//------------------------------//
// The Slumbering Beast - What you Truely Want
// Story: Kamen Rider Alchemy
// by Layton13
//------------------------------//
He felt terrible, his stomach burnt with the intensity of a forest fire and showed no sign of getting better at all. Everything around him felt like a jumbled mess. He was cast in a dark void, distant voices discussing things he couldn’t even begin to make sense of and worst of all the only thing that was clear was the pain that seemed to only get worse as time went on.
After what felt like a small eternity something else caught his attention, he could feel something under him, something soft and comfortable as well as something similar on top of him. He could however not say for the life of him say what it was. Then something else became clearer, the voices. First, they only grew louder, but with time they became cleared, familiar. And after a good while, he could make out what was being said.
“I still can’t believe this all happened. If we would have just found him sooner, we could have-“ A female voice said only to be interrupted by a strangely annoying male one.
“And how exactly should we have done that? We couldn’t find him the entire time we searched for him even with knowing who he was. He left us no way of finding him that wouldn’t have changed even if we searched longer every day. Gold just outplayed us, but that doesn’t mean we have lost him yet. I promise you we will get him back, no matter what even if we don’t know how right now. By Tartarus, I didn’t even know that I could mix elements till today. We always learn something new, and I’m sure we will figure something out,” the voice returned, genteel but at the same time determined.
“Yeah, yeah you are right. Still, I feel like I could have done so much more, you know?” The female voice returned, sadness carrying in her voice as she spoke.
“I know, I do too, but we can’t really do much right now other than stop Gold and capture him. After that, we just have to find out how to separate the two. I can’t believe it that he actually appeared here. I thought he was long dead, but guess what I know,” he sighed in defeat.
“Yeah, I also didn’t expect that. Yeah, we knew he was around but this? This is just insanity, just like he is. I have never seen so much anger and hatred in a single person, it is frightening.” The man said, nervousness and a bit of fear sneaking into his voice.
“Yeah, but that is apparently what six-hundred years of distilled hatred does to you.” At that moment he finally managed to make a single sound, a weak groan. IN an instant the conversation of the two people stopped, and mere seconds later they apparently had rushed over and were standing over him.
“Pinecone! Are you ok?” Both of them pretty much shouted into his ears, much to his annoyance. At least his muscles were slowly starting to regain control of his body again. Slowly he managed to open his eyes, only to close them again thanks to the blinding light that welcomed him with its unrelenting brightness. With a pained groan, he finally managed to open his eyes again. Before him stood a wounded Phoenix and Ocean, both of them looking extremely worried, mixed in with a sigh of relief.
He looked at them for a few moments before suddenly throwing the blanket that had been pulled over him to the wayside, landing on top of Phoenix and attempted to leap out of bed. This, however, ended not exactly how he had imagined it. The moment his foot touched the ground he felt his entire body burst into pain, surging from his chest. Not even a second went by before he fell towards the ground, his legs having collapsed under their own weight.
Thankfully before he could hurt himself any more four arms quickly grabbed him, stopping his sudden descended towards the floor only mere centimeters before he would have hit it. “Who, take it, easy cowboy. You are still hurt, you should not overexert yourself right now;” Phoenix said while helping him back on top of the bed.
“Shut up! I’m fine, just stood up too fast,” he grumbled in return, trying his best to hide the pained expression on his face. With that he tried to stand up again, the pain now quickly traveling up his leg the moment he put any pressure on it, a silent pained groan escaping his through, one, however, both Phoenix and Ocean caught. Before he could do anything more both of the shoved him back on the mattress.
“Oh no, you don’t! You are still hurt, you are not going anywhere. No matter how much you complain. And believe me, I know how that is, and trust me, you don’t want to be strapped to the bed, that is just awkward,” Phoenix muttered, a slight blush covering his cheeks. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything while you take a good long nap, don’t worry, no monster is going to cause any harm while you are out.”
“What do I care what you think? You can’t force me to stay here and waste my time!” He barked back, his voice echoing through the hospital room. “As long as I can activate my Driver I’m fine, so stop getting in my way!” He shouted at them, pushing them of him, all while the pain was making every movement he made insufferable.
“Technically not, but we don’t even think about letting you kill yourself. You are going to stay here, and that is the end. We don’t want to lose you,” Ocean countered, trying to force him back down. “And even if you can heal yourself like nothing happened, you at least should take a short break. Both of us tried to do too much and in the end burned ourselves because of that, we don’t want you to do the same.”
Both of them looked at Pinecone again, a look of desperation and pleading to shimmer in their eyes, but he didn’t even really listen to them. He just pushed them off him again, grabbed the Monster Driver that had been placed next to his bed on a nightstand, and let it loop around his waist.
Phoenix and ocean exchanged a fearful look before rushing towards Pinecone who had managed to get on his feet, ignoring all the pain and dizziness he felt. Both of them grabbed his shoulders and tried to push him down again, something he just screamed at. His cries were animalistic, almost like one of his monsters had taken control and with newfound strength that seemed to come out of nowhere, he pushed the both Phoenix and Ocean off him, the two landing on the floor a few feet away from him. Pinecone stared at his two comrades with wild eyes of pure anger, panting heavily and swaying from side to side. Before pulling out one of his Monster Medals and putting it into his Driver.
\ UNLEASHE THE MONSTER! /
“Henshin!”
\ AWAKEN: MANTICORE! /
With the cramped room, they found themselves in caused the ethereal manticore to circle around Monster closely, knocking over the bed and the nightstand and everything on it before returning to Pinecone. After the blinding green light had again consumed him, Kamen Rider Monster stood before them. But it was not the image of a strong and wild warrior it looked far more like a beaten and bruised animal. His arms were hanging down from his side like they were wet towels that had just been pulled out of the water. His back was hunched, and you could see every breath the Rider took.
After looking at his comrades for a moment, he just turned around and slowly started to walk towards the exit, weekly swaying from side to side. Both Phoenix and Ocean looking after him in horror. They couldn’t let him go like this, right? Phoenix was the first to act, pulling out his own Driver and put it on. But before he could activate his own transformation Ocean grabbed his hand, letting him turn around and look into the worried face of his girlfriend who just shook her head.
“Don’t, you are just going to hurt him more.”
“And what am I supposed to do? We can’t really stop him like this? The only way we can slow him down is if we also transform,” he returned, sounding quite anxious and tense.
“I know, but he won’t listen. He is just too stubborn right now. If we try anything he won’t stop and will just hurt himself more, so please, don’t,” she returned, tightening her grip on his hand.
Phoenix looked back at Pinecone who was slowly stumbling out of sight, then back to Ocean before silently cursing and relaxing again, letting the arm with the Magic Disc hang low in Oceans hands. “Fine, but we at least have to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed, or in other words, we should follow him,” he begrudgingly returned, much to Ocean’s relief.
“Thank you,” she returned with a nod before quietly following their fellow Rider.
>--------------<
Pinecone was staggering through the hospital, patients and doctors alike stopped in their tracks and took a few steps back as they saw the Rider slowly passing them, the unflinching red eyes unnerving them greatly. Everyone he passed was just too surprised to even scream out in fear, the room was just quiet. You could probably hear a needle fall if you really wanted to. Looks of fear, confusion and utter terror were cast on their faces, eying the Rider carefully. It didn’t help in the slightest that he was the least liked Rider under the three heroes of the city, something that could probably be traced back directly to his attitude.
Still, he didn’t really care. If they were afraid of him so what? He had his own problems and being liked wasn’t one of them. His pain had at least somewhat subsided thanks to his armor, healing a good amount of his wounds. Still, it hurts to walk, and he couldn’t really walk straight, but that didn’t matter now. As long as he could get back home he would be fine, it would be fine.
All while he dragged himself through the hospital his mind was thinking faster than his feet could manage, his thoughts already back home and what he had to do, interrupted with small thoughts about him, Elysium. The words he had uttered were still fresh in his mind and refused to let him focus on anything else. Tartarus had already gone after him on several occasions, but this felt different. This was not a low grunt, this was one of the top dogs. Unlike Phoenix, he had carefully listened to when Ocean had explained how they were up against and had made sure to remember them. In the end, this hadn’t really helped him in the grand scheme of thing, however, something his battered and beaten body was a testament to.
Pushing past a few civilians, he finally had dragged himself out of the building, the bright sunlight letting him stagger back for a moment before continuing his path towards the parking lot. Much to his relief, his bike had been parked right there. A small smile crossed his lips under his helmet for a moment before it was again replaced with a serious expression. It took him another minute until he had finally managed to drag himself towards the bike and started it. With one last breath, he speeds off, almost losing control of the vehicle as it started to pick up speed. His vision started to blur, and he almost would have hit one of the parking cars on the side of the road. Thankfully he snapped out of it just mere moments before the disaster, course correcting at the last possible moment.
Meanwhile, Phoenix and ocean had also let their bikes spring to live and were following their comrade from a distance, both sharing a concerned look as they had witnessed what almost had happened. With a silent sigh, Phoenix just shook his head and returned his attention to the street in front of him.
>--------------<
Everything had gone quite well, at least more or less. He hadn’t had any more moments where he almost crashed into something, well besides the few time he almost lost control of his bike, but that didn’t count really. When he, however, entered the forest things started to get interesting. For the most time, he just followed the small and narrow path through the forest that leads towards his home, something that was quite hard in his current condition, something he would never admit to himself. The sharp turns and the small space he was allowed to maneuver in didn’t make it easy for him to get his bike home safely and with him still intact, especially in such a weakened state. But he didn’t care, and the fact that he had taken this path countless times already made it far easier and manageable.
About twenty minutes after he had departed from the hospital he hit the breaks, coming to a stop in front of his house, light burning in the windows to the kitchen. After almost falling off the bike he stumbled towards the door, letting his body crash into it before actually being able to pull it open. His little moment of weakness having apparently alarmed Emerald, who had rushed towards the door, a frying pan in hand and the moment he had opened the door let the metal thing come down on his head, or at least would have if she hadn’t stopped herself mere centimeters before she would have actually hit him. As she actually understood what she had almost done she jumped backward, the pan falling to the floor with a loud clang as she did so.
“By Gaia, I’m so sorry, I didn’t expect you. Ocean called that you would probably spend the rest of the day at the hospital. Said you lost a fight and-“ She didn’t get any further before Monster interrupted her with a low grunt. “What is it with this get up anyway? Are you expecting something to attack you or what? Any reason for wearing the armor at home?” She looked at him quite confused, picking up the pan and casually spinning it in her hand.
“Not important,” he returned, trying to hide the low grunts of pain in his voice. “Anything happened?” His motionless eyes stared at Emerald for a few moments, before starting to shift his head to look around in the room.
Now Emerald started to look quite suspicious at her brother. This was so unlike him. He could be grumpy, but not like this, or at least not without a good reason for it. While keeping her eyes firmly on Pinecone, she hesitantly returned: “No, nothing. Why do you ask? Did something happen?” She sounded worried and slowly started to walk closer to her brother, he, however, started to move again, almost shoving her to the side as he walked towards the stairs.
“Nothing. You just stay here, just wait for the others to arrive. Knowing them they are hot on my heels already,” he muttered before dragging his body up the stairs, supporting himself on the railing of the stairs. He sounded exhausted and weak under his helmet, at least to Emerald who quickly dashed after him, up the stairs and to the open door of his room. Inside he was rummaging through his stuff, throwing everything on the floor with no regard to it all. Things were just getting weirder and weirder.
“What in Gaia’s name are you doing? Weren’t you the guy who told me to treat all of what is in this cabin with the same amount of respect, simply because so much of it belonged to our parents and family?” She looked in shock at him, completely flabbergasted by the unusual behavior he was showing. Pinecone however just ignored her, letting his claws grab around the bottom of his own bed. With a loud groan and his armor shifting according to his muscles he started to lift his own bed off the ground, an heirloom from their father who had made it almost forty years ago, one of Pinecones most valued possessions. The shock only grew the moment Pinecone just flipped the bed to its side, she audible hearing the wood bend and crack under the sudden new position, and he didn’t seem to care one bit. “Pinecone?” She stammered, looking at her brother with dead and confused eyes. “What are you doing Pinecone?” She continued, but no answer.
Instead, her brother started to grab ahold of one of the boards in the floor, and with a loud crack he ripped it from it, wood-splinters raining down on the damaged floor beneath him, but he wasn’t done yet, he grabbed the next one and repeated the process. This was enough for Emerald, something had to be off about her brother. With tears starting to form in her eyes she rushed forward, grabbing her brothers arm and trying to pull him back only to be shoved to the side as Pinecone ripped the third board from the floor.
Now sitting on the floor, she could only watch as he dragged a heavy wooden chest from the hole in the floor, slamming it down next to him. At a loss for words, she witnessed how he slashed the lock that was keeping the chest closed in two and quickly opened the mysterious chest. She couldn’t see what was inside only that he pulled a book out of the chest before slowly dragging himself out of the room, leaving her behind. It took her a few moments until she snapped out of her little stupor and ran after him.
He weakly stumbled down the stairs, the book in his hands, her brother completely consumed by the words on the pages. “Pinecone!” She shouted again, the tears starting to roll down her cheeks, wet and warm feeling of them unable to distract her from the confusion and fear she felt for her brother. But besides her sobbing, the room remained silent, Pinecone just ignored her, like she was air to him.
Her brother had just reached the end of the stairs as she lunged forward again, storming down the stairs and hugging her brother, as uncomfortable as the armor made it. She clenched around his waist, refusing to budge, apparently halting him in his tracks. For a moment he stopped, for a moment relive washed over her, think she might have actually achieved to get through to her brother, a hope that was quickly crushed. Putting his clawed hand on hers, she let her head jump up, still the look of relief in her faces until she felt his hands clenched around her fingers and without anything she could do to stop it her fingers were forced apart, letting her only hang by his hands. Her surprise had been replaced with terror. He had never done something like this, every time before when he wanted to be alone he had used words, had asked her to leave, but actually force her away? No, never before.
Like a sack of old potatoes, he let go of her, Emerald sinking to her knees behind him, staring at her hands who had been torn from his waist, unable to follow him as the door was slowly opened with a loud creak. “Don’t let anyone in besides the others,” came from far away, or at least that is how it felt. Only the slamming shut of the door finally got her out of it, letting her head snap towards the door that had just been closed behind him. Brushing away her tears she dashed towards it, but could not see her brother anywhere, only two familiar faces that were slowly approaching the cabin, Phoenix and Ocean.
“Hey Emerald,” was the first thing he said, waving towards her, unable to hide the worried expression on his face.
>--------------<
Meanwhile inside the shrine of Gaia Pinecone was dragging himself further into the cavernous depths of it. He felt exhausted, even more so than when he woke up. He could feel how his body demanded a rest, how his limbs grew heavier and heavier with every passing moment, but right now he just had to push forward. He had finally reached the door he had already dragged himself towards once before when he retrieved the Dragon and Riverserpent Medals, a place that had been shut off for normal visitors for a long time. But instead of unlocking the door again he simply tore it from its hinges, throwing it to the wayside, leaving the part of the cave open for all to see.
Stumbling further he passed the dark and cold torches that usually lite the way. It didn't really take him that long till he reached the mural on the wall, even in his weakened state. Before him, he could see the integrate carving of his goddess, Gaia Everfree and worked into it six small round holes in a circle formation with one in the middle. At the time he had ripped two Medals from the mural, now he was about to return them. Slowly he pulled out the red, blue, yellow, light blue, and purple one, placing them into their respective holes in the wall. Now the only thing that was left was Manticore. He looked down at his Driver, took a deep breath and removed the Medal from his Driver, the armor slowly dissolving and with every passing moment he could feel his strength fading away, his legs giving up on supporting him, and he crashed against the mural. With the last of his strength, he placed the medal into the highest hole, his vision slowly fading. The moment he managed to wedge the precious artifact into the desired place he finally collapsed, a bright light consuming the entire cave and everything in it.
>--------------<
“So, what do you know? What is up with Pinecone? Is he being controlled by a monster? Please, tell me?” Emerald spat out, dropping all pretense and coming straight to the point, incredible worry carrying in her voice.
“Well, he got beaten pretty badly by a Corrupted and should probably stay a bit longer at the hospital, but you know your brother. He pretty much shoved us out of the way and waltzed right back here, probably something in connection to the monster I assume. But what you told us about does sound strange, I must say,” ocean returned, sounding a bit confused by the new information that had presented itself to her. “But don’t worry, we’ll keep an eye on him while he recovers, we don’t want anything bad to happen to him, so don’t worry, he is in good hands,” she added with a smile that seems to help to calm her down.
Emerald nodded, wishing away some of the tears that had rolled down her cheeks. “Thank you. I know my brother can be a real stubborn idiot, but he appreciates the help, in his own way. He is just really bad at showing it,” she muttered. “I hope he is ok,” she continued, her voice becoming weaker with every word she said.
“Knowing him, I’m sure he is. Even if he would die, he would just be too stubborn to really do it. The hothead is fine, believe me,” Phoenix scoffed, still there was that bit of doubt that carried in his voice. However, before emerald could say something in return all of the heard a knock on the door.
>--------------<
Birds, birds were the first thing that he heard when his eyes slammed open, Pinecone frantically looking around to figure out where he was. All the pain that had haunted his body before was gone, he instead felt like he was born anew. He never felt better, he was such full of energy that he just jumped up and took a good look around, observing his surroundings. He was in the forest, a place he actually knew relatively well, not even six hundred meters from his house away. How he had come here was however something he couldn’t explain.
He was about to start to walk back home when he heard something, screams. At first, they were distant and hard to hear, but they grew ever clearer and louder until he could clearly make out the screams for help. His surprised expression quickly twisted into anger, and he rushed towards the origins of the sounds, all while putting on his Driver as well as inserting the Manticore Medal into it.
\ UNLEASHE THE MONSTER! /
“Henshin!”
\ AWAKEN: MANTICORE! /
With a leap he flew over the assailants that were running after a man, he wore strange clothes, something you would have worn hundreds of years ago maybe, but not today, all while his silver hair and white skin were continuously covered in dirt and mud.
What however really surprised him were the number of assailants that were following him, at least twenty, all wearing similar clothes just way more raged. What had the man done to gain the anger of all these men? They all sported rusty blades and had been running towards the man screaming their lungs out but immediately stopped as they saw the Rider, looking at him rather uncertain, taking a few steps back.
“You… You are the Knight of Gaia Everfree,” the man stammered, looking at him with relief. “You are here to save me from these bandits!” Tears of joy were streaming down the man's face as he fell to his knees and started bowing to him, much to Pinecones annoyance.
“So these are bandits? How dare you disturb this peaceful and sacred ground with your act of depravity?” He growled, the bandits looking at each other before starting to charge at him, swords held high in the air to let them come down upon the Rider. That however ended just as one would expect, the blades juts either bouncing off or simply snapping off on him. Pinecone lunged forward, punching the bandits into the chest, sending them flying, all while keeping an eye on the man. Most of the bandits went down easily, they had just no chance against a man with the powers of the armor, being knocked out cold the moment he hit them or when they landed on the ground.
Some, however, were a bit more agile, trying to circle the Rider to strike him in the back. He mostly ignored them until they were ready to strike, in the last second he let his claws cut through their words that they had tried to bring down on him. Seeing their precious weapons reduced to scrap metal let them just stare at him in absolute terror, that was until he started to knock them out. This was just enough for the group, now just running in absolute terror, Pinecone jumped after one, knocked him to the ground only to let out a bloodcurdling scream that let the rest of them pick up their speed even more, quickly disappearing between the trees. “And never ever think about disturbing anyone in these woods,” his voice echoed after them.
“Thank you, thank you! I thought this would be the end,” the man sobbed, Pinecone didn’t even gave him a second look and started to walk towards his cabinet. “I will tell everyone in town about you, Knight of Gaia Everfree,” he stammered, the glee and happiness in his voice forcing a small smile on Pinecones lips, at least for a moment. But before he could go any further, his world became black again, and within seconds he had again fallen into unconsciousness.
>--------------<
Ocean had already left the cabin through one of the windows in the back as Phoenix slowly approached the door, the knocking hadn't stopped the entire time. “Who is there?” He asked, the knocking stopping in an instant. Without any time to react the door had been burst open, landing mere meters away from Emerald who let out a loud shriek. In the door stood Alkahest in his Friendship Mode, and without any further interactions, he charged directly at Phoenix who was just barely able to dodge the attacks, feeling the wind passing by him as Alkahest readied himself for his next attack.
With no other way Phoenix jumped out of the door, Charge making her way towards the entrance of the house with her super speed and before Alkahest could even attempt to attack again was tackled to the side by Overcharge. With a loud groan, the Dark Rider landed on his back, Charge on top of him and starting to pummel him into submission. Phoenix meanwhile had pulled out his Driver and a magic Disc.
\ PHILOSOPHER STONE DETECTED! /
“Henshin!”
\ HEUREKA! /
Now clad in his armor, he was about to rush towards Charge to help her as both of them suddenly felt pain in their backs, the force of the sudden attack knocking both of them to the ground, just enough time for Alkahest to retreat towards the new assailant.
“Well, look who we have here. I knew you couldn’t be far when Alkahest was near,” Alchemy groaned as he slowly rose back up, holding his shoulder as he looked towards his new opponent, Chrysopoeia!
>--------------<
Again he came back to his senses, completely disorientated, slowly opening his eyes. This time he found himself in the busy streets of Canterlot City, strangely without his armor. Cars were passing by as well as people, it all seemed like a completely normal day, nothing out of the ordinary.
That was at least until he heard another loud sound, this time however it wasn’t a scream, but the sound of an explosion followed by screams. Within seconds the quiet and peaceful city had transformed into a nightmarish hellscape, at least if the sounds of terrified citizens was anything to go by as they were running for their lives.
Through the swarm of people that were running for there life he could somewhat see what they were running from, Remnants, hundreds of them were stomping through the streets, letting energy blast strike down everyone that was unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire. The screams echoed in his ears. This shouldn’t affect him, really. They were not in his forest, it wasn’t his job to save these people, he only was the guardian of the forest, not the city, that was Alchemy’s and Charge’s job. However, the screams just kept echoing in his head, transforming into something that sounded like the screams of thousands and thousands of souls screaming out in perpetual agony. After a few seconds, he just couldn’t take it anymore, and with a scream of agony, he rushed towards them, pulling out his Driver.
\ UNLEASHE THE MONSTER! /
“Henshin!”
\ AWAKEN: MANTICORE! /
Swinging his weapon, he let it come down on the Remnants, several of them exploding upon impact, leaving a sizeable hole in the formation of the Remnants, one perfectly exploitable by the Rider. Lunging forward he let his claws cleave through them, several falling right where they stood. However, they were not just standing there and let themselves get slaughter, no, they were quick to retaliate.
The first one tried to crush Pinecone with his fists, something the Rider quickly avoided, by jumping over the monster and slashing across his exposed backside. However that maneuver had left him in quite the predicament, enemies on all sides and no way to escape, there was only one way for him, fight. Using his whip, he kept the Remnants at bay, several of them trying to grab and hold him down, something the Rider desperately tried to avoid.
But for every enemy Pinecone slated two more just seemed to pop up again, like nothing had happened. He couldn’t even slow them down, they just kept coming and coming without showing any sign of slowing down. He didn’t know how long he could hold out, his strength was slowly draining with every strike of his weapon, leaving only a worn out warrior behind. That was when he shared it, the scream of a kid, not too far away. The small girl had been surrounded, Remnants trying to claw at her, tears streaming down her faces. It wouldn’t take them long to pile the little girl and then…
No, he couldn’t let it get that far. It didn’t matter if this was not in his forest, he just couldn’t let them kill the girl, he just couldn’t. Gathering the last of his strength he burst through the Remnants, shoving them aside, the monsters using this perfect opportunity to get in every hit they could. Time and time again he felt their fists and hands on his back, and it hurt like hammers were being used on his back.
His back must have looked like a blueberry when he finally reached the girl, using his whip he carved a way for the young girl before screaming: “Go!” Two words, but they said enough. He could just see how the small girl ran through the newly created path before he instead was consumed by the hoard of monsters, their sheer weight burring under them. It got harder and harder to breathe and no matter how much he struggled his concourse was slowly fading until there was only darkness left.
>--------------<
The peaceful forest was again disturbed by a massive explosion, one that uprooted trees and sent derby flying everywhere. The fight against the two Dark Riders had waged on for half an hour already, and both Alchemy and Charge were doing their best to hold the two at bay, but this grew increasingly harder with every passing minute. Chrysopoeia was unrelenting, not giving the Riders even the smallest of breaks as he continued his attacks, letting the forest around them feel the force and power of the Philosopher Stone. Still, they weren’t even thinking about giving up, not after they had come so far.
Pushing through the pain from all the bruises all over their bodies both of them charged forward once again, this time actually managing to barely dodge the blasts Chrysopoeia had let loose on them. The energy projectiles detonated next to them, parts of trees, rocks and the ground flying everywhere, just passing them by millimeters. They were getting closer and closer to him, zigzagging to throw him of the pattern, and it seemed to work. That was until Charge was hit by the blast dead in the chest, sending her flying back right into one of the larger rocks in the area, shattering it upon impact.
Alchemy didn’t dare to look over his shoulder, to focus on the task at hand, picking up the pace, even more, seeing the lance of his opponent being directed at him once again. Then the bright light headed directly towards him, or it would have if Alchemy hadn’t managed to slip past it and Chrysopoeia in one fell swoop, using his own weapon to slash across the back of the Dark Rider. Sparks flew as the loud scream of agony cut through the forest, Chrysopoeia cursing under his breath as he staggered forwards, Alchemy hot on his trail, not letting loose and slashing his weapon across his chest again and again.
The Dark Rider was unable to retaliate, thanks to the constant attacks of Alchemy. However, this shouldn’t turn into a victory for him. Out of nowhere, he felt a piercing pain in his back that quickly surged through his entire body. His offensive ended as quickly as it had begone, his arms hanging limply from his side as he sunk to his knees, turning around to face him. Alkahest! He had stabbed his spear into his back, letting the energy from it surge through his body. “ Didn’t no one tell you to always keep an eye on the battlefield?” He coldly asks, twisting the spear again for good measure. The pain grew exponentially, blackness encroaching on his eyes the longe he held the spear like this, twisting the tip even further.
That was until a loud sound echoed through the battlefield, followed by a scream filled with pain. The spear was ripped from the wound, and he could hear something behind him fall to the ground, as he looked back he could see Alkahest holding his chest, his body twisted in agony. Turning his head around again he spotted Charge pointing her gun behind him, her entire body moving with every breath she made.
While all this was happening another shape was slowly encroaching on Pinecones cabin, thankfully the Riders had been lured away by Alkahest and Chrysopoeia, something that would make what he had planned significantly easier, or at least on a physical level.
>--------------<
His eyes shot open the moment he could smell this stench, smoke! Instead of a peaceful forest or city, his eyes were greeted by a burning sensation forcing them shut quickly afterward. It didn’t take long till the coughing started, the ash and smoke were making it incredibly hard to breathe. No matter how much it had to hurt, he had to open his eyes. Otherwise, he would die here for sure. With excruciating pain he forced them open, tears starting to form inside them. The world looked hazy, the smoke made things just so much worse. Everything was tinted in a fiery glow, the warmth of the fire changing from comfortable to painful rather quickly. After a few moments, he started to recognize several shapes he was quite familiar with. The shrine and his house, both completely ablaze in the inferno.
Pinecone just stood there, staring at his life going up in flames right before his eyes, unable to move even an inch, just staring. He was about to rush towards the shrine, trying to save as much as he could as he suddenly heard a voice, a very familiar desperate voice: “Help! Help! I’m stuck…” the voice was interrupted by a violent coughing fit before resuming. “I’m stuck here! Help!” He would recognize this voice in a crowd of thousands, it was Emerald. A mask of utter horror and shock covered his face, this couldn’t be happening, right? No, she couldn’t be trapped in the fire, this was impossible. “Help!” There it was again, no doubt about it, it was Emerald.
His stare shifted from the shrine and his house time and time again, getting more frantic as time went on. What was he supposed to do? He had been told to always uphold his duty to Gaia Everfree, something he never ever thought about breaking in his entire life, but now, now his sister was in danger. She would die if he tried to save the shrine. But she was also expected to lay down her life for the goddesse if necessary, and if he couldn’t save the shrine what point would there be to upholding his duty in Gaia? Without a place, to worship the goddess was weak, useless. It was his sacred duty to save the shrine, it was that simple. The decision was clear, no argument, no other way.
But why was his body rushing towards the house, ignoring the tree-high flames that shot out of the cave entrance, his eyes fixated on his sister that had been buried under the rubble? His arms moved on their own, trying to grab the Monster Driver, but to his surprise, it was gone. Still, he showed no sign of slowing down. Without even thinking about it his hands gripped the beam on top of Emerald tightly, ignoring the fact that it was on fire. Getting close to it already was agonizing, but touching it? It was like he had dipped his hands into a boiling pot of water, and it showed no sign of getting better. Instead, it got worse. Still, he kept on pushing, Emerald looking up towards him with her surprised and thankful eyes.
His muscles were tested to their limits, feeling like they would burst out of his body at any moment now. His screams were filled with agony and exhausted as the wooden beam slowly was lifted higher and higher, letting the girl underneath finally escape from her predicament. His lungs were burning, the smoke and ash were taking their toll on him. His eyes were almost completely useless now, but it didn’t matter if he managed to save her. His hands were smoldering and burning away, but it didn’t matter. Every muscle in his body was burning in exhaustion and agony, still lifting the heavy beam above his head. He could hear the footsteps of Emerald as she ran out of the house through the flames.
A smile crossed his face, shining through the pain and anguish his face had been twisted into. This was it, he had done what he wanted to do. Even if he would manage to get out of here, he would never be able to save the shrine in this condition. He had failed, he knew that. He had let down everyone that had come before him, but in a strange way, he was not sad about that. He felt good, well as good as you could feel while dying in agonizing pain in the flames of his own home. At least she was saved, that was all that mattered. With that the blackness once again took hold of him, the agonizing pain all over his body growing distant until ultimately disappearing completely.
>--------------<
When he came to again, he felt refreshed, no pain, no nothing, just the cold stone floor of the cave beneath him. His eyes were slowly opening to reveal the dark and empty cave and the mural in front of him. His head still felt like it was spinning he slowly rose up from the ground, before him the beautiful mural of Gaia Everfree. He felt ashamed as he saw the goddess he had devoted his life to, he had failed her. Just about to divert his eyes from the mural they spotted something, a Medal laying on the altar, a Medal he had never before seen. Reaching out with his hand he grasped the new object firmly, feeling the energy of it surging through his body, clearing his mind and recharging his energy. He stared at the small little marble in awe, unable to comprehend the crystal medal in his hands, that was until a violent quake shook him out of his admiration. Small drops of dirt and stone trickled from the ceiling, landing next to him. With newly found vigor he took back the Monster Medals and rushed towards the exit of the cave, his injuries having disappeared like they were never there, to begin with.
Spending his entire life around and caring for this place was coming in rather handy right now, without much problems he ran through the cave, knew exactly which turn to take and where to slow down. It didn’t take long for him to emerge from the cave and to see that Alchemy and Charge were currently fighting the two Dark Riders. But before he could rush to their aide, he heard a scream for help, one he had heard just before. His shock quickly changed into determination, and he rushed towards his house, storming into the living room where Elysium was currently towering over a frighten Emerald. “Let her alone,” he growled, having already placed the Monster Driver around his waist.
“Oh, finally. And I thought you wouldn’t show up. It was getting quite hard to keep her scared after a few minutes of just looking scary,” he muttered, swinging his sword playfully before facing him.
“Pinecone!” Emerald called out, looking at her brother with a weak smile that managed to work its way through her terrified expression. Pinecone just nodded to her before inserting his new Meadla into the Driver.
\ UNLEASHE THE MONSTER! /
“Henshin!”
\ AWAKEN: CHIMERA! /
Elysium charged towards his opponent, sword held high and ready to bring it down upon him. That, however, was stopped by six ethereal monsters emerging from the Driver, knocking the Corrupted back and right through the window. With a lunge forward Monster followed, the ethereal beasts merging into him as he did so. Landing outside he was clad in white armor, his left leg resembling the head of a Sphinx, while the right leg resembled that of a Dragon. His right arm was covered in white metal plates that formed the head of a River-serpent while the left arm mirrored that with the design of a Thunderbird. His chest was covered in the image of a Changeling's head, and his helmet had remained mostly the same as his Manticore Form complete with red eyes. Around his neck the fur remained and also his shoulders had remained the same as in his base form. With a loud roar, he had gotten everyone's attention.
The Corrupted had not even a second to get up as the Rider already jumped towards him, the claws on his right arm and left arm igniting into flames and thunder, leaving colored marks on his opponent. The Corrupted let out a pained scream of agony only to be overshadowed by the even louder explosion of fire and thunder that originated from the wounds. Staggering back Monster didn’t leave him any time to breath, advancing again, dodging the wild sword swings of the Corrupted and kneeing the Corrupted in the stomach first with his Sphinx leg and the with his River-serpent leg. Shortly thereafter water and stone emerged from the points he had hit him, sending Elysium flying into a few trees.
Elysium was now nearly completely out of it, weakly staggering towards Monster, swinging his sword weakly at him, a rather pathetic display really. But Monster was not about to go easy on him. His chest and helmet started to glow, and before he even knew it, two ethereal monsters emerged from him, a purple Changeling and green Manticore, both flying towards Elysium with ludicrous speed. With a scream of utter terror Elysium was consumed by the beast, and as they finally passed him through, he had lost his Corrupted form, sinking to his knees, magical necklace at his side.
“I… I…” He stammered as Monster slowly walked over towards him, his eyes milky and distant. “I will not be beaten. I will not let this slip from my grasp! I crawled my way to the top, and I will be damned if I let someone like you take it from me!” With that, his hand reached out for the necklace, and a bright light consumed the entire clearing they had been fighting in. A few meters away charge and Alchemy were busy with their two opponents but were also blinded by the light. At that moment they felt the pain of dozens of shots colliding with their armors and both Riders were quickly pushed back. When the light faded, their opponents were long gone.
But far worse was what was in front of Monster, a giant angel like a beast, covered in long flowing robes, and the same sword and shield Elysium had used before. It towered over Monster and the trees, the biggest of them only reaching to its waist. With a loud screech, it let its sword come crashing down on the Rider, who easily avoided the attack, quickly using his bug wings to circle around the Corrupted and position himself behind the back of the monster. Then he opened and closed his Driver again.
\ ROAR: CHIMERA! /
All parts of his armor started to glow, and at once all six beasts that made up his powers emerged in their ethereal form, the dragon was the first to attack, clenching its teeth around the hands of the Corrupted, letting him drop his weapon. The next one to strike was Sphinx, it clawed away at the back of the monster, quickly followed up by River-serpent, who enveloped the arms of the Corrupted and tightening its grip, crushing apparently several bones in his body. Not to be outdone Thunderbird soared through the sky and rained down lightning on his opponent. Changeling, however, opted for a far simpler approach and just rammed through the body of Elysium. Now the only one left was Manticore, the beast had been circling around the Corrupted the entire time, but now its time had come. With a powerful swipe, it let its claws scratch across the entire body of the Corrupted.
Now that the monster had been weakened all six of them returned to Monster who had risen high into the air. Within a split-second Monster rocketed towards the Corrupted, all of the souls gathering in his foot, forming the image of a Chimera made out of all their body parts that chomped down on Elysium, who was quickly consumed in an explosion.
As the dust had settled Elysium was shivering, almost falling over, on his face was an expression of utter terror. “No… No! I can’t die, not here, not now. I… I don’t deserve this, I worked hard… I did everything I could, I don’t deserve this!” He screamed in an uneven voice, fear, and terror clearly audible in every word he spoke, his body slowly fading away. And with one last word he disappeared from this world forever: “Help!” Monster stared at the place where his opponent had stood mere moments before, picked up the necklace and walked towards his house, deactivating his Driver on the way there.
His slow walk turned into a sprint until he was running, bursting through the remains of his door he looked inside, looking upon a scared and terrified Emerald. The moment hse looked up she immediately sprinted towards him and caught Pinecone in a crushing hug, he, however, didn’t care in the slightest and returned her hug. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry for making you scared before,” he whispered, barely being louder than Emeralds sobs.
“Shut up,” she just returned and hugging him even harder. He simply smiled and started to pat her head. Phoenix and Ocean, who had followed him stopped at the door, looking at the two siblings.
“Seems he is back to normal, thank goodness,” Phoenix sighed, letting himself fall to the ground beside Ocean.
“Yeah, seems that way and he caught up to us. Chrysopoeia should be careful next time,” she smirked, but could not hide the spark of sadness in her voice. Ocean almost jumped back as Phoenix put his hand on her shoulder and gave a warm nod, one she returned with a sad smile.