Battle sequence engaged:
The javelin had been fired and came into contact of flesh releasing a fiery explosion through the many torsos of the corpses that held Noel on the right side of his body. The attack appeared perfectly in time that the Hunter was able to reach for a sword to deflect Adam's touch from changing him into a mindless slave and freeing himself from the crowd with a powerful blitz attack.
"Yes!" Mel said victoriously at the scene and Serah celebrated with the younger teen, both watching Noel fight his way under them then decided to jump high within the air with his dual blades glowing a terrible electric blue and fiery red came hurling down to the floor and a fused attack of thunder and fire created a large enough space for all three to fight the crowd with more than enough maneuvering space. Seeing the created space the Interloper released herself from her wings and dropped with the pinknette on her back screaming from the sudden fall. When the two nimbly landed on the ground and Serah had calmed down the two stood back to back to back alongside the Hunter and the trio faced the crowd.
"So much for going after the source of the matter." Noel said flatly with a slightly pained grin on his face.
"What did you expect, for the Zombies to simply ignore you and give you time to kill their master? Honestly I knew you were going to get caught anyways with that plan." Serah replied smirking as she sent a barrage of arrows toward an incoming horde, all hitting crucial joints and striking precise and accurate shots through the skull for instant kills. Noel chuckled at his friend's response turned to look at her for a second then back to the horde coming closer to him and asked,
"How did you figure that?" With the hordes closer in range it took a longer time to for the pinknette to answer, her attacks with the sword improved greatly still lacking in style and technique made up for in strong enough attacks to cut down her enemies. Serah was too preoccupied to notice a sneak attack that upon turning her head hands were grasping her shoulders tightly, struggling did nothing, it was until blood flew on her face did she see the corpse drop to her feet. Mel's sword ran through its skull when she had enough room to move towards her comrades and saved the teacher from a fate not worth knowing.
"I understand that you watch too much tv, Serah. But we need to deal with Adam if we want to live and make it out alive, okay?" Mel spoke quietly, her eyes were locked on the uniforms around her. Strange how in the beginning she took the life of someone from a different world but when it came to those from her own world it killed her inside more than realizing what a monster she became when she was first dragged into this fantasy.
"I got an idea: Serah try and use that power you mentioned from Sunleth Waterscape, use that power in order to create an opening while I deal with the horde. Noel when Serah unleashes that attack, if possible, you have a few second window tops to reach Adam. We take the fight to it." Mel explained but just as she finished speaking metal crunched and skid across the metal flooring caught the trio's attention; Adam pushed it's upper body out of the floor to reveal a strongly built lower body with the legs curved like a Lycanthropes, meant for speed and agility. The three stared at their enemy leader and one let out a heavy sigh.
"Got a plan B?" But the Interloper shook her head and now it was time to improvise.
The horde of bodies began to increase and created a wave, each mass working together to rid of the living beings in a way 'World War Z' had done terrifyingly well. Serah had put a lot of her effort to activate her new power but gained the attention of Adam, crouching low and moving at blinding speed and the pinknette was backhanded with extreme force her mind was too slow to registrar what happened nor know she was trapped in a web of corpses.
"Serah!" Noel cried as he saw what happened, continuing to use Blitz and spamming powerful thunder spells to shock the enemy the Hunter ran to the girls aid.
Mel was to preoccupied to notice what was happening to her companions. Adam no longer seemed interested in the other two and focused its efforts on her, Mel had her wings exposed and sent powerful gales of wind to create room of no interruptions for a moment, a chance when the first horde appeared to vanish in the eye of the vicious storm.
"Man kind must be punished, they disobeyed their orders to find the Maker and abandoned their quest of being one with our Father. For the false belief of wanting to be FREE! No one shall be left with a will for the will of all individuals are what caused such heinous acts to begin with!" Adam bellowed, its voice sounds like multiple gears were jammed and somehow you could pick up a hint of emotion similar to anger; no more like wrath.
"People are punished for the sake of opening their eyes, to no longer live in fear of being cursed and fighting a cause, a focus, that never had anything to do with the Maker to begin with? That's pathetic! And! You know what I'm not going to argue with a machine, the important thing is that your reign of horror is done!" Mel began speaking passionately but then felt impatient and drew her sword. Adam lunged at the human and its claws managed to graze the clothing of her back. Mel countered the best she could, watching the sparks block her vision of seeing her enemy, and found a lone claw and hacked it off. Adam staggered a little but retaliated with wires escaping from the frame of its back. Tentacles glowing the same pink as the walls snaked its way through the bodies of the dead and attacked; the Interloper ran as fast as she could evading all of the attacks that came her way to get Adam to attack its own pawns. The plan worked up until there was a loud screeching sound that came from the machine. The horde stopped beating on the living and looked to their master, Adam pushed a hand out and waved its fingers toward it and the crowd obeyed. Serah and Noel were out of the clutches of the dead and ran over to the Interloper, both surprisingly unscathed.
"Now what is it planning on doing?" Noel asked as he watched the corpses begin piling onto each other.
"No idea and I don't want to find out either. Hey, Serah; how is that power of yours coming along?" Mel replied and looked to the pinknette. Serah tried to focus her energy and desperation into the power bestowed to her by the bangle around her wrist but her efforts were for naught. Mel looked to her left arm and faced her palm to the enemy to shoot a wave of energy but no sparks came forth no surge or glow of electric blue appeared. This Fal'cie was blocking their powers from being used, or was it some other worldly power in play?
The two girls were distracted with their confusion of why when it was most needed their powers wouldn't work, a great shadow loomed over the three and a 'um, guys!' Had shook the two girls from their thoughts. Mel and Serah looked upwards, their faces contorted in horror to see the corpses were on Adam like armor with their dead fish eyes staring at the trio intently.
"Holy shit!" Mel, Serah and Noel all said simultaneously. Adam used the tentacles from before and swiped at the three, the attack connected and the living were skidding backwards and stopped near the edge of the lowered elevator. Another swipe was made but this time the three were prepared and they either rolled under the attack or jumped over it and landing in a sprawling position to avoid another attack. Noel jumped and used aero to keep him in mid air as his weapons casted a luminous glow and the energy extended the blades reach by six feet. Maneuvering using his belts with the winds spells Noel attacked at the dead and tried to tear through the 'armor' of the corpses and the metal skin, sparks flew here and there and Adam had a difficult time trying to defend a quick enemy. Serah followed suit and used her belts, piercing the walls to maneuver around the enemy sending waves of arrows to the Fal'cie. The pinknette managed to get behind the enemy, with Noel as decoy, switched her bow to the blade and slashed through the back of the machines 'neck.'
'If Serah used two swords and that part of the neck came off, both of them wearing the Recon Corps uniform this would have been an awesome reenactment of 'Shingeki no Kyojin. Attack on Titan is SO badass!' The interloper thought In awe and attacked herself. Casting multiple thunder and fire spells to anger the enemy Mel had used her Manipulation of the Mind ability and controlled multiple corpses commanding them to attack their own and slashed through the armor of the 'chest plate' to leave a deep scar.
Adam bellowed in rage and charged with its inhuman speed while stretching out its claws, it caught the Hunter as he swung around to create another opening and he was immediately crushed in its grasp. Loosening his grip of his dual blades from the claws crushing through his shoulders to his forearms. The corpses at the hand inched their way closer to Noel and started to chomp down on his shoulders and arms as the meal struggled free right in front of them.
"GHAAARH!?" Noel screamed as if an animal caught in a trap and being skinned alive. The teeth of the dead tore through flesh and muscle, blood spilled and splattered upon the ground below and upon the faces and bodies of the ones feeding on Noel. The pain and blood loss became overwhelming and Noel couldn't hold onto his consciousness as his body slipped into the clutches of the dead and lost from sight.
"Noel!" Serah screamed as she had watched her friend get eaten alive, pulled in the armor and lost in the sea of dead fish eyes. Guilt burned within the two remaining companions, it was a reversed trick that most wouldn't consider readily as the original; take out the strongest member in order to ravage the remaining team.
Adam's arm glowed a blinding green lowering the hand that held the Hunter and released its grip. A figure stood and he had been revealed. Noel was transformed: his eyes glowed green then it faded to a blind color of brown, the wounds that was dealt to him weren't healed but the bleeding stopped, and his complexion paled to pasty white. Fighting with Adam was no longer a goal, Serah abandoned that feeling to fight to survive and turns her attention to the shell of her friend, the corpse holding both blades loosely in its hands. The pinknette landed on the ground in an awkward tumble rushing to Noel with tears in her eyes, her weapon discarded, her morals and sense of danger were ignored. Mel managed to evade Adam's cords and lobbed off its arm, the monster staggered backwards in pain as oil and black blood spilled to the floor the Interloper turned to see the pinknette sprinting to Noel and saw how Adam changed the Hunter.
"Serah, don't go to him its too dangerous!" But her words again fell on deaf ears. The Hunter stared blankly with cloudy brown eyes as he saw the woman running to him. Mel was about to run toward the situation but Adam took the opportunity of its distracted enemy and stepped on her, the sickening sound of bone being crushed under intense amount of pressure and blood pooling out once again from the various areas of punctured flesh. The pain did not registrar quick enough to the teen as she turned her free upper body to face the enemy slightly and casted a deafening gale of wind to lift the monster off of her and nearly over the edge of the elevator. The pain shot through the girl harsher than the time she was struck by lightning in her world, her cries were similar to the loss of her limbs but her healing abilities were weak she couldn't heal herself unlike Hope or Vanille. Serah looked behind her to see the younger teen then she looked to Noel who shambled toward her, looking conflicted Serah ran back to the teen in hopes of helping her.
"Holy Pulse, what happened?" Serah began working her healing magic on the teen who answered with bitten back groans. Hazy vision took over but a dark shadow was clearly seen behind the pinknette Mel tried to warn the woman but both reactions were too slow.
"Serah, behind you!" Serah turned her head to be yanked to her feet by her hair and trapped by a single strong arm. Struggling proved useless until the screams of horrible pain erupted through the tiers of the tower.
"AaAAGH! AHAAAA! LIGHTNING!?" Noel sunk his morphed canines into Serah's neck where the artery that carried blood to the brain lie. He pulled his head to the side and tore the flesh and veins that blood covered his face, mouth, the floor and the poor girls clothing were stained red. In seconds her body slumped and dropped to the floor. Eyes wide in horror Mel suddenly remembered the promise she made to the Champion; ' I swear I'll do whatever it takes to keep Serah safe.' And she failed again. The darkness came closer to the Interloper and she tried to move but the blood loss and pain was too much, when the darkness claimed her Mel heard a soft voice speak to her in her clouded mind.
"Uh uh, now your not supposed to throw your life away!"
A split moment later a dark wave of energy shot through the ceiling and burst into the skies, summoning heavy storm clouds. Adam watched the rays blow its armor of flesh and dead away and through the walls the blistering winds shredding through its metal armor as it scanned the energy before it.
"What kind of power is this!?" It bellowed, it couldn't move, defend, attack, nothing several circuits were torn free from beneath the metal shell of supposed skin. When the energy diminished the Interloper stood tall with eyes deep with rage; her hair turned pure moonlight silver, the whites of her eyes turned black as night, the clothing were replaced by armor of ebony and scarlet and the buster blade glowed a heavy dark aura that Adam started to feel something it never wanted to feel. Fear. The Interloper looked at Adam and her scowl deepened, those feral crimson cat eyes looked through the machine as it shook with fear it trembled and collapsed to the ground unmoving. Mel looked to Serah and touched the girls bracelet, it glowed again functioning properly and a pure white light enveloped the girl and healed her greatly the energy revived the girl. She stood and when she awoke her eyes were glowing as if possessed. Both women turned to Noel, one used Phoenix Down to heal him but to free him was to kill the Puppeteer. Once the swords were drawn and the energies on both blades increased Malice and Serah spoke simultaneously;
"Punishment for the sins you had wrought upon Humanity." Serah spun her weapon to charge up her attack and Malice growled fiercely into the heavens to increase her power and released an incredible audible blast to blow a hole into the Fal'cies chest and Serah released her own energy attack in a wave and destroyed whatever was left of the machine. With no trace of the threat or the dead Serah casted a healing spell as strong as the Eidolons power and all trace of bite marks and missing flesh were no longer there, the blood flowed back into the Hunter that belong to him and he stirred with a deep and tired groan. Once the Hunter rose Mel and Serah were set free from their other selves and kneeled to brace themselves from the sudden rush of consciousness. Noel sat up and looked to his companions then to the destruction of the room the wall and ceiling were blasted to oblivion as the wind and open scenery greeted his eyes. But that didn't assure him of being alive.
"Holy shit! I, I could have sworn that I was dead! And I killed Serah!" Mel and Serah looked to the male and nodded their heads.
"We are just stuck in a never ending sea of anomalies. But the question we need to answer is what the hell is going on here?" Mel spoke out of breath and her eyes half lidded from exhaustion.
"We need to rest, but your forgetting another important question: when we tried to use our power before they wouldn't work, so why did they when we lost consciousness?" The pinknette contemplated but never got an answer when Noel interrupted.
"We just need to do what we can now, figure out how we can save the world and make sure Humanity survives. Earth is ordering a Genocide on our world and I thing that the two worlds are going to end up in deep trouble, we are all human on both side so why are we killing each other?" Mel got up and looked at the luscious scenery of greenery and mountains that temporarily hid Augusta Tower, breathing in the fresh air mixed with smoke from the blast and recalled the words from the bane of her current existence.
" To find the answers you seek consult with the world for it is your guide and the recorder of all events."
"What was that, Kid?" Noel asked as he was the one who heard the Interloper first.
"Consult the world, it will give us the answers we seek. If somehow, there is another area that wasn't meant to be or we weren't supposed to be entering it may tell us the secrets to why everything is changing." The two adults contemplated the words and took a long moment to consider the words that was said, ask the world like it could talk and listen, it was absurd. With so many wild goose chases the two were on on their own and when they were with the Interloper it wouldn't hurt to try another strange lead.
"Say if your hypothesis is true, how in the world are we going to be able to test it to determine whether or not there may be a world where space and time may actually give us the answers we need to save this world and yours?" Serah spoke calmly and with heavy thoughts swirling through her mind. Mel turned her eyes away from the setting sun and looked to the two adults standing feet away from her, a smile on her face as if her idea was the absolute answer to that question.
"We go to Academia!"
A/N: Yay! Another chapter is done, man fighting Adam must have been a pain in the butt, huh? And yeah thats a good point to why powers activate at full strength when the host is out cold and is there a world with answers to all of the confusion? Who knows? Wait, I do! (Just Kidding.) anyways with som much going on who knows where the trio will be led next. Hope this story was alright, and that everyone is doing great today. Please leave a comment, like, review, etc. and hopefully this story can continue with the rest and maybe this anomaly will be solved. Until next time, Ciao!