Chapter 2: Destruction
" - h̵͏͢͏á̷̛͢͞v̶̡͟é͏̵͟ ͘͘y̶̕ờ̷̡͡ứ̷̷̛ ͞ę̵͝v̷͟é̸̷͟͠r̷̛̕͝ -"
A heavy downpour was the first thing Endife noticed, upon realizing his job was finished in the city he inhabited at that moment.
Though flames roared as they consumed buildings, though lightning ruthlessly tore paths for thunder to drum their presence across the sky, though thousands of corpses, miraculous as they were to remain, laid before him, the rain was the first thing he noticed, after that voice had called to him in a faint, weakened tone.
"Is someone else here?" Endife called, though no one was there to answer his call, as his ki sense affirmed for him.
Left wondering for a moment what the sound could have been, the Saiyan eventually dismissed it entirely, deciding to let the rain aid in the fires dying down as he started to walk along to find somewhere to lay his head for the night.
He felt that he'd made satisfactory progress in purging the Earth's inhabitants, for his first day on the job.
"- ̨e̡vę̵r̢ ̵̧h̛à̸̢d͘ ̡͟ą͞ ͜p̷̀͢l̶̨͢a̷͢c̡̀͜e ͏̡to̕ ̢͝c̴̛̛a̢ĺ̶l - ?"
When these words would echo in his head, he was steadily growing more annoyed and concerned for his own well-being, this having persisted for the three sleepless nights he'd been doing all of this.
If he attempted to go to sleep, somehow, that voice would come again, like a broken record that his mind was not capable of tuning out 100% of the time, especially when he tried to go to sleep.
"D̵̢o̸͟͡͡ ̸̡͏͏y̸̛o͡u̡͡͞ ̷̧h̀͘a̢͠͞v̸̵̧͢ę ̴̶̶̡ą̵̛͞͝ ̷̧͡͞p̷̨̛͜l̷̴͜a̧̢c̀͘e̶̢̛͟͏ ̕͡t̴͢o͏̕͢͏͘ ̷̀c̵͟͡a̸̷͟͡l̶͢͝͡l͏̷̷ ͡͏h̶̨̕͠ò̸͝m͏è̢͢͡?̧́"
Frustration and insomnia meshed into an unsavory mix from then on, him barely able to uphold himself without using ki to keep himself going.
It all became too much for him, and, ultimately, he fell unconscious mid-massacre.
"Hey, have you ever had a place you could call home?"
Endife looked to the source of the voice, finding Ceria there.
"At one point, I did. Why do you ask?"
"Do you remember it?" She asked, and seeing he thought it over, she perked up. "I'm kind of curious, is all. I never really had a place like that to call my own for a while."
"It was with my parents. We had an entire world to ourselves." He said, deciding to omit mention of the copious mass genocides said parents had caused to make it that way. "Quiet and quaint, a bit like it is here, in fact."
"That's nice. I never really got the chance to know my parents." Ceria lamented.
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Zeno wiped all of them out."
Her nonchalance in saying this gave him pause.
"Oh?"
She looked up at the stars glittering in the night sky, the clear cosmos making her breathe a melancholy sigh.
"It was a long, long time ago." She said. "I never really got the details behind it, but he ended up nuking all of them while I was young. One of the Attendants came and took me just before it happened though. Being one of the only tailed Saiyans in the section of the Multiverse. Knowing I could've been dead along with all the rest of them, if someone hadn't taken me out of there in time."
"It sounds as if it was difficult." He noted.
"Yeah." She affirmed softly. "I know he's the Omni-King, but there have to have been innocent people in there. Six whole universes, gone in an instant like that — it's such a massive waste of life."
But it was the will of the god of the Multiverse that determined such things, was it not? Endife wondered internally, but did not speak it aloud. If nothing else, it may have been for the best.
"Isn't it blasphemy to question the actions of deities?" He asked, as a joke, yet, when Ceria turned her gaze to him, her icy gaze gave him pause for a moment.
Then, just as quickly as she'd glared, her eyes softened, glassy with tears, before she looked back down, a mirth-filled smile on her lips.
"I bet that's how they probably feel, huh. I wonder if they'd execute me on the spot, if they knew where I came from."
Her smile fell, a pensive look on her face.
"I wanted to make a home here too, with Yanato." She said, a hand making a thoughtless caress over her stomach. "I wonder if he'd be interested too."
"I'm certain he will be." Endife said, almost laughing at the notion of the opposite being true.
She closed her eyes, giggling softly.
"If you wanted to be a part of it too, I wouldn't mind it."
Hu̸͘r͏̶̢t̶.̵͏ ͠P͏a͝iņ͜.̶̸͝ ̷̶Shó́͏ck͘͝.͏
"Is that right? Are you certain?"
"Yeah!" She chirped. "Even if you're a jerk with a god complex, you're OUR jerk with a god complex."
His hand, calmly squeezing the life out of this foolish girl's throat, rendered her unable to speak properly, even as her fingers clawed desperately at his ironclad-like grip.
"It isn't a complex. I am a god amongst gods." Endife boasted merrily.
"Whatever you say." She rolled her eyes, standing up from her seat of choice, a felled log. "Well, Super God, if you ever decide to leave on some divine, mystical journey, just know you'll always have a place to call home."
B̡̛̕e̢ ͏̵̢͠͞q̵́̀͘ų̶͏̢ìe̵̶̡͘͜t͝͡͠.́́͘
"What a kind woman you've proven to be. Yet you're unsure if Yanato would enjoy having you? You mortals have such low self-esteem."
"Maybe we mortals just have a more grounded perspective on reality." Ceria said, making a sweeping gesture with her hands to the ground beneath them, before smiling softly. "Though, to be honest... the truth is, I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant."
"P-... Please...!" She rasped, a plea for mercy, no doubt.
Another thing to ignore.
She writhed uselessly over the ground, Endife finding that the hurt and betrayal had gone from her eyes, replaced by a pure, feral instinct to survive.
Such was his preference.
Inferior creatures such as this weren't worthy of the gift of emotion; the cold embrace of death could be a useful reminder of such a fact.
Before she could do anything else, at the base of his wrist, a blade of hellish pink energy ruptured and shot through her neck —
He regained consciousness with a rousing scream.
He didn't realize that his was among a cluster of such things.
He could not even comprehend the fact that he was stalking towards his target with an almost drunken step, mind elsewhere, head in a daze.
It was only when the voice from before echoed in his mind, clear as day, that he snapped and blacked out entirely.
" — just know you'll always have a place to call home."
"SHUTUP!"
A scream was silenced by the rip and tear of bones under his assailing blade.
This failed to silence the rest of the herd, and his blind rage drove him forward.
Rip and tear. Rip and tear.
One by one, one after another, they fell to the ground.
He stopped in his tracks only when he heard the sound of tires screeching against the rain stained ground, a car with three people speeding away inside it.
The speed of the truck was not great however, at least not for someone like him.
To see such a desperate attempt to escape derive such paltry results made him twitch, and though he meant to make a low chuckle, there was only a low croak.
He sped forward, sauntering without thought, a sonic boom rippling through the air, shattering the glass of the truck windows, before he was in front of the truck, free hand ramming into it.
The abruptness of the act made the front of the truck sink in around his hand; he heard a woman scream, arms clasped tightly around something as her body flew over his shoulder, while the driver, a man, was ricocheted forward by the inertia and rammed into the steering wheel, the sound of a horn filling the air as his skeleton broke upon impact.
Endife looked behind himself, seeing the woman rolling along the ground to break the fall, stopping and checking the small thing tucked in her arms, a baby.
She spared no concern for herself, only for her child, even as he took heavy steps over to her.
Now, more clear than ever before, the sound of that woman's voice rang in the recesses of his mind, and his energy fluctuated erratically, gritting his teeth.
The mother looked up at the thing sauntering over to her, and though her baby, who'd just a moment ago wailed profusely in the car, now laid eerily silent in her arms, she heard him speak.
"B̡̧ę͠ ̡̀͜q̴u̕i͜͢e̴͜t̴̢͝."
"P-Please..."
She looked at him, the eyes of a cornered animal unable to flee its predator any further.
She searched his eyes for mercy, any inkling of it, but only found a bottomless fury that preceded it.
He swung his blade, and she had no time to scream.
He roared for her silence, but there was no one left to answer him.
He ripped and tore, ripped and tore until all that was left was a mutilated corpse, no features left to distinguish her face.
Balance unstable, he realized he still made involuntary sounds.
Upon getting resettled, he thought that, surely, he was laughing, that the pitter patter of rain and the silence that now held itself thick over the city.
Then, against reason, it came again, that same warm, comforting voice, and his throat constricted.
"... I see... You must still be alive, aren't you Ceria?" He asked, taking slow, lumbering steps forward. "You're trying to mock me for not KILLING you properly. Don't worry though... I'll find where you're hiding soon. If I kill you, then you'll finally shut your worthless mouth!"
His voice echoed over the area, him sensing out the next city and smiling to his ears.
"I'm coming for you. And I'll make sure that it'll be even more painful than it was before."
He roared with what he thought was laughter as he ran from the city and moved.
Whether he was correct in this assumption was an unanswerable riddle.
Though driven by his new secondary goal, in the midst of his travel, not a soul could tell whether he was laughing heartily or weeping pitifully.