Satyr glared at the giant robot, his teeth clenched as he ran forward.

He tried not to look at the dead body of one of the members of the Key, a friend… but it was also difficult not to.

Cerberus, Sphinx’s bodyguard and one of the quietest members of the Key had died today… and Satyr couldn’t help but regret.

He regretted that he wasn’t fast enough to help, that he wasn’t strong enough to prevent it even though he saw what was coming…

He regretted letting the Warden leave, when they met.

But regrets would not solve anything, Satyr knew this… he had experienced enough regret for this life, and he wished that he could not feel such things…

But he would feel them, and he would keep feeling them, just as he had ever since he was tossed into Tartarus and made into Satyr.

He was an Original Chained, one of the first generation of Chained. He knew Jormungand and Behemoth back when they were still confused on their new size, he knew Charon when Charon was still beating up people to join his assassin’s guild.

He knew many more, like the original Cyclops, the original Medusa, and the original Minotaur.

Knew was the important word… he had lost those friends long ago, to fights between Chained, to being killed in their sleep by normal humans they thought they trusted…

At some point Satyr just gave up on being with friends for long periods of time and instead went into hiding. He would go out to get drugs and alcohol, and then hide again, storing whatever he didn’t use.

And then one day he heard about a human who had Chained working for him, and Satyr was intrigued.

Lukas Vann was his name, and Satyr truly left his home for the first time in decades to witness this man who, instead of being ruled by Chained, ruled over them.

Satyr was disappointed… oh so disappointed with the man, and returned to his home questioning…

Why was the world the way it was? Why was it that the world had to work with people above others, oppressors and oppressed, why couldn’t the world comprise of equal people?

Satyr figured that it was greed, the want to be above all others, the want to look at someone and think ‘at least I’m not that bad’ it was something the majority of humans felt.

Even Satyr wasn’t free from the thoughts, and he knew this sighing as he sat in his home, looking for news on the happenings in Tartarus.

And then one day he heard something weird…

There was another person going around with Chained, a normal human like Lukas Vann, two years after Vann appeared with his own enforcers.

Satyr was originally sceptical, obviously after the disappointment that was Vann.

But the new person didn’t disappoint… no, he exceeded all hopes that Satyr had, with every new rumour.

The new human leading a group of Chained didn’t treat them as workers, but as friends, as fellow humans.

People who met their ragtag group found that the ‘leader’ even irritated the others, and yet they listened, they spoke, they communicated.

They were actually friends, not just subordinates and leader.

Satyr was inspired, following the rumours of their adventures with relish.

The rumours started with this new guy, a white haired Chained and a human-looking Empusa of all people fighting Minotaur, destroying a large portion of his maze, and somehow winning that fight.

Then the next bit of rumours included a large man with bullhorns, and Satyr found himself even more interested as the human raced Cyclops, the ruler of Area six bar Pegasus.

During the race, they encountered the Hydra, and the other Chained in the group fought the beast apparently.

Then they left with four new people in their crew, one of which was Cyclops.

Soon after that, Satyr even heard that they had encountered the Hunter of all people, and yet no one died, they survived?

And then the assassin’s guild poked their head in and kidnapped the human leader of the group…

The result of this kidnapping was that the human managed to somehow convince Medusa to change sides and join him, along with a human that was originally Chimera (though they now knew his name to be Manticore).

Then they had the misfortune to run into Leviathan in his swamp of all places, and split up.

The white haired Chained and the Hunter had partnered up to fight the Leviathan, running towards Area nine while the rest of this group went to Area ten.

The group in Area ten ended up at the yearly auction hosted by Sphinx, previous head of the Triad (before Vann’s appearance it was hosted by one of Sphinx’s subordinates) where Sphinx and his bodyguard, Cerberus, attacked them.

The result of the attack was that Sphinx and Cerberus joined this group, and it was abundantly obvious to anyone who followed the rumours of this group that they somehow persuaded those they defeated to join them.

It was like some badly written fighting anime. And yet, it happened in reality.

The truth was sometimes stranger than fiction, because fiction must at least make sense.

Reality doesn’t always need to make sense.

During the auction, in Area nine, the white haired Chained had defeated both the Hunter and Leviathan, and then left after, charging towards Area eleven.

Then there was the large altercation in Area eleven, the result of which was Lukas Vann was dead, the group of Chained had increased, and the Families of Area eleven supported them.

But their leader was gone… missing, and no one was explaining what happened.

Satyr was sad about that for a while, but with all that they had done, he felt there was something he could do.

It was around then that he opened his underground bar in Area five, trying to be friendly with as many people as possible, especially normal humans, while literally pissing off anyone who tried to oppress other people.

With the rumours of this guy, Aaron Hassan, working with Chained as equals, and the knowledge that the Hunter could kill any Chained that harmed normal people, Satyr’s bar was given the chance to exist…

And it flourished, and Satyr felt he had made a place for himself.

And then, a year after making the bar, he found himself face to face with the exact person who made it all possible, albeit indirectly… Aaron Hassan was in his bar.

Aaron Hassan wanted Satyr’s help.

It would have been suspicious to join immediately though… so Satyr gave conditions, slightly difficult, but believable conditions.

Aaron agreed, and thus Satyr found another place he belonged.

And while it was always a bit threatened by the general life of Tartarus, this place was stable…

Now someone was attacking Satyr’s new ‘home’.

Satyr wouldn’t let something like this stand, and so he rushed forward to combat a giant (relative to him, small compared to Behemoth or Jormungand) robot.

The usual Satyr would refuse to fight, wouldn’t want to step in…

The usual Satyr was currently missing due to the death of Cerberus, a good friend.

“It’s you again! You asshole, you pissed on me, who the fuck pisses on people?” the Warden shouted in anger as he began to shoot in Satyr’s general direction, causing Satyr to curse as he ran to the side…

Satyr would be killing that man; it just had to be done safely. Cerberus wouldn’t want anyone to die avenging him, especially considering he was never one to attack first.

“I’m going to do more than piss on you!” Satyr screamed in return from his ‘hiding’ place which was currently being destroyed…

Cerberus was actually amazing for getting this close to the Warden, in Satyr’s opinion.

“Try it and I’ll gut you worse than I gutted your friend!” The anger was nearly blinding… but Satyr did not act on it beyond moving as close to the Warden as possible…

He had hid in the empty sewers of Area five for about fifty years. Waiting a few minutes before killing someone was easy for someone with the patience Satyr possessed.

He snuck as best as he could, thankful that for some reason the robot didn’t have something complicated like heat-seeking missiles or something like that.

Satyr wasn’t aware of it, but the Warden had requested something like that…

Except the robot itself already struggled with cooling systems meaning it could only be taken out once and then it would need repairs. Putting ‘heat-seeking’ on any of weapons would be a bit confusing for those systems.

There were ways around it, but Gilgamesh wasn’t willing to spend so much on it.

Finally, having gotten close enough to act, Satyr knew he had to do this as quickly as possible. Unlike the other fights which were going on for more than a quarter of an hour, Satyr knew he was not suited for such fighting.

He had to end this fight as soon as possible, and for that, he had to use what originally got him in trouble with others…

He moved forward, dashing out of cover as the Warden aimed for him, the first few shots missing when Satyr dropped into a slide, allowing the bullets to whiz above his head, and then he was too close for the gun to be feasible.

It was at this point the blade which had killed Cerberus, still red with his blood, swung towards Satyr and Satyr knew he had to act as quickly as possible.

The blade aimed to cleave into the ground where Satyr was, likely to trip him up in some way, instead of jumping or stopping, Satyr moved into a forward roll, getting closer to the robot.

It could electrocute him if he touched it, it was how Cerberus had died after all, and Satyr had a suspicion.

The Warden hadn’t used that until after Cerberus had turned a part of the armour into slag, and that was a hint of some kind.

What it meant, Satyr didn’t know. The shock could have a charge up time, or it could have limited uses, maybe it took up a lot of energy and the Warden was reluctant to use it.

It wouldn’t matter…

Satyr would kill the Warden without even touching the man.

Stumbling slightly from the shock of the blade hitting the floor behind him, Satyr’s stance was sure as he took a small pocket knife out, making the Warden deride him.

For all that the Warden was lazy, and usually calm… Satyr was someone he couldn’t act normally around.

It was the equivalent of walking into your sister sleeping with someone, and then being expected to pretend you never met the next time you saw that person elsewhere.

For the majority of human beings, that was probably impossible, and the Warden was no different.

“You think you can kill me with a pocket-knife? This Warden unit that is a giant weapon weighing over ten tons can’t be defeated by a tiny weapon like that!”

The Warden’s shout clearly said that he considered Satyr to be insane, and Satyr sighed, holding the blade against his palm, before he pressed, hard enough to make a line of blood appear from his palm.

No one was witnessing this fight, except for stray glances from Mino and the triplets…

But if any Original Chained saw what Satyr had just done, they might have considered leaving.

Satyr, his ability was to induce an ‘intoxicated’ feeling within a person his bodily fluids touched, bodily fluids being saliva, blood, urine, even tears and sweat.

This was in fact just a subsection of his ability.

Satyr’s ability was one he dubbed ‘False Signal’. When his body fluids touched someone, they activated a sensation in the brain depending on what he wanted to happen.

The only real limitations were that his body fluids had to touch the person, and that he had to know the feeling he was sending.

After five decades of drinking and doing drugs, he could easily make someone else feel what he felt after taking in said substances… but before he started using that, he used a universal constant.

Pain was known to all after all.

The Warden attempted to attack, aiming to crush Satyr who moved away, and a wince on his face as he remembered that, despite being a Biological Chained of enhanced physical abilities, he was out of practice when it came to fighting.

He wasn’t as fit as he was fifty years ago, or he was but forgot how to move correctly in a fight, but for what he was about to do, it was enough.

It was difficult, and tiring, moving in a way to make the Warden think that Satyr was moving randomly, but that was not the case.

The Warden was well aware of his current weakness; the spot which melted from Cerberus’ flame-breath had a tiny hole in it, leading straight to him. Luckily for the Warden, the hole hadn’t messed with any wiring, which was mostly towards the core of the robot, only punching through the opening hatch.

Of course, that meant that the Warden couldn’t leave the robot… and that if anything happened to get in there, he’d be stuck with it inside there.

During a roll to dodge, Satyr happened to pick up a tiny stone.

He began to hold it in his bleeding hand, wincing at the sensation before his face calmed…

Ah, his old friend, pain… it had returned…

He had tried to forget what he had felt; how he had tortured those who attacked him… he just wanted to be left alone.

Now it seemed he had to remember in order to avenge a friend…

It was a worthy cause.

The Warden hadn’t noticed, and it was at this moment that Satyr struck.

The blade came crashing down, and Satyr repeated Cerberus’ act of rolling through the legs to reach its back, turning.

“That won’t work!” The Warden called out, clearly thinking that Satyr was going to try jumping on him like Cerberus did… he was mistaken.

“You know about David and Goliath? And with this stone, I kill you.” Satyr’s statement was factual as he threw the stone as hard as he could towards the small hole into the cockpit of the robot.

Satyr heard the thump, and the exclamation of pain as the Warden stopped piloting the robot long enough to rub at his head where the rock had hit.

“First you piss on me, now you bean me with a rock? Mother-” Satyr did not allow the Warden to continue talking as he raised his arm.

“This is for Cerberus you bastard.” Satyr’s statement was actuated with a clenching of his fist, and suddenly a scream was heard, followed by stuttered speaking.

“W-w-what did… you… d-do?” The voice of the Warden was filled with fear as he kept interlacing his questions with the sound of rapid breathing occasional winces and groans of pain, and the sound of someone vomiting.

“I gave your brain the sensation of acute and sudden pain, and I’m enforcing that sensation continuously. Your brain is under the misunderstanding that you are in extreme pain, and due to this, your heart is beating erratically due to the shock.” Satyr said, walking away as he left the robot behind him, only stopping to look back for a moment.

“Due to the erratic beating of your heart, like any other muscle spasm, it’s not working correctly. You are going into cardiovascular shock. Basically, I gave you a heart attack.” Satyr’s explanation was unnecessary, for at some unknown point during his explanation; Satyr’s slump was heard as he passed out.

The chance of dying when passing out of a heart attack, with no access to medical assistance of any kind, was probably something like ninety nine per cent.

Even if the Warden somehow survived this, he would likely have brain damage due to his heart stopping, and thus his brain not getting enough oxygen.

Satyr looked at his own hands with disgust as he then looked to Mino and the Hydra triplets, already one ‘dog’ destroyed and another was having acid vomited onto its back as Ein treated the metallic beast as a rodeo bull.

They would do fine… for now, he had to see to Cerberus’ body…

While the Warden was being killed elsewhere, Lu Bu had swung the blunt end of his weapon to knock Sphinx back, focusing as they looked around, pausing in the fight before relaxing.

“Damn it you hit hard.” Nemea complained as she rubbed her arms, knowing they were going to bruise regardless of her skin’s semi-synthetic nature.

“You’re one to talk.” Lu Bu’s deadpan response did not match up with the helmet of the Red Hare armour, considering its evil grimace.

“Well, this is the only entrance into the grounds, Solomon should be arriving soon.” Medusa offered and Lu Bu nodded, willing to wait.

It was a few moments after that in which Solomon arrived, inside a Jeep that was suspiciously missing a car door…

She stepped out, looking really frazzled and suspicious before she caught sight of Lu Bu in the Red Hare armour. It would be no one else who could wear it after all.

“Lu?” She asked, curious and surprised at his appearance, leaving Lu Bu smiling inside his helmet…

Despite her weary appearance, her question had him happy, knowing that she was still alright… probably just a bit out of sorts from the giant monster fight happening nearby.

“Yeah… I’m here to talk.” He admitted, leaving Medusa, Sphinx and Nemea behind as he walked to Solomon, who likewise walked closer.

“Well… talk.” Solomon offered, and Lu Bu chuckled… Solomon was the smarter between the two, but when it came to social interactions…

“I want to know why you betrayed Gilgamesh. I know that as a person she’s a monster, but why?” Lu Bu asked as Solomon considered the question.

“Two reasons. For one, I know something that Gilgamesh would likely try to kill me for knowing. It’s the same thing Odysseus knows.” Solomon offered, leaving Lu Bu annoyed.

“Let me guess, he told you it so that you’d have to help him on a sinking boat?” Lu Bu’s question was clearly rhetorical and yet Solomon still responded with a nod.

“Okay, he’s an asshole; I need to punch him for that, and also for dropping a building on me. What’s the second reason?” Lu Bu asked, needing to know so he could make his decision.

“I guess… I’m helping because between someone who tells me nice lies, and someone who speaks horrible truths, I’d rather follow the latter.” Lu Bu knew there was more to that statement, but could understand it for what it was.

Gilgamesh was lying to the two of them somehow, and Aaron at least told Solomon the truth.

It was the same way you would prefer the seen enemy to the unseen one, regardless of how dangerous either was.

“…Solomon… can I follow you?” Lu Bu’s question getting raised eyebrows from Solomon.

Medusa, watching the interaction from a few metres, palmed her face, as did Sphinx. Nemea just seemed confused…

That was mostly because she and Solomon were the same type of woman…

“And to think he likes that woman… wouldn’t I have more luck?” Sphinx asked, and Medusa patted his shoulder comfortingly.

As mentioned at some point, Zwei of the triplets was a lesbian, and the other person in the Key who happened to like the same sex was in fact Sphinx.

It was kind of obvious when one considered how gaudy he dressed as well as his method of speaking…

This was also the reason why Echidna didn’t quite get along with Sphinx, unknowingly.

“Hey, I’m sure you’ll get someone soon.” Medusa offered while knowing that Cerberus was not open to a relationship at all, even one with his best friend Sphinx.

“Maybe, maybe… The people in Area ten have a few guys who’d agree, but with how much backstabbing happens there…” Sphinx lamented, Nemea honestly confused and disturbed by this.

Solomon was still staring at Lu Bu, only now one of her eyebrows dropped to normal, leaving her with a confused look.

“Are you stupid? Obviously you are supposed to be following me. If you weren’t, you’d probably take a long walk off of a short pier.” Solomon huffed, and Lu Bu laughed, removing the helmet of the Red Hare as he looked to her and nodded with a smile.

“Sure, you’re totally right.” His answer threw Solomon for a loop as she tried to make sense of why Lu Bu would suddenly surrender a possible argument topic…

That’s when they heard the boom and turned their heads to the fight between Behemoth and Jormungand.

“…Is that Baal?” Sphinx asked almost rhetorically, letting Lu Bu know exactly who it was that was apparently throwing around plasma at the giant murder beast made of pure muscle and destruction.

Said beast was Behemoth by the way, in case that wasn’t clear… which it should have been.

“Holy Shit what a rush!” The scream of Baal as he landed on a nearby building after tossing that blast of electricity at Behemoth was heard clearly by Echidna.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She felt her original opinion of Baal was an understatement, as she had considered him an older, hyper version of Aaron…

“God help us.” Echidna said in a perfect copy of her brother’s normal speech tone.

This was namely indifference or sarcasm.

“Some help here!” Jormungand hissed out a demand and Echidna focused, clenching her fists as her blades formed a circular shape in front of her two of them seemingly possessing handles like a motorbike as she grasped them, using the handles to aim.

Unfortunately for Echidna, this attack, while capable of destroying a small building, was not amazingly effective against Behemoth… it helped, but it wasn’t amazing.

Her blast was luckily aimed correctly now, as it was an unwieldy attack, it hit Behemoth in the centre of his forehead, getting a roar from him as he stumbled backwards due to the force.

This gave Jormungand and opening which allowed him to use his tail like a whip, attacking Behemoth quickly, massive gouges on his thick skin which slowly but visibly healed due to his enhanced regeneration.

It was an opening, and while Baal was still a bit unused to his new found mental clarity and sudden skill with his lightning attacks, he was quickly picking up on what he had to do.

It was only because he was busy figuring out things that they had not won yet, and he would prove this point in this moment.

“I’m going to stop him for ten seconds; you have ten seconds to immobilize him!” Baal shouted at Echidna who conveyed the message to Jormungand who might not have heard it.

Baal reached to his shirt, removing it, revealing his upper body to the wind.

Baal felt proud of his physique, trained over all the time he spent in Tartarus, but others would feel disturbed due to the clearly metallic pieces and the glowing cores lighting up the areas next to his spine on his back, eight in total, four on each side of his spine, glowing veins leading towards his arms looking similar to tribal tattoos.

Baal was built, powerful, and his body showed his power as he flexed his hands, the centre of his palm having a pad that shot the power in his body out.

Before Synchronization, Baal found it difficult to focus his energy in anything other than a large blast. It was why Baal tried to fix most fights he got into with only pure physical combat, as if he attacked using his ability it was a definite boom of lightning.

If it was not that boom, it was barely a trickle, like a joy-buzzer, like what he did to Aaron when they first met.

Now after having his mind mesh with his own robotic enhancements, Baal found his control over the energy to have increased by a large factor.

Now Baal was attempting to use his suddenly much better control so as to unleash a large shock onto Behemoth.

Stretching, Baal began to run towards Behemoth, who was still angry at Jormungand and didn’t seem to notice the tiny person about to try climbing up his body.

Behemoth, like Jormungand, had scales, though Behemoth’s weren’t as noticeable until you were up-close, they were there, and blunt enough that they made good hand-holds for Baal.

In his anger, Behemoth couldn’t even feel Baal scaling his back, still trying to lash out at Jormungand who was whipping his fellow giant monster with his own tail.

Finally approaching the neck of Behemoth, uncaring of whether or not he would be discovered at this point, Baal grabbed onto the point towards the centre of Behemoth’s neck, and screamed.

“Now!” Baal felt the eight cores on his back fluctuate, and feeling the energy pulse, Baal concentrated the shock onto his handholds, a localised stun gun to a beast this big, but every second counted.

Baal… admittedly didn’t know what Echidna and Jormungand were about to do, but he hoped they worked quickly, again, whatever it is they were doing.

It was really tiring for Baal to use the energy in his body to shock people let alone giant monsters after all.

Baal was beyond terrified when he had a second to look over his shoulder and see that Echidna had somehow gotten onto the building behind Behemoth, and was charging one of those lasers…

Baal felt relief when the laser instead hit Behemoth in the back of the knee, missing him and causing the large beast to roar as his knee caved, forcing him down.

Using that moment, Jormungand struck, unwilling to do vicious harm to his friend, but knowing of Behemoth’s regeneration, he moved like the snake he now was.

Following the instincts of a python, Jormungand was quick to get Behemoth into a stranglehold while having his large (and way too many for a snake) teeth lodged firmly into Behemoth’s shoulder near the neck.

If Jormungand tore out this piece of flesh, even Behemoth might die… Behemoth was not in the right state of mind, being ordered to harm Jormungand, but he wouldn’t attack at the cost of his life.

And thus, Behemoth instead relaxed, allowing Jormungand to squeeze tighter…

While the giant monster fight was seemingly ending, the fights in the stadium were all also approaching an end…

With Jaeger and Typhon, their fight was almost a dance at this point, a dangerous one given how a single mistake could get either killed.

Typhon had, at some point, begun to try and keep his opponents alive, even Jaeger who was arguably the best at ‘killing’ Typhon was someone Typhon never went all out against.

That was not the case anymore, as Typhon had to fight at full force lest a bullet rip his brain from his skull.

Jaeger was having issues of his own, namely his new equipment. He had already learnt how to use the weaponry, but the supplementary equipment such as the armour were still new to Jaeger, throwing him off when it came to his physical ability.

Using the armour, Jaeger would in fact be capable of fighting Typhon up close.

Typhon was still much stronger, being a Chained and all, but Jaeger should have been able to fight up close properly.

Instead, he had to adopt a hit and run style as he occasionally over-reached or held back too much on a swing with his baton, giving Typhon a chance to punish Jaeger’s attempts to hurt him.

“This is annoying.” Typhon growled out as he sacrificed some Nano-bots to Jaeger’s baton, the man recognizing the feint as instead of pressing the advantage, Jaeger instead jumped away reflexively, a spear of Nano-bots stabbing into where his chest would have been.

It was a slight annoyance to Jaeger that Typhon was constantly changing his usage of the Nano-bots, essentially using Jaeger as a test subject to further his control over the Nano-bots.

It wasn’t a one-sided affair given that this was Jaeger’s first engagement with his new equipment…

If either of these two were to mention this complaint to others everyone else would instead complain about their rapid growth in the middle of combat.

“I agree… this is a stalemate… I doubt either of us can get a true victory here.” Jaeger’s statement had a double meaning of both combat and living.

No matter who won, neither would die, reason being that both of them had much greater confidence in escaping when compared to killing the other.

It was an almost pointless battle, only given meaning in that either of them could wreak havoc on the opposing side were they to be allowed free.

“No, there won’t be a true victory… I guess I’ll just have to take the battle then.” Typhon sighed, finally giving up on holding back as his Nano-bots stretched over his form, letting Jaeger know that he had forced Typhon into his ‘black cat’ form.

The sleek nature of the form appeared, the serrated whip-like tail appearing from his lower spine as Typhon dropped to all fours, no markings on the face of Typhon as his claws dug into the ground.

“Let’s go then.” Jaeger said, forgoing the use of his guns as he removed a dagger, obtained specifically for Jaeger’s use, the EMP-baton in his off-hand ready to assist as he dropped into an Escrima stance.

They both moved at some unheard signal, one in as efficient a manner as possible, the other bestial, taking advantage of his physique beyond the limits of man as well as his heightened instincts in his cat-like form.

Their clash was different from what Jaeger was used to. Jaeger’s method of hunting was to use traps, technique and tools to defeat his foes, never fighting for too long or too close, knowing that they would kill him in one blow.

With his new armour, heightening his physical abilities as well as giving him the ability to take more than one hit, Jaeger could for once, afford to treat even a powerful Chained as an equal.

A swing of the baton, blocked with a slash of claws, the claws disintegrating into motes of black sand as a dagger flashed out to rend flesh, only to meet nothing as the inhuman Chained spun out of the way, converting the spin into a round-house kick, Nano-bots extending as a chain of blades to cut Jaeger in half, dodged by rolling backwards for a moment before Jaeger rushed forward to continue the clash.

It was a blur, it was a difficult fight, and mistakes were made as Typhon was still slightly injured from earlier in the fight, Jaeger slowly but surely accruing bruises and cuts from either punching or clawed attacks.

The end of the fight approached surprisingly quickly given the nature of the fight, but it was to be understood, the two combatants were fighting with the intent of incapacitating their foe, doing whatever it took to do so.

Typhon’s victory came with a cracking sound as Jaeger’s dagger broke at the hilt, the surprise giving Typhon a chance to launch a drop kick at Jaeger’s chest, sending the man flying as the armour the Hunter wore cracked, signifying a broken or cracked rib or two.

“The score is even now.” Typhon’s smirk was hidden by his black mask of Nano-bots, but even so, Jaeger could practically feel it.

Jaeger felt that, and the pain of losing… and the actual pain of from that kick.

It was nigh-crippling pain, but not enough to keep Jaeger down. Enough to stop the fight though… Jaeger couldn’t win with his breathing laboured the way it was currently.

“Right, right… oh fuck that hurts… I’m just going to limp away now.” Typhon cancelled his ‘transformation’ with a pained chuckle of his own, wiping away a nosebleed as Jaeger limped away…

If anyone caught the two of them laughing, they’d probably consider the two to be insane… most wouldn’t be that far off.

“I’m going to just sit right here…” Typhon barely managed to mumble to himself as he sat down, wishing to all of creation that his headache would disappear soon…

Jaeger hadn’t moved far when he saw the fight between Leviathan, Manticore and Charon going on.

“Why won’t you die?” Leviathan shouted as a blade of blood sliced past Charon who had slid underneath the red liquid, freezing it as he passed, leaving Leviathan annoyed as he jumped away from the spot he stood where Manticore and his scorpion tail landed.

“Well, because I don’t want to.” Charon was surprisingly sarcastic when he got going, something that was annoying Leviathan by quite a bit.

“It was rhetorical!” it was also funny that Leviathan was the more serious one between himself and Charon, though Leviathan could register mentally that Charon’s words were just to rile him up.

It was this knowledge that kept Leviathan from getting pissed enough to use his secret weapon.

“You should still give up Leviathan, you can’t kill me, and my liquid nitrogen nullifies your blood.” Charon added, not even adding that the addition of Manticore also further pushed the advantage to his side.

“Sure it does… but that doesn’t keep me from attacking… and it won’t stop me from winning.” Leviathan sighed, knowing that between him and Charon…

Leviathan was actually the better hand-to-hand combatant.

And he had an idea.

“Oh this is annoying…” Leviathan had gotten used to demolishing all opponents with his power, and currently he didn’t have the sheer volume of blood to do that.

Being turned into a human (at least in form) once more has also caused him to realize another thing.

Leviathan was ignoring finesse… maybe it was time he brought it back into his fighting style?

Drawing back what blood he still had floating around, Leviathan pulled it to surround his body in a layer.

Now looking to be made out of blood but for his head, Leviathan got into a kick-boxing stance.

“…I was under the impression that you forgot your roots.” Charon said, noting a difference in Leviathan’s bearing, likewise adjusting himself, Manticore getting worried.

“Oh I didn’t… it just wasn’t really necessary most of the time… but I think I should remember, I’m a mercenary, I’m a soldier… and I think I need to start taking pride in that fact again.” Leviathan stepped forward, his movements rippling the blood around him.

With a burst of speed, Leviathan was in front of Charon, who responded by trying to slash at Leviathan with his Oar, only for Leviathan to block the haft of the weapon, sending a punch at Charon’s head.

Charon weaved to the side, only for the blood coating Leviathan’s fist to stretch out like a blade and nick Charon.

Looking at the tiny amount of blood flowing from his cheek, Charon’s eyes widened as he raised a palm to his cheek, slightly freezing the wound closed.

“Quick thinking… If you had let that bleed anymore, well I think I’d have killed you.” Leviathan said in a ‘matter of fact’ tone, attempting to continue his attacks on Charon only to be attacked by Manticore from behind.

Manticore had to abandon his method of attack when the blood formed into spikes on the back of Leviathan, imitating a hedgehog for a moment, surprising Manticore who had to flap his bat-like wings to keep from falling into the spike trap.

“Manticore, jump away!” Charon shouted in warning, Manticore jumping away as Leviathan made the blood recede.

“What he’s doing with the blood… it’s familiar.” Jaeger noted from a distance, looking at Leviathan for a moment before realizing where he recognized it from, and looking back to Typhon who was still wheezing on the floor…

Leviathan was using his blood like Typhon used his Nano-bots.

That was a terrifying connection to make, given that Typhon, when not taken by surprise and actually taking a fight seriously, was the strongest Chained that Jaeger had ever known… okay, Baal was roughly equal in his own way, but Typhon was dangerous.

And Jaeger was also well aware that Typhon wasn’t fighting to his full potential because of simply not knowing he could do more…

Leviathan might grow stronger than Typhon due to this…

It was a possibility, and Jaeger was not certain how he felt about that as he watched his teammate (unfortunately) survive getting hit with a fireball, blocking the flammable gas with his prosthetic…

Only to reveal it was not a prosthetic, at least, not in the general term.

Leviathan’s false arm was actually not mechanical, but entirely biological, comprised entirely of blood, the crimson of the fluid and Leviathan’s own connection to the liquid letting everyone know what his arm was made out of.

“Thanks, getting that sock off my blood takes too long.” Leviathan mock thanked Manticore, turning and swinging his arm of blood, the blood stretching out from its previous shape.

Charon, who had been trying to hit Leviathan from behind, was forced onto the ground as a massive blade of blood passed above, snapping back to Leviathan to retain the shape of a hand.

“Oh that’s lovely… most of the blood I use isn’t mine, just contaminated by mine. The normal ratio is about zero point ten per cent of my blood to the rest of it. This arm though, is about ten to fifteen per cent my blood.” Leviathan admitted, flexing the bloody arm.

“So you can understand it as me having one hundred times the normal control with this arm of blood… okay, I need a name for this thing, Jaeger, you got anything?” Leviathan called out, letting Manticore and Charon register Jaeger’s presence.

“No, Typhon lost?” Manticore looked confused, unbelieving of Jaeger’s presence as Jaeger coughed, a bit of blood coming out.

“Oh it was a tie… we’re both not going to be fighting for a while.” Jaeger said, looking back to Leviathan…

“How about calling it Testament? The Leviathan was a beast of the Old Testament in the Bible after all.” Jaeger had a surprisingly eighth grader-like way of naming things…

Then again, given his name, Jaeger, he could be forgiven for naming most things in such a manner.

“That’s a pretty snobbish name, but I’ll work with it. So let’s test out the Testament.” Leviathan seemingly ordered himself as he swung the arm, now named Testament, in an arc, the hand splitting at the fingers to create five large blades.

Charon saw it approaching and could only manage to jump, placing his Oar at his feet and kicking out to the blades to block them, getting flung back a couple metres while Manticore attempted to stab Leviathan with his tail.

Leviathan responded by raising Testament to Manticore, forming a shield-like shape as the tail impacted the shield, instead of being blocked or piercing the shield, Manticore had his tail sucked inwards by the shield, making the assassin widen his eyes.

“I’ll take that.” Leviathan smirked, clenching his other fist as the sudden gap in the ‘shield’ was closed forcibly crushing Manticore’s tail and removing the stinger.

Manticore’s scream of pain was heard across the stadium as Leviathan round-house kicked the now tail-less Manticore into Charon, Charon catching the younger assassin with a frown on his face.

Charon would not continue the fight. If he and Manticore were still assassins, and Leviathan was the target, then yes, Charon would have fought on.

But Charon was not working as an assassin right now, he was working as a member of the Key, and they looked out for one another.

Despite Charon’s dislike of the idea, he knew Aaron would be pissed at Charon if Charon didn’t at least try to escape with Manticore to get the latter some medical attention.

Saying nothing but glaring at Leviathan, Charon began to retreat, still facing the mercenary in case he was chased down.

“Run back into your hiding place, little assassin!” Seeing that the fight was over, Leviathan had his last joke before he coughed a bit, a frown on his face.

“Oh, Manticore had poison in his tail… crushing it with my blood wasn’t a good idea…” Realizing it a bit late, Leviathan fell onto the floor, wheezing as he began to cough heavily.

“Are you going to die?” Jaeger asked as he stumbled over, hoping that Leviathan would pass away at this moment.

“You wish, most Chained are… immune to standard poisons… I’ll be fine in an hour, maybe two… but it hurts to breathe and move.” Leviathan felt he could be honest with Jaeger…

Not because they were suddenly friends, but because it was easier to trust someone who hated you. You could trust them to want you to fail, other people you weren’t sure on.

“Right, and let me guess, you can fight, you just won’t.” Jaeger’s speech wasn’t much better than Leviathan’s in regards to the breaks they had to take between every couple words to wince or wheeze.

“Exactly… Boss-lady… almost done.” Leviathan and Jaeger both turned to look at the mentioned woman not noticing everyone else looking at the only fight yet to end in the area.

“Why the hell is she so strong?” Aaron felt his eyes roll involuntarily at the words of Empusa, heaving from the extensive acrobatic training he had just undergone.

Translation: he was tired from dodging and blocking super-fast and super sharp blades of light, more like he was forced to stumble and fall around as he blocked.

“Those lights, seems like there are two forms.” Aaron noted, looking to Cyclops who nodded in agreement, having used the fight as a moment to scan Gilgamesh.

It was an unexpected ability Cyclops possessed, the idea being suggested by Typhon of all people.

You can look at any car and understand how it is built and its parts? Why can’t you do that with other things?

It didn’t quite work… as no matter how much Cyclops wanted to, there was no way he could train the ability given to him by Tartarus like that.

But what he could do was apply it when thinking ‘what would this do in a car’ and then work from there… it’s why he could take parts from a microwave and then put them inside a car and not mess it up.

“Right, there are bits of sturdy glass and lights inside the armour to create lasers; those are the cutting edge of the blades.” That bit slightly made sense to Aaron as he understood why the blades ‘burnt’ through everything despite being cold.

“As for the shields she uses when we try to hit back, those are created using coolants inside the armour to literally ‘freeze’ light into a stationary position.” How Cyclops understood that was beyond Empusa, but Aaron nodded in agreement, having come to a similar conclusion.

He wasn’t drawing attention to it much anymore since becoming a Lord, but Aaron was still capable of looking at machinery and understanding it, in at least the theory behind said machinery, after a while.

“So by combining the two, she makes it appear like she’s hitting us with ‘blades’ but it’s actually just a combination of lasers and frozen light.” Empusa said, getting blank stares from her friends.

“Sorry, ‘just’ lasers and frozen light? Do you know how complicated that is? Using the laser should melt the frozen light, and using the frozen light would weaken the lasers, so using both so seamlessly is amazing.” Aaron complimented, looking back to Gilgamesh who was ‘graciously’ letting them talk.

“Oh keep talking, it’s amusing. But seeing as you’ve guessed how Babylon works, why don’t you explain why I haven’t killed you yet?” Gilgamesh asked with her amusement clear on her face, a beautiful smile clearly shown.

“…Nano-tech, at least the commonly found variety, is solar powered, ones used for medical use are a combination of solar and nutrients gained by eating, including iron for replacing damaged Nano-bots.” The last bit was why people who have Nano-tech heart monitors and such medical systems needed to eat more food filled with iron, such as spinach and organ meats.

“Continue…” Gilgamesh motioned for Aaron to complete his thought.

“Both types of Nano-bots have a commonality; they ‘eat’ light to power themselves, notably sunlight. You mostly use sunlight stored in your armour, don’t you? So Nano-bots eat your light blades.” Aaron explained getting a slow, sarcastic clap from Gilgamesh.

“Bravo, bravo little Aaron, you’ve figured it out, oh what shall I do… oh wait, nothing. Even knowing how it works and why you can stop my attacks, it won’t stop me from winning.”

Gilgamesh did not need her face to be shown to let her three opponents know she was smirking, and Aaron’s wince was obvious…

She wasn’t wrong…

“Don’t worry Aaron. Knowing is half a battle. Let’s work on the other half.” Cyclops patted Aaron’s shoulder as they got ready to continue, only for a scream to be heard.

Recognizing it was Manticore, Aaron wanted to make sure Manticore was okay, but was blocked from doing so by a massive slash of light from Gilgamesh’s Babylon armour.

“Ignoring me little Aaron? I thought you knew that was a sure-fire way to getting yourself killed.” Gilgamesh focused and began to send a huge amount of slashes forward.

Focusing on forming the Nano-tech on both his arms into shields, and Cyclops and Empusa making sure to stay behind him, Aaron was trying to move forward, but kept being knocked back…

Aaron also realized that he already found the explanation for why there was actual force behind the slashes, it was the frozen light hitting him, the lasers used heat energy, not momentum, but the frozen light did.

“Listen, I need you two to stabilize me; we’re going to move slowly towards her… she’s too prideful to try running.” Aaron knew Gilgamesh well, and indeed, she would not run away from those she deemed ‘lower’ than herself.

The swings were never at the same angle, and there was no real pattern between the sweeping slashes, but Aaron had little to no time to worry.

All he could do was place his shield in the way, making it as encompassing as possible while Cyclops carefully pushed Aaron forward, Empusa trying to survey the rest of the stadium.

“Aaron, Manticore and Charon are retreating, Manticore has an injury, and the stinger for his tail is gone. Leviathan and Jaeger are both lying on the floor, and Typhon is suffering from the Black Cat form.” Empusa explained as quickly as possible as Aaron scowled.

“Well, at least we won’t be disturbed, now we just need to know about the Jormungand-Behemoth fight, and whatever is happening with the Hydra, Minotaur and Cerberus… oh, and where the heck is Medusa’s team, weren’t they fighting Lu Bu?” Aaron asked between grunts while blocking the blades, Gilgamesh still swinging randomly.

“You know, this is kind of boring… I was having more fun when you were bounced around by my slashes.” Gilgamesh complained as she attempted two slashes at once to bisect Aaron, who responded by ducking, unwilling to be ‘crushed’ between the attack, Cyclops and Empusa ducking along.

They were now close enough that Gilgamesh would only be able to launch maybe one more attack before they’d reach her…

Giving a look at Cyclops, who had the heaviest hitting force between the three, Aaron dashed forward, his partners following behind as Gilgamesh slashed upwards, digging a trench into the ground.

Blocking the attack, Aaron watched as Cyclops stepped forward, a massive right hook aiming for Gilgamesh’s head… they were finally going to get a hit in!

And then the moment seemingly froze… Cyclops did not move forward, and Gilgamesh didn’t move away… and Aaron and Empusa could only stare…

Stare at the beam of light exiting through the back of Cyclops.

With a sickening squishing noise, the blade vanished, leaving Cyclops to slump forward onto the floor, a cough of blood leaving his mouth as he fell to the ground.

“Well, I was hoping you’d be the one to fall for that little Aaron, but in the end… well, you ordered your friend to his death it seems.” Gilgamesh’s smirk was telling, as Aaron felt tears approach his eyes unbidden, his fists clenched in anger and sorrow.

“You… Gilgamesh!” Aaron rushed forward, Empusa right behind him only to get kicked back by Gilgamesh, sending him flying into Empusa.

“Poor, poor Aaron… Oh right, this isn’t the first time you’ve witnessed someone die… it isn’t even the first time you’re the cause of someone’s death.” Gilgamesh brushed a hand through her hair, a smirk on her face.

“In fact, aren’t you the same little child I found that day? Shivering under the table, saying that you didn’t mean to hurt mommy and daddy? That same little kid who got both parents killed?” There was a noticeable lull, Empusa pausing for only a moment to look at Aaron with slightly widened eyes.

“How did it happen again? Oh yes, daddy was hurting mommy, and then you protected mommy by stabbing daddy in the back. Then when mommy wanted to take the knife, you were scared she’d hurt you and did the same to her.” Aaron was beginning to shiver, taking panicked breaths.

“A killer of two, his own parents at that, at the tender age of five years old… fitting then, that you’d continue killing, and killing…” Aaron finally couldn’t take it and shouted back, tears streaming down his face.

“Yes! I killed people! I hurt people I cared for! Was it any wonder it was so easy to hurt people I didn’t care about, who didn’t matter?” Aaron shouted, leaving Gilgamesh to sigh.

“I honestly wouldn’t know little Aaron. I don’t care for anyone other than myself so why would it matter how many die to get me further in life?” Gilgamesh’s face betrayed no emotion, only stating fact…

At this point, Gilgamesh no longer cared for the lives of those around her, only possessing curiosity for those who were interesting.

“But from what I understand, you eventually stopped… when was it… oh yes, when you met that crippled girl, what was her name, Dawn? Yes, you stopped then, playing caretaker with the girl for what, a year?” The fact that Gilgamesh knew his past didn’t bother Aaron too much…

It was always suspicious how quickly he was framed the moment he entered a company building in New Zealand.

“You… honestly were boring during that year. Then I realized the problem, that girl, she was making you boring… so I simply let some people you annoyed know where she lived.”

Aaron’s face went neutral, and yet the tears did not stop just yet… as the realization came upon him.

“You’re the reason… the reason Dawn was murdered… the reason I had to hold her in my arms as she died?” Aaron asked, his voice wavering and the tears flowing down his face the only signs of his pain.

“Well of course, I couldn’t have her turn you into a pacifist… that would just be boring. Well, I was also the reason your parents were fighting. I approached your mommy with an offer to buy you off them. She agreed, and said she’d persuade your father…” Aaron’s face began to show the horror he was feeling inside.

“Oh what a beautiful expression little Aaron… yes, you killed the parent that was defending you, not knowing the cause of the fight. You killed your protector, you killed your betrayer… and you were the reason behind your lover’s death.” Aaron felt extreme pain at this, as his body began to be wracked with sobs.

“Hm… it seems I’ve broken you… how depressing. Guess I’ll end this.” Gilgamesh raised her hand, showing off the giant golden blade as it stabbed down.

Before it could move much further, Gilgamesh was surprised by a pain in her ankle, causing her to stumble as she looked down, halting her attack, seeing the hand of Cyclops crushing her ankle.

“Fuck you… lady.” Cyclops’ bloody smirk was all the warning Gilgamesh got before she remembered that she had been about to kill Aaron… and looking up…

All she managed to see was a massive maw closing in on her head.

“Oh shit-” with a loud snap, Gilgamesh’s head vanished inside the maw of Empusa, leaving the headless body to fall onto the floor, and with an emphasized gulp, the head of Gilgamesh was gone.

“Tastes like shit.” That was all Empusa had to say as she began to shrink down with her body covering itself with fur to preserve her modesty.

Empusa took one look at the body before turning to see Cyclops bleeding out; knowing they’d be incapable of saving him, Aaron was seemingly catatonic, and Empusa couldn’t get a feeling of victory despite what she had just done…

“Oh that is hilarious!” Empusa’s head snapped to the source of the voice, seeing Leviathan stumbling forward, hacking and wheezing as he looked to the headless body of his employer.

“One mustn’t lose their head! The dust most certainly has bite eh! She spoke so much it had to be mouthful! That’s certainly a thought to chew on! It’s-” Leviathan was interrupted with a slap to the back of his head by Jaeger, who winced immediately after completing the action.

“Shut up with the bad puns. Get the boss’s body, she’ll be annoyed if she finds out we just let her lay on the floor while you made jokes at her expense.” Jaeger warned, making Leviathan roll his eyes.

“What…” Empusa stared at them, about to attack only to have a gun pointed in her direction.

“Don’t. This fight is over…” Jaeger paused, raising a finger to his ear, apparently getting a message.

“And it seems we have casualties on both sides. Let’s leave each other now.” Jaeger offered, and Empusa would have attacked, but looking back to Aaron, and the cooling body of Cyclops, Empusa nodded.

“Good. We’ll be taking Behemoth back with us… actually…” Looking over to Typhon, Jaeger called out.

“Typhon! Do your thing on both Jormungand and Behemoth, and we’ll leave… you’ll have your time to mourn, and we’ll have our time to recoup.” Jaeger offered a ceasefire, and looking at the results of the fight, Typhon could only sigh and nod…

“I’ll be leaving with you.” Typhon warned, getting up, now capable of moving a bit better, but still not one hundred per cent, clearly incapable of controlling his Nano-bots correctly just yet.

Slowly they left… Aaron did not notice, unfeeling as he was…

He didn’t even notice when his friends returned one by one… he didn’t notice Jormungand and his new look as a human with black hair and grey eyes, he didn’t notice anything…

Until Cerberus’ body was placed next to Cyclops’ and he had to witness Sphinx’s silent tears…

Then it hit once more.

Friends died on this day. Both Cyclops and Cerberus were lost to this battle, this fight against Gilgamesh.

“He’s…” Medusa looked to her boyfriend with worry in her eyes, Typhon looking at his crying sister before he walked over to Aaron.

And decked his friend so hard he scrapped across the ground.

“Typhon!” Medusa chastised, but seeing Typhon’s palm warning her to keep out of the talk, she could only watch as Aaron stared at his friend with wide bleary eyes.

“What the hell are you doing moping around? Cyclops and Cerberus are dead, not you!” Typhon’s shout caused everyone to notice… the expression of anger on his face.

It was the first time they had seen it. They had seen annoyance, a smirk from time to time and surprise… but they had never really seen Typhon angry.

“Our friends died, and you’re just sitting here doing nothing! Aren’t you supposed to be our leader? Lead us!” Typhon commanded, lifting Aaron off the ground, shaking the latest Lord.

“I lead them to their deaths! It’s my fault!” Aaron screamed back, only to get a head-butt for his words, his nose instantly cracking.

“Don’t be an idiot! It’s not your fault, it’s that bitch Gilgamesh! She bribed your mother, she’s the reason your father had to fight to protect you, she’s the one who sent people to kill that girl, she’s the one that killed Cyclops, she ordered the Warden to attack us and he was the one who killed Cerberus!”

Typhon was breathing heavily now, looking into Aaron’s electric blue eyes.

“Don’t blame yourself for what other people do. We need a leader. We need you to help give meaning to their deaths…To give meaning to this fight.” Typhon looked to the others, who were all staring at him in surprise at his outbursts.

“Aaron… Gilgamesh isn’t dead, is she?” Typhon asked, and Aaron looked away for a moment before looking back, his eyes showing his resolve once more.

“No. Her ability as a Lord is regeneration at a cellular level. Her body will remain as it is forever, and even removing her head would only result in the loss of some memories… knowing her, she has recordings so she’ll probably be busy retaining her memories.” Aaron considered, understanding why Leviathan was making all those puns…

Gilgamesh might have ‘lost her head’ but she wasn’t dead, the amount of blood she spilt was suspiciously little, and Jaeger’s words hinted at her being alive.

“Like the legend of Gilgamesh, he sought eternal life… and it seems she found it.” Medusa offered as Aaron sighed, standing… and then snapping his nose into place.

“God that hurts… okay… okay… here’s the plan.” Aaron looked at his listeners, including Baal and the newly humanoid Jormungand.

“Here’s how we’ll break out in two years from now.”

“Khul ja Shem-shamayim. Here’s how to open those gates…”