BEYOND 3A: BloodRed and ScaleBlack

The Seventy-Third Feather: Absorption and Declaration

Elsewhere, Killakee was still being followed by the Florida Boy, all while wondering internally: "If this is what L'étranger sought after, then couldn't she just get the Leviathan to do it? He can not only suck multiple Beyonders at a time, but he's far more manageable and containable than these kids. Is there something I'm not getting?... Actually, now that I think about it, Levia isn't the most cooperative person around, plus, he's creepily fixated on killing himself, so much so that he kept picking fights with the organisation. Is she doing this whole thing so that she wouldn't need to rely on him? I'll need to have a heart to heart with her once I get out of here. But until then, I need to find a way to seize control of this one without any backfire. Perhaps knocking him out would be effective? But then again, with what strength can I do that? I can barely walk right now... Shit, I guess I'll just need to keep going and hope that I get lucky."

However, as if to spite him, something bad occurred. Just when he least needed it, a monstrous enemy appeared in the form of a colony of blue worms formed into the shape of a giant worm with a gaping hole for a mouth. "Oh, you've got to be fucking with me!" Killakee thought, unable to run away quickly enough due to his injuries. The worm colony dove down to swallow them both whole, but at the last second, the kid kicked the cat away, leaving himself to be eaten.

"Ugh... F-fuck... Did he have to kick me...?" Killakee wondered in pain. He looked back at where he was and saw that the worms had already fallen apart and became a simple, very large pile of disgusting little living noodles. The Florida Kid walked out of the pile, his hair and clothes now sky blue, and thought: "I know where she is." and began walking in a seemingly random direction with the same lifeless demeanour as before. It took Killakee a moment, but he came to realise what had happened: "Holy shit... He must've absorbed the entirety of that Corruption's energy... In only a few seconds! It even triggered an effect similar to a Hylic Beyonder... I need to follow him, chances are that whatever ability he sucked into himself is guiding him to his sister."

It didn't take long for their trip to end, however, since the Kid stopped at a random spot after ten minutes of walking. Then, a few seconds after standing still, he began sinking into the steel ground like clay. Thankfully, Killakee was quick on the uptake and crawled inside his shirt before he was completely submerged while making sure not to generate any energy lest he get the life sucked out of him.

They kept sinking for a little while until they found themselves falling from a sunset-coloured sky. The cat braced for impact while the kid remained as stiff and uninterested as ever until they were caught by the branches and leaves of a very, very large tree. Killakee wasted no time with re-establishing the distance between him and the kid and as soon as he poked his head out, he realised where they landed; the giant grey tree by the beach. At that point, his brain went into emergency mode and the only thing on his mind was getting away from the sacred tree's branches. He jumped from one branch to another hurriedly until he was low enough to jump into the water safely and swim back to the dryland. There, he found Ziggy sitting on the sand with a cigarette in his mouth. He walked up to him, dripping wet, and transmitted his thoughts angrily: "What the hell... ARE YOU DOING?!"

Ziggy: "Oh, there you are, Killakee, I totally forgot you were with me."

The cat dried his face with his paw and continued: "Why aren't you doing anything about the tree?! It's not supposed to be here! We're still in the maze!"

Ziggy: "I know, I know. But peep that up there and you'll become aware."

Killakee: "Peep what?!"

Ziggy: "The leaves are drying and falling off like a balding man, this ain't the catalyst tree like we planned."

Killakee: "What the hell are you talking about?! Didn't this tree sprout out of Levia in his liminal space?!"

Ziggy: "It did."

Killakee: "Then what else could it be?!"

Ziggy: "I don't know, verily, but we'll find out eventually."

Killakee: "Listen, let's just get Levia out of there, secure the Florida Kids that we came here for, if you recall, and get out of here."

"THERE'S NO NEED ANYMORE! MY LONG AWAITED ARRIVAL IS DUE TODAY, RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"

The rapper and the cat turned their heads toward the source of the declaration, which was high up on the tree, and saw a somewhat familiar man holding the Florida Boy in his arms and standing on the farthest, most visible branch to the two.

"Who the hell is that...?" Those two wondered.

"IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ME, JUST ASK! NO NEED TO BE SHY!" That mysterious man shouted.

He then levitated backwards into the depths of the tree and abruptly appeared behind those two, shouting: "BOO!" and startling them both.

While he was laughing to his heart's content, Ziggy and Killakee got a closer look at him and noticed that he bore a heavy resemblance to Levia except for a few key differences. Firstly, instead of the regular horns that stuck out of Levia's eye sockets, this man had a wooden, rectangular mimicry of the aforementioned horns. Secondly, he wore one massive wooden bead necklace around his neck and two small ones on his wrists. Keep in mind, each bead on all of those was a tad larger than an olympics-style shot put ball.

And lastly, that man who was standing before them was me.

Seventy-Third Feather:

Plucked