Chapter 14: Nearest Place to the Heaven
Disoriented and in pain, Danielle awoke feeling freezing cold and sore. She was lying with the right side of her face pressed against some oddly-textured floor, numb with throbbing pains throughout her body. For a second, she couldn't figure out where she was. Pulsating masses covered the wall, strange webbing covering some of them while others emitted clouds of unknown purple gas. Wincing, Danielle managed to lift her head from the ground somewhat before getting both of her arms under her to push herself up to one knee.
"What… happened?" she groaned, holding her head. Blood trickled from her nose, her shirt ripped in several places. The sleeves were pretty much shredded, long, thin red lines set into fours running along the flesh. She could feel a very sharp pain from the back of her right shoulder down to the left of her lower back. Her pants were pretty torn up, dried up blood on a good portion of the tears.
Something grabbed me, pulled down here… It was complete and total darkness, a mass of flesh and claws… I fought back, and it tore at me like some savage beast… Did I get knocked out? Or did I just lose consciousness from the pain?
She sat back on her feet slightly, trying to get her bearings straight. The room was nothing more than a corridor that ended in two locked doors, one of them with a strange glowing lamp beside it. She had to be inside of the ruins, but just how far? And how long was she out? "I have no idea how I'll even get out of here…" Danielle murmured to herself, wincing as she carefully stumbled to her feet. She was looking around for a weapon now, knowing that she at least needed some way to protect herself. There was only one problem, though. The storage unit was missing.
"Well, this just went from bad to worse," she commented quietly, her own voice sounded a bit distant and dazed. "Maybe I can find Rico though… unless I'm really far behind her."
In shock… am I in shock? I… don't feel anything… just a bit empty. I don't even feel afraid right now.
Limping somewhat and favoring her less-injured right leg, she made her way over to the door with the lamp, cautiously reaching out a hand to touch it. Immediately it began to glow with green light, and the door slid open to reveal a room that was oddly empty with thick, purple liquid on parts of the ground. Her eyes widened as she saw a message capsule placed near a strange monument encased in crystal. Excited, she ran over and played the message that she knew had been left by Rico.
"Dark Falz! That's the name. The god of destruction that revives in the millennial cycle. Perhaps this entity encountered a civilization thousands of years ago. They could not defeat it, but managed to seal it in this gigantic spaceship. They abandoned it somewhere far from their planet. It was this place, Ragol. We've come to a terrible place at the worst possible time…"
Danielle's heart raced now. So Rico was here! But where? Then the seriousness of the message slammed into her, wiping away all excitement about finding one of Rico's message capsules. "A god of destruction…?" she whispered, eyes wide. What were the chances of their people arriving at Ragol right when this Dark Falz awakened after a thousand years? "Unless it didn't all happen by chance…" Danielle murmured, a troubling thought entering her mind. What if this god had known that they were searching for a planet and led them here? What if they didn't choose Ragol, but Dark Falz chose them?
Never had Danielle felt more afraid in her life. Here she was on some mysterious ancient spaceship buried deep beneath the ground, alone and unarmed with an evil god trapped somewhere within. Swallowing hard and trying her best to be brave, she limped through the door before her, hoping against hope that Rico was somewhere close by and that she didn't have to be alone in this dark place for very long.
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Rico's eyes scanned the room she stood in as she let out a soft sigh. Nothing… No trace at all of Danielle. Other than the arm unit she had found in the engineering section of the spaceship, she hadn't found any signs of Danielle.
Maybe some soldier with the same equipment wandered this far, but it just doesn't seem likely at all. If Danielle was here, I should have found more evidence by now… Unless…
She pushed the thought out of her head as she tended to her injuries, sitting with her back against a monument. A Delsaber's clawed arm had cut her somewhat deeply, but not enough to damage any tendons or muscles. As she glanced at her red ring on her left wrist, she thought about her father for the first time since entering this ruined spaceship. He was the Principal of Pioneer 2, and he was the only family she had left. She had lost her mother at an early age, leaving her father to raise her and teach her the very basics of fighting before the hero Heathcliff Flowen took over as her teacher. Pausing now, Rico knew exactly what her next recorded message would be about.
She gently set down the capsule, getting her thoughts together before she slowly began to speak. "I want to see my father," she began, her hand resting on that red ring. "He's been very busy, but he gave me this red ring, a long time ago… It serves as a bond between us, even though we are far apart." She closed her eyes, imagining her stern but loving father. The last time she had seen him, they had argued before Pioneer 1 had left Coral. Rico had been eight years younger on the day Pioneer 1 departed for Ragol. She had made her decision a year or so beforehand against the wishes of her father. Rico had been stubborn, desiring to be one of the first to explore the new world that would become their home while following in the footsteps of her hero and mentor, Heathcliff Flowen. "I… I wish I were with him," she murmured, a yearning sadness in her heart. "I wonder what he's doing right now."
As she shut off the recorder, she looked up towards the dark ceiling overhead and pictured Pioneer 2 floating in silent orbit around Ragol. If this creature wasn't stopped, all would be lost.
The dark god of destruction, a consciousness without a body that's been sealed for a thousand years. And it's looking for the best animal to gain its temporal host body. But what if it gains that perfect body? What will happen then?
"It will break free of its prison… and it will destroy Pioneer 2," she murmured, a tear rolling down the side of her face. She knew she had to be close to its resting place by now. If she could just defeat it, then she would be able to stop it from getting free and destroying everything.
Kill a god… Maybe it's impossible, but I have to try… That's all that I can do now.
Rising to her feet, she began to cross the narrow walkway in the room while trying not to look at the pits on either side that led into a deep abyss. The other door in the room had led to nothing more than a dead end, so now she had to backtrack and find another path. But before she could activate the door's proximity sensor, it opened on its own, Rico immediately drawing her Red Handgun and aiming it forward. There stood a frightened and startled Danielle Sterling, much to Rico's amazement. She hesitated, stunned and caught off guard as she saw Danielle's pale face that bore several cuts and scratches. "D-Danielle?"
Danielle's shoulders sagged with relief as she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Rico. "I… I stayed behind… but something attacked from the darkness… and dragged me down here. Rico, what's here… it's worse than we could ever imagine."
Rico lowered her Red Handgun, gently wrapping her left arm around the teen, feeling her body quivering in fear. "I know Danielle… I know. That's why we have to stop it." Danielle's blue eyes met Rico's, the fear mixed with relief and anxiety. "If we don't, it will get free and attack everyone on Pioneer 2… maybe everyone in the universe."
"So… it's up to us to stop it then? We have to kill Dark Falz on our own?" she questioned quietly. Despite the fact that she looked so scared, she wanted to help Rico fight it? Rico smiled gently down at her, admiring this young girl. For being so young in age, she showed bravery beyond belief.
"Yeah, we have to stop it… together." Rico continued to embrace Danielle with one arm as she slowly began to relax, her trembling lessening. Her smile fell away as she heard a sound from one of the nearby pits, one that made Rico glance over at it while tightening her grip on her weapon. It was a soft slithering and a wet, sucking sound. Rico held Danielle closer, whispering for her to not make a move as she watched that pit.
A deformed, three-clawed hand reached out from the pit, the black and dark purple flesh rippling and moving. Something was pulling itself out, another hand coming up and gripping the edge, the arms muscular with human shapes shifting and moving within the flesh. As it pulled its body out completely, Rico saw the most nightmarish beast of all in the entire ruins. Its body was constantly decaying, its entire body composed of rippling flesh that bulged forward in human shapes, as if its body was made of human beings to some extent. Human hands and faces reached forward with languished movements before being pulled back into the body. The flesh melted and dripped to the ground, leaving behind a sickening stench that nearly overpowered Rico. Its eyeless, wolfish head turned towards them, its sideways jaws opening to show the multiple lines of razor sharp teeth within, drool dripping to the ground. Its body had four short limbs and stood low to the ground, almost like a tortoise of sorts. Its tail was two long, whip-like appendages with stingers on the end that dripped purple liquid. It took up the entire walkway between the two pits with its massive bulk, the liquid dripping from its body to the ground.
An imperfect body… It's too weak and unstable. But how did it even get a body?
"Danielle, back away very slowly," she whispered, letting go of the teen as the monster that was Dark Falz continued to just stand there silently. The human-like forms that seemed to try and break free from the body unnerved Rico the most, yet at the same time they suggested an answer to her question. Everyone had vanished in that explosion, the one she didn't doubt Dark Falz had created.
They all vanished and became its new body. It needed so many because it was falling apart. One person wouldn't have lasted long enough.
Turning her back to Danielle and raising the Handgun, she aimed at its distorted face, feeling anger rising within her. "All of them… you took all of them!" She pulled the trigger rapidly, firing as many shots as she could. Not even fazed, it let out an otherworldly roar, mouth opening and tendrils of flesh shooting out. Rico jumped to the side, relieved to see Danielle do the same. "Didn't take any damage at all from those shots," she murmured. "Gotta find another way to stop it."
"Uh, wait! What about the pit?" Danielle suggested, her voice sounding strained. It was obvious she was also unsettled by Dark Falz's appearance. "If we can get it off balance, maybe knock it down there…"
Rico glanced back, nodding her approval of the plan. When she saw how pale Danielle's face was and just how scared she look, Rico held out the Red Handgun to her. "I'll handle that. Take this and use it to defend yourself… I won't let it get you."
Danielle stared at the weapon, seeing the two letters engraved on its hilt before she took Rico's personal weapon in her hand, nodding back. Rico drew her Red Sword, taking up the heavy blade as she watched the demonic beast carefully. As soon as it went to open its mouth, she bent at her knees and charged forward, the tendrils of flesh just barely missing her face as she swung the Red Sword at its front right claw. The Photon blade seared easily through the grotesque flesh and bone. Its strange roar filled the air as the claw was dismembered and the beast fell forward on a stump that oozed purple blood.
It's not all that strong right now! It won't take much to bring this thing down!
Before she could strike, cold and slick hands grabbed her under her arms and pulled her into the air. Rico cried out in both surprise and disgust as she saw the bodies of former Pioneer 1 citizens holding onto her, trying to pull her up into that living, consuming mass of dark flesh. More terrified than she had ever been before, Rico screamed out for help, the hands holding her arms still so she couldn't raise her sword.
Handgun bullets seared into the flesh of the beast, faces and hands melting away. Rico dropped to the ground with a thud, gagging from the horrible stench as she stumbled to her feet, managing to pull herself together enough to cut through the back right leg. She ran out from under it just before it collapsed, sliding off the side a bit before it managed to grab onto the ledge with its left claws. It was between her and Danielle, blocking the teen from sight.
It was still roaring in pain, trying to attack something in front of it, snapping its jaws. She could hear Danielle shouting for her to hurry, Rico wrapping her hands tighter around the hilt before lifting the weapon up. It wasn't able to defend itself from her as she sliced through the back left leg, most of creature's massive body hanging off the side of the walkway now. It was pulling itself up enough to get its head within range, hissing and snapping its jaws at her. She stood out of range, her red eyes narrowed in a cold, dangerous glare.
"If you think you can get away with all that you've done, you're wrong. I'll kill you myself if I have to." The creature stopped now as if realizing its defeat, not bothering attacking her as she stepped forward, Red Sword raised once more. Letting out a cry, she brought the weapon down to slice through its final claw, the abomination letting out a roar of pain as it plummeted down into the darkness.
Rico panted heavily, lowering the Red Sword now as she stared into the dark abyss, sweat trickling down her face as her hands kept their tight grip on the weapon just in case. She jumped a bit as she noticed motion to her side, seeing Danielle there. Rico forced herself to relax a bit, calming her nerves as she saw the fear in her young friend's eyes. "Is it dead?" she asked, peering cautiously over the ledge.
"Probably not, but we need to find it and kill it before it manages to get the perfect body." She stored the Red Saber in her arm unit, taking the Red Handgun that Danielle handed to her. "Chances are it probably isn't happy about the fact we both fought against it. It seemed too easy, though… as if it wasn't fighting at its full power."
Danielle gazed up at Rico now, frowning. "But… if it wasn't here fighting at full power to kill us, then what was it doing?"
Rico stopped in mid-step as she approached the other door in the room, contemplating the question. "In my opinion… I think it was testing us. We're the only two that survived the explosion… maybe we're the ones it wants for its new body." She was about to look at Danielle when the stench of the abomination wash over them suddenly. Rico went to turn, but numbing tendrils wrapped around her wrists and waist, flinging her sideways to the ground, the Red Handgun clattering to the ground a few feet in front of her. She gasped in surprise, unable to move her hands as she looked up to see tendrils rising from the darkness. Danielle was trying to run for her when the tendrils shot forward lightning-quick, wrapping around her neck, arms, and legs. She had a panicked look on her face as that eyeless head rose up from the black depths behind her.
Rico screamed her name, watching the jaws open sideways slowly, the tendrils vanishing into the darkness of its mouth. Unable to grab her Red Handgun to try and fire at the creature, Rico could only look into Danielle's terrified eyes before the tendrils pulled back and the jaws encompassed her, snapping shut. The beast let out a dark, guttural chuckle before it slid back into the dark abyss, leaving Rico lying there crying out for her friend.