Archive of Our Own beta.
The battle in the real world and Xanadu intensifies, with our heroes backed into an increasingly desperate corner.
Notes:
Why did this take a month to upload? Really? How? This was pretty much split from File 6.31, so why does it somehow take me a month to finish up a second part? (Remembers all of his real-life responsibilities and the recent discovery of a salmon allergy) . Meh, at least it didn't take another half to three-years. Ahem. Welcome back all! As you can see, File 6.32 is up and running! We're getting closer and closer to finally ending this particular part of the story and hitting our stride very soon! I hope you've all endured all of the buildup and introductions so far. Now, let's finish up this two-parter at last! Special thanks to Donjusticia for allowing me to utilize one of his characters in this particular part of the story beyond a quick reference. He has generously provided a bit of his witty humor that will be seen at the end of this chapter. Go check out his stories if you're able! Once again, I don't own CL. The rights are some chaotic mess even I don't want to look into, and we'll leave it at that.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text.
File 6.32 – The Evolving Evil II.
They had been running for around fifteen minutes, and thankfully had not run into any other major problems so far, but Ulrich and Sebastian were not in the mood to take chances. Getting ahead of the incoming statue zombies was a benefit, but of course, there was a downside to such progress.
"Okay, let's, oh boy, stop for a moment, phew…" Sebastian said, panting.
And that downside was that running so fast took a lot out of them, more so Sebastian than Ulrich, and once the adrenaline was out of his system, the Street Kid collapsed on the street. Before Xanadu, Sebastian was probably the only kid in the group, the entire group, to be specific, not just the Warriors, who could keep up with Ulrich thanks to his long legs and a lifetime of street-based rogue aerobics and cardio.
Now, however, Sebastian regrettably had fallen very far behind. Ulrich had offered to carry him again, but the rush of actually getting ahead of their attackers had given the Street Kid confidence to say that he would rather take a skinny dip in sewage than do that again.
Partly (Completely) because of that mental image, Ulrich was glad to let Sebastian run on his own.
But now, as the samurai looked around at their new surroundings, he knew that it wouldn't be long until he probably needed to do it again, and he knew that Sebastian would likely not complain. He did agree that it looked ridiculous, but when the lives of his friends and Yumi's morality were at stake, Ulrich didn't care what he had to do. Besides, as the two boys had discussed, there were FAR worse lines to cross than gossip-inducing contact.
Before he could suggest anything however, his cell phone, which he had decided to put on vibrate, began ringing. Feeling the vibrations in his pocket, Ulrich pulled it out, and saw Jeremie's number. He motioned for Sebastian to walk over, and once the Street Kid obeyed, the samurai answered the call, putting it on speakerphone.
"We're keeping things in check for now, what's going on on the other side?"
" Well, that answers my main question." Jeremie said. "It's a bit hairy over here. Odd and Yumi are having to go to the activated Tower on foot, and Odd took a pretty bad hit a few minutes ago to boot."
"What limb did Della Robbia lose?" Sebastian groaned, his voice a mix of dread and acceptance. "Or did they nab a piece of his torso?"
" Nothing like that." Jeremie grumbled, not in the mood for any cynical interjections. "We have another showing of the Specters' evolution. There's a new kind of monster in Xanadu, one with long-range attack capabilities. I call it the Tardigrade."
"A new monster?" Ulrich gasped while Sebastian's eyes widened nervously. "Are they doing okay?"
Jeremie quickly summed up the situation, explaining the battle that, though it had been triumphant for now, was likely to get much tougher down the road. Whatever was in Xanadu now was more unpredictable than ever before, confirmation of things getting worse.
" If they're not attacked, I give them maybe thirty minutes to get to the Tower, and if the only Specters they have to deal with in order to deactivate it are the basic kind, maybe an additional ten at most. But I have no idea what they're going to find on their way there, so add maybe twenty minutes to that just in case, and maybe ten more to account for the shock Odd took."
"Well shit." Sebastian sighed. "I. I don't know what to say, fuck."
Ulrich decided that if Sebastian had nothing sarcastic in mind and was just content to swear, then that meant that things really were getting bad. "So what do you want from us?"
" Just giving an update, is all." Jeremie clarified. "If things get really bad, I'll call again if I can, and, well, we'll see what to do from there."
And with that, the computer genius hung up.
Ulrich looked at Sebastian. "Welp, looks like we've gotta get serious."
"Implying that we spent all our time joking and making asses of ourselves while an evil snake monster went around petrifying all of the crazy people in the city so that it could gain enough power to take over the world." Sebastian grumbled in response. "But yeah, I've got your point, Stern." He then began looking through his bag, then quietly hissed under his breath. "First things first, we've got to find more lighters or anything that can be used to start a fire. It's the only thing we know is a firm weakness of that thing. I want to think that maybe water could work too, y'know, clump up the ashes, but I get the feeling that that would just convince the zombies to beat us to death instead of making us 'one of them' or whatever."
Ulrich shrugged. "Makes sense." He had never given much thought to the 'science' of Xanadu anyways.
"So. where do we go now? Because if we don't find anything to hold back Medusa's Emporium, we're fucked."
A good question. Ulrich looked around where they were, which was a rare street that was straight. On the right side was a row of buildings, while the left was a concrete wall with an open chain-link gate, with a parking garage of about five stories in height standing above further down the street, bordering whatever lot the wall surrounded.
Motioning for Sebastian to follow, Ulrich crept forward, and looked at the open entrance. The walls surrounded a near barren lot filled with sand, gravel, and dirt, but a large number of generators were scattered around the lot, almost reminding Ulrich of the Towers in Xanadu with the way they were arranged on either flat ground, hills, or even deep holes.
He was just about to turn around, when he noticed something. off about the ground.
Most of it was made up of sand, and both it and the dirt were primarily colored a mix of tan and yellow, while the gravel and rocks stood out as gray. But staining the ground, like one of those flour crater/rift experiments Miss Hertz sometimes demonstrated to explain how the moon worked, was a dark gray or blackish color, like ash. The color immediately reminded Ulrich of the monster that had attacked them.
He then looked across the zone, and saw that while the ash stain did not stretch to this entrance, a look at the other side showed a much longer ash stain.
"Sebastian, wait here for a second."
"Oh sure, and when the zombies get me, I'll-"
Ulrich didn't wait to hear the completion of that complaint as he sped over to the other side of the lot, taking care not to touch the ash, and saw the dark track focus itself at the entrance before crawling down the other street for a few meters, whereupon it became lighter and vanished.
The samurai narrowed his eyes, and then sped over back to Sebastian. "We're in luck. I think I've found the place where the attack started."
The Street kid's mouth hung open. "That is the furthest thing from luck. A-and y-you're sure?"
"Positive." Ulrich said, wrinkling his nose grumpily. "There's this really suspicious set of tracks. and knowing our luck, I'm not going to chalk it up as a coincidence."
"Well at least we have caution going for us." Sebastian sighed. "So, we get the Hell out of this place right now?"
Ulrich looked up at the parking garage, then the buildings. He could tell immediately that the latter would be a terrible place to go to. Enclosed spaces would simply play to the Specters' advantage. A more open space would be better.
"Hop on, we're gonna see if there's anything in that parking garage over there."
Sebastian blinked, and seemed to raise a protest, then he looked behind him, bit his lip, lugged his pack over his shoulder, and did as Ulrich said.
He did however, scream in a panic since instead of finding the parking garage's entrance, Ulrich instead jumped over the wall, and managed to speed up the walls and gaps, flying into the third floor of the parking garage in less than four seconds.
"O-okay, when we're being chased, I can take that, but we could've just taken the ramp or the stairs, Stern!" Sebastian complained, holding tightly onto Ulrich's back-collar, not caring how foolish he looked.
"Nah, this way is quicker."
"I can't tell if you did that to troll me or if you sincerely think that and that worries me."
Ulrich's response was to keep a still, stoic face. Both boys however, felt themselves going still as they heard low, grim, sinister laughter. They looked around for the source and ran to both ends of the garage, but found nothing. Sebastian even pulled out a flashlight, but saw only grime and asphalt. They looked up, straining their ears, and realized that the source of the laughter was on the floor above them.
". Zombie or average Cult Zone weirdo?" Sebastian asked.
The laughter continued, the voice of it dragging out a bit, before increasing in intensity once again.
"Cult Zone weirdo. Let's beat them up." Ulrich answered, cracking his knuckles.
"I cannot believe my life has jumped to the point where something like a crazy cultist is playing second fiddle to something worse in the space of a single weekend." Sebastian couldn't help but note with a sigh.
"If it means you're not going to run outside like a chicken, I'll take it." Ulrich smirked.
Sebastian's face convulsed in not-so-serious disgust. "Are you sure you're doing this to protect Ishiyama? I'm starting to think you'd actually enjoy seeing her kill everyone in this place."
Ulrich rolled his eyes, his trademark scowl already back on as the two walked up the ramp to the next floor.
The third floor had been grimy and dusty, with some graffiti here and there, but was otherwise normal for an abandoned parking garage. The fourth floor on the other hand…
". Whoever lives here has got issues…" Sebastian remarked dryly as the two boys looked around.
The entire floor was decorated with strange patterns and shapes, the walls themselves seeming to have been painted black so that the vivid colors of the patterns adorning them would stand out more. Several of the gaps in the parking garage that would normally let light through were also covered up with slabs of concrete and enormous, towering black shelves. How and why someone was able to obtain all of these was a mystery neither samurai nor guide was willing to investigate. Then again, the fact that the entrance to the top floor was blocked by rubble offered a few answers.
At the far end of the floor was a man adorned with a black cloak, his arms adorned with tattoos similar to the marks covering his residence, who was resting on top of a large rectangular stone, making laughter and moaning sounds. It was clear that he was the source of them.
"Let's find what we're looking for and then get out of here." Ulrich said, immediately walking over to the shelves. Deciding not to argue, Sebastian followed, not wanting to be left alone if the crazy person woke up.
"Let's see. cards, cards, counterfeit cards, neon emo-girl figurines, blood-soaked knives, dynamite. uhhhh, let's go to another set of shelves, eh, Stern?"
Not seeing anything useful, Ulrich nodded and began wandering around the floor binary options while Sebastian immediately tried browsing for anything more useful.
Seeing a light in the shadows, the samurai walked up to it, finding a computer hooked to a set of wires and a generator, sitting atop more carved black stones. It didn't take a genius to figure out that if it was indeed true that below-ground was where the attack source was, then this was the computer that had served as the gateway for the Specters to do it.
The monitor was open to a single window, one that showed a black market deal for drugs. Ulrich decided it best not to pry. but just in case, he looked around, and found a discarded pipe. He then ran up to the computer and smashed its screen in, causing sparks and some bits of glass to scatter.
Sebastian jumped at the noise, screaming in a loud pitch that rivaled Odd's voice.
"D-don't hurt us, mister! W-we're-We're. Oh come on, really Stern?"
"I think I found where the Specters attacked. Broke it just to be safe." Ulrich replied, his voice completely calm. "Now they can't have reinforcements."
"Or that alerted them that we're here." Sebastian sighed, walking away from the shelves, his pack sounding rather full of metal and plastic. "Well, I found a bunch of drugs in a box along with a few bottles of vodka and a couple of pre-prepped molotov cocktails. Not gonna touch any of those. Did find plenty of lighters though, so we're cool. Let's get out of here before that weirdo wakes up."
The weirdo of course, at that moment, groaned as he came down from his high and rose himself above his makeshift pedestal.
". Oh, of course, of freaking course he's back in action!" Sebastian griped. "Go back to sleep, you junkie!"
The man's hood had come off, revealing a head of blue-white hair and eyes that had been tattooed pitch-black. He blinked as he registered the presence of two intruders in his inner sanctum, and the transformation was immediate and terrifying. His unfocused eyes narrowed coldly, and from his robes he produced a Ruby pistol that he pointed in Sebastian's direction.
"You know, I'd known that Oz and Lyle were working together, but I never thought that they'd send two weak children to deprive me of my items. I recall having won that little deal at cards a while back fair-and-square. however fair one can call for making a life in these slums."
Ulrich and Sebastian couldn't help but suppress a shudder. There wasn't a trace of mad levity or craziness in this individual like all of the other threats they had faced so far. For someone who had just come down from a high, his voice was disturbingly calm, quiet, and focused, while his eyes were twin-voids doing an excellent job in boring holes in the duo's heads.
"We're not out to steal your drugs, uh, sir." Ulrich replied, trying to sound innocent. "We just needed some lighters. Also, we don't work for any of those cults, if that's what you mean."
"Ah, so you're just wandering nuisances then." the man growled, straightening his back and stiffening his body. "Ta-ta."
Sebastian froze, immediately realized what was about to happen, but Ulrich did not freeze. As far as he was concerned, this guy was just another threat. Nothing more, nothing less. He charged at the man, not caring if the freakshow became aware of Super-sprint, and tackled him, knocking the gun out of his hand as it fired and instead caused the bullet to hit a jar full of boysenberry jam, shattering it, but thankfully the bullet came nowhere near Sebastian.
The two struggled. Ulrich was surprised that a drug junkie was even struggling at all, having expected nothing but weak bones underneath the man's cloak. Instead, the drug addict's tattooed arms were muscular, veins bulging as he forced Ulrich over to the end of the parking garage, towards an exposed gap.
"H-how the hell are you this tough?" Ulrich managed to grit out, trying to keep the man's hands from grabbing onto his throat.
"You'd be surprised at what nanomachines are capable of doing for you." The man sneered coldly, his grotesquely marked pitch-black eyes filled with murderous intent, his irises pinpricks in the terrible darkness. "I'm quite the connoisseur of exotic goods. Now then. do me a favor, little boy, and die. No need to worry about your friend, he'll be joining you in the void very soon."
Ulrich bit back a retort, and instead chanced to look outside, while still refusing to give any headway or advantage to the crazy person. It was good that he did look however. He would never figure out if Sebastian's worries about the attack were either correct, or it was just another coincidence, but the giant smoke serpent was slithering towards the parking garage, with yet more smoke being emitted from its body, its thralls walking amongst the dark fog. It then seemed to jolt, as if recognizing something. and then Ulrich saw it arch itself, knowing immediately that it was going to attack.
". Well, you're a lot of things, but I've got more important things to deal with." Ulrich growled, positioning his legs onto the crazy man's stomach, before using his speed to give his next kick a surprise boost.
The crazy person screamed in anger and shock as he found his grip on Ulrich's jacket slacken. and realized that he himself was now plummeting towards the ground, which was now covered in black smoke.
But instead of just falling onto the ground below, he instead ended up becoming Ulrich's human shield for the blast of dark ash that collided into him instead of the boy. He still found himself falling, but it wasn't long until his flesh was covered in rock and his clothes became stone. He flipped down and landed on his feet, the impact creating a crater in the abandoned lot. The now converted disciple of the virtual world stood, eyes glowing as he glared upwards, joined by the statue forms of Lyle, Oz, and their subordinates as they seemed to consider how they would ascend upwards to get at the Warrior and the Guide.
"Well that didn't do much." Ulrich muttered before finding himself shoved aside by Sebastian.
"Move clear, Stern!" the Street Kid ordered, lighting one of the molotov cocktails and throwing it out of the garage with as much strength as he could muster.
It was good timing too as the snake creature charged another black ash burst. This time it collided with the lit molotov cocktail and exploded in mid-air, the heat of the flames causing the demonic creation and its thralls to flinch, loathing the feeling of their one true weakness outside of the Tower being deactivated.
"That's not going to hold them for long…" Ulrich said grimly. "You got any other ideas?"
"I could try dropping another one of the psycho junkie's bombs down there…" Sebastian mused, "but we kinda need to remember that there's power stations down in that lot too. I don't want to know if causing an explosion down there is a good or a bad idea. Best I can recommend for now is warding off the long range attacks."
That was a good point. One spark had caused a decent sized explosion in an empty cul-de-sac. An actual explosive, especially with all of the generators on the ground level would cause significantly worse damage. and probably not be something Ulrich could escape from, let alone hide from the untrustworthy authorities afterwards.
"So we gotta find an escape, then." The samurai said, pinching his forehead while Sebastian threw another molotov cocktail at a third blast of ash.
Looking back from the heat of the explosion, Ulrich looked at the back of the parking garage. While most of the gaps had been blocked off, there was still a space near the entrance ramp that was open, very capable of being jumped out of. And that was near the shelves where Sebastian had claimed to find dynamite…
Okay, maybe causing another big explosion here was a bad idea. but they really didn't have much of a choice in terms of escape options.
"Follow me, and light some of that dynamite!" Ulrich ordered, running to the back of the garage.
"I just said causing an explosion down in that lot was a bad idea!" Sebastian protested, though he still followed.
Ulrich shook his head. "We're not doing it down there. We're setting it up here and getting out the same way we got in."
That gave Sebastian some pause as he tried to parse Ulrich's line of thinking. Set up the dynamite here, and from this distance the snake monster would either have to charge in or send its thralls, at which point either their ash would ignite the lit dynamite or the dynamite would go off and throw them out, hopefully being far away enough from the lot that any further damage would be avoided. In the end, the only downside was another high-flying escape, but considering the alternative…
"Okay, setting up the trap, now!"
There was a low hissing noise, causing the two boys to look back. Three eyes glowed menacingly as the snake monster began to creep into the garage.
"HURRY!" Ulrich demanded.
"GOT IT! LET'S MOSEY!"
Sebastian wasted no time mounting Ulrich's back (and made a note to introduce anyone who had their own thoughts on that wording to Yumi), and the samurai sped forward, slipping through the gap and nimbly jumping down the remaining gaps of the parking garage until he reached the ground level, then jumped along the nooks, crannies, and whatever features about the buildings on the other side of the street made them akin to ledges. He didn't stop until he reached the top and continued running across the roofs, Sebastian looking behind to see if they were about to be sniped by a stray ash blast.
He needn't have worried.
The explosion that followed was not some massive burst that destroyed the entire parking garage. but the force of the explosion was still great enough to destroy the upper floor by blowing it clean off, sending chunks of concrete raining down on the streets and buildings. Regardless of the difference between the theoretical and actual blast, it was clear that the snake creature had been burned up in the explosion regardless. Still, it wasn't like it was going to hold it off forever. The chase would soon resume, and so the two boys sped off into the distance once again, taking care to avoid the falling debris.
There was, of course, more to the damage than the duo had cared or even had time to observe.
The parts of the fourth floor at the epicenter of the blast had obviously caved in, crashing into the third floor, which had failed to hold, sending debris through it and down onto the second floor, which thankfully did manage to hold. None of the support beams that made up the parking garage had been critically damaged, so the structure as a whole would not collapse. That did not change how the fourth floor was beyond repair, and exposed to the sun by the destruction of the fifth. All of the paraphernalia that had once made up the drug addict's possessions was destroyed, and some small fires still burned on what was flammable, while the rest of the floor was scorched black, with all of the paint burned away. Thankfully for Sebastian and Ulrich, the only explosives in the building to start with had been the now-used molotov cocktails and dynamite, preventing any further damage.
Some small wisps of ash drifted from the destroyed building, into the abandoned lot. Miraculously, none of the debris had hit any of the generators. except that obviously some of it nearly did. However, it was not because it had missed them by a few centimeters, but rather because the thralls had banded together to catch the worst of the debris and toss it out into the streets. Their speed was perhaps not an asset, but their strength was another story.
But even though they had prevented the worst of the damage. it did not change the irritation of their master.
Avatar and Guide…Have escaped again…unacceptable…
Now, multiple snake heads, thin and weak, binary options began to form out of the smoke, all of them hissing in anger at once again failing to retrieve their targets.
Alternative method required…
Avatar and Guide were tracked down due to coming to point of origin. Point of origin is now useless for that purpose. New method required. Parsing avenues of approach.
The ash surrounding the gathered thralls pulsed, writhed, and twisted. Calculations were run, until an idea that perhaps should have been obvious in the first place was processed for feasibility.
Avenue of approach…considering, considering…Accepted. Initiating new strategy.
Now the ash began to swirl, the clouds twisting and warping, until they had turned into snakes that curled around each and every statue.
Subjects. Reveal your memories. Access all banks. The hunt must and will end. For the Will of the World.
The snakes hissed, and all of the petrified cultists opened their mouths, allowing the snakes to slither into the exposed maws, which swallowed the serpents effortlessly. The eyes of the statues glowed an ominous green as they adjusted to the modification.
Silence fell as the newly accessed hive mind began its calculations, learning about the streets, the paths, everything in the terrain that could be useful. With the processing speed, in mere moments they had come up with hundreds of methods to hunt down their targets.
Begin the final operations…
The sand of the lot began to darken once again, its color fading to grey, before the massive basilisk emerged, healed and reformed, ready to end the hunt.
This time, there would be no escape.
"Phew. oh, oh boy…whewww…" Odd gasped, leaning against a tree.
"Do you really need another break, Odd?" Yumi sighed, putting her hands to her hips.
"Look, I didn't think this would take so long! I'm still getting used to the scale around here!"
So far, the journey to the Tower had been relatively uneventful. Yumi had kept her eyes peeled for surprise attacks, but so far there was nothing suggesting that. Jeremie had theorized that for now, perhaps the Specters did not have the energy to spare to make the new varieties of monsters in as large quantities as they perhaps would've liked to yet. That was only somewhat reassuring though, and Yumi still kept a lookout for stray Ghosts, Tardigrades, or some other new monster that had yet to be introduced to them.
By this point, both virtual fighters could see the Tower in the distance, the top part of it choked with a thick ring of darkness, no doubt a collection of Ghosts.
Navigating to the Tower, admittedly, was proving a bit tricky. The shortest path, according to Jeremie's analysis as their trek truly began, was along the slopes of the green mountainside. It wasn't too steep, but crossing the mountain was still tricky regardless. They had to go through another thick forest to start with, where they'd had to jump over some small streams that had slipped into the woods, until finally reaching a clearing that enabled them to get a much better view of the Towers in front of them, still standing in the distance, their enormous size making it difficult to tell how close they were really getting. The trek was made more difficult by the lack of any proper mountain paths or trails. If there had been any in Xanadu before, they had long since been grown over, if growth was truly a concept for this digital dimension.
" You're halfway there. Still no sign of a Specter attack. Looks like my theory was right."
"Let's not count our chickens before they hatch Jeremie, alright?" Yumi said.
"Chicken would be great right about now, actually…" Odd sighed.
"Odd you ate plenty of snacks while we were out on our mission."
"Yeah! Snacks! I need some real food! We pretty much skipped out on lunch!"
" You can eat if we survive this." Jeremie reprimanded sternly.
"Big IF there, Einstein…" Odd groaned.
Yumi clapped her hands, glaring at the cat-boy. "Alright, yes, we get it. If you have the strength to run your mouth, you have the strength to run on your legs, so get up so we can get back to work."
"Alright, alright, got it boss." Odd stretched. "Sorry for the breaks, but those plasma balls hurt ."
" I can actually defend the need for a rest." Jeremie put in. "You guys had to exert yourselves a lot harder against those Tardigrades than the usual Ghosts, not to mention that you've still got some lingering damage from that one attack Odd. I won't sugarcoat it, but if that plasma ball had hit a normal human, it would have certainly killed them in one hit. It might have even killed you if you hadn't blocked at the last second. wait, no, scratch that, definitely would've killed you."
Both of the virtualized fighters looked to the sky, then at each other.
"Well, never let it be said it would be easy." Yumi grimaced.
Odd's mouth simply opened and closed. He wanted to speak up. but he found his usual indignation towards Jeremie completely sapped. Probably because he had just experienced that risk firsthand and painfully at that. It had only been for a second. but he'd seen the future and his animal instincts had been raised to warn him that the blow would've killed him if it'd hit him in the chest.
He kept his mouth shut though, not wanting to be seen vocally agreeing with the computer genius, who was probably sitting comfortably in his chair in the real world.
" Alright. you guys should get moving again. Things have been smooth sailing right now, but I don't want my newfound hope that the Specters can't make that many advanced monsters yet to be proven false and for you two to get attacked."
In the dude's favor though, there wasn't any of his dissonant levity right now. Jeremie was serious, calm, and to the point. Not usually the type of person Odd was a fan of, but with his life in danger, he decided he could make an exception.
"Come on, let's pick up the pace." Yumi ordered.
Odd simply nodded, and the two set off once more.
The new pathway (for lack of a better term) was not as twisted as the previous one. Here, the terrain was not as packed with trees, and thus the ground was not packed or blocked with roots. Instead, the mountain side was grassy, with the only significant plant life being shrubs, and more scattered trees of a different type than the ones from before. Some large rocks were scattered around as well, proving to be helpful if the side of the slope got too steep, or if any more level trails would suddenly give way.
Thanks to this, their pacing became more even. Closer and closer, the Tower grew nearer, and so closer and closer the two tensed, preparing themselves for an attack. With no tree cover, at this high up, it was easy for them to be seen from most of the remaining island, and vice-versa. Both Geisha and Cheshire Cat found themselves looking down at the rest of the island below several times. They saw the many different details and features of the island as a whole, but found no sign of anything black or anomalous.
For now, the world was quiet.
The two were still paranoid of surprise attacks, Odd wondering when, rather than if, his Anticipation would activate. But as they moved further along the mountainside, no such visions came. They also found a greater number of trees, conifers to be specific, along their path, dotting the mountain. Looking above those treetops, the two could still see the black halo of the Tower. Using that as a guide, they advanced through the new tree cover.
And then at last, they arrived at their destination.
There it stood, the massive structure looming above them. It had been hidden by the trees, hills, and the High Tower itself at the start of their journey, but now they had found it. The other Tower on the tallest hill. Unfortunately for them, the place was guarded. Not just by the thick, swarming circle of Ghosts at the top, but also three large creatures that looked like mixes between UFOs and giant squids. Plus, the Tower was situated on an incline. Not a steep one, but the various small hills and rocks would make fighting rather tricky. Once they left the safety of the trees. there would be no turning back.
"You ready?" Yumi asked.
Odd took a deep breath, looking at the monsters from his vision. They were much more terrifying in the present-day in front of him in person. Quite simply put, he did not feel ready at all.
But he also knew what would happen if they were allowed to stay loose in Xanadu.
"Let's do it." he replied, cocking his right arm.
Now that they had a timescale to run by, both Ulrich and Sebastian found themselves trying to make a plan based on what Jeremie had informed them about. They knew now that they had to hold out for around another hour at most, and hopefully Yumi and Odd could stop the attack in that time. So in-between bursts of Super-sprint, Sebastian pulled out his phone and reviewed every detail of what he'd gone over with Jeremie the day before, explaining some parts to Ulrich in clipped, urgent tones to summarize details as best as he could before forming a proper plan.
Unfortunately, in talking and reading said plans specifically, Sebastian hadn't paid enough attention to the maps and they had quickly gotten lost.
The two had now found themselves in an area that at first glance seemed very normal. Buildings, constructed in tight proximity to each other, surrounded the roads, and these roads at first seemed organized in a sensible manner. but then they would find dead ends, and large, open spaces opening up new roads to new rows of buildings. It didn't take long for them to realize that they had wandered into a literal urban labyrinth. They did, of course, have an easy way out, thanks to the buildings having more than enough footholds for Ulrich to use, but…
"Okay, I don't know if this place is hidden well enough away from the enemy, but it's as good as any place to start planning out our final route." Sebastian said, leaning against a wall.
Ulrich raised an eyebrow. "You and Jeremie were already working on a few, why didn't you just have one at the get-go?"
It was telling that Sebastian wasn't interested in firing back, because his answer was spoken in a very genuine and matter-of-fact tone. "Mainly because we were focusing on locating the cult hideout with some focus on emergency routes. Problem is we weren't expecting the ghostmen to join the party, so those routes all just went down the toilet. I had some others marked in physical maps and saved the pictures on my phone, but didn't really commit them to memory or anything. But I've finally got 'em organized in one place, so maybe we can find a solution after all."
"Is that why you don't want me jumping up to the rooftops?" Ulrich asked.
"Yup, yup, yup." Sebastian muttered, studying the map pictures, thankful he'd made sure to avoid any glare on them. "I've got a hunch to maybe find our last-ditch effort to hold those things off. though I don't know if it'll work or not."
"And that's. what, exactly?"
"Remember the catacombs from this morning?" Sebastian asked, with Ulrich nodding in confirmation, allowing the Street Kid to continue his explanation. "After the Panic happened, some 'geniuses' got it into their heads to replicate them, and/or expand them. The entrance we used in the storm sewer isn't the only one of its kind, you know."
Then, it clicked. "You're trying to find another sewer route, aren't you?" Ulrich questioned, though it was more of just confirming Sebastian's plan. Though he didn't quite get why Sebastian wanted that kind of route specifically.
"It's our last ditch effort to escape." The Street Kid sighed. "Obviously, heading down into the sewers immediately would be a terrible idea. Yeah, there's plenty of water down there, gross as it is, but like I said before, that'd just invite the zombies to beat us to a pulp. Also. causing an explosion underground would not be the best move. Hence it being a last ditch thing to keep in mind."
Ulrich pulled out his phone and checked the time. They'd taken around thirty minutes going around the Cult Zone starting from Jeremie's call. Odd and Yumi were hopefully at the Tower right now. and hopefully making progress fighting the monsters.
"I'm sending you the route." Sebastian muttered, tapping on his phone. "No way am I doing the whole 'desperately-sending-you-something-as-a-last-resort-thing'. Could end up sending you the wrong pic."
"Yet you keep making films?" Ulrich couldn't help but snort, remembering all of the times he'd had to listen to Sebastian criticizing a movie someone else had wanted to see for movie night. It was honestly surprising that for such a chronic complainer of 'cliches', Sebastian wanted to go into film at all. It was a case where Odd's brand of creativity, from what little the Samurai had seen of it, anyways, actually made more sense.
"Don't ask me that kind of question, Stern, please." Sebastian begged in a tone that was half-joking and half-seriously. "I do NOT want my death-flag being raised…and if that just did it, then I swear that when I get petrified I will make sure to flip you off so that the-"
He didn't get the chance to finish that half-hearted threat. Because both boys heard the ground tremble.
Ulrich had felt the tremors of Xanadu before, during those attacks from before Odd had joined. these certainly weren't it. They could hear them together. The sound of heavy footsteps, all around them, akin to artillery shells exploding in the distance. There was no apparent single direction of origin for the sound, yet each thundering footstep seemed in orderly rhythm regardless.
"They're here…" Ulrich said grimly, before looking up at the sky, which was now an ugly shade of yellow that reminded him of the pictures of Blue Screen Skate Park, albeit it was lighter. "I know you said not to, but I'm still tempted to head up there and find out where they are."
"If you are, make it quick, don't let them see you." Sebastian cautioned with a resigned sigh.
The samurai nodded at the warning and quickly sped upwards, jumping from the various protrusions as he climbed.
He didn't plan to remain at the top for long, but he had to admit, he was quite tempted to as he rotated his sight atop the roof. Not because the view was anything spectacular, but because in every pathway Ulrich could see, he could catch a glimpse of dark stone-grey and glowing eyes, the latter of which seemed even more intense than before as the zombies marched throughout the labyrinth. Now, it was very important to keep that glow in mind.
Because it seemed Ulrich had not been the only one to have the idea to act as a sentry. The samurai took a sharp breath as he saw those same glowing eyes in the distance in front of him, and in the distance behind him when he turned around.
The glowing eyes of all of the stone creatures glowed ominously, turning white with fury.
There was no time to lose. Ulrich took a quick look around the labyrinth to catch where they were, and then zipped back down the streets.
"Welp, we're surrounded. Also, it looks like they've wised up because when I went up, they already had some guards on the other roofs."
Sebastian did not even manage a reply before the shaking and tremors on the ground became more intense. The enemy knew where the duo were now and were closing in.
"You got a plan?" Ulrich asked.
Sebastian took a deep breath. "Just. run. Stern."
Ulrich's only response was to blink..
"Okay, uh. bad idea in hindsight, never mind." Sebastian coughed. "Not quite the plan I had in mind." He then took a deep breath and slapped his hands against his cheeks. "Okay, we get as close as we can to that sewer entrance without getting caught. and then I'm going to draw them away as best as I can. After that, run, just. run as fast as you can, Stern. Belpois and I found a map of those sewers. I'll send it to you right now. Use it to find another exit point in the Cult Zone." The Street Kid's voice started to become shaky, but he kept soldiering through the instructions. "Don't let those things get outside of this district, keep running, do everything you can, until Della Robbia and Ishiyama deactivate that Tower or whatever."
His phone buzzed with the notification, but Ulrich ignored it. The boy was more concerned about just what their guide had resigned himself to.
"Do you want us to spend five minutes wasting our time arguing and/or crying, or spend those five minutes actually escaping? Well?" Sebastian retorted. "We can deal with the horrible trauma later! . Assuming I survive even if you guys deactivate that Tower. and. and. uh-ugh, let's just get going before I go back into panic mode, okay?"
With a newfound respect for the Street Kid planted, Ulrich gave a grim nod, and the two immediately set out again.
Given that the whole point of the escape was to avoid being attacked, it wasn't surprising at first that they encountered no enemies. It was a bit strange that they weren't being attacked from the rooftops, but considering how heavy the statue zombies were, they might have taken a bit of time setting themselves up as sentries before having the rest invade the urban labyrinth.
Of course, that was a small mercy when the rest of the labyrinth was being invaded from both ends by the other zombies.
And any thoughts of mercy went out the window when they turned a corner into the next street. No zombies were present, but halfway through the path, another opened up. The tremors were rather intense here as well, and both boys could make out heavy footsteps.
Sebastian clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Okay, right at the end, see that manhole cover, Stern?"
Ulrich looked towards the end of the street. Indeed, there was a manhole cover, but unlike the one in the school park or a manhole cover from any other road/sidewalk, Binary Options this one was perched atop a large concrete pedestal with a small ladder installed. It was also located off-center, to the left, hugging a building. Had Sebastian not called it a manhole cover, Ulrich might have just thought it was some statue pedestal left incomplete. At least that decreased his chances of being followed.
"That's where you want to go."
Ulrich nodded. "So. this is where we split?"
Ulrich knew he wasn't imagining Sebastian's body trembling in fear despite that confirmation.
"If it makes you feel any better, at least you got into this knowing something. Yumi and I didn't know what we were doing while that teddy bear was after you." The samurai tried to comfort. It probably didn't mean much, but Ulrich felt some compulsion to give Sebastian encouragement. "And. well, again, thanks for doing this."
Sebastian gave Ulrich a look that wasn't quite judgemental, but still rather deadpan. "I didn't do this purely for Ishiyama, y'know, and I certainly wouldn't do this just so you can kiss a non-psychotic, non-death-bringing girlfriend. I just want to wake up to a world that isn't worse than it already is."
"Hmph, sure.." Ulrich grunted, before putting a reassuring hand on the taller boy's shoulder. ". We'll get you out, don't worry."
"Don't count on it, Stern." Sebastian sighed in resignation. "Teddy disintegrated after you guys stopped that first attack. Who's to say the same won't happen to me?"
Ulrich honestly didn't have an answer. Part of him was tempted to join Sebastian, if only because leaving a teammate behind, especially one with no abilities, to Xanadu's influence was a thought that enraged the samurai and filled him with a sense of unwanted helplessness. Even if they might perish together, it just didn't feel right abandoning someone.
Unlike Sebastian, Ulrich personally felt like he was resisting the urge to head out into the open and fight to the end. His body felt tense and uncomfortable, and he wished he had at least had his katana with him to help ward off the monsters.
". It won't happen." Ulrich said at last. "This attack's not going to kill you if we deactivate the Tower. I'm sure of it."
Sebastian looked at his companion, his eyes empty. "I don't know if you're trying to convince yourself, or me right now Stern, but it ain't working. If I die, don't be too surprised."
Tremors from behind began to pick up. There was no more time to talk about anxiety. It was do or die.
The Street Kid rolled his shoulders, pulling out his remaining lighters. "Let's do this."
Ulrich's face hardened, and he looked to the end of the street, ready to run the instant a signal was given.
Sparking a light, Sebastian ran to the front of the street. Just as he and Ulrich had heard, statue zombies were everywhere. They had not yet noticed him however, and Sebastian had no intention of announcing his position. Instead, he silently threw the lighter into the crowd and ran back to the safety of the other buildings.
The effect was immediate. The zombies were still releasing smoke wherever they went, and the trails immediately ignited. Both Ulrich and Sebastian found themselves falling to the ground from the force of the resulting shockwaves, but neither of them could afford to let that delay them.
"Go!" Sebastian hissed quietly. "NOW!"
Ulrich gave a solemn sigh, then sped towards the manhole pedestal. Sebastian ran back into the next street, brandishing another lighter.
"Well, if I'm going to die, I die on my terms…" he said to himself, before glaring at the stunned statue zombies, none of whom were worse for wear. "TRY AND CATCH ME, YOU TOTAL WASTES OF OXYGEN!"
And he ran past them, the statues unable to use their smoke to catch him, and still too dazed to attack. They could only report.
" Guide has been found. Focus all efforts on subduing Guide."
Sebastian, of course, could not hear this internal conversation and instead ran as fast as his normal human lanky legs could carry him. He had four lighters left that had been taken from the crazed drug addict, and wasting them was not acceptable.
Of course, now that he was on his own, without Ulrich to speed him out of the danger zone, that meant the Street Kid only had the walls of the labyrinth to protect himself from the heat and shockwaves of the explosions.
Not for the first time, Sebastian cursed his personal situation. He didn't want to be here, he really didn't. But then again, neither did Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, or Odd. All of them had been forced into a far worse position than him. They actually had to fight the source of this problem. Maybe Ulrich was going to be right, and Sebastian would not die today. He didn't count his blessings on that though, even if the chance was there, it was always best to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
At the very least, death from fading away was preferable to becoming a slave of the Will of the World that Teddy ranted about.
Sebastian passed an alleyway that led to a dead end. He just managed to catch the glowing of statue eyes before he tossed a lighter into the alleyway and kept running forward, even as the shockwave of the explosion threatened to trip him up.
Of course, it still did trip him up and saw two of his defense lighters skid away, but now the streets were becoming more open and wide, so unleashing an explosion would not be best.
Another turn was coming up though, and Sebastian's heart skipped a fearful beat as the statue form of the drug-addict appeared. Mustering what little adrenaline he had left, Sebastian threw the last lighter and ducked behind a wall as the third explosion rocked the labyrinth.
"Okay. where next?" he breathed, looking for the scattered lighters before turning his gaze forward to what had once been behind him.
There was the other half of the statues. Walking towards him with purpose.
Sebastian looked to his right, and saw the fourth lighter. He got up and tried to run for it. only for another statue zombie to drop from the sky, crushing the lighter without sparking it. He immediately recognized it as one of the technicians from the underground lab, who had likely acted as one of the sentries Ulrich had mentioned.
Sebastian backed away, and now found that his back was to the wall. He had some other tools left in his pack, but he knew they would do nothing. Still, he was desperate, and threw the entire backpack at the technician zombie, but it instead caught the pack.
The other statues strode up to Sebastian, before opening their mouths, causing the Street Kid to scream in terror as they all seemed to vomit black snakes that immediately coalesced back into the form of the massive basilisk that had tormented them all day.
The beast narrowed its three eyes as it slithered up to the Street Kid, who gulped, and then, with nothing left to lose, instinctively found himself standing his ground.
"Go. To. HELL!" He yelled in defiance, flipping the snake monster and its thralls off with both hands.
The basilisk responded by blasting Sebastian with an ash burst.
" Obey the Will of the World."
"Screw. OFF!" Sebastian managed to scream as his body was encased in rock, his fingers shifting from the offensive position to a neutral position as his mind and body fell under the dark influence of Xanadu.
" Obey the Will of the World."
" Obey the Will of the World."
" Obey the Will of the World."
This time, there was no defiant response. Sebastian's mouth clamped shut as the rock finished engulfing his form. His eyes now glowed the same as the rest of the zombies. The one who had caught his pack handed it back to him. As he slung it over his back, so too did the pack become covered in the same rock covering as its owner.
Then, from the maw of the master of the enslaved ones, a new, smaller serpent, coiled away from the larger whole, before it curled up along the new subject's body. The statue opened its mouth, and the snake entered its body.
" Subject, reveal plan."
In an instant, they all knew what had happened. The Samurai Avatar was still active. Now however, with the combined knowledge of the Guide and those Subjects native to the area, finding him was now assured.
And once he was found, they would be free to hunt down the remaining Avatars and their Operator.
" Find Avatar."
All of the statues looked upwards to their master. All of them, including the one that used to be known as Sebastian Toup, widened their eyes as they glowed in recognition of the order that had been given. The ones who had been stunned by the explosions were now gathering, affirming that all were present. Their master's eyes narrowed in dark satisfaction, as it felt its power increasing, with no more chance of being wounded or diminished. From its main body, countless minor serpents of darkness seemed to tumble and slither out, re-entering those hosts they had left, yet that very main body they sprung from seemed to now grow in size instead of shrinking. The creature trembled as it reveled in its newfound power, shifting size from small to large with ease, knowing that it could handle either.
The time had now finally come to end this.
" Begin."
And thus, the statues resumed their march once more.
Of course, there was another side to the story.
Not that said individual was glad to be on that side, of course.
Gritting his teeth, Ulrich ran through the sewers, the only other sound he could hear besides the impact of his shoes on the ground being that of the rushing water of the currents. He was glad for that. It meant that he could try to shut out the muffled sound of the explosions that had marked his friend's last stand. A last stand that he hadn't been able to help, just as he could not help his other companions, fighting what was likely an equally or even more desperate battle on the other side. A last stand that could very well be the fate for all of them.
And all he could do right now was a glorified version of praying where he had to hope his friends could succeed while running as fast as he could. It made the boy feel sick.
But he had no choice. The only way to help them all was to run away. An option Ulrich still hated.
"Odd, Yumi, it's up to you two now." Ulrich said to himself grimly, loathing the helplessness that rampaged through his mind, cursing him as a failure in the voice of the man who held absolute authority in his life. "Good luck."
Odd had at first expected that he and Yumi would just charge in, but the moment he made a forward movement, he once again felt Yumi's telekinetic grip, stopping him right in his tracks.
"Okay," she coughed. "Just because I asked if you were ready did not mean I wanted you to charge in like an idiot."
"Well, do you have a plan?" Odd asked, failing to hide any impatience in his voice.
But if Yumi noticed, she didn't care to reprimand her teammate verbally or physically for his attitude.
The two were currently hiding behind a set of piled up rocks, just out of the sight of the monsters. Their cover was helped by a small abundance of trees, so the enemy had yet to spot them despite their prior movements.
Yumi was silent for a few moments, sneaking a few peaks at the new monsters. "Jeremie, do you have any names in mind for those?"
" They're basically giant floating squids. No further need for any kind of special name there."
"Okay, boo! Too boring and too long!" Odd pouted.
" Tentacles?" Jeremie tried.
"If we survive this, I will kill you." Yumi said the instant the word left the computer genius's mouth.
"Yeah, leave the rest of the monster names to me, okay, Einstein?" Odd sighed. "We'll just call them Krakens and call it a day."
" Well, the name does fit, I suppose." Jeremie mused. "Curious that you wanted a name for them in the first place, Yumi. I'd have thought Odd would ask me that."
"Just need to know what to call them so I can figure something out." the Geisha grumbled. "I can accept Krakens as a name. One other question, do you know what they can do?"
"Great, we're facing a new enemy blind." Odd groaned. "That's gonna be fun."
"Yup." Yumi said in a tone that almost sounded eager, making Odd gulp as static filled his vision briefly. He quickly wiped at his eyes, and when Yumi was speaking again, the static had cleared up. "Alright, I'll use one of my fans as decoys to distract them. After that, Odd, you know what to do?"
"Break dance in front of them?"
Yumi's right eye turned to glare at Odd, who laughed nervously.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll blast them with Laser Arrows."
At this, the girl nodded, slinking back over to the other side of the rocks, pulling out a tessen. She unfolded the fan, and stood in a meditative stance, using her telekinesis to float the fan gently in her hands, clearly preparing to launch it. The blue light of the sharp disc grew brighter as Yumi inched closer to the other side of the rock wall.
The geisha took a deep breath. "Ready?"
There was no responding quip as Odd simply nodded his head.
Ready for action, Yumi jumped onto the rock face, before backflipping into the air and telekinetically launching the fan at the monsters.
The attack was not meant to deal damage, only get attention. Indeed, though the Krakens seemed to lack eyes like the other Specters, all three moved as if they had seen the fan. The leftmost one let out a deep, horrible noise from its fanged maw that put the Tardigrades and Ghosts to shame, before whipping out a tentacle that slammed into the fan. and in doing so, broke Yumi's concentration as she felt the force of the blow on her weapon as it flew back, digging itself into the ground.
But by then, Odd was already in place.
"Laser Arrows!" The Cheshire Cat called as he fired a barrage of arrows at the center Kraken.
The beast flinched as the projectiles came upon it. Some missed, while others hit its tentacles and yet others managed to hit its main body.
Odd was hopeful that he would be able to inflict some decent damage. After all, compared to the Tardigrades and most of the Ghosts, the Krakens were huge, so it shouldn't be too hard to hit them. And hey, maybe being based off of squishy seafood creatures would mean they would be equally squishy and easy to hurt.
He found himself both wrong and right.
Right in that indeed, the large size of the Krakens saw most of those arrows connect, but wrong in that the monsters had other attributes that rendered the damage trivial.
The main body had much less obvious defenses than the Tardigrades, as the explosions of the Laser Arrows managed to inflict more than a few holes in the beast, yet judging by the way its mouth growled in grimace, the creature seemed more annoyed than hurt or even alarmed by the damage. The tentacles likewise, had been injured, but instead of being completely blown off as Odd had hoped, the best he had managed was blasting off some of the tips or blowing a hole along the sides, but the girth of the tentacles was sufficient to prevent those holes from becoming too serious.
The Kraken's purple body seemed to glow in annoyance, before it roared in anger, bringing up its front two tentacles.
"Wow. uh. was really hoping that would hurt him more than that…" the Cheshire Cat quivered.
Before either Jeremie or Yumi could respond, the wounded Kraken beat them to the punch as it began firing purple orbs of solid energy from its two front tentacles right at Odd.
Yelping in terror, Odd immediately sprang to all fours and dashed down the hill as the orbs burst around him. He had at first expected them to expand the way that the Tardigrade's energy orbs had, but it seemed these solid orbs, with their denser energy, were only set to explode on impact. The shockwaves were much more powerful, but there were no accompanying stray fields of electricity.
Of course, said shockwaves were making it tricky for Odd to keep his balance. On the bright side, his more cat-like form was finding a niche in recovering balance a lot easier than if he'd been running on his legs alone.
On the downside, he was still being assaulted by energy blasts.
The Kraken on their right, who had yet to be attacked by either Avatar, growled, before floating towards the two Avatars, tentacles charged with purple electricity.
"Damn it…" Yumi gritted. Now that the enemy knew where they were, their current position saw them being pinned down. "Odd! We're moving!"
"Out of here?!" the cat-boy squeaked, hoping to retreat.
"Out of the rocks!" Yumi answered, running for her discarded fan, before focusing on said rocks.
The stones trembled as Yumi's telekinesis took hold over them, as she felt her psionic grip on them become firm. She would've loved to take her time with them, but the situation required speed, a factor that they were without thanks to the absence of a certain samurai. Once Yumi knew she had them in her power, she lifted them from the ground and with a powerful thrust of both of her arms, forced the boulders at the monsters.
Growling in a manner that almost seemed like a dismissive 'hmph', the leftmost Kraken's base glowed a bright purple as it levitated forward to meet the attack, grabbing the boulders and tossing them aside.
But now that the field was empty and the monsters' attention diverted, Odd quickly ran alongside the slope before crouching into a combat position and firing more arrows from his right arm at the center Kraken, hoping to finish it off.
Instead, a wide-arcing array of electricity was sprung from the side, intercepting the attack. Odd managed a quick look to his right, catching the third Kraken defending its ally. His attention however, was more focused on how his Laser Arrows, upon making contact with the side-assault of purple lightning, exploded, with not one of them seeming to make it to their target.
He then immediately regretted it as flashes of blue and purple light nearly blinded him, Po.Cash the Cheshire Cat shielding his face with his arms.
Then, the wounded Kraken flew towards him, growling as it raised a tentacle to counterattack.
Gritting his teeth, Odd ran back down the slope. It was good that he did. The wounded Kraken flew towards where he had been, growling as it had raised a tentacle to counterattack. The tentacle was charged with its own electricity and then slammed into the ground. But it soon saw that Odd was not where he had once been, while Odd's attempt to run faster caused him to trip and roll down the hill.
He just managed to catch himself as the Kraken lifted its tentacle out of the ground. Surprisingly, there wasn't any shockwave or ground-chain of electricity to follow up the impact with.
Well, at least that was one weakness the Kraken had for 'balance', though Odd would hardly call the monstrous terrors preferable to the Tardigrades.
" Odd, keep an eye on your ammo! You've only got three arrows left in your right wrist, and eleven in your left!"
Especially since he had now been helpfully informed he was running low on ammunition to fight them, and he doubted he had the strength to fight them hand-to-hand. Not that he'd want to fight Tardigrades without a weapon anyways.
"Eleven should be plenty!" the Cheshire Cat declared boldly, getting back into a combat stance.
But before he even had a chance to fire, the mouth of the Kraken he was faced bared its teeth as its body briefly glowed, with Odd gazing at the upper part of head just above the mouth, which seemed to twist into a facsimile of a skull-like face. The open mouth grimaced, as if it was chewing on something, before the Kraken reared back and fired… something out of its mouth.
Odd didn't need a vision to know that whatever that something was, it was bad news.
He immediately jumped to the side, catching the sight of something pitch-black and oblong in shape moments before it slammed into the ground, releasing a thick dark fog of inky-black smoke that completely blocked out Odd's field of vision.
"UGH! BLECH!" The cat-boy winced from being so close to the impact area, swearing that he could taste ink in his mouth. "Guess we should've expected a giant squid to fire off ink!"
" Odd! All my visuals on you just turned black!" Jeremie's voice warned.
"Yeah, I can SEE that!" Odd snarled, not having the time to enjoy the ironic pun as he stumbled through the cloud of darkness. Moments later, he tripped over something, letting out an irritated cry as he fell. "Ouch…"
It really was impossible to see anything. All Odd could see was black, even while his hands and knees kept to the ground, and if Future Flash was going to activate, or had activated the