The morning cos and the tent exits the pocket dinsion, revealing itself once again in the Dream Layer.
The zipper of the tent pulls down on its own. A spark of sunlight shines through the narrow gap, landing on Blaze’s eyes. It wakes him up.
On top of him is still Lucia. Or maybe her na is Alyson. Blaze doesn’t know really. He knows that they are the sa person, that is for sure.
Blaze taps Lucia’s shoulder and wakes her up from her slumber. Lucia opens her big animated eyes. Their gazes et each other. An undeniable embarrassnt shows up on Lucia’s face. She gets up and quickly gets out of the tent.
This puts a slight smirk on Blaze’s mouth. He doesn’t say anything though, to avoid further awkwardness for the ’Commander’.
Blaze still cannot work out what is happening with Alyson. Is Lucia a split personality of hers? Or is it so kind of ti shenanigans? Maybe it is simply a mind trick the Void is doing on her psyche.
Whatever it is, Blaze intends to go to the bottom of it soon or later.
Outside the tent, John the Soldier is sitting at the campfire again. He waves his hand toward the pair.
"Did you two have a good night?"
"Uh... Yes." Lucia says.
"Oh?" John shares a knowing smile but he does not elaborate further, instead changing the subject. "Are you going to kill that Wretched soon?"
"We’re going to it right now." Blaze says.
"Well then, best of luck to you two, boy and girl."
Lucia and Blaze leave the premises of the campfire and head toward the monster. John has already given them the location of the Wretched on the map.
The place in question is a slaughterhouse. From outside, it looks like a barn but is much much bigger in size. The house must be as tall as a five, six story building. The large door in front is definitely not for humankind as the handle rested far above the pair’s heads.
It seems like the house was made for giants. Five, six story tall giants.
"This is going to be hard." Lucia says. A giant house should have a giant owner. And that giant owner is their enemy.
"Stay sharp, Commander."
Blaze pushes open the doors and winks at Lucia. She sticks out her tongue in response.
Inside the house, no light is seen, only a vast pool of darkness. Blaze can see so pig corpses hanging upside down, blood dripping. Afar is a line of empty tal hooks.
A stinking sll takes over the air. Even the nonchalant Blaze has to react and blow his nose. Lucia covers her face and waves her hand around in the hope of dissipating the sll. That to doesn’t work.
"What’s that sll?" Lucia says.
"Sothing that is dead." Blaze answers.
The two of them walk into the house. The Lantern of the Damned appears on Blaze’s waist, illuminating the surroundings.
It is the slaughterhouse alright. Carcass lies everywhere on the floor. Rats as big as cats are running around chaotically. One even growls at Blaze and runs at him.
He kicks that rat so hard it explodes into a million pieces. All the other rats learn their lesson and dashes away into the darkness, avoiding their deathly fates.
"You don’t need to kill it. It’s disgusting." Lucia flicks her left hand, the rapier appears. She draws Irony from her holster and gives it to Blaze. "Here."
"You hold onto it. Give it back to once we’re going out of here."
"I won’t be refusing then. This is a much better gun than what I have."
Blaze reaches out his hand and also summons his weapon. The Moonlight Karambit appears in his hand.
"That... The Moonsworn Karambit... You really are him." Lucia says.
"You recognize this?"
Lucia nods. She and Blaze were talking all night. They tried to figure out what was going on between them. They know each other but their recollection of the events are completely different.
Blaze cos from Ranas while Lucia cos from Invinia, the world of the Holy Church. Their stories of how they t each other are completely different. While Blaze knows Lucia, or Alyson, from Ranas. Lucia knows Blaze in Invinia. The only thing that stays consistent between their stories is Blaze’s na. He has the sa na and so other similarities.
"We’re going to figure everything out, alright? Let’s just focus on killing this monster." Blaze pats Lucia’s head.
Lucia nods. This head pat is a familiar thing between him and her. Even when he is a bit delusional, he still has the sa habit. Maybe he didn’t abandon her after all. Sothing must have happened to him.
They venture deeper inside the house. The more they go the bigger things beco. It almost seems like they are two tiny people in a world of giants. The tables are so high they can’t even reach it. Different kinds of gigantic tools lying everywhere.
And then they hear sothing rummaging and humming. Its voice is low and ineligible. It is singing a sweet haunting tune.
Blaze and Lucia ducks down to minimize their visibility. They creep in closer.
A room that is surrounded by tal bars with white plastic sheets hanging down from above. The sheets are opaque and filled with blood, covering whatever is happening inside. But the pair can still see the shadow reflecting through the sheets.
A giant with a fat body shape continuously chopping down on the table with his knife. The knife he is holding is very similar to the Butcher Knife the Pighead had.
Lucia whispers: "Didn’t John say there should be a Wolf Wretched in here? That is not a wolf."
Blaze gestures to Lucia to stay quiet then points at the head of the giant. When the giant turns his head, a shadow of a wolf head casts onto the sheet.
Lucia frowns, feeling a little bit discomfort from the sight.
"That is our target. Get into position." Blaze whispers.
The Crisis in this place seems to have a common appearance. They are always a fusion between so type of animal and human. The Pig Head. The Tentacles Woman. And now, the Wolf Head.
The reason for this is probably because of how the Crises are ford. They are all souls that got twisted into Wretched Souls. So naturally, they retain so of their original look.
Blaze and Lucia enter the room. The Wolf Head is focused on chopping so pig on the table and does not mind them at all.
Blaze approaches its ankles. He materializes the Butcher Knife in his left hand while holding the Karambit in his right hand. Lucia stands close by but in a safe distance. She already fills Irony full of bullets and is ready to fire any ti.
Blaze raises his fingers up to signal the countdown.
"Three...
Two...
One!"
Blaze spins and thrashes the Karambit first onto the back of the monster’s feet, opening up its inside. Then he quickly slices the Butcher Knife over those wounds, intending to apply the status to it.
The Wolf Head growls and turns back. It lifts its leg in an attempt to kick Blaze. But its legs lose all of its power. Its tendons are long gone.
The Wolf Head wobbles in place. It stomps its hand on the table to hold itself up.
Lucia pulls the trigger. All six bullets exit the barrel one after another. They scream in the air and dig themselves into the dirty flesh of the Wretched Soul. Yellow shiny fat gushes out from the bullet holes. These holes are nothing compared to the giant Wolf Head body.
The wounds on its ankle close themselves up. It regains the strength in its legs. The Wolf Head takes a mighty leap over Blaze, completely ignoring him.
"What..." The shadow of the giant casts over Blaze. He looks up to see its wobbly body fly through the air.
The Wolf Head lands so hard that the entire ground shakes. It is as if there is a mini earthquake happening. The Wolf Head dashes forward, charging at Lucia.
"Run!" Blaze screams, he shoots the Grappling Hook on the Wolf Head body. The rope pulls Blaze onto it.
Lucia runs deeper into the room. She’s aiming for a place with more gigantic furniture and blockage. The Wolf Head is way bigger than her. That makes it faster too. If she runs to where they co from, the vast space will allow no place for Lucia to hide.
Lucia slides under a giant table and keeps running.
The Wolf Head slams itself on the table, causing the table to lean over but not enough to flip it.
Blaze runs on its body. The Karambit has turned into two short swords in his hands. He starts cutting everywhere on its back. Wounds and cuts fill its body. More yellow fat gushes out from under its flesh, making the surface of its skin extrely slippery.
Blaze tries to get away but his foot slips. He falls down uncontrollably.
The Wolf Head reacts fast, grabbing Blaze in mid air.
Reviews
All reviews (0)