Merry Christmas.So this fic has been sitting on the back burner for a while, resting for when I became a decent writer.
The ideas for this kept crawling back with a vengeance, even as i tried so hard to resist for the sake of finishing Melancholy. (Chapter 8 on its way.)
A few things to know. Its not going to be as dark as Melancholy, but its still gonna be hella dark. and yes, you still need to take this story seriously.
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. If i did, this fic would be canon.
Enjoy!
"War has always brought upon change. But the humanity of now, has mistaken stagnation for peace."
"And through it all, the Metaverse will continue to silently record what it observes. Never taking action, unchanging of this strange valediction."
"It analyses data, and reaches a conclusion. Rectifies anomalies, then resumes the role of voyeur.
"It is only on its heavenly archives, where the whole of human existence is contained. Along with whatever tragedies and triumphs that occur."
"Where do the lines blur?"
"What classifies as an anomaly, to a machine whose only existence is to observe?"
???
Space remains still. Retaining its darkness as the universe constantly expands. Planets and asteroids float and orbit in the distance. Constantly cracking and splitting apart.
What was happening in the universe? Why were planets which laid so distantly in the sky blowing up so often and so frequently, as if someone were simply popping balloons?
That's because of a battle. A battle occurring that raged across the entire universe.
A battle between two absurdly powerful beings.
Boom!
The weaker one got launched through a planet just now. A pale skinned man. Blood oozing down from scalp. His wound concealed by his chestnut hair.
Status Effect [Bleeding] Received.
Duration [09:00]
The brown haired man grit his teeth. As his emerald eyed glared through the debris of the fallen planet in frustration. On the other side of the broken planet stood a long, white haired woman. Her hands clenched ferociously into fists as her electric blue eyes clearly emulated her cold unbridled fury.
The man brought a hand to clench his wound and wince. The woman reacted quickly, charging through the broken planet, pure, unbridled power oozing through every iota of her cold aura as she smashed her way through the debris, trying to reach the man.
The man clicked his teeth, and raised his other hand. Black lightning cracked throughout his palm, as the sparks enlarged through the moments it spent condensing.
"Black Gehenna."
Black lightning shot out of his palm as he spread it across the asteroid belt. As it imploded, the woman got caught in the blast. As every asteroid in the asteroid belt was destroyed.
"I hope you didn't think that was enough to defeat me."
Suddenly, an arrow made of cold ice shot through the smoke and pierced the man's arm. Instinctively, he clenched his shoulder trying to ease the sharp, burning pain.
-346,274 HP
253,092 [Bleed] Damage Received.
54,798 [Frost] Damage Received.
The woman gracefully glided out the smoke. Frozen bow in hand, ready to nock another arrow. Slowly, the man closed his eyes and raised his hand in the air.
"System Command Skill-Add: [Binary Star]"
Skill [Binary Star] has been Added.
Light from various stars began to converge on his hand and form a massive azure sphere. Mana pulsated through the sphere like a heartbeat. Making the stagnant air feel heavy.
The woman narrowed her eyes.
"You recognize how futile it is to fight me. Yet still you continue. I guess this is the idiocy of weak things."
She let go of her bow and stood still, waiting for the man to launch his attack. When the blue sun came flying towards her, she reached out towards it and extended her pinkie.
"A paltry attack such as this will never work on me. I expected better from a System."
The blue star stopped in its tracks. With the woman holding back its ascent with nothing but her pinkie finger. She gave a cold, condescending glare. And slowly, the blue star began to freeze. And soon enough, the pulsating energy had vanished.
Reduced to nothing but a sphere of solid ice. Which could only crack and break apart beneath the absurd strength of her grip.
As large shards of ice fell into the nothingness of space and fallen planets, she brandished a cold gaze at the man. Promising a swift death.
"You're certainly far more resilient than the Gamer I've killed recently. Regardless, you will fall the same." She placed her and at her side and drew out a long rapier, made of the brightest silver and the strongest alloy.
Large numbers of turquoise glyphs began appearing around the man, the sigils within carrying absurd amounts of Mana, as they began to emanate a faint white glow.
"Last chance, Arhen. Join me or die where you stand." She threatened.
The man, now named Arhen simply blinked emotionlessly and brought his free hand onto his injured one.
"System Command Variant Delete: Status Effect [Bleeding]"
Acknowledged.
Status Effect [Bleeding] has been Removed.
Arhen then ripped the ice arrow out of his shoulder and looked around at the numerous glyphs that surrounded him.
"Lucille." He called.
"You are strong. Even with your stats halved because of my Black Gehenna, you're still powerful enough to end most gamers."
Lucille narrowed her eyes.
"What of it? What's your point?"
"That despite all the power you've amassed, Shiro will have you bent over his lap." Arhen explained, and as he talked, black lightning surged thought his body.
The heat behind Lucille's glare intensified as more glyphs appeared and surrounded Arhen.
"So, I take it that you've chosen death?"
"Perhaps."
"Between you and Shiro, I think I'll take my chances with the one who can still be affected by Status Ailments." Arhen answered.
Silence rang loud through the two of them, as they stared each other down. Lucille pointed her rapier at Arhen, its six chambers beginning to rotate and lock in place.
"Fine then. I'll make you regret your decision."
Without a moment's hesitation, all the glyphs that surrounded Arhen began to fire beams of light. Reacting quickly, Arhen jumped back and began a speedy flight across the star system, aiming to escape the range of Lucille's glyphs.
Lucille followed in pursuit, aiming her glyphs towards Arhen's position. Continuing to rapidly pelt him with light beams firing from her glyphs.
Arhen flew behind a huge asteroid for cover. Only for it to be reduced to rubble under Lucille's constant fire. The moment the asteroid shattered, Lucille narrowed her eyes as yet another one of Arhen's Binary Stars was hurled at her.
She didn't stop her pursuit, instead, with a shout, she unleashed cold air which froze the star in place and as she passed the frozen sun, smashed it to bits with her free hand.
She increased the speed of her flight, diving right through the Asteroid.
"I thought I told you that will never work on me!"
"Certainly not. But you fell for it all the same."
Suddenly Arhen appeared right above Lucille. His fist pulled back with black and silver lightning cackling wildly in his palm.
"Shit!" She cursed.
Lucille quickly turned her back away from Arhen and raised both her arms to defend herself.
"Rho Aias!"
Seven blue rings formed in front of her, forming a brilliant shield of seven bright blue petals. Arhen's Black Gehenna hit the shield. Instantly shattering five of the seven petals and sending Lucille flying towards Neptune.
This time, with Arhen in pursuit, he chased Lucille down into Neptune.
Lucille clicked her tongue, noting the disadvantage she had whilst falling. She summoned six of her glyphs once again and had them fire a furious shower of ice spears. Aiming to stop a brutal counterattack during her descent.
Arhen grit his teeth and raised his arms to defend the oncoming shower.
"System Command Skill-Add: [Barrier Surge]!"
Skill [Barrier Surge] has been Added.
A large dome made of black hexagons appeared over Arhen. The ice spears broke apart each time they made contact with the black dome. Still, Lucille pressed on. Adding seven more glyphs and increasing the ice spears rate of fire.
Under the relentless torrents of Lucille's ice spears, Arhen had noticed that it was becoming harder and harder for the barrier to react fast enough to counter some spears.
Soon enough, the barrier began to strain against Lucille's attacks. Grinding hard on his teeth, Arhen was subjected to unimaginable agony as an ice spear breached his defenses and pierced his kneecap.
-99,748 HP
112,396 [Frost] Damage Received.
Arhen ripped out the ice spear from his kneecap. He held in a cry of pain as the spear crumbled in his hands.
"System Command Ability-Add: [Hyper Regeneration]"
Ability [Hyper Regeneration] has been Added.
The wound in his kneecap rapidly sealed up with a blood clot. Afterwards, he disabled the barrier and extended both his hands towards the oncoming ice spears and to the falling Lucille.
Black lighting channeled through the cold winds of Neptune and surged within Arhen. When sparks of the channeled lightning began to appear in his palm, it gained a tinge of white.
He brought both of his hands together, as his fingers formed a finger pistol aimed at Lucille. It was then that she had begun to hear the all too familiar cackling of thunder. Born from the uncountable number of dark clouds that danced around behind him.
"Black Gehenna: Dark Storm Helix."
Pure unbridled power shot out of his fingers as a black/white beam. Eradicating the untold number of ice spears with ease and making its way towards her as though he had fired from a high powered railgun.
In a desperate attempt to defend against the immensely powerful attack, Lucille desperately brought her hands together and conjured up the remaining two petals of Rho Aias. Pouring whatever magic she possessed into ensuring she's able to tank the blast.
However, the blast ripped through the remaining petals just as easily as it did her ice spears and engulf her in its electrifying heat. Lucille let out a painful scream of anguish as she is hit by the blast. Sending her crashing into Neptune's frozen plains.
Slowly, Arhen descended towards where Lucille had crashed and looked upon her laying amongst the shards of broken ice.
He gazed at her form in the snow. And far be it from him to admit out loud to his adversary, but he couldn't help but admire how absolutely stunning she looked. Perhaps Lucille knocked a few things out of him when she threw him through that planet.
No sooner after the thoughts of her beauty leave his mind, did he find a large icicle protruding out of his right spleen.
-512,018 HP
223,529 [Frost] Damage Received.
Arhen's eyes widened in disbelief as he saw the pale skin of Lucille rapidly turn into a blue icicle, in which its leg was sticking inside his stomach.
He was surprised, but within a moment, he understood. And was glad that he had deleted the [Bleeding] status ailment.
"All of this effort, and all I've defeated was your clone."
The frozen ground rumbled, then it suddenly cracked. And through the crevices of the cracks, a ginormous ice spike emerge and stabbed into Arhen as it constantly ascended into the sky.
-1,703,956 HP
685,437 [Frost] Damage Received.
Lucille emerged from the cracks against the icy plains of Neptune and stepped onto the giant icicle. Tears and rips through her sparkling blue dress showing the effect of Arhen's last attack, yet not a single cell of her porcelain skin was cut.
She stabbed into the icicle with her heels and began to dash towards the spike. Silver rapier drawn and closing in on Arhen.
Swiftly, Arhen wedged himself out of the rapidly ascending icicle and brandished a chipped black sword. Then, he dashed, full sprint towards Lucille.
Both lunged at the other with full swings aimed at their sides. With the large cling of metal sharpening metal. Both their blades clashed with immense force.
Locked into a struggle, Arhen grit his teeth at the effort it took to keep Lucille's blade off his shoulder. Suddenly, she took a large step forward and roared.
-22,416 HP
CON Check l Req: 23582 l Current: 335690 l PASSED
Status Effect [Knockback] Resisted.
Instantly, Arhen was knocked back by a wave of unrelenting force. He managed to tank it and was not blown away by the roar. Yet with the damage to his kneecap from her earlier ice spear, Lucille had managed to break his guard.
She was all too aware and took advantage by rushing him with a flurry of attacks. Unexpectedly, she was too late. Arhen had managed to parry any attack she threw at him, and subtly dodge many of her feints.
Soon, she was starting to feel the effect of his Black Gehenna weigh down on her as beads of sweat began to form on her brow.
Mustering her remaining strength, she backpedaled from his surprise counter and lunged towards him with a thrust, using levitation to quickly build up momentum and force.
Arhen unleased his black barrier to resist Lucille's thrust. The barrier managed to stop her sword in its tracks, but he found himself quickly sliding back on the iceberg due to the overbearing force of Lucille's strike.
Quickly, she found the effects of her thrust rendered moot by Arhen's barrier. And whilst midflight she retracted her rapier, twisted her body and kicked hard against the barrier. Her diamond-like heels instantly shattering the barrier and sending Arhen skidding further up the iceberg.
She the slammed her fist against the giant iceberg and summoned a large, slim ice spike below Arhen. Caught by surprise at the unexpected speed of the attack, the ice spike stabbed into Arhen's reopened wound and launched him into the dark sky.
-403,803 HP
346,980 [Frost] Damage Received.
Arhen floated in the sky, hand over his stomach nursing the wound on his stomach. His eyes darted left to right. Searching for any sign of Lucille beneath the stormy clouds.
He heard sounds of shattering ice. And as he cleared the clouds with a wave of his hand, he found himself surrounded by a dozen of Lucille's clones.
Arhen grit his teeth at the unexpected frustration rising within his stomach. His anger only intensifying as he stared at the clones. Each one branded with her signature smirk so perfectly executed that he had a hard time telling them apart.
One of the Lucilles looked down at her torn dress.
"I'll admit. You're competent. I almost forgot that you are a System. Given by how easy I found it to toss you through a few star systems."
"And I almost forgot that you're Shiro's daughter. Given how easy I found it to shred your clothes."
Arhen dropped his hands to his sides, still holding onto the black sword as he looked around at the dozen mirrors of Lucille. All of their dresses in tatters.
"I'll admit. I'm starting to really hate the clone technique your entire family just seems to like using. Namesake of your father's I presume?"
The Lucille behind him started chuckling.
"I'm going to enjoy gutting you. Perhaps even more than I enjoyed eradicating his Player Two. The punishment was worth the planet-busting."
"I'm oddly curious as to how he punished you. Did daddy bend you over his lap again?" Arhen mocked.
No sooner than when the words left his lips did the killing intent within Lucille's cold stare spike sharply. He noticed all of the Lucille's grit their teeth and clench their rapiers hard.
Arhen chuckled at the reaction.
"Touched a nerve, did we? Careful not to cut yourself on that edge, Lucille."
"But, I'm sure if you ask nicely, Shiro can certainly offer a better alternative. Something harder, with more pleasure. As you're no doubt already used too at this point."
At this point, Lucille's mana exploded in power. Her bleeding lip and the veins exposing the force of her vice grip portraying an unnerving amount of restraint. Yet the heat behind her glare promised a sure death, beneath the sheer force of her cold fury.
Lucille had noticed long before. The objective behind Arhen's mockery. She wasn't stupid enough to fall for his weak tactics, but she could not deny that his taunts were effective in some way. Even if only they made her want to kill him faster.
Unexpectedly, Arhen responded with a sharp glare of his own. His killing intent nearly mirroring her own as streams of green lines appeared on his body.
She lessened the heat behind her glare, and instead opted for cold analysis. If Arhen really intended to resort to that state. Then only a quick death awaited her should she choose to hold back any further.
Lucille begrudgingly made the decision. Despite hating herself even more than she did five minutes ago, she found that she ultimately had no choice. Arhen had become too much of a threat to her goals, despite the simplicity she found in keeping him alive on the side to attain her weapon against Shiro.
A weapon that she can only find by exploiting Arhen.
She gave a deep sigh, then smiled brightly at Arhen.
"It's annoying you know. When puppets outlive their usefulness."
Ability [God-King Bloodline] has been Triggered.
The solar system froze for a minute. Soon, everything begun to shake.
Lucille's mana had skyrocketed, clearing the stormy sky and tripling in size. The beads of sweat formed from her exhaustion disappeared as pure, raw power oozed into every cell in her body.
She stood before Arhen. Her pupils sharpening into slits as the Solar System shook before the weight of her ungodly amount of mana. Surging through every vein.
Arhen stared at her ascension. Unbothered by this sudden turn of events as his emotionless eyes show.
The green lines reached his cheeks. Lines upon lines of binary code filling between the streams forming on his body.
"So I take it that you no longer intend to leave me alive?" he asked.
No answer was needed as his own power skyrocketed. Nearly rivalling that of Lucille's as his arms began to deform into green lines of code.
"Then let's end this, Lucille. Even if I'm killed, I certainly won't make it easy on you."
"Funny. To speak of being killed implies that you believe in your existence after I'm finished with you." her smirk fades.
"The only thing I hate as much as my father, are puppets filled with data who suddenly develop free will."
"How quaint. You certainly sound just like him. Too bad you'll never be as powerful."
Once again, silence breeds over their cold stares towards one another. Then, as if breaking the stand-off, the clones began surrounding Arhen with glyphs.
Arhen only closed his eyes, paying no mind to the danger.
"System Command Final Directive: System End Action."
Acknowledged.
User Nodes Removed. System Server Access Requested.
Authorization: Accepted.
Distilling System Root Access…
The glyphs began to fire a torrent of light beams at him, each carrying far more power than earlier.
Arhen simply opened his eyes, raised his hand.
Completed.
And all hell broke loose.
The torrents of fire from Lucille's empowered glyphs were rendered moot beneath the areas of code erected before Arhen like a protective barrier. Absorbing the attacks as though they were nothing.
He looked at Lucille. The real Lucille portrayed by her intense mana. "You already knew that level of power would no longer work, didn't you? That's why you resorted to the power behind your lineage to Shiro."
He raised his hand. "System Command Variant Asset Delete: [Planet Neptune]"
As fast as lightning, Lucille looked around as the icebergs, plains and even the sky was all being covered with lines upon lines of binary code, before suddenly vanishing like it were a text on screen. And finding herself within the familiar stillness of space.
Acknowledged.
[Planet Neptune] has been Removed.
Without hesitation, the Lucille clones lunged at him, each brandishing a glowing rapier aimed at a thrust against his midsection.
Arhen waved his hand, and unleashed a devastating wave of black and white lightning that engulfed all the clones, and had them utterly destroyed.
The now, Ascended Lucille, charged towards Arhen with blinding speed and mana building up inside her fist, and with great force she slugged him in the face.
The mana she built up instantly exploded in a gigantic ray of pure magical energy.
Caught in the blast, Arhen brought up layers upon layers in attempt to deter some of the damage, but to no avail. The ray melted through several planets and stars just as easily as it melted through his defenses and engulfed him.
-32,967,841 HP
Arhen found himself landing upon one of various moons that lay untouched and unaffected by Lucille's devastating attacks. After recovering from the attack, he grimaced.
He was starting to regret what he said about Lucille being weak. After barely tanking her last attack, he found himself really feeling the father-daughter comparison.
Lucille took hold of her rapier, and made slow, light slashes against the air. As though she were cutting apart the remaining planets, moons and stars.
Arhen felt a chill travel down his spine as he watched the various planets, stars and moons that stood before him and Lucille began to rapidly split apart one by one. Quickly he braced his legs and leaped away from the moon.
Not a minute sooner did the moon he once rested on also get cut apart by Lucille. He stretched a hand out hoping for a counter attack but found Lucille right in front of him, her rapier at the ready and preparing to lash on his skin and stab his eye.
Quickly levitating to the side and avoiding the thrust, he roughly grabbed hold of her throat and threw her onto the debris of a fallen planet.
He attempted to rush at her as soon as she made contact with the debris, but before he could make it halfway towards her he swiftly flew back and narrowly dodged an oncoming light beam from above.
Arhen looked up and saw another Lucille charging at him, summoning nine of her glyphs which rapidly fired ice spears as she descended upon him.
He turned away and took off in a speedy flight away from Lucille and her two clones. Avoiding the many light beams that Lucille fired at him.
Whilst he was flying away, he turned back, pointed his chipped back sword at the Lucille's and began firing dark blasts at the three of them.
Things grew silent after he reached a certain distance away from her, until he was caught off guard by another of Lucille's clones out of the corner of his eye, catching up to him midflight and knocking him onto a large asteroid.
-562,068 HP
Paying no mind to the pain, Arhen frantically looked around for any hide or hair of the clone. And found all four that have appeared floating next to the real Lucille.
She brandished a small smirk and she lifted her rapier and pointed it at Arhen. Glyphs appeared layer by layer over the tip of her sword. He counted nine before all the glyphs merged into one giant glyph made of nine smaller ones.
One by one, the small glyphs began to glow an odd white light. It was then that the four clones decided to charge at him, preparing for an assault.
Arhen condensed black lightning into a small orb, then with a wave of that same hand. Dozens of the same black orb floated around him. With a small push, he launched the orbs towards the clones. Which got pelted under waves upon waves of continuous fire.
Each time the orb hit a clone, they were swiftly deleted. And yet more clones were forming faster than he could fire the Dark Blasts. He assumed this was Lucille's attempt to delay his counterattack until the glow reaches the ninth glyph.
To his annoyance, her attempts at delaying his counter attacks have been effective during this bout. He only landed an attack on her about once or twice, and couldn't even touch her the moment she triggered her bloodline.
A few of the clones evaded the salvo of Dark Blasts and summoned their ice bows. Forming five glyphs each and firing continuous barrages of light beams.
Arhen ceased his fire and lifted both his hands. Summoning the dark barrier once again to defend. He found himself being pushed back by the continuous salvo of light beams. He grit his teeth in persistence.
"System Command Variable Skill Adjust: [Barrier Surge] Add unit Ultima."
Acknowledged.
Proficiency Level in Skill [Barrier Surge] has increased to [Level MAX]
The dark barrier which used to cover his body now covered the entire asteroid he was on with relative ease. The light beams hit against the barrier and disappeared just as quickly.
Black lines began to form around his arms, and as he pushed against the shield it rapidly exploded in size and knocked the body doubles away, giving Arhen time to condense his black lightning and swiftly eliminate the remaining clones.
Staring at Lucille which floated on the far side of the solar system charging her attack, Arhen braced his legs, leaped off the asteroid and took off in full flight across the solar system, Targeting Lucille.
She narrowed her eyes as immense amounts of mana began to collectively form on the tip of her blade.
Before she unleashed it in a massive ray of light, far more powerful than the previous attack. Again it traversed the solar system, melting the remains of planets and moons as it swiftly made way towards her foe.
Seeing the oncoming attack, Arhen narrowed his eyes and brought out his black sword.
"System Command Variable Skill-Adjust: [Black Gehenna] Power output 100."
Acknowledged.
Ultimate Skill [Black Gehenna] has increased in Strength.
No sooner did the command leave his lips did black and white lightning explode from the dark blade. Arhen pointed it towards the oncoming blast, lowered it and held the blade with two hands. Channeling the lightning.
"Black Gehenna: Dark Storm Helix."
In a single motion, he slashed up and sent a wave of pure dark energy towards the ray of light. It stopped the powerful ray in its tracks before splitting the ray apart and continuing to journey onward towards Lucille.
Her eyes widened as Arhen's attack cut clean through her ray and come at her straight on. She raised her hands for defense and managed to tank the blast, before Arhen suddenly appeared above her. Another Dark Storm charged in his blade.
With great force, he sent the black wave towards Lucille. Who could only look up of an instant before the attack hit her and split through the debris.
Arhen could see her flying back, bleeding arms overhead to defend her scalp. He took a page from Lucille's book and began charging black lightning again and releasing continuous salvos of Dark Blasts similar to Lucilles light beams.
The Dark Blasts flew as fast as Lucille skidded in the air. And as she saw the oncoming salvo, she desperately formed Rho Aias again. This time with all seven petals reforged.
The barrage rapidly pelted onto the shield. Continuing to send Lucille further back but not once cracking the Shield. She landed upon the remains of one of the planets she melted down in her attack, still holding out against the continuous salvo.
Arhen stopped firing only when Lucille was no longer visible beneath the large fog of smoke made from misfired Dark Blasts. He took a moment to catch his breath feeling instantly weaker as the effects of the Final Directive take its toll on him.
His eyes widened as he was brushed with a wave of intense cold and the asteroids in front of him began to rapidly freeze as ice crystals formed on them. He managed to dodge to the side, narrowly avoiding the blast of cold.
Through the smoke, the figure of a pale white dragon filled his vision. With Lucille mounted on top of its head, and the bloody tips of its horns.
The white dragon turned to face Arhen, and with an ear-shattering roar, unleashed a devastating breath attack that froze anything in sight. Instinctively, Arhen brought forth his maxed out barrier to defend. Only for the barrier and the arm he held it up with to be frozen solid.
-36,500 HP
12,569 [Frost] Damage Received.
CON Check l Req: 167892 l Current: 153694 l FAILED
125,908,729 [Curse] Damage Received.
Arhen's eyes widened in absolute shock. Within one attack, the Dragon which Lucille had mounted completely halved his HP.
Without hesitation, Arhen lifted his arm.
"System Command Variable Delete: Status Ailment [Curse]."
Acknowledged.
Status Ailment [Curse] has been Removed.
His arm rapidly defrosted, but soon, Arhen found himself heaving for air. The sudden surge of having his HP halved finally arriving.
He brought his free hand to his eyes and stared at the dragon, swiftly, details about the dragon began to appear in midair.
[Seath The Scaleless]
[Race: Dragon]
[Level: 139]
[HP: 354000/354000]
[MP:1,234,598/1,500,000]
"System Command Variant Asset Delete: Character [Seath The Scaleless]."
Lucille narrowed her eyes disappointingly at the Dragon, as it began to get rapidly covered by lines of code and deleted.
Acknowledged.
[Seath The Scaleless] has been Removed.
Lucille was left floating in midair, her dragon mount long since erased from existence.
She stood still and made no attempt to attack, she simply looked at Arhen and smiled.
He was confused by this sudden gesture from the heartless Lucille. Until the sudden surge of weakness made itself known once again.
Mustering his remaining strength, he kept himelf afloat and watched as Lucille brandished the biggest smile he'd seen from her yet as she reached for her rapier and pointed it at him.
His eyes never left hers, despite watching her continuously duplicate herself and surround him. He tried to decipher the meaning behind her current passive behaviour.
After he was surrounded by more than a hundred copies of Lucille. Each one of them summoned a glyph and contained him in a dome made of nothing but her glyphs.
It was only then did the notion finally click.
"You were waiting. You weren't trying to delay my counters. You weren't even trying to fight me."
"I should have known the moment you've started blasting me instead of stabbing me in the eye when you got the chance." He breathed out.
In frustration of his slow thinking, Arhen bit hard on his lip. Thinking of all the traps he's fallen into. All the System Commands he's used during End Action.
Deleting Planet Neptune, Increasing the level of [Barrier Surge]. Increasing the power of [Black Gehenna]. Deleting the [Curse] Status Ailment.
And finally, Deleting [Seath The Scaleless]. Along with all the other clones Lucille made to get deleted by him.
"You were waiting, for the Final Directive to slowly drain me of my stats. Until I became weak enough for you to destroy."
"You used the barrages of Light Beams, Clones and a [Companion Gem] that summoned [Seath The Scaleless, all to force me to use System Commands. And to drain my stats faster." Arhen explained.
He let out a hollow chuckle the moment he looked at Lucille. Giving him one of her signature condescending smirks.
This may be one of the only moments in which his monotone facade will ever break.
"It seems like you really are his daughter."
Soon, every glyph that surrounded him began to glow. Arhen erected his dark barrier once more as the glyphs began to rapidly fire at him from all sides.
Lucille observed in delight as she charged her light beam again. Watching her foe fruitlessly struggle against the torrents of light beams pelting against his barrier, minutes away from breaking.
"What's wrong, Arhen? Not going to toss any bolts?" Lucille mocked.
"Thought you said I was weaker, where's your trashy comparison now?"
Within the barrier, Arhen's eyes darted across the dome. Observing some of the black cells beginning to crack. He looked to the left and right and took a deep breath.
Then whilst gritting his teeth, he expanded the barrier. Pushing back the light beams further until the barrier was blocked my the glyphs.
Most of the light beams made it through the barrier and missed, while a few were lucky enough to hit him and pierce through his arms and legs.
-20,113,700 HP
-11,237,560 HP
-16,725,997 HP
-22,870,993 HP
With a deep bellow, the barrier expanded even further and managed to crack many of the glyphs that surrounded Arhen. Completely shattering and blowing away some clones moments later.
He didn't even have a minute to catch his breath before he felt the familiar chill of immense power coming from the original Lucille.
She manifested the giant glyph again, aimed dead centre at him. And with a victory smirk, unleashed the catastrophic beam of light.
The beam travelled towards Arhen at a speed that rivalled the mightiest railgun. It melted through the last remains of the Solar system and even disintegrated the remainder of her clones, trying to reach its target.
Weakened by the Final Directive, Arhen poured every last ounce of strength that his meager stats could manage, and once more. His arms surged with black lightning.
"Black Gehenna: Dark Storm Helix!"
Black and White lightning blasted out of his fingers as a powerful ray of energy. Travelling almost as fast as Lucille's beam of light, it intercepted her attack.
Once more, for what possibly would be the last time, the entire, now empty Solar System shook at the sheer output of power forced out of these two beings.
As the Dark Storm Helix stopped the Light Ray in its tracks, Lucille clicked her tongue in frustration.
"Damnit, I hate that you're so persistent." Lucille growled. Pouring more mana into the attack.
Arhen was pushed back, yet still hung on shaking legs as he tried his hardest to push back the beam.
"You're on your last legs Arhen. Even you can see in your foolish persistence. The futility in your efforts."
"Thankfully, you were somewhat useful. Yes, too useful to remain alive. With the potential of someone else discovering your use."
Lucille's blast pushed the Dark Storm further back. Arhen could only see the cold visage of Lucille's face outside of the bright lights of their attacks.
"If I can no longer use you. Then for the sake of my ambitions."
"...Disappear."
The beam immediately eclipsed Arhen's attack and fully engulfed him within its bright glow.
-256,892,793 HP
Slowly, Arhen felt himself fading away. Burning up under the heat of Lucille's attack.
Throughout the moments of his extinction, he laid quiet. No cries and screams as he felt the anguish of every sense being ruthlessly torn away from him.
Slowly, the burning sensations began to fade. Then the ringing in his ears began to quiet down. Afterwards, the colours began to deform. As one by one, the stars began to blink away. Until finally, all was silent. Unfeeling. Stagnant.
Ń̸̶͘͟ờ̷̪̠̬
At that moment. Deep within the recesses of his empty body. Formed by biometrics and code.
Ń̢͎̳͢͡͡ͅó̱̼͈͚̫̹̀ͅt̷̛̯͡͠ ͙͢͏̶̢̛͜͠Ļ̴̴̡̟̜͜͡i͟k̕e̴̡̻͉̕͝͏̧̀ ͏̀T̖͕͏̧h̠͘͜͟i̴̪̻͔̝͜ś̶̛̬̼̮̲̯̳͚!̡͚
Irregularity Confirmed. Scanning…
Anomaly Detected.
Taking Actions Against Detected Malware…
Red lines started appearing on his body, different from the ones that initiated Final Directive.
Slowly, the senses started returning. And immediately Arhen let out a scream of anguish, as a sharp pain shot through his system.
Ỳ̶͠ǫ̀̕͡͡u̵̧̡̨̧̢͟͡ ̵́P̷͝͏̢r̷̸̵̨̀́͝o̸̢m̴̸̢̨̡͜͞i͜͜se̴͠d!̧͘
Warning! Malware has decrypted background Data.
Performing System Reboot…
Failed.
She͏̵̵ ͏͜͞i̡s ̷̶̛́͘͠A̕l̴̛̀̕͢͡͡͡i̛̕͘͡v͏͘͏ȩ ̵̵̧͘͝be̵͏͢͠c̨a̸̧̨̕͜͏͠uś̷̶̨̨͘͜͜e̸͟ ̛o̧͘͟͢f̴͢͟͡ ̸yo̷͢u̵͏̶̧́́!͘͘͟͡
CON Check l Req: 99999 l Current: 0 FAILED.
The red lines spread across his body even further as more and more of his senses return to him. Causing Arhen further pain.
He screams and tries to move around, to do anything to somewhat ease the pain. But finds himelf locked into place.
T̶̢̕̕̕̕͠hi̴͟͢n̵̡k ̶̴́͜͡͡͠I̸t͘͏!̸̀́́̕͜ F̵̕͢e͢e̛̕͜l̸͘͝͏̸̧͜ ̶̶̛Í͘t̛̕͏̡̛!̴̨ ̴̡́̕͘͘͠R̷̛̀͘͟͞é̷̀͢m͟͜͠ȩ̴̴̀͘͢͡mb̸̴̵̀̀͟͞e̶r̨ ̷̢́͢͢͠I͟t̸ ̷̵̧̛d̶̀͘͡͠͡ę́̕͜ę̧p̷͞͠ ͜i͝n̛side̴̷͜ý̛̛͘͝͠o̴͜u̢͝͝r̢̡̨͘ ̸͘͘͟S̷̵̵͡͞o̶̡ų̷̶̴̵̡̛l̡͢͟͟͞!̸̨́͟͞
Warning! Unknown Malware has breached System Proxy.
Performing Hard Reset…
Failed.
Attempting to Recover Backlog…
Failed.
The pain becomes unbearable, tightening and aching at his chest.
Moments soon, his vision returned. And within his distorted sight, he could make out the small figure of a person.
Looking at the distorted sillohette, he could only feel even more pain arise within his chest.
Memory Backlog Lost…
Just as quickly, the distorted sillohette vanished from his sight.
Performing Last Directive.
Removing Lost Data…
And once again, his senses began to dillitate as his arms, legs and parts of his face began to line up with lines and lines of red coloured binary code. Just like the assets he himself once deleted.
Á̷̷̡́͟n̵̶̵̨̨͘s͏̀̀ẁ̶̢͟͞͝ę̡̀́̀̕r̴͞ ͘̕̕̕͝͡m̧̛̀͘ę͡͏ ̴̡́͠[̴͠͞͏̨́̀Ŕ̶̨̡̛͡É̡̨̛DA̢͘͝͡C͘͟͟T̴̶̴̢̢͢E̴̶̡̛͘͟͟D̷̛]̶͝!̵͟͜͝͝͝
Slowly, Arhen began to feel the inevitable end to his existence. Rapidly filed away and deleted as Lost Data.
And once more, the burning sensations of the red code began to fade quickly. His sight began to dillitate and the noses began to quiete down. Until he sees nothing, feels nothing and hears nothing.
Except for one line of code, which subtly implanted itself within him.
W̴͜͡ḩ̷̀a̕͞t̷̡ ̷̢ìs̡ ̷͟her̢͠ ͜Na̕͞m̶e?̷̸̴
And so it begins...
If some of you are familiar with Dark Wolf Shiro's fics, you should recognise Lucille in here.
I have gotten permission to use Lucille from him. (Bless his soul.) and this certainly won't be the last time she is showcased.
If it wasn't obvious from the start then ill clarify that Arhen isn't a Gamer.
He's a Gamer System made manifest by the coding of data.
As usual you are free to favorite and review if you like it and offer any criticism should you think anything needs improving.
Expect a second chapter soon, Enjoy your Christmas and have a happy new year!