———
Leuvis stalked down the hallway towards the broadcast room. From the open doorway, he could see the flickering camera screens casting glowing lights across the floor. The broadcast room was a dead-end, he knew– anyone who was in there would have to leave via a vent on the high ceiling, or pass by Leuvis himself.
Leuvis entered the large room, with walls that lifted high into the air, the opposite side filled with hundreds of screens, showing live feeds from nearly every room in the farm, each one empty.
His eyes scanned the room, lingering on dark hiding places. Leuvis glided over to the desk, which would pose a perfect hiding place underneath. He paused a moment, a few feet away, then his arm shot forward, and the underside of the table was crushed. Whatever was hidden there was dead now.
As he pulled his hand away, he could see the edges of a mouse' carcass. Leuvis' eyebrows raised momentarily, and he pulled away from the table, eyes continuing to carefully scan the room. Suddenly, there was a loud beeping sound at the door. Leuvis spun, hand demolishing the alarm clock. In the moment his attention was turned, there was a clicking noise as a handcrafted mechanism activated.
In an instant, the papers skewered on the table were lit on fire.
The sprinkler system was brought to life– it was part of the emergency power system, and thus wasn't overridden when the lights went out. Leuvis raised an arm while he was pelted with water, obstructing his vision. Red lights flashed as a deafening alarm wail echoed throughout the whole farm.
Leuvis' grin only grew as Y/N walked out from the doorway entrance, gun in hand.
------
The ground was already slippery with water as it continued spraying from above, and dizzying red lights flashed, illuminating Leuvis' shadowy figure.
I stepped out from my concealed space by the door, revealing myself to the waiting demon. I looked at him a moment, and then to the malicious grin on his face. Then I darted forward, gun in hand. I fired it at his face and then dropped, sliding between his legs on the slippery floor.
I popped back up to my feet and fired again, at his back. The gun soon clicked as it was out of ammo, and I threw it while Leuvis lunged. His hand smashed into the control board behind me, and electricity sparked.
I skittered on the ground, scooping the gun up and hastily reloading it. Leuvis yanked his hand out of the control board, looking around for me, as he couldn't hear me over the sound of the screaming alarms.
I fired the gun at him once again, and he caught the bullet this time, between his long fingers, moments before it could hit his lower left abdomen. He spun to me now, reaching in my direction. I quickly turned away from it, leveraging a knife out of my belt with my right hand. As I spun towards him, I tightened my grip in a back-hand, plunging the blade into Leuvis' right side.
Immediately, his flesh started to regenerate around the knife. I gritted my teeth and yanked it out, sliding back. I was soaked to the bone, and my hair was plastered to my forehead. I moved to wipe the water out of my eyes, but my sleeve was just as soaked as my face– if not, even more.
I ran forward again, wielding two knives now. I swung high from the left, and Leuvis blocked the blade. I thrusted forward with the other one, and Leuvis slid out of the way while he swung his left arm, grabbing my hood and yanking me into the air. He pulled back his right arm, preparing to strike.
I gritted my teeth and swung my legs forward, wrapping my legs around his arm as his right hand blew right through where I'd been moments earlier. I pivoted, pulling my head out of my soaked and heavy cloak, righting myself on his arm. In the same movement, I kicked his face and then jumped off of him.
Once my feet hit the slippery floor I skidded, slipping onto my back. One of my knives fell out of my hand, and I rolled out of the way as Leuvis' fist smashed into the ground, barely missing my head. I rolled back and then leapt forward, landing on my feet.
My feet slid apart a bit on the wet ground before I ran forward, scooping my knife off of the ground and then going straight for Leuvis' legs. I sliced his left calf before sliding out of the way of his snatching hand, the force of which would've crushed my skull, had he met his target.
I leveraged another knife out of my belt, running forward again. I ducked under another one of Leuvis' blows, popping up with a back-handed slash to his left side. I gritted my teeth as I recognized in an instant that the cut wasn't deep enough to reach his core.
Leuvis reacted now, turning as his left arm slammed into my shoulder, causing me to drop both my knives and sending me skidding back against the slippery floor. I crouched as I slid, touching one hand to the ground to keep my balance. I slid back until my heels touched the wall, rising to my feet.
As I breathed in now, my ribs ached in pain. I winced while pushing my wet bangs out of my face. The sprinklers and alarms had stopped at some point, but the bright red lights still spun, casting warping black shadows all over the floor.
I reached for a knife in my belt, finding only one more hunting knife and a couple throwing ones.
My eyes raised as Leuvis stalked towards me dangerously. The previous wounds I'd inflicted on him finished healing now, closing up easily. I grabbed the other gun in my holster, pulling a throwing knife into my other hand. I flung the throwing knife at Leuvis and then ran to the side, firing the gun as I ran.
Once it ran out of ammo I crouched, running forward. With my other hand, I grabbed an ammo, pushing the clip into the gun. I raised it and fired it again as Leuvis turned to me, right hand reaching towards me.
This time, when the gun ran out of ammo I threw it away, grabbing two throwing knives in my hands. Though Leuvis' claws only continued to extend towards me, I continued running straight forward, ignoring the threat.
I threw the throwing knife in my left hand, which was quickly smacked away by Leuvis' other arm. Now I threw the throwing knife in my right hand away, crouching as it spun towards the wall. Leuvis' eyes flicked to it a second, and in that instant I grabbed the remaining hunting knife out of my belt.
I caught Leuvis off guard now, as he expected me to deviate my attack path. Instead, I continued straight forward. I grabbed the knife with both hands, and plunged it into his lower left abdomen.
We stood there a moment, interlocked, as the red lights spun.
Then, Leuvis slowly fell, until he was on his knees. The knife I gripped fell out of his stomach as he did so, while he mouthed his final words.
Then he fell onto his back, dead.
I stood on my feet, panting, both my hands gripped on my knife as Leuvis' last words echoed in my mind.
Then the knife in my hands clattered to the floor as I stumbled against the wall.
"A tie..." he'd grinned. "...how fitting."
My right hand raised slowly to my lower left side.
Despite the pressure I applied, crimson blood began to slip through my fingers, splattering to the floor in droplets that expanded in the water.
When I'd run directly at Leuvis, I knew it was coming. It was a risk I needed to take, in order to win.
Now that risk was having it's toll.
I pressed my hand harder against my side, where Leuvis' claws had hit me. I stumbled forward, using the wall to prop me up while I walked out of the control room. I couldn't tell if he had hit any organs, and I couldn't tell how deep the injury was yet.
All I knew is that I left a trail of blood behind me as I made my way down the hall, and that I could feel my body weakening all the while.
I hardly managed to make it a few feet from the control room, when I thought I might collapse if I took one more step. Still, I took one more, my leg shaky under the weight of my damp skin and clothes.
I suddenly slipped and fell to the floor, heaving for breath. I closed my eyes while I panted, hand still pressed against my side. Was I going to die now? My breathing picked up while I gritted my teeth. After everything?
I could hardly lift my head, not even as I heard a faint voice calling my name.
I looked up through hazy eyes, catching a blurry figure. "Orion..." I whispered, struggling to rise to my feet.
"What's going on? Time is up, so I came back in. Did you win?" they asked worriedly. "You're-!! Are you alright?!"
"Listen..." I started lowly, leaning against the wall. "Outside... get... a Vida flower– a gupna–"
"What...?" Orion spoke, their voice tight with nerves. "A gupna?? Why–??"
I closed my eyes. "Hurry. Bring it to... the basement. Where..."
Orion nodded frantically and then turned on their heel, running away.
I heaved for breath, leaning against the wall. There was a room with an elevator here, too... every major farm had one. The kids said–
I stepped forward, only to find my legs struggling to carry myself.
"Shit." I gritted, sliding against the wall. I pressed my eyes closed, reaching into my belt with trembling fingers. My bloody hand gripped a letter, the red slowly seeping into the white paper.
I gritted my eyes and pressed against the wall, trying now to raise to my feet again. I managed, the letter falling out of my hands. I needed to tell them... myself.
I took a step forward, and then another. My legs buckled underneath me, and I fell forward. This time, someone caught me before I hit the ground. I looked to my left wearily.
Pink hair.
"Aurelia..." I murmured in a daze. "what are you–?"
"Where are you trying to go?" she asked quietly.
I tried to blink the haze out of my mind. "...basement." I answered, with a lot of effort. "...Golden...water."
Aurelia nodded, lifting my left arm over her shoulder as she supported me walking.
I could feel my consciousness fading, as I hardly remembered the journey. Next thing I knew, I was entering the Lambda golden water room, as it reflected ribbons of light across the man-made concrete walls. Aurelia helped me kneel by the waterside.
"Why?" I asked her, though Aurelia didn't respond. I turned back to the water and reached towards it, only to find myself falling in.
The golden water closed over me as I looked up at the ceiling. Bubbles raised around me as clouds of red filled the water from my side, carried around by the current.
As I stared up, a vida flower soon came into view, thrown into the water above me.
I watched as the clouds of red drifted towards it, and it began to suck up the blood from the golden water, petals turning red.
I closed my eyes now, the golden water casting little lights on my eyelids. "X..." I murmured, the sound of my voice warbled by the water. Then everything went dark, as I prayed the god would answer my call, despite everything that had happened thus far.
I opened my eyes groggily to a perfectly clear blue sky, without a cloud in sight. I thought for a moment I was dead, until the demon god's head poked into view.
My wet hair was splayed around me as I heaved, looking up at the sky. The bleeding was paused now that I was in this dimension, but I was still weak. My head was perfectly clear now, the haze momentarily gone.
"X..." I started, eyes trailing to the demon. "I'm asking a favour."
The demon god watched me without a word, staring down at my figure, too weak to even sit up.
"Mujika... bring me to her."
X's eyebrows raised. "You don't know she can save you."
I smiled weakly. "What other option is there?"
"You could make a promise with me now." X offered. "Save your life, I could."
"And in return?"
There was no response.
"No." I shook my head slightly. "I'll have to... trust. I'm in your hands now, X. Mujika's, too. Whatever you choose."
"Why, in gods name, would you think that is a good idea?" X hummed, crouching at my side.
"It's not." I shrugged, a slow grin spreading over my features. "Quite frankly, this is probably the... stupidest idea I've... ever had. And this is... coming from someone who jumped off... a building, you know."
I reached a hand up to X's face. "Please, X." I murmured. "You can take... what you want from me. But don't... take me from them, too.
"I'm not... asking this from you as a god, I'm asking this... of my shithead friend."
X scowled. "You're an idiot."
I grinned. "I get that a lot."
X raised his hand over my head, and I closed my eyes. I felt the seven walls close around me, like a space vacuum.
I opened my eyes as I found myself on my feet in a flash, my legs buckling underneath me. I stumbled forward, falling into none other than Mujika.
"Y/N!" she exclaimed, propping me up against her. "Where did you– what's–"
"Mujika..." I struggled, pressing my hand against my side as I felt my blood resume leaving my body. "I need... help..." I rasped, looking down at my wound.
Mujika's eyes followed mine, and I felt her whole body tense.
Before I could hear her next words, everything rapidly faded to black.
-----
trust me, this is better than the cliffhanger you were og. going to get.
Bc if you're lucky, I'll have the next chap out today. Possibly within the next few hours, actually, so, hehe.