All five of the reactions are simultaneous.

Ookami freezes in place, having slightly passed Ekitai though was still several more strides away from his weapon.

Ekitai halts his tugging efforts, instead entranced at the door with astonishment in his wide, yellow eyes, his mouth wide open between his sunken cheeks.

Meditat grabs the floor to pull himself up into a near-sitting position, not quite off the ground but at least able to lean such that he can face the door, and while there’s no facial expression there’s a clear sense of stunment given the abrupt freeze.

Dana stops immediately, also lacking facial expressions given the blank golden plate though the change of posture from curious to alert is telling of the change in tone, instinctively tilting her shoulder and raising her arm to use her body as a shield for the one behind her.

Kokei staggers in bewilderment to the scene, blinking twice at first in mere puzzlement of the situation occurring which has yet to instill any tension until she then happens to take a quick glance around the room where her eyes set on the sixth body inside.

That sixth body lays on the floor, the head covered by the yellow gus hat as to conceal the wound, though given the limp position of the body but vastly more horrifying the trail of blood and guts that moves further into the room by where the katana is now locked, the situation becomes clear to Kokei whose eyes widen before she shrieks in horror.

Immediately Dana in front of her turns to face the same sight, startled though not as extremely, simply astounded to find what was thought to be the final boss of this battle already slain yet in a manner that doesn’t leave little sense of victory.

She then returns her gaze ahead, towards the new enemy who’s made himself known.

Standing in front of the two incoming warriors who’ve cleared through their obstacles earlier with his back to the other two who he was just engaged with, Ookami reverts to a more cautious posture similar to the start of the fight, not making any sudden movements or any at all for that fact as though he became a mannequin. In fact his breaths are incredibly controlled, the lifting of the chest hardly discernible, as always not a sound emitted through the mask.

From such a terrible sight, Kokei remains focused on the corpse with her hands over her bloated mouth as if trying to avoid vomiting, though her ally has already shifted priorities given the raising of the arm, the hand of which morphing into a cone which recesses up the forearm as an aperture opens in the center along with many more all along the cannon, gaps of such density that they resemble a grater. Every one of those holes flares with golden light, the target acquired without needing a word of context, for the sight was adequate in its briefing.

Still on the floor, Meditat begins to pull himself up slowly, or at least leans himself into a position prepared to pounce forward. With his left hand still supporting his weight as it grips the floor, the right hand lingers by his side as his fingers gently ignite azureous flames which consume his whole hand, flames dancing upwards primed for a creation. His parallelogram lenses flare in anticipation, waiting for the first move.

Not fully moved past the gruesome sight, Kokei at least manages to recognize the present threat, grief still on her face even for an enemy, though through that grief comes a determination that sparks within her like the arcs that glow in her irises and the electricity that snaps off her body, including the hand she lowers as her cheeks debloat.

Closest to the enemy, Ekitai is the most hesitant for any sudden movements, though he does slowly curl his fingers around the handle of the kunai, strengthening his grip for it, preparing for one more tug when the time is right. His head doesn’t move, though his eyes shift from his allies to the one enemy just a couple feet away, for unfortunately he’s in the most dire position as told in his desperate gaze.

In the center of the team, the Hunter remains the only to not reposition himself despite arguably the most in need for it. Yet he doesn’t move his arms or his head, he just stands still, his yellow eyes piercing through the mask. He waits for the first move, as do they, a standoff that seems horribly imbalanced and yet there’s no confidence exuding from the four. Perhaps the longer they stall, the more time they have to prepare their move. Though at the same time, the longer they stall, the more time their enemy has to prepare his move.

When the first move is taken, it is clear who has utilized their time most proficiently. The Hunter leaps in a backflip, retreating from his original objective to recollect his weapon but swiftly throwing two shurikens forward, one for each of the two new fighters which shifts Dana’s aim away from attack as she turns and tackles Kokei given one was aimed for her throat. Concurrently Ekitai yanks at the kunai once more, finally pulling it out of his barrel and tossing it to the side to aim, only finding his target to be charging straight for Meditat, one katana still in hand thus very much lethal in a one on one. Furthermore being on the ground, Meditat was at a great disadvantage to engage head on, thus instead the flames he blasts forth form half of a dome made of frosty crystals to protect his front from a potential first strike, though to his surprise the Hunter simply uses that dome to spring off, jumping past Meditat who turns around in confuzzlement, forming a hilt in his hand just to have a small weapon at the ready in the case of a returning attack, however more to his surprise he just watches the Hunter continue to run the other way, away from the whole team.

That single half second of bewilderment concludes upon the horrifying realization of what is straight ahead of the Hunter: that hole made into the floor, the one leading to the level below. As Meditat desperately pushes himself up to his feet as two acidic green bolts fly past him only to be missed as the target makes one more leap, the two as well as both Dana and Kokei who sit up and face the action all bear witness to the Hunter’s flip over the hole, one hand on his katana by the handle but the other holding the dagger by its blade, raised in the air in the pose for throwing. He then throws that dagger straight into the hole, spinning towards the bottom floor towards the contraption surrounded by the cubic collateral, flying perfectly towards the long metal device: the main engine. Like butter, the dagger cuts through the metal shell, and in not a full second after penetration, all of the tubes abruptly detach and flail, revealing a blaze that sprints out before the entire metal shell erupts in a grand explosion that leads the shockwave of the surrounding generators, all of which rupture in great flames that sweep the surrounding console machines. The initial explosion blows a hole through the floor, immediately forming a vacuum that draws all the surrounding machines including the debris of the main engine which cluster into a large ball over the aperture, sealing it perhaps only due to the large size of the devices.

Immediately alarms begin blaring from the walls, and the previously neutral yellow lighting bleeds into an alert red which pulsates. As Dana offers her hand to Kokeit to help pull her up from the floor, the room then rumbles, causing her to stumble back same as Ekitai, for the rumbling isn’t a simple shake but rather has the magnitude that’d be befitting for an earthquake, the entire room violently jittering yet the Hunter perfectly lands on the other side of the hole.

Right after the quake, the same voice that spoke the alert of the train’s original departure begins to announce through those wailing walls, “The vehicle has lost power to its primary engines. Do not worry, backup engines will be engaged shortly. In the meantime, personnel are advised to relocate to designated emergency impact rooms immediately.”

Even after the shaking stops and Meditat manages to maintain his footing, there’s a distinct uncertainty in his glances to the side, as while the immediate, intense reaction has passed, there’s a different feeling that’s more prolonged, subtle, but in a manner that instills more dread. His arms instinctively reach to his sides to balance himself as he faces forward, past the flames that begin rising above the hole, spreading over the room as while the material isn’t genuine wood it doesn’t appear perfectly resistant to flames. Past the rising orange blaze stands the dark shadow, those yellow eyes piercing through to the other side as behind him the huge window displays the vast cosmic road highway ahead, the black void sprinkled with stars and splashed with nebulas. For the majority of the trip, this landscape hasn’t changed all that much, it wasn’t as though the stars were getting significantly closer but furthermore the straight path resulted in practically the same star placement. Yet, even if subtle, those stars begin to shift, and there’s then a sudden strange pull towards the floor, not due to another quake but rather what feels like gravity suddenly intensifying.

Standing behind the fires, the Hunter just glares back as the announcer oddly speaks again to relay, “Contact to emergency protocol is unavailable, therefore features such as contingency engines and emergency drifters are inaccessible. An emergency broadcast will be published, in the meantime it is recommended that personnel seek-,” before abruptly cutting off, and all the sudden a few distant booms are audible behind the room, bringing Meditat’s attention though the enclosed space provides little for clarity.

His attention is brought back though as he begins to stumble as it feels the floor is suddenly sinking, exuding a perplexed grunt from him.

Ekitai collapses to the floor, able to at least catch his fall though he’s deeply disturbed same with Kokei who struggles to stand up, leaving only Meditat and Dana standing as the latter tenses her feet’s claws into the floor for stability. All four of them face forward through the room gradually being devoured in flames, all finding that the huge window screen exhibits a rapid rotation given the shifting of the stars, however that shifting finally seems to stabilize just as that aforementioned blue rim rises again from the bottom of the window, though that’s not all as slowly the entire Earth ascends into view, centering itself as it seemed to have been previously, though this time at a far more intimate proximity.

Similarly to before too, the Earth grows larger as the train grows near, however by this time the train should no longer be approaching the direction of the planet, especially when at this proximity its gravitational pull can be a concern. But judging by Meditat’s reaction locked in utter horror, he has already pieced together the events unfolding, and its imminent implications.

For ahead of him, through the spreading flames and even the enemy, past the window screen including the physical material separating it from space as the true face of the train doesn’t have a huge transparent window but rather a sleek windowless design, that train accelerates not in part by its own engines but instead by the entity it’s approaching. Even with the colossal scale of the train, there is little resistance against the pull as the long snake begins to slither down, the head bending which causes all of the cars behind to flex in an arc. Though as more cars further back curve, the ones in the front begin to straighten, the entire vehicle setting itself to its destination. While the exterior build of the train is remarkable for its size, as despite potential concerns with using a composition of small boards the train holds against space travel excellently, the relentless acceleration is still a worry to those past the front face, inside the engine room as fear marks Meditat, for in front of him that Earth quickly consumes the window’s view as it grows ever larger, ever closer.

On the golden wood floor with the reflective properties of metal, the black boots with frosty crystal tips begin to slide forward discreetly yet without an apparent force.

Noticing the sliding immediately, Meditat glances down on the floor before quickly facing back, finding Ekitai with his arms out wide to balance himself as the same occurs to him, Kokei only being stable as she’s held back by Dana who is able to keep her ground given her claws.

What isn’t being held down though is the corpse by the door which slowly begins to slide forward, to which Ekitai swiftly aims and fires a dark green bolt onto the body’s chest, which close to impact triggers the sudden emergence of vine-like tendrils spread like a sheet, stretching out before then plugging themselves into the surrounding floor which suspends the body in place like a solid blanket.

He then faces the other way with a spiteful glare and aims forward, and with a surprisingly angry bellow he fires a burst of blue bolts which emit their own electric sparks, all targeted at the Hunter on the other side of the fire who simply evades them with little effort, as the rising smoke in the room begins to reduce visibility for the one aiming. He also doesn’t slide back, as the jagged nature of the boots grounds him decently.

Nonetheless Ekitai begins to charge forward, roaring as he fires variously colored bolts in a final desperate attempt to bring down the assassin who’s destroying his friend’s life, not only having taken it but also all that he’s built. However by racing forward, he relinquishes any resistance against gravity’s pull, dragging him forward faster than he can handle, turning his charge into stumbles that nearly results in a fall before his free hand is then grabbed by Meditat who stabilizes himself with a cable projected off both heels, keeping himself grounded on a surface that’s no longer normal to gravity.

After glancing back to the one who saved him from a risky move, Ekitai returns his gaze to his feet which he tilts to face his soles before then swiping on his handgun and firing a reddish bolt at one before grounding himself with it though oddly enough the foot more rapidly pulls to the floor as indication of a magnetic charge. After doing the same with the other, he shows more confidence in being able to stand his ground before shouting, “I’m good here, get him!”

Immediately though Meditat glances back not to the enemy but instead to his allies, as behind him Kokei nearly flies forward before Dana desperately reaches forward though her reach isn’t enough, instead requiring the commanding of a golden tentacle from her palm which makes the additional few feet to wrap around Kokei’s torso, suspending her as she immediately grips it frantically like the bars of a roller coaster.

His focus reverts after hearing a few pings of the signature shooting from Ekitai’s gun as he targets forward, reminding Meditat that the battle wasn’t yet over. Cautiously relinquishing his grip of the old man, which does confirm that said man can stand on his own, Meditat bends his knees before springing forward back into battle, equipping in both hands the same bo staff with crystal ends as that was the most effective weapon he built for this opponent, and so in through the orange flames he flies.

The fires do grab onto his azure fabric, wrapping him in flames of orange and blue as he launches himself straight at the Hunter on the other side with a swing, who parries with his one katana and uses the weight of the clash to spring himself to the side, cornering himself towards the screen wall. The Hunter instinctively raises his katana to deflect a few bright green shots before a brown shot hits the ground about five feet short, though it causes the floor to swell up and for that swelling to move forward in the motion as though a mole was burrowing under the ground, approaching straight for the target who rolls backwards again closer to the wall, which Meditat uses as an opportunity to boost towards him with another swing which is blocked but does at least make contact, pressuring the Hunter who steps takes two steps with his back now nearly to the screen, providing a golden moment down the handgun’s natural sightlines created from the cocked hammer.

One fiery orange shot is fired at the cornered opponent, aimed straight for the head as an intentional killshot, yet just before it can land, its target throws himself back into the wall in a partial flip to place his feet on the vertical surface to then leap off of, narrowly evading the shot that instead strikes the wall and releases a heavy boom along with a huge burning hole straight through every layer of the barrier, from the insulated interior to the intense pressures of the upper atmosphere which nearly sucks Meditat in if not for his instinctual cables projecting from his hip like a rock climbing rope to protect from a lethal fall.

Immediately the flames are pulled towards the holes as Dana’s grip on the floor same as Ekitai loses the fight, causing both of them along with Kokei to all fly towards the aperture, or that is until an azure flame reaches them first from below, expanding outwards before manifesting a large silver ring that emits energy cables which weave into a net dense enough to catch all of them.

Padded from their fall, the three allies groan as beneath them stands Meditat, right arm raised up to the net, whose upward gaze is turned back to the Hunter just in time to raise his left hand and form a crystal shield to catch the shuriken that would’ve grazed his neck. Quickly Meditat heeds the call to action with the lowering of his right hand and bursts of flames as he faces the Hunter who simply stands on the tilted surface with ease, though that is until oddly he intentionally makes a gentle leap that allows him to get sucked in through the aperture. While at first it could’ve been seen as accidental to the untrained eye as a failed charge, the lack of forward direction or rather any made it clear that it was a simple relinquishment of resistance, allowing the pressure to drag him out of the train, and away from the battlefield.

Immediately, the voice of Ekitai above shouts desperately, “WAIT CATCH HIM!” which Meditat raises his head up to, finding the senile gunslinger mortified that the one who stole his friend’s life had simply escaped. At this exact time above them, another figure enters through the hole in the door to the deck bar, one who only managed to maintain stability by using two katanas as walking sticks, though he had another two in sheathes on the hips of his purple hakama.

While his body struggles, both as it is still regaining functionality but also needing to resist the powerful pressure pulling him down or rather forward, he at least musters the air to bellow, “EKITAI, WHAT DID YOU-,” before curiosity snares him from the corner of his eye, and he glances to find the corpse now sitting on the bag, the yellow gus hat still covering the head.

That vengeful rage immediately mutes to a hollow horror as his following words are spoken in whispers: “Gally-...?” with a dropped jaw. Still battling against the winds pulling him away, Rezzo just stares emptily at his captain’s body, lacking any of the context which resulted in this tragic state. There was only one simple lead which he glares at with painfully enraged eyes, diverting his gaze to Ekitai down on the net, however that gaze finds Ekitai facing back with a surprisingly anguished face, those yellow eyes wide in misery, the deceptively stoic swollen face truthfully expressing the greatest heartbreak a worn man could.

From that hateful glare to a perplexed but instinctively sympathetic gaze, Rezzo just stares back with sorrow, realizing immediately that his former comrade too was in mourning, even if he just earlier seemed to be the enemy.

Watching that depressive exchange, Meditat lowers his gaze down to the hole just as the view is concealed by a thick white smog, or rather clouds. Instinctively Meditat fires a flame to the cavity which builds a metal frame that then emits a blue-tinted energy seal, one with pressurizing capabilities which stops the aggressive tug to the side. However, there is still the one pulling in the direction Meditat faces next: down. As ahead of him and beyond the gaze of the other four inside the room, the huge window screen ahead announces grim news in the form of the sight of land, decently distant as monolithic white mountains can be seen in an expansive range past the layers of clouds, though those mountains approach only at faster rates in every passing moment. A mixture of the subdued yet still present flames, the concerning grogging of the train’s head, as well as the suppressed albeit clearly hyperactive winds all swarm Meditat who just stares in front of his three allies as well as the co-captain of the vast group of pirates onboards. Perhaps they were criminals, vile and arguably devoid of human traits like empathy, though in Meditat’s horrified words: “The people on board…they’re all in danger….”

He immediately faces back up at the net, specifically to Dana along with the other two to announce boldly over the hectic soundstage: “I’M GOING TO TRY STOPPING THE TRAIN, BRACE YOURSELVES ANY WAY YOU CAN!”

Instantly and instinctively Dana shouts, “WAIT MEDIT-,” though her words fade right as Meditat thrusts himself straight through the pressurized seal, able to exit the train’s head and fully rids himself of insulation, causing his cape and hood to ripple violently as he nearly plummets straight down, but manages to resist with quick cables from his hips onto the golden wood side which lets him swing in the other direction, provided additional countering force in the form of powerful boosts. After a few swings given the sheer size of the vehicle, needing to use a combination of strafes away from the wall to allow his swings the optimal travel distance for the pendulum swing, Meditat does manage to lift himself over the roof to spin around and face the travel direction, watching the train race forward under him straight past the few layers of unobstructive clouds, straight in a course for those cold sharp mountains.

Every second bringing the colossal train closer to collision, Meditat acts quickly to raise both hands at a forward tilt, both of which fire streams of flames forth far ahead before then diverting into the formation of one huge ring, one large enough to wrap around the whole vehicle. The ring materializes to be made with three distinct layers, two silver guards and in the center is a generator which from the inside unleashes a powerful plane of blue-tinted energy that latches onto a cross section of the train on all faces. While the train continues to fall forward, the ring remains in place but furthermore the huge energy plane bends forward, continuing to grab onto the cross section as the cross sectional tractor beacon struggles to hold the huge bolt steady.

Realizing there isn’t even a discernible declaration applied, Meditat fires two cables from his hips onto the top edge of the ring to reel himself away from the plane, rocketing himself to a higher vantage point to which he spins around and aims both hands down to the train to emit another blaze forward, forming a second ring further ahead of the first. That ring similarly emits a tractor beacon onto a cross section of the train, which similarly bends to the high speed. A nearly imperceivable stutter washes over the train, its descent unchanged though at least change has shown itself to be possible. Another stream of flames forms a third ring as reinforcement, and while this one’s tractor plane causes the train to again stutter more significantly, that victory is overshadowed as the first ring’s tractor plane suddenly snaps, the blue beam flickering away as its maximum tension has been reached, the distance between the emitter and the target too great. Just as this happens, the caboose of the train passes Meditat, forcing him to catch up as he dives straight with a tight figure, the wind hollering against him, the clock ticking as he brings his hands together to fire a concentrated flame towards the back face of the last car, though it stops short and instead forms a huge cone resembling a rocket’s nose, larger than the face itself. The underside of the cone ejects an array of energy cables that latch onto the car’s face, extended about forty feet before the center of the cone ignites a powerful propulsive engine that attempts to fly upwards, hoping to pull the train up. The engine roars in opposition to the fall, though the second ring’s tractor plane snaps which only causes the train to accelerate greater.

His dive being accelerated as well with desperate boosts, Meditat throws his arms several times forward, thrashing waves of azure flames every time towards the back of the train, placing metal cones that attach their bases to the shiny wooden exterior before then deploying wires that carry huge parachutes made of a fiber material, though underneath the parachutes’ seemingly soft canopy emits a powerful propulsion of energy, one that seems to begin decelerating the titanic train once the sixth is applied, or that is until the last ring’s tractor plane snaps and the train again begins accelerating which again prompts Meditat to make haste, frantically throwing his arms which project cables to pull himself to the train faster.

On the opposite side of the crashing vehicle, Dana synthetically growls as she clenches on the net and slowly stands upright, able to balance herself with her articulated feet, at least with better stability than Kokei and Ekitai who struggle to even clutch onto the barrier. She faces down through the thin wall, gazing through the flames at the expansive screen which provides a rather intimidating view of the approaching mountains, with only a few layers of clouds left before the separation of the sky and earth shut. Heavy breaths filtered electrically yet retaining its human anxiety exude from Dana’s faceless expression, made fully aware of the dire situation and trying desperately to seek her next steps.

Despite her prior plea, she makes the bold determination: “I’m going out there,” before beginning to step forward, walking along the net with every golden claw clutching onto the next wire. Behind her Kokei raises her head and reaches for her knee, but she fails to make the distance and can only attempt pulling her back with distressed words: “Wait! What are you going to do?!”

Reaching the edge of the net where she can now stand on the metal framing, Dana takes in a deep breath before simply answering, “Anything I can,” before her feet stop gripping, letting her body fall straight down, though close enough to the wall that she can swing her arm to grab the rim of the seal thus throwing herself through.

Not a full second later past Kokei’s shoulder, the golden cyborg can be seen in the screen, or rather on its feed as she crawls up the face of the racing train, resisting the full brute force of the plummet with only her four limbs. She crawls towards the top of the wall, able to be seen as the screen wraps around the rim of the ceiling where she stops to rotate her back against the surface, clearly struggling just against the air alone.

On the face of the train, Dana groans to the thunderous wind, though she resists as four tentacles begin emerging from her back, extending to great lengths enough that they can grab the edge between the roof and face. Her body slowly begins to pull off the face, dragging herself forward as more tentacles emerge from her back to add better stability, propping her against the current until there’s sixteen tentacles nearly consuming the upper edge, some grabbing the roof and others holding onto the rim. She slowly raises herself above the roof, all of the golden tendrils bending like trees in a hurricane as her body rotates in a slight downward tilt, and through grit she extends both arms forward as each begin to transform, golden liquid-like coils enveloping her arm though few strands seep out the body and fly off, as the coils struggle to keep its malleable shape.

Nonetheless the coils both begin growing the width of her forearms substantially each in a cylinder, one that eventually merges together, extending well past the natural length of her arm as the contraption becomes wider than her whole body, so much she wouldn’t be able to see through with naked eyes. The metamorphosis reaches about ten feet forward until the cone’s base is well larger than herself, as if she’s the throat of a rocket thruster, and her arms have become the nozzle. That nozzle begins to whir loud enough to be heard over the rustling of the train and the rage of the winds until it finally emits an overwhelming propulsive fan of golden energy that blasts outwards, nearly throwing Dana backwards if not for several more tentacles emerging from her back as reinforcement, reaching the point where the entire back side of her body has melded with the tendrils, leaving no concrete separation between the human and the machine. The recoil is absorbed as tendrils begin to surface off of each other, branching apart to connect into a greater conglomerate, like the vines of an overgrown wall which helps her maintain stability. The rocket doesn’t directly combat the direction of the train’s descent, but is rather offset at a downward angle in an attempt to provide it forced lift, trying to push the nose up to at least steer it away from direct impact.

Yet ahead of her, past the rocket and the fanning flames, the mountains become larger in view, the final strands of clouds just now past, a field of titanic spikes that don’t move down as indication that the rocket’s great power still is lacking effect.

Both the view of the imminent mountains and the dire attempts are watched by Ekitai and Kokei, still stuck on the net. Behind them watches Rezzo in utter awe, able to latch onto the nearly vertical surface of the floor by the strength of his blades, yet unable to make an impact on the stability of the greater ship. Without words, his gaze shifts from Dana to Ekitai who faces Kokei to sigh and reluctantly decide, “I…need to get out there.”

Immediately Kokei raises her gaze to Ekitai and instinctively grabs his upper arm, gripping it tensely as she lectures in distress, “And do what?? Ekitai are you crazy, you’ll get sucked out! I mean I’m not even sure if they are slowing it down, and they’re…they’re way different! We’re not them! It’s way too dangerous for you!”

Frowning in misery, Ekitai seems to be the first to truly listen and acknowledge that apprehension, facing down at the terrible sight unfolding below him. Even then he clenches his cheeks and raises his eyes back to his friend whom he states to, “I know…but I can’t just lay here and watch…I didn’t save him but I’ll save his home.” Then he swipes down on his handgun’s interface and fires a green shot straight into the wires in front of him, which melts a small portion of the net at least enough for it to droop at the edges he clings onto, dropping him down to which Kokei instinctively let's go in a desperate cry. Yet Ekitai clings with one hand onto the swaying net as his other clutches to his weapon, waiting until the right moment to then let go and throw himself straight to the rim of the seal, nearly missing though just barely managing to grab it by the edge.

He sways in struggle as Kokei cries, “EKI!” and Rezzo just watches from above in pure astonishment, watching as Ekitai tightens his glare and pulls himself up with his one free hand, pulling himself through the seal and out of safety.

On the other side of the seal, that suppressed bellow of the wind immediately becomes deafening, and Ekitai nearly flies right off of the wall if not for a quickly timed red shot on his free hand which attracts it back onto the metal boards, keeping him glued to the train even if not very well as his coat flaps vigorously. He swings himself down and plants his feet on the metal surface for better coverage, at least riding along the train rather than against it.

With decent resilience against the forces, Ekitai moves fast to aim his handgun at the wall past him, further down along the train before he begins firing lime green bolts onto them, which upon impact release a huge bag that opens up into a translucent parachute-like material with what looks like blood vessels imbued in the texture, similar to the tendrils that hold it onto the points of impact on the wall. Three are fired before his attention moves further ahead the seemingly infinite train, where he watches two distinct flames fire from an invisible point above the roof, one of those flames reaching the same side wall along the parachutes though this one expands to attach onto nearly an entire car and extend over a hundred feet in length in the formation of a huge wing, perhaps a rather outdated design but at this moment any idea was better than none. The wings weren’t simply constructs though, as after they materialize with silver bodies they reveal a huge flap along the bottom which bends down, though that flap in truth is a hidden exhaust the length of the entire wing which emits a ray of energy in reinforcement for Dana in rerouting the train’s trajectory, as it seems a full stop would be impossible. Far past the wing, the distant parachutes and rocket can be seen at a sliver, though it’s enough for Ekitai to understand the extent of action being taken by the man he had just sworn against earlier.

Despite that gigantic device, Ekitai’s glance to the other side reveals insignificant change to the trajectory of the train, for the mountains were now becoming concerningly close, likely about a minute before impact to which all he can do is mutter, “Why did you always have to go so big and beyond…?”

Zooming along the roof of the train, bursts of flames bounce up from Meditat, which spreads out into huge drones with a design resembling stealth bombers, wingspans nearly that of the train itself, each of which fire clusters of blue cables in a spread onto portions of the roof before then attempting to fly at an upwards angle to pull. After deploying three different drones in quick succession, Meditat abruptly air brakes upon recognizing that only a few cars ahead stands his ally, or rather said ally leans on a spread of tentacles to support her monstrous propulsor. After identifying her, he boosts himself forward again to reach her side, grabbing onto one of the tentacles which attracts her attention as she turns her head.

Over the combination of the rustling of the train, raging of the winds, and roaring of the propulsor, Meditat shouts the report: “THE VEHICLE’S ACCELERATION IS STAGNATING, BUT THE DECELERATION IS INSUFFICIENT! I’M NOT WELL ATTUNED TO STOPPING MASSES OF THIS SCALE, BUT I’LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO!”

Understanding the limit in time, Meditat relinquishes his hold of the tentacle, immediately throwing him back in the air and allowing Dana to just focus ahead before leaning forward subtly, and with the understanding of the ticking clock, she shakes her head as her entire body begins to start seemingly pulsating, as if miniscule scales composing her golden skin flap up and down in waves. That pulsating skin begins to inflate, or rather rapidly generate layers over each other, a process different from the usual coiling construction that is typically honed on finer points whereas this builds on the entire base. For not only do the upper arms grow in front of the shoulders, but the torso widens in loss of the ambiguously feminine curves into one better resembling an inhuman beast like an orc. The thighs stretch as the golden shell also adopts a different pattern from the previously sleek appearance into one with defined ravines that mimic bulging muscles, seen as well on the knees bridging to the feet which grow nearly double in size, the claws elongating with sharper tips that reach down to the very surface it originally was hovering over, for the body itself has closed the distance the tentacles originally were purposed for. Due to that, many of those tentacles begin to detach off the train’s roof, more than half as the golden cape shrinks back, though the remaining tentacles ripple too, throbbing and growing from sleek tendrils into veiny limbs a width superior to bodybuilder arms. As those unnecessary tentacles slip into the arched back, the shoulders further extrude but this time into unhuman shapes of great cylinders mounted like cannons, for that is exactly what they are in that they carry a similar design to the rocket arm albeit still not as large. Regardless, both cannons flare bright before unleashing intense blazes of repulsive energy forward as any means to seek greater output even if at the expense of her own energy, gambling on the larger body to function as a greater factory to draw from.

Watching the leader fly back to continue his efforts as the transformed cyborg continues hers the same as her best friend against the wall, the last Bellator remaining inside lies Kokei, watching the chaos grow the closer the mountains become. Anxiety consumes her as while perhaps the seasoned heroes have yet to endure a mission of this scale in a comfortable length of time, she hadn’t even grazed a conflict of this magnitude as herself, and the wave of dread washes over her as it’s clear how the lack of experience is putting her in a spot of inability.

She raises her head up to find Rezzo still beside the body held on the bag, just watching in speechless awe, as while he is the co captain of this vehicle it is clear he is incapable of holding it back, instead forced to just watch his home be brought down into the earth. Perhaps he was a skilled fighter, one who could even hold a decent opposition against one of the strongest Exhumans to be known, though the ability to fight alone wasn’t a tool that could be applied to every situation, sometimes to the most vital. In this moment, the warriors who had just battled through the whole pirate crew now had to use their devices and abilities in a different application, one to save that very crew, a task that wasn’t the same as direct combat yet felt far more intimidating given the entity at the head of the conflict: an immovable titan.

Though again all of them threw themselves into the challenge, needing to exert perhaps more strength than they did in the fight. Again they all face the conflict head on, even if it seemed meaningless to try, and yet again Kokei just remains locked inside, hiding away from the carnage just like she did in her room from the first day she met them. Terrified to even know what the scene was outside, she just locked herself in safety with walls to suppress the noise.

Returning her gaze back down to the nearing ground with those shimmering pink eyes that peer between her drooping strands of hair, she acknowledges that she should’ve already surpassed this anxiety in her prior battle, as she had already made herself capable of a challenge she initially perceived as beyond her power. Yet here she falls back to her former mindset, as there is a keen difference between that earlier conflict and this: as while she had to deal with a situation similar to her allies it wasn’t exactly the same. She simply had to defeat a single Exhuman who pushed her to exercise more planning, unable to rely on her immediate allies or a simple swift solution. To take down one enemy while her friends do the same is one task, and one that isn’t inherently even, as despite her opponent having great strength she was still likely far below the power of the captain or other members that had to be defeated. However in this instance, she was forced to face the exact same challenge as the others to the same magnitude, one that even perhaps the strongest Exhuman to ever live struggled to face.

As above the roof, the renowned hero pants tiredly as he zips beneath the belly of the train, throwing his arms wildly to dish out flames that form huge cylindrical thrusters on ball joints which sit on a curved base attached to the metal wood. Each thruster tilts autonomously before initiating heavy repulsive fire to try guiding the train, and yet even with every thruster there is hardly a discernible change in angle.

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Groaning with a deeper, more bass-like tone, against both the direct winds and the recoil of her own rocket, the golden beast shows growing fatigue given that all the energy being pushed into her rockets are generated from herself, yet she still powers all three even as the rims of the two shoulder rockets begin to start melting from the excess energy screeching over her own thoughts, immediately pushing the durability of her morphed body. Her head has changed to become sharper, the face plate now oversized as it leaves an extended edge over the head mounted on a far bulkier neck that trades agility for sheer power.

Bright red bolts fire in rapid succession out of the senile gunslinger, each one striking the wall at a point that protrudes a string which grows about twenty feet before the end opens up to reveal a small balloon-like construct which quickly grows to the radius of about six feet. However the bolts stop despite him continuing to press the trigger, to which he grits his teeth in agitation and swipes his handgun screen for another option.

All of them struggle outside while inside Kokei just lays on the net, staring forward with helpless dread in her eyes. Maybe she could handle herself in a fight, but this was something so vastly beyond her expectations. Something so vastly beyond what she had pushed herself to be able to handle.

And yet at that exact same time, it wasn’t as though any of the other three showed true confidence when they left. Whether it was out of desperate instinct, uncertain determination, or simply pushing towards something he couldn’t argue he was capable of, all of them still went out to make an attempt when none of them knew if they could even make a dent to the trajectory. This wasn’t a situation where the captain was proudly charging into a battle she let herself slip into, none of them chose for this circumstance, none of them were presented with an easy out. Yet all of them were outside, doing what they could before the ship would collide and result in casualties well beyond a hundred.

Because despite being their enemies, those like the swordsman standing above were still helpless in saving themselves, horrified to watch the imminent destruction of their home. Nobody was confident that they could save them, but at least someone had to try. It wasn’t a battle against any one being, but rather the overwhelming power of nature itself, but nonetheless someone had to at least try to rival it, even if they weren’t sure if it’d make a difference. Perhaps it was pointless, meaningless, or partially suicidal, but it was what the team did, requiring above all abilities and tactics: a drive.

Not with a brazen glare or solid stance, Kokei takes in a deep breath before throwing herself towards the giant burnt hole through the net, right in front of the swordsman who just watches with an expression overloaded in shock at the absurdity of these enemies’ actions.

This last enemy in particular gazes forward with fretful eyes, but eyes that flare with sparks similar to her whole body as pink lightning courses around her like an aura, one that guides her at an angle in flight in through the seal, the final Bellator to pass the breach into the violent winds that ruffles her hoodie but most substantially her long hair. From a smooth path to the exit, Kokei shrieks as her body shoots straight up from the sudden pressure, but she manages to grab onto one of the strings of the large balloons that was deployed from Ekitai who notices her with an aghast expression, but before he can shout he watches Kokei tense her face as more lightning surges off her body to encase her before she throws herself forward again, this time moving at a greater speed as she propels herself with repulsive force, enough compressed in one thrust to pass the train’s face before she makes another thrust to the side across the front, reaching the center before her back knocks against the metal surface.

While she no longer needs to concern over being flown away given the support of the wall, she faces straight against the full pressure of the winds at such velocity, her face nearly deforming as she struggles to even just keep her eyes open. Once she’s able to do that, she’s met with that sight without translation, the naked view of the massive snowy mountains cluttering the entire landscape around the train, as while the immediate center mountain of impact has shifted upwards to one with wider peaks, collision at high speed would result in horrible fatalities. So staring straight on at that landscape about half a minute from collision, Kokei pushes her arms forward as she begins redirecting all her arcs not around herself but rather forward, initially forming a wall of electricity. There isn’t a physical object to control, and so all she can try to control is the air, the force itself pulling the train down. Though that’s no easy feat, and in the first few seconds of the wall, she comprehends its ineffectiveness. But unable to back down now, she instead exerts more energy out of herself, doubling not only the quantity of arcs but their thickness and ferocity, causing them to branch off into more sparks at greater rates. The crackling of the lightning deepens with greater volume, as if the sky itself was being ripped and torn, the lightning to the thunderous winds. Tensing her hands in claws, she discharges as much as she can all at once while trying to do so in every moment for as many moments as possible, the lightning reaching far past the face of the train beneath the huge golden engine. The hole initially cluttered by the engine devices finally is pushed open from the totality of forces pushing on it, letting a single console table slip out which results in a chain reaction of innumerable boxes passing through and being flung into the atmosphere, some crashing into the thrusters along the belly, though the metal shell remains strong.

Along the side of the train, Ekitai fires a few yellow bolts into the walls which causes large spots to puff out like airbags, the texture changing into something more rubbery. After those few shots though, his attention is moved forward to the mountains getting closer to view, but what he also notices is the surge of pink lightning sparking off the front of the train, each arc nearly as thick as his arm. After the second of being stunned, he begins firing bolts towards the front rim of the train, unloading anything in his cylinder that can be of any use.

Her face unable to see through the rocket though still able to know the closing distance from landing, Dana’s heavy arms quiver from the expensive drainage of her energy to maintain power to all three thrusters, and yet she continues on, if anything only increasing the output which softens the metal edges as her own body slowly melts itself in an effort to exert to her fullest limit. She’s nearly distracted though when the flood of pink lightning flies right over her from below, almost ensnaring her yet she still manages to fire, putting her focus back to such after the quick notice.

Swinging up from a lengthy cable attached to the bottom edge of the car, Meditat launches himself around the train, his cape waving as he glances around for another idea to come to mind, his entire forearms perpetually flaming as there’s no time to stop, though he is stunned upon the sudden intense wave of pink lightning that washes through him from the ground, one he instinctively covers his face against with his arm which oddly emits a few azure electric-like sparks of its own. He instantly lowers his arm though after hearing the howling winds like a hurricane abruptly stutter in sound, like a sound file jittering due to latency, a curious anomaly that moves his attention to that electric wave that emits from the head of the train beneath Dana.

That stall lasts not half a second past though as what’s more pressing is the incoming mountain, the plane’s destination clearly headed to a small dent by one of the peaks, not into the spike itself but rather a huge stone wall shaved along it. Enough time for only one truly substantial creation, Meditat boosts upwards in the air as not his arms but his entire body bursts into blue flames which at first simply surround him before then rising at a rapid pace upwards like a beacon, one that shoots about a hundred feet before opening up like a flower, at first seeming to be taking a shape similar to a balloon given the vague sphere, though it abnormally puffs into a bulb shape. That main bulb prematurely materializes with a metallic dirty silver shell, though expelling from its underbelly are an array of huge flaming blue tendrils, the overall shape resembling a titanic octopus like a kraken, each tentacle wider than forest trees. These tendrils similarly manifest during their transformation as a means of speeding their implementation, however in their manifestation they reveal a unique physical property in that rather than being smooth and organic, every tentacle is composed of a series of huge solid silver scales connected by joints which bend like a ratchet, those joints having a blue illumination to provide power to the structure. The numerous tentacles autonomously crawl down the air towards the train, passing the roof and walls and instead curling around the belly of the bolt to grab it like an embrace, though the colossal size as well as the number of tendrils nearly covers the second and third cars where they are primarily targeted as to not obstruct the allies. After deploying what was the last significant creation he had time for, all he has is himself, and despite it perhaps being futile in a rather illogical manner he aims both arms for the roof before projecting a flurry of cables off, as while they aren’t actually any thicker than his usual ones, the sheer volume results in a tighter pull even if perhaps an insignificant difference. The two clusters attach to the floor behind the cyborg who has morphed two huge tentacles off her back muscles to support her rockets given their propulsive heads, the smallest rockets but any difference had to be made especially when the head of the train has already flown over the mountain, heading straight for the huge rock wall composing the total peak which it’ll make contact with in about five seconds.

Letting out a senile scream in a hail mary, Ekitai blasts all he can ahead at the impact point, the wind tearing at his skin, trying to pop his eyes out yet they stay open, fighting with yellow flames.

Burning her own reinforced body, one far more intimidating than what she used in the battle against opponents she likely could’ve incinerated and mutilated with this form, Dana roars with all her might as she compresses all the energy within her into the rockets to repel back the train, all five of those thrusters screaming with her.

Surrounded by the gargantuan metal tentacles tugging the train, Meditat howls in physical exertion as he pulls with his own body even if far inferior to said creation, using everything in his arsenal including himself as his body sparks blue, ropes covering his hands, his cape ravaged in the wind same as his hood, his lenses flaring brighter than ever like stars.

At the front of the train, in fact the first who’d make impact and yet holding her spot, Kokei shrieks as electricity the size of her limbs secrete off her body, her arms forward but the energy expelling all over her small figure to such an extent that they almost cover it, arcs branching their own arcs as the air itself flickers, the very film of space being wrestled by a supernatural force.

A mixture of the raging winds against rockets, metal bending of the breaking ship being coiled by the massive ratcheting tentacles, and the crackling pink lightning spreading over the rock wall where massive cyan bushes of slime sprout to try grabbing onto the train all come together as the train reaches the wall, coming at it but not through it as it makes an abrupt halt.

Instead, the head remains fixed in place same with the first few cars as the others begin to bend down the about ten foot drop from the utmost surface, collapsing into the snow with heavy thuds as the start of a long domino effect as the cars further down the train fall into the snow, one after the other.

Maintaining the ropes in his hands, Meditat spins around to face the back of the train, watching the golden cars fall slowly along the smooth sloop, descending albeit there aren’t any sudden drops that’d call for immediate concern. Regardless he still observes, ready for quick action if needed, his cape drifting behind.

At the head of the train, the intense pink lightning finally fizzles out with the lack of current generation, unraveling the source floating in the air at first, her arms up and her hair still raised. However her arms lower same as her hair and head, her eyes closing as the fatigue of that great burst caught up, and her body begins to drop as above her the huge cyborg lowers her head before immediately lunging forward, not receding but simply detaching herself off the tentacles mounting her on the train same as the cannons on her back and shoulders.

The great rocket arm disconnects like a space shuttle’s rocket booster, discarded after use and allowed to fall onto the ground to reveal the humanoid hands underneath which shrink and soften just before making contact with the small body about to hit the ground.

Catching the friend midair, Dana’s body slowly begins to melt its excess skin, her arms shriveling as her stature lowers, the overall shape returning not exactly to human but at least in better resemblance to her original cybernetic form.

Behind the two, Ekitai drops off of the hovering head, firing a pinkish bolt beneath him which forms a bag that absorbs his fall.

Curled inward to carry Ekitai’s weight, the veiny bean bag provides a minor spring to launch the old man desperately, stumbling forward as his long shoes kick against the snow, though he controls himself on his run up to the head of the train, panting with his arms flailing back and forth.

He reaches the side of who now better resembles Dana, even if in her metal form, still taller than the average person though with more human proportions. She glances at Ekitai, holding the body as above the three, Meditat watches the landing of the train, no longer clutching onto the ropes but instead his back exudes a gentle blue glow in preparation for a dash.

While the rocket thruster attached to the caboose ceases its pull as all of the energy cables attaching it to the train come undone, that thruster fails to make the main cliff where it instead plummets down a vast drop, though where that thruster comes short, the caboose narrowly manages to pass over the surface as it’s lifted by all the parachutes which slowly taper in power, landing down by the edge of the slope a bit close to call but safe nonetheless.

Upon the confirmation of the safe landing, even if the train itself stretches from one end of the mountain’s top plane to the other, Meditat spins the other way and makes the boost albeit suppressed, just enough to dash down to the ground a few feet in front of Dana, spinning in the air to face her such that immediately upon ground contact he can take one step forward to stand directly in front of the held body.

Limp without consciousness, her arms and legs dangling over the ground same as her hair, the superhuman’s eyes remain closed, her facial muscles relaxed, though that only calls for greater concern. Meditat raises his hands as blue flames emerge from his palms, manifesting a white towel though the stitchings have a gentle blue glow to indicate technological integration. He raises it to the body which Dana offers forward, letting him wrap the towel around gently, but even after doing so there’s little confidence in his stance.

Watching over as the only one showing his face, that of hollowing dread, Ekitai seeks any ideas before his eyes widen and he reaches his hand into his overcoat to pull out a flask with a familiar pink liquid that has a carbonated appearance in that it bubbles, those bubbles carrying a pulsating glow. He steps towards the body, extending the flask towards the mask to which Meditat instinctively steps forward with his own open hand raised in a sign to cease, succeeding though he himself ceases before properly raising it. He pauses for a couple seconds before silently lowering both his head and hand, retracting his concerns to which Ekitai nods and pours the liquid into the gaping mouth. He pours in a little at a time, about a swig before lifting as to avoid choking before lowering for another. After four though he stops, nearing the limit of what he knows can be handled, to which he brings the flask back inside his coat and simply waits over Dana’s shoulder, waiting in anticipation, his body shaking both from the shivering cold but the suspense too.

Five seconds pass. Then ten. Yet there’s no response, even when a response should’ve occurred by now. It’s no better when the brewer of this connotation himself winces with apprehension, not wanting to verbalize the warning though it’s clear the effectiveness of the solution doesn’t seem sufficient. He lowers his head with a pained grimace, realizing just how much his friend pushed herself this whole day, for she had done vastly more than ever on the team, risking everything just to save the people she had just fought against with the uncertainty if they deserved another chance.

Glancing over to the anguished face of the old man, then to the blank face that stares at the body, enough emotion expressed through figure alone, Meditat slowly raises his hand over to the cold face, a sense of defeat beginning to swallow him as his efforts weren’t alone in stopping the crash, he had to rely on someone who might’ve had to spend everything. Especially for a man with seemingly infinite capability, being unable to stop this one vehicle with all his power was rather shameful, and the burden of that shame wasn’t just on him anymore.

As his hand hovers over the relaxed face, gloved though flexible enough that its gentleness can be properly acted, a subtle azure electric spark passes off his finger into the cheek by the temple. Just a moment later, in a near jumpscare, Kokei sharply intakes with wide eyes, coming awake so suddenly it nearly shakes her allies off, though they recover quickly with delight as Ekitai smiles brightly and extends both arms for an embrace while Meditat sighs in relief, oblivious to the spark. However his attention does drift from the recovery as past the three of them, booms ruffle the mountaintop, several coming from the train.

Those booms slowly grab the attention of the other three, who turn around and watch as all the sudden several breaches blow through the train’s metal walls, emitting smoke through the opening along many of the cars. Some of them are created from what sound like traditional gas explosions, others from highly punctuated energy expulsions, and some with strange otherworldly sounds like horns.

From that smoke emerge silhouettes, not just a few but many, an army’s worth which slowly march out of the fog to reveal themselves as the grand crew of pirates, their postures scuffled given many of their slouches, though they all wear a similarly furious glare.

Slowly Kokei slips out of Dana’s hold to carry herself, letting the towel fall while Dana turns around as two tentacles slowly emerge from her back, preparing for another round. Meditat’s hands similarly grow flames in anticipation, but while Ekitai’s handgun does rest in grip, he doesn’t raise it just yet, instead he stands behind the group somewhat in hiding.

As the front line of the siege passes through the smoke, they’re revealed to be led by two: the man in the black suit with the spiky blonde hair alongside the woman in the long amber hair who carries a dark cloud with her. The pistons of the Knight’s gauntlets begin to flare up as they start charging, his lens missing and his hair messier than earlier, though that all the more exudes his discontent. The Rogue’s cloud begins sparking with yellow electricity, which clusters by her right hand as they congregate into a dagger held in reverse, arming herself on sight.

Slowly the Spirit raises his flaming fists as the Artificer’s hands start to remold themselves more akin to cannons, the war about to reignite, all until suddenly in between the two sides steps another, one not through a newly formed breach but instead the blue seal along the head car. There is only one being who walks out of the seal, however in his arms he carries another bridal style, and immediately upon his entrance the two leaders come to a halt, interrupting their army’s pace. Both of their determined glares drop to utter shock as their eyes set on Rezzo, standing out in the cold in the purple hakama as he carries the limp body of the old King, recognizable by his gray shorts and red vest, but most of all the green-stained yellow gus hat that now rests over his face.

First there’s a wave of confusion that strikes Mary and Beagle, as if they’re not able to properly interpret the sight in front of them. Their expressions lack any extreme emotion, for instead they’re locked in a state of lag with wide eyes.

Though the second wave strikes both of them concurrently as the processing completes. Mary’s stunted face quickly falls into an overwhelming remorse as she sprints forward, the lightning dagger in her hand dissipating into smaller arcs that fizzle with the cloud, tapering away as she cries over the wind.

As her amber hair waves against the high currents, Beagle simply stands in place, as upon first glance it appears he hasn’t made the realization. That’d be far from true though, as while he may not be moving, his expression has changed even if subtly. A silent sorrow washes over him, the glow from his gauntlet’s pistons dimming. His only movements are simple: with his right hand he grabs the top of his face mask and pulls it down like a cloth, revealing his full face with a thick goatee, his mouth shut.

He watches from above as Rezzo bends down and gently places the body on the white snowy floor, to which Mary immediately drops on her knees, heavy streams of tears pouring out her eyes as she sobs profusely, wrapping her arms around the man’s torso in a cold embrace though one she clutches onto tightly. Behind her, Beagle finally begins to move but with slow steps, not strides but rather short struts. Coming to Mary’s side, he stays on his feet but slightly tilts his head down, just staring at the body, unable to even see the face as it’s covered by the hat though perhaps that is for the best. He just stands on the opposite side from Rezzo, whom he glances up to for just a moment, a silent distress written which similarly reflects in his friend’s, anguished even on a hardened face. There’s only one eye, but that eye alone sheds a steady tear, dripping off his chin as he lowers his gaze down, same as Beagle.

The pirate army behind them doesn’t step forward though, instead they keep a distance, most of their faces stuck in loading, stunned by the sight they didn’t deem as possible. Whereas the three grieve in despair over the loss of a human friend, the remainder of the army simply stands perplexed at the defeat of the king of worlds.

From a chaotic soundscape of flaming engines and stormy lightning, the mountaintop isn’t technically quiet, but there’s a solemn atmosphere from the sobs over the gusts. But on the ground, streaks of tears left on the chest scarred in a cross, Mary sharply inhales as she raises her head with a tsunami of burning rage, a blinding glare aimed ahead at the intruders whom her wishes against could only be imagined so cruelly by that face.

That death glare directs past Rezzo and onto the four warriors, one of them being the infamous Exhuman hero who seemed practically unstoppable to any task he embarked on beside an inhuman metal being with sharp claws and a complete lack of a face, her back slightly hunched like a werewolf. However, standing in front of them beside a young woman who still struggles to keep herself steady is that old man in the brown overcoat, his handgun gripped in his right hand, the barrel aimed to the ground. The man doesn’t show any shock, not heavily expressed like Mary’s but not even subtle like Beagle’s, but instead a discontent acknowledgement like Rezzo’s. He wears a gentle frown with sober eyes, his coat flapping in the wind, exposing the purple stains on his black jumpsuit.

Like a vehicle who’s already accelerated to great speeds only now needing to make a sudden turn, Mary’s rage mixes with the flood of conflicting emotions all colliding into her at once. Her teeth stay gritted, her eyes wide in hate yet she pauses herself, frozen in a shock perhaps heavier. Beagle raises his head, his eyes widening at the reveal as his lips part, dazed by the sight of the old friend in such a conflicting position. His hands stay by his side, his body unable to react, his mind just having been hit by one heartbreaking revelation that it struggles to be fed the next.

But as the betrayer slowly begins to stroll towards the three, Mary’s emotions tunnel back into her original state of rage now amplified by the desperate fear of her best friend’s body being approached. She lets out a bellow as she slips her hands out to raise her right in a fist, not having begun the process of summoning electricity yet before the man drops one knee in front of the body, to which she again halts with that befuddlement stricken over her.

One knee down, Ekitai just gazes sorrowfully at the sleeping corpse before placing his thin right hand onto the chest gently as the other three behind him just watch in silence, two of their faces masked but even their longing gaze shows a shared regret.

Rezzo and Beagle standing on opposite ends of the body, and now Mary and Ekitai on the other sides, the four original members circle around the leader who had once brought them all together. Ekitai closes his eyes softly, keeping his hand on the chest in grieving, accepting a loss he so desperately struggled to avoid.

Watching that polarizing action as lost ally becomes revealed betrayer looping back to mourning friend, Mary again finds herself at the tipping point of her emotions which she’s had to continually suspend just before climax several times, unable to sink herself to a medium without finally unleashing it in a strike against Ekitai’s shoulder. However, the strike is not physically damaging as it isn’t even reinforced with her electricity, but instead like a childish hit that isn’t meant to have impact but is rather made for the sake of making it. Her fist locks in followthrough, staying on Ekitai’s shoulder for several seconds before finally raising it up for a followup strike, slamming it back into the shoulder, but this time with even less gravitas as it’s instead more of her dropping her hand down on him, lacking any strength or direction, instead giving up. Her head lowers too, back on her friend as Ekitai raises his before then raising his hand off the chest and similarly placing it on Mary’s shoulder. However rather than the hand being in a tight fist, it is instead open to gently hold her shoulder, breaking apart the avoidant violence which results in the floodgates opening as Mary begins sobbing loudly again.

Standing such that they’re all witness to Mary’s weeping face, Meditat stands still alongside Dana and Kokei, the last of whom frowns with teary eyes. Of course she did not have a history with this man exactly as this was in fact the first time she had properly seen him other than the short moment he was escorted away from the battle, however the overflowing grieving of the person who was formerly her combatant struck her in a chain reaction. Even after having been toyed with, rather belittled for her apparent battle incompetency, a resonation rings between Kokei and the mourner.

Beside her, Meditat watches at a distance similar to the pirate army, also not showing heavy anguish for a reason not too dissimilar. While he did not hold the king to a standard so high that defeat would seem unreasonable or impossible for him, as he was close to neutralizing him just earlier, there was a different bafflement stunning him. He was being begged to aid this man, a man who was being hunted, controlled from the shadows as all he could do was try his best to hold steady. Yet he refused so blatantly, unable to see through his own desire for a fulfilling mission, unable to see past the generality of the pirate’s destruction that he couldn’t dissociate the mass from one person. Alternative realities flicker in Meditat’s head of paths that could’ve been taken had he not been tunnel visioned, paths that would’ve better suited the title of a hero when he had subsided that role for one of a blind warrior simply seeking the defeat of an opponent. One thought runs through his head repetitively, incessantly: How could he have let himself do this?

That thought shakes him to his core as his body begins to quiver, however it’s to an unnatural extent as instead the entire ground begins to tremble which pulls his attention in head shakes.

Kokei stumbles in bewilderment as Dana leans to the right before clenching grip as Meditat shuffles to stabilize himself just like Beagle and Rezzo as both Ekitai and Mary both raise their heads up, the latter’s sobs halting abruptly as the rumbling continues.

Not only the seven, but also the massive congregation of pirates in the back stumble, knocking into each other with grunts, some of them showing disgruntlement towards each other as others show innocent perplexion paired with slight pains. The shaking only grows more intense though, enough that the metal of the colossal train begins to creak, slowly burrowing itself as the snow beneath it sinks.

Just as her emotions were at least able to be let out in one straight direction, Mary gulps in complete befuddlement mixed with anxiety of this strange development, slowly panning her gaze before yelping as from the ground emerge large strange constructs resembling huge tree roots, moving in slithers as the first appears only about fifteen feet next to Mary on the opposite side from the train. The root reaches about twenty feet in the air before arching back down and submerging into the ground, but right after it another bursts from the ground behind it, arching in the opposite direction, this one slightly larger and submerging back into the ground close to Dana who strafes back anxiously. Despite their general shape resembling roots, they lack the color and texture as their bodies are an absolute black though with thin white edges that illuminate in rays, rays like the ones interwoven along the body like the caustics of an ocean, moving smoothly as the entire construct pulsates as if alive. The texture also isn’t like bark but rather a smooth slime, its hardness difficult to gauge as instead it feels like one’s body would simply be pulled inside it rather than stopped by its physical exterior.

A brief pause brings a moment of relief that’s quickly interrupted as from the train’s roof emerges a root vastly larger, this one more akin to the width of a forest tree, one that splinters off multiple smaller roots which arch in different directions before plummeting through the thick metal walls, effortlessly piercing through as multiple more along the group rise, towering high over the army which begins scattering aimlessly in confusion.

Roots rise in quicker succession, growing on the other side of the train too along a line of emergent breaches, curling towards the group in splinters which don’t exactly form enclosures but create the wires of a light perimeter as they stretch wildly. Some of the roots crack through the train walls of the higher floors, slithering in seemingly random directions, though none of them directly crawl towards anyone. Even then, the unsettling nature of the roots pulls Ekitai up to his feet, grabbing Mary’s upper arm and hoisting her too despite her meager attempts to cling for the captain’s body. Ekitai quickly slips his handgun out of his overcoat as Rezzo hovers his hand over the top right hilt in his sheath, not grabbing it but just preparing himself. With the intensity of the shaking, some of the pirates further back fall to the ground, the larger ones bringing comrades with them as others try to evade the chaos, though with a cluster so dense it proves difficult to space out now.

Some of the roots reach high enough that they arch over the group, blocking out strips of sunlight above Meditat who rapidly shifts his glances in an effort to detect the cause, one flame emerging from his shoulder which manifests a small black sphere drone which autonomously levitates higher in the air for reconnaissance. He glances over at Dana who exchanges contact back, both of them showing equal uncertainty behind their respective masks, understanding an evacuation of this scale wasn’t realistic given the covering of the sky, which continues as Meditat’s attention is brought up as the drone is struck by an arching root, not merely pierced through but utterly annihilated, leaving not even debris to drop as the root completes its arc.

Meditat stumbles backwards from the sudden destruction, shaken up from the abrupt direction of events after it seemed a resolution was coming to pass, and as he staggers towards the large rock wall of the peak that the train was originally about to collide with, that entire wall suddenly crumbles as a huge root grows from underneath the surface, the largest of all the roots by several magnitudes, turning the dense rock wall into a pile of large pebbles that fall as the root branches off, though the main stem remains intact rather than splintering. This root towers vastly above Meditat and the train, surpassing the original height of the rock wall and overtaking the peak multiple times taller than the pirate ship. On the ground, the width of the root is far greater than Meditat’s entire body, about five feet in radius like the ones in the forest by the Shield’s fortress, though rather than a protective force of nature it’s instead a perverse threat, the branches stretching far before sinking back into the mountain, many of them planting into the edge of the cliff.

After stumbling forward in avoidance of the main root, Meditat extends his arms to guide Kokei and Dana away as well, though in a few seconds there follows a noticeable lull as after the final branch’s submergence, no other root appears. He stops in place after this realization, slowly panning around to confirm such, leaving him more perplexed by the indescribable events. He faces forward to find the pirates stabilizing their footing after the rumblings stop, Ekitai helping hold Mary steady with his free hand as he glances back at Meditat, the two exchanging concern as the pirates further back help those who fell. Muttering fills the mountaintop, though with the amount of quiet conversations ongoing they all amalgamate into an incoherent bumble, most of which comes further back among the large group of pirates, though Ekitai can be seen muttering to Rezzo with visible apprehension, panning passively. As he gazes towards Meditat’s direction though, his eyes widen and his mouth drops, enough of a message for Meditat to swerve around with a few steps back, raising his arms up to gently push Kokei and Dana away as well.

Facing the way Ekitai was brings Meditat’s gaze back to the largest root, though at the base of it in front of him there is a strange phenomenon as the caustics in the surface begin pulsating uniquely as a strange deep hum emits from a portion of the stem which oddly waves back and forth as if made of vertically standing water. As if the tree is hollowing itself, the portion stretches to nearly the entire width, reaching about fifteen feet in height, starting from the snowy ground. Kokei steps away from the tree, clearly anxious as she frantically glances around to make sure no other roots were having a similar phenomenon, which they weren’t, as all others are still other than the passive movements of the caustics.

As she slowly steps away, Meditat stands his ground although with a cautious stance, slightly bending his knees, his hands curled as if ready to hold any tool he needed to conjure on the spot. Standing still, he watches as the white caustics in the watery slit begin to darken, though not all as instead it seems another shape begins to block the light out, a shape vaguely humanoid in that it has a distinguished pair of legs and arms, torso, and head. The shape however is about ten feet tall with inhumanly broad shoulders, and along those aforementioned humanoid limbs are strange spikes jutting out, just like the ones along the head. The shape doesn’t become larger but it steadily darkens, blocking out the light behind it until it fully blackens, a pure black, reflectionless. SGlzIG1pc3Npb24gc3RhcnRzIG5vdw==

Despite that silhouette appearing embedded in the root’s surface itself, the shadow flashes away abruptly to reveal a samely shaped figure right behind it, though one with solid definition, standing in front of the root, thus it’s as though the figure was revealed in front of the veil instead. That figure has that same towering stature, loosely humanoid though with a bulky shape, one that is reinforced with a strange material resembling a stone like basalt though with a subtle dark green tint, covering the body like an armor composed of separate plates that are placed similar to the muscle groups of a skinless body. The stone is jagged however, not only the surfaces themselves rough but spikes protrude off the body, small pricks along the thighs and upper arms but three large spikes jutting from the knees and forearms where the thickest plating resides, covering the body intimately as the plates align together.

Most of the stone armoring has separation though, revealing a layer beneath, though it’s not a clearly solid surface but rather it resembles the roots in that the base color is an absolute black with bright white caustics that move like those of a sea, alien in nature. Differing from the roots is the lack of apparent texture, for it lacks that slime consistency but instead doesn’t seem like a material at all, the black more like an abrupt dark spot where light fails to illuminate the hollow, that hollow only occupied by those white caustics of a vague energy.

This alien layer resides between the muscle groups of stone armor, though on the torso there is a distinct tilted cut through the center of each breast, leaving two channels along the halved breast plates down the abdomen which perhaps mirrors the capitalized letter ‘Y.’

On the shoulder plating there are two rows of three spikes all pointing up, as all of the jagged edges along the body specifically rise upwards, all directed towards the sky with these shoulder spikes being among the largest. The largest however are the ones mounted on the head, two of them on the sides which rise above the skull like devilish horns, each one by the center protruding a smaller extrusion in the place of subtle sharp ears. While these main horns rise over the head, the surface itself is jagged with countless smaller pricks where hair would be, similar to the trapezius.

A third rises from the forehead, as the armoring on the head doesn’t mimic a face but instead has strips over where each eye would be, a plate covering the jaw, and one shaped like a face mask in that it rises to cover where the nose would be and almost the mouth, though a slit is left between that central plate and the jaw armoring. Rather than having distinguished eyes, there are instead empty sockets in the separation between the plating, vertical channels between the horns and strips between the eyes as well as the horizontal channels between those strips and the face mask plate.

The being just stands in place before finally making a movement, raising one leg up, just to place the foot atop the rubble made of the stone peak that was destroyed moments ago, each foot having five small jags like indirect claws, a posture commanding authority in intimidation as it simply glares down on Meditat, stalking in total silence.

Face to face with this new unnamed entity, Meditat’s cautious stance tells of apprehensive anxiety, having just battled through a tiresome gauntlet which ended with new threats he’s met for the first time in combat he barely scraped through, a simple man who could somehow outmaneuver his Exhuman supremacy, a man with a quiet and meticulous attitude that called for caution in that it always felt that he was determining his next move, two steps ahead. However, there’s a different sense from this new being, a sheer weight of power looming over, an entity who itself is composed of an unknown. There’s a strange resonance at least weighing over Meditat, like a repulsive magnetic force pushing against him, repelling him. The figure itself is inherently intimidating along with the entrance that instilled a sense of antagonization, but there’s an additional fear triggered specifically in the man being stared at, one that feels innate, a primal instinct in the way humans fear the dark by nature. A deeply unsettling feeling, all resonating from this one silent entity.

About a minute after just the last battle against the mysterious assassin, after landing on this new world, and somehow there was already another predator looming over, likely the controller of those large roots that tore apart the train and enclosed the group, defining this being as a potential next threat. The remarkable speeds of this entrance felt off-putting, and the absence of the Hunter at a moment when he could’ve been the one to appear for an additional round gave the idea that perhaps these two were allied, as this entrance felt coordinated given just how sudden it was. That alliance though made little sense when factoring in Ekitai’s description of the former Ookami clan leader, one who led non-Exhuman pirates, a clan that seemed reclusive in nature. Alternatively, the train’s great size combined with its bombastic landing might’ve sprung an alert that could be trailed by an irrelevant third party, and considering the reputation of the party who owned the train as the largest pirate crew in the Rim, there were likely other enemies waiting for a chance to strike. Even then, even acknowledging the vast diversity of those who live amongst the hundred worlds, along with the acknowledgement that there was lack of an experiential catalog of pirates, this being still didn’t feel like a pirate, not like some perverse man seeking pleasures and grandeurs at dangerous expenses of others, there was instead a different intimidation that superseded simple greed or excitement. Running through the various observations: the immediate swapping of hostiles after the immediate landing on this planet from an ominous entity of unknown origin, finding a theory that felt at least adequate was a challenge Meditat was faltering in. The past few hours of events were so chaotic that it seemed trying to use reason from the past only made the present more perplexing. The only apparent truth was that safety had yet to be achieved even after those arduous battles.

First an army of pirates, about half being Exhumans and the other half armed with weapons of all variations, then the leader who could manipulate his body into any weapon regardless of size, then a silent assassin who moved faster than what could be perceived, every swing of the blade potentially fatal, and now there’s another standing right in front of him, barging in after what felt like the conclusion of this long, perhaps misdirected mission.

However, as the breeze plays with the long chainmail silk cape, it’s certain that the mission isn’t truly over, and a new being with a threatening presence has approached both Meditat’s team and the pirate crew who were clearly shaken up and afraid. A gentle sigh of fatigue passes over Meditat, but afterwards he makes his determination, bending his knees slightly more in preparation for a leaping charge as he leans on one foot, the thigh of which begins to flare up in compartmentalization of propulsive energy. As long as there was danger, he had to stay primed, for he could not allow another fatality when he had the power to prevent it. His palms and fingers begin emitting azure flames, dancing freely in the initial state before they can then be reshaped and forged into the first weapons of this encounter.

In reaction to the defensive decision, the entity doesn’t move its body, not to retreat or physically engage, it just stands in place, staring down at the man who had come to his decision. An elusive detail occurs in that the caustics behind the eye sockets begin to swell up, converging on those two points which flares brighter, but just as that flare is registrable, a Zmxhc2ggb2YgYmxhY2sgZGFya25lc3MgZmxpY2tlcnMgZm9ydGg=

Just as Meditat launches his feet off the ground in his first strike, those feet along with his entire body immediately vanishes in a black flash, the man’s suit and body utterly decimated, leaving only his masked head and half of his neck thrusted in the air, the intricate chains of the hood simply detached from where the cape was, a clean cut through the golden guard of the neck. The decapitated head rolls in the air, the entire body destroyed in an instant, all in front of the horrified gazes behind.

Kokei’s pink eyes are wide open with her jaw dropped, shaken in horror from the devastating view of her leader in front of her.

Ekitai’s yellow eyes are widened with his jaw hanging, petrified from the sudden sight of his ally beheaded before him.

Dana’s body jolts backwards as her gaze locks in, staggered from the unexpected image of the powerful friend mutilated in front of her.

On her blank metallic face casts the reflection of that friend’s head flung in the air amongst the white sky, pitching in a spin, revealing the upside down white mask staring back though with black parallelogram visors. That reflection mirrors her tracking gaze, carefully moving with his pruned head.