Fortune had never shined onto the Circe twins. Their life was one full of struggles and suffering since the moment they were conceived—unwanted children, born from a young mom of only 17 years old. Supposedly the father was her teacher at her school and had taken advantage of his position to lay his hands on the innocent young girl. It didn’t matter much to Quillon anyway, it wasn’t like he had the choice of seeking revenge against that horrible man. That pedophile had already been arrested after multiple scandals of similar circumstances came to light at the school. But such a thing came too late. The damage was already done, and the effects had just begun. Quillon’s mother was from a devout catholic family, so abortion was not a choice for the young girl. How unlucky then, it must have been for his mother to realize that she was not going only to bear one child from her rapist, but two instead. That was how the Circe twins came into this world not as a blessing, but as a curse.
Unfortunately, that poor young mother did not ever smile again. The shame and humiliation had broken her long before the pregnancy, but the twins being conceived was the cherry on top of her tragedy. Devoid of all hope and sanity, the young girl would consistently have manic breakdowns that became so severe and frequent that the parents of that girl were forced to step in and raise Quillon and Nina themselves. However, they were quite displeased with this responsibility and made sure to express their annoyance to their daughter and their grandchildren, both physically and mentally. Some nights Quillon remembered were especially terrible when that old man came back drunk and violent, upset about something either from work or the family. He would especially not hold back on his daughter, using his belt freely when the girl would not stop yelling or crying on certain nights.
It would continue like that in the household until Quillon and Nina turned 8 years old, already being scarred from the hatred and disdain they experienced. During those years, the twins had no one to depend on except themselves. Not only would their mother enter a frenzy upon looking at her children, but their grandparents were also abusive and neglectful. Still, Quillon always sought to protect his sister, Nina, during those years of chaos and mistreatment. While Nina was born weak and frail, she, unlike her brother, was what her teachers called a genius in academics. They would always be saying the same thing, that she was going places, unlike her savage brother who only knew how to fight and get into trouble.
Yet, Quillon did not mind such insults towards him. For he saw it as his purpose in life to keep his sister safe so that she could flourish. Yes, so long as his sister was safe, he was happy.
Then further tragedy took hold. One night, police came to their home to tell the family that their grandparents had passed away in an accident, hit by a drunk driver that day. Despite their cruel and strict actions, their presence was the only thing holding that family together as something. And now that they were gone…
Quillon could still remember that day. The twins had just returned from school shortly after their grandparent's death when they noticed their apartment was unusually trashed far worse than from the regular episodes their mother would have. Upon seeing spilled pills on the floor along with bloody broken glass, Quillon realized something was amiss. Bracing himself, he ordered his sister, Nina, to stay back and call for 112 on the phone while he went ahead to where a path of red crimson spots led.
Quillon sometimes wished he never opened that bathroom door.
That young unfortunate girl, forced to become a mother too young against her wishes, lay dead in their bathtub, her wrists slit open.
The twins only had each other left after that day. And Quillon swore that he would do anything to protect his sister in this horrible world. No matter the cost…
***
In front of all the eyes of the survivors, they saw it. Purple lightning. The twin swords that were in Quillon’s hands had turned into a blur as the sparks built into streaks of purple lightning that coated the swords. Though Cricket could not see his face, she knew from the slight twitches from his body that he was taking upon a heavy burden to maintain this form. Yet Quillon’s face never wavered from the pain, maintaining its look of anger and determination as he stood in the path of the charging sand beasts.
The Croco-man on the top looked at Quillon with its eyes made of sand in ravenous hunger. Readying its curved sword, the Croco-man on top of the Hippo-Rhino prepared for any attempts of the puny human to dodge out of the way of its ferocious steed charge. Quillon looked upon the beast with his blades of purple lightning, readying them in retaliation. When the moment finally came, however…
There was a flash of purple, and then…it was over. It ended in a blink of an eye, done before Cricket could even register what happened. Coming to a crash, the Hippo-Rhino fell to its side and slowly dissipated into the sand as its face was ripped open by a large gash of a blade. Lying ahead on the ground was the upper torso of the Croco-man, cut in half before the beast could even register what occurred. And next to the slain beasts was Quillon, standing victorious in deep sweat and exhaustion. The whole fight concluded in a mere second. Before the humans could even react to this inhuman feat, Quillon suddenly swayed and fell to his side onto the ashen gray sand. The man in black did not move after that.
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Snapping out of her stupor, Cricket ran ahead, followed shortly by Laura and Ronald who were close by.
‘Damn it…why am I always being protected, why can I not fight?’ Cricket thought in frustration as she got closer to the fallen man.
Arriving at Quillon’s body, she quickly prioritized checking for any vital signs on his unconscious body. Fortunately, the man appeared to be breathing and not at risk of death, yet she couldn’t help but get an eerie feeling upon seeing the burnt hands of the man.
“Is he alive?” Laura asked as she arrived side-by-side with Ronald.
“Yes…but I’m unsure of how severe his injuries are. Whatever move he pulled seemed to have caused some severe burns to himself,” Cricket responded
“Let me have a check…” Ronald said as he kneeled next to Quillon’s unconscious body.
The team medic wasted no time, first examining the body of Quillon with his equipment for injuries before deciding how to use his P.G.R. to heal the man.
Looking up, Ronald stared at the two women who were watching with worried eyes.
“It’s…as if he was struck by lightning. I can stabilize him but I’m unsure how he will turn out afterwards. The strain of such an attack proved too much for the human body to handle…”
“Yes, but if it wasn’t for him, we might all be dead…” Laura said as she stared at Quillon’s scarred face.
“That’s for sure,” Ronald agreed.
Meanwhile, Cricket could only look at the unconscious man in frustration.
‘Damn it…am I really this weak?’
Clenching her fists, she could only bite her lips in self-loathing as the battle ended around her, all without her contributing a single thing to it. Cricket could only curse her at her own weakness.
***
* < | Existence Consumed… | > *
How many…are left…?
Despite being blessed with a body that required no rest, the toll that Unity took on his consciousness went beyond normal exhaustion. Even though Gus could only enact the basics of Unity in combat, barely reaching a partial state of it in his consciousness, Gus for the first time in his life as a golem felt true exhaustion. All his mind desired was rest, yet the attackers never let off. If it hadn’t been for Nova and its power to consume his foes for nourishment, Gus would have surely fallen already in battle due to the bombardment of attacks he was faced with. Yet such a fate never occurred.
Plunging the Pavise Ox into a fallen Croco-man who was struggling to stand up, Gus turned around for another foe and soon realized that he was all alone in a field of dissolving sand. The silence of Nova only served to further remind the Golem that he had come out victorious.
Gus, however, was not pleased. Despite being so tired that his consciousness felt like it would crumble at any moment, the golem still wished to continue the fight purely because he did not wish to give up his immersion into Unity. But now, not a single challenger remained.
Shame…but hopefully this means that everyone came out alright.
Making his way to the human defenders stationed nearby, Gus was about to call out to them until he saw their expressions.
They are…flabbergasted? What on earth happened while I was fighting?
Curious, the Golem walked towards Larry who had noticed the Golem’s presence first.
“Oh! Gus! A Demon of Carnage, no, the Angel of War! You were so cool, man! When you went like, Bam! And then Slam!” Larry excitedly said as he acted out the golem’s movements.
“Oh uh…thanks. I wanted to ask you something though, Larry.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. Oh, is it perhaps if there are more enemies you must go out to slay! More people that need protecting! Well, don’t worry hero golem, 'cause the enemies are all gone! There was a scare when one of those beast riders slipped past us, but you should have seen it! Quillon pulled out a move like ‘Screee’ and then ‘Slash’! It was so epic! It’s like I’m in a man—”
“Wait…Quillon did what now?” Gus interrupted.
Yet before Larry could explain further, an arm suddenly appeared around Larry’s neck, wrapping around it while the man himself let out a little yelp in surprise.
“What this dork was supposed to say was that Quillon managed to learn his P.G.R. ability to control something like lightning, and used it to save everyone back in the wagon. Yet Quillon went and fainted after using that move to unleash at lightspeed, so Ronald is currently looking to heal him,” Frankie explained more concisely after catching wind of their conversation.
“Wh-what are you doing, Frankie?! This was my moment to explain! And…g-get your arm off me, please…” Larry interjected.
“Hahaha! You dork! Who are you to be bossing me around!?” Frankie playfully responded.
“Agh!”
No longer paying attention to the two arguing and laughing, Gus looked at the crowd forming around Quillon with questionable thoughts.
A powerful attack at lightspeed…could he be a threat to me? Does Quillon harbor ill-will to me?
Yet with no way to confirm, Gus could only make his way to the man and see for himself.