Chapter Text
They had been fighting for so long… It felt like a level in a video game where the enemies didn't stop. The enemies keep spawning and attacking until you die and the screen shows that you beat your high score. But for our caretakers, it was all real. Pyrare summoned a forcefield around the small group and they took a few seconds to catch their breath. They were all so tired from going up the tower and fending off what seemed like thousands of corrupts. The group was reaching their limit. Pyrare's force fields were not lasting as long, Iris's arms were numb and Pentellow collapsed as soon as the forcefield went back up.
"Tree... How many are there??" She groaned.
"Beats me, I feel like I've seen more corrupts in this tower than all of Paradise..." Iris stumbled, starting to lose feeling in his legs too.
"It shouldn't be much longer. Once the heroes defeat Dub, everything will get purified and we can rest..." With those words, the forcefield flickered. Pentellow picked herself up and Iris shook away the ache setting in his body. They had to keep fighting. With one final warning, Pyrare let the forcefield go out and it was back to dueling with corrupts.
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Meanwhile, on the very top of the tower, Cube was watching the heroes fight Dub. He was unable to help much, but he helped as best he could by fighting corrupts that snuck to the roof and tried to intervene in the battle. The battle had been going well. Dub looked beat. Noticing this, Cube was happy that the battle was almost over, but seeing how tired Dub was made him realize how utterly exhausted he was as well. He also noticed that more and more corrupts were making their way to the roof.
(They said they'd hold them back, are they..?) Cube shook the thought away. (No! If anything happened to them, all the corrupts would be up here, and they aren't..) He brushed those thoughts aside and kept pushing corrupts back, but he didn't notice the figure creeping behind him...
"AHH! What the hell!?!? AJACEARE!!??" Ajaceare grabbed him by the scarf and swung him around like a piece of trash.
"In the flesh." She held him high and walked towards the edge of the tower. "You made a mistake coming up here, caretaker. Leaving your friends just to watch some fight.. Pathetic.."
"Ajaceare, please!! I know how angry you are at us but-"
"No FUCKING 'BUTS' ASSHOLE!!!" His feet were dangling over the edge now. "You took EVERYTHING FROM US! FROM DUB!!" She screamed in his face, her eye wide in mania. "You took everything from us and you expect me to just let you win? ...I don't think so." Only then did Cube realize the open air under him. He opened his eyes in fear.
"Ajaceare PLEASE!!" He shouted, clinging to the arm holding his scarf.
Without another word, Ajaceare threw Cube off of the tower.
He screamed.
Down…
Down…
Down…
*CRACK*
The Fourth Caretaker was no more…