"Guardian Entity: Genbu," Belias of the Black grunted, straining at the branches that pierced through him. "99%!"
Immediately, his body swelled and grew, his bipedal form lurching into quadrupedalism as he broke free of his restraints. He landed, a mountain of shell and scale, roaring at the Contender who stood before him. Paradise Charon's hair billowed out behind her as she looked at the Guardian Entity -- but her eyes were unimpressed.
"Is that it?" she said, vaguely annoyed. "Your final move is to make yourself a bigger target?"
Something fired out of the ground beneath her, lightning-fast, and she grabbed it out of the air -- but Bruno and Serena paid it no mind. For just an instant, this woman was distracted. They couldn't let this chance slip through their fingers.
They leapt down out of the hole they'd made in the wall, seizing two shield-swords as they charged down towards Charon, using a staircase of shields to head right towards her. In order to defend herself against the incoming Guardian Entity, she'd had to turn away from them -- and as a result, her neck was wide open.
It didn't matter how strong she was. If they cut her head off, she would die.
Be careful, Serena cautioned. It might be a trap, Bruno.
If it is, Bruno replied. Then we'll just break out of it. Ready?
You don't need to ask.
Two attacks at once. Bruno and Serena slashing at Charon from behind, and Belias snapping at her from the front. Countless vine-like tendrils were incoming from the walls and ceiling, but they weren't fast enough. The attacks would hit before the Forest of Sin could interfere.
Bruno and Serena raised their swords up, Belias lunged forward to bite down --
-- and then they heard Paradise Charon sigh.
"This is so stupid…" she muttered -- and her arm moved, a sequence of smooth and straight waves that were nearly impossible to perceive.
A second later, Belias Hailel exploded, and the Del Sed twins were sent flying back.
Blood and viscera rained down throughout the Forest as the Cardinal Beast's body fell apart, collapsing into countless pieces. Arms, legs, head -- each divided and divided again, like the work of a chef preparing meat. Brown Aether spluttered around the carcass for a moment, before slowly…
…slowly…
…dying.
There was no time for shock. Serena whirled around in the air, slicing apart the tendrils that were coming to intercept her, before Bruno stopped their flight with a split-second shield. They dropped to the ground, conjuring a pair of new weapons. A broadsword made from the stone they were standing on, and another shield-sword.
Paradise turned to face them again, her lips spread out into a smirk. "Is that little sword meant to frighten me?" she asked, pointing her own weapon at them. For the first time, Bruno got a good look at it.
It was thick and warped, glowing red from within, tendrils wrapped all around its surface. At first, Bruno and Serena thought it was a club, and wondered how it had cut Belias apart -- but then they saw. All around the edge of the weapon, spinning so fast they were barely visible, were white thorns.
It wasn't a club: if anything, it was closer to a chainsaw. Those thorns were moving with such speed that they shredded anything they came into contact with.
They swallowed.
"It looks to me like you've started to realize how much you've overestimated yourself, del Sed," Charon sneered. "I'll tell you what: walk over here like a good boy and I'll kill you in one hit. Generous, no?"
Bruno's mouth frowned, and Serena's eyes narrowed. "As if," they said.
Charon chuckled. "Young folk these days… so impertinent. I suppose I'll have to come over to you, then --"
Pop.
The tiny sound, incongruous with their surroundings, rang out through the clearing. Immediately, Paradise Charon's eyes flicked over to the side -- and saw that, right next to her head, something had appeared. It was a chunk of rock, barely the size of a fist, just hanging in the air.
"Wha --" Charon began.
She didn't finish, because a second later her head had jerked off to the side, as if she'd been struck in the cheek by an invisible punch. She went skidding across the floor by the force of the blow, kicking up dirt, her face twisted in rage.
The del Seds did not waste time.
Once again, they kicked off -- destroying a shield beneath their feet as a launching pad -- and zoomed towards Charon. Reaching out, they grabbed another sword-shield, this one thin and pointed like a rapier. If Charon's blade could match theirs in sharpness, they'd focus all their strength into one point.
They'd plant their sword right between her eyes and turn her off.
As Paradise Charon came into range, she whirled back around, swinging her sword right at the del Sed collective neck -- but they dropped to the ground at the same instant, thrusting their invisible rapier towards Charon's stomach. The blade could not be seen, but Charon definitely felt it coming: with a crack of red Aether, she leapt up above the blow, flipping through the air and slashing at Bruno and Serena's exposed back.
From that angle, at that speed, they could not dodge. Bruno went to throw himself further down to the ground, but even as he did so he was painfully aware it was too slow. Through the reflection of Belias' blood, he could see Paradise Charon bring her sword down…
Pop.
…and then, before it struck, he saw a white glove appear right below her chin.
Again, an invisible blow struck her, slamming into her jaw from below and forcing her head upwards. Her swing went wild, and Serena spun back around, striking fast and true with her own weapon. A glancing blow, but blood flew through the air all the same.
One hand clutching her injured face, Charon landed on her feet -- a short distance away. Blood seeped between her fingers as she pressed down on the injury.
Let's go after her, Bruno! Serena declared, taking a step forward…
…and then stopped in her tracks as a wave of malevolent red Aether flooded through the area, crawling over every inch of their surroundings.
Paradise Charon slowly looked up, and through the gap between her fingers, one of her eyes could be seen, widened to an absolute. The tiny pinprick of a pupil there stared relentlessly at Bruno and Serena. Her mouth was slack open, as if she couldn't even comprehend what had just happened.
"You hit me?" Charon whispered. "You hit me? You hit me?"
Her eyelid twitched.
In that moment, a loud and torturous chorus of screams rang out from the Forest of Sin around them, with such intensity that Bruno was forced to drop their swords and plant their hands over their ears. The trees around them, the bushes, the leaves -- all of them thrashed around wildly, twitching and spasming like they were having a seizure, the entire world going mad around them.
The light from the vegetation died instantly, plunging them into darkness -- save for the eerie red light that surrounded Paradise. Bruno and Serena watched, tense, as the Second Contender staggered to her full height like some kind of zombie…
"How dare you?!" Charon screamed. "How dare you, how dare you, how dare you, HOW DARE YOU?!"
…and the earth opened up beneath them.
----------------------------------------
Ash del Duran wrenched the maintenance door shut with all his strength, sweat pouring down his brow. He wiped it away with a shaking hand as he took a step back, planting a hand on the Heir's shoulder to steady himself. He'd pushed himself too hard today -- the final clash against the intruder had used far too much Aether.
His curse was taking its toll.
The maintenance tunnels that ran through the Tartarus were more like a labyrinth than anything else, the dark metal corridors seeming to stretch on forever. It was bad enough when the ship was at full power, but now even the dim emergency lights were flickering in and out… things were getting worse aboard the ship, not better.
"We should have some time," Ash panted. "Let me just… catch my breath."
He'd managed to put some distance between them and Dariah Todd Harlow, but even just running had taken a lot out of him. Fighting, right now, would be impractical. He was exhausted, while that woman was in peak condition -- not to mention that ability of hers.
Reschedule, she’d called it.
If it truly worked the way she claimed, any damage he inflicted would only take effect twenty-four hours later. He imagined that, at that point, she could focus all her Aether into defense, reducing the damage further. Launching a physical attack was pretty much useless, then -- she'd still do her best to avoid fatal blows, but no matter how much damage he inflicted she wouldn't be going down any time soon.
"Mr. del Duran?" said the Heir.
There were other ways, though. Ash's mind raced, seeking the route to survival. Automatic defense abilities like this often had loopholes -- not through any fault of the user, but because leaving weaknesses in an ability increased its potency; a negotiation with one's own Aether.
"Mr. del Duran?" the Heir repeated.
If he could somehow evacuate the air from a room, maybe he could suffocate her. He could lock her in a room and leave her there. He could lure her into an airlock and space her. All these options were easier said than done, but --
"Mr. del Duran!" the Heir shouted.
Ash blinked, looking down at her in surprise. That was the loudest he'd ever heard her meek voice.
Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her fists were balled at her sides -- tension brought about by the audacity of her outburst. But, as she opened those eyes again and looked up at Ash, he could see a distinct glimmer of resolve. Something shining through the fear.
"Mr. del Duran…" she said firmly. "I have a plan."
Ash shook his head. "Don't trouble yourself. I can --"
Smack.
For a moment, Ash didn't even comprehend what had just happened. One second, he was looking down at the Supreme Heir. The next, his head had jerked off to the side, and there was a stinging pain on his cheek. He looked back at the Heir, and saw that her shaking hand was now held out.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
She'd slapped him. She'd slapped him. He put a hand to his cheek, mouth twisted incredulously.
"Mr. del Duran," she repeated, voice trembling. "I am the Supreme Heir -- and you will listen to me."
Slowly, he nodded. Perhaps this one had more fire in her than he'd thought.
----------------------------------------
"How dare you?!"
The Forest of Sin twisted around Bruno and Serena as they fell, dark tunnels and hollows opening and closing as they tumbled through the blackness. Before they could do so much as stop their fall and find a handhold, however, they felt a hand seize them by the leg -- and with a mighty scream, hurl them in a new direction.
“How dare you?!”
We're going to hit the wall, Bruno! Serena screamed. You need to defend!
Bruno didn't need to be told twice. Curling up into a ball, he focused all of his purple Aether into the infusion of their body -- and as he struck the wall of twisted branches, he smashed through it into the chamber behind. Unlike the rest of the Forest, this place was brightly lit. He could see here.
He wished he couldn't.
This was where the Forest's victims went, the unfortunates that had been dragged in when the Second Contender had first activated her ability. He supposed it made sense that he hadn't seen any corpses yet -- they'd all been here. All of those unfortunate soldiers had been mangled, pulped, flayed and sifted, but more than that…
…there were no corpses, because they weren't dead.
Below Bruno and Serena was a river of molten humanity, melted flesh and muscle flowing without end through the veins of the Forest. Eyeballs and teeth floated freely in the gelatinous mass, pupils flicking this way and that as they were carried off downstream. A chorus of screams, like the pits of hell, radiated up from the river as Bruno looked down, horrified.
Just before he would have fallen into the river, Bruno created a shield underfoot that allowed him to remain in the air. He had to be ready. Paradise Charon would be here any minute, but… he couldn't help but stare down at the abomination.
This was evil. Pure evil.
Bruno and Serena's opposition to the Supremacy had always been based on ideology more than anything else. A sense that a government that prized strength over anything else, that actively punished those who could not fight for themselves, had no place in this world. Even with all that, though, they had never thought of the Supremacy as evil. It was a collection of people, people who had their own reasons for their beliefs, who would oppose Bruno and Serena for similar reasons as theirs.
This, though… this was unforgivable. An abomination.
Paradise Charon had to die.
That was easier said than done. Unlike with Bruno, who had smashed through, the branches of the Forest peacefully parted to allow Charon to leap into the chamber. Even so, she rushed forth like a cannonball -- fingers hooked like claws, teeth bared like fangs. More than feral, rabid. The tiny wound the del Seds had managed to inflict on her was barely visible as it bled.
"How dare you?!" she screamed -- and before Bruno could so much as dodge, she had spiked him down into the river of man.
As he splashed down into the disgusting soup below, Bruno couldn't help but scream. It was agonizingly hot, like boiling water -- far beyond boiling water -- and it was clinging to him, clinging to his flesh, a thin skin of meat suckling against his arms and legs as he thrashed. Serena was screaming back at him in his head, offering some kind of advice, but he was in no state to understand it. The pain was just too much.
His escape was not a conscious thing, instead born of desperate instinct.
He created and destroyed a shield beneath the roving slop, launching himself onto the banks of the flesh river. As he looked down at his hands, his scream continued, turning crackly and faint as his voice reached its limits. His fingers were disintegrating, falling apart, broken down by whatever foul mixture he'd just been submerged in. As he watched, the thumb on his right hand popped off, swinging limply from a tender string of skin.
"How dare you?" hissed a voice from behind him.
Bruno, move! Serena demanded.
She didn't leave it to him -- instead, Serena took over, scooping a sword of wood from the ground as she swung backwards at Charon. Her attack did not hit, but it saved her all the same -- Charon's kick was slowed as it shattered through the weapon, and so it only sent Serena flying again rather than pile driving through her.
"Bruno!" she called out, voice swallowed by the air. "Make some shields! I need to fight!"
Bruno did not answer or act. She could feel his consciousness in the back of her mind, a twitching mass of chaos, still engrossed in his own pain. What had happened to his fingers had been too close to what had happened… back then. For now, she was on her own.
That was no problem. Serena brushed her disintegrating fingers against the ground as she flew, and a colossal earthen sword pulled itself up from the ground, the flat side of the blade providing a platform to stop her flight.
Her hands were in no state to hold anything, let alone fight, but that didn't matter. After all, it was the big sister's job to look after the little brother.
"Bring it, bitch!" Serena screamed, as Paradise Charon leapt after her once more.
----------------------------------------
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
It took three punches for Dariah Todd Harlow to smash the maintenance door open, the dents she produced becoming a hole big enough for her to duck through. Blue Aether coursed around her hands as she made her way through the ventilation complex, alternating warm and cool air blowing her hair back.
Ash del Duran sure was a dickhead, making her run around like this. Wasn't he meant to be an honourable warrior or something? This was ridiculous. Was it too much to ask for the old fossil to stand and fight? Dariah tightened her grip on the edge of the hole in frustration, twisting the metal with a screech.
Don't lose your temper, Dariah.
They'd all but won. There was no reason to get annoyed in the first place. Dariah would kill this brat and Caesar would use the wish she earned down below to get herself named as the new Heir. An Heirship not based on blood would surely ruffle some feathers in the Body, but Caesar's control of the Special Officers would give her the political capital she needed. It was foolproof.
Dariah Todd Harlow was blessed to play some small part in the ascension of the greatest Supreme in galactic history. Marcela Caesar was strong, wise, charming, graceful, beautiful… an absolute power. She'd take the throne and cement the Commission she'd led as a permanent fixture in the Supremacy. Dariah would be rewarded for her efforts, of course… they'd need a new Commissioner, after all.
She shook her head free of the daydreams as she passed through the ruined door, Cogitant eyes flicking this way and that as she searched for her prey.
One couldn't be too careful -- Reschedule was not an omnipotent ability. If Ash del Duran caught her by surprise and delivered a blow that would pop her head, she'd be dead the next day no matter how much she defended herself. It would just be a little less messy.
No, she intended to live through this.
A swift end to both del Duran and the girl was the best bet. It was fortunate that the floor had collapsed, in fact -- the maintenance tunnels were the perfect place to do the deed, out of sight and out of mind. If she left the bodies here, she could just --
Dariah stopped as she turned the corner.
"Oh," she muttered. "That's more like it."
The ventilation tunnels that ran through the Tartarus converged at several nodes -- and Dariah Todd Harlow stood before one of them now. Tunnels ran off in every direction as air blasted in from above and below, and a massive fan spun for its life up above like a mechanical chandelier. One spun below the platform, too, its sharp blades revolving over and over again. That wasn't what caught Dariah's attention, though.
No -- what did that was the man standing beneath the fan. Ash del Duran. Standing tall and ready.
"I've been thinking about things," he called out to her as she crossed the catwalk.
"Glad to hear it," she replied. "But it might be a little too late for that. You're in a disadvantageous situation, you understand?"
Ash glared at her. "The intruder knew exactly where to go in order to find the Heir. I assumed she had some kind of tracking ability, but now I'm not so sure."
Dariah paused, frowning. Shit. She'd have preferred for him not to figure that out -- but, then again, he was about to die anyway. Might as well let him finish.
"I think…" Ash narrowed his eyes. "...that your boss has been leaking information to the enemies down below. She gave them information on our battle plan and the Heir's location. You were ordered to step in and finish off the Heir once that intruder had exhausted us, weren't you?"
Dariah continued walking, cracking her knuckles. "If this is the sort of plan where you have me make a confession over the intercom or something," she said. "I'm not interested."
"No…" Ash chuckled, shaking his head. "No, it's not that sort of plan at all."
Without another word, he charged at her. How pathetic. It seemed he wanted to go out with a bang, if nothing else. Dariah braced herself, planting her legs down firmly, and jabbed at the enemy as he came into range.
Her punch was lightning-fast, and Ash barely dodged it -- but the air pressure alone was enough to slice at the man's face. As Reschedule automatically handled defence, it left her free to focus the Aether she manually controlled on attack. She struck again with her elbow, but it seemed that Ash anticipated it -- with a flash of Aether, he wormed his way behind her and looped his arm around her throat.
So he was going to try and snap her neck, eh? He was welcome to try. He wouldn't be able to apply the force required even to strangle her. All this amounted to was a slightly uncomfortable massage.
Still in Ash's grip, Dariah lurched her body to the side, slamming her captor into the metal bulkhead there. Boxes scattered everywhere as Ash crashed through them -- and as he hit the bulkhead itself, there was a sickening crack from his shoulder. Something broken, no doubt. Old bones were so fragile.
Dariah grinned to herself as she began to work herself free of his weakened grip. Flipping herself around, she seized his hands and began squeezing, feeling the fingers break under her strength as she pulled him close.
"You'd be a fossil no matter what you looked like, Duran," she hissed. "You're the old breed, the dying breed. The world doesn't want people like you anymore. Don't you think it's time to accept that?"
Ash grimaced as Dariah held him tight, stopping him from escaping.
"You're right…" he finally groaned. "It's time… for the new breed, isn't it?"
Dariah frowned. "If this is some kind of trick --"
Pain.
Dariah blinked. Very suddenly, her chest had gone cold -- and the strength seemed to have left her limbs. She found that the arms that had just been brutalising Ash had fallen to her sides, limp, and that her legs were shaking beneath her. She took a breath that seemed curiously shallow…
…and looked down to see the blade of a massive sword sticking out of her chest.
The Heir spoke from behind her.
"I-I was thinking about your ability…" the girl said, voice still shaking. "Your… Reschedule. An ability like that has to have a weakness and I… I…"
Dariah turned her head, eyes bulging furiously, to glare at the girl standing behind her -- at the girl who'd plunged that sword through her back.
The Supreme Heir was trembling, but she did not blink as she stared back at Dariah. "...I figured it out. You can delay any attack by twenty-four hours. But…" She took a deep breath. "But that's only against Aether-users, right?! Against someone without Aether, you might as well be a normal person!"
Dariah snarled. "You little… bitch…" With the last strength in her arms, she went to claw at the brat, to ravage, to scour, but she never got the chance.
With a final tug of her own strength, the Heir swung free the sword embedded in Dariah's back, and sent her falling off the platform --
-- right down into the fan.
----------------------------------------
Aclima didn't look as Dariah Todd Harlow was shredded below, but she didn't close her eyes either. From now on, she wouldn't shut her eyes to the world anymore. She'd promised that to herself.
She panted for breath as she clutched the bloodsoaked greatsword in her hands, falling to her knees. The tension of what she'd just done seemed to spread through her body like electricity -- when she raised a hand to her face to wipe her hair out of her eyes, it was shaking so much that the task was impossible.
Still, though… she'd done it. She'd done it. She'd beaten an Aether-user. She'd snuck up on someone trying to kill her and killed them instead. A sword was the pen with which you wrote your will onto the world -- and she'd written with her sword today.
She wasn't helpless after all.
As she looked up, a relieved grin on her face, she saw that Ash had fallen unconscious where he'd fallen. It was no surprise: he'd already been exhausted from his Aether tic, and the pain Harlow had inflicted on him had to have been intense on top of that. It would be difficult, but she should be able to carry him to the ship's nearest medical facilities if she --
Thump.
Something heavy landed on the walkway behind her -- and as Aclima turned her head to look, she felt a clammy chill spread over her back. Behind her, looming over her, was a chaotic mass of brambles and branches, vaguely intertwined into the shape of an arachnid. It stared at Aclima with a single red eye.
Aclima blinked.
She knew this. She'd heard of this. This was a cutting… a cutting of the Forest of Sin.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" she screamed --
-- in the moment before the beast was upon her.