The cave passage was filled with stone and rock on all sides, making it hard to see through. A small man with dark skin and scars across his face followed closely behind Parrot, Bear, and Owl.
Bear turned suddenly and punched the stone wall with all his strength, creating a loud crash.
"Parrot, you goddamn bitch, get rid of it already."
The sudden shout frightened the man. He fell down and began crawling back with tears forming in his eyes. Bear started walking toward the boy, and Owl followed slowly behind.
"Fine, I will do it."
"No, go kill yourself, Parrot. I will do it myself now."
Owl tapped Bear on his armor from behind. Bear paused, took a deep sigh of anger, and walked past the kid. Owl followed him away. As he left, Bear made sure to curse Parrot once more.
"Fucking dumb bitch, trying to play savior."
Saying that, both of them turned a corner and disappeared from sight.
Parrot unsheathed her sword, dragged the blade against the ground, and walked toward the frightened man on the floor.
The man stopped shaking. The wimpy voice he had been using disappeared, replaced by an expressionless face as he lay looking up at the dark ceiling.
"It seems a sleeper woke up in this place. He led the Nightmare Creature to where one of my clones was with another group. The creature killed them all while the Sleeper ran away."
Parrot stopped walking. She blinked a couple of times and sheathed her sword.
"You really just said Nightmare Creature. Since when did you become so formal?"
The clone went silent for a long moment, trying to think of a reply.
"That Sleeper just surprised me enough to change my settings back to default."
Parrot looked ahead to where Bear and Owl had gone, calculating how long it would take to catch up with them.
"Hawk, since your Flaw makes it so your Aspect Ability cannot be too far from your main body, what do you want me to do with this clone?"
Parrot waited for a reply, but she did not get a direct answer right away.
"The Sleeper reached my main body quite fast. It seems he did not wait to see what happened to the other bodies. I will only be able to talk when the main body goes silent, so stay for a moment."
Hawk was currently controlling five bodies at once. While only his main body had the aspect and the best physical traits, all the bodies shared memories.
"Parrot, this guy seems to be quite decent. Why don't we be greedy one more time?"
"What do you mean greedy?"
"Since you are all supposed to sacrifice yourselves, after which they will capture me and torture me for the Memory, why don't we just put this Sleeper there instead of ourselves? He seems like the type of person who can survive for a while."
Parrot sat on the ground and unsheathed her sword again.
"Bear and Owl would never agree to go against Lizard, let alone betray his orders."
She looked at the clone for a reply. The clone pointed to himself and made a talking motion with his fingers, signaling that his main body was currently speaking and he could not answer. A minute or two passed before he finally spoke again.
"Why don't we just kill Bear and Owl then?"
The sheer coldness of those words was enough to send chills through Parrot's body. She grabbed one of her own hands to stop herself from accidentally killing the clone before finishing their conversation.
"Owl taught me everything."
"He is also going to teach you how to dig your own grave."
"This is needed to change what it means to be [Trapped], Hawk."
"Parrot, are you saying that you are going to let others kill you just because you feel thankful?"
Parrot closed her eyes and stayed silent for a second.
"Even with my Aspect at its strongest, I will not be able to defeat Owl."
"Parrot, listen to me. When the Monster attacked one of my clones, we cornered it and pierced it with weapons. Then something interesting happened. It took over one of the people's bodies. We can make Bear kill himself against the monster by having the Sleeper lure it to us. Later on, Owl will have no choice but to sacrifice himself to make a deal with the Horror and let us get away, because I have the memory, not him."
Parrot looked down, her hands shaking a little.
"What if you are underestimating the Sleeper? If he ran away from the Monster and led it to the others, what if he is smart?"
A small laugh escaped Hawk.
"He is smart, there is no doubt about it. But are you saying he is smarter than me? Listen, Parrot. I might not know this Sleeper's full capabilities yet, but in the end of the day, he is still just a kid."
He looked at Parrot, stripping away all traces of humor.
"I am going to make him think that I am an abuser who leeches off others and boasts about being a leader when I do not have the strength to back it up. He will never figure out that I am a Cloner when all the clues point toward what I said earlier. Visual clues, such as the similarities between me and my clones, will easily fade away when another possibility seems far more likely."
Hawk pointed toward Parrot's sword and then to his own throat. Parrot approached him.
"I also changed the patterns of the torch used where the Sleeper passed through, just to get rid of any remaining clues."
Parrot's sword cut through the clone's neck. Without looking back, she ran in the direction where Bear and Owl had gone.
'Let us be greedy once more.'
***
Two arrows struck both of them in the side of the head, shattering through their eye sockets and protruding out the opposite side in a spray of blood.
'NOW'
Hawk reached deep within his essence, struggling with all his might to connect his falling body and Parrot's body to the clones in less than a second.
Hawk and Parrot's bodies fell lifelessly to the ground while Cow and Crow fell down frightened.
'IT WORKED'
Hawk's second Aspect Ability allowed him to transfer his life and the lives of others to his clones, provided the others agreed wholeheartedly without any regret.
Cow, who was now Hawk, and Crow, who was now Parrot, lay on the ground and began acting scared to further manipulate Kiyotaka.
Cow looked toward Kiyotaka with frightened eyes.
'You were a marvelous bastard. How you approached my clones as soon as you saw Parrot and me missing, forcing us to return so we could not strategize or talk behind your back, forcing us into a non-betrayal vow, showing just enough to keep us under your thumb, and even controlling how we moved and spoke day and night you are the greatest opponent I ever had. But still, you are just a goddamn kid.'
Cow's body trembled, his teeth chattered, and his eyes shook.
'You have no choice but to escape with Cow and Crow, not knowing it is us, because we are the only ones who know the way around this place. They will find you and torture you to get the memory I gave you just now, and that will be when I reveal my ability to Lizard and make him spare us while you get tortured. I will get into a little trouble, but that is all.'
Kiyotaka, who had dived to save them, suddenly summoned [Divine Ledger]. Everything that had just taken place, from the moment they dodged the arrow to this exact second, appeared on it, followed by words that read
[Give me the Memory, and I will not kill you.]
Cow's expression changed slightly.
'What did he mean by memory? Cow and Crow never showed any hint of having memories. There is no way he figured out my Aspect when all the clues pointed to me being an abuser. The right move now is to just keep acting frightened'
Crow, who was beside Cow, disappeared with Kiyotaka in a blur. Heavy rushing sounds surrounded Cow from all sides.
Painful, muffled sounds began to come from the blur as blood splashed onto Cow's face. His eyes widened, and he stopped acting scared. Slowly, he stood up.
He looked down at his feet, and to his horror, a bloody, severed hand belonging to Crow struck against his leg.
'This...'
He took a step back, but something blocked his path and made him slip. Looking down at what made him fall, he saw Crow's other hand.
The painful, muffled sounds stopped, and the blur turned completely red.
Two severed legs landed to his right side, and Crow's head, torn apart with brute force, landed to his left. Body parts of all kinds were thrown toward Cow.
Soon, the blur stopped. Standing in front of him was a man whose entire body was burned, missing his nose, ears, and lips, with almost no hair left and covered in blood. Luminous eyes covered his entire body, and every eyeball slowly moved to look directly at Cow.
'Lizard already knew my Aspect Ability, which is why he is not jumping in.'
"I-I will give you the torch Memory."
To his horror, Kiyotaka disappeared into a blur once more. Something slammed painfully into Hawk's face, forcing his head to the ground, and the man with growing anger in his eyes landed on top of him.
Sitting on top of Cow, both of Kiyotaka's hands became a blur, hitting Cow's face repeatedly.
Cow gave him the torch memory.
"Sto-"
His face was smashed again, altering its shape.
Punch.
His teeth began falling out.
Punch.
His jaw broke.
Punch.
His nose broke.
Slowly, Cow's hand fell limp to the ground.
Kiyotaka stood up, his eyes narrowing further with each passing second in anger. In reality, he had lost all reason. All of the eyes across his body began moving in circles, searching for the next target.
He shifted his head to the right, dodging an arrow sent toward him. Every single eye on his body moved to where the arrow came from, and he rushed toward it in a blur.
Another arrow cut through the air, which Kiyotaka dodged effortlessly.
He ran as a blur, dodging each arrow, until his eyes spotted a few shadowed men standing atop a hill.
His eyes narrowed even further in anger-
It all happened in a single second. One of the men made a circle using his fingers and captured Kiyotaka's image within it.
The eyes all over Kiyotaka closed immediately, going back into his skin and sealing themselves off. His ears reappeared, his melted nose reshaped itself, and his lips parted once more. He felt the intense pain of his burned body return.
His Flaw and memory turned off.
Another arrow shot out at a speed almost invisible to human eyes. It rode through the air, went up to a certain point, and came falling down.
...
The seven days the memory was supposed to remain active hit him all at once. Seven days of hunger, thirst, and exhaustion flooded his body, preventing him from dodging the arrow.
The arrow came down and severed Kiyotaka's right hand, making it fall to the ground and trail of blood escaped it.
The hand made a thud as it fell down.
The shadowy figures began climbing down the mountain.
At that moment, an invisible force lifted Kiyotaka up by his arms and ran away, moving so fast that both of them became invisible.
"What a flaw you have."
The invisible figure did not look back and kept running.
********
Well, erm... how was this chapter?
Was Hawk a smart character? Did any of you see his plan coming full circle?
So, now we have all the Infinity Stones:
Happy Kouji toying with his opponent
Sad Kouji looking at everything negatively
Angry Kouji, who is blunt, has lost all his
brain cells, and acts like a rabid dog
Well, that is it. I am not really satisfied with the presentation of this chapter, but that is life.
Now, there should be some questions you might have after this chapter... Well, those questions will need quite some time to be answered. Haha, I will give you a tip: politics.
That is it.
Peace.