DUST AND THE SWEEPER
Chapter 4 - Left Behind
Dust is first to enter the next building this time around; likely to keep Blinx from starting a scene like the one a few moments ago. They stand amidst a booming crowd of party goers from all shapes and sizes over beats almost identical to something electric. Everyone happily cheers and dances around while those who don't sit at the bars taking shots to their heart's content. Nervous once again, Dust's ears flop down and his mask automatically realigns itself to hide his face.
"OK. Now this is an even worse situation," he mutters aloud.
"What, ya don't like the music," asks Blinx.
"No, I can't dance."
"Course ya can. It's easy." Blinx begins demonstrating, swaying his hips back and forth as the next track starts up. "Just let the tracks tell you the moves."
"What does that even-"
An announcer interrupts, "LET'S GIVE IT UP FOR DJ VEGAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Though there's no visible DJ at the mixers, the controls automatically adjust giving off a medieval and modern mix of sounds that begin to make Dust bob his head to it. While trekking through the crowd and the busy lights; with everyone being too focused dancing to care for the Mithrarin's looks, he and Blinx groove with the rhythm, facing different directions to find their target: Gianni. The snobby and rather jerkish one from Aurora, born in a wealthy family and being the caretaker of both Corbin and Colleen. That is until recently with the end of the war. He's easily recognized by his familiar blue robe, dark pants, and fancy hat, as well as his sharp mustache.
Perhaps by luck, this hasn't changed as Dust easily spots him a fair distance from where he stands; sitting at one of the bars with a glass in his hands, darting at multiple angles as if he's on edge. Blinx is first to take notice, telling Dust "Ey, look. That dude, over dere looks pretty fancy."
"That's him," Dust nods. "He's even wearing the same clothes from when we met. Looks like he's worried about something, or someone."
"Nice guy approach?
"Yes. Nice guy. "
Carefully, Blinx and Dust walk to the Warmblood, taking different sides of him. With the music so loud, he doesn't hear the duo walking towards him. Dust starts off.
"Gianni, right?"
"The one and only," says Gianni rotating his seat. "How can I help…you…" His eyes bulge when he comes face to face with Dust, whose removed his mask for him to see his confident grin. The same kind he's given when Corbin pranked the man.
"Hi again," Dust nods. "It's been a while since we've seen each other face to face, has it? We need to ask you a few questions. "
Blinx takes a seat and leans against the table, stroking his finger across it. "See, we heard of a certain advanced city out here somewhere. An' well, we wanna see if we can ask fer some directions if you don't mind."
"Oh, pfft," scoffs Gianni. "That's all? Directions? All you have to do is move straight to the North East through the Grey Valley. I take it you came from Aurora? Same path. You will be there in less than a day on foot."
"Guess that means we're the lucky ones," says Dust. "Now what do you know about the place?"
"What do I know? I-I've never been in there. Only heard stories about it. You may ask me anything."
"Ok," Blinx beams. "There any Cat-Sith in there?"
"You may ask me anything except that."
Gianni rises from his seat before being rewinded back down by Blinx's Sweeper.
"Oh, but we insist," Blinx says as he puts on his biggest smile with his teeth.
Shocked, Gianni stumbles his words, "How'd you…? How…?"
"You're tough if you made it this far, right," asks the Mithrarin cockily. "Why don't we go somewhere…private?"
"Uum…" Gianni looks to the side of the bar at a small doorway to an empty hall with other rooms to go to. "Y-yes, yes of course. In here."
As the Warmblood leads the pair inside, Blinx casually leans close to Dust to whisper in his ear, "This dude sounds more twitchy than the guy obsessed with a box an' toothbrushes."
"I don't think anyone's worse than Reed."
Down the hall, Gianni has a small room of his own. A rented venue meant for businesses and professionals that overlooks the basement of the building. He only has a bed, a desk, and a dresser with him, as well as an extra hat and robe hanging on the wall.
"I see you've rented yourself a nice place" Dust says walking in. "Going for the minimalist approach since last time we met."
After taking a few deep breaths, Gianni finally faces the two travelers again, gathering as much courage as he can to look Dust, and especially Blinx in the eyes. He straightens his tie and begins with an explanation.
"Alright, listen boys, I know what you're really here for. You're wondering why I left Colleen and the bratty one behind."
"Corbin," Blinx notes, folding his arms. "His name's Corbin."
"R-right. But I assure you, it was never my intention to abandon them like a neglectful parent. I did it because…" Suddenly, the Warmblood pauses, facing multiple directions as if he were being detected. He leans close to the pair, whispering to them, "Because I have learned things about you and the suppliers of Gaius' Remnant."
Ahrah, perhaps tired of staying idle when listening to him asks, "And these suppliers are...?"
"The Cat-Sith. Time Sweepers," the man erupts. "That's why I thought your partner was here to assassinate me. After my pesky rash, those hardy soldiers raided my home for information on the Moonblood Camp. Without their leader, they were petty enough to accept bribes and provided rumors about a utopian society living on the outskirts of the land. No one knew where it was except Gaius. And thanks to them, he had backups for his war machine."
Such news brings Blinx aback. He freezes, silently questioning how all this is possible and the logic behind such a shift for the Time Sweepers. How they would go from maintaining peace in history to helping a madman kill billions in a mindless war.
"So yer tellin' me that my own people're out in these parts buildin' junk for a dead man and sendin' literal attack robots after us?"
Startled and twitching uncontrollably, Gianni replies, "I-I'm afraid so. Yes. But it is not their fault. I've seen through the walls out there. They seem to be under new management…against their wishes."
Nearly exhausted, the Warmblood sits in a chair beside him, taking another deep breath before continuing. "I could have returned to Aurora to warn everyone about this personally. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it knowing these assassins are still out there."
"I'd say you're missing out, but I feel like Corbin would be the one taking action instead of you," Dust says.
"Is he safe? Are him and his sister alright?"
"Actually, they're doin' just fine," answers the Cat-Sith. "Even asked if they could ride our ship earlier. Just wish they knew where ya went to get some sorta closure."
"I…think I'd prefer they don't know, Time Sweeper."
Dust removes his hat, straightening his hair. "Alright then. I guess now we know what we're up against, huh Blinx?"
"Finally…" sighs Blinx. "That doesn't explain who's dumb enough to take over the Time Sweepers an' sink to war profiteering."
"You don't think it's someone next to the CEO, do you?"
"Ah, Nah. Not at all. They swore an oath never to fall down a dark path. Not since that time we had to form a union from low pay."
Dust darts, "You get paid?!"
"How else did ya think we kept the lights on?!"
BANG
A large object crashes outside the building, enough to shake the interior! An immediate siren blares on que, alerting all in town besides the party goers, assuming it's just part of the music.
"Hm. Perfect timing," says the sword in a pleased tone.
"Aw shoot," Blinx barks while equipping his Sweeper. "We gotta skedaddle, D! I'm allergic ta sirens!"
"Right," nods Dust, turning around. "Gianni, you'd better…"
Dust and Blinx were so distracted by the alarm and the sudden boom outside that they didn't even realize Gianni had fled as fast as anthropomorphically possible! The Mithrarin even takes a few quick looks to see if the Warmblood is hiding in the room somewhere, but there's little to no sign of him anywhere.
"…hide."
"At least he's still true to his principles," says Ahrah. "Being a coward."
Blinx is first to exit the room down the hall to the outside where groups of people are already scurrying away from the strange diamond-shaped machine lunged into the ground. Oddly enough resembling the last mech the pair had fought in Aurora just hours ago.
"Another machine," Dust wonders. "What's it doing out here?"
If it wasn't odd enough, the sounds of two more of the same kind of mechs slowly rise in the sky. Both machines rocket in a straight line, though one of them passes over the village while the other makes a sharp landing next to the one on the ground! Slowly, the sides of the two diamond pods fold open and slide inward like large metal doors, unlocking four different racks holding what appear to be seated soldiers of Gaius, each with similar shaped armor, curves and royalty. But the comparisons end there. Not only is their armor colored black with white patterns, the areas meant for traditional clothes underneath the plating are hard and metallic. Clearly a robot wearing an exoskeleton. All of the troops shine the visors from their helmets in a beading red light then take a stand in unison, marching until they get into a neat formation around the four angles of the pod. The two groups on Dust and Blinx's end scan the area for lifeforms, instantly picking up on their heat signatures; especially the battery type of Blinx's Sweeper and Dust's pacemaker in their database.
[THREATS DETECTED. TERMINATING TARGETS]
Already having Ahrah drawn, Dust bemoans to Blinx, "Just when I thought it was impossible for our worlds to share any connection with each other."
The robots aim their wrists forward, each shooting tiny missiles at them like machine guns! Before they even fired, Blinx had his Sweeper set to slow, causing reality to come to a crawl for Dust to swing toss Ahrah at them as he and his friend duck underneath the bullets! The sword slices through 3 of the droids and into the ship they came from, bursting out the other side and smashing a few more on his way back around like a frisbee in Dust's hand! With only a few seconds to spare, they split up and hide behind two alleys before the onslaught continues. The shots burn into the wall the duo stood in front of, leaving hundreds of smoking holes in one take! Seeing that their targets are missing, the squads take fan out, still able to detect the Sweeper devices.
"Looks like they know about the pacemaker too," Blinx says to himself.
Looking around the corners and up above, he notices a small water tower sitting atop one of the complexes. The moment the droids get near, Blinx shoots one of the struts down, causing the tower to lose balance, toppling and splashing into the robots marching beneath it! Those still walking into the waves keep balance and fire at the Time Sweeper, forcing him back in the corner. One of the attackers leads the charge, getting close into the alley when out of nowhere, Blinx lunges his saber mod into its chin! Grabbing onto it from the sides, he turns the wrist guns against its comrades, easily smashing their armor with their own weapons until another group is forced to mow the robot down from their bullets! By then, Blinx had already let go, using his Sweeper to speed himself up by 200%. Now that his path is clear, he makes it to one of the small ships, lobbing a micro missile from the droid into the generator in the middle of the exposed interior, instantly nuking it from the inside out!
Dust, on his end by a different building, sees a few metal trash cans sitting next to him. Curious, he tosses one of the lids out in the open where one of the droids can see it, which immediately blasts it. The bullets don't penetrate it all the way, however. Only enough to heat the surface. Taking note of this, the Mithrarin grabs two more round lids using them like shields as he makes a dash for it. The squad rapid fires at him, even striking his head, which is also shielded by his hat and mask. Some of the bolts burn through the fabric covering his armor when he gets near one of the bots, smashing its head off with the shield! He kicks into two more, then blocks more shots from his left before ramming into the guard, throwing it off enough that it shoots into the sky and at the ground while tumbling down! A single shot manages to graze Dust's leg, not seriously wounding him but making him grunt from the heat! He kneels down as 3 more goons charge for him, shooting their guns while he's shielding himself until he drops one of the lids to use Ahrah, quickly jumping back up to spin slash the robots starting from their legs to their heads!
Behind him, two more of the droids get close in preparation to shoot. But just then, one of them gets stabbed through the back by Blinx's saber, then he grabs the other one's hand, aiming its gun at its chin to blow through the robot's circuitry! Once again, the remaining bots form up in preparation for another lined offensive maneuver, switching their gun modes to rockets. Bigger missiles packed in their shoulders deploy and launch simultaneously. Luckily, Blinx stops time quick enough that they barely reach him and his friend.
"All yours, sportsy," says Blinx, allowing Dust to deliver a final blow. A full force whirlwind from Ahrah's swing sends all the rockets back at the robots, exploding all the machines!
"Hmph," scoffs Dust. "I was expecting a lot worse."
Blinx snarks, "Buddy, you keep sayin' that an' it just might come true."
Soon as the smoke from the battle clears, a smaller pod, this time rounder and lighter in color, descends near the second deployment shuttle, landing a lot more smoothly than the rest. Its hatch doors slide open. However, only one passenger steps from inside. A tall anthro wearing armor similar to the droids but with Gaius' purple and gold colors, not wearing a helmet but instead a mask covering all but his eyes and the rest of his dome.
"Speak of the devil," bemoans Blinx before he pauses, looking closely at the intruder's head, noticing his cat ears and eyes like his own.
In a deep bass tone of voice, this mysterious man utters one word, "You…"
Confused, Blinx looks at Dust then Ahrah, then back at the trooper asking, "Me…?"
"You were always his favorite. When the factory fell, he put faith in you and left us all to die...stranded. Alone." He stops pacing, standing firmly in place with his arms at his sides. "I am here to return the favor and prove you to be disposable, Time Sweeper."
Very fastly, this masked man pulls out a Sweeper of his own the second Blinx does, freezing him in place while Dust is free to jut in front of him! With his other hand, the rogue Cat-Sith locks blades with the Mithrarin, using a dual-edged energy sword from his wrist! After a while, Blinx is finally released from his frozen state, stumbling forward.
"Ugh…," Blinx groans, shaking his head. "You…You paused me…!"
Dust and the enemy keep swinging at each other; the rogue Time Sweeper going in furiously with parries and blows stronger than the Mithrarin's! He switches tactics, spinning to lock a blade with Ahrah again, then using his Sweeper to freeze Dust in place, kicking him into the side of one of the buildings enough to break through the wood walls! Blinx, testing this man's prowess, uses his Sweeper attempting to slow him down, but the mystery marauder easily sets himself to fast forward, keeping himself from getting affected. Stunned, Blinx resorts to a different strategy. He speeds up Dust's recovery while the enemy's looking away from him. The two Cat-Sith meet face to face; Blinx guarding himself with his saber mod as the man deals heavy chops during his run into him! Blinx walks him down into an alley, pushing his next blow with his blade, which slices off a lot of the tiles next to them. Seeing the rubble, Blinx quickly sucks it up in the vacuum, shooting it back at the marauder, who pauses time fast enough that none of the debris comes near him! He counters it with a move of his own, showering his foe back, forcing him to duck behind a dumpster!
This, luckily, gave Dust plenty of time to speedily come back with teeth. He starts by surrounding the man in a whirlwind of smut from the ground then cuts his back in the confusion! During this stun period, the Mithrarin tends to his friend, helping him up to combine another gust of wind with both their weapons, throwing the rogue Cat-Sith out the alley across the street into his pod!
"Another Time Sweeper," Dust ponders aloud.
Staying focused, Blinx quietly puts on his goggles and nods, "Sure feels like it."
The soldier, laying against his ship takes a moment to consider a new tactic. After a while, he rises up, switching his Sweeper with more weapons of his own. Dual-Wielding whips, electrified, he walks back to his starting position, then swings one of the lines onto Blinx's Sweeper, frying some of the circuits from the voltage! Dust cuts off a piece of the whip but doesn't jump into combat yet, waiting for Blinx to respond. He's only able to activate the sword mod while the vacuum and time functions of the weapons are broken.
"Damn, it's busted! Not that it would work on this guy."
"Can you still fight normally," asks the Mithrarin.
Blinx braces himself, readying his saber. "Gonna have to."
The marauder sprints for them striking down with one whip at a time. Both Dust and Blinx charge as well; each slicing a line on their way, eventually giving Dust clear enough room to kick the man against the ship again! When he chops down, the soldier activates a diamond-shaped shield from his wrist, shocking Ahrah! The symbols on the sword's sides randomly flash before going dark. When Dust pauses to look, the enemy elbows him back and shields himself again when Blinx comes in to slice him! He manages to strike the wrist device at the right time, causing it to fail to deploy. He pulls out another saber for the other hand, dual-blocking and slashing at Dust and Blinx when they bring in the heat! Both of them perform parries, upward swings, punches, and kicks, but neither does any damage, apart from one punch from Dust. Now down on his knee, the marauder grabs his Sweeper, slows down Blinx's movements and sucks Ahrah out of Dust's hands, then launching the blade by the hilt back into the Mithrarin's chest! He's sent rocketing down the street into the Firebat's hull, slamming back first then dropping to the ground along with Ahrah!
Blinx, still slowed to a crawl, gets cut across his left arm, but retaliates by splitting one of the enemy's swords! The two clash blades again before Blinx elbows the man in the stomach then gets knocked in the dome down to his face! Easily, the marauder picks up the Time Sweeper, slamming him back first into the pod's hull! He prepares to stomp on the Cat-Sith!
FOOMP
He misses. Blinx had rolled over and opened the casing of his Sweeper battery, looking at the burnt wires inside. One of them is only partly fried, so he hooks it to the unaffected one, causing a spark that activates the slow down function before the enemy gets close to him. Seizing the chance, he jumps up and cuts off the marauder's mouthpiece with his saber, exposing the rest of the Cat-Sith's familiar face. Time resumes as Blinx quickly recognizes by the stripes and his mouth the name of the man.
"Duke…?!"
Blinx is kicked straight in the mouth down into the dirt, dropping his Sweeper beside him. The shock of seeing such an old friend taller and trying to kill him is enough to keep him from even thinking of picking up his weapon. Duke, still wearing a stoic face, lowers his Sweeper and gets close to the helpless Blinx.
"My squad was lost out in space because of him," he grunts in his normal voice. "He had such confidence in you saving this nowhere timeline that it seemed foolish to have the rest of us follow in your footsteps! I could have prevented the Time Factory's fall if that old man hadn't been so blind!"
Blinx quickly sits up, telling him, "If you're talkin' about the CEO, he never intended to get us killed. Never has a day in his life! No one could've predicted the mission would've gone that badly!"
Duke doesn't buy it. He silently aims his Sweeper straight at Blinx's face, close enough that he can't miss with time set to slow.
Still able to talk, Blinx shouts, "Please Duke…!"
"He had my entire squad killed, and he treated you like a son when you were just as important as any other Time Sweeper. If he's up in Heaven with all the fallen from the war here, he won't be missing you any long-
BANG!
In a flash, Duke is blown into gibs by a single rocket! As the smoke clears, Blinx, still in shock from Duke's speech, quickly looks behind himself, noticing the Firebat with its weapons deployed and aimed at his direction. Dust, coming out lower hatch, runs over to his comrade, helping him up from the dirt.
"I'm so sorry," Dust says, lifting Blinx by the hand. "I didn't know what else to do with Ahrah knocked out."
"N-no no, it's ok," Blinx replies, picking up his Sweeper. "I wouldn't have known any other way."
He looks on at what remains of the fallen Time Sweeper, removing his goggles and taking a moment of silence to honor him. He only kneels down to grab Duke's Sweeper, attaching it to his back and bowing his head.
"Duke was the leader of his own squad in the whole Big Crystal fiasco. Took the Scissor Demon. Some uber strong monster made to erase reality." He turns his attention back to Dust. "Basically a hard reset when the Goddesses thought time wasn't bein' used wisely."
"Not the first one we've been through."
"I was beginnin' to think we'd see a Tom Tom or someone else from Gaius. But now it's personal. We need to take out whoever brainwashed my boy today!"
Dust puts his hand on Blinx's shoulder very solemnly, easing his nerves. "Right after we give him a proper burial."
Minutes pass in what feels like hours and the two finish honoring the fallen Cat-Sith outside of the village. Ahrah by then had been re-energized and even Gareth, the titanic Nimbat, came to give his blessing to them. After another kneel from Blinx, he sits up and shakes Gareth's hand, smiling back at him.
"Thanks for comin' man."
"No problem, kid," says Gareth. "Just glad I could support my girl's heroes. You said you had to leave too, huh?"
"Yes," Ahrah speaks up, albeit exhaustedly. "And hopefully we can solve this mystery as soon as we get where we need to be. Even I have questions for whoever is responsible for making rune-proof weapons."
"For once we can thank Gianni for giving us the directions," Dust says. "Speaking of, where is he?"
The Nimbat darts his ears with a pep in his voice. "Oh, I think I know where. I'll tell him you said thank you. That is if he doesn't give himself a heart attack from looking at me."
"Heheh, don't worry," Dust chuckles. "I'm pretty sure Blinx's Xbox grin was enough already. Thanks again."
"Now then, the plot thickens," Ahrah says. "Let's get back onboard and finish this mission. You don't want to return to Aurora too late, now do you?"
At the entrance to Aurora by the exposed caverns, Avgustin stands alone, waiting for Fale and Matti to arrive. He only wields a pair of hedge clippers and a shovel he used to dig his way past the weeds growing around him. So much that they've already broken through the rubble from the bridge. Eventually, his friend arrives, carrying Matti on his back.
"Looks like ya know about all the weeds too," Fale starts.
"Yep," says Avgustin. "One of them shot up an' poked my foot! So I brought a shovel and some hedge clippers."
"Iiiiii don't really think that'll be enough considerin' what we're dealin' with. They just sprout back up."
"Exactly! But hey, we can still keep moving, right?"
"Gonna have ta." Fale brings his hand forward. "Clip me"
Avgustin hands the clippers to Fale, who holds the tool forward as he takes the first step in the cave. Matti pulls out his trusty mallet while their large comrade brings his shovel near his chest in preparation to whack something. Though his giddiness for an adventure forces a comically wide smile on him.
"This is gonna be so cool!"
Inside, Fale slides down a small slope to the main floor, thankfully tiled by old bricks. He's bumped into by Avgustin, who practically rolls down. Thanks to light from above, they don't need a torch to see their path, which is murky. Several roots of the weeds aboveground have sprouted in eerie formation, aligning with the cave walls. The cave itself is already filled with cobwebs and abandoned architecture; broken stone walls and pipelines, to glowing fauna lighting more of the way. Not unlike that of Mudpot. When passing one of these webs, Avgustin almost runs into a large spider crawling down with a bug caught for a feast, startling him.
"Eeeeew…," he mutters to himself.
"Watch our backs, Mat," says Fale. "There's no tellin' what's in here."
"Grr," grunts the Warmblood.
"If I rememba' correctly, this part used to be connected to the caverns leadin' to Mudpot. Heck, we might actually see Tethys around here."
"The water lady," asks Avgustin. "I sure hope you're right. I heard she was pretty!"
Fale clips through several of the vines in front of him on his way into a darker hall in the cave, tight enough that he has to squeeze in while making sure Matti isn't crushed. Inside, he lights a stick from his pocket to see, illuminating the familiar symbols of Moonblood language as well as a Warmblood's.
"See anythin' in there," Avgustin asks.
"Just some ancient Moonblood text. I reckon I can translate it. It's uh…Beta Arceus…? N-no it's…Aquaritus or somethin'."
Abruptly, the ground rumbles under Fale's feet. It crumbles, sending him and Matti splashing into a pond! Avgustin, standing above them, sees another entrance near him, climbing down the wall with one of the vines into the next cave. The two Warmbloods shake themselves off and examine their surroundings, thankfully lit by the auras of the mushrooms around them.
"That's one way to make a discovery, ey mate," Fale asks Matti.
Matti merely grumbles again in his usual barbaric tone. Looking at the center of the room in the middle of the pond, they notice a few details. A heavenly light shining down on it unaffected by the weeds growing inside, and a strange yet awesome find. A blade much like Ahrah with a fork at the end in the style of a golden trident shoved into the stone rock! Its symbols on the sides are almost identical to ancient Moonblood text, along with some aqua themed shapes.
"An' here I thought Ahrah was all that's left," says Fale beaming a wide smile as he walks closer to the sword. "This looks like an actual Blade of Elysium!"
"Can it speak," asks Avgustin. " Hey sword! How ya doin'?"
Pause. No answer.
"Not talkin', huh?"
"Maybe it's dormant till Dust finds it. Y'know. For the worthy."
"Aaaaw," Avgustin whines. "Why can't any of us be just as cool as him?"
"Well there's Fidget an' Blinx. And we're already explorin', so we're cool in our own...way."
While talking, Fale notices another oddity in the cave with them. Avgustin tries prying out the sword himself but finds it difficult to even bend it. His friend walks further away from him at peak curiosity, seeing all the roots connecting to one another in this eerie formation.
"Uh...Guss," Fale calls nervously.
"Just a sec. Gonna try an' push it outta the thing!"
"Grr..." Matti's grumble isn't even that aggressive this time. He looks at the display in horror, shaking his lips and ears.
Behind them, Avgustin rams himself shoulder first into the sword, but it doesn't budge. The weight of it is enough to knock his bones out of joint!
"OUCH," the Warmblood shouts holding his injured arm. "Urgh... Gonna have to try that again later. What's the problem pal?"
Now even Avgustin is stunned when he looks at the shape of a late Moonblood soldier turned psychopath, literally fused to the heavy roots of under Aurora's streets. His light armor is still perfectly intact. However it's edges are sharper, more in line with a modern design. Both arms and legs serve as appendages for the vines sprouting out the surface. But the most striking part on him is his mask. Instead of his glowing yellow eyes going horizontally, they're ordered vertically and are much wider than their original size.
"Crikey," says Avgustin, taken aback.
Fale backs up and marks, "So this is the cause of the weed problem. Whoever or whatever this is looks like it's been stuck here for a long time."
"Kinda reminds me of that Fuse guy Elder Grey brought up once."
"Correction..."
All three of the Warmbloods freeze from such a deep voice, first looking at the Aquaritus blade then back at the rooted figure, now sat up staring at them.
"I am him," Fuse answers.