Author's Note: We ain't looking for the Grand Items. That'd be too boring.
The story is now on ON.
Chapter 12: The Purification of the Zones
Like the two times before, the Batter and his teammates spawn in the Nothingness. Unlike Alpha and Omega, however, Epsilon is more amazed by the faint whispers instead of being terrified. "I wonder where these whispers are coming from?" She openly wondered.
However, the other two Add-Ons didn't answer her, too focused on another subject... "Batter... what... what did he mean?" Omega asked, in a quivering voice.
The Batter looks at them before turning away. "It's unimportant."
"Batter..." the second Add-On's voice took a sterner tone. "I would like an explanation."
"Well I would like to finish my holy mission."
Ignoring them, he started walking, toward the last marker on the ground, the last available area of the world that he had not yet visited...
"Oh no you don't!" Alpha flies in front of him, cutting him off. "We're not going until you give us an answer, you baseball playing motherfucker!"
The Batter reaches for his bat. In response, Alpha striked him; the Batter stumbled backwards and fell...
..onto the marker that leads to Zone 1. The card that allowed them access to that Zone is inadvertently activated, glowing in the Batter's pockets, ready to whisk them away. The Batter tries to get up, but failed to do so before the light carries them away from the void...
ZONE 1
"No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
― Theodore Roosevelt
They land.
The Batter and Alpha can plainly tell what is wrong.
The light green that had once made up the Zone is gone, as if washed away by the plastic ocean it floated on. The plastic shows little movement, an unnerving calm. There used to be the noise of rain, of soft warm plastic hitting metal, but the only noise that could be heard are the whispers. In the distance, they see more and more white, the blight stretching across the land.
"Batter..." Alpha wasn't outraged -all he had in his voice is cold shock. "What did you do?"
"I purified this land." The Batter forces himself to admit.
The Add-Ons are quiet, observing the shocking revelation.
Finally, it is Omega that breaks out of his stupor."Th-th-this is what you meant?" His voice is loud, carrying the complete indignation. "This... is this what you call PURE?"
"Yes." The Batter answered bluntly.
While Omega chews the Batter out, Epsilon noticed Alpha leaving the scene. Looking between them and Alpha, she chooses to follow after the latter. He noticed her, saying nothing but allowing her to accompany him.
They arrive at the train station of... whatever it was again - the name of the station had been lost forever in the Zone's purification, replaced by gray question marks.
"This is supposed to be like the monorails, right?" Epsilon asked.
"Hm."
"But.." The Add-On looks around wildly -"Where's the ride?" Indeed, the car that used to be at the tracks is gone, off to who knows where.
However, though the monorail is gone, there is no longer a buzzing noise coming from the tracks - they are no longer electrified. They can safely walk to the next station instead; well, the Batter can, the Add-Ons could already kinda float there if they wanted. Wanting to investigate more of the Zone, they get going.
...
The giant billboard that exclaimed ZONE 1 is now gone, so the Add-Ons trip across was otherwise uneventful.
They reach the next station, where the rails no longer went on. To get to the next destination, one would have to cut through the Zone's smoke mines.
The area had suffered another kind of blight. The population is gone. In the past, there had been a few miners milling around its entrance underground; the supervisor that greeted the Batter to the area and gave him his first presentation on elements would be standing in the center.
They're all gone now. Epsilon even poked her head into the small shack and confirmed that nobody was inside there.
Alpha looked at a broken up path, that in the past, brought the Batter to the staircase that led to the annex tunnels, that brought him and the Batter together.
That brought him along the Batter's journey, the Batter's crusade that led to the land's purification.
He didn't feel angry, however.
Instead, he just felt empty.
"Hey, maybe we can find someone in the tunnels?" Epsilon offered in an attempt to reassure him.
"...Sure." He grunted.
They descend.
The afraid Elsens that had once been in the breakroom preceding the tunnels are gone. Where? Well, Enoch did say that the purification of the zones would damn everyone to nothingness...
Alpha felt a strong sense of guilt. He helped out with all this, much longer than the other Add-Ons...
"They must have gotten scared and run off?" Epsilon said. Alpha can tell however that even she knows that she's lying to herself, and that the wishful thinking is too much, even for her.
With nothing much else to do in the blanked out world, they decide to go on. The next room normally contained two branching tunnels, but only the pathway to the main one remains. The yellow block that had once been in the room has morphed, changed into a red one, aka, the type of block that transports people into the nothingness. Though, they choose to ignore it, heading into the tunnels...
Even the depths of the world had been purged. The smoke tunnels' purple colors are completely gone. However, Alpha realizes that something else is gone...
"There are no more damn phantoms." Alpha said, a bit awed. While the Batter's crusade had gotten rid of, well, everything else, he still held up his end of the bargain, the specters purged. ...Mission accomplished?
"Wait! Look!" Epsilon directs his attention down a hallway. They see a shadow, a figure. Alpha feels brief relief, glad that someone survived the purge he had assisted. "Hey, over here!" Epsilon called out to it.
The shadow starts approaching.
Fast.
As it gets closer and closer, they realize that the shadow did not resemble an Elsen at all.
Nor any specter they know of.
Finally, the figure arrived.
It looks like a giant, deformed doll, with stubby limbs. It looms over them, a blank expression on its face.
Then, it roared.
An unearthly noise comes from it, and Epsilon screamed out, being seized by pain.
"Hey, w-who the hell do you think you are?" Alpha yelled at the unnatural being - that's what he chooses to think of it as. It was no Elsen. But it certainly wasn't a specter either.
The Add-On attempts a chain attack on the being's face, a large gash appearing in its chest.
Yet, it did not express pain. Its eyes now look upon Alpha -
"Purification!" Out of the blue comes the Batter, leaping up to the creature and striking it in the head, perhaps hoping to repeat another Enoch. It just took the hit, ignoring its wounds.
An aggravated Omega follows in and he noticed the creature. 'W-What is that?" He yelled, appalled.
The Batter uses a Wide Angle. "That is a Secretary... the guardian of the purified lands."
The Secretary lets out another malignant noise, attacking without moving its limbs. The Batter was blown back with a psychic strike, dropping his bat. Alpha makes another attempt to hit the Secretary.
Meanwhile, Epsilon sat back, feeling sickly. Omega looked at her, and realized: "Oh my, you're poisoned!" He went over and gives her a little perspective.
"Thank you very much~!" She chirped before hopping back into the fray to exact vengeance.
After a few more attacks and more deadly counters, they manage to lay the last blow to the Secretary. Without changing the expression on its face, the Secretary crumpled to the floor like a disarded toy and fades away.
The Batter heals up his compatriots - the fight was surprisingly tough. "We're going back to the red block." He announced. "We're checking the other Zones."
Alpha and Omega share shock as he turns his back and leaves. "Huh? I thought he would want to go straight to, you know, the next place." Epsilon said, a bit confused.
"W-well..." Omega takes out something: the card that had been bestowed upon Enoch's slaying. "I... had to wrestle this off of him... I-I convinced him to let us see our Zones again, o-or I won't let him.. p-proceed..."
"Dude..." Alpha floated over to him. "That's great! I didn't know you had it in you!"
Omega seemed embarrassed. "Ummm... well, in the light of this purification and the.. genocide of an untold number of Elsen, thievery and blackmail is kind of a small thing..."
They head back to the previous red save block, cautious of any other Secretaries - if there are any. Thankfully, they reach the save block without incident, and the Batter activates it.
They briefly return to the Nothingness and its own set of whispers.
Reluctantly, glaring at Omega, the Batter activated the path to Zone 2...
ZONE 2
"If you actually succeed in creating a utopia, you've created a world without conflict, in which everything is perfect. And if there's no conflict, there are no stories worth telling - or reading!"
- Veronica Roth
"No..." Omega gasped out, as they entered his home zone.
Like before, like all Zones that fell under the Batter's swing, it was all pure. No more calming pink, but eerie white and gray. The great library, towering above the whole Zone, is now nothing but a giant tombstone.
"Is this all you need?" The Batter asked, hand reaching for the save block.
"...No... I wish to investigate." The Add-On said.
The Batter reluctantly withdrew his hand before following, in the direction of the library.
The directional aide that was painted on the sides of the library are gone now, replaced by question marks; however, that wasn't the baffling thing. The path to the residential zone is cut off, blocked by a giant cement wall that looks as if it always had been there. The party ducked into the library (predictably, the Elsen that once wandered the formerly blue innards are gone), and saw that even the indoor path didn't lead there. The residential district is completely cut off from the world.
...Well, not completely, but we ain't doing that. That's boring.
Omega drifted upstairs, the rest of the party following him. He floated to one of the shelves that contained one of the real books. "Aha!" He opened one of the books up eagerly; the pages are telling the story of the Frog King. "The books... they're still here."
"That's nice... but so what?" Alpha questioned.
Omega slowly closed the book, respectfully. "Literature is the evidence of the past. It records history and culture, the words outlasting lives. Don't... don't you understand? If.. if this world truly is dead, these books are the only record that people have ever existed..."
The rest of the party stare blankly as he goes on with his speil.
"...these books must be protected..." Omega finished up with his passionate rant, full of words too pretentious for our eyes. "...Let's see what else survived the purification..."
"Sure." The Batter said, seemingly rolling his eyes under his cap.
They begin working their way up the tower, examining every 'real' book at Omega's insistence. Surprisingly, every book they manage to find are untouched by purification. Truly, in the end, only stories remain.
Eventually, they reach the floor before the roof. Omega reads the ending of Japhet's tail out loud - he felt terrible for Japhet. Omega followed the Batter, believing in his cause, that slaying Japhet and Enoch woud have a net gain; yes, the specters are gone, but at what cost?
Maybe this cost.
Without warning, a figure had drifted into the room, blocking their way up to the roof. It is another Secretary - it had a different look from the one of the previous Zone, but the Batter identifies it as such.
Then, just as they begin the battle, the protagonists are taken by surprise, psychic strikes hitting them. Two additional Secretaries, completely identical to the one in front of the group, had wordlessly snuck in behind them. The Batter and Omega get on healing duty while Alpha and Epsilon launch into battle.
The purifiers fight their hardest, as hard as if they were fighting a Guardian. The Secretaries in a group are a formidable force - the Batter was actually forced to use a Joker when they managed to beat the stuffing out of Omega. They are much stronger than any of the specters they fought in the past...
When the last Secretary fell, they immediately started healing; it felt as if they were all hit by a truck.
"Where's a block, I want to get the hell out of here..." said an exhausted Alpha.
"Maybe there's one on the roof." Epsilon suggested.
"What if there isn't?"
"We could always jump off the building, it's the fastest way down~"
"Absolutely not." The Batter growled.
They decide to press on. Out on the balcony...
"Meow..."
"W-what was that? Are there...uh.. Secretary Cats, p-perhaps?" Omega questions.
"...meow..."
"It's coming from up there." The Batter said, pointing at the top of the building.
They cautiously start heading up. The cat noises get louder and louder as they ascend, and they anticipate what could be up there...
And what was up there?
A survivor.
A pale cat walks around in circles, pouring out his heart onto the world with despaired meows. He no longer has his wide smile, a perpetual frown accompanying his mournful cries.
At the very top of the Zone was Pablo, the Judge.
"Pablo!" Alpha said, for once saying it as a gesture of friendliness rather than mocking.
Epsilon gasped, being the only one who hadn't (properly) met the Judge before, being overcome with his cuteness - and sympathy for his blatant misery. "Kitty! Are you okay? You sound sad!"
The cat looked up at them. He acknowledges that they're there, and that they have an excitable fourth member that he hadn't seen before - however, his mind is in other places. "I am meowing at my lung's fullest. I would even argue that the echo that reverberates back to me is the voice of someone I know...
"Have you seen my dear brother?"
With that, the Judge goes back to his futile meowing. The party stands there, wordless, as the poor cat continues his mournful cries.
"So... this is where he's been..." Omega said quietly.
"...We should leave. Let him mourn." The Batter said, cap pulled over his eyes, hiding his expression.
They decide to leave the Judge alone, going back down the ladder. Out on the balcony sits a red block. Before any other Secretary attack or sad moment occurs, they take their leave...
The Nothingness again.
The whispers there seems to be more and more familiar to them as they visit the purified zones.
"Sh-should we go to Zone 3, too?" Omega asked, aimed at Epsilon.
"Sure." She said, as if shrugging, much to the Batter's disappointment, as he really just wanted to move on.
ZONE 3
"I have principles and I am not going to be forced to compromise them."
- Alan Sugar
At this point, they weren't surprised.
All of Zone 3 had become just like the hallway.
"...wait, he had a brother?" Epsilon asked, thinking back on his words.
"It's... it's a long story..." answered Omega.
Omega begins recounting their adventures in Zone 2 as they walked through Zone 3. Similar to Zone 1, the monorail is inaccessible, so they decide to head straight for the cafeteria.
The patterns are gone along with the sugar-addled residents - yet, so are the specters and the traps. They could walk around as they please. With no real investigative lead and Epsilon too busy listening to Omega's story, the Batter leads the way through a dormitory...
...where they hear snoring.
The Batter readied his bat. "Who's there?"
"Wait, maybe it's that Zacharie guy!" Alpha exclaimed. Last time he checked, Zacharie had been hiding out in Zone 3's hallways - had he been purified too? Ordinarily, he didn't like Zacharie, but he was aversive to the thought of him dying...
They enter one of the dormitories.
Lying on a bed is not Zacharie however, but an Elsen. A sole Elsen that somehow managed to survive the purification of the Zone.
He groggily wakes up. The tired Elsen looks around, baffled by his new surrondings. "Huh? What's going on...?"
Epsilon floated up to him. "Don't you worry about it. It's just a bad dream. Please, keep on sleeping." She encouraged.
The Elsen blinked at her, eyes continuing to survey the scene. Finally, he decided that the scene was too weird and that it must be a dream, so he goes back to sleep.
"Ah... I hope he sleeps well." Epsilon said happily.
"...Why do you care?" The Batter asked.
"Because why not?" She answered back. "He's the only one we've seen besides that sad cat, so I thought that at least one person should be dreaming and happy~"
"...You are too optimistic for this damned world..." the Batter said.
"Hey, you're the one that damned it!" Alpha snapped, finally releasing his frustrations of the state of the Zones to the Batter. "You and your purification shit! Almost everybody is dead!"
The Batter frowned at him, unperturbed by his anger. "This world was damned to begin with. You should know, you've been with me the longest. The people of this world were being overcome with stress on top of the hauntings of the demons. How long would it have been before the eventual, violent collapse? In this Zone alone, the Elsens gorged on each other through sugar. How long before their numbers dwindled? How long before a shortage, before they all become Burnt?
"I had to purify this world. It needs to be purified, it's my holy mission. I am this world's mercy before it's inevitable collapse."
The holy trinity of Add-Ons stare at him.
...He kinda had a point, they thought.
"...I have a question, though." Alpha said.
"...Yes?"
"How the hell are those guys better than the specters?" the Add-On is alarmed.
At first, the Batter had no idea what he was referring to. However, feeling that the Add-Ons are panicked by something behind him, he turned around.
There is a doorway at the end of the dormitory that hadn't been there before; perhaps it led to the next area of the Zone. However, in the doorway is another Secretary, one that looked like a luchador.
"...Wait a minute..." The Batter said, as he saw silhouettes huddled behind the Secretary.
Dread filled the atmosphere as not one, nor two, but four of the Secretaries spilled out into the dormitory hallway.
"...You know, I'm not feeling like exploring my Zone anymore." Epsilon said in a quiet voice.
"Then let's go back to the Nothingness. Fast." The Batter said eagerly, partly because he didn't want to waste his time with the Secretaries and because he can finally go to his last destination.
And so, the party retreats, the Secretaries giving chase; curiously, they seemed to pay the sleeping Elsen no mind.
They run across the cafeteria, continually followed by the creatures of the purified lands. The Secretaries are determined, wanting nothing more than their heads -
Finally, the Batter reaches the floating red block. They're practically forced into a corner, waiting to be whisked away, as the Secretaries fast approach...
...
Thankfully, before the Secretaries can start landing hits, they found themseves in the Nothingness again.
The Batter is ready to get going. "Okay. Now, we can finally..."
"Not so fast." Omega interrupted.
'What now."
"What about... that Zone?"
The Batter watched as Omega floated over to the marker that would bring them to Zone 0.
The story is now on PAUSE.
Author's Note: Yes, I decided to skip the search for the Grand items. No, I'm not going to skip this certain part of the game.
The lone Elsen originally appears in Zone 2, in the residential area. However, as I've skipped that part, I moved him over to Zone 3; it's also simultaneously a reference to HOME, an OFF fangame (which you guys should check out).