“Chaos… Time!”
“What–!
Shit–! Chaos Armor!” Kievkenalis
quickly called, bracing himself for an inevitable follow-up to the Drakkar’s
attack. Not even half a second later he was suddenly blown back by a massive
force, knocking him into the wall. He slowly slid down it, disoriented, until
he shook his head and jumped back to his feet, quickly surveying his
surroundings until laying his eyes on Christeané, who stood still as a statue,
still holding his battlehammers defensively.
…Time really did freeze… the Chaostechnic
scowled, I should have known Surdeus
wasn’t just boasting when he claimed to be a Chaos Conduit… wait a minute, if
Christeané’s frozen, then why aren’t I–?
His
thoughts were interrupted as he suffered another blow, this time from the side.
Sent tumbling violently, Kievkenalis was unable to prevent himself from
smashing into a pile of debris, protected only by the shroud of Chaos Energy
Armor surrounding his body.
“SoyousomehowresistedtheeffectsofTimehmmboy?”
Kievkenalis
glanced up at Surdeus uneasily. The Drakkar’s words seemed to run together, as
if he were speaking so quickly that the spaces and pauses were simply omitted.
He then quickly approached Kievkenalis, though his motions didn’t look like a
full-out run – they merely appeared to be a leisurely walk.
That’s it… somehow, I’m experiencing a
slower rate of time flow than Surdeus?
“Ohhowthetideshaveturnedhmm?”
the Drakkar taunted, reaching through Kievkenalis’s Energy Armor and grabbing
the underlying physical armor, hoisting him into the air. “Youthoughtyoucouldscareme?Youthoughtyoucouldgoadmeintoleavingyoualonebytauntingme?Howridiculouslynaive!”
“Ngh…”Surdeus’s
words were difficult to make out for Kievkenalis, but he was nonetheless able
to tell that the Drakkar was gloating. Need…
to stop him… “Chaos Neg-agh–!”
Kievkenalis
was suddenly slammed into the ground, shocking him into silence. Surdeus then
stooped down to glare at the Chaostechnic, his eyes glinting. “Youcannotcontroltime.ThatabilitybelongstoChaosConduitsalone!Itbelongstomealone!ThefactthatyoucanstillmoveableitslowerisindeedimpressivebutIamsureitissimplyprotectionontheAyas’sbehalf.Allowmetotakeitoffofyou!”
“Wha–!
No–!” Kievkenalis scowled as Surdeus grasped the Ayas Arcán and yanked it out
of his hands faster than he could react. The Chaostechnic quickly jumped back
to his feet and stumbled away from Surdeus, keen to put some distance between
himself and the Drakkar.
“Youcanstillmove,”
Surdeus’s eyes narrowed, “SoitisnotprotectionbytheAyas?Perhapsthereistrulyuntappedpotentialinyouyet.Itissuchashamethatyouwillneverlivetoseeit!”
“Chaos Def-uagh!” Kievkenalis attempted
to call out, but was cut short as Surdeus bicycle-kicked him, knocking him back
and into the air. The Drakkar then jumped after him, raising both of his arms
such that his elbow spikes pointed downward and then jammed them into
Kievkenalis, piercing and dispersing the Chaos Energy shroud and shutting down
the shielding of the underlying Chaos Armor while simultaneously slamming the
Chaostechnic back into a debris pile. Kievkenalis slowly and painfully began to
dig himself out of the debris as Surdeus landed on the ground a couple meters
from the pile, his arms crossed and chin raised in arrogance.
“Ihopeyouseethatvictoryisfutile!Whentimeisasimabalancedasitisevenmynormalmotionsseemtocarrymoreforcetoyousimplybecausetheyappeartohavemoremomentum!Youcannothopeto…”
Damn it… Kievkenalis grimaced, pain
shooting through his entire body, He’s
too fast, I need to get away from him somehow so I can use Negation… but the
moment I try to call an attack, he’s on top of me! He glanced up at the
Drakkar, who continued to monologue but appeared to be wrapping up. He’s not even using any Chaos Attacks or
trying to steal my Ciei, so he’s still
toying with me! I need to wrap this up before he gets bored, but… damn it, what
to do, what to do…
“…soIshallnowshowyouthefutilityofvictoryagainsttheDrakkars!”
Surdeus shouted, crouching and then lunging forward, both palms outstretched.
Realizing that the Drakkar now seemed more serious than he had before,
Kievkenalis quickly spun out of the way, managing to evade having Surdeus’s
palms come into contact with his chest. He sprinted away, turning on his heel
after a couple seconds just in time to see Surdeus coming and duck as the
Drakkar leaped over his head. This is
it–! “Chaos Neg–!”
But
Surdeus proved more nimble than Kievkenalis expected as the Drakkar slammed his
left knee into the Chaostechnic from midair, knocking Kievkenalis flat and
interrupting his Chaos Attack call. Surdeus landed on the ground some distance
away and immediately spun around, lunging for the Chaostechnic as he attempted
to pick himself up. Seeing the Drakkar coming, Kievkenalis quickly threw
himself to the side, evading Surdeus by a hair as he rolled back to his feet
and stumbled backwards, unable to catch himself before he fell over on his
bottom. Surdeus snapped his head toward the Chaostechnic and lunged for him
again, but Kievkenalis managed to knock the Drakkar’s palms away with his own
before being blown backwards by a powerful kick. As he tumbled along the
ground, he managed to utter, “Chaos…!”
Surdeus
was instantly upon him, backhanding the Chaostechnic and sending him flying
into the far wall. The Drakkar then dashed toward the Chaostechnic before
thrusting his right knee forward, the knee-spike extended menacingly.
Kievkenalis barely managed to dodge, leaving Surdeus to embed his knee in the
wall and spend a second to remove it, a second which Kievkenalis quickly took
advantage of by shouting, “BLAST!”
A
massive dome of energy exploded from the Chaostechnic’s body, engulfing much of
the room and creating yet another crater. Kievkenalis quickly began climbing
the crater up to the lip, not even bothering to search for Surdeus or spend
time thinking about the new Chaostechnic type he had just unlocked as he
finally muttered, “Chaos Negation!”
With
all of the Chaos Energy in the vicinity negated, the flow of time returned to
normal, and much of the room spontaneously began to collapse under the stress
it had suffered during the period that time had been frozen. Christeané, who
was standing mere meters from the lip of the crater Kievkenalis created,
suddenly began looking around, utterly confused.
“What the
fuck happened?!” he brandished his battlehammers apprehensively, glancing down
at Kievkenalis as the Chaostechnic threw himself up onto the crater’s lip and
then collapsed, breathing heavily.
“Ahahahaha!”
Surdeus chuckled, jumping out of the crater to Kievkenalis’s left before
turning to face the Chaostechnic. “You do not cease to amaze me! I did not expect you
to take advantage of the mid-call pause in such a way. Blast is an excellent
move to use for that as well, as it is a short, sweet word… much like the
destruction it can bring! Obliteration within a second! And then you took
advantage of the lull to negate all Chaos
Energy
in the area and return time to normal, a feat only Sabotage types can achieve,
aside from Chaos
Conduits… Bravo, I must say. Bravo! Your performance deserves nothing short of
praise!” The Drakkar moved to place his left hand on his hip as he
nonchalantly tossed the Ayas up and down in his right. “You are certainly an
interesting specimen… you are clearly not a Chaos Conduit, given your reaction to Time, and yet –
you possess the ability to use multiple types of abilities, at least four, by
my count. That’s more than I have ever seen… truly interesting.”
“See?
You can’t beat us that easily after all,” Kievkenalis smirked painfully as he
pulled himself back onto his legs, “Even after all that showboating, I still
stopped you!”
“You
really need to stop pointing these things out…” Christeané scowled.
“Stopped me? Ha! Stopped me from what? Do tell!” Surdeus scoffed,
“Stopped
me from stealing your Ciei, perhaps. But I have taken the Ayas from you, and
with it, your ability to act in a field of negated Chaos Energy.”
“…Oh.
R-right…” Kievkenalis muttered uneasily.
“Your use
of Negation indeed returned time to normal, but it also removed your ability to
retaliate to anything I may now throw at you! By your own hands, you have been
served defeat!”
“Kevken,
what’s he talking about…?” Christeané questioned warily, “How’d he get the
Ayas?”
“He’s
backed us into a corner,” Kievkenalis scowled, but moments later his scowl
slowly transformed into a knowing smirk. “But it’s not over yet!”
“You
still intend to fight, even whilst standing in a vacuum of Chaos Energy?” Surdeus shook
his head in disbelief, “I doubt I will ever truly understand you Aldredanoids…
but, so be it. If you cannot accept your defeat on your own, then allow me to
force it on you! Chaos! BLA-guagh!!”
Davídrius
suddenly blasted onto the scene, plowing into Surdeus foot-first and sending
the Drakkar tumbling along the ground. He drew two of his blades – the whole
set had been repaired by Kaoné – and brandished them defensively as Kaoné and
Rebehka rushed over to tend to Kievkenalis and Christeané. Kevérin and Siyuakén
approached Surdeus on either side of Davídrius, but didn’t step any closer than
the Introtechnic.
“That’s
for making me go berserk again, asshole,” Davídrius growled.
“…Well,”
Surdeus muttered, “…Again, I find myself surprised by your actions. This is
becoming a most annoying trend.”
“It’s
your fault, really,” Kievkenalis smirked as he bent over to pick up the Ayas
that Surdeus had dropped due to suffering the blow from Davídrius, “I knew you
liked to gloat, so when I used Negation I knew that you’d spend all of the time
that Chaos Energy was actually
negated holding it over my head. Goading you on is easy, too, and with the Ayas
present, I didn’t have to wait as long for the Energy to return… not to mention
the added bonus of probably helping out the berserk situation.”
“It
really did, actually,” Rebehka replied.
“Anyway,
we have the Ayas now,” Kievkenalis remarked, “We know your tricks. You can’t
win again.”
“No, he
cannot… but for the same reasons, neither will you.”
“Exdominor…”
Surdeus turned to glare at the other faction leader as he jumped down from one
of the many holes in the roof, coming to stand nearly thirty meters away from
both Hero Machina and Surdeus. “Come to witness my pending victory, have you?”
“On the
contrary, your penchant for gloating always has a way of ruining your
victories, Surdeus… yet I never imagined that the trait was contagious,”
Exdominor stared down the Sursum faction leader, and then turned his haughty
gaze toward Hero Machina. “You were rightly contrite and fearful when facing
me, yet, here you are, exchanging meaningless words and taunts with this child
of a leader.”
“Child? Only as compared to your great
age, Exdominor. Your senility is most amusing.”
“You
cannot bluff me, Surdeus. We are of the same age: ageless. Our minds cannot
decay just as our bodies cannot die. Perhaps your incompetence has transcended
these facts and led you to senility anyway, hmm? Were you not in the middle of
something before allowing yourself to be distracted?”
“Wiping out
these pesky Aldredanoids shall be a simple task. I have been amusing myself by
observing them, but I assure you, they present me no threat.”
“Do not
overestimate yourself. They may be incapable of killing you but they are surely capable of dealing you lasting
damage. Do not make a fool of yourself, and I too, by extension. This… partnership is by no means long-term. Or
has your senility claimed that fact as well?”
“Some
pair they are,” Davídrius snorted, watching the two Drakkars exchange words.
“Two faction
leaders, though…” Kevérin scowled, “We have a hard enough time against either
on their own – we can’t take them both on. We need to run.”
“I
think that’s what we should have done in the first place,” Siyuakén retorted, turning to Kaoné, “Make us an
exit, quick-agh!”
“Siyuakén–!?”
Rebehka exclaimed, running over to her friend who had just doubled over,
clutching her head in pain. “What happened–?”
The
Cryotechnic was interrupted by the sound of a metallic clang as a
football-sized chunk of metal fell down from the ceiling, drawing the attention
of everyone present. It sat still for a moment before slowly uncurling and
twittering, turning its bug-like appendages toward Siyuakén.
“A metal…
bug…?” Surdeus muttered, and then froze as the entire room filled with
the sounds of metallic twittering and mechanical whirring. “Is this–!?”
“…It’s
the metallic bugs!” Kevérin scowled as every hole in the roof was quickly lined
by the offending objects. Several even began falling into the craters
haphazardly. “Shit, the metallic infection was here? On Maasen?!”
“We’ve
spent enough time here!” Davídrius
shouted, “It’s time to leave–!”
His
exclamation was cut short as the room suddenly transformed from its wrecked
state back to its initial, clean form, though with a distinct silver sheen that
was not present before. The transformation was immediately followed by
something slamming into the ground from above, impacting with enough force to
knock back Hero Machina and the Drakkars – yet leaving no sign of its entrance
on the floor.
“What…
who…?” Kievkenalis muttered, squinting at the object that had just appeared.
After a moment of stalling it slowly rose to its feet, revealing its distinctly
Aldredanoid appearance. In fact, it looked remarkably similar to the average
Nimalian – plain black hair, plain tan face, plain body stature, but wearing an
odd maroon coat that draped down to his legs.
“Heh heh heh…” the figure chuckled after slowly sweeping
his gaze across the room, “I suppose
I shouldn’t be surprised. Drakkars fighting Aldredanoids… I see nothing has changed.”
“You–!”
Surdeus growled.
“Oh yes, I certainly remember you, Surdeus,”
the figure snorted, turning his head toward the Drakkars, “You and Exdominor both. Ha! I’ve watched
the two of you trounce about this planet as if you owned the place, fighting
the Aldredanoids as though you had already defeated them. What a farce! Your
claims are laughable, your actions even more so. Rulers of all? Masters of
Chaos Energy? Owners of the Chaos Ayas?
All nonsense! Were any of those statements true, would you not already control the galaxy? Yet, you do
not! In all these millennia that I have been gone you have achieved nothing, apart from wallowing in dull
inactivity and festering in your own incompetence. This recent attack is
nothing more than a façade,
an attempt at showing the galaxy that you are not as irrelevant as perceived!”
“Shit,
I can’t contact the Genesis… Kaoné!”
Kevérin hissed, glancing at the Materiatechnic while the figure addressed the
Drakkars, “Quick, get us out of here!”
“I… I
can’t! I can’t– I can’t transform the walls… eep!” She suddenly yelped as the
figure in the maroon coat turned to glare at Hero Machina menacingly.
“And here we have some Aldredanoids,”
he sneered, “I don’t even know why
I’m bothering to address you. The Drakkars may be mistaken and blind, but at
least they possess power. What of you? You have nothing! Nothing at all! My revenge, sweet though it may be, will
end up being woefully short-lived…”
“Who…”
Kevérin muttered apprehensively, “…who are you?”
“…I’m not surprised that you don’t know who I am, cursed
descendants of the Aldredas. Only the Drakkars are ‘immortal’, after all,”
the figure snorted, “I am none other
than the leader of that which you amusingly
refer to as the ‘metallic infection’.”
“Wha…
what?!”
“I am Morcii!” he grinned as he
spread his arms wide, gesturing at the enormous numbers of metallic bugs
twittering around him. “ Leader of
the Nanocreatures and harbinger of Ikirom, the Supreme Commander of the
Morikai, those who the Aldredas unjustly sealed away from this realm of
existence! Today marks the beginning of the galaxy’s ultimate fate – the doom of all! For I will
claim every last Chaos Ayas, and I will
free the Morikai from their prison! And no
one in this galaxy, or any galaxy… can hope to stop me!”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 48 ====================
* * * * *
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