"SHIT!"
Grey couldn’t pull his hand free and the rod was becoming heavier with every passing moment. Soon, it wouldn’t just "feel" like his hand was being crushed to dust, that really was what would happen.
He was getting the sinking feeling that the rod was infinite. It would grow as heavy as it needed to grow to crush its enemy or to keep itself safe from those that were unworthy of its charge.
And right now, it felt that Grey was very much unworthy.
"Well fuck you too," Grey said through gritted teeth.
At that moment, there was a pulse that came from Prometheus and soothing lines of red-gold began to pour into the rod.
Instantly, the heavy weight reduced by more than half.
Grey sensed a pulse come from the rod, but then Prometheus quickly responded with its own pulse. Soon, they were in a back and forth that almost sounded like...
Two bickering old friends?
The rod was telling Prometheus to piss off, and Prometheus was telling the rod to stop being so stubborn and to get its shit together. The rod was clearly having none of it, and Prometheus was getting more and more annoyed. At the same time, it was clear that Prometheus had the upper hand.
If Grey was correct, that wasn’t because Prometheus was innately stronger than the rod, but instead because Prometheus was in Phase III whereas Atlas didn’t have an owner to even allow it to enter Phase I anymore.
But was Atlas really a rod? And was the angel lady they just killed its previous owner? Or was it someone forcefully using Atlas? And if that was the case, why the hell was Atlas being so stubborn now.
They were all going to die at this rate.
Thi Lan and Amunet were dodging whipping black lines and calling out to him continuously. But the lines couldn’t even reach Grey because of the clash between Atlas and Prometheus.
The two were really butting heads like a pair of siblings. At this point the argument had gotten to Prometheus calling Atlas a selfish piece of shit, while Atlas was saying something about how not everybody was willing to pimp out their power to anyone with just the slightest little bit of talent.
"ENOUGH!" Grey shouted. He roared and he poured more of a powerful intent into Prometheus.
With Grey’s support, Atlas was completely shoved into a corner.
"Do this whole lover’s quarrel shtick another time, alright. Right now we have something else to deal with."
Grey leapt up, his wings flaming into butterfly patterns that arched through the skies.
He smashed down from above, piercing with The Virtueless until...
Chi.
He ripped right through the ball of chaos and slammed into the ground beneath it.
BOOM.
Grey blinked as the tentacles fell limply.
"... Well... that was easy." He laughed a bit.
It was about damn time he had some easy things in life. But then his stupid brain got in the way.
Grey furrowed his brows. If it was this easy, why didn’t that woman just do this?
The chaos ball beneath him trembled and Grey winced.
"Why’d I have to go and open my big, stupid mouth? Fuck me." Grey complained.
However, what he thought was going to happen didn’t. Rather than the ball of chaos rampaging, The Virtueless sucked it up clean. If it was at all possible, the rod became even darker than before.
From the start, it had already felt like it was black and death, not reflecting the slightest hint of light. In fact, it was so black the edges were almost too properly defined. It felt like something someone had drawn into the world rather than a real item.
Yet now it was even darker than before.
And heavier, for that matter.
Thi Lan and Amunet both sighed out breaths of relief.
—
VICTOR: Udon’s Daddy
—
Grey started laughing.
"What the hell is this? We helped too." Amunet grumbled.
"Did you? Or did you just stand there and look pretty? Oh, sorry, wobble there." Grey said, looking at her one leg.
Amunet’s eyes narrowed. "You really do have a death wish."
A portal appeared hovering over the fountain before Grey would reply. Somehow, even with all the wild destruction, it was perfectly fine.
However, when Grey’s attention was pulled over to it, he couldn’t help but focus on the water itself.
’That water...’
Grey looked around and didn’t see any other rewards, so he was suddenly sure. That water was the real reward.
Atlas shook with dissatisfaction.
"Hey, you didn’t even want me to take you. How about a little bit of self-awareness, hm?"
Atlas shook again, and then Prometheus shook, clearly in laughter.
Then the two began bickering again.
’Oh boy, this is going to become a common occurrence, isn’t it?’
Grey shook his head and looked at Thi Lan.
"Are you free of your contract burden now?" he asked.
Thi Lan smiled bitterly. "All of the Syrn and Dormaji I need to kill are dead, but there’s still one Volthari that isn’t. I still can’t leave."
Grey shook his head. He had been hoping that wasn’t the case, but it seemed that he was still unlucky. The second one should have been here already. Why hadn’t they come?
Was it a trick after all?
Grey took a breath. Well, there was still one other way to free her, and that was to clear the arc.
He was going to have to do that one way or another if he wanted to get to where the others were.
After a moment, Grey pulled out Ma Famille and tossed it over.
"Take a look at this and tell me what you think about it."
After he said this, he walked over to the fountain and took a deep look at the water. There was definitely something special about this water. Could he scan it like he could treasures?
’Only one way to find out...’
Just as Grey was going to, a voice echoed in his ears.
"What are you doing?"
He stiffened. He recognized that voice.
Wasn’t it the angel lady with the big tits? Wasn’t she dead?