Emma
It was supposed to be her day. Her beautiful, proud, and lovely day that she would not only share with her family but with very important people that would push her future career further into the limelight. It was a simple event with an agent that her daddy had talked with…
And at the same time, it was also a day when her mom and the rest of her family wished for them to go shopping due to a recent clientele despite the blackouts that spelled good fortune for their family. Everyone was ecstatic. Everyone was enjoying despite Emma annoyingly not being able to use her phone to take pictures.
It was a perfect day, all of the fortune that she deserved after enduring the hardships and tribulations in life were finally now coming back to her with all the rewards and gifts. She was so happy that she was confident that this was just the start of her life going in the right direction.
The sun was in her eyes, her future so clear that she could metaphorically taste it.
It felt amazing being this way. Being right.
Being strong and enduring despite all of the adversity.
It made her feel Sophia's words as if they were gospel.
Doubly so when they managed to put the trash right back into its place. The act in itself was a final nail in the coffin of her reminders of the past. The literal excrement needed to be put down for her to fully legitimize her new role in the new world.
Poor Taylor.
A fool that was merely a stepping stone to bring about a blooming flower. A blooming flower that would leave behind all of its impurities, all of its flaws to fully realize its beauty and grace into the world.
It did not need blemishes, or the many parasites and worms that would wish to crawl on its leaves and trample its beauty for their own needs. No, it was like a predatory plant, beautiful, fierce, and above all else deadly to almost everything that threatens its existence.
A true apex in an ecosystem of predators. An apex that devoured and crushed insects such as Taylor. An apex that could run with predators such as Sophia.
That feeling of catharsis alone as Sophia smiled at her while Taylor screamed inside her locker was sublime and her luck afterwards proved to her that the action was an omen for what was to come.
Sophia even told her of giving her another gift at the end of the day to celebrate their success…
And Emma believed it so after everything that she had experienced up to that point.
It was perfect.
She was happy. Truly happy in such a way that even her Daddy had a genuine smile on his face for her part. Even her mother was so proud and happy as well as her nearly wayward sister.
If only it could have lasted.
Emma could not even fathom how such an event began.
Her father had bought them a fairly expensive cone of ice cream, each. She and her father brought said cones hand in hand when it started.
It was loud. It was horrible. There was singing within the cries and screams.
She could not even remember if she was screaming alongside the deluge of vermin and chaos. She remembers her dad taking her hand forcibly as soon as the horror started, and they ran toward their family as everything around them crumbled into infamy.
It was abrupt, almost as if out of nowhere there were dark clouds in the sky, but they were no clouds at all. Suddenly they came out of everywhere, crevices, animals, and even food, as her father screamed in horror and shock as they ran as fast as they could to safety.
People ran in tandem around them, some had their screams pierce the air in full stride as the bugs covered them from head to toe. Emma even remembers that a ton of people violently trampled themselves over each other as they tried to escape the confines of a popular restaurant where they ate lunch prior. Her eyes tightened as she horrifically watched the deluge of people run and walk over each other as blood and various violent acts happened within a fraction of a few minutes.
Even her dad had to punch someone out of the way as more and more people came flooding out of the shops and buildings that Emma knew all too well by memory. Eventually against the maelstrom of horrid things they finally reunited with her mother and sister who were holding on to dear life by a pole near a bookstore as she saw her mother comforting her sister.
Her dad quickly rounded them all up and screamed for them to hide and take shelter inside the shop despite the deluge of insects. Emma remembers them arguing as Anne cried in fear and desperation. Emma could only watch with her mouth parted as the fear within her blossomed…
…all the while as the ideology or the newly established beliefs within her head planted by her dear friend raged against each other as the chaos around her continued to escalate into levels unforeseen.
The sky was nearly black due to the vermin flying around like the wind of a hurricane.
The deluge of men, women, and children in various states of disrepair continued to fill the symphony of chaos that was like a demented choir to whoever was listening with their ears in full tilt. Even the smell, the atmosphere, and the overall feeling of the entire affair continued to dawn on her like a raging torrent of tidal waves that clashed against her surprisingly fragile psyche.
Yet Emma did not remember screaming. She only remembered being silent at the entire affair as she watched on not in fascination but in disbelief and a clashing tide of unrest within her as emotions boiled down to a state of blankness to her senses being overtaxed as they were.
Her parents continued to argue about what action needed to be taken as the world crumbled around them like one of those stories of Endbringer attacks she kept hearing online and Emma once thought she was prepared. That she was strong enough to be brave against something as intensive as that.
One look at her sister crying while holding her mother's arms and at a man choking and vomiting on the street as insects and bugs crawled all over him broke all of those preconceived notions like a sledgehammer to the face.
It was only through a miracle that she was not going into despair or total lunacy over the world breaking up around her not just in a metaphorical sense, but in a literal sense.
She felt herself getting cold as she froze up, her mind no longer knowing what to do as more of the vermin crawled around her...
Only for the entire place to shake as a loud explosion coupled with flames, as hot as they could possibly be at a distance flared into life a few blocks away. An annoyed and angry roar was heard as the visage and memory not just in news, the internet, and stories gathered from Sophia made the entire Barnes family be reminded of a certain ABB Leader that was also being affected by the swarm of rabid bugs attacking the city.
She felt her mother grab her wrist as her father led them into the bookshop. They ran headfirst inside as insects of all manner of life that Emma could not even remember from their biology class started to emerge from everywhere. Books and other paraphernalia were haphazardly thrown or just scattered everywhere as she remembered her father rushing towards a fire exit to find them a way out of the building. It appeared the clerk who worked in the bookstore and any of the staff were gone due to the chaos only for Emma to trip as her mother dragged her along when her leg had hit something.
She fell to the ground rather significantly as her head was concussed a bit. The voice of her mother rang in her head as she felt multiple hands trying to pull her up as her blurry eyes re-adjusted back to clarity.
And the world felt like it slowed down, at least to her perception.
What she tripped over was an arm. When she traced said arm towards its source, she saw a face staring right back at her. A very expressive but frozen face that had centipedes and ants crawling out of its orifices. It was a haunting sight as the expression on said face was one of pure despair and Emma had already pictured in her head the various implications of why that person was left the way they were.
That sight continued to haunt her in those seconds that passed as she was dragged away with that very locked expression on her face.
The next thing she remembered was a door being slammed shut as her father continued to step fervently and angrily at the insects that came through under the door. Emma turned her head and saw herself through a mirror and finally realizing that they were in a rather cramped restroom of what she assumed to be for the boys given the urinal that hung on the left and an actual toilet on the far-right corner of the room.
A single window ordained the entire cramped space little light could emerge from it. The partially closed fractured glass window led a significant stream of insects to enter their current abode as the stench of male piss and what she could assume to be the remnants of various tissues and their filth inside the barely cleaned trash bin on the side of the toilet only added to the feelings of despair in the room.
She could hear Anne continuing to cry within her mother's arms at the corner of the room as her dad continued to angrily step on and kill any bugs that so much as come near them.
Emma however, stared listlessly at her reflection in the mirror. She touches her face, flecks of what she assumed to be blood from the rampage and panic outside or of something else were scattered. Her hair, the luster that it had was no longer vibrant as dust, pieces of debris, and other various things cluttered it to a ruffled mess reminiscent of…
Reminiscent of her.
Even her clothes, the wonderful clothes she used to impress and bedazzle the contact her father had for her would-be career were afflicted in such disarray that she could no longer recognize it.
Her visage. The beauty, the indomitable will…
The bravery and newfound sense of duty and respect for herself that she worked so long to regain underneath all of the false pretenses were shattered in an instant.
She was no longer Emma Barnes the reformed, but Emma Barnes as she once was.
Looking at her face and current look reminded her so vividly of that very night.
"…"
Emma found herself shaking at the realization until she heard her dad shout out loud into the muffled, echoing sound of their voices in the small, cramped room they were in. The ground was shaking slightly as the roar of the infamous ABB leader outside continued to intensify.
"I told you we should have run the other way! We wouldn't have trapped ourselves in here if you just listened to me!" her mother shouted as Anne's cries worsened.
"And what? Go where? Into Lung? Into the Bay? Have you seen what's happening outside?"
"Alan, we need to leave. We can't stay here, I'm scared not just for the kids, but for us. We're dooming ourselves being stuck to this place that we don't even know if it could last." Her mother argued back as Emma sees her dad look at her and towards her mother.
"I know! I know… but we… we can't just go out there, not with Lung outside... not with the ABB and whoever's doing all of this duking it out in the streets." Emma sees in her father's eyes the expression of fear and pure utter uncertainty that was all too familiar to her.
Even the screams from the outside that stilled echoed against all the singing of the bugs and the chaos became familiar to her ears but on a more grander scale. Even the encroaching darkness of the biblical swarms of the vermin outside only served to push the heavy-handed symbolism that the situation was starting to form on her…
It was as if the world was laughing at her plight and sorrow. Her dad continued to convince them shakily that everything would be okay, even as her mother's expression worsened with each coming second.
"We'll be alright… I'm sure the Protectorate or the PRT will fix this… t-they should. I will never doubt them afte-
The earth around them shook again as Anne's wails started to turn into uncontrolled whimpers.
"Alan… we need to get out of here. I beg of you, even somewhere we know that's close, that's safe. W-We can go to the docks, D-Danny should be there, Taylor too at this hour, right? We can't just stay here!" her mother argued as her dad looked back.
He was about to reply until Emma found herself replying instead to her mother.
"Taylor's gone. We... w-we left her at Winslow."
There was a partial silence as every one of them digested her words. Even Anne.
Her mother worst of all stared at her in confusion.
"Emma? W-What does that mean honey?"
Emma stared at her mother.
Suddenly she remembers the lies. The façade. The pure veil that she constructed around herself as Emma remembers her mother asking her time and time again how Taylor was…
How she was doing.
They laugh as Taylor looks in shock for the first time at Emma for humiliating her in front of the class.
How Taylor's time was in school.
Emma splashes a carton of juice on her head as Taylor seldom takes it without emotion.
How her Uncle Danny and Taylor were handling without Taylor's mom…
Taylor tears up as Emma bloats and curses Aunt Annette's name by pinning the blame for her death solely on her for how weak she was.
Emma remembered it all as her mother continued to look at her confusion and the subtle hint of denial. Worse, all of the acts and perjury that she had ever inflicted solely on Taylor all started to come back like a freight train hitting her at full force.
"Emma?" She heard her dad say as her mother continued to stare at her.
"I… I-
BROOOOUUUUUUUUMMMMMM!
A loud sound roared out of the stillness as the ceiling and large parts of the building where her dad was standing by to cover the door collapsed on themselves as a large object, or in this case, a body had crashed into the building they were in.
A very large body wrapped in intense, scathing heat.
That was the last Emma had seen her dad. She could not even remember if there was any blood or screams as she found herself nearly hugging the wall next to the urinal in reflex as the heat around her rose in level and intensity. The infamous gang leader thrashing around as the insects and the bugs who were initially just scrambling around in volumes untold were visibly attacking Lung or in this case…
They were accosting him in a manner that had the gang leader howl in rage and fury.
Said rage and fury burned a fire so bright that Emma raised her hands. The sensation of the burns on her skin not just on her forearms but on what else was exposed, especially that of her face could not even properly keep up with the speed of the intensity of the sudden burst in heat.
She remembers screaming, but her screams were drowned out completely by the howl of the Dragon of Kyushu…
And the last voices of Emma's mother and sister as they burned to death in their corner in just mere minutes due to being much closer in proximity. Emma was not even aware of it as the oxygen around her became nearly non-existent and she found herself out of breath against her screams.
It all ended violently as she slowly slumped herself on the corner due to all the heat and burns as what remained of the roof and parts of the building were torn down around that little corner that she was shoved in. The pieces of debris ranging from rock, wood, and other materials were almost conveniently crashed on top of her position and it looked like she was trapped in a very cramped and horrifically disgusting prison.
The cramped space was immensely uncomfortable. The diminutive space constrained nearly every limb and from head to toe her body looked as if she was folded crudely into a fetal position. Worse, every piece of burnt skin that was still fresh and sticky was exposed to the newly cramped walls around her prison by the pieces of the restroom around her.
Including the walls that pieces of leftover mucus that careless visitors of the shop put as they pissed into the urinal. In addition, the trash bin that was close to the urinal that was crushed from the ordeal had spilled and now mixed with the contents of the bin had produced a smell and atmosphere that just bathed her in all the excess sewage and filth that pieces of the smelly used tissue stuck itself to all of her freshly, sticky burns.
Emma continued to wail in a very weak sob as she felt that her other eye no longer functioned as well as her other and that the pain from the itching to purely seething sensations continued to flare around her body. Alongside the smell, it only made her cry in pure sorrow due to everything that she had experienced so far.
It reminded her of that night, but now it was in a more extreme sense.
She was never violated nor disgraced as much as that night but the sheer number and volume of her misfortunes and the depth they sunk to continued to torment her to the point that sobbing was merely just a comfort at this point.
The sound of the Dragon of Kyushu roaring and the ground shaking around her as the insects sang continued to overwhelm all of her senses. Her fetal position allowed her to try and cover her ears to the madness as the smell and the salty, painful feeling of her tears colliding with the burns upon her face only increased the suffering further to a degree that made her question everything that she had done.
And then, they came in. Hordes of them in numbers nearly suffocated her as they rushed in from every nook and cranny that existed within her prison. Emma continued to sob with her voice painful and continuous as it was, she pushed both her hands into the sides of her head to try and make it all stop in her head, but it just continued on and on…
The horror continued with such intensity that Emma could not help but remember Taylor's screams.
Screams from a nearly similar prison…
Of her own design.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhh"
Her wails continued to be canceled out by the chaos around her as the literal mirror and comparison of her own orchestrated act upon a former sister only by name and the position and situation she was now in had forcibly taught her a new perspective.
A perspective that once again shattered the gospel and kindness that Sophia had brought her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHH"
Her tears continued to sting as seconds later across all the intensity she blacked out.
The last thought in her head was her face in the mirror earlier superimposed by Taylor's own after the many, many, memories of her acts to prove her newly refurbished ideology.
From that moment on, her entire soul and mind was crushed entirely.
Replaced only by sadness as the world around her slowly became silent until…
Nothing.
…
…
OWWWWWOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHH
Emma found herself waking up. Her last good eye blinked rapidly as the calmed slew of insects around her entire body stood still. The pain was nearly very dull and her hearing only amounted to a weak volume.
It was dull. Everything was dull.
Any sensation that was overwhelmed by God knows what amount of time earlier before she lost consciousness was now a shadow of it once was. Something that she was not even sure was an injury in some way or form or merely her mind just giving up entirely.
Even with the smell and all of the realizations Emma merely stared into the wall that covered her on all sides. Thoughts continued to circulate in her head.
Many were contemplations.
Chief amongst them was, "Was this what she felt?".
Everything else became unimportant, even as the ground minutes later shook and the rubble and debris around her suddenly moved.
The insects around her sang once more in their dull, soft tones but she continued to stare into nothingness. The questions in her mind changed rapidly as the walls around her were uplifted within her sight as the sensation of falling was felt.
The world was now exposed to her once more.
The sky was thick and nearly covered by swarms of insects that acted like a Biblical Plague. The air was as heavy in the atmosphere as the devastation around her.
Reflexively, or what little remained of her self-preservation instinct made her cling her waning arm strength onto what little remained of the still attached urinal on the ground next to her. She continued to watch and stare as the world around her crumbled and a dark shape within the edges of her vision manifested like the sun being replaced by a black hole.
She continued with her failing spirit and mind as every single context of her actions returned to full force. No longer could she conceive tears for every ordeal that brought reflections on her torn mind.
No longer could any prominent emotion float with great urgency into her own self.
Emma could only feel the absence as everything went down the drain.
She could feel her grip loosening as her own body and the exhaustion brought forth by the peril now started to give up alongside her.
Even the roaring appearance of the mighty Dragon that terrorized her city was swallowed whole by the void did not deter or change her feelings.
With only a few fingers left that continued to grip, Emma was starting to accept her fate.
That is until a loud and earth-shattering explosion happened near where she was. Robots or suits of a similar build and theme numbering about ten or more fired multiple weapons and powerful devices successively at a target without warning or hesitancy as she hears voices against the tension.
Emma continued to watch as a major fight escalated even as the city fell around her, the two sides, one being outnumbered by the other had clashed to a great degree that she would only ever see in movies or reports of the great and strong heroes battling against a foe.
Yet the ones with the greater numbers looked as if they were barely doing anything.
Emma could only watch in some fascination over the stimulus brought about by the sudden action against the inevitable end that her grip gradually once more tightened.
Only for her whole world once again to crash and burn as soon as the smoke caused by the violence and combat dissipated, and what she saw was a very familiar face now covered head to toe in the same insects that gave her torment and were standing tall, unharmed, nearly unbothered, and annoyed at the attacks being spent at her.
Emma felt herself going cold as goosebumps and terror settled in within her reduced state of mind.
It was Taylor.
At least she saw it as that. Her only eye could be playing tricks with her, especially with the distance and her having no such reliability with her vision as it once was.
Yet the sinking gut feeling was there, and Emma felt with her mind and soul, adamantly, that was she was seeing was authentic, and that it was actually her.
Taylor even looked at her for a few seconds, but Emma was only met with indifference.
Pure, utter indifference as if she was as insignificant as the many bugs that had terrorized the city.
Or another death created by the void reducing it to nothingness.
Emma was just nothing to Taylor. Barely something to look at as she continued to fight against the robots and armored contraptions in an annoyed, barely contained angry state.
It was then that Emma realized a painful truth.
All her life, that very night shaped her entire mind and soul during and after in such a deep and painful way that it would never leave her entirely even if she constantly told herself that she had moved on.
Taylor had lost her mother; her father became depressed and absent.
She had lost her reputation at school, became a social pariah, a freak…
She had endured countless attempts of torment and worst of all, the imprisonment by Emma and Sophia's own design made to break her spirit entirely so she would cast herself into death's arms freely.
Yet even with all of that…
Even… even with all the pain, suffering, and torment.
Taylor had endured.
Taylor remained strong like an unyielding rock that would never be swept by the clashing, violent waves that hit it.
Now, she was as strong as she could ever be, probably even the root of all of this slaughter.
And Emma…
Emma broke at first contact.
Ever since that night… she broke and would never again be able to recover.
Emma broke the moment the world around her crumbled into pieces of dust and insects.
She turned her head again towards the still occurring battle with Taylor in the middle of it as her grip was lost and she fell into the void. Even as she fell Emma could still think as her will gradually became non-existent…
But one fact remained within her head as she entered into the domain of the perpetually lost.
That she was never strong in the first place and the Emma that was scarred in that very night…
…Never left.
?
"Enough of this!"
Another explosion rang into my face as the force of the blast pushed me back a few paces. The attacker, the pretender that reminded me of the useless dog Aurora put into her care continued to relentlessly attack without fail with all the stupid little tools they possessed.
I hate that I could not see her. Whatever contraption she was wearing or whatever ability she had continued to shield her from my prying eyes even as I concentrated. Even my flock could not sense her emotions and the only indication I had was hearing the tone of her voice through the faceless dragon-headed contraptions she used to wail on me.
I had enough at that very moment, I raised my hand up and caught the nearest puppet that was about to punch me with those large, transformed metal gauntlets and crushed its head. The metal and whatever material that consisted of it crumpled like paper as I slammed it into the ground.
Before I could react further, however, there was a powerful and bright yellow glow within the center of its armor and it exploded. It threw me back into a set of rubble that were about to be uprooted as more of the flying, buzzing puppets continued to pelt me with all their ammunition and weapons.
I felt my fists tighten as the remaining nine had their chests transform and emitted a bright blue glow that escalated in terms of its audible power-up sequence as the ground rumbled around me, dust and debris floating and going into the void as the gravity of the fall increased…
And much to my dismay, the puppets remained their engines that induced flight holding them still even with all the environmental effects around them. I sneered in annoyance as many of my flock attacked the surprisingly well-armored puppets who had all of their joints covered in swift and durable metal plates.
The damn invisible fool had thought this through…
Even if so far, she was doing no-
BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMM!
The beams of blue light hit me with a staggering amount of force that I had to cover it with my hands. The silken dress that I wore made by my flock evaporated into nothingness completely as I was left in the nude again. I acquired no damage, nor pain but the fact that the weapon escalated in such a manner surprised me.
Behind the nine puppets that were being attacked by my flock on all sides were suddenly greeted by the newly awakened large members of my retinue that resembled a large but dangerous millipede. They burst from the ground in numbers that grabbed the puppets that stopped their attacks completely before being caught by their serrated jaws.
Many of the puppets that were caught had initiated their countermeasures, many killing the disposable warriors brought about by my influence, but the volume of the attackers increased dramatically that they were just overwhelmed by the chitin and carapaces of my flock.
There were merely three left that flew around the air firing weapon after weapon that induced sound, vibrations, energy, and even those small objects that made explosions as they were whittled down bit by bit…
But even with the overwhelming force that I brought to bear I realized that the enemy, whoever they were, had not spoken nor could I see and feel if they were being beaten via their emotions.
I could not even tell what they were doing as the mystery and the questions just infuriated me.
I had control over this story. I was the author this time…
And no rogue playwright or performer was going to act against my judgment.
"You will never win!" the voice of the closest puppet said as its smoking and damaged form tried to bullrush me before I felt my bare right hand being encased by the vermin as it turned into a sharpened gauntlet.
I raised it and caught the puppet's chest, tearing out what seemed to be its "heart" as its countermeasures activated. A vibrant green surge of electricity emanated before discharging into an arc about ten meters wide around me.
Unaffected, the last two I saw within my peripheral vision and threw the dead puppet in my hands towards the one on the left. The colliding bodies exploded in contact in a powerful fireball as the last puppet burst out of the smoke in its aftermath and once again reinforced its fists.
It hit me in the face.
THOOM!
A loud shockwave rang hard as the world continued to be upturned around me.
"As long as I can buy more time, I can make sure those that ran could have a chance!"
THOOM!
Oh, so that was her plan.
"Even if my suits fall here! I'LL MAKE SURE YOU NEVER KILL ANYONE AGAIN!"
THOOM!
The puppet raised its fists and I continued to watch with annoyed interest as I wanted her to talk but it seems like she was very much more agitated with this entire affair than I realized based on her voice alone.
THOOM!
Both of her gauntleted fists slammed into the ground as the smoke and debris from the crater formed from the attack fell into the void as quickly as it manifested.
"I just want to know why? WHY? WHY DID YOU DO ALL OF THIS?!" she screamed into my face.
She was raising her fist again until I kicked her off.
THOOOUUUMMM!
The force of my attack was so vast and powerful that it knocked out all of the stabilization that she had against the influence of my void. The puppet was about to fly into the hole like the trash it was until I caught it with a singular hand.
I pulled the contraption near to me as I looked at its faceless mask.
"Any reason I have for doing the things that I do is none of your business."
The puppet looked like it was dying but the voice of the interloper remained strong.
"M-Mark my words. All the deaths here, all of the crimes and wrongdoing you committed will be avenged even if not by my own hands… but of the many heroes around the world."
The sneer on my face vanished almost instantly.
"Heroes? I find that surprising and pitiful. Even if I were to believe your words… Pretender, I believe I have to correct a notion in your head that you don't seem to realize as of yet."
"A-And that would be?" the fool challenged.
"Did you honestly believe that destroying this insignificant city was my goal? You compare me to your villains, your S-Class threats, your Endbringers who do not seem to cater to their name, with myself?"
The contraption and the voice controlling them went silent.
"I'm afraid whatever hope you are telling yourself that this was just me going on a petty revenge quest for the wrongdoings committed by three young fools or the indifferent defenders doing nothing at all to quell the crime of the city is merely fiction."
"You… you mean-
"I am not here to fulfill a grudge. I'm here to finish the job."
I let go as the puppet fell. I did not want to elaborate on my words further as I watch the puppet vanish at the enlarging void that continued to open for this pathetic little world.
Turning my head to what remained of the city, which had the large ships that were entrenched like a graveyard now being uprooted from their resting place, I found myself once again disinterested and bored seeing that the wisps and the emotions of the place were starting to become quiet.
I felt Blanca fly near my position as I hop on her back. My nude form made the wind that buffeted my skin uncomfortably cold. I endured, however, despite that as I opt to make my last stop in what remained of the city once called Brockton Bay.
There… in the last vestiges of the safe haven that defenders used earlier as they teleported out in a hurry was one more individual that clung to her dear life between the wedges of a rock formation near the coast. I suspect merely seconds were left for me to meet this last individual.
And she was surely interesting, stupid as she was.
Blanca swooped down as the water from the seas coupled with what debris was left floated down into the fall. I walked towards the very last denizen of the place where I had my triumphant rebirth.
Each step felt as if introducing my influence on unaffected land bit by bit as I arrived at my destination.
The girl weakly looked back at me, the destroyed mask on her face showing her eyes were filled with tears. Her memories… oh, her sweet memories were just filled with pure utter terror and loss that I made myself fashion a grin.
I cared not if I was nude. The image and message would have stayed better for it now that I stood just inches away from her.
This was Sophia Hess. One of the three young fools had attacked a young girl and imprisoned her in a disgusting place that would render her dead.
I cared not for Taylor Hebert. Whoever she supposedly was even with the memories I had seen of the three earlier.
But I do care and nearly wanted to thank the three idiots that brought the red carpet on my feet.
I leaned further as she looked at me, begging.
"P-Please… just kill me here right now and stop. I-I didn't want this. I-
"You just wanted to prove a point." I finished for her as she started to lose her grip.
"Take me… just take me and end it. I don't want to be the reason for all of those deaths… f-for all of those… losses."
I smiled, losing what remained of her family as she tried her damnest to get them to this safe haven was what in the end, broke her. Simple as that.
Even in the end, she proved to be selfish.
Pity I did not carry the anger and fury that the supposed Taylor Hebert had.
But even then, I don't think I would have capitulated on those thoughts and aspirations.
This was beneath me, and this little girl, stupid as she was, was merely another stepping stone.
I stood up as she continued to beg. I did not look in her direction nor cared as she was swept away and the city finally vanished. The tides of the seas now falling in as well as my void turned towards the rest of the continent.
The appetizer was actually interesting and lovingly poetic.
It had many flaws of course, but the final few moments were what made everything stick.
Now, it was only a matter to get to the climax…
And as I look towards the sky and the emerging new wisps that came from all of the new towns or cities being affected bit by bit by my influence, I smile at Blanca one last time before we continued the journey.
Because I knew that there were many more epilogues yet to come.
-57:36
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A man finished loading the supplies for his bakery in the small town of Montella, Italy. He had a very exhausting day as he hauled the sacks of flour that were to be used for the next few weeks in tandem with their current stock.
He silently wipes the sweat from his brow as he takes a cigarette from his pocket and pulls out his lighter. The gust of smoke from the initial light made him cough at first but he waved it away and continued to smoke calmly to relieve the stress in his nerves.
Suddenly across the many mountains surrounding his town, there was a large flash of light….
And a mushroom cloud that rose upwards to many miles into the air appeared in merely seconds.
The man froze as the bright, powerful conflagration appeared as if it was Vulcan himself who had restarted his forge.
Or as if Jupiter himself had punished humanity for the crimes of Prometheus.
It was bright and hauntingly beautiful…
Until those very last moments when the sound of the explosion was heard, and the man no longer felt a thing.
The European Continent was awakened when the One-Eyed Beast rose from Mt. Vesuvius and roared to life.
A fisherman pulled his boat into the sand as the raging winds and rain around him had barred a poor man like him from taking his daily catch.
The citizens of the small beachside town of Alugan, Philippines were rattled by the sudden appearance of an intense typhoon-like rain that had hindered the population from staying indoors.
The fisherman continued to tie his boat to the makeshift docks as the rain buffeted me from all sides. Finishing the last loop, he felt his hat fly away into the winds towards the sea as he tried to catch it.
He stopped when the sky darkened.
A wave of water higher than anything he had ever seen had appeared and was about to arrive.
He shook in place as the last thing he saw was the dark water hitting him and all sensation was wiped out in an instant.
The infamous city killer that had ravaged many continents had appeared almost in furious anger and pure vindication.
In the Basílica Imaculada Conceição, Brazil, a priest was just finished talking to a fellow believer about the state of the city. They had ended their discussion on a good note as he stepped outside and breathed the fresh air.
He then looked upwards to the mountains where Cristo Redentor was triumphantly uplifting His hands towards the people. He makes a small prayer through a whisper as he does the sign of the cross in respect.
As soon as he did, a bright light filled the entire city.
A light so bright and beautiful that it made the priest confused at first, only to think that it was perhaps a sign from Him.
Only to see that before the bright light that emanated from the Cristo Redentor was a very familiar figure that invoked the image of the brightest and most beautiful of angels.
The Seraph of the End had arrived.
Levitating before her hands, where the bright light was occurring as if coming as a messenger of God was a device that was charging up towards something.
Beautiful and serene as the whole image was, only terror seemed to be invoked in the minds of the populace.
Yet even as the demented image of the whole sight was…
The Seraph of the End did not have its serene, calm expression.
No, it had a face filled with almost near-desperation and pain as if it was hunting for something…
And it could not see where the anomaly was.
Even as it sang its willful prayer of death and destruction, the beautiful Angel was as lost as every single human in the world with what was happening…
And it would continue to do so even as the world would fall in the next hour or two.
It slowly placed the creature down towards the hands of the young native.
Without direction, it was listless as the young native smiled back in a thankful gesture.
The natives designated it as a hero, the first of their kind.
It on the other hand continued on listlessly as the Cycle needed to progress despite the absence of the other.
It had no directives to follow as of yet, just the action that it was emulating.
But…
It stopped when voices, voices from the collective, from the many started to interrupt.
For what reason this could be, it could not discern at the moment.
For now, at least.
AN: Yay… finally finished this. Hehe. Wow what a ride, did not expect to reach this point when the very first idea for this fic was just to be a one-shot and it turned into something else! Hahahahahhahaha.
I thank you everyone for joining with me to this point and be prepared for the next few interludes and chapters as we are nearing the end.
Hope to see you all soon and I hope you enjoyed the ride so far.