Recommendedsongs to listen to while reading: (Liar Mask- Rika Mayama), (Steins; Gate: Gate of Steiner), (Maroon 5- Maps), (Venemy & Said the Sky- Dreaming)
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My name… is Pit. I was once the captain of Palutena's Army. I once commanded the Centurions in countless battles. Formerly, I fought with all my might for Lady Palutena with the bow she entrusted to me so, so long ago. All those experiences we had during the fight against Hades and the Underworld… all are simply mere memories now. As I look to the future, a new adventure presents itself to me. But now, I must face the upcoming trial by myself.
Lady Palutena is no longer there to guide me.
This is the story of death, loss, the exuberant joy of having your trusted friends alongside you, and the overwhelming grief of having them shredded from your grip.
This… is my journey.
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My life in Skyworld post-Uprising had been an interesting one. The Centurions still worked feverishly to restore the realm to its former glory, after Palutena neglected it for three years. The Goddess of Nature, Viridi, had continuously visited to restore the lush, green gardens of Skyworld. I was shocked when Viridi paid us a visit in person just to plant some seeds. Lady Palutena had chuckled when I asked her why she thought Viridi came to Skyworld, other than the aforementioned reason. Now I understand it, but then, I was as helpless as a chicken in roller skates. Dark Pit recently swore his allegiance to Viridi. That came as a major surprise to everyone in Skyworld. Pittoo wasn't the type of angel to settle down and serve one master… if any at all. I always wondered if I would be like that someday. After all, he was created from me. My friends, especially Skittles, Dez, and Leaf all grew closer to each other. As I spent more time with them, our combat skills evolved and we became more proficient with human weapons.
However, the lightheartedness of the previous story I was in ends there. No, I'm not talking about Pit's Expansion Pack.
A shy female angel showed up in Skyworld one day. No one knew where she came from. She had blonde hair pulled back into a messy bun that swept across her forehead that ended just to the right of her right eye. Her ear donned a sparkling green emerald, and her neck held a thin silver necklace. Her eyes were a light grey shade, and Leaf thought it complemented her very, very refined cheekbones. Her wings were the same shade of grey that her eyes were, and she wore a red sleeveless tank-top complemented by simple skinny jeans. It turned out that she had little combat abilities, but she was extremely smart. So smart, in fact, that she could enhance, physically combine Skyworld Armaments, or create new weapons entirely. Leaf dedicated himself to teach her his style of combat, and soon enough, she became a little harder to take down in sparring matches.
When I went to go ask Lady Palutena about Cynthia, the new angel, and her past, she sighed and explained to me that she was born into a dysfunctional family who neglected her horribly. Eventually, Cynthia became fed up with the treatment she received from her family. At the age of sixteen, she left home, carrying only a few possessions along with a few hundred dollars she raided from her parent's dresser. With nothing but the clothes on her back, she managed to make a living for herself by working as a waitress for a local restaurant. Her manager felt bad for her, so Cynthia rented out a spare room at her house for very little cost. She was living quite comfortably before a group of bandits ransacked her manager's house, raping and beating Cynthia horribly. The intruders were later caught, but Cynthia never fully recovered from the incident. Immediately after the bandits were apprehended, she moved to a different city and took up weapon forging. While she was no good at forging weapons herself, she proved to be a valuable asset in designing and creating the armaments. After a year of doing this, she was told to go use her sharp, alchemy-centered mind to try and create super-powered weapons that would make any wielder a force to be reckoned with. She nearly succeeded, but a few variables prevented the experiments from working. For the next two years, she worked feverishly, staying up late and waking up at the crack of dawn to try and discover what held her back in creating the desired armament she strived to perfect. Then, two years later, she was fired for not accomplishing enough. Back on the streets, with nowhere to go, and very nervous about everyone, she was prepared to end her life before Lady Palutena presented her the option to become a weapons forger for Skyworld. Cynthia was hesitant at first, especially when Palutena mentioned that the process to become an angel was physically and mentally grueling. Eventually, she gave into her mind and complied with Palutena's offer.
I'm sure you're wondering why I am explaining a seemingly useless character right off the bat. The weapons she was creating were necessary in this adventure I'm about to explain. Cynthia's weapons… were missing magic. She couldn't infuse the arms she was striving to create in the human world, simply because there was no divine intervention. With Lady Palutena and the rest of Skyworld's help, she drifted into where she is now: comfortable, content, and hard-working. In return, she created very specific weapons for each individual in Skyworld. Some of the higher-ranking Centurions received one, too. For example, Dez's trademark Black Club was unchanged on the surface, but on the interior, a complex array of wires and mechanisms let the Black Club utilize boomerang capabilities, enabling Dezerei to eliminate many hordes of enemies at once. The shots fired from the club were as powerful as ever, traveling faster and knocking foes back further. On the handle, there was a special machine that detected Dezerei's blood pressure. The higher it was, the stronger and faster her attacks were. This enabled Dez to still stay strong on the battlefield, even though her emotions weren't perfectly in check.
While the weapons stayed the same… their personalities didn't.
One day… Pittoo staggered through the doors of Palutena's inner temple. His head was split open, and we could see his skull protruding from the skin flap dangling in front of his eye. When the flap swayed as he walked, we could see one eye had been gouged out, leaving eyeball mush in his socket. The other eye was bloodshot and filled with tears, flowing down his face. Countless gashes all over his body spilled blood onto the marble floors. His tunic was torn to shreds, and his shirt was completely gone. Half of his left wing was severed, and the other one was badly broken and dislocated. Several of his fingers and toes were missing.
Dark Pit said nothing. Without warning, he collapsed onto the floor, violently shaking and trembling. His skin faded into a dark shade of grey, eventually turning his entire body pitch black. Blood pooled around him, bathing him in the liquid spilled from pain. A single tear slid down his eye as he spoke.
"P… Pit… My… bad… Pal-" Pittoo's body exploded, bathing the area around him in the black matter. Palutena swiftly threw herself in front of me and began to repel the darkness with light. Within seconds, her face turned three shades of shocked, perplexed, and exhausted. I sprung to my feet and activated the weapon Cynthia created for me. I shot three consecutive waves of light from the tip of the gun, only to have the projectiles completely overwhelmed and fired back at me with force greater than Hades' strikes back in Uprising. I flew back into the wall, unable to do anything as Palutena trembled in exertion. Teeth gritted, she turned her head to me and managed to smile.
"PIt… you've done incredibly well as the captain of my guard. Now… it's your turn for a promotion. Take over for me… I'll protect you. Be strong, Pit. I'll see you later… my child." Lady Palutena, whom I looked upon as a mother, drove the tip of her staff into her chest. With a gasp, she emitted a radiant light that repelled the dark explosion. The two opposites clashed, then vanished into thin air right before my eyes. Dark Pit's body and Palutena's body were nowhere to be seen. Shakily, I got to my feet and staggered to the spot where Palutena had burst into a darkness-cancelling light and dropped to my knees. I picked up her staff and shrieked her name over and over, clutching the staff and letting the tears fall onto the floor. I glanced at Dark Pit's former location through my agony. He bathed her floors in his anguish and pain; I bathed them in my raw emotions flooding out of me so suddenly. I couldn't move. I was numb, and didn't move for several hours. All I could do was look at Lady Palutena's staff that held a few droplets of her own blood.
A few hours later, I looked up to see Leaf standing in the door, mouth open and eyes spilling liquid. He walked through the puddle of blood and collapsed next to me, eyes locked on Palutena's staff. I had calmed down now, and only felt overwhelming sadness. Too sad to cry. Too angry to lash out. Too tired to sleep. Too emotional to seek help.
All I could do was place a comforting arm around his shoulders as I kept my eyes locked on the very spot of the goddess who raised and nurtured me disappeared. Voice still unstable, I turned to Leaf who was wiping his eyes and kneeling now.
"Leaf… how big was that explosion?" My voice cracked on the syllable 'lo'.
"..." He paused to make eye contact with me. "It was all over Skyworld. The dark stuff went into Dez, Rez, Ganel, Skittles, and Tsunam. They don't even know their names anymore…!" Leaf sobbed, gulped and caught his breath. Continued. "Dez's name is still Dez… I still answer to Leaf… but Rez, who answers to Reika, Ganel who now is Gueren, Skittles, who now calls herself Sheyla, and Tsunam, who calls himself Crest…! It's too much… they themselves have changed too… none of them are the same."
I tried to comfort him the best I could. "What about you? Did you change?"
"I'm not entirely sure. I don't think I have…"
I stood up, face crestfallen and soul floundering in a deep sea of sadness. Gingerly, I picked up the staff Lady Palutena used to hold all the time. With both hands, I carried it out into her garden, full of lush trees, bushes, and shrubs. Brightly colored flowers were everywhere my eye could see. Thankfully, the darkness hadn't destroyed the beauty of Skyworld. As I set the staff down on the ancient stone bench she always used to sit on, I recalled all the times we shared together, good and bad. Then, I grew angry. I grew too angry for my own well-being.
Who would do such a thing?! Why would they kill the Goddess of Light? I remember whispering the words, "I'll murder the bastards who did this!"
Completely drained of energy, I slumped down against the great tree in the middle of her garden. This was the tree Toso, or formerly known as Toad, discovered Dark Pit's Silver Bow he had misplaced so long ago. I still remember the expression on Pittoo's face when Toso gave it back to him.
I cried for the loss of my goddess. I cried for the loss of my doppelganger. I cried for the loss of familiarity. Skyworld was forevermore changed; not for the better. I fell asleep at the base of the huge tree, feeling comforted somehow.
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When I came to, I saw a face that was strikingly familiar to me. Long, pale, blonde hair in a ponytail on the left side of her head. Deep, pale green eyes. A thin line of twigs wrapped around her head. A purple rose and thorns embedded in her ponytail.
Viridi, the Goddess of Nature.
"Pit… I'm so sorry." Viridi's usually-hardened face was as soft as jello as she also grieved the loss of her friend. Her eyes were slowly leaking tears, but I kept looking at the ground, eyes half-open. I suddenly got the urge to wipe away her tears.
I gave into the urge.
"Pit… what are you doing?" Viridi asked with question in her voice.
"I'm comforting you. I hope," I sheepishly replied. Despite the intense emotional pain I was experiencing, I managed to smirk the tiniest of smirks.
Viridi sighed. "You're still you, even after all this…" She chuckled, ever so slightly.
"I am…" I whispered. As I sat there with Viridi, watching the sun rise, my thoughts drifted to many different places. Why did she die? Why did Pittoo explode? Why did my friends' names change? What am I going to do? Why would someone do this? What happened to Pittoo?
But the biggest question on my mind was a very, very unnerving one.
Would I have to rule Skyworld and become the God of Light?
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AN: So, here's my first chapter for the follow-up to the Uprising of Toad. I'll use the characters and some subtle references to the story, but I won't follow its plotline (If there was one) and I'll rewrite it with a whole other theme in mind. I'm writing this to try and better my primary story, "Sayo and Ieyasu: Killers of Fate."
There will be a few new faces in addition to Cynthia later on in the story. Keep an eye out for them.
How do you like my new style? Remember, I'm Thepictoad in case you forgot. I created a new account so that story wouldn't weigh me down in my recent writing expeditions.
Tell me anything you like, dislike, or love in the forme of constructive criticism. Leave a review, and make sure to favorite and follow, since I have some plans for this story. :) If you have ideas, theories, or speculations about this story, leave them in a review and I'll reply. :)
That's all for now. The Slain Executioner, slashing out. :)
