Time Jacker by Aaron Crash (nonfiction book recommendations .TXT) 📕

Jack ducked an ax, turned, and at point-blank range sent three bullets into the chest of the thing. Whatever heart it had was gone, but the giant swung its ax again. Jack ducked behind a tree. The blade was stuck for just a second. It was all the time Jack needed. He emptied his pistol into the thing’s face, taking out both eyes. It fell, clutching at its face. Jack had to use his last bullets to finally make it stop moving.

Gabby had killed two others and was working on a third.

Jack saw that Bailey wasn’t going to be able to stay on her feet much longer. He holstered his pistol, dropped his shotgun, and pulled the Eternity Cannon from the back of his jeans. He thumbed back the hammer and pulled the trigger, ending the overgrown skeleton.

He felt the Corpus and Decaysia fill them. He went over and touched Bailey, and felt her body, but not just that, he felt her core of Ijjinaya. She was mostly lust after all. Then it was easy to transfer the Corpus into healing the bullet wound. Again, he was mystified by the power of the Eternity Cannon working with whatever uniqueness his soul possessed.

Bailey fell against him. “Thanks. I needed that. But I’m still hungry. I need sex.”

Jack knew how she felt. He needed Kairos. Killing the skeletal guardians of the Black Tower hadn’t helped him with his growing headache.

Gabby grabbed Bailey and flew her over the wall. The angel then returned for Jack, who’d retrieved his shotgun. In a whoosh of feathers, Jack was soon standing on the black plain in front of the redwood log wall.

Things, though, were not getting any easier for them. Jack knew he’d seen shapes moving under the ground. Now he saw what they were.

Doll-headed serpents rose from the black pebble ground. The snake scales were a pale yellowish white, matching the cracked porcelain heads of the dolls, connected to serpentine bodies with iron fittings. The doll-serpents were Interim creatures, Kairos-based Fugs he could kill to power up.

They weren’t alone, though. A voice echoed across the black pebble plain. “WHO DARES COME WITHOUT PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE COUNT? WHO DARES VIOLATE THE PALANTINE OF THE MISPLACED?”

That thunder came from something moving across the plain from the city toward them, something huge, with lots of legs. However, another toy creature was erupting from the soil, a monstrous dump truck. Instead of headlights, the thing had reptilian red eyes, glowing a bright crimson. The grill was open to show massive gnashing teeth. Again, that was a Fug.

Something like a cross between a slinky and a corpse writhed out of the pebbles. The spine of the rotting thing was a steel core, as were its arms and legs. The rest of it was claws and teeth. But not for long.

Jack had used up every bullet he had, for both his Beretta and his shotgun. He had no choice but to draw the Eternity Cannon and blow off the slinky zombie’s head. Kairos filled him, and it was good, powerful.

Current Kairos: 79/100

Gabby blew her horn a final time and the sound rolled through the weird toy creatures, clearing the way.

Jack and Bailey ran. Gabby flew. They reached the crumbling black brick staircase. Down they went, with the staircase closing behind them. As they raced up the steps, those steps were disappearing. The way was closing, and the trio barely made it up and out of the hidden staircase and back into the Clockwatcher’s courtyard.

They once again stood on the hard-packed yellow ground. The staircase was gone.

The fat clock man chuckled as a bonging sound filled the air. “Twelve o’clock midnight!”

Jack didn’t know what that meant. Every time the Clockwatcher talked he advanced an hour. What did that mean?

After escaping the Cast Away, Gone Astray, Jack was in no mood for any sort of hijinks. He still had two shots left in the Eternity Cannon. He wasn’t sure how to reload it, not really, but those two shots were precious at this point.

If he had to use one on the Clockwatcher? Well, the fucking fat clock man radiated Kairos. First, though, Jack needed to know where Kerrata had taken Annie Blackburn.

Then the shooting could begin.

Chapter Twenty

THE CLOCKWATCHER SHIVERED and shook as every hand on every clock across his corpulent body lined up and struck midnight. The sky went from a weird crimson color to absolute darkness for a minute, and the only light came from Gabby’s halo, eyes, and sword.

Having an angel around certainly was useful.

Then a second later, a blast of Kairos energy hit Jack like a warm ocean wave. He immediately felt his levels soar to full, and he checked it. Yep. From the combat, from using the Kairos, all of it conspired to send him to second level.

<<< SEPTUA SANCTUS >>>

Level: 2

Current Kairos: 191/200

Current Corpus: 98/200

Current Nefesh: 95/200

Current Ijjinaya: 85/200

Current Psyche: 99/200

Current Morpheum: 100/200

Current Decaysia: 150/200

Special abilities:

Potential Auxiliary Storage: 0/100

Aeterna Kalpa Olam

Hosted Synchronization

Septua Conversion and Transfer

<<< SEPTUA SANCTUS >>>

All of the Clockwatcher’s creatures grew two sizes and continued to radiate the vibrant time energy. The dogs took to snarling, and the elephants trumpeted, raising their decayed trunks while their rotten bellies swayed. Clockwork vultures whirled in the sky above.

“One o’clock, and welcome to a brand-new day,” the clock man said as the hour hand clicked over. “Now, show me the Eternity Cannon.”

Jack lifted the big horse revolver and showed it to the clock man. “Yeah. Here it is. We got out just before the Count found us.”

“Two o’clock, good, good, good,” the Clockwatcher cooed. “Do you know its real name?”

Jack did. But he wasn’t going to tell the Clockwatcher a thing, especially not after Bailey nearly shit a brick when it became clear that they’d have to deal with the Kairos lord in his own eon palace. “According to you, its real name is the Eternity Cannon, right?”

“Three o’clock, clock. Did