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Gray clouds loomed above the terrain, announcing rain that would soon pour down on the devastated battlefield. The water would come down like a blessing to wash away the blood and rotten odor of the corpses.
Perhaps, with time, the drops could bring back some life back into the landscape, but never restore the lives that here were lost, life that had been taken away by the thirst for violence and chaos brought as a consequence to war. A war that had turned a once calm field covered in flowers into a desert of death and desperation.
Thunder matched the sounds of swords and claws clashing with each other, rays of light crossed the sky, not only from lighting, but from the magical beings piercing through the clouds charged with power, some bright and pure, others dark and bloodthirsty, both sides putting on their best of efforts to bring down the other.
A wolf ducked just in time for a magic blast to miss him. He flinched and covered his ears as a loud boom! came from behind him. The ground shook, making him lose his balance, more thunder mixed with the sound of explosions going off all around.
“Boris!” A muffled voice called from the distance.
“I’m coming, Bendy!” Boris stood up and continued crossing the battlefield that he definitely shouldn’t have been in in the first place.
Boris stopped in his tracks at the sight of a demon crouching over a body, the creature’s red eyes turned towards the wolf as it noticed him, the demon growled and launched itself at Boris, but a spear pierced him mid air. Boris looked up at an angel flying above him, a second later said angel was ambushed by a dark mass and fell limp in front of the pup.
Boris wept but kept running, several runes glowed in the sky before tons of spears came raining down. Boris felt someone shove him away and a blue light destroyed the weapons before they could fall on him.
“Pup! Pup, listen,” Cuphead grabbed Boris from the ground and had him up and standing in a second, he stood in front of him protectively, glancing at every side, finger gun up and ready to blast whatever came as close as 5 feet to them, “you need to get the cuss away from here, if you find Mugs stick with him, he’ll get ya out. I’ll look for the others.”
Boris shook his head, “but Bendy-what if he-”
“He’ll be okay, I’ll get him.” Drops of blood splashed them both, Cuphead wrapped Boris up with his arm before he could even look where the blood had come from.
A roar ringed in Boris’ ears. Cup fired behind the wolf, this time Boris did get to see as the charred body of a demon fell down on the ground lifeless.
“We...we shouldn’t have built it! We shouldn’t have…” Boris’ voice cracked as he hugged himself.
“That’s in the past, now we focus on staying alive,got it?!” Cuphead fired another shot behind him hitting another demon, it stood up again and Cup got into a fighting position, “Find Mugs, then get the cuss out.Now go!”
Boris did as told, he ran and didn’t look back even after he heard a loud crack. Even if he heard screams, even if he heard cries, even if the ground broke around him and the scent of blood filled the air, he kept moving forward.
He’d get his brother and they’d all be okay.
Bendy looked around him... dead, all of them...demons, angels, everyone that had been killed was because of him, despite everything he had stupidly chosen to build the machine that had started this in the first place, every death of this war was his fault, every fallen warrior, every slaughtered innocent.
He and the questers were sided with the angels, even though that meant that Bendy had practically betrayed his whole species. He hadn’t wanted to side with anyone, but they had no choice, the angels offered them protection.But no matter which side he was on, he had to convince the demons and angels to find another way to solve this, there had to be a way to stop it!
Bendy gazed down at his claws covered in blood…
He flinched as he felt a strong firm hand grab him by the shoulder.
“We did a good job with this horde but we should regroup, c’mon, this front is taken care of,” Michael the angel spoke as he buried his sword in the ground to clean off the blood.
“Good job?” Bendy hissed, turning his red eyes towards him, “everyone’s dead and you just consider that a good job?!”
“These demons won’t hurt anyone any longer...don’t think I don’t feel any pain watching fellow angels fall in battle, they are my companions! But if we stop to mourn every loss, that gives our enemies time to provoke more,” Michael placed a finger in Bendy’s chest, “you may have an idea on how to fight, but I’m the one who grew up preparing myself for the possibility of war, I know what to expect from the battle and I swore to protect as many lives as I can, but I understand that means sacrificing others and ourselves if necessary, now, can I count on you, demon, to be strong-”
“Lamenting death isn’t weakness,” Bendy shoved Michael’s finger away and started walking, careful not to step in anything he didn’t want to,“and if there’s something to expect from a battle is for it to never exist in the first place.”
“Very wise, but I would watch your back if I were you, sometimes death is necessary to establish peace.” Michael turned to follow him.
The two of them made their way back straight to the heart of the battle, Michael leapt into the sky and started shouting orders to the angels around, Bendy called the shadows to close in on himself, making a sort of barrier in case anything approached him, dark tendrils shoved both demons and angels apart from each other, Bendy’s eyes scanned the battlefield for any sign of his brother or the others, he had heard Boris shout and had yelled back, but he and Michael had gotten distracted by a group of demons coming in from the south and Michael had pushed Bendy away with him to stop their advances before Bendy could even have a chance to search for his bro.
A bright light made Bendy cover his eyes, his vision cleared in time for him to move away from a big foot about to crash on him, the big fat demon that had landed next to him turned murderous eyes on Bendy.
“Traitor!” He yelled in a deep voice before charging at Bendy.
Bendy growled at him and jumped, he landed on top of the other demon.
“Get off you cockroach!” The demon managed to grab Bendy’s foot and toss him away, Bendy composed himself as soon as he touched the ground. Bendy took a deep breath, calling the shadows inside him and his body stretched.
“Aaaaw the little imp got big,” the demon clashed his claws with Bendy’s, he tried to overwhelm him with his weight but Bendy was stronger. He confused his opponent and tricked him by drawing his attention to one part of his body only for Bendy to use another part to hit him.
Bendy’s game soon frustrated the other demon, puddles of magic emerged from the ground trying to suck Bendy into them, Bendy danced around them but one time his tail got too close to the ground and the other demon took the chance to stomp on it.
“Hng!” Bendy straightened up, something slimy wrapped on his feet.
The demon reached for him but Bendy freed one of his feet in time to plant it in the demon’s chest and kick him away as far as he could. The other demon hadn’t even taken another step when a bright ray pierced him leaving a giant hole on it.
Bendy looked up to see Michael had his sword pointed down, a glow coming from it, he nodded to Michael in appreciation before the angel took off. Bendy’s shadows broke what was left of the other demon’s magic. He reached for his throbbing tail and rubbed it.
“You know, I’ve noticed a pattern,” Bendy’s eyes widened as he recognized the voice that came from behind him, “you keep winning fights against other demons with the help of your so called “friends” but of course, what else could I expect from a coward like you but to let others take care of your dirty work?” Bendy turned and came face to face with none other than Azazel himself.
“You,” Bendy got on his guard immediately, he and Azazel circled each other.
“Oh don’t mind me, I’m just passing by, killing as many of those featherheads as I can, you know, the usual,” Azazel shrugged, “and maybe I can get some trophies too you know? That lady angel friend of yours would be a good one, it’s a shame she doesn’t have wings to tear apart from her body but her head will do.”
Bendy growled and threw himself at Azazel, ready to make him eat his words.
Azazel dodged, a number of his tentacles went chasing after Bendy. Bendy used his shadows to slice them off. One of the tentacles turned into spiky ice, he brought it down on Bendy, the demon formed a sword out of darkness that clashed with the ice but it did not break it. Bendy grunted under Azazel’s strength.
Azazel hummed. “I thought threatening her would be enough for you to use that special power of yours but maybe I should just go for the wolf,” he swung the spike of ice making Bendy take a step back.
“Special...how- how did you know?!” Bendy demanded.
“Oh it’s quite simple,” Azazel aimed at Bendy’s arm, he blocked, “ a rumor saying there’s one specimen of a previously extinct subspecies around, it’s been quite the talk, this…ink demon.”
Bendy was stunned enough for him to drop his guard for a second, enough for Azazel to give him a cut in his shoulder.. Bendy hissed and jumped away putting dark spikes between them.
“Oh? Did I surprise you? That’s right…” Azazel laughed and disappeared into a puddle of water, “I know your little secret,” the demon whispered, suddenly behind him.
Bendy gasped, he was shoved into the ground and managed to roll away before another ice spike could pierce him. “What the cuss do you want?!”
A big wave emerged from the ground and made its way towards Bendy sweeping anything it came into contact with. Bendy covered himself in a ball of shadows letting the water brush over him. The shadows dissolved leaving Bendy gasping for breath from the effort it took to avoid getting carried away.
“You know,” Azazel put his hands behind his back, “if I wanted to kill you I could have already, look at you-”
Bendy chuckled, “kill me? Like last time you tried? oh cuss-” Bendy got away in time before Azazel’s fist came crashing down just where he’d been making the earth shatter.
“That was a miracle for you and I’m not letting it repeat! Stop acting like a worm and use your true power already!” Azazel sent spikes of ice flying. They shattered against Bendy’s shadow shield. Bendy commanded shadow whips to restrain Azazel’s limps.
“What are you even doing?! Your strategy is terrible!” Azazel broke away with ease.
Bendy smirked, “maybe I’m just waiting.”
A whip lashed against Azazel’s face, an orange blast hit him from behind making his back burn.
“No!” Azazel raged, “not again!” The demon glared at the group of angels who had him surrounded. What made Bendy sigh in relief was that among these people were Mugs, Felix, Alice, Holly, wait no- were those Oswald and even Mickey?!
“This time I will kill you all!” Azazel roared, a run lit up beside him that shoved him away.
“You have no idea how much time I’ve been waiting to do that,” Holly said, holding a bunch of pieces of paper with runes written on them.
“Good job Holly,” Felix quickly complimented before he and Mugs ran off to join the angels fighting Azazel.
“What the hell are you doing here?!” Bendy pointed a claw at the circus brothers, they weren’t supposed to be here! They should be back at the camp with the pa-”
“Bendy, listen!” Alice ran up to him.”We need to find Boris and Cuphead! They must still be in the middle of the battle! The angels have taken care of most of the demons but Jake says there’s many more coming, Isaac is considering retreating with how many wounded there are! We need to help evacuate everyone we can!”
Bendy turned accusing eyes towards Mickey, “what in the name of heck are you two even doing here! And Boris shouldn’t even be here in the first place! You were supposed to be taking care of him in the camp!”
“The demons attacked the camp! They dragged us into the battle!” Oswald shouted back.
“What do you mean the demons attacked the camp?! What about the parts?!” They had the parts back there! What the hell had happened?!
“I want to believe the angels took them in time, sorry Bendy, I don’t know!” Mickey explained, panic clearly in his voice.
Bendy paled.
“According to Boris, the map showed him a group of caves nearby, we’ll retreat there.” Alice explained.
Bendy stomped on the ground so hard it shook.
“Bendy-”
“I’ll get my brother, you get out of here! If the demons got the parts, then we have to get away as soon as we can before they use them!” Bendy scowled and ran away.
As Bendy sprinted through the valley that had now become a graveyard, he noticed some of the demons retreating too, he frowned. Now that he thought about it, that was something odd.
Bendy stopped in his tracks before he could fall on a big crack that had been made on the ground. Stars! All this destruction! And he feared despite everything he still hasn’t seen the worst of it. He changed direction.
A light was shining in the distance, he made his way towards it to investigate.
Getting closer, Bendy distinguished the figure of Michael standing over several dead figures. He cringed but spoke up. "Hey, Alice said Isaac's calling a retreat, just thought I'd let you know...but...we have to find my brother and Cuphead first," Bendy carefully approached the angel, he didn’t want to startle him and get his tail burned by that sword of his. Still, the fact the angel remained unresponsive gave him a bad feeling…
Bendy glanced at the bodies, he felt the blood leave his face, those hadn’t been demons…those were…angels.
"It's a shame, how much blood was spilled today..." Michael looked down mournfully at the angels, their bodies had a number of burns on them.
Bendy frowned. "Yeah…it is…what happened?”
“A fire demon slaughtered this squadron, but I managed to kill it before it could harm anyone else…” Michael straightened up,” come on, let's go find your friends,we don’t have much time."
Bendy heard something shift, he turned his back on Michael, one of the bodies twisted with pain among the others, Bendy hurried towards it, the dying eyes of the angel focused on him, she coughed blood and the last thing she could do was point behind her with a shaky hand before going limp.
And then he felt it.
Bendy choked as a blade pierced right through his middle shocking away his breath.
Michael tsked, "I'm so sorry, but you must understand, I have to do this, for the sake of all of us, we can’t have one of you demons in our lines, after all, how could they have known the location of our hidden camp?"
Bendy convulsed, spitting blood, "I...I didn't-I-would never-"
Michael pulled the blade out of Bendy's body, letting the demon fall into the pile of angels.
"They won't believe that," the angel sighed, "you know, for a demon...I was beginning to...tolerate you...but my family comes first.I'm doing this for them,for Alice,you wouldn't get it," with that, the angel flied away, leaving Bendy to bleed out with the rest of the corpses.
Bendy stared into the sky as he felt himself get colder, he tried to process what had happened...what will happen now that he was...finally gonna die, just like that,he was...gonna die...without Boris...
"Bendy!" A figure dropped on his knees next to the demon, moving the earth around him, he felt a warm hand touch his wound, Bendy's vision focused on the little wolf and his big worried glassy eyes.
"B...b...bor," Bendy coughed.
"It's okay! It's okay! You're okay! It's....it's just a...a little wound,yeah! Y...you're going to be okay!" Boris’ voice shook, he was desperately applying pressure on Bendy's wound getting his gloves tainted with blood.
Bendy forced a small smile, he could feel himself already fading away, "hey...remember when...I asked you to promise...if I’d...that you would guide them?"
"No, nononono, don't you dare! You're gonna be fine!"
Bendy lost the smile "Boris..."
"We just gotta-"
"Boris."
"Find a way-"
"Please."
"No! You're not-"
"Boris! What the cuss are you still doing here, I told ya we need to go-" Cuphead walked up to them and stopped in his tracks at the sight that greeted him. He hurried to Bendy’s other side, he and Boris exchanged a worried look.
Cuphead looked around in exasperation, for someone, anyone…
"I'll go get help, stay-" Cup felt Bendy grab the edge of his sleeve before he could stand up.
"N-no please, I...I need you here..." Bendy whispered with pleading eyes, the demon reached out and weakly took Boris's hand in his. Bendy placed Cup's hand on top of the wolf's, "please," he sobbed as tears ran down his face, "take care of him."
Boris and Cuphead stared at their hands as Bendy’s head rolled to the side and the last of his strength faded.
Boris immediately grabbed his brother’s shoulders and shook him. "Bendy!...BENDY!"
Thunder followed and rain finally began falling down. Cuphead stared in shock, he was only snapped out of it by the sound of approaching footsteps and roars.
"Boris, Cuphead, the demons are coming downhill we-" Felix paused when he recognized the pale figure lying between the two. Mugs took on a sharp breath from behind him.
"Cup look out!" Mugs fired at a small winged demon who had been the first to reach them. Cuphead saw a wave of black running towards them, he looked back to Mugs. There was a mutual understanding between them, they had to do it, they had to go, now!
Mugs grabbed Boris, pinning his arms to the side, the wolf fought against Mugs' grip.
"No! NO! You can’t ask me to leave him! PLEASE!" Boris cried as he trashed against Mugman, next thing he knew he was engulfed by a cloud of smoke and the view of Bendy's body was gone.
"Cuphead!" Felix rushed to help Cups, who was already holding his ground against the first demons of the horde.
Felix slashed his whip, he reached down for Bendy but another demon got his attention.
"There's too many!" Felix exclaimed
"We can't leave him, not here, we can't leave his body!" Cuphead's voice cracked, a few tears threatened to fall before he shoved them away to clear his vision.
"I know! And I don't want to but-ah!" Felix cried out as a claw slashed his back making him fall.
Cup shot the demons away from the cat, Felix quickly turned his bag into his motorcycle. Cuphead looked back but by then Bendy wasn't even visible in the chaos. He swore and got into the bike, Felix drove the two of them away as fast as he could.
When they were far away enough, Cup finally broke down, Felix continued driving forward even as tears clouded his eyes.
The rain had stopped, now all that was left was a deadly silence. One tall furry demon stood in the field, accompanied by a man with a dice for a head in a purple suit.
"The angels retreated, probably to hide in a cave." King Dice snickered.
The Devil hummed and crouched to pick a certain young demon's body up.
"Marcus is already giving pursuit." Dice affirmed.
"When you see him tell him he did a good job taking care of the fledgling and not to exploit the mimicking spell too much, let's have him keep a low profile for now making himself pass as that one angel warrior, Michael was it?" The Devil told his right hand man and glanced down at the corpse between his arms. "It's a shame, he would have been a strong ally, had the potential to become a high class, oh well, he chose the wrong side and I don't tolerate traitors."
"What are we gonna do with the other one of the Bbros?" Dice asked.
"Well, it wouldn’t be fair to keep the brothers separated for long, would it?" the Devil smirked showing off his fangs, "and I know just the perfect way to reunite them." The Devil and his right hand man retreated into the darkness, leaving only death and tragedy behind on a once beautiful and prosperous field.