The enemy numbers kept swelling as the smaller Spiders relayed more and more Logic from their fallen comrades back to the Snake, which seemed to force-feed the spider-mind it controlled. Under tortured, distorted screeches, the hulking beast pushed spiders out of its painfully distorted mouth, like porkchops out of an industrial bone mill. Just as the spider-mind was almost within arms reach, our advance stalled.
Then we got pushed back.
At some point, Zephyro and I got separated, and I had to retract Pharus, using it as a mace to kill spiders on my own. Without the Vizier to kill the Ferals for me, I was faced with the difficult choice of either saving my strength to power Arx, or spending my energy to kill the enemy before it could kill me. Looking at the spiders—too many to count—I felt as though the decision had already been made for me.
Unless…
I don’t know what drove me, but I spun, leaving my back open to the spiders, and faced Zephyro. He was covered in gashes, bleeding from multiple wounds, and desperately trying to fight an enemy he couldn't see.
The guilt that suddenly wrecked me was almost as bad as the attacks that started to rain down on my back. I grimaced, charging forward. Some of the Spider’s attacks missed me, but there were still plentiful hits enough to almost overload Arx, despite the upgrade.
{CPU Load: ▲ 92%}
{Core Temp: ▲ 83° C}
[>>compiling… 83%]
A voice I desperately wished I could ignore screamed in my head, telling me I was an idiot. It yelled abuse after abuse, screeched that I should just bide my time until the turret control was finished, and leave Zephyro to his fate.
I could use him as a distraction, slip past and make for the fortress. They’d let me in. I was their Sultana. I would be safe.
Why save him?, another voice whispered, he is useless. Look at him flail…
The guilt was almost unbearable. Under its added strain, the last fiber of that rope that bore my confidence creaked, creaked, creaked…
With a yell that released all of these emotions, and more, I flared Pharus and started whaling on anything unfortunate enough to cross my path toward Zephyro. Spiders grappled all over his body, twitching and hissing and biting as the vizier flailed, trying to get them off.
My first strike, aimed as carefully as I could, cleanly cleaved through three of them, the chain slicing through their bodies as though their metallic chitin was nothing but paper. But as the spiders shifted, distributing themselves to cover Zephyro as well as possible, I caught a glance at Zephyro’s face.
I had expected him to look anguished, maybe angry, but I did not expect the look of pure hope. His eyes shone with the endlessly joyful confidence of a man who had caught sight of the savior I was supposed to be. I was equally unprepared for the torrent of emotion it unleashed inside me. There was joy, yes, but mostly it was guilt, shame, and an almost overwhelming desire to turn, flee, and never look back.
And then, of course, there was anger.
One moment of distraction was all it took, in the end. One second the fire of my rage warmed my back, the next I lay between the logs, warm and comfortable and safe as the flames consumed me.
How dare Zephyro look at me like that? Did he not care about all the pressure that put on me? He deserved—
A staccato of attacks peppered my back, making me stumble forward.
Who—?
It was the Ferals.
My anger swelled.
{CPU Load: ▲ 82%}
{Core Temp: ▲ 82° C}
Yes, the Ferals.
They were to blame.
[DPM integrity]
▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 66% ▼
I was too far gone to care exactly what they were to blame for, only that they were, and that they had to pay.
The anger boiled into rage, steamed into fury, moved through every nerve of my body, and set it aflame. Pharus blazed in my hands, and then I brought it up and around.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The flaming globe at the end of the chain drew a wide arc that slammed into the struggling vizier over and over, crashing one spider after the other, killing many instantly and marking the rest.
I was also hitting Zephyro. A lot.
This is what you do to your people, Tyrant…
I told myself that that was ok and I could never hurt him strong as he was and that I would only hurt the spiders but the sight of all that fire and what my rage could do filled me with more joy than seeing the hope in his eyes earlier and…
That should have bothered me.
Why did it not bother me?
Who do you want to be, Sam?
[>>PROCESSES BY USER Nerv3se4mstre5s-75 ARE NOW HIGHLIGHTED]
[>>PROCESSES BY USER Nerv3se4mstre5s-43 ARE NOW HIGHLIGHTED]
[>>PROCESSES BY USER Nerv3se4mstre5s-19 ARE NOW HIGHLIGHTED]
[>>…11 more.]
[>>compiling… 83%]
A roar of faith and fury burst out from between teal flames and black legs. Shining through the writhing chaos, Zephyro's body glowed silver, his outline defined with a silver pen. The shine was soft at first, gentle, but within a second it was so bright I had to avert my eyes from its fury. As I turned, I noticed that all the monsters had either turned away or were cowering in place, squeezing their hateful eyes shut to avoid being blinded by his radiance, and yet transfixed by it like gawkers at a car crash.
A high-pitched noise grew, and when it crescendoed, Zephyro released a blast that sent spiders flying all over the plaza. They peppered the palace walls, they slammed against the gate, and they sailed over marble arches and rooftops, deep into the city.
As the monsters released their Logic, distant explosions of cyan flashed in fires and darkness alike, like fireworks of blue in an empty night sky. Those spiders that had flown into the distance detonated last, as the ones that had splatted against the wall slid to the ground.
Of the spiders that clung to Zephyro’s frame, none survived.
The vizier fell to one knee, panting heavily, and I understood why he had saved that attack for an emergency. While he had effectively freed himself and bought us time to breathe, the explosion had only damaged spiders in a circle around him, about 2 meters wide.
Luckily, the Ferals who had survived had not resumed their attack, still dazed by Zephyro’s bright light and terrified, perhaps, by the explosion that had killed so many of their brethren. I doubted Zephyro would have been able to handle another attack like that. He was glitching hard, and so was the world around him, as the Spiders woke from their stupor.
I didn’t have the intention of giving them time to recover.
I flared Pharus, wrapping a bit of chain around the hilt and spinning the flail like an old-school slingshot as I dashed towards the remaining creatures. I did not let go, however, and instead, I tagged one spider after another with a rapid barrage of taps. Before the creatures even had time to realize what had happened, Zephyro had risen again, still glitching, and was on them in a blink.
He made their end quick and painless. I kept running, drawing in their Logic as I rushed towards the scorpion, the next biggest threat.
{INCOMING LOGIC - 225 LB}
{AVAILABLE LOGIC - 450 LB}
I had almost closed half the distance when the beast recovered. I did not know if it was angry, sad, or if it even understood the concept of emotions, but there was no mistaking the primal rage in its beady eyes as it flexed its misshapen chainsaw pincer in my direction, then brought it together with the bone-rattling screech of motors grinding against metal.
[>>compiling… 83%]
I dodged backward, into a swarming mass of spiders, but I was ready this time. Zephyro was further off, dispatching the spiders I had marked with quick strikes, but I didn’t need him anymore. They would pay.
Moving further away from the scorpion, I twirled around my own axis, bringing down my Fury over and over again, reveling in the rush that surged inside me every time the crack of breaking metal rewarded my efforts. Every time a spider curled up on its back, asymmetrical legs curled in on themselves, my smile blossomed like a Venus flytrap.
Yes, this was it.
No thoughts, just bathing in that flow.
No strategy, just destruction.
No forms, no stances, just relentless power and immortality.
{CPU Load: ▲ 88%}
{Core Temp: ▲ 83° C}
The Ferals began to scatter, rushing over to their fallen comrades to suck them dry of their logic.
I let them. They would all fall, in the end.
It was inevitable.
I was inevitable.
It’s always the same with you, Sam.
I had been watching the scorpion’s hulking advance from the corner of my eyes, and when I turned, I made it count.
I extended Pharus as far as I could, and built its momentum by whirling it over my head as I spun, then hurled the head straight at the scorpion’s face. Teal, so bright it left an afterimage in my vision, arced towards the beast like a star of destruction.
Raising one pincer with unnatural speed, the Feral caught my weapon, then yanked it out of my grip. The force made me fall on my stomach and I looked up as Pharus’s fires spread over its body, then petered out.
⚠>>{[Pharus, Fury of the Torchbearer] HAS BEEN DISABLED.}<<⚠
[>>PROCESSES BY USER M1S-C0nstR//t ARE NOW HIGHLIGHTED]
[M1S-C0nstR//t]
[DPM filesize: ???]