by George Fry
“We can only apologise…”
“Whatever, I’m no better… I fucked up too…”
“The problem is that we’ve been fighting alone.” Alexander interjected.
“But, what if the three of us teamed up? I mean, as long as Nahas is around, neither of our worlds will ever find peace. So, there’s no point in fighting each other.
How about it? Drifter, Locke? Wanna crush Nahas together?”
Locke nodded in agreement. “What about you Drifter?”
“Sure. Wandering around aimlessly was getting stale, anyway.”
The three formed an alliance, all fighting for a common goal: Defeat Nahas and save their worlds.
“We should probably return to the human world.” Locke suggested. “Nahas’ forces could still be causing chaos as we speak.”
Drifter’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh shit… I forgot about that...
Meh, I’m sure it won't be that hard to clean up.”
“What in the shitting hell is that unholy abomination.”
Upon his return to the human world, Drifter was greeted by a massive pulsating tumour, floating in the sky, vomiting lasers in all directions, tearing up the countryside as it ominously inched in the direction of the bridge to the mainland. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Shocked by his sudden appearance, Amanda marched over to the bemused vagabond.
“Drifter! It’s about time you got your sorry ass back here! Where the hell have you been!?”
“Demon World.” He answered, bluntly.
“Well, what took you so long!? And who are they!?”
She asked of the demons who followed Drifter from the portal.
“Oh…” Drifter introduced them by pointing to each one. “Pad, Locke, Alexander and the baby’s named Key.”
“Wha- Who are they!?”
“Friends.”
“Since when do you have friends!”
“About five minutes ago.”
“Do you have a fever? Are they brainwashing you? What happened in there?”
“Can we talk about this later? I think the giant pus ball spewing lasers everywhere is more important.”
“Drifter!” Called a voice, as a raggedy young man limped over.
“Holy shit, Dale.” Drifter chuckled at the sight of the boy’s charred rags. “What happened to you?”
“I was set on fire…”
“And you survived!?”
“I couldn’t do it, Drifter…”
“Do what?”
“Be a hero… I tried to spare them. There were hundreds of them. We all worked together to stop them. I even convinced them to leave when we had them beat, but instead of running away, they just found another victim to torture, and they were all slaughtered…
How can any creature be so cruel and stupid? Why couldn’t they just leave!?”
“The fact that you fought an army of monsters and lived is impressive enough. You gave them a chance and they fucked it up, don’t beat yourself up over it, unless you want to end up like me.”
“Wait… you’re not berating me? I didn’t know you were capable of empathising like a normal human being.”
“Yeah, okay cunt, don’t take the piss.”
“But… I couldn’t save Catherine either.”
Locke shoved Drifter aside. “What was that about Catherine!?”
“She went berserk. Lost control of her powers. She wiped out the entire army in a blind rage and then tried to kill us, too. We couldn't get through to her, we were forced to fight her and now… she’s closed herself off in that giant, flesh fortress.”
Locke fell to his knees in disgrace.
“Catherine… I had no idea she was struggling this much… I shouldn’t have left her here on her own! She wasn’t ready yet!”
“That flesh fortress is impenetrable.” Amanda explained. “It’s way too high up, even my weapons peter out before they can reach it and we’re all too worn out to try anything else.”
Drifter analysed the horrible monstrosity. Using his senses he could feel the power of each individual demon that was molded into crafting the unholy bulbous balloon. Hundreds of souls swarming together into a giant ball of destructive energy, more powerful than any individual demon Drifter had ever faced.
However, locked away, deep in the depths of the ball of scorn was a single tepid soul. It was separate from the amalgamation, an independent entity, unconsciously controlling the fortress from the inside.
It became obvious to Drifter that this soul was the core of the beast. The nucleus holding its dead cells together. The source of its power. If he wanted to bring down the sobbing cyst, he needed to remove that soul.
“If that thing reaches the mainland, it’ll be total chaos.” Amanda reasoned. “Catherine has to be stopped, no matter the cost.”
Drifter took a deep breath.
“Geez… can’t imagine what kind of shit you guys had to put up with while I was gone, and after all that work, this flying blood soaked turd was your reward? Must be annoying. Not sure whether you should scream, or cry, or give up and laugh…
I think you need a break, Let me finish this.”
“Wait!” Dale yelled. “You’re not going to kill her, are you!?”
“Nah… I’m going to save her.”
Bathed in a white aura, Drifter blasted off at incredible speed, leaving the others in the dust. All they could do was wait and hope Drifter knew what he was doing.
As he made his way out of the city, the flesh fortress, despite being far off in the distance still detected his presence as a face morphed onto its back, firing a massive red laser to try and keep Drifter at bay.
Of course, Drifter had plenty of time to dodge, ducking and weaving around the searing wave of heat. As he closed in, the fortress switched tactics as hundreds of tiny faces formed on its surface, heaving a hailstorm of small red energy bullets to smother the sprinting swordsman.
Unable to avoid all of the shots, Drifter took a gamble. He pulled out his sword and using his power, levitated it, slightly in front of him, in an upright position. Maintaining this state was tricky, but it was working surprisingly well for a trick he came up with on the fly.
Next he pulled down on the sword’s handle, spinning it like the wheel of a ship. It span at such speeds it turned into blurry shield, deflecting the blanket of bullets raining down on him, clearing a path forward.
The flesh fortress moved at a snail’s pace, allowing Drifter to take cover underneath the floating hellspawn at a casual walking speed.
“Right. Let’s pop this zit.”
Drifter tossed his sword straight into the center of the fortress’ surface. Upon contact, there was a massive flash of white light. The sword returned, leaving a large crater on the underside.
“Damn. Thought it’d blast a hole right through...”
The crater suddenly morphed into another wailing face and fired a red laser right on top of Drifter. However, the power of his burning aura alone, fought back against the pressure of the consuming energy.
“Not bad… but your beam’s like coal… it lacks density… let me show you what a diamond can do!”
Drifter pointed a single finger to the sky, gathering energy into the tip, until there was a small, crackling blue and white spark. Once ready, he fired the spark as it pushed back against the burning red plasma.
That single spark of light pushed back against the large laser and slowly drove it back toward the mouth, but the pained expression of the face suddenly intensified.
Its jaw dislocated, forcing it open wider as its eyes rolled back from the strain. The beam darkened, as it focused more of its energy on Drifter’s spark, growing denser.
“Oh shit.”
Expertly reading the situation, Drifter bailed. He ran out from under the fortress and took cover, as the beam forced the spark into the ground, obliterating the road beneath it.
“Guess my usual tricks won’t work against this fat fucking behemoth.�
��
Wasting no time, Drifter leapt on top of the fortress, stabbing his sword into the center. This time, instead of using a fraction of his power to throw his sword and detonate it to blow open a gaping gash, he instead directly pumped as much power as he needed to forcibly burst open the belly of the beast.
Unfortunately, he was given no time to charge up the power necessary when eight mysterious figures rose up from the liquefying flesh around him. The mounds of rippling skin cells solidified into grotesque, bleeding copies of Catherine. All of whom closed in to attack Drifter.
“Oh, fuck that’s gross…” He complained, disturbed by their likeness to the undead.
As the flesh clones lunged at him, Drifter was forced to defend himself, or risk being devoured, but this proved difficult once the flesh under his boots melted, holding his feet in place like quicksand. He had no choice but to pull out his sword and fight off the clones, while glued in place, completely at their mercy.
He slashed away, cutting off limbs and heads, splitting them in half and yet, it meant nothing as they were just constructs created from dead cells. They could not die and continued to resurrect indefinitely.
They relentlessly assaulted Drifter, much to his annoyance. Soon managing to get close enough to grab at his back and legs.
“I’m getting sick of your shit!”
They couldn’t penetrate his jacket, but they peeled at the skin on his legs.
“Will you fuck off!?”
Then they started biting and gnawing on his legs and shoulder.
“I said fuck OFF!”
Drifter suddenly exploded in a bright light that vaporised the flesh clones plaguing him and freeing him from the fortress’ grip. Clearly attacking from the top was far too much of a hassle.
As if reacting to Drifter’s sudden explosive power on instinct, the flesh fortress suddenly shot forward at insane speeds, throwing Drifter off its back and onto the hard tarmac below.
“What the hell was that!?”
Drifter looked up at the fortress and caught a glimpse of two faces spewing reds flames from the back of the fortress.
“Jets!? It has fucking jets!?
Goddammit! At that speed, Catherine will reach the mainland in just a few minutes! Fuck!”
Frustration clouded his mind, but he knew he didn’t have time to bitch and moan, he needed to act. He took a deep breath to calm himself.
“Don’t be afraid… You can’t afford to hold back, not this time. Don’t think about what might happen, just stop Catherine.”
His white aura flared up like white flames and with a massive boom, he rocketed down the road, leaving a streak of white fire in his wake.
As he gradually caught up, Drifter surveyed his surroundings, looking for any possible way he could reach higher ground. He knew where Catherine was inside the fortress, but in order to free her, he needed to come at her from the right angle, but with the exception of fragile trees, the countryside was flat and barren, with nothing to climb.
That was, until the suspension bridge came into view in the distance. The towers near the entrance, connected by the main cables provided the perfect height for what Drifter had planned.
He kicked into high gear and streaked past the jet propelled flesh fortress, beating it to the bridge. Drifter put on the brakes and slid across the road, stopping just shy of Richard and his car.
Richard just stood there, petrified by the ominous flying monstrosity barreling straight for him, but was thrilled to see Drifter had returned.
“Nice of you to show up at the last minute!” He yelled.
“Hey, ginger twat. “ He greeted, putting a hand on the officer’s shoulder. “Do me a favour, when this is over, could you come give me a lift?”
“What are you planning to do?”
“Booking a one way flight.”
Drifter ran up the bridge cable to the top of the support tower. He was perfectly lined up with the flesh fortress’ position. As the ball of dead cells drew near, Drifter gathered up as much power as he needed, his aura, shifting into a ball of white light around him that melted the steel he was perched on.
He needed to be careful, charging too much power at once could destroy the metal beneath him, he had to gather his strength at a moderate pace, but also needed enough to penetrate the flesh fortress’ defenses.
“Don’t be afraid… stay calm… stay in control… stay focused……….. NOW!”
The second he hit his limit, he launched himself at the fortress like a human missile. With sword in hand, he was ready to pierce through the thick wall of flesh as he soared at sound breaking speeds, but not without the fortress putting up a resistance.
A giant face morphed onto the front of the fortress. With an ear splitting scream, it fired one final laser to stop Drifter. A dark, dense, blood red beam that clashed with his sword.
Locked in a clash, Drifter and Catherine went all in on their final gambits to overpower the other. Drifter fueling his ballistic charge with CORE and Catherine desperately trying to push him back as stray plasma deflected off of Drifter’s sword ripping up the terrain around them.
“Incredible…” Drifter thought to himself.
“I can’t remember the last time I felt a rush like this. Catherine… you’re the first opponent to force me to play at my best. Fighting for the sole purpose of saving you, it’s like a part of my soul, I thought was dead, suddenly reawakened. I’ll have to thank you for that, later.
But, right now, I can’t let you win! This isn’t even close to reaching the sheer depths of CORE’s power! Hell, I even I don’t know how far this rabbit hole goes, but it’s about time I did some digging! It's time I lived up to CORE's reputation and showed you a power, that could only be described as: Legendary!!”
With a roaring battle cry, Drifter’s power skyrocketed. In a burst of blinding light, his body turned into a black blur within his raging, ivory flames.
Rather than push back against the scarlet energy, he drilled straight through it, carving the beam itself, completely bypassing the need to overpower it.
Within seconds, he blasted through the gaping maw of the fortress and burst out the other side, eviscerating the back side of the beast in a sea of flames and smoke, soaring over the horizon, leaving the empty shell of dead cells to crash into the side of the road. Engulfed in flames, the flesh fortress bled profusely, left to crash and burn in a field, near the bridge.
Richard crawled out from behind his car, sweating profusely.
“Fuck me, man… bastard nearly gave me a heart attack...”
Amanda looked up to the sky in disbelief. “The clouds are clearing up.”
“Are they okay?” Dale asked aloud.
“They’re just fine, kid.” Alexander answered.
“How can you tell?”
“I can sense it, look here they come now.”
They all looked to the sky, as a white streak flew overhead.
“Holy shit! He’s flying!”
The white streak, soared over the horizon, behind some buildings, followed by an earth shaking crash.
“I’d… say that was more… falling…” Amanda corrected.
In a football field, on the other side of the city, laid a massive strip of freshly ripped earth. Huddled in a pit of dirt and mud, created from the impact lay Drifter, clutching tightly onto the unconscious body of Catherine, whom he ripped right out of the core of her own flesh fortress.
Drifter pulled himself up, as he regained his senses.
“Fucking hell… women…”
After a few minutes, Catherine finally awoke from her slumber and pulled herself up. Upon seeing Drifter, she immediately went on the offensive, wildly pounding on his chest with her fists, but they did nothing. Her beastial, demonic fever had passed and she was far too drained to pose a threat… and she knew it.
“It’s over, Catherine… you can stop.” Drifter explained.
With a final limp punch, her head drooped down as the waterworks started
up again.
“Um, why are you crying?”
“Because… I’m a monster…”
“No you’re not, you’re a demon.”
“What’s the difference...?”
“Monsters don’t cry.”
She suddenly looked up at Drifter’s face.
“What...?”
“Monsters don’t feel remorse, or sadness, or regret. They only destroy.
Is that what you are?”
Catherine backed off, she wasn’t used to this side of Drifter.
“Here.” He took off his coat and held it out. “You look a little chilly, unless you really do have some sort of freaky exoskeleton.”
Her face turned red upon realising she was completely naked, grabbing his coat immediately.
She threw it over herself as the two sat on the benches at the side of the pitch.
“So… how are you feeling?” Drifter asked.
Catherine just stared into the distance.
“I don’t know…
I… killed so many of them, consumed by so many emotions. When I gave into my demonic side, I finally felt free… like I could do anything. No holding back, no pretending. I could finally be the demon I knew I’d always been. After that, I became a bloodthirsty knight who only cared about taking the life of their next victim.”
“Have you always felt like this?”
“Even when growing up at the orphanage, I always knew I was different from the other kids. The caretakers would always tell me not to be so mean and violent. To not bully the smaller kids just because I was stronger than them. It took a while, but eventually I learned to repress my urges and be nicer.
I think on some level, the caretakers knew I wasn’t human. The horn and tail never seemed to bother them though, they still treated me like any other kid, but I was never allowed to be adopted. They were terrified of what might happen. They didn’t want some asshole turning me into a media freakshow, or worse.
So, I stayed behind and watched as kids came and went, even friends. I was all alone, until Locke showed up. After spending years questioning myself, not understanding who, or what I was, thinking I was some kind of freak, Locke explained everything. I wasn’t a freak, I wasn’t human either. I was a demon and there were more out there.