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CS Worlds Destroyed Chapter 9

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CHAPTER 9:

"Noooonaaa" Cempe's aggravated tone rang down the hall of the estate. My groggy eyes snapped open in my room, a semi-assembled new Utopia under the crust. Less waterfall, more stream. Less rocks, more soft moss. More glow worms, more mushrooms, more of everything that was different then before. Out of it, I heard the voice again, "Nona! Your 6 AM fight appointment is here!"  Bellowing out loud, I rolled over, stretching.

"Tell him to go away! Lock the barrier and just let him tire himself out!" I complained, grabbing at my head that this was happening all over again. For the whole last week. Either every day, or every other day, he'd be back. He'd come by and get his assistant to bellow and holler that we were cowards, and that I was hiding from his glorious power. Then I'd trudge out, smack him with the Colus a few times, and he'd retreat. Rinse and repeat for a week.  Sometimes he had part of his fan club following him around, sometimes not. But if he was trying to show how relentless of a dipshit he was, then mission accomplished.  Thinking on it, I opened my eyes again, "How about you just go fight him! It's lots of fun! We'll switch off!"

"I'm not the one he's hollering for, that honor is allll yours. " I could hear the smile in her tone. She thought this whole event was hilarious. That since the burden was not on her shoulders, that she could chide my load-bearing frame like she always did.  "Plus, he just walks through the barrier, you know that."  Her voice was getting closer, nearing the outside of my room as I rolled over once again, back facing the door.

"Command Styx to swallow him whole, just something. "  I lowered my tone as she opened the entrance, half-turning over to give her one displeased eye. " Why can't we just....pay him or something, make him go away."  Cempe scoffed at me.

"Yeah? With what? Skulls? I already tried bartering with skulls, he's not interested" she grinned, leaning on the door.  "C'mon! Rise and shine! Time for your early morning fight!"  I groaned again, flopping back over.

I'd gotten an accurate view of where I stood in the public's eye. It wasn't good. I tried doing a sort of speech up at one of the area's local demon hideaways, and I received generally displeased, angry questions on where I had been for this last stretch of time, and where my vision and morals were located.   I tried something similar over on the east coast and got better reviews, but even there, things were not as favorable as they once were. It was very obvious that I needed to build my reputation back up from a pretty early level. That Perseus's campaigns  had probably been running for a while.  That word and rumors had spread about my less-then kosher dealings with heaven.  But I had bigger problems too.

I did a demonstration just the day before, showing off the new capabilities and new techniques i had figured out for the weapon, and for the monstery form, in front of a crowd of people.  In the middle of breathing a beam of light from the air, pointed at the ground, it happened again. Fell out of form accidentally. Fell straight into my attack, straight into the blazing aura of light, panicked and hit the ground hard. Thankfully i managed to pull it off as part of the trick, so people clapped, thought it was pretty cool as I stood there, internally freaking out. I'd had time to sleep, I'd caught up and was well rested. This issue should not still be happening.  But given that the time frame between the two events was a week apart, I paid as little mind to it as I could, like my body was working out a problem on it's own, like I had some sort of spiritual cold.  I hadn't mentioned anything about it to my sisters.

So I'd gone back underground to see if I could figure out why. Today was the day I planned on working it out, maybe going somewhere secluded and exhausting myself, see if that happened again.  I'd used the forms enough without incident all other times, but it weighed  heavily on my mind. Adding to this fun nearly each and every morning were these attacks by Perseus, who seemed to prey on my sleep.

"You should be ashamed, bargaining for your inevitable doom!" The assistant's voice rang through unusually close; I flipped over towards the door and Cempe's head was pointed outside.  She slightly frowned.

"They're through the barrier again" She said flatly as her voice was joined by the sound of breaking vases and swords clattering on marbled columns.  "They're breaking our stuff. Again."    

"God dammit!" I pulled myself up, Colus already in hand as I stormed out of my room, past a grinning Cempe, down the hall. They both spotted me coming, no mask, bed-head poofing like a dome out to the side, angry scowl to my face. "You little shits! Get out of my house! " I galloped into a run, skidding the Colus on the ground to spark and ignite the area in friction as the two of them scattered from the building, running back outside as I entered into the living room. Foot to the re-re-torn up couch I bounced from it, right on thier heels out the front door of the estate. They scrambled down the steps, hopping the last to the ground, spinning around to face me arrogantly as I huffed for breath, angry.  I was more then a little sick and tired of this routine.

"Nona! We challenge you to your seat he--"

"I know! You've done this five times now, i think i understand the pattern!" Sweeping a hand over my hair I fixed, it, yanking from behind my horns to pull down the mask, not to hide my face, but to hide the bags under my eyes. "What is it today? Dual to the death? Endurance rally? Are we going to have a race to the top of something like you did on Tuesday?"  The assistant was about to step up with the same re-hashed lines as I started down the steps.

"What is it you idiots need? What is going to finally be the thing that gets you to leave? Why does this annoying cycle have to keep going on and on and why in the hell don't you guys ever get the GOD DAMN POINT THAT YOU'VE LOST!"  I seethed, more then a little annoyed, more than at my breaking point. The form-slipping event from yesterday also made my reactions more annoyed, more angry.  The assistant was ready to pip up when I shut him down again, "Alright, you know what? It's my turn. I'm asking the questions, OH MISTER SUPER DEMON LORD wannabe."

I kept walking forwards, pushing him back as the sword wandered around between the two of us.

"What's your angle? What's your game in all this? " I squinted, lurching forwards with heavy footsteps, tired.

"You want to show how strong and unrelenting you have to be, but you go through this little ....little...." I looked at the assistant, thinking a million and a half curses that just weren't enough.  "Half-brained parroting dumb shit of an assistant to speak for you. Why is that? You got an ugly voice, too?"   I leaned closer as he made a cautionary swipe, still back peddling, looking around like he needed help.

"So just what are you hiding? " I snarled, making a lame grab for his mask as my frustrations were driven to the surface. Not knowing who this was pestered the hell out of me. I was convinced it had to be someone I wronged.  Which to my knowledge, was a fairly short list.  Someone to go through this constant effort, it wasn't just a one-time grab for the seat. This was a goddamn life goal,  something he would not be swayed from, and that list, of that type of person, was even shorter then 'those who I have wronged".  It equated to nobody. Nobody fit those qualifications.  'Random soldier who got fed up with being thrown away'? Possible. But a very small possibility at that.  It didn't make sense. None of it did.  "Why won't you speak?"

Perseus swung the sword at me, cutting my hand just enough to bleed, keeping his head away.

"You know what? Here's some out-of-context help. From someone that actually gets shit done, to a person that wanders around in the same spot doing the same thing. Get some actual skills to back up your ego, that's a thought!  Better then that, How about you go home, and ACTUALLY practice how to be a better fighter. Maybe actually give me some difficultly, instead of just reappearing here with the same old tricks, and the same predictable moves and getting your ignorant ass handed to you every day because of it."  Perseus swiped at me again, trying to show his anger at my words.  Narrowing my eyes, I grabbed a hold of the blade with my bare hands, unafraid, leaning close.

"Stop being a dumb antagonist, and stop acting like a goddamn child!" I growled at him as he suddenly stopped, striking back with a headbutt that pushed me away, just a little bit. I froze, looking down to that emotionless mask, forever staring with the same malicious grin. Taking a moment to think on the situation, I snarled back a smile, taking a few steps away, standing back into that stance.  The assistant on the sidelines raised his voice to start saying something as Perseus's off-hand cut the air, a very  clear and obvious message that he did not want his assistants input. Looking between the two, i grinned again.

"I take it you want a fair fight, hm? If I know your personality type, any sort of advantage will null the fight.  So fine. Let's go perfectly even, then. No magic. No brawling. Same weapons. " I concentrated on the Colus, running a hand along the side of it to turn it into something similar to what he had, a nondescript broadsword of some brand.  Shaking it out I raised it back into the air; It felt the same, it weighed the same. From a first glance, it might seem like I had a disadvantage. But somewhere in a wandering time line, it'd fought with one of these for a while too. Not my best or preferred method of fighting, but I doubt I'd have to use my best  stuff against him anyways.  " I'll even do this for you." I dropped back to a human height, roughly about the same as the war masked dropped around my neck, situated for the tallest form with a bigger face on it.  Grumbling, I picked it up and tossed it to the side, muttering under my breath before turning back to Perseus.

"Is this adequate?"  Both hands out to the side, I waited on his response as he looked at me carefully through the creepy, bubbled  black eyes. After a moment of consideration, he pointed at his own fake horn things while I groaned in annoyance.  "No horns? Seriously?" I grumbled as his hand cut the air, seemingly angry. Just as I was about to point out his own stupid... fake cardboard horns, he reached over his head and snapped them both off the mask, tossing them to the side.  Watching for a moment more, I shook my head, concentrating on making them as small as possible, which  reduced them to nubs.  Perseus pointed at me angrily and cut the air with his hands again.

"That's as small as they..." He repeated the action like a broken toy, so I spoke louder, "THAT'S AS SMALL AS THEY GO. They're rounded, I can't hurt anyone with these. Deal with it."  He stood there angrily, looking once back to the assistant as the man only shrugged, then back to me before finally giving just a hint of wave off that it was okay. Rolling my eyes, I flipped the broadsword Colus in my hands, putting them out again.

"Good? Are we finally ready?"  I watched him as he stood there, looking around, "I've got shit to do today, I'm not going to spend forever and a half sanding down every sharp corner I have."  Perseus started stretching out as I bellowed in annoyance, leaning on the sword. After at least another few minutes of pre-workout warmups, the man looked at me, then to the weapon, nodding quickly before preparing himself, scooting a foot back on the granite tiling of the Moirae's courtyard.  Finally.


Perseus went into a stance, into a very choreographed way of poising with the sword, one which I'll at least give him the credit he was doing correctly.  I, on the other hand,  just stood there with no stance, sword half dragging on the ground, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.  We both stood there, waiting for a few minutes, no one made the first strike, each one seeing what the move would be of the other.  After another minute, i spoke up, blatantly telling him what my plans were.

"I'm not attacking first.  Sorry to ruin the surprise."  Tiredly, I yawned as his stance let up, like he was disappointed I wasn't putting my all into it.  Going back into that form, I yawned again, purprously closing both eyes and showing him that, goading him into making a move. The trap worked. I heard his one foot scuff on the rock, swinging the Broadswoard Colus up in a straight flat, sword-to-sword parry as our attacked stopped dead, again.  He pulled the sword back, using the momentum to spin around clumsily to try and attack on the other side, I lowered my sword by a few inches, swinging it around to parry again effortlessly.  With his mask next to my two hands on the sword's grip, I couldn't help but punch him in the head with it as he stumbled back, cutting the air with his hand at least another five times, silently contesting that the move was not okay.  Groaning, I put one foot back, actually readying myself to fight. "Baby."

Annoyed with the battle already, I went on the offensive. Swung a quick chop straight for his head, he barely missed it, end of my sword biting into his hands because his grip was too high. Pulling back and dropping the grip a little he retaliated, actually putting forth a decent effort. That's how it went on. No one really made any strikes against the other, and it was just a symphony of different, low pitched clangs of the sword as they met, again and again.  And I hate to say it, with everything dumbed down for his level, for everything being dead equal, he wasn't so terrible of a fighter.   The thought irked me a little, so I tried harder, but he seemed to as well, continuing the attacks being stalemated again and again.  Before I knew it, I actually found myself to be enjoying the fight.  It was a puzzle, a tactical, thinking and moving puzzle of reflexes and quick adjustments.

-

There's a weird sort of symbiosis you get with fighting the same person, over and over on the battlefield. It starts with a kind of respect, most battles you fight are a very one-sided thing, they're boring. The outcome is expected, and the results are the same. I couldn't help but think back to how Michael and I started our very odd, half-hated friendship that we still had.  How this fight with Perseus had started, and how Michael's' fighting had started, were damn near the same.  Same with Michael, I'd heard these annoying rumors of some guy looking for my head on a stake. So we meet to fight with our small battalions. And after both groups of soldiers had been wiped off, it always came down to Michael and I fighting.  We hated each other, we played those roles for a very long time.  Each and every time, we fought into exhaustion, one or the other weaseling a way out.

Until one day in particular, when we were both bloodied, scarred and exhausted;  our battle facades were worn down enough that we accidentally acted like real people. And if one of us had done that while the other was still in battle mode, then nothing would have been accomplished, would've gloated and bragged and finished the other off, only to have the same interaction the next time we fought, until this unusual occasion popped up once again. So we both became normal people, and it was a complete accident.

We both collapsed on the field, weapons just slightly out of reach, one or the other coughing up blood.  It was a mess.  We'd been fighting each other for at least a few hours, and we both had a grudge against the other for wiping out so many of our friends and comrades.  There wasn't a polite bone in either one of our systems.

"Go ahead, finish me off, wretched demon." Michael spit at me, that too was an exhausted feature, so he just kinda dribbled  on the ground. I raised a hardly furious eye, struggling to get back to my knees as I slumped over again.

"Stupid...Angels ...with your..."  My eyes tried to roll back in my head as I only gasped for breath, only thinking to regurgitate the same word again, " Angel"  I frowned immediately after I said it, realizing just how stupid my insult was. Worried, concerned that this would affect the battle conditions later on with insults of stupidity, that's when it happened. When Michael slowly hissed out a laugh, instead of an insult. When I forgot to insult his leniency; when we both just lay there on the battlefield, laughing out loud even though we weren't supposed to.

"What's that..." He started, peering up to look at me as I only shook my head.

"doesn't mean anything. " I pulled my head back, laughing again, "Sorry, that was a terrible insult. I'll do better next time."  I was too tired to act as angry as I should've been, and he was too tired to keep up the same 'demons are sinful, evil creatures' speech.  So we just lay there, quiet. The moment didn't last long, as Michael shortly after that got up and left immediately, even issuing a "goodbye" to me before he ran off. I sat on the ground for a few minutes more, looking around and wondering just what had happened here. Even then, i felt that it was something big.   Before darting back underground myself, I muttered a hushed 'goodbye' to the open air, out of duty with a confused little smile.

-

"C'mon!" I shouted at Perseus, starting to show his fatigue as my attacks cut a little more into him, as his attacks were getting sloppy. I could hear him huffing for breath behind that mask, something like sweat or condensation  was dripping from the jaw of the forever snarling facade. My manner of fun was starting to wear off, back to being annoyed as his shortcomings became more apparent, as you could tell he was starting to tire, giving it his all and barely laying a hit back to me.  "That was almost fun, c'mon, don't give up!" I cheered on.

With memories of how Saint Michael and I became friends, or at least the start of it, it began with something out of context, began with an unexpected dialog. I think I was aiming for the same thing here; that I thought my way out would be to make something of a friend out of him instead.  He'd obviously be at my throat for the seat if this kept on. But if I could just get him to see something different, just change his mind a little bit, then maybe I could resolve my problems. This is the way things tended to go, I'd made friends out of my last ten or so combatants, it was my natural way of coping with things.

But my cheering was not appreciated. You could see a real change with his tactics, things got less sloppy, more precise, more powerful.  He pushed me back with the next strike, focusing my own wandering imagination back to the fight at hand.  My next strike was blocked, even countered, he swung that sword straight for my head as I had to lean away from getting hit. That took me off guard.  That was the type of precision and the type of move Michael made, that level of skill. Narrowing my eyes I hopped back , rolling the Colus in my hand and no longer kidding around.  It was very obvious that my relaxed nature, my happiness is what made him mad. Like he wanted me to be miserable.

Sneering, I charged for him, sword in hand. He brought his up to parry as my sword slid on top of it, shearing the air with an inch in-between as he missed the block.  I aimed for his shoulder, aimed to make a real hit. Powerless to stop it, finally getting a hit in, inches away from striking, the colus suddenly disappeared from my hand before it did any damage at all.  No! Thrown out of junction with the sudden loss of balance, I toppled for the ground, Perseus's strike coming around towards my head. No... no not again. Not here.  Wincing, closing my eyes, the sword sliced through my body,  from the side of my neck pretty much down to my belly button. It was a painful and heart stopping blow.

Just like that, I lost the fight.

No one said anything as I fell to my knees, dropping a whole bucket's worth of blood everywhere before face planting onto the ground painfully.  I hunched over, using my one good arm to keep my body slices together. I'd heal from this, it wouldn't even take terribly long to do so. But the main thing  I lost that day was my pride, and my confidence.  But it happened. Again. The colus flickered out of existence when i needed it, when I was using it.  This proved it wasn't just a fluke.

Sickly, wheezing, gasping for breath, I  vaguely realized the sword was still in my body, that Perseus had either left it there, or had dropped it as soon as he won the hit.  Rolling on my forehead, I peeked an eye out at him, a few steps away, hands up by his torso. I could see them shaking.   I flopped onto my side, looking up at him warily: these were not the actions of a war-torn veteran.

"I..." i gasped again, legs twitching a little, "I thought you were a soldier. "  Snarling in pain, I could feel the healing process starting to kick up, numbing the area enough as I relaxed.  Looking back, i tried to see through the holes in the mask, tried to just see...something.

"Haven't you ever spilled blood before?" I said weakly, tentatively letting go of the other half of my body to try and pull the sword out myself. My shoulder started to peel away painfully; I quickly grabbed hold again, belting out my orders, "Take...the sword out of my body. Please."     He kinda leaned forwards, jabbing his foot at the hilt of the blade and scooting it back. Doing so cut into my body more, ripping into my back as I screeched out in agony. The bloodied blade slid past my face, back to its owner.  

"You dick, don't do that!" I gasped, stubbornly trying to get my feet underneath me, trying to stand up.  I only managed to sit myself back down, hunched over, ashamed, looking away.  So how much ranting and gloating would I listen to for this one? How much hell would I catch for this little slip up, this mistake?  My eyes suddenly popped open wider, sitting up to look at the caverns around me, to look at how many demons saw me lose.

The entire place was... covered... in demons.  Floor to ceiling, and every single one of them was dead silent.  Perseus looked up with me,  keeping the sword by his side before that flat, snarling mask was pointed back at me.  Waiting for him to cue his assistant with some insults,  he only turned around, militantly walking away without a word to it.  I looked back to the assistant as he looked to his king, then to me, almost shrugging in confusion as the two of them left without another sentence spoken or word muttered.  Looking around, almost panicked i looked back to the demons, back to my estate, back to their victorious backs leaving us all in peace once more.

With my broken confidence and nearly healed body, I stood up, kept my mouth shut, and shamefully walked back inside.  It was an embarrassing, wretched little event, the insult to the injury.  Everything about that moment was confusion, everything was hard to hold together.

Walking past the barrier of the Moirae estate, something shoved me hard against the wall, angry.

'What the HELL happened?" Cempe screeched at me, pushing my shoulders against the wall as my errant hand accidentally smacked the already broken vase from a shelf.  I looked at her quickly, looked away, still in shock, still trying to piece it together.

"I... I lost" I said quietly as she shoved my shoulders hard against the wall again, trying to get my attention. I looked up to her shakily, confusion; her eyes spoke the same thing.  Fear.

"Not that, I was watching the fight, I saw that you were just about to cut that pain in the ass down" She frowned, panicked, looking me dead in the eyes, "You didn't drop the Colus on purpose, did you? What happened?"  Shaking my head back and forth, I looked away.

"Nona.... please tell me that's the first time that's happened."  She shook me again as I tried vainly to push her away. I didn't have the strength for anything right now.  "How many times has that happened? Have you lost the ability to control the Colus?"  Frightened, I stared back at her, on the verge of tears as my fears and frustrations rose to the surface too fast to control.  I wanted so badly to believe it was a one time event, that it was an accident. Shakily, i rose four fingers up as Cempe's head snapped to it quickly, frowning back to me.

"I don't know." I whispered, looking down at my own hands like that was news to me too.  Twitching, i looked back up at my sisters face, voice laden in worry and shame, " I... I think there's something wrong with me."  I spit out as her eyes widened, suddenly pulling me tight in a hug. I remained there, empty and confused.
Chapter 8: [link]

Chapter 10: [link]




Well. That sucks.

D'oh Perseus, you so mysterious.


Comments fuel chapters! The header this chapter is from a quickie rough. The all-red cherub plays a role far, far down the road, probably somewhere around chapter 20.
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Carter1215's avatar
Everything is falling apart in every way possible O_O