Chapter 36: Exterminate
Warning Tags: Intense situations, violence, and mentions of blood
Inker remains where he is in his spot, crying his eyes out as his childhood friend, Amity, barely holds onto consciousness. Across from him, Via is still trying to come to some type of decision. Though she no longer wants anything to do with Sky, his daughter was still a innocent soul to which she had the privilege of growing up with throughout the years that passed. At 18 years of age, Via would never forgive herself if she let a very young and sweet teen die of an injury that can easily be dealt with.
Coming to a choice, Via steps forward and questions "...Inker?"
The humanoid squid lifts his head up and gazes at the winged apprentice with teary golden eyes. Via sighs deeply as she takes a few steps forward and states "I may not like Sky anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't care about his daughter. Amity deserves a better future than this...which is why I'm going to help her". Inker smiles, giving out a sigh of relief as his tears begin to dry up. Via looks around quickly for a moment before seeing a nearby flat rock lying several feet away from her and the others.
She quickly orders "Inker, lay Amity on that flat rock over there. I need to get to work on her right now". Inker gestures to her with a nod and hurries over to the rock. He gently lowers Amity on the flat surface of the rock and moves his arms from under her body, wincing slightly as he sees Amity give out a few painful expressions from the sudden movements, causing pain to seep out into her body from her stab wounds. Via grabs her backpack and runs over to the girl, placing the bag near her and starts to examine the teen. Via slowly moves Amity's shirt away, wincing as her stab wounds become visible. The others, meanwhile, decide that Via needs her space to help the young teen and stay as far away from her. However, Inker stays besides his childhood friend, ignoring the gruesome and bloody wounds exposed to him.
As Via ties a medical mask over her mouth and nose, she gazes up at Inker and points out "Inker, it's gonna get pretty ugly here when I get to work on Amity. Do you want to stick around?"
"Of course I do. I don't care how gruesome it gets. I'm staying by my friend. She's been there for me and now, I'll be there for her", Inker answered back, grasping one of Amity's hands and holds it tightly.
Via smiles behind her mask at the squid's willingness to stay besides his best friend even through bad times. In fact, Via began to suspect something that was possibly going on between Amity and Inker, but she quickly shook it off when she remembered by she is here. Via reaches into her backpack and pulls out a specialized stick, made for patients to filter their pain by biting down on it when options of anesthetics aren't available. She moves over to Amity, who slowly opens up her eyes and slowly glances over to Via.
"V...Via?", Amity weakly asked, trying to pick her head up until Via gently places her hand on her forehead and keeps her head down.
"It's okay, Amity. Inker ran all the way to us to save you. In the meantime, I'm gonna help you. Just bite down on this stick: this stitching is gonna hurt a lot", Via explained to her, holding the stick near Amity's mouth. The teen grabs the stick with her teeth and winces as she sees Via pull out a cloth, a bottle of antibacterial medicine, and surgical thread with a needle. She looks over, seeing Inker kneeling next to her and gently grasping her hand. Inker gives the girl a warm smile, thoroughly exhausted from the run he had to do, but content that Amity is in good hands now.
"Th-Thank you, Inker", Amity whispered out, her words slightly muffled from the stick in her mouth.
However, Inker understands every word she says and responds with "It's what friends do". But then, Inker looks away from Amity and gazes at the forest that he had emerged from. He remembered that Sky had stayed behind to deal with Duskables while he rushed Amity to the ex-recruits. He only hoped that Sky is able to defend himself and the rest of his friends.
Meanwhile, back in the forest, Sky is punched so hard that his Ender Titan nearly collapses from the force of the punch from the Ender Titan in front of it. Sky moves himself forward, bringing his Ender Titan to its feet and throws a punch at the enemy. However, Dawn lifts up her hand at the last second, her Ender Titan grabs the other's hand. She yanks the hand to the side, making her Titan copy her movement and throws the enemy away from her.
Sky's Ender Titan skids across the ground, leaving behind a trail of dirt and gravel until it eventually comes to a stop. Within the glowing head of the golden Ender Titan, Sky groans in pain as the hits and punches that his Ender Titan received from Dusk have only had an effect on his being while his Ender Titan appears to be clear of any damage that it took from Duskables's Ender Titan. The Ender Titan pulls itself to its feet and turns around, Sky pants heavily as he is covered in bruises and cuts, his clothing torn in different places, his sunglasses cracked and broken, and blood stains covering his body. Across from him, Duskables chuckles evilly for a moment, glaring at the weaken Butter God across from her.
"What's wrong, Sky? Feeling defeated? Surely, if you were a true Sky Army general, you would have more fight in you, but I guess your appearance says otherwise", Dusk exclaimed, taking notice of Sky's weak and beaten state. Across from her, Adam still keeps his head held high, despite the amount of injuries on him and the number of times he has dodged and thrown strikes at Duskables.
He snarls as Duskables continues to insult him by saying "Face it, Skyler. To think that you would try and pass yourself off as a general of an army...you should be ashamed of yourself". That one statement is enough to finally set Adam off. The Butter God growls menacingly as his butter amulet glows as brighter as it ever did, causing the Ender Titan that Sky is controlling to light up as well, enough to light up the entire forest. The others below the giants look in awe while Dusk covers her eyes from the burning light.
When the Tainted woman eventually takes a peek, she gasps when she sees a beam of light energy shooting out of the golden Ender Titan and right at her. Unable to react in time, the bright beam makes contact with her Ender Titan and vaporizes it instantly on the spot. Duskables is caught in the beam and screams out in agonizing pain, the light and energy coursing through the beam greatly affects the Taint coursing through her body, but even that isn't enough to cure her completely of it. Her Ender Titan shatters into a million pieces and disappear, Dusk falls from the empty air and plummets into the forest.
Duskables crashes through a few branches before finally hitting the ground. She groans as she pulls herself up, extremely weaken from putting so much of her power to the test and then, having it forcefully pulled out of her. She glares at the golden Ender Titan towering above her, then reluctantly thinks to herself "Better retreat. But I'll be back when I'm stronger than the general is". With some power still remaining, Duskables summons out a pair of butterfly wings similar to Sky's, only dark pink in color. She takes off through the forest, the force of her takeoff blows the branches of a few trees back and forth.
The others look in shock as Duskables disappears out of their sight, Sky lowers himself to the ground as his image of the Ender Titan fades away and collects within his amulet. When the general reaches the ground, he looks up and only sees the forest in front of him. When the others catch up to Sky, Husky questions "Do you all think that she's completely gone?"
"I don't think I want to stick around to find out. We better get out of here as soon as possible", Jason suggested. Everyone turns their sight on the general, who is standing quietly by himself a few feet away from them. Brice bravely steps closer to the Butter God.
"Sky...will you be okay without Dawn now?", Brice asked gravely.
Adam lets out a deep sigh, bringing his hand up to his chest and pulls it away, his blood staining across his glove. He grips his hand into a fist.
"I don't know if I will, but if we get to the cure of the Taint, I'm sure we'll be seeing her and the others back to their normal selves. In the meantime...I need to go find my daughter", Sky answered back coldly before bringing his wings up and taking off into the air, heading towards the direction where he knew the ex-recruits are located. The others stay back for a moment before following their general, not willing to stick around the area they are in where Duskables could still be around.
Meanwhile, somewhere dozens of miles away from where the group is departing, a duo make their way through a path in the vast woods. Storm gallops across the ground, causing a few stray leaves to fly around by the gust of wind he's making. Louise grabs tightly on the reins, looking around herself at the passing menacing-looking trees around her, the dark never-ending night still presented itself to the surrounding land as the Blood Moon is positioned above the forest, glowing even more redder than it usually did.
Storm glances from side to side now and then. Something was bothering him deeply, but it wasn't about the glowing red moon in the dark night. He felt that he and Louise were being followed by something...or a pack of something. However, the stallion tries to keep his focus on the path he's on, hoping that the threat he is sensing will go away. But it only seemed to get stronger with each quick step he took.
Within the shadows of the trees, several moving bodies zoom past bushes and branches, the slight sound of a stick breaking is heard. Storm's ears immediately pick up the sound, making the stallion stop his galloping and skid to a stop, much to Louise's shock. Louise questions "Storm, what's the matter?"
"We're bein' followed. I just don't know by who, though", Storm replied, taking a few steps backwards. Louise glances around herself, but she doesn't see or hear anything unusual that should be a cause for concern. However, when a few seconds pass by, a rustling of a bush is heard by her and causes her to get scared.
"Hello? Is someone there?," Louise called out, glancing at the dark trees around her. More rusting goes off, Storm nickers nervously and start pawing the ground with his hooves. Louise reaches into the chest attached to Storm and pulls out her diamond sword. She glares at the trees, her sword wielded out and ready to swipe at the possible threats around her and Storm. When Louise glances up at one particular tree, she spots a pair of purple-glowing eyes in the canopy. Suddenly, something leaps out of the branches and right towards her. Storm reacts quickly by turning around and delivering a powerful kick with his hind legs at the creature, causing it to be kicked backwards and slams into the trunk of the tree it was hiding in.
Storm backs away from the unconscious creature, neighing in alarm. Louise starts to hyperventilate, recognizing the creature as a Bacca. However, its unruly fur and lack of clothing with the exception of a loincloth tied around its waist confirms that it isn't Jerome. Louise knew too well from her boyfriend's knowledge that Baccas never travel alone.
When Louise turns her head again, she gasps when she finds what she had been looking...Jerome. The lone Bacca is standing on top of the tree towering above the rest. He isn't pleased to see this person invading his territory. Jagrome whispers to himself "Pride Call...". The corrupted Bacca throws his head into the air and lets out the loudest roar that he had ever made in his life. Louise covers her ears and watches in horror as immediately after roaring, dozens and dozens of corrupted Baccas appear everywhere. From behind the bark of trees to nearly covering the canopy of them, poking their heads out of the bushes. Several of the Baccas jump and create a circle around Louise and Storm, surrounding them instantly.
Louise turns her sight on Jagrome, who chuckles before leaping off of the tree he's standing on and makes his way over to her and Storm. Louise jumps off of the stallion, standing her ground as the Bacca approaches her. He questions to her "Would you mind telling me what the Nether you're doing here? Provide me with a valid answer and I might let you pass through Predator Woods...without the stallion". Jagrome snaps his fingers once. One of the Baccas surrounding Louise and Storm lunges forward, a Predator Bacca, and grabs ahold of Storm's neck and sinks its large, purple teeth into his neck.
Storm neighs in pain as he tries to shake off the predator, but the creature's teeth is plunged deep into him. Eventually, the Predator Bacca lets go of the horse and lands back on all fours. Storm rears back, neighing in pain as a freshly-made bite wound with a purplish substance leaking out of it can be seen clearly on his neck. When he falls back on all fours, Storm blindly takes off into the forest in pain. Louise watches in horror as her only ride gallops into the forest, a couple of the Baccas move out of the way before closing up the gap in the circle.
Louise looks back at her corrupted boyfriend, who waits impatiently for her to respond. The young woman sighs out before explaining "Jerome...I know you're there. I know that this large, wild, and ungrateful creature standing in front of me is not you. You're trapped in there somewhere. Just please..." Louise falls forward and captures the Bacca by his cheeks, startling the clan leader from the gesture. Louise picks her head up, tears threatening to spill out as she stares into Jagrome's neon-green and red eyes. "...please, find a way out. You're a warrior and you never give up".
Jagrome stares down at the woman before him, glaring his eyes. But suddenly, he shakes his eyes for a moment and looks down at Louise with sudden care in his eyes. "L-L-Louise?", he questioned, his voice sounding back to its normal tone. Louise feels her heart flutter, a smile appears on her face and hope fills her being. But it's short-lived. Jagrome feels a sharp pain erupt from his head, causing him to double over and grasp his head. Louise gets worried and tries to give comfort, but she is forcefully pushed backwards by him. Jagrome recovers quickly as he glares down at the woman, the same hate and pride flowing through his eyes again.
"I don't know who the hell you're talking about", Jagrome exclaimed. "I'm not Jerome. And even if I was, I'd probably kill myself from how pathetic of a warrior I was. But now...I have more of the prowess of a ultimate warrior than I ever had before". Jagrome look down at the woman, an idea quickly hatches in his mind. He lowers his hand and offers it to Louise, who just stares in confusion.
"Join me, Louise. If you loved Jerome in the past, then you'll definitely love the new and improved version of him. You can run alongside me as my queen, basking in the glory of pride and awards with my clan. AM I RIGHT, GUYS?!", Jerome explained before yelling out the last statement to his fellow clan members. The Baccas respond back with roars or growls, scrapping at the ground with their claws. Jagrome takes in the appreciation from his fellow clan and looks down at Louise. However, as the surrounding Baccas begin to lower their cheering, one Predator Bacca continues to cheer, making slurping sounds with its mouth. Eventually, the creature slowly realizes that the clan had stopped cheering a while ago, taking notice of everyone giving it awkward stares. The creature grins sheepishly before ducking down.
Jagrome sighs annoyingly before turning back to Louise and asks her "So, what's it gonna be?"
Louise was stuck on two options. If she agreed to be with Jagrome, she would relinquish her freedom and spend the rest of her life with someone that was just a terrifying imitation of her lover. If she didn't agree, then she would surely seal her fate with Tainted Baccas surrounding her and carrying bad intents with them, only triggered if their leader gives them the command to do so. In her heart, though, Louise knows better than to side with an enemy and leave behind the friends that she cared about.
With a heavy sigh, Louise gazes at the corrupted Bacca. She turns her gaze into a glare and answers coldly "Jagrome...I hate what you've become. If there was ever a moment where I was offered to join a clan of your own people who despise anyone who isn't them, I would run away from that. I'm not going to join you on your ambitions. There's a difference between winning and praising and showing so much pride that you care less about those who lack the skills that you possess. Not everyone will be perfect, everyone will have flaws...even you".
"Nonsense! You know nothing when it comes to my skills as a Ultimate warrior", Jagrome defended himself. Then, he straightens himself out before continuing with "Very well, then. If that's the way you're going with, then I guess I have no choice...but to force you to become my queen". Louise gasps before trying to run away, but she stops herself when she sees the surrounding Baccas closing in on her. She glances back at Jagrome, who gives her an evil smirk. He approaches her, gripping her wrist in a death grip. She winces in pain. Jagrome calls out to his clan "Alright, boys. I think that's enough for one day. Let's head back to Herobrine's castle".
The Baccas cheer and roar before taking off into the forest. Jagrome turns to face Louise and growls to her "You try and escape from me, these Baccas won't resist from killing you. Got it?" Louise doesn't respond to the clan leader, too petrified to say anything. Jagrome takes her silence as an answer before walking away, dragging Louise along with him. The woman tries to escape from the Bacca, but the inhuman strength that Jagrome possesses is too much and Jagrome has no trouble in taking the woman along with him, back to the place where a event is about to go underway.
Back at Herobrine's castle, an experiment is currently about to be tested. Inside one of the many rooms in the caste, Nero paces up and down the room as DeadlyVenom places the finishing touches to CyberCanadian, a few more weapons attached to his back and larger pieces of metal burned into his body. The droid is currently deactivated at the moment, Deadly places one more shard of metal into Cyber's arm and burns it into place.
"How's Cyber coming along?", Nero asked in curiosity, taking a step forward to look over the half-human, half-robotic android. Deadly steps away from the machine and gazes over at the corrupted sorcerer.
"Just burned the last piece into place. Now, I just gotta check his data systems and mainframe to make sure everything is functioning normally", Deadly answered before walking behind the inactive robot and opens up the back part of his robotic half. While Nero looks on with an evil smile, the door to the room suddenly up and Herobrine walks in. The eyeless god sees the sinner and emotioner hard at work with the android and approaches them.
"I see that Cyber has been upgraded. For a sinner of Gluttony, he looks powerful", Herobrine suggested, looking over the android.
"Heh, you should have seen him earlier. He was eating away at a Taint bush like he hadn't eaten in over a week. Even when he was full, he vomited and just continued to eat away. But this is exactly the way that I want him to suffer", Nero explained to the former Nether god, looking over the upgraded android as Deadly looks over at the circuitry on his half-robotic face. After a few seconds fly by, Deadly closes up the compartment and steps away from the android, taking one glance over him before walking over to join Nero and Herobrine.
"He's ready to go", he said before pulling out a device connected to Cyber's artificial brain and nerve system. He looks down at the remote and spots a bright red button standing out from the others. He presses it before lowering the device, waiting for the android to turn on. Nero and Herobrine turn their sights on Cyber, eager to see what results from the upgraded android. A few moments, CyberCanadian sparks to life.
His head jerks around for a moment, then his red optic slowly brightens up, along with his non-functional eye. His body twitches slightly before readjusting. The metal pieces attached to him move along with his movements, making slight creak noises as he straightens up his posture and looks ahead at the beings in the room. Herobrine notices the android's damaged human eye and questions "What happen to his eye?"
DeadlyVenom answers "Oh. Well, during my experiment and process of turning him into a robot, he wouldn't stop moving around while I tore out his other eye with a spoon. In the middle of his brain replacement, he jerk up and I accidentally made an incision in his left eye. I didn't have enough time or resources to fix it, so I just applied an advanced optic to his other eye. But, other than that, he works just fine now".
"Good. I could care less about his injuries, as long as he is under the remote's control and the control of the Taint", Herobrine answers back before turning his sight on the robot. Cyber looks around the room, seeming to be confused to his new surroundings before setting his sights on the Minecrafters in front of him.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the entire room's lights break and shatter into pieces. Herobrine, DeadlyVenom, and Nero cover their heads as the pieces of glass rain down on them. Cyber, however, remains still and silent as shards of glass bounce off of his metallic parts. When the last of the glass falls, the three beings slowly look up and see Cyber still standing in the same position, a different atmosphere radiating off of him that Nero sensed. The room is plunged into a world of darkness, Herobrine's eyes being the only brightest things in the room.
"What the hell just happened? Why did the lights suddenly burst when Cyber was activated?!", Herobrine exclaimed, glancing over at Deadly as he is the one who assembled and tested CyberCanadian.
Deadly replies in alarm "I-I-I don't know! I've turned him on a couple of times while I was upgrading him and he's never done anything like this before!"
"And I think I know why!", Nero answered out, standing his ground as he forms an orb and throws it towards the ceiling of the room, the orb explodes into a cloud. Bright particles from the orb brightens up the room enough for all three beings to see. Nero glances towards the room and sees Cyber bring his expressionless stare into a glare, his damaged normal eye follows along despite no longer functioning. The half-robotic man screams out in pain as he lunges himself across the room and grabs Nero's neck.
Nero gasps out in shock as the humanoid android screeches in his face, a mixture of his normal voice with a robotic ripple is almost deafening to the tainted sorcerer. Nero growls as he feels an inner feeling of power surge through his veins in a rush as his eyes glow a dark-purple. A purple aura appears over the android and traps him within its grasp. Nero throws his arms out, the sudden movement throws Cyber across the room and slam against the opposite side of the room's walls.
DeadlyVenom and Herobrine look in amazement as the force of the throw is shown as CyberCanadian falls off and a series of cracks is shown in the wall. Cyber Sparks and cracks for a moment before falling into a temporary shutdown, his limbs go limp as his red optic dims down until it's dark again. Nero stares in shock as he gazes down at his hands, his telekinesis powers were only so powerful, but never this powerful. Then, Nero groans as he falls to his knees, a purple cloud begins to consume him.
"Nero, what's wrong?", Deadly asked in concern as he begins to approach the sorcerer, but Herobrine grabs his shoulder to stop him.
"Wait! This can only mean...Nero is reaching his secondary form", Herobrine explained to him, looking up as the cloud begins bigger, Nero is completely eaten up by the cloud. Deadly and Herobrine catch in awe as the cloud swirls quickly and morphs before imploding. Deadly looks away as the swirls of purple dust blows against him, Herobrine watches in amazement as a new-looking and better Nero standing in the middle of the room. Nero stands himself back up, large puffs of magical clouds swirls alongside his body. Nero sports an assassin-like outfit, patches of colors ranging from purple to red, running across his attire. A purple mask hides his entire face, expect his eyes, which is a darker shade of purple and cat-like light-purple pupils.
Nero slowly turns his head to face DeadlyVenom and Herobrine, who are looking back at him in astonishment. Nero is the first Sinner to reach his secondary form. Herobrine is pleased by this and asks Nero "Nero...how do you feel?"
"I feel...I feel the power of Taint running through my veins", Nero replied, lifting his arms up and looks down at his gloved hands. Mystical swirls of purple magic flow around his digits. Nero glances up at Herobrine and questions "When do I reach my final form?"
"When the right time comes, Nero...you'll reach your true and strongest form", Herobrine replies back to him. He glances down at the deactivated CyberCanadian.
"In the meantime, more work needs to be done on him. We need to prevent anything like from happening again", Herobrine growled, ensuring that everything he has planned for the future goes the way that he wants it to go.