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Chapter 81

Henry was so excited that he mouthed his thoughts every time he jumped, which was about every three second. His legs were shaking and his hands were moving the blast gun around as if it were an action figure. Even with excitement, he made sure his fingers never touched the trigger.
Oh my God, the mother of darkness. Oh my God, the mother of darkness.
It was weird that Henry was now fond of killing the dark mother.
Too bad I didnât want to kill the mother of corruption. He shrugged to compliment that thought.
Ebonos was in front, driving the jeep. Henry stopped moving around like a little kid afflicted with ADHD. He was breathing heavily instead, obviously still excited. Even every breath he took was fuelling the excitement and exhilaration.
Ebonos wasnât like this when I was in my parentsâ house. What happened to him?
With his attitude back then, Henry didnât dare talk to him, and because they havenât talked in a while. And it should probably stay that way.
When the path was clear, Ebonos snapped his neck back and told Henry to stop moving. The jeep was bouncing along with him as he spoke. Henryâs smiling face was pulled out by those few words, leaving him a blank face instead. His body also stopped giggling from the excitement. If Myke were here, he wouldâve laughed hysterically at how Henry suddenly became calm and collective. He even looked like a wise old Asian man stroking his five-hundred-million-light-year-long white-as-kindergarten-paste beard. Henry found his index finger and thumb stroking his chin then following his fingers down the blast gun like a rough and jaggy extension of the beard before stopping that gesture. He smiled and chuckled in his breath, trying not to piss Ebonos off again.
He sighed, his shoulders resting. He looked out the window and saw the Darkness region.
Why IS it called the Darkness region, and not the land of whatever-the-hell?
The Darkness region was now like a home to Henry. He definitely didnât like it, but if he had a choice, he would choose the Darkness region over East any day, hands down.
Better than sitting on my *** all day writing whatever the hell for whoever the hell.
Henry was launched upwards for a moment before smashing his *** down the seat. There was a bump when the jeep travelled three thousand kilometres per hour or something. Hyperbole day, huh?
Ebonos muttered a sorry loud enough for Henry to hear, and he said it was okay. Ebonos produced a low buzzing hum for a few seconds before actually starting a conversation, by apologising to him about avoiding him this past month. Henry replied with a long âohâ and nodded repeatedly as if Ebonos could see with the eyes on the back of his head. Ebonos nodded when Henry was done, as if he really had eyes on the back of his head.
There was awkward silence for three minutes and six seconds. Henry counted. Then Ebonos said that they would be arriving at Fisher Village any second now. Then Henry heard a foot stomp and the jeep abruptly came into a halt. Henry moved to the middle of the seats and saw through the windscreen. A pride of dark monsters was spilling out of the village. Ebonosâs hands were shaking. Henry thought he saw a droplet of sweat roll down his left cheek. The dark monsters didnât seem to notice, yet.
In a quiet whisper, Ebonos asked Henry about how they should approach this. He said that the mother of darkness was at the centre of this village, but he canât do sh*t when thereâs a *****inâ ocean of âem dark sh*t.
Henry lowered his face, thinking what they should do.
We could go back and report to Exen. Or we could plough our way through them to the lair with the jeep.
Henry suggested the latter. Ebonos immediately protested, raising his voice a little before realising that some dark monsters could really hear anything from a few hundred metres away. He whispered at Henry to think up of another idea before he saw a four-legged monster walking in this direction, apparently curious to see what was going on in this thing.
Henry lowered his head again and though what they should do.
We could go back and report to Exen. Or we could shoot our way through-
Ebonos shook his head vigorously and turned back to see that the monster was standing still, its head craning to see what was in here. Ebonos froze in place while Henry slowly slid down the seat and hid behind the seat in front of him. Ebonos followed Henry, doing the same thing when the monsterâs head returned and roared for the sun.
Henry got up and shouted for Ebonos to reverse and drive away. He didnât hesitate, his left hand already ramming the gear stick up a notch to reverse. Ebonos stomped on the gas pedal and the jeep moved as fast as it could backwards. He then turned the steering wheel left all the way until Henry could hear the wheel jam against Ebonos. The jeep did a 180-degree turn in an instant before he spun the wheel back to normal. The jeep ran at about a hundred metres per hour. Henry turned around to look at the back, but noticed the monster running after it, and the sun rising, along with the massive horde of dark monsters chasing it.
Henry warned Ebonos about it, but Ebonos already had his foot pressing against the pedal as hard as he could. The jeep still ran at the same speed.
Hmm..
He pulled out his blast gun and went to the window nearest to him, wound it down, and leaned against the door. The monster was already within lunging distance when the incoming gunshot exploded on its ears and the energy pellets pierced through its head. It groaned in pain and its legs gave out. Its inertia caused it to crash and scratch other parts of its body with the desolate ground.
Henry saw the monsterâs head reformed, with a horn attached to its forehead.
A unicorn!
It was like a dream when the horn was launched from the monsterâs head.

Gin Ichimaru reference here. Hehe.

Chapter 82

Death Rose gave up. She escaped into the back of Roseâs mind without warning her, let alone giving her any hints.
Rose woke up and assessed the situation. She looked at the sun. It was moving backwards again, even though she didnât hear anything, no roars, nothing. One monster was already lunging at her. She made a small force shield, as small as a buckler shield, and rammed it against the monsterâs face, smashing its teeth into shards. It landed on the ground smoothly, surprisingly, but it was dazed. It tried balancing itself, but ended up toppling over to the left.
She shouted at the newly-infected Avus to get the hell out of there. His head turned, and his chest was scratched with claws. He grunted and attempted to speed at Rose. He only went higher and higher instead. Rose rolled her eyes and use force to pull him towards her. Clarissa closely followed Rose.
Rose created a force platform, stepped on it and vehemently beckoned them over to GET ON THE PLATFORM, FOR GODâS SAKE!
Avus landed, his chest wound already healing. He ran faster than he possibly could, and reached the platform more quickly than Clarissa who was only a short distance from it. As soon as Clarissa stepped on the platform, the platform rose. Rose giggled, but stopped it forcibly.
No time for jokes! What the hell?!
They were quickly in the air when the monsters behind spread their wings and flew at them. Rose asked Avus if he could use force. He only asked how to do that.
Do I have to do everything myself?
Wishing for Kogh to be here, she controlled the force platform with her left hand, constantly overbalancing, but not too much that they themselves would drop off. Her right hand shot blades summoned out of thin air. Some missed, and the nearest monster got even nearer. One blade cut through one of its wings, making it fly uncontrollably, like an airplane about to crash.
Then she turned back. Avus was about to fly, him holding Clarissa close to his chest when the platform was almost forty-five degrees to the left. She made it upright, and Avus let go of her. Now she put focus into the platform, sacrificing her stamina for more speed on the platform. The land below her quickly transformed from urban ground to desolate ground.
Back to the Darkness region, are we? Wait. How did monsters of darkness get here?
She turned behind and saw that the monsters were receding away, their size smaller than a thumb. She made one last dash before she finally stopped moving. Avus suggested that Rose should land soon; he said Rose looked like a tired girl who had just stood and squatted for over a hundred times in a minute. He meant it. Rose was really tired.
No, Iâm not. But you donât look like Avus. You look like someone else. Clarissaâs suddenly gone.
Rose saw the sun rising again. Then she shook her head. At the corner of her eyes, another sun rose.
Where did that come from?
Even with the two stars shining light and heat at her, she felt like death touched her with cold, ticklish fingers. The sun at the wrong position slowly transitioned from a bright orange to a dark red to a black. She frowned and saw that this wasnât the real world. This new world wasnât following the laws of physics, no, it wasnât.
The stars move faster than usual, Rose could stare at them for hours on end, and Avus looked like he had six arms.
But she still could see that she was in the air, floating above ground and standing on a force platform.
Wait, no. I canât see force platforms before. What the hell is going on?!
Right at that moment, she heard something collide. It sounded like a head thudding against a wall. She looked up and saw the stars clashing into each other. They werenât crashing and then slowly disappearing. They were more like merging. They merged into one in a matter of seconds; the two-in-one star a blackened orange. Then Death Rose woke up without permission whatsoever.
And she roared.
Things started to make no sense to Rose. But it did to Death Rose, in a twisted and illogical sense.
Weird thing is, Rose thought at the back of her mind, literally. Iâm not even in my minotaur form. Maybe my eyes glow yellow or some sh*t.
Rose was right that her eyes glowed, but it didnât glow in yellow; it glowed in the same colour as the sunâs second form; it was transitioning from an orange-yellow colour to a blackened orange colour.
Like a sun with frequent sunspots, Rose thought.
Hey, shut it back there, Death Rose thought. When she never heard Rose again, she smiled as she thought, Iâm in charge, now.
Death Rose looked at Avus, and he walked back slowly, raising his hands in a fearful manner. Clarissa was behind Avus with her silly-looking purple shovel. She looked at the sun and smiled again. She felt energy course through her body. Then she sensed the same monsters of darkness from exactly three hundred and eighty-four metres away. She turned towards their direction and made two force blades. She held it in both hands and walked past Avus, who stepped back a little more. She looked at the monsters and aimed her blades at them, and extended their lengths up to the nearest monsterâs neck. Her right one pierced through its throat and out through its nape. She enlarged the width of the blade and decapitated the monster before wiggling it like a wand. She could sense blue blood gushing out like waterfalls, but she wanted to make sure.
She dashed and landed right in front of a dying monster of darkness in a few seconds.
Loving this sun so much, I wanna marry it and ***** it to hell.
Rose wasnât allowed to protest.
Death Rose looked at the miserable little thing and compressed that miserable little thing into a tiny little force cube, slowly, of course. On the way to three quarters of its size, its sudden cry made Death Rose grimace, so she held out her hand and closed her index finger and thumb, ending its life as quickly as
ABC.
Rose emerged. Can I get out now-
NO. YOU STAY WHERE YOU ARE, *****INâ B*TCH. Iâm going to other cities. First, Wonderland.
And she left Avus and Clarissa to die.

Oh, I won't be posting for the next two weeks. I have exams, so I will be repaying you extra two chapters. Hopefully. Have a good fortnight, guys (do people still use it?).

Hmm, good job Sun. Decent way of story telling. Still feels a little weird tho...
Maybe it's the lack of a main antagonist? I dunno, but still, A+ for effort and dedication. See you in school on Monday.

Pfft. B+ on Physics and Chemistry.
Also, thanks for the comment. You yourself determine who the antagonist is. Iâm not supposed to tell you that.

Chapter 83

Luckily that horn didnât hit the tyres.
The jeep was now moving as fast as it could. Ebonos had his foot on his gas pedal like he was in a competition to see who could last longer in stepping the pedal. And he looks like heâs losing. Hell, I saw sweat out of your head.
Then it happened like another dream. The sun wasnât orange. It was a dark orange.
Well, thatâs something youâve never seen.
Henryâs head and torso popped out of the jeepâs window and gave another shot from his blast gun. A few pellets pierced through the nearest monster, and instead of crashing into the ground, recovering like a b**ch, shooting a ********** horn out of its head and running faster than before, it just stayed in the ground, its head buried deep inside. A few fellows of it crashed into the monster and went down with it. There was even a unison of snaps of bones so loud, Henry could barely hear it.
What the hell? Is it the sun?
He looked up, and stared at its malevolent elegance.
Did a monster of death do this? Feels like it.
Ebonos brought him back to the world, shouting that Henry should be shooting the *******ers dead, not burning your eyes out. He was wrong, though. My eyes are perfectly fine. Twenty-twenty vision.
Henry briefly shook his head and shot some more. Some monsters went down directly from the blast gun, some indirectly.
Of course, he couldnât kill every monster here, not without the jeep.
Then Henry stopped firing and went back to his seat, his face lighting up from the idea. Ebonos shouted at Henry to shoot at them. Then Henry suggested to turn the jeep over and run them over for real, this time.
Ebonos shook his head so violently that he couldâve had a headache. Henry told him that the jeep was already more than enough to plough through them. Ebonos shook his head again, and this time, he really had a headache. He breathed in slowly, swooping air like a malfunctioned vacuum cleaner. Most of his headache was gone for a while. That was good. He could still feel it somewhere in his head. He agreed, and turned the wheel to face the monsters.
Henry could see them tire out. One decelerated and stopped, then walked back. Henry laughed as the jeep smashed into a monster like a pigeon smacked against a window.
Wait, no. The monster was hit at the hood, not the window. Ah, forget this s***.
The jeep collected more monsters; some were rolled under the weight of it, some flew past the sides of the jeep and some stuck by at the hood, being pushed along for a ride.
Talk about mutualism.
At this rate, the jeep was getting slower. Ebonos started groaning, with complaints, regrets and curses thrown in between. One complaint that stuck with Henry for a while was that the jeep was starting to get as wrecked as Exenâs hair. Henry kept the laughter down in his chest and continued to look instead of thinking about Ebonosâs complaints (besides the wrecked hair complaint).
He snapped out of his thoughts and went out of the jeep through the window with his blast gun out. He shot at the nearest-
Wait, how is this going to help?
He returned to his seat. Then Ebonos shouted at him to kill them. Henry nodded, but stayed in his place. Henry told Ebonos to set the jeep into reverse, go back, then ram them up again. Ebonos looked up as though the idea was a brilliant one, which was quite obvious, câmon. He did what Henry told him to do, until the ramming them up part. The jeep just went backwards all the way.
Henry said that the mission was to destroy the lair of darkness, not run away to tell Exen that they ran away and not destroy the lair-
Ebonos stopped him with a shush, then the jeep went forward. It traversed around the dead monsters and rammed them from the side. A few jumped up and landed on the roof, and a lot of them didnât survive. Henry heard and felt the jeep getting pummelled by stomping feet. He even saw dents starting to emerge inwards.
Ebonos was also aware of it. He made the jeep reverse, then stomped on the brake pedal. Both of them lurched forward; Henry bumped his head on the back of the seat in front of him and Ebonos almost smashed his head on the wheel. They saw the monsters fall from the jeep. Then Ebonos slammed his hand against the gear stick and rushed forward, dashing them or crushing them, more like.
There were more monsters in front. Henry looked at the blackened sun. It had moved a few inches relative to his index finger.
Whoever you are, I hope you keep that blackened sun.. blackened.
Henry told Ebonos to finish them off with their blast guns. He agreed, and got out of the jeep with his blast gun more quickly than Henry. Not that it matters, but..
Ebonos walked forward with his blast gun against his shoulder, while Henry was holding it just beside his hip. The first one who fired was Ebonos. I thought this didnât matter.
Henry fired the blast gun out of a whim, and missed. The first one who hit a monster was Ebonos. The monsters were either standing still and not wanting to fight or do anything, or running straight at them, which was a bad idea for the monsters.
Ebonos turned to Henry with a frown, wondering how Henry missed a shot, then looked back and fired more shots. The first one who killed five monsters was Ebonos. This doesnât matter. It doesnât matter.
Henry ran forward and fired, a few of his shots hitting through flesh, skulls and spines, but a lot of them still missed. The first one who missed was Henry. Oh, now itâs me. And the one who didnât miss was Ebonos. Doesnât matter. Will not ever matter.
For the whole time, it did matter to Henry.

Chapter 84

Death Rose was now above Wonderland, about to make herself a star.
You already made a star-
Didnât I tell you to shut up?
She ascended a bit more before dropping down on Wonderland like a bomb, though it was nothing like what Rose did with that unnamed city and the fire bomb when she didnât even have the blackened sun by her side.
Death Rose stomped on a car, crushing the unfortunate driver before being obliterated by the shockwave. It split apart the buildings a few metres away from her and cars were flown away; some crashed against the buildings, some crashed into the windows and squashed a few employees along the way. Death Rose could hear screams and shouts, some diminished and some cut off immediately.
I like the sound of odd time signatures. Is that gigantic glass shard going to impale that man?
Yes, it did. Ooh, itâs going down his brain to his left leg.
About fifty metres away, streetlights stopped working, cars crashed into one another like small little children taking control of toy cars and pretending to smash them together like an epic accident. She heard an explosion, and another following it. She looked around and all she saw was pure mayhem. Maybe not pure. Just ninety-nine percent of mayhem and one percent peace. Why isnât anyone enjoying that?
Among the shouting and screaming, she heard a familiar voice, coming from her left. She turned and saw the same man that infected her with this bloody virus.
I told you to shut the hell up. Whatâd I say about not shutting up?
Actually, if I remember correctly, you didnât say anything about-
Iâll remove you. I will ********** remove you and youâll never live again. I can take over, you know? You want to die? Sure, just open that b***** mouth of yours, though thoughts really didnât have mouths. Rose was forced to sit in the corner, like a kid wearing a dunce hat. In fact, Rose was wearing it now, the hat saying âA**H**** DUNCE. DIE IN A HOLEâ. She had to resist the urge to call the hat stupid, Death Rose hypocritical and stupid like her hat, and say that thoughts have no mouths. Her whole mental body was trembling to let that thought out. Physically, she was stronger than ever.
Fit as a fiddle. Where did I learn that?
While threatening Rose with mental expulsion and basically non-existence, she was staring straight at the man with eyes that could almost literally slide up your spine and tickle the top of your brain even after the staring had stopped.
Maybe itâs âcause of my eyes. She grinned.
The man stood still, uncertain whether his life would end sooner or later, and froze. Except lungs. And his sweat. Eww. Get that sh** out of here.
She jerked her hand forwards at the man and send force at the manâs neck, gripping and choking him. She sensed more sweat being produced. As she walked closer, the man started to make choking sounds. Death Rose loved the sound of destruction, mayhem and suffering (for some apparent reason because âDeath Roseâ), but there were some exceptions. Cold sweat, for example. And that terrible acting of being choked. Câmon, youâre acting. Youâre acting, arenât you? Sooner or later, she was going to like cold sweat and sounds of being choked. Rose had wanted to say something, but she remembered the threat.
Iâll remove you, Death Rose reminded, even though Rose didnât talk at all.
She frowned and glared at the man. Sweat touched the force around his neck; some was produced between his neck and the force. She sensed it, felt it and let go of him in disgust. She said to him that his sweat was ********** gross and that he should get a towel to wipe that s*** off. And he should stop acting. That was horrible acting. Everyone would agree. She never specified who that âeveryoneâ was.
The scientist didnât listen to her; he softly but quickly grabbed for his neck and inhaled the air Death Rose had stolen from him. No, I didnât do that. The manâs eyes were bulging out and his eyelids were fluttering like crazy. All Death Rose thought about that tiny little detail that nobody would care about were birds flapping in there air, like crazy.
Then she made the choking gesture with her hand, instead closing it into a fist, decapitating the scientist in a snap.
Ninety-nine point one percent mayhem. Losing out, peace.
A big chunk of debris with fire grasping onto it fell and crushed the scientist with other cars, people and debris. It wouldnât matter to her if something like that had ripped her own body apart. She would regenerate right away without trouble.
She felt a sharp pain at her lower back, looked down and saw a hole. She let out a grimace of pain before turning to its source. She couldnât see who that b**** was. Her neck snapped back from the bullet that went through the center of her head. She fell back along with her neck and her stomach got impaled on a metal support used for a particular building. It made a bigger hole for the support to accommodate itself. Yeah, thatâs kind of a thing that impaling objects do. They make room for themselves. Selfish pricks.
She felt pain, but she also felt wonder. The blackened sun was still there, thank the star, and it was blessing her with life. The Mother of stars. Her headhole and stomach hole were getting smaller, though the metal support was inhibiting the regrowth of the stomach. Rose had wanted to say that the headhole should be head hole or that the stomach hole should be stomachhole. Basic knowledge of the English language wasnât present in Death Roseâs mind, but logic still needed to exist, at least in Roseâs opinion.
She lay there away, looking at the sky, then at the large chunk of debris with fire grasping onto it, similar to the one before, its massive size blocking her view.
No worries. No worries, she thought, shaking her head.

Okay, trying for 104 chapters by the end of this year. WOO!

Chapter 85

So Rose left us to die.
I guess I deserved it for all the bloody things Iâve done in my life. Wait, I canât die. Clarissa will.
Oh, bloody hell.
Avus was holding Clarissa by his arms, hugging her like how George would, and Clarissa liked it a lot. He imagined a tongue that kept curling at the emphasis of the letter âlâ in the world âlotâ.
His blast gun was attached to his back with a belt. All he had to do was pull the belt and wait for the gun to land on his hands.
That owner knows how to modify a gun. Too bad that modification canât get us out of this bloody hellhole.
The blackened sun sat still, looking at them with no sympathy whatsoever. Avus noted the colour of the sun and swore that he would investigate this phenomena once he got Clarissa to a safe place. He wondered how he had come into this position; caring for someone youâve met about a month ago, making sure that someone doesnât die or suffer and sacrificing yourself for this someone in the process. All these feelings werenât there when that someone was his wife. He had felt as though they werenât husband and wife, but distant friends that never wouldâve talked unless they absolutely needed to. Clarissa was an exception.
Guess I have never felt this since a century ago.
He had remembered caring for his family in his first body; a 90-year-old man, weak and frail. He remembered that he would always find somewhere to sit because his legs were like straw when he stood up. He always had his son or his daughter to support him as he moved around.
Bloody hell, I donât even remember their names anymore.
That was the first time he had felt love; love for his first ever wife to settle down with, love for his sons, daughters and grandchildren.
But that was long ago. ****ing hell, are you even ready for a whole new one? Ready to see Clarissa die of breast cancer, leukaemia or Alzheimerâs disease? Ready to see her die, knowing that I canât die together with her? No ****ing way am I doing that ever again.
But he still felt the need to protect her. Maybe Georgeâs memories were messing with him.
If so, Iâd have to suppress this thought for as long as Clarissa lives. Maybe.
Avus got Clarissa to move in the direction of where Rose went. Each stride felt like one long spacewalk, threading on a mental line of rope to get across vacuum, careful not to break off the line and fall into the abyss that was love. The whole time they were walking, he was in space and in a circus in two separate worlds. In the circus world, he too was threading on a mental line of rope.
Oh my God, I hate that word. LURVE. LORVE. LUVE. My bloody God.
Two hours felt like five hundred million years to Avus. In those five hundred million years, both of them were holding hands, stepping on dust and dirt of the Darkness region. It was nothing but the cracked earth in his field of view. Clarissa moaned coughed a few times along the way. Those sounds were the only ones made throughout the journey.
When Avus arrived at the last five hundred years, they had found a town to reside in.
Perhaps the townspeople will treat us nicely this time.
As they reached the outskirts of the town, they saw a few men patrolling around, holding blast guns and their fingers on the trigger.
Avus gently pushed Clarissa back and walked forwards with his hands up in hope that they wouldnât gun him down like before.
I still remember how it felt like. Bloody hell.
As though it was a miracle, the soldiers lowered their guns and told the both of them to enter the town. One even shook hands with Avus, exchanging greetings and short ice breakers. The gate in front of them wasnât as grand as the one in East, but what was inside shook the living hell out of Avus. The amount of activity in this town was as much as that in East, though there werenât any cars or trucks or vans at all. People were walking by, a few bumping into one another and rarely apologising. Avus saw one particular lady in an apartment a block from him, dropping a vase that almost hit a man. That man looked up and his mouth moved like a raging storm at the lady. He thought that specific event was funny.
There were stalls in front of the buildings. They sold fruits, vegetables, tools, meat, toys, bread, alcohol, burgers, cookies, soft drinks,
Hey, I guess this is the safe place I was talking about.
Avus reached for and held Clarissaâs hand before walking into the crowd of bodies. The soldier that Avus talked to, gave him some money; a few fifty dollars, before waving goodbye to them. Avus thanked him and returned the wave.
They would either be walking too slowly because people canât get their bloody legs moving, or bumping into one another like players in rugby or football or whatever the hell.[/i. It was either one of those or both of those.
Avus suggested to Clarissa in a loud voice, but not loud enough for other people to pay attention to, that they should get a place to stay for the day. Clarissa only replied by wrapping her other arm around Avusâs arm. He eventually led the way to a hotel.
[i]Rose Red Hotel. Sounds super obvious.
They went into it anyway, because a roomâs so bloody cheap.
The lounge consisted of chairs and tables on each side, their arrangements in a symmetrical fashion. There were a few people chatting softly, but not softly enough for Avus to eavesdrop on what they were saying. The group on his left talked about their financial problems.
Typical bulls***.
The one on his right was a couple talking about what positions they wanted to get into.[/i]
Atypical bulls***
There was someone on the counter in front of them. A receptionist. Havenât seen that word in a long time.
Avus did all the talking and Clarissa did all the standing-in-a-corner. Thankfully, no one interacted with her, not even the couple near her, or else she would have made a hell of a lot trouble. No one even batted an eye at her, even if she had a purple-bladed shovel hanging from the left side of her hip.
How did she get that strap?
In fact, the blast gun didnât come with a strap. Who did this?
But he shrugged, and he was done with the room booking s***.
Okay, room four, and I have forty bucks left.
Avus walked over to Clarissa, held her hand, and half-dragged her into the corridor to the left of the counter.
The corridor had four rooms on each side. Numbers were displayed above the door, the first one on his left and the second on his right. He reached the fourth door, brought up his key and unlocked the room. Then his chest started to hurt, and burn, and grow.
Then he barely heard Clarissa taking out her purple-bladed shovel before his mind blacked out.

READERS. If youâre reading this, I want to know which character is your favourite! (Obvious comment bait, but seriously, I do want to know.)
My god, the writingâs atrocious back in the Fisher Village chapters.

Chapter 86

Henryâs arms were tired by the time they had done killing most of them. A few escaped, and Henry had noted them. He told Ebonos to be careful, even though Henry was the one bending his back, stretching his right arm for that satisfactory muscle pain he wanted, and leaning on his blast gun with its barrel kissing the ground. Ebonos still carried the blast gun like it was a war. Henry got up, using the blast gun as a support, and put it over his shoulder. Ebonos still looked like he was in war.
No-enemies-but-anything-can-come-anytime mood, eh?
Both of them walked quietly, Ebonos more so than Henry with the footsteps. The village in front of them looked old and ancient and downright weird, the roofs of the wooden houses almost touching the opposite roofs and candles replacing light bulbs in lampposts and other houses. He figured that one of the candles would burn the whole village. And then he wondered.
Who lit all those candles? The dark monsters?
He remembered the looks of the village through binoculars or pictures he had seen before, but it looked older than what he had seen and thought before.
Yeah, that was a few years ago. Pfft.
As they neared the village, they noticed a sign that said, âWelcome to Fisher Village!â Henry ignored it and moved past, entering the village. He turned back and saw Ebonos staring deeply at the sign. Henry definitely didnât want to be stared at by Ebonos. Then he did a peculiar thing; he slid his fingers all around the sign, feeling its wooden skin and black painted words. His wormy fingers slid across the words, especially when it came to the letter âVâ. He moved more slowly at that letter. Then he caressed the shaft of the signboard with his left hand, while his right hand continued molesting the words.
Eww.
Henry sighed and walked back. He told Ebonos that they didnât have much time. He knew that the blackened sun would be gone, and that it would probably turn back into a bright sun. Ebonos jerked, his spine as straight as Exenâs hair, and walked to the village, bumping into Henry on the way. He wasnât actually walking. He was half-running, like a person in a walkathon.
This time, Ebonos was noisier. Henry had to run up to him to tell him to be quiet. Monsters of darkness had really sensitive hearing. That slowed Ebonos down. A lot. So much that Henry had to say that they didnât have super sensitive hearing. Ebonos was taking what Henry said without disagreement at all.
Well, this guy didnât do his research enough.
They walked on a dirt street, Ebonos gripping the blast gun as tightly as he could, his hands to the point of shaking so much. Only now did Henry not care about him.
Guy needs to get a grip.
Henry now noticed things he didnât see back then. It looked abandoned, like a ghost village. Glass shards scattered across the street, some doors laid in front of their houses, some doors were intact, and the doorknobs looked too green to be actual doorknobs. Henry imagined them being sticky and organic. He felt wrong when he looked at the walls of the houses, some scratched up and some totally destroyed. He saw one house in particular that really gave him the creeps. One side of the house was gone, the wall removed from the picture and anything; chairs, tables, things, were removed along with the wall. Even part of the floor was gone, and it looked like it was taken away.
Thereâs something big here. I know it. The mother of darkness, maybe?
Henry realised something and slapped himself in the forehead.
Why didnât we bring melee weapons?!
Other monsters were bound to come by and rip them apart, and more would come if they had fired with their blast guns.
Then where were they when we killed all of them?
Suddenly Ebonos stopped. Henry turned around and looked at his terrified face, and looked in his direction. Two monsters of darkness stood with four legs, ready for battle and feasting, and then rushed at them. Henry brought out his blast gun in time, but Ebonos knocked his blast gun away, stopping him from shooting. Ebonos told Henry that they could hear them shoot. Henry frowned, and jerked to the side, dodging one of them. Ebonos wielded his blast gun like an oversized baton and hit the incoming monster in the head. It whined at the pain, stopping in its track, and its head was smashed in by Ebonos. Its skull split into pieces and teeth slightly spread below its now-broken jaw.
Ebonos clenched his blast gun, and ran towards the other monster. It panicked at the death of its partner, and decided to run away, only to be dragged at the left hind leg by Ebonos before its spine was snapped by the metal baton that was the blast gun. This one wasnât spared mercy; Ebonos repeatedly pummelled it to death.
God****. Firing wouldâve been easier, and perhaps softer than what youâre doing.
Contrary to what Henry had guessed, there were no signs of monsters anywhere, despite Ebonosâs heavy breathing and the constant fleshy crushing sound of a monster. When Ebonos was done, he was painted with blue blood, but not soaked with it. Henry thought that Ebonos swallowed some of the blood. He just shrugged before the both of them moved on.
They approached a black vein, and they stopped. Henry looked at it, then followed the vein, eventually becoming a network of them.
This is it. This is it.
He beckoned to Ebonos to follow the vein network. He nodded, and they went to where it was denser than the previous part of the network. This went on for two minutes before Ebonos put his hand on Henryâs shoulder.
His mind stopped thinking when he looked up. The lair of darkness was a lot different than the lair of corruption. There wasnât any web-like barrier or structure that surrounded the lair. There was
Nothing.
He saw it all; the monsters of darkness, their spawns, the motherâs spawns, and
oh my god the mother why why is it so huge how its bigger than the other mother how no no
Ebonos pulled Henry away before any of them could notice them. Apparently, their sense of hearing and sight wasnât good in their stinking lair.
The mother was bigger than before, almost twice the size of the corrupt mother. And it didnât look like a slow moving type of monster. It had four legs as well. The typical shape of a dark monsters, except it isnât typical. It isnât. It didnât have just one head. It had three. Like the Cerberus, oh my ******* god!
The ground beneath them was black, so Henry assumed that the ground had to be filled with other baby monsters, like a cesspool of black living things.
Then he looked further up and noticed the blackened sun turning back to normal, to a bright sun.
His heart stopped, then started pumping faster than usual as he ran together with Ebonos. He glanced back for a moment, and noticed the motherâs growing size.

Looks like I have to write in a different spacing. Here we go.

Chapter 87

Death Rose’s body was completely crushed, save for her head. She couldn’t feel her hands and legs, but only could move her eyes, nose, lips and jaws around, though limitedly. She imagined a hand coming into life, pushing at the chunk of debris that would’ve killed her. This imaginary hand was stronger than her human hand, and it lifted the whole chunk away from her body. Her crushed body, anyway.

Never mind. I can make a new one.

When the whole chunk was removed, she looked at the blackened sun, and saw that it was turning back into the same old bright sun. Her eyes widened in very obvious terror. She tried to roar again, but her vocal cords were already separated and crushed by the debris. Instead, only blood came out as an answer. Blue blood.

God, no. Okay, okay..

She tried to imagine a vocal cord.

HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?! ROSE. YOU’RE THE SMART ONE, DO SOMETHING.

Finally, Rose could take her ridiculous dunce cap off. But she felt herself slipping away as death loomed from an invisible corner.

We wouldn’t have been here if you hadn’t taken over me.

Rose thought this as though she had no purpose in life anymore. She missed the joy of actually taking control of herself, and to use force however she wanted, within her limits formed by experience, morality and other bulls***.

What the hell are you saying?

I said bulls***. What more do you want me to say? Death Rose didn’t answer. We’re going to die, face it. I’m going to fade away into nothingness, same as you, just like we’re sleeping without dreams. Is that so hard to comprehend? If I didn’t **** up that much, I wouldn’t have gotten the virus, and you. Sure, I couldn’t use force, but Kogh would be there for me. I know. Just accept it and-

The whole time Rose was talking, Death Rose was forming a vocal cord, and it was growing fast. Just before the blackened sun was gone, she roared, though it was a very rough one. Death Rose felt pain in her throat, and couldn’t speak for the next few seconds.

Well, there goes my speech.

The sun slowly became black again. Death Rose imagined a whole new body, a body without goat feet and long hair. She wanted a body that was resilient to all kinds of damage. An armoured human or midget.

True desires of a monster of death, huh? But what does height have to do with protection.

Hello, less places to get hit. Harder to cut an ant than a human in half.

Oh, now you’re talking. Just run away. We shouldn’t be here in the first place.

Death Rose didn’t reply. Good. Just do what I say.

In the end, Death Rose made the normal human body, following the shape of Rose’s body, but a twenty-one-year-old version of it. She looked about fifteen centimetres taller, her shoulders slightly broader than before, arms and legs longer, and her breasts larger.

Oh, you wanted that, didn’t you? Rose thought. I thought you were all about armour, not sex appeal.

Rose, I merely made a twenty-one-year-old body for you. It’s a body you would eventually have, since I already know you wanted your own body back. Why not see how you would be in six years?
This time, Rose didn’t reply.

Both of them realised that the pieces of debris, large and tiny, were being cleared for Rose (to capture or kill her). Smaller ones were taken off by hand and larger ones were taken off by more hands.

Here.. Death Rose thought.

Rose assumed her own naked body, then felt every good thing she had felt in the recent past. She lived through the moments of Death Rose’s enthusiasm and excitement as she called out to the sun and demanded the sun be turned into black, her happiness as she zoomed to Wonderland and her pleasure as she wreaked havoc on a part of the city. All in a few milliseconds. Rose shivered in her mind, but Death Rose didn’t notice; she was sitting on the stool in the corner of Rose’s mind, wearing the ridiculous dunce cap and staring at the corner with her own thoughts that weren’t ready to be released, yet.

Then she felt her hands and feet; her fingers moving around like worms and her left foot twirling around in the air and her right foot retracting and releasing repeatedly. Something that felt slightly off was the weight on her chest, and her hair. It wasn’t any longer than a few centimetres below her shoulders. She guessed that her hair was torn (being the one who didn’t feel the pain of her hair being ripped by debris) and that she would look terrible.

See, you do care about sex appeal.

Sheesh, shut up, you. Rose thought, smiling.

She shook her head, gathered the force around her, and boosted herself up into the sky. Out of the destruction Death Rose had caused, she saw someone sitting on a rooftop with a range rifle, ready to fire at something.

Did that guy shoot me?

No. He shot me.

Right, okay. Means the same thing, actually.

No, it ******* isn’t.

Rose shook her head and flew off to where they had left Avus and Clarissa. She almost reached the speed that Death Rose had achieved, probably about half the speed of sound or something. The air made her hair flap like crazy. The impulse to tie her hair up was getting weaker, and that’s always good.

Rose saw a village, and a jeep just outside it. It looked like a military jeep.

Lo and behold, the author wants us to be here for a certain reason, Death Rose thought.

Hey, hey. Someone’s been here. I still remember the freakin’ horde of dark monsters chasing me. Just to repay for what you did, which isn’t going to be easy, we’re going in there, whether your ‘author’ wants us to be here in the first place. And who the hell is this author?!

She boosted in and stopped a metre in front of Henry, and another man.

Instead of doing the usual greetings, Henry was so full of terror that he took Rose with him in his arms.

Chapter 88

Why in the bloody hell am I carrying a naked woman?!

Henry turned around to see where the monsters were, when he realised the sun had become blackened again. He didn’t see any trace of dark monsters, so he put the woman down. His eyes scanned her face.

Rose?!

Apparently she was naked, and it caused a stir in his pants. Her hair was shorter than before, and it looked horrible on her. There was nothing where her hair should be and there was hair where nothing should be there. Henry noticed that her face looked too young for her slightly taller body, but it was slim enough to look similar than before.

Ebonos turned away for the sake of privacy, and instead looked out for the trio. His face was already blushing, though slightly. Through his eyes, it didn’t look like any dark monsters were chasing them in the first place. Dust would’ve been knocked up, feet would pummel the ground and they would’ve been eaten alive. They were all in their nest, taken care by the dark mother, Ebonos assumed.

Through Henry’s eyes, it looked like Rose.

Was I supposed to describe anything else?

Henry told the both of them to get out of Fisher Village. He needed to report back to Popsicle, for obvious reasons.

But not the fact that we were acting like chickens and goblins. Wait, how does a goblin act like?

Henry didn’t have anything to offer for Rose’s body, but she said it was okay. A few moments with her hands moving around like a wushu warrior, her whole body, except for her forearms, neck and calves, was covered with a black cloak. It still didn’t change the fact that she was naked under it, and Henry was thinking about it even when the three of them got to the jeep.

Rose refused the ride. Before Henry insisted, she rose into the air, no pun intended, and asked for the directions. The mere mention of the word ‘Klensburg’ got her sonic-booming towards that direction. Henry’s eyes widened and his neck slightly craned back. He slowly nodded in acknowledgement. He couldn’t be surprised anymore, because anything he witnessed, whether it be the dark mother’s nest or the fact that the fellow beast had killed the corrupted mother with ease or that he fought against someone who called himself Avus, who wasn’t actually Avus, on top of a monster of death, was getting gradually less shocking. Seeing Rose fly and achieving a speed like that didn’t have much effect on Henry, but it did on Ebonos to a large degree. His jaw dropped and his eyes looked like they were about to spring off of his eye sockets.

Really, really new, and I thought he worked here longer than I did.

He shrugged, and placed his hand on Ebonos’ shoulder to get him driving. He jumped, and that made Henry laugh so hard that Ebonos slammed his fist against the handling wheel and honked for as long as Henry laughed, until he stopped. Then Ebonos started to move the jeep.

Instead of the environment in the jeep going totally quiet like before, this time it was lively with chatter; Henry was always sparking conversation with Ebonos, either about the dark nest, how they were going to confront and negotiate with Avus to alleviate the embarrassment, or how long the ride would be, which would be around..

How long would it be? One hour? Two hours? THREE hours?

Ebonos wasn’t sure as well.

At least we’re going back to HQ.

Henry wished he didn’t thought of that. Nothing good ever comes out of that statement. Probably dark monsters would be swarming the jeep in seconds, or worse, monsters of death swarming the jeep in hours.

Nah, too slow, even for snails. Maybe except that big fat monster that tried to kill Myke years ago.

When Henry’s mind conjured the name ‘Myke’, it would shift all focus from the information that he was receiving with his senses to his memories with Myke. His mind would especially play the memory of Myke’s death over and over again, just to **** with my head. He vividly remembered Myke pushing him away from one of the monster’s hand.

Henry finally got over Myke’s death after a few weeks, and in some ways, it felt good to him. Surprisingly good. At least I still function and not stand there like a dips*** doing nothing.

Ebonos called Henry’s name a few times before his hand went over to Henry’s right cheek. His hand rubbed over half his face like smearing mud over before Henry snapped back into the world. Ebonos said that they were almost there, and that he had been driving for a good forty-five minutes, or something.

I was out that long?

The blackened sun still sat there, like an old fart, not moving at all.

Henry held his blast gun at his chest as the jeep entered Klensburg. The cold metal comforts me. He smiled, and at the same time, Ebonos smiled as well, but probably for a different reason. The headquarters was near.

Just say we arrived at HQ. C’mon!

When the jeep finally arrived, Henry got out of the jeep first. Then Henry remembered Rose, and started to look for her here. He turned round and round, searching for her, but he couldn’t find her. Ebonos just walked into the building without waiting for Henry.

It’s okay. I can find her myself.

He realised that he was slightly tired, but he kept reminding himself to jolt himself awake; he would abruptly and violently shake himself for a brief moment or lightly knock his blast gun onto his head. He also realised that, when he went to the driver’s side of the jeep, the key was gone. Ebonos. He shook his head and got out, seeing Rose in the air as though she were flung away by something.

Wait, she was flung away by something.

Henry rushed towards where Rose would land and saw a large monster of corruption, with a little blue blood caking it. Rose had a few noticeable bruises, before they were healed. Probably the sun.

First, how’s there a corrupt monster?!

But he ran towards it anyway, his blast gun up and armed for skin shredding and organ rupturing.

What’s up with the letters that keep replacing the apostrophes? Or is it just me?

Chapter 89

Avus’s vision was blurry at first.

Why do they do that in movies?

Then it was starting to get better and better, like a camera refocusing to where it was looking at. Avus realised that he now had wings on his back from tensing his shoulder blades and feeling the extra weight on his back. A bone blade protruded from each wrist, and both of them were bleeding blue blood, though very slightly. He looked back and saw Clarissa clutching her shovel. Her muscles, though little, were showing in her biceps. Her chest was heaving up and down so rapidly that she would’ve fainted from hyperventilation in addition to witnessing someone she loved turn into an ugly monster of darkness. The only things that had his image going for were the wings. They look cool enough.

Avus couldn’t really tell if Clarissa liked the wings or not. He just had to calm her down. It was bizarre that he suddenly turned into this beastly thing. The blackened sun was back, so wounds couldn’t heal as quickly. He tried to turn back to normal, probably imagining his own human form, no, George’s body. But he couldn’t. Only the rough image of George was formed in his mind. Clarissa still gripped the shovel like a lever that needed to be pulled but was too hard to pull unless your grip was strong.

And what the hell is it with these similes? It’s all too forced.

Avus got up onto his feet and raised his hands slowly as if to mean no harm. Instead, Clarissa held her shovel higher in defence. Avus sighed, and lowered his arms. He tried retracting the bone blades by imagining, but it couldn’t work. If anything, he extended them by a few centimetres. Godd***it. Clarissa slowly walked back, then her back reached and bumped into the corner of the room. Now he noticed that she was shaking so much.

Avus sighed again. Maybe I’ll just go to sleep and pretend this never happened. It was hard to play pretend, though.

He looked and found the bed. In his second attempt, he tried retracting the blades by jerking his forearms from front to back and stopping. It worked. The blades went back simultaneously and smoothly back into each forearm, but out came significant pain and more bleeding. He grunted and clenched his teeth before lying on the floor next to the bed. Blue blood stained the floor.

Bloody hell. Innkeeper’s going to find out.

The bed was the size of a couple, but he wanted to make sure that he didn’t get out of control and suddenly rip Clarissa’s guts apart. He then moved away from the bed more before getting comfortable and ready to sleep. He put his right hand on his head and adjusted accordingly. The pain was there, but it was less now. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. As quiet as Clarissa was, he could still hear her footsteps to the bed, and her getting onto the bed. She slept with her back turned towards him.

What? How did I know that?

He pondered for a moment, initially grasping the idea that he could be using force that the Kogh clones had used, but discarding it later by falling asleep.

When he opened his eyes, he was presented with the same light that the blackened sun had shone to him before he slept.

Is it still day?

Of course, that question was stupid. Day and night couldn’t be told on this planet even after a lifetime.

Not in a lifetime. My lifetime.

It looked like day to him, though. He got up and saw that Clarissa was still sleeping, her back facing him. Then he noticed something as well. Her upper body was exposed.

What’s with all these sexual innuendos?!

He looked at his hands and noticed that he was still a dark monster. He had hoped to return to normal. He needed to get food for Clarissa, and a job.

Oh my God, a job.

He wasn’t good at simple jobs. Cooking made him weary and sweaty, plus he didn’t know how to cook. Baking was practically the same thing, but if he were to try to learn to bake, he would probably like it more than cooking. He could be a cleaner for some places, but that might only net him a few dollars per hour. It’s tedious too. He wasn’t too creative on marketing strategies, selling things from accessories to hardware tools to weapons to food to other things that had a demand. He was only a scientist at heart, a dark monster outside.

A dark monster outside.

What about bounty hunting?

Avus had only known about bounty hunting through fantasy and science fiction novels or television shows. East didn’t have a bounty hunting system, and if it did, Avus didn’t know about it and he would most likely ban it, making it an illegal bounty hunting system. Obviously. What the hell? But despite his opinions about bounty hunting, according to those novels and shows, he would take on the job.

If only this town had a bulletin board somewhere in the town central like those role-playing games. Bloody Witcher.

As if the gods had answered his prayers, his grey furry skin changed back to human flesh, though painfully slow and disgusting. He could hear flesh tearing and merging like two sticky surfaces would rub on each other and produce that type of sound. Avus sighed at the needless simile. His wings were shrinking in size as well. George’s body was back to normal, now with no clothes whatsoever.

When he thought of where to find clothes, he found a black shirt and a pair of black knee-length pants perfectly his size materialise out of thin air. There were no signs of threads sewed into them at all. They were like cloaks, though carefully shaped cloaks.

He took them and wore them. The material was surprisingly soft and..

The same.

He looked at his blast gun, which was on the spot where he lost and gained consciousness. As he grabbed it, he heard Clarissa moan. He quietly went out and left her there to rest from the traumatising experience.

Luckily he didn’t arouse suspicion from anyone in the lounge, the receptionist included. As he got out, he was plunged into a street filled with people. It was hard to navigate and find any bulletin boards.

Only way, that guard.

It took him almost thirty minutes to get through the crowd of people to where the nice man gave him fifty bucks. When he got there, he saw a black speck at the horizon. Looks like a humanoid monster of death. Every soldier was already alerted and ready to kill it. Even the nice man.

Then somehow, at the right moment, the gods gave Avus the sight of a dark monster, a sight as clear as an eagle’s. Probably clearer. And it looked like the humanoid figure had a shell. A shell that couldn’t be destroyed by just energy pellets.

In the selfish part of his mind, it thought, Maybe I can get money off of this prize.

In the rational part of his mind, it thought, How in the bloody hell am I going to kill that thing?

Hey! The story (or novel) is on Wattpad. So, if you come across ASSOAT there, yeah.

Looks like shameless advertising? Yeah, but I want to spread it to other platforms (and eventually get more constructive criticism than before [not praise]).

I CAN BREAK THE RULES NOW. Sorry for the late update. I was sick this week. Three days fully, three days partially. But I guess dialogue makes up for it now. So, I guess no 104 chapters.

Chapter 90 _Screw the Rules_

“I hear something,” said the beast.

General Exen was done reading LaFist Light to it, and it was fantastic, even when read again. What the beast said didn’t reach Exen, because he was asleep like a pig, snoring his head off in God-knows-how-many ways. A type of snore sounded like the screech of a bat at one point. The next breath he took in, the snore sounded as low as whales communicating with one another. The beast preferred the whale sounds a whole lot more than screeching bats.

It got up from its usual sleeping spot and went out of the room without Exen waking up.

When it got to the yard, it sensed Henry, and someone very familiar to it, and a corrupt monster.

Aah, it’s like I’ve been with her for a long time. Before I.. died?

First, how’s there a corrupt monster?!

It felt heat on itself, but it didn’t feel its body growing in strength, its muscles bulging or its sense of force. Only heat.

It ran up to where Henry was and found him holding the stick-like weapon. He aimed it at the corrupt monster, its shape larger than usual. Something that big could be seen or sensed very easily. Sensed. I’m stuck with tongue clicking. The corrupt monster was looking at a woman. A familiar woman. A woman with long black hair. Black. Black. They were both staring at each other, as if in a cowboy face-off. And she’s naked.

Once Henry fired a shot, the beast went forwards while the corrupt monster roared in pain. It pounced at the monster and clawed its way into its flesh. Henry shouted, his words ignored. Then the beast felt a VERY strong force wave pushing at the both of them. They were sent flying and crashing through an empty [i]desert-brown building, the debris bruising and cutting the beast. When they landed with more pieces of debris crashing onto them, the beast used the recent carcass to shield itself. Large but easy. Almost like that monster of death in East.

It heard Henry and the woman talking.

“Woah, woah. Hey, don’t hurt that beast,” Henry said.

“Who? The monster of darkness? It’s going to kill us anyway,” Rose replied.

“No, no. The other one’s with us,” Henry said. There was a pause and a slight gulp of saliva in Henry’s throat, the beast was sure of that.

“So, which one’s with us? The one that threw me away?”

“No. Bloody hell, it’s the monster of darkness. It can talk.”

The beast heard a choke of laughter stuck at Rose’s mouth before she burst out laughing like a loon. The beast would roll its eyes if it had them. I’ll show you, once I get out of this ****ing mess.

“Trust me, Rose. It can talk.”

Rose. She’s Rose? Where have I heard that before?

Memories were starting to form in the beast’s memories. It remembered that not only did it have legs, it had hands, arms, hair on top of its head and eyes. Yes, eyes. Or is this my imagination? The fact that the beast had never ‘seen’ a human body, it had a d*** good imagination of said body. It also knew it had something between his legs. What is that? Maybe the beast could ask this Rose. It shook its head when it thought of the name. It seemed all too familiar. Familiar. Familiar.

It tried to push the debris away, but the weight was too much for it, especially when the carcass was adding to it. As if abducted by aliens in a saucer, the debris started to float up along with the beast and carcass. Force. It’s not Henry doing it. It’s Rose!

Apart from the beast remembering its former body features, there were no memories being recovered in its mind. Maybe I’ve never seen Rose use force before. It shrugged as its body floated back down to be put between her and Henry. The carcass was crushed into a small-sized cube before being thrown away.

“Now,” Rose said. “Talk to me.”

The beast smiled, its sharp teeth gleaming brightly.

“See, it can’t talk. What did I tell you?” Rose said.

Henry just shook his head and frowned at the beast. Does he want to impress Rose? I think I can see why.

“Henry, are you attracted to Rose?” The beast said.

“What? No way. She’s-“ Henry stopped halfway because suddenly, Rose’s smug face returned to a blank one, though her eyes were widening to an unrealistic degree. Even her mouth was drooping. The gradual widening of her eyes bothered the beast. Why is she doing that? Why-

Rose rushed over to hug the beast. It couldn’t react quickly enough, so it let out a breath of air, even though it didn’t need air in the first place. It did enjoy her warmth and overwhelming touch. Surprisingly, it enjoyed her company more than Jeyne, though she would be a very close second, like the difference would be the size of a quark. How did I learn that?

It started to feel wet at where Rose’s head was resting. She was sobbing. It sensed Henry dropping his stick-like weapon and coming over to hug Rose as well. The beast didn’t like the extra warmth, but it was welcome, the beast guessed.

“Why are you crying?” the beast tried to say, because its mouth was pressed down by Rose’s left elbow. It didn’t get an answer, but her arms wrapped around the beast slightly more strongly.

“C’mon,” Henry muttered. “Don’t need to cry. Tell me, us, what happened.”

Rose was struggling to talk. She was always doing this hiccup thing that people did when they cried intensely.

“Well,” Rose said, her hiccups present as omnipresence, if that makes any sense. “It-it-it’s just tha-tha-that, I-I hah-haven’t seen this g-guy in a long time. I don’t ne-know i-i-if I killed the g-g-guy or not. I just destroyed-d a h-h-whole city by ac-c-cident.”

She swallowed her saliva down quite hard before continuing.

“B-but now I n-know. This m-m-monster o-of darkness here,” she was basically stuttering by the time she said that something that made the beast remember everything he had experienced in his previous life. “I jah-jah-just miss y-y-y-you, k-k-k-Ko-Kogh.”

Her snot started to flow down to its body.

Chapter 91 -Screw the Rules-

Okay, think, Avus. You’re a bloody scientist. You’re smart as hell. COME THE **** ON!!.

As the monster of death got closer, Avus was getting more panicky. He looked at his blast gun, then back at the monster, then returned to the blast gun. I need to get closer.

“Guys,” Avus shouted, and successfully grabbed every men’s attention. “I’m going out there for a bit. So, don’t shoot.”

One soldier answered, “No. Whether or not you go out der, we goina shoot.”

What the hell did you say? Gonna and going? That sounds bloody horrible.

“That monster,” Avus pointed at it with his index finger. “It has a shell. And you guys can’t penetrate that s*** with just blast guns. I want to see how we can kill it.”

“Prove it!” That soldier said. “I can’t see s*** from her! How canu?!”

God, that accent is annoying.

“Then fine!” Avus shouted. “Let your ********** city burn!”

In an attempt to pretend to walk off, Avus thought he did a fairly good job; his feet stomping, his body swaying slightly, the time taken to turn his head dramatically, all those were good. And the soldier was convinced too. What about the others? Aren’t they listening?

When he turned around, he saw that half of the soldiers were terrified, thus preparing to run away. The other half was suspicious. The nice soldier was now walking to Avus. He didn’t look like the two halves whatsoever, though. He was the first half, but minus the preparing-to-run-away part.

“Avus,” the nice one said. Avus forgot his name. “We won’t shoot.”

Nice, a nickname Avus had given him, turned towards the rest of the soldiers. He reiterated.

“We won’t shoot. Especially you,” Nice looked at the mean soldier.

Avus smiled and stared into Mean’s eyes while proceeding to move towards the monster. He broke his gaze and looked forward, his eyes still as sharp as an eagle’s.

The monster’s shell wasn’t what he expected. He had thought that the shell covered and shielded every part of its body. If his eyes were functioning well, and it better ********** be, it looked like the shell covered it like how a ninety-percent-closed old-fashioned glass windowpane would cover a room. The shell left spaces under for someone to eventually rip open its guys with a weapon. And from more scrutiny, the shell definitely couldn’t be penetrated by energy shots at all.

Yet, Avus still walked to the monster, his blast gun resting on both his forearms and his finger rest on the trigger. He squinted his eyes and saw that it still had a face, even under that shell. Only that part was, maybe seventy-five percent closed. He could only see its mouth and chin, and that chin was as red as himself when he killed that gigantic worm.

Wait, no. I was drenched in blue, not bloody red. He giggled to himself. No pun intended.

When he was twenty-five metres from it, he got ready. It seemed that the monster wasn’t even aware of him yet. His bloody eyes are blocked. What the hell? Nice one, virus. Really, good job. He was shaking his head as well.

Even before he knew it, the monster roared. It was a loud, humanlike voice too.

“What?!” Avus uttered.

He saw the sun rising. A darker sun. Did I see this before? It’s just a few hours ago and it felt like a month and a day ago. Exactly that.

Avus’s eyes blinked a few times before he looked back at the monster. The shell had opened up more so that the monster had become a body of spikes. Avus could now see its nose, and its smiling mouth. Its teeth looked human enough to deem the monster a human.

Half human, half monster of death. What’s the short form of these names? Jesus. Dead monster? Doesn’t sound good to me. Deaths? Too pronoun-ish. Deadies? No-

He had time to move to the side when the monster aimed its hand at where Avus stood and fired a piece of its shell. The projectile only went as far as a hundred metres from the city. Or town.

“You bloody prick!” Avus shouted as he brought up his blast gun to fire, but the monster moved in and smacked the weapon away with its hand. It was broken from the impact.

“Well,” Avus said. “******* you too.”

He tensed his body as if from instinct and quickly transformed into a dark monster.

That sounds nicer than monster of darkness. Man, deadies don’t even get the luxury of a cool name.

His wings popped out like a grenade explosion, well, not literally. He tensed his forearms and bone blades protruded from his wrists. Do we have to use ‘protrude’ again? It sounds wrong.

He moved forward and stroke with his right hand, to which the monster replied with a raise of his forearm to the attack. It then sent a straight punch to Avus’s gut. His breath was knocked out of himself before his head was smacked by the monster’s forehead. He fell backwards and was dazed for a second before he got up. Then he fell back down.

****. Blast gun’s broken. Deadie going to kill me. What next?

He got up again and found that the bone blade he used to attack was shattered. He made another one protrude. Oh c’mon!

He went at the deadie again, this time doing a feint with his left hand before his right bone blade went into one of the now-larger spaces of its shell and drew blue blood. He moved back and watched as his enemy’s face turned from pride to dismay. Then its face returned to pride.

What?

Blood stopped flowing a few seconds later. Now then did he give himself permission to open his eyes as much as a doctor would open a patient’s eyes to check what was going on. If there had been a doctor there, he would know that Avus was scared now.

The sun. The bloody sun!

He moved away, turned around to the city or town and flew towards it. And he knew what was next after the deadie going to kill him.

Why the hell did I transform in the first place?!

I’m really lazy. Credits to Lamb of God and Opeth, though.

Chapter 92 -Screw the Rules-

“What explosion?” The beast asked.

Rose frowned and tilted her head slightly. She then folded her arms and leaned her body along with her head.

“What?” Rose said, her mouth twisting a little. “You don’t remember?”

The three of them, the beast, Rose and Henry, walked back into the building through the yard as Rose talked to see if it remembered everything after it died in the bee incident.

“I don’t,” the beast said. It did remember how it was eaten alive, but not when it visited Fisher Village or saving Rose from Wonderland or fighting the force-wielding strangers or taking Rose away from the city where the bees had attacked the city or teaching Rose how to make a fire or dying in the unknown city. None.

Hold on. Rose never said ‘fighting the force-wielding strangers’. Whatever.

“So, who was he?” Rose said to herself. She stopped in her tracks and forced the beast and Henry to stop.

“Hey,” Henry said. “I have to talk to my general. See you in..”

He was swaying his hands back and forth between Rose and the beast. Then he stopped at the beast and pointed at it.

“Your room?”

The beast could tell that he was smiling just from his tone. It nodded, and Henry twirled around like a ballerina before scooting off to Exen.

Rose looked around in the canteen and sat on the nearest seat possible. She sat there like a philosopher thinking what defined morality. Suddenly she jerked her head up and looked at the beast.

“Kogh, do you remember where you were when you’re-“ She paused for a moment. “This?”

Sure, I’m not offended at all. I’m totally not offended at all.

“Where was I?” The beast said. “If I remember correctly, I was in a maze.”

She jerked towards the beast upon the mention of maze. Her face was full of gimme ansers gimme ansers nau or i keel u slo an poot u een a whol.

“What maze? Is it where we killed that monster?,” she let out moments of chuckles as she continued. “Remember when my foot was bit off? You had to ******* put a goat foot in. Man, it was really weird when I walked.”

The beast didn’t sense a shape similar to a goat foot, but it didn’t say anything.

“How did you get there?” She asked.

The beast didn’t speak for a minute, causing Rose to sit back and wait, though not asking why it was silent. It wasn’t weird when it remembered Kogh, but it was definitely weird to remember what it did when it woke up. In a period of a few seconds, it had recalled memories from the maze, attacking someone with a range rifle, bleeding out in the Darkness region then roaring out to the sun, getting captured over and over, and the most supreme; killing that big monster of death. That made the beast smile a little inside its head.

Finally, the beast spoke. “I don’t know.”

“Well, that was helpful. That was very helpful, indeed.”

“What the **** am I supposed to say?” Then the beast started to sound like a sarcastic English tea drinker. “Ah, yes. I died from being eaten by bees of corruption and somehow, my body was recovered and sent over to a confusing maze because of reasons I may or may not know. I apologise for the ambiguousness of these so-called ‘reasons’. I sincerely do. Alright, what do we have here? A sugared bagel?! Jolly ol’ bean, I want a taste of that myself! Maybe it’ll taste better if I dip a part of it in my cup of high quality tea!”

By the time it mentioned ‘ambiguousness’, Rose’s eyes were glazing. It was clear that she wanted the beast to stop. When it was done, Rose got up and walked away.

“Hey,” the beast said, still in its British accent (which was horrible in Rose’s opinion). “Where are you going, Rose ol’ bean?”

“Your room. I want to see what it looks like.”

The beast chased up to her and entered its room. Exen was gone from his sleeping chair, and LaFist Light was on the chair, opened to page 140.

Either he read it again or he just simply dropped it.

“Wow,” Rose exclaimed. “This looks good! Just like a doghouse, but with a library!”

The beast was not amused.

“What,” she continued. “You offended? You want milk with that tea? And some coffee as well?”

The beast tilted its head and sighed, while Rose laughed, took LaFist Light, put it aside (as in the floor) and sat heavily on it. The beast could hear the terrible creak that came with it.

“Whatever,” the beast said. “I’m going to sleep. Wake me up when Henry comes in with a popsicle up his ***.”

“What?” Rose asked, followed by a group of giggles.

It went past Rose and to its sleeping spot, a rugged area that was so comfortable that a man might settle on it for a few nights without complaining about his back pains because they were basically non-existent. When it was in a snug position, sleep overwhelmed it easily and quickly.

It woke up a few hours later, but noticed a few things. Rose wasn’t sitting on the chair, but standing on it; each foot on each armrest. Her hands met together like what Buddha would do-

Wait. No. It’s different. This looked like a Christian in prayer. Actually, no. No one prays like that standing up on a chair.

The door of the room was gone too. So, the beast walked past Rose, who was whispering alien language to the bookshelf in front of her, and went out to the hallway.

No, this isn’t the hallway. Looks larger.

The hallway was, indeed, larger and wider than before. It was like a ballroom instead. A chandelier was hung from the top, the walls were made of enchanted glass, there were pillars-

Basically, Beauty and the Beast.

In an instant, when it clicked its tongue, the room was filled with clones of Rose, dancing around to classical music that came out of nowhere. The clones were dancing when the beast clicked its tongue the second time. They were now staring at the beast.

I shouldn’t be here.

Then it woke up, back on its sleeping spot. Rose was reading LaFist Light, and it looked like she was in her tenth page.

A ******* dream.

When the beast was ready to sleep again, Henry burst into the room without knocking.

“Guys,” he said. “We’re going back to Fisher Village. With an army.”

The beast could sense his smile.