Chương 68: THE PROPS

T'balt was laser-focused on catching the flinging light in the sky.

"Why is he insistent on running?" Monan was acting like a tease. Occasionally, getting close enough to T'balt to keep him in close but far enough that he was disengaged. Every now and then, T'balt could reach him and do some superficial damage, but none of it ever seemed to bother Monan, who was on a warpath, tearing through buildings, destroying people, and demons like they were no different from one another. Each time, it just added more gas to the open fire in T'balt's heart.

He had to figure out a way to stop this. To stop that obsessing laughter. But after a while, he'd realized that they had doubled back towards the capital building at the top of the hill.

"What's he…" Then came the explosion in the distance. It was far, but that fire was loud, building to a crescendo of at least fifty yards high. A sphere of fire, the likes of which someone like Vikram couldn't make.

"A self-destruct.. Oh no." He wanted to run over there. It was a move that only Monan would do, which meant that one of his teammates was caught in that blast. Or maybe all of them. Monan stopped in the air, boiling his gut in laughter.

"Well, there goes that trump card. That one I called the EX-plosion. The trick was to have the bird lure you in, jerk the ego a little bit till you're having all these conflicting emotions and then…"

"MONAN!" T'balt launched after him, and the man evaded, continuing to laugh.

"What was that?" Acelin could see the explosion. It was in the direction that Ellie was heading.

"Do you think that could be her?" Cannon asked.

"I don't know… But we have to go see." The kid was beside himself.

"There's not much point," Sam said.

"What do you mean? What was that?"

"A self-destruct loot. Looks like she was crazier than I thought…"

"Self-destruct?"

"Yeah. That means Chosa's effectively dead. And if your healer didn't escape that blast, then there's no helping her anyway."

"You're telling me she's…" The tears started to well up in Acelin's eyes. Cannon lowered his head. He wanted to believe everything about them being reborn in the new world after their deaths, but it was still so far out of his realm that he couldn't help but inwardly mourn. She was a sweet girl, but that explosion was so big that he doubted anyone within the radius could survive.

"This is your fault." Acelin had telepathically thrust a pair of sharp glass shards into Sam's face.

"Acelin!" Cannon tried to stop him.

"Your friends killed her… Now Ms. Ellie's gone." The eyes turned pink with anger and sadness, leaving away all possibility of doubt. Sam didn't flinch, eyes flashing red for a moment. But he stayed quiet.

"Acelin," Cannon said.

"Remember. She'll be fine. Once this is over, everything will go back to normal. Just like what T'balt said."

"You can't honestly believe that stuff. It's stupid…"

"But you have to… otherwise what's all this for?"

"To protect my friends. What else!?" Acelin yelled.

"And if I can't do that, then I'll… I'll..." Cannon had grabbed Acelin, pulling him into his chest. Acelin was suddenly lost in Cannon's massive frame. He embraced him.

"It's alright. Now's the time to be brave and strong. We will be okay." The glass shattered on the ground. Sam sighed in relief. Cannon turned to him.

"Is there a way to defeat Monan? A weakness? Anything?"

"I don't know… Just because I don't want to fight doesn't mean I want to help you kill him. He was my best friend, you know."

"Please." Cannon got on his knees, bowing to the floor.

"What I know is that if he dies, all of this ends. Ellie comes back. Everyone comes back, and T'balt will save them."

"You think he'll save me too…"

"What?" Cannon looked up.

"I get the sneaking suspicion that most times I don't make it. Do you think that next time, T'balt can save me, too? Then maybe I can talk some sense into Monan before things get like this…" If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"I know he will."

"Then we shake on it. That's our deal. I'll help you guys take him down just this once." Sam offered his hand, and Cannon gladly took it. It was then that light flashed behind him. And Sam found himself bleeding from his heart. Looking down, he saw a sword of light pierce through his chest. That same light was sent through Cannon as well. He never saw it, so he couldn't react. This caused him to grunt in pain as the hole went straight through his sternum. Sam turned around.

"Please… don't."

"Not this time, Sam." Monan looked down on his friend as he fell over dead. Cannon fell to his knees, clutching his chest, struggling to breathe. He could hear Acelin screaming his name, flashing like a bolt towards him. The kid hefted a large pillar with his mind. Monan simply flash-stepped to the other side of Cannon, making the attack miss. This time, he wanted no errors, electing to finish things off with a simple combat knife to the back. Cannon grunted, feeling his life's energy leave him.

But in some last-ditch carnal intervention, he sprang for Monan's throat. To cleave out the man for everything he was. He gritted his teeth, clinching with massive strength until he felt bones break underneath his fingers. But Monan didn't falter. Cannon only had his forearm, which took the place of his neck. Within a few seconds, Cannon's grip faltered, and he staggered to the ground, unable to breathe. Monan stared him in the eye and had Cannon's loot in his hand before he had even hit the ground.

There's no one who feels anger quite like a young man on the cusp of breaking adolescence. Acelin saw Cannon go down. He saw the monstrous way he was taken from the world. He saw the monster that did, a demon worse than any shade he had seen in his life. A monster worse than his own father. He had blacked out. Charging at the man full speed, hoping to avenge Ellie and Cannon now. Two people who meant the entire world to him this last month were both dead because of this man.

And as far as he knew, there was no afterlife. The world was too cruel to allow one to exist. He had stolen them forever. But rage only made one a beast, predictable and straightforward. Monan caught the kid by the throat and simply raised an eyebrow. That was the scene T'balt saw when he finally caught up: Several bodies on the floor, and Monan a second away from making another corpse. In his hand was the God Slayer Sword. That was when the four vibrant wings burst from his bare back.

Each one with a separate eye, all aimed at T'balt. The severed Seraph's head seemingly laughed in its own death.

"Now this feels right… I think I finally sobered up." He realized the boy was unconscious in his hand, having squeezed the breath out of him. But he was still alive. He had to toss him aside to dodge T'balt's wrath. He was desperately trying to take Monan's head off, attacking with precision but also that kind of fury that was only born of absolute hatred. The Seraph's wings formed four extra limbs, smacking T'balt down when he got too close.

Monan spun the hilt of the Go Slayer Sword, letting the feel of it return to his hand. It was in his left hand as Cannon broke his right forearm, and he could hardly use it. He looked down at Sam's body, leaking blood and growing cold by the second.

"He'll forgive me next time." He reached down, took the holy water loot, and equipped it himself.

"What is he doing?" T'balt wondered.

"Isn't that his fourth?" He could see the cracks of the overload forming in Monan's body. Not even the eyes on the wings were safe as the loot parasites continued to eat at him. The water healed his arm slowly but surely, steam rising up and twisting it back into place. T'balt could see the bones reforming from outside the skin. Monan breathed in heavily for a moment and then released.

"Most loot have some crazy limitations. But if you know how to focus them, they really can be miraculous. Here's something you probably didn't know. The Seraph back there… he's a beast loot. Meaning I can inherit anything about it. It's light. Its wings. And its fortitude. So having a fourth loot doesn't feel too bad. And with some healing, I don't have to worry about one extra little piece of loot taking me down. Isn't that neat? Knowledge wins wars, buddy." T'balt didn't know what to do. Monan had him cornered.

Everyone was gone. It was just him and this monster that he had never been able to beat before. He dropped to his knees.

"I guess I lost this round. I could try, but I don't know how to counter his light. He's got the sword. He's got the holy water. I've only got one more loot slot. And nothing I have can counter all those things." But at least this was his full form. There wasn't a way he could be more powerful than this. Right? At least he could take the knowledge for next time. He sighed.

"No point in not fighting it out, though."

"If you're ready," Monan aimed his sword.

"Then come at me." T'balt sped towards him, dodging the flurry of light attacks, but just barely. He ran in and out, focusing his brain on dodging where Monan aimed. But with the sword, attacks weren't fluid. They could change direction mid-air. He found himself taking a burn to the leg, and then to the arm, and then to the neck. He tried to attack from above, but the wings just smacked him into the wall. Monan quickly lit up and charged his sword right through T'balt's belly.

The hardening was the only thing preventing it from going clear through him. But even then, he struggled to keep his stomach hard enough. The tip of the sword was still chipping through like a screwdriver into a thick tree. T'balt gritted his teeth, grabbing the sword's light and pushing it away from him, it being surprisingly solid in his hands. But then the light shot from the sword shot into his body, rattling his insides. He keeled over, spitting up smoke and blood.

Monan kicked him over to his back, gloating in his victory.

"Well, you put up a good fight this time around. Too bad you still got a long way to go, brother."

"I'm not… your brother."

"T'balt. Don't you know we don't get to pick our family? You're stuck with me… Just like I'm stuck with you." T'balt looked over at the bodies spread across the floor.

"Cannon… Acelin… I'm sorry, everyone. Looks like I failed again." He waited for death to come as Monan aimed his sword once again, only to find that it didn't. He was protected. Protected by his guardian angel, floating daintily from the sky with wings wide and beautiful and pristinely white. Monan leaped away, several holy arrows piercing his back. The burns started affecting him, forcing him to heal with holy water. Ellie's eyes glistened red as she floated above it all, a holy army of bows ready to annihilate.