The Life Invasion Pt. 2

WEE-OO WEE-OO WEE-OO

The factory was on alert, our surroundings consumed by the red light of the sirens. On top of that, a deafening noise echoed throughout the immense hall — the perfect soundtrack for the utter despair we found ourselves in.

What I'm trying to say is... What did I want to say?

Oh, yes. That it's hard to concentrate... WITH ALL THIS NOISE!

All the screens that had previously shown pro-life advertisements were now displaying the same phrase — General Alert: Code Death!

Damn, I'm in the manuals as a great enemy! I even have an alert code to call my own. I don't know if I should feel flattered or offended.

Amidst the chaos, the angels did not hesitate to enter combat formation. With a cute battle cry, the army of balls approached at a rapid pace. More white balls appeared from all sides — a spiritual tsunami.

I hadn't seen so many balls since I went with my grandfather to play pachinko. Shi-nii, please tell me you have a plan!

“Tadashi, be quiet for a second. It's hard to concentrate under so much pressure....”

A few seconds was all that separated us from being contained. I could handle them easily, the problem was that we were running out of time. Bribery was not an option and combat would drag on for too long. There was only one move left — to invest in the emotional.

My friendly skeleton form deteriorated, shrinking into a black slime that began to assimilate form. Before it could finish, I was quickly covered by the aggressive embraces of the angels.

In the middle of the hall, all that could be seen was a pile of angels, until a huge explosion repelled the angels in all directions. The black slime was just the clay to mold, perhaps the worst of my works.

"Transformation! Improvised Demon… kinda stereotypical, though!"

Growing larger, I transformed into a towering red demon. At least, it was supposed to be bright red. Instead, the color came out as this washed-out pink — the exact shade you get when white laundry sneaks in with the reds.

I thought giving it four arms would make the creature look more threatening — the problem was, I accidentally put one pair on its back and another on its chest. Let’s just say trying to control those things was, at the very least, comical.

The cherry on top was the two horns I placed where the eyes should’ve been. It looked pretty cool… or at least I hoped it did. Turns out, without eyes you can’t really check your reflection… or, you know, see anything at all.

Oh yes... it had a mustache. I don't even know why, I just gave the devil a full mustache typical of westerns.

As I said, I'm not the creative type. But that was all I had for today:

"Arghhhhh! I AM THE DEVIL! I HAVE COME TO TURN ALL ANGELS INTO FALLEN ANGELS! AND EAT YOU... BECAUSE YOU ARE LIKE MARSHMALLOWS…” I shouted, my voice with a somewhat buggy distorted filter. “EAT YOU, KILL, DEMON, FEAR!" I'm not going to lie, at this point I was just screaming indiscriminately.

Okay, you may know how to write, but man…dialogue and design are not your strong suit.

The important thing was that it had worked:

“Waaaaaaaaaah. So Swawy! Wun!”

“Da demon is going to catch us!! Wuuuun fwends, nuuu~!!”

“I dun even know what a fawwen angel is, but I dun wanna be eaten!!”

To confirm that it had worked, I created an eye at my belly button.

All the thousands of little balls hid (very poorly) throughout the hall; some dove into the large lake where my sister had been standing as a statue; others escaped by rolling through the vents. Whether flying like balloons or hiding behind potted plants, the angels disappeared from my umbilical field of vision one by one.

In seconds, the hall became deserted.

I took the liberty of returning to my laid-off form. Although I love Japan, Kaijus just aren't my thing.

We needed to get to the basement room where Grayer was waiting for us. The obstacle? Well, the alert had stopped all the elevators — there was no easy way anymore.

Shi-nii, can't we go through the floor and walls to get there?

That would be great, but the whole place was created by my sister. Everything appears to be physical, but we are in a complex of walls and floors made purely from her spiritual energy. I can pass through walls on Earth because they are purely physical, but here it's not so easy. It would be like asking a human to punch a wall until a hole opens up.

Huh... then we don't have time. Let's take the stairs!

What a drag… but yes, Tadashi was right. As we entered the stairwell, I whipped my flying scythe out of thin air, making sure we didn’t waste a moment. Surfing through the air, we spiraled down the stairs endlessly.

“With this beauty, we'll be there in seconds!”

Maybe I underestimated the time a little:

One minute...

Three minutes……

Five minutes…………….

“WHAT IS GOING ON!?” My question came out more like a scream.

Is it normal for a soul to feel nauseous? I know I'm going to throw up... I just don't know what exactly is going to come out.

Hey, wait, look at the floor number. Haven't we already passed 888?

“I... I don't know, I wasn't counting.”

I grabbed the scythe, deciding to walk down a flight of stairs — 888, the floor number remained the same. No matter which direction we went, up or down, we were stuck on the same floor.

"Shit, I know what's going on. My sister locked us in a space loop.”

Can she do that? But didn't she go get help?

Yes, but don't forget: Everything here is literally made of her. The stress I caused bought us time, but it turned the matter of the whole place against us. A human doesn't need to tell white blood cells to act. In the same way, the building is acting against us.

“I can turn into a demon again and try to break the walls, but it could cause a cascade effect and destroy the whole place.”

The building is made of soul energy, which when outside its core is basically the most unstable material there is. It was horrible to admit, but my sister was a true artist — the place was basically a house of cards, only with thousands of floors.

Okay... So what are we going to do?

Despair took hold of me completely, but finally luck was on our side.

My sister may have been talented, but she was also very conceited. From the walls, a sound of laughter echoed through the endless staircase. The building laughed at our misfortune.

“Huh... Right! This whole place is my pain-in-the-ass sister. And there's nothing I know how to do better than annoy her. It's time for her to lose focus,” I said, cracking my knuckles in preparation.

“Sister! Listen here, life may be the point of origin, but it is death that humans truly fear! Humans only respect what they fear."

A vibration ran through the walls. A wave surged up the stairs, stretching endlessly into the height above. I had to push her buttons even more!

"You know what? You live trapped working here, but no one cares about life! Most humans don't even want to have children, since it's so complicated.”

An even stronger tremor ran through the walls.

"Search the internet: Top 10 death anime moments. You’ll find a million videos. As for moments of birth? Nobody cares!"

An earthquake struck the floor, the walls vibrated along with static that took over all the colors. Small pores began to appear in the fabric of that artificial reality.

Go on, Shi-nii, be even more of a jerk!

"Ha… the truth is, in the end, even while pretending to be proud, you’re jealous of my freedom." The time and tremors froze, as if waiting for the end of the statement. "My job is easy. Souls automatically go to the other side; I only have to deal with a few dissidents. I live peacefully while you’re bogged down with work. Everyone fears death, so they respect me. As for life, humans throw it away for anything. Life is disposable!"

I can't lie, in the end I felt a little bad for my sister...

“ARGHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU BASTARD! SHUT UP!” The scream echoed through the walls, creating a domino effect that destabilized the staircase.

It was my cue. A large hole appeared in the wall. Without thinking too much, I threw myself into the wall.

Normal buildings have bricks, but to create a place with souls and infinite staircases, it's a little different. Between the artificial time and space created in that place, what lay between the walls was total chaos. We had thrown ourselves into a pool of randomness.

Spaghettification — that's how I can describe what happened to my body. It was as if we were in the middle of a black hole.

AWAWAWAWA AWAWA! IT'S LIKE MY NOSE TOUCHING MY LITTLE TOE!

I felt that, to avoid collapsing, the massive structure was trying to toss me out of its depths. Through a hole similar to the entrance, we came out into a break room. Two men got up from the sofa, but before they could act, something hit them. At an impressive speed, something like a ball bounced off the walls, hitting the men everywhere.

What it an angel?

That’s when a strange emptiness invaded me.

“Wait…Tadashi?”

The strange figure was Tadashi, who remained connected to me by a small thread that was about to break.

I'M NOT JUST GOING TO STAND BY AND WATCH! I'M GOING TO FIGHT TOO.

The round-core flame that was Tadashi's soul was like a huge concrete ball to those soldiers. In the end, it was their fault. If they were normal humans, we wouldn't be able to touch them — by accepting my sister's energy, he became susceptible to the touch (or beating) of souls.

I grabbed the mischievous soul before it cooled down.

“You can't leave like this! If the connection breaks, you'll disappear, understand?”

Sorry, I got too caught up in the hype.

“It's okay. It was actually kind of fun. It would have taken a while to deal with these...” As I said this, I opened the door and was met with an unpleasant sight.

“...Humans.”

The hallway outside was swarming with human agents. All dressed in suits with my sister's “corporation” emblem on their chests, the humans glared at us as menacingly as possible.

The structure had delayed transporting us elsewhere because it was planning an ambush.

Pistols, swords, spears — there was even a human with a bazooka.

With both sides of the hallway blocked by dozens of humans, it was obvious to me that we wouldn't make it in time... until:

Shi-nii, I know what to do!