It had been a long battle to reach this moment. Raven, a tall tan man stood in front of the gates to Altera's Core, the location where he and his friends would find the Nasod King and end his reign once and for all. His black and red left arm ached and he grasped it tightly. His arm, once machine, was now a bio metal, living and breathing along with him, fighting for control. It was a path he choose when he had regained consciousness of his body. The terror of being controlled by his arm never really left him, but at this very moment he didn't care about the aches and pains that came with fighting for control, he was ready to fight the very race that brought his half dead body back to life and turned him into a monster that destroyed homes and tore apart families. His mind will never find peace until he redeems his actions, and this was the perfect way to do it.
"Are you alright Raven?" The black clothed man looked to his right to see an elf. She fancied the bow and arrow and had a face that closely resembled the one of his dead fiancé, Seris.
"I am fine Rena." He answer. As they spoke, the rest of his team walked closer to the large gates.
"What lies beyond these doors?" Asked a blonde gunner in the group, Chung. He used twin pistols along his large cannon he dubbed "destroyer".
"I wish I could say, I have not been within the Nasod kind in too long of a period to have any useful information." Said the pervious Nasod Queen, Eve. She had upgraded her program using the "exotic" code, and just recently the "nemesis" code.
"Whatever is inside, we need to get through it to get to the Nasod King." Said Elsword, the Lord Knight of the group. His had grown well from the over confident kid who Raven had met what seemed like so long ago. The girl to his left, our elemental master, Aisha nodded and added.
"Elsword is right, this is it. Once we defeat the King, we can finally retrieve the El Stone, we can restore peace to the land and turn all of the wild creatures back to normal."
"Not to mention tone down all these 'natural' disasters." Added Chung. Raven stretched his left arm to try to loosen up his contracting muscles. Rena looked worried, but also readied her bow. Elsword opened the gates and the group walked inside. Everything seemed quiet, giving the entire structure an eerie atmosphere. The silence pulled at everyone's nerves. As they walked further in, the light became dimmer and dimmer, also a strange creaking slowly got louder and loader. The sound when from a barely hearable hum to a loud hiss. At this point the only one who culd see anything really was eve with her robotic eyes which would adjust to the light instantly. Her eyes widened as she saw her chaser ally get close to something.
"Wait, CHUNG!" Eve screamed out, but it was too late, he tipped of an alarm, a red laser had been place at torso height for intruders to bump into. All at once the room light up bright, blinding more of the party, many Nasod soldiers teleported to where Chung stood. Though blind, he still knew he was surrounded. He quickly summoned his twin pistols and began his trigger happy session. It didn't take long for their eyes to adjust and everyone saw Chung standing in the middle of 6 Nasod machines, all neutralized.
"That wasn't very tough." The deadly chase said quite cheeky. Elsword readied his sword and said.
"You might want to look behind you." Chung did so and saw a long corridor with more Nasod he had ever seen in one place before. His gun shots had did more than alert them of their presence, in an instant, more laser emerged.
"Uhh...opps?" Chung said slowly. All at once they were ambushed by white machines. Everyone fought together in harmony.
Raven charged with his left arm in his signature skill, Limit Breaker. He sustained some damage, but his fast punch left a shielder flinched from taking such a strong punch head on. At once, Rena took aim and shot a flurry of arrows over Raven's shoulder, hitting the shielder and plenty of other Nasod. Elsword rushed into the midst of the chaos along with Raven. His blade came tip first into a Nasod's head, which he then used to propel himself up, creating and opening for Chung to go trigger happy once more. Aisha and Eve didn't waste time to launch magical orb blasts, some of fire and the others of lighting. The party of six made haste as they ran and fought through the long corridor of Altera's Core. Raven had long forgotten about the pain he had felt before, the heat of battle always took numbed his body, it was almost...pleasant. Before long they reached a platform that began to take them down a level.
"Think the King is at the lowest level?" Asked Elsword as he pointed his sword at Nasod Bladers that just teleported to the platform. Eve nodded as her drones opened their mouths to spawn more lighting orbs. to pierce through the wave of enemies. They Nasod began to swarm in in larger numbers. Eve took sight of a certain kind and said.
"Watch for those, they are Type-W9, they hold hidden blades in their wrists." Before she could finish her sentence, however, Raven had already punched a hole through the head of one of the W9. Eve seemed a little impressed and carried on with the battle ahead. Again the party fought through hundreds of Nasod until reaching another platform, no doubt that lead down again. Before they could on, however, the Nasod Twins Ignis and Leviathan teleported in front of them.
"Them again?" exclaimed Chung. "You guys go ahead, I'll handle them!"
"Have you gone mad? It took all of us last time to defeat them last time." Aisha said, trying to pull Chung away from his crazy idea.
"Then leave us both behind, I'll keep him alive." Said Eve as she stepped forward to aid Chung, who seemed a little relieved by her offer.
"We can't split up now! We hav-" Aisha's shouder was grabbed by Raven who pulled her away.
"We can't argue right now! If we don't hurry we'll end up surrounded, we can handle them if they come in waves, but there is power in numbers, I for one, don't want to be over whelmed."
The elemental master looked over at Elsword who nodded in agreement. Against her better judgment, she followed her friends and left Chung and Eve behind to fight the twins. The duo left behind began their assault on the Elemental Twin Nasods.
Raven and the others could hear metal being torn apart, but there being a knight in armor and a robot, it didn't exactly mean the metal cracking was the Nasod twin's.
Again the elevator held an ambush. The archer, sorceress, and sword users where clearly getting tired of this already. They had no choice but to deal with it. They continued to fight and Raven could feel his consciousness begin to leave him slowly. It was a strange feeling, he had never fought so many enemies before, it was eccentric and he raved for more and more. He knew that if he continued to fight he might succumb to his arms influence, and if he had the choice, he would have halt combat that moment, but the constant wave of enemies did not give him the luxury of taking a breather.
"AHHH!" Raven heard Aisha scream as she became surrounded by W9s, they all readied their blade and began an assault, but Aisha was all out of mana for an area of affect spell, she could fend off one, but the others would land a deadly strike no doubt. Raven ran as fast he could and jumped over the crowd and took Aisha into his arms while shouting.
"Charged Bolt! Hedgehog!" Raven was then wrapped around a black quill of sorts that then expanded sharp spikes that pierced through all of the surrounding Nasod. The quill unwrapped itself and the robots exploded just as the elevator landed on the bottom floor.
"Next time...Conserve your mana..." Raven said between pants of exhaustion. Rena and Elsword made their way to them.
"Are you two alright?" The Lord Knight asked with a worried expression. Raven let Aisha go who was half way blushing.
"Yes, we have to keep going. We don't have time to take a break." Raven said getting up rather unsteadily. He stumbled slightly, his arm began to ache again and everyone could tell. Rena caught him and he hesitantly accepted her aid to help him stand.
"You're in no condition to fight right now." The words annoyed Raven and he less than gently pushed the elf away and stood on his own.
"There is no time to argue. We do this now." Raven looked Elsword straight in the eye and the Knight just couldn't help but comply, lest his anger his ally more. Again they set out and as the fight raged, everyone took notice at how Raven was now favoring his blade more. Rena have a worried look at him, his Nasod arm starting to let off steam from how hot it was getting.
The four man squad cut through the waves of Nasod who seem to replenish in their numbers just as quickly as they were cut down. It did not take long after that before they reached yet another platform.
"This one will lead us into the core." Aisha said as she pointed at where the rails led. Everyone began to board the elevator, but an attacker came from above. Raven had lagged behind slightly and was able to see it. He ran and jumped to get a grip of it. He then through to back into the corridor. In the light everyone got a good look at the attacker and Raven's anger spiked. It was the Crow Rider, a Nasod who took on the form and skills of Raven while he was controlled by his Nasod arm.
"You guys go on ahead." Raven said in a monotone voice.
"What? You're going to try to fight it alone?!" Rena asked as she looked him over, his arm was clearly still burning and hurting him, she tried to open her mouth again, perhaps to convince him to at least let her stay and fight alongside him.
"This is something I have to do on my own." Raven said before she could speak. "You all have a mission to complete, and I have redemption to find." Rena was about to step off the platform but Elsword grabbed a hold of her and shock his head when she looked over at him. In silence they left as Raven stretched his arm again, readying it for one last fight. The trio all turned to the core as a gate opened and the white veil light covered them.
"Just like when we first began huh?" Elsword said a little nostalgically. No one else said anything, but they all agreed.