Zentroid Crucifyzoa

"Time to go, guys!" Saitori huffed.

"General!" Cecilius pointed to the sky. "You need to see this."

"We don't have time! What the?"

The group spotted fighter jets attacking the chimaera warships.

"US Air Force. I guess Forroway somehow convinced the politicians to fight back," Cecilius nodded. "It should buy us time."

"They won't last long though. Let's go, now."

"Why?" Dr. Kullian knelt in tears as the chimaeras blasted hellfire across the sky. "Evil dogs and a bloody demon were bad enough!"

Arius and Magnus rubbed his back in comfort as Dorian cried with the doctor.

"Dorian," Cecilius held her shoulder.

"I don't understand, Cecilius," Dorian buried her head into her laptop. "Why is there so much violence in the world?"

"Look, it won't help that we sob all day!" Saitori stammered. "Do you want the stealth hounds to find us? Or wait until the chimaeras blast us into pieces?"

"General," Cecilius hugged Dorian. "I think we need a brief moment here."

"A moment? You hear that?" Saitori lifted a finger.

The group listened to the scampering and howling of the stealth hounds on the floor below.

"That's the sound of death coming for us," Saitori glared. "You want to just sit here waiting for death to come?"

Cecilius stood up. "Saitori! These poor friends of ours have never experienced Federation horrors like you and I have!"

"They need to grow up. Isrina and I have watched our friends die left and right during the Niang Chronicles! We lost a lot of good men like Dr. Jinhai Niang back then. We didn't have time to mourn for them! We kept moving through the night before the European governments could sell us to the Federation!"

"I know, but that's different! Dorian is not a fighter like us. We should comfort her the best we can!"

"Comforting Cyclia certainly didn't stop her from betraying us!"

"Hey, watch your mouth!" Cecilius glared at Saitori for mentioning his lost daughter who betrayed them during the Niang Chronicles. "Amitonyx or I should say your ex brainwashed her! Didn't you help that madman build SANDRA and all those bloodthirsty droids for Fanghui?"

Saitori slammed her foot on the ground with uncontrollable fury.

"Please, stop!" Dorian wailed. "Why are we fighting? Why is this world collapsing around us? My friends are stuck in a game. Let's get out here. We aren't making anything better."

Dorian wept as Cecilius patted her head.

"How about," Magnus proposed. "We just go to the helipad now, and talk about our worries along the way? Alright? Simple solution."

Saitori took a deep breath as Cecilius apologized to Dorian.

"Okay, Magnus," Saitori turned around coldly. "You heard the man. Let's go, but we need to pick up the pace."

The gang hurried across the empty hallway. Cecilius comforted Dorian while Captain Arius and Magnus helped Dr. Kullian walk.

"G-General," Cecilius mumbled through the awkward silence. "I-I apologize."

Saitori didn't answer.

"I shouldn't have brought up your past. I know you've done your best to put right where you did wrong."

The General sighed. "Cecilius, I-I'm also sorry for bringing up your daughter. I know you tried to care for her the best you could."

Cecilius nodded. "What's past is past. What matters is what we choose to do now. Let's get out here alive! Together."

The group nodded as they walked through the flickering hall.

"Guys?" Dorian looked behind them. "Is it me, or are those lights turning off towards us?"

Everyone saw the flickering lights becoming pitch black toward their way.

"It's the thing! He will eat us alive!" Dr. Kullian squealed.

"Holy crap," Saitori shuddered. "Run!"

"I thought the stealth hounds were still beneath us!" Magnus sweated.

"No. It's something far worse!"

"What do you mean?"

"It's the devil! We're all going to die!" Dr. Kullian wailed.

"Why are you all so scared?" Something asked.

The group froze in fear, staring at the darkness slowly coming their way. Everyone felt the ominous chill through their bodies with skin hairs on their ends.

"All I wanted to do was play with you all! Hehehe," A pair of huge unblinking eyes appeared from the hallway's blackness.

Everyone's face turned white as the large eyes hypnotized them with their playful gaze.

"W-what is that?" Dorian felt her legs shake.

"No!" Saitori and Cecilius cried. "Z-Zentroid?"

"In the flesh! Weeee!" A bleeding grin appeared below the eyes.

"That thing has a name?" Magnus sweated.

"Go! Go! Go!" Cecilius pushed everyone.

The group ran across the hallway as the lights continued to blacken. The bloody smiley face was approaching at an exponential rate.

"You all aren't afraid of the dark, are you?" The voice giggled. "Cecilius! Saitori! You all thought you killed me on that train? Hehehe!"

"What's he talking about?" Arius fired his pistols at the evil face.

"Just ignore him!" Saitori cried, not wanting to remember Zentroid's assault on the refugee train from the Middle Eastern Smite.

"Don't leave me!" Zentroid laughed. "Please come and play with me! I want to play catch with your livers!"

"No! It's going to eat us!" Dr. Kullian screamed. "He will kill us all!"

"Toodle-oo, kiddo! Time for a pow-wow!"

Tentacles pierced Dr. Kullian through the chest before sucking him into the darkness from Magnus' grip. A large, triangular abdomen opened wide to chomp on Kullian's body. As the group ran away, Dorian was paralyzed with fear as she saw the happy face morph into discomforting clusters of mouths and circles.

"What are you doing?" Saitori grabbed Dorian's cold hands before Zentroid's tentacles could catch her. "We cannot lose you! If you die, the players die too!"

"Don't be afraid! Come with me!" Zentroid whipped his three green tongues across the floor. "Let's play a game. It's called, spilling brains! Hehehehe!"

Magnus and Arius fired at the rampaging darkness, both with their teeth tightly closed with dread. The shadow of a large PC screen head with a huge three-mandible abdomen stained with blood emerged. Tentacles flailed about the dark as the PC displayed a chuckling baby face. Everyone screamed as the baby's face melted with blood and deformed fangs.

"Did you know that babies taste the best?" Zentroid's PC head rotated on his elongating neck. "Just thinking about those tiny, tasty organs with the crunching of little bones makes me so wild! Weeee!"

Zentroid swiped a clawed tentacle at the Dorian. Arius slashed the claw with his fedora, making Zentroid retreat into the darkness.

"Ready for hide-and-seek? Lights out! Yay!" Zentroid giggled as the entire hallway turned pitch black.

"What the?" Arius sweated. "Where are the lights?"

"Where the frick did he go?" Magnus pointed his pistol everywhere.

"What do we do?" Dorian wept as Cecilius felt her arm and held her close. "I'm scared! I hate this!"

Damn it! Saitori panicked. I designed so many terrifying machines with Amitonyx. Zentroid is here because of me. Everyone is facing the price, even poor Dorian.

"Flashlight? Anyone?" Cecilius shouted. "Let's be rational here!"

"Our phones don't work!" Magnus wept. "We're doomed!"

"Wait! We got pistol lights!" Arius instructed.

Magnus and Arius turned on their pistol's lights. As they scanned the dark hallway, they found no sign of Zentroid.

"That's creepy," Arius' hands shook.

"Face the light forward," Saitori ordered. "I need to see how close we are."

The pistol lights revealed the next doors ahead of them across the ominously silent hall.

"There," Saitori pointed. "That's the next stairway."

"It's about time we get out of this nightmare," Arius groaned.

"Cecilius!" A voice echoed from the darkness. "President Cecilius?"

"Isrina, is that you?" Cecilius called.

"Where are you? What's going on? Why is it so dark here?"

"If Zentroid is on the loose, our Desert Cardinal is in grave danger!"

"Cecilius, I'm afraid. Where do I go?"

"Don't worry! I'm coming for you!"

"Please come! There's a creepy computer trying to kill me! I just want to see my Little Chickadee again!"

Cecilius ran into the darkness without thought.

"Not this trick!" Saitori tried to catch Cecilius. "President! That's not Isrina!"

Cecilius paid no attention as he ran towards the weeping voice. Saitori stopped the others from following.

I can't let Cecilius fall for this, but Dorian needs to be safe. This is my fault. Saitori covered her face. I must stop my wretched creation before anyone else gets hurt.

"Captain Arius, take Dorian to the helipad, now!" The General ordered. "If we lose her, we lose the players!"

"But Isrina-"

"That's not Isrina!" Saitori stomped her foot. "Get Dorian out, now! That's an order! Magnus, come with me!"

***

"Cecilius! Please help!" Isrina's voice cried.

"I'm right here!" Cecilius saw a kneeling Isrina in tears.

"Help me! I'm afraid!"

Isrina could be seen wailing on the ground. Cecilius ran towards her.

"Everything's going to be okay! Let's get you-"

Cecilius bumped into something. He reached out to touch a solid screen that portrayed an image of Isrina. The fake Isrina stood and wasn't crying anymore. Cecilius flinched as he saw Isrina's face make an unsettling grin with her eyes looking in different directions. He screamed as Isrina's figure blinked into a dark silhouette with enlarged red eyes.

"President!" Magnus' light shone on Cecilius.

It was too late. Zentroid slashed a sharp tentacle diagonally across Cecilius' body.

"Ack!" Cecilius fell.

"No!" Saitori caught him as Magnus fired at the PC screen.

Magnus helped Saitori carry the injured Cecilius away from Zentroid. They shrieked at the sight of Isrina's body swelling with disgusting circles and mouths as Zentroid's abdomen drooled.

"Tricked you! Tricked you! Tricked you!" Zentroid cheered.

"President! Hang in there!" Saitori huffed.

Cecilius groaned in pain as Magnus and Saitori struggled to carry him. Zentroid chased them with his tentacles and three tongues thrashing about the darkness.

"I can imagine your bodily fluids wriggling inside my mouth!" Zentroid giggled. "This game is so much fun!"

I must stop him here and now, and I'm the only one who knows how Zentroid works. Saitori thought. I've made too many mistakes. I must destroy Zentroid once and for all.

"Go on ahead!" Saitori shouted to Magnus. "The helipad is just up ahead. Get Cecilius to safety! This is my fight!"

"What do you-"

"Don't question your General!"

Magnus obeyed as he carried the moaning Cecilius.

"Hi, Lifen!" Zentroid displayed a skeletal grin, calling Saitori by her first name. "You remember me, you sack of organs? Hehehe!"

"Great, you're disgusting as always," Saitori readied her sword. "I created you, Zentroid Crucifyzoa, but I can destroy you too!"

"Remember that train we were on with all those tasty people? Their screams were so enjoyable! Weee!"

"You piece of crap! Many husbands sacrificed themselves that day to stop you from eating their wives and children," Saitori charged at Zentroid. "I won't let you ruin any more families!"

"Aw, so touchy! What fun!" Zentroid flailed his tentacles with his screen portraying a veined chomping mouth. "I can't wait to lick your organs!"

"Bring it! It all ends here!"