Cynthia arrived at the Arena. The moment her foot had stepped foot in there, something was… off. The sky had not been the dull grey it was before, there were no bodies or machines, there was no more fire or flames… everything looked perfect. Zephyr wasn’t there anymore, but something else was.
The Ghostwalker.
Swiftly, she ran directly to it. There wasn’t any time to waste, but right as she was about to grab it…
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Ring… Ring…
Boop!
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“DON’T TOUCH THAT!” Skye’s voice was more panicked than ever, her voice burst through the speaker of the D.F.E.
“What?” Cynthia questioned.
“The Ghostwalker! Don’t lay a finger on that thing! You touch that, everything falls apart! That… Amalgamation. It will come, and it will kill us all!” Skye seemed certain.
Cynthia backed away.
“A few more things as well. Hope hasn’t come back with Axel yet and-”
“Wait, what? Where… where are they?” Cynthia’s heartbeat quickened.
“I can’t get their location or anything? It’s like her D.F.E turned off.”
“Do you know if they’re okay?”
“I just said, I can’t get to them! I’m gonna have to go and find them! You said he was hiding at D.I.E, right?”
A loud double beep was coming from Skye’s end.
“Oh. Oh god. Cyn, watch out!”
“Huh?”
“The Firebrand! Buck! I need to go find them!”
Beep.
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Buck had entered the Arena. He was standing right behind Cynthia. But he wasn’t here to fight.
“Cynthia.”
She immediately clutched the Illumina into her two hands, ready to slash him into two.
“Wait! Just wait!”
Buck held the Firebrand, hilt pointing at Cynthia, as if he wanted her to take it.
“I can’t… I can’t keep doing this, Cynthia. Just… take the sword.”
“What?” Cynthia takes a step back, eyes shaking, knees quaking.
He just smiled, until a tear ran down his cheek.
“Just take it! I can’t keep doing this any longer! Telamon… if he even exists… he knows I can’t do anything more than what I have already done. Shadow Rider, I know he can save us, but I just can’t live with this guilt. Hope… she hates me. You hate me. So does the rest of them. So please…”
He kneels down on both his knees and raises the Firebrand with his two hands.
“Take it… and destroy that… thing.”
“I will not give you what you want!” Cynthia clenched her fist in anger, her voice echoing in “You betrayed us all for your own… awful reasons! I will never forgive you, and I can’t get rid of that knowing I gave you what you truly want. I can’t let YOU win. You wouldn’t just… let me have the sword, so there's more to what you’re letting on!”
Buck forced the Firebrand in her hands, and stood up. He instead unsheathed his Duplicating Blades.
“Then have it your way. If you won’t do it, then I will.”
He focused on the Ghostwalker, his arm pointing towards it.
A blade was thrown, flinging the Ghostwalker upwards. The staff had burst out of the Arena floor.
Tremors were felt across the Arena, all the way to…
…
The Lab.
…
Hope had walked closer to the bodies. They all had the same uniform, with an emblem of a duck and a… blue Sacred Sword..?
Everyone knows there are only seven. The Linked Sword, The Illumina, Firebrand, Ghostwalker, Venomshank, Darkheart and Windforce. But this one… was unlike the rest.
An eighth sword.
It looked like Hope’s dagger.
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Snapsnap.
It sounded like a photo was taken. Not by Hope. She looked around in fear, ready to grab her shield and dagger.
“Who’s there?” She held tight to her weapon.
“Hey! Wait wait wait… don’t hurt me!” A male voice echoed. He stepped forward.
“Who the heck are you?” Hope asked.
The mysterious figure lifted his camera, and took another photo.
“Hey! Stop that!” She became much more visibly frustrated.
“Ok, ok. Sorry. But don’t you recognise me? We used to go to the same school, remember? The guy who wanted to be a journalist…?” His face began to look more visible as he stepped closer to the Reactor.
Hope was absolutely clueless.
“T-Can the Great and Amazing, my signature character? My award-winning obesity awareness newspaper?”
“Oh! Theo!”
“Yeah! How have you been?” He held out his hand. Hope had backed away.
“Wait… what are you doing down here?”
“I could ask the same thing! Heh. Well you see, this strange… bald guy came into the eatery with that uh… fire sword. Probably a Terror or something, but either way it was quite scary! But I had to get some photos in, right?” Theo gave a photo of the scene with the Firebrand to Hope.
“Buck! He did this!”
“No idea who that is… but ok. Anyway, he stabbed that thing into the ground and it got REALLY hot. Like almost suffocating, so I left the eatery considering I finished and paid for my meal anyway and then…” Theo put his hands in Hope’s face as if to imitate an explosion. “Boom!”
“So, what made you come back in?”
“Well, I called emergency services to put the fire out but my phone ran out of battery… So I waited outside for some kind of help until I saw you. You like, teleported or something, kind of crazy. Are you a Guardian or something?”
“More like a Vice Guardian.”
“Cool!” He seemed ecstatic. “Anyway, I saw you walk in and thought maybe I could get some cool pictures before anybody came, and then I saw you with… a hand sticking out of the wall?”
“Oh god, Axel! Is he still there?”
“Oh, that guy on the staircase? Yeah he’s fine. I think he thought I was gonna hurt him or… something. I thought he was crazy! Anyway, curiosity got the better of me so I followed you and now I’m… here.” Theo looked around. “Where is here, anyway?”
“From what I can see, it looks like some sort of lab for experiments. Probably associated with the Terrors. The Duck, the Swords… it looks too ritualistic.”
“Can I… take some photos?” Theo grabbed his camera, ready to take a shot.
“Seriously? That’s what you think is appropriate right now?” Hope sighed, grabbed his camera and put it in his pocket. “Whatever, look. You just stick with me, alright? There has to be a way out of here.”
“Can’t we just go back the way we came in?” He asked.
“No. Some weird force keeps pushing me back from there.”
“I see. Now, should we get going? Looks like there’s a doorway over there.” He pointed to their far right.
“Alright. But no photos. Got it?”
“Ok!”
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They walked through the door, only to be met with a similar room, only no reactor or dead people. There was another beheaded duck, but this time with rotted, green skin. But the duck was now in a tube.
“The Venomshank! I get it now!”
“What?” Theo looked confused, and his hand began to reach for his camera.
“When somebody is killed with the Venomshank, their skin rots. But that duck in the other room… there was this black goop… A different sword.”
“What about the Black one? It makes sense for the Black sword to create Black goop, right?” He slyly put his finger onto the camera’s trigger.
“Huh. You’re smarter than you look. And it’s called the Darkheart, by the way.”
Snapsnap.
“Theo! What did I just… whatever. If you’re gonna take photos though, make sure it’s important to ME. Got it? If this helps us learn more about the Terrors, you might actually not be useless.”
“I think I can deal with that.” Theo put the camera onto a harness.
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Another room, identical to the last. This time, a duck was burned.
“Just like the scientists. The Firebrand, huh.” Hope looked around for any other doors. There were two, standing next to each other, so the two had walked to the entrance of them.
Theo seemed to edge to the left. “Should we go this way?”
“Uh… why?”
“I’m left handed.”
“That’s your whole reason? Seriously? Ok, wait. Just open that door, but don’t go through it. I’ll open this one on the right.”
The two doors opened; on the left… a small storage room with drawers: documents and papers inside of them; on the right… another room with another beheaded duck floating.
“The work of the Illumina.” Hope pointed at the tube.
“You wanna go through these papers over here?”
There were five drawers with one folder at the top. The folder was entitled “Timeline.” while the drawers were like categories. “Guardians”, “Lead Terrors”, “Swords”, “Experiments”, and “Arena”. Theo took some photos as they explored.
Inside these drawers were ten folders in each. Hope sat down and grabbed some of the folders in the “Guardians” drawer, while Theo took a folder in the “Experiments” drawer first.
“It says the papers in the folders were written by Hin Taishi.” Hope pointed.
“This one here… it's entitled The Body Swap Potion.”
“Let me see.”
Theo gave Hope the folder, which inside had a black and white photo of a potion, with some writing on the side:
“We were able to successfully create our own source of teleportation. While recently created, we promoted some of our Terrors into “Swappers”, which allows them to engage in combat alongside our Conjurers, Machines and Swordsmen. When these Swappers drink their purple potion, all they have to do is point to their target. Then, some strange force allows them to teleport straight to their target while swiftly swapping their original position with their target. We believe Telamon may be the presence behind this mysterious phenomenon, but I will do more research into why this happens.”
Snapsnap.
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They went through some more folders but found nothing interesting, until Theo stumbled across one peculiar folder in the “Swords” drawer. Unlike the other folders in the drawer, this had a color gradient from grey to white.
Snapsnap.
“Ghostwalker, huh. The grey one.”
Hope looked at Theo, seemingly interested as to what is in that folder.
“It says here…
The Ghostwalker is one of the most powerful Sacred Swords, and can do special things that no other Sword can. When a life is claimed with it, the Sword grows stronger. According to our research, the holder has to take the lives of 99 people for them to become worthy.”
Snapsnap.
“Anything else?” Hope raised an eyebrow.
Theo turned over a paper.
“The Ghostwalker is no longer in our possession. It was stored in the lab but ever since Buck had made an alliance with a former Guardian… the sword had gone missing on the 29th January 2031… but reports say that the former Guardian, Zephyr, may be in control of it. They have currently claimed one life with it.”
Snapsnap.
“29th January… the day after the Swords went missing. Is there any paper talking about an… Amalgamation?”
“Oh, yeah. It says…
All Swords have a certain power unleashed when it is stabbed into the ground. When the Ghostwalker is stabbed, everything in the surrounding area that has died will form into one lifeform. We’ve learned from our experiments that this thing is able to turn bones into a staff and helmet, like some kind of weapon and headgear, and that it can also absorb destroyed machines. This thing can also weaken any surrounding machines that aren’t broken yet. We’ve noticed that when Buck had bought some D.F.E’s (which I believe is meant to be a device used for Guardians only) here, they became so much more easier to break. Terrors call it an Amalgamation, but I prefer to call it something else. DEATH. Named so for its purpose. To bring death.”
Snapsnap.
“Is there a way to stop it?”
Theo handed her the folder, with a paper simply saying…
“I can’t stop it.”
Blood has been scattered across that paper.
“It killed him, didn’t it?” Theo asked.
“I… I think so…”
“But these folders were made recently… those papers especially. Does that mean there’s an Amalgamation somewhere in this Lab?” Theo proposed.
Hope threw another “Guardian” folder at him. “Don’t worry about that, let’s just get through these folders.”
Snapsnap.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight… ten papers in these. We’ve got a whole lot to get through, huh?”
“What the heck!?” Hope shouted, her voice echoing in the room.
“What?” Theo scooted himself next to Hope.
“This one… has photos.”
“Yeah, no way. It literally has the word “Photos” plastered on it.”
“No, no. You don’t understand. That’s our base. This photo of this wall. It’s recent. Today, I grabbed a red chalk and crossed out these specific names… but not Buck. Why is it… crossed out..? Unless… he…”
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Klink…
SMASH!
Suddenly, the sound of broken glass echoed from the walls. Theo immediately stood up and looked around. Then he saw it. The tube where the duck killed by the Illumina once was, shattered.
“Hey, Theo, what’s up?
“Come look!”
The duck had… almost human-like hands. They were pink, like they had some kind of magic imbued in them by the Illumina. Suddenly, its wings grew out of control, legs sprouted out of its lower layer, the tail turned into a blade and its head began to grow back.
This was nothing like an Amalgamation… this was something else…
“GWARRRRRR!!!!”
It didn’t even sound like a duck, it sounded like it was… in pain. They both watched in awe as the beast had transformed.
“Hey, Theo, do you know how to fight?” Hope gave him a dagger. Not hers, just an extra weapon to keep just in case.
“Not really..? Wait, we’re gonna fight this thing?”
“If we have to.” Hope grabbed her shield and dagger.
The beast immediately began to run at Hope the moment it locked eye contact with her. She braced herself as she dragged the shield to her front. “Get behind me!”
Theo grabbed onto her shoulders as the beast began to land some hits on the shield. It began to peck at any opening it could find.
“Hey! Throw the dagger at it!”
Theo threw the dagger straight into… its wing.
“Why would you throw it there?”
“I’ve got a bad aim, ok?”
“You could’ve just aimed at its head…”
The beast drew the dagger out of its wing, pink blood erupting from the wound. It ate the weapon.
Theo was astonished. “Oh my…”
Hope bashed the shield into its beak before slashing into its newly grown legs. Theo stepped back slightly, and it seemed like Hope had it under control. The beast slammed itself into Hope, knocking her shield away before attempting to peck at her. Smartly, she grabbed onto the beak and climbed to its head. Her dagger pierced through the brain, which eventually weakened the beast and forced it to collapse. Hope fell with it.
“Agh!”
“You ok?”
“Yeah, I’ll be… fine. Just grab those folders and put them in your bag.” Hope threw her pack. “Put some in here too.”
She stood up, slowly, trying to take caution as her injuries became increasingly more painful.
“It’s still breathing.” Theo points at the beast. “We need to get out of here.”
“Lets just take what we can and go back up to Axel. I’ll stay behind a little…”
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As the two went towards the staircase…
Cynthia ran towards the Ghostwalker, Firebrand in hand, as Buck attempted to throw more Duplicating Blades at her. Using the Illumina in her left hand, she thrust herself upwards to make herself harder to hit, before slashing the Firebrand into the staff…
but to no avail.
Suddenly, arms began to sprout out of the staff. Then legs. It almost even took the shape of a normal human… until it grew a helmet made of pure bone for its head and its arms began to flow electricity. The machines had become one with the humans, creating this abomination.
“What… what have you done..?”
“Me? Oh boy… There’s only one person to blame for this… Zephyr.”
Buck prepared himself to teleport away, grabbing the D.F.E from his pocket, but Cynthia grabbed the Ghostwalker and threw it straight into his hip. Falling head-first, the D.F.E broke.
“Gah! Ugh… No… NO NO NO! You idiot! You have no idea what you’ve just cost me!”
Cynthia ran straight to Buck, who was sitting on the floor, barely able to stand up. She prepared to slash with the Firebrand, but Buck landed a punch straight to Cynthia, winding her. He pulled the Ghostwalker out, threw it straight to Cynthia and pierced into her D.F.E. Strangely precise, as if some presence had guided his hand.
“If that… thing is going to kill me… You’re going down with me. Oh Telamon, why must you punish me like this! What did I do to deserve THIS?!”
Buck was interrupted by another vigorous tremor. The Arena began to split into two as different Terrors and Machines began to charge at Cynthia, and suddenly…
Woosh!
She was teleported in the middle of the hoard. Her hands landed in droplets of purple liquid…
A Swapper was standing over her, Buck began to prepare to defend himself, a crowd of Machines and Terrors began to close in and the Amalgamation… no… DEATH…
Awakened.
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and then Add to home screen.