by Andrew Jones
"Blaze... Before we go inside, I need to know that you're okay..." Kryptonite spoke, occasionally spitting out any sand that had flown into his mouth.
Blaze brushed her long hair to the side as it would blow into her face, she kept her eyes on the structure, only nodding her head. She took a step up on the stairs, then walked up them more quickly. Laying a hand on the front door, her hand formed into a soft fist as she pushed we way inside, seeing nothing but darkness.
Verse X
The Cult of the Human-Eater
The darkness failed to hypnotize them, as light rendered from some hanging torches throughout the opening room. It was big, but there appeared to have been some signs that someone used this place as a temporary shelter. There was a fire pit set up right in the middle of the floor, but as Kryptonite placed his paw next to the dark looking logs that were placed accordingly, it was still rather warm, like it was recently put out. Blaze watched, knowing of this knowledge as she continued to explore the opening room.
There were paintings on the wall. They were beautiful and well drawn. Like they were ancient drawing from the old world of Humans. Blaze thought that they might've been stolen and placed here, but then she questioned what this place was truly made to become before it was a Colosseum. After attempting to open some doors, they all seemed to be jammed and could not open, except this little door to the corner of the room which revealed a long hallway that had walls and flooring made out of stone. They proceeded with caution, seeing all the cracks on the stones, and the weird noises they heard as they stepped through the room. But Blaze made it to the door at the end and quickly opened it.
It was another big room, but it had a bunch of rows for seating. They walked between these rows, seeing skeletons sitting on the seats, or just a bunch of random bones laying around. Even stains of blood were spilled at random places, mostly on the floors. Kryptonite strolled back to the top of the row of benches, rushing up the high set of steps as he became freaked out of all the bloodshed. But a large supply of boxes quickly got his attention, baiting him into salvaging the boxes. He found a large assortment of goods, mostly ancient goods that he knew would earn him a bunch of cash. Blaze watched from below as his eyes formed into the image of gold bars, as he shoveled all the ancient goods into his pockets.
She shook his head regarding his sudden craving for treasure, immediately stopping as she noticed a skeleton sitting on a set of benches next to her. It looked like the chief leader she saw before entering this place, the leader of this mysterious cult.
"Know our pain, and you shall see." The skeleton spoke, with much vulgar in the tone of his voice.
Blaze looked at the skeleton, then glanced downward into this huge battlefield. It was empty, excluding the pool of sand that laid on the bottom. There were three entrances into the battlefield, all of which were gated by heavy looking bars. All she could see from the inside of them were pitch blackness, not that she really cared to look inside. But then three men appeared from an invisible void- all of which were armed with spears, swords, and a small mace. They had equipped minor weapons, but they had strong-looking armor. To Blaze, they looked like whelps, mere weaklings who had no desire to fight amongst the battlefield. They were visibly shaken, as they slashed their weapons in what appeared to be unpredicted ways. There was no target shown.
"What are they fighting?" Blaze asked as she watched the three men cowardly fight.
"Themselves." The skeleton speaks again as he watched, "They do not know how to deal with their mentality. Do you fight, or do you overcome it?"
Blaze looked down slightly to answer the question, "Wish I knew."
"Many of us who resided in this cult were ashamed to even be a part of it. They believed, but they knew it was wrong."
Blaze looked back at him, "What does this cult do? Does it have something to do with the Human-Eater?"
As Blaze asked, she looked back down into the battlefield. The three men who were fighting were laid on the ground, soaked in their own blood. Blaze didn't know what happened- whether they killed each other, or themselves. The sands under them began to move. Move in the same fashion as water, with the circling, soft waves within the water once one has made physical contact with the water. A loud robotic buzzing sound shook the whole building, so much that Kryptonite was snapped out of his craving for treasure. He jumped down from bench to bench, plopping down next to Blaze as he too looked down into the battlefield.
"Blaze, what's going on?" Kryptonite asked within his panicked tone of voice.
"They're summoning the Human-Eater." She answered.
As she spoke, a large tail peered its way from the sea of sands. The tail was so big that it hit against the ceiling of the whole building, cracking it and letting the ceiling fall downward into pieces. As the large fragments of the building's ceiling fell down onto the sands, it angered the beast, showing itself as it jumped out from the sands. It was a huge worm-like machine, with the head of it constantly changing its shape from a square, to a triangle, to a pentagon, to an octagon, and to multiple shapes. It changed faster, as the lines of the shapes it formed created a line that would intersect the other shape's lines. As the final shape took form, it shot a powerful light beam up toward Blaze and Kryptonite. Blaze gasped and pushed Kryptonite down. The beam hit the edge of the benches, letting the whole platform crumble and fall similar to the way the ceiling caved in.
Blaze screamed as she fell, but Kryptonite quickly pulled out his paraglider and grabbed onto her hand, allowing them to do drift safely onto the ground. Blaze landed face first into the sand, quickly standing up and pulled out her spear as the beast swarmed all around the battlefield.
"This sand is really starting to piss me off," Blaze grumbled as she ran toward the beast.
She quickly jumped and dealt a powerful swinging slash on the armor of the beast, only seeing the spear had done a light cut against the armor. She grunted as she stabbed her spear onto the beast's back and climbed on the back. She attempted to make her way to the head of the beast, but she had to constantly stop and hold on tight as the beast moved around to force her off. She kept stabbing her way up, ensuring that she'd be able to hold on. And by the time she finally got to the shape-shifting head, she stabbed her spear right into the head of the beast. The beast let out another loud buzzing sound, as it immediately fell down into the sands. Kryptonite took this chance to grab his blade saw and attack its head, same as what Blaze was doing, but as the beast regained its power, it set a lighting force field that electrocuted Blaze and sent her flying off the beast.
She fell back and hit the wall of the battlefield, next to one of the three entrances. She lifted her hand as she looked at it and saw that she suddenly didn't have enough strength to form a fist in her hands.
"Electric reaction has resulted in severe damage, BLAZE-0X119 must seek repairs immediately." Chip speaks.
"S-Shuddup..." Blaze muttered as she struggled to get up.
But as she stood up and held her hand onto her stomach, she felt more malfunctioning down in her stomach. She whined from the pain, but she kept dragging herself toward the beast and Kryptonite as they fought. She heard a voice, the vulgar voice from the chief leader of this mysterious cult. She turned toward the voice and saw a man. She knew it was the skeleton from before, but he took on his Human form this time. She noticed the big, open wound that was cut onto his stomach, and he was bleeding dramatically. But he had no reaction. It must've been the way he died.
"I admire your strength to go on. But at this point, you will not live through it." He spoke.
Blaze shook her head, "I-I have to. This machine might have the answer to what this damn network is... I can help make this world better, and repent for my own wrongdoings."
He chuckled as he stood upright and approached her. She lifted her head so she may look up at him. He looked into her eyes for a moment before dropping her head back down.
"You wanna know why I formed this cult? To destroy those who would suppor
t these machine assholes. Why would us, Humans, need help from machines who would probably die themselves by malfunction or simply from the rain? We created this Human-Eater to sacrifice those who believed to the Dragoona. They... Never showed themselves, but there are still some out there who believe. And in my death, I'll haunt every last one of them."
Blaze grunted as she struggled to keep herself up, "B-But..."
"And that is why I was so happy to have found you. I realized we cannot control this beast. My lust- or desire for vengeance only created a beast who would only assist in the Human genocide. I mean, my own creation itself even killed me? Funny, huh?" He laughed manically, "So after I've watched many Humans try to take down this beast, I sort of gave up on that. I needed something of its own kind. A machine... And you fit that bill up just right."
Blaze fell down to her knees as she stared down into the sands.
"That is why I've decided to give you a deal. See, I'll help give you power- in exchange, you defeat this big robotic son of a bitch. Not a bad deal on either end, aye?"
He acted before Blaze could work up enough of her lacking the energy to respond. He snapped his fingers and materialized all the skeletons from before. They circled her, and looked down at her, just watching her. She panted as she fell to the ground finally, shaking pretty bad. All the skeletons look up at their chief leader, as he nodded his head. The skeletons shatter into a white paste-like substance. The substance entwined with all the other substances from the other skeletons and crawled toward Blaze. Her eyes were closed, but they slowly opened as she had a negative feeling, feeling the big substance crawl into her mouth and down her throat. She grunted weakly as she felt the substance stop moving just as it hit her chest, where her heart was.
She slowly formed a fist, as the color of her skin regained its color. She took a deep breath and blinked her eyes, just as she was able to get up on her feet. She glanced toward the way he was standing, but he disappeared.
"Blaze! ... This is not a good time to be hallucinating again!" Kryptonite shouted as he held onto the back of the beast's back.
She frowned, pulling out her battle axe from behind and dashed toward the beast. She jumped high, higher than she did last time. She floated for a moment, and as the beast's head flew up in front of her, she slashed the blade of the battle axe right into its face. She listened to the beast's loud buzzing sound, knowing how much damage she dealt as she watched it fall to the ground against. She threw her battle axe down, as she herself began to fall. The battle axe landed right into the face of the beast, and she landed right at the top of the battle axe, kicking the blade deeper inside.
She jumped backward, away from the beast as she felt a weird sensation from her chest. She saw spots of light surround the beast, just as they did with her. But they quickly turned back and looked at the chief leader of the cult. They pulled out their weapons and pointed it at him. The chief leader screamed as his Human form showed cuts, slashes, and stabbings, just as all the skeletons screamed with a strikingly high tone. He fell to the ground as he coughed up blood, dying right there as the skeletons slowly move their heads to Blaze.
"Thank you. We were ashamed of being in this cult. But we had made a pact, and we could not escape unless the leader who drank our blood died." One skeleton spoke.
Blaze frowned as she lent one of her hands on her hip, watching them, "How do you die twice? That was his spirit, right?"
All the skeletons shook their heads, "No. He had the power to manipulate black magic. Which meant that he used the power of Kurutta Sekia to manipulate this corrupted world and curse our souls."
"Wow," Blaze muttered, sounding a bit uninterested.
"You destroyed the Human-Eater. You did something no one could, and it was responsible for that graveyard we had met at... Do what you must with this machine being."
The skeletons all formed back into the balls of light. But instead of going into Blaze, they flew up toward the open roof of the building, right into the sky. She watched for a few moments, smiling as the sky had lit up in an unusual way. Brighter than she had ever seen it. But she heard Kryptonite call out to her. He had his paw raised as he opened his way into the machine. She walked to him, crossing her hands as she watched.
"Find any treasure in there?" She asked sarcastically.
He spoke as he ventured inside the machine, "N-No... But there is a sign that this machine has a strong link to the Armagna Network."
"Are you sure? This machine has to be roughly a hundred years old. Was the Network around that long?"
Kryptonite peeked his head out of the hole he made within the machine, popping himself out of the hole and falling to the ground softly. He stood up and rubbed his head, looking like he struggled to venture inside. But he had another flash drive in his paw.
"Expect the unexpected, Blaze. Remember that." He answered as he put the flash drive in his pocket. "Anyway... What was going on with you? That sudden burst of power was amazing!"
Blaze chuckled as she rubbed the back of her neck, too nervous to reveal what she experienced.
"N-Nothing..." She answered.
"Are you sure?"
"I said it was nothing, bear." She shouted at him, before sighing and rubbing her head. "I think it was just some hallucinations... I need to rest."
Kryptonite nodded his head as he smiled, "Well, I'm glad you're all right, Lady Blaze. Let's return to Amaya's Village and have you checked out at that hospital building again."
He said as he pulled out another carriage from his pocket, followed by his motorcycle. Blaze watched as he set it together, grumbling after he had pinched his paw as he was trying to attach the carriage to his motorcycle.
Blaze sighed, "You're gonna be gentle, right?"
Kryptonite pounded his chest and gave a confident look, "Only for you, Lady Blaze."
Blaze shook her head as she regrettably boarded onto the carriage and watched as Kryptonite blasted off with speed, carrying her over the walls of the battlefield, up the stairs of benches, and crashing through the inside of the Colosseum. Blaze screamed and held onto the edge of the carriage as he crashed through the doors of the Colosseum, riding away on the sands and going forth into the Land of Ruin.
Verse XI
Pulchregeist
It grew to be night time, so Blaze and Kryptonite decided to stay at one of the abandoned huts that were just outside the gates of the Ancient Desert. Blaze still felt light-headed, and the crazy driving skills Kryptonite had didn't help her my all means. He made a complete stop and opened up the special wheelchair access point in the back, helping Blaze down the ramp and sat her down beside a big rock. She leant over and watched Kryptonite as he picked up his motorcycle and carriage, and slid them into his pocket.
"Kryptonite," Blaze muttered to him.
Kryptonite glanced at her, "Yeah?"
"I never asked you how you could fit crap like that into your pocket... Is it because you're a machine?"
He shook his head, "I was one of the first of the teddy bear to have been made. I don't really understand, but I've been able to do it since I opened my eyes... Or button eyes, I suppose."
Blaze stayed quiet as she watched Kryptonite pull out dozens of materials from his pocket- like a few long blankets, some food that was hidden away in a foam container, and a lantern, along with some necessary things to light up the lantern like oil and matches.
"Hey, how about you go look for a good enough hut for us to stay at," Kryptonite asked as he pulled out some wood and prepared to make a campfire.
"A good hut, right..." Blaze grunted as she stood herself up.
Blaze looked around and saw some beat up huts; the windows were broken into, the doors looked like someone had forced themselves through. It was almost like this area experienced its share of scavenging. She knew of the history of violence against the most recent era the Humans had to go through, the one after the Dark One assumingly spread disease and corruption across the land. It was like an apocalypse, or just
their own doomsday they brought to themselves when they overreacted over a slight rumor. It was a shame. Most machines and creatures Blaze had come into contact with as she lived on her own in the wilderness seemed like they'd treasure the life of a Human- at least before all this happened. But nowadays, everyone should be afraid of everyone. Whether you were a Human, machine, or just some sort of animal creature.
She didn't like to think about what would lie in the wilderness. She was often too afraid of what would lie in the darkness, but she'd mostly be afraid of herself when she was exposed in the darkness. The darkness has a way of making you think. It can make you nervous, or paranoid, and instantly make you fear for your life for absolutely nothing. Blaze was strong, and she'd pursue just about anything, no matter how risky it was. Maybe it was all just in her head.
She stepped to a random hut and pushed open the door. She frowned but gagged in disgust as she saw a Human man butchered on the ground. His body parts were thrown all across the room, and there was a message written in his blood on the wall, 'CuRSe ThiS DamNED WORld, JusT KiLL mE AlreADy'. It was really just a bunch of scribbles, but Blaze had seen a pattern with the scribbling. She shook her head as she shut the door and turned away from that hut.
"Hard to imagine people would take their own lives just to get off this world..." She whispered as she approached the hut across from that one.
She pushed open the door and looked inside and saw that this hut had been raided. The furniture that had filled this room still resembled their shapes- a black line on the wall would resemble the shape of a bed. Another a sofa and others would be some tables. It looked normal enough. But Blaze saw a white dress thrown on the floor. She bent down to pick it up and noticed it had a red handprint on it. Convinced that it was blood, she tossed the white dress on the floor, but she noticed a folded up page that was hidden under the dress. She picked it up and unfolded it. She quickly read it, and it had awful handwriting she had ever seen, but she could still grasp the message on it, 'We have your little girl. She said she ran away from you all because you treated her like shit. So we're taking care of her, she'll be a nice feast for us!'. She sighed and tossed the page on the white dress, just as she looked at the window, which was opened.