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Honestly, I hated this weapon too.
It wasn’t like this weapon didn’t hit for a decent chunk of damage. The problem was that under normal circumstances it was more equivalent to an HE weapon. Ryō had to handle most of the Fruits of Understanding since they didn’t take extra damage from it’s type.
At least the Amber Dusk was vulnerable to it, even if it was risky.
“A.B.”
Ryō’s comment coincided with that familiar, horrid sensation.
My skin feeling like it was shrinking and wrapping around my bones, lungs feeling tighter and more restricted, and mind getting foggy. The worms becoming hazy as the only clear thing was the ringing from it’s containment chamber. She quickly moved to my side, letting me lean against her as the weapon and suit took it’s hold.
After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the eye opened, staring at me.
The blaring alarm of the Second Warning.
I let my gear drain another chunk of my life force, feeling the pale, green energy coursing through my veins as my body sped up and the world slowed, buying me a bit more time to work with the glowing edge in my hand as it quickly found purchase through the worms in the hallway. With a few shots from Ryō’s Solitude, the clean cuts severed the life force and granted me 4 kills.
130 seconds for 13 bodies.
A brutal price to pay, and only arguably equivalent to the silence wrought by the scythe’s wake. Made all the more annoying by the clock’s refusal to take no for an answer, and cull at random until it was satisfied.
Well, not completely random.
It always had a focus on two initial targets.
I ignore the unnerving, wavering look of the eye as I rush through the blue hallways of Welfare and down into the gray halls of Religion, another set of worms beginning to burrow through the ground. The slashes making quick work of the smaller ones, though the big one took a good chunk of time even with the enhanced damage.
Another 4 dead.
10 seconds lost.
I rushed back up top, moving across towards Central Command, though I already know by heart that Don has whatever is in there handled. I am not proven wrong when I rush past the corpses of worms and clerks, Don and Rodion focused on the Knight of Despair and the swords in the air. Everything only seeming frozen in the air for me.
I quickly dive past the elevator and up a set of stairs, passing by Information and quickly finding a few clerks still engaged in combat with the Funeral of Dead Butterflies in Safety. Though not without deranged expressions on their faces.
I cleave through them just the same as the butterfly figure, though everything slows to a crawl as I slash their head off.
100 seconds left.
I immediately rush back through the hallways, though my footsteps feel far heavier and slower. Clerks and worms littering the hallway. Couldn’t they have simply stayed alive for half a minute longer? At least then they would have had a purpose. It’s the only reason this manager keeps them alive after all, because it certainly wasn’t to trigger that pile of corpses or creepy bird.
I spot the Training Team Captain moving from a hallway filled with corpses towards her department.
…
I ignore Ryō’s advice to down an agent in case of emergency, and move back down to Central Command. I can faintly hear the shining sparkles of Don’s weaponry, and quickly move to join her in the hallway.
60 seconds left.
She is finishing off Alriune, Ryō observing with a grimace while her weapons are firmly holstered. Not the best target in terms of healthiness and tendency to run away, but I was out of options. I duck and dive past the clerks covered in petals and still as statues, and towards the abomination before me as a few petals cause me to think about home and the countless nightmares there.
“Need one more!” I said.
“Very well, I will endeavor to assist thee in slaying this villain!” Don said.
“K.I.A., L.D.” Ryō growled.
I quickly began slashing away at the legs, trying to simply get it to react, but it is motionless as ever as petals continue to shred my skin. Don’s pink, blue, and white stars the only thing keeping me standing after sacrificing most of my health and disregarding my sanity to even get to this point. Though even her cute staff won’t help if I can’t snap this thing’s neck or prevent it from fleeing after those three petals cause an absolute bloom.
30 seconds.
The petals fire off from it, forcing me to think of Baoyu’s ethereal disregard and Yuanchan and Huan’s hatred, though a barrage of six bullets entering my back sends me immediately back into the fight. Unable to even think of saying thank you to Ryō as I focus solely on trying to extend the mark in it’s neck to a clean cut, and ignore the shining petals beginning to cover it.
10 seconds. I can hear the toll of the bell.
Letting it drain a tiny bit of my health, I speed up my strikes and cleave a bit more of it’s neck each time, until-
1 second, and the thirteenth body drops.