It won’t appear to me anymore. Perhaps it was scared away, but I don’t think that is it. It must be done entertaining me. And so I it.
-From Professor Shokolov’s Journal, 39th Entry
The Helicopter landed somewhere at the edge of Barksight, in the middle of an open field that was surrounded by trees. It caught the eyes of most people in the town to see the copter landing in the field.
AxEl hadn’t expected it to be so loud, but he could barely hear Anagen over the sounds of its blades spinning. They swept at his clothes, throwing them wildly in every direction. He only opened his eyes a few moments later, when the craft had landed on the ground and its blades had begun to slow down.
Voices began to fade back in over the sound of the copter, and AxEl looked beside himself at Nook.
“How much did that thing even cost?” Nook asked.
“Lots,” AxEl replied, stepping towards the cabin of the copter. He glanced at the cockpit and saw two people sitting there and messing with the controls. Anagen was standing with one hand on the door, and she fixed AxEl with a stare.
“Shouldn’t you have told your mother about this?” Anagen asked, “She could find out very easily.”
“I told her that I was going over the mountain range, but I didn’t say how,” AxEl replied. Anagen pulled open the cabin door and AxEl looked inside. There were four seats, two on each side of the helicopter. They were covered in numerous undone belts, and a pair of headphones sat on each of them.
The interior was coloured black and cramped for someone like AxEl. He barely had the space to stand up, and would need to hunch down to move around. He took a seat next to the opposite cabin door, and equipped the headset.
Nook and Anagen shuffled inside a minute after. They took seats opposite to each other and Anagen tested the headset. Two guards of theirs also came along with them, though they took seats in the back.
“Can both of you hear me?” she asked. Nook and AxEl both nodded.
“Okay, ExEn, you can take off now,” Anagen ordered.
“Yes, ma’am,” someone replied from the cockpit. AxEl looked towards it and couldn’t begin to unravel the controls. There were meters of all kind, measuring all sorts of environmental factors.
A few moments after, the blades on the helicopter began to spin again, but AxEl only heard a dulled sound. He looked outside and saw the leaves and grass around them parting. Then they lurched into the air and AxEl hung onto his seat strongly.
Anagen chuckled. “Never ridden on a copter?” she asked. AxEl steeled his gaze, giving her a smug grin.
“I just appreciate a long drive more,” he replied. Looking out of the window, his hair stood up on its ends. They were much higher off of the ground than AxEl would have expected. The trees kept growing smaller, and he could almost see into the edge of the town by now.
Anagen opened the door near her, and a rush of wind came at them. AxEl clutched at his seat and let out a few expletives.
“Hmmm, driving through a mountain range, AxEl? I think your chances might be a bit… low,” she said, pointing out towards the edge of the mountains. They were nowhere near close enough to ride over it, but that was slowly changing.
“Fine, my bad, just please close the door!” AxEl said, his teeth clenched. Anagen complied, closing the door and letting the chaotic wind stay outside. AxEl’s hands didn’t leave his seat for the entirety of the trip, though he did loosen his grip as they floated over the mountains.
Looking down at them from his viewpoint, they looked exceedingly small, like dots in the sky. They’d started early in the morning and so the sun was illuminating the area for them. Large peaks cast shadows onto ranges below them. Several of the peaks were topped with snow, and AxEl was in awe at the sight of it all.
If he weren’t as scared of the height which they were at, perhaps he could take in the scenery more.
“Look there, I didn’t know the Burnbark extended that far back!” AxEl gaped, and Nook glanced over. His eyes regained a bit of their earlier fervour as he did. But Anagen kept to her book. She’d been entranced by the journal of the Professor ever since she picked it up. She kept reading and rereading passages with squinted eyes. If it was her way of passing time, AxEl guessed he couldn’t really judge.
They crossed the mountain range that seemed to curve backwards away from them. AxEl stared down as the mountains descended and he was met with an odd landscape. The downward hills plateaued into wide bowls that held blueish and yellow liquid. The pools then fell abruptly into other pools below them.
“They’re terraced hydrothermal pools,” Anagen said. AxEl then gave her a similarly confused expression.
“How do you know?” he asked. She lifted the journal up.
“The Professor talked about them,” she explained. “Water comes up from underground, mixes with sulfur, then pools up. When the pools overflow? They fall down to other pools that fill up too,” she explained.
“It’s beautiful,” Nook said with reverence. There was little ground to be found that they could land on, however. AxEl looked further and saw a few buildings that were built in and around the terraced pools, but they looked to have fallen or eroded over time.
They picked a single spot that they thought the helicopter would fit on. It was still slightly bowl shaped, but was completely empty of any liquid. AxEl had stopped holding onto his seat as soon as the ruins came into view, and now he opened the door to the cabin and stepped outside.
His feet fell on solid rock and the first thing AxEl felt was the heat. Immediately, a sweat began to build up that AxEl wiped. He took off the jacket he had on to fight the cold and threw it back in the helicopter.
Nook came around from the side and was fanning himself.
“Why is it so hot? I thought the volcanoes were dormant?” AxEl asked.
“The water, it must be bringing it up from underground,” Nook said. They stared at the wide vista of pools, with steam rising off of them in ribbons. There were a few ruined buildings on the side they had landed, but most of them were spread across the start of the mountain range.
AxEl tested a foot into one of the pools, and it felt hot even through his boots.
“Careful with those. Might give you sulfur poisoning,” Anagen said, referencing her book.
AxEl looked past her and saw a river flowing into the pools from atop the mountains. The Lokinian channel. He at least remembered the name of the river that fed into the pools.
“The pools there should be much safer for swimming, shouldn’t they?” AxEl asked Anagen.
“We’re here on a mission, aren’t we?” Anagen asked. AxEl nodded, then kicked over one of the many red rocks that littered the beach they were on.
“We should start with the houses,” Nook said, walking towards one of the first structures that caught his eye. It was one of the only houses that had still been standing, with a crude door placed in front of it.
The sound of the river rushing into the pools faded once Nook opened the door. Inside he saw skeletons, staring back at him with darkened eyes. He lurched backwards and bumped into AxEl, who bore a similar expression on his face.
“What is… this?” Nook managed to whisper. The corpse had the barest clothing on, but even that looked torn and old. It was laid on the ground with hands wrapped around a smaller skeleton. Nook closed the door immediately and breathed heavily.
“I’m looking somewhere else,” he said, before bumping into AxEl one more time and walking away.
AxEl took the opposite direction and searched through the other structures. Some of them looked to just be rocks stacked in specific formations, but others he could guess the function of. There was a dirt path that was weathered and looked to extend all the way around and towards the ocean.
In the distance, he saw a pile of rocks that might have been a port of some sort. When he looked beside himself, another skeleton, this one with a cracked skull, greeted him. It was missing its legs and slumped up against the wall.
Anagen came towards it and darted her eyes between the book and the corpse. “He did say that the Eihkand preferred little to no clothing. Perhaps it was because of the heat? But the volcano was still active in the past? It should have been unbearable.
AxEl grunted, uninterested in her lecture, and then left the area. He saw a wooden cart laying broken, with a wheel missing from its side. Inside of the cart, he saw a few old grains of some kind of plant. Wait, these look similar. There was a slight purple tint to the grains, and so AxEl made his way inside the nearby house to confirm. There wasn’t a door on this one, just a piece of cloth that separated it from the outside.
There, he found a small bunch of bewllan crystals lying around on the ground, along with some stalks of Freegrain that grew out of them. They lived off of Freegrain? Couldn’t they grow something else?
The crystals provided good light, so AxEl picked up a few as he explored the rest of the area. There was at least a pen nearby, but no animals to be found inside. The fence was broken so AxEl assumed they must have run off somewhere. He and the rest of his group searched through the ruins throughout the whole day, until the setting sun came upon them.
The two guards they’d brought with them also left the helicopter, though they mostly followed Anagen around. Neither AxEl nor Nook wanted them for any specific task, anyways. Eventually, AxEl decided to rest his feet by one of the pools.
He picked up one of the stones nearby and tried skipping it on the water of the pools, but failed. He picked it up and tried again, though reached the same frustrating result.
“Different kind of rocks and different kind of water, maybe,” Nook said, taking a seat next to his friend. AxEl skipped another rock and this one seemed to actually skip once or twice before drowning in the water.
“Did we find any trace of those agents?” AxEl asked.
“They’re not hiding in any of the houses and we haven’t seen any other helicopters either.”
Nook picked up a rock by himself and tried skipping it, but it just fell in the water instantly.
“You need to flick it like this,” AxEl instructed, showing him the hand motion. Eventually, the both of them got so good that the rocks would skip at least a few times before falling.
At their final throw, AxEl tried his hardest and reached six skips, but Nook seemed eager to outperform him. His rock only bounced four times, but it then fell onto another pool of similar height ands skipped three more times, beating out AxEl’s score.
Nook didn’t seem eager to celebrate his victory, however. Instead, he only showed a slight smile as the sun fell. Anagen came up to the them with both guards in tow, shining a light onto the pages of the book as she did.
“I’ve been trying, but I can’t find anything that matches the description of EraNoohve in the book,” she sighed, sitting down next to the both of them.
“The only clue I have is this picture,” she said, smacking it with her hand. It looked to be a series of triangles arranged in a pattern, with all of them being coloured black by ink. There was only a singular mountain that seemed to have been left blank.
The Burnbark trees had started to glow as the light of the sun receded, and it shown on this side of the range as well, though its shine was muted.
I wonder, AxEl took the journal and held it up with the mountain range as the background. He referenced it a few times, adjusting his eyes every so often until he realized.
“Those triangles are mountains. He didn’t colour this one in because it had Barkburn trees glowing in the middle of the night!” AxEl said.
“Burnbark…. That’s how they survived!” Anagen exclaimed.
“What are you both on about?” Nook asked.
“The trees. The leaves are Firewire. When the volcano was active, the tree leaves would burn and their fumes would float down here to the Eihkand. That’s how they survived in the heat for so long!” Anagen said, her voice sounding a bit more excited than usual.
“The temple must be in those mountains then. The Eihkand must have needed the leaves and it was dangerous enough that no one else would need to go there,” AxEl added.
Nook stood up. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
****
The trek up the mountains took much longer than any one of them would have expected. Anagen had packed enough refreshments for them that they wouldn’t need to drink any time soon, but they still had the issue of the climb itself.
Despite the level of preparation, Anagen was the first one out of breath. She heaved at having to go uphill, through the broken paths.
“The Eihkand must have had some path,” AxEl groaned. They walked for hours on end, taking breaks in the middle where they could find a location to. Eventually, the heat from the pools receded and was replaced with the chill of the mountains. AxEl cursed himself for not bringing his jacket along, but they were already halfway up one of the mountains.
They followed a rugged path through brambles, bushes and trees that littered their path. Many times, they scraped past sharp branches and got small cuts, but they still pressed forward. Nook seemed to be the one handling the best, though AxEl wondered if he just didn’t have it in him to complain.
He rarely blinked, just moving forward wherever the rest of them pointed. “We could come back later, with better equipment…” Anagen complained.
“I’m sorry, Ana, but we can’t. If we leave this place for too long, who knows if the Company might find it instead,” AxEl said, hoisting one of her hands over his shoulder. Eventually they did see a path come into sight, and they climbed on top of it.
It made their climb easier to have mostly flat underfoot, and they climbed forward towards AnaHon. AxEl placed his hand on a rock on the path and was then struck with a soft and wet sensation. He saw moss covering his hand and scraped it against a tree to get it off, before proceeding forward.
Nook stuck to Anagen’s side for the rest of the trip and so for the rest of the trek up the mountains AxEl couldn’t get a word in with him.
“Something wrong?” AxEl asked when he was close enough. Nook spared him only a second.
“No, nothing,” he said, then started walking faster.
By the time they reached the end of the trail, they were covered in many more cuts and their feet were sore. Their surroundings were lit from above by the Burnbark leaves, and the entrance to the temple was clear.
It was just a simple stone door that was surrounded by a few engravings and letters in a language that AxEl couldn’t understand. Anagen saw the engravings and removed her arm from AxEl’s shoulders.
AxEl put a hand to his chest. “Oh, thank you, AxEl, for carrying me up so far! You’re so strong!” he said in a mocking tone. Anagen looked back at him and gave him a glare, though he could see the wisps of a smirk forming at the edge of her face. She turned around and coughed, before tracing her fingers along the Professor’s journal once more.
“These markings. They’re the name of the temple,” she said, looking at the words that surrounded the stone doors. “This is EraNoohve. You were correct,” Anagen said.
AxEl was satisfied at being correct, and wiped the sweat off his brow as he took it in. Nook and the guards sat down for a moment and passed around the water between them while Anagen kept reading.
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“Are we ready to enter?” AxEl asked her, folding his arms behind himself.
“I’ve got nothing else I need to see on the inside. So, yes,” Anagen said, closing the book with a thud and alerting Nook. He peeled himself off of the floor and the guards followed behind.
The guards pushed the doors inside, and AxEl heard dirt and rocks being moved. The guards pulled out flashlights and Anagen did similarly, but AxEl relied on a torch he had picked up from a sconce.
“Anyone have a lighter?” AxEl asked and one of the guards silently pulled out his own. AxEl held the torch out to it and it caught on fire immediately. He could have used the bewllan in his pockets instead, but their light seemed inadequate.
When he began to explore the temple properly, he saw a tapestry carved into stone, showing figures running and building civilization. It covered the entirety of the walls, low enough as they were.
A hallway extended far beyond and AxEl moved across it, shining the torch on the walls as he went. He saw their history in reverse, with them migrating from lands of snow, of sand and jungles. At the end – or rather at the beginning – AxEl saw a single figure risen above all of them. The figure lacked a face, but he held out something in his hands. In one he held a plant, a familiar one to AxEl at this point, and in the other was a circle of some kind. There were eight of these sets of arms, each holding Prophecy and a circle.
AxEl felt something in his chest – a sense of awe – but that was quickly replaced by intrigue when he heard Anagen calling them from down the hall. AxEl walked towards her and saw that she was meddling with another set of doors.
Nook had reached as well, so he and AxEl helped her to push the doors open, and saw a brilliant blue glow coming from inside the room. They stood upon a raised ring of stone and in the middle of that ring was a glowing field of blue mushrooms. They had triangular or rectangular tops that shifted with pictures that were almost decipherable.
“This is it, this is where he got it from,” AxEl said with awe, before climbing down towards the plants. He trampled on a few of them, but rubbed his hands against others and found them the exact same as the Prophecy the Professor had grown in his own house. He held his torch high enough so that it wouldn’t touch the mushrooms when he crouched around them. AxEl circled around the four pillars that were spread between the field to hold up the ceiling, mesmerized with the glow.
“We’ll need to post guards here, somehow,” Anagen said, picking another one of the plants with her hands. “These are precious. Perhaps the only naturally occurring location of Prophecy, so we’ll need to protect it.”
Anagen had started pacing around the perimeter of the room. She passed by Nook, who was sitting on the edge of the circle, looking blankly at the plants. “Perhaps a few patrols wouldn’t hurt either?”
“But that would still leave it open. People are going to get curious why armed men and women are going to and from the mountain range, Ana,” AxEl said, bringing himself up to the edge, holding his torch.
“Yes, but what other choice do we have? We could reveal it to the government, but then they would get access to it,” Anagen said. They were up next to each other and AxEl glanced at the field.
And HoonUl would get even stronger. Maybe even untouchable. He threw the torch into the field. Anagen lunged to catch it, but AxEl pulled her back in the last moment so she wouldn’t get caught in the flames.
The torch fell upon the mushrooms and ignited them.
“Why did you do that!” Anagen screamed as the fire quickly spread across the field. The blue light covering the entire room was replaced with red and orange. AxEl’s guards kept their guns pointed towards Ana, but AxEl waved them down.
“It’s too unguarded. I needed to make sure no one else would get access to them, Ana,” AxEl reasoned, but she just slapped him across the face. Nook raced across the room and decked AxEl across the face, forcing him to remove his hand from Ana and stumbling backwards.
“You damn fool! You ruined a priceless discovery, just to get rid of competition?” Nook asked, his eyes filled with hatred. AxEl was dumbfounded, and so he didn’t respond for a moment. Ana, I could understand. But you too, Nook? He thought to himself as he cupped the side of his face.
“We couldn’t defend it, you guys. I had to. Look at it!” he reasoned, pointing at the blaze, “We can’t keep this hidden! No matter how much we want to,” he finished, though his own eyes remained fixed on the fire.
He saw…. Something in the midst of it. Something that looked too solid underneath the flames. A dark shadow beneath the shining embers. It almost looked like… wood?
The two guards must have noticed it as well, as they were ambling towards the blaze and staring at it. One of them jumped back in fright and aimed the gun straight at the fire.
“No, stop!” AxEl shouted, but a charred tendril shot out of the flame and impaled the man. The tendril exited out of the man’s back, covered in viscera and blood.
“What is… that?” Nook asked, his fury gone and replaced with terror. The second guard began to run and the rest of them followed suit. AxEl pulled Anagen and Nook along with him against their protests, dragging them in front of him and out of the door. By the time he reached it himself, he saw his second guard stumbling over a blackened and cracked thick vine that came of the flames and caught along his foot.
He screamed but it dragged him into the fire, where his shouts only intensified. AxEl closed the door, a thundering boom muffling the fire.
“Run! Take whatever Bullet you have and run!” he shouted at the two of them as he pushed them along. AxEl pulled out a pill of Prophecy and popped it into his mouth. Phantoms appeared in his vision as they neared the end of the hallway, giving him some small amount of comfort.
Then he saw it in his vision, the Monster breaking both of the stone doors and sending them crashing against the floor. The fire spreading out of the room, and lighting a singular figure in between them. A trendled monster, charred and black, but with roots and vines covering every inch of its body. AxEl saw it in his Phantoms, and then the Phantoms cracked into a million different possibilities.
AxEl’s heart dropped as they raced out of the temple and into the night air. He inhaled a sharp breath and kept running past the Burnbark, past the rocks and trees and bushes that were on their way. And behind them ran the monster, the literal force of nature that was slowly but surely catching up to them.
****
Nook hadn’t wanted any of this. He hadn’t wanted to burn the Prophecy mushrooms, hadn’t wanted to engage with the monster that had erupted from the flames, hadn’t wanted to be running for his life in the middle of the night, out of breath. But here he was, and every step that he took next was harder than the last. He started to slow down, his steps becoming slower every second.
“Nook, keep running!” AxEl shouted beside him, and despite what had happened, Nook listened. He didn’t know whether that made him weak or strong, but he ran faster and stood straighter, at least for the moment.
Nook glanced at Anagen and AxEl behind him. All of their knees and arms were scraped by the scrambling they had to do on the path. Behind him he heard the roars of the monster, and when he looked, it seemed more horrifying than the last time. It had shed its charred cover to reveal greenery, more of it sprouting by the second. He saw the multicoloured plants that made up its body and felt confusion and fear in equal amounts. And one thought covered his entire mind as he did.
This is the Green Reaper! He’s come for all of us! He thought hysterically, as he jumped over another rock and felt shock in his knees. The Firewire was helping him keep pace with the others and out of the range of the monster. Nook thought they’d almost lost it at one point, but then it fell upon them from one of the trees. It slammed onto the dirt path and shook the ground beneath their feet.
When tendrils came to reach for him, AxEl grabbed onto Nook and rolled to the side. He had gone too far, however, and they both ended up tumbling into Anagen and off of the path. The steep incline hurt as they rolled downwards, but Nook managed to stop himself after a bit and even set AxEl upright. They were both covered in dirt and sticks they’d hit on the way down.
He glanced around and saw more trees– these ones more mundane– covering their sides. But he could see below! And there it was, salvation in the form of a helicopter. A tear left his eye and he shook AxEl to get him conscious.
“Get up, AxEl! We’re almost there! Come on!” he shouted, not knowing where the newfound strength had come from. When AxEl began to stir, he looked over at Anagen and paled. She was lying next to a rock, a dark red splotch in her hair that was noticeable even at night. AxEl rubbed his eyes and noticed the sight, and they both rushed to her.
Nook put her upright and was immeasurably happy to find her still breathing. But his joy was cut short when another roar when through the forest. AxEl picked her up gently with both hands.
“I’m sorry. I-I didn’t know that thing would come. I’m so sorry,” he kept repeating.
“We need to go and get her seen. Come on,” Nook replied, and they both started to struggle forwards once again. Their pace increased until something popped out in front of them. It wasn’t as though it coalesced from the trees or appeared from the ground. Something just appeared in front of them as if the space had always been occupied.
The monstrous amalgamation of vines and tendrils looked at them. Nook lunged towards it with one fist cocked and hit it. His fists felt like they’d impacted concrete but the monster still flinched.
“RUN! I’ll catch up with you!” Nook shouted as the beast seemed to wrap its arms around him.
“No! Togeth-”
“JUST RUN FOR ONCE!” Nook shouted with a broken voice, and AxEl’s feet responded before his mind. He took off past them down the path. The Reaper looked at the receding figures and let out another unintelligible shout. Nook kicked away from the monster and fell back onto the ground on his feet.
He fumbled inside of his pockets and pulled out every Magic Bullet he had, swallowing them as fast as he could. The Firewire he chewed, and felt his heat increasing. The Reaper didn’t pay him any attention, focusing its head or whatever constituted as such towards the direction AxEl had taken off.
Nook took the opportunity to kick the monster, before grabbing at one of its tentacles and trying to rip them out. He pulled against the roots in its core, and managed to get it out. Nook dropped the root to the side and waited for the monster’s next move. It then shot out four more tendrils in ever direction. Nook shot up into the air and grabbed onto one of the branches of the trees next to him.
He didn’t fail to notice how quick that had been, though. How’s it moving so fast? Nook thought as he swung forward onto the Reaper. Nook tried to get his arms around the roots of the monster, but ended up entangled itself. The Reaper seemed to rearrange itself around him, holding him up in the air with coiled vines. And the vines, Nook just began to realize, were warm.
He hadn’t known it through his own heat, but the vines felt hotter than even that. Nook tried kicking at it again, but his feet were locked together by another set of vines coiling up to his waist. And then the monster threw him with such force that Nook sailed through the air. He hit against a tree, chipping away some bark as he landed.
When he noticed Reaper readying itself to take off, Nook clawed at the ground and tried running. He heaved as he tried reaching the monster, which promptly disappeared from sights. Nook took deep breaths, trying to consult his Phantoms and they all showed one thing. Nook looked up and saw the Reaper dangling between the different trees, spidering around them.
“Y-you’re playing with me, aren’t you?” Nook asked, mostly to himself. The Reaper must have heard it however, as it cocked its head in almost a human fashion. Then another tendril slammed into Nook’s chest and carried him out of the forest and into a field. Nook rolled around on the grass field and looked up to see the Reaper emerging from the trees.
It set itself down and retracted its roots from the trees behind it as it walked forward. Underneath the shine of the stars, the monster was clearer to Nook. The head was just a jumble of vines and leaves that looked like hair and fell upon a blank barky face that consisted of multiple branches coiled around each other.
What am I doing fighting this thing? Nook thought as he brought himself up and assumed another fighting stance. The Reaper raised a single hand and sent more quick vines shooting at Nook, but he ducked under the first, punched out the second and tried to pull him forward with the third.
The third vine closed around his hand and Nook clawed at it, but it didn’t move. The vine pulled him violently to the left and Nook went skidding across the grass. He tried to keep sliding on his feet, but when the vine lurched to the other side, his legs went slack. The Reaper continued this routine until Nook’s arm felt like it was burning within its socket. He tried to get out of the grip, but grew weaker with every passing moment.
Why do I even care at this point? Nook thought at that point, going slack and letting the vine drag him around. I should just accept it. There was no excuse behind what we did, was there? Nook thought as the torture finally stopped. Nook breathed in heavily, but didn’t even bother to wrench himself out of the vine. He stared at the Reaper with no defiance in his eyes. They were unfocused, glazed over.
How many has he killed, anyway? Tens? Hundreds? And all for something he hasn’t even told me? Nook thought to himself. His arm burned in its socket and his other lay limp by his side. He had the vague notion he was being lifted up, but all other sensation was lost on him.
And I just went along with it. For friendship. Because he’d taken care of me. Nook thought as he was brought closer to the Reaper. At least I get to see him up close in my final moments, he thought as the Reaper looked at him. Tears had begun to flow down his cheeks and he stuttered the words that came out of his mouth.
“I’ve killed people. I’ve let too many people die. Please, just end it,” he pleaded to the creature. The Reaper stared at him for a moment longer. And then it dropped him.
Nook’s Bullets had run out, so when his knees hit the dirt, the shock went through his whole body. His hands were on the grass, clutching them between his fingers. Wind rustled the leaves on the trees and the monster before him stood silent. Nook looked up slowly.
“Why won’t you do it? You’re here to deliver judgement, aren’t you?” Nook asked it.
“No.” Replied a voice. It was misshapen, as if each sound could fall apart at any moment.
“W-what?” Nook stammered.
“You are not worthy.”
It began to move past Nook. He grabbed at its legs.
“I’ve sinned. I’ve killed. Isn’t that enough for you?” Nook asked, but why? Didn’t he want to be left alive?
“Men. You have sinned against and killed men. And those I do not judge,” it said and shook its head in a shockingly human gesture.
“I care only for the trees, Nature, the life of the planet.”
“Then I’ve sinned against those too. I let him destroy the field inside the temple. AxEl wasn’t the only one guilty, it was me for letting him get this far!” Nook reasoned. His hands clawed at the Reaper, skin scraped and raw.
“You could not have prevented it, had you tried. There are only two guilty for the destruction. For one of them I had already offered reprieve, yet he did not take it. For this one who has committed a greater injustice, I will offer no such alternative,” The Reaper said, then moved its leg forwards in a quick motion. Nook let go and fell onto the grass. The monster began to move forward with quick steps and Nook punched the ground beneath him.
“H-he’s a good man. Misguided, but can you blame him for what he thinks he had to do?” Nook asked with a shriveled voice. He couldn’t let the Reaper reach AxEl, even if it was the last thing that he would ever accomplish.
Shockingly, the monster stopped in its tracks. He turned to Nook and looked at him one more time.
“AxEl has had as many chances as any of you. Perhaps even more to stop what he has started. I’ve watched him for a while, the same as I did for the Professor that came through these lands and he has chosen not to. Tell me, Nook, am I to repeatedly overlook the damage he has caused to the planet, the numerous crimes he is responsible for, all for the vain hope that he might change?” The Reaper said, shaking its head one more time. It waited for him to answer. Nook had begun sobbing, but only knew it for the tears that fell down his face.
“No,” he replied shakily.
“Then I cannot.”
And then the Reaper disappeared, popping out of existence with nary an indication. Nook looked around at the forest around him, trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of the monster. Then he screamed into the air.
****
AxEl ran until his legs felt numb. He was breathing heavily even with the Firewire running through his veins. The Phantoms in his vision gave no indication of splitting, so he thought he was safe for the moment.
In his hands he held a dear friend and an ally. Anagen had been with him from almost the start, helping him with logistics and whatever else he had needed. Now he was running down a mountain and trying to shake her awake.
“Come on, Ana! Please!” he whispered, though she kept quiet. He pressed his hand against the wound on her head and his hand came back covered in a bit of red. No, no… he sped up despite his vision blurring.
He tripped and almost knocked into a tree, but twisted just in time to hit it with his back. He shuffled around the trunk and saw something that rekindled his spirits. Just a bit further ahead was the helicopter, and the pilot standing in front of it.
“Star-” he began to shout as he ran, but caught himself. A shout came from far away, quiet but enough for AxEl to recognize the voice. He looked behind and saw a dark forest extending uphill. Nook. We can’t leave without Nook, he thought, then heard a grunt from his arms.
But Ana... AxEl thought to himself. AxEl toiled with his own thoughts for a moment before formulating a plan. I’ll go back for you, Nook, I promise, he promised to himself as he burst out of the hills and startled the pilot. The man dropped his cigarette on the rock and stomped it out.
“Start the copter!” he said, placing Ana on one of the seats and locking the belts in place. It took an annoyingly long time for it to finish and for the copter to start, but AxEl got a few breaths in the meantime.
“If you see anything strange coming out of the woods, take off. Don’t stop for a second, you understand?” AxEl ordered. The pilot looked backwards and nodded.
“Understood, boss.”
AxEl hopped off of the copter and ran for the hills, stopped only by the splintering of his own Phantoms. He dodged to the side just in time for the sharp root to not impale him. AxEl stood up and looked around, but the root seemed to just extend into the forest.
“Got you!” AxEl said as he grabbed onto the branch and hauled, breaking it off of something. More thick vines shot out from the forest and tried to impale at AxEl, and the aim didn’t seem to falter.
He has to be using Prophecy. Why else would my Phantoms look like this? AxEl thought as he dodged between them. Suddenly, though, he felt himself being pushed into the forest from behind. AxEl glanced backwards and saw that the roots and vines had made a net to catch him with. He saw the figure of the Reaper come into sight, and another vine began to quickly shoot out.
Just when he thought the vine would go through him, it barely missed and scratched his side deeply. AxEl looked at the Reaper and saw Nook on its back, ripping away more coatings of vines and roots. When he ripped away one of the roots, AxEl thought he almost saw a bluish glow coming from inside.
The monster grabbed Nook off of its back and threw him at AxEl. They both crashed into each other and break the net that had caught them. Nook and AxEl stood up and glanced at each other before facing the monster together.
“Are you okay?” AxEl asked. Nook didn’t move his grey glowing eyes, only nodded in affirmation, and AxEl’s heart felt a bit lighter. The Reaper in front of them extended its roots towards the branches of the trees. It raised itself into the air and hung there under a hole between the trees that let moonlight shine through.
Branches shot out from every corner of the forest, trying to impale or grab at Nook and AxEl. AxEl raised his leg to avoid one while another wrapped around his leg. AxEl brought out a knife he’d grabbed from the copter, slashing away the branch that held onto his leg. Nook swallowed another bunch of Bullets, then jumped onto a nearby branch.
Nook climbed on top of the branch and jumped towards the Reaper, but a branch caught him and sent him tumbling to the ground. AxEl caught him while he was falling and set him down onto the ground.
“I’ll give you a push,” AxEl said and Nook nodded.
They both dodged around another set of vines that chased after them until they were below the Reaper. AxEl cupped his hands and Nook hiked a leg onto them and grabbed AxEl’s knife from his pockter. AxEl tossed Nook far up into the air, almost the height of a whole tree, and Nook grabbed onto the monster. He began ripping into the monster with the knife, tearing away the vines and branches that made up the monster’s body.
“Run! I’ll catch up,” Nook said as he kept swiping and tearing away pieces. AxEl saw that blue glow one last time before he took off towards the opening. Looking behind him, Nook had been thrown off and rolled across the ground.
The body of the Reaper fell from the trees onto the dirt as well, and even from his position, AxEl could see it reforming itself out of the numerous plants that were nearby. AxEl ran forward and jumped onto the copter, flipping around to hold out a hand.
One final branch grabbed onto Nook’s leg and AxEl’s heart dropped. The copter began to take off of the ground and AxEl had to hold on tight. The spinning of the blades created such a deafening sound that he could barely hear his own thoughts, yet he still screamed.
“Come on, Nook!” he shouted. Nook slashed at the vine and did so, running towards the copter. From the forest popped the monster, his body half falling apart. It was a few feet off the ground now so Nook had to jump to reach him. On his face he held a serious but focused expression as he reached out a hand for him.
AxEl extended his arm as far as it would go and grabbed onto Nook’s. The weight pulled him a slight bit further but he still held on with all his might. With gritted teeth, AxEl hauled Nook up to the copter and into the carriage and dropped him onto the ground.
They both held onto the copter for dear life, gasping for breath as the Bullets they had taken faded. Nook closed the door behind AxEl, then set himself upon one of the seats.The Phantoms left AxEl and he was glad to collapse right there on the ground.