He walked toward the terrain drawn with ashes. A sharp scent filled his nostrils as he approached. He passed numbly by the spider lying on the ground. It lay motionless with its monstrous body. Soon, his field of vision was covered by spider-like soldiers marching rhythmically. All were in roughly the same yellow tones as the one lying on the ground. Meyer felt something of himself die as he looked beyond. His blood felt solid rather than liquid. To attack the spiders, he simply balled his hands into fists, picked up a rock from the ground, held it high, and hurled it forward.
This was followed by stones beginning to rain through the air onto the spiders' metal skeletons. A "Clang!" sound was echoing. They were all like robotic boxes. Emma was crying and screaming desperately, telling him to stop. Meyer: "Leave me alone! I will take my revenge on those damn hook-faced ones! Then on that son of a bitch Magnus. And even after that, on my father. Even on everyone who has shown me enmity."
"T-this... This isn't you," Emma said in a faint voice.
Meyer let out a burst of laughter and knocked down a spider that was trying to express something by raising a leg at him. He longed for his obsidian blades and goggles. For now, however, his fists would do.
"This is me, the real me!" Meyer shouted and carved a zigzag path for himself among the spiders. The spiders, without retaliating, began to slowly pull aside. "What happened? Wasn't your purpose to cause harm?" Meyer shouted mockingly. "Are you going to protect yourselves by running away all of a sudden?"
"They can't protect you from yourself anymore."
Meyer heard a voice coming from his back right.
Two blades with bright, smooth tips were pressed diagonally against his neck. "I sent the children, but I suppose you want to meet me!"
A cocky smirk appeared on Meyer's tanned face. With an agile movement, he reached for the blades, wrapped his fingers tightly around them, and ground his teeth. His fingers were being harshly cut between the tips of the blades. It was as if his pain hurt less. An ache that would have once incapacitated him was now no different from having a tooth pulled.
He felt the shadow behind him struggling with him, trying to cut his throat. He wouldn't stop; with all his courage, he turned around and saw his enemy's face. This... "Y-you..." he said, looking at that familiar face from the past. It was as if his past had come to life and stood before him. "My arch-enemy!" He laughed, baring his teeth, and looked at the hands he had gripped tightly to block Meyer.
Magnus Truve.
"Y-you," Meyer said with a sharp voice through his teeth.
Magnus did not loosen the tightness of his hands for a single moment. "Stop!"
"Why should I stop, huh?" Meyer shouted. A fire coming from the depths of a volcano was rising inside him. His pupils contracted; Magnus's hands slid down along with the shattering blade. With a reverse kick, Meyer sent Magnus flying three meters into the air.
"AAA!"
A thud was heard; Magnus fell face down on the ground.
His eyes were closed; blood was coming from his mouth.
Meyer felt the adrenaline flowing in his blood. He saw the steps of the spiders approaching him from the path. There was no human emotion in this movement. Though, Meyer wasn't sure if that human feeling remained in him anymore. Every job he had done years ago to pilfer a little more money, every life taken by the obsidian blades passed through his eyes like a film frame. He looked at Magnus lying on the ground. He screamed at the spiders coming from beyond with all his strength.
His voice echoed through the air in a scream. There was an eternal breath in his respiration. "Get away or I'll kill you all!"
As if to prove it, he swung his fist into the air. A fire between honey color and orange flashed in his eyes.
He delivered another kick to Magnus's body lying on the ground.
Emma had frozen in a corner, unable to understand what was happening.
She was looking at Meyer as if he were a stranger.
Meyer knew he felt like a stranger to the whole world, from his deepest depths.
The sounds of the spiders' rhythmic metal feet were heard again.
With every step they took, the smoke of the reddish soil was tossed into the sky. Between the warm, scorching hell of dust, spiders with glowing honey-colored eyes passed in order. Then one of the front ones lunged at Meyer. Meyer saw someone draw an obsidian blade from a thick belly. He set his sights on it and whispered, "I'm going to get that in my hand."
He took a deep breath and, with heavy steps, wanted to throw a kick at the spider that drew the blade. However, the metal leg blocked it. "Oh, come on," he said, and performing a backflip, he swung his other leg. When this didn't work, he jumped four meters forward in the air and fixed his eyes on the blade of one of the creatures.
The spider did not seem willing to give up its blade.
"This is going to be bad," he said and continued to run.
Running and simultaneously escaping was the best thing he did.
The spiders had started chasing him this time. They looked at each other as if they were confused.
Magnus was lying motionless on the ground. Noticing the obsidian blades flying in the air, Meyer felt the excitement mixing into his blood.
"Blades? This is really good," he said, turning around in a flash and ducking. The blades passing exactly over his back sank into the spongy mounds of stone. Meyer noticed a blade approaching right toward his face and, as a reflex, flew two steps and caught it by the hilt. A drop of golden blood was trickling from its tip.
"AAAAA!" he shouted, cutting the channel connecting the spider's head to its body.
The ground was filled with bloodstains.
He giggled and, swinging the blade around, bent one's blade and tore off the head and arms of another. He left one with a single leg and watched it fall to the ground. He was enjoying it; he was enjoying everything he did. When he asked, "Any more?" the spiders threw something into the air again. This was a thorny arrow.
It was raining from the sky like rain.
Meyer grew excited again; Emma had hidden under a thick leaf.
She was looking at Meyer with eyes full of fear.
Each of the thorny arrows grazed Meyer's upward-jumping body. He was gliding through the air along with the arrows. Like a paper airplane. Suddenly he noticed the gravity decreasing, that he could jump even higher. Using each of the thorns like a step, he climbed toward the heavens. Gradually the atmosphere was thinning and becoming sparse. He noticed he was having trouble breathing. Screaming, he threw himself down with such speed that he would tear off the hind legs of one of the spiders.
The animal made a squealing sound under the high weight pressing upon it. Taking the obsidian blade from between its fallen legs, Meyer now had two blades.
The spiders had stopped; so had Meyer's breath.
He was breathing rapidly.
His legs were still tingling with a high power.
Magnus woke up soon after.
He fixed his bright eyes forward.
He straightened up on his hands.
He looked at the dead lying on the ground and the spiders dropping their blades before Meyer. This... this was a vow of obedience.
Meyer was now the second person worthy of the vow of obedience.
The first person...
The sky split in two; a violent explosion was heard. A dark brown smoke spread into the air. The smell of soot burned the nasal passages. Everywhere the clouds, shifting violently from place to place, touched was turning dark. Along with the smoke rising around him, Meyer looked at the body descending from the air. Everything around was flying in the air. In the dark-colored hands attached to the large, muscular arms of the man descending from above, was the cutter. It was like a sacrificial slaughtering machine.
Meyer looked ahead with even greater pleasure. Some parts of the armor on the man's back shone under the light.
Turning off the motor of the cutter, he hooked the tool to the strap on his left waist and clapped his hands, sending the dust into a whirl. There was an utterly expressionless look on his face. As he slowly moved his hand to his inner pocket, he didn't take his eyes off his opponent's monster-like pupils for a single moment. Soon a chain came out of his pocket, with a card hanging at the end.
With his heavy but muscular legs, he walked toward Meyer. The horizon appeared only as a line.
Meyer, remaining in the middle of the wreckage, felt the hands rise into the air and the chain being placed around his neck with all its coldness. His eyes caught the large, bold black writing on the card.
"The curse of the spiders has been won. Phase 0 complete. Do you wish to continue the mission? If so, kneel before the one in front of you. If the answer is no, fight him and in short: kill him."
A scream echoed in the air.
In the desolate mounds of stone.
"No!"
Meyer looked out of the corner of his eye at Emma emerging from between the leaves. Emma was trembling with her whole body. From the innermost to the outermost. "No," she said as tears flowed from her eyes. Her chest shook with sobs. The man in front of them seemed angry that his show was being interrupted.
Emma struck the man's iron armor. "Leave him alone!"
Her fingers slid across the surface of the shiny metal like a drop of water.
The man frowned angrily and looked at the cutter in his left hand.
Meyer looked at the one before him with eyes full of rage.
The Cutter.