I put the great sword lower, barely holding it up with both of my hands on the hilt, pointing it toward the commotion.
I heard it getting louder, and closer.
My death approached, literally and figuratively.
I turned to my right and dragged the sword across the floor, and I ran.
Slow, but I kept trying to run.
I heard the scraping of the great sword across the stone. I heard the distant rumbles of a monster that I couldn't dare to imagine what it looked like up close. Worst off, the loudest noise…
…was my heartbeat. My panting, the horrific feeling that I was still alive.
'So what? I'm gonna grit my teeth and keep pushing.'
I'm still alive.
I'd rather be alive than dead, killed by whatever the Devourer was.
I knew Trinity did something to it, something irreversible, something that would cause its form to fall apart.
I crept closer to the goalpost flags with each struggling step. My weight multiplied with each one.
I can't outrun it anymore…
BOOM
An explosion from directly behind me. I whipped my body around and saw it.
A dark mess. It hurt to look at, and made my one good eye water even more. Horns, wings, claws. It was dented and bent in incorrect ways. Its face was destroyed and split open in the middle. Its maw was open and slobbering blood everywhere.
I grit my teeth as I prevented myself from vomiting at the sight of it.
A grotesque sight, it truly was.
"Come and GET ME!"
I put the sword out diagonally in front of my torso as it lunged.
WHAM
"Cough!"
'Heavy! It's-!"
I was sent flying backward as one of its claws flew toward the sword and collided with it.
I barely had any strength to block it, and the claw tore right through the great sword as if it were butter.
The claw was blunt, but I felt it collapse my ribcage almost with the force of a mountain behind it.
CRASH
I finally hit a wall, my spine most likely shattering along with my ribs.
"Blergh! Cough! Wheeze!"
'It HURTS!'
I coughed up blood from the impact of being hit and slammed against a wall after flying backward.
My vision was blurred and turning red as blood soaked down from my forehead.
I shove the broken sword into the ground and barely manage to stand up.
"Y-you… didn't kill me… in one blow…"
I cough up another mouthful of blood, and grin.
I can't think straight anymore.
I'm enraged.
I look at the beast down the street from me in anger.
My blood was boiling!
A god and a monster! Taking all of these lives! Taking my memories! Taking my home!
All for what– ENTERTAINMENT!?
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!"
I felt everything hurt in my body as I shouted.
I tilt my head up to look at the Devourer, which was already stumbling toward me.
These things have no right to do this!
Beings like this…
…existences like this…!
They should be killed!
Murdered!
Mangled!
Eviscerated!
Gored!
I lift the shattered hilt of the sword as I felt more blood pour out from my lips.
I'm probably covered in blood. I'm sure a majority of my injuries are internal.
And fatal.
I'm definitely dead soon.
My vision is a blurry haze of red. I could barely tell how close or far the beast was.
Clang
I tossed the broken hilt, balling my fist as I limped toward it.
'I guess this is it.'
I'm still pathetic.
Not even managing to land a scratch on a dark rank.
That's… to be expected, I guess.
A fourteen year old kid without an infusion…
…and a beast who's leveled more buildings than I could count.
I was stupid to think I could win.
'It needs to be erased.'
I blink.
'Erase it. Kill it.'
It needs to vanish from this world.
My fists falter, and I step a bit more calmly toward the Devourer.
Step… step…
It even stopped moving toward me.
At this moment… it was like all the rage just vanished into thin air.
I only felt pity.
I reach the Devourer.
What was its name…?
Cronus?
I believe that was it…
I open my palm for it, and slowly reach up.
"Rest..."
My hand touches where its maw was once at.
"...and farewell."
'What am I… doing…?'
Cronus vanished before my eyes.
And so did any semblance of its appearance, from my memories.
*****
Hale made it outside of the goalpost, he breached into the open fields of tall grass outside of Tenna.
Panting and gasping for air as he falls to his knees on the ground.
He quickly became covered in dirt and grime. Bits of rubble and dust covered his face and neck as his hair, slick with sweat, clung to his forehead.
"Fault…!"
He was distraught.
He left his last remaining friend behind.
And he hated himself for it.
Everyone in the tavern died. His grandfather died. Fault is dead. Everyone who was in Tenna is dead.
He was the only survivor.
"Hk… gkh…"
He grit his teeth as his fists dug into the ground beneath. Grass popping out from in between his closed hands as he tears at it.
His shoulders tremble as he tries his best not to cry.
'I… I can make it to the Xyren domain… Gate City… Duke Lynel can help me…'
He began to piece himself together, bit by bit, as he lay still and breathed shakily.
Though, his mind began to cloud. His thoughts began to haze and his vision blurred.
"Uh…?"
He blinks a few times.
"The… Devourer…?"
He felt any bits and pieces of the creature beginning to vanish from his memories. He even slowly forgot its title and name.
"Tenna… dark rank…"
His eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed.
****
I blinked as I found myself in the grey planes of grass. A shadow of a monster lay before me.
Cronus, the Devourer.
At least what was left of it.
It was a blacked out form, I couldn't make out all the details, but it was certainly what was chasing me just moments before.
Crack!
White creaks grew from the center of its shape, fanning out in all directions. Across its torso, arms, tattered wings, maw, legs. Everywhere.
They spread like ice cracking under weight, and specks of white particles flew off of its shape.
"What…"
Crack… crack… SHATTER!
It broke into hundreds, no, thousands of dark fragments. About half of the pieces it shattered into flew into the grey sky, shining their dark color just like the rest up there.
Yet… the other half stayed, and stared at me, it felt like.
Soon, one shot toward me, and flew into my left eye.
"Ack-!"
Then the next. The next.
Another.
One more.
Hundreds flew at once toward the gaping hole where my left eye once resided.
It felt like millions of tiny daggers shooting into my skull through the empty eye socket, then lit on fire, burning my brain in sensations I'd never felt before.
My mind blanked to protect my sanity from crumbling.
***
Trinity watched from above, his eyes still and calculating at what had just unfolded before him. Cronus just vanished into thin air… Cronus…
'Hm..?'
What about the goat?
Isn't it asleep within Mount Craeli? No…
He too began to forget what Cronus looked like. He forgot the appearance it held after his experiments, he forgot the appearance it held during its days of hunting. Then, he forgot Cronus.
Or… it wasn't exactly that he forgot Cronus, it was as if something had shoved the form of the beast out of his memories. Its name soon to follow.
"Uhhh…" His many eyes looked up at the silver moon shining down upon him. Truly a beautiful sight for his many sore eyes.
"So… huh…" His mind was much stronger than a human's; he had spectated abysmal horrors within the Slash's decimation, after all.
But, even as he attempted to hold onto the beast's name, it was also eventually decayed out of his thoughts.
"..." His mind blanked as it slightly fogged over, attempting to get him to focus on other things, spectate other places except below him.
Yet, curiosity could only kill so many cats before he craned his head down.
Fault stood there, alone. A bright light seemed to beam from under the cloth of his left eye.
"Oh, well! It seems he… won." Trinity couldn't quite remember the game they were playing, but he could only guess that the boy below him was the winner!
He could only remember that it was some impossible odds the human boy had fought against.
So, he began to lower himself down to the ground, stopping just in front of Fault.
"Hello~? Anyone home~?"
He smiles as he steps in front of him, waving his hand just inches before Fault's face.
No reaction.
Blink.
Then, Fault blinked.
"Huh…? Wha…"
"You win!" Trinity outstretches his arms and brings the boy into a tight hug, "You've won the game, kid! I don't entirely recall what it was, but I remember the rewards!"
He wags his finger, "And everyone hates an Entity who can't hold up their end of the deal!"
Fault only stares absentmindedly before…
"...okay." He nods slowly.
"First up, is a new body!"
"Huh…?" Faut raises his eyebrow.
"A new- what?"