Zephyr is devastated. Unable to cry, to process what just happened. Eyes wide open. He keeps falling, soon reaching the ground.
Eylventh's cries leaves behind it a defining silence. The beast takes a pause, as if it reflects the actions it caused.
Riley and Alister both let go of Amy and get up, slowly and painfully. The scientist can only look down in dismay.
Even Amy's expression changes to something that is closer to melancholy than anything else.
"It seems, their duel has ended", expresses Amy.
She hears a cut and dry "No" from the assassin's moyth. Alister grabs his katana and marches forward. Electric particles are going amok around the assassin's body.
"Alister Crow, I suggest you stand ba-." Amy gets zapped by electricity as she tries to approach him. This paralyses her, forcing the cyborg woman to sit still. To express the utter dismay she feels, only her eyes widen as big as a clementine. The rest of her facial features remains as still and lifeless.
"You won't stop me." Responds the hunter.
Alister runs past her, as his speed increases unlike anything he's ever achieved beforehand. He gets hit by a migraine, his new eyesight causing chaos in his mental. He endures the hurt, biting his tongue and staring at Nil with maliciousness. At this point, Alister just wants to vent. He wants to make a tantrum of his own.
The hunter is filled with this electric aura around him, glowing an eye-piercing yellow as lightning emanates from his skin, his armor, his sword. He's filled with this vibrant energy. He's running so fast Melvin doesn't have the time to react to his left leg getting slashed off. Alister digs through his other leg.
He leaves a trail of heat that melts the rock his feet touches.
Eylventh is left witnessing this blistering light dash, as the beast tries in vain to catch Alister. The human is going so fast that it's impossible to track. From the outside in, it looks like stars are evaporating around the gigantic creature. Each swing of the katana is imprecise and sloppy. A hundred sloppy slices every second. Cuts and bruises are going so fast that Nil's healing abilities are unable to keep up against the speed of the hunter.
In the mists of failing to defend itself, Melvin lets go of the bullfrog's corpse. Alister notices and decides to dash at both it andEylventh, bringing them back to safety, in the hands of the doctor.
Alister had the time to do all this before Zephyr falls on the floor.
"Doc, you do something about those creatures, I'll deal with the-!"
Alister can't finish his sentence before his head splitting migraine hits him like a truck. He starts seeing double, his eyes shutting down. He immediately falls on his knees and spews blood in dangerous quantity. He's about to pass out.
"F-FUCK NO! N-NOT NOW!!" The assassin screams, relentless.
Zephyr is still in shambles. He remains on the floor, sitting with the realization, the disbelief, the horror. Even when he was finally able to get out of his own ass and do something to help, for once. The one time he rises to the occasion and goes to save someone, he fails. They say third time's the charm. Can Zephyr even believe in this theory anymore. Undeniable emotions start to arise within. They are overpowering. His skin starts to crack again.
Melvin, despite the brutal damage, crawls on the floor towards its next victims. Eylventh stands between the corpse of its companion and the doctor, facing headfirst Melvin as it approaches them with killing intent.
"... Sorry, Alister." Rambles the child. "Sorry Riley. Sorry Eylventh. I failed… I fucking failed" Exclaims the young man, crying. "I failed once… I WON'T FAIL AGAIN!!!" Rages out loud the young boy.
Everyone heard that.
They see the gravity of the situation. Zephyr looks at Melvin. He gets up, a hard task is for his arms haven't recovered and are still cinder. Melvin's dragging itself towards his comerades, insatiable. The young man would rather pretend all of this is just a bad dream. He knows that this is real. His senses are not tricking him. He can feel his skin crack.
That's when he walks towards the beast. Determination.
He doesn't say a word.
His skin cracks some more.
"YOU FOOL!" Screams the scientist. "COME BACK TO YOUR SENSES! DO NOT DO THIS! YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!"
Amy has nothing of substances to add to Riley's warnings. Her emotions are soft, almost hidden. It resembles surprise.
"...Interesting specimen." She Speaks.
"I will let you know that THIS KID IS NO SPECIMEN!"
"Rich coming from you Riley-." Retorts Alister.
"SILENCE, ALISTER! NOW IS NOT THE TIME! ZEPHYR! ZEPHYR, MON DIEU!"
The scientist's ear busting pleas doesn't reach the blacksmith. Zephyr strolls down the bottom of the pit, with Melvin still crawling away from him with its only good arm. It looks angry, deranged. It can no longer speak proper words, just this low scream. The predator hasn't spoken its final words.
It leaves a trail of destruction towards the garden, crushing leaves and flowers on its path.
"Follow me, behind the walls", Orders Amy.
She proceeds to walk towards the massive stone wall sitting behind them. Riley is in disbelief.
"So, we are just going to leave the boy to die, after we had to do the same to Urth!?"
Eylventh is not pleased with this mention. Before it can snap the doctor's head, Alister grabs it by the tail and forces Eylventh to remain by his side. The assassin smirks.
"Fuckhead, you worry too much for your own good. It's Zeph we're talking about. He went through a lot of bullshit. We went through a lot of bullshit. I can't see much, and I think Eylventh don't need to see no more, so stop. Let him do his thing."
Alister just walks out from the doctor, keeping Eylventh from tearing apart its own creator. It has been a long time since that kind of sorrow hit Riley with such impact. He starts laughing when he realizes it's only been a few days since the last breakdown. It felt like weeks, months, years even. He then turns around back towards Melvin. He can faintly see it now, behind the creature.
A glow, an intense dark orange that resembles the sunset. Zephyr melts the floor with every step he takes.
The body temperature of the child is so hot the doctor can see the air dancing like waves in the distance. The heat gets intense to the point he starts to sweat too.
For the doctor, that is the last straw.
He grabs the corpse of Urth and follows Alister towards the back of that wall. He looks back at the dead body of the bullfrog that weights a ton. A life uselessly thrown and lost. Riley knows better than anybody the hypocrisy of feeling sorry towards something he caused.
Still, if Urth was alive, it too wouldn't need to see what is about to happen.
It's when in front of the entrance to this wall, that Riley shares one last look at Melvin. It keeps crawling, unaware of the downfall this is following it from behind. Of the trilogy of animals that was Nil, Eylventh and Urth, the cat was a curious specimen. Always present, constantly nagging its master with affection. Constantly seeking its's creator, a child seeking a loving parental figure, something close to a father, a mother. Why was that boy abandoned in Old York is none of the doctor's business. It surely has connections to whatever is happening. Tired of being left alone. Tired of feeling at fault for it being abandoned. Lashing out. In different manners, Riley J. Smith did the same. He's ready to leave this part behind.
Sharing one last tear for the cat with a submachine gun attached to its tail, he lets it fall on the ground.
"Goodbye, young boy. Go to sleep now." Whispers with pain the scientist, before moving inside the wall.
Zephyr mumbles to himself.
"If I can explode multiple times, then that means I have the ability to do one super explosion, right? this also means that after that one I'm literally burnt to a crisp and can't do shit. Got it. Great, just… That's fantastic. At the end of the day, I couldn't really be bothered to try and tell him the truth. I mean I get that I was lost for words but how the hell am I good enough to tell that to Alister, huh?? But what the hell we're you thinking man!? For crying out loud, I am going to explode, probably die, then they will be free to become fodder to this horrible woman. She is horrible, I mean, she controlled two massive robots and then vanished instead of helping. She's hiding something. This is her playground.... Playground...I got to blow this whole place up. That's..."
Zephyr keeps the thoughts jingle in his head, bouncing in his grey matter in all different directions as his entire body turns into a giant light.
Nil realizes what is going to happen, but it cannot run. Too hurt to heal.
Nil was made to conquer, not retreat.
Zephyr's light shines through the wall of protection his comrades lie beneath.
"I WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!"
The young blacksmith yells as he looks up to the sky, opening his whole body and his lungs, releasing as much tension as possible.
What results is a split second of blinding light to Melvin, followed by the creature getting swallowed in a colossal explosion. Melvin is too late to register what is happening, as its whole body disintegrates into dust. The magnitude of this detonation vibrates the whole pit and breaks through the walls, interacting with the veins of the Bottomless Pit. This time, it is a much more violent reaction, with the veins glowing and stretching to what seems like the top of the pit itself.
The explosion expends a bit, but stops before it reaches a few centimeters of the barrier.