Chapter 27: Hell on Earth
"Is this the blood…? The blood of the dark soul?"
-Slave Knight Gael (Dark Souls III)
Helsing brought his scythe down into the floor, causing an enormous eruption of dark energy around himself. Each member of the Fun Gang was thrown either onto the ground or into a wall. Helsing swung at Frisk, who barely had time to duck under his blade.
Susie stood up and moved to attack. Helsing lashed at her with the tendrils that consumed his hand, while the ones on his back hardened and extended toward her like needles. She took on a defensive position.
"Damn, just when I thought you couldn't get any crazier," she said. "You just don't know when you quit, do you?"
"Quiet…!" Helsing's voice came as a guttural snarl. He flailed wildly with his scythe, each swing sending waves of darkness across the floor. Susie quickly crumbled under his assault and fell to her knees.
Asriel lunged at Helsing with his chaos sabers. Helsing smacked him across the face with the snath of his scythe. Asriel retaliated with a burst of lightning, which Helsing evaded by skittering back.
Ralsei healed Susie and helped her up. "Be careful. He'll rip you apart."
"I could've told you that," she deadpanned. She rushed at Helsing and hacked away at the tendrils on his back. He screamed as they were severed, and furiously slashed at her to ward her off.
"Keep growing new parts, pal. I'll chop those off too," she taunted.
He glowered at her. The tendrils on his back began to reform. He chuckled when Susie's expression changed to one of shock.
Frisk glanced at Susie. "Well, he certainly listens."
"He's like some kind of fucked up starfish," Susie sighed. "If those tentacles grow a new Helsing, I'm outta here."
"Guys, focus!" Asriel assaulted him with a barrage of blazing stars. "How can we kill him if he can regenerate?"
"Easy." Susie's grip on her weapon tightened. "We cut him apart until there's nothing left to regenerate."
Helsing let out a twisted laugh. "You can't kill darkness."
"I'm pretty sure we've beaten plenty of 'invincible' things by now. You're hardly anything special."
"Arrogance." He slashed at her, and she deflected the blow. "This is where you die!" Each word was punctuated by another attack. He eventually broke Susie's guard and ran her through.
A shot from Noelle struck him in the back. He spun around to face her, and received another bolt to the chest. He faded into the shadows and slithered over to her, emerging beneath her and hitting her with an uppercut hard enough to launch her into the air.
"Back off!" Frisk discharged a barrier to knock him back. She moved to defend Noelle as she came back to the ground.
Helsing used his scythe to vault into the air, and brought it down upon Frisk. Her barrier shattered on impact. He swung at her, but she rolled out of the way. He disgorged a series of projectiles from his hand. Several of them hit her before she could raise another barrier.
Ralsei sent a barrage of flames Helsing's way. Helsing hissed and retreated into the shadows. Ralsei continued to assault him as he rematerialized, forcing him to retreat. He conjured a wall of black flames to defend himself.
Ralsei turned his attention to healing his companions. As soon as he turned his back, Helsing lunged at him buried his scythe in his shoulder.
"Worthless traitor," Helsing sneered. He pulled Ralsei to the ground and stomped down on his chest. He raised his scythe overhead, its blade surging with dark energy.
Asriel blindsided Helsing and impaled him with his chaos sabers. He followed up with a quick blast of lightning. Helsing skittered back and pulled the sabers from his body, shattering them to pieces.
Ralsei hastily healed himself and attended to his companions. He barely had any time to heal them before Helsing attacked once again. Susie battled him head-on, while Ralsei and Noelle supported her from a distance.
"Why won't you just die?" Helsing hissed. "What does it take to stop you?"
Frisk knocked him aside by discharging another barrier. "It'll take more than you can manage. We're more determined than ever to take you down."
"So you might as well just give it up!" Susie punched Helsing in the jaw.
"I could say the same to you." Helsing kicked her in the chest and slashed at her. She powered through and continued dueling him.
Helsing dropkicked Susie and took to the shadows. He reappeared behind her while she was still falling and slammed his fist into her back, throwing her to the ground. Her weapon left her hand and clattered out of reach.
"Stay away from her!" Noelle put herself between them and opened fire on Helsing. His tendrils caught her shots in mid-flight. He swept her off her feet with a wave of darkness, and delivered a strong kick to the chest.
Susie pulled herself up and tackled Helsing to the ground. She stomped down on his hand until his grip on his scythe weakened, and grabbed the weapon for herself. She plunged the blade into his chest repeatedly, each time evoking a spray of black blood.
Helsing's tendrils shot out at Susie, jabbing her in the face. One of them pierced her right eye, causing her to scream in pain and recoil back. Helsing pulled his scythe from her hand and shoved her aside.
"Susie!" Ralsei rushed over to her, but stopped in his tracks when Helsing created a wall of dark flames in front of him.
"I'll handle you in a moment," Helsing said. He leapt into the air and brought his scythe down upon Susie, but she jumped to the side to evade.
"Susie, catch!" Asriel tossed her halberd to her. She gave him a nod of thanks.
"This was a dirty trick, pal," she said, pointing to her bleeding eye. "I'm gonna have to settle the score now."
She cleaved at him with her halberd, but his tendrils halted it mere inches from his face. He kicked her back and dashed at her, slashing her across the abdomen. He whacked her in the back of the head with the snath of his scythe, knocking her down.
Ralsei tried to reach Susie, but soon came under fire from Helsing. Frisk stepped up to defend him.
"Asriel, can you distract him while I help Susie?" Ralsei said.
Asriel conjured another set of chaos sabers. "Leave it to me."
"I'll help, too." Noelle took aim with her crossbow.
Asriel rushed at Helsing, swinging his sabers. Helsing deflected them with a twirl of his scythe, and countered with a burst of darkness that left Asriel reeling. Noelle loosed a bolt and hit Helsing in the shoulder. Asriel thrust one of his sabers into Helsing's chest and quickly retreated.
"Susie, are you alright?" Ralsei cast a healing spell on Susie, trying his best to ignore the persistent ache at the base of his skull.
"Not particularly," she stood. "He poked my eye out, if you haven't noticed."
"Hold still. I'll try to fix it…" He took a breath and focused his healing magic again, but soon stopped when he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head.
"Hey, you okay?" Susie asked.
"I'm fine… I'm just feeling a little run down. Helsing never lets up."
"Come on, brother. There's no way he holds out much longer."
A wave of darkness surged between them. "Famous last words," Helsing spoke.
"Hey, asstown, pay attention!" Asriel hailed blazing stars upon Helsing, and followed up with a torrent of lightning.
Helsing dissolved into the dark and slithered up to Asriel, emerging with an uppercut. His tendrils reached out to grab him by the wrists and hoist him up. The tendrils that consumed his hand wrapped around Asriel's throat.
"Did you seriously call me asstown?" Helsing said.
"Yeah, and I'd do it again…!" Asriel pulled at the tendrils around his neck.
Helsing drew his scythe back. "You won't be doing much of anything anymore."
"Let him go!" Frisk ran up behind him and punched him in the pack with all her might. She pulled at the tendrils on his back in a vain attempt to get him to release his grasp.
"Okay." He released his grip around Asriel's neck and swung him into Frisk, knocking her down. He then tossed Asriel into the wall with enough force to crack it.
"Should've been more specific, Frisk…" Asriel coughed.
Frisk didn't have a chance to answer before Helsing skittered over to her and kicked her in the ribs, flipping her into a prone position. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up until she was on her knees, and slammed her face into the floor. He stepped back and left her lying motionless on the ground.
"Frisk, no!" Noelle cried out. She steeled herself and took another shot at Helsing.
Ralsei took up a position beside Susie. "We can't lose her. Susie, throw me at Helsing. I have an idea."
"You actually want me to throw you?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Just trust me." He conjured flames in his hands.
"Alright, you're the boss." She picked him up and held him over her shoulder. "Hey, Helsing, catch!"
She threw Ralsei. The flames in his hands intensified, and billowed around him to surround his whole body. Helsing raised a wall of dark energy to protect himself, but Ralsei burned through it without trouble. He impacted Helsing in the chest, causing a devastating fiery eruption that engulfed him.
"Ah, the old Fastball Special," Susie gave a thumbs up. "You make me proud, Ralsei!"
"Susie, we should help keep Helsing away while he heals the others," Noelle said.
"Right."
Ralsei retreated from Helsing, firing off a few flaming projectiles. Helsing let out a guttural hiss and faded into the shadows. He rematerialized with a twirl of his scythe, which parried an incoming attack from Susie.
She thrust her weapon at him, and he stepped to the side to evade. She swung her halberd and buried its blade in his chest. He dissolved and reappeared next to her, and lashed at her with his tendrils.
Ralsei rolled Frisk onto her back, and was relieved to see she was still breathing. He cast a healing spell on her, but soon stopped and held his head in his hands. The pain was becoming unbearable, but he tried to force himself to continue.
"Frisk, are you okay?" he panted.
"As okay as I can be," she groaned. She sat up and wiped the blood from her face. "My head is killing me…"
"You'll be okay. Just try to stay alive. I need to help Asriel."
"Not so fast!" Helsing disgorged a barrage of dark projectiles in Ralsei's direction. Frisk raised a barrier to defend him, but it shattered quickly.
Susie stabbed Helsing in the back. "For the love of God, man, do you ever let up?"
"What do you think?" His tendrils hardened and stabbed at her.
Ralsei struggled to muster up the strength to heal Asriel. He nearly fainted, and began to lean heavily against the wall.
"Ralsei, don't push yourself too hard," Asriel stood.
"I… I have to make sure you all survive…" Ralsei breathed heavily. "But I don't think I can keep this up much longer…"
"Worry not, heroes!" a familiar voice echoed throughout the halls of the bunker. "Thine aid hath arrived!"
Everyone stopped and turned to the entrance of the room. There, Rouxls Kaard stood valiantly with a team of ironclad soldiers at his side.
"Would you look at that, the winged hussars are here!" Susie said.
"Rouxls Kaard…!" Helsing seethed. "You turned my own men against me. You're the reason everything fell apart!"
"Verily, you loathsome wretch!" Rouxls took on a heroic stance. "I used thine own madness againste thou, and engineered thine downfall! Now, the time hath come for your malignant reign to cometh to an end."
Helsing's eyes darted back and forth between his opponents. He let out a deranged laugh and swung his scythe threateningly. "We'll see about that. Come on and die, you worthless traitor!"