Twenty-nine minutes.
| Step |
| Step |
| Step |
| Step |
| Step |
| Step Step |
| Step Step...|
Elgan's slow walking pace incremented exponentially until eventually, his speeds caught up to the limits of humans. Seconds flowed, following the ticking hands of his watch, and so did the survivor's moves between the rubble. His light, thin body jumped several dozen meters in the air, as he sprinted through the terrain, his moves carried by an encompassed orchestra of tensing muscles, funneling nose breathing, triggering synapsis and clashing bones.
The two hearts beat in synchrony, one pumping red wine through Elgan's blood vessels, the other injecting unending might inside the underdeveloped pockets of his soul.
Light, very light.
The heaviness he had carried on his shoulders felt relieved as he leaped across the land. Not only had the vicious load his body had developed during those few days been obscured by that mysterious power, but something more profound. Those orange, eternal fires of hell quivered on his presence, bestowing an answer.
That blazing fire that burned outside was, in the end, very similar in nature to the flame dancing bright inside of him.
You are, after all, the Eternal Fire.
| Jump |
Earth crumbled under the soles of his shoes, his body now airborne.
Washed away by the friction of air, the burning sensation of his strained legs dissipated. Just like the flame inside, Elgan's hair danced among the storm, free from the mortal constraints that had restrained him for so long. Still, the survivor refused to drown in the drunkness of physical prowess. The reality of his situation hadn't left his mind, not once. His jade-colored eye narrowed carefully at the whispers of the dead, brought forth by the black obsidian.
This crusade would inevitably end up in defeat.
Still, those murmurs didn't carry sick intention, instead, they were gentle in tone. They were, after all, the people he sought to avenge with his life.
Twenty-seven minutes.
His hands adopted a cross shape as he braced for impact with the ground, his body rolled a couple of times on the hard asphalt as he found the timing to leap again.
| Bang |
The difference between both parties could not be described any other way than ominous, yes. Not even taking it seriously, a simple pawn of the enemy had been enough easily taking care of him. Elgan could move faster, jump higher, punch stronger, and parry easier, yes, but even then, he was aware it wouldn't be enough. Size, power, numbers, resistance, regeneration perhaps even intelligence, he had none of those under his control.
'Still, even if I am fated to lose this war...'
Knowing it full well, there was only one thing Elgan could possibly do. Acceptance of reality was the first step, the two followings were the hardest though.
Resolution. If Elgan was to die, to be defeated, then he would try his very bloody best and choose the best possible defeat.
Might. The last step to perform, the most straight forwards of the three, the most unbearably difficult too.
"It's about time."
The kid's gaze, which up until that point had been focused on spotting the abrupt irregularities on the uneven terrain rose upwards as he entered a patch of clear roads. On his side, a wall of flames, concrete, and half-ruined buildings covered the view. In front... the airborne struggler faced forwards, following the sight of the colossus. The scale was at a charge, the mear skyscraper was still several miles away from his position, its multiple maws were now slightly open, its piercing sets of eyes narrowed, shinning with that glint of insanity his body had learned to fear. A burst of air gets sucked into the creature's thousands of head-sized pores, preparing for what's to come. Its lips expanded widely, revealing rows upon rows of teeth. Its shouts reached the faraway mountains.
| SHRIEKKK!!! |
Elgan's pace is reduced as the ground he stands on starts shaking frantically, waiting in ecstasy for something to happen. Piles of accumulated dust and ash escape from atop the youth's surroundings as the earthquake intensifies.
Then it hit.
| CRUMBLE |
Piles upon piles of filth are catapulted upwards, towering over the city's visage, the geysers of particles filling the air severely reduce the struggler's range of vision, and pieces of debris the size of fists started raining down in the hundreds leaving a trail of smoke behind them as they started their descent. The lethargic titans resting buried underground had been awakened, they now broke free of their encasings as they answered the hive mother's call. Couldn't see it, but Elgan could hear the deathly sound of rumbling in the distance, the savage screeches of the enemy army raging in the distance. From all directions, there was nowhere to escape. Perhaps it was because of that...
| SCRHEEETCH!! |
A wide smirk parted the youth's lips as the thunderstorm closed in on him, his white, bloodied teeth sharpened for the battle. Getting accustomed to the shaking of the ground in seconds, Elgan sprinted even faster with the aim to cut as much distance as possible before hell broke loose.
|Crunch Cruck Cnruk |
Just before the rain of concrete could reach him, the struggler sidestepped right, covering his body under the hollow infrastructure of a building as he continued advancing. Jumping out from the second floor of the structure, his hands reach for the edge of an intact balcony, not only effectively preventing him from falling, but thrusting him several feet in the air. Climbing along the collapsed floors of the same construction, he obtains a good eye view of the surrounding situation.
| CRUMBLE |
His gaze shook as three streets east a whole building collapsed as a raging minion broke straight through it, ignoring any physical obstacles. Its eyes fiercely locked onto Elgan, as it began flattening the second line of infrastructure that stood between them. On the background, dozens of meatballs repeated the same process, all recklessly directed toward the youth. The sight all around wasn't much different.
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|Bang! BANG! bang!|
| Bang! |
The sounds of flaming gasoline and nearby explosions recalled his attention to the forefront, witnessing one different situation. Instead of charging rapidly towards him, the creatures that separated the struggler from the calamity's main body wouldn't budge. Wouldn't run, wouldn't move. Minimizing the distance between them, their bulging bodies had created a semi-circular barrier separating him from their master. Their formation hadn't changed that much from last time, and that confirmed Elgan's thoughts.
Twenty-three minutes.
Defensive.
Its behavior, tactics, and subtle hints left behind by the head meatball, it all led to it. The beast was inclined to protect something from him... from someone.
An open weak spot? Some hidden flaw? Source of power?.. Or was it?
Possibilities opened before Elgan, and his time to consider them all was running short. Who knew, probably none of the above were true, perhaps Elgan was a tiny desperate ant about to be stomped on, perhaps it was the purplish star that made the Colossus assume that formation. Or...
Was it a taunt? a lie? a trick?.. Could be.
He had suspected it for hours already, that the Colossus's intelligence was far greater than he had estimated, in fact, it would make sense that the formation was a disguised trap, a sweet, empty promise to lure him closer to the main body. One last taunt to ensure Elgan wouldn't try running away.
Still, what if it wasn't?
Out of all the questions that would be left unanswered, the struggler was aware of a fact. Despicable, Cruel, Unfair. Simple.
His chances of survival would be chanted by his ability to grasp that opportunity. The monster expected certain behavior from him, be it to run away in desperation, like the coward he had been, or fall right inside its trap, dying like a miserable fly.
He just had to act through.
| BANG!! |
The walls that drew the blazing labyrinth of concrete and steel were broken through as the titans of flesh and blood ran rampant. Their minds weren't complex, in fact, they were simple, one-sided connexions, pawns, mere extensions of their own physical body. Without a will of their own, but with a will nonetheless. Their will was one, purpose, yes, they knew... It was decided the moment the rancid creature faced them without a hint of fear.
Mayhem.
Stomp the ground, flatten the land, erase everything. Leave no room to hide, no place to run under the starless sky. It was a sweet bond that the hive shared, the luscious aroma of crimson wine in the air as they purged the flawed, gloating on their delicious misery. Their desperate chants of horror as their bodies filled them, falling, unmoving, powerless- Ahh, yeah... that was the spot. The greasy, honeyed taste of human flesh, as they decomposed into red paste, as their, cute little matter became one with them.
It had always been like that... Sweet, heavenly. Then why?
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Why did it have to change? The day, no, the instant that putrid smell connected, the second that irredeemably improper, distasteful, piece of utterly meaningless, long-dead trash awakened. Despite all they had done... Their mouths had been polluted with sour, lingering acid, a biting, pungent taste.
They offered the shrimp a chance to flee, but it chose to turn its back on it and search for death. Death, yes death was supposed to be, but it wouldn't be that easy, no... The creature had been capable, they knew so from the start, they could taste it. Yet they had failed to take adequate measures. For centuries, they had not lost a single one of their limbs, they had been careful, very very cautious of exposing themselves as a menace, only consuming that which fell prey to their domain. Quietly blooming into a force to be reconned with on the wilds of the outside.
Yet on that day, two of their bodies fell limp to the ground, erased, broken, fuming with the same lingering smell, contaminating their clean little world. All because of that ant.
Losses. Years?.. No, definitely decades of progress, all lost by that sewer rat.
It didn't matter that much... The filthy stench could be filtered, the blood could be repaid, the squished rat could be resealed, and their numbers could be rebuilt. All would return with time, yes, yeah...
Time.
...
['Twenty-one minutes.']
They are here.
The widening of the splitting smiles, the insanity contaminating the air, the shockwaves of movement that reached his senses. Elgan could tell it was time.
| CRUMBLE!!! |
The youth's functioning eye opened slightly in surprise, the very building his feet landed on collapsed to the ground as a titan unburied itself from the ground... Where? How? Why?
Elgan's mind stopped thinking for a second, trembling in guilt at having discarded the possibility of an ambush, his body, however, didn't stop moving.
Elgan was responsible for a sea of souls right now, but it was not time for feeling guilty. The voices of the perished mumbled as best as they could to his ears, erasing the concern over their presence, they urged the teen to face the problem, pushing him out of his short trance.
Escaping by a margin of just a few feet, the struggler avoided his feet being bitten off by the giant maw that opened below him. Regaining control of his descent, his legs searched for a new surface to obtain impulse, before sprinting through the ground even faster, sacrificing height and safety for speed.
| GHh! |
His muscles pushed against the floor, jumping over a narrow road. Moments later, he landed in yet another section of buildings. The wall of titans was now a mere hundred yards away from his position and he didn't have time to plan, the creatures swarming his rear would catch up to him in no time.
"Go, Keep going legend!"
He overheard his father say from the sides as he continued his home run. His joints staggered to catch up to the rapid firing of his muscles, at least, his lightweight reduced the strain enough for him to handle. That's it, he could do it. Could h-?
"Let's go, brother!!"
Two young voices full of courage resounded, intertwined to reach the struggler.
"Don't doubt."
Yes, he could... He couldn't lose himself just yet.
"Give gh- me- strength--"
Gritting his teeth, paying pain with blood, the youth gripped fiercely the pendant on his chest with a whole fist, a torrent of emotions invading him. The motivation was the fuel to be poured onto his withering flame, its fires brimming with newfound power.
He was the eyes, the legs, the arms, he was the body and soul of those people who had perished in that hell, innocent children, kids, adults, and elderly alike. He was the living vengeance.
['Don't forget.']
Pumping strongly, both hearts continued their symphony under the oppressive weight created by the towering wall of calamities. The rumbling behind had already caught up, the assault had closed in on a circle around him. There was no hesitation to be found. Only suffering.
| Your loss. |
The colossus uttered its verdict objectively.
Time appeared to slow down for Elgan, his body had developed a flight or fight response to past trauma, that allowed him to see clearly...
The youth was fractions of a second away from landing, to risk it all in a half suicidal attempt to jump higher than a five-floor monster meatball. It may have been a desperate move, but he genuinely thought he had a chance... He really did.
His jade pupil faced the skyscraper, just half a mile away from his position, a crater of devastation surrounding its large body and massive, unmoving pincers. He didn't see any weak spots, no obvious salvation, no help. Not that he thought he would be able to reach it.
A large shadow loomed over him, his paralyzed body unable to do anything but gaze at his unavoidable defeat. That's right... Elgan was, after all, fated to die that way. Powerless under a life-robbing pressure, powerless. Stomped on like an ant.
...
['What if, Elgan Klein?']
The youth's ears tingled with his voice. An excruciating pain invaded his chest as he was freed from the ominous aura restraining his body.
['What if you make it possible?']
Yeah. What if?
He asked himself, he couldn't help but chuckle as the momentary desperation puffed away in a cloud of fake smoke, abandoning his expression and leaving behind a pure, absolute emotion. An ear-to-ear defying grin painted on his bloodied face in the name of victory.
Shifting his stance airborne to achieve a landing on his two flexed legs, his body squatted on the ground, breaking the structure of his knees, flexing his limbs to an impossible degree and then releasing it all in a single motion.
| Bang |
The visible exhaustion that haunted Elgan's expression, his pale, lifeless skin, the fast-burning inhales and exhales, they all disappeared, retreating, sealed deep inside him. So that whenever they would find their way out-
['Twenty minutes.']
"HAHahaha!! IT WILL BE TOO LATE!!!"
...
The rest he couldn't remember as well...
The moment he left the ground, a blurry rain of strikes pierced his trail in a failed attempt to reach his body, the titans had realized too late to stop him. His body hit the ground almost a hundred yards away from the Colossus, his already limp, broken right leg took most of the initial impact, his jaw followed next, losing a couple of teeth in the process.
'How do I move now?'
There was no despair, only desire.
"A- ghhg- puncgh-, just, just a puncgh-."
If he could pack a good punch to that thing, even if it was meaningless, useless. That would be a good enough revenge, right?
No souls answered, but his mind couldn't process it.
'Punch. Payoff. Move.'
His bloodshot eye gazed for possibilities, consciously ignoring the stampede closing in. He didn't see functional legs, but his arms were all right.
| Bang! |
Punching the ground with all his might, the struggler's body was thrust in the desired direction, rolling on the ground several times, before reaching the wall of flesh.
If there was one thing he could recall easily, it was its expression, that of complete, utter fear, terror. Perhaps, just like him, the creature didn't want to accept its defeat, perhaps it wouldn't allow itself to admit such a concept like that...
However, as Elgan crawled the last distance, he couldn't shake off the impression that the insane beast appeared to be trying to escape his reach, the ground trembled but its body was far too massive to allow any mobility. Then, as if sharing that notion, the horde of titans became paralyzed, all sharing the same look, like a cheap copied-pasted portrait.
They were scared shitless. Of what?
'Of me...'
Only now could Elgan Klein realize that fact. But back then, it appeared so strange, weird. Perhaps that's why he didn't think much of it...
Without realizing it, instead of forming a fist, his palm grasped the boiling-hot surface that was the calamity's skin. The feeling of used, repeated, bulging veins and worn-out tendons. A creation that wasn't meant to persist glued together.
The existence of such a creature bothered him, made him feel both sorrow and rage.
...
| Tap |
His fingertips grew accustomed to the inhuman heat that flowed through their touch, washing his body in a sudden, unexpected wave of weakness.
The youth's skin drained completely of color, a tension crawled up to his mouth, ignoring his flimsy attempts to stop the foreign influence, his lips moved on their own. They uttered those words.
"For our right it is, let us measure our flaws."
Everything went black.