Giyoto held his sword forward, its long blade chipped at several locations. It was soaked through with violet blood, but as much of it poured off its edges, more of Giyoto’s blood was pouring from his own body.
His facial features could hardly be seen beneath the curtain of crimson. His once pristine robes were in tatters, his greying hair completely obscured by the organic matting taking place atop his head.
Everything felt so heavy, so terrible.
He was so close to his goals, but if this creature leveled the city, the catacombs would collapse under its weight. The gnomes would be crushed, their forges ruined, and everything would be over.
He had to stand here. He had to cut down this behemoth of a creature.
SKKKKRRREEEEEEEEE!
A tentacle that blotted out the sun appeared high above Giyoto. He looked up and his heart sank to rock bottom. He tried to raise his sword, but his arms just felt so heavy. Everything was so heavy... even his eyelids.
They just wanted to close, to rest...
"So, hey. You plan on moving? ’Cause if that lands, you’re pretty cooked."
A figure appeared to Giyoto’s side and his eyes slowly widened.
That voice... where did he recognize it from?
A hand landed on Giyoto’s shoulder and yanked him out of the way. In a puff of shadows, they appeared on the rubble that was the city wall and Giyoto stumbled back, falling back on his ass.
The old baron huffed for breath, huffing and puffing. His entire body started to cramp up. Nothing was listening to him properly anymore. No matter how much he willed it, his arms just couldn’t raise his sword anymore.
"Grey... Temolt...?" Giyoto struggled to look up.
"Hey, old man. Fancy meeting you here. You look like you’re in a bit of trouble."
Giyoto was too tired to keep up with Grey’s jokes.
SKKKKRRREEEEEEEEEE!
Grey cringed, looking up at the huge octopus. Its skin was glowing a fluorescent violet; the thing looked radioactive, to be honest. But the worst part was that it was in the Dominion Class.
It was just his luck that this son of a bitch would appear here. Was this because of Muse Incorporated?
"Where is the Mech Soul?" Grey asked.
Giyoto’s eyes sharpened with what little energy he had left. Did Grey want to take it? Even if he had nothing left to give, he would pour his everything into making sure he could stop him from doing that.
"You’re a fucking idiot, old man," Grey said. "You’re going to use the Mech Soul wrong. It’s not meant to attach to the armor, it’s meant to attach to the catacombs themselves. The Mech Soul will revive the underground formation that protects the entire nation."
Giyoto’s eyes opened wide. "What... How...?"
He stared out into the distance in a daze. Grey hadn’t explained much, but somehow Giyoto knew he was right.
"Why are you looking like that? Please don’t tell me you already used it on your stupid armor."
Grey had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. If the Mech Soul was used, they were screwed. Even with his talent, he’d have to be a thousand times more powerful to fix the formation without the Mech Soul.
And even if he was strong enough, it would take him years. No, that didn’t even do the time it would take justice.
It took days at basically warp speed to get from city to city in this place. If he had to physically be at every location and travel across the catacombs, looking for failure points and fixing them one by one...
He could use up his entire lifetime and still not be fast enough.
"We are finished..." Giyoto said in a voice so soft Grey could barely make it out.
"Oh fuck me, please don’t tell me..."
"... If the Mech Soul is meant to be used in that way, then the only place it can be activated is the Holy Empire Capital City."
"Yeah, I know that already," Grey said.
"You don’t understand," Giyoto licked his cracked lips. "In that city, the Empress can kill even a God. No, not just can... she has. She has killed Gods in that city.
"If what you say is true, we do not stand a chance. It’s over... it’s all—"
Grey slapped the old man across the face, sending his brain ringing around his skull.
"Tighten up, old man, and I’m not talking about your pussy. Get your shit together. One problem at a time. I’ll shove my rod up that bitch’s ass soon enough, just go and make sure the gnomes don’t use the Mech Soul on the armor."
"I..." Giyoto’s eyes slowly regained some clarity. "—the beast, what about it? It is too powerful, I cannot defeat it. If not for the city’s help and the other Holy Knights in formation distracting it, I would have died a long time ago."
"Just leave that to me. I heard sashimi is fire, there just weren’t any Japanese restaurants where I lived. No time like the present," Grey said with a grin.
Giyoto wanted to stop Grey. What the latter was saying didn’t even make any sense. Just two or three weeks ago the young man was fighting with his life on the line against a Vector Class ant like Terran. How was he going to—
BOOM.
Grey launched himself into the air, butterfly wings spreading across his back until he was high in the skies.
At that moment, he seemed brighter than even the sun.
All of a sudden, the octopus’ head turned toward Grey. Then, in real time, its fluorescent violet skin became an inky black. A fog ejected out of the bottom of its body, a deluge of black ink as thick as oil and as tall as a tsunami’s waves crashing forward.
"GREY TEMOLT! I WILL RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!"
Grey blinked. "... Did we have a one night stand or something? I’ve stuck my dick in crazy before, but never this crazy."
How could Grey know who Caldrin was?