"You really are clueless! I can’t believe I thought you’d be useful for even a moment! That's not what a Grim Piece is extra, this is."
She proceeded to move some of her hoodie's collar out of the way to reveal a mark of strange symbols resembling a tattoo wrapped around her neck. She pressed her fingers to it and it began pulsating with emerald light.
"Let me let you in on something else, this Grim Reaper Trial is to decide who will next take on the title of Grim Reaper, the supreme authority of the Underworld. In fact, each of us participants has already been imbued with a portion of the previous’s power in the form of these Grim Pieces, all that's left is for one to collect them all. I learned that the girl over there has one and the only way to claim it for myself is to rip it off of her cold dead body."
Allen was bewildered by what he was hearing.
"Now that you know, are you sure you want to try to protect something like that? I may even let you go if you huddle off into a corner somewhere before that lab rat gets put out of her misery.", She pointed to the other end of the alley covered in fog.
"You better hurry, you're running out of time for that deal."
"Huh?"
He turned to look back over to the battle between Nera and the armored warrior. Nera was continuing to dodge all over the ax swings. With her grace and agility, it almost appeared more like she was dancing than fighting. However, one of his strikes eventually landed, making contact with one of the metal gauntlets Nera wore on her hands.
A faint smile of relief appeared on Allen's face for a moment due to her having blocked the attack but it almost instantly vanished as blood sputtered out from her and three vertical slashes appeared on her torso. She gasped and retreated backward from the attack clutching her wounds and breathing heavily.
"But that attack, she blocked it..", Allen uttered out in disbelief.
The woman in the hoodie spoke up from next to him.
"My
"This means that Hache's attacks can flow straight through solid objects and the rhythm of his attacks is multiplied threefold giving him two extra strikes with each swing.", she glowered back at Allen once more.
"Now, are you sure you don't want to run away?"
Allen stood there shaking in fear and uncertain for a moment. Part of him wanted to go over to Nera to help her out and the other was too afraid to do so.
Nera then turned her head to look at Allen herself. Her grin still remained on her face but he could tell that it was only a fake smile.
"It's alright, I'll be fine on my own. Just run away."
Allen's expression filled with dismay. Those were the last words he wanted to hear and as he began to turn around. The look on her face was burned into his mind and haunted him to his core. It was one of sincerity, fear, and worst of all...acceptance. Deep down, he wanted her to tell him that she wanted him to help, that he could help.
He then ran away to the other end of the alley, away from all of them. When his body completely disappeared into the mist, the devilish woman cackled, "I really do love to watch the moment when a person's heart cracks. Now, I don't have to worry about any unexpected interruptions from that extra. Hache, finish the lab rat off."
"As you command, Madam Harpe."
Nera ignored her remarks and got back into a fighting position. She was able to still avoid his attacks but with her grave wounds, she was much less agile and was starting to suffer scratches all over from his ax swings and their multiple strikes. Eventually, her body began to give out and she faltered as she was leaping away from an attack and stumbled onto one knee. She struck her own legs in frustration trying to get them to move again but she was unable to muster up any strength in them.
She looked up in determination but she began to fill with doubt that she would make it out of this as the armored warrior charged at her and raised his ax to land one final blow that would surely end her if it struck.
However, at that same moment...
"Magical Aerial Dive!!!"
Yelling this out at the top of their lungs, a figure clumsily jumped down from the rooftops right in front of Nera and blocked the warrior's attack head-on catching the ax's handle in their hands just barely managing to keep the blade from slashing their body.
"What are you doing here!? There's no point in you getting involved. I'm not sure why, but I'm the one they're after, not you.", Nera yelled angrily at the figure, Allen.
Allen laughed wryly as the armored warrior began furiously swinging him around trying to force Allen to let go of the ax handle but he refused to budge.
"What?", the warrior's low voice reverberated from his metal helmet again in surprise. Nera's eyes also widened in bewilderment.
The silvery light that had been emanating from his ax was beginning to fade along with the red rings around his arms and legs. They both appeared to be being siphoned by something that Allen had wrapped around his hands. They were remains of the specter's body, its vines which had long and sharp spikes on them.
"No way, you're using those!? Don't you know it's draining you too? Aren't you worried about your life, you idiot!"
"Of course I am, you wannabe martyr!"Allen chuckled mirthlessly as he was slammed on his feet by the large armored warrior in another attempt to wrest his grip of the ax from him.
"I'm the type of guy who only does things if I think there's something worthwhile in it for me and runs at the first sign that things are really getting bad, but even a bastard like me couldn't live with the guilt of leaving someone for dead who just saved their life multiple times.", Allen fiercely declared.
A haunting melody followed by a stream of lines ran through Hache’s arms and launched them forward.
"Ughh!" The blade of the axe was sent into Allen’s shoulder. Three bloody vertical marks similar to the ones that had been inflicted on Nera were now etched on his torso as well. Nera looked over to see Harpe with her fingers on the strings of her instrument, The spiral-eyed woman was chuckling to herself.
“Sorry, I couldn’t let you three have all of the fun.”
Nera glared at Harpe before turning back around.
Allen was desperately continuing to struggle for possession of the ax and coughed up dark crimson blood. Even with a bunch of adrenaline pumping through him, the massive wounds he just sustained were taking their toll as his grip began to loosen, his vision began to darken, and his consciousness began to fade.
Memories flashed through Allen’s mind. They were ones of his numerous shortcomings that he had tried to move past by coming to Atelier City only to seemingly end up failing when it mattered most again.
'Was...this really all my life was going to amount to?'
'What if I just tried harder back then... am I really just going to regret something else I could have changed if I just tried harder?'
'I don't know, maybe this is and was all I was ever capable of, being useless..."
'...No, it's not enough...not enough. I gotta keep trying. I still haven’t done anything great with my worthless life. I wasn't even able to protect the girl behind me...I still haven't gone to see...'
'I'm too weak, If only I was more...I need to become something more...something stronger, something that can save us.'
'Shielding her isn't enough, I need to become something more...I need to become...'
'...her blade...'
The light faded from Allen's eyes as he finally appeared to lose consciousness. Nera was shaken as she could barely hear the sound of his heart beating. He was on the verge of death.
"Hmph.", the armored warrior callously scoffed at this and was about to pull the ax out of Allen's now loosened grip. Unimpressed, he tried to yank his axe from Allen's hands, but just as he was about to do so, the vines of the specter that were wrapped around Allen's hands turned from dark green to pitch black instantly. The vines grew to entangle both the ax and Allen's entire body, piercing him all over with the thorns that began to grow as well.
The armored warrior gasped in surprise. All the mana of the red magical symbols around his limbs were completely drained out of them. The crimson staves broke apart into nothingness. He could feel nearly all of his strength being taken from him as well.
An ominous dark aura then blasted his hands off the handle of the ax and enveloped Allen's body whose eyes were now wide open but emotionless. The armored warrior then began furiously punching him all over his stomach, chest, and face even breaking his nose in the process, but he just stood there motionless like a statue. Then, with no warning at all, the vines began to tighten and Allen's arms began to raise the ax high over his head, up to the crescent moon.
"Hache, get out of there!!! Right now!!!", Harpe screamed, her voice high from distress.
Her warning came too late. The now completely ebon ax was swung down in a tremendously fast blur. Darkness trailed after the ebon blade like a frightening banner. It cut right through the warrior's armor and sent out a wave of black miasma that knocked him meters away onto his back. A gaping slash from his right shoulder to the bottom of his torso was spilling with blood that stained his silvery armor.
In that instance right after. It was like the world was frozen over as all those present were both stationary and speechless, including Nera who was stunned and shocked, not quite believing what her eyes saw.
The vines that entangled Allen and the ax that was currently deeply embedded into the ground were now back to their previous color. They rapidly started to disintegrate until there was nothing left of them. Seemingly due to all the power that was in them being drawn out in the attack. After that, Allen's eyes began blinking as life gradually returned to them. He opened his mouth and broke the silence of that soundless world.
"What happened?"
"You happened.", the Crafter answered as she walked over to the fallen warrior on the ground. As she walked unsettlingly close past them, she grabbed the ax handle and pulled it out from under Allen and out of the broken ground, dragging it along with her. Losing the support, his legs gave out but Nera stood up to catch him before he could fall.
"I knew I was right to be worried about you. Even a worthless extra can ruin an entire performance."
When she reached Hache, she casually stated, "Get up, we're leaving."
"No!", the armored warrior gutturally growled out as he rose to stand. "I can...still fight!"
"I said we're leaving. That wasn't a suggestion, it was a command. You won't last that long in that condition, and I have no need for a broken tool. Besides, the Underworld is breaking apart as well."
As if on cue, large cracks started appearing all over the walls and ground uncovering the real alleyway that looked not much different from the Underworld's version of it. Even the false full moon up above was crumbling away to reveal the true crescent one much to Allen's awe.
"Hopefully, if you two live long enough, we'll be able to meet again and things will go a lot more according to the script."
With those last words, the two enigmatic assailants turned away from Allen and Nera and walked back into the mist where they had come from, which was also starting to dissipate, until they were completely gone from view.
"Alright, it's time for us to go too.", Nera drearily declared as she struggled to walk over to where Allen was. Her breath was ragged as she did so.
Allen tried to stand to meet her, but he fell over instead as he had no more strength to stand. Nera gasped as she looked on. A large pool of blood was spreading out from his body. She tried hurrying to him as much as he could despite not being in much better condition herself.
“Dammit...I save the day and it looks like I’m going to be rewarded...with bleeding out. This is so unfair.” Allen thought in exasperation. He spotted the glint of a teal crystal between him and Nera. He desperately dragged his body along the ground until he could reach out with his hand to grab it.
“Maybe I can pull off whatever happened before again? I have to try. If this night ends in tragedy, it won’t be my fault.”
Allen’s fingertips finally reached the crystal. He saw a bright flash that made him close his eyes.. When he opened them, what he saw was nothing like he was expecting.
A picturesque garden with a golden metal cylinder on the ground. He absentmindedly reached out and picked up the cylinder from where it lay atop a smear of dried blood.
'This dream seems so familiar...'
These were his last thoughts as the environment completely faded into a hazy mist. When he opened his eyes again, he could see the young woman with violet eyes staring at him from above with a worried look. He could feel something metallic in his hand as his vision was obscured once more by darkness.
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