(Council of Nine – January 3rd)
A loud bang echoed from the mountain four times in a row. Braylon's Striker made quick work of a reptilian creature that walked on two feet, another thing that couldn't exist naturally on Remnant. The Vault Hunter reached the fresh corpse. Typing something on the PDA's screen, he moved it closer to the creature's body so that he could perform a scan that would gather precious information which would later be stored in the database. While the PDA did its magic, he whistled a random tune that appeared in his mind. He tried to make it sound cheerful, but all he got was something so dramatic it could as well be a funeral march. Ren and Jaune walked up to him.
"I never saw this animal." Ren commented in his usual emotionless voice.
"Nobody on Remnant ever saw this animal." Braylon added.
"Well, what is it?" Jaune asked, peeking over Braylon's shoulder.
"Its DNA resembles that of a Jackson's Chameleon. Though I don't know how can such a tiny animal naturally evolve into a nine-feet tall, horned bastard with twelve-inch-long claws of death ."
"Did you see how fast it was? It..."
Neither Ren or Jaune expected Braylon to materialize Holo Ripper and burrow it deep into the creature's skull with such barbaric movements that it resembled like he was trying to scoop out its brains. Shocked from the sudden blood that fell everywhere, they both jumped back. But not Braylon. He continued slicing with Holo Ripper until the head became a squashed tomato, staining himself with blood. After he was done, he stood still for two long minutes, breathing heavily. "...are you sure you're okay?" Jaune asked carefully, like when you deal with an unstable psychopath. Braylon quickly replied: "It was still alive. I had to do it. Sorry for the mess." Jaune wanted to express how he failed to see any sign that would tell him it was alive. But then again, he knew better than to make his friend, and he felt like he was really stretching that word's meaning, angry. "There should be a tiny river few meters ahead. We will take a break there." He commanded nonchalantly as he began walking. When they reached said river, Jaune and Ren drank some water before Braylon washed away the blood from his face. All three of them decided to rest for a while.
The three teenagers began their journey the moment Braylon returned to Remnant. He found Jaune and Ren, answering their concerns with an excuse about needing to urinate. They doubted he cared whether they believed him or not. He was silent for the whole four-hours-long walk. The only thing that bothered them was a tiny flock of young Nevermores, which were quickly killed with their combined firepower. Jaune commented how he started liking the Energy Pistol, to which Braylon said nothing.
"Where do we go now?" the blond knight asked.
"The town, Arcton, used to be a heaven for mining industries. So I think we can take a shortcut if we find a tunnel or a cave. It will probably lead us the top of the mountain or straight into the town itself."
"Won't it be dangerous? I mean, it could be a trap."
"No matter our choice, we will be screwed anyways. I want to take the shortcut so that we can reach and kill whatever is creating those monsters as soon as possible."
"Yeah, about that." Jaune visibly tensed, "Isn't it weird how we still haven't encountered at least one of them?"
"If I had to guess, they are probably searching the island for any other obstacles they need to wipe out."
"Why?"
Braylon shrugged, "Who knows? Maybe they want to colonize the island? Whatever the reason, we must stop it. If we don't..."
Jaune's eyes were hidden under the shadow, yet the other two boys knew how he felt. For being a situation where the fate of the world depended on three Huntsmen-in-training, with two of them being the textbook definition of greenhorns, it created a sort of temporary bond that connected all three equally. While Jaune and his teammate had a noble cause, to save Remnant, the Vault Hunter did this just to stall. There wasn't much he was able to do anyways. The Siege Engine returned to his mind. Undoing the damage inflicted to the island and its inhabitants would probably be hard, if not impossible.
"Maybe a quarantine?..."
"...on?"
"Hm? Yes?"
"You were kinda lost there. Is anything…?"
"I'm fine. Thanks."
Jaune and Ren looked at each other.
"No need to worry. I'm fine."
"Then why is your hand gripping that rock so tightly?" Ren asked.
Braylon blinked, looked down and, to his surprise, he was really holding a rock as if he wanted to turn it into dust.
"Yeah… I'm good..." He murmured, more to himself than his companions. He then shook his head and calmly said: "We are standing here for few more minutes. No more."
"If you say so."
(Enmarta – March of the Priests)
So they finally found a tunnel, as Braylon said they would. It was surprising to Jaune how his temporary teammate quickly took the role of the leader, a role that should have been his. He wasn't jealous or anything like that. Who would be jealous in such a scenario, where real people fought real monsters and died for real? The only thing he didn't like was his weakness. His whole gimmick revolved around using a sword and shield, which weren't even his! Then again, he had to remind himself that he faked his way into Beacon. How could he stand up to Huntsmen-in-training? Stand up to Braylon?
For an odd reason, he respected Braylon. True, he was a jerk and not very social, but he was a true comrade in battlefield, or at least that's what he thought. In his mind, he started idolizing Braylon not for his personality, but for his ability to handle difficult situations and his skills in battle. The pistol (which he called "Energy Pistol", a rather bland name he thought) already gave him few ideas on how to use it while he could. A shield and pistol combo was pretty good. Defending himself while he shot his opponents. Pistol and sword could be used should he need to be aggressive. But that would leave him defenseless unless he was really good at dodging, which he wasn't.
"Braylon?"
"Yes?"
"Do you have a plan for when we get inside that city?"
"I'll improvise. Somehow."
Jaune wanted to start any kind of conversation, to remove the creepy paranoia of being ambushed when they don't expect it. Even if he failed to find any side-tunnels or rocks to hide behind, Jaune's fear made him think that those monsters would crawl out from the walls themselves. He was scared of fighting them, but he was also worried about his friends. For their sake, he had to be brave enough to fight. He had to be brave. He had to be brave. He had…
"Deathclaw!" He screeched like a girl, pointing at a tunnel to their left, few meters ahead. Braylon and Ren were confused for a moment, before noticing the giant creature similar to the one they killed outside. It was running towards them. Jaune, seeing that they couldn't jump away in time to avoid being hit, immediately stood in front of them with his shield, but was smacked towards a wall with a simple swing of its massive arms. Though his sacrifice was questionable, it gave time to the other two to draw out their guns. Braylon materialized Orphan Maker and fired into its chest while Ren went behind and cut its legs slightly above its feet. The creature fell on its knees but it was still alive and deadly. It tried to cut Braylon, who materialized Holo Sabre and stabbed its palm. A painful howl could be heard as the Vault Hunter moved his holographic tool up, towards the shoulder, slicing the entire arm in two right as he was reloading the shotgun, which he used to shatter the head.
"Wha…?" Jaune's head hurt. He felt someone's hands pulling him up.
"Are you stupid? Why did you do that?"
"Uh..."
"You want to die, moron?"
"Braylon."
"Zip it, Ren. We could have taken that and this idiot just had to be a hero. What was Ozpin thinking when he put Jaune as a leader?" he helped the blond knight to stand up, "Also, Deathclaw? Seriously? What kind of stupid name is that?"
"Well, you did say claws of death..."
"Braylon. Where did this one come from?"
"That's what I want to know. I'm tempted to explore that tunnel from where it crawled out like a rat."
"What if we find more?"
"We can always destroy the tunnel." Braylon said nonchalantly, as if that was completely normal thinking.
(Fallout – Underground Troubles)
The group made a slight detour to check the tunnel. It was short and it led to a tiny cave containing a rift, which surprised everyone. Nothing alive was present there. Strangely, his PDA began ticking. He checked to see what was happening to his device, only to notice that the Geiger counter was detecting tiny amounts of radiation…
"That's a rift. A "portal" to other realities, to put it simply." Braylon replied to Jaune and Ren, who were more concerned than him, "And it's leaking."
"What do you mean?"
"..."
That was the second rift he encountered that day and it was relatively close to the first one. Braylon couldn't wrap his head around this mystery. It was obviously bad news, but he wanted to know why. He remembered the sight from that reality he visited, where the rifts were almost everywhere. Was such a thing happening on Remnant as well?
"We will bury this cave." he said, "You two start running towards the exit, I'll use explosives to bring down the whole damn thing."
"But why?"
"I don't know how to close that. I don't even know if it will ever close. But I can prevent any more monsters to come out from it. Now go!"
As they ran, Braylon materialized Nukem and fired at the ceiling. The earth shook as the explosion shattered some rocks that began falling, some of which fell right on another of those creatures that was just about to cross over. Running as fast as his legs could carry him, he caught up to Ren and Jaune, who had to jump-climb their way to the exit, where the aetherial green light outshone the sun.
(Doom 2016 – Suspense)
The corrupted city they were looking for lay below them; a fortress of concrete and steel with its gates wide open and its ramparts abandoned, decorated with slain trophies of its inhabitants. And while silent, it was no sleeping giant, for its streets burned with aetherial green fire so brightly that even the layer of clouds, absent on their way up, was stained with that unholy color. Their eyes watered from the pungent stench that filled their nostrils. Not the stench of rot, but something sweet mixed with sweat and sulphur. No monster was there to attack them, yet they could hear voices whispering in their ears or screaming at the top of their lungs only to fade five seconds later. It was a bizarre sub-reality they had to endure for the good of all.
"...The blanks are filling in..." Braylon spoke quietly.
"By the gods, what blanks?" Jaune swatted the air multiple times, "Am I the only one who is hearing voices?"
"Ignore them. Actually, hear me out because this is important." Braylon materialized Ajax's Spear, "You need to remember some rules before doing anything. Your life depends on it. Is that clear?"
(Dronny Darko - Geist)
They both nodded, though their eyes were more focused on the curse that befell the city. He snapped few times with his fingers near their ears.
"Hey, concentrate! I know it's captivating, trust me. I've been there. So do your best to ignore it and listen to me. Rule number one: ignore everything your mind tells you. If you see weird shit, you do not think about it. If you hear someone screaming for help, you ignore it even if it goes against your very being, like now. I don't know what we'll find there. Maybe the whole damn place is one big trap for idiots like us. Maybe houses will sing or walls will cry. You don't give a fuck, okay? Turn your head around or think of something else." he sighed, "Rule number two: I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but this place is a balls-to-the-wall clusterfuck, especially if it's what I think it is. Your head might simply explode from the simple "things men weren't meant to know" shit that we will find inside. Keep your weapons ready and kill everyone you find. There are no friends here, only enemies that want your souls. Got it? Let's go."
The group descended down to a small path that lead through a cemetery and towards one of the giant gates. After Braylon's speech, Jaune and Ren didn't dare moving their fingers away from the triggers. They would jump at the slightest sound or aim at the first shadow they deemed far too weird for their liking. Braylon was slightly more calm, more focused. But even he was nervous. Beads of sweat dried on his face and forehead, his eyes never leaving the sights of his gun.
"Check it out, I thought creepy situations like this only existed in movies." Jaune gulped loudly.
"Yeah. I still don't like it."
"Are you me?"
While the voice kept pestering their ears with cries and mockery, their eyes were free of such distractions, able to observe the graves for any suspicious movements. Even if that was a place for eternal rest of Humans and Faunus alike, there was a very high possibility that the undead could simply crawl out from their tombs and attack them en masse. If that happened, they would be completely surrounded, without a way to escape. The undead would slowly but surely rip them apart and that would be their end.
But none came.
They reached the giant gates that led deeper into the hive of madness. None of them made another step. Braylon had to shook his teammates multiple times to stop them from staring at the display of corpses on the walls. Even he couldn't help but stare, even for a second, at the supposed trophies of death. The blood on the walls dried long ago, but some of it trickled out from tiny openings between bricks. He decided it was time to move into the city when he saw one of the hanging bodies staring directly at him with its dead eyes, the thinnest of smiles spreading its lips apart.
Nothing still came.
"Few minutes in and I already want out." Jaune commented, staring at something in the distance before quickly moving his eyes somewhere else.
"Suffer in silence. You had your chance and you blew it."
It came out a little more cruelly than he wanted, Braylon had to admit. The only thing he needed of them was discipline he knew they didn't have and an iron will that took years to develop. That's why he wanted to go alone. A gun or two that would watch his back were always welcome at times like this, sure. He was asking too much from whom he thought of as kids, also known as Huntsmen-in-training.
He was right when he said they could encounter some "weird shit" in the city. The first thing they noticed was the lack of aetherial fire they saw earlier. When out of the town, it looked like entire streets were burning with everything in them. Now only few houses were demolished and only one or two were burning. When they came to a tiny public square, probably one of many, they stopped briefly to check their surroundings. One road was entirely blocked off with garbage, leaving only two open for choice.
"I don't like this."
"Now you are just repeating yourself Braylon."
"Quiet, you."
"We go left or forward?" Asked Ren.
"Left."
Jaune understood what Braylon told him, the "rules" he probably made up on the spot. And he wanted to follow those "rules", really. But Braylon told him to ignore a woman that sounded like she needed help. She kept screaming about her child being hurt. He wasn't stupid. It was definitely a trap. Just to be sure, however, he glanced over at the other available road. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw an actual woman running towards them with a child in her arms, only to fall down as a Fleshmender was about to kill her with its mutated arm.
"No!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, before darting in the woman's direction faster than a bullet.
"Jaune, you stupid imbecile! Come back!" Braylon shouted from behind him. He and Ren decided to follow their partner.
"Stay away from her!" Jaune took his sword and cut the Fleshmender's arm… only to see that same Fleshmender disappear into the faint fog that covered the whole place. When he was about to turn around, the woman was gone too! Even the road changed! It resembled a park with few dead trees and burnt grass. A fountain not far from him poured out blood rather than water.
"Huh?!"
"Jaune! Jaune!"
He felt a fist to the face that threw him down.
"Jaune, you fucktard! You already forgot what I said?!"
"But… the woman was there! I saw her with my own eyes!"
"I told you to not trust your damn eyes, you moron! It was an illusion!"
"But it looked so real!"
"I know! That's why I warned you! What if you fell right into a trap?! Speaking of which..." Braylon spun around, "Where are we?… Looks like a park." A set of stairs led towards another street further up. It was the only available way, as the street that was supposed to be behind them ceased to exist inexplicably. The branches on the trees swung even if there was no wind to move them. His eyes widened.
"Run!"
(Doom – Rip & Tear)
Not giving his colleagues time to react on their own, he pushed them in the direction of the stairs. They ran without questioning his motives. Jaune paused for a moment and dared to look behind. The trees he saw earlier were shaking violently as their roots dug themselves out from earth, giant faces staring in their direction. Jaune's heart began racing and he was close to hyperventilation.
"Move your ass!" Braylon barked, shaking the terrorized knight. One of the Mourning Woods spat flaming spikes in their direction, which they barely avoided as they reached the street. Braylon changed Ajax's Spear with Striker. Now the previously-hidden monsters crawled out from houses, dark corners, piles of waste and sewers, like worms out of woodwork. Soon, a horde of Aetherial Troopers, Abominations, Fleshmenders and three Gigantes hunted them down like a pack of rabid dogs, eager to get their hands on the young souls.
Braylon had to choose where should they go when they reached an intersection. Left path was blocked by a rift hidden behind a cloud of red gas, just like the one they encountered at the village, populated by two humanoids in brown hazmat suits that shambled like Possessed Corpses. Their only choice was to go right, since another horde of monsters was approaching them from the other road. Some houses had fleshy growths on them or had human skin for walls and eyes for windows, screaming from their orifices where doors were supposed to be. It was like the whole town had woken up.
"This is a nightmare! This is a freaking nightmare! Eeek!"
"Inside that house! Hurry!"
Jaune, Braylon and Ren dashed into the only building that didn't look corrupted like the others. The Vault Hunter went in front of the two Huntsmen-in-training, killing two Possessed Corpses that were in the hallway. Their unspoken consensus was to go upstairs. Jaune, being the last to go, looked at the doorway to see if the monsters were close to catching them or not. He almost crapped his pants when a Possessed Huntsman in a long dark blue coat and blue pointed hat stared back with its glowing eyes, hissing like a snake.
"Moortaaal!" It hurled a fireball with its wooden wand. Jaune screamed and jumped upstairs with an agility of a cat. He thought he would sooner die from a heart attack than anything else.
Reaching the roof, they encountered a Fleshmender. Braylon shouted and rushed at the demonic monster, kicking it so hard it fell off the roof and down on the street. He didn't see a Haunted dog flying his way. It was dispersed with the combined firepower of the other two Huntsmen-in-training.
Without thinking too much, they jumped from roof to roof. It was all they could do to avoid being torn apart by the massive horde of eldritch horrors that followed them. Some roofs had mouths that would vomit out Troopers or Abominations as obstacles. Those things weren't enough to stop them. Their luck ran out, however, when they realized that the buildings started moving on their own. What seemed like yet another construction untouched by madness that dwelt in the city was actually a structure that changed its position to lead them towards the horde. Braylon saw their only salvation in the form of a house different from others. It had thousands of fleshy eye-like growths on its wall, all of them staring at the intruders without blinking. The second Braylon stared back, it opened its massive mouth, releasing a long, red tongue on the street like a carpet.
It wanted them in.
They had no choice. Either they would become tired from running and let the monsters get them or they could go into that creepy, possessed building which was definitely not a trap. The answer was obvious; they went towards the house.
"There's so many of them!"
"I know!"
"We can't fight them all!"
"I know that too! Now shut the fuck up and run!"
When their feet ended on top of the tongue, it lifted them up and quickly brought them into itself, like a frog eating an insect, and closed its mouth. They went through a tunnel made of pinkish flesh and reached a platform while trying to ignore the pleading, horrified faces melted into the wall. Finally, they let out a collective sigh of relief, although Braylon saw the thousand-yard stare of his companions.
"Hey, you two alright?" It was a stupid question. Of course they weren't "alright". Everything they saw up to then was something that would haunt them in their dreams, unless he had a way to scoop the memory out of their brains, which was impossible. "I told you not to go, but you didn't listen..." They gave him such a withering look that he had to cringe. "Well, at least we are alive and in one piece. Right? I hope you are read, though. We are about to see some shit. I can feel it."
The platform brought them in a small room made entirely of pinkish meat. While Jaune and Ren cringed whenever their feet would sink in the flesh, Braylon walked up to an eye on the wall and punched it. The eye closed and an entire wall squirmed away, revealing a gigantic arena under a dome, built from the same material.
"I-impossible..." someone behind Braylon voiced their opinion, he thought it was Jaune.
If he weren't creative enough, he would call that place a stomach. Everything was squishy, wet and bore a disgusting stench. Gigantic ears, eyes and mouths decorated the walls while fangs as tall as a human stuck out of the floor. He wasn't sure what to think of the ceiling. It was so breathtakingly high, it was completely enveloped in darkness. But then there were a dozen of eyes so big that it looked like the ceiling was really close to them and not somewhere in the heavens. Right, he thought, best to leave it at that and not question it further, for his sanity's sake.
He heard something drop behind him. He spun around and found Jaune on his knees, hands in hair.
"I can't take this anymore! It's… it's too much!"
"Jaune..." Braylon called.
"All of this! All of this! It shouldn't..."
"Jaune." Ren tried to console his friend. He gave Braylon a look of worry. Both of them were probably at the edge. It was a mistake to take them along.
"The eyes! I can feel them on me, staring at me, at my soul! They judge and laugh and want me to suffer! I hear them, Braylon! I..."
Braylon slapped Jaune,
"Snap the fuck out of it! Don't fall to the mind games, think of Nora… and Pyrrha, Jaune! Remember your partner Pyrrha?! She needs you!"
Mentioning Pyrrha was like activating a switch in Jaune's brain. The pained cries stopped, with Ren helping his leader to stand up again. Through that act, Braylon was able to see how close were all four to each other. The shared empathy brought them together like a family, where everyone cared for everyone else. If one were to die, it would devastate the remaining three. With the career they had in mind, it was unavoidable.
"Hold still, you two. We may be at the heart of the issue. If we can find out what caused this nightmare, we can save not only the island, but whole Remnant. Now..."
"RRAARRGHH!"
They were taken by surprise when the roar manifested out of nowhere. There was nothing in the entire place that could cause such a sound, a cacophony of people screaming as loud as they could from their throats. Shaken, the trio took their weapons and formed a tiny circle, watching each other's backs. Ren warned other two of an event that was unfolding on one of the walls. Slowly, messily, the wall of flesh split open as if someone with rough and inexperienced hands tried to cut it with a saw, leaving a wound that turned into a bloodfall. The warm, boiling blood was absorbed by the flesh on the floor, like a sponge sucking up water.
"By the gods..."
"Shit..."
Blood wasn't the only thing that leaked out from the wound. The flesh tried to push out something else. Like a mother giving birth to her child, the entire wall vibrated and squeezed itself. With each new thrust, with each squeeze, the object slowly came out while blood still continued to leak. Finally, after what sounded and looked like the most painful moments that wall ever experienced, the object fell out with a loud, wet splash. The teenage minds were immediately bombarded with images of an actual mother giving birth to an actual baby, yet the entire scene looked more like the planet itself just defecated what was supposed to be its inheritor, who turned out to be a sad, misshapen living thing that had no knowledge of itself.
And indeed, the object was a creature. In contrast to nature, where everything had a purpose, this being was the very antithesis to that equation. Braylon, Ren and Jaune noticed the reject's lack of skin, as well as sense and form they could recognize. It was far different from what they saw on the surface. Even those monsters had some kind of purpose. This one had no purpose, no consistency. What they saw could only be described as conjoined torsos with faceless heads, where from each shoulder multiple arms stuck out. Each elbow had multiple forearms and each forearm two to three hands. Three long tentacles sprouting aetherial crystals and a giant cannon covered in melted flesh were its only means of both attack and defense. A jumbled pile of mouths, eyes, skulls and aetherial crystals able to move thanks to dozens of legs who had no connection to each other in either shape or utility.*
Such a grotesque life-form was too much even for the organs on the walls. Mouths opened and began wailing or flailing with flaming, snakelike tongues, ears bled and eyes on the ceiling cried torrents of acid. When it touched the meaty floor, it sizzled despite showing no signs of damage. The whole situation had gone out of control for the three humans, with two of them screaming their souls from the madness that revealed itself to the world.
(Dark Souls – Centipede Demon)
"Run to the cover!"
Terror was the driving force that made them hide behind a giant fang. The entire place became ten times more dangerous. Not only they had to hide from the ten-meter-tall monster, they also had to avoid the environmental threats. Braylon gathered enough courage to search for the monster. He could feel the supernatural fear overwhelming his supernatural anger, which acted as a counter force that watered down the effects on his psyche. Ren and Jaune weren't so lucky. The latter's sword trembled in his hands, almost falling a couple of times.
"No more. No more. No more." he repeated to himself in something like half-whisper. Ren closed his eyes and tried to do some breathing exercises.
Meanwhile, Braylon found the monster. It's sloppy movement was hard to miss. Acting as if in complete ignorance of its circumstances, it wandered around aimlessly, moaning a tune that made no sense to his ears. Materializing Leviathan and loading Fire Dust rockets, the Vault Hunter moved from tooth to tooth, ignoring his comrades' protests. When he came close enough, he fired a volley of rockets which exploded on contact and set it on fire. The eyes stopped leaking acid, the mouths let out horrid screams of pain and the monster swung its body left and right. To make more damage, Braylon switched Leviathan to its grenade launcher mode and reloaded. Two grenades exploded near the creature, covering it in napalm that burned through its flesh.
For a moment, Braylon felt relief. He was smiling, thinking it would be easier than he thought. That was until the monster decided it was time to get serious. With a shriek that summoned a powerful wind, it extinguished the flames that burned its body, even the napalm. It was like the monster received a brief moment of lucidity, because all the eyes on the walls and on ceiling were now focused on the Vault Hunter. His smile faded.
"Motherfucker..."
It's tentacles shook thrice, scattering aetherial crystals that buried themselves into walls and floor. Monster came out from walls and floor moments later, awakening from their slumber. Ren and Jaune, despite the mental strain, fought well against Troopers, Pygmies and Firestarters. It was sad to think they already accepted such horror as normal, dishing out death but also trying to avoid it.
Back to Braylon. The monster aimed its giant cannon in his direction. He shot another grenade. The explosion and napalm made it move its cannon sideways just as it was about to fire. What followed were a bright green flash, a sudden loud noise and a wave of aetherial fire that destroyed those unfortunate enough to stand on its trajectory.
"I need to come up with something else! Think!" he gasped when he noticed a Firestarter dangerously close to him. Thankfully, Jaune was close enough to smack it with his shield. When it fell, he shot it repeatedly, cursing with each energy bullet, "Wait! That's it!"
His solution was Vulcan in its sword mode, loaded with Gravity Dust. Vulcan's blade, thick and wide enough to describe it as more of a slab than an actual sword, became black like the Dust that powered it. That wasn't the only change; Gravity Dust made Vulcan as heavy as a feather. Why? Because it would allow its wielder to throw it like a boomerang. And just like one, it would always return to its user's hands as long as it had Gravity Dust to consume.
For that exact reason Braylon threw his weapon at the monster. It flew through the air, cut down two hands that tried to swat it away, then buried deep into one of its chests. Now came the fun part. The weapon was designed to return to its user, yet it was unable to release itself from the flesh of its target; so when it had to return, it also brought the monster. There was a bit of a struggle from the monster, who clearly had no idea what was going on, but the sheer force of Gravity Dust threw it on the ground with ease.
"Somebody cut those fucking tentacles down!"
Jaune, being closest, used his sword and cut two tentacles while Ren only one, to prevent other creatures from being summoned. Braylon materialized Holo Ripper and used it to kill an Abomination that happened to be near him and the struggling monster. With Vulcan still stuck and Braylon using his holographic chainsaw to cut the flesh as if butchering an animal, in search for a weak point, victory was certain. Ren killed the last Firestarter and Jaune decided to destroy two of the monster's arms to relieve his mind of all the stress he had gone through, though it went sloppier than he expected due to the ever-present supernatural fear.
None of them expected a payback. Braylon and Jaune were swatted away with two mighty backhands across the area. They both found out that its touch was corrosive to the soul, resulting in extreme pain. This was especially true for Braylon who suffered even more due to Song of Malevolence's special effect, something he had no knowledge of. It was so bad, he was put temporarily out of the fight. As for the monster, it detached its upper body from the fleshy platform, grew wings and took flight. The conjoined torsos were ripped apart, revealing a heart that connected them through several large veins. It had three aetherial crystal clusters growing on its surface.
Vulcan fell from the monster, all Dust finally drained from the canister. Only Ren remained standing. He knew his automatic handguns didn't have enough stopping power to finish it off. It wasn't enough to stop him from shooting at the heart. Hiding from the monster's hand-cannon attack, Ren thought of a strategy that wouldn't include his other two teammates, who were most likely unable to help. Jumping out from his cover, Lie Ren saw the monster ripping a fang from the floor, to throw it at him. Suddenly, several plasma shots hit its back. It turned around and saw a wounded Jaune barely standing on his feet.
"Not… enough… to finish me off!" he proclaimed, raising his sword dramatically, "I won't go down as long as I breathe!"
"Perfect! Thanks Jaune!"
Ren knew his leader's intention, so he jumped on top of a fang and used it to jump even higher. With the help of StormFlower's blades, he damaged some of the wings, making it loose balance and fall on the ground with the giant tooth on top, blocking any movements. Jaune, picking up Vulcan, headed over to the monster's grotesque heart. Any hand that would try to stop him met Ren's blades.
"This is for Nora!"
Jaune destroyed one cluster with Vulcan. Screams could be heard coming from the walls as the eyes on the ceiling started leaking acid again.
"This is for Pyrrha!"
Second cluster was destroyed. The entire place shook.
"And this is for the village you destroyed! Aargh!"
When the last crystal cluster was broken into pieces, both Ren and Jaune heard a high-pitched shriek as a wave of aetherial energy spread across the entire place and through the walls. The results could be seen immediately. Everything made out of meat began decomposing at incredibly-fast rates. An earthquake cracked the stone-hard floor that used to be as soft as a pillow. If there was blood, now it was gone.
"Braylon!" Jaune called his companion, "Braylon! Where are you?!"
"We have to go, Jaune! The entire place is about to collapse!"
"I'm not leaving this place until I find him! Braylon!"
Three pillars of bright, orange light broke through the floor. Jaune didn't know what that was, but he insisted on searching for Braylon. In that moment of panic and hastiness, they failed to connect the dots. They failed to understand, that with the core monster dead, reality was free from molestation forced upon it, and now it sought to restore the natural balance. The not-quite-dead aetherial monstrosities on the surface were put to rest, as were all tortured souls that were unable to reach the afterlife for one reason or another. All the city could offer were mounds of dead meat and the smell of rot that accompanied it.
The pillars of orange light were manifested energies that came from Hell, unleashed when the current reality began breaking down. While they searched for Braylon, they could feel an entire spectrum of negative emotions at the corners of their consciousness at once. It was painful for their already questionable sanity, yet they decided to keep going no matter what. Things took a turn for the worse when those energies mixed with the leftovers of the aetherial energy, causing the pillars to expand until they enveloped the entire place, much to the teenagers' horror.
(Doom – Victory)
Darkness was all Jaune and Ren saw. None of them dared to speak, none of them dared to ask questions. Braylon was still out cold.
Everything became red. Contours began to form. First objects appeared. Mountains, valleys, lakes. All red. Warm. Hot. Unbearably hot.
Despair, pain, fire, hatred, fury, hunger…
Monsters?
No…
Demons. Two eyes in the distance...
"Long shall be your suffering, mortal worms! We shall strip your worlds of all life created by Him! You will beg for death to come and take you away from the nightmares we will create! Your hearts will decorate our shrines! The very idols you worship will bring your doom! There is nothing you can do to stop your oblivion! Hell will be unleashed upon all that is mortal!"
Screams.
With a blink, it was all gone. Had they imagined it all?!
Their screams attracted fearful glances of innocent bystanders. They all thought someone let two nutty freaks into society, and now they harmed a person!
"Somebody call the police!" a woman screamed.
Jaune, oblivious to his surroundings, fell on his knees, babbling and crying. He let Vulcan drop beside him. Ren was the first to calm down. Although shaken, he noticed how the woman was screaming something in a language he didn't understand. Only now he realized how the city was far different from the one they left! Where were they, actually?!
How convenient, Braylon woke up.
"Fuuuck… I can't move..." he opened his eyes, "Wut? Where are we?"
"Braylon!"
"Ow… I can hear you well, Ren. No need to shout… What happened?"
"I don't… we are… somewhere else… I think? I don't know anymore."
"Somewhere el-hold a fucking minute! What did you just say?!"
"There they are! Arrest them!" a man in a business suit pointed at them.
"What?! What did we do?!" Braylon replied.
"You know that language?"
"Uh, yeah? It's Japanese… not a weeaboo, by the way."
"What did he say?"
"Let me be for one fucking minute, okay?! My head's all fucked up and… and..." Braylon squinted, "Wait, hold on. Did you go to the gym lately?"
"...I'm sorry?"
"Don't make me repeat myself, damn it!"
"What does this have to do with anything?!"
"Jaune's ripped too! The fuck?" Braylon checked himself, "Where do these muscles come from? And why do I feel like I'm suddenly taller?"
Ren blinked, "Hmm… Now that you mention it..."
"Can you stop with that dramatic pose, please? There is absolutely no need for that right now. And it's fucking gay."
"You are the one to talk."
"Whatever." Braylon turned around, "Let me see if I can find… hey! Hey! Get your hands off me!"
"Morioh Police! You are under arrest!"
Two policemen handcuffed Braylon, Ren and Jaune, who was still crying. Braylon tried to understand why were they being arrested when suddenly a house caught fire! Those few people that came to stare at the three strangers now ran away. Braylon used the confusion to knock out the two idiots and free himself from the handcuffs.
"GROOARGHHHRGH! URP!"
(Yes – Roundabout)
Fear appeared once again as all three, even Jaune, stared at the burning house, where the noise came from. They saw a large-as-hell silhouette slowly moving out from the inferno. Each step forward looked like the thing would sink into the earth due to how heavy it is.
"They are here too?!"
"*sigh*...It's all so fucking tiresome..."
The thing was a fatty with a large green eye and a gaping mouth, covered in armor that would make a tank jealous, yet not enough to cover that disgusting beer belly. Did I say it had two fucking cannons for hands?**
Posing dramatically for no reason whatsoever, they prepared for the fight. Ren pulled the triggers, but his guns weren't working! Jaune brought forward Braylon's empty Vulcan. Meanwhile, the fat demon groaned happily, ready to roast his next meal.
TO BE CONTINUED...
First chapter posted in 2019, part four out of five! Somewhere near summer, I should be able to write at least two chapters per month, though I am not certain.
Here you could witness some special effects of Fire and Gravity Dust on Leviathan and Vulcan. On Leviathan, Fire Dust makes rockets explode on contact with a surface and set everything close to them on fire while grenades explode and release napalm. I came up with this idea thanks to grenade mods from Borderlands. On Vulcan, that same Fire Dust would just turn it into a flamethrower. Gravity Dust is another story. Though I don't know how to combine this type of Dust with Leviathan, I found a way to use it on Vulcan's sword mode. Basically, it turns the sword into a lethal boomerang.
The first Mancubus in the story showed up! I decided to use the Doom (2016) Mancubus for the first version, the weakest of the tribe. The Cyber-Mancubus will fall under the "Cyborg" tribe of demons that will show up a bit later.
PDA Biopedia:
*Entry #90: Aetherial Conglomerate
Type: Demonic Corruption – Hero
Faction: Forces of Hell
Description: "Promises of power and prestige are easy bait for mortals. In some cases, individuals wish for sorcerous powers in exchange for something, usually unaware of the fate of their soul after such pacts. Yet sometimes one can find a group of mortals who form cults to honor what they claim to be deities. Should they attract the attention of a particularly sadistic brother, they will perform rituals prescribed to them without knowing the outcomes. Some like to make up "rituals" which serve no purpose other than to drag the involved mortals further into the pit of their own making. But not every brother behaves like that. Sometimes, a brother will show his gratitude to the followers, giving them blessings they can't refuse, then laugh maniacally when the mortals find out that the game was rigged from the start."
**Entry #91: Mancubus
Type: Demon
Faction: Forces of Hell
Description: "Gluttony. A Mancubus represents that sin in the truest sense of the word. The need to devour things became their only preoccupation in life. For a Mancubus, the greatest achievement lies in giving their taste buds more food, different food. Food that would give pleasure to the brains of their manifestations. It will eat anything, even rotten remains, just to feel something new each time it moves that putrid jaw. The cannons are just a bonus for them. They don't see them as instruments of destruction but rather a tool that would give them a different kind of lunch each time they use them. This impulsive need to eat is so abnormal, that it is the only reason why they are hard to defeat in battle. Sometimes even decapitation won't be enough. Because of their extravagant diet, their stomachs became carriers of various diseases. Remember that, when you decide to split it open." (bonus damage resistance, deals incendiary damage with cannons)