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Mike's moment of assessing the new anomaly cost him. A whisper of air, a complete absence of scent until it was upon him. He threw himself sideways.
The Silent Knight's blade sheared through the branch where his head had been. Mike rolled, coming up to face this new opponent. No fanatic glare, no taunts. Just a blank, featureless mask and an economy of movement that screamed lethal efficiency. Their blades met, and Mike knew he was outmatched in technique and advantage. He was forced back, parrying frantically with both arms; the good and the injured; boots scraping toward the outcrop's edge.
"Your struggle is admirable. But ultimately meaningless."
Valerius's voice. Mike risked a glance. 'Ral' stood on a higher ledge. With a deliberate motion, he peeled the ID Mask from his face. It came away with a soft fizzle, revealing sharp, pale features and cold blue eyes. He discarded the mask.
"Look upon the face of your failure," Valerius said, his voice now his own, cultured and cruel.
"This is the last visage you will see. Remember it as you die knowing your precious Scouts could not save even a handful of children from a necessary cleansing."
Mike swung wide, aiming to cleave the mask in two; the Knight ducked, countering with a thrust that grazed Mike's thigh, tearing muscle in a hot line of pain. Mike grunted as he staggered, his boot slipping on loose rock dangerously near the edge. The drop yawned behind him, a black abyss promising broken bones and death.
The Knight pressed, blades crossing for a decapitating strike. Mike raised his sword to block, but his strength was fading, the wound sapping his power—
"I'm afraid I have to disagree on that point of yours."
The voice cut through the night like a shard of ice; deep, resonant, echoed from the shadows below. The Silent Knight paused for a fraction of a second, head tilting in silent query.
Valerius' blue eyes widened. "Who—?!"
Long diamond shards, dozens of them, shot up from the ground around the platform. They formed interlocking bars, a crystalline cage that encapsulated three Knights who had been moving to support the Silent Knight. The bars slammed together with resonant clangs, trapping the Knights in glittering prisons. They shouted, beating against the diamond, but it didn't so much as scratch.
Knights on the ground found their weapons pinned to trees by crystalline spikes. Those trying to flank found their paths blocked by sudden diamond walls. One Knight, aiming a crossbow at a cluster of cowering cadets, had his weapon encased in a solid diamond block that fused to his hands.
From the shadows below the platform, a figure leaped. It didn't use anchors or wires; it simply jumped, clearing the twenty-foot height in a single bound. The figure reached the apex of its jump and landed on the platform with a thud that made the wooden structure groan. The impact was heavy, solid, the landing of something with immense mass.
As it rose, it crossed its arms over its chest.
Mike, who was on one knee, looked up.
The creature stood between him and the Silent Knight. It was humanoid, about two and a half meters tall, with a powerful, broad-shouldered build. Its entire body appeared to be composed of interlocking green crystal facets, each one gleaming with internal light. Where a face should be was a smooth plane of emerald diamond, with two equally glowing green eyes. Its hands ended in crystalline claws, two spikes protruding from its back and more crystal shards spiked around its arms and shoulders.
Mike's nostrils flared involuntarily. The scent was unmistakable now up close—sharp, clean, mineral. Exactly like Hange's shard, but amplified, alive. This is it. The Crystal Titan. The one told from Shinganshina.
The Silent Knight, for the first time, took a deliberate step back. Not in fear, but in reassessment. His head tilted slightly, the blank mask regarding the new arrival.
Valerius recovered from his surprise, his expression twisting into a snarl of rage. "Another abomination! These filths are producing endlessly!" He drew his blade. "Deal with this walking gemstone! I'll finish the beast-hunter—"
He never got the chance.
Obsidian; Eren; moved. He didn't step; he shifted, his crystalline body flowing forward. One massive, gemstone hand shot out, not at Valerius, but at the space beside him.
Diamond spikes erupted from the platform floor, aiming to encase Valerius's legs. The Knight-commander was fast, dodging backward with a swordsman's grace. But he dodged right into Mike's reach.
Mike, despite the pain in his arm, saw the opening. As Valerius retreated from the crystals, his back was momentarily exposed. Mike lunged from his kneeling position, putting all his weight, all his remaining strength, into a single upward thrust. His sword, a standard-issue Survey Corps blade, aimed for the base of Valerius's skull.
Valerius sensed it at the last possible instant. He twisted, a desperate, contorted motion.
The blade missed his spine. Instead, it ripped upward across the side of his face.
The sound was wet, sickening. A pop, like a grape being crushed. A shriek tore from Valerius's throat; high, utterly devoid of all dignity or control. Mike's sword had caught him across the right eye. The blade scraped along the orbital bone, and the eye itself... burst. Vitreous fluid and blood sprayed in a fine mist. Valerius stumbled back, clutching his face, screams devolving into guttural, animalistic sounds of agony.
"MY EYE! YOU FILTHY ANIMAL! MY EYE!"
Obsidian turned his gaze from the writhing Valerius to the Silent Knight, then to Mike. Mike had staggered to his feet, sword held ready but wavering. He was bleeding from his swounds, and he was facing two unknown entities; one a crystalline monster, the other a silent killing machine.
The green glowing eyes on Obsidian's face regarded him. Mike could almost feel the assessment.
"What the hell are you?" Mike growled, his voice raw. "And what do you want?"
Before Obsidian could respond, movement. The Silent Knight, seizing the moment of distraction, moved. But not toward Mike or Obsidian. He ran along the diamond bars of the cage Obsidian had created, using them as stepping stones, his movements a blur of impossible agility. In two steps he was above Obsidian, dual swords descending in a scissor-cut aimed at the junction between the crystal being's head and shoulders.
Obsidian didn't look up. One crystalline arm shot upward and grew in size, not to block, but to intercept. The swords struck the arm with a sound like diamond being struck with steel hammers; sharp, ringing, but with no effect. The blades didn't chip, didn't scratch the crystal; they simply bounced off.
Then Obsidian's hand closed around the Silent Knight's torso. Not a grab, but an engulfment. Crystalline fingers, each as thick as a man's wrist, wrapped around the Knight and slammed him against the thick central post of the platform. The impact shook the entire structure.
The Silent Knight struggled, a terrifying display of strength. He managed to wrench one arm free, his sword flashing as he began hacking at Obsidian's imprisoning hand. Each strike rang like a bell, sparks flying where steel met diamond. But the crystal didn't crack, didn't flake. It was utterly impenetrable. The Knight switched tactics, stabbing at the joints between crystal facets, searching for a weakness that didn't exist.
Obsidian watched this, his head tilted. A toned filtered voice emerged from him. "Persistent." His thoughts were caught off by the loud roar echoing from below. Right, about that…
The crystalline head turned to Mike. "Can you handle this one? I have... other business."
Mike stared, his mind reeling. The crystal monster was talking to him. Asking for his help. Or at least, for him to take over an opponent. He glanced at the Silent Knight, still struggling, still stabbing with mechanical determination. Then at Valerius, who was clutching his ruined face and hissing in pain. Then down at the quad, where the Vulpimancer was still raging, and where cadets were most likely still dying.
He made a decision. He gave a single, sharp nod. A temporary alliance. An enemy of my enemy.
Obsidian nodded back, a slight dip of that crystalline head.
"Good. Don't die."
Then he released the Silent Knight, shoving him toward Mike before leaping off the platform, dropping toward the quad below with the heavy certainty of a meteor.
Mike faced the Silent Knight, who landed in a crouch, swords ready. The Knight's mask gave nothing away, but Mike could feel the focus shifting entirely to him now. The quiet between them was heavier than any battlefield shout.
Down on the field, the Vulpimancer had cleared an area, earlier one boy brave enough tried to fire his anchors at the beast; but they passed through its intangible form harmlessly. It solidified, jaws snapping then severed his arm at the elbow, blood fountaining as he plummeted, clutching the stump. It looked around the area, scanning for prey…but there was none again.
Obsidian landed in the center of the quad with an impact that sent cracks spiderwebbing through the packed earth, his focus entirely on the Vulpimancer. The beast was thirty feet away, crouched over the body of a Knight it had just disemboweled. Its purple fur was matted with blood and dirt, the V-shaped patterns along its spine strobing erratically between deep blue and blinding white. The parasite within glowed fiercely, visible through translucent skin as a segmented centipede of light wrapped around its organs. It was panting, sides heaving, but its five good eyes burned with feral intelligence. The sixth eye; a woman of wall Sina had injured days before; had partially regenerated into a milky, glowing orb that swept the battlefield with malevolent light.
Obsidian took a step forward. His crystalline feet made soft crunching sounds on the debris-strewn ground.
The Vulpimancer's head snapped up. All five eyes fixed on him. For a moment, there was nothing; just assessment. Then...
The change was instant and terrifying.
The Vulpimancer didn't growl. It didn't snarl. It let out a sound Eren had never heard from any creature; a high, keening whine that bordered on a scream, layered with such profound, soul-deep terror that it raised the hairs on the back of his neck even through the Omnitrix's transformation.
The beast scrambled backward, claws tearing gouges in the earth. Its fur stood on end. The strobing patterns on its body went haywire, flashing random colors; blue, white, even sickly green. The parasite within writhed violently, as if in sympathetic agony.
Then the whine cut off. Replaced by something worse: utter, dead silence. The Vulpimancer went perfectly still. Its eyes, all five of them, locked on Obsidian's crystalline form. Not on him as a threat, not as prey. On the material.
The crystal. The green crystal. The same as the merchant. The same as the one who sold it. The one who took his pack. The one who delivered them to the white room and the pain and the cold clicking voice and—
Memories flashed through the Vulpimancer's consciousness: the Petrosapien merchant, its faceted form, standing beside Psychobos as credits changed hands. The last thing it saw of the free world before the cage door closed…
…And that same being was standing right in front of it. Ready to take it back to that wretched place!!!
With a roar that was trauma given physical form, the Vulpimancer launched itself not at Obsidian, but through him. It phased, becoming a blur of distorted air and malevolent light, rematerializing behind the crystal giant.
"What the-!"
Obsidian spun, but not fast enough. Claws sheathed in superheated air raked across his back with a sound like screeching metal on diamond. No damage, but the impact shoved him forward.
Eren inside Obsidian grunted, more from surprise than pain. 'It's fast. And it's not just mad… it's desperate.'
The fight was a brutal whirlwind. The Vulpimancer used its phasing not with cunning, but with frenzied, unpredictable aggression; striking from all sides, a phantom made of teeth and superheated fury. Obsidian was an immovable fortress, but the beast's speed and desperation were staggering. Blow after blow rang against diamond, each impact sending tremors through the ground. The Vulpimancer wasn't trying to win; it was trying to annihilate the living symbol of its damnation.
Eren's anger was beginning to heat. He saw the cadet's bodies with every turn. Heard the echoes of their screams with every clash. The reports, the slaughters…This thing was a butcher. A monster… Just like Zs'Skayr.
He maneuvered it, using his own unyielding bulk to dictate the dance of destruction, backing the creature toward the ruined wall of a storage shed. Cornered, the Vulpimancer let out another of those piercing, terrified whines before launching a final, reckless charge.
This time, Obsidian was ready. He didn't block. He intercepted.
As the beast leaped, jaws wide enough to swallow a man's head, Obsidian's hands shot out. One massive crystal palm smacked upward, knocking the jaw shut with a CRACK of teeth on teeth. The other hand seized the thick scruff of its neck.
"That's ENOUGH!" The filtered voice boomed from Obsidian.
Using the beast's own momentum against it, Obsidian spun and slammed the Vulpimancer bodily into the stone wall.
BOOM.
Dust and chips of rock exploded. The Vulpimancer slumped, dazed as its phasing flickering uselessly. Before it could recover, Obsidian's other hand shot forward. From his fingertips and the ground at the beast's feet, diamond spikes erupted. They didn't impale. They encircled, weaving together in a lattice of brilliant green crystal, pinning the creature against the wall; a glittering, unbreakable cage holding its limbs and torso fast.
The Vulpimancer struggled wildly, but its movements were hampered, trapped. It was snared.
Obsidian took a final step forward, looming over the restrained beast. Inside, Eren's fury was a cold, sharp thing. He looked at the creature; this murderous, phasing horror that had turned children into meat; and he saw another ghost. A different set of glowing eyes; an eerie feeling akin to a certain purple eyed monster. The feeling of his own hand moving against his will. The violation.
The filtered voice that emerged from Obsidian was low, resonant, and carried a venom Eren didn't know he possessed.
"Not so fun when you're the one trapped, is it?"
The Vulpimancer's struggles ceased for a moment. All five of its good eyes were fixed on him, wide and white-rimmed. The regenerated sixth orb pulsed with sickly light. Its chest heaved. That wasn't just rage in its gaze. It was pure, animal terror. It wasn't looking at a captor; it was looking at the architect of its nightmares, returned to finish the job.
Eren saw it. The fear was unmistakable. And for a second, it felt good. After the helplessness Zs'Skayr had inflicted on him, after the carnage this beast had wrought, having it scared, cornered, at his mercy… it was a dark, satisfying heat in his chest.
His right arm shifted. The crystalline structure flowed, reconfigured, the forearm sharpening and extending into a long, vicious, diamond-edged blade. It caught the moonlight, throwing off a deadly green gleam.
"I can't let you roam free," Obsidian's voice stated, flat and final. "Not after everything you've done. Not after everything he did."
The blade rose, poised for a single, cleaving strike at the junction of the beast's neck and shoulder. To end it. To finally put down a monster. To make one more thing in this nightmare world stay down.
The Vulpimancer let out a shuddering whimper, pressing itself back against the wall as far as the crystal bars would allow, its eyes screwed shut. Waiting for the end.
'Kill it. It's a weapon. It's a murderer. It's just like him. Kill it and the nightmare stops.'
Then, another voice cut through the red haze in his mind. Softer. Smarter. Fearful not of the monster, but of the mystery.
"Eren, listen to me. If we find it, we can't just attack. We don't know what it is. We don't know if it's like Phantom, if it can be… reasoned with. If it's scared. Our job isn't to be the executioner. Our job is to be the first to understand. That's how we win. Not with more killing, but with knowing."
…Armin.
The memory was a punch to the gut. The plan. The real plan. Not the vengeful fantasy playing out in his head. Observe. Understand…
Understand huh?
He looked at his bladed hand. Then at the terrified, whimpering creature cringing away from it. He saw the glowing thing on its chest, the unnatural sigils, the wounds that had been brutally cauterized. This…definitely wasn't a natural animal. It was something that had been hurt too. By people? Or by something else?
Just like it had hurt others.
But killing it now wouldn't answer why. It wouldn't bring back the dead. It would just be him, giving in to the cycle, becoming another thing that ended lives in the dark. Zs'Skayr would have killed it without a thought. Was that who he wanted to be?
The cold fury drained away, leaving a hollow, weary resolve. The diamond blade rippled, softened, and retracted, his arm returning to its normal shape.
"No," Eren muttered to himself, the word lost in Obsidian's resonant echo. "Not like this."
Eren approached the makeshift cage closer. The Vulpimancer stilled its body unable to move, all five eyes fixed on him, lips pulled back in a continuous snarl. It was panting hard now, exhaustion starting to set in on top of the adrenaline and terror.
"Hey," Eren said through Obsidian's voice filter, keeping his tone low, calm. "Easy. I'm not going to hurt you."
The Vulpimancer responded by clawing against its restraints again, howling.
"I don't know why you're so afraid of me, or attacking these people, but…I'm not your enemy." Another snarl, another attempt to phase through, another failure as the diamond seemed to disrupt its phasing ability.
Eren watched it struggle. He saw the way it looked at his crystal form—not with predator's focus, but with something humanely akin to terror. He needed to communicate. But how? Obsidian was strength and durability, not empathy. He needed a different approach. Something that could speak on this creature's level.
The Vulpimancer was weakening. Its attacks against the diamond holds were becoming less forceful. The glowing parasite within was pulsing erratically, as if stressed. The beast was trapped, terrified, and running out of energy.
Eren made his decision.
He took a single step back from the cage. The brilliant green light erupted from Obsidian's chest. The formidable crystal form began to dissolve, facets peeling away into emerald motes. Where the imposing, judgmental crystal giant had stood, a new form coalesced, landing in a crouch on the churned earth.
Savage raised his shaggy orange head, blind eyes seeing the world in a symphony of vibration and scent. He was smaller, bestial, powerful. And he carried no trace of the crystalline structure that had triggered a lifetime of trauma.
He let out a low, rumbling chuff. Not a growl. Not a challenge. An inquiry. A greeting, in the language of beasts.
The Vulpimancer went utterly still. Its five eyes widened. The snarls and whimper died on its lips. Its head tilted, confused. The scent was different now. Not crystal, not mineral. Musky. Primal. Familiar.
Not merchant. Not crystal. Pack-brother?...Cub?
Savage chuffed again, softer this time. He took a slow, careful step forward, making no sudden movements.
The Vulpimancer didn't struggle in its restraints again. It watched, its trauma-induced rage bleeding away, replaced by instinctual confusion. The glowing parasite within calmed, its pulse slowing to a steady, almost hesitant rhythm.
For the first time since it had arrived on this world, the Vulpimancer was facing not a crystal merchant, not a human soldier, not an avenging angel… but something that spoke to its most basic, genetic understanding of the world.
Something that might, just possibly, be kin.
Chapter 27-31 are already available on Patreon.com/Weeb Fanthom.