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Tuyen was incredibly disturbed by the sight shown to them, fingers digging into her arms where they were wrapped around herself. People dying everywhere - children, dying, fighting an evil they were trying to stop. Yeah. It definitely seemed plausible that they were going to succeed. Rita huddled next to her friend as she watched the carnage through her splayed fingers. Penny refused to take part in the murder tourism, instead trying to keep herself focused on the real. What Amethyst was showing them was a worst-case scenario. They weren't there yet. The Glutton was still sealed, and she'd see to it that the son of a bitch stayed that way.
"Why the fuck should we just trust you?" Caelea shook her head, eyes narrowed as they focused on Amethyst rather than battle they were being shown. "Tell us how you're going to fix it first, then you can ask for our trust."
"I-" Before Amethyst could even finish the sentence Britney finished it for her.
"... 'Want to sacrifice you so I can achieve the power'," Britney snapped at her, "We've already been over this a thousand times before."
"Go to hell, you killed my lover!" Amethyst hissed.
"To protect Shimmer of course," Britney said without a hint of remorse in her voice. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."
"How about..." Lynette chimed in. "If you really want to help fix things like you keep saying, you help us; because we have a different plan to fix things!"
"I... I want to stop the Glutton, I really do," Amethyst said. "But..."
"You can't stand the thought of following anyone else's plan?" Rien helpfully supplied. "Or, y' know, following anyone I imagine."
"But my plan would save everyone," Amethyst said.
"Then what is that plan?"
"Don't even bother, Rien," Britney said. "You all know what she has planned." She crossed her arms.
"I..." Amethyst said, "... I wish there was another way, but I have no choice but to sacrifice you to seal the Glutton."
"I had a feeling we weren't going to be included in the everyone," said Penny.
"Oh yeah, of course, I'll gladly give you my life since there's clearly no other options," Rien retorted sarcastically.
"Amethyst..." Cindy added on, as she looked at the Watchers. "How about we follow them? Work with them? We all... we all want the same thing."
"You should listen to her," said Penny with a hint of desperation in her voice. She didn't want a fight, but she wasn't willingly going to lay her life down for someone she didn't even believe could succeed in the first place.
The battle went on around them but the tide was turning in the direction of the Glutton's forces. It wasn't long until the abomination decided to actively attack... its tendrils descended from the heavens and impaled the soldiers fighting against it. One by one they were killed brutally by a spear going through their bodies and consuming whatever it came in contact with. When the spears disappeared there were massive gaping holes left in their bodies... Blood flowed out as they dropped dead. Soon enough there were barely any healthy soldiers left, but the man in armor didn't give up. There were people on their knees praying to the Glutton, but this man knew that was what the thing wanted. The man in armor raised his sword as he shouted,
"I will never submit to you!" He screamed, "Long as I draw breath, I will fight for the protection of the human race!"
However, there wasn't much hope...
... A bright flash of light appeared behind and he felt a warming presence behind him. Eleven different lights shined brightly behind him as he turned around. There were many massive beings made out of eleven different lights. A massive flaming bull that was forged out of red light, a massive bat out of yellow, a dove made out of pink light, a deer made out of a green one, a lion made out of gold, a rabbit made out of purple light, an owl made out a cyan light, a bear made out the orange light, a raven made out of blue light, a butterfly made out a lavender light, and a massive black wolf made out of black smoke, the odd one out.
And in front of this massive line of beasts was a giant man-made out of a white light standing above all of them. He raised a hand up into the air and there was a wave of white light... and suddenly all the fighters were healed and all the Corrupted were purified of their mind control. He then began a march towards the Glutton as its tendrils went towards him. The animals made out light fired beams of their respective light at the Glutton as the being of light fired a gigantic beam of white light at it.
"... Father." The Hound said. "This is Father... and the Primordial beings of light." He explained.
The Glutton slowly shrunk in size but it fired it's speared at Father as they formed cracks in his body. Eventually... they wrapped around him and tried to crush him as the Glutton shrunk in size. However, they wrapped tighter and tighter around Father until...
They cut through him and Father was cut into hundreds of smaller pieces... which faded away. The battle that went on underneath the giants basically ended as they watched in awe as the creatures of light kept firing their beams at the glutton as they decreased in size as well. Eventually, the Glutton was the size of a one-story building... that was when the warriors underneath them; including the man in armor raised their weapons. Their weapons glow with white light as the Glutton was trapped inside of a square cube made out of white light. A rift made out of white light appeared out of nowhere and sucked the Glutton in as the Primordials faded away into nothingness...
"I..." Amethyst trailed off, unsure of how to feel. "I don't know... I think it's too late at this point to reconcile."
"You don't say," Rien muttered, shoving her hands in her pockets. Caelea gave a snort of agreement.
"I think you've forgotten what the Watchers were trying to prevent, Lady Amethyst," Goro said.
"Why do you even follow Amethyst?" demanded Rita, the puppet strings on the hand over her heart glowing.
"She does appear to be making the whole end of all humanity thing all about her," said Penny. She had one hand in her pocket. "Hell, I'd be fine if all of you just leave and let us sort this mess out. Our plan's going to work, you just need to stay out of the way. You're Watchers, after all. So watch, and stop fucking things up."
"Because it is my sworn duty as a Knight of Luminscience," Goro said... and he probably would have said that even if Rita. "It is apart of the Oath to follow the battle captain and any orders they may assign."
Soon enough the scene faded away and they were back in the cave. Only a few seconds passed but Amethyst realized her plan to turn the Awakened to her side has turned the Watchers against her. A tear rolled down her eye as she looked at Penny, "Even if I step aside...." She pulled out her dagger slowly as she said, "... you're not leaving here alive, not as Idraw breath!" She lunged towards Britney with the dagger in the air. However, she was stopped by a sharp pain in her stomach - she looked down and saw a wooden spear im
paling her. She felt weak, woozy... she dropped the dagger.
"Amethyst," Britney walked up to Amethyst as a tear also ran down her eye. "I..."
"Shut up," Amethyst said, "I don't want your pity. Just... finish... me off..."
"I just want you to know that I'm sorry," Britney said as she created another wooden spike, and aimed it directly at Amethyst's skull. "For Pierre, for everything. I just thought that I was doing the right thing for everyone. While doing this I realized that truly..."
Britney sighed.
"... I was only acting in my own interests and mine alone."
The spike impaled Amethyst through the skull... instantly killing her. Britney shook her head, it was the most honorable death she could give Amethyst. Afterward the spike crumbled away into nothing as she faced Goro. Who she was surprised doesn't attack them.
"Goro..." Britney said.
"It was my sworn duty to protect lady Amethyst..." Goro said, "... However, we all have more important tasks to deal with. I will bring you to justice later, lady Britney."
Goro took a knee.
"The Watchers lend their aid, for the time being."
Britney smiled.
Deep inside the mountain, the ancient evil definitely noticed the roughhousing that took place several levels above it. The Speaker stood outside of the barrier of Godforce in which their master was contained, the herald for the thing merely grinned. A white cloak materialized out of thin air around the thing that could barely even be described as human and the hood covered their head. They put their fingertips together as they said,
"They are here," The Speaker said, "It is time..."
Suddenly, the masses of people in Farmer Hill that were corrupted by the Glutton were sprung awake. They quickly sprinted straight for the mountain in a massive horde of Corrupted, using whatever weapons they had on hand. They had a plan to kill all the Awakened, but the Speaker had a different idea. He grinned as he turned around to the ball of light that he called 'Master',
"I'll have you free within' the hour," The Speaker faded away into a mass of embers.
"... Master."
The Hound felt a presence that immediately made him snap to attention.
"... It's here," The Hound said.
"Wait, who the fuck is here?" Zoey asked.
"The Herald of the Glutton," The Hound answered as he turned around to see a ball of orange light, sparks, and embers forming in the ceiling. The Speaker descended from the ceiling with its fingertips touching each other and a grin on their face.
"So, you're all the final stand?" The Speaker said, "Ah, I remember thousands of these... know how they've all ended?"
"Think I give a shit you bald-headed bastard?!" Justin shouted at the top of his lungs as the soul-self appeared out of no where; letting out a firey "squawk" as it flew into the Speaker. However, the being put out a hand and a round barrier of orange light and embers appeared and stopped the soul self which exploded on contact. The Speaker shook their head.
"You still have the opportunity to renounce the false light and join me..."
"Fuck off!" Zoey said as she fired a bolt of lightning at the thing... which it didn't have the opportunity of dodging as the Speaker loudly yelled. Where the lightning struck... there were orange cracks on the Speaker's body that quickly sealed itself. Almost as if the Speaker was made out of a porcelain glass.
"Fine then," The Speaker said, "I already have what I need to free my master... you all can just, well..."
In the tunnels of the cave, they heard chanting, "Re-dempt-ion, re-dempt-ion, re-dempt-ion..."
"Thank you for buying me time with your distraction, Amethyst," The Speaker said with a smile. "But, it's time you are all offered as sacrifices."
"... Speaker..." The Hound said as he walked up. "So we meet."
"You are the False-Light's angel of death I hear so much about?" The Speaker said, "I think I've heard too much, in fact."
"I will personally end you..." The Hound said.
"So it's a battle to the death you want? It's a good thing I am above such... concepts."
The Hound turned its head back towards the group as it whispered, "You all; go ahead." The Hound said. "I'll keep them off of you."
"All by yourself?" Zoey asked. "That's a little crazy if you ask me."
"I am the Hound," The black wolf affirms, "There is no being that can conquer me..."
"We will also hold them off!" Goro shouted as he swung his blade and created a wave of fire. "I'm going to entrust that, whatever you have planned, is going to work! So go! Make it happen!"
"Die," The Speaker softly says as they stick their hand out and a mass of orange tendrils come out. However, the Hound disappeared into a cloud of black smoke as he appeared behind the Speaker and pounced him to the ground. A beam of orange light appeared and launched the Hound off of him but the fight went on. The chants of the Glutton's followers were getting closer and closer.
"We gotta go, now!"
"Maybe we shoulda picked a route we wanted to go before we came in," Lynette said as she opened the map, but the horde of Corrupted had already arrived in the nexus. Know what? Screw it, Lynette rolled the map up as she grabbed onto Penny's arm and picked a tunnel. "Penny! We gotta go!" Lynette took off with Sharon and Kimberly followed. The mob of Corrupted was massive. It was possible thousands in pure strength... that was too many for them to take on. Meanwhile, the Hound was fighting the Glutton and utterly ignoring whatever they threw his way. Britney wished they could do that. The Hound was sent flying in their direction as Britney shouted, "Move!" As she took off to the side and landed on the ground. She saw Lynette and some of the others run off in one direction... and the first thing that came to mind was follow.
"Oh fuck," was all Rien could think to say as quickly forced herself into action and ran behind Lynette. Tuyen stood frozen with fear, eyes wide and shadow curling around her as the chants grew closer. It was Min who grabbed her and yanked her out of the way from the Hound that was sent flying, dragging his cousin behind Britney and the others.
Eventually, the group ended up in one of the tunnels far away from the chaos. They could hear the fight faintly... but they didn't hear the Corrupt approaching them. "Everyone stop!" Britney shouted. Bringing the group to a stop in one of the tunnels. "We need to figure out where we are, and where we're going... Lynette?"
"Yeah um," Lynette said as she pulled out the map and looked at it. "So we were here, then... I think we ran here past all this nonsense; so I strongly believe we are here."
"How reassuring," Sharon said as she crossed her arms.
"So, I think the best way we're going to find out where we are..." Lynette looked down the tunnel they just ran down, "... Other than going back down there, is to keep going until we find a landmark. That sound good, Penny?"
"Yeah, definitely a better plan than returning to face a horde of possessed townies," said Penny as she caught her breath. She cracked a pen between her hands and dropped it on the ground to serve as a marker for where they'd already been. The last thing she wanted to do was waste time being lost in tunnels. Penny grabbed a torch from the wall. "I'll take point. Follow me."
As Penny pushed forward to get in front of the group, Rita stared back down the way they had come. It had looked as if the entire town had come to prevent them from stopping the Glutton. She kept turning her head over her shoulder as the group marched further into the Glutton's den, expecting to see the familiar face of the coffee shop owner or Martin's mom, yet nothing came after them. Rita shuddered—sometimes, seeing nothing was worse. Penny didn't even bother with worrying about what was behind them. She moved with a briskness, slowly only when the group got to a branch in the tunnels to take a glance at Lynette's map before dropping another token and picking a direction with the decisiveness of someone who was familiar with the place. In all honesty, Penny had as good of an idea as anyone else where they actually were. She just knew they had to keep moving.
However, they felt something they haven't felt in ages. A feeling that was affixed to a horrible feeling of fear and terror... all because they knew what the hell it was. The tunnels were illuminated with orange light.
"Don't tell me..." Britney hissed.
"The fuck's going on?!" Zoey asked.
Rita let out a sound of something like a bike tire being deflated and was already rushing towards the front of the pact as the others were still turning their heads.
"It's here, we gotta..." Lynette tried to say as a ball of orange light appeared behind them. It was horrifying, and it reminded them of the first form that the Glutton took before it attacked them. The Glutton's form was of an enormous ball that nearly took up the entire tunnel... giving them one way to run. Lynette knew - it could easily kill them then and now. But... it's not. It wants to toy with them. "... Run." Lynette took off and the others followed behind her.
"Go, go!" urged Penny as she dropped herself to the back of the group to help any stragglers.
"This is getting really fucking old!" Rien gritted out as they forced themselves to run after the others, regretting having never taken fitness seriously before in their life. This was an awful lot of running going on and honestly if they'd only know... but that wasn't the point right now. "How do we even get out of this."
"Just shut up, and run," Caelea responded before anyone else could.
The Glutton's avatar went up into the ceiling... and nobody assumed it was gone. It quickly came from the ceiling and crashed down in front of the group... who was unfortunately Zoey. She came to a skidding stop as she screamed as she was engulfed in the orange light of the Glutton.
"No!" screamed Penny.
"Zoey!" Justin shouted as the Soul-Self deployed, but it was too late. The Soul-Self disappeared...
Lynette's first thought was to get them out of here. It was risky, but using a stick she drew the earth symbol on the ground and collapsed the ground they were standing on... oddly enough they fell into a white light that was strangely comforting.
