Face of Eternity : The Little Angel

When we ran back outside, we saw that the funnel cloud over the center of the city was getting violent. Dark energy was churning around it, like arms mixing up an evil soup.

Mella followed us out. As she left the beam chamber, all three towers went dark.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I stabbed the Reaper with my spear, but then he turned into this star thing and flew up into the sky.” I pointed to the funnel cloud.

If I had to take a guess, he was probably evolving for phase 2, and Mella agreed.

“He has cocooned himself in the all the stolen mana, changing as we speak. I do not know what will happen after that.”

If he wasn’t scary before...

“Maybe all that mana is turning him back to his old self before he became a demon?” I suggested, hoping that this might turn out in our favour.

CRASH! BOOM! CRACKLE!

Horrendously powerful lighting struck all over, constantly sending flashes of red light across the whole sky. Not a good omen.

“Fat chance,” Indena said. “Why’d this jerk decide to come out now, anyways? Took him long enough to actually get to a city like this, right?”

“The Reaper was dormant in Esma for some time," Mella said. "It is provoked by those with no divine watching over them. Clearly, this city has never lacked more faith then now...much like this the fire mage here.” Melpomene pointed to Indena.

“You're right, but screw you,” Indena remarked.

Melpomene chortled in the driest tone I’d ever heard. “That was a joke. Strangely, this one has divine protection. Albeit, very weak.”

Indena? Divine protection? How was that possible? I thought Indena pretty much said she didn’t worship anything.

“Stop joking, you suck at it.” Indena said.

“No. That part was not a joke. The goddess Amat…” Her eyes shot wide. “Yes, yes…I will not speak any more. Forgive me.”

Was she talking to us, or someone else with that apology? Maybe it was those spirits.

"Bull!" Indena spit, pointing a thumb to her chest. "Nobody looks after me."

So, if Indena shockingly wasn’t the one to bring out this trouble, who was? We were the only two people in the valley when that happened. Maybe Mella was there too, but she seemed to have her bases covered, spiritually speaking.

“You gonna’ blame Yamin for this? Isn't that why you were in the valley, to kill her?”

“No, not Yamin.” She shook her head.

“Was there anyone else in the valley?” Indena asked.

“Supposedly, yes,” Mella nodded. “But I did not see them. He fled moments before you two arrived.”

When the heck was she going to tell us that part? This person might have been responsible for all of this! Especially the fact that Indena and I ended up in the valley at all.

“He wouldn’t have happened to be manipulating mana streams, would he?” I asked.

“Yes, he was,” she nodded. “I originally came to the valley to see what he was doing, but I couldn’t confirm anything before he left.”

I knew it! Call it a hunch, or maybe a stretch, but maybe this was that evil hacker god that I hated so much. The very same guy who’d been responsible for corrupting Anima last year. It would make sense that he'd send us to the valley to try and kill us before we could reach daddy.

“Shrimp, what are you getting at?”

“I think this guy is responsible for bringing us to the valley,” I stated.

My guess was that he must have manipulated the portal network to send everyone to that location. That’s likely how we ended up there. That might have something to do with how Yamin and Marek ended up in the valley too. But the weird thing was that the portal networks were down when they appeared, at least the main ones.

There was a lot here we didn’t know, and for the most part it was irrelevant until we took down the Reaper, which was priority one.

“We can figure this out later,” I said. “How long do we have before the Reaper is done evolving?”

VROOOM

I found my answer when we heard a thunderous growl from the sky.

The transformation had been complete. Another growl ripped through the air. It sounded like…a motorcycle!?

“What the hell was that?”

Light shot down from the funnel cloud in the sky, blazing toward the ground with a yellow hue. Something descended from the center. I used my telescopic sight to see that it was definitely the demon, but he was riding a motorcycle!

His motorcycle looked a little like a skeletal horse with spikes on its head. It even made noises like it too, but mixed with engine sounds. To top it all off, he was wearing a vest with skulls and weirdly coloured flag patches all over it, along with a helmet and armour with spikes too.

"What the heck!" I shouted. "He looks like some edgy biker dude!"

“This is…unexpected…” Melpomene uttered. “So, this is the image he’s taken to.”

The Reaper Mk 2 revved up his engine, letting out a whaling screech into the air. Once he touched down on Main Street, his front tire lit up with a blue flame and he full throttled his way down the road.

“How do we stop that guy?” I asked.

Melpomene tossed down her broom and gestured for us to get on. “Hit the engine just right, then the iron horse will temporarily die.”

So, a well-placed hit to the engine would damage the motorcycle…that was good enough for me.

But then I realized, I was out of strength.

After fighting the Reaper, my combat system efficiency tanked all the way down to 3%. I was dead tired.

“Crud…” I grumbled as I struggled to stay standing. All my exhaustion hit at once. “Sorry, I can’t do much…”

“Nah, let me handle it.” Indena lit up her flame aura. “You’ve done more than enough for now.”

“I shall aid the fire mage as well by flying her close to him,” Mella announced.

“Ugh…I don’t wanna ride this broom again…” Indena said as she mounted the broom stick. “I’m still pulling splinters out of my butt from last time.”

“That’s a lie, because it was glossed recently.” Mella defended her broom with a very proud tone.

"It was glossed recently..." Indena mocked her.

I also climbed aboard the broom too.

“You want some too, Shrimp? I thought you were tired.”

“You’ll need my help if you want to aim at these speeds.”

Even without my combat systems, I could calculate the trajectory she’d need to hit the engine with a fireball. I just couldn’t be the one to throw it.

Melpomene nodded. “Very well. You’ve proven that ability many times over.”

I wish I could have been the one throwing. I guess I wasn't so bad at it when my combat protocols were active. But since Indena was the only one with an ounce of physical strength left in her, this was about as good a set up as it got.

Melpomene would be flying, I’d be aiming, and Indena would be throwing.

“Alright everyone, Stardust Warriors go!” I announced and pointed forward.

“No! No! Don’t call us that!” Indena gave me a scowl. “Ah…to hell with it…Stardust Warriors, go!”

Yay! She accepted it!

We took off at mach speeds! The wind was crazy, but no matter how fast we went, the broom wouldn’t let us fall off. What a wild ride this was!

“Speaking of Stardust, Little One, create a spike for the fire mage. It will be the only thing to do damage.”

“Right!” I nodded, making a smooth stardust spike. I didn’t have much stardust left in me, so she had to make it count. Luckily, this was a small order.

Indena took hold of the glimmering spike and lit it on fire.

“I just need to hit the engine?” Indena shouted over the wind.

“Yes. I can’t promise many shots, so don’t miss,” Melpomene said.

“Same.” I said. “I’m almost tapped out of stardust.”

Mella went back to focusing on controlling her broomstick, getting us close to the destructive Reaper as he rolled over cars and concrete. Down the road he went, unrelenting in his chaotic drive.

Something was odd about the Reaper Mk2’s path. He looked like he was heading straight for mount Inai.

“Mella, where is he going?”

“The Reaper desires life force, and that is the most concentrated amount of it around here. He will likely destroy the castle and steal everyone’s spirit.”

That wasn’t good! We had to get him before he got them.

Mella had to avoid a lot of debris being kicked up by the Reapers path of destruction. He was just steamrolling over skeletons, locusts and cars alike, destroying anything that got in his way. A blue flame was left in his wake.

We moved in close enough to make a shot. Indena lifted her arm to toss, and I began calculating the shot.

Click!

Oh no! He pulled out a revolver and aimed it at us!

BANG!

Mella just managed to dodge the bullet!

He fired off a few more rounds. Six in total! He then went to reload.

“This is our chance!” I shouted.

Indena reeled back her arm, then I took hold of it and once again calculated the exact trajectory we’d need to hit the engine. Lines and grids appeared all over my vision, giving a simulated view of the environment.

Indena was all shaky, I also noticed that her heart was racing. Those things were hard to account for in the simulation, but I managed, praying it wouldn’t get any worse.

Once I locked the trajectory in place, I moved Indena’s hand exactly where it’d need to be to hit the engine.

“Now!” I shouted.

Indena launched the flaming crystal spike into the air, but it hit the muffler!

“What gives? You missed it!” I said.

“Sorry I’m not a freakin' robot like you! This is tough, okay?! A lot of lives are at stake!”

“I’m not a robot!” I shouted, then formed a new spike. It was red, which meant I was running on empty.

Indena took the spike and reeled back her arm, but Mella had to pull us away from the Reaper.

BANG!

BANG BANG!

He’d been able to reload in that time. We had to wait for another opening.

“Don’t miss again!” Mella pointed to the castle on the mountain, which was getting very close. “We won’t get another shot!”

She was right. I calculated the time we’d have till he’d reach there and the time it took him to reload…the odds were slim. Plus he definitely figured out what we were up to, so he was taking a while to fire off all his bullets, just to make us uncertain when we’d get another shot.

Dang! This guy was smart.

“I know, I know! I won’t miss this time.” Indena got her game face on and focused on the objective. Her heartbeat eased and she wasn’t shaking anymore.

BANG BANG!

Just one more shot and we’d be in the clear.

Mella got in close to him, trying to antagonize the final bullet.

BANG!

Fwoosh!

A blur of blue blazed passed us and took the bullet! It was one of Mella’s giant hawks. Would that shot have hit us?

“Ready!” Mella shouted.

Once I calculated the throw, I set Indena up perfectly. She took aim and readied for Mella’s signal.

“Throw!”

Indena tossed!

BOOM!

A Direct hit!

The whole bike was in the air, sending the Reaper up along with it.

He and the bike came crashing down, tumbling across the road. He got up almost immediately and started picking up the pieces of his ride.

For some reason, he was taking the time to fix it up. It would have been the perfect time to attack him, but my SP was tapped out. No way I’d be able to spawn enough stardust to do any major damage.

All in all, we bought ourselves some time to prepare. I remembered Yamin still had stardust, so maybe we’d be able to use her power to finish off the demon.