Deep down in the dark cave below the house, below the sharp teeth on the ceiling and above the bottomless abyss of the sea, behind the pale man, Dana, Kokei, and Ekitai’s attentions all snap to the same intruder, all of their sentimentality shaken to terror, staggering back with raging heartbeats that tug them from the soft misery into an intense panic.
Ekitai instinctively inserts his hand through his overcoat, Dana’s right hand closes into a fist as the entire forearm portion of her right sleeve vanishes in a blue light to reveal her golden arm, and Kokei’s eyes flare up with pink arcs sparking off of her body.
Yet in front of them, Meditat raises his arm straight in front of the three in signal to hold from attack, and he commands with a voice that leaps from a gloomy grief to a stern strength: “All of you need to get out of here, now!” before he then abruptly breaks into another sequence of ripping coughs which he covers with his other arm, suppressing the dry agony.
Although right behind him, Dana contends boldly: “We’re not leaving you Medit! We’re not losing you again.”
That same familiar clang of chains reverberates, attracting all four of the group’s attention in a snap as Meditat’s cough also concludes, letting him drop his arm.
In leisurely footsteps strolls Exitium from the machine, every step causing the chains around his neck to shake and clang into each other, the same type of chains that are wrapped around his forearms and hands, heavy and built out of his dark crimson obsidian-like metal.
His body radiates with the crimson streaks that pour down from the eraser insignia on his chest, reversal of the pencil, which sits below the dark silver pauldron the same color as the belt. Like blood pouring over his body, the red splits into branches from his chest down his arms and torso, and through the belt down the inner thighs between the black jagged pads on his outer thighs and ribs.
The soft white light emitting from the chrome pad beneath his feet shines on the crimson scale plating of the suit, his hide like a dragon.
He glares straight at Meditat through the triangular lenses glowing red similar to the jaw vent wide like an unhinged smile all below the hood that carries a streak up the lenses from the top of the mask over itself in a curve resembling that of a goat’s horns.
He takes a few steps forwards before his feet kicks one of the sticks with its jagged sole, to which he comes to a stop and glances down at the pile littering the whole pad. His right hand remains by his side, cloaked by the cape, but his left one hangs in view.
“It’s impossible yet at the same time it all makes sense now…you’re hideous face, your reluctance to use your own abilities. I started to realize something was going on when I saw the blood you left behind on Earth 3, blood I knew I did not pull out of you, but blood that followed one of those coughs. But it’s understandable now, knowing a mere product of our abilities was hoping to put me down. I won’t bother counting all these on the floor,” Exitium monologues while kicking another cluster of sticks, “But huh, you really went all that distance just to stand a chance. All this time, all the errands I had to do to track you down, all the trips I had to make from one end of the Superverse to another, and what’s more, I was reaching Earth 99 when I saw the sudden change in place. I wasted so much time, so much effort, all after what…this?”
Exitium extends his left arm outwards and continues, “I should be relieved that the real Meditat is truly gone, but it irritates me so much to know I’ve been being played with all this time, my peaceful life squashed just for this JOKE!”
He throws his arm down and rants, “My life was great without you, these past ten years have been the quietest it’s ever been, but when I heard the news it was deafening, it was tortuous. But to know it was this…and you really are here complaining about being alive when you’re doing everything evade death, it…,” Exitium’s left hand clench tightly into a fist, “Your suffering means nothing to me anymore, I’m going to end your life, and I’m going to go out of my way to ensure that there are NO other copies, that THIS is it, that it ENDS FOR GOOD. I don’t care who I have to slaughter to do that, I don’t care if it’s your family or just some random man standing over the door, I don’t care as long as YOU ARE GONE!”
All four of the group standing on the other side of the pile stare with foreboding trepidation in silence, their stances frozen but prepared to make their next move at any necessary moment.
But until then, they just listen to the demonic voice mention, “But in order to ensure…that another copy of you can’t hide from me again…,”
Slowly Exitium raises his right arm into view, revealing his hand which holds a small stick device with a red lit button on the top just beneath his thumb.
While the trio behind Meditat are bewildered by the device, panicking but uncertain, Meditat’s face instead falls into comprehended dread, his jaw dropping and his eyes expanding in horror to the early realization.
“YOUR HOME FALLS WITH YOU!!” declares Exitium boldly, and he subsequently presses down on the red button with his thumb.
In the first instant, there is no followup, the four perplexed by the lack of danger they find themselves in, as though that button truthfully had no impact. They exchange glances to each other, puzzled, although Meditat is the only to keep his gaze ahead.
That changes however upon the sound of a beep right above him, which he immediately raises his gaze to as do the other three behind.
All the way up their gazes travel, up to the infinite ceiling of titanic stalactites that hang from the top, like the roof of a tiger’s mouth razed with knives as teeth.
Suddenly flickers of small red dot lights appear all over the ceiling, emitting from hardly visible holes drilled between the blades, flaring like fireworks scattered among the sky.
Also just like fireworks, after the light comes the boom, a boom that thunders with an eruption all across the ceiling, to which rocks and spikes detach and begin plummeting straight down.
Terror swarms Meditat upon the sight, his jaw unhinging as it struck him only in this instant the unknown nature of the full entrance of his brother, which meant that there was an untold duration he could have been within the area before revealing himself.
And in that time, anything could have happened, including rigging the entire base to fall in the way it has been triggered to now.
His head then instinctively lowers to return attention to the threat right in front of him, shifting gazes just in the nick of time to find Exitium’s fist flying straight at him wrapped around by red hot chains, to which Meditat instinctively crosses his arms over his chest and projects a blue shield in front of himself which absorbs the majority of the energy although not all of it, for the remainder propels his body backwards into the air and off the platform.
Immediately Meditat recognizes the attempt to isolate himself from the group, leaving behind the other three still on the platform now face to face with Exitium, a setup he had experienced before and to the worst results, a memory ingrained into his skull like a tattoo.
Swiftly he throws his arms forward to the platform and projects three cables, two from his right hand and one from his left, which bolt through the air straight to the targets of each of the trio right as Exitium reaches his hand out to grab Dana.
But right before he could, the three cables strike each of their goals: Dana, Ekitai, Kokei; Meditat instantly jerks both arms back, thereby tugging all three of his allies off of the platform too, pulling them away from Exitium’s grasp.
At once Meditat glances over to the other active platform, which was now the only safe platform to stand on but more importantly the one housing the transporter that could provide the necessary escape for the three endangered victims.
Past his shoulder Meditat faces the transporter pad, just to see a group of stalactites crash straight into it from above, crumbling on impact and covering the surface with huge rocks including the central black pad itself.
Realizing the lethal danger of making a dash straight for the exit, Meditat faces forward with an enraged glare and gritted teeth before then raising his head to look straight up, up at the plummeting teeth falling straight for him among the rest of the bombardment as more explosions set off on the ceiling, dropping more blades down onto the cave in a slow collapse.
Swiftly Meditat jerks his arms again and simultaneously strafes with blue bursts from his body in an S-shape, narrowly avoiding a few stalactites and dragging the allies out of danger too, although acknowledging that maintaining that tactic would not be safe.
Carrying the three as he strafes more around the incoming spikes, he bellows in total bold conviction while glancing behind himself: “AWAKEN THE PAD! RETURN THE OTHER PLATFORMS!!”
All around him, bright blue flashes appear within the cave, like more explosions from nowhere, although different from the explosions is the effect as at the origin of those flashes now present other chrome platforms, all returning to their previous positions from before the fortress’s shutdown.
Chrome platforms visibly housing other machinery and stations, laboratories and equipment, all of them appear one after the other.
Even the base platform with the two rings of tables, the inner four circling around the chair and the other further by the edge –the computer pad– returns in a bright flash of light, returning amidst the collapse, as the return only endangers the entire base from the collapsing ceiling as stalactites continue to plummet from all directions.
Yet even knowing that fact, Meditat strafes towards the base platform albeit the one furthest from the transporter, and with a cable projecting from his back he reels himself to the computer pad carrying Dana, Kokei, and Ekitai with him.
On the computer pad lands Meditat hastily, his feet sliding back a few feet upon the harsh entrance, clenching his arms to ensure a safe landing for the other three who follow soon after. After they land, he relinquishes the cables, letting them stumble but eventually stabilize.
He immediately staggers forward until being able to walk while Kokei pads herself anxiously and both Ekitai and Dana look to Meditat who gazes straight up above, watching the final stalactites drop from the rocky ceiling, some of them being caught and collapsing on the surrounding pads while others crash straight into the cave sea below, sinking fully into the waters without a trace despite their size.
He then returns his gaze up to the once again seemingly empty pad, only to find that in front of the platform hovers Exitium, staring straight back at him with those crimson demonic eyes, his cape waving in the breeze menacingly.
That was when the second explosion erupts from the ceiling carrying a severely heavier boom, for whereas at first only the spikes had fallen, the entire ceiling now seemingly collapses as rocks break up and plummet straight down in a heavy hail, layers upon layers with no discernible end.
On the computer pad, Meditat groans before raising both of his hands up and projecting an azure flame several feet above him before it then spreads widely over all four of the group in a pyramid shape. The flame hardens and transforms into a structure resembling a canopy which hovers rather than needing legs, and just upon its manifestation it immediately begins deterring the rocks that collapse onto it with bangs, causing them to slide off to the side around the four.
Under the canopy coughs Meditat, clearly struggling to use his abilities even to a rather simple extent, pushing himself just to make every little move.
Rapidly the rocks pile up around the four, causing spillage below the canopy although not to an extent to cause burial but to one enough to terrorize Kokei who stumbles backwards in the realization.
While keeping his hands up to resupply the canopy in case of overbearing damages, a likely event given the loud bangings right above from all the incoming weight of the rocks, Meditat glances over to the center of the pad where the four tables are, the four that used to project the screens he’d spend all his time staring at.
During his reminiscence though, a few pots carrying plants crashes on and between the tables, plants with wide leaves, some being green, others yellow, and the remaining pink. The sight is strange given it was not merely more rocks that’d come from the cave’s ceiling but rather what resembled houseplants, the same houseplants that decorated the dining room which also had the long black crystallic countertop that followingly crashes into the central tables, crushing them to the ground.
The revelation then dawns on Meditat with a look of dread, followed by the realization that there were no longer any falling rocks clanging on the canopy. In a dangerous risk he relinquishes the canopy in a burst of flames that disperse, allowing him sight straight up to find that no longer above him is the cave’s ceiling, but rather high above is the white ceiling of the mansion’s base floor. Even the intricate divisions that separate rooms can be seen by the few walls still clutching to the ceiling, creating the borders of the dining and kitchen accompanying room neighboring the wide long hallway stretching from the main croissant-shaped lobby all the way down to the back sunroom which has the transparent ceiling that reveals the blackness of the current night.
From that sunroom collapses the sofas and tables crushed under by rubble from the ceiling above, the ceiling which a moment later then detonates all across along with the walls to reveal the second floor right above it, dropping down another bombardment of sofas, desks, cabinets, and the furniture that has decorated a house which has stood along a lifetime.
Meditat’s focus then shifts down and towards the hidden platform, only to find that just a few feet away is the bolting body of Exitium, leaping straight down with two axes in hand blazing red.
Instinctively Meditat leaps backwards in the air and projects another trio of cables to his allies, pulling them away from Exitium’s clutches just before Ekitai and Kokei could be axed, causing Kokei to instinctively tug on the translucent cable in panic.
In between the group and Exitium plummets a huge pile of debris mixing in metal cabinets, tables, and chunks of wall, all of which drops straight onto the center of the platform with such force that it splits the entire chrome pad in half, causing it to then begin its final descent down into the waters with the rest of the debris.
In the arced leap trailed with the blue trace of the propulsive energy, Meditat lands on a nearby platform with rows of tall gray curved boxes resembling servers, and after relinquishing the cables he projects a blue wall towards the direction of the red bolt that soars from the collapsing platform and arches straight for him.
Kokei, Dana, and Ekitai all back up as Meditat’s wall is struck by a large black javelin straight at the center, although the javelin flashes just a second later before self destructing, throwing the four backwards into the server boxes just as Exitium lands on the edge of the platform.
Exitium creepily approaches the four as the constant fireworks of explosions continues right above him, and all around him more wreckages of walls and ceiling plummets with the furniture of the home: chairs and shelves, other houseplants and sofas, the next floor being dropped in for the next round of bombings.
Surrounded by the downpour, Exitium picks up the pace as two crimson flames crawl out of his hands in the shape of blades albeit with wider and rounded shapes.
Those blades quickly reveal themselves to be the metallic base that is wrapped by the dark crimson jagged chain of a chainsaw, held by a unique hilt more suited as a thicker greatsword but still functional as they both rev up motorized, the chains rotating rapidly as they heat up bright red. The chainsaw swords are then used to strike at Meditat, who instinctively projects a cable far to his right and jerks that arm to throw a tabletop in between him and the hunter, using it as a shield.
However, that tabletop does very little as the chainsaws immediately shred through the metal surface with complete ease, the motors revving audibly louder yet clearly not strained as they tear through the tabletop like butter, exposing Meditat and the three behind him almost instantly after their shielding.
Exitium resumes his charge, raising the chainsaws for another strike, only again for Meditat to defensively leap away with a new set of wires but from his back, curling and grabbing his allies which reels them out of range just before rubble of another ceiling crashes down on the server boxes, smashing them at once and aided by more falling furniture and wall they crack a fissure through the center of the platform.
Yet another platform crumbles in half and falls, the mansion mask destroying the fortress face, rain of debris falling down from everywhere although debris that Exitium navigates through with ease, translucent red chains actually clinging onto them from his hips to propel him faster in the air aided by red bursts of energy in pursuit.
In the air with the three cables carrying the group behind his back, Meditat projects large blue scissor blades from his arms to clash with the revving chainsaws, sparks of blue, red, and purple jumping out of the intersection as the five glide backwards, Meditat navigating between the hail with strafes from side to side and cables projecting from his back to use the falling sofas and boxes to gain greater momentum.
Again Meditat makes a landing on another chrome platform as does Kokei, Dana, and Ekitai, all four of them backing up synchronously to move away from the fifth who follows, who swings the chainsaws up and down; all five of them walk down the chrome platform housing an elevated large white square arena, a series of blue energy rings bordering it like a boxing ring which neighbors rubbery long mats and a white curved compartment that projects a blue holographic screen upon the five’s vicinity.
Ignoring the screen, Meditat blocks the chainsaws with his scissor blades while still backing away from Exitium as piles of crumbled walls fall onto the boxing ring, puncturing holes through which causes it to fall to the chrome surface and deactivate the ropes.
Another interval is initiated with a series of explosions, and Meditat glances up at his hollowing house to find that right above him is a gargantuan white chamber accompanied with two smaller sub rooms along the side, and in the center of that room consuming most of its space is an enormous frost-colored translucent holographic capsule as the arena.
Right above it the white ceiling starts to crumble, collapsing on the podiums and racks by the corner of the room, weighed down and falling into the cave, every explosion dropping the house one layer as if slowly flattening it.
The walls around the room begin to crumble and fall, causing the entire house to then drop another story, its general standing and remaining integrity an architectural miracle but one that was being repetitively chipped away at.
Holes break into the current platform the five stand on from all the debris falling straight through, causing the chrome pad to start its descent, and upon noticing such Meditat jumps and drags the three with him, although is immediately pursued by Exitium who relinquishes the chainsaws in an open flame.
Red cable chains project out of his body onto the falling rubble, throwing him further faster as he glares with those red devilish eyes straight at Meditat ahead who flies backwards to face his chaser, although he then glances to the side specifically back to the transporter platform which is now not so far.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The platform is indeed piled up on from the stalactites and rocks that had fallen before, however it still stands, and a sliver of the central black platform can be seen.
Meditat then moves his gaze straight up, only to find that falling right at him is a blitz of countless machine equipment, circular platforms as the omnidirectional treadmills, large weight machines with handles, and a hail of large metal disks meant to be used with the accompanying dumbbells and barbells.
Meticulously Meditat weaves through the gym equipment facing backwards, intricately reeling and extending the cables of the three he’s carrying while tactically deploying more cables to latch onto falling machines to forcefully change trajectory.
Traversing through all facing backwards, Meditat still retains sight of Exitium who follows and weaves too, also not struggling to keep up as instead he has enough comfort to shed more crimson flames from his hands, flames that sprout out on their own in the air and split into multiple streams that all take the same shape that being a large dart with a sharp tip. Once those flames transform into their true constructs however, it’s revealed to all be missiles, which then instantly soar forward with red bursts, six of them about the size of an arm which dance and strafe from the debris with semi intelligent honing to follow the four targets.
Despite the intellectual advancement of the missiles, the density of the gym equipment erects a difficulty some fail to overcome, in turn resulting in several crashing into the rain of disks and others being walled off by the heavier weight machines.
Miraculously Meditat weaves through the belt of equipment, reaching the other side where he lands on another chrome platform which is also being buried by a large bed, a white sofa chair, and a few rounded white tabletops.
Scattered across the floor are also glass shards but furthermore a plethora of figurines and plushes, colorful like a rainbow.
While Meditat projects walls that Exitium punches straight through, dispersing with his own equal oppositional energy from the burning red chains around his fist, Kokei glances to the side to find that on the floor are the figurines left behind, many of them torn apart with detached limbs and broken waists from the wall, damaged and unrecoverable.
Her eyes shimmer with tears to the acknowledgement of the home’s destruction, only able to gaze at the collection she had accumulated for years before a couple seconds later more figures and plushes fall on top, recollecting into a larger population just for all if it to be crushed by houseplants and topped by a whole pink leathery chair.
She hardly has the time to mourn before her body is dragged off her feet yet again in avoidance of a scythe which was swung by Exitium before he releases it and charges forward.
In the air Meditat boosts away from the platform, turning back to face Exitium who too is airborne having ditched the platform just before another heap of debris drops on and overbears it to the point of split.
He then turns ahead and continues to move as strung along chaotically is Dana, being tugged and pulled in the ride with wide green eyes, watching in despair as the building she worked so hard to make a home was just crumbling around her. All of that hard work gone, the home gone, all happening so fast and sudden.
Right before her gaze she watches splinters of a golden wood fall in front of her, surrounding golden trophies and plaques, but only for another brief moment is she able to admire them, admire their shine, their pristine craftsmanship, but more so the pride that comes from earning them. For only a moment can she put her eyes on them before they then soon after pass her sight, continuing their descent amongst the plants, some frosty and others tall.
All she can do is hang limply, dragged by Meditat who traverses between the hail of golden wood dressers and cabinets also splintered and shattered while dodging the flurry of black plaques and framed photographs.
From Meditat’s body a cable grabs onto the golden dresser and tosses it backwards, only for that dresser to be sliced in half smoothly by the viking axe held by Exitium who then sequentially raises and throws it straight forth.
That axe is just barely warded off by a swiftly timed wall projection, suspending its momentum before it destructs into flames, leaving Meditat to face forwards to a massive avalanche of red chairs in between him and the transportation pad still levitating.
Propelled by another boost, Meditat lunges himself straight into the avalanche facing forwards, meticulously making his way through by stepping off of the seats to leap forward accelerated with the blue residual trail behind, bolting himself a few feet through a dense cluster before then projecting cables upwards to pull himself higher and then running off of another lane of falling chairs.
Right behind him Exitium does the same, hardly finding challenge in a movement he studied so obsessively to reach this level of mastery in, a mastery that he would’ve never cared for had it not been done in spite.
Both Meditat and Exitium weave through the huge fall of chairs, for the theater they were from was of such grand proportion, that entire dimension they now had to power through. The wires on Dana, Ekitai, and Kokei were noticeably shorter too in order to keep them close, given there being far less room for error.
In the chaos Ekitai gazes with glimmering yellow irises which reflect the raining chairs, the royal comfort of kings that blessed a rat. A luxury of ease, of rest, one that he was handed without bounds, which he had so hungrily devoured until his lean belly could feel full. Yet now that hunger would no longer be satisfied, a rat tossed back on the streets.
With tight turns aided by anchoring cables and the momentum retained by running on chairs rather than being obstructed, the speeds at which Meditat can achieve especially thanks to the ability of running on ground allows him to make to the other end of the avalanche swiftly, one last leap forward pushing him out of the hail and into the clear.
Out into the open, now right in front of the transporter pad, finally having reached the exit after the longer route, success was at the fingertips.
Relief hits Meditat with a sigh, and he reaches his hands over his back to grab the cables, transferring their origins from his back to his palms smoothly as the cables are now attached to his hands instead.
Now with full control of the cables and his arms already back, he throws both of his arms forward with all the momentum he’s gained, tossing Dana, Kokei, and Ekitai all of whom are visibly shaken from the excessive movement, but now thrown over to safety.
All three spin in the air, turning back to face Meditat, who stares straight back at them, the cables still attached to ease their fall.
Well ahead of Exitium, he stares at them with the relief of victory, and in that moment his huge white bed crashes straight into his back weighed down by golden ceiling rubble, his eyes expanding suddenly as his body is thrown straight down.
From tranquility to terror, Dana shrieks, “MEDIT!!” as the cables holding her, Kokei, and Ekitai cease at once from the hands of the man who plummets straight down but manages to prevent any momentum loss from his allies in his last moment.
Ultimately Dana, Kokei, and Ekitai all land on the transporter platform, although rather than completing their escape to the center just a few feet away, Dana instinctively rushes to the very edge of the pad, where she looks over to see her friend fall all the way down and crash into the underground sea below, submerging in the water with a splash along with the couches and chairs of the room as well as the rest of the home’s debris and shattered pads.
Again Dana squeals, tearing up suddenly with glistening green eyes, kneeling on the ground in defeat as behind her standing and watching are Kokei and Ekitai also in grief. They all stare down at the fall of the man who had just saved them, unable to move, unable to even look away from the sight.
It is only those few moments frozen that provide the necessary time for Exitium to land straight on the center of the platform, on the mountain of rocks and the home above, now no longer being held back.
Exitium just stares ominously from behind, his cape waving in the winds, his eyes glaring red, the chains around his neck rattling. He stands over the three, right on top of the exit, bordering them off once again.
Silently Dana just stares down past the edge, still fixated on her friend, grieving and sobbing. However, slowly the sobbing comes to a stop, and her sentimental expression shifts into something different: her wide eyes sharpen into a glare, her green irises becoming gold.
She grits her teeth as the entire sleeves to her arms vanish to reveal gold, and from her back emerge an army of tentacles that sway and dance alive.
Dana then stands back up, her teeth gritting, breathing heavily with clear resentment that she shows in her turn back to the devil above her.
Aggressively Dana glares straight at Exitium, her hands both morphing into conal cannons but now with additional cannons emerging all along her arms. Her amber hair waves heavily in the wind as does Exitium’s cape, all of the vents in her cannons lit up golden.
She takes a few slow steps back to Ekitai and Kokei’s side, the former of whom slowly drawing out his handgun from inside his overcoat and the latter flaring with pink arcs sparking out of her body, both already following the silent command.
Silently Exitium just glares at them, not even having words after all of the boasting and ranting he had dealt to Meditat just minutes earlier, as his entire personality seemingly shifted in a second after the absence of that singular man.
Now there was just a terrifyingly silent beast waiting in anticipation, tactical and cunning, not driven by exaggeration but calculated.
Contrasting are the three, who break into a charge straight for the center, Dana’s tentacles grabbing the floor and throwing her in the air where she hovers before immediately aiming her arms at the devil and starting a golden cannonade.
Instantaneously Exitium leaps in the air and strafes to the side as four streams of flames secrete out of his body to create a box around the edge of the platform. Upon reaching a point that marks the vertex of a perfect square, all of the streams suddenly stop and change to a bidirectional vertical trajectory, becoming pillars that ground themselves on the platform but stand high up. All of the pillars colorize into a metal texture, and immediately one of them is used as the anchor point of a chain cable which Exitium reels himself to, his speed dramatically increasing thus letting him more easily evade the rapid gunfire from Dana.
On the ground beside Dana, Ekitai also takes aim and fires yellow bolts at the red blur, although whereas Dana’s multiple weapons all use high rates of fire, he’s stuck with a single fire that only shoots as fast as he can pull the trigger, a speed far from adequate to such a quick target.
Even Kokei whose bolts move at the speed of lightning cannot hit their target as she projects curls of pink arcs forward, yet they reach no destination before fizzling out.
Her eyes glare in agitation to the misfiring, needing to spin around as do Dana and Ekitai just to trace Exitium’s past movements, as he perfectly surrounds them with not a single shot landing.
Firing desperately but failing, Dana transfers her shoulders to grow her heavy golden pauldrons with the grated surface, using much heavier artillery just on a single target, but to her it was worth the additional bulk as it extends from her neck down to her elbows.
All of the apertures in the pauldrons flash gold simultaneously, primed to fire a full round of honing bolts in a desperate attempt to have at least one of them land.
She grits her teeth in preparation to execute the shot, and she opens her mouth to release a battle cry, although upon the opening of her mouth no sound but a quiet gasp manages to secrete as her top half flies backwards.
All of the sudden, from waist up Dana’s body is thrusted backwards while her legs remain standing straight, as where her waist had been is now a viking axe having been thrown right between her before she could act.
Immediately both Ekitai and Kokei turn to their severed friend with terrified faces, as in that moment it appeared they had just lost a second ally, the axe’s blade making a complete cut that penetrates straight through her body before continuing its path off to the void.
In pain Dana releases a groan, and from beneath the huge wound in her torso spills a dump of golden wires like blood. However, rather than spilling all over the floor naturally, the spillage instead takes an unnatural trajectory by curving itself into two tighter paths in the shape of legs, the strands creating the wire frame through intertwined helixes of a new set from the top of her thighs all the way down to her toes.
Repetition of helix weaving through the frame swiftly transforms the framing into a solid shell, and before a full second has passed, that shell is molded precisely into the contortion and shape of her natural legs albeit now fully golden with sharper claws as toes.
Landing back on her new pair of feet as her old collapses on the ground, Dana swiftly stands back up straight and aims her arms, miraculously still able to fight, for if such a move were to be employed on any other member, they would not be so lucky.
Instantly understanding that fact, Ekitai turns back to the red blur cube of traces surrounding him, also now getting a grasp of just how fast a retaliation could be executed, faster than he could anticipate at the very least.
With his thumb he swipes through the interface of his handgun a few times before then aiming yet again, albeit this time rather than trying to get a shot at the red bullet, he instead aims straight for one of the pillars.
In impressively rapid speeds Ekitai fires a shot at one pillar, shifts aim to the next and fires, shifts aim to the next and repeats, all the way to the last one all within a second, so fast that the effects don’t even occur on the first until after he hits the last.
Those effects do follow swiftly though, those effects of the vibrant green gel which expeditiously devours each of the pillars, spreading the gel to cover up the whole column before consuming it whole like a virus.
All the sudden for a second Exitium pauses midair, realizing that the pillars he had deployed are no longer present, and that he has to switch his tactics.
Yet in that same second, Kokei has already comprehended the strategy, and she aims both of her hands up at Exitium before unleashing a flurry of pink arcs, arcs that travel and finally reach their intended target, causing him to freeze up in the air and collapse on the ground in paralysis.
Concurrently Dana and Ekitai take aim at the frozen, seemingly harmless Exitium and fire a shot; yet just before they trigger, three crimson flames eject from the devil’s body to manifest tall poles shaped as equilateral triangular prisms made of a material resembling a solar panel with one vertex of each pole facing Exitium; at once between the poles emit a red-tinted translucent energy field in the shape of a larger triangle which shields Exitium from both shots.
Repeatedly Dana and Ekitai fire rounds into the shield hoping to potentially overpower it, Dana unleashing a barrage from her conal cannons knowing her allies are too close to the enemy for her to use her pauldrons, and Ekitai firing repetitive shots of the same green bolt with intention to dissolve the body too.
Yet despite Exitium’s body being paralyzed still as Kokei maintains her hold with a consistent influx of pink arcs moving between her and him, neither of the two shooters seem to be able to land a decisive blow, although all three of them realize that at any moment he could retaliate given he explicitly doesn’t need movement to conjure any weapons.
Knowing that at any moment they could be chopped into pieces, Kokei decisively shouts, “I’m going to overload him! I already have a hold, if I can grab him through the shield then I can put him out too!”
After firing another useless green bolt, Ekitai glances over at Kokei and mentions apprehensively, “But last time it still put you to sleep too, is it going to be any different??”
In acknowledgement yet shaking her head, Kokei explains and formulates: “I’ll probably pass out this time too, but if he’s down, then it doesn’t really matter does it? You can handle it from here, right?”
Understanding that this could be the key play, Dana desperately nods her head and agrees, “That should do it, if I could get even one minute of him asleep I should be able to breach the shield! Try it before he does anything!”
Nodding her head in comprehension, Kokei’s eyes flare up blazing, more pink arcs emerging from her skin all around her body thicker and brighter, strengthening her hold on Exitium, who remains frozen in place stuck in the same pose he was in the air.
The target motionless, Kokei is presented the perfect aim, and with every ten of her fingertips aimed at the one man, she projects much brighter pink bolts from each of her fingers, all of them passing through the red shield and straight into Exitium, who immediately roars in agony as his whole body begins sparking pink.
Both Dana and Ekitai pause their firing upon the one shot hit and lower their weapons to watch Exitium lay on the ground in pain, roaring like a beast who had just been truly hurt, his body constantly sparking as it surges with the hostile energy seeking to overload him to sleep.
Pink lightning crawling through his body, torching him from the inside like an inflammation and burning him up underneath his skin, he lets out one final roar before at last the pink sparks stop, leaving his body on the floor.
Staggering back and forth on the verge of fainting, Kokei smiles struggling to keep her eyes open, and emits a relieved sigh now that she had executed the ultimate finisher perfectly. She stands beside Dana and Ekitai who all steady victoriously, staring down on the body as the three triangular panels dissolve into crimson flames and disperse, surrendering the shield.
Sweet victory brightens both Ekitai and Kokei with smiles, although in the center Dana has a more concerned expression, her eyes sharp and stern, almost irresolute, for something felt off about what just happened.
She then quietly recalls, “Huh…his constructs shouldn’t automatically be erased even upon neutralization…that can only trigger manually-,” to which she freezes with eyes stretched wide same as Kokei and Ekitai, for in front of them slowly moves the devil, dragging its arms and legs in to push itself up to its feet.
Through the reflection in Kokei’s shimmering pink eyes, the devil can be seen standing back up straight, glaring at them with those burning red lenses. Yet that reflection isn’t maintained for very long as her pink eyes groggily close shut, and her body collapses with a thud.
Dana and Ekitai both jump startled, turning to their third ally only to find her lying on the ground unconscious, the toll still exacted on her despite the action’s inefficiency.
Now, standing before the two remainders still is the devil, straight and breathing in a way that itself sounds demonic, with only two more opponents awake.
Its cape dances in the breeze, its body completely still, no longer in agony as it once seemed to be on the border of defeat.
Such shock having completely demented Dana at first, her eyes blink rapidly in the remembrance of the battle she still is well deep in, her stunned face becoming aggressively desperate as she shouts, “EKITAI, FIRE!!” and raises her cannons to fight.
She raises her cannons just at the right angle, and yet oddly she does not fire despite that seemingly being the best course of action. Instead, her combative expression reverts into a stun, but to a greater extent, as rather than realizing the falsehood of her victory, this was a revelation far graver.
As right behind Dana’s body stands the devil, facing the opposite direction, its jagged cape waving in silence.
Both Ekitai and Dana remain side by side hushed, shocked frozen, facing the opposite direction of their opponent, and standing right next to four small rods that sit up from the ground each with a dark metal orb at the top boxing Ekitai.
All four orbs on the ground flash red right as they each project a single crimson electrical bolt straight up into Ekitai, causing his whole body to jitter and spark. It stays standing straight for a few more seconds, however his posture loosens, and his knees bend down limply.
Ekitai’s yellow eyes slowly close as all the weight of his falls, and his body collapses limp on the floor, defeated in an instant.
Unable to even make a sound from the pure fear of the analysis, the realization before the event yet after its trigger, Dana just stands still with shivers and wide eyes, her lips parted slightly to let her ventilate in silence.
Split through the back of her head reveals the dark crimson blade of the viking axe impaling the brain stem, flaring bright red hot so much that crimson smoke sizzles off the metal. The glare gradually tapers as the smoke weakens, yet the damage has been done.
Her green eyes then gradually close and her facial muscles loosen before her body also collapses on the ground with a thud as her pauldrons melt back into her shoulders.
Behind the three bodies all passed out stands the devil, its cape waving in the breeze, the crimson of its skin glistening dimly from the light emitted by the destinative pad in the cave.
Above the cave remains the final ceiling sitting over like a lid, and all around that white lid flashes red dots before the final detonation, an eruption that crumbles it into chunks that plummet down in a meteor shower.
In the deep dark cave the white ceiling and gray roof chunks plunge down from above, most of them just diving straight into the waters all the way at the bottom, but a few of them manage to land on the departed transportation chrome pad, providing just the right amount of pressure to cause it to crack and shatter into countless pieces, chrome pieces that fall too with the roof, the true remainder of the home dropping and crashing into the flat dark waters below with just a splash; only the one flat pad remains.
Yet the cave does not fall into utter darkness, for a sole ray of moonlight passes through the rift, one last white light reaching all the way from the ceiling where the stalactites used to be down to the water, letting the flat surface glisten just a bit. That light just barely grazes the remaining pad, the last of the fortress yet ironically a fraud, not a true member of the family but the one that somehow managed to survive.
For the first time the cave receives natural light, now able to breathe nature into the hollow space, a cave no longer occupied, no longer home, a chasm hollowed into nothing of nothing.
As just like the abyss that looms in every direction of the cave, there is exclusively silence and darkness.
Void.