Imbalanced: New Age

by Nameless Narrator

Love and Hatred: Showdown

[Blazing’s Entry]

I left Insanity, although I shouldn’t call the guy that anymore, in good hooves and tentacles. Mana Burn isn’t the kind to leave an innocent hanging even if it means not being able to see my incoming encounter.

To be honest, I’m writing this out of habit more than anything. I feel like everything has already been said. I thought about my old self the memories and feelings of whom survived to this day preserved by my original twin divinities a lot, all the hatred and contempt.

It’s all gone. Despite me being in pretty much the worst situation in my entire life, I don’t feel any of it. I am blaming myself, that’s given, but it’s coming without the usual venom. Maybe it’s because I just have nothing to be afraid for anymore. That can be it, true. No Chokey, no Cromach, no Guiding, no more plans for the future.

I’ll just go to the valley and see how things go from there. If I win, I’ll think about what to do next. If I lose, everything will be somepony else’s problem. Funny how running away never solves one’s problems, but killing oneself, no matter how convolutedly, does so with absolute certainty.

That certainly makes today’s prospects brighter, even despite my track record. Well, it’s gotta work at some point.

Alright, let’s just do my best so that nopony else has to.

Huh, I feel like I already said that at some point. Well, stuff goes in circles anyway.

[End Entry]

With strategically light lunch behind me, I fumble through the thigh-high grass and low-hanging tree branches. I know I must be close, because of my map gadget and because I’ve met two Corrupted Hunters who only walked a short while along and then simply left.

Mana Burn explained to me that Barrier is a rather strange Corrupted city. For all intents and purposes, its inhabitants are wild, but without the hostility. Why? Not even Nightshade knows apparently. It supposedly has something to do with it being ponies who broke Harmony’s berserking influence over Corrupted, although no mind shenanigans had ever revealed a certain reason to Nightshade.

Well, I’m just happy I don’t have to fight yet. Wasting energy would be… well, a waste.

The forest ends abruptly. After very slowly sloping down for about half an hour, the treeline gives way to a much sharper hillside overlooking a place I hoped I would never have to see again.

Yeah, I know. From my track record, I should have assumed otherwise.

What is different is that the entire valley aside from its westmost part where the damn pyramid is standing has changed into a black city completely made from corrupted biomass. Its inhabitants still look like they prefer lounging outside and doing their business, but it’s the thought about civilization that counts.

As I get ready for the annoying descent, I have the amazing idea of looking around further along the edge of the valley which reveals a rather convenient, long and wide staircase. Welp, I’m not going to look a gift pony in the mouth.

The city itself is… generic. Box-like houses, no skyscrapers, kinda like lower Canterlot from my time, only black. Granted, instead of windows there are just square holes, but that’s about the extent of the strangeness.

No, I’m not going to look inside.

Yes, that angular thing I can see from here is actually a couch.

Weird.

“Allllright?” I can’t stop myself from looking at two mating Corrupted I pass by. They look more like a rolling ball of tentacles than ponies going at it.

That’s one perverted tumbleweed.

As they roll by, I just shrug. I’ve seen weirder stuff.

All that serves to distract my mind from the inevitable. The longer I follow the main road, the more clearly I can see the wide pyramid where Cromach fought my possessed father last time. What’s worse, I can see the dreaded amazon-like mare simply sitting up there.

Alright.

Dropping my saddlebags filled with food on the road, I make sure I’m carrying only what’s absolutely necessary. Some drinking and answering the call of nature later, I stretch my wings which are still more a decoration than anything useful, and resume my progress.

I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.

I wonder if she knows I’m h-

As I step out from between the houses, thick tentacles taller than a building with the structure of sea water sprout from the ground, forming an alley leading along the road to the pyramid.

Yeah, she knows.

Strangely enough, they don’t slam down on me immediately. It’s a trap, of course it’s a trap, so when do we spring it?

I stop under the steps leading up. Is now the time? Yeah, now is the time.

“HEY, AM I SUPPOSED TO WASTE TIME CRAWLING UP THERE JUST SO YOU CAN TOSS ME BACK DOWN?” I scream from the top of my lungs. I know I don’t need to, but it helps break the tension, “GET YOUR ROIDED ASS DOWN HERE!”

The mare opens her eyes, stands up, leisurely stretches and I assume cracks all her joints, primes her hind legs, and kicks herself off of the top of the pyramid, flying in a precise arc towards me.

It’s not going to be this easy, is it?

I feel my divine power wrap around her, watch her fall and fall and fall, and-

*Crunch!*

-land in a puddle of broken limbs and splattering blood a short way away from me.

This HAS to be a trap.

The tentacles lining the road are still there, swaying ominously, so I doubt a simple four-story fall would be fatal to Harmony’s avatar, no matter my power. Not wanting to get surprised by a rapid counterattack since I don’t know what the mare is capable of despite my influence, I wait for few seconds.

Indeed, she starts getting up, shattered limbs fixing themselves with sickening crunching of bones.

“Hmm,” she says, examining her healing foreleg, “Is this your new power? Inconvenient to say the least.”

With a final snap, she’s standing there in all her ‘bodybuilder used to wrestling dragons’ glory, good as new.

I really, really hoped I would be able to harm her for longer.

She laughs.

“Don’t just stand there, slack-jawed. Isn’t this what you’ve been training for? Do I have to remind you I ground your wretched mutant daughter against a wall while she gurgled and begged for mercy?”

I chuckle.

“Don’t bother lying, I’m here to kill you or die trying. Oh dear god, present company excluded, I’ve started rhyming. Let’s get this over with.”

“And here was I just hoping to make you a little bit enthusiastic about your inevitable demise,” she taunts, “but I guess you’re already resigned to your fate.”

Giving her a bright smile, I levitate my Black Ops sword.

“Nope, just too tired of all this shit.”

My tracing spell catches a movement above. One of the massive tentacles slams down straight at me with unexpected speed, leaving me with no chance but to try and block something as thick as my whole body with my crossed forelegs.

There is no impact, only the tentacle cleanly splitting and dissipating as touches my blocking hooves. At the same time, I ‘feel’ the same passing of cold wind around my hind legs and realize that a second tentacle was trying to hit me from behind and suffered the same fate.

Alright, she can control more of them at once, but it doesn’t seem to matter.

With her disappointed scowl, all tentacles disappear.

“More irritating power than I expected. Alright, time for some old-fashioned manual labor.”

She charges straight at me, leaving a trail of broken Corrupted biomass bricks under her hooves. I simply spin away, leaving a hind leg behind to trip her up and make her eat taint. It’s a great plan, and would normally work, but the sheer force of her kick spins ME around and I barely land back on all fours while she rolls on the road once and jumps back up immediately.

Okay, her divine power is too strong to be nullified completely and her body is in absurdly crazy shape so that her sheer strength and endurance might outclass my hoof-to-hoof experience.

She charges again. There is no way she’s stupid enough to do the same thing twice, so instead of trying to trip her up, I just jumps backwards. As I do that, she stops her blind rush with one foreleg, and uppercuts the air with such speed I can feel the shockwave. Had I tried my previous trick again, my head would be flying in the sky like a popped champaigne cork.

Before she can get back on all fours, my flying sword slices her barrel open. Unlike Corrupted through whom the blade passed like butter, hitting Harmony’s avatar is like butchering cold, hard flesh. Thankfully, still flesh.

Alright, I have up to five seconds before a deep wound like this heals.

I press on, jumping to the heavily bleeding mare, about to punch her muzzle and as soon as she reveals her neck slit it with my sword. She curls up like a spring, shoots up on her hind legs as if the normally fatal wound meant nothing, and spins around on them with her forelegs swinging like two hammers.

When my ears stop ringing and my eyes refocus again, I find myself gasping for the breath knocked out of me some ten pony lengths away from her. Every breath is like stabbing a hot spike into my ribcage as I unsteady get back up. My tracing spell fortunately works, and shows Harmony’s chosen glowing with dark purple power slowly walking towards me.

All her wounds are gone.

She’s looking straight at me, completely ignoring Corrupted passively gathering in the closest houses my tracing spell catches. Not a good idea.

Groaning in pain for some theatrical effect, I focus on my sword lying behind Harmony. She laughs…

...which is cut off by my sword taking her head off in one furious swing from behind.

“Now who’s wasting whose time,” says the head lying on the black road as the decapitated body walks straight towards it with no problems. I stumble forward, but before I can get even halfway to her, one Harmony’s tentacle grows from the tainted ground, lobs the head towards the body where another fresh tentacle catches it, placing it back onto the neck.

The separating wound knits together, leaving nothing. Harmony looks at me in a clearly patronizing fashion.

“Do you now realize how pathetic your attempts are, mortal?”

“I’m about as successful as you trying to kill me,” I sneer, enjoying Harmony’s grin wilt.

Sooo… screw the regeneration, how did she do the attack?

I need to get her to go on the defensive, which isn’t going to be the easiest when every step is sending a spike of pain through my whole barrel. One freaking attack, just one, and I’m like this. On the other hoof, most ponies would look much worse after being hit with the force of a loaded freight train.

My sword flies forwards, forcing Harmony to dodge while I move closer. I’m not actually traing to hit the mare, there’s no point. Yet. I need to cause more damage at once.

She swings her foreleg under which I duck and push her backwards. She stumbles as I disengage and swing the blade which cuts her muzzle. Her moment of confusion and a single step back allows for a punch making her backpeddle even further, coil up like last time...

...and then jump up and spin again while swinging her both forelegs around.

This time I just take the firmest telekinetic hold of my sword I can, and keep it steady at my head height. Two showers of blood later as Harmony’s wild swing straight against the incredibly sharp blade separates her both forelegs at knee-height, I pounce at the confused mare, slamming her backwards on the ground.

I don’t think she can feel pain, at least not to the extent I can. I can’t give her any time to react. Straddling her barrel, I slam my forelegs down like I did with Nightshade.

Again and again and again and again until my hoof cracks.

Then I stab my sword right through her muzzle.

If I move, she will eventually regenerate. Harmony is just THAT strong. If she moves, I’ll keep going, I just need to catch a breath-

The world shuts down.

Where am I?

Why is everything red?

I blink. Some of the redness disappears.

I feel like throwing up.

Legs? Well, something is moving.

Head? Dizzy.

Ears? Ringing.

Mouth? Tasting of iron… too much iron. Did I eat a horseshoe or something?

HARMONY!

Oh shi-

I realize my vision is blurry and… strange but familiar. Still red, though.

Blink to reset, now!

My right eye isn’t working. I just see red no matter what.

Alright, left one plus the tracing spell will have to do.

Harmony’s summoned tentacles, each grasping one of her separated forelegs, bring the limbs to her upon which those rejoin the stumps.

Alright, that’s horrible. Or is it?

Harmony is limping and growling in pain with each step.

Take seven, standing up successful. Tracing spell restarted. Sword found and flying around. analysing situation now.

Just like I did cut her head off from behind, she must have summoned some tentacle which grabbed the lost foreleg and swung at me. The blow must have at least cracked my skull and something is wrong with my eye just like in the old days. Good thing is that I’m used to it, and my tracing spell grants me the depth perception I so sorely need.

Is there something good about the situation? Yes. Harmony isn’t healing further, or it’s incredibly slow. The longer we fight, the more my power allows for lasting marks. Is my stamina enough to last before she turns mortal? Now that’s the right question.

I spit out some blood pooling in my mouth. At least I can still breathe, that’s good.

You don’t have time for recovery. She’s coming!

Kinky.

Cut the nonsense or you’re strawberry jam.

With my sword ready, I give wiping the right side of my face one last failed shot. Harmony will have to be careful now.

I follow the mare circling around me five pony lengths away. She primes herself for a jump, I flourish my blade. None comes, she just slams her forelegs down with such strength the road shakes and I stumble.

She kicks up a large piece of black rubble from underneath her hooves, rises on her hind legs, and punches it towards me.

Ranged attack, that-

Will work, LEFT!

I immediately lean sideways and look in disbelief at the red line growing in my side. B-b-b-but-

No time!

Hissing as I shift weight to a more stable four-legged position, I see Harmony charging straight at me again. Hiding my sword behind me, I pull it out just as she’s about to crash into me. She hits my forelegs and I feel the cracking of my bones when her bull rush continues. I fall on my back under her weight, she raises herself to stomp my ribcage through. In that moment, my sword impales her chest, cutting her barrel nearly in half down to her abdomen.

The shower of blood splatters over the road. I’m lying under mostly eviscerated Harmony still standing on her legs, I can’t move my forelegs without groaning in pain, I can barely see, but I sure as all levels of Tartarus can jam the flying sword straight through her heart.

She…

...doesn’t fall down, only coughs out more blood at me.

“Now you’ve made me mad!” she growls, kicking me in the head. Huh, I can see more red again.

Putting one foreleg on the side of my head, she stomps down a bit higher with the other one.

I only feel a dull crunch before my telekinetic grasp disappears completely from the Black Ops sword.

Damn it, she must be nearing her limit. Screw my horn she’s just kicked away. I’m not panicking like last time. I CAN take her down with me.

The only question is how…

She sits down on my barrel, raises her both forelegs, and…

...I see her twice.

*SLAM!*

Three times.

*SLAM!*

Just blurs.

*SLAM!*

I can barely breathe over all the blood everywhere.

I just have no strength in my limbs anymore, not even enough to move my neck as she stands up unsteadily and grabs my mane into her teeth.

“I’ve got… something… better… prepared for you...”

“...grrng...” I groan as she drags me towards the pyramid stairs over the road now slick with gore.

“...you won’t be… forgotten...”

“...you will serve as a… reminder… to all who… defy me...”

“...I won’t let your corpse rot… no...”

Stair after stair digs into my butchered barrel. I cough, gasp for breath, and groan, but the grip of her teeth doesn’t relent. She doesn’t care that her bones are peeking through and that she’s dragging her intestines behind.

It feels long, but it can’t be, before a final rough pull on my mane sends me tumbling onto the altar platform on the top. Lying on my back and feeling the blood in my throat pool again, I still appreciate the miniscule relief.

A thin spike of Corrupted biomass is coming from the shattered altar like a spear pointing towards the sky.

“...everyone… will see...”

Harmony’s tentacle grows next to me, grabbing me by my barrel and pulling me upwards. I almost pass out from the pain, but some small part of me refuses to let me go out peacefully.

She’s going to impale me on the spike as a warning. Well, not to me, but to everyone else.

On the other hoof, it’s not like I care at this point. I did all I could. It wasn’t enough. I can go without any blame now, though. No more shackles, no more regrets, no more unfinished business.

The world is now in somepony else’s hooves. I did EVERYTHING I could.

“...any last… words?”

“Grrrngh...”

“...got it… one meaningless… gurgle… just like your whole life...”

I don’t bother looking at the mare, instead I use the height the tentacle holding me is offering to take a final look over the valley. The Corrupted are starting to disperse, the occasional clumps of tentacles Mana Burn told me are different versions of flytraps are opening and shooting long tendrils into the sky.

I want to look up to see what they are aiming at. However, my strength gives out completely and my head just flops to the other side and my tongue rolls out. I guess I’ll leave a rather dumb expression, if I’m to be preserved here after death.

Oh well, such is life.

“...you’ve been an... annoying pest…”

The tentacle pulls me higher. I guess it’s time for my last anal fun with a corrupted spike.

Heh, I just wish it was Cromach’s.

Then everything turns to bright, incandescent yellow.

When my one working eye adapts to the blinding light and a wave of searing heat washes over me, I’m already flat on the other end of the pyramid top. Harmony’s avatar is shielding herself with a bunch of tentacles from a highly localized pillar of flame so thick and powerful it looks nearly liquid.

Something massive lands on the slope of the pyramid, sending rocks flying everywhere. A second vastly smaller thing drops between me and Harmony slowly melting under the obliterating firestorm.

Heh, Blazing. You always say you only cause pain to those close to you.

Oh shush, Mistake.

Good thing they are a bunch of incorrigible masochists.

Idiot.

From my angle, I can barely see four blurry black legs, well-toned plot-

Scratch that, I can see all I need. I don’t believe it, but I can see it.

The pillar of fire disappears, and a deep, loud voice rumbles:

“Do you think I can incinerate a god?”

“I hope not,” is a hissed answer.

“Why?”

“Because my way won’t be as quick and nowhere near as painless.”

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[Two_Madmans]

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