A crumbling tower (5)

In my brief yet long venture here I learnt many things.

This world which I still don't know the name of had little time left before it fell into the sea of time.

Following this my goal was to solve this time crisis which arose due to a disease that would even cause the Black Death to blush at how inefficient it was.

You really couldn't get more efficient than forcefully resurrecting the hosts to infect and murder more people as the Malaise did.

It was so effective that it was somehow able to cause bones to move, it even allowed the use of magic if those inquisitors could be used as an example.

But anyways this malaise was a pain in the ass and I still don't even know how it even occurred although I had a few leads.

One of them involved a probably religiously biased view on how this malaise occurred while another could be answered if I just asked the one who caused this time crisis.

And call it a cliche but I think time should have something to do with the enormous clocktower present in the middle of the island.

And to get there I needed strength.

If the growing strength of the undead were anything to talk about, as I got farther from the place I started at the stronger these undead became.

Already gained two runes and several knew weapons to my repertoire I stared at the elite in front of me wondering what type of rune I would receive.

Call it arrogant but after some thought I concluded that although we would be injured, it wasn't to a fatal extent, and in the end that Elite Zombie would fall if nothing interfered.

I wasn't afraid of the other two asking for the rune as I've already found out they would be deposited into my inventory no matter what if I just slay this undead

What I was afraid of also wasn't pain.

It still was an instinct to avoid it when possible but I wasn't going to become a coward and shy away from the notion of it.

But why is the situation twisting like this now that the Elite Zombie Captain was laying on the ground with most of its limbs twisted?

"I want to kill him sister."

"And I say I'm the one who has to do it."

Ella stood in front of Cherry as they glared at each other.

Me? 

Well I was watching over the felled corpse wondering who's side to take while making sure that the captain didn't wriggle away and bite my leg

Even a fool would know that being bitten by a rotting mouth full of disease would only end with one person dying.

And since the other was already dead, it didn't take a genius to know who of the two would die.

'Actually now that I think about it there was that guy.'

Recalling the bald woman who confidently strode into a truck thinking it was nothing more than a flightless plane, the conflict between the two siblings grew more tense.

"Why do you stop me Ella?"

Hands gripping her blade so tightly to the point that her hands had veins visibly pulsing on them, her brown eyes glared into Ella's own.

I subtly inched away from the wriggling captain groaning on the ground.

"Because you've done this already."

'Wait what.'

Blinking at this newfound piece of information I subtly shoved the edge of my shield into the Captain's mouth preventing the presence of a crawling biter and disease spreader while inching closer to listen to this newfound knowledge.

"And so!?" Snapping at her sister, Cherry's eyes gained the new presence of salty tears which beaded from her eyes.

"I want to kill him!"

"...You'll just let him live again."

"I swear! I'll actually kill him this time!"

By now it didn't take a genius to understand what this conversation was implying in the context of this situation.

This island is one of a looped timeline where everything was fated to repeat near the end of the month.

Right in front of me were two timebreakers unique to this place of looped time.

As their name suggested, a timebreaker was able to permanently exclude someone from the time looping powers of this island causing what would be restored at the end of the month to disappear.

The specifics of this disappearance was something I would have to investigate given the time.

But for whatever reason or the other, despite possibly killing the captain several times over, Cherry hadn't exerted her timebreaking abilities to permanently exclude this captain from life.

And honestly?

I could partially relate.

Human emotions are fucking complicated when it comes to things that they liked.

Forcing the wriggling undead away from my foot once more, the tower we were in bore the marks of destruction.

A testament of these ladies extraordinary strength far from the norm.

And as I looked around, all I could feel was that if the two clashed I would most certainly get injured.

Additionally, since there was a fifty fifty chance of the Undead Captain surviving this ordeal through the gift of time, it was a high enough chance that I may just have to abandon my thoughts of leaving the island next month from the Ramparts.

'I might have to look for another path, that green door maybe?'

Recalling the poor bird that was turned into many strips of nothing when trying to fly over the river, I felt a chill on the back of my neck.

Goosebumps popping up on my arm my eyes soon dragged themselves to the two siblings now glaring daggers at each other.

Now I know it was encoded directly in the genetics of siblings to hate each other but isn't this going a bit to far?

Family bonds may not be the best looking, but in the end it's all about family, and if I had anything to say about it, familial bonds were among the strongest of chains that held people up.

Broadswords pointed directly at each others chests, Cherry with her short hair and Bronze sword, Ella with her pony tail and silver sword tapped against each others breastplates.

And seeing them side by side I could tell that if not for the fact that they held different weapons and had different hairstyles, I could say with a hundred percent confidence that I wouldn't be able to distinguish them.

It was like looking into a mirror that only changed a few things about themselves.

Like an extreme version of spot difference realized.

Brown eyes glaring at each other, the wind took the time to gently blow in from the various cracks in the tower walls, ruffling their brown hair.

At some point in time they stopped speaking having already realized that trying to convince the other was a hopeless endeavor.

Bows and quiver still lingering around their back and waist, the feather tailed arrows silently ruffled.

It was silent enough that the groan of a certain captain muffled by the shield in its mouth was able to echo through out its interior.

And as if some sort of invisible starting signal had been shot they instantly dashed at each other trying to impale the other on the tip of their blade.

But just as swiftly, they let go of one hand on the broadsword causing the blade to instantly drop down to their feet as their free hand slapped the sword out of the way of their ample chests.

Armor tightly binding their firm frames together, the eyes of the siblings glared at each other stonily all the while I dragged the corpse of the captain away from this battle of blood.

Hands snatching out their daggers, flashes of golden sparks filled my vision as each point in the air was a point where steel had met steel.

Flipping them into reverse they pushed them against each other revealing the dented surface.

It was like looking at two mirror images doing the same thing but in reverse.

Pulling up their broadsword wide enough to serve as a shield, the two handed blade was so heavy that unless you trained specifically to wield the slab of thick metal and held it with two hands, you weren't going to be wielding it, instead, the weapon would wield you.

But just like this time and all the times before it, the muscles on their bodies tensed before the broadsword instantaneously darted from point to point in the air as if the weight within the sword never even existed.

*BOOM BOOM BOOM

Loud explosions rang out in the already destroyed tower as every single time that they collided with each other or hit the ground an explosion akin to a gunshot rang out.

'...This seems a bit to murderous to be just sibling rivalry.'

Feeling a drop of sweat drip from my forehead, my eyes which were accustomed to the sudden ambushes of the vietnam war were barely able to track their blades movements.

And seeing as how the only times I was unable to react was when a truck came barrelling straight out the side of a building like an action scene in a movie they were moving extremely quickly.

Sounds akin to gunshots ringing loudly as their blades hit each other, their muscles flexed as they twisted and turned around, aiming to get even the slightest bit of dominance over the other.

'What the hell are their weapons made of?'

Mouth twitching at the sounds of gunshots, no normal metal I knew of was able to look like bronze or silver while also being stronger than steel.

Glancing to the side at the struggling captain I pulled out a few wooden fragments retrieved from the bodies of the shieldbearers.

Vine rune activating, I felt something flow out of my body and through my hands before infusing them into the wood.

Feeling my will, the wooden fragments began to sprout into large spikes akin to the ones used to set up a tent.

Using what remained of the clothes underneath his armor that hadn't been torn or rotted away, I stabbed the wooden fragments straight through and roughly nailed him to the ground.

'...I should probably add some more.'

Recalling that insane strength that instantly broke through the forcefield around the ramparts I brought out a few more fragments while applying the power of the vine rune to them.

Forming several knotted chains that wound around each other, they were stuck between the mortars of the stone, expanding within the cracks making it near impossible to break them.

If it wasn't for the fact that they reverted to their previous states after a period of time and how time consuming this process was, I would've used the vine rune more frequently.

Sadly enough, although the wooden fragments were durable, it wasn't feasible to use them directly in battle outside of being projectiles.

'I should probably train up so that I can actually use it in battle.'

Locking up the limbless zombie to the point that their caterpillar like body resembled a cocoon, my gaze turned to the battle besides me that seemed to have cooled down a bit.

'No murder today. Yay.'

Mentally cheering about the factoid of life, I prepared to interrupt this incredibly violent sibling rivalry so that they could talk things out again before they instantly withdrew from each other.

Glaring at each other in tacit understanding after exchanging identical blow after identical blow, the two of them got into an unfamiliar stance.

Placing their blades horizontal to their bodies, they leaned so far back that they were nearly crouching.

Tilting my head in confusion I felt an unpleasant aura come from the two of them as they glared at each other.

Feeling uneasy, my eyes widened at a sudden flicker of white coming from their blades.

And despite never seeing it at all, I was able to tell almost instinctively that this was the timebreaker magic that they talked extensively about in the marketplace.

Eyes wide, the two glared at each other, the flickers of white coating their blade as an orange light filled their eyes.

Widening my own pair of orange eyes, the two siblings let out an almost bestial growl as I instantly reacted.

+++

Tree that found out today that human emotions are fucking complicated.