After a while of digging, we find
our way to a stadium in the middle of the city. There are a bunch of vending
stations outside that look like they’ve been recently abandoned. It looks like we
scared off everyone out here once the buildings and webs that surrounded this stadium
fell apart. We check the entrances and find them locked with gates and concrete.
How did they get concrete here? Someone must have the ability to make it or move
it here. Okay, Vic. You know what to do.
“Wait,” Eerie says, “They probably
put this here to keep us out. If we break and enter through this entrance, they’ll
probably attack us because we’ll show them that we’re looking for a fight. Let’s
find another way in.”
We check another couple entrances
and find the same thing.
“I don’t think we’re going to find
an entrance because of what we did. How about we just make our own entrance
somewhere else?” I suggest.
“I guess so. Where should we enter
then?”
“There are windows around the stadium.
They have shutters on them, but they shouldn’t be hard to cut through. We’ll
get our cats to make stones to climb on to get to it.”
“That’s a good idea!”
“Thank you. Let’s get to it.”
Vic and Torio make large stones and
stack them in a way that we can get to the windows. Torio then rips apart the
shutters and we finally get in the stadium. We’ve entered an office that looks
like nobody has been in for a while. The hallways are all dusty, so it looks
like that after the shutters were closed, this place was forgotten about. We
make our way down the stairs to find another shutter with no guards around it.
Vic silently cuts it and we catch it before it falls. After going through the
hole, we put what we cut back in place as best we can so no one would notice
the breach if someone walks by here. Woah! Speaking about people walking by
here, a small crowd of people run by with people in sport’s gear showing them
out. Are these guards and are they using the gear as pseudo armor? Why would
they even need it if they can’t be killed directly? I guess it’s just for the aesthetics.
It looks like they did some adjustments to it to make it look more like armor.
One of the guards stops and asks
us, “What are you two doing here?”
“Oh, we just stood here to not get
trampled by those people,” I say.
“Are you staying or leaving?”
“We’re staying.”
“Good choice. Those other people
have lost their faith in our queen.”
“Why’s that?”
“Sybella, who is our best protector
besides the queen, has been defeated. Haven’t you heard?”
“Oh, yeah, but I don’t think it’s a
reason to leave.”
“That’s right,” Eerie says probably
so they don’t question her.
“I can tell that you’re both smart and
faithful servants of Queen Shea. You should quickly go to the field since she’s
going to be giving us a blessing soon.”
“Okay.”
Eerie and I walk away from the
guard as he rejoins his squad.
“You’re good at playing a role.
Maybe you were an actress before this started,” Eerie quietly jokes.
“That doesn’t sound like me, but I like
it.”
We enter the inner stadium to find
little camping tents spread around the field. People are looking up to an area
of the stands that is lined with roses. Guards come out to make way for their
queen as they lay out a colorful carpet. They then stand to the side and sound
their trumpets.
“All kneel in honor of Queen Shea!”
an announcer says through the speakers.
Eerie and I go in the crowd kneel on
one knee, so we don’t stand out. A girl on a unicorn comes out of the shadows
and down the stands.
She has a majestic and very
princess-like appearance with her long flowing hair and dress. The eyes of the
unicorn are bloodshot, which is strange. Maybe it’s a sign of its special
ability. A ball of light then forms out of the unicorn’s horn and lights up the
entire stadium.
Shea says in a booming voice, “Fear
not my good subjects. Even though Sybella’s tragic defeat is one that has cost
us dearly, I remind you that we will survive and continue to prosper as we
always have. It doesn’t matter if your family or friends have left us. They
will fend for themselves while we live in our paradise with each other.”
Light is released from the
flowers that enter into every one of us. I feel secure, good, and happy, but I
can’t let it distract me from asking Shea questions. The light from the flowers
then become shaped like people and begin to dance around. My mind feels numb as
if the dance is putting me into a trance.
“I will join you in a bit to talk
to each one of you, but for now, you can enjoy yourselves with my servants of
light.”
No, we can’t let ourselves be distracted
by this. I can’t…Eerie grabs my hand and pulls me away from the crowd as they
dance with the light. This snaps me out of my trance. Since the stadium keeps making
us light-headed, we go outside of it where the stands are in Shea’s direction.
Once we get enough distance, our heads are completely cleared.
“What are we going to do now?” I
ask.
“We ask Shea what she knows. What
else can we do?”
“But what if we start a fight? Did
you see her power and how many followers she has?”
“We’ll just have to be extra
careful. I don’t think she knows who defeated Sybella yet, so we should be
safe.”
We hear the clopping of Shea’s
horse coming in our direction, so we look at each other and silently prepare
ourselves to talk to her. Her presence feels intimidating on its own despite
her appearance and the smell of flowers that accompanies her. She also has a
few guards with her, but I don’t feel like they’ll be as much trouble to deal
with. The look on her face is curious but also soft. We can’t let our guard
down.
“Hello. You must be eager to ask me
something if you couldn’t wait to see me,” she says in a nearly quiet voice.
“Y-yes, we do,” Eerie says, “We
wanted to know more about our past, what really caused the world to end, and what
we can do to fix it.”
“Haha, I see why you were so eager
to come to me because of all your questions. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you
here before. Why should I answer your questions?”
The guard from before is with Shea
and picks up for us by saying, “Remember the girls I was talking about? These
are them.”
“Oh, alright then. I’ll answer your
questions then. Follow me as we walk to my room. I need to get something from
it for the people to further ease their nerves.”
I wonder what she has that can do
that if she thinks her power isn’t enough. Regardless of what it is, we walk alongside
Shea to her room.
She continues, “I’ll answer the
easiest of your questions first that being what causes the world to end. That
would be the decision of a single couple that they made with an angel. The two
were told that if they performed a ritual the angel told them then everyone
would be separated from their temptation which would result in people no longer
wanting to sin or commit evil for any reason. Another thing they were told was
that hunger and thirst would be eliminated along with it. Other people say
there were more positives along with that, but those were the big two.”
“A couple aided by an angel did
this?” Eerie asks.
“That’s right. It’s strange I know.
Because of the supernatural nature of what happened, I’m not sure how to fix it
either than bringing together this small society of people while trying to
bring others in. If we band together, then we should be able to bring things
back to some kind of normalcy. Being unable to feel pain, hunger, thirst, or
tiredness is a plus so we work daily to grow and bring others in.”
“That’s what I figured. I wish we
could do more.”
“I know, but it is my opinion that
things are better the way they are now even if it doesn’t look like it. The world
might’ve been at war with itself, but the strong and righteous have survived and
all but the smallest bits of evil have been eradicated.”
“Do you really think that?”
“It doesn’t mean that there isn’t
any light in the world just because you don’t see the sun or moon. Do you
understand what I’m saying?”
“I understand, Queen Shea.”
I knew there wasn’t any real way of
fixing the world. We’ll just have to deal with what we have and make the most of
it.
“Now, I’m going to show you your
past selves. With this.”
We enter Shea’s room and she picks
up what looks to be a halo.
“Is that an angel’s halo?”
“Yes. It was found where the
explosion of light originated from, which just so happened to be this city. It
can reveal memories from a person’s past to the person holding the halo and the
person who it is used on. It also helps me figure out what a person
specifically wants or needs to be better.”
Oh no. If she looks into our
memories, she’ll see that we were ones who defeated Sybella. I look over to Eerie
and she seems to have recognized this as well.
“We uh…on second thought…I’m not
sure if I want to know who I was.”
“I know a lot of people who’ve
hated themselves after finding out their past, but I’ll help you overcome your
problems.”
It doesn’t look like we have a
choice.
“I’ll go first. If I was a terrible
person, I want to know,” Eerie says while looking at me.
What is she doing? Shea will find
out what we did either way. Is she somehow hoping that she won’t do anything to
me if she is found out first? I’m feeling really nervous about this and Vic is
too, but I’m trying to keep him calm. How is Eerie managing to keep Torio so
calm and collected with the obvious way she must be feeling?
Shea puts the angel halo on Eerie’s
head. The halo glows as both of them close their eyes. After about ten agonizing
seconds, the halo stops glowing. They both open their eyes and look at each
other uncomfortably.
“Is something wrong, my queen?” one
of the guards ask.
“No, there isn’t.”
Shea reaches for something behind her as Eerie
takes a step back. Here we go…! What the heck? Something just busted through
the walls of the stadium. A dark fog steeps into the building as everyone
around me starts panicking. I see Shea about to flip a coin. Does she think we
planned this?
“Hey!”
“What’s going on?”
“Eerie!”
“Val!”
“Where did those two go?”
Something flew in, grabbed us, and
is taking us out of the stadium. I look up to see a large crow. Is this the
same crow as before? It seems so much more monstrous than before. The crow
takes us to the top of a building where we see what looks to be a medieval
doctor who is also a priest by the looks of his outfit. After dropping us off,
the crow shrinks and becomes small enough to be a normal crow and rests on the
man’s arm.
“I’ve finally found you,” the man
says in a very grungy voice as he approaches us.
“Who are you?” I ask as Eerie, Vic,
and Torio prepares to fight.
“Calm yourselves, I don’t want to
fight you. I want to help. My name is Benedict.”
“I…I’ve seen you before,” Eerie
says.
“You have. That must mean you
remember who you were, but your other half hasn’t?”
“Shea has an angel’s halo that
makes us remember our past and she only used it on me. I’m very sorry for what
we’ve, I mean what I’ve done.”
“What are you two talking about?”
“You’ll find out soon. First, we
have to take out Shea and her forces. They’re coming for us and won’t stop,”
Eerie says.
“I’ll aid you in this fight. You’ll
need it.”
Benedict takes off his mask to
reveal a monstrous crow face beneath it.
We meet Shea’s forces on the
ground. Both of us stare down each other in silence as we ready ourselves to
fight.
“Do you want to do the honors?”
Benedict asks.
“Gladly,” Shea says as she flips a
coin.
Eerie and I face off against Shea
as Benedict faces off against her guards. Since we aren’t in an enclosed area,
Shea’s smells aren’t as effective as they were, but she spawns soldiers of
light to make up for her unicorn’s lack of combat ability. These soldiers have
spears, swords, shields, arrows, and other weapons as if they were medieval soldiers.
Vic takes them out from a distance while Torio’s spiky skin gives him both an
effective defense and offense. Shea looks none too pleased with our animals’
skills to fight effectively against so many foes. I look over to Benedict to
see him finishing off his foes. That man and his crow are lethal.
With our other foes out of the way,
we focus our efforts on Shea who is unable to take our combined strength and
falls to our attacks. She is now trapped underneath her unicorn with no way of
escaping.
“Wh-where is my help?” Shea calls
out in a loud voice as her unicorn screams at an ear-shattering pitch.
We wait for more to come, but no one
does, which is strange. I’m sure I saw more guards and people willing to fight
for Shea. Whatever the case is, I’m not going to complain about it.
“Why? Why couldn’t you let us be?”
Shea asks us.
“Your defender attacked us first,”
I say.
“And she was right to by the looks
of it. Sybella tried to convince me before that the way the world is was a
mistake. I was wrong and now, I can see why. It’s because of people like you
that only think of yourself. I’m not going to let you continue doing what you
want.”
Shea and her unicorn combine into
one terrifying looking monster with part of the unicorn becoming a largemouth.
The unicorn screams as it raises bodies from the ground. These appear to be
people who were defeated because Sybella and Kitsune are among their numbers.
This looks like too much to handle even if these people don’t seem to be as
strong as they used to be. Shea’s unicorn jumps out of the crowd and continues
to yell, which seems to invigorate her soldiers.
Benedict says, “You, with the lion,
help me get to Shea.”
“Okay!”
“I’ll help clear a path for you!”
I can’t think of a strategy myself
right now, so I have to follow them. Vic uses his long sweeping tale to keep away
people behind us while Torio and Benedict’s crow clear the path ahead with
their animals’ ability to turn their skin into a weapon. Benedict spews a dark fog
out of his mouth so that everyone, but we are blinded and confused as to where
we are. We have a clear shot at Shea now even though she’s moving around.
Benedict sends his crow at Shea to force her to dodge it, which allows Vic to
hit her in the air with his long tail. Once he stabs through her horse, she
falls to the ground. Her resurrected soldiers become dust as Shea begins to
disappear.
“I hope you’re happy with yourself,”
she says as her final words.
Memories then begin to fill my head
of her past. She was a leader in her school. Shea helped her friends with
school problems along with personal ones before the world ended. When it did,
she used her abilities to aid others and used her charisma and personality to gather
a community. The other memories I see are those of the people she’s fought.
There’s nothing that interests me in them. I wait for the memories of her
looking at Eerie’s and find what shocked them. The girl who started all of this
with her boyfriend was separated into two pieces with both of them having cat-like
appearances and feline assistants. They still look like her, but is this really
what I think it is?
“Eerie, are we really?”
“Yes, we are. We’re the same girl
who ended the world with her boyfriend. Our real name is Valerie.”
“What? This isn’t making any sense
to me.”
“That is why I’m here,” Benedict
says as he puts his mask on, “I’m the exorcist who was trying to stop you, and I
need your help in fixing it.”
“I’ll do whatever I need to correct
my mistakes,” Eerie says.
“I still need answers,” I demand.
“Valerie, you-”
Before Benedict can say anything,
we hear a coin flip. Is this the reinforcements Shea called for? No. We see a
swarm of hornets flood the city. We are caught in the storm as we are stung repeatedly
by their stingers. I don’t feel any pain, but I do feel sleepy. Everyone
including me falls to the ground. I’m still trying to stand up as I see a figure
walking towards us.
She kneels by us and says, “Thank
you so much for getting rid of those two. They were really preventing me from
getting more friends. Now, you’re going to be my best friends.”
“What are you talking about?” I
struggle to say.
“Shh. Take a rest. You need it
after battling so much.”
“Wait…”
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