"Speech"
'Thoughts'
["Speech Through Technology"]
|
…
What do I do?
That singular question shot through every last drop of blood in my body. It was worse because I couldn't come up with an answer.
Every last drop of blood told me to run, get as far away as possible, and never turn around. The problem with that? Those same drops of blood knew—no—felt that was impossible.
It was something about the way he, or was it now it, hovered, the impossibility of it all. It reminded me of one thing, one thing I dreaded anything imitating.
Alien X.
So absolute in its power, so unbothered by lower beings, it refused to acknowledge any of it.
Worse—
"Wait a minute!" My eyes widened as I saw the blood that covered the street, which now floated up beneath the creature's feet. It was being absorbed into it!
Gritting my teeth, I began turning my head away, only to stop. My brain short-circuited. What was I supposed to do?! My head began twitching violently back and forth, from running to fighting to running to fighting.
"RRHHHHHGGGGGHHH—fuck, fuck, fuck!" I grabbed my head as I shouted before rushing forward while shouting my curses.
I couldn't reason with this thing; I couldn't ensure my survival by running away. The only thing I could do was give it my all to interrupt his transformation, and hope he was weaker mid-transformation like a video game boss.
My steps splashed the blood, the street as unseen as ever, yet I kept pushing.
I couldn't use Deterioration again. I had no idea if it would result in a third phase, even worse than this.
Pulling my fist back while sliding on the thin surface of blood, I punched with everything I had.
*KN–ALC*
*CRR—UNCH*
Two sounds rang out. The second was the sound of my clenched fist breaking almost all my bones to the wrist. The first sound? To my horror, it was all wrong.
For a moment, I was stunned. Mouth agape, eyes wide, morale shattered, pants about to be a darker shade of brown, and my hope thrashed.
The sound was unnatural. It gave me this sense of primal revulsion I couldn't describe. It was as if the sound was played backward? No, it was more like the sound was undone before it could reach my ears.
As if God took actual offense to the noise and made it as if it never existed. To whatever this thing is, I give it credit. It did not move an atom. It stayed exactly as it always had, continuing to ignore me.
*click*
The clock was ticking. This street of blood wouldn't last forever, and I wasn't trying to find out what happened when it did.
Shaking my left hand, now fully healed and covered in a light amount of scales, I punched again!
*KNIG*
*KNALC*
*HHSSSS—*
Each punch I threw, each punch that landed, it all sounded wrong—
*CRR—CHRECHHHH*
The sound and feel of my wrist shattering made me pause.
*click*
My hand healed quicker than last time, with more scales focused on defense, growing denser.
Alright, maybe this wasn't so bad. Maybe I was actually going to climb my way up and win this.
████████
████████
Hmmmmmm?
████████
████████
I froze.
A primal instinct, or maybe it was something I couldn't understand, told me not to move. I could feel that if I moved, my death would be guaranteed.
Even so, my eye swerved around in my socket, and I saw the beginning of my demise flash before my eyes. One of the four eyes of the being I was breaking myself against had moved.
The other three remained as they were, but this one locked onto me.
Jumping back, sliding on the bloody street, I took a deep breath.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" I shouted with everything I had.
I knew he was related to Original Dante, but—
Achotaz, God of Adaptation and Evolution.
—something wasn't adding-
Gripping the side of my head with one hand, I winced.
Who said—
I have.
—that-?!
Words weren't being spoken. I couldn't hear anything coming from my ears. It felt like words were being directly imported into my brain, or spoken directly to it, foregoing all corporeal logic.
And to my increasing horror, the being—no, Achotaz, began turning in my direction.
My knees felt weak.
I had to run.
There's nothing else I can do.
I have to run!
Taking a–
"URCHHH!!" The second my foot felt the twitch to lift off the ground, I was grabbed by the neck and lifted into the air.
Wrapping my hands around the wrist, I struggled in the air, my feet unable to touch the ground. I dangled rather uselessly.
Even still, I noticed his other hand slowly coming toward my chest. Putting my hand in the way, I tried to grab his other wrist to slow the moving hand down.
My first hand didn't do anything remotely useful. The amount I seemed to slow him down was none at all.
Bringing out my second hand, I tried using all my might to stop his hand from reaching the left side of my chest. It didn't slow him.
It felt like one of those saw traps, the same ones where a blade comes down on top of you, except this time, I had no way to stop it.
And so I watched, slowly, as the hand pressed right against the left side of my chest. For the briefest moment, it touched clothes, then went straight through to skin. Bypassing it like a ghost's phasing.
Then it went through the skin into the muscle and nerve. I could feel it, all of it, going through my body with precision. Yet I couldn't stop it.
From the muscle and nerve. It passed by my ribs, going straight to where my heart was. I could feel the fingers spreading within my chest to encompass and encircle my heart.
And I could only grit my teeth.
Finally, fully encircled by fingers, the hand closed with crushing force.
No sound resounded, no flashy ability, only stillness.
Slowly pulling his hand out, I could see his eyes widen slightly.
The clenched fist he just pulled out of my chest was unbloodied and held no heart.
Seeing this, he stared at his hand in confusion before slowly turning to look me in the eye.
"Heh. What are you looking for?" I scoffed weakly, mocking his attempt at whatever it is he was trying to do.
*click*
His eyes narrowed, if that was possible. Lifting and opening the same hand that reached into my chest, he brought it above my head.
His hand grabbed and locked onto something, the free space above my head. And he slowly began turning and pulling his hand.
*CRR—RRR*
It felt like something was tearing my head open! I began punching at Achotaz with wild abandon. None of my punches were doing anything, even as my eyes began filling with blood, color tinting my vision.
*KC—ILC*
Blood flowed out of my nose, mouth, eyes, and ears like a river. I could barely see through the blood in my eyes. The scales on my hands quickly began flaking off and turning to dust.
Even still, I struggled.
*CRRRRRR*
The sound of something creaking rang out as I fought to stop—
*KC—ILC*
"Ughh…" My brain defaulted. Words felt hard to come by.
My arms fell slack to my sides, blood gushing from my eyes, leaking out the corner of my mouth, my eardrums ringing, pulsating, and bleeding.
*click*
Achotaz's head tilted to the side slightly.
With my renewed focus, blood still clouding my vision, I threw a punch toward his tilted head. My knuckles and wrist broke on impact, not moving the target even a millimeter.
Raising both my legs, tucking them in toward my body, I kicked with both legs aimed at his torso.
Both my feet broke upon making contact. Even still, I tried pushing against his body with my broken feet.
Achotaz seemed to only stare before releasing his hold on me, allowing me to push away from him. I had no idea why he did so. Perhaps Original Dante was still in there somehow?
If Original Dante was still in there, maybe I could use this to my advantage!
Kneeling in the blood, I let my broken feet heal, and then stood up. There was only around seven feet of distance between us. One of us stood floating two feet off the ground, the other standing in blood.
"Still can't allow me one bit of peace, I see?" I rubbed my eyes, wiped my mouth, and cleared the blood from my ears as I spoke. "All I asked was for one thing."
Achotaz was left frozen, unmoving, even at the jab I threw at him.
"It matters not.>|
His voice, if you could even call it that, sounded like it came not from his body but from somewhere else. It was still masculine, an ancient aura exuding from it.
"There it is." I pointed my finger at him. "The holier-than-thou has finally revealed itself. You spent so long talking big only to fail to change at all."
"It matters not.>|
Hearing the same response caused me to pause. It felt weird, more than weird, kind of disturbing for reasons I couldn't explain.
"Why are you… Why are you saying that?" A creepy feeling welled up at the back of my throat.
"It matters not.>|
"Did you actually devolve?" My shoulder sagged for a moment in disbelief. "Or are you messing with me for the hell of it?!"
Achotaz slowly returned his head from its tilted position to an upright position. "It matters not.>|
"Why are you still here then?!" I shouted with confusion. Messing with me could not be fun enough to do anywhere close to this. "It can not be that fun to mess with me! You can do literally anything else, so why are you here messing with me?!"
Achotaz paused for another long moment.
At the same time, at the edge of my consciousness, I felt words. I didn't feel them, I could hear whispers at the back of my brain, like an itch I needed to scratch. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but they sounded like warnings in some way.
"It is because,>| Achotaz took a slight pause after confirming he could actually speak more than a few words.
He actually moved slightly, raising himself slightly higher in the air, hand moving to his chin, and extending an index finger to make contact with it.
"You're ███████>|
The whispers got louder. Whatever he said, I couldn't make it out. It sounded like random sounds of destruction.
Stars exploding, planets colliding, meteors hitting planetary bodies, planes falling to the ground, cars hitting trucks, trains exploding, the earth breaking open, and more.
The sound then switched a second in. I heard nature, pure nature, and life.
Oceans rising, tides shrinking, plants blooming, waterfalls hitting rocks, birds singing, branches rustling in the wind, bubbles coming from water, and more.
Then it all cut, replaced by the sounds of people walking.
I could hear the act of drinking, eating, moving, blinking, idling, breathing, and more.
At the end of it all, the sound slowly grew deeper and deeper until all I could hear were the sounds of heavy gears trying to turn. They all creaked against each other before the sound cut off.
Sweat ran down my forehead as I took in deep breaths. It felt like I had experienced all of what I heard in front of me.
"It appears you have been found unready for the truth.>| Achotaz's voice cut through and awoke me like a hammer. "It is a shame it appears to want to remain unknown.>|
"What are you talking about?" I hated the feeling of not being in the know. Having information hidden from me when it should be known irked me to no end. "What truth and what wants to remain hidden?!"
Achotaz once again went silent, probably enjoying himself at my expense.
"It matters not.>|
And we were back to that! It was as if he was playing in my face. However, I knew I couldn't beat him.
Trying to do the same thing I did to Original Dante didn't work. The information gathering yielded no results, and I couldn't beat him in a fight. There was only one thing I could do.
Turning around, I bolted.
My leg launched me forward, and I tried running with all my might. Only to feel a hand grab my ankle. Turning around, I came to the startling realization that Achotaz wasn't behind me.
My ankle was in his hand.
It wasn't as if he ripped my leg off, no, that wasn't it. My ankle had made its way over to him. Achotaz hadn't moved. My leg was now over seven feet long, as if human limitations didn't exist.
Immediately, everything snapped into place. My leg was no longer impossibly long, Achotaz's hand still on my ankle, and I was actually right in front of him, floating in the air.
It *clicked* in my head in that moment. Space manipulation. He had elongated my leg using space manipulation, grabbed me, and undid it, which caused me to be pulled back towards him.
It wasn't as if he folded space in on itself to pull me to him. He focused it solely on me. He manipulated what were probably my spatial coordinates? Or maybe he stretched the space around me to make me go farther while keeping every other bit of space normal?
The second option would be like stretching a balloon inside an already expanded balloon, right? No, it would probably be like denying the idea of distance.
Right before my upper body folded downward due to being held in the air, I was grabbed by the collar of my shirt.
Now with a hand on my ankle and a hand on the collar of my shirt, and forcing me to face him, Achotaz scoffed. The air vibrated with the sound as if it were enjoying his amusement.
I tried moving, the grip on my ankle unyielding. Yet, Achotaz let go of my ankle, surprising me.
Right as he did so, he brought the hand holding my ankle up to my face.
My eyes widened. I wasn't about to watch him attack me again!
Pulling back, ready to rip my shirt from the force, I—
Halt.
—couldn't move?
His closed hand came up to my face, resting there for a moment before he extended his pinky finger. His pinky came up to my forehead, and right as I thought he was about to flick it, he tapped on the air in front of my forehead, and the air rippled.
My vision rippled, everything looking as if I were looking at it through a rippling lake. Then came the force. It wasn't pain, it was pure force. I couldn't describe it as anything other than that.
My shirt ripped and was shredded off my body as space bent around the tap and recoiled outward. My body hit things, probably buildings, maybe cars, or even sometimes people.
By the time I could even see what was around me, I was embedded in a half-broken skyscraper. It seems like I was the impact it took as half the building, vertically, not horizontally, was gone.
Getting up, fires spreading through the building, water spraying from destroyed pipes, and open electricity flaring in places, I looked out onto the street.
It was no longer a street. It was more like an ocean of blood with rubble as rocks. I watched as I saw dead bodies make contact with the blood and then become added to it and dissolve into it.
*click*
For a second, I slowly lowered myself onto my knees and then sat down. Taking slow, deep breaths, I could only question myself.
What am I doing here?
Why am I even fighting?
I could run right now. Nobody would blame me, right?
The scale of destruction I was viewing wasn't normal. It wasn't the type of destruction you could see and go, "Hey! We need to defeat the bad guy and stop this!" This was a real-world-ending situation.
As far as I could see, there lay nothing but destruction until I looked back in the direction of my house. There weren't any people, and I couldn't even hear any sound of cries for help. How would someone live in a world like this?
"Yeah… It's fine to give up here, right?" I asked no one in particular. A weak and self-deprecating smile painted my face. I was just tired. The scale on which I was working was finally starting to hit me.
Falling onto my back on the dirty, destroyed skyscraper floor, I realized this must be what people meant by something being actually pointless.
The being I was fighting was quite literally a God. Not something like a faith god, not something made by the universe to be a concept, but something so strong it begged the question "What's even the point?"
In a fight against a person, the one thing you never want to do is allow your opponent to regain their stamina. If you allow them to recover, they'll beat you, especially while you're tired.
But whatever this God was, the fact that he was allowing me to lie here undisturbed had disturbed me more. It was as if no matter how long I took, he'd find me in a moment and end me instantly.
It eventually made me question something I never thought about.
Was this the same feeling the things I fought had before they died—no, let's not think about that.
I was done. It was over. I'll just find somewhere to rest, somewhere far away, and let it all go.
Standing up from my lying position, I began walking. Where to? I didn't know, just somewhere far.
Blinking, I took a deep breath, not minding the heavy scent of iron everywhere.
And then I froze.
"No way…" Disbelief filled my tone as I realized where I was. Turning around, I came face-to-face with a being floating three feet in the air.
Achotaz.
I was back where I started.
"Hehe—HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
I laughed. My head tilted skyward, palms facing the same sky my head was facing.
The God being, Achotaz or whatever, floated unbothered.
For some reason, my knees failed to keep me up. "HEHEHEHE-HAHA!!" Weird.
Blood soaked me. Yet, it didn't bother me in the slightest. My arms and legs trembled, but it still didn't bother me.
"Well, I'll be going now," I said to Achotaz as I stood up slowly and walked away.
Blinking, I found myself face-to-face with Achotaz again.
"Sorry about that, I'll be leaving now," I said with a wave as I turned around, only to be face-to-face with Achotaz the second I turned around.
"Heh."
"Heh."
"HAH—HEHE—No, I'm sorry, where are my—HAHAHAHAHA!" I couldn't stop my laughter. And then as quickly as it started, it stopped.
"No, no, you're right!" I fixed my trench coat, flaring the edges out as I did so. My hands rose to the sky like I was entertaining an imaginary audience. "This is what I live for, right?! This is what I love, right?!YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT!"
Weakness gave way to desperation. Desperation gave way to despair. My despair gave way to spite. My spite gave way to rage. And my rage gave way to spiteful wrath.
If I couldn't leave, I wasn't going to.
In this moment, Achotaz, I swear to you, I'll beat my head against this brick wall until you shatter.
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me!" I shouted as I spread my arms out wide. "This is what I live for!"
"AND I'M ABSOLUTELY CRAZY ABOUT IT!!!"
Rushing at Achotaz, blood splashing with every step I took, I threw a punch. My wrist broke against the torso of Achotaz's body, but I didn't stop.
Throwing another punch in combination with a few kicks, I—
*BOOM*
—Was promptly blasted backward by a ripple in space; Another pinky finger tap.
*click*
For some reason, I couldn't see? Oh, right! Lifting my head from the rubble, I stood up and began rushing my way back to Achotaz.
The second I got within range, rushing past the ocean of blood and all, I threw as many punches as I could—
*BOOM*
—Sitting up, the rubble around me fell.
*click*
I realized I wasn't launched as far back. Standing back up, I rushed at Achotaz again. I was faster this time, covered more distance in a shorter amount of time!
Throwing as many punches as last time, going from a total of 6 to 15 in combination with 3 kicks, I finally could say I was making—
*BOOM*
My body bounced over and over before I landed on my feet around 1,000 meters away.
*click*
Taking a deep breath, I grit my larger canines. My bones became more reinforced, and my skin became harder to inflict blunt damage on.
Rushing back in, I landed three times the number of attacks I did, even with my bones breaking on contact.
*BOOM*
The pinky tap hit space again. This time, I had only slid back a hundred feet.
*click*
And I went back in! My punches were hitting harder, my bones shattering, my attacks only getting more ravenous!
*BOOM*
This time, the attack had only caused me to slide back two feet! My body was still human, but going crazy on the baseline reinforcements.
*click*
I rushed back in, my fists no longer entirely shattering on contact! Bones still fracturing into breaking, but I kept going!
The second the pinky tap came in and hit, I grabbed Achotaz's wrist and punched him in the face with everything I had!
*BOOM*
The absolute force still hit, but this time, both of us were still standing, and to my shock, I actually moved his face an atom!
Something must have triggered in Achotaz's head as he pulled back his fist faster than I could react and punched me square in the face.
*click*
I was sent flying, bouncing multiple times before I reoriented onto my feet. Running back into the fight faster than I ever had before, I threw a punch at Achotaz.
To my surprise, he actually dodged before counterattacking. The second I went flying, I tried landing on my feet, but the second I landed, Achotaz appeared and punched me again.
Landing on my feet, space rippled around me like a wave, and I was back in front of the God. We both threw punches at each other, our fists connecting for a second before my bones shattered.
Achotaz and I both threw another punch, the same act repeating itself as it had happened previously. Right before my hand finished regenerating, I was punched directly in my chest and sent flying.
*click*
Before landing on the ground, Achotaz appeared before me, punching at me. Right as his fist tried to connect to my face, I threw a punch back.
My hand once again shattered, but the second my foot touched the ground, both of us threw another punch. The bones in my hand broke, as they always did.
Achotaz, seeing this, threw another punch, but right as his fist was about to connect, my previously broken hand had healed and been thrown out again.
My healing had finally eclipsed our current fighting speeds. With both of us now knowing this, one of us obviously happier with the situation than the other, we began throwing out barrages.
*click*
Eventually, the characteristic sound I was used to hearing when I hit Achotaz stopped ringing out. This seemed to come as a shock to both of us.
Achotaz threw another punch, this time, I dodged it with a tilt of my head, pulled his arm further toward me, and hit him with an uppercut. This attack had caused him to actually look skyward, even if no damage seemed to be done.
*click*
Achotaz disappeared; by the time I realized what he was doing, a punch hit the back of my head. It seemed he was finally taking me somewhat seriously.
Disappearing again, he reappeared behind me, but this time I was ready. Ducking the punch, I pulled the arm that was now over my shoulder, and flipped him!
I could feel the shock radiating off of him even if I couldn't see it in his expression! Right before he hit the ground, he disappeared.
Every time he would reappear, I would dodge the attack before countering. Even when he tried a sweep, a jab, a kick, or even an attack from afar, I always countered.
*click*
Now floating in the air, blood still flowing into his feet, Achotaz spread his arms out. To my shock, two more versions of himself rose from the blood as space rippled.
Rubble from the buildings started rising and being placed back into the building. It seemed time was reversing on everything around us except us.
Not even waiting for the time reversal to be done, both clones rushed toward me. Slipping the first attack, I gave a punch to its liver, causing it to stumble.
It stumbled just long enough for me to dodge the second clone, taking off and shattering its head with a spinning kick.
The second the first clone tried to punch me, I caught it, broke the dried blood exterior of whatever it was, and shattered its face.
*click*
I finally looked back at Achotaz, who seemed to be staring at me.
…
Time had been reversed. The battlefield had returned to the time before the fight even began. The people killed were resurrected, but the amount of blood didn't diminish in any noticeable way.
Even so, Achotaz floated in the air. Standing above Dante, things had taken a strange yet curious turn.
This thing.
Whatever it was had been interrupting the use of concepts, even though he undid all of his adaptation capabilities. This being didn't even have any evolution capabilities.
The use of space no longer affected it.
The use of time was even less effective, as it seemed already unable to be manipulated by it before the battle even began.
The use of physical force was proving less and less effective.
Worse than anything, Distillation seemed to have slowly been broken through. An impossible feat to pull off by anything else.
Both Dante and Achotaz continued their assault. Launching each other into skyscrapers, teleporting, bending space,reversing gravity, which stopped working after the second use, inverting the idea of here and there, which also stopped working after the second use, but these two combatants continued anyway.
Achotaz used more. If physical strength didn't work, remove the idea of being reached! It stopped working after the second hit.
Remove the concept of strength! Stopped working after the second hit.
Remove the boundary between space and the body, make it an unreachable idea! Stopped working after three hits.
If this kept up, Achotaz was going to lose—
"Be silent.>|
Dante landed in a crouch not too far away, "Who are you talking to?"
Achotaz turned his head from–
Turning to Dante, Achotaz didn't answer the—
"It matters not.>| This time disgust coated Achotaz's voice as he said it.
Achotaz raised a hand, bending space around Dante, causing Dante's vision to swim. Flipping gravity on itself multiple times, Achotaz stretched the gravitational radius to its extremes.
It seems like even Dante didn't know what Achotaz was trying to accomplish, only if his thoughts were—
"Cease your incessant mockery of conception. My 'thoughts' are mine alone.>|
As Achotaz finished speaking, whatever he was trying to accomplish shattered on itself, leaving Dante unharmed.
The second Dante was freed, he launched himself at Achotaz. His foot found purchase in the torso of Achotaz, causing the first hairline fracture in his shell.
By this moment, Achotaz was shocked beyond belief. This couldn't have been possible. All signs pointed to his victory, to his moment!
As they fought, more hairline fractures broke out. Those hairline fractures turned into actual fractures. And Achotaz knew by this moment, he might actually lose.
Grappling with Dante in the air, Achotaz sent particles into the future, called them back, and then shot them all at once at Dante. The punch, if you could call it that, was more like an atomic railgun, which was supposed to de-atomize anything else by spreading it across time, atom by atom.
Dante was sent off to somewhere. Achotaz didn't care to find out. All he needed right now was time. A bit more time, even with the fractures all over the outer shell of his body, and he would exist past all of this.
No matter how fast his strength increased because of the human blood he was ingesting, Dante always seemed to be growing faster. The growth curve for both of them wasn't looking even by this point.
Rising higher into the air, uncaring for any lives outside of his own, Achotaz knew it was almost time. The blood underneath him rose into the air. This was—
*BANG*
An obscene amount of force crashed into Achotaz's chest. His shell was cracking even more as he realized what had hit him was Dante!
It was a dropkick coming from who knows where, and it carried Achotaz far through the repaired, rebroken, and repaired cityscape.
When they landed, the earth tore itself into the sky from the force. It immediately destroyed the State of the city they were in. However, the damage dealt by the landing didn't seem to affect Achotaz; only Dante's attack had.
…
The second I landed, a fist hit my chest, launching me back a bit. The aftermath of my attack would leave everything for who knows how far destroyed, but I didn't worry about that.
As Achotaz stood up, calmly, red electricity radiated off of him as time reversed like a wave. I had no idea why he was doing that; it wasn't like he actually cared about the people on this planet.
The street we were now on reorganized itself. I have no idea why he loved this street—oh, it was a new street!
For the first time, Achotaz lowered himself. No longer floating in the air, instead, standing on the blood that was now growing around him to cover all ground.
"I now see my foolishness.>| Achotaz said to me, which caused my eyes to widen.
"What do you mean?" I shrugged. "I don't understand."
"I foresaw myself standing without equal. Untouched by anything here, without anything lost.>| Achotaz raised one of his hands, caressing the air as if it loved him.
"Yeah, I don't care." I flatly said as I shook my head. "Fifteen words or less."
That caused Achotaz to pause. Then he spread his hands out, exactly like I—wait!
"Just like you! I'll give up everything in spiteful wrath! Let us die!>| Achotaz shouted crazily as I ran toward him.
*ZZZZ—ÆEEE*
Achotaz's head tilted up to the sky, an impossibly massive beam shooting down onto him, which also hit me, blasting me back.
I lost count of how many times I was launched through the air, but this time, I caught myself and landed on top of a skyscraper.
"What is this…?" I thought I had seen it all, but this was another impossible task.
In the sky, no, probably farther than the sky, considering how large it was, was a tear in space. I couldn't describe how big it was, but it was an eye.
It looked below, onto the world, casting a red tint to everything. Around it, numerous tiny dot-like things floated. They covered everywhere in space, but due to my disgustingly good eyesight, I could see what they were.
They were like drops of blood. Literally drops of blood. Yet they moved, they seemed sentient. The closer they were to the planet, the smaller they were. The ones in space were already bigger than the sun by distance. They had to be way bigger, which was why I thought the tear, the eye in the sky, bright red, had to be even farther back. As it dwarfed all of them despite how far they were.
And Achotaz? I could see him, head tilted up to the sky, rising into the air on a pillar of blood at least a mile wide and who knows how tall.
His body shattered, repairing, and shattering again.
Out of all the things to realize at this moment, the thing I had just realized had to be the craziest.
When I go through adaptations, my adaptations like to default onto certain things. Reptilian-like things. I always thought that was purely because of the paths of my adaptation. Now I know I was wrong.
Now that I see it, you could say I am like a lizard, crocodile, or even a dragon.
Original Dante? Or, well, Achotaz? I thought he was a flower. The indents on his face looked like a flower, fully bloomed.
Currently, the blood pillar raising Achotaz into the sky engulfed him. It ballooned outward on the tip and then turned into a flower.
The unbloomed flower stood high in the sky, akin to no other. And then it swelled just that bit more. Once it did, it began unfurling, blooming.
Right as it began blooming, I heard a voice whisper past my ear.
Actually, it wasn't whispering past my ear; it was the wind! The wind was singing?! It was a beautiful, loud, and loving melody I had never heard before. It was as if the planet just gave birth to a child and was actually extremely happy.
And once the flower had fully bloomed, I saw him. Our eyes locked.
In the center of his face, vertically, just like the vertical tear in the sky with the eye in it, was the same eye in the sky.
I realized right when he tilted his head up and grew that extra eye. He wasn't a flower.
He was a butterfly.
…
…
…
The wind whipped around violently as a tall man in a royal purple suit calmly walked toward the top of the tall tower he now stood on.
Finally making his way to the center, he saw a man standing at the edge of the tower. The exact man he came to see.
"Arkham." The man at the edge spoke before 'Arkham' could get his first word out.
"Magnificent view. Is it not?" Arkham, in his royal purple suit, extended his hand, trying to grasp onto the wind. He could barely make out anything, but he knew the wind was singing. "The song of legend, the great song, has made its way into the universe once more."
Despite the raging winds as he got closer to the man in the blue trench coat, Arkham stood beside him, at least three feet of distance between them.
"It is almost time!" Arkham's excitement ramped up as he raised his fist before clenching it. "What of him? Has he been prepared?"
"His actions are entirely his own." Vergil, in his blue trench coat, calmly replied while listening to the song in the wind, his face expressionless. "However, I have ensured his participation. He will come seeking answers."
Despite the wind, Vergil, down to his clothes, seemed unaffected. It was as if the wind took special care to keep him perfect. His sword, sheathed, was held in both hands, calmly resting.
"Good, good!" Arkham looked down at the cityscape below, a smile caressing his face. "It has been many years since Free Reign has been seen. Even worse, the Queen Mother Nature, the Bearer of Pure Green, finds herself as departed as Free Reign."
Arkham let his words hang in the wind before continuing. "Even so, her beautiful words can still be semi-partially heard by humans. These words, the ones people covet, her song, can only be heard by her two children."
Arkham slowly turned to Vergil, "Tell me, what is it you hear? Do you believe he would hear the same melody?"
"That is none of your concern." Vergil, unconcerned by Arkham, told him off calmly and concisely. His expression did not change.
Undeterred by Vergil's stoic expression, Arkham began taking his leave. Still trying to grasp the voice in the wind as he did so.