Ghost London's last nightmare 1

At astonishing speed, Tyler ran right at the spot where John's grenade had exploded earlier, cleaning up the abomination in there. Even more of the horrifying creatures tried to throw themselves at him, only for him to swiftly sneak between them. Successfully reaching the next floor of New Big Ben, Tyler's mind was racing as fast if not faster than his legs:

'Ok, even if New London has been built based on the original London, they definitely built some parts of it differently to accomodate the tourism. Meaning there should be more accesses spreaded across the clock tower. Now, everything depends of if those passages are like the Fefnir tech walls of the Party Hall or if they're regular ones'

If it was the first case, they would've likely been rendered useless by the mist, but if it was the second, it would likely help him to arrive to the top of the clock tower, where the heart of the hivemind was situated.

Or at least, that was what Mavarel, or what was left of him, would think he thought. In truth, Tyler had perfectly understood that, even if there indeed were accesses sill intact, those thirty years were more than enough for Mavarel to destroy or block them, or even to create traps around them.

It didn't matter anyway, Tyler had already found a much more direct way to the top of New Big Ben. But for now, he had to act as if he was playing by Mavarel's rules, otherwise the latter would realize something was wrong and the risk of failure would get higher.

Tyler winded through the abominations once again, directed where he estimated it more probable that an access was. Indeed, he ended up... facing a Fefnir tech imbued wall. Except that now, with the constant exposure to the mist, it had become a regular wall.

'Tssk, as expected' Tyler thought, not surprised in the slightest even though it still pissed him off a bit.

He kept his act on, seeking other accesses to the top of the clock tower. For the second time, he managed to arrive to a second Fefnir tech wall... disabled too, of course. This time however, he wasn't able to turn back to continue searching so easily, as the undead puppets had managed to surround him, and were now all throwing themselves at him with their disarticulated limbs held toward him like claws, waiting the first opportunity they would get to rip off his hermetic suit and turn him into one of them.

'Bet'

He easily catchd the arm of the first puppet that arrived on him, and spun on himself, swinging the creature at the rest, creating an empty zone around him and giving him the one second he needed to reposition himself. He used this occasion to take out his impulsion gun and shoot the puppet in front of him. The shot wasn't enough to send the creature back to the dead, but it was strong enough to incapacitate it.

Tyler used this occasion to push the creature back with a powerful kick, and as the puppets behind were swept away along it, Tyler used the occasion to jump above their heads, swiftly getting past the abominations. However, at this speed, the landing was a lot rougher than what he thought, and he ended up rolling on the floor on a few meters. He barely managed to get up in time and jump forward to dodge multiple abominations that were falling from the ceiling, twisting their necks in a disturbing way.

'Ok, I'd better work on my landing...' Tyler thought to himself.

'You mean if you manage to survive this? 'Cause if you do, I'd advise you to try your luck at lottery instead' a voice in his head said.

Tyler furrowed his brows: was this damn voice going to bother him each time he used his Blessing?

Well, it sure was annoying, but at least he didn't turn crazy... not yet...

Getting back to the situation, Tyler went back to seeking a new access. Eventually, after making his way through more puppets, he was starting to get tired. But as his patience was starting to fade away, he finally found the one thing he was seeking: an entry leading to the next floor of the clock tower, that wasn't a Fefnir tech wall and wasn't blocked with too much care.

'Yeah, that's definitely a trap' he thought.

The only things that blocked the way were a few wooden planks put on it. In thirty years and with a dozen thousand puppets working together perfectly, Mavarel had only managed to do this much? To Tyler, the bait was so obvious that he almost felt insulted: who dared to try such an obvious trap on the drunk king of cunningness, the great Tyler Rochemord?

'And yet, you're still jumping head first in it. Doesn't that make you even more stupid than the people who don't see the trap?' the voice in his head joked.

Tyler let out an audible 'tssk', but still threw himself forward, shoulder first, with just enough strength to destroy the planks, so as to stop his course. Without even waiting to see what was hidden behind the planks, he took out his impulsion gun and jumped back at the same time as he fired multiple shots through the now open door. This move saved his life, since the shots managed to slow down the monstruosity which was hiding behind the door, enough for Tyler to dodge its gigantic limb whipping through the space.

Tyler took a closer look at his opponent: this time, the abomination was different from the regular ones, and not in a good way: it seemed like a mix of smaller puppets, both adults... and children? In its body, Tyler could almost distinguish the face of a young kid, though he couldn't know if it was a boy or a girl...

No, it was just an impression. It wasn't truly something like that. Tyler wouldn't be able to support much more like this... Not after all these revelations... Not after learning everything that happened in Ghost London, or that he had without knowing it received the Blessing of the Devil and became one of Their apostle?

An apostle? No, of course he wasn't. Everything that happened with Saginus was just a dream... There was definitely a rationnal explanation for everything, there had to be one...

'Tssk tssk, look at yourself, aren't you ashamed to fight this much to maintain your denial even when you're about to get crushed by this thing? At this point, even breathing is shameless when you're the one doing it' the voice in his mind nagged.

"Won't you just shut the fuck up?!" he shouted out loud.

He forced on his knees to jump high enough and dodge a new attack of the giant puppet amalgamation. Its long and large limb hit right below him, leaving large cracks on the floor with a sinister sound.

Tyler forced himself to focus solely on his opponent, and ignore the disturbing details. Denial? Fuck it, so what if he was in denial? Wasn't that a good thing in this situation.

He analysed the situation: right now, the amalgamation was staying in the frame of the door, completely blocking it. The few seconds Tyler lost dodging its attacks were probably enough for the smaller abomination to reposition themselves: there was probably a part heading toward him right now, while the other was busy blocking the few other doors that were still functionnal and not blocked.

In conclusion, he couldn't lose his time to try finding another way, or to play on time to wear off the amalgamation's stamina with his impulsion gun, he had to get close to it and engage it in a direct fight so he could get past the door fast enough.

But it was easier to say than to do: despite its gross and irregular shape, with fingertips, bones and hair protruding from all over its body, the amalgamation was nonethess a gigantic three meters tall monster, with two meters long arms as large as Tyler's chest and a superhuman flexibility, something every puppet had but which was even more horrifying considering its size.

'Well, not like I get the choice' Tyler sighed internally.

Gritting his teeth, he ran at full speed toward the amalgamation. The monster tried to wrap his arms around him but failed as Tyler slid on the ground on his knees.

'Come on, now's the time to make all those hours of training and getting your ass kicked worth it!' the voice nagged.

Tyler let out an annoyed groan but did just this: adjusting his posture to get on one knee, he wrapped his arms around one of the amalgamatio's leg, and bent his muscles as much as possible. Maybe he wasn't strong enough to lift it... but at the very least he could take off its balance.

By using all his strength, he eventually managed to make the amalgamation fall on the floor. But then, instead of losing precious seconds, or even dozens of seconds to kill it off, he jumped over it, successfully crossing the door and accessing the next part of the clock tower.

But it didn't mean he was going to let it alive, the amalgamation represented too much of a variable in this fight for it to stay alive. He simply had a better idea about how to get rid of it.

As the amalgamation got back on its feet with surprising agility, Tyler could've easily outrunned it, but purposefully let it catch up to it, going just fast enough for it not to be suspicious.

'Just a bit more... I'm almost close enough... ok, it should do!' he thought as he arrived near a window.

Then, as the creature's gigantic arms were about to wrap around him... he was the one to catch them.

"Hey Mavarel, if you can hear me through this horror what's your favorite song?" he asked.

Then, still holding on the creature arms, he broke the window.

"Mine is 'I Believe I Can Fly', bastard"

Tyler jumped, taking the amalgamation with him in the deadly fall.