BAM!
Cole spent countless hours fending off the swarm of Man-Eaters.
The most difficult part was preventing Sant Flora's Homunculus from sustaining any damage. Eventually, Cole was forced to abandon his plan of climbing up the spiral structure.
From beneath the ground, a Mongolian Death Worm ambushed Cole. With a simplistic series of backflips, Cole dodged the attack; before it could return to the ground, its body was torn apart by a barrage of spherical, cannonball-like projectiles from another man eater.
Cole maneuvered through them as best he could. With only a few scratches on his skin, he safely survived all thirty shots. The main problem was locating where the attack came from; the increasing swarm of creatures wasn't helping either.
Cole narrowly prevented the Homunculus from being snatched from behind. The numbers kept growing, and thus the difficulty kept increasing. Though not many options remained, Cole kept dodging and killing as best he could.
"Haaa..." Cole exhaled in a tight, exhausted way. His eyes reddened from the stress as his veins popped out.
'Your resilience amazes me,' the Focal Point commended.
Cole, still busy struggling for the Homunculus's safety, was unflattered. He had stacked up at least sixty dead piles of Man-Eaters; some were easy kills, while others required more strategic and complex movements to subdue.
'Drop Sant Flora, and I will spare you this torture.'
Cole didn't respond; instead, he kept fighting off the deadly beasts. From behind, a hovering centipede-like Man-Eater caught the Homunculus between its mandibles and dragged her away. Cole fired a simple punch that cracked its tough exoskeleton, effectively tossing the creature to the side.
'This is becoming a pain,' Cole grumbled internally.
Upon running, Cole noticed the inclined angles that made the realm seem odd were growing sharper.
'Am I reaching the end of the land of Aught?'
'You fool, turn back!'
Cole ran faster towards the edge, the creatures behind following him with malicious discipline. On pure instinct, Cole slipped down and glided to the left. Due to some of the creatures' large bodies, they tumbled in an attempt to follow Cole's course; creatures with mobility were caught in the snare, toppling off the large Man-Eaters.
Like a ball of yarn, all the Man-Eaters hunting Cole fell off the edge with loud, pained, yet angry screeches and roars. Out of curiosity, Cole dropped the Homunculus, fell onto his stomach, and slid like a snake just to get a peek at what lay beneath.
Surprisingly, an assembly of large, spiked chains intersected deep beneath the swirl of impressionistic colors he had seen in the sky previously. Over five hundred large chains restrained what seemed like a shed or box with talismans hanging at its edges—at least, from what Cole could discern.
'Get away from there, you fool,' the Focal Point commanded in a clearly frightened voice.
Its tone made Cole smirk. 'For you to be this scared, there must be something dangerous down here, or...' Cole rambled at first.
'Is it your real body?' Cole wore a cocky expression with a bold smile.
'Who gave you the right to ask me such? Your disrespect knows no bounds. Leave there now or...'
Cole raised his left brow. 'Or what?'
He then chuckled. 'I'll offer you something better. Grant me the exit with Sant Flora's Homunculus, or I unleash whatever is in the seal. I'm guessing that's your weakness, am I right?'
'Are you threatening me?' The raging clouds brewed up a violent storm above.
Cole flattened his lips and eyes. 'Yes.'
'Fine then. If you wish to open the seal, go ahead. But everything that occurs beyond that is your burden to bear.'
Cole's body was pierced with mixed feelings. His mind deciphered the Focal Point's words as a bluff—empty words to prevent Cole from discovering its weakness. His heart, however, spoke otherwise, constantly beating in fear of the resulting consequences.
SCREEEEEEEEECH!
From the distant sounds, the next wave of Man-Eaters was on its way. Cole's body was battered by exhaustion; he hadn't died since he acquired Sant Flora's Homunculus, so all the wounds and scratches he had gained since then were still in effect.
Cole's eyes darted for an answer but failed to land on any tangible solution. If what was locked within the box was truly a menacing threat, did he truly have the power to face it?
Highly doubtful. The warm, depressing aura oozing from the very iron of the chains spoke volumes. Still, Cole severely lacked options.
As a last resort, Cole threw himself off the edge and dove below. Instead of aiming straight for the seal, Cole landed on one of the chains and sprinted spirally as he went further down, not with devious intent, but to give the Focal Point a heavy startle.
'Fool!'
A bolt of lightning struck from above. Cole dodged it narrowly by leaping, though some of the static transmitted across the chains. Cole grabbed one of the hovering chains but ended up electrocuted.
Numb from the excess current flowing through his body, Cole sank until he crashed onto the top of the box. Cole regained his movements after only a few seconds; as he stood up, he noticed the wooden box was larger than he originally expected—at least the size of a small football field from his point of view.
The dreadful, palpable feeling of depression stacked on his senses until they flickered. 'What's in this thing?' Cole wondered, his face twisted in horror. The inescapable sensation of inevitability pinned him to the wooden material.
'Human!'
Cole snapped from his daze; a cold, whistling breeze mocked his condition. Cole raised his gaze to the realm's edge; hanging at the corner was Sant Flora's Homunculus, dangling from a Man-Eater's claw.
'Your impudence is horrendous. Your greed has no bounds. Your stubbornness is birthed from prideful ignorance. Your actions lack logic and reasoning...' It slandered Cole with a drowning, maddening voice. 'How did one who possesses all these weaknesses, such as you, survive for so long?'
'What ritual, what contract, what sacrifice did you have to indulge in to attain such an absurd aversion toward death's sturdy grip?'
'I have no idea what you're talking about,' Cole answered, his tone nearly emotionless.
'Hmmmm...' The Focal Point reasoned. 'Originally, I planned to threaten you since mutual understanding is beyond your comprehension, but I need not worry.' Its voice dropped to a low, chilling tone.
'You've reached the very peak of your efforts; futility is all that stands beyond. I will strike the chains with as much lightning as needed to keep you restrained; even your power cannot break the imminent seal.'
'Enjoy your new prison, the place where all your blood and sweat will rot along with your soul.'
'All this over a corpse? An artificial one at that? Just what is your problem?' Cole's thoughts harshened.
'I fail to see what your concern is.'
The Man-Eater returned Sant Flora's Homunculus safely to the ground. A cobra-like Man-Eater lifted the Homunculus through its fangs and sped in the direction of Sant Flora's grave.
Overcome by an explosive anger, Cole's cells shrunk like a tightened sponge.
BADUMP!
Cole's fist pulsed with an obscure red light; his blood seeped out of his skin like sizzling smoke and absorbed into his knuckles. Cole's eyes glimmered with a frightening resolve—or perhaps consuming rage—however, the red glow illuminated his sour expression.
Cole hit the wooden seal, creating enough force to birth and kill an instantaneous spark of energy. The shockwave of the collision launched Cole's body above the ethereal cloud of colors.
In retaliation, the Focal Point sent forth a stream of continuous red lightning—a blistering shower of death multiple times stronger than an average bolt. Through weight control, Cole tactically steered clear of the dancing lines of falling hell.
The Man-Eaters, however, were unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire; even slight contact with their fur decimated their bodies and everything in between. The ferocious bolts left the landscape a scorching wasteland.
Cole flew through the air like a propelled feather. The Focal Point was smart enough to avoid the Man-Eater returning the Homunculus. Instead, the landscape changed into a folding structure. Cole crashed, died, and reconstructed into being.
'There you are!!' It celebrated
SNAP!
'Huh?' it exclaimed.
Cole resurfaced above the creature, tensed his feet, and landed like an arrow, but the damage he inflicted was similar to a heavy boulder as it crushed through the Man-Eater's cobra-like structure.
With an involuntary grab, Cole caught the Homunculus, placed it on his back, and dodged a bolt of red lightning within an inch of his life. After a short roll across the ground, Cole quickly stood up.
'He stopped?'
The showers ceased, and the clouds reverted to normal. The majority of Aught, for the main part, was sizzling beneath a hoard of unyielding purple and amber flames swirling into each other.
'I see... It's trying not to damage the Homunculus. What a versatile trump card,' Cole thought, partly relieved.
The Focal Point spoke in frustration. 'You refuse to yield nor die; my previous comment on your stubbornness was an understatement. What must I do to put you down?'
PIIIING!
Cole's wrist resonated with a dull blue.
A breath of relief cleansed his lungs.
'I...'
SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH.
A flood of creepy silence swept the realm. Cole heard a voice whispering gibberish in his ears; much like the time when he nearly reached the Focal Point, the atmosphere kept switching between monochrome and its vibrant colors.
Apart from the whispering, the sequential rattling of chains repeatedly hollowed in a tilting reality. "Huff..." Cole exhaled, his breath icy thin.
Cole slowly shifted his gaze; through his wrist, a blue chain spanning beyond the sky reeled him up. He kept a sturdy grip on the Homunculus through its arm.
As Cole's body lifted upward, whilst still suspended mid-air, his body felt light yet heavy at the same time. His thoughts floated in his head, unable to merge into an idea or anything meaningful, and his eyes... remained frozen at the side of his sockets. It felt like the world itself was fading; not even the Focal Point that previously rambled in his head bore any presence.
Through a languish of past colors, from the very depths of the realm where a collage of negativity dwelled,
Cole saw it.
An entity with four sparkling white, pure, long wings folded at their inches; white hands like bleached gloves; a lifeless shadowy figure as though it wore a pitch-black suit; and bandages wrapped around its face, with the depiction of four hands at the corner of a wide eye like a flower drawn in blood.
The lawless, heartless, mindless, boundless, ruthless, relentless, fearless, hopeless, friendless, careless, artless, groundless, aimless, effortless, blameless, lifeless, merciless.
Neataruzo: The peak of human depravity and pointless negativity.
Cole's eyes were stuck in place, so he couldn't see where it went nor how it left; its appearance alone made him die of shock.
A while passed and everything settled back. Cole's thoughts formed into something more logical. 'What the hell did I just see?'
'Human... I do not like you nor your attitude, but in contradiction... I wish you the best of luck.' The vocal points saddened voice ran amok in Cole's ears. 'Keep Sant Flora's remains safe; I see now I may have misjudged your heart.'
'If possible, forget about this place, the things you saw, and my existence.'
Cole's face was still stiff. 'I'm sorry, but after all you put me through, the only way to get my revenge is by declining that last request,' Cole thought with a crushing burden. 'I don't forgive nor forget.'
'As long as Sant Flora is treated kindly, all is well,' it spoke softly yet audibly enough to be heard by Cole. 'My best wishes t...'
Cole barely heard his voice as he passed through the arrangement of clouds. For the first time, and probably the last, Cole saw a peaceful side to the hazardous storm clouds that parted the surface from its polar opposite.