The Amalgamation began to stamp down the hoard. Swordsmen were taken by the head and crushed effortlessly. Attackers were batted down. Corrupted, bent hands ripped apart Conjurers. And all these kills…
Only made it stronger.
Cynthia scrambled to her pack to store the Illumina, locked it, and grabbed the Firebrand in her right and Ghostwalker in her left. She spun the Firebrand around her in an attempt to weaken the crowd. Flames burst out while Buck attempted to dodge them swiftly.
Woosh!
The Swapper teleported her to Buck, as he prepared to use his Duplicating Blades. She tackled Buck before slashing him with the Ghostwalker in her left hand. Blood splattered across the Arena walls, but quickly began to fly towards the Amalgamation like a magnet.
“GAH! Wait!” Buck was shaking in pain… and fear.
“Wait?? What do you mean wait?” Cynthia grabbed him by his neck and attempted to shove the Ghostwalker through him, but he grabbed her hand and snapped her down.
He ran towards a crowd of Defenders to shield himself from Cynthia but behind the traitor was a Swapper and…
“Shit… Cynthia! YOU HAVE TO STOP!”
Cynthia glanced towards Buck.
“I… I know I can't undo what I’ve done… not anymore. But I’m not strong enough to take that thing down! That doesn't help with our goal… Zephyr wanted you dead… and so do I. But I can’t fight you with this thing in the way! I thought I would be able to kill it until I’ve just seen its true nature. We need to work together! Please just trust me!”
All she did was blink before immediately reattempting a charge towards him.
Woosh!
She found herself right next to him. Buck almost looked worried, as Cynthia started to believe him more.
“What..?” Cynthia almost loosened her grip on the Ghostwalker out of pure terror.
She was unknowingly teleported underneath the feet of DEATH.
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…
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In the Lab, Hope and Theo managed to reach the staircase, filling in on what Axel had missed. Theo opened his backpack and grabbed the Ghostwalker folder… until he realized there was one more paper they didn’t read.
“Hey, Hope… check this out.”
She glanced at Theo before focusing on the paper. Hope began to read it aloud.
“DEATH makes people see things. We aren’t sure what gives DEATH these powers… it could be Telamon… or something else. We used Isabella as a test subject after kidnapping them…”
“Uh… Hope… you good?” Theo prepared to take a photo of the paper.
“They have her..?” Hope whispered to herself.
“Isabella? I remember Cynthia telling me about her…” Axel painfully scooted himself closer to the paper.
“Do you think she's still in the lab..?” She hoped (fitting for her name).
“Can we just… finish reading this? It seems important.” Theo got the perfect angle.
Snapsnap.
Hope began to read the remainder of the paper:
“We’ve learned they gain an unnatural amount of fear when they stare into its eyes. It's like fear is injected into them. Heart rates increase and DEATH makes you see something rather haunting. It sits down… stares into your eyes and strokes your forehead. It makes you hallucinate. Not the people you have killed… but the people you are going to kill. Our test subject saw our Leader, Shadow Rider… and one of our scientists as an attempt to escape. We now know that these visions are indeed true as the scientist was murdered by her when she attempted to leave her room. So we’ve been forced to keep her in this lab until her natural death… or when we decide to murder her once our tests with the Ghostwalker are complete. I do wonder if these visions can be changed… But we can’t let her kill Cairo-“
Hope backed away. Her legs shaking, she held her heart in pain and looked around in fear. Her vision became blurry until she muttered…
“Cairo… He’s the Leader..?”
Footsteps were heard from outside the portal-wall.
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…
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At the Arena, Terrors and Machines tried to charge into the Amalgamation, but it swiftly stabbed its staff into the ground, cracking the floor. Chains sprouted from the cracks, and began to hold down everything in its path. Some more chains endlessly launched themselves into the sky… as if the chains were going to grab something from space. It was reaching for something… but what?
Everything stopped.
Cynthia attempted another slash at Buck, this time with the Firebrand, but the chains rapidly chased and caught her hand. Another chain grabbed the Ghostwalker and pulled her to the floor. The Amalgamation took one foot in front of the other at a slow pace before shoving the hilt of the staff into her stomach.
“AGH!” She laid down in pain and agony. She tried to reach for the Ghostwalker, but the Amalgamation picked it up and threw it to the other side of the Arena.
Buck began to grab his blades. “What the hell..? Hold on, I’ll set you free-”
The staff collided with Buck’s skull, nearly knocking him out. His mouth and nose began to bleed, his mind slipping away. Chains wrapped around his neck, tightening slowly as he tried to break free.
“Cynthia! Grab the Firebrand..!” His voice strained to get those words out. “STAB IT!” Buck began to choke.
The Amalgamation walked back to Cynthia, and sat down. It reached its corrupted hand to her forehead… and stroked it.
From Buck’s point of view, all he saw was terror in her face, and the thing’s eyes staring intently at her.
But Cynthia saw something far worse.
In her eyes, it transformed into things she had taken from this world, their dead bodies being visually shown to her through the Amalgamation’s body.
Conjurers, Swordsmen, Machines…
Buck.
He stared at Cynthia, with fatal injuries all around him.
“But Buck isn’t dead… No…”
“What..?” The real Buck was using all of his might to loosen the chains around him.
Then Zephyr appeared.
“You did this…”
“No! I haven’t…”
Cynthia’s heart dropped.
Hope appeared before her eyes, her own dagger stabbed in her chest.
“Cynthia… Why? Please… don’t do this..!”
Cynthia tried to hold her, but she disappeared before her eyes.
Josh and Skye appeared to her right… the two were laid down.
Josh was coughing up blood, drowning in it, while Skye was crawling away from Cynthia. Zephyr’s mangled body was in the distance as Skye tried to get to it.
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“No NO NO NO NONONONONO!!! Zeph! No… Y-You can’t leave me now! Please!
ZEPHYR! Hey, look Cynthia, I don’t care about the Swords! Just keep them! But please, please use the Darkheart’s magic and heal him! I can’t lose him now. Bring him back! BRING HIM BACK!!”
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Skye was sobbing. In the distance… Buck was about to kick one of his Duplicating Blades into a chain keeping the Swapper at bay. If the Swapper could be freed… So could he.
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“Why…
Why are you not doing it???
Hey, what- what- what are you doing?
Please.. don’t do it.. DONT KILL ME! PLEASE! I’LL DO ANYTHING, JUST LOWER THE DAGGER! BRING HIM BACK! DON’T YOU REMEMBER ALL THE THINGS WE’VE DONE TOGETHER AS A TEAM? I’M YOUR FRIEND! WHAT’S HAPPENED TO YOU?
PLEASE IM BEGGING DON’T-”
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She was killed. Cynthia watched in horror as she realised…
These weren’t people she's already killed…
These were people SHE was going to.
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Klinkklink.
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Buck finally set the Swapper free and the Swapper switched positions with Buck.
Now trapped in Buck’s chains, the Swapper spoke.
“You should grab ‘em blades right over there!”
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Buck immediately grabbed more of his blades and broke the chains confining the Swapper. The Swapper swapped with the Amalgamation, snapping Cynthia out of the hallucinations.
“I only have Skye to thank for making my blades so strong. Heh.”
Buck tossed a blade to the Swapper and while the Swapper worked on setting a traumatised Cynthia free, Buck stood in front of the Amalgamation, stopping it from reaching her.
“I can’t let you die, Cynthia. I know I should’ve killed Zephyr when I had the chance… wherever he’s gone… but I can’t stop this thing without YOU. It's only you that can end this. Use the Ghostwalker, it’ll confine it. You’ve already fought me… but now it's time you fight your hatred for me and destroy this son of a bitch!”
The Amalgamation hurled its staff towards Buck, winding him and sending him flying across the Arena. He was knocked unconscious.
Cynthia was set free and equipped herself with the Ghostwalker, not hesitating to stab into the Amalgamation.
But nothing happened.
If she wants to defeat it… she needs the Ghostwalker to be more powerful.
She needs to kill more with it.
The Amalgamation knocked the Swapper down with its fists before grabbing Cynthia and throwing her straight at Buck’s unconscious body. The Ghostwalker flew with her and landed next to Buck, the blade pointing towards him.
She can hear him wheezing as she hesitantly picks up the Ghostwalker.
It only takes one stab.
The visions are coming true.
and then Add to home screen.