Chapter 76
"Die!" The Bound Deity charges forward at me while swinging one of his massive blades.
I jump to the side swiftly to avoid the strike and ready my sword for a block in case he swings his other blade for a consecutive attack. My precaution pays off as our blades clash from his next attack.
Using my strength and positioning I push his blade up and stagger him back a few inches.
*Bang!* *Bang!* I fire off two shots in his side hoping to do some damage that'll make him stagger even more.
His health bar goes down by a few ticks as he gets back into a battle stance from his bullet staggering. Almost instantly he charges forward crossing his blades to their opposite sides.
Before I can react appropriately he's right in front of me and swings them both at me horizontally with more force than his first strike. I drop to the ground and wait for his blades to stop moving. I pull my legs to my chest and kick them out to jump back up quickly, kicking him back in the process.
While he's recovering, I dash forward and hit him with a diagonal slash across his chest and partially on his mask, leaving a light cut through the armor and barely scratching his health bar. I jump back and prepare for his next attack.
Once he looks at me again, he pauses and stares at me through his visor. It feels like a beast stalking its prey, just looking for a break in its defense.
"Martin, how are we coming along?" I say to Martin without taking my eyes off my opponent. It's really unsettling just having him stand there, not knowing when he'll attack.
"The teleportation hub is almost fully charged, it'll be just another minute before we can get rolling. Are you experiencing any difficulty?"
Right as he says that, the Bound Deity steps forward, and I lose track of him immediately. Damn, he can move fast when he wants to, which poses even more of a problem.
He appears right behind me, blades already raised high above his head. I turn my head quickly and try raise my sword to block, but it's quickly tossed away by the brute strength of the monster in front of me.
My blade is knocked to the side and I drop my gun too from the pain of two large swords cleaving their way into my body with tremendous force. When they finally leave, there are now two parallel lacerations going down my chest.
"Argh! I've been better Martin!" I yell at him while blood pours out from my fresh wounds. The pain is excruciating, my real body starts to feel a burning sensation where the blades made contact with me.
"Just one more… There! It's activated!"
I jump away from the Deity as he's recovering his stamina. On my jump back I kick my sword off the ground and back into my hand. With no gun at the moment, I two hand my blade for better attack and defense.
From behind me, I hear the rooftop door open and footsteps roll in. "Jack!" I hear Nepgear yell as she sees my new wound. Some of the others are worried as well, but for the most part remain determined.
As the try to run up the stairs to the platform we're on, something stops them and they're pushed back by some invisible force.
"What's going on with this thing?" Blanc asks no one in particular.
"Hahaha…" The Deity starts to chuckle to himself.
"What's so funny baldy?" Ram asks the Deity who's now in full blown laughter.
"Hahahahahahaha! You actually thought I'd be dumb enough to let all of you take me on at once?! So I set up a little barrier that CPU's can't get through! Now it's just me and Jack!"
"We'll just tear it down, then what will you do?" Neptune asks the Deity her own question.
"You think it's that easy? It's blended with magic and technology, there's no one who can fully take down this barrier, it'd take multiple people and more time!"
"Rom, Ram, start dispelling the magic portion. Nepgear, see if you can hack through it." Vert gives out commands to the people best for the job. I'm surprised that he'd give out the composition of the barrier though. Maybe there's still a little bit of his original personality in there trying to help us end this nightmare.
The three of them start to do their various jobs, Rom and Ram using magic to weaken the barrier while Nepgear pulls out a holographic screen and starts inputting code and other various strings of numbers and text.
Martin runs forward and stands in front of me, taking a defending stance. Cpu's can't get through, but humans are just fine.
He taps his staff on the ground and suddenly my wounds begin to close before my eyes. "Sorry it took so long, hope you didn't have too much to deal with."
"I was doing fine without you… but I'll accept your help."
"Well ain't this nostalgic?" The Deity's obviously referring to this being how our first battle went. We lost that time, but we won't lose like that again.
"Why don't I show you just how much we've improved since last time?" Martin slams his staff on the ground and below me appears a wind rune. It explodes with a massive gush of air, sending me flying.
I raise my sword above my head and go for a downward strike. The Deity crosses his blades to block. As soon as my sword hits his the air, Martin rushes forward while releasing the blade at the bottom of his staff, lunging it him.
The Deity steps back to not get hit, letting me land on Martin's staff. He flings me up again and a do a flip to land behind the Deity and strike at him immediately. He uses one sword to block mine, and the other to block Martins spear attack from his other side.
Martin twirls his staff to the side while it was blade locked with the Deity, causing him to lose his footing and taking a hit to the back of his leg from the blunt end of the staff. I hit his sword away and do a spinning slash to his other leg, tearing off some of the armor.
Before he can recover, Martin hits his face with the top of his staff, knocking him my direction. I respond with a clean strike to his back, once again sending him Martins way with great force.
As he's tumbling towards Martin, he holds out the bladed portion of his staff and catches the Deity on it, piercing through a portion of his chest armor and going through the other side. From how it looks, it may have pierced one of his lungs.
"Gah!" He lets out an audible display of pain that makes me feel uncomfortable. The Deity also drops his other sword, making him unarmed now. I know the guy is losing to his madness and everything but he's still just an average Joe at the end of the day.
"Jack, finish him off!" Martin yells to me as he kicks him off the blade and back my way. Halfway though he's flipped by force into facing me, and I strike downwards over his face, but only manage to cut off part of his mask.
He staggers to his feet, both feet trying to cover the exposed parts of his face with his hands. I don't know why he's trying so hard to hide his identity, I thought the visor just helped him target us and gain advantages. Although I did manage to damage him if only a little.
"Reveal yourself to us! I demand to know who defeated me and took my nation from me!" Noire yells from the sidelines, still waiting for the barrier to go down. From what it looks like it's almost done.
"Haha… ok… if you insist…" He slowly reveals his mouth, eyes still covered. Then with great ferocity, he rips the remaining mask off. When it's in view, we see someone familiar, we just haven't seen him in a while.
"Wait… it was you?!" Noire yells at him, I'll admit I share in her surprise.
I couldn't forget this face. Bald head, kind of creepy smile, and an accent anyone in the world could pin on this. It seems so obvious that I can't believe I didn't even consider this.
"You're the guy who installed my augments! Noire, how did you not tell this right away?"
"He just seemed so nice and like an upstanding business on paper. He paid his taxes and regularly voted on national matters. It didn't occur to me until now that maybe the Deity could've been one of my citizens…"
I will cut her some slack there, she was the busiest of the Goddesses before the fall of Gamindustri. That's what Nepgear told me anyway, so I'll take her word on it.
"If you're one of our enemies, then why would you fix me up better than before? It seems counterintuitive doesn't it?"
"Oh yes… the other side wanted to ensure your victory… too bad I took control for a few minutes…" He's hunched over now, panting and staring at me like a pure beast, no human left in him.
"And what did you do during those few minutes?" I have a really bad feeling about it.
"Funny… you should ask…" He struggles to lift his arm up to a few buttons on his wrist. "Let's see… before I fixed you… you were blinded…" He presses one button and suddenly my eyesight in game cuts out. Well fuck…
"So you can at will shut off his augments? That seems rather powerful and would takes careful planning beforehand to execute." Vert states from the sideline. "But even so, wouldn't that only eliminate one of our forces from the battle?"
"Naïve Goddess… do you really think… that I'm afraid of those who can't fully access their share reserves? Even after… Leanbox's liberation, you can only access a little more shares can't you?" He asks Vert a question through his panting from his lung puncture.
"While it is true I can't use all of my power, there are still more of us here." Vert responds again to the Deity.
"Yeah, once this barrier goes down, we're going to pummel the hell out of you!" Blanc yells at him as a form of intimidation. It'd work on me if I was in his position.
"Well, I don't think… all of you are going to attack. After all… Black Heart's still shaking in fear from what I did to her last time."
"I-I'm not shaking!" Noire yells at him with more anger than I thought she was capable of. I haven't even heard her yell at Neptune like that before.
"Leave her alone!" Martin runs forward, jamming his spear into the Deity's side with more effort and strength than I've felt him use before. I can't actually see what's happening, but since this is the first time I've ever heard Martin angry, I'm guessing that it's not pretty on the Deities part.
"You caused her so much pain… and yet you laugh!" He pulls the spear out and retracts the blade before separating his staff into twin blades like he did in the first battle.
He does multiple consecutive strikes the Deity who's being staggered with each hit, getting pushed back further with each hit. "You play your twisted game… you enjoy ruining peoples lives… you're a monster!"
I hear the crackling of flames and an intense wave of heat go by. He must've coated his weapon in fire for more damage. Martin's rage sounds like it's doing considerable damage to the Deity, now if only Martin could turn my eyesight back on.
"What?!" Martin yells in surprise at something. If I'd have to guess, the Deity grabbed his forearm mid slash and stopped his attack.
"haa… haa… not bad… you actually managed to do some real damage to me… which means I'll take you seriously now!" Wait, he was holding back this whole time? Well fuck me seven ways to Sunday!
The Deity grips Martins arm tighter, making an audible cracking sound from the bone, causing Martin to drop both of his swords. The Deity lifts him off the ground by just his arm, Martin struggling and kicking to get away, but to no avail.
"ha… you're shaking just like your girl over there. Cowards attract cowards I guess."
"No… she's no coward… she's stronger than anyone else I know… and she'll be the one who defeats you in the end…" Martin gives that stupid smile of his off in the face of danger, he's either insanely brave or bravely insane.
"You've got guts… die with pride!" The Deity slams Martin onto the floor with enough force to shake the entire foundation of the area, only to roll him like a bowling ball back to where the goddesses are standing afterwards.
"Martin!" Noire yells to her boyfriend a few seconds afterwards, after overcoming the initial shock of the brutality.
Out of instinct with no eyesight to speak of, I charge forward to where I heard Martin come from and take a defensive stance to try and fight the Deity alone again.
"Hm… still have that pesky hearing I see… well you were deaf in one ear too!" He presses another button on his wrist and suddenly I can only hear half as well.
"Shit…" I don't know how well I'll be able to fight him now. I really hope that barrier comes down soon, and by soon I mean now.
"I'm tired of looking at you… so lets just set your augments to a different tissue compatibility setting!" He presses a few buttons, and pain begins to surge through my entire body. Holy shit, he made them incompatible with my body with the click of a few buttons?
"Agh! It's like my body's being torn apart from the inside out!" My real body feels all of this too, I'm having a hard time even looking at my computer screen right now. All I feel is pain, it's not burning, it's not stinging, it's just pain in its purest form.
My avatar falls to the floor, shaking and twitching all over the place, foaming at the mouth slightly and just doesn't look very pleasant to any onlookers.
"Jack! Hang in there, I'm almost done!" Nepgear yells at me from the side, trying to keep me alive with her words.
"Don't die… please…" Rom starts to cry a little at the sight. She doesn't want this to happen anymore, so she picks up the pace with the dispelling.
"Just wait a little longer dummy, we're coming." Her sister Ram decides to give me words of encouragement too. It is a little soothing to hear, but not soothing enough to where I can move around again.
"I think I'll keep your nerves on, I want you to feel all of this." The Deity taunts me as I'm dying in front of everyone.
"Damn… it all… what can I do?"
'Give in…' I hear a faint voice telling me something.
'Just give in already…'
A/N: This chapter was really fun to write not going to lie. I'm happy with the final product, I think it has a lot of good action and a decent bit of sub strategy going on with each side. So what will happen to Jack and friends? You think I have the answers?
Well I do, but I'm not giving them out yet. Anyway, this is getting too long. Thanks for reading as always, it really means a lot guys. But as always, I'll being seeing you in the next update.