"Fucking hell." Satoshi sighs. The stench of rotting flesh fills the destroyed training area. A good chunk of the sand has blown away. It's almost completely empty save for Satoshi, my friends and I.
"W-what happened to them?" Lola whispers in fear.
"From the looks of it? Accelerated cell growth. Or at least something to that effect." My brother prods one of the poles with his sheet he'd sword. "Somehow they mutated into kaiju. And I guess their bodies couldn't stop themselves. Must have been too hard to keep themselves together." That checks out I think. From the little information I actually remember from today, my soul is pretty big. They take that in and their bodily functions go through the roof. Kaiju are specifically designed for a higher capacity. At least that's my understanding of it. I won't pretend I really know what I'm talking about.
"That shouldn't be possible though." Howlett limps over. His hand is on his stomach, probably to help with the pain. I'll heal him once I've got my stamina back. "I know we are part Kaiju. But no one should be able to go further than that right?" That's a bit ironic coming from him, given his ability.
"He'd know." Satoshi nods in my direction. I feel a familiar spike of panick for just a moment before apathy sets in. I can feel energy coming back into my body but I still need time to rest. At least I don't think I have brain damage. A splitting headache sure but that's basically a miracle compared to what it could've been. Or maybe I do and just can't notice. I rub the spot one of my horns used to be. I can feel the small scar covered by my hair. "Well?" Oh they want me to say something.
"Our dad convinced them to put a tree on me that sucked out part of my soul. Mine is apparently getting really big and he doesn't want that for some reason. So the tree put some of my soul in peaches that they ate. This supercharged them and made them crazy Kaiju. I broke out and blinded out maybe dad and then got kicked here. But my soul is recharging." They all just stare in confused silence but I'm kinda on a roll here so im not stopping. "By the way don't get too attached to the term soul. It's closer to a life battery. It's an invisible pink fire that powers us by replicating the planet. That's how kaiju do those things. At least that's how the witches explained it. And mine is like really strong and I think they said it was like the planet which is really bad because that want me to kill people with them for some reason. Which I didn't know they wanted when I first met them because I thought they wanted fo stop a guy named lord star fall! But he's not even real!" I finally have to stop and take a breath. After a moment of silence Satoshi gives his detailed thoughts.
"Are you serious?".
"He is." A black cat says and walks up to us.
"Is that a talking cat?" Satoshi asks.
"I am. I have been assigned to guard Haruo." He turns his head towards me. His eyes make it seem like nothings wrong. "You need to co-argh!" I push down on his back.
"Explain everything!" I order him.
"Haruo what the hell?!" Boba yells. To be fair to him they don't have a lot of context for this. They just found I'm technically a terrorist and now I'm doing animal abuse. To a talking cat but still.
"Shut it!" I growl at him. Being understandable doesn't mean I have patience for it right now. They all back up in shock. Satoshi instinctively reaches for his sword. I turn away before I can see how that goes though. "Five people are dead!" I push down a little more. "Why?! What's all this for?!" He knows. He has to know.
"I'm trying to help you! You need to leave!" He pushes back against my grip. I feel my eyes go warm as I apply even more pressure.
"How is this helping?" I gesture to the rotting piles of meat.
"That wasn't us you idiot!".
"Oh sure! Because you've been so honest up until now!".
"Haruo they're attacking soon! I don't want you getting hurt." He tries to sound as sympathetic as possible. It doesn't work.
"I'm sorry. What does he mean attack?" Lola asks.
"I wasn't talking to you." He remarks.
"Answer the question." I'm so tired of these people being vague. And just when I think I'm getting it, I get shot in the head! I can't even ask Lilith about any of this because I DONT KNOW WHERE SHE IS!!!
"Argh! They are going to attack the city soon with an army of kaiju. They expect you to resist it. You'll be pushed over the edge and finally transform. Then Louhi can complete her plan." Oh great. More life shattering explanations. Just what I need today.
"When?" I ask after a long sigh. I'm so tired.
"Today." He answers in embarrassment.
"Ok." I bite my tounge to keep from saying something I'll regret. "Why are you telling me this?" Isn't he on their side?
"Because I don't want you to get hurt. And k want to do this one thing for you. Even if it goes against my master. I want to make up for using that gin on you.".
"What?!" Lola and Boba scream in unison.
"Haruo?" I think he's waiting for me to answer him. And I want to. But the presence I'm feeling at the top of the cliff is really distracting. I know one of those is my maybe dad. I don't know about the other though. Hers isn't that strong compared to his, but there's clearly something weird about it. Like a circuit ready to revive power. That's probably the closest analogy I can think of. Allister shivers and scrambles away from my grip. Soon both the red knight and the purple haired lady land on the sand across from us. The knight is holding his helmet in his hand, maybe to show that his face is completely healed. I'm a little annoyed at how ok I am with that.
"I don't see what about this hero has everyone rushing to protect him." She eyes me up and down with pink eyes. Allister turns to his human form to kneel properly.
"My apologies lady Morrigan. I hope you can understand my position." Wait, Morrigan?
"That's the witch lady you mentioned!" I point at her before looking at Satoshi. He just stares at them, shaking.
"Dad?" He almost drops his sword.
"Wait. You weren't lying?" I look back at my apparently dad. He looks away from both of us in what I think is shame. Or maybe awkwardness. Who knows.
"It's good to see you again Satoshi. I'm glad to see you've grown strong." Morrigan says with clear pride in her voice. Despite that, her expressions are soft. "I'm glad to know you'll probably survive." Massive booming footsteps make me cover my ears for a second.
"Survive what?" Even with all this noise I can tell his voice is trembling.
"I think that's obvious." Her smile is gentle and knowing. But when her gaze shifts to me it turns sharp. The smile is replaced by a prominent frown. Her eyes spark with annoyance. Even without checking her pink flame I can tell my presence is barley being tolerated. Above us the source of the huge footsteps become clear. Hundreds of Kaiju either leap or fly over the canyon we are in. So many go at a time for so long that it seems like there's no end to them.
"There's gotta be hundreds of them." Lola mutters in awe.
"Thousands actually." Morrigan states in a matter of fact tone.
"I won't let you do this!" I have no clue what to do but I know I have to say that at least. Her expression doesn't change in the slightest.
"Your the reason it's happening you ungrateful welp. Now it's time you come with me." She pushes Kaito to the side.
"Wait ma'am." Allister grabs her wrist. She looks down at him with surprise then curiosity. "Must it really happen this way?" She looks like she considers for a moment before pulling out of his grip.
"You and my sister have coddled him for too long. He only needs a final push yes?" I reach for my wand when she takes another step closer. Everyone else seems frozen in place. Well if it's a fight she wants I'm not gonna back down. But before anything else happens something heavy hits my chest. Arms wrap around me as we both fly across the terrain. It's only when I realise Allister has knocked the wind out of me that we leave the facility and fall into the canyon. I finish my transformation when we pass a building sized chunk of gold sticking out of the wall. Five giant snakes led by Naga smash into him, sending him flying up and away from me. When I finally get some stability with my flying I make the mistake of looking down. I can only focus on the giant rotting corpse for a moments before Raven blocks a kick.
"What now? First you want me not to fight and now your attacking me!" I yell at the cat boy as he bounces off the wall with grace. From the smoke he surrounds himself with five clones emerge wielding ornate black daggers.
"I'm trying to save your life!" One of them yells back while slicing into a pursing snake. "And if that fails at least push you to transform!" More and more smoke floats out of each of them. From every smoke cloud dozens of sharp knives falls from the sky. I have to divert Ravens attention to deal with that.
"Oh yeah I feel so saved!" Should I pull from the planet to end this quickly or do I save it for later? The rumbling above really doesn't help my decision making skills. The clones start picking up speed, eventually becoming blurs. All the other snakes get sliced up into pieces and return. Naga is the soul exception thanks to her tougher scales. The web of slashes grows more intricate as more clones are created. I think he's reaching his max of ninety nine. Then again he could have lied. Wouldn't be the first time. Because each clone can produce the same amount of smoke, the sky has been completely blocked from my view. I think he wants to lining my movements before coming in for a super smoke blender. Probably not what he would call it but who cares. I call back Raven because there's too much for him to block now. Plus I'm ending this now. I love a good plan. But there's only so much smoke and knives can do against a super class S dragon. Once again power flows into me from below. I feel certain features get sharper so I waste no time. Sapphire materialises before the knives or clones could reach me. Just her unfurling her wings and roaring is enough to send everything flying upwards. Knives, clones, smoke and even the stone and gold cliffs trying to box her in. At least forty clones are already gone, but this is over so who cares. Sapphire knows why she's here and immediately opens her mouth. The wide stream of fire shoots into the sky far above the canyon, melting all structures in its way. I made sure she l held back at the last second, I don't want Allister dead. And it looks like I made the right call when I see I small black cat falling. Charred but not dead by my estimate. Sapphire catches him in her scaled hand. When I land on it I kneel down next to him. "Don't worry buddy. Once I've sent your boss packing we can have a proper talk.".