Chapter 20: Gamble for Survival

Chapter 20:
Gamble for Survival

 

FWISS’S DISTORTION FIELD could take anything within a given area—time, space, gravity, distance—and enmesh them together to create a powerful force that could eradicate any matter it touched.

Vwooooo!

A low, thumping bass sound at the base of your skull was the only way to identify the invisible attack. Failure to get out of the way before it made contact would result in an instant and violent death.

“Woo-hoo! Yeah! So this is what the double drive is like! I’m unstoppable!!”

Gadhio and Nekt dove to the side to get out of the way, though with a mere twitch of his arm, Fwiss banked the attack to continue on a trajectory toward Gadhio.

Hmm, so he can alter the direction of his focus, huh? His style works more like a sword art than projectile combat—no, more like he’s using a whip.

Gadhio fled from the attack with everything he had. While Fwiss was focused on Gadhio, Nekt used her Connection ability to hurl some boxes from the warehouse toward Fwiss, but with a quick jerk of his left hand, Fwiss created a large distortion field in the way, easily destroying the boxes in the process.

“C’mon, Nekt, even you have to know just how much more powerful I am!”

“Oh, but I do. And I know for a fact that you can’t keep up with that kind of nonsense for long!”

“And how long is long, huh? Ten minutes? Twenty? Maybe thirty? Gyahaha! This battle won’t even last long enough for you guys to find out!”

Fwiss shot the distortion field he’d previously used as a shield directly toward Nekt.

Nekt teleported away just in time as the field made contact with the building she had been standing in front of mere moments ago, disintegrating the very matter it was made of. Within moments, the massive warehouse was no more. She trembled at the sight.

Meanwhile, Fwiss’s distortion whip gained speed as it pursued Gadhio.

“Watch out, Gramps!” said Nekt.

An instant before the field could touch his back, Gadhio summoned a pillar of rock beneath his feet to propel himself into the air.

“Huh, you’re pretty fast for a guy in such heavy armor. How d’ya like this, then??” Fwiss raised his hands, conjuring a distortion sphere that swelled until it dwarfed everyone present.

With a flick of his wrist, Fwiss cast it in Gadhio’s direction. Though it weighed almost nothing, it effortlessly obliterated everything in its path, like a massive ball of lead.

“Gramps isn’t gonna be able to dodge that in the air. I guess it’s my turn, then!”

Nekt threw a nearby building toward the giant sphere, but it was destroyed upon contact, doing nothing to slow it down.

Meanwhile, Gadhio held his sword up with one hand and focused all of his energy, veins bulging across his body.

That thing’s pretty powerful…but maybe this’ll stand a chance.

Prana was the ability to turn one’s life force into strength. The primary choice was to use one’s endurance, a force that regenerated over time.

But Gadhio had an idea. The rarer something was, the greater the power it contained…or so he figured. Using more than one core at the same time was similar in that regard. By sacrificing parts of yourself, you could gain access to unimaginable power.

Dig deep. It’s gotta be there. Dig deeper—ignore everything else. Deeper still. I don’t care what I have to sacrifice.

Gadhio forced himself to focus as he created an image in his mind’s eye of two arms reaching deep within himself. The sensation was more distinct, stronger than it had ever been when harvesting energy for his prana. He dug even deeper, forcing past the ringing in his ears as the barriers blocking his way crumbled.

He was looking for the one thing more sacred than anything else: his humanity.

He found it.

It was wrapped ever so delicately in a thin, sticky film. He reached out his hands and felt his fingers breach that film, spilling a warm liquid in the process.

“Nngg…!”

Gadhio let out an audible groan. It was painful…but also exciting. It proved that this pain could become power.

He reached inside himself, grabbed the crimson object floating within, and began to transform it into prana.

However, humans have limits.

No matter how much they may train, how unbending their will may be, there are limits that normal people cannot surpass.

He was fighting a monster who’d already discarded his humanity. So Gadhio only needed power to beat him, right? No. His goal was far greater than this current hurdle—it was that smirking hag in a lab coat, with her Chimera monstrosities.

He was doing this to get his revenge. With this much power available to him, it should be an easy fight.

Gadhio let out an ear-piercing scream as the bulging arteries in his arms burst within his armor, coating the inside with blood. Deep inside, he felt parts of his body that he thought were important once implode. His vision went red, and bloody tears dampened his cheeks. The alarm bells in his brain rang on, warning him that this power was not to be used.

…Which was exactly why he’d come here to take it in the first place.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!” He heaved his blade into the distortion at his heels.

Under normal circumstances, it would have evaporated on contact, and yet Fwiss’s field gave first. Prana spread through the blade and traced out across the sphere like veins.

This was Prana Pulser, an explosive prana technique. With a final push of his sword, the outer barrier of the balloon burst, causing the distortion to collapse in on itself and lose its equilibrium, igniting in a massive explosion.

“Ngyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” Gadhio gathered that explosive energy and hurled it at Fwiss.

Explosion, blast, shock wave, Distortion, prana…the forces of destruction swirled together as they enveloped the young boy.

“Unng…what…was that? No normal human should be able to do that…”

Nekt squinted in the face of the massive blast of heat. She watched Gadhio land with a look of fear in her eyes.

No—that should have been impossible, period. Just who is he, anyway? He’s no chosen one; he doesn’t even have a rare affinity. And yet somehow, he just brought more power to bear than even us Children can? He’d have to sacrifice something huge…maybe his life even, to do that!

Watching Gadhio as blood dripped out of his armor, Nekt grew even more convinced. Fwiss had sacrificed his life for power, and so Gadhio did the same to fight back. She just couldn’t understand why anyone would go that far. Was it even victory at that point?

“Aaauuuuunnnggh…”

A faint groan of pain rose up from the smoking crater.

Just to be on the safe side, Nekt quickly identified some large chunks of debris she could use as weapons.

“Owww… Heh…haha. I can’t believe a normal human could pull off something like that.”

So much of Fwiss’s body was covered in burns and charred skin that he resembled a ghoul. But as his skin burned away, it revealed bright red muscle fibers underneath that throbbed with the influx of spiral energy. A moment later, his body was restored.

“Heh, made it out unscathed, huh?” said Gadhio. “I really figured that the Cavalier Arts Sacrifice would have got you.”

“Unscathed? I wish. Man, that really hurt. I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything that painful before, Gramps.”

“Your compliments mean little if I can’t kill you.” Gadhio hefted up his heavy blade and leveled it at Fwiss.

Fwiss’s fighting spirit didn’t waver for a second, even with all the pain he must have been in.

“Honestly, I went too easy on ya. I figured I could smash a small fry like you, who hasn’t been graced with Papa’s power, no problem. But I guess I was wrong. But since Mother’s in danger here, I’m going to have to actually get serious this time.”

Fwiss suddenly twisted backward, stopping just before the back of his head touched the ground. His torso then ripped open, revealing the churning and writhing organs within, as they succumbed to the power of the Origin core and began to shoot out of his body as red tendrils.

They coiled and wrapped around each other until they formed a large ring.

“All Range Distortion!”

Nekt and Gadhio hesitated momentarily, unable to anticipate what was coming but knowing the passing calm was an omen of an overwhelming attack.

“Connection!”

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The two determined independently that this was their chance to strike and launched themselves toward Fwiss with all they had.

Nekt brought an entire warehouse down on Fwiss while Gadhio lunged toward his neck, his blade shining with spent life. They were both mighty attacks, imbued with everything the two fighters had to give, but in the moment before they struck, something went wrong.

Vwmmmm!

The world distorted, the speed and direction of their movements skewed, and both attacks missed their mark.

“What was…” Gadhio was certain he said the words, but it took several seconds for them to reach his ears.

“What did he distort this time? Just how far-reaching is this?!”

Nekt tilted her head around to see what was happening, but the movement felt stiff and unnatural.

Fwiss, still bent over backward, bared his teeth and laughed obnoxiously.

This time, his distortion field had scrambled not only matter, but light, sound, time, and distance over a wide area. Within it, the human eye couldn’t be trusted, a voice might never reach its speaker’s ears, and nothing moved at the speed it was supposed to. In short, as long as Gadhio and Nekt were in its range, they couldn’t predict the results of their own movements. Fwiss, on the other hand, had free rein.

“Second Phase!”

Now that they were unable to move, Fwiss focused his energy into the ring again, powering up another mighty attack. Like the ones he’d used previously, this would destroy anything it touched.

The distortion wave bore down on Gadhio and Nekt. Neither of them could move, although the latter had her teleportation ability available to her.

“Con…nection!”

Yet even that one jump stretched across several seconds. Nekt’s mind raced as she tried to think through what was happening. As best she could tell, even the speed of her thoughts had been distorted by Fwiss’s technique.

She managed to teleport herself to Gadhio’s side and then teleport them both to safety just in time to avoid the blast. All she had to do now was get them out of the area of effect.

Her first attempt came up short. “We’re still in this stupid thing, even on the outskirts of the warehouse district??”

“Can you pull off another one?”

Nekt nodded.

The farther they got from Fwiss, the more unstable his power would become. This time, teleporting was much faster, and they were able to successfully break out.

“Gah, that was awful!” Nekt slumped against the wall and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Gadhio wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his fist and scowled.

“I wonder if he’s going to come after us. We aren’t that far, really.”

“Then we run again?”

“No, we can’t start drawing more people into this. We’ll just have to kill him here.”

“And how do you propose we do that? Last I checked, we didn’t have a leg to stand on.”

“We’ll have to conjoin our powers.”

Nekt laughed in spite of herself.

“Huh? What is it?”

“‘Conjoining our powers.’ It’s like you’re talking to a comrade-in-arms or something.”

“What, you still think we’re enemies? I hate to break it to you, but as far as I’m concerned, we’re on the same team.”

Nekt chuckled. “You think I’m going to fall all over myself for that kind of sappy stuff?”

Even as she spoke, Nekt’s cheeks took on a light shade of pink, though she tried as best she could to not draw attention to it.

Fortunately, even if Gadhio wasn’t blind to emotional nuance, there wasn’t time to notice.

“Listen closely; this is serious,” Gadhio said. “His Distortion isn’t unstoppable. I know it can be destroyed if we can just hit it with enough energy.”

“Yeah, I remember when you did that. Are you okay?”

“Don’t worry. My life lost its value to me a long time ago.”

“Flum would be pretty broken up to hear you say that.”

“I know, but as long as the past can’t be changed, this is the only option left to me.”

“That sounds like a pretty awful decision. Not like I’m going to try to change your mind or anything.”

Nekt felt a wave of sadness wash over her as she heard herself say this. She’d wanted to at least pay Gadhio back for the favor she owed him.

“So what’re we gonna do?”

All things considered, Nekt would need to rely on him if she hoped to live.

She listened closely to his plan…and, as astonishment came over her, fought the urge to tell him how stupid it was.

 

***

 

Fwiss still had a fair amount of time before he ran dry. Even if Gadhio and Nekt kept teleporting around to stall for time, all they would achieve was the death of more innocents, giving Fwiss more to boast about and then claim that they were to blame. But that was all a moot point, as Fwiss ferreted them out a short time later. Gadhio and Nekt stood side by side, ready to face the threat.

“It’s up to you, Nekt!” Gadhio encased his sword in stone.

“At least we’ll never realize what happened if this all falls on our heads. Connection!” Nekt used her power to lift a building into the air. “Just when I thought he wasn’t going to show up, sure enough, here he is. I guess I’ll just have to… Huh?!”

Fwiss vanished. The floating building faltered over Gadhio’s head before it began to fall directly toward him as they both wheeled around to get a fix on where he disappeared to.

“Aww, did you two decide to stop being friends? Hmm…or I guess Nekt finally understood what this happiness I’ve been talking about really is!”

“Not a chance!” Nekt pointed aggressively at Fwiss to emphasize her point.

In fact, not only was Gadhio not crushed by the falling edifice—the resulting debris was being pulled into his sword until the blade was encrusted with a whole building’s worth of material.

“Wow…hahaha! Now that’s a pretty nifty trick, Nekt.”

Fwiss stared at the immense sword and laughed.

“This wasn’t my plan, all right. I’d never try something this crazy.” Even seeing it in action, Nekt still thought the whole thing was insane.

“Haaah…”

Supporting a literal tower of stone with his arms alone defied all sense. Watching Gadhio slowly lean back as he kept it aloft was a disarming sight.

“We’ll never win in a prolonged fight, so we need to throw absolutely everything we have into this one attack,” he’d said. “No holding back.”

Gadhio was right, of course. As long as they continued to just slowly hack away at Fwiss, they’d never be able to get past his defenses.

“You’ll need to use your Connection powers to further strengthen my sword.”

The way he spoke implied that this was the only way they stood a chance at winning, but Nekt had her doubts. She couldn’t endorse this plan right off the bat. It was preposterous. Impossible, even.

“Are you insane?? That’s just not possible!”

“We can do it.”

“No, we can’t!”

“Yes, we can.”

“Face it—it’s impossible, Gramps!”

“And I’m telling you that we can pull this off. I just need your help, that’s all.”

Gadhio wasn’t going to be changing his mind any time soon, so Nekt had little choice but to go along, reluctant though she might be.

“Now that I actually see it in front of me, I’ve gotta say…this is still a stupid idea.”

Alas, Gadhio was no longer listening to anything at this point.

He took in several deep breaths to control his breathing; his Cavalier Arts Sacrifice ability was still not ready. While his mind searched for a more effective way to bring this battle to a close, he came across an even more powerful energy source.

Just holding the blade up had brought him to the edge of his abilities only seconds earlier; a moment later, it felt practically weightless in his hands. He knew he could bring it to bear with perfect form.

Fwiss chuckled at the sight of the immense stone pillar, made a fist with his right hand, and wrapped his left palm around it to summon up his power. “To be honest, I hate fighting like a barbarian. I’m starting to understand what Luke was talking about. Ah, well, no time for that. Distortion Sword!”

Not willing to let Gadhio get one over on him, Fwiss conjured an indescribable object that twisted the very air around it as it grew higher and higher.

Nekt’s job was to ensure that Fwiss didn’t attack while Gadhio was still getting ready, but it looked like Fwiss had no intention of doing so. In fact, he was intent on being the bigger man and letting Gadhio get his attack in unimpeded.

“The first one’s on you, old man. Feel free to start whenever you’re ready!” Fwiss’s cheeks were flushed. He was enjoying himself immensely.

“Hng…ooooooooouuuuh!!” Blood trickled out the corners of Gadhio’s clenched jaw, and his eyes went red again as he pushed the muscles in his arms to the literal breaking point, shuddering ever so slightly as he angled the blade toward his opponent and every fiber in his body threatened to snap.

WHOOOSH!

Just angling the blade kicked up powerful blasts of air, forming a low-hanging fog.

With an immense scream, he swung the sword toward Fwiss. “You’re done!”

Fwiss primed his own “sword” to soak up the blow.

FWOOGOOOOOOSH!

“Hwaugh?!” The mere act of one blade coming into contact with the other created such a powerful blast that it sent Nekt flying. She managed to catch hold of a small pothole in the road and yank herself in before looking back up at the battle.

“Haah…haah…wow…he took the blow head-on and survived! Gadhio’s blade is still standing!”

The two opponents wound their blades against each other, neither side yielding. Gadhio’s sword was simply so immense that Fwiss’s Distortion couldn’t destroy it. Gadhio let out another scream and pressed the attack. The ground gave way beneath his feet, and his arms threatened to bend.

“But…I thought he was doing one strike, giving it everything he’s got.”

Fwiss looked like he was still nowhere near defeat. He angled his blade, deflecting the force of the blow and sending Gadhio’s sword sliding down his own sword’s length with an awful scraping sound.

“Oh, no…if it hits the ground, he’ll never pick it back up!”

With how fast the sword was sliding, it looked all but impossible for Gadhio to stop it. And yet…

“Nhgraaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Gadhio bent backward and recovered, eating away at his own life force all the while.

“He really pulled it off…” It was all Nekt could do to watch in a stunned stupor as Gadhio stopped the sword’s fall.

Not wasting any time, Gadhio twisted his body to the side and wheeled at Fwiss with a powerful slash. Fwiss let loose with another Distortion blast, hoping to smash the blade into the ground and shatter it in the process. Gadhio howled, but he still fought his way through the force pressing him down and lifted the blade for another strike.

“Hahaha! I’ve gotta say, humans can be pretty impressive. I’d never have thought you could do this with your pathetic meatsack bodies!”

Fwiss’s admiration for Gadhio mounted as the fight wore on. This widening rift between his own feelings and Origin’s dread intent made his cores start to falter.

“Huh?”

Just as the blades were about to meet, Fwiss’s sword began to wriggle apart.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Gadhio’s sword smashed straight through the weakened blade with an ear-piercing snap.

It looked to Fwiss like the entire sky was coming down on him. He crossed his arms in front of himself to mount his defense.

“Distortion!”

Moments later, he heard an awful crash as the attack connected. Though he was spared from a direct hit, he and the sphere surrounding him were hammered into the ground.

“Haaaaah!” Gadhio hefted the sword and followed up with another blow.

“Nnnggaaaah!!” Fwiss’s back was against the wall. The match was all but decided now.

“Please just give up, Fwiss,” said Nekt. “I really don’t want to see you die!”

“What, and do you really think the old man’ll just stop if I say that I surrender?”

Another blow. Gadhio looked like a blacksmith working steel. “Haah…huff…that’s because I know…you don’t plan on ever giving up!”

“Heh, you’re right there. I gave my life to Mother, after all.”

The ground shook under them as another heavy blow landed on Fwiss.

“Fwiss… Gadhio…”

Ultimately, neither of them were in the wrong. This was going to be a battle to the death from the very beginning.

However, Fwiss’s barrier continued to hold up under the onslaught. Gadhio just wasn’t able to break through, although he was slowly but surely becoming more and more familiar with how to efficiently use this life force draining technique. If he could just push it a little further…

The prana energy pumped through his arms, into the hilt, and up through a blade so immense that it threatened to cut the very sky right open. The energy coursing through the sword caused it to shimmer like a mirage.

Fwiss chuckled, sounding resigned as he gazed up at the blade.

“I have to admit, you humans are pretty impressive…”

If nothing else, he finally came to understand that Origin was not the end-all-be-all power he had been led to believe. Perhaps he could have become this powerful without throwing away his humanity.

Gadhio roared and struck again. This one, however, was different: in addition to the weight from earlier, it also brought centrifugal force, speed, and prana to the table to create a particularly intimidating attack.

This was Gaea Breaker, the culmination of his art.

The earth ripped open and stone shattered all around them as a powerful whirlwind whipped up, pulling Nekt up from her hiding place and sending her flying.

Fwiss’s Distortion shield shattered like a thin layer of ice, and the sword caught him between the eyes.

The outcome of the battle was apparent before the dust settled.

Gadhio gasped and coughed as he dropped the blade and brought his hand to his chest. Blood sprayed copiously from his mouth. The discarded sword lost its power, and the stones and debris tumbled away.

“Ow ow ow…wait, Fwiss? Fwiss??”

No one came out unscathed, but Nekt was the first to get back to her feet. She immediately went about looking for Fwiss, making her way through the thick haze of dust and digging through the rubble by hand.

Her hand landed on something warm and damp.

“Aah…”

She leaned in closer only to find Fwiss’s eyeball smashed firmly into the ground.

“Fwiss? No… Fwiiiiiiiss!!”

She was standing directly in front of his dying body.

“Nekt…you…you’d really get that worked up over me…?” Fwiss smirked weakly at the sight.

“Y-you’re still alive? After all that, you…you managed to survive?”

As the dust lifted and Fwiss’s body came into view, it became clear that wasn’t exactly true. A single core remained connected to his body—the one which served as his heart for so long. Regardless, it was nothing short of a miracle that he still clung to life.

“I guess I did, huh. But wow, this pain…it’s unbearable. I’m thinking death may have been better.”

Gadhio stumbled over, dragging his leg behind him, and looked to Nekt for their next move. “What do you want to do?”

“I’m taking him back, of course. There’s still a chance to save him.”

“Eww, no thanks. Do you really think I can live a meaningful life like this, even if I am turned back into a human?”

“Frankly, I don’t think you should live at all.” With the most important part said, Gadhio continued. “But even normal people choose life in spite of its agonies.”

“Even you, old man?”

“Of course. Someone high on life wouldn’t throw their soul away just for revenge.”

“Huh…so I guess humans aren’t that different or special after all. Not like I wanted to be one.”

“Well, I’m still taking you with me. That’s what I want, and you’re just going to have to deal with it,” said Nekt. “Umm, are you going to be okay on your own?”

“Yeah,” said Gadhio. “I have some unfinished business, and I’ve got enough left in me to get myself there.”

“Got it. Guess I’ll see you around, Gramps. Connection!” Nekt held Fwiss close as her face transformed into an awful, pulsating spiral. A moment later, they were both gone.

Gadhio muttered under his breath. “How long does she plan to keep calling me that…?”

Though much of the warehouse district was reduced to rubble during the battle, there were still a few places that made it through relatively unscathed. It seemed a reasonable assumption that Fwiss had gone out of his way to ensure that the place where Mother was hiding wasn’t dragged into the fray.

Gadhio’s body was completely thrashed. A slow but intensifying, burning sensation began to spread through his body as his sense of pain returned. However, he couldn’t stop now. Not yet.

He placed his hand to his chest. He could feel his inner flame still burning, but it was growing dim. Fear washed over him, but the thought of Echidna’s face and his hunger for revenge put an end to that, as he embarked once again on his search for Mother.