Having to derail completely of the main road, they went off on dirt instead, driving past all known routes as even their GPS system failed to recognize their direction. Gradually after they did so, they looked up and around them to see the once green, full of life and flowers ground gradually changing and being left with nothing but dirt to host. Dead as no sunlight even reached it, they quickly realized that the sky above them became dark, despite being the middle of the day. Clouds, not normal of any kind, were all spread above in the sky, abnormal as they could be, because they were indeed thicker, not allowing any sunlight to pass through, except from some very specific spots, where there was a window for that to happen. Not after a long while after, they quickly saw over the horizon what they were most expecting to find, but not in the same manner they would think it'd be standing at. Almost as if someone had drawn a line across the ground the road leading to Sandaco itself switched to a very hostile, dirt-like surface, without a single flower occupying it. A small distance away, there it stood. The destroyed capital.
Even from a few kilometers away, they could easily tell that it never went down as they expected. Collapsed skyscrapers and buildings all around, clearly work of a bombing attack. The raw materials used were now visible as they barely managed to still hold on to the very unstable structures. Windows were broken, and the few rains of sunlight that penetrated the grey clouds above not reflecting from anything. It was completely surreal. On one side, you had the sun shining bright, the ground being infused with the flowery scent and color of green and then a completely destroyed, left to rot until turned to ashes, forgotten land. And ugly marks between the borders of neighboring countries. Something that was hidden well enough for someone not to see, a chest locked away in an ugly basement, as it felt like a looming threat was all that waited for them on the other side. Inhospitable, dead and forgotten, was all that could describe the spanning hell that was this land, the place no one, not even daring treasure hunters that would raid the treasury of Sandaco, dare to go to.
Left speechless at the sight, they could all but look around, realizing that all of what they thought they knew about this land was thrown out the window, not being nearly as valid as what they were presented with. All but silence was that remained until they snapped out of it, enough to speak their mind about the horrors that lay ahead.
"Alright, it should almost be here...but where exactly?" Terna looked around, left speechless.
"You'd think for a capital of a species it'd show a little more." Lass leaned forward to take a look.
"It looks...destroyed? But how?" Ikarisa looked at Corosta from afar.
"They said something about raiding the place and killing everyone in sight, a combined effort of many, to destroy Sandaco and Corosta from ever causing more hostilities or encouraging it with their manipulative speech towards other countries that were urging for it. They used to thrive in the mercenary business, topping the GDP charts with moon trips ahead. Not even nearly close to anyone at all. You look at Reingard or Insinia now that they got themselves in the middle of it all as the 'world capital' or whatever the hell that's supposed to mean, Corosta on its own would have exactly...uh, what was it, because I ran the numbers once...1274 times richer. I shit you not. No, it is math, I swear I always aced them. So...this is definitely not manual, handy work, this atrocity. This must be...A bombing. They just drove by and killed thousands without a warning, didn't they?" Anya realized.
"What the hell did you think they'd do? It's always how war goes under the scenes. Hyrusas have always looked at humans from afar and studied their every move. Knocking each other's door with a knife at hand wasn't exactly how you chose to ever fight wars when the option of coming up from behind was available." Yuno said.
"No, you don't understand. They supposedly 'did' knock on Corosta's door. A bit after the Great War was over like half a decade and a bit more ago, this was an ultimatum to Corosta. Agree to a ceasefire, sign the treaty and not hurt anyone else. They disagreed, and so it was that they were set up to be annihilated by a combined army."
"Wait, what? Seriously?" Yuno got surprised.
"Yes. This sure as hell doesn't look like human damage to me. Even with Obsulyte weapons, which were banned right after, or users. Something seriously nasty is going on here...I don't like this at all." Anya got worried.
"Me too, the readings here also say that the outside temperature is dropping like absolute crazy. What the hell is this place?" Lass looked at the readings.
"Terna, turn back. We can't go there." Anya told her.
"I refuse to go away from here." Terna kept going.
"What?" Ikarisa sitting behind her looked at Terna's temper rising.
"I refuse to go away from this place until I find out what exactly happened. I can't believe that...that so many innocent people died like this! Imagine if this was Delpha, what would've become of us then?"
"Terna, what's done is done, this looks dangerous!" Lass warned her.
"No, it looks dead. I know that after the war a decade or so ago, things were bad...but so many cities were rebuilt, and so many bonds were healed. Why didn't Corosta get a chance to rise again, why did they treat them this way?! Think a bit, all of you. Sidetracking or not. We need the supplies, correct? Because we exchanged one danger for another...Lass and Anya went to the treasury of Sandaco yesterday, which was largely untouched by anything, but the people here suffered the same and worse fate we would have, had Neviro's plan moved forward exactly as thought out. I urge you that we look at what happened here because I don't want to live in the same lie that tyrant almost dipped everyone into. I refuse to leave even a single soul behind if there are any left here. Please...this isn't just fun and games. Something is seriously wrong here, you guys know it as well as I do. And of course, I'm not talking about the obvious. The bigger picture, always."
Without resisting anymore, almost as if mesmerized by Terna's inspiring words and determination for seeking out the truth, with more silence being their answer equivalent to a "Yes", they moved forward until they reached the gates. And being upfront with it, it looked even more dull and hostile. Not because of its emitting aura as the demon capital, but the sheer amount of destruction that had befell it.
"Wait...what? This is incredibly...ominous." Yuno stuttered.
"Terna's words do match that of a talented artist, no doubt. Because much like her songs, I have no idea how she convinced me not to step in back there." Ikarisa gazed up front.
"Is there even a capital to go to in the first place? It looks freshly destroyed too. But still...take a look at that." Lass pointed forward.
Lass's finger pointed directly at the collapsing buildings in the capital's centermost area, visible from the entrance. The two massive skyscrapers had collided head-on with each other, bending in a most abnormal angle at their destroyed base, being in constant friction with one another, as every small wind current that passed them by forced them to sway back and forth despite their massive size. With that swaying, almost as if you were forcing friction on rubber, a constant rain of materials followed, as they were ever so slowly but surely chipping away at each other. A sight to behold, however, despite the forces used, there was not a single moment where they extended beyond both their tipping points, almost as if they were held back by force, from something precisely in place on both to hold them. Despite their collapsed-looking appearance, some windows missing from each floor, the lights inside both were still more than functional, being able to be spotted by them in the middle of the day, as the large skyscraper's shadow covered them from what little sun was in the skies and enhanced their visual appearance as it made them noticeable.
"This definitely must be the handy work of someone. Maybe some survived in the bunkers?" Anya wondered.
"Or worse yet, Shadowers." Yuno feared the worst as he gazed back at Lass.
"Wouldn't be out of the question with what we saw in Kaci. You think they can increase their level of intelligence that fast?"
"I wouldn't want to find out up close anyways." Yuno somewhat raised his guard, "I think we should get ready because with all these Obsulyte signature outflows, we're like a giant target sign."
"Questioning whether or not it's too late to do a one-eighty.", Anya got the chills.
"We can't, it'll put us back by a huge margin." Ikarisa frowned.
"Alright. Let's shift gears then because we entered a murder mystery game that's much too dangerous. Everyone prepares for a fight and gets ready for salvaging. From the looks of it, the only thing we will be getting out of this is scraps, if we are lucky to find any useful ones." Lass prepared himself.
Terna sighed, "This is quite sad. At least Delpha city wasn't destroyed during its months-long civil war...but they weren't so lucky after all."
"It's alright...that's part of my task, our task. Undoing the wrongs and doing what's right." Ikarisa comforted her.
Parking the car behind the now destroyed entrance, everyone got out and started to slowly walk inside the city. The door that was supposed to hold guard was shattered, some unique, glowing and alive-like scratch that of a beast similar to the size of the titan they had faced, was imprinted on the robust metal. It was a very dark shade of grey, almost black, indicating that it was recently made as part of two sharp metals connecting with force and friction enough that darkened them from the sheer heat produced. Much like how every city or inhabited area in this world was forced to set a perimeter or hold guard at the borders of their homes, the now completely destroyed metal gate, the two turrets behind it and the large watch and sniper towers that spanned along its wall were completely destroyed. In front of them, before they could enter the main street, laid a massive ion cannon that had its muzzle completely smashed to bits, the body of the cannon itself being completely engulfed in what looked like corrupted Obsulyte. Almost as if someone had splashed the thing with an upward surge of water, the hardened surface of the fluid ended in multiple sharp and smooth ends going upwards, indicating that it was either an explosion that launched it below ground, or a downward attack, both of which terrified everyone, and especially Lass and Anya, who not so long ago faced an almost identical threat.
Through the main street they walked through, they could only see collapsed buildings and broken glass, accompanied by the hollow remains of shattered concrete. Lifeless and alive at the same time, the entire city felt as if someone had their eyes on them constantly, without the sight of breathing being nearby. However, that feeling of being watched that betrayed signals of life were most unnerving, knowing full well at this point that whoever or whatever it was, it was definitely not an original inhabitant of the city, and neither would it have their best interests in mind. Houses were completely left in ruin, with partial walls holding onto whatever was left from their roofs, and no shops or streetlights standing to give a spec of something different other than the constant feeling of darkness. It was like the collapsed buildings that Lass had seen during their run at the Sandaco treasury. Only this time, it was no longer a somewhat reminiscent sight of old days gone by, rather, it was the fresh smell of death beneath a constant depressing cloud that indicated that whoever was left to be in this place, would have their lives taken as an inevitability.
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Bellow their feet, lay weapons, toys, instances of books and papers being taken by the cold, hollow wind. Said books were partially burned but still showed that they held a massive array of knowledge given their side, mostly dropped like breadcrumbs along a pathway that lead to a building now destroyed, the only thing that surprisingly remained being a massive, digital clock tower that worked well enough to show the time. Exactly 15:30. There, by the destroyed building among the weapons and the glorious statues, with the same dead ground spots, the wind surge would constantly pick up and send papers flying en masse. Desk and burned shielding equipment were flipped over as they looked forward to the sizeable, straight road towards the collapsed building, the heavy equipment suffering the same fate as the ion cannon in the entrance, this time, however, nearby buildings were caught in the crossfire as they too, were penetrated by the large surges of corrupted Obsulyte. As for the toys...what more than normality? Burned-out gaming systems, some small dolls and even toy weapons and guns, eluding to both boys and girls being able to enjoy their pastime with whichever they chose, or perhaps dress in either the replica armor of the same legends that their people's warriors had crafter, or just their average, everyday clothing. Strange. The weapons were given. It was a nation's, a tradition's legacy, full of the most legendary and robust warriors that all came to fear. But the books and the toys? Impossible. It was nearly unthinkable, that the ones responsible for such conflict, such a wide history of destruction and chaos, with their personalities edging for ruin and blood were thinking as such. And yet, their armies hardened, their warriors unwavering and their spirits always high outside of their homes, the inside spoke of a different era, a different version of it altogether.
Moments of constant silence followed them everywhere they went, not being able to confirm anything of what they knew along the way. Where was the military presence, where was their weaponry and most of their war machines hidden? If only they could have known better, about what they had stepped into to navigate better, other than the now-confirmed lies that they were taught and told. Eventually, partially destroyed from its vulnerable material, they found themselves stepping on a wooden road, indicating that it was mostly, if not specifically made to be a pedestrian area. And that was where they started to see similarities between Delpha and Corosta. Bodies hollowed out, bled out and some with their bone structure completely deformed and unrecognizable compared to the humanoid form that even demi-humans with animal, them with demon-like, characteristics would get. A road filled with those left, right and center, a sight that plagued most of this world as a cruel reminder that its war times were way less than over, they kept moving on and on, despite that same eerie feeling and discomfort they kept feeling. Their mouths shut, daring not to speak a word and their nerves high in expectation of an attack, almost to the point of exploding, they had to all drop their guard as they reached the hell that came to be the main square. A massive, absolutely huge spanning area that could almost fit the entire city at once, as one would think...and that, it did.
"God! What the hell?" Lass stuttered along with Yuno, them both reminding themselves of Kagh's atrocities in the corridor leading to Delpha's town hall office.
Ikarisa's face turned grim as she put her hand on her mouth as she gasped, "The same...the dead Valkyries after I..." She pictured something similar in her mind.
Terna almost fainted from the sight, not at all used to this extreme level of violence and horror, but forcing herself to not avert her eyes for some reason, "The young..."
"This, again? They...got that happening to them too? Un...Unforgivable.", Anya paused as she became somewhat angry at the sight, clenching her fists as she took herself back to the Reingard monster raid.
A tall pile of bodies stood before them, bodies also scattered around them. Men, women and even children were clustered around each other, some of them showing signs of fleeing and others of resistance and assault. None were spared and from the bullets on others' heads, those who did rather not have lived to tell the tale.
"God, goddess...whatever this caused it. They have forsaken them all." Yuno looked away as he grabbed his snout and questioned even the fate he was told to abide by, "D-Damn it! This smells so incredibly bad!"
"What...who caused this? Who dared? W-Who-", Terna almost went to tears as she primarily focused on the pile, "They must pay the ultimate price. If this was Delpha...no. I won't be stuck exemplifying it with my home city. If this was anywhere...why?!"
"What even happened here? Delpha was a civil war...but here, as everyone said..." Ikarisa was interrupted by Lass.
"Genocide." he sighed, "No matter the place of origin and one's history...this is going far as far can go. Bombing, with bare hands, who gives a shit...this is much more disgusting than what I envisioned it to be, even with textbook images and gore shoved in it. What have we gotten ourselves into? We are not...we're not built for this, are we?"
Ikarisa partially snapped out of it, having horrors witnessed already go through her mind enough to avoid her freezing any longer, "Whatever we may be built for, who is to say that if we don't do something now, a draft won't happen to other cities that will cause the exact same thing?"
Lass looked at Ikarisa, "Do what? They're dead. All of them. We were years late."
"No...I was years late. We, all of us, are just in time to do something about this!" she bravely said.
"Again, Risa, look. They are dead. Whoever did this, by now, will be a long-lost, hidden mystery!" Lass angrily said, "Whoever did this...got away."
Just then, being in front of everyone else as well, Anya somewhat worryingly looked around quickly. Not understanding what was happening, she then moved on to frantically looking for the source of what had disturbed her without being ever able to find a single
"What the-?" Anya jolted up as she turned and looked around, momentarily distracted from the horrific scene.
"What is it Anya?" Terna looked her way, trying to find any excuse not to have to look at the pile of bodies instead.
"I think this giant furry form has more to it. You guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Lass looked around.
"It's coming from...big guy!" Anya violently grabbed Lass, pulling him to her as they both jumped back.
From where Lass was standing, a huge blast occurred, breaking the concrete and wooden floor below and launching a massive surge of corrupted Obsulyte like a geyser. It was almost as if someone had hidden an oil pipe below that had burst, the others then following along with Lass and Anya's movement and positioning themselves at a reasonable distance from the geyser. As the pressure lessened and the upwards momentum of the flow began to slowly fade away and be grounded a small growl was heard before a most eerie and familiar entity began perturbing their head from it.
"Shadowers!" Ikarisa stepped back.
"Thanks, mutt." Lass took out his sword
"Everyone, they're here!" Ikarisa prepared her lance for a fight.
Following her yelling, Terna, Yuno and Anya all prepared themselves for the worse, as they waited for the Shadowers to come out of the geyser. However, to their dismay, though a bunch of Shadowers revealed themselves from a bunker down below, one was very different. Large, hardened by the corrupted Obsulyte with not hollowed, but red eyes, almost having used the Obsulyte flow to its advantage instead, not in any need of a host like the original Shadowers it seemed to lead. Again, as it was becoming a usual sight, it had a hardened body with a rough surface...all but one very, key detail. It was humanoid. Its limbs were at a one-for-one, perfectly natural and proportionate to that of a human being, without looking anything like it much after. No facial features other than its eyes and nowhere near any other features that'd resemble that of a human on the rest of its body. Even its wretched limbs that resembled plastic pipes with flowing Obsulyte beneath, despite hardened, lacked any sort of joints. As it acted as if it were demonstrating its powers, to intimidate everyone, it stabbed a nearby normal Shadower right through the chest with its human hand, its fingertips ending in massive claws, forcing that Shadower to shift and turn into another one of the same enhanced monsters. Despite what they thought it'd be like after quickly putting the pieces of the puzzle together, they were surprised when the stabbed Shadower, despite the heartless and spineless monster that it was, started a horrible, ear-piercing screech. It shook around as it grabbed its body which gradually formed into something that it either clearly was not meant to or did not want to turn into. It flopped and rolled around like crazy, resembling what someone who caught fire would act abruptly, to extinguish the flames. Eventually, with its pain going away and it taking the form of the one who stabbed it, it rose back up as it looked at everyone who simply stood there in shock.
Like the general to an army, those two monsters soon after growled and gestured to the other Shadowers, more rising from the bunker beneath, some of those carrying actually weapons that they were able to perfectly use, as their exact next move was of those with Obsulyte conductive melee weapons to take the front, while the others holding guns started to immediately open fire.
"What the hell are these things?!" Anya gazed at the improved Shadowers.
The Shadowers somewhat took on an abrupt and untrained formation, charging in unison at everyone while holding their weapons high, as those left behind with their guns and other ranged weaponry began to somewhat randomly fire towards the general direction their opposition was.
"What the hell?! Where did they get provided with this?! They knew where the weapons and army barracks were in here?!" Lass held his ground.
"Nevermind that...how do they know how to use it?!" Yuno merged with Lass.
"And yet everyone is ignoring how they are now suddenly doing cohesive unit strategies. Haah!" Anya pointed out, slashing down three Shadowers with weapons on them.
"Terna!" Ikarisa dashed towards Terna, managing to knock back a Shadower that went from her side, "I can maybe use my Gate to barrier up, but that won't last us too long!"
Terna quickly let out an aria, moving her hand as she swiped away at the Shadower Ikarisa knocked back, raising a massive pillar from the ground up and completely annihilating it, as the pillar forced it through four walls of barely standing buildings. The force of the strike was so massive, that it swept another bunch of Shadowers towards the general direction it was raised at an angle from, taking even the dust that was kicked up along with it, as the airflow followed after.
"Woah!" Ikarisa was surprised.
Terna softly nodded at Ikarisa, "I can help too, as much I can!"
"Now I get how we found that guy back in Delpha's sewers." Lass remembered as he slowly backed off while using his massive sword as a shield against the incoming bullet hail, creating distance between the Shadowers alongside Anya, the group gradually backed away.
"We won't be able to keep this up for long!" a bullet flew by Anya as she tried to use natural cover to back off, hitting her directly in the stomach, "D-Damn it...wait. Huh?"
Although she grabbed her stomach in anticipation of a searing hot pain rising from it again, she was surprised by how dry it remained. Taking off her hand from it as she sat back down on the cover of a shattered wall, she only saw one thing and that was a crumbled-up, bent bullet remaining in her palm.
"Wait...the hell? Are these not anti-Obsulyte weapons?" she looked at the bullet.
"Judging very, very roughly, they are But if you want to take a hit so that we find out for sure, go for it!", Lass backed towards Anya, giving her space to work with.
"Overload yet or not? Because a knife isn't winning this gunfight!" Yuno echoed within Lass.
"Do not overload him again so soon, otherwise everyone dies, including those at the front and behind us." Mellistar warned him, "He will not be able to handle the mental deterioration."
"Then take over, someone does something over here!" Lass yelled out loud.
Ikarisa lodged her lance at the Shadowers in a desperate attempt to cause some damage, "Hey, I'm trying to do everything I can!"
"No, I didn't mean you-ah, forget it, it's complicated." he looked around them, Shadowers coming in from both sides, "Dammit, they're trying to swallow us in a circle!"
In the short moment that followed, they were swiftly surrounded by a massive number of Shadower forces, the circle quickly closing in on them. Their one saving grace was the monster's lacking intelligence, as those who were given guns fired still, even at their allies, causing a somewhat big disarray in the enemy backlines. However, that not lasting long, the two transformed Shadowers that were simply observing as their commanding numbers moved in went after them, immediately starting to not transform them too, but slaughtering the normal Shadowers holding guns, that were shooting at their allies. The enhanced Shadowers then both moved towards the rest of the group, going in for the kill as the normal Shadowers backed off to make way for them. Everyone then began to stutter and struggle, as all the monsters stopped moving towards them, but preventing them from leaving the circle as they closed in. It was as if they were storing the kill to be taken by their commanders only, adding yet another layer of unexpected complexity to what they were originally thought of being.
"Big guy, better think of something and think of something fast!" Anya kept cutting Shadowers down.
"Heh!" Lass got his slash blocked by one of the Shadowers holding a melee weapon, "The hell?! Screw you!", he hammered his sword down as he broke the defensive position of the Shadower with his left hand, pinning the sword to the ground before creating a lance and driving through its body, killing it instantly before getting his sword back and returning to the center, "Even if I were to use Obsulyte against them...what the hell would that do?"
Ikarisa jumped up and hurdled her lance forward in a combo with Terna, her lance breaking the floor as a group of pillars were raised in the formation of a flower, taking down a massive group of Shadowers that still was unable to get them out of their situation.