And here we are. Urban nightmare. And with it. The two final floors unlock. I didn't go to greet the new librarians cause i knew who they were. Hokmah and binah. I still haven't forgiven either of them. Besides it was way past time i handled the suppressions on my floor. And sure enough. It was the ones born from my psyche. Lament of innocence. Why did i survive? Memories of her. And my hatred. And it was in it's first monster form. Not the doppelganger or it's massive armageddon level form. Thank god for that. But after dealing with my hatred again. The light screen appeared. And showed a guy with black hair and red eyes being treated like crap by his family. He left the house bruised saying nothing. He got the invitation. And with a shrug he signed. And so i went to greet the quiet edgelord.
"Welcome to the library. My name is jon karakuer tenshi." i said. The guy's widened.
"Karakuer?" the guy asked.
"Yeah…is there a problem?" i asked. There was an odd silence for 30 seconds.
"No…my name is rob hall tenshi. Didn't think i'd run into an arc. So i fight for some books?" rob said.
"arc? I really am in the dark about my heritage. Anyway no. you've been selected to be an assistant librarian. Help sort out books deal with guests. You'll be paid handsomely for it." i said. Once again rob is quiet for a good long while.
"Alright…i need a job and time away from the folks anyway." rob said. I won't say that i saw what his parents did to him. Really makes me appreciate my folks.
"I won't barge into your personal life….good to be working with you rob." i said. And so my team was now five.
Our next reception was surprisingly someone from the same world that our special assistants came from. As the screen showed a lab that had limbs similar to alex's arm. had finally created a full beast out of his specialized limbs. A creature he named frankie. His beautiful unique and god like bio weapon. I felt disgusted knowing that he ruined alex and countless others lives just for the sake of creating that thing to get the data necessary to make the perfect soldier. The guy was obviously insane.
"It seems like this kind of insanity isn't unique to the city huh?" roland asked.
"Seems so…though i imagine that its a lot harder to do that kind of science considering that world has authority that actually cares about keeping the peace instead of only opening their eyes when an ai gets too smart." i said. Letting out my anger for the head once more. Mountain of smiling bodies would be destroying entire districts. And they wouldn't lift a god damn finger.
"Considering i'm sure that's the insane doctor who ruined alex's life. Your leaving this one up to the floor of history?" angelica asked. I nodded in confirmation. Me and angela greeted the guest and explain the rules. You know the usual.
"I don't really care for the books. I'm just here to test frankie's combat capabilities." dr mercer said.
"Well good news. You'll be testing it and then some. Against a previous test subject of yours. One i'm sure is out for blood. May you find your book in this place." i said. He and his pet entered.
"Oh. alex long time no see boy..your contribution made this possible. I told you'd be helping me in something great." dr mercer said. Failing to notice alex's pure anger.
"I let you replace my arm with this…and ruined my life…just so you can create that abomination!?" alex yelled. Much to malkuth's shock. No one has seen alex that angry. Can't say it's a surprise though. Considering what that insane scientist put him through.
"How dare you call frankie an abomination. He's my master piece! You should be grateful to be a have a hand in the creation of the ultimate soldier!" doctor mercer yelled.
"The ultimate soldier huh? He better be…cause if he isn't i'm going to tear him and you to shreds for ruining my life you fucking wackjob!" alex yelled. Frankie certainly was strong. I dread what would happen if someone in the city got their hands on his research considering that stuff like him has a 0 chance of getting the authorities involved. Despite that. Even the ultimate soldier was no match for five warriors. Including one that was out for blood. That's the thing frankie lacked. Emotion. He can't power through pain through anger like alex is currently doing. Which meant he eventually went down. Much to the horror of dr mercer who put so much work into creating only to fall to a prototype. Alex crushed his head with the very arm he gave him.
"Never thought i'd see alex get that mad. Guy was pretty much another malkuth until now." angelica said.
"Yeah…but considering that doctor ruined his life by making him an outcast with a monster arm. Thinking he was helping with something great only for that thing to be a hideous monster…yeah i'm sure even malkuth wouldn't be all too happy." i said.
"I suspect this won't be the only time our special assistant librarians get to handle guests they have a bone to pick with…" angela said. And sure enough. The next reception was someone that uriel had a bone to pick with. The spoiled little brat who got her fired and had her father bend over backwards to make sure she couldn't find another job anywhere. And it looks like the company went bankrupt. Much like those romance stories involving the workplace. But instead of having to work off a shit ton of debt. Instead evelyn. The ceo's bratty daughter in question. Had decided to sell her dad's former employees into slavery. She seems to think her dads employees are her property. That she's free to do whatever she wants to them but the greedy little bitch wants even more money. And she got the invitation of dr mercer. Clearly there was a big bounty on the guy and seeing dollar signs. She signed.
"Seems like uriel dodged a bullet when she got fired." roland said.
"Sounds like the company she used to work for went down the drain as well…can't say that's a surprise." angelica said deadpan.
"Seems just like uriel. She resorted to crime afterwards as well." angela said.
"Uriel turned to crime because she had no choice. And she never did anything as vile as sell her colleagues as slaves. Which is why i'm giving the honor of smashing her pretty little face in too uriel." i said. After greeting the brat. She made it really hard for me to play by the rules and not smash her face in right then and there. But i held it together and watched with popcorn as the fight began.
"Uriel!? Oh come on! I thought i made it for you to find work impossible!" evelyn yelled.
"You did in the sanctuary. This isn't the sanctuary. I found a pretty sweet gig. Good pay. My boss is like me. And a chance to make you pay you rotten little brat! What you did to me was bad enough. But to sell my former colleagues after the company went bankrupt because of your bratty narcissism. And your father never being a parent and reigning in his child! Smashing your face into a bloody paste will be rewarding! I must thank ms angela and mr karakuer for rewarding me with this chance." uriel said with a smile.
"You just don't get it do you? Something all of you failed to realize. I own you. I owned everyone! I even owned daddy! Your lives were mine to spend and do whatever I pleased with them! Get her boys! She doesn't know a thing." evelyn said. commanding her hired help. Despite that she still met her end by uriel smashing her head in with her baton.
"Some people just never grow up huh?" i asked.
"More like people think they own the world only to get curb stomped the minute they step out of their gated community" angelica said. The next reception was against the man who ruined zack's life. "The master" engineer, piston sanda. It turns out that blaming his apprentices for catastrophic machine failures was par for the course. The guy wasn't a master engineer. He's a fraud. A con artist responsible for tons of deaths and ruining the lives of those who looked up to him. Because in his eyes. They weren't apprentices. They were scapegoats.
"What an asshole." angelica said.
"Yeah…even though i have no connection to that world. I still like doing something about bastards like him. People die and unfairly blamed cause of this fraud." i said.
"I'm sure zack would love a word with his former master." angela said with a grin. Once again it took me everything not to kill this guy. Having an ego despite being a fraud.
"Zack? Oh hey kid. Sorry about before. But it was a necessary sacrifice." piston said. As before the good nature snapped and zack was pissed.
"Necessary sacrifice!? People hate me for something i didn't do my life was destroyed so that you could keep pretending to be a master engineer when your nothing but A FUCKING FRAUD!" zack yelled.
"I AM NOT A FRAUD!" piston yelled. Clearly being called a fraud is a trigger for the guy. The truth hurts.
"Yes you are! Keep lying to yourself. It's going to make what comes next sweeter for me and every other apprentice you used as a scape goat you prick!" zack yelled. Despite piston coming with a suit of armor. It didn't stop zacks sledgehammer from breaking it and reducing him to a bloody pulp.
"I guess it doesn't matter what world it is. Scumbags are still scumbags." roland said.
"More common place in the city. After all killing each other is expected. From where there from. Scumbags like piston and mercer are few and far between." i said.
"True. honestly moving to that world would be better than staying here. Any place is better than the city." angelica said.
"I wouldn't be sure of that. I'm not defending the city. But the universe is vast. I'm sure there's hellholes that are just as bad if not worse than ours." angela said.
'If that's true...then I'd hate to see it." roland said.
The next reception was against a bounty hunter named karl. Apparently varissa had slain a corrupt king. And now had a big bounty on her head. Like 1.9 million. Apparently her and karl were once partners. But they went different paths at some point.
"She killed a king? You wouldn't know it from what we seen of her." angelica said.
"That be like if it turned out netzach had killed the leader of the head. That would be one hell of a twist." angela said.
"Should we set up for the floor of art to take this one? Unlike the last few. I'm sure varissa doesn't have a bone to pick with her old partner. Albeit he's after her for the bounty. But it sounds she's got a massive one on her." i said. Netzach soon arrived.
"Send this to my floor…varissa said if anyone is going to slay karl. It's her. It's an honor thing apparently." netzach said. And so we went to do our greeting thing. This guy was much more polite. No underserved ego or narcissism. A much nice reprise from the last three that i'm sure no one would miss.
"So this is where you've been varissa." karl said. She shrugged.
"Bounties are few and far between in an age of peace. This is a pretty sweet gig. Good pay. Really good company. And an endless supply of free alcohol. This place is a paradise for me." varissa said. Both of them laughed.
"You haven't changed varissa. But our paths are-" karl said only for varissa to intervene.
"Once that lead to separate words. We heard this speech before. So let's just bite the bullet and get to the part where we kill each other." varissa said.
"Right." karl said. Both her and him have drawn their swords. Olga netzach and the other librarians stayed back. After a long clash of blades varissa managed to driver her sword through karl's chest and decapitate him, reducing him to a book. She signed in relief as the reception ended.
"Hey boss…i got a favor to ask." varissa said as she entered the main room. That favor was reviving karl. And to offer him the same job. He was hesitant at first until i offered him the same amount of money he would have gotten from varissa's head. With that enticing offer. He became another armageddon knight helping us out.
3rd person pov.
Gebura chesed binah and hokmah we're on the floor of abnormalities. Waiting for jon.
"As happy as i am to see you two. Why are those two here?" jon asked. Pointing towards hokmah and binah.
"Not happy to see us jon?" binah asked with her smartass smirk.
"I may have freed you from the prison ayin subjected you too. But that doesn't mean i've forgiven either of you! I haven't. You kept kissing Ayin's ass even as he was getting people killed. And i don't think i need to remind you as to why i hate you! Just seeing you both put me in a bad mood. And i get why chesed is here. After all him and binah are in a relationship. Which is still shocking. But why are with them gebura? You don't like either of them are much as i do!" jon yelled.
"Remember how you calmed me down after my breakdown in lobotomy corp…well it's my turn to help you with what's been haunting you." gebura said.
"What? Nothings haunting-" jon said only for gebura to interrupt me.
"Desmond and maya told me everything jon…shortly after i was awakened. I used that leyline fount to go see them. They were happy to see me. And I was happy to see them…but they told me what happened between the old lab and lobotomy corp…none of us blame you for what happened in the old lab. So you need to forgive yourself." gebura said.
"I thought wellness of our manager's sanity was my job." chesed joked.
"And to think a supporting speech would come from the queen of being angry." binah teased.
"Shut up both of you." gebura said. Everything went black as they saw everything from when enoch died and his violent outburst with a shovel to when jon first saw the recording of what happened to elijah. To holding the dying kali in his arms. To finding michelle swinging from a noose. To the voices haunting him at home. To the time jon couldn't take it anymore and tried to kill himself with maya's old thumb rifle. And when the flashback ended. Jon had his face buried in his hands as he cried and laughed like a mad man.
"Were it so easy to get rid of my guilt. I was the only one who walked away from that lab. I promised so many i would protect them. All this power and I couldn't save anyone. I couldn't protect anyone. And yet i survived…i lived on to accomplish nothing. Carmen…ayin..benjamin…garion." jon said as he looked up. Tears going down his eyes. The blue was gone replaced with the glowing red of madness. His mouth into a psychotic grin of sharp teeth. "I hate you all so much…" jon said as he resonated with the abnormalities on his floor. Fusing with lament of innocence. Once again another gauntlet came. The hardest one yet. Jon was already the toughest fighter. And even with the red mist and an arbiter fighting. This was not going to be an easy fight.
After defeating "beginning of sorrow." jon resonated with why did i survive? Becoming guilt's gunner. And after that he resonated with memories of her and became the carrier of her will. Gebura remembered when she died in his arms. And seeing him becoming red mist while duel wielding his blade of light with her prototype mimicry goes to show that maybe she shouldn't have told him that..then again. She had no idea that she would get another chance at life. That's one thing they got to thank ayin for.
And after that he resonated with hatred. Becoming the knight of hatred. The same one that was trying to convince him to unleash all the abnormalities on the city to spite carmen ayin and benjamin.
And finally. Jon became the false hero. A warrior with dead eyes that looked like he was threw utter hell. The name and the way he looked showed that jon didn't believe himself to be a hero. That he doesn't deserve everyone's faith and trust. And after beating him. He returned to normal and soon got up from the floor.
"Feeling better now dork?" gebura asked.
"My head is pounding…but my heart feels lighter. So yeah?" jon asked.
"You've been bottling up that for too long jon…this is why we kind of pushed. Like you did with us." chesed said.
"I see…fuck you guys…but also thanks…i'm going to bed now. I think i'll sleep like a baby tonight. Want to join me gebura." jon said. She blushed.
"Not the time or place dork!" gebura yelled. Chesed and binah chuckled. Before she dragged him to her room. "May your pelvis survive you blue haired nerd." gebura said crossing her heart.
Meanwhile in the city. Argalia has found another recently born distortion one that mostly human looking except for its black eyes. It's hair was looked like jons. Instead it was light blue with white highlights. Argalia named this distortion…Nikushimi.
