Accidents Made Right 1: Pistanthrophobia

Staring up at the electronically powered sign above a door which said in blue neon lights Custom Training Room, I felt my stomach drop into an infinitely empty pit.

“S-So… w-why are we g-going here?”

Cornelius went up to a door next to the door with the sign, one that lead to an observation desk, and he turned to me.

“I’ve been working on a simulation that should showcase a small fraction of Knightmare’s power… assuming it doesn’t overload the machine.”

“W-wait. A s-small fraction of Knightmare’s power m-might overload the simulation machine? I d-don’t know the math very well, but I-Isn’t the machine a-able to create entire p-planets?!”

…

“Yes.”

“I-I… holy shit… how p-powerful is he?!”

Staying silent, Cornelius walked through the right door, and once on the other side, he turned around, before telling me “Powerful enough to make me look completely and utterly powerless, whilst not giving seemingly any effort. And I’ve survived him hitting me with a red giant star.”

“T-then… how do w-we fight him? If h-he’s that powerful?”

“We can’t… at least, not yet.” Cornelius stepped back, and the door closed in front of him, so I walked into the simulation room, into a room of seemingly normal wires and electric panels, unlike the expected white void in the other simulation rooms.

Yeah… he’s right. Knightmare’s fucking overpowered… and that’s not even considering the facts that Grim Reapers slowly gain power over time. As well as… something too complicated to explain right now, Raen explained.

Welp. I’m fucked…

“From the information I’ve gotten, we still got at least 10 more years before the man we need is ready,” Cornelius said, his voice shooting out from a intercom tucked away in a top corner of the room.

“W-why are we b-being forced to rely on o-one man’s power? T-That’s k-kind if a stressful situation to put someone in…”

“I don’t like it either. But someone needs to stop Knightmare, and we sure as shit can’t stop him by ourselves.”

“A-also… if we’re r-relying on a single person’s p-power… why train for when we do fight Knightmare?”

“Because that man won’t be able to do everything on his own. He’ll need assistance. Besides, we don’t know how many run-ins with Knightmare we’ll have later on before that man is ready. It doesn’t hurt to prepare.”

After a couple seconds of silence, dozens of black beams of light from around the room all shot together towards the middle of the room, slowly forming a black orb that got bigger and bigger until it covered the entire training room.

There was no white. Only complete darkness.

Looking around, I eventually spotted a weird difference of color in the my blackened surroundings. It was still dark, but the image was just barley light enough that I could tell it resembled a human.

Then, a red glowing smile formed on what would be the head of the change in color.

It’s strange though. The figure didn’t feel even slightly terrifying.

“I-I thought you said l-looking at Knightmare made your very soul shake or s-something…” I said, not intentionally trying to insult the simulation’s creator.

“Weird. Maybe it’s something to do with Knightmare’s soul, not his appearance,” Cornelius wondered.

Then I remembered something. A fact that nearly gave me a panic attack the moment the thought entered my mind.

Knightmare… was my father.

The Knightmare simulation flew forward, just as I started to close my eyes.

It’s not really him, it’s not really him, it’s not really him.

I could feel the red electricity signifying my magical powers coursing through my veins, my skin, my bones.

Eventually, I took a long, deep breath, slid a foot back, transformed my right arm into a sword, and closed my left fist. Then, I opened my eyes, allowing me to see that the Knightmare simulation was exactly as far away from me as when I closed my eyes.

I ducked down backwards, spun around till I faced the ground, and sliced through my opponents body as I turned.

Black tendrils shot out of Knightmare’s hips, pulling him to the ground, before the entire ground around me shifted to Knightmare’s color.

I almost immediately activated my rocket boots and flew upwards, allowing me to just narrowly fly above hundreds of giant black tendrils which shot up from the ground like spikes, before immediately retracting into the black void.

“P-Please say you d-didn’t get the inspiration for that m-move from our f-fight a few months ago…”

“I only put in the powers he has. The attacks the simulation uses, and in what order, are completely dependent on what you do or don’t do.”

“I k-know! I was making a… n-never mind,” I said, just before the Knightmare simulation leapt up to meet my height.

It squeezed me by the throat, sent a tendril from its stomach straight through my gut, and slammed me all the way back down to the ground.

“Ugh…” I groaned, trying to push myself back up, only for the simulation to slam a massive spiked hammer down on me.

“Be more aggressive. Don’t give your opponent any breathing room,” Cornelius instructed.

The simulation then grabbed me by the ankle, before trying to yank me up and down into the ground, behind him. Instead, though, I sliced off his arm, flew away, transformed both my arms into hand cannons, and flew around the simulation as I hit it with a barrage of plasma rounds.

Clearly frustrated, the simulation grunted, raised his currently regenerating arm, and as it fully reached its highest point, the arm finished healing, allowing it to snap my fingers, causing my jet boots to change into dust.

As soon as I processed what happened, I used my magic to teleport back to the ground, only for a foot to slam into my face, sending me flying backwards.

I quickly transformed my arms into swords, and stabbed them into the ground, stopping me dead in my tracks.

“W-What the hell was t-that C-Cornelius?!”

“Don’t worry. You’ll get your jet boots back once the simulation ends. Just needed a way to showcase Knightmare’s ability to turn inanimate objects to dust.”

Then, I stood up again, I saw…

Steve?

No… no, not him. Anybody but him. It’s one thing to fight a simulation of my father, but… Steve?! I can’t…

“Oh. By the way. Knightmare likes to transform his appearance to resemble those you love during battle. Mostly just to mess with you.”

A swarm of bats flew from the fake Steve’s stomach, coming over to scratch my face, whilst also clouding my vision.

I tried shooing and swatting them away, but that didn’t work. So, unable to think of anything else, I covered my ears as red electricity shot out from every direction, creating an incredibly loud, ear-piercing sound which forced the bats to fly away.

I smiled proudly, turning around only to see the fake Steve, a sword in hand, run up and through my stomach.

I dropped to my knees, and the simulation walked in front of me, showing its imposing force. It looked down at me, like it was judging me… then, it pulled its sword back, charging it up, then tried ramming it through my chest.

But, before it killed me, the light forming the simulation faded, turning it back into the wires and panels I first saw when I entered the room.

I continued to stay on my knees, thinking only about what had just happened. Not paying attention to any of my senses. Especially not when a door opened behind me.

“Rowan?! Are you okay?!” Cornelius yelled, rushing in front of me and crouching down to meet eye level with me.

When I didn’t reply, he thought for a moment, then punched me across the face, snapping me out of my trance with a blunt, rough pain.

“You nearly died, kid! You’re lucky I shut off the simulation in time!”

…

“Good. I deserve to die…”

Cornelius sighed, stood up, and began pondering as he sat back in a chair that was quickly formed by his pink tendrils.

“You have no idea what it’s like to deserve to die. Fine. You know what? I’ll tell you the why I aim for nothing but to kill Knightmare. Why I’m a monster…”

I looked up, and said “Y-You don’t h-have to…”

“No, I clearly do. You need to know what it truly takes to be a monster…”

Cornelius sighed, and leaned all the way back into the chair, staring up at the ceiling.

“Knightmare… created the Knumans, long ago. Even though he’s used us as slaves, I… have never been truly sure why he created us, but… I do know one thing…”

“I was the first ever Knuman. And, because of that fact… he made me a representative on the Grim Reaper council for all Knumans. I was… their voice.”

“Because of my power, my status, I managed to meet a female Grim Reaper. We fell in love with each other immediately. We were… the first ever Grim Reaper-Knuman couple. Which… admittedly made things difficult. But, eventually… we had a child.”

Cornelius transformed into his Knuman form, and his voice started to choke.

“Everything felt perfect, until… I was fired. Knightmare… fired me. Naturally, I was furious. So… I tried to get revenge.”

“O-oh… m-maybe… there w-was a reason he f-fired you? D-did… did he s-say why?”

…

“No. And, honestly… after what happened next… I don’t give a damn why.”

“I met him on the site where his father, Modsil, died… and he gave me this knife,” Cornelius continued shamefully, looking down at the knife in his hands.

“Then, he told me… ‘I wonder how your family’s doing.’ He then disappeared, so, following my instincts, I rushed home, and once I got there… I saw my wife, holding our baby…”

Carnage stopped again. So, I leaned forward, trying to touch his hand with mine, but he pulled it back before I could.

“I s-saw…” he said, choking on his words again, “A black dahlia birthmark, on her neck… the same birthmark as Knightmare’s…”

“O-oh… n-no… you d-didn’t…”

“I did. I… turns out… that was my wife… it was all a deception. I… she’s dead, because of me!”

“I-I… can’t even I-Imagine…”

“Wanna know the worst part?” Carnage asked, anger rising in his voice as he stood up from his chair.

“I fought him, trying to get revenge, as he held our baby… taunting me… acting as if he was gonna raise him after I was dead… and then…”

“I-I… I’m afraid t-to know…”

“You have to. I’ve told you this much already… I might as well.”

Carnage took a moment, say down to gather his words, then he spoke again.

“The battle resulted in the three of us crashing into various parts of this universe… which means my baby might be out there. I’ve been searching, and searching, planet to planet… but nothing yet. I… failed the both of them…”

…

“W-Wait a minute…”

Carnage perked up.

“What? Do you know something? Tell me! Please,” he yelled, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me.

“A-Alright! Just… s-stop shaking me!”

“Right,” Carnage said, letting me go as he sat back.

“I-I… first, w-what should I know a-about Knumans that makes them… d-different, from Grim Reapers?”

“Hmm… well, aside from the fact that Grim Reapers are basically Knumans but with more powers… Knumans are more solid or liquified, while Grim Reapers are usually always made of gases. Which includes when they transform. They are always see-through, unlike Knumans, who are never transparent.”

Huh… that’s weird.

What is? Pemo asked.

My father’s a Grim Reaper… and I’ve never been able to see through him.

“Do you… have you seen any Knumans?”

“U-Umm… n-not really… b-but I’ve h-heard about one…”

“B-Back in the early d-days of my father’s a-army, w-when we were fight Creation Town… t-there was this soldier on the enemy side… a p-powerful one… strong enough t-to take on thousands if not m-millions of soldiers at once…”

“Dammit. Why didn’t Robert tell me about this,” Carnage mumbled, “He knew my story… why’d he keep this a secret from me?”

…

“I-I’m not… sure…”

With a long, tired sigh, Carnage eventually said “You should go. Continue your… mission. We’ll talk later.”

“A-alright,” I said, before walking to the door.

Just before leaving the room, I made one last look at Carnage, who transformed back into Cornelius, still slouching forward and holding his hands interlocked with each other… thinking.

I felt bad… I couldn’t believe my father would do something like that.

Yeah… some people are fucked up.