Updating Writing Software to 2.0
Season 2 of Shield Hero Confirmed
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TAKE A STEP TOWARDS [THE END]
Epic 37: The Invasion Part Finale
"People are just a virus, with shoes"
Bill Hicks
Back at the [Underground Summoning Chamber]
"Left," Byakko remarked as he shoved down L'Arc's head from an incoming [Dritte Wind Shot], the magic grazing a patch of his skin off of his tricep and nearly hitting Malva instead, "peanut gallery, watch for the splash zone!"
Byakko's [Claw Hammer] deflects an incoming [Rock Missile] away from himself as he resumed charging into the attack's epicenter.
The King then fires a [Lightning Bolt] towards Byakko, the electricity scorching a patch of cloth off of his suit as the butler weaved across the room and swung his weapon towards the king upon reaching swinging distance.
"[FLARE AURA]!" Aultcray declared as he emitted an explosive aura of magical fire that caused him to recoil back from the blast, sending shockwaves throughout the whole room.
"... Dammit all," Byakko cursed as he ripped off his burning black tie, "that was my favorite suit, you asshole."
L'Arc and Glass then move in upon the king, firing off their own attacks.
"[Wind Scar-Tailwind]!" L'Arc declared as his [Sacred Scythe] slashed out a storm of wind blades swarmed towards the King.
"[Dawn Seance Rondo: Rising Sun]!" Glass incanted as numerous rays of light fired towards Aultcray.
Aultcray then waves his [Legendary Cane], emitting a wave of ice and earth from the arc, "[AVALANCHE CASCADE]!" Their attacks were buffered by the wave of ice and earth, causing them to recoil back.
"Damn, old guy's tough!" L'Arc grimaced, "his magic is on par with Theresa's and Glass's combined!"
"I'm not out yet," Glass declared as she got back up, raising her [Sacred Fans] back to their unfurled position, "Theresa!"
"On it!" The [Magus] cried out as she threw down a rune-inscribed emerald between the three of them, covering them in a green glow, "I applied [Sacred Blessing] onto it! It should provide passive healing!"
"Much appreciated," remarked Byakko before he disappeared in a blink and suddenly reappears in front of the king, swinging down his [Claw Hammer] unto his head.
"[ADMANTIUM AURA]!"
The king was then enshrouded in a bright purple aura as he swung back with his [Legendary Cane] against the [Claw Hammer], forcing the two into a weapon lock.
"YOU ARE A CANCER UPON THIS WORLD!" Aultcray roared out as Byakko pushed in his [Claw Hammer] against his [Legendary Cane], pushing him back before sneaking in his consecutive combo [Lightning Flash] and [Solar Blade] towards Byakko, only for the latter to dodge and parry them respectively, "YOU FESTER AND BLUGE AS YOU AND YOUR MASTERS CONTINUE TO SIPHON ALL LIFE AROUND IT! AS YOU CONTINUE TO LIVE AND BREATHE, YOU WILL DESTROY THIS WORLD, FOR WHICH I WILL NOT STAND!"
"And you are a fucking pneumonia," Byakko remarked as he rolled his eyes before he pushed back against the king with his [Claw Hammer], his suit being slowly tattered as his prolonged exposure within the king's [Flare Aura] spell continued to linger with his [Admantium Aura] in tandem, "your mere existence is suffocating on its own. Your continued existence will only prolong the pain that this world has suffered. So do all of us a favor, and die."
Both sides headbutted each other at the heat of the moment, causing the two to recoil away from each other upon the collision, Byakko's and Aultcray's head bleeding, the latter's crown now bent into his forehead.
"Auto-Regen Output: 10%..." Byakko grimaced as his skull pasted itself back together while the king himself was reeling, allowing L'Arc, Glass, and now Khronos to charge in past him, with Theresa and Malva at the rearguard as support, "... old age hasn't slowed him for a bit."
"THIS IS FOR THE HUMILIATION THAT YOU'VE BROUGHT UPON TO ME BACK AT THE WAR!" Khronos roared out as he swung his fists encased in their [Rune Gauntlets]. "[METEOR FIST COMBO-SHOOTING STAR SHOWER]!" A flurry of glittering fists rushed towards Aultcray at blinding speeds.
"NOTHING PERSONAL, OLD MAN! BUT IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE GONNA LISTEN!" L'Arc remarked as he swung his [Sacred Scythe] towards the king, now the blade glowing deep red, "[RED RIPPER-SCARLET SLASH]!" The red scythe blade then flies towards the king as L'Arc swung his weapon, the flying blade steadily growing in size as it travels closer towards the king, becoming a giant spinning scarlet crescent.
"YOU ARE BEHIND ALL OF THIS! THIS WORLD IS BETTER OFF WITHOUT PEOPLE LIKE YOU!" Glass cried out as she recalled the slaves back in the burning of Zeltoble, trying to hold back her vomit of sheer disgust as she transformed her [Sacred Fans] into [Wrath Fans 3], her skin now slowly covered in black flame tattoos, her eyes now crying blood and irises glowing bright-red, burning her skin slowly as giant breaking wheels made of spiked black steel manifested before her, "[CLIMAX TORTURE STANCE SYMPHONY: BROKEN WHEEL WALTZ]!" the spiked breaking wheels rolled towards the king, catching fire during their trajectory as they sped towards the king at an ever faster pace.
As the three attacks came towards the king all at the same time, Aultcray takes out something from his [Legendary Cane], and then throws that thing into his mouth.
"[FIRESTORM AURA]!"
All three of them were blown away from the blast of fire and wind, now Aultcray surrounded in his own magic while his molars were chewing on something.
"The bloody hell!?" Khronos remarked as he got back up, "I thought I just saw get his own skull caved in by his own crown! How's his brain still intact enough to use spells!?"
L'Arc then sniffs the air, picking up a faint scent of something sweet and bitter in the air, "... What the hell's that smell?"
Glass's head begins to ache from the disconcerting scent, feeling both dizzy and refreshed simultaneously, the sensory paradox disorienting her further, "... Oh god, my whole body feels weird just from the scent alone."
"This smell..." Byakko remarked as his eyes magnified closer to what the king was chewing on, revealed to be a red and purple-colored pill being crunched into pieces, "... no, how!? I THOUGHT I DESTROYED THEM ALL!"
Aultcray then begins emitting a heavy aura around the room, causing everyone else sans Byakko, who only buckled down, to fall to their knees from the overwhelming pressure.
"... Byakko!" L'Arc cried out as he tried to keep his balance at the increasing gravity while Aultcray continued to chew on the red and purple-colored pill in his mouth as mana began concentrated around him at increasingly-dangerous levels, "THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?"
"... [Demonsbane]," Byakko remarked in a horrified tone, "they're drugs that allow whoever ingests them to amplify their magical output. Made a mixture of my own blood and a harvested [Daemon]'s organs and seeds of [Stygian Pomegranates] that went extinct at my hands about a few decades ago, due to them having... addictive properties."
"... How addictive?" Theresa asked nervously right before the king's aura exploded once more, now his eyes gone completely blank-white as multiple spell circles opened up around him, "and how the hell did those get here-"
The numerous spells from the rerisen Aultcray suddenly then fired towards the party.
"NO TIME TO EXPLAIN! SCATTER!" Byakko cried out as everyone ran away from the blasts pelted around the room, with Byakko grabbing Fohl and Atlas under his arms to get them away from the stray shot that caved in their only way in and out of the Summoning Chambers, "... well, that can't be good."
And Byakko looks next to his face, now with the [Legendary Cane]'s gem tip aimed right down to his eye.
"... Aw dick-"
A point-blank [Dritte Fireball] was fired onto his face, with Byakko shielding the two with his own body before he threw the two of the otherworlders back into Khronos's arms as more spells were fired up close to his body.
"DIE! JUST DIE!" Autlcray ranted out as he continued to fire his [Dritte Fireball] upon Byakko's kneeling silhouette, still intact despite being shot by the [Demonsbane]-enhanced spells, "WHY CAN'T YOU DIE FAST ENOUGH!? WHY ARE YOU STILL RESISTING!? WHY AREN'T YOU BURNING!?"
But as he was continuing to fire his spells upon Byakko, suddenly, Aultcrauy's whole body stiffens upon a seizure, causing him to collapse in pain.
"... Why-WHY!?" Aultcray cried out, "WHAT'S HAPPENING!?"
"... Kehehehe." Byakko, now his entire backside flayed and burnt away to revealing his whole spine around his synthetic purple-colored meat, dryly cackled out, "... you fucking fell for it. ... [Demonsbane]... wasn't meant for you."
"Wha-what do you-" Aultcray remarked before he was cut off by his heart suddenly beating faster and faster, causing him to convulse in pain and clutch onto his chest.
"... Was that your first time eating the [Stygian Pomegranate]?" Byakko heaved out as his half-burnt visage cracked open a wicked grin, "... if so, too bad, my previous master was forced to live on it for the first three years in Q'Ten Lo, and almost died a few times eating it. Apparently, it's a delicacy there, along with a poisonous fish called 'fugu', but for the people living on mainland... well, it's quite the trip."
Aultcray then begins to cough out blood and black feathers.
"First, the body suddenly increases its natural appetite for mana, causing it to suddenly start taking it in forcibly."
The king's skin then slowly starts turning into a faint shade of purple.
"Then, the body, depending on its default constitution, will either die or increase its mana threshold."
Aultcray then suddenly starts going into a spasm-like episode, his whole body trembling and quaking violently.
"Afterwards, providing that it doesn't kill you, come a massive withdrawal episode."
After shaking and flailing his whole body around, Aultcray then suddenly goes stiff.
"Failure to satiate the craving during the withdrawal, then leads to death by heart failure," Byakko smugly remarked, "and let's just say, about damn time."
The butler then finally collapses, his exposed back now threading itself back together fiber by fiber, "... Welp, that was halfway-expected. Auto-Regen Output... 25%."
The burnt and flayed back of Byakko's begin to thread themselves back together as the king collapsed onto his knees, curled up into a ball while vomiting blood and soaked black plumes.
"... So again, I must ask," Theresa asked while she broke a citrine gemstone onto the stone floor, enveloping everyone in [Holy Zone], an all-purpose lingering-AoE healing spell, "how and when did you get those... [Demonsbane] here, of all places?"
Byakko simply shot back with a wry grin.
"Pop quiz, how old do you think I am?" asked Byakko.
All of them looked at the [Homunculus]'s body, looking like in its early-to-mid-twenties, and then glanced back at the gasping and writhing king, who himself was at a ever-worsening condition, not helped by his advanced physical age.
"... Are you implying that you're the oldest one of us here in this room?" Malva pointed out with a worried look.
"Ding ding ding, give the madam a prize," dryly remarked Byakko, sarcastically giving a light applause with his fingertips, "but yes, you're all babies compared to me."
"How did you allude my soul reading?" asked Atlas, her brows now drenching with sweat, "your soul cannot be possibly older than us! Let alone all of our collective ages combined!"
"Oh sweet innocent child of the now-ruined Hakuko lineage," Byakko mockingly remarked, his face now almost contorting to resembling Nan's sneer, "your perspective on souls are that of natural organisms. Bad news sweetheart, I'm 100% synthetic. Everything from my mind, body, and soul, are easily replaceable as cogs in a clockwork contraption. Point being, if you're going to call me a freak of nature, here's my response."
Byakko flips back up to his feet, landing on his heels with precise grace.
"How am I supposed to be a freak of nature when I was intentionally created by my master as one?" replied Byakko, his gaze now piercing through the blind tiger-girls blind eyes, staring into her very soul.
"Enough of that, the [Demonsbane]!" L'Arc cut in before Byakko can start gaslighting Atlas, who was now on her knees, trembling in fear in her mother's and brother's arms, "how the hell do you know what they are and how did you know they were here in the first place?"
"Well, during one of my master's previous low points, we ended up resorting to drug trafficking just to keep the coffers full long enough to bribe off the governmental officials," answered Byakko, "I was the one who opposed the idea, and when I was proven right, me and my previous master burned all of our products just to keep them out of potential sticky hands, which brings me to wonder how the [Demonsbane] ended up here of all places... I suspect a third party to be involved, but since I explained all there's to it..." Byakko's lips contorted into a sinister grin as he continued with his explanation, "one of you check the king's weapon in his hands. Spoiler alert, it's not what you or the wielder thinks it is."
L'Arc's eyes then squints towards the object grasped around the king's hands, noticing that the two halves are rather distinct from each other, the shade of white differing from quartz-white on the lower shaft to the upper shaft's pearl-white coloration emboldening the so-called [Legendary Cane].
"... Are you implying that you, of all people created a fake [Legendary-] weapon!?" L'Arc blustered out in surprise, "I mean, I've seen my fair share of other people replicating the same effects of [Legendary-] weapons through skills and loopholes, but creating a fake [Legendary-] weapon from the ground up? That's unheard of!"
Byakko's eyes shifted to the side in a suspicious look, "... umm, not quite. I managed to find the remains of the previous [Wand Hero] and the [Staff Hero], and no, I did not have a hand in their potential demise. Evidence proves that the two of them turned on each other. Anywho, the [Legendary Wand] was snapped like a twig, and the broken-off lower half of the [Legendary Staff] was found stabbed into the [Wand Hero]'s chest."
All of the onlookers stared at Byakko in disbelief at his testimony.
"... Somehow, that makes sense, given our kingdoms' nearly-endless history of political sabotage and deception, this seems unremarkable in comparison," Malva dryly remarked, "I mean, I faintly recall both of mine and Aultcray's father and Khrono's own father trying to plot our murders against each other our respective houses before my kidnapping, but somehow, third party outsiders got the drop on them and we somehow got away with the skin of our teeth. In hindsight, I wouldn't be surprised if the two [Heroes] were tricked into turning onto each other at some given point, at least to give the public relations staff something to do."
"It wasn't just our fathers," Khronos remarked, "both of our brothers tried to have us murdered in our sleep, on each others families, mind you. Before we ended up together, and way before the war between the humans and demihumans started."
All the three outworlders could do in response was gawk in utter horror at the two's horrific stories of their lives in their deadly decadent courts.
"... How?" Glass remarked in a completely baffled expression, "how were your kingdoms even functioning with that much covert political warfare happening?"
"There was a pact signed between nobles of the four nations to keep their political squabbles out of public, but as soon as the [Heroes] got involved..." Byakko pointed out, "... Let's just say that the people of this continent developed really thick skin, not so much for the casualties through, given that their skin were broken through and a knife blade breaching into their insides. So taking notice of that, I decided to... fan the flames towards me and master's favor, long enough to prepare for our successor. Just glued the two halves of the broken [Legendary-] weapons back together with tree resin, renamed it to a [Legendary Cane], stuck on a few cheap magic gemstones onto it, offered it up to that king back when he was just a wee-little lad, thinking that now he's hot shit... long story short, he ate that little propaganda up with a spoon. Dunno how the [Demonsbane] ended up there in the first place, but it all worked out in the end, didn't it?"
L'Arc cupped his brow with his free hand as he muttered under his breath, "... You know, for pre-planted gimmicks, that is a little too contrived."
"Believe in what you wish. It's what these people did, and now, they can die for it," Byakko deadpanned, "this whole world is ripe for con artists and suckers born every nanosecond-"
A large sharp blade of ice severs Byakko's left arm from behind, blue-hued blood spilling from his fresh stump.
"... What the shit," Byakko grumbled to himself as he turned his head back, finding the king's hand holding onto the now-revealed-to-be-fake [Legendary Cane] raised up toward's the butler, "... okay, not gonna even bother how the hell did you survive a fatal heart attack and cranial trauma at your given age, so instead, I'll ask, how long were you listening in for?"
"... Enough," Aultcray growled out as he strained his broken body back up to his trembling feet, "... you've poisoned my kingdom for long enough with your conspiracies."
"Please, your kingdom was dead from the moment you've... name a time and place," Byakko rolled his eyes in annoyance as his left arm slowly regenerated from its stump, "all I did was simply accelerate the process. It was only a matter of time when the system of aristocracy, theocracy, slavery, and whatever ruling systems or institutions that ends with the letter 'y' caved in unto itself. Whether through the laws of entropy or the other kingdoms finally delivering the coup de grâce, you are as much blame as me, your whore of a wife and daughter, and that idiot blueberry-haired troglodyte is now in the maws of your hated enemy just to piss you off. Which one of us two did the 'pissing you off'-part? Your guess is good as mine."
Aultcray coughed out another wad of fresh blood as he supported his feet with his [Legendary Cane].
"... I'll take my chances," the king coughed out as his body slowly emitted a gradually-increasingly dense aura of mana, "... with them over the likes of you."
The whole room trembles once again, the undying king's determination rekindled anew, in hopes of finally undoing his mistake of trusting the [Homunculus]'s covert machinations that have led his kingdom up to this point of ruin.
"Your lie..." Aultcray declared his weapon pointed towards the smug-looking [Homunculus], "... will be the final nail in your coffin."
Byakko raised his hand to the side, signing the others to stay out of the epicenter as he walked towards the king until facing him up close, looking down at his steely eyes of determination.
"I'm the one with the hammer," Byakko curtly pointed out, "and the coffin's vacancy is only available to one person."
A massive orb of fire suddenly shoots out of the [Legendary Cane]'s gemstone, clashing against the butler's [Claw Hammer] swung at the fireball, stopping from its travel towards right in front of Byakko.
"THEN THERE WON'T BE ANYTHING OF YOU LEFT TO BURY!"
Meanwhile, at Somewhere Else...
Motoyasu's eyes blink open only to find himself out of the endless black void and sitting atop the asphalt ground of the Ikebukuro's crosswalks, the jungle of legs passing by him as he slowly got back up with his pre-teen body that he's trapped in.
"Oww..." Motoyasu winced out as he slowly trudged his way out of the road and back onto the sidewalk, "... at least the [Dream Eater]'s gone-"
From the sea of plain-faced passerby surrounding him, a bright red balloon stuck out, it's string held around a preschooler girl's hand, her head with a baseball cap with english text reading "THE FINAL SIN HAS AWAKENED".
"Oh Moto-chan..." Futaba's voice echoed in the gray air of Ikebukro, "... you can never escape from me."
A bee lands onto the red balloon, and upon it bursting, spilled out the flood of flab and teeth drowning out the the completely ignorant people walking in the streets, not even the people being thrown into its mouth taking a modicum of noticing the [Dream Eater] crawling around the cityscape.
"NO! HOW!?" Motoyasu cried out as he tried to weave himself through the crowd completely obvious to the [Dream Eater] behind him, his tinier frame being a boon in a cramped cityscape, "BUT I THOUGHT-"
"Oh, don't fret, Nan Hon-Jah is dead as a doornail, in a manner of literal definition of speaking," the [Dream Eater] remarked with his slobbering mouth after swallowing its prey of civilians just walking into its mouth, "I'm just simply emulating his memories and mannerisms after devouring enough brains to gain a pseudo-sapience. Did you know that people become more likely to experience physical fatigue after suffering mental fatigue? Let's see how long you can run with those twigs that you call legs of yours while you listen to my angelic voice. I'm being sarcastic, of course, my little brain food considered himself not a great singer, but whistling seems like his forte."
"DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE! DON'T CARE!" Motoyasu screeched out as the [Dream Eater] sped towards the tiny [Spear Saint] as he was scrambling through the ignorant crowd of an early morning bustle as the horrific abomination bulldozed through the urban commute while eating whatever people it can get its branch like hands on.
Come on, come on, think! Where is the place where people are less likely to be clumped together!? thought Motoyasu as he continued to maneuver through the jungle gym of moving limbs and tapping soles, Yellow Scarves don't loiter around public areas enough to cause a public commotion, Blue Squares are mostly nocturnal as of late, the Awakusu-kai don't involve themselves in public due to the God-knows-how-many anti-yakuza laws being enforced, which then leaves-
A moderately large mushroom cloud of dust rose just a few paces away from Motoyasu, causing the crowd of people on their morning commute to disperse and himself being in a preteen's body, the blast sends him flying off of his tiny feet and land back hard onto his rear onto the crumbled asphalt ground.
"IZAYAAAAA!" a deep, masculine bellowed out before a sonic boom cleared the air, revealing a red-triangular stop sign lodged in the epicenter of the fresh crater formed in the asphalt.
"... Them," groaned out Motoyasu as he slowly got back up to his feet, his thin legs trembling and aching like mad from the impact of the hard landing, "... I wouldn't be surprised if he spiked his milk with something funny just to get a rise out of him this early. They usually don't start their daily pissing match with each other until right before almost everyone's lunch break..."
Still, something was urging him to approach the crater's center, a base instinct fueled by hope stemming from growing desperation. An urge that would drive anyone mad to this very point through the sheer amount of logic that it had raped, immolated, and desecrated post-mortem.
Still, an illogical hope was better than an absolute fate of being devoured by a [Dream Eater]. Henceforth, as Motoyasu's hand reached out towards the red triangular sign's bent steel shaft.
Upon grasping it, the HUD flared back to life, and in his hands was a weapon much like his [Sacred Spear]. The named weapon, [Pilfered Post], was now in his hands.
"... As soon as I get back, I'm going to respect Shizuo a bit more," remarked Motoyasu as he pulled the signpost from the crater as the [Dream Eater] sprawled through the still-ignorant crowd all being tossed aside like ragdolls from an unfinished video game, "right now, I gotta wake up from his nightmare."
Against all odds, Motoyasu, in spite of being trapped in his preteen body and only armed with a wrecked piece of public property against a slobbering, bulbous, writhing mass of fat, flesh, teeth and gums that was coming towards him while tossing aside numerous people in its way, simply charged towards the [Dream eater].
Come on, like Shizuo, like Shizuo is to Izaya, Motoyasu hyped himself through psychologically emulating the Beast of Ikebukuro himself, Nan's practically Izaya, so no one's gonna bother if I beat his face in in public!
"NAAAAANNNN!" bellowed out Motoyasu, jumping up into the air, facing down at the [Dream Eater] mid-flight, and with all his might that his 12-year old body can muster, he slams down the [Pilfered Post] as hard as his noodle-like arms can swing them down unto the foul abomination.
His eyes were closed for one second of the flash. The next moment, he felt his face and nose being drenched by something, as if he was splashed by a spray of water from a speeding vehicle running over a puddle next to the sidewalk.
The moment after, Motoyasu opened his eyes, finding the [Pilfered Post] buried into the monster's starfish-like face, tar-colored blood seeping out from its epicenter of the impact.
... I can hurt it, Motoyasu thought as he raised his [Pilfered Post], if it bleeds, then I can kill it-
Before he can swing down his weapon unto the beast, Motoyasu was swatted aside, crashing through a recycling bin and into a convenience store, smashing through three shelves before his head cracked the glass coolers all the way at the end.
"Congrats, you managed to get a blow on me," the [Dream Eater] taunted as it slowly crawled towards the wrecked store's doors, the crowd around Motoyasu, who were once acting as usual for their morning routine, were slowly glitching out like actual NPCs in a crappy Ubisoft game, "your mind is slowly adjusting to this little [Dreamland], since you believed that I bleed, and through that psychological connotation, you believed that I can be killed."
"... W-wait, [Dreamland]?" remarked Motoyasu, slowly getting up from the shattered remains of the glass cooler doors that his head collided into, "... you mean my dream?"
"Cthullu Mythos dictates that all of creation shares one dreamscape, a 'collective unconsciousness', labeled as [Dreamland]," declared the [Dream Eater] as it grew out a branch-like arm and hand from its pulsating growths that it calls it its "body", "observe."
The hand lets out a loud snap, upon which, the whole district of Ikebukuro began to break down.
... Or rather, a mere fabrication of Ikebukuro outside began to terraform into a freeflowing space of floating pieces of the district, all of each forming their own crude islands, including the wrecked convenience store that Motoyasu himself was in.
The people once minding their own businesses in the urban morning were all replaced by fading humanoid silhouettes, all of them glitching away, covered in a vail of static. All of them, floating around the space of floating debris listlessly.
"Wha-what happened?" asked Motoyasu as he looked around at the utterly alien world around him, with the [Dream Eater] suddenly going missing from his sight, "whe-where the fuck am I?"
A lukewarm sensation dribbled on top of his head, causing him to look up, and find the monster looking down from the roof, creaking and trembling before the whole store building was crushed underneath its weight behind where he once was in recently.
"Welcome, to the actual [Dreamland]," the [Dream Eater] greeted with a crooked smile that its starfish-like mouth bent into, somehow, "now get in my belly."
The obese monstrosity then lunged itself towards the juvenile Motoyasu, its jaws snapping towards him like an abominable Pac-Man, driving him off of the ledge of the floating island into a zero-G-freefall, the [Dream Eater] hopping from island to island on its hot pursuit to make good on its promise.
"Oh shit, oh shit!" cursed Motoyasu as he saw the obese-looking [Dream Eater] closing in towards him in record time in spite of its bulk, "I need something to move around faster! Come on, think! Think!"
Then, as his brain drew itself ever closer into a fever pitch, the world around him slowed down to a crawl. Motoyasu then saw a vague shape of a pointed and winged pole.
Wait, this is all just a dream, Motoyasu thought as he reached out towards the faded shape right next to him, "so that means!"
As he grasped his hand around it, it began to take shape into his senses bound by reality. A bright and deep crimson-red shaft with an arrowhead and cross-styled tip on the upper end, and around its rear was a pair of cream-white feathered wings and plumes, all of each quill faintly tipped with a faded shade of reddish-pink blush.
"... [Shooting Star Spear]?" remarked Motoyasu as he observed the weapon before noticing that the world was slowly returning back into its default speed, which would spell his own imminent demise, "beggars can't be choosers, so get me out of here-"
The [Shooting Star Spear] then proceeded to less "carry him away from the [Dream Eater] in an above average speed", and more "cross-map him from where was initially floating at like a cheesy CoD Black Ops Ballistic Knife cross-map kill videos that he saw on YouTube, with Motoyasu himself as the knife blade used for the kill".
... In laymen's terms, he got away from the [Dream Eater], at the cost of breaking into an unnoticeable-looking building compound, his body thrown and rammed through several pillars of reinforced concrete before the [Shooting Star Spear] pinned itself into a billboard floating outside of the building that Motoyasu was thrown into, his left arm now completely fractured, and his immaculate youthful skin now bruised and scraped all over, as if his recent date just happened to be a belt sander.
"... Oww," Motoyasu tearfully winced while his trembling legs picked his body off of the rubbled-caked floor, "at least I gave some distance... ow. ... Hurts even to just walk..."
He tried to steady his breathing, which, given that his preteen body wasn't as durable as his young adult body he had before, was rather difficult. It felt like his whole body would fall apart at any moment, but the overlying dread of being bested by the likes of Nan prevented his mind from giving up.
"... Need... to keep moving..." grunted Motoyasu as he dragged his feet towards the ledge of the building, knowing that the space outside was completely devoid of gravity, like outer space, only to notice of the inconsistencies of [Dreamland]'s laws of physics and reality, "wait, why am I still thinking that I'll fall when I cross over that ledge? I mean, everything else is floating outside, so why am I still thinking that I would fall and hurt... myself..."
Motoyasu looks at his broken left arm, and decided to try something unthinkable.
"... My arm is fine."
Unthinkable, in reality, but not in [Dreamland]. And therefore, though him embracing of the laws of absurdity in [Dreamland], his broken left arm was now returning to normal.
"Holy shit, that actually worked!?" remarked Motoyasu after seeing his broken arm going back to normal, realizing that him thinking within the boundaries of reality was the cause of the pain and injuries, which he then began connecting the dots together, and began treating himself, "it doesn't hurt... it doesn't hurt... it doesn't hurt..."
Gradually, the pain that wrecked havoc across his whole body faded, but not the scapes and bruises skidded across his skin.
"... Guess I gotta see or comprehend it if I wanna affect it," grumbled Motoyasu, now feeling somewhat reinvigorated as he's hopped across the gap between the building and the floating billboard, "gotta find a mirror first if i wanna get back into perfect shape, or at the very least, get back into my old body without potentially turning myself into... that thing that Nan got devoured by."
His feet then land on the ledge of rock where the billboard with the [Shooting Star Spear] nailed into its face.
"... Might wanna use that for last resort, not planning to get myself cross-mapped again," Motoyasu remarked as he scouted the [Dreamland] floating with the remains of his memories of Ikebukuro, "... hey, I can kinda see my apartment from here. Wrecked as all shit, but still."
Motoyasu then looked around, trying to scout for the [Dream Eater] which might be still lurking around, trying to jump him at any possible moment.
"... I'll worry about it when I run into it," Motoyasu remarked to himself as he floated himself towards his ruined apartment room building, and if time serves him correctly, it should be around the time where he didn't occupy it yet, "... wonder what it looked like before I moved in for college."
He then grabs onto the railing and pulls himself to the front door, then grabbing onto the doorknob and twisting it open...
"Sup."
... Only for him to be greeted by the [Dream Eater]'s horrific maw, still contorted into a sneer, its fat and chubby frame compacted into his one-room apartment, and his youthful body unconsciously wet himself.
"Nostalgia's a bitch."
The building then explodes into a burst of splinter and shrapnel, sending Motoyasu flying back into freeflow into zero-G once more as the [Dream Eater] emerged from his home for his college-aged self in all its abominable glory.
"Took a bang and guess and guess who came crawling in?" mocked the [Dream Eater], still emulating Nan's mannerisms down to his voice, "guess you figured out how [Dreamland] works. Too bad you're a corporal existence, an existence that is naturally incompatible with [Dreamland], while yours truly is an ethereal existence, meaning I can do more here than you and your peabrained skull can come up with."
The corner of Motoyasu's eye catches another [Pilfered Post] floating by, which he then grabs onto the bend shaft and charges towards the [Dream Eater].
"[AIR LANCE]!" Motoyasu declared as his makeshift weapon surrounded him in a spiral of wind that sent him flying towards him like a windy drill, only for numerous hands to sprout out of the [Dream Eater]'s mouth, blocking his attack before one of them grabbed him by the back of his shirt and tossed him across the empty void of [Dreamland], breaking through a department store window in and out before landing hard onto a car, with a shock of pain surging throughout his body upon impact.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" taunted the [Dream Eater] as it made its way towards where Motoyasu landed, bulldozing through an Animate retail store before facing down upon him, "the human body, conditioned to the causation and reaction towards corporeal pain by society, unable to deviate its mind from conventions established by the status quo. You're improving, but what if I do this instead? Can your mind keep up with it?"
One of the branched hands grab Motoyasu by his head and lifts him up off of the wrecked car. Then, something felt like as if something stung into his head, with something else pouring in.
"Neurotoxin, fresh out of a [Lesser Mind Flayer]'s poison sac," the [Dream Eater] declared gleefully, "first time Nan tried it, it felt as if all of the stress accumulated for the past decade and a half just simply... evaporated. Then, following that... came excruciating agony, setting your entire nervous system, on FIRE!"
Motoyasu's whole body first felt relaxed, like if all excess physical and spiritual weight have been unburdened from his mind, body and soul, then right immediately after, his whole body jolt and quaked in unspeakable pain, screaming out bloody murder as he begin to claw and rake his arms and neck enough times to draw blood, slowly turning from regular red to ink-black.
"... I think you had enough," the [Dream Eater] remarked as it released its hand from the boy's head, Motoyasu now rendered completely limp and nigh-comatose, "now then, where should I put ya while go for some palate cleansers before the main course?"
The monster then spots the red [Shooting Star Spear] nailed against a billboard, which he then rams the boy though the blunt end of the lance through his stomach, keeping him place as the [Dream Eater] left him behind.
"Don't worry, you'll only die only if you believe that you're going to die from, well... that."
Back at the [Underground Summoning Chamber]
"DIE! JUST DIE ALREADY!"
"... So, who's saying that line again?" deadpanned Khronos, sitting by the sidelines with everyone else after Byakko sidelined them, "normally, I would assume Aultcray, but considering that our good butler happened to play kingmaker before were were conceived into this filthy world, I'm not so certain anymore."
"Forget it, we're just watching a pair of old people squabble over something so insignificant that everything that we lived for since we were both born has been reduced to nothing," replied Malva, completely done with life, "... I recall that [Gremlin] having an infinite pack of cigarettes. Where is he when we need him the most?"
"I don't wanna live anymore," groaned Atlas as she curled herself into a ball while leaning against Fohl's shoulder, "I don't want to live in a world where our lives are built upon by petty grudges and spiteful conspiracies. Big brother, as soon as this is over-"
"Don't, say it," Fohl begged, holding back his tears, "... I can't go on without you. We can't go on without you. So don't say that, please..."
Atlas then begins to sob, overwhelmed with crushing despair brought upon by her gift of being able to read other peoples' souls. And now, all she can see and hear were the two's hateful raves ranted against each other, forming a literal hellscape where the only ones in it were her, and the two demons before her, their cries drowning out the others' voices.
"DIE" "I WILL HAVE REVENGE" "ALL OF THEM ARE SCUM" "THEY ARE ALL GOING TO PAY" "THEY HAVE TO DIE SO I MAY LIVE" "I CAN'T TRUST ANYONE" "I HAVE TO KEEP MY POWER" "WHO'S NEXT" "EVERYTHING HURTS" "JUST GET THIS OVER WITH" "SOMEONE SAVE ME" "MOMMY"
"... Then please make these voices in my head stop," winced out Atlas, "... I can't take it anymore-"
"Um, missy?" spoke out L'Arc in a worried tone as he looked towards the epicenter, "DUCK!"
The otherworlder then tackles the two down to the ground, with both Byakko and Aultcray crashing into the same wall behind them, both of them grappling into a ball of physical thrashing and close-quarter magic detonations that would kill off any normal mage at any given point.
However, a former [Hero] and a [Homunculus] cannot be classified as "normal", for lack of a better term, so therefore, the two still clashing at dangerously close quarters with magic and fists alike. A show of chimeric savagery of the cruelest of humanity and the wildest of beasts.
Neither could be classified as one of the either. Everyone witnessing the carnage slowly begin to realize that fact.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Byakko roared out as he continuously bashed in Aultcray's face against the stairs to the alter, "BE EXISED FROM THIS WORLD SO I MAY FULFILL MY PURPOSE!"
Aultcray slams the lower tip of his fake [Legendary-] weapon onto the stone floor, blocking Byakko from breaking his teeth against the stairs as he himself casted [Finale Frost], erecting a giant spire of ice though Byakko's chest, the latter simply pulling his whole body out of the spire impaled through his body before delivering a flying press to the king, slamming his frail body down before resuming the struggle once more into another loop.
"... Are any of you starting to think that Byakko told us to stay out of this just so that he can show off?" asked Glass.
A choir of nods and grunts of agreement were replied towards her, with Glass nodding as Byakko delivered a flying dropkick to Aultcray's face before the latter retaliated with a [Finale Thunder], with the former simply grabbing onto the king and shocking them both.
During the electrocution, Byakko then gnashes his mouth open, then delivering a hard bite into the king's shoulder blade, with the sounds of crunching bone began to mix into the sounds of lightning crackling across the air, and finally ripping out a bloody bone fragment from the shoulder between his teeth, everyone not classified as a synthetic lifeform recoiling at the scenery, the victim himself letting out a bellowing cry of agony.
"Holy shit, that was the collarbone..." gagged out L'Arc, trying to hold in his vomit after witnessing Byakko ripping out a bone from the king's shoulder like a crazed animal, "... I've killed way more monsters then it is considered healthy throughout my career, but witnessing pseudo-cannibalism was not on my bucket list."
Theresa then regurgitated her stomach contents with Glass watching over her, the latter making an observation, "you know, when you put it like that, it makes our experiences seeing scenes of carnage before and after we became [Heroes], why did we assume that it wasn't going to get worse than seeing the entrails of a monster being devoured alive by other monsters?"
"... Yeah, I know... double standards and all..." groaned out L'Arc, swallowing his bile back into his stomach, "but seeing a human-like creature take a bite out of another human-like creature... why did I instinctively thought that I was the one biting?"
"It's because that's what you humans were taught," replied Khronos, whose face was only in a dry, grim pleasure of watching his archnemesis getting gored before him, "back at Siltvelt, we were taught that should the worst of the worst come, devour the weak so that the others may live. I mean, that practices is slowly phased out after my generation, but that's only due to the amount of humans we've captured as slaves so they can at least be useful when they're too injured or sick to work in our quarries or fields. We don't waste, that's all there's to it."
"Really now," L'Arc deadpanned as he saw the king form a sword of sharpened, molten earth with his fake [Legendary-] weapon, and stabbed it through the butler's ribs towards its side, throwing him off as he relented, before the king showed a demonstration of hysterical strength by throwing the impaled butler into another wall, pinning him in place with the crude blade.
"I have you cornered, trickster," Aultcray declared as he raised both of his hands up, a small orb of fire forming up between them, "I will amend my wrongs through your death!"
The minuscule ember then suddenly inflated into a miniature sun, completely filling the chamber's general diameter in size.
"I WILL DIE, BUT SO WILL ALL OF YOU!" roared out Aultcray, his eyes now flaming with such potent rage that made the flames hell feel frigid in comparison, "MY STRONGEST SPELL, UNTO YOU SAVAGES!"
He then swings his hands down towards the ground, letting the sphere of fire fall and engulf them all.
"[FINALE FLARE-"
Suddenly, the blocked entrance was then broken apart with an explosion of rubble and wood, out coming Fubuki being dragged by her own [Staff]/[Gauntlet] weapon, [Blutsauger].
"EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE WAY!" cried out Fubuki as she herself was dragged across the stone floor, still holding onto her runaway weapon for her dear life.
Its stoney digits skittering like mad towards Aultcray like a spider speeding towards its trapped prey, and upon a certain distance, the hand jumps into the air, and digs all five of its fingers into the king's chest and grasping onto his very heart, absorbing the blood laced with an oversaturation of mana form his prior consumption of the [Demonsbane], the other of the [Blutsauger]'s hands then expelled the absorbed blood into a conduit shape.
First, a blade.
Then, an axehead.
Continuing, a giant clawed hand.
Afterwards, said hand of blood began to grow bigger and bigger, rivaling the [Finale Flare]'s diameter. Said detail, that Byakko noticed.
"FUBUKI!" Garou's voice cried out, followed by Rio and the remaining [Uniters], "WE JUST SAW YOUR WEAPON STOP CHASING US FOR-HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" the wolf-boy gawked out upon witnessing a miniature sun glowing above their heads.
"FUBUKI! USE THE BLOODY HAND TO BLOCK THE FIREBALL COMING DOWN! PIN THE KING DOWN WITH THE [STAFF]!" Byakko screamed out, "NO TIME TO EXPLAIN! EVERYONE! GET NEAR FUBUKI IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!"
Everyone then broke for the fox-girl, now doing what the butler told, and positioning the open hand directly below the [Finale Flare], the [Blutsauger] continuing to absorb the blood from the king's heart, the rapid beating and the speed of the siphonage forming an equilibrium between the two.
Amidst the chaotic scramble towards safety, Atlas trips over a rock and falls to the ground.
"ATLAS!" Fohl cried out as he ran towards his fallen sibling, picking her up and taking her to run, the blood barrier slowly closing off, "COME ON! WE NEED TO GO!"
The two of them continued to run, the barrier ever closer to shutting them away and forsaking them into the flames.
"WE'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT!" cried out Fohl as he kept running towards the closing barrier.
"No," muttered Atlas, "you will."
Atlas then shoves Fohl into the bloody hand dome, its entrance now too narrow for her to enter through after Fohl was shoved in, who now was completely confused, now helplessly looking at Atlas as she was imminently being immolated by the falling flame.
"... No," Fohl croaked before he ran towards the barrier's edge, pounding at the closing gaps as it continued to close around him and the others inside, "DON'T DO IT, ATLAS!"
Her lips moved as the following.
"I'm sorry."
The hand completely closed, trapping Fohl into the barrier and forsaking Atlas into the flames.
As the sun fell unto her, she looked at the butler pinned to the wall, his burning visage now sporting a smile.
Mr. Byakko? she mentally asked the [Homunculus], just what is your purpose that you've mentioned?
The smile bared its teeth, responding to the damned girl's question.
Revenge, replied Byakko, nothing more. All I can say is that I have fulfilled my purpose given to me since 1000 years ago. I no longer have anything to live for, so now, I will leave this accursed world that my masters were abused under behind in its deserved damnation.
Atlas's skin began to char and blacken to her very bones as [Finale Flare] slowly descended towards the Hakuko, her thoughts now thinking one last thought as she slowly began to parish.
A world solely built upon revenge after revenge... I guess that's why God views us as such. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.
As Fohl banged his hands against the barrier of blood in vain attempts to save his sister, outside, the whole palace is then engulfed into a dome of brilliant conflagration as [Finale Flare] explodes upon impact, with Gaelion and Ishmael solemnly looking all from above.
"It has begun."
Back at [Dreamland]...
Here, again? groaned Motoyasu as he found himself in the pitch black once more, is it too much to ask for a normal afterlife?
He looks around his familiar surroundings, finding no one but himself floating in the vantablack again.
... You know, this doesn't feel so bad, thought Motoyasu as he floated around the void, maybe just staying here ain't so bad in the long run. No one's gonna badmouth me for swinging girl after girl, no one is going to bitch about me, and no one's going to stab me to another world for being too greedy for pussy.
Another calming thought passed by his mind.
Maybe quitting ain't so bad, at least I don't have to deal with Nan anymore, he thought, his mind slowly going more and more numb, maybe pursuing life to live how I want isn't the way to find happiness. In fact, I feel happier here, since I'm bothered by anything.
Motoyasu's eyes slowly began to close on itself as his muscles began to relax as he continued to float like a balloon.
Yeah, it's better this way.
All of his physical sensations began to erode away, like rocks beaten away by waves.
It's a pain to deal with other people judging me constantly anyway.
For the first time in his life, he finally understood pleasure.
This ain't so bad... thought Motoyasu, slowly falling even more drowsier and drowsier with each passing second, ... I think it's better if things are better off like this-
NO! DO NOT GIVE INTO THEN DARKNESS!
His eyes were then assaulted by a shine of brilliant light, piercing through the darkness.
Wha-what? thought Motoyasu, moving his arms to block the blinding light from his tired eyes, what is this feeling? Is this, warmth?
Do not give into the darkness, a holy and motherly voice beseeched, a threat still lies present in this world, and only you can stop it!
... I can't, groaned Motoyasu, no matter what I do, everything seems to fall into some sort of grand, convoluted plan of his. I can't escape him, no matter what I do!
There is a way, the divine voice replied, but you must hold fast unto your faith!
How? asked Motoyasu, what do I have left to hold unto?
Your inner brilliance as a human, answered the voice, normal humans would falter in a time of great turmoil, but you, among the few others, have risen beyond your limits to save innocent lives! Do not falter, for you've come this far! Do not let the one who've faltered stop you here!
... Huh, I did.
His brain restarted, now recalling his past as an unremarkable average person with divorced parents, later a dead father, left all by himself to fend for himself, with every day being an endless cycle of survival and satisfaction of his ultimately meaningless life.
"... I really did," remarked Motoyasu as his whole body gradually regained its senses, his mind recalling that he fought alongside everyone else who've been brought here, in a world that needed them, a world that he can find a reason to live for beyond survive off of minimum wages and splurging his paychecks for constant one-night stands, "... I really, kinda did."
Fight, Motoyasu Kitamura, ordered the voice, fight for everlasting peace.
He then began to slowly flail his whole body, trying to fight off the mounted fatigue burdened upon him.
Fight, so that the world may live.
He slowly straightened his body, gradually trying to run towards the light as a means of escaping this false paradise of nihility behind him.
Fight, to destroy the great evil that will plague this world!
Motoyasu then lets out an invigorated howl, as he ran through the air and towards the light.
FIGHT, MOTOYASU KITAMURA! FIGHT FOR THE HOPE THAT ALL LIFE HOLDS DEAR!
His hand reached towards the light, which was met with another, warm, gentle hand grabbing onto it, kindly pulling him in away from the light.
"Thank you..." Motoyasu remarked, "... can you tell me your name?"
As the light intensified, quickly obscuring his whole field of vision, a voice was heard replying the following:
"I am Medea Pideth Machina, the Goddess of Hope."
With that, Motoyasu opens his eyes again...
[Dreamland]-Ikebukuro
... And upon looking down his chest, he finds the red shaft of the [Shooting Star Spear] impaled through his stomach, but before he can panic, he tries to calm himself down by remembering the laws of [Dreamland], mainly, as long as he believes that he won't die from his cause of death, he won't actually die.
"I am not going to die," he recited, trying to control his breathing, "I am not going to die, not going to die, not going to die..."
As he slowly calmed down, a slight bump was felt above the billboard that he was nail-no, around, yes, around, on.
He looked up, and found a giant shipping container for imported cargo, its doors open ajar, spilling out Russian weapons like [AK-74U]s, [PP-19 Bizon]s, [Saiga-12]s, [Makarov PB]s, domestic weapons like the [Minebea 9mm]s, [Howa Type 89]s, and [Sumitomo MINAMI]s, and other weapons from various countries like [AWP]s, [G36C]s, [Beretta 93R]s, [MP5Ks], and a disproportionate amount [FGM-148 Javelin]s.
... He might've played way too much Counter Strike back during his High School days before transitioning into MMORPGs.
"... The fuck when was all this lying around in Ikebukuro?" pointed out Motoyasu, right before a slip of paper that looked like a receipt fell onto his face, with Russian text was written on the top of the slip upon reading it, "... waitaminute, since when the fuck did they whole town became a hotbed for the Russian Mafiya? ... Wait, are the rumors of that weird-ass sushi restaurant being run by ex-KGB personnel or whatever really true?"
That didn't seem important as of now, for as much as it was appreciated to be rewarded with a cache of weaponry that might prove better against the [Dream Eater], but due to his status as a [Spear Saint] restricting his weaponry to only accommodate for [Spear] weapons, he can't even use any of them-
"... Oh you've got to be kidding me," remarked Motoyasu in slight bemusement as he realized that he can't use any weapons offered to him from the container...
... Save for one.
"... Well this changes things," remarked Motoyasu as his hands accepted the [FGM-148 Javelin], surmising that he can only use it due to the weapon being named after a 'javelin'/a type of throwing spear, "... my only godsend is a fucking pun, but I guess it doesn't really matter."
From the empty building that he previously was thrown through like a Shonen Battle Manga character, the [Dream Eater] emerged, its starfish-like mouth stained with the remains of its so-called "palate cleansers".
"Thought I heard something while I took my sweet time to get back here, and lo and fucking behold, what do I find?" the [Dream Eater] remarked with a slightly annoyed tone, "forget taking my sweet time prior, IMMA JUST EAT YA SCRAWNY ASS RAW!"
With that declaration, the [Dream Eater] lunged towards Motoyasu, pinned onto the billboard like a wingless fly, the creature slowly swimming towards him like a shark in water.
"Come on, come on, come on, how does this thing work!?" panicked Motoyasu he tried to pull the [FGM-148 Javelin]'s trigger repeatedly, only for it to not fire, "wait, does this thing come with trigger safety!?"
He then looks at the weapon's side, and finds a red switch pointed to the "locked" label, which he then flicks it towards it pointing towards "fire", the computer guidance system mounted onto the weapon beeping to life.
"Okay, much better," sighed out Motoyasu as he took aim with the [FGM-148 Javelin], the computer scope locking onto the floating [Dream Eater], the guidance system now confirming a "lock" on the coming monster, "EAT THIS!"
He pulls the trigger, and the guided missile shoots out of the tube, the backblast expelled from the weapon's rear, slightly singing his hair. As the missile traveled through the air, the [Dream Eater] tried to evade it, but upon reading into its heat signature, it was already too late.
The missile hits its mark with a resounding explosion...
"THAT FUCKING HURT, YOU LITTLE BITCH!"
... Only for its pus-like skin to be slightly scratched, only more enraged than ever before, now jumping from rock to rock in order to gain a dimensional advantage over the weapon's heat-lock.
"... Good thing I have more than just one," remarked Motoyasu as he flailed his arms around the floating miscellaneous weapons to reach out for another [FGM-148 Javelin] available, brushing aside other arms to get the only one he can use.
He successfully fishes out one more, disengages the trigger lock, and stares down the guidance computer system as the [Dream Eater] continues to bounce around the floating debris to make itself hard to aim.
"HOLD STILL, YOU BASTARD!" cried out Motoyasu as the computing guidance system continued to pinpoint onto the bouncing [Dream Eater], approaching dangerously closer and closer towards his position.
The computer guidance confirms another heat lock, and Motoyasu pulls the trigger, letting the rocket fly as the beast opened its mouth as it leaped towards him, eating the missile rather than Motoyasu instead.
"GURAAHAGH!" screamed the [Dream Eater] as it recoiled back from the blast, its mouth burnt like if it ate a soup that was too hot, "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!? THE MOUTH OF ALL PLACES!? WHY DOESN'T THIS BODY OR ANY OTHER COGNITIONS I'VE EATEN COME WITH ANY RANGED ATTACKS!? ARE ALL YOU SWORDHAND GOOD FOR SWINGING YOUR SHARP STICKS!?"
Got a way out, surmised Motoyasu, trying to fish for another [FGM-148 Javelin] from the floating mass of arms above his head, he can only fight up close, so that's why it pinned-I mean trapped me here to begin with. Just gotta find another to shoot!
The [Dream Eater] then lets out a resounding roar, as it then grabbed a giant debris and threw it at the shipping container, knocking his supply of [FGM-148 Javelin]s away from him, leaving him with one that he managed to snatch away at the last minute.
"Come on, one more shot..." Motoyasu begged to himself as he released the safety and took aim towards the [Dream Eater], only the latter to switch tactics and grab a nearby car and chuck it right at the rock that the billboard was planted on, throwing off his aim and his field of vision from the [Dream Eater], "Shit! I can't move the whole billboard since I can't see the whole thing, but wait, why did it leave me alive? Does it need to eat me alive? And for what?"
He shook his head as a method of self-dismissal, realizing that preventing him from getting eaten took priority over figuring out why. Motoyasu continued to stare throughout the [Dreamland] through the heat guidance competing scope, trying to get a lock on the beast who's now out of his sight.
"Where is it?" Motoyasu panicked as he continued to look around the floating fractured cityscape, trying to figure out where it's hiding, or at the very least, which piece of rubble it was hiding behind at, "where is that son of a bitch!?"
He continued to scour his surroundings, anticipating for another last-minute ambush, Nan's bread and butter of his tactics, but so far, nothing was in front of him.
A cold swear drips down from its already-freezing brow, realizing that the [Dream Eater] reformulated its approach tactics to be out of his field of vision before it can devour him.
"So if it figured out that I can only see what's only in front of me..."
He heard a faint bump sound coming from the other side of the billboard that he was pinned at. With that realization, against all logic, pointed the [FGM-148 Javelin]'s barrel towards the billboard surface point-blank, and pulled the trigger, completely bypassing the scope's heat lock.
Not gonna die, not gonna die, not gonna die... he thought as the missile fired out of its barrel, the exhaust ports of the weapon's rear end emitting a jet of gas, and a fiery explosion torched his back as both he and the [Dream Eater] were caught in the blast.
Motoyasu himself was sent flying, the [Shooting Star Spear] still impaled through his gut and out his back, seeing the [Dream Eater]'s face now embedded with the pieces of the billboard like sharp glass shards.
"FUCKING SHIT!" the [Dream Eater] cursed as its starfish-like mouth opened and unfurled itself, revealing a humanoid-like growth, its skin being that of cancerous tumors or bare burn scars vaguely taking the visage of Futaba, the personification of Nan's superego that Nan himself sacrificed along with with his id to the monstrosity now emulating them like a Resident Evil mutant-knockoff, "JUST HOLD STILL AND LET ME EAT YOU!"
The [Dream Eater] lets out another roar, now grabbing several pieces of rubble with its numerous arms sprouting out from its back, forming itself a makeshift armor around its body as it charged towards the now-floating Motoyasu, leaving him with a shrinking window of opportunity to strike it.
No missiles, no weapons... Motoyasu thought right before he looked down at his stomach, or rather, what he can see of it, ... oh godammit.
With no other options left, he grabs onto the shaft and begins to pull it out from his body.
It's not going to hurt, he thought as he slowly pulled out the spear, trying not to let his logic dictate his actions and physiological reactions, not going to hurt, not going to hurt, not going to hurt...
With one last pull, the [Shooting Star Spear] was liberated from his own body, Motoyasu's own body feeling numb from either the mental or physical strain of the ordeal, neither being pleasant to think about.
"... Only one shot at this," Motoyasu remarked as he grabbed onto the shaft of his weapon, "... I can hit this, I can hit this..."
The wings of the [Shooting Star Spear] furl outwards.
"I CAN HIT THIS!"
In a blink, the [Shooting Star Spear] hits the sole unarmored spot of the [Dream Eater], Futaba's effigy.
"... It's over," Motoyasu declared, his body trembling from exhaustion, "I won this victory, Nan."
The [Dream Eater] lets out a hoarse chuckle before it's Futaba-mockup stared at him with a sneer.
"THEN CHOKE ON IT."
Futaba's mouth then slithers out a tendril with a set of human teeth at its end, invading his own mouth like a tentacle from a really bad E-Game that he's seen on the R-18 shelves in Ikebukuro.
He pulls the tendril out before it got too deep into his throat, and killing it by staking its body with his [Shooting Star Spear], spilling out black blood from its body.
It was now over, for real. And with that in mind, one last thing was left to be done.
"Take me home."
A door manifested before him, and without hesitation, he opens the door...
"GARGH!"
[Giant's Groves]
... And was greeted by rain pouring onto his face. He looked at his hands, still covered in his [Champion's Armor], and next to him was Nan's corpse, his right arm still shackled by the brick, but now the right side of his face and leg now missing.
"... Fucking idiot."
With those parting words, he slowly picks himself up from the mud and walks away.
He then hears something approaching him, which causes him to raise his [Sacred Spear], only to be greeted by the haggard-looking [Royal Guards] that were traveling with him.
"Sir Hero?" a [Royal Guard] greeted, his right eye and lower half of his face completely covered in bloody bandages, "is he-"
"He's dead," Motoyasu dispassionately answered, walking by the guard, "we're done here-"
Another [Royal Guard] was then suddenly crushed under from something that fell from the towering treetops. At where the soldier once stood, a giant cloaked figure with a deer-skull-like helmet and visor with a massive padded tower shield and a bramble of steel welded onto an end of a pole stood one the crushed remains of the [Royal Guard] beneath its black-iron boots.
"We're not done with you yet," the horned marauder declared as thunder cracked across the sky, illuminating its menacingly luminous blue eyes, looking more and more akin to an enraged guardian of nature rather than some dime-a-dozen cutthroat, "run if you wish. It's not fun when they don't."
"SIR HERO, PLEASE LEAVE THIS VAGRANT TO ME!" one of the [Royal Guards] cried out as he drew his [Silver Longsword] from his sheathe and swung it at the horned figure, only for the gleaming blade to snap against the giant tower shield parrying the swing with a single thrust.
"You've got guts," the horned figure mocked, "I like that in a victim."
Wasting no time, the horned figure bashes the shield against the soldier with the broken sword, knocking him onto his back, and plants its bludgeon's tip into the soldier's stomach, twisting and twirling it, pulling out his intestines upon pulling the bludgeon out before flicking the battered entrails away to the side, just like a fork spooling up spaghetti.
"We're going to play Twister," the horned figure taunted, "the rules are that I chase you all down, knock you down one by one, and well," the figure then pointed the disemboweled corpse with its thorny bludgeon, "that."
Another flash of lightning booms, illuminating a crazed expression akin to that of a predator on a binge-eating spree.
"Not it."
All of them began to run, the chased, too tired and frightened to fight any longer, and the chaser, in spite of its heavy weight, speeding behind their collective heels like a runaway truck, bulldozing through the mud and rough terrain without issue.
"KEEP GOING!" a [Royal Guard] barked out as they ran, "THEY HAVE NO INTENTIONS TO SPARE ANY OF US EVEN AT OUR WEAKEST-"
He is suddenly lifted up into the air by his neck, a sliver of thread tied around his neck, followed up by a row of segmented blades traveling across the string, slashing his throat open upon the blades running down the strings constricted around it.
Nevertheless, they had to keep running, or else they'll all die at the hands of Nan's crazed party of killers. A decapitated corpse with its head in a pool of its own blood was fate that none were too pleased to meet.
"HURRY UP!" the [Royal Guard] at the front cried out as he ran ahead, "I THINK I SEE A WAY OUT-"
A [Javelin]-sized bolt pierces through the side of his helmet, staking the earth as the body fell onto the mud, followed up by a sound of two clicks akin to a pump-action shotgun.
"SNIPER!" Motoyasu cried out as he picked up the pace, "HEADS DOWN!"
All of them lean forward and duck their heads as they continued to run, the bolts buzzing over their hunched-over back, cutting loose a few straps and spilling their supplies, causing one of them to trip over a bottle of [Health Potion] and fall onto his face into the mud.
"I'LL CATCH UP-"
From the bushes, gunfire was heard cracking through the sounds of pouring rain, and out came a white-haired humanoid wearing modern-day tactical combat gear, its lower face covered with a skull bandana, looming over the dead soldier with its smoking pistol in its hand. With a wave of its hand, more similarly-dressed and armed figures emerged, joining the chase with the horned figure pursuing them, now carrying a small winged humanoid in a little officer's uniform with a serpentine-like blade slithering around its shoulder and back like an actual snake on its shoulder, not even slowed down by a modicum of a pace.
"A WHOLE DAMN PLATOON ARE UP OUR ASSES!" a [Royal Guard] running by Motoyasu cried out as he ducked under a hail of gunfire coming from the white-haired figures' assortment of small-arms, "THEY'RE CLOSING IN ON US!"
"KEEP RUNNING!" cried out Motoyasu, "DON'T LEAVE ANYONE BEHIND-"
Another gunshot cracked throughout the air, hitting the bandaged [Royal Guard] in his left thigh, downing him.
"MARVIN!" a [Royal Guard] cried out as he ran past Motoyasu towards the downed soldier, only for something to jump onto his face, a squat humanoid brandishing a [Silver Shortsword] and stabbing the back of the soldier's neck repeatedly.
"... Help... me..." the bandaged soldier plead as he reached out his hand, with the pursuers closing in on him as if they spotted a juicy prey for their bottomless appetites.
"NO!" Motoyasu yelled out, now at the dredges of his tolerance for any more needless casualties, runs towards the bandaged soldier in his place, punting the squat black humanoid like a soccer ball to rescue the downed soldier while running into a salvo of bullets.
A round hits his shoulder, but despite the sting of reality pervading throughout his body, a reminder that he was no longer in [Dreamland], he picked up the bandaged soldier over his good shoulder and ran as fast as he could before he himself was pinned down and killed.
Motoyasu catches up with the surviving soldiers, all of them continuing to sprint towards the opening.
"WE'RE ALMOST THERE!" the [Royal Guard] at the front cried out, "COME ON, HURRY UP!"
Motoyasu looks back as he continued to run, only for the horned figure to raise its hand, signaling the others chasing them to stop.
What the? Motoyasu thought at the odd sight of his bloodthirsty pursuers suddenly stopping, why are they stopping-
First, a faint tug was felt around his ankle as he ran.
Then, the sensation was followed up by sharp click-sound.
Oh shit, the [Spear Saint] thought in horror, upon realizing why their pursuers stopped going after them, and with that in mind, he yelled out trying to warn the others, "TRIPWIRE-"
It was too late, for the trap laid beneath their notice had been triggered, causing the very path to be alight with explosions. Motoyasu, in the heat of the moment, shielded the bandaged soldier's body with his own, protecting him from the blast.
As he opened his eyes, he himself was fine enough to walk, and so does the bandaged soldier. But for the others, a party of 8 were pared down to just 4 in an instant.
"... Almost got TPKed," sighed out Motoyasu as he got up, his [Champion's Armor] now in pieces, picking up the bandaged soldier under his left arm over his right shoulder, feeling oddly heavy for some reason, but he surmised it to be simply fatigue, "... come on, we're getting out of here."
The remaining four trudged onwards, slowly reaching the opening that they've brazenly entered.
Nothing can be done about the dead now, and joining them wasn't an option. He won't let them take them, no matter what.
As long as I live, I won't give up, Motoyasu thought as he trudged towards the exit, I have to live, for I am their hope!
"We made it..." the [Royal Guard] sobbed out as he fell onto his knees upon finding himself no longer surrounded by tower-sized trees.
Yeah, we did, Motoyasu thought as the rain began to cease, the sun's ray's slowly breaking through the parting rainclouds, no matter how dark, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.
The bandaged soldier looked around his surroundings, seemingly coming fully to his senses.
"... So," the bandaged [Royal Guard] remarked, "is really what's left of all of us?"
"... I'm sorry," apologized Motoyasu, "still, I'm still glad we've made it out alive."
The bandaged soldier closed his sole exposed eye in relief, "... that's good."
As Motoyasu looked into the soldier's eye, now completely devoid of emotions, he felt something cylindrical pressing against his chest, left unarmored after the booby trap explosion.
"That's one last loose end."
A resounding sound of a gunshot rang in his ears, a sudden jolt of pain sprang into his chest, followed up by a brief episode of pain, then, nothing.
Motoyasu looked down, finding a smoking, ivory-colored barrel of a familiar-looking revolver pointing towards his now-bleeding chest.
He stumbled back for a moment, before his body felt like a boulder of lead upon registering the lethal wound, and fell unto his back completely dazed.
"WHAT THE FUCK-"
The [Royal Guard] that tried to charge the bandaged soldier with the revolver was quickly disposed with a headshot from the latter, the last one simply being garroted by someone else out of his fading field of vision.
The soldier rips the bandages off of his face, revealing Nan's half-charred face beneath.
"... How?" gasped Motoyasu as Nan reached for his [Sacred Spear], swatting his hand away with ease, claiming it for his own, despite his class being the [Tome Fallen], "... How are you alive... Nan?"
"You misunderstand," replied Nan, his voice utterly barren of emotion, or any semblance of humanity remaining, "Nan is gone. #18 took his place."
Motoyasu then sees the [Sacred Spear] revert back to its [Legendary Spear] form, right before it was stored into a book that faintly read [Four Holy Weapons Manuel] on its cover.
Walking besides Nan, now calling himself #18, the hooded figure with a giant crossbow with a revolving chamber unfurled her hood, revealing Rino's face, now taking a lit cigarette from the squat humanoid with an aviator's cap perched on the shoulder of #18.
"... I recall you having issues with him," #18 asked Rino, the latter taking a puff from her smoke, "would you like to resolve it yourself?"
"Yes, please," she replied with a wicked grin.
Rino then grabs Motoyasu by his ankles, drags him across the mud-soaked earth before being thrown into a freshly dug-up ditch, now being splashed by an oily liquid smelling like raw gasoline.
... Mainly because it was gasoline.
"Goodbye Moto-chan," Rino mocked as she took her smoke out of her lips between her fingers as the other bodies and even more gasoline were dumped right on top of him, "I hope you burn in Hell, ya damn gigglo."
She then flicks her cigarette into the ditch, causing the gasoline drenching them to catch fire.
He should feel something, but couldn't. He feels as if he would be dancing and writhing in pain, but his limbs were too stiff to move.
This time, he was dead. In the hands of the "Perfect God" that Futaba mentioned.
A "Perfect God", is a being that only destroys, never creates, leaving nothing behind.
MOTOYASU KITAMURA
DEAD
"Inform the Byakko," ordered #18, "relay that the [Spear Saint] is dead."
One of the [Terminators] tried to link its mind to the other [Perfected Homunculus], but were unable to confirm Byakko's presence.
"Sir," the [Terminator] with the skull-painted ski mask stated, "we lost Byakko's signal. We presume he's fallen."
#18 doesn't flinch at the news, unlike the others, who were greatly distressed in various degrees, Seiryu and Suzaku eyes widened in shock, Rino aghast at the news, and Genbu stopping himself from taking a nip from his flask.
"One of you, relay the message in person."
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: And I am back. Finals are over, moving out of my old house and town (gonna miss Downey, not gonna lie), and changed up my writing style to fit the "He said, she said"-rule that I learned in this semester, and suffice to say, I am... mixed about my whole period spent indoors for about 3/4th of 2020.
I took one step forth and back repeatedly, I've tried to better myself in some ways, while somehow screwing up the things I want to do right, I learned to change while keeping true to myself, and I finally learned to hope amidst a year of despair.
Trump is now out of office, but still clings onto the White House like a tick,. and my baby brother wants to be there at the moment where he "sees him get tased while being dragged out of the White House by his heels". His words, not, but we both share the same sentiment.
Also, if you think an old man surviving a heart attack and a fractured skull is just plain stupid, I saw a video of an elderly woman survive a suplex (she only has hairline fractures in all of her ribs, ain't dead on arrival) after she said the N-word to a black man bigger than her during the whole Popeyes "Chicken Sandwich fiasco" back in 2019. And there's Trump, who you'd expect to let out the fart of death after his mostly-fast food diet he had after all those years. So yeah, truth is stranger than fiction, and in the latter, people's survival rates tend to fluctuate like Mortal Kombat's line of what's considered normal and what's a fatality. Take that with a grain of salt.
Speaking of politics, I implemented a build of a black-comedy worldbuilding regarding the continent's political culture, mainly Game of Thrones, but taken up to 11 and beyond to the point where seeing a nobleman murdered in his sleep is a commonality as a passerby would see pigeons in his life or eating bread, and the whole aghast reactions are just for show/PR in order to keep the people on their side. In a way, I interpret Miraella and Van Reichnott as being part of the "new generation" that seeks to break the toxic culture straight out of Borderlands, but unfortunately, they're in the minority since the majority see the current ways as a way to dispose of the people that they don't like or care for. Conservatives, those fuckers.
... In a way, it can be summarized as Medieval-era politics, but with more stabbing, and if you think that of itself is too ridiculous to be true, I recommend you look up Biographic's YouTube video on Gilles de Rais, and spoilers, "Bluebeard"/#COOL is FICTION for a GOOD REASON. Trust me, focus on the accusers. And in hindsight, comparing Malty to Gilles might've been right for the wrong reasons, or wrong for the right reasons, depending how you interpret the context given by yours truly.
And now, Nan's side suffered 2 (or 3, depending on how you view metaphysical views on life; Nan's id and superego as unique individuals or parts of a whole) major casualties, so expect more to come later on as more kingdoms inevitably catch fire.
With that, the final certain for the Kingdom of Melromarc has been drawn.
I'll see you at Faubley, so please, be sure to leave a comment or a review for this chapter, for I'd like to know how my audience are thinking.
Also, merry fricking Christmas, keep yourselves clean and safe, and with that, here's to 2020. May this year burn in Hell.
