The Last Laugh of a God

(10 Years Later)

It's been ten years since the initial attack on Soul and Melody's home. They were eventually able to escape the cave system they all fell in with their friends, and by the time they had managed to get out, their entire village was burnt to the ground with not a single soul being able to be sensed by Soul. All who were left there died. Soul wanted to go and fight Aku and his brother and father and try to get answers, but it was simply suicide. They had just been given a second chance at life; it would have been pointless to throw it away so quickly.

They quickly traveled to the nearest town they could find and tried to settle there while they got a hold of their bearings, but it was difficult, as it seemed for some reason the six of them had their names and the very fact they existed erased from every single official record book. So now they all had to restart from zero and couldn't even find any official way to join the knights and try to fight back against those who did them wrong that way, since they technically legally did not exist. There are very few places in this reality that would accept those who virtually do not exist. Although one place will accept anyone who is willing to work, and famously allows you to get paid for protecting others… sometimes.

The Bounty Hunters Association. As scummy and as grimy as they may be, if the only skills you've learned most of your life is combat and it's one of the only jobs you can get that pays well without needing legal documents or other kinds of skills—what other choice do these six have except to go there? And that's exactly what they do. Maybe joining this Association will also bring them closer to avenging those of their small village who have died, give them some kind of clues or help to figure out fully what had even happened. During this time they had met two people on their escapades of bounty hunting: Stalin and Makai, a couple who had been hunting bounties since they were young.

Stalin had the BloodTrait: CriticalShot.
The user gains the ability to see the bodies of all of their opponents on a molecular level, allowing them to do very lethal close-quarters combat. It also gives the effect of the user being able to see whatever weak spot their opponent has and strike it with a guaranteed critical hit. Their attacks also have aimbot—if they are ranged, they cannot miss; the projectile will continue flying to the weak spot forever. As well as every time they strike a critical hit, they gain that damage in defenses until the battle is over.

Makai herself has no powers but is instead a professional medic. Before they met the other six, her role would normally be just taking care of Stalin after his bounty hunts, although now she usually joins everyone on bounties. All of them were around the same age as the other six, and they all ended up getting close with each other. During this time they had created the group called Bad Omen, where they would all normally go on larger bounties as a group, assisting as many sentients as possible. Although because of this they had also developed a lot of enemies—powerful enemies. Normally they are able to take them all down, but soon their luck ran out, and both Prince and Lucan have now been kidnapped and need to be saved—if they're even still alive at all.

Now six of them are camped outside of the hideout that they suspect where their two friends are currently being held.

“Melody, Chase, have you two been able to find where Lucan and Prince are?” Soul asks as he's sharpening his Soul Gauntlets.

Melody and Chase had just arrived after phasing through the hideout with Melody's power and running through it quickly undetected as they searched for their friends and created a path to find them. And surely they had just done exactly that. They found where the two of them were held and created a path for the others to travel through for this heist to get their friends back.

“Yup, we did find them. Your powers were correct—they're exactly where you thought they were. We made a path so we're able to get to them the fastest way possible,” Chase said.

“Yup, it shouldn't be too hard. The place barely had anyone in it. I'm surprised they hadn't broken out themselves, if I'm being honest,” Melody stated.

“That's a trap. That's clearly a trap, Melody. Are you sure you didn't see that many sentients? Soul, look over the place again. How many souls do you see?” Stalin said.

Soul got up and scanned the hideout with his powers and counted only about fifteen to twenty souls.

“Yeah, there aren't very many sentients in there. For such a big hideout, there aren't very many goons in there,” Melody said.

“Well, who cares? I say it just makes our lives easier. It leaves me far fewer sentients I have to paralyze or scar,” Orixia said.

“Try not to be too cruel, Orixia. I imagine a lot of those there have families they need to feed and take care of. Only be as violent as you need to, Orixia,” Melody remarked.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, whatever, Melody. You don't need to look out for the assholes that literally kidnapped our friends. I might kill one of them just to piss you off. Those bastards don't deserve your kindness,” Orixia said in an annoyed tone.

“Just oblige her, Orixia. No point in spilling more blood than needed. I doubt many of these guys will go down without you taking their lives anyway,” Stalin said in a gruff tone.

“Just don't do anything to get yourselves killed. The amount of money we've needed to spend on medical supplies recently has been annoying,” Makai mentioned.

“I'll do my best, dear, don't worry. The blood that I was covered in last time wasn't mine at least—it was the beast that we fought,” Stalin said.

“Chase, show us where to go. The longer we leave them in there, the more in danger they realistically are. The quicker they are out of there, the better,” Soul said.

Chase then rapidly ran to the top of the hideout to the start of where he and Melody had created the path they were going to take to free their friends. He jumped and waved his arms in the air so that the others could see where he was as they made the quick journey up to where Chase was, readying for potentially the most important job of their lives. And the one that ain't payin' nothin' either—these two better be grateful. Stalin made sure to grab his equipment also.

As the other five reached Chase, they started to follow him into the hideout slowly but surely, making their way through the path that they had plotted out, avoiding as many goons as possible to not stir up any avoidable conflict, although the ones that did find them got quickly taken down. The place was dark and eerily quiet. It was made in the ruins of an old castle, and moss and other fauna were growing on the walls with some bugs scuttering around the place. It had rained recently, so there was a damp smell along with a bit of a moldy smell with some smoke due to the torches the goons had lit for light.

They eventually met with their friends who were kidnapped in the cell they were in, with the help of Melody phasing the six of them through the wall. When they got there, the two of them had the light in their eyes shining so brightly.

“Oh, Lucan, the cavalry has arrived! We have been saved from this predicament we have been thrust into. I told you, boy, that this hell we have been placed in would last very little time whatsoever,” Prince said excitedly.

“It took you guys long enough. The food here is terrible, and they never give me enough. I've been so hungry here. You left a dude starvin', dawg,” Lucan said.

“Oh, stop complaining. We're here already. Let me help you two get out,” Orixia responded.

Before Orixia could get closer, both Soul and Stalin placed their hands in front of her to stop her from moving any closer to them.

“What the hell are you two doing? Get your damn hands off me,” Orixia said in an annoyed tone.

“Melody, I'm not going crazy, right? That's not Lucan and Prince. That's not how their souls look,” Soul commented.

“They don't have heartbeats anymore either. I just noticed. Nor are they breathing, nor is anything happening in their bodies,” Melody commented.

“Oh, come on, you two. You're acting like damn idiots. Of course it's us. The bastard in this building must be doing some trickery on your minds,” Prince said.

Orixia's eyes squinted as she looked over at the two of them. “Prince doesn't talk like that,” Orixia said.

Stalin grabbed his sniper and pointed it at Prince's head. “Nor is that their atomic structure. These are some shitty copies. Where are our friends, before I pull the trigger, shapeshifter?”

“Bleh, you six are no fun. This is the first time I tried copying these guys—it's not gonna be exactly perfect. I even made it so Soul can see a fake soul in these two. Don't you think that's impressive, at least? Come on, man!” the fake Lucan said.

Stalin pulled the trigger he had on Prince's head, and the bullet just flew through Prince without any change whatsoever, as if he had just shot through a shadow.

“What the hell,” Stalin stated, stepping back and erratically looking up and down at the shapeshifter who looked like Prince.

“Okay, so can someone please explain what the hell is even happening here?” Makai blurted out.

“Ooh, ooh, ooh, can you guys guess? I think it would be really fun if you guys were able to gu—”

Before the fake Prince was able to finish its sentence, Melody blasted both the fake Prince and Lucan. She used so much force she ended up destroying the cell they were in, the walls around them falling.

“Where the hell are our friends?! I'm tired of these dumb games. Give us our damn friends,” Melody screamed.

The fake Lucan and Prince were completely unaffected by the attack Melody launched out. The two of them now started speaking at the same time: “Oh, come on, you're taking these things too seriously. It's not like you're gonna be able to change the outcome of what's happened to them, so you should have taken my offer to have some fun before such revelations.”

“What are you blabbering on about?” Stalin said in a stern voice.

Makai looked down as her eyes squinted and she mentioned, “Uh, hey? They don't have shadows. Why don't they have shadows?” Makai asked.

“OH WOW, one of you is so observant. I'd give ya a longer riddle and more games to play with this, but you all seem so angry, so let's lighten the mood by revealing the answer,” the fake Lucan and Prince said.

Their bodies suddenly disappeared into the floor as a being in a red suit and fedora with some kind of animalistic dragon face that had no details—just pure sharp yellow eyes, and instead of teeth, its mouth was just a set of triangles that looked like sharp teeth but made out of its mouth—came out of one of the shadows in the wall.

“Well, I'm the famous, the spectacular LAST LOKI, the one Sagacity himself missed out on killing when he killed all the gods from all different multiverses. Oh, and here are your friends,” Loki said.

Loki then dug in his back pockets and pulled the severed heads of both Prince and Lucan out of them and threw them on the floor in front of the six of them. Chase's heart rate started to fly. Melody and Makai fell to their knees. Stalin loaded another round into his sniper. Soul got ready to snap his finger, and Orixia bore both her fangs and her claws.

“Oh, stop it, you guys. You won't like how that would end—that's no fun. Prince and Lucan were no fun, so I just got rid of them quickly. That prince fella spoke kinda funny,” Loki said.

Orixia's blood pressure flew up. Her body started to sweat, and her muscles tensed. Fury flying through her body, she lunged toward Loki. He saw this and smiled, as he simply slapped her away, causing her to fly through several walls before she finally came to a stop.

“ORAXIA!” Chase screamed out as he rushed toward her body, but before he could reach her, shadow hands rose from the floor, crushing one of his legs, causing him to stumble and crash into the wall at super speed.

Loki gained a surprised look on his face.

“That was easier than I expected. I thought you were supposed to be fast. I know sentients without super speed powers who are quicker than you. Hehe. EMBARRASSING. Look, I don't even remember the name of my employer, but y'all pissed off some real important guy, it seems, if he asked for me to get rid of ya,” Loki mockingly said.

Soul's gauntlets started to sap energy from his soul and set themselves ablaze with incredible power, lighting up the entire room. He rushed Loki and punched him with all his force, causing him to move back a couple of feet from the hit.

“Wow, you hit me. You actually managed to hit me. It was like a puppy pouncing on its owner, but HEY, at least it's something. You, Soul, should really be proud of that. Hey, come on, give me another strike. I think it'll be fun. And don't think I forgot about you two. Ya must have thought this place was super empty, but don't worry. Here ya go,” Loki said.

Suddenly what seemed like an army's worth of monsters and goons came out from all the shadows in this ruined castle.

“Makai, stay behind me!” Stalin screamed.

Stalin started to fight off the goons and monsters, fighting for his and Makai's lives, as Melody flew over to Orixia and Chase and tried to get them out of there. Then when she was about to grab them, a shadow hand was launched toward her, and she reactively made herself intangible, causing the shadow hand to fly through her and slam into both Orixia and Chase's bodies with such force that it crushed the both of them, killing them on impact. Their blood sprayed all over Melody's body as she sat there staring at their now mangled corpses.

Soul kept striking Loki over and over and over again with more and more force than last time, as the gauntlets sapped more and more power from his soul. As he continued to strike, Loki just kept laughing louder and louder and louder. Loki then grabbed his fist, shattered the gauntlet, and slapped him away into a wall. Before his body could fall, he rushed toward Soul and grabbed him by the neck, squeezing it so hard that he couldn't even scream, and blasted energy into his neck at the same time.

“I hear you're able to regenerate. Let's see how long that can last. I'm curious.”

As Melody stared at the corpses of her childhood friends, she was unable to say anything. Her body heat rose, and her heartbeat started to quicken more and more. Her palms got extremely sweaty, and the strength in her legs disappeared as she collapsed and just screamed out—with such force that the very area around them started to fall apart, and the atoms of even reality started to separate. This had such force that it knocked out everyone in the building, including Makai and Stalin, and as they collapsed, blood started to fall out of the holes in their bodies. She started to separate atoms. She screamed so loud, even to the point of actually harming Loki, causing him to drop Soul.

“Shit, that hurts, lass—OWWWWWWWW! I'M LEAVING! SCREW THIS!”

Loki disappeared into the shadows, and Soul could no longer feel his soul, so he knew he had genuinely left. He himself was seconds from passing out, and he looked back and forth between Melody and Makai and Stalin on the ground. In a split-second decision, he ran toward Melody, covered her mouth, and crashed through the walls and fell down onto the ground outside the castle, breaking the fall for Melody. As the world went black, Soul passed out.

A few hours later, he slowly woke up to the sun beaming down on his face and Melody shaking his body trying to wake him up, as tears fell from her face and snot rolled out her nose.

“Oh my god, you're alive. Thank god you're alive. Oh god, oh god,” Melody said as her voice trembled.

Soul got up, and even while his body was still in pain, he looked over at the now-collapsed castle and noticed something: he couldn't feel the souls of Makai or Stalin anymore. His face collapsed, and his body started to shake as he looked to the floor.

“I-I can't feel them, Melody. I-i can't feel them. I-it happened again. I was too weak to save our family. I couldn't do anything,” Soul said.

Melody looked at him with tears still rolling down her eyes. She didn't say anything but just held him tightly as he blankly looked over at the castle ruins.