PANDÆMONIUM (Part II)

✧₊⁺

With the corrupted heart serving as collateral for Blackheart’s attack, the dark miasma began to fade slowly with its removal, revealing bits of the usual lavender sky. In addition, the action theme began playing over the music system. It was a fitting atmosphere for what felt like our final confrontation with Blackheart, The Crow.

Unfortunately for us, however, the Supporter system was still offline as if suspended. Blackheart did claim that it would be a temporary measure, but there was no telling when it would come back online. That meant one wrong move and we could have our brain fried, assuming we weren’t automatically booted back to the launch bay with a microchip ruined beyond repair.

It was a small mercy that Archie’s auto-flight feature kicked in once again, allowing him to mindlessly float behind me like back in the mine. Lest I have to carry him into battle like a spherical tote bag.

“Hyaaaah!” Thresh shouted before charging in with his scythe, ready to make the first move.

The creature blocked his slash with one of its pincers and knocked Thresh to the ground with a powerful downward swipe. I laid down some cover fire, but Scorpio Prime’s hide was tough around its claws, even with Autumn’s power boost guiding my rounds. It backed away into the mist, disappearing from view.

“Shit….” I cursed under my breath before running to help Thresh to his feet in time. “Get to the center of the arena.”

“Why?”

“Just trust me on this.”

We couldn’t see where the thing wandered off to, but we could hear its wing beats as it circled the area. The reason I had us stand in the center was to get us as far away from the edge as I could, and because I had a bad feeling of what might come next.

“Here it comes!” The monster emerged from the fog like a missile, sweeping just above the battlefield in an attempt to push us off the side into oblivion below. “Out of the way, now!”

We dove out of harm's way, narrowly avoiding being crushed or swept away. This attack pattern repeated itself several times until the miasma had cleared enough to give us more visibility. But in exchange for our continued survival, Thresh and I were both mentally exhausted.

“She’s relentless.” Thresh exhaled. “How did you figure she would try that, Nagai-san?”

“I used to play a lot of MMORPGs. A little harder to guess the attack pattern without AOE markers though.”

Thresh flashed me a vacant look before the fight continued. I rapidly fired my revolvers the moment the creature stopped in midair, trying to catch it by surprise. A few shots snuck past its pincers, and it let out a screech in pain. This told me that it wasn’t totally invulnerable.

“But fighting this thing is a mighty pain in the ass when we can’t fly ourselves. Sure wish the airship wasn’t a pile of smoldering metal right now...”

But I noticed that the more damage we seemed to dish out, the less altitude the monster was able to maintain, bringing it closer to the battlefield. And I hatched an idea that could expedite that process.

“Partner, you think you could distract it while I take out its wings?” I whispered.

“It couldn’t hurt to try. Well it could, after I received the brunt of that last attack. Why didn’t you choose a frontline class again?”

“Will you do it??”

“…Fine.” Thresh sighed, taking a moment to focus his energy. “Let’s take this thing down a peg.”

“Strategize all you want, it doesn’t—!” Blackheart began a token one-liner.

Meanwhile, Thresh flashed forward—like he had been fired from a cannon—and unleashed a combo attack with his scythe, swinging vertically and horizontally, before finally front-flipping into a powerful slice that removed one of the creature's pincers.

While it was distracted and in pain, I fanned the hammer of one revolver at its wings, watching them get torn to shreds. Blackheart’s face twisted with panic as she pulled away slightly. The great beast she rode worked twice as hard just to stay in the air, the gambit was a major success.

“You—! But Scorpio Prime was my best chance… and now…” Our foe’s eyes wavered. “What will I…”

“Stop this, Blackheart!” I shouted, recognizing the edge we now possessed. “It’s not too late for you to do the right thing. Call off the attack, and join us!”

“Nagai-san is right, Barnes is our mutual enemy here,” Thresh added. “You used to want to protect the peace, the people, Autumn-san said so. So what happened? What did you see to make you choose this?”

“Not too late… What did I see…?” Blackheart looked defeated as she chuckled. But she also looked like she had decided on something, nodding to herself. “I saw the truth of it all. How powerless we are to stop the suffering. It’s the human condition, our factory setting, to suffer. Whether physically or digitally. But I don’t expect you to understand…”

But I did understand. I had lived my whole adult life with regrets, and I’d suffered for them. But it was the people I met along the way that convinced me there was something to be hopeful for, a light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t help but think things could have been different for Blackheart if she had someone like that.

“So unfortunately I cannot give in. Not when I promised them revenge.”

Them?

“Everything must burn before it can regrow. And soon you will have the same hellish epiphany I had and naught but despair will be there to keep you company in the dark!”

Blackheart shoved her hands in the creature's back with a squelching sound, and her eyes rolled back to reveal the whites. Meanwhile, Scorpio Prime’s body contorted disturbingly and its eyes glowed violet with purple electricity.

“AHHHHHH!” I watched, shocked as Blackheart cried out in agony. She seemed to become one with the monster, gaining control of its movements. She mumbled in a low growl, pointing a pincer in our direction. “If you want something done right…”

“Negotiations have broken down, Nagai-san!” Thresh clutched his scythe.

“You think!?”

“…you do it yourself!” Circling the field, she began to fire large purple spheres from the scorpion's mouth, pincer, and stinger that exploded on impact when they hit the arena.

More concerning was that purple fire lingered where they would land like napalm. It left us with little space to maneuver around, and the explosions themselves left us ragged and pushed to the limits of our durability.

Like a pendulum swinging one way or another, we had gained and quickly lost our advantage in battle. Perhaps Blackheart could sense us teetering on the edge of our defeat. And so she shot backward, gaining a bit of hard-fought altitude with her ruined wings. She looked down her nose at us.

“This will be the last…”

Blackheart began to charge up an attack, a massive purple ball of energy grew in the mouth of Scorpio Prime. Somehow I knew that we weren’t going to make it out of here if we took a direct hit, but there was nowhere left to dodge. We clenched our teeth, bracing for impact.

“Champions of the Digiscape, hear my call.”

A voice echoed in my head. It would appear I wasn’t the only one who heard it as Thresh’s eyes shot up as well, scanning around for the source.

“Brace yourselves, for Blackheart weaponizes despair, but the light of Memoria will be your shield.”

“Autumn-san!?” Thresh exclaimed.

The Songbird…

We did as Autumn warned, and a blue dome appeared above us, granting us protection just as Blackheart let forth her attack. A beam of purple energy hit the force field, spreading over its surface like faucet water over a glass bowl.

Blackheart didn’t call it quits there, however, unleashing her fury again but stronger. Cracks formed in the shield.

“This power, her rage is—!”

The dome shattered and we were hit with the last several seconds of the strike. My life flashed before my eyes. My younger days spent as a troublemaker, finding a job in freight at LiveRite labs and meeting Aki. Our marriage, the good times and bad, and then all that came after that.

I finally gasped for breath, my stress meter having been pushed to its peak for a few moments. I was spent, but still alive. However…

I heard a clatter, and then a thud.

“Yamamoto!” I called the man by his actual name, concerned for his safety. “Hey, partner, are you alright!? Look at me!”

“Fi…” He had fallen into his knees, his scythe landing beside him. Half his face was burnt to a crisp, and he had a far-off gaze which he panned to me.

“C’mon fella, stay with me.”

He shook his head and smiled, uttering two words before bursting into a bunch of ones and zeros.

“Finish it.”

“Your friend was a fool, Jiro,” Blackheart said, a tinge of regret sprinkled in her words. “Now let’s do as he says and finish this.”

I didn’t have time to mourn, wonder if he was still alive, or bemoan the fact that I was now in this fight alone. All that was left to be decided was the end result, and that’s all I could afford to keep my eyes focused on.

“Hearken to me, Jiro.”

“Hearkening.”

“I do not have the power to deny her a third time. You must focus all your energy on this next shot, or all is lost. The Digiscape, your life, and billions of others. Are you prepared for this responsibility?”

“Is that what they call a pep talk around these parts?” I scoffed, a look of intensity settling in my gaze. “But I was ready the moment I decided to do this.”

“Then show us both why Ueda Aki chose you, and may the light of Memoria…”

Gathering every last bit of the Songbird’s power within me, I fired a blast from one of my revolvers at Scorpio Prime. Blackheart returned fire with one of her own, and the beams met.

“…guide you…”

A physical manifestation of our competing wills. The beams jockeyed for position, showing no clear signs of pushing one way or another.

“…for all eternity…”

My beam suddenly shot forward, overtaking Blackheart’s in a final surge that pierced the body of the scorpion. There was a flash of white, and the last of the miasma surrounding the island dissipated.

…

…

…

Leaving me as the victor.