A searing beam of light blasts through the air with speed greater than even light itself. Quickly, making its way to its target. A gigantic crustacean beast the size of a magi tank, enough to carry a whole carriage, alongside its accompanying beasts of burden on top of it. Yet, not intimidated in the slightest by even the elements, let alone a mere beast, the beam of light continues its trajectory and reached the final layers of magical forcefields, piercing through its last vestiges of magical defense, and crashing into the beast's shell. injuring the beast for the first time in this encounter of humankind and the dwellers.
'SKREEEEEE!!' The monster let out a mind bending shriek of pain that threatens to snip at sanity, and snap the souls of those unfortunate enough to hear it.
Six floating eyeballs that seems ethereal in nature, turns to regard the human who had the audacity to hurt it.
The human in question, an armored man covered head to toe in plated armor of metal, just like the rest of his companion, is, of course scared beyond belief, after all he did what he did out of impulse, never would he believe that he manages to summon an elemental to power his bolt of light unintentionally...
...but he did.
Oblivious to the internal regret the man is facing, the Crab then floats towards the still shocked human who is still standing there paralyzed with fear, each eyes having its pupils shrunken into pinpricks, if glare could kill, the man's eyeballs would have already been possessed by the crab, rolls down his throat, and blows up his upper body, which is what's supposed to happen if the man is wearing a visor less helmet rather the fully covered transparent visor he wears right now. A sign of foresight at the very least. Doesn't change the fact that the beast is peeved and would very like to tear this insolent insect's flesh apart from its bones.
All around the beast and what remains of the subjugation team are what used to be a serene little swamp, surprisingly was pleasant to look at for a swamp, with bioluminesce vines and flowers shining in blue, luminous bugs, reptiles, and amphibians that came in myriads of colors, it even has a nifty little waterfall, bathing the place in beautiful hue of harmonious scenery fit for a painting painted to be a magnum opus of the one behind the masterpiece...
At least it was, all of thay have long since turned into a ruined site reeking with death, and yes, the swamp smells nice before this, but you'll be a fool to smell it anyway since the pleasant scent itself is a poison of the paralytic kind that'll leave lesser beings spasming heavily for hours, enough time for abominations of both physical and metaphysical in nature to feast on your flesh (maybe your bone too), or suck out the soul of your body in the most literal sense, case in point, this swamp is a death trap to those unprepared.
The palish greeny mud covered ground which in turn, used to be covered with yards mosses and fields of glowing grass. Are now riddled with chasms and gashes, blood, poison, and bodies races to fill up the hole doting the grounds, as they are led gently by the blue flow of the water of the swamp which shone in a ghastly blue.
All the while the darkness that used to inhabit every corner of this swamp has been repelled by the blinding light emanating from a human with the armor that signifies her rank as an acolyte, raising that staff of hers up high and with it, shines a light so bright, it pierces away even the darkness at the bottom of the cracks and chasms dotting this battered battlefield, an impressive sight, if only she isn't hiding, not too dissimilar from rat, behind a bunch armed human men and women radiating ferocity, but hidden behind this sight of resolution, there is a sense of resignation, for they knew, if no miracle were to happen, their fate will end here. Thus, fighting with their life on the line, they bombarded the beast with explosives and projectiles both of arcane nature, and those alchemical in nature.
The crab, a fifty ton of carapace and violence, floating and surrounded by an invisible pleasure that keeps it afloat, rushes and crashes through a human who foolishly tries to stand on its way with a human-sized steel shield, leaving naught but severed boots still filled with its previous owner refusing to fall as it's been grasped tightly by the ground itself. It snaps its claws at the hapless humans around it with speed so fast that it looks as if each time the claw move, tens of soldiers would be mutilated with their limbs flying and spreading gore everywhere they go, none of them survived long enough to even scream.
The beast moving with a speed of an airplane possessed, blitz through a river of glowing water red as wine, a mountain of armored carcasses, a masterpiece of iron and flesh, almost passing the huge sword radiating Divinity wielded by a delicate looking ebon haired human who seems to be smiling, his eyes catches those of the beast for a brief instant. For an instant two eyes of flesh meets six of arcane.
"Heeeh, we got caught in the end huh, monster-san? You're pretty perceptive arentcha, monster kun?" A chorus of whispers sneaks its way into the monster's mind.
"!?!?...!!!"
The crab, realizing it has screwed up, frantically tries to escape. It used all of the leftover energy and then some, stored in its reserve to attempt a dash towards the nearest wall. Hundreds of meters passed by it in mere instant. Praying to the deep ones, the crab activated it's innate ability, silently grateful for this one ability owned by almost every dweller in possession of huge proportions. Going through layers of rock, it tun—
"Aww, won't you came back here? Now we'll be forced to use my silly sounding skill... Outloud moreover." Voices in many tones conjures themselves into the beast's mind, finishing its speech with a sigh full of mental melancholy, which in other situation would usually be comical, the crab couldn't care less however, as it's every instincts screams that death is imminent with the sound of that sigh, not to ment-
"JUSTICE! CRESCENT! SLASH!"
A voice, or should i say, many voices? Thundered behind the crab, following the proclamation of that witless name of the strike, a crescent of light the size of the crab shows up in the crab's radar. The crab didn't need to see, (nor can it see through the rocks at the moment anyway) to know that any other option besides fleeing is being kissed by death, if death is blindingly bright and crescent shaped.
The black haired human turns to the blonde man wielding the man who shoots away the crab's final bit of arcane protection, who is still rather shocked at this sudden turn of event. After all, it's not everyday you see the hero walking on the battlefield.
The human begins walking towards the blonde haired soldier with a triumphant smile, his black eyes are oddly swirling, as if the soldier is staring into a pool of ink in the shape of eyes instead of the black eyes so common to the old race.
"S-Sir, I-i was just, um..." The blonde human stutters, looking towards his squad members, his companions, while his companions tries their hardest to look away.
Suddenly the man kneels while panickingly shouting loudly:
"PLEASE FORGIVE ME SIR, IT IS MY INCOM—"
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"Pffft, we haven't even started thanking you yet and you are already begging for your life? How pathetic can you be? Anyway, please do get up on your feet first. You see, we'd rather be the champion of the proud race of humanity, the chosen of the celestials, instead of gutless sewer rats posing to be one." To the blonde man's frantic begging for his life, the black haired human answers spawns inside of the soldier's mind with his mouth never opening even once, although, it slowly morphed into one of a carefree smile, a smile like that of a cat that has cornered its prey.
"Besides, if we want gutless, your gut would've been doing an impression of worms in mud right about now."
At that, a mirthless chuckle in many voices bounces back and forth on the soldier's head.
"I-I, SIR! PLEASE SPARE ME! I—" The soldier shouts without getting up.
"hooh? You're not deaf are you, mister?" The black haired human's voices once again resounded on the soldier's skull, only this time, the man grasp the soldier head with a hand and forces him to look up.
"Listen, you're being kinda annoying you know? A bit of subservient is okay now and then, but too much like what you are doing is reaaally annoying you know? I'm not saving humanity for some nameless NPCs like you, you know? ...So, it's nothing personal obviously, but we just wanna to say bye bye to you, you know? S O L D I E R S A N." The man's smile gradually gets wider and wider until it reaches his ever swirling eyes.
Even though by now all he can see from the eyes is just slits. It's a scene, one that the man, known only as the soldier, sees in his last moment before his soul is shredded and what remains of it is dragged to a headless statue atop a mountain of ropes, to be consumed by hungry non livings that roams this frequency of reality.
"Well then, what are you waiting for, soldier san? Are ya waiting encouragements from cute lil old me?" After shoving the "human" soldier to the ground, the hero smiles at the puppet before him, simultaneously winks and strikes an obnoxious pose that wouldn't be out of place in those magical girls fantasy while voices of many genders reeking in sweetness resounded inside of the rest of the soldiers mind. Unlike the conversations from between the hero and the soldier, this sweet choir of voices can be heard by the rest of the platoon of soldiers, successfully sending shivers down their spines.
"... Yes sir." The blonde "man" puts on a "crestfallen" expression as he slowly gets up, with his fellow soldiers none the wiser to the exchange that has transpired.
"What's your name, soldier?" The black haired human asked the soldier once again, although the one responding to his query isn't the "soldier san" that used to inhabit this body.
"Leonardi Serebim sir! I am from the fif—" The "human" tries and manages to puts on a response as to be expected from a fearless legionnaire.
"Hahah, Too enthusiastic! Cheer up! It's not like we're going to sentence you to be "sliding" for a lifetime just because you offend us a bit."The hero chuckles while the soldiers pales at the mention of the punishment.
Seeing that doesn't have the ability nor the will to lighten up the mood, the hero continues: "Relax, guys and gals, come on now, let us be one with the chill here." The soldiers becomes stiffer than even a statue, if such a thing is even possible.
"So... First off," The hero continues, "A Cerebram crab, managing to create its swamp, WHICH normally takes 3 earthly rotation to make, AND it's this close to the fortress without ANY of you NOR your seemingly incompetent nobles noticing a huge crustacean the size of a carriage spreading its load everywhere in a literal way." The hero pauses.
"Or maybe... You did know, and someone either neglected to tell, or is siding with the non humans. Either way, we're going to have fun with them that by the time we're finished, even the lampost we made in Dorleans will pale in comparison to the songs of screams it'll make." Says the hero dreamily, sighing wistfully, voices of serenity resounded in the back of the group of soldiers mind, threatening to lull them into slumber were it not for the fear of the hero overwhelming their senses.
The hero then pouts at them, a chorus of discordant voices tinged with a tone of disappointment sneaks their way into the mind of the soldiers.
"Either way, it is annnoying of you guys. You see, we can't really tolerate mistakes right now." The black haired human then puts a carefree smile like that of a child on his visage once more.
"Especially with the crusade still going as strong as it should have been. So we're gonna need at least info, kay? So one of you, besides leonardi here," At this, the hero pats the "human" soldier's cheek.
"Will brief us on this matter of utmost importance." Once again, the hero's many voices resounded in the soldier's head, laced thick with a tone of finality, as if it refused to acknowledge that there's nothing that wouldn't bow down to it.
The hero smiles his usual smile, a mask of mirth then turns to regards the soldiers.
The sole priest, while still being the source of illumination for the group, tremblingly lifts up her hand. The hero then asks the female priest, and then the info dump on the topic of the attack on the Cerebram crab commence. However we are here in this scene neither to bear witness to an extended explanation of human's side.
Meanwhile, far far below, inside the ground beneath the ruined swamp, is the Cerebram crab. Still alive and still running away, An instinct of its species that always triggers when confronted by a life threatening existence, and this threatening existence in this case is what looks like its own sparkling glowing death.
The crab concentrated and used one of its astral eye to look back, unaffected by the bright light and the rocks that it is currently inside of. It wished to see that the dangerous light has stopped chasing it. After all it has been running for at least an hour, not that it could tell. But instead, It sees a vision of horror, as a huge crescent shaped construct made out of condensed holiness is racing towards it, carving a path of destruction behind the crab, not to mention, even deep inside of the earth, the shine is still ever present, brighter than the radiance rivaling the shine that illuminates the capital kingdom of humanity.
'SKREEEE~' The crab screams in terror as the slash is following it very persistently. No matter whether the crab moves in circles or square, diagonally or horizontally, changing directions faster than a rubber bullet shot at an enclosed box, it still follows. Throughout many hollow pockets, charging past pack of beasts and great structures of civilization alike, the duo left only ruins in the path of their grand chase, the crab even tries to go through a stone titan, an A rank monster of truly enormous size, sleeping, it had first thought this to be its luck, since yes, it can charge through "living" earth, the same goes for the titan which in turn have the same ability, but it's not important right now, the crab sentiment pf the titan being its lucky breal doesn't last long however, since the moment the crescent death touches the titan, the great colossi of stones is instantly blown apart, chunks of magic infused rocks loses its life, even when they could reform back normally, just like that, a beast that lives for centuries has its life ended, not even making a peep when its life are extinguished. So great is the explosion that the tremor it causes ruins hundreds of humans and dweller's settlement alike, among them are cities and kingdoms that either sinks deeper into the dark, or the rock falls that ensues afterwards, the shield that protects the inner districts of the kingdoms can barely lasted a minute before being buried and crushed by islands sized rocks, not to mention areas that doesn't have a shield.
Sadly, no matter how hard it tried, it would seem that the crab's live will end on this day.
'...' The crab depressingly thought.
'Skree... Skreee? Skree! SKREEE!' The crab thought to itself, it is a proud B class monster after all, It will not stand for this for this indignation!
So be it, if it dies, but at least it isn't going to die running!
At this last moment of clarity however, the crab made the most important and final decision in its life.
It is done fighting weaker foes, it is done ambushing.
It had enough of hiding and running.
Fighting its instinct, these thoughts echoed inside and bounced endlessly on its expanded mind, consuming any instincts of survival still left on it.
'SKREEEEEE!!!' The crab lets out a scream unlike anything else as it turns back and rushed towards the accursed light.
Rocks, metal ores, and lava are not an obstacle for the both of them.
The clash of a beast and a silent being of pure destruction.
It will certainly die.
The crab knows that.
It will die.
Yet in knowing that it will not run away, the crab is proud of itself.
It lets a metaphorical smile slips on it's mind.
Converting the energy it used to run away, it prepares the most powerful psychic shield it had ever created in its life. All to combat this most dangerous and final challenge of its life.
As the crab and the slash meets in a forest scattered with glowing blue leafed trees and glowing blue mushrooms with an absurdly high ceiling, a pair of eyes watches among the trees, this event with fascination.
It's first memory begins with a warm hug, between a psychic crab and a crescent mana of pure destruction. But contrary to this, the crab's sense of survival manages to triumph at the very last moment, it's final thought consists of hearing the mocking laughter of a thousand doves.