Failure chuckled as he reached out and pet Aldred's furry head, some of his fatigue getting washed away from the action.
"Well, old friend, it seems that it is finally time for the finale. Ah, it seems like it was only yesterday you were a trembling pup that I found in my forest. Time sure does fly..."
Aldred grunted in response.
"Trembling pup? Please, you weren't in much of a better condition considering curse on the moon was stronger in those times."
Failure sighed wistfully.
"I guess we can agree it was rough for both of us, but at least we have a third now. Little old Kai, only seventeen yet he's already idiotically sacrificing his life for people he's known for less than a month. We really are quite the group."
Kai snorted.
"Hmph, idiotically? You should be thanking me. And it's not just for you, Umbra is back there too, she's also too young and too cute to die. And I'm sure Wa'rak is back there somewhere too."
Aldred winced, but decided not to correct the boy. Maybe if they met in the future he would tell him, but not now.
"And I did thank you." Failure said. "Plenty of times, I'm sure it was at least five."
Kai sighed and waved his hand, which neither Failure or Aldred could actually see because he relinquished the duty of controlling his body in favour of repairing the abundance of cracks on his soul that he was unable to repair for the last few moments. He wasn't sure if all these cracks would have any lingering effects if he were to survive, so he just decided to repair as many as he could anyway.
"Yeah yeah, and I heard you every time. I can never thank him enough and all that. If you really do want to thank me... Yeah, I don't know, just kill the Demon, I guess."
And with that, all three fell silent as they gazed upon their final enemy.
The head of the full moon abomination axe was stuck into the ground, meanwhile two of the Demon's four arms were holding on tightly to the hilt.
The Demon didn't make any sudden movements, but all three could see that its body was constantly vibrating, as if holding back its wrath. It had its eye closed, almost as if it was in prayer.
"My Lord, I apologise for not being able to keep your creation untainted."
Nevermind, it was in prayer.
"I know it will anger you, but I will make sure to punish these sinners harshly. So please, My Lord, grant me your strength!"
The whole world fell silent as Kai, Failure and Aldred stared blankly at the Demon, wondering if it was done with the show.
Even now, time was ticking away as the meteor above their heads got closer and closer. By now, the chunk of the moon had already started picking up more and more speed as it got closer to impact.
Time remaining before destruction of tutorial - 2 minutes and 43 seconds
Over a full minute had passed since the Demon had attempted to eradicate everyone inside the wooden Dome, but after the attack it just remained still, praying and recuperating from the backlash.
But just as Failure was about to make fun of the Demon once more for getting ignored by its 'Lord', his eyes widened in horror as something descended from the sky.
A beautiful white droplet around the same size as a rain drop slowly floated down from above. No one had even seen where it came from, it just... appeared.
The Demon's eye shot open it stared at the heavenly droplet, the two hands gripping onto the hilt of the double headed axe trembling once more.
"My Lord, you have answered! You have chosen to bless me with the responsibility of eradicating these pests. I thank you for your benevolence and I swear I shall carry out your order."
Kai took a moment to look away from his soul, which was still riddled with cracks of all shapes and sizes, as he blatantly cursed everything and everyone.
"What the fuck! Why is he getting some last minute power up? I thought we were meant to be the ones getting that! We're the good guys after all, aren't we?"
Failure sighed, but his eyes did not leave the droplet that was still descending.
"Kai, while there may be good and bad people, none of that matters. It's moreso the strong and weak that matter, one must be willing to overcome-"
The droplet, which had been floating down so peacefully just a second ago, shot towards the Demon quicker than Kai could even see. The droplet flew towards the Demon and...
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Entered the body of the full moon axe.
"What-"
A terrifying aura shot out of the axe as all the damages that had been done to the weapon started to repair itself. The shockwave of the aura smacked right into Kai's chest as he violently coughed up blood as he was sent flying backwards. He had no idea how much health he currently had, considering the added Constitution was isolated to the part of his soul that Failure was occupying, but he had to have lost a lot after that attack.
Failure lost control of everything as all wooden objects in the surrounding area were crippled by the aura.
But none of that was the worst part, no, the worst part was that Kai's soul was now completely covered in cracks. Wisps of gray were rapidly seeping out all over his soul, making Kai panic as he desparately pushed away the pain to repair his soul as quickly as possible.
Failure gritted his teeth as he spat out some blood while he righted himself midair. The body he was possessing trembled as he felt a stinging pain in the centre of his chest, but he knew, and hoped, that Kai would be doing his best to get rid of that.
Aldred had managed to endure the shockwave much better in comparison to Failure and Kai, mainly due to the fact the stats he had focused on throughout his life were Strength, Constitution and Stamina. So while his survivability was high, everything else was not so high. It really was a shame that Aldred's restoration ability could actually heal someone, otherwise Aldred would have been basically immortal.
Still, he had been sent flying backwards by the sheer force of it. Aldred skidded along the ground for a few moments before catching himself and glaring at the Demon warily.
The axe, which previously looked like it was on the way out, was now glowing with renewed vigour. Previously, Aldred knew that the full moon abomination weapon would not be able to unleash another eradicate attack as one of his initial theories was right.
The abomination that was wrapped around the axe was extremely weak, but it's ability was extremely strong. Still, every time it unleashed that attack, it also partially destroyed itself.
But now... There was at least one eradicate left in it.
Time remaining before destruction of tutorial - 2 minutes and 11 seconds
Aldred snarled as he dashed at the Demon, meanwhile Failure steadied himself and aimed the tip of his blade right at the Demon before propelling himself forward and acting as a human torpedo.
Because of the speed he was flying at, Failure was able to reach the Demon first. Still, it would just be a repeat of last time, the Demon would just catch the attack and fling Failure-
"Densify!"
The weight of the wooden blade in Failure's single hand increased dramatically, but his speed did slow as he aimed the tip of the sword at the Demon's chest.
The Demon failed to react in time, and with the added weight and forced of the attack, the wooden blade slipped through its hands and plunged right into its chest. Failure howled as he quickly ripped the blade out and went to attack again, but the Demon managed to successfully deflect it this time and put some weight into its next blow to launch Failure backwards.
Time remaining before destruction of tutorial - 1 minutes and 52 seconds
"Aldred, do it!"
There was one major problem, because of the horrific aura that was still being spread out by the Demon, Failure was unable to make use of any of his creations, they were all being crippled by the opposing force.
So why not just get rid of everything?
"Restore."
Instantly, the area around the Demon started changing. All the air around it that it had spread its aura throughout was turned into nothingness as new air took over.
As soon as Aldred was done, Failure commanded all his wooden creations to attack.
The Demon hadn't paid them much attention since they were basically useless, so it was currently standing in the middle of countless wooden creations that were strewn along the ground.
They all came to life and brutally attacked the Demon, giving the abomination no time to rest.
The desparate battle continued.
Time remaining before destruction of tutorial - 1 minutes and 12 seconds
One of the Demon's arms was cleaved off by Aldred, meanwhile Failure's wooden blade was destroyed, making him resort to using his single remaining arm as a way of doing damage.
Time remaining before destruction of tutorial - 48 seconds
Aldred's tail was viciously ripped off while Failure landed a solid punch on the Demon's ugly face, blinding it for a few moments.
Time remaining before destruction of tutorial - 32 seconds
Kai's soul started stinging more and more as he desparately tried to keep the gray wisps inside and repair the cracks, but because of the current brutal nature of the brawl, cracks were appearing quicker than he could repair them.
Time remaining before destruction of tutorial - 23 seconds
The Demon roared as another one of its arms were destroyed, this time it was just ripped off by Failure using pure strength.
Time remaining before destruction of tutorial - 12 seconds
"Aldred!"
Time seemed to move in slow motion as way too many things happened at once.
Aldred immediately broke away from the fight and started dashing towards the moon beasts, who were a safe distance away as to not get affected by the shockwaves from the fight.
The Demon thought it had won as it reached instantly, it looked up at the chunk of moon that was about to utterly destroy them all and lifted the full moon abomination axe with its two remains arms. It had saved it for this moment.
It was going to eradicate the meteor.
Failure couldn't allow that.
But there was nothing he could do. The Demon's aura had already taken over the surrounding area, completetly immobilising all his creations once more. Even all the trees in the area were rendered useless.
All except one.
The double headed axe started to glow that same terrifying red as it got ready to unleash its final eradicate.
9
8
7
Just as it was about to swing, a single tendril wrapped around its leg, breaking its concentration for a split second. The Demon quickly recovered, but it was already too late by then.
The body of the Mother Tree was already starting to cover the Demon.
6
5
4
The dense body of the Mother Tree continued to wrap around the Demon, collapsing onto itself as much as possible so the attack wouldn't make it through.
3
2
At the same time, Failure flew towards where the Mother Tree once stood. As quickly as possible, he made his way to a small ring in the ground where the tree was a few moments ago and caught a glimpse of something before quickly curling into a ball around it and using the wood from the Mother Tree he had left behind to wrap around him in a thick, durable shell.
1
Then, the chunk of the moon violently hit the planet.