Fallout

{NARRATION}

In the damp cave, dozens of shapes stirred beneath a veil of tar-like shadows. One by one, monstrous and humanoid creatures emerged from the liquid gloom with maddened growls and ruby eyes.

Without a word from Nephis, the cohort instantly abandoned the brief moment of peace and snapped back into formation, everyone falling into place without the need of being instructed.

Almost immediately, a long, tree-like javelin cracked through the air like thunder, breaking the sound barrier as it hurtled toward the Forsaken Knight. He swung his sword, deflecting the incoming projectile with a ringing clash. The javelin splintered, and the horde advanced.

Unlike before—when they had been part of the shadows—the abominations now charged in a frenzied swarm. No longer coordinated, they trampled each other underfoot, and the more powerful nightmares no longer lingered at the rear.

They stormed forward with rabid hunger and glowing red eyes.

A red-skinned humanoid demon with a second head protruding from its side barreled ahead, slashing through lesser Nightmare Creatures in its path with a graceful naginata. Deep crimson embers burned in its eyes, its hatred clearly fixed on the Forsaken Knight.

While the Fallen Demon engaged the Knight in a brutal clash, the rest of the abominations were momentarily held at bay by the echoes.

Regis vaulted over the enemy lines with ease, his form agile and fluid. With a swift motion, he summoned twin swords forged from crackling purple essence and drove them into the skull of a four-legged, two-armed insectoid beast.

Then, the horde broke through.

The echoes faltered, and the tide of monsters surged forward, hungry to devour the humans untouched by corruption.

Nephis intercepted an undead warrior wielding twin short swords. The blades clashed with her claymore, and she deflected the next strike with her vambrace.

In one fluid motion, she reversed her grip and struck the undead's jaw with the pommel. As it reeled back, she spun her blade and cleaved the creature clean in two.

A feral hound with spiraled horns and red fangs lunged at her, but an arrow buried itself in its skull mid-leap.

Kai dismissed the spent arrow and conjured another, this one coral-shaped and faintly glowing with a reddish-pink tint. As he nocked it, he caught sight of Effie skewering the hood of a two-headed horned serpent with her spear. He adjusted his aim and released.

The arrow struck the remaining head between the eyes, causing the serpent to tremble and fall to the ground.

Effie perked up and flashed him a boisterous grin and a thumbs-up, right as a flying rapier whistled past her and sliced her thigh before speeding toward Cassie.

Effie's expression twisted in alarm as she tried desperately to catch the rapier. "DAMN IT! CASSIE, IN FRONT OF YOU!"

Cassie gasped—but it was clear she'd been prepared. With both hands, she swung her wooden staff and slammed it against the rapier. It fell, struggling to lift off again, but a second strike from her staff shattered it to pieces.

Effie, already calling her spear back to her hand, whirled and swept it along the neck of a short, bipedal creature with an elastic, lashing spiked tongue. Blood sprayed in arcs, and before it could retaliate, she drove her spear through its mouth.

Then the beast went limp and fell to the ground.

With a brief moment of leeway, Effie glanced around. She saw Caster skillfully maim the leg of a centaur-like creature before piercing its heart in a single, clean stroke with his jian.

But what truly caught her attention was Pleiades.

He was battling two golem-like creatures, the same ones that had once forced Caster onto the defensive back when they were still shadow creatures.

But now… Pleiades danced and seemed to be having fun.

He maneuvered with surprising grace, narrowly avoiding a crushing blow from a stone pillar foot. Rolling behind the golem, he slashed both legs with his lustrous Kord.

The massive creature groaned as its weight faltered.

With a single leap, he vaulted onto its back and locked his gaze on the other Golem.

A dagger materialized in his right hand, elongating unnaturally as he hurled it straight towards it. The blade pierced clean through the second golem's chest, and its body began to crack and crumble.

Then, with one final thrust of the Kord, Pleiades drove his weapon deep into the neck of the golem beneath him. The creature shuddered and fell.

"You seem extra excited" Effie noted aloud as she crushed the head of a feral, goat-like Nightmare Creature underfoot.

Pleiades looked around, tilting his head with a casual smile.

"It's my first time fighting a golem. It's... kinda fun."

"What a low bar for fun."

Pleiades opened his mouth to respond—when Sunny's voice echoed sharply in his mind.

(Behind you!)

He crouched just in time, a javelin slicing through the air above him. Activating Impossible Thief, he reached out, not for the weapon itself, but for the abstract concept holding it together.

And stole it.

Instantly, the javelin disintegrated into a cloud of harmless splinters. He held the invisible "points" for a moment, then released them. The javelin reassembled itself and dropped inertly to the ground.

Pleiades turned his eyes toward the attacker, which was an abomination he'd already slain. This time, however, its form resembled a living tree. Its arm regrew as he watched, already forming another javelin.

Clasping his hands together, Pleiades summoned soul-flames and shaped them into a flaming arrow. He drew it back and held his breath.

[Regis, watch this.]

Regis looked up just in time to see the arrow fly, burning with fierce energy, it struck the creature head-on. The wooden monster let out a horrible, cracking shriek and was engulfed in flames.

Regis snorted, puffing out his chest.

>>Show-off.<<

Crouching low, Regis dodged the fist of a muscular, ugly monster, then sprang forward. His fangs ignited with destructive flame as he lunged, biting deep into the abomination's throat.

As the creature collapsed, his instincts flared at something that felt wrong. He hesitated, ears perking up.

>>Hey, I've got a weird feeling about something, but...<<

[Do what you want. Just—damn it, that little—]

Pleiades narrowly dodged a spiked stone pillar swung by a massive ogre-like creature. He released a slash, cleaving the beast clean in half.

Meanwhile, Regis returned to the corpse of the fallen Terror. Just as he neared it, a mosquito-like Nightmare Creature intercepted him. Regis responded with Destruction, incinerating the insect in seconds. All that remained were two pristine Ascended Soul Shards.

He almost left them, but stopped. He doubled back, munched on both, and absorbed their power.

Now at the corpse, Regis sniffed around and began to dig. His snout brushed against something smooth almots like pieces of flawless glass.

He pulled out a six soul shards. But something still felt off. His instincts screamed and his mind itched.

Ignoring the stench, Regis pushed deeper until he felt a cold, heavy mass. He pulled it from the corpse and examined the black heart he had scavanged.

Nestled between his shadowy fangs, the organ pulsed slowly. While an ancient presence felt like it slithered into his soul.

>>Uh… boss? I think I just pulled out this Terror's… super evil heart? Like, if dread was an organ.<<

He gave it a cautious shake.

The heart pulsed again. Its surface shimmered faintly, revealing flickering images of lifeless, monstrous visages twisted in agony, then it went still.

Pleiades, just finished a corkscrew flip off the back of a spiked boar, frowned as the message hit his mind.

[What do you mean you pulled out its heart?]

>>I mean I dug into the corpse like a feral scavenger—surprise! Found an organ. Feels cursed. Smells worse. Want me to eat it?<<

[Regis, don't eat the Terrors heart.]

>>Why do you always hate my ideas?<<

[Because your ideas are either "ooh, give me a human body so I can seduce someone" or this—this garbage disposal behavior.]

>>Says the guy who gutted himself over a theory.<<

Pleiades sighed, dodging a burning chain swung by a headless ape, then jumped over its shoulders to split it in half.

[Fine. Keep it safe. Don't eat it. Don't let a Nightmare Creature eat it either.]

>>Alright, but I'm keeping it. I did find it.<<

[Fine. After I inspect it, you can keep it... as a chew toy.]

Regis narrowed his eyes at the pulsing organ.

"It better not talk to me in my sleep."

The problem? He had nowhere to put it. He was a wolf—no pockets. And he was this close to awakening. He needed just a bit more chaos.

Then, a small group of Nightmare Creatures came.

Malformed and oozing, with twitching limbs and sync-blinking eyes, they shuffled toward him with madness burning in their fiery eyes.

Regis glanced at them. Then the heart.

"This is really inconvenient timing." he muttered, blaming the heart like it was personally responsible.

"Alright, pal. You're going in the emergency stash."

He tied the heart inside his mouth with purple essence chains and ignored the way it twitched.

"This is disgusting. You better be worth it."

Then he charged.

With the thought of awakening burning in him, Regis tore through the creatures like a storm of shadows and amethyst fire. Ducking a claw, he twisted upward, jaws ablaze, and ripped out a throat.

Another leapt, he phased through it, then reformed below and snapped its spine with his fangs. The heart pulsed once and then again.

Almost gagging like a human, Regis dodged a scorpion-like beast with dual stingers. He formed a sledgehammer of essence, crushed one pincer, then leapt onto its carapace. Coating his claws in flame, he slashed both stingers.

The beast ignited, but just as it fell, one pincer smashed into his snout. His essence chains cracked and the heart slipped deeper into his body.

Regis staggered, a low growl escaping as he felt the heart fuse into him. Then came the change.

His horns grew longer. His claws sharper. His frame expanded by half a meter. Destructive flames roared around him, searing the corruption attempting to invade him.

In the pit of his being, a new shadowy heart took form.

The remaining corruption was purified, consumed by his flames and rewritten by the runes on his body. After several agonizing spasms, Regis finally stood and wobbled for a moment.

Then finally balanced he looked at his reflection in a shattered shard of stone. And grinned like a fool.

>>Well, well, well. Would you look at that.<<

He flexed his claws—now longer, almost crystalline. A crown of faint flame briefly flickered above his head.

>>I'm finally sexy enough to be a boss fight.<<

[You ate the heart, didn't you.]

>>...Noooooo.<<

[Regis.]

>>Okay, yes. But it was a tactical ingestion. Very on-purpose. Very strategic.<<

[You're lucky you didn't explode.]

>>I'm lucky? You're lucky. You get to hang out with me post-awakening now. This is peak me.<<

Regis waddled across the floor and scratched at the surface, cutting into the stone as he looked around.

The Cohort was holding off the Horde well. The Shadows were struggling, Krabs was barely standing, and Saint was nowhere to be found.

The menacing knight, however, had just finished of a fallen monster and was now fighting multiple Nightmare Creatures at once.

Smiling, Regis rushed forward, pounced, and tore through the chest of a large bear-like monstrosity. As he did, he turned and manifested destruction into threads that instantly sliced the beast apart and set it ablaze.

With his addition to the battle, the endless horde of abominations began to dwindle. Just ten minutes later, the seemingly endless battles that had raged all day finally came to an end.

Effie stood tall but looked incredibly exhausted. Kai sat on the ground, sighing in relief at their victory.

The shadows were dismissed in a flurry of sparks, disappearing into their masters' soul cores and shadow cores.

Nephis stood and looked up at the ceiling with an emotionless expression, while behind her, Catser was using his jian as support.

Looking for Pleiades, Regis happily walked toward him and gave him a wolfish grin.

"So, what do you think?"

Giving his companion a brief look-over, Pleiades nodded.

"You definitely look different... I just don't really see what's so 'sexy' about it."