“Too late...”

Sen's voice was heard.

Before her was a landscape of devastation. Bodies lying on the ground and destroyed houses. A massacre had taken place. The man responsible for it all; a purple haired boy with freckles on his face. Sen recognised him, it was Peck.

His dear friend had caused a massacre.

But how had it happened? It was only minutes ago.

***

Peck had approached a wounded girl to help her, but she was frightened by his presence.

The girl's outrage drew the attention of people, and eventually members of the Batoru Protective Force arrived. Six in all. Men in uniforms consisting of a blue trench coat with gold trim on the shoulders and sleeves, ending with white gloves. They walked towards Peck, he sensed their evil intentions and backed away, only to end up pinned against a wall.

Frightened, unsupported, Peck gasped as he watched these men stalk him. He heard a whisper:

“Magic won't work on him. We will have to use knuckles”.

Four of the men moved forward, the other two staying behind as a contingency. Those who went forward began to beat Peck viciously.

Out of fear, Peck was unable to defend himself, though these attacks were crude: nothing more than punches and stomps. He was soon knocked to the ground and continued to be attacked.

Peck thought about begging for mercy, but the words would not come out of his mouth. He was shocked by the experience and could do nothing but express his pain with every sound he made.

He couldn't even say 'please' to stop them from attacking him, but there he was: helpless and crying, waiting for someone to rescue him.

If they had any reason to hate him, Peck didn't know, for he had no memory of what he might have done to them.

But he could hear them shouting at him and despising him. Everyone there, every soul present, screamed for Peck to die there; they demanded that the punishment be greater.

And Peck could not understand.

He tried to cover himself with his arm, but it was no use.

His nose was bleeding and his body hurt.

Peck cried loudly.

When he closed his eyes, the same thing happened again: he lost consciousness.

In reality, Peck was still being beaten. In his mind, Peck was somewhere else.

In a scenario created by his mind, Peck was lying on the floor in a dark room, he saw a pool of water in which his reflection was.

The pool disappeared. A hand reached out in front of Peck. He looked up and found himself, but with notable differences.

A copy of Peck appeared, with purple hair and eyes of the same colour, but slightly darker. Most strikingly, his eyes bore the symbol of a trident on a circle.

“You don't deserve to be treated like this. Let me help you, Peck”.

He looked at him hopelessly, not knowing what to say.

“I can help you, like I did that time in the rain”.

One of Peck's repressed memories came back, the time his reflection spoke to him. Then he opened his eyes in surprise, realising that whatever was beyond the puddle had come back to help him.

“Can you do it? Are you really going to stop this?”

“Yes, of course. You just have to give me control. Come on, take my hand, Peck. You'll never suffer again”.

Peck moved his hand towards his replica, but stopped halfway.

“What about Sen?”

“She'll be fine. Maybe you'll see her next time you wake up”.

“Promise?”

Peck's copy looked at Peck with a look of disdain. He sighed, clearly annoyed.

“I'll try”.

Peck, tired of the abuse, waved his hand again.

“What's your name, by the way? Are you... me? But I can't call you that... what's your name?”

As the two hands came together, the other answered.

“You've always known my name”.

With these words, Peck finally woke up.

His eyes opened. The strange symbol appeared in his pupils. Gradually the colour purple appeared in his eyes and slowly his hair turned the same colour.

For a moment, time stood still.

In the next instant, the foursome beating Peck were abruptly pushed back. Before they could blink, they were in the air and before they knew it, their limbs had been severed.

Blood poured down like rain and the bodies crashed down near those responsible.

Terrified eyes turned to the greatest threat Batoru had ever seen.

Peck, with his purple hair and extravagant eyes, stood. Four black tentacles sprouted from Peck's back, with a reach of five metres and still growing.

This 'new' Peck took a step forward and the crowd that had been following him backed away.

He took another step and stretched out his arms, causing the tentacles to move and attack anyone nearby.

Peck's expression was one of indifference as he finished off everyone around him.

He stretched his arms out to the sides again, extending the reach of the tentacles so that no one could escape.

The screams faded each time Peck killed someone.

The tentacles tore through the bodies of their targets.

Suddenly a fireball shot towards Peck, but one of the tentacles blocked it and absorbed it.

“Stop!”

A human warned him. Peck was surrounded. Six more men arrived, all pointing their hands. Some were preparing to attack with fire, lightning or wind magic.

Peck thought nothing of it. Suckers appeared on the tentacles and these began to drain the mana from the spells their enemies were preparing. Even when the spells were undone, it continued to suck the mana from their bodies.

“No use for magical attacks, only physical ones! We must…!”

Before the man could finish his sentence, a tentacle pierced his skull. And then the other tentacles went after their prey.

Peck remained motionless, letting his extra limbs do all the work. His left eye began to bleed and he noticed. After wiping the blood away, he let out an exasperated breath.

“I will disappear...”

He looked up at the sky.

“…this place”.

When he had finished with all his enemies on the ground, the tentacles twisted into feathery black wings. He propelled himself and flew with the movement of his wings until he could see all of Batoru.

Peck's arms were outstretched at his sides again.

“This is as it should be”.

The feathers on his wings began to fall heavily, each one hitting the ground with an explosion.

Peck bombarded Batoru.

The glare of each blast was reflected in Peck's eyes, but his expression remained unflinching. His pace of destruction seemed unstoppable.

And when he seemed invincible, a sinister smile finally appeared on his face.

“Yes, this is...”

Then he noticed that the feathers exploded before they hit the ground. They were exploding in mid-air, something he hadn't intended, but he quickly realised what the problem was.

“It's here”.

Peck grimaced in disgust and descended to the ground. Once there, he traded his wings for tentacles.

That's how he found Sen.

***

Standing face to face, the world seemed to stand still.

“We have entered my Underworld. You know I am invincible here" Sen exclaimed.

The worry was obvious.

She cleared the ground and there was no sign of the bodies or the wounded. Only the ruins of houses surrounded them.

“I was there every day he and you shared. Why didn't you eliminate me? Can't you?”

Sen clucked her tongue before answering. She hated the boastful smile on Peck's face.

“Stop using Peck's body for these things. And don't you dare put a look like that on his face! That's enough of that. I thought you'd give up if I kept beating you...”

“This is a battle of attrition. You are close to your limit. Besides, he's already agreed to let me use the body”.

“That is not true. You're just manipulating him”.

“Then why don't you stop it? Huh?”

Peck', or rather what appeared to be Peck, grinned, relishing his advantage.

Sen snapped her fingers. She cast the Checkpoint spell to move the impostor Peck to another location.

They reappeared at the place where they had met, near the river. Sen also moved the Underworld with them to prevent him from escaping.

“Why have you brought us here?”

“Peck, wake up!”

“Ah, to make him respond. It's too late. He's too scared. Even the cave won't work”.

“No, don't underestimate what we've been doing these months. Besides...”

Sen noticed that both of Peck's eyes were bleeding.

“What a shame…" he said.

And then Peck's brown hair came back and his eyes returned to normal.

Peck dropped to his knees and closed his eyes. His hands moved to wipe away the blood. Peck woke up again.

A dazed Peck looked sideways, not understanding what had happened, worry creeping across his face as he realised he was once again in a completely different place.

He calmed down when he saw a familiar figure in front of him.

“Sen!”

Peck jumped to his feet and went to Sen to embrace her. His heart was beating fast and he was agitated, tormented by so many lapses of consciousness.

“I've been looking for you! I saw the monster and you weren't there! I thought...!”

He noticed that Sen was stunned, her eyes focused on 'something' else.

Peck slowly followed Sen's gaze until he found what she saw.

There... Peck saw himself. His other version, with the purple hair and the eyes with the symbol on them. This 'other Peck' looked down at himself and smiled in surprise.

“Finally I can manifest myself like this...”

The two Pecks stared at each other.

“Sen?”

Peck looked at her, not knowing what to do, then looked at his 'other self'.

“Hey, Peck... breathe and stay calm. This... this is real, but don't worry, OK? I'm with you”.

“Who is he? It's me, but...”

“You know who I am and you've always known”.

“What are you saying?”

Only five paces away was the one who looked just like him.

Sen stood in front of Peck to protect him.

“I have been with you since you were born. No, you created me shortly after you were born”.

Peck didn't understand the words.

“You've said my name several times. Remember... ah, that's right, I've blocked your memories”.

“Who are you?”

“Well, you decided to call me 'Leben'…”.  

The monster Peck longed to defeat.

---

Next chapter arrives on Thursday!