Anomaly

Episode 45- Resolve


One day. One day was all it had taken for everything to go to hell.

Reiner just wasn't sure which day that was. The one yesterday, or the one from three weeks ago.

"Hey, easy, man. Easy." He pressed a damp cloth against a wounded guard's head, who could only groan in agony at the large gash at his shoulder. "Help's comin' soon. We just gotta hold out."

"Help ain't coming and you know it," the buxom woman to his side said. "'Sides. If they do come, that thing'll just kill them off like it did everything else in this city."

Reiner let out an indignant growl, and then poked his head out from one of the only windows left in this destroyed storehouse. He almost didn't want to- the city burning alive right in front of him almost made his stomach roll over.

They were the only Templar in this city left. Nobody knew if there were other Templar out there, because quite frankly nobody had any way of contacting the outside world. With the destruction of the city's tower came the temporary deactivation of all magic in the area. No way to open any kind of gateway or teleportation, or even provide something in the way of communication. He guessed that's what that monster's intention was from the get-go. For all he knew, they weren't even the first city he'd attacked in this manner.

It had happened so fast, too. A sudden explosion in the middle of the city, followed by screaming. And when Reiner had run towards that sound and saw just a glimpse of what was there, he'd turned around and gathered as many Templar as he could to hide out away from that thing. Because he knew exactly who it was the second he saw him.

Somebody crouched down next to him. Another Templar, one with a mantle. "This is that thing you and Father Dove were talking about when you two suddenly teleported here a few weeks back, right?"

"Yeah." Everybody else in the buildings looked over at the two of them. Reiner wasn't too surprised, since he'd made so much noise about it when they'd arrived here. How couldn't he have, considering everything Corvin had done? He couldn't even look the Father in the eye after they had landed here, not that he had much choice. Old man had been bedridden due to his arm ever since they came here. He didn't even know where Father Dove was at the moment. He'd left after a week without saying anything. That left Reiner here in the care of the local regiment while he did... whatever it was he was doing. And then this mess happened.

Reiner felt his fists clench. "That thing killed all of my friends right in front of me," he angrily muttered. "Just like it's killing everybody out there right now."

"Then we must stop it," the mantle-wearing man said. "We're Templar, after all. We can't just sit here and do nothing."

Behind the both of them, a man whose shoulders almost reached the ceiling huffed in agreement.

He felt his teeth grit. "Yeah, I know, but I got no idea how we're supposed to take Corvin on," Reiner said.

"Well, you have the most experience out of all of us," the woman said. "Surely you must have some idea?"

Reiner scratched his chin. "Well, we're magic-less. And from what I saw on the ship..." He shook his head. Frontal assault would not go well at all. "Guys, I don't have a clue. I'm not a strategist like Specs was or a quick-thinker like the Father. I don't- shit, get down," he harshly whispered, gesturing for everybody near the windows to duck.

Though he could barely see out the window from his position, he could see enough. Someone with a blue hoodie with their back to them all, the black stains on the back plainly visible. It was standing in the cleared-out plaza, surrounded by burning and crumbling buildings. It wasn't doing much; its hands were tucked into its pockets and it was just staring in the opposite direction of them, which was fine by Reiner.

He suddenly felt two soft objects press against his back. He looked up in annoyance to see the woman from earlier leaning over Reiner to get a good look out of the window. "That him over there?" she asked.

Blushing, Reiner pushed the woman away. "Would you just- I said get down!"

"Alright, alright." They both sat down on the ground and pressed their backs against the wall. Everybody else likewise chose to stay away from the windows or any holes in the walls. "I don't get what the big deal is. The guy doesn't look that tough."

"That 'guy' took the Father's arm off in the time it would take for you to blink," Reiner said. "It's tougher than it looks."

The woman scoffed. "Amateur speed," she muttered.

The mantle-wearing man coughed. "Zeph, that thing also just destroyed the tower and single-handedly just brought the entire town into chaos. It isn't even past noon yet."

"... Fair point..."

Reiner waved his arms. "This isn't getting us anywhere!" He angrily hissed. "We need a plan fast before that thing finds us here!"

"You got one yet?" Zeph asked.

"I told you I wasn't good at this kind of thing!"

"Then we'll figure something out!" Mantle-man said. "But Reiner's right. Sitting here and bickering isn't going to solve our problems."

Reiner let out a drawn-out breath. He knew arguing wasn't doing any good, but it was the best he could do to not freak out. Quite honestly, he'd been shaken by that thing ever since it had killed all his friends off over the span of then seconds. That fear was only increased when he saw what it was doing out there right now. He didn't know how he was supposed to think of some plan under circumstances like this!

He felt a hand wrap around his shoulder. "Hey, don't worry," Mantle-man said. "We're all scared here. That doesn't mean it's the time to start freaking out here."

The woman next to him gave an encouraging nod, as well as the rest of the Templar in the room with them. It was enough to make him realize he wasn't alone in this endeavor. The guy was right; they all were scared, Reiner especially. Fortunately enough, he worked well under pressure. He just needed some help.

He took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's get some ideas together from everybody and figure out a plan here..."


"I think I truly hate that thing."

Hate. A word like that seemed so base. A word below something of their stature, and yet they found themselves using that word to describe Corvin. Just plainly hate.

It was justified hate, too. He'd made a mess of their world by killing so many. He'd humiliated them of all people so casually it was insulting. It almost seemed like he had an aura made of pure hubris that destroyed everything that touched it.

So now here they were. Two- two of them!- going to this lonesome little island where Order's creations lived, because, for whatever reason, that thing had deposited his sister here. Something all three of them had seen when examining the world. The why of it wasn't really important. What was important was that she was there.

"Is that so?" Looking behind themselves, the Mask saw another form exit from the portal they had just stepped out from before abruptly closing behind them. A gray mask with yellow eyes placed on the face of a female keidran. "I see you got a new host."

Scoffing, Chaos looked down and flexed the pale hand of the human they inhabited. "Corvin broke my last one," they angrily muttered before turning around. The castle where the basitin king resided, and where they had seen Corvin place his sister, lied just beyond this bridge they were on.

"I almost can't believe we've fallen so low as to go about doing trivial tasks such as this ourselves," Chaos continued as the two Masks slowly walked towards the castle. "It's demeaning towards our status."

"And yet there is little else we can do," Neutral added. "No host we can inhabit is powerful enough to stop him. And at the rate he's going, the Templar will be a forgotten dream before too long. Even the wolves are suffering casualties from his attacks." They shook their head. "If anything, it's demeaning we allowed something like this into our world and for it to come to this state."

"Whose fault is it for bringing that thing here in the first place?" Chaos argued.

"I think you already made your stance on that subject clear when you placed that mark upon the person responsible," Neutral reminded. "It's pointless pointing fingers now. What's important is the fact that our options are severely slim at the moment. Taking the child will provide more options. So we'll do just that."

It wasn't even that much of a plan, to be completely honest. At this point it was a scramble to gather anything that could give them any advantage over Corvin, and this was one of the few avenues available. They didn't even have an idea of what they would do once they got the girl. They only knew that taking her would, in some capacity, hurt Corvin. What that basically boiled down to was doing something that had the potential to be effective over doing nothing at all.

"So I shared some words with Corvin," Neutral said as they both walked closer to the castle.

Black energy hued in red began gathering in the palm of Chaos's host. "I doubt it was a fruitful conversation," they said.

"It wasn't. He said some interesting things, though." The yellow-eyed Mask turned to look at the red-eyed one. "He said that he spent a hundred years in that world, yes?"

"That's what he said."

"He also said he consumed all life in that world shortly after the first year. He spent ninety-nine of them alone, in complete isolation."

Those words caused Chaos to momentarily pause in their movement. They continued on shortly after, the gathered energy increasing in size. "So what? That doesn't change the current situation. He's still ruining our world and plans on killing us- a ludicrous threat, to be sure, but a threat against us nonetheless. I will not tolerate such pious behavior from anything."

"But don't you think-"

"No." Chaos tossed the ball of dark energy towards the castle gates. They promptly exploded, the gates becoming little more than splinters of wood and leaving the entrance wide open and covered in a screen of smoke. "It doesn't matter how similar the circumstances are. What matters is now, not then. And right now I just want this situation remedied as soon as possible so we can fix everything he's broken." Chaos started to briskly walk towards the cloud of smoke. "And I'm not going to let you convince me to stop."

Neutral sighed. "I'm not trying to stop you," they said. "I'm just laying the facts out. I'm in agreement with you that we should take the girl. I'm just saying that..." They shook their head. "Forget it. You've already made up your mind."

"You're correct in that assessment." A single foot stepped into the smoke-filled entrance. "Hurry up, now. I'd like to acquire the child as soon as-"

A pale, human fist flew out from the smoke, too fast for either Mask to react. It impacted Chaos right in the center of their mask, sending their possessed body sliding back towards Neutral who already was gathering energy in their hands.

"What now?" they grumbled, swiping their hands out. A gale of wind accompanied the gesture, blowing all the smoke clear away to reveal what was inside of it. The sight was not a pleasing one for either of the Masks.

He was assuredly human, though the clothing he wore was peculiar, almost like Corvin's. He even had a hood, too, though this one was grey and pulled up. And over that hoodie was a black leather jacket, with barely visible tribal symbols on the back. He was casually sitting on the ground, a arm slung over his knee as he looked up at the two. Though the hood concealed most of his features, the mocking smirk upon his lips and the icy-blue eyes staring out from the hood's shadow were hard to miss.

"It's about time," Alex said. "Been here for weeks with nothing to do but wait. You know how boring that got?"

"A human?" The red eyes of Chaos's mask narrowed slightly. "No. No, you're not. You're like him. Like Corvin."

"Bit of yes and bit of no." He slowly rose to his feet and made a show of stretching his arms over his head. "Hey there. You must be those Mask things."

The two Masks stepped closely to each other. "This can't be," Neutral said. "Corvin's the only of his kind. How are there more?"

"There's more 'cause he made more. Or more accurately, he lets more exist. For the time being, at least. I'm only here because Corvin wanted somebody he trusted to look after his sister in the event somebody tried to come and take her to use as leverage against him. Looks like he made a smart choice." He slowly placed his hands into the pockets of his pants. "But you're right in saying there aren't any others like him in this world, yours truly notwithstanding. I'm from the world he went to after those Templar dismembered him."

"The world he completely destroyed?" Chaos scoffed. "You would really follow somebody as abhorrent as him after he did something as egregious as snuffing out all life on a planet?"

Alex shrugged. "It's not like I wasn't planning on doing something not too dissimilar. He just beat me to it."

Though it couldn't be seen, the jaws of the hosts the Masks inhabited briefly dropped behind their masks. "Is every member of your species truly insane?" Neutral questioned.

He smiled wide enough to show off his teeth. "You have it backwards. Us Blacklight beings are the sanest creatures that exist. It's everything else that can't think clearly."

"Enough of this farce." Chaos's body rushed forwards with an arm wreathed in black and red energy cocked back. When he punched forwards with it, Alex just lazily stepped around it. Then he stepped back a few steps and sat back down.

"I'm only supposed to stop you if you come within two-hundred feet of his sister," Alex informed. "That's about the boundary separating the castle interior from the outside, so about the same location of the doors you just blew away." He held up two fingers. "So this can go one of two ways: you can both just go away, or I can break those masks and send you back myself."

Chaos looked ready to rush forwards once more, but a sudden arm extending in front of them from Neutral stopped them in their tracks. Instead, Neutral stepped in front of Chaos while fixing their yellow eyes over Alex's form. "Why fight for him?" they asked. "From my point of view, it appears that Corvin has taken away your free will and forced you to do this. Why not fight back against him?"

"Because that's your perspective, and it's horribly askew," he answered. "And even if I wanted to, I couldn't. He didn't give me a body nearly as powerful as his."

"Yes, he went on and on bragging about how he'd reached the 'pinnacle of evolution'." Chaos almost seemed disgusted by the words they said. "What utter foolishness."

Alex's response was a dry chuckle. "Yeah, he's not exaggerating when he says that. I don't think you've realized that, if he really wanted to, he could have consumed all life on this planet in an instant." For emphasis, he snapped his fingers. "Just like that. As quick as stomping out a bird's nest."

"Hmph. I'm sure." Chaos shoved their way past Neutral and stomped towards Alex. "I couldn't care less about his abilities, or you for that matter. We're taking that girl. You won't stop us."

"They never listen." Alex shook his head, his grin only widening the closer the footsteps came to him. The second Chaos's foot crossed the threshold into the castle, the grin turned almost feral.

His body snapped into a raised position in an instant, and practically flew right towards Chaos. He was stopped nearly instantly when a blade made of pure black and red energy extended from Chaos's hand and went through his chest.

"Monster or not, you're no Corvin," Chaos said. "You're not going to be able to defeat us."

"Yeah, that doesn't really matter." Alex's head picked up, still savagely grinning at the Mask. "I'm still way better than the meat puppets you're both wearing."

Hand flattened, Alex brought his arm down in an attempt to chop off Chaos's arm. He dodged backwards just in time to miss, though the energy blade was dislodged from Alex's chest.

Undeterred, Alex raised a hand to the smoldering wound that was already healing. "This magic stuff of yours is pretty nuts," he said. "We didn't have any of that back on Earth."

Neutral's eyes widened. "Your gods withheld that from you?" They had to dodge backwards when Alex tried to kick at them.

"We didn't have any of those, either," he added, before dashing forwards and landing a hit to Neutral's chest with a second kick, knocking them back. "Not like it mattered; from what I've seen, you people are next to useless when it comes to governing this world."

A energy blade cleaved through his shoulder. "Was everybody from that world as pious as you and Corvin?" they asked.

"Hah. Hell no. Religion was a mess over there." His fingers reached up and wrapped around the blade, slowly lifting it out of his shoulder. "Too bad we can't use that junk. This energy sword thing's kinda nifty."

A blade burst out from the elbow belonging to the arm holding the blade aloft, extending far enough to pierce Chaos in the shoulder. He then swung the arm down, the blade cleaving off the Mask's entire arm. Before it dropped to the ground, Alex scooped up the arm and jabbed the crackling blade through Chaos's chest.

"Thought gods would be better then this," Alex muttered. "What a disappointment."

There was an explosion in the castle from overhead, following by the cloaked figure of Neutral floating out from above the castle walls with a sleeping human girl in their arms. Alex audibly sighed, expecting the Mask to attempt to fly away with the girl in tow. What he didn't expect was for the Mask to extend a hand and disperse a large amount of yellow energy in front of them, only for that energy to soon take the form of a small yellow-scaled dragon. A dragon they soon hopped on as it flew away.

"Huh. I guess that was sort of cool."

Those were the only words Alex could get out before Chaos swiped their remaining hand in front of Alex, causing his entire body to instantly be encased in ice. They promptly disappeared in a dark-red flash, and then shortly reappeared next to their sibling on the magically conjured dragon.

Neutral turned from their position on the dragon's back, a sleeping Aya in their arms. Their yellow eyes were notably focused on Chaos's missing arm. "You're burning through these hosts like nothing," they jokingly noted.

Chaos huffed. "What does it matter? They're all expendable in the end." They took a step forwards. "All that matters is that we have the girl. Now let's get far away from that thing so we can figure out what to do next; I doubt that freezing him solid will hold him for long."

"You're right about one thing."

A large, metal blade burst out from Chaos's chest, followed by a hand of metal claws wrapping around their mask from behind before they could even gasp out in shock. The clawed hand crushed the head, shattering the Mask's mask which soon dissipated into a thin, black mist. The body was then tossed from the yellow dragon, leaving Alex in his place.

"That was mildly irritating," he muttered, his gaze briefly set on the falling body. His head then turned to look at Neutral. "I gotta say, this whole little kidnapping plan of yours was shoddy at best. A four outta ten. You didn't even take any time to prepare. Instead you just waltzed up to the castle thinking Corvin hadn't left some kind of countermeasure against such an obvious play." He shook his head, rubbing the top of his hood with his clawed hand. "Christ, you're all incompetent. Corvin's doing the world a favor by getting rid of you dumbasses. Surprised it even lasted this long with you all in charge."

It wasn't like he didn't blame them for the ill-preparedness, seeing as it seemed Corvin's plan was going along as fast as he had expected, but it was still baffling. They were gods, so he'd expected something a bit... more. There wasn't even any words he could use to be more specific. He'd just expected more out of this. He understood they had to use mortal hosts, but even then this was pathetic. He'd expected them to have a vast amount of intelligence, if not just straight-up omnipotence- completely understanding all laws of physics as well as every other scientific principle was something he'd assumed for them to have if they crafted a whole world and organic beings from scratch, therefor implying they had genius-level intellect. But these were the same things that used "magic", so what did he know?

"Anticlimactic display aside, can't really let you take Corvin's sister." Raising his blade in the air, Alex sliced downwards onto the dragon's back. It's whole body was cut all the way through, with yellow, glowing liquid flowing from the wounds as the two halves separated and the conjured dragon began to fade.

Alex fell. Neutral floated, as an ethereal pair of black, wispy wings spawned on their back, keeping them aloft in the air. And just as Neutral was shaking their head in a sad manner, a bladed tendril reached up from below and wrapped around their leg. They were reeled down so rapidly that they could barely see past the motion blur before coming to an abrupt halt in Alex's arms.

"Give." He punched Neutral right in the mask, causing cracks to form along the surface and disorienting them long enough for Alex to snatch Aya from their grasp. Once secured in his arms, he jumped off from Neutral and kicked them squarely in the face, causing their body to plummet to the beach down below. Biomass was then jettisoned out from all four of Alex's limbs, slowing his descent and causing him to slowly land on the ground with the girl in tow.

He spotted a dark form in the distance- Neutral on their stomach looking at Alex with their cracked mask. He slowly walked over, noting how the possessed thing was struggling to try and raise to its feet only to fumble and fall back down. He guessed he kicked it too hard.

"So how's the world looking from the bottom there?" he asked, stopping right in front of Neutral with an amused smirk on his face. "And to think I'm not even expecting a 'thank you' for providing a lustrous being such as you a new and potentially enlightening perspective such as this. I'm really am a benevolent guy."

"All I see from down here is a sneering bastard," they weakly grumbled, before their head lost strength fell completely. "That and sand."

"Well, you're about to get a lot more personal with that sand." His foot stomped down on their head, smashing both it and the mask belonging to the Mask possessing it. They faded away soon after.

Alex sighed. He was particularly upset over the fact it had been so easy- there would have been some major repercussions if they actually managed to abscond with the girl. Being easy was a good thing. It didn't make it any less boring, though. It wasn't exactly a predatory thrill he'd felt back in the day when things had been moderately challenging, but that along with everything else had been better than what he was feeling right now. Right now he just felt lukewarm over this.

"At least they were useful in conveniently putting everybody to sleep. Makes my life a bit easier." He slung Aya over his shoulder and turned around, making his way back to the castle.

In the distance, a abnormally large crow let out a large caw sound. Alex briefly looked at the black bird, noticing the luminescent blue eyes it held. "Doubt anybody else will come after her. Should still stay," he mumbled under his breath as he turned away from the bird. "Don't worry, Corvin. I'm not gonna let anybody touch your sister. As long as I get to see you succeed where I failed, I'll do whatever you want. You just better make good on your promise."


Corvin opened his eyes, his visual perspective shifting from his crow on the island to his own eyes. "Good. Alex managed to protect her," he thought. "That's one potential annoyance out of the way. All that's left for me is to mop up the rest of the Templar, and then I can move on and-"

Something hit him in the back of the head. Or tapped him- hard to gauge that, really. And then he felt the same sensation along multiple points on his body with accompanying blurs of color before something appeared right in front of him.

It was a woman, one who rested a hand on her hips while smirking confidently at Corvin as she brushed aside locks of green hair. A lightly armored and lightly clothed woman, but a woman nonetheless that bore a Templar seal. A seal located directly over her very ample chest.

She seemed to notice his staring. "What? Ya see something you like?" she coyly asked.

"I never really understood the appeal of large breasts, even after I gained a comprehensive understanding of human behavior," he admitted. "They just seem so cumbersome. And don't they get in the way? It looks more like a burden than anything else."

Her smirk fell away into an annoyed look. "You're a real charmer," she drawled. "I can see why everybody likes you."

"I'm sure." Corvin's composure remained relaxed as he regarded her with a bored look. "So what meager resistance are you Templar about to put up now? Or are you just an avenging crusader out for revenge for what I've done?" He shrugged his shoulders. "If you wanted to, you could just throw away that seal you're wearing and I'd just pretend I never saw you. Dead bodies are unsightly enough; why add yet another one?"

One of her eyebrows twitched. "That's real nice coming from the person that's killed most of my friends. Sorry, but I'll have to decline." She stuck a thumb out at herself. "Name's Zeph, the Templar who strikes faster than the speed of sound. I'm gonna be the one to pound you into the dirt."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Corvin. I don't really have a cool title or moniker."

"..." Her hardened expression fell momentarily, but then picked right back up. "There's something seriously wrong with you."

She proceeded to, and this was Corvin's assumption, "attack" him. This entailed punching and kicking him at various points along his body at speeds he was fairly certain a normal human eye wouldn't have been able to keep up with. Not as fast as sound, not at all, but still way beyond the comprehension of normal eyesight. And it wasn't just random flailing, either- it was calculated strikes on what would normally be weak points on the body for humans. Joints and soft spots and such. He was actually a bit impressed by it.

But Corvin wasn't human. He didn't have weak spots or normal eyesight.

"She didn't earn that nickname for nothing," he thought as his eyes lazily tracked her every movement. "She must have hit me hundreds of times by now. This speed is far beyond the normal capabilities of normal human beings. How is it that she's achieving this?" He let out a heavy sighed. "Too bad. She's quite talented."

His right arm shot out when she was midair attempting to perform a kick to his neck. His hand wrapped around her ankle, halting all movement and causing her eyes to widen in panic.

"Were you hoping to overwhelm me with blinding speed? You aren't fast enough." His free hand clenched into a fist and launched upwards right into her face, where it proceeded to carry her entire body to the ground and smash her head to pulp on the cobblestones beneath their feet.

A giant shadow loomed over him from behind. He turned his head around just enough to see a giant of a man, easily ten feet tall, let out a bellowing roar and swing down an axe many times Corvin's own size. He stopped it easily by blocking it with his wrist.

"Trying to crush me with your immense strength? You're not strong enough." He casually brushed the axe aside and punched the giant straight in the chest. A hole leading clean through the man's torso five times the size of Corvin's fist was formed, and the giant tumbled down on the ground, dead.

He heard something whistle in the air, and then moved his head slightly to the left to avoid and arrow hitting it. All the way across the burning plaza was a destroyed building where a Templar wearing a mantle was firing arrows at him, along with dozens more Templar firing arrows straight at him. Some had even been lit on fire.

"Defeating me through sheer numbers? You don't have enough." He twitched his right hand. Black spikes of biomass erupted from the ground beneath the Templar, impaling all of them and raising their corpses high into the air. They fell down seconds later when Corvin retracted the spikes.

Something hit him right above his shoulder, followed by a broken sword blade falling to his feet. "It's useless to keep trying," he said, shoving away whoever it was that had hit him. There was a cry of pain as the aggressor flew several feet away, dropping the broken sword hit and rolling along the ground before coming to a complete halt flat on their back, their angered and terrified eyes looking up at Corvin's calm ones.

Those dark, calm eyes of Corvin's widened. It was Reiner, that one subordinate of the priest's. He must have been one of the Templar stationed in this city, and the last one, too, seeing as nobody else was attacking him. It explained why this attack had been the most coordinated one ever attempted on him so far. He must have tried to warn them and have them come up with some convoluted strategy to try and bring him down.

He almost smirked. It wasn't a half-bad attempt.

"It was a valiant effort. Your little resistance put up quite the fight, but I'm afraid that it was doomed to fail no matter what you tried." He slowly stepped forwards, with Reiner only staring hatefully at Corvin as he approached him. "The truth of the matter is that there was nothing you could have done. You could have gathered up every single person in the entire world against me. But even if every single organism in this world combined their strengths and efforts to try and stop me, it wouldn't nearly be enough. Not enough speed, strength, or numbers. I'm simply above all of that, Reiner."

He stopped right in front of the downed man. "Do me the favor of answering a question before I kill you," Corvin requested. "Why not just run? You would have had a fair chance at it. You could have even just hit, waited until I left, and then tossed away all of your Templar paraphernalia. Not just you, but everybody I killed back there. You all chose to fight a hopeless battle anyways." He tilted his head in confusion. "Why? Why even bother?"

Reiner coughed up a globule of blood. "B-because you're killing innocents," he said in a hoarse in pained voice. "We're Templar. It's o-our job to protect innocents."

"Mm. I'm sure all those keidran appreciate the protecting you're doing for them," Corvin said. "All the culling and the enforcement of slavery laws were all for their benefit, right?" He crouched down to be closer to Reiner. "I think what you meant to say was that it's your job to protect 'human innocents'. But even so, you still should have seen that your efforts were useless. There was no point in trying."

"It d-didn't matter if there was a point or not," Reiner sputtered. "M-monster... a monster like you wouldn't understand. When something like you is trying to destroy our livelihoods, we can't just sit back and do nothing. It doesn't matter if it's hopeless or not. We humans don't just give up because something's hopeless or not. Something like you would never understand."

A pang of frustration shot through Corvin. Frustration at already having known that answer, and for not receiving something different. It was just the typical response. "A fair view, Reiner." A wing spawned from Corvin's back and impaled Reiner in the chest. His head dropped to the ground as he was killed moments later.

He rose to his feet. Attempting something hopeless for the sake of trying over doing nothing at all. It was such a human response. And one he couldn't even emphasize with, even back when he had been a human. He never recalled a time where he'd attempted something hopeless in the hope of a miracle happening, or under the vague notion that he'd come out on top despite everything else saying otherwise. The odds were either always in his favor or he made it to where they were leaning in his direction.

Even when he had been a human, he had never understood that concept. It just never applied to him.

"CORVIN!"

Corvin's head snapped upwards just in time to see the blinding pillar of pure white energy heading right towards him. Four black wings extended from his back and curled in front of him, taking the brunt of the impact and shielding him. Even then the feather and flesh started charring away and the light bled through, completely destroying the wings and engulfing his body. The beam soon dissipated, leaving Corvin smoking and without any upper clothing looking very perturbed. The clothing regenerated as he faced towards where that blast had come from.

A familiar mane of white hair and a pair of purple eyes greeted Corvin as the man approached Corvin from the other side of the plaza. An old man with an extremely angered face who Corvin recognized immediately.

"... He destroyed my wings and burned through my clothing. He shouldn't even be able to cast magic, let alone hurt me with it." Corvin focused closer on the approaching man. The dozens of strings hanging off his robed body, each lined with blue, glowing mana crystals, was readily apparent. "Hm. He must have stocked up beforehand, though even crystals should have been wiped from the explosion caused by the tower. He must have just arrived."

The priest stopped a short distance away from Corvin, hands balled in fury as his purple eyes trailed along the destruction and death around them. Particularly, they lingered on Reiner's corpse before focusing back on Corvin, who, for his part, was calmly staring at Dove with little hostility in his posture.

"When I spared you back on that ship, it wasn't an invitation for you to come and try to kill me later," Corvin said.

"And I don't remember ever accepting your proposal," Dove said back.

Corvin frowned. "I know I said that the deal was closed, priest, but I do still have your daughter's memories inside of me. You can still just take her and walk away from all of this."

Father Dove shook his head. "The answer's the same, Corvin. I'm not letting you live another second."

"... Do you know why I spared you back then, Dove?" Corvin asked. "It's because out of all the Templar that's ever tried to hurt me, you're the only one that had a good reason. I figured that avenging your daughter was a good enough reason over all the other excuses I'd heard. I didn't blame you in the slightest for what you did, so I tried to make amends for it all." He thrust his arms open and to the sides. "And yet here we are. What a sad turn of events."

Dove didn't pay much attention to Corvin. Instead, he seemed more transfixed on his eyes. "Do you know what I see when I look into those blue eyes surrounded by those inky-black pools of darkness, Corvin?" he questioned. "I see nothing but complete contempt for everything that's around their owner. Placid contempt. But there's something else there, too. Almost... a sense or urgency. Desperation. Almost as if you're worried about something, but not yourself."

"And withing those perfectly normal, human eyes, Father Dove, I see the faintest glimmer of hope." Corvin frowned. "Do you actually believe you have a chance at defeating me? I'll admit, you've administered more damage to me with that attack earlier than the entire Templar force has been able to dole out so far, but the most you managed to do was burn away a thin layer of biomass and some wings. You could do that a billion times and not even make a dent in my reserves."

"I don't care if I have to do it a trillion times," Dove stated. "Nor do I care how bad the situation is. I couldn't call myself a person, let alone a priest of the Templar Order, if I let this atrocity go on a second longer without doing everything within my power to stop you."

"Is that so?" Corvin's eyes narrowed. "I guess that would be the 'human' response, huh, Dove? Well come on, then. Show me just how far your humanity goes."

Dove swept his remaining arm to the side, and a circle of pure white light appeared over his head. And then twenty more appeared, each one extending a pillar of pure burning light towards Corvin. He sprinted towards Dove, weaving around each column of light as he reared back a flattened hand.

"Oh, yes, Dove! By all means! Keep resisting even though it's futile!" He finally reached Dove and slashed his hand through his body, but to Corvin's surprise the entire body dissolved away into light. When he heard a whirring sound behind him, he turned and saw nearly a dozen more Doves with hundreds of more circles of light hovering around them, each primed to fire. Frustration started forming on Corvin's face.

The circles of lights fired their beams, each one heading right towards Corvin. "That's the human thing to do, right!? To keep fighting even though it's useless!?" A shining shield of biomass replaced Corvin's right arm, and was poised in front of his body. The beams all impacted that shield and were refracted away from him harmlessly. "To keep going until the very end! That's what they all chose, didn't they!? The Templar who would rather have fought than gave up! Look where that got them!"

The beams ceased, and the clones of Dove dissolved. What Corvin assumed was the real one teleported in a flash of light right next to him, thrusting a sword made of pure light in his direction. Corvin throw his hand out, the blade impaling the appendage and stopping it in place.

"Why, Corvin!?" Dove screamed. "Why do you think you have to do this!? Even if it makes the world a better place, what gives you the right to do this!?"

"The right? I'm the only who can fix this world!" Corvin yelled back. "I'm the only one with the abilities to do so! I'm the only one with insight into other worlds! I'm the only person who realized that this world is doomed unless I save everybody!"

"And killing all these Templar is saving them!?"

"I gave them all a chance! I gave you a chance! I didn't want to kill anybody!" Corvin tore his hand from the sword of light, a gesture that caused the priest to jump back. "Just stop it. Please. Everything will be okay once I fix the world. There doesn't need to be more death."

"What would you know about the fate of this world?" Upon saying these words, Dove disappeared in a flash of light. Around fifty meters away from his previous position was a large gathering of light, compiling into a mass more than hundred meters in height. The mass of light soon took the form of a dragon-shaped sculpture of light, one that moved freely and looked down on Corvin. It opened its great maw, and more light began charging within its mouth.

"What would I know? I know more than everyone else! I've seen it!" Claws of shining platinum replaced Corvin's hands, and he lept up towards the conjured dragon. When it fired its massive beam of light, he cut his way through it with his claws as jets of biomass spewed from his limbs and propelled him closer. "A world thousands of years more advanced than this one! A world nearly brought to ruin by the selfishness of humanity!"

When he finally reached the dragon, a new two-pair set of wings spawned from his back and kept him aloft. He formed his pistol in his hand, aiming it at the dragon and firing off bursts of pressurized air. Holes upon holes were made into the fake dragon of light until it started breaking off into clouds of light particulates, at which point Corvin stopped firing.

He felt something land on top of him, followed by his body dropping as his wings were chopped away from him by that sword made of light. Dove was situated right on top his his chest, attempting to stab his sword through Corvin's head. He moved out of the way just as the blade grazed his cheek, and then kicked Dove off, who teleported once more onto the ground. Corvin landed shortly after, moving his claws against one another as he faced the one-armed priest.

"That world I went to was inhabited by humans who poisoned their planet," Corvin continued. "They waged useless wars that killed countless, much like this one. They'd constructed enough weapons of mass destruction that they could have scorched the surface of their world hundreds of times over if they wanted. They would have destroyed themselves if I hadn't done it first."

The empty sleeve of Dove's robe started moving as light surrounded it, forming another shape. It was a arm made of pure light, many times bigger than his own body, and one that was clenched into a fist and poised to strike at Corvin. With a yell, Dove took a single step forwards and sent a mighty punch from that arm of light hurtling straight towards Corvin. He stopped it easily with one clawed hand, the force from the two colliding so great that all the dust and debris around them was scattered away.

"Even the virus that made this body was conceived by humans, Father Dove. It wasn't through eldritch magic or some nonsense like that. It was scientifically made by selfish humans who were more concerned with their own ideals that the pursuit of knowledge."

The fist of light faded, and Father Dove collapsed to his knees as a result. The crystals hanging around him had done dark, completely drained. Corvin, likewise, shifted back into his normal arms.

"This world isn't any better. No, it's even worse," he muttered. "The fact that this world contains more than one sentient species has caused a schism to be applied between them all due to the apparent intolerance towards one another. This racial discrimination has caused even more senseless death than a world inhabited by one, and in such a short time. You Templar are doing nothing but fueling that hateful fire, and I didn't want those ideals to carry over into my new world. That's why you all need to be exterminated, one way or another." He started to slowly step towards Dove. "But with or without you, this problem of racial discrimination remains. Humans aren't the only race to have evolved to the point to obtain selfishness; the keidran and basitins, too, have gained it. Not even dragons or the gods are exempt from it. As a result of this, I don't believe that this world will even last as long as the one I came from. It'll destroy itself eventually. I looked, but there was nothing to convince me that this world won't travel down a similar path as Earth."

He stopped when he was right in front of Dove, who tiredly looked up into Corvin's eyes. Corvin, for his part, didn't look the least bit winded. "That's why I'm doing this, Dove. Because everybody is going to die if I don't. I'd rather just make the world a place where everybody can be happy. Nobody will have to die due to needless conflict in that world."

Dove coughed. "Even if... even if all that is true... it doesn't matter, Corvin." Something strange started to happen to him. Black energy started to coalesce around his figure, and nearby plants that were sticking out from between the cobblestones began to die off. "Humanity is always finding itself in life-or-death situations. It's in those moments that they grow by overcoming those challenges. What you're trying to do, Corvin... you're not giving humanity a chance. You're not giving this world a chance! You're just assuming this world will fall apart just by what you've seen in a completely separate one!" His veins began to darken around his arm, neck, and face. "How can you say we'll all destroy ourselves when you haven't even seen us be pushed to the point where we can save ourselves!? It's at those moments humanity evolves, Corvin, not before!"

"I'm fully aware of humanity's infinite potential for growth. It doesn't change the fact that they have an infinite capacity for cruelty as well. I won't leave the fate of this world to chance. To them. I just simply don't trust you lesser races." He stepped back as Dove began to rise to his feet. "That's that black mana stuff, right?" he asked. "From what I've heard, it's extremely potent magic at the cost of your sanity. I don't think it's in your best interest to use that, Dove. You've already lost. Just give up."

"Never." An aura of black energy began to surround the priest, and his purple eyes began glowing red. "As long as there's still breath in my body, and even if I have to break the highest taboos I set for myself as a priest, I-"

Corvin swiped his hands sideways, causing a large gash to appear over Dove's chest. The black aura disappeared in an instant, his eyes turned back purple, and he coughed up a spurt of blood as he fell to his knees.

"Dove. You're extremely formidable for a human. In fact, you almost remind me of another human I fought a long time ago- one just as tenacious as you are. And as it stands, you're still the only Templar who came after me back then with a good reason to." Corvin turned his back to Dove. "I'll let you live. When my new world is complete, I will return to you your daughter and arm, and you both can live in that world in peace. That is the most I'm willing to offer you."

"Is that it, then?" As Corvin walked away, he heard a quiet chuckling from Dove behind him. "No matter how hard I try, I just couldn't do it?"

"That's the fallacy of your human way of doing things," Corvin responded as he continued walking. "Sometimes things are hopeless for a reason. No amount of trying from you or anybody else is going to stop me."

"I see." There was a change in the air significant enough to make Corvin stop in his footsteps. Almost as if the air around him had grown thicker and the light being shown from the fire and the sun had been dimmed ever so lightly. "Then I suppose if my faith is not strong enough to stop you... then everything I've devoted my faith towards will have to suffice."

"What?" Corvin turned around to face Dove once more. Despite there not being a drop of mana left in the vicinity, there was even more white light gathering around Dove. Specifically, around his face. "O lord, I've failed you. Despite you having given me the power to prevail, I've failed. Please use this humble servant's body as a divine vessel to smite this evil from the world."

There was an explosion of light that engulfed the entire priest's body. It soon started to dim, the figure inside of the mass of light rising to their feet as an angelic pair of white wings flourished out from behind their back. Otherwise, the priest was completely unchanged. Aside, of course, from the featureless white mask adorning their face with two blue, shining eyes staring right at Corvin.

"... And by process of elimination, you must be Order," Corvin numbly deduced. "Your siblings failed to take my sister, by the way. You're going to fail whatever it is you came down here to do."

There was nothing but silence from the white-masked figure. Instead, they decided to conjure even more pure-white energy around their- Dove's- right hand.

"What, no incessant speeches preaching about your grandiose existence? No overly dramatized pointing and boisterous proclamations of how you will destroy me and purify your world? I would have thought you-"

He almost had no time to react, which was saying a lot considering it was his reaction speed to consider. Once second the possessed Dove was standing there, and the next Order was right in front of Corvin, a lance made of pure light poised to go right through Corvin's chest. He was just barely able to bat the hand slightly to the left so that the lance didn't go through the center of his chest.

"That was a close one," Corvin murmured. "It would have been very problematic if you had hit that specific spot."

"Hm." Order tore the lance from Corvin's body and stepped back. "As agile as expected. But agile or not, you will not be allowed to trample upon our world any further."

Corvin released a tired sigh. "Did you actually come down here with a plan, or did you just want to take a stab at me like the other two did? Because it's going to go very poorly for you if it's the latter."

"There's very little use in formulating a plan when the available materials aren't sufficient enough in significantly harming you." There was something almost soothing in Order's voice. Beneath Dove's own voice was the calming octaves of Order's own voice, not as brash as Chaos's or demurring as Neutral's. And the light they exhumed felt almost warming. "This was one of the most powerful human's in the world, and even he failed spectacularly against you. And out of all of our followers, he possessed the most fervor towards us."

"He made that abundantly clear." Corvin crossed his arms. "So what is he to you? Is the only thing he earned through all that devotion was the right to be used as a puppet? A mindless medium for your power?"

"Why not?" Order asked. "Though humans are not my creation, they are still a creation by us gods. By that very definition, the creators should have every right to impose their will upon the created."

"Is that how you see it?" Four black wings spawned from Corvin's back and splayed out from his body. "Well. I've lost all interest with you."

He flung his wings towards Order, and hundreds of sharpened feathers hurled towards their body. Order did the same, flinging their wings to fire beams of light at Corvin, but they were overcome by the sheer volume of feathers. They made it through successfully, and dozens of feathers ended up piercing Order's stolen body. They barely had enough time to stagger back before Corvin's hand was gripping their mask.

"Begone." He tore the mask off and crushed it within his hand, causing a small pop of light as the Mask faded away. All that was left was Dove's body, who instantly flopped onto his back the moment the Mask disappeared. From the lack of movement and the growing pool of blood around his body, Corvin could already tell he was dead.

Corvin wouldn't say he was saddened by the sight of the Father's corpse, because he wasn't. He was just an overly faithful and powerful Templar who had stood in his way, but it didn't change the fact that Corvin held a modicum of respect for the man. And he truly had intended to keep his word and reunite him with his daughter once his new world was complete. But seeing his dead body almost made those promises meaningless. So no, he wasn't sad. Just disappointed. In who, he didn't know.

He held his hand out. Black and blue tendrils whirled around to form the shape of a small girl under his hand, until they receded and the daughter of Columbo Dove was standing right next to him. She seemed dazed at first, and looked around in a slight stupor as she got the bearings of her surroundings. And then her eyes happened upon her father's corpse, and tears immediately started falling from the eyes that resembled her father's.

"D-daddy...?" She fell to her knees next to his body and started to openly sob as she shook his corpse. "Dad, please, wake up... please don't be-"

Bang!

The back of her head was blown open as she slumped to her father's side, dead. Corvin, likewise, lowered the summoned pistol to his side. He squeezed it hard enough to cause dents in it before he absorbed it back into his body.

"I highly doubt this world has an afterlife, but the rules are different for each one and this one in particular is home to magic and gods. So who knows?" He shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking away. "Either way, There's no point in keeping you inside of me anymore. So if this world does have an afterlife, hopefully you two will be able to find each other. That's the best I can do for the promise I made to you, Dove."

He looked up towards the horizon, past the burning buildings and the dead bodies lining the streets. The sun was just beginning to set.

"I think it's about time."


A/N- There was an a scene I had planned where Dove would get infected with Blacklight and fight against Corvin in that form, but I decided against it. Didn't really fit with what I was trying to go for here.