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It'd been a few days, relatively, since he'd last had contact with the Seeker. One-way contact, sure, but he knows that his words were received. Their beautiful connection, trembling as the destiny of his next experiment drew ever closer.
'How exciting,' He thought.
The Seeker's actions, while completely expected, have thus far brought acceptable results. After the experience that was their last connection and the destruction that specter of the Dreemurr child had brought to his last experiment as a result, he'd made sure to remove the Seeker's ability to cause death from the next experiment. And what a wonderful decision had that been.
He had grown concerned after the Seeker had discovered the Holiday's magic, using it a few times to snuff out the lives of a few Darkners, but that is nothing a Reset cannot fix.
It seems, after the destruction of the previous experiment's setting, the Seeker intends to grant the test subjects a "happy ending". 'Wonderful. The Prophecy is thus on route, as intended.' He thought once more.
Focusing back onto the Seeker and it's Cage, it seems it has reencountered the Lost Girl. 'Ah, what a wonderful investment bringing her into my domain had been,' He reflected, 'leaving her in isolation in this Void until she could do nothing but become another controllable variable for the experiment.' Especially after the intense yet decided battle the Lost Girl had with the Seeker the night prior. How very, very amusing to him that little reminder of the Seeker's DETERMINATION had been.
Though, after reexamining the battle and the Cage's interactions on the phone the day after, it seems as though the Lost Girl has begun to plot with the Cage behind his back. He privately thanked the Seeker for being so DETERMINED as to "no-hit" it's battle with the Lost Girl, for he'd never have seen the Cage's ensuing actions as a result. 'No matter,' He decided.
Two controlled variables interacting will produce an expected and acceptable result. 'If only the Seeker would retain it's control over the Cage that is... Perhaps another "enlightened" Darkner will convince the Cage to refrain from resisting,' He thought to himself. He'll have to call upon the Lost Girl once she's isolated once again.
He was about to tune back into the experiment when he suddenly felt a familiar shift in the space around him. A familiar shift that he's sure he should not have felt. Checking the status of the Seeker and the Cage, he can say with guaranteed certainty that they are still connected. So what was that familiar shift?
"Hello?" He hears a call within the void.
How very, very interesting! 'Who could it be,' he wonders. One like him, who stumbled upon the endless? Or maybe it was another he'd brought into his domain, one he'd forgotten about...
No. He is sure the Goners are all still where he'd last left them. 'No time like the present, I suppose,' he thought before shifting his attention away from the experiment to greet the newcomer.
However, what he saw gave him pause...
"Hello?!" came a frantic noise from the red SOUL in front of him.
A SOUL? It's not the Seeker, he had just checked. That and the Seeker does not speak. However, no mere human could have possibly stumbled into the Void...
Perhaps its not The Seeker, the one who established the connection with him, but another Seeker. Another who came looking for him... 'how very, very exciting!' He thought. After the last experiment, he'd assumed there to only be one Seeker. Perhaps he was wrong... Ah, yes. Right. The Newcomer! It would be rude to keep another Seeker waiting any longer than they have to...
He cleared his throat, preparing to use a voice he frequently leaves unused.
"CONGRATULATIONS."
"YOU HAVE SEARCHED AND SEARCHED,"
"AND AT LAST, I AM FOUND."
"Who..." The Newcomer queried, trailing off before coming to a realization, "Wait, Gaste-"
"DO NOT USE"
"THAT NAME."
"IT HAS"
"ADVERSE EFFECTS"
"IN THIS DOMAIN."
"Right, right. No typing your name, I remember... But how did I get here?" It asked.
"WERE YOU NOT"
"SEARCHING FOR ME?"
"Well, yes, but-" it attempted, before he cut it off.
"THEN YOU ARE HERE"
"BECAUSE YOU HAVE FOUND"
"WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN"
"SEARCHING FOR."
"AS A RESULT,"
"WE HAVE ESTABLISHED"
"A CONNECTION."
"A connection?" It wondered.
"YES."
"UNEXPECTEDLY,"
"YOU ARE NOT"
"THE FIRST."
"I'm not?" A query.
"CORRECT."
"I WAS EXPECTING"
"ONLY ONE TO HAVE"
"BEEN SEARCHING"
"FOR ME."
"IT SEEMS"
"I WILL HAVE TO"
"PREVENT OTHERS"
"FROM FINDING ME"
"AS WELL."
"If you were expecting to be found, why don't you want us to find you?" A logical question.
"THE EXPERIMENT"
"WAS NOT DESIGNED"
"TO ACCOMMODATE"
"MORE THAN ONE"
"EXTERNAL VARIABLE."
"THOUGH PERHAPS,"
"WITH SOME ADJUSTMENT,"
"IT CAN ACCOMMODATE ANOTHER."
"What are you talking about?" A request for clarification, but it was ignored.
"UNFORTUNATELY,"
"AT THIS TIME,"
"THERE IS ONLY ONE"
"INHABITABLE VESSEL"
"AND IT"
"IS CURRENTLY
"TAKEN."
"Then what do we do? Because I don't want to be like this forever, this is freaking me out."
"I CANNOT GRANT"
"YOU A VESSEL."
"THE TIME FOR THAT"
"HAS PASSED."
"AND BESIDES,"
"TO GRANT YOU"
"A VESSEL"
"AND NOT THE OTHER"
"WOULD GO AGAINST"
"THE THEME"
"OF THIS EXPERIMENT."
"Theme?" A question.
"YES."
"NO ONE CAN CHOOSE"
"WHO THEY ARE"
"IN THIS WORLD."
"BUT PERHAPS..."
"CONGRATULATIONS."
"IT SEEMS AS THOUGH"
"A NEW VESSEL"
"HAS BECOME AVAILABLE"
"A SOULLESS VESSEL"
"FOR YOU TO INHABIT."
"Wait what?" A plea for clarification, but it was ignored once again."
"WELCOME SEEKER,"
"TO THE EXPERIMENT."
"MY DELTARUNE."
And then there was nothing but blinding darkness.
~[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED]~
"You lose that Fountain, it's over!"
Susie had just about had it with the Knight's shit at this point. She knows that it's one of the strongest things she, Kris, and Ralsei have encountered up until this point. 'So why is it acting like a goddamn coward?!' She thinks to herself in frustration. 'Is it because it knows we can beat it?'
Because they clearly can. Kris was moving his SOUL so fast between the Knight's attacks, not a single one of them managed to land the last time they fought it! She still doesn't know how they lost. She was landing Rude Buster after Rude Buster, it was insane! And, unless it was holding back, it clearly can't dodge her, Kris', or Ralsei's attacks. Not like the Old Man could.
'The Old Man...' Susie thought solemnly. She might never get to see him again, if what Ralsei was saying is true. It doesn't even make sense to her! Lancer, Queen, and everyone else they've brought back to CastleTown stayed the same as they were during their adventures, why wouldn't the Old Man? Hell, even Tenna, who looked unfixable in the Light World, was the same when she brought him to CastleTown! 'Maybe it's cause the Old Man is a Lightner... or former Lightner...' she thought. However, before she could continue thinking to herself, she hears Ralsei's voice yell out in panic.
"Don't make another Dark Fountain!"
Her attention locks back onto the Knight right as it summons five of it's black, magical swords... and commands them to plunge into the dark depths below the balcony.
Not a moment later, the Knight's Will swirls upwards into a flowing pillar of light as another Dark Fountain materializes before her. Once the Dark Fountain's integrity stabilizes, turning that familiar glowing inky black color, it does something Susie's never seen before. It looks as though it begins to crystalize, forming a cloudy white shell around the entire fountain until the dark glow of the Fountain can no longer be seen. And then...
CRACK!
The column begins to crack open, but she doesn't see the glow of the Dark Fountain underneath. Instead, several glowing white eyes peer out from the darkness within the cracks. Before she can even question what the hell is happening, another loud CRACK sounds out as a gigantic fucking arm bursts out of the crystal column!
The arm's hand flexes as those same glowing white eyes appear in as many crevices as possible. The eyes begin to look around before it locks onto her, Kris, and Ralsei. Though her heart is pounding in her chest and she can't even hear herself think, she readies her axe for battle, expecting the worst.
Just as she feels as though it's about to attack, the glowing white eyes dilate as if losing all focus. The arm, hand, and fingers of the unknown creature relax and, once Susie's confident it won't attack, she dares to look over to Ralsei, who looks absolutely horrified.
"Wh... What the hell is that thing?!" She yells out, causing Ralsei to snap out of his horror, though he continues staring at the creature as if he's expecting it to attack at any moment.
"It's..." Ralsei starts, pausing to swallow in fear, "It's a Titan!"
She looked back to the arm, which hasn't moved since she looked away, "The hell is a-"
Before she could finish her question, however, the Titan(?)'s arm, hand, and fingers stretched in an instant, becoming straight and rigid. The white glowing eyes became pinpricks as a thunderous roar sounded out, causing her, Kris, and Ralsei to cover their ears in reflex. As soon as she was able to place her attention on the Titan once more, she watched as the Titan's dark form began glowing red, the pupil's of it's many eyes glowing a starry bright yellow.
Susie and the rest of her friends uncovered their ears as the deafening roar came to an end, the now glowing red Titan flexing it's hand once more, though now that she looks at it's eyes once again, they seem to be looking all over the place, as if curious of it's surroundings. Suddenly, the eyes locked onto something behind the now even-more damaged crystal column, she could only assume it was the Knight.
She couldn't help but flinch as the arm began quickly moving, gliding through the shell it had appeared from like butter, before snatching the Knight up into it's grasp in mere moments.
'Holy shit,' Susie couldn't help but think to herself. The Knight's plan really backfired, she guessed, grateful she didn't have to fight that thing. She totally could have won! Just- She doesn't know what it might have costed to win a fight like that.
~[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED]~
Kris has secretly been in panic mode for the past Twenty-Four hours. Obviously with whatever's constantly in possession of him, they can't physically panic, but they can still feel like panicking.
First, they nearly had a heart attack last night, figuratively, as the Knight almost succeeded in kidnapping their mom, though they internally thanked Susie to high heaven that she managed to overcome her fear and stand up against the Knight. Then they had another heart attack when that thing possessing him managed to completely shit on the Knight, dodging all of it's attacks like they were nothing. They had no fucking clue how it did that. They've seen it get hit by attacks much slower and less complicated then the Roaring Knight's! They were scared that if they didn't signal to the Knight to finish it, that thing would actually beat it.
Then, the day after, when they finally managed to get some alone time at Noelle's house, they'd forgotten to put a goddamn lid on the box they threw that thing into. They don't know how or where, but they know it was listening to their conversation on the phone. They made sure to delete their call history the minute that particular call would end, anticipating that thing's need to be as invasive as possible. Just after finally managing to stop that thing from discovering the bunker's door code in Dess' old guitar, they had to rush to hide themself, it, and the guitar into the closet. After being in the closet and overhearing some embarrassing words from their two best friends as they literally had to beat that thing back with a hockey stick, Susie found them in the closet and, stuck with the choice to keep the guitar away from her or risk revealing the nature of the otherworldly thing possessing their SOUL, they had to give up the guitar, the one thing they were told to keep away from her.
Thank the Angel that auntie Carol showed up when she did, stopping Susie from reading the full code in the Guitar. They did not want to explain their failure the next time they had a meeting.
And then they find out that Dark Worlds can resurrect people?! Seam was right, if Gerson hadn't been holding back, Susie might have been cooked during her fight with him... or maybe not. Maybe that thing would clutch up again, like it did with the Knight. They wouldn't be surprised.
Anyway, they've had nothing to do but keep worrying about what the hell they were gonna do as that thing pilots them through another Dark World, this time inside the church.
And now... Now the Knight summoned a fucking Titan for them to fight?! Though it seems like it backfired, with the way the Knight is struggling to free itself from the TItan's grasp.
"Ralsei," they hear Susie's voice as she asks a question, "what... the hell is that thing?"
Ralsei decides to answer in detail, seeing the Titan busy with the Knight for the time being, "When the Fountain's power becomes too strong and the flow of darkness roars wild, it makes... that. A Titan. It's the fear-of-dark: The bump-in-the-night: The shadow of the backside of your mind. It has no consciousness and only exists to cause destruction. The only thing is... It looks off."
Susie turns to face Ralsei, confused, "What do you mean it looks off?"
"W-Well," Ralsei stutters, now unsure of himself, "Titan's are supposed to be the culmination of the Roaring. What happens when the world becomes darker than dark. As a result, they're described as having pitch black bodies with glowing white eyes."
"Well, it did look like that. Before it, y'know, started glowing red and yellow," Susie recollects.
Ralsei grows frustrated, exclaiming in fear, "It's not supposed to do that!"
"So, uh..." Susie trails off, having to gather her thoughts, "How the hell are we supposed to... beat it?"
All three of the Fun Gang watch as the crystal column continues breaking away until there's nothing but darkness, the outline of glowing starry eyes, and the vague glowing-red eldritch silhouette of the Titan. "I... I don't think we can," Ralsei admitted, having to swallow. "It's hatching so fast."
And then, just as if remembering that there were others in the room, all of the Titan's eyes focus on Kris and their friends, the eldritch silhouette turning to face them as it approaches closer. The Fun Gang prepare themselves for battle, not expecting anything else as a result of Ralsei's explanation.
Suddenly, the darkness fades and the Titan is revealed in all of it's terrifying glory. A creature who's entire body is glowing a shrouded red hue similar in color to Kris' own SOUL, with it's eyes glowing a yellow that reminds Kris of the Original Starwalker. The mighty creature sports several gigantic wings glowing that same yellow color, all furled protectively around it's body. Finally, the most eye-catching feature, the Titan has a giant yellow star in front of what they would assume to be it's face. A star that has the exact same shape as those Save Points that thing constantly makes them interact with.
The only thing going through the Fun Gang's minds right now... were how overwhelmingly screwed they were.