D-007
Approx 13 hours since launch
Planet Foralon
Loyal Tree.
Inside of the hollow tree, the King of the Aplens is trying his damndest to comfort his horrified subjects, but then notices two figures entering the area.
King Maimou: "You two! Stay away!"
Cosmo and Itadori continue walking forward inside.
"I really don't think you can afford to stop us." Itadori mentions dismissively.
Cosmo: "Even if you could, it would be nothing but bad news for your people." A cold tone that contrasts harshly with her delicate appearance.
Itadori: "Simply give us the emerald and we will leave. Icarus is…ideally…dealing with the invader, and the…creatures above do not want to wipe you out by their own hand. You are safe."
King Maimou: "But…we will lose our ways! Our progress!"
Cosmo sighs in annoyance.
Cosmo: "Kujo, do us a favour and just take the emerald from him, yeah?"
Itadori nods and begins walking forward.
The king tries to run away with the emerald, but gets backed into a corner.
The king cowards in fear.
Itadori sees his long, thin shadow covering the king in darkness.
…
Itadori stops.
…
Cosmo: "What's wrong?"
…
He doesn't know what's wrong.
…
Why does it matter? One small alien species in a faraway planet. To say they are nothing more than a drop of water in the ocean in the grand scheme of things would be a massive understatement. It's not like he's killing them or anything, it's just going back to the way things are.
…
The strong are born that way. The weak are born that way. That is how the universe operates.
…
And yet…admitting that would mean accepting the fact that…
…
For some reason, it feels wrong.
…
Cosmo: "Kujo?"
…
Itadori hesitantly turns around to face her.
Itadori: "I propose we…make sure Icarus deals with the Metarix soldier first."
Cosmo is a bit bewildered by this for a split second, but shrugs it off and sits down on the ground in wait. It makes no difference for her either way.
Itadori looks down on the ground, clutching his fists. Furious at himself.
A person like him should never hesitate…
If he hesitated on such a nobody…
Then…what about…
Planet Foralon
Open Fields.
Icarus: "Come on, come on! There has to be at least one around this planet!"
Still chasing away from the vicious Metarix soldier, Icarus rolls down to the middle of a valley before uncurling, digging his hand into the dirt and adjusting himself to run straight down its middle, effortlessly dodging laser after laser by sidestepping left and right.
The valley narrows, and the cyan-coloured sides get steeper and steeper, practically acting as a solid wall.
With no other option, he jumps on the side of the left wall, and leaps diagonally forward onto the right side, over and over as he evades destructive attack after destructive attack, breaking apart small chunks of rock.
The machine was still right behind him, meaning the only way out is forward. Blocking his path is a bizarre piece of scenery: A piece of land where the longer it is stretched out, the steeper it was, while being slightly curved to the right. What makes it odd is the fact that it…kept getting steeper, doubling back on itself.. A loop-de-loop.
Icarus springs towards the ground and makes a mad run towards the odd structure, trying his best to fight against gravity as he almost becomes upside down.
Because the machine is levitating, it doesn't have to deal with the speed loss of going uphill, and as a result it is quickly catching up to Icarus.
He then gets an idea. A trick Icarus used to do on a two-dimensional game he played on the internet back in middle school.
Near the peak, he squats his legs to the max and hops to the part of the loop going downwards, curling into a ball midair. He was hoping to use the momentum from his jump and convert it into vertical velocity upon landing on the steep angle.
To his shock, it works! With an immense burst of speed, Icarus uncurls and gets to the open fields once more, gaining distance from the killing machine.
While he is handling the situation well enough, he laments not being awake to view the planet as they were landing. Maybe then he would have the slightest clue where the planet's oceans were located. All he can do now is run in a single, focused direction and hope to stumble upon it. Taking out that machine with water seems to be the only feasible way to defeat it, and even then there is no guarantee it would work.
Oddly enough, going in a single direction is getting…easier.
The area around him is noticeably flatter now. Nothing but grass as far as the eye can see. The robot also stopped shooting death lasers at him. Maybe it was finally running out of energy?
…
It was getting colder.
…
Icarus thinks to himself that he may be running closer to the poles, so he considers changing paths. However, he couldn't afford getting lost. He was barely keeping track of the way back to Itadori and Cosmo as is.
Besides, the poles are surrounded with ice floating on water, so it might be a worthwhile risk.
…
Icarus makes notice of how the floor was getting…stickier. Every step took more and more effort to pull off the ground.
…
The air was getting thin.
…
The colour of the grass was getting darker as he ran.
…
Every breath hurts. Is this what getting tired feels like? Icarus didn't even know that was a thing he could do.
…
He puts his head down in fatigue, but then looks up to keep himself awake.
…
Dark skies, small bits of blue were bleeding into it.
Huh, he must have been running for such a long time that he missed the evening.
…
He glances backwards and up to the skies that he passed.
They were still bright.
…
He looks up again.
Pure darkness. Not a single star. No signs of life.
…
His feet are struggling to lift themselves anymore.
He tries to keep going.
…
His heart should have been beating faster to help him.
It was only getting slower.
…
His arms slump.
His run turns into a jog.
…
He's gasping for air.
He can't hear himself gasping for air.
…
His jog turns into a walk.
…
He's wheezing for air.
He can't hear himself wheezing for air.
…
He stops.
His eyes were blank.
He feels weak.
…
With every ounce of strength left in him, he turns his head to the right.
…
Covering that entire side was a blood star. It's red light was the only source of illumination in the otherwise pitch black surroundings.
…
The light remains, but he can no longer see it.
…
The Metarix soldier slows down as it gets closer to Icarus.
…
It stands still.
…
"THREAT. ELIMINATED. SUCCESSFULLY."