Year 526 A.B.
Xing and Elly halt their sprint as they emerge from the maze-like set of corridors and hallways to find themselves in a large, dilapidated room. All around them are overturned tables and hospital curtains with their wheels perpetually spinning in place. Even the walls and ceiling above their heads have lost some of their foundation. In front of them however, standing confidently with apparitions at his sides, is a man wearing a variation of the same uniform as they are. Summoning circles drawn in chalk with items in each of their centers surround him. Only one of his eyes responds to his attempts to blink, the other permanently closed with its lid scarred red.
“Xing, Avelly. I haven’t seen you two in years. I see that some of my forces have been split up. All the talk of the gifted child was true then. Reminds you of graduation day doesn’t it?”
Xing balls his fist at this callous greeting, a memory from the past coming back to him.
“Are we live? Yes? We are here on-site of what used to be the Einzloss Estate and the last place our country's most recent Gifted child “Zuo Einzloss” was seen alive. A tragic fate indeed, passing after the alleged safety age of 8, but it begs the question… can any of these beings ever be considered ‘safe’?”
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“Reigner... Are you hostile? Believe it or not, I’d like to avoid this,”
Xing mutters in a low voice, ignoring his small talk.
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“I could ask you the same. You two are in front of me without your weapons drawn. Curiosity was the only thing that stopped me from killing you as soon as I saw you.”
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Elly’s disapproval stretches across her face into the borderline of disgust and pity.
“What happened to you, Kharon? You were never like this. If you come back now there’s a chance that your sentence could be negotiat-“
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“To hear you of all people talking about the law. How noble of you, Avelly. But don’t act so familiar with me. I’ve thrown everything away. There is nothing left for me now, but death or victory, this extreme is all I need to achieve my goals. Someone like you, merely a piece of damaged goods from a perfect line of killing machines, could never understand this freedom on the path you’ve chosen,”
Reigner proclaims with a twisted pride.
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“You’ve gone this far, huh? Taboo summonings, killing your own people, and now you’re already ready to throw down with us too. I came this far ready to ask if you’d be willing to come back without getting your ass beat, but I see that’s not happening.”
The words leave Xing’s mouth sternly, confidently as they always do. And yet, when he feels Elly’s sideways glance at him, he refuses to meet it.
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Reigner’s hands become a tense mess of bulging veins and tendons. The spirits at his sides begin to stir with the seeds of malice. The moist, dingy corners of the room begin to freeze over as the temperature in the room drops.
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“‘Keep looking down on me, and you’ll be looking at my feet before you know it,’ That’s something I heard you say right after you had your limelight in the Noble Killer case. This is my moment, Xing, and my people never existed. Don’t speak another word and don’t act like they sent you here to talk. That’s not how our dear director usually ends up handling things, does he?”
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A tense ominous quiet falls upon the space between them.
For the time being, they know that there’s no reaching him. All they can do is wait...
Reigner raises his arms in a grand gesture to his sides.
“Swarm!”
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The spirits at his side explode with movements in all directions, warping the spaces around them as their energies fluctuate, giving them various levels of materialization.
Xing acts the instant he sees the break in their formation, the ground beneath his feet is demolished from the speed and weight of his lunge carrying him across the battlefield.
It takes him less than a second to get within range. With his strength, the conflicted behemoth knows that it would only take a single well-placed blow to end the life of his target.
But this is now a battle between veterans; Reigner knows this as well.
“I’m not naïve enough to underestimate you...”
The violet-colored hands and bodies of spirits tucked away in his reserves erupt from the ground below him, creating a wall of distorted light.
“But I won’t underestimate myself either.”
Reigner’s fist, now engulfed in the raw, uneven energy of his puppets emerges through the wall of light with intent to strike, and discovers that Xing has already switched to a defensive stance.
“He predicted that?”
Nevertheless, he connects his attack with Xing’s guard, and the spirits absorbed into his arm release themselves with explosive force. Xing is sent rocketing into the open air of the room. The puppets sent across the room earlier, circle back to complete their combined attack, encasing him in a violent torrent of souls.
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A gunshot rings through the air.
Through the command of his waving hand, a spirit rushes to guard the side of Reigner’s shut eye, and is shot through its core. He looks in the direction of the projected bullet’s trajectory. Elly nor the gun are anywhere to be found. Before he can check his new blind spot on his opposite side, Reigner feels a massive impact sweep his feet from under him. Elly quickly rekindles the momentum from her attack with a flip to her feet and pulls a projected knife from a sheath on her ankle. Her combination continues and halts when her knife is intercepted by Reigner’s palm absorbing the blow. Blood trickles down his arm, but he refuses to let pain break his concentration. He musters the strength to close his hand around the blade, and again a mass of spirits converge upon his arm.
“Release!”
He commands the nameless mass of energy.
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Elly lets go of the blade and narrowly evades the attack with a tilt of her head. The smell of nearly burned hair fills her nose, and she pulls out her handgun, refusing to let up the pressure.
Reigner smirks, her counterattack being exactly what he was hoping for.
Suddenly, Elly lowers her weapon and her eyes shift to the left. Another swarm of spirits make an explosive lunge towards her through a wall on her left. Again, the surprise attack is avoided, creating a distance between them.
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Reigner rises to his feet and holds his injured hand in front of him. The knife sticking out of his wound is shattered at the point of impact by the energy he sends flowing from within him. He plugs the wound and stops his bleeding.
“Something isn’t right,”
He ponders to himself. This time there was no indication of him intending to attack like the times he had called out before. An attempt to catch at least one of them off-guard. Anyone on their level can internalize and export their projections and abilities simply by thinking about them.
“There’s no way she saw that coming. I’ll need to try harder.” With his hands stretched to his sides, he clenches his fists together.
The room begins to rumble. Dust, and small pieces of debris fall from the ceiling.
“Flow.”
The floor itself becomes a literal river of damned souls with destructive waves prepared to consume whatever they touch. A high wave approaches Elly who tosses a projected grenade under its surface, temporarily blowing it away. In the wake of the explosion, where Reigner once stood, there is now an empty space.
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In the ceiling of the room, Reigner has made use of his diversion and partially merged his body with a small mass of his puppets. In this phantom-like form, he can phase through physical objects much like lower-tier spirits can.
“Since the very beginning of our altercation, the two of them seemed far too aware of their surroundings. Two of them?”
He finds exactly what he was looking for.
Crouched and looking down through a small grate in the ceiling, Rae watches the events as they unfold below seemingly concentrated with a laser focus.
“I’ll end this quickly, and for safe measures I’ll-“
Reigner’s thoughts are cut off by a ringing in his ears and a searing pain burning through his shoulder and collarbone. Did Elly poison him earlier? Did she cut a nerve and send pain traveling through the rest of his body?
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“Oh, hey, Kharon. It’s been awhile... I was getting sleepy up here.” Rae’s back is still turned to him. But at last, Reigner sees the projected smoking gun through the small space Rae fired it from: between his arm and his side, and through his jacket, creating the perfect concealed attack.
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His now completely physical body thuds against the ground of the ceiling behind Rae. He tries to recollect his concentration, to make an escape, but the pain stops him from doing anything, let alone something as complex as fusing his body with his pawns again. The ceiling collapses under him due to an unknown external impact, battering and pelting him with rubble as he falls to the ground.
Xing, the one he assumes is responsible for the hole in the ceiling, has escaped from his trap.
Elly has resisted the sea of souls seemingly without a scratch.
Rae, who he knows is just as cunning as he is lands next to the prior, using a projected staircase to avoid something flashy as jumping straight down.
“Thanks, this thing really did come in handy.”
Rae says, while tossing the weapon back to Elly.
She catches it, immediately returning it to one of her holsters, but raises an eyebrow to him.
“Don’t worry. I won’t need it. You and Xing just focus on this final stretch.”
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Reigner emerges from the rumble as if he were a member of the undead. Visibly full of pain, but even more so full of malice. As his concentration ebbs and flows, the previously sealed wound on his hand begins to open and close.
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“You’ve gotten scarily sharp, Rae, but ‘final stretch’? You’ll regret that. Right before you shot me, I reallocated the forces engaging the fledglings in your squad. Once they’re dead, I’ll have the full brunt of my power here at my disposal, and I can finally finish all of this.”
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“Sounds to me like your back is against the wall… there’s no way in hell that you’re lasting that long. Give it up. I’m tired of this.”
Xing begins to step forward, impatient and eager to remove himself from that part of the past. Rae grabs his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. Obviously, Rae isn’t strong enough to stop him, but the haste in his grip tells him all he needs to know.
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Reigner straightens his posture, once again pushing through his pain.
“There you go again,”
He tightens his fist until the blood from his open wound drips from his knuckles. What he’s about to do won’t require any concentration. This is the pain that he’s choosing to imprint on his soul.
“Talking to me--looking at me like I’m some kind of sorry waste of life. Just like they did.”
He reaches into his pockets for an item that has yet to exist on this plane of reality.
“But when did I ever say that ‘finishing all of this,’ had anything to do with killing you. You’re just stepping stones for what I’ll do next.”
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Reigner closes both of his eyes, speaking aloud his deadly chant.
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“Enlightened and urged by the truth, I walk this path alone, facing even the gods who hold the weight of the World on their shoulders...”
His scarred, permanently eyelid starts to quiver.
“The waves of the fallen beat down on me, and yet as I am, because I am, I can’t stop now...”
From his pocket he tosses a projected coin into the air.
“So, pledge your all to me, I’ll exterminate them, replace them, reduce it all to ashes and start anew...”
The coin reaches his eye-level and at that moment, using three of his fingers, he jams the coin into his scarred eye’s socket. His head rocks backwards and his bloodshot eyes open with vigor, now oblivious to the onset pain.
“...Embodiment: Erinyes!”
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From every corner of the room, Reigner’s reserved souls merge onto their master until they’re all that’s visible. The blinding light dies down, and from it Reigner walks down from the mound of rubble, now clad in a warped amalgamation of souls in the shape of a sleeveless robe. Divine projected bands cover his wrists and run up the length of his arms.
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“That’s his Trump Card. Me telling you about his surprise attacks won’t be as much help anymore since he’s condensed everything into himself,”
Rae rubs the back of his neck.
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Elly looks off to a far corner of the room, visualizing something and counting off with her fingers.
“You should fall further back then. This doesn’t feel like Kharon at all.”
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“I didn’t bother saying anything about it because I thought it was obvious, but you’re right. Assume this is a stranger for now. Also, you don’t have to tell me twice about falling back.”
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Xing cracks his knuckles, and at the same time repairs the cracks in his projected gloves.
“We’re resorting to the usual then?”
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“No. This time back me up.“
Elly dashes and fires at Reigner who has begun walking towards their position.
A bright light shines from beneath his pants legs as he weaves through the path of the bullets, surpassing her speed. Elly crouches and evades the kick aimed at her torso, while Xing follows up behind her. The bands on Reigner’s arms burn brightly. Their fists collide in a quick barrage of knuckles that heats the air around them. Reinger’s arms, frail in comparison to Xing’s, not becoming a bloody, broken, unrecognizable mess the moment their fists touched is proof that he has given up surprise attacks in favor of raw power.
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From her crouched position, Elly launches herself into the air with a rising kick made even more deadly by the blades ejected from her soles. Reigner slides backwards abandoning his matchup against Xing and begins to raise his arm at her to counterattack.
Elly holds out her arm as well calling another projected pistol from her bag hidden across the room. She fires down on Reigner, pushing herself further and further into the air with her weapon’s otherworldly recoil, but he deflects the rounds with his energy-clad forearms.
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“Now!”
Rae yells.
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Xing punches the ground beneath him, sending a shockwave around him that quickly reaches the area under Reigner’s feet. Elly squeezes the grip on her weapon until it shatters, and morphs into a form with a barrel like that of a spider. Small threads become visible, connecting to the rounds that were deflected earlier. Pieces of the floor are pulled by the threads, trapping him in a cage of steel-like spindles and concrete. The damage from his upward blast is muffled and through the snapping threads and dust, Xing lands a clean blow to Reigner’s ribs before he can switch his focus. The sound of his crunching bones reverberates through Xing’s arm.
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He slides and stumbles, refusing to lose his footing to the attack that would have surely killed him earlier. With his ferocity overpowers his injuries, he claps his hands together in front of him and one band on each of his arms disappears. A devastating wave of energy tears though the air with the intent of erasing Xing and Elly from existence itself.
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Xing pulls Elly closer to him, focuses energy into his legs, and sidesteps the attack that would make lightning seem slow by comparison. With the blast's trajectory now towards him, Rae squints and he internalizes a thought.
“Vector: Reverse.”
To Reigner’s surprise, the blast seems to concave, reflect off of the space in front of the lazy strategist and come back twice as quickly, even in his amped state, he is unable to move out of the way in time. Instead, he widens his stance. A band on each of his limbs disappears as the blast explodes against the barrier created by them.
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Xing and Elly attempt a flank on his sides, assuming that they have the upperhand, but he catches their fist and leg respectively. This feat would have been impossible earlier, as it seemingly took all that he had to match Xing’s monstrous strength a moment ago. To cancel out an impact is one thing, but this is something entirely different. Was he not giving it his all earlier? Their attention shifts to his limbs, now a shining display of ethereal light due to the remaining bands all lighting up at once. With his physical abilities at a new limit, he spins and throws them a short distance away from him.
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They rebound, pressing him with another combination of attacks. Elly calls a multitude of items from her bag, and aided by the mobility of her soles’ tank-like treads, she fires on his position from a distance with a projected rifle. Xing engages him head-on, narrowly dodging his energy-trailed attacks with the help of Rae's assists.
Their deadlock carries on in hour-long seconds. Xing’s gloves are worn to nothingness. Elly reloads clip after clip, expending the usefulness of many of the items from her bag. The bands on Reigner’s limbs slowly but surely decrease in size.
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Rae places all of his focus on the single goal of dissecting the situation and informing them on their progress.
“He can’t keep this up forever! At this rate he probably has about 5 minutes left in him!”
He yells as his voice runs dry and hoarse.
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Reigner shoots him a spiteful glare and the veins in his arms pulsate under his skin. With a powerful circular twist of his entire body, he sends a wave outward with intent of blowing them all away.
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Elly quickly holsters her rifle on her back and runs her nails across the ground revealing a chain hidden in a path surrounding Reigner created by her treads. The spiraling chain attempts to once again bind Reigner for a finishing blow, but he easily leaps from its center.
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“Your strategies are too one-note.”
Reigner mutters, while sending another blast towards Rae.
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“The exact same attack as before,”
Rae thinks.
“... Look who’s talking.”
He squints again, reflecting the attack towards Reigner who is still airborne. They all watch as he raises his hand to the incoming attack, but doesn’t even bother releasing a barrier like before.
Reigner yells a single word, making their blood run cold.
“Individuality!”
A fatal oversight and yet another seed planted by the opposing mastermind. Of course he who can turn spirits into raw energy would be able to turn them back. The next moment happens in the blink of an eye.
Instead of exploding on impact, the energy from the blast returns to its original form of an amalgamation of spirits. It travels along the length of Reigners arms, across his robed chest, and to the other arm. He smirks, pointing his palm at Elly who hasn’t even had a chance to leave the position of holding her chain.
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The room is consumed in a hazy light from the impact.
The dust settles and Elly stands with buckled legs covered in cuts and bruises. Her hair messily covers her face and blood drips from her shoulder to her hand. She begins to fall.
“El-“
A voice calls out, but is cut off by the ringing in her ears.
“Elly!”
The voice is still muted.
“Elly!”
Her foot stomps against the ground as she regains consciousness. She brushes her hair out of her face. She looks to her left to see Rae, the voice calling out to her, ready to catch her. Then in front of her to see Xing standing in front of them, ready for Reigner’s next assault.
The ringing stops and she fully rises to her feet. A new look burns in her eyes. With a confident stride, she walks in front of Xing to face Reigner.
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“I was just about to end this myself. He’s too far gone, Elly. Please, rest for now.”
The words leave Xing’s mouth “confidently”, “sternly” as they always do. And yet the eyes she feels on her back haven’t reached the same resolution she has.
“No. It’s because he’s so far gone that I’m doing this. I’m nowhere near done yet.”
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Reigner stops a few meters in front of them.
“Your eyes tell me that you want to keep going, and yet your body looks like it’s going to fall to pieces. Just die quietly. This is the price you all have to pay for not coming at me with the intent of killing me.”
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Elly laughs. Right before the attack was redirected at her she had called her entire bag towards her to cushion the blow. Without it, she surely would have been a corpse on the ground.
“So you could tell? It’s true. Any one of us could have taken you on alone if we wanted to. But we’re a senselessly sentimental group of rejects, aren’t we? I mean, you’re the one speaking chants aloud… how much of this are you sure about?”
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Reigner holds the side of his head as if he was taken aback by a headache.
“I wish you would just shut the fuck up. Acting like you’ve got me all figured out, but look at yourself! Battered and bleeding, your weapons in pieces. Then there’s your weakness...”
Reigner points his palm at Elly, seemingly regaining his composure.
“You were never able to project anything properly were you? Which is why you play this childish game of baby steps to create your weapons piece by piece, carrying them in that sad bag. Now that they’re destroyed I could erase you right now and you could do nothing about it. It’s admirable, but you are still truly trash. I’m nothing like yo-”
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“So much past tense. it pains me to see you like this. But I’ve acknowledged you, Kharon. Holding back or not, no one except Kahnyne has ever read us so quickly, and we were kids back then. Which is why I’ll stop talking just like you’ve asked so many times…”
All of her cuts are instantly closed by what looks like projected sutures. She uses a torn piece from her sleeve to tie her hair.
“...And start fighting like I mean it. I’ve changed. For better or worse, we all have.”
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“I’ll take care of Rae just in case shit hits the fan. Watch yourself.”
Xing and Rae make their way to the far side of the room.
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“I hope you won’t regret this,”
Reigner arrogantly declares. And yet while neither he nor Xing would admit it as they are now, the look in her eyes reminds them of something that one is trying desperately to pursue and something that the other once wanted. He can’t move carelessly.
Elly stretches her arms.
“Don’t turn into a broken record. I thought we were done talking. I’m ending this quickly.”
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The bands on Reigner’s legs shine. Elly assumes a sprinters stance.
“Rejected and abandoned by the bonds of flesh and blood and prestige...”
They clash in the middle of the space between them. Before Reigner can recover from the surprise of her matching his speed, he is struck in the neck with a kick that nearly breaks it. He grabs her leg and slams her into the ground.
“... I have struggled through this path of mine consumed by denial and hypocrisy, the only things I could control.”
Elly shields her head by cupping her hands around the back of it, breaking some of her fingers in the process. She counters by wrapping her legs around his arm and using the muscles in her abdomen in a twisting motion that switches their positions and momentarily throws Reigner’s arm out of place.
Using his position on the ground to his advantage, Reigner sends a large, sweeping wave of energy from his legs that Elly takes the brunt of with her shin as she puts up her guard.
“...But through those stronger than myself, I have turned my weakness into strength and even found my saving grace...”
Reigner uses a burst of speed to close the distance between them. Even with her broken fingers, Elly closes her fingers around the handle of her knife that was indirectly chipped from the blast earlier. The veins under her skin glow a bright purple as she enhances her body to surpass Reigner’s current speed. Elly takes a lunge right for his eye. However, for a split second before he vanishes from her field of dynamic vision, she sees the flash from every band on his body burning brighter than ever before. She senses him behind her and turns the path of her blade to meet him.
“I cannot easily create what’s on my mind, and I cannot change the fact that I was once exactly what people expected of me...”
They clash at speed that blurs the hundreds of strikes and guards in that instant into a singular wave of sound. He vanishes again, this time appearing above her with both of his hands outstretched for his final attack.
“I don’t know how you haven’t Soul Shocked yet, but this is the end, Avelly! You all will be reduced to nothing but fading memories!”
Almost all of the bands on Reigner’s body burn away like matchsticks disintegrated by the sun, and the hellish blast approaches Elly with the added threat of ending the lives of everyone else. And yet, Xing and Rae confidently watch their comrade close her eyes, giving form to her response.
“...But I have this: the image drawn from my soul and the will to rise above, to create my own legacy, to win. Fire. Blow them all away. This is it:”
A tiny gun with an ever-changing amount of different barrels takes form in her broken hand. She smashes it against the ground and it rises again as a giant version of its former self behind her. Cannons, warheads, spears, bullets. It’s as if every weapon under the sun is hurled as a part of her attack.
Reigner watches as his wave is quickly overwhelmed and nearly engulfed by the opposing beams. Still, like small rays of light, some of his attack reaches the ground in front of Elly. A million and one thoughts cross his mind, but he manages to use the remainder of his energy to traverse the blast he released, appearing directly in front of her ready to strike.
Finally, the goddess of war reveals her Trump Card.
All of the weapons fired before return to their shape of a small gun in her hand already pointed at Reigner’s chest. The barrel is pressed against him now.
“... Bishamon.”
Reigner is consumed by the dome of chaos released by the gun. Xing pulls a piece of the ground below him out of place to shield him and Rae as the airy shockwave alone is enough to tear the room to pieces.
Elly hoisters the weapon. It disappears along with any remnants of the energy it left behind. Reigner now lies face up with his limbs relaxed and splayed against the floor.
“Yeah.”
Rae looks back in the direction that they came.
“He’s really done now. Inside and out.”
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The three of them approach him, standing by his side.
“So that’s how it is…”
The sad, clear-headed man on the ground takes a deep breath that is labored by his many broken bones and internal bleeding.
“You’re just way stronger than I could ever be, Avelly. All of you are. I wasn’t even worth killing immediately.”
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Xing looks down at him; his expression is an enigmatic blend of so much that only his words can truly express it.
“From the very beginning Rae sensed something off about you. He said that you were most likely corrupted by biting off more than you could chew with the souls you control, but I couldn’t believe it. Why do this all because of Atlas? It’s like you completely forgot the shit we went through to get where we are today, everything Mr.Einzloss put faith in us for before he left us.”
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The man’s eyes are still fixed to the ceiling.
“‘Mr.Einzloss’, huh? I think I finally understand you, Xing. But you’re wrong… the only person I failed was-“
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“Yourself,”
Elly finishes his sentence.
Kharon’s Undamaged eye flies open in shock. He looks over to Elly who has assumed a position kneeling at his side.
“I didn’t kill you right away because I’m selfish, Kharon. I wouldn’t be satisfied unless we did this the right way. This was never only about Atlas, your team, or power, was it?”
She asks sincerely.
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A single bloodstained tear makes a path from his eye to his ear.
“You’re right. You’re absolutely right…”
He struggles to move his arms to interlock his fingers over his chest.
“... I just can’t live with myself. Atlas is something else, isn’t he? On that mission, he sat there like a Buddha: Unshaking and unbreakable for 3 days and 4 nights protecting us until your search party got to us. But you know what part really keeps me up at night? During the time that it took for him to notice the ambush, notify us, and put up his barrier for those who made it to him in time, all I could think about was how much I, and myself alone, needed to survive. I might as well have trampled over the rest of my team to cower under him…”
The man’s grip tightens, making the blood from his reopened wound trickle once again.
“... And so I swore by the mountain of bodies I trampled over that I’d become stronger. And when I got my own team, I swore that I’d lay my life down for them. But one day, I just happened to hear them talking. Can you guess what it was about? Wishing they were in Atlas’ squad. It broke me, the little confidence that I had. How weak and pitiful am I? I should have died that day all those years ago. Why did I make it when there were so many more capable individuals than me who didn’t if I was just going to be haunted like this?...”
He can’t bear to look in Elly’s direction any longer and closes his eyes. It’s too hard to turn his head away.
“... The rest is a blur of the many souls under my control corrupting my soul to its core with talk of severing ties and hurt. But the clearest memories I have now are the moments I snapped and killed them. But that’s no excuse. I must have just been rotten from the beginning.”
His long rant ends with a pained and sorrowful chuckle.
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For once, Xing is at a loss for words. He turns away, but continues to listen when Elly responds.
“That’s right. You’re pitiful. But the one thing I took away from our time at the Academy was that everyone had something. Xing may have been the most blunt, Rae may have been the most lazy…”
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“Ouch.”
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“… I may have been the most intricate, but you were definitely the most kind, Kharon. That’s the reason you’re able to control spirits the way you do. I bet you even took the time to memorize each and every one of their names. They pledge themselves to you because you’re giving them the chance to do something greater than they did in their living lives so that they can finally move on to the Afterlife, not to end lives as we know them now. So maybe all of that ‘corruption’ was just them trying to wipe away everything that was hurting you. And think about it: did you forget that Atlas doesn’t even have a squad anymore?”
Elly concludes.
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After a moment of silence, Kharon opens his eyes and erupts into genuine laughter between his blood-filled coughs.
“Wow... in the most petty way possible, I really am pitiful. But you know what? This is for the best. Please, while my mind and soul are still sane, help me cross over.”
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Elly nods and hesitantly stands to her feet. She begins to put a gun together, carefully projecting each component piece by piece.
Xing turns back to face the situation.
“So now you’re running away? There are plenty of medics who could save you, even in your condition if we move fast enough.”
He sounds agitated, straying further and further away from his usual calm, arrogant demeanor.
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Kharon smiles, his eyes now full of hopeful light.
“It’s nice to see that you care so much, Mr.Mountain. But I’m not running away. This is my atonement. Besides, I can tell that this moment of clarity is fleeting and that there’s a chance that my desires will warp themselves again.”
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Rae sighs, confirming Kharon's self-diagnosis.
“Damn it…”
Xing whispers to himself.
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A series of shuffles, clicks and snaps and snaps echo throughout the solemnly quiet room.
“It’s ready...”
Elly says holding the gun she created in one hand and a single projected bullet in her other hand.
“...I created this with the condition that it will only damage your soul enough to send it to the afterlife. It will be painless. Take these final moments to sort through yourself one last time so that there’s no chance that you’ll come back as a malicious spirit.”
She loads the round in the gun’s chamber and begins to point it at Kharon until he begins to speak.”
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“One last thing. Elly, thank you…”
She nods her head.
“Rae, you’re extraordinary, but sensing everything can leave you blind to the things that are even more obvious...”
Rae scratches the back of his neck.
“... And Xing, don’t let your complex be your downfall. There is only so much that I can say to you all in fear that bringing too much up will trap my soul forever. But in my stead, please…”
He pauses.
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“Please what?”
Xing inquires.
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Kharon slowly shakes his head from side to side.
“Sorry, I think that it’s time for me to go. Well, I guess I can say this: you’re a lucky man, Xing. Forget about everything else and think about that...”
He takes a deep breath.
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Elly raises her sights.
“Are you ready?”
Kharon nods his head.
The room that now feels like a tiny box becomes full of small noises. 3 sets of footsteps in the distance towards the entrance. The rhythmic clicking of a gun's hammer. Lastly, the merciful bang of it firing, the last thing Kharon hears and sees.
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He wakes up with a gasp lying down in a pure, white void. 4 figures stand in front of him with expressions that he cannot see yet. He rises to his feet to face them. Each step he takes towards them makes his feet feel heavier and yet the rest of his body begins to feel more and more light. Now standing right in front of them, he has no choice but to stop due to the weight of his feet being too much to bear. To his surprise though, the burden is lifted more and more as the figures in front of him begin to embrace him one by one. They all start to speak, with the expressions on their faces becoming clear.
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“Why are you here so soon?!”
The first exclaims with sorrow.
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“You were just starting to get back on track too!”
The second exclaims with disappointment.
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“You should have known from the beginning that we wouldn’t hurt you when you did so much for us!”
The third one exclaims with a backhanded praise.
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“So many people had horrible things to say about you because of the past. But it’s the past. You gave all of us a chance, saved us so many times, taught us so much, and yet all we could do was watch you struggle. What we really said was that we wished we could travel back in time to that day in Atlas’ squad so that we could save you.”
The last exclaims with love.
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Kharon falls back to his knees. Tears straight from his soul stream from his eyes and fall onto his thighs like purple, glistening rain.
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“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I know that now, but I don’t deserve your forgiveness. I took your lives before-“
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“We don’t forgive you!”
They all yell.
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“I know that too! I know that too. That’s why I’m here. This is my choice. My atonement…”
He raises his pinky to them.
“... This may be naive of me, maybe even childish. But please give me another chance to watch over you. The afterlife is not a perfect place. While those we left behind do what they can, we could too. Then, if my soul is not too damned to be forgiven, I promise that if we are born again and anew into the world of the living, I will do things the right way all the way through.”
They say nothing, looking down on him with their enigmatic gazes.
“I understand.”
Kharon sadly smiles and begins to lower his pinky. The pure white void begins to dim…
But he feels a rush of warmth, filling their blank, purgatory-like void of the Afterlife’s first stage with so much light that it bursts open. “There’s no way we can just forgive what you did. Our lives as we knew them, are over and we had so much ahead of us… but you know what?...” They have all kneeled to return Kharon’s embrace.
“...When we think about lives worth living, we still can’t help but think about all the lives we saved alongside you. Let’s try again, sir…”
“Thank you.”
He is finally at peace.
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