in from behind to sweep Sariel’s feet from under him.

That was the end. We piled on to Sariel, using our combined weight to keep him down. Ravn approached us. Using strips of leather cut from his jacket, he tried to tie Sariel up. Unfortunately, EL strength made that as useful as binding a regular human with paper.

“Should I knock him out?” asked Katja.

“I wish we had sleeping powder,” said Oren.

“I don’t think there are any drugs that can knock out an EL,” I said.

“Someone’s coming!” said Ravn.

A Lifer, whom I recognized as Alfred “The Bloody,” and a bunch of people who looked like regular members of the Kraej family’s security detail arrived. It pissed me off to think that they must have been watching us all this time but didn’t make a move until we’d managed to neutralize the threat. Then again, what could they even do?

Alfred reached into his blazer and took out a syringe that he used on Sariel. The S-class EL was unconscious in seconds.

Wow, so the Lifers had access to drugs that could knock out an EL. I wasn’t happy about the implications of that, but I couldn’t deny that we needed it right now.

The return of the healing knife!