The story is now on ON.
Chapter 11: The Purification of Enoch
Surrounded by ominous posters, the Batter and the Add-Ons walk, anticipating what lies beyond. At the end of the hallway, they reach a door that's surrounded by a wall of paper, full of warnings to turn around. Tightening his grip around his bat, the Batter passes through the threshold, ready to fight the Director.
...Nah, let's solve puzzles instead!
They enter a room with a sequence of numbers and floating blocks - standard but anti-climatic.
"This isn't even a hard puzzle. The blocks are just flipped upside down." The Batter observed, a bit disappointed that there was a disappointing puzzle instead of the Guardian. With how easy the puzzle is, Omega takes a backseat as the Batter simply solves it himself.
The barricade to the next hallway opens up. "Maybe there will be something more fun in the next room." said Epsilon.
The next hallway seems like an obstacle course. The room contains pools of molten plastic, walkways suspended above them. Holes pepper the walkways, which would damn anyone who isn't careful enough to their doom.
"There's something... erm... ominous about this hall - e-even more so than the previous." Omega said, floating in with the other Add-Ons as the Batter is taking careful steps. "It must be here for... um, a reason."
"Not sure what that might be... there doesn't even seem to be any specters here, either." said the Batter. The humanoid begins navigating his way through the paths, walking carefully to avoid the holes.
Upon reaching the door at the end, they encounter a similar hallway, though more easily navigatable. However, at the very end of it all, is a large doorway - higher than if three Batters were stacked on each other to form the ultimate baseball player - an ominous shadow blacking out what's beyond.
"Yeah. The guardian's definitely there." said Alpha.
Having had enough of the tension building, they hurry on their way...
When the Batter and the Add-Ons enter, they at first think they entered a dark room. However, looking forward, they realize that they're merely in something's shadow - but it wasn't just 'something'. But a person. Their chest heaved, and a deep male chuckle echoes through the spacious room. The protagonists' gaze travels upward. A giant version of the Elsen business shirt. A comically small tie. Bright cheeks. A smile. A gaze.
"Who... who are you?" The man asked in a booming voice.
The Batter gets over the initial intimidation. "I am-"
"You're not from that union again, I hope? You can't possibly ask for more dessert."
"No, we aren't from the damn union!" Alpha snapped.
"Yes. I am the Batter, these are my Add-Ons, and we are here to purify you, Mr. Director."
"Purify?" The giant lets out another deep chuckle. "You want to purify me? Nothing justifies this drastic measurement! Who put you up to it? Was it the Queen? ...Regardless, I refuse."
"Were we sent by the Queen?" Epsilon asked, still not fully in the know.
The Batter shook his head and looked up at the giant. "We weren't sent. We work under the guidance of the Narrator and the Readers."
"Who?" The guardian said sincerely.
"...Whatever. We're here to purify you."
"Regardless, I refuse to hear it."
"Um, look, you're the ruler of this horrible malfactory, are you not?" Omega said accusingly.
"Horrible? This is my fortress of happiness, my rampart against the specters! I provide workers treats for their hard work - is that not right?"
"Your workers are falling into madness because of your sugar." said the Batter.
"...Really?" said the guardian. He now seems to be frowning.
"...Are you sincerely not aware?"
"...I haven't left my office in a long time. Way too convoluted for me to leave." The guardian said sincerely. "That union's my only visitors in a while. I assumed that the workers were unsatisfied, so I granted the request for more sugar."
The purifiers stare at him, though more out of bafflement than anger. "They're addicted, not upset."
"Oh."
"And getting the union their request has quickened this land's pace toward damnation."
"..did... didn't you start the union?" Omega asked.
"Huh? You started a union?" Epsilon badgered.
"No." The Batter grunted with a hint of irritability. "This whole land is damned, thanks to you." He said, now to the guardian.
"I only wished for my workers to be happy. I was only efficiently recycling the bodies of the dead, lest they become phantoms."
Now it was the Batter's turn to be confused. "The dead?"
"Well duh, the specters are all dead guys." said Epsilon.
"The hell did you think?" said Alpha.
"Yes, it's only common sense." the goliath agreed with the Add-Ons.
"Doesn't matter. I still hold you accountable and you must be destroyed." The Batter points his bat up at the looming figure. "The last grains of sand have fallen through the hourglass of your life!"
"...Do you really think you can defeat me? Do you truly think I would believe your lies about my wondrous creation, you, who would knowingly attack a guardian, knowing the consequences?" The man's height seemed to grow - he had apparently been sitting down during the whole exchange. "I am Enoch, guardian of the third Zone... My role consists of, like the other guardians, of forming the energy sent by the Queen Mother to a solid context. I am the living engine of Zone 3. The Queen relies on our kind to make living spaces for men. We are a little like gods, drawing the infinite power of the sun to sculpt our worlds into the Nothingne-"
"Oh, get off your shitty god complex high horse and fight us already." screeched Alpha.
"...Very well then!" With an unexpected burst of energy, Enoch vaults over his desk, the ground rumbling as he lands.
The Batter sized (heh heh) up the situation with a Wide Angle - only a confirmation that is the third guardian. However, the Batter feels as if he would be an easy adversary; despite his size, he didn't seem to have any powers...
Enoch slams his fist down, the Batter forced to jump backwards to avoid it. The protagonist takes a swing at his arm, and that's when he realizes that there was more to meet the eye with Enoch; the bat simply bounces off, no visible damage done on the giant. Enoch makes a huge grin and swung, this time managing to slam into the ball player and hurling him into the office's walls.
The Add-Ons press on the attack. Epsilon buffs Alpha and Omega, who are trying to shred themselves across the titan's body before joining in on the assault herself.
Enoch takes another wild swing, knocking a surprised Omega away. He kicked out with a stubby leg, which demonstrates a surprising pack through punting Epsilon. Alpha, taking advantage of the boss being distracted by his fellows, struck at the guardian's face with a Chain attack. Yet, it only bounces off. No marks or bruises are on Enoch's face - his expression spells annoyance more than anything.
"Ahahaha, I am exceptional!" Enoch said, swiping at Alpha.
"Crud, he's monstrous." The Batter said, observing Enoch. Even when they had fought Dedan and Japhet, even when they showed no physical damage, they at least appeared exhausted; Enoch however is still in tip-top shape, grinning as a stunning example of body positivity. "...For once, the choice of the coward is ours."
"Yeah, this battle is no fun." said Epsilon, who just seemed to see the situation as a game with Enoch as the worst cheater ever.
"We need to retreat for now!" The Batter declared. Alpha and Omega are already flying out the door. The Batter and Epsilon follow them, jumping/flying over another roaming arm from Enoch on the way to the door.
As they emerge into the hallway, the humanoid and the trinity quickly take the time to heal themselves up. However, they hear ominous footsteps from behind them. Enoch crashes through the doorway; bits of wall came off, as the doorway didn't seem to entirely accommodate his size - maybe he did have a reason not to leave his office. "In the shadow of death valley, you shall fear the apostle of darkness! I'll kill you Batter! ...also you guys."
The Batter looks ahead, at the obstacle course, and it now occurs to him why it was set up like that.
He begins running, weaving around the holes. Enoch follows, taking large strides, stepping over the holes all together, a malicious grin on his face. Of course, the Add-Ons simply floated over all the holes - lucky.
The Batter emerged into the next room, continuing to run. He heard a crash behind him, signaling the giant guardian managing to tail him. "Pathetic thug... huff... prepare to join the ghosts!"
Running around was much harder this time, with more numerous obstacles. To make things worse, Enoch's giant footsteps caused the floor to quake - the floor in the hallway is much less stable than in the previous one.
As the Batter neared the end, Enoch lets out a roar, raising his foot. He slammed down on the floor, which violently tilts in response, some of the platform dipping into the plastic; the Batter loses his balance, causing him to fall, nearly sliding into the molten plastic. The Add-Ons, who had been ahead, quickly go back to help him, while Enoch quickly gained...
"Whoopsie!" Epsilon said, flying toward Enoch rather than the Batter. What seemed like a futile attack turns out to be advantageous, as she struck at his hilariously small and stubby legs. Combined with the uneasy footing, Enoch tips over, the giant quickly catching himself by leaning against one of the hallway's walls. Before he could reorient himself, Alpha and Omega had managed to help the Batter to his feet and they escape with Epsilon.
"You'll know the errors of your ways, Batter!" Enoch growls; the next doorway was smaller than the previous ones, and busting through a much larger section of wall may not help the foundations of the area. He quietly curses himself, wondering why the hell he designed his executive suite to have small doorways.
The Batter stopped to catch his breath when he was sure that Enoch stopped chasing them, breathing in large intakes of smoke. "Damn, this big bacon is beefier than we expected."
"Um.. bacon is pork, not beef." Omega corrected.
He ignores him. "We have to be creative if we want to take him down..."
"Let's go ask Zacharie. Maybe that weirdo's got something." suggested Alpha.
They start backtracking. The halls are silent again, eerie in comparison to the previous sounds of thundering footsteps. Then, when they get to the room before the hallway full of posters, they see that the path to the right wing of the area is closed off, for some reason. Without any other choice, they head to the left...
The Add-Ons stop floating when they see what has happened to to western wing.
The green tones in the hallway are gone, bleached away. A stunning, pristine whiteness painted the walls, blank and unnatural. The doors are all shut closed, as if hiding horrible things behind their threshold. In the stunned silence, they could all hear something, a voice wandering in the empty air, whispering phrases rapidly; it reminded the Batter, Alpha, and Omega of the Nothingness.
"...I don't like this," Epsilon said; the environment is much more intimidating to her than Enoch was.
After the brief hesitation, the Batter steps forward, unfettered by the change in environment. "Whatever. Let's go."
"W..what happened here, though...?" Omega said, on a futile search for any semblance of color in the hallways.
"Well, the fatass said something about the errors of our ways..." said an unnerved Alpha, "Don't know what the hell this has to do with anything, though."
They continue through the empty halls. They did not bother checking any of the doors - they're all closed. Not locked, but closed, though they are better off left unopened.
Then, they re-enter a world of normalcy as they enter the path leading to the Vesper monorail, back to a world of color. Upon looking back, one could see the purgatory that they left behind, white and empty. The whispers that filled their auditory senses are no longer present.
Omega looks at their current position then back to the blank hallways, stunned by the glaring differences between the areas. "R..really, I want to understand what happened back there..."
"It's unimportant." The Batter dismissed. The path to the right wing of the zone is blocked off, similar to before. Suspicious, he states, "I suppose we have to take the monorail."
They go up the stairs. The monorail sits, waiting for them...
Then, from the abyss below, a large hand jumps up and clutches its fingers through the windows. With a quick pull, the car is broken off from the rails, destroying the only escape. As the car descends, a huge mass rises from the depths of hell. It was the guardian, Enoch, grown to a much bigger size, bigger to the point that he would had towered over the previous version of himself. Enoch's eyes look down at the cast of purifiers, a true, angry frown on his face. "Miserable runts! Cold water eels!" He slammed a fist down on the monorail platform. "I had to drag my body chock full of fat substances through the pipes of my own domain!"
"...No wonder you don't leave your office." Said Epsilon.
Enoch nods in agreement, though it did little to lessen his overall mood. "It was hard and humiliating, but... huff... I'll eat your hopes of survival like a block of sugar... with delight!"
As he said that, the guardian takes deep breaths, as if the mere act of talking was straining him. Observing him, Omega makes an observation: "You've tired yourself out... you've wasted all your energy, chasing us... and turned into this titan.."
"...oh yes." The Batter said, coming to the same conclusion, thinking of the book that the Pastel Burnt had. "You poor fool."
"Everyone has their, um, limit... and you seem to be reaching yours! I... I doubt that you're invincible, in this state!"
The Batter raises his bat, Omega and Epsilon shine ferociously, but Alpha is hesitant. "Wait, he turns bigger and your answer is to fight him?"
"Haha, yep! Not as if we have anywhere else to go!" Epsilon pointed out.
He remembers that going back leads to empty horror and that the monorail got totally wrecked. "Good point."
"Ahahaha! This is all just absurd!" Enoch laughs, finding the mere notion of them trying to fight him to be ridiculous. "I can crush you like the pests you are!" He rose a hand and violently hurls it downward; the Batter rolls to the side while the Add-Ons fly away.
"Here goes nothing." Alpha flies toward Enoch's face and lands a Chain attack on his cheek. To his surprise, a gash actually appears where he had hit; it wasn't a big one, but it actually wounded Enoch, nevertheless. "Holy shit, that actually wor-"
Enoch grabbed him with his other hand. "Don't be foolish!" He clenches his fist then opened it up - a black colored ring falls out. "I may feel pain now, but do you truly think you can fight a man of my girth?"
"Everyone has a weak point." The Batter said confidently, whilst throwing a Joker in Alpha's direction, light returning to his form.
Omega examines the giant, trying to think of how to take him on. "Maybe we can... um, hit his head. He could die of brain damage... maybe..."
"Ooorrrrr..." Epsilon said, buffing the revived Add-On. "How about we take his head off?"
"Are you suggesting..."
"Yep! We..." a hand falls down, Epsilon dodging. Then, to demonstrate her point, she shoots herself up to Enoch's neck and cuts herself across it, making the guardian yell. "...cut it off~!"
He tries to grab her, but learning from Alpha's experience, she slips out of his grasp. As the other Add-Ons try to follow her example, Enoch snaps his fingers, generating a noise; suddenly, Alpha has fallen asleep. Though, this does not dissuade the other two Add-Ons from ripping through his neck.
The Batter meanwhile is still on the monorail platform; having a blunt weapon, he's incapable of cutting his neck. Seeing that Alpha's fallen asleep, he takes out a slab of status healing meat. He tosses it up in the air, holds his bat back, then swings as if the slab of meat was a ball; the meat flies through the air and straight through Alpha, disappearing into his body.
"Huh? What?" Alpha said, waking up.
"That was... actually impressive." said Omega, fascinated by the grand baseball feat.
The fight continues. It begins occurring to Enoch that his position is disadvantageous - he is unable to move anything but his arms in his state, so he couldn't truly dodge or run from the onslaught of Add-Ons. In between swings of his arms, he tries to cover up his neck to guard it, blood staining his huge white office shirt.
The Batter provided ground support, showing that the bat and outfit isn't for show, knocking healing items into the air whenever Enoch infected one of the Add-Ons with a status ailment. Whenever Enoch covers his neck, the Batter uses an alternate means of hitting him: Inspirations. He pulls out colorful sheets of paper from his inventory when the guardian was on edge and tosses them into the air; they dissipate into the air and within a few seconds, a ray of light cuts into Enoch's neck, not obstructed by physical presence.
The collar of the guardian's shirt is painted red, chest heaving. "You... you heretics!" He screamed, voice gurgling. He swings his left arm at the Add-Ons and slammed his right into the monorail platform, nearly hitting the Batter. "Don't you remember what you've seen! You'll damn us all!"
The Batter sees that he's struggling to lift his right arm back up. He holds his bat, feeling that it's now an appropriate time to strike. He hopped onto the back of Enoch's hand then started running up his limb.
Enoch raised his other hand and tries to slam the palm into the Batter, as if he is a crawling ant; then, he felt the floating rings slam into his left arm, throwing it off course. Uninterrupted, the Batter hopped up, momentum carrying him forward -
- he approaches Enoch's angry face -
- he wound up the bat -
- then the Batter swung.
A snapping noise echoed through the monorail tunnels.
Without the brain and one of its functions to coordinate body movement and balance, Enoch's large body loses balances and falls into the tunnels.
A large mass with angry eyes lands on the platform.
And to add insult to injury, the Batter lands on top of Enoch's head like it was a safety mat. 10/10 landing.
"So..." As the Batter steps down, harsh noises comes from the head - and it becomes apparent that the head is still talking. "...the hero has slain the beast." Enoch gasps, his dying brain and failing guardian powers being the only things keeping him alive. "But... do you know what you've just done?
"This Zone, now deprived of its guardian, is destined to disappear."
The Batter simply stares at the guardian. The Add-Ons, who were in the midst of celebration, pauses, words sinking in. "What.. what d-do you mean?" Omega asked.
Enoch's dying eyes shot in his direction. "Don't you remember...? I'm the living engine of Zone 3. With me gone, everyone who lives here, whether they deserve it or not... will fall into the Nothingness, never to return."
"What?" Alpha exclaimed. He turns to look at the Batter, who remains impassive.
"Is this true?" Epsilon asked.
Enoch opens his mouth to speak again - a choking noise came out instead of a syllable. Before he could speak once more, before Alpha could launch into a tirade, everything seems to fade away...
The story is now on PAUSE.
Author's Note: Can't wait to write the next chapters. :)