Requiem of Time: Chapter Twenty-Five - Allen part 2

Timcampy was left with Cross. Intentional or neglect, one couldn't be sure. But as it was, Allen had made no move to collect his golem.

There was sounds coming out of his mouth, Allen thought, but he wasn't sure anymore. Crying, maybe, or laughing. Something that vibrated his throat and kept his lips moving, his chest shaking. Inside his Ark - inside that room - he had ripped out his sword from his arm harder than ever before, and at the same time commanded Sarah to destroy the black apparition that had appeared. He left it impaled.

He had blacked out from there, or perhaps something had taken over. When he came to, Allen was no longer in his Ark. He was on the Earl's new, unfinished one. Facing the Earl himself. His chest had stopped shaking, but his lips were still moving. The Earl was responding to whatever was said. Allen no longer cared. The man would die here.

Things went black again, and suddenly Allen was only inches away from the Earl, only matching swords locked in a parry separating them. Yelling, Allen braced his leg and shoved harder, staggering the Earl. He pulled back and swung again. He blacked out again before the two swords made contact.

The Earl was one hundred yards away, now. They were no longer on either Ark. In fact, they were back in Edo, with Adam's infinite Akuma swarming to help their master.

Allen wasn't alone, though. Behind him, he saw Sarah's corpse, her Innocence glowing with activation. In his right hand was his Sword of Salvation, and to his left was Crown Clown, hovering next to him, knowing what he intended. The Earl would die here. Voices screamed in Allen's mind, the sounds getting sucked down a whirlpool of other things. Only one thing held his focus now. Only one thing mattered now.

Allen grinned, and it was more maniacal than grim or amused. He was going all-out here. The First Noah would fall.

Allen took a step forward slowly, then a bit faster - at a walk - and that too sped up and up until he was running, sprinting, and finally top speed, barreling towards the Earl in sloppy sword form, bad enough to make Kanda cringe. The drive to slay the Earl, however, more than made up for any errors, as his first blow came faster and stronger than the Earl was initially prepared for.

Cracks appeared along the Millennium Earl's arm as he parried, and his eyes glinted dangerously as he faced the unstable Allen. "Akuma, attack!" No time for sweet voices, now.

The Akuma, enough to turn the dawning sky dark, began to move. Sarah's corpse, guided by her Innocence now under Allen's control, and Crown Clown were enough to handle that. Spires upon spires of rock and earth and the tile from roofs rose and fragmented, stretching across the sky to pick out the targets above, while Crown Clown remained between Allen and the Akuma, ready to defend him and destroy the Akuma that came close.

Channeling Dark Matter into one hand, the Earl prepared to unleash a blast of devastation. Allen gave no time, mouth open in a violent yell as he attacked the Earl with his sword over and over again, forcing the fat man on the retreat, some of the blows hard enough to continue splintering the man's arm. Then, the Earl took a gleeful leap back and unleashed his attack.

If Allen had been in his right mind, he would have dodged. Instead, he moved towards the attack, eyes not leaving the Earl, paying the incoming orb of corrupted power no mind. Crown Clown deflected it instead, in the nick of time, though Allen's charge had little to do with reliance on his Innocence.

White sword with black cross slammed into black sword with white cross. A piece of the Earl's outer-layer broke apart, while Allen's arm rippled with exertion. Allen's yell had yet to halt, only for brief intakes of air, and he swung again. The Earl bounded out of the way again, gesturing from behind to attack.

Three Level Fours appeared, ones that were supposes to be hidden away for a later ambush, yet they did little to slow Allen as he beheaded the first and jumped over the retaliatory strikes from the other two. Crown Clown was there, suddenly, and Allen continued his rampage towards the Earl while Crown Clown handled the Level Fours. Sarah's hands glowed brightly as a wave of earth crested over Allen - protecting him from a rain of Akuma bullets and beams of Dark Matter - and countless spikes rose from that to strike back at the Akuma.

Earl and Marshal clashed again, both already working up a sweat at the ferocious strikes of Allen. Allen's Level Two cursed eye was bleeding, making him a frightful sight with his teeth bared and that inhuman shriek still passing his lips, voice going hoarse. Allen's tenacity had the Earl worrying, and soon Adam made another quick retreat to perform another summon.

Allen already leapt forward in pursuit, though he was immediately stopped by what the Millennium Earl had called forth. Skin Bolic, in his fully awakened and enraged Noah form, stopped Allen's sword with one hand. Behind him…

The Earl was the enemy, the Noah were bodyguards.

Joyd, Sheryl, Bondomu, Lulubell, and even Rhode was there, ready to defend the Earl with their lives. They appeared to be all who had reawakened yet as Noah. They were there to fight, as the Tease in Joyd's hands and other preparations revealed themselves. Allen only saw Rhode, stared at her face, but her… frightened eyes stared back. Carefully hidden…

But he was once her husband, and he knew the signs of her being afraid. And she was of him.

Allen, having jumped back from Skin, buckled over suddenly, laughing. Tears leaked down his eyes - not tears of laughter - but some part of him found the situation so rich that he had to laugh. And laugh and laugh and laugh. He laughed as his skin darkened gray, as his hair curled, as his silver eyes turned gold. He laughed as the stigmata split open, as his lips parted even farther into a laugh that wasn't his own.

But it wasn't all laughter. Allen was crying, choking sobs, apologizing, as he laughed. It all came out as an unintelligible garble. Everyone shifted, uncomfortable by what they were seeing.

That slight lapse left them exposed.

Allen attacked suddenly, the Music pounding in his ears hard enough that he was sure they were bleeding. Using Sarah, spires of earth rose and brutally cleared the way. The Noah were each impaled from behind before they could react, and the part that protruded from their stomachs broke apart to bind their limbs.

Except Rhode. She, Allen could never hurt. Crown Clown descended from the sky and was upon her at the same time the others were trapped. It enveloped her, and soon she was as trapped as she had been against the black Crown Clowns. It was nostalgic of that, if Allen took the time to be sane enough to think about it. The Innocence also severed her from her powers, so she was trapped well.

Each Noah had a special case in their other bindings, however. As Tyki released his tease, small spikes from his spire shot out to destroy them. As Skin fought his bindings, the spire impaling rose higher and higher from the ground to where his heavy set limbs couldn't reach anything. Lulubell was the biggest challenge, changing her form to water to escape impalement. Try as Terra's Touch tried, they could not hold Lulubell down with her many forms, yet the continued attempts kept her preoccupied.

Allen moved when the Innocence did, and already he had reengaged the Earl, as the Fourteenth. There was no denying the Musician had reawakened now, and now the Noah fought the fragmented Allen for control over the body. Still the body fought, with the upper hand over the Earl, apparently, but inside was another war raging. However, as the Fourteenth soon found, it was hard to win against what wasn't all there. Mainly, Allen's mind.

Still Allen was crying and laughing as he apologized over and over again, swinging wildly and recklessly. He managed to get a hit in on Adam's outer armor, but so did the Earl manage to tap a blast of Dark Matter off on him. Noah healed well, though.

Finally, exhausted and with each swing burning already torn muscles, the Millennium Earl broke apart his outer-layer, with it already too damaged. However, despite the small victory, the man was faster and stronger like this. Weakened as he was, Allen was soon on the defensive.

Noah abilities had little use against the Earl, though the regeneration was useful, so Allen still clutched onto his Noah form while heaving off the Fourteenth's advances.

But, strangely, Allen only had to defend for several swings from the Earl's armorless counter. Mainly, because of the black apparition that separated him and the Earl. In moments, a confused but steady Earl stared down the black counterpart of the Crowned Clown. Allen, torn in the raging torrent of voices in his mind and forcing back the Fourteenth, only spat once on the ground, turned, and walked away.

The Earl took a step after him, but immediately the black Crown Clown enveloped him. A moment later, the Millennium Earl's screams began.

Allen smiled darkly at the sound, leaving the Earl there to his fate. He cried still, tears of blood from his cursed eye and salty tears from his human eye, but he used Sarah to destroy the false Crown Clowns that appeared next to his fellow Noah. There were four total. Allen barely registered that neither Joyd nor Bondomu had black Crown Clowns near them.

Suddenly, Cross was there.

Allen turned sharply, stunned to see the red haired man kneeling next to Adam. Then, the man was removing the black Crown Clown from the Earl. Allen snarled, lunging forward to stop Cross, but before he could get even close a pair of arms stopped his movements.

"Allen!" that was Lenalee, though it barely registered in Allen's mind. He kept struggling to get Cross away from the Earl, to leave the damnable Noah to his torment.

Allen raged, screaming curses, but was helpless to stop him. Lenalee struggled hard, but since Allen was not in his right mind he did not perform the proper method of breaking free of her hold.

Cross finally removed the Cloak, and the Earl's howls died down. Then, in a burst of magic, the cloak was destroyed. Allen struggled harder, more furious, still struggling against the Fourteenth, still transformed. Cross merely looked at him and gave a single nod towards Lenalee.

Something heavy collided in the back of Allen's head, stopping him mid-curse, and as he lost consciousness he only heard Lenalee mutter, "I'm sorry."


AN: This and the last were one chapter split into two. Although both short, it just seemed better that way, and as I detest short chapters I felt a rapid update was in order. Though the next chapter will come at normal time, mainly 4-7 days. Anyways, as for the chapter, you finally have a view at Allen snapping. But the question is, how much worse are things going to get?

Oh I love this story; the possibilities are endless. Hope you enjoyed! :D