Two Becomes One | One Was Two
"Aww, is someone upset." The rodent chuckled, obscured by a seemingly infinite shadow as Lucy began to grow in size, trying to crush her foe under the weight of her tentacles. Her pale skin was shifting into shining fish scales that were illuminated by the light that filled the room.
Lucy's feelings were beginning to finally show, and with a shove from her tentacles, she expelled Eva, Ave and Lamb from the room to deal with this new problem alone.
As her size continued to increase, Lucy leapt off the bridge and into the water below. "Are you really that desperate to escape me?" The Rodent laughed, staring down into the ever increasing abyss of the water.
Yet the abyss stared back.
Seven different eyes glowed brightly from the bottom as Lucifer emerged in all her leviathan glory. She stared down at the teasing rodent, who was playfully twirling a cane reminiscent of Markeeth's. "Ya know, Pan." She said as she turned around, looking up at the gigantic sea monster with a cocky smile.
"I recently found out my whole life is a lie. And... Well, both parts of me had a different reaction. One continued to love our love. The other wanted to kill our love. Me? I want both. I know you don't care, but-"
"Silence." The demon said as she slammed her palm down against the rodent, smashing the statue under her. "Can't a gal finish a story anymore?" The rodent said with a devilish grin as she crawled out of the wreckage.
Her light brown skin shined in the radiant light that seemed to ever follow her. The Rodent's clothing had become a more black and white casual outfit with blended pieces of armour attached. Most strikingly was her hair, The once white of Rat and black of Mollia's long twin braids had become one, one half black, the other white. And of course, her signature Rat features were intact.
The sight of the vermin made Lucifer's blood boil as she continued her rampage, stomping and slamming everything in an attempt to crush the new creature. "Huh, ya know what. I need a name, don't I? Hmm..." She began thinking of her new name as she easily dodge Lucy's attacks.
"What about Rattata?" She asked as she slid under a tentacle. "You're right, too easy. What about Mollium?" Quickly dodging a blast of compressed water, she realised that name didn't suit her either.
"Stop dodging and die like the true RODENT you are!!" Lucifer screamed, concentrating every jade chain she could to strike her at once. But the rodent simply summoned a hollow bubble of both shadows and light to protect herself, yet she snapped her fingers at the realisation.
"I've got it. Call me Verum Rodentia." She said with a two finger salute as she struck a pose. To Lucifer it felt like any attack she used would be useless against Verum, yet as long as she tried. Again and again. No matter what. That's what Parfait had always taught her.
Yet, even still, Verum was seemingly holding back. The leviathan was slowly growing tired from her constant attacks, and Miss Rodentia could see it. "Ya know, for such a big shark, you sure like fighting like a little fish. It's endearing." She snickered, flicking her tail back and fourth.
"Oh, I know. How about I try out my new cool... Uh, this place calls em Egos, right? Lets see, what do I have in my repertoire to cut you down to size..." Verum began mumbling to herself, wanting to make sure her first time using her true power was offensively flashy.
"Huh, I don't even know what my power does in all honesty... How about I just say 'explode'?" With a simple point with a finger gun, one of Mollia's tentacles was practically vaporised in an instant. The leviathan recoiled back in pain, staring down at Verum with a menacing glare.
"What about.... 'Super cool chain beam'!" With another finger gun shot, hundreds of 'super cool' looking chains made of light and shadows shout out and pinned Lucy to the waterfall. "Hang on... Is my power to do anything I want? Oh that is bloody brilliant." She grinned, creating a bridge up to Lucifer's face.
The Leviathan was struggling to use her own chains or even her tentacles. Yet Verum began thinking up a fun way to play with her 'friend'. "Ultimate ego and heart locker!" With another blast, Lucifer had soon lost access to both her egos and heart. Yet her form remained that of a leviathan, so really, Verum had locked Lucy out of transforming back, disappointing her.
"Huh, why so quiet? Rat got your tongue? Wait, I said that already... Uh.... Look. I think you and me got off to a bad start. How about we start over, huh? I ain't Mollia, I ain't Rat. I'm Verum."
"You're a monster."
"Correction. We're monsters. I never hid behind the mask of protector... Well, i guess i did when I was Mollia. Point is, I don't have the petty grudges of Molly. I just want to kill and love the woman who brought me into existence. Is that so hard to support?"
"You Killed my Mother. You killed Cheshire. You killed hundreds of thousands with Eden. Just Kill me."
"Uhm... No?" Verum snickered. In all honesty, the new rodent was exactly in the mood to kill. In fact, she only wanted one person dead, and alive, neither here no there. "Look. How about I let you go? I'm sure you're thinking 'Oh Verum, Why O why are you being merciful?' Well... I want a happy ending for myself. If you want one too, all ya have to do is join me. I wouldn't say I want an answer now, but think about it?"
With that, Verum fired off a "random escape shot" and instantly vanished... before appearing a few feet closer to the door. "Huh... I need to workshop that one." She laughed before casually walking out of the room.
As Lucy remained pinned to the waterfall, she tried to use her tentacles to free herself. Strangely enough, the one she had previously lost had reappeared. The demon watched while the rodent grabbed both Eva and Ave off the ground before firing a "Super handy instant teleport back to the resort" shot.
Lamb rushed back into the temple and saw Lucifer fall to the ground as the chains that bound the leviathan disappeared in the blink of an eye. "You must have known that was an impossible fight." The Shepard sighed, though Lucy was in no mood for an I told You So.
Nonetheless, despite the anguish and loss, the leviathan had a theory on Verum's ego. It was the ability to create a new truth. But there seemed to be a limit to how many rules she could actually create.
Take for instance, Lucifer's tentacle. Verum vaporised it with the truth of 'explode', it reappeared at the exact moment the fourth truth was added. So, at least in theory, Verum should only have three shots.
Her mind began to wonder what the limits of the power was now. Mollia had already broken her limit by constantly keeping her body in a state of rewind. Who's to say that Verum wasn't doing the same.
But Lucy had to save her theory crafting for another day. "I... Suppose we should leave." She let out a melancholic sigh as she began pulling her titanic body from the pit. She still hadn't regained her power to change back, a burden to be sure, but one that she would have to deal with.
"You reckon we're screwed?" Avis asked as she whistled a tune. Vinea was fifty/fifty in terms of faith as he dragged Mammy through the ever increasing snow, but he accidentally stepped into an inky black puddle that sat on top of the snow. "What the?" He mumbled.
Suddenly, the pile of inky slime formed together into an adorable blob with two little white lines for eyes. Weirdly enough though, the slime had a zipper attached to it's face, making it almost look like it had a nose.
"Huh... Sorry, little guy." Vinea smiled before continuing to walk. The slime began to hop behind him, trying to get his attention. Nvr turned back, somewhat struggling to carry both Kiola and Ayre by herself.
"Vinea... Who are you talking to?" The bio weapon questioned as they reached the ship. He picked up the slime and held it up. "I stepped on this little guy, kinda reminds me of-"
"IYU!" Nvr cheered, dropping Kiola and Ayre before snatching the slime away from Vinea. She was ecstatic to have her bestest friend back, yet the slime that was now Iyu seemed less then happy to be reunited with her sort of friend.
It seems Iyu had lost her body in the initial airship crash and left her in her true, gooey form. That didn't really seem to bother Nvr though.
With a bit of extra time spent of trying to pry Nvr and Iyu apart, the injured members where loaded onto the airship and tended too by the reunited creations. And after an hour passed, Lucifer had emerged with Lamb in hand. It wasn't exactly a good day for anyone. What should have been a simple light hearted excursion after Parfait, had turned into a cruel, no good, rotten nightmare for the demon.
Yet with a contract still in play, and if her theory was correct, she needn't wait long for the rodent to release her powers so she could ask the mysterious kitsune what happened.