The Devil, The Witch, and The Sweet Taste of Revenge

“GAAAAH!!-”

-crash!-

Mako and Fyra crashed right through a glass window after being blown away by a gust summoned by Yakh’juj-khan just moments ago. The duo helped each other get up, feeling lightheaded and all, before finding themselves inside a room completely different from the Skull Clan’s palace they were in before.

It was a small, cozy, but rather pathetic-looking apartment room, a sight never seen before by Mako. Fyra on the other hand recognized the place immediately.

“This..- This is my house,” Fyra remarked, much to Mako’s surprise.

“Your house? As in-”

“Yes. My house back in Infernia…”

Mako and Fyra stood ultimately confused. How could this even be possible? Infernia had long since perished since the Skull Clan attacked, and Fyra’s house was one of the countless homes razed during the skullies’ raid. Even if it still stood to this day, how the hell did they even end up here?

-creak!-

The duo flinched from the sudden creaking of the wooden floor. They turned around and needless to say, both were caught off guard by what greeted them, but even more so for Fyra who did not expect in all her life to meet him again-

“B- brother… What are you- How..?-” Fyra was lost in words, as standing in front of her right now was her elder brother, Azar.

“Brother?” Mako was surprised to hear that from his friend. He had heard of their past together throughout his time exchanging stories with Fyra, but if the stories goes, Azar should be long dead back then.

“H- How are you still alive-”

“...”

Azar remained silent, unresponsive to his sister.

“This is an obvious trap!” Mako thought to himself, but such thinking did not flash within Fyra’s mind at all. She missed her brother so much, all logical thoughts were simply thrown out of the window.

“Azar-”

“Wait, Fyra! Don’t!” Mako tried to stop Fyra from approaching her brother, when Azar suddenly pulled out a gun and pointed it right at Fyra’s head.

Both were shocked by his action, with additional confusion and heartbreak for the one-horned devil.

“No… You won’t do this to me, right brother?” Fyra was completely in denial, approaching her brother without regard to the pistol pointed to her head.

“You’re just messing with me, right brother? You sometimes do this kind of thing from time to time…” Fyra’s voice began to crack, holding back her tears.

Azar showed no signs of reaction; from facial expression to body language. His hand was simply locked at pointing his gun to his sister, his face remained expressionless.

“Come on big bro… Say something to me please! ‘I hate you’ , ‘you’re annoying’ … ANYTHING!!”

Fyra kept on approaching her brother closer and closer, until finally-

*BANG!*

Mako shot Azar with his Boomthorn before he could do any harm against his sister. Fyra was caught off guard by the witch’s sudden reality check, which immediately revealed that everything- from the room to Azar to the window they smashed right through, were all but mere illusions.

Just like before in the courtyard, reality began to collapse once again with mirror-cracks forming on thin air. The walls were torn away by a mysterious force and thrown into the empty void, and the floor itself disappeared right below the duo.

Mako and Fyra fell into the deep dark abyss below, and before they knew it, they arrived in a desertous wasteland devoid of life, water, and greenery.

“Where the hell are we this time?” Mako asked, getting up and helping his friend get up before brushing off sand from his clothes. The duo was even more confused now as the sand plain literally had no one there except for the two.

There and then, a honking noise was heard, belonging to that of a train-

*HONK!* *HOOOONK!!*

Mako and Fyra noticed a train’s railtrack suddenly took form beneath their feet. Looking back, the duo jumped away just in time as a train almost rammed the two at full speed. They realized the train came through some sort of crack-shaped rift and exited a similar-looking rift as well.

*HONK!* *HOOOONK!!* *HOOOOOOONK!*

“WOAH!!”

More and more trains made an appearance into the scene, all of which nearly rammed the two children much to their dismay. They ended up running around constantly dodging incoming trains and such, when reality began to collapse once more.

The sun in the sky suddenly exploded instantly bringing darkness into the scene. Mako and Fyra stayed close to each other, fearing yet another unexpected ambush. Sure enough, the “ambush” arrived in the form of Yakh’juj-khan, pouncing towards them out of nowhere. In panic, Mako fired a round towards the emperor, who suddenly disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

Surprised, Mako backed off and bumped into someone- and that someone was none other than Yakh’juj-khan, trying to swing-slash the two only to be intercepted once more. Just like before, the emperor disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

More and more Yakh’juj-khan began to appear in the scene. They pounced, charged, sled and tried slashing the duo in half, but all were quickly shot down only to appear in battle once more. The duo ran away in fear after being overwhelmed by an army of Yakh’juj-khan, all of them laughing sinisterly at the same time.

“Keep running! We need to find a way out of here!” Mako shouted as he and Fyra both ran aimlessly across the endless plain of darkness.

A glimmer of hope arrived as Mako noticed a glowing opened door right in front of them, but it immediately shattered as a shipping container was dropped right in front of it, preventing the two from escape.

Looking up, Mako and Fyra noticed rains of ship containers pouring down to them at great speed. The duo were tormented once more as they were forced to run and dodge the falling containers- without a second to break.

As they were running across the empty void, a hand suddenly popped out of the ground and grabbed Mako’s left leg, causing him to fall. Fyra tried to save her when a shipping container suddenly landed right in between the two, followed by two-three more thus separating the duo completely. Seeing this, the witch turned around, and now it’s his turn to be shocked, confused, and in complete denial.

Right in front of Mako was his mother’s wooden cross tombstone, complete with her name “Miriam” denying the boy to dismiss it as just a random grave. The witch noticed the hand grabbing his leg emerged from his mother’s grave below, and to his ultimate horror- a zombified rotten version of his mother jumped out of the grave and grabbed Mako by his shoulder.

“YOU’RE A FAILED WITCH, SON!! YOU DISAPPOINT ME AND YOUR FATHER!!!”

“No- You can’t- You aren’t mama!” Mako, tears flowing from his eyes, shot his zombified mother straight to her head.

The bullets deflected off however, and his mother simply smiled. She raised her right hand causing Mako to lower his head in fear, but instead of an attack, the witch felt a soft gentle touch to his head instead.

“W- what…”

“Shhh… shhh… It’s okay son… You’re all fine now…”

The zombified Miriam patted her son’s head and embraced him in a hug. Mako was completely confused by her action, but it awakened a long forgotten desire he had years ago.

“Mama….” the witch couldn’t hold it in anymore, and cried to his heart's content.

He had missed his mother so much after all these years, and all thoughts of this being a mere illusion or a trap set up by Yakh’juj was completely thrown out of the window. He simply wanted to feel his mother’s warmth once more.

“Mama!! Mama!!!...”

“I’m right here, son. I will always be here…”

The gentle hand that patted the witch’s head suddenly became hard and metallic. Mako felt the warm embrace of his mother immediately turned cold, as if he’s not hugging a human person anymore-

-as if he’s hugging a metal robot instead.

“She will always be with you, little witch. Your mother that is-” Yakh’juj greeted Mako’s sight, hugging him instead of his mother much to the witch’s horror.

Before he could react further, Yakh’juj gripped Mako’s spine right through his skin, creating an unspeakable amount of pain to the little witch.

“Your mother has always been a great hindrance to my plan, little witch. 10 years. 10 FREAKING years she set us back by destroying Delirnium veins!”

Yakh’juj squeezed Mako’s back with more force. With every increasing grip the cyborg emperor inflicted with his iron claw-like hand, he slowly pulled his hand out, ready to yank the witch’s spine at a moment's notice...

“Had it not been for your mother, our clan could’ve united all of Delirith at this point. Every clan, every faction, everyone from every biome united under my rule! Don’t bother with those ‘kindness’ and ‘tolerance’ and ‘diplomacy’ or whatever bullshit they spit at you! All you need is POWER to bring order to this world, and the Delirnium ARE the power…”

Mako screamed helplessly, feeling closer and closer to death till there’s no more voice to vent out his pain. Unfortunately, the emperor had no rush in executing the boy, and his monologue had yet to finish…

“Yet after the atrocity your mother had committed, I had no personal issue with you, little witch, and the same goes for your girl out there. If I do, I would’ve hunted you down back then. I’m doing this simply because you attacked my capital-”

“-and it’s in my nature to make my enemies suffer so long they stand in my way.”

“Oh yeah?..- Guess it’s in..- your nature too..- to talk a lot during battle…-” Mako spoke in between gasps.

“Yes, that is also true- wait what?”

[DOPPELGANGER SWITCH COMPLETED: REPLACING REAL HOST WITH HOLO-CLONE]

“WAIT, NO-” Yakh’juj immediately ripped out Mako’s spine, but instead of blood and flesh, his back simply shattered like glass.

“YOU LITTLE FU-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Yakh’juj received an electric bomb directly to his face. The electric shock zapped all across his iron body, amplifying the pain much to his dismay, putting him down on his knees.

Mako was satisfied seeing the emperor in this helpless position, and with that he decided to end this once and for all.

“I crafted these shells just for you, your highness! One that could drill right through that ogunite skull of yours!-” Mako loaded his Boomthorn with malicious intent, and pointed it to the kneeling emperor- “You said none of this is personal for you. But for me, all of this is VERY PERSONAL!!”

“I’M ENDING THIS NOW, YAKH’JUJ-KHAN! FOR MY MOTHER!!” With rage and hatred filled within his heart, Mako pulled the trigger..-

*poof!*

-aaaaand his Boomthorn was jammed.

“OF ALL THE F***ING TIME!!!”

“Foolish witch!-” Yakh’juj had recovered from the electric-shock at this point and got back to his feet- “all those prep to take me down and not a single thought to clean up your gun. No wonder your mother died so easily!”

Yakh’juj eyes started to glow brighter. With a single clap, the darkness and crashed ship containers surrounding them broke down as reality began to distort once more. Fyra noticed Mako struggling to unjam his shotgun and immediately went to his side, uniting with her friend once more.

“I commend the effort you both had taken to put me down, truth be told. Alas, none of it was enough as you two possessed little POWER against ME!!” Yakh’juj’s voice thundered across the area, now shifting into an active volcanic place with meteors raining in the background behind the emperor.

“With the Delirnium’s power within me, I control space, nature, life and death itself!!” Yakh’juj motioned his hand as an army of burning skeletons surrounded the duo.

“Reality itself is within my grasp! I control EVERYTHING!!” Yakh’juj motioned his hand once more, this time creating a titanic whirlpool of fire at the sky right above them. The fire formed a demonic face, roaring terrifically at the duo.

“I will control all of Delirith! I will bring order to this planet!-” Yakh’juj floated to the air as his body and eyes started to unleash literal purple flames right out of its gaps- “I am this world’s rightful owner with my power! I AM GOD!!!”

“THAT’S RIGHT!! KEEP TELLING YA SELF THAT YA DELUSIONAL F***!!!” a voice called from the skies above.

To everyone’s surprise, a part of the sky suddenly shattered as an armoured Bertha came crashing down right towards Yakh’juj. The emperor dodged just in time and the armoured truck crash landed violently to the ground below.

“NOW, WHAT’S ALL THIS TALK ABOUT BEING GOD AND WHATNOT?” a familiar voice spoke from inside the Bertha. Jumping out of the vehicle, the voice owner revealed himself, and Mako and Fyra were all too happy seeing him in battle.

[ SANDKING ANUBRAX ]
Joins The Battle!

“Hey now, don’t forget about me-”

[ VON PETROL ]
ALSO Joins The Battle!

Anubrax drew out his chain-a-rang blade and approached Yakh’juj.

“YA SURE LIKE TO TALK MAD SHIT FOR SOMEONE WHO TREATS HIS FIGHTS LIKE A DAMN MOVIE!!”

With one swing, Anubrax skillfully threw his gigantic boomerang-blade but instead of aiming it towards the emperor, the chain-a-rang soared the skies above.

The flying chain-a-rang circled the skies surrounding them, creating explosions after explosions as the blade hit and destroyed drones after drones that projected all the “reality warping” gimmick Yakh’juj was showing off this whole time. The flaming demon face on the sky began to disappear, sight of meteor and active volcano faded away, and the burning skeletons surrounding the duo disappeared completely as the chain-a-rang flew back to Anubrax’s hand, hitting the skeleton’s head along the way which turned out to be the spherical drones in disguise.

The illusion’s out now as all drones were destroyed by the Sandking’s blade, revealing them to still be in the palace’s courtyard this whole time.

“WHAT NOW EMPEROR? GOD POWERS GONE CUZ YOUR SCRAP BOTS GOT CRUMPED!?”

Yakh’juj stared at the smug Sandking in rage. How DARE he destroyed the emperor’s greatest asset in warfare; an army of spherical drones that allowed him to create holographic imagery of whatever he pleased, connected telekinetically to the Delirnium shards within his brain.

Despite his anger, the Sandking’s presence did gave him a wake-up call he very much needed in this dire times:

Enough playing around with illusions, holograms, and whatnots. It’s time he faced his enemies for real! It’s time he showed off his TRUE power! The power that made him emperor!

“You caught me good, Sandking. But illusionary projection was merely part of my vast arsenal. I am no less of a weapon myself!” Yakh’juj drew out his sword and charged right at Anubrax.

“HELL YEAH! BRING IT ON YA DAMN SKULLY!!” Anubrax charged at Yakh’juj in return.

Immediately, both forces clashed and punched each other’s face as their first strike despite having a sword in hand. Both didn’t have time to dodge and simply tanked each other’s fist with their faces. A powerful shock wave was created from the face-fist collision, so powerful that it formed a long crack throughout the entire 10 acre courtyard starting from beneath their feet. A shockwave so powerful, it shattered every glass window, greenhouse, and any glass object within the 10-acre area. A shockwave so powerful, it sent Mako and Fyra flying back as if a typhoon just blew them away.

A shockwave so powerful- the two king’s fell down as they fainted from their punch. Less than half a minute later though, they both got up right at the same time.

“THAT’S ONE WAY TO START A FIGHT, EH SKULLY?”

“I’m not here to entertain you, you primitive brute!” Yakh’juj tried to slash Anubrax’s head off but the Sandking’s reflexes was equally as quick.

“HAH! DON’T THINK YA CAN PULL OFF CHEAP TRICKS WITH ME ANYMORE! YA GENERAL F***ED ME UP THE LAST TIME WE FOUGHT. TRAINED LIKE SHIT SINCE THEN JUST TO STEP UP MY GAME!!”

Anubrax pushed the emperor back and readjusted his stance. Immediately, the two clashed their blades, creating a bullet-hell of sparks flying here and there as the Sandking’s ogunite-steeled blade collided with the emperor’s Delirnium-charged energy blade. Both were equally fast, both were equally strong, but just like the Sandking mentioned, he had undergone brutal training- an entire arc’s worth behind the scene since his clash with Oculus-khan.

Because of this, the current Anubrax you’re reading now was far stronger than the chapters before.

“There’s the intruder! Get them boys!” a voice called out, snapping Mako, Fyra, and Von who apparently went full spectator mode towards the Sandking vs Emperor clash.

“You know what to do kids!” Von shouted as he rammed the army of skullies heading straight towards them to help their emperor.

Without a second to waste, Mako threw his cube-turret as it landed right in the middle of a crowd of skully. The turret reconstructed itself and wrecked havoc immediately after.

All three (Mako, Fyra, and Von) fought valiantly against the hordes of skullies charging towards them, covering Anubrax who managed to lock Yakh’juj in a stalemate of giant sword duels. However, the skullies kept coming and coming, causing the three to be overwhelmed rather quickly.

Mako and Fyra climbed into Von’s Bertha as ordered by the man himself. The trio took cover inside it and fired all of their guns from there. Unfortunately for them, the anti-tank units had arrived, bringing with them launchers and explosives more than capable of blowing up the Bertha ten times over.

Even worse, some of the skullies managed to pass through the trio and headed straight to the “Leader vs Leader” battle. Though they were quickly chopped down by the Sandking, the skullies provided enough distraction for Yakh’juj to recover and land a slash that grazed right across Anubrax’s chest.

“AARGHHH!!!”

“BOSS!!!”

*BOOOM!*

*BOOOM!*

“GAAAH!” All three exclaimed as the explosions pushed and nearly flipped the armoured truck they’re in.

The trio were completely surrounded at this point, and the same could be said about the Sandking. A reinforcement was what the four of them really needed right now-

-and a reinforcement was exactly what they’ll get!

“SHOOT ‘EM DOWN BOYS!” Mehmet Alai ordered his group as they fired rounds after rounds of bullets, rockets and grenades right at the army of skullies.

Alai rounded up 30 folks with him, a.k.a the remaining Boratheus’s group members that survived their rogue onslaught inside the palace while everything in this and the last chapter played out. And speaking of Boratheus-

“HAHA! I’M BACK YOU MONGRELS!!” the boar-man arrived in a skully power-suit, mounted with guns, flamethrowers and whatnot all over its body

[ METAL BORATHEUS ]
“While y’all are busy progressing the story, I stole this f***ing suit!”

“LESGAAAAAAAAOOO!!!!”

Boratheus, Alai, and the rest of the group charged right into battle and mowed down the skullies with bloodlusted ferocity.

“It seems these folks are more than able to deal with the skullies,” Von commented. “Let’s head to Anubrax. He needs our help!”

Mako and Fyra agreed with Von and immediately, the second-in-command drove the Bertha straight to Yakh’juj and Anubrax. They rammed and crushed several skullies along the way and attempted to ram the cyborg emperor as well. Much to everyone’s surprise, the Delirnium-doped cyborg-skeleton stopped the charging truck with a single punch-

*CRASSHHHH!!!*

The Bertha’s track-wheels exploded from the collision, sending screws and metal flying everywhere as well as breaking down the truck’s engine. It mattered not though as Mako, Fyra, and Von jumped out of the vehicle and joined Anubrax in battling the Skull Clan emperor.

“I THOUGHT I TOLD YA TO STAY OUT OF THIS FIGHT!”

“Not an option boss. That skully hit you once but not only that. It seems he’s dominating the fight all this time,” Von argued.

“Von’s right. We can’t defeat this guy alone,” Fyra added, charging up her powered bracer and shin guards. “You and Mako argued back then on who gets to kill this guy-”

“I’d say we do this together!”

Queue epic song.mp3

“Well crap. It appears I am now dealing with the power of ‘friendship’.”

And without a second to waste, all four charged at the emperor who welcomed them with open blades.

“Hruaargh!!” Yakh’juj swung his blades downwards as Anubrax easily parried it with his own. The two kings clashed blades while Mako, Fyra, and Von repositioned themselves to surround the skully emperor from all sides.

Von rapidly fired his semi-auto assault shotgun from behind, but Yakh’juj’s reflexes seemed to be heightened in this fight as he managed to not only block all of it, but did so between parrying and attacking the Sandking in their duel.

For each swing of his blade, Yakh’juj’s sword produced a shockwave that boomed across the whole courtyard. His strikes became more and more rapid as he quickly overwhelmed Anubrax with his near-mach speed swings- but that’s when Mako and Fyra jumped in.

The duo bombarded Yakh’juj with streams of fire and grenades of all types. Mako threw two pipe bombs; one flashbang and one shock-bomb, both of which detonated mid-air as the emperor shot it down just in time with an energy slash from his sword. This created an opening for Fyra who shot out a concentrated fire beam from her bracer, forcing the emperor to dodge and take a few steps back, which in return created an opening for Anubrax who managed to land a clean shot on the emperor’s head with the blunt part of his sword.

“You freaking-” Yakh’juj jumped away as he repositioned himself to NOT be surrounded by the four. Being almost and sometimes faster than the speed of sound allowed the emperor to easily do this, as well as instantly counter-attacking the quad with his own barrage.

Yakh’juj fired wave after wave of various shaped energy projectiles towards the four by swinging his sword rapidly, turning the fight into a real-life danmaku boss battle. Seeing this, Von protected the group by throwing a deployable force-field barricade on the ground in front, shielding them all from the emperor’s attack.

Despite this, the emperor’s Delirnium-based projectiles proved too powerful as cracks started to form on the force-field barricade. Yakh’juj took this opportunity and rammed the barricade with his body, shattering it completely as he attempted to slash down everyone there. His attack was immediately intercepted by Anubrax and before they knew it, all five engaged themselves in close-combat once more.

They swung their swords, fired their guns, blasted flamethrowers, chugged bombs and more. All of it was either blocked, parried, or dodged skillfully by the Skull Clan emperor, purple flames now blazing bigger than ever before on his eyes and the gaps on his bodies.

The emperor counter-attacked, and all of it too were skillfully blocked, parried, or dodged by the four, but unlike them, Yakh’juj’s ferocity grew more and more as the fight progressed. His sword started to hit harder, his swings barely seen and soon straight up disappeared from the naked eye. His combo of attacks became more variant; throwing upper, lower, and projectile attacks to his enemies. All of this as Anubrax and the gang grew ever more weary from the fight.

In the end, the emperor’s ferocity paid off. He managed to land a clean front-kick to Anubrax that sent him flying hundreds of yards back, but not before being disarmed by the Sandking who punched away the sword from the emperor’s hand. Yakh’juj tried to rush back to his sword but was blocked by Von who courageously stood in his way and unloaded his shotgun’s entire magazine onto the emperor. Yakh’juj tanked through all of it, rushing forward and grabbed the second-in-command by his leg and tossed him aside just like that.

The emperor finally reclaimed his blade once more and turned his attention to the remaining two of his enemies; Mako and Fyra. The witch immediately threw a gas bomb at Yakh’juj as Fyra lit it up with her fireblast. Just like before, the gas ignited and exploded mightily, but even mightier was the emperor who casually tanked the blow and jumped onwards to the two through the burning flames. He swung his sword horizontally as the duo jumped/ducked just in time.

The emperor was too fast for them at this point as Yakh’juj caught up quickly to the duo everytime they tried rolling/jumping away. He kept closing in on the duo and at one point, managed to sucker-punch Fyra away, sending her flying yards back and knocking her out cold.

“FYRAAA!!” Mako shouted, but it turned into a grave mistake for the witch as calling out for his friend distracted him for half a second-

-and half a second was all Yakh’juj needed to close-in to Mako.

-Phyooom!-

“AGHK-”

The emperor’s blade went right through Mako’s body. With his sword stabbed through the boy’s chest, Yakh’juj twisted it, inflicting more pain to the witch. The emperor raised his sword, lifting Mako with it as well, and stared right into his eyes.

“Fight’s over witch. You and your friends are now down,” Yakh’juj spoke in a sinister voice. “So, tell me, witch. Was it worth it?”

“Heh… Can’t tell ya that yet…” Mako replied with a smile. “But what I know… is that this fight ain’t over…”

“TILL IT’S F****NG OVER!!” a voice shouted some distance away.

Surprised, Yakh’juj turned around to the voice as it sounded similar to the witch he just stabbed. Sure enough, his sight was greeted with the witch, standing near the wrecked Bertha and pulling out a big object from the truck; Sandking Anubrax’s signature gauss cannon.

“YOU LITTLE-”

Yakh’juj realized that the Mako he just stabbed was merely a doppelganger. He was bamboozled in the same manner twice, which greatly angered the emperor who rushed at the witch without thinking twice. Mako had the cannon charged and pointed to the emperor’s face at this point, and all that’s left was to pull the trigger-

-and pulled the trigger he did.

-Pyoooom!-

“HAAARRGHHHH!!!” Yakh’juj blocked the football-sized projectile with his blade.

Both objects of pure energy collided, creating shockwave after shockwave that blew across the courtyard. Yakh’juj struggled to maintain his ground as the projectile pushed him back more and more with its immense power. The emperor’s energy sword began to crack slowly, until finally-

-SMASH!-

-the sword gave in, and the emperor received a full-blown impact from the projectile.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!*

A powerful explosion blasted from where Yakh’juj stood. An explosion so immense, everyone in the courtyard was thrown away to the side as the whole palace ground shook hard, trembling some structures that were distances away. A mushroom cloud of both yellow and purple flames soared to the skies kilometers above, while the courtyard’s grass all burned out, turning into a massive crater for the area in close proximity with the explosion.

Simply put, it was as if a literal nuke blasted right at Yakh’juj-khan, and since the explosion was made from both the gauss cannon and the Delirnium-filled body of the emperor contacting, it might as well be.

Minutes passed and the explosion finally settled. The cloud of flame had turned into smoke which in turn evaporated into the air. Concrete, debris, and a hell lot of bodies scattered across the palace, both belonging to the skullies and the rebels (but mostly skullies). Anyone who weren't dead or passed out just now recovered and was assisted back to their feet.

Somewhere in the courtyard and in the middle of the explosion’s crater laid the Skull Clan emperor- shattered, helpless, and weak. So weak in fact that he could hardly think of getting up let alone actually doing so. The purple blaze in his eyes was no more, as only an ant-sized flame lit up the eye sockets of his iron skull-head.

Mako approached Yakh’juj-khan and with every anger and hatred left inside him, stomped the emperor with his right prosthetic foot, shattering whatever hope the emperor had left in surviving this war. Without hesitation, Mako raised his shotgun and aimed it at the emperor’s face. He wanted to stare at his mother’s killer’s eyes one last time before ending it once and for all…

“Heh, so that’s how it is, eh kid…” Yakh’juj spoke softly. “Everything I had built; every man, woman, and children that swore loyalty to me and chose to sacrifice their ass off for the greater good of my dream. Every clan and major gangs unified under my flag so no wars will be waged amongst them any longer. Every weapon, tech, and vehicles, built better than all of your scrap-powered arms with the powers of the great Delirnium, a stepping stone for our future’s advancement-”

“Decades after decades worth of blood, sweat, and a piss lot of tears! All those are coming to an end thanks to you kid, just because I killed your mama…”

Mako's hand shook. Despite his greatest enemy literally beneath his feet, literally on life's edge with his face merely inches away from his gun- the witch was hesitant to shoot the skull-headed emperor for some reason. He could feel his grip on his gun slowly slipping away…

"Come on kid. You only have to pull that trigger and all of this will be over. But before that, I must ask-"

"Was it, worth it?"

Silent grew from Mako for a while, before a satisfied smile formed on the witch’s face.

“Hell yeah.”

*BANG!*