After seeing the TGS trailer for DMC5, I can say quite confidently that my hype for the game grows by the second! The whole issue with the song itself (and by extension, the controversy with the band) aside, the song worked pretty well with the trailer. But then again, the trailer was about Dante, ha ha ha. And damn, glad to see he hasn't missed a beat since the last time the fans last saw him in a DMC game. Seriously, shaving his face with the enemy's bladed shell? Awesome shit, no question about it!
And the new moves shown off in the trailer along with that boss fight glimpse… god, I really am planning to get a PS4 now just to play it!
Heh, well, my hype aside, glad you liked the last chapter, guys! And this chapter will naturally be addressing some of the questions you asked in your reviews. As usually, hope the answers and the way they're presented will please you!
And TheDarkHollow, no worries, man, life comes first. Hope school is going well for you!
Chapter 20
The world was ending. There was just no other way for Kohta to put it.
The ground shook and broke apart like dried up playdoh and the very sky itself seemed to just be rend asunder by something.
All around him, Kohta was aware of the others doing their best to remain on their feet, to no avail, being literally thrown about and onto the ground from the force. Kohta himself was sent flying from the chair he'd been placed in and ended up smashing against the back of the house here quite violently.
He cried out in pain from just how hard he hit it but did his best to try and focus through it, something that proved hard to do with how much the ground continued to shake.
No way this was an earthquake. It was far too sudden and much too powerful. It was something else…
But what?
He got his answer a second later when he looked out, past the barrier, and saw a mass so enormous as to make mountains look tiny in comparison suddenly come their way.
His breath caught in his throat at the sight as said mass, big enough to block out whatever light the moon provided, moved at terrifying speeds.
And then a few seconds later, it impacted against the barrier.
If the ground had been shaking violently before, then this truly must be how it feels like if the entire planet were to explode or something.
The instant the mass collided with the barrier, the barrier seemed to glow like the sun in response and everyone inside was sent careening into the house or bushes nearby as if struck by a bus.
Kohta ended up smashing against the house again with enough violent force to reopen some other wounds he'd had from before.
He fell to the ground, heavily disoriented, only to start making a hasty recovery when the titanic mass struck again, with somewhat lesser force this time around.
Then the mass groaned out, a sound so loud that even when he tried to cover his ears, it still felt like his head would pop from the volume.
Disoriented again from near-deafness, Kohta nonetheless tried to look forward and comprehend what he was now seeing.
The mass retreated significantly, no doubt intending to ram the barrier. Although quite a terrifying thought, it gave him just enough of a reprieve to get a really good look at it now.
And his heart felt like it was going a trillion miles a minute.
"What. The. FUCK?!" he shouted.
It was a monster, no doubt about that. Only far bigger, much, much, MUCH bigger.
And the area outside the barrier… oh shit balls, what had happened?! There was nothing there anymore! No more of the smaller monsters or zombies. No more houses or streets or anything, just gigantic pieces of rubble that had once been land…
And now… all that appeared left as the monster began its charge yet again was just water. Ocean water.
This fucking thing was so big that it literally seemed to break the entire land and let in ocean water!
Unable to do anything but gape now, all he could do was just watch as the monster, far too big for him to even see its face properly let alone how truly big it was, charged once more.
It struck the barrier for a third time…
And for a third time, it felt like the world was breaking in two underneath him.
Iroha, much like everyone else, had been thrown quite violently when the monster had struck.
But thanks to her lineage, she was noticeably sturdier than a normal person and so she was already up and at it. That isn't to say she was unhurt, however, for it felt like her entire body was one big bruise right now.
However, adrenaline was doing wonders for her and so she was able to rush out of the house just as the monster struck the barrier a third time.
Iroha was flung from the porch a solid several meters and landed hard in the streets, scrapping her face and breasts in the process as she hit it front-first.
Ignoring the blood that now dripped from her wounds, she was able to get up as the monster let out another moan, one of mild annoyance and then retreated at a startling speed.
The Leviathan. That was the name of this monster and it certainly more than lived up to said name in terms of size alone.
But she could content herself with knowing that it would be unable to break the barrier… on its own, that is.
She didn't have to look to know that the rest of Japan had most likely been utterly devastated from the titanic monster's ramming attacks. Indeed, this stretch of the neighborhood was only still intact thanks to the barrier not only keeping out anything she deemed threats, but also effectively cutting it off from the rest of the world.
This was a marginally good thing, for the rest of Japan in likelihood was nothing more than meager pieces of rubble sinking into the sea now. And the shockwaves generated from the Leviathan's attacks just now most likely wiped out a solid portion of the United States, assuming the country had even been in one piece still up until this point.
Sure enough, when she turned around to look past the barrier, she saw nothing but water and sinking rubble that had once been the city. As for the monsters and zombies from just moments ago, absolutely nothing remained of them; the very strength of the Leviathan's attacks had completely wiped them out along with most of the land, hence the relative lack of rubble.
Iroha shuddered. Truly, what terrifying strength.
However, the Demon's physical body was much stronger. And if her barrier could take a strike from it without completely breaking, then it should be able to weather the Leviathan's assault without too much trouble.
Even so…
"Takeru? Takashi?" she called out as she started to walk towards the backyards of the houses here. "Kiriko? Anyone?"
All the people up in the front here had been sent flying about and were in the midst of getting back on their feet right now. The same should hopefully apply to those in the back too… or so she was hoping.
However, just before she could even make it halfway to the nearest backyard, a soul-piercing roar was heard, freezing her in place, as did the sound of loudly swishing tails.
She pivoted on the spot with a surprising grace and speed for a woman of her generous figure and general temperament.
And there, now towering over the neighborhood by a ridiculous margin was yet another of the three titan monsters – the one simply known as the Colossus.
With its six crab-like legs, several thick tails, and an extremely muscular and reptilian-esque upper body that had four threatening arms, it certainly was a colossus in a number of ways.
And of the three titans, it also possessed the greatest physical strength.
Something that it now seemed keen to demonstrate for them all.
Iroha could only focus on the barrier, channeling every last bit of power she had into it, reinforcing it even further-.
And then the Colossus swung its fists down.
It was like a supernova going off.
That was the only way a somewhat disoriented Saya noted, covering up her eyes as the barrier above brightened to a blind degree when some massive thing struck it.
She tried to get up but found herself unable to. Not because her body was that hurt or anything, but simply because the sheer amount of power that struck downwards was outright preventing her from standing up.
It was as if gravity had just drastically increased or something.
But then the power gave way and it felt like she could breathe again.
Struggling to get up, Saya reached up with an unsteady hand to grip the closest thing to her to use as crutch. Even then, she still nearly stumbled and was ultimately forced down to the ground again when that same force reappeared.
It smashed her into the ground hard, nearly breaking her nose in the process. Very vaguely, she was a little thankful the initial attack had caused her to land on the grass because if she'd struck hard asphalt with this much force, she was pretty sure it wouldn't just be her nose at risk of breaking.
The force disappeared and then reappeared just as quickly – and another force struck the barrier from the side, not as strongly, but definitely far from weak. It felt like her body was torn between being flung to the side and remaining all but literally embedded in the ground.
It was only due to an irregular pause between the two forces that she was able to roll over and see just what the hell was even going on.
And quite naturally, her breath caught in her throat at the sights before here.
Monsters. Only two, but far bigger than anything she's ever seen before in her life.
Just where had they even come from?
But more importantly, will the barrier be able to hold out against them?
She, Saya Takagi, genius extraordinaire, genuinely prayed to whatever deities existed that the barrier would.
But reality, ever so harsh, was quick to crush whatever desperate hope she was feeling when she looked off into the distance….
…And saw a third monster, equally huge, make its way over to them.
Its appearance was rather human-like save for the fact it seemed made out of molten rock. Satanic horns jutted out the side of its deathly skull head and its very hands seemed to be swords rather than actual hands.
Saya hyperventilated where she was on the ground. It was like looking up at death itself for some reason, its sword hands not unlike blades of judgement rather than blades used for pure violence.
And although it could've just been a cruel trick of the eyes, the monster seemed to stare right back at her.
It grinned.
Then it raised a hand… and swung.
The three titans, now all together for the first time in their brief existences, spared only a split second at the most to acknowledge one another.
And to come up with something akin to a pattern.
The Leviathan would strike first, to knock around and heavily disorient the people within the barrier. Then the Colossus would attack the barrier, its unmatched physical strength promptly pinning everyone down in their groggy states.
And then the Giant would smite with its blades in an attempt to genuinely slay them all, even though the barrier naturally prevented this from happening.
This was a pattern that swiftly grew repetitive, but was effective nonetheless as the three titans, concerned only with carrying out the Demon's will, kept on the pressure.
The Leviathan would ram its huge body against the enduring barrier, generating tsunamis each and every time. By this time around, the United States truly didn't exist anymore, the shockwaves and tsunamis carrying out there far. Its very size and constant movement to ram at full speed and strength ensured the destruction of whatever remained of Asia and Russia too.
The Colossus' repeated punches with its four arms was causing the ocean now all around them to part in a circle-like formation and steadily continue growing in size with each blow. The force of its strikes was such that the ocean floor was being hammered despite being so far down and it would only be a matter of time until enough of an opening was formed for the air pressure to reach the planet's core.
The Giant's vicious swings added to this, cutting the surrounding ocean apart at whatever angle it swung its blades at. Although physically the weakest of the three, that was only relatively speaking. As such, its powerful slashes would reach deep down, cutting up the ocean floor in ways that would take geological amounts of time to even remotely recover from.
Sometimes, the Giant would swing at an upwards angle, releasing air pressure that would travel great distances and end up splitting chunks off the Middle East and Africa, thereby ensuring no continent on the planet went untouched.
All around them, as the three kept on attacking, the world was steadily falling apart. Given enough time, there wouldn't even be a world left for them to stand on.
This was something the three acknowledged as being entirely likely yet they cared not. The titans had no issue surviving in a vacuum, though attacking the barrier, if it was still intact by then, would be an issue without any footing for them launch their blows properly.
But this was only a mild worry in the back of their minds. All that mattered was what was before them.
The barrier must be brought down at all costs.
As if spurned on by a literal force, the three titans' attacks grew even more relentless and powerful, their minds becoming so completely focused on their target that everything else simply fell to the wayside in comparison.
It was to the point where they cared not if they ended up striking each other by accident.
And sure enough, with every world-shaking ram, punch and slash that ensued, the three began to sport wounds little by little. The Leviathan and Colossus sported some bruises and cuts that leaked what could only be blood, drops of which that were bigger than entire city blocks, especially in the former's case given its size. The Giant probably was getting off the most lightly, with only bruises to show for its compatriots' efforts, though some of its otherwise startlingly graceful swings became much wilder, giving itself just minor cuts on its own legs, which were quite close to the barrier itself.
And all the while, the barrier and the people inside endured, pinned down by the monstrous forces that worked upon it, unable to even form a scream as the very atmosphere inside was taking a direct beating itself, just barely providing them with enough time and air to keep on breathing.
The titans rammed, punched, and slashed. The barrier endured.
The attacks seemingly grew stronger and ever more ferocious by the minute and the barrier still stood strong.
Minutes go by, the world sounding like it was breaking apart more and more the whole time.
Until finally… there was a pause.
The crack that had been present on the barrier when the Demon had struck had finally grown just a bit bigger, a little wider. Had any of the much smaller monsters still been left alive, it may now have been possible for such a creature to slip through it. Alas, the titan's size and constant attacks had wiped out everything else.
The widening crack served as motivation, however, and so the monsters decided to change things up.
The three shared a look, silently communicating what they wished to do.
And they were quick to enact it.
The one their master, the Demon, wanted would survive no matter what happened. As such, it shouldn't matter if they truly did go a bit overboard now, yes?
With this in mind, they put their bodies into action once more.
The Leviathan and Colossus suddenly moved away, kilometers away really, giving the Giant plenty of room to work with.
The Giant then planted its foot firmly under the barrier protected land and with nary a sound lifted the entirety of the intact land up, lightly sending high into the sky.
The Giant was then quick to move back, as far back as it could possibly get, for that was when the other two now charged forth at a speed they had no right to be moving at.
The Colossus leapt as did the Leviathan, managing to lift itself out of the water a fair bit.
The Colossus launched simultaneous blows with all four of its limbs against one side of the barrier while the Leviathan rammed against the other side.
The sheer force of the collision put everything else up until this point to shame, parting the ocean all around the planet… as well as cracking the apart the sky and planet itself halfway.
Unnatural storms now formed without clouds to even work with and a great heat along with magma rose up from the split open sea floor.
As for the land within the barrier, one of the few pieces of land even remotely still around now, it was still fine as were the people within… for the most part.
Nonetheless, it was sent flying at an odd angle, moving at a great speed before finally landing amidst the somewhat floating, somewhat sinking land debris that had once been called Europe.
It tumbled about rather comically, the barrier somehow serving as something akin to a floating function for the small stretch of land.
Only now there were cracks all over the barrier, Iroha Komuro's mental strength having reached its limit as the cracks spread and grew in size more and more…
Until the barrier finally shattered.
The Demon felt the shift in the situation just seconds before it even happened.
Finally.
It was time.
Takashi gasped as consciousness returned to him.
Heavily disoriented but refusing to stay down, he tried to get up, had a hell of a time doing so. Having the neighborhood turned into a smacking ball by those three huge fucking monsters hadn't exactly been his definition of fun.
It was honestly amazing he was still in one piece, the Demon's 'protection' aside or not.
He finally stood – only to get knocked down by a fierce wave of ocean water.
Some of it got in his mouth and he immediately started choking and gasping before coughing it out. "Fuck!" he cried out as he finally realized the land was shaking quite violently.
As he got back up once more, careful to keep his footing, he looked around and saw what had become of the world around him…
…And it was a sight he had no words for at all.
This… this truly was the end of the world, isn't it? How could it possibly not be with the cloudless storms and chunks of land slowly sinking about?
Powerful emotions filled him, almost keeping him rooted in place, but his body didn't quite seem to be in a mood to listen to his mind or heart for he automatically moved on.
Rei… Saeko… Saya… Hirano and the others. He had to see if they'd made it through too.
"HEY!" he yelled out, trying to be heard over the fierce storms above, a damn hard thing to do with all the thunder and lightning going on. "ANYONE?! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!"
He fought to keep his footing, but the rocking of the land was making that harder than it should ever be.
The others should be close by but given just how much rocking around they all had gone through, they could be somewhere within the houses or on the other side of the steadily sinking pseudo-island now.
Takashi's eyes glanced around wildly. He spotted some of the others that had been with them on the ground, either unconscious or in the process of getting up.
Looking through the broken window of near-collapsing house, he swore he could spot his neighbor Seto and a few others too…
…They didn't look too good.
Oh God, were bodies supposed to bend like that…?
He shook his head as an errant thought occurred to him, wondering if the others had ended up like that.
He cried out again, but this time a particularly loud moment of thunder completely drowned him out.
Takashi walked on, cursing himself and the Demon. If not for them, then none of this would've-!
"…Ah!"
His eyes went wide as he looked and spotted his parents nearby as he kept his pace going.
They'd been knocked to the side, seemingly smashed repeatedly against a nearby house and its bushes, judging by all the scrapes and bruises they had on them.
Both of them were alive.
"T-Takashi….?" He barely heard his mother slur out his name.
That was when he saw the nasty wound to the side of her head. Looks like at one point during the assault just moments ago, she'd hit her skull pretty hard.
And when he got a little closer, he ended up recoiling when his mom turned her head a bit.
She hadn't simply been struck in the head – a small wooden beam, likely from the wooden fence there, had been impaled near the upper back part of her skull.
"-Mom!"
Despite all the tension and discord between him and her, the instant the damage she'd suffered fully registered in his mind, he practically ran to her side, unmindful of the wounds he'd sustained from all the hits.
He spared just a brief glance to his dad, who was unconscious. The wounds he'd suffered from all the smacking around… it didn't look good. But he was far better off than his mom and so Takashi focused back on her.
"Aaaarrreeeee y-y-yoou okay?" Her words sounded dragged out and slurry still, with a stutter too.
"I-I-!" He didn't know how to respond to that. Just how could he while she had a fucking wooden beam buried inches into her head?!
"Iiiiii… I-I'm s-s-sorrryyyyy…." It was hard to tell given the circumstances, but it looked and sounded as if his mom was crying. She raised a shaky hand, groping at the air.
Shakily, Takashi reached out his own hand and grasped hers, unable to do anything but remain silent and in shock.
His mother's tears continued. "I-I-I c-c-oul-ul-d've been a beeetttteerrr m-m-mo-other!" she managed to finally say. Her grip on his hand tightened to a surprising degree. "I sh-sh-should've been! Sh-Shouldn't haaaavveeee beeeen s-so scared of th-th-the Demon!"
"Mom, please just stop," Takashi ended up saying quietly, not even remotely sure of what to do now. He was still recovering himself from all this shit and now here his mom was apologizing. "Just… just rest for now, okay?! Shizuka can take a look at you and fix you up!"
He was only vaguely aware that he'd started to cry too for some reason, unexplainable emotions welling up inside in direct response to his mother's words.
The one emotion that was recognizable to him, however, was the fear. Right here, in front of his very eyes, his mother was dying.
And all he could do was just fucking sit here and pray for a miracle that'll never come.
This in turn stoked his anger and reaffirmed his resolve. He had to at least try something.
"I-I'll be right back, okay?" he whispered out, hoping his mom could hear him. "Just let me find the others real quick and then we'll patch you and dad up as soon as-!"
He froze up, however, when a now very familiar presence suddenly appeared just several feet behind him.
His mother, even in her current state, was still just coherent and conscious enough to look and see what it was.
Her stuttered gasp of sheer terror only confirmed what Takashi now feared.
On instinct, the teen spun around as quickly as he could despite the constant shaking of the land he was on. He bellowed in rage and defiance and swung his fist in a backhand motion-.
-That was effortless stopped by a hand significantly larger than his own, belonging to something that was significantly taller and bigger than he was.
The Demon's temporary body.
Its eyes bore into his own, grasping the entirety of his attention without even actually doing anything.
Takashi could only remain literally frozen in place by forces beyond his understanding, only vaguely aware of his mother screaming at the Demon to leave him be.
And then the next thing he knew, the Demon walked forth until its very form overlapped his own somehow.
And then all he saw and knew was darkness.
Rei was the first to see what had happened.
Having been knocked around like that for what felt like so long, she and all the others were naturally in pretty bad shape, having been flung around all over the neighborhood when the barrier had finally gone down. Hell, Saya and Hayashi-sensei had nearly gone flying into the raging waters nearby.
It was only by dumb luck that Rei had perhaps been the closest and even dumber luck that she just happened to look up in time to see the Demon's temporary body appear from afar.
Such a sight had certainly helped her overcome her disorientation and pain pretty fast, but not fast enough – by the time she could even find it in her to scream out in shock and horror, the Demon's very form had overlapped Takashi's own…
And then the very spot where the two were at seemed to just… she wasn't really sure how to truly put it, but it looked as if space itself was collapsing in on itself.
Almost like… like some kind of black hole or something.
But she didn't know for sure. Or care at all, really. What she did care about was Takashi and his safety.
And so, against her better judgement, she was able to get up and run unsteadily towards the blackness – and ended up passing right through it.
She cried out, having not expected that and ended up tumbling hard against the grass as a result. Her back, having been in bad shape for more than a while now, felt like someone had cut it open and poured burning oil in it.
Even so, she managed to roll over quickly and looked up at the black hole in front of her, acting very much unlike a real one.
All she could do was glare at it, however, for if her failed tackle just now proved anything, interacting with it simply wasn't possible, no matter how badly she wished otherwise.
Alas, wishing for something will never get her anywhere.
Something… there just had to be something she could do though!
Hearing a groan, she nearly jumped and looked to the side, where Takashi's mom was lying at.
Rei nearly felt bile rise up inside her throat, horror filling her at the sight of the wooden beam stuck in the older woman's skull.
By all rights, she should be dead, but was still quite alive, though far from in good shape if the way she was slurring was anything to go by. Was this the heightened toughness she'd spoken of earlier during her explanation?
"T-Takashiiiiiiii…..!" the woman moaned out, pleading. She was reaching out a hand towards the blackness and tried to grasp it, with just as much success as Rei had had just a moment ago. Which was to say, none at all.
Some part of the woman's no doubt whacked out mind took a minute to recognize this fact and when she did, she began to really tear up and cry.
The sight hurt Rei to even watch. As estranged as the two had seemed to be, it was pretty clear that Mrs. Komuro cared a great deal for her son after all.
"H-Hold on," she tried to say softly over the noise made by the ocean all around them. "Let me help you up."
As much as she hated to admit, right now there was absolutely nothing that could be done about Takashi and the Demon, nothing at all; this was far beyond anything she and the others could handle.
But Mrs. Komuro… surely with her knowledge there may be something that could be done here! Because like hell she'll just let the Demon have Takashi that easily.
But first, she had to get this woman some form of help. They all needed to regroup, try to patch up as best as possible and do a headcount. As crazy as this situation just kept on becoming, it was the only plan coming to mind for Rei, the only logical thing that could be done in this crazy, crazy world.
She tried to pick up Mrs. Komuro from under the shoulder, but the older woman, far more voluptuous than her, weighed more too thanks to her generous endowments. And her own injuries and the woman's zoned out and semi-struggling state weren't helping.
Rei grunted in exertion, feeling tears fall down her face from a combination of the emotional burnout she was feeling in addition to the pain. After a moment, she was able to lift Mrs. Komuro up and eyed Mr. Komuro, who'd been unconscious until now, but now all the water splashing around was beginning to wake him up. Good, would hopefully save her just a bit of trouble in trying to figure out how to help him too.
"Come on…" she said gently to the still slurring and stumbling Mrs. Komuro. She then turned to Mr. Komruo, just still coming to. "I'll be back in just a minute…"
With that said, she painfully and slowly tried to walk away, trying to look for somewhere on this small stretch of intact land that was even remotely in one piece still, though not before eyeing the black hole scathingly, wishing once more to be capable of doing something about it.
Rei walked forth unsteadily, though she began to feel some sense of relief that in turn helped alleviate some of the tension that had almost literally been weighing her down as she saw the other members of her group along with some of the other people that had been here the whole time, slowly yet surely make a recovery.
She saw her mom helping Shizuka drag a woozy looking Hirano further away from the spots where the ocean waters were hitting heavily.
She spotted Saya and Hayashi-sensei finally regain their footing and help a soaking Alice stand up and rush off to somewhere a tad bit drier.
Busujima-san brought up the rear, the swordswoman having somehow managed to keep a hold of the knife she'd been given this whole time as she limped her way as far as she could from the edges of the land.
And there were others too, the neighbors and other survivors that her mom had been rescuing over the course of this apocalypse, pulling themselves up too… though Rei silently noted there were several missing as everyone pulled themselves out of the water and bushes and walls.
Slowly yet surely, they were all regaining their bearings.
But then just before any of them could even remotely begin to start thinking of what to do, a shift in the ocean around them occurred.
Everyone went still, even Rei and even Mrs. Komuro.
Then they all looked in the direction the shift in the ocean seemed to be coming from and promptly paled.
Far off in the distance, the three gigantic monsters that had broken the barrier were coming their way. Said three were approaching quite slowly, the two smaller ones walking at a rather leisurely pace while the biggest one swam at a veritable crawl.
But they all knew better.
With their immense size, their slowest and most casual of strides allowed them to cover distances far greater than what humans could conceivably cover in just a single step.
At the rate they were moving, it'd only be perhaps fifteen minutes or so before the monsters literally towered over them.
Rei's heartbeat picked up drastically in speed as the already hellish situation got even worse. Even if all of them were at their very best and armed with whatever weapon made them most comfortable, there was absolutely no way they could even remotely challenge one of those three monsters, let alone all three at the same time.
Just what in the hell were any of them to do?!
Through the connection it still had with the titans, the Demon could feel the three's intent to squash the remaining humans on that slowly sinking slab of land.
In doing so, all of humanity would be officially dead.
Something of a pity, really, but of little consequence. It still had the rest of the universe to explore, not to mention the other dimensions curled up around it in addition to the ones stacked above and below it too.
And now… it had the means to do just that.
There, right before it now was the boy it had long since sought, currently unconscious as he'd been dragged into the cracks between dimensions, where the Demon's true self had been stuck in this entire time.
The Demon couldn't help but feel what the humans would probably call giddiness, a sense of great anticipation welling up within it.
It now studied the boy critically, not because it was concerned about his relative safety – its protection of him had more than assured he'd survive in one piece, after all – but rather for the simple sake of sizing him up.
After all, this was to now be its body. It had to make sure that it would truly hold up once it completely entered.
Changes would naturally be made to said body, not because it necessarily wanted to make changes but merely as a side-effect of it taking over… but said changes shouldn't be anything too drastic, shouldn't be anything that would impede it in some way.
It'll be a 'tight fit' at first and the Demon held no doubt that it'd take quite some time for the body to fully adjust to it and vice versa… but growing pains were a common thing in this little creation, yes? Therefore, it had nothing to truly worry about.
Satisfied with its assessment of the boy, the Demon's entire shapeless form, well beyond the understanding and limits of anything related to dimensions, now began to coalesce… and slowly yet surely enter the boy's body.
It was time to take its first true step into this reality.
But first… it had to break the soul inside the body first… make it more… receptive to what was to come.
And so, the Demon focused.
Takashi dreamed a terrible dream whilst in his current state of unconsciousness.
The estranged relationship between him and his mother, the depression and insomnia and exhaustion that had plagued him for years on end, the failing relationships he's had with others and everything that's happened since the apocalypse began…
All of that had felt so real and now… now, it was beginning to less real, more along the lines of a truly terrible dream, the worst he's had yet.
Had it all truly happened? Or had it just been another horrific figment of his imagination?
He couldn't tell.
When that thing, the Demon had dragged him here – wherever the fuck 'here' was – everything that he'd once considered to be his reality now all seemed to bleed away from him in an instant, a process that had resulted in his current state.
And now, feeling as if he was floating in a genuine abyss, he shed small tears.
But were these tears even real too?
A part of him vehemently said yes, that these tears were as real as everything else that happened. But another part of him gently said no, it wasn't; he had nothing to be sad over for he'd had nothing to begin with.
And somehow, this gentle voice in his mind was winning over the more forceful one that said it was real.
This same gentle voice then told him to let it all go. Let go of the bad dreams and let himself fade away into the void, where he could finally be at true peace.
This was an idea that certainly didn't sound half-bad at all. Indeed, it felt… good.
Sure enough, Takashi felt himself slip away little by little.
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…But.
But was this really what he wanted?
To slip away and cease to be?
Yes, it is. You can finally be at peace. No more horrors. No more exhaustion and pain. Sleep… and know rest for good.
…Right. That's right. Up until now, it's always been one fucked up thing after another for him. So much bad in his life, beating down on him until he was but a shell of how he used to be, back when he was a kid. And even then… there'd been how his mom had treated him, so even that brief period of blissful ignorance was tainted.
Best just to let it all go…
…
But was it really all bad?
…
…
…
…Rei.
That's right, Rei. The girl he'd fallen for as a kid way back then. The girl who'd later hurt him so badly by refusing to tell him what had been bothering her and ended up dating Hisashi just to partially spite him…
As well as eventually reconnect with him over the course of the past several days as they struggled to stay alive. Even if they hadn't had much time together during this time, he'd been able to feel it – a shift in the girl.
Things… things had been looking up.
And that went for Saya too. The pinkette may have been just as bossy and haughty and snappish as always yet even so, recently it felt like there was a level of genuine gratitude and more behind her words and actions, things that he didn't miss.
There was Saeko, with the calm and graceful smiles she gave him during their brief moments together, the sheer level of trust and respect she seemed to have for him no matter the situation. Not to mention just how fierce a fighter she is too, so strong and graceful in combat no matter how crazy things became. Truly someone that he liked and respected just as much as she liked and respected him.
Then there was Hirano and the small but strong bond between the two of them, the boy having even entrusted Saya's safety to him.
Kyouko with the nearly unspoken trust placed in him.
Shizuka with how she acted as a mother hen over them all whenever they were hurt, the same woman who'd taken a blow for him when that fog monster had attacked, all because she genuinely cared for him and the others.
Then there was Alice too with how she looked up to all of them. If not for this entire apocalypse deal, Takashi couldn't help but feel oddly certain that the young girl would've grown up to be an amazing person, if only because of the others being role models for her, not him.
Even Zeke, who'd only been with them for a short time, had pulled his weight admirably, having always been there to comfort Alice whenever they couldn't, having even shielded her as best as he could during the explosions the other day. If not for him, Alice may have well ended up dead at that time.
Could he truly dismiss all this as a mere dream? Reduce them all and their wonderful traits and bonds to nothing more than a part of his imagination?
The gentle voice from before whispered into the very depths of his soul, saying he can.
But the other voice – his own – that had been vehemently saying otherwise until now finally managed to overpower the gentle one and roared into existence in this abyss.
Via his own mouth, of course. After all, much like the aggressive voice, this mouth was his too and his alone.
Not the Demon's.
"FUCK NO!" he roared into the abyss as he finally woke up.
And as he did so, the abyss around him began to shift before his very eyes in ways that physically hurt to look at as this place, not bound by any law of physics, seemed to take form.
The form of the Demon, its true form, far beyond what any mind could comprehend.
But even so, Takashi glared at what he was assuming to be the Demon's eyes or whatever the fuck passed as eyes for one such as it.
"You want my body?" he whispered, numerous emotions boiling beneath the figurative surface. "Well, guess what? You're not getting it without a goddamned fight!"
…
…
…VERY WELL
The Demon's voice, again if it could even be called that, boomed out, deafening beyond imagination.
Then its entire existence surged forth, directly into Takashi and before the boy even knew what was going on, he felt himself being dragged down.
Not further into the abyss, where his body would remain for the time being, but rather into the deep depths of his very own soul.
Where he and the Demon would finally duke it out, it would seem.
Good, he silently muttered. He'd been wanting to beat this little shit's face in for a while now.
He hit a surface of some kind, the surface of whatever made up his inner world or whatever the hell it could be called.
And the instant he did, the Demon began its assault.
Right, time to end this shit.
Quite the turn of events, eh? Hope it doesn't across as rushed or something, heh heh.
That said, this fic has finally reached the beginning of the climax. Can't say for certain how many chapters are left at this point, but I can't imagine it being that much longer than my other HOTD fic, Devil Apocalypse.
So… hmm, probably around the 25 chapters mark, at the very most. Again, don't know just yet. I have the whole thing more or less completely planned out, but as to how I fully write it out and how to break it up between chapters, well, that's where things are a little iffy. As much as I plan things out, I'm ultimately the type of writer that'll simply let the writing itself take me as I go along. So this fic could be over in just a few more chapters or somehow almost twice that amount.
For sure, this fic definitely won't be exceeding 30 chapters. Just want to be clear on that.
As always, hope you guys enjoyed it and any questions you have, just let me know!
Until next time, everyone. Take care!