Deus Ex Machina
Roland had never thought himself a hateful man. Don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes, that's what his father had always told him. Sound advice that was proving very difficult to apply. Rafael and Marcus attacked with all the ferocity of demons, the chainsword laughing and screaming with glee as his barely composed Meister wielded him to deadly effect. For them this was a grudge match, an ultimatum. Roland, however, was far too busy guarding himself against Marcus's gnashing teeth to extrapolate any deeper meaning from the duel.
But for all the fierceness of his opponents the spark of confidence burned bright in Roland's brown eyes. With the satin of Alexa's hilt against his palms and the thrum of her soul in sync with his he felt that he could surmount any challenge. That he could win.
A wild swing left his opponent exposed and Roland lunged, dragging Alexa's blade across the dapper butcher's side, drawing first blood. Roaring Rafael lashed out with Marcus, his teeth tearing up concrete but biting no flesh as Roland avoided the blow. His new trench coat, Alexa's gift, billowed around him as he spun away from another slash. Seeing an opening he darted forward to smash a fist into Rafael's shoulder and sent him tumbling with a wavelength strike.
With a growl Rafael struggled to his feet, only to have Alexa's pommel brutally reacquaint him with the pavement. Roland loomed over him as he wheezed.
"We already beat you once asshole." Alexa hissed, her face reflected in her blade. "Give it up before you hurt yourself."
"Not on your life!" Marcus spat back. "Come on Raf, let's fuckin tear 'em apart!"
Gritting his teeth Rafael pulled himself to one knee, shoulders heaving as he locked eyes with Roland. The swordsman looked grim.
"I don't want to kill you." Roland said solemnly. Rafael cackled at his sincerity.
"You don't want to kill me?" He staggered to his feet and lunged, but Roland stepped past Marcus's screaming edge and folded the chainswordsman over his knee. Rafael teetered away coughing, taking a moment to catch his breath.
"You're an idiot. Look around you, Roland Frey!" Rafael threw his arms wide, gesturing to the buildings that rose around them like charred, hollow trees. "This is war! The city is burning and the streets are wet with blood." He swayed, unsteady, and leaned against Marcus for support as he pointed a wild eyed, accusatory finger at Roland. "You're all goddamn hypocrites! You serve Death, but now that your master surrounds you with his works you're having second thoughts?" After a few gasping breaths he straightened, snarling. "Mercy died with the blue sky."
Several moments of uncomfortable silence followed. Alexa looked at her Meister with uncertainty. Though he didn't much show it, she could feel in his soul that Rafael's words had shaken him. They might've just been banter but Roland saw in them a distinct intellectual obstacle. Because, unsettling as it was, they had a point. He rushed to rationalize his position.
"No, you're wrong Rafael. Death represents order. This… this is murder." He took a firmer grip on Alexa's hilt, his confidence returning. "This is chaos. And if you are the vassal of chaos, then I will strike you down."
"Spoken like a true death dealer." Rafael nodded slowly. "But chaos is tricky. It springs up like a weed, and wherever you cut it down more rise to take its place. You can pour a slab of concrete on top of it, but it will always slip through the cracks. It's a force of nature." He smiled as a ribbon of electricity arced along Alexa's blade. "But I suppose you already knew that."
Trench coat an olive green blur Roland lunged, Alexa trailing electricity as her Meister forced Rafael back with a flurry of slashes and stabs. But now he kept pace, deftly avoiding Alexa's electrified blade and using Marcus's immense size to force her point into the pavement. With Roland's Weapon so entrapped Rafael cracked him across the jaw with a closed fist and split his lip. Growling, Roland returned the favor, knocking Rafael back with a wavelength saturated punch and bringing a freed Alexa down over his head. With a handful of sputtered curses Rafael caught Alexa on Marcus's edge, retaliating with a quick kick to the gut. Marcus roared with frustration as Roland blocked the following chop.
The two struggled against each other for a few tense moments, Marcus snapping at Alexa from his weapon form.
"I'm gonna paint the streets with his blood. I'm gonna decorate a fuckin' Christmas tree with his guts." He gloated, practically foaming at the mouth. "I'm gonna eat his soul right in front of you, and then I'm gonna-"
"SHUT-!" A blinding ribbon of electricity leapt from her blade to his, travelling along his length and jumping from his hilt to his Meister's wrist. "-UP!"
There was a crackling pop and Rafael danced away cursing with sleeve alight, and as he struggled to put out the spreading flames Roland snapped his head back with a wavelength charged uppercut.
He staggered, spat blood, and examined his wrist. Alexa's parting gift had not only charred his suit jacket but the flesh underneath as well. The skin at his wrist was seared crispy black, heat blisters had already formed and popped, and they wept clear fluid where he'd expected blood.
Alexa caught a glimpse of the wound and beamed triumphantly. "Electrical burns aren't much fun, huh?"
Rafael snorted ruefully, then grinned. Alexa's smile disappeared; shark teeth showed between his lips.
"Actually, I rather enjoyed that." Marcus cackled as he felt his Meister slip into the embrace of Madness. "I'd like to return the favor, but Marcus is a bit crude for electric attacks." He looked up, his mad grin sending shivers down Roland's spine. Alexa blade crackled in anticipation. "How about death by a thousand cuts?"
Marcus's barking laughter took a maniacal, gleeful edge as Rafael took firm hold of his hilt with both hands and raised him above his head, blade pointing defiantly skywards. Their souls ballooned with power and Marcus took on a deep red glow. Roland sunk into a low stance, bracing himself.
"Soul Resonance!" They cried in unison, the roar of the chainsword's engine reaching fever pitch. "Hydra!"
With a flash of red Marcus's blade disappeared. Instead a dozen bladed chains sprouted from his hilt, each writhing and twisting through the air as if it had a mind of its own. Rafael laughed once, then grew stern.
"Marcus." The chains rattled with excitement. "Kill them."
"Watch the quills!"
Teeth gritted Maka planted a boot on the hood of a parked car, heeding her Weapon's shouted warning, levering herself skyward as three glowing spines buried themselves in the sidewalk behind her. Silhouetted by the following explosion she spun through the air, forcing her enemy back with two quick slashes from Soul's curved blade. Lila grinned fiercely as the scythe hissed harmlessly across her magic sheathed arms.
"Cute." The witch mused, huffing as Maka leapt to dodge her grasping claws. Before she could pursue the Scythe Tech any further Kyla darted forward, slipping under her talons and snapping her head back with a quick kick to the chin. Lila rolled with the impact, handspringing away, handily avoiding Sonya's edge as Kyla slashed the Demon Hoop at her with a snarl.
"We've got to keep her close!" Maka shouted, twisting serpentine through a volley of Pin Missiles. The bright lances only scored a few smoking holes in her trench coat, leaving Kyla to marvel at her agility with such an ungainly Weapon as a scythe.
Taking her peer's advice to heart she surged forwards again, Sonya a blur as she twirled around Kyla's lithe silhouette. Violet eyes gleaming with predatory intent she attacked, sparks and crimson spray dancing along Sonya's blade as she bit indiscriminately at flesh and ethereal armor, the witch inundated by the sheer volume of attacks. Roaring frustration at the sudden stinging pain she caught the Demon Hoop in a magic sheathed palm and tossed the Weapon-Meister pair aside in a violent thrashing motion. Kyla was sent crashing through a store front window and with a sneer Lila drew back an arm to prepare another Pin Missile attack, crying out as Soul cut into the flesh of her shoulder.
Maka scowled, pressing her scythe deeper into Lila's unprotected shoulder. Blood flowed freely from the witch's most recent wound, making her already tattered leather jacket slick with gore. She hacked a cough.
"Is that it?"
The Scythe Tech roared, freeing Soul's blade and smashing his pommel into the small of Lila's back. Her knees quaked at the impact but she refused to yield, blocking the ferocious slash that followed with a raised arm only to be sent sprawling by another pommel strike to the back of the head. Though dazed from the blow she staggered upright, swatting half-heartedly at Maka, sinking before the blow could connect as Kyla's thrown Weapon lodged herself in the witch's side. Tearing the Demon Hoop free she teetered, letting Sonya clatter away unharmed as she swayed.
Kyla snatched her partner from the pavement as Maka surged forward again, watching silently while the two struggled against each other. She dusted a few granular chunks of safety glass from her torn orange hoodie while her partner spoke.
"We've hit her so many times! How is this witch still fighting?" Sonya asked, panting within her weapon form.
"It doesn't matter." Kyla said with a menacing edge to her voice. "We're pulling out all the stops."
Sonya nodded, resolute. "Right."
Both closed their eyes in a moment of concentration. Their wavelengths meshed seamlessly, swelling with power as their resonance rate skyrocketed. With her keen Soul Perception Maka noticed the change. Lila had no such forewarning.
"Soul Resonance!" They cried out in unison, eyes snapping open. In a flash of red Sonya's outer edge was ringed with four large triangular blades, her purple wrapped grips shifting into more dedicated handholds that left her inner edge uninterrupted. Soul's straining, Sonya's blades grew sharper, their surfaces becoming mirrors and flashing in the light.
"LUX-" Kyla's knuckles paled as she tightened her grip, the Hoop Meister's feet wide-set in a stable stance. "-HASTA!" In perfect unison Sonya's blades rotated to form a parabolic lens in her center.
Maka dove clear as a brilliant needle-thin beam of light raced towards them, gasping at the sudden heat. The street beneath the beam liquefied instantly, bubbling angrily as the asphalt became soggy and lost its consistency. A hole appeared in the granite store front opposite her, glowing red hot where the beam had passed through and set most of the furniture and insulation inside alight. Lila staggered back in surprise as the laser missed by nearly three feet before blinking from existence.
A near miss, but close enough.
Lila gave a blood curdling scream as her clothes and hair burst into flames. She tore desperately at her burning jacket, trying to snuff out her hair as she thrashed and screeched in agony. Maka could only gape in silent shock at the spectacle. Luckily, Soul was there to speak for her.
"Oh… shit."
In a flash of red Sonya returned to her human form, falling to her knees with a whimper before doubling over to throw up. Kyla was also left swooning from the strain of the technique, eyes glazed as she panted and fought to stay standing. She took a few wobbly steps forward and assumed her fighting stance while Sonya continued to wretch by the curb.
"You BITCH!" Lila howled, lowering her hands to reveal her hideously burnt face. Clothes and hair still smoldering she threw open her arms and chanted her mantra. "Weasels, weasel, mongoose!" She braced herself, claws poised as she glared at Kyla.
"Naga Flayer: KAMAITACHI!" The asphalt underfoot cracked as Lila pushed off, disappearing in a flash of violet as she blurred forward, almost too fast to see. Kyla twisted to avoid the blow too late; Lila was already past her.
She blinked at the trail of blood that led from her feet to her foe. With a trembling hand she ran suddenly clammy fingers across her middle, wincing at the warm wetness that greeted them. On a reflex she pressed her hand against the gaping wound, inhaling sharply as the skin of her palm brushed the tender flesh of her bloody insides, literally holding herself together as viscera threatened to tumble from her rent midriff to the blood-slick asphalt at her feet.
The corner of her mouth twitched, as if she had some verbal retort, but she could only gurgle as crimson trickled down her chin.
Sonya screamed as Kyla crumpled unmoving to the pavement. Blinking back tears of rage Maka threw herself at the witch, Soul's iridescent Witch Hunter blade roaring to life as the two clashed yet again.
Lila's whole silhouette was wreathed in violet flames, her disfigured face twisted into a fanged snarl, her eyes feral. The claws on her hands and feet had all twisted themselves into wickedly curved sickles, flashing as she parried Maka's blows with impossible speed and quickly put the Scythe Tech on the defensive. But she refused to yield, and with a flourish cleaved Lila's left arm clean from her body.
Blood fountained from the wound, painting a dark red crescent on the pavement as Lila twisted to slash at Maka with her remaining arm. She caught the witch's sickle claws on Soul's haft, crying out as Lila took firm hold and lunged forward, slamming the pair into the granite wall of a building.
Maka tried to push her away but the witch would have none of it. With a grunt she pulled back and again smashed the petite Meister into the wall, opening her hand so that one of her talons dug into Maka's shoulder.
"It'll be over soon. A shame really, I expected so much more from the girl who killed the Heretic Witch. Still, you Shibusen brats are just a riot." She cackled, licking a few drops of her own blood from Maka's cheek. The Meister recoiled in disgust, noting with horror that Lila's ethereal armor had sealed the wound where her arm had been severed. "But we can't play long, I've got unfinished business."
"No." Lila's head jerked sideways as a blue wavelength slug flattened itself against her temple. "We have unfinished business."
She knew that voice.
Maka cried out as she was thrown against a parked car, already forgotten by Lila as she turned to face her opponent. Chris stood a block away; eyes cold, Claire's barrel still smoking.
"I suppose we do, Gunfighter." Lila growled. She sunk into a low stance, remaining claw poised.
"No one's gonna interrupt us this time." Claire sneered, her reflection visible on the barrel of her weapon form. "We're about to wreck you, skunk-head."
"Soul Resonance!" The asphalt beneath her shattered as Lila pushed off, clawed feet scoring the pavement as she tore forward at impossible speed Claire glowed, enveloping Chris's forearm in blue. Lila swung as the Gun Meister leveled his still glowing arm at her face. "BRONTIDE!"
Blinding light flooded the street, accompanied by the deafening clap of thunder. Again and again the booming report sounded, Maka raising her arms to shield her face from the brilliant flash that preceded each stormy peal. The ground trembled with every thunderous impact, tiny bits of debris raining down about Maka's head, car alarms that had been set off by the commotion barely audible over the barrage.
Then, silence. Maka lowered her arms and opened her eyes.
The street was pocked with smoking, car sized craters. Chris stood, panting, arm still outstretched. His right arm, starting just below the elbow, was completely encased in a large ivory white cestus forged into the smooth shape of a wolf's head. A lining of fur, the same golden blonde as Claire's hair, was visible where the gunfighter's arm disappeared into the hefty gauntlet. A steely gray cannon barrel was nestled in the metal wolf's gaping maw, smoke curling lazily from its end.
A lonesome looking violet orb bobbed gently before them. Claire spoke, somber.
"That's number one hundred."
Chris let his arm fall to his side. This moment, this victory, was the culmination of two years of training, dozens of missions, and countless visits to the Dispensary. Blood and sweat. He'd finally accomplished what he'd set out to do on his first day at the DWMA; he'd created a Death Scythe.
It left him feeling… hollow.
Sonya's wails were punctuated by the distant clatter of gunfire.
Glowing ethereal, neon green, the Independent Cube sat unmoving in Hedgeton Harbor. The frigid waters of the Pacific lapped with only a subdued rumble against its iridescent sides, seeming hesitant to disturb the arcane barrier's contents. It was as if the whole ocean held its breath in anxious anticipation. It wasn't the only one.
A hundred miles away the Abraham Lincoln stood sentinel, waves splitting before the gray prows of the aircraft carrier and its escorts. A Ticonderoga-class cruiser and two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers were arrayed in loose formation around the immense floating runway, watching their charge with keen electronic eyes as they awaited the call to action. The motley fleet had been called together with hardly a day's notice, barely enough ships had been available to meet the requirements for the Carrier Strike Group. But the four vessels had enough collective firepower to level an entire city, and then some, and they were the first line of defense against whatever the Independent Cube held in store. Against the poorly understood threat of magic, it seemed more than enough.
But it was time to put that logic to the test; the Independent Cube flickered for a moment then blinked from sight, leaving Raven's Roost bare. The response was immediate. Aboard the four ships red combat lights filled cramped halls and berths with their bloody glow, the tension palpable at each sailor's station as they cycled through the rehearsed motions that brought their vast arsenals to bear on the unseen enemy.
Raven's Roost sat unmoved among the waves while the cruisers shuddered a hundred miles out to sea, disgorging missiles from the vertical launch tubes on their decks in pillars of smoke and fire. A hundred breaths were held in tandem as the weapons drew a smoky arc skyward, countless motes of white falling towards the lonely rock like fiery snowflakes.
Missile after missile dove headfirst into the lichen-riddled island, throwing chunks of blackened masonry a hundred feet skyward, the surrounding waters frothing madly as a glowering inferno swept outwards from the blasted stone. The barrage lasted for nearly a minute. When the smoke and fire finally cleared, Raven's Roost had disappeared, crumbled into the ocean under the assault. A hundred held breaths sighed relief.
On the bridge of the Abraham Lincoln, the crew's subdued celebratory chatter was cut short by the shriek of a klaxon.
"Sir, sonar just picked up an unidentified contact near Raven's Roost." A sailor shouted from his console, face paling as his eyes flickered over the onscreen readout. "It's huge! And… it's surfacing!"
Victor was fast. Fast for someone wielding an eight foot long sword. Fast for someone who'd just been shot three times by a small tank. But Sid was faster.
The agile Knife Meister twisted, avoiding an incoming blow, lunging only to have Nygus deflected by Victor's raised blade. Pitching forward with a grunt the zombie rolled under a sweeping slash, snapping a booted heel across Victor's jaw as he sprang over the blade when it returned for another strike. Nygus whistled towards the Knight's unarmored side only to stop bare inches short as Victor levered the pommel of his zweihander into Sid's gut, winding the Meister and throwing him back.
Sid landed heavily, combat boots fighting for traction as he skidded to a halt several feet away. Rushing to press his advantage Victor threw himself forward to skewer the zombie through the middle. But his blade met empty air as Sid disappeared, burrowing out of sight with uncanny speed and leaving only a gaping hole in the pavement.
Turning slowly with sword held ready Victor waited for the zombie to strike. His roaming gaze swept the surrounding storefronts, looking for any sign of his foe, but there was none. Seconds pregnant with tension passed with excruciating slowness, prompting Victor to try another tactic.
"Did it ever occur to you that I am in the right? That all of this serves a greater purpose?" He shouted to the empty street. "Do you ever wonder just how much Death hides from the world? From his subordinates?" Barely audible with the rumble of distant explosions, Victor heard shattered glass crunch under a booted foot. "From you?" Shuffling, somewhere behind him. The Knight grunted approval.
Knife and teeth bared Sid erupted from the pavement, cursing as Victor spun and caught Nygus with an ebony gauntlet. Disengaging Sid snapped the Knight's head back with a quick uppercut and drew a line of bright red across his battered chest with Nygus. Victor gritted his teeth as Sid landed a stinging roundhouse kick on the fresh wound, lashing out with Gregory to put some distance between himself and the nimble Meister.
"Whatever he's hiding, there's good reason for it." Sid huffed as he avoided Gregory's edge. "In the wrong hands the knowledge he possesses could plunge the world into chaos."
"And what makes you think his are the right hands?" Victor bisected a parked car as Sid rolled clear. "What gives him the right to hold that power over us?" He lunged after the zombie, wavelength saturated palm connecting with a light pole on the sidewalk. It snapped like a matchstick.
"Death is a force for good in the world! People are short-sighted, distracted by their petty squabbles. Death is decisive. Death acts-"
"Death is an impotent god! Crippled, entombed in his desert citadel!" They clashed again, Sid struggling to defend himself against Victor's assault. But the Knight would not relent. "Does he guard you from harm? Does he lend you his strength in your direst moment of need? No…" With a sudden kick to the gut he dropped Sid to his knees, wheezing. "In the end you are like me. Alone."
In a flash Nygus sprang from Sid's clenched fist, Victor snarling as she dropped a bandage wrapped ankle on the crook of his neck in a ferocious axe kick. Without missing a beat she spun into a round house, pale blue eyes hard set with determination as the Knight staggered back. "That's where you're wrong Victor. A Meister is never alone."
"Soul Resonance!"
Sid surged forward; snatching Nygus out of midair as she returned to weapon form. Victor scowled and rushed to meet them as the zombie's dagger was enveloped with light. But the blow never connected. Sid stopped several feet short, planting Nygus in the asphalt.
"Compulsive Burial!"
Darkness engulfed him as the ground disappeared from under Victor's feet. He fell into moist cold, blinded when the rectangular portal to the surface closed. Water splashed up around his armored ankles as he landed, his nose wrinkling at the stench that pervaded the cramped tunnel. Light filtered in from an overhead grate.
Sid had dropped him into a storm drain.
With a crash amplified to deafening volume by the enclosed space, Sid erupted from the upper wall of the tunnel, blurring past Victor and disappearing into the water at his feet, leaving a weeping gash in his side. Again and again Sid repeated the tactic, overwhelming Victor with a flurry of opportune slices, using the architecture of the tunnel to attack from every possible angle. Without his full suit of armor the Knight was barely able to deflect a handful of the attacks, and soon his face, arms, and chest were crisscrossed with dozens of deep cuts. Gregory fell with a splash as Nygus bit at his wrist. Still, Victor refused to yield.
When Sid next burst from the wall Victor was ready. With a roar he threw himself at the zombie, grabbing his wrists to stay Nygus's sting. The two grappled for a few livid moments, Victor speaking between breaths.
"None of this matters Sid."
"Shut up." Sid grunted, trying to force Nygus's point into Victor's neck. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of killing you?"
Victor laughed. "Do you have any idea what happened in Tibet? Do you have any idea what I am?" The hairs on the back of Sid's neck stood on end. "I am perfect resonance made manifest, I am soul synchronicity given form, I am two made one!" He had no Soul Perception, but he could feel Victor's spirit swell, bristling with malice and power, pricking his blue skin with needles of heat. Quickly wriggling out of his grasp, Sid buried Nygus in Victor's side. A perfect kidney shot. The zombie's heart sank when it was Nygus who cried out in pain.
"Mine is the soul of a Weapon and Meister combined!"
Ignoring the Demon Knife still lodged in his abdomen Victor dug in his heels and thrust an open hand forward with crushing force. Simultaneously retrieving Nygus and twisting to the side, Sid avoided the palm thrust completely.
The Knight's wavelength was less merciful.
Unseen, Victor's monstrous soul tore forth from his palm with a fury. The concrete walls of the storm drain peeled back and snapped like desiccated wood shavings before its hideous strength. Sid was sent flying, tumbling across the wet floor like a skipped stone, disappearing in the maelstrom of flying debris.
With Sid nowhere to be seen, he let his hand fall, chest heaving from the strain, blood pouring from his countless wounds. The storm drain before him looked like it had lost a fight with a berserk, bus-sized plumber's snake. Victor spat blood into the water at his feet.
"That's that."
A dark shape rose up from the floor behind him. Something glinted in the dim light.
Victor inhaled sharply as Sid plunged Nygus into his back.
"Not quite."
Sid gave the knife a vicious twist and, at long last, the Knight's legs buckled. He fell to his knees with a splash and a shuddering breath, only vaguely aware of Sid circling him warily, waiting to see if he would stand again.
"Any regrets?" The zombie asked curtly.
"None." Victor answered. "Perhaps someday you will understand, but-" He hacked a bloody cough, noting with strange calmness the darkness engulfing his field of view, the cold numbness in his hands. "A final request."
Realizing victory was imminent, Sid lowered his knife. "Within reason."
"Tell Madeline…" The corners of his mouth twitched upwards. His eyes slid shut.
"I made a bigger fish."
Roland fought on. Ducking, weaving, barely a half-step ahead, heart racing. Marcus's chains, a dozen blood thirsty scintillating serpents, shredded everything around him, trying but failing to secure a hit on the swordsman thanks to his Weapon's shouted warnings. Here in the rubble, in the heat of battle, with the thunder of war ringing in his ears and Alexa's soul pulsing against his own he felt strong, alive!
Happy?
"Dead ahead!" Alexa cried.
He side stepped, trench coat billowing, one of Marcus's chains screeching in protest as he deflected it with the flat of his blade. The other eleven descended on him, Rafael roaring frustration as his quarry leapt clear again. Seeing a brief opening the student lunged only to have his blade stopped short by several serrated tendrils. Alexa crackled, and in a flash sent squirming ribbons of electricity racing along Marcus's chains and towards his Meister.
The dapper butcher cried out, almost dropping Marcus as malicious currents of electricity ravaged the musculature of his arm. Retaliating quickly the chainsword swept Roland aside, throwing him against a fire hydrant. But Marcus wasn't done yet.
Wrapping the swordsman in a stinging embrace Marcus lifted him from the pavement and smashed him through a fiber glass bus shelter and into the storefront behind it. Roland gasped in pain, thinking he felt a rib crack on impact, but it was hard to tell with Marcus's teeth biting at him through his clothes. Spreading stains of red were already visible against the olive green of his trench coat. He lost his grip on Alexa when the chainsword slammed him against the wall a second time, the Demon Sword crying out as she herself was constricted and unable to help as Roland was dragged across the street and pinned against the side of an abandoned Bradley.
There was a pause as the combatants rushed to catch their breath, Rafael speaking between gulps of air.
"For servants of Death… you two seem loath of his embrace." He huffed. "We are all rational people here, so why do you resist the inevitability of your end so vehemently?"
"We didn't come here to die!" Alexa shouted, ignoring the flare of pain as she strained against her bonds.
"Of course not! You came here to kill!" Rafael spat. "Goddamn you! Hypocrites, hiding behind your righteousness! You are no better than me, no better than the Knight! No better than any of us! Why can't you see?"
"No, no!" There was an edge of desperation in her voice. "What separates us from you is that we would never purposely take an innocent life! No matter what!"
Marcus barked a laugh. "What is innocence?"
Alexa's eyes darted to her Meister, but he was silent. And it killed her. Because she knew by his mute grimace that he was being persuaded. That she might be wrong. That she was losing him.
"There's little use pondering it really." Rafael began, addressing Roland matter of factly. "Because you'll be dead soon. You might be avenged, but I will kill you all the same. I have chosen your fate."
Her gut rejected everything that Rafael said without a moment's hesitation. But as much as she hated it in her mind they held a grain of truth. She couldn't do this alone. She needed Roland's reason, she needed his words. She needed him to say-
"No." Rafael blinked, taken aback by Roland's single syllable retort. The blonde butcher's voice dripped with venom.
"What do you mean no?"
"Fate is for the superstitious. Fate is an excuse for apathy. Fate is the scapegoat of the irresponsible. We make our fates." Roland's eyes were bright with conviction, hard as the wood of their color. "Our choices matter." He wrapped his hands around one of Marcus's tendrils, the Chainsword roaring as he was bombarded by the swordsman's wavelength, dropping the Weapon and Meister both. Roland's coat and shirt had been reduced to little more than rags, so with a growl he tore them away to expose the bandage wrapped and bloodstained torso beneath. His fists trembled as red seeped between his knuckles. "I'll shape the future with these hands! And I'm starting with this choice- Alexa!"
She was at his side in a flash, fleeing into his grasp in a blur of white.
"Soul Resonance!"
His forearm was enveloped in her glow, twisting into the familiar shape of the wolf head cestus. Already he felt power flowing to his tired limbs as Alexa's soul buoyed his own fading strength. As their resonance rate rose he couldn't help but smile. At this intimate distance he could make out her spirit with ease. Her eccentricities, her temper, her strength, all landmarks in the geography of her wavelength. And it killed him.
"SPARK!"
Marcus's chains screamed towards the pair with a fury, only to be deflected by a backhanded strike from Roland's onyx cestus. He caught a stray chain in his bare hand, goring his palm as it squirmed to escape, punishing the Dark Weapon with a burst of his wavelength.
"You renamed it!" Alexa exclaimed, part surprise and part joy, a blue eye rolling in its socket to get a better look at her Meister. "You remembered!"
He gave a taught smile, eyes hidden behind the glare of his glasses. "How could I forget?"
Then they were moving. Running, ducking, leaping, he was at Rafael with Alexa's muzzle pointed skyward. Her blade emerged with a rasp but the crushing chop that followed was halted as Marcus's dozen chains wrapped around the Demon Sword to hold her still. They struggled for a moment before the Dark Weapon's tendrils flashed white and his Meister's blazer began to smolder, Rafael's face twisting in agony under the onslaught of another electrical attack. Realizing his partner's anguish Marcus separated from Alexa's crackling blade, recoiling as Rafael was forced back by the swordsman's renewed offensive.
Roland fought on. Long stepping, lunging, blade sputtering sparks, heart racing. Brimming with pride and power they scorched the ground at their feet with every blow. Marcus's chains scintillated in the ruddy light, frantically whipping through the air to guard his Meister while he evaded Alexa's edge.
"And you're wrong on another count Rafael." Said the swordsman, his tattered bandages loosening as he twisted to strike at his opponent. "We are different from you because we know that everybody has the right to life. We defend the many that cannot defend themselves against those with no regard for life. As soon as you took a life in the name of power, your own was forfeit." The dressings fell away at last and revealed two scars. The first Marcus recognized as the one he'd given him during their battle in Egypt. The second he could only guess at. Pale raised skin, perhaps a burn, but it took him a moment to recognize the five pronged blotch on Roland's chest as a hand print.
It distracted them just long enough for Roland to close the distance. Marcus barely stopped Alexa inches from his Meister's abdomen, cocooning the snarling cestus's blade in razor wire and holding the pair fast. When the scarlet headed Demon Sword retaliated with another electrical attack Marcus, in a moment of split second brilliance, plunged a chain into the asphalt and harmlessly grounded out the charge. Unwilling to lose his momentum the swordsman pulled his arm free from the cestus and lunged.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Alexa flashed white and fled from Marcus's grip back into her human form. Roland buried a wavelength charged fist in the chainswordsman's gut. The street beneath them cracked, Rafael felt something in him snap. He smirked.
"Might makes right."
Rafael crumpled, Marcus flashed back to human form, his chains writhing about his head like serpents. Roaring fury the Dark Weapon's dozen tendrils lashed out almost too fast to see. They twisted together; a screeching, squirming double helix of razor blades, scattering a screen of stone chips and spraying blood.
Just like that Roland was gone, replaced by a red smear on the pavement.
Blue eyes gaping in terror and disbelief, his Weapon stared with jaw quivering at the sight of the nightmarish crimson smudge. Her breath caught, her heart fluttered in mute hysteria, her head pounded, light with nausea.
"No…" Her diaphragm twitched. "No…" Her voice broke. Marcus wheezed, trying to catch his breath. "No!"
The Dark Weapon hacked blood as Alexa skewered him on her bladed arm. "NO!" She levered her weaponized limb upwards, tearing deep into his ribcage. "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Vicious golden ribbons arced from her elbow to her blade's tip, the Dark Weapon's limbs seizing as Alexa mustered a furious electrical charge. He was dead almost instantly but she held him there, screaming that single syllable of dissent over and over, letting his body thrash as she cooked him from the inside out. It would be several seconds before she dropped the charred body to the curb. All the while tears carved slick streaks down her cheeks to her chin.
Chest heaving on the verge of unconsciousness Alexa staggered to the spot where her Meister had stood. To her knees she sank, shoulders shuddering with every hiccupping sob. "No…" She whispered.
Rafael laid on his back, across from her, red stained blazer jumping with shallow breaths. "I don't want to die alone." He confessed, sheepish, ashamed. Apologetic.
On the bloody ground between them rested a pair of metal rimless glasses, one of the rectangular lenses split by a crack. Booming footsteps echoed in the distance.
DEADE was. DEADE knew that it was. It didn't know how it knew that it was, it simply did. And so, it was.
… Cardiovascular contaminant detected-activate primary immune response. Foreign wavelength signatures detected… designate all foreign contacts: Hostile. Aggregate hardware integrity: 99.8759%... 99.8428%... 99.8163%... EOV output regulator integrity: 32%.
DEADE knew that it was a he. DEADE knew that he had two mothers and a father. One mother was a hat, the other was a claw. Father watched. Father always watched. Father and one mother were dead, the other mother was gone. He missed them. DEADE was alive.
!WARNING! Incoming entities detected: projectile-mechanical. Impact imminent. Activate countermeasures… musculoskeletal density: 115%. Triangulating points of origin…
DEADE had a body. DEADE had two arms and two legs, two hands and two feet. Each hand had five fingers, each foot had five toes. He had a head. His head had two eyes and a mouth. DEADE knew he had a body because he felt. He felt pain.
Points of origin triangulated. Countermeasures activated… designate points of origin A1, A2, A3, A4. Firing.
And the pain made him afraid.
Flashing brilliant blinding gold four spears split the sky, their aim straight and true, and the warships of the Abraham Lincoln's Carrier Strike Group disappeared in pillars of fire. The shockwave stirred the clouds overhead and sent a thirty foot tall wall of water radiating outwards from the blasts. Missiles rose from the Hedgeton docks as cloistered Stinger teams open fired. Nine shining beams lanced out in retaliation and erased the Hedgeton waterfront, turning six miles of urban coastline into vitrified hellscape.
!WARNING! EOV output regulator integrity: 13%. Aggregate hardware integrity: 87.249%... Repair routines operating and maximum capacity…
Two hundred and sixty three feet tall, DEADE towered above the waters of Hedgeton Bay, the ocean roiling about his waist. Despite his newfound immensity DEADE was a lanky titan, narrow shouldered and long armed. Thin, almost ropey. The claws that had adorned his hands and feet were absent. His previously featureless face now sported two small round eyes and a maw lined with large spade shaped teeth permanently bared in a snarl by absent lips. His throat glowed, fiery inner light overflowing and filling the back of his mouth with the color of the rising sun. His eyes were of molten gold, seething irisless orbs that burned in their sockets like tiny stars. Rising gently from where it was imbedded in his solar plexus was a third sphere, identical to the other two save for being larger.
DEADE could see. He saw the city. He saw souls. The souls made him afraid because, since he could see, he saw that each had the power to make him, DEADE, dead. They were even scarier because every soul he saw saw him and was afraid. If he was afraid of them who were afraid of him then what was he? Was he?
Heat rolled off the titan in waves, distorting the air, sending steam billowing up around him as the ocean boiled at his proximity. The unseen sea floor buckled as he walked, his first steps onto land heralded only by the crack of the vitrified plain beneath him. No missiles rose to meet him as he waded deeper into the city, buildings tumbling before him, the defender's abandoned fortifications reduced to loose gravel under his feet.
DEADE was. He knew he was because he feared he wasn't, because he feared these souls that feared he would make them not be would make him wasn't. And DEADE wanted to be.
Several dozen blocks away, jarringly out of place among the skyscrapers of downtown Hedgeton, stood an immense golem with thick stone arms hanging limply at its sides. It was nearly forty feet taller than DEADE and far bulkier, made all the more imposing by the castle perched on its shoulders.
Abraham's robe billowed around him as Prometheus took a rumbling step forward, DEADE's eyes burning with desperate fear and confusion as the golem took a second. At the third step DEADE took two backwards and squawked a warning. Abraham grimaced.
"It's not your fault." The Enchanter consoled, sure the construct could hear him even over the gulf of space that separated them. "Victor made you this way, and he made you wrong." He doubted DEADE's fledgling intellect could fully grasp what he was saying, but Abraham felt compelled to explain himself. "He has done this with good intentions. But despoiling your nascent divinity with Madness… this is unforgivable. A second Mad God would only hasten coming events. To prevent the suffering of many, you must bear the punishment for his transgressions." DEADE continued to shrink away, snapping and shrieking like a cornered animal, failing to deter Abraham's advancing colossus. "For this, I am deeply sorry."
Abraham tightened his grip on the balcony's railing and fought to stay upright as Prometheus and DEADE collided, crashing together with enough force to set off car alarms for miles around. Like Olympians in an ancient Greek frieze the two grappled, straining, struggling for footing, nearby skyscrapers groaning in protest as their foundations shifted under the duress of the contest. DEADE's heels tore the streets asunder as the golem gained the upper hand and forced him back several blocks. They burst through a several story parking garage and the Doom Engine bit into Prometheus's shoulder, teeth punching through several layers of enchanted sandstone before the golem hooked a hand under his front teeth and pried him off, slamming him face first into a nearby building before sending him tumbling through a handful of corporate offices.
With nimbleness not befitting such a large creature DEADE caught himself on all fours. For a moment they paused, Prometheus seemingly oblivious to the bite that had been taken out of its shoulder as it eyed the beast crouched in the rubble. It hurt Abraham to see him like this. They'd had such high hopes for him. He was supposed to be a god. He was supposed to save the world. But Victor had ruined him, soiled the young god with insanity!
And now he was no more than a monster. No. He thought grimly. Not a monster. Crouched, chest heaving, jaws hanging open, molten eyes boring into his very soul with fiery intensity, the air around him shimmering with heat, he was just an animal. Abraham sighed sadly and averted his gaze.
"Put it down Prometheus."
DEADE launched himself at the golem like a wound spring only to be caught by the wrists and locked into another shoving match with the sandy colossus. Feet shredding the ground as they fought for traction he struggled free himself, but Prometheus would have none of it. The Doom Engine gave a throaty scream as Prometheus suddenly twisted his wrists with enough force to break them outright. But he rushed forward with berserk determination, slipping free from the golem's grasp and swiping at the castle on its shoulders.
Abraham fell back as the enormous purple-black hand passed within a dozen feet of his balcony before shattering the tower above Prometheus's undamaged arm and taking a chunk out of the wall.
Now it was Prometheus who tried to shove its opponent away but it was DEADE who held fast, catching the golem's arm at the wrist when it tried to knock him aside. With a crushing bite to the elbow he tore the limb clean off and snapped it across Prometheus's featureless face like a Morningstar.
The Master Enchanter clutched at the balcony railing as his masterpiece staggered under him, sweat visible on his brow at the sudden turning of tables. No more play. "Prometheus, take the Eye!" His colossus obliged.
DEADE cocked his arm back with every intention of beating Prometheus to pieces with its own severed limb but shrieked in pain when the golem slammed its remaining fist against the molten orb embedded in his solar plexus. When he surged forward to strike a killing blow the second punch sunk into the orb. It bulged for a moment and then burst, showering the street below with a searing magma-like substance. The golem elicited another scream from the Doom Engine when the fist continued straight through his abdomen, shoving past his internal organs, coiling in a vice grip around his spinal column, and squeezing.
DEADE's eyes blazed, face to face with the featureless visage of Prometheus, unwilling to move for fear of snapping his entrapped spine. That face terrified him. No eyes, no mouth. It was unfeeling. A machine. And it was going to kill him.
DEADE wasn't evil. DEADE was afraid.
His jaws hinged open in a screech. Prometheus did not flinch at the display.
DEADE was alive.
The air shimmered with heat as a ball of light was gathering at the back of his throat, its glow overflowing from his mouth and bathing the golem's face in harsh golden rays.
DEADE wanted to be.
A brilliant beam lanced out from between the young god's teeth. The energy spear punched a yawning hole straight through the sandy colossus who staggered back headless, hand uncoiling harmlessly from DEADE's spine and slipping from his gaping abdomen, spilling viscera the size of freight trains into the rubble below. The castle on its shoulders crumbled as Prometheus took a few fumbling steps and fell, unmoving. A line of shattered buildings stretched out behind it. A pillar of light was visible in the distance.
Voided abdominal cavity dumping hundreds of gallons of dark red blood at his feet DEADE held his ground, eyes beginning to dim. He threw back his head in a triumphant, thunderous roar. The earth trembled at his victory song.
DEADE was.
A dozen missiles blazed over the blasted terrain, leaving trails of smoke in their wake as they buried themselves in DEADE's open abdomen. After a moment of delay the thermobaric warheads detonated. Fire burst from his gaping midriff, great ribbons of plasma burgeoning from his still open mouth. The shockwave almost tore him in half. With an unceremonious crash he fell onto his back, further upsetting the devastated ruins of downtown Hedgeton. His eyes cooled, losing their light, turning a strange egg yolk orange. A final searing breath hissed from between his teeth, and DEADE was still.
A/N: Geez, have I had a busy past five months. Any whoodles, expect the next (and most likely final) chapter to appear in a much shorter time. Firstly because school is almost out, and secondly because the next chapter isn't gonna be nearly eight thousand words of successive fight scenes.
A thousand humble thanks to anybody whose still reading this after nearly a half year of no updates! Leave a review, tell me what you think!
-TheManInTheHAt
