LET'S HAVE SOME FIGHTS!!!!!!!!
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The world was a kaleidoscope of jagged metal and flickering neon, all filtered through the steady, artificial glow of Eous's eyes.
Cedric moved every step carefully, deliberate, and agonizing. One hand clamped tightly over his broken ribs, the other buried deep in Howl's thick, matted fur for support.
Each breath came out as a ragged, whistling hitch that sent fresh, white-hot spikes of pain through his chest.
"Be careful, Cedric."
Wise's voice murmured through Eous, sounding far closer and more intimate than the actual distance between Sixth Street and this ruined Hollow.
"We're making good time. The fissure is still holding, but it's starting to pulse. We can't slow down — not even for a second."
Cedric swallowed hard, the metallic taste of blood still coating his tongue. He desperately needed something — anything — to focus on besides the sensation of his fractured bones grinding together with every movement.
"Wise…" he rasped, his voice barely louder than a broken whisper over the distant, low-frequency hum of the Hollow.
"What is it like…? Being… Eous?"
Wise paused for a microsecond. The Bangboo's head tilted slightly.
"It's… strange. It's like dreaming while you're wide awake. I'm still sitting in my chair at Random Play. I can still smell the coffee I brewed earlier… but my 'eyes' are here, less than three feet off the ground."
"Everything looks tinted in cool blue tones. I can see heat signatures in the air, the faint electrical currents running through broken wires. It's like being a ghost haunting a very helpful, very small toy."
Cedric managed a faint, pained smile. "Sounds weird… and fun."
"It is," Wise chuckled softly, though the sound was tight with worry.
"Belle usually stays on the comms the whole time to make sure I don't forget to breathe properly in the real world. She actually complained this morning that the shop felt too 'orderly' without you there to move the heavy crates around. She almost had to do it herself. Can you imagine that?"
"I… can't," Cedric whispered, his voice fading.
They continued moving through the ruined corridor, past rows of shattered storefronts. Broken glass crunched like brittle bones beneath his legs.
But then, the air changed.
The temperature plummeted violently. The humid, Ether-saturated heat vanished in a single heartbeat, replaced by a dry, soul-piercing cold that sank straight into his marrow.
Cedric staggered to a sudden halt. The hair on his arms stood on end, and a sharp, icy prickle crawled slowly up the back of his neck like invisible claws.
Howl let out a deep, vibrating growl, hackles rising sharply, ears pinned back.
Wise's voice cut off mid-sentence. Eous's sensors spiked into the red, the headlamp flickering wildly.
"Cedric… don't move," she whispered, her tone shifting from gentle to ice-cold terror. "Something's wrong."
The shadows in the corners no longer looked empty — they looked heavy, alive, leaning inward with malicious intent.
From the suffocating haze, the true nightmare emerged.
The Ethereals from the elevator shaft hadn't simply followed them. They had been hunting — circling ahead with cold, predatory patience.
"They're still here…" Cedric hissed, reaching for his weapon.
"Cedric, move! Now!" Wise screamed. "Run! They're closing in!"
The Faun raised its hammer. The neon crystals flared blindingly bright as the black core pulsed. It unleashed a deafening blast of distorted electronic static.
Cedric didn't hesitate. He scooped Eous up against his chest and hooked his arm tightly under Howl's collar. Then he ran.
The chase turned into pure hell.
Behind him, the ground shook violently with the Faun's booming footsteps.
Smaller Alpecas and Fauns scuttled along the walls and ceiling like grotesque spiders, their claws scraping metal and concrete in a horrifying cacophony.
One Alpeca dropped from above, claws slashing at his shoulder. Cedric twisted at the last second, but the claws still grazed his arm, tearing fabric and drawing fresh blood.
"The construction site! Just ahead!" Wise shouted, her voice cracking with raw panic.
"The fissure is right in the center of the scaffolding! Less than two hundred meters! Faster — please, Cedric, faster!"
They burst through shattered double doors into the vast hollowed-out section of the mall. Massive steel girders rose like the ribs of a dead leviathan. In the center, the fissure — pulsed weakly, its edges already curling inward like a dying star.
"It's shrinking!" Wise shrieked. "Cedric, the fissure is collapsing! We have only fifteen seconds left!"
Cedric pushed his failing legs harder. He was carrying Eous while Howl ran beside them, but the math was turning cruel. His vision blurred. His legs trembled violently.
[Cedric, stay focused. Your heart is pounding. Those Alpecas have cut off the path ahead.]
Fifty meters.
Forty.
Suddenly, a group of Alpecas dropped from the scaffolding, forming a jagged wall of muscle between them and the fissure.
[AQUA JET! Use it! Use Aqua Jet to enhance you speed now! If you don't move fast enough, the fissure will close!]
The System's voice screamed inside his mind, sharper and more urgent than he had ever heard it.
Cedric blinked, his vision swimming in a haze of grey. 'Aqua Jet...?
Then, through the fog of pain, it clicked. He remembered the reward—the strange skill that had settled into his core after that game match at God Finger, the victory over Ellen that had felt like a fever dream.
[Do it, Cedric. Believe in yourself.]
'Aqua Jet.' He thought, reaching for that untapped reservoir of water energy.
Inside Random Play, Wise felt a strange energy surge through Eous, something fluid and pressurized. Through Eous's sensors, she saw a thin, shimmering film of water erupt from Cedric's pores, wrapping around his body like a localized high-pressure turbine.
"Cedric? What is tha—?!" Wise's thoughts stumbled in shock.
BOOM.
The concrete beneath his feet didn't just crack; it disintegrated, detonating in a spray of pulverized stone as the [Aqua Jet] erupted from his pores.
The pressurized water didn't just propel him—it launched him like a human cannonball, the sheer kinetic force turning the air around him into a screaming wake of white mist and displaced pressure.
He moved so fast the Hollow became a blur of monochromatic grey and jagged neon, closing half the distance to the fissure in a single, heart-stopping second.
But the price of such speed was a nightmare.
The strain was immense, a physical weight that felt like his bones were being crushed from the inside out. His battered muscles, already at the breaking point, shrieked as the high-pressure water acted like a localized turbine, threatening to tear his skin from his frame. Every millisecond of the [Aqua Jet] was a violent theft, consuming his remaining stamina at a terrifying, exponential rate.
'I won't make it.'
The math was simple and brutal. If he kept the jet active, it would sputter out ten meters before the threshold. He would collapse in the open, leaving Howl and Eous stranded and defenseless. If he tried to force the remaining pressure to carry all three of them through the narrowing gap and fail, the fissure would shear them in half.
He couldn't risk them. Not for a gamble he knew he was losing.
With a deliberate, agonizing wrench of his will, Cedric cut the flow.
The roaring jets flickered and died instantly. The sudden loss of forward inertia sent him stumbling, his sneakers carving deep, jagged furrows into the concrete dust.
He skidded to a heavy, grinding halt, a thick shroud of steam and mist swirling around his trembling body like a funeral shroud.
The silence that followed was deafening. He looked at the fissure—so close he could smell the rain-washed air of the city—and he didn't move forward.
Instead, he pulled both Eous and the massive, shivering Howl into a crushing, desperate embrace, shielding them with his own broken body.
Then, his posture underwent a sudden, violent transformation.
The tender embrace snapped into the rigid mechanics of a loaded catapult. Cedric didn't let go; he shifted his weight, sinking his trembling legs into a deep, powerful crouch as he hauled both the dog and the Bangboo back behind his shoulder.
His spine coiled like a pressurized trebuchet, his entire frame locking into a singular, explosive throwing stance aimed directly at the shrinking fissure.
"Cedric?" Wise said.
Cedric's purple eyes, terrifyingly calm amidst the blood and grime, looked down at Eous.
[…Are you sure, Cedric?]
The System's voice trembled.
[Are you okay with this choice? You'll be trapped here… alone… with all of them. Is this what you want? This is your second life. Instead, you can let go of them and get yourself out.]
Cedric didn't speak aloud. His thought echoed clearly through the shared mental space.
'Don't... Don't ever say that to me again.'
[…]
'…I know, it hasn't been long since the first time I met them.'
Cedric's grip tightened, his bloodied fingers trembling against their skin. He forced a ragged breath, eyes fixed on the closing fissure.
'But they're... they're the first ones... I've cared about... in such a long time.'
He looked at Wise(Eous) and Howl, a ghost of a smile flickering through the grime and blood on his face—a look of finality that hurt worse than the wounds.
'I'm tired, you know? And I won't... do it again. I'm so tired of... just watching. Watching someone disappear... while I can't do anything.'
'I'd rather... be trapped... than be free and torn by the pain of harming them... especially... since I was the one... who chose to let go.'
A long, heavy silence followed.
When the System spoke again, it's voice was thick with aching sorrow.
[…I understand.]
She sounded broken.
[You've always been too kind, too stubborn for your own good, Cid.]
[If this is your choice… then I'll stay right here with you. I won't leave you. Not now. Not ever. Even if the Hollow swallows us both… I'll be by your side until the very end. You are not alone. You've never been alone.]
'…Thank you, System.'
Meanwhile, Wise's mind was a chaotic storm of confusion. Through Eous's sensors, she felt the sudden, rigid shift in Cedric's weight.
"Cedric? Why did you stop? What are you doing?!" she yelled through the link, her thoughts frantic. "The exit is right there! There's no time for this!"
Then, she saw it. She felt the way his legs locked into the concrete, the way his spine coiled back—not to leap, but to propel something forward. The realization hit her like a physical blow, stealing the air from her lungs.
"No... no, no, no," she whispered, her voice rising into a terrified shriek as she recognized the mechanics of his stance.
"Cedric, don't you dare! What are you doing?! Stop it! Don't you dare! MOVE YOUR LEGS!"
"See you again, Wise." he grunted, his voice a low, guttural growl of absolute resolve.
"No! CEDRIC, NO—!"
Cedric planted his feet. He tapped into the absolute maximum capacity of his [Aqua Jet].
Liquid energy raced through his veins as a massive, high-pressure spiral of water erupted from his shoulders and arms, acting like a hydraulic catapult.
With a roar that tore his raw throat bloody, he used the violent recoil of the water pressure to add devastating velocity to his throw.
He hurled both Howl and Eous toward the shrinking fissure with every last ounce of strength he possessed.
Backed by the raw power of the [Aqua Jet], the massive hound and the Bangboo were launched like living projectiles.
They blurred through the air, colliding mid-flight before tumbling straight into the center of the flickering fissure just as it began to collapse.
Wise's agonized scream tore through the shop, raw and heartbroken.
"CEDRI—!!"
Vwoom
The fissure snapped shut.
The warm sunlight of Sixth Street vanished instantly, leaving only the cold, suffocating grey gloom of the Hollow.
Cedric collapsed to his knees, his entire body trembling from the recoil and the sheer energy drain of the final [Aqua Jet].
The massive Alpeca and Faun stepped forward.
And from the dark corners of the scaffolding and piles of construction debris, eight more Ethereals — a mixture of Alpecas and Fauns — scuttled and dragged themselves into view. Ten in total.
A jagged, closing circle of slate-grey muscle, neon-green crystals, and pulsing black cores focused on the one broken boy kneeling in the center. The lead Faun dragged its massive hammer closer, its face aiming directly at Cedric's head.
Cedric let his head hang low for a moment, chest heaving. Then —
[Oh… wait. I just realized I haven't given you the reward from our session this morning. I'm sorry, Cedric. You need this right now.]
A cold, heavy glass bottle materialized out of thin air, dropping perfectly into his trembling, blood-slicked hand.
Cedric didn't hesitate. He popped the cap and downed the thick, creamy liquid in one desperate gulp.
A violent surge of heat exploded from his stomach, racing through his veins like liquid fire.
The milk worked instantly — knitting his fractured ribs back together and flushing the crushing fatigue from his muscles. Cedric forced his broken body back onto his feet.
[You're standing again… but I'm so helpless here. I can't fight them for you.]
The System's voice cracked with emotion.
[Cedric… they aren't retreating. There are ten of them now. I'll do everything I can to support you. Please… just stay alive. I can't lose you. Not like this.]
Cedric stood tall, legs still shaking but steady.
He wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, eyes burning with quiet defiance as he stared at the closing circle of monsters.
He beckoned the lead Faun forward with a trembling but steady hand.
"Fuck you."
…
…
…
CRASH
Howl and Eous were violently ejected from the collapsing fissure, propelled by the final, explosive force of the [Aqua Jet].
They tumbled across the ground in a tangled heap. Howl whimpered loudly, his massive legs twitching from the impact, while Eous rolled several times before slamming into a stack of rusted, abandoned crates.
The Bangboo's headlamp flickered weakly, its mechanical frame sparking against the cold concrete.
One moment, there was the roar and the heat of a desperate sacrifice; the next, there was only a cold, static-filled void.
The connection was severed. The presence that had been there just seconds ago was gone. Only a terrifying, absolute silence remained.
"Cedric...!"
The small Bangboo's frame shook violently on the ground, the sound echoing hollowly against the brick walls.
Then, a female voice suddenly spoke up.
"…Eous?"
…
…
…
The high noon sun beat down on Sixth Street, turning the asphalt into a shimmering heat trap.
Jagged, ink-black shadows clung to the base of the buildings, providing the only relief from the oppressive glare.
Anby walked with a steady, rhythmic cadence. Her boots struck the pavement with the mechanical precision of a soldier on a routine patrol.
In her left hand, she carefully balanced a grease-stained paper bag.
The warmth of a fresh double-patty burger radiated through the thin material, a comforting weight in the humid air.
Her mind was currently occupied by a complex mental spreadsheet.
She was cross-referencing the structural integrity of the toasted bun against the moisture levels of the extra-thick patty.
It was a critical field evaluation.
To the passing crowds of shopkeepers and scavengers, she was just a girl headed home with lunch.
To Anby, she was an expert conducting a high-stakes test on the perfect ratio of protein to carbohydrates.
But as she stepped past the mouth of a narrow, light-starved alleyway, the world shifted.
A violent flare of light streaked across the shaded brick walls.
It was unnatural, momentary, and bright enough to drown out the sun.
Anby stopped dead in her tracks.
In a single heartbeat, the casual, analytic focus on her meal vanished.
Her expression simply flattened into a cold, "combat-alert" mask.
It was a state of being drilled into her core through years of survival.
She shifted her center of gravity, her boots grinding into the grit as she turned toward the suffocating darkness of the alley.
The comforting scent of grilled meat and artisan cheese was instantly gone.
It was replaced by the acrid, metallic stench of ozone and the smell of iron.
Her eyes narrowed, scanning the gloom with the precision of a thermal lens.
There, amidst the shadows and splintered wooden crates, was a scene that defied the peaceful Tuesday afternoon outside.
A dog, its wet fur matted with soot and dark streaks of blood, stood panting heavily.
Its ribcage heaved in ragged, desperate bursts of exhaustion.
And beside it, looking tragically small and fragile, was Eous.
Random Play's Bangboo
…
…
…
"…Eous?"
Anby's voice was uncharacteristically hesitant.
She stepped further into the shadows, her hand moving instinctively toward her weapon.
She looked at the pair, her brow furrowing in deep confusion and concern.
"What happened? Why are Howl and you lying here like this? Why are you both in this state?"
Anby reached down toward the Bangboo.
"Anby..."
The voice that tore through the Bangboo's speaker wasn't the usual cheerful electronic tone.
It was Wise—her voice raw, cracking with a level of unbearable agony that made Anby flinch, her hand recoiling slightly.
"Wise?"
Anby's eyes widened in realization. She had never heard the Proxy sound so utterly shattered.
"What's going on? Report status. Why are you in such a condition?"
Eous's small mechanical frame shook, the signature soft orange scarf tattered and soaked with oil.
In the quiet of the alley, Eous could only emit a series of ragged, pained statics that mirrored a human sob.
"He stayed... he stayed behind," Wise whispered through the machine, the words trembling with a desperation that shattered the silence.
She forced Eous's small, battered hand to reach out, clutching weakly and desperately at Anby's sleeve.
Anby stood frozen, completely blindsided by the raw grief radiating from the small robot.
"Please... Anby... help me."