Chapter 18
Black Hearts
I stood before a face consisted of only a pair of eyes, with two cogs of irises and wires as eyelashes, staring more into what was supposed to be the whites of the eyes, only to find vast, endless galaxies spread across the cogs, I tired approaching, but a voice pulled me back away from the mesmerizing sight.
"Commander, COMMANDER ZURBAN, CAN YOU HEAR ME? COMMANDER!"
My eyes shot open to the screams of Jake, my first officer, I gave strict orders not to be bothered while sleeping, unless it's a life or death matter.
All that filled my mind, aside from the weird dream of the eyes is…
A disaster has happened.
My hearts started to beat faster than normal, making me ease my berating and massage my chest with two of my tentacles, the other eight already putting on the uniform.
"What is it, Jake? I hope this is urgent or your head will be o-"
"It's here commander, it's here, and it's tearing out our fleet"
My hearts started banging again, I sped up as fast as I could, probably breaking my record time reaching the bridge, and the beating nearly stopped completely to death when I saw it, the bioship was already here, but far from what the tower report described it, this one was more… mature.
"what is … T-that!" I gasped as I saw the colossal black monstrosity staring at the bridge, ignoring the hail of cannons firing at it, the bullets just entered its hull as if it was dough, not even a scratch should be seen.
A huge frame the size of a giga-crop building ending with a head that belonged to some kind of animal or lizard from tropical planets, four yellow eyes with a black slit on each side, brimming with terrifying intelligence.
Four huge wings sprung from its back followed by another set to help it maneuver like a fish in water with the help with a large set of tails twisted together like a braid, I've never seen a ship move like that in my life, each wing had several cannons erected on its span, able to fire in multiple directions at once.
The bioship actually had a mouth so large it could fit several battleships, munching several of the defending robots we bought from Neo-Tokyo a few years ago, these were supposed to be top of the line sentinels, fully armed with laser and plasma blades, with supporting shoulder cannons for long range maneuvers.
"Report!" I tried to steel myself, panicked decisions would be fatal now.
" 550 fighters, 232 battleships, 101 Mechs, 85 cruisers, 53 destroyers, and- "
"T-The Frigates? Where are they?" a Surrian like me should not be sweating, unlike skin based creatures, we don't have sweat glands, but I felt like I was drowning in my own nonexistent sweat, my hearts beating at its maximum again, nearly bursting from my chest.
"I-It ate them a few minutes ago…" replied jack with a stupefied tone, like me, everyone else on the Cube61 defense bridge, all eyes and sensory organs, are directed to the monstrosity holding the hundred meters long Neo-Tokyo mechs in his frontal hands like a baby playing with toy mechs.
"Ion cannon" I muttered, ignoring the screams of the pilot on the comms, hoping that is just a bad dream that will just go away, but Jake heard me, he's one of the brighter ones of the numerous humans occupying the cube.
"98% sir, 22 seconds to fire" I just nodded at my first officer, praying that our most powerful attack, capable of ending entire planets, would at least drive it away.
"99%"
Ignoring the loss report, the bioship already eradicated most of the fleet, I didn't care, this was a dream I kept lying to myself, and the few seconds till the cannon recharged passed like years.
"Ready si-"
"FIRE, FIRE FIRE FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" I lost control of myself, shooting the order out of my lung like a maddest of Surrians.
NO, it noticed. It matters not, for its size, it shouldn't be able to avoid the cannon.
The bioship stopped playing around, tossing what few ships it held into its mouth with the other ones in the metal grinding teeth.
It focused on where the cannon was, the cannon tip was already white as the beam formed, hope started crawling in our hearts, but...
The bioship opened its mouth unrealistically wide like it was going to swallow the Ion beam, but what we saw that day made me realize, this was no bioship. No, it was not a ship in the first place.
This was a primordial being from the abyss of the universe, like the ones our parents scared us with to sleep when we were children.
Fire, I saw fire, white fire, in open space, erupting from the creature's mouth, meeting the beam and devouring it whole. This was no dream, this was no movie or fantasy, this was a reality, a reality of a monster from the deep uncharted space, ready to devour the universe itself.
I looked beside me at Jake, who formed a small puddle of urine under his shaking legs, he was useless at that moment, so I tried to search for anyone whose heart wasn't clearly audible on the bridge, but none were found, so I had to speak directly to the bridge's AI.
"T809, try contacting it" it was a last resort, I already gave up moments ago as I saw half the defense premises burning, bathing in the white fire for kilometers away.
A few seconds passed, and I found myself on my knees, looking at the same pair of eyes from my dream, words refusing to leave my throat, letting the owner of the eyes allowing herself to initiate the one-sided conversation.
"We will enter the cube, and no even an insect will dare to approach" She spoke, an imposing, otherworldly voice that made whoever was lucky enough to hear it just obey its owner.
I found myself nodding, despite the fact that I should be the one refusing, but that voice, those eyes, they didn't belong to a living being, those were ones that belong to a higher being, a goddess perhaps? Like the Immortal at the top of the tower?
"E-Excu-"
Her irises moved on the screen, expecting me to release what I just choked on.
"W-who a-a-are, w-what are you?"
The eyes started to fade as the black monster started to move, but the goddess granted my wish of knowledge with a word I didn't fully understand.
"Pantharax"
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***Adam POV***
"You look like shit, Khe kh- Cough Cough" I joked despite the fact that I knew I was dying, she ignored me so I pressed on.
"Why the long face Eve? We killed him" Words barely left my mouth, lying down on my back, not even a muscle obeying my brain to move, the only things that were allowed to function are my speech and my blurry vision, what just happened a few hours ago was beyond anything I've ever experienced. I actually won, but the price was very high.
"One of my daughters just died, what do u expect" she didn't even look at my husk of a body, just kept caressing the hair of the human torso in her arms. It belonged the woman who accompanied the man we just killed after a fight that lasted god know for how long, Lyona was her name as I recalled.
"You look tired Eve, why don't you go back and rest, u already reverted back to the six years old loli you once were when I first met you" I jokingly teased her again, expecting her to glare or spit back at me like she always did, but she simply nodded her head with sorrow.
"guess you're right, you should rest as well, you look like a sack of bones covered with skin"
"Yeah! Guess that's it for me anyway"
"They're here!" she pointed at the incoming wave of Noran mages accompanied by a dozen or so guards, she was already fading back into my head after gently putting the body back on the floor.
"Hah! I guess even a psych attack would work on my in this state, fuck you dude!" I weakly wheezed, staring daggers at the mangled corpse of the black giant I just beat, or to be exact, the billion years old gang of dinosaurs did.
"He's here!" one of the guards pointed as he reached me first.
"By the gods what happened here, where did all these creatures come from?" the man who looked like the leader of this squad gasped with wide blue eyes.
"Sir, he's alive" the soldier removed his fingers back from my neck and wore his gloves.
The lead black Noran mage ignored the tons of dead meat and blood littering the ground after glancing at the mushy corpse of an immortal and switched his gaze to me.
"you're alive and awake" he clapped his hands a few times "and you even killed an immortal, something that even the Alliance wouldn't even dare to think of" he stopped and pondered for a few seconds before he saw what I held in my hand.
"And what's that you're holding? An eye?"
"Loot" the word barely came audible.
"Loot? did you obtain it by killing the Immortal? Interesting!"
He turned back from me, not interested anymore and ordered his troops.
"Take whatever he's carrying and finish him, physical bullets to the brain, no psychic attacks" he knew me, and he knew my strengths and weaknesses, Noran intel was terrifying.
Oh well, I don't really care anymore My vision was getting blurrier as my conscious started to fade.
The soldier approached and unclicked something in his weapon, and as soon as his finger touched the trigger…
*Whissssssh*
His head was replaced by a speeding crimson bullet the size of a bowling ball, the bullet didn't fade, taking out five more lives before settling in the metallic wall and dispersing.
"Wha-" I heard the leader's shocked voice as a golden blue crossed my shutting eyes, an angry roar that consisted or something like "By Gola you shall-" along with other angry curses.
Oh, how long have I longed to hear your voice again big buddy.
And in the end, my death probably wasn't meant to be that day.
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***Saido POV***
We arrived at the tower as the AI on Mahaar's huge PDA described, it was a total mess, everything was in ruin.
"Are you sure Adam is here?" I asked the AI on Mahaar's arm.
"Yes"
"Which floor?"
"Top"
Climbing the tower judging from the height would take months, but luckily, we were flying even above the tower, and in a few minutes, Me, Mahaar, and Ryola were speeding up like a bullet shot from Pantharax's mouth protected by the womb, something that took me a while to get used to without emptying my stomach.
We hit the roof, the destruction was immense, so we found ourselves a hold to climb down, but as soon as our eyes met him, something in my brain clicked, an unexplainable rage engulfed my very being, and it seems that I wasn't alone, Ryola was already shooting, and Mahaar charging the soldiers like a falling meteor.
"Ignis and Lapis, Magma Spike" in the past year, I've trained and trained, and my cosmic control skyrocketed, along with all the six of my elements, now I could even raze that tower if I had enough time.
Before the spike could Impale the ones, I targeted, Mahaar had already finished most of the controllers, this guy always defies my reasoning, how could a bulky monster like him move that fast?
As the last of the soldier's head flew, Mahaar dashed to Lord Adam, ignoring the fact that the floor is littered with thousands of corpses, or limbs of strange creatures that one can find on a primitive, remote tropical planet.
What the hell, is he Crying?
"Adam, please, say something, Cordi, is he alive? Please, fix him like you always do" The Grokati raised his PDA and urged the AI, who in turn didn't waste any time and started doing her thing.
After Lord Adam saved me, my sight and hearing didn't return, however, I can feel cosmic power and waves as clear as the day, a new world opened for me, I can see emotions, elements, even data in the form of wavelengths, I was by every possible way, a thousand times better than the normal Noran in terms of sight and hearing.
The AI stated that she can't enter the device in his head as it might kill him, I detected a twist in the waves that were coming out in her voice, she was lying, I never trusted AI in my life anyway.
We carried Lord Adam back to the ship using Ventus, took me a while to convince the boneheaded brute that he might break something if he carried Lord Adam himself, so to shut him up, we let him carry the sphere Lord Adam was carrying, a sphere that contained some preserved creature's eye.
As soon as we reached Pantharax, I shiver ran down my spine, the ship was also angry, and a huge toothless maw emerged from a nearby wall and devoured Lord Adam whole in one gulp, Instantly, the Grokati turned golden and was ready to punch the wall open, but stopped by the AI.
The maw disappeared with Lord Adam, and in its place, was a holovision of hundreds of Helpaxes delicately carrying him into some weird place that looked like the womb room by greener, where he was covered by strange green wiry membrane, similar to the womb yet looked more comfortable.
"His fat percentage is less than 0.5%, muscle mass is worse, basically his body lacks any kind of energy, so Pantharax is sharing its energy with him, don't worry Mahaar" the AI stated, trying to calm down the giant staring the screen like a child eyeing candy.
Ryola, on the other hand, never stopped staring at the sphere in Mahaar's hand, her weapon faintly pulsing in a purple hue.
We kept checking on Lord Adam for three days until the day his eyes finally opened.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
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***Adam POV***
I woke up to find myself enveloped in some kind of goo with wires running through it, my whole body aching like I just ran two marathons in a row.
“W-where am I?” I murmured, and was answered with a gaping opening on one of the walls, with numerous rows of teeth the size of my legs coming out from the sides, a tongue shot forth and picked me up from the goo, and another started licking my face like a dog that just met its owner after a few years.
“Ohahaha, Phanthyyy, I missed you too buddy”
It kept me hanging in the air, wrapped by one of its tongues while others showing affection by filling my face with drool.
“Can u take me to my friends?”
*Shaaa*
A door opened, showing the trio, I’ve longed to see for a year, the quiet Ryola looking at me with teary eyes, the newest member of our band, descending down from his flight and assuming a kneeling position of which I raised my palm for him to stop.
“Where’s MahAAAHAAAAAAAA- WAI-”
*BOOM*
“AAADAAMMMM!”
*Crack*
“BY GOLA, I MISSED YOU SOOO MUCH”
*Crack*
“M-Mahaar, ehehe, you got bulkier I see” I didn't’ want to alarm him that my bones are cracking from his bear hug, he seemed so happy to see me and I didn’t want to ruin the moment.
Leaning forward across his broad shoulders, I extended my hand and patted him “I missed you too buddy”
A few min passed, along with a few dislocated bones that I quickly took care of, I check my vision to see that the GUI was gone, it was really different.
“Cordi!”
“Yes Adam” her voice echoed from the black PDAs across my companion’s arms, the walls, along with a drawing of her supposed eyes that looked very strange yet somewhat appealing.
“Why aren’t you inside?”
A few seconds passed without her replying, until her voice started to echo again, but cut short by the squinting Saido.
“Don’t lie”
Lie?
And she paused again, probably calculating why he said that, or why am I raising a surprised hairless eyebrow.
“She refused to let me in again” She quietly said, with a low tone that reflected a bit of sadness, or shame.
“I see” I didn’t elaborate, intending to ask why Eve blocked her out of my head, but a thought covered my mind and made my heart skip a beat.
“The Eye, where is -” I felt where my pocket supposed to be, only to find myself butt naked, I felt my body looking left and right like an idiot who lost a keychain, searching for my supposed ... loot.
“Right here, Master” a deep voice I didn’t really recognize, came from behind me.
“Oh, thank god I didn’t los- HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!!!” I fully turned to see the owner of this voice, a two and a half meters creature holding a spear in one hand, and the eye in another.
It was well built and full of lean muscles, two long legs that ended with clawed feet, a simple, white robe covered his greyish, furry body, his arms were the same as his legs, long, muscly, and ending with five clawed fingers, his head was… his head was that head of a dog, long snout, dog ears, doggy eyes, dog everything, and what stamped the seal of dog in my head, is his tail, profusely wiggling so hard it could kill a man, indicating that the dog-headed creature was extremely happy for some reason.
Did he just call me master?
But what really made the hairs on my body stand out, was his presence, it was absolutely terrifying. This … whatever the heck it is, was unrealistically powerful, probably even more powerful than the dark Numen I just fought with.
I was thinking on how should I approach this complicated situation, until a golden blur tore out my robes of thoughts.
“YOU FILTHY THIEF. HOW DARE YOU STEAL ADAM’S POSSESSIONS”
In just a moment, Mahaar had moved over a hundred meters in one go, his fist already a couple of centimeters away from the creature’s face.
*woosh*
Mahaar was flying, his eyes as wide as his disappearing grin. I myself had no idea what the creature did, in a moment Mahaar was charging it and in the next, he’s stuck to one of the walls like a squashed mosquito. The dog-headed creature spoke again as he started to slowly walk in my direction.
“Good to see you too, Asura”
A sound of something charging, followed by a HUGE ball of red energy flying at him, I focused back to see Ryola holding an unrealistically large bazooka that can only be seen in comedic cartoons, red smoke coming out of its tip after releasing the ball of energy which hit the creature’s side and dissipated, it just shrugged off and continued the walk.
“You too Artemis, Xa-0”
The nonchalant dog just brushed where the bullet hit him, looked back at me, but Ryola didn’t allow it, activating her Oojin and appearing again before him, holding Zao as a gigantic axe.
*Cling*
Holy shit
My jaw dropped as I saw it block it with one finger, and with just a claw.
“Please, I just came here to talk” he calmly stated as he pushed her effortlessly with the finger he blocked with, sending her flying as well, along with her buzzing weapon.
He was like fifty meters away when Saido flew and landed in front of me, all the six orbs spinning in a perfect circle, the air around him compressed so much I found it hard to breathe.
“Elemental Harmony ac-”
“Stand down Saido, it’s alright, I’ll handle this” I put my hand on his shoulder, stopping him completely, the orbs stopped spinning and went back on his head, forming back his colorful crown.
“Yes, Lord Adam, I trust your judgment” he walked up to the creature that I was pretty sure that if it wanted to kill all of us in a moment, it would be as little effort as swatting a fly to him.
“If you even dared to look at him in a way I didn’t like, I swear that I will end your pathetic life before you even bark in pain. You hear me, Araki?” The crazy half Noran just flew at the dog, hovering a few meters above it, with the look I was already used to see from him. He just looked at people as if he wanted to spit on their faces in disgust, truly amusing to be honest.
“I will keep your warning in mind Tian Gong, it’s good to see you again as well”
The Dog, man, whatever he was, stood a few meters across me until the ship finally made its appearance.
Five maws opened all around the Black Dog, and it moved to devour him completely, of which I doubted even Pantharax could do anything to him.
*Sniff*
The teeth retracted and the Tongues shout forth, licking the Dog as if it was licking me, increasing my confusion a hundredfold.
“Ahahaha, Pantharax, how are you? Ooo you still so young and cute, ahahahh”
The dog laughed, showing off his finger sized, razor-sharp set of teeth, his tail now whirling even faster as he started playing with the tongues, but he realized that I was still watching and quickly got back to his composed self.
“Ahm! Sorry about that, Master”
He was about two heads taller than myself, so I was surprised when he reached me and kneeled, his spear lays down on the ground, and his hand presenting me a crimson eyeball slightly larger than a ping-pong ball.
“I apologize for stealing it, but the seal around it required a large amount of energy to break, and I doubted any of you could break it, maybe the Jade Emperor could, but it would put his life at risk, so I had to do it myself” he stated as I picked up the eyeball, examining it while trying to process what just happened in the past few minutes.
“Is it really hers” I didn’t waste any time and asked him, pointing a finger at the now-recovered, approaching for a second round Ryola.
“Yes Master, to be exact, it’s XA-0’s, but you can also say that all of them are connected somehow, I’m sure you will understand soon”
I looked at the eager Ryola, then at the Eye, then back at the Dogman, and asked a question that should have been my first.
“Who are you?”
“I am your humble servant, Lord Primus, the soul harvester, the balance keeper, and one of the two of your servants that were spared from the cycle
I am …
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In one of the dark corners of the universe, three dark figures with humanoid shapes if you took out the extravagantly long heads, a figure that looked riddled with body fat, feeding on something that sounded like a bone, the other looked like a small boy, and the third one, who seemed like the one with the most authority had normal Numen height and shape.
They sat watching a video feat, it showed a figure quite similar to them, standing across the room from him, a man with a much shorter frame, and head, a man they recognized well, it was the man that agonized them for trillions of years, a man called … Primus.
“You think 304 can kill him?”
“Yes”
“Let’s see then”
They spoke in an unrealistic sequence as if it was a single person speaking to himself.
“304 sent a message to the generals on Sol, he thinks an Ion cannon can take out the World Eater’s white fire!”
“Stupid!”
“Stupid indeed, 304 is stupid, stupid, 304 stupid”
“Shut up and watch!” The one in the middle ushered the other two to stop their talk and watch the feed quietly.
“So harsh”
“Yes, harsh harsh 31, you are always no fun”
“66 I told you this is important if he got out of the cube, I’m sure he will meet with Obsession, and when that happens, he will inform him of the location of Lust and Envy”
“Didn’t we already kill Lust?”
“We did!”
“Oh yes, we did, best night in my life”
“Yes, it was soooo hot”
“But we killed it nonetheless”
“And Envy?”
“Nope, he killed every single one we sent to his domain, so we stopped sending people there. If Primus dies, Envy dies as well, so no need to waste any more resources”
“Yes, we did, but the Problem is, it can’t really be killed, you already know that so shut up, the fight is about to start”
“Oh, 304 took out his dark Tractus”
“Every time I look at her, I sigh at how weak 304 is”
Moments later, the trio gasped in unison at sight they knew it happened, but they were so excited that their black hearts started beating harder than usual.
“EVE”
“EEEEVEEEE”
“EVE EVE EVE EVE EVE”
“The bane of our existence”
“Die Eve DIEEEEEEEEEEE”
“I HATE YOU”
“Why does she look like a human child?”
“I don’t know!”
“She’s still weak, as weak as the reincarnation hosting her”
“I know, but why does she appear like a child?”
“Don’t know”
“SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU!”
“31, meanie”
It took a mere moment for 304 to end the weaker Primus.
“Already done?”
“Bah! no fun”
“I thought he’d put some kind of resistance”
“66, close the feed”
“Wait!” The leader, 31 as the other two called him, put his hand to stop 66 from closing the feed, as he squinted his eyes at something the other two didn’t bother focusing on.
“Why isn’t he falling down?”
“...”
“...”
“He’s mutating”
“W-What’s that?”
“Hahahaha, how amusing”
“Dinosaurs?”
“How?”
“Damned Exorians”
“Damn Exorians, damn them, damn them, damn damn damn”
“SHUT UP!” The one in the middle roared, his eyes burning with rage at the sight of him on the screen.
A gigantic forty meters abomination, a large oval head riddled with reptile eyes, a snout ending with a mouth that consisted of nothing but jagged teeth. A large hunched frame with limbs coming out of everywhere, with knife-sharp claws that could split a man in two, several spiky tails with the same sharp bones covering the back on the creature.
Several legs and arms riddled its lower part, it didn’t even look like a living thing, it was like several creatures put together in a blender, a true abomination of nightmares.
“An uncontrolled mutation”
“So, she self-destructed?”
“No, he should have died, his brain would have spilled where he stood”
“So?”
“She just shut down”
“Can 304 take him?”
“Yes, it’s nothing but a mere tumor of creatures”
“Watch!”
The creature fell down on the ground as 304 raised an eyebrow saying that all that show was for nothing.
But the creature suddenly raised several of his limbs and dipped them into the ground, 304 didn’t notice what happened, assuming that the creature had no control over its body, but he was wrong.
The limbs erupted from beneath 304 and lashed at him with its clawwy tip, but in a blur, all the limbs were cut off, wiggle on the ground like fish out of the water.
“Is that all you can d-, OH?!” the creature unnaturally moved its body like a snake, slithering with insane speed at 304, then it jumped out, trying to crush him under its weight, but he simply kicked the air, removing the entire lower half of the creature in a single move, it fell with a crash behind him.
“Cute” he turned back at his Tractus “Lyona, are you done ye- LYONA!!!”
His eyes widened as he saw a giant claw, coming out of the ground beside her, piercing her stomach so hard her torso was nearly separated from the lower one, the other little girl panting on the ground, gradually losing the black creep that almost dyed her entirely.
304 started losing his cool, his face turning even darker than it was, he gritted his teeth and glared at the tired Eve.
“YOU, YOUUU WILL PAAAAAAAY” a roar that shook the entire floor left his mouth, as he dashed at the weakened child.
*Crash*
A tail found its way to his face, but the 304 was much quicker, cutting off the tail without even averting his eyes from Eve, but what he didn’t see, that the tail hid a kick to the stomach behind it, a hit finally landed on 304 pushing him a few meters back.
“...”
His eyes widened as a trail of black blood left his mouth, the tail he just cut wiggling on the metallic floor two more tails sprung forth from where it was. The creature just regenerated its lost limbs with even more limbs, and each time it replaced it, it evolved, spikes, armored chitins, and exoskeletons, sharper claws and teeth.
The giant 304 went instantly back to its old calm dementor, but he looked very serious this time.
“I underestimated you, Primus, please forgive me” he fixed his posture and raised his palm backward, “Come!”
The creature didn’t waste any time and jumped the man again.
Fourteen hours had passed, and the trio’s eyes didn't move from the screen, limbs beyond count filled the floor, heads, tails, entrails, arms, feet, bones, spikes, and thousands of gallons of blood everywhere.
What remained was a shrunken down version of the abomination, that was finally taking a recognizable shape, ahead with a long bloody mouth of black and red with several broken teeth, several small holes that served as a nose, followed by a long horn that sat firmly under a half dozens of eyes, each of them moving on its own like the creature had more than one brain to control them.
A pair of long arms that extended to its feet, and he could extend them further and move them like a snake, he was hunched a little with a back full of numerous bony spikes that extended from his upper back to the tip of his bulky tail that was covered with a pair of a pair of gigantic, leathery bat-like wings. His thighs were more like tree trunks ending with strong feet that were the color of his all body, the entire creature was painted black and red, from all the blood that has been spilled, the limbs that were lost.
*pant* *pant* *pant*
“Hah, Hah, Hah, So, Oojin. Not bad, hah, hah”
on the other side, stood a nearly three-meter human, with a long head and a body that have seen better days, way better to be exact. He was bitten everywhere to the point that entire chunks of his body were missing, half of his face swollen while the rest full of scratch marks.
If one focused on his body, he would find that a good chunk of his bones were shattered or dislocated, but despite all that, the man didn’t show any signs of wavering or pain, like he didn’t even know the concept of pain or lost the nerves responsible for it.
“Shall we?” he taunted the creature, and was successful, as the creature blurred and appeared behind him, but he in turn disappeared, and mockingly appeared behind the creature, who in turn flapped his wings to evade the giant, but he caught them before the creature could take off, and in a single motion the creature was wingless, the man just tossed the wings like it was garbage, he probably got used to severing limbs and erupted blood fountains by now.
The creature just felt where the wings were with his hand, and without any facial expressions, a new pair erupted on its back in a bloody mess, at the cost of the creature thinning a tiny bit, barely visible to the keenest of eyes.
“I think it's time to finish this” the man weakly said. 304 was probably, the same as the creature he’s fighting, at his limit.
He gritted his teeth, and numerous shackles shot out of his chest, the creature didn’t waste time himself and charged the man as well, as the two clashed together, a dust storm erupted around them.
*Cough, Cough Cough*
Blood, the color of the night slid across the monster’s face. The man grinned as he watched the headless, body of the monster collapse, the man knew he also was done for, the severed head clinging on his throat with its massive teeth, along with the horn that went through his jaws, several inches into his brain.
The three meters 304 fell on his knees, the collateral attack may have cost him his life, but he finally got rid of the enemy of his masters. His eyes started closing as his mangled, torn out body fell down motionlessly in a pool of black blood.
“F-Finally…” the smaller of the figures spoke first.
“That was, amazing” the fat one went after
“...” the third one, the leader, stood silently, eyes fixed on the screen, looking at the severed head still clinging to 304’s throat.
“31? Are you ok?”
“Yaay, this cycle is ours, there is no Primus, woohoo”
“31?”
“31, why are you shivering?”
“Look, 66, over there, The head”
The three pairs of eyes widened up and their backs formed a cold sweat. out of the severed head, a spinal cord was forming, followed by a complete, modified skeletal structure of humanoid figure like Primus’s original evolution.
“No”
“No way”
“...”
Veins started extending from the head, followed by blood vessels, the muscles formed, blood started running, organs started to appear one after another, and in less than fifteen minutes, an extremely thin, weakened version of Primus was formed, then the first breath was taken from the newly formed lungs, as if a new life was given to the man, the dinosaur-like face fell down, replaced by his original DNA structure .
He couldn’t move, but a pair of tiny hands which looked no stronger than his, picked up his feet and started dragging him away, his eyes barely open, the layers still forming inside it.
“Send the nearest touched squad to finish the job this weakling failed to do, also we must retrieve the Eye of Artemis before it goes back to her, it was a mistake entrusting that idiot with such a precious relic” 31 gritted his black teeth as he ordered the other two.
“Yes”
“Right away”
With a thought from the child-like figure, a quad of touched ones, accompanied by an elite guard unit started to move into the tower as another screen lit in front of the figures, projecting the massacre of Pantharax destroying the Cube’s defense army, who agreed to let the monster pass through into the Cube’s inner skies.
The squad quickly arrived to the scene where the near-dead Primus was, but before they could
Finish the job, the cavalry has arrived, painting images of anger on the shady figures faces.
“Wrath” the fat one, the one they called 66 bellowed as the golden death ball started rolling on the unsuspecting soldiers.
“Ugh! Gluttony” the child spat in disgust as the Laireen started taking out the squad one after another like shooting ducks on a breezy day.
The leader kept his silence until he saw the flying Saido bathing the soldiers in lava spikes, his brows furrowed in a terrifying frown as he slammed a stone table before them, shattering it into a near dust state.
“PRIDE”
He hated the flying half Noran for a particular reason only he knew about, the man called 31 left the room through a large window, flying into a nearby moon in a wave of rage.
“He’s really mad”
“Indeed, he is”
“Stupid 304, stupid, stupid stupid”
The remaining dup watched as the squad completely decimated by the appearance of Primuses generals.
The generals headed back to the World Eater, as the dark figure called it after the Grokati picked up Primus, and all that left was a bath of blood, organs, dead pieces and limbs of creatures of old, the dead remains of the squad, and the corpse of the man that was once a devoted follower of Primus, along with his Tractus.
“Close the feed,” the fat figure told the child
“Hold on, look”
“Nooo, he’s also here?” the fat 66 hissed as they saw a furry foot of a large humanoid canine, approaching the scene, crouching down near 304’s mangled corpse.
“Amplify the speakers”
“...”
“66?”
“...”
“SIXTY-SIX!”
“Obsession” 66 had a stupified, angry glare at the man on the screen.
“....”
“The filthy dog that has been protecting him all this time”
“That is not the time for him. Now, Amplify the speakers”
The two watched as the dog-headed man kneeled and put his hand on 304’s face, closing his milky white dead eyes.
“May your souls finally rest in peace, sir Octoginta, lady Lyona” the dog-headed man then turned to the source of the feed, making the duo look at each other.
“He will come for you as well, I promise you that your souls, along with your Tractuses, will be free”
“WE SHALL SEE! DOG” a voice came from behind the two, indicating that the man called 31 was back, the moon where he left off to was turned into mere small chunks of rocks.
The two looked back at the one that their leader just called dog, to see him still staring at the screen for a few seconds, until he finally spoke again with a clear, much sharper, threatening voice, as if was especially speaking to 31, out of all the millions of figures watching the feed across the universe.
“I know you are watching, the Jade Emperor is becoming stronger with each passing day, and eventually he will come to save his best friend, Primus own brother, you, Lord Karido
31 flared in anger, he opened his mouth, showing his pitch-black teeth and roared on top of his lungs
“AAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNUUUUUUUUUUUUBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS”