‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’
Every second, an array of colorful lights explodes in the sky above Shaun's head, making him wince. Occasionally, a stray shot or two slams into the giant, translucent white wall in front of him, causing it to flicker in and out.
Shaun shakes his head and blinks furiously. His hands tremble as he holds them out in front of him. On the sleeve of his armor is a badge with a hawk-like symbol embedded into the fabric.
“Penny, how much longer!?” Shaun shouts through gritted teeth as several shots crash against the wall again. “I don’t think Lilith can hold it off much longer alone!”
A humanoid figure suddenly rushes in from the side where the wall isn’t present, its long tongue dragging behind it with purple, slimy tentacles outstretched. Barely glancing at the creature, Shaun waves his hand dismissively.
‘Bam!’
The zombie-like undead slams himself mindlessly against the wall, creating a slight crack on the surface.
Up close, it's a horrifying sight—what was once an actual, conscious being; a human. Tentacles now sprout where his arms should be, wiggling and pulsating with every movement. The bottom half of his jaw is missing, the hinges appearing burned off, likely during the turning process that the now mindless creature had endured and lost.
‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’
As the undead continues his barrage, banging what’s left of his arms against the wall, the tentacles on his body begin to twitch and bend in unnatural ways rapidly.
‘Crack!’ ‘Cwrek!’ ‘Crack!’
The noises made by the tentacles attract several other undead, each with some form of tentacle growth and the same blank, almost soulless look in their eyes.
“Penny, how much longer!?” Shaun shouts through gritted teeth as several shots crash against the wall. “I don’t think Lilith can hold them off much longer alone!”
‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’
Finally finishing off her opponent, Penny turns to see several undead starting to surround them. The blonde takes a deep breath as a blue, mist-like energy flows along her arms.
“We need to hold out until Yisk is done,” Penny says coldly as the blue mist begins to take the shape of pistols. “The process is complicated, he said.”
‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’
Several of the undead immediately fall to the first series of shots. A few manage to duck in time, their bodies pushed down by the tentacles.
“Easier said than done,” Shaun snaps before taking a deep breath. “Just because these Essevians are mindless doesn’t make them any less dangerous. We’re lucky they haven’t sent in ones that are higher tier.”
Penny’s eyes light up with neon blue as she turns her gaze toward a pile of debris. “He says to give him five more minutes.”
Shaun can’t help but roll his eyes, a rare display for the usually calm and patient soldier. He briefly glances back at Penny, giving her a look through narrowed eyes.
As the battle continues, Shaun’s face slowly turns pale, and sweat begins to trickle down his back.
‘BAM!’
Shaun swivels his head just in time to see a tsunami of dirt raining down on the walls he’s using as shields. The dirt and debris gradually slide down the surface of the walls, revealing a gigantic hole in the ground where another woman with blonde hair lies.
The woman has two black horns sprouting from the top of her head. Her skin is an almost sickly white, except for her arms. From the mid-length to the tips of her fingers, her arms have a blackened, somewhat charred, metal-like appearance. Her nails are sharp, pointy claws that resemble miniature daggers.
“Ugh,” the woman groans as she rubs her temples. “And to think I dressed up this morning.”
“Lilith!” Shaun shouts, almost dispelling the shields completely. “Are you okay?”
Lilith slowly shakes her head with a tired smile on her face. As she starts to get up, two comically large wings become visible on her back.
“You should see the other guy,” Lilith says, slowly approaching them. “I give Serena quite the runaround before one of the almighty commanders finally comes down and takes the phony out herself.”
Lilith winces, suddenly grabbing her right shoulder. “Seems like the little suck-up manages to piss Beatrice off this time.”
‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’
More Essevians fall from Penny’s shots, a few dragging themselves along the ground.
“BEATRICE!!” Penny shouts as she blasts another Essevian. “God fucking damn it! Great, just fucking great! What happened to Fortilux? Is he still functional?”
Lilith narrows her eyes before rolling them; the demoness’ black wings briefly twitch at their tips. “No, idiot. You think that pitch-black, soulless commander would let him live?!”
“Beatrice swallowed up that animated armor’s core, alright,” Lilith scoffs, turning around to stab her hands through an Essevian. “He’s deader than the cold, lanky fingers of my mother.”
At the mention of Fortilux’s fate, Shaun’s shoulders briefly deflate. “Oh.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Shaun. It’s not your fault,” Lilith says as the Essevian claws wildly at her arms, more alive than it ever was in its entire short existence. “If it makes you feel any better, he wasn’t really alive. He’s just animated armor.”
As Lilith yanks her hand out, a pulsating, vibrant sphere—almost cloudy in shape—clutches between her fingers. The Essevian opens its mouth jarringly wide as its eyes flicker up and down. All the tentacles along the undead’s body writhe and convulse before its host finally falls down for the last time.
Satisfied with her work, Lilith turns around to face Shaun. Holding up one of her fingers, the demoness lightly taps against the transparent wall.
‘Tud!’ ‘Tud!’
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The wall briefly flickers in and out of existence, its presence hanging by a thread as it takes on a more misty look.
“Mind not tapping on the wall, Lilith?” Shaun grunts as red liquid slowly trickles from the corner of his mouth. “I don’t think I can handle you right now.” He tries to give a slight smirk before flailing his arms around to readjust the weakening shield.
Not responding to Shaun’s jest, the demoness twitches the back end of her wings and turns her head to Penny.
“Penny,” Lilith says with a dark glint in her eyes. “How long did you have Shaun hold the shields up?”
‘Bang! ‘Bang!’ ‘Bang!’
Putting her guns down, Penny watches as several undead creatures fall. Despite being shot so many times that their cloudy, mist-like essence shows through their bodies, a few continue to drag themselves forward.
“This is going to be really difficult, creating enough light asura with just my own,” the woman hisses before letting out a string of curses. “Fortilux is the only one who has enough affinity to create it consistently.”
The blue guns in Penny’s hands quickly dissipate, transforming into a blue mist that flows down her legs. Raising her left leg, the woman swiftly brings it forcefully down.
‘Bam!’
The sound seems to reverberate across the floor, causing it to shake as crystal-like ice spreads from her feet. Like a rushing tsunami, the ice overtakes any surrounding dirt, soil, or anything it touches. A few unlucky Essevians who can’t get away are encased in ice crystals from the inside out.
“Let’s go,” Penny says, nudging a large piece of debris aside to reveal a large hole. “We don’t have much time.”
Without waiting for a response, Penny jumps into the hole, her body immediately plunging into the darkness.
Lilith and Shaun stare at the hole before turning to each other. One looks annoyed, bordering on furious, while the other appears tired, almost drained.
Shaun sighs and lets his hands fall at his sides. The transparent shields immediately fall away, collapsing as they begin to dissipate into the air.
As Shaun does so, he slightly stumbles forward. Reacting quickly, Lilith catches him with one arm. “You need to rest after this—no buts.”
“I can’t just—”
Before the man can argue further or say anything, Lilith rushes toward the hole and jumps down, bringing him with her. As they freefall toward the ground below, the demoness stretches out her wings slightly, slowing and smoothing their descent.
Once they’re mere inches from the floor, Lilith gently sets Shaun on his feet before landing herself. On the ground, they see that Penny has already gone ahead.
Shaun and Lilith share a look before wordlessly following Penny.
“This is going to set us back,” Penny mumbles, continuing without seeming to notice—or perhaps not caring about—the two behind her. “Fortilux is supposed to be the one who gets sent back. Now what are we going to do with him dead?”
“Worry less about that stupid plan of hers and more about the ones still alive,” Lilith whispers to Shaun, her wingtips twitching. “Maybe there’s a reason all the members of your old main team are killed.”
Shaun immediately elbows Lilith in the stomach.
Rubbing the sore spot, Lilith glances at Shaun. “What? I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Did you really have to bring them into it?” Shaun whispers back. “Besides, Penny isn’t that bad.”
“You think this plan of hers is going to work?” Lilith questions, gazing at Penny’s back with crossed arms. “That it’s not a total waste of time?”
“Well…I mean, time traveling is kind of...” Shaun trails off, letting his words hang in the air. "Maybe it's not one of her better plans..."
Penny suddenly stops in front of a doorway, waiting until the door slides open before cautiously peeking her head inside. After a moment, she quietly enters with Lilith and Shaun on her heels.
Inside is what appears to be a fully equipped lab. Multiple white counters are cluttered with tools haphazardly scattered about. One wall is covered in several blueprints tinged blue, bearing detailed plans of an unknown machine, with indecipherable scribbles scrawled across them. The opposite wall displays newspaper clippings pinned to its surface. Thick black wires snake across the floor, connecting to the strange contraption outlined in the blueprints.
The machine features several metallic plates at its base, ending in a swirling pattern, with a large plastic circle at its center. Two giant, nozzle-like guns hang from the ceiling, their wires protruding and hooked up to various terminals on the mainframe.
A human-snake hybrid darts around the machine, tinkering with the plastic circle.
“You’re back early,” the hybrid says, not looking up from his work. “This machine isn’t finished.”
“Then hurry up, Yisk,” Penny snaps as she moves toward one of the counters. “Beatrice and the others have broken through the last of our defenses. All three of us are too drained of our asuras to keep going.”
A small, square-shaped portal opens beside Penny the moment she flickers her hand. Darkness covers the inside of the portal, giving off the feeling of endless depth.
Penny places her hand inside the portal and pulls out several crystals, each with different sizes and colors.
Seeing this, Yisk slides down from the machine and slowly approaches Penny. “Those crystals should be enough for me to activate the machine. There will be a lot of problems, though. We—”
'Bang!'
Everyone suddenly goes quiet as the lights flicker ominously, plunging the room into complete darkness. A tremor ripples through the lab, causing several items on the counters to crash to the floor.
Penny stomps her foot on the ground, covering the floor in her asura. Instantly, the smooth ceramic surface transforms into ice with jagged edges.
'BAM!
The lab door crashes against the shield, crumbling uselessly to the ground as a small bomb flies through the entry and lands on the floor.
'Boom!'
The explosion creates multiple cracks in Shaun's shield, nearly pushing him and Penny back, while Lilith remains unaffected. The hybrid heaves himself off the floor and continues typing into the computer's mainframe. Energy crackles from the machine's base to the two guns hanging from the ceiling. Intricate glowing strings stretch from the nozzles, weaving into bright balls of energy that pulse and converge at the center.
“With the amount of energy we have, I’ll need to adjust the time we’re traveling back to,” the hybrid blurts as another impact slams into Shaun’s shield. “It decreases the chance of dangerous side effects, but they could still happen.”
Another bomb is thrown into the room, and time momentarily seems to stop as it falls toward the ground.
'Boom!'
Shaun’s shield shatters from the blast, sending him tumbling to the ground. Lilith rushes toward him as Penny’s asura conjures several translucent blue spears. Essevians burst into the room, only to find the ice covering the floor morphing into sharp, jagged stone heads.
'Puk!'
The stone heads pierce through the chests of two Essevians, their orb-like objects impaled on the sharp ends of the stones. Other undead avoid the danger, hanging from the ceiling with their tentacles. One of them transforms their asura into fire, slowly melting the ice on the floor.
The remaining Essevians conjure several asura energy blasts and launch them at the group. Penny deflects the blasts with her spears, stabbing one into an unfortunate Essevian.
As Lilith rushes into the midst of battle, she notices how the Essevians around her are different. Unlike the undead from before, these do not have a hazy, almost misty look to them. They appear clear, almost full of life. Additionally, the tentacles act more like extensions of the Essevians' limbs rather than being in control.
“These don’t look like our regular mindless Essevians,” Lilith says as she disposes of the one near her. “Looks like Beatrice and her merry band of cavalries are here.”
Shaun quickly gets to his feet and creates a shield around Yisk, who is frantically typing at the machine’s mainframe. An undead suddenly rushes at him, tackling him from behind and leaving the shield half-complete. Lilith’s eyes flash with surprise before morphing into fury as she tries to run toward them, only to slip on the now-melting ice floor.
As Lilith slowly pulls herself up, a black tentacle—covered in what suspiciously resembles Fortilux’s asura—stabs through her heart. Penny glances at Lilith as she falls, then dodges out of the way as an Essevian launches several daggers at her.
Rolling to the side, Penny spots a familiar Essevian within the crowd. The undead’s face is half human, while the other half is skinless. Black tentacles drag behind her on the floor, resembling lifeless meat puppets.
“Beatrice,” Penny hisses and blasts a ball of energy toward the undead.
As the ball of energy speeds toward Beatrice, white sparks can be seen among the misty blue cloud of asura. Turning just in time to see the attack coming, Beatrice grabs a nearby Essevian and holds him in front of her.
“What—” The sentient Essevian barely manages to utter anything else before the attack lands squarely on his chest.
Smoke rises from the cooked Essevian as the pulsating core within his chest gives out one last spin before collapsing. Barely glancing at the undead, Beatrice tosses the corpse aside like garbage.
“I trust you lot can handle the rift rafts,” Beatrice commands one of the Essevians. “Round up the last of the survivors and escort them outside. We—”
‘Bang!’
A random blast from somewhere in the chaos passes through the unprotected part of the shield, hitting Yisk in the abdomen. He crumbles to the floor like a deck of cards. A misfired ice arrow embeds itself in the machine’s mainframe, causing sparks to fly. The massive energy between the machine’s nozzles wobbles unsteadily. Beatrice’s eyes widen momentarily in fear as she runs toward the computer’s system.
Shaun, meanwhile, breaks into a run, scrambling to Lilith’s side. Suddenly, a blast erupts a few feet away from him, propelling him into the swirling ball of energy created by the machine.
'Whiiieeerrr!'
Shaun’s body is instantly engulfed and buried beneath a massive ball of white light.
'Bizzz!'
Beatrice moves a few tentacles in front of her face as sparks continue to fly from the computer. A fire ignites, quickly spreading from one end of the mainframe to the other and consuming it in a blaze.
“Get out!” Beatrice shrieks, already sprinting toward the door. “It’s going—”
The Essevians immediately scramble away from the blast, rushing for the door as a flash erupts, engulfing everything in its path in a blinding white light.